NO SLEEP 'TIL BROOKLYN!!!

....as the famous Beastie Boys song goes. because what would a trip to new york be if i didn't first have to drive to a shoot in Santa Barbara for 2 nights only to get a call while i'm up there earlier today that my flight has been cancelled and the next available flight will get me into new york at 9pm?? OH NO NO NO, THIS IS JUST NOT ACCEPTABLE!!! long story short, a trip to new york will require me leaving an hour earlier than originally planned, now at the ass crack o' dawn, 6am, and arriving an hour later than originally planned, now 4pm, but still in time to keep my dinner plans and make my way to the halloween parade for some good laughs and a whole lot o' photos. oh but wait, "where are those extra two hours being spent?" you ask... why DENVER OF COURSE!!! WTF???

Bold, is Boulder anywhere near Denver?? please come save me from myself!!!!!

in case you didn't get the memo, i'm off to new york to run marathon #10. yeah, i guess this one's a milestone. started this odyssey in 2000 and here i am, seven years later, going for #10. this'll be my 3rd new york marathon, the only course i've ever repeated. the rest were (in order):

1. Chicago- it was not 90 degrees the year i ran, rather a brisk 50 degrees, yet still someone died that day at mile 24.
   
2. San DiegoRock 'n Roll - at the time, a pr, 5:29, but hey, isn't your second marathon always a pr?
3. Honolulu - it rained at the very beginning, then got pretty windy and later really friggin' warm. i entered and won a contest put on by Stewart Surfboards to publicly promote their boards in the most creative way possible. i made a 3ft. foam surfboard hat with their logo on it and wore it the entire way through the marathon. yep, 26.2 miles with a foam surfboard hat on my head. here is a pic of me with my grand prize, a 9'2" Colin McPhilips Noserider:
   
   
4. Los Angeles - i thought it would be rad (yeah, i said rad again) to run my hometown marathon. i have to admit though that nothing sucks worse than being all the way out in Leimert Park and realizing you still have to get your already tired ass back to Hancock Park and then Korea Town and finally downtown to the finish line. for those of you who aren't familiar with the greater los angeles area, translation: there's nothing worse than knowing just where you are and how fucking far you are from the finish line. let's just say, i was not singing Randy Newman's "I Love L.A" afterwards. plus, it's a pretty lame song to begin with....
   
5. New York (#1) - i was about 30 pounds heavier than i am now, and on the rag. ladies, i know you feel me on this one. from then on, i've been very careful to schedule races around the "monthly bill." sorry dudes, i know you can't deal with any mention of "the red tide," but it's a fact of life that us ladies have to deal with as much as you do, well, um, with, well sorry, there just isn't anything as aweful that you have to deal with, so you suck. this also happened to be the year P. Diddy ran the race. he only trained for two months, and he beat me by two hours. my only consolation was that he couldn't walk for a week, and i was singin' karaoke by that night, and no, it wasn't a P. Diddy diddy:



6. New Orleans Mardi Gras - pre- katrina. how lucky am i that i got to see this city, and on foot, in all its splendour? the race itself was after mardi gras, so not many spectators as they were all still pretty hungover i'm sure. aftewards i went to visit what family i have left in Misssissippi, and to visit my grandparents' graves. a really emotional trip all the way around. the marathon was the easiest part.
7. New York (#2) - i refer to this one as "the comeback." i was scheduled to run 3 marathons that year beginning with New Orleans, then the Mayor's Midnight Run in Anchorage, Alaska, and finishing up the trifecta in the big apple. that was until a mac truck decided to plow into me on the freeway:the green stuff all over me is from the gallon of fence paint i had in the back of the jeep. upon impact, it flew through the car and hit me in the back of the head. i was so lucky that i didn't break anything!!! just a chest contusion and major back injuries, but nothing broken. a month out from the Midnight Run, doc said i'd be lucky to make the plane ride to Alaska, let alone run the race. so i made the plane ride, but instead just moped around looking at glaciers:
   after physical therapy 3 days a week for 3 months, getting rear ended AGAIN in my rental car (not serious this time) and a relapse and more visits to physical therapy, doc still didn't think i should run new york. i did anyway, and i pr'd and all was right again in the world....
   


