Double-Crim and Title Defense

I know it's been a while.  I've been missing on canoe trip and many other things.  Long story short, rivers are really low, but we only were tipped by the 1000s of obstacles once, which made my wife and I very happy.  I lost my sunglasses for the 3rd year in a row.  High five for consistency.  Plenty of the homebrewed Oktoberfest was consumed, we got a bottle of the Sam Adams Infinium (which, though a commercial disaster, was pretty decent to me...though overpriced, no doubt), and there were numerous Oberon and Yuengling bottles lying around.  For the river trip (given glass is disallowed) we had Sierra Nevadas, Blue Moons, and Magic Hat #9.  Finding MH9 and Sierra in cans made me very happy.  Blue Moon, well, that was for my lady.  Lots of eating of brats, and much sadness for the loss of Ma's Girls Cafe, which is now closed somehow, even though the breakfast was awesome.  Not as awesome a trip with less people, lower water, and new owners at the campground, but we managed.  It might be time to change things up next year, though.

After the canoeing, we did our usual Tawas stop to see our favorite hippo.  Ignore my Hawaiian shirt and horrible Metallica Load shirt, I purposely dress awful for vacation.  It's my thing.  The townies make fun of the fudgey tourists so much that I feel the need to be an in-your-face stereotype of it.  The man to my right in this photo, who is from the North ensures me I'm doing a good job of that.  I can hear you thinking, "Yes, but you still bought that hideous Load shirt in the late 90s."  Stop it.

Wednesday J and I ran the 10 mile Crim route, back-to-back (and some change).

Start

After Crim #1

After Crim #2

If 20+ miles weren't enough Wednesday, I chased it down with an 8K race earlier today (yesterday now, since it's 2am).  I had an age group title defense @ the Ophelia Bonner (don't say it too fast or it sounds dirty).  I was a little tired from the long run, so I was a whole 12 seconds slower than my 8k PR last year.  Cut me a break though, because I did defend my turf....against the only other 30-34 guy that bothered to show up and run the 8K.  Had he ran the 5K (or either of us, for that matter) it would have been an automatic 1st.  Where is everyone?  This race has everything (best Stefon voice)...trophies, pissy people from my neighborhood mad about traffic keeping them an extra 10 minutes when they're trying to get home, student volunteers from Flint Northern that cheer you on with really good enthusiasm, watermelon and bunches of grapes afterward, stinking up and sweating all over U of M property, and human parking cones.  I guess I can keep winning this thing the next 2 years if you guys don't want to show up.  All I'm saying is, that you just have to beat a chubby guy running a little over 9min miles to get the 1st in 30-34....

They even match

Anyway, just thought I'd stay up way too late and update.  I haven't even put mileage into daily mile either, so I don't want some sort of worry about my running and/or living status while I'm ignoring the existence of the internet for the next 7-10 days.  Chances are you won't hear from me again until I finish the 2012 sequel of Warrior Dash, and I'll probably even have a race somewhere "Up North," before then.

Toodley Doodley

Twenty Eleven YIR and Twenty Twelve Tunnel Vision

I said I'd do a year in review of last year revisiting the goals I had.  Here are the over/under results for 2011:

1) Continue to do a race a month. - I could shoot to go for more, but all I would accomplish is paying more money and having more shirts I need to get rid of.  Over  I still overdid it.  I think the final tally for 2011 was around 35 races.
2) Can I Get a Half-Marathon? - I can do this. After the Crim we felt like running the 5K, and would have if Pat showed. Now it's just a matter of where to do it.  Over  how about 4 (Martian, DxA2, Panda, Brooksie) and 1 trail half (The Legend)? Also the 20K Volksläufe was pretty close to that distance. You could say I nailed it down with authority.
3) Try to Run a Race out-of-State - I'd really like to do this if the opportunity arises. We'll see what this year and the finances hold.  Under  Somebody else's scheduling conflicts in September on my honeymoon got in the way of the one I was planning on.  I could have planned better to get this in, but I thought I had it locked up (Note to self:  Have a backup plan).  After the wedding and the honeymoon, I couldn't justify a trip just to accomplish this goal in 2011.  However, I ran a 5K in Chicago on 1/1/12, so I only missed it by a day.
4) Register earlier - I could deal with saving some money on these races. I need to make a game plan and pick what races I'm doing this year, and sign up early.  Even  Registered early a lot, and also opted out of shirts when possible a few times.
5) Make lifestyle changes that actually affect my weight - I've done everything else. For my size, I am a powerhouse of energy and endurance. Imagine what I could do if I slim down. I could be unstoppable.  Even  For 3/4 of the year, I did awesome. I was down below a weight I hadn't been down to in 5 years in September. I let things get away a bit at the end of the year, though. Still, I will tentatively call it a success as long as I jump back on track this year.
6) Do "The Legend," the "Warrior Dash," or "The Martian" (or all three) - I haven't decided yet, but two are races I missed last year, and the other looks like a blast (though I am actually somewhat in fear of it).  Over  Done, Done, and Done. The Legend was the hardest running-related thing I've ever done. The Warrior was a blast, and the Martian was where I did my first half.

