Greetings from the Space Coast

Corny Overview of the Race Start

As the 3,000 plus runners crowded into the old, narrow, downtown street, the bodies stood shoulder to shoulder three blocks long. Sunrise loomed, and a hint of pink peaked over the eastern storefronts lining the street, otherwise the sky was dark; the only light provided by the soft glow of the old gas lamps. Towering over the crowd was an old, three story brick building known by the locals as the “Village Tower”. It was originally a Masonic Temple, the exterior brickwork still displays the emblems of the bygone era. If you closed your eyes and listened to the low murmur of crowd anticipation, you could imagine the century old building overseeing many gatherings like this in the city square over the decades.

The start time approached and the noise grew slowly louder. A muffled PA system began to blast announcements to the crowd. Over the next several minutes, the excitement and noise levels continued to climb, the mood began to border on “rowdiness. Then… something very touching happened. Over the PA, a woman began to sing the national anthem and immediately the crowd became silent. An awesome display of respect was shown by the crowd to a person. The silence was striking. For a moment, my heart felt a glimmer of hope for us all. Regardless of political differences and economic downturns; regardless of the fact that more and more often we seem to be living in a society in decline; regardless of the fact that families are literally living in their cars here in Florida, there still may be common ground for us to all come together upon. It is silly, I know, but it was a nice and profound moment. Maybe things will start to get better.

Slightly Less Corny Description of the Run

The course traveled along a relatively narrow coastal road literally a few feet from water’s edge: it was beautiful, scenic and relatively flat along the Indian River waterway. Homes sitting up high off the ground lined the course. Wonderful old oak sprinkled the spacious yards. The sights and sounds of the race seem to take on a life of their own. The course and staggered start times allowed for people grasping for air to run alongside elite athletes who make running a marathon at a 6 minute per mile pace look easy.

It was breezy, but there was heavy cloud cover so it was cool with an occasional sea mist coming off of the water. I focused on Keeping my heart rate below 150 beats per minutes for the first 10 miles and then I allowed it to go up to mid 150’s for final 3 miles because I was feeling better than I expected toward the end. This is a big change for me from the old approach of working toward a specific pace and I have to say that because of this, I really enjoyed this race. I was never extremely uncomfortable and always felt like I was actually running, not just scooting along. I ended up going faster than I had planned and it gave me hope that I can continue to get faster using this approach.

Obnoxious Attempt at Humor

Top 5 quotes heard during the race

• This wind is kicking my ass!
  
• You’d better get out of the way of the motorcycle cops out in front of the marathon leaders, they tend to speed up first and ask questions later here in Brevard County.
  
• This camera is made for taking pictures of landscaping not runners… can you just pretend to be a palm tree for a minute and stop moving?
  
• Is it too late to just go over to watch the rocket launch?
  
• Oh crap I’m cramping… SALT!... JENNY GET ME SALT!

On a closing note, I may do a 30 mile event on the bike in preparation for the Diabetes Ride in March. Stay Tuned.

Scenes from a Lunchtime Ride in East Orlando

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I try to replace a run or two a week with a bike ride. This change helps to reduce wear and tear on the ol' joints and to be honest, it sort of reminds me of my childhood. As a kid growing up in Yuma Arizona in the 70's, my friends and I would often cover large areas on our bikes and the associated "Adventures" are too numerous to list.

As I was crossing a footbridge over a waterway that is a part of a 10 mile loop near my workplace on my lunch hour today, I was able to get pretty close to the Big Poppa shown in the images here. It reminded me that it is never too late to embark on new adventures.

With that said, count-down to the Space Coast Half Marathon is 5 days and counting. I feel confident that I will be ok as long as I keep the heart rate down and the weather is a little cooler than it has been lately.

Just a reminder that this event is part of a larger ride in March to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. Please feel free to donate. No amount is too small.

Have a Great Thanksgiving and I will provide a summary of the race.

Running Hurts

Well, it is time for my next adventure. I have not planned these events around any particular time frame, but it seems like every six months or so, I suddenly develop the urge to publicly humiliate myself in front of large crowds of people. I am signed up for two events before April.

The first event is the space coast half marathon, to be held at Cocoa Beach Thanksgiving Weekend.... yes I said Thanksgiving Weekend. I have trained for races on a six-dollar burger diet, but this will be my first "Eggnog" event. The weight is down a little and I have been running with more emphasis on my heart rate than pace. My time may not be great, but I am looking forward to a fun, comfortable run. Truth be told, at this point in my life, running just hurts... the feet, the knees, the back. So, in order to compensate for the pounding I have started to ride my bike a couple of days a week in place of running; which leads to event number two.

The second event is a 100 mile ride for diabetes. Please feel free to visit the site and make a donation. No amount is too small. I can comfortably ride 35 miles or so right now and look forward to building up to be able to handle the longer distance.

I will keep you posted on progress and milestones as they are reached.

Sprint Triathalon Number 1 - Completed

Well... I am alive. The race was extremely fun and full of surprises. I am glad to have the first one under my belt with a lot of room for improvement. I have broken my recap down below by event.

The Swim
A better title for this may be "You are never too old to make a complete fool of yourself in front of hundreds of people". The distance was 1/2 mile and I have completed this distance in the pool under 20 minutes consistently. Going in, I figured that since I have never raced in open water, I would be smart to pad this time by 5 minutes or so, based on unknown factors.

After hearing the starting gun go off, and quickly wading into the brown water over my head with the group, I promptly began swimming at about a 12 minute pace and immediately began hyperventilating, unable to catch my breath.

Another notable fact... swimming in Florida Lake water is similar to dunking your head into a mop bucket with less that 1 foot visibility and then being sprayed in the face with the mop water every time that you lift your head to breath.

About 1/4 of the way into the swim, I had to roll over onto my back and just kick as I tried to catch my breath and basically, stayed in this position for the remainder of the swim.

One last notable fact, when laying on your back, it is nearly impossible to see the direction you are going and because of this:

• Instead of taking the recommended path through the course:
• I sort of blazed my own trail:

In the end, I walked out of the water after 33 minutes, completely exhausted and ready to lose my breakfast.

The Bike
During my training, I enjoyed my bike the most and during the 12 miles on the bike, I was able to get a bit of a second wind and actually move out of last place and gain about 10 spots (note the lack of bicycles in transition area as I prepare to mount). Again, I had completed this distance in about 35 minutes during training, but because I had unexpectedly done nothing but kick during the swim, I came into the second transition area in a blazing 44 minutes.

The Run and Finish
At this point, I am just making sure that I don't hurt myself and pulled the final 2.8 miles in about 36 minutes. I was able to pass a few folks who had began to walk: many of them were doing a combined event which included a shorter swim... I probably should have been among them in hind sight. After crossing the finish line, I noticed my friend John was lying nearby asleep because he had finished about 25 minutes before me and tired of waiting. And as I reached down to gently tap his shoulder (waking John, a former Marine is always a bit dangerous), I noticed what was undoubtedly a small but potentially lethal Gator bite on my thumb that must have occurred during the 1/2 hour on my back in the lake.

In the end, the race was a blast and I look forward to a few more events and a lot more fun through the rest of the summer... please stay tuned for future adventures.

Preparing to Launch Project "Gator Bait"

Well for those of you who don't know, We recently packed up the entire clan, rented a mini van and moved to the Orlando Florida area.

We have finally settled in and one thing that came with the move and lifestyle change was an effort to gradually eliminate the 40 pounds or so that I had accumulated over the last 10 years. I have been training pretty consistently with my good friend John and I am making pretty good progress. Although I still consider myself fat and sassy, I have dropped about 20 pounds and will be entering my first sprint triathlon on Saturday.

A few things that I have learned while training for a Triathlon in Florida...

• The terrain is very flat here, so running and cycling are pretty enjoyable,
  
• The open water swimming portions of the race are often held in local lakes or on the gulf or Atlantic coasts in the ocean
  
• I never formally learned to swim with anything close to good technique
  

Oh yeah... and a couple of other things:

• An area about an hour east of here called New Smyrna Beach, where many folks like to train is the shark attack capital of the world
  
• Just about all of those local lakes mentioned above are home to Alligators of all shapes and sizes.
  

From what the locals tell me, we will "probably" be ok this week as we swim about 1/2 mile to kick off the sprint... "the water is still pretty chilly, so the gators are very lethargic this time of year. That incident this time last year was a freak event... and they caught and killed that gator, so there is nothing to worry about"

Well, signing off for now. I will let you know if we survived and provide more information about the next scheduled event in May as it approaches.