Headphones

I had to laugh at this one.  I get this question a lot, especially by the folks at work that try to wrap their brains around running for three hours, riding for six, or swimming for two (not that I’ve done the last two this year, but it’s happened).

I don’t wear headphones.  I don’t listen to music.

Except what’s playing on mental radio.

I agree with Frazz.  I’ve got to hear what’s going on around me.  And music is too much of a distraction.

Every time I run a race, I am reminded of why it’s a good idea to not wear headphones.  Little islands unto themselves, runners with headphones take hard right turns with no warning so they can get a cup of water or get to the curb to tie their shoe.  They cross center lines on the (open) road, not hearing the car on the other side, just so they can jog with a bit more space (even loud screams couldn’t get this guy’s attention).

I understand the desire to distract oneself from the discomfort and pain.  I do wear them when I’m on a dreadmill or trainer.  But never outside.

I must be one of the old diehards that this NY Times article is referring to.

Life, or something like it

Been a crazy week.

After last weekend’s long run and some other stuff, it was a week out on the east coast.  It was nice to run with the ocean breeze in my face as it warmed up through the week.  It’s taper time, so the runs were short (5-7 miles), but the pace was brisk.  Especially one evening when I was 3 miles from the hotel and realized that I had to get back to the room, shower and drive across town to meet folks for dinner - in 30 minutes.

I made it.

Midway through the week, Goddess got ahold of me.  Horrible news.  The husband of her bridesmaid, who just turned 31, didn’t wake up Wednesday morning, passing sometime overnight.  Apparently it was a congenital heart issue, although you’d never know it.  He was a healthy man.  Left behind a wife and two daughters, aged 5 and 3.  A bit of scrambling and we worked out travel arrangments for Goddess to get out to Colorado.

Unfortunately she landed less than two hours after the funeral.

But we got her out there.

A bit of shuffling to get Skinny a sitter for the weekend, since we had already made plans to be out of town.  So after dropping Goddess off at the airport, I drove Son and two of his friends north to Louisville.  We were off to see Gigantour, which we had been looking forward to since January.  The lineup was High on Fire (meh) Job For a Cowboy (meh), Children of Bodom (excellent), In Flames (good) and Megadeth (great).

I  didn’t enjoy it as much as I was hoping, mainly because I was worried about Goddess traveling (although she has traveled halfway across the world by herself), about her friend, her friend’s girls and the emotional trauma that I could only imagine that they were all going through (or about to in Goddess’ case).

But the show went on for six hours, which is about 30 minutes past the limit my ears (as well as Son and his friends) can take.  Even with earplugs.  Shame too, since that happened during Megadeth, who I’ve followed since the mid-80’s.  I was jazzed since this was the first time I’ve been able to catch them live.

And what was a first in the hundreds of concerts that I’ve been to over the past 25 years - the concert was paused for safety.  During Children of Bodom’s set, the crowd surged forward hard enough to break the barrier.  They cut the power to the stage and Bodom left for 30 minutes, giving the crew enough time to fix the barrier.  I was sitting up in the stands at that point so I had a pretty good view of everything.  Son was down in the crowd and immediately texted “WTF?”, so I talked him through it.

We got back to the hotel at 1230am.  Much to their chagrin, I woke them up at 700am.  Nothing like trying to wake three 16 year old’s up after only six hours of sleep.  But we had to get on the road so I could get back and spend the rest of the day writing a paper for school.

Joy.

Marathon in 5.5 days.

Da Dip

So hawt!

If you’ll browse through the left column, you’ll see that I’m a Maker’s Mark Ambassador. I am a big fan of the Mark.  A very fine, very smooth Kentucky bourbon. I prefer it with just a splash of clean water to mix up the essence and then an ice cube or two, depending on how many fingers deep the pour is.  But if you prefer mixing, it stands up quite well to that use as well.

Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway(again)

“I’d tell you the name of this next song, but if you don’t figure it out by the end of the song, you’re too stupid to talk to“.

That’s how Jeff Tweedy introduced the song that just happens to be the title of this blog. But that’s for later in this blog. First things first.

But before that, here’s another music entry. If it doesn’t interest you, then there’s nothing to see here. I’ll be back to regular training/racing entries soon enough, since this was the last concert for a little while.

