Recap: Savannah a city of running and funning

Cell Phone shot from Wayne Lamperski's Cell phone at 19.5 miles. LIFT OFF!

 Here is a recap of the weekends events in Savannah, Ga along with 24,000 of my other running buddies.

   I arrived into town on Thursday afternoon just in time to pick up my race packet and to meet my good friend Logan at the expo. Kent was still in limbo about actually attempting the race but after a 2.5 mile run that night it was pretty much decided there was no way he could do 13.1 miles unfortunately. After the disappointment of his run we hit town for dinner and then to some bars. Yea, I would say most of my runner crazy friends wouldn't go out 2 days before there marathon to have a couple tall boys.

   On Friday I had to wake up and deal with a few hours of work from the hotel room which began to stress me a bit, I was ready to race and get away from all of it. At lunch time I set out to get a fresh cut from the barbershop for race day and then Kent I found some hole in the wall Mexican joint. While sitting at the bar, I ordered a Margarita and it was awesome! The owner talked to us about how the race course would screw over Savannah and tourism because they ran it through the ghetto and we needed to pack heat while on the course, sweet!  Back to the hotel to wait for Karin and to enjoy the free wine in the lobby of kent's hotel, good for the heart!

  Race morning Karin and I woke up at 4:30am before heading to the shuttles which took us about 35 minutes to ride into town. We were worried to say the least after we were about 4 miles from town and we saw a sign on the interstate that said "6 Savannah". Made our way to Kent's hotel to drop off a few things and prepare for the race. Off to the start, I grabbed a 5hr energy and popped it back for some reason, not the best choice on race morning since I never use them ha.

   Spotted Joe Lanser quickly in the 1st corral and  then it was "oh was that the start gun?" and we are off. Joe and I kept the pace kind of all over the place for the 1st few miles for some reason, the 1st mile was slow but I could care less, we had 25 miles to make up for it! Joe kept picking up the pace and I had to remind him of the 6:05 pace we agreed upon and after 7 miles miles I think that Joe really was getting to antsy to stay back with me especially after finding out we were in the top 12 or so for the marathon.  He took off at 8 miles with some foreigner and he sailed away from me while I settled back into the prescribed pace. I tried chatting with other runners on the course but I could never get anything out of them, except fleet feet Savannah's Chris Ramsey. As the half marathon split off I was pretty much running solo minus one guy in front of me. The whole race I knew my stomach didn't feel great and after an attempt at taking a gel at 12 miles my stomach really bothered me and as I approached the 13 mile mark I started eyeing any porta potty I could find. Just after 13 miles I found one, hopped off of the course into a parking lot and took care of business then hit the streets again.

  I picked up the pace quickly as I had two sub 5:50 miles while I was trying to make up the time I lost with my pit stop. I could see people ahead of me from a distance and I kept the pace steady from then on. My calves were getting very tight at this point and it scared me a bit so I continued to hold back, even though I felt I had more to give. My stomach continued to bother me the remainder of the race so at 15 miles I took a sip of water and called it a day, Gel at 6 miles , then half a gel at 12 miles and that would be it for the entire day. We hit some mega headwinds for the marathon portion of the race, it was crazy how a back street turned into a corridor of wind and your pace quickly would slow. I tried sprinting 50-60 yards off and on in an effort to keep my pace steady but even running as hard as I could I could only maintain 5:50's on that 50yard stretch into the wind.  Hitting the highway I noticed there was a stream line of competitors ahead of me including Joe, let's go for it! I was fatigued and needing some fuel but I just kept grinding it out. Passing one, then another, I caught Joe just before 24 miles and told him to hang behind me and keep focused. I felt like all of the guys I passed were letting my block the wind but it didn't matter i felt pretty decent, I was determined to keep working to break them all.

