6 months

A lot has happened in the last six months since I posted my last blog.  I'm such a slacker.  I guess my blogging went as well as my running in that time span.  So here is a recap of what I've been up to.

I now accomplished two items on my list that I like to call, "You know you're an adult when."
I'm starting with the later even in chronological order because it isn't as big of a deal as the event that happened first?  Confused?  You should be.  That sentence barely made sense and probably violated several rules of proper grammar.  Get to the point?  Ok, ok.  I bought a car.  A 2013 Chevy Sonic.  It had a whopping 17 miles on the odometer when I got it and 7 of them were my test drive.  Here is a picture:

So it has satellite radio which is cool, except I have streaming radio on my phone and I don't spend that much time in my car.  It gets close to 40mpg on the highway, except most of my driving is the 1.75 miles to work and back when I'm too lazy to ride my bike.  The color is Cyber Grey Metallic, which is more practical and adult than the cool burnt orange or whatever they call it.  The 1.4L Turbo would have been nice but this one has more "pep" than my truck.  What a good little truck it was too, but hopefully it will go to a good home.  So now I've got cool heavy duty all weather floor mats on the way and I'm trying to figure out a roof rack system, but that will have to wait a while.

The other major adult accomplishment is becoming my own boss.  I am now an owner of Klicks Running and Walking with my good friend Sam Alexander.  While it was a little scary at first, things so far are going well.

What isn't going well, is my running.  Still struggling with some of the lingering issues of the damn Seattle Marathon in 2009, I decided to take some time off to address the issues the right way.  While still getting help from Noble Chiropractic, I've also been seeing Kerry Gustafson (who has been great) of Personalized Health Solutions.  She broke down my mechanics and found out that my achilles heel is actually my achilles right side pelvis.  It just doesn't want to stay put.  So basically I have core strength issues, as well as flexibility issues, as well as major brain malfunction because every time I get healthy, I stop doing anything but running.  So yeah, here we go again.

So I'm going to start running Saturday December 1st.  Just a couple flat miles here and there.  I ought to get up to that magic 30-40mpw range that will allow me to run a totally miserable Orcas Island 25k
race in late January like last year.  Hoping for epic views from Mt. Constitution but I'll settle for no snow.

And other than that, I'm just trying to figure out when I get to go home and hang out with my little nephew Caleb because he's adorable and cute.  He sends me his colorings in the mail occasionally, and we get to do Google+ Hangouts, but I actually want to play with the little dude.  So hopefully some time in January I'll be able to get back and visit frigid northern Illinois and hang out with the family, and friends.

Man, this is a boring blog.  Who reads this crap anyway.  Probably nobody since I bailed off of Facebook.  But I'll post it up on Google+ and Twitter and see what happens.

A special screening

I don't really have running news to report.  I got my butt handed to me at the Chuckanut Footrace.  Not only did I get a beat down by two runners, I ran like a sack of turds.  I'd like to move past that one if I could.

I do have a few more interesting stories to share.  The first one will explain the title.  I went to Las Vegas for the third time since October.  And it was just as great as ever.  But while I was there, I managed to "lose" my drivers license.  How did I lose it you ask?  Well, here is the not so exciting story:

When you go to CVS to get a double tall boy 24oz Bud Light Lime, they make you take a bag.  No plastic bag bans in Vegas.  I guess they want to know who is actually purchasing a beverage as opposed to stealing it.  And CVS and Walgreens are always packed in Vegas.  Its the best place to get beer besides the ABC store or the Grand Canyon store.  So anyway, I've got a line of people behind me and the lady ringing me up checks my ID and notices I'm from the same relative neck of the woods.  She's from Federal Way.  I say "sorry" and we both laugh.  That didn't happen, but I thought it.  Anyway, the story from this point on is pure speculation.  She puts my BLL and Holly's goldfish crackers in the plastic bag.  She hands me my ID with my receipt.  I shove them into the bag.  Then I walk out the door.  And right outside the door, one on the left and one on the right, are two garbage cans, for all the people buying booze to throw away their plastic bags that have been in use for all of 17 seconds.  Well, I grab the crackers and hand them to Holly, and I grab my tasty beverage, my lips being incredibly parched by the desert heat, and I toss the bag......... and my ID.  I didn't notice that I didn't have it until after we visited the Monte Carlo, New York New York, and I was going to purchase my next amazing beverage at the Grand Canyon.

So I'm at the counter and I've got this amazing looking can full of total bitch beer, and I'm super excited to crack it open and drink the watermelon goodness.  Except I run into a problem.  I can't show the kind gentleman my ID.  But he didn't care about my age.  Look at me, I have a full beard.  I'm of age.  He needed to see it because I was paying with a debit card.  So I'm in a panic, and there are annoyed people behind me, because everybody wants a shitty malt beverage at the cheapest possible price.  And the guy at the counter is rolling his eyes thinking "not again, another dumbass" and he sees the cash in my wallet and tells me I can pay cash.  So I paid cash and got the hell out of there.  After checking my pockets and everything, I couldn't find the ID.  Above is my pouty face.  I wasn't happy.  Are they going to let me fly home?  Maybe this is where I end up just moving to Vegas.  But thanks to the magic of the interwebs on your portable smart telephone, Jason was able to check the TSA website.  In the first sentence it tells you to not panic.  So I decided to get my drink on and not panic.
It was probably a blessing in disguise because I couldn't sit down at any table to lose more money to the man since they often times card you, and I no longer had a card.  Maybe Jason should have thrown his ID away also.  I did have to have somebody else purchase my beverages for me the rest of the night though.  That's always lame.
I know you're all wondering now what the "special screening is."  Well I promise you there is no rubber gloves or body cavity searches.  They do this to your boarding pass:

