A Travesty!!!

I was searching around to find something on Dave Bailey to prove his existence and stumbled across this link, which claims to be an all time roster of the the Binghamton University X-Country Team.  That Dave Bailey isn't on there is not shocking (I think he only ran track), but I'm not on there (Okay maybe that's not too shocking), but Kevin "Spoon" McCarthy is not on there, Paul Horn is not on there, and, GASP(!) our own Dr. K is not on there!  Now that's shocking.

Bob Nigro is on there.  Kevin Hardwick, The Fusc, and the Raybucks are on there.  Rick Banke, Tony Banks, Dave Cody, Bob Daniels, John Luther, Sheldon Melnitsky, Rob Neenan (rode through his hometown on the FANY.), Mark Peters, Jim Graham, Matt Williams, Frank Waltzer, Gary Wallace.  Where's Bill Schmidt?  Who was the guy with the long straight hair and beard?  What about Chris Cody?

Mark's Late Summer Training Update

Hello, fans!  You've probably missed me!

I've been quite busy with real life, job, home, grandson duties, etc.

This summer I have made a more concerted effort to get my money's worth out of my clay court tennis club membership, trying to play a couple times per week.  That, combined with warm weather, explains a bit of a reprieve from heavy duty running.  I've probably only averaged 10 to 12 miles per week running that last couple of months, plus 1 to two times per week of fairly strenuous singles tennis matches.

I'm gradually starting to run a bit more, but still, I'm only doing 4 to 4.5 mile runs, at about 8:20 to 8:40 pace.  This will start to pick up soon, once I see signs of cooler weather, and as the tennis seasons winds down!

As usual, I hope to run some trail and cross country races this fall.

Stay tuned!!

Counting down to FANY

This time next week will be day one of the Great Big FANY Ride.  We'll be riding from Niagara Falls to Brockport.  The route goes up along Lake Ontario, so it's a bit round about.  Just about 90 miles.

The rest of it is Brockport to Geneva, Geneva to Cortland, Cortland to Hamilton, Hamilton to Cobleskill, Cobleskill to Johnstown and Johnstown to Saratoga Springs.  If we do the "regular" routes it will be 500 miles in seven days of riding.

One of the people we're riding with is a Cortland alum.  He was on the track and cross country teams there, but was a generation behind us; so he's never heard of Harry Beal.  Can you imagine a current Binghamton runner never having heard of Dave Bailey?  INCONCEIVABLE!!

Spring Training Update

It's springtime in the northeast, finally!  70 degrees today, ran in shorts, tank top.  6.35 miles on trails and rolling hills, 8:35/mile average pace, longest run of the year to date!

If the weather holds, maybe I can finally get out for a mile time trial!  Usually I do my first one in late March or early April!

Running in the Dead of Winter in Buffalo

I meant to post this earlier, when it was actually winter, but here goes.  Check out this video of spectacular winter running in Buffalo!  Who needs warm weather???

This is the planning time of year.  The health center at work has the Get Fit promotion, so to (attempt to) win prizes my wife and I are exercising regularly.  The weather has kept us off the road, but we are champing at the bit to get riding.  But mostly we are planning our summer vacations.

This year we have two bike rides in mind.  Another self organized trip in the Finger Lakes, and the Great Big FANY Ride.

There is still plenty of snow on the ground here, but we are going to try and get out for a ride this afternoon.

Shamrock Run 8K "Pre-season" Race!

Hi, everyone.  Although quite unusual for me, I just ran in an 8K race today, the annual Shamrock Run in Buffalo, NY.  This is the 2nd largest race in Buffalo, with 3800 finishers in the 8k, but 5500 including a 5K walk.

Since this is really "pre-season" for me, and I don't typically run much in January and February, my time was a minute or more slower than what I would normally expect.  I managed a respectable 32:23, or 6:32 per mile, and 5th out of about 185 in the 50 to 54 age group (only one month until a new age group!).  Due to the size of the race, they gave awards 10 deep, so I copped a frosted glass mug for my efforts.  Overall, I was show as 99th place, but my "gun" place was 104th.  With these larger races and chip timing, you can obviously end up in a different "net" place and time than your "gun" place and time.

I was pleased with the performance, and set 33 minutes as a goal, so I was happy to come in under that, and didn't feel too terrible, either.  The weather wasn't bad (for Buffalo).  About 25 degrees, light winds.

Anyway, since a guy at work invited me to run this, I started doing a little training in February, sooner than normal, so maybe this will help kick start my year!

And Steve and Chris, thanks for blogging!!  It's great to have someone other than Eric and me posting to each other!!

Mark


Shamrock Run Results are here

P.S.  Will add photos if I find any good ones later..........

Riding the Katy Trail

I have a very difficult time getting myself to stop when I am riding a bike--I just want to keep going. But when I came upon this scene, I had to stop, take out my phone, and capture it. The Katy Trail (the trail on the right of the photo) goes on for 240 miles through the woods, along the banks of the Missouri River, and through farmland like this. Anytime you want to come out to Missouri to go for a ride...

Steve

Harry Beal

I noticed that Eric had a tweet asking about Harry Beal.  My brother keeps in touch with Harry Beal.  He lives in Kenosha, WI.