mmmmm......shiny medal

What motivates a distance runner?  Is it the accomplishment?  Is it the competition? Is it something in their makeup that pushes them onward?  What keeps them going through mile after mile as their bodies scream out "stop, you're killing me here"?  What makes them get up on a cold Saturday morning when most people are sleeping comfortably in bed to go out and run 13, 26, 50, 100 miles?

Motivation has always been my friend and enemy.  Sometimes I'll think about a marathon and just want to go do 1 or 2 or even 3 in a row, just to do it.  Sometimes, the thought of finishing and getting a medal has driven me onwards.  At least once when training for a NY marathon, the fact that I had raised $2,500 for the Sloan Kettering Children's Cancer center pushed me on, knowing that people had given me money to go out and do it, and I couldn't let them down.  During the Steamtown marathon, seeing all the people who had dropped out and were sitting on the side of the road waiting for the sag wagon pushed me on, just thinking about how horrible it would be to sit there for 2 hours to wait until the roads opened to be brought back to the finish line.  I realized i could get there faster even if I had to walk some of it.

On the other hand, sometimes motivation is fickle.  I can think of tons of times doing a training run of 18, when i got to 15 and just couldn't go on anymore.  I'll never forget running the Queens half marathon in the early 2000's and myself and a friend of mine talked each other into dropping out halfway through.  I've never forgotten doing that, and it's honestly haunted me ever since.  It actually placed the idea in my head forever after that it would be OK to drop out.  There's that little voice in your head that says it's no big deal.

Every time I train for a marathon, I find the actual training to be the worst part.  I get worn down and as the time goes on the aches and pains start to add up, and don't go away.  The real marathon is the training, staying healthy with no prolonged sicknesses, avoiding major injuries and keeping the minor injuries minor.

As usual, I injured myself this training season.  I fell about a week ago and hurt my ribs.  In addition to the fact that it hurts to run, and breathe heavily, it's really hard to sleep since every turn makes it hurt.  So I'm worn down.  But I can't stop now, there's a marathon in January with a Mickey Mouse medal at the finish line.

I took Tuesday off, but was back at it Wednesday.  Due to the pain, and not knowing how I'd react, I skipped my weekly run with the Davidson Area Running Team and hit the treadmill at work.  I managed 6.5 slow and painful miles, but I did it.  I got in another 4 Thursday.

Which brings me to Saturday.  Weeks ago, thinking (perhaps foolishly) that I'd be healthy, I signed up for the Dowd 1/2 Marathon.  And yes, part of the reason (besides the fact that it fits into my training program, and it's easier to run with other people) is that there is a medal.  In fact there's sort of 3 medals.  There's 1 for the Dowd 1/2, another 1 for the Thunder Road Half, and a special 3rd medal if you finish both.

Also, Jo had signed up for the race so we could do it together.  So I didn't see so much that I had a choice.  Plus I convinced myself that it would be like at least 2 of the marathons that i ran injured.  Just go out and see what happens.  

We woke up early, to quite a chilly morning in Charlotte-30 degrees.  My comment:   "If I wanted to be this cold I could've stayed in NY."  We headed down to the Dowd in downtown.  Luckily, it was a Saturday and the Y opened at 7, so we got to sit inside and stay warm and stretch (and hit the bathroom repeatedly).  Right  before the race started we headed outside with all the other folks.  Based on the turnout I'd say this is one of the big distance runs in Charlotte.  Quite a few people. We were all jammed into a side road next to the Y, until the go signal, and off we went.  

Jo and I brought our full water bottles with us, since it's easier to get water on a long run when you need it as opposed to when it's available.  So we had our water, gu, and in my case, sports beans, which rattled the entire way as I ran.

I tried to keep it a little bit slower than my normal pace, since I knew there was a long road ahead.  I seem to be able to slow down OK, but Jo was having a hard time governing her speed a bit, and was trying not to race ahead.  It's hard at the start of a race not to get pulled along with all the other people, but I just kept saying that we'd wind up passing a lot of these folks as long as we took it easy.

Considering how cold I was at the start, I warmed up pretty quickly.  By halfway through the second mile, I was already starting to be warm.  I was a bit concerned that I was overdressed, but as the race went along, the wind picked up and we cooled back off.

