Des Moines, Iowa

Iowa

State #29

I ran in Iowa on Sunday, Oct 21.  It was a chilly day.  My Garmin read 27º F at the start.  All of the weather reports showed 30º F.  It never really warmed up until after the race.  Of course, I was at the airport by the time that happened.

I was on my own this trip.  One of three things happened.  

1.  Nobody wanted to go to Iowa

2.  I snuck this one in on them because I have too many races scheduled

3.  Everyone is over my traveling and running the country

So, I left Saturday morning super early and arrived Iowa in the afternoon.  A quick Uber ride to the expo where I picked up my race packet.  There were plenty of vendors there, but I did not really see anything that I wanted or needed, so I just walked around in one pass and left.  It was about a mile to my AirBnB and it was pretty chilly and rather windy.  I was hoping that race day was going to be better weather.  The forecast suggested that it would be.  I did not do a whole lot that evening.  

I walked to dinner at a local Vietnamese restaurant called A-Dong.  This is a bit inappropriate, but true.  (Kids, turn your ears or plug your eyes or something.)  Valerie said, "Eeeewwwweee.  Don't eat there.  It sounds like you are eating A-Dog!"  I replied, I would rather eat A-Dog than A-Dong."  I think I am funny.

I had a clear noodle soup with lots of stuff in it.  It was pretty good.  I was not super hungry, so that is all I had, and it was plenty.  Not the traditional pre-race dinner, but tasted good... and plenty of carbs -- I guess clear noodles have carbs???

Race start was 8:00am.  I met up with some of the 50 states half marathon club members at 7:45am to take a picture.  We we all super cold.  I mean, seriously, it was 30º or less, and I was wearing shorts.  I did have a light jacket on, and I am happy that I did.  Now I had to go find the bag drop location, which was about 3 blocks away and against all of the race traffic.  I had to hop the fence to get away from the crowds just to get there in time to get back to the start in time.  After bag drop, I jogged back to the start and made it just in time for the lady to forget the words of The National Anthem, four times.  I had about 2 minutes to spare.  Why did they put the bag drop so far away from the start/finish??  I dunno.

I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, but it was not quite enough.  I was super cold.  The shirt was from the NYC half, which you may recall -- I sure do -- that race was 20º F.  I should have worn a warmer race shirt.  Anyway, both of my hands were frozen.  I seriously could not feel my fingers on either hand until after I took a shower after the race was over.

At the start of the race, I was running well and feeling good.  The first four miles were sub 8 minutes.  Just after mile four, I started to notice my heart.  I was not having chest pain or anything.  I was not in distress or in pain.  I could simply feel my heart beating heavily and faster than I wanted.  So, I slowed a bit and tried to take some deep, slow breaths to slow my heart rate.  I had to stop for a couple seconds, then start again.  I did not stop anymore throughout the race, but I was never able to get my pace back.  I slowed at least a minute per mile slower than the first four miles.  Each time I started to speed up, I could feel my heart racing again.  I do not believe there is or was anything wrong, just unable to regulate my heart rate that day.  I appear to be so inconsistent with my race times.  Crazy.  Throughout the race, I continued to try to control my breathing to try and control my heart rate, and I know I was working hard at it, because my ribs are still sore.   Every time I breathe deeply, it hurts.... even three days later.

There was good race support on the course.  Lots of water stops with Gatorade and water and energy gels.  There were several bands and lots of fan support, that is, crazy nuts who came out in the freezing cold to clap and cheer for other crazy nuts who were out running around in this weather.

  

Around mile 9 or so, there was a bride, shown here that had some interesting lights in it that illuminated the trail.  Of course it was day time, and this pictures are at night, but it looked something like this in the day as the sun shown through the lights and projected the color on the bridge.  It was interesting.  It was not cool enough to energize me into running faster, but pretty cool none the less.  

  I finished!!  Yay!!  About 11 minutes slower than my last race, but I finished.  After the race there was FOOD!  Down the street toward the gear pick-up area there was chips and bananas, chocolate milk, pulled pork sandwiches, ice-cream, some fairly healthy stuff, Q-doba chips and queso, and COOKIES.  I grabbed what I could and ate what I could and ate most of it on the walk back to the room.  The chocolate milk was in the little containers that you got when you were in grade school.  The only problem for me was opening the dang container.  I was unable to feel my fingers, so I had to ask for assistance.  I ASKED FOR ASSISTANCE OPENING A CHOCOLATE MILK!   Ridiculous.  

The race medal was designed to pay tribute to the bridge over Gray Lake that I showed earlier.  It actually shimmers when you look at it from different angles.  Pretty neat.  

