This morning Jonnene and I got up at 6am which is a more respectable hour to wake up for the day compared to the 5am alarms so that we can walk the dogs to we can get a quick ride in or go to yoga/pilates (well, Jonnene does that). This time we were going to do the local bike club's monthly ride from Ford Park which started at 7:30am. We had already put our gear together the night before so it wouldn't take long to pack up the car and get on our way. So why not sleep in a bit later?
With the hot weather we've had (last significant rainfall was June 22nd) it would already be near 90F by the time we started our ride. It was a huge crowd...don't have a total number...but it included several from Texas who were invited to partake in the ride and the food that is served up afterward.
The group starts to gather up before heading out from Ford Park.
The ride itself went pretty well with the longest distance being 48 miles which I would eventually get into a small group of faster riders in the last 10 miles where we really pushed the pace with some significantly-fast surging up the hills. Jonnene rode really well on the way out but started to have some issues with the heat in the last part of her ride. She felt she hadn't hydrated enough the day before but she would be fine. It was getting close to 100F by the time we returned to the park. The food and drinks were welcomed and fairly well consumed. Good time had by all, generally speaking.
After getting some much needed showers and a bit of rest at home we headed over to my mom's house to move a queen-sized mattress from one part of her house to another and get her computer set up for Skype so she can talk to and see us when we go to Oz. She can also have a chance to talk to Holly while she is in Hong Kong. Then we made a quick stop by the grocery store for a few items. The rest of the day/night we're at home, just relaxing. Tomorrow I need to get some training in for the individual time trial district championships a week from now in LaPlace. I'm quite sure it'll be hot tomorrow, too!
I tell you, I thought I had last written in this blog much more recently. Then I finally look at the date of my last entry and it's in March....MARCH! Time has flown by way too fast and I haven't kept up. Many things have happened. Here's a brief look at them and I'll get into any particular ones at a later date...hopefully, not five months later:
1. Jonnene and I have been married 5 years as of May 6, 2011.
2. I took three of my Centenary triathlete students to the national collegiate championships in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Two weeks later a tornado came through Tuscaloosa, damaging property and killing people.
3. My niece, Holly, went to Hong Kong this week to be an exchange student at Lingnan University. And she's the reason I'm trying to get my blog active again (she's started one herself to record her experiences).
4. I did my Rouge-Roubaix bicycle race last March. The first eighty miles weren't so bad. The last 26 were not pleasant at all, finished the 106 miles in 6:06, slower than I wanted to go. Good thing: NO flats.
5. I've already competed in two other bike races since then and I've three more (I think) on my schedule left to go.
6. Jonnene has done a couple of triathlons but she's not as active this year. Kinda taking a break from all the action.
7. Both of us are going to Australia late in the year. We hope to bring Holly down from Hong Kong at some point while we're there for a visit. Hey, we're on that side of the world, Holly's on that side of the world....just makes sense.
8. We have had over 45 days of 100+ degree temperatures this summer. No measurable rain since June 22nd. The grass in the front yard is dry and brown. The good side? Don't have to mow it!!
9. I'm feeling very optimistic for a good football season out of my ULM Warhawks. We have a good team this year and we will be in a bowl game! I promise you!!!
10. I got first place in my age group in a few races this year (duathlon and a couple of 5K runs). My competition is skeered of me.
Knocked out 80 miles today. Eighty. My last long ride before the Rouge-Roubaix bicycle race in St. Francisville, LA in a week. That'll be 106 miles of exquisite effort and some pain with about 20-22 miles of the route on gravel/dirt roads, some of which possess a few hills that'll more than tempt you to get off the bike (if you don't fall over first) and walk. I've done The Rouge three times and I've walked parts of the course each time. Watch the video at the link above and you'll see why.
Anyways, I had a pretty good ride today. Got a little aggressive on some climbs and went thru a couple of dirt sections with a bit of speed. Our ride "leader", Mack (that means he knows the routes better than we do), followed me on a muddy section because I was picking good lines thru the debris and he said he trusted me to lead through. I was chasing Chris but he already had a good lead going into the section, so catching him was going to be a bit hard...however, I didn't have to. I did go after him and Warren a couple of other times when they took off later in the ride and caught them. I'm not going to say I'm ready for The Rouge (I'm not...not enough, anyway) but I hope to make myself proud. It'll be a good workout and maybe I might place well enough in the Masters 50+ to get some points for my team.
Jonnene and I are talking about other improvements we need to do for our house. The kitchen is a high priority but not an immediate one. We're moving our sights to the back yard for now. The gutters that I put up a couple of years ago are going to come down and we'd get new ones put up by professionals. Remove a couple of trees, too, but I need to remove part of the patio bricks and concrete so that the trunk of one of the trees can be ground down after it has been reduced to a stump. Replace the patio surface with new patterned concrete and possible include a deck. Then improve the drainage and get some grass back there. Oh, yeah, and a new storage building would be nice, too. Obviously, we'll do this a bit at a time, in a timely and orderly manner.
