Soundgarden - Beyond the Wheel

Good luck trying to hit these notes...



Friggen awesome!

Volunteering at Mohican Forget the PR 50k

David, Ralph, Katie, Steve, Leigh, Lindsay, ?, Me

As I stated in my last post, I ran my Forget the PR 50k race last weekend at Mohican State Park because the official race was the following weekend and I would be volunteering. I had planned on going up after my work day on Friday, but the weather had set in and they were calling for high winds and a possibility of hail. Since I wasn't needed until Saturday morning, I decided to spend Friday night in my own bed and wake up early to be at Mohican by 10am instead.

Saturday Morning
At 8am I woke up and left the house to meet up with Don, Rob, and Kim at their cabin at 10am. We got all jacked up on coffee and went our separate ways. My duty was to mark the Purple loop with flags and white lime to help runners stay on the course. After my love/hate relationship with the Purple loop, this was a perfect choice for me. I knew this loop by the back of my hand since I'd screwed up on it so many times in the past. :) I took my hospital boot off and tied up my work boots real tight so that I could walked the course with a canister of lime and a handful of orange and yellow flags. It was a beautiful day to be out marking the course, and I had a blast.

After we had all marked the course, we met back at the Start/Finish to pack the aid station boxes full of supplies. It was a lot of fun, and I had a great time hanging out with other volunteers that showed up to help. Rob didn't cut any corners when it came to ordering supplies and there was plenty of food and drinks for every runner at every aid station. I really learned a lot about what goes into a top-notch aid station.

Once the aid station boxes were filled, the runners starting coming in to register for the race. Rob opened registration from 5pm - 7pm on Saturday, and we had quite a turn out! It was quite chaotic at first, as many runners pile in at once. We struggled keeping them all organized for about 20 minutes, but then we figured out a good system and it got easier.

After registration, all of the volunteers headed back to Rob's cabin for a feast. We all had a great time and shared various running stories. It was a lot of fun to hear some of the adventures that go down in a 100 mile race. I met a lot of cool people and really enjoyed the day!

Around 8:30 or so, I was starting to get pretty tired. Don and Betty Baun were nice enough to offer their backyard to me to setup camp. I headed over there around 8:30 and got everything setup. It took me all of about 10 minutes to get everything in order, so I decided to start a fire and just chilled out for about an hour or so before calling it a night.


Sunday Morning
It was way too cold to get good sleep. Each time I turned my head, the coldness of the pillow would wake me up. I woke up at 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, a few times in between then finally at 5:15 (thanks to the Crazy Rooster that Nick told me about last year). :) Once I got my tent broke down, I headed over to the cabin for some donuts and other sugary breakfast items before heading to the start finish where runners would be showing up shortly to register for the race. We did a lot of things before the runners got there, then when they started piling in, I sat next to Elizabeth and Michelle and we got runners to sign their wavers. Once the waivers were signed, Kim and Betty would hand them their race packets. We moved through the line pretty quickly. I saw a lot of familiar faces at check in and had a great time.

Moments before the 50k start

Starting Line
When it was about time to get started, Rob got up on his truck and gave the rules of the race. He introduced all the sponsors and explained some of the tricky parts of the race. Once he had briefed everybody on the course, Don Baun got up and had some words to say. Don asked everybody to keep their eyes open and really enjoy the beauty of the course. He is so right, sometimes people get caught up in the race itself that they don't see the actual beauty of the forest. Don gave a few good words of advise and then counted down the runners for the race. Off they went, the 50k runners were moving through the course! The 25k runners would start their race in 30 minutes. Therefore, we hung around for a while and then sent them on their way at 8:30.

Don Baun

Covered Bridge
After the 25k runners left, I took Fred (he's a beat up pylon) to the Covered Bridge, and met up with the other aid station volunteers. The theme this year for the covered bridge aid station was M*A*S*H. So we all wore our finest camo's.

This was my first volunteering experience and I was quite honored and surprised that Rob asked me to be the "Course Marshal". It sounded pretty important, and I guess to think about it, it was a pretty important role. However, each person at this aid station played a key role and my role was just one of many. The biggest difference between my role and the others was that I would be wearing an orange vest. Basically, whenever somebody had any question about where to go, I would be the one to go to; they weren't to 'trust' anybody else. :P The 50k runners would be coming through the covered bridge 3 times, whereas the 25k runners would come through exactly one time.

50k front runners at the start

My vest came in handy a few times, as there was a lot of traffic at the covered bridge, so I got to "use my authoritay" to stop traffic as runners came out of the woods. The only thing I was missing at times was a whistle and a billy club.

The Covered Bridge aid station was on the ball. Two of the runners that I met last week on the race (Steve and David) were manning this aid station as well with their wives (Katie and Leigh). Ralph was the aid station captain, and Lindsay was on her toes the whole time tending to the runners needs. Katie and Leigh ensured that every runner was accounted for and their time was recorded. They could tell you where any runner was at any time. Ralph ensured that the food supplies were up to par and made sure that nothing ran out. Steve, David, and Lindsay were all there to see to it that the runners were taken care of as soon as they entered the aid station. As the runners were approaching the aid station, the crew would find out what the runners needed before they got there so that they would be ready with water or Heed. I, of course, just stayed visible to all runners and managed traffic as best as I could. I was able to save a few runners races with my eagle-eye skills. But other than that, I just had a great time talking with runners and cheering them on.

The Race
One of the most exciting parts of being at an aid station volunteer is that you get to see the actual race. Especially being at the Covered Bridge (again, runners came through here 3 times). We saw all the excitement of the race. The front runner was Shaun Pope, and he made it look effortless each time he came through our aid station. Second place was last year's winner, Jay Smithberger. The race between Shaun and Jay was awesome. Shaun was 5 minutes ahead of Jay as they came through the aid station the first and second time. The third time through, Jay had picked up 3 minutes on Shaun. There were only 2 minutes between them at mile 27. Shaun came through the last time looking pretty spent, but Jay came through looking strong and ready to make his move. Ultimately, Shaun won the race by 1 minute!! I later heard later that Jay might have caught up to him, but took a bad spill (blood, mud, and all) with only about 2 miles to go and lost his momentum. It goes without saying that both guys kicked butt!

