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North Face Endurance Challenge 50 miler - June 5, 2010

2010-06-17T23:52:00.012-04:00

On Saturday June 5th, John drove me out to Algonkian Regional Park down in Virginia on the Potomac River for the 5:00 a.m. start of the North Face Endurance Challenge, Washington D.C. edition 50 mile trail race.

Finished the 50 mile run in 11 hrs 40 mins in 112th place out of 203 runners.

Bull Run 50 Miler - April 10, 2010

2010-05-01T23:20:00.015-04:00

On the morning of Saturday April 10th I drove down to Hemlock Regional Park along the Occoquan River in Clifton, Virginia to run my second Bull Run 50 Miler (see previous post from the 2009 race below). The Bull Run Run is a 50.4 mile trail run in the rolling hills of the Virginia countryside alongside the Occoquan River with two out and back loops (see the map of the course below) that includes ~6300 feet of climbing throughout. "The BRR is a beautiful, tough run on the Bull Run Trail in Northern Virginia sponsored by the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club. The run's unique character includes a Civil War theme that respects the battles that occurred here many years ago. The BRR is a difficult challenge, but many have finished it. It is not easy, but it is not brutal. The BRR is not for casual runners, but if you like to run trails, come enjoy a day in Virginia's spring beauty as we honor those who fought here many years ago."

50.4 mile trail race. Finished in 10 hrs 37 min.

Seneca Creek Trail Marathon - March 6, 2010

2010-04-12T23:00:00.013-04:00

On Saturday March 6th, 2010 I drove the 20 or so miles out to Riley's Lock in Seneca, MD for the Seneca Creek Trail Marathon & 50k. Finished in 5 hrs 39 min.

Running through Snowpocalypse/Snowmageddon - Winter 2009/10

2010-03-04T22:16:00.011-05:00

Since starting school at Georgetown in 2004, I had successfully run and biked through 5 winters in Washington D.C. without much consternation... until the winter of 2009/10 arrived. On the night of Friday December 18th, the weather forecast was calling for a massive snowstorm of 18 inches or more starting after midnight and continuing all day on Saturday. Sure enough, come midnight the snow starting falling. Excited to go out in some fresh powder before it all melted, I laced up my running shoes that night around 3:00 a.m. and set out on a quick 6 miler out-and-back on MacArthur Blvd. There were a good 4 to 5 inches on the ground already. It was so much fun slip-sliding through the fresh powder. Turned out to be one of the most fun runs I can ever remember. Got cheers and honks from the many snowplow drivers - I felt like I was Rocky Balboa training for a prize fight through the streets of Philadelphia. Little did I know when I went to bed that night that this was not to be the last run through the snow this winter.

When I awoke on Saturday December 19th, the snow was NOT melted. Rather, the previous night's snowstorm had turned into a raging blizzard and more than a foot and a half of snow had already fallen. And of course I went out for a run.

Yates 30 miles in 30 days swim challenge - Oct 19-Nov 17, 2009

2009-12-02T23:43:00.009-05:00

"The spirit to win and the will to excel is always measured one stroke at a time."
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Yates Field House at Georgetown University, a 30 miles in 30 days swim challenge was offered in the natatorium. I decided to give it a shot. The Yates lap pool has 8 lanes 25 yards in length and is 3.5 - 5 feet deep. One mile in the pool equals 1650 yards or 33 laps in this 25 yard pool. I would thus have to average 33 laps per day in order to swim the required 49,500 yards (990 laps), and I would also have to factor in a couple rest days before the Marine Corps Marathon I was running during the first week of the challenge. Here's my daily swim log:
Mon Oct 19, Day 1 - 1900 yds
Tues Oct 20, Day 2 - 1700 yds
Wed Oct 21, Day 3 - 1700 yds
Thurs Oct 22, Day 4 - 1000 yds
Fri Oct 23, Day 5 - 0
Sat Oct 24, Day 6 - 0
Sun Oct 25, Day 7 - 0 (Marine Corps Marathon)
Mon Oct 26, Day 8 - 1700 yds
Tues Oct 27, Day 9 - 1500 yds
Wed Oct 28, Day 10 - 1450 yds
Thurs Oct 29, Day 11 - 2200 yds
Fri Oct 30, Day 12 - 1800 yds
Sat Oct 31, Day 13 - 1250 yds
Sun Nov 1, Day 14 - 2100 yds
Mon Nov 2, Day 15 - 900 yds
Tues Nov 3, Day 16 - 3000 yds
Wed Nov 4, Day 17 - 1600 yds
Thurs Nov 5, Day 18 - 2000 yds
Fri Nov 6, Day 19 - 1500 yds
Sat Nov 7, Day 20 - 2000 yds
Sun Nov 8, Day 21 - 1750 yds
Mon Nov 9, Day 22 - 2000 yds
Tues Nov 10, Day 23 - 1600 yds
Wed Nov 11, Day 24 - 1800 yds
Thurs Nov 12, Day 25 - 1600 yds
Fri Nov 13, Day 26 - 1650 yds
Sat Nov 14, Day 27 - 2300 yds
Sun Nov 15, Day 28 - 2700 yds
Mon Nov 16, Day 29 - 2800 yds
Tues Nov 17, Day 30 - 2000 yds

So I made it 30 miles in 30 days. And I got a t-shirt that says as much. Chlorine is the only cologne I need.

Marine Corps Marathon - October 25, 2009

2009-11-17T21:49:00.025-05:00

I ran my 3rd Marine Corps Marathon and 4th big city marathon on October 25th, 2009. I got to the start line in plenty of time this year and was able to meet up with the 3:10 pace group, who if I could manage to keep up with through to the finish would qualify me for Boston. The gun went off at 8:00 a.m. on schedule and I crossed the start line just a few seconds later feeling pretty well trained and confident that I could actually do it this year.

"The route starts in Arlington, VA, and winds its way through Rosslyn along Lee Highway before turning on Spout Run and the George Washington Parkway. After crossing the Key Bridge into Georgetown, runners turn toward the Palisades when the course follows Canal Road, up to the reservoir and down MacArthur Boulevard. The course guides runners down popular M Street in Georgetown. Runners will turn on Wisconsin Avenue and then K Street. The course passes the Kennedy Center and takes runners into Hains Point at approximately the halfway point of the race. Outside Potomac Park, runners pass the Jefferson Memorial before entering the National Mall and running by the Lincoln memorial, Washington Monument, and the U.S. Capitol. Runners continue along Jefferson Drive and then cross the 14th Street Bridge back into Virginia at mile 20. For the last 10K runners venture through Crystal City, pass the Pentagon, and charge the hill to the finish at the Marine Corps War Memorial."

The 3:10 pace group turned out to be a large group of maybe 60-70 runners or so who for the large part had similar hopes for the day as me. It was rather uncomfortable running on the heels of such a large group and always maintaining their subtle shifts in pace so by mile 5 or 6 I broke away and got a few hundred yards ahead of them. John and the parents were out to cheer me on when I came over the Key Bridge into Georgetown around mile 4 and again when I came down MacArthur Blvd past my new apartment around mile 8. I was feeling strong running down such familiar stomping ground but still had some doubt about my ability to maintain the current pace over the length of the course. The 3:10:59 time to qualify for Boston translates into 7:17 min/mile pace and 22:37 per 5k. My splits from the race are below:
5k - 22:35
10k - 22:34 (45:09)
15k - 22:24 (1:07:33)
20k - 21:56 (1:29:29)
25k - 22:21 (1:51:50)
30k - 22:49 (2:14:39)
35k - 25:59 (2:40:38)
40k - 28:07 (3:08:45)
42.195k - finished 3:20:25

As you can see, I was right on track through the 30k mark with a half marathon split of 1:34:22. Somewhere around mile 16 or 17 I started to slow up a little bit and the 3:10 pace group caught up to me. I ran with them for a while but they started pushing past me. I was determined to keep them in sight and catch back up as soon as I got a surge of energy. But that surge never came. I really don't even remember at what point I lost sight of the pace group, and it was definitely not a conscious decision to let them go. Looking back now I can clearly see that I ran out of energy about mile 19 or 20 and should have been getting more calories throughout the race so as not to have bonked so hard so close to the finish. I wound up fighting my way through the last few miles, ran up the final hill to cheers from the family, and crossed the finish line at the Iwo Jima Memorial at 3 hrs 20 min 25 sec in 740th place out of 21,405 finishers. I know it is a great feat to have run the 26.2 miles on this beautiful day in 3:20 but I was overwhelmingly disappointed that I didn't keep it together for the last few miles and finish just 9 min 26 sec faster. But I know there will be many more chances, such as next year's race on October 31, 2010.

Shenandoah National Park Bicycle Adventure - July 4th weekend, 2009

2009-08-17T21:20:00.023-04:00

At 7:00 a.m. on Friday July 3rd, Sarah and I packed up our touring bikes with sleeping bags, a tent, and some food, and then set out on a biking expedition that I will not soon forget. We crossed the Key Bridge into Virginia and then took the Custis Trail 4 miles to the start of the W&OD trail in Shirlington. The W&OD trail is a 45 mile paved trail once occupied by the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad from 1859 to 1968. We busted our way down this mostly flat trail with only a brief stop for some Twizzlers at "The Stretching Post". The first 10-15 miles of this trail were rather crowded and had several street crossings that really slowed us down, but the last 15-20 miles were much more rural with few interruptions that allowed us to make it into Purcellville at the trail's end by lunchtime. A nice gentle-bicyclist-man that we rode the last few miles of the trail with directed us to the grocery store in town where we got some sandwich material and fluids for the water bottles that were rapidly being emptied on such a hot and humid weekend.
We spent the better part of that afternoon biking about 40 miles of rural Virginia roads from Purcellville into Front Royal, the entrance to Shenandoah National Park. Highlights of the ride included an alpaca farm, buying ice cream sandwiches at a gas station we passed, and playing "I'm biking to Shenandoah and I'm bringing Apples, a Bandana, Cherry Chapstick, ... Fish of the swedish variety, Jokes to tell, a Kite to fly, Lovely Lipstick," and on and on." When we got to the entrance station of Shenandoah National Park at Skyline Drive, we were denied access to camping because we did not have a backcountry camping permit and did not have locks for our bikes. So we wound up biking a couple miles down the road to an RV campground where we were allowed to pitch our tent for the night. The campground turned out to be awesome as they had showers, miniature golf, trash cans for empty beer bottles, and black bears! We had to tie our food up in the tree at night so as not to attract bears but it turned out not to matter much as bears were trolling around the campground throughout the day regardless.

On day 2 of our adventure, we left all our gear at the campground and rode our bikes sans heavy gear back to the beginning of Skyline Drive at the entrance to Shenandoah Park. Skyline Drive runs 105 miles north-south along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains and is the only public road in Shenandoah National Park. This road traverses up and down 3,500 feet tall mountains and has numerous white-tail deer and black bears that occasionally wander onto it. It turned out to be a great day of riding with incredible ups-and-downs and beautiful scenic views. Literally, the first 8 miles were straight uphill without rest, immediately followed by an amazing downhill journey with dangerously fast speeds. We took a rest at the Elkwallow campground, very popular among the cyclists in the park. We met an awesome old guy with jacked legs who was riding a single speed through the park - I don't know how he was making it up the mountains without gears - and Sarah got a picture with him that turned out to be a Facebook profile pic for quite a while. Sarah is quite the beast on the bike and I'm not quite sure how far she made it out Skyline Drive that day before turning around, but I made it to the 34 mile marker before I decided that I had better turn around for fear of not making it all the way back to the campground before dark/death. There were fireworks that raged late into the night that night for the 4th of July while we tried to sleep in the tent before the 90 mile journey home the next day.

Expedition day 3 found us packing up our bikes and getting on the road by about 8:30 a.m. I was pretty beat and having some pretty bad IT band pain in my left knee but Sarah was raging and ready to bike as always. The miles back to Purcellville flew by with a quick stop for pictures (that can't be shown on this blog) outside Naked Mountain Winery and a concrete sculpture garden in some rural Virginia town. The ride home on the W&OD was excruciating for me as I was just not in the bike shape required for doing hundred mile days while carrying tons of extra weight on my touring bike. Needless to say I was pretty happy to make it across the Key Bridge back into D.C. in one piece after 250+ miles over 3 days on the bike and some great memories to boot.

Kinetic half-iron and sprint triathlons - May 9 and 10, 2009

2009-07-22T20:54:00.024-04:00

On Saturday May 9th I drove down to Lake Anna State Park in Spotsylvania, Virginia to participate in the Kinetic half-iron triathlon on Saturday 5/9/09 at 7:00 a.m. and the Kinetic sprint triathlon on Sunday 5/10/09 at 9:00 a.m. These were my first big triathlons of the season and outdoor swims in my wetsuit. I had been training hard running and swimming but had very little mileage on my bike so far this year coming into this weekend, so I was pretty unsure of how the races would go.

Kinetic half-iron triathlon on Saturday

swam 1.2 miles in 36:19
T1 of 4:01
biked 56 miles in 3:08:44
T2 of 2:12
ran 13.1 miles in 1:49:59
finished in 5:41:13
104th place out of 267 male finishers

Kinetic sprint triathlon on Sunday

750 meter swim in 13:20
T1 of 3:48
18 mile bike in 52:33
T2 of 1:35
5K run in 22:12
finished in 1:33:27
107th place out of 340 male finishers

I was pretty pleased with my performance over the weekend although I was rather disappointed at my biking splits. This weekend did get me motivated to get out on my bike more often. I had fun camping out on Lake Anna with some other kids from the triathlon team on Saturday night after the half roasting some hot dogs and marshmallows on our campfire. Waking up in a tent at 7 a.m. the morning after a half is not the ideal conditions for competing in a sprint but I survived. The end-of-the-year Georgetown Triathon Team party when we got back to D.C. that Sunday night was definitely a blast.

Race for Hope 5K - May 3, 2009

2009-07-21T04:32:00.011-04:00

On Sunday May 3rd I rode my bike down to Freedom Plaza (located just on the east side of the White House) to run in the Race for Hope, a 5K run/walk around the streets of D.C. to benefit the National Brain Tumor Society and Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure. My last three years of PhD research in the Tumor Biology Training Program at Georgetown have been spent analyzing the cancer genome of the deadly brain tumor called glioblastoma multiforme that afflicts ~10,000 Americans each year. I have been identifying new genes that drive the pathogenesis of glioblastoma in the hopes of discovering new successful therapeutics for this uniformly lethal brain cancer. For more information on my research, please see one of my recent publications "Identification of p18INK4c as a tumor suppressor gene in glioblastoma multiforme" at http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/68/8/2564.

My previous personal best at the 5K distance was 19 min 6 sec run in October 2006. I had been putting in a lot of miles leading up to this race and had high hopes of running somewhere under 19 minutes. Unfortunately, all the running I had been doing was long slow mileage getting ready for the Bull Run 50, and the single interval session I did on a track two days before this race was not enough to get me in speed mode. It turned out to be a rainy morning on race day and the course was covered in puddles. After a ceremonial start by David Cook (last year's American Idol winner) and a crowd of brain tumor survivors carrying yellow balloons, the race went off at 9 a.m. I started up front and kept up with the leaders for a bit but just wasn't able to keep their pace all the way home. After dodging puddles rather unsuccessfully for 3.1 miles, I crossed the finish line in 19 min 23 sec (6:15 min/mile pace) good for 20th place out of 1,470 timed finishers. There were several high school track/cross country students out to run that morning, and I embarassingly was beaten by three 15 year olds, ouch! I have got to get faster.

Run Amuck 5K Mud Run - April 25, 2009

2009-07-21T03:42:00.024-04:00

"This is the Run Amuck Mud Run! The Mud Run is a challenging 5K run in Rockville, Maryland with hills, tire obstacles, river crossings, walls, ropes, and MUD PITS. This is the most fun you can have running a 5K! View the course map at www.runamuckfestival.com. Race individually, as a couple, or as a member of a 4-person team. Choose the Open category with no restrictions on attire and footwear, or the Costumed category, which requires your own zany costume or matching costumes (for couples and teams)."

