Andrew Schrauben

Who's having more fun, the guy or the dog?

My favorite race of the year is Bailey’s Doggie Dash 5K, a cross-country run for owners and their dogs to benefit the Kent County Parks Foundation. It’s not a large race, usually drawing around 50 participants, but it’s very well organized and one of the best races around where you can run with your dog.

Haven and I first ran the Doggie Dash in 2005 as my first ever organized running event since high school. That year we finished 10th overall in 24:39 and won my age group by virtue of being the only one in my age group (after they pulled out the overall winner, who had tied the course record in 18:17). In 2006 we improved to 5th overall, dropping nearly two minutes off our time with a 22:42 finish and winning the age group, this time a “large” group of four runners. How would Haven and I fare this year?

Just last week I set a post-high-school 5K PR of 20:56 in the Harvest Hustle so I knew I was better prepared to keep up with Haven in this year’s Doggie Dash. But I also had a plan to use canicross tactics - rather than hold Haven’s leash in my hand, I instead tied it to a belt around my waist so Haven could help pull me along. Haven and I trained in this setup for a few weeks before the race to make sure we both felt comfortable. I learned that it was necessary to have some form of shock absorption so I clamped an automobile tie-down bungee between Haven’s harness and the leash - it worked like a dream.


Haven and I enjoying the perfect pre-race weather.

Saturday morning arrived bringing perfect weather - mid 40’s, clear blue sky, and near-peak fall colors that yielded some stunning photos by Amanda. The Doggie Dash sports a Halloween theme with a dog costume contest judged by the local weatherman Peter Chan and registration SWAG handed out in trick-or-treat jack-o-lanterns.


The "Collie Flowers", contestants for the Bailey's Choice costume prize, are as adorable as they are obedient!

While taking Haven for a warm-up jog a guy came up to me and asked "Is that Haven?" Turns out he recognized us (or rather, my dog!) from reading my blog. If that wasn't amazing enough, Ron Durham told me that he and his wife Krista decided to adopt their dog Kacey in part because of reading about my blogged adventures running with Haven and Beacon!


This is Haven's 3rd Doggie Dash, so she knows when we're about to start and she can't contain her excitement!

I think Haven remembers previous races - when everyone began lining up for the start this year one guy took off on a warm-up jog and Haven must’ve thought the race had begun. Haven started screaming in anticipation as I tried to calm her down - it was so cute and she was getting lots of smiles from the crowd.


GO! The start of the 2007 Bailey's Doggie Dash.

At last it was “Ready, set, GO!” and we were off! Race director Kevin Sweeney pedaled a mountain bike ahead of the lead runner to give his dog something to chase, a very keen idea. Haven bolted full steam ahead and we quickly settled into fifth position. One of the most difficult sections of the course was the beginning because it was downhill and paved - with Haven full of energy dragging me downhill, it was all my legs could do to simply not let me fall flat on my face! My feet and legs took quite a pounding right off the bat.

Next we slogged through a scenic wide-open lawn that was saturated with water and then up a short road to a wooded picnic area. Just before reaching the one-mile marker Haven and I passed two racers who were fading after a quick start. 20 yards ahead was a guy who looked way faster than me but I sped up a bit to keep close to him so that Haven would have someone to chase.


Race director Kevin Sweeney serves as a rabbit on wheels for the dogs at the front of the pack.

She loved it, almost too much! Whenever we rounded a bend Haven tried to cut the corner inside the course flags - she wanted to intercept the runner we were chasing. I repeatedly had to remind Haven to follow the rules but she didn’t want to hear it. Every turn we’d lose 5-10 feet on the guy ahead of us since I’d have slow up to pull Haven outside the marker flags, but then we’d hustle to regain the lost ground.

At the 1 mile mark I was shocked to see 6:20 on my watch! Haven was definitely doing her part and it was fun to still have the leader in sight although I knew it wouldn’t last. Down a slight hill the course turned off into a wooded section of singletrack for a 1/4 mile before heading out and around the beach playground. Here Haven kept trying to stop for a drink in the large puddles of water pooling in the sand. I obliged her at one of them and she tried to lie down in the water to cool off! Sorry Haven but we have to finish the race first!

After the beach we ran along a dirt road and then onto a paved loop that carried us through the park’s campground. We were still close to the #2 runner at the 2 mile mark - our second mile was run at a 6:30 pace! I was getting pretty excited but I also knew that one or both of us were going to hit the wall soon.
It wound up being Haven; shortly after the second mile we started losing contact with the guy ahead of us as Haven no longer had the energy to pull my weight. Running is hard when my dog isn’t helping! Haven and I ran side-by-side for the next half mile as her leash was now slack - she was just trotting but I was trying to run as hard as I could. Dogs were born to run; humans, not so much.


Notice the slack leash and exhausted human - sailing ain't as smooth without my canine tugboat!

With about half a mile to go as we approached a long hill Haven began to fall behind. Going up the hill we reversed roles as I found myself trying to pull Haven along! I tried yelling “RABBITS!!” to her, a word that usually gets her all spooled up (she LOVES to chase rabbits) but she was to tired to care. Finally at the top of the hill we had just a 1/4 mile to go and I still couldn’t get her to pull even with me.

Even though I knew we were losing time quickly, this wasn’t my race - Haven was every bit a part of this effort and it wouldn’t be fair to speed up and drag her to the finish. I did keep the pace fast enough to maintain some tension - I figured I might as well help her out a bit without pulling so hard as to bunch the harness up around her head.


Haven and I cruising down the home stretch.

Finally in the last 100 yard grassy home stretch I tried another “RABBITS!!” but Haven was done, so we maintained our pace to the finish for a very satisfying 3rd place overall. Better yet was our time... 20:17! That was the second-fastest 5K I’ve ever run in my life, even though I had some help. My high school PR was 20:08 and my next-best teenage run was 21:13. Haven is my hero!

Seriously, Haven was the hardest-working dog at the race. Both runners who finished ahead of us had humans that were much more fit than I am while their greyhound-mix dogs were running alongside on a slack leash; i.e. the guys who beat us did so without the canine assistance that I needed. Some other dogs behind us were certainly pulling their owners, but at 195 pounds I was probably the heaviest human cargo to be mushed by any dog. Those greyhounds couldn’t have outrun Haven if I were dragging them down!


Ron Durham and Kasey at the finish, proving that running with dogs is fun!

Post-race food was great - bagels, cookies, candy and cider for the humans and water and doggie biscuits for the canines. Naturally Haven got to eat first before I took a crack at the goodies as we watched the rest of the field finish with the song “Who Let the Dogs Out” blaring on repeat over the loudspeakers.

After everyone finished we were treated to a demonstration of frisbee dogs by Pawsitive Vybe’s professional dog trainers Apryl Lea and Ron Sutton. Spectacular show! Six dogs (IIRC) displayed their talents and some of them were insanely good leapers and blazing runners.


Apryl Lea shows off the amazing frisbee skills of one of her dogs.

Following the frisbee demo was the awards ceremony. Some very nice handmade dog beds were raffled off and for the third year in a row, I didn’t win one. One guy that did win a bed and a free pair of shoes was Ron! This was on top of him and Kacey winning his age group. I have a feeling they might make the drive from the east side of Michigan to run again next year. :)

Despite our 3rd place overall finish Haven and I wound up taking 2nd in my age group as the guy we’d been chasing for two miles is in my bracket. In fact the overall winner Joel Bierling - who also won in 2005 and 2006 - is in my age group, too, so technically I was 3rd overall and 3rd in my age group. Men 30-35 were representin’ at the Doggie Dash!


Haven and I at home showing off our hardware.

There was no way I could’ve caught either of those fast runners, but in retrospect I probably could’ve helped Haven and I get a faster time if I’d managed Haven’s workload more effectively. For the first mile there was nothing I could do but hang on for the ride, but mile 1.5 through 2.0 I should’ve quickened my pace a tad to ease the drag on Haven; that way she may have sustained her energy long enough to keep the both of us on the tail of the #2 finisher for another half mile until finally running the last half mile with a slack leash and not having to pull her.

Nevertheless, we ran an awesome race, had a ton of fun, and we’re already looking forward to the 2008 Doggie Dash!

T'was a busy weekend. Awake by 0600 on Saturday for the Reeds Lake Run, then get ready for my little brother Ryan's bachelor party! I had about two hours at home between the race and getting back in the car to drive to Midland for his celebration which included grilling out on a softball field, playing frisbee golf, taking in a minor league baseball game, then hitting the cursory bar for a few drinks. Poor Ryan had to wear a plastic ball and chain around his ankle all day (amazingly he was still good at frisbee golf while wearing it!), a giant sombrero, and a t-shirt with a picture of a pinata and the caption "I'd Hit It". I wish I'd remembered to take a photo! I didn't get home until after 0300!

