Open & Shutt.....My Story

10-10-10 well on its way

2012-01-31T20:09:00.003-05:00

Thanks for the awesome people who have supported the Running for Laptops so far! I am now past halfway in meeting my overall fundraising goal but I hope to blow past it in the upcoming month.

My short-term goal is to get 10 people to donate $5-$10 by February 10th.

Thus "10-10-10"

If you can help, click here.

Here's a story from one of the amazing students you could possibly be supporting. I've edited it a little to avoid specifics.

I have been in foster care for the past five years.......My favorite activities include going to school for criminal justice which is my major and psychology which is my minor.....My chosen career is to either be a detective or to work in a treatment facility for adolescents. The reason I chose these careers are.... I see the effects have on kids and I want to help. I know how they feel and I want to give them opportunities I never had. The kids in the facilities are just that, kids. They see the drugs/alcohol solve their parent's problems, and so they believe that they will also solve their problems. I want to put them on the right track. When I was placed into foster care it was the best thing that has and could have happened in my circumstances, but not everyone is that lucky. This is my time to pay it forward. I want to show them there is a light at the end of the tunnel of darkness. I want to show them that they can also make a difference if they believe in their dreams. I hope you select me for a laptop, because yes I have access at school to a computer but not when I need to do work at home. I want to make a difference and you can help.

Sponsor Update and 10-10-10

2012-01-30T20:16:00.015-05:00

Beth and I updated her website to reflect her 2012 sponsors as she begins her professional career as a triathlete. Pretty exciting stuff.

Speaking of sponsors, as I head into February, I'm looking for some awesome people to help support me through the charity Running for Laptops that I'm working with for the Pittsburgh Marathon. The organization's goal is to raise funds to purchase laptops to give children as they age out of the foster care system in the Pittsburgh area.

Here's my goal: 10-10-10

10 people to give $5 - $10 by February 10th (Notice the "10" theme?). I'm not asking for the moon....but, hey, if you can give more than $10 that's great, too.

CAN YOU BE ONE OF THESE AWESOME PEOPLE TO STEP UP?

If so, click here.

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

The Weekend

2012-01-29T20:09:00.005-05:00

Here's an "exciting" timeline since Friday:

*Leave track practice
*Meet Beth at Qdoba for $5 Friday Burritos
*Go home and clean the upstairs
*Beth goes for her 2nd swim of the day while I catch up on Hawaii 5-0
*Go to bed around 10pm

*Wake up around 5:45
*Walk dog
*4 mile run
*Get ready and leave for track meet in Edinboro a little before 8am
*Make the trek up I-79 to Edinboro...a couple of inches of snow north of I-80

*A quick stop at Tim Horton's for some Timbits to consume later in the day

*Set up camera and computer timing system before 11am
*Start meet and record times with DP from USC until a little after 8pm (thank goodness for the 3000m and the longer relays to give us time to eat a little and quick pitstops)

*Make the trek home with a stop at the Sheetz in Grove City for dinner around 9:30 (turkey sub and smoothie....at least it was kind of healthy)
*Get home before 11pm

*Wake up around 5:45
*Fuel with a bagel & PB for the long run
*Walk dog
*20-mile run
*Go with Beth to the JCC to swim/lift (Our lucky day - free day for "outsiders")
*Lunch at Brueggers
*Drive to REI Robinson for PTC clinic (where Beth and Chad were speaking)
*PTC Clinic

*Dinner and grocery shopping at Market District (Pizza = yum!)
*Drive home
*Talk to parents

Whew! Okay, time to get ready for the next week.

I'm pumped because we're going to be heading to HHI on Friday. I'll be there for the weekend. Beth will be there for a few weeks for a winter training camp.

16

2012-01-28T22:43:00.003-05:00

This post is 16 words long. 16 equals the hours I spent at today's indoor meet.

55...then 35

2012-01-27T20:50:00.002-05:00

This morning's 12-miler was done in 55-degree weather when it started. There was a little rain, but it was GREAT running in shorts and a longsleeve in January. Memo to other people I saw out running - check the temperature before leaving the house. I counted a handful of people with long pants, multiple layers, hats, and gloves.

But, today was one of those days when the high was at midnight and the temperature just dropped throughout the day. Now, it's 35 and continuing to drop.

Tomorrow's the trip up north to Edinboro for our hs track meet. Looking forward to the many athletes in all the different events.

In other news, the Pirates had 4 players ranked in MLB.com's top 100 prospect rankings. It included RHP Jameson Taillon (#8), RHP Gerrit Cole (#11), OF Starling Marte (#40), and OF Josh Bell (#69). It's exciting to see 4 in the top 70. If you figure there are 30 teams, you would expect only 2 or 3 from a team in the top 70. Also, the pitching is coming. I've said it before, but I can't wait to see Cole and Taillon in Altoona this summer. Marte's knocking on the door in AAA. I can't wait to follow Bell in his debut summer.

Groundbreaking and Unveiling

2012-01-26T19:53:00.003-05:00

At school, we had our groundbreaking ceremony for the upcoming renovations. These have been a few years in the making, so it is exciting to see the project starting.

I saw on the web that the Pittsburgh Marathon has unveiled its revised course:

The reason for needing a revised course is that the Pirates are playing home games that weekend. The Pirates organization petitioned MLB to have away games that weekend, but they denied their request. Funny, Boston seems to get their request of a home game every Patriots' Day. Anyway, due to that, the race can't have it's highly efficient and logistical dream of finishing on the North Shore between PNC Park and Heinz Field. So, it's going to finish downtown near the point like the Great Race. I'll be excited to see the mile markers go up and to start getting out on the course.

As far as the training. Week 1 was 53 miles, week 2 was 56 miles. Week 3 was 58 miles. And I'm on pace, assuming the long run goes well, for breaking the 60 mile barrier this week. I had my first "speed" workout since before the Harrisburg Marathon, so that was exciting. I did 7x1000 with a minute rest (was supposed to do 8, but was running out of time to be able to get into the school and shower before homeroom). They were supposed to be in 3:45 (6:00 pace). The first one was ugly and was right around 4:00. Ugh! But, the rest went well: 3:46, 3:44, 3:44, 3:41, 3:42, and 3:37 on the last one.

We have our first high school indoor track meet. Looking like the snow's going to cooperate. Excited to see all the athlete's hard work pay off.

Back-to-Back "Late" Shifts

2012-01-25T22:06:00.003-05:00

...well, at least late for me. And this is the reason the blog to continue my streak is the equivalent to Cal Ripken pinch-hitting in the 8th inning of a game during his streak (which he he probably did less times in his 2,632 consecutive games than I have had "cheap" blogs during this 27-day blog streak).

Tuesday night...up at 4:30 for a morning run, school, and practice, I had a planning meeting with the Etown alumni group. Not home until 10pm (usually in bed by then)

Wednesday night...up at 4:30 to drop off the car for service, then run to the school as part of my warmup for 1000's on the track, school, practice, jog back to pick up the car, dinner at Subway, and then back to high school for our district's annual curriculum night from 6-9pm (where parents come in and ask about what classes their students should select for the next school year).

So, I'm home. I've written a weak blog. Now I'm going to bed. Off day for workouts tomorrow so a 'relative' sleep in. Yippee!

Career Post 300

2012-01-24T22:04:00.002-05:00

Not an impressive post, but one to keep the streak going. According to the Blogger "Dashboard" this is Post #300. Here was Post #1.

Didn't get a chance to catch the President's State of the Union Address, but I hope it involved ideas for the government spending less than it takes in. I'll have to catch up on it later this week.

We Are...

2012-01-23T19:58:00.006-05:00

Penn State is more than Joe Paterno, but Joe Paterno is so much Penn State.

Where to start? I suppose going chronologically is the easiest way.

My dad was a Penn State fan. He never went to college there (he went to Davidson College), but followed the team and I remember getting glasses at Hoss's that had the Penn State schedule on them in the mid-80's. The 1986 season was special. My dad and I would listen on the radio around the house or driving around. The had a close game against Maryland (17-15), but went undefeated through the regular season.

They were ranked #2 in the country. Miami was ranked #1 in the country. (I can hear Bob Costas in the game's introduction...) Since no major bowl could match up two independent teams due to their conference ties, the Fiesta Bowl (a "lesser" bowl) ended up swooping in. Instead of New Year's, they moved the game to the next day, January 2nd in primetime with a true #1 vs #2. The game drew the largest television audience in the history of college football.

Miami came in with all the bravado, wearing camouflage. Penn State was the boring team with the black shoes. We taped the game, so I almost tell you play-by-play of the first half (every time I stayed home sick from school for the next however many years, I put in the tape). Penn State uncharacteristically tried to drop back and pass and got sacked. On 4th and really long, they punted. Penn State played a 3-deep zone and came up and hit the receivers and Miami couldn't sustain drives. This continued for most of the first half.

Since I was only in 4th grade, my dad made me go to bed at halftime. But, I woke up the next day and found out Penn State won, 14-10! When I went back and watched the game, it was amazing how Penn State held on for the win against Heisman trophy winner Vinnie Testaverde. 7 turnovers by the Hurricanes, including one on the goalline in the final minute, will do it. It was Paterno's 2nd national championship in five years. I was hooked!

I remember my 5th grade teacher's name was Mrs. Henderson and she had a button on her coat that said something like "Penn State mom." There was a player on the football team named Marques Henderson. I was certain that this was her son (regardless of me knowing the fairly obvious fact about his skin color and hometown). Also, the starting quarterback at Penn State that year, Matt Knizner, was from MY high school. He now sells insurance for State Farm in our hometown of Greensburg.

Blair Thomas was stellar, but the rest of Penn State was so-so into the end of the 80's, including their first sub-.500 record in 1988. Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1993 and then had a season for the ages in 1994 (my senior year of high school) with a high-flying offense and suffocating defense. They ran the table, including beating up Oregon in the Rose Bowl, but ended up the year ranked 2nd since voters though Nebraska was better. It all came down to a couple of garbage touchdowns Indiana scored in the 4th quarter to make a 35-29 finish seem like a close game with Penn State in early November.

I went off to college, but not to Penn State. I didn't want to start at such a big school. But, my path took me through Elizabethtown College and then Penn State through a cooperative engineering program. Reunited with my buddies from high school in Happy Valley, things were great. Also, I happened to meet Beth there, too.

Joe Paterno passed me once driving in his Volvo station wagon over to the football offices when I was by the tennis courts. I never had a chance to meet him in person. Beth had a chance to pass by him when she and her teammates would go on their morning runs. I joined her a few times in hopes of an JoePa encounter, but it never happened....I mean I joined her for some runs to get to know her better.

I got my degree from Penn State and it's such an amazing place. It won't be the same without JoePa. But, it's a better place because of him. Thoughts and prayers go out to the Paterno family. I hope that time helps heal the wounds of how things ended with the University and fences can be mended.

I attempted to honor the legacy of Coach Paterno and all the virtuous qualities he stood for today by dressing like him. A few kids got it. Others probably just looked at my rolled up pants and white socks and it further cemented in their minds how un-hip and not cool I am. Oh well.

Someone suggested of making it an annual thing to honor Coach Paterno. I think I like that idea.

WE ARE......PENN STATE!

A Sad Day in Happy Valley

2012-01-22T20:28:00.004-05:00

JoePa will be missed.

Here's some of his famous quotes:

“Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence or worth is a tragedy.”

“Believe deep down in your heart that you're destined to do great things.”

“Its the name on the front of the jersey that matters most, not the one on the back.”

“The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.”

"You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That's the mark of a true professional."

“Act like you expect to get into the end zone.”

Many thoughts to share this week about how Penn State became a part of my life.

Prayers for the Paternos

2012-01-21T21:51:00.003-05:00

Reports out of State College about Coach Joe Paterno's health do not sound good. There had been reports about his death, but two sons both posted tweets to the contrary (back to the idea of media getting things RIGHT instead of getting things FIRST).

Coach Paterno is a legend for so many things beyond his wins on the football field. How many Division 1 coaches have a library named after them? That says so much right there to me. More feelings to share in the days to come I'm sure.

Pulling for the Birds?

2012-01-20T21:26:00.002-05:00

New England or Baltimore? Which one is a fan from Pittsburgh to root for in the AFC Championship game? Both are bitter rivals of the Steelers.

My choice is very clear cut. Without a doubt I want Baltimore to win. Not necessarily to see the Ravens move on to the Super Bowl, but to end the Patriots' season. Not because I don't like Tom Brady or Woodland Hills grad Rob Goronkowski, but because it will allow offensive coordinator (and more importantly new Penn State head coach) to devote his full time to his new job. Hopefully, he'll be able to secure the commitments of current verbal recruits and maybe sneak in a few last-minute additions.

In the NFC Championship, both are good stories. Alex Smith and the 49ers with their thrilling win over New Orleans. Eli Manning doing for Super Bowl ring #2 (twice as many as his brother and father combined).

Made It!

2012-01-19T21:23:00.003-05:00

...to a new PR of number of blogs to start the year (19)

...but, perhaps more newsworthy, made it home with the snow. Now, this wasn't as bad as the President's Day disaster last winter. However, the roads were not cooperative.

To back up, at track practice, we were able to get the majority of the workout for both the sprinters and distance guys done on the track as the snow began to fall. The final few laps of the distance group's workout were on a snow-covered track, but it wasn't too bad. I look to the roads by the track and the high school and they were just wet. No snow.

Tonight, we had a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting scheduled, so I was sticking around until the 7pm meeting. As we were leaving practice, I told the student leader that if the roads get bad, let's cancel and be safe. Snow brings out a more cautious, conservative, and worrisome me than usual.

So, I'm up in my room doing some odds and ends with appointments and grading and peak out the window and see that the road between the high school and the tennis court was still just wet. I go out to leave, brush off my car, and turn onto the main road in front of the high school and I was shocked. The roads were slushy and slick. Our HS Maintenance Facility tricked me by doing such an awesome job of clearing the snow from the roads on campus. I should've known because I can always count on them on snowy mornings to have the road loop around the school clear for a run.

So, I make it to Chick-Fil-A (albeit slowly) and find that no one is there. I was relieved because I didn't want the kids to risk driving out in the snow. I checked in with the leader and he confirmed that he contacted the other students and cancelled the meeting. I figured since I was there and hadn't eaten yet I might as well get my dinner and stick around in case anybody missed the message and showed up. Fortunately none of the kids did, so I finished my meal and made my way towards home.

If anything, the wait allowed some of the traffic to thin out and let the road crews do their thing. I popped in my Cornerstone Worship CD (our church's own CD they released a few months back) to accompany me on the way home. I like having some praise music while I'm driving in adverse weather. Not that it will guarantee I won't slide around or that I won't get in an accident (just like Tim Tebow's faith didn't guaranteed any wins), but it helps keep me relaxed and at peace knowing that God will work it out.

Things went pretty smooth to downtown and up Route 28 until about Blawnox. From there, I had to slow down a little. Once up past Harmarville, the roads were white, but not too slick. So, after going about 20mph the rest of the way home, I made it in one piece.

In the meantime, Beth was trudging around in the snow doing a running workout and made it back to the house in one piece, too.

I hope everybody else stayed safe in this weather and also for the alleged weather we're supposed to get Friday night-Saturday morning.

Wish List for the Pirates

2012-01-18T20:10:00.002-05:00

Last year around this time, I dreamt of a trade between the Pirates and the Texas Rangers involving a what seemed to be over-the-hill Michael Young. Obviously the trade didn't happen and, good for the Rangers, Young has a .854 OPS and a 2.4 WAR in 2011.

New year, new trade proposal surely not to happen.

I'm nervous about the Pirates' pitching. They pitched over their heads for most of the year. Charlie Morton had off-season hip surgery. Jeff Karstens is very hittable. Kevin Correia is a year older. None of the AAA guys (Lincoln, Locke, Owens, etc.) distinguished themselves.

So, since the Yankees over the weekend acquired Michael Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda, they now have 7 or 8 starting pitchers. Most rotations only use 5. So, someone may be expendable. Perhaps a young talent like Phil Hughes, but that is unlikely. How about the underachieving AJ Burnett who is scheduled to make $16.5 million each of the next two years? From what I have heard on various sports shows, it may take very little to acquire Burnett. Why not? The Yankees would probably even throw in some of the cash to get a medium-level prospect. The Pirates are very deep in the outfield in the minor leagues, so that is where I would start.

One other option they could go for is the Free Agent route. Roy Oswalt is still out there. He has been hurt some over the past few years. Why not sign him to an $8-10 million one-year contract and, if the Pirates are out of it by the trade deadline, flip him for prospects.

After last year's first half, I am encouraged that the Pirates are heading in the right direction. I would hate to see the pitching hold them back this year. Speaking of Pirates' pitching, I'm excited to make a trip (or two) to Altoona to see two of the top 10 right-handed pitchers (in all the minor leagues) - Jameson Taillon and Gerrit Cole.

This ties 2011's year-opening streak of blogs. Stay tuned tomorrow to see if the streak is broken.

Coincidence?

2012-01-17T20:14:00.004-05:00

Friday, January 13th - Beth releases her race schedule for her debut pro triathlon season.

Monday, January 16th - 13-time undefeated Ironman champion and 4-time Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington announces she is taking a year off from competing in Ironman.

Coincidence? You be the judge.

Beth's next target:

(For the non-triathlon people, this is Mirinda Carfrae--probably the 2nd best triathlete in the world)

As a side note, my college roommate one year was from Norwich in England. It turns out Chrissie Wellington is from Norfolk, which is the county that Norwich resides in. Small world, eh?

The Streak

2012-01-16T19:30:00.002-05:00

The blog streak is alive and well. 16-for-16 and 17 in a row. Unfortunately for Pitt basketball, they are streaking in the wrong direction. The Panthers are 0-5 in the Big East and have lost 6 in a row overall. Not very Pitt-like in the basketball world, especially since they were preseason #10 in the AP Poll. Tonight, they have a tough test at #1 Syracuse.

But, we're not here to pile on to Pitt. Here's an update on my three basketball teams as I move past the football season:

Arizona (12-6, 3-2 in Pac-12). The Wildcats haven't lived up to their preseason AP #16 billing. They lost one of the best players, Derrick Williams, in all of college basketball last year to the NBA, so Sean Miller's young team is still finding its way. They've got some work to do, but with a strong finish should make it to the NCAA Tournament.

Davidson (12-4, 6-0 in Southern Conference). These Wildcats look like they may have the giant-killer ability back this year. In addition to leading #6 Duke at halftime at Cameron Indoor Stadium (lost 82-69) in November, they took out #11 Kansas 80-74 in St. Louis in December. It will be a matter of taking care of business in the Southern Conference over the next two months in preparation for the NCAA Tournament. Also a western PA guy, Tom Droney from Sewickley Academy, is in the rotation.

Penn State (9-10, 1-5 in Big Ten). When you lose three of your top four players from an NCAA bubble team, usually things don't go well. And, that's what's happening in Happy Valley. While they did score a nice 65-45 win against Purdue, they have lost to the likes of #2 Kentucky (down 47-15 at halftime), smaller in-state foes (St. Joe's, Lafayette and Duquesne) and all but one Big Ten game. This will be a rough winter for first-year coach Patrick Chambers. On a bright note, Tim Frazier is having an "all-conference" type year, but he's not getting much help.

So, that's where things stand. Time to shift into college hoops mode.

Where a kid can be a kid

2012-01-15T20:00:00.002-05:00

After a chilly run this morning, we took a trip over the mountain to Altoona to meet up with Beth's friend K, husband T, and three kids. Our meeting location was Chuck E. Cheese's. Good pizza and good times. It turns out that I have a skill at lining up the scalpel with the joystick in the 'Operation' game and, once I get in a groove, I don't miss in the basketball. Mucho ticket-os for the kids. (Of course it was all about the kids, that's why I spent $10 on game-playing tokens).

On our way back, we stopped at the Indiana YMCA to get our lift in because it was going to cut it too close to make it the whole way home. The lifting has been fairly consistent for me two times per week since December. Hopefully this will make those leg muscles stronger and cramp-resistant come marathon day. For training, I did 17 this morning for a total of 56 for the week. Last week I did 52.5, so things are off to a good start with 16 weeks to go. Three hours or bust!

We've got a teacher in-service day tomorrow and we're giving midterms Tuesday and Wednesday. Then it's a normal day Thursday and a teacher grading day on Friday. This week is always nice for a change of pace. I'm looking forward to see how things go for the students from the first semester. Also this means we're already HALF WAY through the school year. Where did that go?

Home Day

2012-01-14T22:18:00.006-05:00

With the track meet being cancelled, you would think there would be time today to write a longer blog. But after sleeping in, running, eating lunch, taking a nap, cleaning the house, going to church, and watching the US Olympic Marathon Trials it's after 10pm already.

So, here's another quick entry.

Great finish to the SF-NO game. Both offenses didn't back down in the 4th quarter. Not sure if Tim Tebow can bring back the Broncos down this much. It was a good run and he is still an amazing person.

Joe Paterno was interviewed by Sally Jenkins in the Washington Post. I am so impressed with him. He's still the same person - honest, genuine, and quick-witted. I hope that when all the dust settles and all of the facts are out, people realize what a great man he has always been.

Amazing races at the Marathon Olympic trials. Congrats to all who made it. They all looked so strong. Also, too bad for Dathan Ritzenhein and Amy Hastings for just missing out in 4th. That is really rough. It was neat seeing Beth's former teammate Donna (Fidler) Palisca as the men passed her with a few miles to go. Her 15 seconds of fame! Finally, to Tom Hammonds - use less makeup next time and do a little more studying up on announcing marathons before the Olympics.

Home on Saturday

2012-01-13T21:34:00.002-05:00

The snow missed most of the Pittsburgh area. We only got 1-2 inches. It did not miss Erie. Up there they have 1-2 inches as in TWELVE (12). So, they decided to cancel our indoor track meet. That means I have a few more hours on my hands on Saturday.

This is a weak entry, but I promise better over the weekend. I've got several topics stored up and need to start rolling them out.

It's a-coming....

2012-01-12T20:45:00.002-05:00

...allegedly.

Our first major "winter storm advisory/warning" of the school year. Will we be delayed? Will we be cancelled? Will we get less than an inch of snow? Usually it ends up being the last option.

I just hope this doesn't throw too much of a wrench into our plans for the first indoor track meet of the year up at Edinboro (near Lake Erie). I just checked the forecast up there and they're supposed to get anywhere from 5" to 11" of snow through Saturday. That's why they put chains on buses I suppose!

Stay tuned...

PS - 12 for 12 this year and one more week to beat last year's streak

L-O-S-T in Lebo

2012-01-11T20:23:00.005-05:00

As a map guru this is painful and humbling to admit, but for about 20 minutes on my run this morning I had NO CLUE where I was and whether I was going North/South/East/West. Fortunately, when you're doing a 90-minute run, you have plenty of time to finally recognize where you are and head back in the right direction. Charlie (and other Lebo people) will understand where I was....and be so disappointed in me.

I wanted to merge together a few shorter loops into a long one since I was going longer. So, my plan was to take Cope's Cabana (as in Myron) and then slide over into a McGowan and perhaps a Beverly to make a loop around the district. Knowing that Cope's involved cutting through some woods and it was still dark out I knew I would have to modify it. So, the thought was to just go along Connor Road but I saw that it had no sidewalk, no light, and no shoulder. So, back over another way and I *thought* it would take me essentially parallel to Connor.

