Letting GO of Control - One Week to Umstead 100

This time next week, I will hopefully be somewhere in my third 12.5 mile lap around Umstead State Park.  At this point, logging a long run would be foolish and trying to squeeze in a few last nervous runs seems pointless.  I simply intend to get in a few easy runs this week and then rest and relax.  The hard work has been done and I have to trust in that.  That's the problem though.  Trusting in myself and my training.  I suppose that I have an issue letting go of control and being okay with what is happening in the moment.  Next Saturday, I will have to adapt and recenter myself numerous times to tackle the moment, something I've been mentally preparing over the past few weeks.  WHO AM I KIDDING?  I'VE BEEN MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY PREPARING FOR THE LAST 4 MONTHS!  I'M GOING TO CRUSH IT!  Stopping is not an option.  Pain? BRING IT ON!

I've been back and forth for weeks about whether or not to have a pacer or ask a group of the Ultra VT gang come down and crew me.  I've been worried about the pressure of having others invested in my run and the "what if" factor.  What if?  WHO GIVES A CRAP ABOUT WHAT IF?  Ultimately, Jordy Chang is coming down sometime Saturday after he crushes the Mountain Lake Hell climb.  I'm privileged to have such a great friend.  Rudy, has also volunteered to come down and help me through  my first hundo.  Super pumped!  He also sent me the below quote, which I really like!

"I have found that if I can keep present, acknowledge my feelings and move forward from that point I can work through just about anything." -- Krissy Moehl 

I've also been reading through motivational phrases and generating a list of things to say to myself when things get "dark" next Saturday.

• Fake it till you make it.  
• Make it happen.
• More run, sooner done.
• Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
• You can have results or you can have your excuses.  You cannot have both.
• This too shall pass.
• Slow progress is better than no progress.
• Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?' The answer is usually YES. - Paul Tergat

On Sunday, I stumbled upon a #UltraChat on Twitter that was addressing this exact question.  Below are some of my favorites!

Questions:

• What's you go to power phrase?
• How do you dig out of "dark" places in a race or ultra?
• How do you handle letting go of control?

Read more...

2014 Terrapin Mountain Race Report

The verdict is still out.  To run or race an ultra?  That is the question.  For me, I have very little experience with the latter, having only "raced" my first ultra at Holiday Lake, but running Terrapin Mountain this past weekend was SO much fun that I have trouble believing turning myself inside out for 4+ hours of misery "racing" could beat it.  That being said, it took every ounce of self control I had to not race or at least run hard this weekend.

When I signed up for Terrapin Mountain, I knew that it would be my last long run before Umstead 100 two short-weeks later.  I was also very aware that I would not be running hard but instead would be out for an extended effort getting time on my feet in the gorgeous hills of Virginia.

Friday began with the "semi-simultaneous" publishing of a synchroblog with Ultra VT.  The posts were awesome and I think it helped everyone get super excited about the weekend ahead.  If there was a buzz word that stood out reading all of the posts, it was INSPIRING!  However, I decided to do a little experiment and copy and paste every post (twice) to create a Wordle and confirm:

Sure enough, Inspiring appeared although not as large as I expected.  During the car ride to Holiday Lake, Jordan Chang and I were discussing how awesome it is to have a group of friends that can just jump into a marathon or ultra for a fun weekend adventure.  I digress.  

After dropping Gillie off at Michelle's parents (Thanks again Marvin and Cindy!), I headed north toward the Sedalia Center in Big Island, VA, which served as the race start/finish and location for camping/packet pickup.  The drive is super easy, something I'll miss living in Richmond come this fall, and gorgeous to boot!  I arrived a little before 7PM and quickly spotted the Ultra VT crew who were "tailgating" the race.  

