5 for fighting: Carver Cranberry Five Miler (7/27/13)

Last Mile
Photo by KrissyK

yeah, that sucked...

Race: Carver Cranberry Five
Place: Carver, MA
Goal Time: 32:30
Actual Time: 34:01

Just felt like crap the whole way.

Blogging Double Century: 200th Post of Pedals and Paddles Worldwide

Angel, Caro, me, Jason and Andrew at America's Stonehenge August, 2008 - first PPWW trip

This is the 200^th Post on globalcyclist’s Pedals and Paddles Worldwide (PPWW).  So to celebrate, I am posting somewhere between a 1980’s sitcom clip show and a meta-referential blog about my blog.

The first post is nearly 5 years ago now: “The Road Not Taken, or maybe taken.”  Just viewing the changes in life of the five main characters show the path of adventure.  Jason has moved to DC and moved back; Andrew has gotten married; Caro finished her PhD and her first posting in Denmark and is now in Germany and Angel is now deep in the salsa circuit. 

While oddly we didn’t make the stop that gave the tour its name: “Our next stop was to be the Robert Frost Farm. But, we decided to skip that stop as the rain was coming in and we would have been rushed through the tour.” It did spawn this writing and a new sense of adventure in me.   

That adventure has taken the blog through 11 countries 715 miles of racing, 3611 miles of cycling, six different types of boats – including the inexactly named “Croatian wooden boat” (“They apparently don’t have another name but “wooden boats.” … They are kind of like Adirondack Guide Boats – just without the rowing part that makes the Adirondack Guide Boat awesome. So you sit in the back and paddle. It’s like trying to steer a truck by pushing the sides.”)

From the exciting and exotic: bungee jumping in Croatia:

Sibenik Bridge, Croatia

seakayaking in Greece:

Manu kayaking the Western Beaches, Kefalonia

hiking in Iceland:

Aharon, me and Brian at Skaftafell

to cycling in Maine and Snowshoeing in Massachusetts, I hope you have enjoyed sharing my travels.

And from the issues with public transportation in Miami and Washington and greater concerns of broken cars and missed treni in Italy and lost and forced to hitchhike in New Hampshire, I hope you have enjoyed sharing my travails.

The blog has also morphed during the years.  Originally, it was only meant to be stories of trips (and bits of instruction to help people find routes).  But this has changed.  The two most read blogs (other than the 2012New Bedford Half Marathon, which people frequent to learn knot-tying – “bits of instruction”) are the photo blog of Lino and Dafne’s Wedding and a soliloquy on running the Pittsburgh despite the Boston Bombings.

This shows that what interests readers is not necessarily interest the writer (a scan of some cyclist blogs that groan with the weight of charts and graphs of wattage and pedal revolutions should have proven that).  PPWW is what I’m interested in. It has been everything from a simple picture of shirtless Seth in hot springs to bullet point descriptions of a ride to a long homage to Thoreau or the Icelandic Sagas.

The very undefined medium of the blog in general and the self-contained style of PPWW specifically has allowed me to play with style – from poetry to story to rather off topic tangents to “photo blogs” and video. 

I have been allowed to express my understandings or even reflect on my own understandings of trips and races.

My favorite trip still is Plitvicka Jezerra from 2009.  However, both 2012’s Skaftafeld Hike and 2013’s Lao River Rafting both gave it a run for its money.  My best races in the time of the blog have been the Miami Half Iron, Urban Dare 2008 and Providence Marathon.  My favorite races are listed in the 2013 GreatBay post.

But this is these are the experience.  My favorite blog post is either the 2013Martha’s Vineyard or the 2012 Cape Cod Marathon.  I believe the BEST written ones are Paddy’s Road Race 2012, Climb to the Clouds 2012 and Hub on Wheels 2012. 

To everyone who has read about and shared in my adventures - thank you

August 3, 2013 will be a Saturday.  Maybe for the fifth year anniversary of PPWW I can get a group together to do the Road Not Taken Ride and stop at the Robert Frost Farm.  Maybe, I can get Caro to drop her brain research in Germany to hop across the pond for the ride(?)

Tino Pai!

Jesse...

Urvi and I, rafting in Italy

Rumble in the Jungle: Regaining the Heavyweight Title (7/18/13)

Heavyweight crown!
photo by Urvi Mujumdar

Race: Jim Kane Sugarbowl 5k

Place: South Boston, MA

Goal Time: 19:30

Actual Time: 19:20

This week was hot: jungle hot someone told me.  The average high for the week was 92F and full on Houston level of humidity.  Regardless, the show must go on and I had one of the traditional summer races – Jim Kane Sugarbowl, put on by L-Street Runners in Southie.

4 days after my first birthday, in a little known country in equatorial Africa, Muhammad Ali attempted to regain the heavyweight title against the baddest man on the planet – George Foreman.  (Foreman, my cousin Jason reminds us, was not only an inventor of small kitchen appliances but also a boxer.)

“I done wrassled with an alligator

tusselled with a whale

I done handcuffed lightnin’

Thrown thunder in jail”

Ali, stripped of his title outside of the ring for refusing induction into the military, had been working his way back through the ranks to win back his title he originally won by knocking out Sonny Liston in 1964.   After many wins – and notable losses to Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, Sr. – Don King got Ali and Foreman to fly to Kinshasa, Zaire for the now famous October 30, 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle.”

I lost my heavyweight title when L Street changed the distance of the Jim Kane Sugarbowl race.  In 2011 (and for the 23 years prior), the race was a five-mile race.  With what was then a personal record, I came in 74^th overall and won the heavyweight title (200-224lbs) with a 37:25.  In 2012, as I lamented last year, they changed the course to a 5k.  I’m definitely better against in the Clydesdale (or Heavyweight, or Linebacker) division in the 5 to 13 mile ranges.  So, with a decent but not great 19:40, I finished in 58^th overall and 3^rd in the Heavyweight division.

The average high in October in Kinshasa is 88F with 80% humidity – relative temperature, 106F; Thursday, the high in Boston was 92 with 70% humidity – relative temperature – 112!

Fortunately for Ali and Foreman the Rumble in the Jungle was fought at 4 am; fortunately for me the Jim Kane Sugarbowl 5 miler kilometer was raced at 7 pm. When I stepped out of my office at 4:30 it felt like Kinshasa, Zaire Democratic Republic of the Congo.  But, by 5:15 when I left to meet Marc it must have been 5 degrees cooler and an ocean breeze had picked up off the Harbor.

“Just last week, I murdered a rock

injured a stone, hospitalized a brick.

I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.”

Ali decided to beat Foreman by letting the inventor-cum-boxer “punch himself out.”  This strategy – later named “rope-a-dope” – was to let Foreman tire himself by blocking and dodging his punches.  And then, when Foreman was exhausted, Ali would pounce.

While you need a strategy going into a heavyweight title fight, Sara Saba has argued (maybe incorrectly) that there is no strategy for a 5k.  You just go run hard and hope you can keep doing that for 19 to 20 minutes.  While that is not TOTALLY a crazy idea, I find that I have a problem meshing an equilibrium between that hard first mile and the two to come.  So, with the Kinshasan level of heat/humidity and my general fear of Amped-up Jesse screwing everything up, I decided to consciously take the first half mile on the easy side and play a little rope-a-dope with him.

With a cool breeze in my face, I went out and ran the first half mile at 6:30 pace and then finished the mile at 6:20.   I was amazed at how much easier (and better) the second mile was.  Then with one mile left I was ready to pounce!

It was like the 8^th round in Kinshasa.  Foreman started to tire and spent the first 2 and a half minutes throwing weak, meaningless punches.  At one point Foreman struck Ali with all his might and Ali said “Is that all you got, George?”  Foreman later said when Ali said that, his internal answer was “Yep…that’s about it.”  In the waning seconds of the round Ali pounced.

