A Case of the Runs

EVENT: Acura LA Bike Tour DATE: Monday, May 25, 2009 LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA RACE BEGAN: 5:00 am FINISH TIME: 01:44:00 (estimated) Prelude: How did I end up foregoing my favorite marathon? Well, it started when this once early-March marathon I had already signed up for last year fell under new ownership and moved to President's Day. I remained in. Then, it was set to Memorial Day. Given my issues with heat (characteristic of May), I decided to drop out and had my yearly marathon be the Pasadena Marathon instead. It appears that many people did the same thing, as according to the LA Marathon site, under 15,000 runners finished the race this year. That number is usually well over 20,000. Race Report: This leads me to the LA Coliseum where I was waiting with my bike before our 5:00 AM start. The difficulty of getting to that point at that time is nothing to be snuffed at, even for someone who wakes up before 5:00 am most of the time. They were very timely about starting us, so off...

Yes, after that nice entry about my " graduation ", I am going to post an entry about shoe odor. I thought of this recently, as I noticed that a bit more vigilence with these products can make a definite impact on the smelliness of shoes. I know most people are not very willing to admit it if they have this problem. They just seem to stink in silence until someone calls them out on it. Some people come forward at the brink of discovery. I remember "The Ukrainian" once telling me not to help him pack his shoes away because I "might die." I didn't really have that bad of an issue until I started working, and for some reason, work shoes are not friendly to the olfactory nerves (i.e., they create stinkiness). So I started getting various remedies such as the two sprays below -- Odor Eaters and Penguin brand shoe deodorizer. Both of these sprays smell similar, but honestly, I think that Odor Eaters lasts longer than Penguin. I use both of these for both wor...

Today is my graduation day. I set the post time of this entry to coincide with the conclusion of my final class that will close out the requirements for me to receive a Masters of Science. What the degree is in is not of importance (hint: it's a branch of psychology that can make clinician-level salaries =P), but by creating this ghetto rendition of a graduation ceremony picture (see right -- my major was obviously not computer graphics), I have celebrated. I am not attending my actual graduation ceremony because non-terminal masters folks like myself are recognized only in a group (not worth paying for a gown and dragging my family out for that). However, my co-workers decided to set up a potluck soon to celebrate. They are so awesome! I've only been here for about two months, and they have been encouraging and took me out for my birthday and even got me gifts. And speaking of work, I went from a level 1 to level 3 position literally overnight, which comes with a raise that I...

I did a review on another spray sunscreen not TOO long ago, but since that bottle ran out (so to speak), I have received these for Christmas/birthdays and have thus converted to the Coppertone brand. I just don't like having to mess up my hands with greasy sunscreen that leaves my skin white. It always is shocking to feel cold spritz and a chemical mist on you, and the smell is sort of chemical-y. I think this smells slightly worse than other spray sunscreens but stays on better, in my opinion. These clear-drying sprays come in SPF 30 and 50, in single or double packs. They go for about ~$8 each. One can lasts quite a while for me, since I am not as good about my suncare regimen as I should be... I spray anytime I am running outdoors, even under my clothes for the most part and on the top of my head. For the past few months, I've even been getting into that daily sunscreen/moisturizing thing on my face (go me!). But I do spend time outdoors that is unaccounted for by my ...

EVENT: Santa Barbara Wine Country Half-Marathon DATE: Saturday, May 9, 2009 LOCATION: Santa Ynez/Los Olivos/Solvang, CA RACE BEGAN: 7:00 am FINISH TIME: 01:41:55 (49:01, 52:53) (NOTE: No race picture because somehow they only got pictures of my partner. What a bummer, as I actually wore something different this time!) Prelude: In spite of the fires in the Jesusita forests in Santa Barbara, "The Ukrainian" and I arrived in Buellton, CA on Friday, May 8 at a Marriott to pick up our race packets. This city of split pea soup was about 35 miles away from the fires. It wasn't until later that I found out that the town is not pronounced bulletin , bull-tin , or bowl-le-ton . At one of the two wine-tasting places we went to, we found out it is pronounced the way it looks: B-yule-tin (a-la Ferris Bueller). In Solvang, where we stayed, we ended up hitting up the Danish bakeries and wine-tasting rooms, as well as go for a little swim. We made sure to taste the trademark dessert of...

***Guest Review by Tea Time: It's been awhile since I've done a review of a product but I got something new recently that Nobel4lit thought would be interesting if I reviewed on her site...so here goes. I was walking around the OC Marathon expo recently with Nobel4lit and a couple of other people and came upon this booth that sold these bracelets and neckbands with an embedded technology that helped with balance, flexibility and strength. The sales staff performed a balance test on me and Nobel4lit with and without the bracelet and we were more balanced when we were wearing one. I am still not sure how it works or if the test was legit since it was performed by the sales person who was looking to sell this product to me. You can read all about this technology at their site: http://www.efxusa.com/technology.htm So I did end up buying one of these. Not sure why, maybe just curious. I've been wearing it pretty religiously for about a little over a week now and the one thing I ...

I've been noshing on these gluten-free, vegan nutrition bars at various race expos for quite a while now, and now I'm finally writing about them! Besides being free of the commonly found whey that both disgusts and sickens me and the artificial sugars that taste sub-par and bloat me, these bars are high-protein (~14 g per bar, with ~230 calories) and all-natural. So far, I have tried the chocolate, almond, strawberry, and peanut butter flavors. I actually like all of them. The flavors are there but not overpowering (particularly in the chocolate one). The texture of these bars is chewy -- you won't find a lot of huge chunks of anything in them. The moisture level is on the low side, but the bar is not crumbly at all. I really like these bars. I haven't been purchasing too many bars lately, so I'm not sure if I will be getting some unless I need a quick meal and they happen to be around. Additionally, I'm not sure if they are widely available, but if you see them...

Out of boredom (or procrastination from my school work), I made the following charts plotting my race paces over time. I omitted the ordinate labels here because some of my race paces were just embarrassing... The top one is for marathons. Pretty obvious trend going on over here, though I'm sure there will be an uptick for my 2010 marathon, since I'm fairly certain that this year's was a fluke. This second one is for half-marathons. Just by looking at this, I could see that I am really inconsistent!! However, the general trend appears that the pace is going down. I could have done a couple of statistical tests to see if this was the case. In one method, I could have found the line of best fit to this data and looked to see the sign of the slope (negative = pace going down overall). Alternatively, I could have run an analysis of variance comparing 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009's averages to see if they are statistically significantly different from each other. Howev...

EVENT: Avia OC Half-Marathon DATE: Sunday, May 3, 2009 LOCATION: Newport Beach/Costa Mesa, CA RACE BEGAN: 6:30 am FINISH TIME: 01:58:22 I was pretty curious about the new course for this race. I am not one of those people who looks into the details of a course before running it. Why worry about a hill at mile 3 days in advance, right? Probably not smart of me, but that's just my tendency. Anyway, I had heard that the new course had some views of the ocean, but the main reason I did this half-marathon was because Tea Time was running the marathon. Glad I was there to see it! The race started at a very early 6:30 AM under an overcast sky at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. This held up the whole time I was running and beyond -- perfect running weather, in my opinion. I waited in the first corral behind a 1:50 (half) and 3:40 (full) pace group, but I could not keep up with them for even the first mile! This is weird, since "The Ukrainian," who has always run under 1:50, was ...

I have been a bit behind on posting, but I just got a laptop at work. Yes, that means more updates, or at least signs of my presence in the blogosphere. Meanwhile, here are some pictoral representations of recent things/events. I am leaving vague captions purposefully... Above: An award I received from the same place I got my bobblehead trophy... Above: Rock candy (one of sour apple or watermelon) from Bishop that "The Ukrainian" picked up for me because I had one last time when we went together. I forgot when I ate this, but not the same day as this picture was taken. Above: A birthday gift. =] Above: I took a picture of this before I cleared it off...