The caravan left Blacksburg around 4PM and by the time I had arrived in Big Island the group was in full team bonding mode. Somehow...the idea of a sleeping bag race came about.  What ensued could only happen when you put 10+ ultra runners together who can't run and have an excess amount of energy. Most of the other campers...who...erm...were less boisterous than our group found the event amusing and can even be seen taking photos of the event unfolding in the video below (0:59 in the right of the frame).  Yes,  I documented the entire thing and put together the four clips to make a little video, Ultra VT Shenanigans:

eVenTually all of the excitement died down and I began preparing the Outback for bed.  About half of the team camped under the stars but my 50+ deg. summer bag would've made for a cold night.  Holiday Lake was the first time I camped in the Outback and I managed to figure out a pretty good system for a decent nights sleep.  The rest of the evening was spent stargazing and identifying constellations.  Seriously.  It was pretty awesome!  I busted out the Sky Guide app that uses the accelerometer in the iPhone to determine which way the phone is being held and then shows the constellations/planets in view.  I felt I upheld my teacherly duties for the evening.  The constellations identified included: Gemini (with Jupiter!), Orion, and Ursa Major.  I headed off for bed around nine and quickly dozed off after an exhausting week of student teaching and training.

I awoke early on Saturday (after several snoozes of the alarm), emerging from my warm car around 5:30.  There was coffee available at the pavilion, which I indulged in and then quickly headed off to find the restroom to take care of business for the day.  Around 6:50, we decided it was time to head toward the start and ditched all of our warm clothes in the cars.  I debated for a good five minutes as to whether I felt like carrying a camera for the entirety of the run.  In retrospect, I suppose I could've given it to Kristen or one of the other Ultra VT folks who were not running but were cheering at aid stations if I decided it was too cumbersome.  I somewhat regret not having a camera to document all the fun that was had but without a vest the heavy camera would've been a nuisance.  

Keely, Trevor, Nelson, and I on the descent down
from Camping Gap (mile 5.5ish).
Photo courtesy of Kristen Chang

The race begins on a road and then quickly begins to climb to the first aid station (mile 4) Camping Gap, which we would see twice more before the days end.  I found Hannah and Keely, two talented freshman ladies who have awesome ultra running futures ahead of them, on the climb up to Camping Gap and spent most of the climb with them chatting it up.  We would run the first 13ish miles together before separating climbing back up to Camping Gap for the second time.  On the climb up, I was talking about teaching and another runner who I would spend a good part of the day with joined in.  Trevor, just earlier in the week was offered a position to teach at Virginia Tech in the education department.  Small world!  Awesome to welcome another Hokie to the Virginia Tech family and continue to grow the awesomeness that is Ultra VT!  We were also joined by Nelson (right in neon) who now resides in Greensboro and was a FSU Seminole, I told him we wouldn't hold it against him as long as he didn't start tomahawking!

Upon arriving at Camping Gap, I grabbed a few orange slices, gave my number to the volunteer, and began the sustained 5 mile descent down the other side of the mountain.  The miles were quick here (9:00, 8:12, 8:45, 7:53, and 8:05) but I thought running slower would've been more detrimental to my legs than letting gravity take me down the mountain.  About halfway down the mountain we hit the second aid station (which also serves as the fourth) and continued on after grabbing a few chips.  At the bottom, we hit the third aid station that marks the start of the second sustained climb on the course.  The climb begins on road before jumping onto single track and going up and over a little peak before dropping back onto the second aid station we had just run past.  This meant that we were then going to go back up the long sustained climb we had come down earlier to Camping Gap.  Confused?  I drew you an awesome map to clarify!  Red arrows are outbound and blue are inbound.

Good? Good.  Until this point, I had been running with Keely and Hannah but they felt like hiking and I wanted to make it up to Camping Gap so I continued on (slowly) but still jogging with a soft J. On the way up the hill, I met Kathie Colling who was having a tough go of it and was ready to quit.  I stopped and chatted about everything and anything other than running.  I was super pumped to see her come across the finish-line later in the day despite being getting physically sick multiple times in the race.  #Grit.  Further up the climb I met Shannon Howell, who was running her first ultra and was taking a photo of the gorgeous view across the valley.  She rocked her first ultra!

