3...2...Won!

Shane and I headed down to the 3rd in the series of the adventure races ready to vindicate ourselves for the missed opportunity in the last race. He stayed at our place the night before and getting to bed a little after midnight, we got just under 3 hours sleep before getting up at 3 to make the 4 hour drive to the race. Allison and I had JUST arrived back home that evening from El Paso from partying with a friend of mine after he graduated from Seargents Major Academy so we were already exhausted and a little dehydrated if you know what I mean.

The drive down to Camp Horizon was just under 4 hours from Kansas City, but several teams made the worthwhile trek. Camp Horizon is a Methodist owned and operated Church camp with some great trails and fantastic scenery. They were also very accommodating in allowing us to use their bathrooms and showers. This is a very clean and well kempt camp and next year, we’ll probably stay down there in the cabins the day before the race instead of driving down the morning of.

This time, we had several new faces among the racers so Clay pleaded with everyone to pay attention to the directions in the pre-race meeting. Some did, some didn’t. Due to past mistakes, Shane and I made sure that we listened for his guidance as to whether or not we needed to take our running shoes with us during the bike leg. No mention of it. WHEW!

Everyone started off running from the start. The beginning run was short but immediately difficult as it made use of the fairly dramatic terrain. There were sections of the trail that had us bouldering down rock ledge drop-offs that had ladders bolted to them for our use if necessary. Shane and I threw caution to the wind in our frenzy to stay on top that we went off the rock drop-offs and saved some time. The footing was very tricky sometimes, but being the avid trail runners that we are, our training ensured us sure footedness. Once down in a river canyon, we hit a double-wide gravel trail for about a half-mile leading us to some waiting race staff with kayaks.

The kayak leg should be considered more of a special test rather than a paddling event because the river was so low that paddling in it was impossible in most places. This had everyone portaging the boats, paddles, and PFDs UPriver to the next two checkpoints. The sandbars were full of the coarse, gritty sand that filled everyone’s shoes and socks and made for an uncomfortable run/walk/jog experience for many. After hitting the second checkpoint with the boats, we were able to get in the water to paddle back downstream somewhat for about 10 minutes until the low water forced everyone to finish portaging back to the start of the kayak section where we GLADLY turned in our rubber duckies and paddles.

Once done with that, we proceeded back up the canyon walls to the transition area (TA1). Going down was much easier than up for obvious reasons, but also because the trail markings were easier to follow when descending. Heading back up, it was difficult at times to see which way the trail led and a couple of teams went slightly astray here.

Once back in the TA, Shane and I were in about 7^th or 8^th place. NOT where we wanted to be, but we were still feeling good and knew that pacing ourselves and using our experience would eventually pay off. Upon entering the TA, we were told to read the instructions that Clay was handing out. A circuit drill type of course was set up and getting to each, we had to alternate doing the human wheelbarrow and then complete each task detailed at the stations. The first had us doing 25 pushups each. On to the next station, we completed 25 sit-ups. Then we had to alternate the wheelbarrow to the next station where we were to complete 25 squat-thrusts. And finally, we finished up with 30 jumping jacks before doing the wheelbarrow back to the start point.

Although each of these tasks was in itself not too hard, altogether, it was very tiring to do while adrenaline was already going and trying to stay competitive. Nothing like having an intense little workout DURING a race!

After completing our circuit drills, we were handed a card in which we were to write a minimum of a 30 word thank you to one of the race sponsors. Shane and I had the privilege of writing to World Multisport for their involvement in helping these races take place. Unfortunately, I don’t think my handwriting was very legible at the time, but hopefully, they’ll get the sincerity that Shane and I both felt while writing these thank you cards.

Once the cards were completed and verified by a wonderful volunteer race official (my wife), we headed out to complete the running course. The run had us in a maze of trails cris-crossing each other in ways that could’ve been frustrating if you didn’t follow the markers. During the run, our instructions were to find four poker chips of different colors. There were red, blue, green, and white ones and if the trail was followed as marked, you eventually came to each. If you tried to take a short cut, the resulting time loss and frustration ruined some pretty athletic teams’ chances of finishing higher than they did.