However, no road in our district is straight (and flat for that matter), so I rolled up and down and around on a road I usually don't run on. I come to an intersection at Vermont Ave and decide to turn right. When I did this, I plunged into my black hole. For the first few minutes, I thought it was amusing and wasn't concerned since I still had about an hour left. But, after about 15 minutes and still not recognizing of the townhouses lining the street and it being dark out, I was starting to think about retracing my steps.

Finally, I pop out by the t-rail tracks and an intersection with Route 88 (it was so dark and I was so turned around that I didn't even realize this was where Connor Road met 88). So, North or South on 88? The sign said going south would take me to South Park in 2 miles. If I go north I would be in Pittsburgh's city limits in 6 miles. I chose north. I saw a sign that said welcome to Castle Shannon. Not bad, that's the next district over.

Then, I decided to get off 88 back over the t-tracks and saw St. Anne's Church. I don't believe I was ever past it before but I've heard some of the kids mention they went there. So, I go up this way and finally see a sign that says "Welcome to Mt. Lebanon." This is good since all places in the district are about 2 miles or less from the high school (we're a "walking" district--no buses). But, the funny part is that I still had NO CLUE where I was.

Finally, from Rockwood I run into the intersection of Hoodridge and, not until this point, did I know exactly where I was on the McGowan loop. I look at my watch and I am now 45 or so minutes into my run. So, if you do the math, I was "lost" for about 15 or 20 minutes. Pretty entertaining considering I was less than three miles from the high school the entire time.

Maybe this means I need to get more sleep, eat more before I run in the morning, or just map out my runs better.

For those that know the area, below is the mapmyrun.com route I took (I did a mile around the school at the end). Try not to laugh too much at my misfortune.

A Trip to the Beach

2012-01-10T20:41:00.005-05:00

Not literally, but figuratively.

That's what I tell the jumpers on the track team when we have an opportunity to do some jumping into the sand outside at the long jump pit during months when there can be several feet of snow on the ground. So, we took advantage of the weather of the past few days and made a trip to the beach today. I'm encouraged that the athletes had a chance to execute a few practice jumps prior to Saturday's first indoor meet. It's always tough to do something technical when you haven't truly practiced it since last May.

'Bama won last night so I'm the picking champ of the Shutt household.

O - 21-14
B - 19-16
Over/Under - 21-13-1

Blog post #10 in a row for the year (11 in a row overall). I'm past halfway to beating last year's streak.

That is all. Time to get to bed before tomorrow morning's 4:15am wakeup call to sneak in a 12-miler.

Roll Tide or Geaux Tigers?

2012-01-09T19:17:00.006-05:00

Live from the Superdome...

(Photo courtesy of our trip for IM70.3 New Orleans)

Since it's only been two months since the last meaningful college football game, we now finally have the national championship. It pits two SEC west opponents who have already met once this year.

To update our bowl picks, I'm 20-14 and Beth's 19-15. She has LSU and I have Alabama. We agreed that if LSU wins and we have idententical records, she wins the tie-breaker since she correctly picked the most important game.

So, ROLL TIDE!
(Pictures from our time in Tuscaloosa for the 2009 USAT National Championships)

Not This Year

2012-01-08T20:44:00.004-05:00

Beth's mom is here and we're playing Scrabble now that the big playoff game is over. I'm blogging on the phone while playing (and not doing well with either).

The Steelers' playoff run came to an abrupt end in Denver. There is going to be a lot of sad people tomorrow in the 'burgh. The Tim Tebow legend lives on.

In other news we celebrated Christmas with Beth's mom's side of the family yesterday afternoon. Good food and a new Serbian tradition that was reintroduced. It involved a coin that was baked into a cake. A male representative from each family spun it around and then we each broke off a piece and the one with the coin would have good luck for the year.

Merry Christmas to all of those celebrating the Serbian day!

Life vs Choice

2012-01-07T21:11:00.002-05:00

Every January our church has a weekend where they talk about Pro-life and abortion. This was our weekend in preparation for the March for Life in Washington DC later in the month. Here's a post I did from 2 years ago that included information about Michael Clancy-the USA Today photographer who took the photo of the baby's hand reaching out of the womb.

This year's guest speaker did not disappoint. Her name was Lila Rose and she is a 23-year-old who founded what has now grown into a nationwide Pro-Life group called Live Action.

An interesting statistic I heard tonight was from a Gallup Poll conducted in 2010. It stated that more Americans surveyed identified themselves as "Pro-life" instead of "Pro-Choice."

One of the reasons I believe that the shift is occurring to more of Pro-life views is technology and information. The specific details can be seen so much more readily today via the internet. Lila Rose and her group did some undercover investigations into Planned Parenthood and posted videos onto Youtube. Information I believe helps people see that this is killing a life. I heard on the radio this week that many Democratic politicians are trying to tiptoe the issue saying that they personally don't believe in abortion, but don't want to limit individual's choices. In most cases I would agree that the government shouldn't step in to prevent individual choice. However, when it comes to life, people should not have that option to end it.

So, that's my feelings on a heavy topic. I'll leave you with a neat story about someone who was almost aborted that has already done amazing things in spite of only being in his early 20's. A guy that the Steelers are going to face tomorrow by the name of Tim Tebow.

Prayers and Praying

2012-01-06T21:36:00.002-05:00

My cousin's little two-month-old has been in and out of the hospital over the last month due to a hole in her heart. Earlier today, she had surgery to help fix the problem. I was amazed at the outpouring of encouragement and prayers of people to my post on Facebook and how neat it is to spread out the prayer chain this way. I know that my cousin (and Aunt and Uncle) appreciate all the prayers out there. The last update I heard is that the surgery went well and she came out of it healthy. Thank you for all of the prayers.

Speaking of prayers, the Tim Tebow phenomenon has been in full focus here in the 'burgh due to the Steelers travelling to Denver to play the Broncos in the first round of the playoffs. I don't get why there's so much hate for the guy and his kneeling to pray. Even if you're not a Christian or practice your faith, why does he get so much criticism for living his faith out? What if a Muslim was doing what Tebow was doing and people where ridiculing it? I can only imagine the media outrage for being intolerant and racist there could be.

I got to hear Tebow's interview with the Pittsburgh media via conference call the other day. He is just a solid character. He's got his goals and priorities in the right place. He's willing to answer any question about his faith to the fullest extent. When the questions were actually about football, he answered those very knowledgeably and humbly too.

Let's go Steelers!

How about them 'eers?

2012-01-05T19:44:00.004-05:00

49 points by halftime and an Orange Bowl 70 points in the game. Wow. Impressive performance by West Virgina.

The last time we were in Morgantown was for a half Ironman in August of 2010. It was my first (and maybe last) half. Here was the end result:

Ouch.

In other news, I was the recipient of a large amount of grace earlier this week. I don't want to get into the details, but it was an amazing feeling to have such a big weight lifted off of me. I surely didn't deserve it, but got it anyway.

PS - If you notice the five consecutive days of blogs, it's because I'm trying to break last year's streak of 18 straight days of blogs to start the year. This isn't a New Year's resolution to blog every day or anything, just a little thing to amuse myself through the doldrums of winter.

The Next Coach...

2012-01-04T21:44:00.002-05:00

After falling flat at the TicketCity.com Bowl, Penn State continues its search for Joe Paterno's successor. It seems like there's been a new name each day this week. Green Bay's assistant coach Clements, New England's OC O'Brien, San Francisco's OC Roman, and Rutger's HC Schiano. I would still be happy with Tom Bradley as a transitional coach for the next 4-5 years.

Congrats to Rick Santorum for a solid performance in Iowa. It will be interesting to see how the New Hampshire Primary shapes up for the republicans.

Snow, Snow, Go Away

2012-01-03T20:43:00.003-05:00

75 minute commute home. Ugh! At least the snow seems to be done through the weekend.

Update on our picks through the Jan 2 games:

O: 18-11
B: 16-13
O - Over/Under: 17-11-1

Let's go, Hokies!

On the political front, the Iowa Caucus is today and it'll be interesting to see how it all sorts out. Rick Santorum is a local guy and my one friend interned for him back when he was a Senator. I'm pulling for him as I agree with a lot of his views on morality (faith, abortion, etc.) and dealing with the size of government and our debt. However, I don't know how his platform would stand up in a national election. But, maybe I'm misjudging the American people.

We shall see.

Happy Birthday, Daph!

2012-01-02T21:16:00.003-05:00

My little sis turned the big 3-0 today. If she's into the old category, what does that make me? O-L-D! (This picture is from like 10 years ago--I realized I don't have any recent pics of her)

In other news, Penn State finished off their season with a whimper. I didn't get to follow much of the game since we are back at school today, but it was probably for the best. Actually, the way the schedule played out, I don't know that I sat down to take in an entire game all season. Oh well, there's always next year. Now the focus is for the Nittany Lions to get the best coach in place to help them move forward from this cloud that Jerry Sandusky has left on the program.

2011 Highs and Lows

2012-01-01T20:49:00.002-05:00

In yet another annual tradition, here's the highlights and lowlights of 2011

(for previous years click here)

LOWS:
3. A handful of teeth issues (root canal, crowns, etc.) that were somewhat annoying to deal with. But, all seems to be going much smoother now.

2. Getting in a car accident and totalling the car.

1. Coming up short of my goals in my two marathons in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.

HIGHS:

4. The Pirates' and their memorable relevance for more than half a season.

3. The many fun trips: HHI, NOLA, NoCal, Kona.

2. Career victory #2 on the 4th of July and doing a fun summer of four new 5k's (Homeless 5k, Hampton 4th of July, Junkyard Jaunt, and St. Barnabas).

1. The positives out of the marathons. In spite of not hitting my time goals, so many great things like helping others do their first full marathon, half marathon, and in some cases first road race (as part of a relay). Also, through so many generous people, we raised nearly $2,000 for two different charities I was involved in. Thank you so much!

So, again, a very blessed year. It seems like the "lows" (which are very relative to many people's situations) all had silver linings. The culmination of the dental work was when I won a 5k. As I outlined, all of the awesome things around the marathon.

So, time to move on to 2012 and more adventures!

The Christmas Trip

2011-12-31T14:29:00.003-05:00

Good times down in the south, y'all. Things went smooth getting there, being there, and coming back.

To give a little more detail...

We were trying to make it work out where Beth didn't have to take me to work Friday morning (lots of extra driving and time), but we didn't want to have to take two cars to the airport and meet there. So, good friend (and classroom next-door neighbor...and racquetball afficianado) allowed me to stash my car at his place (only lives 5 min or so from school) while we were away. It worked out great, Beth picked me up at the end of the school day, and we were off to the airport. Thanks, BK!

Probably the best thing about this trip was that we didn't have to worry about hauling around a bike box. That made things quick getting into the airport and through security (except for when somebody forgot to put their shampoo in the checked bag instead of the carry-on).

We grab dinner in the airport and head towards our gate. As we approach a people-mover, Beth and I notice this guy looking at me. I look back at him and do a double-take. Once we pass him, I asked Beth, "Do you know who that was?" She says no and I tell her that it was Dave Littlefield (former Pirates' General Manager). We settle down at our crowded gate and, sure enough, DL and his wife and kids are at the gate too. In my head at this point, I begin conjuring up all of these profound things to discuss with him:

*Did you really think Daniel Moskos was better than Matt Weiters when drafting?
*How painful was it to have to trade Aramis Ramirez to get in line with MLB's debt ratio?
*Why exactly did you take ALL of Matt Morris' $10M salary on AND give the Giants Rajai Davis?
*What was your overall draft philosophy?
*What are you up to now (researched on Wikipedia he was a scout with the Cubs in 2011)?
*What is it like working in baseball?

The list could go on and on....

However, an opportune time didn't come up while waiting to board the plane (that and of course I was chicken). However, we did strike up a conversation while on the plane. Okay, it was as I was walking past his seat as I went back towards mine and it went something like this:

DL: **sneeze**
OS: Bless you.
DL: Thank you.

And I kept on walking. There it was. Maybe next time I run into him, I can go through my list since we are now acquaintances.

After that, I am happy to say that I finally got around to finishing my book on the life of John Wesley (founder of the Methodist faith). It's interesting to see the characteristics of a strong leader - unwavering belief in a cause, personal exceedingly high expectations and standards, high expectations of those around you, compassion, selflessness, and many others.

While I finished one book, I was furnished with FIVE new books from my mother-in-law (former librarian). The one I'm starting with is called Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin. From what I understand, she's a noted historical author, but wrote this book about her life and growing up and how it was intertwined with her passion for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Does my MIL know me or what?

While in HHI, we ran outside (in shorts!), swam a few times, played mini-golf, scrabble, Settlers of Catan, watched movies and ate a lot. I always love the Christmas Eve service and the singing of 'Silent Night' as we light the candles. Good times all around.

Now, we're back in PA and getting ready to ring in the new year with our triathlon friends.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Taking a Big Risk

2011-12-20T20:16:00.002-05:00

Something from the message at our church on Saturday night has really stuck with me. It revolved around the risk that Mary took of accepting God's plan of bringing Jesus into the world.

I keep thinking about the many people who have become admired throughout history for the great things they have done. But, many of those things were done by taking a very big risk. They didn't know how it would turn out. Some of the ones I was thinking about on my run today:

*Christopher Columbus and the many explorers to the 'New World.' What if it turned out the world was as flat as a pancake and they fell off the end of it? There was a chance they would never come back. That was a risk they were willing to take.

*George Washington and the entire American Revolution. What if it failed? How would the British deal with these 'rebels.' They would probably be put to death as traitors. That was a risk they were willing to take because they believed in their cause.

*Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. The easy thing to do would have been to let the south secede and not make slavery a major issue. But, he took a risk and stood up to that and kept this nation together. Imagine how different things would be today in the United States if he didn't believe it was a nation worth keeping as one.

*The astronauts on the first space mission. What if they couldn't get back to earth? They would never see their families or friends again. They would be lost in space.

*Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights movement. They withstood many negative things to stand for their equality and freedom. They didn't know how it would turn out. Martin Luther King ended up dying for the cause.

*Countless numbers of scientists and inventors who placed their entire lives and financial savings into a product. There were many failures along the way. They didn't know if it would succeed or fail and they would ever make any money.

All turned out well in these scenarios. However, in all of those situations, gigantic decisions were made without any assurance that it would turn for the positive. They took major risks. They believed. It's easy to look back and say they made the right choice, but that's hindsight. At the time when they made that decision, they didn't know how it would turn out. It's like watching a movie for a second time, you know how it's going to turn out. You have a lot more ease when the character is making the decision because you know it's going to turn out good in the end.

Mary believed. You can read the account in the first Chapter of Luke in the Bible. To boil it down, she was engaged but not married and is told by and angel that she is pregnant by God. The consequences of an unmarried female being pregnant were very bad in that times, potentially punishable by death. On top of that, if her life was spared, she would face ridicule and looks every day as she went about her daily routine.

But she was willing to endure all of that and trust in God. In verse 38 of Luke 1, Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant." She was willing to trust God and follow God. I admire Mary and the many other risk-takers throughout history. Their willingness to take a risk in spite of potentially negative results did not dissuade them from making their decision. They did not know how it would turn out, but believed anyway that it would turn out for the good. That is faith.

The closest thing I can think that we've done is that we decided to leave Grad School at Virginia Tech after only one semester. I was there to continue towards my PhD (after a BS and MS in engineering at Penn State) and Beth was starting grad school after a very successful undergraduate career. Up to this point, we each had just met each obstacle in life and achieved in it. Success came with most everything we did to that point. However, this was different. It just didn't seem like the right fit. We weren't sure if we should continue, but we had always continued to that point.

We made the choice of moving back to Pennsylvania after only one semester at the risk of altering our planned career paths. Looking back now, I'd say things have turned out well with my getting into teaching and coaching and Beth's work at the hospital and triathlons. But, at that point, you could only put it in God's hands and see what was in store. There were many unknowns. No jobs waiting for us back in PA. No assurances on what we would do next. But, we trusted God that it was the right decision and we went with it. And, it turned out well.

So in closing on this very scattered ramble, I hope that each of us can be like Mary and willing to trust God and take a risk without knowing how it's going to turn out. It's scary to have that unknown staring you in the face. You may fail, but things could turn out better than you ever imagined. It sure did for Mary (and the rest of mankind as a result).

Now onto some lighter topics. In other news...

*Christmas kind of snuck up on me this year. I don't like playing the Christmas music too soon because then you get tired of it when Christmas arrives. But, it is now only 5 days away. So, I cued up my Christmas playlist for my run this morning and was loving it. I think it put an extra hop in my step.

*We're heading south for Christmas to visit Beth's parents. Looking forward to the nice weather!

*For the spring semester at school, I am going to be working with a student teacher. I had a chance to meet her today and I'm looking forward to the opportunity. This is my first chance to work with a student teacher, so I hope over the last 8 years I've learned a thing or two that I can pass on. Hopefully it's more than just "don't do what I just messed up."

*One of the great things of being a teacher is seeing students come back to visit. Several were at track practice today and it's great to hear their stories about how college went, how they're acclimating to the new environment, and (most importantly) how prepared the felt in their college math courses!!!! But on a serious note, it is rewarding to see that your investment in a student has paid off, whether that was academically, athletically, or simply as a human being.

*So far I'm 1-2 on the bowl picks. Just sayin'. Mediocre (or worse) here I come.

*If you're looking for a way to make a difference this holiday season, would you consider helping me support the Running for Laptops charity? I'm working with them as I prepare for the Pittsburgh Marathon. Their mission is to raise funds to supply students who 'age out' of the foster care system with laptops as they move on to their next endeavor. If you could find it in your heart to help out (even if it's just $5, that adds up too!), you can click the link here.

Merry Christmas to all! Remember that Jesus, not gifts, is the reason for the season!

Selections

2011-12-17T13:14:00.006-05:00

Since I did so mediocre last year at picking all the college bowl games (18-15-2), I figured why not do it again.

Odds from USA Today on December 17
Date
Favorite Spread Underdog (Over/Under)

My selection is the underlined one:

December 17, 2011
Temple 7 Wyoming (50.5) - Over
Utah State 1 Ohio (60) - Under
San Diego State 4 UL Lafayette (59) - Under

December 20, 2011
Florida Interational 4 Marshall (48.5) - Over

December 21, 2011
TCU 10 Louisiana Tech (55) - Over

December 22, 2011
Boise State 13.5 Arizona State (65.5) - Under

December 24, 2011
Southern Miss 6 Nevada (62) - Under

December 26, 2011
Missouri 4.5 North Carolina (52.5) - Over

December 27, 2011
Purdue 2.5 W. Michigan (60) - Under
NC State 2.5 Louisville (44.5) - Over

December 28, 2011
Toledo 3 Air Force (70) - Under
Texas 3 California (47.5) - Over

December 29, 2011
Florida State 3 Notre Dame (47) - Over
Baylor 9 Washington (78.5) - Under... 78.5!?!?!?

December 30, 2011
BYU 2 Tulsa (55.5) - Under
Rutgers 1.5 Iowa State (44.5) - Under
Mississippi State 7 Wake Forest (48) - Under
Oklahoma 13.5 Iowa (57.5) - Under

December 31, 2011
Texas A&M 10 Northwestern (66) - Under
Georgia Tech 3 Utah (50.5) - Over
Illinois 2 UCLA (47) - Over
Vanderbilt 2.5 Cincinnati (48.5) - Over
Auburn 2 Virginia (49) - Over

January 2, 2012
Houston 5.5 Penn State (57) - Under
Georgia 3.5 Michigan State (50.5) - Over
South Carolina 3.5 Nebraska (46.5) - Over
Florida 2 Ohio State (44) - Under
Oregon 6 Wisconsin (71.5) - Under
Oklahoma State 3.5 Stanford (74) - Over

January 3, 2012
Michigan 2 Virginia Tech (51) - Under

January 4, 2012
Clemson 3.5 West Virginia (60.5) - Over

January 6, 2012
Arkansas 7.5 Kansas State (63) - Under

January 7, 2012
Pittsburgh 3.5 SMU (47) - over

January 8,2012
Arkansas State 1 No. Illinois (63) - Under

January 9, 2012
Alabama PICK LSU (40) - Over

After a stellar 13-20-2 mark last year, Beth wanted to give it another try, too.

December 17, 2011
Temple 7 Wyoming (50.5)
Utah State 1 Ohio (60)
San Diego State 4 UL Lafayette (59)

December 20, 2011
Florida Interational 4 Marshall (48.5)

December 21, 2011
TCU 10 Louisiana Tech (55)

December 22, 2011
Boise State 13.5 Arizona State (65.5)

December 24, 2011
Southern Miss 6 Nevada (62)

December 26, 2011
Missouri 4.5 North Carolina (52.5)

December 27, 2011
Purdue 2.5 W. Michigan (60)
NC State 2.5 Louisville (44.5)

December 28, 2011
Toledo 3 Air Force (70)
Texas 3 California (47.5)

December 29, 2011
Florida State 3 Notre Dame (47)
Baylor 9 Washington (78.5)

December 30, 2011
BYU 2 Tulsa (55.5)
Rutgers 1.5 Iowa State (44.5)
Mississippi State 7 Wake Forest (48)
Oklahoma 13.5 Iowa (57.5)

December 31, 2011
Texas A&M 10 Northwestern (66)
Georgia Tech 3 Utah (50.5)
Illinois 2 UCLA (47)
Vanderbilt 2.5 Cincinnati (48.5)
Auburn 2 Virginia (49)

January 2, 2012
Houston 5.5 Penn State (57)
Georgia 3.5 Michigan State (50.5)
South Carolina 3.5 Nebraska (46.5)
Florida 2 Ohio State (44)
Oregon 6 Wisconsin (71.5)
Oklahoma State 3.5 Stanford (74)

January 3, 2012
Michigan 2 Virginia Tech (51)

January 4, 2012
Clemson 3.5 West Virginia (60.5)

January 6, 2012
Arkansas 7.5 Kansas State (63)

January 7, 2012
Pittsburgh 3.5 SMU (47)

January 8,2012
Arkansas State 1 No. Illinois (63)

January 9, 2012
Alabama PICK LSU (40)

Please don't use these as a reference for betting suggestions. You'll just lose money if you use the picks.

2011 BCS Playoff Proposal

2011-12-04T19:56:00.004-05:00

Because for some reason this doesn't get old for me, here is year four of my BCS Playoff Proposal.

For background on my rationale, check out the last three years:
2008
2009
2010

In summary, the goal is two-fold:

1) To give EVERY team a LEGITIMATE chance to win a national championship (see Houston before their loss to Southern Miss on Saturday, or Oklahoma State who's only loss came in overtime a day after the women's basketball coach died in a plane crash)

2) To have every team's final game be a MEANINGFUL game (for example, congrats to Wisconsin and Oregon on their respective conference championships and good luck in your Rose Bowl EXHIBITION game)

This year, I set up the bracket Saturday morning BEFORE the conference championship games were played and just extended the bracket as if the top seeds would prevail. The bracket looked like this:

Not so fast, Houston and Virginia Tech. Today, I revised the bracket and it looked like this:

It actually worked out well because it helped to demonstrate that the "brackets" are NOT like the NCAA basketball tournament, but rather the NFL playoffs so that the seeding is revised for each round.