    As we hits the last mile on the streets I was getting pretty tired and wanting to see the finish ASAP, I asked a cyclist who was riding behind me how far away the finish was. Usually you get a "man you are almost there, its around this corner" but this guy destroyed me. I passed the 40k mark about 4-5 minutes before I asked him and then he says "uhhh you have about 2 miles yea, bout 2." thanks buddy!! On my way to the end of the race I saw Karin, Jess, Anne Marie and my grandmother cheering me on to break 2:40. I knew it wouldn't happen on the clock but on my watch there was still a chance. As I made my way around the bend I gave it everything I had while looking at my watch 2:39:40,41,42....2:39:52 at the line on my watch, I knew I in fact broke 2:40 with my actual running time, I am happy with that!

- That night we all hit the town to celebrate, good times for sure!

  All in all I was very happy, I was dancing on the course, literally through some water stops, yelling at the people to get "hype" and to "put em up", I was fan favorite for sure amongst the leaders. Looking over my logs, my plan to use local races as speed work really paid off. I never really had any marathon training minus a few long runs and one attempt at MP for 4.5 miles on the green way.  NYC 2012 may have me shooting to chop a few minutes off of my mark and maybe go into the Paul Mainwaring range of 2:35, who knows. Special thanks to Mary Jane, Stan and Wayne Lamperski for coming out and supporting me along the course!

Rock N Roll Savannah by nolimitrunna at Garmin Connect - Splits

Back in Action! Savannah 26.2 Miles to Rock N Roll

   This is my 1st time posting since my return back into the states and it is an exciting post to say the least.  I am sitting at my work station at the Hampton Inn in Savannah, Ga just a couple hours before I turn in for a good nights rest before my extremelly early 4:30am wake up before venturing to the Savannah Mall to take a shuttle in to town for the Start.

   For those who do not know I signed up for the Rock N Roll Savannah Marathon months ago while still in Australia hoping for maximum fitness by the time I arrived back into the US. My surprising brush with death that ended with a shattered arm, expensive bills, and a pretty slow recovery is where I am at right now. My comeback has been pretty good as my miles haven't been over the top as sometimes I GO FOR IT and increase my mileage rapidly to get my fitnesss caught up, but this time I didn't.

Race Website

    The game plan for the morning is to drop into Kent's Hotel room before the race for a quick bathroom break and to drop off some clothes before snaking my way through 24,000 people towards the front. Say my goodbye's to Karin before I start my long journey and hopefully find Joe Lanser in the crowd. Either way by the mile, I should see Joe as we plan to pace together as long as possible. My hopes are that we can maintain sub 6:15's and then pick it up as the race progresses. My training has not pointed to those results for the Full Marathon but I have foolish hope and optimisim that i will be able to out something fairly decent with my lower mileage weeks.

     Karin is also running in the half marathon, fresh off of a Half Marathon PR in NY but unfortunately after the race in NY her PF problems caught up with her. She is running the race for fun, but I wish her the best and hope that she can truly enjoy the Rock N Roll experience. Look for the both of us as well as Carolyn Maye, Dalena Custer, Michelle Hazelton, and Alex Wernikof out on the course with I freshly printed "TrySports" black and white team singlets!

Special Thanks to TrySports for providing some awesome racing gear, The Running Centre in Perth, WA for providing me with some Sweet Saucony Racing flats and to Mary jane, Stan and Wayne Lamperski who traveled to Savannah to cheer me on!



16,000 Miles to Home: Part Deux (Going back to Cali)

SAN FRANCISCO

   

    After departing New Zealand and anticipating the arrival back into my home country, once the plane landed the next few days of my life would change. Here I am in a suit, pulling 2 very large suitcases, I have a backpack filled to the brim and another satchel draped over me while trying to figure out the easiest way to get into the city to finally rest in my hotel room. After paying for my BART transit ticket, I was nearly to my hotel, I could feel the soft bed just in thought, since I had not slept very much on the plane. Onto the tram, "wow" I thought, there are a few more people on this thing than our light rail back home. This is just the beginning!!!!!!!!!!!!

   

     As I am standing up on the BART, basically occupying 3 spaces, people begin to file in at each stop. I am sweating through my suit now, people are all around, this is insane, I need to click my heels and get to Kansas. Well I evaluate the situation and realize a lot of people have rainbow shirts and even face paint with similar colors. The final piece to the puzzle was a teenage whom entered the tram with his friends in some strange outfit with "Gay" written all over his face. Holy Ish, it's the one weekend out of the year I randomly book a flight to California for a surprise early return home and its Gay Pride Weekend.

