BattleFrog Pittsburgh 2015 Remembered - For the Special People I Met

Hard to believe it's been a year since the BattleFrog race in Pittsburgh.  In a way it seems like it couldn't possibly be that long ago.  In another way, so much has changed since then, that it feels like an era has passed for me.  That race not only introduced me to some incredible people...both BattleFrog staff and racers alike...it forever changed how I look at Obstacle Course Racing (OCR).

And when I look back on that day, I can't help but think about all the seemingly insignificant events that lead up to this experience...and how any one of them not happening would have caused me to miss out on this life changing event.  If the bag check hadn't been backed up and build director Peter Hering had not offered to store my race bag in his trailer...if my shoulder wasn't in a sling from the dislocation the previous Saturday...if Spiro hadn't intervened with Coach to find out when I could go out on the course...if I hadn't been my usual smart-ass self to Coach Pain (Dewayne Montgomery)...if Coach hadn't reacted in the way he did with an awe inspiring impromptu speech.  Then of course, if Nick and Dana and Dayton hadn't been the people they are.  If any one of these things hadn't happened in the order they did, I would have missed out on the greatest OCR day of my life.

The thing is though, as unlikely as it was for that race experience to happen, once I got to know Dana and Dayton better that day, as well as when we met several months ago in Miami, I realized that their story was even more remarkable.  (of course Nick and I got to talk a bit more after the race as I ummmm....re-opened the prematurely closed beer taps....and a good time was had by all!)  Well...back to Dana and Dayton.  Apparently, they had met not too long before this race, through the Facebook group - Trail and Ultra Running (TAUR), that helps people meet up with like-minded individuals who....coincidentally....like to run.  The only problem, they lived in different states!

While that did put a minor obstacle (pun very much intended) in the way, it didn't stop them.  Interestingly, their first contact was over a casual comment on a photo he posted on that site.  Something must have clicked though, as he woke her later that same day to chat online.  24 hours later he got her number and they talked again that night.  We all know though that online relationships can be a complicated thing, so caution is understandable.

However, caution to them apparently meant talking every night for hours.  Caution to Dana also meant signing him up for two local races before they even met.  So a month or so after this first photo comment, she was picking him up at the airport for their first race...and a month after that she would be doing it again.  Later that Spring she was flying into Memphis to meet his family!  And by the way, I checked, and to paraphrase one of my favorite Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy lines, "This is obviously a definition of caution that I wasn't previously aware of".

Once again, in the spirit of taking-it-slow, by mid-year they were making plans for his move to Pittsburgh.  Thoughts of marriage were already brewing in his head.  The idea of marriage grew for both of them until he formally proposed to her...of course...on the anniversary of their first race.  So when I eventually met them at the BattleFrog race in Pittsburgh that August, it's understandable why I first thought these two had been together for much longer.

Now they're out every weekend it seems, running trails and races or just enjoying the outdoors with her daughter.  On the weekends that her daughter goes to her grandparents, they tend to go on longer trips or do longer races.  In between, Dayton is continuing to train dogs in his new business, which is fast becoming a family affair.  Oh...and this past week of course, they got married!   In the end then, the truly remarkable story from that fateful day in Pittsburgh, is the fact that OCR brought two very special people together, who likely would never have met otherwise.  A year ago, OCR allowed our paths to cross as well.  It is a privilege to tell their story and to know them...and an even greater privilege to call them friends.

Related stories:

Sometimes Being a Smartass Can Lead to an Extraordinary OCR Experience - BattleFrog at Pittsburgh 2015

OCR and Fitness…Week In Review for July 4, 2015

ICYMI….A lot going on this week in OCR and Fitness.....Here are some of the best-of-the-best articles and posts from the previous week on OCR and Fitness

OCR King Compound Trials

Rockin’ Well In Jericho (disclaimer...shameless plug for my son Mike!)

Community, Fringe Sports, Acquaintanceship Density, and OCR. What the Heck?!

BattleFrog Appoints Ramiro Ortiz as Chief Executive Officer

More than 1,000 people were likely sickened by norovirus after French mud run

How to Train for an Obstacle Course Race

Avoid dangerous over-hydration this summer

The Death Race is Dead. Long Live the Death Race

BattleFrog: Traveling the Rocky Road

What would you like to hear about each week?  Pass me the word and I’ll do my best to bring you exactly what you want to see for OCR and Fitness!!

