They Must Be Getting Slower

Because there is NO WAY that I'm getting that much faster.

Yes it's true I did set a new PR (or personal record for non runners out there) on Saturday at the AMPS 5k in Pensauken, NJ. I crossed the line in an even 21 minutes and 21 seconds which shattered my previous best time of 21 minutes 56 seconds turned in at the Gaithersburg New Year's Day 5k. That was my favorite 5k and the last before LBJ (Little Bloggerman Jr) decided to poke his head out the following year).

To give you an idea of how I'm not really built for speed, I ran all 3 miles in under 7 minutes which is the first time I've ever done that. Add to that my first mile was clocked at 6 minutes and 29 seconds which is easily the fastest mile I've turned in, well ever. So that had me pretty amped up (no pun intended).

But there was one more thing that topped all of these. It seems there were only two people to finish ahead of me. That's right...little (fat) old me came in 3rd place (2nd male finisher) in the entire race of 400 people.

Now I know what you're going to say, and no, I DID NOT CHEAT!  I did however have two things working in my favor. First was that I was among the first five people to cross the starting line and in a race that isn't chip timed, starting position means everything. Second, it didn't hurt that of the 400 or so participants, about 300 of them were walkers.

But most importantly was that the race raised valuable funds and awareness of Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome (AMPS) which one of my cousins suffers from. It's a very painful disease that sucks all the energy out of you. In fact she was having another tough bout a few days before we showed up but luckly started feeling better the  day before the race. She, along with her siblings and some friends walked/ran the entire distance along with a bunch of other alumni from thier recovery program. Her Mom and Dad along with Mrs. Bloggerman and LBJ walked the course too and turned in a rather impressive time of under an hour!

I'm really proud of everybody who participated but particularly those who have battled the disease and continue to fight through the pain to live normal lives! Finally, my cousin won for "Best Fundraiser" for the event. She raised over $11,000 for the treatment program!

Baby Shopping and Sponsored Running

Having a kid to share my life experiences, laugh at my stupid jokes, and to raise in my (and Mrs. Bloggerman’s) image is going to be a blessing and I’m so excited. But first we have to go shopping.

To be more accurate we need to register for other people to shop for us. When we did this for our wedding this was a great experience, especially registering for the 40 boxes of mini-Charleston Chews. Thanks Stef (btw...plugging her blog: Not Your Typical Girl’s Blog) for actually buying those. But this time I was disappointed to not find any candy in the store and the most edible product was packages of strained peas. Definitely not as much fun!

We headed over to Buy Buy Baby to get the job done. First....the store name. It’s basically telling us that if we love our kid we will “buy, buy, and then some”. If we don’t spend enough money we just don’t care about our kids and they will call DeFaS (Dept. of Family Services) on us. Deep breath and we walked inside. Actually the wife went inside and I walked down the other end of the strip to grab some coffee. When I got there I was again disappointed to find there was no “used baby” section or books on how to properly “beat your kid” but then again that could be why DFS already has my name on file!

The process as we weaved through the store was a lot easier then I had thought. 95 percent of the credit goes to Mrs. Bloggerman for having a clear list, complete with brand names and models. When we couldn’t find what we were looking for she brought the Baby Bargains Book along with us for quick reference on the next best choices. When all was said and done , I’m not sure that we have everything we need but I’m assured that we’re good to go. We’ll see.

The reason for the coffee was the early call time that morning to run the Inaugural Hershey Half-Marathon. We had a great time up in the “sweetest place on earth” and I got my first ever chance at exploiting the blank billboard I call my chest. In the past I’ve plugged Waffle House and Geico by sporting their give-aways but never have I purposely worn an item with a logo/tagline because they sponsored me. That was until this race. I want to thank Phil over at Fenicci’s restaurant for the T-shirt. I even managed to talk up the restaurant during the run with other runners and spectators. Yeah I know talking while I run....but it’s what I do. Oh and the race wasn’t bad either. 1:42:26 puts me at a PR by more than 6 min. Sweet indeed.

