Running for a National Title

Things Kenny learned about Ian

kennyinnc — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:44:56 +0000

If you haven’t read Ian’s post below this one, read that first. His list is way better than mine and I’m just copying his idea.

So here is the list of things I learned about Ian from our week in Charlotte.

Ian loves soccer.
Ian is really good at flying. He is a pro at security checkpoints.
Ian loves sushi.
Ian worked in Kansas before he came to MTU. It was really hot there.
Ian played tuba in high school.
Ian was surprisingly comfortable carrying a murse (male purse) all weekend, and commented on how useful it was.
Ian is one of the few dudes who can pull off wearing a purple tablecloth-like t-shirt. He knew he looked good.
Ian is good at knowing when to end a workout so I my legs don’t get tired before a race.
Ian was easy going enough to let me eat wherever I wanted. Even the Waffle House.
Ian doesn’t eat bacon or hot dogs.
Ian loves driving cloverleafs.
When a stop light turns green, Ian waits until the car in front of him is at least 2 car length ahead of him to hit the gas. I was glad I wasn’t in cars behind us.
Ian has a lot of good stories, mostly about hockey trips.
Ian reads a lot of books that I would like to read. It’s too bad I don’t read for fun.

Things Ian Learned About Kenny

kennyinnc — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:01:02 +0000

My week with Kenny was great. Below are a list of things that I learned about Kenny. They are not in the order I learned them.

• Kenny loves GPS. It didn’t matter how many times we made a trip or how short it was, Kenny got out the GPS.

• Kenny’s love of the GPS came in handy more than once since the city of Charlotte puts trees in front of every sign.

• Kenny only drinks blue or purple Gatorade or Powerade.

• Kenny got a backpack that had the track and field logo on it. He was in love with it. I think love is an understatement.

• Kenny is a really smart guy.

• Kenny has a degree in mechanical engineering.

• Combine the two previous points and you get Kenny watching any and all television coverage of the ocean oil leak. I would say that Kenny is an expert on the subject. He did the math on the PSI of the oil exiting the broken pipe.

• When Kenny was not watching coverage of the oil leak he would find the worst thing on tv. One of his favorite shows was Say Yes to the Dress. For those of you who have no idea what this show is about, it is simply a show of women spending large amounts of $$$ on wedding dresses.

• Kenny will never run an 800 again, ever.

• Kenny hates shopping. For anything.

• After Kenny races he only eats really bad food. He insisted we go to Waffle House after his race.

• He loves taking photos with his phone.

• His favorite website is collegehumor.com.

• He will have a great future ahead of him.

• Kenny has no regrets about his track career or how he raced at the championships.

• Kenny will eat pizza without pepperoni on it.

• Kenny “does not want to have kids ever, right now.” His words not mine.

Race Day

kennyinnc — Sun, 30 May 2010 20:24:15 +0000

I got up at about 9:30 today. Breakfast was normal. To kill time in the morning Ian decided that he needed a new shirt. So obviously we decided to go to the most high class place we could think of, Macy’s. Ian picked the most feminine shirt possible. See the picture below. He’s posing with a $5000 rolex. Why? I have no idea. We then went to a Quizno’s. Despite the signs all being covered by trees, we found everything ok.

The shirt was the best buy of the trip.

Then we killed 3 hours at the hotel. Finally it was time to head to the track. We got there about 2.5 hours early, like planned. It was much nicer weather today. I hid out in the student center again for most of the time. I checked in and got my spikes approved 45 minutes before I ran. It looked like it was going to start raining at any moment during my warm-up. The warm-up went well. I was more nervous than normal, but nothing crazy. 15 minutes before the start the entire field went to the “hipping” tent to get hip numbers. I was in the slower of two heats, because everything was timed finals. It just started to drizzle a little bit as we walked onto the track. It wasn’t like Gliacs though, this was a warm light rain.