That way everybody around you can see that you're a complete jackass.  Then you get to the first security guy and he doesn't even flinch.  He's seen it before, probably earlier that day.  It is Vegas after all.  They pass you off to a supervisor who tells you that you can use several other forms of ID that nobody usually carries around.  Credit cards and insurance cards don't work.  So you have to fill out a form and they call this ID clearing house company.  This is what the guy says to me.  I call them.  They ask me questions to ask you.  If you get the questions right, I let you through.  If you don't get the questions right, you don't go through.  I got the questions right, in record time.  They aren't hard.  Just remember the address of the place you lived prior to your current residence.  Then you get the full pat down for everybody to see by this burly ass bearded dude that would rather be riding his Harley than touching your junk.  Then you're free to go.  Not a very exciting story.
In other news, I deleted my Facebook account.  I got tired of it being connected to everything.  They tricked me into using my Facebook account for my Spotify account.  Actually there is no other option.  I was going to vote for the Next Food Network Star, except I had to use a Facebook app for it.  Bullshit.  Google+ is a better product even if every annoying 13 year old in the world isn't posting stupid stuff all over it.  So I just up and deleted it.  So now I don't know how anybody is going to find my blog since that was how most people read it.  I've got my solid 12 followers, who I don't even know if they get notified of my new post.  I'll put it up on Google+ and Twitter for my 15 friends/followers there.  Hey, if you do find it, spread the word.  Tell your friends.  Its funny stuff right.
Evan Jager, good old Illinois boy set the American record in the steeple today.  I think its only his fifth race at the event.  Badass.  Olympics are only a week away.  Duane Solomon (Saucony guy! Booyahtich!) ran a big PR and beat Symmonds at Monaco.  I had 3 Bellingham Fit members run between 6:01-6:10 and it was awesome.  I'm signed up for the Oregon Wine Country Half on Labor Day weekend, and the Lake Padden Trail Half in October.  Training is slow but steady.  I think I'm going to be running a 3k at Shoreline instead of the 5k at the Bellingham All-Comers meet in August.  I should get a big PR since I haven't run that distance since I got fast.  I'm missing out on Ragnar this weekend.  It would be fun.  I could have filled a last minute spot too, but I'll be happy when I can go to bed like a normal person.  But we do have the newest member of the Brooks Hansons Elite group on our team this year.  Yeah, 28:08 10k guy.  He's got the long legs.
I'd leave you with some Vegas pictures, except that Blogger sucks for adding pictures.  So you'll have to imagine how cool it was.

-Insert creative title post here-

I can't think of a title for this installment of my blog.  I can't come up with anything that screams READ ME, except, well, READ ME!  And I'm saving that for something really important.  Just not feeling the creative juices.  There will be no bull dancing because I am not feeling the flow.  So if you made it this far, you're doing well.

I have had a couple things come to my attention concerning my blog.  It's hard to figure out how to follow.  You would think Google would make that easy.  It's not.  I'll fix that.  My layout sucks.  It's boring.  It looks generic.  I need one like Ian Crane's.  You should read it because it's funny.  But maybe I need some professional photo's to use as my banner.  And I definitely need a new blog title.  My name is pretty boring.  So I'm taking suggestions for a new blog title, and no Sam, it can't be Chuck Merder.  I also have trouble with verb tense agreement.  I go past tense to present tense and back like Marty McFly in Back to the Future 3, which sucked.  So does changing your verb tense.  I should know better.  I was a writing tutor in college.  But thanks to today's technology I'm becoming more dumberer and can't think for myself.

I'm a bit of a technology junkie.  Smart phones, computers, tablets, and all that jazz are like a cool challenge to me.  How can I customize and make this piece of electronic gadgetry so super cool that a Luddite would want one.  It consumes too much of my time, ask Holly.  But at least there is a reward at the end, unlike watching television, where your reward for watching the show you like is another hour of a show you don't like as much but you're just too lazy to turn off.  Good thing I don't have the Hopper because I'd have to shout it out repeatedly in a Boston accent annoying myself, my cats, and anybody else in the house.  But I do want a Google tv unit.  Computer on your tv?  Yes please.  I already do this with my laptop while watching Flotrack web feeds of awesome track meets that despite the low budgets are way better than any ESPN/NBC feed.  I can't stand Larry Rawson even if he created the international sliced bread unit of weight measurement.    But I need a dedicated computer for the tv so that I can play on my laptop while I watch my computer on tv.  Wha?  That's insanity.

For all you Nook users, did you know you can buy ebooks locally.... sort of.  While wandering through Village Books I noticed signage that mentioned buying ebooks from them.  My heart immediately jumped and I felt relieved because after being in their wonderful store, I originally felt sorry that I was probably never going to by an actual book from them but now I can.  But anyway, here is how it works.  You buy the ebook though the Google book store but under the Village Book headings.  You can then save it to the correct folder on your Nook for reading with all your Barnes and Noble purchased books.  Or you can use Indie Bound reader app to read those purchased books.  There are some issues wtih downloading the metadata to get the book cover to show up, and you have to use Calibre to fix that, and I can already see you're totally lost and you don't really care about Nooks and ebooks.  But if you care and want to know more, I'd be glad to help.  But at least Village Books gets some part of the profit for selling the ebook that way.  That's the whole point of this long winded paragraph.

Anybody into personalizing their computer desktop?  Wait, who uses the desktop for anything?  Isn't that where you put all the icons and create a mess?  Yes, the desktop is for storing a bazillion icons in no particular order so that when somebody like myself sees it, I want to rip my eyes out.  But my current nerd project is pimping my desktop using Rainmeter.  It looks nice.  You should try it, but only if you have less than 5 icons currently on your desktop.  If not, you're computer is a disorganized jumbled mess anyway and there is no hope to clean it up and organize it.

And since this is a running blog technically, I guess I should write something about running.  First two mileage weeks after Ski to Sea.  50 and 56.5.  Feeling pretty good.  Continuing the slow build through June and July.  No upcoming races so there is no rush.  But feeling pretty good about running those two weeks so close to Ski to Sea.  I will admit that I haven't gotten going on my "extra work" like core strength, pilates, rolling, and stretching.  Dumb, yes.  Feel free to berate me via my comment section.  I'm trying to gain comments any way I can.  You didn't notice earlier in the blog where I wanted suggestions for a new blog title?  Well I did.  I can't even get spam in my comment section.  Man, I suck.  But back to running, I feel like I should add some inspirational quote here to motivate my legions of fans who want more running insight.  So here it is:  "If its not in your head, its not in your legs."  --Rod Dixon.  If you don't know who that is look it up.  Better yet, here is the wiki link.  Talk about range!  800 to Marathon, this guy was a stud.  But generally speaking, its probably harder to harness "it" in your head than it is in your legs.

Next blog I promise pictures for anybody with a short attention span.  I have no idea what kind of pictures, but I'll have some.

Say that again, I have to actually train this summer?

First off, I'm sorry I lied to my 9 followers.  I didn't get a blog out by the end of the week.  I'm sorry to have ruined your weekends.  I was depressed and mourning the loss of the Celtics and the end of an era.  That's all I'm going to say about that.

So, unlike every summer since I've moved out here, I have a full summer of training, and a full fall of racing planned.  And it's not because I was smart enough to avoid Ski to Sea this year.  I still did that, it just didn't wreck me like previous years.  I'd like to think it's because I trained well for it (I really didn't), I've been doing my extra strength/core work (I haven't), I'm just a badass (not so much).  But mostly I think one little visit post race to Noble Chiropractic was the biggest help.  I still took a full week off, but my second week back to training?  50 mile feeling good.  It's a miracle.  Thanks Steve.

Since I won't be half crippled for all of June, I figured I better start training for real.  Half marathon PR's on turd training is the exception to the rule, so I won't count on that happening again.  It's summer, the good weather is here, wait, no, it's not here yet.  What?  Fourth of July you say?  Why do I think summer starts in June here?  You think I'd learn.  So the good weather is right around the corner, and I have my head on straight, and I'm ready to go.

Once again I've got Sam Alexander writing up the workouts and the racing schedule.  He even color coded my workout types and used google docs to send me information.  I'll make a tech nerd out of him yet.  But seriously, a great coach.  He's for hire, but don't bother if you're not willing to commit to it.  Training isn't about a good season or a good year.  Its a daily grind, for days, then weeks, then months, then years.  Good things take time.  Running is no different.

This fall's focus is going to be the half marathon.  I've got three on the schedule.  Oregon Wine Country so that I can hopefully win a giant bottle of wine which I will then trade for multiple cases of cheap beer.  Bellingham Bay, because the wind brutalized Jordan Welling last year and his course record is soft.  Then I can hang out at the finish and watch the Bellingham Fit-sters finish their races.  Should be great.  Last is the Rock'N'Roll half in LasVegas.  This started as another excuse to go to Vegas, because I'm still obsessed.  But it's a stacked race.  It's a pretty fast course.  You run the strip...... at night.  And then your in Vegas.  So obviously its a win-win situation.  The only lose part is that I'm running a Rock'N'Roll event.  I'm sure they put on a great race, but they are too damn expensive, crowded, and gimmicky.  Hopefully I don't have to worry about the money part either.  Should be a good field to tow me along to another big PR though.  But I'll tell you this:  If I see people running the race while wearing headphones, I'm going to smack them.

I'll do a handful of other races inbetween too.  WWU XC Invite, Padden Trail Half, The Seawall Race, All Comers 5k, you know, stuff like that.