It’s Summer For Cryin’ Out Loud

That means NO clothing that covers below your elbows or knee caps. When running during the summer these items are banned:

Long sleeve t-shirts (including compression shirts)
Jackets of any kind (I don’t care if it’s raining....deal with it)
Tights, Yoga Pants, Capris, Leggings (even long socks bother me)

If I see you running with any of these items between now and September 1, I may take one of the following actions

1) punch you in the face
2) hip check you into an oncoming cyclist
3) punch you in the face, thereby knocking you into an oncoming cyclist

And while I’m on a roll here those big bug-eyed sunglasses need to go ladies. There are sunglasses made specifically for running and active people. Spend $10 and get a pair. I can’t tell you how stupid you look. Sure my shorts are dirty, my socks are mismatched and I’m wearing a neon-green hat but none of those break my above rules.

Thanks and stay the hell out of my way.

What’s He Wearin’ On His Head?

As promised I am delivering a preview of the Thanksgiving Day get up for the 2009 Atlanta Marathon. This is not exactly what it’s going to look like but close


Yes that’s a full Thanksgiving Day menu on my back and yes that is a hat made to look like a frozen turkey. Big Whoop...wanna fight about it?

From the Start Gun, To the Hand Gun, To a Shotgun Wedding

Sorry Nicole and Jordan...I know the wedding wasn’t under “shotgun” pretenses but I needed it to complete the title of today’s catch up post from my weekend in the deep south.

The PR
Another year and another Peachtree classic in the books and for the second straight year another Personal Record for yours truly. This year the 10k race was completed in the blurring time of 48:01 (or a 7 min 43 second per mile pace). That topped my previous PR from last year by over 3 min. The main difference I can point to this year is not having to start back in the 9th group but rather towards the front (1B). During the run I even had time to grab a couple of Moe’s T-shirts. But the best part of the morning was after my race was done, I back tracked out of Piedmont Park and began to run back along the sidewalks of the race course to get some more mileage in for the day. On the way out of the park I ended up running and chatting with another guy, Shaun, who invited me back to where his family was hanging out over near mile 4. We stopped and I enjoyed a cold Michelob Ultra (the beer that’s so close to water it IS Water) before heading back to meet the wife, SIL and MIL over at Mile 2. So 11 miles or so of running and then another 4 plus of walking with the family back to the finish line made for some tired feet. Meeting former US Senator (and Vietnam War hero) Max Cleland plus the guy near the end who gave me one of his Krispy Kreemes made up for any pain I was going through (mostly caused by mixing beer, water, and donuts).

The Firing Range
Friday was kind of a quiet day around the house so the BIL, FIL, and Scott all went a “shootin” down at the local range. I had handled 22 caliber rifles some years back so shooting wasn’t foreign to me, but I had never worked with handguns so it was quite a bit of fun. I think Carla should check Scott’s shorts for some marks as he seemed to jump a few times when he started to hear how loud the shots were. The video below is be shooting the little 380 Ruger. It always felt like it was going to slip out of my hand. I much preferred the glock. It was a little longer and had better top/bottom balance.




The Wedding
Leave it to anybody other then my Niece to steal the show. Why should the wedding be about the bride and groom (congrats to both Jordan and Nicole, we wish you lots of luck together and very few run-ins with the federales!) when it can be all about the Illana. She danced all afternoon long and when the band wanted to pack it up and go home, she went to the lead singer and said “mo pwese!” How can you turn down a request like that?? Needless to say she got a few more songs to run around to. You have never seen a kid doze off that fast in the car!

The Food
I would be remiss to wrap up this posting with thanking the food that made the trip even better. Here it is in no particular order:
Green Turtle
McDonald’s
Stacey’s Cupcakes
Sweet Tomatoes
Fox Brothers BBQ
Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer
The Chocolate Bar
Capozzi’s NY Deli
Cheryl’s Brownies
All the Food along the Peachtree Course
J Christopher’s
Bricktops
Starbucks
Moe’s

Four Hours? Yeah Right and Got Headphones?

Four Hours to run a marathon? Yeah right. Four hours, you can kiss my grits! I just got back from (surprisingly scenic) Wilmington, Delaware where I kicked the ass of the Christiana Healthcare Delaware Marathon (the only marathon held in the state of Delaware) in a mind numbing three hours and fifty-two minutes. Sure it was raining, windy and when I finished I had blood on my shirt in the vicinity of my right nipple but I pushed through all that and just kept running. And do you know what the best part is? Go ahead…ask. Ok, I’ll tell you. The best part is that I was starving right afterward and gorged on ice cream sandwiches, pizza, and “no juice” added fruit punch. Actually the best part was the Mooks and the Wife cheering me on along the way. There’s nothing like a dog’s kiss to keep you going from mile to mile. Thanks!