Sunday night saw us driving to Nashville for our third concert in six days. In case you missed the others, it was Linkin Park on Tuesday and Kid Rock on Friday. Sunday’s concert was decidedly mellower since it was Wilco playing at the gorgeous Ryman Auditorium.

Sunday was another warm day, so after doing homework and turning in my exams, I was able to get a quick 12-mile MTB ride through the nearby park, checking out some trails and looking at the seams in the creek, anticipating them stocking it with trout in a couple of weeks. Time to get some new tippets and flies ready. Whoo hoo! A quick shower and a bite on the go and we were on our way to Nashville. We’ve been down there so much lately that Goddess and I discussed living there, if only gas wasn’t getting so expensive.

Anyway, after getting our tickets and poking around the Ryman, we made our way to the t-shirt tables. Looking to see what they had, I almost let out a yelp. I knew that Wilco was having a warm-up act, but I had no idea who. But up there on the wall were John Doe t-shirts. For those of you not aware of John Doe, follow the link and read how he was the guitarist and vocalist for THE seminal LA punk band X. For me, that makes connections to two great acts from my youth in one week. John played a mix of his solo stuff as well as a few songs from X, appropriately slowed down for the crowd. He was amazed that he was playing in the Ryman, an old church, mentioning that he would have to call Exene and gloat that he got to play “White Girl” at the Ryman.

After a short break, Wilco took the stage, fresh from their SNL appearance the night before. As soon as they took the stage, everyone stood up, which is understandable. But everyone remained standing the entire time. The Ryman’s way too small for that and Goddess and the Son had a difficult time seeing the show. Especially since the dude in the front of us was at least 8 feet tall (give or take a foot). It didn’t help that the folks way up front were standing, which didn’t make sense, since they couldn’t leave their seats and they had to crane their necks to see up on the stage anyway. I suspect it would’ve been more comfortable sitting. Anyway, since they stood, everyone behind had too as well, making it not nearly as enjoyable as it should have been.

Kluso, here’s the setlist:

1. Via Chicago
2. Blood Of The Lamb
3. Pieholden Suite
4. California Stars
5. Company In My Back
6. You Are My Face
7. Side With The Seeds
8. Pot Kettle Black
9. A Shot In The Arm
10. She’s A Jar
11. Handshake Drugs
12. Impossible Germany
13. It’s Just That Simple
14. Pick Up The Change
15. Too Far Apart
16. Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway(again)
17. Jesus, Etc.
18. Hate It Here
19. Walken
20. I’m The Man Who Loves You

Encore 1:
21. Someone Else’s Song (Jeff Solo w/o PA)
22. Misunderstood
23. The Thanks I Get
24. Red-Eyed And Blue
25. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
26. Monday

Encore 2:
27. The Late Greats

While you’re at it, take a browse over at Kluso’s site. He’s an excellent musician, living in Okinawa and playing the local club circuit. You can buy some of his music on his site. And if you poke around the photo page, you might find one or two shots from yours truly. Kluso is the one who introduced Goddess and I to Wilco as he covered several of his songs while playing bars and other venues in and around Tokyo. We were his groupies for quite a while, tagging along and following him to some very interesting bars. Thank you so much, Kluso!

Also, if you look through his site, you’ll notice other artists. Kluso was very instrumental in introducing local Tokyo bands to the western expatriate community. Hands down, one of the best was Megababe, a trio of hot Japanese babes that would rock your (bleep) off while playing the hardest metal and punk they could find. Truly a hot show! BTW, one of my photos of them is in there as well.

Anyway, time for Bill to swing way back from his tangent. But in case you haven’t noticed, I’m a bright shiny object kind of guy. But I refuse Ritalin since I enjoy every second of the ADD.

The Wilco set was excellent. As you can surmise from the setlist, they played quite a while. Over two hours and it was quite a good show (other than the standing). If they swing by your area, I definitely recommend giving them a couple hours of your time.

From now on, less entertainment-themed posts…

American Bada$$

Here’s another music post, so if you aren’t interested, there’s nothing to see here.