Bingham signs about 5 times during the run.  I guess they cut through.  As we got to the last mile, I was expecting to go right up the hill and finish at the Y, but there was one last surprise.  Right before the Y, we made a left and went rambling a little bit before coming back to the Y.

About 1/2 mile from the finish, a pair of women who had been going back and forth with us, tried to pass us, to finish ahead of us.  I was having none of that, and put it on to finish.  Jo's comment was "now you're going to speed up?", but I was motivated by the fact that I ran the whole way, while these women ran fast ahead, then walked to fall behind all day.  I wanted the medal and childishly wanted to finish ahead of them, which we did.

Slow and steady followed by....more of the same...until the end

We got our shiny medals, which now just motivates me for the Thunder road and my 2 more medals. 

The rib was painful at first, but loosened up, but towards the last 2 miles, really started to tighten up and hurt.  Had to go home and take some pain meds, and woke up pretty sore Sunday.  Still managed to run 6 on Sunday though, even though it was quite painful.

On to the next goal.

Got my shiny medal

8K, 5K, 10K...Ouch!

The town of Mooresville had it's annual Halloween 8K (what is it with 8k as a distance anyways?  it's.....weird) this weekend an due to the fact that I actually read the Mooresville newspaper a few weeks ago I was fired up and ready to go.  However, a week ago a co-worker gave me the link to the NODAween 5K happening in NODA, Saturday night.  Faced with the choice of these 2 races, I decided to......do both!  My training program had a step back week for this week, and I only had to do 6 on Saturday and 8 on Sunday.  I decided to switch up the days and do the 8 on Saturday with the 8K + 5K making a almost perfect 8 miles.

The Mooresville race is decidedly lower tech than most races.  There was no online entry form so I had to show up extra early and sign up.  The other funny thing was, that in this age of technology, there were no chips.  When you crossed the finish line you had to rip off the bottom of your bib and that was your finish tag. Haven't had that experience in quite some time.

As we lined up in front of the Mooresville Recreation department (which I only found because my daughter had swim team there this past year), I ran into people I knew.  The first person was someone I knew from taking spin class at the YMCA.  The second, Wendy, I knew from daily mile.  I knew she'd be there and I recognized her from her picture.  It was interesting actually meeting someone that you know only from online. 

Overall the race was great.  Not too hilly. Temps were good.  I went into the race planning on just taking it easy since I had a 5K later in the day.  Went out pretty good, kept it going, and just had fun.  It was a beautiful fall day.  I was running down a road with the leaves falling and the smell of fireplaces in the air and wished I had a camera with me to take a picture.  Overall just a good time.  I finished in just over 47 minutes, which wasn't bad considering I was taking it easy.  And the fact that I had the neighbors Halloween party the night before and was exhausted. As a bonus I got a $15 gift card to Road ID, which I used as soon as I got home to get Jo a new Road ID for her new shoes.

The only picture I have from the Mooresville 8K

I went home, hung out for a few hours, made some cookies and treats for the kids Halloween party and headed back out to go to NODA.

For those of you that don't know, NODA is an area of Charlotte a few miles away from downtown.  It used to be where the textile mills and mill workers homes were.  It has been turned into an arts center with funky shops and cool restaurants.  It reminds me a bit of a much smaller Woodstock, NY.  If you're in the Charlotte area check it out at www.noda.org

Old textile mill re purposed into homes and a great restaurant.

Yes, I'm not wearing a costume

Making my way to the theater to pick up my number and shirt, I got to walk past a lot of interesting buildings and people dressed up.  I was really beginning to feel like I was grievously under dressed.

The pumpkin-mobile

The....batmobile?  Not the one I remember!

Once I got my number and shirt I was given my chip along with the type of band that usually goes around your wrist for a bar.  I had to ask what it was for.  Apparently, the plan was to tie the chips around your ankle with the strap.  Um, ok.  So i did that.  That was a new one on me!

OK, what?  The chip ties around your ankle?

While waiting for the race to start, I got to go into the historic theater, where they were having a pumpkin auction featuring pumpkins made by local artists.  It was pretty interesting

Somebody's angry

The pumpkin totem pole

Funky pumpkins

Yes, that is a Peter Criss pumpkin

About 15 minutes before the race I headed outside to check out the costumes.  Again, quite an interesting experience (see below). 

Running with scissors and the skeleton

Yes, she says she's a badger.  

Slash.

Please don't let me finish after the woopie cushion

She ran with the dog too

So many comments, so little time

As we lined up to start, I saw a lot of cool costumes, and was hoping that I didn't finish behind some of them, as they looked pretty big and bulky, and that would mean I was really slow.

The race start

Yes, I passed them in the third mile!

The race started and we were off.  Once again I was surprised at how hilly Charlotte is.  The race consisted of a up and downs  (so it felt) around the Noda area.  Since I hadn't seen too much of the area outside of the main part of town, it was nice to see some of the other areas.  I felt that I was struggling a bit throughout the race, which seems to be the way my evening runs go these days.  Interestingly, there were no mile markers, which made it hard to get a feel for how fast I was going.  I tried to keep passing people and not have them pass me.  There were a couple of water stops during the race, and it seemed like the folks from the neighborhood were manning them.  Thank you!  I went back and forth for a while with the Jelly Belly's before finally passing them for good in mile 3.  I guess my runs with the Davidson Area Running Team are paying off, as I stayed strong throughout the race.  I finished in a shade under 27 minutes at 26:58, which is somewhere around a 8:41 pace.  Not bad.  PS the woopie cushion was way behind me.  Sweet!

After the race was over, my car happened to be in front of Cabo Fish Taco, so I went in and got the BBQ mahi taco's to go.  Awesome, though the guy dressed as Borat that insisted on talking to me was amusing.....at first.

Sunday morning Jo had to do 9, so I figured I'd go the first 6 with her.  And 2.5 miles in I tripped on a raised sidewalk and went down hard on my ribs.  I was down for a good 5 minutes, but got up and finished.  However, it's safe to say that the ribs still are not feeling too great.

Got the Dowd YMCA 1/2 marathon coming up saturday, and I'm a bit concerned.  We'll see how it goes.

Welcome Race Fans!!!

OK, so it's 3 days later and I'm just getting around to writing the race recap from this weekend!  Busy, busy, busy.

Speaking of busy, it was a busy running weekend for me.  Starting off with Saturday's Lungstrong 15K.  After alternating races through much of the summer, Johane and I were finally able to run a race at the same time, thanks to Julia sleeping over at a friends house.  We awakened to a brisk 39 degrees on Saturday, and the thought of going back to sleep immediately popped into my head.  Jo was having none of that, so we headed down to Jetton Village in Cornelius. For a surprise there were plenty of port-a-potty's to be found, so that was a plus.  As it was freezing, we headed over to Harris Teeter to warm up and ran into @Jim Crotts.  One of the side benefits of  running with the davidson area running team, is that I actually know people now.  Got to chat with Jim for a few and wish him well, and warmed up.  As the time approached we headed back outside.  The announcements were quite amusing: "this is for the 15K start ONLY.  if you are running the 5K and start now, you will have a very long day"  pretty funny.  So the race started and I got to the first mile, and my Nike+ said......1.15.  That seemed a little long, a fact that was debated for a while on Facebook, with a lot of people saying the course was long.  I only found the first mile long, and all the others were exactly 1 mile from the previous (except for the six mile marker which I never saw)

Anyways, the course was pleasant winding mostly through residential areas and taking a quick detour through Jetton park.  Through most of the course the water was never far away and there were some amazing vistas, and some rather large houses.  I had never been here before (Jo did the race solo last year), and when I looked at it on the map, I assumed that it would be relatively flat.  Boy, was I wrong.  I guess nothing is flat in the Charlotte area.  The hills were definately rolling throughout the course.  I was ok for almost the whole course, but got a bit tired out on the last mile.  Not sure what my deal was. I did a 9 2 weeks ago like it was nothing, and I felt like I was dragging this time.  I have been tired for a week.  Trying to get more sleep this week.  Well, we finished.  Our time was ok, not great, but I looked at it as a long, slow training run.  Of course neither of us was smart enough to bring a camera or camera phone, so the only pics I have are below. Us after it was over, and my number.  Sorry!