Already had some work done on the front of the house last week to replace some rotting fascia boards. The husband of a friend (who is also a graphic designer) is an independent contractor and I hired him to fix it all. He got it done in a day and he did a fine job. I finished painting the new work on Friday after priming the wood and reset one of the corner pillars on the front porch in the meantime.
It's always something.
- I recently exchanged Twitter messages with Adrianne Curry, an actress and model. She won the first season of America's Next Top Model. We discussed the maturity level of 18-year-olds in regard to military service and voting. I was actually surprised she responded to my comments. Of course, that doesn't compare to being able to correspond with Michael Yon who is a war correspondent (he has a book coming out that I will have to get a copy of). He and I have exchanged a couple of conversations via FaceBook about Mount Everest, Katrina (the hurricane), and flying into Iraq. He's former military and writes about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus he has an intense interest in the Far East, especially Thailand. His photography is outstanding and his writing equally so.
- Taking three of the kids from the Centenary Cycling & Triathlon Club to Fort Worth this weekend to participate in the Texas State Duathlon Championships on Sunday morning. I won't be racing this time. The entry fee this week was $60 and it wasn't worth that much money for me to run-bike-run in under 75 minutes. Heck, it was $50 each for the students a couple of weeks ago (that the club is paying for) and I thought it was too much then! I don't understand why it's so expensive unless it has something to do with insurance and liability. I hope the race packet has some decent swag in it or we're not coming back to this particular race.
- I've been trying to prepare for the Rouge-Roubaix bike race coming up on March 13th. I need a couple more long rides (like, 60+ miles) to feel like I have a chance of completing this race the way I'd be proud of. I've already paid the entry fee (that was a lot, too) and reserved the hotel so I gotta go. There's already 23 Masters racers (40+ and 55+ age groups) pre-registered including four of my teammates from Team LaS'port. I'm expecting that number of 23 to probably double by race day, maybe even triple! The bike is ready to go. Am I? Only three more weeks to train!
- Looking to do a few needed repairs on the house this spring and I still have leaves to rake up. We have a fascia board that is apparently rotting so I'm going to have a guy come out to see what needs to be done...hopefully it's just that one board. So many things we want to do in the back yard. Sheesh! We need to cut back on the spending this year since we're planning a big trip to Oz but there are still projects that have to be taken care of. Home ownership is a wonderful thing, right?
I committed to do the Rouge-Roubaix bike race on March 13th down in St. Francisville. As I signed up online I was wondering if this was smart...still not sure but I've paid the money and I guess I gotta go. The Rouge is in its 13th year and I've done three of the races with the last one being in 2004. It wasn't a very good race then because I wasn't in shape for it and really shouldn't have been there. So I've wanted to go back and try to redeem myself but most of the time it didn't work out. So now I'm going to do it and, like the the marathon, it'll be a matter of getting into shape. The Rouge-Roubaix itself is a 100+ mile bicycle race with about 24 miles of the course on country backroads on dirt and gravel surfaces. It's a hard race and considered to be one of the toughest in these here United States. If you're not in position to contend then you're in a position hoping to just survive. Then when you finish...after swearing you'll never do this race again...you start thinking about how you could do it better next year.
So, yesterday, I went out on my first official training ride for the Rouge. That means a long ride...in this case, about 70 miles...and I went with a few guys who took me on a 265-minute journey thru parts of Caddo and DeSoto Parishes that I'd never been on before. More than half of that ride was on country backroads to simulate some of the sections of the race. They were on mountain bikes and I was the only one on a road bike which means I have no suspension to soften the pounding I would take as I went around, over, and through potholes, bumps, mud, and whatever else you don't normally see on a smooth road. It was actually an enjoyable ride although I did get shook up quite a bit and joked that I thought I had loosen up any blood clots that I might have had, if any. My bike seemed to survive okay but it'll need some cleaning. Here's the LINK to photos of the route that someone else had taken a couple of years earlier. When we rode it, the roads were drier and well packed but we did come across a number of rocky areas including a 1/2 mile of fresh dropped white gravel rock that I had to struggle with to keep upright. Basically you have to keep pedaling the bike...if you stop at any point you'll either fall over or will have to dismount. You won't be able to get back on and ride again, you can only walk out of the mess. I managed to stay on the bike but it took lots of concentration to keep myself from falling on those rocks!
So, yeah, my legs are tired but I'll give them an easy spin late this afternoon before I give the Centenary kids a time trial fitness test. They have a busy semester ahead of them if they want to do the races and they'll have to train. Oh, yeah, and study for their classes, too!
Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted here, hasn't it? The master bath is finished and it looks great! I'll post a photo sometime later. The holidays and most of this month is all about spending money...and I've reached a point in my life where I hate to spend money. It's a necessary evil but I don't have to like it. The obvious for December is the holidays and getting gifts, going to parties, and such. In January it's all about my truck repairs, dog bi-yearly exams, getting the first flight reservations for our trip to Oz a year from now, getting racing licenses, and buying new racing uniforms. Yuk.....
Anyway, more to come on all that later. As to the headline for this entry, it's true. My step-mother is a thief. I don't say that lightly but with all seriousness. Right now, until she issues a proper apology and offers reparations, I don't intend to have anything more to do with her the rest of my life. It is genuinely all about the principle of the thing.
We had gone to my Dad's house Christmas Eve to spend some time with him and the step-in-laws, most of whom I like and enjoy seeing. I had brought most of the presents, my computer, and other things in a plastic tub so it'd be easier to carry them. The laptop computer was so Jonnene and I could see her family open presents...via Skype...down in Australia on their Christmas morning. After emptying out the plastic tub I noticed that I had included two small packages that I had not meant to bring along...presents, for a couple of other people, of chocolate that I had ordered from a place representing a company in New Zealand. I had gotten Jonnene a whole bunch of the stuff as a present for her. I put them back in the tub to bring back home.
Thing was, I forgot to bring the tub home. At least I didn't forget the computer! I decided that I would get the tub later when the Christmas holiday was past and there was no hurry to get the small packages, wrapped but with no name tags, to the folks I intended for them. I had to go back to Dad's anyway since I had unfortunately duplicated a present he had already received and I would substitute something else for him instead.
So...Monday morning I'm on my way to Dad's and I called while driving to make sure everyone was home. The step-mother answered the call and, after a short chat, I mentioned that I was also going to pick up the tub with the two small presents in it that I'd left in Dad's office last Friday night. Then she said, with surprise, that she didn't know those were presents! She wasn't sure who they belonged to, so she had opened them and consumed the contents! She had eaten two large bars of chocolate in two days not knowing why the chocolate was there or who they were intended for. She had made no attempt to find out who they belonged to, didn't call anybody to inquire. She told me that she was sorry about that, but that the deed was done. She said, "I wish I could take it back but I can't." And she said it very abruptly with no sound of remorse in her voice. Not even an offer to make up for it. I was stunned and just said I'd be there in a little while to get the tub and drop off Dad's gift.
As I drove up to the house, I was getting more angry about what happened. The packages were wrapped in gift paper...there were no name tags...they were found in a plastic tub, not under the tree or in a place where a "secret Santa" might have left them as obvious presents to her. She had taken it upon herself to open them and eat them. Did she think for a minute that somebody might be calling to ask about them? I couldn't believe the height of arrogance displayed here.
I came into the house and gave Dad his present, which he appreciated, and we talked for a bit about other things. The step-mother came in during that time with a small holiday-styled sack that contained some of her home-made fudge and something else that was wrapped up. She said that she hoped I would accept it as a substitute for the other packages. I told her that it wouldn't (this was fudge that was already in her house, that she could have eaten instead of wolving down the New Zealand chocs...I found it a weak substitute, totally inadequate). She replied as she walked down the hall that that I could take it or leave it. It was up to me. I decided to leave it and put it on a table in Dad's office. If I had accepted it then I would have been giving her a pass and forgiveness for taking something that didn't belong to her. She had offered a poor substitute as compensation plus no offer of money to replace what she had eaten.
It was the principle of the thing and I couldn't forgive that unless she was willing to admit that she did the wrong thing and was truly sorry. I wasn't getting that from her at all. In fact, her tone was such that it felt like she was trying to make me the villain for leaving the chocolate which "tempted" her to open and consume it! I felt no guilt and I knew who was at fault. If I had left anything else, would that mean she was free to take it, too? Did it matter if it was an item of small value or did it mean more if it was an expensive item?
No. It doesn't matter the value. She stole. She made no resonable attempt to compensate or try to realize what she had done. She didn't even ask the nature of the gift....as far as she was concerned it was just some chocolate I probably bought at Wal-Mart or Target. It was much more than that but I'm not going to bother telling her unless I have to. I've never trusted her that much in all the time I've known her but this was the final straw. I do not intend to do anything that involves her if it's within my ability to do. If I ever do have to deal with her it'll be because I have to and can't avoid it. But, essentially, I'm done with her.
Eventually I'll have to explain this to Dad when a future situation calls for it. I don't know what he'll think of that. If he defends her I'll understand. I won't be upset at him for doing that. I'd defend Jonnene in an instant if she were accused of something, false or not. In this case, I just hope Dad and I will be okay with each other.