Well, thanks to Ticketmaster, we scored some good seats to see Kid Rock down in Nashville last night. I had mentioned in the last entry that I was thinking about convincing Goddess to go. But tix were around $43 and I’m not that big of a fan. Well, Wednesday night Ticketmaster announced that they were intent on filling the arena, so for 12-hours on Thursday seats would go on sale. And sale they did. We scored just off stage left, about 60 feet away and 30 feet above the stage, for $17.50 each. Now that’s a price I like.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Number of Kid Rock CD’s that I own = Zero. I haven’t bought any because, as a whole I find the lyrics to be quite vulgar and juvenile. That says a lot coming from this vulgar and juvenile guy. But I can only stomach so much, so I don’t bother buying the CDs (and no, I don’t download any music. Period). But there were two things that I knew to be true for this concert - 1). Kid Rock is an entertainer. Plain and simple. So I knew it would be a good show, much along the lines that Marilyn Manson puts on a great concert; MM’s a great entertainer too (it amazes me that folks take him seriously as a “threat” to whatever they deem him a threat too), and 2) Lyrics aside, I do like the music immensely. I learned as a teenager that most lyrics are inane and actually detract from a song, so I listen to the tune, preferring good hooks and grooves as well as technical mastery of the instrument. I love all kinds of music, from classical to bluegrass to hip-hop to punk; so does Kid Rock. The difference is that he can make great music tying those influences together. I cannot. So I knew that he’d play some good music. And he didn’t disappoint on both parts. The third reason that I was hoping for in this concert was that perhaps there would be an unannounced visitor, namely Hank Williams, Jr., since he owns a house here in Nashville. Unfortunately, Hank didn’t show.

Anyway, the crowd was much different than the Linkin Park crowd of just three nights before. But the women weren’t dressed much differently (short, short skirts and plunging necklines). Goddess and I found our seats and were quite pleased, especially since we were much, much closer than the seats way back up top that folks paid $43 for!. There was one hanging amp that blocked the view of front center stage just a bit, but no big deal, since Kid rarely stood there. And when he did, we just couldn’t see his head. And since he’s not much to look at, we took that as just a minor inconvenience.

The show started off with a salute to the military. Very nice. The Nashville US Marine Corp Recruiting Squadron appeared as the honor guard and stood at attention on stage as the National Anthem was played. Very nice to see at a concert.

After a bit of pre-show pump by someone who’s name I didn’t catch (there was no warm-up act), Kid and everyone took the stage about 30 minutes late, dressed in a white leisure suit, complete with matching cowboy hat. Straight into Rock and Roll Jesus, his controversial new song. The first several songs were his more “relaxed” style, mixing rock, bluegrass, country and blues. The big surprise of the night came when Kid announced a special guest, who turned out to be the one and only Peter Wolf of The J. Geils Band fame. Peter rolled right into “Love Stinks“, which had the crowd rolling. Kid joined him on “Centerfold” (link goes to video, complete with Martha Quinn goodness), then Peter left the stage.

Here’s a small clip from his song “Cowboy“, which gives you an idea of the view we had (although it looks much further away than it really was):

A few more Kid Rock songs and then he announced his first guest of the night, Dickey Betts, guitarist for the Allman Brother’s Band. They played a few Allman Brothers classics, including “Ramblin’ Man” and threw in a few riffs from “Sweet Home Alabama” just to get the crowd really riled up.

And what has to be a first for any of the gazillion rock concerts I’ve been to, Kid Rock announced a 15-minute intermission. They had already played 12 or 13 songs and it was time for a break. The house lights came on and I looked at my watch. It was a full 90 minutes after the show started! Hell, we already got our $17.50 worth!

The second part of the show started and Kid came out in Adidas, jeans and a tank top. Now was time for the harder stuff. A few songs into the set, he announced his second guest, who I was really, really, really jonesin’ to see. It was Rev. Run of Run DMC fame. I was grinning from ear to ear the entire time they performed together. It really took me back. Way back.

Back to when the album “Run DMC” was released in 1984. We were jamming to “Rock Box” and “It’s Like That” long before MTV “discovered” them. Good memories of high school cross country camp up at Big Bear Lake, CA, with the giant boom box thumpin’ out their rhymes. Also good memories of being 16 and running at altitude (6700′-7000′), including the loop around the entire lake, 17 miles of lung- and quad-busting goodness (click on the link and select “display elevation”. Whoever loaded this loop runs it the opposite direction that we did, so check out that descent between miles 7-8, which would have been a climb between 13-14 for us). Anyway, by the time MTV “discovered” them, thanks to “Walk this Way”, I’d been a fan for a while. The rhymes and rhythms have always resonated with me and the CD’s still go with us on road trips to this day.

Here’s a 5:30-minute clip of Run and Kid jamming through a Run DMC medley:

It was tough to hold the camera steady and jam to the music at the same time.

Many more songs and he ended with “Bawitdaba“, a full three hours after he started. I didn’t keep track of songs, but I saw a song list from another show that listed 31 songs. Again, well worth the $17.50 per seat for Goddess and I to enjoy a very entertaining show.

A few interesting vignettes:

• Billed as a “Rock and Roll Revival”, the main stage had an extension shaped like a cross.
• During one break between songs, Kid thanked everyone who spent money to see them play, considering how tight money is these days.
• At another point, he stopped the show and, just like a good preacher would, asked everyone to turn around and meet the folks around them; that was pretty cool.
• Probably the most interesting moment was right after he blasted through “You Never Met a Motherfxcker Like Me“, he led the crowd in singing “This Little Light of Mine“, an old Sunday school song.
• The funniest thing we saw, which you can see in the “Cowboy” video, is the woman holding up the sign “I want to sit on your face and spin twice”. Real classy!

Well worth the money. If you’re a huge fan, I’d recommend paying more. A neighbor rode down with us and she bought a significantly more expensive ticket, but she ended up right next to the stage and loved every minute of it.

Tomorrow night - WILCO. Then the week of concerts is over. Darnit.

Rinkin Park, Rinkin Park

The title will make sense in a moment.

Last night was the delivery on a Christmas present to all of us. Goddess, son and I sped to Nashville after work to go to the Sommet Center. If you haven’t figured out by now, live music is my thing. I’ve been spending a lot more money on concerts since my mid-teens than I’d like to think about. But I wouldn’t trade any of those experiences. Not a single one.

Headlining was Linkin Park. All three in this house are huge fans and we were quite excited to see this show; matter of fact, hand me a beer (or three) and a microphone and I’ll karaoke with LP. Heck, at that point I’ll karaoke with just about anything.

Opening up was Chiodos (pretty good), followed by Coheed and Cambria (meh). We scored floor tickets (General Admission) since I’m a huge fan of being down in the mass of bodies. For rock shows, that’s all part of the experience.

As soon as we got down to the floor, son hooked up with his friends and was gone; we didn’t see him again until everything was over. Goddess and I hung out to listen to Chiodos, milled about during intermission, then left after a few Coheed and Cambria (C&C) songs to get a beverage (Widmer Hefeweizen for me, Michelob Ultra for her). We stood out in the atrium and watched the folks milling about. Plenty of others weren’t too impressed with C&C. Don’t get me wrong, they were not bad. Matter of fact, I though the individual members (especially the guitarist) were quite good, but as a whole they just didn’t do it for me. The songs that I heard were very formulaic and it was difficult for me to tell the difference between songs. In other words, nothing grabbed me. Although I did get a laugh out of watching the hirsute lead singer, who tilted his head forward, sending his hair over his face, making me think of Cousin Itt.

Goddess and I partook in one of our favorite activities - watching people. There were all kinds. From 12-year old girls in mini-skirts and F-me pumps trying to look 19 to 55 year old women in mini-skirts and F-me pumps trying to look 19. Goddess and I were quite catty from time to time, but it was all in good fun. Quote of the night? “He’s going down on that hot dog like he hasn’t had a date in a week“.

C&C finished, so we headed back to the floor. Since the crowd had thinned out for beverage and potty breaks, we were able to get up to about 20′ from the stage. Perfect. Initially I was surprised that Goddess wanted to get that close, but she said “Hey, it’s Linkin Park”. I was surprised since she’s never been a big fan of being close to the stage, ever since I made the mistake of taking her to her first big concert in Tokyo and poising us to be up next to the stage for The Prodigy. She lasted about 3 minutes in that crush of humanity. I lasted about 10 minutes, but dislocating my shoulder put an end to that pit. Good times!

Anyway, we stood and stood and stood. I figured it would be about 30 minutes between bands. The crew was done with the stage in 30 minutes, but we stood there for another 25 minutes before LP took the stage.

Back to the title. While standing there waiting for LP to take the stage, the crowd did the usual chanting for the band - “Linkin Park, Linkin Park”. It made Goddess and I laugh, thinking about good friends who saw LP play in Tokyo. It’s stereotypical and certainly not meant to be mean, but they couldn’t help but laugh as the Japanese crowd did the same thing, except it was “Rinkin Park, Rinkin Park”.

LP played for an hour, flowing from song to song, some fast, some slow. Excellent show from start to finish. They alternated new and old songs, so there was plenty for everyone. I laughed at one point, watching Mr Han, who’s the DJ for LP, playing “Rock, Paper, Scissors” with the cameraman during a point in a song where Mr Han didn’t have anything to play.

Goddess even swooned as Chester, one of her many, many, many “boyfriends”, peeled his shirt off. Since he started off the show in a jean jacket and t-shirt and was jumping all around the stage, I have no doubt that he was hot.

At the end of the hour, they bowed. Time for the first encore, which they came back and played a few slower songs, then ramped it up for couple more, then said goodnight again. Everyone headed for the exits. Goddess and I giggled, since the house lights weren’t coming on. The show’s not over until the house lights come on. So we moved forward and got up to about 5′ from the stage. The crowd thinned out even more. As expected, LP came out for a second encore and we were right up front.

Now, it wasn’t quite the second encore that we were hoping for. Last weekend in New York, Jay-Z came out for the second encore. We were hoping, since we’re big Jay-Z fans too. Especially when he and LP teamed up for their Collision Course. Great stuff! So the encore was “just” LP.

Up to this point, the crowd had been pretty energetic but behaved themselves pretty well. As LP launched into “One Step Closer“, the pit blew up since there was more room and folks could move around. I’m fine with that and actually welcome it, but one kid came flying across right at Goddess, swinging his fists about head-high. I snapped into protection mode. The kid didn’t partake in the pit the rest of the song, but I certainly did.

Son and his friends were among those that made the choice to head for the exits after the first encore. So he got an eagle-eye view of the last song, including the pit. He couldn’t believe that we were up in the midst of it. He kept asking “really?”.

Afterwards we took our time filtering out so the crowd could disperse. The normal 45-minute drive took 2.5 hours! As we drove down to Nashville it was snowing. Not too hard, just flurries. But while we were in the concert, the temperature dropped and the ice set up on the roads and interstates. What a freakin’ mess. We sat in one line for our interstate exit for 30 minutes, then took a detour and worked our way through back roads. We got around the accidents, but it was a harrowing drive for the last 40 miles. We drive a Subaru Outback and love its all-wheel-drive. But there were stretches where I was holding the wheel straight and the crosswind was pushing us sideways across the lanes. We finally made it; not everyone did (that video was at least 7 hours after we passed). Son got to bed just four hours before he had to be at school; it was a rough day for him today. But hey, I did the same thing at his age, getting home from The Who’s (first of many) farewell tours just in time to shower and head to the bus stop.

Me? I took the day off. And took advantage of the weather to get out and take some pictures.

Next concert? This weekend - WILCO at the Ryman Theater on Sunday. Even sooner if I can convince Goddess to go to Kid Rock on Friday night (it being Nashville, with any luck Hank Williams, Jr. will make an appearance). If not, the next one with tickets already bought is Gigantour (Megadeth, Children of Bodom, Job for Cowboy and High on Fire); Goddess will sit that one out, hanging out in the hotel room with Skinny while I take son and a couple of his friends.

Whatever your choice in music - live it, feel it, enjoy it.

The Pot and the Kettle

Well, I got called out for calling the kettle black. Luckily mother nature delivered today and helped provide a bit of motivation.

This photo has been in my head for quite a few months. I’ve always seen it just as it’s presented to you (yes, I always saw it in black and white) every time I cross this bridge on my long runs. I just needed a bit of snow to fall. We’ve had snow several times over the past few months, but nothing significant and certainly not enough accumulation to make this photo.

Had mother nature not cooperated, I would have dug back into the vaults a bit to answer the Kettle’s call. Not too far back, since I shot this a few weeks ago. But with work, school and myriad other things that make up this thing called life, I have yet to post any in my gallery.

These are the pews in the historic Ryman Theater in Nashville, TN. Home to the Grand Ol’ Opry for many, many years, it has since be refurbished and concerts are held their often. During the winter, they move the Opry taping over from the new house and record it here. Lots of history in these seats and on that stage. And it happens to be one of my favorite places to see a show, since it’s small and the acoustics are amazing.

The problem with the size is that seats sell out within minutes for big shows. For this upcoming Sunday’s WILCO concert, I was on the computer right when the tickets went on sale. I had our seats within three minutes and could only get the back row; the entire place was sold out in under five minutes. Shows like BB King sell out even faster.

