Running in Paradise(s)

The Bender-Browns headed to Kona to run races. Of course, I think it was all a ploy to get to Hawaii. Denise ran her first (and she says last) half marathon. Traci and Annalise ran the 5K. I'll upload the photos from the race site, but I think they are tiny versions. Guess they want you to buy the size you can actually see.

This past weekend Gina ran the Shore Run in Seattle,(our running paradise) and it was a nice cool day. Perfect running temp's. (I pulled out with minor leg woes) She did great ! finishing in 7th place, in just under an hour for a 6.7 mile race.


And our race buddy Judy Fisher, the 60+ runner, went by with a nice wave.


Gina on the Madison Ave. downhill. She knows that little pack of runners is back there but no way they pass her. Me, I've just come out of Starbucks to snap the photos. Carmel frap, please.


Denise, in Kona, in the dark colored COTTON t-shirt. a runner NO-NO. Coach Lesley would just shake her head.... But, DB, you are awesome! Finishing that race in stellar time, 2:28. Wasn't that way more fun than playing soccer? come on, you can tell us. Kristine Lilly might still be kicking it around but you are diversifying your sporting experiences. I await the boogey board photos.


Traci Lyn Brown... we know you picked that baby blue shirt to match your eyes. Nicely done. Finishing on the even #'s.
And I know it was more than a 5K as you went to & from the car for phone and cameras. Get healthy and next year we are both running that half.


ABB.... I'm crying, I'm so proud of our Godchild, just for making it look like you had fun. What a good sport. Next time bring your drum and do cadence the whole way. Trust me, you will be the lead story on K-ONA channel 7.

My Big Island blog assistants cannot remember the race # of their buddy Cindy so I can't post photos... but we do know she kicked some butt running a 2:11 half mary. The real test of her endurance will be lasting the week in the condo with Traci and gang... Just kidding.

Good job all !

From our Oregon blog assistant that is not Joan

Randy managed to take this photo of Greta, Emily and Jr. with no "thumb prints". show off.

arrgghh, just shoot me

so, this picture might look like a thumb covering the lens but what it is REALLY is Ken Griffey, Jr. swinging and connecting on his first home run of the game. NO, REALLY.

I REALLY need to practice with this thing a bit. Yes, really.

ahh, the excellent photo quality of the phone camera. in case you can't guess , it's Junior coming to bat. We were there to see him get 2 homers, and wave goodbye to the crowd. He looked directly at Gina and me, I know he did.

JUNIOR's home again !

Ken Griffey, Jr. will be back in Seattle this weekend. And the town is all atwitter. (ok, the Mariner team is, in hopes it will help sell tickets) Gina and I will be there on Sunday and we gave our Saturday tix to someone who cares.

Some folks are holding a really long grudge about his departure (get over it), but for the most part I think people are excited to see him. He was THE REASON to go to M's games in the '90's. You just KNEW something exciting would happen with him in the game. Just don't ask Greta for her memories cuz inevitably she was in the rest room when that something exciting happened. It got to be where we would buy her beers and make subtle suggestions, just so she would have to GO ! we needed homers.

Here are a couple shots of mementos from those glory days. Gina can't believe I have the hat still, but it was part of the birthday package for Greta and myself, the April 1st that our names made it to the big screen. OH YEAH !!!!

The Jr. candy bar has been in our freezer(s) for years now. You never know. But you can tell it's been a while, look how skinny he is in the picture.

Some would say Griffey for President in '96 would be better than what we've been experiencing for the past 7 years . You can form your own opinion.

You might be wondering about the Bernie Kosar bar.... long story involving God knows how many bloody marys and Sunday mornings at the the Univ. Sports Bar and the Browns Backers....

The Joey Cora bar ?? well, he did cry in the dugout... and we did go to a Joey Cora gala event that he sponsored to raise funds for an AIDS organization.... but God knows where or why we got that candy bar.

And of course, don't we all keep some chocolat from Paris in our freezer? oui ! we do. but God knows how long those have been in there? Quel something or other?