The second part of today’s post. Spend $20 and get a decent pair of headphones! You…by the doors to the train today….I don’t want to hear your music! You can spend hundreds of dollars on an iPod and hundreds of more dollars on crappy music downloads but you can spend twenty bucks and get some ear buds that don’t require me to hear every word and every note of the latest Rihiana track being pumped into your eardrums? Look I recently needed a pair for my MP3 and went over to Best Buy. I spent twenty bucks and got a pair of Sonys. I can turn the volume up to 20 and not hear a thing when their not in my ears. Hummm? Look I don’t bother you with my crap and you don’t bother me with yours. Deal?

½ Marathon? Check. ½ Dozen Donuts? Check.

I’ve been talking about it and now I’ve done it. 13.1 miles and 6 Krispy Kreme Original Glazed donuts later I’ve completed what started out as a joke but ended up an adventure.

Ok maybe not so much of an “adventure” as a fairly stupid stunt but the bottom line is I did it.

Some of you may remember back to my posting on the Krispy Kreme Challenge race in North Carolina. Run 2 miles, eat a dozen donuts and run back 2 miles. Well after e-mailing a few times with the race directors/creators of that little jaunt, I decided to try my own spin on things. It didn’t help that my friends and some medical professionals (and by that I mean doctors on late night TV who weren’t even referring to me) egged me on. If there’s one thing I can’t stand down from, it’s a challenge involving food and drink.

Bottom line. Roughly 1200 calories taken in while running 13.1 miles. If you figure that I burned about 100 calories/mile then I came out ahead by 100 calories. Wa-hoo. 100 calorie packs all around.

So go ahead and look at the video of my documentary feat (or feet as the case may be). I want to thank everybody for their support but in particular, my wife, our friend who came with us to the race, and our other friends who loaned me their Flip camera (everybody should have one of these). I also want to thank the lady at Krispy Kreme who pointed out that even though I only wanted a half dozen that I could have had a full dozen for about the same price. I didn’t take her up but it was still nice for her to offer.

Bliss, Earthquake Requests, and Speed

Breathe deeply my dear readers. Yesterday was a yearly phenomenon that has been occurring since the dawn of time (or at least for most of the last 100 or so years). Baseball’s opening day occurred all over this great land (except where it was raining, snowing, or windy). Included in those festivities were my New York Mets enjoying the lovely spring weather in Cincinnati. Yes, the fans were out in the cold rain as the temperatures dropped from a perky 49 at first pitch to a slightly annoying 40 degrees by the seventh inning. Oh how those out in the bleachers looked pleased to be there. It was truly their smiles that brought out the glow on the field. Or was that the lights in the stadium because the sun never came out. I can’t really complain (or can I?) because the Mets showed strong defense, pitching, and timely hitting to start the season off on a high note with a win, but when will Major League Baseball get that just because it’s April, it doesn’t mean it’s warm and sunny all over the US! For the future, let’s try to keep all opening day games south of Kansas City, unless the home team has a dome/retractable roof. This way we can actually get all the games in on the first day.

I never want to encourage hurting people (unless I really don’t like them), but I have a request for the folks over at the US Geological Survey (the Federal agency in charge of creating earthquakes) could pinpoint a Magnitude 7 earthquake right under the anchor desk of the new Sports Center studio in Los Angeles. I don’t want to have any of the camera crew or other technical people hurt, I just want a small hole to open in the Earth’s crust and swallow Stuart Scott whole! Whose bright idea was it to put Sports Center in LA? The show takes place entirely in a windowless studio...why the hell would I care that they are now in Los Angeles? Additionally the “suits” over in Bristol, CT didn’t plan this launch around some major area sporting event (the above mentioned Opening Day” isn’t really large enough to count). If they were launching “Sports Center Detroit” (Final 4) or “Sports Center New Hampshire” launching on April 12 (Big Wind Day) it would make a little more sense. Also the aforementioned lazy eyed host (Scott) needs to have somebody show him the back of his head in a mirror. Either shave your whole head or grow your hair out, not only is the Mohawk look OUT, but you’re like 40 years old...nobody thinks your cool...stop trying!

Finally today, last week I spoke of a new sprinting work out that I’m experimenting with to increase my running speed. You can go back and read the whole thing here. But the bottom line is here are the distances run, the times I should be hitting, and finally my average times from yesterday.

