Rock & Roll Chicago – Diary of a Wimpy Californian

Seven Rock & Roll events down, seven to go. Chicago was the half way point in events and it took its toll on me. While it may only have been a half marathon, the humidity was a factor as there was no way for me to prepare for it, living in Northern California. Not even a lunchtime run in Minneapolis a few weeks prior – overcast.

The weekend started with a reminder of why you shouldn’t rent a car when visiting Chicago. I normally don’t but will need it for client meetings in and around Illinois Monday. At O’Hare I hopped into the car, plugged the address for the McCormick Center into the GPS and it said I would be at the race Fitness Expo in 15 minutes. Sweet. The reality: 45 minutes of mostly bumper to bumper traffic heading into Chicago. Once I got there came the second reminder about renting a car – Chicago’s outrageous parking fees. I spent more parking my car for the weekend than I did renting it.

At the expo I sauntered over to the Competitor.com booth as I was expecting to pick up my Rock Legend Heavy Medal. In their progressive medal series this is the highest honor, signifying the completion of 7 Rock & Roll events in a single calendar year. A pretty cool medal; and definitely heavy. I got to hold it and take a picture but the full supply of medals didn’t make the trip to Chicago unfortunately, so mine’s in the mail.

After settling into my hotel, the historic Intercontinental on Michigan Avenue, I headed down to the beach to take in the sun. The ultra-touristy Naval Pier was a short walk from the hotel. I turned north to the beach and got a view of a floating college party. There were hundreds of boats lashed together in the lake and teens were hopping from boat to boat mingling and drinking with party music blaring from some of the bigger boats. Very cool. Wish we had that during my college years.

One of the highlights of the Interncontinental Hotel is the 20s era décor and the pool.

It’s a junior Olympic sized pool with grandstands that was used by Johnny Weissmuller back when he was training for the Olympics. I dropped into lane two for an hour swim. I don’t think my slow and steady freestyle drew a crowd but in my own head, it was me versus Tarzan in lane one. Come on, Johnny, show me whatchagot!

Dinner was at a great tapas bar, The Purple Pig, right across Michigan Avenue from my hotel. This is tapas Chicago style meaning heavy on the pork products. They had a great selection of European wines (no California wines – huh?), cheeses and special tapas like pork liver pate, braised pork knuckles, fried pigs tails and several appetizing vegetarian dishes as well.

After that, I took a walk along the river, passing between the famous Wrigley building and WGN and over to Millenium Park. These are sites you really need to see in the summertime. Nine o’clock at night and it was in the mid seventies and gorgeous. And I finally got a taste of dark chocolate covered bacon at Eno a local specialty chocolatier. Can’t say I’m a fan. I know, I know, how can I say no to any bacon dish!

After dressing my chair and settling into bed the usual pre-race nerves kicked in around 3 in the morning. I was up about every 30 minutes checking my watch, making sure it wasn’t time to get up. I had one of those race nightmare dreams around 4:30, in which my alarm went off and woke me up but not at 5:30am, but 5:30pm and I had missed the race. Coach Terry was there and when I got to Millenium Park he was slowly shaking his head in disappointment. I normally don’t have pre-race jitters before a half marathon but given my year-long quest, one DNF would do me in.

As usual I woke up a couple minutes before my alarm and set to getting ready. It was a short warmup run from my hotel through Millenium Park to the start line. On the way I passed by a street that was closed off and occupied by several large trucks and large studio lights. A film crew is here filming scenes for the upcoming movie Transformers 3. I couldn’t see much, but there was a lot of rubble in the street so I imagine there were busying themselves destroying Chicago. I think I’ll wait for the DVD.

At the start, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun was slowly rising off Lake Michigan. That’s not a good thing, as the temperature was slowly creeping up as was the humidity. The organizers were busily interviewing B-list celebrities who had come out to run the race. I hadn’t heard of any of them but they were apparently from shows including The Gates, The Bachelor and a few others. Last year’s winner, Kara Goucher was the final interview. She’s not running this year due to her pregnancy but commented that one of the best parts of last year’s race was beating all the guys. I could run a five minute mile, too, you know. For about 200 yards.

The race finally kicked off at 6:30am and it was a very nice course. We started heading north into downtown. We crossed the river and wound around the shopping districts and came back south on State Street. I wasn’t real thrilled running on the bridges which were a bit like cattle grates - steel footbeds that discourage crossing.

The tall downtown buildings provided nice cool shade for running but after crossing back over the river the sun was above us and the humidity started to kick in around mile 5. It started sapping my energy and sub-7 minute miles started creeping over to the other side of seven. We ran past some of Chicago’s fantastic museums including the Museum of Contemporary Art and Field Museum before coming to the alien landing. Chicago’s Soldier Field was modernized a few years back and it’s a stark contrast in architectural styles. They kept the old surrounding building of the stadium which looks like an old historic field house made of stone with stone columns like those in front of the US Treasury Building in DC. But inside is an ultramodern glass and aluminum circular stadium that bursts out of the old building like an alien spaceship just landed inside. It’s really an incredible design. Guess I’ll have to come back for a Bears game.

