50k Results

I'll post more later, but since I was out of town and away from my computer, I hadn't posted results yet.

Long run made short - I finished the 50k, with a total time of 5:00:25. With no long runs (ie, over 15) in more than a month, and not much in the way of quality workouts in that time, I'll take it. And yeah, it was one heck of a fun race.

Ave caesar! Morituri te salutamus.

It's just over 12 hours until D-Day. Wish me luck, as I attempt my first 50k.

Painting challenge

I haven't updated the status on this in some time.

These pics are really lousy, but it's not worth using the good lens and moving the stuff from the painting area to someplace with better light for WIP (work in progress) pics.

The stealth suits are still a little bright, but a light spray of a matte sealer should reduce that considerably. I've started the bases (yes, I do my bases when I am almost done with the fig), but I had to let the Magic Dip dry completely. That trio should be done tomorrow, if I can get around to finishing their bases. The Fire Warriors are almost done with the base colors - the details are lacking, because I didn't bother with the good lens. Tomorrow I should finish the base colors on the remainder, and start working on the highlights.

The drones are started, and I would have gotten more done on the Crisis suits, but I had to repair one of them, so things got a little stalled.

So far, I am reasonably pleased with the overall progress. I wouldn't claim these to be painted by any stretch, but ya gotta admit, it's a vast improvement over bare plastic and metal.

Truly a random thought

I bought several packages of socks the other day. Just your average, run-of-the-mill, 6 packs of white cotton socks. (No, they are not for running.) I understand putting them in a sealed plastic bag, and I'm kewl with that. No, what I don't understand is this:

Why does that sealed plastic bag, for my cotton socks, have a resealable closure?

I mean, really, am I supposed to be keeping them sealed for freshness or something? Maybe I should refrigerate them, or at least check for a "Best if worn by" date.

21 Day Challenge, continued

Finally have some pics. These are from before I started work last night. I didn't get as much time as I wanted the last couple of days, but. . .






Day 4 update - bodies of Piranhas are assembled, remaining Fire Warriors now have legs. Gun drones for Piranhas assembled, which was almost a disaster. It as very late when I started on these, and I glued the guns on backwards. Fortunately, I caught it before the glue set, but it was a close thing.

Day 5 update - Piranha wings and bodies now glued together. All Fire Warriors now have heads, bodies. A few have backpacks. Heads glued to Stealth Suits. The bad news of the day is that I lost the auctions for the RE magnets. I may have to just make some permanent weapons choices for everything in this box set, which, although disappointing, is probably not such a big deal in the long run. I plan on adding more Crisis Suits & Hammerheads in the future, just to play Apocalypse.

Day 6 update - got a lot done. All Fire Warriors now have backpacks. Main bodies of both the Devilfish and Hammerhead are done - all that remains for each are the drones and turret assemblies. And deciding what to do with the landing gear. Although no piece is technically fully assembled, many things are getting quite close, and plan on getting plenty of things ready for the priming stage after tomorrow.

Letter from Pinkowski

There is a letter out from Pinkowski. In a nutshell, it says "Sorry if your race experience was less than you expected. We're listening, honest, despite the way we've been talking for the past week, and we promise that we are taking your criticism seriously."

Update on 21 day challenge.

Remember this? I haven't been posting my updates here, but I'll do a quick recap.

Day 1 (official, long version): The Tau Megaforce set contains two (2) Crisis Suits, three (3) Stealth Suits (and Markerlight Drone), twenty (20) Fire Warriors, six (6) Gun Drones, three (3) Piranhas, one (1) Devilfish APC and one (1) Hammerhead Gunship. That's an awful lot of stuff. I sorted through everything, getting everything set in the appropriate area, and got to work cutting and trimming things from the sprue. I bagged stuff as I went, so that I would not have to try and find the legs from the Stealth Suits, only to find that I used them for some Fire Warriors. When I called it a day, the only things still left on the sprue were about half of the Fire Warriors.

Day 2: The Fire Warriors are all off the sprue and bagged. I've started trimming and assembling, and the Stealth Suits are mostly assembled. I'll probably leave them as they are for a few days, since I don't have the codex yet, and I don't want to commit to a particular weapon configuration. Tomorrow, I plan to work on getting the Fire Warriors started, as well as the Crisis suits.