10 x 100 yards / 15-18 seconds / 17-19 seconds
8 x 80 yards / 11-15 seconds / 13-15 seconds
6 x 60 yards / 8-11 seconds / 10-12 seconds
4 x 40 yards / 5-8 seconds / 7-9 seconds

So I am hitting the goal comfortably in some distances but struggling in the shorter ones. Now I went all out on the 40 yard dashes yet my time (in running shoes on a grass/mud soccer field) would barely register at the NFL Combines (on dry turf with cleats) among the 300+ pound linemen run and blown away by the world record sprinters. Oh well, I guess I have to keep plugging away (or put on 200 pounds).

Sprinting By A Kiwi Prank on Facebook

When I complete a marathon my legs hurt. Most people have the same sensation, with the pain subsiding within a few days depending on how in tune your body is (I’m usually good to go the next day). But let me tell you about hurt. That is how my quads and hamstrings sung a tune of pain as I jogged back from the park with the Mooks after my first day of a new speed training program (an attempt to get back under a 4 hr marathon). The basics:
1. 10 min warm up jog
2. 10 x 100-yard sprints (with jog backs)
3. 8 x 80-yard sprints (with jog backs)
4. 6 x 60-yard sprints (with jog backs)
5. 4 x 40-yard sprints (with jog backs)
6. 10 min cool down jog

The details:
Mooks held her own thru the 100-yarders but I couldn’t keep pulling her and tied her to a goal post for the 80’s and the 60’s. Well she got the point and took off (leash) for the 40’s in a line that would impress the NFL scouts. My time was not quite as impressive but I’m not doing it for time yet. I’ll be back at it tomorrow and we’ll see how it goes.

I’m not generally big on April Fools Day. It’s not that I don’t like to pull a prank or two but keep in mind, you have to be really good like Santiago (see last year’s prank) to make it count. That got me thinking, what would it look like to pull a prank today when everybody’s collective guard may be a bit lower. “But it’s not April 1,” you say. “Pfft” I say back to you. Technically it’s already April Fools in New Zealand so why the hell not. Well I don’t have the energy or the time to think of that now but if you want to spend some time today read about great Kiwi-based AFD pranks.

She nagged, and nagged, and nagged. Once all that was over she nagged some more. None of these attempts were successful until she plied me with booze and free food...that always is the answer. Any-who the wife got me to put up the long dreaded Facebook profile. So go, go now, don’t delay, I don’t know how long this will last. Check me out

Only My 3rd Best....check that 2nd Best Time

Just when you think you didn’t do as well as you had planned a ray of hope/a nice surprise comes your way. Such an occasion just occurred for me as I was putting the time for my latest race (Shamrock Marathon 2009) into the sheet I had created to track my best times. Yesterday I recorded a race of 4 hours, 4 minutes, and 44 seconds (yeah funny I had so many 4’s in my 16 marathon—come to think of it 4x4=16!) and I was a little down on myself because I didn’t break 4 hours like I had hoped. On the drive home last night (the rest of that story is below) Mrs. Bloggerman pointed out that not all was lost as this was my third best ever marathon time. Well to my surprise it was actually my second best time, beating the time from the 2008 National Marathon by 15 seconds. Go Me.

Now the rest of the story.

We took off from Alexandria on Saturday in route to Va Beach with our friend Eileen in the back seat. The ride down was fairly uneventful until we crossed into the greater Virginia Beach area. There we made, yet another, bathroom stop and came smack dab into the mecca, aka Mount Trashmore. Full history can be found here, but essentially it’s a city park that is a reclaimed land fill and now looks great. I visited back in ’99 on a spring break trip with J and Slevi, and we had been talking about it part of the way down. As you can see from the pic it was a bit windy up there but if you’re ever in the area you have to visit just to appreciate what can be done when you have city leaders with vision and some chutzpah!

We made it over to the expo shortly there after and were greeted in the parking lot by the guys from Bolthouse Farms who were loading up their truck after breaking down their booth a bit early. The were really cool and when we told them how much we like their product (not a lie...the Green Goddess is kick-ass), they broke out 3 full size bottles of their Vanilla Chai. Once we dropped those off in the car to stay cold we hit the expo which was a bit underwhelming for a race this size but I still managed to pick up a pair of sneakers (my first non-Pacers pair in over two years) which I got for a good deal and finally got a pair with some hot colors (that’s bright orange, white, and black)..which are much better then the plain navy and white that my last pair of Sacucny came in. A nice dinner and some cookies and back to Mike’s house for some sleep (Special shout-out to Mike for his hospitality and really making this race much easier on all of us!)

