So how are the balls of your feet???

As a tribute to “positive” splits, here are my times:
8:44 - 1
7:52
8:07
8:11
8:01
7:52 – good band!
8:13
8:17
8:00
8:24
8:20
8:35
8:17
8:52 – half way – slowing, but on pace to my goal! (barely!)
8:17
8:52
8:19
8:46
8:46
8:51
9:19
9:30
9:30
9:40
10:09
10:09
9:50
1:54


Well, I tried! I ran the Columbus Marathon on Sunday, hoping to get a Boston qualifying time of 3:35:59. I knew this was a lofty goal, but you have to start some where. I needed to keep up an 8:14 pace, and I was there for the first half (the easy half!) - Plus SHawn was able to cheer me on two times in the first half! But, as you can see, second half was not so good!

At mile 15 or so, my feet started hurting - like a muscle hurt (from flexing a gajillion times!) - probably due to the fact that I do a lot of cross training (bike and elliptical machine) to save my knees. Then I could feel I was getting a blister on the ball of my foot. The miles certainly took their toll…

I modified my goals as the day proceeded and my last and final goal was to run the entire way, no walk breaks – I managed to shuffle through and get this goal. In the end I was happy. I crossed the line at 3:50:19 – not great, not my goal – but my best marathon time in 25 year! It was sooo great having Shawn there, last time I ran it ('99), she could not get down to Columbus, maybe cause Aimee was swimming?? - we wern't sure.

Today I feel good, I am fatigued (for sure), my calves ache (esp. going down stairs) and I have that big blister on the ball of my right foot. I’ll survive and I’ll be back running in a few days or so.

On the last few miles of my other marathons, I was always thinking “why did I choose to do this?” after this run, I’m thinking, “I can do this - and with a little more training, I can get to my goal.” I’m pretty sure I’ll be running a spring marathon in 2010.

Fun along the way:

I liked a tee shirt that said “16 weeks ago this seemed like such a good idea!”

They had a band playing every 1/3 mile or so - some good, some not so good… my fav was at about mile 5 (note my fast split!) that was playing the Jet’s song “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”. I was applauding and dancing a bit for that! I heard two bands play Johnny be good and I wondered if anyone else had my same exact pace to hear that. At another band, they were taking a break and a runner ahead of me was ribbing the band for not playing – “Give us some guitar at least” he said, I yelled out “at least your generator is sounding good!” .

At the end I saw a lady in a Winnie the Pooh sweat shirt and I was able to give my favorite “Hey, you got Pooh on your shirt” joke – I think I heard the people she was with chuckle a little bit : - ).

Whadda ya got, a holes in your head???

. . . no dad, just one!!

Well, I didn't want 50 to mean I was getting old!! When Walt, Aimee, Shawn and I finished our pizza and beer on my birthday, I asked Aimee to drive me to 2048 C St. in Anchorage. It was a huge mystery to the group where I wanted to go - Aimee thought for sure it was the pawn shop, but nope - it was the piercing studio in town. I wanted to get an ear piercing that I had seen on a bike rider in the Tour de France had...

Unfortunately, the piercer had gone home when we got there, so we could just discuss the work, but Aimee and I went back the next day and did the deed. Yeah it hurt, but it's healing just fine, the guys at work have not harassed me that much and Shawn says she kinda likes it. :-)

I'm planning on putting something "claw-like" in it for bike racing, other than that, I won't do any thing to draw that much attention to it...

I figure 50 is as good a time as any to turn hippy!

keep it groovy cats!

Birthday Bike!

I picked up my birthday present tonight! (Shawn is such a good shopper!). Like I need another Bike, but this was just so pretty I had to add it to the collection. This is a Masi Speciale Fixed LTD. I've always had a love of Masi's (pronounced mazi) - My favorite movie is Breaking Away and the main character, Dave Stoler, rides a Masi. I haven't had a chance to ride it - just about 50 feet in the parking lot (and through the TV room and living room). It's raining out and this will be a good weather bike!

Chao Cats!

21 day challenge

So’s Shawn and I are on a long car ride, listening to radio talk shows and this lady (Kathy Freston) is on talking about a doing a 21 day diet or cleanse. We usually don’t like the crazy diet thing, but this caught our interest. Give up 5 things for just 21 days – not so much a diet – but a challenge to your “stick-to-it-ness” and proof that you are not ruled by certain foods. (Later on we found out it was an “Oprah” diet – I was not so happy about that – but we certainly didn’t glop on to this cause it was Oprah’s doing).

It sounded like a good challenge, so for 21 days, we are giving up: Caffeine, Sugar, Alcohol, Gluten and all animal products.

It was a pretty daunting list, but we are 7 days in and this is not bad at all. I dare say, I am feeling a little more energetic in the morning , and the rest of the day goes great with out all the coffee I was drinking (I was a 4 or 5 cup a day person).

