Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

I do believe I forgot to mention that I finished Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.

It was a very interesting book about a white guy dubbed "Caballo Blanco", the white horse, who supposedly came from the US and started running around the Copper Canyon of Mexico with the native people there, Tarahumara Indians. This was the character that kept you interested in the book, wondering how he got this access to an unknown group of Indians in Mexico who were able to run for hours and days on end.

The plot shifts to the US and race directors for US ultramarathons and that brings in numerous more characters where they get Tarahumara Indians to come to the US and race the Leadville Ultramarathon.

Ultimately, this "Caballo Blanco" wants the best US ultramarathoners to go to the Copper Canyon and race the best of the Tarahumara tribe. By the end of the book that happens, Caballo Blanco gets his wish and in the final chapter you find out who this guy actually is; after forgetting about his character of who he really is in the previous few hundred pages.

It was a good story about distance running, racing and the human body, the science of nutrition, the mental capacity to keep going and little bits of scientific knowledge along the way.

Run for the Roses

I ran the Run for the Roses again this year. It was the last weekend in June, just before the Red, White and Boom.

Last year I did okay in the 5k but this year I ran the 10k to get some miles in before the half marathon.

Surprisingly, I got 2nd overall! There wasn't a huge bit of competition other than the young guy who finished first but I kept chipping away the whole race. I was in 10th or so after about a quarter mile, and by mile 1 I was in third. It took me a couple miles to get the older guy in front of me but I got him and didn't look back, though I was in second by like five minutes. Yikes, too bad I wasn't closer.

Anyway, I was 2nd in 39:48, 6:25 per mile.

Here is the link for the results. Run for the Roses 2010 10k Results.

Run For The Roses 10K Run
Roseville, Minnesota June 26, 2010

Place	Div/Tot	No.	Name	Age	Gen	City	State	Time	Pace
1	1/2	920	Steven Dado	17	M	Stillwater	MN	34:09	5:30
2	1/6	1834	Joel Dischinger	27	M	Roseville	MN	39:48	6:25
3	1/14	1000	Brett Churel	32	M	Roseville	MN	40:56	6:36
4	1/6	906	Darby Baranick	16	F	Woodbury	MN	41:05	6:37
5	1/13	1805	Edward Hudella	44	M	North Branch	MN	41:28	6:41
6	1/16	970	Katie Salvatore	22	F	Shoreview	MN	41:30	6:41
7	2/13	1824	Lawrence Callanan	40	M	St Paul	MN	41:41	6:43
8	1/20	922	James Doelle	55	M	Roseville	MN	42:58	6:55
9	3/13	995	Richard Ziegler	42	M			43:25	7:00
10	2/14	902	John Anderson	32	M	St Paul	MN	43:28	7:00
11	2/20	960	David Peterson	54	M	Shoreview	MN	43:28	7:00
12	2/6	968	Bill Rosenthal	29	M	Roseville	MN	43:33	7:01
13	2/16	901	Johanna Anderson	29	F	St Paul	MN	43:36	7:01
14	2/6	1818	Sophia Ristau	17	F	St Paul	MN	43:47	7:03
15	3/14	981	Christopher Vitalis	38	M	Hugo	MN	44:02	7:06

And here are a few photos from the run.

Red, White and Boom!

My first half marathon at the Red, White and Boom Twin Cities Half Marathon was overall a good challenge, a fun race and a good experience.

I ran 1:37:18, 7:25 per mile. I was 103 out of 2376 as this was the first running event for Twin Cities in Motion. (TC Marathon parent.) I was 86 of 1049 among males and 19 of 158 for males 25-29 years.

I was doing pretty well through 7 complete miles and okay through 8 miles. I salvaged miles 9 and 10 doing a 7:05 and 7:19, but then the wheels came off in miles 11,12,13. I ran 7:53, 8:35 and 8:34 for the final three miles. It was bad.

Weather was also an interesting factor. When Katy and I got there it was warm, humid and cloudy with a chance of rain after 8am. Well, that chance grew and between miles 3 and 4 it started raining and then it poured until about mile 7.5 before slowing down for a few miles and then picking back up for a couple of miles. The rain was so hard many steps were completely underwater and that made my socks and shoes giving me bruised toes and blisters because of all of the slipping and sliding my feet were doing in the shoes.

I will do another, hopefully with a training partner and a race partner and more of a training plan.

Here are the results from the mtecresults.com.

Location	Race Time	Time of Day	Overall Place	Division Place	Sex Place
Time	1:37:18	8:07:01	103/2376	19/158	86/1049
10 Mile	1:11:20	7:41:03	67/2355	11/158	60/1042
GunStart	00:00	6:29:39
ChipStart	0:06	6:29:44	76/2376	11/158	67/1049

Before the race, about 78 degrees with above 65% humidity, if memory serves me correct.













