RandomFailure

After my dismal performance in the PDR over a week ago, I was a little apprehensive about the possibilities for my performance at this passed Sunday’s Parkway Run 5K. However, like I previously noted, sucking in a 5K isn’t that bad, since at least for me, it only lasts about 20 minutes.

Started off well, in 6:10 for the first mile. Hit Mile 2 at 6:20, and finished in 19:49. An acceptable performance, but a bit off my PR (19:20). But the really good news is that my team (Easy on the Eyes; I didn’t name the team) won it’s category (if there was in fact more than one team category like last year). This was a repeat win for us, with the key performances coming from Lindsay Lohan (whose parents call him Ian; that’s OK, I don’t get it either) and Seebo. Special recognition goes to JMac who ran after a wedding and about an hour and a half’s worth of sleep (though I think the “boot and rally” helped) and Ryan (“Crash”) Ward, who turned in a fine performance despite being involved in a bicycle-automobile collision not too long ago. Our prize: dinner for 10 (everyone on the team plus one guest) in the Logan Room, which is the private dining room at The Fountain restaurant in the Four Seasons hotel. Sweet!!

Yes, Don Adams, funny secret Agent 86 has died (read the Reuters article).

My Get Smart moment: I made a spoof (I know, how can you make a spoof of a spoof?) back in the early 1980′s at this summer program for a video production class. I am not aware of a copy existing; in the remote chance that someone reading this remembers being part of that and has a copy, let me know. I think it was called “Become Crazy”. I don’t remember much about the plot, but I think it had something to do with an evil scientist.

At least I remember the funniest thing about it. During rehearsal (yes, we actually did that), the kid who was playing the Chief was sitting behind a desk. His actions during the scene were to open a desk drawer, take out a folder, and hand it to the agent. Sounds simple, but this class took place in a middle school with some older furniture, and the drawer he was trying to open got stuck. He pulled once, nothing happened. He pulled a second time, and nothing happened. He’s getting mad now, and yanks as hard as he can on the third try. The drawer comes flying open, and the desk jumps backwards from the force of the pull, almost knocking him out of the chair. Everyone, including the instructor, was laughing their ass off. The difficulty was repeating that for the actual filming, which he managed to do. Thank you to whoever you were for that.

With yesterday’s Philadelphia Distance Run being my 6th in a row, you’d figure that I would have managed to figure out how to properly run the race. Not necessarily to run much faster, but to run better. Well, I now realize that I’m the walking (albeit with sore quads) poster child for how to not run a race.

First, some history, which is easy to show since I’m something of a pack rat by keeping all of my racing numbers and writing finishing times on them.
2000 – 1:38:27 (7:41 pace)
2001 – 1:30:27 (6:59 pace)
2002 – 1:41:19 (7:45 pace)
2003 – 1:38:14 (7:27 pace)
2004 – 1:32:30 (6:59 pace)

Obviously, there’s some fractional differences between the 2001 and 2004 pace times, but you can see the schizophrenic times in there. Granted, in 2002 and 2003 it was disgustingly humid out, and I know that had an effect on my performance. The difference-maker in 2004 was that I ran most of the race with other people.

This year, I had intentions of doing the same, but it didn’t turn out that way. I didn’t want to start out with people who I knew would be too fast for me, since I know that if I start out too fast, I’ll never be able to hang on. However, not being one to be able to learn from my past running mistakes, I started out a bit faster than I could handle for the entire distance and was pretty much by myself.

