We're in the Final Four!!

Here at UNC, the words "final four" are magical. While it's too early to really talk about Roy taking Tyler and the boys to the real final four, I'm excited to announce that HPAA is in the university wide co-ed intramural semi-finals. If we win tonight then we play in the championship game on Monday.

It's a great league of 4-4 bball (2 guys/2 girls on the court at all times). It's been a fun road to this point in which we are technically still undefeated. In our 3 games of league play we staged a late comeback in which Gabe hit a dramatic shot to put us within reach, and then I hit a last second shot from the post to end the game in a tie (no overtime). We won big in our second game and had to forfeit the third because not enough people could make it.

We earned a bye from the first round of the 50+ team tournment, but then had to play a really tough team of juniors and seniors. Morris and Brad carried our team and we held off each of their rallies to end the game up by three.

The sweet sixteen game was a comfortable beating of the team we beat earlier in the season, but they were a lot of fun to play with. The elite 8 game last night was incredibly dramatic. While it was close the whole time, we managed to maintain a 4-6 lead for the entire second half. That is, until one of their girls closed her eyes and banked in an incredible three pointer to tie the game(from a foot behind the line). We couldn't get a good shot on the inbound play and would have to try to take the lead and hold them for five more minutes. I was pleased with my contribution, as I made a layup and later a free throw that gave us a 3 point lead with less than 90 seconds left. Of course they managed to tie it up again, and for whatever reason ended up fouling Lauren pretty hard. It couldn't have been more dramatic: 5 seconds left, tie game in overtime, 2 free throws. The first one rimmed out, but she nailed the second one. They quickly got the ball up court and ended up with a great shot at the basket. Fortunately for us, they missed their layup (that would have knocked us out of the tourney) and we lived to see another day.

Eli Manning the hero

This one's for you dad...

Myrtle Beach Half Marathon

Last Saturday we went to South Carolina where I ran the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon. It was only my third race ever and second half marathon. Follow these links to read about my experience doing the Ottawa Half Marathon last May and the Red Cross 10K in Fayetteville, NC last August. For the record, I ran Myrtle Beach in 2:09:33, coming in 1320th place out of 2800. I finished in 55th place in my age group (men 25-29) out of about 80. Finishing in the top half is a nice improvement from Ottawa. For perspective, my Ottawa time would have made me 1587th place in this race.

When I prepare for a race like this I have 3 tiers of goals. In this case, the primary goal was to beat my Ottawa time of 2:22. I thought this was going to be easy by how well I was running distances of 3-7 miles, but the first two times I tried running the full 13.1 miles in training I was just as slow or even slower than 2:22! My second goal would then be to finish under 2:15. There is no particular significance to this number other than it being a round number and a decent drop from my Ottawa time. By race day, I had actually run the 13.1 miles in 2:05, so my top goal then became beating that.

I had a tough start to the race, there were almost 5,000 people (3,000 doing the half and 2,000 doing the full) on a relatively narrow road that it was hard to get in a good rythm at my usual pace. Even still, I was feeling pretty comfortable as I passed the 3 mile mark and waved to my dad and Sarah who were yelling my name as I ran past. I felt good all along Ocean Blvd (mile 4-8) though was consistently frustrated that the mile markers seemed further apart from each other than the map I had drawn of the race the night before. By the time I got to mile 9 on the King's highway I knew that I would comfortably accomplish my most important goal of beating the Ottawa time of 2:22, felt pretty sure I would beat 2:15, but that 2:05 was going to be tight. As we turned left on Mister Joe White Blvd around mile 12 and had 1 mile to go I knew 2:15 was in the bag, but 2:05 wasn't likely. I then set 2:10 as my goal which is significant because it's how long it would take if you ran an average of 10 minutes/mile the whole race. As we turned into the parking lot of the minor league baseball stadium for the last quarter mile, with the energy of the crowd pushing me and the finish line in sight, I sprinted to the end and finished 27 seconds ahead of my ad hoc goal. While I didn't accomplish the third goal of beating my personal record, I met the other two goals and that feels pretty darn good.

I'm registered to run the Raleigh Rocks half marathon on April 5th and am really looking forward to getting to know Raleigh better by running its streets. If you're interested my three goals are (in order of importance to me) 1) beating my MB time of 2:09:33, 2) beating my personal record of 2:05:30 and 3) finishing under 2 hours. I'm getting good advice from lots of people, including my economics professor, as well as tremendous support from my wife, and look forward to a great day. After that I'm planning on running a 5k on April 26th here in Chapel Hill, and then gearing up to do the full 26.2 miles of the Richmond Marathon on November 15th. I have 9 months to reach that goal!

Training Analysis

I'm a numbers guy and I think that one reason I love training is that it gives me something to keep track of, analyze and strategize about. Sarah teases me that I make spreadsheets for everything (the exact number of times I've been to the temple, had personal scripture study this year, as well as the time, distance and weather conditions of each run in the last 12 months, including my weight each week). So now that I have been running regularly for 12 months, it's time to analyze the data!

In the last 12 months I've had 3 major training periods for each of the 3 races I've run. From Feb-May 2007 I trained for the Ottawa Half Marathon, from June-Aug for the Fayetteville 10k and from Oct 07-Feb08 for the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon. Unfortunately I haven't found my June-Aug training log since we moved, but I've beaten all those record anyway. This analysis will mostly be a comparison between the two half marathon training periods.

