Surfin’ The Highlands

81 degrees. A cool breeze rolling off the ocean. White caps. Breakers crashing over the pier leaving a sweet salty mist in the air. Beach bunnies playing volleyball. White nosed lifeguards with their orange floaties. None of these things were present as I hit the waves today.

A mystery(to me) of running is why we will run in conditions that score highly on the “F that” scale. 48 degrees, drizzly, glum, sure, let’s run…..

I was a bit chilly as the drizzle kept me just damp enough for the cool breeze to drop my body temp to just below comfortable. In the end, it was a pretty uneventful run as far as the running goes. In fact, I only almost got hit by an inattentive driver once during the entire run(sadly, this is not an attempt at humor but a harsh reality).

Rain is smart. It loves to wait until you’re several miles in before it graces you with it’s presence so it can laugh at your inability to do anything about the situation. It did not disappoint this morning, It hit right at the halfway point of my 6 miler. It kind of came on like a creeper. Not super hard, just super steady. Before I knew it I was knee deep(fortunately not literally) in the joys of chilly rain running and experiencing all the magic it brings with it.

Water has absolutely no adhesive properties whatsoever when in an isolated state. Add a catalyst however like, say, a polyester shirt, and suddenly it’s as sticky as a chocolate milk stain on linoleum. This adhesive reaction causes your shirt to stick to and adhere to every um, curve of your upper body. If I were chiseled like a Malibu lifeguard, that might not be such a bad thing. Unfortunately I don’t rock a Speedo for a reason!

Another fun part about the rain is technology. Tire technology to be specific(No, I don’t run with tires. Hang with me here. It’s going somewhere <eek, tire joke?>). The modern automobile tire has evolved very considerably over the years. The manufacturers have become quite adept at channeling water away from the vehicle. They achieve this by channeling it on to the sidewalk in a spraying fashion(Ahh, there’s that salty sweet ocean mist) The problem here being that I run on the sidewalk

The pinnacle of the sidewalk surfing experience being when you get to hang, errr, slosh ten! The puddle never actually looks that deep but in you go and all 10 piggies get a nice chilly bath. Slosh, slosh, slosh, slosh, slosh, slosh, slosh. You make that spongy sounding noise for a mile or so, until you’ve stomped the excess water off, or hit another puddle and reset the counter.

Essentially running in the rain sucks, or it should suck. I’m not sure why, but I’d gladly do it again and thoroughly enjoy it again as I did this morning. I’m like the mouse that doesn’t learn from the electrical shocks and just keeps trying to get the cheese over and over.

Surf’s up? Lets run…..

My Full House got cracked(Race Report)

In the absence of an overpair on the board, I would normally have no problems pushing all-in on a 10s full boat. Of course this was not a typical poker game, nor was it a typical race(because I actually won a prize). This was the New Balance Poker Run @Fleet Feet.

A rather interesting concept. Before the start you receive 2 playing cards, plus a third if you try on a pair of New Balance running shoes which you were allowed to run in for the evening. I was given an extra card anyway because they were unable to fit someone with a size 13 + Sasquatch width foot(they can only bring so many shoes with them and mine alone fill a small truck). Then out you go to the track(where track = a lap around a 1/2 mile city block). The race then begins(can you call this a race? Sorta? Kinda?) and around you go. Each time you pass go, you collect a new playing card(unfortunately, no 200 dollars). Once you hit 5 total, you must turn in a card before you draw a card. Your goal being to make the best possible 5 card poker hand. You may stop at any time you feel you want to play the hand you've got. Else, you're forced to stop(You probably could keep running but they stop giving you cards) at the 1 hour mark(which was actually like 50 minutes as we started with a safety chat and instructions which is a pretty good idea with 50 people running in the road at night with cars) and play whatever you have. The speed advantage here being the fast folks get to draw more cards than the rest of us(They say you shouldn't call yourself slow so I declare I'm simply not fast). After the end, everyone turns in their cards and prizes are handed out to the top 10 hands (table full of prizes and first place chooses first, etc)

Once I got 10s full of Jacks, I decided to stick with what I had. With less than half an hour left I didn't see my odds good of improving my hand and knowing my luck, the opposite was more likely. I did continue to run laps until I got my planned 4 miles in for my Wednesday run, but I sat on the cards I had(which is rather difficult to do while running). I stopped about 15 minutes before the end and turned in my cards where I was placed on the leader-board and was looking in first place(Me? first place? Another reason this couldn't possibly be a race).