So, some of the minutiae:

General stuff from years past
*EVERYBODY finishes the regular season by November 19 (the weekend before Thanksgiving)
*Non-BCS conferences must have their conference champion crowned by November 19th, whether it's just by standings or by a conference championship game.
*BCS conferences will have their championships after a "bye week" on the weekend of December 3rd (just like they were this year)
*The "Play-in" round, matching up at-large teams (highest ranked non-conference championship game participants) with non-BCS conference champions
*After each round, the brackets will be reseeded by the BCS standings before the conference championships
*Quarterfinals on December 8-10
*Semifinals could either be weekend of Dec 24 or 31
*Finals could be either weekend of Dec 31 (aka the New Year's bowl) or the next weekend

Some of the specifics on the 2011 version
The non-BCS conference champions were, in order from best or worst (based on either BCS or USAToday Sagarin Ranking):

A. TCU (Mountain West)
B. Southern Miss (Conference USA)....can't believe Houston lost
C. Louisiana Tech (WAC)
D. Northern Illinois (MAC)
E. Arkansas State (Sun Belt)

The four at-large teams (based on BCS rankings of teams NOT in a conference championship)
1. Alabama - top at-large gets bye to second round
2. Stanford
3. Arkansas
4. Boise State (Note: Boise State didn't win the MWC, that was TCU)
(Kansas State and South Carolina are on the outside looking in)

In this first round (Thanksgiving weekend), games are played at the site of the conference champion (putting the "BIG" guy on the road at the "small" guy) with conference team A vs E, then B vs 4, C vs 3, and D vs 2. So, looking like this:

E-Arkansas State at A-TCU
AL4-Boise State at B-Southern Miss
AL3-Arkansas at C-Louisiana Tech
AL2-Stanford at D-Northern Illinois

So, all three BCS teams would be favored, but penalize them for not being in their conference championship by making them travel and giving the "small guy" the chance to upset the BCS conference team. This also rewards the top non-BCS champion team playing a cream puff like Arkansas State from the Sun Belt conference.

The winner of those games move on to play in the second round (Dec 1 & 3) again seeded based off of the BCS rankings in a 1/4, 2/3 setting. The higher seed is the home team. If seeds would hold, this would mean:

#18 TCU at #4 Stanford
#7 Boise State at #6 Arkansas

In addition to this, there are the five other conference championship games (kept the Big 12 since Oklahoma St and Oklahoma played just to keep it simple. Also, moved Notre Dame to the "Big East/at large" slot since the Big Ten now has 12).

SEC - LSU vs Georgia
ACC - Virginia Tech vs Clemson
Pac-12 - Oregon vs UCLA
Big 12 - Oklahoma vs Oklahoma State
Big Ten - Michigan State vs Wisconsin
At-large #1 at Big East/ND - West Virginia vs Alabama

The winners of these games would play in the third round (Dec 8 & 10) at the site of the higher BCS-ranked team. It doesn't work out this year, but you'd love to see a warm-weather team have to play in snow for the quarterfinals. Based on the conference championship results, it would look like this:

#15 Clemson at #1 LSU
#5 Oregon at #4 Stanford (rematch!)
#6 Arkansas at #3 Oklahoma State
#10 Wisconsin at #2 Alabama

So, that's my two cents. Here's the bracket again if you don't feel like scrolling back up:

Then, the final four could be perhaps a double-header at a neutral site (New Orleans, Miami, Phoenix, Pasadena) with the two winning teams staying in town for a "Super Bowl-like" media week. (They're on semester break, so the student-athletes aren't missing any school). Also, this eliminates all but 8 teams by this year's deadline for the bowl announcements, so you could still have your slate of meaningless exhibition bowl matchups.

But, it all comes down to money, TV contracts, and bowl officials. So, the odds of this plan that makes sense to me coming to fruition is probably slim and none. But, it's a fun little annual exercise. I hope you enjoyed it.

Thankful, Marathon Reflections, and What's Next

2011-11-28T19:38:00.002-05:00

THANKS
First of all, with the Thanksgiving Holiday having just passed, a couple of things I'm thankful for:

*Beth - for being so supportive and encouraging of all that I do, even when I come up short of my goals.
*My family - that I had a chance to spend some time with on Thanksgiving.
*My job - some days I truly reflect at the end of the day and think, "I'm even getting paid for this." At least most days. Some days are rougher than others. Also, just thankful with so many people out of work.
*Our church - it's great to be able to celebrate our relationship with Jesus with such amazing people. And, if you are into praise music, you have to check out Cornerstone's newly released 2-CD album of live and studio music. It's so neat to think that these talented people on the album are the ones up in front leading worship each week. Check it out!
*My health - to have the chance to do all of these fun sports activities

And, I'm just thankful for each day God's given me to make a difference. Not to get into the details, but I was in a car accident two weeks back. The car got totaled, but I came away with just a sore neck for a day or two (I kidded with the insurance adjustor that my legs were sore, but that was more due to running a marathon two days prior). A split second one way or another, things could have been very different.

MARATHON REFLECTIONS
So, it's back to the drawing board with the marathon training to get ready for the Pittsburgh Marathon in May 2012. We've determined that we're going to tweak my training since I've done the same plan the last two times without achieving my desired goals.

I liked the weekly mileage I hit since mid-July (51, 47, 49, 45, 46, 55, 50, 51, 53, 50, 43, 46, 49, 45, 45, 53, 42, 32, marathon week), but there must still be some things that I can tweak so that I'm not running out of gas at the end of the marathon. Here's some of our ideas that I'm going to implement with my next plan:

*Weekend piggy-back of long day and medium/hard day to try to fatigue the legs more for either the long run or the medium/hard run.
*Throw in a double run day here and there (like Beth's doing for her current training)
*Maxing out the long run to more like 25 miles instead of 21. Beth was telling me that Josh Cox has a long run where he does a 3-mile warmup, 18 at marathon pace, and a 3-mile cooldown. I think that would be a good way to push the legs a little more on the long days.
*Not be so 1-dimensional in my training. Due to working/coaching/spectathleting, there's only so many hours in the day that I can allocate to training. So, I got all my runs in, but that was it. Just runs. My only "swim" since the start of school was 15 minutes in the Pacific when we were in Kona. My plan is to be more involved with weights (and I've started already) even if it's at the sacrifice of a few miles. Also, I want to "cross train" with some other sports. Whether it's going back to doing the box drills with the track kids, basketball,....and I think I want to channel my college days and get back into racquetball, but I've found there aren't many courts in the Pittsburgh area. So that may be on hold.

So, that's where I'm going to start. In the last week I got three swims in, so that's off to a good start. Any ideas out there are more than welcome in the comments section. I know there's a sub-3:00 marathon in me. It's just a matter of doing the optimal preparation to get it done.

RUNNING FOR LAPTOPS
And, with the marathon, comes another opportunity to support a great charity. The Elizabethtown College Alumni Group (Pittsburgh Chapter) wanted to support a charity as a group for this year's Pittsburgh Marathon. We started out with a list of 8 or so great charities and, after lots of discussion, narrowed it down and decided to go with Running for Laptops. I worked with them for the Great Race back in September and found it to be a great group and very easy to lend my support.

So, whether it's $5 or $500 (more like the $5), I'd love to have you join me and my Etown alumni friends in supporting this group that provides laptops for students who have "aged out" of the foster care program. These students don't have all the love and support that so many of us have with our families and having that computer to help with college, being organized at home, or looking for jobs could make all the difference.

What are YOU thankful for? Think about sharing just a tiny bit (the value of two cups of coffee) of what you've been blessed with to someone who hasn't had it as good. Thank you!

Harrisburg Marathon Race Report

2011-11-14T19:59:00.004-05:00

...or the alternative title: "Back to the Drawing Board"

Well, where to start?

The good:
-My hamstrings didn't cramp during the race
-The weather was nearly perfect (started in the upper 30's, finished in the low 50's)

-I ran under control for the first half (even through 20+ miles), and was on target for 3:10 through 23 miles

The bad:
-My next to last gel went down very slowly
-My final gel really wouldn't go down (and only took in half of it before tossing the gel pack into a garbage can along the course)
-That gel (and pretty much all other items I ingested that morning) got tossed out in three successive heaves about 100 meters apart around mile 24-ish along the riverfront
-While not cramping, my hamstrings were "letting me know they were there" from about mile 6 or 7 to the end. They just felt tight and never got loose (maybe this was a good thing and held me back on my pace, though)

Needless to say, I didn't hit my 3:10 goal.

After the gun went off, we departed city island and I tried to settle in to a 7:15/mile pace. I felt like I was crawling along, trying to NOT go out too fast. The result - 6:52. Ugh! Miles 2 and 3 were just over 7:00. I saw Beth and told her that I was trying to throw on the brakes. Finally, mile 4 and 5 were 7:18 and I was settling in.

As I saw Beth, it was back over to city island with miles 6 and 7 at 7:05's. After leaving city island, the mile 8 sign was missing, but miles 8 and 9 averaged out to 7:19 each. The next three miles were along the riverfront and were in the 7:0x's (with a little bit of a tailwind).

We then veered off the river and up towards the industrial park. I went through the half in just under 1:34. I was hoping for 1:35, but I wasn't all that far ahead of pace (and much more relaxed than the 1:28:30 in Pittsburgh). The least scenic part of the race was along the industrial road with the 18-wheelers. But then we went into the HACC campus (where I saw Beth 3 times) and was feeling great for miles 16 and 17.

Mile 18-20 took us through a park. This was the only hilly portion of the course. They were short, steep ups and downs. Things felt good and, after a 7:25 of a mostly up hill mile, mile 20 was 7:06.

Okay, 10k to go. Mile 21 was 7:35. The legs were starting to feel tired, but I wasn't too concerned. It didn't feel as bad as Pittsburgh. Also, I figured to just back off and fulfill my goal of jogging the whole race. If I didn't hit 3:10, so be it. Mile 22 was 7:42 and the thought, "that's fine" went through my head. Mile 23 slowed down to 8:08 as I'm attempting to put down my final gel.

It didn't go down too well. I forced down maybe a third of it. Then, I finally chucked it into a garbage can because I couldn't take anymore. I'm not sure if it happened before or after the 24-mile marker but I'm definitely sure of what happened. It felt like there was a direct hose from my stomach leading out of my mouth and someone turned the faucet on. With that taken care of in the riverfront park, I shuffled forward. However, after another 100 or so meters, a repeat of what had just happened.

Okay that has to be it, right? Mosey on down the road another 100 or so meters and somehow I hit the triple. How was there anything left in my stomach?

After all of that, the final three miles are 8:58, 11:38, and 11:48. Heck, I even picked up a cramp in my chest as I did the final 0.2 across the bridge (2:41 for the last 0.2).

So much for comfortably jogging into the finish line. Oh well. Final time 3:22:02. At least it was a couple seconds faster than Pittsburgh!

So, it's back to the drawing board. But, like Steve P reminded me on fb, I still got in some good training miles this summer and fall and will hopefully set me up for a solid training cycle for Pittsburgh in the spring. Also, Ben said it is just as much about the journey as the goal. So, onward we go!

Thanks so much to Beth for being the spectathlete extraordinaire all weekend!

So, some reflection to come and some adjustments for sure to get me to that sub-3:00 goal.

Thanks to everybody for the kind words!

Marathon Weekend!

2011-11-11T18:22:00.003-05:00

Last weekend we were staying in Harrisburg and the XC teams were racing in Hershey. This weekend, it's my turn to race in the Harrisburg Marathon!

First, about the state XC meet. Our boys ended up a CLOSE 4th (our 153 points were only 21 points from a state championship) and the girls ended up 8th. Great efforts on both ends and a great season!

Back to the marathon, it actually kind of snuck up on me. Not from the standpoint of my training. I was logging all my miles and hitting my speed workout goals since August and all throughout the fall. But, you're just so focused on the schoolyear and the XC season and helping the kids be successful. So, when the races were over last Saturday, I had the realization, "Oh yeah - I'm running a marathon next weekend!"

So, here we go. I think I've mentioned a few times that I'm trying to make this marathon more of a low-key stop along the way to my third attempt at a sub-3 hour marathon next May in Pittsburgh. The goals are a little more simple than the last two attempts in May 2011 and November 2009:

1. Run the entire 26.2 miles (aka NO MUSCLE CRAMPING/SEIZING UP)
2. Finish around 3:10 (7:15 pace)
3. Negative split the first 13.1 vs the 2nd half

With that, I'm hoping for a positive day. The weather looks like it's going to cooperate - starting out in the upper 30's and finishing in the mid-50's with sunny skies all day.

In other news, there's the entire sad story surrounding Jerry Sandusky and the leaders at Penn State who did not do enough to help the situation. Very, very sad. I'll repost the facebook post from Tuesday:

So sad to hear about everything coming out of Penn State. My heart breaks for the young victims, angers at how Jerry Sandusky could allegedly continue those acts over so many years, and is confused over the alleged lack of action from other leaders. A request for the media as the story evolves is that they are more concerned about getting it ACCURATE instead of getting it FIRST.

That's all you can really say. Beyond the grand jury statement we don't know anything else. Because of that, I wish people wouldn't give opinions or speculation on things they don't know about. It was a bad situation and not enough was done. I will be very interested to see what further information comes out and trust that the administrators and the legal system will help sort everything out and do their best to make things right moving forward.

Keeping in perspective that this is all relative that pales in comparison to the victims of the abuse, I feel bad for the Nittany Lion football players. They did not sign up for this. This is not like any other college sports scandal. They did not do drugs or steroids. They did not accept any money, cars, or other illegal benefits. They did not cheat on tests. They did not do anything wrong.

However, they're lumped in with the evil things that Jerry Sandusky did AND they have to find a way to focus and attempt to put their best effort on the field against Nebraska on Saturday. Obviously this is a bad situation. I just ask that people support the players, especially the seniors on their final home game, and keep in mind who were the bad guys with all of this.

Enough of the heavy stuff. Off to pack and then tomorrow off to Pennsylvania's capital to get ready for the 26.2 on Sunday.

Scoring Machine

2011-10-30T20:26:00.004-04:00

When an individual or a team is referred to as a scoring machine, it usually implies that the person, or team, is capable of producing many points in a game. This could refer to a basketball player putting up 40 points in a game, or a football player scoring several touchdowns. It could refer to a team's "high octane" offense....nah, I won't go there. Especially since Penn State slogged to an ugly 10-7 win.

Anyway, Thursday was our District (WPIAL) Championship and both our boys and girls teams finished in 2nd place. Since the top four move on to the state meet next Saturday, we are packing our bags for Hershey. How both teams got to 2nd place and how the 2nd place was viewed by the team were certainly two different reactions.

Let's just say our boys were at least considered even favorites with our big rival, if not a slight favorite since we had won last week's invitational. End result is that we ended up 2nd by a margin of 50-115. On the girls' side, a team with 3 sisters was the heavy favorite and everybody else was gunning for second. We were probably a little behind another school and perhaps regarded as the third best team. However, our girls had a great day and we ended up 2nd.

Overall, though it was yet another muddy mess. Lots of slop (one of our runners even lost a shoe in the mud!!!!) and I'm sure this snow won't help the state meet course at all. However, the recap of the day at the district meet doesn't reflect back on the title or opening paragraph....or so it seems...

Last week at the previous Thursday's invitational, I decided to forgo my cheering in the final half mile and position myself in a spot to record places of the top boys and girls teams to get a feel for the scoring. The calculations were pretty close, so I decided to enlist the help of my lovely assistant (Beth) and see how well "Team Shutt" could perform counting places and scoring a large high-stakes district final.

The results - I think we're ready to take our show on the road!

Girls' results done by us in black; actual results in bold red

NH - 1-2-4-16-23 = 46
NH - 1-2-4-16-23 = 46

ML - 10-12-13-45-62 = 142
ML - 9-11-12-43-62 = 137

NA - 21-27-33-34-41 = 156
NA - 21-27-33-34-41 = 156

PR - 18-30-38-76-77 = 239
PR - 18-30-38-60-77 = 223

HA - 5-25-40-67-100 = 237
HA - 5-25-40-67-98 = 235

So, other than missing PR's #4, we were pretty much right on. Unless, you consider the fact that we had the wrong 4th place team, or the last team moving on to the state meet....and the fact that it was my alma mater and I told the coach that we scored them as being in (with the big disclaimer that we were just guessing) and they finished 5th.

On to the boys' race. We only scored us and NA because we figured it was only the two of us realistically fighting for the championship:

NA - 1-9-10-11-18 = 49
NA - 1-9-10-11-19 = 50

ML - 8-12-25-26-44 = 115
ML - 8-13-25-26-43 = 115

Not too bad again, but we were just having to keep track of two teams and only had to count up into the 40's (and it shouldn't have even been that high if things would've went better).

This brought me back to my Grad School Days when, as part of my Masters Thesis, I developed an application for the Palm PDA (remember those things?!?!?). The goal of the application was to capture what Industrial Engineers call "time studies." Here's a screen shot of my application:

Okay, so that's not really related to cross country, but since I was dating this gal on Penn State's cross country team (aka Beth), I decided to take a lot of the same code language and create a cross country scoring application that I called XC Score. I have to say it worked pretty well at a couple of the meets I tried it at. I couldn't dig up any screen shots and we gave away the PDA's so it's erased from existence other than I still have the code file from some archaic PDA programming language on my computer.

Just for the fun of it I googled "XC Score" and it turns out that Apple (and the Android) have an app for that.

I'm thinking about downloading and trying the Android app, but not sure how well it will work at the state meet with so many teams, plus I usually position myself out in the middle of the course and miss the finish of the top runners in the field. But, I think I may use it for next year's invitationals.

So, sorry for the boring running-computer post, but it was a fun trip down memory lane for me.

Two weeks until the Harrisburg Marathon! Starting to get a little more focused on that task as the cross country season is winding down.

Kona-rific!

2011-10-19T20:32:00.033-04:00

...and other happenings in the past few weeks.

First of all, a photo from my endeavor at the Great Race taken by Beth.

Since the Great Race, there was a little trip to Hawaii. However, before I got out there to join Beth in the 80-degree temps on the Big Island, I endured a 40's and rainy weekend, where we were at the Central Catholic Invitational. My pants and shoes are evidence of it.

Next, it was a few days of school and then across the Pacific to Hawaii.

Beth had an awesome race (as you can read about on her blog). My day started with dropping Beth and her mom off at the start area and parking the car. Then, I met up with them and we said our good lucks and good byes to Beth and she went in for the swim start. We saw her come out of the water and then back past us 8 or so miles into the bike. We let her know she was in 5th place in her age group.

Then, we had some time to kill, so back to the rental house with the rest of the crew. Somehow, it worked out that the PSU-Iowa game was the "regional" college football game on ABC, so I was able to catch the 2nd and 3rd quarters. (Side note: PSU is somehow 6-1. It's been ugly, but 6-1 nonetheless while Pitt's "High Octane" team mustered 100 yds of offense last week....hee, hee).

We went back down to position ourselves for the run before the pro's came through. We (Beth's mom and I) were around mile 2/9 (ish?) on the run and had a chance to see the pro race unfold. Then, some more waiting and random photos like this one to kill the time.

Beth came through and looked great. After a stop at McDonald's for a Mango-Pineapple McSmoothie, I went up on to the Queen K (around mile 24) to cheer everybody in.

By the time we got back to the house and also knowing that I was going to do a 19 mile run the next day, I opted to go to bed while the rest of the Kona crew headed back down for the midnight finish line.

So about my runs in Kona. Between Thursday and Monday, I got four runs in and totaled 39 miles (plus my running around on race day). Each time, I was too stubborn to drive anywhere, so I finished on a *little bit* of an up hill. It looks so innocent on a google map....

...however it just shoots up and up and up from the Queen K.

Here's the gate and the entrance looking back towards the Pacific.

Then, up to the first stop sign.

And you get to the first stop sign and go up more.

Up to the next little circle.

Through the circle and up some more.

Halfway up the "up some more."

Finally, make a left and get a little bit of flat relief.

Hang a right up the hill (Do you see the angle of the hill?????)

And then around the corner.

Make it to the driveway (which, of course, is uphill).

Make it to the front of the house (which, of course, you have to scale steps!!)

Whew. I'm tired reliving that!

One of the good things of being up on the hill was that we had an awesome view of the sunset each evening from our place.

We said goodbye to our gecko friend and packed up on Monday (in addition to an interesting day at the Kona hospital for Beth's blisters on her feet).

Our time in Hawaii wrapped up on Monday night with an 11pm red-eye flight through Phoenix, then back home. By 4 pm on Tuesday, we were back to the Pittsburgh International Airport. After a stop at Chipotle in Robinson with Chad & Jen, we got home and started to get transitioned back to reality.

Back to school on Wendesday and all of the sleeping on the plane must have worked. It wasn't too bad getting up at 5am (or 11pm Hawaii) the next few days.

The one down side was the pile of homework and tests that needed to be graded since I left...

Saturday was the Buffalo Creek Half Marathon. I've run it twice before - 2009 and 2008. I was just getting into my long distance shape back in 2008 and was pumped with my sub-1:20. In 2009, I was in pretty good shape a month out from the Philly marathon and somehow averaged 5:50 miles. My goal for this year was to be in the neighborhood of 6:00-ish pace. However, as the race drew nearer (and I was feeling sluggish with an 8:30 pace run on Thursday) in my head it was becoming 6:10 pace....maybe 6:15 pace.....okay maybe just keep it under 6:30 pace...

You get the drift.

Fortunately, I ran into Beth's Ballou Skies teammate Jason Jacobs at the start line and he was shooting to run 6:00-ish pace, too. So, off we went and we ran the whole thing side by side as, what we termed, a really fast and hard partner tempo run.

Before getting to the splits, just like the Great Race, a disclaimer about the race being point-to-point and net downhill:

Here were the splits:
5:44
6:09 (11:53)
6:01 (17:54)
6:05 (23:59)
11:50 (35:49) - mile marker missing
5:49 (41:38)
6:02 (47:40)
6:09 (53:49)
6:07 (59:56)
6:13 (1:06:09)
6:08 (1:12:17)
6:42 for the final 1.1 for 1:18:59 and 6:02 pace.

I'll take it coming off of all the travel and everything. It was really great having Jason along. I don't think I could have kept going that fast for that long without having him push me. Thanks, Jason!

Check out what Jason's GPS said we did:

A 14.5 mile half marathon at 5:27 pace. Those GPS devices were always a little fishy out in the wilderness...

Five other Lebo friends came along and ran and had outstanding days as well, including a couple of first-time half marathon people (not pictured)

A BIG thanks to Beth who, during her Post-Kona recovery, got up early on a cold, blustery Saturday and was Team LEBO's driver, coach, equipment manager, cheeleader, and photographer!

Up next is the finish to the cross country season. We have the Tri-State Invitational Thursday (a preview for districts), then WPIAL's (districts) next Thursday. The top four teams then go on to the state meet on November 5th. We've had a good year on both the boys and girls side, so we shall see how things stack up at WPIAL's and states. Could this be our year?