Day 3 update - real work has begun. The Stealth suits are mostly trimmed and assembled. I still have the heads, weapons and some optional bits to add, but those will wait until I have the codex. The Crisis suits are partially assembled; right now they are Crisis Torsos. The wing assemblies to all 3 Piranha are done, and 10 Fire warriors now have torsos and legs. Not as much as I would like, but I did not have as much time tonight as I had originally hoped.

I haven't bothered posting any pics yet, because right now, everything is still bits of gray plastic. I should take one tomorrow, since now things are at least starting to look like something.

Looking for some redemption

So, I want to get the bitter taste of that DNF out of my mouth. I'll be honest - that was my first DNF, ever, and if I had not passed by my support crew, and been within 50 yards of where I was staying, I probably would not have quit. But quit I did, and I need to do something to redeem myself, in my eyes if no one else's.

Unfortunately, I really cannot afford to blow the $300 or so that Detroit or Indy will cost me right now. (I'm including hotel and race fees there, plus something for gas and food.) But there is a 5k and a 10k race about 90 miles away in November.

And here's the first fun part. The 5k is at 9 am, and the 10k is at 10 am. So yes, you can sign up for both, and some people do. 15k is no problem - it's not even 10 miles.

And the second fun part is that the course is supposed to be hilly. The 10k is apparently a double loop, so you pass over the same hills twice.

Cold (Michigan in November certainly won't be 85 degrees), hilly and possibly even rain? I think I am in. It sounds like fun.

Staying cool on the course

My main lesson learning from Chicago is that I cannot rely on race organizers to necessarily provide liquids or cooling services on a hot day. So, although I already have a fuel belt, and an amphipod, I am currently trying to decide which I want to get - a cooling vest or a camelbak.

I'm leaning toward the camelbak, but I don't want one of those little ones. I'm going to want to hold 2-3L of water. Screw the extra weight, because 4 pounds of ice water would have made a major difference in completing the death march on Sunday.

Any opinions or reviews would be appreciated.

21 day challenge

I decided to bite the bullet, and get back into GW games. Normally, I prefer Warmachine, Flames of War or CAV, but sadly, none of those games are played in my neck of the woods, and frankly, I don't feel like trying to get another game group going from scratch again. But GW games are kind of a ground state in miniatures gaming; it's hard not to find players in most areas.

So, I found a group that's only 20-30 minutes away, checked them out, and decided that a game which is fun, but not my favorite, is better than no game at all. After some thinking, I chose an army for my 40k forces, and ordered the army in a box deal.

It arrived yesterday, and I have decided to attempt Dr Faust's "21 Day Challenge". I probably won't finish everything before the end of the month, but since November is NaNoWriMo, I want to get as much done before then as possible.

Daley blames us too

Okay, this is really starting to tick me off. I carried water, I slowed my pace (more with every mile), but I do not deal with heat well. It's not something I can overcome with training or conditioning; it's a simple biological reality.

See, one of my legs is basically scar tissue. To be fully honest, it's only scar tissue from ankle to just under the knee (and then around the back of the knee), and then scar tissue for most of the thigh. The other leg has a bunch of scar tissue around the thigh. (Multiple hits from a car, then the scars from skin grafts, including several failed ones, respectively. OTOH, I know exactly what a compound, complex spiral fracture looks and feels like, because it happened to me almost 30 years ago. But I digress.) Scar tissue does not sweat. I can run hard intervals, and aside from drips from my shorts, there is a distinct lack of sweat on much of my legs. No sweat means it's harder for me to shed heat. (It's a big plus for winter running though - 35 degrees is quite pleasant, aside from hands and head, which are easily remedied.)

Anyway, with the official cooling stations all being in the back 6.2 miles of the race, I was hosed. I had planned to keep my pace down, then basically stuff my shorts and/or hat with ice and use several of the sponges. Guess what I never saw?