I came into Camping Gap aid station happy and smiling and high-rived Rachel Corrigan who had just run the half-marathon and Mike Jones who was cheering everyone on.  Horton came over and yelled at me telling me that it was a race to which I replied "I'm running Umstead in two weeks" and he said "oh.  Okay." but in true Horton fashion then added "but why would you run that race?" I grabbed some food and headed out onto toward the WOR (White Oak Rim) loop section of the course, miles 17-22, that overlaps with a portion of the Promise Land course.  Its during this section that we hit the peak elevation of 3720' feet!  Along the long climb up to the peak (just below the Blue Ridge Parkway) I ran with Shannon some more and also met Bob Clouston who knew Guy Love.  I took it pretty easy on the way up but let myself have a little fun on the way down and caught up with Trevor and Nelson from earlier in the day.  We chatted about Umstead and they both gave their input on running a 100 (much appreciated!).  We ran together back into Camping Gap aid station for the third and final time of the day and I made the stop a quick in-and-out grabbing food, thanking volunteers, and heading UP the trail toward the summit of Terrapin Mountain and Terrapin Rocks.  Clark, the RD (race director), likes to have runners use a punch to mark their bib showing they were at certain points on the course, perhaps an homage to orienteering roots.  Their were two punches on Saturday, although one was broken before even the first 50k runner arrived, darn half-marathoners!  

Terrapin Rocks - Photo courtesy of Clark Zealand

Fat Mans Misery - Photo courtesy of Clark Zealand

I caught up with the runner ahead of me on the way up to the summit of Terrapin Mountain, who offered to let me through, to which I quickly responded "you look so familiar" and then quickly placed him as Kevin Townsend, the race director of Iron Mountain ultra, which we ran back in August.  Kevin and I chatted and ran together for the next four miles and I heard all about his recent trip to Hawaii (sounds awesome!) and also picked his brain for advice on finishing a 100.  The half-marathoners really destroyed the course below Terrapin Rocks, the outcropping of rocks near the summit of Terrapin Mountain that has an outline in the shape of a turtle - hence the name of the mountain, which made the descent a little dicey.  After Terrapin Rocks, and finding a broken and useless punch at Fat Mans Misery, we descended off the mountain down toward the final AS of the day.  The last aid station is at the bottom of an out-and-back descent, which means after the aid station there is a little half mile climb or so before turning onto one final section of trail.

Red Arrows toward AS 6.  Blue are after visiting AS 6 out-and-back.

Right about the time I got to Terrapin Rocks, the temperature began to become noticeably warmer and although I wasn't pushing hard being active out in the heat takes a noticeable toll, compounded by the relentless and steep descent off Terrapin Mountain.  When I came into AS6, nothing looked appetizing but I grabbed an Oreo, some chips, filled my bottle with half-water-half-Gu/Clif?, and took my first cup of Coke.  It continues to amaze me what Coke will do.  I let Kevin run up the trail and enjoyed taking my time eating my food as I walked back up the hill to make the final turn onto the trail that would take us back to the start.  I reasoned that I had held back all day and that a few miles of fun wouldn't hurt me.  I started jogging with the only objective to catch and beat the Naval Academy runners ahead of me.  After passing them, I opened it up and just had fun cruising the downhill into the finish.  Turning back onto the road after seeing the 1-mile left sign I could see four or five runners strung out in front of me and decided I would put down a solid mile to see how the legs felt.  I passed four or five runners in this short section.  So much fun!  I rounded the turn toward the finish to cheers from Ultra VT who had staked out prime spectating location.  The best part was feeling good and knowing I had A LOT MORE in the tank.  "Used but not used up" as the Umstead 100 runners packet puts it.

