Warrior Dash 2

Last weekend I ran the Warrior Dash for the second time.  J and I always do outfits.  This year's plan...80's WWF wrestlers.

I woke up, got costumed up, and made some Rowdy Roddy Pancakes

Renfield always wants our food

My wife and I headed out to the county park where it was, and paid the outrageous $20 to park.  Then we spent about an hour trying to find my friend, which really shouldn't have been so hard, considering his outfit.

I finally found him scoping out the people, including some of his friends in earlier waves, at the finish line.  

Can you tell who he is supposed to be?

We headed on into the corral.

If you didn't know before, you should know now that he's Randy "Macho Man" Savage
(circa Wrestlemania III vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat)

We waited in the corral, while looking tough

We started off pretty close to each other, and stayed close through the first obstacle over barricades and under barbed wire, but that changed at the second one.  Capsized Catamaran required you to swim to some blocks that had nothing to grip to, climb over them into another pool with ropes leading to another set of blocks, and then over to more water and to shore.  My friend is not good with water or swimming, and after wading in and thinking about it, turned to a race official in his best Macho voice saying, "The Macho Man don't do swimming."  I had a hell of a time pulling myself out of the water onto the blocks.  With the herd of people, having shoes on, and sucking at swimming myself, it made me a little nervous too.  Eventually, I got to the front blocks and was able to pull my fat ass up out of the water, over the two blocks, and back into the second pool, where the rest was a piece of cake.  That part wiped me out pretty good though.  It felt like I had been treading water for an eternity (likely 45 seconds).

Everything after was pretty much standard to last year:  crawl across ropes and nets, crawl under stuff, mud hills, and climb walls.  The only thing this year, was the 12 foot wall climb was in the middle this time, and being tired and hating heights made it a lot tougher this year.  I actually had to climb it and didn't basically run up it.

I kept checking behind me for my friend, but never did see him after that second obstacle.  I was hoping he didn't quit.

With a little under a mile to go, I got stuck in a mud pit.  I couldn't get my shoes free, and they were getting sucked in pretty deep.  Not thinking about the fact my timing chip was strapped into my shoes, and knowing they were going into the donate pile at the end anyway, I said "f*** it" and yanked my feet out.  I ran in my socks for a bit, and after figuring they were screwed too, wadded them up and whipped them at one of the Warrior signs.  For the rest of the race, I was a barefoot runner (does this mean I'm in the club?...i mean it was almost a mile with obstacles).

Climbed the cargo net

Jumped the fire
(love this photo, and it only exists thanks to my wife)

Crawled through the mud

...and finished, then taking a smug looking picture with an expression I'd imagine Piper would have

Nailed It

Shortly after, I was happy to see J finishing the race

I still liked the Warrior this year while I was doing it, but the excitement and anticipation of it was kind of missing this year.  The price and the rip-off parking kind of soured it a little bit for me.  I love having an extra excuse to wear a costume other than Halloween, but I'm not sure I'll be doing it again, especially not next year.  I don't know, I'm just not feeling it anymore, despite the fact if gives us plenty of wonderful photo ops.

Diplo-Dash Retread 3

So what if we crammed in 14+ miles yesterday, and so what if I haven't run a 5K since, oh, The Corktown Race.  Never mind that you have to go with your wife to Renfield's puppy beginner obedience class graduation immediately after the race.  It's Retread time again.

I didn't leave myself enough time to walk to the race because I was too busy walking our dog, watching Doctor Who, and eating string cheese after work.  So, instead of doing the smart thing and driving, I threw my old Brooks shoes over my shoulder, and ran to the YMCA.  Why save my energy when I'm pretty sure I'm going to tank this race anyway?  That was kind of the thought.  

I found J, registered while raining sweat all over the entry form, and dumped off the Brooks shoes for the charity that retreads them (hence the race name).

Adios Amigos

One year this race was the bane of my existence, and last year I actually went home with an award.  I've referred to it as our "Bristol," even though I don't like NASCAR.  I was pretty sure this was going to be a crash and burn sort of year.  Also, where have all my brethren gone?  Chubby runner people...where the hell are you?  You can't be all walkers, or can you?  It was almost all skinny people out there.  What the H?

