hide your gps. and the suction cup mount

Smash and grab monday night/tuesday morning. Remove the suction cup that is on the windshield too as that's a sign you have a GPS.

this weekend, random thoughts about old friends

I'll be at my sister's running the Country Music Half Marathon this weekend. Should be fun.

I've been spending some time getting more connections on facebook.com with old friends. I've spent a lot of time and energy running from my past.

For those that have only known me for a while, I'm definitely a candidate for most changed from high school. I've lost weight, shaved my hair off, started running and doing athletic/outdoors stuff, developed social skills, became very progressive politically. I didn't like who I was back then. I'm slowly realizing that I can't deny who I was or what I did in high school or college or whatever. I'm trying to embrace it for a little while so I don't feel like I've totally denied who I was then.

I must blog more

I've been taking some time lately to get back in touch with old friends and to keep more in touch with current ones. I must blog more to keep up with what's up in my life.

One reason I quit for so long was that I soured on Team in Training for a bit. The fund raising became arduous. I highly recommend TNT for participants - don't misunderstand. I was a little jaded by what happens behind the scenes, interacting with what I thought was an unprofessional coordinator, and the overall feel that we were fundraisers first and volunteers second. Running was somewhere down the list.

So, more posts with more updates. I promise.

This past week in running

Man I was sore after the half marathon. My legs were pretty stiff for a day or two. Nevertheless, the goal is the marathon in December. They loosened up as the week went on.

And thankfully the mornings are cooler. Running is much nicer with the cooler weather. High of 85 tomorrow. That's awesome.

Anyway this past Saturday was the 4th Saturday training for TNT, and we're already up to 6 miles. I'm on my own schedule and did 17.5 on Sunday. Yes I'm nuts.

Tonight is the mid-week training I've organized for my group of people. I hope it cools off a bit. The start is about 3 miles from my house and I'd rather run there than have yet another medium-length run on a different day. But we'll see how hot it is. Actually, what do I care? It's not like it hasn't been hot the rest of the summer.

VA Beach RNR half pictures

http://www.asiorders.com/go.asp?22312104

RnR half marathon race report

This past Sunday I ran the Virginia Beach Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon. There were 20,000 people plus a ton of spectators. The race was really well organized and there were a lot of people cheering and encouraging. The weather was great, starting in the high 60s. The sun wasn't an issue for the majority of the race either. It was a great morning for a run.

My goal and predicted finish time was 1:55. I finished at 1:56:30. I was able to maintain a 8:30/mile pace for the first 8 miles or so. At that point my legs started to tire. That's something to work on before the marathon. Still, I was very pleased.

My wife, Suzanne, hung out with me before the race and was a little tired and overwhelmed by the scene at the start of the race. 20,000+ milling about, all standing in line to use the toilet, warming up, sitting around, eating bagels, grabbing water and bananas.

After the race was not as well organized. As soon as you passed the finished it was very difficult to move. People were walking very slowly, which isn't good for recovery. It's better to keep moving for a while. After getting plenty of water and catching up with Suzanne, we bailed. All the runners and their families were descending upon the beach and it was turning into a madhouse.

Overall I had a good time. I wish I had scoped the city better for places to eat and celebrate. I am leaning towards doing the Yuengling Shamrock Marathon right around St. Patrick's Day next year as my spring marathon because it's close and because I'm familiar with a good part of the course. There is one overpass and that's the only elevation change which is really nice.

I will say that running on the boardwalk at VA Beach wasn't all it was cracked up to be. On the right was nothing but hotels and balconies. You couldn't see much on the left. The surface was really hard cement. And running past this huge statue of Neptune was distracting for me -- maybe I was the only one, but it was definitely surreal.

BTW, here is a picture of the mass of humanity.

VA Beach, aka, Redneck Riviera

I figure more people are interested in the race report than my thoughts on VA Beach. So VA Beach comes first.

I have to confess that many of my tastes lean bourgie. I shop at Costco instead of Sam's so I don't feed the Wal-Mart beast. I like Target. I'm not a coffee shop kind of guy but I am a foodie. I prefer local restaurants to chains ("Hey, we're on vacation! Let's go to Applebee's! And Carrabba's tomorrow!").

How does this apply to VA Beach?

• I do not want to buy 5 T-shirts for $10
• I do not care that everything in your store is 50-90% off
• I do not need a T-shirt telling those that see me that I have an attitude, I like Harley's, and I really don't want a shirt with a drawing of a curvy woman with large breasts
  
• I do not want a paperweight full of imported shells to commemorate my visit
• While I appreciate attractive women just like the next guy, I do not want to see your hoochie butt hanging out of your shorts
  
• I think wife beaters are great in the gym or mowing the lawn, but not hanging out with 30,000+ of your closest friends
• I'm happy your store sells beer at 8AM. Really.
• I don't know if I want to go to a "sushi saloon."

Apparently the Florida panhandle is more prominently known as the Redneck Riviera. That being said, I did find several references to VA Beach as the same. It does seem to apply.