Keeping Busy

2011-09-25T20:46:00.004-04:00

Things sure seem like they're busy in the fall. I was reflecting in the car on my 4-hour drive home from Hershey on Saturday. Now, I know that all the triathlon friends out there have most days like this but it was interesting to map out how this week went down:

Tuesday - up before 5am, 7 mi w/ 5x600 on the track, school, xc practice, pick up Beth's bike from Big Bang Bicycles (the best bike shop in the entire world!), eat dinner, go to bed.

Wednesday - up before 5am, 11 mi before school, school, xc practice, real quick dinner at Chick-Fil-A, represent Elizabethtown College at the Mars HS College fair (6:30-8:00), get home, & go to bed.

Thursday - up before 5am, 5+ miles, school, xc practice, dinner (DiGiorno Pizza night!!!), cut grass (it gets dark quicker now!), clean up & go to bed.

Friday - up before 5am, 5+ miles, school, xc practice, rush over to the South Side to pick up my Great Race packet (which actually was amazingly efficient), actually home before 7 (I was fearing worse with the Friday traffic & picking up the packet after work on Friday), dinner (Beef taco skillet - google it, it's a kraft recipe. yum!), clean the house, & go to bed.

Saturday - up before 5am, leave before 6am for Hershey. Watch our high school guys have a good day at the PIAA Foundation meet, drive back to western pa, make it to the Monroeville Chick-Fil-A to meet Beth by 5:30, eat dinner, and off to Saturday night church service at Cornerstone at 6pm (or 6:05-ish). Stop for a DQ blizzard on the way home, set out the Great Race race gear and get to bed.

Needless to say, it was one of those weeks. However, like we told the guys about the bus ride out to Hershey before their race, just go out and get the job done in the race. So, that was my goal for the Great Race.

Annual disclaimer about the topography of the Great Race course:

I aimed to park at the start line so I didn't have to worry about shuttles and had my car to put stuff in right before the race. Turns out my triathlon influence caused me to get there so early that I was there before ANY other car....and I was worried for a minute that we couldn't park along Dallas Ave for some reason. So, I circled around and parked on the side street and hung out there for a few minutes. After walking around, some cars did show up so I moved my car onto Dallas Ave so it was a little closer.

I met up with cousin K and we warmed up. We lined up in the 'seeded' area, but I still got caught up in traffic when the gun went off. K was able to sneak through it but the gap closed before I was able to pass. Not aggressive enough So, swing right and then around, back up to K and then up the first hill.

My target for mile 1 was 5:40 and I went through in 5:38 but expended a little more than I had hoped due to the weaving and congestion. Mile 2 is downhill and I split a 5:26 (with a target of 5:30). I came through Oakland and mile 3 and then split the 5k at 17:29 (on pace for the sub-35:00). But, things just weren't as solid on the 2nd 5k. Mile 4 was just sluggish at 5:36 (shooting for 5:30), but I figured I could maybe make up time in mile 5 up the hill by Duquesne with my marathon base underneath me, but split a 6:02 (shooting for 5:55). Mile 6 was a downhill 5:35, but I did 5:25 last year.

Put it all together for a 35:31. Not quite the sub-35, but it was a little warm out I guess. It seemed like a lot of people I talked to ran slower than they had hoped. I finished in 37th place, which is better than my last two appearances at the Great Race (both in the 40's).

A big thanks to Beth who was all over the course riding her bike to cheer me on as part of her long training day. Big thanks for all the support!

Finally, a shout out to Running for Laptops and thank you to all those who supported the cause. Click on the link in the margin to find out more about that great group!

So, time for a more routine week.....oh wait, Beth's leaving for Kona on Friday and I'm leaving a week from Wednesday. Perhaps more fun in store this week!

Rolling along...

2011-09-19T19:49:00.003-04:00

How did 3 weeks of school already pass? Wow! Time flies when you're busy.

Let's see, since last time:

Beth, her mom, and Ben went off to Las Vegas for the 70.3 World Championships. Beth came away with 2nd in her age group and 3rd overall amateur in the world! Ben came away with a lot of great experiences and represented himself very well out there. Big things are to come for this guy. Look out.

I was tracking the entire day from the comforts of my couch.

You see, I was also slated to race this weekend - in the tourist destination of....Harrisburg. However, mother nature decided to have other plans for my half marathon. The remnants of a tropical storm drenched the central and eastern parts of the state. The half marathon was supposed to start on City Island and run along the river. However, the river swallowed up the course. So, instead I was tracking the triathletes and watching the Steelers (and did a 12-mile tempo run on our trail instead).

The only difficulty was that Beth's chip wasn't registering as she went over one of the mats. So, I went from seeing her being 2nd in her AG off the bike to seeing 25 or so people pass by the next timing mat without any report on her. Fortunately, the next mat caught her and we were back in business. I'm on the phone with Beth's mom feeding her updates to pass along to Beth (just like as if I was there I guess) and Beth did a great job of holding on to 2nd place!

Our boys and girls cross country teams are off to a good start. It's really fun to watch all of the hard work pay off and apparently a high school running site is noticing. Hopefully they can keep the hunger and the drive to be successful as continue on through the rest of September, into October and the first Saturday of November for the state meet.

The next race for me is the Great Race on Sunday. I've been in the low 35's the last two times I've ran it. I'm wondering if I can sneak a 34 in front of my name this year? I guess we shall see.

Regardless, I hope you can help me exceed my goal of raising funds to purchase laptops for youth who age out of the foster care system through the group Running For Laptops. No donation is too small! Thank you for your help!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

2011-08-28T11:59:00.023-04:00

First of all, thank you so much for the incoming donations and comments already for the Running for Laptops charity! If you'd like to donate, you can do it here.

We have reached that time of the year.....some may say the most WONDERFUL time of the year!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE summer. I LOVE baseball, trips to Altoona Curve games, road trips to distant places for Beth's triathlons, afternoon naps, 15+ hours of daylight each day, running in shorts and a t-shirt, not having to bundle up before & after pool workouts, and everything else associated with summer.

But, at the same time, I do start to feel guilty about only having 2-4 hour workdays for the two months from mid-June to mid-August. It's time to start earning that paycheck again with 10+ hour days of teaching and coaching. Seriously, I always get excited for the fresh start of a school year - new students to begin molding and also seeing how our cross country season unfolds.

Before getting to the fall, one other item to tie up from the summer - the alumni XC meet at Hempfield. It rained pretty hard on Friday. In fact, it rained so hard and quickly, a stretch of road by the zoo actually had about 6 ft or so of water and 4 people died. It was very sad. This made part of what was already a tough trail run through the woods even tougher in spots.

My cousin K ran and her parents (my aunt & uncle) and my dad came out to watch. I can't believe he still had it, but dad was representing Hempfield XC with a hat from back when I was in high school. Pretty funny.

I did have the XC spikes borrowed from one of the runners where I teach at, but it still didn't help me as I bit it on the first twisty downhill in the woods. I was left with a nice cat-scratch-like souvenir from it, but since it was in the first half mile, I had enough energy to pop right back up and continue on.

I was in 3rd position - an alumni from '05 that was a solid D2 steeplechaser was leading, a high schooler that ran around a 4:30 mile last year was about 5-10 seconds behind him, and I was 5-10 seconds behind the high schooler. And, after a bunch of twists and turns (and several other near falls), this is essentially how the rest of the race stayed. The winning time was in the low 19's, and I ended up hitting my goal of sub-20 with a 19:39. Not speedy, pretty ugly, but got the job done. Here are some of the alumni.

Then, there was the post-race lunch with a bunch of these guys who graduated back in the mid-80's. All you have to do it sit back, eat some pizza, and listen to their stories.

And, boy did they have stories. I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard on two or three occasions. Pretty much none of the stories are acceptable to be published here. In fact, after many of the stories, the phrase "we would probably be arrested if we did that today" was thrown out there. Funny stuff, but it makes me wonder now, as a coach, what are our kids doing on their long runs?

Two other notes from the day:

First, remember the tornado that hit the high school back in March?

Well, it caused the home track meets to be cancelled for Hempfield. This is unfortunate because the cross country parents use the concession stand at the track meets as their main fundraiser. So, with that (and all the budget cuts across the state/country in education), they're a little behind in their account. Fortunately, a lot of those goofy guys from back in the 80's are also now leaders at many of their jobs and they are organizing a collection to help out. Those guys are great in so many ways!

Second, Terrelle Pryor stopped by Hempfield for the alumni cross country meet. Well, he got there after we finished and was down on the track (he must have missed the memo about the start time and the location of the new course up by the water tower above the stadium).

Either that, or he was just there for his pro day workout. The Jeanette grad was selected by the Raiders and good luck to him. I hope it works out. I was obviously rooting against him when he was at Ohio State, but now that he's no longer a rival for the Nittany Lions, you pull for the local guy to do well. Beth and I saw the Raiders/A's stadium out in Oakland. Let's just say it made Three Rivers Stadium and the area surrounding it look nice.

So, time to dig out the dress shoes (not really sure where those are still), set out the pants, shirt, & tie and get ready for a new schoolyear!

Running for Laptops!

2011-08-24T21:26:00.010-04:00

UPDATE: YOU CAN SUPPORT RUNNING FOR LAPTOPS FOR MY 2012 PITTSBURGH MARATHON BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK ***HERE***.

How many hours a day are you on your laptop, desktop computer, or web-enabled phone?

http://www.runningforlaptops.org/

After such a successful experience made possible by all of the generous donations for the Alzheimer's Association as I ran the Pittsburgh Marathon (at least the first 20 miles of it), I found another awesome charity to get involved with as I prepare for the Great Race 10k at the end of September.

I am looking forward to helping to support the group RUNNING FOR LAPTOPS that is associated with Family Services of Western Pennsylvania. Obviously, the group is fundraising for laptops (a vital thing in today's technology-laden world). But, what caught my attention about this was WHO it was for. According to their website, it is for this group:

The vast majority of our (Family Services of Western PA) students are either aging out of the foster care system or the mental health system. Our students are studying to be nurses, auto mechanics, artists and even social workers. They are a special group of young adults who have not let their misfortunes keep them from being successful.

This is a type of group that gets support for a while while they're "in the system." But, once they get too old or complete the support, they are left to fend for themselves. The idea of equipping these young adults who have come from not the best backgrounds with a laptop seems like such an awesome thing to do. I know I use my (two) laptops (home & school) for many hours each day. AND if you throw in my phone (which is like a mini-laptop), I am constantly using it and am connected to it.

The goal for each individual fundraiser is $100. I figure after all of the great support from the Alzheimer's campaign, this is very reachable and hopefully I can exceed it (as of this post I'm already 30% of the way there--you do the math on how much that is!). If you did donate on my behalf for the Alzheimer's Association, thank you so much! I would love it if you had another $5 to give to another great cause. If you didn't get around to donating for me back with the Pittsburgh marathon, I'd love to have you on board this time.

$1 or $5 or whatever you can give in these tough times. Thank you so much!

YOU CAN DONATE HERE

XC & Pirates’ "Success"

2011-08-18T20:55:00.008-04:00

The last week or so has been more of the same - clicking off the mileage on the running, cross country practice, getting stuff done around the house, and following the buccos.

Our two-a-days started for XC. The practices are at 8am and 3pm which presents for me a dilemma. Do I go home between practices with my 45-minute commute each way? It takes time and uses up gas. So, I pack a lunch and get my classroom set up early (less to worry about next week). The team has their first scrimmage next Wednesday and I'm excited to see everybody out on the course and how their summer training has paid off.

My next race is this Saturday. It's a "scrimmage" for my old high school (that I graduated from) where they compete against alumni willing to go back and subject themselves to the torture that is the Hempfield Cross Country course. Over the summer, I've been in the 17's with my 5k's. This race, my goal is to go sub-20 for the first time. It's a HARD trail course (here's last year's race report). After not being able to crack 20 the last few years, I have acquired/borrowed a pair of XC spikes from a kid on the team (where I coach) to try to give me a little better footing this year (there's no truth to the rumor that I offered any grade assistance in Calculus this year in exchange for said spikes).

As always, my main goal is to "make varsity" meaning that I finish among the top 7 high schoolers. We'll see how it goes. Also, I get excused from my coaching duties for practice that Saturday morning with the justification that I'm out "scouting" a competitor team for later in the season.

PIRATES
The Pirates made some great strides forward this week. Yes, they got swept in Milwaukee last weekend, eliminating any shred of hope that may have been left to sneak back into the division playoff race. However, two of the games were 1-run games. Then, they came home to take 2 of 3 against the Cardinals, who always give them trouble. Can we get .500 by the end of the year!?!?!?

The most pivotal action the Pirates made this week was signing their 2nd round draft pick, high school outfielder Josh Bell. To give you a background, Bell was consider a mid-first round talent (among the top 10-20 range overall) and considered to be the 2nd best high school bat. Prior to the draft, he sent out a letter to all 30 MLB teams telling them not to draft him because he was going to honor his scholarship to the University of Texas. The letter stated about how his mother was a college professor and she wanted him to go to school.

Meanwhile, he enlisted the assistance of super-agent Scott Boras to be his "advisor" (it's funny how that works to allow the players to remain amateur). If he REALLY didn't want to be drafted, why did he find the most tenacious sports agent out there? Well, the Pirates called his bluff and drafted him in the 2nd round (after every other team had passed at least one chance to draft him). As the evening moved on Monday night to the midnight deadline, I read about how the Pirates threw some big money at a mid-round high school pitcher and assumed that meant they were no longer pursuing Bell. But, to my surprise when I woke up Tuesday morning, the Pirates committed not only the $8 million to their first round pick Garret Cole, but another $5 million to Josh Bell, and additional bonuses to rank first in the MLB in doling out $17 million total for their draft.

While this is great, it has to be kept in perspective. Cole won't become a major league factor until probably 2013. If Bell follow's Andrew McCutchen's path (drafted in 2005), he won't be up and making significant contributions until 2016 or 2017. But, it's just knowing that the commitment is there to build a winner through developing minor league talent. In the last calendar year, the Pirates have acquired FOUR pitchers regarded by national publications as potentially being "Ace" #1 pitchers in the majors (Tallion, Allie, Heredia, and Cole). Not all players will work out, but it's how teams not named the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox have to do it.

TRIP TO ALTOONA
While Beth was wrapping up her epic training weekend on Sunday, I got the crazy idea to take a trip up to Altoona to see the Curve (the Pirates' AA team) on Sunday night before the schedule got busier with two-a-days and school then starting. I was going back and forth all afternoon about whether or not to go because there was rain in the forecast. After Beth got home, I checked it one more time and the hour-by-hour precipitation chance dropped from 50%-60% down to 20-30%. It was 4:30 pm and I needed to get going for the 6pm game if I was going to go.

I end up going, but as I roll out of Ebensburg (about 20 minutes West of the stadium) I run into a monsoon. I turn on the radio and the pre-game show is not mentioning a thing about the rain. In fact, I'm running a few minutes late (literally slowed down to 35 mph on a 4-lane highway because of how hard the rain was coming down) and the game starts. I'm thinking, "how is it not raining there?"

By the time I pull into the parking lot, they are starting the second inning. Then the rains come. Drat! Did I make the 90-minute trip up to Altoona for nothing? Fortunately, after a 25-minute rain delay, the game resumes and I head in to watch the game.

One of the reasons I was interested in coming was that Tim Alderson was starting for the Curve. He was acquire straight up from San Francisco two years ago for Freddy Sanchez. Alderson has gone backwards to the point that he was demoted to High-A. But, this season he's been pitching out of the bullpen with great results and the Curve needed a starter so they put him in there.

The result - not too impressive. Sure, he got some people out, but he didn't have good control (hit two batters) and his fastball was sitting around 85 mph. His curveball (his best pitch) was sharp and had a lot of bite to it, at least.

His lack of control also caused his ejection one batter into the 4th inning. It was kind of odd. In the second inning, he hit one of the players near the bottom of the order. Fortunately, that runner got picked off of 2nd base later in the inning to cause no damage on the scoreboard. But, then the pitcher was up, and Alderson hit the pitcher. You don't hit a pitcher on purpose, he's an easy out!

The next inning, Alderson came up to the plate and, after two inside pitches, got plunked on a 2-0 fastball right in the middle of the back. Baseball's way of policing itself, I guess. The umpires (as they should have) warned both benches, meaning that any future intentional hit batters would cause ejections.

So, I went behind home plate to see his curveball better and snap a few shots in the 4th inning, but only saw two pitches from that vantage point due to the ejection. It's been misting this whole time, so not the best of traction and footing. Alderson is facing that same player he hit in the 2nd to lead off the inning.
The first pitch was inside. The 1-0 pitch went over the batter's head, making it look like Alderson was head-hunting. The umpire perceived it as intentionally throwing at the hitter and automatically ejected him. The manager came out to plead his case that it wasn't intentional, but to no avail. Oh well. Not that Alderson pitched that great anyway. Good thing I snapped a shot on the first pitch of the 4th inning, I guess!

In other events, outfielder Andrew Lambo (acquired in the Dotel deal last year) is finally coming around in AA after being demoted down from AAA, where he struggled mightily for the first three months of the year. Lambo blasted a 3-run homer over the right field wall to give the Curve the lead early in the game. The picture is a celebration of the players heading back to the dugout after scoring on the home run.

The other player I wanted to see was catcher Tony Sanchez. He didn't play (night off) when Beth and I went up in June. Sanchez, the Pirates' first round pick from 2009 out of Boston College, hasn't been hitting well either this year. I was hoping to see something from him but he had some groundouts and a flyout. In the 12th inning (I had left after 9 because I was getting up at 4:45am to do a run before the first day of XC practice), I heard on the radio he allowed a ball to get past him on a 3rd strike and compounded the problem by sailing his throw to first base out into right field. This allowed the winning run to score. I hope he can get back on track next year.

The surprise of the night was Duke Welker coming out of the bullpen in the 7th. Welker, a 2nd round college pick from Dave Littlefield's last draft in 2007 had been scuttling along the past four years in low-A and high-A, never really putting it together. Well, this year I think he may be putting it together (and about time for a college pitcher picked in the 2nd round!!!). He went 3-up and 3-down, striking out two of them with a 95 and 96 mph fastball and a devastating mid 80's slider. He should be up in AAA Indianapolis to start next year and may make it up to the Pirates next summer if he continues to deal like he did on Sunday.

So, that's my report from Altoona. Thank you to the rain for cooperating and for Beth not missing me for an evening!

St. Barnabas 5k, Pirates Sabbatical, Fall Schedule

2011-08-08T21:16:00.004-04:00

Over the weekend, I did the St. Barnabas 5k. When I was mapping out my summer races, this one came on to my radar. After checking out previous years' results, seeing some fast times and tough competition, and getting positive reviews on the course and event, I decided to go for it.

On top of this, St. Barnabas is an amazing place. I really didn't know what it was. However, after perusing their website and hearing people talk about it before and after the race, they do great things there. According to the race site...Proceeds from the St. Barnabas Medical Center 5K Run/Walk benefit the St. Barnabas Free Care Fund. The fund supports the poor and low-income patients of St. Barnabas Nursing Home, Valencia Woods at St. Barnabas and The Arbors at St. Barnabas. Since its founding in 1900, it has been St. Barnabas' mission to never turn a patient away because of their inability to pay. In 2010 alone, St. Barnabas provided more than $4.7 million in free care. Impressive.

Overall going in to the race I felt okay. I put in a lot of volume for the week, but didn't do any speed work because I wasn't sure how the body would react to back-to-back weekends of 5k's. On top of that, my shins were a little tender after last Sunday's race (but this was probably me just being wimpy). This got me thinking about how exactly back in high school we were able to do some weeks in cross country of three 5ks (dual meets Tue and Thu, Invitational Saturday)?

I thought, well surely this was because I didn't take them as intensely in high school. Now that I'm a more competitive runner I put more into it and need more time to physically and mentally recover. But, Kari put it all into perspective by noting to my post on FB that it's simply "cause we are OLD!" So true, so true.

Unlike the last two races where I had thoughts of being in the mix to possibly finish at or near the top, I didn't have to worry about that in this race. The winner from last year went sub-15 and there were about 10 runners sub-17. So, I went into the race trying to employ a more conservative strategy in the first mile (like not going out in sub 5:20 like last weekend).

I did start out in about 20th or so place, however, that still put me through mile 1 at 5:27. I was around two guys I was with last weekend (and the 4th of July 5k) so I figured I would just tuck in there until the turnaround. The course was an out and back on a rolling road called Meridian between Bakerstown Road and Route 910 in Gibsonia. The start was about a half mile up from the finish, so the turnaround was just before the 2 mile mark.

We get to the turnaround and I split an 11:12 (5:45 for mile 2) and figure I'm hopefully in better shape to pick people off than I was last weekend. Sure enough, the two guys I was around from last week started to fall back from me on a little uphill and I make my way up to a pack of three more runners. Things continue to go well and I put a little gap on them and move up to the next group of two young runners. One of the two falls back but the other one is still with me.

It's another little uphill as we approach the 3 mile mark and I'm able to put a little gap on the high-schooler beside me. Mile 3 splits in 16:53 (5:41) and I know I've got a fight on my hands to hold off this young'in. We turn the corner for about a 150 meter stone path to the finish. I'm kicking with everything I've got, but the youthful runner blows past me like I was standing still. No fair. Where have my base-stealing wheels gone? My get-up-and-go got-up-and-went.

I finish through the line holding off another charging youth to run around a 17:28-ish. I say "around" because something happened with the timing mat and they missed about 6 or 7 of us going across the line at this point. And, just my luck, the one race where I go to stop my watch I whiff on hitting the button and notice it's still running as I get a bottle of water. The results on runhigh.com say I was 12th and ran 17:25, beating the 15-year-old, but I know he's the one that outkicked me, so let's go with 13th place and 17:28. Good enough to be first in my age group (and the first person across the line older than 29...another sign of being old!!).

Great course, humid day (fortunately lots of cold Gatorade, fresh-sliced fruit, and superdonuts at the finish line!!!), and well-organized race. I'll definitely be going back there in the future.

On Sunday, Beth brought out her sprinting shoes and won (and set a new course record!) at the North Park Sprint Triathlon (it also had a little cash prize with it!!!). It was also fun to see one of the students on the XC team at my school compete and finish 4th. He's only going in to 9th grade. Very impressive.

MONEY
In other news, the economy's not doing too well. Not to take political sides, but the bottom line to all of this lengthy debate has to be to make sure our country is not spending more than we take in. Simple budgeting, right? That's the first thing that needs to happen in my opinion.

PIRATES
On to the diamond, I am going on a short-term sabbatical for watching the Pirates games on TV or listening on the radio. They are in the midst of a 10-game losing streak and it was just getting too frustrating. I'm still reading about them in the paper the next day and following the minor league teams, but I just needed a break (and maybe it'll help change their luck).

My sabbatical started on Friday (we watched a movie), continued Saturday and Sunday yet they still lost. I figure the next three days it'll be easy because they're out in San Francisco and the games won't start until after 10pm. I'm just hoping I wake up in the morning to find out they win one of these days.

So many reasons why this happened. First and foremost, the scrappy Pirates were playing way above their heads for the first four months of the season. Their pitching was some of the best in all of baseball yet not having a true "#1" or heck even a "#2" starter. It caught up to them. As the starters wore down, the relievers had to pitch more (plus all those innings from the 19-inning affair), and they were less effective. Throw in the season-long underachieving hitters and you've got a 10-game losing streak.

