Race History 2010

2010 - Season 14

Feb. 28, Last Chance For Boston Marathon, Dublin, OH, 3:55:07

Mar. 7, S.A.R.C. Shamrock 15K, Cuyahoga Falls, OH, 1:07:11

Mar. 28, Fools 50K, CVNP, 6:35:03

Apr. 19, B.A.A. Boston Marathon, Boston, MA, 3:19:50

May 2, Flying Pig Marathon, Cincinnati, OH, 3:41:45

May 29, No Frills Just Hills 6 Hr FA, CVNP, 20.9 miles

Aug. 22, HFP Great Buckeye Challenge Half Iron Tri, 6:29:28

Sept. 12, Ford Ironman Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 15:22:31

Sept 18-19, NorthCoast 24 Hour Endurance Run, Cleveland, OH, 62.15 miles

Oct. 17, Columbus Marathon, Columbus, OH, 5:23:44

Oct. 31, Run With Scissors Trail Marathon, CVNP, 4:40:52

Dec. 5, Buckeye Woods 50K FA, Medina, OH, DNF

How to Make Rum Balls

1. Find someone to make the Rum Balls. (Heather)

2. Find a taste-tester who will also double as a photographer. (Me)

3. Acquire a Rum Ball Recipe. This particular recipe is short on details, but it works!

4. Ingredients: Vanilla wafers.

5. Cocoa powder

6. Pecans (Note: We didn't have pecans, so we used walnuts)
(Don't worry. People won't care they're not pecans. People would care if there wasn't any rum!)

7. Confectioners sugar

8. RUM!

9. Chop the vanilla wafers

Make sure they're good and chopped!

10. Deposit the wafer bits into a large mixing bowl.

11. Measure the nuts of choice.

12. Chop the nuts.

13. Add the chopped nuts to the chopped wafers.

14. Add the cocoa powder to the mix.

15. Add the powdered sugar.

16. Mix the dry ingredients together.

Time for the rum!

Have you ever noticed how rum rhymes with yum?

17. Start with 1/2 cup and see how well that works.

18. Pour the rum into the dry ingredients and mix well.

19. Not enough rum? Try another 1/4 cup!

20. After the consistency is perfect, form the balls one at a time and then roll in a small bowl of powdered sugar.

21. Don't forget to smile. There's RUM in there!

22. Place the completed balls in an air tight container for storage.

23. Ponder the fact that there is still rum left!

24. Taste test!

Me too! Note: What looks like powdered sugar all over the front of my shirt is actually sugar caught mid-fall by the flash. After I took the photo I noticed a large area of powdered sugar on the floor in front of me, but it wasn't until going back through the images on the computer that I saw they were captured in time!

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

We're Not Getting it THAT Bad

REALLY! We're not! That last satirical post of mine was directed at weather that is NOTHING compared to what others have been getting this season. Our snow was spread out over three days and gave us somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 inches. The snow was bad enough overnight Monday into Tuesday to cancel school here in Medina. But even that was a dusting compared to what parts of New York and Ontario have been receiving. All photos courtesy weather.com.





While the lake effect snow we received in Medina managed to skip right over the communities along the lake shore, downtown Cleveland hasn't been totally left out of the party. A snow squall line formed yesterday afternoon and hit the area during afternoon rush hour. Horror stories abounded as it took folks hours to make what would normally be a 20 minute commute.

Now there's word of another major snow maker heading in for the end of the weekend and early next week. Depending upon the track of the storm we may be graced with more of the ice crystals. Yeah! I'm glad I don't have far to go on a daily basis and we will manage to deal with whatever is thrown our way. I am still a little grumpy though. All the snow sure does make it hard to run!

2010 Buckeye Woods 50K FA

In lieu of a "traditional" race report. I've decided to write a complaint letter to Mother Nature concerning the weather conditions we faced this morning.

Dear Mother Nature,
(or as I'm going with today, You Frosty Hearted Witch)

I'm writing to you today about the winter-like weather you served up for the inaugural Buckeye Woods 50 this morning, the 5th of December, 2010. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT SHIT? I distinctly recall ordering a sunny day with highs in the 50 to 60 degree range. Now, I don't know what planet you're from, but around here, mid 20's with wind gusts that push the wind chill into the teens and SNOW that falls SIDEWAYS is NOT the same thing as mid 50's and SUN! Yes, I know that it's December and Christmas is coming and all that, but it still says AUTUMN on my calender and that steaming platter of frozen-weather excrement we had to endure today is decidedly one that occurs in the WINTER.