We headed out, and J took off like a shot.  I held my pace and just tried to hit a zone.  My legs felt tired, but I managed to hit mile 1 and heard the timer guy yell out 8:38 at me.  I figured if I could hold that, I'd be pretty dang happy.  About mile 2, I felt like I slowed, but I was still picking people off pretty well.  J was long gone, though, and that may be because he set a HUGE PR today, destroying his personal best by over a minute and coming in at a 25:13.  So he officially has the 5K title again.  The best I've ever done is a 25:50.  

Mile 2 came and they yelped out that I was barely over 17 minutes.  I held really strong on the final 1.1, and came in at 26:22.  Not a PR, but not a bad summer 5K at all.  I've only ran two quicker 5Ks since I've been doing this.  So I will definitely take that time right now, especially since I've completely abandoned any short or speed work with my weekend recovery breaks.  We held around after the race eating an apple and drinking some water until we confirmed we didn't win jack, and J gave me a lift home. 

I took a 4 minute shower, changed, and it was off the puppy school graduation...

Player 2 Has Entered the Tournament/Countdown to Mars

J has signed up for the Detroit Marathon as well.  Honestly, that's really the only way this thing can be done.  Side-by-side, we're accountable for each other now.  Besides, we've done everything else together, it wouldn't be right for me to go this one alone.  I'm starting to understand how long it really is and how much punishment I'll be putting on myself, which makes me understand even more how important it will be to prepare and get this Play-Doh body in check.

The Martian Marathon is this Saturday (don't worry, I'm running the Half), and I'm closing the book on long runs today to give myself a little rest after going out and clip-clopping a 14.5 miler.  It seemed to go fairly easy except for the wind blowing me around and the stopping and running in place for all the stupid cars.  This was the first time out with the hydration pack, and I barely knew it was there, except for when it was handy.  It's nice to carry a little water with you.  I had a slight rub on the right shoulder, but that's just an adjustment issue I can take care of pretty easily.

I also gave a trial run to some Hammer Gel.  Outside of "Montana Huckleberry" being an awesome flavor, both in name and taste, it really didn't feel like much more came of it.  There was no short or long burst from it, nor was there any sort of crash (or lack of one) from it.  I'm sure some additional experimentation is in order.  Maybe I'm doing it wrong, and maybe this brand is actually used like suppositories.  If so, let me know.

The running terrain yesterday was pretty brutal.  Having to stay mostly off the roads and on uneven, broken (typical Flint) sidewalk was not a lot of help for my legs, but neither was the incorporated stairs that were put in there by my dumb (Jack's complete lack of) route planning.  Yep, I just wasn't thinking there, and I decided I was too stubborn and lazy to go around them. 

On the home stretch I had a white pitbull with black spots follow me and escort me home for the last mile and a half.  She was following another woman out walking who asked me if I knew where she belonged (which I didn't).  I didn't even know until about a half mile later that she was now following me.  The dog ended up right by me all the way home before switching to another couple out walking with their kid.  It seemed like a pretty nice, smart dog, but one is enough for us right now.  Plus, I will admit, even with a seemingly calm one, I'm still pretty fearful of that breed, and who knows that she doesn't belong to someone anyway.  If only I could get Renfield to follow me that well just walking...

After the run I tried to recoup all the burned calories with some Little Caesars (gotta help pay for the Fielder contract), and I slipped into my long green unofficial Al Kayner race socks, which are actually my old MSU IM soccer team socks.  I know they're not really the fancy compression socks or anything, but they actually did help more than regular ones.  My legs feel great today in comparison to what they usually are like after a run like that.  Maybe there's something to bundling your calves up, after all.*


*-Actually I know all these things you REAL runners do work, I just don't usually do them because I'm an illegitimate hack.

Brent vs. The February

February is gone, and it's time to check up on the 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.

Jazz Music - As much of a music geek as I am, there are a few holes in my knowledge.  Jazz has never really appealed to me, but then again, I've never had any extended exposure.  To be incredibly honest, I didn't know where to start, so I found myself hitting up Pandora and just typing famous names like Herbie Hancock or Charlie Parker.  Halfway through the month, things started popping up that I knew I liked, but didn't think was "jazz," only to find out it was (e.g. 30s Swing).  