Wow

View from Hotel Metropolis

   It was an insane experience for me wondering the streets and seeing naked people just walking around. San Fran is slightly different than the conservative south I am used to. The culture is so open especially on that weekend, I do not have any bad feelings towards lifestyle selections at all, but it was just a culture shock to me, it blew my mind! I took a couple pictures from my hotel room (which was on the parade route) before I closed the curtains and passed out for 2 hrs. After my Friend Glenn arrived later in the night to the city we went out to grab a bite to eat. While waiting around I walked the streets a bit to just get a better knowledge of my surroundings and found a hole in the wall Mexican joint. It was amazing to say the least but we had an interesting experience waiting in line because the ghetto girls in front of us were the rudest people I had ever came across my life!

Fisherman's Wharf

   

    After checking out the sights and sounds of the city for a few days, Mr. Carroll and I set off for the Muir woods and Yosemite National forest in our Ford Focus rental car. We slammed the car with all of our luggage from our stays in Australia and New Zealand. Exploring the Muir Woods was pretty impressive especially for being just 15 min outside of the city. The trees were huge, the surrounding bush was bright green and the sun was peaking through the tree towers. Since Glenn has plans to establish himself as a professional photographer, we took a lot of time to take pictures.

 

   Since we had the rental car, I decided to make it my own Indy car through the rolling turns and tires screeched every 15 seconds, it was exciting, to me anyways haha. After taking some great pictures we hit the road for a long night drive into the Yosemite national forest. Once we arrived into the park around midnight, we stopped shortly after to sleep on the side of the road in our trusty focus. This car was beyond jam packed with 2 grown men,  several extra large suitcases and sports bags. This trip was sure to have a stench by the end of it! This was the worst night of sleep ever, I had to hope out of the car 4 times to pee and I at no point was comfortable to sleep. At 6am I woke Glenn up eagerly to move into a different area with the possibility of finding a spot to take a nap.

   After venturing into the Yosemite National Forest living quarters, we realized how many people came through the same week as July 4th. Car upon car filed through but thankfully we were able to get most of our sights and pictures taken before it was shoulder to shoulder with people on the trails.

    In a short summary of the Yosemite forest trip I found out that Glenn. who keep in mind is an Eagle Scout, thought that Yosemite was pronounced "yo-se-mite" as in rhymes with "gross might", on my 3rd night without showering as I was washing my feet off in the frigid cold river I felt like Jesus, and I realized that in certain circumstances I do not need a large soft bed to sleep in after all. One of the adventures from our explorations was the small crack in our windshield that literally grew across the entire window by the end of our trip. We also had a very interesting last night in San Fran as I took the BART to the airport because our rental car was blocked in by another car and Glenn decided to take it in the AM before his flight left. While I was attempting to sleep at the airport under a bench, I realized that I in fact had the keys to the rental car and all of the trains were stopped until 2 hrs after my flight left.  After all the stress I found an Asian gentleman whom barely spoke any English to promise to take the keys to the hotel for $10 and if he didn't do so I would track him down and kill him.

    The trip across the world was quite the success was worth every minute and topping it off with my trip to California made it even more memorable. There is so much that I could elaborate on but you will just have to ask me in person if you run into me. To top everything off I ended my Independence Day in the luggage section of my childhood friends SUV covered in a tarp while he spoke to me mom. She opened the hatch and I popped up much to her surprise, tears were shed by my sister and my mom, it as great to be home and to completely surprise my family on such a big day. It was great to see so many people once again whom I had missed while away. Seeing my Granny and pappy also made me happy after all that they have done for me while I was away. One thing is for sure, I have a lot of special people in my life!!!

Enjoy some other random pictures from My time in Cali!

 

     

Aquarium in Fisherman's Wharf



San Fran from the Bay



G$ and the Focus after our 1st Night in Yosemite

View into the Valley from the highest overpass in Cali

16,000 miles to home: part 1 (NZ)

Mt. Ngauruhoe summit. IN THE CLOUDS!

