If I have won, then I am going to make that my 2012 Spring Marathon and training will start almost immediately. I usually don’t like the 16 week program because I have found that a training program that long seems to drag on for ages and I have gotten bored with in the past. Now, this was at a time when I was doing a long distance race fairly regularly and while I wouldn’t be in “marathon shape”, I would be familiar with training that my body remembered and I would find myself over training because I would make shorter runs longer.

This caused me to burn out or be over trained for the goal race and have a bad showing on race day. I benefit from the “It’s better to be under trained, then over trained” adage and so I would hand craft 12 week training schedules for me to follow. Only problem with the shorter schedule is that you have to follow it more adamantly, because you can’t miss as many training days or talk yourself into shortening your run from say 10 miles, to 8 miles, eventually to 6 miles… just because.

This time is different. I’m coming off what is a longer rest period for me than what usually happens. My last marathon was last year in November, Flying Monkey Marathon on 11/21/2010. My last long distance races were this spring (Calhouns 10 miler, Strawplains 1/2 Marathon and Whitestone 30k) and with my quad and hamstring pulls of the summer, my running was pretty much zilch.

There was also the mental aspect of running which kept my mileage down. I wasn’t motivated. I was actually not motivated from a “whole Terry” perspective and so not running was a by product of that. Now that things have gone through a mental shift back to a more normal (as normal as normal can get with me) way of thinking, the desire to RUN has come back to life.

If I don’t win the contest, then my training program will be starting on 01/15/2012 for the Flying Pig Marathon.

I don’t think I have a preference for either race. While I have not run the Georgia Marathon,  I do have Georgia (2007 Chickamauga Marathon) completed in my journey for running a marathon in all 50 states. I ran the 2009 Flying Pig Marathon, which had the largest crowd size that I had ever experienced at a marathon and wouldn’t mind running through the streets with tons of spectators cheering, just for me.

But perhaps FREE stuff is a motivation to take the plunger to my big bowl of constipated drafts and say WOOOOOSH!

At least right now, as I type this, I am IN my wordpress admin site, so that is one step closer to getting that race report done! Also, the episode of Gravity@1053′ which happens to be Episode 27, IS uploaded just not formally published. So if you happen to know where to get it, you can get it before I get the post up. I am not even sure if my Feedburner actively monitors that folder anymore.  Well, anyway… back to the free stuff.

So there’s this website, errrr blog, called Safer Choices, which finds even “HEALTHIER” choices then some of the knighted “Healthy” choices out there. Now like my Favorite Running Company of all time, Vitruvian Running [Sorry that you had to close down Chuck], the owner/writer of the blog is a chick (couldn’t find a name quickly) who I shall dub “Safer Jen” (cause there’s only like 2 billion ‘Jen’s out there and I got a special one of my own) who used to work for the “Corporate Giant” Rodale (hey, Runner’s World) publishing  and in her own words worked on “Organic Gardening Magazine to health and fitness books like Alternative Cures and South Beach Diet” and now has this site.

What’s nice about this site is that it doesn’t have the “Scare & Awe tactics” that some of the Uber Healthy website have, sure it has some undertones such as “Could your toothpaste harm your unborn child?” but that’s much better than “Killing the unborn with toothpaste”. It’s more of a “Guess what I found and here’s the skinny” and so processing the information she writes about is much easier to digest because you don’t have the “This sounds like a bunch of crap” mind set.

So to the free stuff…

The loot is a FREE coupon for Pacific Natural Foods’ soups (and you know with it being “Natural” and “Organic”, those are two upcharge premiums at the grocery store).

So what is so special about Pacific Natural Foods’ soups that is worth having to do all of this manual labor? BPA-Free Packaging

Here’s Safer Jen’s Review of the Soup’s and you can see my comment (1 entry to the contest)

Here’s the link TO the contest itself and I have to link to the Safer Choice Giveaway page too

So the other things that I have done to get extra entries is:

You will get one additional entry for each of the following (leave a separate comment for each):

1. “Like” Safer Choices on Facebook (link on top right) and leave a comment with your Facebook name.

2. Follow Safer Choices and leave your name.

3. Follow Safer_Choices on Twitter and tweet the following: “Enter to win a free Pacific Natural Foods product at http://saferchoices.blogspot.com/search/label/Giveaways “. *Be sure to leave your twitter name in your comment.

4. Blog about this giveaway and link to http://saferchoices.blogspot.com/search/label/Giveaways and leave the link to your post in the comment.

which I have Done, Done, Done and Done (once I actually stop typing and hit [publish]).

I’ll even toss in the Pacific Natural Food’s Corporate Website, just because that’s the kinda Spread-the-Love guy that I am (or at least in my head that’s what I think).

Now, the sexiest thing about this particular contest is that there is going to be some Statistical Methods used in determining the winners! Nothing like a good ole random sample to determine the winner! Stats RULE!

I will use Random.org to select the winning comment numbers.

The next contest for Guess My Time Win Crap will be later in May for the Expo 10k. More on that in the upcoming weeks. Thanks to all those that played.

This has been another successful contest from PRIZ3S a division of planet3rry.com

So I thought I would play along and make my own bag design. And if my design gets the most votes, it might be at a Kroger Family store near YOU!

