GO! Zoomy GO!

Just a shout out to my RA and running blogging buddy, Zoomy, aka Kirsten, aka Zoom Zoom, who is a fellow Michigander from the pristine west side of the state, not far from my beloved Ludington, and who is running her first marathon tomorrow morning in her home state of Wisconsin in the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon. Just want you to know that I've been thinking about you all weekend, I have butterflies for you, though I know you will fair well due to your flawless training and preparation, and will be thinking about and praying for you tomorrow morning. Enjoy your race my friend, but most of all... enjoy your finish! Tomorrow... I call you a marathoner! You can check out her race at her blog, Zoomylicious, here.

Race for the Cure

I ran the race with Tammy and girls this morning in downtown Toledo with 17,500 of our closest friends. It was a great morning for the race, cool and clear. There were 17,500 registered runners and walkers. Started out about a 9:00 min/mile pace with Tammy and Lindsey. Chelsea took off from the start once we got across the timing mat. I wanted to hang with Tammy to help pace her to a PR and not over-do myself and end up regretting it by stressing my leg too much. Lindsey ended up leaving us about 3/4 mile into the race too. Went out a little too hard for Tammy at 9:11 first mile, she was able to maintain and, in fact, speed up a bit the next mile, which was 8:59 and phenomenal for her! She struggled a bit in the final mile of the race. I tried to get her to walk through a water stop, get a good drink, and catch her breath, but she wouldn't listen. We ended up walking a little bit later for just 20 or 30 seconds because she was having a pain in her right side. I was trying to pull her along and encourage her as best I could without pushing her too hard. We ended up the last mile at 9:23 and finished the race in 28:55 by my Garmin (running GPS), which was a PR (personal record) for her by almost a minute and about a 9:10 min/mile average pace! Her prior PR was a 29:49! WOOT! The girls smoked us both. The almost as neat thing as pacing Tammy to a huge PR is, I felt as though I could have busted one in this race as well. Patience, Grasshopper... patience. And... we got over $200.00 in donations for the cause! Thanks to all who contributed to our team!

We got some of the post race food and took a stroll around the inside of 5/3 Field and got some goodies to bring home. It was so cool being able to run a race with my whole family. Very cool. I'll post all our official results when they have them up on the internet.

Back to Columbus this afternoon to assist with the high volume of claims they had from the severe winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ike on September 14. I should be back either Thursday night or Friday afternoon and, that should wrap up that tour of duty.

Home Away From Home

I'm down in Columbus this week for work. I had planned to come down to do some inspection work for my regular job this week, but central and southern Ohio were hit very badly with the remnants of Hurricane Ike last week and there is widespread wind damage down here so my department has been enlisted by our claims department to help out with scoping the damages of our customers down here in the Columbus and Cincinnati areas. I will be going home for the weekend as Lindsey has a CC invitational and family picnic following on Saturday and we are all running the 5K Race for the Cure on Sunday. Thank you to everyone that has donated to our family's team fundraising goal for the race. We truly appreciate it and you! I'll come back down to Columbus Sunday afternoon to work in the area again if needed.

I got a 6.5 mile run in last evening, heading from my hotel to Blacklick Metro Park, which is about 1.25 miles from my hotel, and then did a 4.1 mile loop through the park. It was a really nice run and the park part of it was awesome. I was a bit sore today and also had work to do so, I didn't go out today. I'll try and get a run in tomorrow evening. If not, the rest will do me good too.

Great Morning Run

I had an awesome morning run this morning, 5.1 miles, my furthest since the marathon back on 4/13/08! Yea! The morning was perfect, partly sunny, cool around 54F, light breeze, quiet back roads, and mist lifting off the fields and golf course. The only way it could have been any better is if Tammy had been with me spitting on herself during the course of the run! BAH! She's not a very accomplished spitter. Sorry, Honey, but it's the truth.


Our local highschool won their football game last night 33 - 7 against a school they were supposed to get buried by. This is quite exciting as Bedford has a losing history in football. When I say history, I mean they have had like 5 winning seasons in the past 50 years. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much. Lindsey (and her 8th grade band-mates) got to play with the marching band during the half time program. She thought it was going to be *lame*, but I think ended up having a good time with it.


