My “official” time was 25:12.  Accounting for the delay until I actually crossed the start line after the gun went off my real time was right at 25:00 if not a little below that, I’m pleased.

We arrived at the race site early.  The race didn’t start until 7pm but I had my bib and timing chip by 5:45.  We spent the time leading up to the race walking around and checking stuff out.  We had Nicki with so of course she got tons of attention from other runners commenting on how cute she was.  Most of these people attempted the obligatory pat on the head but Nicki responded to almost all of the attempts by seeking shelter either behind Ali or myself.

I figured turn out for the race would be sort of light since Tuesday night is not exactly an ideal time for such an event.  Prior to the race, especially after my disaster at my last run in March, making sure there are no bodily function issues prior to a race is a top priority.  The anticipation of a race naturally makes me paranoid about such things.  The last thing you want while running is to have that “distraction”.  Luckily taking a leak at the onsite port-a-potty was the only action necessary.

So the crowd massed before the race.  I positioned myself in the back third of the pack.  Doing so means that my official time would be somewhat inaccurate since it takes a little while till the crowd starts forward.  I’m sure it was a good 10 to 15 seconds after the gun until I crossed the start line. 

The start of a race with a lot of people is always a pain.  You are shoulder to shoulder and foot to foot with everyone else.  Trying to successfully navigate around slower runners is a challenge.  I’d say it took about a half mile into the run until I had clear paths to run in.  The run has a big gradual rise in it that you cross going out and back.  During the first mile or so I was passed occasionally by some people that were obviously stronger runners than I was.  However after the 1.5 mile mark I was not passed by anyone. I was the passer. 

A lot of times during a race you will find there are a few runners that you run with for most of the race.  This wasn’t such a race for me.   Running by myself as opposed to with Ali can be a bit maddening.  When I see someone in front of me that I don’t think should be in front of me it fuels me to pass them.  I remember feeling that way constantly during the last half of the race.  I had thoughts that if I can do a 300, I could and should certainly beat such and such a person. Whatever the twisted logic was it seemed to work. 

There was a little kid, no older than 11 or 12 that was ahead of me most of the race.  Unlike a lot of little kids you see in races that run like hell for a short distance, stop and walk for a bit and then start again on another quick burst, this kid consistently ran, at  a pace to keep him ahead of me.  However I finally caught him and many others during the last mile or so.  Instead of quickening the motion of my legs, I instead tried to take advantage of my long stride to pick up speed.  During the majority of the run my legs felt somewhat tired but my breathing was very regulated and normal, unlike many runners I passed that were madly gasping for air.  That changed for last 1/4 mile dash to the finish line.  I both accelerated my pace and lengthened my stride further.  There were a number of runners relatively close to me in front.  I wanted to beat them all.  I passed a good half dozen people in that stretch, including a number of men in my age group.  I took down all of my targets except a young girl that beat me by a stride at the finish.  My effort at the end paid off in the final standings.  There were three other 40-44 year olds that finished within 7 seconds of me.  I grabbed ninth place out of the 30 runners in my division.

I heard Ali cheering for me as I finished which made me feel good.  I wasn’t fall over exhausted like in some prior races but I was plenty tired.  After removing my timing chip I was greeted by Ali and Nicki enthusiastically.  Ali knew it was a good time for me, the best I ever ran by a fraction of a second.  I have never run a flat course 5k by myself yet, only courses that involve bridges.  I am pretty sure I can dip into the 24’s on something without inclines.  I had on Ali’s Garmin GPS running watch for the race.  My lap times were very consistent, right around 2 minutes for each 1/4 mile.

After the race we headed back to the common area for refreshments.  One of the things we always have counted on with Fort Myers races is they have a great spread of food.  Maybe the hard economic times have hit them as well because the spread this time was rather bare bones.  They had chips, bagels with no condiments for them like peanut butter or cream cheese and oranges, that’s it.  In the past they would have tons of food with much greater variety.  We didn’t stick around for the awards.  Although I didn’t know my official place in my age group, I knew there was no way I finished top three. 

Ali was nice enough to drive home while I used the ice pack on both knees.  It was more of a precautionary thing, my knees actually didn’t feel bad.  My biggest ailment during the race was my left hip flexor that was painful for the first mile or so.  That subsided though as my body warmed up.  I really enjoyed the race, I half joked I wish I could have caught that one girl at the end.  Ali commented how I just can’t be happy with what I just accomplished.  She’s right. You can see the few pictures Ali snapped at the race here.