Auckland Sky Tower

   After plotting out my trip back across the world months ago I was able to explore some fascinating places, many of which I couldn't even comment on because it would give away the surprise that I was in fact coming to town the weekend of July 4th as a surprise. While away, I was so fortunate to visit some pretty colorful sights and enjoy the sounds of some interesting personalities. All in all, I traveled from Perth, Western Australia to Auckland New Zealand, to San Francisco, California. My time in New Zealand and California consisted of nearly one month of not working and bumming around mostly, a rather eye opening experience as a back packer.

   My friend Glenn (aka G$) traveled all around the South Island of New Zealand, complete with stops at the Rotorua thermal pools, Lake Taupo (IM NZ site), and the Tongariro Crossing. Most of the time it was overcast while visiting and it got pretty old honestly. One of the coolest things we were able to do was to Summit Mount Ngauruhoe on the Tongariro Crossing, which was one of the most difficult things I have ever encountered in my life. Once hitting the top of the Volcano with its perfect cone we set around and had a few beers to soak in the sights. On the way down, I thought I may literally die, after getting past the initial ice covered peak while sliding down at a very uncomfortable, potentially deadly speed, we had about 5,000ft ahead of us to reach our van. The night before our incredible journey, we arrived at the base and as I looked up, I saw the most amazing thing, stars covered the sky like a blanket, BRILLIANT!.

Rotorua Mud springs

  One thing that was a new experience for me was back packing and living in hostels, most of which were inhabited by people who barely spoke English. The last hostel I was fortunate to sleep in consisted of 12 people in one single room which was about 15 x 18 in size, what a smell! On my last day in Auckland I hooked up for a long run with Josh Rawlinson, the guy who blew my doors off at the Run Auckland 10k. This was my 4th run in 4 weeks and surprisingly I was able to knock out 2hrs and 9 minutes without falling to pieces. Thanks again Josh, it was great to meet you and your wife, good luck on your quest for sub 1:10 in November!

   Dreading the long flight ahead to San Francisco, I was so fortunate to sit in premium economy on the top deck of our 747. The guy who set next to me was awesome, a very well traveled person who was going to san fran for a bachelors party, so we had a lot to chat about. The food was great and the service was incredible, I think I had 4 jack and cokes, 1 gin and tonic and 2 glasses of wine in the 1st 2hours of the flight! (and champagne on arrival to my seat). Those of you who know me, know I can't sleep on planes so I figured why not just drink myself to sleep, well it still did not work! My adventures and pictures of California in part 2, enjoy some additional pics I took while in NZ

Sleeping Arrangement!

Rugby!

   





You read it yourself

View from the Rotating Sky Tower at Night



BLOODY NEW ZEALAND! Tales from Auckland

You can't see the outer layer of my leg is missing along with my right butt Cheek scared up!!!

Three weeks ago I signed up for a 10k road race in Auckland, New Zealand, just excited at the chance to race in another country. I didn’t know about the course or the people that had previously raced it, but I knew that the winner had run 33:59 in 2010 so I had a chance at winning. As the day would unfold I would be able to add running up a volcano twice, running through rain and mud, and having a session with medical workers to my list of things done while in New Zealand.

                The day prior to the race I decided it would be best to run from my hostel, to the race site so that I knew exactly how to get there the morning of the race. Sun was actually shining, I had just awoken from a nap and I hit the road in route for “western springs park”. After making it about 2.5 miles the roof just opened up from above and the rain just came by the buckets. All in all I ended up running 7.6 miles in order to find this park and run back in the torrential downpour. The night prior to the race I would once again wake up at 4am and fail to fall back asleep. After my flight through the night directly to Auckland from perth, I managed to not even catch 1 minute of sleep and go right into the Auckland morning. I had been lacking sleep critically, as I have been laying down around 11pm and waking up between 3 and 4am every night. The night of the race was no exception, in fact I just decided to go downstairs and have a small breakfast before the udder fatigue just begin to set in.

