The first question is why does this magazine come to me, but not Jan? I have completed one triathlon, a sprint, while she has done many sprint distance tris, two half-ironmans and will be competing at Lake Placid IM in 2009.
But I did read the newest issue and was surprised by the number of Rochester area triathletes mentioned throughout the magazine. Also, another local connection, Jeff Henderson, race director of the Musselman triathlon, had an article about carbon footprints.
Heidi Grimm, formerly of Rochester, now from Colorado Springs, finished 15th in the ITU Long Distance World Championship in August.
Carl Johnston, of Ontario, NY, won the USA Sprint National Championship masters division at Trumansburg, NY on August 3. Tom Dutton of Livonia, NY won the Grandmaster division. Travis Kuhl, who competes in many Rochester area tris and du's, won the 30-34 age group. Dennis Moriarty won the 50-54 age group.
At the USAT age group Olympic Distance championship, held in Oregon on September 20, Curt Eggers of Henrietta finished 3rd in the 50-54 division. Tom Dutton finished 2nd in the 60-64 division.
These results prove the Rochester NY area has a lot of talented triathletes.
The Erie Canal, Running Paradise
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Upstate Cross-Country
Our next race is at Vernon-Verona High School, a 6k beginning at 11am on Sunday, November 9. Here is a course description, courtesy of Frank Q.
"I love the Verona course out of all of them this is a true cross country course. There are no major hills but lots of ups and downs with many turns. It is mostly in the woods."
Team FF Vet men are in 3rd place in the series with 9 points. GVH has 16, High Noon 14, Syracuse 5, GVH2 2points and Buffalo Checkers 2pts. Best 4 races count, top 3 teams win awards, the FLCC race points are doubled. We need to look out for and beat Syracuse and Buffalo runners, though I also think our #3-6 runners need to step it up a bit and close on any High Noon guys we see in the race. I have let myself get beat by some of those guys by less than 20 seconds and need to show some guts in the last 1/4 mile of races.
Individually the top 10 vet men get awards. Dennis has 41 points and is in the top five, Frank G has 10 points and close to the top 10. In SuperVet the top 3 get awards, Dick W. has 20 points and Pete L has 17.
Masters women top 5 get awards, Jan has 9 points, probably not enough for top 5. In SuperVet Eileen has 17 points and top 3 get awards. She also is not yet in the top 3 I believe.
For team and individual awards you must run in at least 4 races and FLCC is double points. If our team wins one of the top 3 spots, our top 8 scoring guys get awards.
"I love the Verona course out of all of them this is a true cross country course. There are no major hills but lots of ups and downs with many turns. It is mostly in the woods."
Team FF Vet men are in 3rd place in the series with 9 points. GVH has 16, High Noon 14, Syracuse 5, GVH2 2points and Buffalo Checkers 2pts. Best 4 races count, top 3 teams win awards, the FLCC race points are doubled. We need to look out for and beat Syracuse and Buffalo runners, though I also think our #3-6 runners need to step it up a bit and close on any High Noon guys we see in the race. I have let myself get beat by some of those guys by less than 20 seconds and need to show some guts in the last 1/4 mile of races.
Individually the top 10 vet men get awards. Dennis has 41 points and is in the top five, Frank G has 10 points and close to the top 10. In SuperVet the top 3 get awards, Dick W. has 20 points and Pete L has 17.
Masters women top 5 get awards, Jan has 9 points, probably not enough for top 5. In SuperVet Eileen has 17 points and top 3 get awards. She also is not yet in the top 3 I believe.
For team and individual awards you must run in at least 4 races and FLCC is double points. If our team wins one of the top 3 spots, our top 8 scoring guys get awards.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Prize Winner
The rumors are true. I won the dvd, "Run for Your Life", the story of Fred Lebow and the NYC marathon. The Rochester Running Page webmaster had a trivia contest offering the dvd as a prize. I was one of 5 winners.
Definite proof that there is something good about sitting at a reference desk in a library all day and having a fast internet connection!
Definite proof that there is something good about sitting at a reference desk in a library all day and having a fast internet connection!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Follicly Challenged
Our society takes the amount of hair on one's head (especially men's heads) much too seriously. Too much money is spent on hair care products (for those with hair, the bastards), combs, brushes- what mature male has enough hair for a brush? - styling gels, salons and other nonsense.
In my youth I had lots of hair; bushy, thick, brown hair. It hung out my football helmet, proved my manhood, was seldom cut, and actually curled more than I liked. Now I have a few strands in front and on the sides, a bit on top, just a bit, enough to make me think I have a full scalp, until the damn barber holds the mirror at the rear of my head to show me how well he cut the remnants, but really is only showing me skin!
I don't visit that barber much anymore. The young ladies at Supercuts never hold a mirror to this old man's head, which goes a long ways towards increasing their tip.
You may be asking what the hell does this have to do with sports? Supposedly if you are free of hair you swim faster, like a dolphin gliding through the water. I would like to glide through the water. The other night I found myself alone in the bathroom looking at the mounds of chest hair, especially the grey chest hair, on my body. "What possible use is this stuff anymore" I asked. "no use" was my answer. So I grabbed some scissors and began trimming.
This brings me to another point. Why do I lack hair on my head, the socially acceptable place to have lots of hair, but have a gift for growing hair on my chest, shoulders, arms, legs and ears? What curse has befallen me? Did I wrong some wizard in high school or college?
While my chest is not without hair, after all I did not shave it, there is less. Will I swim faster? Probably not, having my feet not act like anchors would help that more than losing hair. But I did notice today that my chest itches, like it was shaved. Now I'm really confused and feel like I'm in the Seinfeld episode when Jerry shaves all his chest hair off.