There was also some nonsense goal I added late in the game about running a double loop of the Crim course, but that never happened either.  Still, I said it, and it didn't happen.  All in all 2011 was a major success for me though.  It was such a success, in fact, that I'm worried about being able to top it.  That will be what I want to do this year, though.

So here we go.

2012 Running Goals


1)  A Marathon.

...and that's it.  Done.  Anything else I do this year will be gravy, or be done in the name and vein of getting the 26.2.  Every pound taken off, every mile I log, every race I run, and many many other things will be what I do will be to get there.  Don't believe it?  I haven't eaten poorly since New Year's Day.  Don't believe that because I took a picture with the Big Boy on the 2nd?  I did salad bar!

I've already had to reel myself back in a bit because I was overdoing it and my weight was dropping like a stone the past week.  It's probably not healthy going that fast.  It's not that I was starving myself or anything, but probably the worst thing I ate was a vegetarian stuffed pepper.

I got all crazy yesterday and a had a bagel and a root beer, and today I actually had some mashed potatoes.  Still though, even with that, I'm maintaining a very controlled calorie altitude.  Needless to say the fat Friday call-out blogs may be fragged.  Besides, I'm guessing there was some sort of subconscious motivation for me to screw up big and have something to write about.  I'll still call myself out, but there won't be anymore laughing at myself about failures.  There are plenty of other things about me to laugh at.  Besides, this is a running blog, not Brent vs. Food.

I also have a few goals outside of running that I don't mind sharing.

The Twelves of Twelve (Resolutions)


1)  Pick 12 things of social importance that I've had limited exposure to, but decided I didn't like and immerse myself in each of them for 1 month.  The idea is to reopen my mind to a few things I've dismissed too quickly.  I'm not planning on doing my version of Fear Factor and tackling major fears or eating foods I think are disgusting, but all else is fair game.  I've turned to my wife and friends for help, and I'm hoping I come up with twelve things large enough in scope, especially things that are potentially life-enriching.  Upon telling my wife this, she shrieked "Harry Potter" immediately.  It is a phenomenon, and there are enough books and movies to keep me tied up for at least a month.  It fits the bill.  I don't have 12 yet, and I haven't received as many suggestions as I anticipated.  Apparently I'm not as rigid as I judge myself to be.

2)  Learn 12 new recipes (1/month).  We both can cook.  There's plenty of meal variety in this house, but every time I add another meal, it gives us another option that we might just be in the mood for.

3)  Do 12 home improvements (1/month).  Whether I do it, pay for it, or just add something to the place to make it better I want to do one thing a month on average.  It doesn't need to be anything major, just something.

4)  Try 12 new restaurants (1/month).  There are not a lot of really good restaurants around here I have not eaten at.  This may be a slight challenge, especially if I'm trying to eat halfway decent.

I have a few other resolutions, but they're mostly the boring things you see everywhere like:  do better at work, get more sleep, finally beat Metroid Prime 2.  You know, stuff everyone has on their list, and will forget about.  As far as the other ones.  There they are.  They're public knowledge now (ok, maybe just a small sliver of the public).  The marathon is scary to me.  The furthest I think I've run is about 15-16 miles, and setting it up as the singular goal is setting up an entire year to be a pass/fail venture.  I need to do it now, though; not because Maya Angelou's poetry calendar is supposed to kill us all in December, but because it's time and life's only going to get more complicated.

