Perth, Western Australia....My new homeland with lots of Pictures along the way

View of the mountain range somewhere near Arizona

Some peaks from 30k in the air

  This entry will be a recap of my journey across the pond of sorts, while providing some new pictures and updates of my status in Australia. The 2.5 days of total travel really really took its toll on me the 1st couple of days Down Under. It hits your body so hard that its difficult to really enjoy those first few exciting days, especially for me because I only slept about 2-3 hrs over the 46 hr journey from Charlotte, NC to settle in WA.  I snapped a few pretty cool pictures of some mountain ranges from my 1st flight across the country, no significance but I like mountain ranges and I hope you do as well!

What's wrong with this picture?

 An additional note to the picture above, after settling into my window seat from the QC to LA, I kicked something with my right foot and looked down. This is what I saw, that's always a good sign on an airplane right? You pieces falling apart at my feet haha

   To the left are my new Skull Crusher headphones that really helped my trip go by a bit smoother.  I debated on ordering the official "snoop dogg" version but when I found the exact model without the Dogg father's signature on them for a cheaper price I had to go that route. These headphones nearly drown out all outside noise while providing an amplified mini sub woofer to pump out those bass busting beats that I prefer at times.

 Here is a nice shot of what I did for about 11hrs in LA while at the airport. I got into that cool swanky, "Air New Zealand VIP Lounge" and felt like a rock star for a couple hours as there were only about 10 people hanging out w/me. As the night progressed I was accompanied with about 130 other people, so i didn't feel so cool anymore but I did manage to have about 4 sandwiches, lasagna, 2 jack and cokes and 4 beers while kicking back.

 After arriving in LA, i was stuck in no man's land because the air New Zealand section was still closed due the huge time gap in the time zones. I just laid on top of my bag until people finally came out and everyone rushed to the line. This was the 1st and only place I had to surrender $50 for checking my carry on bag which was too large for the overhead bin. Due to an error, I was able to ship a 47lb bag and my tri bike across the world for FREE!!!

   After waiting for eternity, we were called from the VIP lounge and escorted down to our flight by the concierge. We were able to straight shot to the front of the line and take our seats, which was pretty cool. Since this was the longest flight that I had ever taken, i had hoped this would be a "baller" plane with all the bells and whistles.  Since I was able to get an aisle seat I was stoked because I knew I could hop up and down as much as I wanted to stretch out the legs. The Air New Zealand 767 was very nice and satisfying to me as it was a brand new plane with our own personal TV's and a fair amount of room. I was VERY FORTUNATE to sit next to a very personable couple who were flying to New Zealand for vacation to stretch for 2 weeks. They were from San Diego and seemed to be very well traveled as I spoke about heading to Malaysia as a possibility, the gentleman had even played golf there once. This flight went by very well for me, I popped 2 ambien and slept for a maximum of about 2 hours some how? I just cannot get comfortable sitting up I guess, but oh well, i watched 4 movies along the way.

Check out the h20 and mountains

2XU compression(blood circulation)

 Upon arrival to Auckland, NZ, I said my goodbye's to my new friends. I had a 7.5hr layover so i attempted to leave the airport to explore the city but was unable to do so, because a baggage snafu with my bike and bag, which took almost 2hrs to clear up.

" Ladies and Gentleman, could you please refrain from leaving your seats and please make sure your belt is securely fastened!"

  "We will be experiencing some pretty rough turbulence for the next bit, everyone must stay in your seat and buckled, especially children please!!". When this is announced 4 different times in a 5 minute span and the pilot comes over head to say the final "SIT DOWN", it is what every passenger wants to hear. Perhaps we are about to go down in flames, the plane is already shaking a good bit as it is and there is more to come? I was comforted to remember the wise words of TrySports mechanic Rob Morgan, " the plane can land with one engine, if it makes you feel any better". The turbulence passed and I managed to read for a VERY brief period before trying to take a short nap while glancing out of my window seat.

