Last Week's Recap

Joe claimed a dominating victory this last week!

After a great start to the week, Joe knocked out another run to finish with 37 miles. A few more beers in there and his final point total for the week was 14.

Success was not scared on both coasts though. The 13 miles that i had going into Thursday nearly remained that way through the weekend. The reason: a trip New York City. Tallying up a final number of beers this week will be a tough task and isn't something that i want to go back and recap. If the actual number is above zero, i will be happily surprised.

Joe: 37 miles - 23 beers = 14 pts.

Brian: 17 miles - ___ beers = a win for Joe

We are going to take at least a week off from the challenge, but will resume shortly. i'll be sure to get my mileage back up to make this competitive again. We haven't been doing this long, but i've already learned a valuable lesson - A weekend in NYC will not help you win a Beermileage Challenge.

Mid Week Check

When Joe said the other day that he was going to bring his A/B game this week, he was not joking around. As of right now, here are the totals:

Joe: 31.25 miles - 9 beers = 22.25 pts.

Brian: 13 miles - 5 beers = 8 pts.

Not as easy of a week for me to build the mileage up as i had originally planned. The knees are a bit sore and with this being Thursday, beer sounds a little bit better every minute. It also doesn't help when you end up getting free pints and $1 pitchers thrown in your face on a Wednesday night.

We'll keep this week's challenge going through Sunday and post the final results early next week. If i get ambitious, we might see this race tighten up and me crushing out a few extra miles right before midnight on Sunday to edge out a victory.... but let's not get ahead of ourselves now....

Recap of Last Week's Challenge

It looks as though Brian has emerged victorious in yet another BeerMileage challenge, I believe he's at 3-0 now. I'll be bringing my A game this week (or at least my B game), so place your bets accordingly.

Joe: 26.5 Miles - 17 Beers = 9.5 pts
Longest Run: 9.5 Miles

Brian: 24.5 Miles - 11 Beers = 13.5 pts
Longest Run: 8.5 Miles

Portland Marathon 2010 News

I read today that the Portland Marathon will have two very significant changes for 2010: they will no longer have a 5-mile race, and will be adding a half-marathon to the lineup.

Personally I am quite torn between excitement for another big time half in Portland and mourning the loss of the 5-miler with which I had first cut my teeth in road racing. I hadn't raced the 5-miler in a few years due to racing or pacing in the marathon and had quite been looking forward to doing it again, alas, it was not to be.

Sidenote: the half-marathon is allegedly going to be a combined mass start with the full marathon, which will be a complete clusterf***k! Adding 3,000 runners to an already over-congested start is not ideal. Hopefully this gets revised before raceday, perhaps a different starting time or location.

Mid-Week Update

As of Thursday Evening:

Brian: 12.5 Miles - 6 Beers = 6.5 pts

Joe: 14 Miles - 7 Beers = 7 pts


Pretty pathetic showing all around thus far, but I think we can expect the battle to really heat up as the weekend arrives. Several inches of rain are expected Friday pm -Saturday in areas of Oregon, so that should make any long runs extra epic.

Note: In case of a tie in point total at the end of the week winner will be determined by whoever had the longest single run of the week.

How i got here

Call it intrigue, call it passion, call it foolishness. The reason as to how i got where i am now with running can be answered as a combination of those three characteristics. When i started running, about two and a half years ago, its hard to say if any of the above factors played a role at all. Running to me was never something that i saw as a 'fun' activity. Running was always a way to train for another sport. Whether it was a 40, a fast break or going from first to third, running was never just for the love of running.


But then came the intrigue. It was late December of '07 when Joe asked me if i wanted to run the Eugene Half with him. The idea itself sounded awful. i couldn't recall the last time that i ran nor did i ever picture myself running that far all at once. My body was in decent shape with climbing and general working out, but no where near 13 mile shape. It was during the time spent thinking all this over when the question hit me. Can i do it? i was never one to turn down sport, of any kind, and here i was thinking that i didn't want to run because i didn't think i could. To me, there was only one way to find out the answer.