This has been a really good thing, I’ve felt really good. I was worried about not enough protein, but we’ve cooked up some dang good Tofu dishes; I make a mean pablano pepper stir fry with black beans that has been a fav; we ate at a vegan restaurant and loved it; at Chipotle we had a veggie burrito (no shell) and that was great; I’m loving my PB on brown rice bread for lunch; and steel cut oats for breakfast has been a real treat!

We never feel starved. But we are happy we did this time of the year, when there are great fruits and Veggies around – that make snack time pretty easy.

We certainly won’t do this forever and frankly, I can’t wait to get a triple shot espresso on day 22! But I think it’s always going to change the way I look at vegan stuff - I will seek it out now and then. And, I’m going to try to avoid gluten products as well – except for cereal, cookies and beer!

Peace, love and brown rice cats!

We made it!! (Kinda)

Boy, I really learned how hard it is to keep up a daily blog! Much has happened since I last blogged!

I left off when we were heading to McBain. The best highlight from that day is the "Back Alley Bar" in McBain. McBain is a tiny town, there is a party store and a not much more. There are some DALMACers who like to head the party store, grab the drink of their choice and head to the alley to discuss the days ride and plan strategies for the next days ride (yeah right!) . It's all fun and we got to know our riding brothers and sisters a little better.

What a roller coaster day we had on Friday. This is the day we go from McBain to Elk Rapids. It's a favorite day, because it's relatively short - 60 miles or so, and we get to go on Williamsburg road, which is very rolloer coaster like and fun to do on our tandem. We had a riot biking! With the short ride we got to Elk Rapids pretty early, enough time to hit the watering hole - to make sure we are not at the camp too early - when the luggage truck needs to be unloaded...

After relaxing a bit we went to the alternate Elk Rapids showers - Elk Lake! Beautiful swimming there! After a swim we went to a favorite restaurant of ours - "Pearls" we had a nice meal there and headed outside when the trip took a nasty turn....

While we were in the restaurant our tire blew! The tube had a huge hole in it and (the worst part) our rim was bent! Impossible to mount a tire on it. We still don't know what happened the only possibility we can think of, started last Saturday in the rain...When it was rainy, we had lots of road sand and junk on out brakes - I used them one time to stop and they ground like crazy, and continued to grind a tiny bit as we rode. We think that maybe that rubbing weakened the rim enough to cause it to bend over.

Any who (someone on the ride said only Grand Rapids people say that- ha!), We were done riding on our tandem- A new rim for our wheel is a special order and there were no extra tandem wheels to be found in Traverse City. Obviously we were very disappointed. We fretted all night about how we could get to our car in Mackinaw City, How we were going to get bikes to continue our ride, and ... and... and....

We woke up the next morning to some very good news! A group of riders had a problem: The person they were going to meet in Elk Rapids to drive their car up to Petoskey (our next stop) had to cancel. They needed their car moved and they were so happy to have it moved that she said to use the car as much as we like! What a blessing! We would be able to check if there happened to be any wheels in Traverse City and if nothing else, we would be able to get to Mackinaw City to get our car! ( A few riders on DALMAC bring their car with them and keep moving it up as they ride with friends or riders who drive ahead and ride the route (or some of it) backward.)

OK - long story short...No wheels in TC...I drove our Tandem to GR and picked up our single bikes...back to Petoskey where Shawn had our camp set up...we drove to Mackinaw City on Sunday so we could ride across the bridge...we did not break our streak - every time we have ridden Dalmac, we have crossed the bridge! Of course it was awesome - it never gets old to us!

Ferry to Macinac Island, dealt with the crowds there, ferry to Mack City and then home. What a trip! We are already excited about next year. We've got to get those last 70 miles in to complete the round trip!!!


AND - Because you asked - Here's my Rathlips (they weren't too bad at this point)

Day 5 E.Lansing to Mt. Pleasant

Another beautiful day for riding. This was a long day and the weather was
cool so we were cranking away the miles. We got an early start and by noon
we had gone 60 miles :-O. So we had a lot of time to do the last 25. The
Shepard Bar was beckoning us so we stopped in. We were invited to a table
of bikers and had a great time yucking it up with those guys. Any time you
can swap stories about the rains of 2000 and the heat and wind going to
McBain in 2006, you know you are going to have a fun time.

Tonight we are camping at CMU. I hope these kids behave themselves!

Hail Chippawas cats!

Day 4 DeWitt to Lansing

12 miles for us today to get to Lansing. We needed an easy day and it was
nice!

One of my pedals broke today. There was a bike shop near the MSU campus so
it was easy to replace. No biggie. Other hi-lites: we saw the MSU band
practice - so cool! It was pretty neat to see those guys working so hard -
and could they fill those horns!! Then we went to lunch/dinner at el
azteca - Mmmm good margaritas!

We are all registered for the ride, arm bands are in place and our bags are
on the truck. We leave directly from the hotel tomorrow!

Head north young cats!