Coeur d'Alene Marathon Results!

I know, I know, I don't give a shout-out to the Idaho folks much, so...

Hi Idaho! Hope you enjoyed your run!

Marathon Results here.

Half-Marathon Results here.

5k Results here.

Everything here (scroll down).

The Three Towers!

No, it's not a Lord of the Rings sequel, it's a race. A Wednesday night race! A Wednesday night race with no set course!

What the?!?

Yeah, I know...it sounds awesome!

Let's race!


RACES FOR WEEK OF JUNE 7th TO JUNE 13th

June 9th / 3 - The Three Towers Run / Olympia, WA

June 12th / Helvetia Half-Marathon and Drop Top 10k / Hillsboro, OR

June 12th / Kootenai River Run 10k and 5k / Bonners Ferry, ID

June 12th / Teton Dam Marathon, Half-Marathon, 10k and 5k / Rexburg, ID

June 12th / Steep Hill Chase 5k / Eugene, OR

June 12th / Run for Ohm 10k and 5k / Roseburg, OR

June 12th / Surf and Turf Duathlon / Springfield, OR

June 12th / Moses Lake Family Sprint Triathlon / Moses Lake, WA

June 12th / ARC in Motion 10k and 5k / Vancouver, WA

June 13th / Edge to Edge Marathon and Half-Marathon / Ucluelet, BC

June 13th / Oregon Mile / Eugene, OR

June 13th / Pine Hollow Sprint Triathlon / Wamic, OR

June 13th / Shore Run 10k and 5k / Seattle, WA

Kami Semick and Oregon Ready to Roll in South Africa

The U.S. is taking it's best and brightest Ultra stars down to South Africa and the Comrades Marathon.

Apparently, this Josh Cox guy is pretty fast and has a real chance to run some people down at Comrades. But let's face it - he's from California. How fast can he be really?

Now Kami Semick on the other hand, from right down the road in Bend, Oregon, is fast. No, I mean, fast-fast. And notice in the story how they talk about Comrades being tougher in the "Downhill" years? Well, I'm guessing no runner from Bend is going to be thrown by downhills. Semick has plenty of altitude around Bend to go down, up, back down...whatever she wants to do. I mean, Bend's at 3600' elevation, for Gord's sake!

Head right over to the Comrades site on Sunday and you can follow Kami as she kicks some and takes some.

Go Kami!


Thanks to Ultrarunning.com for the photo.

Step Into The Wayback Machine!

I was curious just how long I've been at this slight craziness they call running...so I did a little research:

First Race: 1989 - Bank to Bank 8k - The First Crossing
Well, I think it was 1989 anyway. I'm pretty sure that's when the new I-90 bridge opened up...and the runners were the first ones to cross it. No photo though.


First Race...with a photo: 1989 - Summer's Last Stride 4k
Yeah, a four klick race. Can you believe it? And I believe it had a screaming downhill, if I remember correctly. That race has long since been lost to the ages. Only a few months after the Bank to Bank. Damn fine tie-dye tank top; I wish I still had it. Another thing I wish I still had? The age of 22 - which I was when I ran this race.

First Triathlon: 1997 - I don't even remember the name of it.
As you can tell though, it was a Off-road, trail, mt. bike affair. I believe it was held in Winthrop, WA. And I believe the water in that lake we swam in was damn near freezing. Yes, that's the wife with me. And no, that shirt never came clean after that. I ended up throwing it away.

Twenty years later, and I haven't learned a thing. Still out there trying to beat times that no one even knows.

But me...

Rhody Run Results!

I ran this race a number of years ago...with a rubber glove on my right hand. Sort of a poor man's Michael Jackson.

See there was this knife...and this emergency room...and these stitches.

And the doctor told me to keep them dry for a bit - and it was pouring rain on race day.

So now you know.

Hope the 2010 version was dry, but I'm guessing it wasn't. Hope you enjoyed the race anyway.

Results are right here.

Schmooove Your Butt Off the Center Line!

So is there anything more evil than the pool lane hog?