After Soldier Field the sun, and more so the humidity, was really starting to get to me. Miles 5-9 were brutal. Along this route we were circling the massive McCormick Center where most of the large conventions are held in Chicago. We wound along trails through its grounds and after nearly every turn I kept looking for the point where we would start heading North. Finally it came just after mile 9. What also came at that time were clouds. Hooray!

I was slowly able to regain some energy as the humidity subsided a bit and the course cooled down. Miles 10-13 were along the Lake Trail and brought us back up to Millenium Park. I finally had energy again in the last half mile and booked it to the finish. I crossed at 1:38. I’ll take it.

Now begins my longest break in the Rock & Roll 2010 season – five weeks. The next event is another half marathon in Virginia Beach. It’s historically humid and hot for this Labor Day Weekend run and I’m not sure how to modify my training from here. Any suggestions are welcome.

Finally, thanks to all my supporters. We’ve raised nearly $8,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to date. I still need a bit over $2,000 to make my goal so keep the donations coming! As we Texans say, “y’all are the best!”

Freeway Marathon marks my Super Six and Life 25

Another city, another marathon but this one marked a few milestones for me:

• Half-way point in total miles for the 2010 Rock n Roll Endurance Series
• My 25th career marathon
• My 11th US state - completing a marathon in each

Rock n Roll Seattle Marathon is the 6th event in the 2010 Endurance Series and while Chicago, in August will be half way through the number of events, the series was front-loaded with full marathons (5 of them). Seattle provided near-perfect running conditions, some gorgeous scenery and some not-so-nice out and backs.

The event started at the health and fitness expo on Friday where

Competitor Group allowed me

to pick up my Super6 Heavy Medal. And heavy it was - over a pound. This is the next to last

medal in their progressive medals program - or so it appears. The folks at Competitor keep telling me they are planning something special for 14 so we'll see what they come up with.

Race #6 started in Tukwila, Washington, a suburb of Seattle and as usual, the stellar event organization by Competitor Group shined early on. I walked from my hotel, the Inn at the WAC the few blocks to where the downtown buses collected us to shuttle up to Tukwila and there were an ample supply of transports. I waited around for my fellow SMSers a while but when it was time to board, I got right on. The temperature at the start was just perfect - mid 50s and overcast. No wind, low humidity and lots of local adrenaline.

After wishing my colleagues well, I met up with @adamrisu in corral 2 and we took off just minutes after the starting gun.

The first few miles were rather uneventful as we passed through some industrial streets, past a few junk yards and scrap dealers (didn't exactly show Tukwila in its best light) before entering some nice quiet neighborhoods where everyone came out to cheer.

The highlight of the run came a few miles later along Lake Washington which provided sweeping lake views to the right and gorgeous wooded neighborhoods to the left. I will definitely have to return here during one of my many business trips to Seattle to run here again.

After this, the race turned into people acting like cars, as the majority of the rest of the event was on freeways and highways. we took a short out and back jaunt into the lake region on the Interstate 90 bridge. The

tailwind on the way out was nice as were the views but the headwind on the return sapped a bit of my energy. Since Lake Washington I had been running with another San Francisco Bay Area runner doing his first full but lost him in the wind.

We then came into the city on I-90 then merged onto Highway 99 for two, yes two out and backs. This event played a rather cruel mental game with us 26.2'ers in that we turned onto H-99 just as the half marathoners were turning the other way and heading to the finish, then on the way back south on 99 we passed right by the finish are and continued on south for another out and back. Ugh.

Thankfully, however, my good friend and fellow SMSer Faisal was waiting for me at the mile 18 turn around in North Seattle and rode his bike alongside me, keeping me company and energized through this whole last section. Faisal - you da man! Thanks a ton!

With 27,000 runners I can certainly see why Competitor Group was relegated to the highways as running on the downtown streets might have been a bit congested if all the halfers and full marathoners were on the streets together, but only us crazy marathoners made the turn onto Highway 99, so hopefully they will look at this next year.

The nice part on Highway 99 was the northbound loop as it provided nice views of Puget Sound and the Seattle downtown skyline. There was even a Norwegian Cruise Lines tour loading for a trip up to Alaska. Man, the cruise ships today are enormous!

The weather was a real godsend for this event as it helped a ton with keeping my body temperature down so I could keep a strong pace and never had to use any of the water stops.

My trusty Amphipod water bottle filled with PowerBar Endurance drink and my PowerBar Gels kept me going strong. But I gotta say, the freeways really took their toll in the back half. After holding a 3:15 marathon pace for the first half, I couldn't hold it and watched the 3:20 pace group, then the 3:30 pacer pass me by in the 20s. No matter. I'll take a 3:33 and the fact that I live on to race another day.

After finding Reesa and the SMS crew at the finish we headed over to the nearest pub for a

victory dance - Guiness -- and the world cup match between the US and Ghana. Hats off to the boys from Africa for the victory and heads held high for our boys. They played a strong game and have nothing to be ashamed of. We'll get 'em in 2014!

Rock & Roll Seattle marked the 25th marathon of my career taking me halfway to my long-term goal of completing 50 marathons by my 50th birthday.

Next up is Rock & Roll Chicago Half Marathon in August. The next full is Rock & Roll Denver in October. I'm looking forward to the short break from 26.2s so I can focus on the summer TNT season. Go Team!

Thanks again to everyone who has thus far supported my efforts and my fundraising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. We've raised $7,500 thus far but have $2,500 still to go, so keep the donations coming!