What a week....we had the funeral for Jim on Tuesday. It was a great service with tremendous music. During the visitation Jim's CD's were playing in the background of the songs he sang and recorded. There was a new appreciation for the deepness and tone of his voice as we visited with relatives and friends. His son and daugher-in-law were able to come down from Tennessee and it was actually the first time I'd ever met them...very nice people and easy to talk to. During the service, one young man named Ben Waites sang. He knew Jim and is going to Louisiana College but didn't hesitate to skip his classes to come to the services. He's also confined to a wheelchair, unable to get much use from his arms and legs but he has the most incredible voice. He sang two songs that were so fitting for the service. Jim would have loved it. Then there were two very young ladies who play violin and had recorded a few songs with Jim years ago. They played a most beautiful duet that really set the mood. Since then Jim's body was cremated and he's at home now while Mom decides, in her own time, what she will do with the remains.I got the shoes that I'm going to use in the Marine Corps Marathon on the 31st: a pair of Asics Gel-Nimbus 12, size 11, with the proper insoles. Tested them for six miles yesterday morning and they felt great. Even my leg behaved itself, enabling me to go at marathon pace. Tomorrow is my last long training run, about 26 miles, and I'll see how they feel on my footsies for almost five hours.
Here's what's going to get me through my first marathon.
Pretty, ain't they?
The tile work is done and grout has been applied, as seen in the picture above. Monday the tile will be cleaned and sealant applied. Hopefully, by Tuesday the toilet will be in place as well as the faucet/levers for the sink. We still have to choose cabinet door handles and drawer pulls plus determine the size of the mirror over the sink...we're reusing the mirror from the original bathroom but it'll have to be cut down to a size that'll work in the new place. But so far it's looking really good!
The tiling on the bathroom shower has begun! Photos below....The funeral services for Jim have been scheduled for Tuesday at 1 pm. We spent a couple of hours at the funeral home taking care of paperwork and becoming familiar with how the whole process works. He will be cremated and that procedure was described to us so we'd know what was happening. It all took over 2 hours to get most everything arranged and it seems to be the way we want it. Later I sent a photo of Jim and a written obituary to both the funeral home and the church for them to use in the paper and the service program.Only did mile repeats today for my marathon training. Next Sunday is 26 miles and then I start tapering. I also signed up Jonnene for the 10K race being held there the same day. Should be fun!
The tiling has started in the shower. The young man doing this is very meticulous in how he sets up the tiles and the details he has created to make this shower a bit unique. He knows his stuff.
A closeup of the back corner of the shower. You can see the little triangular seat that's been placed in the corner. Normally this would be bigger but we were concerned that we needed as much stand-up space in the shower as we could get so it's sized enough to allow one to sit on it but not for long. It's mainly to let Jonnene prop her leg up to shave. The shower floor tile has not been installed yet. The horizontal band with the multi-colored small stones come from an Australian company. The green "spots" on the tiles are tile spacers that'll be removed once the tiles have set.
My stepfather, Jim Parker, passed away last night. It was a surprise or maybe it wasn't a surprise. He had been in two hospitals over the last five weeks after surgery to try to find out why he was having breathing difficulties. It was pretty much determined that he had fibrosis (can't remember the proper name) that may have been the result of being exposed to asbestos in his younger years working in construction and in housing units that he helped maintain for the city. From what I know about asbestos exposure, it is a nasty way to live after it makes itself known. There is no cure.Both he and Mom had their surgeries the same day. She had gone in to repair a broken wrist, just day surgery. Jonnene drove her to the clinic for her procedure and I drove Jim over to LSUMC for his surgery. I hate, now, thinking that when we drove away from their house that it would be the last time Jim would ever see it. I had a suspicion of the possibility but I was hoping for the best. In fact, all during the time Jim suffered through the recovery from the surgery I felt he would get to go home at some point, even as late as yesterday afternoon. This past week had started hopeful as he was being weaned from his oxygen and starting some therapy. He was happy to get out of that hospital bed and move around a little bit. But Friday morning his CO2 levels were very high and it was hard to wake him. He was put back on oxygen in an attempt to purge the CO2's out of his blood.Jonnene went up to check on him during her lunch hour and he was rousing some, recognized her being there. When Mom had gotten the news that morning she was upset but relieved some when she got Jonnene's call and update on his condition. I went up there to see him later in the afternoon and Mom had already been there for a couple of hours. His breathing was labored and you could hear him trying to cough up the gunk in his lungs but he didn't have the lung capacity to get enough air to cough it up at all. We were able to talk to him, he wanted to know where his glasses were but didn't want to put them on. Mom and I talked about things regarding Jim and his condition plus some other things. I left around 4:40 pm to go pick up a couple of items at Target and I thought he was going to improve after he'd had the weekend to recover a bit. I was already thinking we'd get him out of the hospital for a day over the next week. He looked so sad and so tired...we knew that the only thing he wanted was to just go home, even for a short