Sunday Amanda and I took Eddie to meet his future "parents" and otherwise tried to take it easy. However, Haven and Beacon started giving me those soulful looks of "let's go do something!" so I decided to take them to the river. After all, the weather was perfect - upper 60's, sunny, and a light breeze. My legs were a bit tired from Saturday's two races but good enough that we bypassed the river access near the parking area and jogged half a mile on the trail up and over a large hill to the prime river access point.

Rather than throw sticks for fetching, this time I took the dogs for a walk, or rather a "wade", up the river! The recent dry spell had lowered the water level enough that I could walk the 50 yards across the river without getting deeper than my knees. Even the dogs were mostly walking or bunny-hopping in the shallow water. We waded about a 1/4 mile upstream to a section of small rapids where there were a couple "nozzle" points that had rather strong flow. It was strong enough that I had trouble standing and the dogs had to swim as hard as they could just to stand still. We had fun playing in the rapids - I walked up the "nozzle" then back through while the dogs went for a theme-park-like ride through the chute!

Finally we jogged back to the parking area, a dirt cul-de-sac next to an old boy scout cabin. Haven loves to eat weeds (I have no idea why!) and there were some nice, long, un-mowed weeds in back of the cabin. As she bent down to grab a bite I was about to scold her when suddenly a whitetail deer fawn sprung out of the weeds! Haven was startled for just a split second before she gave chase, and Beacon soon joined her as they pursued the poor little deer around the building.

The fawn was a bit taller than my dogs, but clearly much scrawnier and probably only weighed 50 lbs to my dogs 65-70 lbs each. As the trio rounded the corner I heard the fawn start bleating like a goat, crying "Mmmaaah! Mmmaaah!" over and over - I feared that my dogs were going to kill it! I sprinted around the opposite side of the cabin, hoping to head them off and get between the predators and the prey to prevent serious harm.

To my surprise, when I rounded the cabin the fawn was nowhere to be seen! My dogs love to scarf their food, but no way did they eat that fawn. :) Beacon was in the parking lot scanning every which way trying to spot the deer. Haven, however, was one step ahead - she was sniffing underneath a wooden staircase. I walked over to grab Haven when the fawn clambered out from under the stairs right past Haven, who merely sniffed it as it started to run away again.

Seeing it run excited my dogs enough to give chase. While faster than me, the fawn wasn't nearly strong enough to outclass adult canine speed and my dogs closed in quickly as the fawn raced down the road. Knowing I couldn't accomplish anything by chasing, I ran back to the car and opened the back door, hoping to signal my dogs that it's "time to go" - usually they'll jump right in. Then it occurred to me... What if mommy deer hears the bleating and comes after my dogs? Luckily I was the only "adult" around!

When I turned back to the action, I saw one of the most improbable sights of my life - the fawn was standing frozen with Haven and Beacon motionless on either side of it!!! I so wish I'd had a camera right then. The fawn must've tired out or realized it couldn't outrun the dogs. Haven and Beacon started to sniff the fawn when Bambi decided to go on the offensive - it reared back and head-butted Beacon just like a goat would do! Beacon was startled and jumped back. Bambi lunged again and Beacon got down in a dog's "play bow" with his front paws down and butt in the air.

Beacon put a couple juke moves on the fawn, feinting left and right and when Bambi went for another "attack" Beacon ran away back to me for safety! I was really cracking up at this point. A little fawn put the smack down on big bad Beaks! Confirming my idea to open the car door, Beacon jumped right up onto the seat and I quickly closed the door to finally contain one dog.

Looking back to Haven, she was trying to sniff the fawn just like she would greet a new foster dog. She was trying to make friends! But the fawn was understandably less trusting and kept trying to head-butt Haven, moves that Haven was easily able to dodge. Finally I think Haven got tired of this belligerent potential pal and she came running back to me to see what happened to Beacon. I got her in the car just as Bambi turned to lope out of sight down the road.

Amanda couldn't believe me when I told her the story and she really wishes she could've seen it. I'm still amazed that the dogs didn't injure the fawn, but even more incredible is that they wanted to play with it! That image of Haven and Beacon standing either side of the fawn is permanently etched in my memory... Classic. I'll probably never see something like that again, but still I hope that someday the dogs will encounter another fawn and try to play with it. My dogs never cease to amaze!

For the full race report, see the article in my Why Run? blog.

For a video my wife took of me at the finish, visit my personal blog.

This year we're keeping track of our dogs' activities and thanks to Saturday's race and an easy run with Haven yesterday, the dogs can boast some milestones:

Haven - 202 miles running, 5 hours swimming
Beacon - 150 miles running, 9 hours swimming

The miles include on-leash running and off-leash running and hiking; the swimming is mostly fetching sticks in the river. If we could teach them to ride a bike they'd make great triathletes!

Amanda is a bit worried because Haven is keeping up with her! Amanda is at 208 miles, so I'm teasing her by saying I'll take Haven for a 12-miler this weekend. Although Haven needn't worry because I have yet to see Amanda swim in the river with a stick in her mouth. :)

*** For a race report with photos, visit my Why Run? blog ***

What is more fun than running a race? Running a race with my dogs! This morning I was joined by Haven and Beacon for the 1st annual Healthy Paws Healthy Cause Fun Run, a 4-mile event for dogs and their people. I've done two 5Ks with Haven before, but I've never attempted a race while being hitched to both of my wannabe sled dogs! This should be interesting...

The event was organized by the Cascade Hospital for Animals with proceeds to benefit Mackenzie's Animal Sanctuary. There were no age groups, awards, or even official results - it's just what it says, a "fun run" to get folks out enjoying the morning with their dogs. Over 80 people signed up, not bad for the first ever event. The race director I recognized (via her dog!) as Dr. Happel, the runner that I barely out-kicked at the finish of the 2006 Bailey's Doggie Dash (if you follow the link, she's in the orange shirt in the photos on the bottom row of the page).

Going into this race I wasn't planning to run all out; rather, I wanted to maintain a tempo pace as best I could but primarily just have fun with Haven and Beacon. Since most participants were planning to walk, I lined up near the front; there were about 7 runners ahead of me. Dogs and people were still milling about - in fact, one lady was petting Haven - when the race director shouted out "Five seconds!" And we're off!

The guy at the front broke free quickly and Haven and Beacon decided to chase him - hard! I had no choice but to join their pursuit and within 100 yards of the start we had passed everyone except the leader! It turns out that only eight people were running; the rest were walkers. I pulled alongside the front guy and we sheepishly confided that it felt rather weird to be leading a race. We kept looking back for a while, assuming that some fast runners would blow by us.

We chatted for the first mile where I learned that his dog - weimaraner named Bailey (not the one from Bailey's Doggie Dash) - was five years old, just a year old than my two pups. She loves the water and behaves well on a leash; so well in fact that the guy (funny how I know his dog's name but never learned his!) had the handle of his flexi-lead in his shorts pocket the whole time. If I tried that with my dogs they'd rip my shorts right off me!

With Haven and Beacon leading the way we cruised past the first mile marker in 6:45, a very fast pace for me. The course then ascended a moderate hill and Bailey's owner exlaimed "Uh oh Bailey, daddy's not feeling too good!" and sure enough, he began to fall back as my dogs pulled me upward. Going down the hill my feet were burning - I realized that I hadn't tied my shoelaces tight enough and the soles of my feet were sliding along the bed of my shoe.

Mile two was the beginning of an undulating portion of the course, most of which was run on paved pedestrian paths. With nobody to chase, Haven and Beacon slowed their pace and were no longer pulling me up the hills. Around mile 2.5 Bailey and her owner caught up with us and we ran side-by-side for the next half mile. This time we didn't say anything as we all needed to conserve our oxygen.

Somehow I must've programmed my dogs for a 5K distance (maybe they read my blog?) because soon after we passed the third mile marker (in 21:50, not bad!) they slowed waaaay down. Bailey and her runner kept their momentum going and pulled steadily away from us as I was forced to drag Haven and Beacon forward! Those lazy dogs. :) Finally they realized I wasn't going to stop and they ran beside me the rest of the way.

We passed some pedestrians going the opposite way to relayed to me that the guy ahead of me "was very concerned that I would catch him", but I told them he had nothing to worry about. Not only were my dogs worn out, I was out of energy as well and we struggled most of the last mile. After passing Amanda with her camera, we finally reached the finish line! Sure enough Bailey had won and Haven and Beacon shared second place just one minute behind in 30:29. It was about five minutes until the next runners began showing up. Walkers continued to trickle into the finish for the next hour.

The organizers thought of everything, providing water (for both humans and canines), bagels, bananas, donuts, and dog treats for the finishers. Haven and Beacon eagerly helped themselves to some water while I shared a banana with Haven. After eating my peanut-covered donut, the dogs both got some treats and then finally I remembered to drink some water myself. Once we got home Amanda had the three of us pose for the obligatory post-race photo, all sporting our event t-shirt and bandanas. Haven and Beacon are now fast asleep at my feet. :) What a fun race!

