I Have To Get Going Here. It'll Happen.

If you haven't really noticed, I've been a little absent around here so far in 2013.  Also, maybe you've noticed my mileage on the old dailymile is comprised of mostly very short runs and not a lot of my usual entertaining (for me at least) commentary. 

I could explain it in a lot of ways, but I'll start with the situation.  Let's face it, the last few months have been a bit of a bummer.  I've lost two very young cousins, a grandparent, and, now, shortly in the future I will be losing my job (my job site announced it's closing early this month).  Also this past Valentine's Day marked 10 years of being without my father.

Now, am I completely and utterly depressed?  No, not really.  I sulked for about 3 days after the job loss announcement, and have since immediately started go through my connections for leads and raining resumes down on the job sites like confetti on a parade.  Everything else I can't do anything about.  I can't resurrect the dead, and even when they try in movies or comics (e.g. the U.S. Presidents in the recent Deadpool reboot) it never turns out to be some sort of happy ending.  There's plenty of worse things happening to a lot of people, and by all means and measures, I'm doing just fine.

Also, it's been 7 years since I've let myself just sulk on Valentine's Day.  It's now become a tradition to get together with friends, even the single ones, and go do something inclusive.  Initially it started off with three of us getting together on a whim, going out, getting smashed, and having a good time, while denouncing the day with loud, boisterous fits of slurred swearing (and FVD was born). 

This year, instead of the usual pub crawling, we went to the Blind Pig to see Electric Six



and Andy D


I don't care if you even read the rest of this post, but you have to watch the video right above.

It was pretty hard to sulk watching them, and we all had a really good, surprisingly sober, time.

Anyway, getting back to where I was going before.  I'm really not in some sort of depressed funk.  The running hasn't been there just because I've been focusing my time on the job search.  Also, I have been getting out of work much later than usual, and I still haven't come close to thinking about becoming morning runner guy.  I haven't been doing races or much of anything that costs too much (the concert tickets were only $15/ea) because I'm going to be very conservative with money until something else is lined up.  The uncertainty has made me unsure of what I want my running goals to be this year.  That's the reason why I haven't posted my annual goals for you guys to see. 

Also, when life hands me lemons, I do try to make lemonade (though I believe now they're even better in a Dutch Baby Pancake), but I also like to horde the lemonade for myself (pancakes too).  In challenging times, I'm just a natural introvert.  I like to keep my good vibes that I can muster to myself, and I find myself shutting off that valve that makes me want to send all of them out into the world.  I know some people feel they get as much good back from the public and like or need to be around people when things are bad.  It makes them feel energized and keeps them positive.  That's just not me.  Some days (e.g. Valentine's Day) there are exceptions, but if I try to mimic that for a long period of time, it doesn't work.  It's almost like I need people (with my wife being one of the very rare exceptions) in moderation, and if I overdo it I have a big crash later.  I'm not sure if that makes sense, but that's part of the lack of blogging, dailymile commentary, etc. too.

Stick with me.  I'm still positive the best is yet to come.  I'll find a way to run more and get motivated soon.  I  know it.

Winterlaufe DNS

Well, it has finally happened.  I have my first "did not start" at the Winterlaufe this weekend.  Given a multiple choice question, with reasons why I didn't do one of my favorite winter runs, you'd probably have to assume something like:

A)  I overslept giving my corgi and lady the good cuddles on a lazy Saturday morning  (Incorrect)
B)  I finally managed to blow out some sort of tendon, ligament, or bone balancing a hippo's body on zebra legs.  (Incorrect...and, HEY!)
C)  Too many beers on Friday night (Incorrect)
D)  Food poisoning from all the crazy stupid things I seem to shove into my gullet.  (Incorrect)

It was none of those, or driving conditions, or laziness, or anything else you might expect from me.  Truth be told, I actually love all the Frankenmuth runs enough to not risk willy nilly missing any of them, especially on a year where they're actually giving people that do all 3 a special prize (why didn't you do it last year?...bastards).

I actually missed because I had to pay my respects to a wonderful lady named Dorlis who, after marrying my grandfather in 1989, has been our acting grandmother since.  My mother, brother, sister, and I went to see her last Sunday.  She had asked to see us and it was a sure thing that she was on her way out of this world.  She was awake and aware enough for us to speak to her, and say what we wanted to say.  She said she wasn't in any pain, though, with that generation, you never know.  They're so tough and unwilling to complain about anything, only she knows for sure if that was true.  On Wednesday, only a few hours after holding out for the remaining members of her family to be with her, she peacefully left this world.