Waiting

The title of this post has nothing to do with my waiting for anything.  This is all about how I've kept everybody waiting for another blog.  All 8 of you who have subscribed, and the 14 or so who might actually view my blog this time around.  I don't know how to grow my legions of adoring fans.  It certainly isn't with my witty stories of exotic races abroad.  But, I am promising you a full fledged blog by the end of the week, since my life is so exciting.  Upcoming topics may include but won't be limited to: My Vancouver Half Marathon PR, Ski to Sea, the end of my season, my future race plans, a review of streaming music services Mog and Spotify, some book recommendations, rooting a Nook Tablet, buying ebooks locally, and the Boston Celtics.  So if you want to hear about any of all of the topics above, make sure you subscribe, and then use a fascinating social reader like Google Reader, Pulse, Feedly, or any of the hundreds of others so that you never miss another one of my posts.

Disappointment with Success

So I won my "big" road race.  Fun With the Fuzz was great.  Perfect weather.  Great crowds.  Perfect course. I'm not $500 richer for having run 15:20.  I'm happy with the time all things considered.  Which means I've trained like garbage since February and I thought I'd be lucky to run 15:30.  But I guess I maximized the training I have done.  And luckily, some of the big dogs who might have traveled up from Seattle opted to check out the new 5k with cash prizes in Tacoma.  It's closer and it pays three deep.  Mike Sayenko won $500 for a 14:23.  15:08 was the first non money winner.  Ouch.  But I won't complain.  I'm using the money to fly my mom out here finally.  Yes, RB, I'm actually doing that.  The money is in the bank, waiting until we figure out a weekend in late August or early September for her to come out here and see how awesome it is.

As for the race, here is the recap:  First off, I was super excited to sport my new Saucony Hurricane gear.  It looks awesome.  And I even had a pair of early release Kinvara 3's to warm up in.  I know shoe buying is an individual thing, but Saucony has always been great for my foot shape and I like what they're doing with the lower drop shoes.  Vizipro orange is rad.  And they've helped me out with a lot of gear.  Ok, ok, I'll stop with the obvious product plug.

I was pretty nervous because of the prize money.  It has a way of bringing fast guys out of the woodwork, but luckily we're far enough away from Seattle and Vancouver to deter some of those guys, and Kyle Nelson does such a good job getting a thousand people from nearby that he doesn't need to recruit out of town.  That might change next year.  That's ok, I'll be faster.

But it doesn't happen until you start warming up, that sense of fear and doubt.  Heavy legs, which are always heavy before a race (I'm actually more worried when they feel good in warm up) don't do much to inspire confidence.  The thoughts of the skipped runs and workouts due to the nagging little issues, the lack of motivation, and the bevy of other lame excuses start to fill the brain.  So I was happy to talk to anybody, take pictures, and just try to distract myself in general.  I felt a lot like I did before I ran Seattle Marathon in '09.  If I could have puked, I probably would have.

But as it got closer and closer to race time, I didn't see any recognizable "big fish" so I started to calm down little by little.  And eventually we lined up at the start.  And despite the pace car's best efforts to get in the way, we were off and running.  And after about 15 seconds, the brain sort of quiets down and racing instincts take over.  I decided to just go out hard and see who could hold on.  If somebody could match a 4:50 first mile, they could probably beat me and they probably deserved to.  I didn't quite hit 4:50 but I wasn't too far off and I had already opened up a gap at the mile.  I knew if I could grow the gap just a little bit by mile two, surviving until the downhill portion to the finish shouldn't be a problem.

I tried pushing hard after turning off Eldridge to push the gap while I was out of view.  I never know how well that actually works, but I always try it.  But it didn't matter this time.  I ran the second mile in 5:00, lengthening the lead a bit.  By the time I hit mile three, I had switched my thinking to "just hold on, don't trip, don't blow up" and I finally reached the downhill grade and I knew I was safe.  I got some extra boost from Jim Clevenger who was out supporting his 0 to 5k group and Klicks Running and Walking.  My "hold on" mentality ended up driving my fastest mile, somewhere in the low 4:50 range.  I crossed the line in 15:20 with arms raised, and a few fist pumps, excited for my mom.  It was great.  I kept running through the line for a moment to collect myself before turning back to see the rest of the finishers.

The time wasn't bad but I immediately think of how poor I feel my training has gone and wonder what I could have run when training was going well.  I guess that will have to wait.  I do plan on crushing an All Comers 5k sometime this summer though.  But a slice of Little Ceasars, a quick call to my mom, and some race recap with friends and fellow racers (who for the most part all seemed to have pretty good days) and any disappointment in my fitness was short lived, especially when they handed me the check.

And the whole tone for the weekend was set.  Had some great Ethiopian food (will this make me faster?) at the farmers market.  A caramel latte from Avelino (they use real caramel, and chocolate, and ingredients in general) was awesome.  Yellowcard beer from Chuckanut Brewery was a nice bonus.  Sunday morning I went for an awesome long run in the Chuckanuts with Jake Hartsoch where he snapped this cool action shot (trying to show family the awesome-ness of our trails).

It was a great day, with plenty of sun and warm weather.  I ran chinsraper (or walked) and some other sections of trail I had somehow managed to miss on Chuckanut.  All in all, a pretty awesome weekend.

The Big Race

I've got a big race this weekend.  The biggest of my spring, if only because of the cash prize.  This year's Fun With the Fuzz 5k has a $500 first place prize.  Second place, gets...... nothing.  I had planned on running this race all along, but the prize potential is a nice bonus.  But there is just one problem.  I'm not that fit.  My foot problems derailed my early spring training.  I was running, but I wan't really training.  And I've just struggled with motivation.  I've run a couple races this spring and they've gone well, but running a fast 5k is different.  I've pretty much only done Daniels "R" pace workouts so I have no idea what to expect. I'm thinking I'm maxed out at 15:30.  But I've thought that twice going into the all comers meet at Civic and run 15:15 running in lane 3, so it remains to be seen.

I'm more nervous to see who else may show up.  $500 is worth a drive up from Seattle or down from Vancouver.  So I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  I'm already a little nervous about the race though.  But at least I'll look good in my new Saucony gear.

After Fun With the Fuzz, I've got the Vancouver Half Marathon.  It's a Saucony race which is cool.  But I'm also not feeling very confident about a road half.  Feels like a wasted opportunity at a fast race, one which I should be able to get dragged along, except that I can't get my training ramped up to where I want it.

And after that, I get the meat grinder, Ski to Sea.  I won't even talk about that now.

So hopefully I'll be posting another blog about my awesome victory this weekend and not my utter disappointment.  If I do manage to come home with the money, my Mom is getting a plane ticket to WA this summer so she can see how awesome it is.

It had to happen sometime

I lost a race, which was my first loss since mid-2009.  In full disclosure, I didn't race in 2010, barely raced in 2011, and didn't race any race where I nessecarily should have been beat.  That doesn't mean I didn't have some tough battles.  Dusty C. pushed me to my limits at Baker Lake 50k.  1:20ish isn't much of a gap over 4 hours.  Patrick Gibson finished oh so close at the All Comers 5k.  Never expected that going into the race.  The Orcas 25k was even too close for comfort.  But I didn't race any college races, or any XC races in Seattle, or anything like that.  I've been ducking competition a little bit.  Well, that isn't exactly the truth.  Racing sparingly has been a result of my fitness and health mostly.  But when I signed up for the Honeywagon Runs, I was fairly certain I could win either race I entered.  Turns out, I would have had a hard time winning either.

Hendrik Kok won the 4 miler.  I'm pretty sure he was a D3 stud at Calvin College while I was a turd at Monmouth College.  Looks like he's getting back into shape.  But I didn't run the four mile.  In my infinite wisdom, I opted for the half marathon to "get some extra miles in."  If that is the way you're looking at your upcoming race, it should tell you one of two things.  1.  Don't race.  2. Don't be upset when you suck.  I've run plenty of races just to run them and have fun, but I've ALWAYS raced them.  The one exception is when I entered to help a buddy run a certain time, and I used a fake name because I didn't want my name attached to the time.  (Bonus points for anybody who can respond via comment with info on my alias that day: Andre Bucher).

So I'm running the little old Honeywagon.  My last two mileage weeks were 7.5, then 70.5.  I was in the midst of another 70 except I wussed out on my Friday night run.  Hence the "running for extra miles."  So sure that nobody would show up that could beat me, I ate two donuts and had coffee for breakfast.  Seriously, who comes to the Honeywagon to run fast right?  Its a great race, but is ALWAYS windy, and often times smelly.  But somebody did show up ready to run fast.  Josh Vander Wiele.  And he was definitely more fit than I am currently.  Jason Gulley pointed him out to me in the first half mile and I decided to go "race" him.  And after 1.5 miles of thinking about just what exactly I was in for, I decided to back off and run with Jay, Collin, and Jason.  I gave up and I hated every second of it.  I may or may not have been able to hang with Josh and beat him.  Who knows.  Odds were that I would have hurt way more and lost anyway.  It was the right decision.  I wasn't mentally or physically ready to race so I bailed.  Great race Josh.

But I still had to finish running the last 11 miles, which went by much quicker with other runners than they would have otherwise.  Collin saved us from a hard charging (but probably friendly) massive looking dog by shouting, "You F@#* OFF" which sent the dog in the other direction.  I helped play wind blocker for Jay who was trying to run sub 1:20 whether or not old mother nature was cooperating.  We came oh so close with a 1:20:52 but just too much wind.  Miles 11-12ish were into a brutal headwind, which was pure torture at that point in the race.  We lost Colin in that stretch but Jay hung on with Gulley and I pushing against the wind.  We decided to cross the finish three wide.  But because of the chip timing, Gulley got second and an hour massage, Jay got third and Pickford Movie tickets, and I got fourth receiving nothing.  Ha ha.

But overall a well run race.  Check out the results HERE.  Always good timing by BuDu Racing.  Tyler Mitchell Photography got some sweet PHOTOS.  Check them out!  And most importantly, good times were had by all, and hopefully some of those awesome cookies were had by all.

And for me, its time to look forward to the next race.  This one was fun.  Running for running's sake, because I love it, win or lose.  Maybe Stewart Mt.  Maybe something else.  It doesn't really matter as long as I'm out there having fun.

A view that has to be shared.

Sunday morning run to Raptor Ridge with John Ralston and Jake Hartsoch.  One of the most enjoyable runs I've had in a while and what a reward at the top.  And this is a reminder why I don't think I could go back to Illinois.  After a 10 day visit that I totally enjoyed, and some much needed time with family and friends, I was feeling a little bit down, and a little bummed out about heading back to Bellingham.  I won't lie, the departure of BellingSam put me in a bit of a funk. But a 70 mile week with this at the end, did wonders to ease the mind and put me in a good place.  Excited for what comes next.

Going again

I just got back from a trip to Illinois to visit my family for 10 days.  It was a great trip.  I got to play with my nephew Caleb a lot.  His laughing and smiling and tongue clicking, and baby babble was great therapy.  And despite some of the best February winter weather, I only managed 7.5 miles for the week.  I had already decided that upon my return to Bellingham, I'd just start in to my 70+ mile weeks.
So here I am, four days into my first 70 in several months.  I just don't do the build up very well.  And I'm back for another year with the Saucony Hurricanes.  I love my ViziPro.  And I just signed up for the Fun with The Fuzz 5k, which is offering a $500 cash prize.  Don't I wish I had started real training a couple months earlier.  We'll see who shows up.
Along with Fun with the Fuzz, I'm committed to one more year as the Dowhill Runner Leg of Ski to Sea.  And I'm going to race the heck out of the local races for the next three months.  That's right Whatcom county!  Racing my way into shape!
I'll be honest though.  Racing my way into shape sounds far better than the alternative of slogging through endless solo workouts now that my mentor/coach Sam Alexander has left for California.  I need a kick start, a momentum building season, a motivational boost, and throwing down and racing almost weekly is the best alternative.  Then I'll regroup, and focus on a big fall race, probably a half marathon somewhere.  So that is the plan as it stands for now.  

