My shift is going to be near the end of the race, within the last 0.5 mile at the intersection where I direct the 5k people in one direction and the kids and other racers in another. Based on the race starts, there should be no over lapping. I will be too close to the finish to have my standard fare of Pretzels, Gummy Bears and M&Ms, but I will have some water out there for the people struggling at the very end. After all, you have to look good for the camera!

I’m at that blue dot on the map. I’ll run that part of the course tomorrow and probably Friday so that I will know what to expect and know what to tell the runners. So, I don’t think any of my readers are going to be running Knoxville on Sunday, but if some reason you are… scream your name, I’ll be recording the next Gravity at that time. Plus I am going to have Stella there and if you want a “Foto voor geen geld”, let me know and I would more than happy to oblige.

Typically when I finish the race, in the last 50-100 meters I am either in a full-blown sprint, or I am passing people to find my place in the finish line. Normally, I am so out of breath that when I finish, I pull off the tab off the bottom of the race number and hold it in the air, so that the person taking the numbers can get it and I can regain my breath. Typically there is a chute monitor to make sure that you stay in line as you crossed the line, this keeps the paper trail of bib numbers in order. There is also someone who is punching in the bib numbers as they come through the line as well. Maybe more, I don't know… I've only helped setting the chutes up not actually manage the race.

So I found the Finish Line director when I got to the race location (It's the closest 5k race to my house) to find my assignment. I was directed to Ed Leaver, who had all the equipment and could tell me how I could help out. We first started by making the chutes, what the runners enter after finishing to keep them in line, just with polls and cord. But, since we were finishing on a narrow greenway, we had to make the chute a lot longer, so that the bib numbers could be collected with creating a traffic jam. Apparently, there are often a couple of chutes to rotate to keep the numbers straight. Once we got the chute up and running, we were given what we would do during the race. I was paired up with a lady named Terri, easy enough to remember, and were given the little computer thingy that records times and bib numbers. I had never even held one of those things up to this point. In fact, I learned that there is another attachment (much the Jeopardy buzzer that the contestants have) that someone else uses to mark when the runner crosses the finish line.

I was actually afraid that I would be responsible for the timing of this certified course and that the official times of 150+ runners would be in my hands. After all, the runners pour their guts out on a non-so-easy course for 15-40 minutes and to have it all in the air due to some rookie, just made me nervous… one wrong entry and someone could lose an age group award. Thank goodness that they had another counter that was used for back-up, redundancy… it's a good good thing.

We walked up to the race start so that we could synchronize with the gun start for the official timing. For this race, and I do not know about others, we set the main big clock up after we got back, so that could potentially be off by a second or so. We made it back with a few minutes before the overall winner crossed the finish line. That was easy! He was also all by himself AND 2 minutes ahead of the next runner! His time was 15:53 and that is in minutes for 3.1 miles! The not so scary part of using the apparatus was that I did not need to record everyone's bib number, but just “selects.” Selects, as defined to me, were about every 3rd or 4th runner, or runners that would probably be an age group winner, etc. Such as the first female, or young runner, etc. The hardest part of the whole process was reading the bib numbers as they came into the finish line. We were lucky that the orientation of the finish line funneled the runners down to 1 or 2 way before the crossed the line. So, it's not rocket science, but it's a lot of responsibility because you always need to be looking for the next bib number and hope that you enter it in correctly. The other Terri was responsible for hitting the button when the runner crossed the line… so she had to make sure that she got EVERY runner. We ended up with 190 runners by the race end. It was then time to disassemble the finishing chute, pack stuff up and call it a race.

I had loads of fun, as everyone was nice and everything ran smoothly… ask me again when it's chaotic, I may have a different answer.

Tomorrow will be a long run, but not sure if I am going to be starting on time. I have to go back to court since the victim in the case did not show up. Seeing that I am a key eyewitness, I need to be there and so should the victim, but he has warrants for his arrest and may not be there. Well, he might show up in an orange jumpsuit. How they love ORANGE (Go Vols) in East Tennessee.

I also know that I will be skipping lunch work on Thursday… more on that later.

I will be volunteering (another Tennessee subliminal reference – Go Vols) Saturday morning at a Local 5k. Although I won't be running in the race, I may still try to get some mileage in one way or another.