The One Constant....Training At The Gym

Life is a straight line for many people.  Whether it's their career, their personal life and relationships or their place in the world.  Mine has been anything but a line...straight or otherwise!  I don't hold that against them.  Life is different for each of us.  Not just our paths but our desires.  I've had many passions and interests in my life and I have chosen to pursue a number of these.  Sometimes in my career choices and other times as a personal interest.

The one constant over the last few years though has been my fitness training.  When I was younger....much younger....I 'dabbled' at the gym.  And I think dabbled is probably being very generous.  A few months here...a few months there...and never really any long range focus or even a sincere purpose in the workouts.  But then....a few years back, I got the obstacle course racing (OCR) bug.  And the rest, as they say, is history!

Since then, I've been focused on my training goals.  Soon afterwards, I started to realize, I really enjoyed the gym...enjoyed the training for itself.  Ok, not every minute of it...I mean, how many times do you drag yourself there because you know you should.  But once you start, all your focus is on the workout.  You're thinking about what you need to do...why your doing this particular workout...and the rest of the world just sort of...goes away for a while.  

Not to say though, that the training has always been precisely consistent.  Some periods I was at the gym six, even seven days a week.  Other times I was only there once a week...doing other training outside the gym for different reasons.  But I never gave it up!!  Through all these years.  And with all I've been through...professionally and personally...during this time, I'm actually amazed at that.  And thrilled about it at the same time.

The training, and the thoughts of the OCR races, has become a light in the darkness for me.  Not that I've developed those relationships and camaraderie that I read so much about...at least not yet anyway.  And that's for a number of reasons I'm well aware of.  But the training has become part of me.  Something I choose to do, and want to do, as long as I'm able.  Even when the prospect of racing is months away.  Even if I'm only doing one or two races a year.


So now, the gym has become many things for me.  Peace of mind...Being in shape (the shape I always thought I was in!)...Most importantly, a feeling of being at home, when that feeling had all but disappeared.  

You know...it's good to be home!

How  do feel about your training...your gym?  I'd love the hear how being at the gym has become a place that people want to be now.

Training for Spartan Races and the 2103 Spartan Events

There are levels to everything.  You can do just enough to get by.  You can even just look like you're doing enough while putting no effort at all.  Many people kick it up a notch and really make an effort to be ready for these races.  Inevitable you have those few...those rare individuals that are so driven that they take this training to the extreme.  Then of course you have me.  When I first signed up for the 2011 Spartan Sprint in Tuxedo, NY, I did set up a workout routine.  I mean, I had every intention of being as competitive as possible that race.  Looking back on it now, I would have been better off doing "wax on....wax off" every day considering how much those workouts helped.  After that race though, things got serious!  I wasn't expecting anything spectacular...never considered being truly competitive...but I just wanted to put on a better show than last time.  I realize that's not exactly setting the bar very high, but you have to start somewhere.

In the months prior to the 2012 Spartan Sprint in Tuxedo, most of my training was done at Eisenhower Park.  A local park with one of those fitness trails and exercise stations every so often.  Turns out, that those layouts area a pretty decent facsimile for a Spartan race.  A lot of running with some obstacles (stations) mixed in.  Of course these stations were about as close to the Spartan obstacles as juggling tennis balls is to juggling chainsaws....but let's not quibble.  Even though the race was brutal...and well documented in a previous post...I did manage to improve my splits by around 5 minutes a mile.  Ok, so I had massive room for improvement from 2011 but still...better is not worse!

However, eventually Fall comes, and for me it just got tougher and tougher to get some training in before dark...when the park closes.  Eventually the training would have stopped altogether.  Since I had to move soon after the 2012 race, I also ended up exactly no where near another decent park!  As fate would have it, a friend mentioned a nearby Planet Fitness.  Now, joining a gym wasn't quite in my budget, so I thought.  But I figured, at least go take a look...so I did a drive by.  Well...not immediately...first I went to the wrong place and ended up at some late night health clinic.  In the end though, I did manage to find it.  Actually, it amazed me that I hadn't seen it before...I mean I drive around the area all the time.  This place must have been 15,000 square feet...of windows! Ok...so you get to train with a few thousand friends.  But it turns out they had exactly what I needed.  Needless to say, I didn't actually have the best training plan in mind...but we'll talk about that next time.

Meanwhile, I've declared 2013 the year of the Spartan Beast.  Yes...you heard it here first!  This year I plan to run several Spartan races eventually culminating in the Vermont Beast next September.  Assuming of course that I'm not impaled, drowned, shredded by barbed wire or otherwise incapacitated along the way.  February will start the madness with a Super Spartan race in Miami.  I mean, I've done so well so far, why not try a race that's over twice as long and in the brutal heat (compared to New York in February).  Surviving this race, I'll be giving a shot at the April Citifield run here in NY, another stab at Tuxedo in June, then a sprint in Pennsylvania...maybe a couple more...spirit and budget willing!  Aroooo!!

The Summer of 2013...and why I haven't been blogging...or training...

Since my last blog on the Spartan Sprint at Tuxedo, the summer took a turn for the incredibly busy.  Between then and now: I've run two Spartan races; helped build the course at another; driven my daughter and my grandkids back and forth from Florida; been sick twice; and went on some great outings with my kids and grandkids...including an epic trip into Manhattan.  Oh...and in between I did just a bit of real estate work and prepared to move again.  Unfortunately, this left very little training time in there!  Other than that, it was just a typical summer.  Ironically, my first trip to a NY beach will probably be this Wednesday (although I will admit to a trip to South Beach...the price of the Florida drive...as always!)

Since there's been so much going on, I won't try to detail the entire race this time around.  The first race I ran after Tuxedo was the Spartan Sprint in Palmerton, PA.  Although this would be my 6th race, it would be my first non-stadium race other than Tuxedo.  Well, not counting Miami...although that was the longer Spartan Super and the temperature was a factor there, the lack of any serious elevation change made it a much easier race for me overall.  Anyway, the PA course was everything I had expected...and a bit more.  The initial hill climb was typical of all Spartan races...brutal.  Add to that the sandbag carry over the last part of the climb and you are bordering on genius...in terms of pure torture anyway. 

Unfortunately for me, about 20 yards into that sandbag carry, I got a back spasm.  Yes....the word "sucks" comes quickly to mind...along with several others.  I knew immediately that this was a result of my modified (read: ignored) training schedule all summer.  So there I was.  Moving about ten baby steps at a time up this slope, and all the time thinking that I've still got 90% of the course to go still...assuming of course that I can even make it up this hill.  All I could think of was what would Tom Hanks do?  NO....not in Forrest Gump, the one where's there's no crying..."There's no crying in OCR!"  So, the short of it is, I didn't drive two hours plus to crawl off that damn mountain and limp home.  Although I had a few spots where it was still difficult, I did manage to finish.  Even though I think the first climb was tougher at PA, overall I still feel that Tuxedo was more challenging over the entire course.  I admit, I'm biased about that...Tuxedo was my first OCR race and will forever be that which all else is measured.  And no, the word "easier" does NOT even enter the conversation! 

Although I did manage to get some formal training sessions in during the early summer, there were some informal ones.  Like the trip into Manhattan.  During that marathon day I would take every opportunity to run up any stairs...usually at the subway stops.  And of course always carrying the pack and stroller.  One particular climb comes to mind, when I challenged my 4 year old grandson to a race...me up the stairs and him up the escalator with my daughter.  It was only after throwing down the gauntlet that I looked up to see five...very...long...flights of stairs.  Again, words like "oh, shit" came to mind very quickly.  Yes, I did it...and yes, I needed oxygen at the top...but at least I made it a race.

We also had another chance for some sprint training that evening.  After taking the train back to Long Island, we were down at street level and heading toward the van.  I issued another challenge (yeah...I know, but learning lessons is often lost on me).  I shouted, for my grand daughters, that "first one to the car gets to drive home!".  Obviously I was watching them like a hawk...this was NOT a race I would let them win...they'd have me in court on breach of a verbal contract or something!  Well, they never made a move.  The words hadn't finished coming off my lips though, when junior (aka my grandson) took off like a cruise missile toward the car...running back and forth off the curb towards his first chance to drive!!  And here we go again...trying to beat a four year old, still carrying the pack and stroller and at the same time, trying not to run him over in his unintentional serpentining.  Now THAT was fun!