I know there are those of you out there running in the morning before you wake up your kids, running through health issues, and overcoming all kinds of odds to find time to get out there and do it.  Knowing you are out there and reading your blogs is massively inspirational to me, but I'm not you (at least not yet) and I'm pretty sure I can't hack that.  I'm just not that awesome.

Return to Power (badly fueled power, but power nonetheless)

I'm actually getting back into my groove here.  My mileage has been on a steady up the last 4 weeks.  My speeds completely suck, but I've only just started to push a little again.  I haven't really had the mental desire to go fast lately.  I'm in winter mode, and as long as I get back close to even with summer me, I'm good with that.  Plenty of time for next year's ramp up.

Rock!

Speaking of winter mode, I had my first run with a stocking cap Sunday, running the Crim route.  There was a lot of traffic out, and they stalled me at nearly every cross street.  I also lost my focus when I realized, going by Atwood, that I missed yet another UM-Flint Kodiaks football game and it was the last one of the year.  I really meant to get out to one of those (dammit!).

Winter mode also forced us to finally actually turn the furnace on finally.  The only problem was, it didn't come on.  That added a little drama to our Saturday, as my wife and I were both in a good mental state about getting rid of her car and getting her a new(ish) one.  She needed it and did a lot of research and found a great deal on a very low mileage used Vibe.  I have a little car envy, but my old car is still perfect, and I'm good with it until it starts to bite me in the back pocket.  Going to do that also kept me from seeing that horrible MSU/Nebraska debacle, so thank goodness for that.

Hello New Friend

The rest of the weekend was book-ended by a trip to Detroit to see Evil Dead: The Musical (Friday) and a trip to my mother-in-laws for dinner (Sunday).  Evil Dead was wonderful, and if you missed it, sorry, but it's probably too late for you now (this year).  When you walked in you were told "If you sit where there is a plastic cover over the seat you may or not be drenched in fake blood, which may or may not come out of your clothes."  Exact warning word-for-word...and those people up there were very liberally hosed down at times.  Too bad only 1 of the 3 of us that went knew that this wasn't a "dressy bessy" theatre gig and wore his jeans and t-shirt instead of nice clothes.  

At least they didn't start freaking out and shaking their head and burying their head in their lap and other entertaining reactions involved weirdly staggered breathing like the girl in the row in front of us.  When they were approached by security, they told a little fib about her drinking too much, and they got her out of there.  I called B.S. and had to explain to an older lady, that somehow was completely buffered from the 60s and 70s, why the alcohol claim was ridiculous ("drunk my a**...ha ha").  Can you guess what I said it was?

Anyhow I'm back on the good running habit train.  The eating train is still derailed, but I'm thinking of adding a nice weekly segment to call myself out on here with that.  I'm going to do a mini one here just by showing you the floor of my passenger seat from today.  No it's not all FROM today, but it's there today.  Stupid coupons and Halloween candy forming a coalition of the filling...every day this week has been bad.  

Sad...

Still though, hard to call yourself out and say you're going to do better while watching Colbert and eating his Ben and Jerry's brand ice cream...so I won't bother.

Don't Judge Me

Climbing Up On Solsbrooksie Hill...

Who's idea was this anyway?  I blame the Crim foundation for packaging this race in with the Crim race and tempting us to sign up for both.  When it's spring/summer and you're in your tip-top shape of the season, it's no big deal to say "Yeah, another half-marathon after the Crim and just after your honeymoon...no big whoop."  I'm no longer in that zone.

Jason and I got an early jump as to not repeat the rush of the Martian Race.  We left way too early.  I also didn't prepare for the 40 degree temperatures, and unless I wanted to run in a large green corduroy GAP coat, I thought I was just going to have to let my teeth chatter for 2 hours before the race.  Luckily the Brooksie Way's shirt was a nice red long sleeve shirt, so that just got added under the running ensemble, which was just a "Little Lebowski Urban Acheiver" t-shirt.  I guess I just expected it to warm up like every other day had.

Red LS "Tech" Shirt

Even with that, Jason and I were still finding excuses to duck into the heated tents, and spent a lot of time in the big tent where my wedding's DJ was playing lots of classic rock tunes.  We eventually went to the outside world 10 minutes before the race and lined up just behind the 10 min pace, and then we waited through about 40 minutes of announcements about the race being delayed before the race actually started.  There goes my body temperature...

Of course that never lasts long.  Even with it probably being 45 degrees now, it only takes about 1/2 of a mile before I'm actually accumulating a few sweat droplets on my brow, and by 3/4 they're starting to flow toward gravity's pull.  The first sweat of the race has begun, and now it's time for the traditional look-around.  Who's looking at me sweating already and giving me the traditional pity look like "oh honey, you're not gonna make it."  Uh huh...there it is.  It never fails.  Do not be alarmed, ma'am, this is a normal occurence.  I will  might be fine.

For the first 4 miles, Jason and I went side-by-side at a seemingly slowish pace.  The way we've slacked off, the goal of this one was to "just finish."  That goal didn't get much loftier as we were getting caught by Riley the drubbler, who is awesome, granted, but is not exactly moving at warp speed because he's also dribbling 3 basketballs.  So when a man at least twice your age can dribble 3 balls and catch you, it gets in your head a bit.

I wasn't making it much further in the state I was in, though, so the second we hit a line of trees, I warned Jason I needed a leak break and told him to keep on going so he wouldn't think I got hurt and stop.  Then as soon as I saw an opening, I was off the trail.  I wasn't going to make the 13 miles without one, so I decided to get it out of the way and lighten the load, rather than feel like I had a very large surgically implanted Capri Sun pouch in my lower abdomen for 5-6 more miles and then have to go anyway.  That's a first, ladies and gents.  Never in my history have I had a mid-race break to go shoot the pink pistol at nature's firing range.

With that out of the way, I did a nice hard push to catch back up to Jason, which took about 2 miles or so.  I still suspect he held back for me to get back up there, because I shouldn't have caught up that quick given how long my break had been.  Even with my break, we still had a nice 1:05:00 split going at the halfway point in the park.  We had a short conversation about picking it up to try to get under 2:00:00, but my knowledge of what was left to come pretty much quashed that train of thought.

That was probably wise in the end, too.  The whole rest of that race is like this...

Rochester Hills, Brooksie miles 7-13 (visual approximation)

I don't think there was another 1/2 mile of straight land after mile 8.  It was all up and down, with very little down.  Every time you get to the top of a hill, there's another one right in sight.  There were several times where I said to myself "I swear, if I get up above this one, and there's another hill, I'm just going to quit."  Every time, there was another hill, but there was no quit.  Back when we first started running, Jason and I would lie to each other about a hill being the "last hill" just to keep the other going.  He did it to me on the trails.  I did it to him on the Crim course at the Boo-Radleys when we did our first run on that.  Of course, when you say it aloud and other racers believe you, they don't seem to be as amused.  The hills never really actually ended.  Sorry we're liars, but we only really meant to lie to ourselves.  You should stop eavesdropping.  Besides, the place is called Rochester Hills for a reason, did you really think there would only be 3 hills?

"Then it's not just a clever name..."

Even with a few of the hills in there being murder and almost making us want to stop, we talked after the race about this point being somewhat of a morale builder.  We've totally blown our training, but we were over halfway through and, even with all the hills, we knew at this point we were still going to make it.  We knew it so much that Jason and I allowed ourselves to be talked into a beer along the way about mile 8 or 9.  After that beer, we were a little less convinced, but we shook that off and, all-in-all, I was probably wrongly convinced that it helped me.  Another new thing to put on the list...first "during beer" ever.  Whatever, we were just having fun at this point.  Imagine that, having fun at a half-marathon while complaining how little you've done and how out of shape you are.  Who would have ever thought we'd see that day?

A couple 10 or 20 (5?) or so more "last hills" and we were done.  We both made a nice charge at the end to make sure that the front-runner speedwalker guy wasn't going to beat us (those hills really gave him the advantage at the end) and finished about a second apart.  We didn't feel like hanging out long, and I had places to be (church, family, friend's going away party).  So we left almost immediately after, got on the shuttle bus back to the parking lot (a real nice touch by the race to save our legs, I might add), and drove home. 

First time running over 10 miles and not sweating through ALL of my shirt

It was a great race, and it was a challenging one as well.  I'm glad it's over, though.  There won't be anything over a 10K from here out, and I'm good with that.  I'm also good with the 2:14:24, which, for the record is better than the goal I set to beat the DxA2 time, which I honestly in my heart-of-hearts knew I couldn't do, but still did.  Not as good as the Panda time, but that was in the dark on a totally flat course, and I wasn't expecting a miracle. 