D'Lyn and Luca

Another great thing about volunteering is that I got to see was my running buddies come through. I saw Mike McCune (The Dillon Runner), Mark Carroll, Mike Keller, Gianluca Blengio, Tim Harber, and many others. Mike McCune was coming off of a knee injury and this was his first race since it had happened. He looked strong each time he came through and he finished with a very respectable time. It was great seeing Luca, Tim, and Mike Keller as well. Mark Carroll ran a hell of a race! This guy came into the aid station the second time and looked like he was pretty much ready to kick ass til the finish. Sure enough, he did; coming back into the aid station for the 3rd time he had moved his way up the chain of runners. This man is a machine. Mark finished very strong and he proved that he's a force to be reckoned with. Great race man!

Post Race
After Matt (ie. "The Michigan Sweeper") came through our aid station in his high fluting kilt :), we knew there was nobody else out there. Matt was a volunteer that ran behind the last runner and his job was to pick up all of the flags on the course. I can't imagine how hard that job must have been for a non back-of-the-pack runner, like Matt. As he came through the last time he said that he's mostly been walking all day; not much running at all. Once he left, we immediately broke down our station and picked up all the trash. It took a total of about 15 minutes. Once we broke down, I went back up to the Start/Finish to help with a few final things and say good bye to Rob and crew. After 8+ hours of "feet time" I was happy to sit back in my car and make the hour drive home...

Congratulations to Rob, all the 50k and 25k runners, and a great job to all volunteers. This was an amazing experience for me and I look forward to doing it again next year. It was nice to be on the other side of the race for once. Most all runners (with the exception of a few) were very appreciative and friendly to all of us. This experience gave me a whole new appreciation as to what the volunteers do before, during, and after these ultra races.

Oh yeah, Rob, here's that picture I took the morning of the race. I fixed it up a bit because it was pitch black; it turned out "kinda" cool actually. :)

Rob Powell (Forget the PR Race Director)

Forget the PR Mohican 50K Race Report

This weekend was the Race Directors Race for the 2nd Annual Forget the PR 50k Trail Race. This race would be my first ultra since my defeat last year at the Mohican 50 Mile Trail Race. I was not well trained for this race at all, but knew I could do it if I put my mind to it; which I did. The biggest difference in this race from every other race that I've ever ran is that it was going to be my first race as a minimalist runner. I wore my Vibram Five Finger shoes for the 30+ mile run through the woods.

This was a special event, not only for me, but also for my good buddy, Dan. This would be Dan's first Ultra Marathon, and he did it surprisingly well... almost effortlessly at times. Way to go Dan!!

Here is an overview of the journey I'll be talking about:



Alarm Clock - 3:30AM
The alarm goes off and I get up and cook myself an egg sandwich and fill my thermos full of piping hot coffee. I get out the door by 4:15am and make it up to Mohican State park by 5:25am. The plan was to meet Dan at the covered bridge so that we could park his car there to be our own personal aid station throughout the race. Rob had actually planned to have a rolling aid station for all of us runners, compliments of Mike and Jen Patton and company. However, Dan and I would be starting earlier than everybody else, because I'm (what some call) "slow". Therefore, Dan and I would be starting 2 hours before everybody else.

Oh yeah, Dan got a $100+ ticket on his way to the Covered Bridge this morning. He was going 80+ MPH in a 55 MPH zone. Funny thing was that I was on the phone with him when he got pulled over. He showed up in good spirits and it gave us a good story to laugh about at such an early hour. Again, "Way to go, Dan!". :P


Starting Line
Dan and I scurried around and tried to get everything ready for our own personal start. We started at 6:03 AM, sharp. :) It was pitch black outside still, so I had my headlamp. However, I only had one (but not two) headlamps for our trek through the wilderness. We had some good laughs before we even got started and we were pretty excited for our full day of running. The first part of the race was all uphill, so we did a lot of slow jogging and walking for the first few miles...

Miles 1 - 5
As I said it was very dark, and we only had one headlamp. Therefore we tried numerous ways to figure out the best system so that we could both see the treacherous terrain up this big hill. I realize now that minimalist footwear and rough terrain don't mix well with darkness. I beat up my toes in the first 2 miles of our race pretty bad. I got both pinky toes (right foot and left foot), and then around mile 2 I kicked a rock with my big toe REALLY hard, and it went numb for a while. I knew I got it good as soon as I did it, but there was no stopping now (in my book). We were on course for 29 more miles, and the sun was starting to come up. :)


About 2 miles after the toe cruncher, Dan and I made a wrong turn and went about 3/4 of a mile out of our way due to bad navigation on my part. There was a section where I thought we had to turn and head to the Hickory Ridge aid station, but after we got on the path for so long, I realized we screwed up and we had to turn around. This mistake tacked on an extra 1.5 miles to our total mileage, but we were still in good spirits. I'm glad I caught it when I did!

Miles 6 - 10
Hickory Ridge was right around the 6 mile marker, and we saw where the other runners had setup water for their rolling aid station. We both had enough water and gels to last us, so we just pushed on through. Nothing too adventurous happened through here. The sun was out and the other runners would be starting their race very soon. We had some beautiful scenery that kept us occupied through this section of the Orange loop, and we just enjoyed the quiet forest. Plus, there were some very nice downhills coming up soon and then we would be at the Covered Bridge.

Miles 11 - 15
The Covered Bridge is the main aid station and runners visit it 3 times during the race. This was our first stop, and we stocked up real good. As we were approaching it, Dan ran ahead and got it unlocked so that he could get all the drinks and food ready. We refilled our water bottles, ate some PB & J sandwich slices, some chips, some cookies, and off we went...