Oh yeah, the title of the post… The outdoor pool is attached to the diving well, so that about 1/4 of the length is deeper than 6 feet. I'm guessing that the shallower end of the diving well is close to 15 feet, the deeper end closer to 25 feet deep. The bottom of the diving area has some brown algae or something growing on it. Well, today while swimming I saw that the brown gunk makes a great writing board. Apparently a bunch of people wrote their names on the bottom of the pool… not something you see everyday. Graffiti at 2 fathoms.

I made it to the coliseum right at 6:30am, so I ran down to the registration to find out that the volunteer coordinator did not leave anything for us to do, well really he hadn't assigned us to do anything. I met my friend, Annette Hansen since she received the email mentioned above as well. She ended up helping with registration while I went off to help construct the finish line. Finish Line management is some tough stuff. You have to be as accurate as possible with runners coming in at different intervals and sometimes in packs. Often there is a runner who is sprinting at the end and passes a bunch of people right before the finish line, like 10 feet. I am usually one of these runners, but I don't push it to 10 feet, at about 25 feet, I slide into place. Anyway, I was helping with “the chutes”. The finishing chute is much like the velvet ropes in movie theatres. It is in place to keep runners in line, in their finishing order and gives them a chance to catch their breath.

They are also long enough so that runners don't clutter up the actual finish line to obscure the timer taking down the runner's times. Instead of using nice velvet rope, our chutes were made of long strips of plastic multi-colored triangle flags (like 100' or so). You could tell that these strips had seen some action… some flags were missing… some of the strips were shorter strips frankensteined together to make it long enough. The strips were in large plastic bags when I got to them and dumping them out on the ground, I looked puzzled… the process of uncluttering the strips was much like detangling Christmas lights but with some reprieve, you didn't have to check all the flags to make sure they were working… it is automatic!

I haven't mentioned the weather in the Greater Knoxville area up to this point. It was overcast, about 59 degrees and a drizzle had been coming down since about 6am. I finished with the chutes things and hung around until about 7:40 am when I bugged off so that I could warm up. 20 minutes… enough time to warm up but not enough time to do any damage. The rain had subsided by now and I ran to the car to put on my Breathe Right Strip, get my key arranged properly and to finish off the Access bar that I had. I also took a few pictures as well. Like all the other runner lemmings, I made my way to the Start Line at the top of the hill. I recognized some of the other runners and tried to line myself up with those whom I knew were about my speed. I also started away from the curb this year. I have been caught in traffic in previous years that have cost me sometime as I try to manage my way through fellow runners. They played the National Anthem, the sponsors gave their thanks and the wheelchair participants were off. A few minutes later they let the runners loose…

And we were off, finally. I thought that if I had stood around a little longer waisting for the race to start, I would have to warm up again. The first 1/2 mile or so is all downhill, then a slight up to Gay Street where we turn onto a actual flat strip. The most technical part of the race is uring the downhill. Since the 5k and 10k start together there are hundreds of people running downhill at the start. Even though it is easier on the lungs to run downhill, there is always the threat of hurting your knees, as they take a lot of your weight and are susceptible to buckling if you start running out of control. Add a bunch more runners around you and it makes it a little more difficult. This year, I never had to worry about having to change my pace from runners in front of me. I didn't have to waste energy weaving in and out traffic. I felt a little out of breath as I came to flat area of the race. Trying to gain my breath as went up and around hospital and back down on the Henley Street Bridge. By now, it was sprinkling down but not too irritating. I missed the split for mile 1, but when I came to the mile 2 marker I saw that I was right on pace, my watch said 16:07. My legs still felt heavy but I was able to pace with some other runners and that helped some. We went through Market Square and then the 5k people turned right on Gay Street toward the finish line, the 10kers turned left for another 4 miles or so.

As I was back on Gay Street, I knew that the course would be a little more agreeable (flat) to enable me to loosen up my strides and pick up some speed. Just as I was approaching the 3 mile marker, I saw the course leaders speeding past me in the other direction. The winner of the past two Expos was in second place and did not look very happy being in that position. The 4th and Gill section of the race runs through a historic (I think) district here in Knoxville spotted with victorian houses which gives it a distinct contrast to the rest of the neighborhoods downtown. It seemed like there were 4 waterstops in a 2 mile length. Not that I am complaining, but it seemed that we could have used one of them earlier in the race. I didn't bother to check my time at the mile 4 marker. I knew that I would save whatever I had for that last 1.2 miles and to just get myself there since Gay Street is flat and straight (heehee). At this point my legs started to feel light and I felt like I had gained a little bit of a boost in energy. Perhaps it was all the turns in the 4th and Gill area that got all the rust off of my legs or maybe it was the fact that the course was doubling back and could see all the people behind me on the course. I looked for my friend Annette Hansen who was running but I never saw her until the finish line.

