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By BrianFlash, on April 27th, 2009
Since the Go! St. Louis marathon <Editor’s Note - I think the exclamation point in the name of this marathon is more then a little strange. It strikes me as crazy every time I type it. The punctuation just doesn’t seem to belong.> Team Flash has taken the week off from training to participate in a non-running event. Two members of Team Flash, Jason and Rocio, took the plunge into matrimony and got married on Saturday in Rocio’s home town of Guadalajara, Mexico. The remainder of Team Flash attended the ceremony along with other family and friends.
We flew from St. Louis to Guadalajara on Wednesday, arriving in time to have a nice dinner at a recommended restaurant. The parrots and the sax player in residence kept us awake for the meal after a long day of travel and getting settled in our hotel.
On Thursday, we took a tour to the town of Tequila, known around the world for making fine silver and leather products. Not really – I’m kidding – Tequila is known for tequila. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting blue agave plants growing in the fields surrounding the town. We stopped at a small distillery, Tres Mujeres, so named for the owner’s three daughters. This distillery makes 1000 gallons of high quality tequila a week (relatively as large as a US microbrewery), and has won the best tequila competition three times with its anejo tequila. They showed us everything from harvesting the agave in the field, to roasting, crushing, fermenting, and distilling the brew. Of course, they then served it to us in all its forms - raw agave, roasted agave, fresh 180 proof directly from the still (Whoa – my ears are still burning!), blanco, reposada, and anejo. Team Flash seems to lean toward the reposado; the anejo is a bit more oaky from being aged in the barrel longer (3-7 years!).
   
On Thursday night, Rocio’s parents hosted a family gathering and dinner at their beautiful home in a Guadalajara suburb. We had a great time meeting everyone from Rocio’s family. Rocio’s aunt, Gabby, a biochemist, was formerly a triathlete and is still in great shape. When I asked her for the perfect running food (a biochemist should know right?), she suggested pasta the night before and energy bars and bananas during the race. No real surprise there. But she did say that drinking tequila was healthy and backed up her comment with a research study performed by a Japanese biochemist. Maybe that trip on Thursday did help me out a little bit…
On Friday we toured the city on a double decker bus. The commentary was pretty pedestrian and the traffic is fearsomely horrible, but it was good to get the general layout of the major landmarks. We also stopped at the suburb of Tlaquepaque for shopping and handicrafts. While none of us are really the shopping type, we did pick up a few souvenirs for the nephew and nieces, drank the juice and ate the pulp from a coconut, and had freshly cut guava and mango. Yummy! Later that day we ate at an semi open air market and the food there was also outstanding. I could get to like this diet!
 
Saturday was the wedding. It was held in a lovely 400 year old downtown church just two blocks from the hotel. Of course the wedding service was wonderful, containing all the normal happenings in a good wedding: crying ladies, a couple of mental errors by the participants (yours truly included), and a cousin slightly overcome by heat. But the happy couple was officially married and that’s really the main point of the whole event! One thing about getting married in downtown Guadalajara is that several passerbys will just wander in and attend your wedding. I think that is pretty cool.
After the wedding we went to the reception held near the American consulate. It was in the garden of a 19th century mansion. The mariachi band was fantastic. They weren’t messing around – eleven musicians properly syncronized makes for a rich sound and their music was joyful. An excellent dinner was served along with excellent spirits. I embarked on my health program a couple days earlier then scheduled by taking in a generous share of the tequila. The band gave way to a DJ who played into the night. I learned that running isn’t good training for dancing – either in technique or in stamina. Team Flash may have two of the worst dancers in the contemporary history of Mexican weddings, but we had a good time. Also, the mix of music was as varied as in a typical American wedding. We had salsa music, a Spanish language version of Achy Breaky Heart, and YMCA among the selections…
  
 
After four great days, we flew home on Sunday. Everyone made it safely and disease free – at least so far. Jason and Rocio are now heading off to their honeymoon. They’re going to a pretty exoctic local but I’m not going to give it away. That’s for Jason to blog about when they get back in a couple weeks!
Oh yeah – Monday morning starting weight – 161.5 pounds.
By JasonFlash, on April 21st, 2009
I have completed my first marathon, right here in my new hometown of St. Louis. My time was not close to what I was trying for, but I learned a lot and I am working on a plan for improving my performance.
