Lewis Memorial 10-Miler

Well, it's 10:30pm and although my race was done by 10:00am, I haven't stopped running until now! Andrea's out of town and I was left reverse-bacheloring it. Two meals, one load of dishes, a violin lesson, 4 or so loads of laundry, ice cream, and a one-point last second nail-biter of a victory basketball game later and I'm finallly ready to catch my breath and assess.

What an awesome race! The weather was upper 20s but little to no wind, and sunny. Really quite nice for a long race once you got going. The field was about 30 or 40 strong, consistingly mainly of members of the Frederick Steeplechasers. This was my first time running it, and several people said that they though it was their largest turnout ever. It was very informal and inexpensive: no shirts, no bibs, no money (for Steeps members). And no watches. This was a predict your finish time race, with top prize going to whoever came closest to the time they predicted.

The course was reputed to be very hilly and from the starting line that's exactly how it looked. About 50 feet from the start line was the first, very steep (although brief), hill. Tyring to account for some hills, I optimistically predicted a time of 82:15 which would have been just under an 8:20 pace/mile.

To put it simply, this was not my day. My right calf has been nagging me with tightness for a couple of weeks, especially after last weekend's long run, and today it quickly got worse. It didn't help that the first 3 miles were nothing but incessant, up-and-down, grueling hills. And it didn't help that I actually went out fast. Yeah, dumb a$$ second weekend in a row. After a mile I was in about 12th place and running well. After about 3 miles my calf was hurting significantly and the unrelenting hills were starting to really concern me. Were all 10 miles going to be like this? The calf gradually slowed me down because to run faster meant pushing off more off the right foot and that's what hurt. During the course of the next 7 miles I had the wonderful opportunity to meet most of the runners in the race, as one-by-one they each passed me by! I just kept gimping along though, and mentally adjusted my goal to finish without worsening things.

The middle miles of the race were not all that hilly, thankfully! But around miles 6 and 7 they got pretty nasty again and stayed that way til the end. I managed to steadily make my way to the finish, and gritted my teeth for that last steep downhill at the end while I tried to keep my legs under control.

But here's the kicker: I PR'd! Despite all the hills and a bum leg, I was maybe a second or two faster than the '06 ATM. Finish was about 1:29:55. Just under a 9-minute pace. Maybe that doesn't say much for my old PR, but I had considered myself in decent shape when I ran it. I think what this race tells me is that I'm in WAY better shape now than in '06. Very encouraging, that!

The course was beautifull! A lot of it was on country roads and there was almost no traffic to be concerned with. On another day I would have found the hills to be a fun challenge. After the race, there was plenty of food brought in by other runners. Plenty of baked goods, chili, soup, oranges, cookies, etc. Tons left over!

I'll be taking the next few days or so off. I want my leg fully healed, and I have no need to push the training at the moment.

Today's Run

I woke up a 4:50am this morning, was out the door by 5:25am, and proceeded to run 16.36 very hilly miles. If that ain't inherently bad enough, the real idiocy was the 18 degrees F temp when I left my house in the dark. And it was breezy. No, windy. Quite windy! I don't own a gaiter, though I think I know what one is, so I wasn't wearing one. And no scarf. Bareface.

I was fine for about a mile and a half, then it became apparent that I was in for an extended period of time running into the stiff wind. No idea what that wind chill was, but it was bad. That was the first time I contemplated turning around. But I'd touch my face frequently and could tell I really hadn't reached the so-cold-it-hurts stage, much less the more dangerous so-cold-I-no-longer-have-feeling stage, so I trudged on. By mile 3 the battery on my Ipod had conked out (serious bummer), and the stiff headwind changed to a stiff crosswind. I had that for about a mile or two before gaining some tree cover. Wheew! The cover was much appreciated! Without wind, not a bad run when properly dressed. Unfortunately, by this point my Camelbak's water hose was frozen solid. No more water this run!

Around mile 6 I had my last real opportunity to cut the run short (make it just a 11.5 miler), and I seriously considered this, but again didn't. No. Instead, more headwind! Now I was frequently trying to use my gloved hand to shield different parts of my face from the wind. Not real effective, that. This was the first point where I started brief stints of actually running backwards to get my face out of the wind!

Needless to say, this was not a particularly fast run for me. After about 6 miles I was already falling behind a 10 min/mile pace. At least the sky was starting to brighten!

A few more miles of crosswind and then I had a blissful repreive from the wind for about 3 miles. I enjoyed this part! But the worst was yet to come...

Around mile 11 or 12 I turned off of Glissan's Mill Rd and onto Jessie Smith Rd. After a long, steady climb Jessie Smith follows along parts of a ridge, where there are long sections that are utterly exposed to the 20+ mph sustained winds out of the northwest. This was brutal! I knew that in that wind it wouldn't take much to get frostbite. Most of it was blowing against my right cheek. I alternately turned my head left (imploring the newly risen sun to lend me some heat), held up my fleeced hand against my face, and ran backwards. My winter hat, once actually drenched in sweat if you can believe it, had now frozen into something resembling those motorcycle helmets that offer minimal protection to the rider -- you know, the ones the riders seem to be wearing as a protest to being made to wear a helmet. I could feel it bouncing up and down on my head at times. I was a bit worried now.

Well, after what seemed like forever, I made it to another valley and some relative shelter. The last few miles were in and out of the wind, and up and down various hills. In the end, I made it the full 16.36 miles at just under a 10:30 pace. The temp had DROPPED TO 14.7 degrees F! Amazingly, I was without frostbite!

I usually consider myself to be a relatively wise person. I wear my seat belt, don't smoke, don't drink, eat well, and stay fit. But really I'm just another dumb ass. Today proved it.

Frozen Moose Star Party 2008

On January 11-13 I hosted the 4th annual Frozen Moose Star Party at my in-laws' farm in Potter County, Pennsylvania. Although this year's attendance was a little sparse, we managed a great fun-filled weekend! We arrived Friday afternoon with enough daylight left to get our telescopes set up in spite of the overcast sky.

Bringing the Wii along turned out to be a great idea, what with the cloudy sky socking us in on Friday evening. After a pizza dinner brought back from the Gold General Store, we were ready for some jammin' on the Wii. Bowling was fun, albeit humiliating. (I need to figure out how to change the way they oil the lanes!) But Guitar Hero Rocked! Lots of Foghat, Kiss, and Pat Benatar played to...imperfection! At least we didn't get booed off the stage too often!

Saturday morning brought us more clouds, but the online Clear Sky Clock was starting to give us some hope. We scrambled up some eggs for breakfast and then got ready for geocaching! (If you're not familiar with geocaching, it involves using a portable GPS to search for caches or little treasures hidden away by other geocachers.)

First target: the only triple continental divide east of the Mississippi! Fortunately, this was only about a mile away from the Farm. There are a few signs in maybe a 1 square mile area that mark the starting points for three major rivers: the Allegany, the Genessee, and the Susquehanna. We made a point of taking a picture at each. Our first cache was supposedly right at the official point of the triple divide. We parked about a 1/4 mile away and, using Matt's trusty GPS, hiked our way right to a little sign sticking out of the ground marking the Triple Divide. From there, the actual geocache -- a small ammunition box -- was an easy find in a bramble bush (a clue for finding the cache advised us not get stuck looking for the cache). [Incidentally, I've posted about 40 photos from the weekend on my photobucket site: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v377/robisch/Frozen%20Moose%2008/ .]

Our next geocache was by a small nearby lake called Rose Lake. After parking, we were required to hike our way around to the opposite side of the lake in search of the exact coordinates. Once again, Matt led us right to the spot and we scored another cache! We saw a couple of beaver damns and several trees that beavers had obviously been chomping upon. We returned to the farm in mid-afternoon and took a few minutes to fly an RC helicopter that Lincoln and I got for Christmas. This actually went remarkably well for several flights before an unfortunate landing that involved a wood pile in the backyard. One of the blades hit it, and that was the end of our flying!

Well, it was time for chili anyway! This year we had it spiced up with some Weed Killer sauce that I brought. Mmmmm! And it kept us warm all night!

Speaking of night, as the sun was setting the clouds were departing, as if on queue. By dark, it was ABSOLUTELY CLEAR!!! So Matt and I got to work. We started with Mars in Matt's 10", which showed a fair amount of detail in brief instances of clearer seeing. I began with the wonderful Comet Holmes in Perseus. I initially picked it out naked eye, and it looked reminiscent of the Andromeda Galaxy, only perhaps larger. Moving to my 7x50 binoculars, it was fantastic! Reminded me of a huge beachball. Probably my favorite view of the night!

Next came Comet Tuttle in Cetus. It was not quite a naked eye object, possibly because of a slight glow in that part of the sky from the setting crescent moon. In the binoculars it was pretty easy. Small but fairly bright; diffuse.

At 7:10pm we witnessed an iridium satellite flare of about -2 magnitude. A beautiful, slow event! Maybe THIS was my favorite view of the night! It dropped out of the sky a little to the right of Orion.

NGC 1514 - pn Taurus. The 10th magnitude central star was easily visible in this planetary nebula. Nebulocity was large and faint. My Ultrablock and OIII filters did not help greatly with the view. Best at 50x and unfiltered.

Unfortunately, the cold sometimes discourages one from taking adequate notes, and it was at this point that I neglected to keep up my log book. I made failed attempts at a couple of galaxies in Taurus and Eridanus, I think. I did view the Orion Nebula later, but that was as high humidity in the air, and perhaps a bit of frost on my telescope's corrector plate, were beginning to effect the view.

The other highlight of the night, for me, was taking a break to give my son a little nake eye tour of the sky. We laid on the ground side-by-side and I used Matt's green laser pointer to show various constellations and Comet Holmes to Lincoln. We also searched for what Linc dubbed the Squid constellation last year, but on this night he wasn't sure if he'd found the same squid. I think Lincoln really enjoyed this part of the night, and so did I!

As Matt indicated, we were back inside by about midnight and soon hit the sack. Sunday morning involved mainly packing up to head home, but we also took a second to snap some more pictures outside, including the obligatory Moose group photo!

It was a shame that a few of the Frozen Moose Star Party regulars were unable to make it this year, but we'll be back again next winter! See you then!
-Ron

Gone to the Dogs

Last summer during my MCM training I went for a long run while visiting my in-laws in RURAL Potter County PA. About 4 miles into a 15 mile run I was greeted by some sort of springer mix along some farmland. He joined me. After about 5 miles of him trotting along with me (I tried to tell him he ought to go home) or bounding off into the woods briefly, I could tell he was starting to wonder when I was going to stop running. He kept looking up at me. "Dude," I told him, "we ain't even close yet." But he was obviously a fit hunting dog and kept right on running.

At around mile 12, while again at my side, he looked up at me - a frothy spittle seeping out one side of his mouth, tongue out the other - with an unmistakable, "WTF???"

I grinned. Next little creek we passed, he ditched me for a drink and never came back. I had run a healthy, athletic dog into the ground! To this day one of my proudest achievements in running!

Frederick Children's Chorus - Holiday Concert

Went Great!!! Raeann was fantastic, and I can't wait for the DVD to come out! This photo was taken right after the show.

The Joys of Parenting!

Chapter 5 - Puke! Puke! Puke!

It's 5:36 am and my son has now gotten us up 3 times tonight because that's what he's done. Poor guy was crying the first time. Now its old hat. At least this last time he got 90% of it in the bucket.
Raeann has a big holiday concert tonight with the Frederick Children's Chorus. PLEASE OH PLEASE don't let her come down with this before it's over!
Doesn't help that I was up until 1:30 because I couldn't tear myself away from Cinderella Man on tv. Great movie!

Chill Out, People.

I have a relatively long commute, and road rage seems to be getting all too common. This morning I found it before even leaving my neighborhood! The road which leaves our little development bends sharply left just before T-ing into a much busier street. Toward the end of this bend, a right-hand turning lane branches off of the main lane, so there are 2 lanes at the stop. Because of the bend in the road, it’s easy to lane change by simply not turning the wheel as hard through the bend. I’m sure most folks do this. Actually following the painted lines exactly makes for a more awkward lane change.

Well, I’m going through the bend, approaching the stop to turn right, and as I start entering the turn lane, I notice in my rear view mirror another car coming up quickly and it starts moving right as soon as there’s pavement to do so. I realize this person will actually try to scoot by me if I don’t get all the way over soon. So I do. As I stop I notice the woman in the car come up behind me and give me the universal hands-in-the-air WTF symbol. I return it. I mean, WTF, I’m just trying to make a right hand turn. Nothing wrong with that!

Well, we both turn right onto a busier road with a 40 mph speed limit, but people commonly go much faster. I get up to about 45-50 mph, and this woman starts really tailgating me! You can probably guess my reaction. My speed becomes proportional to the distance between our cars. The closer she gets to my bumper, the slower I go. And she gets VERY close. Pretty soon I’m going 35-40 and I set my cruise control. She continues to tailgate me for the next 2 miles. This is not a happy person.

I, on the other hand, manage to stay unemotional about it. Probably because I’m listening to a late 1960s vintage Yes album, with Jon Anderson’s voice flitting about within my head. Peace, love, man!

Eventually this road T’s into another road, again with a turn lane opening up on the right. I stay left so I can turn left. She takes the right lane when it opens up and zooms by me. As expected, she gives me a very dirty look as she goes by. I blow her a kiss! Once ahead of me she swerves into the left lane, and then, about 50 feet before the stop sign, she stops her car! I end up stopping more abruptly than I expected to. She delays there only long enough for her, “So there!” or somesuch statement to be made, and then she quickly resumes driving. She turns left and goes flying through Kemptown (a 30 mph zone) at something approaching 60 mph. I hope she didn’t kill anyone getting where she was going.

Our society’s really getting f’d up. Too many people getting way too stressed. Chill out, people.