Our team "menage a quatre Georgetown style" crossed the 3.1 miles in approximately 1 hr 08 min coming in next to last place in the team costume division that went off at 1 p.m. However, we did win best dressed, most team spirit, most covered in mud at the finish line, and best dance moves at the afterparty. What could be better on a Saturday afternoon?!?

A more complete photo documentation of the event is available upon request.

IronMed Charity Triathlon - April 19, 2009

2009-05-08T04:03:00.007-04:00

So 12 hours after completing the Bull Run 50 miler, I stood at 6.am. on Sunday morning in the Yates natatorium in order to race in the 2009 IronMed Charity Triathlon put on by the students of Georgetown University School of Medicine. It was a sprint distance race again this year consisting of a 750 yard swim in the indoor pool at Yates, a 12.5 mile bike on the paved Capital Crescent Trail, and 5k run on the C&O Canal Towpath. The D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty came to compete in the race again this year (now his 3rd year in a row) and brought along his triathlon posse to participate as well. The event seems to be turning into a "real triathlon" now with a crew of seasoned triathletes, skinsuits, aero bikes, etc. compared to the days of old when the bike course used to be on the C&O Canal Towpath and everyone used to ride old beater mountain bikes. I went off in the second heat at 6:46 a.m. While I was surprisingly not that incredibly sore from the day before, I was pretty damn tired and just didn't have much energy stored up to be "racing" already again. So I managed to complete the swim without drowning in 15 min and was the last one out of the pool. My legs felt reasonable on the bike but there was just no strength to push the pedals around, and I wasn't going much faster than 15 mph on the false-flat climb out Capital Crescent. I wound up completing the bike in 42 min, and then managed the 5k run in high spirits in 27 min. My total finishing time was 1:30:05 compared to 12 min swim/38 min bike/19 min run and a finishing time of 1:11:29 in last year's event. Nonetheless, a successful completion of my fifth IronMed Charity Triathlon that was followed by the 5th annual post-IronMed BBQ and party at my house.

Bull Run 50 miler - April 18, 2009

2009-04-30T22:31:00.038-04:00

On the morning of Saturday April 18th I drove down to Hemlock Regional Park along the Occoquan River in Clifton, Virginia to "compete" (or possibly a more appropriate description is "participate") in the Bull Run 50 Miler. The Bull Run Run is a 50.4 mile trail run in the rolling hills of the Virginia countryside alongside the Occoquan River with two out and back loops (see the map of the course below) that included ~6300 feet of climbing throughout. "The BRR is a beautiful, tough run on the Bull Run Trail in Northern Virginia sponsored by the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club. The run's unique character includes a Civil War theme that respects the battles that occurred here many years ago. The BRR is a difficult challenge, but many have finished it. It is not easy, but it is not brutal. The BRR is not for casual runners, but if you like to run trails, come enjoy a day in Virginia's spring beauty as we honor those who fought here many years ago."

There were 314 of us lunatics that gathered together at the start line at 6:30 a.m. that morning to compete in the idiotic sport called ultramarathon running. It was to be one of the first warm days of the year - I think this was only the third run so far of the year in shorts and a t-shirt and no tights, longsleeves, gloves, hat, etc. It actually turned out to be quite a hot day for running an ultra (the high temperature reached 80 degrees) which greatly added to the difficulty of the run. It required constant consumption of fluid, salty foods, and electrolyte tablets to make sure that I didn't get dehydrated, hyponatremic, or other nasty medical term that would cause me not to make it to the finish line. I went off at a very slow and maintainable pace from the get-go, at least a min/mile slower pace than my typical weekend 20 miler out on the trails at Great Falls. I thought that I could pick up the pace later if I felt good but it was better not to blow up early. This turned out to be a wise decision as the heat was really draining, especially given that most of us had been training in cool weather all winter. The first loop took us out the bluebell trail and it was beautifully scenic with the bluebell flowers in full bloom (see the pictures) and was a lot less muddy than everyone had anticipated going into the race with all the rain we got earlier in the week. I completed the first of two out and back loops that came back to Hemlock Park (the start/finish) at mile 16.6 into the run at which time the race clock said 3 hrs 19 min. This is the time that I crossed the finish line of the Marine Corps Marathon last October (i.e. I ran almost 10 miles farther in October on the road in the same amount of time that I completed 16.6 on this day). I knew it was going to be a long day as I set off to complete another ~34 miles. It turned out to be a great day of running. The course was well marked and the aid stations were well stocked, both with goodies and wonderful volunteers. My new trail shoes were great and the only blisters I got were from the tops of my shoes digging into my ankles that I just shoved some gauze into my socks and pretty much calmed the problem. My toes, knees, everything was fine all day. It took me a little longer than I hoped in the end but I wound up crossing the finish line in 11 hrs 51 min 54 sec and 216th place out of 266 official finishers (5 hrs 20 min back from the unbelievable maniac that won the race - and people say that I have a running problem, what about this guy?!?). I was covered in salt, hungry, and tired when I got to the finish but it was time to get ready for Georgetown's IronMed Charity Triathlon the next morning. I was hoping my legs would be feeling up for another challenge only 12 hours after finishing this ridiculousness.

Training log March 2009 -- my first 100 mile running week

2009-03-30T22:26:00.011-04:00

There were so many highlights to this month's running that I don't know where to begin. First, I completed my first ultra of the year on March 7th (my previous post includes some pictures and race recap). I suffered some pretty nasty toe injuries during this race that only got worse in the following days when I kept pounding away the miles despite the pain. Finally, after a brief three days of recovery with no running, I set out to accomplish something I had not previously attempted in my running career - 100 miles in one week. Why, you might ask, would anyone ever attempt to average 14.3 miles of running every day for 7 consecutive days? Well, for one, why not? I couldn't think of any good reason not to when I started (but I did manage to come up with a few as the week progressed). Second, I am heavily considering trying to run a 100 mile race sometime this year - possibly the Old Dominion 100 miler (http://www.olddominionrun.org/) on June 6th. So I figured if I am ever going to be able to cover 100 miles in the 28 hour time limit set for the OD100, then I at least better be able to run 100 miles in one week.

My first 100 mile week
Friday (3/20) - 17 miles total, out Glover-Archibold trail to Tenleytown and back to Georgetown along Wisconsin Ave, 15 min rest at house, then out to Dupont Circle, past White House, along Pennsylvania Ave around Capitol, back along Mall, Independence Ave, and Rock Creek Pkwy

Saturday (3/21) - 13 miles total, parked at Great Falls Visitors Center in VA, ran east out Ridge Trail, along Difficult Run and then Cross County Trail, and then looped back

Sunday (3/22) - 17 miles total, over Key Bridge and along Mt Vernon Trail to Alexandria, and then back crossing over 14th Street Bridge and coming home along Ohio Drive and Rock Creek Pkwy

Monday (3/23) - 14 miles total, met up with the Gtown Tri Team at the Front Gates, went over Key Bridge, along Mt Vernon Trail to Reagan National Airport, and then back crossing over 14th Street Bridge and coming home along Ohio Drive and Rock Creek Pkwy, then 2 miles of hill intervals on a treadmill and 2 miles on the track later that night at Yates

Tuesday (3/24) - 15 miles total, over Key Bridge, Mt Vernon Trail to 14th Street Bridge, loop around Hains Point/Potomac Park, up to Mall and around Capitol, back to Georgetown along Pennsylvania Ave

Wednesday (3/25) - 12 miles total, Glover-Archibold trail to Tenleytown, got lost running around up there, and finally came back along Wisconsin Ave, then 5 miles on the track at Yates later that night getting paced by a pretty fast undergrad

Thursday (3/26) - 12 miles total in the rain, to Dupont Cirlce, past White House, out Pennsylvania Ave, around Capitol, back along Mall, Independence Ave, Rock Creek Pkwy, up Wisconsin Ave, got ice cream at T Sweet's (with 2 miles to go), ran to track on 38th Street and completed miles 99 and 100 with ice cream in hand (and mouth).

Well, how did I feel at the end of 100 miles? Happy. Hungry. Tired. In that order. But while I was at times not feeling extremely motivated to keep going during the week, I never experienced any aches or pains or felt on the verge of injury. I thought this to be a good sign if I am to try a 100 miler later this year. Nor was I especially sore or feeling slowed down by the end of the week. I took a day off, and then went out the next day on Saturday and did an awesome 20 miler in the rain and mud along the Potomac Heritage Trail out of the Great Falls Visitors Center in VA.

Oh, and I got some new trail shoes this month too after those damn Salomon want-to-be-running-shoes-but-more-closely-resemble-ski-boots mangled my beautiful toes. I am now running in the Asics GT-2140 Trail shoes. Unfortunately, they are not GoreTex/waterproof like my old Salomon's but are only water resistant (i.e. step in a puddle or stream and your socks and feet are soaked). But I do really like them so far and anticipate they will be far more comfortable on my longer runs than the Salomon's ever were.

March training totals
Total mileage - 231 miles
Average miles per day - 7.5 miles

Seneca Creek 50+k trail race - March 7, 2009

2009-03-15T13:09:00.006-04:00

50+k trail race, ~33 miles, finished in 6 hrs 32 min 05 sec, 56th place out of 108 male 50k finishers, first place finished in 4:17:12

I reached the 19 mile aid station in exactly 3 hrs and was feeling pretty good at that point - a little tired in the legs as this was the longest run of the season to date by this point in the race. Somewhere in the mid-20 miles into the race, I started experiencing some pretty bad pain in my right shoe. I wasn't sure if it was blisters, my toenails falling off, or what. When I finally checked at an aid station with about 3 miles to go, I realized that I should have cut my toenails before the race and that my pinky toenail was terribly tender from impacting my shoe every step I was taking. I pretty much hobbled into the finish it hurt so bad by the end of the run.
crossing a stream during the race

my toes a week after the race, my poor pinky toe is no longer sitting horizontal on my swollen toe but is at a horrible vertical angle causing significant pain with every step

Training log February 2009 -- gearing up for spring races

2009-02-28T21:03:00.004-05:00

Home from a fun day out on the trails.

So I am starting to gear up for my spring races that are rapidly approaching.

From a voicemail I left for John one Sunday afternoon while out running: "In case I don't show up at home this evening just letting you know where I'm at. I parked at the Great Falls Visitors Center down in Virginia and am out at least 7 or 8 miles west along the Potomac River on some trail that I've never been on before. Haven't seen anyone or any houses or anything in at least 45 minutes."

Total running mileage this month - 182 miles
Avg miles per day (excluding 5 days I was sick) - 7.8 miles
Most mileage in 48 hrs - 36 miles (8 mi Feb 13th, 15 mi Feb 14th, 13 mi Feb 15th)
Longest training run - 16 miles on Sat Feb 21st in Great Falls Park Virginia (2 hrs 45 min)
Number of 10+ mile runs - 9

Training log January 2009 -- some ups and downs

2009-02-14T01:57:00.003-05:00

Well, I started off 2009 on the coast of Oregon in the famed land of Bill Bowerman, Steve Prefontaine, and Nike. It rained the whole time I was there but I had some beautiful runs along the coast that I will not soon forget. As for the major downer, I crashed on my bicycle and broke the scaphoid bone in my left wrist on January 15th. It's going to be a long path to recovery, but I was able to start running again on January 23rd after I got a cast put on.

Total running mileage this month - 144 miles

Avg miles per day (excluding 8 days while in splint) - 6.3 miles

Longest training run - 13 miles in Great Falls park on Jan 11th

Favorite run - at sunset along Oceanside beach in Oregon Jan 2nd

Check out my muddy Salomon trail shoes!

Marine Corps Marathon - October 26, 2008

2008-11-03T00:46:00.016-05:00

Blue Ridge Relay - Sept 5th-6th, 2008

2008-09-11T01:29:00.008-04:00

Ironman Louisville - August 31st, 2008

2008-09-04T01:50:00.022-04:00

On Friday August 29th I drove 8 hours west from D.C. to the mother's house in Cincinnati, Ohio. I got a good night's sleep there and then drove with my parents 110 miles southwest on Saturday afternoon to Louisville, Kentucky for my big triathlon of the summer. I got checked in for the race, dropped off my bike and bags for transition, and then tried to relax as best I could for the rest of the day. It was amazing seeing the 2,000+ bikes parked in the transition area and at an average of $5,000 each were worth at least $10 million all together. I got some pasta for dinner on 4th Street in downtown where they were setting up the finish line for the race the next day. Then went back to the hotel to get some sleep before the big day.

The alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning and I immediately got up and started mentally preparing myself for the impending 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. I walked in the dark down to the transition area where my bike was parked and dropped off water bottles for later in the day and then made the mile walk down to the swim start. The water temperature was reported to be 84 degrees the morning of the race so wetsuits were not allowed. We would be jumping off a short dock into the Ohio River, then swimming upstream along the shore, doing a loop around Towhead Island, and then swimming downstream past the starting dock to the transition area at Waterfront Park (see the map). The pros went off together at 6:50 a.m. but the rest of us had a time trial start with a couple going over a timing mat and then jumping off the dock every few seconds. There was a huge line at the start and I got in somwehere in the middle and had to stand around for a while waiting for 7 a.m. to come and then for my turn. I was pretty nervous/anxious standing there, but if I knew the extent of what I would be in for that day, I might have been even more so.

Finally around 7:30 a.m. I found myself jumping off the dock into the Ohio River. I really enjoyed not having a mass start as I was able to put my face in the water and start swimming right away and did not get completely clobbered by a mass of overly zealous swimmers. The water was sickly warm and very funny tasting, but it felt good to finally be going again after several days of taking it easy leading up to the race. I made good time swimming the length of Towhead Island but the current got much stronger as I passed into the open river. I was still feeling alright as I reached the final buoy before turning downstream. Somewhere not too much longer on the swim down current I started feeling like I didn't want to be swimming anymore, and this feeling kept growing stronger the farther I swam. My stomach was churning, my goggles felt like they were digging into my face, and the feeling of nausea was overwhelming. I couldn't believe what was happening to me but I literally couldn't keep going and grabbed onto one of the kayaks lining the row of swimmers. As I took my face out of the water I became aware of how incredibly nauseous I was, but there was nothing to do but put my goggles back on and keep stroking my way down the river... so I put my face back in the water and kept going. Frontstroke was jostling my stomach around too much so I started practicing my breaststroke, backstroke, sidestroke, and every other stroke I could muster to get myself to the end of the miserable swim. I made it a little ways farther before I was holding onto another kayak and burping and throwing up nasty water from the Ohio River. I've got to learn how to not swallow so much water when swimming in open water. Oh well for all that mileage I had put in at the indoor pool at Georgetown. I kept paddling my way down the river and finally made it to the swim finish nearly 45 minutes after I had hoped.

I slapped on some sunscreen (although not too well), my helmet, gloves, shoes, and sunglasses and grabbed my bike and headed out. I had started the swim somewhere in the middle of the field but now must have been in the last hundred or so for there were not too many bikes left in the transition area. Whatever. There were still 112 miles on the bike and a marathon left to run, so I hopped on my bike and set out. While it had been a comfortable morning,

Pittsfield Peaks Ultra Challenge - June 14, 2008

2008-06-18T00:38:00.032-04:00

On Friday June 13th, 2008 John drove me to Union Station in Washington, DC where I caught a train to Baltimore where I then caught a bus to the Baltimore airport. From there I caught a flight to Philadelphia and then another one to Albany, NY where I rented a car and drove north through the Adirondack Mountains up to the Green Mountains in Killington, Vermont.

