2010 Maine Vacation (Part 1 of 2)

Jennifer and I finally did it. We have talked about traveling to the state of Maine for years, and this year we decided it was time to just do it. We saved up our money over the course of about 8 months and took our girls on a 2 week camping adventure through the Appalachian mountains over to the Atlantic coast. We spent a week in Cape Cod, then another week in Bar Harbor, Maine. It was the vacation of a lifetime and one that we know our 3 girls will remember for the rest of their lives.

Starting our journey

Mountain Driving
We left bright and early on Saturday morning and drove all the way over to eastern PA. We ended up making it all the way to the east side of PA and stayed in a Comfort Inn. The girls got to swim for a little bit, and that's all they cared about. :) The camper pulled really nice behind our SUV and we were pretty amazed at how the mountains didn't put too much strain on it. Gas mileage was atrocious the entire trip, but at least we budgeted for it and it was not an issue at all. We had to fill up every 260 miles or so, which worked out nice anyway. Oh, and Daizi (our 3 yr old) get's credit for the "quote of the vacation" after only 2 hours into our 2 week vacation when she said:

"Mommy, I waaa go home."

We all got a good laugh out of that one. :)

A tornado forming just ahead on the highway in PA!

Woodstock, NY
The next morning we headed to Woodstock, NY and went through all the shops. The girls thought it was cool to see all the tie dye and we explained to them exactly what the Woodstock Music Festival was all about and all about what happened back in 1969 that brought all the musicians together. We tried to explain that the event drew a crowd of +500,000 people from all over the world. They did the "...woooooow" response, but I don't think they really understood what it meant. Once I was able to show them a picture of the crowd consuming a whole New York hillside, then we got the real "WOOOOW" that I was looking for. At that point they understood how many people "+500,000 people" actually looked like. :) We had a lot of fun here and got some cool souvenirs. About 1 day is all that was needed to see everything here in Woodstock. We spent about 4-5 hours going through the various shops, and that was enough for me.

That night we stayed in another Comfort Inn and and the girls got to swim again. Before calling it a night, we ended up eating at a place called Ninety Nine's. It's like a bar and grill style restaurant with an amazing menu. We all loved it!! It was cheap and delicious. The kids meals were amazing and beat the "sox" off of every other kids menu that we've seen on the entire trip. Best yet, when the Boston RedSox win a game the night before, the kids eat free anyway. We ate at Ninety Nine's two times and both visits were after the Redsox won a game. :) Bonus!!

Cape Cod, Massachusetts
The next morning, we woke up and finally made our way to our camp site in Cape Cod. We ended up getting a REALLY good site named Cape Cod Campresort and Cabins. Our site was huge and we have no real complaints with anything. The only downfall to this campsite was the prices inside the camp resort. A small bundle of firewood cost $7! A small bag of ice cost $3.50!! The washing machine cost $3, and the dryer cost another $3! Needless to say, we learned the hard way with each purchase. To offset the cost of the firewood, we all went foraging for wood around the campgrounds after dark. ;)

Free Firewood

Aside from the costs of the items, the place was a 5 star camp resort! They had a very friendly staff that took great pride in the campground. There were all kinds of sites for all types of camping: primitive tent, pop-up, RV's, and cabins. The bath house was immaculate as far as camping bathhouses are concerned. We've seen some doozies in our days, and this one is by far the best that we've seen. No creepy crawly's anywhere, and they were always clean. This resort also offers 3 different pools: a family pool with a slide, a kiddie pool for toddlers, and an adult pool separate from the other two for prime relaxation. There was a huge game room, free wifi, laundry, large pond with paddle boats and kayaks, a huge playground, horse shoes, basketball, volleyball, and more... I would definitely recommend this camp resort to anybody that wants to camp in Cape Cod. Again, be ready to spend some money if you plan to use any of the resources inside the campground though.

Bike Party

Napping at the campground

Writing postcards to family and friends.

Sparkler Party!!

Girls building a log cabin with twigs :)

Jazzy is in her element

Some crazy "Daizi Dance"!? :)

We did venture out in the truck around Cape Cod quite a bit. We got ourselves lost each time we did, and got turned around quite often. We would drive and drive only to be looped back around to where we started a few times. A few times we came into little harbor towns and it was need to see all the little shops and restaurants on the bay. Both of us were very surprised as to how big the peninsula actually was. On paper it looks like a 10-15 mile stretch of land, but it is actually like 75 - 80 miles long. We never did venture out to Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket Island; the boat ride was too pricey for our family of 5 and the islands were nothing more than money-traps anyway. We did go to a couple of beaches and of course we all ate some great seafood.

