Ham Sandwich Indicted!

Hey! A post not about food! Sometime earlier this year, I decided to make the switch from being a runner (ha!) to being a triathlete (double ha!).  Partially it was because I started swimming at my gym and remembered how much I enjoyed it and partially because I finally got a bike (free! from a friend!), but mostly because I was really starting to lose interest in the running-for-a-long-Fing-time thing.   I dipped my toe in the proverbial (and literal) water at a mini-sprint in July and had a blast. It was a .25 mile swim, a 7 mile bike, and a 2 mi. run. I did the whole thing in under an hour and felt pretty spectacular about myself.  So much so that I signed up for a "regular" sprint (.4, 15, 3.1) that I completed last weekend.  ...It was an altogether different experience. But, like every good race, it was a learning one.  And now, at no cost to you, I'm going to share what I learned during that long, somewhat painful triathlon, so that you might learn fr...

It's weird. Sometime in the last three weeks I think I became a runner. I say think, because I'm not sure if I've just stumbled onto some type of lucky running streak, or if I've actually made to to the point where I can run several miles, regularly, without stopping. You know, a runner...who likes to run. I've been training for the upcoming (Sunday!) C olumbus Half Marathon for about five months now. It's actually the third half I've done (Chicago--'03, Columbus--'07), so I've been pretending to be a runner for quite sometime. Pretending, because until recently "running" meant running for a while, then walking for a bit before running again, etc... Back in 2009, I resolved to run a 5K a month, and made it through to May (again with the run/walk paradigm), but it fell by the wayside when I got tired of spending the money, and then summer came, and weekends were busy, and well, you know what they say about excuses. Fast forward to t...

I'm one-fourth of the way through my 5K-a-Month project--Woot! This race should have been completely uneventful--decent temps, a bunch of friends running it, beer at the end...Except for the fact that I'm one of the less graceful people I know. Sooooo...somewhere in the middle of the 3rd mile, I'm chugging along, feeling pretty good, settled in a nice pace when I hit a pothole in the road. And before I go any further, let me back up a second. At this point, I have two things working against me: my aforementioned lack of grace and my incredibly weak ankles, who have seen countless sprains, rips, tears, and pulls over the years. Anyway, I hit a pothole (and not a big one, mind you, more like a divot in the asphalt), my right ankle rolls underneath me, I stumble, fall, catch myself with my left and hand knee, then roll over so I end up on my back. In the middle of the road. With runners coming up behind me. When I stand up, my hand is bleeding, my right ankle is throbbing, and...

It's easy. After a five course meal at Handke's, then homemade lobster ravioli with a crab cream sauce the following night, get up at 6:30 am the day after Valentine's Day and run a 5K with your loved one and a girlfriend that's a crazier runner than you are. NB: I would NOT recommend drinking a bottle of wine AND a bottle of champagne the night before you do this. Yes, month number two, race number two has come and gone. DF has jumped on the resolution bandwagon (for now) and ran Last Chance for Boston with me a couple of weeks ago. Technically, it was a one-mile loop that you could run 26.1 times and use to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Or, you could just run the 5K, 10K, or 1/2 marathon, if your idea of a romantic weekend is somewhat less draconian. Things that were great about this race: -the one mile loop is great if you're only doing it 3 times--you're halfway done before you even realize it (but ask a marathoner if they feel the same way doing it 26 t...

...was how I was described by the woman "running" behind me single file on this past weekend's mid-winter Bataan Death March. Thanks, lady. I was on this ridiculous adventure because my New Year's resolution this year is to run a 5K every month. I figure it'll keep my occupied/in quasi decent shape (providing I actually do some training), and will give me a chance to increase my collection of performance t-shirts. Last Saturday marked the January race--the Fantastic Frigid 5K, squeeking in on January 31st. It was definitely frigid, but fantastic may be a bit of a stretch. The course was basically a 3.1 mile run through 6-12" of snow, with a layer of crusty ice on top. My goal, aside from not getting frostbite (it was 8 degrees), was to finish without tripping and falling into said snow. Which, for the record, I accomplished. It did however, take me just under 59:00 (by far the worst time I've ever run a 5K!!!!), since I spent large chunks of time trudg...