I drove the 8 miles up to Amee Farm in Pittsfield, Vermont at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning where I had 30 minutes to prepare for the most extreme endurance event to date - the Pittsfield Peak Ultra Challenge, a 53.8 mile trail race in the Green Mountains with 14,005 feet of elevation gain. As was told to me, this race is reported to be the 50 mile trail race in the country with the most climbing, the equivalent of going up and down the Empire State Building 11 times. There was a campfire near the barn at the farm that would be the start and finish of the race. We all got to drop off a bag of supplies that would be available to us at an aid station we would pass 3 times during the race. There was a quick pre-race meeting where the race director told us about the how the course was marked and stuff. Then the group of us 69 lunatics lined up a line drawn in the dirt and at 5:10 a.m. we were off.
As an early indication of the terrain we were about to cover, the course started with a climb from Amee Farm up into the forrest above. Some of the group at the front took off running up the hill while I stayed with the more conservative group at the back while we marched up the hill into the woods.
I started out the day running in a pair of Thorlos dri-fit socks, Salomon XCR Gore-Tex lined shoes, Asics spandex shorts, a sleeveless tri-style shirt (equipped with rear pockets good for carrying PowerBars and gels), a Brooks dri-fit visor, and a pair of arm warmers. It was rather chilly in the morning before the race got started and during the first couple miles as we got warmed up so the arm warmers were nice to have then. I rolled them down not too long into the race and they functioned well as sweatbands during the hot humid day that it turned out to be. They were also nice to have on for protection later in the day as it turned to dusk and the bugs and mosquitos came out. I also carried a waterbottle that strapped to my hand so there was no effort involved in carrying and contained a small pouch that I kept a couple gels in. And I had a Fuel Belt pack strapped around my waist that carried a waterbottle and had a pouch carrying a small headlamp, flashlight, BodyGlide, salt tablets, and some more gels.

Aside from the elite sponsored ultrarunners (i.e. insane animals, not human beings), the only reasonable way to complete a 54 mile run in the
mountains like this is to start slow and aim to go at a maintainable pace throughout. This translates into power-walking the uphills and running the downhills and flats. But holy shit were some of the uphills steep! At times even a slow crawl up some of these climbs seemed unmaintainable, let alone a fast-paced hike.

... MORE TO COME SOON ...

"I was in 28th place at an aid station around 25 miles. My right knee started hurting ridiculously bad between the 32 and 38 mile aid stations to the point I could barely walk and was sitting on the trail. Thought I was going to quit when I got to the 38 mile aid station but I decided to sit down and rest for like 20 minutes and then see how it was feeling. Somehow, it was miraculously mildly better when I got up and then I just decided that I was going to hike the rest of the way in to the finish at 53.8 miles.

I finally arrived back at Amee Farm and crossed the finish line in 49th place out of 57 finishers around 8:30 p.m. for a total race time of 15 hrs 24 min.

It was thunderstorming off and on for the last 2-3 hours and starting absolutely downpouring for the last 15 minutes coming in to the finish right when it was getting dark. Not sure how many people after me were going to make it to the finish in that weather but there were still at least a few on the course (one of whom was supposedly "missing", whatever that means!)."

You can read a nice news article about the race at: http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080616/SPORTS/806160345/1007/SPORTS

Besides the downhills, the second thing I was most unprepared for was how much the race really wore me out. That night after finishing, I was so hungry I could barely eat and so tired I could barely sleep. The 10 minute ice bath was ridiculous to say the least. Then next morning I was surprisingly not too incredibly sore but sooooooo itchy from all the bug bites, chafing, and tromping through thorny bushes, the Vermont "stinging nettle" plants, poison ivy, etc. The nailbed under one of my toenails was a disgusting black color and hurt terrible. The next four or five days I found myself sleeping 9-10 hours a night and taking an afternoon nap when I got home from work. And the eating... instead of being out running every afternoon, my new sport was sitting on the couch seeing how many calories I could consume. One afternoon I finished off one pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and then went to the freezer and opened another that I then nearly finished. It was a good 5 or 6 days after the race that I finally started feeling like getting back on my bike, getting back in the pool, etc.

I don't know what the next one is going to be but the whole experience was definitely a blast, and I am already looking forward to another crazy adventure of 50 miles or possibly more!

Bassman Triathlon - Sunday April 27

2008-05-06T01:47:00.007-04:00

0.5 mile open water lake swim, 29 mile bike, and 4.1 mile run

swam in 16:02
T1 of 2:48
biked in 1:24:24 (20.6 mph avg.)
T2 of 1:20
ran in 30:14 (7:12 mile pace)

finished in 2:14:46

61st place overall out of 264 finishers

10th place out of 40 finishers in the 25-29 male age group

This was my first open water swim of the year in my new Orca Sonar wetsuit. The water was cold but my wetsuit was awesome. There was a very shallow sandbar during the swim that we had to stop swimming and run over. It really disrupted my rhythm during such a short swim. I felt good on the bike for the most part but had terrible stomach cramping starting about a half mile into the run. I wound up walking for a least quarter mile or so before I got over it and settled in to a decent run (minus the terrible start). I am getting faster but gotta keep running, gotta keep running!

The 2008 IronMed Charity Triathlon - Saturday April 12

2008-05-06T01:44:00.001-04:00

On Saturday April 12th I arose before the crack of down to participate in the 8th annual IronMed Charity Triathlon put on by Georgetown University School of Medicine.

The 2008 ACCC Road Cycling Season with the Georgetown Cycling Team

2008-05-06T01:40:00.003-04:00

It was long, it was hard, I rode with the C's and did not do well.

Cape Henry Duathlon - November 17, 2007

2007-12-26T02:17:00.000-05:00

I trekked down to Virginia Beach with the Georgetown Triathlon Team to compete in the 2007 Cape Henry Duathlon and Runfest on November 17th.

1st 5K run in 20:30

T1 of 1:15

32K bike in 1:00:15

T2 of 1:24

2nd 5K run in 22:12

Total finish time of 1:45:39

The 17th Street High Heel Race - October 30, 2007

2007-12-26T02:11:00.000-05:00

Wow, it was a blast this year! I didn't win because I was so wasted and missed the start, but I PROMISE to bring home the "golden high heel" next year. Hope to get pics and details about this year's race posted soon.

Check out the Washington Post video of this year's race featuring DC Mayor Adrian Fenty starting the race and yours truly front and center missing the start of the race because I was too busy boozing - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/10/31/VI2007103101716.html?referrer=emaillink.

Great Floridian Ironman - October 20, 2007

2007-10-27T23:39:00.000-04:00

Big Lick Triathlon - Sept 22, 2007

2007-10-05T15:02:00.000-04:00

On Friday September 21st I drove down to Roanoke, Virginia with Mike D. and Robbie of the Georgetown Triahtlon Team to compete in the Big Lick Triathlon, an olympic distance triathlon at Smith Mountain Lake State Park in Huddleston, Virginia.

The Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Championship race started at 9 a.m. on Saturday September 22nd, 2007.

1500 meter swim in 26:10

T1 of 2:08

40K bike in 1:12:29

T2 of 1:37

10K run in 46:38

finished in 2 hrs 29 min 00 sec overall

84th out of 267 male

32nd out of 54 collegiate males

The Civil War Century Ride - September 7, 2007

2007-10-05T14:54:00.000-04:00

105 mile bike ride put on by the Baltimore Bicycling Club

"This hilly ride has 7,400 feet of climbing with four mountain climbs and offers breathtaking mountain vistas along the way."

We visited three Civil War battlefields - Gettysburg, Antietam, and Manassas - along the route that started immediately with a climb that made me unsure I was going to make it all 105 miles. But woohoo I did, and the ice cream at the finish with Krissa and Annabelle was phenomenal.

2007 VA Beach Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon - Sept 2

2007-09-07T15:53:00.001-04:00

John and I drove out to Virginia Beach for Labor Day weekend this year for a little vacation and so I could run in my third consecutive VA Beach Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon.

13.1 miles
finished in 1 hr 33 min 45 sec (7:09 mile pace)

441st place out 17,018 finishers
66th place out 1,049 finishers in the male 25-29 age group

but well off the blazing pace set by the Kenyans who crossed the line at 1:02:20

I felt good running this year with major improvement over last year's time which was major improvement over the year before that. I maintained sub 7:17 mile pace which I need to run for 26.2 miles at an upcoming marathon in order to qualify for the

Boston Marathon (3 hr 10 min is the qualifying cut-off for the males in my age group).

I am getting faster. Gotta keep running, gotta keep running.

The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 mile trail race - August 4, 2007

2007-08-09T20:52:00.000-04:00

I found myself standing in total darkness in Great Falls Park on the Virginia/Maryland border about 15 miles outside D.C. at 4:55 a.m. on Saturday August 4th, 2007. I was wearing a Patagonia dri-fit shirt, a pair of Adidas dri-fit running shorts, Thorlos dri-fit socks, Salomon XCR trail running shoes, a Fuel Belt holding a 16 oz. waterbottle filled with Accelerade and a few ClifShot energy gels, and a headlamp designed for illuminating your way when running in darkness. I was surrounded by about 40 of the most insane and outrageously fit lunatics all geared up exactly as me, including ultramarathon legend Dean Karnazes. A man shouted a few last minute instructions to us with a loudspeaker mainly about how the course was marked with pink and orange ribbons tied to trees about every 100 meters. And then he blew a horn at 5 a.m. and we all took off running across the start line and into the woods in a quest to cover the 50 mile course and return to the finish line in the 13 hour time limit.

So to go back for a moment, I have been running quite a bit now every week and my weekend long run has gotten up to about 20 miles. Also have been reading a lot of adventure seeking books of late including Ed Viesteurs "No Shortcuts to the Top", Jon Krakauer "Into Thin Air" and "Into the Wild", and Dean Karnazes "Ultramarathon Man". So when I got an email a month ago about a 50 mile trail race out in Great Falls Park, I thought what the hell and signed up. When I started researching about how you're supposed to train for an ultra, I read that the current thinking is to do back-to-back long run days. So 3 weekends before the race, I went out and did a 20 miler on Saturday. Starting at my house in Georgetown, I did a loop out to Capital Hill and around the Capital, then down to East Potomac Park and did the loop around Haines Point, then over the Memorial Bridge into Virginia, along the Mt Vernon trail abutting the Potomac River west to the Key Bridge leading back into Georgetown. Then on Sunday, I went back out and did it all over again. The legs felt a little bit tired when I started on Sunday and every time I stopped running to fill up my water bottle, it was a little harder to get the legs moving again. But for the most part, I felt good and more mentally strong. The weekend before the race, I went up to Hudson Trail Outfitters and found a pair of trail running shoes that I love - they are made of Gore-Tex, a material that is water-resistant so the shoes can be used to run through streams, mud, and such. One of my med school buddies Pat Lenaghan took me out for a 5-6 miler on the trails around Georgetown for my first trail running experience, but I really took it easy for the most part the rest of the week leading up to the big event.

So here I was a couple miles into the run making my way along in the middle of the pack tramping through the woods with the only thing I could see being the ground a few feet in front of me that my headlight was illuminating. Although I was keeping up, I knew from the very beginning that I was in way out of my league. The first person I talked to at the start was quite the veteran ultra runner and had just run some other one the weekend before. And everyone else appeared to be in a similar boat with their bulging shaved legs and determined looks. So I tried to keep calm and just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

The pace the group was running from the get-go was pretty insane considering we were aiming to cover 50 miles on the day. But I didn't want to drop back and not be able to find my way along the trail. I wanted to keep my headlight focused on the ground I was running on, not on the trees ahead looking for the pink ribbons marking the trail as the leaders of group must have been doing. So I did what I thought was the best thing to do - keep up with the group for the time being until the sun came up and then start running a more practical pace.

I found trail running to be quite enjoyable. It was fun running through the woods, tromping through streams, jumping over downed trees, dodging roots and rocks, ascending/descending over rugged terrain. This was only my third run not on flat paved surface and I immediately realized what an amazing sport I have been missing out on. But as the miles passed along, I also realized that trail running requires a great deal more concentration and energy than running on a road.

It must have been around 6:00 or 6:15 a.m. and 8 or 9 miles in when the sun was starting to break the horizon and we could see the forrest we were trekking through. The group immediately spread out and I got my first sight of the lunatics I was running alongside. There were at least a couple of females running with us, two of whom left me in the dust within minutes of sunrise as I began slowing down to a more maintainable pace. After completing a 3 mile out and back loop called "Difficult Run", we entered a section of the run called "the cliffs" about 13 miles in. I reached a point where I was climbing on all fours over boulders on a cliff overlooking the Potomac River. I stumbled a little bit on the rocks and banged my knee pretty hard on one of the boulders that did not feel too nice. It made me realize how dangerous traversing along the bluffs with sheer drops hundred of feet into the river below actually was.

After "the cliffs" I found myself back at the start/finish line of the race with the first of three loops completed and set out to run the second loop supposedly around 23 miles. I passed the third aid station of the course only a couple of minutes into the loop and stopped to fill up my water bottle. There was cut up fruit, potatoes, M&Ms, pretzels, peanuts, sandwiches, towels soaked in ice water. I was ok with just some Accelerade and a gel at the moment but hoped that all the other aid stations would be so well stocked as I knew I would need some nourishment further down the road. As I kept moving along, the temperatures were already beginning to soar. It was to be a typical August day in Washington, D.C. - hot, humid, and definitely not the conditions you should try running 50 miles in. The temperature was reported to hit 98 degrees that day. Ouch! About 3 or 4 more miles of solo running and I found myself out of fluid to drink and ascending and descending such steep terrain that I was not capable of running across and had to walk several hundred feet off and on. Then at some point the trail I was running on began to deteriorate and I found myself back along the Potomac River with no sight of the pink ribbons tied to the trees every so often. There is nothing more discouraging than knowing you have gotten off course when trying to run 50 miles. I climbed on all fours up some slippery and steep terrain using trees to pull my way up back into the forrest. I eventually found a trail but didn't know which direction to start going. Suddenly three other runners came over a rise and said they were also lost. They had come from the left that they believed to be the wrong way so we all started along to the right. They all had a lot more energy than I did as they were running the 50K race (31 miles) that started at 7 a.m. and left me behind such that I was back to running by myself after not too long. It was at this point that I first started to feel uncomfortable. I was very thirsty and out of water and I could feel blisters forming on my toes. It seemed the fourth aid station would never arrive when suddenly it appeared as an "oasis in the middle of the forrest". Apparently the volunteers staffing the station had had to hike 10 minutes in carrying all the wonderful goodies. I stopped and drank and drank and drank and cooled off with an ice-soaked rag along with a couple other runners who were already there or arrived while I was relaxing. It felt good to rest but I knew I still had a long way to go so I grabbed a brownie for the road and headed off for the next aid station.

This next stretch of the course brought us out of the woods and into the ragingly hot sunlight as we ran alongside a golf course for a couple miles. I was still feeling pretty good along this flat stretch as the leaders started to pass me on their way back to where I had come from. A couple more miles trail running through the woods and I arrived at the next aid station and turn around point of this second loop. I took a seat with some cold water and thought about what I was doing. Here I was 25 miles in - half way done with 25 more miles to go. One of the volunteers told me it was now 10:30 a.m. I had been traveling for 5 and a half hours. I took off my shoes and socks and one of the medical volunteers helped me bandage up my blisters and bleeding toes. Then one of the runners who had been a few minutes ahead of me sitting in a nearby chair starting throwing up. He kept vomiting and vomiting and I just had to leave for fear of getting sick myself.

Somewhere a little more than a mile down the trail I crossed the 26.2 mile mark. There were no crowds cheering. There was no sign saying "congratulations, you've just completed a marathon". There was nothing but 23.8 more miles of trail layed out before me on this ridiculously steamy summer afternoon. So I just kept running. And when I couldn't keep running, I walked for a while. And then ran some, and then walked some. Each step I took was farther than I had ever completed in a single day before in my life. It was magical and I was still in high spirits though my feet were hurting, my legs were aching, and I was starting to have terrible pain in the muscles/tendons that raise and lower my right foot. It was taking me a lot longer to traverse back along the same route that I had just run out. I eventually made it back to aid station that was little more than a tent set up in the middle of the forrest. I was so happy to make it as I had run out of Accelerade in my single water bottle at least 15 or 20 minutes back and really needed something to drink. There were no chairs at this aid station so I just laid out on the forrest floor.