Photos courtesy of Kristen Chang

The race was a total blast and I had a ton of fun.  It's awesome to reflect back on the number of awesome runners I met during the run and the camaraderie that surrounds the Horton/Eco-X events and larger ultra running community in general.  After crossing the finish line and receiving my finisher shirt, I grabbed some awesome BBQ that was brought in on-site, (wish I had grabbed a picture), and cheered on the rest of the Ultra VT crew as well as the other runners I had met out on the course (Kevin Townsend, Bob, Nelson, Trevor - our new VT professor, Kathie, and Shannon).  Of course, the vuvuzela was in full force and we made a tunnel for the later Ultra VT runners that finished.  I snagged this photo on Kristen's phone that I thought appropriately captured the atmosphere:

Daniel (bottom left) WON the half-marathon in a time of 1:55:02!  Also of note is that the Hokies had 4 in the top ten: Rudy 2nd, Darren 3rd, Jordan 5th, and Guy 7th.  One interesting thing about the result is that the top 5 finishers were all 25 or under.  Look out old guys!

Photo courtesy of Kristen Chang

George Wortley uploaded a 10 minute video with a bunch of snippets of Ultra VT runners and a neat opportunity to check out the course including Camping Gap aid station.

Finally, as always, the Strava run details are below for those curious to check out splits and stats like elevation.

As my first Eco-X race, Terrapin Mountain set the bar pretty high in regards to course and fun factor. Will I be back next year? Definitely!  Will I be racing or running?  The verdict is still out on that one!

Read more...

2013 Ashburn Farm Turkey Trot 10k

The Ashburn Farm Turkey Trot has become somewhat of a family tradition.  We (Michelle and I) first ran the Ashburn Farm5k/10k race for Lukojjo Village in Uganda, Africa "Humble Place" in 2010.  In 2011, we convinced my family to participate and since then it's been a tradition.  Last Thanksgiving, we spent our time in Richmond and missed out on the event; fear not we ran a Richmond 10k that was WAY more challenging!  This year we were back in the Northern Virginia area for Thanksgiving and I made it a requirement that we participate in the race. 

Most people use running a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning as an excuse to eat guilt free later on Thanksgiving day but both Michelle and I agree that we could really care less about Thanksgiving food.  In fact, whenever we host our first Thanksgiving we will probably do a modern take on the whole ordeal and put a twist on the food like fresh cranberry salsa instead of cranberry sauce, etc.  I digress.

In 2012, I managed to run a 49:12...on a hilly course...in a turkey costume!

Last year, I debuted the Turkey costume at the Richmond Road Runners Club (RRRC) 10k Turkey Trot, held on the Richmond University campus, and it was a total riot!  It was super fun to run in the costume and most folks got a kick out of it, although some of the runners didn’t like being beat by a guy in a turkey suit.  The field there is much more competitive and time focused compared the Ashburn Farm Turkey Trot, which is more family friendly.

Despite the success of the Turkey Costume with the crowd, it needed a few minor tweaks to make it comfortable to run in, mainly the fact that the legs will not stay up and the costume wants to fall down from the running motion.






Enter Michelle!  Have I said how much I love her lately?  I knew elastic was needed to make the legs stay up but wasn’t quite sure how to make it work with how the costume is designed.  Michelle suggested attaching them to a pair of shorts (genius) and I had an older pair of Nike Shorts that I don’t wear as much that matched pretty well.  The result: Turkey leg waders.

I also wanted to replace the brown cotton shirt that I wore under the turkey costume last year and picked up a red suit off Amazon post Halloween for $19.  The red of the costume and the one piece suit looked like they matched well. Unfortunately the skin suit didn't match the description that noted it had a removable hood, which would work with the turkey costume.  Instead the hood was attached when I received the suit in the mail.


On Wednesday, Michelle and I swung by the church for shirt and bib pickup.  We had the been assigned the task of picking up all ten shirts and race bibs, which I decided to neatly fold and arrange for the photo to the left.  As a group, eight of us planned to participate in the 5k while Michelle and I had registered for the 10k.  This year marked the 20th annual race and the shirts were pretty cool but I was disappointed they strayed away from the Humble Village shirts.