I bailed because I was getting stupid, though not yet so stupid that I couldn't tell. My wife and future brother-in-law both tell me that I was babbling a bit when I bailed, and I ran a pretty high fever until sometime last night - my wife guessed it at 101 or 102, but to be honest, I didn't bother checking. I probably should have, but since I could keep fluids and solids down, I figured it would solve itself in a day or so (which it did).

I'll run again - Goofy is coming up. I might do Chicago again, but if that weather is a possibility, I am either going to fill a 3.0L capacity camelbak with ice water, or get one of those cooling vests, because I can't trust the race officials to take care of my cooling needs until mile 20, apparently.

DNF

Chicago sucked. Big time. I was overheating early, and dropped somewhere past the halfway point. If I had walked only a little bit, I would have been part of the diverted, still got a medal crowd. Still feeling sick, and not just over the DNF.

Pre-race analysis

Okay, so maybe all I manage with this is to demoralize myself ahead of time, but I'm thinking about Chicago on Sunday, and here's the thoughts concerning my time:

Cons

1. I'm sick. Yep - no fever, but hacking phlegm is a bad sign for running. It might clear up before then, but it's not certain.
2. Sleep? What's that? Between a teething baby and a toddler who keeps getting up in the night to wander into my room, I haven't gotten as much as 4 hours of continuous sleep in several months. 6 hours of continuous is a dim and distant memory.
   
3. It's going to be hot. Damned hot. Right now, it's looking like there will be near-record highs, with a low that is more than 10 degrees higher than my ideal running temperature. (Actually, my ideal is close to 40, so a probable temp of 75 at the start is bad.)
4. I'm not sure my training has been wholly up to snuff.

Pros

1. I know that I have been getting faster, and last years time would have been great (for me), or at least tolerable, had I not wrenched my knee somewhere about the 25k or 30k mark.
2. That's about it, really. . . .

At the beginning of the year, I had hopes for a BQ at Chicago. As late as last month, I was hoping to come close to a 3:20. I'm still thinking that a 3:30 is doable, and if the weather co-operates, I might even manage to get down towards the 3:20, but it's not looking good right now. . .

On the plus side, I don't need to worry about having extra clothes to keep warm before race time, though a couple of fans to keep cool would be nice.

Gebrselassie sets new marathon record

Meant to post something about this yesterday. All I can say is "Damn, that's fast."

Bailing on Detroit

Well, for the time being, anyway. For various and sundry reasons, I have decided to do only one marathon this year (and, as I noted previously, it probably won't be a BQ, though I still have confidence in a strong PR performance), and since I hadn't registered for Detroit anyway, it wasn't a hard decision.

But I am already planning for next year. So far, the tentative schedule is as follows:

January - WDW Marathon (technically, the Goofy challenge), which takes care of Florida.

April - Boston Marathon. Okay, I can dream, right? Actually, I might do the Country Music Marathon, which would take care of Tennessee.

June - Sunburst Marathon, which takes care of Indiana.

September - Air Force Marathon, which takes care of Ohio

October - Detroit Free Press marathon, which takes care of Michigan.

My thought is to try and do 3-5 marathons per year, depending on location and how old the kids are. As they get older, I can do more marathons farther away, but while they are young, I pretty much need to concentrate on the nearby races, which means the midwest. Alaska and Hawaii are probably going to be the final 2 of the group, and they'll be tied to family vacations.

Yeah, I've been gone

And now, I am sick. Chicago is less than a week away, and I am coughing and hacking. Gah. I blame some of it on traveling to see my family two weekends in a row. Don't get me wrong, I love them all, and it was good to see them, but they have a dog, which is basically an allergen-spewing attention hound, who, as so many animals do, gravitates toward whomever is the most allergic in the room. That would be me.

I'm hoping it will clear up soon. As it stands, with the weather for Sunday being on the warm side (almost 60 at the start! ack!), the lack of my desired pace group in my corral, a general lack of sleep, and what I feel to be insufficient training, I'll try for, but do not really anticipate making, a BQ time.

And I'm really feeling down, seeing lots of people (okay, mostly women) who are in good shape for their BQ, which is either a time I have already made, or 15 minutes slower than I anticipate running, even if I still have this cold. I'm happy for them, but the difference between elite men and women isn't 30 minutes, so why such a large time spread for Boston?