As the third mile started on Carson Beach, I started a progression run, increasing speed every quarter mile.  I was at near sprint with 1/10^th of a mile left.  I latched onto the back of a group of 4 or 5 and rode their tail in for a 19:20.

“I’m so fast, man,

I can run through a hurricane and don’t get wet.

When George Foreman meets me,

He’ll pay his debt.”

Foreman was counted out and Ali “shocked the world” again – regaining the title at 32.  My 19:20 was enough for 42^nd overall and a three-minute victory in the heavyweight division to regain my title.

As Don King would say: “Only in America” (Or Zaire Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Jim Pawlicki and Kieran took 2^nd and 3^rd in the 35-39 age group

Joe Lauer was 3^rd in the 25-34 age-group (that seems like the most unfair age group)

Karen took 3^rd in hers

Sammy Voolich won the Super Heavyweight crown

SRR teams won second in the women’s (Karen, SoRad and the Goat) and men’s (Kieran, Anthony and I).

Seven-Eleven: It was a good day (7/11/13)

Starting Line from Race #2

Race: Thursday Night Run #3

Distance: 5k

Goal Time: 19:30

Actual Time: 19:27

The third race in the Thursday Night Series was set for July 11th (Seven, eleven), which made me either want to listen to Ice Cube's Predator or - combined with the heat - have a Slurpee (I just found out it was free slurpee day too - dammitt!).

"With the seven, seven-eleven, seven-eleven" ~ Ice Cube

Unlike the 4k on the 4th, the apparent temperature wasn't terrible out there.  80 degrees with 73 dew point, created an apparent temperature of 86.  It was just enough to shake up the goals.  I figured it would add about ten seconds a mile to my goal time (from 6:07 to 6:17).  

"Shake em up, shake em up, shake em up, shake em" ~ Ice Cube

With no major race looming until the Carver Cranberry in two weeks, I rolled the dice and went for it.  The first mile was an easy-ish 6:06.  I slowed in the both the light short rain and the mugginess to a 6:26.  (Two Double Sixes!  "I'm yelling domino!" ~ Ice Cube).

The third mile was back in the middle as Rational Jesse got his stuff together and pulled in a hard but manageable 6:18 and sprinted well in the last 0.1 to bring in a 19:27.  Course PR!

Afterwards was dinner at Tommy Doyle's and a couple rounds of Long Trail's perfectly adequate Belgian White.

"I even saw the lights of the Goodyear blimp" ~ Ice Cube. (I didn't really)

Even without getting my free Slurpee on 7/11, "I gotta say, today was a good day!"

Joe, Kieran, Bradley, Anthony took 2, 5, 6, 8

I took 17th

Brendan C continued his streak of break 20 minutes (19:58)

SRR would have won the team competition but Sara didn't get her team registration.  But we took second by 18 seconds... Next month, watch out CRC

In Search of ... Little Wilson Falls 3 (7/7/13)

Little Wilson Falls

Hike: Little Wilson Falls
Location: Monson, ME
Distance: 4.6 miles
Time: 2:56

Even the Bangor Daily News warned that Little Wilson Falls is hard to find. Listed in my Mom's hiking book as "Maine's prettiest waterfall," this hike became a big goal of mine and my mom.  In 2008, she and her friend Barbara had tried to the trail to the fall to no avail.  In 2009, my mom and I found the trail head but missed a crucial turn (that doesn't have a sign if you come from the way we went.)  In 2011,we were finally successful.

So, when Urvi and I went up to my folks cabin after the 4k on the 4th, we decided to do what was such a pretty hike.

We drove from Harmony out to Monson and then out Elliotsville Road.  The actual trailhead is across the Wilson Stream from the parking lot.  This means the start of the hike is fording the stream (somewhere between "river" and "creek").