The "playoff run" and trade-deadline tracking was fun while it lasted, but now the goal is to get to .500 or above and break that streak of consecutive seasons below .500. It was last year around this time that I went down to PNC Park and witnessed history being made when they clinched losing season #18.

FALL RUNNING SCHEDULE
Finally, I just wanted to throw out the fall racing schedule that is culminating with the Harrisburg Marathon in November:

Aug 20 - Hempfield Alumni Meet (why do I subject myself to the torture of that course against more youngins? To try to make Varsity--top 7--of course)
Sep 11 - Harrisburg Half Marathon (To scout out the course before the marathon and, why not since Beth is going to be out in Vegas for the weekend racing the 70.3 world championships)
Sep 25 - The Great Race (hoping to feed off of my summer 5k's and PR in the 10k)
Oct 15 - Buffalo Creek Half Marathon (fun downhill course close to home)
Nov 13 - Harrisburg Marathon (with the goal going in to run a 3:10 so that I am CONSERVATIVE and complete a marathon without having to walk or cramp up)

I'm hoping this plan lays out a solid base to then get rolling again in January to hopefully run Pittsburgh next may and hit that elusive sub-3:00 marathon.

Uh-oh. It's 10pm. Better wrap this up and get to bed before I'm tempted to watch the Pirate game....

Post-Deadline Buccos & Junkyard Jaunt

2011-07-31T19:42:00.005-04:00

The Pirates wrapped up their road trip today by getting swept by Philly. Their key stretch against St. Louis, Atlanta, and Philadelphia didn't quiet goes as well as hoped as the lost 2 of 3 to the Cardinals, split with Atlanta, and the aforementioned sweep by the Phillies (3-7). Meanwhile, the Cardinals and Brewers took turns beating up on the Astros and Cubs to put a little gap between them and the third-place Pirates.

So, the Buccos stand 2 games over .500 and 4.5 games out of first place heading into the final two months. ANY fan would've taken that back in March. Hopefully with the additions of Derek Lee and Ryan Ludwick (and playing the Cubs and Padres the next 7 games), the buccos will climb back closer to first place.

Today, I ran the Junkyard Jaunt 5k with my cousin K. Why didn't Beth run it too? Oh, because she was in the middle of a 6 hour bike ride, that's all. She was nice enough to take a break during her ride to see the actual race. Then she went back on her way for another few hours. Things went well. K was the first female (and there was some $$$ involved). I ended up in 4th place, but only 9 seconds out of first.

Out of the gate, one runner took off and I followed about 10 seconds behind. I split the first mile in 5:19 and figured I should reel it in a little. While the first place guy stayed out there a little ahead, three other guys were literally breathing down my neck. The guy out front came back to us around the 2 mile mark (my split was 10:52, so 5:33 2nd mile)

It was a fun last 0.6 miles from the 2.5 mile turnaround. As we did the 180-degree turn, all five of us were line up in a row. Unfortunately, three of them had more left than me. But, I'll take a 17:21 on a rolling/fairly flat course and get ready for my next race. A couple of other notes from the race, the winner was 51 years old!! I just hope to be completing 5k's in my 50's. Second, the race was 1.16 miles from our driveway (according to mapmyrun.com) making it the shortest commute to a race I've ever done. It was nice after the race to just drive up the hill and be home.

Congrats to the many fine performances at the Pittsburgh Tri today included Chad's overall win and Ben's 5th place finish (with the fastest bike split).

How did it get to be August already?

West Coast Swing

2011-07-20T20:01:00.013-04:00

The trip to NoCal was a great success all around. Travel to and from the Bay area went smoothly. Sonoma County and its acres of vineyards were amazing. Beth had a successful race (1st female amateur). We crashed all weekend at a timeshare condo 3 minutes from the finish line thanks to Cary (who also rocked her age group), a big step up from our usual Econolodge/Motel 6 lodging. We met up with Barb, Beth & James W, who also had great races.

As usual, I didn't get many pictures because I just get caught up in the race. I did snap a shot of the swim start.

The bike was a point-to-point through the vineyards of Sonoma County, meaning I had to leave T1 and head over about 25 minutes to the T2/finish area. Once there I parked the car, went on an hour run (in 50 degree weather in July!!!!), and snapped a few photos of the finish line and waited for Beth to come in off the bike.

She came in first in her age group off the bike and I gave her the news she had a 3+ minute lead on 2nd place as she left for the run. When mapping out the spectathlete strategy prior to the race, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to see much of the race. However, Cary (veteran of 7 or so Vinemans) helped us scout out the run course and determined a way to get out on the course. Since it's an out & back, I would then be able to see her 4 times on the run. The challenge was I had to do 2.5 miles in the time she had to do a little under 4 miles (see the map - Beth is yellow, I'm blue). Challenging, but a good tempo workout.

While waiting for Beth to come by, defending Ironman World Champion Mirinda Carfrae zoomed past in a blur, or shoddy camerawork. She's fast--a sub 1:20 half marathon taking her from 8th off the bike to 3rd!

While I was out at the mile 4/9 area I also saw more pros, then Beth (who was now 5 minutes up on 2nd place), then Beth W, Charisa, and a very excited Barb once she found out that she was running in 5th place in the AG (and ended up passing one more before the finish line to earn 4th). One thing that was great in New Orleans, Eagleman, and Vineman was having the android and being able to access the live results on ironman.com. It sure helps with trying to figure out who is in what place.

When Beth finished the race and was hanging out in the athlete post-race food and recovery area, I notice that she's talking with an older guy with a notepad and figure he's maybe from a local paper and wanted to get her name since she did well. 10 minutes later, I'm still hanging out there by the fence and wondering what interview could possibly take this long. When she left the area and came out to me, she told me how the guy was nice and was asking about what she thought about the region and what other things we were going to do in California and other stuff that she **THOUGHT** was just small talk.

After some more upper 50's running for another hour on Monday, we packed up and went back down to the bay area. On our way out of town, we filled up with gas and grabbed a local newspaper to see its coverage of the race. We thought they may mention Beth since the reporter was talking to Beth.

*******************************************************************

Timeout from the story to take a multiple choice quiz about this article on the race (take the quiz before reading the article).
Which one of the following was NOT mentioned in the article:

A) men's pro champion Andy Potts who set a course record
B) women's pro champion Melissa Rollison who also set a course record
C) Beth, the female amateur overall champion
D) Me, the "marathoning husband"
E) Tim Lincecum, all-star pitcher for the SF Giants
F) The drastically improved Pittsburgh Pirates

That's right, this article about the Vineman 70.3 triathlon did not include....B!!!

Here's some of the article:

Beth Shutt, 32, of Pittsburgh, Pa., said she made her first trip to Northern California just to bicycle past vineyards and wasn't disappointed.

“It's almost surreal,” she said. “I've never seen anything like it.”

Shutt finished in 4:38:57, tops among women age 30 to 34.

She and her husband, Oscar, who runs marathons, are staying in the area until Tuesday and plan to see the sights in San Francisco, including a Giants game at AT&T Park.

Her hometown Pirates were in first place on Sunday, “unheard of because they usually stink,” Shutt said.

Asked who she knows anyone on the World Series champion Giants, Shutt said, “Tim Lincecum, that's about it.”

Journalism at its finest....

****************************************************
With it being summer and not having to rush back for school, we took an extra day and explored the region. However, it easily could've been another 3-4 days. So, we did mostly a driving tour. The color-coded map details our lap around the bay.

1) We stopped off at the Golden Gate Recreation Area overlook of downtown San Francisco. First of all, the roads were pretty steep and twisty and I was getting a little nervous driving up to the lookout (this coming from someone who gets squirmy driving over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge--not a fan of heights).

However, the view of downtown was amazing. To put it in perspective for Pittsburghers, it was like looking down at the 'burgh from Mount Washington.....but times 10. Amazing.

You also can see Alcatraz in the picture. This next photo is from a boat tour of the bay that I 'borrowed' off of fb from a teaching buddy who happened to be out in San Francisco the same weekend. Of course, seeing The Rock prompted me to recite quotes for the next few hours from the similarly-named movie starring Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery. This movie holds significance for me and my best-man J as it was in the movie theater back when we worked at the Carmike Cinemas in North Huntingdon. Ah, those were the days.

We crossed over the aforementioned Golden Gate Bridge (6 dollar toll?!?!?) and drove through the city. Some of the roads are sooooo steep!

2) We then continued southward down the 101 to Palo Alto to check out Stanford's campus. Another amazing place. We drove around campus and stopped at the track and athletic gift shopped and picked up some t-shirt souveniers. I went the traditional "Stanford XC" shirt, while Beth went for the "Fear the Tree" theme. I'll let her show you a picture of it.

3) Crossed over another bridge and went back up to Oakland to our hotel that was across the street from the airport (early flight on Tuesday). We dropped off our stuff and then went over the Bay Bridge back to San Francisco and parked inside a pier and went to the Giants-Dodgers game.

4) The park was very nice (almost as nice as PNC Park, but I'm baised). I knew the Giants and Dodgers had a rivalry, but wow, I didn't realize how intense it was. 90-95% of the crowd was decked out in black and orange and many had Giants jerseys. The remaining percentage were brave Dodgers fans proudly displaying their Dodger blue. Then, there was Beth and I trying to play the role of Switzerland, but were cheering when the Giants did good things for fear of having the "Beat LA" chants get directed at us. When the starting lineups were introduced, the fans booed every single Dodger. Wow, it was like being at a Steelers-Ravens game.

Now we're back in the burgh and I'm back to XC practice. I'm getting my mileage in and need to figure out which November marathon I'm going to do. Oh yeah, and the Pirates were in first place the last few days. I'll have to get in a blog about that.

Mid-Summer Classic Memories and Such

2011-07-11T20:44:00.007-04:00

Since I'm already bored with the Home Run Derby, I figured I'd blog about my All-Star Memories. There's only so many HR's you can watch. When are they going to have a skills competition similar to the NHL's? You could have fastest runner, fastest pitch, OF accuracy throws, hitting targets, etc.

It does bring back some good memories as it was in Pittsburgh TWICE since I started high school ('94 and '06). This also means, since there are 30 teams, it may not be back to the 'burgh again until I'm retired. The reason for two so close was that in '94 it was Pittsburgh's turn in the rotation with Three Rivers Stadium. Then, PNC Park opened and they wanted to show off all the new MLB stadiums (I still think there was some sort of deal made to appease the Pirates ownership by giving them the game again so quickly even though there were other new parks. Regardless, that's a whole other story).

In 1994, my neighbor up the street who I mowed the grass for, Dr. DeNino, invited me and two other younger neighborhood boys to go since he had four tickets and his two daughters were still in diapers. What a guy! He took us to the day of the batting practice and home run derby (back when it was in the afternoon). I still remember the moon shots Ken Griffey Jr. and Frank Thomas sent to the third deck of right and left field, respectively as they dueled it out for the HR Derby title.

In 2006, I went with my dad and we went to the Sunday events: The Futures Game, a concert (don't remember who), and the Celebrity & Legends softball game. It was a fun time. Here are some of the pictures pulled out of the pre-blog archives:

Crossing the Clemente Bridge over to PNC Park with the All-Star banner overhead

Our seats up in right field. I found out that day that there truly are no bad seats in PNC Park. This was about as far away as you can be from home plate and it still felt close.

The Futures Game.
When they're playing in it, you don't really recognize many of the names, but it was fun to go back and look at the list of who played that day and rattle off the top of my head where they are now (I left the ones I didn't recognize out).

ADENHART, Nick, P - Angels pitcher who had great promise but was unfortunately killed in a car accident by a drunk driver after a his season debut in the major leagues in 2009.
BAILEY, Homer, P - Up and down with the Reds
BRAUN, Ryan, 3B - MVP Candidate with the hated Brewers
BUTLER, Billy, LF - Key bat for the young Royals team
CARRASCO, Carlos, P - Young pitcher for the Indians
DREW, Stephen, SS - Starting SS for the Diamondbacks
GALLARDO, Yovani, P - Top starting pitcher for the Brewers
GARCIA, Jaime, P - one of the top rookies last year (on the Cardinals)
GONZALEZ, Carlos, OF - amazing 2010, among MVP candidates
GONZALEZ, Gio, P - starting pitcher for the A's
GORDON, Alex, 3B - another starting bat for the Royals
HUGHES, Philip, P - one of the Yankees young pitchers (injured some this year)
KENDRICK, Howie, 2B - speedy player for the Angels
LINDSTROM, Matt, P - reliable relief pitcher
MAYBIN, Cameron, CF - speedy outfielder with lots of promise that has bounced around in several different organizations
PENCE, Hunter, RF - the Astro's All-Star who would look great in right field at PNC Park for the Buccos
REIMOLD, Nolan, RF - up with the Orioles the last few years
SANDOVAL, Pablo, 1B/C - the Panda had a down 2010, but a great 2009 and 2011 SHARPLESS, Josh, P -a token hometown Bucco selection from Freedom, PA. He was out of the Pirates system (and maybe now out of baseball) in just a few years. Never panned out.
SUZUKI, Kurt, C - Catcher with the A's
TABATA, Jose, CF - disgruntled Yankees prospect back then who has now (hopefully) turned into a cornerstone of the Buccos for the next few years
TULOWITZKI, Troy, SS - only one of the best offensive shortstops in the game
VOTTO, Joey, INF - 2010 NL MVP with the reds
WALKER, Neil, C - Another token local Pittsburgh guy selection (although this one's turned out a little better!) He's an RBI machine!

Setup for the concert

Setup for the softball game with the shorter fence.
I remember Franco Harris played and also that Fred Lynn and somebody else had a home run derby to break a tie at the end.

It's pretty exciting to see the Pirates have three All-Star representatives this year, even if two of the three were replacements. What's more exciting is that they are 4 games over .500 and only 1 game out of first place. They've got 3 against Houston coming out of the break, but then division foes Cincinnati and St. Louis. I think that will go a long way towards determining whether they are legit contenders this year (I can't believe I just legitimately wrote that!!!)

Lots of people are wanting the Pirates to make trades. The guys they have coming off the DL over the next month (Beimel, Cedeno, Doumit, Pearce, Alvarez, Ohlendorf, Meek) may do the trick. However, I wouldn't be against making a trade as long as it makes sense. The bullpen could always use a fresh arm with how much they have pitched in the first half. A corner IF or OF bat would be nice, too, but at the right price. The names thrown around are Carlos Pena, Aramis Ramirez, Mark Reynolds, and Hunter Pence. I figure let's see how things play out over the next few weeks before worrying too much about trades.

Enjoy the All-Star festivities and let's go Bucs! It is so fun to have the phrase "first time since 1992" thrown around so much!

Fun 4th of July Weekend

2011-07-05T19:21:00.006-04:00

So, the week leading up to the weekend was a bit interesting. But all turned out very well in the end.

Rewind back to Monday. Actually, rewind back to March while we're at it....

(Note, if you don't want to be bored with my dental issues, skip ahead 5 or so paragraphs)

At my dentist appointment, the dentist noticed an issue on an upper molar in the back on both sides. Next step, a root canal for each of those because it was apparently too deep for just a filling. So, on to a specialist who does root canals. Visit #1 for a consultation. Visit #2 for first root canal. Visit #3 supposed to be for the other root canal. However, this guy felt the issue was too close to another tooth and wanted a second opinion (really?).

In the mean time, a crown was then to be put on after each root canal. I go in for crown #1 (from root canal #1), but the dentist can't complete it because he feels there's not enough tooth left. So, I need a crown lengthening on that before a crown can be put in. So, a temporary crown was glued on in the meantime (which popped out when I ate the scrumptious rice krispy treat from Noodles down at Columbia and had to get glued back in...oops).

Next on to another specialist for the crown lengthening. Visit #1 for the consultation at the end of the schoolyear and visit #2 for the actual crown lengthening on both sides (confirmed what root canal guy said). Lots of annoying half days needing to be taken during track season. Thank goodness school is out and I don't have to use any more sick days.

So, back to Monday (apologies for the multi-paragraph tooth malady summary). The dentist warned me going in I wouldn't be able to use my back teeth much for nearly a week. I figured that was conservative and I'd be eating pizza the next day (like after root canal #1).

Not so much. Monday night I was in BIG TIME pain. I used the pain-killer meds, put ice on both sides of my face and didn't each much for the rest of the night. This probably led to headaches probably from both the pain and also the hunger. Tuesday wasn't much better. Went to the summer program Tuesday morning but it wasn't too fun. Tuesday night, Beth's mom was in town so we went to the Olive Garden and it took me almost an hour to slurp up a plate of some fettuccine noodles. Wednesday I took a good 45 minutes to put down my two slices of pizza (usually only takes me 10-15 min).

After more soup, jello, pudding, and applesauce for most of the rest of the week I get to Friday. They needed me to fill in for the softball team (for a doubleheader, no less) and I figured I was game for it. I took a gel beforehand because I knew I was calorie deficient and it was hot out. I was slurping down liquids the whole way there and during the first game. However in spite of this I still cramped up while sprinting on the basepaths at the beginning of game 2. Not the hammy this time, but the left quad. Not good. I told the guys I lost 5th gear but could still jog (probably lost 4th gear too).

I finish out the games, but come home pretty bummed because it was pretty apparent the quad wasn't in good shape. However (and I'm not sure why) but it just "felt" like a cramp/knot and not a strain/pull, so I still had hope it may go away. I go to work on the quad at home that night trying to get the cramp out but pretty worried about running the 5k on July 4th.

Saturday morning I go out and try to run on it. I go on flat ground and jog over to the high school track. It was "tugging" at me a little if I tried to go too fast. 8-minute pace was all I could muster for that 25-minute run (with some stretching in there). I try it again on Sunday and this time I was able to pick it up and run a timed 7:15 mile on the track (not quite what I would hope for in the race). Then I tried three 200's and was able to get down to 45 seconds (6:00 pace) but I had to labor a little to do that and it was only a 200. I was pretty wary of how things would turn out because the quad was still tugging a little bit.

Enough of the leadup, on to race morning at the Hampton 5k. I warm up and it feels okay, but I'm still a little nervous. My strategy was to go out conservative and see how it feels. 'Racer X' was there and I figured I'd just settle back in behind him to start the race. The gun goes off and I can tell within the first few strides the quad was going to cooperate....at least to start. I tuck in behind Racer X and follow him on the flat first mile around the school.

We split mile 1 in 5:25 and I'm in 6th or so place. I guess the quad is feeling okay. However, mile #2 goes up a pretty steep, long hill. I figured this will be the true test for the quad and if it would seize up. I start motoring up the hill and all feels well. In fact, the leaders start coming back to me. By the top of the hill, I pull even with the front two and then I'm in the lead.

A wrap then around the middle school and back down the hill. I snuck a peak at the middle school turnaround and noticed nobody really came with me (I thought the two behind me would concede the hill but then put in a surge and catch back up to me on the flat).

Okay, this will be the true test for the quad to go back down the hill. All is well and I split 5:45 at the beginning of the return down the hill. I get back toward the high school with about 3/4 of a mile to go and Beth tells me I have about a 10 second lead (as can be seen in her stellar picture--what a spectathlete, getting splits and taking pictures!).

I'm starting to hurt at this point (the good hurt not the quad hurt) and I'm running scared back around the high school. I hope they don't catch me!! I'm peaking with each 90-degree turn around the high school, but can't see anybody. Beth updates me with less than 1/4 of a mile and says I have about a 15-second lead. I do my best to just finish strong and cross the line at 17:35 with that 15-second margin still in tact. (6:25 for the last 3.1).

So, in spite of the tooth procedure, the liquid/soft diet for most of the week, the quad "knot" two days before the race, and the general doubt of the unknown factoring all that in, a VERY satisfying time and a great finishing award!

The one disclaimer on career victory #2 is that this was most certainly the "JV" 4th of July race around Pittsburgh. All of the big boys were down at the Brentwood 5k (with the winning time of 14:57 and 14 runners sub-17).

A trip to the Hampton Community Pool while we are there and an easy 1650 while Beth gets a little workout in (and a cannonball off the diving board and a trip down the slide).

Very soothing on the legs. In fact, I credit trips to the YMCA pool with Beth on both Saturday and Sunday for easy swim workouts to help loosen up the cramp in the quad and allowing me to even race on Monday.

Throw in a BBQ at Ben's house on Saturday, some fireworks, and the Buccos inching their way more over .500 and closer to first place, it was a great weekend!

Since last time...

2011-06-30T21:50:00.007-04:00

Okay, last post was my marathon race report. I figured I should sneak a June post in being that it's the last day of the month at all. The reason I haven't written a blog since May 21 is because...

A. I went into a deep blogging exile and depression after not meeting my marathon time goals.
B. I was so overwhelmed by the end of the track season and school year and start of summer.
C. I vowed to not write a new blog post until the Pirates stayed under .500 for a week.
D. I took a peaceful non-internet trip into the woods for a month to meditate and find my center-balance.
E. I'm just plain lazy.

Well, perhaps there are shades of truth to A and B, but those aren't really the reasons. It can't be C because the Pirates keep winning and are currently 2 games over .500. Not really sure what D means, so it must be E. Sorry for the two fans out there who are regular readers of the blog. That's probably been reduced by 50% (thanks, Beth, for remaining a loyal follower).

So, what has happened since the marathon....

*For track, there were many outstanding performances at the WPIAL (district) finals including our guys finishing 1-2 in the mile. The jumpers performed solidly and are poised for a strong senior year next year. Two of our qualifiers for the state meet brought home hardware and our junior guy in the mile is looking like a good candidate to be among the top runners in the state next year.

*For Beth, she was the first female amateur to cross the line at Eagleman. So (in your best Forest Gump impression of seeing the president multiple times), we get to go to Hawaii...again. Our buddy Ben had a strong showing at Eagleman also and he now has a blog. Good luck to him and our other buddy Nate up in Providence next weekend.

*I'm involved in my summer elementary program again. It's called "Math in Sports" and it's a fun way to work for a few mornings a week talking about fantasy baseball, calculating BA/OPS/ERA/WHIP, and collecting data on basketball shooting percentages. Not to mention I get to be all-time QB, all-time whiffleball pitcher (with a NASTY slider thanks to how those holes are cut in the ball), and referee when they're doing anything else.

*I've been an emergency callup on a co-worker's softball team this summer. It's slowpitch so it's not quite as engaging as fastpitch (no bunts or steals), but I'm getting to play the outfield which I haven't done a lot of for about four or five years (since I mostly pitched the last few years in my fastpitch league). The first few times were a little shaky defensively, but I was feeling a lot more comfortable and getting better jumps on the ball by the last game. The one downside to this is the disparity in record when I'm there (0-4) and when I'm not there (something like 10-2). It's not like I'm doing bad and causing the team to lose, it's just they lose when I'm there. I keep waiting to not get invited back or to be given directions to an incorrect field so I miss the game.

*Also, running around the bases and the outfield has helped my speed training and make sub-90 400's feel like a piece of cake. I ran a 5k back on my birthday and went sub-18 on a pretty hilly course. It was a good start to the summer racing schedule I've laid out. I'm going to do more races this summer with the goal of hopefully making my leg muscles strong and not prone to the marathon cramping. In addition to that, the plan for the fall is to do either the Harrisburg or Philly marathon in November with the expressed goal of going at 7:10-7:15 pace and RUN a complete marathon (no cramping, walking, etc). Then, hopefully that will set me up with a solid base to train even harder through the winter and spring to finally reach that elusive sub-3:00 marathon in Pittsburgh 2012.