Having her being a part of our family and be there to take care of my grandfather and see him to the ripe age of 87 has been a blessing.  It's actually hard to imagine she's gone for a lot of us.  Up until the past few weeks she has still been very vibrant.  She's fought off leukemia for many years, with a few blips in health, but has always bounced back with a vengeance.  Less than a year ago we were with her for her 90th birthday party, and she looked like she could have had another 5-10 in her.

However, some of our sadness is easily replaced with the consoling reminder of how much time she did have and the legacy she leaves behind.  She's had a long time on this world, and has seen and done almost everything you can do.  More importantly, she has left behind an infinite legacy of love, including 3 children, 3 step-children, 17 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great-grandchildren.  You can't ask for much more than that, and we know she will live on through, not only them, but the great many others she has touched throughout her life.

Goodbye for now, Grandma Dorlis.  We'll never forget you.

Dorlis's 90th Birthday
(...and this wss just the Conley-related side)

Hey La Hey La The Bigfoot's Back

Last year's Bigfoot Snowshoe Race was as much of a disaster than it was fun.  Just like all good experiences, nothing goes perfect the first time.  This year we sought to do better, come better prepared, and finish this thing faster (i.e. not finish dead last in the 10K)

We got off to a really good start.  The first thing J and I both did was inspect the shoes from last year.  His needed some obvious repairs (they fell apart last year).  After an inspection of mine, I found I actually lost a screw and a nut anchoring my front crampon down and what holds my foot in place on the right side.

So J got the Home Depot to match them up, and I bought a few off of him and went to repair the missing one and tighten down the rest (several were loose).  Then I got some heavy duty, all weather, automotive Loctite and put that on each and every nut/screw connection and submitted them for final inspection.

Inspected by Renfield

With the jobs not being as forgiving this year, we got a late start after work Friday, which made for a dark drive up to Traverse City.  Slippery and dark are not my favorite conditions, but I did some good, slow old lady driving and got there just in time for almost everything to be closed.  There was one place open that we found called JP's Hard Luck Diner.  It was there that I became the ultimate fat kid.  I keep insisting I'm going to be healthier, and I have been trying, but there is this thing inside me that if there's some sort of new food abomination upon man, wholly horrible for me, that is on a menu, then I have to have it.  JP's had the TomTom.  The TomTom is a burger with a over-hard egg on it, which is bad enough.  The kicker, though, is that the bun consists of two grilled cheese sandwiches on either side of the burger itself.

Human Garbage Disposal

The next morning I woke up to get ready for the race, and I quickly realized I forgot my little bag of running goodies.  This meant no body glide and several other things, but most importantly, no athletic tape.  So, despite every time the word snowshoe comes up I think of taping my heel, I was going to have to go without and hope for the best.  I had to hope that just adjusting the shoes right and having time to put them on correctly would save me.  So I just got dressed and drove to Timber Ridge with my wife and J.

We got there plenty early, took a few pictures, and stood around a while watching people's dogs, wishing we could have brought ours.

"Homeboy Shop" pose  We're bringing it back.

My lady and I

'Squatches (The Overall Winner Trophies)

When the race started, I was all ready to get on with it.  I bent down to do one last strap adjustment before the start, and then off we went, except me.  My bib fell off and I stood to the side before the start refastening the thing to my pants.  Not the epic start I was going for.



Hello!

Oh well, I slowly chopped my way through the crowd, and was making some pretty good time compared to last year.  I believe the course was identical to 2012, and I could pretty much tell where I was going.  I was through the first 5K loop, and I didn't feel like my heel was falling apart or that I had to stop for any reason.  That was a welcome change.  I also finally could see J in front of me, and I wanted to catch him.  When I did, I was going to stay with him for a bit, but he wasn't moving really well and wasn't too responsive to me, so I went by him and kept going.  He said he was kind of enjoying the time alone out there.  I get that.

We both were still leaps and bounds better than last year at that point.  We just had to finish strong.  I latched on to a fellow big guy and we kind of pushed each other back and forth.  I was poised to go get him, but I finally realized that even a properly adjusted shoe wasn't going to save me.  My trail shoes are a bit worn in the back by my heel, and they did actually rub me enough to do some damage.  I could barely tell with the cold until the skin was probably broken, and for the last quarter of the race, I was hurting a bit, and running a little gingerly.  It was definitely not like last year where I had the broken toe, and the skin on my heel was almost completely gone.  It was also the complete other foot (my left) this time.