So I hung out for a bit looking at all the gear that I wanted and can't afford(For some reason, no matter where you shop,  running gear is more expensive than black market, diamond encrusted, baby seal skin leather boots)while waiting for the others to finish. As they came in, I started to see some um. less than ideal poker hands(for me) coming in. 5 of a kind deuces, quad somethings, bigger boats than mine. By the time it was done I was in 6th place. 

So what did I learn? Poker skills do not translate to poker runs. Poker hand values are greatly deflated. Running in circles is not as fun as it would sound(Not sure why it sounds fun. You're weird). This was a really fun experience!!

In the end I won this nice running visor and a cool beer koozie(gave it away to someone who drinks beer so no photo. They don't make canned bourbon and I'm ok with that fact).  Some other folks also won some awesome wool running shirts, a foot massager, some socks. Lots of cool prizes!

I had a fantastic time. Thanks to Fleet Feet Louisville(much love!!), New Balance, Trigger Point, and the employees who worked hard to make this great and completely free event happen and for hooking us up with some pretty cool prizes!! You all rule!!

More Fleet Feet fun type runs coming this holiday season. I'm sure your eyes are riveted to the screen awaiting my blog update of them! (Wow your life must be boring)

I've got nothing!

I haven't had a blog update in a bit. Why? Because I've got nothing. I usually write(or do something resembling writing. I mean, bad writing is still writing, isn't it?) about actual occurrences in my life that are comical(based on my own unqualified assessment), with some of my own personal fitness(where 'fitness' = running) accomplishments, with the goal of getting cheesy "go get em champ" recognition from those who outclass me in my own sport(you know, pretty much everyone). Fortunately my goals are based on beating my own previous achievements and I don't outclass myself(so my ego is safe). None of that stuff has happened in the last couple of weeks so not much to write about. Racing season is done. Nothing on the schedule until the Louisville Triple Crown series in February. Just an easy relaxing couple of months until I start training in January. That means life is boring and again, I got nothing.

With all that being said(Where 'that' = pretty much nothing), I guess I should waste a few keystrokes on my most recent WTF experience(there's always stuff I can be pissed about)

So back in the day I had a 3-speed bicycle. It had a lever you'd flip with your thumb. Gear goes up, bike goes faster, peddling gets harder. A pretty simple technology. Then the 10-speed bike came on the scene. A bit more tricky. You had 2 levers, not to difficult. You knew how to shift gears and you had 10 usable gears that increased sequentially. Surely the future will hold new technologies that will provide us with more gears and be easier to use. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Enter the mountain bike. We now have 21 speeds for you to use......well, not exactly. You do indeed have 21 speeds(term used extremely loosely) but you can't actually use 21 speeds and we no longer refer to them as 13th gear or 10th, because well, I don't really get it myself.  There are 3 positions on the left shifter that shift to the 3 chain rings(big gears in front). 7 positions on the right. You refer to them as 4th on the small chain ring, 3rd on the middle, etc. Now get this. You can't really use the first or 7th position on the right shifter because the chain rubs and makes noise. Those are not entirely good things. Now with 3 chain rings and 2 unusable gears, that brings us to 6 thus lowering our usable gears to 15(Holy crap! He can do math?) but wait, there's more(Here comes the cheesy free steak knife offer). Some of the gears on certain chain rings are actually the same gear ratio as others thus losing more gears but how many? <shrug> All I can tell you is I have somewhere between six and eleventeen gears on my 21 speed bike.

Advances in technology. Good stuff!!