A Great SoCal Weekend

Rock & Roll Endurance event #5 is in the bag and I’m writing this race summary from Heathrow Airport at around 5am the Monday after the race. Yep, I ran the marathon then immediately jumped on a plane to Europe. While I don’t recommend this plan it was unavoidable. But thanks to a pair of recovery tights from 2XU my legs are feeling great!

The weekend started with a frantic day of preparation for both the trip to San Diego and two weeks in Europe.

We took our two kids (our cairn terriers) up to Aunt Chelle who graciously agreed to watch them while we were gone, then poured through a to-do list of other actions that needed to be taken before we left. No, I didn’t get through all of it, but did complete most of the things I had to complete in person or over the phone before we left. That night was the Virgin America flight to San Diego with fellow SMSers Miriam, Nicole and Rachel. Later that night another three members of our group were arriving so we upgraded the rental car to an SUV, all piled in and made our way to the gorgeous Hilton San Diego Resort in Mission Bay.

Day two was the requisite visit to the Marathon expo which was packed with enthusiastic runners – many doing the event (and the distance) for the first time. Rock & Roll San Diego is the founding event in this crazy series I’ve committed to completing this year. Its first running was 1998 and this year they added a half marathon which brought the total number of participants up to 30,000. They weren’t all at the expo Saturday morning, but you could have fooled me.

After the expo we headed down to Ocean Beach for a classic San Diego meal – fish tacos at South Beach Bar & Grille. We dined on a gorgeous spread of mahi mahi, shark, lobster, ceviche, and shrimp tacos, then walked to the beach and watched a bit of a surfing competition being sponsored by Red Bull. On the way back to the car we picked up supplies for the next morning’s run and Miriam and I hit the funkiest coffee place in town – Pirate’s coffee. Kinda touristy on the outside but good coffee and chai tea.

As before most marathons, I highly recommend taking it easy and in San Diego that means taking in the warm weather. We grabbed our suits and headed to the pool for a relaxing afternoon. Ironically, it was mostly overcast that afternoon and brought a big of chill – while it was a gorgeous day in the mid-eighties back home. Go figure.

That evening was the SMS pasta party and we were in full force. Twenty-eight people, runners from SMS, TNT and friends of the family joined us at Fillippi’s Pizzeria in Little Italy. We were clearly the largest party in this place which always has a line out the door. Good food, good conversation, good friendship.

Then off to prep our chairs and get some sleep before the start of the race.

We arrived at 6^th and Olive at around 4:45am and the park was fully buzzing. A sea of purple shirts filled the park as Rock & Roll San Diego is an official Team in Training charity event.

The corrals started filling up around 5:30. I jumped into my corral around this same time looking for my Twitter buddy Adam but most have lost him in the crowd. At the sound of the gun at 6:15am we were off. Well, to be frank, with more than 30 corrals of runners very few were off at this time. There were 1-2 minutes between corrals which made for a rather anticlimactic start, but one in which you weren’t weaving frantically to fight for running room either – always a plus.

The course presented lots of opportunities to see and cheer on your fellow participants as the half and full took off together, then split off and rejoined several times. Competitor Group always does a great job of course design that ensures you never get lost in the half-goes-left, full-goes-right blending that can happen in some of these large races. When half and full were together we were mostly separated by a road divider or a series of orange cones.

The race started by going North through down then the full peeled off for a trip through downtown, past Petco Park where the San Diego Padres play (a bit of a city within the city), through the Gas Lamp district (a great area for night life). The scenery and ubiquitous bands every mile made the time (and miles) fly by.

Then it was out to the freeway heading west. This was a challenging part of the course as there were fewer bands (or so it seemed) and the roads were banked to facilitate water runoff. While I appreciate the engineering need, running on banked roads is tough on the knees and hips and I was feeling it. I, and others, kept moving to the high spots on the road to minimize the roll but it wasn’t always easy.

Once we got to West San Diego the ocean became visible and Mission Bay, where the rest of the race would take place. We headed straight for our hotel initially, then veered North for a loop around the Mission Bay park. As I made this turn, the cloud cover that had kept the morning so cool, dissipated and the temperature began to rise. What started as a low 60s, overcast and slightly humid morning was rapidly becoming a sunny mid-70s.

Our hotel was between miles 19 and 20 and as we swung down toward the south end of Mission Bay we could hear the sounds of the finish line in front of us. When you hear the finish but you are only at mile 20, that’s usually a bad sign – means you’re just being teased and a detour is ahead. And there it was. We turned west onto Fiesta island, a rather barren sandbar in the middle of Mission Bay. As we looped around the island the sun and heat came in full force. Thankfully, as we passed through the Boy Scouts Youth Camp on the island cold wet sponges were being handed out and troop leaders were holding sprayer hoses for a much-needed water douse. The miles around the island were hard and seemed much longer as the view didn’t change much. Finally we returned to the Mission Bay trail and mile market 25 arrived. I picked up the pace knowing I had just 1.2 miles left and still wet from the dousing and sponges I was feeling strong. With a half-mile left I turned to the guy running next to me and said, “Come on, let’s kick it,” and we both broke into a sprint. We flew through the remaining distance at each other’s elbows crossing the finish line in 3:28.