The maze of a run eventually led us back to the TA where we were given directions with maps and were on our bikes. Since there was again no mention of needing the running shoes during the bike section, I didn’t take them. Shane did, but I opted not to. Luckily, we DIDN’T need them so this time, we were on track. Almost… As soon as we got to the trailhead which was only about a half mile from the TA, Shane realized that he’d left our punch card at the TA and headed back to get it. At this point, we were still in about 5^th or 6^th place and the other teams had been in the trails ahead of us for several minutes. We knew we’d really have to hammer hard on the bike if we were to have a chance of making the top 3 or 4. The map we had just had the trail marked on it with no scale to help identify how long it would be. Shane and I hit it pretty hard and it was here that we’d hunt down the rest of the field. I love the rough stuff and my bike shows it. It usually takes most of the punishment, but I ride hard in training so I know what it can take. The trail was very technical in some parts and hilly. So much so that many teams (including us) had to walk some of them. The combination of hills and technical rock gardens on the trail made for slow going for some of the teams. Due to varying levels of technical ability in the teams, we were able to fairly quickly catch up to, and overtake most of the teams before the halfway mark. Some strong riders had some unfortunate mechanical difficulties which took them out of contention. The trails took a toll on everyone in one way or another. At one point the trails doubled back on itself 3 or 4 times for long sections between checkpoints and Clay made it very clear before the race that we had to get the punch cards punched IN ORDER for this part to ensure that nobody had an unfair advantage in case they knew the course. This worked in our favor because we did NOT know the course, but the hours of hard technical running and riding paid off for us in a big way. For this race, our dominant technical skills on the mountain bike is what enabled us to take control of the race. Once out of the treacherous rock gardens, the trail led us up a BIG lung busting hill on a gravel road then put us back into the trail maze we had previously run on. Once again, following the markers made it easier to navigate and after punching the last two checkpoints, it led us out and back to the TA for the finish.

During this race, I think several lessons were learned by many teams. I saw one team lose their punch card in the river during the kayak leg. I yelled it out to them and they recovered it, but had everyone else kept silent, their race would have been over too soon. Several other teams learned the importance of following the course AS MARKED and hopefully, will listen carefully to the helpful pre-race meeting instructions. WE learned from now (purely by accident) to always keep the person with the punch card in the front. That way, if he or she drops it, the following teammate has a chance to see it and recover it. Hope this tip helps someone out in the future.

Straining training

Ever since the race on Sunday, I've had a little soreness in the back of my right knee. Did a short 3.5 mile recovery run on Monday night and then went out on Tuesday night with the Trail Nerds in some muddy conditions. During the slippery run, I had a couple of mis-steps that I think may have torqued the knee slightly, but didn't feel any immediate pain and we were in a pretty decent groove at the time, so I didn't think anything about it. Once I got home, it started tightening up and hurting pretty bad and by Wednesday morning I had a hard time moving around. I could put weight on it, but it hurt to bend the leg (curl it upwards) and stairs were tough. Thursday morning, I went to see my Dr. and she said that she didn't think anything was torn, but she did think I have a pretty good strain of something. She said to rest and ice it for a few days and take it easy once I started back with the activity. TAKE IT EASY??? I have another adventure race coming up and need to train harder to get stronger. This is frustrating, but necessary for the long run I guess.

Live and Learn (or keep making the same mistakes - your choice) stupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupid...

Shane and I had another Adventure Race on Sunday and it was a pretty exciting race day. It had been raining most of the week prior to the race and was drizzling lightly the morning of, but the precip stopped by start time. We knew it would be muddy and were hoping it would work in our favor being that our workout runs with the Trail Nerds are often muddy.
The pre-race meeting included most of the usual safety stuff and the thanking of the sponsors etc. but also included ANOTHER warning to carry our running shoes with us during the biking leg of the race. I'm not sure what's wrong with me that would lead me to dismiss such advice with so cavalier an attitude. We made this mistake in the last race and paid the price. Didn't hurt us TOO much (still finished 2nd) but we definitely could've benefitted from having our running shoes during the bike leg last time. So did we learn our lesson THIS time! Well, I refer you back to the title of this blog...
After everyone lined up at the starting line, the race director, Clay, gave some last minute directions. One teammember from each team had to grab a kayak paddle which we would carry with us for the duration of the race. We were instructed NOT to disassemble it and if it was returned broken or damaged, we'd be assessed a BIG time penalty. Hmmmm.... oh well. Not too bad I guess. The paddle was light and only a little cumbersome. Then, instead of starting us off with a gunshot, he said GO into a radio and without giving us any instructions as to where to go, we were to follow the sound of a distant air horn. We all ran in the direction we had heard it which led us to a nearby picnic area of the park and all the teams received a sudoku puzzle. My teammate Shane had never done one of these and had no idea what it was about. I had limited exposure to them, but understood the basics of it so we got started right away. It took us about 7 or 8 minutes to complete it and we then had it checked by the race staff before proceeding on to the kayak leg. If we didn't do the puzzle or did it wrong, the teams were assessed a standing 15 minute penalty. Some of the strongest teams were still standing on the shore by their boats due to this penalty when we started out on our paddle. At this point there were 5 other teams ahead of us. No biggie.
We made good time on the kayak and put ourselves into second place coming out of that event. The next special test made us peel and eat a banana without using our hands. It's tougher than it sounds and makes for some interesting pictures.
We then had to change into our bike gear and head out on the bike course (kayak paddle in hand) to get the next few checkpoints. THIS is where we should've carried our trail shoes with us. Brain fart #1!
We quickly passed the lead team while on the bikes and when heading back towards another checkpoint, we misread the directions and headed back to the transition area. Made a left instead of a right taking us out towards a dam and our next event. Brain Fart #2. We quickly realized our mistake and only went about a mile off course, but this lost us about 5 minutes of our lead. When we got back to the original point where we made the wrong turn, we could see the second and third place teams on our heels.
Getting to the dam and the next event (trail run) we were all back together again. The top three teams entered the trail run at the same time except Shane and I had to run it in our bike shoes. (Consequence of Brain fart #1) We had no idea how far it would be and it was very muddy and hilly. The 5 miles seemed like much farther, but eventually, when we made it out, we were well in 3rd place. Biking back to the Transition area/finish line, we hammered as hard as we could on the bike making up a little ground, but the damage had already been done. We finished up 1 minute behind the second place team and 7 minutes behind the winners to take the third spot in a race we SHOULD HAVE WON!
These little mental errors may happen again in the future, but it won't be the SAME ones again. This I promise you. For the next race, I have renewed determination to vindicate our team!