Using the www.marathonguide.com format here is how I rate the race:
Course – 3 of 5 stars. I must admit, I am probably a bit jaded about the course because I am so familiar with it from living here. That being said I am comparing it to such things as running along the beach at the Surf City Marathon and up the strip in Las Vegas. The highlight was the trip around the Anheuser Busch brewery which has a nice smell, the Loop and Forest Park. Here are some alternatives to consider for next year: passing by the Arch, running down Euclid through the Central West End, running down Washington Ave and skipping that trip all the way to Clayton. Also, not to complain or anything, but why did my Garmin say I had run almost 27 miles when I finished? Where did that extra .8 come from?
Organization – 4 out of 5 stars. There were great volunteers, ample water stops and plenty of Vaseline at the medical tents. The finish was great and it was wonderful to have them call out my name as I crossed the line. The only area of fault is that the food at the end was not actually at the end but several hundred yards away surrounded by mud. Also at the end of Surf City they had a nice dry tent set up you could relax, eat and stretch. This would have been especially nice given the rain One other issue – no space blankets left by the time I finished – does this mean I need to run faster to get one?
Fans – 4 out of 5 stars. There actually were not many fans. This is probably due to the 50 degree weather and 5 hours of pouring rain. I salute those who came out and offered encouragement, especially the band in Forest Park and the Clydesdale horse at the brewery.
By BrianFlash, on April 20th, 2009
Friday evening, Kathy and I met Jason at the Chaifetz arena in St. Louis to attend the Race Expo. On the way into the arena, we ran into Jamie “The Dutch Bullet” Vandernoot. We made the quick introduction between Jason and Jamie and made some plans about where to meet (not enough detail – lesson learned). The race expo was fairly pedestrian – probably about average for a run of 13,000 runners. Packet pick-up was a breeze though and that’s really the most important part of the event. There were enough free samples and vendors there to satisfy my limited needs. Kathy bought a Spibelt (the little expandable pouch on a belt that will hold all your worldly possessions and support your race number).
On Saturday, I was waiting hopefully by the mailbox. Last Tuesday I had placed the order for Team Flash running shirts for my compatriats and they had not arrived yet. But Running Banana and the United States Postal Service came thru in a big way! The package in the box held three custom printed running shirts! Jason, Kathy, (and Rocio when she is ready to take a jaunt out with us) are now properly outfitted to be a racing team!
Team Flash and the trusty support staff had a pasta dinner at the Macaroni Grill and made the night an early one.
So, Sunday morning at 4:30 AM, Metro the cat began his wake up routine. How he knows to bother me 1/2 hour before my alarm goes off, regardless of the time it is set for, is a mystery to me. Officially I woke at 5:00 AM. At 5:30, Kathy and I, along with our support staff (my sister Jennifer and her boyfriend Joe) drove to meet Jason at the Metrolink station. Some confusion at the fare machines along with Jason forgetting his Forerunner 405 contributed to minor delays but we made it onto the train for the quick trip downtown.
Because of the steady rain, we waited in St. Louis’ Union Station after getting downtown. About 15 minutes to start, we walked to the general area of the 4:45 marathon pace team and I went to the intersection to look for “The Dutch Bullet.” Unfortunately, I wasn’t specific enough on our meeting location and we missed each other. Dang it! But here comes 7AM so I needed to head back to Team Flash. Already, I had let a runner down today. My dream was that I would escort Jason and Jamie to their first marathon (being the wily old veteran of one previous 26.2 miler) and we would finish as a trio with our arms held high! That image is down the toilet before the race even starts.
Well, the three of us in Team Flash proper positioned ourselves near the 4:45 marathon pace group at the start. As you might imagine, that is a little way from the actual starting line – roughly 10,000 people thought they were going to be running faster then us! Promptly at 7AM, the gun goes off and they start releasing the runners in waves. By the time we get up to the start line, the competitive runners were on the course for about 11 minutes. We cross the line, click on our 405s in unison and off we go.
Our planned 11 minute/mile pace is not taxing to me and Jason was also feeling good. So we had plenty of time to talk running. Kathy was getting in a groove even though we had to weave around quite a bit to maintain pace. It seems that 10,000 people WEREN’T going to run faster then us – they just wanted to be closer to the starting line. So we did some crowd avoidence during those first two miles. After that, we really starting ticking the miles away. The course runs south past the original Anheuser-Busch brewery so we got a healthy dose of fermenting beer and malt odors. It always smells so good down there! AB was nice enough to bring out one of their iconic advertising images, a Clydesdale, to watch the runners. Since it was raining, Kathy speculated that they would have a special tent set up for this guy. But instead they had him under a streetfront awning. He was impeccably groomed, just as they always show off their horses. And he seemed to be unperterbed by the mass of humanity running past him.
