Watch Out for That Tree!

Let's just say that last week was a rough one. The first sign of trouble was when I noticed I was sick last Sunday. My body was weak, sore, and I couldn't breathe all week (I think it was the H1N1 piggy virus). My training suffered significantly as I could only muster a few miles a day to make myself feel like I was doing something. It didn't help that it rained everyday last week. This is all leading up to the Big South Fork 17.5 mile trail race that I had signed up for prior to getting sick. So Lally and I drive up there in the pouring rain to do this thing. The race is postponed 45 minutes until the lightning stopped and the rain wasn't a downpour. Even though I was sick and felt rough, I was all smiles when I thought of splashing down a trail for a couple hours, as you can see by the picture to the right. So we are off. I am hacking and coughing almost immediately. I gradually get slower during the first 5 miles but hold on the second place. Those would be the only miles I make that day before I'm stopped dead in my tracks by none other than a fallen tree. So I'm going full speed down the trail picking out my foot placements far in advance along the river of a trail and I notice a fallen tree that is laying over the trail about 5 feet off the ground. So I determine that I wouldn't have to slow down and I would be able to duck under it with no issues. Wrong! I was wearing a hat, so when I went to duck under the tree, I looked down and couldn't see that I misjudged the duck distance, and my 6'1" frame headbutted the tree, an the tree won. I saw stars as I went from running full speed, to laying on the ground. I take off my hat to notice a lot of blood and confirm it with putting my hand to my head and saw that it was covered with it as well. I, for once, decided not to be stubborn and keep running, and instead, walked back to the last aid station, which I had just passed. I knew I needed stitches and didn't want to add to my sickness either. So I took my first DNF ever and had someone drive me out. As for the stitches, I knew through multiple experiences of going to the emergency room for various head and face injuries (other stories for other days) that I could wait up to 15 hours or so before I had to be stitched up. So I waited around for Lally to finish, she did great btw running the course in 3 hours, 15 minutes. She is a doctor, so she checked me out after te race and determined I needed two stitchesm and called some friends and combined supplies to do the deed. So a few hours and beers later, we are back in Knoxville and head to her friends place, Kristine, who stitches me up, while Lally takes pictures.

Pictured below is Kristine stitching me up before I go watch some college football at "The Hill".

Good news: I ran 12.5 miles on Sunday and felt pretty good. It looks like the sickness is on the run, and I can get back to my regular training routine again to get in shape for the upcoming marathon in three weeks and 50-miler in November.

Race Awards ... a Time for Change

So there I was last night at the monthly Knoxville Track Club (KTC) long distance committee meeting, and one of the discussions I brought up was thinking of giving out different types of winner and age group awards that runners would enjoy and actually use during next year's race schedule. And here's what I mean by it. Growing up through the decades of running I have seen a steady flow of the same types of awards being presented. It started with ribbons and trophies in the mid-80s and early 90s. Then there was the addition of plaques and medals that cycled in throughtout the 90s and into the early 2000s. I've got boxes of plaques colleting dust in my storage space. Then it changed to coffee mugs and glasses throughout the past eight years. At least those are useful, but everyone's cabinets are starting to overflow with them.

So I thought of a few races around town that gave out different types of awards, and how I and other runners really appreciated and use them, and I recommended it was time to change the majority of the awards. For example, at the Carter Mill 10k, the awards presented were towels with the race name on them (Picture to the right shows the towel awards) . This was cool and useful because the race begins and ends at a pool where everyone hangs out afterwards. Then there were tomato plants given out as awards at the Greenways 5k, which is a race that promotes taking care of the environment. My brother planted all ones we won and he enjoys eating the homegrown tomatos (as do I when I go over there). These are but a few awards that I can actually say I've used.

I feel like there needs to be more awards that help promote the KTC, like headbands or gloves with the KTC race name on it, or race bags filled with body glide, GU, race patch and other useful items runners use (other than the glasses and mugs).

There is plenty of time before next year's race lineup, but it's never too early for suggestions. So if anybody's got any good ideas, I'd love to hear them! I'm out like a fat kid in dodgeball!

Relay season is over ... time to get back to the consistent, heavy mileage workload

Now that I've gotten the relay bug out of my system, it is time to grind out the heavy load of weekly miles again. I already got in a succesful light track workout yesterday (9 total miles) and an 8-mile run tonight. Tomorrow, I'm meeting a few friends for 14 miles along the bike trail into downtown K-Town.
(Picture to the right shows the sunsphere in downtown Knoxville, TN)

It didn't take long to start back up after the ultra relay (which I'm still barely feeling), and it won't be long before I race again, as the Big South Fork 17.5 mile trail race is creeping up in 10 days followed by the Des Moines Marathon in 32 days. This is all geared towards peaking on Nov. 21 for the JFK 50-miler in Washington, D.C. It is all in a season's work. I hope everyone's training is going well, and I look forward to reading about everyone's accomplishments this fall. Catch you on the flip side.