Packet pick up at Crossroads United Methodist Church

The slideshow playing of the work Crossroads has done with Lukojjo Village in Uganda, Africa

L-R: My parents, Michelle and I, my aunt and uncle and two cousins, 

and my sister and her husband.

Pre-race we always hang out and spend time in the Church staying warm and watching the slide show they put together that shows the work they do with the Humble village in Uganda.  Eventually, we all made our way out to the start line and waited in the cold for the race to start.

I thought I remembered a start arch in previous years?

Waiting for the race to start in the cold weather.

I decided that after Saturday's 50 mile run, I was going to take the run easy and enjoy running with Michelle.  Michelle and I have never run a race together, we have run in the same race but we have never run together.  Like an amateur, I forgot to put on my watch this morning with all of the excitement for debuting my new turkey costume but Michelle saved the day by downloading the Strava app. and signing me in to record the run.

This was early on in the race on the way out maybe one mile in.

You can see the cones on the opposite side of the road where we would be on the way back mile ~5.

Michelle and I planned to run at her pace for the race, which is typically around the 10:30-11:00 pace, but she went off at around a 10 minute pace and managed to maintain close to that pace for the entire race.

Michelle had plenty of energy at this point in the race.

On the way out at the first of many intersections.

We talked for most of the race and had fun joking about how awesome we looked.  All of the folks that were cheering alongside the road laughed at us and got a good kick out of our costumes.  The rest of the race was rather uneventful including two out and back where we had the opportunity to see the leaders of the race!

I snagged these photos while running with my TS4.

The first out-and-back where we saw the faster runners!

On the way back on the opposite side of the road from the above photo.

Mile 4.5 or so.

Mile 5 - this was a false flat despite how the grade appears in the photo.

Michelle had her phone with her using Strava to record the run but opted not look at it until around mile five when she realized she could run sub 1-hour and decided to push it toward the end.  We moved pretty quickly during the last mile and worked well pushing each other until crossing the finish line.  We were so close but in the end crossed the finish line at time of 1:00:11.

Michelle and I post finish!

We found our friends Tim and Dana post race and then headed inside to grab some of the refreshments they have offer.

It was another awesome year of turkey trotting with the family and friends and starting out an awesome family day with exercise! I seriously love doing this and hope that we continue to do it every year!

Check out some of my past race reports from this race: 2009 and 2010

Strava run data for the 2013 Ashburn Farm 10k

Read more...

Where's Waldo Wednesday - 6/?/13-6/19/13

Where's Waldo Wednesday - The point of the week where more is behind than ahead and the weekend, and thus playtime, is the bright light at the end of the tunnel.  Why did I call it Where's Waldo Wednesday?  No particular reason really...other than I like alliteration and it is fun to say.  Try saying it five times fast!

A weekly (more like biweekly) series of what's new around here and other ramblings like things I found interesting on the internet this week or cool runs I did, kind of like a weekly synopsis.  Originally, I was going to do this on Sunday and call it Sunday Synopsis but then I couldn't decide between Sunday Synopsis and Sunday Summary...so I did the only logical thing and decided to write it on Wednesday?

This week's edition encompasses...ermm...June? so it's somewhat of a month in review so far.  Also, that means this post is probably WAY too long for you so you may just want to skip through to options of interest.

The Week's Happenings

Honestly, there hasn't been much going on around here the past few weeks so I really don't have a whole lot to post about.  Michelle and I have been enjoying cooking and I feel like we're finally finding our niche of what we like to prepare/cook/eat.  One observation is our gradual shift toward a more plant-based diet.  I don't really have an interest in pursuing a vegetarian or vegan diet, or labeling our eating habits for that matter but instead focusing on eating foods as close to their original state as possible.  I've persuaded Michelle to try a vegetarian diet next spring just as an experiment to see what we think of it.