So, as of this writing I've already run the Spartan Super in NJ.  That story will have to wait until my next time.  Meanwhile, nursing the continuing ailments, I'm readying myself for the final goal of this year...the Spartan Championship Beast in VT on Sept 21st.  While I still have a healthy respect for it, I no longer fear it.  After the NJ race I'm confident that I can finish!  Exactly how or in what shape?...who knows.  In preparation for this, I have adopted the following as my official song for the Beast.

With it or on it...those are the only choices for this race!

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Miami Super Spartan - 2013

Until the Miami Super Spartan, the only Spartan races I had ever run, in fact the only obstacle races I had ever run, were the Spartan Sprints at Tuxedo NY.  I had read from one of the top Spartan racers that the Tuxedo course (3.5-4 miles) was just as hard as a Tough Mudder (appx 10 miles) and harder than the Miami Super (appx 8 miles).  Nevertheless, I had never run that kind of distance and I found the thought of doing it very intimidating.  But if you're going to avoid challenges because you might fail, you can never expect to experience the thrill of achieving something you thought was impossible!  My first time was Tuxedo and I just want to keep finding ways to have that feeling again.

 

So, once more, I prepared to face down the doubts and fears you have when going up against an unknown challenge.  In general I knew the biggest hurdle (no pun intended) was going to be the distance and heat.  I'd lived in Miami for 14 years so I knew very well that the heat, even in February, would be grueling for us northeners.  Even on the shorter Tuxedo course, muscle cramps were a factor.  So I took some steps to try to limit the damage.  Besides a training program that included a lot more running, I also took along a Camelbak and some "packs of GU"...(which I'll leave as a homework assignment for you to find out what that is).  I also knew that I needed to work on my upper body strength.  The rope climb, the Hercules lift and a few other dainties are unforgiving if you don't have the strength.

 

Of course the one consistent factor about the Spartan races is that you never really know what to expect.  The spear throw was AWOL...and I think I had that one down!  The rope climb was off dry land for once...I liked that!  Someone somewhere decided that lifting and carrying a concrete cylinder the size of a 5 gallon bucket 20 feet, then doing some burpees was fun...oh, and bring it back over here when you're done...please.  And how many walls were there on that course??!!  I can remember 12 but I'd swear there were more than that.  Who knows...maybe I climbed a few twice...it was a long, hot day out there.  Maybe the biggest surprise...hills!  Well, they wouldn't be called hills in most parts of the country.  But knowing that the highest point in the everglades is 3 feet above sea level, I was absolutely shocked to find climbs throughout the course of 15-20 feet.

 

Another experiment no doubt, was the placement of 4 of the obstacles in a row at the end of the run.  I'm sure this was to give the spectators a chance to see more of the actual race.  Not a bad intention, but for the racers, having to do the rope climb, wall traverse, mud crawl and "slippery incline" one after another was a bit much.

 

The funny thing is though, when I finished, I wasn't dead!  I had fully expected to be.  Before I left NY, I had carefully bequeathed all my office paraphernalia to my teammates...knowing full well what awaited in Miami (and I think they were surprised and disappointed too, when I returned to reclaim my stuff!).  I told my daughter, who lives in Miami, that whatever we were going to do, needed to be done before the race, because I planned to be horizontal from the finish until my plane trip back.  I honestly don't know how much to credit my training (and GU...thanks Janice!) or the fact that the elevation changes were minimal compared to NY, but I actually felt a bit disappointed.  I know, it sounds strange...but somehow, not being brutalized and beaten to a pulp by the course left me feeling like I missed out on something!  So I guess maybe I reached another level.  I've got Citifield coming up in around 2 weeks, so we'll see how that goes.  Overall though, I have to say I'm still enjoying this sport and feel like there's greater potential yet untapped.  Time will tell.  One last thing...I finished Tuxedo in around 2:39.  I finished Miami in around 2:52.  That means I finished the extra four miles at an average pace of 3 minutes, 15 seconds!  Hey, do the math!!...I'm just saying....

 

I would be remiss if I didn't thank my daughter Dawn and her husband Brian for the airport rides, the rides to the race and for putting me up (or is it putting up with me...maybe both) for the days I was there...and to the grandkids for...well...just for being themselves.  Until next time....

Spartan Race WOD's aka "Workout Of the Day"...what they don't tell you

One of the basic assumptions that these WOD's seem to make is that you have, at hand, a fully equipped gym alongside a running track with a hill just outside the door.  I guess it's also assumed that you have a field where you can do all sorts of imaginative exercises which may include old tires, large rocks and tree parts.  I haven't seen any yet that involved wrestling wild animals or carrying domestic ones...but I'm sure that's just an oversight and will be addressed at some point soon.