8. Las Vegas - my pr to date, 4:44:43. i had finally broken 5 hours!!! this was when i realized that i'm a cool weather runner. 35 degrees at the start with a high of 57. glorious conditions. never have i been cheered on by so many drunk people...
   
9. Avenue of the Giants - hands down, the most beautiful course i've ever run. my runners that i coached that season had bought me a plane ticket to run my dream marathon, and this was the little gem that i picked. you can't beat running through the redwood forest!! on a training run two months before the race, i broke my ankle. dumb move on my part. emergency room doc said there was no way i'd be able to run the race. so you know what i had to do..... yeah, not a pr, but if there was one race i didn't want to rush, it was this one. i literally talked to trees

my lifelong goal is to run a marathon on every continent, but so far, they've all been in the states, so it's gonna be a while. not to mention that i've got to get through this thing called an ironman next. so here's my question, will the marathon in brasil during the ironman count as my south american marathon??

you be the judge:

more at twiigs.com...

WHAT WOULD YOU GRAB??

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
i've always said that the best thing about living in socal is that i can be to the ocean, the mountains, the desert or mexico all within a 2 hour drive. i once even surfed in the morning at 6am, and was snowboarding by lunch just to further prove the point that socal is so dang rad (yeah, i said rad). i like to get away to the beach when a day gets so hot that you can't possibly be productive or steal away to my little secret town in mexico to ring in the new year. i'm planning to do some long training rides out in joshua tree national park when the distances get long enough to make a field trip out to the desert.

i can't go anywhere right now though, because everything's up in flames. if i drove two hours in any direction tonight, i'd hit at least 3 major fires. now i'm lucky. my neighborhood isn't in any danger so far, but there's a strange golden glow in the air, and my eyes and sinus are itchin' pretty fierce. watching the evacuees at qualcom stadium on tv makes me take stock of everything. i have it pretty good. the worst inconvenience for me is that i can't go for a run outside, so off to the dreadmill tomorrow. thank god i've knocked out my last long run before nyc. two years ago when san diego had their last big fires and i was training for the vegas marathon, the air was so bad i had to do a 20 miler on the dreadmill!!! now mind you, san diego is two hours away from me. but no, just some 4 and 8 miler taper runs left, and i'll be just fine at the gym. i also lost cell service for about two hours today. big whoop. as a matter of fact, it's kind of refreshing to just stare at the thing and not make one call....

i'm watching people on tv fighting to save their homes, defying the evacuation orders. is it really worth it?? and if i were evacuated, what would i grab?? would i let the cervelo go up in flames like the pic you see above?? sure, if it were between the bike and my dogs or my family pictures or just getting out alive. nothing is worth my life, not even a bike, not even my cameras.

watching the evacuees at qualcom is very different than the images we saw from the superdome in new orleans two years ago. yeah, sure anderson cooper has made his way down to report for the special edition of 360 "in the line of fire," but the people are dancing and smiling behind him. they've got more than their basic needs, and kudos to everyone who is making that happen. i suppose we did learn something from katrina. kudos to the firefighters who put their lives on the line to save whatever they possibly can. they're true professional heroes. i feel for those who have lost their homes, and saddened for any loss of life. truth is, we're gonna be just fine here in cali. we'll bounce back. we always do, but please please please don't forget about the victims of katrina who, two years later, are still displaced. they're not dancing and smiling yet, and nobody's talking about them right now......

I GOT THE MUSIC IN ME: THE BLOG REDUX

it's monday. that's the only excuse i can come up with really. it was time to lean up the blog, make the actual entries bigger and easier to read and put all the links on one side rather than two. in doing so, i've lost some pics from previous posts, but i can't figure out why just yet. i've been wanting to add music to this thing for a while, so i finally sat down and figured out how to make that work too. now you can enjoy my favorite brazilian songs up there to the left. i have no idea what half of them are saying but one's about a famous soccer team, and another one is about drinking all the time. they just get me in the mood for gettin' to brasil. if you're not feelin' it, just hit the little pause button in the middle of the cassette tape. also coming soon will be a regular column, a la bolder's "the good, the bad and the ugly." it won't be regular in that it gets posted every monday, per se, but it'll be as regular as fate will allow. that's all i can say about it for now. stay tuned....

on the training front, things are tapering for nyc. missed my 8 miler yesterday, so i need to knock it out this morning. gonna mellow out on the bike 'til after nyc. yoga and swimming fill the non-running days as well.

