I took 76,939 steps according to my Pebble 2 HR smart watch.
Common abbreviations: OMEP is my Orange Mud Endurance Pack, NT360 is my NoxGear
Tracer360 vest, UWRG is my usual winter running gear: CW-X tights, Darn Tough socks, long sleeve tech, Brooks 1/4 zip long sleeve pullover, balaclava and Brooks beanie.
Sunday, 11/18/2018: 16703 steps during the day, 11.05 miles, 1:31:17, 8:16 pace, 34F, 69% RH, 3 mph S wind, overcast.
I slept in until 7:30 AM and puttered around like usual. I had my usual pre-run bowl of cereal and banana, started 1.5 loads of laundry, took out the garbage and cleaned the pots that were soaking in the sink. But ... I got out there. I figured that an Out to Lowden Point run was in order. It was the same temp as yesterday so I wore the almost the same: CW-X tights, a long and sleeve tech, Darn Tough socks and my Brooks beanie (no balaclava). I also married up my new earbud (just one ear) with my MP3 player, topped off my Nathan SpeedDraw flask with water and set forth. I set up a nice and steady pace. Out 5.5 miles .... and ... back 5.5 miles. Done! My splits were: 8:14, 8:15, 8:22, 8:14, 8:20, 8:09, 8:17, 8:00, 8:20, 8:30 and 8:14. Boom ... done!
The usual 2 mugs of coffee ensued along with finishing the laundry I had already started .. all told 4 loads. Done!
Monday, 11/19/2018: 6828 steps during the day, rest day.
The usual rest day on a Monday. Other stuff happened ... of course.
I got my replacement ESL ATM card today. Why is that important? Well ... it got hacked back on Friday, 11/9. I checked my ESL account on Saturday afternoon, 11/10, because I wanted to pay some bills and verify my previous couple of days worth of POS purchases. Well ... I saw 3 bogus charges ... WTF? One was an Aldi's purchase of $270 in San Francisco, another was a FTDFlorist purchase of $123.14 somewhere in Orange County CA and the last was IP Vanish of $10. I quickly called the ESL Fraud line and told them of it. The first 2 bogus purchases fell off on Sunday, 11/11. I also called the regular ESL line to tell them to halt all purchases on the ATM card. I called them on Tuesday 11/13 when the bank reopened after the Veteran's Day holiday to order a new ESL ATM card. I was told that it would be 7 to 10 business days or I would pay $15 to have express delivery. I waited and it took 4 business days (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday) ... not bad. Now ... I have to change all my accounts that use the ESL card. I already changed almost all the accounts to use my ESL checking account if they didn't already.
So ... how was I hacked? Did I put in my PIN into a skimmer at a gas station or POS? Was I scanned by someone as I passed them by? Who knows? I use a front pocket wallet that holds 8 cards pretty securely and has a pocket in the middle for paper money and receipts. But does not have RFID protection. I like it but I am on the prowl for something similar that does have RFID protection.
Christine went up to bed early so I watched Pulp Fiction off of OnDemand. I had only seen parts of it before. Disjointed like Kill Bill but entertaining.
Tuesday, 11/20/2018: 4937 steps during the day, rest day.
I had all my running gear to go for a run after work but I thought that I would take my wife out to grocery shop instead. Well ... Christine didn't want to go out after supper so we watched the first four episodes of the new Doctor Who Season 11 (with the quirky woman doctor) instead, link here. It was interesting. I have never watched Doctor Who before believe it or not. One of the episodes was about Rosa Parks and her refusing to give up her bus seat in Montgomery Alabama on 12/1/1955. I looked up the Wiki of Rosa Parks and found that they found an actress who looked almost exactly like her.
Wednesday, 11/21/2018: 9481 steps during the day, rest day.
Christine went out to grocery shop during the day but left the heavy lifting of bringing the groceries in from the 2018 Cruze for me ... how sweet! I had gone to BJ's and Wegmans to get some stuff that I thought she had forgotten so I had double heavy lifting to do in the cold. Cold and windy weather had returned just in time for Thanksgiving.
Thursday, 11/22/2018: 14636 steps during the day, 2 runs of 1.05 and 6.25 miles, 18F, 73% RH, 9 mph WNW wind, wind chill 7F, partly cloudy.
Today's race was my seventh Race with Grace 10K (RwG 10K). My previous six times were: 2012 - 46:04, 2013 - 45:07, 2014 - 44:29, 2015 - 45:58, 2016 - 46:26 and 2017 - 46:11. It was also the last of the 12 GRTC Rochester Runner of the Year races. I am 2nd after 11 races in my M 60-64 age group with 51 points out of 60. Kevin Clinefelter is first with 57 points.
One of my alarms was set for 5:45 AM and the second was set for 6:40 AM. I chose to sort of snooze after the first one and get up on the second one. I had my usual pre-race bowl of cereal and banana while I pondered what to wear ... it was 16F on Thanksgiving day. I ended up going back to the tried and true: CW-X tights with shorts and Darn Tough socks on the bottom along with a long sleeve tech and my trusty yellow/black 1/4 zip pullover on the top. I brought all my other cold weather running gear. I put on my Brooks jacket and red parka for warmth. Man ... did it feel cold when I stepped outside!
I headed out early for the 15 minute drive to the First Bible Baptist Church and got there at 8 AM in plenty of time for the 9 AM start. I saw Bob Dyjak right away. He is back on the mend after an aneurysm in his knee. He was going to take the early start.
I put on my balaclava, Brooks beanie and ski mittens ... and headed out for a warm up (?) run. It was 1.05 miles at 8:51 pace, link here. Man ... was it cold heading into the wind! I stopped by the 2014 Cruze to put on my sunglasses to protect my eyes and to put on my blue GRTC neck gaiter. I headed slowly up to the start.
And ... we were off! I felt like my feet were frozen for the 2 miles that we ran north on Manitou Rd into the NW wind. A lady passed me at about 1/2 mile and said "Hi, Doug". It took me a few seconds to figure out that it was Wendy "Flash" Abbot. OK ... the fact that she wore her trademark runner's skirt underneath all her garments helped too, lol! OK ... she usually passes me in the first 1/2 mile too, lol! I was happy when we made the turn east onto Hincher Rd. I hiked up my sleeves and pushed the pace a bit. I turned south onto N Greece Rd at mile 3. I caught up and passed Andy Ciaio as we made the turn west onto Frisbee Hill Rd at mile 4. He yelled out "You're killing it, Doug!" I passed Steve Levitsky shortly afterward. We turned south back on Manitou Rd. I slowly caught up to a runner who turned out to be Joe Ciecierega. I matched his pace for a bit before I pulled away. The mile down Manitou Rd seemed to last forever. Mile 6 was just before the turn into FBBC ... only 2/10s to go ... push ... right turn into the finish chute ... no inflatable Score-This arch ... over 47:30 ... and done. It was cold so I grabbed a pint of water. I fist pumped Joe (47:51) and Andy (47:52). Then I headed right inside the church. I had a chocolate milk and a blueberry bagel before I headed out to change into some dry upper clothes. It's always challenging to change clothes in the front driver's seat, trust me. I came back and checked the results. I finished first and Kevin Clinefelter was 10 seconds behind me! I talked to him during the awards. He had suffered a hamstring pull during the Syracuse Half 11 days ago and was upon doctor's orders to run easy. So ... running a 7:37 pace was his idea of easy. I saw his pace on his Garmin ... he was catching with a 7:26, 7:26 last 2 miles. He told me that he saw me and that he wanted to catch me but his "hammie told him no". Charlie Waters was pulled out of the M 60-64 age group since he won first Veteran so I was first. Well ... first in each age group won $25 cash!
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| Warming up after the race |
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| Race with Grace 1/4 pullover, bib, medal and cash |
There were other Thanksgiving races of course. The 47th Turkey Trot was run out in Webster. There were 1547 finishers in the 4.4 mile race, link here. There were 1605 finishers in the 2.5 mile race, link here. The Feast of Burden 5 Miler was held downtown. There were 304 finishers, link here. The Newark Turkey Day 5 Mile Race had 114 finishers, link here. I do have history with some of these races (except the 2 year old Feast of Burden race). I ran the Newark Turkey Day 5 Mile Race in 2005 though 2010. I ran the Turkey Trot 4.4 Mile race in 2011. I have run the Race with Grace 10K ever since 2012. Fact: the 2005 Newark Turkey Day 5 Mile Race (results lost forever) was my first race. I have run 468 races since in the last 13 years (I counted on my fingertips to make sure it was 13)..
I headed home and helped Christine with our turkey dinner. I helped mostly with the cleanup though. Ohh ... and with the eating too. Christine did a basic Thanksgiving dinner this week: turkey, stuffing, a celery salad along with cranberries. No potatoes. She did make not 1 but 2 excellent apple pies. One apple pie disappeared once we had room in our tummies.
I found out at the WeatherUnderground website that the KROC airport had the official low of 7F and high of 19F, D&C link here and KROC link here. This gave Thanksgiving 2018 the coldest low (old record 11F in 1196) and coldest high (old record 20F in 1903) on record.
Friday, 11/23/2018: 7303 steps during the day, 5.15 miles, 44:00, 8:33 pace, 18F, 48% RH, 8 mph S wind, wind chill 8F, overcast.
I slept in until around 7:30 AM, puttered around for a bit like I usually do but I got out there. It was just as cold as yesterday so I wore exactly the same. My legs felt a bit tired so I just set out at a really nice and easy pace. I cut the run short to 5 miles too. My splits were: 8:46, 8:33, 8:27, 8:25, 8:33 and 8:16 over the last 0.15 mile.
The 173 spots of the 2019 Mind the Ducks opened up at midnight. The race filled up by 8 PM. Egil Robs, the Race Director, posted on Facebook to sign up for the wait list since 50 got in from the wait list in 2018.
I managed not to shop, either physically or online, at any of the Black Friday sales that I was constantly bombarded with in my Yahoo! inbox.
Saturday, 11/24/2018: 17051 steps during the day, 9.45 miles, 1:17:44, 8;13 pace, 34F, 59% RH, 8 mph SSW wind, wind chill 28F, partly cloudy.
I was up at 6:10 AM and out the door by 7:20 AM. I had just a banana and got dressed with what I had the day before and the day before that. I think I might have thrown on another long sleeve tech though, didn't wear my balaclava plus I wore my heavy running gloves instead of ski mittens. I didn't want 11 but needed at least 9 so I went out to Long Pond Rd. It was a crisp, quiet and beautiful morning! I just set up a nice and steady pace. The miles flew by! My splits were: 8:20, 8:16, 8:14, 8:17, 8:11, 8:05, 8:07, 8:15, 8:18 and 8:06 over the last 0.45 mile. Boom ... done!
The usual mug of coffee soon ensued along with some general relaxing. But ... not too much. I showered and got dressed since I had to head out to neighboring Wayne County to take my oldest son, Michael, and daughter, Karen, out grocery shopping. Michael in Macedon was first and Karen in Palmyra was next. Michael's new 17" gaming laptop looked sweet and Karen's dog, Pooka, looked a lot lighter with his new grooming. I got back up to Rochester by 6 PM.