1. Learning to run again.  Well.  It feels like I am at least.  The arrival of warm weather has forced me to adjust my expectations when heading out for a run.  I learned this first hand last Thursday when I went out for a longish run in the morning that left me feeling humbled, and destroyed by the end.  It was the first double-digit distance run I had attempted since TNF 50 earlier this month and I knew early on in the run it was going to be rough day.  It was apparent that skipping breakfast, aside from a yogurt, and a measly dinner the night before had put me in a calorie deficit which caused me to run out of energy quick.  Fortunately, I had received my June StrideBox a few days earlier and decided to bring along a few items from it, which without I would have been in serious trouble.  Welcome to Bonkville.  I downed one of the green citrus chews below and began to feel better within a few minutes and continued along the Huckleberry trail out to Christiansburg.  On the return, around mile 8, I was feeling empty and defeated and began to walk.  It's easy to beat yourself up when you get into one of these situations.  I was thinking to myself, "I ran 50 miles two weeks ago and now I can't do 8?"  I'd be lying if I said I was positive the entire time but I try to keep things in perspective and appreciate the opportunity of the present and kept telling myself, "if it were easy, everyone would do it" and "it's the hard days that prepare you for tough moments in life."  Eventually...I finished the run and hopped on my bike to pickup groceries and race the storm home, narrowly escaping the epic downpour!

June StrideBox contents.

Details of my tough run.

2. Enjoy the moment.  It's been a slow progression for me and I still battle daily/hourly to simply slow down and enjoy the moment.  I think as a goal oriented individual it is difficult not to look to the future and simply enjoy being in the present.  On Friday, Michelle and I enjoyed a relaxing morning before taking a picnic lunch to Bissett Park.  We enjoyed just laying around in the sun and the gorgeous weather the day had to offer. It was fantastic practice for being content with the current and not thinking about everything that "needed to be done."

 We brought Gillie along which we don't always do and really need to be better about.  It's super easy to make excuses or not want to deal with the additional effort of packing a few bottles of water for her but the payoff is huge.  She's an outside dog and to see her so happy is totally worth the extra five minutes...and the occasional constant untangling of the leash from our chairs.

3. Starlite Drive-In - Furious 6.  With the upcoming switch to digital projectors from 35mm, Michelle and I figured we needed to see a movie in a drive-in before there weren't any around anymore so on Friday evening we headed just down the road to the Starlite Drive-In in Christiansburg to see Furious 6, the sixth installment in the the Fast and Furious franchise.  They have two showings a night, with the first beginning around 8:45ish and the second immediately upon the conclusion of the first. 

 

The entrance to the drive-in.  The screen is actually on the back of the large structure with the star painted on it.

The shot above on the left is the screen, obviously this was early on before everyone else arrived which made for a clean photo opportunity.  You can either tune your radio to 90.3FM to listen via car stereo or use the speakers that you can hang on your door (above right).  We opted for the latter and decided not to put it on the side of the car because the volume was high where it was.

4. Early morning run and enjoying Blacksburg.  I was struggling to get out of bed Saturday morning, especially after Thursdays demoralizing 12 mile run.  I find that previous statement funny.  When you think about it, the fact that I have the ability to run 12 miles at a whim even if it was at roughly a 9 min and change pace is nothing to scoff.  I think we put unnecessary pressure on ourselves all the time.  Breathe.  Enjoy the moment.  I managed 8 miles and felt good for most of the run which was somewhat redeeming.

We headed toward Blacksburg to visit the farmers market and then stopped and grabbed a bite at Moe's.  Afterwards, we walked around campus and showed Shannon, Michelle's friend from Radford, some of the cool things on Tech's campus.

Michelle and Shannon at the Pylons overlooking the Drillfield.

We headed over the Hahn Horticultural gardens, which are neat but we never make the time to get over there so it was nice to see everything in bloom. We noticed immediately upon entering they were setting up for a wedding and what a gorgeous setting it made.  However, I felt bad for the folks who were going to be sitting through a wedding with the TERRIBLE gnats that would not leave us alone while we were there.  We ventured down to the little pond and checked out the tent they had set up and were in the process of decorating.