  Unfortunately I am not able to provide this blog with pictures that I snapped along the flight and post flight, some of which are humorous. Thankfully I purchased some new headphones that block most outside noise and the rattling and shaking of our luggage just above our heads did not bother near as much as it would have otherwise. The flight as a whole was the most turbulent flight that I have been on in recent memory. As this would be my shortest flight at 5 hours and 30 minutes, I fully prepared myself as if this was a puddle hopper and it went by fairly quickly, surprisingly. I managed to sit next to a guy who had some ridiculously kicking breath and he never even talked to me, he mostly slept, that's some serious breath! There were a couple of kids just a few seats in front of me, they were hopping around and laughing, usually it would irritate me but I had the trusty Skull crusher headphones!

Traveling from Charlotte I made a few notes on my PC about long distance traveling in general after I enjoyed an oh so delicious gourmet Burger King $9 breakfast combo and my experience from Charlotte to LA.

1. ·         As a favor to everyone, when I have children of my own I will not take them on flights just so people can enjoy their traveling experience. I am sitting out in the food court area of the Charlotte Douglas international airport and this baby is going buckwild while her parents are just eating away. I can’t imagine if they were on my 13 hr flight from LA to NZ, I may very well strangle someone.
2. ·         Traveling with a mini notebook makes it much easier to fit your drink & snack on the tray while trying to navigate through your PC. I know firsthand as I have a seemingly HUGE Acer Laptop PC dwarfing my tray as I am walking a tight rope with my drink sitting on top of my ACER ready to fall over at any moment.
3. ·         Noise deadening headphones have already helped my flight experience tremendously. The SKULLCANDY, “Skullcrusher” headphones I special ordered are working great minus the dead battery for my “amplified power bass boost”.
4. ·         While checking my bag and Kuota K-factor Race bike at the kiosk, my grandmother accompanied me just to assist with all of my luggage(yes I said it but she is not just any ol grandmother!). She knows how I don’t always get the fine details and for such a lengthy trip, she wanted to make sure things went according to plan for me( thanks GRANNY!). While playing 20 questions with the ticket agent assisting me, somewhere in the mix they forgot to take my payment for my luggage! So far so good, Karma may finally be helping me out!  Cody’s expense for luggage and a bike = $600, Janna’s expense for luggage and a bike = $150, Chris expenses = $0.

A

After arriving into Los Angeles, I was trying to figure the appropriate terminal to head towards since I did not yet have a ticket from LA to Auckland, NZ. After making my way out of the terminal and down the street, I ended up at Air New Zealand's check in center. Only one problem there were about 25 people sitting on the benches and the floor waiting for the workers to come out. Initially I was thinking, "Did I miss the Air New Zealand strike somehow? am I stuck here? Sweet, to the beach!". Hey when you have lemons, make some kickin lemonade right? Long story short, I laid on my bags for about 40 minutes before we were able to check in. One of my bags was too big and too heavy so i had to check it last minute and actually pay the $50 fee! I tried asking about the Charlotte Running Club discount but apparently they had never heard of it. 

  As I checked this bag in the last second, i grabbed a couple things I wanted for the flight while numerous people waited behind me. I forgot about my blanket as well as my camera chord so that I could upload new photo's from each stop in my trip! Freakin A, oh well.  Once I was in the terminal, knowing I saved at least $150 on baggage and knowing I have a 10 hour layover, I was heading right to the VIP lounge

Stay tuned for pictures to follow this post, it will be so much more vivid as well as a short video of my wait for the "air strike". 

Thank you, Thank you! Farewell Party + Big Fun 5k

  After speaking with Rebecca Thomason just weeks ago about my departure to Australia, she offered to host a "farewell" party in my honor at her household. She basically set up everything on her own, with giving me freedom to invite friends to enjoy the gathering with. I am so thankful and most importantly fortunate to have so many amazing friends like Rebecca to celebrate my journey with.

  Once at the party, we all realized that this scavenger hunt was some serious business, as it involved a lot of running around all the way to the uptown area and back, all the while in costume! I decided to pass and stick around to catch up with some old college buddies to play catch up the best we could in an hour's time.


As the farewell gathered more and more people, I was very delighted to see that so many people showed up to enjoy just a last hoorah for me. Check out some of the pictures below to see how much fun it was!