Medal # uhh... who knows?

I skipped the Big House Big Heart to go to an orchard and pick pumpkins and have cider and doughnuts, but I'm sure I'll do the tailgate challenge this weekend.  I'm skipping Turkey Trot Detroit out of spite for them screwing my shirt situation last year, and will probably stay in Flint for the local one.  Other than that, don't expect too much from me.  I still have two goals on the board, including finishing a double loop on the Crim course and running a race out of state.  I doubt either will happen, but I will let you know if I manage to get a clean slate.  It could happen...

Crim III

If you can say one thing about me, I'm a "gamer."  In (what I consider) big races, where I really want to tear the course up, I show up.  Maybe I failed in practice last week, and neither of my 10 mile practice runs went particularly well or as planned.  Maybe I didn't do everything I had in mind to get ready for this race leading up to it.  Maybe I didn't even do particularly right by myself the night before either, but let me just say, "who really cares?"

I'd like to be perfect all the time, and there's no doubt in my mind I'm doing better, but things like "good night's sleep" and "complete race preparation" are just not in my repetoire.  However, there's also little doubt about the fact that the mere existence of the Crim has changed my life.  I may run half marathons, and I may run fulls in the future.  I don't know how far I'm willing to take this, because I haven't gotten to a point where I feel I can't do more, or even that I don't want to.  I also have no idea what life will throw at me in the future.  What I do know, is that no matter what other races I do, the Crim is my anchor baby of racing.  It's the reason for all of this running mess and keeps me a part of runner nation, and I'd like to think that, no matter what, even if I move, I'll find a way to do this one every year.

Going into this year, I had a game plan in my head, and not only for the race itself.   I had one for each individual mile, and, oh baby, did I execute.  I hit my mile marks pretty much to the exact mark for the first 3 miles; mile 1 being to the exact second of my desired 9:45 minute mark.  All this while talking to someone I haven't seen since High School for miles 2 and 3.  Mile 4 and 5 I was way under anticipated time, and the Boo-Radleys  were over before I knew it.  Mile 6, as expected, was a little rubbery and the slight uphill on Miller Rd isn't exactly the best recovery after the hills, but I allotted for a pretty slow mile there.  That didn't happen.  I think I ran a cool 9:15.

I started to over-think a bit, though, and I skipped a water stop along 6, thinking I was good and didn't want to lose time.  That led to a bit of slowing on 7 when that sun hit, and a little bit of worry that I was going to fade out completely.  Then, I got a water intervention.  A man with a short white beard, a blue button down shirt, and a big tan-colored hat to block the sun was giving out ice cold bottled waters in the middle of 7, and I took one with me.  Whoever you are, thank you for supporting me and all the runners.  You may have saved my Crim for me.

I carried that bottle and it carried me through the next quarter mile of struggle.  After fighting that off, I felt wonderful.  I decided to break for the end as hard as I could go, passing the guy I was talking to earlier, who had just now come back into sight (and must have pulled ahead at some point when I lost him).  I kept choosing targets ahead of me and eating them up.  Eventually I latched onto the man who came in 2nd for the 10 mile walk up ahead and tried to beat him.  I finished just behind him by 1 second on the clock.  I don't even understand how walking that fast is humanly possible.  Leon Jasionowski, I gotta hand it to you, you're pretty awesome.

My clock time was a 1:36:01, so the goal of breaking into the 1:30s was hit, and my loftier goal of hitting 1:36 was as well.  I knew that much at the finish line, which was easier on the mind than waiting for my chip time and biting my nails about whether I hit it or not.  That was pretty much my plan at the end anyway, when I hit mile 8 at 1:17ish (clock) and earlier the best we'd done was 1:20.  Besides, I've learned my lesson dealing with clocks, as I swear when I started the Legend it was at 17 minutes in, and I also swear we crossed the start of the Crim at about 3 minutes.  I never trusted digital clocks anyway, especially at 1:38 when they look like the pringles man.  Perhaps I went 2 minutes faster just because of a subconcious drive not to see him on the clock when I finished.

Admit it, you see it too. 
The eyebrows, the mustache, and the bowtie, it's all there.