Post Race-glad it was over

My Number-really only here because I have so few pictures!

Next up was Sunday and the Kasey Kahne 5K.  Apparently, Kasey Kahne is a NASCAR driver who decided to do a run for charity.  Now I know nothing about NASCAR at all, and didn't do the race for that.  Here in the South, they don't do racing on Sunday, with only rare exceptions, and this was one, so I jumped all over it!  The race started at 8 downtown, so I popped in my car and headed down there.  The sun comes up a bit later here in Charlotte, so as I was getting into town at 7:15 it was just getting light, which let me get the shots of the city you see below:

Downtown featuring the Bank of America Building

The new Duke Energy building-built by Wachovia who went broke

Another shot of Duke Energy and the downtown area


As this race was point to point, I was stick with the decision around whether to park at the start or the finish.  I got a coupon for $5 parking at the finish at the NASCAR hall of fame, but after some consideration, I went with parking at the start at Bank of America Stadium (home of the stellar 0-5 Panthers), which would let me get my chip and then sit in my car and be warm (in retrospect a great call, since I used the walk back as my cool down, I got to see parts of town I hadn't seen yet, like the new Mint Museum, and new Bechtler Museum of Modern Art.  Nice looking buildings.  Plus, there was no one at the parking garage collecting, so I parked for free)

Anyways, as most of you know by now, one of my pet peeves about going to races is that a lot if times, there will be way too few port-a-pottys.  I hate standing in line with the start approaching stressing about if I'll be locked in a plastic jail when the start gun goes off.  So when I headed over to check out the situation I was greeted with this:

Yes folks, that's it.  Now it is better than the 2, yes 2, they had at the Rock 'n' Run 5K, but still.  

So the start was in front of Bank of America stadium, and yes Kasey Kahne was suppossed to be there.  Like I said before this race I wouldn't have know Kasey if I (literally) walked into him.  But some of the women in my neighborhood seemed to think that he was something special.

He looks 14 to me guys

I headed over to the start and tried to avoid freezing to death.  Melodramatic I know, but something has happened to me in my time in the south and I really can't take the cold.  Consequently I was a bit overdressed at the start.

Freezing here, but soon to be boiling

The start.  Not bad for a first time race.

Before the race started, there were the usual annoncements, and I was pleased to see that I wasn't the only one with no clue who Kasey was.  In the below picture you can see Kasey in front of the TV camera's while off to the back left is the guy doing the announcements.  Literally 2 seconds before I took this pic the guy said "And Kasey Kahne will be here any second for the start", whereupon a bunch of people yelled out "He's standing right next to you".  Funny stuff.

"Kasey Kahne will be here shortly"

Um, he's right next to you

So the race itself was nice, though for a race advertised as in "downtown Charlotte" we seemed to spend an awful lot of time outside of town.  The race went all around the outskirts of town, and spend a lot of time going downhill.  Plenty of people were saying that this was going to be an awesomely fast course,  Guess what folks, the NASCAR hall of fame is waaaaaaayyyyyy back up hill.  So the second half of the course was almost all uphill.  Made it to the finish line in 28 minutes, which was pretty good considering the 15K the day before.  Something else different was the finish line.  Instead of jsut a finish line they had women dressed up in tu-tu's waving checkered flags.  Never seen that before!

Stage Right

Stage Left

Overall, I finally got a up close look at the NASCAR hall of fame.  I must say it looks pretty cool from the outside.  Will I ever go there?  I dunno.  Not a NASCAR fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I've heard it's pretty cool, so I may go just for the heck of it.

Finish Line area

NASCAR hall of fame

After the race there was Kasey himself standing there, so I decided to take a picture with him.  Though I look like a stalker in the picture that jumped in front of him, we really did pose the pic, but I did it fast, since I really didn't want to bug him.  I saw 2 other guys with him, but I had no idea who they were so I didn't get pictures with them.  I found out later it was Jimmy Johnson and Joey Lagano.  I've heard of Jimmie Johnson, but Joey Lagano still means nothing to me.