Total duration of training: Ottawa - 16 weeks (Feb 7-May 27), Myrtle Beach (MB) - 20 weeks (Oct 1 - Feb 16)
Total number of miles ran: Ottawa - 197.6, MB - 329
Average # miles per week: Ottawa - 12.35, MB - 16.5
Total times ran: Ottawa - 71, MB - 70 -
Average # times running per week: Ottawa - 4.44, MB - 3.5
Peak weekly mileage: Ottawa - 27.3 (44km, twice), MB - 27.4
Peak distance (other than race day): Ottawa - 12.4 (May 12th), MB - 13.1 (12/14, 1/11 & 2/1)
Coldest training run: Ottawa neg 24C (-11F), MB 26F (-3C)
Hottest training run: Ottawa 25C (78F), MB 93F (34C) (doesn't factor in humidity)
Change in weight: Ottawa - from 197 - 185, MB - from 187 - 180.

Records
5k (3.1 miles): Ottawa - 29:00, MB - 25:27
10k (6.2 miles): Ottawa - 64:00, MB - 54:04

It's hard to compare times between the two training periods because I ran distances in Ottawa based on KM while I now run based on miles. I've thought it will be interesting to compare times for each distance during the last four months, from the fastest time I ran a particular distance compared to the first time I ran it.

5k (3.1 miles): 30:33 on Oct 1st --> 25:27 on Dec 18th.
5 miles: 53:02 on Oct 6th --> 43:53 on Dec 17th
10k (6.2 miles): 1:09 on Oct 20th --> 54:04 on Jan 28th
8 miles: 1:30:18 on Nov 3 --> 1:17:12 on Jan 17
9 miles 1:30:54 on Nov 17 --> 1:24:36 on Feb 11

For the "record" (bad pun), since I've been busy with school I've only run twice since Myrtle Beach, but beat personal records both times. On Monday I ran a 25:19 5k, at an 8:08 pace. On Wednesday I ran a 53:49 10k, an 8:40 pace. It's a good start to my 2 month training for Raleigh and 9 months until Richmond.

The Campaign

As you know, Obama and Clinton are virtually tied in the delegate count for the Democratic nomination with roughly 3/5 the country having voted. Who knew that the NC primary in May might be one of the more important ones? Like I have said already, I am supporting Obama, but with tremendous respect for both Sen. Clinton and McCain, and yes for Mike Huckabee as well. There are things about each of them I have liked for a number of years. That being said, Obama is the one that I think can actually get substantive legislation through congress in 2009. It's hard to imagine Hillary getting major health reform through, or McCain trying to get the type of reform I think we need. While Obama's plan isn't quite as ambitious as Hillary's, it seems much more politically realistic to me. Not only that, but with him at the top of the ticket, and with the unusually high number of Republicans retiring in Congress, I think the Democrats would be in a strong position to pick up seats in both the Senate and the House. Probably not enough to get the "super majority" 60% needed in the Senate, but enough to be able to move things along. Hillary might be the main reason many conservative voters (who don't love McCain) make it to the polls in November, meaning that she, democrat majorities, health reform and other initiatives would be so much more unlikely. Even still, like I've said before, if she does win the nomination, I will be behind her.

What's on my mind

Here's a video collection of some things that are on my mind lately:



Obama's won me over. I've liked him for a long time (relatively speaking), but haven't been sure until recently that he's who I would support for the Democratic nomination. When I first got an ipod in 1995 I subscribed to the podcasts of every Senator on itunes, which was basically just Obama and maybe one other. Each week I felt like I got to hear him as he told me his thoughts on the big issue of the week, from immigration, to health care and foreign affairs. What I respected most was his sincerity, the feeling that I was hearing what he really believes. He didn't stick to the party's talking points and wasn't afraid to compliment the Republican ideas he agreed with. More than anything I think our country needs a President who can heal the partisan divide and anger over the war that afflicts our country. As much as I love Hillary, it's obvious he'd be better at that. While her health care plan would be more effective than his (though I like his a lot), I think he's much more likely to get something passed. That being said, if she is the nominee, I will be behind her 100%. Even still, if McCain ends up being the President, I imagine I will be very supportive of him, as he won my respect years ago. My only concern is that he'll be trying too hard to prove he's "conservative" and won't be sticking to what he truly believes. Knowing him, I'm not too worried about that.



In case you haven't seen these Super Bowl highlights yet (or haven't seen them 100 times yet), enjoy! A smile still comes across my face as I watch Manning avoid all those tackles and Tyree make that catch on his helmet and then break his back as he holds on to the ball. What a game! The Patriots were 2 minutes 44 seconds from finishing a perfect 19-0 season for the first time in NFL history, but it wasn't meant to be as the Giants won their first Super Bowl since 1991, when I was 10. Speaking of that game, I can still remember so clearly watching Scott Norwood miss that field goal. Let me set the scene for you: if he kicks the ball between the goal posts, Buffalo is the champion; if he misses, then the Giants are.


(I don't endorse the fake newspaper headline or the ending, but the clip is fun to watch).



I cried 10 year old tears that night watching this interview feeling so bad for him, but so happy he missed it. You know it's a tough moment when the reporters are trying to console the players on the air!



I can't quite describe what it is about the Shout Out Louds that make them one of my favorite bands these days, but I can't get enough of their album "Our Ill Wills." Maybe it's the Swedish accent? I'm not sure about the video for "Tonight I have to leave it," but it's a fantastic song. Here's the video for "Impossible":



Other than my sweetheart, the baby and school, this is what's on my mind lately.

Funny Commercial

This was a good commercial from the super bowl

Congrads

Congratulations are in order to our friends Chris and Melissa who just found out they're having a boy. It's so wonderful to have such good friends to go through this experience with, and am glad our kids will get to play together. I know you two are faithful blog readers, so congrads to Melissa and Chris +1.