YESSSSS!!!!!!

ok, i'm a little delayed in expressing my rejoice, but i've been working like a dog. i was coaching saturday, 23 miles for my runners, so i didn't even get to watch the webcast of kona. it drove me crazy!!! so how nuts was kona?? faris doesn't even suit up he's so sick. normann doesn't let on how sick he is and tries to power through. natascha "bad ass" badmann crashes and still sets out on a replacement bike with a mangled shoulder and broken rib only to drop out after her coach/husband begged her to stop. michellie's out with a shattered eardrum, and not one former women's world champ in the marathon at all. man, oh man, i can't wait for the nbc coverage!!!



my man MACCA did it!!! oh sweet justice!!! and i think it woulda turned out the same had normann not had the squirts and stayed in the race. IT WAS HIS TIME, HIS TURN, HIS DESTINY!!! the germans, they're fierce competitors as long as everything is smooth and they're in the lead, but as soon as something goes south, they completely unravel. all that said, he was puking his guts out on the lava fields, he had no choice but to drop out. better luck next time, normy....ok, but back to the pic up above. what's up with the sponge boobs?? you'd think if you were about to become the world champ at kona, maybe you should drop the sponges before you meet up with the photogs and cross that line. great, now my beloved MACCA will forever be known for having man boobs.....



and michellie, oh poor michellie, now if she had stayed in, i'm certain things woulda been different. but a shattered eardrum had her pulling out at mile 90 on the bike. she gave it more than a good go. she'll get 'em next year. could you imagine all that training, all that sacrifice, elites and age groupers alike, and you get kicked in a group swim and shatter your eardrum just before kona??? awe hell no!!! i'd hate to be the person who kicked her. i'd be digging a deep hole for myself right about now if i were them. and then everyone says, "she'll be back next year." a whole other year to fixate on your day and your training and worry about everything that could injure you before you get there. oh, the pressure!!!



now i'm not trying to be a hater here, but when i saw this picture of the new women's champ, chrissie wellington, i thought "chrissie who?" then i thought my eyes were deceiving me and sister madonna buder had finished during daylight hours. really, doesn't she look like sister madonna?? so chrissie wellington, in her kona debut, only 7 weeks after racing her first ironman at im korea and winning it, takes the title of prom queen. don't you just hate that?? could she have held off michellie, natascha??? we'll never know. after all, she won im korea in 122 degree heat, so she was primed for the conditions in kona. for now, she's the most unknown world champ and deserves all the accolades and admiration from all of us. i still think she looks like sister madonna.....


best finisher photo. #34, michael goehner of germany
now when the germans are having a good race, they also have a good finish. atta boy, michael!! drink up!!! you deserve a big huge stein of beer today!!! seriously, i think he just raced so he could do this at the end. maybe i should rename my blog "I JUST WANT A BIG STEIN OF BEER AT THE END OF MY IRONMAN." cuz i'll for sure be looking for that beer after the finish line. ok, maybe just a relatively clean, dry, and flat place to collapse...


scott rigsby carries the american flag for team usa in the parade of nations at the itu world championships in lausanne, switzerland


scott runs a pr on the run portion of itu world's. check out his fierce prosthetics!!!

and finally, i want to give A HUGE SHOUT OUT to scott rigsby. i first met scott last year when we both competed for team usa at the itu world championships. what i mostly remember about scott was his infectious southern charm and he would always yell out to any fellow team usa member wherever we were, in the hotel, at breakfast, out on the roads, "yeah sister!!! yeah brother!!" you could just feel his excitement for life and his excitement to show the world what he could do. in june he attempted to become the first double amputee to complete an ironman at im coeur d'alene. while this has been done by other double amputees, they have competed while performing the marathon in a race style wheelchair or hand cycle. scott wanted to become the first double amputee to complete the race while riding a standard bike and running on prosthetics. sadly, his dreams were cut short when he did not make the bike cut off at im cda. but did you think that would stop him?? oh no!!! he simply decided he'd try again, but at the world championships instead!!!! that's right, scott completed the challenge and became the first double amputee to run across the finish line, at kona no less, in 16:42:46. another one for "the next time you catch yourself complaining" chronicles. cuz scott doesn't complain, he trains and he races, and he sees this as a gift and a purpose he's been given.

kona photos courtesy of ironman.com and asiphoto.com.