I'm the Curt Schilling of Snowshoe

Anyway, I toughed it out and finished the 10K Bigfoot at 1:21:18.  For those of you keeping score, that's a full half hour off of last year.  In fact, when I came in, my wife was still reading her Kindle, and not even ready for us to be close to done.  She was shocked when I came up to her and jumped in her chair a bit.

After, we stopped by the hotel for a bit to rest and soak our legs in the hot tub.  The view from the room was unparalleled...

Yeah, that's J in the photo

After the rest, we went on the usual brewery trip.  This year we hit 3 in a row.  We stopped by Traverse City Brewery.  The amber, IPA, and pale are good, but the second round was pretty bad, and I would say skip the rest.  Food was fabulous, though.  I'd recommend the mac and cheese.

We had to stop at Right Brain again.  They moved to a new, larger location, but the quality has not changed. They're still making fantastic beer.  I had the Norther Hawk Owl again, which is their delicious flagship amber.  Then I had the Irish Goodbye, which is the other red, which is a lot smoother, but just not as delicious.  I finished off with the Mangalista Pig Porter, J filled up his growler (we forgot ours) with some IPA, and off we went to the next adventure.

Growler!

We tried yet another new place called The Filling Station.  It is next to the rail tracks in TC, and it is shamelessly train themed.

The order numbers you put on your table are
 little rolling magnetic train cars

We had two of the flatbreads with some veggie toppings and they are delightful.  The one beer I had was pretty good, but I was not up for any more.  We were tired, and it was time to go back to the hotel.  I spent the rest of the night watching some Cinderella, Alice In Wonderland, and some boxing on HBO, before watching SNL waste Jennifer Lawrence (who is usually pretty funny just on her own) on some very very poorly written skits.

The weather in the morning was horrible.  There was snow, very high winds, and not a lot of visibility.  So we decided to stop for breakfast at the Flapjack Shack.

I'm posing like a doofus on purpose.  Why?  Long Story.

I had a dutch baby pancake.  It was fantastic.



"I ate a baby!"

I can't wait to do this race again next year.

...And Just Where Have You Been Mister?

First of all, I'd be lying if I said I kept in the groove since you last heard from me and my Dickens 10K PR.  My running buddy, outside of a random run last Friday, has been a little M.I.A. (other than my Christmas Apocalypse party on the 21st, where beer was promised) and so has my mileage.  I can't blame him though.  I can't even blame weather, because I love going out in this stuff.  The plain truth is, I just wanted out of it for a bit, and wanted to enjoy some holiday time.

Don't worry, I'm working myself back in.  I also now have a little help to track running.  My wife got me a Garmin Forerunner 410 for Christmas, which was a really nice, unexpected surprise.  I really didn't think she'd do anything to increase the amount of time I spent away from her and with my pavementy mistress like this summer, but, yet, here it is.

The only real problem was trying to figure it out, which, honestly, took my a while.  I'm not really bad with technology at all, it's just this whole circular toggle thing threw me off.  Sure it's intuitive for you iPod people, but I always buy things with hard buttons and tend to avoid touchscreen type things.  So there was a shamefully long "What the H?" period with this thing.  Luckily I got it now.  Well at least I get the basics.  Some of the extras I'll pick up over time, as I feel like needing them.

I wasn't going to write here until I figured out some annual goals, but this is not going to be a standard year.  There are a lot of mandatory life changes coming, and some are long overdue.  Running may have to take a slight backseat.  I have some general health goals I'd like to accomplish and hold myself to, but I'll get into that a bit later.

This year the running season will begin with the Bigfoot Snowshoe Race in Traverse City.  The Chicago New Year's Day run was more than I felt like spending, and the Frozen Blueberry was this past weekend, where I was just recovering from a horrible week long cold.  My goals for that are simple:

1)  For God's sake, please be faster than last year.
2)  Don't rip all the skin off my heel and bleed really bad during the race
3)  Don't finish dead last in the 10K like we did last year.
4)  Don't get off the path and get lost out in the trails

Pretty simple right?  I'll let you know

Anyway, since every blog deserves a photo, and I didn't have any that applied to what I just wrote.  Here is a photo of my John Denver/Muppets vinyl, complete with its original poster that I found over the holidays.