Next race is in two weeks in St. Louis, Missouri.  I will be in Seattle all next week and running St. Louis on the way home.  It is really just an attempt to decrease the number of trips out and back.  I think this next race is pretty hilly, and I bet it is gonna be cold again.  Sheesh.  Oh well.  At least I'll have something to whine about.

Oh, I forgot to mention one funny story that happened between mile 2 and 3 somewhere.  I felt a drop of sweat hit my lower lip and instinctively licked my lip to remove it.  Then I started thinking about it and realized that I was not sweating, so I thought the guy in front of me must have hyperhydrosis or something and was flinging sweat on me.  So I moved over, away from him.  Then another drop, but that guy was nowhere near me, and I still was not sweating.  So, I passed the girl who I thought MUST have been the culprit... and then another drop.  Now I was confused until I wiped my nose.  It was so cold that I could not feel my nose, but it was running faster than me.  I could not even feel that it was running, except when it dripped on my lip.  I tried to wipe it, but I could not feel my hands or my nose, so I gave up until one of the water stations.  There were people actively passing out tissues from a tissue box... grab and go.  Wipe and throw.  I would hate to be the guy that had to pick those up.  At least I was not being sweat or snotted upon, and at least I was not the only one with this problem.

Newport, RI

State #28

Newport, Rhode Island

My family simply loves to travel.  Keeley, in particular, like her mom, just wants to go everywhere she has never been.  So, a race in every state is particularly appealing to each of my travel loving family members.  I have whined on my blogs in the past about the expense associated with this venture.  Well, when you add other people to the expense list, the fee increases geometrically.  For instance, had I been by myself I would have likely had a very inexpensive lunch at a local restaurant or gas station.  I am fairly simple and do not need a lot of "fancy".  Once Keeley gets involved in the trip, the lunch goes from the $3 gas station sandwich to the 20 minute trip to the fancy yacht club, Castle Hill, Lunch on the Lawn.  A 20 minute, one way trip, a valet parking fee (tip), and $24 fish tacos.    A $4.00 glass of tea, ONE!!!.  No refills.  And an $8.00 small bowl of french fries.  .... A wonderful afternoon lunch with my daughter..... priceless!!

We actually had a nice afternoon.  It was really all kinds of snooty.  Our waiter was named Harrison.  He looked like the snooty, rich kid who had gotten into enough trouble for sitting at home playing video games well into his twenties, still living at home, that his grand parents threatened to cut him out of the will -- while still maintaining his trust fund -- unless he got out of the house and got himself a job... and since we have connections at the yacht club, you can go to work there and we can come and see you for Sunday brunch and twice during the week when we entertain our friends at our special table in the corner near the water where we can best see the ships passing by and wave to our snooty friends.  

People actually were wearing sweaters tied around their necks with shorts and boat shoes.  It was fairly comical.  As we were waiting for our $4 iced tea, a couple was seated at the table next to us.  Well, the gentleman sat down, but the lady immediately stated... and I am quoting, "Oh, this will never do."  Even before she was seated, she was concerned that she would not be able to push her seat back far enough for her comfort level because of the mobile sun umbrella.  Her husband immediately jumped into action and began to move the table for her -- closer to us.  Harrison was also swift to action -- well, swift for Harrison anyway.  He lowered the umbrella and moved it out of the way.  This allowed Mrs. Snooty-Pants (I am certain there was a hyphen in her name) to be bathed adequately in the appropriate amount of sunlight, so that she could remove her sweater from her neck while she enjoyed her luncheon.  Her husband then asked, and I am quoting again, "Is this OK for you now sweetheart?" The view was spectacular and the fish tacos were tasty.  My single glass of tea was.... tea, and the fries were deep fried potatoes.  We sat and talked about college and Med school and SAT's and a couple other Father-Daughter type topics, all-the-while day-dreaming about living in the beautiful castle-esque home across the water on what they call horse head island.  Keeley has decided that she wants a mansion and a yacht and a helicopter.  Speaking of mansions, we also visited the Vanderbilt mansion, The Breakers.  We laughed and laughed at the tourists and also the snooty people.   I noticed on this trip that Keeley is very much like me in many ways.  She is also very much like her mother in many ways.  It was fun to see these aspects of her personality.  Ya just can't replace the time spent on trips like this where I get undivided attention.  She even put her phone down from time to time and did not check her Snap-Snap account for 10 minutes.  I felt super privileged.  Here are a few pics of The Breakers for your enjoyment. -- and there are plenty more where these came from.