                Arriving at the race most likely looking aged by 10 years I had a nice warm-up and the “Run Auckland” set up looked pretty legit surrounding the start/finish of the race. I tucked away my track suit behind some tents and made my way to the starting line realizing that I could not remember the last time I had actually put on deodorant because of all of this back and forth traveling haha. The gun blast off and people all fly out in front of me, but I take my time to aim in on the 2 front runners who have distanced themselves from the pack and pursue. We hit our 1^st kilometer in 3:12 which was all gradual uphill, just a bit too fast for me but I was able to tuck in fairly comfortable. We passed 2k in a slower 3:19 distancing ourselves from 4^th place by a good margin. I took the lead and began to push the pace just as we turned a corner to look at the wall that soon we would be running up. The course was on/around a dormant volcano so basically we had to run straight up the back side of this volcano twice for the 10k!!! After managing to get pretty heavily into oxygen debt the top 2 runners hit the 5k mark just in front of me while I was happily surprised to be a 16:53 with that climb.

                Now for the juicy part of the days racing! I had 2^nd place in my sights as the eventual winner just broke both of us. This time we had to run around all of the 5k runners who were released 15 minutes after our race, what a chore! These people blocked the sidewalks completely so it was a zig zag for literally 5k which slowed all of us down and drained any extra energy that we could have had. As I approached the climb once again, my spirit was broken from the fantasy of winning, I could hear some foot steps behind me, then I heard breathing. Breathing from a little boy or a girl, holy crap! I knew that there was a local woman who had been winning some of the races overall in some pretty fast times but I didn’t think it could be her, it was of course. She just flew up the volcano with her short choppy strides while I looked like a freak extending my legs a bit too long and eventually I began a nice walking pace.           Once I got to the top the woman was almost out of sight, I passed the 2^nd place guy who was bent over at the top of the hill and then heard someone quickly approaching. I found a heart somewhere inside and convinced myself to dig a little deeper and begin with some surges. I was making my way through the hundreds of 5k runners or walkers should I say. Jumping in the grass, sinking my feet into the wet muddy grass then back onto the sidewalk for a few brief steps before 2 more women completely blocked the sidewalk we were racing on. “Ok just 2k or so to go lets rock it man, don’t be a P^$$y, MAN UP!”. I am running downhill between all these people, I glance at my watch as the 9^th k clicks and I am going 4:41 mile pace at this point, woooo. Now to just plan my maneuver ahead between the 5 women half walking and running on this slippery wet surface. “I can make it between them before I hit the power pole, Oh Sh*t, I can’t make it”. So I take a sharp cut right as if I was Barry Sanders and then that’s when all hell broke loose for me.

                I am bracing myself for this mega fall down hill on this rocky pavement, BOOM SKIIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD. I am sliding on my right side just ripping into my knee and then I basically collapse into two women from behind almost knocking them over. They are in a panic, screaming, “oh my god are you ok, oh no, oh no!!!”. The only thing I am thinking is, “this is going to hurt later but I am not going to lose my 3^rd place, get up Chris!”. I pop up the best that I can and yell to the concerned women, “I will sort it out later!” and continue my onward drive to the finish. The guy behind me of course passes me on this stretch while I am gathering myself again so I pop in behind him. We hit the last 600m and we are running on wooden planks that can carry at the most 2 people wide and from all of the rain, the volcano surface has turned into mud and washed down onto the planks. We are slipping and sliding, at the verge of a fall at any moment, trying to dice between other 5k runners. We both slip off of the little wooden deck into the swampy mud but catch ourselves for one last blast to the finish 100m away. I know I have a lot more left in the tank so I roll past him to the line and wrap up my 3^rd place.

                After the race I look down and see blood running down my leg and people begin asking if I am ok. The medics luckily were on hand and took me inside the ambulance to begin cleaning my wounds and wrapping them up. The outer skin layer of my anterior tib was pretty much removed completely and my knee has a few nice slices that will be some sweet war wounds to talk about in the future. After waiting around for 90 minutes for awards, they do not give anything out and I may point out that they provide no food at the finish, only one bottle of water! It was a long 3.5 mile walk back to my hostel with my leg all banged up and the on again off again showers. What an experience!!!! Up next is a hiking adventure over some snow capped mountains, hopefully I can stay on my feet!