This Guy Falls Down

Final Four Fight Song Fun

To celebrate the Final Four taking place in Atlanta this weekend, I was invited by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to be on a panel of local musicians. Our job was to critique the fight songs of the four teams. Here are the results. I was pleasantly surprised by the Ohio State fight song, while Florida's came in a close second. Check out this page to listen to the songs and see if you agree with me or not...

Another half-marathon

It really doesn't take much to get me to do a race. Ask Randy. We were hanging out at his house a couple of years ago and he invited me to do a marathon with him. I'd never done one before, never even thought of it. But without hesitation (or at least without much hesitation), I agreed. Six months later I was running the Disney Marathon.

I got an email from a friend asking if I was doing the Georgia Marathon. I was instantly inspired and went to the website, only to find the field was closed. It's probably for the best as I've done zero training. But my wife and I, after an ever so slight nudge of encouragement from one of her friends, did go ahead and sign up for the Music City Half Marathon this year.

Today we did our first training run. 7.3 miles along the beautiful Chattahoochee River. The weather and the company and the scenery and the wildlife combined to make this easily one of my best 10 or 15 runs ever. As we're running and I'm looking at the Hooch lazily meandering by, I start thinking, ala Batman:

"I've...got...a...plan."

More on that "plan" in a few days...

Disney Half Marathon - The "long one"

Location: Big Creek Greenway, Alpharetta, GA
Distance: 13.14 miles
Time: 3:22:00
Pace: 15:22 min/mile
Temperature: mid 50's, wind 9 mph
Notes: Our half-marathon training program culminates in a "long" run about two or three weeks before the race. We had originally intended to run the entire length of the Cobb County segment of the Silver Comet Trail. As wonderful as that trail has been, we needed a change of pace. The Big Creek Greenway is a beautiful multi-purpose trail with an access point almost directly across from Northpoint Mall in Alpharetta. We were excited about the new scenery until we left the parking area and realized that this trail is all CONCRETE. For those who aren't into running, concrete is one of the two or three worst surfaces to run long distances on. After a few miles you will feel like someone is pounding your feet with a jackhammer. This pain will start in your feet and work its way up. Eventually your whole lower body will be in intense pain. We needed to run today, so we sucked it up and ran it anyway. We kept our wits about us and it ended up being a pleasant experience. The best part about running right by the mall? You can eat at the California Pizza Kitchen directly across the street when you're done...

One more "short" run and we're ready for the half marathon.

Sleighbells on the Square

This past Saturday, I braved what turned out to be a frigid morning (~2OºF) in Marietta, GA for a 5K called Sleighbells on the Square. The course was surprisingly hilly, but I still managed to finish in so-so time. And I got a nice shirt out of it. Too bad these 5K's have a knack for happening on Saturday mornings (I'm out of town those days more often than I'm not). They're quite addicting.

Disney Half Marathon - Update

Location: Silver Comet Trail, Powder Springs / Austell, GA
Distance: 11.01 miles
Time: 2:48:47
Pace: 15:20 min/mile
Temperature: 20's, 30's, windy w/ gusts up to 15 mph
Notes: This went down as my third worst running experience of all time. It was cold and I just wasn't feeling it from the start. Plus it was extremely windy and it was blowing right in our faces for the last 2 or 3 miles. There were times I thought we were going to get blown off the road. The reason you do these long training runs is to get used to what you're going to encounter in a race, both physically and mentally. It was really interesting to see how the mental side hit my wife and I at different times. I was about to go out of my mind during the middle three miles or so when it seemed like there was no end in sight. My wife was about to lose it during the last two or three miles when she felt like she couldn't run another step. But we got through it. I told her that this would be far worse than the actual race because at the race there will be other people going through it with us and we'll have people cheering us on from the sidelines. And Mickey will be there.

Will Smith on resistance

Via Rock Rebel, I came across this Will Smith interview recently. His quote on running really hit home with me. It applies well to running, but it really applies to the creative process, and lines up well with Steven Pressfield's writings on resistance:

I started about five years ago. Running introduces you to your worst enemy, to that person who tells you, "Ooh, our ankles hurt and we should stop. Why do we need to run five miles? Let us run three." That is the same person who says to the man, "Hey, your wife will never find out if you sleep with her," and the same person who tells the 16-year-old, "You are not gonna be cool if you do not smoke it." If you start giving in to that person, you will never get to your goals.

ACC Championship Game

I just got home from attending the ACC Championship Game. It was cold, it was wet, and it was probably one of the ugliest football games I've ever had the fortune of watching. And my team didn't win. But I'm glad I went. I rarely get the chance to go to football games, as football games and rock concerts seem to always happen at the same time. So it was awesome to get to see my team during a historic season where they turned the corner and took it to the next level. And they almost got a championship out of it.