I just want to say thank you so much to everyone who came out to have one last laugh with me. It was a very special time for me and I don't take my friendship for granted with each and everyone of you. After the scavenger hunt was complete I was greeted with some cash in hand from the proceeds of the party, which made me pretty excited knowing that this would more than likely be enough to ship my bike down under! Thank you thank you thank you


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As a conclusion to this post, I woke up saturday morning bright and early after about 2 hours of rest and jumped into a 5k that started directly across the street from me in the Blakeney Shopping center...The event was amazing in fact, one of the best local 5k's I have ever seen put on in the area. I knew that if certain precautions weren't made, that the course could be cut slightly short simply by taking a few corners a certain way.  The course is USATF certified but I think a few of the turns were taken sharply to trim the course down a bit. As a disclosure to all interested/current clients of PRC, my preparation for the race was extremely against the rules of all recommended advice I would typically give.

  My warm-up included, waking up, walking across the street to get my packet, walking back and then taking a 15 minute hot shower, followed by a 4 minutes run in the treadmill, then a 15 minute rant with various people before realizing the race was to start in a mere 2 minutes. As the bad decisions piled up, I decided to go ahead and take off my shirt, it was only 40 degree's out, why not? Arm warmer's and a hat, fun times. In short the gun fired and everyone took off directly uphill out of the shopping center. I was getting left right away by young kids, old men, women and maybe even a few baby joggers. there were 2 things that I realized about a 1/2 mile into the race;

1. I was behind Justin Breland and Kent Morris by a fair amount, just basing off of our current 5k times, I should certainly be in front of them, as well as the grey haired guy in front of them with basketball shorts. 
2. Pezz was pretty far up the road on me, crap I need to pick up the pace or I will get rolled by a girl!!! She is legit, yes I did have an excuse to fall back on from my lack of sleep and wealth of hops in my stomach, but I had to man up. 

I managed to pass Pezz at the mile mark, debating on whether to help her pace or to continue on, I decided to catch up to some other guy who was sporting triathlon gear and went out "balls to the wall" with the ballers.   I was feeling surprisingly great, so I decided to just basically sprint for about 200 meters to lay the law down so to speak. After I hit about the 1.5m mark, I realized that the rest of the race I would be completely alone, maybe I should push it? na cruise control to stay in front of Pezz was all i really cared about, so as I approached the line not having wore a watch, I was completely surprised to see 15:49, 50, 51...15:56!

Big South 5K 2010
                         Charlotte, NC 10/23/2010
             UNOFFICIAL Results by Queen City Timing Services
                 RESULTS POSTED ON www.queencitytiming.com

Place Div/Tot  Gen/Tot  Name                Ag G Bib   City         St Chiptim Guntime Pace  
===== ======== ======== =================== == = ===== ============ == ======= ======= ===== 
    1   1/23     1/420  Matthew Elliott     25 M   858 Rock Hill    SC   14:45   14:45  4:45 

    2   1/11     2/420  Ricky Flynn         23 M  1472 Lynchburg    VA   14:53   14:54  4:48 
    3   2/23     3/420  Jordan Kinley       26 M  5621                   15:33   15:33  5:01 
    4   3/23     4/420  Chris Lamperski     28 M  1058 Charlotte    NC   15:56   15:57  5:08 
    5   1/51     1/435  Stephanie Pezzulo   28 F  1486 Waxhaw       NC   16:17   16:17  5:15 
   

My new approach to racing will not involve a garmin but by racing off of feel alone as it seems I have been able to adapt to paces much more appropriately in that manner. 

Pictured with the Eagle is a good friend, Scott Helms who left from uptown Charlotte with a headlamp on in the early AM to make it in time to run the course in order to complete his 20 miler along side PRC member Dusti Jensen. great to see both of them knocking 20 miles out like it was nothing!

Blowing Rock: Road trip to Moses Cone

   This past weekend, I gathered up a couple friends to accompany me to the mountains for a couple of reasons. 

1.   to hopefully see how amazing the NC mountains look when fall is here and the leaves are completely changed
2.   get in a solid run up a mountain with perfect weather as a break from the norm in Charlotte. 

 After some confusion, we ended up departing the house around 6:50am in route to Blowing Rock Website, making our 1st pit stop at 6:54 am to get Mr. Chris his coffee and a few snacks for the road, while Kent Morris was still trying to wake up as seen here.