After what seemed like 30 seconds but was more likely several minutes, I managed to pick myself back up and start moving, not running, in the direction of the next aid station. Whatever high spirits I had been in were now over. I hurt and had at least 6 or 7 miles of tortuous terrain to cover to reach the next aid station back very close the start/finish line at the end of the second loop. What before was mostly running with some walking mixed in was now mostly walking with some attempts at running mixed in. I made it back to the spot on the course where I had previously gotten lost. The volunteers at the aid station told me that some pranksters had moved the ribbons to screw everyone up. The only way I knew to go was back down the steep enbankment I climbed up from the edge of the Potomac River and then traverse the steeply sloping bluff until I reached the point where the trail picked up again. My legs were weak and uneasy and I was scared about tumbling down into the Potomac tens of feet below. I managed to stay upright and got back on the trail I had previously followed before getting lost the first time. Following this route I eventually picked back up on the larger main trail lined with the pink ribbons it was so nice to see again. This brought me back to the section of the trail with the incredibly steep ups and downs that I had had to walk on the way out. I was now using all fours. Either using the trees lining the trail to help slow me down on the descents or at times literally pulling on the ground with my hands to make it up some of the ascents. Somewhere in the middle of this I began to feel very dizzy and realized that I was probably very dehyrdrated and hyponatremic. I drank the rest of my Accelerade and ate a gel but I still had at least 3 more miles before the next aid station. I was beginning to realize that I might not be cut out for 50 miles on this particular day. There just wasn't much left in me as I worked on getting to the next aid station. Every time one of the 50K runners passed me, I tried to start running and keep up but my body just wouldn't do what I wanted it to be able to. The chaffing was terrible - I couldn't believe I wore the shorts I did. And the tendons connecting my right foot to my leg were not in good shape but I was limping my way along anyway. As I reached a parking lot with less than half a mile to go to the next aid station, there was a fire truck parked with its lights on and an ambulance taking off up the road. Apparently one of the runners had collapsed and was being taken to the hospital. As a side note, I later read that he was indeed very sick and was still in the ICU more than 10 days after the race the last I heard.

By the time I reached the aid station at 37 miles into the race, I pretty much knew I was done for the day. It was 1:40 p.m. I had been traveling on my feet for 8 hours and 40 minutes at this point. I was a few hundred yards from the start/finish line where I would have to set out on another 12-13 mile loop. Or I could just cross the finish line and get a medal for finishing 50K on the day. I had packed a huge picnic lunch the day before - one cooler full of sandwiches and fruit salad, and the other full of beer and rum punch. I had told friends to come picnic at the finish line where I predicted crossing the tape between 2 and 3 p.m. So I decided to call it quits and have a beer. Several friends came out to congratulate me and we all relaxed and threw the frisbee at the lookout over Great Falls for the afternoon. Of course I was disappointed I hadn't made it all 50 miles but I lived to run another day. Gotta keep running, gotta keep running.

I crossed the finish line officially after 37+ miles at 9:16:25 and was one of 7 runners to do so. There were only 25 runners out of about 40 something that made it the full distance that day, led by Leigh Schmitt coming in at 6:59:34 with Dean coming in third at 8:20:15. Read an article about the event: http://www.thenorthface.com/endurancechallenge/races/2007/2007_wdc_recap.html

7th annual New York City Triathlon - July 22, 2007

2007-08-01T02:03:00.000-04:00

My brother Steven, Sierra, and I drove up I-95 to New York City on Friday July 19th, 2007 to participate in the 7th annual NYC Triathlon, an olympic distance race featuring a 1500 meter swim down current in the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan, a 40 kilometer bike out-and-back loop on the West Side Highway, and a 10 kilometer run loop through Central Park.

1500 meter swim in 22:23
T1 of 5:14
40 kilometer bike in 1:16:40 (19.4 mph avg.)
T2 of 2:31
10 kilometer run in 45:56 (7:24 mile pace)

finished in 2:32:43 overall

85th place out of 299 male finishers in the 25-29 age group

606 out of 2994 finishers overall

Lake Montclair Olympic Triathlon - June 24th, 2007

2007-06-28T01:08:00.000-04:00

Beth, Marisol, and I got in my car at 4:45 a.m. on Sunday June 24th and drove 30 miles south down I-95 to Lake Montclair, Virginia. Beth and I were competing in the Lake Montclair Triathlon, an olympic distance race with a 1500 meter lake swim, 40 kilometer 3 loop bike course, and 10 kilometer run.

1500 meter swim in 38:01

T1 of 2:49

40 kilometer bike in 1:11:25 (20.2 mph)

T2 of 2:10

10 kilometer run in 47:31 (7:40 mile pace)

finished in 2:41:56 overall

125 overall out of 393 finishers

12th out of 30 males in the 25-29 age group

The 22nd annual Bay to Bay Ride - June 17th, 2007

2007-06-28T01:04:00.000-04:00

On Sunday June 17th, I left my house at 5 a.m. and drove north up to Annapolis and then east over the Chesapeake Bay on the massive Bay Bridge to Betteron Beach on the eastern shore of Maryland. The 22nd annual Bay to Bay Ride was a 104.2 mile ride starting at Betterton Beach, traversing east across Maryland and Delaware to Woodland Beach on the Delaware coast, then back west to the Chesapeake Bay, and then back north to Betterton Beach.

Ironman 70.3 Florida in Orlando - May 20th, 2007

2007-05-22T18:40:00.000-04:00

On Friday May 18th, John and I took off from Washington, DC in my rusty trusty Toyota Camry on an 850 mile drive down to Orlando to participate in the 2007 Ironman 70.3 Florida consisting of a 1.2 mile swim in Walt Disney World's Fort Wilderness Lake, a 56 mile bike through western Orange County, and a 13.1 mile run along the paths of Fort Wilderness. We made it to Savannah, Georgia on Friday night where we crashed for the night before driving the rest of the way down to Orlando on Saturday morning. We went straight to Fort Wilderness in Disney World to check in my bike and pick up my packet for the race the next morning. It was crazy how many people there were competing in the race and how many expensive bikes there were parked in the transition area. After check-in, we went over and checked into the Coronado Springs Resort where we were staying for the weekend. Then we rushed over to Epcot in time to make it on all the best rides before closing and walk around the World Showcase getting drinks from all the countries before watching the fireworks over Lake Buena Vista when it got dark.

The alarm went off at 4:15 a.m. on Sunday morning. John drove me from Coronado Springs over to the parking lot near Fort Wilderness where I took a bus to the race start. It was still pitch black out - see the picture. I got my transition area set up, got body marked, and started the mental preparation required for racing 70.3 miles. There was a large group of professional triathletes competing that went off in the earliest swim wave at 6:20 a.m., and I got to see them transition from swim to bike before I had to make my way down to the lake for the pink swim wave. I was pretty nervous before the start but I had certainly put in my time training so I knew that I was going to make it. The water temperature on race morning was 78 degrees making wetsuits not allowed for the swim in the beautiful tea colored lake.

There were at least a hundred of us in the pink swim wave that ran off the beach and splashed our way out into the lake when our start time arrived. I had done a training swim in a lake out in Maryland a couple weekends prior to the race to get comfortable with open water swimming this season. The major challenge with open water swimming compared to swimming in a lap pool where I do all of my training is the lack of a black guide line along the bottom of the pool that you can follow when you swim to keep yourself aimed in the correct direction. Essentially, beyond the fact that I am not a strong swimmer, I am a terrible open water swimmer because I just can't keep myself aimed in the right direction and waste a significant amount of time and energy propelling myself in the wrong direction. It seeemed that every time I looked up after 10 or 20 strokes, I was heading off course and had to re-direct myself essentially zig-zagging my way across the swim course in the lake. I eventually completed the 1.2 mile swim loop and made it back to the beach in 44 minutes 17 seconds (2:13 per 100m pace).

It then took me a little over 6 minutes to run a couple hundred meters to the transition area, get my shoes, helmet, and shirt on, and get on my bike. The weather was so nice when we set out on our ride. The course was very flat but there was a strong headwind during several sections of the ride that never seemed to be at our backs. Per USAT rules, drafting is illegal during triathlons so wind plays a major factor during the bike. Nevertheless, the ride flew by as I covered the 56 miles in 3 hr 2 min 29 sec (averaging 18.4 mph) and got back into the transition area where I slipped on my running shoes and my silk Mickey Mouse boxers and set out on a half marathon run after a T2 of 5 min 34 sec.

The 13.1 mile run a was a 3 loop course over mostly trampled grass and some paved paths and roads. It was quite a hot Florida day by the time I was out running the course that featured little shade or protection from the sun. I felt good out of the bike to run transition and ran a good first lap but it hurt seeing people turn left towards the finish line when I had to turn right for two more loops. The second lap was significantly slower and more brutal, and it hurt much worse seeing people head towards the finish when I had turn right for yet another loop. Thank god for the volunteers handing out Gatorade and ice cold soaking sponges during the run. Somehow I dragged myself around that 4+ mile loop one last time and got to turn left and head towards the finish line. I was so happy to make it to the finish line no matter how long it took me. I wound up covering the 13.1 miles in 2 hr 16 min 54 sec (10:28 per mile pace) and completed the 70.3 mile triathlon in 6:15:29 good for 1207 out of 1997 finishers overall and 90 out of 134 males in the 25-29 age group.

I drank so much fluid after I finished before going back to Coronado Springs to get cleaned up and take a post-race nap. When I woke up, there was hunger and some soreness, and John and I ate an exorbitant amount of food before heading to Disney World to ride some rides and hang out with Mickey Mouse. The night ended with drinks and dancing at the disco club on Pleasure Island (Disney World's center for night time adult entertainment). It was such a great time, and I can't wait to come back to Florida in October for the real deal!

The Relay, 199 miles from Calistoga to Santa Cruz - May 5-6th, 2007

2007-05-18T00:03:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday May 2nd, I flew out to San Francisco to meet up with my favorite 11 Georgetown law students to run The Relay, a 199 mile road race from Calistoga to Santa Cruz, California (www.therelay.com). The Relay is broken up into 36 legs of varying lengths and difficulties meaning everyone on a team of 12 gets to run three legs. The first person on the team runs from the start line to the checkpoint at the end of leg 1 where the second team member is waiting to take off. The second team member starts running for checkpoint 2 where hopefully the third team member is waiting and ready to run. All the teams ride in vans from checkpoint to checkpoint and stop along the way to cheer on their running teammate.

Thursday turned out to be an awesome day - I rented a bike and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge and did 60 miles up in the hills of Sausalito and Tiburon. Wednesday and Thursday nights were rather tame but we did get to see the End Up until 4 in the morning on Thursday. Did some shopping and swam some laps in the USF pool on Friday before meeting up with the team Friday night at Chad, Mark, and Lauren's apartment in the Mission very near Delores Park for the pre-race BBQ throwdown. My favorite 11 Georgetown law students are all actually graduated now and are big time lawyers in various cities throughout the country. We were reuniting in San Fran for the race and everyone was very happy to see each other again. So happy the beer and Sparks drinking turned into hardcore boozing and we hit the Castro for a night of shenanigans that should have ended before 8:30 a.m. when it was time to start driving up to Calistoga for the start of the race.

Our starting time on Saturday was scheduled for 1 p.m. It took us a while to get packed up into the two big vans and get on the road for the couple hour ride north to Calistoga that morning. We got there in time to see the teams going off at the 12:00 and 12:30 start times and to make a quick stop at the grocery store for water, food, and supplies for the next 26 hours. The sexy Chad was led us off as the Rocky theme song "Eye of the Tiger" energized the 1:00 start for about a dozen teams. It turned out to be a typical beautiful California day and it was awesome following our runners through wine country as we trekked through Napa and Sonoma.

I was set to run legs 12, 24, and 36 for our team - meaning I didn't get to run until several hours after Chad started us off but also that I would be running the final leg of the race and get to cross the finish line for our team. My first leg was 4.8 miles, rated hard, with 400 feet of climbing in the first 3 miles and then gentle downgrade over the last couple miles going back down 100 feet. It was pitch black outside at 10 p.m. when Paul Lee came running into checkpoint 11 in his reflective vest and headlamp to pass off "the green bracelet" to me (see the picture). I took off on my first run of the day in my reflective vest and headlamp, but no sooner than about 30 paces did my headlamp fall on the ground and bust into a bunch of pieces. I was stuck going the distance in absolute darkness, and it was only by starlight that I was able to follow the white line on the side of the road that kept me aiming in the correct direction as I marched along. As my vision adjusted to the darkness and I could begin to see where I was putting my feet (which is always nice when running), the confidence started building and so did my pace. The hill was challenging but I managed to pass a couple runners on the ascent and then a few more when I took off on the downhill. It was nice to see Chad waiting for me at the checkpoint at the end of 4.8 miles. We had a good time driving and running all night.

My second leg was 5.9 miles, rated moderate, flat for the first 3 miles, then 200 feet of climbing over miles 3 to 5, and then gentle downgrade to the checkpoint. It was about 6 a.m. when I was getting out of the van in the morning to start stretching and getting ready to run. It was quite chilly and the sun was just peaking over the horizon when Paul Lee came running up to hand off the green bracelet. It was a beautiful fast-paced run along amazing scenery featuring a huge lake and mountains in the distance during an awesome sunrise. I was sad to have to stop running and hand off to Chad when I reached the checkpoint. However, with 2 legs down and only 1 more to run it was time to start the Sparks drinking, hula dancing, and tomfoolery. We got asked by numerous folks if we were really running or just drinking and partying the whole way. My final leg was scheduled for 4.7 miles, rated easy, downhill the first mile into Santa Cruz at sea level, across a pedestrian bridge, around downtown Santa Cruz for a couple miles and then onto the beach and along the boardwalk to the finish line. I was feeling good going into my last leg and took off at a lightning pace passing the few people in sight in the first half mile. After crossing the pedestrian bridge, the course took several turns through downtown on the way to the beach, and I must have missed one of the turns because I came to beach with no other runners or race signs in sight and everyone I asked responded "What race?". After running in circles for a couple miles I eventually found the boardwalk and ran onto the beach where the team was waiting for me. We all raced the last 500 feet along the beach together and across the finish line at around 4 p.m. after 27 hours of non-stop running. Chad, Paul Lee, and I all jumped in the freezing Pacific together to cool off, and we took a team photo on the beach before heading back to San Fran for margaritas and food.

WVU's ACCC Conference Championships at Wisp Ski Resort in MD - Bike race weekend #5, April 22rd

2007-05-17T23:52:00.000-04:00

The cycling season came and went very fast this spring, and the last race of the season had arrived April 22rd - ACCC Conference Championships at Wisp Ski Resort in Garrett County, Maryland. I drove up on the night of Saturday the 21st to meet the team at Wisp as they had been riding the Conference Championship Criterium during the day. Everyone was tired and we all made it bed early as the race started early the next morning. It was a chilly morning at 8 a.m. when I got outisde to start getting ready for the ride. Men's C was set to ride a 24.5 mile course in the shape of a lollipop (the loop was 19.7 miles) described as "a road race unlike any other in the conference with over 1800 feet of vertical during each lap and over 600 feet of climbing in the epilogue to the finish". There turned out to be 39 riders that lined up at the start at 9:30 when they finally got organized to begin the race. There was a neutral roll out of the ski resort for about 2 or 3 miles the included a steep downhill traverse that would have been scary to race down. As we turned onto the loop, the race was underway and the whole group took off. The course was a nightmare of ups and downs and it seemed to always be going up and never down like some screwy M.C. Escher drawing or something. I just couldn't keep up with the Men's C field this year and this race turned out to be no exception as I got dropped within 5 or 6 miles of hitting the hills. I just don't ever find the kind of hills in D.C. that this course had in store for me (see the elevation map), and I really enjoyed the experience of getting massacred by the terrain. I eventually made it to the finish line crossing in 32nd out of the 36 finishers. I know now where I need and hope to be next year in order to be competitive at this level. It's going to be fun training all fall and winter to get ready for next season. Following the conclusion of this last race of the season, the Georgetown University Cycling Team finished in 3rd place in the Division 2 team standings of the ACCC behind only Appalachian State and Johns Hopkins. Congrats to the team on an awesome inaugural season!