A fairly light week as I'm taking today off to rest up for my race tomorrow - a 4-mile run with my dogs! For the first time I'll be racing with both Haven and Beacon instead of just one dog, so we'll see how that goes. On Monday I took both of them out for a 4-mile training run to make sure everything works - my leash system, my dogs, and my feet. We managed an 8:47 pace in hot weather, so I think we'll be OK. I'm not going to be racing all out but I want to at least maintain a tempo pace if the dogs let me.

Tuesday was supposed to be a fartlek session that turned into suffering! Heat stress. I ran 3.3 miles of fartlek alternating between 7:00 and 9:30 paces (estimated) but on the way back I only managed a couple more speedy minutes before being overcome by the heat and having to walk! I actually walked about 15 minutes of the return trip and finished 24 oz of water well before getting home. I even got a headache, a good sign of heat stress. That was a long 6.7 miles!

Wednesday was a run at work and we maintained a 9:15 pace for our 5 miles despite all of us feeling hot and worn out. It's been hot here lately and it hasn't even hit 90 yet! At least the race tomorrow is at 0800 so it should be plenty cool for me and the pups.

Saturday I went for an easy-paced long run for which I had zero plans except to bring the camera and stay out for 1.5 hours or so. The entire time I was never more than 2 miles from home, but I wound up covering 8.5 miles during the run and I snapped several photos along the way.



The morning air was cool and the river was somewhat warm, causing some beautiful steam fog on the surface. One spectacular effect of this was that the gentle morning breeze coupled with the rising warm vapor off the river created some mini tornadoes! This was the second time I've ever seen them; the first time was last summer during a kayak outing on Lake Malone in Kentucky.



Part of my run took me through the fairgrounds, where I got some photos of the horse arena and the dirt track where Amanda and I do our speedwork. In the background of the wide-angle photo you can see the grain silos of King Milling, among which I ran after going through the fairgrounds.



My little expedition also ran past my old elementary school and playground!

Our dogs are now 4 years old! In dog years they're catching up to Amanda and I. :)

Haven's birthday is June 8 and Beacon's is June 9. They're from the same litter, so how are they born a day apart? Their mother, Sheree (owned by friends of ours), gave birth to the litter late evening June 8th, sometime around 9-11pm that night. After our friends waited a few hours to make sure all seven puppies had arrived, they went to bed around 1am. When they woke up and checked on Sheree at 8am, there was an eighth puppy! It was Beacon, the runt of the litter.

Since Amanda has posted the birthday photos, I'll leave you with some of Haven's and Beacon's puppy pics...



Beacon is on the far left with his head down, pointing to the top of the frame; Haven is bottom center, her head straining to face the camera.



Beacon is on the left, Haven is on the right; they're almost four weeks old.

Today was definitely a Fox Mulder day...

Adopt Her Already!
First the not-so-bad. Our foster dog Reese has been wanted by a couple for over a week now but they keep dragging their feet. We met them with Reese at a pet store last week and they liked her, but then wanted to see her interact with their current dog. Makes sense, but couldn't we have done that for the first meeting if that was an issue? So we take Reese to their house, she and their dog get along great, but one of the adopters is out of town and they want to discuss to make sure. OK... Finally they decide to adopt her and we arrange to meet at my office Thursday to sign the papers but she never shows up. Today we're supposed to meet, but she calls to say she's running late and won't be free until after I leave work. Now Amanda has to coordinate meeting her while I go for my run. To top it off they can't pick Reese up until Monday since one of couple is still on travel. If they'd been just a wee bit more proactive early on, Reese could've gone home with them over a week ago! Oh well. The good thing is that Reese is adopted, and we actually really like this couple. They're nice, patient with dogs, Reese and their dog get along great, they have a big fenced-in backyard, and they go camping a lot. Reese will be happy with them so this craziness is worth it.

Bad Business
Today at home Amanda gets a call from Fidelity where the guy says he has to talk to me about my retirement account due to the takeover. (Background: my company used Fidelity for their 401K but we've since been bought by another company that uses a different financial service.) This guy leaves his name and a direct line phone number. So I call him back from work and get a generic voicemail box saying "an appropriate associate will return your call"... I get suspicious and contact HR at work, who contacted Fidelity and was able to confirm that Fidelity's sales group was using a register of names acquired during the takeover to cold-call people at my company to pitch personal retirement accounts. How incredibly unethical! On top of that, it would seem to me to be bad business. Here's a prime example: I had been planning to leave the amount accrued from my former company in Fidelity's 401K rather than rolling it over, but now they have just cost themselves my account. Prepare to roll it over, Fidelity!

Play Ball! Not.
Thursday night was my softball team's fourth game of the season, except that it never happened. We all showed up, the other team showed up, the umpires showed up... and so did a little league team that claimed to have the field during our game time! I called GRAASA, our softball league, but the number was disconnected! The little league got the city parks and recreation director on the phone, who confirmed that the little league gets the field. Our game got canceled. What the heck? It turns out that GRAASA had reserved the field and the little league was supposed to play on Saturday; however, the little league umpires had a conflict that day so at the last minute the city gave them our field but never told GRAASA. What annoys me is that this same thing happened to another GRAASA game last week but GRAASA never did anything to prevent it from happening again. Isn't once enough to learn a lesson? Maybe not for these folks, as they have yet to demonstrate any thoroughness in their operation of the league. Our schedule was postponed by a week to start the season because they couldn't find enough fields. Then the first field was played on was a kids' field with un-attached bases and a storm drain in centerfield - dangerous! Turns out GRAASA never even looked at the field before reserving it. We're currently operating under league schedule revision 5 or 6 (I've lost count) because they don't proofread their schedules before sending them out. They didn't even proofread their rulebook, which explains the disconnected phone number - their phone works, but they wrote the wrong number in the rulebook! If that all wasn't enough, some of their umpires were unaware of some non-standard GRAASA-specific rules. To their credit they are 100% volunteer, but that's no excuse for not being thorough and complete. Today at work I had to write them a "nice" letter to explain my teams' lack of satisfaction.

So yeah, today was a tough day of dealing with people that can't be counted on.

Happily we still had two good reasons to celebrate the day - Haven and Beacon's birthday!

Since my 35-mile bike ride I've gone running every day! Monday was an easy recovery run with the guys at work. My quads were a bit sore at the end of that run so Tuesday I was planning to take a day off; however, by the time I got home from work I was feeling pretty good so I talked Amanda into running at the dirt track at the fairgrounds. She ran 3 miles! I forget the exact time but she maintained a 14-ish minute pace by running a no-walking 12-minute first mile, then walking four of the final eight laps while maintaining a 12-minute pace on the running laps.

Today I went for a solo run at work during lunch - I couldn't join the regulars due to a schedule conflict. It was a great run, covering six miles instead of the usual five and giving me plenty of time to ponder and draft my latest Why Run? article about running's role in dealing with tragedy. Going the extra mile (literally!) turned out to be quite significant - my yearly total is now 600.8 miles.

I swear my life has a soundtrack... there's always a song in my head for everything I do. In fact, every morning I wake up with a seemingly random song broadcasting on my brainwaves! Early on in today's bike ride I thought to myself "How nice that there's no traffic on these country roads" and in an instant John Denver's song was playing in my head the rest of the way.

This is why I never feel compelled to iPod-ize my workouts - don't get me wrong, I love jamming to tunes on the run once in a while - but even without an iPod there's usually a song in my head anyway. It reminds me of Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption when he tells Red about enduring solitary by remembering the music he had played over the loudspeakers to get him thrown in there: "That's the beauty of music. They can't take that away from you."

After a speed workout on Friday and a moderate 6-miler on Saturday, I was going to take it easy today with a 1-2 hour bike ride. As part of enforcing my plan I pressurized my tires to just 60 psi instead of the usual 75 psi I use for flying along pavement - that way if I tried to go fast, I'd get frustrated by the mushy tires sapping energy. I also brought the camera along to remind me to stop and shoot the roses.



Or lambs, as it turned out! I was cruising along one of those melodious country roads when I spotted these woolen kids grazing. The wet brakes on my bike squealed to a halt and every single lamb pricked its ears in my direction - how cute! Unfortunately by the time I got my camera out of its double-ziploc bag waterproofing they'd all resumed breakfast, but it was still a cool scene.

Finally I stopped to check the time and to my surprise 1.5 hours had gone by! I was feeling so good that it seemed like I'd been on the road for just half an hour. I had told Amanda that I'd be gone 1-2 hours and now I'm looking at 3 hours if I turned around right then. I called her up and we made some plans - I would continue on for a 3-hour-ish ride into town and she'd come pick me up and we'd go out to lunch.