Beach Babes

Not too much happened outside of our little trips in the truck to various land marks. I did get to see where SteveRunner runs his Falmouth Road Race and it was neat to actually drive on the course that he has always talked about in his podcast. :) Other than that, Cape Cod was pretty much a nautical get-a-way along the Atlantic coast. This was quite a nice little pit-stop town on our way to Maine.

My Happy Campers

Boston, Massachusetts
On Thursday morning, we woke up and got checked out of the campground around 9am. We were going to drive through the gut of Boston, just to say we did it. Boston was pretty cool! We drove under a huge tunnel that spanned +3 miles under the city only to open up to a suspended bridge over other highways in the middle of the Boston skyline. The girls thought it was pretty cool, as did Me and Jennifer of course.

Once we got outside of the Boston city limits, we kept heading north and did quick jaunt through the state of New Hampshire for a few minutes. Our next stop was going to be in the great state of MAINE!!

Living our dream

(to be continued...)

Projects and Fresh Ideas

Jennifer and I were sitting at the kitchen table after a stellar egg breakfast this morning talking about vacation and other stuff. We were also discussing where we saw ourselves in a couple of years, etc... You know, husband and wife talk.

We came up with some really cool ideas that would generate some steady income outside of the ol' 9-5. Jennifer came up with an idea that got my wheels spinning. It got me excited, and I decided to post something about it. The idea is to fill a gap that no other website has done yet and trust me we've looked. It would not only benefit local home owners, like ourselves, but would also benefit local businesses in the area. If we could advertise it and exploit it enough here in Newark, then there's no reason it wouldn't work in Columbus, or any other big city for that matter. I need to do a little more research to see what other gaps we could fill with it, but for now, the idea is very slick, and (most importantly) extremely valuable to all users that would log on. Remember, eBay was started up from a wacky idea to auction off a broken laser pointer. The underlying code was built in a weekend:

Omidyar was 28 when he sat down over a long holiday weekend to write the original computer code for what eventually became an internet superbrand — the auction site eBay. - Wikipedia: Pierre Omidyar

Twitter began in a "daylong brainstorming session"... - Wikipedia: Twitter

Check out the first sketch an idea that later became Twitter: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Twttr_sketch-Dorsey-2006.jpg

Stories like this keep me believing that our idea isn't so far fetched... Our idea is a service that everybody would be able to use, and would have a cool little twist on it that would keep people logged and coming back, much like they do on any other addictive site (eBay, CraigsList, Facebook, Twitter, My blog :), etc..). I'm very excited to sit down and visualize it's underlying architecture and start building the first set of pages. This will be my perfect excuse to master Ruby on Rails and MySql in my spare time. I also need to interview some of my friends and family who own their own businesses to see what I'm missing...

If I can come back from vacation with this much excitement, then it WILL happen. Sorry no more information right now. Feel free to post comments of ideas for such a website though. If that's no a vague request, then I don't know what is. :)

BP Oil Leak in the Gulf of Mexico

What is this planet coming to?

It's been over a month since BP began spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, we're no closer now at stopping the leak than we were the day it happened. Oil has now made its way to shore and has polluted all of the beaches along the Gulf coasts. Yet it's still pumping into the ocean, even as I type this. :(

Here it is Sunday night and the next attempt at stopping the leak isn't going to happen until Tuesday!? How many more hundreds of gallons does this calculate to? Why not try applying that fix RIGHT NOW!?.. Before you go to bed in your multi-million dollar homes another night? Ooh, better yet, why not have a solution planned out before you go drilling the holes in the first place? Greedy assholes! (sorry Mom)

This is incompetence and finger pointing at it's finest. It's simply unacceptable and makes me very angry. My children now have to live with the effects of this insane pollution problem. Thousands of species are being effected by this and will continue to be effected by this for years to come. Hopefully I'm wrong, but it seems like BP is giving about 65% of their effort to clean it up.

In one of the harshest government condemnations of the petroleum giant to date, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said BP had blown "deadline after deadline" and had not "fulfilled the mission it was supposed to fulfill."