The 2007 IronMed Charity Triathlon - April 14th

2007-04-26T23:44:00.000-04:00

On Saturday April 14th my brother and I arose before the crack of down to participate in the 7th annual IronMed Charity Triathlon put on by Georgetown University School of Medicine. I arrived to check in before 6 a.m. when it was still dark outside (see the picture to the left) and was surprised to find that it was not raining for the first time in the history of the event but was extremely chilly, likely in the low 40 degree range. At check in there were two black SUV's with tinted windows and four huge dudes in black suits there to provide security to DC's mayor Adrian Fenty who would be participating in the triathlon. I got checked in, set up my transition area, and started preparing myself for the 6:30 a.m. start time for the 1st wave that I would be going off in. Adrian Fenty gave us a pre-race motivational speech, and before I knew it we were in the pool waiting to go off.

I have been working hard in the pool all winter and was excited for my first triathlon swim of the year. However, it turns out I was a little too excited and had a lot of trouble getting into a rhythm the first few laps. I was only 750 yards into the 1000 yard swim when people started cheering for the first person out of the pool - the girl I was sharing a lane with, Patty who swam at Georgetown undergrad. I just kept going and was out of the pool a few minutes later in 17 min 4 sec (30 seconds faster than my time last year). I ran out into the freezing cold and got changed into my cycling gear and hopped on my bike just ahead of Mayor Fenty. I have been riding with the Georgetown Cycling Team all spring and hoped that I could make up some time on everyone ahead of me now that my feet were on dry land. I made my way down the Georgetown hill and onto the unpaved C&O Canal Trail for the 16 mile out-and back ride. It was damn cold but I have been getting used to riding in the cold all spring and just put my head down and biked along. After passing a couple people, I found myself at Lock 10, the turn around, and started heading back. I knew that Adrian Fenty was somewhere behind me and I had been peeking over my shoulder every once in a while to see if he was in sight. With about 2 miles to go on the ride, I heard a bike coming up behind me and sure enough I got passed by the mayor of the District of Columbia. The last time I saw Adrian Fenty before today was at the 17th Street High Heel Race back at Halloween when he shook my hand and told me I was looking hot. There were no niceties exchanged this time as it was now time to chase this 35 year old down. He didn't get too far ahead of me on the bike before it was time to fight our way back up the Georgetown hill to the transition area. I had a little homefield advantage on him on the way back up and we both were putting our running shoes on at the same time after finishing the bike in around 55 min. He beat me out of the transition area by about 30 seconds and the race was on. It was a 10K (6.2 mile) out-and-back loop on the paved Capital Crescent Trail. The feet were completely numb and the legs ached as I took my first steps out of the transition area after chugging some Gatorade. My footsteps were loud as I plodded along the first mile or so as I slowly regained sensation, and I was only a couple hundred feet behind Adrian Fenty the whole way out with people screaming at me to catch him. I got within about 50 feet shortly after we hit the turn around and started making our way back but that was the closest I would get as he pulled away out in front during the last couple miles. Adrian Fenty wound up crossing the finish line at 2 hrs 1 min 13 sec in 3rd place, and I came in about 30 seconds back (more than 4 minutes faster than last year) after a 44:30 run. The finish line brought great happiness and the opportunity to take a hot shower to get warmed up. Steven went off in the 7:00 a.m. 2nd wave start and did very well in his only 2nd triathlon ever. He looks to be having a great time in the picture of his run back to the finish line.

Following the conlcusion of the race, everyone came back to my place for the fourth leg of the quadrathlon, a BBQ and beer drinking competition. We had a blast playing beer pong and trying to eat the 10 pound Toblerone bar that Mr. IronMed champion Wolfgang brought over. It was definitely only 9 p.m. when I went to sleep that night.

Overall the event was an enormous success. Thank you all so much for your generous support of the H.O.Y.A. Clinic in support of my running in the 2007 IronMed Charity Triathlon! Together my brother and I raised over $500 and the event raised more than $20,000 to provide health services to the underserved families living at the DC Village emergency shelter in Southeast DC. I will be sure to keep you posted as the clinic readies to open it doors this fall.

Please stay tuned for new and exciting race adventures with The Relay out in Cali and Ironman 70.3 Florida both less than a month away. Signing out for now.

~ D.

JMU's Reddish Knob Hill Climb and UVA's Jefferson Cup Road Race - Bike race weekend #4, March 24th and 25th

2007-03-27T20:04:00.000-04:00

On the morning of Saturday March 24th I picked up another Georgetown graduate student Mary at 7:30 a.m. and took off down to Harrisonburg, Virginia to meet up with the rest of the Georgetown cycling team and participate in James Madison University's Reddish Knob Hill Climb Individual Time Trial. The course was an 11.7 mile climb over which riders gain approximately 2800 feet of elevation to the top of Virginia's tallest peak, Reddish Knob. The course begins on a straight road with a gentle false flat climb. At the 6-mile mark riders pass the dam and the grade increases and remains sustained for the next four miles. The last two miles involve several steeper pitches and one or two short rolling sections as riders roll along the ridge road up to the summit of Reddish Knob at 4400 feet elevation. See the course map above and elevation map below.

Lin Distance: 11.7 mi
Elevation Gain: 2,881.4 ft
Average Grade: 5%

Climb Elevation: 3,196.5 ft
Descent Elevation: 315.1 ft
Max. Elevation: 4,369.4 ft
Min. Elevation: 1,487.8 ft

The first rider of the day was sent off from the start line at 11:30 a.m. and additional riders were sent off the line at 30-second intervals. Men's D went off first and then Men's C. I was the 5th rider out of 30 to go in my category and started around 11:40. The first 6 miles were not too intense at all, and I was chit-chatting with a UNC rider most of the way. But when we hit the 6 mile mark, HOLY SHIT! I had never done anything like this before. I have no idea why it was called a hill climb because it was certainly a mountain that we biked straight up that day. D.C. is totally flat and I just don't get too much training in on hills which was definitely not a good thing come this Saturday. My legs were screaming, several people passed me, and all I could think about was "please god get me to the top" for those last few miles. It wound up taking me 1 hr 10 min 57 sec to reach the summit good for 26th place out of 30 riders. It was ridiculously chilly at the top of the mountain even though it had been a warm but rainy day at the start of the ride and the last thing I wanted to do was go flying back down the mountain in the cold wind. It was an intense but fun ride back down the mountain and I wound up riding the last several miles with a rider from UNC talking about the big game the next night to see who of our teams in the face-to-face battle would win to make the final four. Mike from our team is a monster rider and finshed the climb in 48 min 50 sec, the fastest time on the mountain that day. I am inspired. Next year, next year.

After the hill climb, we all drove up to Charlottesville, Virginia to stay for the night and then participate in the University of Virginia's Jefferson Cup Road Race on Sunday March 25th. "The race is held on a classic loop road couse with plenty of ups and downs and one longer steeper climb to keep you honest. The roads are usually slow (rough) which can make it a job to even sit in on some sections, and the hills are not long but enough to chew you up if you do not ride smartly." Everyone else's race went off early in the day including a USCF Category 1-2-3 race which was awesome to see all the sponsored and semi-pro riders racing. Men's C was the last scheduled race of the day at 2:30 p.m. but it was closer to 3:45 p.m. by the time we started lining up in the parking lot of the elementary school the race was staged at. There was a 2 mile neutral roll out to the start line of the 10 mile loop course we would be riding 3 laps on. It turned out to be a hot hot day (the first of the season) and getting warmed up before the race had not been difficult. The race didn't go too well as I got dropped by the pack only a few miles into the first loop when I just couldn't keep up with everyone on the hills. It was a pretty ride for the hour and half or so I was out there. There were 54 riders who started the race, and I was listed as crossing the finish 7 from the bottom. Ouch. Need to start training harder. "The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins. Period." - Floyd Landis

The President's Crit at University of Maryland - Bike race weekend #3, March 18th

2007-03-22T03:08:00.000-04:00

On Sunday March 18th I drove up to the University of Maryland in College Park to ride in the President's Crit. It was a chilly morning somewhere in the 40's as I pulled up around 7:45 a.m. in order to check in and get warmed up before the 9:00 start. This was a lot smaller race than Philly the weekend before as there were 28 of us that lined up to race Men's C. We would be racing for 25 minutes and completing 12 laps on the 0.70 mile course featuring three 90 degree turns, a small climb up to a tight technical chicane around the President's house, and a wide open finish. I started off pretty timidly toward the back of the pack for the first lap getting the feel of the group and the course. At the top of the hill on the 2nd loop there was a wreck in the middle of the pack that a few riders went down in that slowed me down quite a bit and totally spread out the group of riders. After I got by the downed bikers I put my head down and started chugging to catch up with whoever was in front of me. I passed a number of riders but never really found a pack ahead of me and really had no idea where I stood as the laps passed by. I was climbing up the hill behind an American University rider who just turned to the right, puked, and then kept on riding. Hardcore. On my last lap I saw a Maryland rider down over the curb in one of the turns who looked like he was in pretty bad shape. In the end I wound up crossing the finish line in 4th place out of 20 finishers and got our team 15 points. Everyone else did awesome and Georgetown took far more points than any other team at the race. After this 3rd weekend of racing, the Georgetown cycling team is in 1st place in Division 2 of the ACCC ahead (but not by much) of W&M, Appalachian State, and Johns Hopkins. Woohoo!

The 2007 Philly Phlyer - Bike race weekend #2, March 10th & 11th

2007-03-19T19:01:00.000-04:00

Julia and I drove up to Philadelphia on Friday March 9th and met up with the 3 undegrad boys at the Best Western in the museum district around midnight and got to sleep pretty shortly thereafter. After grabbing a quick breakfast at Wawa, we drove over to Fairmount Park for the 2007 Philly Phlyer. Hosted by Drexel, UPenn, and Johns Hopkins, the Philly Phlyer is a cross-conference race with teams from both the Atlantic and Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conferences. With more than 500 racers competing, the weekend turned out to be the largest collegiate bike race ever.

I was signed up again this weekend to ride Men's C for Saturday's road race and Sunday's crit. The road race course diagrammed above was a loop approximately 6 miles that Men's C was riding 3 laps on. The first stretch on Lansdowne Dr was a steep downhill onto a sweeping 180 degree turn followed by a straight run along the river. The Strawberry Mansion Bridge loop features a solid climb after a sharp 180 degree turn off the river and a fast, winding descent into a 90 degree turn back onto the river. Black Rd is a moderate climb to the final sequence, which includes an off-camber, hard turn. The Men's C group was so large that it wound up being split into Division 1 and Division 2 races based on the size of the school. I got to see the Men's D, Men's Intro, Women's B, Women's Intro, and a couple USCF races go in the chilly morning before my race. It was about 1:00 p.m. and a lot more warm (maybe about 50 degrees) when we got to line up at the start. There were 71 of us that started the ride and everyone took off at a blazing pace. I was sticking to the back of the pack but keeping up ok until we got to the first hill after the 180 degree turn off the river. I just got ditched. After I eventually made it up and caught my breath, I was able to sprint for a couple minutes and catch back up to the pack only to be ditched again coming up the hill at the end of the first lap and did not catch back up during the race. Though I felt good throughout the ride, there are just no hills to train on in D.C. compared to where some of these guys are from. I wound up crossing the finish line of the 18 mile ride in 60th place out of 61 riders. Fortunately some other Georgetown riders had a much better showing than I did. After Saturday's races were complete, we all made our way back to the hotel and got cleaned up. Then we all walked out as a group and got strombolis for dinner, and I ran up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art like Rocky Balboa on the way back to the hotel. We all stayed up and watched Georgetown beat Pitt to win the Eastern Conference Championship that would get Georgetown a number 2 seed into the NCAA tournament.

The crit course on Sunday was approximately 0.7 miles long, perfectly flat, and very wide all around. It was designed as a fast course with four 90 degree right turns that is well suited for beginners but requires great pack riding skills and strong legs to excel at, especially with the strong headwinds on Sunday. The Men's C race would be riding for 30 minutes and completing 17 laps of the course, and there were 66 of us that lined up to start the Division 2 race around 1:00 p.m. on a much more pleasant Sunday afternoon. I was a little distraught after Saturday's ride and had some determination that day. It turns out that the crit is much more my style of race as I am able to sprint with those guys despite not being able ride hills with them. We sprinted the straight, slowed in the turn, and sprinted the straight over and over again. I started towards the back of the pack but found myself pushing up towards the front a couple of times. At around lap 8 there was a pretty nasty wreck where several bikers went down in front of me, and the 15 of us or so that got caught behind it and didn't go down were slowed dramatically getting going again. We spent the rest of the ride racing trying to catch up with the pack but never quite made it. I was recorded as finishing in 41st place out of the 50 finishers. Overall, Georgetown faired well on the weekend finishing in 27th place out of 57 teams in the points standing.

Somebody needs to tell me this is bike racing, not a GQ add.

My first bike race - William & Mary's Tidewater Winter Classic on February 25th, 2007

2007-03-04T19:43:00.000-05:00

Eight of us met up on campus on the afternoon of Saturday February 24th, got our bikes and gear packed up in three cars, and then set off south down I-95 to Williamsburg, Virginia to compete in the College of William and Mary’s 2nd annual Tidewater Winter Classic. We rolled into Williamsburg around 9 p.m. and got checked into our hotel for the night before walking over to IHOP to fuel up on eggs and pancakes before the morning’s race.

We all got up at 7 a.m. to a frigid morning with freezing rain that continued throughout the day and then drove over to the staging ground for the race at the KOA campground. A.J. had brought a large tent that we set up a couple bike trainers underneath to warm up on. The course for the road race was a 9.38 mile mostly flat loop culminating with a decisive climb and hilltop finish line. There were 10 of us from Georgetown there to ride that Sunday but I was the only one riding in the Men’s C division that was completing 3 laps of the course for a total of 28.1 miles. The Men’s D and the Women’s B divisions went off around 10 a.m. There were riders from so many schools there competing including Duke, UNC, NC State, Appalachian State, Johns Hopkins, WVU, William and Mary, Mary Washington, UMD, George Mason, James Madison, and more. It was exciting to see Julia, Sarah, James, and Tim all finish so well in their races before mine went off.

I am not sure what time everyone from my division started lining up (maybe 11:30ish) but I was pretty nervous and pretty cold. And that was before we started riding. There were 62 riders that started in my division and I stuck to the back of the pack as we took off. I made the terrible mistake of wearing fingerless gloves and not wearing my shoe covers, and my fingers and toes were completely numb within minutes of taking off – so much so that I had to watch my gears change because I couldn’t feel my fingers shifting and braking. The pack (or “peloton” if you’re into the whole biking terminology) wasn’t riding particularly fast at first but keeping up was challenging – when the leaders slow down for any reason like before a turn, the braking gets amplified along the train of riders such that the people at the very back are slowed down so much that they then have to sprint to catch back up, kind of like a slinky or yo-yo or something. I just hadn’t done very much pace-line riding before the race and my confidence at riding up in the middle of the pack (where you need to be to stay up with the leaders due to the effort you save with drafting off the riders in front of you) was not there that Sunday. I stayed up with group for the first two loops around the course as several other riders fell off but got ditched on the third loop. I felt strong riding the last few miles on my own and made my way up the final climb for the 3rd time to the finish line that I crossed in 43rd place out of 53 finishers about a couple minutes after the leaders. See the picture of me freezing at the finish line as my body temperature plummets after stopping working so hard. It took the better part of the afternoon to get warmed back up, especially since we kept running back out in the sleet and cold to cheer on Jeff, Alex, A.J., Mike, and Chris as they completed each lap during their races. Georgetown finished well on the day with 6 riders scoring in the points and 4 top 10 finishers in the first race of the season. Of course no trip to Williamsburg was complete without a trip to The Peanut Shop and Pierce’s BBQ before returning back to D.C. in the pouring sleet and rain.