The next section was the difficult, yet fun and extremely beautiful, Purple loop. This section winds through some technical roots and up a little stream over big logs and muddy puddles to a nice little water fall deep in the woods. My foot was kind of throbbing through here, but I just focused on left foot, right foot. For once I wasn't looking forward to climbing the cool root system at Little Lyon Falls. It's my absolute favorite part of the Purple loop, but I knew that I was going to have to really flex my right foot to make it up the root system, and I wasn't sure how that was going to feel... As we approached it, I just went for it and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was a lot of fun, like it always is. :)

From the root system, we jogged up the road past the dam and made our way to the Blue loop. The blue loop is nothing more than a bad joke from Rob. :) It's a muddy horse path that winds through the woods, brings you close to a beautiful lake, sling shots you around the Lodge, and then puts you back on the same muddy horse path back to the Purple loop. It wasn't bad at all, actually and I really enjoyed it. I remember last year, it had just rained or something and there was no escaping the mud. However this time, it was not as muddy, but enough to remind me how funny it was last year. :)

Miles 16 - 20
Around this time, we were waiting to see the front runners from the 8am start group. As we were coming off of the Blue loop back on to the Purple loop we ran into two runners named Steve and Dave. They were looking very strong, and we exchanged greetings as they were just making their way up to the Lodge. Once we got back onto the Purple loop, we saw a bigger group of runners and I yelled out a WOO-HOO to them as they were making their way up the road. We exchanged some encouragement and then Dan and I headed down to the Big Lyon falls.


We made it back to the Covered Bridge and filled our water bottles once again, and chugged down some Gatorade. The next section was mostly uphill to the Fire Tower...

Miles 21 - 25
This section was mostly up hill to the Fire Tower. There isn't anything really technical about it, other than the fact that it's mostly uphill. There's a nice flat section at the beginning, but then it gets pretty grueling as the hills get longer and steeper. We made it to the Fire Tower around 12:15 PM and the sun was right above us. It turned out to be a beautiful day, and we were past half way done with this race.

After the Fire Tower, we made a wrong turn... We were supposed to turn left onto the mountain bike trail, but instead we kept going strait; mistaking the "left turn" for a left bending turn in the horse path. I spoke with Rob two days earlier on the phone, as this section was a little sketchy to me, and even after he explained it to me, I still screwed it up. We went one way for about 1/4 mile, then turned around and headed back, only to screw it up again and went an even different different left!! The good news is that I was "somewhat" familiar with where we were, so we just improvised to get back onto the Red Loop.


Around this point, my feet no longer hurt. The pain had moved up into my shins. Actually, I'm lying, my feet still hurt, but the pain in my shins were much worse. Therefore, the pain in my feet was just an inconvenience, the pain in my shins was excruciating. Not only that, but our little detour involved some pretty big rocks and I was in my big dumb VFFs. Oh well, c'est la vie!! I did a lot of hobble-walking through here...

Miles 26 - 31.1
On our way back to the Covered Bridge, I saw Mike Patton coming up the path and we stopped and talked for maybe a minute. He told me that Rob and the others were right behind me and should be coming up any minute. About 1/2 mile later we had made it back to the Covered Bridge for our last time. Dan was already there waiting on me, and so was the "rolling aid station" that Rob had told me about. Some of the girls at the aid station noticed my VFFs and it turned into a discussion. I basically told them that it's one of the dumbest things I've ever done. :) As we were leaving the aid station, I knew that the next section was going to be very slow for me. But, make note that I was still smiling, and was determined to finish this thing:


The last leg of this race was very hard. Each step seemed to get more and more painful. Dan and I walked together for a while, but I could tell that I was slowing him down. I would try to do a "shuffle jog" but whenever my foot got turned just a little bit, it sent a sharp shooting pain up my shin. Not only that but both feet were severely bruised on the bottoms. The brusing wasn't so bad because they were (border-line) numb by this point. However the shin pain was almost unbearable. I truly believe that had I gotten on all fours and crawled I would have finished faster, but I just hobbled along and paid close attention to every root and rock on the trail so that I wouldn't touch it with my right foot.

By the time I had gotten to North Rim trail, I was convinced that I was in dead last place. This kind of brought me down a bit, beings how I got a 2 hour head start of everybody else. I knew that Dan had already finished too, because I was less than a mile from the finish line, and he left me maybe half an hour ago. I sat down for a few minutes on a big log and let my feet have a break. After about 3 minutes of relaxation, I decided to just get it over with. I stood back up and started hobbling up the hill again. Almost there!! The closer I got to the finish line the higher my spirits got. I knew that all my buddies would be there and best of all, I could finally sit down and relax. :)

Finish Line
To spite my feet, I decided to do my hobble-jog to the finish line. Running is really the only way to finish a race in my book. I crossed the finish line after running a little bit more than needed and an amazing time of:

9 hours, 43 minutes, and 32 seconds!

By far my slowest race, ever! Honestly though, all of that pain and all those bad thoughts went away once I saw the shelter with the other racers sitting and enjoying the post race meal. Once I finished, I got some food and sat down for some ice cold refreshments and "hot off the grill" barbecue ribs!! Rob gave us all our belt buckles and t-shirts, and congratulated us on a successful race.

Post Race Drama
While I was driving Dan back to his car, I got pulled over by Mohican trooper. I was going 34 MPH in a 20 MPH zone. DOH! It's pretty ironic that Dan and I both got in trouble by the law on this day. Luckily, my cop let me off with a warning. She gave me a little lecture and sent me on my way... Charm goes a long way, no matter what some of my high school teachers might have told my Mom. :)

The Day After
I had some pretty nasty chafing (sorry, it's true), but Chickweed Healing Salve is a wonder-cream!! Seriously people, buy it and use it! I'm 100% healed of all discomfort after about 10 minutes of extreme burning while it was "working". As for my feet: both feet are severely bruised, and I'm in a hospital boot with crutches. I have the boot on my right foot, but almost need a boot for both feet. My left foot is getting all of the weight now, but it hurts too.


In hind sight, maybe I probably should have worn actual running shoes. (?) No, actually I'm glad I did the barefoot approach, for I know that this race made me a lot stronger from it. Unfortunately, it came with a pretty big price tag; my mobility. I'm basically on "bed rest" until this coming weekend, when I have to volunteer at the "official" race. Lucky for me I have my beautiful wife, Jennifer, attending to my every need...

Jennifer if you reading this, I need more coffee please. :) J/K

A Busted Foot

Man!? Just as the weather was getting good, I went and injured myself. I took a fun run at Dillon State Park this last Sunday with my buddy, Dan. This was my first real long run in my VFFs, and I think I may have overdone it just a bit.

I woke at 7am and got my famous egg sandwiches made before Dan showed up. When he arrived, we got our water bottles filled and headed out the door around 7:45. We arrived at the park right around 8am and were ready to get wet.