while. Was that so much to want?Anyway, Mom left soon after I did. She gave Jim a kiss, he kissed her back, and they told each other that they loved each other. She went to the grocery store to get a few things.I was home with Jonnene when we got the call around 5:45 pm to come back to the hospital because there had been a change in Jim's condition. That's not good news. Then Mom called, upset. She was still in her car when she got the call and wanted to know if we knew anything. We didn't and soon we were on our way back to Willis-Knighton.When we had gotten those calls the staff on Jim's floor was working to resuscitate Jim. His nurse, Jonathan, had been at the front desk making notes of Jim's condition by checking the monitor there. Jonathan told us later that as he looked at the screen Jim went from having a pulse to virtually no pulse, just like that. It stunned Jonathan for a second and he and others were in Jim's room in seconds since it was just 15 feet away. They tried for 15 minutes to bring him back. We met Mom in the parking lot and went upstairs where they told us he was gone.So, anyway, this bear of a man who liked to sing and dress as Santa Claus for kids was gone. Now we have to deal with the funeral arrangements and trying to keep Mom in one piece. To say she is sad is an understatement. At the time of this writing there are no plans in place but we'll take care of most of that later today.I had been hoping we could sneak him home for a while to see his dogs and be in familiar surroundings. I don't think the remainder of his life would have been of any kind of quality that would remotely resemble anything good. At least he's not in pain anymore and the last 26 years with Mom was probably the next closest thing to heaven he could have ever wished for. Mom's face was the last one he saw and I think that would satisfy him.
Last Sunday I ran 23 miles. NEVER have I run 23 miles. It's a long way. But I had to do it because I have to do these long runs to prepare for my marathon...only 32 days away now. It actually went quite well. I prepared for it in the couple of days before, eating right, drinking enough to be hydrated properly (I had to pee five times during that run since I was so well hydrated), and getting back from a football game in Monroe soon enough Saturday night to allow me to get enough sleep before heading off at 6 am Sunday morning. I ran slowly because the purpose of the long run is to build endurance. Speed in not important. You save the speed work for the shorter runs during the week. So I ran about 3 minutes per mile slower than I would have for the actual race, going at a 3:1 run/walk ratio: run three minutes, walk one minute. I ended up with an 11:07 per mile average, almost dead on three minutes slower than the 8:05-8:15 pace I want to do at the marathon. And I felt very good afterwards. I did some errands and took my niece and her boyfriend out to a quarterhorse ranch that a cycling buddy of mine owns. They seemed to like that a lot.I also signed up Jonnene to do the 10K run that will be held in conjunction with my marathon up in Washington, DC. We had thought the race was filled with their 10,000 runner limit but a notice came up on FaceBook that fifty spots were open so I grabbed one for her. The nice thing for her is that she'll start her run (at a different location but the same finish line) the same time I do but she'll be done soon enough that she can go back to our hotel, clean up, and come back out to see the last part of my race. She'll be done in about an hour while I'll still have 2 hours and 45 minutes to finish my race...if I do it in the 3:45 time that I want.The bathroom is coming along and the tile should start going up by Thursday...I hope.
The countertop to the vanity has arrived and was installed. The undercounter sink was attached, too.
The shower area has had several coats of waterproofing "stuff" applied to the concrete board and surrounding sheetrock. It's almost ready for tiling once the copper pan is attached to the floor. You can also see the two insets on the wall where we will be able to put shampoo bottles and things like soap.
It'll be nice.
Jonnene and I after her race where she finished 7th in her age group.
Sunday was the 30th anniversary of the River Cities Triathlon up at Cypress Lake. I've done this race about 10 times with the last one in 2004 and that was when I swore off triathlons and went directly to duathlons. I wasn't interested in learning to be a better swimmer so why not do races at what I was better at? The last couple of years I've been in charge of the bike portion of the race which means I have to come up with volunteers to man all the turns and the exit/entrance of the park gate....find motorcycles to ferry the race officials around the course...make sure the course is in reasonable shape, sweeping here and there, marking potholes to be filled, and getting the dead animals off the roads. Yep, it's a glory job alright.We got up at 4 am that morning, had to walk the dogs and then load up the Rav4. We got to the race site around 5:15 am, off-loaded Jonnene and her gear, and I headed out to drop off vests, flags and cones to the various corners that my volunteers would arrive at a couple of hours later. I had an issue with some gear being stolen at one of the corners...it was weird and takes too long to explain but I had enough stuff left over to cover for what ended up missing. Then it was back to the park to organize things with the officials and motorcycles, send some volunteers to certain spots inside the park to direct the cyclists, and find Jonnene somewhere on the beach so I could give her a good luck kiss. Soon the first wave was coming out of the water and heading out on the bike course so I had to hope that things were okay. I talked to some of the corners by phone during the race to make sure things were fine. There were three crashes that I knew about, one of which might have been a broken collarbone. We sent the EMS crew out and we assumed that they took the victim to the hospital. One of the volunteer coordinators brought the guy's bike back to the transition area.