During my day off yesterday I trimmed up another clump of four cabbage palms.  One of the trees was a bitch because it’s height required pole saw only trimming.  I worked an hour or so on it.  I have four or five more trees to go.  The trees look so much better with a “hair cut”.  The rest of my day was relaxed.  I played some WoW, watch Heroes and Terminator Chronicles.  Terminator may have overtaken Heroes as my favorite show currently.  It is just extremely well done.  Unlike Heroes that forces you to keep track of 20 concurrent story lines, Terminator only focuses on a few and does a damn good job of making it interesting and compelling as hell.  I rounded out my day by taking my flying wing out and running through 4 battery packs of flights.  It was a good day.

You can see the pictures from our latest venture into the swamp here.

Veterans day means a day off for me but I try to remember what it really is about.  It’s about remembering past and present brave souls that follow orders and defend our country despite putting themselves in harms way to do so.  They exhibit bravery I could only hope to have if I was placed in that same situation.

5 odd hours until race time.  Anything under 26 minutes I’ll be ok with.  Under 25 minutes would be hauling ass for me.

So I get this in email from YouTube.  Evidently since my video has music from UMG artists it is in violation.  However instead of pulling the clip they may simply insert advertising  for UMG.  Fair enough trade to me I guess although it all seems rather silly.  I mean WTF, do they hire some interns to listen to every single YouTube clip???

After getting a three week break from mowing the grass we finally decided to get back to cutting this weekend.  Even though it has been several weeks the grass didn’t look terrible.  Ali decided to tackle mowing the back of the property first, probably the last time we will have to do that until the new year. I decided I would weed whack the entire fence line, despite my still aching tennis elbow.  What fun.

I was out there a solid two hours weed whacking away.  Whacking the fence line sucked for several reasons.  First I hadn’t done it in a couple months so the grass was high and thick.  Second weed whacking fence gobbles up trimmer line like mad, I had to refill the spool three times.  Third, I did the majority of it with the reverse grip I normally use which slows down the process.  I felt clumsy and imprecise with my hands reversed, slowing down the process further. 

I muddled through it.  When I was almost done I noticed the mower was parked in front of the shed.  Ali had finished the back but still had the front of the house to do.  She called me over and said it just stopped mowing.  As I was walking over to check things out I looked down and saw a pulley from the mower deck on the ground.  I instantly knew what happened.  It was the same pulley that was getting red hot a few weeks ago.  The center of it blew apart.  So the Cub Cadet was out of business until I could get a replacement part.  Luckily we were able to borrow the neighbors John Deere to finish.  Ali commented when she was done how much nicer it was mowing on the John Deere.  It just seems to have a lot more power and does a better job of cutting the grass evenly.

On Saturday morning we also worked on trimming up several more of the cabbage palms, cleaning up another four.  Doing this sort of work with temps in the low 70’s is so much more enjoyable than when it is 90/90 out there when you start sweating as soon as you hit the sun.  I have another 8 or 9 trees to get cleaned up yet.  Our one remaining trench in the back of the property is stuffed full of palm fronds.  I’m going to have toss the rest back in the fill pit.

Saturday afternoon I also decided to tackle installing the new rear latch/lock/cable assembly in the party van.  It took a lot of trial and error until I got everything installed correctly.  At first I was going to just leave the power lock disconnected because it seemed like a PIA to get installed.  However I was able to get everything back together and functioning after a hour or so of labor.  I was quite proud of myself as I pushed the power lock button and lock worked as it should.  I was even more thrilled when I closed the door, pulled on the handle and it opened without a hitch.  I raised my hands in celebration although nobody saw it.  When I first researched this repair it sounded like a huge PIA involving drilling out pop rivets.  However I found none of that was necessary.  All I needed to perform the repair was some star shaped screwdriver bits,  normal hand tools and some patience.  Successfully completing the repair has given me the confidence to replace the side door hardware which is suffering from the same issue.

I’ve watched a couple movies recently, Superbad and What Happens in Vegas.  Superbad is funny, plain and simple.  Yea there are a lot of dick, masturbation and sex jokes in it so if this sort of stuff offends you stay away.  Otherwise you’ll do a lot of laughing.  I love the two cops in it. I want to change my name to McLovin.  I’d give it a solid B.

WHIV was a pretty typical romantic comedy with Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz.  It was mostly funny and light hearted.  Definitely not something worthy of spending 20 bucks for in a movie theater but a good dvd rental.  I’d give it a B as well.

On Sunday we decided to take advantage of having most of the chores done and the Eagles late start time to get back to nature.  We went to the Corkscrew Sanctuary that is just a few miles up the road from our house.  It is basically a boardwalk that travels right through the heart of a swamp.  We had been there a couple times before but it’s been at least several years since our last visit which is crazy. 

I fully expected the place to be empty on a Sunday afternoon.  It is basically located in the middle of nowhere. Boy was I wrong, the parking lot had a lot of cars in it.  Evidently the swamp is heavily published in tourist info as a big attraction.  When we viewed the guest log there were tons of visitors from other countries.  Surprisingly German visitors FLOCK to this place.  So much so that they actually have the visitor guide printed in both english and german. (not spanish)

Ali and I took our time walking the 2.25 mile boardwalk.  It was the first time we had visited the swamp when there was still an abundance of water on the ground.  Our other two visits were in winter during the dry season.  It is pretty amazing as you walk along realizing that you are in the middle of a scene that has more or less been the same for thousands of years.  It doesn’t take long until you feel isolated from the modern world and that’s a good thing.  We didn’t see as much wildlife as we would have liked.  We spotted two gators, some wood peckers, an anighia, egret and some bizarre spiders.  They have a dry erase board where visitors can write down what they saw during the day.  Supposedly some saw a bobcat, deer, some cool snakes and more.  I took some pictures along the way that I’ll post this week.  It was a great way to spend a couple hours. 

I knew the Eagles were in trouble very early on.  The Giants were dominating them offensively.  I was very sleepy and only made it to mid 3rd-quarter until I packed it in, right after the Giants got the touchdown on the reversed pass beyond the line of scrimmage call.  I read the rest of the recap this morning.  The Eagles really had no business being in the game the way they were dominated.  In the end their embarrassing inability to convert short yardage plays bit them in the ass once again when they failed on a third and three and fourth and 1 during what could have been a potentially game winning drive.  The Giants showed why they are the cream of the NFC.  The Eagles just don’t have the guns on defense to hold up to that running attack.  The G-men made running the ball look incredibly easy. 

The Eagles D is hard to figure out.  They can look suffocating and crushing like they did against the Seahawks, Rams and Steelers but they can also look totally inept as they have against the Cowboys, Skins and Giants.  Donovan doesn’t help matters with his inconsistency either.  Even after a decade in the league he still can be counted on for a half a dozen horrible passes a game at least.  I also am disappointed with a game like this against the best team the NFC, Fat Andy couldn’t have had Donovan run a lot more to give the Giants something to think about.  Oh well, the game cemented that the Birds may squeeze into the playoffs this year but their hopes of doing anything once they get there are slim to none as soon as they face a team that runs the ball.

I had a dream that I was hanging out with Simon Cowell.  We were at some sort of conference or something like that.  Although we were in Florida it was cold and snowy.  Simon talked about coming over to my house to hang out and asked if I had a hot tub or sauna.  I told him “no, I only have a pool but I don’t have the heater turned on”  I asked him where he was staying and was surprised when he said he was staying at the Hampton Inn right off the Immokalee Road exit on 75.  I remember feeling surprised he would not be staying in a higher end place.  That’s it.

I think it’s sort of cool what the guy did with the palinaspresident.us site now that the commotion is over. It’s also interesting the little tidbits coming out that all was not rosey in the McCain/Palin camp.  Evidently many McCain staffers were not happy at all with the way Palin handled various situations leading up to the election.  Bummer.

I kept hearing Howard talk about how Celebrity Rehab was the best show on tv.  I finally added it to my Tivo schedule.  I only have seen half an episode so far but I can already tell what he was talking about.  Watching “celebrities” try to crawl out of the depths of drug addiction is good tv.  It took me awhile to recognize Nikki McKibbon from season 1 of American Idol. I’m not quite sure what substance she is addicted to besides food.  She looks nothing like the picture here. It looks like she tried to eat the disappointment of her failed singing career away. You have to watch the show to see what I mean. 

One of my young adult fantasy women, Tawny Kitaen is also on the show.  I saw her a year or two ago on Surreal Life so I already knew that she has aged into a freaky, violent, bitter woman.  It’s an odd thing how so many women that were on Surreal Life have made their way on to the cast of Celebrity Rehab including Briggete Neilsen, Chyna, and now Tawny.  One show took advantage of their addictions to capture outrageous footage of them drunk and wasted.  Now this show is about beating that same addiction.  Seems odd doesn’t it?

Another show I watch is Ultimate Fighter.  This year the fighters have been pranking each other constantly.  The one team had been having fun eating the fruit tray of a fighter on the other team for weeks.  The fruit would be clearly labeled with his name but they did it just to piss him off.  Well this guy decided he would get his revenge in a rather disgusting way. 

He took a fresh fruit tray with his name on it and pissed all over it. Yes.  Not only did he piss on it, three of his teammates did as well. When they were done there was 2 inches of urine in the bottom of the fruit tray.  They sealed it back up, put it back in the fridge with his name clearly on it.  Well the other team snagged the fruit tray immediately later in the day and started digging in.  Evidently the urine had been mostly absorbed into the fruit.  The other team ate the ENTIRE tray of piss soaked fruit.  Once they were told many of them immediately started dry heaving.