Turkey Trot mania, Thanksgiving 2006

2006-12-07T02:46:00.000-05:00

The annual Georgetown University Turkey Trot was scheduled for Thursday November 16th this year. The day turned out to be terrible with thundershowers destroying the opportunity to run. So the race was rescheduled for 4 p.m. on Monday November 20th. That Monday brought clear skies but frigid temperatures somewhere in the 30's at race time. There were only about 20 of us that showed up to do three laps around Kehoe turf, two laps around the practice field, down the hill and two laps around the football field, back up the hill and one more lap around the practice field before crossing back to the finish line. There were two people that really took off at the start that I wound up chasing as soon as I got warmed up and started moving. One of them didn't pace well and I got by him really slowed down on the football field. The leader was just too far out in front of me that I just couldn't catch up and wound up crossing the finish line of the ~2.4 mile course at 14 minutes 30 seconds about a couple hundred yards back. They gave me a 15 lb frozen turkey, Booeymongers gift certificates, and an IM champion shirt.

On Wednesday November 22nd the brother Steven, his girlfriend Sierra, and I flew home to Cincinnati, Ohio for Thanksgiving with the parents. As soon as we got into town, we headed straight to Fries Cafe, the used-to-be family owned divebar than has been the annual Thanksgiving Eve watering hole for the past several years. Check out the picutre of us throwing them back above. The father drove us home after a night without too much commotion compared to years past. Steven and I left the house in West Chester at 8 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning the 23rd and headed down to Paul Brown Stadium to run in Cincinnati's 97th annual Thanksgiving Day 10k race. We got there in time to register and then sprint through the crowds to the line for the 9 a.m. start. The gun went off and we all set out on the 6.2 mile trek around downtown Cincinnati, across a bridge over the Ohio River into Kentucky, through Newport and then Covington, across another bridge back into Cincinnati, and then back to the finish line at Paul Brown Stadium. The weather was beautiful for running that morning with a race temp somewhere in the low 50's. The legs felt good for the run but there was some hurt inside from the night before (no doubt those Southern Comfort shots) and I fell off during the last mile or so crossing the finish at 41:21 (6:39 mile pace) that would have been good for 331st place out of 10,591 finishers had I gotten there in time to get a chip on my shoe. Steven also finished well only a couple minutes back. Steven wonders why we always party so hard the night before races together. I don't know. Check us out passed out together later Thanksgiving afternoon. Gobble gobble!

A most exhilirating and painful day - Sunday November 5th, 2006

2006-11-16T18:54:00.000-05:00

- On Friday November 3rd I took the 10:30 p.m. Chinatown bus from D.C. up to Penn Station in New York City. From there I hopped a ride over to Chelsea to meet up with my friend Dee at a house party and then we headed down to Tribeca to sleep for the night. On Saturday morning I made my way over to the marathon expo at the Javits Center on the west side to pick up my race packet, buy a bus ticket down to Staten Island for the morning, and found a cool pair of running shorts. After the expo I met up with my mommy in Midtown who had come into town for the weekend to watch the race and hang out with friends. We wound up spending the day walking around the neighborhoods of Manhattan, shopping, and got some pasta for dinner in the West Village. I went and dropped off everything I didn't need in the morning at my mom's hotel room and then made my way over to my hotel on the Upper West Side where I actually managed to fall asleep by 11 p.m.

The alarm went off at 5:45 a.m. on Sunday morning and I was out the door of the hotel by 6:00. I took the metro down to the NYC Public Library at 42nd St where I was to catch a bus down to the start line on Staten Island. There were literally thousands of people waiting in line for the bus. It was quite a chilly morning with a high on race day of 45 degrees, and I was glad to be wearing gloves and a hat while waiting in line to get on the bus. There were so many international runners waiting in line around me. It was about 7:30 by the time we got on the bus and started rolling - first over to Brooklyn and then across the Verazano-Narrows bridge to get down to Staten Island. We were crossing the bridge a little after 8 and got to see all the runners with disabilities starting their 26.2 mile adventure heading the other way on the bridge after their 8:00 start. It was truly inspiring to see people on crutches, people with no legs, people with no vision, all filled with the desire to traverse the same 26.2 miles I would be running in a couple hours. The bus let us off around 8:30, quite a while until the 10:10 a.m. race start. There was an amazing amount of nervous energy among the 38,368 runners gathered on Staten Island that morning - the largest group to ever start a marathon in history. It was an amusing sight to see everyone's pre-race routine be it sleeping, huddled up in a foil blanket, stretching, rubbing Ben-Gay all over oneself, etc. It took quite a while to stand in line to use the bathroom one last time and to check my bag. Race time came upon us very quickly.

I was in the orange corral at the start meaning I got to cross the Verazano-Narrows Bridge on the top left side - thankfully not on the bottom where you can get peed on by runners on the top if the wind is blowing right. At about 9:50 they started herding us to the start line. After the singing of the national anthem, the gun went off at 10:10 a.m. and the race was underway. On the top right side of the bridge I got to see the professional runners go by along with Lance Armstrong and his entourage. There was a concrete wall with several armed NYPD officers dividing my corral from Lance's so I was not able to chase him down and pull down his pants as was my plan. I made it to the start very quickly after the gun went off and was on my way across the Verazano-Narrows Bridge from Staten Island into Brooklyn. See the picture of the thousands of us crossing the bridge above.

I felt good from the get go and started at a nice pace after I got past the crowded first mile. The crowds were 5-10 people deep as we treked through Brooklyn. Knowing how much training I had put in really helped drive me during most of the race. I had some moderate knee pain starting about mile 9 that I was able to run through and subsided around mile 13 or 14. I was running with the 3 hr 15 min pace group and crossed the half marathon mark at 1:39:12. At mile 15 I reached Queensboro Bridge, a nightmarish 1.2 mile uphill climb from Queens onto Manhattan. I somehow found the stamina to run up that freaky hill at which point I thought I was done only to be greeted by the thousands of New Yorkers cheering us on as we made our way onto Manhattan for the first time in the race. The cheering crowds propeled me for the next couple miles at which point I fell apart or hit the proverbial "wall". The legs started cramping and I just didn't have the energy to keep it going at the pace I was at come mile 19 or so. See my demise on the pace chart above. It was a real struggle that last 7 or 8 miles filled with much stretching, walking, and agony. After we made it into Central Park around mile 24 I was able to pick it up a little bit and bring it home running in front of the enormous crowds. My mommy was there cheering for me at Columbus Circle at mile 26.1 and got to see me cross the finish line at 3 hours 45 minutes 22 seconds. My 8:36 mile pace for the 26.2 miles was good for 7,452 place out of 37,480 finishers on the day. There was an unforgettable feeling of accomplishment that came across me as I took that last few steps. Lance crossed the finish line in 2:59:36 (45 min 46 sec ahead of me) and called the marathon "the hardest physical thing I have ever done". The pain kicked in right away after my legs stopped and I was pretty crippled for that couple mile walk where you take the chip off your shoe, get your foil blanket, water hand out, baggage pick up, and then finally family reunion where I met up with the mother. We took a cab over to her hotel room where I got cleaned up and then headed over to Chinatown and caught a bus back to D.C. I can't wait for the next one!

The 17th Street High Heel Race - Tuesday October 24th, 2006

2006-10-26T01:06:00.000-04:00

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THE MOST FABULOUSLY RAUCOUS RACE EVER!!!!!!!!

"Traditionally held on the Tuesday before Halloween, this annual neighborhood event features elaborately costumed drag queens racing down 17th Street (from Q to Church streets) and attracts a large crowd eager to cheer them on. The race begins at 9, but the real fun takes place before the main event, as the contestants parade up and down the race course showing off their outfits. The informal block party continues long after the last Mary Jane (size 13 EE) crosses the finish line." ~ Washington Post

To get any sense of what insanity transpired on 17th Street this Tuesday, click on this link to see a short video put together by the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2006/10/24/VI2006102400655.html

So I spent the last week assembling my costume for the big race. Thigh-high white leather platform-heel boots, feather boa, leather choker, and body glitter from the Pleasure Place. Red plaid skirt from Urban Outfitters. White button-up shirt from H&M. Pink wig from Commander Salamander. I won't disclose how and where my buddy Adam Kutcher got his priest outfit.

See the picture of me above with my housemates before heading over to 17th Street. Believe me - hailing a cab was not difficult. In fact, I didn't need a cab as I got picked up by a couple in their 50's who thought I was a prostitute at first but then realized where I must be going and wanted to give me a ride. I am sure they had fun telling all their friends about their out of the ordinary ride from Georgetown to Dupont Circle that night.

I got to JR's on 17th Street at 7:30 p.m. and the scene was already raging. So many people gathered for an evening of drinking and gawking. Oh my god gawking. Everyone would not stop staring and whistling and asking me to take a picture with them. I met up with my brother Steven at JR's where I got registered for the race and then had some beers in their beer garten. Then Adam Kutcher finally showed up - we were priest and naughty catholic school girl together at last.

Parading was unbelievable. I ran into my friend Filip who was Orange Fanta together with the other three Fanta Girls. Everyone's outfits were totally outrageous. So many friends were out to watch and were screaming at us parading up and down the street. I ran into the newly elected mayor of DC Adrian Fenty who shook my hand and told me I was looking beautiful. No joke! I got in a little bit of stretching and did some strides and it was time for the race to begin.

We lined up at Church St and believe me there was a lot of elbowing trying to get to the front of the starting line. People on the left side of the street were screaming "HIGH" and people on the right side were screaming "HEEL" back and forth like the "tastes great / less filling" Bud Lite commercial. The gun went off at 9:00 p.m. and we were off. I had the desire but not the shoes on to win. I sprinted the four blocks hard but my heels were just too tall and clumsy and I couldn't keep up with the leaders. I crossed the finish line somewhere in the 10th-15th place range but am absolutely certain I had the fastest time/heel ratio of any drag queen racing Tuesday night.

The block party began only minutes after the race had just begun. An overwhelming number of friends came over to tell me how beautiful I was and how fast I had run. Many more pictures with people on the street. A huge group of us went to Annie's Steak House and caused a scene at the bar I am sure that restaurant won't see again for a long while. At some point a few of us moved over to Cobalt for their Tuesday night 80's dance party that was more fun than ever. I ran into the winner of the race carrying the golden high heel trophy and we did a shot together. I told him to watch out in 2007.

What an amazing night! I am already planning my outfit for next year. And am already strategizing on how I am going to be first across that finish line to win the golden high heel.

PACE Race 5K -- Saturday October 21st, 2006

2006-10-22T20:47:00.000-04:00

At 7 a.m. on Saturday October 21st Bill Scully and I drove down to West Potomac Park to run the third annual PACE Race 5K, an event organized every year to raise awareness about prostate cancer. The course is a speedy out and back starting in West Potomac Park and returning from halfway down the river side of East Potomac Park. I actually got more than a couple hours of sleep and didn't have too much to drink the night before and was feeling pretty good except quite a bit chilly. The gun went off at 8 a.m. and we all took off. The cold air was painful to the lungs with the first deep breaths, and the hands were completely numb for the duration of the run. About 10 of us had broken away by the 1 mile mark but the leaders were running an insane pace and I just couldn't keep up. After crossing the 2 mile mark I knew I was going to make it and turned up the pace for the run to the finish. I wound up crossing the finish line in 19 minutes 6 seconds (6:10 mile pace), good for 9th place overall out of 212 runners and 1st place in the males age 25-29 group. I got a $25 gift certificate to Safeway and a $25 gift certificate to the restaurant Glory Days. Bill also finished well on what turned out to be a beautiful fall day. Two weeks until New York!!!

The Richmond Sprint Triathlon -- Sunday October 15th, 2006

2006-10-19T01:59:00.000-04:00

The brother Steven and I drove down to Richmond, Virginia on Saturday October 14th to compete in the Richmond Sprint Triathlon. We made it down in time for packet pick up and to go for an easy ride along the bike course for the event. We got a hotel room and all set for the morning before going out to hit the town. We went and got an awesome dinner and mojitos at Havana '59. Then we hopped down to the Tobacco Company for a copious amount of alcoholic beverages, dancing, and met up with some college friends living in the area. We then traversed over to Richbrau for more drinking, dancing, and frolicking before heading back to the hotel at around 2 a.m. Not the kind of night you're supposed to have before a triathlon.

We got up quite a bit hung over at 6:15 a.m. and headed over to the big event. The Richmond Sprint Triathlon is a 400 meter indoor swim, a 20k bike (12.4 miles), and 5k run (3.1 miles). The swim was a snake swim going up and down each of 4 lanes in a 50 meter pool with one swimmer going off every 15 seconds. It was not until about 9 o'clock before it was my turn to take off. My left shoulder was still a little bit tender from the bike wreck a few weekends ago but I was able to make do and get the swim done in 8 minutes 25 seconds. There was quite a run in bare feet from the pool to the transition area and it took me 4 minutes 28 seconds to get from the pool to on my bike. I trucked it on the bike crossing 12.4 miles in 38 minutes 26 seconds and passing dozens of people without any glimpse of a faster biker approaching from behind. The 23:57 5k run was certainly not my fastest of the season as I was experiencing some pretty severe stomach cramps I'm sure from being dehydrated. I wound up crossing the finish line in 1:16:57 good for 77th place overall out of 530 participants and 12th place out of 34 participants in the males age 25-29 group. Steven also crossed the finish line of his first triathlon smiling and in good time finishing 4th in his age group. Check out the adorable picture of the two of us at the finish line. We did have a blast and got to see the nightlife of Richmond but I am going to start taking this whole running and biking thing a little bit more seriously from now on. No more dying during a 5k run because I needed those last few drinks the night before! We'll see how this resolution turns out.

The Fifth Avenue Mile -- Saturday September 30th along Central Park in New York City

2006-10-05T19:29:00.000-04:00

I was ready to see how fast I really am so I decided to try a one mile race...

I took the 2 a.m. Chinatown bus on the morning of Saturday September 30th from Washington, D.C. to New York City. I got let out in Chinatown in Manhattan at 5:45 a.m. still a bit tired and 4 hours til race time. I wound up taking the subway up to Chelsea and hanging out at Starbucks for a couple hours until heading to the Upper East Side where the race was going on.

The Fifth Avenue Mile is a 1 mile road race down Fifth Ave along Central Park from 80th Street to 60th Street (see the map). There is a small uphill during the first quarter mile and then the rest is downhill -- the course is the fastest and most prestigious 1 mile road race in the world. The race was run in waves going off every 15 minutes. I got to see the wave of under 15 year old runners start and then the 15-29 year old females. I did a 10 minute warm up jog around Central Park before it was time to line up with the males age 15-29 for the 9:45 a.m. wave start. There turned out to be more than 500 people running in my wave and 372 finishers in the males age 20-29 group. I lined up in the middle of the pack so it took a few seconds to get going once the gun went off. I ran hard and thought I was trekking pretty good but wound up crossing the finish line at 5 minutes and 31 seconds -- 1 minute 8 seconds behind the winner of the 20-29 age group (4:23) and 1 minute 37 seconds behind the professional winner (3:54). I was out of breath for a couple minutes after the finish but once I caught my breath I was ragingly pissed I hadn't pushed harder during that short 5 minutes.

I met Jill at the finish line and we went to FAO Schwarz to play with the stuffed animals and eat a brownie sundae. Then we walked up through Central Park and saw John Stewart playing with his kid under a bridge. We traversed up to the Guggenheim Museum and saw a cool architecture exhibit and some famous art. Met up with Dee for sushi in SoHo before a crazy night of barhopping - "it's raining Jagermeister all night long", a trip to the store "GirlProps" for sunglasses & wigs, and then clubbing first at Bank and then at the infamous Roxy before getting back to Jill's place sometime around 6 in the morning. Jill and I met up with Adrienne at a Ukranian diner on Sunday morning for brunch which was awesome, and then some shopping before hopping on the bus back to D.C. Overall, I had a blast and it was great training for the NYC Marathon coming up in a few weeks. I will be back next year to break 5 minutes.

Go Georgetown U Cycling Team!