Back on my bike, five minutes later Amanda calls me back. "Aren't you getting rained on?" Sorry honey, it's just cloudy. Turns out she was in Meijer and the metal roof was echoing a downpour throughout the store. Well guess what? Two minutes after hanging up, the sky opened up and I got soaked. Amanda cursed me! ;)



My only directional plan had been to ride south for a while, then return home. With no pre-defined ending point now, I simply wandered south and west for a while until I realized that I had no clue where I was! To make matters worse, there were signs of alien activity... Crop circles! Actually it looks like the work of a willy willy spawned by yesterday's violent storm front that downed several tree limbs. See the cloud bank at the top of that photo? A minute after snapping the shot I got rained on again, just as I got the camera back into its protective baggie.



Now I had to find my way to town so whenever I hit an intersection I rode either north or west, depending on how ridable the road looked. I hopped onto a nice westbound road but a mile later it turned south with no intersections for a few more miles. Ack! Finally I got on a westerly course and found myself staring at quite a hill. Luckily it wasn't too bad at my slow pace; in fact, this was typical of about a dozen large hills that I climbed - and descended - during the ride. According to MapMyRide my route involved almost 2000 feet of climbing - not bad for Michigan!

Going down those hills was fun and fast, but the raindrops really sting at high speed! Yeah, those raindrops - the last hour of my ride was in a steady rain. I was completely soaked, but it was 67 degrees and I felt great - perfect riding conditions if you ask me! I finally came to a road name that I recognized and called Amanda to look up my location on Google Maps. She told me that it was six miles to a familiar intersection, and from there I was "really close" to the airport. She emphasized that it wasn't far at all, so I figured I'd meet her at the airport viewing area and assumed it was 8-9 miles away.

10 miles later I was wondering what the heck Amanda had told me! Turns out that Amanda had thought I was at the familiar intersection, which was six miles from the airport. So instead of 8-9 miles I actually needed 12 miles to reach the rendezvous point. Less than a mile from the finish the road was blocked by geese! Two families with adolescent goslings (about half the size of their parents; the fuzz was shedding from their necks) were thinking about making a crossing. They ran back to the shoulder as I used the oncoming lane to get around them. I slowed down to watch them when suddenly one of the parents hissed loudly and started running at me! I accelerated and got outta there! :)

At long last I met up with Amanda and changed into some dry clothes before getting refueled at Pizza Hut. My planned 1-2 hour ride became a 3-hour affair (including phone call and photo stops) where I covered 35 miles! All told I averaged about 13 mph if I subtract out the stopping. Surprisingly I still feel great! Apparently last week's 50-miler with my dad has recalibrated my cycling endurance. Nevertheless, I'll go easy on my legs when I run tomorrow.

The song "The Heat is On" comes to mind with the hot, muggy weather we've been having. As I got ready for my speed workout today I watched cumulus clouds building strength due to rising columns of hot afternoon air. My run was not going to be easy or pleasant! I leashed up Haven and jogged a warm-up mile to the track at the local fairgrounds where we met Amanda. At the track Haven was set free and promptly sprinted 100 meters at Olympic speed in pursuit of a squirrel! Silly girl.

I was hoping to run six 1/4 mile laps but only turned in four due to the heat and some lingering soreness from last night's softball game. (I was involved with a couple diving plays in the outfield - caught one; the other glanced off my glove - that resulted in "grass burn" on my left calf and right knee.) I paced Amanda for her first 100m sprint then continued around the track for my first lap, a surprisingly comfortable 92 seconds. Then I ran my hardest for the second lap and clocked 69 seconds! Woo hoo, my first 1/4 mile under 70 seconds since high school. Boy was I hurtin' after that one.

Another medium paced lap at 98 seconds, then my last one I managed to run in 77 seconds. Amanda and Haven were just as hot and tired as me by this point so we went home. I ran with Haven through downtown and we stopped at the riverwalk to watch some ducklings that Amanda photographed. Finally we made it home, where Haven and I headed to the basement to recover in the cool subterranean air.

It's getting pretty hot these days here in Michigan. Tuesday morning I went for a run at 0600 with our newest foster dog Reese and it was already in the 60's! We only ran for 2.5 miles but I surprised myself (and perhaps Reese, too!) by holding a 8:15 pace without feeling too tired. We stopped at the river halfway and I discovered that Reese does not like water!

Today I ran with my co-workers at lunch, but beforehand I tried an experiment. Results? Don't eat before running! I completely wonked out on our 5-miler and practically dragged myself back to work. 87 degress and humidity didn't help the issue.

As long as I'm linking to my running blog I might as well add a link for my Memorial Day article honoring dogs.

Alas, I was not a Detroit Tigers ballplayer this weekend, even if it would've meant sitting on the bench as we got swept by the division rivals. Instead I rode a different type of pine, rolling along the White Pine Trail on my bicycle with Amanda and my parents.

My dad and I have long been planning to do a 50-mile ride on this trail, and Saturday was finally the day. Initially I was hoping to ride the entire 92-mile trail to achieve one of my "wouldn't it be cool?" goals for 2007; however, complications involving car repairs altered my plans and I opted for the logistically simpler plan of just riding 50. Not that riding 50 miles is ever simple...

In fact it was only 49 miles, but my dad and I aren't ones to nitpick. :) Mom and Dad drove to our house, loaded up my bike, and the three of us drove to the trailhead in Big Rapids where Dad and I began our journey. Since it had rained all morning we brought along our raincoats but seeing clear skies in the north, we chanced leaving them in the car. I was well stocked with 4 liters of water (planning to give my bottle to Dad, since he brought just one) and tons of munchies.

Three of those liters were in my Salomon Raid Race 200 (bought two years ago for my first adventure race) that I converted into a hydration pack. In contrast my dad went old school, wearing a vintage REI knapsack with felt-lined leather shoulder straps, a wedding gift from 1974! Aside from the handy waist-belt pouches, my pack didn't seem any superior to his - both were lightweight, comfortable, breathable, and durable. Impressive!

The first mile was easy pedaling - all paved. That soon gave way to a dirt two-track for the next, oh, 30+ miles that had been softened by the morning's rain. While some sections were harder-packed than others, the soft dirt just sucked the kinetic energy right out of our tires, much the way EMAS slows down aircraft that overrun a runway. Both of our rides were hybrid bikes with relatively narrow tires that the soft ground swallowed up. We kept wishing for some good old 2" mountain bike tires and I finally tried to emulate those fat knobbies by lowering my tire pressure from 70 to 45 psi. It helped quite a bit, but we'd already ridden 20 miles at the higher pressure so the benefit was minimal.

The weather held up for us terrifically. Temps hovered in the 60s while the sky remained overcast yet without rain - very comfortable! Every 45 minutes or so we'd stop and have a snack. By the end of our ride we'd consumed four energy bars, one bag of dried fruit trail mix, and half a bag of Combos - I later calculated our pit stops to have totaled about 1000 calories for each of us! I swear we burned it all, too.

We were amazed at how far down the trail we could see in some places. The trail is a former train track - straight and flat - and at times we could see two miles ahead of us! It was weird to see a road intersection way in the distance, ride for five minutes and look up to feel as though we didn't get any closer! 33 miles along the trail we spot this pink thing in the distance - minutes passed before we were able to confirm our guess that it was Amanda, who had ridden up to meet us from Grand Rapids. She had to pedal 16 miles to reach us!

Now our group was 50% larger as the three of us slogged through some loose gravel on the two-track. All of this soft terrain was wearing on Amanda's legs and she had one goal in mind: pavement! Half an hour later we finally hit Russell Road, which marks the point where the rest of the trail south is paved. Ahhh! Our average speed jumped a few MPH as cruised along the blacktop. Another 30 minutes and we reached the town of Rockford, our temporary finish line.

In Rockford we met my mom, who had ridden the four miles up from Grand Rapids to meet us all for lunch. We found a pizza restaurant situated in a 100-year-old house that was cramped, but the food was served quickly and it really hit the spot. That pizza joint has the world's smallest bathroom - imagine fitting a toilet, sink, and towel dispenser in a space the size of an outhouse!

Loaded up on food, we walked around the Rockford dam for 15 minutes to digest a bit before hopping back on our bikes for the 4-mile ride to our awaiting parked cars. A mile into the ride it began to rain and quite honestly I welcomed it - after 4 hours of cranking the pedals and getting sprayed with sand and pebbles, the rain felt refreshing! At the very end Dad and I sprinted ahead to see how high of a max speed we could hit on his bicycle computer - he reached 24 mph while I was still gaining on him. It felt fast but then again, Olympic sprinters can run that speed!

We got so carried away we almost missed the parking lot! Dad and I racked up 49 miles, which was his longest ride since a 100-miler in his youth on Belle Isle. This matched my longest - last June I rode the same section of trail but in reverse, going solo from Grand Rapids to Big Rapids. Amanda notched an impressive 32 miles, topping her longest lifetime ride of 28 miles that she did last year, also on this trail. Mom finished at 8 miles, which isn't bad considering that her longest ride in ages was 9 miles a couple months ago. Who wants to go again? :)

Four months ago I wrote the "Ultimate Sock Review" about my experiences with 10 models of sock that I've worn over the years. Amazingly a representative from Bridgedale found my blog and sent me three free pairs of socks to try out!