Coping?

Over the last few days, I've wanted to blog about several things, but haven't. I want to be clear when I write about something, and I want it to be meaningful, so I struggle with what to blog and what not to. So I guess I'll just lay out what's been on my mind lately.
Dealing with the loss of our baby has been another hardship that many have to endure in life. It hurts, and strangely enough, it brings out other insecurities that we have, but it isn't insurmountable. We all have to learn how to deal with disappointments in life, but some are harder to swallow than others. Of course most of us come to the realization that we'll not be rich beyond our wildest dreams and our jobs may not even be what we'd like, but we find a way to move on anyway. We also may wonder "what if..." about many things in our past, but most normal functional adults find happiness in other things and try not to dwell on the disappointments in life. Lately, I've been wondering about some of my priorities in life and why I do what I do. Exercising is a smart thing to do because it's a stress reliever and the elevated heartrates are good for my heart and metabolism, etc... Then there's the competitive aspect of what I do. To really be competitive, I have to put in more hours of training and train harder I do for "maintenance" workouts and this takes away time from other things in my life. As I get older, it becomes more of a problem as other things move up on the priority list. This is frustrating because I don't feel I'm satisfied with my performance(s) in competitions. I don't know if I'll ever be completely satisfied and that scares me. It's easier to resolve myself to things I know I'll never have, but the things that ARE attainable, but are just out of reach (or seem to be) are starting to wear on my patience and tranquility. Once, I heard happiness defined as "Being content with what you have while working towards what you want." But what if you never achieve what you want? Then what?
Settling for mediocrity makes me so ill to my core that I find it intolerable. Especially for myself, but I find myself compromising all the time. Yeah everyone has to deal with this in life, but I HATE knowing that I've wasted potential.

Sad day

On Wednesday, Allison started getting a little cramping and began spotting lightly. I looked it up on the web and found out that it could be something benign and could be perfectly natural, but with us being new to this, we decided to call the Doctor anyway. The Dr reassured us that everything was fine since it was light spotting and said that if we wanted to come in for a checkup anyway, that would be ok. So we made an appointment to see her on Thursday morning. Our first sonogram was scheduled for next week on May 2nd, but they decided to go ahead and do one when we came in to make sure everything was ok. It wasn't. The nurse couldn't find a heartbeat and she could tell that the baby's development was a few days short of being just over 10 weeks which is where we were at. My initial excitement at seeing our new baby for the first time was short lived when we realized that it isn't coming to fruition. Of course we then had a good cry and talked our options over with the Doctor. the Dr was very reassuring and had a sensitive bedside manner and was understanding, but I guess she deals with that pretty often. We've heard how common it is to miscarry and we know that we can (and will) try again, but just having the head knowledge still doesn't assuage our disappointment. It's also strange how we have the feelings of guilt when we KNOW we didn't do anything wrong. The doctor also said that's a common feeling when experiencing a loss like this. I guess time heals all wounds.

Adventure Race season has started!

