08.17.08

All Thai-ed Up

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:31 am by Brock

A few months and time zones later, I’ve returned to the blog.  After struggling through the last part of my track season, I took a few months off from running and somehow ended up in Bangkok, a city only rivaled perhaps by Cairo in terms of unfriendliness to running.  I arrived in early June and will be here until December studying abroad and hopefully not causing an international crisis.  History is on my side in that respect.

Like anyplace, Thailand has its pros and cons.

Pro: Unlimited potential for growing out facial hair. . . even for those that have not been genetically endowed with a gorgeous mane along the jaw line.  In case you were wondering, that includes me.  Here’s a sample.

Con: Olympic coverage is minimal, at least in terms of semi-mainstream events.  Boxing, shooting, and weightlifting dominate the airwaves, while swimming and track broadcasts are few and far between.  Phelps’s eight golds?  Nope.  Flanagan’s bronze? No dice.  Given the tape delays you all are subjected to back home you must think I’m crazy, but still, I’m envious.  How envious?  I almost cried when I got to watch the second round of the women’s 100m.  That’s right, the 100m.

Pro: Delicious meals for less than $1.

Con: Not getting used to the delicious meals until after a month in.

So enjoy the broadcasts back home and also the streets and trails of Chapel Hill as you’re inspired on your run by the latest track event.  I will start to run again soon, but my running will only truly begin in earnest once I’m back in Chapel Hill.  It’s great to hear of everyone’s training and I wish you all the best the coming fall.

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03.14.08

The Break-Up

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:46 am by Brock

After 6 and a half years, it’s over.  We had a nice run, actually over a thousand nice runs, during that time, but that’s not to say things were never rocky.  She caused me to miss a train, oversleep for a race, run alone, and she even abandoned me mid-run on a number of occasions.  Our relationship was one of unspoken understanding, but no more.  As of Thursday, I retired my very first running watch.

It wasn’t me, it was the watch.  I salvaged it on a number of occasions: fixing the band holder with twine, replacing the battery multiple times, drying the innards after testing the water resistance too much, even stuffing it in four socks instead of trashing it after it began to beep uncontrollably for days.  But after 13 seasons, 3 teams, 3 continents, and more opportunities than I can remember to let her go, the time has come.  Sure, the new Ironman Triathlon Timex is slimmer and more digital, but it’ll never replaced the first one.  Somehow I never found out her name and trying to do so now just doesn’t seem right.

So here’s to you old watch.  Enjoy retirement, but don’t think I won’t come crawling back at some point when this new one acts up, just like you did.

Now the question, what’s the longest any of you have gone without replacing your watch or what have you done to (unnecessarily) prolong its use?

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12.30.07

Ice-Free Running

Posted in Uncategorized at 11:54 pm by Brock

Ever since I’ve been home from school, most of the ground has been covered with snow and ice. I had one day here in Wichita when I first arrived back that it was clear, but the next day during our morning run a blizzard hit and pounded the city with 7 inches of snow and ice that has stayed on the ground since. It was great at the time and even for the first few days, but it wasn’t long before my legs started cramping up and aching from having to shorten my stride so as not to slip on ice.

It’s a point of pride for my friends and me to run outside regardless of the weather. I can take a wind chill of less than 10 degrees or even sleet, but this recent layer of snow/ice is testing my limits. Luckily the roads were clear enough today for me to enjoy my long run with a normal stride.

Next I’m off to Colorado for some skiing, where the outdoor running is sure to be treacherous. Luckily there will be a treadmill (I thought I’d never say that). I’m definitely looking forward to getting back to Chapel Hill for some decent weather and most of all even more people to run with. Happy New Years.

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12.17.07

A Team Effort

Posted in Uncategorized at 12:47 am by Brock

As I left Chapel Hill this past Friday, I left a semester marked with a number of firsts: losing to El Gigante at Bandidos (the plate shard in it didn’t help), slugging through mud with over 400 other runners in Ohio, and completing the first ever Donut Challenge.

It was a different experience training with two different teams this past season. Unfortunately my immune system isn’t what it was back in my younger years, but I was fortunate enough to compete in two different national club cross country meets. Training and competing with a team is my favorite part of the sport, but also something I’ve come to take for granted. The Wednesday before we headed up to nationals, Jason jokingly turned to me on a run and asked what advice I had for the upcoming cross country race. Seems one of the few areas I have the rest of the guys beat is in racing with a team within the past few years. Sadly the only advice I could muster was turn left, which didn’t help at all.