And here are the items that are crucial.. Margaret's Citron vodka and the frozen water bottle to ice various body parts.

No, no frozen pot pies, or hamburger meat, or burritos, or pizzas, or popcicles, or leftovers, or.............. just un-edible chocolates, and un-drinkable fluids.

Failure

The grand plan of taking no med's for my undiagnosed allergies and breathing woes has been a colossal failure. I was so hoping that it was the mold under the old bedroom that was my problem and since the remodel took care of that issue I should be able to breathe easily.

NOT !!!

Below is a shot of just some of the kleenex's I went thru last night. Like a tenth of the total. The node wood dot stop running. Of course, we did do a swim at the pool that day. And on other days when the air has been blizzard-ing some sort of pollen (huge white fluffy things) I did not fair so well, either. The chlorine seems to have affected Gina, too, as she had her own dwindling box of tissues.




I had stopped taking my singulair cuz it seems to be a lungs type of med. and my biggest problem is my schnoz ola . I've been congested for 2 months now. On the worst nights I pop a sudafed, which works, but also keeps me awake. On the positive side, I think it really HELPS my running speed. Must be why it's on the banned list at the Olympics.

Last night was the final straw. I'm in to see the doc tomorrow and at least get some new prescriptions for whatever can solve the sinus issues ( tissues ? ) ( tissue ? I hardly know you ! ) I presume they'll want to send me back to the sinus doc who would love to do some sort of operation. Up his nose with a rubber hose !!

Meanwhile I sit around looking muy intelligente, breathing thru my mouth. I try to keep the drool to a minimum.

The Dogs are Tired

After 4 with Darcy, 5 with the coach and a swim, another swim, 5 at the track, and 14 (at or near 8:30 pace) my legs are officially tired from the week. So of course I hopped on the bed to watch Tiger, in hi def.

Tomorrow we're supposed to ride bikes for 30 miles, but the weather forecast isn't looking great so might re-think it.

We will need to put some miles in on the bikes, though, cuz we are participating in some gig at the gym. It's a Ride Across America thing, celebrating our buddy Cheryl Marek's record ride some 20 years ago. or something. Anyway, each team totals their weekly mileage and they sketch your route on the map. Gina and I are team ARMY. Plus one. That's right, Coach Lesley is on our team ! She is in Ironman training so she's putting 200+ miles/week in the saddle. Gotta have a ringer. Esp. to cover my lame butt.

Dad week

It's Father's Day and some special dads' birthday week so here are a few.


Blogger and her dad.
His b-day would have been yesterday....all my troubles seem so far...sorry, just the way the mind works.


Mr Bob B. my biggest fan ! Happy birthday TODAY !!


Traci's dad, Verl.... the drummer's grandad. Would have been his b-day today,too.


Daddio and daddio, junior a.k.a. Jim

Drum Roll, please

Well, I guess I should ask the person who the drum roll is for to give us a drum roll.... Congratulations are in order for Annalise. She tried out for tenor drums for next year and just got word, she's in! Yippee..... get some other sucka to haul those big bass drums around.

And for anyone who needs to know, the tenor drummers are the ones with 4 drums. The only bad news is that setup is heavier than the big bass drum. But ABB is tough and will do her gym workouts to prepare.

Of course as soon as my assistant blog photographer in California sends me the pic's, I will post them. ahem.

Back to the 13th inning, M's vs. Cubs.

Dippin

We got our first lake swim in this evening. Hold all applause.
We met Coach Lesley at the G.Lake beach. The water is fine.. just like Darcy and Lesley and Tai and Rock all said. ok, ok

I also did a "easy" 5 miles with Lesley this morning. and I use the term easy loosely. for her, maybe.

O sole mio

Here is our gym buddy, Rock, on his new toy.

A big time surfer, he usually does normal surfer paddling drills on the lake. (like there's anything normal about surfers) We'll look up from dinner and see some crazy dude way out on the lake, oh, it's just Rock.

