Bandwagon Jumpers

Bandwagon jumpers are pathetic. Never trust, do business with or befriend a brown nosing ass kissing bandwagon jumper. They are the lowest form of life; they produce nothing of value and attach themselves like blood sucking leeches to whatever can keep them looking good at that moment in time. Should you ever find one of these parasites parading around dressed in your team's colors, shun them immediately and berate them publicly.

Demonstrating loyalty to your team win or lose, rain or shine, year in and year out is about more than sports, it's an essential piece of manhood. This true demonstration of loyalty is a moral, a value and a life lesson. This is a life skill that every good father has proudly taught their sons generation after generation. And if you've ever seen it, standing in line or sitting a few rows back watching a father take his son to that first ballgame and buy him his first ballcap and teach him about the team, the sport and the game he loves so dearly. In that very moment you'll witness one of those deep rooted reasons that you're God Damn proud to be an American.

The Sound of Running

I recently read the article Pace Setter in Outside Magazine's January edition. Written by Nick Heil for the Lab Rat section of the magazine, it concerned the influence of music over the act of running. The article got me thinking about how I have used music as a catalyst for pushing myself further and farther in running, as well as in cycling.

First off, I have always been one to get bored easily and with running it was no different. As I got more involved with running I found that music allowed for some sort of entertainment while I ran. It was not until I started to run competitively though that I found that music was a great way to motivate myself into a faster cadence.

When I trained for the Winter Waddle 2005 I relied on Rammstein's album Sehnsucht as musical motivation. I also used the first 3rd of the album as a time reference, since I did not yet carry a watch on my runs. The track which would get me through the long and often cold and windy back stretches of Lake Calhoun was Du Hast. Whenever that song would come on my ipod I would up my pace and get lost in the song's methodical back beats.

As I trained for the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon I used a wide array of music to get me through the long rides. Several of the staples of my play list were Sabotage, Sugar We're Goin' Down, Get Free, Keep Hope Alive, Iron Lion Zion, and my personal favorite Battle Without Honor or Humanity. Though I was not able to use an ipod during the actual triathlon, for various reasons, each of these songs kept me sane and entertained as I feverishly peddled through the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

With other races on my docket I used mixed playlists to get my through the training and the actual events. Whether it was 100 degrees outside with 80 % humidity or it was 10 degrees with a 20 below windchill, music allowed me to escape from the elements. With the Winter Waddle 2006 I tried something different.

Prior to the race, since I still refused to purchase a watch, I selected my six favorite songs to run to and set them on my ipod for the race. Each of these six songs would amount to about 22 minutes of music. I would use the songs as a way to gauge my speed and time. Keep Hope Alive, I'm Shipping up to Boston, Ready Steady Go, Sabotage, Battle without Honor or Humanity, and Du Hast. The songs were great and came in handy on several of the long accents, but I found myself worrying about the pace I was keep, which altered my focus. I finished faster than had hoped but it was the last time I would create a race specific play list. My goal was to get lost in the music, not worry about times.

I have found music to be a great motivator in running and would be bored without it. Here is a list of other songs I use when training.

Cochise - Audioslave
Mr. Brightside - The Killers
Here I come - The Roots
Voodoo Chile - Jimi Hendrix
Trying to Find a Balance - Atmosphere.

Lifetime Fitness Triathlon 2006: Part I

I woke up at 5:45 a.m. nervous. I had not slept well; only getting about 5 hours of actual rest. Within the first few moments of consciousness my mind was already racing with anxiety. I rolled out of bed, turned off the blaring alarm and headed to the shower. Standing there, as the water streamed off my scalp, I began to go through the various stages of the event. I eventually got to task; washing my hair, shaving my chest, and scrubbing my face. Once clean I rinsed and got out. As I stood there soaking wet and starring into the mirror as I brushed my teeth I noticed my left eye twitching in response to my lack of sleep. Before I left the bathroom I bit a piece of plastic off a dental floss cartridge and began to chew on it.

Meanwhile my girlfriend had also woken up and started to prepare breakfast for me while I got dress. The night before I made my request; two eggs sunny side up, a piece of crispy toast with butter, a banana, topped off with a large glass of orange juice. I could smell the eggs sizzling on the frying pan as I slipped into spandex shorts and top; not the most fashionable of outfits. Once dressed, I brought my bike, bag, and other equipment out into the living room to check one last time. I had packed almost two of everything; goggles, running shoes, sets of socks, shammies, power bar, water bottles, cliff bars. As I inspected my equipment and ate my breakfast my girlfriend turned on the morning news. The high for the day was to top out at one-hundred and five degrees with eighty percent humidity, there were to be no clouds in sight.

It was now 6:15 a.m. and Darian and just called to inform me he was waiting downstairs. He had ridden over from his girlfriend’s apartment, a mile away from mine. Our plan was to be ready to ride over to the staging area at Lake Nokomis by 6:30 a.m. By the time I finished eating and inspecting my bike and gear it was 6:30 a.m.; I was holding us up. Darian sat there as patiently as he could knowing that in two and a half hours it was go time. It was 6:40 a.m. before we were on the road cycling over to Lake Nokomis. We thought it would be a good idea to ride over to the site, which was about 4 miles from my apartment, as a way to loosen up. We carried our duffle bags on our shoulders, which slowed us down, and did not arrive at the staging area until 7:05 a.m. We only had twenty-five minutes to register, get our markings, rack our bikes, and lay out our equipment.

