Will Run For Food - Mike Krisch Edition

NCAA Cross Country Nationals were today. I never had any experience with this event because every one of my cross country seasons were gross under-achievements. I love XC, it is the only place where there is just one champion, and it is done in the most true way, through a race.

This edition of runLBP is a straight dedication to Andrew Bumbalough and Mike Krisch for winning All-American certificates with their 8th and 32nd place finishes at the NCAA meet. Since Krisch is my current roommate, he gets even more of a shout out.

What follows is the video I directed, produced, edited and starred in for a journalism class I took last spring. It features myself, and my two current roommates Mike Krisch and Alex Mason. The first couple of minutes are boring, but once the eating contest starts, things start getting pretty exciting. Enjoy…

Tom Petty: Running Down My Dreams

I am semi convinced that Tom Petty is trying to ruin my life. I am also worried that he has threatened the creators of Pandora and iTunes’ Genius with their lives. (For those not familiar, Pandora and Genius take a band that you like and try to create playlists that have similar musical qualities with bands you maybe haven’t listened to as much.)

Those two hunches have been contrived in light of recent Pandora and iTunes’ Genius ventures. It seems that everywhere I turn Tom Petty shows up in my playlists. I had enjoyed rocking a Refreshments/Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers radio station, however, Petty kept on showing up. Even after multiple thumbs down he was all over me. Then, I tried to use my iPod to go with some of my more familiar music. I decided that I wanted a playlist with songs similar to “Thunder Road” – four to five Petty songs show up, I think there are only four to five Petty songs on that iPod! He is legitimately everywhere. And I know Tom Petty has made some great songs, but I could use some breathing room.

Which brings me to the point of this supposed running blog: Running with music. I am neither a proponent or opponent. We received iPod shuffles at NCAAs last year, so I have donned it on a run or two, but I have found that I run a little too fast with it. My Mom listens to radio shows on her, but for me that would make the act of running even boringer (I understand that isn’t a word).

However, it’s time for me to write a news broadcast for my basic news writing class…talk about boringer. I leave you with a picture from my Columbia days for no reason other than the fact that Brian Horneck posted it on his facebook not too long ago. It is after HEPS 1500 my sophomore year, Horneck, Gabe Johnston and I went 2-5-6, signaling the beginning of a middle distance domination of HEPS for years to come.

Another Runion Weekend

Life has been good in DC lately. Getting into a routine of running and working and school, and I cannot complain. I realized that my season is only 2 months away now, so excitement has started creeping in. Indoors is going to be a very fun time for me with lots of racing and lots of training. There is no real plan out there yet for as to exactly what races I’ll be running, but that will come once we see how I’m running.

Then, in terms of the rest of this post, I have some actual homework to do, so you will once again be given a glimpse of The Runion. This particular article is the one that almost created stardom for the start-up website. It was after Tiger Woods won the US Open on a bum knee, and I wasn’t too impressed. So, I wrote an article with a few likenesses to the situation. The article was featured on SportsIllustrated.com’s “Hot Clicks” (a compilation of fun sports links) and the numbers of people checking the site sky rocketed.

I had promised that if I ever reached 10,000 visitors in one day that I would jump into the Hudson River. Well at 11am the amount of visitors to the site was up to 2,791. “Oh dear God!” I remember thinking.

However, it was at about this time that it was revealed Tiger Woods was going to be getting surgery on his injured knee and his accomplishment was actually pretty impressive…well as impressive a golfing accomplishment can be.
The link was removed, the visitors for the day stopped at 2,791 and The Runion returned to anonymity.
Here was the article:

RUNNER INJURES PINKY; STILL EAKS OUT A WIN

PEACHTREE, GA — Brushing aside any doubts concerning his injury, Lionel “Lion” Forest fought through unbearable pain to win the second major race of the Peachtree, Georgia Amateur Racing Series (or the PGA Racing Series), the Utley Supermarket Open 5k (or the US Open 5k).

Forest, the twenty five year old accountant, suffered a paper cut on his pinky only two days before the race. Attempting the Grand Slam of the PGA Racing Series, Forest had already won the Slam’s first leg in convincing fashion. However, having taken two days off to tend to his pinky, there was worry that he would falter on the challenging US Open course. That worry quickly turned to jubilation as Forest once again crossed the finish line in first, holding up two fingers as he broke the tape.

“I was ready for anything out there today,” said Forest, who blew away the field in the last 400 meters, winning by 4 seconds to keep his hope of winning the Grand Slam alive. “But let me tell you,” he continued, “that cut really stung once some of my sweat seeped through my band aid.”