It was very cold and drizzling rain. The trails were extremely muddy and filled with freezing brown rain water. Perfect conditions for a trail run. For the first 6 miles I felt like Superman and I was dodging all the slippery rocks that were looking to break my ankles. My toe strikes felt very natural and I felt like I was Born To Run (great book by the way, almost done with it) in my bare feet (ie. VFF's).

Around mile 7 or mile 8 I was starting to notice a slight discomfort on the bridge of my right foot. It was my first metatarsal (big toe bone). It wasn't so bad that I couldn't run on it, so I continued to run when I could and power walk up the hills. Unfortunately, I had developed a slight limp by this point, but I kept pushing.


After the run, I knew my foot was in bad shape. It didn't hurt too bad at first, but a few hours after my run it was killing. Jennifer and I were working around the house and I was hobbling on my right foot very badly. Around 3pm I had to sit down and elevate it to get some of the throbbing out of it. It helped, but the moment I put it back down on the floor I was in pain again.

In two weeks, my buddy Rob is having his Forget the PR 50k race for the volunteers. I was really wanting to run it, and may still do so. My plan is to just take it easy until then and see how my foot does. Who knows I may do it just to spite my foot... :)

After all these minimalist pains, I'm still barefoot.

I Broke My Tailbone

On Tuesday, I went in for my very first Chiropractor visit ever. Actually, my Mom says I went when I was a kid, but I don't remember it. I do know that it has been at least 20 years since I've stepped foot in a chiropractic office though.

While I was getting adjusted, the doctor took my neck and cracked it about 5 pops in each direction. She knew I was a runner and she says that we're usually pretty fun to work with (ie. we = runners) and know our bodies pretty well. I don't know if she was buttering me up and filling me full of pride, or if she really meant it. I'll assume the latter...

She then did a lot of things with my legs to see how my leg muscles felt. She concluded that my right leg is weaker than my left leg. She even showed me by having me bend my leg inward (ie. hacky sack style) while she tried to straiten it out. My left leg was rock solid, but my right leg had some strain to it and she was able to move it with a bit of pressure. I would have NEVER guessed that there was any difference in either of my legs, but sure enough, there it was. She got some medieval looking tool and applied it to the right side of my belly button (!? I know, right !?), then put another medieval looking tool to my right hip for some time to "stimulate the nerves", and sure enough it was fixed! :)

The most interesting part of my visit was that she told me I had a broken tail bone. I was floored! I had no idea! When could this have happened!? She told me that it had healed, but it healed wrong. After she told me about it, I got to thinking, and I realized that it probably happened when I was at the Ice Castle in Novosibirsk, Russia two years ago.

...I actually busted my butt today. As we were making our way up the steps to this this slide, there was a very slick area and I went running up to it and slid and really dinged up my butt. So much so that the back of my hamstring hurts too. I think I bruised the muscle all the way down my leg. Between my feet, my left knee, and now my right butt cheek, I'm ready to go home. :) I thought about changing my blog title to "Luc's Online Pity Party"... Anyway, it's now my newest pain and it hurts worse than my knee right now (which still hurts).

That's really the only time I can think that I broke it. Best of all, it was documented for the world to see. :)

Oh and my doctor also gave me nice kudos for my new minimalist life style. While some people think I'm crazy or just plain weird, she actually commended me on it... And she's a back doctor!

Homemade Sandals

Tonight, I have officially made the switch to: Barefoot Luc


I've been looking around for some minimalist shoes, and the solutions are either very expensive, or very cheap. There is a site that sells "normal looking" shoes with very thin soles, but the prices are through the roof, since it's such a niche market. The alternative is to just go to your local Target or Walmart (like I did) and buy a pair of aqua shoes. The only problem with aqua shoes is that your wife (or husband) could make fun of you (like mine did).

Honestly, I haven't worn a real pair of shoes for almost 2 full months now. When I'm in the house, I'm barefoot. When I'm running, I'm in my VFF's, and when I'm "in public", I typically wear my aqua shoes. Although lately Jennifer claims that my VFF's are better suited for public than my aqua shoes. Perhaps it's better to look extreme than it is to look like I just don't have a clue. :)

At first my legs and feet hurt quite a bit, especially after running. However all the pain has gone and I'm excited to be au-naturelle from the ankles down until winter sets back in. Up until today, I didn't really have a solution for sandals, and refuse to limit my options to just flip flops. I put on my Chaco's the other day and gave them about 10 minutes before they really started to hurt my arches. Chaco's are known for having (almost too much) arch support. They are officially Ebay bait. Anybody interested? I have black ones and orange ones, both are fairly new...

Anyway, I've been reading up on many barefoot runners who run in these things called "huaraches". They're nothing more than a piece of shoe sole and string. Some people have been known to make them out of old racing tires. It was time for me to try and see if I could make them. I've watched the video on how to make them a few times and decided to give it a try. They looked simple enough to make...

For lunch today, I drove to a local shoe repair store (Newark Cleaners and Shoe Repair) in Heath, Ohio, and got a scrap sheet of some very thin Vibram material along with two long leather shoe laces. The total for everything so far was $4.28. I took it home and decided not to mess with it until sometime later in the week...

Well the more and more I thought about it, the more I was dying to try and make them. It was going to drive me crazy til I did it. So I took off my VFF's and got started:

1. Took a piece of paper and a pen and loosely traced my foot, putting marks for where all the holes would go (one for the toe, and one on each side of my ankle).
2. Traced the pattern on the Vibram sheet and cut it out with a utility knive
3. Drilled holes for the toe, and each side of the ankle
4. Laced my leather string through them and tied them up.

Viola:

These are my new running sandals when I need to run on the road. I will probably only use my VFF's for trail running from now on, as they're much better for floating over jagged rocks and snapping little sticks than these will be.

Once I'd finished my pair, Lizzie said she wanted a pair, so I made her a pair too. She is going to wear her's to school tomorrow. :) Of course, once she had hers, the other two wanted a pair as well. Looks like I'm going back to the shoe repair store pretty soon. :)

These are the times...

I was at my mom's house the other day and she told me about something on the news that got us talking. The story was regarding an inmate on death row (Lawrence Reynolds) swallowed a bunch of pills in an attempt to commit suicide. While I find it unfortunate for him to be so down on himself, I don't understand a lot of things logic that took place when they brought him back to life. They saved his life so that they could put him back into a cell and kill him another way at a later date... Best yet, I just saw on the news tonight that there is now an extensive (and expensive) investigation going on to determine how he got access to the pills, and who should be held responsible.