Morning of the race was fairly smooth as Mrs. Bloggerman dropped Eileen and I off near the start. Unfortunately as we were entering the Hilton to get warmed up and stretched out before the race is when the trouble began. The large green beer mug balloon I had worked so hard on getting for half price and getting refilled the night before came right off the ribbon attached to my belt and floated up to the heavens. It got worse from there. We got into the gaggle of runners as the starting gun went off and I didn’t get 200 feet past the starting line before my “sport beans” broke off my belt and got flattened under the shoes of the 500+ runners behind me. I did manage to save one of them however and saved that for Mile 12. Unfortunately that didn’t work so well either as when I got there and tried to open the bag, I couldn’t so I handed it off to a kid near the water stop to try his luck. He tried, and tried and then finally bit into the bag. Again, bad move as my last source of on-course nutrition when flying up in the air and landing all over the pavement. Lucky for me I’m not a proud man so I picked six or so off the ground and munched away. Anyway as we proceeded through this very flat race (the highest point was a 40 ft bridge that we passed over twice in the first half of the race) the crowd support was great with plenty of cheering fans. That all changed between miles 16-19 when we hit a two lane highway through the deep woods with no sounds other then feet hitting the pavement and the birds chirping. We were able to pass the time though with some really funny signs along the road including sayings such as: “Do Bald Men Get Lice?”, “How does Teflon stick to the pan?”, and “Man who go through airport turnstile sideways, going to Bangkok.” Then came Mile 22 when the “wall” hit, but I didn’t hit back and had to begin a combination of jogging and walking until about Mile 25 when I managed to harness what I had left and run in the last 1.2 miles.

I won’t go into the details of the ride back except to say that thanks to some really crappy drivers it took us 6.5 hours to make what should have been at most a 4 hour trip. I will however note that following the marathon, for lunch and dinner I consumed something in the neighborhood of 3,600 calories and 155 grams of fat (thanks to the folks at Sonic and Cosi for most of that!).

Until the next race....Bloggerman Out!

Run. Doughnut. Run

As Debbie (my former Mistress) put it yesterday “Now this is a race that I can get behind.” I completely agree. The following is the actual text from the USA Today article. I do not have authorization to republish this but am doing so with full citation:

N.C. racers run 2 miles, eat 12 donuts, run back
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — It's a challenge, all right.
In a charity race Saturday, more than 5,000 runners ran two miles to a downtown Raleigh Krispy Kreme shop, ate a dozen glazed doughnuts each and returned to North Carolina State University in less than an hour.

That's 2,400 calories and 144 grams of fat consumed while burning about 400 calories during the run.

The student-run Krispy Kreme Challenge raised about $35,000 for the North Carolina Children's Hospital.

The event began on a dare among college friends in 2004. Then-freshman Ben Gaddy won the first race by beating nine guys in about a half-hour.

His reward? A terrible stomach ache.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
This has got to be my next “Must Do” Race and I strongly encourage all of you to consider following my lead. I might even contact these folks and see if we can set up something like this here.

Drool......ummmmmm doooooooonuts.......Drool

Flooded Trails, Muddy Trails and One Hell of a Pork Chop

Bloggerman is back and running his #$@$ off. Lesson of the day: Don’t try to run twice in one morning in two different states! Saturday morning brought my usual group run with the Sparkles and the rest of the Pacer’s crew. We ran down in Springfield at Lake Accotink which is a really kick ass 3.something mile loop around the lake and into the surrounding neighborhood. Only one problem. When we got to the “dam” we noticed that the trail (the part leading back to the parking lot with our cars) was flooded over and completely impassable. We had to double back and essentially do a 2nd loop. Other then that the rain held off and it was surprisingly warm (60 degrees) for November in the Mid-Atlantic States.