I'm really not a stalker

Once that was over, I walked back to my car, and called Jo, who told me she was now ready to run.  So, I drove over to freedom park to meet her and run.  Wound up running another 5K.  Let's just say that after waiting 45 minutes in a car to runa gain, the first mile with Jo, was.....interesting!

So Long to September

Miles run:   Tuesday: 4, Wednesday: 4 + 2, Thursday: 4

The month of September drew to a close yesterday.

Final stats for the month:
Miles: 91.95
Runs: 22
Time: 15:37:11
Calories burned: 13065

Considering I missed a whole week due to illness, I guess it's ok.  Got a lot of running to do in the next few months.

Tuesday was the usual boring treadmill run, but with Jo out to work at 6, that's all i can do.

Wednesday I was looking forward to hitting it with the Davidson Area Running Team after a week off due to illness.  All looked good as I left the house, but 3/4 of the way to Davidson, the skies opened up.  After being sick and missing a whole week of training, I realized that the combination of rain + cold was not a good idea.  So it was off to the gym again for another treadmill workout.  to try to simulate the run I missed with DART I hit the treadmill for 2.5 miles at 8:34 pace, after which I was nearly dead, and then another 1.5 miles at my usual pace.  The last 1.5 miles were pretty tough since I was drained.

One of the things I'm trying to do to train for this marathon is to split up my Wednesday long run.  When I was in New Jersey and working from home on Wednesday's I could get my 6-10 run in before work.  It also helped that the sun comes up around 45 minutes earlier in Jersey than here.

Anyways,  I'm not going to be able to get it in before work here, so I've decided to try and split it up.  To ease into it, the last few weeks, I've been doing 4 in the morning and then 2 after work.  So after work it was back to the Y for another 2 on the treadmill.  It was ok.

Thursdays, Julia has dance after school until 8, so I have the opportunity to not wake up at 4:30AM and try and squeeze it in, I can actually go after work.  I've been trying to go into Charlotte and run around the town. This week I thought I'd hit some of the course of the upcoming Dowd YMCA half marathon and start at the Dowd and run to the corner of Queens and Queens.  Yes this is how the roads go in Charlotte.  There are around 3 different roads named Queens and at some intersections instead of the road continuing on it turns right, and the street across is called something else.

Here's the Queens and Queens example:

Brilliant, huh?  Regardless, it was about a 4-mile loop.  I didn't realize quite how hilly it was.  A bit of a struggle coming back.  I'm starting to feel like I don't run well in the late afternoon/evening anymore.  I used to, but now i seem to struggle.  It could also be that it's the hottest part of the day here.  Before I went out, it really looked like it was going to rain, but after spending the last 2 days on the treadmill, I really felt like I needed to get outside.  So I took the chance, and prayed the whole time that it wouldn't start raining.  Luckily it held out.  At the end of the 3.98 mile course my Nike + said.....3.73!?!?!  Since it's a new ipod and sensor, I knew it needed to be calibrated, so I skipped the shower (and hot tub) at the Dowd, and headed for the track at Davidson College.  After the half hour drive (and probable muscle stiffness), I hit the track for a 1 lap calibration run, followed by a 1 lap verification.  Seemed pretty close now, so hopefully things will be closer going forward.

This weekend probably going to do a light 3-4 miler Saturday, and Jo and I are going to do around 9 (hopefully) in downtown while Julia is in Hebrew school.

In case anyone wants to try the Dowd run, it's down below:


Also this week, I joined daily mile.com.  It's almost like a facebook for runners/athletes.  You can sync with either Nike+ or Garmin, and compare with other runners, get friends, have competitions, etc.  Check it out, it's pretty neat

Hitting the Brixx

Miles Run:  Saturday:  5K, Sunday: 9.25

"Charlotte is hilly" - overheard a few times during the race
Saturday was the Hit the Brixx race sponsored in uptown (downtown to us Yankees) Charlotte:

They had both a 10K and a 5K separated by an hour and 15 minutes so both Jo and I had the opportunity to run.  Jo took the 10K since I was going to be running Sunday anyway.  It would be interesting for both of us since we had both been sick and basically took almost the whole week off.