Special thanks to Bmac for providing us with the gas mileage of his Sweet Honda Fit as our chariot to the mountains. Initially I was nervous/excited at the possibility of Ryan Bender joining us as he was planning on 20 miles at a sub 6 pace and I know that none of us were really up for that but I was thinking if I could make it 13 miles I would be pleased, but Ryan had family come to town and had to back out. Billy was pumped to join us, but his decision to stay up till 2am for the Braves playoff game did not end up well and he had to back out the morning of also.

As we approached blowing rock, we all were getting pumped to hit the trails. Kent had never been to Moses Cone and was anxious to check it out and it had been a year since I was last there from what I remember. After we jumped from the car, we realized, wow, we are all a bit tight from the ride up and had to take a few extra minutes to loosen up our muscles and joints. I decided to go with the old school bandanna look with my 2XU Compressioon Race Socks which seem to keep saving the day for me lately. We headed on our journey from Bass Lake up to the Manor for a few minutes before heading up to the fire tower. Upon arriving to the fire tower we encountered an older man who appeared to be just slightly in another world (possibly from some form of plant smoking) and he seemed to keep chatting/checking us out(awkward), so I just jumped on the steps of the fire tower and said nice to meet you buddy we got to roll.

Once to the top it was a great view of the mountain range and we were trying to figure out what certain areas were from far away. Kent said it reminded him of back home in Lynchburg, Va when he used to train in the mountains during high school in the 1970's. Brian made a magnificent effort to at least climb to the top of the tower to have a brief look out. on the way down our pace didn't seem to drop by very much, we just kept it consistent. Kent wanted about 10 miles so he went straight back to Bass Lake while Brian and I took the path to Trout lake and back up to the manor before finishing up at Bass lake as well. After arriving at the lake my Garmin appeared to finally kick in the right pacing as we were going about 6:45's the last mile.

After finishing, I really felt like I had to do more and just asked if they wanted to knock out an extra mile. In my head, I thought, let's push it Chris, but I was also thinking, lets not mess up that calf that has been giving me fits. Kent, brian and I hit the path around the lake for one more loop and I commented that i planned to push it a bit as a heads up. We eased into the mile loop(or so i thought) and I saw the garmin at 5:42 around 1/4m in and I hit the 1/2m at 2:48 as I began to really pick it up. At that point, I basically said, let's see if you any wheels Chris, don't be a pussy, MAN UP and get it done. I took off in search for the possibility of running my 15th mile in sub 5 realizing I needed a freaking 2:11 last 800m! As I finished and my back was getting tight, I passed our starting point for the mile and had to run another 85-90 yards before my garmin hit 5:06. If I had a Timex, it would have been well below 5 but luckily the garmin saved me from false info. All in all I ran a 2:18 back 1/2m which I was VERY satisfied with.

To add to just a great day to be out running, we bumped into a couple other runners hitting the trails for about 13-14 like us and one of them was former D1 NCAA XC champ Josh McDougal running with his dog.

The 3 amigo's hit Woodlands BBQ where we had a very nice young lady as our waitress. The food was plenty and we even went high dollar and got a pitcher of Coors Light. Making our way into town, it was good people watching as about 85% of the people were over 60 years old but friendly of course. It was beautiful day, so we all set on a bench overlooking the town with dozens of other people, sipping apple cider and eating ice cream (Brian). It was a great day away from the norm but by the time we found our way back to Charlotte we were pretty much exhausted. I had a 40th B-day to go to for Scott Helms in 2 hours time and needed to figure out dinner, shower and some sort of a nap. Long blog short, we had a blast and I am fairly certain that Bmac played enough Ska music to last me at least until I get to Australia on the car ride.

Special thanks to the Mizuno Inspire, 2XU race socks and Garmin for making my run fun and successful!

• To end my Blog Entry, I only have one question for anyone who may read this, WHY DO WE NOT ATTEMPT TO MAKE MORE TRIPS TO THE MOUNTAINS? I never hear anyone say, why don't we take a fairly short drive to see some amazing scenery and to also get in some great running? Let's break free of this Concrete city!