Orcas Island 25k Race Recap

My first race of the year and also the first since Baker Lake 50k was the Orcas Island 25k put on by Rainshdow Running.  That was a lot more time in between races than I like, but I was banged up and lacked a little motivation.  Over the last several weeks, I've gained a little more consistency with my training, but the volume and quality just aren't there yet.  So I went into this one with the fun factor in mind.  A cool trail race on badass trails with a ferry ride thrown in there.  And yes, I'm still excited every time I get to ride the ferry.  I grew up in Illinois surrounded by a sea of corn and beans, not a real sea.  So driving your vehicle onto a boat, and cruising around one of the most beautiful areas of the country is simply amazing.
Holly and I had originally planned to head over to Orcas on Friday evening, but because neither of us wanted to miss a half a day of work, or get in late to the camp, we opted for the early Saturday ferry.  And by early, I mean, really early.  The alarm went off at 3:30 am.  Yikes.  But because it was a race weekend, I was able to get right out of bed.  Why is it so hard to do that on a daily basis?
I slept most of the ferry ride over to Orcas which was nice to get a little extra sleep, but a bummer because the trip is usually so cool.  But without the sun to show me the surrounding beauty, nap time won out.  We were the third car off the boat and we led the racer train to Moran State Park, where the race takes place.  It was nice to arrive a full hour and a half early.  I just don't like cutting things close, ever.  But considering it was under 40 degrees and a relatively long race, I hadn't planned on doing much warm up.  I actually didn't warm up at all.  I did half a stride and some abbreviated form drills to be exact.  But we had a nice warm building with a wood burning stove cranking out heat to hang out in before the race.  Deciding what gear to wear was the toughest part of the pre race routine.  It was just cold enough to worry about freezing but not quite cold enough to really double layer.  I opted for the man-pris my Saucony tech t and then my arm warmers, hats, and gloves.  I still have to see if Saucony can get me some digital camo or something so that I blend in during these trail races.  Instead, I stand out like a beacon to my competitors..... "catch me, I'm only a little way in front of you and I can't hide."
The race plan was to run easy up the big climb with Jason and then bomb back down the other side and then every man for himself.  Not knowing anything about the rest of the field, it seemed like a good plan.  We lined up for the downhill start and after some brief instructions about following red ribbon and warnings about the snow, we were off.  Nice and easy down the gravel road to the blacktop loop through the campground area and then into the trail.  I let Gulley lead as I have a tendency to get amped up and hammer early.  We ran a nice easy pace talking throughout the first three miles, just waiting for the course to get nasty.  The early miles were great (The Good Stuff).  Flowy winding single track that every so slightly climbed up.
26 minutes into the race, we hit the real tough stuff.  A couple miles of steep, technical, rocky, rooty uphill trail with many switchbacks.  Gulley bailed out on the climb and I was left to motor up in my "granny gear" which can only be described as walking disguised as a run.  Tiny little baby steps up and up and up with a lot of arm swing.  Surprisingly, I was able to keep going at this pace, even though I had told myself that walking was ok and might actually be preferable.  Slowly, the trail turned from dirt and rock to snow.  There was a bike track and a couple sets of footprints almost the entire way.  The snow was at least ankle deep most of the time, but it was also pretty hard.  It caved with full body weight, but since it was hard for me to avoid the footprints, or land fully in them (I have size 13, the footprints were much much smaller) I had to just make due with a wobbling gait the whole way.  The Peregrines performed admirably though.  Always felt sure footed and comfortable.
Eventually I would reach the tower, my only real landmark in the entire race.  It took roughly 57 minutes to get there.  Wait, I thought the tower was 6.5 miles in.  I wanted to run sub 2 hours. How will I run two additional miles in only three additional minutes, unless its all blazing downhill.  Well duh!  I'm at 2400 feet.  I just ran uphill for an hour.  Naturally I would have to come downhill.  And the downhill was fast and furious. Faster for some than others.  The most treacherous footing in the race, the next 75 meters down the path from the tower to the parking lot.  Almost fell on my head.  Thanks for the warning Todd.  And then you drop down off of the asphalt and into the switchbacks of doom.  Maybe a mile of snow covered, long and steep switchbacks winding down and down and down.  As I was nearing the bottom, I heard a yell.  Another comptitior?  Yup.  Blue shirt.  Gulley?  Nope.  New guy.  And he's BOMBING down that friggin hill.  And just when I was sure he would catch me, we hit the bottom of the switchbacks.  Time to go to work.
Over the next couple miles of rolling terrain, I tried pushing the pace.  I was going to make the guy behind me hurt if he wanted to keep up.  He better be hurting because I wasn't so sure I could maintain this pace.  But just as quickly as he came up behind me, he was gone again, and I was left in solitude.  This is about when I started thinking that I haven't run more than 10 miles since the 50k in October and that fitness might be an issue.  I was also hungry.  Like, really hungry.  But you just play the mental games and try to distract yourself from felling bad.  I like doing race splits in my head, although splits were useless in this particular race.  Eventually, after a good chunk of time and some beautiful scenery, we hit the second portion of endless switchbacks.  These, fortunately, were not covered in snow.  What a relief.  But my quads were still in protest after the first set of switchbacks.  Probably a good sign telling me that I braked too much up top, but it would be more of the same.
I like to consider myself a decent downhill runner.  I've put up some good performances on the Ski to Sea course.  I've got good turnover and decent natural speed, but there is just something different about railing downhill on rocky rooty trails.  That, and they were just steep enough to not be comfortably run-able.  So naturally I was worried that that guy behind me was screaming downhill again, and he'd come from nowhere and overtake me just as I bonked and I'd have to stagger in around the lake dejected about losing for the first time in a couple years.  After what seemed like eternity, I saw some of the small out buildings from the campground so I new we would be crossing the road and heading around the lake and in to the finish.  I heard the first spectators since the tower cheer for me, although I couldn't see them.  And then, a mere 20 seconds later, I heard them cheer again.  Was he really that close?  Were my works fears going to come true?
And I began to panic a little.  I crossed the road, but the red ribbons marking the course were a little hard for me to see, especially without my glasses on.  As I cautiously navigated my way onto the trail around the lake, I was worried that I was jogging while I tried to pick out the next marker with my eyes squinted.  And by the way, isn't the most common colorblind-ness red/green?  Not that I was looking up for the markers anyway.  I was looking at the snow and uneven terrain where my feet were supposed to go.  So once again, I put on a big surge.  And we're speaking in relative terms.  This is a tough course where I probably had everything from a low 5 minute mile to a 10+ minute mile during the heard of the climb.  But it was still an acceleration, and I began pulling away from the guy behind me.  Yes he has a name.  It's  David Brown, but I didn't know that until afterward, so for now, its that guy behind me that scared the bejesus out of me.  The lake looked huge, but I flew through it and soon I exited the trail for the campground road, then up the final steep hill (what a cruel finish) and into the grassy lawn with the finish line (Photo Here).  Nobody was in site behind me.  And I stopped my watch at the line (2:01:26), smiled, and ran another 50 feet right to the bathroom.  Relief!
David came in just over 2 minutes later, followed by Jason Gulley.  Mark Kerr got himself lost unfortunately.   Holly ran well despite only deciding on Friday that she was actually going to run.  Lots of amazing results for the large Bellingham crew.  A great Happy Birthday run for Laura Gulley.  Just an awesome race top to bottom.
And then there is the post race.  The most amazing roasted red pepper tomato soup.  And a nice warm building with a wood burning stove.  And shower.  And beer. And desserts.  And snacks.    Oh my.  Runners post race heaven.  Thank you thank you thank you Rainshadow Running.  This is what every race should be.  A real celebration.  I only wish I had stayed around for the evening dance party.  But Holly and I decided to make it a long day but sleeping in our own beds was a proposition that was too good to pass up.  We took the late ferry back to the Anacortes and drove home to sleep in with the kitties.  But what a day.  I'll be back again next year.

I'm going to write about something other than running.

I'm going to write about something other than running because I didn't run today.  I just didn't have it in my.  With my foot giving me a little bit of trouble, and there being a disgusting mix of snow and ice on the ground followed by a cold rain, I opted to take the 8 year old route, a phrase I adopted last night.  Really, this is going to be a series of disjointed thoughts that hopefully you won't have the patience to sit and read all the way through.