As should be obvious by my profile and previous posts, I LOVE adventure racing. This past Sunday was the first AR of the series for the Blue Hills Adventure Races and fellow Trail Nerd Shane Jones agreed to race with me in them. A quick recap of the previous few days should set the stage for our physical condition at race time. I was in a bike wreck on Tuesday and still had some pretty bad bruising and stitches in my butt and had JUST has some of the parts on my bike replaced. Shane went out on Saturday night to a Counting Crows concert and got hammered and stayed out till well after 1 am KNOWING that I was giving him a wakeup call around 5 am on my way over to pick him up. When I got there, he was ready but not very awake. We drove the 2 hours over to Manhattan, KS and I let him and Allison sleep so that everyone would be fresh when we got there. This time I remembered to eat a sensible meal the night before so as to avoid any stomach issues during the race. Mushroom and Basil Linguine the night before was a touch on the oily side, but didn't cause any GI problems.
When we got there, we checked in and began setting up our gear in the Transition area. As is the case with adv races, you don't get the order of events nor the distances of them until after the race starts. The pre-race meeting went well and we started off with a ride and tie in which Shane started off running while tied to me on the bike. Once getting to the checkpoint, we received more directions on how to proceed throughout the race with a crude map of the course. Most of the teams were still packed together and didn't really start to spread out untill the kayak section. Shane and I took the lead during the trail run but soon fell behind in the kayak section. This leg was miserable because our inflatable boat had a leak in it and we were taking on water while losing air. We had 10 teams pass us on this part so we knew we had our work cut out for us. After the kayak section we hit the bike and I discovered that my rear shock was blown. It wouldn't hold air. (a fact that I SHOULD have noticed before this race) This was also a result of the wreck I had on Tuesday but just overlooked it when getting the other parts repaired. I pumped it up as best I could but it wouldn't hold any PSI and therefore my bike was sagging and VERY inefficient for the whole ride. As if that weren't to be uncomforatble enough, I also had to sit sideways on the seat due to the 6 stitches still holding my left butt cheek together. Luckily, Shane was a VERY stong biker and he was able to pull me along nicely. I drafted off him for much of the ride. Now THAT'S teamwork! During the ride, we encountered 2 different "special tests" that we had to successfully complete to avoid a time penalty. We aced both of them and each time passed several teams ahead of us gaining ground on the leaders. We finished up finishing in second place overall which is MUCH better than I expected to do in our condition. if you want to read more about the race, you can read my report. Shane and I won this race last year and I was hoping to repeat, but I'm still very happy with our effort and we still got to bring home some hardware.

Need the right frame of mind!

Most people think I'm in a psychotic frame of mind for even thinking about doing this adventure race after this injury on Tuesday. No matter. I know my body and even more importantly, I know how I react to things that I know I could've or should've done. Regrets are to be avoided at all costs to me and I never have regrets about physical injuries to myself. Anyway, what I need to do is to put myself in the correct frame of mind so that I'm not pushing TOO hard nor am I expecting too much out of my injured self for this race on Sunday. Let's hope that the physical toll I'll pay for DOING this one is less than the mental/emotional I paid for NOT doing another one some time ago. (long story)

a little setback on training...

Tuesday afternoon, I went out to the park to get some strength training in on the bike before running with the Trail Nerds. After doing a loop in the trails, I hit the paved trail for a quick lap around the park and to work the hills on that paved loop. Halfway into it, I was going too fast on one of the downhills and wiped out on a curve. I was going 31 MPH on my mtn bike and would've made the turn (like many times before) if I didn't have to try to avoid hitting a lady who was out walking. It's not her fault. I was going way too fast to be safely in control with other people on that trail so it's my own stupidity that caused my wreck. I laid the bike down while on the brakes and slid off the trail right into a tree which crushed my chainrings and the impact caused my seatpost to snap. Realizing that my bike wasn't able to be ridden out of there, I had to slowly and painfully walk it out 2 more miles back to the parking lot. From there, I went home, changed clothes into something more comfortable and went to the Emergency Room where I had a nice wait. 6 and a half hours later, I got to go home with a few stitches and lots of gauze. While there, I had to get my neck, pelvis, and ribs x-rayed, but thankfully nothing was broken. The ribs are VERY sore now and probably will be for the race on Sunday. It's a good thing I have a spare bike or I might have to miss out on it. Even though I'll be quite a bit slower than planned, I'm still doing this race the best I can.

A little more on service...

Service is nothing more than a form of giving. Maybe the best form of giving, but that's not to be debated here. One of my favorite books of all time is The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. I think I like it so much because it's short (matching my attention span) and very easy to understand. To me, the philosophy in it seems somewhat Existentialist with a touch of Buddhism, but is good for interpersonal relationships nonetheless. In this book one of my favorite chapters is on Giving.

"And you receivers - and you are all receivers - assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives. Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings; For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity..."

This isn't saying to accept without any gratitude nor is it suggesting that one should be a receiver or a gift without having any sense of debt, but rather to understand that giving and receiving should not be a contractual binding of giver and receiver in equal measure. Whether you equate it to the movie Pay It Forward or consider it your civic duty, everyone should experience being a giver and a receiver when the opposite is not reciprocated. It's nice to be appreciated for the effort and work you put into something but just because you may not be appreciated or thanked for something doesn't mean that it was any less of a good deed. And on the receiving end, to be the recipient of someone's kindness is a gift itself whether you realize it or not. You're giving them the opportunity to be of service so although one should be aware of the need to give back, you should not "be overmindful of your debt" to the giver. I've had people who are indeed thankful for help I've given them on projects and they repeatedly thank me and ask how they can repay me for my kindness, but all I want is for them to say a simple sincere thank you and be willing to repay it with their own effort somewhere else in likewise manner. If I need help, perhaps one day I'll be the recipient of it. If not, I'll continue giving regardless.
Another example of this is in the Bible. John 13:4-17 shows us how Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. This man was their teacher, their mentor, and the washing of feet was a lowly task given to servants so for Jesus to humble himself was an example servanthood he wanted his followers to emulate.

Family Biz and philosophy?