Jonnene takes off with her bike after a 1/2 mile swim in Cypress Lake.
When nearly everyone was off the bike course I headed out to do a final clean-up of the course, pick up the volunteer gear, and just make sure things out there were fine. I came upon a racer who had gotten a ride from one of the motorcyclists to a spot on the course where she had lost her bike computer. It had just flown off the mount on her handlebars but she continued on. With her race done, she was now back out looking for that $100 piece of equipment she had bought just a few days before over in Dallas. After about 10 minutes of staring at grass on the side of the road, I started to walk down the hill, saw a glint, and found the computer! It was on the side of the road with just a tiny scratch and somehow nobody had run over it with a bike or car. She was estatic and gave me a big hug, dampening the front of my polo shirt and shorts from the race sweat on her skinsuit. Hey, I like my women sweaty, y'know? Anyway, that was my good deed for the day.
Jonnene and Lisa come back from their bike ride side-by-side. Lisa is the better runner and would finish ahead of Jonnene by 90 seconds. Lisa was 6th and Jonnene was 7th in the same age group! They were both in the top third of all the 1,000+ race finishers!
Well, the July 4th weekend and holiday is coming to an end and you can hear some fireworks outside as everyone takes advantage of this last legal night to ignite their ordnance, er, fireworks. A few loud booms here and there which our dogs aren't too fond of. I heard that this holiday results in the most runaway dogs than any other time of the year. I'm not surprised.
Saturday morning was the FireCracker 5K and I was scheduled by my training guide to do a 5 kilometer race and add 4 miles to that distance for seven miles total. Jonnene and I headed out to join with 3,000 other runners and once we got there I went out for a short 1/2 mile run as a warmup and to start getting in my total distance. Got back and into a long line for the port-a-potties where, just before it was finally my turn to go to one of the outhouses, this young punk walked up and cut the line to get into one. Another port-o-let opened up for me but I walked up to the guy's potty and banged the door twice really hard, yelling "Get in line next time, jerk!" I hope it scared the crap out of him 'cause I didn't hear anything out of him. I heard a few laughs in the line, did my business, and went back to the race start where everyone was gathering.
I worked my way up to the third "row" of runners, chatted with some folks I knew and waited for the MC to finish up the festivities, which means we start the race about 20-25 minutes later than the scheduled start time (it's been like that for years...we've gotten used to it). Finally the firecrackers go off, signaling the start, and off we go trying not to trip over all the people around us. Jonnene started further back and is probably dealing with more of a crowd than I am. I wasn't sure how I wanted to run this although the training guide says to "race" the 5K and I wanted to not go out too fast. After finally getting some elbow room and passing some people on the early hills, I was able to manuver around a bit to hear the 1-mile announcer call out "6:51" as I went by. That was way faster than I intended and I was worried that I wouldn't have much left by the finish, especially to get the extra miles later. By two miles I was at 14:03 and feeling pretty good so I kept motoring, passing more people and getting passed by only a handful. I saw Daniel A and Martha S in front but I couldn't get much closer than 20 meters to Daniel and finally caught Martha in the last tenth of a mile. I finished up in 21:44 for 3.1 miles and I was pleased with that since it worked out to a 7:04 per mile average, plenty fast enough. I went to the port-o-lets again and then went out to do the course again. Taking the extra miles slower I still ended up with a 8-minute mile average. Jonnene had a good run, too, with a 27:31. I was proud of her for knocking out the race within a minute of her best 5K time.
Sunday was a rest day from running and I spent most of the afternoon at Mom's doing some work on one of their bathrooms. I had renovated the other bathroom earlier this year which I thought came out real well and Mom liked it. This time the job is a little simpler, requires a bit of cleaning up and replacing the toilet seat lids and putting in a new faucet, as well as some painting and some other installations. I got the faucet put in but will have to come back for the drain installation. Getting the old seat off the toilet was a chore since the bolts had rusted and I ended up having to saw one of them off. But it got done and the new seat's in place. The room already looks better and I'm only 30% thru the work!! The rest will take a couple of weeks or so to finish up.
Regarding my marathon this October, I've always had this set of goals:
1. Show up at the start and finish the marathon. Finishing is the main thing.
2. Try to finish in under 4 hours.
3. My target finishing time goal is under 3 hours, 45 minutes. Again, finishing...period...is more important. But this is my pride talking here.