Here’s where you’re Hero made a mistake. I thought it would have been a good idea to then drive back home towards the G-burg to go to the Montgomery County Road Runners “Cross Country 8k”. Um...no....you see I’ve never run a XC race before and now I know why. Two laps into my four lap race my legs felt like jelly and I couldn’t stop slipping on all the mud. Plus it’s never a good idea to enter a race field of 30 or so runners when you are sure to be in the back 10 (hey at least 5 guys finished behind me!). The picture in today’s post is from that race right as I got into my “Superman” pose (and then proceeded to almost wipe out going down a curvy hill.

However all my hardships were rewarded with one hell of a dinner at Ricciutis with friends. It’s located in Olney in an old historic mansion but its claim to fame (on top of the great food) is that it is entirely “green”. They get all of their power from wind and almost everything is recyclable. But the food was the best part. I had an awesome “Cocoa-dusted Pork Chop with an Espresso - Barbeque sauce” It was way too good for just one meal so I took some home and enjoyed a pork burrito for lunch yesterday while watching the football games.

Oh this is where I add that Safeway pharmacy sucks and should stay open way past 4pm on Sunday!

Top 50 Jewish Hotties....Not Quite and It’s Not Easy Living With a Runner

In perusing uber-video game geek site, UGO.com’s list of the “Top 50 Jewish Hotties” (Guys...follow that link now!!!) I noticed that several things that brought both my ire, irk, and general perturb-ness.

1) Half of the girls on this list (especially those born post 1980), I’ve never heard of...that’s not to say that they don’t belong on this list, because, based on their photos, you betcha they do. It’s just that I feel a little disconnected to my Jewish sisters since neither their names, faces, and in some cases their body of work are completely foreign to me.

2) I have no argument with #1 (Natalie Portman) but Sarah Silverman needs to rank in the top 3...I don’t care who the other’s are. She is clearly 1a to Portman’s 1. Forget about what comes out of her mouth (although I do agree with the author of that article that it only increases her “hottie-ness”) but she’s got the Semitic good looks that you’d be proud to take home for Passover sedar.

3) Perhaps I spoke to soon on #2. The biggest sham is who was left off, certainly we all know that #1 should have actually gone to (wait for the suck up moment): Mrs. Bloggerman. But seriously I do think they left off a few names such as: Mayim Bialik (“Blossom”), Alex Borstein (voice of Lois on “Family Guy” and the chick bartender in “Bad Santa”), Zach Braff (oh wait he’s a guy...but still hot), Pink (as in “Pink”, not “Panther), and finally, who could forget Mindy Cohen (of “Facts of Life” Mindy).

Speaking of hot girls who are married to me and haven’t been on TV or in the movies, Mrs. Bloggerman and others (Debbie) can take solace in the fact that you are not the only two women who feel that living with a distance runner is akin to inviting another Jew into your house, as in Alf. It seems, according to this article in the New York Times, that we runners can get a bit obsessive, especially during the big fall marathoning season. I don’t know how much I agree with that especially because I’m too busy running or talking about running, or dreaming about running, or watching my dog dream about running to actually ponder such nonsense but I do it because I like to and if Mrs. Bloggerman or any of my other wives (Tudy, Punky Brewster, or Zach Braff) have anything to say about it then Pffft to you!

Another One?

Yep another marathon (#15) is in the books. Yesterday Bloggerman took down the 33rd Marine Corps Marathon in a time of 4 hours, 10 minutes, and 35 seconds. Now if you go to search my results you’ll see a time of 4:13:54 but I can explain. You see upon seeing the Smithsonian Castle, just before mile marker 19, I couldn’t help but run in real quick and see the quality of the bathrooms. Sure I could have checked out those exhibits and all the history inside but why? I mean the bathroom has it all, History, Culture, and Push-Button Hand Driers.

The race was not my best time but it does replace this year’s Baltimore Marathon (2 weeks ago) as my third best overall time and I was happy to (after stopping to walk parts of Mile 21 and 22) pull myself up and run the rest of the way into the finish line. In fact if you’d like to view Bloggerman cross the line you can see it here on the Washington Post feed of the finish line. Forward your timers to 1:32:10 and look for the guy in the middle with the white shirt and big hat.

Special thanks to Pacers for hosting all of us before and after the race and an extra special thanks go out to Mrs. Bloggerman and her team of cheerleaders (Jenna and Lilah) for following me around on the course and keeping my spirits up.