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!!! OY OY OY!!!

here we are, the big day, the world series of you will. i want to wish all of those racing at kona tomorrow a GREAT RACE DAY!!!!

i'm calling an aussie domination in '07. here are my favorites for prom king and queen:

that's right, you got MACCA ON YOUR BACKA!!!








nope, nobody in sight. it's all yours MACCA!!

i shot these pics of MACCA in mexico this past june at the baja 70.3 while i cheered on several friends who were racing. he's just an awe inspiring athlete who exudes good sportsmanship, an everyday guy who will stop and talk with anyone. i'd really love to see him take it from norman this year!!!

me and michellie jones in the newton booth at oceanside 70.3


and for queen, i'm calling a back to back win for michellie!!! again, just an awesome person and intense competitor. at oceanside 70.3 this past march, she worked the newton booth and helped me with trying on the shoes. i couldn't believe it!! there was michellie jones, bending down and putting a shoe on my measly age grouper foot!!! she asked me if i was racing and was i ready for tomorrow. i told her how i'd just gotten over pneumonia from 3 weeks prior and was a little scared. she was so encouraging, telling me to take it easy, hold back a little, and save something for the run. later in july, i would see her again. this time we were both racing at vineman!! as i was heading out for the run, i saw a tall woman all clad in pink heading in for 2nd place. i was a little sad for her that she wasn't going to win, but she was such the dose of inspiration i needed as i headed out in that 90 degree heat for 13.1 miles. i yelled out, "go michellie!!!! you're my hero!!" she looked back, i guess to make sure no other woman was within close range of passing her. as she got closer to me, she yelled back, "put out your hand, girl!!" so i did, and she gave me a huge high five hand smack!!! what a champ, even if she did get 2nd that day. she took the time to change the whole day for an age grouper, and it ended up being a pr day for me.

i also want to give a shout out to my fellow la tri clubbers racing tomorrow!! i'll be checking in on all of you!!

OLIVER MARTIN, 42, BIB# 847

RIKAKO TAKEI, 45, BIB# 742

PEGGY MCDOWELL-CRAMER, 66, BIB#245

GYM RAGEDON'T HARSH MY MELLOW, MAN.....

ok, i feel the need to preface this post by admitting that i'm suffering from pms pretty bad, but i still think this is rant worthy....

in my pms frenzy this morning, i rushed around town to get all my errands done so that i could get to yoga at 12:30 and get my stretch and zen on before my final 20 miler tomorrow . i even got to class 10 minutes early purposely to sit in the studio all quiet like and get some extra zen in. as i had hoped, i was the only one there, so i laid out my mat in front, and closed my eyes, nearly falling asleep in corpse pose. it was dreamy. soon i heard the next person come in and quietly find their place. i'm still in a mellow slumber state. a few more footsteps, and i'm still all zen knowing there's at least 5 minutes before sahara arrives and gets us all twisted up like pretzels. but that 's when "mr. ipod" walked in....

let me just state for the record that while i admit that the ipod is a genius invention, there are still some places that the ipod does not belong, and dammit, the ipod does not belong in yoga class!!!! this wanker walks in wearing his ipod at full blast, and sits down behind me. "ok, so maybe this guy is not aware of just how fucking loud his music is," i think to myself. so i turn around and give him the "death stare." let me give you a little background on monica's death stare. i inherited it from my mom, who's own stare was coined "the newberry's look" by my aunts. long story short, she gave this look to a newberry's department store clerk some 30 years ago, and that person has never been the same since. the story still comes up at just about every family function. so mine is the "death stare." even when i'm in normal contemplation, not pissed off about anything, i'm often asked "you ok? what's wrong?" i guess it's just the way my face falls that unless i'm actively smiling, i appear to be pissed off. so if you get the death stare, there should be no question that i'm pissed off and refraining from kicking your ass entirely. honestly, i'm a lover not a fighter. i've never kicked anyone's ass since that one incident in 3rd grade, but i will most definitely burn a whole through a fool with my death stare.