So, out of curiosity, I went online to find out what it took to qualify for the Boston Marathon. In my age group, I would need to finish in 3:45:59 or faster. I looked at it again....if I achieve goal #3 I would be a qualifier for Boston in 2012. Wow. It'd be nice to pull that off. Jonnene says we could go if I wanted to do that race.
BUT I gotta qualify first and that's going to take some work.
Today is the first day of summer with an expected high of 98 degrees...tomorrow we're supposed to have 100 degrees. Then it'll drop down to around 93 by Friday. Whew! Relief! At last!
The weekend was way busy. I even did a long nap Sunday afternoon and I was still busy. Yesterday Jonnene and I woke up at 4:30 am to volunteer at the Sunrise #3 Triathlon: her to work registration and me to help set up the transition area (oh, yeah, Jonnene did some of that, too!). I also helped guide the racers thru transition during the race after The Wife went on to work...she had to work the weekend. She's never too enthused to do that...don't blame her. My Centenary kids did well but the heat got to them as well as everyone else but they all survived.
After that I got home and went out for my Sunday run in 95 degree warmth. Had to do six 1-mile repeats at 20 seconds faster than my planned marathon pace and I managed to do that. With four minute rest breaks between the efforts I would down a nice cold 6-8 ounces of water or energy drink. I still felt wiped out after it was all over and I got a nice outline of my tanktop on my shoulders from the sun. I still sorta feel it today. That got me a nice nap that afternoon. Called Dad to wish him a happy Father's Day and I'll get his gift to him later this week. Ashley and Clint came over last night and fed them as they got ready for their second night in their new rent house here in Shreveport.
Yeah, Saturday we helped moved them into their new place in the south part of Shreveport. It was hot that day, too! Saturday morning I spent out in the yard, doing yard stuff and starting on placing the pickets on the fence. I'm not too interested in looking into the back yard of our backside neighbors and them into ours. Got the main supports in place, set up a line to keep the top of the pickets level, and got one picket up. By then I was worn out and put everything up.
But the most important part of the weekend was getting a call before 5 am Saturday morning from my step-father, telling me that he and Mom were at the emergency room of the hospital. She's got a kidney stone and the sucker made itself known much earlier that morning. She hasn't passed it yet and I feel for her since I've gone thru that...it is REALLY painful and can mess up your schedule for sure. I drove down to the hospital, picked Jim up and took him to their house so he could get the car to bring Mom home (he had traveled in the ambulance with her). Today she's supposed to set up an appointment with a urologist and see what the next step is to clear this thing up. Keeping the fingers crossed for the simplest and less painful solution.
Wow, I'm now starting my seventh week of this marathon training gig...139 days until the Marine Corps Marathon, so about 17 more weeks of this to go. Actually it hasn't been bad at all. I did a 12-mile "long run" this past Sunday and listened to the squish-squish of my shoes that were full of sweat in the last three miles (takes about two days for the shoes to dry out). My right ankle, or more precisely the right achilles tendon has been acting up the last few weeks so I started putting it on ice after a couple of runs plus being careful in how I walked on that foot. Seems to have worked...it didn't bother me at all during Sunday's run and it's been relatively pain-free since Friday. I'm still not taking any chances however. I'll do ice again after Tuesday's run whether it hurts or not.
This morning I took a quick drive over to Minden to attend the funeral of one of my classmates from 1973, Billy O'Neal. He died of cancer on Friday morning and had been sick for a long time. I got to see him on April 30th (see photo below where he's making a face at the camera) when there was a fund-raiser to help offset some of his medical bills and we talked a bit. Neither of us had really spoken to each other since graduation from Minden High School. We just weren't in the same circles as life went on but we knew each other and we had absolutely no problems, past or present, with each other. Thing was that he remembered me and told how a couple of months ago he had mentioned to his wife, Charlotte (another classmate of mine), that a house they were driving by was one I used to live in. He just said it out of the clear blue. Heck, I didn't even know he knew where I had lived in the first place! After that visit and today's services I wished I had gotten to know Billy a little better. We still had different interests but I think it would have been fun to know him as the man he grew up to be. He was funny during our short visit back in April even though the cancer was in his brain and he spoke a little slower. He was also confined to a motorized wheelchair that he said wasn't fast enough for his liking. But the thing was that he looked like a man who was content with how his life was (obviously wasn't that wild about the way it was ending) and that things would be fine.
Billy O'Neal: March 1, 1955 - June 11, 2010
We have niece #3, Holly, staying with us for the month while she goes to summer school at Centenary. She's taking Physics which is some kind of hocus-pocus, voodoo subject that can't actually be real and goes beyond art major types like me. Well, really it doesn't but I don't like bothering with it. I got the gist of it when I took the class in college and I got into a couple of arguments with the instructor (to this day I'm still convinced I'm right) but I pretty much know how it works. Just don't ask me to explain it in English. I can see it in my mind much better than I can say it.