As of now it looks like I’m taking the rest of 2008 off as far as serious distance and am starting to think of a plan for 2009. The only race that is set in stone is the 2009 NYC Marathon in November. I’m kicking around a plan to run 12 ½ marathons (1 per month) as a new challenge. We’ll see what happens. Now it’s time to build a case for my medals.

Bloggerman out

The Hippo Truth, The Mayor Ain’t That Fast, and South Park’s GOP Following

The subtitle to this posting is “Everything I Need to Know I Learned Reading Yeas & Nays in the DC Examiner. Several items in today’s paper are screaming for my attention and I just can’t decide which comes first so I’ll go in the order which I read them.

The Hippo Truth
Former George Washington University president, Steven Joel Trachtenberg finally came clean on the giant bronze hippo sitting at the corner of 20th and G streets, NW in DC. The gist of it was that he was drunk and his wife wasn’t there to supervise so he bought this thing and had it shipped back to DC where he wasted the time and money of a major university (Bloggerman’s alma matter) fabricating a lie about how George and Martha Washington used to sit on the porch at Mt. Vernon and watch these “noble creatures” wallowing in the mud of the Potomac River.

Finally! We’ve been saying this ever since the late 1990’s when this “thing” was plopped down on campus along with an all out media blitz to try to convince us that it belonged. Nobody bought this crap but as we matriculated out of the university, the incoming classes were inducted and went around believing that if you rubbed the hippo’s nose it would bring you good luck. The only luck it would have brought you in an exam is if it fell on you so you couldn’t fail.

What I want to know is how much money was ultimately spent by the university to promote this damn thing? And furthermore will Trachtenberg pay that tab? This guy should rightly get the credit for turning around the school in the late 80’s and making it a top flight school heading into the 21st century but this is the kind of schemer that should permanently be on his record. Somewhere the Washington’s are rolling in their graves.

The Mayor Ain’t That Fast
So the honorable, Adrian Fenty, DC Mayor is running (along with your’s truly) the 33rd Marine Corps Marathon this Sunday. This year he also shared the pavement with me at the National Marathon in April and he ran a 3 hour and 40 minute race. I was behind him by a little over 20 min (4 hour 7 minutes). But since then I’ve shaved 7 min off of that time (Frederick Marathon) and I think I’m ready to get even closer. So your Honor, watch your back cause Bloggerman and his “Run, Beer, Repeat” team will be on your heels.

SP and the GOP
“You bastards, you killed Palin....err...Kenny!” That’s the cry coming from hard core conservative Republican’s per the latest Nielson study. Yep the great GOP goes gaga for Cartman, Kyle, Mr. Hankey and the rest of the South Park crew. Some people are surprised about this because of the show’s controversial content but I’m not in that group. Why would you be surprised that a bunch of bible-thumping, gun-toting, bigoted rednecks like a show that star a cast of bible-thumping, gun-toting, bigoted rednecks (albeit animated ones)? Sure they cross the line and kill little Kenny each episode (at least I think they still do, I haven’t watched in a while) but they also have tried to stop stem cell research, abortion clinics, and constantly bash gays. These are the planks of the GOP platform and those doing the elephant walk can be proud that they can see themselves in small cartoon children. It sure sounds like NAMBLA’s registration numbers and the names on Megan’s List are going to be increasing as of November 5.

4 hours….we don’t need no stinking four hours!

In fact take those four hours and return 25 seconds of them back to their original owners. That’s how confident I feel about this transaction.

Yeah confident….sore but confident as I not only set a PR on a course I had no business PR’ing on but also managed to see something that I never thought I’d see in my running “career”. As I crossed the finish line at the 2008 Frederick Marathon, my watch read 3hr, 59 min, and 35 sec. So not only did I break my PR set last month in DC by about 5 min but I broke through the 4 hour marathon window (barely!).

The course was very tough, especially the back end. If you care to look, here’s the elevation chart and my version of the course from Gmap Pedometer. The front half of the race is fairly flat and scenic, rolling through small neighborhoods and historic homes before coming back to the Fairgrounds. The second half however went out to the more industrial section of town and then down a long stretch of highway where we hit the two “Monster” hills before returning back to a newer neighborhood up on the ridge.

The people were great but none greater then the mighty Boigs who came out to support me (even if they missed me at 15), feed me the night before, and even give me a lift home. Thanks for the support. And thanks to Mrs. Bloggerman for getting stuck in CA and not being able to attend. For those of you keeping score at home, she’s missed the last 2 marathons and I’ve set PR’s at each!