It’s an amazing feeling when you can push through 25.5 miles of a marathon and somehow muster the strength for a last kick. I felt elated.

After recovering a stretching in the finishers area, I walked down toward the finish line hoping to find others from our crew but the crowds were thick and I had no luck. I walked into the ocean up to my hips for a quick ice bath, then over to the concert area to take in a few songs from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the headliners for this event. They were in fantastic form, pulling out all the swing classics and performing some incredible solos on the sax, bass, trumpet, piano and even the trombone, which I used to play in school.

Then it was time to start heading to the hotel to shower, check out and get on the road. As I was walking back I actually felt so good I broke into a run for most of the 1.5 miles back to the Hilton. Good thing I did, too, as I was able to catch my colleagues who were walking back to the hotel as well.

This week is my company’s European client event, IT Forum, in Lisbon, Portugal and I’m due to lead a session with our clients on Tuesday afternoon, so I didn’t have much choice but to fly directly after the race. I was worried about how my legs would recover and feel after 26.2, a two hour car ride to LAX and 9 hours in the air, so at the Marathon Expo I stopped into the booth of 2XU an Australian clothing company specializing in compression gear. I picked up a pair of their compression tights which feature graduated compression. This innovation helps your muscles recover at rest by increasing blood circulation. Where normally if you sit for long periods of time your circulation has to fight gravity and you end up with blood pooling in your feel, graduated compression is tightest at the bottom squeezing the blood vessels more here so blood circulates more easily throughout the legs. The product worked as advertised as after the 9 hour flight I had no soreness and was walking normally all through the airport. Sweet!

Next up is Rock & Roll Seattle in just three weeks. This means I’ll be doing all my training for it while in Europe.

Thanks to everyone who has supported by cause thus far. Together we’ve raised over $7,500 for the fight against blood cancers. But there’s more to go. Please help me make my goal of raising over $10,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society by making a donation today. Just click on the Donate Now picture at the top of this page. Thank you!

Country Music Marathon - a humbling experience

Just finished Rock & Roll race #4 and have to say, it was a doozy of an experience. I was humbled by nature, the course and being a bit lax with my training.

The weekend started with an ominous weather forecast that projected severe thunderstorms for Saturday.

By Friday these predictions were proving to be rather accurate and Competitor Group had to devise a contingency plan as the storms were showing lots of lightning activity and possibly tornadoes. Definitely not something you want the nearly 32,000 runners signed up for the event to be stuck in.

The plan leveraged the design of the course. There were two places where race organizers could re-route marathoners in case the weather turned nasty and that's exactly what it did.

After picking up my bib at the expo Friday after work ended, I took some time to tour downtown Nashville. It's the state capitol and has some great, historic buildings. I knew I'd be seeing these sites during the race but they would go by fast. That night, Jen, Jocelyn and Debbie, all alumni from our Bay Area Team in Training group, and I got together for BBQ on Broadway street, which is the main drag in Nashville. This is a great place to go at night as it is filled with nightclubs and there's live rock and country music pouring out of each club. We ate at Jack's BBQ and had traditional Tennessee, Texas and Kansas City tastes, all for under $20 each. Excellent stuff.

As usual, I couldn't sleep the night before the race, but this night in particular we had the extra worry over the weather. It looked like the first storm would hit at midnight and be swept out of the area by around 5am. Turned out to be correct and so we opted to walk to the start line from our hotels.

The start was in Centennial Park, south of downtown where Vanderbilt University is located. The park has a life-size replica of the Greek Parthenon that made for a very appropriate backdrop for this event, as 2010 is also the 2500th anniversary of the marathon - or at least the fabled run by Phiddipedes from Marathon to Athens to announce victory by the Greek army.

When the race started it was a gorgeous morning. Blue sky was everywhere with just a small scattering of clouds. It was muggy which was about the only foreshadowing of what was to come.

We began by running past Vanderbilt and into downtown, then headed south to music row. This is where many of the Nashville recording companies have their offices including Sony Records who has the current hottest country star - Carrie Underwood -- and Chrysalis Records who I remember as the label for many of the bands I listened to as a kid growing up in Texas.

On the way out of music city row a spectator cracked me up when he said, "You're less than a mile from the nekid people, so keep goin'." By this, he meant a bronze sculpture at the end of the street called "Musica" that symbolizes the power of music to free our souls.
Nekid people - gotta love the south.

We then worked our way down Rosa Parks Blvd. and out to a nice park and paved trail that ran along the Cumberland River. Very scenic and serene. But by mile 17 I was starting to tire.

One thing you should know about the Country Music Marathon that the course profile doesn't really give you a good sense for - it is very hilly. None of the hills are very steep but the hills keep a-comin'. Here is where my training failed me.

Since the Dallas Marathon I concentrated mostly on distance training and keep up my mileage - I failed to incorporate hill training in my regime. It's a stupid mistake because I love hills and normally make them a big part of my program but I think I got a little complacent, feeling that the constant cadence of races in the Rock & Roll series would serve as my long runs and basically keep me trained up. Dumb. There was a big gap between Dallas in early March and Nashville in last April. I did do the miles but I think too early. I did my 20 miler - the gorgeous SF to Tiburon run - 4 weeks before Nashville and I think that was too long a taper.

