This City is Known for Something

Our friend, Sleeping Bear, talked us to doing a race in our favorite city, to visit. Why not, we enjoy the BIG city life in short spurts. Sure, we haven't been running too much, but it's only a 15K.

Big race, in a huge city, you have to plan where to meet. A few minutes prior to our scheduled meeting, CT and I get to our designated spot, when my phone buzzes with a text from Sleeping Bear, "Just got up, running late". The race starts in thirty minutes and even in my small hometown with zero traffic, it takes ten to get across it, no way SB is making it.

Honk, honk, goes the starting gun, just as another text comes in, "Can't get a f*cking cab, have to take the train". Yeah, SB isn't making it. Part of the desire of doing this race, checking out the skyline of the city. First two miles, completely underground!

Mile three, buzz, "Train has been f*cking rerouted". About the time I'm smiling to myself about the fact that by the time SB finally gets to this race, we are going to be done, that's when I found what the city is famous for, the wind! Maybe there really is a ginormous Big Apple, I have yet to see, but now I'm a believer in this Windy City slogan. Along this stretch, the road is split between those turning for the 5K and the 15K people going straight. I watched two young volunteers almost go airborne attempting to hold a 5K flag. Had one of them let go, without a doubt, would have para-sailed directly to Michigan. Running, almost felt like what was required to simply stand still, let alone make any progress.

Around mile six, the course finally changed direction. Looking at my watch time, it didn't even seem physically possible for my pace to be as good as it was. Not even going to attempt to lie and suggest maybe I wasn't in of bad of shape due to my lack of running. The whole reason, just so happened that I had my maze and blue Michigan block M shirt on. Hearing people yell out "Go Blue!" or "Keep it up Michigan!" helped more than I ever realized. Random strangers cheering, mental note for next time, because that support was awesome.

With roughly a mile or so to go, for as insane as I was running, the tell tale signs of fatigue were coming fast. At one point I could feel some chest pain, about the same kind of pain the first few times ever running, that's when I decided it's time to ease back. If reader Mom sees this, she's probably freaking out, but I know my limits. Nothing to worry about, just my body reminding me that maybe I should train a little more if I plan on running like this.

Crossed the line. Waited for CT to cross the line. Then, told her about my SB texts. We just kind of laughed as we walked to get our post race treat. CT then decides, lets FaceTime SB. Thought the shock of the day was the wind, SB answers the FaceTime, running the race, just passing mile 4! She actually made it, she was able to start it, and was officially on the course! Take that wind!   

    

Trick F*cked

Yes, you read the title correctly. What goes around, eventually comes around. Sure, I've been known to pull a few legs, tease, and maybe even con a few people into pushing themselves, but this time the joke was 100% on me. As a firm believer in Karma, guess this is the universe getting me back.

CT and I are sitting in the car, in a park, in what feels like the middle of nowhere, waiting for a race to start. There are a few other runners around, so I'm confident we are in the right place, mainly because I doubt there are a combined five runners within thirty miles of this parking lot! Why would we sign up for race that we know nothing about? Well, that's because there should be two other people in the backseat of this car doing this with us. They shall remain nameless, only because I'm so mad at them at the moment, it's possible I'd slip and call them by name and not my fake fictitious names!

The map, it's hand drawn. Before I really comment on it, I must mention that the stack of maps is inches thick. Seriously, it feels as if they printed twenty maps for every person signed up for this race. What do they know that I don't? Should I be taking extra maps to use as bread crumbs? Back to the map itself, because it's hand drawn, especially like the touch of "not to scale" written on it, can't help but be reminded of how much it looks like a drunken pirate treasure map. This is going to add to some of the adventure, deciphering this, while trying to to trip and fall, can't wait to see the treasure at the end.

The car smells. Why does it smell? This is on me, but not because of what you are thinking. Since I've got no clue what this course is going to be like, decided to bring both my trail shoes and my regular road shoes to make a race time decision as to which to wear. Just so happens that it rained the day before, my road shoes got wet, and they never completely dried. They smell awful! The Star Wars trash compactor scene comes to mind with Han saying "What an incredible smell you've discovered". C'mon you furry oaf, get in there!

Slosh, slosh, goes the gun (this is an omen)! The herd starts on a paved trail, kind of. But because this is the true spirit of cross country trail racing, most of us are starting in the soggy grass off to the side. We weren't running for more that two football fields when somebody next to me yelled, "This way guys!"and taking a ninety degree turn. The pave trail path continued straight with about four guys heading down it, as the rest of us turned to run in more of a grass field to enter some woods and a dirt path. Somebody here is getting trick f*cked and we aren't even a half mile in, this is going to be an interesting day.

For the next few miles it settled in to a normal trail run through the woods. Ha! Trick f*cked you! Let me see if I can even break this down, first two miles went like this, grass, dirt trail, woods trail, grass, two track, parking lot, grass borderline mud, corn field, awww look back on the paved trail that was there at the start, woods trail again.In case you were wondering, I did decide to go with the smelly road shoes and no, none of that description was me lost. Already regretting that decision a bit because between the wet grass and fallen wet leaves on the trail, it's slick. Countdown to the first fall, starts now.

By about mile four, nobody was within eye sight anymore. The six to seven guys ahead of me had enough distance that I could only catch glimpses of them. Taking a peak behind me, I assume it was most likely the same case for anybody chasing me. The next wide open corn field, I broke from my tradition to cut every corner as tight as I can, because in this race's case, the inside path apparently is butting up against a swamp because it's that wet. Squish, squash. No sooner do I suspect that, when I went knee deep in muck. Yup, trick m*cked! Thought these shoes smelled bad prior, can't wait to smell them after this! It's about this point where now it begins weighing on my mind, with as injury prone CT is, this is a recipe for disaster. Hope, she's running careful and smart.