2006-09-28T18:51:00.000-04:00

So I recently found out about and started riding with the Georgetown University Cycling Team. They are a Division II USA Cycling (USAC) NCAA racing team and part of the Atlantic Coast Cycling Conference. I have been out on a few rides with them now and have met some pretty amazing bikers that I have a hard time keeping up with. We went on some rides out Macarthur Blvd and out River Road that were quite hilly and fun and also a ride down to Haines Point to do some sprints - I learned how to get down there via the Mt Vernon Trail so that I don't have to ride over M Street and Constitution Ave now to get down to Haines Point which is nice. The racing season is in the spring so I still have quite a while to get in competitive biking shape. Visit the Georgetown University Cycling Team homepage at: http://www14.georgetown.edu/explore/organizations/cyclingteam/

A disappointing and painful day - the Odyssey Half Iron Triathlon, September 16th

2006-09-25T19:22:00.000-04:00

On Friday September 15th I departed from Georgetown down to Fredericksburg, VA to participate in the Odyssey Half Iron Triathlon in Lake Anna State Park - a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile ride, and 13.1 mile run. I got down to Fredericksburg at 8 p.m. in time for packet pick up and to get a room at the Ramada. Got everything organized for in the morning and then got some pasta at Ruby Tuesdays before getting to sleep early. There was unfortunately no alarm clock in the room so I set the alarm on my cell phone and turned up the volume - a bad bad idea. I got a phone call every 30 minutes all night long. Also, it was crazy storming with loud thunder and lightning all evening and I kept thinking "not again, not again".

I got up at 4:45 in the m0rning and was out of the hotel by 5:15. It turned out to be a 40 minute drive over to Lake Anna State Park during which time the rain finally stopped for the day. Got my bike put together, went through the bike check, and got my transition area set up without problem. Out of the 200+ participants, it turns out that I was one out of less than 10 or so people not wearing a full-body wetsuit for the swim. Whoops. I was pretty ridiculously nervous before I went off in the first swim wave, really not sure if I was going to be able to swim 1.2 miles and how my legs were going to hold up on the run after biking so far. At 7:00 a.m. the gun went off and the first wave took off from the beach into the lake. I stuck to the back of the pack getting in the lake as I knew I wasn't going to be fast. It turns out that I am a pretty slow swimmer despite all the training I had done in the pool. It took me 45 minutes 8 seconds to swim, good for 14th place out of 14 individuals in the male age 25-29 category. Something is so different about swimming in a lake than swimming in a pool. My breathing was off, I was aimed in the wrong direction every time I looked up to see where I was going, and I really didn't like bumping into and getting bumped into by other swimmers.

The race for me really began as soon as I got my feet on dry land. I popped on my cleats and helmet and hopped on my bike in good time and set out on the 56 mile ride. I am becoming a good biker and was really cruising on the ride passing quite a few people. Unfortunately, I just got a little too caught up in the race and trying to make up time on my bike. I didn't quite make a turn around mile 30 on the course and wound up in the gravel shoulder just off the road. I am not sure exactly what happened but wound up wiping out into the gravel at 20 or 21 m.p.h. I mutilated the handlebars on my bike. I grade 2 dislocated my left shoulder. And suffered pretty disgusting road rash on my left forearm, side, and shoulder. I walked off the pain for a few minutes and then hopped back on my bike and tried to keep riding for a few miles. See the picture of me with my stupid grin, mutilated handlebars, and bloody left arm. As the adrenaline started to wear off after the crash, I started to realize how hurt my shoulder was and came to the realization that I was not going to be able to run. I was incredibly disappointed and spent a long time sitting, reflecting, crying when I got back to the transition area. It was pretty painful scrubbing off all the gravel with hydrogen peroxide. My buddy Mark Roche always says, "Pain is temporary, quitting is forever." Well I say, "Relief from pain is temporary until you run out of vicodin." I am not sure what lesson I learned out of all of this but I do know that I am crossing the finish line of a half iron tri in the very near future!

The Virginia Beach Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon - Sept 3th, 2006

2006-09-14T05:06:00.000-04:00

On Saturday September 2nd, Andy Dietrich and I drove from DC down to Virginia Beach for the 6th annual Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon. The drive took a ridiculous 6 hours being Labor Day weekend and all. We got into VA Beach in time to pick up our numbers and catch the last few minutes of the running expo. We met up with the girlfriend Jill and company, and the group of us went out and got some pasta for dinner. Andy and I went for a quick jog to loosen up the legs from the long day in the car before heading back to the hotel at an early hour to get some sleep.

Andy, Jill, and I departed from the hotel at 5:00 a.m. for the race. We parked at the VA Beach Amphitheater and caught a shuttle to the convention center near the start of the race. I got in a little stretching and made my way to Corral 2 in time for the 7:00 a.m. start. There were more than 20,000 people registered to run and the start line was crazy and full of nervous energy. At 7:00 the professional runners took off, followed by Corral 1 and then finally Corral 2. It was 1:27 on the clock when I made it to the start line and a couple minutes after that by the time I got to pace. The first mile they had us running directly into the sunlight and I was glad to be wearing sunglasses. I was feeling pretty good most of the first several miles and crossed the 10k mark in 45:44. I have been having a nagging left knee injury this running season that starting flaring up around mile 8 or 9 when I was planning to start picking up the pace. The last few miles wound up being much slower than I had hoped to run. I cruised the last couple miles down the boardwalk along the beach to the finish line that seemed so close yet wouldn't come fast enough. I came in at 1:38:56 (7:34 mile pace), good for 646th place overall out of 16,136 runners. I was hoping to run 1:31:00 but was pleased with my performance on the day.

After the race we all met up in the beer garden for some oat sodas and then went to a cafe on the beach for some Coronas, margaritas, and eventually lunch. Andy and I went and found our college friend Kleo at his family's restaurant Fishbones on the beach where he made up some tasty beverages in exchange for the Geico t-shirt I got after the race. That night we went down to the Fifth Street Stage for the awards ceremony and to see Three Doors Down. The soreness the next morning was rather intense but only lasted a day or so. Andy and I stopped through Williamsburg on the way back to DC. We went by the Cheese Shop for sandwiches and picked up bread ends and house, went by the Peanut Shop for butter toffee peanuts, and by the Williamsburg Winery for a wine tour, sampling, and a half case of wine. It was quite the Labor Day weekend we all had.

The North East Triathlon-turned-Rainathon - Sunday August 27th, 2006

2006-09-05T00:50:00.000-04:00

On Saturday August 26th I drove two hours north up through Baltimore to the small town of North East, Maryland to participate in the North East Triathlon. The event was scheduled for a 1500 kilometer swim in the North East River, a 40 kilometer (24.8 mile) bike around Elk Neck State Park, and a 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) run.

I arrived at my first USA Triathlon sanctioned triathlon on Saturday around 4 p.m. in time for packet pick-up, to get my bike checked over, and figure out the course for the race the next morning. There was enough daylight left in the day that I got a chance to go out for a short ride and run to see some of the course before eating some dinner and getting to sleep early.

I awoke at 4:45 a.m. on race morning to the cracking of lightning and a raging thundershower outside my hotel room. It hadn't rained in weeks so why this morning of all times??? All of us staying in the hotel drove down to the race site where everyone was parked in the grass field turned mudslide lot and sitting in their cars hoping for the storm to pass. The race was scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. so at 7:00 I decided to brave the rain and got my bike and gear and headed to the race site. It was still lightning so the race director decided to cancel the swim portion of the event and make it a duathlon - run, bike, and then run. It would be my first ever duathlon.

By the time of the race start at 8:15 a.m. the storm had passed and the sky had cleared. It turned out to be a beautiful day. I ran the initial 5K in 20:45, biked the 40k in 1:15:11, and ran the final 10K in 51:27 finishing overall in 2:30:26 good for 84th

place out of about 300 finishers. I was happy with my performance in my first duathlon but it was insane how many 40 year old women were flying by me on the bike. I am definitely getting fitter and faster and more and more addicted to the active lifestyle. It was a great weekend and I got to meet quite a few triathlon lunatics who I identify with too well. I can't wait for the Odyssey Half Ironman in Lake Anna State Park down in Fredericksburg, VA on Saturday September 16th!

Woohoo!!!

I got a new bike!

2006-08-04T23:28:00.000-04:00

Hehehe!!! I had put about 3000 miles on my Cannondale T2000 touring bike since last March and decided that I was getting progressively more serious about biking by the day, especially after watching the Tour de France for the last 3 weeks. It was time for a road bike capable of some speed. On July 28th I signed my semester's loan check over to Revolution Cycles down on M Street. Check it out:

the Trek Madone SL 5.2 with carbon fiber fork and frame, Shimano Ultegra crank and deraileurs, Bontrager Race Lite wheels, and carbon fiber aerobars

I AM IN!!!

2006-06-30T17:21:00.000-04:00

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More than 90,000 people applied to run in the 2006 ING New York City Marathon and a lottery was used to select the lucky 35,000 individuals who get to run 26.2 miles through the five burroughs of NYC on November 5th, 2006.

On June 8th I found out: I AM IN!!!

Countdown to the start, November 5, 2006: 127 days 15h 38m 55s

Time to get training if I am going to keep up with Lance Armstrong and ultra-marathoner Dean Karnazes on race day!!!

Green Mountain Relay - June 10-11th, 2006

2006-06-20T15:08:00.000-04:00

_ On Friday June 9th I flew up to Albany, NY with my favorite 11 Gtown law students to participate in the inaugural running of the Green Mountain Relay - http://www.greenmountainrelay.com.

The Green Mountain Relay is a 200 mile relay race across the state of Vermont from Jeffersonville to Bennington. It is broken up into 36 legs of varying lengths and difficulties meaning everyone on the team gets to run three legs. The first person on the team runs from the start line to the checkpoint at the end of leg 1 where the second team member is waiting to take off. The second team member starts running for checkpoint 2 where hopefully the third team member is waiting and ready to run. All the teams ride in vans from checkpoint to checkpoint and stop along the way to cheer on their running teammate.

We rented a couple vans at the airport in Albany and drove a couple hours up to Middlebury, VT where we stopped for some drinks and the t-shirt presentation before treking up to Burlington, VT near the start of the race where we crashed in a hotel for the night. Our starting time in Jeffersonville was 9 a.m. on Saturday where Loren led us off. It turned out to be a cold rainy day, probably in the 50's during the day and 30's at night. I got to run legs 12, 24, and 36 - the last one meaning I got to cross the finish line for our team. My first leg was a pretty flat 5.7 miles and our 11th runner Mark arrived around 6 p.m. It was a good first run though I didn't see any other runners on the road. I definitely flashed my bare ass to our vans when they were driving by and to another set of vans that I thought were ours mistakenly. At the transition point for my second leg there was a high school track team waiting for their runner who turned out to be right on Mark's heels as he passed off to me at 3:30 a.m. for my second run. The second leg was 4.2 miles - the first 500 yards or so straight uphill, then straight downhill for 2 miles, and then flat to the finish. I took off with the high school track star like 5 steps behind me. I tried to run up the hill at a moderate pace because I wanted him to pass me so I would have someone to chase on my run. I heard his footsteps behind me the whole way up the hill but he didn't go by until we reached the crest where he sprinted by and then we both took off chugging down the hill. It was so much fun sprinting after Mr. high school track star for four miles. He didn't really get more than 30 paces ahead of me until about a half mile from the finish where he somehow had a kick left in him that I didn't. My third leg was 5.0 miles - the first two and a half straight uphill and then flat with some rolling hills on the way into the event's finish line in Bennington. Mark passed off to me around 10 a.m. and I took off up the mountain. I really didn't think I was going to make it but my team was there cheering for me at the top and I was re-energized to bring it home. Chad, Paul, and Jennie met up with me dressed as scantily clad as I was about 500 yards from the finish line and we all ran across together. In the end we crossed the finish line at 11 a.m. after 25 hours 51 minutes 50 seconds of non-stop running (7:51 mile pace for the 200 mile course) good enough for 2nd place overall and 1st place in the mixed division.

Bay to Breakers - San Francisco, May 21st, 2006

2006-05-28T06:54:00.000-04:00

THE CRAZIEST RACE EVER!

So I flew out to San Francisco this year to participate in the 95th running of Bay to Breakers (http://ingbaytobreakers.com). B2B is a 12K (7.46 miles) course starting on the east side of the city at the bay and ending on the west side at Ocean Beach on the Pacific. From sea level at the Embarcadero the course rises steeply along Hayes Street Hill. Around the 2.5-mile mark runners climb an 11.15% grade between Fillmore and Steiner, bringing them to the highest point in the race, approximately 215 feet above sea level. The remainder of the course gradually flows downhill alongside the Panhandle and through Golden Gate Park.

Everyone I know that lives out in SF decided to build a float and dress in costume for the race of course. The theme: Goonies. The float they spent the better part of a week constructing was no doubt the vessel of One-Eyed Willy, the Armada - a booze carrying craft with wheels. From what I was told they had a blast every afternoon during the construction process. The all out costume wear ranged from pirate gear to Brand on a bicycle with training wheels. As I was told, the race is not actually about how fast you can get from the start to the finish line. But rather how long it can take you while consuming as many alcoholic beverages as possible while frolicking, dancing, enjoying the mania of the other "participants" (runners is by no means an accurate statement) while constantly avoiding the gross naked men and women carrying yellow balloons.

Now to say the race was crazy is one thing but insanity might just be the best description. 80,000 people lined up on the streets of SF at 8 a.m. in full costume ranging from naked to nuns on rollerskates. Everyone was drinking and screaming, and the funniest part, throwing tortillas in the air. Not sure how the tortilla tradition started but it was hilarious seeing thousands of tortillas in the air for the half hour I was at the start line before the gun went off. It took me 2 min 40 sec to get to start line after the official start and it was pretty crowded running for the first 3-4 miles. It was not until about the beginning of Golden Gate Park that I was able to really start running at pace. The Hayes Street Hill was a monster. I wound up crossing the finish line with a gun time of 60:01. I guess I should have figured that it's a race to just enjoy the running and not worry about time unless you're a seated runner. After a couple beers in the beer garden, I taxied back to the entrance to Golden Gate Park and caught back up with the party that was the race. There was a group of people dressed up as the Duke lacrosse team, a group was FEMA, and so many other funny costumes. At one point the course went through a small tunnel where there was an incredible dance party. Ocean Beach was raging the second time I made it to the finish line. The best of times!

Idiotic Bike Adventure April 2006 - The C&O Canal Towpath

2006-04-17T21:53:00.000-04:00

So what the hell? I hadn't been on a bike expedition since last spring and had a couple days off so...

At 7:30 a.m. on Saturday April 15th I left the house on my bicycle and rode the 5 miles down the Mt Vernon Trail into Virginia to Ronald Reagan National Airport. Here I rented a car and threw my bike in the trunk and took off for Cumberland, Maryland. Along the Potomac River runs the C&O Canal Towpath from Cumberland, MD to Washington, DC. It is an

184 mile unpaved bike trail that has over 80 historic canal homes preserved on it and passes locations including Harper's Ferry and Great Falls (check out http://www.bikewashington.org/canal/ for maps and an info on the trail). I dropped off the rental car in Cumberland and made it to the head of the trail at noon where you see me in the picture above ready to take off. On Saturday, I covered the first 85 miles of the trail taking me until 8:30 p.m. and 7 hours 10 minutes of actual pedaling time. There were several trees down over the trail that I had to stop and carry my bike over. At about mile 30, I had to walk my bike through the pitch black 3/4 mile long Paw Paw Tunnel. I rode by a couple 4 or 5 foot long black snakes stretched out catching some sun on the trail. Most of the ride was beautiful - through the trees, lined by flowers, along the canal and the Potomac River. There were several deer out at dusk before I turned off and crashed at the Red Roof Inn in Williamsport, MD.