Oh, and speaking of helicopters, what quick half marathon trip with your daughter would be complete without a sunset helicopter ride (although the clouds rolled in a bit and we did not really see a sunset)... but we were able to cruise around, basically the entire state of Rhode Island and see lots of beautiful castles and mansions and light houses and bridges and World War II bunkers, etc... It was also a good time -- Can you see the geometric increase in the cost of this trip?

For those of you who are wondering, YES... there was a race associated with this posh vacation.  We arrived late on Friday evening into Boston.  I had tried for three days to get a rental car and ALL of the sites and the phone calls to the rental car agencies informed us that there were no cars available.  They were SOLD OUT.  I honestly did not know that was possible.  But, I kept trying, and trying and trying.  I finally found a website called ebookings.com  and they allowed me to book a rental car with National.  I was a bit hesitant because I was on the airport wifi in Tampa on my phone booking a rental car when all of the cars are clearly sold out, from a company that is based in the UK and PREPAYING for the rental with my credit card in British Pounds.  What the heck am I thinking?  Anyway, we walked up to the counter and she found my reservation with no problem, tapped feverishly on her computer keyboard for an inordinate amount of time and handed me the paperwork and said, your car is waiting for you upstairs, hand this to the attendant and have a nice evening.  We walked upstairs -- We took the escalator -- handed the attendant the paperwork. He said, and I was flabbergasted at this point, "pick any car you want from the cars on your left, and have a nice evening."  There must have been 50 cars to choose from.  We even had trouble deciding what we wanted to drive.  Why then did all of the info suggest they were all sold out????????

So, we got a car and made it to our hotel room.  We were staying about 200 yards from the race start/finish. Not quite The Breakers, but adequate for our needs. 

The next morning we started with a nice breakfast at a local joint.  FLAPJACKS!!  It was so good.  I did not finish my flapjacks, but I saved them for breakfast for race morning.

 Then from breakfast, we went out to the tourist things I've already mentioned, with the exception of our walk on the beach.... shown here.

  

And we went to the packet pickup after our beach walk.  

The flapjacks were still weighing very heavy on me, and then the fish tacos put us over the top.  For dinner... I'm not gonna tell you what Keeley had for dinner, but I had a protein bar and a banana.  She went crazy, but we are not telling her mom... so... shhhhhhhhh!!!!

Race morning started at 4:00 am.  I got up to eat the remainder of my pancakes, do my Bible study and get myself moving, so that I could get all the bathroom routine out of the way prior to the race.  I am happy to report that it was all successful and I made my way out to the race start at 6:45am.  The race was scheduled to start at 7:30am, but there was a 7:00am 50 states group photo scheduled.   I had to rush back to the room because I realized that I had forgotten my nip guards.  If you don't know what they are, I am gonna spare you the details.  If you do know what those are, then you will understand that it was a cloudy and humid/muggy day, so they were necessary.  I am sooo glad I went back for them.  (Truth is, I believed I have blogged about this topic previously, so if you REALLY wanna know, you can look back at some earlier blogs --- toward the beginning.)

I had a pretty decent race.  I did PR.  1:38:47

Each of the mile splits were sub 8:00 and mile two was 6:50.  I did slow-up a bit around miles 10-12 or so, but not as much as last week.  So, I am happy with my performance, I enjoyed the race and the vacation and my time with my daughter.  Maybe these trips are worth-while after all.

  Next race is in two weeks in Des Moines, Iowa.  I will be alone on this one, because who can afford all of that?  It will be a quicky in and out as I go to Seattle a week later.... then stop off and run in St. Louis on the way home.  Wish me luck.

OCNJ Half Marathon

State #27 -- Ocean City, New Jersey

The 50 States Half Marathon Club decided to have their annual event in conjunction with the OCNJ Half this year in Ocean City.  Every year the club members get together and enjoy some like-minded company, have a nice pre-race meal, and give out awards to all the award recipients for the year, that is, those individuals who have completed a challenge.  One of the challenges is running 50 half marathons in 50 states.  They do have other challenges, such as the 100 half marathon challenge, the 7 continents challenge, the Canadian province challenge... and a few others.  There are plaques and trophies and cups, etc.  I am only concentrating on the 50 half marathons in 50 states challenge, and this race marked the 27th state.  One of the ladies in the club received an award for completing 500 half marathons.  Oh my.  

Valerie thought it would be fun to go to The Shore, so she "volunteered' to go with me and be my social butterfly.  OK... so here is the truth about how this worked out.  We went to the informal Friday night meet-up, looked around mostly at the food, took a lap around and decided to go elsewhere.  We did not talk to one person.  When we left to go eat, the restaurant we chose had a 90 min wait, so we went to a diner across the street and had a fairly decent meal, then back to the hotel, still not speaking to one member of the club.  All day Saturday we spent with a friend and playing tourist, and still did not speak to one club member.  The formal dinner was Saturday night.  We went and checked in, sat down, talked to about 5 people... total, ate our dinner, watched the awards ceremony and then left.  So, my social butterfly did not do a whole lot to help me, but we had our own little bit of fun as we enjoy each other's company.  She is very kind and sweet to me and I make her laugh.  What more do we need?  Every day is a party.