I think I’m taking the summer “off” and just running for fun until the fall comes around. We have Baltimore in October and will hear about entry in to NYC (November) in mid June. If I don’t get in there I may do Marine Corps (late October), San Antonio (November) or Las Vegas (early December) as my fourth this year….we’ll see.

Doggin It, A Headset…cool, or not, and Spike’s DC Digs

Yeah I know I don’t talk bad about the Mooks much but she was so lazy yesterday. Sure she ran with Mrs. Bloggerman in the morning and then ran with Bloggerman at night, but she slept at least 8 hours in between those two events so what’s up with that?

I think she’s doggin it, excuse the pun, on purpose to make us give her more treats. Well it’s not going to work miss thing!

Yesterday when I got home there was a package at my door with my name on it. I wasn’t expecting anything so it was a bit of a head scratcher. Upon inspection it was a headset similar to the style that NFL head coaches wear on the sidelines. Only this wasn’t for me to be a coach but plugs into my Play Station 2 controller and allows me to hear and talk to others. Evidently I placed second in a Motorola-sponsored contest. OK I guess I did. Only one problem: I don’t own a Play Station 2.

It was really nice of them to send this to me but since they also sent them out in Xbox compatible form, perhaps it might have been better to check which system I have. Furthermore, PS2 (nor Xbox) is really the standard anymore so why not make them for PS3/360? Seems like a pretty crappy contest to me but at least it’s going to go to a good cause. After I open the box and put them on the Mooks for a picture (coming soon) I will donate them for a charity auction for my softball team. So there Motorola…take your prize and well…donate it!

Lastly, I’ve gotten into TopChef-Chicago on Bravo as of late to fill my Project Runway gap and one of the more charismatic characters, Spike Mendelsohn, is opening a new “burger joint” here in town. The place is called Good Stuff Eatery and will be setting up shop at 3^rd and Pennsylvania, SE (Capitol Hill). Any place that can blend up a Marshmallow shake is good enough for me.

Pics from the National Marathon

JUST ONE MORE COW!

4:04:59

4:04:59

Thanks to everybody who:

Pushed Me

Trained with Me

Kicked my Butt out of Bed to Run

Etc!

Another Reason Not to Wear Headphones When Running/Biking/Scuba Diving and How does ION stay on the air?

For those of you who don’t know (and based on telling this story to my running team on Saturday, most of you in this group), Mike Wise, a sports columnist at the Washington Post.

Last week he was out in the evening (after dark) running a few miles with his dog on a DC trail that runs along the C&O Canal. After going about 3 miles he stops to stretch and the dog (who is off leash) paces around him. After a minute or so the dog wanders off on to the frozen over canal to sniff something and falls through the ice. Wise (who is about 6’4”) slides down the embankment and onto the ice to try to rescue the dog and also falls in. He can’t get himself out and would have frozen to death in just over 6’ of water had it not been for a lone runner out on the trail who heard his plea for help. Jason Cotes just happened to be running by the trail at that moment and came to Wise’s rescue (and the dog too). You can read all the details here at WJLA’s report, but the long story short, had Cotes been like many runners out on the trail and listening to headphones/ipod/etc he would not have heard Wise and that evening would have turned tragic. I ask all of you who go out side to run/bike/roller blade/whatever DO NOT WEAR HEADPHONES….you may just put yourself or others in danger.

Second item today: How does ION network stay on the air? Yes, I too was unaware of ION network until recently. I subscribe to a number of media industry newsletters and saw in one of them that this is the “prime time” line up tonight:

8pm: Mama's Family
830pm: Mama's Family
9pm: Drew Carey Show
930pm: Drew Carey Show
10pm: Who's the Boss?
1030pm: Who's the Boss?

No offense to Valerie Harper, Drew Carey, or Tony Danza, but these are not names that can carry a network in primetime in 2008. Twenty years ago possibly but not now. The one notable exception is ”Mama’s Family” which was never funny, unless you live in the middle of Ohio or Indiana and perhaps know somebody who looks and sounds like a loud mouth New York Jew but who happens to be trapped in the body of a 70 year old Midwestern protestant house wife. Oh and for a “family-friendly programming” network, I don’t think bringing “Baywatch” on the schedule in March is the best move. Unless they plan on blurring out Pam’s boobies.