After the fording you get on an old ATV double track trail (that is now closed to ATVs) for about a mile.  Definitely not the prettiest part of the hike.  Just walking uphill through waist high grass.

At one mile you make it to a pretty pond at the junction with the Appalachian Trail.  You wouldn't know from the sign that only can be seen coming the other way:

Pond

The left takes you off the double track and onto a single track, Tolkien-ian looking boggy glade.  Urvi immediately went shin deep in a mud pit - almost losing her shoe.  The mud-hiking was ameliorated in a few hundred yards by split rail trackways laid atop the boggy ground.

My mom on the trackway

Urvi on the trackway

Once across the trackway you can start to hear the Wilson Stream again.  losing all the altitude you gained in the first hour, the AT carries you down to the confluence of the Wilsons (Little and not).

Confluence

Here's the second and harder stream fording.  The speed of the river is much faster than the first crossing.  So, I whipped my shoes across the river and packed my watch into my bag.  Over the river and through the woods I go.

Urvi fording

Once you cross, if you go left there is a set of stairs built with local granite to climb the step hill up to the top of the ridge.  If you don't see the turn to the left and go straight, there is a tough rooted climb that requires some scrambling.  Then, when you get to the top, you'll notice there is an easier way up (and down, that's what we took down.)

At the top of the ridge it was a pretty easy hike to the falls themselves...

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRide

Urvi and I at the falls

Fo' Fo' Fo': 4 kilometers and the Squid (7/6/13)

Start of the race - I eventually pass the 14 year old girl

Race: Fourth Annual 4k on the Fourth*
Location: Concord, NH
Goal Time: 15:45
Actual Time: 16:23

This is the race Moses Malone would have absolutely loved.  30 years ago he claimed that his Sixers with Dr. J would sweep all three rounds: winning in fo' fo' fo'.  (They didn't sweep all three rounds.  They did sweep the first round and the finals against Magic/Kareem Lakers but somehow managed to drop a game in the conference finals to the Bucks with the Squid at point guard and 34-year old Bob Lanier playing Moses).

The Fo'th Annual Fo'K on the Fo'th is a small race in Concord, NH.  It was however the Road Runners Club of America's New Hampshire Cross Country Championships.  So, despite the size there were some big guns out there including Craig from Whirlaway.  But as the race started another runner appeared.  I recognized him as the guy who had lapped Joe and Chris Klucznik in the 5000 at the New England Championships.  At the starting line, I turned to a guy next to me and said: "don't follow that guy."  "I didn't plan on it."

The race started at a blistering pace.  Eric Couture - the aforementioned New England Champion in the track 5000 - was pushing the race director (riding the lead bike) pretty hard.  And the rest of us fell in line - each of us running too fast.  At the one km mark, I noticed I was running a 5:35/ mile pace (10 seconds FASTER than the mile I ran at the 26 x 1).  I slowed down a bit and still hit one mile at 5:45 (the same speed as the 26x1.

That's when the heat and humidity really started to get to me.  The heat index chart I use (I have no way to know if it's correct - maybe Tommy B can assist) puts the apparent temperature at 100F (89F with 70F Dew point).  The second mile which ran off-road through fields, some woods and a bit of mud slowed slowed by nearly 2 minutes(!).  The lead pack of Couture, Craig and the high school kid were pretty much gone from view.  I had one target ahead that I thought I could catch.

At the 3km mark I tried to pick it up to a full race pace but didn't have it.  The last half mile was in 6:30 pace while two guys passed me late.

Still won my age group - and it's a 4k PR...  

To be fair, in that Game 4 the Squid did go stuff that stat sheet with 17 pts/ 9 rebounds/ 3 assists and Lanier did actually hold hold Malone to 17 pts/ 12 rebounds when he averaged 26/16 through the playoffs...

* Yes, it was actually held on the 6th.

Cheers with second place in my age group

Trevi Fountain (7/2/13)

Wishing to return to the Eternal City: