Various & Sundries

I was starting to feel like my sleeping had gone to the dogs! (sorry Jay)

Thanks to Caitlin for getting me to post again (truth be told, ever since I returned from my New Jersey trip, work has been very busy with football 2 a days and the start of school). That's my story and I'm sticking to it...speaking of Caitlin...

I had the good fortune of meeting up with her and Jordan at McMullen on Sunday for a marathon simulator that was all about Caitlin's fitness (and boy is it improving). She ended up running 15 miles at about 6:10 pace with her last mile right at 6 minutes (good stuff)

Jordan Kinley...my domestique! (let me explain) During the aforementioned simulator run, at around mile 6, Jordan could sense that I was losing contact with the group. What does he do? He falls back to me, gives some words of encouragement, and within a minute I'm back with the group! (all I could think of was Armstrong climbing the Alps and Roberto Heras coming back to bring him back up to Jan Ullrich)

Greekfest 5k recap: Last Saturday was the Greekfest 5k (was there a runner in Charlotte that didn't know that?) Anyway, all of the players were out including Richard Falcone (looking fit and NOT 40) and as Richard and I were warming up, we ran into JoKin and I introduced them and we continued our warm up together. I was secretly hoping to dip under 17 minutes (I would run 17:03 good for 14th place). I had my great usual battle with Meagan Nedlo who is so tough. She ran the last mile with Caitlin and I could hear her telling Meagan to "catch Spada"...it was neat. Good performances were had by Kinley, Falcone, Paul who was "knackered", BMac, Aaron, Billy, Chad, Pezz, Meagan, Alice, Alana and Danielle from Jersey! Hit the Brixx is coming...

If you look at the right hand side of my blog I have a section called "recommended reads" where I list running books that I have read. While it does not look like I update it very often, I am reading constantly. I am half way through reading "Lore of Running" which is 1,000 pages. When Men's Health or Running Times comes, I'll put the book down and read the whole magazine. Having said all of that, I just finished reading "Open", which is the autobiography of Andre Agassi who was one of my favorites. I broke from tradition since it is not a running book. I did this because whenever Andre needed to get back in shape, his friend and trainer Gil Reyes, would have him run up and down "Gil Hill" right outside of Vegas (I remember that at the time). Long story short...read the book!

Miner's Run: This morning I took part in the Miner's Run which takes place every Tuesday at 5:30am and you can meet at either Old Bell of PDS. This morning's run included Stan (under 18 at Greek), Bill (fresh off of a nasty trail 10k), Mike (picture taker at Greek and getting stronger by the week), Paul (starting his Richmond build up), Billy (keep the pr's coming!), BMac (with his devastating kick), and Jinnie and Mo!

Nike Air Pegasus'...$75, Timex Ironman watch...$59, Hit the Brixx entry fee...$20, watching Jordan run a 200 meter repeat last Tuesday morning on the track...priceless!

If you remember the commercial over the summer during the Tour de France on Versus where you had a group of athletes sitting around a coffee table in the living room. They were discussing what was essential that they carried when they were riding their bike. Bob Roll said it was a Bazooka, Dean said water, Levi said it was his headlamp, and for all of them it was their "Road ID". Well my son just got me the "Road ID!"...I love it!

With only 2 races to go for the RFYL Grand Prix series, some interesting sub plots are forming: Can Billy Shue crack the top 5? Does Alice or Meagan win it for the women? Can Brian, Stan or Chad win their age group? We'll see...

A special thanks to Mark and Bryce Hadley for supplying water and Powerade last Sunday for the run...it really helped!

Now that my New York City marathon training has commenced, I'll be focusing on long tempo's (10 to 18 milers) and long runs (easy, steady or easy with a hard finish). I'm done with the short stuff!

Question: What former Michigan Miler just ran a 3:41 in Europe (he's coming back)?