  

Lily pads in the Hahn Horticultural Garden.

5.  Foodography.  It's no surprise that I like to cook but I always take photos of the food and feel it never does the meal justice to how it actually looks on my plate.  The colors always seem to be off and the entire meal just looks kinda...blah.  I would say that I make a good effort to plate food in an exciting and visually appealing way and have been taking lots of photos trying to figure out what I think looks good.  I'm happy with how the photos below have come out and hope that they will drive me to improve, both in cook/plating and taking the photos.  I'm all ears for suggestions...and all stomach for suggestions too!

I've been a bit of a wrap addict lately.  They take practically no time to prepare, under two minutes, and I can pack lots of good tasting, and nutritionally dense, food in a non-messy portable-handheld.  They're AWESOME!!!  And they photograph well too...or at least I think so.  The chips...well...yeah.  I have tried to cut out all things in the past and I always binge or overeat on something else.  These were the Kroger brand organic sweet potato chips.  They're delicious.  The side was just some plain greek-yogurt with bananas and blueberries and a dab of agave over the top.

Why am I writing all of this?  Because when I first tried to be aware of what I was eating, or how I still feel on some days, is that it take too much effort or cost too much or yada-yada yaya.  It doesn't.  It can be quick and simple and most importantly.  Cheap.

Instructions:

1. I use the Mission brand wraps, I'm sure any will do, and put them between two wet, not damp, paper towels and put it in the microwave for 20 seconds.
2. I spread some type of hummus or spread on the wrap which helps the wrap stick to itself and keeps everything sealed, although as you can see in the photos above I need to more toward the edges.
3. Next, I place spinach down as a moisture barrier between the wrap and hummus and everything else, which I think helps if you plan to not eat it right then.
4. I have been cutting thin slivers of a red bell pepper and using a peeler to make thin shavings of carrots which give a nice texture to the wrap.
5. I put on cheese and lunch meat and then seal it up.  I've found that I like the fold the sides in method and then start rolling to get a nice burrito-like roll.

4.  Self-portrait running photos.  It's not as easy as one might think.  Especially if you want the photos to be somewhere remote along your run because then you have to haul the camera with you and that presents a whole new challenge.  I've had a Gorillapod for a few years now but rarely make the effort to use it how it's intended.  The neat flexible digits allow you to wrap it around or position your camera on almost anything which is cool in-and-of-itself.

I thought the graffiti on tunnel in the photo below would make for a cool addition but it's hardly noticeable.  Anyone have suggestions?  Granted I was using the Panasonic TS4 which is a great camera but I'm not sure I had it set properly for taking this type of photo.

I decided to try a different location, which was actually just on the other side of the tunnel but actually used the Gorillapod this time and place the camera along a fence post.

meh...so it was a valuable learning experience.  I think one thing that is neat is the opportunity for other folks to see where I run.

On Tuesday, I registered for the Summer Solstice 5K, which is a run put on by RunAbout Sports that begins at 8:30PM this Saturday.  $19 is difficult to beat for a registration fee and I think it will be really fun to run at dusk...glow sticks are provided!

Interesting Internet Findings

1. From Addict to Ultra runner Western States is this weekend, which is pretty much the Super Bowl of ultra running.  I'm a huge fan of reading memoirs and stories triumph so I thought this article was a great read (and not too long) from the 2012 winner, Timothy Olson who runs for Pearl Izumi. Read it HERE.
2. GO. OUT. and. RUN.  At least that's how this video makes me feel! 
3. Talk about a close encounter!  This is absolutely frightening!
4. It's no surprise that I love pizza and Michelle and I make it pretty often around here but there's something about having a pizza delivered to your front door...but this brings a whole new meaning to carryout or delivery! 

Read more...