It was great being part of a team that was providing so many other people with one more opportunity to race with a team, some not having done so for over 15 years. Luckily, the team effort didn’t end there. During Fat Week, which I participated in almost too diligently, I took on a task that I hoped would put my name up there with some of the eating greats such as Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut (possibly netting myself a few bucks in the process). The challenge: 25 Sweet Sixteen donuts in 10 minutes followed by another 25 in an hour, all of which had to be held in for at least 10 minutes.

The turnout of the event was unprecedented (and not just because it hadn’t ever been held before). In front of crowd that numbered in the double-digits (10), including Joan, Dave, Tyler, Mary, and Apartments 38B, C, and F, history was made. Unlike running, where the completion of a race typically leaves you excited for the next, the donuts did not immediately bring about thoughts of the next conquest.

After a few days, I’m wondering, is a CAC team eating challenge in order?

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07.26.07

Home at last. . .

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:38 pm by Brock

I’ve finally made it back home and now get a month in exotic Wichita before heading back to Chapel Hill. I thought I’d wait a while before posting again to keep everyone on their toes as to whether or not I survived the encierro. Given the media coverage of the event, my plan backfired.

Pamplona was wild, looking like a college town on game day with everyone decked out in white pants and shirts with red sashes and scarves. The first guy we meet in the tourist office is an American expat now living in Israel who’s been to the festival for 40 years. And what’s the first thing he tells us? Don’t run.

We were only there for one night so of course I was going to run and I couldn’t help but treat it as a race. Walking the course, checking the footing at different points, and locating escape routes (luckily I’ve never had to do that in a race before). As we lined up the next morning with thousands of others, 90% of whom were intoxicated, I realized something: everything comes down to chance. I’d spent the past day trying to minimized my chances of dying (i.e. by sleeping the night before, not downing a bottle of sangria at 7 AM, knowing where I was going to “run”). Yet when it comes down to it, a bull still could’ve veered my way and put me on the cover of the “Diario de Navarra”. As luck would have it, the closest a bull got was 10 feet away on the other side of the course and I’m telling the story now from the comfort of my home as opposed to a hospital bed.

The main things I learned from the trip: (1) Sangria and bulls don’t mix. (2) I have more to fear from an owl in Chapel Hill (or used to) than a bull in Pamplona. (3) PRs don’t matter in an encierro. (4) Bulls always win in an encierro. The bullfight. . . that’s another story. (5) That is hopefully the last 100m race I ever do.

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07.09.07

Festival de San Fermin

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:33 am by Brock

With the trip winding down, it’s finally come to one of the highlights: La Festival de San Fermín. Better known for the Running of the Bulls that takes place every day, the festival lasts almost a week in Pamplona with thousands of Spaniards and foreigners flocking there.

Taking part in one of the encierros has always been at the top of my life list and I’ll finally get a chance to take part this Wednesday morning. Graham and I and a friend of ours who just finished studying in Rome are taking the 5 hour bus trip tomorrow morning from Madrid then catching the bus back the next day.

Watching the news today we saw one encierro was ¨límpio y rápido¨, while in another one bull went rogue and a few people left with bruises (and probably more). Hopefully the one we’re in mirrors the former but who knows. I only wish it was closer to 10 km rather than the 825 m that it is, but it’ll great speed work.

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07.05.07

The Fourth Abroad

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:49 pm by Brock

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, which I could easily attribute to a lack of access to computers, but it really comes down to being cheap. Paying to get on the Internet? Unbelievable. Sure it’s great to check e-mail from home and look up running results, but I usually try to get in and out. Not today though, especially since it’s 7:30 PM here in Sevilla, Spain and still over 100 degrees.

Over the past 5 weeks I’ve been around England, then to Paris and Montpellier in France, and Torino, Bra, and Rome in Italy. Currently, my friend, Graham, and I are in Sevilla and have already been to Malaga and Granada here in Spain. Up to this point I think I’ve tallied runs in almost 10 cities in 4 countries. It’s great because you’re never in a place too long to get bored with it, but you also have the chance of getting in a place where the running is awful (i.e. Rome).

We’ve lucked out and been able to find a number of parks and trails to run on and also to escape from the city. Yesterday we were in Granada and I did a 12 mile long run on a dirt path along a river. Sure, it has an amazing cathedral and La Alhambra (arguably one of the wonders of the world), but it seems to me that so many tourists come to Europe and only catch a glimpse of the culture of hundreds, if not thousands of years ago. The whole time they miss out on the current culture. I feel as though a simple long run next to Spaniards biking or walking, farmers working their fields in the heat of the day, or kids outside giving you a crazy look because you’re shirtless, is just as fascinating.