Allison's sister came to visit us last Thursday from North Carolina. I really like having family and/or friends come to see us because it's so rare. Most everyone expects us to go everywhere else to see them instead of them coming to where we live. I realize it's not very convenient for family or friends to visit us anymore now that we live in Kansas, but we really appreciate it when they do. Of course, it's also harder for family and/or friends to make the trip to see us when there's kids to consider because that complicates traveling and we understand that. We'll be getting an even better understanding of that very soon now that we're going to be joining the ranks of parenthood ourselves! Yup! That's right, I'm gonna be a Daddy! Allison told me about 3 weeks ago and we told my family on our last trip to Pensacola and they were all really happy for us. I think some of my family had given up on us since we've been married for over 12 years now and they all know how much of a kid I am they all figured we'd decided not to have them. But.... here we are. I'll be honest, it really scares me because I know things are going to change completely. That's scary because I really like the way things are now. I like our relationship and our ability to be spontaneous. I like having time and money to train and travel and go out to eat often. I like a lot of things that I know are going to change and that scares me.
But at the same time, I'm excited about it for several reasons. As might be pretty evident by all the mentionings of "I" above, I do recognize many selfish characteristics of our current life that will have to be relinquished. As awful as this may seem to many people, I cherish this idea somewhat because I have experienced firsthand the value and sense of reward that accompanies putting something else in life ahead of yourself and your own selfish desires. Many people understand some of the little values of self discipline.
1. controlling your diet for health reasons
2. being disciplined in training to reach goals
3. being disciplined financially to reach goals (saving money)

These are small examples of when people make their own selfish wants second to a higher purpose. Even though I know I'll still yearn for the days when I could do my own thing, I know that the benefits of putting my selfishness aside for the benefit of my wife and my child will reap rewards that I can't imagine (and probably don't deserve). Many people may read this and roll their eyes and say that parenthood causes instinct to kick in and it won't be viewed as selflessness and they're certainly entitled to their own opinion. The main point to this poorly worded babble is that I encourage everyone to engage in some form of (sacrificial) service to others. It's not a "good deed" if you get something other than a good feeling in return. Giving money may be necessary and helpful, but it's so impersonal that it rarely yields any personal satisfaction and thus isn't repeated often. What I'm advocating is giving of yourself, your time and your own personal effort to something for which you'll get nothing in return. Get out and volunteer! It's very liberating! The harder it is to do, the more it's worth it! And THAT'S how I'm trying to get myself psyched up for parenthood! Thoughts?

Red Bridge Ramble and GETTING READY!!!

Saturday was the Red Bridge Ramble out at Minor Park in Kansas City, MO. The Trail Nerds run at Minor Park regularly later in the summer because it doesn't get infested with tics like some of the other parks. Instead of rehashing my whole race, I'll let Bad Ben's report suffice.

The 2006 version of the Red Bridge Ramble (KCMO) is now history. The weather on race day was absolutely perfect, and everyone that showed up to run were in good spirits. Forty-five runners entered, which surpassed last year's participation by 300%! We had quite a few newbie trailrunners who were "chomping at the bit" to get their feet wet (literally).

The race course is on the unpaved Blue River Parkway trail system. It crosses the Blue River 4 times and has a variety of different kinds of terrain to run on, which includes: wooded, rocky & rooty trails, open grassland, twisty single-track, and flat, fast dirt trails.

Caleb Chatfield, of Merriam Kansas ripped through the course in 54:58. Veteran trailrunner Kyle Amos followed in 2nd place at 57:02. Lightning-fast trail-newbie Susie Scheer took third overall, and first female in 1:00:45! Following them to round-out the top five were Rich McNally and Jeff Behrens. Second and third-place females were Angela Ballard and Rachel Westendorf.

A few awards were given out, including two to James Barker. He won the "lost completely beyond all possible reason" award, and the award for "most ticks." He also took a very good "competitive fall," (which I witnessed), but was surpassed in that department by Jeff "Trail Rash" Behrens. (I still owe you an award, Jeff).

Note: We had a slight timing device issue, so most of the times were off by a small margin. The order of finish is very accurate, though.

Special thanks to the volunteers:
Markos Jacquez - who helped mark the course with me (the night before the race until 10 p.m.), by actually running it.
Kyle Amos, Ben Reeves, and Caleb Chatfield - who helped un-mark the course.
Dave Suptic and a helper - Registration & finish line.
Lou Joline - half-way water station and starting line food.