It was around this point in the race that we started marketing Team Flash. We used extremely sophisticated measures to get this site out there. Jason would asking me in a loud voice what I thought the best running blog was. And I would answer, annoyingly loud, “The Team Flash blog!” Jason then would bellow the website address. This method seemed to draw some interest from the running crowd and we were having a good time. So anyone that is visiting because of our commentary – welcome to the blog! I also handed out a few business cards, but they quickly become soaked in the rain and morphed into a wad of trash in my pocket. Kathy kept her focus and kept us on the pace and that’s how we went until the 1/2 marathon break point. We delivered Kathy thru mile 9.5 at a dead on 11 minute mile pace. I knew then that she was going to beat her pre-race goal of 2:30.
Jason and I kept trucking at 11:00/mile. The St. Louis course has quite a few up and down hills – most pretty long and gradual, but there are a few sharper dipsie dos that kind of suck. But we blew thru the half-way point at 2:25. I started talking about us turning in a negative split for the second half. I was doing great and I figured Jason was humming along OK.
Almost immediately after the halfway mark though, our pace dropped to 12 minute miles. Jason’s heart rate was still fine and he said he had no injuries, but we just started moving a bit slower. Around mile 14 we come up on a walker – it was Jamie! Quick hellos and then we started running as a group. The triumphant finishing image resurfaced in my brain! But “The Dutch Bullet” was having some physical issues. His knees were hurting and it was going to be a psychological war for him to continue in the second half of the race. He stuck with us about a mile, then fell back into a walking pace again. He waved us on and we kept on going. Balloon burst again…
At mile 15, the course turns north and heads up an incline. Jason and I walked a portion of this hill. We then went past the psychological boost point of having the course turn again and head back toward the eventual finish line. At that turning point, we had a little over 10 miles still to go. And Jason is struggling. He has completely stopped talking. But then a woman runs past us with a bib on her back stating (This is my 7th continent!). That’s enough right there to pump us up a bit. We keep up with her and her brother – they are also doing the walk/run shuffle. They pass us, then walk – we’ll catch up and pass them, then they pass us again. It turns out she ran Antarctica a month ago and is doing her last continent in her home town of St. Louis. That is pretty cool. Her brother has already finished his continents and they are on track to be the first siblings in this exclusive club.
By mile 17, my boyant attitude is starting to piss Jason off. He pulls out his iPod and says that he needs to listen to some motivational music. I’m cool with it – anything to keep him going. Around mile 18, the five hour pace team catches us. I tell Jason that we are going to jump on their train to the finish. He sucks it up and we keep up with the gal leading the team for about a mile. Then he has to fall into a walk again.
Just before mile 20, Jason seems to be getting a little upset. He questions me, “Why are you feeling so good?” Well, I guess it is because our pace over the last seven miles was about 12:20/mile. At mile 20, I exclaim that we only have a 10K left. Within a half mile, Jason tells me for the third time to go ahead and finish the race. I look at him – he has no injuries; he is just tired. He promises me that he will finish. That coupled with the fact that it has been raining steadily (and sometimes quite hard) for the entire race clinches it. I go ahead and leave him. My feelings of guilt rise up, but I tamp them down by saying to myself that my attitude is actually hurting him at this point. He needed to suffer in silence for a time and would do better if left alone.
I’m feeling remarkably good after 20+ miles. My longest training run since Austin was 10 miles, but I crank up the pace and head out at about an 8:50/mile. That lasts less then 2 miles and I slow and slow some more. At mile 24 I finally take the last turn and head up market street – this is the home stretch but there is a nice long hill here. I walk a bit of it and run into a guy from New York who is running in his 20th state. He asks me what has happened to the rest of Team Flash! Apparently our early race marketing at least reached his ears. I tell him that Kathy has done the half but Jason is trailing. He says “You have to respect the marathon. Your brother is learning that.” So true.
So I get mentally cranked up a finish strong. My final six miles end up being run at a 10:15 pace. As I finish, I remember to try and look good for the finishing cameras – hopefully the pictures turn out good. Unfortunately, the Go! St. Louis Marathon organizing committee has made a fatal error. They didn’t expect the confluence of a steady five hour rain and 15,000 runners when they set up their food area. It was a complete mud bath by the time I got there. Literally a disaster. In Austin they set up the food distribution on a street. I can’t imagine why it was set up like it was. Basically it made the food area a complete misery.
Kathy and the support staff were there at the finish for me though. I asked Kathy how she did and she said she finished in 2:36. 2:36 – inconceivable! I could not believe that she did that poorly after breaking off from Team Flash. She said she had to walk up part of two different hills near the end. I was mentally broken, but tried not to show it to her. We headed back to the finish to wait for Jason. I was thinking he might be as much as 30 minutes behind me.
