Talkin' Turkey, the Missing 5F4, etc.

Turkey Trot

The 55th Annual Flint Mott Park Turkey Trot was easily the cheapest race I've ever ran.  Registration was $5 and you got a long-sleeved shirt and a generic China medal.  There was a clock, but no chips, so there's no record of how fast slow Jason and I were going.  Also, I will not be telling you.

Mott Park used to be a public golf course, but on the day of the race I think the grass was thick enough that you could have given the entire park a comb-over.  Add in that it was kind of wet, a little cold, and the moles (or possibly Dig Dug) have done enough work to make every piece of ground collapse under my feet, and  I had a pretty decent bit of things to slow me down.

Chunky Green Shag

The run was 3 loops around the park, with the front part going up a hill somewhat diagonally (with your right foot more uphill than your left), and then straight down it on some slick ground.  I didn't see anyone wipe out, but I was almost a casualty on 2 of the 3 loops because I was trying to use the hill's momentum.

Food
Come now, you can't say that you believed for one second that I was going to hold off Thanksgiving week.  Starting of what was my 5F4 cycle on Saturday, I had enough pancakes in the morning to be my daily intake of calories.  Sunday was the usual family O.G. punt the calorie day away by lunch.  Monday I pretty much ate nothing but Tyson chicken nuggets.  Tuesday I tried to be good and grabbed a salad at lunch, but after dragging my wife to a speech/book signing that night she was starving and talked me into getting her and I a onion/green pepper deep dish pizza.  Wednesday and Thursday deserve their own paragraphs.

We had our annual friends get together the day before Thanksgiving again this year.  As usual, it was basically a "Meat-A-Palooza" with Ken making lasagna, Jen making beef enchilladas, me making some New England sweet and sour meatballs, and Katie making potatoes chock-a-block full of bacon.  Mike rounded things out by bringing us all some Magners Hard Cider and some Bell's Christmas Ale as his usual drink surprise installment.  After all that, we went to see the Muppet Movie, which gave me a personal record for longest period while smiling/laughing for the year.  I just don't see how it could have been much better.  Anyone that didn't like it just has to be dead inside, because even a rashly cynical bastard like me melted into a mystified 5-year-old watching that movie.

Thankgiving was the usual food orgy.  I started off actually trying to be reasonable.  We went to my wife's grandparents' and I kept a fairly healthy first plate, but the whole thing collapsed under her grandma's pecan pie.  After that it's not like I took huge clumps of things and devoured them, but I nibbled my way to hell with the desserts, all of which were fantastic.  After spending a few hours there and watching the Lions lose, we went to my brother's and ate more turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, squash, green been casserole, and all the usual suspects.  I made some pumpkin cheesecakes, and I had some of that as well as Mom's pumpkin pie.  The pumpkin cheesecake recipe for 2 pies is a liar, though.  It says it makes 2, but I somehow ended up with enough for 4 (freezing the others for later...maybe). 

Obviously Friday was left-over day, and there still exists some left-overs, despite the fact I've made my best attempts at eating them.  I've even gone to the extremes of sharing them with the cat and turtle.

Happy Thanksgiving, Newman!

New Shoes

I have a slight confession to make.  Despite the fact the Brooks Ghost 3 completely tore the crap out of my heel a few times, with a TON of tape and even more stubborness I've actually still been using them.  Now, I didn't really use them for many actual races or any runs of big distance, but for day-to-day shorter runs I've strapped them on every single time.  I just decided that I was going to get my money's worth no matter what, and I did.  The tread at the balls of my feet are completely worn to nothing. 

Other than the bad heel rubbing, which, after tearing the thing apart I've found out it was just a badly placed seam, they were very functional until the last month or so where I noticed they were pretty much dead.  So my outright hatred of the shoes and the brand has been replaced with a "maybe I'll try them again" but I'll "proceed with caution" next time attitude.  Although it would be hard to tell "Hey, this shoe is going to eat my foot up after 10+ miles" in a store.

The other thing I've found is that, even on pavement, I'd rather just wear my trail running shoes.  They just seem to get me more traction and help me pull and push myself around easier.  I've been saving my trail shoes for off-road, but I keep wishing I could use them anyway, and I've finally given in.  Most of the shoes I see for running are too flat, fragile in design, or soft on the bottom (or have an awful zig-zag thing going on), and they wear out too fast for me.  Since it's winter and extra traction is a must anyway, I ended up buying a pair of Adidas Marathon 10 Trail Running shoes.  They were a little slippery today on the paved trail as I braved the snow and black ice.  They'll get better next time out, though.  Other than that, I love the feel of them, and my legs felt like they could have went all day.

I'm still going, I guess

I'm just not moving any worlds around here.

I woke up at 6:30am for a road race in Detroit on Thanksgiving Day that started at 7:45. Not a good idea. The play was to snap up at 4:30am, get down there early to pick up my packet with plenty of time to spare. Instead the race started before I was even parked, I pick up my packet to find (despite pre-registering) they gave my size shirt away, and have no time to run back to my car.

So I squeeze the size large they gave me on under my Lions shirt, and head to the starting line. The largest size that registration allowed was an XL and that would have been pushing it. I feel (or can only guesstimate, really) like I'm wearing a sports bra with my little Turkey Trot shirt choking my upper torso. So, great, not only am I starting 45 minutes late, but I'm going to be restricted the whole way.

After I got going, it wasn't as bad as it seemed, though. I didn't have a lot of freedom to pump my arms, and I was a little hot, but I pushed on through. By the time I got done with the Woodward leg, I was pretty psyched up. I'm in Detroit, running down the busiest street there is, going by the Fox, Hockeytown, Comerica, over the E-way, and back. It gets you a little worked up. Unfortunately, that was short-lived and by the time I got to the split where 10K runners went down Michigan and 5Kers went straight, I considered cutting off with the 5K people. I took the right down Michigan, though, and I'm really happy I did.

Running down Michigan is just as exciting as Woodward. It may not be as pretty, but it has a lot of history, even for me personally. The Corktown bars and restaurants from my childhood at Tiger Stadium, the field itself overgrown and bearing a homemade "Ernie Harwell Park" sign, the old train station, etc. All of it memories of Detroit in better times.

Unfortunately on this loop, I also saw a man collapse and EMTs doing CPR on him. I stayed out of the way. All I can do is pray for him and his family, and reflect on how fleeting life can be, and I did. I think it shook a lot of people and we all slowed down after that. When something like that happens, you realize your time and the person ahead of you that you've been pacing doesn't matter as much. It's a pittance of a victory when you think someone could be spending Thanksgiving without a loved one; a loved one who just wanted to do something fun before spending the day with his family. I hope to God he somehow made it. It didn't look good, but I didn't hear of anyone dying, so maybe he's okay.

Like I said, after that, I just didn't push very hard until the finish was in sight. It took another right down Rosa Parks after the Michigan turn-around, and reversed from there. Come back up Parks, you turned right again back onto Woodward, by Cobo, and down the ramp by the Detroit Princess Ferry to the River Walk. With all the buildings blocking it, you forget how pretty Detroit really is down there. I haven't been there since the Super Bowl, and that was at night. For a rainy day, Detroit sure looked wonderful.

Overall, I'm happy with the fact I was even able to make it to run there, given the circumstances. I left way too late, and probably shouldn't have even tried to make it there. I'm happy I stayed on the 10K route and not the 5K, because it was far superior as a route, and a much better tour of the city. The 5K was nearly pointless for the money, especially when I run one 3 times a week these days.

I still haven't changed a lot of things I need to, and I still need to start seeing a doctor regularly. I've decided I'd like to stick around here a while longer than most of my family, and I need somebody to tell me how to do that.