RaceCenter Expo in Portland!

FREE STUFF!

And beer!

There is an EPIC 2011 race that day, but maybe I'll make it there late.

Sounds like a good time!

Beaver Freezer Sold Out!

Well, I don't know if it was as fast as last year, but it was definitely within three hours.

Hope you got in.

See you at Dixon!

Beaver Freezer Tri Registration - Last Warning!

I've done my part. If you don't get in now, you're not even trying.

Head over here at exactly 8:00 am on Feb 1st.

Then I'll see you in the pool at Dixon.

Corvallis Half Marathon Elevation Profile

When's the last time you heard a race director say their course was "hilly like a mother"?

Yeah, never.

So the inaugural Corvallis Half Marathon is hardly breaking new ground by proclaiming itself, and I quote, "mostly flat." Is that sort of like being "mostly a virgin?"

Well, you don't need to wonder any longer because the R's and their trusty new Garmin Forerunner hit the course and mapped out the elevation. As the late, great George Michael would say, "let's go to the tape!"



Right off the bat, I had issues. Now I work on the Oregon State University campus, so I know it fairly well, but the course description was, umm, vague. At best.

First, we have "winding through the Memorial Union and The Valley Library lawns, back to Jefferson..." Well, that leaves about 491 different way to get across that section of campus. But it got even worse at the end: "once you pass the Forest Sciences Lab, you'll zig zag back to Washington Way." What? Unless they're taking us cross-country, I don't see any way to zig zag there.

Nevertheless, the majority of the course was easy enough to follow and since there's a little bit at the end inside Reser, my finishing total of 12.72 miles was pretty close to the actual course.

So is it flat? Well, it's not like glass, that's for sure, but you decide for yourself. I'm just a humble reporter.


See you April 10th!

Garmin Forerunner 110 Review!

Yes, I decided to buy a big watch for my girlie little wrist.

Thankfully, Garmin finally came out with a simple GPS watch, the Forerunner 110, to accompany the other watches in their GPS line, including the Star Trek Communicator-size 305 - now that thing would dwarf my wrist like Snow White on a bad hair day (yeah, that didn't make any sense). Anyway, I've gone on three long runs now with the 110 and I'm loving it.

First, it's simple. It's meant to track your runs (or bike rides, if that's your thing) without a bunch of fancy bells and whistles and that's what it does. Punch the button and it starts locating satellites. There have been some complaints about how long it takes to find them, but it's found them for me between one and three minutes every time. I mean, come on, I think people are getting a little too used to the high-tech life. Three minutes is too much for a watch size GPS unit to find satellites in freaking OUTER SPACE that it communicates with to tell you your exact position on the Earth? Yeah, I think three minutes is fine.



Once you finish your run and download the run, you get distance, pace, a map of the run (above), elevation profile of the run, calories burned, pace for each mile, etc. It's a wealth of info.

Did I mention I love it?

So if you've got an extra $200 to blow, I totally recommend it.

I See the Light!

No, really.

We've had sun here in Corvallis three straight days now and the race calendar is getting more and more...longer.

Anyhoo, I'm feeling like Winter is on the way out! And running in a short-sleeve shirt is just around the corner.

Woot!

Let's race!

RACES FOR WEEK OF FEBRUARY 7th TO FEBRUARY 13th

February 12th / Run for Your Sweet Heart 10k and 5k / St. Paul, OR

February 12th / Heart and Sole 10k and 5k / Longview, WA

February 12th / Love 'Em or Leave 'Em Valentine's Day Dash 5k / Seattle, WA

February 12th / Two for the Road 5k / Bellingham, WA

February 12th / Matchmaker 5k / Centralia, WA

February 13th / Truffle Shuffle 4 mile run / Eugene, OR

February 13th / Worst Day of the Year Ride 40 mile and 18 mile / Portland, OR

February 13th / You Knock My Socks Off 4 Miler / Gig Harbor, WA

February 13th / Partners in Pain 5k / Spokane, WA

February 13th / Cupid's Marathon, Half-Marathon, 10 mile, 10k, 5k and Duathlon / Rochester, WA

Every Race in Corvallis is now E.P.I.C.

What can I say? ERIC just doesn't have the same ring to it as EPIC.

So my goal of racing every race and tri in Corvallis in 2011 is now officially known as:

E.P.I.C. 2011!!

Or Every Pursuit In Corvallis 2011.

And it still looks like the Crazy Eight 10k/5k on February 26th will be the first one on the list!

After that, we're looking at:
-Make a Change 10k/5k on March 26th
-Beaver Freezer Sprint Triathlon on April 2nd
-Corvallis Half Marathon on April 10th

Get signed up for some of these and join me on the roads and trails (and pools) of Corvallis!

...so I entered in "EPIC Corvallis" on Google Images, figuring there would just be a photo of me, and instead got a coupon for a Complementary Brow Wax...you take what you can get, I guess...

Beaver Freezer Triathlon - 2nd Warning!

Hey, I'll try to get back once more before February 1st to remind you to drag your lazy butts out of bed early and sign up for the Beaver Freezer next Tuesday.

Get it on your calendar now. Remember, two straight years now the Freezer has sold out in mere hours, so you can't kid around. Get online right at 8:00 am and get signed up.

It's the race to be at in April!

...that's a sad freezer...

Jog FM - Music for Runners

Wow - I really, no, REALLY, like this website.

It picks music to listen to while you run, adjustable by pace and BPM and type of music and popularity and...

Sweet!

Here are my picks for an 8:00 mile pace. And here are my picks adjusted to music that I actually like.

This is very cool.

Random Running Website score: A

Best Running Song for January!

It's January. Cold. Wet. Windy. Miserable. No time to waste around while a slow song builds and builds to a mid-tempo beat. Nope. We need to get this thing up and running, like right now.

So I bring you We Are Scientists.

These guys can get it cranked up fast. The song of the month, The Great Escape, doesn't even kid around. It gets the beats up there right from the start and doesn't let up until it's over. Just what you need to get you moving out there.

Here's another nice version, live, from Jools Holland.

These guys have other songs that work well on the road, like Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt, which has a video with tons of running in it, and After Hours, which is pretty funny.

Get a move on...we're still two months away from Spring.

Past Best Running Songs:
December: Cee Lo Green / "F**k You"
November: Tokyo Police Club / "Breakneck Speed"
October: Two Door Cinema Club / "Something Good Can Work"
September: Stone Temple Pilots / "Cinnamon"
August: Louis XIV / "Guilt by Association"
July: Devo / "Fresh"
June: Saliva / "Your Disease"
May: Metric / "Gold Guns Girls"
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"