Well....I belong to a gym...just an ordinary, regular gym.  So that pretty much puts most of the WOD's out of any practical reach.  I do however, read them on a daily basis.  And much to my surprise, along came a WOD that I could not only do at my gym, but was only 5 lines long!!  What was even more surprising was the fact that it looked pretty easy.  Now, anyone familiar with Spartan Race knows, if it looks too easy...watch out!  Since I've written about these guys before (see 2012 Spartan Race at Tuxedo NY ) I really should have known better.  I suppose we all know where this one's going!

So...WOD in hand...I trotted off to the gym one day, intent on doing my first WOD.  This was an exciting day!  Knowing how difficult most of these are, and knowing that there were people out there doing them regularly, I felt like I was on the threshold of some exclusive and elusive society.

Now, it took a bit of innovating but I worked out a way to do this oh-so-simple WOD.  Of course it wouldn't be perfect.  There would be an unavoidable, relatively small time lag between exercises.  Overall though, it would be close enough to get the feel of really doing one.  They also have a rating system for these.  Each one is rated up to 5 in the areas of strength, endurance and speed.  So I did one rotation through the WOD exercises!  And the first thing that hit me was, "how the hell could something this short be so freaking hard??!!"  For Spartan athletes these ratings were fine I guess.  For me, they better put them in dog years!  20 minutes later, it was done...and I was done!  It was my first one...but hopefully not my last.  Unfortunately, a gym is just not the ideal place for these...which is probably a big reason I'm still alive!!

Just a final note about one of the people that creates these "things", Dr Jeff [aka Dr. Jeff Godin].  For those who like the science of exercise, he writes some of the most technically interesting articles.  I credit him with my breakthrough performance in longer distance running endurance....all due to one of his posts on the "long slow run".  Aroo Doc...keep 'em coming...even if I can only manage a few.

Spartan Race Times Square Demonstration Event - 2013

Some opportunities in life come along once...and you have a choice to either make the sacrifice to do it, or know that you missed out on something that will never happen again.  That's the way I felt about the Spartan Race demonstration event in Times Square NY last month.  Originally it was to be held last November 1st...but Hurricane Sandy hit just days before that and Spartan Race wisely postponed the event.  When it was first announced I offered immediately to volunteer...having absolutely no idea what was involved.  Just being a part of this event sounded exciting...so I was in!  The sacrifice??!...besides taking off from work, it meant being in Times Square by 3:00am for the setup....which also meant being up at 12:30am to do that.  Yikes!!  Then staying until after 3pm for the dis-assembly...and for anyone keeping score, that's a long day on what amounted to a nap the night before.  Add to that, freezing temperatures, no "facilities" on site and no where to change out of wet clothes...well, it was typically Spartan.  

So spending the wee hours in Times square, helping put together this mini-Spartan course was a blast.  I even got the plum assignment of stenciling on the Spartan logo for the vertical wall!  The most exciting part though was the event itself.  Between the Spartan racers that showed up...including Hobie Call and Team Braveheart, celebrities and broadcasters, it was pretty much a non-stop day of competition and fun.  We also had the privilege of watching Team X-T.R.E.M.E run the course twice...the first time I think I just stared, simply in awe of these individuals.  And the best part...besides meeting a new friend...is that we watched the entire event inside the course at the finish line...even handing out the medals when no one else was doing it.  In fact...the funny thing is, watching all the videos, seeing all the pictures, I realized that we were standing right there with the photographers the whole time.  Like I said...some opportunities come along once...and this was one I'll never forget.  If there was any regret that day, it was that I never got to run the course.  My "plan" had been to wait until around midday so I could run it once then change...somehow/somewhere...and finish the day in dry clothes.  But after 7 hours or so, standing out in the cold, my legs were stiff and my hands wouldn't grip, so I had to fore-go that chance.  It was a bit of a disappointment but in the big picture, I don't even think about it now.

So for now, it's back to training and the next stop is the Super Spartan in Miami.  That is the major test of where I am physically after all the work in the gym.  Very excited...and very anxious too!

Assessing the progress...and finding out you're not where you think you are!

