Free Race - Alive Alive O!!!

Hooray, I'm going to run the Dr Pepper 10k in Dublin's fair (Texas) city on June 14th. I got comped an entry today, plus free bus up and back for myself, Nancy and Gavin. On top of that Gavin will be doing the 2k fun run - his first ever race!!! I am so excited about that - he's going to have so much fun. It starts after the 10k finishes so I get to see it/cheer him on/run it with him too. It looks like being a fun day out. Better dust me old road shoes off, lace 'em back up again and hit that road.

I don't remember when I last ran a 10k but it's been a while.

Frustrations

I can run for a long time at a reasonably fast pace without much effort. I can hold plank for several minutes. I can spend hours being diplomatic with "petty office politics" clients who are crying out for a good slap, but give me an evening looking after a 3 year old in a bad temper and I'm exhausted. Usually Gavin is a really good boy. Usually. But not tonight.

It's a scientific fact that your offspring are born with the ability to push your buttons. Yet in the midst of the battlefield they can melt your heart instantly with one look or one "sorry daddy" and make you feel guilty for ever telling them off. Nancy was off riding her bike this evening and the boy took me on a real rollercoaster. He wouldn't listen, he was into everything, he was sulky, he was being a complete horse's butt. We made pasta together a few nights ago and had a fun time flouring the dough, rolling and hand cranking it through the machine, but tonight? Let's just say night and day and change the subject.

Let's talk about running instead. I guess summer is just about here, which makes running much more of a challenge. I read an article the other day about hot weather running that said it takes about two weeks to acclimatize. I think I'm getting there as the heat didn't really effect me too badly on my run last night. Certainly not as much as Saturday. As I'm into maintenance mode I've cut back on some of my runs and substituted in more cross training at home with aerobic weights, core workouts and yoga. I did the same last summer and it paid big dividends. My legs are very stiff these days so I could do with spending a lot more time stretching (which I definitely don't do enough of).

This weekend is another change up for me. It's the Loop 30k on Sunday which Nancy is running, and I am volunteering at. It's oddly gratifying to stand around and watch a bunch of people work hard. It's also Nancy's birthday on Saturday so Gavin and I are going to bake her a cake tomorrow night. We got her a pair of Vasque Velocity trail shoes for her birthday - giftwrapped (well, shipped - does that count?). I may or may not have gotten her something else, but I'm not going to say because she may read this. What an old romantic I am.

Last comment. Naughty little three year olds look like angels when they're sleeping.

The Long Walk

I recently reread an old Stephen King novel called "The Long Walk" which is the most disturbing of all the King novels I've read. Many things are left deliberately vague - we learn more as we read, and at the beginning we really have no idea what is going on - and this helps maintain the suspense. The setting is a kind of alternative reality where the US is run by a military dictatorship overseen by a mysteriously powerful figure known only as "the Major".

"The Long Walk" is the premier sporting event in this alternative reality, the premise being that each year a hundred 18 year old boys compete in an endurance walk from the Canadian border down through the State of Maine. The story is told in third person form from the viewpoint of the protagonist Ray Garraty, a participant in the walk. The last boy left standing wins "the prize" (yet another vague concept), but the catch is that once they're in the walk there are no rest stops and no quitting - unless they maintain a pace of at least 4 miles an hour they will be shot dead by the outriding soldiers. Thus 99 out of the 100 boys are literally on a death march. We only realize fully what is going on when the first boy "gets his ticket". The book concentrates on the relationships that develop between the walkers, the mental disintegration that takes place, and explores the grisly motivation of the onlookers. In other words an examination of human nature. Genuinely creepy.

I thought about this book a lot yesterday while I was running at McKinney Roughs. This was quite simply the worst run I've had in a long time. It was hot and incredibly humid, but I didn't feel good from the start. I had no energy and no motivation - I think I started out too fast and just didn't enjoy myself at all. I was planning on doing 30 miles, but stopped at 15 having drained and refilled my camelbak twice. I don't think anyone ran more than that, so at least I wasn't alone in feeling crappy.

On the other hand, I did a good two and a half hour run at Bull Creek this morning and felt as good today as I had felt bad yesterday. I don't have any explanation for this. It was just as hot and humid but I felt strong and fast, was able to hit the uphills hard, speed around the switchbacks, find good rhythm on the flats, and still have plenty left at the end.