Preparing physically and mentally for months and then not actually running the race you've trained for is a feeling that i would prefer never to experience again. Maybe it was the flu, maybe it was nerves, let's just say things didn't go as planned. So i didn't run the race. i laid in my bed that day knowing that i could and i had to prove to myself that i could. i set out the next weekend and knocked out my first 13.1mile run. man, did that feel good. the weight of intrigue that i carried around for 4 months was, for a brief moment, lifted. i distinctly remember finishing that run, my legs sore, my feet blistered and my only thought was that i wanted to do that again. welcome, passion.

i moved out to dc a few months later and for this excuse or that, the running tapered off a good deal. it took awhile, but i slowly built it back up to a modest 2-3 short runs a week, nothing too crazy. For awhile it was clear that the passion i had grown accustomed to, had left me. Also, looking back, i know the intrigue was long gone too. i was back to running as a means to be better at sport, mainly coed touch football. The passion i had only 6 months before was barely a memory.

i needed a spark. i started becoming bored with routes, the pavement running was taking its toll on the knees and the scenery and it was evident i wasn't in it for the right reason. There had to be something that would ignite at least a little passion back in me and not allow me to give up running all together. This time around, the answer was in my own backyard. One afternoon i decided to get a little ballsy and stepped off the sidewalk and onto a a trail that i must have passed a million times before. i had no idea where the trail went and couldn't see through the trees far enough to even venture a guess. Within a few strides i realized that i had found what i was missing. The trail itself wasn't all that long and wound its way to a road about a mile from my house, but for the first time in a long while, i felt the spring return to my step. The trail crossed a couple small streams and zig zagged through trees. i welcomed the interruptions in my stride with ditch clearing jumps and precision stutter steps. With each of these new variations in footwork, i found my pace pickup and my desire to run longer ever more present.

Not having found the trails that i now spend countless hours on earlier in my dc days is a shame, but it's something that i just have to live with. The discovery of one trail led to another and telling someone about a trail was the best way to get a recommendation for another. The mileage picked up each week and as winter pushed through, the temps had little slowing effect. It was mid january. The passion was back in full.

The more i ran the more people i wanted to find people to join me. As i mentioned before, i love the idea of not knowing what i'm capable of and doing something just to find out if i can. The people that i was running with at this point are great athletes. Some of them craved speed at short distances, others excelled at long, well paced endurance runs. Either way, i used their skills to push me and make myself a stronger, well balanced runner. As i look back, i probably couldn't have asked for a better training regime for what was about to come.

i had heard of ultras and knew people that ran them, but i never imagined myself being able to do one. First of all, i have never run a marathon. Ten miles for me is a solid long run and i feel accomplished when i pull that off. i was approached by a good friend of my mine that i run with on whether i'd like to team up with him and two others and do an ultra relay. There weren't any specific final distances, just an 8 mile course and you trade off seeing how many times each teammate can run it over a 24 hour period. 'What?!' That was quickly my first reaction. The last time my friend ran this race, each person averaged 30+ miles over the day and their team set the course record. Mentally, i was more intimidated than i've ever been, but the only thing i said was, 'Of course i'll do it.' And so the foolishness begins.

The 24hr relay was the first weekend of May this last year. There were some trying moments, but our whole team persevered and eventually dominated the course. The emotional high was incredible. Here i was, barely able to walk to the awards ceremony and all i could think about was the next race. Could my body do this again? What distance could i actually pull off? i think it was that moment there that i finally realized all three characteristics had come together. The intrigue was as strong as ever. The passion was going to keep me striving towards whatever i wanted. And it was the foolishness that in no way was going to prevent me from saying 'no' to the next challenge.

As my summer of running comes to an end and with a 50miler and 12hr trail run under my belt, i know how i got here and i've seen what i can do. Now i'm starting to ask myself again, 'what can i do next?'