Mile 1 – 6:56 (For some reason, the beginning of the race felt slow. If only the rest would’ve felt that way.)
Mile 2 – 6:43 (There must have been something special about this mile, but I can’t really tell. I don’t know why I sped up; it didn’t feel like I did. I passed Mony who was hurting something fierce at the time.)
Mile 3 – 6:56 (I’m feeling pretty good at this point, even knowing that I could be suffering later. Maybe I would be lucky and get through it OK. Man, I can be such a dumb-ass sometimes.)
Mile 4 – 7:01 (Somewhere around here, the wheels start to fall off.)
Mile 5 – 7:16 (Hmm.. slowed down a bit here. I hope everything’s OK.)
Mile 6 – 7:36 (Grunt)
Mile 7 – 7:42 (Oh, crap! What’s happening! I know I’m not feeling all that great running-wise, but can’t seem to hold any pace. This is where running alone hurts; no one to pull off of and trying to hang onto random people isn’t working.)
Mile 8 – 7:43 (Oh, goody! Not slowing down too much over that last mile!)
Mile 9 – 8:02
Mile 10 – 8:06
Mile 11 – 8:28 (Egad! What’s going on now? Legs are turning into fast-drying cement. My feet feel like bricks or lead bars, I’m not sure which, but they’re insanely heavy.)
Mile 12 – 10:45 (Things were truly awful. A little short of breath, but nothing major. Legs totally shot. Had to stop to walk, stretch out the calves, walk a bit more, and then start running again. During this mile, I tried Endurathon. I wish I hadn’t. Some truly nasty-tasting stuff. I even tried diluting it with more water, and it didn’t improve the taste. I figured I should try it, since I was severely bonking.)
Mile 13 – 8:41 (Hey, wow! This running is faster than walking! Also, it helps end the pain, etc.)
Last 0.1 – 0:51
Total time: 1:42:52 (7:20 pace according to my watch, which can’t be correct)

So, what happened? I wish I knew. The only rational explanation I can come up with is that I wasn’t ready for the race. That’s it. While I did start out too fast for my liking, I couldn’t get myself to slow down until it was too late to recover.

Lessons to be learned? Other than to listen to the watch in longer races instead of how I feel (i.e., slow down)? Train more (OK, that’s rather obvious) and run the race with someone. I’ve learned that in shorter races, like 5Ks, you can go out hard and it’s not bad if you bonk early, since the race is short enough that it won’t be a problem.

I did miss Drum Guy, who had been at Falls Bridge, pounding out a great beat. The chamber music was not all that inspiring. And the folk music (or whatever that crap was) just past Lloyd Hall was so bad as to be nearly suicide inducing. What’s next: Morrissey?

Well, there should be enough time to recover and get ready for the shorter races this fall. No marathons for me.

OK, I can’t believe how stupid lazy I’ve been and not been listening to Y100 Rocks online. Click here to listen for yourself.

For those of you who don’t know, Y100 was the alternative rock station in Philadelphia until earlier this year when the evil corporate overlords decided that an “urban contemporary” format (or was it gospel?) would be a better money-maker. This after the morning program (Preston & Steve) was voted the best morning program in the country by some radio industry publication. Anyway, the Philly radio-scape has been pretty much devoid of anything worth listening to since then. Some other stations might mix in some new rock once in a while, but you have to suffer through geezer rock to get there.

I don’t know what has caused more damage to the Gulf Coast: the hurricane itself or the embarrassingly inept government response. Now, we can defer the actual finger-pointing for a little while, until those in need of help actually get some help, but the “blame game” must occur. Republicans don’t want this to happen at all; maybe they have something to hide? But there’s blame to be leveled at the state and local levels as well. I am still stunned at how poorly everyone seemed to be prepared for the hurricane, even though they had days of warning.

Like Bill Maher (read the transcript of his interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper), I am pleasantly surprised by the press’ reaction and asking the difficult questions of government officials. It’s something that’s slid by for far too long in this country, and it’s about time some other people found their balls.

But not to dwell too long on the positive. FEMA director Michael Brown has been removed from hurricane recovery efforts (see the ABC News story). About time this incompetent boob got pulled. I mean, you have someone with zero disaster recovery experience heading up the nation’s disaster recovery agency??

And I have to say that I am appalled that 11 U.S. Representatives voted against the bill (it’s H.R. 3673; to read it, click here and enter “h.r.3673″ in the Bill Number search box) to spend money for hurricane relief. The list (see it here; click on “nay” or scroll to the end to see their names) is shockingly all Republican. So much for the Republicans being a “party of the people”.

Due to an unfortunate turn of events, i.e., getting spam comments, I have changed the comment posting process. You now have to type in a code word to post a comment. Minor inconvenience, but better than crap posted online.

Like most of you, I am still rather stunned by the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Perhaps even more surprised by the fact that everyone just seemed so under-prepared for such a catastrophe. It’s not like nobody knew this kind of thing could never happen; there’s a Houston Chronicle article from December 1, 2001 stating that FEMA believed that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three likeliest disaster scenarios. Though I suggest only reading the article if you have a strong stomach – it’s eerily accurate in it’s predictions.