Run Like the Dickens

With the void left by not being able to kick out my Turkey Trot and get a PR, I took to the streets of Holly, MI this morning with just that goal in mind: PR that sh*t.  Mind you, this race was not on my radar.  The Santa Run is usually my bookend for the year, and I usually don't even think about any more races located in this calendar month.  Last night I saw there was a 10K for this race, and got a little twinkle in my eye, though.  I decided to text J about it and, told myself, "If he texts back that he could go and wanted to go, it's on.  I'll take another swing at PRing the 10K"  I don't need a running buddy for every official race, but having him join in pushed me over the hump.  I was on the fence, and I probably wouldn't have went on my own.

It's better with friends

Parking and registration was quick and painless for us, being 45 minutes early, but I'm sure it was a little harder for those that came later.  There was a good chunk of people wearing festive attire.  I was as well, but it ended up hidden beneath my new waterproof jacket, due to the rain/sleet that turned into snow that began just before the race (I was being a wimp).

Just Before Race Start

When we started it was a little crowded, but cleared up really nice, really quick.  Probably because it was a pretty fast crowd out there, and I was in the back.  My goal was to keep moving as hard as I could and bank a little time.  Then J passed me, and I thought if I could tail him, I would easily PR.  That didn't happen.  I started losing ground to him by the second mile, and then I had to stop and retie the drawstring of my windbreaker pants.  By then he was gone, and within the same mile I had a shoe come untied.  So I stopped to tie it and double knot that one and the other.  Pretty much every race I make sure everything is in place and tied tight and my shoes are doubled so the don't come undone, but, nope, not today.  

At this point I'm figuring a PR is out of range.  I thought about slowing up and enjoying the run, but I told myself to keep pushing and think positive.  That didn't work.  I felt exhausted after 3 miles.  I could feel my strides shortening and my pace slowing, but I kept pushing myself anyway.  At this point I'm thinking there's about a 4% chance a PR is on the table.  I was just mentally and physically in a bad place, and I figured my time was going to turn out equally poor.  

By 4.5 miles, I wanted to be done, but I saw someone's "If it doesn't challenge us, it can't change us" quote on the back of their shirt, so I kept pushing as much as i could.  By mile 5 I still wasn't doing much better, but I decided to see if I could kick it up any, and I was absolutely shocked when I could and started picking up some people that just passed me.  I thought I saw the street with the finish line at probably 5 1/2-5 3/4 and made a mistaken mad dash toward an oasis of "plenty more race to go you idiot," and had to back off a bit.  

Finally we made the last turn, and I saw 5-:--, with the rest of the numbers being pretty much indeterminable from where I was, but I knew I was still under an hour.  I also knew I just needed to beat a 59:20.  I gave about all I could down the stretch, and crossed right about in that 59:15-59:20 range on the clock.  I figured with chip time I probably had it, but I was too busy sucking air and feeling my muscles burning to think or talk to J, who met me at the end.  

We went inside to grab a water and some of the holiday goodies (apple and orange slices, bananas, cookies, cupcakes, etc.).  I went apple, orange, chocolate coconut cupcake (burned calories recovered).  I didn't sign up for the heavyweights to avoid any potential prizes we had to stay for, and we didn't even look at times.  I've made J late for work twice already by suckering him into runs on days he has to work early afternoon, I wasn't going to make him late again.  We left almost immediately.

I didn't know my time for sure until about an hour ago, but I got it.  I ran a 58:46, which isn't a big chunk off of 59:20.  I'll take it, though, especially on a run that felt horrible the entire time and one where I had to stop and tie my stuff up twice.  I can't believe I actually got it, but that's why you keep going and don't give up, even on the bad days.

Everything's wrong....well it's all right.  

Nail a 10K PR up next to all the distances I've improved upon this year.

Frehley Claus is Coming to Town

The Flint YMCA Santa Run was a fantastic experience as always.  It's just special to go out and do a run, and know there's no time going on your permanent record.  You can go out, dress up, have fun, and be merry.  This year I decided to separate myself from the masses a little bit, and add a little more flair to my Santa suit.  Last year I saw a little personalizing of the traditional suit by people, and I thought I would do a little of that this year.  Then the little seed in my head grew a little out of control, and I decided that I was going to go for being a ho ho holiday version of Ace Frehley.