Sponsored By Brixx

We headed to downtown Charlotte early Sunday morning.  I never get over how easy it is to get into and out of Charlotte.  Always a breeze.  Found a parking spot in a lot right around the corner from the start line.  We let Jo go get her chip, while Julia and I parked.  Turns out that Brixx validated without even buying anything! sweet!  Stopped to get my chip too.  On a side note, there seem to be 2 main timing companies in the Charlotte area that run the races (who shall go nameless).  One seems to stick with the old chips that you attach to your shoe, and then in a moment of exhaustion at the finish line need to take off and return.  The other one has something called the D-chip which is a strip of plastic with a bar code on the back that is the chip.  You don't have to return it.  I tend to like that type better, but I'm sure there are reasons why each company uses the one the use.

Jo ready to go

Crowd before the 10K

Anyways, it's always fun to do a race downtown.  There's something about the level of excitement, for me anyways, that seems to be higher than other races. There was a pretty big crowd lined up and ready to go.  And they were off!  J

10K start line

o and I had been debating who would take the 5 and who would take the 10.  When I moved to the finish line and looked at the hill the 10K'ers were coming up, I was kind of glad I went with the 5, since I still wasn't feeling great.  As I sat at the finish line, I noticed that there were a lot of younger runners coming in pretty quickly.  Wish I could get my daughter to like running again.

Anyways, a little later than expected, we saw Jo coming up the hill.  She was pretty winded, but pretty happy considering.

Jo bringing it home

Next up was the 5K.  My plan was to take it slow as a training/recovery (from what, I have no idea) run.  So i resolved to just take it easy.  Well, the course was downhill for the first half mile, so of course I got to the first mile at 8:45, which seems to be the same pace I have every race these days for the first mile.  However, this race had a much different elevation profile than the ones I've done recently (see it below on the map).  So the second mile was a little slower, and my third mile was brutal.  Not only was it all uphill, but there was a price to be paid for the late start at 9AM. It hit about 94 degrees here in Charlotte Saturday, and while it certainly wasn't that hot during my third mile, it sure felt like it.  I was coming up the hill, and just felt that blast of hot coming off me that means i was overheated.  I've had that feeling a few times before.  Not good.  Wound up walking a little bit. That's where I heard the "Charlotte is hilly"  comment.  Guess I wasn't the only one surprised by the hills.   Finished in under what I had originally planned, but still couldn't help feeling disappointed.

After it was over, we got to go check out the vendors.  I'm starting to be on a first name basis with the guy from the great harvest bread company, since I see him every week.

The highlight (at least for Julia) was the Brixx pizza and pasta buffet.  She was in heaven!  I was good and completely abstained from everything except some whatever.  At least I accomplished something!

Overall a great time in Charlotte.  A good race.  Well organized and fun.

After the race, we headed to my new home away from home, the Dowd Y to shower and change and then headed to UNC-Charlotte for the international festival. It's our 3rd straight year, and it continues to be a good time.  Lots of food, and foreign culture.  Fun.

Before heading to Julia's youth group meeting , we popped by run for your life, so Jo could check out some clothing.  Walked in and there was Chad from the davidson area running team manning the counter.  Got to talk to Chad for a few minutes before a college track team showed up en-mass, all looking for shoes. Got me thinking about working at the store myself.  The only problem in my head is that fact that I've basically run in the same shoes for the last 18 years (is it really that long?  Geez)

Overall, a great day.

In case anyone wants to try out the run, the 5K course is below.




Sunday, i was tempted to go down to Davidson to run with the DART crew, but realized if I went out fast with them for the first few miles, I'd probably be shot for the rest of the run, so I stayed home and ran.  It was actually cool, if not chilly, perfect running weather.  After just being sick, I was planning on doing no more than 6-7, but I guess I was feeling ok, and I went a bit extra and got 9.25.  An amusing incident occurred as I was switching my water bottles around.  I moved my used bottle to the left side, and the new one up from the back on the right side.  About a quarter mile on I noticed the empty was missing.  I went back a little bit to find it, but couldn't and kept going before getting caught up and messing up the run.  Funnily enough, after I got home and stretched I took the truck up Brawley looking for it, and it was lying as neat as you please in the middle of the sidewalk.  Bottle recovered!