Blue Ridge Relay … Ultra Experience Exclusive: Team "Shaving Time"

Wow … the entire Blue Ridge Relay experience took “crazy, pain, and delirium” to another level. Our team, "Shaving Time" finished the 211-mile Blue Ridge Relay course in approximately 23 hours, 15 minutes. This involved nonstop running (alternating runners), constant food consumption and sleep deprevation. When it was all said and done, I have to say, “I loved it and crave more.”

It all began with six runners in racing order: Chris, Ethan, Brian, Bob, Nick, and Adam. In addition to us, we had an ace driver, the “top gun” of them all, C.A. So there we were, all converged with mustaches intact in southern Virginia to begin our journey. Logistically, we had a 15-passenger van, which made life so much easier than the minivan we had at the Hood 2 Coast relay: more room to stretch out, store bags, food, etc. Speaking of food, we went shopping the night before the race to get the usual goodies: Red Bull and Monster energy drinks (more on Monster later), six bags of beef jerky, PB&J, bananas, bagels, apple sauce, and many gallons of water. We also had to pack a mustache (picture above: My handle bar, fu-manchu mustache). We also ensured we properly documented the event and kept our fans updated as we set up a Facebook group page and Twitter account. Our FB page garnered 100 fans and we had many twitter followers. This motivated us along the way knowing we had a bunch of people watching us.

Race day: At the starting line (Grayson Highlands State Park in the southwest corner of Virginia) we prepared the van for the journey: attaching the mustache on the front bumper (Picture above: The van's sweet bumper mustache), mullet cape blowing in the breeze on the back, window art, and pictures of famous people with “sweet staches,” like Hulk Hogan, Borat, Ned Flanders, Ron Burgundy, Burt Reynolds, and Pre.

We began at 12 p.m. We all started out racing strong, but knew we needed to also save energy early so we could shave time later. We kept a spreadsheet with all our split times for each leg that I have included below. As you can see (if you click on the image to enlarge) I averaged a 6:07 pace over all 37 miles I ran (six legs at different distance and difficulty levels).

Along the way, our driver ensured, “Highway to the Danger Zone” or song of choice was blasting every time she passed one of us. This was very motivating, especially when we had not seen anybody during the run because there were only 100 teams running the event. We were "killing teams," the term used when you pass a team that started before you, sporatically early on since they started teams every 30 minutes, as we were one of the last starting waves. We kept a positive attitude the entire race (picture to the right: I'm running along the course on my 8.4-mile second leg (10th leg overal),, even though there is one blunder that we ran into that was discouraging to say the least. We are on the 11th leg of the race, and Nick is running. It is the first leg of the race that goes on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and for some reason, they are not allowing team vans to drive on it. This meant that the runner was on his own to ensure he goes the right way. Anyways, there is a tricky section, where you leave the Parkway for one mile to reach an exchange zone and then the next runner runs to the exact same intersection and continues on the Parkway. Well Nick missed the turn because he saw a bunch of runners continuing on the Parkway, which we never knew happened. We noticed he was late to the exchange and sent the van to search for him, while some of us stayed behind. Well they never found him and when they returned, it was already an hour over when he was supposed to be there. We needed to find him quickly because it was getting dark outside, so we decided to drive on ahead and check to see if he did run ahead and low and behold, he was there and had been waiting for us for 30 minutes. We picked up where we left off and determined we lost about 30 minutes based on some of the slower teams who were back in front of us again that we had passed awhile back.

Some of the most impressive runs to note were Ethan’s, 1 hour and 2 minute run up Grandfather mountain, which was a 6:20 pace, followed by Brian’s sub 5-minute pace the leg down the other side. When we were halfway through our fifth legs, the sun was starting to rise and we found out we were only 31 minutes behind the other fast ultra team (really 1 minute behind because they began 30-minutes in front of us). That gave us an extra jolt of energy and we began our last legs of the journey. Unfortunately, some of our team had run out of juice and couldn’t make up any more time. I was juiced up on Monster before my last leg (which I did before my last three legs actually) and was ready to rock my last one. I ended up running the 4.4 mile section in 25:52 (5:56 pace), which was my fastest run of the day. (picture to the right: I'm walking back to the van after my final run) It was weird because before I ran that last leg, my legs felt amazing. There was no soreness, fatigue, (which I felt after all my other runs) and my knee felt great. I think my body finally gave in to the fact that I was not going to listen to it and run every 2 ½ hours no matter what. I made up 3 minutes on the other team on that leg, and Nick made up another five minutes on his next leg, but the damage had already been done, and we came up short by 12 minutes. Everyone was positive after the race and we know that we would have had it if it were not for our 30-minute setback. But that is part of the relay and you have to live with it. I have to give props to the other ultra team because they ended up with three runners having to drop out near the end and the other three had to run 7th and maybe 8th running legs to finish.