Two more swamps, because this part was an out and back, a long dirt road, woods, hey there goes the start, a nice long paved trail, back to woods and a section that reminded me of the football tire drill, yet with roots all the while on a crazy slope where if you trip and fall, the roots will guide and roll you right into the swap you are skirting at the moment. Treasure map my ass, this feels more like a gauntlet. By this point, all thoughts are of my two "friends", probably still in bed and without a doubt knew what they had gotten out of.

Somewhere around mile ten, finally did enough loops to finally see CT. In passing, my advice of "be damn careful" was responded back with "already hurt my knee back at mile two". Great!

Finishing up, can't remember a race when I was more happy to see the finish line. Success to me was simply not falling and by some miracle not injuring myself. Even though I know my training coming into this race was horrible, with the size, figured I'd do good enough. Even though got trick f*cked, it was still good enough to win my age group. In one last bit of trick f*ckery, CT ended up getting third in her age group, which is still great, but looking at the results after the first overall woman (who wasn't that far behind me) and first woman in CT's age group had the exact same time. For a race that all that different terrain, only a gun time start, it's odd to me that two people finished at the exact same time....especially for first overall. I know my Karma is now reset. CT's on the other hand, apparently she's been a little worse that I've been, because she got trick f*cked one more time!

Time to plan some payback...       

 

Good Day to be Super

Even though I try not to be serious, sometimes it happens. One of those times, does happen to be running. Most likely, there will never be a time where I joyfully let people throw paint at me, aka do a color run. Adding obstacles or mud doesn't seem appealing or fun to me. Before you think, damn, he's getting cranky in his old age (I am), it comes down to not wanting to risk getting injured doing something along the lines of what I'd consider a casual run.

Did I just say that? Figured. Who shows up and pitches the idea she wants to do a costume race, but the Bear. Ugh. This one time, I'm bending my rules for the simple fact that both CT and I feel the need to encourage the Bear to continue to run. Wait! What do I have to dress up as?

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive....it's Super Ace! I know, I know, not that creative. It's an easy costume to pull off, plus it's a kid friendly event. For as much as I would have loved to pull off the real Ace costume, better judgement still wins, sometimes.

At the starting line, it's obvious this much more of a fun run than a competitive race. I mean not just because all the costumes, but it's not the standard race around here where the top thirty finishers all know each other by name and follow each other on the runner's social media app. First time, lining up for a race, not in the same state, haven't known at least one person I didn't ride to the even with, weird! My super hearing picked up on a woman, I mean fellow super hero, saying she expected to run a 7:30 mile. While not the Flash, that's a gutsy expectation or it's a super fib! There's nothing super about how untrained I am at the moment, not even sure I could pull that off. About the same time my spider sense (yes, I know it's a completely different super hero) is tingling with that irritation, that's when I notice the guy with no costume, dressed and acting like a real runner. Who dis? Imposter! Here's my target.

BANG! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck, that gun was loud! Awe, must be the super hearing. Typical race start, kids go blasting by, only to die out within a few feet. Before the first turn, already passed the 7:30 Flash, guess she's going to pick it up in the back half. After the first turn, it went the Imposter, Grey Beard in pajamas , myself and I can only assume 7:30 Flash nipping at my heels.

Second turn, about a mile in, passed Grey Beard in pajamas. Expecting the Imposter to lose some steam, gained some ground and would estimate about fifteen seconds back. At this point, we are on a major four lane road with one lane closed off for us. The mental image of first seeing a guy running, then a guy in super hero costume apparently chasing him as cars passed made me smile to myself. It wasn't long after this, then I got my first honk of approval. Sorry fans, this isn't the movies and this Super Ace doesn't have a six pack and has a bit too much Kryptonite around his belly at the moment to give a good ending. About mile two the gap increased and it was obvious to me that the Imposter was going to get away and be able to race another day. Damn it! Who's idea was this cape anyway?

It's fun to blame the cape, but it played no part in the escape. Good enough for second place overall. Crossing the line, admitted to the volunteers that Super Ace needs a few thousand more sit-ups, as I popped a donut-hole into my face. CT crossed the line as first woman, then proceeded to dry heave like crazy. At first I was walking up to congratulate her, then she started doing that, and I had to do an about face and pretend I didn't know her (which works really well when you're both dressed the same)!

After they gave out all the age group awards, they wanted one group picture with all the winners. Out of the seven or so of us that went up for the picture, all but one were in a Super-Something costume, at which point a guy in a Batman costume made the comment "Guess I wore the wrong costume"! Yup, and there's the title!

Bearly Alive

The hills have eyes and trust me, they didn't want to witness what they just saw! This weekend was the the race I love to hate. Sorry, Mother Nature. It is what it is and what's done is done, might as well tell the story.

Did you every get a sign that you shouldn't be doing something? Maybe a gut feeling, writing on the wall perhaps, basically something in nature, possibly the supernatural, going out of it's way to give guidance? Sometimes the signs are subtle and are over looked, sometimes they are obvious, but this isn't about judgement of how they were missed, ignored, or given the finger.

Three weeks ago, attempting to squeeze in last minute training for this weekend, rolled my ankle on quite possibly the clearest, most open, part of the trail. It swelled up like a tennis ball. The following week, again in the woods training, a yellow jacket stings me in the exact same ankle. Signs? While the sting itself wasn't bad and the itching was annoying, but the worst was the swelling it caused. It takes a bit for me to get concerned, but I'll admit it, I was nervous. It took three days, before it finally stopped looking like my foot was going to explode. Can't wait to see what this weekend will bring!

Roooooar! Goes the gun. Whoops, before we can get to this part. Have you ever heard a bear snore? No? Well, either have I. I can only imagine what it sounds like and what makes me bring this up is CT and I have dragged a friend with us to run this race, we'll call her Hill. The race has been postponed, currently we are all in the car, but Hill has gone back to sleep and is snoring, like a bear, in the backseat.

Two hours later, snoooooore goes the gun! For some reason I got put in wave two again. The first year that happened, I was so angry, it was as if I beast were released. Today, it was nice because there were almost no expectations, a bit like Hill's deep slumber, yawn. Believe this is year seven of doing this race, I know the course, won't bore you with minor details.

Mile eight is the race. Either turn it on here and push to the end, or put it in conservation mode and attempt to not die. Even with suspect training, my battles with Mother Nature, how I held a little back up until this point, when it got to this point, I knew there was nothing left and there wasn't even a glimmer of hope that somehow some race day magic would show up. The rest of the race was ugly, possibly more ugly than the picture for this blog.

Last year wasn't a great time for me, but I figured I'd be able to match it, nope. The hills have eyes and ugh, worst time on this course since my very first time running it. Not very proud of that and as if to mock me, when I put down a time that shouldn't deserve an age group award, what do I get? First!

Day two, how do you make a fog horn sound? Anyway, that's the starting gun for today. Only one wave today, so back to a little more crowded start. Bearly (yeah, I know, bear with me) a mile in, the pace was respectable considering we weren't even to the first big hill. Two guys were ahead of me and at least two were directly behind me. Out of nowhere, this old guy decides it's now his moment and attempts to pass all five of us at once! As Hill would say, "He ate shit!" This guy went almost full scorpion pose, face first, branches crashing, snapping, and gets up with black dirt as opposed to all the sand all over his face to signal just how much shit he ate. Not sure if it was his crazy nature to attempt something like this, or he was fueled with adrenaline or quite possibly the embarrassment, either way he bolted up ahead of us a few lengths. Passed him on the hill, of course. Everybody has to run their own race, never want to judge, but this move has me scratching my head. It is foggy, maybe it impaired his sight, judgement.  

For as little mojo as I had yesterday, there's even less today. The fog does feel like something out of Jurassic Park at any moment a T-Rex or probably more likely a bear could snatch you right off the trail. Didn't even make it to mile six before I decided to shut it down. Live today, to run another day. Couple minutes slower than yesterday, which did hurt me in the age group awards, only second today.

Love this race, will be back just to undo this barely surviving.     

  

    

Anti-Google

The Title is currently where I'm at. Won't even argue the stupidity of starting this rant on and posting it to a Google platform, but here we go, doing it anyway!

Without going back, know there's a blog post about it, could easily do some fact checking, but why bother in this day and age, but roughly ten years ago purchased my first iPhone. At the time, I really put some thought into the decision because I wasn't a fan of Apple. One of the biggest negatives was Apple's control over which apps they allowed into their store and ultimately on their phone. Google's model of being the "Do no evil", open company, while making all these useful and frankly better apps seemed like a much better choice based on what I believe in. Open is always better than a closed system!

Ten years later, fuck that! This all falls under me being naive. Sure, use free services, with the assumption of getting ads, paying for the service, I get it. It's worth it! On the surface, seems like a fair trade. But, it's the whole other story that is not getting told. This wraps into the whole Facebook issue as well, which the bottom line is the user is the product. It's not about generating ad revenue to pay for the ability to offer the services, the people are the product. Both Google and Facebook make millions of millions of dollars, selling every bit of information you willingly give (and tons of information you don't even know you are giving) them to use their product. This could spin into a whole other post/thought, but why aren't users getting paid to use these services yet? Universal Basic Income, anybody?  

Recently in the news, it's starting to come out how Google tracks locations even when the location tracking is disabled. That news makes me go mental. Reading more on the subject, I realized the story is more about how Google hides some of the settings or at least makes them less obvious to disable some of them. While I already had the non-obvious ones disabled, it got me thinking. With as many of Google's services that I use, even if I go out of my way to prevent Google getting too much information on me, it doesn't matter! Those settings are completely meaningless. Even if those settings even do what they are suppose to, there is no escape!

Take email for example. Almost everybody has a Gmail account. Have a phone? Check that email with your phone? That phone typically checks that email account every fifteen minutes. Every fifteen minutes, Google knows you check that account and from what IP address it's being check from. That info alone would tell them, are you home, are you at work, are you on the road, are you sitting in your favorite coffee shop. There is NO turning that off, that's happening, because you are using their service. That's a location service turned on, all the time! Now, think about the emails you receive on this account. They know your bank, who you have for phone service, what you bought on Amazon, simply by having access to what messages come to this address, what's sitting on this account. That's a wealth of info, for free. While I've ripped on Facebook for things they track and do, for as shady as they are, they don't have info on this level.

Google Photos? Used to be a huge fan. What a great, simple way to backup photos. It even bailed me out a couple times. But, now I question the cost. While it wouldn't be a live version of tracking, the historical data from every photo I've taken, they'd know time and place of very photo, which will give a detailed history of locations. They'd know every Friday night I like to visit my favorite restaurant and happen I like to take pictures of my food. There is all kinds of marketing possibilities, but also certainly chances to abuse the data gained either through access by a third party, government agency, rogue employee, who knows.