*Of course, I've already managed to catch several baseball games. Beth took me up to Altoona for my birthday.

And I went down to Frederick last weekend to hang out with my parents & sister.

I was there while Beth and Pittsburgh's other finest triathletes conquered the mountains around Deep Creek, MD. I'll need to get over to PNC Park to watch this juggernaut of a baseball team. The pitching has been extremely exceeding expectations and the hitting has been holding the team back from even having a better record. We'll see what the second half has in store.

*The high school XC "fun runs" start Friday. It's exciting to get back in to it, especially with all the returning runners we have.

So, hopefully a few more posts in July as I settle in to summer. I hope everybody has a great 4th of July! (I can always picture Bill Pullman's speech in Independence Day)

If At First You Don't Succeed...

2011-05-21T21:55:00.004-04:00

Back in my Philly marathon, I identified several key factors that may have contributed to not hitting the sub-3:00 goal in the form of my running out of gas around mile 15 and subsequent hamstring convulsions around mile 24.

-Following the high school’s cross country training schedule during the week and just doing a long run on the weekend
-Going out WAAAAAY too hard (like a 1:23 half and some sub-6:10 miles in the first ten)
-Could have been better on my nutrition plan (no gel before the race, not enough fluids, too long between gels)
-Rushing to the start line after long port-o-potty lines and not enough pre-race stretching

So, to address these issues, I:

-Mapped out a training plan from the “Advanced Marathon Training” book and followed the daily mileage to a T
-Resolved to maintain a 6:50 pace and go through the half right around 1:30
-Work doing the same nutrition for my weekend long runs through the race. Oatmeal, powerbar, and a gel right before the run. Gels every 5 miles on the run.
-Scouting out the port-o-potty’s before the race and know where to go to take care of business quickly before the race, so I get a complete warmup and stretch.

It’s a little misty on race morning, but not too bad. If anything the mist cooled things off. Before I knew it, the race took off. I saw Cheryl Gatons and knew she would be running under 3:00. So, I told myself I was NOT allowed to pass her in the first few miles or else I’d be going out too fast. Even with this, mile 1 was 6:33.

Whoa, throw on the brakes! Mile 2 was 6:40, but then I settled in to my rhythm. 6:48, 6:53, 6:53 was miles 3-5. Mile 6 and 7 were a little downhill and were 6:41, 6:39. On to the south side and miles 8-11 were 6:45, 6:44, 6:45, 6:49. Mile 12 was the uphill into Oakland and I resolved to not push it too hard up that hill and drain the legs – 6:59. Into Oakland I was 6:37 for mile 13 and through the half in 1:28:30. Slightly fast but on pace for a 2:57.

Miles 14-17 were 6:41, 6:52, 6:50, and 6:44. Up to this point, things were comfortable. I had been using the word “effortless” when talking to people this week. That may be exaggerating it, but it felt like I was executing my plan. Mile 18 over in Homewood is when it started getting harder, but I figured it was merely because the entire marathon wasn’t going to be easy. I knew it would get hard. Mile 18 split at 7:02. I took in my mile 20 gel between 18-19 to try to jumpstart me. But, it got harder. Mile 19 was 7:15.

I memorized two splits going into the race: Be at mile 10 around 68 minutes. Be at mile 20 by 2:17. I go through mile 20 at 2:16:43 (still on pace), but my split for that mile was 7:32. Not quite 6:50. I would need to split 6:52’s the rest of the way and could feel it slipping away.

After an 8:16 for mile 21 I knew it wasn’t going to be in the cards to crack 3:00. I figured, “back off a little and still earn a PR and get it in the 3:0X’s.” I could feel the legs getting fatigued. I took a long stroll through the next water station to fuel up on fluids and to finish the deal. Mile 22 is 9:15 as I walked through that water station.

Fueled and with the downhill mile 23 past Bloomfield back towards the strip district, I “improved” to an 8:33 mile. However, the fatigue, the upset stomach (did I mention I had a little throw-up around mile 22-ish?), the pounding of the downhill all came to rear its ugly head in the strip district. First, the quads cramped and I was reduced to a walk because there was a knife being driven into my right quad, just above the knee. Must press forward.

Then the hammies and groin start getting tight. I’m starting to yell at those muscles, “YOU STAY IN THERE!” urging them to not ball up like the knotty mess they became in Philly. I alternate squeezing and massaging my hamstrings, quads, and groin and could only imagine what the spectators were thinking of my hand placement as I’m shuffling along. Mile 23 to 24 was 11:19 because I had to walk a few points due to the beginning of the cramping and massaging.

2.2 miles to go. I make the left off of Penn at 16th Street and then the quick right onto Liberty. Almost to downtown. Then, it happened. Again. It’s as if someone shot BOTH my hamstrings at the same time. Pretzels for hamstrings. I tried to somehow get into a position to make the painful contractions in the hammies go away. However, unlike Philly, there was no 2-foot wall along the side of the road to lean up against. My legs couldn’t move. It was all in slow-motion, but I went DOWN. Literally fell over. There was nowhere else to go.

I crawled to the sidewalk to get out of the way of the runners but was in a lot of pain as the legs were throbbing from the pain and there was no way to make it go away. Somehow, just like in Philly, there were medics only about a block away. I am so blessed to have them that close that quickly. Three medics started working on my legs and making the cramp go away. They asked was it my left or my right leg. I said, “YES!” They asked was it my hamstring or quad. I said, “YES!” At least I had a sense of humor while gritting my teeth.

After they got to the point of having me straighten my legs without contractions, they then helped me get the legs moving in a SLOOOOOW bicycle-like motion as I laid on my back on the sidewalk. After a good minute or so of the slow cycles, we determined it was time to get up and try walking. Success!

So, I started moving forward with the EMT’s escorting me along my walk. I have to really hand it to them. When the legs cramped up and I went down. I was done. I was ready for someone to radio in a cart to pick me up and take me to the finish. I thought about how that would be letting down all the people who supported me through the Alzheimer’s Association but I was so down about cramping up severely again and it just didn’t matter.

However, the first thing the lead EMT said to me was, “You’re so close. Less than two miles to go. We’ll get you loosened up and get you to that finish line.” What a great motivator. Once the legs started loosening up doing the “bicycles” I then thought about how I MUST finish because of all of the support and backing I had from all of those great people that supported the Alzheimer’s Association. So, a-shuffling I went. This entire ordeal from mile 24 to 25 somehow “only” took 15:22 even though it felt like a half hour.

Shuffle downtown on Liberty. Shuffle to make a right onto 6th street. Shuffle over the Clemente Bridge. Shuffle as I make the left onto General Robinson Street (Mile 25 to 26 a speedy 11:04). The last 0.2 in 2:07. I cross the line in 3:22:28 and just reached for my hammies. The medal handing-out lady could tell that I was not in good shape, so she requested a medic. I did not resist the gurney escort to the medical tent. Anything to get off my weary legs. After some fluids and more stretching of the hammies, I was released and went to find Beth.

It took a little while, but found her and relayed to her my yet again disappointing second half of a marathon. Like the awesome wife that she is, she was able to help me accentuate the positives and set up a plan for improving next time. Probably the best part of the day was that I didn’t have time to sit around and pout. There was the Etown alumni post-race get-together. Seeing the gathering of 15-20 people and hearing their positive stories from the day helped lift my spirits.

So, back to the drawing board. No rash decisions yet. Let the race marinate for a little bit and then set up a plan moving forward. Thank you again to all the supporters of the Alzheimer’s Association and I look forward to meeting my goal in the future.

Marathon Scouting Report

2011-05-11T21:17:00.000-04:00

So I allegedly have a blog. I guess I should post something from time to time.

This whole routine of wakeup, walk dog, drive to school, run, teach, coach, drive home, dinner, odds & ends, sleep is just about over. The marathon is Sunday. Track season is in its final weeks. Whew!

Our boys and girls teams both made it to the district team finals. That's a fun event because it recognizes a true "team" where it's dual meet scoring between the teams. Not like invitational scoring where a few outstanding individuals get 10 pts each for first and win the 'team' championship. We're going up against my alma mater, so it should be fun to compete against the old coaches.

Okay on to the marathon scouting report for Sunday.

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***Spoiler alert*** If you're interested in winning some FREE granola from Nuts About Granola, go to Beth's blog and predict my time BEFORE reading on. Otherwise, that's kind of cheating.
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And, prior to going into any of the details, I want to say this marathon preparation has already been a HUGE success. I went into it wanting to make a difference beyond just running faster than last time and I feel like I have accomplished that.

First of all, Beth was asked to be the team dietitian for the Alzheimer's Association Alz-Stars. I went with her to a meeting and ended up signing up to be a fundraiser. Through the awesome generosity of nearly 50 individuals, somehow they decided to give a total of $1,830 to the Alzheimer's Association on my behalf. I am truly grateful and speechless for all that giving. What a difference you have made. I'll be thinking of you and your family members when things get tough out on the race course. If you're one of those amazing people, THANK YOU!! If not, you can still help and donate here.

Secondly, I wanted to help others get involved with the marathon weekend and I had two main groups I was involved with. First of all, from my high school I teach at, there are two others doing the full, 5 more doing the half, and a couple on relays. I've been an 'advisor' to them throughout the process (don't know if you can really call it a coach).

The other group is through one of the colleges I went to, Elizabethtown College. It's located out by the Harrisburg/Lancaster area, so there aren't a lot of alums here in the Pittsburgh area. However, our alumni group thought it would be neat to organize for the marathon either running or volunteering. Through this, we have 2 people running the full, 2 running the half, 2 relay teams (10 people), and 5 or so people volunteering on race morning. It's so exciting to see so many people get involved. Some are even from outside the area and just coming in to Pittsburgh for the weekend.

So, before the gun goes off on Sunday to start the race, it is certainly a success (and part of the reason I haven't gotten around to blogging much trying to keep all of this organized). However, it is still the ultimate priority of mine this weekend to redeem myself from the ill-advised greedy start and paying for it the last 5 miles Philadelphia Marathon.

My training has gone well. I have followed my plan throughout--especially the mid-week long runs. With that said, I'm feeling confident that I have put myself in a position to crack the 3:00 barrier. How will it turn out? We'll find out Sunday. One thing I do know is that I will NOT be going through the half in 1:23:11 like I did in Philly. The goal is to click off that 6:45-6:50-ish pace and come through at 1:29:29 or so. Then, as I get to around mile 20 I will assess things. The best advice I've heard is that the marathon doesn't start until mile 20. Keep it under wraps until then!

I have checked out the course on several long runs and have seen the entire course (except for this little 1-mile part out by the West-End Bridge) twice. I know what to expect and just have to execute the plan. I didn't take my camera on my long runs on the course but, through the use of Google's StreetView, I'll highlight some of the key parts of the course for me.

Miles 1-5 are about getting into the rhythm. After mile 6, you go on to the West End Bridge. I don't really drive over it too often, but loved taking in the view of Heinz Field and downtown during my training runs. I figured I'd do it then because it's all business on race day. Not time for sight-seeing!

After that uncharted 1-mile rectangle past the West-End Bridge, you proceed along Carson Street on the South Side. I again liked looking back towards downtown and admiring the skyline.

Mile 10 is at the end of the South Side, you cross the Birmingham Bridge and then work your way to the only true "uphill" of the course into Oakland. I tried to capture it with this shot. You can see the Cathedral of Learning on Pitt's campus in the background. Just run towards that up the hill.

Then, it's through Oakland, Shadyside, East Liberty (a little scary) and then back into Shadyside. Around mile 22, you're at the Bloomfield Bridge and this is where it could get exciting on Sunday. I could feel the anticipation brewing on my long runs when I got to this point. It's pretty much downhill and flat from here on in to the finish.

You continue down Liberty Avenue towards the Strip District. As you go past mile 23, you can see downtown in the distance and know you're getting close!

After going back through the Strip District (and I can imagine a lot of people lining the streets), you cut through downtown back to 6th street. Make a right onto 6th street and head towards the Clemente Bridge and PNC Park. Less than a mile when you can see PNC Park!

Once over the bridge, hang a left around Left Field of PNC Park onto General Robinson St and it's a straightaway to the finish as you're running towards Heinz Field!

That's how I'm hoping it plays out on race day. We shall see. Thank you for all of the well-wishes I've gotten already. If you're interested in tracking people in the marathon, they have set that up here. You have to set up a username and password, but then you can have the splits every time we cross over mats (every 5 or 10 miles?) emailed, tweeted, texted, facebook-ed to you.

Time to get some rest for the big weekend coming up! Good luck to all racing in this weekend!

Martha's RR, Track, and The Big Easy

2011-04-21T18:09:00.029-04:00

In what is a LOOOONG overdue blog, here we go.

Martha's Run 10k went well. Unlike last year when the top three were long gone two minutes into the race (winning time 33:48), the makeup of the running group was different. I looked around at the start line and saw one local big-time runner (and a big fan of giving high-fives) and the college kid who went to Mt. Lebo and wrestled but is now getting really fast at road races.

The starter said "GO" and I took off from the line....and nobody went with me. And it stayed that way for the first mile and half. I told myself this is just like my morning runs on the course....except it's light out....and I'm running on the road instead of the sidewalk....and I'm following a fire truck...and I'm running faster. Other than that, just like a morning run.

Finally, around two miles into it, the big-timer caught up to me (I was starting to think he was just using this as a tempo run). We ran together for the next mile, but then he started to put a gap on me. He was about 5-10 seconds ahead as we got to the 5 mile mark. We descended down the last big hill and I couldn't close the gap (similar to my experience from last year). We get to the final flat (about a half mile long) and I picked it up and tried to close the gap but was unable to. The end result: 2nd place 36:32 (5 seconds behind the winner), just under a minute faster than last year.

The race is in memory of a Mt. Lebanon graduate Martha Dixon who worked for the FBI Cold Case Squad. A gunman entered their office and began shooting. She returned fire and wounded the perpetrator but was killed in the exchange. The goal of the race is to raise money to build playgrounds to keep kids active. The playground in the picture below was the first one built a few years back. Their next one is going to be in conjunction with the South Hills YMCA.

Sunday was a long run (17 miles) and I hit that pretty good. Monday I did 6 miles. Then, I hit the wall. My legs felt like lead the rest of the week. I think I overdid it. I took off Tuesday, ran a sluggish 10 miles Wednesday and 5 miles Thursday. Then, I took Friday off with the travel day and started to finally feel better on Saturday. More on the New Orleans portion in a minute....

TRACK
Our weather continued par for the spring. Cold, rainy, throw a little snow in there. While we were in New Orleans, the invitational got cancelled due to wind and rain. It's been a crazy spring. In spite of that, our boys and girls have been adapting, adjusting, and excelling and we haven't lost yet heading into our final week of section meets. Hoping for a string of nice weather for the final month of the season.

NEW ORLEANS
Off to a new and exciting place again. Beth's triathlon season has started. We did our usual routine--Beth packs her bike and everything Thursday night. Friday morning I drop Beth off at the airport before school. She flies down while I'm at school and practice. Then, I fly down. My flight from Pittsburgh got delayed about an hour. Then, due to thunderstorms, the Atlanta airport closed and we were left sitting on the runway in Pittsburgh.

A half hour later, we finally took off and made our way off to Atlanta. The descent into Atlanta was a little dicey. There were lots of corrections made by the plane due to the wind. A lightning bolt flashed right outside of the window. Whoa! After a hard landing we made it. My flight to New Orleans was also delayed and didn't take off until around Midnight. I get into New Orleans around 2am central (3am eastern), making for a 23-hour day.

On to the weekend, Beth had her usual pre-race routine. She went in the (choppy) water and I did an hour run. The legs started to come back a little bit. Sunday was race day. The choppy water ended up forcing the cancelling of the swim. Beth did awesome and was the 4th amateur to finish and she cracked 1:30 in the half marathon! I did my usual thing of being out on the course.

While I was out there I snapped a few pictures. These pictures turned out pretty clear since our new phones have a higher resolution.

Beth about 3 miles into the run.

While waiting for Beth on the run, I was snapping shots of the pros (some of which are on FB). This one was interesting, though. Racer number 57, Kelzie Beebe, threw me for a loop as I was cheering the runners on. She says, "You're Beth Shutt's husband, aren't you?" I guess my reputation is starting to preceed me.

Beth about to overtake 4th place with about 3 miles to go. She was trucking!

This was a little tricky since it was point-to-point for the run, but I made it work. I checked it out on mapmyrun and it turns out I logged 11+ miles on race day.

POST-RACE

With it being our spring break at school (and because tickets were a lot cheaper to return on Tuesday) we stuck around an extra day than usual and actually had a chance to check out the host city. New Orleans has been through a lot with Hurricane Katrina. Some parts, like the French Quarter, seem like they've fully recovered. Other parts up by Lake Ponchartrain, had areas that have recovered but others still with the spray paint on the houses. The roads were real bumpy in that area. It also looks as though they are working on levee projects still there.

The French Quarter was...unique. Driving the course on Saturday we saw a whole bunch of people out including people dressed up as pirates (not from Pittsburgh). There were beads everywhere and I can only imagine what it was like there at night.

I found a new favorite treat in beignets - doughy funnel cake-like donuts with mounds of powdered sugar on them. Cafe DuMonde does ship the mix!

We went past the Super Dome. It's so much bigger than Heinz Field, an amazing structure.

On Monday, I ran along the Mississippi River levee. It just went on forever. My 8.5 miles out went pretty well, however I melted on the way back. Must have been something to do with the 80-degree temperatures and humidity since I was coming from 40's and 50's.

Monday night, we saw a AAA baseball game between the New Orleans Zephyrs (Florida Marlins) and the Round Rock Express (Texas Rangers). It was a good game, but selfishly I was a little disappointed because there weren't any real top prospects playing in the game. In fact, there were a good number of late-20's journeymen who I recognized from playing in the big leagues.

The first pitch. I think it's in the air, but you can't see it. It's out of the pitcher's hand, the batter is still looking out and the catcher still has his target up.

Like with many things in New Orleans, there is a levee incorporated as part of the outfield beyond the right-center fence.

Our flight back went smooth and soon after I got home, it was off to another track meet, where it was 50 and rainy (of course).

I'm excited for Easter this weekend to see family and to remember the whole reason for our faith. Jesus loved us so much to die for us and take our place for all the bad stuff we have done in our lives. We don't owe Him anything, but knowing what He did for us makes you want to make a difference for Jesus with other people.

Spring Has Sprung?

2011-04-05T21:06:00.006-04:00

It's April! Start of the baseball season! Two track meets so far in April and......IT SNOWED AT BOTH!!!! Here's a picture of me driving to Saturday's meet.

Today, we had more snow flurries at our meet. My workout this morning was in the rain/snow of mid-30's temperatures bringing back memories of the Turkey Trot. It's just not right. But, hopefully things will start warming up.

Training is going well. Last week I had 5x1000 at 5k pace on Wednesdsay, 17 mi with 14 miles at marathon pace on Saturday, and 5x600 at 5k pace today. I'm doing a 10k Saturday (Martha's Run from last year) and 17 on Sunday. This weekend will be 5 weeks to go. It's getting close. And, thanks again to all who have been so generous in donating to the Alzheimer's Association on my behalf. It's so awesome to see how many people are willing to support. If you haven't had a chance yet and would like to, you can donate here.

I also need to get around to my Pirates preview. Last spring, I wrote a blog on why the Pirates couldn't be any worse. Well, they were worse. So, I'm not going to write an opinion on whether they'll be better or worse. I'll just focus on individuals.

Even though it's a few days late, my concern for the year is starting pitching (off to a great start) and infield defense (kind of ugly so far). I feel Neil Walker will regress to his minor league stats (he's off to an awesome start) but think Tabata and McCutchen will take off this year (so far so good). Through five games, they LOOK better. But, we shall see.....

AND HOW ABOUT SOME WARMER WEATHER!!!!!!

Tornado in March

2011-03-24T19:27:00.008-04:00

I heard on the news how a tornado in Western PA in March is very unlikely. But, it happened. Somehow, nobody was killed but a lot of people have a lot of cleaning up to do near where I grew up. I've never had something like this happen so close to home (literally) and my heart is saddened over the recovery.

Being the map aficionado I am, here's my perspective of it. The path (red) ripped through right by a house where I was babysat as a kid (off the screen left) then by the high school & middle school, past my cousin's church and then over into the neighborhood where I used to ride my bike. Then, (perhaps because of the hill-valley topography) it must have went back up in the clouds. I don't know much about tornadoes but if it had continued, my grandparents may have been right in the path (black circle). Thank God for that. I grew up in the green circle.

Here's some more shots:
Roofs just torn off of houses. How powerful.

At the high school, it took off part of an auditorium roof...

...and took down the scoreboard and other parts at the stadium.

Just left speechless.

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On a lighter note, I was all planned to write a blog Wednesday night with stories of how we dodged marble-sized hail at track practice, a great announcement, a funny story, and basketball update. So, here they are:

*With many generous donations by many great people, I have hit my target for fundraising for the Alzheimer's Association. The deadline is mid-April, so I figure I'm just going to keep asking and see how much more we can raise. If you are interested in donating, click here.

*Training has been going well. I had a 11 (supposed to be 12) mile run with 7 miles at half marathon pace on Wednesday morning. I was unsure if I'd be able to hit the pace that early, that cold, and on my own. But, I hit it and was excited about that. Due to my schedule this week with track meets, I then had to run 12 this (Thursday) morning. I was going to complain to Beth Wednesday night about the back to back hard running days. However, I remembered over the weekend she did a 4-hour bike ride then 2-hour run Sunday followed up by a 2-hour run on Monday. No sympathy in the Shutt house! But, aside from some sluggish hills, I plodded along at my desired pace and got it done. Whew!

*My brackets are busted (nothing new). Too bad Pitt lost (hee hee). Penn State played a tough game, much of it without their 2nd best player Jeff Brooks due to foul trouble and then re-separating his shoulder. In spite of all that they lost on a last-second off-balanced jumper. Arizona had a good first weekend (both close games--whew!) but now has a tough matchup against Duke tonight. I would consider Duke the big favorite, but I guess you never know. That's why they call it March Madness. The only trouble is the game isn't going to start until almost 10pm (past my bedtime). I guess I'll just have to check out the score when I get up.

Time to watch some hoops.

The Madness is Coming

2011-03-09T20:42:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite times of the year - March Madness and the NCAA basketball tournament snuck up on me. As noticed by the absence of blogging, lots going on. When that happens I don't sit down to write a blog either because (1) I need to catch up on sleep instead of writing a blog. (2) I'm busy doing my next activity. Sleep or overscheduled. The two ends of the spectrum.

Anyway, I'm sure it's like that for everybody so I'm just enjoying the journey.

Lately:

We did the Spring Thaw a few weeks back now. My target going in was to run 15 miles (you had the option of 10, 15, or 20). I wanted to 'race' the first 10 around 6:00 pace and then try to sustain 7:00 pace for the last 5 (trying to simulate later in the marathon). Just about hit my goal - I was 60:19 for 6:02 pace. My third lap was 36:14 (7:15 pace) partly due to fatigue but also due to me being stubborn about not taking a gel right at mile 10 and waiting until mile 13. Too late at that point. Lesson learned.