Order of Finish
1 54:58 Caleb Chatfield M
2 57:02 Kyle Amos M
3 1:00:45 Susie Scheer F
4 Rich McNally M
5 Jeff Behrens M
6 "Good" Ben Reeves M
7 Jason Crosby M
8 Stuart Johnson M
9 Frederick Menninger M
10 Angela Ballard F
11 Eric Otte M
12 Rachel Westendorf F
13 Aubrey Appleman F
14 Charlotte Barksdale F
15 Emily Horn F
16 Kent Baker M
17 "Bad" Ben Holmes M
18 Deb Johnson F
19 Sherry Sehring F
20 Dave Rowell M
21 Mona Latimer F
22 Allison Baker F
23 Jonette Kilmar F
24 Gregg Lynn M
25 Kevin Maggard M
26 Christina Sipu F
27 Philip Wharton M
28 Kevin O'Sullivan M
29 Don Little M
30 Sophia Wharton F
31 Dave Hoefer M
32 Paula Keltner F
33 1:38:06 Lou Joline M
34 Hazel Mattews F
35 1:39:00 Susan Robinette F
36 Mary Donahue F
37 Anne Cook F
38 Bob Cook M
39 Beth Hilt F
40 Verna Troutman F
41 Jackie Defoe F
42 Gregory Mattews M
43 Steve Mattews M
44 Laura Gawecki F
45 James Barker M

I posted a few photos at: http://kctrailnerds.blogspot.com
Dick Ross took some great shots and has them on his website at: http://www.seekcrun.com/
His photos will probably be posted also (soon) at the KC Star website at: http://kcsweb.kcstar.com/projects/Community_Faces/


Happy trails,

Ben Holmes
Race Director

I did have a few additions to make for this race. For some reason, I can't get it through my head to eat a sensible meal the night before a race so this time I had Chipotle which I can never turn down, but suffice it to say, it's NOT a smart pre-race meal! Also, I think I'd have pulled in 3rd or 4th overall if I hadn't needed to get up close and personal with nature during the run, but all runners know that's a part of being a runner. IT HAPPENS! Even with those episodes (2 stops in the woods) I still managed to complete the 8 mile trail run in 65 minutes so I figured my actual running time was probably closer to 7:30 miles. That was a really fun run to race and it was my first time to see those trails in the daylight. The night group runs are the only other time I've ever been out there so it was a cool new experience for me!

Good weekend with the family

This past weekend, Allison and I went to Pensacola, FL to visit my family. We hadn't seen them in a little over 8 months and Allison was needing to see her nieces and nephews. While there, we decided to get in a little 5k run called the Hawkshaw Lagoon 5k which benefits organizations for missing children. For this run, I decided to pace my 16 yr old niece and see how she runs. She's been getting into running for the past few months and I was hoping to be able to give her a few tips. She has a great stride and she impressed me with the effort she put forth. Even when I was pushing her, she didn't try to quit and she kept giving her best effort. She had a personal best time in the 5k taking second place in her age group with a time of 28:46. This was the first time she had ever broken a 30 minute 5k and she was very happy with her performance. I was so proud of her. When she saw the the girl who beat her only beat her time by 1 minute she exclaimed, "I could've run a minute faster!" I hate that we live so far apart. It would be really fun if we could run together. She's a really cool girl and I wish I could be more of a part of her growing up. In the picture, from left to right, it's Alexis, Allison, my sister Ruth, and me.
Sunday we went out on my brother-in-law's boat and I had a brain fart and forgot to put on sunscreen. I now have a bit of sun poisoning on my chest and stomach and some sore shoulders. Even with the burns, I went out last night to my favorite park for some biking and running to work out some of the alcohol and fried foods that I polluted my system with over the last weekend. Rode for about 2.5 hours before running for 40 minutes in the trails. During the ride, the legs were complaining as I worked some crap out of my system and tried to get back in the groove. Didn't find a whole lot of energy in them, but I got in some good hill work and technical work in the trails on the bike and run.

Fun Duathlon

Did another duathlon on Saturday and had a blast! Allison and I agreed to help out Cowtown Cycling with getting the God's Country Duathlon together. We got out there around 7:20 and started helping set up and get the registration tent in order. Allison did the running and I did the biking. Ever since she broke her ankle on a mountain bike 5 years ago, she refuses to get back on one. :-( There were 5 teams in the relay division and over 200 entrants in the duathlon overall. Once Allison came in and tagged me to head out on the bike, we were in the middle to back-middle of the pack. Having not done the run, my legs were fresher than most of the bikers I was chewing up on the trail. This was a very fast non-technical trail and I had some new tires that I was trying out. They did great and I was only passed by one biker. Fellow Cowtown teammate (and elite cyclist) Damian Almanza passed me 2/3rds of the way through the first 9 mile loop and I wasn't able to get around some other bikers in time to get on his wheel to hang on. A few riders were unsure of trail ettiquette and their ability and if uncertainty strikes them while I'm in the middle of a pass, then keeping the rubber side down can be difficult. This was a good training race and we ended up getting third in the relay division due to some fast runners overtaking Allison in the last two mile run. This was the last race I'd planned on doing before the Adventure Race season kicks off in a few weeks.
This coming weekend, we're headed to Pensacola, FL to visit my family for a long weekend and we'll get in a little 5k charity run while there.

How old do you act?

You Are 22 Years OldYou Are 22 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Apparently I've got some growing up to do!

Great training week and weekend!

Got in some good recovery for the ailing achilles last week while still getting good workouts in at the gym. Did the necessary base mileage without pushing it too hard and made some good progress in the strengthening department. After running on Monday and Tues night, I decided to hit the trails on the bike for Thurs nite's workout and it was a good decision. Rested Friday after being in the gym Sunday through Thursday in addition to the runs and rides. Saturday morning, I felt really good and met the trail nerds out at Kill Creek Park for a morning run on some new trails. These are a bit different from our normal hangouts, but they were a lot of fun and fairly technical in sections. There's a few water crossings if you choose to take those trails (which of course we did) and these trails allow you to get as little or as much of a workout as you want. I can definitely see us coming back here more often. We ran for a little over 2 hours so I figure we did about 12-14 miles. Rested the remainder of that day and even went to Jardine's to get serenaded by Ms. Ida McBeth. Hearing her sing jazz is always a treat! It's so much fun watching and listening to her in person. Probably had too many vodka tonics for the run I was doing the next day, but I didn't know I'd have to work as hard as I did.
Brew to Brew:
Allison and I agreed to do the Brew to Brew with a new friend introduced to us by Allison's aerobics instructor. The guy we agreed to do this run with was the team captain and he told me via voicemail that we had a full team. He and I have played phone tag for the past 6 weeks and we've never had the chance to train together, but he's in good shape and since he was recommended by our personal trainer friend, we figured his judgements for teammates would be sound. I'll not drag this out too much, but the bottom line is that I RE-learned that I have to have the correct expectations when I go into something. We never planned to be competitive, but we DID plan to do our part to contribute to the team. It was just supposed to be a fun run (which it was) but it turned out to be more work than any of us expected. With one of the team members suffering from Plantar Fasciitis the other five of us that showed up knew we had our work cut out for us. Allison agreed to take a leg that was a little over 5 miles and she did great. she even did better than I expected so she surprised me and herself too I think. The girlfriend of one of the guys did a leg and two of the other guys agreed to do two legs each which left 3 remaining legs to be done in the 10 stage race. I agreed to do the other three, but I didn't really relish the idea. Overall, I did about 28-30 tough miles this weekend and am only mildly sore, but not too tired. Thankfully, the weather held out. We only had a sprinkling of rain and ice for a few minutes early on and the rest of the time the clouds threatened, but never dumped on us. The temp stayed around 40-43 degrees the whole time. This was a very well run race and was surprisingly well organized for the size and logisitcal complexity of it. I highly recommend running it if you ever get the chance.

Science Embracing Monotheism?

I was just reading this article and of course my previous post came to mind. It must be a little more common than I thought, but in general, my dealings with archaeologists, astronomers, mathematicians, and others associated with higher level sciences has left me with the impression that they're a humanistic, godless bunch. As much as I respect highly educated people, this doesn't affect my own beliefs, (as they are firmly rooted in personal experience) but I do find it interesting that there's so much variation in the opinions of God's existence. This reflects the variation in individuals' personalities, experiences, and further proves to me that there's a big difference between knowledge and wisdom.

Achilles problems

No, not that Achilles, the other one! -->
The first Achilles is for my sister's benefit!
My achilles tendon started bothering me during our scary run on Sunday when we were caught out in the storm. We weren't running very hard, but it just started out with a dull aching and then changed to a pulling type of feeling which led to pain eventually before we were finished. There were several hills that aggravated whatever it was making it hurt and I should've walked them instead of trying to push through it. I iced it twice on Sunday and it felt better on Monday so against common sense, I ran with the KC Track club on our Monday night 10k on the roads. This certainly didn't help any, but the pain was only moderate so I suffered through it because I need to keep up a base in the training before I start speed work. This week's training is just base mileage maintenance while I'm in the gym working on strength for the legs and upper body. After icing the right achilles Mon night, it felt better all day Tuesday. SO, last night, (Tues) I ran with the trail nerds out at SMP but only did one lap. I felt pretty good with only a slight pulling sensation during the run. This time, I let common sense prevail and only did one loop of the rocky rooty trails. Today, it's a little tight, and only a little sore, so I think I'll just hit the gym tonight instead of running and maybe I'll be ready for the hills of Wyco on Thursday evening.

Good but dangerous weekend!

My lovely wife volunteered to do a duathlon series with me and Saturday was the first one in this series. We did fairly well, (2nd in the co-ed relay) but I feel I did really well on the biking part which gave me a much needed boost in the confidence department. I only got passed by one person who is a phenomenal biker that normally races in the elite division so I didn't feel too bad about him passing me. I also was able to pass about 50-60 others in the trails and even lapped a few. For this race, we helped set up before hand and breakdown afterwards.
Sunday morning, we decided to hit the trails early. Instead of running with the trail nerds like I normally do, Allison (my wife) and I decided to run on our own at Shawnee Mission Park. We had checked the weather ahead of time and knew that some storms were moving in the area so we had to get the run in early to beat them. We got started about 7:45 and were halfway into the run (still 4 miles from the car) when we heard the tornado sirens sounding off! This really scared us and Allison started shaking and got chills she was so petrified. I reassured her that it was just a warning and might have even been a test (knowing better myself) because it really didn't look like tornado weather to me. At the time, it was mostly cloudy and we could see the REALLY nasty stuff moving in quickly so I told her that we could cut the run short and head back to the car so we wouldn't get wet. We got caught in a little shower anyway and a LOT of wind and even though it was a little scary, it was nothing compared to what my fellow trail nerds encountered during their run out in Lawrence! They were just a few miles from the tornado that ripped through the town of Lawrence damaging the school (University of Kansas) to the point that they had to cancel classes today. The guys were in the trails when they got hailed on, and blown around fiercely. Everyone managed to dodge the flying debris safely, but had a hard time getting back home because of all the trees and other debris in the roads. Pretty scary stuff!
Later that afternoon, I went over to Bad Ben's Nanobrewery to watch the magic in progress and to watch some redneck theater! The tornado sirens came on again two more times that afternoon and we just sat by watching the clouds blow by with some awesome Belgian brews in hand.
All in all it was a good training weekend and I'm feeling the motivation return so hopefully, I can crank it up again!

Thoughts on Science vs Faith?

I'm WAY behind in my reading, but in an effort to catch up, I'm resolving myself to actually FINISH books that I start now. There's about 4 that I've read over half of and never finished and those are top on the list.
Recently, I finished reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. This and the Da Vinci Code have been somewhat controversial books because of their themes and some things that Dan Brown states as "fact" in these books. I won't give away any spoilers, but I would like to post an excerpt from Angels and Demons that I found interesting.
The setup is the Pope has been assassinated and his understudy is addressing the world in a news conference.
“Science may have alleviated the miseries of disease and drudgery and provided and array of gadgetry for our entertainment and convenience, but it has left us in a world without wonder. Our sunsets have been reduced to wavelengths and frequencies. The complexities of the universe have been shredded into mathematical equations. Even our self-worth as human beings has been destroyed. Science proclaims that Planet Earth and its inhabitants are a meaningless speck in the grand scheme. A cosmic accident.” He paused. “Even the technology that promises to unite us, divides us. Each of us is now electronically connected to the globe, and yet we feel utterly alone. We are bombarded with violence, division, fracture, and betrayal. Skepticism has become a virtue. Cynicism and demand for proof has become enlightened thought. Is it any wonder that humans now feel more depressed and defeated than they have at any point in history? Does science hold anything sacred? Science looks for answers by probing our unborn fetuses. Science even presumes to rearrange our own DNA. It shatters God’s world into smaller and smaller pieces in quest of meaning… and all it finds is more questions.”

Overall, I liked the book but was a little disappointed in it for a few reasons which I will not state here. I'd recommend it as an interesting read though.
If anyone wants to respond, I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are on the following questions.
Often, (as stated above) the answers that science gives us aren't always conclusively definitive and continue to lead to more questions. Is there a place for faith in today's world? Why or why not?

and yet another reminder

Saturday was crappy. Chilly and rainy and having just come back from the ski trip, I wasn't in the mood to run in those conditions. Plus, I had a lot of laundry to catch up on! Sunday, I decided last minute (I'm bad about planning ahead for some races) to do a local mountain bike race. Normally, I'm a multisport athlete, but I like to do the runs and bike races every once in a while to see how strong I am compared to those who do JUST that event. I'll probably never be very good at any one thing unless I can learn to focus on training for that type of event. That being said, the bike race went well and I should'nt be too disappointed with my performance. The general fitness was ok, but my leg strength still wasn't where it should be. I got passed mostly on the uphills, but was able to make up ground on the downhills and on the really technical sections. Even though I didn't win or come in dead last, I still expected to do better. In a multi-sport event like adventure races or duathlons, I'm much stronger and my performance reflects such. Still, as I get older, I need these frequent wake up calls to keep me focused on how hard I need to work on everything.
After the race yesterday, I started taking Glucosamine and Chondroitin and am also supplementing the diet with Udo's Choice Oil Blend to help ensure the right proportions of Omega 3 and 6. Being in Kansas now, we don't get to eat much fish anymore. :-(

Playing in the Garden of Eden, UT

Just got back from skiing out in Utah. Went to see an old friend and made some new ones. Utah is a beautiful state and it always makes me wish I lived there or in CO. Being such an outdoorsy person, I need to live somewhere that the land invites and promotes the kind of things I like to do and UT and CO are just that type of place.
This was a guys trip and it was Brian's first time in snow. He caught onto skiing right away and we all had a great time. We were able to hit Snow Basin, Brighton for two days, and finished up at Powder Mountain which was absolutely amazing! Powder Mountain is probably the best kept secret in the skiing world. Still relatively cheap lift tickets and has the largest land area for skiing in the United States. Yes, even bigger than Vail according to one of the mountain hosts.
Pics will follow soon!
Even though the legs got a decent workout while skiing, the rest of me went to mush. I drank WAYYY too much and ate all the wrong things so I'll have to work really hard to get it back into shape to resume my quest to get back into competitive form. Hopefully it won't take too long.