Do you know what? Maybe you should get your bitch-ass outside and try running for more than an hour in this windy-ass polar cold! How would you like that? I'm guessing you wouldn't. Oh, I'm sure it looks positively lovely from inside, next to a crackling fire. But by about mile 15 your thoughts will begin to change from "winter wonderland" to wondering if your going to freeze one of your testicles off because there's not enough room for both of them to retract into your body cavity. Let me tell you, THAT is an unpleasant thought to ponder when you're out on a trail at the absolute farthest point from the aid station. And that's another thing. What was the deal with the excessive wind gusts at the aid station? I suppose you may have found that humorous? Well, it WASN'T! Of all the locations on that 5 mile loop, the ONE place it would have been nice to have a little respite from the elements was at the aid station. We stopped in. Got a little fluid. Ate something. Maybe even ate some hot noodles! Would it have been too much to ask to have the wind NOT blow so hard my fingers numbed in the time it took to eat 1/4 of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

I'll have to hand it to you Your Royal Frostiness. You beat me today. You managed to sap all the energy I had. Reduced me to walking. Your icy talons pierced my soul and left me little choice but to cut my run short! Sure, I was sick all week and hadn't ran in 8 days. But when I woke up this morning I still thought I could manage 31 miles. Congratulations, along with my strength, you sucked from my body what mental fortitude I was using to keep putting one foot in front of the other, leaving me only able to manage 26 miles (27 with that last mile I ran with Kenny). I salute the others who were able to persevere in the face of such a meteorological assault. They, THEY were the true victors. You may have beaten me into submission, but you didn't win. I have that to comfort me.

In the future, I suggest you treat us runners with the respect and dignity we deserve. Deliver us with weather conditions a little more suitable to running comfortably. Worrying about frostbite in our nether regions is NOT comfortable. I don't expect a refund for today's debacle, but I would appreciate a couple muggy 85 degree partly cloudy with a chance of scattered rain shower days next year to make amends. Say on the 30 and 31st of July to coincide with the Burning River 100? Yeah, that would be nice! It's the National 100 Mile Trail Championships again, you know. Hot and muggy would be SWEET!

Affectionately yours,
Mr. Pythagoras

P.S. I also suggest you do not overstep your bounds. Remember what happened to the White Witch in Narnia? She got a little full of herself and thought she could make it winter all year long and look what happened. Aslan put her back into her place. We might not be four English kids, but we Medinans roll like that. I would hate to see something like that happen to you. I'm just saying...

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

11/28/10

Quicken Loans Arena

Cleveland, Ohio

The TSO concert was Sunday night and absolutely spectacular! Bigger, brighter, and more amazing! After dinner at Chocolate Bar (review coming in another post) we made our way to The Q and found our seats in the SECOND ROW!!! I had my small Pentax with me and captured the night the best I could in the difficult lighting conditions. So now, if you will, please enjoy a review of the concert through photographs.

Suspended above the stage during the opening song!

Derek Wieland, Keyboards

Joel Hoekstra, Guitar and Dave Z, Bass

Bryan Hicks, Narrator

Chris Caffery, Guitar, Joel, and Roddy Chong, Violin

Bryan Hicks

Chris Caffery

Chris introducing the Vocalists

Two catwalks descended from the ceiling directly over us.

One of the singers, turned dancer!

I wasn't able to get enough light to freeze the action, but I think the blurs add a sense of how energetic the concert was.

Dave Z. The girls sitting to my right kept going nuts for him.

Paul O'Neil playing a duet with a 17 year old who will be starring in their new Broadway musical.

She was born in 1993 and she ROCKED it!

Tim Hockenberry performing his solo.

According to Paul, this was the ONLY show on the tour where he would be singing the 2010 re-make of Dream Child, which was just released the day before.

Looking toward the back of the arena, Chris and I'm not sure who else made their way to a small stage and were playing for everyone on that end.

Jeff Plate drum solo.

They finished with the traditional last song for Cleveland, Cleveland Rocks!

And they did! They played straight thru without an intermission and the concert seemed to end too soon. We almost decided to stick around for an autograph signing, but being a work and school night, we thought that would make for a very rough Monday morning. Maybe next year!

Thank you TSO for putting on yet another top notch concert! I think we've already agreed to come celebrate Christmas with you again next year. After five concerts, it's kind of a tradition at this point!