Being a man, I've never painted my face, and also, because I'm a man, I didn't really think of how I'd be modifying the outfit, or if I'd actually do so at all, until i got out of work on Friday.  Luckily, I was able to make use of a previous year's Santa suit, an old space blanket, the left-over Halloween Wayne's World wig, and some silver duct tape and made something presentable the night before.  The face painting, I decided, would be left to my wife in the morning.

The only problem with that was, she was really tired, and I decided just to leave her alone and try it myself, which, even in my head, sounded like a horrible idea at the time.  However, I thought I did a really decent job of making a red and white version of the spaceman make-up.

J got here, saw my madness, and then we left, hoping nobody would pull over two Santas, one of which was all painted up, for looking suspicious.  On the way there was a part of Court Street blocked off for an accident investigation where an MTA bus hit a 72-year-old woman who, last I heard, was in critical condition.  Hopefully she makes it.  When I saw it, I was sure she was already dead, but last I checked the news she's still holding on.  That with the other blockades that came up late, blocking most of the decent parking, made it hard for us to get anywhere near the run.  So we just parked out on the other side of Saginaw and started running to the YMCA. As I was running, I was mistaken for a "Juggalo" by a Flint Security Guard.  I immediately said "OH HELL NO..." and explained myself, and what I was supposed to be, and expressed my displeasure with ICP in general to him.

For the record, I'm actually really happy Juggalos are listed as a "gang" by the FBI, because this is the first time the American government has discriminated against someone, not on the basis of race, sexuality, or any of the other things I feel discrimination is unwarranted, but on the basis of stupidity.  I'm proud of my country for that.  It might mean we're starting to get things right.

Anyway, we got to the YMCA 5 minutes before the 1 milers started, and I was trying to find some of my other friends while people kept asking me for a picture with them.  I grabbed one with J along the way, so I would at least have one of me before the run, in case my face got ruined along the way.

Then I saw a Slash Santa, and he wanted to get a picture with me as well, so that absolutely had to be done.

Guitarist Santas Unite!!!

Shortly after getting that photo taken, I found the rest of my people...

After that, there was less than a minute before we had to start.  I haven't timed out a 5K in a while, and J hadn't run in a while, and my other friends are not regulars, so it was kind of a crapshoot how it would go.  I really didn't care, I just wanted to try to run semi-hard, and enjoy it.  I was surrounded by a record number of over 2000 Santas (yes, it pretty much doubled again this year), so it would be hard not to enjoy.

Of course the enjoyment proved a little more difficult once I realized that a sweaty man and face paint for a run may not mix too well.  My paint started melting before a mile in.  It was over 50 degrees out, and I was wearing a fairly warm outfit, over track pants and a shirt, with a space blanket on my shoulders.  I could see paint running off of me, and see some of it bubbling and cracking.  Then I realized I was starting to get a little bit in my mouth, along with the red lipstick I had going, so I had a lot of good red spits along the way.  About 2 miles in and I was starting to get a little in my eyes, so I throttled my speed down just a bit to stop melting so much.

By the time I saw my mother-in-law and wife at the side of the road, I knew it was pretty bad, because while cheering me on, they were both laughing that "oh god, you poor man and your leaking face, but that's hilarious and this is what you get for being such a dork" laugh.  Oh well, I only had a little hill to run up and get this thing done, and I came in with the clock reading just over 26 minutes.  So, even though it was not chip timed, I still ran decent, and got some style points.

Here are some aftermath photos of me...

I'm melting, melting, oh what a world....

Me and the lady

 Afterwards, we grabbed some food and beers downtown at the Torch, after watching a little of the parade. No, I didn't bother stopping home to wash up first.  Why would I?  It's fine.  There were other Santas there anyway.

Not one of the "other Santas" I'm referring to

Me at home just before washing all of this off

If there's one thing I've learned from this experience, it has to be: don't use face paint in a road race, even a 5K.  It is a bad idea.  This is my public service announcement to you all.  Stay safe, and keep your digestive tract paint free.  Frehley Claus out.

Santa Run: Last Training Day

Here is how you train for the Flint YMCA Santa Run:

 Milk and Cookies

I'm eating a Ginger Family!

The pictures of all the fun and joy from tomorrow's race will be coming your way in blog form soon...

Love this run.