Just before the mile 5 marker, I passed a guy who had an obvious hamstring injury but was insisting on running or rather some contorted limp-skip action that seemed to provide enough velocity for him not to give up and just walk. Having had a bad hamstring injury back in 2001, I couldn't understand why he would want to keep injuring it like that…

Up on Gay Street, for the final mile, I knew that I had to run a sub 8 minute mile to make it under 50 minutes. Not only did I have to be faster than 50 minutes for the course, but I had to makeup the time it took me get from where I was at the start to the actual starting line, maybe 5-6 seconds.

In the last 1/2 mile, I was hurting… I could tell that I was just about to ready to stop and walk to catch my breath, but then I thought about what Grandma would say. I could almost hear her, in her loving but authoritarian voice telling me “You better not quit now… I am not up here watching you to WALK”. So I focused for the 6 mile marker. I knew at that point it was 0.1 to the end of the block and then 0.1 up a slight upgrade to finish. I was still knocking on the door of 50 minutes. I let my mind “detach” my legs from my hips which allows me to have a longer stride and thus cover more distance, which is all in preparation for the sprint at the end.

I turned the corner and picked up the pace, probably a 7:00 minute mile. I can see the timer clock at his point displaying 49 something, but I could not make out the seconds. But when I see the timer clock during a race, that is my signal to let it all hang loose. I must have passed 4 or 5 people in the last 400 feet or so. I seemed to have had the best technical sprint of my career… I felt so fast without my body flailing wildly all over the course. There seemed to be a lot of cheering at the finish line, more than usual… I imagined that it was all for me and as I covered the last 20 feet of the course, I saw the clock timer 49:58, 49:59, 50:00, Damn, 50:01… then finish. I stopped my watch as I was gasping to get air back into my lungs… I walked through the finishing chute (which I helped build) to get some water and food.

I looked at my watch and it said 49:57, which was my “chip” or net time but not my official time. It turns out that my official time was 50:02, not exactly what I wanted, but I think was a satisfactory day especially since my net time was a 49:57. My split times are as follows:

So All in all I was the 194th runner out of 594 finishers. In my age group, I was 20th out of 30 runners. I have also added a few picture in my running gallery.

This race was dedicated to my grandmother, Bernice Varney who passed away this year from a hard fought battle against pulmonary fibrosis. It was my honor to complete the 10,000 meter race so that her memory will never be forgotten. I love you Grandma. Luke 7:47

Tuesday I went walking around the track on Tuesday. Marty met me there and we walked around the track talking about his preparations for the marathon this Sunday. I tried to give him a few pointer mainly because he will be on his own this marathon. I originally was going to run with him and pace him for as long as I could so that he could get a 4:15 time. He thinks that he'll come in around 4:30-4:45 but I think that he is closer to a 4:15 and it wouldn't surprise me much if he is closer to 4:00. We will see on Sunday.

I know what my job is going to be for Sunday. I am going to be a course monitor at the intersection of Forest Ave and 20th. It is around the 11.4-11.5 mile mark during the race. I am excited because now I will be able to see the Full and the Half runners. Here is a picture of where I will be on the course

Jen and I made a list of the words that Eric knows. We came up with 30 words that he can say, not all the words are clear, such as “SpongeBob” sounds like “BunBob” but it is a specific word for a specific item.

Jen will be in Charlotte North Carolina for Mary Kay Career Conference Friday and Saturday. It's going to Boy's Days Out. I don't have anything concrete in plans, but I figure we will run some errands around town, plus go to the Marathon Expo on Saturday.

I found a discrepancy in our website with the way the pictures albums are stored. I am now having to reload most of the picture albums. For some reason, Dreamweaver does not want to auto change all the links, so I am having to do them myself. Luckily, DW can tell me which links are broken and if there are similar pages then it will fix them all at once. This helps cut down on time, but even with that I am only to Oct 2003 right now. This might take a few days.