While you’re at it, take a browse over at the Kettle’s gallery. The photos are both hers and her husbands. Amazing folks the two of them are. And if you look at this year’s gallery, you’ll see photos of her trouncing the competition in her cyclocross series.

On a final note, there’s one thing I can’t stress enough. When you’re viewing anyone’s photo gallery, you really need to be using Safari as your browser. I won’t get into the technical details, but Safari (both Windows and Mac) is the only browser that will display the colors that the photographer intended for you to see. The other browsers default to a standard colorspace, which I know typically washes out my photos and makes them quite drab. For example, the pews shot above looks significantly different in my Firefox versus Safari. Safari matches how I processed the image in Photoshop and that’s how I hope you’ll look at it.

Toughest…

Last night was an interesting night.

First off, we headed down to Nashville to watch the “Toughest Cowboy” competition. Goddess, son and I had never been to a rodeo, so we decided to try this one; we’ll try anything once. Plus there was the added bonus of seeing Blue Oyster Cult play afterwards.

Apparently in a regular rodeo each cowboy rides once. During this one, they rode three times. First bareback on a horse, then saddled. The final ride was on a bull. It was an amazing experience, being so close to those large animals and watching them flail about, occasionally sending the rider flying. As the announcer described one bull - “That’s 1800 pounds of meat in a leather purse”.

Before we knew it, the two hour competition was done. We were actually disappointed that it was over, which was surprising since none of us ever really sat down and watched a rodeo before, even on TV.

BOC was an interesting experience. Being a huge fan of theirs as a kid, I was familiar with most of their set material. But apparently there were few of us in the audience (the country crowd filed out as soon as the rodeo was done). At one point after a few songs, a girl nearby yelled “Play something I know”. I had to laugh about that. Goddess wasn’t familiar with much, but she sat back and enjoyed the show anyway. As easily predicted, they finished with “Godzilla” and “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper“, which I suspect the girl might have known.

They even had a great sense of humor, starting off the show asking if anyone had a cowbell.

In developing news on the injury front, I made a discovery while driving along the interstate at 80mph. Not exactly the best place to manipulate a trigger point, let me tell you. But the discovery has led me in a direction that I wouldn’t have explored before.  Hopefully I’ll have some good news to report in a day or two.

MS Blues Half Marathon: Race Report

In the words of S. Baboo Friday night as we ate dinner with him and GeekGirl - “Life is funny. You just can’t make up stuff this good”. But that doesn’t really have anything to do with this blog. We were already laughing and that line made me laugh even more.

It all started with checking in at our hotel in Jackson, MS. The guy in front of us, wearing his Boston Marathon Finisher’s Jacket, mentioned to one of the hotel staff that this race was going to be tougher than Boston, thanks to the hills. No one mentioned hills. Not in this race. The course profile showed some bumps, but certainly nothing to get concerned about, right?

So we check in to the hotel, grab a quick nap, then head over to the expo to sign in. I call S. Baboo and GeekGirl, who are out driving the course. The first thing he mentions are the hills. And it doesn’t sound good. Further discussion squashes any plans for a PR on this course.

Race morning turned out beautiful for a run, although a bit warmer than I like. But standing around before the start was pretty cool at 45F with a nice breeze. So I stood with Goddess, wrapped up in my sweats until just moments before the horn went off. Then I slipped into the pack, not 30 feet from the front, and started the run.

As expected the first 1/2 mile was pretty slow as everyone is packed together and shuffling along. It took a while, but then things started thinning and and I could move. The plan was to start out slow and throttle back for the first half, then pick up the pace. I planned this for two reasons: 1) with the hills, I didn’t want to go out to hard and blow up, and 2) this was always planned to be just a training run for me (definitely a priority B race, where I didn’t peak and taper like I would for a priority A race).

The first few miles were warming up, talking to Elvis (who invited me back to Graceland after the race), and working my way around the other runners. Not that I was flying, but it was pretty easy to pick out who had started out too hard. The first long uphill was between 3-3.5 miles and folks started drifting back. This hill even slowed my overall average pace a few seconds, but that was fine with me, especially this early in the race.

Through the mid-section of the race, I planned on keeping the pace nice and steady so I’d have something left for the last 4-5 miles. I actually ended up picking up the pace in the mid-section, shaving time off my average pace from miles 3.5-8. So far so good, but the hills just kept coming as we worked our way through the downtown business/capitol district of Jackson.