The lines were horrendously long in every direction. There were people, bikes, vendors, and security officers everywhere. The registration line was the shortest so we maneuvered ourselves into position and waited. After ten minutes we received our packets, number, and ankle chip. With only fifteen minutes left before the staging area was closed we found row and racked our bikes. Each participate was given a number, a corresponding row, and balloon to follow; ours was Nemo. I laid out my shoes and socks, attached my race number to my race belt, grabbed a cliff bar, and made sure each of my five water bottles were still full. I was wearing glasses but had to leave them in the staging area and rely on my prescription goggles from there on out.

After wrestling my way through hordes of people and bikes I made my way over to the marking area. The lines were still long so again we waited. All the while, there were announcements and sponsorship events going on. The sound of helicopters filled the air as the time passed by. It was now 7:45 a.m. and the professional athletes were to start in fifteen minutes. Over the loud speaker the event MC came on to inform us that due to the weather and expected heat levels the Olympic Course would be shortened. The swim would still be one mile, the bike would move down to twenty-two miles, and the run would by cut in half to a 5k. The adjustment was only made to amateur racers; the professionals and elite-amateurs would solider on. I had been training for six months for an Olympic Course Triathlon; the change did not make me happy.

Following the announcement and our branding of the numbers on our shoulders and calves Darian and I tried to find water and some empty porta-potties. I had to take a shit. I did not think it such a good idea to go through the entire race having not pitched a loaf. So once a porta-potty opened I did what I needed to do and got out of that foul confinement. It was nearly 8:00 a.m. and the professional women were to take off soon. Darian and I headed over to the beach to watch them start. A few minutes later the professional men took off. All in all there were forty-four professionals and nearly all of the top ten world ranking triathletes.

It would not be for another forty-five minutes before Darian and I had to start our race, so we found a patch of sand and began to stretch. Every five minutes or so, a new wave of triathletes would be released into the water to commence their race. The race start times were staggered so as to allow for the race path not to be over crowded. As I stretched I again went through the steps I would soon take. All the while I was still chewing on the piece of plastic. With fifteen minutes left before we were to hit the water Darian and I began to do laps with the other racers in a bay off to the side of the race start. I would swim out into the murky water with my head down trying to get a feel for swimming with a wet spandex jersey on. The water was not terribly cold; it had been in the high nineties and low one-hundreds for the past two weeks. With five minutes left Darian and I got in our respective lines and waited.

As I stood in line my stomach was turning knots. Not only was my stomach in knots my thumb on my right hand started to tingle. I started to chew the piece of plastic faster, as well as tap my hands against my leg. It had been six months of hard training and the day was not only here, but I was standing mere feet from the starting point. My start time was 9:03. At 9:00 I was still chewing the piece of plastic. At 9:01 I had spit out the piece of plastic and was snapping my fingers. At 9:02 I was starring at the arms coming up and out of the lake ahead of me. At 9:03 I was off…

Winter Waddle 5K 2006

With the Winter Waddle 5k 2006 complete I have now spent an entire year training and running in various 5k's, duathlons, and triathlons…

Last year, having recently left college and entering the corporate world, I found myself overwhelmed by my new surroundings and lacking a pastime. I would go to the gym and workout to relieve stress, but I never had a goal I was striving to achieve. It was not until Darian convinced me in late December 2005 to work towards competing in a triathlon come the summer months that I actually started to run.

Up until that point I hated running. It bored me, my knees would hurt, and I never found the motivation to go out and run for the sake of running. In high school and college I played football, soccer, and lacrosse, but running was never something I found interesting. Generally I tended to stay away from the activity.

As Darian and I started to plan out how we would train for a triathlon, we thought it would be beneficial to enter ourselves in local 5k races as a way to train for the impending event. Being that it was the middle of December we started to run and train in freezing cold weather. For two weeks we ran in the dead of winter. It was around this time that we found http://www.raceberryjam.com/ and the Winter Waddle 5k. This would be the first race we would enter.

Now, most of the time as we ran around the lake Darian would end up beating me by several minutes. I used this as motivation. There was no better way I found to motivate myself than the desire to beat Darian, who was far more experienced in running than I. A fortnight prior to the Winter Waddle I decided that despite my knees hurting and the boredom I felt while running I would go out every night and run 5k. I thought that by doing this I would build up my endurance and increase my chance of beating Darian, who was stuck inside a cubicle due to an increase in workload. So I went out each night, sometimes in 10 degree weather, and ran around the lake.

As the Winter Waddle 5k got closer I would taunt Darian about his work ethic and lack of training. Finally the day came, December 30th 2005. My training would pay off as I beat Darian by 8 seconds. I ran the race in 23 minutes and 7 seconds. I finished in 81st place out of 319 people. Not bad for hating running and never having been in a legitimate footrace. Plus my girlfriend told me I would get a nice “fuck” if I beat Darian…added motivation I guess.

Following the Winter Waddle I would go on to compete in the Apple Duathlon, Lifetime Fitness Triathlon, Manitou Days 5k, Taste of Greece 5k, Lifetime Fitness Turkey Day Race 5k, Lifetime Fitness Reindeer Run 5k, and finally the 2006 version of the Winter Waddle.

This race was significantly different than the first time I had run it. For one, the weather was a lot warmer; in fact it was raining the entire race. The race course was different; a new path meant increased hills. And I had the added bonus of a years worth of training.

I finished the race in 20 minutes and 25 seconds and took 40th place out of 521 participants. Though it was not my fastest (Taste of Greece I ran in 20:03 and garnered 3rd place) I was happy with the results. Prior to the race I had been running to prepare and found that my knees were killing me, so I switched to the elliptical machine which I thought would actually hurt my times, but I was wrong. Though I was beat from the hills I finished stronger than I had anticipated.

This race also marks the 7th time in which I have finished better than Darian. I look to competing in further races and most likely will try and vastly improve my time in the Apple Duathlon.

***A further post will cover my experience with the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon.