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Unalakleet River Lodge 2011
0We visited the Unalakleet River Lodge over the week of July 4, 2011. We had a fantastic time and wanted to share some of the photos taken during the trip.
Enjoy!
Seattle Marathon 2011
1It’s been a few days since I ran the Seattle Rock-n-Roll Marathon (race was on June 25, 2011). I figure it’s time to finally recap the trip/race.
Pre-Race Fun
We arrived in Seattle on Thursday night (around 11:30pm or so). My cousin picks us up and we head back to her place. After a bit of catching up in the car and with her fiance at their place, we call it a night and turn in.
Friday morning, Sam, Jen and I wake up at our usual early morning time of around 5:30am. Since Seattle is currently 2 hours behind Wisconsin in time, it was really 7:30am, which is pretty late for Sam to wake up. After some morning routines, we get some beverages and head down to the race expo. The race expo was fantastic. After we pick up our packets we decided to shop around and see what they had to offer. Sam was digging all the free stuff and the exercise equipment that was on display. Sam and I both tried out some kind of straps that you lean back on and pull yourself up on. Sam ended up swinging like Tarzan on them. The lady running the booth looked confused. I just laughed it off, it was hilarious to me and wasn’t hurting anything, so have at it. After 5-10 minutes of strap work, we go on the search for more goodies. Muscle milk is nasty, btw, even the free kind.
After the expo, we get dropped off by the Space Needle to start our day of tourism. My cousin (Katie) heads back to her house to start/continue her work day. The Space Needle was amazing. Hardly any wait time to get to the top and it was a clear/blue day so we could see forever.
After the Space Needle, we hit up the Seattle Duck Boat tour. It was really fun. The drivers are all crazy and sing and dance around. Sam loved it and we got to see most of the city.
Some pictures from Friday’s adventures:
On top of the space needle
Sam and the needle
On the duck boat tour
Sam and I on the Duck Boat
Race Day Fun
Side note before I begin… This was my first marathon wearing Vibram Five Finger, Bikila shoes. Very happy with their performance and will definitely do it again.
On race day, our plan was to wake up around 5am and be down to the starting line by 6am. Well, I forgot to set my alarm and we overslept. Woke up at 5:30, which is when we were supposed to be out the door. After quickly thrashing around for everything, we exit the house and head over to the starting line area. It’s in a town about 15 minutes away from where we were.
We get to our exit and find it closed with police on both ends. Turns out they closed it so emergency crews could use it during the race, if they needed to. By this time it was around 6:15 or so (race start was 7am). We see other people start to exit their car and try walking down the exit ramp. You could actually see the starting line from where we were. The police that were there were yelling at the runners to get back in their car. When I say yelling, I mean, literally YELLING. Almost verbally abusing some runners. All of the police were on motorcycles and a couple of them were zipping up and down the shoulder screaming into their megaphone/microphone things yelling at people getting out of their cars. They were threatening to give everybody tickets if they got out. My question was, without ID on them, how could a ticket be issued? I could say my name was Bob Jones. Anyways, the police went WAY overboard in my opinion. I completely understand that having people walking down the highway/exits is definitely not safe for drivers or the people walking, however, it was a parking lot out there and no cars were moving and the starting line was only a couple hundred yards away. For the police to be verbally abusing everybody just trying to get to the race they paid over $100 to participate in, was, in my mind, uncalled for. They, however, had their orders, and who am I to argue with that. On a side note, I will be expressing my opinions in the race survey…
The police tell everyone to take the next exit and “go around”. Well there was a line of cars as far as the eye could see in front of us and in back of us. “Just going around” was going to take hours. It ended up taking about an hour and a half. At around 7:30am (30 minutes AFTER the race began) we got as close as about a half mile from the starting area. Katie and I kiss our loved ones and jump out of the car on a side road and start trucking it to the starting line.
We get there to find out that all the marathoners had already started and they were onto the half marathon group now. We go as far up as we can in the corals and take our place amongst the halfers. The gun sounds and FINALLY, we’re off and running. Our official start time was 7:52am. Almost an hour late. Wow, with that stress behind us, we focus on the task at hand, which, at that point was to not get disqualified and make it to the first check point at mile 9 in time.
We ran the first 10 miles pretty darn fast. Averaging around a 9 minute pace through out. We were zig zagging in and out of the half marathoners and every once in a while we saw another marathon bib in the crowd. That made us feel good. We were finally starting to catch up to the marathon runners. We saw our cheering crew (Jon, Jen & Sam) at mile 5. It was great to see them. It made us speed up even faster and rejuvenated us. It’s amazing what seeing your family on the course does for you. At mile 9, the group split and the halfers went one way and marathoners went another way. FINALLY, we got to see where we stood in the pace standings. After a couple hundred yards of looking for pace runners, I spot the 5 hour pace flag about 50 yards in front of us. We sped up a bit and took him down. After that, we settled into our pace, which was between 9 and 10 minutes per mile.
