NHL All-Star Weekend

First off, I signed up for the NHL All-Star 5K back in December. Since then a few surprises came up. The race day of January 29, 2011 began to fill up with other activities.

Those activities included an awards banquet for the Second Empire Fall 2010 Grand Prix Series, were I entered enough races to get a free lunch. Second Stephanie's daughter school cheer team got an invite to cheer at the Raleigh Wide Open event to celebrate the NHL All-Star Weekend. The race and these two other events was going to make for a busy day.

On to the day at hand. We arrived at 8:30 to the RBC Center and picked up my timing chip, Stephanie took a few pictures and I attached my timer to my shoe. Where is the starting line? Oh yeah, almost forgot I picked picked up my packet the day before that had a cool medal, here is that medal.


Here I'm tie wrapping the timer onto my Newton's. It was 30 degrees and I'm in shorts!



Well back to the race. I was lined up and they were rattling off some names and bib numbers for prizes and stuff, not mine so lets move on. Well the race started and right away I wasn't feeling to hot. On a good note though, the first mile was flat to downhill, that didn't hold for the second mile. We turned up into the parking lot on the side of Carter Finley Stadium and the hill began and didn't end till another mile had clicked by. On this hill I began to walk some, I know what a wuss. Well I am 250lb, not ideal for a runner but I give it solid go. On this hill a coworker passed me, I can't have that, so I picked it back up and maintained till the end. I beat the coworker by a minute and set my fastest 5K at 30:11. On a side note, my GPS had me at 29:57. I'm on my way to being respectable. Stephanie and I took a few pictures and visited the gift shop to get few things, and now, off to the next event. Here is a picture of me coming down the home stretch.


Well, before the next event it's shower and change time. The Second Empire is a nice Restaurant and it does include an awards presentation after all. We arrive, check in and find a table. Stephanie immediately likes this place and suggests we come there more often. That's okay as I like it too. We are seated with the old timers that are all in their 60's and still run 6 to 7 minute miles all day long. They were very nice people and gave me some good running tips that should help me obtain a little more speed and endurance. We all had a very nice dinner, grilled chicken with a light sauce, steamed broccoli and couscous, all very good. Now off to the awards.

I was pretty much a spectator here but it was cool to see. Our table mates were all winners. I did go home with a cool skull cap with the series logo on it. Kim Reynolds, Second Empire, all the race sponsors put on a very good running series. I look forward to doing it again. Off to event number three.

Luckily for us, all these events were spaced far enough apart that we could get to them all. After the banquet went to the car and changed clothes where all the world could see. No car wrecks caused no foul lol. Now to see Stephanie's daughter cheer. Sorta cool that there school got to cheer at such a big event for Raleigh, NC. Anyway their cheer was very good.

Well, except for a few other details I won't tell you about, that was the day. It was a busy day but a very fun day.

My dog Rocco and I

New Balance MT101 Review

Well this is my first product review and it will be pretty short.

I got into running January 2010 and pretty early on I became interested in minimalist running shoes. Soon after, I got a pair of Vibrams. I really like them, but wanted something a little more protective for the trail and longer distances. Well, I eventually found a shoe I dig. The New Balance MT101.

I have had my pair of New Balance MT101's for 3 months. I use them for trail runs over at Umstead Park the most, but I have raced in them a few times on the road and trail. Overall, these shoes feel great, they don't feel like lead weights as they are very light at 7.8 ounces, they are stable, they offer good support, and decent traction in a wide variety of conditions.

As for the negatives, the sole does wear fast if doing a lot of running on pavement.

If your interested in a great minimalist trail running shoe check out the New Balance MT101's.

Here is a picture:

The Krispy Kreme Challenge

Well Feb. 5, 2011 was the Krispy Kreme Challenge. If you don't already know this race, it is 4.77 miles of running with a stop in the middle to eat a dozen glazed doughnuts with a goal time of less than 1 hour.

Stephanie and I arrived at the race around 7:45am. I was dressed in my Steeler poncho, shorts and my New Balance 101's. Stephanie was spectating and dressed warm. It was raining and 35 degrees for the race, fun, fun, fun. There were 7500 people signed up but a few less showed up due to the weather. Anyway the race started at 8:30am, it took me 3 minutes just to make it to the start line. Once in the open I settled into a pretty good sub 10 minute pace that would keep me in the 20/20/20 plan. Well as I got within sight of Krispy Kreme the leaders were done eating and heading home, dang they eat fast. Once I made it to Krispy Kreme My problems started.

It started with a road block, well most seemed to be my pace and arrived at the doughnut stand at the same time. It seemed like it took 5 minutes to get past this bottle neck and get my doughnuts. I choose to eat 2 at a time till I made it thru the first 6. At this point the glaze was getting to me and I grabbed a cup of water. Now I'm down to 1 doughnut at a time, and having difficulty even taking a bite. I was not going to eat 12. Anyway some more water and I had 9 down. I thought to myself that there is no way for me to eat 3 single doughnuts so I smushed them together and nibbled my way thru. At this point I looked around and very few of us were still there. I went over to the challenger timer to get my split 54 minutes, it took me 30 minutes to eat the doughnuts but I ate them all. Knowing that the hour goal was out I took my time back, walking up one big hill, although most of the return trip to the Bell Tower on NC State campus was up hill. Surprisingly I had energy, guess a sugar high. Eventually I was done in 1 hour and 17 minutes.


Overall, it was a fun time and I look forward to next year and getting that doughnut eating time down to 5 or 10 minutes like the top finishers.

http://krispykremechallenge.com/

Pictures of the event can be found here:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/05/970446/first-look-krispy-kreme-challenge.html