The whole story struck me as being "rather funny" at first, but it has pushed over into "just crazy" now. :)

Especially this:

Reynolds' execution has been rescheduled for...

Hi, I'm a Mac

Jennifer and I broke down and got ourselves some MacBooks. She got a standard MacBook for her photo taking, Facebooking, eBaying, and CraigsListing. We got all the photo's moved over to her machine, since she's the one that manages the pictures. They sync up to our Time Capsule so we have a pretty solid backup solution now. She switched from Picasa to iPhoto and she seems to like it. Other than that, she mainly uses Safari for everything else...

I on the other hand got a MacBook Pro, and it acts as my new development machine. Already, I'm loving it. It took a while to get used to the new keyboard setup, but I'm getting better each day. As a programmer, I rely very heavily on key combination's, and the Mac keyboard is quite a bit different from what I'm used to (to say the least). I installed Windows 7 on a second partition through BootCamp. I then purchased a license for Parallels 5.0, and run my BootCamp partition through a virtual machine. My Windows 7 setup has everything needed to be a full blown development machine. I have SQL Server 2008 with Analysis Services, Visual Studio 2008, Office 2007, SubVersion, Total Commander, Daemon Tools, Paint.NET, Reflector, ReSharper, etc...

Aside from my Windows VM, I also installed Ubuntu on a separate VM so that I can play around with MySQL and learn the basics of Linux. My goal is to use it as a database server while I play with with Ruby on Rails. I'm using SSH for the first time in my life, and it's quite the learning curve for me. I'm forcing myself to to keep my Terminal.app console on my Mac open. I'm also forcing myself to NOT install TextMate and learn VI. I think it's safe to say that I've been spoiled with Visual Studio's IDE for waaaaaay too long. :)

Also, I purchased a family pack license of the iWorks suite and I'm really liking it so far. Numbers has some pretty cool functionality in it. I especially like how you can add multiple tables on a blank canvas and size them independently. The summary feature is slick too; it allows me to highlight a range of cells, and drag / drop one of the summary values into a new cell to build a separate table of summaries however I see fit. The presentation options are much better than Excel in my opinion, and it's much easier to get a spreadsheet into a "report mode" using Numbers than Excel as well... again, in my opinion.

Of course, the girls really like the Photo Booth app. Of all the things this Mac can do, they ONLY want to play with Photo Booth. Both Jennifer's and My MacBook are polluted with pictures of little warped kid faces. :)

Pilot Mountain Payback - Canceled

The Pilot Mountain Payback Marathon has been canceled due to trail conditions. In all honesty, I haven't been training that well lately, so it's kind of a relief for me. I was anxious to get out on the trails and push to the finish line. However I knew it was going to hurt real bad. I had no doubt I'd finish, but I did fear that I would be in dead-last place. Between the weather and my schedule, I've been in a deep deep funk. I was so far off of my training schedule, that I decided to just go to the race and get into a zen state until I crossed the finish line. I was prepared to let this race teach me a lesson. As it turned out, I got lucky this time.

The race has been rescheduled for April 10th, but I'm not going to be attending it. Instead, I'll be helping my buddy, Rob, prepare for his Mohican 50K race. This is going to be my first volunteering job at a race and I'm looking forward to it big time!

My new goal is to focus on barefoot running all spring and summer. My Vibram Five Fingers are on their way to my house as we speak, and I can't wait to get them. I actually tried my first barefoot run the other night on the treadmill and... let's just say I have a long way to go.

My training is officially back on schedule.

Barefoot Running

I think I'm going to give this a try very soon.

Let me first state that I don't get foot or leg pains when I run. I'm just slow, and a bit overweight. However, I'm always open to improve my running form, as I've been running for +3 years now and it seems as though I've gotten slower over the years. Last time I ran, I tried using the Chi Running technique of "falling forward". Basically this allowed me to shorten my gait and I focused on a slight forward lean the entire run. I was amazed at how much faster I could run with less effort. Instantly, I knew that I'd been running wrong for too long and needed to open my eyes to different techniques if I was going to run my sub-4 hour marathon this year.

Tonight, I got an email from an old buddy who linked me to a study on barefoot running. I read the study and it has opened my eyes. I've heard a lot about barefoot running, and actually suggested barefoot running it to him a few months back. He stated he was having very bad shin splints, and a few of my running buddies have resorted to barefoot running as a way to avoid various running injuries and get back in touch with their caveman roots. I had no experience with it myself, and I was merely suggesting it to him in passing. To my surprise, he took my (untested) advise and has become a very big advocate of barefoot running. It seems to have fixed his shin splints.

Here is a nice video that shows some of the benefits of barefoot running:



So if you see me out running with no shoes this spring, you'll know why. :)

Running in 2010

Well, I'm still running. I'm just not running as much these last few weeks; though, again, I am running. I did a long 16 miler 2 weeks ago, down to Dillon State Park and back. I pretty much took a whole week off that next week. This last week, me and a buddy ran 10 miles at Dillon State Park, and this weekend I'm scheduled for a 15 miler somewhere... Probably at Dillon again since it's so close. Unfortunately, I don't have any record of these events since my SportTracks data went with the Toshiba, and my BuckeyeOutdoors updates went with my SportTracks data. I hope to have this issue fixed sometime this week so that I can pummel my twitter followers with my workouts when I upload them all. :)

My last two weeks have really been hit and miss. My work schedule picked up a lot recently as we're approaching a hard deadline, and it got me into a horrible sleeping / working / family schedule. Needless-to-say, my running schedule got shot in that mix. I didn't feel like running in the dark in single digit temperatures for no good reason. It has taken me a few days, but I'm trying to get back to the first shift schedule so I can get back to some normal activities rather than just coding all the time. Oddly, I still feel like the night time is my best time to zone out on work, so it's still a struggle.

This year is kind of a bummer year for some of my favorite ultra races too. As some of you know, Mohican State Park is one of my favorite place to run. I was really looking forward to the Mohican 100 this year, because the 50 miler beat me bad last year. They are redoing the course for this years race and I wanted to be a part of the "new course". As it turns out, we'll be taking a (long overdue) vacation to Maine that very week! I'll take that trade off anyday! However, it was pretty heart wrenching when I found out that I'd be missing my chance to beat the 50 miler. I do plan to come back to next year's run with a vengeance.