This event gave each ultra runner a new perspective of who he is. I heard some runners on the winning ultra team say that they would never do this again. On the other hand, many of my team members enjoyed pushing their bodies to the limit and want to do it again next year. I am not sure who all will be on the team next year, but I will definitely go back and do it again. There is a new ultra record to be beat.

From left to right: Chris, Brian, Adam, Ethan, Nick, Bob, and C.A. at the finish line of the Blue Ridge Relay in Asheville, N.C.

Side Note: The race director wrote us today and said he was going to have to penalize us an extra hour on top of our finish time (which included our extra 30 minutes already) for not having our runner run back and run the mile he didn't run. So we do not really care what time it shows for us on the Web site. We know what we did and we are proud of the way we battled throughout the race.

Blue Ridge Relay (ultra) and facial hair

Yes, the Blue Ridge Relay starts tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. in southern Virginia. I and my team of 6 total runners will be tackling a 207-mile course along the Blue Ridge Parkway down to Asheville, N.C. This one is actually going to hurt worse than my last relay at the Hood 2 Coast relay, which hurt enough. Here are a few of the reasons why it will hurt more than Hood 2 Coast (and yes, it hurts so good):
1. I’m running 36 miles total miles (20 miles farther), and running 6 different times (instead of 3 legs)
2. The downtime is only 2-3 hours, which will not matter that much, but will suck because I my legs will tighten during that time.
3. The weather in Southeast sucks (hot and humid) compared to the cooler west coast.
4. The course in North Carolina is hillier than Oregon

I do not want to go into too much detail, because I will have a whole write up about it after this weekend. Just know the logistics and van experience will be the same (food everywhere, sweaty runners, no sleep.

Now on to the other part of my title. So yeah, our team name is called “Shaving Time.” I was invited onto this team this year not knowing I would be encouraged to grow a mustache. I was told I did not have to, but I did not want to be the only guy that didn’t and look stupid. Now growing a mustache is something I can do, but have never tried to do. I have been recently told that I look a lot better when there is nothing more than scruff on my face. Now that I have been growing a beard for about two weeks, I am primed and ready to shave this thing down to its stache status and lose the rest of this hair.

According to Wikipedia, “in the course of history, men with facial hair have been ascribed various attributes such as wisdom and knowledge, sexual virility, masculinity, or high social status; and, conversely, filthiness, crudeness, or an eccentric disposition, such as in the case of a bum, hobo or vagrant. In many cultures beards are associated with nature and outdoorsmen.”

Not sure about most of that claim, because in present day most of my friends and classmates probably thought I was being lazy and some stated I looked like a mountain man. But you know what, I liked the facial hair while I had it, and I will rock the stache during the relay this weekend.

Side Note: Luckily, we plan to finish the race around 11 a.m. so we can drive back and still catch some tailgate action before the Tennessee/UCLA game, which starts at 4 p.m. I have my priority before I catch up on sleep. Go Vols!

College football is back, and it wants you...

That's right my friends, foes, and randoms, your recent daydreams of beer flowing, brat basting, and pigskin tossing under the sun will finally come to fruition this weekend. No matter what team you are supporting, at this point of the year everyone is all smiles during this tailgate party. Just make sure you are prepared to do it right, even if your game is scheduled to play at 12:20 p.m. That just means the alarm has to be set, and you put on your game face while there is still dew on the ground. You will get over it, trust me. Remember, it is going to get loud, and you must be prepared to get louder.

My experience will once again commence in the usual tailgating hotspot on the University of Tennessee campus, where a massive group of loyals have been congregating for more than a decade. You never know who is going to come out of the wood works, but what I do know for sure, I will be in orange clad, and ready to see the defense definitely dominate, and the offense, well, hopefully dominate Western Kentucky. Either way, IT'S FOOTBALL TIME IN TENNESSEE!

Rocky Top, you'll always be, home sweet home to me, good ole Rocky Top, (woooo) Rocky Top Tennesee, Rocky Top Tennessee!

Just remember, if you have a long run this weekend, like I do on Sunday, drinks lots of water before you go to bed.