so cut back to "mr. ipod." i've never seen him in the class before, and i've been going for some 4 years now, so i'm already annoyed that some "one timer" has spoiled my regular and precious yoga practice. i first give a quick stare with not even the full death factor yet. it doesn't phase him and his disco, techno nightmare of a song keeps on going (must be the super extended version. yay). i try, really, i try to get back to my meditation, kundalini breaths and everything, but this music is just fucking awful and blaring right behind me. so i slowly turn around and turn the death stare up a little, but now he's all yogied up and in a full child's pose looking at the floor. i look around, and others are equally annoyed by the techno vomit protruding from his earbuds. but i'm still holding the stare, waiting for him to come back up............ i'll wait. he rises to my full death stare, and still no response!!! jesus h. christ man, has that techno crap rotted your brain all together?? then a regular in the class, a sweet little old lady, walks up to him, at least she looked sweet. she takes one of his earbuds right outta his ear and exclaims, "young man, we don't all want to join in on your dance party. this is yoga."........PRICELESS. just then sahara arrived, and it didn't escalate any further before we were all asses in the air in down dog. i swear, all it takes is a little pms and some village idiot, and i get all insane in the membrane. sahara turned it on strong though, and i was able to calm down after a few sun salutations. hopefully, i got a good stretch in for tomorrow's 20 miler.

/rant.

my day would definitely turn around though. i dropped in at my local bike store to stock up on various fuels. i can't do bars or gels or caffeine, so my options are pretty limited. imagine my excitement when i stumbled on this new product. what little bags of chewy goodness!!! the new luna sport moons by clif are pretty much the same as their big brothers, the clif bloks, but for some reason marketed with the luna brand towards women specifically. only difference in the nutrition facts that i can see is the 50% of daily vitamin c. i never knew women were particularly vitamin c deficient. all i can say is that i love the pomegranate and watermelon flavors, and they come in smaller single servings than the bloks, easier to store while running or cycling. awe yeah, folks, i might just have to add these to my favorites column......

METRIC CENTURYPOWERED BY CHICKEN PARMIGIANA!!!

yesterday i rode my longest ride ever at the people powered ride in the goleta valley north of santa barbara.

i rode with my fellow aids marathon coach and la tri club member, cindy, who is prepping for the ironman 70.3 championships in clearwater, fl. we drove up the night before and checked into a travelodge in lompoc about 20 minutes from the ride start. let's just say, lompoc is a quiet town, not much to do, and the travelodge, well, our room was small.......

...so small, there was no place to lean our bikes anywhere in the room, so we had to take the front wheels off and cram the frames into the small closet!!!

i was dead set that since this was my longest ride ever, really only 10 miles longer, i was going to take it soooooooper easy. so we went to eat at some italian spot, and i said "fuck, it, i'm hungry, i'm having the chicken parmigiana...that'll definitely slow me down tomorrow!!!" seriously people, i'm rethinking the whole nutrition thing, cuz that parmigiana was off the hook, and i had a great ride the next day!!!

i was dog tired from coaching earlier that morning and then the 3 hour drive up north, so i read a chapter from "going long" and was out by 9:30pm. i was finally gonna get 8 hours of sleep!!! or so i thought......