Also, my buddy, Rob, just announced that his Mohican 50k race has sold out. Way to go, Rob! More money for that killer softball team! :) This means that I won't be attending that one either. So far I only have one race scheduled for this year, and it's in 3 weeks: Pilot Mountain Payback Trail Marathon. I'm considering keeping it a low key year and only run at my own leisure til I decide to attempt my 4 hour marathon (which I will do).

Perhaps a Mohican fun run is in my near future... Rob? Nick? Kim? Mark? Anybody?

It Ain't Personal

Facebook is a great application, really. However, it has it's side effects here and there. I get friend requests from random people from time to time. If I don't know the person, I'm not at all ashamed of clicking the "Ignore" button. Sometimes it's a legitimate person that I actually knew as a child though, but have forgotten over the years. In such a case, I'll send them a message asking them to remind me how I know them. For example, there is one name that keeps coming up as a friend request, and I keep clicking "Ignore". Each time I click Ignore, it comes back a day or two later. I know the name, but can't quite remember how I know the name. I finally sent a response back and asked them to help me remember. Perhaps it would be easier to just include this information on the 2nd or 3rd or 4th attempt to become my "Friend" on Facebook...(?) Kind of awkward IMO.

Anyway, a funny thing happened at dinner tonight with my family. It all started a few months back. This one lady, who was about 5 - 10 years older than me, kept sending me friend requests. I kept ignoring them. I had no idea who she was. I recognized a few of the people that we had in common, but I didn't even really know them that well either. Anyway, I ignored her requests about 6 or 7 times, before I finally blocked her from sending anymore requests to me. She was starting to weird me out. She had more than 500 "friends" on Facebook, so I couldn't understand why it was so important for me to accept her invitation...

Fast forward to this evening when Jennifer and I took the girls out to the Texas Roadhouse. We were sitting at the table having a good time and this exact lady walk right by our table. Amazingly she didn't even know who I was. Hmm, perhaps it's because I didn't know her!

Luxury for a Princess

Sorry Mother Nature, but we bought an SUV this weekend.

Jennifer and I paid off our Honda Odyssey last year. Rather than putting a little more money into it and driving the wheels off of it, we decided to just get a whole new vehicle all together and start from scratch.

We retired the minivan because we really needed something that was made to pull a popup camper. We've used our Odyssey to pull our camper all over (Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan, South Carolina, Ohio, :P, etc..). The bottom line is that they just weren't made to do this, and it was only a matter of time before our transmission blew up on us.

We test drove a couple of fun vehicles, including a Chevy Avalanche, a Ford F150, and looked at some other vehicles, but settled on a 2003 Ford Expedition. Jennifer found it on the internet and just had to have it:


It's an Eddie Bauer Edition, which means it has heated leather seats, a moon roof, 3rd row seating, a 6 disk CD changer, heated leather seats, a tow package, running boards, a utility rack, and heated leather seats. The kids like it because it has rear controls for the radio and air. Best yet, almost everything can be managed from the collage of buttons on the steering wheel (volume, radio stations, cabin temperature, fan speed, etc..). I'm sure a lot of this is standard with most of todays model vehicles, but it's the nicest thing we've ever owned.


Next stop: Maine!

Codemash v2.0.1.0

This post is long overdue... oh yeah, and long itself. :P Basically, everything below could be summed up into one word: Codemashkickedass!

I attended CodeMash this month and it was a blazing success (yet again). This has become a nationally recognized event, bringing in A+ keynote speakers from all over. The inaugural event back in 2006 brought out The Gu himself for crying out loud! Each year seems to out-do the year before, and this year was no different. I mean, last year, I played GuitarHero with Scott Hanselman!! This year was very laid back for me, and I'm already excited for next years event. I actually plan to continue my attendance to CodeMash each year until I get out of the computer business and move to Maui to become a full time surfer. (yeah right)

Ironically this was a very low-key year for me. I've been at every Codemash so far, and this was the first one that I attended as a .NET developer desperately wanting to learn something new. Usually I just go to see what I can learn, but with no real goals of getting my mind blown. I used to mainly get excited about going to meet up with all my geek friends. I've never really taken the sessions for granted before, but the last few years I'd always run around with my entourage and just kind of "be there". However this year it was just me, and I was set to learn a lot of stuff; I was on a mission to learn Ruby.

Wednesday
I woke up at 4am and packed my drumset into the car (more on this later) and headed up to Kalahari Resort for the 8:30 am check-in and a nice breakfast before the 9 am Precompiler sessions start.

Test Driven Development - Leon Gersing
For the Precompiler session this year, I attended Leon Gersing's - Test Driven Development session. This was a very (, very, very) cool session where Leon actually got requirements from Jim Holmes (The Codemash President) for a "session scoring system". It was Leon's job to lead a (large) group of willing developers to build this system from Concept to Completion in one day. It seemed impossible as the session started and Leon was very casual in getting everybody setup with the tools needed for the day.

I literally sat down in the 2nd row knowing zero about Ruby, Rails, Git, or GitHub.com... and what the hell is a Ruby Gem?! :) Leon used a rendition of Scrum, and that, I did know. I was on a team that implemented scrum at my last company, and it proved to be a very successful approach to managing epic projects.

Leon was awesome in his role as the Iteration Manager. He encouraged all of us to be "courageous" and just be real. If you didn't know something, speak up and let everybody know. There's no shame in not knowing something. I actually used it a few times in order to get all the tools installed on my machine. I felt as though everyone around me was leaps and bounds ahead of me as I struggled to understand simple concepts like installing gems and understanding the what Ruby was and what Rails was.

I sat through the morning part of the session, but decided to move onto another session after lunch (no hard feelings Leon). :) I was simply in over my head without knowing Ruby or Rails. The team I was in had good knowledge of these technologies and I felt like I was (1) slowing them down and (2) learning nothing as they pushed forward without keeping me in the loop. No blame, just the facts. I plan to learn Ruby on my own within the next few months. I've heard too many good things about it to not give it an honest effort.

