I Knew It!

I travel a lot, and I like to use the clock radio to wake up. I find music a lot less jarring in the morning than the buzzer. So, whenever I get ready to go to bed I like to find a decent station, and this is important, set the volume to a reasonable level. I can confidently say that 99% percent of the time, the radio is set to a Spanish-language station at a deafening volume, which is not how I prefer to start my day.

So the first morning goes off fine, but here's the kicker: on day 2, I'm awakened by a deafening blast of mariachi music! I've always suspected that the maids change the station during the day, but had no real proof. This happens all the time.

So on this particular trip (I'm in Chicago right now) the meetings start later than usual, so my whole routine is backed up a few hours. As I'm coming back to my room from breakfast, I pass a maid who enters another room to service it, and I hear the radio come on, tune to the Spanish station, then she cranks it up to hear it over the vacuum! I knew it! Of course, she isn't going to bother changing it back and some other traveler is going to have a nasty surprise tomorrow. Caught in the act! This isn't really a big deal, it just gets a little old when you travel as much as I do.

Official Race Pictures

Second Wind Photography has posted the pictures from our marathon on the web for all to see. You can see my pictures here. The guy in front of me in the first 3 is Frans, who I mentioned in the last post. It took me a minute to recognize him, because I only really ever saw him from behind (as you can see in the pictures). The pictures are not flattering, to say the least. Apparently I like to give a constant thumbs up while I run. I remember seeing the photography guy during the race, so every time I was on camera I tried to look like I was having a good time and running well- so it makes you wonder what I looked like the rest of the time.

Kate's pictures are about as bad as mine, but at least all of hers were taken at the very end so she has an excuse. So, it's good to have pictures, but I don't think we'll be ordering any of these.

Post-Race Thoughts

We did it! First of all, I'll say that running a formal race is much different than I thought it would be. I'm used to training pretty much alone, just running by myself around the neighborhood or on base. Needless to say, during the race you're surrounded by other runners. There are a lot of people who are just doing their own thing, but a lot of people are very friendly, and you end up in a lot of little conversations. For about the first 5 miles I ran and talked with a guy named John Frassinelli (but his friends call him "Frans") from Nashville. I also ran on and off with a guy named Greg and another guy whose name I never learned, but his relay team's name was "We put the 'run' in 'drunk'!" (ours was "PC Load letter"). I never figured that a marathon would be the place to chat, but I guess if you're both running at a similar speed, and you're next to each other for 20 minutes, why not see what's up? I learned a lot of stuff from people- for instance, this race was a qualifier for the Boston marathon and some other big ones. It's supposedly the flattest and course and fewest people of all qualifiers. So people come from all over to do this marathon in dinky little southern Maryland. For a little perspective, this year the Lower Potomac River Marathon had 133 runners. The Marine Corp marathon in D.C. has 5,000 every year, but since last year was the 30th anniversary they let in 30,000. So if you're looking for a thinner field, this is it.

Oddly, that makes it a more competitive race, because mostly serious runners do it. I only ran into a few people from the area, so I guess only hard-core people are willing to come all the way down here. My buddy Josh said that he finished in the top 25% of the Marine Corp marathon, because most of the runners were D.C. are people who weren't serious about it. But he doubted he would even crack the top half of this smaller crowd. He didn't run it this year, so I guess we'll never know.

So as for my personal experience, it was fun. The furthest I've ever run before is 12 miles. My portion today was 14.6, and I never stopped (unless you count the one 30 second trip into the bushes). My official time was 2:13.13, but they had a clock set up at 13.1 miles so you could see your actual half marathon time. I passed it right as it clicked over to 2:00.00 with a precision worthy of Marty McFly- that means I was on pace for a 4-hour marathon, but that would never have happened, because I would've had to rest eventually. I passed the sign that said "0.25 miles to relay handoff point" and I decided to sprint the rest (which is what I sometimes do while running). I was running as fast as I could, I could see Kate waiting for the handoff, and with about 100 feet left I was done. It was like all sudden, all energy was gone. I managed to maintain a jog until the handoff, and then just kind of stood there for about 15 minutes drinking water and eating a free banana. Anyway, for those keeping score at home I averaged 6.58 mph or 9.1 minute miles. Not too shabby for my first race of any kind!

After the handoff, I went back to my buddy Chris's house, which is one the route to wait for Kate to pass. The aforementioned Josh (Chris's roommate) had set up his own water stand for runners, so I gave him a hand with it. Josh was offering orange slices, banana pieces, water and beer. That's right, disposable cups of Bud Light- and a lot more people chose that than I would have ever predicted. I guess their house is only 1.75 miles from the finish line, so people figure what the heck. Believe it or not handing out water to runners was a lot more fun than I would have thought it would be. Everybody's so happy to get free water, and it's fun to cheer people on. You can yell the same thing over and over, because everyone was pretty spread out by that point, and who's going to know if it's a repeat? Josh's other friend Mark (not me) always said "All downhill from here!" and I went with the informative "1.75 miles to go!" This gets back to the point that marathon runners are a generally friendly group. If we don't end up running it again next year, we should at least set up a water booth.