After mile 17 I just couldn't hold my pace and with each hill I grew more and more weary. I knew there were hills but thought they would be mostly over by mile 11. Nope. They came about every 2-3 miles. The one at mile 20 really sapped me and the remaining miles would be a slog. They were also tough because there were very few people out cheering along this portion of the course and we had to pass the finish area knowing we had 6 mile left. While difficult, this portion of the course was very pretty. It went into Shelby Park and around some ball fields. There was a very pretty lake here with a stone bridge in the far distance.

All through mile 20 the skies moved from clear to grey and were now turned darker and darker. As I turned around in Shelby and started to head back toward the finish the rain began but was very light at first. However by mile 24 it was coming down more steadily and it was clear it was heading in a bad direction. At this point, the race organizers and Nashville police chose to step in and started to re-route marathoners from the mile 20 point directly back towards the finish. There were a few very disappointed runners, obviously but this was clearly the right call. And I applaud the cops for their stern approach. One got in front of an obstinate runner and said, "It's either back toward the finish or jail. You're choice." The runner turned around.

From mile 25 on the rain just escalated from here. With 0.3 of a mile to go I looked over the river towards downtown just as a lightning bolt struck the AT&T building.
That's less than a mile from the finish.

As soon as I saw LP Field I found a bit more speed knowing I was almost there and wanting to get in before the rain got much worse. As I entered the corral I heard a spectator call out my name, turned and there was Alex, also an alum from our Bay Area Team in Training team. He had finished the half and stuck around to cheer us on, despite the rain. Good to see him.

Between the finish and now (Saturday afternoon) the weather just went from bad to worse, then much worse.

I got back to my hotel before the rain started making it difficult to even see across the street, but that happened right outside my window. Lightning strikes in the Nashville area escalated from here recording over 850 strikes between 1:10 and 1:15pm - yep, that's a 5 minute timeframe. Doppler radar showed a string of clouds over the Nashville area that were showing rotation but none so far had turned into Tornadoes. Mississippi wasn't so luck as 5 tornadoes had already touched down there - and the storm that created those was coming our way.

After showering and slipping into a pair of Skins recovery tights - what a feeling! - and downing a PowerBar Recovery Bar, I got a call from my wife back in California who was super excited as she was able to watch me finish the race - live from the Competitor.com web site.
I had no idea they had added this capability - so cool! Hope they have this for all the rest of the Rock & Roll series.

Oh yeah, many of you know I'm not a big fan of country music so I wasn't sure about the band-per-mile on this run. Well out of all the bands playing on the course only 4 of them were playing country music. Everyone else was playing rock or folk. Sweet!

Next weekend is The Relay - a 199 mile team race from Calistoga, CA to Santa Cruz. This will serve as my recovery runs from Nashville. Wish us luck. We're team #4 "Are You There Yet?/SMS" and we're sponsored by PowerBar.

After The Relay you can bet I'll be revising my training program in preparation for Rock & Roll San Diego in June. While it's not as hilly as Nashville, to quote The Who, I won't be fooled again.

Thanks to all of you who have supported me thus far through my quest to complete the entire 2010 Rock & Roll Endurance Series. We've raised over $6,000 thus far but I have at least $4,000 to go. If you haven't made a donation yet, please follow the Team in Training Donate Today link at the top of my blog today!

Special thanks also to my sponsor PowerBar for all the nutrition and empowerment they provide.

1st R&R Half is a 1st for all

I'm posting this a bit late due to a heavy work schedule and by no means as a reflection of what I thought of the latest Rock & Roll Endurance event - Dallas. This was a true highlight of the series and my year so far.
There was a particular reason I was looking forward to this event, because I got my undergraduate degree just 35 miles north of here in Denton, Texas. It had been about ten years since I was last up to the campus of The University of North Texas and I was happy to find so much of what I remember was still there and looked pretty much the same. At the time I graduated from there with a bachelor's in psychology in 1989, the total enrollment was about 16,000 students. Now enrollment has more than doubled. There's certainly a collection of new buildings such as the very nice new facilities for the athletic programs but also a leading edge environmental studies building, which is a LEEDs certified facility. There are some new dormitories and other classroom buildings too. I'm looking forward to returning soon and seeing the new football stadium and business school. It was spring break at UNT so not a lot of students were around the day I visited but it was nice to tour the student union where I had spent so much of my time. The Lyceum, where we showed just-out-of-the-theater movies was exactly as I remembered it from my Cinema Committee days. There was a display of promotional buttons from union events in a display case where they happened to have one from my graduation year.
Both the dormitories where I was an RA were also still there and look exactly as I remembered them.
After this trip down memory lane I popped down the freeway to the Dallas Convention Center, site of the Rock & Roll Dallas Half Marathon expo to pick up my race bib and visit the sponsor booths. After dressing my chair that evening I had a light dinner and got a good night's sleep to help me prepare for the race. Race day fell on the same day we in the US spring our clocks forward an hour, so I set mine early so I'd not miss the start.

Race day required a short drive down to Expo Park, the finish line area. You may know this park as it's the site of the Cotton Bowl and the annual Texas State Fair, which was featured on Oprah last year. I say short drive as the mileage is short but with over 9,000 runners all arriving at the same hours, the traffic backup made it not so short. After nearly an hour I was finally able to park my car and from here buses took us over to the start, which was just south of downtown in front of Dallas City Hall and the convention center.

Some of you might recognize City Hall, at least part of it as it was CGI enhanced into the headquarters of OCP in the movie Robocop. Between City Hall and the convention center is a fantastic bronze sculpture of a cattle drive. Each longhorn steer and both cowboys astride their mustangs were beautifully crafted and a few of the cows were even portrayed crossing a stream. Very impressive.


It was a cold morning of what would become an absolutely gorgeous day in Dallas. temperatures were in the high 40s as we waited for the starting gun. I was in corral 1 which allowed me to start out with a strong pace and not worry about having to weave through slower runners -- everyone was either running at my pace or faster.

The Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders made an appearance at the start and after a nice rendition of the national anthem by a local country singer we were off on what turned out to be a completely gorgeous course.
We started strong running through south downtown past the old Dallas courthouse, a beautiful red brick building and through John Daley Plaza, the site where President John F Kennedy was shot. We turned right in front of the Old Book Depository building which houses a museum to the JFK shooting on its 6th floor, and past the infamous grassy knoll.

As we passed the first mile marker I looked down at my watch which said 6:24. A strong pace; but perhaps a bit too strong. But I felt good and attempted to just pull it back a bit. We rounded a turn and there was American Airlines Arena, home of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team. We passed a collection of very nice condo buildings in this area, then up a short hill and into the Lakeside neighborhood. This is the neighborhood in which Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones lives and, wow! These mansions are incredible. Enormous, stately manors lined both sides of Lakeside Drive which has, as you'd expect, a small lake running down the middle.
Gawking at these symbols of excess brought my pace down a bit to 6:45 per mile but I still felt very strong and if I could hold this pace all morning I might just break the 1:30 mark. My fastest half marathon was 4 years ago in Santa Cruz, a time of 1:31.
After Lakeside we hit a second hill and headed into the also posh neighborhood of Highland Park. More gorgeous homes but more realistic in side and splendor. After this it was over to Mockingbird Lane through yet another neighborhood filled with pretty homes.
I crossed the halfway mark at 42 minutes which put me on pace to break 1:30, but could I hold it.
After the Mockingbird neighborhood a volunteer said "it's all downhill from here," and down we went headed into east Dallas through more historic neighborhoods and started the swing down toward Expo Park. I was still holding a very strong pace and using the other runners around me as motivation to hold that pace and keep pushing.
At mile 10 I was under 1:10. If I held a 7 minute pace I'd beat my best time to date. But could I hold it. I was getting tired, but was chanting "hold the pace, hold the pace."
We entered the park at mile 12 and my watch showed 1:22. I could break my PR. I just needed to hold on. Thankfully there was a young woman running just in front of me who must have been shooting for a similar goal as she stepped it up a touch and I laser focused on her and did the same. We passed in front of the Cotton Bowl and were cheered on by the The University of Texas Longhorn Marching Band. Go, baby, go!
The final course band was around the next turn and were playing The Rolling Stones' Can't Always Get What You Want. The woman running in front of me shot them a mean look as if to say, "Why would you play that song today? And at this moment?" She and I both knew we could and would today. If we could just hold the pace.
We could now hear the announcer and the 13 mile marker just ahead. We both picked up the pace knowing we had little left to run and wanted to leave it all on the course.
Final clock time: 1:28:45. A new PR!
And on an inaugural course, no less. Sweet!

Making things even sweeter, my family and that of my best friend from college were there at the finish line. After a bit of stretching and recovery we embraced, high fived and headed off to brunch to celebrate.

The event finished with a fantastic celebration concert by Better Than Ezra held in the fairgrounds. They sounded fantastic. Their concert didn't start until noon, which was about 60-90 minutes after most people had finished the race so they unfortunately performed before a smaller than ideal crowd but they showed no sign of disappointment. They put on a fantastic show keeping up the string of fantastic Rock & Roll Endurance Series concerts. Thanks for these awesome bands, Competitor.com!

We didn't learn until the following day that a 32-year-old man from Dallas, who was a former Texas Tech baseball player had crossed the line just 15 minutes after I had, then collapsed and died right there at the finish line. Appears to have been yet another undiagnosed heart condition. The news of his passing cast a dark cloud over an otherwise fantastic day.

3 Rock & Roll events down. 2 PRs, 3 concerts and so far, health and happiness are in place.

Up next: The Country Music Marathon in Nashville, TN on April 24.

From 5,000 to 15,000 never looked so smooth

The Big Easy has been host to a marathon for over 45 years but the event went through a major makeover this year thanks to Competitor Group who took over the event, adding it to its stable of Rock & Roll events and more than tripling it is size in the process. New this year was the course, a serious stimulus in support, elite runners including half marathon winner Martin Lel and a fabulous finish line concert that nearly stole the memories of the race itself.

Despite threats of rain that actually came down late Friday night, race day couldn’t have been better. Clear skies and cool 40 degree temperatures met us at the start which was in a small park at the bend of the Mississippi river near the New Orleans Convention Center. I met up with podcaster and fellow blogger, Adam Riklefts in corral two and we paced each other through more than the first half. The race started by skirting the warehouse district before detouring into the Garden district. We shared the course at this point with the half marathoners who turned right at Audubon Park while we turned left to loop around it. The pace at this point was a comfortable sub 8 minute mile with bursts of energy at each band stand filled with the talents one would expect in this city. Every kind of music was found on the course from Dixieland, soul, R&B, classic jazz and every kind of rock, including a questionable choice for mile 26 – a speed metal death rock band blasting ear piercing screeches. Made me go faster, though.