Running for Ta-Ta's

About 6 weeks ago i decided that I wanted to set a goal of running a decent 5k once again since I had been mainly trying my hands in the multi-sport arena this spring/summer. Since TrySports was sponsoring the "Run for the "Ta-Ta's" 5k in Wilmington, NC, I figure why not give it a shot?

Perhaps with some training I could be under 16 once again and if things went according to plan, I could get down into the 15:40 range in this 6 week span. Well after some very surprising workouts in basically a 2 week span I was feeling more and more confident. I managed a stellar (for me) 4 x 1 mile track workout in Charleston, SC and then an even more surprising sub 22minute tempo on the Common Market solo run. After all of these events seemingly lining up for a fantastic 5k performance I headed off to West Jefferson for the Blue ridge relay with my new teammates "Bear in Mind". After a spectacular trip with new friends, I was left a bit fatigued but I felt confident that this would be my best post BRR recovery yet. WRONG.


Something flared up in my calf and Achilles on both legs and I was VERY limited with my training regimen. This really left me at a loss as I was finally gearing up to be in great shape before I ship out across the world. Now here I am running very 3rd day at a far from brisk pace for anywhere between 3-5 miles. I was fortunate to attempt using a new product on the market called the "helix calf sleeve" to see if it could help at all. Well long story short, i was walking by 1.75 miles with a big knot in my calf. Luckily after speaking with Dr. Clay Gasparovich at Greenapple Wellness, he worked on my legs the best that he could.


My legs began to feel better after the use of a laser, the graston technique, and kineseo tape. After making progress Dr. Scott Greenapple, said he would like to give acupuncture a shot also. {Acupuncture is the stimulation of specific points on the body by a variety of techniques, including the insertion of thin metal needles though the skin. Acupuncture needles are intended to remove blockages in the flow of chi and restore and maintain health. The needles are solid, and contain no chemicals, as in western medicine. These disposable needles serve only as an antennae to allow transfer of energy through a point in the body.}

Never having acupuncture before, I was a little nervous and when he was sticking these needles inside on my leg I was just a bit freaked out honestly. Directly after the therapy I felt worse, as my leg was in a bit of pain, so I was still skeptical. The next day arrives, t-minus 1 day until the 5k and I manage to squeeze in 3 miles with BMAC at 7pm before meeting Jordan and Sarah at the local pub. Race morning, BMAC and I awake after our comfortable living arrangements at the Hilton, get some coffee, the usual dynamic warm-up, 3 miles to warm-up and some easy strides. i was feeling GOOD, wow what happened? I felt like a new person actually, what to expect now? Does this mean I can go out harder? What's the plan? "Chris you haven't ran much in 2 weeks! don't go crazy".


Once the race started, it was CHAOTIC as we caught up to the back of the pack women and the swerving commenced. In and out, on the curb, whoa i almost ran into someone, stop, side step, surge the gap, hop over a dog, past a little girl and we are about 1/2 mile into the race. My plan quickly became to stick with the front pack as long as I could until the chaos cleared a bit and they took off. At the 3/4m mark, it was on point when they took off, most of whom have run sub 15 for a 5k on the roads before. I settled into a groove and kept going w/no watch to look at only effort. Rounding a corner I noticed that Jordan was on the sidewalk as I passed by, secretly hoping he would hop back in to help me out, and he did! He led me out to catch the next pack which was successful and he just kept it in cruise control from then on.

Approaching the line I thought the clock said 16:30, but it said 18:30, meaning I was at 15:30 in reality since we started 3 minutes back. I knew I had a lot more in the tank so i got on my toes and hammered home passing some local guy with his teammates cheering him in. Afterwards I found out the guy I passed was a now pro triathlete and current Aquathon national champion. This made my day and has led my confidence to really build before I head out. I want to send out many thank yous starting with trySports for providing me with a race to actually mark as a goal; Greenapple sports and wellness for somehow allowing me to run, BMAC for a fun trip (another tower over here!) and Jordan Kinley for helping me catch the pack in front of me! Onward to more training!

BLOWING ROCK LONG RUN IN THE AM!!! Blog Post sure to come from the trip