Google G+? Six people use it, but it's Facebook.

Google Hangouts? Every conversation, stored, searchable. Every contact. Location information for every message sent for sure.

Google Maps? Of course it has to know your location to point you in the right direction. This is the only product that has any real reason to be looking at things, when using it. Have to be honest, I dumped this as well.

Google Search? Since forever, I've always used search logged in to my Gmail account. It was convenient to pull up past searches. But after thinking about it, why they hell should I be giving Google more info? The days of being logged in and searching are done. Might even begin using other search engines for the reason to get away.
 
Without a doubt, people will say who cares. I'll even be the first to admit, I'm not a very exciting person to track, nobody should care, but they do. The whole give up privacy on the concept of doing nothing wrong, is a strange argument. Why not have privacy, when doing nothing wrong? That probably blurs the lines of surveillance too much, but this is the core of the problem. All this information isn't being used as a whole, it's without a doubt to get to know us as an individual, more than we even know ourselves. Which is creepy!

The Google purge is hard let me tell you. They are so intertwined with so many things I've grown accustom to using. The notion of do no wrong and an open company, couldn't be further from the truth. I'm so glad I didn't go down the path of an Android phone. There would be no escape from Google anything with it. Nobody is going to read this and change their behavior or habits. I'm sure people have said it better, put much more thought and time, but hopefully anybody that reads this at least thinks about it.

Slower, but the Same

Different feel rolling up to the start of the hometown 5K this year. Less pressure? Certainly, doesn't feel like I have to prove anything this year. There isn't a goal time. Running for fun? Wouldn't necessarily say that. While it feels more like a run just to run, in the back of my mind don't want to do horrible either. Second year in a row where CT and I strolled up the morning of and signed up. While fairly certain we'd do it, neither of us trained for this. Although, CT of course set a goal time for herself.

Slightly different look to the start this year as well. My guess, about half the participants were the cross country teams from the middle and high school. It's good to see young blood, hope those kids stick with it. I'd still like to push that "go back" button and get that glimpse of what if, had I actually participated in cross country back then.

What's that? Brian Adams, Summer of 89 goes the gun. While it's great to see youth participating, it's a bit of a pain because they always have to start as close to the line as they can. This year was a trot around the first two turns to avoid stepping on anybody. Since there weren't any goals, I didn't care. Let them go out fast and see who dies out. Speaking of which, while there may not be any definitive goals, there are still some expectations of people that I can't let beat me. Once on the first straightaway, I can clearly see them up ahead. The pace seems fast, while I'm still holding a bit in reserve, hope this isn't a sign of the current shape they are in.

Before the next turn, passed one of them. At this point, the second one wasn't pulling away and I felt fairly confident that if anything, he'd be slowing down. Just after the mile mark, made my move (by staying at the same pace) and passed him and other guy. Everybody has their own style of running. The other guy, seriously sounded like he was going to die. Can't say I've ever ran (pun) across anybody like this before, but his breathing sounded as if he were having his last breath, "Errrrrreeeeuuuuugh". I thought about commenting on it, but then found myself wondering if he even realized he sounded like that and just left it alone. Not even sure what I'd say either, "Sounding strong", "Doing great, hang in there", or "Don't look behind you, death is just behind me".

For me, the rest of the race was uneventful. Caught a kid and the overall girl in the final mile, but didn't push any harder than I had too. Finished with my slowest 5K in a while. That bugs me a bit, but I also know based on the amount of running I've been doing lately, it wasn't that bad. In the end, still good enough to get me first place in my age group, so I'll take it.

CT's story from this year, she's always so damn competitive, she threw an elbow to a young girl trying to pass her. Let that sink in for a moment. Okay, it wasn't intentional, but we had a good laugh about it after. Even took the girl in question for a mile cool down jog after to show there wasn't any bad blood. CT probably won't admit this, but she does better when she has somebody right with her to push her a bit and it this case it helped her trying to push this girl, so it made for a successful day, even if neither of us were really ready for this 5K. In the end though, the fast couple, I mean the great looking fast couple, each got our respected firsts.   

Rainy Season

The gauntlet is over! Two marathons, a 25K, and a half marathon in the span of about five weeks. One would think the above picture is a celebration for surviving, but really it's a tribute to one of my favorite movies, Shawshank Redemption. You know the scene, "Andy Dufresne, the man who crawled through 500 yards of shit and came out clean the other end", the moment he emerges from the sewer pipe, only to stand in this pose as the rain washes him clean of his false incarceration becoming a free man. Okay, I really didn't accomplish anything as traumatic as a prison stint, but my tribute is damn relevant being as two of these races took place in torrential downpours.   

There isn't much of a story for today's race. From the start, it was obvious we were going to get dumped on by the rain. Not wanting to even take a chance of a repeat of Nipplegate, ditched the shirt and modesty at the starting line. This race is small to begin with, add the crummy weather, and I was fairly certain nobody would be tortured with looking at my semi-naked body for too long. 

Insert Spring rain sound for the starting gun, awww so peaceful, here we go. CT had a specific time goal in mind and has been doing her typical stressing over getting that time. For myself, no such goal, other than an idea of what would be a likely time for myself. About a quarter mile in, I could sense that she was pacing herself off of me and was starting much too fast for her goal and ultimately running a sensible race. In hindsight, I probably should have slowed her down and ran with her. Instead, I could feel people crawling up my back and that made me paranoid that I'd have run hard today. At this point I decided to pass her, casually mention that she should slow down, and I'd see her at the finish. 