This is on St. Anthony Main, one-tenth of a mile into the race. I was doing okay at that point.













This is back on St. Anthony Main, going the opposite direction towards the finish.







































I ditched my shirt with Nick and Becca at mile 7.5 or so because it was so heavy. My shorts are still quite wet too even though it wasn't raining at the finish.













At the finish just across the street from the restaurants and facing the Mississippi River.













We walked to the Stone Arch Bridge after because it was trying to get sunny and I could walk just a little bit. I though we could get some good pictures but it stayed cloudy.

Upcoming Races:
August 1 Sunday Twins Territory 4K in Minneapolis. It starts downtown, runs by the Guthrie Theater, the Mill City Museum and finishes in front of Target Field.

October 3 Sunday Twin Cities 10 Mile (Hopefully, it's a lottery so I just have to hope I get in.)

Red, White and Boom!

Up, heading to the Red, White and Boom! Half Marathon in a few minutes.

Forecast: 78 degrees, feels like 81 degrees, humidity 74%, dew point 69 degrees
Will I be running or swimming it? I'm not sure at this point.

Nike

What I might do with Megan's Nike gift card...though they're very expensive when you design them yourself.


Check out the
Nike LunarGlide+ 2 iD Running Shoe
I designed at NIKEiD.com

Happy Father's Day!

I came across this link of The Designer's Dads earlier this week and thought it was interesting. It is a favorite photo of a designer from today like Frank Muytjens, who is the creative director for J. Crew. Michael Bastian of Michael Bastian and Rogan Gregory of Rogue's Gallery. It's an old picture that shows their dad and how he influenced their life in numerous ways, many of them pointing out the stylistic prowess of their father. I thought it was cool and thought about my dad and how his dress has come along, especially over the years. But it also reminded me of facial hair and the length of Dad's hair and how cool that was back then.

Take a look.

Father's Day 2009 Men's Lives: GQ.com

Also, as I was eating my turkey sub, cookie and raspberry iced tea this afternoon I ran across a few tweets that I enjoyed reading about Father's Day 2010.

Here they are:

allysonfelix

Happy Father's Day to all the amazing men who truly make a difference in their children's lives!

SaraHall3

Happy Fathers day all dads! Fathers are huge in forming our concept of our Heavenly Father early on. Thankful for my dad's loving example

kurt13warner

Have 20 adopted kids for a week, makes FathersDay awesome. Rode a RCoaster w buddy Ethan who has CerebalPalsy... already a great FDay!

saucony

Big thanks to Dads everywhere for the strength and character they instill in us. Happy #FathersDay

So Dad, thank you for your sacrifices, your work ethic, your discipline, your love, your discerning nature, your intelligence, your business sense, your faith, your generosity, your love, your encouragement, your games of catch and a whole lot more. Not much goes unnoticed pops!

I love you!

June 4

Thank you for the Birthday wishes, calls, cards and presents.

I enjoyed the day at work before getting out into the nice Friday evening and enjoying a little bit of Brasa with Katy, Paul, Nick and Becca. We all enjoyed it, their garage doors were open at the Grand Avenue spot. We wandered a little on Grand, going into J. Crew but most stuff closes down early on Grand so we didn't go in too many places. However, we did get a dish of ice cream from Grand Old Creamery.














Nick, Joel and Paul waiting in line for some ice cream.


This was at Biaggi's in Maple Grove on Wednesday night June 2. Katy and I picked up Mom, Dad and Grandma. It was quite the few days of hanging out with Mom and Dad and it was great to see them. Some people asked when I saw them last and I wasn't sure. That means it was a long time, I suppose it was last summer.

Among our time together it seemed that most of it was spend enjoying a great amount of calories. Sunday was PF Changs! Monday we were at the Johnson's and were able to enjoy a great spread of food as well as the key item, venison! Monday night we went to WA Frost. I enjoyed lobster risotto with roasted shiitake mushrooms, julienne of snow peas in a smoked paprika sauce and a vanilla emulsion. It was a crazy good. Dad also ordered a charcuterie plate, which is just a bunch of cured meats on a plate with some sourdough bread and a couple of sauces. It was awesome, tasting something new!

We also ate at Old Chicago one night but then night before they left we ate at Biaggi's. It was pretty good as I stayed on the seafood train and got some lobster in pasta and it was delicious.

So, that's that. I'm 27 years old with 73 more years to go. I wonder what I will accomplish in this coming year. I do pray for alot...