Fun Is...

There are many methods to finding fun in life, I happen to have ten to add to the list;

10. Finally having United Airlines get us to our location on time without incident, a first.
9. Enjoying the 75-80 degree days and 55 degree nights in Beaverton, Oregon (with little rain, mostly sun!).
8. Using a sledge hammer to help tear down 40 year old kitchen cupboards in your daughter's home.
7. Running to Nike headquarters a mile from daughter's home and following wood chip path around the campus, hoping to spot a star professional runner.
6. Eating cinnamon roll french toast at the Big Bear restaurant, a decadent 1,400 calories!
5. Reserving a compact car for a week, only to be told they were all out and only had a GMC Yukon (kind of like a tank, only much more luxurious). Same price as the small car.
4. Trying several new varieties of small batch microbrewery Portland beers.
3. Learning to use an electric miter saw and sawz-all (?spelling) for the first time.
2. Taking night time walks around the .9 mile block every night with Captain (an annoying but fun dog), Jan and Ellowyn (granddaughter).
1. Sitting in a quiet nursery rocking Ellowyn to sleep.

Top Ten Reasons We Know Mike & Eileen are in Adirondacks

Empty bottles of Ubu beer are scattered around their cottage.

Wetsuits hanging from the trees to dry after their morning swim.

Mike’s screams heard throughout the woods when he spots a spider in the cottage doorway.

Yankee quizzes Mike sends from work every day stop. Lou gets depressed and begins re-reading a Mickey Mantle biography.

Spencerport village dogs don’t bark at 5:30am anymore, since MW isn’t out running.

Yankee television ratings drop as there is no cable access in the woods.

Yankee radio ratings increase as Mike and Eileen listen to Thsusan announce the games.

Visa calls Mike wondering if his credit card was stolen. He admits to a wild Lake Placid shopping spree at the outlet stores.

Mike and Eileen are banned from Tale o’ the Pup restaurant after dancing on top of the tables during one crazy night with a live band performing.

Eileen dreams every night of competing in the Lake Placid Ironman.

World Track & Field Championships

Our local athletes had mixed results at the World T&F Championships held in Moscow over the last two weeks. Molly Huddle, from Elmira, NY finished 6th in the 5,000m race with a time of 15:05. The top five women were from Ethiopia or Kenya.

Marathoner Jeff Eggleston, a Greece Arcadia graduate, ran a 2:14:23 marathon and was the top American finisher in 13th place. The winner ran a 2:09:51. The beginning temperature was 73 degrees, it seems the Olympics and World Championships don't ever really care about the health of the long-distance athletes. The women's marathon was in hotter and more humid conditions, the 10k races similar.

Jenn Suhr, American record holder in the pole vault, multi-time USA champion, won the Silver medal with a final vault of 15'9 3/4". Jenn grew up in Fredonia, went to college at Roberts Wesleyan and now lives in Churchville.

Lopez Lomong, from Tully High School, south of Syracuse (I saw him run xc in high school, so count him as a local runner), did not advance past the semi-finals in the 1500m race qualifying.

Miranda Melville, from Rush-Henrietta high school, had a pr of 1:34:56 in the 20k race walk (about an 8:40 pace) but was DQ'ed from the event in Moscow.

Jenny Kuzma Memorial 5k Bergen Race

A perfect summer morning for a fast 5k greeted runners in Bergen, New York on Saturday, August 10. The race director, Eric Boyce, does a great job of enticing really fast runners to his hometown event. This year the race also served as the USATF Niagara 5k road championship. Female repeat champion (3x) Maegan Krifchin took home over $900 with her winning time of 16:22. The overall winner, Michael Fout, ran a scintillating 14:27, just missing the course record by three seconds and a $200 bonus.

Runners had to be under a 5:38 per mile pace to even make the top 50. 367 people completed the distance, 8:00/mile would buy you no more than a 211th place finish! In most area 5k's that kind of time would place a runner in at least the top 40%.