Things didn’t end there.  Another fighter had a habit of eating another fighters sushi.  Since the piss prank set the bar high, they had to go higher.  So they had another fighter pleasure himself and then spread the result of his efforts all over the mostly white sushi.  Just like the fruit tray bandits, the sushi stealer struck again.  Yes he ate a piece of sushi with dna all over it.  When he was told he was disgusted and angry (of course)  He vowed that somehow, someway the fighters that were responsible for the semen sushi would wind up with his fecal matter on them.  Unreal.  Great show.

My fantasy football team is a mess.  After an awesome 5-1 start, I now sit at 5-4 after losing three games in a row.  The combination of the Cowboys going in the tank and injuries have just wrecked my team.  I’ve been scrambling week in and week out to try to shuffle things up but have had little success.  Half of my team is injured.  To give you an idea of how bad my team is right now my starting running backs this weekend are Justin Fargas and some guy from the Ravens named McClain.

I signed up for the Midpoint Bridge Veterans Day 5k.  This was the first race Ali and I ever ran some three or four years ago.  I like it because they have it at night and they close off the bridge for the race.  I ran 3 miles on the treadmill last Friday so I should be good to go.  I am going to skip running today and instead do the 300 that I would normally be doing on Monday. The only negative about the race is that this year it is on a Tuesday night.

Ali won’t be running.  She has had ongoing problems with her knee for several months now.  She went to the same orthopedist I did.  I was sure that she had some sort of meniscus thing going on, similar to what I have.  However her MRI did not reveal any meniscus damage.  The only thing it showed was the cartilage on the back of her knee cap was thinning.  Instead of surgery, she has been doing PT for a couple months, taping the knee and most recently got her first injection of that artificial knee fluid gunk I had as well.  I wasn’t real big on her getting the shots based on my experience. The shots had a very limited beneficial effect for me.  The knee was less noisy for a couple months tops.  It wasn’t worth it in my opinion.

Ali is frustrated by the roller coaster she has been on.  She thinks the knee is feeling better and then she tries to do something moderately intense and is once again in pain.  I can totally relate of course since I have had knee issues for the last 10 years.  I know the frustration.  After all that time I learned what worked for me.  Strengthening the supporting muscles around the knee is very important, it helps keep the knee stable.  I think dropping body weight also has helped me a lot from a knee perspective.  I doubt I would still be able to play volleyball or run if I was still tipping the scales at 195-200 pounds.  I also still regularly take flax seed oil as well as glucosamine.  Oh yea, if you have bad knees forget taking creatine.

All that being said, I’m not sure if the course of action the orthopedist has prescribed is going to be successful.  I know when he scoped me, one of the things he did was “smooth out” rough areas behind my knee cap.  I suspect Ali has similar rough areas as well as possibly some loose fragments floating around that cause inflammation if they get lodged in the wrong spot.   Knees suck.

My tendinitis in my right forearm is still the same.  Using the knee strap for my forearm didn’t seem to do much.  I think I want to get an actual forearm support designed for tennis elbow.  At the gym I have to pick and choose what I do carefully.  Many of my regular exercises aggravate the area so I either have to abandon that exercise or do it with much lighter weight.

This weekend I plan on trying to install the replacement rear door latch on the van.  I also may work on trimming up another set of cabbage palms.

I have been working on redoing our running clubs web site.  The old site is here http://gcrunner.org  a copy of the new and improved is here at https://blog.duf.net/site_flash  I think the new site looks way better as well as being much more functional.  No I didn’t design the flash header from scratch.  I only know enough about flash to be dangerous (and to be able to reverse engineer a template)

Check it out.

It’s hard to believe that we finally have a fresh face ready to take the reins of this sinking ship known as America.  I watched the results from around 8pm until Obama was officially the winner around 11. Ali and I did a high 5 once it was announced. Finally, we get a chance to have an intelligent, independent thinker in charge. The fact that he also happens to be black is icing on the cake. It’s a great thing that prejudice was unable to obliterate his message. 

I stayed up long enough to see the McCain concession speech which was very respectful and conciliatory, a polar opposite to how his campaign went.  We hoped to stay up for the Obama speech but we both succumbed to sleepiness. Today is likely to be one of the most memorable days politically in my lifetime.  I’m hoping it is the day that the sun started shining again. We can all only hope Obama has the ability to deliver on his many promises.  The odds are against him but every once in awhile you actually roll a hard six when you need it. 

One huge relief will be all of the political bullshit can finally quiet down.  The game is finally over.

On the way into work yesterday there were two older women walking on the sidewalk.  One of them had huge torpedo t’s with a belly to match.  She had tan, leathery skin with legs that seemed thin for what she was supporting up top.  She was wearing red short shorts. They were inappropriately short.  They were short enough that with every stride I was treated to seeing a third of her flabby ass cheek hanging out the bottom. I saw no tan line, ewwwwwwwww.

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

No more bullshit!