Quite a nice thing to do, eh? After putting lots of miles on those socks (and my older ones, too) I wrote a review of the Bridgedales that includes an updated ranking of the now 12 models of socks in my drawer.

I never thought that any material good would come from blogging, but those three socks are my first "commission"!

Haven and I went running this morning...

Today was the 30th running of the Riverbank Run in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The main event is the 25K, which serves as the national championship for that distance and naturally draws some very fast runners. I, however, ran the 5K in my quest to beat my 5K PR from high school, a 20:08.

You couldn't ask for better weather - when the starting horn sounded, the air was 52 degrees under mostly cloudy skies. The weather coupled with the 30th anniversary of the race drew record field participation in all of the events: 25K run, 25K wheelchair, 25K hand-cycle, 5K run, and 5K walk. If my memory serves, the announcer stated that there were about 6000 entrants for the 25K and almost 5000 folks doing 5K, plus 20,000+ spectators!

At 7:50 the wheelchair race started; at 7:55 it was the hand-cyclers' turn. Standing way at the back in the 5K corral a block up the street, I wasn't able to watch them start but I clapped anyway as the announcer kicked them off. At 8:00 sharp the crowd went nuts as the horn blasted off the 25K runners and the street in front of me slowly emptied. It took six full minutes for the 25K field to clear the start line! Finally the 5K legion marched forward and I took my place at the 7:00 min/mile pace sign. Very helpfully, the race organizers set up markers so that runners can start among others of similar speed. My goal was to beat my last race time of 21:07, a 6:49 pace, so I figured I'd be OK starting with the 7:00 folks. I didn't want to line up any further ahead because the 6:00 pace group was the first one!

Finally the clock ticked down to 8:10 and the horn sounded for our start! Right away it was clear that not everyone heeded the pace alignment and I had to pass countless runners in very crowded conditions. The course began on a 4-lane downtown street and it was flowing thick with striding bodies. I thought about mshobe and the difficulty he had weaving among traffic in his Chicago Marathon. It definitely slows you down! Within the first mile I was boxed in at least half a dozen times and forced to slow down and maneuver.

I reached the first mile mark at 6:55 according to my watch, but in 6:05 according to the clock they had stationed there! No way was I running 6:05 and I knew it was wrong; however, two guys next to me saw that and said "Whoa we better slow down" and I felt bad for them. Just after this point a little high school girl got boxed in to the left of me; instead of slowing down she jumped to the right, cutting me off! I nearly came to a complete halt trying to avoid running her over. That ticked me off, and she became one of my "marks" - I wasn't going to let her get away!

At the halfway point there was an aid station with water but I just ran through - I don't need to risk choking when I can barely breathe and 5K is short enough to do without anyway. It was here that I finally passed the last of the "soccer boys". At the start in the 7:00 pace slot was a group of six boys wearing matching soccer uniforms that looked to be about 10-12 years old. I thought they were a bunch of punks, assuming they would run slowly but as a pack and clog up the start. Four of them were indeed slow, but two of them were fast enough that they stayed ahead of me for half the race! I was impressed.

Approaching the second mile mark I was still forced to maneuver occasionally around folks who were dropping off the pace, some of them even walking! I can understand if a couple folks maybe pulled a muscle or had stomach issues, but 95% of they were simply tired. It bugged me that so many people were running a pace way beyond their means, apparently just to impress their friends by starting out so fast? In fact, that little high school girl encountered two such dudes who slowed down and she elbowed her way between them!

Mile 2 finally showed up at 13:50 - good for a 6:55 second mile - and once again the race clock was off by a minute! It's a good thing I started my watch or I would've been very confused. Climbing a slight incline my "mark" was right next to me - she had never been farther than 20 feet ahead - and I picked this point to pass her. I never saw her again! Satisfaction, baby. Cresting the "hill" (it was only a baby hill) I used the slight downgrade to accelerate my pace knowing that I had less than a mile to go. Boy was I feeling like crap, though! I was so tempted to rest for a few seconds but my heart convinced my mind to shut up for the next five minutes. :)

Apparently my mind just shut off instead - I have no memory of passing the 3-mile marker and thus have no clue as to my split time there. I was just trying to run fast - the faster I ran, the sooner the pain would cease! The course turned a sharp corner, ran half a block and then turned again and suddenly the finish line was 100 yards away! I dumped my last drops of fuel into the afterburner and passed several folks. Then I had a decision to make... left or right? There were two finish line banners because of the huge crowd of runners, and I was pointed right at the posts between them. Fewer runners on the right, so I ran right. Official finish time was 21:26.

While I was desperately catching my breath beyond the finish line, a guy next to me puked! Ew. I moseyed ahead to the food table and grabbed a water bottle, a breakfast bar, a bagel and a yogurt, then found a sunny concrete step to sit on while I ate the breakfast I earned. Food tastes so good after a hard workout!

Although I felt good speed-wise, I didn't feel great. Maybe having to dodge all the other runners in tight quarters slowed me down some, but even without that I might not have topped my adult-era PR from the last race. I'm happy that I maintained my pace throughout despite feeling rather crummy for the last mile; my finish time equated to a 6:55 pace, same pace as each of the first two miles. My legs had more speed than at my last race, but I think with more injury-free time to train properly I can go faster. Always something to look forward to!

Looking at the results online I see that I finished 18/260 in my age group and 204/4867 overall - must be that all the fast runners were doing the 25K. Speaking of which, after I called Amanda to let her know the outcome (she woke up tired and decided to sleep in rather than fight with the crowds) I walked back along the 25K course and watched the finishers for about an hour. Some observations... The top runners all had great form, smooth and powerful. The next batch of runners - fast but not elite - was mixed with good form and a form I call the "leg beaters" who have a stride that seems wildly inefficient. Some look like they're swimming, others stair-climbing, some are leaned so far sideways it makes me dizzy. These folks have the stamina to be top runners but for whatever reason, aren't efficient with it.

I stopped at the mile 14 aid station (25K = 15.5M) to wait for some of the runners I know to come by so I could cheer them on. One of the aid station volunteers was a colleague on my project who sits right next to me at work! I wasn't aware that he'd be there. It's amazingly fun to watch a running race and I'm totally sold on volunteering at one sometime. One of the aid station dudes, rather than handing out cups of water, was splashing it on the runners! Most loved it but a few got annoyed. The faster folks are in general more serious - you can tell that they have a plan and they pretty much ignore the encouragement of spectators. Slower runners more often will turn their heads when a spectator shouts out some good vibes, and some of them are mentally lost in space. Here we were, 1.5 miles from the finish, and some were stopping to rest - not just walking, but stopping! Just keep moving, people.

Many runners were busy wrangling their earphone cords. One guy going very slowly suddenly sprinted through the aid station like Forrest Gump and then collapsed in a pile of jelly legs. Weird. Another guy was dressed head to toe in a Spider Man suit! I encouraged him to use his Spidey Sense. One lady was clearly struggling with a look of sheer pain on her face as she reached her arm forward to the lady right ahead of her. The woman in front must've been a friend, as she took the struggler's hand without even looking back and pulled her onward the way she might pull the leash of a stubborn dog! It was a nice show of companionship - clearly they were going to finish together. Less cool was the young woman who took a sip of water and then puked about six times before walking on. She was clearly upset and I wanted to tell her "Don't worry, you'll feel better now!" but she probably wasn't ready to hear that yet. :)

Finally after cheering on almost everyone I expected to recognize (yet somehow I missed a few of them), it was time to go home. What a fun event - both racing and spectating!

Yesterday I wasn't in the mood for running but I was a good boy and went out for a run anyway. I took Beacon with me and he was a good boy as well - usually he pulls a lot but for some reason he was super obedient for our run! Both of us had a lot of fun and I was really happy that I forced myself out the door with running shoes on.

I needed to do some speedwork so Beacon and I warmed up by jogging the one mile through downtown to the local fairgrounds, where there's a 1/4-mile dirt track. I let Beacon off leash and ran some laps. I hadn't done this in a long time but was happy with the results. My plan was to run the first lap hard, next lap medium, third lap hardest, fourth lap slow, and then go from there. Between each of these laps was a slow jog/walk lap for recovery.

It worked! First lap was 82 seconds, second was 90, third was 75 (holy cow!) and fourth was 105 seconds. The 75 seconds was the fastest I've run a 1/4 mile since high school, although I did run a 76 last fall. Then I decided to see how well I could "suck it up" and do another fast lap despite being tired and at the end of my workout. I surprised myself by clocking 77 seconds! I would've been happy just to get under 90.

This Saturday is my next 5K, the Riverbank Run, which is the biggest running event in Grand Rapids. The marquee race is a 25K - it's the national championships for that distance - but there's also a 5K. I was really tempted to do the 25K with the goal of running it in less than 2 hours (it's everyone's goal for that race, it seems) but this year I want to focus on speed (slow as I am) and run a good 5K.