In about 15 minutes, Sue Bundschuh came in to significant cheers. She’s the newest member of the 7 continent club! And then Jason came in just two minutes later. He came rolling around the corner and finished strong. A nice steady jog brought him to the finish. Maybe not triumph, but success! Team Flash met up and got our medal picture taken together – here is a good facsimile:
Jason asked Kathy how she did and she told him 2:36. He was also surprised she didn’t make it. She said something to the effect of that’s what the big clock had. Jason and I looked at each other then exclaimed “You did it!” She had used the clock time and hadn’t removed the 11 minutes that it took us to get to the starting line. I was dumbstruck – I asked her why she hadn’t looked at the trusty 405. But she was using it for heart rate monitoring only and not displaying the race time. Kathy set a PR in the half marathon – by over 20 minutes! Her final time was 2:25:20. I clocked 4:54:37 and Jason set his marathon PR at 5:18:05. And, to my relief when I saw the results, Jamie “The Dutch Bullet” Vandernoot, finished in 5:23:18, his PR and also meeting his goal of running a marathon before he turned 30. So, all-in-all, a very successful day. I haven’t talked to Jamie yet, but I want him to revel in his success, just as those of us in Team Flash are!
A big thank you to our support staff who waited around in the constant rain for five hours while we ran the race. While they were able to provide finish line support for all of us, they still snuck in some siteseeing in the rain. Here they are taking a picture with one of the more eccentric statues in downtown St. Louis:
By JasonFlash, on April 16th, 2009
Brian has been giving me a hard time for not posting to the blog for the last few weeks. I offer to our good readers this simple excuse – I am working on more things in April than many people accomplish in all their lives. So far I have relocated 2,000 miles from Southern California to St. Louis and embarking on a new job. Coming up this weekend is my first marathon, and I am going to top that by getting married the weekend a week later and heading out on a grand honeymoon. Throw in the fact that all of this takes place in 4 different countries and you can see why I have not been taking the time to blog regularly.
As far as the running goes I have been in full taper mode since my final 20 mile run in California 3 weeks ago. I have been on a few easy 6 milers and a good tempo run, but mostly I am taking it easy so I am ready for the 26.2 on Sunday. Rest assured there are some great blog entries on the way. I hope to sneak in a few runs on the honeymoon which is in a location that should lend itself to some good blogging. I have a couple of more local topics in development as well, and you can expect a race report from this weekend’s St.Louis Marathon.
As far as my marathon plan, I think Winston Churchill said it best:
“This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty-never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
By BrianFlash, on April 15th, 2009
The big race is four days away and Team Flash is in full taper mode. Kathy just knocked out a fast 1.5 miles (14:40) tonight to keep her in tune and I did an easy 5k yesterday and may do an easy 5k tomorrow. Other then that, we are just getting ready to roll on Sunday. But this post is about our post race plans.
All of us are planning a six week hiatus from serious (for us) running. We’re then going to start up the first week of June with 2010 Comrades in mind. This will be a long slow build up of mileage driving to that 56 mile goal in South Africa. But we’ll be doing plenty of races along the way. All of the Team Flash membership (even our stretching guru Rocio) have signed up for a 5k near the St. Louis Zoo on June 7th and Jason is probably going to do a half marathon in Seattle on June 27th. And on October 25th, Brian, Kathy, and Jason are all planning to run in the Marine Corps Marathon. Jason and I are also signed up for the Goofy challenge in January (with Kathy accompanying us in the half marathon). And we’ll be running in other races as the year progresses.
For my hiatus, I’m going to run an easy 30 minutes a day three days a week. But my main focus is core and flexibility improvement. I’ll be using my P90X routines, focusing on the yoga, abs, stretching, and core synergetics routines. It is critical for me to work on the power pack – I’m soft as a bowl full of jelly. I also plan on dropping 10 pounds. While I’m not chubby, I do have a little extra weight around my middle that needs to go. At 1500 steps per mile, I’m moving an extra 393,000 pounds during a marathon! It can’t hurt for me to shed that off. Regular soda is my crack - particularly Pepsi products. This is my opportunity to force myself to wean off of most of this - at least down to 10% of what I currently consume. That would take me to one soda per week. So, in order to keep up with my plan, I’ll be reporting progress to goal. That way, I’ll have motivation to stay on track. Do you think Valerie Bertinelli would really have lost all that weight if she hadn’t showed up on TV as a fatty promising to lose the weight? The humiliation she would have faced if she had failed would have been incredible. So since I’m telling all of you my plans, I’ll have to stay on track. Otherwise I expect you to shame me when we meet. Maybe some jeering would also help…
By BrianFlash, on April 9th, 2009
Team Flash has put together a plan for the Go! St. Louis Marathon and Half Marathon coming up on April 19, less then two weeks away. Before I get into our actual plan though, I want to show what the experts are predicting for our finish times in the race, based on our performance in the most recent races we have run. Jason’s race of record for prediction sake is the Huntington Beach Half Marathon where he finished in 2:17:05, while Kathy (65:13) and Brian (50:59) ran in the Living Well 10K in Imperial, Missouri.