I must say too that even though my guys didn't pull it out, I'm happy for Wake Forest. It's definitely been a memorable year for those guys, and it was kind of cool getting to see one of their games this year.

And I've got to admit, the ultiimate upset was that this game even happened. Who would have thought three years ago, when the masterminds at the ACC expanded the conference to include Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College, that this year's championship would be between Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. Total "Revenge of the Nerds". I love it.

After 3+ years, I finally bequeath to you...

... a photo album! Yes, that's right. I've finally followed through on a promise of some pictures. Check out the right sidebar to see a photo album from my recent Chattahoochee trip. And I added the most redneck shot of the day to my "Canoeing the Chattahoochee" post below. You gotta live it, right?

Canoeing the Chattahoochee

I think the world might be ending soon. I embarked on a paddling trip for the second time in almost as many weeks. Yesterday, my cuñado and myself went canoeing down the world famous Chattahoochee River outside of Atlanta. This marks the fourth such trip I've taken this year, which would be the most time I've spent on the water since I was a camp counselor in the mid-'90's. Needless to say, it's been a pretty cool year for me...

We started our day bright and early by dropping our canoe off near Morgan Falls Dam in Roswell, then dropping a car at the takeout at US 41 in Smyrna. At the takeout, we saw none other than kayaker Richard Grove, who's been in the news lately for taking a couple of marathon trips down the Chattahoochee and Etowah/Coosa Rivers. Then we headed back up to Morgan Falls to begin our trip. It was pretty cold when we set out, but it warmed up quickly and turned into a beautiful day.

After about 30 minutes, we passed Johnson Ferry, which used to be a hub for summertime activity in Atlanta. The Chattahoochee Outdoor Center would rent rafts here, and literally hundreds of these rafts would be seen on the river on a weekend afternoon. Then they discovered ultra-high levels of e coli bacteria in the river, and well, that was that. The old Chattahoochee Outdoor Center was left in disrepair since it closed in '02, and now it looks like they're doing some kind of renovations to the park and boat ramp there.

Canoeist Joe Cook has likened the Chattahoochee experience to "simultaneously paddling through a national park and an industrial park.". The section of river we were on is quite interesting, as it's kind of the last gasp before the "industrial" hits you head on. You're just at the point where you're starting to see a lot of development, but it doesn't quite feel industrial. High bluffs line either side of the river, and many a nice home can be seen hanging off these bluffs.

After about two hours of steady paddling, we stopped for lunch at Powers Island and had quite an interesting experience. A young Indian man came up and asked us if we worked there. After we responded "no", he explained that he had some ashes from a temple ceremony that he had to pray over and send down the river. He wondered if we thought it would be OK. We said "sure", so he proceeded to begin his prayer. We started to quietly slip off so as not to disturb him, when he looked up, and without skipping a beat asked us, "You guys got any beer in that canoe?" Only in Atlanta...

We then crossed under I-285. At this point, you would think that it would get really congested and polluted. But that's the funny thing about the Chattahoochee. Even though you are only a few miles from downtown, this next stretch of river is virtually unspoiled. At one point we got out and walked around. I leaned against a tree for a while, and with the exception of a plane passing overhead, you would have no idea I was in the middle of a metropolitan area. Crazy.

We passed the famous "jumping rock" and then proceeded through the "devil's racecourse", which are some surprisingly swift and exciting rapids. Right past this point we pulled off again and went on a quest for a cave which we had heard was somewhere in the vicinity. After about an hour, we were successful. To call it a "cave" would be a bit of a stretch, but it was pretty cool.

Over the last mile or two of our journey, we passed a bunch of fishermen. Apparently, there's some pretty decent trout fishing on the 'Hooch. On my next trip I'm going to have to figure out a way to bring a pole and try my luck.

All in all, it was a great way to spend a surprisingly warm and sunny day in late November.

I really could get on my conservation soapbox right now, but I think I'll save that for next time...

Also, I hope to get some pictures (of this and the Ogeechee trip) uploaded in the near future.

Disney Half Marathon - Training Update

Location: Mountain to River Trail / Downtown Marietta, GA
Distance: 5.18 miles
Time: 1:13:27
Pace: 14:10 min/mile
Temperature: 50's
Notes: My wife discovered something really cool today about doing these long runs: you're in a pretty good place when you view a 5 mile run as a break. Especially when a few weeks ago 5 miles was your "long" run. It was a pretty day to run, and we both felt great. And downtown Marietta is a great place to run.