Yeah, I know you can see me. I'm right here. Standing at the end of the lane. Staring at you.

Staring at you swimming down the middle of the lane. Trying to do your flip turns as fast as you can so you can pretend you don't see me standing here.

For the love of cheese! Is it that bad to share a lane?!? I'm not asking you to circle-swim...there are only two of us! Just freaking move over and stay on your side of the lane! I mean, in two years of swimming at Dixon, I've had to circle-swim maybe twice, so it's not like anyone here is sick and tired of fighting for lane space.

Next time...cannonball...right on your head.

Thirty-Four and Counting!

I've never, ever, never, never-ever, seen this many races in one weekend! What in the name of Davey Jones' Fish Sticks is going on here?!?

Marathons, Halves, Ultras, 10k's, 5k's, Tri's, Du's...if you can't find a race on this weekend, you ain't even halfway trying.

Let's race!

RACES FOR WEEK OF JUNE 1st TO JUNE 7th

June 5th / Blue Lake Sprint Triathlon and Duathlon / Fairview, OR

June 5th / Issaquah Sprint Triathlon / Issaquah, WA

June 5th / Adoption Run 10k and 5k / Snohomish, WA

June 5th / Reardan Mule Days 10k and 5k / Reardan, WA

June 5th / Sun Valley Half-Marathon / Sun Valley, OR

June 5th / Dog Island 10k / Guemes Island, WA

June 5th / Race Beneath the Sun 5 mile / Bellingham, WA

June 5th / Rotary River Run 5k / Corvallis, OR

June 5th / Goldsborough Creek 7 mile / Shelton, WA

June 5th / I Topped the Rock 5k / Castle Rock, WA

June 5th / Edmonds Waterfront Festival 5k / Edmonds, WA

June 5th / Crossroads 5k / Vancouver, WA

June 5th / Miles of Mozart 5k / Eugene, OR

June 5th / Girls on the Run 5k / Corvallis, OR

June 5th / Timberline Marathon and 14.2 mile run / Government Camp, OR

June 5th / 3 Rivers Race Against Domestic Violence Marathon, Half-Marathon and 10k / La Grande, OR

June 5th / Flight for Sight Fun Run 10k and 5k / Everett, WA

June 5th / Starlight Run 5k / Portland, OR

June 5th / Duvall 10k and 5k / Duvall, WA

June 5th / Oregon's Run for the Roses 10k and 5k / Sherwood, OR

June 5th / Rainier to Ruston Rail-Trail Ultra 50 mile and 50k / South Prairie, WA

June 5th / Silver Falls Challenge 5k Trail Run / Silverton, OR

June 5th / Sisters Athletic Club Tri-a-Tri Sprint Triathlon / Sisters, OR

June 5th / Undy 5000 / Tacoma, WA

June 5th / Arlington Airport Run 10k and 5k / Arlington, WA

June 6th / TNT Hiawatha Trail Run 28.2 miles / Wallace, ID

June 6th / Gorilla Thrilla 12 mile and 3.5 mile / Eugene, OR

June 6th / UCC Pool, Pedal, Run for Athletics Sprint Triathlon / Roseburg, OR

June 6th / Hockinson 5k / Brush Prairie, WA

June 6th / Chum Run 5k / Langley, WA

June 6th / North Olympic Discovery Marathon, Half-Marathon, 10k and 5k / Sequim, WA

June 6th / San Juan Island Marathon and Half-Marathon / San Juan Island, WA

June 6th / Blue Lake Olympic Triathlon and Duathlon / Fairview, OR

June 6th / Komen Puget Sound Race for the Cure 5k / Seattle, WA

Eugene Marathon T-Shirt Review!

The true home of Nike - Eugene - was calling...what would Nike come up with for a race shirt?

Well, it's not half-bad. The color is very good - sort of a charcoal gray, that goes with pretty much anything. The design is pretty cool, even if it is duck colors. The shirt has the date on it, which I always appreciate. And the back has a nice, limited set of sponsors. And one of them is Krusteaz!

It doesn't get any better than Krusteaz.

Sort of odd for a May race to give you a long sleeve shirt, but it's a very light dri-fit tech shirt, so I guess it's ok. Still, I'd take a short sleeve over long every single time. But that's me.

The medal? Meh. Sort of plain. Sort of boring. It does have Hayward Field on the back, so you've got to give it props there. Again with the duck colors, but you've got to expect that. I've never been much of a medal person anyway. I'll donate it to the Corvallis School District and hopefully it will make some kid happy.

Shirt: B+
Medal: C

Nordstrom Beat the Bridge 8k Results

This one was always fun to run, but they needed to make it a little harder. The bridge didn't even come into play for most of the runners.

Ah well, if you're looking for results:

Try here.

Sweet Fancy Moses! It's Almost Summer!

Here are the Memorial Day Weekend races, just for you. And for me, the unofficial start of the summer race season.

Ah, Summer...

Let's race!

RACES FOR WEEK OF MAY 24th TO MAY 31st

May 29th / YMCA Camels Back Duathlon / Boise, ID

May 29th / Cannon Beach Elementary School 10k and 5k / Cannon Beach, OR

May 29th / The Dash Race for the Kids 5k / Prosser, WA

May 29th / Stoller Vineyards 5k / Dayton, OR

May 29th / Ridgeline Ramble 20k and 10k / Eugene, OR

May 29th / Monroe Country Fun Run 10k and 5k / Monroe, OR

May 29th / Run for the Son 5k / Liberty Lake, WA

May 29th / Spring Festival 10k and 5k / Moses Lake, WA

May 29th / Mazama Fun Run 10k and 5k / Winthrop, WA

May 30th / Run for the Hills Trail 8k / Corvallis, OR

May 30th / Coeur d'Alene Marathon, Half-Marathon and 5k / Coeur d'Alene, ID

May 30th / Onion Man Olympic Triathlon / Walla Walla, WA

May 31st / Heart of the Valley Sprint Triathlon / Corvallis, OR

May 31st / Run 4 For Memorial 4m / Eugene, OR

May 31st / Spring Festival Sprint Triathlon / Moses Lake, OR

Chris Solinsky 10k Record!

Yeah, I know I'm a little late on this, but I finally sat down and watched a YouTube clip of the end of the race and...HOLY CRAP! Solinsky is just flying down the track.

So Solinsky breaks the 10k American record by...14 seconds! Are you kidding me? That's like breaking the Marathon record by 10 minutes! It's just unfathomable.

And look at how many people he had to dodge on his way to get there. He was lapping half the pack.

Truly a race for the ages.

Thanks to Miles to Go and AZRunning for the photo.

Hand Me the Damn Soapbox!

A very funny post today over at Frayed Laces ultimately left me, after a little too much thought, dismayed and disappointed.

It made me wonder, "has any sport gotten farther away from the pure athletic ideal than triathlon?"

Has any sport made the toys more important than the body like triathlon?

Don't get me wrong, I believe the athletes, from top to bottom, in triathlon may be finer specimens than in any other sport.

But why don't you watch an elite athlete in a race over the next couple weeks and add up the cost of the equipment they use:
-The $800 wetsuit.
-The $5000 bike
-The $2000 wheelset
-The $200 aero helmet.
-The $150 tri suit.
-The $300 aerobars.
-The $200 bike shoes.
-The $300 bike pedals.
-The $100 running shoes.
-The $150 sunglasses.
-Oh, and don't forget the $500 entry fee to that Ironman race.

Have we added up to more than your latest car yet?

Look, I like nice toys too, but it's just getting a little ridiculous. At least you can still run a 5k on a $100 budget, from shoes to entry to shorts and shirt. Not so the triathlon. If you think the pro golf circuit is full of pampered rich kids, don't look too closely at your local Olympic Triathlon. It's not pretty.

I know what you're thinking: "OK, big talker. What's your great plan to fix the problem?"

Well, it's not great, but why don't you try this. Instead of buying that $4000 bike, why don't you buy a $3000 bike and give the other $1000 to a program that encourages running or biking or triathlon in the inner cities? Or buy the $80 Nikes instead of the $140 pair and give $60 to a program that buys running shoes for children in Africa that can't afford them?

Give before it's too late, I say, because to me, the Sport of Triathlon looks like its pricing itself right out of existence for the normal athletes of the world. And if it keeps going the way it has been, the great growth of the last twenty years will be lost because so few kids will be able to buy enough crap to compete at a high level!

Or if you're really adventurous, how about some race director out there starting a tri that bans aerobars? Bans wetsuits? Bans aero wheels and aero helmets? Would that be so bad? Just once? For fun?

As Lake Padden Triathlon Race Director Lance Romo once said to me, "I remember back when, if you wanted to go faster on your bike, you had to pedal harder!"

Those were the days.

Best Running Song for May!

Wow, what a slacker I am. Not getting the Best Running Song of the Month out until the 8th day of the month? Come on!

All right, so here it is. We're going back up to Canada for this one, and we've got a first this month: a female vocalist!

May's song is performed by Metric, with "Gold Guns Girls." Vocalist Emily Haines is a little soft and breathy for me, but man, you can't deny the driving beat behind this one - just a great song to slap down the miles. And a great bonus: they spend the entire video...wait for it...running! Syncronicity.

I don't know what it is about the Great White North - they just put out a lot of good bands up there. Almost makes me forgive them for Nickelback.

Almost.

Past Best Running Songs:
April: OK Go / "This Too Shall Pass"
March: The Hours / "Ali In The Jungle"
February: Los Fabulosos Cadillacs / "El Matador"
January: White Rabbits / "Percussion Gun"
December: Deftones / "Knife Prty"
November: The Kooks / "Always Where I Need To Be"
October: At the Drive In / "One Armed Scissor"
September: Silversun Pickups / "Lazy Eye"
August: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros / "Johnny Appleseed"
July: Deathray / "I Wanna Lose Control (Uh Oh)"
June: Raconteurs / "Salute Your Solution"
May: Tea Party / "Save Me"
April: Bloc Party / "Like Eating Glass"
Ever: The English Beat / "I Confess"

That's One Nasty Bug...

Running the marathon, not getting enough sleep, both kids running around with colds...it all came to a head today. I've come down with some sort of bug. Not some happy Sesame Street bug, but a hit the bathroom every 15 minutes, splitting headache, skin actually hurts, kind of bug.

You know, an evil bug.

So here...I'll list some runs and you go run them. I'll sit here with my 7-Up.


RACES FOR WEEK OF MAY 17th TO MAY 23rd

May 22nd / Born to Run Challenge 15k and 5k / Eugene, OR

May 22nd / Rhody Run 10k and 5k / Florence, OR

May 22nd / Keizer Iris Run 5k / Keizer, OR

May 22nd / Cheadle Lake 5k / Lebanon, OR

May 22nd / McMinnville Parks and Rec Sprint Triathlon / McMinnville, OR

May 22nd / Race for Milwaukie Daze 5k / Milwaukie, OR

May 22nd / Queen of the High Road Half-Marathon / Wilsonville, OR

May 22nd / Have a Heart Run 10k / Mt. Vernon, WA

May 22nd / Girls on the Run Spring 5k / Seattle, WA

May 23rd / MP9K - A Race for Maggie's Place 9k / Coeur d'Alene, ID

May 23rd / Duck Bill Thrill Olympic Triathlon / Fall Creek, OR

May 23rd / Hagg Lake Open Water Swims 4000m, 2000m, 800m / Forest Grove, OR

May 23rd / luluemon atheltica 10k and 5k / Portland, OR

May 23rd / 10 Cane 10k and 5k / Tigard, OR

May 23rd / Big Backyard 5k / Redmond, WA

May 23rd / West Seattle 5k / Seattle, WA

May 23rd / Monkey Run 5k / Snohomish, WA

Eugene Marathon Race Review!

Well, two days after the Eugene Marathon, the R's can now walk across flat ground without looking like Frankenstein, so it must be time to get back at it!

Just don't ask me to walk down stairs yet...

So let's review!

After deciding to grab a hotel in Eugene for the eve of the Marathon, we hedged, then stalled, then waited, then forgot, then remembered, then forgot again, then finally got off our asses and tried to reserve a hotel room a couple weeks before the race...

Nope. None available.

"Not even the scummy places?" the wife asked.

"Nope."

"How about Junction City?"

I strolled through Expedia and Travelocity. "Nope," I said.

"Hmmmm..." the wife said.

"Hmmm..." I said. "Wait! I found a room!"

"Where?"

"Corvallis. Looks like a nice place. Only 45 minutes away," I said.

Well, I'm not going to repeat what the wife said, but I'm pretty sure it's not physically possible for my head to go up there.

Anyway, long story short: we slept in our own bed in Corvallis and had to wake up at 4:30 to get to Eugene on time.

It's been a while since I've seen five o'clock from the north side. It ain't pretty.

We made it to the Valley River Mall at about 6:00 and hopped on a bus. No line yet and they had lots of buses waiting. Nice.

Then the fun began. The bus driver took a wrong turn and we headed down the street with the Porta Potties lining both sides of the street. Did the driver stop? Turn around? Pause even?

No way! You think a bunch of pansy runners waiting for the can are going to stand in front of a moving school bus? Not likely. So down the street we went, scattering runners clutching at their bladders.

The driver let us off about two feet from the start line. Everyone standing around must have figured the elite runners had finally arrived.

Unfortunately, then we had to actually line up to run. Damn.

It was a little chilly, although it looked like it would clear later, so I wore an extra t-shirt over my running shirt. I just planned to toss the t-shirt after I warmed up a little.

I didn't even make it to the first mile and I was sweating like a dog! I stripped the extra shirt off, but felt bad slinging it into somebody's front yard, so I held onto it until the water stop at milepost two.

Finally unencumbered, I settled in with the 4:00 pace group and reeled off the first 8 miles, feeling pretty good. Up to that point, it was a little crowded in spots, but no real hills to speak of, and I felt all right.

Then we hit the first hill. In reality, nothing major: probably three or four blocks long and fairly steep, but not Mt. Hood. Still, I knew right then that my four-hour-party-people were going to drop me sooner rather than later. I kept their signs and balloons in my sights and passed the halfway point at two hours flat, but that would be my last hurrah.

I waved goodbye to the 4:00 pace group for good shortly thereafter.

Between 13 and 18, I walked a fair amount, but still felt OK. Well, except for the fact that I forgot to start my watch until about a mile or so into the race, so I never really knew how fast I was going...and I kept forgetting that my watch was about ten minutes or so off and kept thinking, "Wow, I'm going at a better pace then I thought!" Then I'd remember.

Anyway, after 18, and it may have been right around the time I was offered an Apple Pie flavored goo and foolishly ate it, I just hit the wall, both physically and mentally.

That's when I realized I had actually trained for a Half-Marathon, but registered for a Full.

DOH!

Those last eight miles hurt, my friends. They hurt bad.

My pace went from "where's the finish line?" to "where's the ambulance?"

But with the help of a bunch of people I didn't know yelling "Go Scott!" I made it through. And yes, having your name printed on your race number is sort of creepy when you get right down to it. I don't want all these people knowing who I am. Slow and anonymous is always the way to go. Well, fast and well-known is nice too, but that ain't happening any time soon.

So at about 4 hours and 37 minutes, I strolled into Hayward field and crossed the finish line. And I didn't even have to go straight to the medical tent after (inside joke...don't worry, someone will get it).

The wife immediately proclaimed "I'll NEVER run another marathon!"

I won't go that far...but it won't be next month...or the one after that...or the one after that...

But hey, to all you marathoners out there - Good job! We did it!

Eugene Marathon Results!

Yes, we've got results!

Try here.

Or here.

And yes, I did finish, thank you. With a less-than-stellar 4:37. That's what I get for training at Half-Marathon distances and running a full.

A full race review will be coming tomorrow.