When reviewing the course map the day prior I was concerned about what came after the Audubon park loop. At this point we were to rejoin the half marathoners as we ran down St. Charles Street toward downtown. We would have separated from the half marathoners for about four miles and rejoining them sounded like a mess in the making as a much slower group of half marathoners would have been on the course at this point. But Elite Racing’s course planning was perfect as they ran the marathoners left of the streetcar tracks and the halfers on the right. We stayed separated on the streets all the way through downtown, around the French Quarter and out to City Park. Great planning, guys!

City Park is New Orlean’s answer to central park and is a wide expansive multiuse park that houses the city’s Museum of Art. Halfers cut straight to the finish line as we looped the park then detoured into the Maribeau Gardens district. This neighborhood sits on the banks of the Mississippi River and was clearly hit hard by Katrina. For every restored home there were two that were either still rebuilding or boarded up. It pulled at my heartstrings as we passed one single-level brick home with “Please don’t demolish” spray painted across its bay window. The streets here and on several other parts of the course were rooted in potholes filled with loose rock. They are on the long list of the city’s repair priorities and should be smooth by next year’s event, we were told, which will make this flat fast course a record setter in future years.

Maribeau came around mile 17 where I started to fall off the pace and had to let Adam go ahead. The heat was starting to rise toward 70 and the miles were catching up to me.

After Maribeau we jumped back over the Mississippi River and back into City Park. I got a surge of energy at mile 22 and picked up the pace considerably. From here we snaked our way to a great wide road that led up to the Museum of Art. It was a perfect setting for a finish as it felt grand and was great for spectators. The actual finish line sat in the shady grove behind the Museum and was lined with cheering race fans rooting for their loved ones. Reesa was right behind the Museum with camera in hand. She gave me the burst of energy I needed to pick up the pace a bit more as I shot through the corral and finished in 3:27, just two minutes behind Adam, who had made his goal time for the event. If you are wondering why I’m holding my medal this way in the photo, it’s because its beaded necklace broke just before this photo (I got a replacement).

Hillary and Johanna from the north peninsula TNT team ran and Johanna’s step son Steve ran the half and had great days. The full was a first for Wendy, Hillary’s sister, also from the team, who finished in 4:45. Way to go, Wendy!

As tired as every runner was, we were quickly our my feet when Sister Hazel stepped onto the finish line stage. I’ve been a fan of this Gainesville, Florida band since college and found myself dancing away to their classics such as Champagne High [video] and new songs. We were able to get right up to the stage’s edge for the 90 minute show and I was feeling no pain – literally. Sister Hazel put on what was one of the best live shows I’ve seen and even took time to shake hands and sign my bib afterwards.

But nothing prepared me for the next band – Cowboy Mouth. This local band has been playing the clubs of New Orleans for over 15 years. Before their kit was set up I was starting to unwind from the race and get a little tired and hot but then their front man, drummer Fred LeBlanc jumped behind his drums pounded out a strong beat and got the show started with a serious bang. He then lept from his drums grabbed his mike and hopped off the stage, down into the crowd and emplored everyone to get on their feet and crowd the stage all while the rest of the band kept up a furious party rhythm that brought us all to our feet and into the verbal embrace of Fred who is an electric personality on stage. At that moment, Reesa and I knew we were in for something special. Cowboy Mouth is clearly one of the great party bands in the country. Furious sound, infectious lyrics, happy goading of the crowd and a following of super excited local fans kept the energy high and the pain far from my legs and feet. Wow.

If you come to New Orleans be sure to find out where these guys are playing. You won’t want to miss it.

And so Rock & Roll event number two came to a close. For more on my visit to New Orleans read the trip report below. Next up is the Rock & Roll Dallas Half Marathon in just two weeks.

Big thanks to my sponsor PowerBar for providing the energy foods I needed at the start of the race and to Elite Racing and Competitor Group who put on another fantastic event. And the biggest thanks of all, to all of you who have helped me raise over $5,800 thus far for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Go Team!

Touring the Big Easy – a prelude to a great Rock & Roll Marathon

Rock & Roll marathon number two was another triumph for Elite Racing, another source of pride for New Orleans and a tremendous new event worth your time. This was Reesa’s first visit to New Orleans and the city didn’t disappoint. We started the weekend, as everyone should, with chickory coffee and beignets at Café du Monde in the French Quarter. We then took the day touring this classic birthplace of Jazz, strolling through the flea market, Royal and Bourbon Street and downtown. We hit the marathon expo that afternoon stopping off to say hi to the race organizers busily promoting the upcoming events in Dallas (two weeks), San Antonio, Denver and of course San Diego.

That night we stopped into Preservation Hall for some classic New Orleans Jazz from the house band featuring the fabulous jazz trumpeter LeRoy Jones. We then capped the evening with two sets of cool Jazz at Irvin Mayfields’s Jazz bistro inside the Royal Sonesta Hotel. If you are a fan of old school jazz, be sure to pop in here on a visit. No cover, rotating selections of fine musicians and cushy couches.