On Sunday I made it back to the Towpath at 11:30 a.m. for another day of riding and beautiful sunny weather. Not too long into my ride there was a detour off the Towpath due to flooding damage. I wound up biking 6 miles along hilly roads before being put back on the trail only 1 mile down from where I turned off. All that wasted energy. Later on in the afternoon I biked over a bridge lined by dozens of scary looking vultures. Check out the up close picture of one. They didn't seem that scared of me. In the late evening I passed by an area called Bald Eagle Island and was instructed to look up by a biker I passed along the way. There was a HUGE birds nest in one of the trees and a bald eagle sitting on the branch close by. No kidding! In the end I didn't have quite the stamina or daylight hours to make it all the way back to DC on my bike. My near and dear girlfriend Anna picked me up at milepost 35 around 7:30 p.m. Altogether, I biked the first 150 miles of the Towpath and 162 total miles over the 2 days and had a phenomenal time. The legs, back, and hands are a bit sore today, but I am definitely making it back out next weekend to milepost 35 to pickup where I left off and pedal the rest of the way into DC. Will pick up the story here where I left off after next weekend.

So long for now! ~ D.

The 2006 IronMed Charity Triathlon

2006-04-10T21:06:00.000-04:00

At the finish line with the sexy man that is my inspiration, Chad Russell. Together his team of Georgetown law students raised over $800 for MetroTeenAIDS.

On Saturday April 8th, 2006 came together the culmination of several months of my hard work -- the 2006 IronMed Charity Triathlon & 10K Run. On this cold and rainy morning, over 110 athletes and 30 volunteers showed up at sunrise to take part in what was a very memorable event that raised over $11,000 for MetroTeenAIDS, a nonprofit organization centered in southeast Washington, D.C. that focuses on preventing new HIV infections in the youth of our capitol. Despite the weather, we managed to have a great time - not too hard to do when you are running around in a Speedo all day!

I made major improvements in my triathlon performance over last year. I swam the 1000 meters this year in 17:34, biked 15.7 miles in 1:04:00, and ran 6.2 miles in 45:01 -- finishing the event in 2:06:35, more than 14 minutes faster than my time last year.

Click on the following link to see some pictures from the event and after-party:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=148qvxyi.19rp8ld6&x=0&y=8dk812

That's all for now. Will write again soon.

Running season 2006 is underway!!!

2006-03-27T01:50:00.000-05:00

Hi all! Long time without an update I know. But I am back. I took a couple months off all running and biking after the marathon on October 30th and have been working my way back into shape since the beginning of the new year. The weather is starting to warm up and I have already made it for some runs and bike rides outside in the past few weeks. I feel faster on my feet already this year than I felt at the end of last season. Two weeks ago I was down in Boca Raton, Florida for spring break. Went out for amazing runs along the boardwalk, through the beautiful Spanish River Park, and along A1A Beachfront Avenue every morning or at sunset. Last weekend I competed in my first race of the new season - the 2006 Race for Justice, a 5K around Hains Point on Saturday March 18th. The race started at 8 a.m. on a morning that didn't reach 30 degrees. Hains Point is the name of the tip of an island that juts out into the Potomac River and is always ever so windy. Basically, it was bitter cold. When I took off running, the air was so cold it hurt my lungs. Breathing was difficult and there was some panicking in the first mile. It took about a mile to get to warmed up and then I ran a decent last two miles to the race crossing the finish line in 5th place out of about 200 runners at 19 minutes 35 seconds. Not terribly disappointing for my first race of the season and given the conditions. I am currently running 5K's at 18:30-19:00 pretty consistently and hope to break 18:00 in a 5K race by the end of the season. That's about all for now. The next couple weeks should be exciting with the Cherry Blossom 10 miler this coming weekend and the IronMed Charity Triathlon the following weekend. Peace out.

Check out the picture of my running buddy in Florida!

D.

I did it!!!

2005-11-15T17:03:00.000-05:00

Well... I made it. All 26.2 miles. In 4 hours 37 minutes and 3 seconds. Not quite as fast as I was hoping to run but I survived!!! And here I am just two weeks out from the race and already walking around pain free. Woohoo!

I started the race on Sunday October 30th with the second wave of 15,000 runners at 8:45 a.m. It took about 2 or 3 minutes from when the gun went off until I was able to make it to the start line and then a few more minutes before I was able to really get moving. I felt pretty good right off the bat and ran the first 13.1 miles in 1 hour 50 minutes. I just didn't have 26.2 miles at that pace in me or my knee on the day of the race and pretty much wound up crawling my way home from about mile 16 or 17 on. Click on the following link to see a map of the 26.2 mile course winding around throughout the city: http://maps.mapnetwork.com/dc/marinecorpsmarathon/route.pdf

It was great to see so many people out cheering for me and the rest of the team on the day of the race, especially the cheering section at mile 26.19 who got to see me finish strong and smiling at the Iwo Jima Memorial. It was quite the amazing experience and a day in my life I will surely not soon forget!

Already thinking about what the next marathon will be. Perhaps Chicago on October 22nd of next year. And of course this year's IronMed Triathlon is rapidly approaching (April 8th, 2006) so it's time to get training again. Be sure to stay tuned to keep up with all my humorous antics, shenanigans, and occasional training experiences.

Thank you all sooo much for your love and support! I couldn't have made it all 26.2 miles without you.

Signing out for now,

Anxiety, fear, nervousness, trepidation, and nipple rings

2005-10-13T03:39:00.000-04:00

What can I say... It's 17 days until the magical moment when I cross the start line and HOPEFULLY the finish line of my first marathon! I finished my last long run this past Sunday around 12 miles with only moderate knee pain afterwards that was gone by the next day. Planning to keep up with some short runs and a lot of biking and swimming in the next couple weeks to keep in shape. Just beginning to realize how far 26.2 miles is and am wondering what in the world I was thinking way back when that I decided it would be fun to run a marathon. Starting to get a wee bit anxious and I can only imagine it's going to get worse. But I am going to do it!

Wish me luck!!!

VA Beach Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon

2005-10-09T03:43:00.000-04:00

Crossing the finish line!

On Sunday September 4th I ran the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach. There were 14 bands playing along the course and the energy was amazing. There were sooo many people running - more than 20,000 - and the start was very crowded. I took off at a pretty good pace once I got out of the crowds but started having terrible knee pain around mile 5. Ouch! There was no way to stop running in as little clothing as I had on so... It hurt pretty bad for the next 2 or 3 miles but then the legs were pretty much numb and I just kept going until the 13.1 mile marker (see the picture above!). The pain was pretty excruciating after the legs stopped moving at the finish and I was pretty much crippled for the next couple weeks, but not so much I couldn't make it to the beer garden for a couple of oat sodas first.

The whole trip to Virginia Beach for Labor Day weekend was a blast. Made it out for a night of drinking, limboing, frisbee and horseshoe throwing, skinnydipping in the Atlantic, dancing with Chad's beautiful sister, and late night fishing with sexy Chad before the race. And then had an awesome day out on the beach and on Chad's boat for naked wakeboarding after the race. Check out pictures from the trip at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=404735463106&page=1&sort_order=0

That's all for now. Will write again soon.

D.

2005 Hood to Coast Relay

2005-10-02T03:47:00.000-04:00

On August 26th I flew to Portland, Oregon to participate in the 2005 Hood to Coast Relay Race. The race is 197 miles starting from the top of Mt. Hood in the middle of Oregon and traverses west across the state through Portland and finishing at Cannon Beach on the Pacific Coast. It is broken up into 36 legs of varying lengths and difficulties and is run by teams of 10-12 members. The first person on the team runs from the start line to the checkpoint at the end of leg 1 where the second team member is waiting to hand off the "baton" (or slap bracelet as the case was). The second team member takes off running for checkpoint 2 where hopefully the third team member is waiting and ready to run. All the teams rent vans to travel from checkpoint to checkpoint while their team member runs. There were 10 of us on the team, made up of mostly Georgetown law students. We started at 5:00 p.m. on Friday August 27th and crossed the finish line on Saturday at 7:14 p.m. - yes, we ran continuously for 26 hrs 14 mins at 8:00 mile pace to cover the 197 miles from Mt. Hood to the Pacific Coast. I myself ran legs 6, 16, 26, and 36 for our team, a total of 23.2 miles. It was awesome to be chosen to run leg 36 and get to cross the finish line for our team. The first sighting of the beach from about 2 miles away was amazing and made the sprint in to the finish line exhilirating. After crossing the official finish line, we got the whole team together and crossed the ceremonial finish line together hand in hand. It was an amazing experience! Please check out my photos from the race and the rest of my Oregon trip at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=735070172106&page=1&sort_order=0

Hope all is well and will try to update again soon! Be good.

bike rides, bike crashes, and friggin' agates

2005-07-26T13:02:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday was a good day... I crossed the 1000 mile mark on my bicycle. Yes, I have pedaled my bicycle now more than 1000 miles (or 5,280,000 feet or 63,360,000 inches or 1,609,344,000 millimeters) since I bought it back in March. I averaged 12.4 miles per hour during my first 1000 miles which comes to about 80 hours sitting on that piece of leather they call a bike seat/saddle. On this very exciting day, I decided that I had not had quite enough fun being as psychotic as I am so I decided to go for a run. I ran maniacally fast and crossed 2 miles in under 12 minutes for the first time in my life! Woohoo!!! I am getting faster.

Three weeks ago Tuesday was not so good a day... I had been watching a lot of Tour de France on t.v. and thought I was Lance Armstrong when I set out with Grant up the Capital Crescent Trail to Bethesda on my trusty bicycle. It was wet out on the trail and we were pedaling hard. I feel like you know where this story is going. As a side note, I should mention that Grant is a maniac (especially on his bicycle) and had been in a bike wreck less than two weeks before this day. To make a long story short, I was following Grant pretty closely traveling around 20 m.p.h. when he went to pass two runners on the trail. I am not sure if he is blind or what but there were bikers coming the other way and no room to pass so he slammed on his brakes and his bike spun out. I slammed on my brakes as well - a little too late under the wet conditions - but Grant and the two runners were in the way and I wound up superman'ed on the pavement at 20 m.p.h. The injuries were brutal but minor considering how hard I crashed. A strawberry on my right side that swelled to the size a of a nerf football, road-rash that made a disgusting scab on my right forearm, some gaping flesh wounds to the right hand, and some gravel impaled in the fingertips that Challice and I were still picking out a week later. Three weeks later and I still have a huge nasty scar on my forearm from the road-rash that is not going to go away for a long time but everything else is pretty much finally healed. Needless to say I hate Grant! I happened to crash on the same day that the leader of the free world George W. Bush crashed into a police officer while riding his mountain bike in Scotland and sustained minor injuries to his hands and arms that were bandaged at a local hospital. On this very day the Ameircan David Zabriskie leading the Tour de France in the yellow jersey crashed at over 30 m.p.h. destroying his yellow jersey and sustaining injuries for which he would later drop out of the race. Maybe we should all stick to a sport with a little less contact... perhaps checkers!

Other than that, running has been going well. I went out on a crazy loop through the national zoo last week that was pretty hilly and fun (if you call running up small mountains in 100 degree heat fun). I ran 2 miles in 11:40 yesterday. Today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far with a heat index in the mid 110's. I think I'll stay inside and eat popsicles today!!! I take off for San Francisco tomorrow and am bringing my running shoes so maybe will get to trek over some of SF's beautiful scenery and obscence hills in between some major debauchery. I can't wait!

"My wife's a pain in the ass. She's always busting my friggin' agates. My daughter's married to a real loser bastard. And I got a rash so bad on my ass, I can't even sit down. But you know me. I can't complain."

Heat, Humidity, Hills, and Abe Lincoln

2005-06-29T02:44:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long delay but I have been sooo busy training that I haven't had time to post. Just kidding. Really have been enjoying my summer and promise to update more frequently.

So for some reason I thought it would be fun to try and bike a century, 100 miles on a bicycle (no motor) in a single day. This was poor decision making on my part. On very little sleep, I showed up to Reston Town Center at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 12th to participate in the Tour de Cure 100 mile ride across the rolling hills of Virginia to support the American Diabetes Association. Rolling hills my ass. We went 10 miles out flat on the W & OD trail and then up and down several dozen mountains for 70 miles before 20 miles back in on the W & OD trail. The temperature was pleasant in the low 90's and the humidity was in the comfortable range of damn near 100%. I thought I was suffering from heat stroke by mile 40 and I am not sure what you call how I felt from mile 80-95 but it was a happy experience when I crossed the finish line at 3:30 p.m. after 7 and 1/2 hours of excruciating fun. Unfortunately, I got lost 3 times on the ride (yeah that's fun when you have to backtrack over a mountain!), one of which must have been a shortcut because when I crossed the finish line, my odometer read only 96 miles for the day. I was going to do circles in the parking lot for 4 miles but I thought that might have led to many more circles by wheels on the ambulance taking me to the hospital if I would have had to pedal any further so I decided to consume 4 gallons of Gatoraid and chill in the air conditioning instead. Fun stuff! Who wants to do it with me next year???

As for the running, this whole marathon thing is starting to make me a little nervous. I ran my first sub 19 minute 5K a few weeks ago (on a treadmill). I have since quit running on treadmills and have started running outside. It is so hot during the day I have been running at night. A couple nights ago I took off from my house in Georgetown around midnight and ran down to the WWII Memorial, dunked my head in the fountain, trekked over to the Lincoln Memorial for a moment with big Abe, and then looped home. It was a good 5-6 miles and I think I am going to start running this loop more often. Gotta keep running, gotta keep running.

And Chad Russell, I miss you! I'll be in San Francisco soon...

Take care for now,

D.

Baffoons, popsicles, and Chad's nipple ring

2005-05-25T22:41:00.000-04:00

So I went for a run with Andy Dietrich a week ago Friday down the "toe path" along the Potomac River. There are a couple places where it crosses some swampy area with wood-planked bridges. Hearing "aaaggghhh!!!" and then "kersplaaattt" was pretty funny but turning around and seeing Dietrich laid out on the ground after tripping like a baffoon on one of the planks was freaking hilarious. We probably put in a good 5-6 miles at a decent pace and the night ended in the beautiful Jessica Silva's hot tub with a 4 liter bottle of wine so overall I rate this a wonderful training experience.

This past weekend was a huge running success. I missed running with the Georgetown team on Saturday morning but went out for about an hour run in the morning anyway. The weather was gorgeous and I still have high hopes of finishing well in October. Unfortunately I probably shouldn't have put in so many miles on Saturday because my legs were still a little tired for the big race on Sunday, the Capitol Hill Classic 10K. It was an awesome course that started in Stanton Park, went out and circled around RFK stadium (temporary home to the new Nationals baseball team), down capitol HILL and around the capitol, and then back up capitol HILL at mile 5.5 before finishing back in Stanton Park. I crossed the finish line in my short hot-pink running shorts at 43:17 which is 6:59 pace for the 6.2 miles. I need to get much faster if I have any hopes of qualifying for Boston next year!

Instead of running today I ate 4 popsicles. Wonderful!

I leave you with something somebody wiser than myself (Walter Sobchak) once said:

"Good night sweet prince!" I love you Chad! And your nipple ring.

And so it goes...

2005-05-16T03:12:00.000-04:00

So my blog is underway as is my training for the big day coming up on October 30th. As you may or may not have heard, I competed in Georgetown's IronMed Triathlon on April 10th when I swam 1000 meters, biked 15 miles, and ran 10 km in 2 hours and 21 minutes. I also ran the George Washington Parkway Classic 10 miler in 72 minutes and 40 seconds on April 24th and ran my first under 20 minute 5 km race on May 1st, the Race for Hope to support brain tumor research. I have many hundreds of miles to run in the coming months in the quest to be able to run 7:17 mile pace for 26.2 miles. Wish me luck!

Upcoming events:

this Saturday May 21st - my first run with the Georgetown marathon team

this Sunday May 22nd - Capital Hill Classic 10 km race

Sunday June 12th - Tour de Cure 100 mile bike ride to support the American Diabetes Association

August 27th - 28th - Hood to Coast 200 mile relay race in Oregon with a team of law students from Georgetown

Sunday September 4th - Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in VA Beach

Sunday October 30th - the big day, Marine Corps Marathon

Woohoo!!!

2005-05-16T00:03:00.000-04:00

This is me!