Miles 9 through 12 were an out-n-back on a floating bridge and seemed to take forever to finish. One of three different out-n-backs on the course. Each of them were equally gruesome. Note to self, not a fan of those on a race course, at all. When we got to mile 12, Katie told me she had a twinge in her hip and foot. We slowed down a bit and walked for little while during the water stop. After we picked back up and started running again, mile 13 was on a freeway and the road was slanted down and to the right. Running on a slanted road was difficult. Makes your stride get all screwy and didn’t help Katie’s hip twinging. Miles 14 and 15 took us off the highway and through downtown Seattle. It was nice to get back into the city and see all the people cheering and bands rocking out again. Not much to look at between miles 10 through 14 at all. We got to mile 16 and found it was back on a freeway and the road was slanted the other way, down and to the left. Again, very hard to run on that surface. We saw our cheering crew again at mile 16. This time, we stopped to talk to them. Katie’s hip and foot were causing a ton of pain for her. We chit chatted for a few minutes, I had an energy gel and ran with Sam to the water stop. He loved getting a cup of water from a lady and drinking it with me on the course. It was so sweet. After the pit stop, we kept going, though, we walked for almost a mile after mile 16. Each time Katie tried to run, her foot and hip made her stop and walk. We find a medic on a bicycle and ask his advice. He tells us that a medical tent is just a couple hundred yards ahead and we should just stop there. So, we walk over to the tent and she explains her ailments. We were expecting them to stretch her out or something, but the lady at the tent just told her how to stretch her hip herself. Katie explained about the (what felt like) HUGE blister on the arch of her foot was really more painful than her hip. The medic said they could take the shoe off and check the blister, but it would probably only make things worse. So, she decides to take a couple Tylenol and push through it. We walk for another half mile or so and saw the 5 hour pace runner pass us. Our goal time was 5 hours, but with Katie in pain, I knew the goal was to finish, not to meet any time. We just kept pushing on.
At around mile 18, the Tylenol kicked in and Katie’s pain subsided a lot. We start running again and kept running until the next water stop around mile 20, which is also where we saw our cheering crew again. I waved Sam over to me and he jogged with me for 50 yards or so. Really cool. We move on past mile 20 and pick up our pace again back to around a 9 to 10 minute per mile pace. At around mile 22, we’re joined by a lone runner on our tails who tells us our pace is perfect and he’s going to run with us for a bit. So, we chat with him for a bit and the three of us just keep pushing on.
Somewhere between mile 22 and mile 24, my foot started to hurt. Thinking back, I don’t recall which foot hurt, but I remember wincing with pain a few times and sort of limp running for a half mile or so. It stopped hurting after mile 25, so I didn’t give it another thought. Miles 23 through 25 was another out-n-back and Katie and I both swear those miles were longer than they should have been. I’m sure being 25 miles into a run had nothing to do with our judgement at the time. 
We walked once during that stretch, nearing mile 25. I like to think that during the walking time at mile 25 we picked out our targets to take down before the finish line. I point out a guy a couple hundred yards in front of us. I told Katie “that guy, in the orange tanktop, he CAN’T beat us”. So, we started back up again and took him out in about a minute. We kept this up for the last 1.2 miles of the run. We picked out and took down a bunch of runners in that time. It’s fun to have a target to focus on, even if they have no idea we’re after them.
The last half mile, as we came into the downtown area again with lots of spectators, we picked up our pace even more and were running around an 8 minute per mile pace. We finished very strong and our finish times are EXACTLY the same. As we crossed the finish line, I made sure my foot was in line with Katie’s in the hopes that we could get the same times. Success!
We stop to pickup our medals and get a finish line photo taken.
Finish Line Photo
The bananas and oranges and other goodies were further down the line, so we kept moving through the area to get food and water. Got my first space blanket too. I was excited about that.
I won’t bore you with the final details, I’ve already been extremely verbose with this recap as it stands, no need for anything further.
Will I run Seattle again? Sure, absolutely. Sam and I made a promise that he wants to run it with me. So I told him the next time I run it, he can run too. So, I guess I need to find out the age requirements and make plans. He’s 5 now, so we have plenty of time.
Will Katie run Seattle again? I believe her exact words were “One and I’m done”.
Our official finish time was 5:02:21. Not too far off from our 5 hour time goal. Very happy about that.
It was really a really fun race, regardless of how it started. If you’ve read this far down, thank you and I’m sorry for being so long winded.
Here are some more pictures I scavenged off the official photo website. We’re buying a few of them so I don’t feel bad posting these smaller ones.
Chia Seed Drink Recipe
1359 days
After reading the book Born to Run, I went on a hunt for Chia seeds. They are super nutritious and awesome to make sports drink alternatives out of.
Jen was able to find Chia seeds on Amazon for a decent price per pound. This, is similar to what we ordered.
There are a ton of websites out there that talk about the benefits of Chia seeds. This is one that I like. The list below is an excerpt from the linked website.
Chia seeds:
- Rich in Omega-3
- High in calcium
- Low in sodium
- Hydrates you by absorbing water
- High in antioxidants
- High in fiber
- Lowers your cholesterol
- Rich in potassium, iron, selenium
I searched online to find a good recipe to make a “sports drink” that I could use instead of Gatorade. I found a lot of recipes, but nothing in a 1-drink size, they were all bulk sized recipes, to make a pitcher or gallon of the stuff. Since I was interested in a 1-cup at a time deal, I just came up with my own, based on what I had in the kitchen.