The last 5 miles started out quite hilly as we worked our way past the fairgrounds and climbed up into a residential area. This is where quite a few folks started walking, but that wasn’t in my plan. I started reeling in more runners as I picked up the pace, but now that I look at the data, I didn’t actually pick up speed. Matter of fact, over my last 5 miles, every 1/2 mile split was within 1 second of each other, either 8:45 or 8:46. How’s that for consistent? Here’s the pace chart and route (click on the picture to see the full image, which includes the full route):

I think the killer was the last 1/2 mile, where we made a left turn and went straight up. It sure felt like a wall at that point. I crossed the finish line at 1:55:46 , not a PR, but just 8 minutes off. Not too bad for a hilly course and a training run. If I remember correctly (the web site’s not updated), that made me 132nd out of 600. Also, I think they had me at 1:56:02, which would account for passing under a railroad track (more on that later).

After Goddess and I drove back to the hotel for a quick ice-bath and shower (Goddess refused to join me for either one), we grabbed the boy and headed back to the race. We sat at the finish “wall” and cheered the marathon finishers on, telling them it was the last hill. There were a few comments of “It sure as hell better be”.

We almost missed S. Baboo as he came sprinting up the top of the hill on his way to a PR! We cheered GeekGirl on as she went up the hill, but it was a few minutes later when we realized that it was her. She finished quite strong herself and I know she’s pleased with the race, especially considering the hills.

So we sat in the finish area, ate some food, listened to some blues and enjoyed the free beer. It was quite an energetic post-race.

After a few relaxing hours in the hotel that afternoon, we met up at a local bar, which sponsored the race. They definitely threw in a great deal, with free entry to all race competitors, plus two free drink coupons. Very nice schwag there! The bands were great, as was the beverage and company. But it all had to come to an end, especially since we had a 7-hour drive home the next day.

I did learn a few things during this race:

1). Pay closer attention to the race profile. Goddess even asked me afterwards when I was going to pick a flat course. My Garmin gave me 1,300 feet of climbing during the 1/2 marathon; BIM Active calculates 839 feet (I believe that more).  Either way, I don’t want to think of what it was for the full.

2). Turn off the “auto pause” feature on my Garmin. We went under a train overpass at one point and it turned off for about 15 seconds. All-in-all, nothing horrible, but just an odd event that took my mind off of my run.

3). Fuel. Making the transition from getting ready for a triathlon and getting ready for a run was difficult. My first half-marathon last year, I ate my normal 600+ calories like I would before a triathlon; too much to run on right away. I scaled that back for my marathon and felt a bit better, although I did suffer from some gastro-issues during the last few miles. This time I drank one Ensure (250 cals) and everything worked fine. Also, a few weeks back I found the culprit of my stomach pains during the latter parts of my runs- my long-beloved Hammer Gel. I was on a 10-miler and popped a gel at mile 7. By mile 8-9 I had the familiar stomach pain that I had throughout all of my races last year; the rest of my run wasn’t good. So I switched to Clif Shot Bloks and they worked fine during my long run last weekend. They worked great during this race, too. No issues at all, either during or after. So I ran with my Fuel Belt, water and a package of Shot Bloks. I drank the water at the aid stations and took the occasional swig from my belt. Absolutely no issues.

Anybody need some Hammer Gel?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not slamming Hammer Gel. I’ve been a big fan of Hammer products for the past 12 years and will continue to use them. But I’ll just have to limit the gel use to long training rides and races. No runs.

Pardon the pun.

Would I recommend next year’s Mississippi Blues Half-/Full Marathon? Hells Yes! An excellent course, with bands along the way, plenty of aid stations, enthusiastic volunteers, a welcoming community, great schwag and entertainment make this a race that needs to be on your “must-do” list. Plus, if you live in someplace cold (it was 9-degrees here the morning before we left), a place like southern MS in January is pretty darn warm (and humid). A nice change of pace for a few days.

Ktrak

For those of you who live in the snow belt: Ktrack

Plus, any company that uses American Idiot in their commercial is alright in my book.

Around here, it just doesn’t snow enough. Heck, an inch shuts down this place. But if I move to the mountains (oh, I will Goddess, I will…).

Brent, don’t worry about it.