But now he's got a new angle on it all. Standing and paddling

Toot Toot

OK, race season is on.............

The intrepid Val, aunt of Rookie of the Year Indy Car driver Phil Giebler, entered her first sprint triathlon of the year last weekend. With no time in the pool yet, a chain falling off in the BIG gear on an uphill, and her infamous bad heels limiting her run training.... well, "how'd you do?" The notoriously modest Val gives all the above excuses.... And of course, she was 1st in her age group. Congrats to her.

Last night was the Fremont 5k. And it does have a beer garden at the end so you know I was signed up. Gina, too. A 7pm start time does wreak havoc with our schedule/system/couch potato-ing but we try to go with the flow. At least it's in our neighborhood.

With a 7:05 pace at the first mile mark I thought oh oh.... actually I thought that the mile mark was short . I did slow a bit but remembered a recent article that said it's not such a bad idea to really go out hard on a 5K. I passed a couple people I really have no business passing, then when the last .2 was uphill I really had to keep pushing cuz I did not want those folks passing me back. Anyway, 22:34 was a great time for me.. Can't remember my 5k PR but it always seems my time is closer to 24:something so I was very happy.

Then I waited just a couple minutes for Gina to come along. and with a 25:50 time was very pleased with that 8:17 pace. What with her year long struggle with the feet (and recently renewed hamstring issue). Everybody was happy.

I found the beer garden YAHOO !! Heard my name called out as age group winner. Drained that recovery drink and we headed home for pizza. Life is good.

We got up and did 8.5 miles this morning and they felt great, so let's all get together and knock on some wood. Things (body parts) are going good.

R. I. P. little Hansa

Hansa, the baby elephant (well, 6 yrs.old), died last night. I guess in her sleep, of unknown reasons. She did have an upset tummy for the past week, but even I shall let those jokes be, for now.

She was the media darling of Seattle when born. Hansa is a Thai word meaning "supreme happiness" that some local school kid came up with to win the "name the baby elephant contest". Guess we should be looking up the translation for "supreme sadness" now.

This is a photo I took when she was first introduced to the public. We even bought zoo memberships for a few years so we could take our friends kids to the zoo. Love those kids for giving us the excuse. Thanks Emily and William.


While fiddling thru my zoo foto file I found one of my personal favorite photos....

the elk pee-ing


Anyone know the Thai word for "supreme childishness" ?

Indy 500 The Famous Phil Giebler

You've all heard about my famous friend, Val Ritchie, the super triathlete, basketball star, pork ribs BBQ-er, well now you're gonna hear about her nephew Phil Giebler. He's been racing cars for many years, has gone to Europe to race those Gran Prix type courses... Has been hoping for a break through into the big time.... well today he qualified for the 91st Indy 500 which will be held next weekend.

He had to hang on and do it on Bump Day.. We are learning new things. Trying to get the Indy lingo down.
He was 2 turns on the track away from qualifying yesterday but ....... yes, he hit the wall and crashed. Which is definitely not what one wants to see. Esp. when you "know" the driver, and his relatives. But I guess he's a super driver because he hung tight, bumped it against some other wall, and didn't destroy the car or himself. They got it repaired and he took care of business today. Had to go 4 laps, faster than the slowest guy yesterday. And hope no one else did it even slightly faster.

Just before he went off on practice laps the camera caught him and he gave a nice wave to all his west coast fans. I think I saw him mouth "Hi Phil & Genevieve" (grandparents) And I know he promises to never hit the wall again. Big sigh of relief.

All we can say is YAHOO !! for PHIL !!



Phil in his helmet.


Phil shaking hands with a teammate. some French guy (gee ? )





And for your statistical pleasure:

INDIANAPOLIS 500 BUMP DAY QUALIFYING CHRONOLOGY (cont.):
3:42 p.m.
#31
PHIL GIEBLER/Oxnard, Calif.
Ethos Fuel Reformulator - P/H/F
QA-1 (QE-2)
1 – 40.8709 – 220.206
Q – 50
2 – 40.9237 – 219.921
3 – 41.0480 – 219.256
4 – 41.0645 – 219.167
T 2:43.9071 – 219.637
#31 Giebler bumps #18 Kite from field.

