Message Boards

Pearl Jam!

I have been blessed this holiday season with the use of my Mom's car. In the Chevy Malibu (that's right, Michiganders buy American made cars) exists a wonderful little XM radio player. The move to XM was a great one by my Mom. It allows for a lot of Jamming out and singing along in long car rides or quick jaunts to the video store (of which I frequent when in Bath). It has definitely been a perk to the car on my quick trips back home. This vacation, however, there has been an even greater surprise: The addition of a PEARL JAM RADIO STATION.

Up until today this thing has been awesome. It plays rarities, full concerts, even anything that's related to Pearl Jam (which led to the amazing "I'm The Ocean" by Neil Young listening before a workout (to which I had to have an amazing workout)). While only about 1/3rd of Eddie's lyrics are understandable, I sing along to 4/3rds of it.

Everything was great and the Xmas vacation was going off without a hitch. THEN, Pearl Jam Radio did something terrible. They invited in hosts to talk. And these guys didn't stop talking. I thought I would listen to it for a while and eventually they'd play some music. I was wrong. It was like watching ESPN where instead of showing sports they just talk about it...it sucked. I was still playing it out hoping for the best when I heard one of the speakers say this:

"Now on the message boards..."

I changed the channel immediately. If there's one thing I've learned in my 25 years here, it is to never believe anything you read on a message board. The things are stupid. They are a bunch of anonymous people spouting off rumors. They actually get me upset.

The things don't make much sense. For a band's message board, it is people speculating when the next album will come out or what songs they will play at their next concert. How about you just wait and see or let the band announce it instead of trusting some dude who lives in his mom's basement and scours the Internet looking for info about Phish on WikiLeaks?

Or message boards for sports teams. If I have to hear how awesome some recruit that Duke, Miami, or Michigan is getting in two years, I expect him to be the greatest person in the world. And let me tell you, every Duke basketball player is awful.

And while the reason I wrote this entry was to complain about the Pearl Jam Radio Station, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Let'sRun.Com "World Famous Message Board." I hate that thing. The front page of Let'sRun is pretty much invaluable, and I go there for all of the running related news I am looking for. But the Message Board itself is stupid. As Sam Bair, Jr. (the father of the father/son combo that broke four minutes for the mile) said in a piece I was writing about him and his son: "They're [the message board posters] a bunch of guys who haven't done it. Probably a bunch of 5-minute milers." Yikes, that 5-minute-miler reference is like the kid in "Sandlot" telling the other that he plays ball like a girl. While I know a few people that are definitely not 5-minute-milers who post on the message board, the thing that upsets me the most about Let'sRun Message Board is how highly they themselves think of it.

Say there is a coaching opening at Oregon. Most likely, the message boards will be humming with rumors about who the next coach will be. Probably ten names will be thrown out there (along with about 30 names that have absolutely no shot of getting the job). They will be big coaching names and logical heirs to the Oregon coaching job. Then, one of those names will be hired. Instead of just announcing who the new coach is on the front page of the site, Let'sRun praises their message board, saying, "As previously reported on Let'sRun.Com's World Famous Message Board". They ignore the fact that about 30 other names were thrown out there.

The message board can be good for gathering a quick bit of information, but using it as an actual news source like Let'sRun sometimes does is a joke.

In conclusion, I don't really like message boards. I can live with the running ones because they get a little talk going about our sport. But when it messes with my Pearl Jam listening that's when it's enough.

So make it a new year's resolution to stop looking at message boards. Happy 2010, here's to a better 2011.

runLBP 2k10: The Video Game

Bust out your NES Power Pad, because EA Sports, in partnership with BP-Pizza Gaming, is proudly presenting the latest in track and field video gaming: "runLBP 2k10"...

Syyyyke. But they do need to bring back the Power Pad don't they? No, "runLBP 2k10: The Video Game" was just a better title than "runLBP's best (and worst) of 2010".

To go with the grain of pretty much every website/magazine/news outlet, here goes some of the highs and lows for the site and life in general:

Best Race: Ryan Shay Mile. It was one of the few races all year where I just said eff it and ran hard. It didn't turn out a W, but it definitely had me excited about running.

Worst Race: Tie, Puma Mile, Nova Scotia Mile, and Falmouth Mile. The Puma Mile was actually a really good race, but the lack of $10,000 definitely hurt. Nova Scotia I won $250, but I ran a time that barely would have qualified for NCAA Regionals and I didn't even feel that good doing it (thankfully that was a fun overall meet). And then Falmouth Mile was the first race I dropped out of since sophomore year of high school. Dropping out of races sucks, even if it is because of injury, and that wont be happening this year.

Lowest Point: The layover in Denver on the overnight flight from New Mexico back to DC after USA Indoors. The combination of New Mexico, a red-eye flight, a sub-par performance at USAs, a travel partner doing med-school homework, and reading "Born To Run" left me wanting to leave society and go live in the mountains. Sadly, I returned to DC and slept for 28 straight hours.

Best Blog Post: Tie, The Bet and the Leslie Nielsen Tribute. I liked the Leslie Nielsen one the most, but since it had absolutely nothing to do with running...although the Dan Nunn didn't really either.

Best Youtube Video: LBPjam7  See above video.
Enough said.

Worst LBPjam: There wasn't one!

Best Meal (savory): Criff Dog! This thing is unimaginable. If you read the blog, you know my affinity for chili dogs. Well here, you get yourself a hot dog, wrap some bacon around it, fry up an egg, add some cheese, put those things in a bun, and you've got yourself a meal. This was only discovered recently, and as my brother Will so eloquently put it: "Criff dogs haunt me."