Our church is having its annual (12th, I think?) Classic Car and Motorcycle Show tomorrow. It's our biggest event of the year and we usually draw about 300 vehicles to the show. Cars, motorcycles, music (our worship band is doing a set at 1:00 with tunes from Brown-Eyed Girl and Pretty Woman to Huey Lewis, Chicago, and the Doobie Brothers), food, friends, and fun. If you're in the area, stop by and check it out. It doesn't cost anything, unless you want to eat, then it's only $9.00 for a home made bbq chicken or pulled pork dinner. If you have a strong stomach, you can hear me singing and playing with the band at 1:00.







Have a great weekend and... GO STATE!

Randomness

Below is just a shot I took of the twilight sky on my way back to rehearsal at church Tuesday evening from our Bedford Running Club meeting at the school. I just thought it was very beautiful, as many of the past few days and evenings have been. Of course, the photos never do the *real thing* justice. Don't tell my boss I'm taking pictures while driving either! Shhhhhhhh.

Lindsey's XC team competed at Michigan State University last Friday and placed first as a team! It's a very large invitational, so that's awesome. She's been dealing with shin splints, so is off her best game right now and, realistically, probably for the rest of the season, but she keeps plugging away. Below she's running in their first league jamboree (multi-school XC meet), at Saline last evening at Mill Pond Park. Very nice venue for a race. Again, her team placed first in the league meet out of 6 teams and Lindsey was right in that 16 - 17 minute range, placing 46th out of a field of over 100, even with her sore legs! She's doing great as far as I'm concerned and, of course I am proud of her regardless. I was amazed she even finished at MSU, she looked to be in such misery during her race.

I can't forget Chels in giving props either. She got an 82 on her first Anatomy quiz/test and is taking a dual enrollment English class at the community college for which she receives college credits this semester. Keep up the good work, Chels! I'm proud of how hard you are working so far this year.

On the running front, I took yesterday off, didn't want to, but my leg was sore from my tempo run the other day, which I won't attempt for awhile again, and went for a 4 miler this morning and felt much better. Hopefully I'll be able to go out tomorrow morning with Tammy for an early run. Our 5K Race for the Cure is a week from Sunday. In case I haven't mentioned it *cough*, we are fundraising for this race for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation. If you would like to donate/pledge via our team, you may do so by clicking on this link. We've raised $150.00 of our $400.00 goal, so any contributions would be most appreciated toward this very worthy cause. Each of us are running on behalf of someone we know that has battled, or is battling, breast cancer. Thanks!

Whaaaa?

So I'm driving home from my inspection rounds on Monday and I'm behind THIS car. Fortunately she didn't decide to pursue her passion while she was in front of me. Note the "Rest Area" sign on the upcoming overpass! How ironic. Anyway, I found this quite funny and, hopefully you got a chuckle out of it as well.

Lindsey has a league XC meet in Saline this afternoon that Tam and I and my folks will be heading up to. She didn't do real well at MSU last Friday (and my camera was being obstinate, so I didn't get any pictures) as her shins and a calf were bothering her. She still was only like 8 seconds off her slowest race and was still in eight and a half minute per mile pace range, which is pretty darn good running with pain. She was actually in tears early on in that race and I was amazed she even finished.

I cut short my intended 5 mile run yesterday as my right leg was sore. I did just under 3.5 and am not sure if I should try today or not. Actually, I DO know that I should not, but the morning is so beautiful. Best to err on the side of caution though. I've been getting in some pretty consistent running being conservative and I don't want to ruin that. Besides, I'm sure I'll be running around the XC course this afternoon cheering on the kids.

Make it a great day everyone.

Tempo Run

I actually ran a 4 mile tempo run this morning just to see how I would tolerate it. A tempo run is a sustained faster-paced run, slightly under a race pace, which is done to increase speed and stamina. In my case, I was just kind of "testing the waters" with how my leg would stand up to a faster-paced run. I ran 8:35 min/mile average pace for the 4 mile run and felt pretty good, though somewhat winded at times, which I should have been. My leg feels fine tonight, no pain. Hopefully that will continue tomorrow.