And the play by play, from the indycar.com website:

Activity today by Playa Del Racing to prepare the #31 Panoz/Honda/Firestone that Phil Giebler qualified for the 91st Indianapolis 500:
Time
Action
1:22 p.m.
Car is rolled on pit lane.
1:27 p.m.
Giebler straps into car.
1:32 p.m.
Team removes engine cover to make adjustments.
1:47 p.m.
Engine fires, Giebler begins practice lap.
1:48 p.m.
Car returns to pit.
1:51 p.m.
Team removes engine cover for inspection, reattaches cover.
2:04 p.m.
Giebler begins practice laps.
2:07 p.m.
Car returns to pit.
2:09 p.m.
Team removes engine cover for inspection, reattaches cover.
2:16 p.m.
Giebler begins practice laps.
2:21 p.m.
Car returns to pit.
2:35 p.m.
Giebler climbs from car while Richie Hearn makes qualifying attempt. Sits on pit wall.
2:48 p.m.
Giebler returns to car.
2:54 p.m.
Giebler returns to track for practice.
3 p.m.
Car returns to pit.
3:09 p.m.
Giebler returns to track for practice.
3:14 p.m.
Car returns to pit.
3:32 p.m.
Car pushed to tech rack for technical inspection.
3:39 p.m.
Giebler strapped into car for qualification attempt.
3:42 p.m.
Engine fired. Team manager Mark Weida shakes Giebler's hand, taps top of his helmet. Giebler begins qualifying attempt.

Training recap for the week

In case you're interested.

Last Saturday I ran with the group on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail. A slight incline the whole 11 miles. and for fun I kept up with Ty for 8 of them.. At her blistering 9:00 pace. Fortunately I was able to drop down to a more humane pace for the last 3 miles.

Tuesday night we joined the group for a FUN workout. After a short warmup (it was 80 degrees out at 6:00pm) we did 3 mile repeats on a tough/hilly course in Lower Woodland Park. A route I studiously avoid on my normal running days. AGGGHHHH it was hard ! Gina's foot was feeling good so she joined in on all the fun.

I did a 7:52, 8:12, and 8:22...... oh and the goal was to run them all at same effort/time. That didn't work out so well. My chest was burning.

The big problem with a 6pm workout is that it TOTALLY INTERFERES WITH THE COCKTAIL HOUR .

Wed. I went to the pool for 30:00 of lap swimming. A minor miracle in that I had the lane to myself for most of the time. At first some guy was thrashing around. Hard to tell when/if he was doing backstroke or crawl. I think he was flipping. But jeez, minor tsunami each time we passed each other. But then he was gone !

Saturday morning I'll go join the group up at Tiger Mt. for 12 miles (6 mile loop twice).
Check out the warnings that Coach Lesley puts on the workout agenda. Cracks me up. But really, why leave the city???

Cougar
If you come across a cougar, stay calm and keep your eye on it. Back away slowly, making yourself as large as possible (hold arms over head). Don’t run or turn your back. If the cougar follows or comes toward you, respond aggressively. Make eye contact and make loud noises. Grab sticks or rocks for weapons, but try not to crouch too low when picking them up. If the cougar attacks, fight back. Make sure you keep the animal in front of you and convince it that you are a threat rather than prey. Use anything you can get your hands on as a weapon and go for the face and eyes.

Bear
If you come across a bear, keep it in view, but don’t make eye contact. Back away slowly, don’t run unless you know you can get away (which is unlikely since bear run as fast as a horse and can climb trees). If the bear follows you, drop a bag or piece of equipment to distract it (only drop food as a last resort) and continue to back away slowly. If the bear goes to its hind legs it is trying to scent (identify) you – talk softly and keep backing away (always keep the bear in sight). If the bear gets aggressive (including jaw snapping, head lowering, ear flattening, woofing sounds or growling), try to determine its intent. The bear may be acting defensively if you’ve startled it or if it is protecting cubs or food. Waving your arms and talking in low tones while backing away may help the bear identify you. Sometimes a bear will bluff its way out of a situation by charging and veering at the last moment.