Best Meal (sweet): The Pancake Sundae. I am haunted by this one as well. I'm sure not as much as Maggie, because while Liz and I ordered the dangerously delicious delicacy, Maggie decided to go with the tomato soup. Probably tasted like throw up.

Best Dessert of the year...

Best Tweet: REEEEEEESE'S. Not really. Instead Paul Pierce's after the Celtics beat the Heat.

Best TV Show: Tie: "Mad Men" and "Parks and Rec". Both were detailed, and both affected my every day life. I'm trying to work Don Draper's sidepart into my repertoire, and those shapes! still get me.

Worst TV Show: "Two and a Half Men".

Best Run: Central Park Reservoir at night. A nice little escape from the city.

Worst Run: Fricken' Snowmageddon in DC. That had a lot to do with the lowest point of 2k10 since flying back to DC was a less than ideal destination.

Best Call: The move back to NYC.

It's go time again. Overall, the running in 2010 sucked. So now it's kind of go big or go home (literally, since I need me some money or else see ya soon Mom and Dad!). But seriously, I am very excited about what the running is going to bring in the coming year. I have some goals set and the NJ/NY TC and Coach Gags are helping me work towards them. We're starting to piece together an indoor season and hopefully I'll be able to put my nose up in some races on the east coast throughout the winter. I have yet to really say it out loud yet, but the goal now is getting ready for 2012.

Top 3 in either the 8 or 15 on the right day is what matters now, so that's what we're working towards. There will definitely be highs and lows along the way, but might as well shoot high, because then if things go really well, maybe I can make a video game with the PowerPad. As always, I will document most of it right here. Happy 2010, here's to a better 2011.

$50 Haircut

That's some long ass hair.

Every Monday and Friday morning I catch the 8:25 up-town 1-train at 116th and ride it to 168th St. before walking to the Armory to get picked up by my coach and taken to practice at Rutgers. Public transportation, while sometimes packed with people like sardines in a can, can be a nice treat. There is always a person on each bus/train that is “that guy.” The person you look at because they’re either yelling or singing, or just in need of a shower. One of my trips I was looking around the subway car and didn’t really notice anyone of the sort, but then I saw my reflection in the window across from me. I was “that guy.”

I was dressed in running pants, a big winter coat, and my hair was out of control. I had showered the night before, but with my hair looking like a rolling tumbleweed of the old west, if visible stink lines would have emanated from me, I wouldn’t have objected.

The hair being out of control thing isn’t for any reason, I just decided not to cut my hair other than a trim until New Years. I used to never cut my hair during the season. This all started because when I was a seventh grader, my brother and a group of his buddy’s told me they’d give me $50 if I didn’t cut my hair until the cross country season was over. Meanwhile, I was already a month removed from cutting my hair. By the end of the season I was Tom Brady as Bieber before Brady or Bieber even existed.

Now, I’ve gone with the no haircut until 2011 to go along with my current life mantra of trying to be a blue collar runner while being a white collar worker. Don Draper meets Rocky in Rocky IV.

Running wise, things are going very well and all the cross training (oh that god-forsaken cross training!) seems to have payed off some as my workouts have been going great and my mileage is up in the 70s again. We are starting to piece together somewhat of an indoor season and I am starting to get that racing itch, even if the real racing of the year is a long ways away.

It’s cold again, but Michigan boys love the snowy running. Plus, I have a lot of hair to keep my head warm.

The Wind, The Wind

RIVERBANK...

It felt like I got the wind knocked out of me and socked in the groin at the same time. I was running a 500 last Friday at Red Bank Regional High School and was rounding the turn into the 200 meter mark when it happened. Whabam! I was stopped cold. No matter how hard I pumped my arms or how quickly I picked up my legs, I couldn’t go fast enough. I thought it was one of the windiest days I had ever worked out on. But I forgot about the Riverbank Track at 145th St.

This morning was one of the worst possible days to run. Rainy, humid, and WINDY. The track is right on the Hudson River next to a sewage plant (I always used to joke that I had eaten the wrong foods if we ever worked out there at Columbia), and the gusts are plain foolish. I have been doing my tempos in Central Park, which is a little tough because of the hills, but I would have loved to be there this morning blocked from the howling wind. Instead, kicking up puddles of water in my face were Will and Delilah as we all took turns taking the brunt of the wind.

I have no one to blame except myself however. I have consistently chosen windy tracks as places to train my entire running life. And the least windy track I have ever been on (aside from high school), wasn’t even a full 400 meters.

The Bath track has actually been the least problematic weather-wise of all the tracks that I have called home. It would get some gusts on the back-stretch here and there, but overall it was a darn good high school track.

The Baker Field Track opened my eyes to what winds could be. Situated on the northernmost tip of Manhattan, it gets some bursts of wind off the Hudson as well. It also seemed that whenever it was calm there, someone, *cough*CoachWood*cough*, would mention how calm it was and within minutes a monsoon would be approaching.

The Duke Ellington Track at Georgetown didn’t have many meteorological mishaps, but 4 and ¾ laps to a mile? C’mon.

Now, my two main home tracks are Rutgers and Riverbank. Somehow, Rutgers is windy as hell. Not as bad as Riverbank, but not much is.

Nothing you can do about weather, unless you choose to live somewhere with great weather. But in my mind, it’s not really worth it. I’d rather live in New York and toughen myself up than somewhere without wind. Now if only it would stay light past 5pm.