But, overall a good day and training's been going well so I'm hoping I'm on track for the marathon. It was fun seeing so many people at the race - Beth (of course), fellow teachers (Ben, Heather, and Veronica), and the triathlon crew (Chad, Jen, Jeremy, Jocelyn).

This past week I hit my first 20-miler of the training cycle, and it went well.

Track started Monday. We had two nice days of weather, but today was pretty soggy. Looking like more sog and maybe even some snow on Friday.

The other big story I had was driving home last Monday. I'm coming up the hill about a half mile from home when I see a dog (40 lbs or so) running in a yard by the road with a kid behind him. This road is a two-lane road with a speed limit of 35 mph. At rush hour, it gets a little busy. I see in my rear view mirror that the dog crosses back over the road with the kid chasing it. I start thinking about if that was our little Roxy and I was scared for the dog (and the kid for that matter).

So I pull off on a side street, swing back around, park the car and get out to help out the kid. As I get closer we start to surround the dog, but then it decides to run back across the street. I play traffic cop as me and the kid go back across too. The dog wandered over to a bigger backyard and we finally corralled it as the dog laid down. I pet the dog as the kid puts on the leash and that dumb dog squirts out and starts running again.

Fortunately it didn't head back toward the road (I put myself between the dog and the road to force him away from the road). After another few minutes of the dog running around (it was all a game to him) I think it started getting tired and laid down. This time I grabbed the dog's collar and helped the kid put the leash on--no taking chances. All is well and the most stressed of the three of us was certainly me. The dog loved running around and the kid (4th grader-ish?) didn't seem too concerned about the whole situation.

Back to the March Madness, the conference tournaments wrap up this weekend and the selections are on Sunday. This are looking a little better than last year:

*Arizona - rebounded to win the Pac-10 regular season title this year after missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1986 last year. The ended up with a good record, but no real big wins. The ESPN "Bracketologist" is predicting a #5 seed

*Penn State - just shot themselves in the foot too many times this year. They ended up with a 9-9 record in the Big Ten, but it could've easily been 10-8 or 11-7. That would've looked a lot better. Overall, they were barely above .500 and ugly losses to Maine, Mississippi, and Virginia Tech don't help either. Their only shot is to probably win the Big Ten tourney.

*Davidson - they won something like 10 of their last 12 and looked like a team that may make a post-season run. However, they lost in the first round of the Southern Conference tournament. But, they've got a lot of talent coming back so hopefully they'll be in the hunt next year.

Any picks out there of who will win? I think it's so tough anymore with all the turnover in college basketball.

I'll be sending out invitations to the NCAA Tournament bracket challenge again this year. All about bragging rights and seeing who's picks stink the least. If you're interested and don't get an invitation, send me a message on Facebook. The more the merrier!

Snow 9, Weathermen 3

2011-02-22T20:42:00.003-05:00

The actual inches vs the predicted inches on Monday...

So much to write about with the 'solo' weekend while Beth was in Tucson--I'll have to get to that eventually.

Back to Monday:

The problem with the snow (it ended up being about 9 inches) was the roads really didn't get treated before it started (3pm) because it arrived about 2 or 3 hours before they thought it would. On top of that, PennDOT then had to scramble and bring in a lot of workers (since it was President's Day holiday and a lot were off). By then, it was too late. There was 2 or 3 inches of snow on all of the roads at the height of rush hour. Cars parked on the road or on the sides of roads. Snow continuing to fall until 10pm at a rate of about 1 inch per hour. Disaster all around that made my trip home three hours.

But, I got home in one piece and the neighbor checked in on Roxy. So, all was well.

As this was unfolding, Beth's flight (supposed to land around midnight) got rerouted to Detroit because Pittsburgh had to close down the runways for a bit because they couldn't keep up with the snow. Since Detroit was 'close' they ended up letting the plane refuel and continue to Pittsburgh. She got to the airport around 2 or 2:30am. By the time she dug out her car and got home (roads still had a layer of snow on them) it was 4:30am.

We ended up having school cancelled today. It was good because I was able to catch up on sleep because I was up until midnight trying to figure out where Beth's flight was going and if she needed to get a hotel by the Detroit airport.

Another bullet blog will be saved for another day to update training, college hoops, spring training, family get-togethers, and all the ~~boring~~ thrilling details (yeah right) during my "what I did on my solo weekend."

Bullet Blog

2011-02-13T21:02:00.007-05:00

After my 18-day blog streak in January, things have seemed to slow down here in February. Oh wait, I haven't written a blog YET in February. Oops! Here's some catching up:

*Most of the time has been working with the track teams. The district championship is this upcoming weekend. Looking forward to seeing great performances and increase the number of athletes qualifying for the indoor state meet.

*Running has been going well. The run Thursday was COLD, windchill below zero. I found that wearing socks OVER your gloves does a good job keeping the hands warm. If only I had kept my Steelers' playoff beard - the chin and jawline were a little raw by the end. Today's 17-miler capped off a 46-mile week. Earlier in the week, I had a 9 mile run with 4 miles at 6:10 pace. That hurt, but I can feel that I'm getting stronger. I was able to hold 7:30 pace for the 17 miles today. I may be racing in a few weekends, so we'll see if this fitness translates to the race.

*Also on the running front, the teachers from my school and the alumni group from Elizabethtown College are moving along with their training. This is the toughest time to motivate non-veteran runners, but I just keep trying to push them on so they can reach their goals on race days.

*Our Etown alumni group also picked up a sponsor for race day. Alumnus Sarah Lanphier started a granola mix company called Nuts About Granola and stepped up to support our group with a goodie bag. I asked Sarah about possibly connecting with Beth about the granola and it looks like they're setting up a partnership, too. Beth reviewed the granola HERE and it's good stuff!

*Past halfway to my fundraising goal for the Alzheimer's Association. Thanks again to all who have donated and shared stories! If you feel moved to do so, you can provide a donation online HERE.

*Beth's heading to Tucson this week with some training partners to get out of this snow and get some legitimate outdoor training, especially on the bike. Thanks again to Jen & Jerome for providing the lodging. It'll be Roxy and I holding down the fort, so hopefully we don't get into too much trouble. My weekend already has the all-day track meet Saturday and a family birthday party Sunday afternoon.

*On the college basketball front, Arizona's creeping up in the polls (16th last week) and is in 1st place in the weak Pac-10. Things are looking good for their tournament chances this year. Davidson is starting to come around. While they still have a sub-.500 conference record at 7-8, they be a couple of the conference leaders over the last few weeks and might just be putting it together at the right time for a SoCon tourney run. Penn State lost three in a row before a 24-point win against Northwestern today. The Nittany Lions are probably on the outside looking in if the tournament started today, but they've still got a handful of games agains ranked opponents plus the Big Ten tournament to improve their resume.

*The Steelers gave a good effort in the Super Bowl, but had too many turnovers at the wrong times. And, credit Green Bay for turning all three TO's into touchdowns. There's always next year I guess (like I said back in October of 1992 with the Pirates...)

*Speaking of Pirates, spring training starts Monday. Woo-hoo!

*Beth's new triathlon team, Ballou Skies, had a photoshoot this week at photo studio that used to be a firehouse and now currently doubles as the Roberto Clemente Museum. Lots of great photos and stories from there, but that'll have to be another post.

It's Coming!

2011-01-31T19:35:00.011-05:00

Before the main story, thank you again to all who have donated to the Alzheimer's Association on my behalf. It is so exciting and humbling to see that I have reached nearly half of my goal and it's only January 31st!

I am so appreciative of the support from many and I also have learned a lot about how Alzheimer's affects families terribly from some of the stories people have shared with me. How emotionally painful it is to see a family member in that state. If you have a story to share, I would love to add it to my mental file.

As always, if you find it in your heart and budget to donate, I would be greatly honored. You can click on the link on the side or click here.

I don't want to get too preachy, but I liked a verse our pastor shared during the message last weekend about giving money. It was about Moses and the Israelites after they left Egypt. Moses spoke to the people about bringing offerings. He said in Exodus 35:20-21:

20 Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence, 21 and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments.

That's been my whole approach with seeking donations. I don't want to pressure people. If they want to donate to this cause, great. If not, that's fine too.

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The newest storm of the century is approaching as we speak. Hysteria has been created in the media. Green (rain) is good. Pink (sleet/freezing rain) can get dicey. Blue (snow) sounds like it'll mostly stay north of Pittsburgh. I'm seeing reports online about how Chicago and the midwest is getting pounded pretty good. School's even delayed already for Tuesday.

From my vantage point, it's looking like we'll have an icy Tuesday morning and then it will change over to rain, get a little icy again Tuesday night and then go away. We'll see how things turn out I suppose.

Here's an optical illusion for you--icicles forming upward. Isn't that called stalactites or stalagmites? I always get those two confused.

What happened is the icicles were forming, but then the snow that was on top of the overhang began to shift forward as temperatures warmed up. For some reason, the snow stuck together and curled around, causing the icicles to be facing upward.

Not that we ran out and got groceries due to the storm, but Sunday was when I went to get groceries. For entertainment purposes, I snapped a few photos of our our weekly cyclical pattern:

Refrigerator full.

Two people training many, many hours per week consume/devour the food, leaving the refrigerator barren.

Go to the grocery store and load up the cart to the top (even though it's only for two people).

Refrigerator is replenished. Repeat once weekly.

In other news, the Steelers are now in Dallas getting ready for the Super Bowl against Marit's Green Bay Packers (Sorry to Jen H's Bears). The picture is one I took driving home as Heinz Field prepared for a Steeler send-off rally last Friday.

Looks like a pretty evenly-matched game and will be interesting to see what big plays make the difference. Sitting back, I definitely think that Steelers fans are fortunate to have such a great franchise. Eight Super Bowls in 37 years. That's one appearance in less than every five years. Some NFL teams haven't made it. Ever.

Then, there's my beloved Buccos who won three NL East titles in a row from 1990-1992. Until...

They were a Francisco Cabrera cheap hit (and poor Barry Bonds throw) away from making it to the World Series in 1992. In my youthful ignorance of seeing the Steelers success and the Pens win two Stanley Cups in a row with Mario & company, I just assumed the Pirates would be back competing for a World Series in another year or two. 18 years later...

I was sharing that story with a student on the track team. I told him to appreciate the Steelers being back in the Super Bowl for the third time in six years. To appreciate the Penguins making it to back-to-back Stanley Cup finals (and having some of the best players in the NHL). It may not always be like this! (Okay, I feel old now)

We were at Robert Morris University last weekend for a track meet. To say the athletes were packed into the Sewell Center like sardines is insulting to sardines.

It was a good meet, the jumping is coming along--not that they get to practice jumping into sand during the week. I guess they could jump into snow?

I had a chance to run with Beth on Sunday as our training schedules meshed. It's been a few weeks for our weekend long run to match up. I have been following my marathon training plan to a T and four weeks in I haven't missed a workout. Prior to this regimented training, here's how my training was set up--especially on the weekends:

Beth: How far are you running today?

Me: I don't know. How about you?

Beth: I'm running ____ miles (or for _____ minutes).

Me: Okay, I'll do that, too.

That was that. And that's how a lot of my bike training for my half ironman went last summer, too.

Stay safe out there if you have to travel with the bad weather coming!

Progress

2011-01-22T14:45:00.005-05:00

Progress...

*In my first attempt at serious fund-raising. It's coming along. I made my first round of directed emails to solicit donations for the Alzheimer's Association and it went well. For those of you who responded, thanks so much for the generosity. I'm already over 1/4 of the way towards my goal of raising $1,000. If you are interested in donating, you can follow the link here.

If you haven't heard from me yet about it, you probably will some time in the next three months. :) Thank you in advance!

*On the college basketball front. My three teams are definitely at different stages:

Arizona (15-4, 4-2 Pac-10) - worked their way into the rankings this past week, but then went out and lost to #20 Washington on Thursday. As long as they maintain their current efforts, Sean Miller's team should be in a position to start a new NCAA tournament appearance streak.

Penn State (10-8, 3-4 Big Ten) - seems like they're playing a ranked team every night out. After edging out #19 MSU and then #16 Illinois, they lost by 3 to now #1 Ohio State and after that by 1 to #13 Purdue, both on the road. Maybe they're on to something and are no longer the doormat of the Big Ten. Maybe. They've still got Michigan and Northwestern (twice) but all the others are ranked teams. Maybe just maybe they can hold on and go .500 in conference play and sneak into the tournament.

Davidson (8-11, 2-6 Southern)- is in a clear rebuilding year. They kind of held it together last year after Stephen Curry left for the NBA. But, they are now in a position of getting younger guys in the starting lineup. In their top 7 minutes leaders, they have 1 senior, 4 sophomores, and two freshman (one of which starts). The next two years will certainly be better for Davidson.

*In my training. The marathon mileage is coming along. 32 miles last week and, after tomorrow's 13-miler, 36 this week. I swam on Tuesday and also this morning to sprinkle in some cross training. Slowly the swimming is improving. I definitely enjoy swimming. Just not a lot of it and I'm just not that fast. However, I was happy that I was able to execute a 2x10x100yd on 2 min (w/ 1min rest in between) today.

Progress.

Will the Streak End at 18?

2011-01-18T20:20:00.002-05:00

My blog-writing? Yes. I'm blogged out and need a break for a few days.

The Pirates' number of consecutive losing seasons? Probably not, unless they get some better pitching this summer.

Good night.

History of Pittsburgh in Pictures

2011-01-17T20:27:00.010-05:00

Back in December, Beth went to a swim clinic at Carnegie Mellon University. I dropped her off and came back to pick her up. I got there before it finished so I had some time to roam around the building where the pool is.

So, I go up to the second floor and come across this mural that wrapped around all the walls of the second floor rotunda. What I stumbled upon were these paintings that captured what Pittsburgh looked like from about the early 1900's to the 1970's or 1980's. It spans the entire rotunda and you can read more about it here.

I snapped a couple of shots and here were some of my favorites (If you click on the picture, it's a little bit bigger and you can see more detail):

This first one shows downtown WAY back in the day. Lots of steel mills and smoke. Also, that's not PNC Park, it's Exposition Park along the North Side. It's interesting to see the bridges that connected downtown back then.

The next two show the Oakland area with Forbes Field from two different angles. I know where Forbes Field was and the topography around it (close to where my education classes were), but I guess I never realized how steep of a drop off it was set upon along the right field side of the park. You can make out Pitt's Cathedral of Learning (the tallest structure) and the hospital where Beth now works!. Also, CMU was called Carnegie Tech back then.

The last two show more of present Pittsburgh along the Monongahela (above) and the Allegheny (below). In the view with the Mon, you can see 'The Bluff' that Duquesne University sits upon. In the one of the Allegheny, you can see most of the modern downtown buildings and the bridges that I come down along during my daily commute. No PNC Park in the picture, though.

Anyway, thought that was neat and highly recommend it for anyone who's a fan of Pittsburgh, history, and maps. I spent a half hour there and didn't even realize it.

Hijacking the GPS

2011-01-16T15:30:00.003-05:00

Since Beth was stuck on her bike for FOUR HOURS this morning, I hijacked (errr.....asked to borrow) her GPS watch for my 12 mile run. I mapped out a course and wanted to see how well it worked. I loved the feedback of getting the beep for each mile and also the split for each mile. Very informative.

I chose one of Charlie's favorite courses, running along the river and then up Oak Manor Drive. Very steep from 8.33 miles to 9.75 miles (thanks to the Garmin). I was able to average 7:26 pace for the whole run, which I'm excited about since it's still January.

Probably the coolest part of the watch was the data and graphs you get when you upload it to the computer:

As of Saturday, four months until the marathon. And, if you haven't read in the past, I'm running to support the Alzheimer's Association and would love to receive your support towards my goal of raising $1000 as I work towards trying to go sub-3 at the Pittsburgh marathon.

I'm still looking for stories of how Alzheimer's has affected people's families and would love to hear your story and carry it with me on marathon day. You can click HERE to donate online. Thank you very much for the help and support.

Edinboro, Stillers, and PSU

2011-01-15T20:52:00.007-05:00

The trip to Edinboro was a little snowy going up, but at least I was greeted by our yummy, friendly neighbors to the north.

This was our first time at Edinboro University's indoor track.

It's a bubble and the track inside is 230 meters. Something about they had to make it big enough to accommodate multiple basketball courts for the IM department, so the athletic department didn't have to foot the whole bill.

Here was my view for the meet:

I was asked to help out with the timing computers today. I did this back in the day at PSU (was it really 10 years ago?....I am OLD!) while Beth was blazing around the track for the Nittany Lions. After being a little rusty at the beginning, it was like riding a bike. Click, click, click, save, next race! The only thing is that I miss the whole meet in the process while staring at the computer all day. Some of the jumpers got some video of their events, so I'll have to take a look at their jumps over the next week.

The Steelers won a close slugfest against the Ravens. On to the AFC Championship game in New England if the Patriots win or here against the Jets if NY wins.

PSU almost made it three ranked teams in a row when they took Ohio State down to the final minute. But, the Buckeyes pulled it out, 69-66.

In-Between

2011-01-14T21:07:00.003-05:00

Thursday night indoor meet at Pitt. Saturday meet at Edinboro (2 hrs away). Thank goodness no long travels next weekend.

So far so good with the marathon mileage. After the 12 on Sunday, I'll have 32 for the week.

Penn State basketball had two big upsets this past week against ranked Michigan State and ranked Illinois. We'll see what happens when the head to Columbus to face #2 Ohio State this weekend. I was looking at Penn State's schedule last week and wondered since when was more than half the Big Ten ranked? Just making those Lions earn their NCAA tournament berth (yeah right).

First Indoor Track of the Year

2011-01-13T22:42:00.002-05:00

Pretty much just writing to keep the streak alive. 13-for-13 in 2011 and 14 in a row. Not really sure why I started this streak. I guess I figured around January 3rd it would be entertaining to see how long I could keep it.

Track meet tonight at Pitt. Most of the performances would be what you would expect from a meet in January. It was a good measuring stick and we found lots of stuff to take away and improve on. For the jumpers, it's just a great experience to get to jump into sand.

My run this morning was scheduled to be a 9-miler. With the snow I figured any route near home or near school would be somewhat snowy. But, I knew our high school's maintenance crew always does a great job clearing the road and sidewalks around the building and they did not disappoint. Clear sailing! Each lap is 0.5 miles (I think more like 0.49 when I went back and clicked it off), so I did 18 wonderful laps around the school. I switched directions every two miles just for a change of scenery. Surprisingly, it went by fairly quickly.

School and practice tomorrow and then a trip up to Edinboro for a meet on Saturday.

WINTER Track & Pirates' Top 10 Minor Leaguers

2011-01-12T20:06:00.006-05:00

The "less than an inch" this morning turned into 3-5 inches and closed or delayed most schools here in Pittsburgh (way to go, National Weather Service). We ended up just having a delay which means a rushed day, especially when giving tests in two classes.

Thursday is our debut Indoor Track meet of the season at Pitt. It's nice to get back out there and see where the athletes are. It's always interesting with the jumpers because we don't really have any indoor "sand pit" and the outdoor one is covered with a half foot of snow. So, we've done agility drills, plyometrics, run-throughs, and several other things. But, we'll see what happens when they get on the runway and take off into the pit. It should be fun!

Every off-season, Baseball America comes out with a ranking of every team's minor league system. The Pirates' review came out today and, thanks to my Baseball America subscription Christmas present from the sis-in-law, I was able to check out all the scouting reports and all the "insider" information on the team.

Here's the Pirates' Top 10 from the free part of their website:
1. Jameson Taillon, rhp
2. Tony Sanchez, c
3. Stetson Allie, rhp
4. Starling Marte, of
5. Luis Heredia, rhp
6. Bryan Morris, rhp
7. Rudy Owens, lhp
8. Jeff Locke, lhp
9. Zack Von Rosenberg, rhp
10. Chase d'Arnaud, ss/2b

I've seen #6-8 and 10 at various minor league stops. Sanchez and Marte are slated to start at Altoona this spring (can't wait to see them) and I hope the wave of high school pitchers from the 2010 and 2009 drafts start making their way up the ladder.

Back in August when my dad and I made a trip over to Altoona for a game, we saw Rudy Owens pitch.

Here was my scouting report from August:

Owens' fastball sat in the 86-88 mph range, hitting 90 mph twice. His offspeed pitches produced a lot of swing-and-miss by the opponents. A good comp would be Maholm or Duke with the Pirates.

Here's a portion of BA's scouting report released today:

Owens grew stronger as the season progressed in another way, too, as his fastball went from 87-90 to 90-93 mph down the stretch....His fastball command is solid—occasionally, it's excellent—and the pitch has some late run. His secondary offerings, a slurvy breaking ball and a changeup, are no better than average pitches but he locates them well. ...the way he uses it to pick apart hitter's weaknesses is reminiscent of a young Zach Duke.

Maybe I have a future in scouting....or not.

In The End...

2011-01-11T21:19:00.002-05:00

They (the National Weather Service) pretty much got it right....on the third revision! The only thing that stunk about the snow was when it came down. Poor Beth was the victim of being on the roads after the snow started but before they were treated in the mid-afternoon. Her drive from downtown-- 90 minutes

For me, the roads were just wet, but I had to deal with rush hour traffic. My trip home-- about 90 minutes.

Also, in the end, it turned out that Auburn is the national champ (even though there's no playoff still) and Beth and I are very mediocre at making bowl selections. Final tally:

Beth: 13-20-2
O: 18-15-2
and O's over/under: 15 right, 18 wrong.

Seems like the snow's through so we should be good for tomorrow. That's a good thing because there's a lot of testing and midterm preparation that still needs to get done this week!

I'll Believe It When I See It

2011-01-10T19:37:00.002-05:00

So, the National Weather Service (note: this is NOT the local media trying to drum up viewership) started out Sunday issuing a "Winter Storm Watch" where there could be "Greater than 6 inches."

Around 4pm, they then issued a "Winter Weather Advisory" to replace the Winter Storm Watch where we may get 3-6 inches between Tuesday AM and Thursday PM (36 hours). I go to the Weather.com local forecast and it's now saying 1 inch Tuesday during the day, 1-3" Tuesday night, and "snow showers possible" Wednesday (with nothing about any additional accumulation.

So, in conclusion, this went from 6+ inches to maybe just 2 inches in two days.

Come on!

To quote Charlie's high school coach, the immortal Coach A, "That LIAR the Weatherman" strikes again! The only profession where there's a lower success rate is major league baseball where getting a hit 3 out of 10 times is highly successful.

Good luck to Maija's Oregon Ducks tonight against Auburn. I picked the Ducks (+3) over the Tigers on my bowl picks back in December. I've had a great run since the New Year started. 10 out of 11 until Nevada failed to cover the 9.5 against Boston College. So, will the hot picks continue or will the law of averages strike again?

Off to the grocery store for our WEEKLY shopping (nothing to do with the weather) where I'm sure there will be chaos and long lines for this 1 inch of snow predicted for Tuesday during the day.