First off, I'm looking for the perfect music discovery site, which will lead me into a pseudo rant about social network sharing.  WHEN WILL GOOGLE+ BE ADDED TO SHARING OPTIONS?  I like google+.  I want it to work.  I want it to grow.  I want my friends and family to adopt it so I can leave Facebook forever, and inevitably it will turn into Facebook in popularity and annoyingness (spell check tells me annoyingness isn't a word.  Fuck spellcheck.).  Except I have faith in the fact that Google can do things better.  Let me submit "timeline" as my first piece of evidence.  I didn't get annoyed with any of the previous layout changes with Facebook.  Progress needs to happen right?  Timeline is dumb.  I'll deal with it.  Back to music.  I've tried mflow, We Are Hunted, Pandora, Grooveshark, Soundtracker, Last.fm, exfm, and now Spotify.  Spotify bothers me because it looks like iTunes.  If I wanted iTunes, I'd have an iPhone, an iPod, and a mac.  I don't.  I've got an Android, and Windows 7, which is great surprisingly.  Windows 8 is going to suck.  Mflow didn't do anything for me.  We Are Hunted turned me on to Lana Del Ray, which I love.  I dropped that into Pandora and got my two current favorite songs.  Cracks (Flux Pavilion Remix) by Freestylers, and Gold Dust by DJ Fresh.  If I were smarter, or less lazy, I'd have all these sites linked in my blog, and audio players for these songs.  I tried with exfm and it didn't work.  Last.fm doesn't have consistent sound quality when playing the radio.  Pandora gets too repetitive way too quick.  It's still currently my go to.  The radio feature on Grooveshark is ok too.  Play it and go.  But I'm trying to find new stuff.  And then you have good old recommendations from friends.  Tip the Van is the best of the recent suggestions.  Thanks Peter.  Chick ska, which is incredibly reminiscent of Dance Hall Crashers, which means it is awesome.  But I can share everything with Facebook and Twitter, but not Google+.  Of course, only about 6 other people I know are on google, but that will change.  And I know this blog won't reach enough people to get any great site suggestions, but if you have anything to share, whether its a website or just a band suggestion, then put it in the comments.  Marguerite Dodd, are you out there.... suggest me some music!

Second, I want to share my favorite new web discoveries.  Andrew Sullivan's blog, the Daily Dish, part of the Daily Beast.  Wait, what the fuck are my ears hearing.  Japanese techno?  What the hell Spotify?  It may not be Japanese, but its shit.  How did I get here?  Thumbs down, er, no, its not Pandora.  SKIP!  Ok, back to Sullivan.  Check out this link.  This is just an average post, of which he does many of throughout the day.  Pretty interesting stuff, especially as the election year heats up, GOP now and full election later.  Helps keep me informed.  

Third, I'm now on twitter.  @CSunderlage.  I felt the urge to figure it out.  Not that its complicated, but more to figure out the appeal.  I don't tweet much.  I like the flow of information.  I "watched" the olympic trials marathon via Flotrack's twitter feed because the USATF totally blew it and you couldn't get a live video anywhere.  But that's another story for a running related post.  Right now Flotrack it tweeting the LSU and Texas A&M meet.  And track nerd that I am, I'm enjoying it.  And then after the SOPA/PIPA blackouts, I started following Anonymous.  Cool stuff.  I watched as one website after another went "Tango down" due to ddos attacks.  But they also linked all kinds of cool news articles, many related to the technology world, which I'm sort of a nerd about.  The @Jon2012Girls were fun until Jon Huntsman dropped out of the Republican primary.  And Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) posts a lot about all the great hippy activities going on, like the Keystone Pipeline battle.  All in all, pretty cool.  Come find me on there.

Fourth, I love the google reader.  Keeps me up to date on my Sullivan, Cowboy Altitude blog that my buddy Matt runs about University of Wyoming sports.  Have to love the brown and yellow uni's.  Larry Nance Jr. is on the basketball team.  Badass.  And they have been doing some heavy football recruiting out of the Seattle area.  I also found a cool cooking blog.  Yes, I like cooking, and I'm a nerd, and this site is great. Sweet patato and parsnip maple bake?  Really?  Awesome.  

Since this is taking me several days to put together, I'll just have to say that Spotify is letting me down.  Maybe I need more time to learn it.  I did see a Google+ share button on Universal Cycles website.  That was totally cool.  I know they are coming. I was on the Universal Cycles because I was looking for a new saddle for my commuter bike, my baby.  It had an unfortunate roof top rack accident with the garage.  Fork is shot.  Sea tpost is shot.  Could be worse.  The frame is ok.  Glad it is a steel bike.  Traitor Cycles has an awesome crash replacement policy.  I just have to hope that they have the fork that matches the paint job of my bike.  If not, all black will do.  I'd ask for saddle recommendations but I know my blog audience is minuscule.  Which reminds me, if you're reading my blog, you should add it to google reader, and then you get a notification any time I present you with my writing awesomeness.  

I get to go home in another month.  I'm totally stoked.  I've got a little nephew who just started talking..... well, he says uh-oh.  And he's crawling now instead of wiggling his way across the room.  I can't wait to play with him for a whole week.  And at home I have two new kittens, Bear and Jasmine.  So cute.  Except Bear is infatuated with the monitor, cursor specifically, but also the letters appearing as I type them.  He makes it hard to get things done.  I tricked him into sleeping on the pillow facing away from the screen at the moment.  It's only a matter of time before he is back jumping on the keyboard..... like NOW!

I've got a race in a week.  Orcas Island, which is awesome.  Moran State Park.  It's a 25k.  Too bad I haven't been putting in my mega miles.  That would get me totally prepared for the race, for sure.  Anyway, a ferry ride, overnight stay in the bunkhouse, music, food, runner nerd-dom.  What's not to like.  Stay tuned for the race report.