Recipe:
- 8 ounces water
- 4 ounces orange juice
- 1 tsp sugar (or less, depending on your taste)
- 1 tablespoon Chia seeds (or slightly more)
- Stir it all up in a large glass, let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Letting it sit, gives the seeds time to soften up and absorb some of the liquid and turns the liquid to a slight gel consistency. It’s not like drinking jello or anything, you can barely tell.
- Fill another glass with ice and pour it in
- Enjoy the tasty beverage!
I don’t have a name for the drink yet, but am willing to take suggestions.
Other links:
http://kabochavore.com/2011/04/09/chia-seeds-are-the-new-gatorade/
http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/2011/01000/Omega_3_Chia_Seed_Loading_as_a_Means_of.9.aspx
http://www.flickr.com/photos/notahipster/4999199198/
1 Year Running Anniversary
0360 days
On May 25, 2010, I ran my first mile. The pace was 9:36 and I remember feeling like I wanted to die.
I started running as a part of my company’s Wellness Program. An incentivized program that rewards employees for exercise and consistent updates to the programs website. I joined a team of coworkers and we all started together. We’re a mostly remote group of people, so when I say “together”, I mean “virtually together”. Only one of the 5 people lived within driving distance to me. He and I ran our first 5K together in June 2010 at the Milwaukee County Zoo. My pace at the 5K was 9:10. I remember feeling like death for about 20 minutes after the 5K.
I ran a total of 5 races in 2010 (from June to November), each of them unique in their own way. I’ve linked each run to my DailyMile profile where I talked about each run. If you want to read my race report for the race, feel free to follow the link. It will open a new window/tab when you click it, so you can easily come back to this page just by closing the other page.
Lombardi 5K Run/Walk for Cancer: Dedicated to my mother-in-law who passed away from cancer a few years back. (I ran, wife/family walked). Ran with a friend.
Kishwauketoe Trail 5K: Local, small town nature conservatory. Entry fees went to a great, local cause. This was the race where I figured out how slow I was compared to others and how much more I needed to train. Solo run.
Storm the Bastille: Night fun run that zigzags through downtown Milwaukee. Solo run and PR’d my 5K time.
Chicago Half Marathon: Longest run ever. Felt like I was going to die afterwards. Ran with DailyMile friend, Eric (Runs4Brains). After the half marathon, I ran sporadically for about a month, recovering from the beating my body took.
Lake Geneva Turkey Trot: Trail 10K race in Lake Geneva. I PR’d my 10K time and had an awesome run. Solo run.
The turkey trot was the final race of 2010. Up next was the indoor marathon relay, in Milwaukee, in January.
InStep Indoor Marathon Relay: Team of 4 people, 1 of whom I actually knew. The other 2 were strangers, but we had fun none-the-less.
From January to May 2011, is the winter season and training for my first marathon. I signed up for the Lake Geneva marathon in early 2011 and trained through-out the blustering winter for it.
Lake Geneva Marathon: If you read my race report, it looks a bit scatter-brained. I was going to go back and reorganize my thoughts, but I decided that, that’s how my brain worked afterwards, may as well keep it that way, so I remember. This was HARD. The Lake Geneva course is known for its grueling hills and solitary running. No crowds, no fan-faire, just 26.2 miles around the awesome lake, mostly solo. Jen, my mom/dad and the kids met me at a few spots, which was nice. Hearing them cheer me on helped. Started with 2 friends, ran 99% of it solo.
Up next is the 2011 Lombardi 5K Run for Cancer on June 11. I plan on PR’ing my 5K time from last year by a lot.
After that, the Rock-n-Roll Seattle marathon, on June 25, 2011. I’m running with my cousin, Katie, who wanted to run her first marathon this year as well. She and I will hopefully start and finish together. At least, that’s the plan. Training for a 5K and a marathon at the same time is proving to be challenging. I want to run the 5K hard and the marathon easy, so finding the mix during my training runs is confusing sometimes. It’ll all work out fine, no need to stress over it.
In July, I have the Kishwauketoe Trail 5K race. After July, I don’t have any races scheduled. There are a few other 5K/10K’s in the area that I’m eyeballing, but nothing concrete just yet. Going to get through marathon #2 and the others before committing to anything else.
Also in July, I’m traveling to Alaska. I hope to get in some remote Alaska runs and get them logged on my Garmin GPS watch.
My longer term goals are:
- Improve my 5K and 10K times
- Setup/coordinate a 5K in Lake Geneva
- Keep running; regardless of if I’m training for something or not.
- Run for fun!
Thanks for reading my year in running. Here’s to another great summer and year!
Run Photos
0From the Kishwauketoe Nature Conservatory in Williams Bay, WI on 10/29/2010. Ran 3 miles around the trails, very fun.
Sam & Me
1Sam and I went to Target the other day. I took his picture standing in the big circle thing and he wanted to take my picture, so he did. Pretty cool that he can operate the iPhone camera now.