Can I count on your vote?

You can vote by clicking HERE

I was thinking that this contest would be different seeing that my designated goal time IS 4 hour and 45 minutes. It was kinda not fair to actually have people guess what my time would be… but while I was in room of “rest”, I thought… “It’s hard enough to guess the time, and I will axe (no, not ask) the provision that ‘whatever time is close enough (read: To Get a Winner)‘ and make them get it on the dot”. Now, I was thinking that I would cruel enough to get down to the THOUSANDTHS of a second, but that is too much of making me an a-hole that I thought… eh, I’ll go [HUGE GRIMACE] with only two significant digits.

So, Here are the rules (in no particular order): Click on the Contest Arena of my website. Hint: It’s at the top of the website next to the link to send in your gold to me for hard cash. You’ll see the entry form… wait. IF the entry form is there, you can still play. If it’s not there… I can’t go for that… no can do. You’ll have to wait until later in the month. I’ll make sure that your county public health department puts you on suicide watch until the next contest.

So, you fill in the form. Send it in and wait patiently for the results. My guess is that they will post them later in the day. Of course, if I do that Twitter thing that all the cool kids are doing, then you might find out my time earlier. But, I have been known to be a jokester in the past and could Twitter the “wrong” time. Hehe… that would be funny.

However, as with all of my crappy contests the official race time as published by the race entity or its affiliates will be the end all and be all of the results.

The Race: The 5th Annual Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon on March 29th 2009 at 7:30am AST (Anticipated Start Time)

History: Doesn’t really matter does it? My Goal Time is 4hour 45minutes and 00seconds. However, if you must know, my 2006 time was 4:21:44

Accuracy: Given the clairvoyant nature of my finishing time, you must Guess My Time exactly. Well, I might be persuaded to relax it to within one second… but that’s all the flexibility I am going to give!

Official Entry: Your official entry will be the time stamp on my email of your guess. You may enter more than once, but your most recent time will be your official Guess. IF for some reason you can’t use the comment form, you may use other methods to get to me. Check out Where To Find Me on the right Side Bar, but there is no guarantee that your guess will make it… but I’m a pretty nice guy, I might let it slide.

It felt great, I ran the entire way, non-stop and with ease. I need to see what my pace was, but it was in the 9-10min range. I’ll have 2-3 more runs in this quasi-Taper before the marathon. I did decide on a few things…

1. I am going to record the entire marathon: I’ll use it for an episode of Gravity@1053 and I will use it as my first episode for my, yet untitled, ASD Athletes podcast.
2. I will twitter during the marathon, maybe 3 or 4 times depending on how I can manage it. I am incredibly new at Twitter even though it’s been around forever (in techonology years)… We have a twitter set up for ASD Athletes, so I will use that one. @ASDAthletes
3. I am going to call the phoneline for The Extra Mile podcast and send in a recording while running of my Knoxville Marathon experience. If you are a podcaster and you would like me to call in and leave a comment for you use on your podcast. Please let me know what the number is and I will “put it on the list”. Use the Contact Me in the Top Menu Bar.

Also in the upcoming week, look for the GUESS MY TIME, WIN CRAP contest for the Knoxville Marathon. I will have to change the rules a little (and I can, because I am the supreme universe ruler of the GUESS MY TIME, WIN CRAP contests) since my time SHOULD be 4:45:00 as a result of my Volunteer Position of being a Pacer. I am thinking that we are going to have some sort of “target” or “percent” type contest. I have to think about. I also have to find some crap to give away too… more on that in a day or two.

PRIZ3S a division of Planet3rry.com

announced today, right here, that the person with the closest finishing time guess for the Harpeth Hills Marathon will win this fabulous prize:

MMMMMMmmmmm CHIA....

unused HOMER J. SIMPSON Chia Pet

******
Watch it Grow!
Handmade Decorative Planter

Easy to do. . . fun to grow! Full coat 1-2 weeks.

Contains:

• Handmade pottery planter
• Chia seed packet for 3 plantings
• Convenient plastic drip tray
• Planting and care instructions sheet

Reuse your Chia Indefinitely. Simply replant with chia (extra seeds included) or similar herb seeds, such as basil, alfalfa, marjoram or thyme.
*****

And even if you have the Green Thumb of DEATH, you can’t mess up the Chia.

AND THAT’S NOT ALL

In addition to Homer, PRIZ3S is also pleased to announce that Homer’s Beverage of Choice will also be included. Due to fact that shipping alcohol beverage over state lines is “technically” illegal, much less the duty (hee hee, I wrote ‘duty’) tax on said prize would be cost-ineffective, a Beverage that Homer would HATE, although Lisa might find it enjoyable, A box of Snapple Orange-inality Herbal Tea will be included.

SO IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO ENTER (or Modify) YOUR GUESS FOR TERRY’S FINISHING TIME AT THE HARPETH HILLS KILLER DEATH FLYING MONKEY MARATHON

Well, after waiting until TUESDAY! I went to the KTC Message Board to see if there were others who were curious when the Results would be posted. And sure enough, someone posted the results…

[Start Fanfare]

So here are the Official Results

I finished the 2008 (inaugural) Rutledge Marathon in the time of

4:50:52

I was the 40th Finisher out of 52 and I was the 6th (and last) Male in the 35-39 Age Division.