The sky opened up and let a down pour happen for a few miles. Somewhere around four, I took a peak back to see if I could see CT. Even for being a very straight course, the rain hindered visibility enough that I could barely make her out. She's been battling an injury, so honestly that was my check to just make sure nothing horrible happened. While I was worried about her, then it got in my head how close the next guy was to me. I did start out a little slower to keep an eye on her, by this point, I was at race pace and didn't expect anybody to be around me (already knew the two "kids" were hell and gone and there was no catching them). 

Kept my pace at race pace, figuring if he wanted to stay close, we'll see how long he can last. In the back of my head, I did wonder how long I'd be able to maintain, my body has been tired with number of hard runs I've done in this stretch. At six, I turn to peak, motha #&^!, still see him, did gain some distance, but he was still visible. At eight, when I checked, finally couldn't see him, which is good because my body started to ask questions. Rest of the miles, eased back a little and simply maintained. 

Crossing the line, it was almost spot on what I expected. Overall, it felt a bit harder than it should have, but it's been a full season. Even if motivated, doubt that a PR would have happened, kind of glad I didn't try. Running back out to see CT, I really expected to see her coming in a first woman. The second I saw a different woman running at me, knew this wouldn't be good for her because that woman was right at about the time CT was hoping for. Only had to wait a few more runners before I saw her coming. Was greeted to a very emotional CT, haven't seen this side very often. Knew she struggled, mainly with the injury she's been fighting, but mentally, she puts way too damn much pressure on herself going after a time that even healthy is close to her limit. The hug only lasted a couple seconds, felt longer, but she broke it off worried that somebody would pass her...that's my girl! 

She put on a good game face, finished strong and we both walked away with first places in our age group. After what feels like a long training season, an even longer race season, time to roll the credits on this season/movie! 

The Club

It's been a few years since I lined up for this race, four to be exact. Normally, I wouldn't know that off the top of my head, more on that in a minute. I also wouldn't have guessed it's been that long, but after finding out, it doesn't surprise me either because I've had some gripes with this race. Enough time has passed, not even sure if I bitched about them here, so sorry, pretend Alzheimer has hit (just a matter of time anyway), here they come again. Never been a fan of the course, last time I was on it, ended up doing something to my foot and I'm convinced it was from so many uneven surfaces. It left me hobbling for a while. That didn't make me happy, but the reason I stopped running this race is because of The Club. It really is a cool perk and the only thing like it in the area, but some rule changes happened to ruin the fun of not only getting in The Club, but wanting to be in The Club. Not being able to take your spouse into The Club, somewhat defeats wanting to be in The Club. That change has always left a sour taste in my mouth.

Once in a while, I make friends. As runners do, you chit chat about various races and goals coming up. Well, this friend, we'll call 5-0 (That's five oh, not five zero, not fifty, not fiffy (if you're hip), five oh) tells me he has this dream of getting in The Club at this race. Now, I've had one pacing experience and it went horribly wrong, so much so that it actually still causes me anxiety. Sure glad I don't have to do that again, is playing out in my head. At the same time I'm thinking that, CT who happens to be standing by us, announces "Sure, he'll pace you 5-0"! In five words, that quick, I got signed up for another race, committed to pacing, all without any of my own input. Any doubt left that CT is trying to kill me? Sure hope the police take a long, hard, look at her when I go missing or die of unusual circumstances!

How did I find out it's been four years? After signing up, it wasn't too long after an email notice came that my results couldn't be found and they were denying my entry into The Club. On the website, they are fairly specific about entry into The Club being based on last year's results. I admit, I applied my own logic to this because I think it's unrealistic to NEED to run this race every year to remain in The Club, my feeling it should be based on your last time running it, so it's been a couple years. Based on my previous gripes, their response denying me entry, my buttons had been pushed and it resulted in a sassy email response back and a Twitter post about the experience. Unexpected results, suddenly it became a full on flame war on Twitter with somebody I had never heard of or had any interaction before. The whole time this war is going on, get an email response back giving me entry into The Club from the race people. Once they realized I had ran it four years ago, with the explanation of their system only went back three years, good to go. Honestly, expected to get no response from the race people, now to end this stupid Twitter war. Once the Troll found out they let me in The Club, things calmed down, but couldn't resist poking one last time stating how silly this whole thing was because it wasn't like I was going to enter The Club, then wave to 5-0 from inside The Club gloating with my perks or stroll up to the starting line with my special entry bib only to have the person I'm trying to pace catch up to me. The whole point of this whole fiasco was getting the "special" bib to motivate 5-0. 

Pacer, is much different than trainer. We were both in different training groups this year. So, I really couldn't keep close constant contact through this training season, beyond (ha pun) spying on posted runs. 5-0 put in the work. Times we did speak, he did seem to have some doubt. A few days prior, 5-0 even complained about getting sick, something about coughing up a lung, and playing it almost off as if there were a chance he might not even do this race. Hearing this, made me really wonder if 5-0 didn't find and hear about my last attempt at pacing somebody this was his secret exit strategy.

The day of, 5-0 seemed nervous. Joking about him spending extra to get the fancy race shirt, made me feel better. Who does that? I guess somebody who really wants to get in The Club, which I learned that *if* 5-0 got in the Club, next year he was already planning arriving at 5 am, and he was staying there all day, and in his own words they'd have to kick him out at midnight! Hearing that, only makes me want to see that, we are getting into The damn Club!