10:30pm - cell phone goes off:

me (in a daze): "um, hello?"

mr. creepy mccreeperson: "hey girl, what's up?"

me: "huh??"

mr. c. : "what's up, what are you doing tonight?"

me: "dude, i'm in a hotel room, asleep. i can't talk...i'm sharing the room with a friend and she's sleeping too"

mr. c. : "oh damn, that's right, your ride up north!!!"

me: "yeah.... i'll call you tomorrow after i'm done"

mr. c : " hey wait, one more thing. you're never gonna guess what i did."

me: "i have no idea. what did you do?"

mr. c. : "i shaved my legs....."

me: "........"

mr. c. : "hello??"

me: "yeah, that's cool, i'm going back to sleep. talk to you later..."

mr. c : "ok, have a great ri...."

click.

cut to 11:30, my phone is now on vibrate for fear that it'll wake cindy up again.

phone buzzes and still wakes her up. this time it's not mr. creepy mccreeperson, so aptly named by the one and only kim over at locked and loaded (thanks for that one, kim). no this is a new one you all haven't been introduced to yet. oh, and rest assured that there will be many more in the cast of characters who perform in what is my aforementioned retarded love life. you'll meet them, you'll laugh, you'll cry, it'll be fun, i promise. we'll call this next one "mr. total opposite." yes, he is in every way my total opposite, but it's refreshing. he gets me, and he's totally in my corner. all i can say about this one is that we've just got bad timing. i'm so out of it by now, i can't even bare to answer the phone, so i let it go to voicemail. turns out he's calling to find out if i'm still coming to the party. oh damn, i forgot about the party. sounds fun, but so does getting up early and riding a metric century. once again, we've been struck by bad timing and my horrible memory......

it's now 2am, and i wake up feeling thirsty, so i reach for my huge ass bottle of water sitting on the nightstand, but instead i hit the remote and the tv goes on full blast, once again waking poor cindy up. i swear to god, she's never gonna share a room with me again!!!!

4 more hours to catch some zzzzz's. let's see if they can go uninterrupted....


we woke up early the next morning to get our breakfast in before heading out on the 20 minute drive to solvang. after eating the parmigiana the night before, i thought there was no way i would possibly be able to eat again, but alas, it wore off, and i ate the oatmeal i brought, but no bowl and no spoon, DOH!!!! so i had to mix it with the stirrer in this coffee cup and slurp it down. washed it down with some frs, and we were on our way.


the ride met at the firestone winery, made famous by one particular bachelor. it was gorgeous.

i've never been to such a beautiful packet pick up!!!

there were 3 different route slips, green being the 30 miler, blue the metric century (70 miles), and yellow for the full century. cindy and i both joked about just following the green arrows, but we agreed that it wasn't worth the drive and the hotel to just do 30 miles. so we headed out, keeping our eyes open for green arrows. they were tough to spot!!! there were 3 rest stops along the route where we converged with others doing different distances. they had such a great set up with homemade baked goods, sandwich stuff, lemonade, and bike support.

we rode through the wine country of solvang made famous in the movie "sideways", even past the hitching post restaurant which is prominently featured in the film. it reminded me a lot of the vineman course but with some more climbing!!! i felt strong the whole way, really trying to spin at between 85-90 rpm to save my legs. i was good for most of the route until just after we turned at the hitching post and met up with another group of riders. this one dude dressed head to toe in some spanish team kit went wizzing by me just a little too close for my comfort. since i knew we were just a few miles from the next rest stop, i decided to challenge him. so i chased him and then passed him and looked back for a second. he stood up and tried to challenge back just before a hill. i thought, "oh crap, i'm on a tri bike, he's gonna smoke me on this hill...." but no!!! he couldn't catch me!!! then came the downhill and i thought, "ok, now this hombre is gonna challenge," but no, i clocked 41 mph and gained even more of a lead!!! i nearly missed the blue arrows at the bottom of the hill and had to put some serious brakes on. i turned and saw mr. spanish team kit on my ass and yelled out a bob roll "sheeeeit!!!" struggling to get my momentum again. basically this guy was all tricked out but couldn't ride for shit, cuz i passed him again just as we turned into the rest stop at the park. poor guy looked so demoralized to get beat by a girl......even worse, a girl on a tt bike. if only i knew how to ride like the big kids without hands, i'd a flew my fists in the air like the polka dot jersey was mine!!!

as we sat at the last rest stop, my feet were burning up bad. still had my toe warmers on and my wool socks from the morning chill!!! i had to ride barefoot the last 10 mile stretch, and i knew i'd be paying for that pissing contest earlier. we slowed to an unbelievable 15 mph as we headed into an uphill grade with the wind coming at us head on. finally, the last mile long hill came just before descending back down to the firestone property and the bbq that awaited our return. i just dug in, realizing for the first time the entire day that i was actually riding my 12-25 cassette as my 12-27 sat collecting dust on my race wheel back home. nice!!! just split the hill into quarters, looking for road markers and next thing you know, i'm at the top. cindy's still behind me making her way so i just whizzed on into the winery and waited for her at the entrance.

most of the time i was ahead of cindy which is not usually the case. i think she's getting used to her new q roo tri bike coming from having ridden a road bike with a triple crank. i give her 'til clearwater, and i bet she'll be smokin' my ass again!!! we're great training companions, i'm faster on the flats, she's faster in the hills, so we push each other just enough. we're doing our im training together, me for im brasil and her for im germany just 6 weeks later. it's gonna be a blast!!!

ok, metric century = check!!! friday brings my last long run, a 20 miler for nyc and a 23 miler saturday for my runners!!! let's see if i survive........

i'm gonna lobby that hammer nutrition make a new chicken parmigiana flavored gel. mark my words, people, savory gels are the wave of the future......you read it here first.

HEARTBREAKING!!!!

i had an eventful weekend, but i'm too tired to post about it tonight. i'll get to that tomorrow.

i was shocked today after my own physical accomplishment to receive the call from my boss telling me the news of the chicago marathon closure today. i knew so many people set to have a good run out there today, namely my beloved co-worker, viva, who had to defer her race to this year due to being cast in a film just before last year's race. this was my first marathon ever, and i had such a memorable experience. it just saddens me that race directors would be so foolish/greedy as to max out the race population and then not prepare for such extreme conditions. i've worked and supervised water stations at the la marathon where temps were even higher than today in chicago, but we never ran out of water. has anyone ever heard of a fire hydrant?? they could have easily continued handing out water from a hydrant. in addition, somebody collapsed and died, but i think it's irresponsible to suggest that the race directors were directly responsible for this. when i ran chicago in mild 50 degree weather, somebody died that day at mile 24. turns out he was an avid runner but had undiagnosed heart disease. truth is, people die at just about every marathon, mostly due to undiagnosed predispositions or hyponatremia. still, i am sad for this runner's family and to all those who's goals were left unrealized today. it's especially heartbreaking for those attempting their first marathon. i hope for them that they will find it in themselves to give it another try. hopefully the truth will be revealed and people forced to take responsibility for this unfortunate yet preventable debacle of a day.

DAY 2 OF BASE AND "THE STARTER'S SHIRT"

so day 1 came and went without much fanfare or a workout for that matter. hey, i had to work and be on my feet all day, and i'd just ridden (and partly coasted) 45 miles the day before. remember that my work is also very physical, so when it prevents me from getting a workout in, i don't always get too upset. day 2, however, went great, mellow so far, but it felt good to get my sweat on.

after you complete these ironman races, you get to wear all the finishers' garb. at a lot of marathons now, the official race shirt is a finishers' shirt. it always creeps me out when they give it to me at packet pick up. so much pressure!!! at the honolulu marathon you have to actually finish before you get the shirt. at new york there's a whole store that opens after the race for finishers' gear, and you have to show your medal to get in!!! i've always been too hungover to make it there.....

so to celebrate the kick off of my im brasil training, i decided i'd need a little something to motivate me, something that says to the world, or at least ryan gosling who goes to my gym (you know you're jealous) "yes, i'm really gonna do an ironman." after all, i live my life by the rule that my dad taught me at the age of 10 when he told me, "kid, never sign a check with your mouth that your ass can't cash"

so ladies, and gents, allow me to unveil the "starter's shirt"



just got in touch with my coach. we're gonna talk later this week about the base phase, and in the meantime i'm just doing time markers this week, some weights and core work, and proceeding on with my mileage for the new york marathon next month. until i get through that, i'll be pretty mellow on the two wheeler. my last long run comes up in two weekends, a 20 miler, and then a two week taper of nothing over 8 miles before the gun goes off.

here we go....

YESS!!!