If the bear is not bluffing and shows predatory behavior such as following, showing interest and unprovoked attacks, you have to change your approach. Always fight back - jump up and down waving your arms and yelling. Try to look as big as possible, and never play dead (it makes you easier prey). Black bears can climb trees so stay on the ground.

The Running Fun

The 2007 running of the Breakheart Classic 6K race was the highlight of the weekend. Apologies to Katie & Will, and the birthday gal. Gina and I felt that the race was just a terrific way to bond with my siblings and nieces and nephews. I was so glad they all decided to join their crazy aunts.

Kristoffer actually trained, by Google Earth-ing a 6K route around his neighborhood. Although when asked if this running business might become a routine, he said "not so much".

Aileen chalked this up as her PR for a 6K.

Trish drank a few of those "gatorades" (well, it was a lime flavored beverage) that were served at the Cinco de Mayo rehearsal dinner and still showed up. She and Larry were spotted in the hotel gym stretching prior to the race. I now know they were probably just limbering up for the evening dance performance.

Tara ran her guts out. 9:00 pace. and with stomach cramps. Awesome !! And recent report from Croton Middle School is she ran the fastest mile for girls in 5th grade in 7:27. Aunt Ann has competition. I love it !

Patty led the cadence chanting uniformed gang all the way to the finish line. And looked good doing it.. Esp. since we now know she was infected with the ehrlichiosis bug.... some version of lyme disease. The race must have put a little oomph into Patty's muscles cuz she was spotted (unfortunately not on camera) doing the splits on the dance floor later that evening.

Attached are some photos taken by the supportive siblings, Joan, Catherine and JimHogan.



Patty must be running fast, check out the hair !


Trish with the pre-race stretch.. the bandana was a nice touch.


Most runners lean forward at the finish line...duh.
And there's fotog Joan in the background.


here's how the new watch works.


We are the buffest, baddest team in this race.



Showing a little leg for the camera.


Aileen cruises in. (Not a penguin joke in site.)



Is that a movie star watching the race? why, yes it is.



Kris breathing down my neck at the finish.


Larry passed that guy like he was standing still.

My Junior Assistant Kyle

As the official wedding blogger, I found myself inundated with responsibilities (eating, dancing, drinking, checking the Mariner score, sitting, drinking, dancing)

So I hired a junior assistant to help out in the photography department. Kyle McHugh, age 6, stepped into the void and did an excellent job. Kyle also celebrated his birthday on May 4. So I find myself wondering is he 6 ? or is he 7?

Here is some of his work. Others are on previous posts.

Will's dad and Ellen

Will's dad

Now I have a bit of explanation for the next 2 photos. Aileen thought that Kyle would lower the camera accidentally just as he pushed the button. Or it might just be his height. But it does seem odd that the only 2 photos of someone's chest were 2 gals with ..... Well, maybe no explanation is necessary.

Onward.

The Hogans

Maybe a little too "up close and personal"

but we can tell who the only one to get braces in the family is.

Snap it Kyle, snap it, push the button, push.... too late Gina looked away.

Thanks for the help Kyle. The check is in the mail.

The Birthday Girl

Everybody wants to get in a shot with the 80 year old gal.


Oops, wrong photo.


Tara sitting close to the main event. Possibility of more cake.


Catherine sucking up... I mean reading a very touching poem.


Ann spent hours baking the cake, and making sure it made it thru security at the airport.


Look, a photo of Aileen with no penguins in site.


Maureen and Jim paid extra to sit at the big whigs table.


Ann holding on to what has to be the only glass of water she had all weekend.


What world famous principal is hiding behind those Foster Grants?
oh, yeah, the eldest daughter of the grande dame. Excellent birthday toast, by the way. (thanks)