Cyclobenzaprin, Percocet, and Chlorzoxazone...

I know, sounds like a good time, right. Well, as your friendly family doctor could tell you, anyone taking those three meds probably has a very painful back. Very, very, very painful. And probably isn't running. At all. Barely walking, probably. Most likely wishing they hadn't been born when they twist their back the wrong way.

Sometimes I just want to trade this body in for a new model.

RACES FOR WEEK OF JANUARY 5th TO JANUARY 11th

January 10th / Frenchman's Bar 9, 6 and 3 mile runs / Vancouver, WA

January 11th / Cascade Half Marathon and 10k / Turner, OR

January 11th / Maui Paradise Marathon, Half Marathon and 5k (Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?) / Maui, HI

It's that time of year...

Yesterday, I saw a woman running down the sidewalk past Reser Stadium in her soccer cleats.

Oh, did I mention we have snow and ice on the sidewalks here in Corvallis? Yep. The city that has white Christmas as often as Phoenix has some of the white stuff. Will it hang around until the 25th?

Get tough, get cold, and get out there and run.

RACES FOR WEEK OF DECEMBER 29th TO JANUARY 4th

December 31st / First Run 2009 5k / Portland, OR

December 31st / Year to Year Run 5k / Longview, WA

December 31st/January 1st / First Run 10k and 5k (two runs) / Eugene, OR

January 1st / Padden Resolution 2.6 mile Run and Polar Bear Swim / Bellingham, WA

January 1st / Capitol Mile / Salem, OR

January 1st / Pooch and Pal 1.5 mile run and Thunder Run 5k (races run back to back) / Pasco, WA

January 1st / New Years Day Hangover Run 9 or 4 mile / Lewiston, ID

January 1st / Resolution Run 5k and Polar Bear Swim / Seattle, WA

January 1st / Y2K9 Run, 20.09k and 10k / Forest Grove, OR

January 3rd / Lake Samish Runs, 13.1 and 6.5 miles / Bellingham, WA

January 4th / Kitsap YMCA Resolution Run 5k / Bremerton, WA

New Year, here I come!

Between the move from Sedro-Woolley to Corvallis and the job hunt and the house hunt and the apartment hunt, I think I ran in about two races last year and didn't do a single tri. Man, that's sad. But 2009 is gonna be a whole different story! It's time to embrace my Masters-ness and try to set some PR's. I'm looking to race in 20-25 races this year. Get ready, get set, and go!


RACES FOR WEEK OF DECEMBER 22nd TO DECEMBER 28th

December 22nd / Tour de Lights 5k / Bonney Lake, WA

That's it. One race. On a Monday night. But you get to see Christmas lights. Get out there and run.

Not gonna happen...again

Another year of dismal, dismal failure at Nanowrimo for the artist known as Scott Lommers. It's no secret why: the first week of the month and the last week of the month were just horrible. The Thanksgiving weekend will always be tough, so clearly, for 2009, I'm going to have to concentrate on starting faster and getting about 20,000 words done in the first week.

Ah well...

RACES FOR WEEK OF DECEMBER 15th TO DECEMBER 21st

December 19th / Northern Lights Winter Solstice Headlamp Run 5 mile / Sedro-Woolley, WA

December 20th / Ferndale Flat and Fast 10k / Ferndale, WA

December 20th / Lampson Cable Bridge Run 10k and 5k / Pasco, WA

December 21st / Christmas Marathon, Half-Marathon, 10 mile, 10k, 5k / Olympia, WA

December 21st / Winter Solstice Run 5k / Eugene, OR

100 Posts Old...

and I'm feeling every one of them. So this is post number 100 on The Two R's. Wow.

In other news, I'm way behind on my Nanowrimo novel, but I've got one last big push in me this weekend. By Sunday night, we'll know if there's any hope at all.

Let's Run.

RACES FOR WEEK OF DECEMBER 8th TO DECEMBER 14th

December 13th / Jingle Bells Runs 8k and 5k / Eugene, OR

December 13th / Winter Solstice Fun Run 5k / Bainbridge Island, WA

December 13th / Jingle Bell Run 4 mile / Bellingham, WA

December 13th / Run Rudolph Run 5k / Edmonds, WA

December 13th / Mosier Twin Tunnels 12k and 5k Runs / Hood River, OR

December 13th / Christmas Rush Fun Run 10k and 5k / Kent, WA

December 13th / Jingle Bell Run 5k / Spokane, WA

December 13th / Toys for Tots Airport Run 10k and 5k / Arlington, WA

December 14th / 12K's of Christmas Holiday Run 12k and 5k / Kirkland, WA

December 14th / Jingle Bell Run 5k / Seattle, WA

It's Jingle Time...

Well, not that Jingle actually...

It's the time of year that the Arthritis Foundation Jingle Bell Runs start popping up on the calendar! Yeah, nothing like running and making an annoying noise early in the morning all at the same time.

RACES FOR WEEK OF DECEMBER 1st TO DECEMBER 7th

December 6th / Ridgefield Holiday 10k and 5k runs / Ridgefield, WA

December 6th / Fairhaven Frosty 10k and 5k runs / Bellingham, WA

December 6th / Skagit Jingle Bell Run 4 mile / Mt. Vernon, WA

December 6th / Bend Jingle Bell Run 5k / Bend, OR

December 6th / Wondergirl 5k / Seattle, WA

December 7th / Beaver Fun Run 5k / Corvallis, OR

December 7th / Portland Jingle Bell Run 5k / Portland, OR

Where have all the writers gone?

Yes, I know the blog has been pretty slow lately, but I'm trying to write this Nanowrimo novel, you see. Don't worry, I'll still get the race calendars up, but probably not much else for November.

Although I do have something to discuss today! What's with all the talented writers dropping down into the young adult ranks? Are the publisher's just desperate to find the next Harry Potter? Surely there's no more money in the Young Adult and Children's market than there is in the Adult market...is there?

Two of my all-time favorites are doing a LOT of this, to the point where they barely write adult novels anymore. Yes, I'm talking to you Pete Hautman and Rick Riordan. Others trying their hand at young adult novels are Ridley Pearson, Dave Barry and Carl Hiaasen. What the heck is going on?

Why I remember when I was a kid...you had to go straight from Encyclopedia Brown to Stephen King with no stops in between. If that was good enough for us, then why do these modern kids get all these quality writers working just for them?!

You damn kids! Get off my lawn!

I'm behind...again...

Yes, I realize I'm more than a little bit behind on my word count for Nanowrimo, but never fear! I had to spend the first four days of the month working on an article for RaceCenter Magazine. Now that I've finished that, I've got nothing going on for the rest of the month but writing! And I've got my first weekend - always a high point in any young man's life. Of course, I've also got the kids since Jen has a show in Port Townsend this weekend. Not exactly the quiet time that aspiring writers look for.

RACES FOR WEEK OF NOVEMBER 24th TO NOVEMBER 30th

November 27th / Oregon Mid-Valley Road Race 5.2 and 3.75 mile runs / Albany, OR

November 27th / Osborne Aquatic Center Turkey Trot 5k / Corvallis, OR

November 27th / American Red Cross Turkey Trot 5k / Kennewick, WA

November 27th / Mosier Twin Tunnel 12k and 5k / Hood River, OR

November 27th / The Centre at Norpoint Turkey Trot 5k / Tacoma, WA

November 27th / Give n' Gobble 10k and 5k / Sherwood, OR

November 27th / Thanks and Giving Challenge 12k and 5k / Wenatchee, WA

November 30th / Seattle Marathon, Half-Marathon / Seattle, WA

Thanks to the American Red Cross Benton-Franklin Chapter, for that good lookin' bird. I can't wait for T-Day, my favorite holiday of the year!

The first excerpt is up!

That's right, the first excerpt from my nanowrimo novel is up. Head on over and check it out. Then come back over here and tell me what you think.

Unless you hate it, then for God's sake, keep it to yourself.

Hey, I stole the photo from here. Please go over to Yvette's and say "Thank You" for me. No, I'm not sure how they got Domino, took her picture, then brought her back without us noticing.

Costs about $59.94 too much...

Oh boy, the Nike+ SportBand. Where do I start? Oh, I know...IT'S A PIECE OF JUNK. Sorry about that, but really, it's just not good. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Nike+ fan. I've never had any problems with my Nike+ that hooks to the iPod and I like running with it. So I thought, "Hey, that SportBand looks pretty cool, I think I'll give it a try." And $59.95 later, I was hooked up. And all was well for about two months, then...the screen seemed to fog up a bit, and the pixels came and went, and the charge wouldn't hold for longer than about 10 minutes, and, well, finally it just died. A three month life span. Twenty bucks a month. That's a little expensive for my taste.

When I called Nike to complain, I realized that the SportBand has serious issues. Even though I have no receipt and no proof of when I bought it, they took it back for a refund (a voucher to Nike.com, which is fine with me) with absolutely no arguement whatsoever. They seem to be getting a lot of those kinds of calls on the SportBand, she was shocked by nothing I said. I've since looked online a bit, and the SportBand definitely has issues.

Back to the Nike+ on the iPod for me.