I think I need to be more consistent with my running. I've build my marathon base over the last few years on regular midweek runs, and I haven't been keeping to them as I should of late. Having said that, we are moving into Texas summertime and I am in maintenance mode. I am starting to lean toward not doing the Arkansas Traveler 100 and instead doing a new 60k race that Joe is doing in Bryan the same weekend. That seems to fit my race calendar and buildup a little better.

Stay tuned though, I may have changed my mind again by tomorrow.

Flying Pigs

This morning pigs were flying around a blue moon when my alarm went off at 3:30am because I actually got up to do my neighborhood run. During marathon season this is a regular (3 or 4 times a week) event for me but I've gotten badly (and lazily) out of habit. Charlie (my dog and regular neighborhood running buddy) couldn't believe his luck and was very excited to get out the door. I'd pegged today as the day to restart my early morning regime because I love running under a full moon and it didn't disappoint. I also love the feeling of having the neighborhood all to myself, and getting back into this familiar route was like visiting with an old friend.

I have 2 basic loops around my neighborhood - the long one is 1.15 miles and the short one is 0.85 miles. Running both gives me a nice even 2 miles, and since my basic morning run is 6 miles I run each 3 times. I knew I'd had a good run because Charlie was flagging by the end whereas I felt pretty good. Be careful what you wish for, dog.

The rigatoni with meat sauce turned out to be pretty good, and the feta stuffed hamburger with mushroom was superb. Tonight is chicken pasta in cream vodka sauce. Further experimentation awaits.

Storm over Everest

Those of you who have read Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" or G. Weston DeWalt's "The Climb" will be familiar with the tragic events of the 1996 Everest climbing season when a fast-moving storm trapped many climbers in the death zone, leaving eight people dead including expedition leaders Rob Hall and Scott Fischer. A few nights ago I watched a fascinating PBS documentary "Frontline : Storm over Everest" (you can see the entire program online here). It was produced by world class climber and filmmaker David Breashears, who was on the mountain in '96 and helped rescue several climbers that day. The documentary focused on the survivors 10 years on, and it was fascinating to actually see people you've read about and find out what's happened to them since and their perspective on events. Some of the familiar names interviewed include Sandy Pittman, Lene Gammelgaard, Charlotte Fox, Beck Weathers, Mike Groom, Neal Beidleman and Makalu Gau. In the aftermath of the tragedy (and in Krakauer's book), some were portrayed as heroes, others as villians, but all have a story to tell. Well worth watching.

We had some friends stay with us Friday night so Nancy didn't go run with her Rogue group yesterday. Instead we went to Walnut Creek later that morning to do hill repeats on Endo Valley. We took Gavin with us and he hiked/ran with me (I didn't take the camera so this picture is from a recent trip to McKinney Falls). He had a great time and at one point turned to me and said "Daddy, I love being in the woods with you". At another point we saw another runner and Gavin said "let's catch him daddy" and took off down the trail. I'm so proud of my little boy. After Nancy's 7th hill repeat, Gavin decided he wanted to try the Endo Valley loop so we hiked around it. I half expected that I would have to put him on my shoulders for the hill, but he happily climbed it and was duly rewarded with jelly beans at the top. Then we hiked back to the park and played on the slides for a while.

I had a nice relaxed run around Ken's loop this morning. A lot of the regular Sunday morning folks are at the Guadalupe mountains this weekend, so it was just Mike and myself. He's a very accomplished ultrarunner and we had a good chat. I picked his brains on techniques for running 100 milers (particularly Arkansas which he's run and paced several times), and we talked at length about rugby and knee injuries. He was good company and it was a fun Sunday morning run.

This afternoon I took Nancy to do hill repeats on the road. The hill in question is in a neighborhood near La Frontera in Round Rock - I've used it for a number of years with my running group and it's perfect for repeats. I was going to just stand halfway up with Gavin, watch her form and then do some repeats of my own, but after her first hill he wanted to get involved so I put him up on my shoulders and ran with her. Let me tell you, that was an excellent workout. He weighs a good 40lbs, and those hills weren't easy. I did 4 repeats with him on my shoulders, by which time Nancy was done (she did 5 repeats and finished strong with a really fast last one) so I was able to hand him off and do another two (felt very fast without the extra weight) before finishing off with one backwards. I always feel that one.