Nothing a little Rammstein won't cure

Miles Run:  Sunday: 0, Tuesday:0, Wednesday: 0, Thursday:3

As you can see from the above, there's a whole lot of zeroes.  Thanks to a combination of Jo and my boss coughing and sneezing on me, I got sick.  Either a bad cold, or the flu.  Had a fever, everything hurt, runny nose, congestion, etc.  So in the best interests of trying to minimize the damage, I took a few days off.  If it goes to my chest, I'm screwed.  Luckily, it doesn't seem to have (so far)

So I got around to Thursday and was feeling quite a bit down.  Was thinking about taking the day off as well, even though I knew I had the Hit the Brixx race coming up Saturday.  I was waffling back and forth, and generally, when I waffle like this, not working out seems to win.  On the ride home, I was looking for something to listen to, and was scrolling through the ipod.  Got to the R's and there was Rammstein.  Gotta love a band that plays German Industrial in (mostly) German, and has a tendency to set themselves on fire in concert.

 Found "Du Hast" and let it fly.

 The rocking pace perked me up and made me decide to run after all.  Headed for Davidson College to the running trails there.  I decided to do the 5K.  It was tough, and my breathing was labored, as expected from the congestion, but I did it.  And that's all that matters.


So a big shout out to Rammstein.  Thanks guys!

It's almost like living in a real city!

Miles Run: Tuesday: 4 Wednesday (run 1): 4 (run 2): 2 Thursday: 4

Well, Tuesday's run was on the treadmill and I'm pretty sure no one cares about that, so, moving on....


Wednesday, after a 1 week absence, I was able to get back to running with the Davidson Area Running Team  .  Once again a great group of people.  So the big difference from last time was the fact that here in Charlotte it gets light pretty late.  So since we start at 6, most of the folks have headlamps.  So i had to purchase my new piece of tech:

Yes, I look  a bit dorky with this thing on, but honestly, as long as the cars see me, and I can see the road, that's all that matters.  It was a bit of an adjustment using the headlamp.  At the start of the run I had the light facing almost straight down, but as the run progressed, I was moving it further and further ahead.

At the start of the run it was 60 degrees and about 85% humidity, so you could see your own breathe.  We start out uphill pretty fast, and i was sucking wind almost instantly, thinking that i wouldn't make it too far at all.  I made it with the group about as far as last week.  But Chad stayed with me until the 4 mile/6 mile split to make sure I didn't make the same mistake as last week, and wind up falling.  When we were running together he told me he runs 65 miles a week!  That is not a typo!  65 miles.  wow. So i finished up that run and made my way back to the start to spend a pleasant visit with the team at Summit Coffee.  A good time.

On Thursdays, Julia is in dance class until 8PM, so i have some time to run.  I wanted to do something different so I headed over to the Dowd Y in downtown (even though they call it uptown) Charlotte.  Interestingly, I've spend more time in the past 2 months at the Dowd Y, which is 35 miles from my house, than i have at the Lowes Y, which is 3 miles from my house.  During the day i used map my run to come up with something around a 4 mile run through Charlotte.  It involved a little bit of looping but I came up with this:

Got to the Y, parked, and set off.  The first thing that i noticed was the people.  It was 5:30PM and people were leaving work for their commutes.  I'm never in Charlotte at this time.  Usually, it's weekends or later at night, when the city is like a ghost town.  Seeing all the people, I almost felt like i live in a real city.  Almost. Another interesting part was the stopping and starting.  When I lived in New York City, it was just a fact of life starting and stopping with all the traffic lights.  But down here, where I live, there's not a lot of that.  But there is in downtown.  It was kind of fun in a strange way.  The last big thing I noticed is that Charlotte is really, really hilly.  As I ran up and down the streets, it was up the hills, down the hills, over and over.  My calves were hurting on the uphill, and after it was over i noticed that my toes were hurting from the downhills.  It was definitely nice to do something different.  Got to even go back to the Y and sit in the hot tub for 10 minutes before showering and going to pick up Julia.

So, today's moral: Go out and do something different.  If you run a lot in the same place, run somewhere else, expand your horizons, who knows what you might see or discover.