Advanced Presentation Patterns - Jeremy D. Miller
At lunch I actually sat next to Jeremy D. Miller (Mr. Code Better, himself). I was sitting with some other people and he sat down next to me. I had no idea who he was so I (of course) introduced myself only to find out it was him shortly thereafter. I've read his blog in the past and have known his name for quite some time. It was cool to shot the breeze with him, if only for a minute or two. After I finished eating, I actually decided to attend his session after lunch on a whim. It was standing room only, so I stood in the back and watched as he discussed different concepts for building robust user interfaces that allowed full control over the hosting UI dialog in regards to adding buttons, menus, and mapping navigation between windows. It was pretty informative, and I took some intense notes as he showcased some pretty complex user interfaces concepts with simple enterprise architecture models.

After this session, I went upstairs and decided to take a little nap. Again, I woke up at 4 am, and it was now approaching 5:30. After a short 1-2 hour nap, I woke up and took an intense 4 mile run on the treadmill and then headed out for a quick bite of dinner. Precompiler day was over.

Thursday
The keynote was awesome! Mary Poppendieck gave a great presentation outlining the 5 Habits of a Successful Lean Organization:

• Purpose
• Passion
• Persistence
• Pride
• Profit

She showcased the attributes associated with teams and business that have succeeded. And gave detailed specifications and examples on how they succeed. For example, on thing that stuck out for me in the 'Passion' section was to hire and enable passionate people. When people are in a position to do what they love to do, they will exceed and spread excitement to those around them. Ironically, she showed how open source projects tend to be successful by nature due to the fact that the people involved are passionate about what they're doing... even though they aren't getting paid. I could go on about this keynote as I took a lot of notes and really enjoyed her keynote.

What Makes Ruby Different - Joe O'Brien, Mark Peabody, and Leon Gersing
After the keynote, I headed over to "What Makes Ruby Different" where the EdgeCase guys showcased various aspects to the Ruby language and concepts that let Ruby stand out from the other languages. It was very informative and I learned quite a bit. They showed how a few lines of Ruby code can go a long way, and showed the different approaches of the same concepts in other languages. While the other languages were purposefully "ceremonial" to drive home some key points, I did gain a lot of respect for the Ruby language.

After this session, I got a few things done and then sat with Josh Holmes at lunch while we watched Hank Janssen give a keynote about open source technologies that Microsoft is working on. It was very informative and I learned that Microsoft is actually giving a lot of attention to this area, even though they are known for avoiding it. The ecoustics were difficult at times and we had a hard time hearing at times, but the slides really painted the pictures pretty well.

Ruby and Rails for the .NET Developer - Matt Yoho
Following lunch, I attended the Ruby and Rails for the .NET Developer. It was a toss up between this session and Powershell: Ten Things You Need to Know - by Hester and Lerch. I was happy that I attended the Ruby session, for I learned even more great things about Ruby. For example in Ruby, when you connect to a database, the language itself is so descriptive that you can query data simply by calling it in "english" like method calls. For example if I'm querying a table and want to find a row by a certain column, I simply say:
(note: ignore my syntax ignorance)

def rowByUser = db.find_by_username();
def rowsByState = db.find_by_state();

I don't have to actually create these methods to query the database by user name and by state. In .NET there is a lot of extra work that we (as .NET developers) have to do in order to make these two calls work. Not with Ruby! Rails does this automatically!! That is cool!

Vendor Sessions
For the vendor session, I attended the Telerik Code Ninja session where they showed some cool little coding tricks.

Refactoring the Programmer - Joe O'Brien
This was an awesome session. I'd introduced myself to Joe earlier in the day during lunch break or something and he is a very humble person. I've seen him at Codemash in previous years and have attended sessions of his before. I have actually followed him on Twitter for sometime now and he is just an all around great guy. This session was about getting developers to stay on top of their game and keep their skills sharp. This is something that I have to keep reminding myself actually, for I tend to get comfortable in my current skill set and have to force myself to really explore new things around me.

Joe was hilarious, for his session was another one of those sessions that was standing room only. Best yet, he didn't have his projector adapter (ie. "dongle" (ie. my wife's favorite geek word)) and therefore was forced to do his presentation with no over head display. It was just him and his scotch (?) in front of ~100 geeks. He nailed it! He kept it humorous and interesting, and best of all he provided some great advise for everyone in the room. He left everybody with 4 great books to check out and read:

• Passionate Programmer - Chad Fowler
  
• Pragmatic Thinking and Learning - Andrew Hunt
  
• Pragmatic Programmer - Andrew Hunt
  
• Apprenticeship Patterns - Dave Hoover
  

... these are all in my Amazon wishlist (hint hint).

Vendor Sessions
After Joe's session, I walked around and talked to a lot of the vendors. I remember being there as a vendor myself, and recall how frustrating it was to see people walk by the booth all day long but never stop. I stopped at every single booth and gave them my undivided attention for as much time as they needed to really explain their product to me. Of course, I gathered some t-shirts and drink tickets too. ;)

Ruby and Rails for the .NET Developer - Matt Yoho
After walking around the vendor booths, I headed over to see some of the cool things that Ruby has to offer for me. Unfortunately I only had about 15 minutes to spare and (honestly) I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open at this point. :( It wasn't the information that was making me tired, it was my brain that was making me tired. I tried to focus, but found myself slipping in and out of consciousness here. Sorry Matt, I'm sure it was a great session; I came in late, but... never really showed up I guess.

Dinner and Jam
From here, I stumbled out into the hall and got some dinner. After dinner, I headed up to my room and gathered my drumset. Upon gathering everything, I quickly realized that I HAD NO CYMBALS!! I had packed everything except for my cymbal bag. This is what I get for rushing out of the house at 4am I guess. It sucks that I packed all the big / bulky stuff, but forgot the one consolidated peice of equipment in the basement. I couldn't believe it... I had brought a set of toms with a bass petal. :( Luckily Grag Malcolm had brought his drumsticks! Otherwise, we would have been playing hand drums (yeah, my drumsticks were in the cymbal bag).

Regardless, I set up the drums and decided to go mingle instead. I caught up with some fun friends and we all played euchre for the remainder of the night and drank a lot of booze. Fun was had by all! Unfortunately, I didn't get to see one second of Enter the Haggis. I'm kicking myself for that!! :(

Friday
Woke up at 7am sharp and then headed back up to my room to change and workout for the first round of sessions. After that, I went back to the sessions and got into some cool content.