Kramer: Hey Jerry. What is this? Lady Gillette? What's going on?
Jerry: What? Can't I get a moment's peace?
Kramer: What are you doing to yourself?
Jerry walks into camera view with his chest covered with shaving cream.
Jerry: I can't stop. Alex thinks I'm naturally hairless.
Kramer: You can't keep this up. Don't you know what's going to happen? Everytime you shave it, it's going to come in thicker and fuller and darker.
Jerry: Oh that's an old wives tale.
Kramer: Is it? Look at this.
Kramer walks off-screen and opens his shirt. On-screen, Jerry reels from the sight.
Kramer: (high pitched voice) Look at it! Look at it! And it's all me. I shaved there when I was a lifeguard.
Jerry: Oh come on. That's genetics. That's not going to happen to me.
Kramer: Won't it? Or is it already starting to happen?
If you see me at the pool, please be polite and don't stare at my chest or scream.
In my youth I had lots of hair; bushy, thick, brown hair. It hung out my football helmet, proved my manhood, was seldom cut, and actually curled more than I liked. Now I have a few strands in front and on the sides, a bit on top, just a bit, enough to make me think I have a full scalp, until the damn barber holds the mirror at the rear of my head to show me how well he cut the remnants, but really is only showing me skin!
I don't visit that barber much anymore. The young ladies at Supercuts never hold a mirror to this old man's head, which goes a long ways towards increasing their tip.
You may be asking what the hell does this have to do with sports? Supposedly if you are free of hair you swim faster, like a dolphin gliding through the water. I would like to glide through the water. The other night I found myself alone in the bathroom looking at the mounds of chest hair, especially the grey chest hair, on my body. "What possible use is this stuff anymore" I asked. "no use" was my answer. So I grabbed some scissors and began trimming.
This brings me to another point. Why do I lack hair on my head, the socially acceptable place to have lots of hair, but have a gift for growing hair on my chest, shoulders, arms, legs and ears? What curse has befallen me? Did I wrong some wizard in high school or college?
While my chest is not without hair, after all I did not shave it, there is less. Will I swim faster? Probably not, having my feet not act like anchors would help that more than losing hair. But I did notice today that my chest itches, like it was shaved. Now I'm really confused and feel like I'm in the Seinfeld episode when Jerry shaves all his chest hair off.
Kramer: Hey Jerry. What is this? Lady Gillette? What's going on?
Jerry: What? Can't I get a moment's peace?
Kramer: What are you doing to yourself?
Jerry walks into camera view with his chest covered with shaving cream.
Jerry: I can't stop. Alex thinks I'm naturally hairless.
Kramer: You can't keep this up. Don't you know what's going to happen? Everytime you shave it, it's going to come in thicker and fuller and darker.
Jerry: Oh that's an old wives tale.
Kramer: Is it? Look at this.
Kramer walks off-screen and opens his shirt. On-screen, Jerry reels from the sight.
Kramer: (high pitched voice) Look at it! Look at it! And it's all me. I shaved there when I was a lifeguard.
Jerry: Oh come on. That's genetics. That's not going to happen to me.
Kramer: Won't it? Or is it already starting to happen?
If you see me at the pool, please be polite and don't stare at my chest or scream.
Fastest Time Didn't Win Race!
An article in the San Francisco Chronicle told the story of 24-year-old Arien O'Connell, who set a pr by 12 minutes and had the fastest time of the day.
Unfortunately for her, despite the fact she beat the next woman by 11 minutes on the hilly course, it wasn't good enough for first place. Officials decided that since the chosen "elite" runners started 20 minutes before the main pack, and Arien wasn't part of that group, that her time didn't count towards awards.
This is absurd. It's not her fault the elite didn't run a faster time. The marathon wasn't advertised as two separate races, just different starting times. Arien knew she was in good shape, but understandably didn't think she was elite and didn't apply for that status.
And runners in the U.S. wonder why we aren't taken more seriously as a major sport? Well, here is one reason why. This is a joke.
Unfortunately for her, despite the fact she beat the next woman by 11 minutes on the hilly course, it wasn't good enough for first place. Officials decided that since the chosen "elite" runners started 20 minutes before the main pack, and Arien wasn't part of that group, that her time didn't count towards awards.
This is absurd. It's not her fault the elite didn't run a faster time. The marathon wasn't advertised as two separate races, just different starting times. Arien knew she was in good shape, but understandably didn't think she was elite and didn't apply for that status.
And runners in the U.S. wonder why we aren't taken more seriously as a major sport? Well, here is one reason why. This is a joke.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Run for Hospice 5k
Sal's runners performed well at the October 18th Hospice race. Pete seems to be fully recovered from a long injury, and ran 22:57 to finish 2nd in the 65+ age group. Jan ran a season best 23:51 and picked up more Rochester Runner of the Year points, Patty P finished 2nd in her age group with a 21:17, Alex ran 21:04, just nosing me out with his superior sprint speed. I finished in 21:08 and picked up a few RROY points.
Lou, recovering from a hamstring tear, finished in 21:53, and Bernie, in the same age group ran a 21:13.
Mike and Eileen teamed up to do an awesome job with the 1 and 7 mile race clock and yelling out times.
I made up for a disappointing race time by eating non-stop pizza, hamburgers, pasta and snacks at the post-race party, which is annually is one of the best you will find at any race.
Lou, recovering from a hamstring tear, finished in 21:53, and Bernie, in the same age group ran a 21:13.
Mike and Eileen teamed up to do an awesome job with the 1 and 7 mile race clock and yelling out times.
I made up for a disappointing race time by eating non-stop pizza, hamburgers, pasta and snacks at the post-race party, which is annually is one of the best you will find at any race.
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