When you're training to lift weights or for track and field, you can get a pretty good idea where your performance is at all times.  Of course, "game day" performance is a whole other animal, but that's true in whatever sport you do.  Most sports though, you can only judge how well you're doing by getting out and competing.  For me, in obstacle racing, my biggest weakness had been running.  I'd been working on that for about 2 months at the gym...doing an exercise regimen that I could tell was really improving my stamina.  Naturally I was excited because I knew if I improved on the running, my race performance would be significantly better.  But like I said, you can't really judge how you're doing unless you get out on the course.  So I decided to do a "test run".  Get out to one of the parks I would run at on days off, Muttontown Preserve.  I knew those woods well, and I knew what I had done in previous runs there so it would be a great progress test.

The day I originally planned on didn't work out, so I ended up running on Christmas Eve day...just a couple of days before leaving to visit my daughter and her family in Florida.  I was working that morning and figured on heading to the Preserve right afterwards.  I was actually pretty excited...a lot more excited about the run than about Christmas...lol.  After working so hard, day after day at the gym, I just couldn't wait to see how much I had improved!  Everything was going perfectly...good cool day, finished up on time.  I was on the trail and ready to run like the wind!  Yeah...well...the one thing I hadn't prepared for was reality. I got about twice as far as I had in the past and that was it.  Done...gasping for air!  Disappointment doesn't even begin to tell the story.  If I'd had a sword I would have fallen on it!  I think I was actually in shock...the only question in my mind had been how much better I'd gotten.  Now I was facing disaster! 

How we deal with adversity is the only true measure of character. On the positive side I regrouped and managed to have a decent enough run.  But needless to say, changes were needed...and fast.  In two months I would be running in the heat of Miami...and running a distance twice as far as I'd attempted to date...and I was NOT comfortable at all that I could do that in the first place.  So in true Spartan fashion...I think...I headed straight from this catastrophe to the gym.  Obviously my training plan had some gaps...at the moment feeling something like the Grand Canyon unfortunately.  For now though, I had to get ready for my trip to visit my daughter and her family in Florida.  Next up will be the new training program and the Spartan Race demonstration event in Times Square.  Until then....

Spartan Race Times Square Demonstration Event

Review of the Miami Super Spartan

When You Discover You Love Obstacle Course Racing....

The problem with discovering that you love obstacle course racing (OCR) in your fifties are numerous.  Everyone you know either thinks that you've lost your mind or that you're going thru a midlife crisis AND lost your mind (or is that redundant!).  You can read about how this happened to me in my post from last June about the 2012 Spartan Sprint in Tuxedo NY.  The greatest thing about running my first race in 2011 at Tuxedo was that I found out I could do this!  If I had known how hard it really was, I would never have even tried.  It opened up a whole new world of challenge and that door never closed.  Hence the fact that, just like in The Matrix, The Truth Is...There Is No Box!  Our limitations are almost always self inflicted.  We are all capable of having life changing events.  This race was mine.

Of course, despite this new found dimension of reality, there are some actual restrictions that I have to accept.  First of all, I will never be a competitive racer outside of my age group...possibly not even there (although that is not likely to be an acceptable outcome in the long run...one of the things I learned about myself in real estate is how competitive I really am).  I'm 55 and more importantly, I don't have the interest or drive to put in the hours of work these racers do in order to be the best.  Another potential tripping point is that I can't run.  I mean I can run, just not for very long!  Part of it is childhood asthma, part from smoking for a while years ago and part of it because it just absolutely bores me to death to train for running!  And I do not mean to offend any runners...really!!  I read about how cool they think it is and how they get into these zones...but I have yet to find those.  All I can think about is that I can't fucking breathe!  They talk about a "conversational pace".  To me, a conversational pace is when you still have enough air left to call for help as you lay gasping on the ground.  However, running...and particularly running up hills...is crucial to any sort of decent performance on most of the courses, so I knew I had to do some serious work here.

What I want to do in all of this, and I guess in every aspect of my life, is get better.  I'm sure it's the engineer in me, but I can never just leave something be.  Eventually...and more likely sooner than later...I have to improve it.  Improve it in my eyes anyway.  So the next post will be about training, my 2013 racing goals and hopefully about the Spartan Race demonstration in Times Square this week.  (I tell people I was invited to it...but really it's more like they lifted the restraining order so I can be there and maybe help out...they really are nice people when you agree to stop stalking them!)  Until next time...