I started on the waterfall next to the GVSU guy and a dude from St. Cloud State. Once the race started the outer alley got to the break line first, so I was in 5th 150m into the race. We went through the 200 a little faster than I wanted, in about 26 sec. I let 2 people go around on the outside over the next 200m. I was 2nd to last in the heat with 400m to go. We went through in 54 seconds. I held my spot for the next 100m and tried to swing wide to get by people on the back stretch. I was a little boxed, so I only passed one person. With 150 to go, I swung into lane 2 and sprinted my ass off. I caught 3 people in the last 100m to get 4th in my heat. I ran a new school record of 1:51.08. Overall it was a great race. I was just glad that I pr’d in my last race. The 2nd heat was a lot faster, like they were predicted to be. The national champion ran a 1:48 and change. I ended up 10th in the nation. That means I beat 4 people in the 1st heat too.

One lap to go. You can't really see me.

Finishing

Glad to be done

I’m going to miss the 800.

After the race I just put stuff back on and hung out in the stands. It’s not like I had a reason to do a cool down. The 5000′s were really good races to watch. The 4×400′s were better though. The were all really close races. The winning men’s team ran a 3:04. It was amazing.

Rain = Postponed

kennyinnc — Sat, 29 May 2010 03:47:31 +0000

This morning was low key, just hung out at the hotel. I got to do a radio interview with Dirk from Mix 93 this morning. I got to do “Drivetime” once in the fall and always enjoy talking with Dirk. You can get the audio of the interview here (Dirkside Interview), thanks to Ian. We went to lunch at Panera. The chicken caesar was delicious. Afterwards we went to Walmart and got some track meet supplies, like gatorade and trailmix. Kasey Kaine was there and I got to take a picture with him.

After that we went on a drive to kill some time. We finally headed to the track around 4pm. It started to rain at 4:15ish.

I was supposed to run the 800m prelims today, but it decided to thunder and lightning for four hours straight and everything got postponed until tomorrow. There was a time when I was planning on running at 11 pm. This isn’t all bad for me though. One of my stumbling blocks in track has been putting two races together on back to back days. GLIAC’s has never gone well for me because of this. Now, with the races postponed, I don’t have to do that. I just run as fast as I can and then I’m done with the 800m forever.

During the four hour rain delay, I hid out in the student center and watched the NBA finals. It got to the point where I needed more food, because I was originally scheduled to run at 6:55. Ian took one for the team and ran to the sketchiest gas station ever and got me some food (crackers and cheese) and a gatorade. It was the dinner of champions. See the picture below. We went with crackers because I was planning on running in 90 minutes.

Dinner of champions

Tomorrow I’m going to sleep in because I don’t run until 9ish.

“While Kenny was hiding out in the air conditioning of the student center, I decided to camp out in the gymnasium with the majority of the other competitors and coaches to stay abreast of the situation. People found numerous ways to entertain themselves. Many of the athletes listened to music or read to pass the time. The Seattle Pacific coaching staff busted out a game of yahtzee. Whatever floats your boat I guess. The real highlight was when a rather neardy man appeared (see photo below). He spent the next 45 minutes constructing an audio-visual display. What was displayed? Nothing. As soon as he had it set up, he promptly took it down. At least he was keeping in the theme of the meet, right as you are ready to go, call it quits.”

First day of the meet – Spectating

kennyinnc — Fri, 28 May 2010 03:23:54 +0000

This morning was a short run on a mountain bike trail that we found. I did some short strides afterwards. Everything felt great. Hopefully my legs feel the same way tomorrow. We then went out to a wood fired pizza place for lunch in downtown Charlotte. I had the shrimp carbonara. It was really good. We then wasted a lot of time at the hotel before we headed to the track.

Strides in the morning

Today was the first day of actual competition. Mostly prelims, except for the 10,000m. The weather was great, hot but not humid. The coolest thing we saw today was Morgan Place from UMD getting 7th in the woman’s 10,000m. Also the last 800m of the men’s was run in 2:05. It was impressive. The one thing that surprised me is that how easy it is to forget that there are no slackers here. When I saw a dude get lapped in the 10,000 he still ran a 31:37.

Enjoy the pictures

One last thing. We saw more trees covering signs. We thought that a Papa John’s was a Jimmy John’s because the Papa was covered my enormous trees, again.

Check in and Banquet

kennyinnc — Thu, 27 May 2010 02:25:51 +0000

Ian and I got up at 8 this morning and went on a run. Turns out there are no sidewalks longer than 100m near our hotel. We were running on a grass shoulder and I stepped in a camouflaged hole and almost broke my ankle. That would happen to me. After this we unknowingly ran up to the entrance of a prison. We realized it was a prison when we heard the loud speaker yelling at prisoners. Everything was ok after this though. The 40 minute run was hot.

The continental breakfast afterwards was great. I ate a lot of fruit and lots of french toast. We went to Best Buy afterwards to get a card reader. We struggled to find it as once again the sign was covered by a tree. It never fails down here. Trees covered the Best Buy sign and the CVS pharmacy sign. At CVS we had another good quote of the trip, this time by me, “I’m never having kids right now.” This was said after hearing kids whine about not getting candy bars.

Around noon we went to the college and checked in. This wasn’t a walk up to the table and say your name kind of thing. This was a take a number and have a personal conference with an official. I got my credentials and race numbers. It’s not so much a number though, because it has my full last name on it. It feels like I’m running at the world championships or something. Next we went to the stadium to get our “mementos” aka awesome free stuff. I got an enormous sweet backpack, a smaller backpack, and a fleece blanket.

Ian went to the coaches meeting and I chilled in the hotel room. After that we waited until 6 to go to the banquet. There were about 700 athletes in one room. You could tell where the women were from by the volume of their hair. The more volume, the closer to the equator. It was a really nice banquet though, great food and venue. We sat next to a school called Adam’s State. Fyi, you can’t be a champion at everything in life. For a bunch of 10,000m runners, they sure ate a lot.

After the banquet Ian and I couldn’t resist walking down to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. It looked exactly as you’d expect. See the pictures.

Best Dale impression

Another Dale pose

While driving back to the hotel we were convinced that the GPS chooses a different way home every time. It seemed like it was determined to send us through the worst neighborhoods in Charlotte.

First Day in the NC

kennyinnc — Wed, 26 May 2010 00:42:29 +0000

Ian and I woke up this morning at the crack of dawn to get to MSP. It was worth getting up so early because as soon as we walked through security we saw the one and only Rod Carew. Not a minute later we saw Kevin McHale. The adventure in MSP gets better though. A couple minutes after the McHale sighting we saw a concentrated orange juice container explode all over this one poor woman. Don’t worry though, it’s not like that stuff is sticky and it’s not like it will ruin your flight. Anyways, the flight was probably half full of track athletes, covering almost all of the Midwest. We were joined by athletes from Wayne State (the other one in Nebraska), Nebraska Omaha, Northern State (South Dakota) and Northern Michigan.

We got our rental car and checked into our hotel. Almost right afterwards we headed to the track and I did my last track workout ever. It wasn’t anything too strenuous, just some 200s and a 300. The weather was humid, but nothing worse than when we left the cities. The track itself is really nice, old and really hard. Should be a fast track. I was a little surprised by how manicured the facility is for the meet. All the hurtles are new, the field was painted, and there are banners everywhere.

Me and Charlotte

Afterwards we went out to dinner at Wolfman Pizza. It was pretty hard to find though, because as Ian put, “Hey I’m North Carolina, Let’s grow enormous trees in front of all our signs.” Once we got past the trees and found the restaurant, the shrimp scampi pizza was actually really good. Now I’m just chillin’ like a villin at the hotel. We might get some ice cream later.