If one day in New Orleans must start with Café du Monde, the next should start at the best breakfast tradition in the South, Brennan’s. This is the birthplace of hollandaise sauce (or so it would seem from the abundance on the menu) and the true birthplace of Bananas Foster. We had the classic Southern three-course breakfast (which keeps you full through dinner). It started with a baked apple and fresh strawberries with a shared side of double cream. The main course was a mixture of eggs benedict variations. Reesa’s were Florentine with spinach and artichoke hearts. Mine was a mix of andouille sausage and classic Canadian bacon with a Cajun sauce and hollandaise . For those who know me, I have a pretty low tolerance for hollandaise sauce but this was Brennan’s.

The capper was dessert. Reesa had the classic which looked like bananas with chocolate ice cream; but that mound of brown wasn’t ice cream but about half a box of brown sugar. Yikes. Mine was sweet cream-filled crepes covered in marinated strawberries. Both dishes were prepared at table side by our fabulous waiter, Ron, who interestingly had lived in Redwood City, like us. The preparation of this dish is as good as the taste.

After a breakfast of carbo-loading bliss a long walk was in order; so we made it two. The first was strolling the art galleries of the French Quarter. A true highlight was walking into Jamie Hayes’ fine art gallery where we fell in love with his whimsical, yellow submarine-esque graphical creations. But our love fell upon an original of a different style, a grid of swirling paint portraying a bingo board of circles covered in hearts with a single “x” in the lower right corner. Jamie himself was at the back of the shop so we introduced ourselves and learned that the painting was actually a creation made using left over paint from his main artwork and was a play on his signature which he adorns with x’s and o’s. Like many other artists in New Orleans, Jamie lost everything in Katrina. The 55 year old artist had no insurance and basically had to start all over. His classic whimsical pieces are often on the official posters for mardi gras and take weeks to create as he had adorns them with gold leaf and over 100 separate colors.

Rather than start over in a new city, Jamie returned to New Orleans where his home was under 6 feet of water and started over. He rebuilt his home and business to now it is bigger than ever. He started a line of whimsical children’s dolls which fill his retail shop next door which was flooded with patrons every day. Someone tell Oprah about this guy, he’s a tremendous success story and symbol of a renewing New Orleans.

Walk number two started with a ride on the St. Charles Street streetcar through the garden district and past Tulane and Loyola University and into Audubon Park. This is the route of the street car named Desire of Tennessee Williams fame. While that car is now retired, the ride definitely takes you back to a simpler time. The garden district is filled with famous old classic homes made from wood, stone and brick. Many of the homes, unfortunately, haven’t been repaired since the hurricane and so the neighborhood is still in recovery mode but many of the homes have clearly been restored to their past glory.

Audubon Park is a beautiful city part with a scenic golf course and small Zoo. My favorite part of the zoo was seeing the Asian elephants being fed in a playful way. There were each given a keg filled with food and a small opening through which the food could be released. This kept them mentally engaged and active in their small pen. It was my favorite because this is the same way we feed our cairn terrier Scout – but on a smaller scale of course. We fill a tennis ball with food for him.

That night was a light Cajun dinner in the warehouse district with Johanna, Steve, Wendy, Hillary and their mom. Every restaurant here and in the French Quarter had long waits as the 15,000 marathon participants, thousands more conventioneers and hundreds of cheerleaders and their mom’s – all in town for separate events this weekend – filled the night.

Race day couldn’t have been more perfect – see the race report here.

The night after the race we celebrated at a classic French Quarter restaurant, The Gumbo Shop. This is definitely one of the best places to get Lousiana gumbo. Three styles were offered, seafood, chicken and andouille sausage and vegetarian. All included okra, of course and all could have been spicier but a small bottle of house Louisiana hot sauce did the trick. We closed the night in historic Jazz park an outdoor music courtyard on Bourbon Street listening to a Steamboat Willie and his Jazz band, an old time swing jazz band playing in a small bandshell next to a spraying fountain surrounded with bronze statues of famous jazz men.

The following morning I took a short run to beat back the soreness. I started along the Mississippi river bank, then circled the French Quarter to Louis Armstrong Park, a once fantastic city park filled with music and civic facilities that was devastated by Katrina. Encircling this park, in mid restoration was a strong reminder of just how far this city still has to go to get back to its former glory. The community center was still boarded up and many of the stone pillars supporting the wrought iron gates on the perimeter of the park were uprooted and leaning badly. The main auditorium was in mid restore but clearly has a long way to go.

The neighborhoods just outside the park were worse off. The majority of buildings were boarded up, leaning badly or plain torn down. On our way back from the marathon finish, Sunday we took the Canal Street streetcar and saw much more devastation, including Mercy hospital which fought hard to care for its patients long after losing power and the entire first floor to flooding. The hospital simply sits now as an empty shell and strong reminder of that fateful time.

I truly enjoyed my visit to New Orleans and came away with a greater appreciation of the spirit of this town and strong witness of a rebirth that will clearly be longer and slower than anyone would like. This town of 400,000 remaining citizens still thrives with a strong spirit – buoyed for sure by the Saints’ Super Bowl victory – and with any luck will continue regaining its lost glory.