Great Twin Cities 1 Mile!

Tonight was the TC 1 Miler and was it a very fun night!

Nick, Becca, Paul and I got there quite early on and found the start line. I picked up my stuff for the race while Katy walked down and met us at the start. Then Nick, Becca and Paul wandered over to see the progress on the new Twins stadium.

Time came that I needed to warm up so I went around the start line and about 12 minutes in I saw Ryan Hall and Sara Hall warming up. Sara Hall was running the women's elite race tonight. So I decided to keep it rolling and follow them for a little while. Eventually I turned back before they did and while doubling back I said great to have you two here-as just before that we all had to stop at a stop light to wait for traffic.

The race was then delayed a little bit and I ran into Ryan again. I said there he is again and went over and talked to him for a few minutes. We talked briefly about where I was from and he asked how fast I was planning on going. I said I was hoping for about 5:30-5:45 without too much training over the winter here. He asked if I was a mid-distance runner to which I said yep, 800 meter and some 4x400. I also said it was too bad that we weren't down just a little bit towards the start so he could meet my wife, Katy, who is from Lake Arrowhead. (Right next to Big Bear, CA and Mammoth Lakes, CA where he's from) Here's a map of all three. But he had already met her a couple minutes before-to which Katy says she's proud of yelling Ryan! and meeting him with their California connection. So that was great!

Then I ran the race-with my goal in my head 5:30-5:45 and finished in 5:26! My mouth was so dry which made the run pretty bad but I did alot better than I expected. I ran into a couple guys from the Gustavus Adolphus CC team and I ran a little bit behind them and gained as the race went on. I didn't get any of them but I did a bit better than I was expecting.

Here I am at the halfway point!







We then watched the other more elite races after us-watching Sara Hall and Shannon Rowbury go at it and Jon Rankin and David Torrence as well! Torrence even broke 4 minutes in the true mile-well unofficially he did- and if it stands it'll be the first time on Minnesota soil! And we got to see it!

So, after the races we went to the finish and did some lingering with the athletes.


Ryan and Sara Hall


Nick, Ryan and me!


David Torrence


Flo Track and David Torrance

More Flo Track Interviews

We talked to Ryan and Sara a little more after the race which was quite the treat. Then I chimed in to David Torrence with some media member asking him if Jon Rankin ran himself out of the race a little bit by taking a bad line. Torrence gave a great answer and I'll have to find out if the quote I spoon fed that media member uses.

Anyhow, I'm distracted by Flotrack interviews right now but I may come back and add more!

I just joined Twitter

I must have something relevant to say huh?

Tweet me.

@jrdischinger

Life Lately

Catching you up quick to a few goings on...

Last weekend Katy and I went to part of the St. Paul Art Crawl with Nick and Becca to see Adam's work. It was at the Rossmor building in St. Paul. Check out Adam's work.

Oh yeah, we also watched The Soloist. It is a movie about a schizophrenic (Jamie Foxx) who was extremely talented playing the violin, bass and other instruments. But he went crazy at Julliard and was homeless in LA. But a newspaper columnist Steven Lopez (Robert Downey Jr) randomly found him while searching for a story and started to follow him, did some digging, and found that he was a very talented musician. It's a true story, though how truly accurate in the film is always up for debate. But it was a good movie with no concrete end but probably more like a true ending to a movie rather than a Hollywood produced movie.

This weekend I met Katy downtown on Friday night and we wandered through a couple stores and drove home and ate some dinner and watched 7 Pounds with Paul. It was a good movie but was a bit heavy. Without giving too much away it's hard to follow at times with seeming holes in the script and film and has a different ending.

Saturday night I went to the Twins game with Lance, Nick and Paul. It was fun! We sat closer to the Royals bullpen about half way up/down. Lance helped out getting better tickets. It went into extras and we moved down even closer to the bullpen for a couple innings. In the end the Twins lost 10-7 but I had a great time with the guys!

I had to work yesterday and through Thursday so I can go to the MIAC Track Championships this coming weekend. I'm going to watch Friday and Saturday and I can't wait to watch that much track and field! :)

I'm also running the TC 1 Mile on Thursday! I'm looking forward to that as well as watching the higher compeition that's coming!

Here's the course! TC 1 Mile Map

The Participants and Elite List of Who's running

I can't wait to watch!

Love the Look

Photo Courtesy of The Sartorialist

Love it! Wonderfully executed!

Springy, interesting with the pinstriped shirt and tie with a couple of small details. The sport coat makes gives it another layer and warmth. Great worn brown belt along with a casual but well fitted pair of denim and shoes. Throw in the watch and pocket square and that adds more embellishment and interest. How everything fits makes it all that much better!

I would love to have a job where I wore that to work!

Vice Pres will need a good PR Agent soon-so I'm going to apply

I'm going through a book I downloaded on the internet and listening to the Yankees-Orioles game at Camden Yards.

VP Joe Biden threw out the first pitch.

At the top of the 4th inning he came up to the booth with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. They talked about growing up and being a fan of baseball. Blah blah blah. Two outs. A screamer down the third base line was grabbed by Melvin Mora for the third out of the inning.

He screams "That was a hell of a grab!" Jon or Joe said something to which he replied "Hell yeah! Hell yeah!" To which I knew he said hell three times in about 4.5 seconds and just made me turn my eyebrows up and look at the TV disappointingly.

Bottom of the fourth inning now. He's still in the press box-I'd imagine because it was a short top half of the inning. What comes out of his mouth again? Hell yeah again! Are you kidding me? Seriously?

VP Biden-do you know how many kids are watching this game? Do you know how many kids just repeated you? Do you know how many kids will repeat your phrase later? Did you not know it's Opening Day 2009 and it's a huge viewer market and we don't need the VP of the United States of America yelping "Hell yeah!" over and over on the air again?

It's not the biggest thing in the world. I've heard, seen and said worse. But it's the fact that he's in a position where he should take a closer look at his Public Relations and image and maybe reign that in a little bit.

It made him look un-intelligent and inconsiderate. It made him look like he was a macho, berating typical male not the VP of the best country on Earth. Oh Joe Biden...I could go on more but you got the point. It wasn't needed-was it Joe?

ESPN Graphics

I was watching ESPN last night at about 10pm when SportsCenter came on. Right away I noticed that they had new graphics. Their old scroll/story line went top to bottom on the right side of the screen, working their way down. It is now going top to bottom on the left side of the screen and they are scrolling bottom to top.

Not that I know everything about ESPN but this isn't the first time I've noticed their change in programming. It keeps me interested.

Also, Robert Flores was just talking about the Final Four women's games last night in St. Louis. It happened to be the UConn-Stanford game which I watched some of last night as well before I turned it off and went to bed since the ladies were up by a ton.

So, here's the point. I was watching the floor-graphics for the Final Four all over the place and there's and arch (St. Louis-archway-duh) on the floor. I thought it looked terrible and distracting during the game and once when Renee Montgomery-UConn's point guard went from wood colored floor to the royal blue arch on the floor it looked like that image was being post-produced on the court. (Like the NFL does the yellow line for the first down mark) Now, it was really on the court but the difference in picture was terrible. I noted that in my mind right away.

Robert Flores' point was just the same. He said-what about that arch on the court last night? Then he said something to the point he thought it was bad.

All for now! Happy Monday!

Earth Hour 2009 Pictures

Boston.com does a great job with pictures in review. Here's what they had for bigger cities turning non-essential lights off during last Saturday night.

You have to click on the link to see the before and after picture of being lit and not lit.

If you click on the picture it will show you the full picture whether it's lit or not.

Earth Hour 2009

Just thought it was pretty cool and wanted to share.

March 30, 2009

Earth Hour 2009

Started in Sydney, Australia in 2007, Earth Hour quickly grew into a global observance. More than 1,000 cities in over 80 countries observed Earth Hour 2009 on Saturday March 28th, as homes, office towers and landmarks turned off their lights for an hour starting at 8.30 pm local time to raise awareness about climate change and the threat from rising greenhouse gas emissions. Collected here are a series of before-and-after photographs - which (starting with the second one below) will fade between "on" and "off" when clicked. Let me state that again, since I know not everyone reads the whole intro here - starting with image #2 below, click on the image to see an animated fade between "on" and "off". This effect requires javascript to be enabled. (17 photos total)

A combination of handout pictures shows a view of the Taipei 101 building before and after (L-R) Earth Hour in Taipei March 28, 2009. More than 80 countries have signed up for Earth Hour on Saturday in which homes, office towers and landmarks will turn off their lights from 8.30 pm local time to raise awareness about climate change and the threat from rising greenhouse gas emissions. (REUTERS/Taipei 101/Handout)

2

Hong Kong's financial district's Bank of China Tower, Cheung Kong Centre, HSBC headquarters, Standard Chartered Bank and Legislative Council before during Earth Hour March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (REUTERS/Bobby Yip) #

3

A view of the hill of the Acropolis during Earth Hour in Athens, Greece March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (REUTERS/Yiorgos Karahalis) #

4

The Beijing Olympic swimming pool, better known as the "Water Cube" goes dark to observe the call to turn off non-essential lighting for one hour for climate change during World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour in Beijing on March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (STR/AFP/Getty Images) #

5

The skyline of downtown Toronto before and after Earth Hour on Saturday, March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (AP Photo/THE CANADIAN PRESS - Darren Calabrese) #

6

Rome's ancient Colosseum seen during Earth Hour in Rome, Italy on March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico) #

7

The Sydney Opera House taken before and during Earth Hour in Sydney, Australia, on Saturday, March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (Jack Atley/Bloomberg News) #

8

The Bund on the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China before and during Earth Hour on March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (REUTERS/Aly Song) #

9

The Bangkok skyline in Thailand, before and during Earth Hour March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang) #

10

The Eiffel Tower before and during Earth Hour in Paris, France on March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (REUTERS/Benoit Tessier) #

11

The Ericsson Globe Arena, seen during Earth Hour in Stockholm, Sweden March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (REUTERS/Anders Wiklund/Scanpix Sweden) #

12

The Houses of Parliament in central London, moments before the lights are turned off to mark "Earth Hour", and as the lights are turned off, on March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images) #

13

Lausanne's cathedral before and after its lights were switched off, on March 28, 2009 in Lausanne, Switzerland as part of the "Earth Hour" campaign. [click image to see it fade] (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images) #

14

The main square in downtown Lima, Peru before and during Earth Hour March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (REUTERS/Pilar Olivares) #

15

Lights are turned off at 8:30pm at Nokia Plaza at the LA Live entertainment complex in downtown Los Angeles, California on March 28, 2009 during a celebration to mark Earth Hour. [click image to see it fade] (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) #

16

Photographs taken before and after the lights at the main roundabout at the main business district are turned off during Earth Hour in Jakarta, Indonesia, Saturday, March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) #

17

Lights on the Las Vegas Strip are viewed looking northbound from the Mandalay Bay Resort during "Earth Hour" in Las Vegas, Nevada March 28, 2009. [click image to see it fade] (REUTERS/Steve Marcus) #

(Credit to Boston.com)