I popped into Churchill's, who gave us a free beer (Michelob too, not the real cheap stuff), and Jason picked up his debit card that was left there from Thursday night (ha!).  That was chased by our free slice of pizza and a free MGD from the beer line, both of which you can get from your bib tabs.  Honestly, if you hang around where the runners are leaving, they'll hand you them asking if you want them.  You could probably get an entire pizza and a gallon of beer if you were even the slightest bit pesky about asking for them, and are a master of disguise.  The line usually gets too long for that business, though, especially when the 8k and 5k people start filing in.

Officially, I ran a 1:34:03, which is pretty much right in the middle for my gender and a little south of center for my age group.  I don't think there's much I could have done to be any better than that.  That's a 10 mile record for me (not that it's a common distance), beating the 1:38:28 at Solstice Run, and taking over 16 minutes off the 1:50:25 of last year's Crim.

No good race pictures yet.  My friend Ken didn't come down, my family mistook some guy in a white shirt and a hat for me, and my lady slept through her alarm, so no pre-race, during (action), or post-race photos from them.  So, unless the official guys came through enough for me to actually pay for one, all you get is Jason and I in the living room.  As an added bonus if you read this now, I'll throw in a shot of the medal, which has some nice detail on it.  You probably can't see, but it even says "Flint" and "Vehicle City" on the arches, just like downtown.

Living Room After Shot

Medal

Up Close

What the small print on the arch of the medal, that you can't read, because I don't have a nice macro lens like my soon-to-be-wife, is supposed to mimic.  Yes, I realize that was an awful "run-on" and way too long to be a picture caption.

Sweet Victory

I made it! I finished the 10 mile Crim run, and I did it in under 2 hours.

The Back-Story:

Tuesday Jason and I went out for our final practice run of the 10 mile out on the trail to avoid injury. That didn't seem to work very well, because in the final mile, my calf started to strain. I foolishly tried to run on it after it was yanking because we were having such a great go at it that day, and I made things worse in the final mile. From that point on, we both stopped running for the week until The Crim, and I put a lot of meds on my calf over the rest of the week.

The night before the race, I had $10 vouchers to see Blondie and Cheap Trick fall into my lap. I debated whether to go or stay home, rest up, watch "Run Fatboy Run," and hit the Olive Garden for the unlimited pasta bowl. You really just can't pass either of them up for 10 bucks and free parking, let alone both, so I went. The short version is Cheap Trick is still solid, and Deborah Harry is still awesome. Luckily they got done fairly early, and I was home and in bed at midnight.

I woke up at 5am the next morning. I showered, put Body Glide in all the necessary places, some icy hot on the calf, set the DVR for the Crim coverage, grabbed some toast and a banana, and charged up the mp3 player. Then I got my shirt, shorts, and shoes on and paced around for a bit before putting on my bib and D-tag.

Jason came over about 6:30 and we walked downtown to the starting line, as I finished a quick Power Bar. We hit the porta-johns (pre-race leak jitters), and watched the wheelers off at the start. Then they let the competitive runners, the 30+ year runners, and military runners go. I was doing a lot of jogging in place to loosen up the calf that felt like it could pull at any moment. There is a reason that I put it on my Colbert "On Notice" board on the fridge. We did some last minute stretching, and took our place behind the green flag for the 10 mile runners.

Immediately we were getting boxed in, and even worse there were walkers up in our section despite them being told several times that they are supposed to line up behind us at the purple flag. I've been over it several times, but here we go again. Walkers are just the bane of my running existence. Winning speed-walking is about the equivalent of winning at a game of online poker with no money involved. The sad thing is, these people cheat like crazy. One woman in particular I have seen at several runs, and she's ALWAYS cheating. The races without a starting block that takes your launch time, she'll take off with the runners, hiding in the crowd, and start walking after there is no crowd. At the Crim, she was running for part of it. I imagine this woman is queen bee of the super-bitches too and thinks she's the best thing since gravy cheese fries. Anyway, yeah, those f***ers got in our way again. Is it just competition bringing out the worst in them or are they just oblivious pricks? Speaking of pricks, I started up the mp3 player, and I just had to start up the race with a little K-Fed. I needed a funny distraction, and when I saw that, I had to play it. It worked for the first mile or so. Thanks "Pancake Man."