Now, having won both the US Open and The Masterbators (which is put on by the sperm clinic in nearby Augusta), Forest’s attention will move to getting healthy for the British Bakery Open next week before the final leg of the Slam, the PGA Racing Series Championship in two weeks time. He will be applying Neosporin and Band-Aids on the hour every hour in preparation for his next run.

“We couldn’t be prouder of Lionel,” said PGA Racing Series Director Jonathan Newman. “He is what racing is all about in the PGA. There is a stigma that members of the PGA aren’t as tough as the rest of the sports world, but let me tell you, these guys go through a lot. I mean a paper-cut and this guy is out there competing? You show me another sport where someone is doing that!”

With comparisons to Tiger Woods’ performance at the Professional Golf Association’s United States Open, Lion Forest was not so quick to place himself in the same breath as the great golfer.

“Are you kidding me?” he replied when asked if he thought his performance was similar to that of Woods’, who had knee surgery eight weeks ago. “Tiger’s a pussy. I had a fucking paper cut! A PAPER CUT! You know how bad those sting?!”

Phitens and Heps and Peanut Butter Cups

It is rumored that Gilbert Arenas, the NBA star, tried out an altitude tent in order to help in get in shape for b-ball season. He decided that it was working too well, and that it felt like he was “cheating,” so he stopped using it. This is exactly how I feel about my new Phiten Titanium Necklace.

You may recognize the Phiten Necklace from Major League Baseball. A lot of guys use the thing that supposedly aids in recovery of muscles by increasing your circulation. I was pretty skeptical about the things, but then my roommates and I decided that we should start a new fad. And recovery necklaces were the route we chose.

Let’s just say that before I got my Phiten, my body ached at all times, and now I sometimes don’t even realize that I was just running for 20 miles at 6 minute pace. The thing just makes you feel great and recovered at all times.

And the fad has taken off. Will and Delilah up in New York have joined in. Kevin up in New Hampshire and Renee in D.C. have donned the necklaces. Hell, even Alan in Columbus has decided to join in on the Phiten Phun! And we all feel great. And yes, it is all in our heads.

And on top of that, my fastball has improved drastically since I started wearing Phiten.

If you do check my web journal often enough, then you saw that Columbia won HEPS this weekend in dramatic fashion. HEPS is an indescribable meet filled with emotion and heart. Somehow, men and women become heroes on this day only to return to their normal selves very soon after.

For an Ivy League runner HEPS has everything to do with it. It is a double sided sword, but the sharper side shines brightest. What I mean by that is this: Sometimes we put too much emotional energy into something like the Ivy League Championship that the rest of our season is compromised. However, I wouldn’t change a thing. HEPS is where you compete your balls off and nothing else matters. Times don’t matter, weather doesn’t matter, place is the only thing that counts.

HEPS is where every Ivy League school hates each other. HEPS is where every Ivy League school respects one another. HEPS is where Jimmy Wyner was DQ’d for celebrating. HEPS is where I became LBP as the chants roared through the Armory in 2007 when I won my first Heptagonal Crown.

In the end, I have supposedly moved on to bigger and better things, but HEPS will always have a special place in my heart.
-
Just so I have a reason for the title of my entry…instead of dressing up for Halloween last night since all of my friends were getting back late from Big East XC, I spent the night eating REESE’S Peanut Butter cups…I have no complaints.

Hills

I hate hills. Running up them is awful. Running down them hurts. Frank Shorter may have said that hills were “speedwork in disguise,” but they aren’t nearly as fun as speedwork.

And I should preface this with the fact that my road mile this weekend was not nearly as fast a course as it should have been. And this is because from 100 to 900 meters, the course was an uphill through Lafayette, Calif.

Overall, I had a very solid race, and was able to take home 4th place and 250 dollars. Especially in comparison to 5th Avenue, I am very pleased with how it went. After doing a 6xMile workout on Tuesday I was able to chill a little bit before the race, but I definitely was not race sharp for something like this.

The weekend itself was a blast. With friends and other runners to hang out with all weekend, we had an amazing time. The race director, Priscilla Bailey, who is married to Tim Bailey (2nd place finisher in the race), proved to be a great host and I definitely plan on going back next year.

After the race sunday we made our way into San Francisco for the afternoon. I hate to say it, but San Fran is a pretty cool city. It is also hilly as hell, but it made for some good times.

And there is so much more news to put on here for this week, but most of the news will have to wait until next week.
1. A few of us have started wearing Phiten necklaces, these things are loaded with titanium and I feel recovered at all times.
2. I have barely passed my brother in terms of who has made more money as a professional runner, this is embarrassing to say the least.

So until next week, this is all I’ve got.

Skyline Time

You get yourself some hot dogs. You warm yourself up some chili. Find yourself some buns. Cut up a little onion. Grate a lot of Cheese. You put those things together, you got yourself a meal.

And I’m not talking any meal, I’m talking the best meal you could ever think of. I’m talking Skyline Chili and their cheese coneys. I love Skyline. It is probably my favorite food of all time. If you’ve read my previous entry about nicknames, REEESE’S is a little more acceptable of a nickname than CHILI DAWWGGGGG! But boy do I love ‘em.

Thankfully, I am in a town where chili is plentiful. Sadly, I am an idiot and have yet to have been to the most famous chili place in DC: Ben’s Chili Bowl. I have been to Hard Times Chili out in Clarendon, Va, but I need to make my way to Ben’s. The thing that I worry about, is that nothing can really live up to Skyline for me.

Skyline is a Boylan family delicacy, I remember young trips to Cincinnati to visit my Uncle Mike or Aunt Barb and the massive amounts of skyline we would consume. Even my cousin Connor, who doesn’t eat meat, found something on the menu when he would get the vegetarian chili on noodles.

One summer, my brother and I spent five days at my Uncle’s house. He gave us a lunch allowance for the week. Every day we went to Skyline. Every day we ordered the same thing: 4 Cheese coneys, onions, no mustard and a Dr. Pepper. Well, except for the last day, we ordered 5 dogs. Mmmmmm. Five days = 42 Cheese Coneys and 10 Dr. Peppers.

My love of Skyline has in no way dwindled. A birthday present of cans of skyline let me know that one friend was a legit one, and I have been reaping the benefits since. Sadly, I am down to my last can, and I am hoping to celebrate a good race by popping it open to enjoy a few chili dogs next week.

That’s right, even with all of this eating of chili dogs, I have been doing some running. Adding on the miles will make this road mile out in California interesting, but I am pumped for a chance to race after all of the slower (yet incredibly harder) base training I have been doing.

I’m heading out this Friday and then racing early Sunday morning. The field will most likely be pretty good, and I’ll just try to put forth a much better showing than my 5th Avenue performance. Wish me luck, because right now I am less of a professional runner than my brother, who made $300 at his marathon last weekend where he ran 2:28 (impressive indeed).

Racing Trains

“We might not be the best people” – Jack
“But we’re not the worst!” – Liz
“Graduate students are the worst.” – Jack and Liz
-30 Rock

Now not all graduate students are the worst. But we certainly aren’t the best either. Sometimes grad school can get a little tedious and boring. But other times it can be great.

One course has really stood out. “The Reported Memoir” has allowed me to write about my favorite subject: myself! But in all honesty, it has been fun to try to write a story that you think you know so much about, but end up finding that you really didn’t know a thing.

Back in my freshman year at Columbia, I raced the subway. It is this topic that acts as the driving force of my first official memoir. Here is an excerpt from the still unfinished story, but enjoy…
-
Choo, Choo, Choo. Smack, Smack, Smack. The six-car train barrels forward carrying its’ passengers to their destinations.

Stomp, Stomp, Stomp. Gah, Gah, Gah. My feet and exhale breaths carry me along, unwavering.

At about 12 feet tall and 227 tons, the R62A rushes forward unrelenting, ready to smash anything in its path.

At about 5-foot-10 and 135 pounds, I delicately glide over the sidewalk, avoiding even dips in the sidewalk that could falter my stride.

Dreadfully, the green lights begin to turn against me as their hues turn a yellowish orange. The signal men who were smiling at me earlier saying, “Oh go ahead, you’re fine,” have turned into a red, blinking hand warning me, “Stop you idiot, you’re going to kill yourself.”

Idiot I may be, I am going to beat this subway. My cadence quickens, light feet, clear mind.

Nearing the intersection at 113th, I see a car raring to cross Broadway. A quick glance left; the light is green. A quick glance ahead; the driver is looking down. A quick decision; I’m going for it.

“Oh shit,” I realize as I cross in front of the car and see that the driver has just looked up. My right arm extends, my hand in the same position as the one in the walk signal that had warned me against continuing. I Heisman pose my way across the street, the driver slams his foot back onto the brake, and I continue on as a honk from behind rings in my ears.
–
In running news, it was an alright week. Struggled through a mile repeat workout, which reminded me how much I hate mile repeat workouts. Now, off for another week of running and only 2 weeks away from the race out in the Bay Area. Gonna be fun.