I now just sound like an elitist tourist, but we’re doing our best not to be that way. Take the Fourth of July yesterday. The past 3 years I haven’t been able to celebrate, either being abroad or in the middle of the wilderness, and Graham and I decided to celebrate it the right way. First, fireworks. That failed since neither of us know how to say it in Spanish and we’re in the middle of a huge city. Second, McDonalds. Nothing is more American than the Golden Arches and surely there’d be one here. Yet after 1.5 hrs of searching no luck. Bad news for us, but surely good news for Spanish culture as a whole. Third, American flags. Yeah, that didn’t work out either and I doubt that would’ve gone over well anyway. So another year with no Fourth of July but at least we can say that we tried. Hopefully everyone back home enjoyed it for us.

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06.11.07

The saga continues. . .

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:44 am by Brock

England is now behind me, France is at the plate, Italy is on deck, and Spain is in the hole. Not ever being much of a baseball player, I hope I got that right.

After a week staying with friends in Alton, a small town an hour south of London, and visiting Oxford, Bristol, London, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Plymouth, Winchester, and South Hampton, I am now in good ‘ol Paris. Running in England was interesting, although in the countryside the terrain didn’t vary much. I like to think of it as a greener Kansas on steroids since many of the hills rivaled those in Chapel Hill.

We arrived in Paris last Thursday and are here until Wednesday when we’ll then head down to Montpellier in the south of France. The running here in France has been amazing so far, mainly because we’re a 2 minute run from le Jardin du Luxembourg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jardin_du_Luxembourg). It’s an incredibly large park that is usually filled with hundreds of people. We were also lucky enough to visit a friend of mine from India who lives in a suburb of Paris called Fourqueux yesterday. Not only did we get to run through an enormous forest, but we were treated to a proper French lunch with red wine, cheese, baguettes, and more. It was easily the best part of France.

It’s exciting to hear how well everything is going back in the States and I hope everyone is enjoying the summer. And Joan, you’ll be glad to know that I was too small to play rugby so the bigger kids kicked us off the pitch as soon as we arrived.

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06.02.07

The European adventure begins. . .

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:39 pm by Brock

It’s been a while, but I’m finally back running. After a disappointing end to my season, I was more than happy to take time off and relax. Not only did I think about next season, I also got a chance to develop my athletic talents in other sports. As I found out, tossing around a frisbee is the only activity I can do without injuring myself. Tennis, soccer, and basketball all left me feeling like I’d been jumped. My retirement in each of these sports is therefore still effective.

After a few days of running, I headed out for my summer in Europe. Luckily it could only get better after I sat on the runway for a total of 4 hours in three different cities and Air Canada lost my bag. Not that I needed everything in the only bag that I brought. I’ve run twice so far here and it’s been amazing. Just today we found the local rugby pitch that connected to a set of fields and trails that went on for miles. This is of course the day after my friends told us the best place to run was straight through town. I’m now just hoping I can make it through the rest of the trip without getting hit by a car driving on the wrong side of the road.

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05.09.07

Being the old guy?

Posted in Uncategorized at 12:56 pm by Brock

Every time I think about it, it still sounds strange: I’m the lone college student in a running club for post-collegiate athletes. Every Sunday I worship at the Church of the Trail for weekly long runs with the UNC Club XC team and then every Wednesday I have the opportunity to train with some of the best runners in not only North Carolina, but the US as a whole. Regardless of the group, I’m always one of the younger guys.

After a great first season with CAC and second season with the UNC Club XC team, I’m back home preparing for my last race of the season. Whenever I’m home, I try to run with my old high school team. Over time things have changed, but nothing drastic. Then I show up at practice yesterday and it suddenly hits me, I’m one of the old guys now. Not of course that there’s anything wrong with that (at the risk of offending certain CAC members).

As difficult as it can be to accept, people and teams change. Running in high school was great, but I think that this year was the first that I actually realized that I had moved on and was excited to do so. Working towards winning the first annual NIRCA Club Nationals with the Club team was great (made better by the fact that we won) and hopefully another club nationals title is on the way, for both teams of course.

After rambling for a bit, I’ll get to the point. Regardless of age or experience, we’ve all been given a second chance and I’m going to do my best to make it even better than the first time around.

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