Frigid and Uphill Running

2011-01-09T19:02:00.006-05:00

So, the windchill ended up being 3 above. Not much different in feel from last year. I ended up 6th overall and 3rd in my age group. I was 14 seconds slower than last year- 30:24 vs 30:10. Chad had a great race and gapped me early and I couldn't catch him on the last hill. Beth ran a solid race and finished 3rd female. Ben followed right behind Beth, and Heather had a solid race after a week of being sick and not getting much sleep.

(Pictured is the Lebo teaching/running brigade)

The splits were interesting. I was actually slightly ahead of last year through three miles.
mi -2011 (2010)
1-5:54 (5:52)
2-5:43 (5:40)
3-5:24 (5:36)....17:01 (17:08)
4-6:19 (6:12)
5-7:03 (6:50)

But, I just didn't have it in miles 4 and 5. That last hill sure is a doozy! Overall, a decent day, but I feel like my breathing was not as good as it could have been. Official marathon training starts tomorrow. Pittsburgh, here I come!

After that, Beth and Chad were two of the presenters at the Pittsburgh Triathlon Club's Clinic at REI on the South Side. Good knowledge shared by all.

And, to end this I'll present to you a Youtube video someone created of Marshawn Lynch's game-clinching run for the Seattle Seahawks against the New Orleans Saints. He breaks a ton of tackles and ends up even scoring. This video put it to the sounds of Super Mario Brothers. A good blast from the past!

Frigid Five Upcoming and My Pirates Compadre

2011-01-08T21:06:00.005-05:00

Still going to be Frigid Sunday morning, but at least it won't be zero when we wake up like last year. They're calling for 16 degrees with a wind chill of 3. The goals for the race are always dependent on the snow and the traction. The one thing that's constant in the race is that last .75 mile up-hill. Killer but so fun!

It's been a fun weekend of hanging out with Beth's mom and playing scrabble and celebrating Christmas again. It finishes up with Beth speaking at a Triathlon Clinic Sunday afternoon. Full weekend.

How about Seattle answering the critics and beating New Orleans? Impressive. And to think that their Tight End who caught a TD, John Carlson, was drafted by the computer for my fantasy team and I didn't even know who he was back in August.

Speaking of fantasy teams, at the Christmas party Friday night I caught up with Beth's cousin's husband who is the most knowledgeable Pirate fan I know. Every time we get together we talk Pirates. We carried on a 10 minute coherent, logical conversation about the state of the Pirates and where they need to improve and where the future looks bright. It's so fun. You know he's good when the conversation shifts to Benito Santiago and he totally knew when I told him that we got him for Leo Nunez and Nunez has been closing for the Marlins on and off the last two years. That's a baseball guy!

Merry Christmas!

2011-01-07T22:21:00.003-05:00

...and "Kala Christougena" from Beth's mother's side of the family that is Serbian Orthodox.....and also wishes of a Merry Christmas from a pretty good DB for the Steelers:

Here's an article about Troy Polamalu and celebrating his faith from the Post-Gazette today.

That makes it 7-for-7 on a day with a picture of #43 (4+3=7)

Lebo Drumline at the Winter Classic

2011-01-06T18:25:00.003-05:00

At the NHL Winter Classic on New Year's, our high school's drum line was lining the entryway to the ice for the Pens and Caps. One of them is even our top 400m guy in track. The video gets chopped off on the blog so you can see it a little better on Youtube here.

PS: 6-for-6

Scrabble Victory!

2011-01-05T21:32:00.005-05:00

Jan 5 and 5 blog entries (getting cheaper by the day).

Beth's mom is in town to celebrate the Serbian Orthodox Christmas on Friday. She's staying with us and of course we engaged in a lively game of Scrabble this evening (picture above from Facebook Scrabble where Beth's sister KILLS us every game). Somehow, I ended up on top by 2 points. How did that happen? I was the scorekeeper I guess.

Tomorrow is Curriculum Night at the school from 7-9pm so I, with my before school run with my cousin, I won't be home from 5:30am-10pm. We'll see if blog #6 happens. Not looking promising.

P is for Pizzelles

2011-01-04T19:26:00.009-05:00

4-for-4, but I'm stretching....

My grandma makes awesome pizzelles. They're somewhat unique because they're very thin (unlike the picture below).

Here's a picture of Beth toting the literal buckets of pizzelles my grandma made for all the grandkids at Christmas.

I fell asleep at halftime of the VT-Stanford game. I wish they started earlier. Ohio State-Arkansas tonight, probably won't make it to halftime again. Let's see if the Big Ten can win at least one bowl game. Not that any of these games matter in the grand scheme of things except for Auburn-Oregon. If only there was a playoff....

During the commercials I was switching over to ESPN2 because they were airing a Harlem Globetrotters 'game.'

I find it to be so hilarious. Kind of like WWF, but funnier and it's basketball, not wrestling. They're amazingly skilled athletes and I find myself laughing out loud even though they're doing some of the same skits from 30 years ago.

Pitt basketball is playing Providence College at the Dunkin Donuts Center. Yum!

Time to walk the dog and check out the OSU-Arkansas game. I can't believe I'm somewhat pulling for the Buckeyes.

In My Dreams...

2011-01-03T20:03:00.006-05:00

3-for-3 in blogging in 2011.

The first day back at school went well. It's funny because I always feel like it takes forever to get to lunch the first day back. I get so hungry probably because I eat the last lunch period (a little before 1:00) and when I'm home for an extended time, I get used to eating earlier.

Not much else going on, but figured I'd put some words down to keep the streak going. One thing that I didn't follow up on from a few weeks ago was a trade proposal that I would love for the Pirates to make. This will never happen, but I can at least make a coherent argument in favor of it working on both sides.

MY DREAM OFFSEASON TRADE
So, here's the trade - The Pirates acquire infielder Michael Young from the Texas Rangers in exchange for Ryan Doumit, Paul Maholm, and a player to be named (among a list).

What got me thinking about this was, back in early December, Young was rumored to be on the block as the Rangers were trying to acquire Cliff Lee and also 3B Adrian Beltre. Well, Cliff Lee ended up signing surprisingly with the Phillies. So I figured it wasn't worth writing about any more. However, the Rangers look like they're going to sign Beltre, creating an expensive logjam in their infield. Also, Young has a history with new Pirates manager Clint Hurdle. Hurdle was the hitting coach for the Rangers the past few years. That's gotta count for something.

Why would this be a good trade for the Pirates? I think they could put Young back at shortstop and get similar defensive results with much better offense. Young has been at 3B the last two years, but was a shortstop before that. While his UZR from 2008 was -4.6 (negative isn't good) and he's now two years older (35 for 2011), Ronny Cedeno was a -3.6 in 2010, also subpar. So, you're not losing much there either way--both below average.

However, Cedeno's OPS in 2010 was a tiny 0.675 while Young's in 2010 was 0.774 (and in 2009 0.892). Imagine a right-handed slugger to protect the lefties Alvarez, Jones, and Overbay (not really a slugger) and the switch-hitting Walker.

Or, you could even put Young at 3B and make the inevitable move of Alvarez to 1B under the tutelage of Overbay some time within the next three years.

Doumit has fallen out of favor with the Pirates, but he's a perfect fit for an AL team. Maholm's days are numbered as there are cheaper alternatives on the way that will hopefully be up later this summer (how exciting that it's the new year and I can say 'later this summer')

Why would this trade be good for the Rangers? Money. Young is due $16 million per year in 2011, 2012, and 2013. They are going to sign Beltre, also a third baseman, for somewhere in the neighborhood of $90 million for 6 years ($15 million/year). They will also have players like Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, Elvis Andrus, Ian Kinsler, and Neftali Feliz all reaching Free Agency in the next few years. The Pirates can certainly absorb some payroll right now.

Also they would be buying low on Ryan Doumit. A perfect AL player--he can "adequately" play catcher, 1B, and RF. He's had decent OPS years but can't stay healthy. Doumit is due $5 million for 2011 with options of $7 and $8 million for 2012 and 2013, respectively. If Doumit doesn't work out, get rid of him after this year with no long term ramifications (allowing you to focus money on all the other guys outlined above). If he finally lives up to his potential, he's a bargain.

Maholm would be a solid #4-5 starter for them since they lost out on Lee. The PTBNL would depend on how much cash was going in which direction. If the Pirates absorb all of Young's contract, it would be a lesser minor leaguer. If Texas would through in some $$, then perhaps one of the AAA pitchers.

So, I say be bold and make a trade. It would benefit both teams and would give the casual Pirate fan hope that the turning of the corner may be closer than you think!

1B FREE AGENT PICKUP
Also, on the front of being bold, why couldn't the Pirates have paid $3million more for Derrek Lee (who's reportedly getting $8-$10 million) to play 1B instead of Lyle Overbay? A 0.972 OPS in 2009 for Lee (but 0.774 in 2010) while a 0.762 OPS in 2010 for Overbay. Both are solid defensively, but Lee has more pop and his right-handed bat would have balanced out the left-handed power. Disappointing for a team that did very little through free agency this off-season. I hope the young guys continue to get better, but they need a better supporting cast.

2 Days, 2 Blog Entries

2011-01-02T21:20:00.003-05:00

Let's see how long I can keep this going. My guess is the streak will end by Thursday.

*Back to school tomorrow. The break seemed like it went quick, but I guess you can't get greedy because there are a bunch of people out there who don't get time off between Christmas and New Year's.

*Had you gone against my Bowl Predictions, you could've made yourself some money. So far I'm 13-14-1 against the spread but only because I went 5-1 on New Year's Day (wimpy Michigan State). Beth is 9-18-1 but was beating me until she went on a 1-11 slump from Dec 29-31 and went 2-4 on New Year's Day (misguided Big Ten loyalty). My over-unders are ugly: 11-15 but again bailed out the last few days. Bottom line, gambling is not the way to go.

*The Pitt situation went from sad to bizarre. I thought they should've given Wannstedt one more year. But, this situation with the new coach being charged with assault of his baby's mother is odd. Pitt is really behind now on recruiting as more are decommitting each day. I'm surprised, but don't disagree, with Joe Paterno's insistence that Tom Bradley is the best candidate for the job at this point. I'd hate to see Bradley go (especially to Pitt), but he deserves a shot as a head coach and was the main recruiter in Western PA for Penn State.

*Over the break, I logged 43 miles in 6 days. It's fun getting back into it. My official marathon training starts the 10th and the 15th is already four months out from the Marathon. Oh, you may have heard me mention this before (ha ha), but I'm running to help raise money for the Alzheimer's Association. If you can spare a few bucks, you can donate online here.

We'll see if I can get entry #3 in tomorrow...

2010 Highs and Lows

2011-01-01T12:15:00.004-05:00

Ran out of time yesterday, but here are the highs and lows. Last year's can be found here. And 2008 here.

The lows aren't really lows. We've been very blessed. They're more just inconveniences and have silver linings. But, here they are:

1. The week of snow. Can you say cabin fever as we were stuck inside for just about an entire week? It did lead to the video capturing Roxy guarding the house from the mailman, though.

2. Our summer travels where we were stuck on planes trying to get back from Providence and when Beth's eyes were almost falling out on our trip to NC. But, both were great trips, so just minor bumps in the road.

3. The Pirates years of losing turned old enough to vote. 18 years of sub .500 ball and counting. And I was there to witness loss 82. But, the future is beginning to arrive. If only they could find some pitching.

2010 Highs

1. The Kona Experience. The Big Island and the Ironman is truly and event. Beth and all the other Pittsburgher's sure made it a fun trip. Definitely a memorable experience.

2. The summer trips. One of the nice things about triathlons is that you get to go to places you wouldn't otherwise. This year, we went to Maryland (twice), Providence, Durham, Cedar Point, and (of course) Hawaii.

3. Running success. No marathons this year, but I completed my first ever half ironman, almost went sub-17 in a 5k, nearly equaled my 10k PR, and captured my first ever road race victory. I'll be doing the Pittsburgh Marathon in May and will be running to support the Alzheimer's Association.

Happy New Year all!

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T18:45:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year!

2010 Highs and Lows and Bowl Picks update coming tomorrow. Ran out of time today due to some pool closing/hour issues Beth and I had. Can't believe the week off is already over!

Roxy's ready for 2011! She's got her party hat on!

Your Name...

2010-12-23T22:23:00.005-05:00

...is a song performed by a handful of Christian artists and is one of the songs we sing throughout the year at church (I have a nice version of it from the lifechurch.tv Itunes podcast, too). It was also weaved into the theme of tonight's Christmas Eve-Eve service (our church is pretty big, so it has two services on the 23rd too).

The reason why is that the pastor used his message to highlight the many names that we call Jesus. A handful of them come from one of my favorite verses in Isaiah 9:6-7:

6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.

Throughout the service, families came up and shared a story of their life and summed up what word that Jesus meant to them. Things like father, patient, friend, and provider were given.

Then, he turned it to us and asked us to write a word or phrase that we felt described Jesus. For me:

UNCHANGEABLE

That came to my mind as I thought about how, through highs and lows, when I'm close to God and when I'm not, Jesus and his love never change. That's reassuring to know he's always there.

One other thing that was used during the service was a video that was a 'facebook'-like story that captured What would happen if Joseph, Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah were using Facebook in the times of Jesus Birth.

Merry Christmas everybody!

BCS Playoff Proposal - Year 3

2010-12-20T20:42:00.008-05:00

In what has become an annual suggestion to the NCAA on my behalf, I present to you year three of my BCS playoff proposal (see year 1 and year 2 for more background).

The overall objective: To provide every single Division 1-A (aka FBS, whatever that means) football team the hope in August that, if they win all of their games, they will be in the national championship game. All teams, even those in the Sun Belt and Big East (sorry, too easy to take the shot) deserve this shot. Teams like Boise State and TCU will know that they can earn respect through winning in the playoff. Also, to finish the season before the spring semester of classes start.

Some of the parameters
*Everyone's regular season would need to end by November 20th (with non-BCS the weekend of the 13th so they could play their conference championship the weekend of the 20th), or the weekend before Thanksgiving. The Big Ten did it for years, so it can be done. Also, the teams in the "BCS Conference" Championships would then get a week off to rest up and prepare for their next game.

*The bracket is seeded after the regular season is completed, so I used the BCS rankings from BEFORE the conference championship games. The seeds are laid out so that you get a quarterfinal of 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, and 4-5. However, if a team is locked into a conference championship (like #4 Stanford vs Oregon), then their seed is skipped and you move on to the next one.

*BCS conferences championships are round of 16 games and played the weekend of December 2-4. Non-BCS conference championships are the weekend before and are played over Thanksgiving weekend.

*The four at-large teams (AL1 - AL4) are the top four teams according to BCS rankings that are NOT in a conference championship. I thought about making TCU an at-large, but figured it was best to keep them in a Mountain West Championship game.

*The five non-BCS conference champions are in the play-in round with the top four having home dates and the fifth (probably the worst rated team in the whole playoffs) playing at the best. For example, this year it would be Florida International playing at TCU.

Several notes to the plan:

*Most importantly, this format will need to be revamped over the next few years with all of the changes in conferences. However, it just solidifies the Pac-10 and Big Ten Championship games. Notre Dame would maybe get moved to the Big East group?

*If this were to happen this year the semi-final dates would need to be adjusted since Christmas is on the Saturday. Perhaps Thursday, December 23rd?

*What about the bowl games? Would they disappear? Since this playoff only involves 20 teams, there's still plenty of bowl-eligible teams to fill out many bowls. Also, give some of the bowl locations quarter-final or semi-final games? I still like the idea of sending at-large teams to non-BCS school home sites to give that home-field advantage to the conference champ.

*Still not sure how to seed the non-conference round winners. Does TCU play the winner of Miami (OH) (next worst non-BCS conf champ)-Michigan State (best at-large in round) or the winner of the Boise State (next best non-BCS conf champ)-Missouri (lowest at-large team)? Or do you just re-seed those after you see who wins? Regardless, the conference champion should get the home game to make it tougher on the BCS non-conference champion.

BOWL SEASON PICKS
Over the weekend (before the games started), I thought it would be entertaining to pick the bowl games this year. I used to do this in high school, but haven't for a while. With Penn State being a little down this year, I have to admit I didn't watch as much college football as in years past. So, I figure why not pick games to see if I can do better than a coin flip. (I'm already only 2-1 vs the spread and 1-2 on the over-under). Spreads are from the USAToday.com as of Saturday 12/18.

So, here's some predictions sure to go wrong (and why I don't gamble). My selections are underlined.

Sat Dec 18
BYU 12 Utep 50½ U
NO Illinois 1 FRESNO STATE 57½ U
TROY 2½ Ohio 57½ U
Tue Dec 21
Louisville 3 SOUTHERN MISS 57 U
Wed Dec 22
BOISE STATE 16½ Utah 60½ O
Thu Dec 23
Navy 12½ SAN DIEGO STATE
Fri Dec 24
HAWAII 10 Tulsa 73 U
Sun Dec 26
TOLEDO 2 Florida Intl 56 O
Mon Dec 27
AIR FORCE 2½ Georgia Tech 56 O
Tue Dec 28
WEST VIRGINIA 3 NC State 48½ U
Missouri 1 IOWA 47 U
Wed Dec 29
OKLAHOMA STATE 4½ Arizona 65½ U
MARYLAND 7 East Carolina 68 U
BAYLOR 2 Illinois 61½ O
Thu Dec 30
SMU 9½ Army
Kansas State PK SYRACUSE 47½ O
North Carolina 2½ TENNESSEE 50 U
NEBRASKA 13½ Washington 52½ O
Fri Dec 31
CLEMSON 4½ South Florida 40 O
MIAMI FLORIDA 3 Notre Dame 47 O
GEORGIA 7 Central Florida 55 U
SOUTH CAROLINA 3 Florida State 54½ O
Sat Jan 1
TEXAS TECH 9 Northwestern 60½ U
FLORIDA 7 Penn State 47½ U
ALABAMA 10½ Michigan State 52 U
MISSISSIPPI STATE 4½ Michigan 59½ O
Tcu 3 WISCONSIN 58½ U
OKLAHOMA 16½ Connecticut 55 O
Mon Jan 3
STANFORD 3 Virginia Tech 58 O
Tue Jan 4
OHIO STATE 3½ Arkansas 57½ U
Thu Jan 6
MIAMI OHIO 1 Middle Tenn St 48 U
Fri Jan 7
LSU 1 Texas A&m 48½ O
Sat Jan 8
PITTSBURGH 3 Kentucky 52 U
Sun Jan 9
NEVADA 9½ Boston College 55 O
Mon Jan 10
AUBURN 3 Oregon 74 U

And, for even MORE entertainment, here's Beth's picks (which I'm guessing will end up better than mine! She's already 3-0)

Sat Dec 18
BYU 12 Utep 50½
NO Illinois 1 FRESNO STATE 57½
TROY 2½ Ohio 57½
Tue Dec 21
Louisville 3 SOUTHERN MISS 57
Wed Dec 22
BOISE STATE 16½ Utah 60½
Thu Dec 23
Navy 12½ SAN DIEGO STATE
Fri Dec 24
HAWAII 10 Tulsa 73
Sun Dec 26
TOLEDO 2 Florida Intl 56
Mon Dec 27
AIR FORCE 2½ Georgia Tech 56
Tue Dec 28
WEST VIRGINIA 3 NC State 48½
Missouri 1 IOWA 47
Wed Dec 29
OKLAHOMA STATE 4½ Arizona 65½
MARYLAND 7 East Carolina 68
BAYLOR 2 Illinois 61½
Thu Dec 30
SMU 9½ Army
Kansas State PK SYRACUSE 47½
North Carolina 2½ TENNESSEE 50
NEBRASKA 13½ Washington 52½
Fri Dec 31
CLEMSON 4½ South Florida 40
MIAMI FLORIDA 3 Notre Dame 47
GEORGIA 7 Central Florida 55
SOUTH CAROLINA 3 Florida State 54½
Sat Jan 1
TEXAS TECH 9 Northwestern 60½
FLORIDA 7 Penn State 47½
ALABAMA 10½ Michigan State 52
MISSISSIPPI STATE 4½ Michigan 59½
Tcu 3 WISCONSIN 58½
OKLAHOMA 16½ Connecticut 55
Mon Jan 3
STANFORD 3 Virginia Tech 58
Tue Jan 4
OHIO STATE 3½ Arkansas 57½
Thu Jan 6
MIAMI OHIO 1 Middle Tenn St 48
Fri Jan 7
LSU 1 Texas A&m 48½
Sat Jan 8
PITTSBURGH 3 Kentucky 52
Sun Jan 9
NEVADA 9½ Boston College 55
Mon Jan 10
AUBURN 3 Oregon 74

For even MORE entertainment, post YOUR PICKS in the comments and see how we all fare. We could even make this a little pool. As in, donate $5 to the Alzheimer's Association to be considered for being named "THE CHAMPION" in a future blog post. Feel free to select all the games or maybe just from Jan 1 and beyond.

Running with a Bigger Picture

2010-12-13T20:34:00.007-05:00

As can be seen in the right margin, I am teaming up with the Alzheimer's Association to help them raise funds for their charity. Their goal is to work on a global, national and local level to enhance care and support for all those affected by Alzheimer’s and related dementias.

I'm sure it would be very moving to give this profound story of how my life and family has been deeply affected by Alzheimer's and how great it will be if they can find a cure for it. I know there are many of those kind of stories out there.

However, it's nothing like that. Actually, it boils down to I had nothing to do on a Saturday morning and I like Panera Bread. Beth was asked a few months back to join a support team as the dietitian for the Alzheimer's Association of Greater PA registrants participating in the Pittsburgh Marathon. So, along with a coach/trainer, owner of a running store, and a physical therapist, Beth is providing consultations to people in this group as the prepare for the race in May.

Being the great husband that I am (either that or the prospects of going to Panera Bread for a Cinnamon Crunch Bagel!), I joined Beth on that Saturday morning and sat in the back of the room to give moral support as she and the other presenters gave a short talk on their specialty for those interested in joining the "Alz Stars" marathon team.

During the time there I thought, "Hey - I'm doing the marathon. Why not sign up and raise money also?"

So, that's the story. Told you it wasn't life-altering. Just thought it would be rewarding to run for something beyond just myself as I challenge myself towards that sub-3:00 marathon.

But, what I do know is that I like to run, they were looking for people to represent their group, and I know that Alzheimer's is a very difficult and frustrating disease for family members because the patient is physically fine in a lot of cases, but just isn't there mentally.

I know I'm going to learn a lot more in my journey of marathon training and researching this disease. I hope you can join me on this journey. If you have any stories to share, please feel free to post them in the blog comments or to email me.

I also know it's the Christmas season and things are tight for everybody, but I think there's always room for giving selflessly for others. One practical way to look at it is that a donation before the end of the year can be written off as a non-profit charitable donation for your 2010 taxes.

So, if you can find it in your heart and wallet (even if it's $5 or $10), thank you and you can click here. If now's not the time, I'm sure you'll be reading about this again in my blog over the next five months and you can always click on the link in the right hand margin.

Thank you and may God bless you during the Christmas season as you bless others!

Note: BCS Playoff Proposal Year 3 coming later this week (here's year 1 and year 2). Also, a scintillating Pirates rumor I'm trying single-handedly to spread about a Texas Rangers infielder that is rumored to be on the trading block. Stay tuned!