Running Times Website Equivalent Times Calculator: Predicts Jason at 4:51:20 and Brian at 3:59:17 for the marathon and Kathy at 2:24:01 for the Half
“Runner’s World” Race Predictor: Predicts Jason at 4:45:49 and Brian at 3:54:30 for the Marathon and Kathy at 2:23:53 for the Half
Jack Daniels: Kathy 2:24 for the Half, Brian at 3:54 and Jason at 4:42 for the Marathon
Davies & Thompson: Predict Brian to cross in 3:59, Jason in 5:00, and Kathy in 2:26
Tom Osler: Brian at 3:48, Jason at about 4:41, and Kathy at 2:20 for the Half
Nice. It seems that Tom Osler is the most optimistic while Mssrs Davies and Thompson have the lowest opinion of our capabilities.
Kathy had already set herself a goal to finish the half marathon in less then 2:30:00. All of our experts believe she can get there. I have a goal to run a 4 hour marathon and our experts unanimously believe now is my time. But, the experts don’t know that I haven’t been able to do the distance required for a marathon so they are probably over optimistic here. Jason is the hardest Team Flash runner to pin down, but he would like to beat Brian’s 1st marathon time, 4:39:13. However, he hasn’t expressed the idea that he could do it with this race. And the experts agree.
With all that said, Team Flash actually has put together a plan for the race. The three amigos will run as a unit to mile 10 where Kathy will peel off and run the remaining 3.1 miles to the half marathon finish. Jason and I will run together for the rest of the marathon course, deciding the winner in the last 100 meters (it will be me). The plan is to churn out 11 minute miles while running with Kathy. After that, Jason and I will pick up the pace as dictated by how Jason is doing. I’ll provide that needed verbal support (abuse) around mile 22 to keep Jason going.
Additionally, a Team Flash disciple, Jamie “Rabbit” VanDernoot, alias “The Dutch Bullet”, is planning to accompany the collective at least at the start of the race. While I’m sure he can run faster, he claims his preparation has been ‘uneven’ for the marathon and so he will get on our train. We are welcoming others on the Team Flash express – but it will be going more like a local then a high speed bullet train.
If you aren’t running, bring out your signs and cheer us on!
By BrianFlash, on April 3rd, 2009
To The Court:
I’m seeking a restraining order against the entity known as “Runner’s World,” hereafter referred to as RW, to keep him away from Ms. Kara Goucher, an American distance runner and Beaverton, Oregon resident.
RW is clearly dangerously obsessed with Ms. Goucher thereby necessitating the court’s intervention with a restraining order. Let me detail this obsessive behavior.
In June, 2008 RW took several intimate photos of Ms. Goucher and her husband Adam. Many of these photos showed Kara in short tight shorts and skimpy bra tops. RW also stalked the couple, writing an in-depth review of their lives. There was no way an ordinary ‘fan’ could have got these details and then noted them as such in their diary.
In September, 2008 RW followed Ms. Goucher around the country and hounded her with questions about how she was getting ready for the Olympics. He continued asking her for advice on running training and then kept these tidbits of information in a shrine to Kara.
The next incident was February, 2009. RW showed up during a Goucher run, to take a photo and ask an additional series of in depth questions. In the photo, Kara clearly has put on a fake smile for this crazy stalker and said whatever just to get him to go away. “I’m a sucker for a burrito. Any excuse for guacamole.” It is clear that this obsessed individual began posing a danger to Ms. Goucher.
Now, today I find in RW’s possession, another extensive write-up, which includes an image of Kara on the cover! There is another extensive series of pictures and some clearly obsessive writings on Ms Goucher’s efforts to train for the Boston Marathon.
RW is also clearly possessing a foot fetish, featuring pictures of shoes again and again. Detailed notes on each shoe are included. When shoes aren’t featured, there are features on socks. Additionally, Ms. Goucher is clearly not the only young women that is in potential danger from this psycho. There are revealing photos of many very fit young women in his possession. In order to protect Kara, and other athletic young women, I strongly advise you to issue a restraining order keeping RW away from all young women except when there is a chaperone present. Please avoid a future incident and take action now while you still can.
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