Too bad I can't run it with Haven and Beacon!

How about run 500 miles? Back on April 25 I ran my 500th mile and on May 3 I went for my 100th run of the year. Just 500 more until 1000... "I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more..."

Today was a 9.8 mile long run - I ran to Meijer where Amanda met me and we went grocery shopping afterwards. Before and after the run I felt really good and somehow managed a 9:17 pace despite thinking that I was taking it easy - walking up a half-dozen hills, stopping to enjoy a couple scenic views along the river, etc.

Later today we took all three dogs - Haven, Beacon and foster dog Honey - to my Grandma's pasture to run around. We spent two hours hiking around and the dogs are completely worn out now! They got to have a ton of fun - they chased a rabbit, two nesting turkeys, a ruffed grouse, a deer, and a pheasant! Amanda will post the pictures as part of her DITL for today.

Yesterday I put a nifty new post on Why Run? about the physics of speed, pace and energy. I started thinking about it when Katiebell described some frustration when treadmilling recently:

"I was shocked to find that the difference between 5.4 miles per hour and 5.7 was negligible, but bump it to 6.0 (a mere ten min mile) and I could barely keep on pace...6.5 and I was struggling."

Thursday I was on the treadmill doing speedwork and it dawned on me how explain the physics of this phenomenon. If you're curious then check out my Why Run? article which even has a couple of cool graphs!

For my birthday last month Amanda planned an outing to a Tigers game. Last weekend it finally came to pass as Amanda and I were joined by eight family members to enjoy a perfectly sunny day at the ballpark. I still call it Tiger Stadium even though technically it's Comerica Park; not so much out of protest as much as out of habit. Speaking of which, I miss the old ballpark - I was lucky enough to attend the 4th to last game ever played there. On our way to the new park we drove past the old one:



It's sad how the city of Detroit and the Tigers franchise are allowing this historic stadium to rot away when there are so many folks willing to do what it takes to preserve it as a museum and/or exhibition ballfield. At least Comerica Park is a beautiful place to attend a ballgame and in my opinion underrated among the MLB ballparks.

We arrived early to watch batting practice, however the Tigers were already done by the time we arrived - despite arriving right after the gates opened. It always amazes me how normal ballplayers look - we stood about ten feet away from Joe Mauer as he warmed up and he doesn't seem any more fit than I am. Then you see him (and every other player) throw effortlessly and watch the ball rifle 150 feet and pop into a teammate's glove without having to move an inch. Wow.

Before taking our seats we wandered around the park, ending up among the statues of Tiger greats. We watched a few players warming up before taking our seats.

Our seats were great - upper deck front row along the LF line near the foul pole. It was a great view of not only the field but also the Detroit skyline. Amanda took a couple photos of the first batters before putting away the camera to enjoy the game.

And what a game! Johan Santana has been the best pitcher in all of baseball over the last three years but Mike Maroth matched him. Bottom of the 9th inning Brandon Inge hits a solo HR into the bullpen right in front of us and both the crowd and the Tigers dugout erupted in cheer! ROAR!

Some baseball observations:

• Joe Mauer is amazing with the bat - in BP he would hit the ball on a line in every direction seemingly at will.
• Justin Morneau has wicked bat speed, clearly a step above any other Twins hitter.
• Magglio Ordonez was born to hit - he looks so comfortable at the plate, he makes it look easy. Fielding... no. He was born to DH - he never seemed to read fly balls well and on one play Curtis Granderson had to run all the way from CF to attempt a catch that was ten feet from Ordonez the statue; Granderson missed and Ordonez didn't back him up, forcing Granderson to run after the ball that became a triple.
• Gary Sheffield is over his slump - aside from one pop-up, he hit every ball hard - he had a single that two-hopped to the RF and I swear the ball was never more than five feet off the ground.
• Carlos Guillen is barely a passable SS - not only did he make a few bad throws, but his footwork looked as stiff as some of the 50-year-old guys on my softball team.
• Mike Maroth doesn't throw hard - 88 mph was his max - which made it cruel on the Twins when Joel Zumaya relieved him and started throwing 100 mph.
• Pat Neshek has one of the most unique deliveries you'll ever see - it's not your typical sidearm. Even better, Neshek has his own blog that he started when in the minors.
• Jesse Crain... he gave up that HR to Inge, but I'm surprised that Crain isn't a more dominant pitcher. He had a 94 mph fastball to go with a 74 mph off-speed pitch, a combination that normally is quite deadly.

The Road End Trail Run is a 5-mile race in the Pinckney Recreation Area outside Ann Arbor, MI. This event is just the opening act for the Trail Marathon weekend; Road Ends runs on Saturday and Sunday hosts a trail marathon and half-marathon at the same location.

Leading up to this race, the recovery from an achilles injury forced me to run just twice in the ten days prior to race day for a total of seven miles. Fortunately my conservatism paid off as my leg felt great on race day and I had no problems with any recurrence. Nevertheless, I was unsure how fast I could run given my lack of recent training and had difficultly coming up with a goal for the race. I had heard the course was quite hilly so I figured I'd be happy if I could maintain an 8:00 pace, i.e. finish the race in 40 minutes.

My dad, mom and Amanda were nice enough to come along as spectators, or maybe they just wanted to see me suffer! We hiked around the starting area and checked out some ducks and a loon out on Silver Lake using dad's binoculars. Finally it was time to assemble at the line and 259 folks packed together, eager to get moving so we could warm up! It was a cool, overcast morning at about 45 degrees. The race director informed us that mile markers 2 and 4 were quite accurate, but the markers for miles 1 and 3 were just "there for consistency". I chatted with a volunteer and a racer a bit while waiting and learned that the racer had just run the Boston Marathon two weeks earlier and the volunteer was going to do a 50-mile race in Colorado next week! Fun stuff.

Ready, set, GO!! We looped around a grassy area to thin the pack before converging on a narrow boardwalk through a marshy area. My plan was to run hard and see how long I could keep it up since I had no idea 1) what my fitness level was and 2) what my pace would be until two miles later. Initially I felt pretty good - one of the benefits of a long layoff is complete muscle recovery - and passed the 2-mile marker in 14:40, a 7:20 pace! My last 5K I ran at a 6:50 pace so maybe 7:20 over 5 miles is doable?

Maybe not... soon after the 2 mile mark I realized that my stride rate (e.g. steps per minute) was rather low, but when I tried to quicken up my leg turnover I was disappointed to learn that my legs wouldn't respond. Apparently this is one of the effects of the lost training time, that my leg speed just wasn't there. This hurt me on the flats since I couldn't accelerate and also on the hills because I couldn't "downshift" to maintain momentum going up.

The next two miles I was really hurting - my lungs felt OK and my legs weren't sore but I simply couldn't make my legs "go" - they felt "hollow" if that makes any sense. Halfway up a large hill I was actually forced to walk and felt rather embarrassed; after all, who am I to think I can run a 8:00 pace yet have to walk? At the top I found myself breathing rapidly as if at high altitude, yet within five seconds I was running again and feeling rather normal (at least, as normal as one can feel in a race). It seemed so silly that I had to walk up that hill yet could resume my race pace once at the top without a problem.

Less than a mile later on a smaller hill I had to walk again! Dang! Once again my lungs were fine once over the top so all I can reason is that my lack of training caused me to lose my running "power" - my stamina was there, my strength was there, but my legs wouldn't accelerate. This time I had a happier attitude while walking - I told myself that lots of runners both behind me and ahead of me had seen me walking up both hills, and I was going to beat most of them! So who cares if I walk? See you at the finish line, bubbas.

Finally I reached the 4-mile mark at 32:00... yikes! My last two miles had been at a 8:40 pace and now I had to run a 8:00 final mile to reach my 40-minute goal. I remained positive yet realized that this was going to be difficult - I had to push the pace and NOT LET UP for the next eight minutes. My legs still felt hollow and all I could fill them with was will power.

At long last I crested the final short hill and the finish line was in sight about 100 yards away; also in sight was another runner 30 yards ahead of me and I started my kick to chase him down. I quickly gained 10 yards on him but then he heard my labored breathing. My dad told me later that this guy looked over his shoulder and his eyes got wide; this guy had last passed me when I was walking up the second hill, so he must've been surprised to see me on his tail! He kicked into a sprint and all I could do was match his pace and wasn't able to overtake him.

That's OK - I was THRILLED because I finished in 39:45!! Somehow I toughed out a 7:45 final mile and the photos Amanda took really show the strain I was feeling. Boy oh boy. But as you can see in the last photo, it was all worth it and in fact quite satisfying to know that I wasn't at my best and I still managed a good run. Learning how my body responded to the injury recovery and lack of training was also quite enlightening. And of course, a post-race poppyseed muffin really hit the spot!

We stuck around for the award ceremony because I wanted to see who the winners were. The overall winner finished in under 29 minutes! Wow. Then they started awarding prizes to the top five runners in each age group. Names were called out and when they got to my age group I was stunned to hear the race director call my name! Holy cow, I finished 5th in my age group (out of 14) and won a coffee mug. Even though I know it's petty, it's still fun to win a prize at a race by actually being fast enough rather than a random drawing. :) Overall I finished 49th out of 259, and yes I'm quite pleased with that. Best of all, however, was being my 40 minute goal by running that last mile as hard as I did - nothing beats that feeling of achievement!

Bike
Today did not go as planned, but it turned out very well. Due to a minor achilles injury that caused me to skip my race this weekend, I geared up myself and my bike this morning for our first ride of the year, planning to roll along some country roads for about three hours. All was going well for the first half hour - beautiful clear skies and 60 degree temperature that was rising quickly - when things suddenly fell apart, literally. I'm pedaling along a flat stretch when I hear a loud SNAP followed by the clinks of metal pieces falling on the pavement. My seat broke off!! Luckily I didn't fall; a triathlete friend of mine once broke his arm falling due to a seat failure.

I phoned Amanda, who had to abandon her walk less than five minutes after starting to come rescue me. While waiting for her I managed to ride about two miles closer, during which time I learned two things about cycling with no seat: 1) your calves get really tired if you keep the standard position of centering the balls of your feet over the pedals, so I centered my arches on the pedals instead; and 2) the bike gets quite unstable descending steep hills. I'm not sure why for #2, but I guess it's due to a forward center of gravity putting too much weight on the front wheel?

Hike
So much for my long run ride. Amanda still wanted to get her workout in so I joined her on a local trail for a hike. We stopped home to drop off the bike and we decided to take Haven with us. She loved the trails but we had to keep her on leash about 95% of the time since portions of the trail are near 55 mph roads and because there are lots of folks (and their dogs) sharing the trails. Legally all dogs must be on leash there but the vast majority of the ones I see are unleashed, and Haven never causes problems but with her muddy paws I didn't want to offend anyone and give unleashed dogs a bad name.

Amanda took so many photos that we were making slow progress around the 4.5 mile loop. We wanted to get home in time to watch a Detroit Tigers game - a rare opportunity to see them on a air-broadcast channel. Halfway around the loop we decided I should run the 2 miles back to the car and pick up Amanda at the north parking lot (we started at the south lot).

Run
Haven came with me and we ran at a quick pace up and down the sandy, leafy hills. We passed a few other people and dogs but Haven was so tired by this point that she was in no mood to be the social butterfly that she usually is. 14 minutes later we were back at the car (after having to jump over a 2-foot long hognose snake!) The run was tiring and felt great - my achilles felt a bit tight but nothing near as bad as last week. Still, I'm glad (in a common-sense sort of way) that I passed on the 10-mile race yesterday.

Fetch
Once we got home we traded Haven for Beacon and drove to the river where I played fetch with him for half an hour while Amanda drove out to Subway to fetch our dinner. Beacon needed his turn getting some fun exercise and he really loved it, screaming as he waited for me to throw the next stick. He finally started getting tired just as Amanda returned and we all went home for dinner.

Icing on the cake: we got to watch the Tigers beat the White Sox in a 12-inning thriller complete with two-outs-bottom-of-the-9th home run heroics!

How about "the sport that got away"... Earlier I wrote about my "Sophie's choice" of sports in high school, wondering what may have been if I ran track instead of playing tennis. Finally I did run track after quitting the tennis team junior year, but I'm afraid I never tried the one event I was born for...

When I joined track I started with hurdles because the coach thought my long legs would be suited for it, and I also did high jump because 1) my friend was a high-jumper, and 2) a very tall and pretty girl did high jump, too. :) Even though my vertical leap was probably strong enough for me to clear 6'6", I never actually cleared more than 5'4" because my form stunk.

Early in the season I strained a hip flexor that prevented me from running hurdles so I moved to the distance events, finding that I most enjoyed the 400m and 800m races. By the end of senior year I was a decent 400m runner - my PR was 60 seconds. My dad watched one of my last track meets and afterwards he was reminiscing about his days as a high school track star, where he set (and still holds, I believe) the long jump record for his high school at something over 20 feet!

After the season one weekend I jogged from my house to school (about 4 miles), noticed the long jump pit and thought, hey, I should try this. I sprinted down the runway and took off - it felt good! Stepping off the distance, I estimated that I soared 17 feet! The best guys on my track team were jumping 17-18 feet, the state champ was doing 24', and this was just my first attempt. As it were, it was also my last.

Alas, what could've been? Had I started long jumping right off the bat, I might have been winning a few meets and who knows, perhaps I could've competed at the state championships just like my dad had done. Maybe I could've topped his "family record", too! With my dad's genes, was I born for long jump? I guess I'll never know, but clearly I let the opportunity get away.

A trophy. I was 14 years old and had won "most improved player of the year". It altered the course of my athletic career forever...

In 8th grade I participated in three sports: baseball, track, and tennis.

Baseball
I had played baseball since 2nd grade and enjoyed it, but was never great at it. This was partly due to poor eyesight because once I got glasses in 7th grade, my hitting instantly went from horrible to decent. I had no power but good plate discipline, culminating in an 8th grade season where I batted .670 with a .750 on-base percentage but just one extra-base hit (a bloop double). My coach batted me at the bottom of the lineup despite my stats (I was the only one who kept stats, anyway, being a nerd) because he never realized how effective I was. I tried to explain to him that my singles were almost as good as doubles because being the fastest runner on the team, I stole 2nd base every time and often 3rd base, too, without getting caught. He was a great coach and he liked me, but didn't appreciate a hitter without power.

Track
Even though I generally liked running, I never tried track and field until 8th grade. Being a late bloomer I wasn't a standout by any means, but I was still pretty good. I ran mostly distances of 100m-400m and my highlight was running the first leg of our championship-winning 4x100 relay, keeping pace with other team's fastest runners. It was a bit frustrating that I wasn't good enough to win any races on my own, but a few of my friends were on the track team and the camaraderie was outstanding. That was some of the most fun in a sport I'd ever experienced.

Tennis
I started taking lessons in 7th grade at a local athletic club in the beginner's group. Non-beginners, my best friend among them, played in class-type practice sessions ranked by ability, "Group 3" being the worst and "Group 1" being the best. My friend had been playing for several years and finally got promoted from Group 3 to Group 2 and was proud of it. Apparently I took quite well to the sport because after half a year in the beginner's group the coaches jumped me straight into Group 2, making my friend a bit envious. And for that I won a little trophy as the club's most improved player of 1990.

Entering high school the following year, I was faced with a mild version of Sophie's Choice: all three of my sports took place in the same season, forcing me to choose only one that I could continue pursuing. I enjoyed all three sports immensely - the drama of baseball, the excitement of track, the intensity of tennis - and because of that trophy, I chose tennis.

Tennis was the only sport where I felt that my achievements were recognized, a feeling given to me simply by that trophy. I never was awarded "most improved hitter" when I got glasses or a "most promising runner" when I held my own in the relay. It's kinda sad that such praise was so important to me, but that's who I was back then.

The epilogue here is that I played tennis for just three more years, making varsity as a sophomore on a top-ranked team but quitting in my junior year after becoming exasperated with a holier-than-thou coach and teammates who were more concerned with being better than each other than actually winning meets against other schools. Luckily for my parents' wallet it only took one expensive broken racquet to realize the error of my choice. :)

I never played baseball again, but I did play in a rec softball game between the two 11th grade chemistry classes where I happened to have a great day outplaying everyone including a handful varsity baseball players in chemistry class. The chemistry teacher was also a baseball coach and asked me several times "Why aren't you playing baseball?" Sometimes I wondered that myself but...

After quitting tennis I joined the track team because my good friend Jamey ran track. I went from being the best runner on the tennis team to the worst runner on the track team; however, I was setting PRs (personal records) every race I ran. By senior year I was an average runner yet still PR-ing every race, prompting my track coach to give me one of the best compliments I ever received in high school: "Someday you'll be winning master's races."

Ironic, isn't it? I chose tennis because of the accolades it gave me, but never found any respect in the sport again while the two sports I had cast off ultimately gave me the recognition that I craved. Nowadays I'm an active softball player and distance runner, but I haven't touched a tennis racquet since college. I guess I should've followed my own heart rather than the mouths of other people, or at least the words they etch onto little trophies.

Amanda caught me off guard today - it was supposed to be a rest day for her exercise but I got an email at work asking "Do you want to go with me and run on that trail you found yesterday?" You bet!

We ran the first half mile or so - Amanda ran the whole way despite the challenging trail. It was funny to watch her have to stop and step over fallen logs, the same logs that I barely notice when running over them! Long legs can be an asset there.

After one lap we got out the camera and Amanda started taking photos. The awesome artistic ones are on Amanda's blog, some shots of the trail itself are on my new blog Why Run?, and this really cute one is looking right at you. :)


Finally I left Amanda to wander among nature while I ran the 4 miles home. I started out slow but kept upping the pace until I was really hurting. I somehow convinced myself to not let up and I finished in under 30 minutes for a 7:26 pace! It was hilly, too (including the last 1/4 mile up an 80-foot killer) so I'm happy, but very tired.

"April showers bring May flowers" so the saying goes, but I don't think those flowers had snow in mind! Isn't this crazy? But it makes for fun running. Here's the view out our front window this evening:

In honor of my not-so-secret birthday, let's discuss what careers we envisioned for ourselves as kids. Did you have just one idea that all your dreams were made of, or was your future more of a moving target?

I was one of the latter - each year I had a new profession that I was gonna be when I grew up. Here's my list; note that my "years" are based on school years not calendar years, as my memories are inevitably tied to what grade I was in at the time, not how old I was.

Pre-school - garbage man
I was in awe of the garbage trucks and how they could "gruff" the trash in the compactor!

Kindergarten - ornithologist
My favorite book was the Field Guide to Birds of North America and I loved to watch hawks and vultures soaring above.

1st grade - construction worker
I wanted to operate a lime green front-end loader because I loved giant construction machines.

2nd grade - center fielder for the Detroit Tigers and wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals
The hometown Tigers had just won the World Series and the Bengals had cool helmets; apparently I was going to be Bo Jackson!

3rd grade - paleontologist
I was going to dig up fossils to study prehistoric mammals; my favorite was Andrewsarchus for obvious reasons. :)

4th grade - zoologist
I wanted to study large mammalian predators such as wolves, bears, and big cats

5th grade - marine biologist
In particular I wanted to study marine mammals, especially orcas and dolphins.

6th grade - fiction writer
Reading countless Newberry Medal books got me thinking that I could write cool stories, too.

7th grade - forest ranger
I loved trees, especially redwoods and sequoias. A family trip to Yellowstone National Park inspired this one.

8th grade - canine and/or dolphin behaviorist
My plan was to understand dog/dolphin communication and ultimately learn to speak their language.

9th grade - astronaut
My dream was to take part in the first mission to walk on Mars.

10th grade - architect
I read a book about Frank Lloyd Wright and loved the concept of blending form with function.

11th grade - aerospace engineer
I loved airplanes and flying; plus, it sounded impressive when written on a college application.

12th grade - helicopter pilot
I had started taking flying lessons and preferred "low and slow" rather than "high and fast" flying.

How did I choose? With my eyesight too poor to become a pilot, I stuck to the most recent available career and became an aerospace engineer; besides, I kinda felt locked in by virtue of my choice of college major. In college I did revisit the pilot idea with the Marines when I found out they offered waivers for imperfect eyesight; however, my vision was way too nearsighted for a waiver and I didn't want to be a back-seater.

I might have considered careers in athletics had I thought that was an option; however, from an early age my mom instilled that such careers were dead-ends and sports were just games. Now that I realize how possible it is to have meaningful careers in athletics, perhaps my interests there would've received more serious attention.

Ironically (or perhaps predictably) I'm presently none of the professions listed above; I still call myself an aerospace engineer but in truth I work as a computer systems engineer for a company that puts their products on aircraft. In retrospect I probably would've preferred a career in the natural sciences because as cool as technology is, it's never more fascinating than nature.

Fairly busy day... after work I had softball practice, but I wanted to get my running in, too. I drove to the ballfields about an hour early and took a tour by foot of the nearest neighborhood. After 36+ minutes I'd covered 4.4 miles, which was nice because it sure didn't feel like I was holding that kind of pace. I changed at my car, transforming from runner into ballplayer and waited for my team to show up.

Within half an hour we were warming up our arms, and then shagging balls while taking BP. Surprisingly my legs felt great despite my pre-practice run - I was accelerating without problems, leaping high, etc. I even hit the ball pretty well considering I hadn't swung a bat since last August. My shoulder held up fine - in fact, I had better zip on the ball than last season; however, I still can't throw very far with a good heave.

So was this a duathlon? 4.4 mile run followed by two hours of softball? What's neat about this "du" is that softball was one of the motivators for me to start running again. Four years ago I played softball for the first time since college and got tired just jogging out to the outfield! Sad. I used to run all over the field and turn ground balls into triples, so I started running again partly to make sure that softball would never get me out of breath.

And wouldn't you know, four years later, here I am telling you all that today's run puts me at 401 miles on the year. :)

It seems most of my major hobbies had a big event recently:

Saturday - spent about 10 hours volunteering at the Pet Expo
Saturday - conducted my Mach League player draft 8pm-10pm
Sunday - went running TWICE for an hour each run
Sunday - fetched the dogs at the river before the Pet Expo
Sunday - between runs, volunteered about 5 hours at the Pet Expo
Monday - went to the softball managers' meeting after work, got home around 9:30pm

So there you have significant events for my hobbies of dogs, running, dog rescue, baseball, and co-ed softball. To top it all off, I'm a tad under the weather. This probably explains why my second Sunday run was so painful - my body was diverting its resources to my immune system, not to my "running" system.

I debated whether I should run today or take the day off, but since Amanda was feeling tired and sore and still went for her workout today, I figured I should get my work in, too.

It was very warm - 78 degrees - when Haven and I set foot (and paw) on the road, heading for the trailhead. Just before the trailhead we passed a couple kids playing with an unleashed dog in their driveway. Upon spotting us the dog - a border collie mix - started to follow us. She was very shy and Haven kept trying to chase her away, but this dog wouldn't go away. She had very bright blue eyes so I called her Blue Eyes. I suppose I could've been more creative but sometimes my mind turns off when I run!

Anyway, Blue Eyes followed us into the woods for about a 1/4 mile on the trail, so I decided I better bring her back to the kids. I walk up the driveway and ask the kids if this is their dog. They tell me no, that this dog came from down the road somewhere. Great. I checked for tags. Blue Eyes had a collar, but no tags. At least she was pretty submissive to both me and Haven and kept trying to play with Haven, so she was a friendly dog.

My next plan was to get her tired. One time a german shepherd followed Haven and I on a run and we got him pretty tired before his owner drove up to get him. We ran back into the woods and Blue Eyes followed; of course, border collies were meant to run. I exited the trail further up the road and decided to head back towards where the kids said she came, hoping to find an owner. Once on the road Blue Eyes took off, obviously familiar with her location and hopefully heading home. When she wasn't looking I unleashed Haven, pointed at the trail and said quietly but urgently "Let's go let's go let's go!!!" and Haven bolted down the trail with me in hot pursuit. I figured if Blue Eyes tried to follow us, she'd be less inclined the more distance we put between her and us.

It worked! No sign of Blue Eyes. Haven and I finished our work on the trails and headed for the river where we planned to meet Amanda and Beacon playing fetch. I could hear Beacon's eager screams half a mile away! Partly because of the strong NW wind that was bringing a cold front our way. Just before we saw Amanda and Beacon the skies opened up with big fat drops of rain!

We continued fetching with the dogs even as the pouring rain turned the surface of the river into what looked like a giant lemon zester! Despite the decreasing temperature and increasing mud and thunder we kept throwing sticks and the dogs kept fetching them. What a blast! We were soaked when we finally headed back to the car; when we got 100 yards away the rain simply stopped and within seconds the sun was out. Perfect timing!

Normally Amanda and I do our long workouts on Sunday mornings, but this morning we had a bit of a time crunch due to volunteering at the Pet Expo. I could only run for an hour so I planned to get in my long run via a "daily double" run.

This morning was 60 degrees and overcast; in fact, thunderstorms had just rolled through before sunrise. I got my running gear on, grabbed a water bottle and my iPod and hit the streets. Let me tell you, it was one of THE MOST ENJOYABLE runs I've ever had! Why this morning of all days? Perhaps the perfect running weather and the good music, but for some reason my feet were just floating. I was cruising along at just over a 9:00 pace and I felt as if I could've gone on forever. Never once did I feel even a hint of fatigue; I just ran and ran and ran for 7.3 miles, going faster every mile.

Before heading off to the Expo our dogs convinced us to let them get some activity, so we drove them to the trails to run around and fetch in the river for about half an hour. They would've preferred more, but it was all the time we had. Still, they were pretty happy. Dogs can be so easy to please! Then again, are we any different?

After the Expo it was time for the second half of my long run, and what a contrast! My legs were tired from the morning run, tired from standing at the Expo for hours, and here I am trying to make them run again. I eked out 6.75 miles at a 9:30 pace and barely made it! At least the weather was great: 75 degrees and partly sunny - perhaps the heat was part of my trouble for my winter-adjusted body? In any case, the first two miles my legs felt stiff, then for two miles I felt OK, then the last two+ miles my legs felt heavy and listless.

Hopefully one of these days I can figure out how to replicate the feeling of that morning run!