I've just got up from taking a nap with Gavin and the rest of the day will be devoted to cooking. I got Devin Alexander's new cookbook yesterday and I'm looking forward to experimenting. Her thing is creating healthy versions of popular dishes - I've used several of her recipes in the past and they've all been yummy (plus she's a bit of a babe). Tonight I'm going to try out her rigatoni in meat sauce (going to add some carrots to the sauce as a way of sneaking extra veggies into Gavin - I'm so cunning) and prep her blue cheese mushroom hamburgers for tomorrow night (I have some extra lean ground beef ready, but I can never resist tweaking recipes so I'm going to substitute feta for the blue cheese, customize some of the spices and grill them on the barbecue). I'll let ya know how it turns out.

Winter Schedules

It's a quiet evening at Welshrunner Towers. After a 3 month stay my parents have returned to the "old country". We took them to the airport early this morning, and the Gavster is wondering why "nanna and Grandpa Wales" are not here tonight. He's gone into their room several times to look for them. Nancy is off cycling around Decker Lake with some friends, and Gavin and I have been making pasta and playing with our toy cars.

My winter race schedule is coming together with a series of races and events leading up to what may be my first 100 miler - Rocky Raccoon - in February. I am also planning to reprise my coaching role with Round Rock Fit when it starts up again in August - I don't want to neglect my road running as it helps maintain my pace. Like last year, I will extend my long runs on Saturday (get there early and get in a good 10 miles or so before the RRFit run) and add in a long trail run on Sunday to give me some solid back-to-back weekends. I am getting back into my early morning midweek neighborhood runs and have found a good training buddy for the Wednesday evening trail run.

Anyway, my race season starts with me possibly pacing a friend at the Cactus Rose 100 miler in November. It's run at the same location as the Bandera race, and I thought I might also volunteer to help mark the course so I can go up a few days in advance and get an idea of the route.

Then I'll run the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll marathon a few weeks later. I signed up for it at the Austin marathon expo in February and got a really great deal (and a straw cowboy hat that Gavin loves???!!). It's the first time the Rock 'n' Roll franchise has been in San Antonio and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to run it. It looks like a faster course than Austin too, so maybe I can set a new PR.

Next up are two of my favorite races - Sunmart and Decker. Last year, Decker took place the week before Sunmart and I used it to run a good fast hilly 20k in preparation for my first 50k the week later. This year they are on the same weekend, and because it is the 30th anniversary of Decker they are turning it into a marathon/half marathon. I couldn't decide which one I wanted to do, so I'm going to try and run both - the Sunmart 50 miler on Saturday and the Double Decker marathon on Sunday.

Then in January comes the Bandera 100k (hopefully I will have gotten a sighter from Cactus Rose) and finally Rocky Raccoon in february. As the Austin marathon is only the week after Rocky, I may give it a miss this year. Maybe I'll do the Mardi Gras marathon in New Orleans instead - that would be a fun trip.

Although the current plan is to make Rocky Raccoon my first 100 miler, I am very tempted to try the Arkansas Traveller 100 this coming October. There are many reasons why I shouldn't, and I'd half hoped my wife would veto a trip to Arkansas, but it turns out she thinks it is a great idea and is excited to go. If I'm going to do it, I need to decide pretty quickly so I can start training for it.

Happy Days and Smoky Nights

I had a wonderfully relaxed weekend. My parents have been visiting from Wales and this was their last weekend (they leave on Thursday). My father-in-law came down for the weekend too, so I didn't run on Saturday. Instead I smoked a brisket on my Weber Smokey Mountain. I've had this thing for a number of years, and I love it!!! Coming from the UK where the traditional idea of barbecue is frozen hamburgers cooked under an umbrella in the pouring rain, I had a lot to learn when I moved to Texas. I enjoyed learning.

On Friday evening I trimmed the brisket and whipped up a homemade Cardamon-Coffee wet rub (thank you Steven Raichlen) so I wouldn't have to get up through the night to baste it. Fired up a chimney full of charcoal around 9pm, and added it to a few chunks of mesquite wood and a bunch of unlit charcoal, the theory being that the lit coals would slowly ignite the unlit ones and keep a constant temperature throughout the night (the Smokey Mountain is excellent at holding temperatures for hours at a time). Got the brisket on the barbecue around 10pm and it quickly came up to temperature (around 220F). Regulated the vents before I went to bed, and when I got up in the morning it was still floating around 230F - perfect. The brisket reached 190F around 11am on Saturday morning, at which point I pulled it off and wrapped it in foil. When I cut it up later that afternoon, it was pull apart tender and I got plenty of good comments from a lot of happy relatives.

This morning was quite simply magnificent - one of those mornings that reminds me of being in the Greek islands. I went for a wonderfully enjoyable run around Ken's Loop and it was just about as perfect as you can get. I left competitive Marky at home - I didn't run fast, I didn't run far, I socialized and chatted and just enjoyed being in this time and place. I only ran one loop because it was Mother's Day and I wanted to get back home, but standing there by my car I had a sudden moment of clarity.

This is the best time of my life - right here and now. I'm healthy and I'm in great shape. I'm married to my soul mate and we have a wonderfully cheeky little boy I adore and who loves me back. I have a dog who likes to sit at my feet and run with me, and a job that lets me be creative and that pays me well to do something I know I'm good at.

In short, I am content.

It's a good feeling.

Put Another Dime in the Jukebox Baby

Let's talk about something other than running. One of the other things I like to do is listen to music, and my tastes are all over the shop. One of my favorite chill-out things is to put my feet up on a stormy night with a glass of wine, switch off the lights and listen to some jazz, blues, Vivaldi or Pink Floyd. At other times, depending on my mood, I love classic 80s bands, mid 90s Brit pop, Nirvana, a bit of Warren Zevon, maybe even some Carrie Underwood, Linkin Park or Iggy Pop thrown in. My ipod selection is similarly all over the place - you just don't know what will pop up in there. However, the problem I kept having was that my music collection was completely unorganized. I had cds all over the place, mp3s I'd downloaded and had lost track of, and no real stereo system set up. In other words, complete chaos. So about a year ago I decided to fix this, move my cd collection to MP3 and build myself a standalone MP3 jukebox. Wasn't sure exactly what I was after, but I knew there were several things I wanted.

1. It had to be compact - I didn't think my wife would welcome a full sized jukebox in our dining room
2. I wanted it to look sleek and modern
3. I wanted it to play movies
4. I wanted it to work like a real jukebox, with scrolling titles and dropping in quarters to choose tracks
   
5. I didn't want it to look or feel anything like a computer
   

So I went away and sketched out a few ideas, came up with a couple of designs I thought would work, and built it. I bought an old computer on ebay for $0.99 and a 15" plasma screen monitor for $20 (picked both up locally and avoided shipping charges) and built my measurements around the decased motherboard. I couldn't decide whether I wanted a singles jukebox or an album jukebox, so I set the computer up to boot into a custom menu and had an option to run either along with a dvd player (hidden in the side), an application to hold my recipe collection and I also threw in a few classic arcade games (pacman, centipede etc). I bought a cheap pair of computer speakers, threw away the speakers and hooked the amp up to a pair of car speakers. The buttons are arcade pushbuttons I bought online. I ripped up an old keyboard and wired each button to the circuit board to simulate a keyboard stroke. Then I set up the jukebox software (a great freeware application called DW Jukebox) to match the keycodes I programmed into the buttons. I wanted something on there to personalize it so I played around in Paint Shop Pro and blended a picture I took of Decker Lake with a few photos of Gavin and named the beast. Got it printed out on special paper and backlit it. Makes a nice final effect, don't ya think?

I love my jukebox - it sounds great, it's small and easy to use, and I have over 100 albums and 100s of singles on it. I have a sound effect for coins dropping in each time you hit the credit button, and between each song there's the sound effect of a jukebox mechanism fetching a record, placing it on a turntable, and the crackling as the needle hits the groove. I've also labelled all the buttons since I took these photos. The whole thing is really easy to move around - I've even been known to wheel it outside to listen to on my front porch.

Jukebox Number 2
My father-in-law also liked it and wanted one too, but he preferred a more old fashioned look. I had a great idea to build one for his birthday as a surprise and model it on an old wurlitzer with the curved top. This was a completely different challenge and I had the chance to build in several things I wanted in the other one but didn't have room for, like a real coin mechanism to generate credits for jukebox plays (I just used a button in mine). Nancy did a great job on the stain and I was really pleased with the way this one came out too.

Oh, in case you're wondering, I'm not so mean that I'd make him put quarters in each time he wanted to use it. I programmed a button combination to override the credits. My wife overruled my idea to put a lockbox inside to hold the quarters which I could then empty each time we visited :-)

Inside the Maze

This weekend I got a glimpse of running a race from another angle as I helped out behind the scenes for the Maze 10k/30k trail run. Meanwhile, Nancy ran the 30k - her first ever 30k - and had a great race. She beat her goal time by nearly 50 minutes, and I was able to crew for her and take photos each loop!!!

Friday evening I showed up at the Rogue store to help with packet stuffing. We had a fun group and I had a great time. There were about 8 of us stuffing maybe 350 packets, and by the end we had set up a well oiled production line. Joe and Crash went through the list of runners, marking and coding each bag (bib number, F or M for gender, shirt size and T or C for tech or cotton), then the chip and bib people matched up chips and bibs to the bags which were then handed off to the gophers (one of which was yours truly). I think the gophers got the best job as we would then go and find the relevant shirt, swoop by the paper people who would drop in all the flyers and info packets, and finally hand off to the "bag lady" who would arrange the stuffed bags by chip number. We were pretty much done in an hour and then hung around for a while eating pizza and drinking beer.

I started Saturday morning off early with a quick Ken's loop with Henry and co. They were going on to run a whole lot more, but I dropped out early to go help with morning packet pickup. Got to the Rogue store by 9, and the early crew was myself, Crash and Charlene. We got a steady stream of customers and it was very laid back and fun. Between customers we just hung out and chatted. The second shift arrived at 1, and consisted of Pete, Kelly and Jeff - familiar faces from packet stuffing the night before. Pete would go on to have a great run and take second place in the 30k.

Spent a great few hours in the afternoon playing "indoor soccer" with Gavin (basically kicking an inflatable ball back and forth in the corridor and bouncing it off walls). From time to time he would "steal" the ball and run off and hide it. It was then my job to find it while he taunted me. Once I found it I'd run off in triumph and celebrate, not realizing that he'd sneaked up behind me and was stealing it back. And so on and so forth. Hours of fun!!!

Late afternoon I wandered over to Walnut Creek (the race site) to help with course marking. Robert, Diana and myself were responsible for the first 3 miles, while Joe, Henry and TJ did the second half. It was a pleasant evening with good company, but not far into the loop we came across some kids running along holding handfuls of our ribbons - with their parents!!! Robert gave them a good ear bashing, and we doubled back to check the signs we'd already done. Sure enough, they were still pulling up ribbons as they went. Robert yelled after them and they ran off, but you have to wonder what the parents were doing. My dad would have given me a good old hiding if I'd done stuff like that.

Despite this, we found our way through the rest of the course. I had run it a few times earlier in the week and recognized many of the twists and turns. We just hoped that our signs would still be there in the morning.

Sunday morning started early and I was back at the park at 4am to help put up tents, fences, and do setup. We had a runner go run the course early to check on the signs and he confirmed that a few of them had been displaced. These were swiftly rectified, and apart for a couple of instances of arrow and "wrong way" signs being swapped, it was not too bad. The weather was just about perfect and by race time everything was ready to go. The 30kers got off and a half hour later the 10k started.

During the race, things varied between inactivity and various odd jobs. I enjoyed just hanging out and cheering runners as they passed. I was waiting for Nancy at the end of each loop, ready to refill her bottle, gu and shot bloks. She crossed the finish line in 4 hours and 10 minutes. I was thrilled she'd had a good run and she was very happy. I am very proud of her - she's got a lot of heart, which is a very important thing for a long distance runner.

Once the last runner had cleared the mid-course aid station, we were able to start course teardown. Diana and myself had the job of clearing from mile 3 to the finish line, and we took off onto the trail with a backpack and a ribbon sack, taking a few short cuts to get to the mile 3 point. From there, we ran the last 3 miles of the course, taking down the ribbons, and pulling up the arrows and wrong way signs as we went. The weather was still pleasant and we got the chance to enjoy a few miles, though we did slow down as the backpack started filling with wooden stakes.

And that was that. We all went to Chuys for a nice relaxed lunch and a few laughs, then I toddled off home to share Nancy's race stories. I'd promised her one of my reward pizzas for supper, so when she and Gavin dozed off together I got started making the dough. Cooking has been a hobby of mine for a few years now, and I think the real secret to pizza and pasta dishes is to make everything from scratch - it's very easy to do and so much better than store bought. A good homemade pizza crust also makes your kitchen smell like a pizzeria, and Gavin loves to watch me throw and spin the dough. This one was a basic mushroom and pepperoni with some Italian cheeses and a few herbs in the sauce, but pretty tasty all the same. By 9pm I was starting to slow down, and when I went to read Gavin a bedtime story I fell asleep in his bed with him. A perfect end to a fun weekend.