Haiku of the day:

Orange juice is sticky

Their blue track is really fast

Rod Carew is cool

Last Day in Minnesota

kennyinnc — Tue, 25 May 2010 02:17:19 +0000

This is the last full day in Minnesota for me. The jungle weather continued. I ran six 200′s on a slight downhill grade. Legs felt good considering that it was 75 degrees with 100% humidity at 8:15 am. After the jungle run, my girlfriend and I used a gift card that I got at Christmas at a restaurant called Fogo de Chao. Google it and you’ll know why it is my favorite restaurant ever. Unlimited amounts of delicious meats, with awesome service. Afterwards I went home and waited until Ian finally got here. It only took him three phone calls and then me guiding him over the phone with google maps to get here. To be fair, my parents live on a new road and it wasn’t in the GPS. I also want to give a shout out for my Mom for a wonderful beef stroganoff tonight for dinner. Afterwards I started to pack for the next five days. It’s just like a normal track meet, but a lot longer. The only thing I can’t find is my camera’s battery charger. So if anyone at the Ruby house in Houghton finds a cannon camera charger in my room give me a call. I’ve obviously never been to Charlotte, so I’m looking forward to going to some restaurants and anything else there is to see the days before I compete.

Haiku of the Day (Ian’s idea):

Fogo is awesome

I really hate hot weather

Leave for Charlotte soon

Outside the Norm

kennyinnc — Mon, 24 May 2010 03:20:02 +0000

Today was a rest day for me. My last last interval workout tomorrow. Going to do it on a road by my house with a slight negative grade, so I can focus on leg turnover. I just love the idea of doing intervals downhill. It’s almost like I planned taking today off, because is was 89 degrees and felt like I was in a swamp jungle it was so humid. My girlfriend and I tried to go to the twins game this afternoon. The only problem is that we didn’t have tickets. It is impossible to get tickets for less than $40 with the new stadium. So we drove down to Minneapolis and tried to get some scalped tickets. We did a lot of yelling at scalpers from my car. The cheapest tickets were far more than two college students wanted to pay so we drove to Dinkytown and got some delicious slices of pizza. I had the fettuccine alfredo pizza. I hope the irony of me enjoying complicated pizza isn’t lost on the track team. I ventured outside my usual pepperoni.

I deviated from my normal pepperoni.

The other thing I wanted to write about are Floyd Landis’s recent remarks about Lance Armstrong. Floyd Landis lied through his teeth for four years about his doping. He is such a snake that he took donations from other people to mount a legal defense that he knew was a giant lie. He called it the gag inducing “Floyd Fairness Fund.” So after four years of deceiving the public, why should we believe anything he says. In his statements to the press, he even messes up the years that Lance was racing certain races. He can’t even get his own lies straight anymore. Needless to say, it is obvious that Floyd is just an angry person who is upset that no one is paying attention to him and wants to throw his former teammates under the bus out of jealousy. Lance is used to people, namely the french press, slandering him. What really puts these accusations over the top is fraudulently throwing good people like George Hincapié, Levi Leipheimer, and Johan Bruyneel, cycling’s greatest coach, under the bus. In short, people should view Floyd like he is, a jealous angry man with a chip on his shoulder and absolutely zero shame. He should disappear from the public sphere.

Intervals and Bike Shopping

kennyinnc — Sat, 22 May 2010 03:00:16 +0000

Today was a pretty low key day for me. My workout at the Park Center track went great. I ran 8 200s all around 26 or 27 seconds. I did some core work after too. Felt great the entire time. It wasn’t quite raining. It was more of a refreshing mist that wasn’t enough to get soaked. I got to catch up with my old cross country and track coaches from high school. I also got to run with my little brother, which is always fun.

After my workout I went to Erik’s Bike Shop and finally took home my new road bike. It’s a Specialized Tarmac with a Sram Rival components. It’s a graduation present to myself. Over the last couple weeks I haven’t had anything to do except run and shop for bikes (you can read that as “It was the best two weeks of my life”). Buying a bike was a great opportunity for me to geek out on some really cool technology. Don’t worry though, I won’t be riding it until after the national meet. I haven’t had good luck with riding bikes before big races (see the first post in this blog). Buying a bike was a great opportunity for me to geek out on some really cool technology.

Tomorrow will just be an easy run with some strides after, and a lot of bike ogling.