I'm now into my fourth week of training for the Marine Corps Marathon with 20 weeks to go, about 159 days before I toe the line up in the Washington, DC. I'm already around 25 miles short of setting a new record for miles I've run in a calendar year...269 set last year...and it's only late May! By the time this is over, I'll have a personal record that I'm not sure I'll ever break. Surprisingly, I'm not as sore or stiff in the legs as I thought I'd be but I'm sure an injury or two will crop up before October gets here. I ordered a MCM training shirt (see above) which says In Training on the front and Semper Fi on the back. So far I've been faithful in my training, only having to make one adjustment to change a scheduled training day to another day, and I'm a little surprised at how I'm sticking to the plan. I could eat a little better and sleep more! I guess I'm becoming a tad obsessive with wanting to do this and a year ago I had no idea I'd even consider doing a marathon! The goal is to go under a 3:45 time and if I run it smart I could do under a 3:30. Main thing is to finish with a respectable time and to be happy with my effort.
Last weekend was time-consuming and busy. We drove to Birmingham, Alabama and back with only an overnight stay so we could attend the wedding of Dale's daughter, Athena. The birth announcement I did for Athena's arrival into the world back in 1986 got me my first Gold Addy award as a free-lancer. I've known Dale since we were in high school and his son, Erik, is my god-son so there was a lot of personal connections here. We had a great time but the weekend wore us out. I had to get up at 5 am Saturday morning to get in my long run for the week: 8 miles which included hill repeats. Jonnene takes the dogs to the kennel, and after I shower we are on our way. Forgot to mention going to an art show the night before! Get to B-ham, dress up fancy and head to the wedding. Reception...food, dancing, seeing people I haven't seen in a long time...back to the hotel and sleep. Then up Sunday morning to drop by Dale's house for an hour or so, then back to Shreveport just in time to attend the last hour of a friend's 50th birthday party! I think Jonnene and I are still recovering.....
(this is written tongue-in-cheek....maybe...but the basic story is true)As I rode it,I did Tuesday Night Worlds two weeks ago and the group pulled out right at 5:45 pm which is weird since we're usually 5-10 minutes late leaving from ANY parking lot. We left a lot of riders still putting on their helmets or prepping to go (partly because it is a long drive for most of us and we're subject to the whims of traffic along the way).I had heard before that the ride to Benton from the start was actually civil and treated more as a warmup. That was okay with me...I need a warmup before I have to put a Jon Whitten on everyone's heads and crush some souls/egos. You know I'm not that mean but Russ always gives me a wholesale dose of deserved respect because he is a wise man.Well, it was almost race-pace from the start (reminded me of ERBC) and I'm trying to get my wrinkly old Joe-French-slash-Frankie-G legs into the groove but not having much success. I got dropped by mile seven at 28 mph (that was me, not the group...they was faster....much....faster). Eventually latching onto a couple of soul-deflated folks we got in a fairly good and speedy ride. Eventually I would 2-man TT it with Jason Sanders on his hopped-up-totally-tricked-out tri-bike (and me on my basic K2 brood) for the last 10 miles cruisin' at 25 mph most of the time. I let him set the pace 'cause I'm kind-hearted and wanted him to get a good workout. He didn't deserve a Whitten-style whippin'. He is only a man.With two miles to go, I started feeling a deflation on my rear wheel, the tire specifically, and had to let Jason go. I noodled those last two miles at around 15-16 mph on that slow leak, finally making it back to the parking lot with a snail's breath of air to spare.Even with that, my average speed for the night was 22.2 mph. Yeah, buddy, I was going plenty speedy even with the drop and the un-airing of my rubber parts.Don't know if I'll be out there much the rest of the year. Next week I begin training to do my first marathon in October. I'm going to ride 2-3 times a week as cross-training but I'll be a runner for most of 2010. But Jonnene and I are going down to New Orleans this weekend to take the beginner's USAC officials' clinic (Lisa and her husband will be there, too) so we can do some o-fficiating for LAMBRA this year and help poor old Ricky out. So you ain't rid of us yet. Follow the rules of racing and we'll look the other way. Might even produce results in a timely manner. Yeah, right. Gawd, I'm a comedian.Be forewarned, I'm coming back STRONG on the inline 2-wheeler in 2011. Be ready for the "Alan beatdowns" that'll be commencing next winter. Like Cesar Milan says, I'll be calm and assertive. Everyone else will be calm and submissive. I am a kind man, don't forget.
The group starts to gather up before heading out from Ford Park.