[okay, you can end the fanfare now...]

Now something happened that I was NOT expecting… there was a TIE in the winners for the Rutledge Guess! That’s Right… Two people thought I would be a slow MoFo and they conspired to the same time. Actually, I will assume that they were thinking I would take it conservatively for the first marathon and run a delightful time of 4:32. Little did they know that there would be a crazy-ass wind that would try to suck the spirit out of the runners and would make me EVEN slower!

I could have taken the first person’s entry, but I don’t want to clog the bandwidth of the internet with all 100 hits (on average per day) coming at one time when they see that I have a new contest. No, I would prefer something less humane such a Battle Royale, but local ordinances prohibit fun stuff like that… blah blah blah.

So, IF I finished in 4:50:52, that equates to 292.9285714 minutes and half of that (rounded to the nearest 1/100th) is 146.46. Taking 10% of that and turning it into currency makes it:

$14.64

Wait! I am not finished…

(reading)
“And one jamir to honor the Hebrew
God whose Ark this is.”

oh wait, that’s supposed to go into my “At Church, Indiana Jones was Referenced and The Elder told everyone ‘That’s Daddy’s Favorite’” Post.

But wait… $14.64 split in two for the two wieners winners and that is $7.32 each.

$7.32!

That’s enough to…. uh… that’s enough to… yeah.

“Holy Lotto Pickers Batman, you haven’t told us WHO the wieners winners are!”

In NO particular Order (although the one that could conceive children was first), The Winners of the 2008 Rutledge Guess My Time, Win Crap $7.32 in Gift Cards are:

I AM a Running Adventurer, MARATHON CHRIS
(who just ran the INAUGURAL San Antonio Marathon)

and

(My Other Running Brother) Darrell

*****************************************

There is still time to either submit a Guess for the Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon or submit a new guess, if you have already done so. Just Click on the “CONTESTS” link at the top of the page (fancy, eh) or click HERE.

*****************************************

Cameo Appearences:

The Half Marathoners that I ran with during the 1st Loop, who where wanting a 2:10 or better finishing time were Rachel Fisher and Megan Vanderhoofen. Rebekah did finished in a BAA style 2:10 time being that her official time was 2:10 and change. Megan came in 2:11 and change.

“You didn’t come all this way, just to run a 2:11″ – Terry speaking to Rachel and Megan in the last mile of the first loop of the Rutledge Marathon

The Marathoner that I ran with was none other than “I placed 2nd in my Age Group for this marathon” Karen Lewis who was just Olympic timing- a couple HUNDRETHS of a second behind me.

Support Crew Susan has posted some of the pictures on her Shutterfly site. I am going to get some of her pictures and combine them with the pictures that My Lovely and Talented Wife took and post a Picture Post of the Rutledge Marathon.

I also got word from the Almighty KTC Message Board that some other pictures will go up on Flickr from some guy who says he was the Official Photographer.

Instead of submitting your time as a comment, you’ll need to use the forms that are in the shaded box for that particular contest. I’ll receive an email for that race

************

**************

So as you can see, the organizers of this contest have spared no expense on providing great gifts for you to win!

Winners will be announced as soon as either:

1) I have the official results AND have a chance to get to the computer (provided that I am conscious)

2) My next of Kin can get to the computer

Typically for these contests, I try to give you some information that will help you “Guess” what my time will be. However, I have never run marathons within 8 days of each other, so I don’t have anything to really give you. But I will supply my past marathon times to help.

Historical Times

And you can also peruse my Buckeye Outdoors Training Log

*******

• You can enter as many times as you want, but only your most recent entry based on the timestamp will be your official guess
• This will be an Over/Under format, meaning that the closest time over or under my finishing time will be valid to win.
• The Official Time as reported at the event website will be the End-all-Be-all result. Should no result be posted, then my watch time will be used.
• Winners will have to send me their postal address to gain their prize unless I already have it. Giving me their address subjects them to such things as world domination, Christmas Cards, and other random items (and sometimes embarrassing items) sent to their homes.
• There are no restriction for past winners… Enter and Win and Enter Again.

Deb wins great CRAP for her guess of 3:13:13 for the Big South Fork Trail Race!

She Wins:

• A RAZZLES candy MAGNETIC memo pad
• Bendable Monster to commemorate her victory in guessing my time

and another surprise that I have to dig out of my workshop reach into the surprise closet to get. All I would need from Deb MUHAHAHA is her mailing address MUHAHAHA.

The next contest will be a double, NO, make that a triple-dipple contest. I’ll have the details, but it’ll be something like:

1) Guess The Rutledge Marathon Time

2) Guess The Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon

and/or

3) Enter in a combined total for BOTH marathons

This is give you a chance to in guess each marathon twice! And I will have 3 winners!

I am thinking that the prize for #3 will be something slightly better than CRAP like a ROAD ID or perhaps a gift certificate or something else… or maybe a choice depending on whether the winner is a runner or not.