"I am angry and I am frustrated that BP has been unable to stop this oil from leaking and to stop the pollution from spreading," Salazar said at a Houston news conference. "We are 33 days into this effort, and deadline after deadline has been missed."

The federal government could resort to taking over tasks now controlled by BP, Salazar suggested. "If we find they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way appropriately," he said. - LATimes.com

I say push them out of the way tonight and take over. Somebody, FIX IT!

Quicken Essentials for Mac

I broke down and bought Quicken Essentials for Mac the other night and I must say that it's a breath of fresh air in regards to how easy it is to use and understand. The price tag was very inviting, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much "bang for the buck" it offers...

Microsoft Money was my app of choice for +10 years and I loved it and lived by it. I started using MS Money '98 back in the day and then upgraded to the 2002 edition. There were some cool new enhancements with the 2004 edition (don't remember now what it was), so I ultimately upgraded to the 2004 edition. I used the 2004 edition for 5+ years. It did everything I needed it to do with reports, budgeting, downloading transactions from my bank, and all that good stuff. Plus, as a developer, I saw greatness in the intuitive UI approach that it showcased. Whenever I wanted to do something, I was able to accomplish it with very little effort using one or two clicks. All of the complexity was hidden from me and I only needed to worry about the numbers being entered... Everything else just worked. This was software at its finest.

Unfortunately, as I was getting ready to upgrade to the 2010 edition, and I saw where MS Money was no longer being developed. It was time that I had to choose another financial software application. I dug around and saw a few good options, but Quicken looked to be the best option for me. My Dad had always used it in the past and really liked it. I remember using it for a year or two when Jennifer and I first moved out on our own, but hadn't looked at it in +10 years.

After a day or two of solid research, I broke down and purchased the Quicken 2010 Home and Business Edition. I instantly fell in love with it. It helped me import my years of transactions from MS Money, and then walked me through the steps to setup a budget and begin tracking progress on my credit and loans. The user interface was a lot different than MS Money, but I got used to it after a few weeks. It was around this same time that Jennifer and I started doing a "cash budget". Quicken (and Intuit) have a lot of online resources for managing finances, and I was able to read a lot about how to get out of debt and manage my money more intelligently. MS Money never really offered that type of online community... or if they did, it wasn't "all up in my face" like it is with Quicken. After using the resources offered to me from within Quicken, I started to care about where my money went again. It really changed the way we manage our paychecks now. Quicken Home and Business was a smash hit for me... and then I got a Mac.

When we bought our Macs, I debated on whether or not to return my edition of Quicken and get a refund since I was still within the 90 day window. As it turned out, the Mac version wasn't going to be available for another month or so. Therefore, I decided to keep the Windows version and then evaluate the Mac version when it would become available. This meant that whenever I needed to work with my finances, I would have to load up Windows 7 in Parallels just to get to my Quicken. This worked, but it was a lot of ceremony to start up my VM and wait for it, then open Quicken, enter some stuff and shut my VM back down. It sounds petty, but it was a lot of "prep work" just to reconcile my account or even enter transactions when I didn't have my VM turned on.

Two days ago, I broke down and bought the Quicken Essentials for Mac and must say that I'm pleasantly surprised with it. Sure, it's missing a lot of functionality in regards to setting up budgets, configuring reports, and managing multiple accounts, but it works quite well for my needs. Basically I just need to enter transactions, track upcoming payments, and see how broke I am at any given time. It does this. However, I'm hoping that the next version focuses more on the reporting and budgeting aspects of home financing.

Here are some of the things that I like about the new Mac version:

• I can create a budget to go against different Categories and Tags
  
• The filtering mechanism is MUCH more intuitive than the windows version.
• It feels like a Mac app (think iTunes or Mac Finder) and this is a big win.
  
• The "Search All" box is extremely useful for finding a specific transaction.
• Scheduled transactions are more like actual transactions.
• Provides a "Favorites" concept for Categories, Payees, and Tags for easy picking.
• Best of all, there is a big fat "Q" icon in my Dock now. :)

Here are some of the things that I do not like about the Mac version:

• It doesn't offer a two-line transaction view.
• Offers very little reporting options.
• Budgeting options are elementary at best.
• I cannot hide unused accounts.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the Mac version. I did use the reporting and budgeting features of the Windows version, but I understand that this is the first (big) release for the Mac since the redesign of the Mac 2007 edition. I hope they release an update soon with some enhancements in those areas.

Kudos Quicken!

The Rain

Call me crazy, but I love it! It's going to be even better once we get our roof repaired (along with the gutters). For now, I just enjoy looking out the window and seeing the puddles fill up in our yard.

Yes, I took a run in the rain this morning. Another one of my favorite things...

Pearl Jam - Columbus, Ohio

Oh. Em. Jee. One of the best live concert I've ever been to...

Jennifer and I went to the Pearl Jam concert last night and it was absolutely amazing! The night started by us meeting up TJ Mummy at his work around 4:45pm. We then headed to Nationwide Arena when his entourage showed up. We got some crazy parking spots that were right outside the venue; they were a little pricey, but worth it.

The Pearl Jam fan club members order their tickets, but have no idea where their seats will be. Since I'm not in the fan club, we relied on TJ's membership. He got us in row V (ie. 22nd row) on the floor! These were the best seats we'd ever had to any show, ever. :) Bonus that it was PEARL JAM!!

Once we got our tickets, we met up with Tyler and Liz and headed over to Boston's Pizzaria for some beers and pizza before the show. We had a blast and met some pretty funny people at the bar. It was PACKED! I actually saw some old faces from high school while we were there as well (Kris & Elizabeth Armstrong with Elizabeth's sister Debbie and her husband, John). It was a nice to see them after all these years.

From the bar, we headed over to Nationwide Arena to find our seats. As we were heading toward the floor, we saw this guy up on stage singing songs acoustically, as we looked closer, we saw that it was Mr. Mike McCready himself. Simply awesome!

Band of Horses
Band of Horses went on and opened up with "Ghost in my House". It's one of those songs that sticks in your head and it was a great opener for the night. They played "Northwest Apartment", "Loredo", "Compliments", and some other really great songs. I was really wanting to hear "Bartles & James", but they didn't play it. :( No worries, I'm still a fan and could see me going to another one of their shows in the future. If you've not heard of them, or know who they are, check them out!

Once Band of Horses cleared the stage, the lights came on it was time for intermission. We headed over to visit TJ & Crystal with their crew, and then headed over to see Tyler and Liz in their seats. It was kind of nice having floor seats, as we were able to move around very easily from place to place. We found out that Dan and his buddy were directly above us in the nose-bleeds. There was a strait line from Dan's seats, our seats and Tyler & Liz's seats. Literally, the same row from left to right. Very weird.

About 30 minutes went by and then the lights started to dim...

PEARL JAM!!
They came out on stage and the crowd went nuts; including me and Jennifer! I've been listening to their music since 1991 when the "Ten" album was released, and I've bought each of their albums, including the "Greatest Hits" and "Live" albums. I took a 3-4 year break but then came right back to them and made up for lost time. I literally know every single song that they sing. They opened with "Oceans" (which was on the "Ten" album), and I must admit that I teared up a little. It's insane that this is the first time that I've been to one of their shows after all these years...

Pearl Jam literally rocked the house! The crowd was amazing. Nobody was sitting down anywhere in the venue. Eddie Vedder is an amazing front man, and he interacted with the crowd quite a bit. All the band members were packed full of pure energy and were jumping all over the place. I can honestly say that they have gotten better with age. Back in the day they were just kids, but now they are all adults and have really become a better band. After years and years of practice, they proved that they know how to put on a show. At one point, Mike McCready had a guitar solo and he literally turned his back to the crowd and played the entire guitar solo with his guitar behind his head! I think it's safe to say that he's played that solo once or twice before.

The energy at Nationwide Arena last night was simply amazing. It was great being able to scream along with every song that they sang. They played songs from each of their albums, and then some. I later found out that "Alone" was a very rare song to hear at a show. The last time that they played it was November last year, but before that was a 3 year window. This is what keeps the Pearl Jam fans coming back, I guess. They keep stats of how many times they hear a song, and where at. I (on the other hand) was just happy to hear them play live. I got to hear one of my favorites: "State of Love and Trust", so that was a huge one for me. Another song that I loved hearing was "Marker in the Sand". I've always liked that song, and I had just rocked that song out the day before in my car with my girls in the back seat. They played "Once", "Spin the Black Circle", "Given to Fly", "Black", etc... The entire set list can be found here: http://pearljam.com/tour/show/nationwide-arena-may-06-2010.

Now, I have to go to more shows so I can see them play "In My Tree", "Nothingman", etc... Uh oh, I got the bug!

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...