Our local Sal's oldsters did great, led by Mike Weinpress's 3rd place in age group, 21:30, a 6:56 pace. Eileen ran a 25:32, Jan McCullough a 25:49 (about the same time as last year when she won the age group, this year finishing 8th), Joanne Katz nearly pr'd with a 27:21, 8:49 pace. Pete Leonard was 2nd with a 23:31 (7:35 pace), not bad for being 2 weeks shy of 70!              

Top Running Movies?

Looking for some late summer entertainment, or perhaps inspiration for an upcoming race? Try one of these movies about running, ranked by my preference, of course. Feel free to add suggestions or debate the list.

10. Chariots of Fire - a classic, but some scenes are a bit dragged out for me.
9.   Endurance (Ethiopian great Haile Gebreslassie)
8.  Four Minute Mile (Roger Bannister)
7.  Saint Ralph (Teen decides to run Boston Marathon)
6. Spirit of the Marathon
5. Marathon Man ( 1976, a young Dustin Hoffman) much more than about running
4. Without Limits (Prefontaine)
3. On the Edge (Bruce Dern, who really is an ultramarathon runner. Based on Dipsea Race)
2. Running Brave (true story of Billy Mills - inspirational)
1. Fire on the Track (Prefontaine)

Two other possibilities are; Forest Gump and Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner. 

Run, Swim, Throw, Cheat:The Science Behind Drugs in Sport

Scientist/author Cooper discusses a number of scientific and moral issues regarding the use of "illegal" drugs and sport performance in this book. It is interesting where the authorities and public deem the line of cheating and being "clean" to be. 

An athlete can take creatine supplements without issue. Creatine is proven to increase muscle mass, testosterone levels and assists greatly with sports requiring short bursts of speed and strength. Creatine occurs naturally in the body so this is legal. 

ATP (Adenosine-5'-triphosphate) is the main energy transfer molecule in cells and is legal to take for sport enhancement. Hammer Nutrition is one of the companies selling ATP. They say ATP provides; Instant energy right when you need it, restores energy after a hard effort and helps maintain overall energy production. This is supported by much research. You place a pill under your tongue and within a few minutes get an energy boost.

Caffeine is another legal supplement that works for most people. 

Athletes with allergies or colds have to be extremely careful in what they take as many drugs found in those remedies are deemed illegal by the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency). Waivers are sometimes permissible but not always easy to come by. Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are known to work in short term muscle endurance events such as one mile running races and sprints on bike, swimming or running. 

There are many problems with all of this. Athletes have avoided or "passed" test for years (read the stories in the book to discover the means this was done). The WADA and other authorities have made mistakes. Labs make mistakes. There isn't really any solid scientific proof that a lot of the supplements work, yet the games still go on between authorities and athletes (really, try to find a few dozen athletes who are clean now, give them HGH, then test them again in a scientific environment. Their career is done - not going to happen). The best data we still have is the East German doping program that lasted at least 2 decades.

Blood doping is another issue all-together and illegal. Athletes used to (and probably still do) not only store their own blood and add it before events to increase their red blood cell levels (and thus oxygen capacity), but would use other people's blood. Yuck. 

One newer weapon WADA has now is biomarkers. They will take the average levels of, say, testosterone, in an athlete and if this level spikes at some point one can be fairly certain a supplement was taken. 

So millions of dollars are spent. The NFL (and most pro leagues) has yet to test for HGH and other drugs (fights with Union on how to do this and costs involved). Athletes, if not tested in the off-season, can dope then, come off the drug(s) and be clean for the season yet still reap rewards for doping by being able to train longer and recover faster between sessions.

What about college or high school athletes? Are you going to test all of them? Who will pay for that? It is all quite confusing and if I can take caffeine, creatine, ATP and a few other "legal" aids, then why not others? Do you really believe bicyclists (especially Tour de France riders) were all clean in the 60's - early 90's and this just began? No way. Our morals, society's expectations, our ability to test better may have changed, but that's all. 

This debate is going on for a long time.

The Blerch

The Blerch is a comic from a website called The Oatmeal. I think many of us are fighting our own Blerches.