So, I'm starting to get a handle on what I like within the genre and what I don't.  I'm finding it very hard to like Jazz that's too driven by trumpet players.  That sound just seems to irk me for some reason (sorry Louis Armstrong, just stick to the singing).  

Either way, we're talking 2 months where I've gained appreciation for something new to the point that I want to continue to explore it.  We'll see if we get another month of that and I have to eat some of my words in March, when I'll be taking on the Harry Potter franchise...

2) Learn 12 new recipes (1/month). 

Pesto

This month I aimed to make some Pesto sauce, and it was pretty good, but I need to go with less oil and less salt (for starters).  I'll keep modifying until it's really good.  Didn't do the Scotch Eggs that I planned...but maybe for March.

3) Do 12 home improvements (1/month).

Dishwasher - When we were buying our home, we were told by the previous owners that the dishwasher never worked when they bought the house.  I've never had one, myself, other than the one my parents bought that lasted less than a year.  So, I really couldn't say for sure, before this, that I could operate a working one.  It was getting really old wasting so much time on dishes, though, and as head dish washer (and dirtier) of our household I needed a reprieve.

I was threatening to buy one, when my wife made the comment that her best friend's mother is really good with them and maybe she could take a look at it.  Well, I didn't want to look like a complete idiot before she came over, so I started reading and taking things apart the Friday my father-in-law, wife, and I went to Pizza Hut.  When I got near wiring and the motor, I ended up cutting off the breaker, and continued to completely disassemble whatever I could (this happened in spurts over 3 well-spaced days).

Eventually I started to get how everything worked, and developed a theory of what happened.  Before I took it apart, I could hear a light hum of the motor, but wasn't sure it worked at all.  I flipped back on the breaker and looked under the bottom panel with the dishwasher on to see the motor was still running and the wheel still spun just fine.  The wheel going to the impeller didn't have the belt on (which broke beneath there), but it wouldn't spin manually either.  So I figured that it jammed and the belt eventually snapped off.

I already had almost everything apart, and did a nice lube, clean, turn, and grease job on that, and went to get a new belt on primary day before voting and running.  After putting it together and anchoring everything back in place, I ran a few cycles to see that it worked and clean it out.  Then I tried it with dishes, and it worked, but I was getting a leak.  I got that sealed up, but a couple of the rubber washers on the hex screws need to be replaced.  They don't drip much (maybe 3-5 drips for a full cycle) but enough to go back and work on.  At some point I should also trade out the water hoses, especially since one got rubbed by the belt (none of them leak yet, though). 

So our early 80s Maytag dishwasher that hasn't run in at least 7 years works and will soon be good as new.  I'd say that's a pretty decent and unlikely improvement to our home.  Also, it will give me a lot of extra time to do other things.  I'm excited about it.

4) Try 12 new restaurants (1/month). 

Five Guys

Not the most classy addition to my restaurant repertoire, but it's still a new place.  I'll try to get some real, honest-to-goodness sit-down and stay restaurants on here eventually.  Then again maybe not...

As far as the running stuff, I haven't been pushing it enough.  I need more daylight for longer runs, and more time.  March will be better once things settle down around here.  There are a lot of work things going on, we had a little health scare here that, thankfully (and hopefully still), was a false alarm, and then there is this little guy....

They both like the girl most, though

He's adorable, and he's been pretty good most of the time, but it's still a bit of work.  He doesn't live up to the name "Renfield," because he's not feeble-minded and obedient.  He's exactly the opposite (strong-willed and smart).  It's going to take a lot of effort to show him who's boss, and he's going to constantly test the boundaries.  He's definitely smart, though, and I'm enjoying having a dog more than I thought I would.

As far as the running, and the whole marathon resolution.  I'll get there.  As soon as the days are longer, I'll be out there more.  I'm in dire need of some speed training right now.  I feel slow.  I tried to ramp up every couple blocks yesterday until I was losing my breath and then I'd back off.  It didn't make me run my route any faster, though.  In fact I got the same exact time that I did just a few days prior.

Other than that I'm now pretty convinced I'm running on a broken toe.  Not a lot to do about it now.  Oh well.