It did open up after the start, but not much. When you have nearly 10,000 people running, even a 10-mile span doesn't spread you out too much. My calf was already feeling tight in mile 1, and I was genuinely worried. I pleaded with it in my head, "Please don't do this to me, not today." Meanwhile, I looked at the timer for the first mile and it said a whopping 13 minutes and change (unbeknownst to me at the time, it was over 3 minutes before I got across the start). Mile 2 is where you start to get into the charm of the race. There were people lined down Third street, and the fraternities there were passing out donuts and beer to the runners. I didn't figure I should risk it this time, but maybe in the years to come, I'll partake in all of these station pit stops.

I started pushing through miles 3 and 4 by Mott Park (and grabbed my first water) to make up time, and a lot of people flocked to the woods there to take a public pee break. I was good, except for the calf (still). Then I hit the Bradley Hills, which is over 100' feet of elevation change in less than a mile. They're generally known to any area runner as "Where good Crim runs go to die," but I pushed through them, and grabbed a much-needed Gatorade boost at hill 2. Electrolytes are good, and by then my shirt, with our friend's physical therapy office on it, was soaked, so I'm sure I lost a little bit of what plants crave. I grabbed a water too just before mile 6 to wash the taste out and clear the mouth a bit.

At the split the time was saying 56:11, which I felt good about, and was only a little slower than my Blueberry time (in reality it was faster minus the 3 minutes, but you get it by now). The Bradleys did their thing to my legs though, and they were like rubber. I kept telling myself "keep going, keep going and it'll pass." It finally did, and I had a really quick mile 7 breaking past quite a few people that lost their sh*t at the hills. When I hit the middle of mile 8, I was starting to die though. My shirt was completely wet, the shorts were on their way, and I was really dehydrated. I hit 3 water stops in a 1 1/2 mile stretch at mile 8, 8 1/2, and at 9. I still haven't mastered the art of drinking and running at the same time. If I try it, I end up aspirating the water and coughing it out of my lungs for 1/8th of a mile. So I did have to stop, take a few steps, and immediately jump back in a few times. Maybe eventually I'll learn to do it while running like the pros, but it's not as easy as it looks.

Just before I made the turn at Saginaw St. for the final stretch, I flipped the player over to some Rocky IV soundtrack figuring it would help me let loose and finish strong. It did. At the turn, I started running faster, and halfway down the street I ended the race in a dead sprint (or as close as I could muster). I grabbed my 10-mile finisher medal (hell yes!) and Jason found me almost immediately after to tell me "good job." He was happy to see that I didn't finish too far behind him, and was able to go the whole way. We grabbed some waters, and each grabbed a popsicle, then another popsicle after eating those, then another water, then a banana, and then an apple. We ran into Ken and he snapped a picture of us on the bricks, which I have yet to see.

I look focused

Got it!

We went back to the gates and watched the other people come in, rooting them on like the crowds pushed us like a wind at our back, throughout the entire race. Those people help you so much when you feel down and out, and the volunteer stations keep us in business (big time). I almost got back in time for the 8K walk to be off, and walk with Jessi and her family, but I didn't make it. So I waited for them for an hour and a half to see them cross. Somehow I missed every one of them, and waited until it just wasn't possible for them to still be lagging behind (in fact they all were pretty quick). Jason and I gave up and grabbed our much-deserved free pizza and beer, and walked back to my place.

I called Jessi, and she was on her way to the grandparents. Jason and I went over there too, and they welcomed him and fed him, as I introduced him as my friend and trainer. They're so nice, and they always end up feeding somebody's stray it seems. Every holiday, there's somebody's friend there for some reason, and they always take them in like family, which is really admirable. We all shared our Crim stories at the table, and it was really great to get some food in after all of that.

I'm still in disbelief that this happened, and I'm still shocked I finished under 2 hours and my calf never pulled (the realistic goal was under 2:30:00 and optimistically I was hoping for 2:00:00 or under). I've taken it off notice, officially. The official time came in at 1:50:25, which is just over 11 minute miles. I'm good with that. The Blueberry race was 55:44 and it was half the Crim, so I did my job and kept that pace. Now it's time to start going for times the rest of this year. I won't be adding distance. Maybe next year we'll consider some half-marathons and maybe even a marathon, but for now I want to break that 10 minute mile wall. For now, I'm just reveling in my accomplishment, because I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to do this until this month. Maybe I should stop limiting myself.