“ God cannot be EVERYWHERE, right? ( Homer as Adam in a dream ).
Well Florida State made it onto “The Simpsons” show this past weekend. I haven’t seen the episode, but I did receive a video clip from it. The clip does make fun of FSU academics, but it is all worth it to hear Homer say “Go Seminoles!!“.
So Barbie, myself and our friend Junko went to go see the movie “Cold Mountain” last night. Apparantely this movie has been nominated for numerous Academy Awards. I had never even heard of it, but Barbie wanted to see it…and want Barbie wants, Barbie normally gets. Anyways, the movie, originally a book, is focused around two people who are separated b/c the man has to go fight in the Civil War.
From their website:
The acting in the movie was exceptional…especially by Renee Zellwigger who plays Ruby. Unfortunately, I did find myself a little bored at times…but that could be b/c I have been watching too many action movies while riding the bike on my rollers inside the house. So…a decent movie with good acting … that is my “brief” synopsis of “Cold Mountain” the movie.
Well Saturday is a big day for many couples around the world, although Valentine’s day seems to be celebrated more in the U.S. than here in Deutschland. However, it is even a bigger day for Kymba…since it is the day she was born. We got her some new toys, and actually went to the pound to see if we wanted a new dog, but they were closed so she will have to wait for a new puppy to play with.
On Sunday she actually got to go with me for a pretty long run (her longest so far). I was going to be running b/t 10-11 miles, so I took her for 7 miles of the run. She actually stayed in the lead the entire time except for the last quarter mile or so. Needless to say we had a tired Schäferhund that night.
On Friday morning I decided to go to the grocery store relatively early in the morning to avoid the crowds. In case you haven’t heard, all stores close at 8pm everyday, and nothing is open on Sundays except for restaurants and certain other places like gas stations. Therefore, the grocery stores are absolutely packed on Friday evening and all day Saturday. However, what I didn’t know was that grocery stores are also packed on mornings since all the retirees (spelling?) are there. I was probably the youngest person there by a good 30-40 years! Obviously there is nothing wrong with retirees, but I was expecting a nice relaxing shopping experience with no people…instead I get a store packed…although not as bad as on a Saturday. I guess next time I am going to have to go during lunch.
p.s. Did I mention I hate going to the grocery store anyways?
Ponder this.
When NASA first started sending astronauts into space, they quickly discovered that ball-point pens would not work in zero gravity.
To combat this problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 Billion developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.
The Russians used a pencil.
Enjoy paying your taxes.
They are due soon…
This past Monday I experienced something that I never thought I would…swimming outdoors while it snowed! Normally this type of activity is reserved for people in the “Polar Bear” club, but here in Germany it is an every evening occurrence. Of course the big difference is that the polar bears go swimming in an ice cold lake, whereas I got to swim in a heated pool. However, to be swimming and then looking up and seeing it snow is really strange. Luckily this past weekend was extremely warm for our Triunix yearly meeting, of which consisted lots of German food and bier. Anyways, the reason I was lucky it warmed up this past weekend is b/c normally you would have to walk through the snow to get from the pool to indoors, but since it was warm the snow on the ground had all melted. It’s the little things that keep people like me happy. 
By the way, I ended up swimming 2000 meters, not all at once, but in total. Lots of drills and progressive swimming.
I am now officially one of those crazy people who have completed a marathon…a.k.a. 26.2 miles or 42.2 Km. This past Sunday Barbie, myself and Kymba headed over to Bad FĂĽssing so I could participate in probably the only winter marathon in Germany. Luckily, the weather was absolutely great. Of course when I say great, that is a relative thing since it was about 5 degrees Celsius, or 42 degrees Fahrenheit. In the past I would have said temps in the high 30’s to low 40’s is cold, but for running it is very nice (unless you are in the shade for too long). Anyways, onto the race details.
The race began at 10am, which was actually quite nice b/c I didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn like I normally have to for my triathlon races. There were actually 3 races going on that morning, a 10K, half-marathon, and the marathon. The 10K race started at about 9:45, and the half-marathon and marathon started together. There were approximately 1000 people running in the half-marathon and 350 in the full marathon. The course consisted of two loops, and was actually paved the entire way! I had expected to be running in the trails some, and also in the snow, but due to the warmer weather, the snow had melted away on the streets, and I guess I was just wrong about the trails. Anyways, my goal for the day was to Finish and also hopefully be around 4:00 for my time. Although the reason I was doing the race was to gain some mental toughness for my Ironman in July.
First lap (Heaven)
The gun fired, and the race began…although it took about another 30 seconds or so before I actually moved since there were so many people that were in front of me. Anyways, I realized right away that I didn’t need the gloves I was wearing, so I decided to just toss them to Barbie (and Kymba) when I passed them. Sure enough, I saw them and tossed them my gloves. However, as I found out later, other people also decided to toss their gloves to Barbie b/c they thought I did it b/c she worked for the race coordinators. So Barbie ended up with about 5 extra pairs of gloves. Luckily for her there was a cop there that took the gloves and gave them to the appropriate people. Anyways, my idea was to take it easy and just coast. I had been training with a Heart Rate monitor so I knew what pace I would normally run at, but I had read a few days before the race that your HR is normally higher (about 6-7 beats/minute) during the race, so don’t forget to factor that in. During my long run trainings I would try to maintain a HR around 145-150 beats/min, so I figured a good HR for the race was b/t 155-160…which is under my Lactate threshold (165), so it shouldn’t be too bad. Around a mile or two into the race the course kind of weaved a little bit here and there, and there was this guy who was trying his hardest to cut in and out of all these people through this narrow course. He eventually ended up next to me, but since he was concentrating so hard on getting in front of the next person he didn’t notice the course turning to the right. I initially have him a little nudge to indicate we needed to start turning, but no response. I tried again, but with the same result. Finally, it was time to turn and I literally just turned without even considering the fact that he was there. Needless to say he was shoved off in one direction and yelled something at me in Deutsh, but I wasn’t about to head first into a bench b/c he wanted to try and figure out a way to get around someone.
The first aid station came around mile 3. I had been told by many people to make sure I walk through the aid stations and get something to drink. However, what I wasn’t expecting was something warm/hot! Apparantely they decided to serve warm cranberry tea! Needless to say I was wanting some water to wash it down, but to my surprise they had Carbonated water instead of fresh tap water. They also had a drink called ISO, which is supposed to be a sprots drink, but they would mix that with tea also…so either way it was warm, and all you had was carbonated water to wash it down. So the race continued without much else until around mile 6 when a guy started running next to me for a while. Normally they just pass, but this guy and I were running at the same exact speed. After a few 100 meters I decided to strike up a conversation. I ended up talking with this guy for the next 4-5 miles or so about work, and where we came from, marathons, etc. The surprising thing is that I did it all in Deutsch! Quite impressive if I do say so myself. Eventually he surpassed me since he was only doing the half-marathon and wanted to speed up in the last few miles. Coming down to the last mile of the first lap I was feeling pretty good, and my HR was where I thought it was supposed to be, and my time was a little faster than expected, but I felt good. I eventually finished the first lap in around 1:52 (about 8.5 minutes/mile), which was on pace for my 4:00 marathon that I was hoping for.
Second Lap (Hell)
The second lap begins and I feel pretty good. I can tell my pace has dropped a little bit, but I am still on target. However, this feeling didn’t last very long, and about 1-2 miles later I was starting to crash. I wasn’t cramping, but my legs were just starting to hurt and could no longer go. I started to think that I didn’t have enough fuel but I had just eaten a 1/4 of a powerbar a few miles back, so I should have something in me. Plus, I had run longer than this the weekend before without starting to crash this soon. By the time I was 3 miles into the 2nd lap I was dead, and had just posted an average of 11+ minutes per mile for that distance. Hell was just beginning, and I was 10 miles away from the finish line. Slowly but surely my legs seemed to get weaker and weaker, and people were passing me by the dozens. The amazing thing was that I was not exhausted aerobically (i.e. breathing), but my legs just wouldn’t move. I had always told myself to just walk if you can’t run any further, but I would stop jogging and my legs would kill just from trying to walk. I can’t tell you how many times I had to just stop and squat to stretch the legs and give them some sort of break…however, this kills my time. Also, I didn’t notice this on the first lap, probably b/c I was surrounded by more people, but the wind on some of these back stretches was amazing. I was running in what felt like the middle of nowhere, although very pretty with the snow everywhere, and the wind was just gusting and gusting. Nothing is more frustrating then trying to fight the wind…b/c you just can’t win.
Anyways, I am still getting passed by a bunch of people this whole lap, but most of them look pretty tired and exhausted, except for these two guys that passed me around mile 17. They looked fresh and were having what seemed to be fun conversation. So, about a mile later, these two guys pass me again!! I have no idea how I passed them, but didn’t think about it too much until a few miles later when they passed me again. I had no clue and couldn’t figure it out. Eventually I ended up at one of the aid stations and asked the volunteer for some normal ISO, and he had no idea what I was talking about. Instead he asked me if I wanted a beer, and pointed to something behind me. Sure enough, there were these two guys having a beer at the aid station. Apparantely they were running from aid station to aid station and stopping and having a beer!! Are you kidding me!! Only in Deutschland.
So, around mile 20 a guy passed me, and about 30 meters in front of me he stopped suddenly, and basically started to go to the ground. I could tell immediately that he was cramping, so I asked him (in Deutsch) if he wanted my help and of course he said ‘Ja’. So I was able to stop the cramping of his one leg, then the other one cramped up. Eventually (a minute or so), both his legs were back to normal. So this ended up being the only person I would pass on the entire second lap. The funny part is that after a while, the guy with the cramps re-passed me again, but he was jogging very slow, while I was doing a walking and faster paced jog. So we would pass each other back and force like 3 or 4 times, and everytime he would see me as I was barely walking and having to stop. Eventually he said something to me in Deutsch as I passed him again, which I didn’t understand so I told him I didn’t speak Deutsch, and he responded in a heavy Germany accent “You are a fighter!!”. Talk about inspirational…I could just hear the Rocky theme in the back of my mind blaring. Sure enough, I was able to use some of that motivation do up my pace and heart rate for the last 20 minutes. However, with about 3 miles to go, a blind man ended up passing me. He was running alongside another lady, and they would each hold a “large rubber band” type thing, and that would help him know where to go. For any of the curbs or steps, she would just grab his arm and they would slowly navigate the course. Inspirational in the fact that this guy is doing it, but depressing b/c he just passed me. I eventually finished the 2nd lap around 2:53 (13+ minutes/mile pace), over an hour slower than my first lap.
Conclusion
The total time for the marathon was 04:44:57…and you can click here to see all the racing results. The coolest thing is that I was able to go back and look at a graph of my heart rate, and you can just see exactly where I started to fade. According to people I have spoken with, I basically ran of glycogen (a.k.a. sugar for the muscles). I partly blame the race, but I should have brough my own fuel belt so I didn’t have to rely on hot tea and carbonated water. They did have apples/bananas/twix/etc. at the aid stations, but I needed so good ole fashion Gatorade, or something comparable. Needless to say I wasn’t too excited about the time, but I got what I went there for…a finishing medal and some extra mental toughness. I would have to say that the 2nd lap was the hardest thing I have ever had to do, and that includes the 1/2 Ironman I did last year. All in all…I am a marathon finisher!!
