2:06!? What was I thinking!?

When I registered for RNRSA back in June, the website asked me to enter my estimated finishing time. Well, today my confirmation card arrived in the mail and my answer of 2:06 is on there, staring me in the face.

That time -- two minutes off my PR from the Flying Pig -- is looking to be on the optimistic side today.

In any case, I'm looking forward to my first RNR event, as they seem to have a reputation of providing a great time. Earlier in the week I read that the registration cap of 30,000 has been reached. Wow. That's going to be a lot of runners winding their way through the Alamo City!

Seasons, They Are a Changing

Ooof! My legs haven't felt this beat up since the Flying Pig back in May. With a mere three weeks to go until Rock 'N' Roll San Antonio, I was very worried about what it might mean if I couldn't put together a respectable long run at this stage.

It took two hours and fourteen minutes, but I managed to roll up twelve miles in the Brooks Adrenalines. I'm pretty sure the soreness I'm feeling now isn't the fault of the shoes. I've really just been a bad slacker over the summer. Last night's low temperature bottomed out at 50F, so at least the first hour of the run was basically sweat-free. Hail fall! I finished up with a SuperSonic burrito and caramel hot latte at Sonic Jog-In, feeling better about my prospects of at least crossing the RNRSA finish line unassisted.

On Thursday I dropped in on the Houston Marathon "Run for a Reason" party in Memorial Park. I'm not really inclined to combine my event running with fundraising, but I did contribute some money and left with a nice "Run for a Reason" Under Armor tech shirt and a nice cotton "In Training" T-shirt.

Now the rest of my day will be focused on the wonderful cross-training activities of cleaning and packing. When the calendar page flips to November, CurrentlyVince will be blogging from a new address in the Houston area. Don't panic, I promise to continue the wry blather you've come to expect from these quarters.

Here comes the punchline

Last night I got to see Jeff Dunham perform at the AstroArena. (I don't feel like calling that old place by it's current corporate-sponsored moniker.) He's been doing the ventriloquism comedy for a long time, but he's got heightened recognition now thanks to the Achmed the Dead Terrorist routine that has become a popular view on YouTube.

The routines were a little rough, but that's not surprising since he's working over material that will eventually be part of an upcoming holiday special on Comedy Central. I guess it didn't help that I didn't feel really receptive to holiday-season bits on a warm Saturday night either. But the funniest part of the evening came at the end when Dunham brought out the Bubba J character. The routine was so well-worn and familiar that the audience was delivering the lines right along with the puppet. I've seen concert audiences belt out familiar hits with rock bands, but I had never seen a crowd of thousands do it with a comedian. It was weird and awesome at the same time.

Special kudos go to Dunham's charitable foundation for presenting donations to the Ronald McDonald House Houston and to the American Red Cross, as well as donating tickets to volunteer groups. The House had sustained damage from Hurricane Ike, and families are unable to occupy it until repairs are complete. I paid a visit there this past Thursday and it was odd to see absolutely no family activity going on.

Turning the subject to running: This morning's running endeavor was a joke. With yesterday's six miles, including the 5K race as a setup, this morning's punchline came in the form of "dead legs," which was not good considering that my original intention (laughable in hindsight) was to push the mileage into double-digits again. My legs felt whipped to the point where making it three miles was a struggle, so that's where I quit.

Executive decision: Tomorrow will be a rest day. Let's hope that helps.

Run to Cure HD

This morning I was part of a running event that raised forty-six thousand dollars for the Huntington's Disease Society of America.

Mile 1: 8:31
Mile 2: 9:14
Mile 3: 9:23
5K elapsed time: 28:12

I crossed the chip mat more than two minutes behind my 5K personal best time from this spring, but that didn't bother me much. I've struggled with re-establishing my running routine in the weeks after Hurricane Ike came ashore. So having this race -- my first since Labor Day -- was a welcome "icebreaker" on the comeback trail. We've got refreshingly cool morning temps now in Fort Bend County and it felt wonderful to just pin on a number and run hard again.

What did bother me was losing in the silent auction that followed the race. I was engaged in a fierce four-way battle for a gift certificate from Maggie Moo's. I scribbled in bid after bid, but at the last minute, I was topped by one dollar. One measly dollar. Failing to come through with a win when a vital commodity like ice cream was at stake was a feeling even more disheartening than looking at the 5K results and seeing my name at the very bottom of my age group.

:: Sigh ::

Beer there. Drank that. Got the T-shirt.

The first thing I suppose I should admit is that I'm not really that much of a "big beer guy." Most years I could count the number of beers I've drank on one hand, and have fingers to spare.

Despite that, I decided to start collecting punches on my Beer Hunter journey in July, Along the way I saw a a bunch of movies and managed to order every kind of draft beer listed on the menu at both Houston-area Alamo Drafthouse locations.

Three months and 28 pints later, my server Karrie awarded me an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema T-Shirt and Beer Hunter mug tonight for my "efforts."

The final pint -- of the Drafthouse's own house Amber -- was consumed during tonight's Presidential debate. Heavy rains were interfering with the satellite TV reception and the partisan reactions from the audience were priceless as they watched the projectionist fail in repeated attempts to pull in any other channel aside from Fox News.

Worth Mentioning: The cinema used this "Barack Roll" YouTube video as a pre-show trailer to help promote the debate screenings. I don't care what your political stripes are -- this is funny!



Here's the final beer-by-beer tally:

OCTOBER

• Pints of Rogue Dead Guy and Young's Double Chocolate Stout during Obama-McCain Debate Number Two. (Either I lost count somewhere, or an Alamo staffer punched my Beer Hunter card twice more than necessary. Perhaps classic Florida balloting techniques were in effect.)
  
• Pints of Firehouse #4 and Flying Dog In Heat Wheat during Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. (I took a gamble on this one and I ended up liking it. It does make being young and single in NYC look like fun.)
• Pints of Spaten Optimator and Spaten Premium during Body of Lies. (An espionage flick that struggles to make it above the "forgettable" line. )
• Pints of Dogfish 60 Minute IPA and Belhaven Scottish Ale during The Express. (See this movie. If you don't like it, your heart may be three sizes too small.)
• Pint of Drafthouse Amber during Obama-McCain Debate Number Three. (This will likely be remembered as "Joe the Plumber's debate.")
  

SEPTEMBER

• pints of Stone IPA and Newcastle Ale during the season premiere of NBC's Heroes.
  
• pints of Boddingtons and Bass during Burn After Reading (You'll hate practically every character in this movie, but you'll love what happens when they pursue only their own vain wants!)
• pint of Blanche de Bruxelles during Eagle Eye (Ever wonder what would happen if we recruited HAL 9000 to join the War on Terror?)
  

AUGUST

• pints of Dos XX and Ziegenbock during Pineapple Express (Is there humor to be mined from violent drug culture? The answer is a resounding yes, in a "better them than me" sort of way.)
• pints of Paulaner Hefeweizen and Bud Light during Tropic Thunder (Downright hilarious -- just remember to check your Political Correctness at the door.)
• pints of Stone Arrogant Bastard and Fat Tire during Death Race (Bad people. Cars. Boom. The End.)
• pints of North Coast Scrimshaw Pils and Full Sail Pale Ale during Hamlet 2. (Something's being satirized here, but I'm not exactly sure what it was.)
• pints of Saint Arnold Amber and Woodchuck Amber Cider during The Killing (Retrospective screening of the 1956 heist movie directed by Stanley Kubrick.)
  

JULY

• a pint of Sam Adams Boston Lager during Hancock (It's better than the trailers suggest. Definitely another good look at the whole "superhero" thing)
  
• pints of Harp and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale during Step Brothers (Will Farrell's antics do get funnier after a couple of drinks, but there's certainly nothing wrong with waiting for this one as a cheap DVD rental.)
  
• bottle of Blue Moon during The Dark Knight (Excellent flick all around!)

Mission accomplished!

"Run Happy"

I've been due for a new pair of running shoes for a while, and I certainly didn't want to hit the pavement at RNRSA with my feet in the "old and busted."

So this afternoon I paid a visit to the newest running specialty store in Fort Bend County, the Texas Running Company. The doors to this place first opened back in January, and I finally got around to walking through them. It will be interesting to see if running enthusiasts in this area can support both this store and the venerable Finish Line Sports.

As I had feared, Saucony had "updated" their lineup once again, but for the first time in two years, I'm not following. The designated successor to my beloved Trigon 5 Guide did not offer the same support and room in the toebox that I had previously enjoyed. So I considered myself completely open to move on to other brands and models.

The employee that helped me gave me a handful of suggestions after watching my gait. Like others before him, he thought the Brooks Beast would be a good fit. I happily told him that I had previously tried those shoes for a week and they may as well have been wooden planks after a couple of miles. Ouch! Yes, I pronate, but despite what the "conventional wisdom" says, motion-control shoes are not right for me! I ended up buying a pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8. I hope to try them out tomorrow.

I might get to use the new footwear in an event situation soon. I'm strongly considering the Run to Cure HD as my first race since the Fired Up 5K.

I logged a long run of ten miles this morning. At 2:08 elapsed it was nothing to really celebrate, but at least it's better than what I've mustered the past couple of weeks. Perhaps the Brooks shoes will live up to the company's slogan and help me "Run Happy" again.

"And the fire in your eyes . . . keeps me alive"

The Cult has been named as headliner for Rock 'N' Roll San Antonio.

There's a possibility the event will hit a cap of 30,000 registrations.

This is going to be big.

I really should figure out a way to make a decent return to training.

Beer Hunter: End-of-September Update

All the hurricane-related chaos caused a definite slowdown in my quest to take down 30 beers at Alamo Drafthouse, but I can definitely see the finish line in sight now:

SEPTEMBER

• pints of Stone IPA and Newcastle Ale during the season premiere of NBC's Heroes.
  
• pints of Boddingtons and Bass during Burn After Reading (You'll hate practically every character in this movie, but you'll love what happens when they pursue only their own vain wants!)
• pint of Blanche de Bruxelles during Eagle Eye (Ever wonder what would happen if we recruited HAL 9000 to join the War on Terror?)
  

AUGUST

• pints of Dos XX and Ziegenbock during Pineapple Express (Is there humor to be mined from violent drug culture? The answer is a resounding yes, in a "better them than me" sort of way.)
• pints of Paulaner Hefeweizen and Bud Light during Tropic Thunder (Downright hilarious -- just remember to check your Political Correctness at the door.)
• pints of Stone Arrogant Bastard and Fat Tire during Death Race (Bad people. Cars. Boom. The End.)
• pints of North Coast Scrimshaw Pils and Full Sail Pale Ale during Hamlet 2. (Something's being satirized here, but I'm not exactly sure what it was.)
• pints of Saint Arnold Amber and Woodchuck Amber Cider during The Killing (Retrospective screening of the 1956 heist movie directed by Stanley Kubrick.)
  

JULY

• a pint of Sam Adams Boston Lager during Hancock (It's better than the trailers suggest. Definitely another good look at the whole "superhero" thing)
  
• pints of Harp and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale during Step Brothers (Will Farrell's antics do get funnier after a couple of drinks, but there's certainly nothing wrong with waiting for this one as a cheap DVD rental.)
  
• bottle of Blue Moon during The Dark Knight (Excellent flick all around!)

Nineteen down . . . Eleven to go!