Lining up, it's a mad house anyway. Not sure if the "special" bib even would have helped this year. It felt a bit like I crammed and now it was test time. The night before, studied paces and had miles and times memorized. Whether 5-0 knew this or not, but didn't have much of a plan beyond knowing exactly what we needed to average to get in The Club and two mile markers where in my head we should be at with times. If we fell off pace, my only strategy was going to take a page from CT's book where she just dishes out insults and threats. Hopefully, it doesn't get to that point.

Couuuugh! Where'd that lung go? Goes the gun. Maybe a mooooo would a better description because it feels like a stampede. Early thoughts, the official pace group did well this year. 5-0 would have been fine with them. In years past, I kind of remember them being all over the board with pace, figures the year I get roped into this, they actually do a decent job. This run always seems to start around mile 10. The mob finally thins out and 95% of your thoughts aren't making sure either to not get kicked or do the kicking. We were slightly ahead of schedule and this point, but it's also the make or break section of the course with the hills coming. I made a joke about this is finally being like back home, which also were about the only words I said to 5-0 up until this point. He must have like the thought of the terrain being like our normal training hills, because our pace got a little faster.

Mile twelve, was my make it or break target. Goal, wanted to be around 1:32. 1:34, would mean needing to get faster and hopefully, there was something left in the tank. We came in about 1:31. I'm sure 5-0 had a bit of a clue, but this was my first time putting my game face on to play the pacer roll to finally tell him a time "We are a minute up, all we have to do is keep this pace and can even slow a bit if needed". Motivation, energy of being this close to the finish, 5-0 even got a bit faster. At fourteen, we were up a minute and a half ahead of pace. This is about the same time I notice that 5-0 wasn't quite running as easy as in the hill miles. This is where a better pacer should have probably not let a couple of those hill miles sneak that far under goal pace, but I also knew the goal was in the bag at this point. While I didn't want to test it, carrying, dragging, anything moving forward got us to the goal.

The end is in sight, banked a little buffer, The Club is getting a new member! Crossing the line, not sure who was happier, 5-0 earning that shirt he paid extra for, or me for not failing again as a pacer! This race has me for one more year, because I'm not going to miss out on the perks of The Club...especially when they kick 5-0 out at midnight!   

8 Times Insanity

Can you believe this makes the eighth time running this horrible thing? Time sure flies. There are things I like doing, that I haven't done eight times before! Why? Here comes this year's story.

There is something to be said about consistency. There is also something to be said about insanity. How does the definition of insanity go, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? The line between consistency and insanity have just about merged for me.

Every year, cool temps, the week prior to this race, sudden warm up. Consistency. Every year, I come into this race expecting a set time. Consistency. Every year I find myself lined up for this race. Consistency. The insanity part comes from, just once I still hold this glimmer of hope that just once I should have a good run on this course. Those thoughts disappeared a few days prior when I came down with a head could and felt generally miserable. The morning of, woke up with what felt like a cold sweat. Can't say I've ever taken my temperature prior to a race start before, consistency cycle is now broken, this is new.

Eeeeeeeeeeeight, goes the gun. Because I'm insane and expect different results, my race strategy is give it my best shot and see what happens. That worked up until about mile sixteen. Then the consistency of the warmer weather always getting to me took it's toll. Maybe some of it had to do with the head cold, but overall think running a marathon a few weeks ago caught up with me too. My body suddenly felt very tired and this was the sign to shut it down and not bother pushing any harder. Much of this decision is based on knowing I've got another race next week and that one is a bit more important than this one.

The remaining miles, were a bunch of walking and texting CT updates. One positive, it wasn't until mile twenty one that the group with my PR on this course finally passed me. The part I did run, I did well to build up a lead like that.

Crossing the line, still turned out to be my second best time on this course. If that doesn't give some idea how consistently, ha one last time, this course beats me up, I don't know what does. At the time, I wasn't very happy mainly knowing when I had to shut it down, but now it doesn't seem that bad. Considering still physically tired from the last marathon, being sick, and the warm weather, I'll take it especially if I didn't do any damage to myself for next weekend. Let the insanity continue!   

FB the stuff you already know, but continue to do anyway

This is going to be a different post, it's not about running! Shocked? Normally, I try some kind of long, slow, build up, but this time since this is a different entry, I'm just going to come out and say it:

Facebook is a giant pile!

We all know it, at least we should. Granted, this post is a little late (hey, I've been busy) with this whole story being in the news the past few weeks. Really, should it be any surprise that Facebook is doing anything shady with our info? Not going to hash out their past, anything that got them in the news this time around, but did to some exploring on my own out of curiosity.

First, I get it. As a nerd, I get it. Everybody is in the business of collecting info. Facebook isn't any different than Google. Both use everything we do to make money, we are the product, but I see a glaring difference between the two. Facebook offers absolutely nothing to me in the way of making life better, besides offering a single location where the majority of the people I know visit. Their whole model is offering nothing more than that. Google on the other hand, they actually make things that do things for me. It all started with Gmail and the free storage, Maps, Google Voice, products. Things that do something for me. While they are used to track, monitor, sell better ads towards me, they are still products that are useful. Facebook, nothing.

I mentioned I was curious, so I decided to download my entire Facebook existence on 3/28/2018. The first almost laughable experience is the message Facebook gives just before downloading:


Facebook has the audacity to warn me to protect my own data? Holy shit, the company storing all my data, that just got caught giving more info than they should, is telling me to protect my data? That's funny!

Maybe I'll edit this later with more content. It certainly was interesting checking out what they store, log, and track. As a nerd, it doesn't surprise me because I know this info is there, but it's still creepy as F*CK to see photos taken inside your house with the exact GPS coordinates. Most times, I edit a picture, or take a screenshot of it, so this info isn't included when I "give" it Facebook, but there were obviously times that I forgot to do this. Just think about this one act for a second. From that one picture, they know the exact location it was taken, with the facial recognition certainly know who's in the picture, date taken, date you "gave" them the photo, make and model of your camera (they'll notice the exact moment when you upgrade your phone), IP address you "gave" them the photo from (basically the source of your internet connection, from your house, directly from your phone etc) and probably other things I'm not even thinking of at this moment. That's a ton of free info extra info, I certainly did't intend to give them, all for me taking a goofy selfie with a donut.

But before you think this is a rant about this, it's not. If it were, I'd be telling you how insane you are for using their own app on your phone where there's who knows what info they are pulling from it. This post is more about the following that I find even more interesting.

Here's my Ad info on on my profile download 3/28/2018:



No surprise, I enjoy running, they know that. It's odd, my guess is I clicked a close button to exit out of a Verizon ad. I don't remember, but okay. But look at the list of Advertisers that have my info. One I've never heard of at least the other four I've had contact with. Target, peaks my interest because I've maybe been in the store three times in my life and I suppose it's possible maybe I used a credit card to buy something. Overall, not too bad, right?

Fast forward a couple of Congressional hearings and the fact I deleted my prior Facebook downloaded info, I downloaded my info again 4/10/2018:



What jumps out at me, a Congressional hearing and a few weeks, look at the difference with the Advertisers! Now, this is just a screenshot, but that page scrolls. You see 20 or so, but what you don't see that list goes on and on and on! WTF? What changed? This is kind of disturbing to me. As a nerd, I don't understand how the same request generates this vast difference over a couple of weeks.
If you think for a second Facebook is going to implement better controls, police themselves, or change their shady behavior, I think you are insane. This is about the my last straw and really think it's time to pull the plug on Facebook, for myself.

One last note, for those who might not think that difference is a big deal. Also between these two data dumps, I "cleaned" out a bunch of old messages and old posts. The posts did seem to work, but EVERY message I deleted on 3/28/2018 was still in my data on 4/10/2018!

The 317

To ibuprofen or not.
To switch from the full, to the half.
To turn around and go back to the hotel (bed), or do this.

These were all valid thoughts being debated twenty minutes prior to the race start, sitting in the car, with it running (for the heat), windshield wipers on. Almost like the decisions, going back and forth. One moment clear, the next blurry, watching a very empty starting line with minimal activity, only the occasional runner warming up with their pre-race routine or gear check, not the usual bee's nest of motion like a normal race day. Doubt anything will be normal today.

When CT hit me with "Why don't you switch to the half?" moments ago, it was unexpected to say the least. The months leading up to now, sure I had thought about that idea many times, there isn't a good reason to run a full. Something about traveling, getting a hotel, hell the training miles, those thoughts disappeared and felt committed at this point, until now. For CT to suggest this, when she's the one making me do these damn marathons, really made me stop and think, even she knows this is going to suck. The forecast, 100% rain, dropping temps, and oh increasing wind. Then there is the knee pain I've been dealing with the past few weeks. Why do this?

Look a blog post down, there's a reason. Leading up to this moment, I've been hush on my goals. A couple people have asked me during this training season and my generic answer has been "better than my last marathon". It's one hundred percent true, but it's also not even close to one hundred percent truth. My last marathon was a disaster. It's funny the motivational sayings people put on posters along the course, things like pain is temporary, your time is forever, things like that to will you along. There is truth in that saying too, but works opposite for me in this case, my last marathon time feels like a black eye. Problem is, it doesn't go away, will live forever on the internet, only thing to do is replace it with something better. So, that's my on the surface goal.

The off the record and I'm only saying this because nobody reads this, I really want to PR and since I'm admitting things, there's a small piece of me that really wants to qualify for Boston. Why don't I want to admit it? Admitting it, makes it seem more real and then feel more pressure and obligation of needing to do it. Neither goal is an easy task. The PR was from almost four years ago, when I was way more committed, dedicated, not to mention putting more miles in (not to mention younger, even though I don't age anymore). A BQ time, is even more of a pipe dream. It has always been something that seems so far out of reach from what feels possible, it doesn't do any good to even pretend a chance exists to pull a time that is required for that, from this body.

Training season, changed it up and went with the "me" plan. Though I still do group runs, decided to retired from being a pace leader. I did get enjoyment from doing that, but it also set me on a path where my longer runs were at a slower pace. There's this philosophy in not only every running program, but feels like every training guide that long runs should be easy and done thirty seconds to a minute slower than race pace. Not going to doubt the experts, but that doesn't work for me. It's my feeling that it's unrealistic to roll into race day and expect to drop that kind of time per mile, it's a formula for burning out, so I'm done training like this. Mental Expectations (ie the me plan, maybe I need to write a book), run training runs as close to race day pace as possible. First, for the "me" of knowing your body can do it, without wondering or guessing. Second, the logic of if you are always doing close to your desired pace, chances are race day won't be a surprise for the body. This is my invented training plan, me myself to a 7:30 pace for most training runs to with a goal pace of 7:20 come race day.

Well, time to get out of the warm car, get wet, and run this marathon. Not even sure if there was a gun sound to signal the start. It may have been soaked, frozen, both or maybe the race director didn't even show up, anyway, we are off!