Extreme Makeover, Home Edition

Extreme Makeover, Home Edition was in town last week to do a build for a Toledo, Ohio family. The couple have 11 children, 3 of which are their own and the rest are adopted. The husband is a paramedic with the Toledo Fire Department. The show and goings on, about 7 miles or so from my house, literally captivated and constricted the area for the past week. They had the reveal shooting yesterday and the family took possession of the home today. Chelsea went down to the build site on Saturday afternoon with a friend, Tony, in the pic below, to join in the excitement and festivities. Below is a pic of the two of them with newer designer Didi. And one of her personal favorites below, Rib.
Then there is of course, the star of the show, Ty Pennington.

Below Toledo Firefighters are moving in the furnishings in the finished home.

Below, the crew, Ty, Paulie, Didi, & Rib rev up the crowd for the furniture move in.

"The Bus."


The family's finished home below. They were in a 3 bedroom ranch with 1 bathroom prior.

This episode will air sometime in late November I had heard. So, if you happen to catch this episode and have seen this, you'll already know what to expect and that it was very close to where I live. In fact, my friend, Frank Johnston, the guy who went fishing with me in Ludington and to Florida last spring for spring break vacation, works with the husband of the family and has known him for quite some time. A very deserving fellow from what he says. Kinda neat, but it was crazy around here for the past week or so. We went to a Sanctus Real concert a week ago Sunday which benefitted the family so, some of our money went towards this family. : )

Saturday Morning Soaker

Actually, the last two mornings now, Tammy and I have headed out the door in the rain for a lovely rain run. We did 4.1 miles yesterday in a light rain, with near perfect running conditions, and 3.1 this morning in a soaking rain, which was just an absolute blast. Looks like we'll need to get used to it too because the forecast for the next week is for rain. This was my highest mileage week since getting back to running at 19.4 miles. I can't express how happy I am to be getting back out there. I am really looking forward to running the Komen 5K Race for the Cure with my whole family at the end of this month! Did you know you can contribute/donate to the cause by pledging us in our race through our family's fundraising page?

Tammy's aunt saw us running by this morning and came out on her porch to editorialize on our *passion* for running given the monsoon conditions we were running in this morning. Something like "Ok, your exercising has truly gone over the top now." Apparently she hasn't read about my first marathon race experience? Compared to that, this mornings run was divine! Have a great balance of your weekend!

Karen, thank you for the very kind comment on my last post. I really appreciate it. It's an honor and a blessing to be able to serve in that capacity.

I Will Never Forget

Seven years ago today I came very close to leaving for NYC following the attacks on the World Trade Center. Ironically enough, as a firefighter/EMT, I was responding to a call in my own community from work at home when my assistant chief told me that a plane had flown into the first WTC building. We had no idea what was going on at that time and just thought it was an accident. Our call was cancelled and we started watching the news coverage of the event as it unfolded. I returned home in time to see the second plane collide with the second tower. I watched as flames and smoke bellowed out of the giant structures and as emergency teams responded to the scene thinking, "Ok, this is big, but FDNY is trained for stuff like this and, they'll get a handle on it, it's just going to take some time." As I watched the situation unfold and the commentary by the media speculating as to what had just happened, the first tower collapsed. My mind just could not process what just happened. Then, a while later, the second tower collapsed. Again, I could not believe what I was seeing and just wept knowing that there were a lot of civilians in those buildings and firefighters and others coming to help. I was so moved by what I was seeing, I emotionally considered driving out there at that moment to do anything, whatever I could, to help. When I was able to think rationally, I knew that I would just be adding to the problems if I, and so many others in the country that were likely feeling the same way, were to act on those feelings. I stayed at home, prayed, and wept, like most of the rest of the country, and hugged and kissed my wife and daughters when they got home thanking God for His provision of our safety. I see jet airplanes in a different light now and, as much as I pray about it and try to be forgiving, I know in the deep recess of my heart, I have a disdain for a radical culture of people that were at the heart of the evil actions of that day. May He work through this black spot on my heart. I pray the Lord gives comfort and peace to the families of all 2,974 victims in the attacks that day, 343 of which were firefighters, including one chaplain. May God rest their souls and continue to bring healing to the hearts of our country, mine included. I will never forget.