Last night before tutoring, I went to volunteer at a Knoxville Track Club event called “Art meets Science”. I didn’t get to stay for the speakers, but was the door greeter. I had fun with it while I was there. They had wine and lasagna, which I did not partake of any. I didn’t want my students to smell alcohol on my breath and lasagna is yucky. For those that don’t know, I could not eat any italien, tomato based substance, like lasagna or even spaghetti. This made for interesting times at function where lasagna is provided because it can feed the masses. Not me, I had to fend for myself, or just eat a lot of bread. I would get physically sick after eating these foods, which was odd because I liked tomatoes (or tomatos) on sandwiches and I didn’t mind catchup. (Kudos to Pulp Fiction that turned me on to French Fries and mayonnaise). I can eat spaghetti now, and most of the other pasta dishes, although I can’t stand going to Olive Garden. Their menu is just so hard for me to pick an item off the menu. I don’t have a problem with the other italian restaurants, so I don’t know why. My favorite way to eat spaghetti is to use Ranch Dressing with Hot sauce as my sauce, I can eat that NO PROBLEM.

I didn’t get to run last night, since I was volunteering. I am looking get out on the road on Sunday morning for maybe 6 miles or so. I have a weird ankle problem in my right ankle that just popped up. I think it maybe swimming related, but am not sure. At the base of my ankle, slightly on the inside, I have a tender spot on my right leg. It does not hurt to run, it’s not swollen and it doesn’t look like I hit it against anything (not that I remember). I think it started on Wednesday, but I can’t remember when, if it was before or after swimming. I don’t believe that it is running related, because although i did run swiftly on Tuesday, I didn’t have any “events” during the run. I was planning on running the Strawberry Plains 1/2 marathon on the 19th, but now it looks like I will be doing something different. Next weekend, I will be going with Jen to Myrtle Beach. It just so happens to be the same weekend as the Myrtle Beach marathon, how convenient. In addition, they are having a 1/2 marathon and a 5k as well that weekend. This left me with “Do I do the full marathon as a training run or do I race the half marathon” after some serious debating with myself and also putting the question out on the knoxville marathon forum, I decided that I would do the Half Marathon. This way, I can get a mid mileage run as a Tempo run or so I thought. It seems that the Half Marathon is sold out! So now here are my options: 1) Run the marathon as a long training run or 2) Race the first half of the marathon and then slooooowwwww down for the second half or 3) Run the 5k, which is expensive for a 5k $30 or 4) Do a run, by myself and it would not be very fast at all. Looking at the website, I can only imagine that the 5k is sold out as well. So know I do not know what to do… any suggestions?

First and foremost, Eric took about 5 steps on his own last Friday night. In addition he also went from a sitting to a standing position. Since then, he has done nothing! He stands some and can cruise around the furniture and other inanimate objects. He will also walk if you let him hold onto your fingers, but the bottom line is that he can still travel faster crawling. So, he’ll get stronger and more dexterity on his feet and then start running, maybe at a 5k pace.

As for my running, I had a running packed Saturday. First of all, I volunteered at the Sept 11th Memorial 5k race in Knoxville. I was out on the course calling out split times at the mile 1 and 2 markers. After that, I went to lakeshore greenway and ran 4 loops which is 8.8 miles. It was pretty darn hot and for the 4th loop, I took some predetermined walk breaks. There was no other way that I would have made it for that last loop. Right when I was getting back to the Xterra, Solange called me and asked if I wanted to go running in the afternoon. “Sounds good to me!”. So I went and picked up Eric, went home, Eric and I napped and then made it out to Solange’s where she and I ran 5 miles. I have taken Sunday and Monday off, but I plan on running today.

I had fun with computers this weekend. The parts that I ordered came in and I started moving programs and files on Friday night, so that the parts would be ready for some construction. I found out that night that the old AGP cards (video) did not fit into the new motherboard, so that meant that Saturday I would have to go out and get a new video card. When I went out on Saturday, before I ran with Solange, I picked up a video card and a new hard drive. when I got home that night, the video card was the wrong type, UGH! Also, I ended up giving up that night at trying to format the new hard drive. No matter what I did, the software would not initialize. After a couple of hours on Sunday, the hard drive FINALLY formatted and was ready to load the OS. I went back to CompUSA to exchange the video card which worked when I got it home. SO I was able to put together Jen’s computer up and running and is now a lot faster with more memory. My computer is still in pieces right now. I am wrestling with the motherboard not booting up when I attach the old DVD and CDRW drive to the motherboard! Computers make our life easier… yeah right!