KRAC Blog

Running a marathon hasn't made Chestnut Ridge any flatter. It seems a little shorter, though. They were holding the Buffalo Philharmonic A.C.'s 10k out there this morning, so I was only able to do the 5 mile loop. Last night's thunderstorm knocked down a lot of the leaves, but it was still beautiful, and the weather was mild and pleasant

Yesterday Amazon very thoughtfully sent me an email advising that the Supersuckers had just released a live album. Recorded just about the time we saw them last year and containing a nearly-identical set list, it sounds like a winner. It should make excellent background music for the KRAC banquet.

You know, I'm looking around, and there's no way that all the people I'm seeing wearing Red Sox caps and shirts and what not were Red Sox fans in August, let alone all their lives.

On "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" last Sunday Roy Blount, Jr. said, "If the Sox win, all the intellectuals will become Cubs fans." Too right.

This morning Dave and I were recalling Bill's preseason handicapping of the AFC East. Apparently he shared his crack with Drew Bledsoe.

I was all good intentions, but there was a Peter Lorre festival on AMC and I ended up staying up later than I meant to. ("They Met in Bombay"-- Clark Gable, Rosalind Russell-- I kept thinking, "This can't be as incoherent as it seems," but it really was.) I ended up sleeping late, then doing eight around Delaware Park and the lake. Eight may be my base Saturday run for a while, if I can drag my sorry ass out of bed-- it felt right, on what is probably one of the last Fall Saturdays that we are going to have this year.

I laid off, just swimming and doing some upper body weights until I did three on the treadmill today. Tomorrow I plan on doing at least five, and I may go seven if I am feeling high energy. That probably means five, but I suppose you never know. The surprise of the summer turned out to be that longer distances are okay-- if you train for them by running longer distances. I don't want to lose the ability to run the way we ran the last eight miler, but I can see that maintaining that over the winter is going to be a challenge.

In today's Buffalo News there's an article about some geezer who has run 859 marathons. It says he's run several dozen per year for several years, and wants to get to a thousand. I can't think of anything to say about that.

"So Sammy Morris is your best player then?" - - Graham Galloway

Yesterday morning I was at work and Bill Blanchard called me with tickets for the Bills game. He swooped down and snatched me out of my drudgery like one of the dragons in that movie about the dragons.

We sat in row 20 on the forty yard line, and I got to see Willis's coming-out party, but the thrill is gone.

All you have to do is look at the KRAC team picture to know that one size doesn't fit all. Even so, I think we are in a position to make some product endorsements. In the spirit of the album cover notes that tell you what kind of drums Ringo played, or what kind of strings Rick Derringer uses here are some of mine:

WrightSock Anti-Blister System. Two Boilermakers, the Chicago Marathon, and all that training. The only blisters I've had over two years came when these were in the laundry-- or when my daughters were wearing mine.

GU Sports Gel. What can I say? GU got me through. Now available in Espresso Love flavor.

RaceReady Shorts. Sure, the pockets are great, but so is everything else about these shorts. Good fit, no chaffing, stylin' look-- I love these shorts!

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I doubt that KRAC would want to go all NASCAR, but if the Sierra Nevada folks asked us to put their logo on our singlets, I think we probably would.

As I was clipping the tags off my Chicago windbreaker I was pleased to note that it is, in fact, the Stratification Zone component of a Zone Layering System. Not a jacket at all-- part of a system! I thought at once of the intriguing device we saw on that guy's shoe at the start. I can't imagine what kind of socks a guy who would have something like this would wear, but certainly the simple anti-blister system would not suffice. I am at once repelled and drawn to the Nike MP3 Run. "Wireless Bluetooth speed-and-distance sensor". "On-demand voice-audio system." "Soft-touch keypad, co-molded rubber and high-impact plastic housing, and electro-plated shell for sport-tested durability." Oh, baby! I wonder if you can choose the voice that tells you what your speed and distance is? If you can, I want Kathleen Turner. 

Hal (I call him Hal now that we have met-- you guys can call him Mr. Higdon)has a post race program for recovery here. The first step is admitting that you have a problem. I guess I'm not going to swim today.

More of Dave here. 

More of Jim here. 

More of Tom here. Naturally all of his look great. 

Splits 

Just about to pass the Doublemint Twins. I'm still sorting through it all: the roadtrip part; the whole race scene, and what that was like; and the experience of doing it, finishing it. For now I'll just say that it was all great-- one of the best things I have ever done. More of me here. Congratulations to all. 

I'm ready.

I made a nine (nine is my number) song motivational disk:

Better Things (Kinks song as done by Fountains of Wayne)

Uncontrollable Urge (Devo; YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!)

Song Two (Blur; the WHOO-HOO! song)

Tommy Gun (Clash)

Pump It Up (Elvis Costello)

Bop Til You Drop (Ramones)

Running Down a Dream (Tom Petty)

Road Runner (Jonathan Richman)

Wonderful World (Joey Ramone)

which I have been playing continuously at high volume.

Why? Because I'm a nut.

The weather report is calling for sunny with highs in the mid 60's for Sunday. Perfect for spectators, fine for us. (Now I have to revisit the sunglasses question. And what about sunscreen?)

I got an interesting tip yesterday: someone suggested carrying a couple of Advil to take at the late mileage stage.

26:03 watch time at the Yalem this morning, faster than I meant to go, but I couldn't help it. When you are taking it easy at the back like that there are so many people that need to be passed that reverse splits just happen. It was a pleasure to be piped in by Jim, who didn't bother to hang around for the finish because I foolishly neglected to bring beer. It was a glorious morning for a race, and gave me one more chance to run an equipment shakedown. I have always run in sunglasses, but I got contacts specifically because glasses are such a nuisance on a run. I went yesterday with only one contact (the other, it turned out, was lodged in the commodious bags that surround my eyes)-- and it was still better than glasses, which steam, smudge, bounce, slip and are otherwise thirteen kinds of bother. I like the running shades I got-- the make my face feel like a Ferrari-- but I think I'll just go with a cap for sun protection. next week.

This is what race prep has always seemed like to me:

"The Mole had slipped off somewhere by himself, without telling any one where he was going to. The Badger sat in the arm-chair, reading the paper, and not concerning himself in the slightest about what was going to happen that very evening. The Rat, on the other hand, was running round the room busily, with his arms full of weapons of every kind, distributing them in four little heaps on the floor, and saying excitedly under his breath, as he ran, `Here's-a-sword-for-the-Rat, here's-a-sword-for-the Mole, here's-a-sword-for-the-Toad, here's-a- sword-for-the-Badger! here's-a-pistol-for-the-Rat, here's-a-pistol-for-the-Mole,here's-a-pistol-for-the-Toad,here's-a-pistol-for-the-Badger!' And so on, in a regular, rhythmical way, while the four little heaps gradually grew and grew."

Here's my number, here's my singlet, here's my GU. Where's my Gatorade? Here's my Gatorade, here's my socks, I mean my Anti-Blister system....

Got my RaceReady shorts, got my singlet, got my Gu.

On the other hand, I seem to have mislaid my watch.