First observation, always notice when races thin out. At Kalamazoo, it's about mile four where the split happens, sending halfers one way and the fulls the other. At Grand Rapids, mile nine is the same, split happens, things get much more lonely. While we started as a herd, probably to keep warm, the one mile mark it was already a desolate wasteland. Glad I did the "me" training because it's already alone time from here on out.

Mile two, either the flood waters loosened my laces or I did a poor job tying my shoes in the car, but my right shoe came completely untied. Visions came rushing back to my half marathon running with untied shoes, I didn't want a repeat of that day, only double. The thing with attempting a PR, there isn't much wiggle room, wanting a BQ time, there is next to no room for a error. Decided to suck it up and just go with it.

Mile eight, the whipping of the laces on my other leg finally broke me and I could feel my untied shoe opening up enough my foot was sliding a bit. Now, is the time, I have to fix this. Stopping, the next crisis starts, trying to tie laces when my fingers don't work because of the cold. That was very frustrating, trying to do something so simply and what should be quick, only to have to attempt it multiple times the whole time feeling precious seconds tick away not moving closer to the finish line. Looking back at my splits, clearly can see it took twenty seconds to tie my damn shoe.

Somewhere in the ten to halfway point miles, had a very interesting conversation with myself. One moment, I felt like a genius. Then about a mile later, realized how unbelievable stupid my thought was. It was a difficult decision what to wear this morning, not even sure there would be a perfect answer. I went with a black long sleeved shirt. My moment of pure genius was thinking to myself that this shirt is fairly tight with it being soaked and I doubted I'd have any issue with bloody nipples, but the fact I picked a black shirt was next level genius because if my nipples were to bleed, nobody would see them!  Where was the photographer on the course to capture the exact moment when I realized how dumb this thought was? Bit of a trick question because, nobody was on the course, but I'm sure the look on my face was pure disgust and would have made for one of those all time great awful race photos. If I took the time to pretend I picked this black shirt to hide bloody nipples, then why the hell didn't I just tape my nipples? Of course I could just toss this shirt too, but I did worry a bit about the hypothermia factor.

Crossing the halfway point mat, was a few seconds behind my goal pace. Didn't think about that much though knowing there was plenty of race to go, lost some time with my shoe tying fiasco, and this weather wasn't the greatest. Had my watch set with the virtual partner going. The virtual partner runs at the pace you are aiming for, never tires, and I'm sure doesn't have to run in the rain, but I told myself I wasn't going to look at my watch and check exactly where I was at until mile twenty. It's too early to begin stressing over anything.

Mile fifteen clicked, I did look at my mile split, 7:12. At first thought, as the reader, I'm sure you are thinking that's great! Eight seconds ahead of your goal pace of needing 7:20 miles. The problem, I knew I wasn't putting down 7:12 pace effort. This whole time, even with the monsoon, shoe gate, nipple gate, I was running comfortable. When I saw the 7:12, this is when my panic started and queue the head games. This part of the course is an out and back stretch and the turn around point is a hair past mile sixteen. The eight second gain is from the wind assisting me and in a few seconds, it's going to be miles into that wind.

Mile seventeen clicked, 7:45. That's it, any dream of pulling off a BQ time died right here in my mind. I was already at the point my body was getting tried naturally. The extra effort into the wind, to lose twenty seconds, there wasn't enough in the tank to overcome the wind. This is the exact reason I didn't want to admit to anybody that set this goal for myself. Even in my own head, flood of disappointment, more than the rain pouring down.

Mile twenty clicked, I didn't even bother to check my virtual partner who was happily running, dry, still on pace, and would get a BQ time. Problem is, I've thought about this enough to know even without seeing that screen, just knowing what time I should be at mile twenty to have any chance and I was four minutes off. I also don't have the best history of finishing marathons strong, things may be going from bad to worse.

Somewhere around either mile twenty one or twenty two the course merges with the turn around spot for the people doing the half marathon. This is one race that is a bit unique that they start the full and the half an hour and a half apart. The downside, it makes for some congestion in the final miles potentially because the course changes from the road to a trail. The positive, it generates people again after being alone for essentially twenty miles. The bonus today, it was timed just about perfect, no sooner did I get here, then I could see CT coming towards me. It was good to see her just because she's been dealing with a heel injury for a while, even up to last night, wasn't sure if she could even do the half. At this point she was at least nine miles in, she smiled when she saw me, in this weather, with a bad ankle, I'll take it!

This is where the final mind game started getting played. My body and my mind were telling me to slow up, let her catch me, finish with her and take the defeat. Then that small voice said, may have lost the BQ, but it's still possible to get a PR.

The final miles, it was zombie running. Body felt dead, there wasn't anything left to give, but for some reason legs kept moving forward. To quote Jaws, if anybody were to look at me I'm sure the line, "he's got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes" would apply. I couldn't even see the finisher's clock, not sure if that was the rain in my eyes, the rain coming down, or maybe my eyes stopped working. Fingers and hands didn't work, grabbed my chocolate milk between my writst. Run in snow, blizzards, rarely feel cold. Well, crossing that line and just stopping for a few seconds, feeling that cold wind on everything that's soaked, okay, this is cold.

What's with the picture? At 1 am, CT wakes me up furious that the room next to ours is having a very loud party. The hotel was nice enough to give us a different room. The room we get, 317. What did I run today? A 3:17! Took five minutes off my PR, may have missed my BQ by five, but now I know the secret...just might ask for room 312 next time!