An Introduction to Functional Programming with Scheme - Michael J Norton
This was a bit over my head. I tried to get into it, but I went in knowing very little and left knowing just as much. I'm sure had I known some of the functional concepts that were being discussed ahead of time, I would have been able to keep up. I left early and mingled. :(

It was about this time where I'm getting fuzzy without my updated schedule list; a lot changed in the schedule that I"m going off of..

Pragmatic Keynote
I do recall the keynote by Andy Hunt, and he was AWESOME! I really do plan to get his books and catch up on all the great content I'm missing. He was a great keynote speaker as he really knew how to work the crowd and had everybody's undivided attention for his entire keynote. I took a lot of notes and really enjoyed the lunch break.

Analyze and Optimize your .NET Web Application - James Avery
I learned quite a lot in here. James demonstrated how to fine tune any ASP.NET application using a set of profiling tools. He started with the ever famous "Nerd Dinner" and found that it was calling the database countless times for simple lookups. He used tools like RedGate - Ants Profiler, SQL Profiler and some other tools to help him isolate the bottle necks. It was pretty interesting to say the least and I learned a thing or two. Great session James! :)

Raffle
I didn't win anything... again. Four years in a row, nothing. Oh well, it was fun to sit and watch others win in a weird way. Plus the CodeMash crew always works the crowd pretty well with shenanigans and cool giveaways. Simply a great event, CodeMash organizers!

If I didn't provide enough content for you in this single post, please read more here: http://groups.google.com/group/codemash/web/codemash-2010-bloggers

I'm LogMeIn Savvy

I just signed up for LogMeIn. This totally solves so many problems for me. Ever since my Toshiba died, I've been stressing out about getting my new laptop setup with all the software I need in order to attend CodeMash.

After a few minutes of stressing, I realized that I don't need to have everything installed on the new laptop. I can just use this computer while I'm away at the conference. The only downside to this little epiphany is that I have to have an internet connection to be productive. This causes problems when I fly, and when I'm at a location that doesn't have internet. I do know that CodeMash has had spotty wifi at times due to the mass amounts of geekery going on. However, that's ok, because I'll probably only be logged into my computer when I'm back at my room anyway. While I'm at sessions, I'll just have my man-purse to take notes, and will probably be developing in Notepad as I learn how to become a Ruby guru.

For those that haven't heard of LogMeIn, you should definitely check it out. It was blazing easy to setup and best of all, it is FREE! It took me about 5 minutes total to get setup; I created an account, installed a little application on my desktop, and then went upstairs to test it out from my laptop. Viola!

Technology kicks butt!!

The Toshiba Died Today

Back 2004, I got a new Toshiba Portege M200 Tablet PC for work. It was the cream of the crop in it's day.

I love this thing. It's been the most solid and reliable laptop I've ever seen anybody own; I've been proud to call it mine. It's gone everywhere with me. From west coast, to east coast. I took it to Russia with me, and it was my main development box while I was in France a few months ago. Every time I visit with my friends at coffee shops to code, it goes with me as well. Jennifer uses it exclusively in the house, and the girls even tinker on it from time to time to play WebKinz or draw in MS Paint. I can honestly say that it's been a solid member of the Hardbarger family.

Well, Jennifer was upstairs surfing on it this evening, and she got the blue screen of death. I tried a few things to see if I could find what might have happened, but to no avail. It's officially dead.

I'll always remember the good times we had together...

Next up: A MacBook!! :D

A Real 3 Year Old Conversation

Yesterday was Lizzie's 8th birthday. She's getting way too big! We had a little party here with cake and ice cream. There were lots of family and friends that came over and we all just had a great time. It's hard to believe that our oldest is already 8. These years are flying... I'm digressing, sorry.

Anyway, we were putting them to bed last night and Daizi started rambling to me while she was supposed to be getting ready for bed.

She said: Da-ee, Sissy birfday today and my birfday tomorrow.
I said: Your birthday is tomorrow?!
She said: Yeah!
I said: No, your birthday isn't until September...
She said: Tha's wha I told you!
I said: Oh...?

Yeah. She's 3. :)

Another Great Year Behind Us

Hope everybody had a great 2009. We did!

Not too much happened in 2009 that was ground breaking for us. We got a new dog. Got a new popup camper. Sold the truck. Paid off the van. Paid off the car. Girls are each a year older. Jen and I are each a year older. I ran some races. Visited France and Romania. Wrote some killer code in my basement. My sister had a baby. I lost some weight. I gained some weight. We lost some money. We earned some money. That's pretty much it... We had a good year.

My goals for this year is to blog more. Limit my Facebook usage to a minimum, since it's a total time-suck when I'm on my computer; sorry to all my Facebook friends. I am also shooting for a sub-4 hour marathon this year. In order to do this, I'm gonna have to train smarter and eat smarter. My fastest marathon was 4:27 and I was in pretty decent running shape at the time. I've already started my training regiment and diet (somewhat). I'm eating every 2 hours no matter what and I'm not stuffing myself anymore. I'm also trying to run more tempo runs rather than just "slow and easy" like I did last year. I'm down 7 lbs since the week before Christmas (not bad), but I need to lose another 20 lbs or so more before I can attack a sub 4 hr marathon.

Oh yeah!! Jen and I are taking the girls to Maine this summer on a 2 week camping trip. We've already starting to save for it, and we're all VERY excited about it. I've always wanted to go to Maine, and we're finally going to do it.

Anyway, like I said, I'm hoping to get back into blogging more regularly. These last two months have been pretty chaotic with work and everything else, so I've not put too much effort or stress into posting my thoughts, since they're mostly around what I need to do to be productive and blogging doesn't fall in that category. :)

Here's to 2010!

Motorized barstool sells for $1,125 on eBay

Finally, an end to the bar stool saga: Motorized barstool sells for $1,125 on eBay

Vonn "Skeeter" Watson stands by one of the
motorized barstools he built. The motorized barstool
that launched Newark into national headlines
sold on eBay Sunday evening for $1,125 - Eric George

I remember seeing this on the national news a few months ago, shortly after my old boss sent me a link to it. He always thought I was from a hill-jack town and this story sealed the deal for him (I'm sure). Anyway, I forgot all about it and it was rather funny to see the image of the guy with his creation smiling in front of a 'Skeeters' sign on my Google News feed this morning. :)

Enjoy Issam...