OK... so, the race.  The race started just off the boardwalk.  It was yet another free-for-all start... but actually a bit worse.  All of the 50 states half marathon club were there and there was a pre-race photo at the start... so, all of them/us took this picture right in front of the start line.

So, when it was time to line up for the start, all of these people and several more were all milling around the start area.  You can see the START flag signifying the starting line.  I was a bit concerned about how this would work.  I was afraid that if I started in the pack somewhere, I would waste a lot of energy maneuvering around people.  I was also afraid that if I wet all the way up to the front, I would start out too fast and struggle mid to late race.  Valerie was adamant that I move up to the front so that I did not get trapped in and frustrated.... so, I moved up to the front, which turned out to be the right thing to do, because I started out fairly fast and was very comfortable at that pace.... for the first several miles.  

There was a bridge at mile 2.5 that we ran over and around the area on the other side, then turned around and ran over the bridge again.  This picture shows the bridge.  I did not take this picture, but pilfered it from one of the Facebook posts of one of the other members.  To repeat... we ran over this thing twice.

After the bridge running, the rest of the course was pretty flat.  We made our way back around to the boardwalk.  I thought it was pretty interesting running on the boardwalk, mostly for the scenery.  The boardwalk was open for business and the general public was out enjoying the beautiful day.  There were cones and ropes and volunteers, and honestly it was pretty well managed, but there were a bunch of people and interesting things going on.  Much more interesting than the typical race where there is only asphalt in front of you... and pot holes and slanted streets and gutters, etc...

We ran past several of the places that Valerie and I visited the day before...  There was Bob's grill where we had a nice breakfast.  

There were candy stores and Ferris wheels and arcades and put put golf courses and laser tag places and restaurants, lots of food, lots of fun.  Mile 7 was on the boardwalk right about where the finish line was, so we ran past the finish and then 3 miles and the turned around and ran back another 3 miles.  Valerie was able to watch me start and then catch me again at mile 7 and then see me finish and all from about the same spot.  She just hung out, got some coffee, read her Bible study, hung out at the beach.   Ok, she did not hang out at the beach, this was the day before... and as I understand it, they do not call it the beach, they call it The Shore!! 

There was plenty of race support.  Not much entertainment, but plenty of volunteers and groups of cheerers.  I believe they were all volunteering, but instead of passing out waters, they were simply cheering and encouraging the runners.  There were two places where they were handing out iced cold towels.  That was nice on the back of my neck.  

I was running pretty well for the first 9 or so miles.  In fact, mile 1 was 6:55.  Miles 2-8 were low 7:00 to around 7:40.  Miles 9, 10, 11 or 8,9,10... I can't remember, were about 8:00-8:09.  Then I picked it back up to finish.  This kind-of hurt my time though.  I was on track for a PR, but missed it by a few seconds.  I am happy with my time.  I finished 1:39:52.  Not quite a PR, but close.  I only wish I had not slowed so much those few miles.

Some of you may remember in Alaska when the guy I was talking with on the course called me a "big guy".  He was there.  I passed him at about mile 2, then he passed me back going over the bridge, then I passed him coming down the bridge.  We talked a bit around mile 5-6.  Then he passed me and I only saw him at the turn around.  He was picking up speed as I was slowing down.  He was very nice though.  He cheered me on at the finish.  Super nice guy, just faster than me...and we are the same age... he is just 30 pounds lighter than me... the lighter me.  ugh!!!  He placed 2nd in our age group and I placed 4th.

In all it was a nice race and a nice place.  I enjoyed having Valerie with me and seeing our friend, Captain, Dr, Corrie Crowe.  

After the race, Valerie and I had to drive back to Philly to the airport.  We had already schemed to get ourselves a "treat" of an authentic Philly Cheesesteak.  We found a hole-in-the-wall place Joe's Fabulous Steaks. and gorged ourselves.  Over-indulged is an understatement.

It was a tiny little place, but it was oh so good.  I, personally ate WAY TOO MUCH.  But it was a treat.  I recommend the steak with the American cheese and pour the cheese wiz over it too.  AMAZING.

Next race, assuming I am able to waddle to it after this gluttonous act is... well, it was today, this morning, but one week after this race, in Newport, Rhode Island.