After Kate ran past Chris's house I drove back to the finish line to await her triumphant crossing. I couldn't have been more proud of her when she came around that last corner! I gave her a hug and we immediately headed in for the free food and awards ceremony. Another interesting note: The relay teams were officially 2 people, but Booze-Allen Hamilton (the main sponsor) had an unofficial team of like 18 people, and their last guy finished maybe 2 minutes before Kate. I'm sure they weren't really trying either, but we've decided to be proud about it anyway. After crossing the finish line marathoners got a finisher's medal, but they told us that relay teams got some certificate or something, but didn't know where we picked it up. After the awards ceremony we went up to talk to the race co-ordinator about it. We stood in line while she talked to some other runners, and when she got to us Kate asked something to the effect of "We were a relay team, so I guess we don't get a medal, but is there some sort of a finisher's certificate, or can we buy a medal?" The lady replied (very dismisively) "Run a marathon and you'll get a medal" and then went on to the next person in line. What the hell?

This race was a great experience, but this was sort of a down note to end on. I'm going to look a little too deep into this, but it wasn't "Oh sorry, those were just for full marathoners" or "This year there's no take home for relay runners." Our answer was "Stop wasting my time and come back when you've accomplished something." It's not like we approached them and asked if we could split up the race- they advertise it at a marathon/marathon relay! Don't blow us off like that while we were all proud of ourselves! Again, it was a great day, and it will take a lot more than a surly race co-ordinator to detract from it.

At this point I guess I'll show the course map. Chris's house is right across the road from the water treatment plant (shown on the map as 4 dots). My portion was the southern half with the 3 turnarounds, and Kate had the one big turnaround on the north portion. My route was 3 miles longer, but I would say that we broke even on account that her part was way hilly-er, and right after the handoff the sun came out and it shot up to 80 degrees (I could see my breath for most of my half). Kate did a fantastic job, but rather than try to sum up her experience I'll let you read her account here. Everything else you wanted to know about the race is on the official website.

One thing I was totally unprepared for was how quickly I fell to the back of the pack. Within the first 10 minutes I was definitely in the bottom 25%. Now, I've started to (falsely) fancy myself a pretty good runner. I really like running and the treadmills at the drill hall, when high-school athletes and marines come in all decked out in their under armor and run next to me, and they go like 4 miles then walk away all tired while I keep going. Contrast that with a group of competitive runners, and I'm definitely bringing up the rear. Again, I just wanted to finish. And this just in: the 2006 Lower Potomac River Marathon Results! You can find Kate and I near the bottom with the co-ed relay teams, of which we were 8th of 10 (22 of 24 overall), in otherwords not last. I would like to give a heartfelt thanks to Dawn Bryan, Thomas Kromis, and Katrina & Ryan Wyman for a token bit of pride. Last year's results broke it our person by person, and I would like to see where I stood among first leggers, but oh well.

After the race we sat around for a few hours before we went to eat. Now, we've been eating pretty healthy for the last several months, but we decided that we had earned a trip to the Cici's all you can eat pizza buffet. I ate more pizza than I've eaten in one sitting since high school. Even more amazing was that I didn't even feel bad about it! Man, I so used to that little guilty feeling while eating junk food but I gotta tell you, it was not there.

So what's next? I'd like to use this as a springboard into a full marathon at some point. Not to give credibility to the medal nazi, but as I was watching people cross the finish line I started thinking "Wow, that's impressive! A half-marathon is nothing!" We don't have a full marathon picked out yet, but we'll start looking. I want to keep running a part of our lifestyle, but my knees can't take these long distances forever, so I'm going to do a couple more long races then settle into a more comfortable routine. It just feels so great to know you've accomplished something. I can't wait for the next one!

Pre-Race Thoughts

Tomorrow's the big day. Not the wedding, but our marathon relay. Am I ready? Well, I've followed Hal Higdon's plan, so I should be pretty well prepared. I never got around to blogging this, but last week I was looking for and old post and found the one where I was all happy about running 6 miles. That actually made me laugh, because I wrote that about 6 weeks ago, and now running 6 miles is a warmup! Last Saturday I ran 12 miles in 1:46! No stopping! There's a 10k loop (it's actually 5.5 mi from where we park) on base, and I remember the first time Kate and I tried to run it. It took the better part of the morning, and we had to keep stopping to walk and rest. Saturday I ran it twice then did a little more because I wasn't tired yet. Remember, I have no natural athletic ability whatsoever- as long as you stick to a plan (and have a lot of spare time) you can do this.

So I guess my point is this: Am I nervous about the race? The answer is yes, but not for why you'd think. I really don't care where I finish. I just want to be able to say and know that I ran a half-marathon. The fact that I ran 12 miles last weekend has already given me any personal validation that I could've been looking for. The biggest reason I'm nervous is that there's like 2 bathroom stops on the trail. One at mile 1 (if you have to go at mile 1, then you didn't plan ahead), mile 6, and at the handoff spot. Now, in the 6 weeks I've been running distances of more than 6 miles, I've had to make a pit stop once. But I hear a lot of marathon/bathroom horror stories that make me think that tomorrow's the day. Other than that, it's just the fear of not finishing. What if tomorrow is the day I twist my knee, or sprain my ankle, or get distracted and run into a tree? I'm pretty sure none of those will happen. What I'm really looking forward to is after race buffet/cook out, where I'll get to chow down while Kate runs her portion. Then tomorrow night, it's the Cici's pizza all you can eat buffet! I can taste it already.

We'll let you know how it goes.

Hollywood, MD

Washington D.C.'s CBS affiliate did a piece for Oscar night about "The Other Hollywood," referring to Hollywood, MD which is just a few miles up the road from us. I definitely recommend watching the video feature. Honestly, I wish I could tell you that this was inaccurate, but that just wouldn't be true.

Update: Kate informed me that she has visited Toot's Bar- it was part of the "Southern Maryland Bachelorette Party" they threw for one of her friends in which they went to all the smib-iest bars they could think of. Apparently the staff of Toot's made it quite clear that since they were not locals, they were not welcome there. Not to the point of kicking them out, but they waited quite some time for their drinks while patrons with less teeth and 80's hair were served immediately.

Property Ladder

I have a new show I love on TLC. It's called Property Ladder, and it follows first time house flippers as they buy a run down house, fix it up, and sell it for a significant profit. Now, if you want to see flipping done right, TLC also offers Flip That House. Flip That House shows a lot of more experienced flippers, sometimes people that do this for a living. These people usually don't do anything by themselves- they buy the house, hire a slew of contractors, quickly turn the house around and sell it for a killer profit (usually in the 100K range). The beauty of the pros is that since they're only supervising, so they are usually in the process of doing 3 or 4 houses at a time, like 10 a year. I think these people own their own personal Caribbean islands.

As I said earlier, Property Ladder on the other hand features novices. These people do everything wrong, and it's great to watch. The biggest thing with flipping (as I've learned from watching hours of these shows) is to do it quick- the mortgage payments really drag down your profit. Of course, the novices always blow their timelines by a matter of months. This morning, the woman wanted to turn around the house in 4 weeks, and it took her 16. That's 3 extra payments on a mortgage (in this case on a $600K house). Money down the drain!

The biggest reason this happens is because they try to do a lot of work themselves. This in itself is not a problem, but the average flipper featured on TLC is a rich, bored housewife who has never touched a hammer. I watched two women pull the old wooden siding off a house, and they had to stop multiple times to get splinters out of their eyes- and they never put on safety glasses! These same geniuses spent the better part of the afternoon trying to get the old fridge out of the kitchen. They couldn't get it through the door, and they kept saying "We just need another half inch!" They never just took the kitchen door off it's hinges, which would've bought them at least 3 inches! My favorite episode featured a 21-year old waitress named Ashley, who was a complete dumbass. She wanted to refurbish the cabinets in her condo, and first she had to strip off layers of old paint. After she and her friends spent the better part of a day working on one door they calculated that it would take 80 hours to strip them all. They perservered for the better part of a week (not doing any other work in the condo) without much progress. Discouraged, Ashley hires a guy who came into the bar to strip them all for $200. Long story short, the guy runs off with the doors and the cash, which sucks and isn't entirely Ashley's fault. Eventually she goes to buy new cabinet doors. Guess how much- $400 for the whole kitchen! How much time and money did she waste? The pros just buy new doors right off the bat.

The next mistake is that the novices make changes to make the house meet their taste, as opposed to what will add the most value. The host (a pro) calls this "Flipping 101." One woman would only paint the house colors from her own home, and would only get curtains identical to her own. The splinter geniuses painted every room pastel yellows, blues and greens, which the new owners immediately painted over- lot of value added there. Ashley put a ridiculous artsy glass bowl sink in the bathroom for like $450. The host suggested maybe adding a washer-dryer combo instead. Many of the potential buyers mentioned the lack of laundry facilities, and said things like "I'm not sure what's up with that sink." She also painted the bedroom blood-red, which we can be pretty sure the new owners loved. She kept saying that she was going for the effect of a "Tuscan Villa," and as the show went on it became clear that she didn't really know what a Tuscan Villa was.

So here's the upshot: This complete idiot who did everything wrong, who went months over schedule (meaning extra payments), spent months ruining the whole house before starting over and re-doing the work with professional contractors, and after all that still made a ridiculous looking condo, sold it for a killer profit. Her total haul? $68,000! An inept moron stumbles her way through a flip and clears more in 4 months than I make in a year! The loser this morning made her own slew of errors, actually took a 2 week vacation in the middle, didn't have any hardware in the bathrooms, and she made 168 large! They always make a lot of money, no matter how much they screw up. I'd like to see a show where they flipper loses a ton of money.

This leads me to one conclusion: I need to flip houses. I may not know much, but I know way more about home improvement than any of these people. And they make a fortune! Of course, you can't flip houses in St. Mary's county because there's no point- prices are high no matter what. Then there's the whole issue of the no extra money to buy a house or the time to do it. Maybe when I'm retired or something. At any rate, give the show a chance if you flip by it.