Comiskey 2018

OK, it's now called Guaranteed Rate Field, but there were t-shirts everywhere saying "I still call it Comiskey" and I'm board with that!  Unfortunately for my wallet the only game we could go to this year was their only sell-out.  $86 each for a standing-room-only ticket.  But it was a good night out and I don't regret it.

The stadium is big and round.  It reminded me of Shea, and with a full house it was very exciting.  The opponent was the cross-town Cubs so the crowd was mixed, about 1/2 Sox fans and 1/2 Cub fans.  In the SRO area all was peaceful, but we saw two fights in the field level seats between opposing fans and other disputes that required security intervention.   It wasn't a problem though, and we never felt threatened.

The ambience was very Mexican, from the food to the audience.  This guy epitomized it:

 And the hot dog?  They had something called a Comiskey Dog.  I have never, ever had a better tube steak!

Comiskey get an A.

Wrigley 2016

In addition to races, our athletes go undercover to the baseball parks of America to bring you the straight and honest scoop on what's good and where.  We can't play ball, but we can watch with the best of them.

The plan: visit at least one stadium a year until all the stadia have been assessed, then provide a write-up of the stadium, the hot dogs, and the experience.  The inaugural park:

Wrigley Field

For many a visit to Wrigley is more a pilgrimage than a day at the park.  My home stadium is Shea, but I do enjoy Chicago's National League atmosphere and energy.  The walk-up through Wrigleyville is definitely exciting, even for a meaningless game.  The fans are into the game, and they are welcoming to strangers and those who root for the visiting team.

Now for the important part, the hot dog.  I was on line for a routine dog -- in Mets garb -- when a friendly denizen of the Ivy Park told me I was making a mistake.  "Get the Chicago Dog" he told me, "it's way better."  He was so right.  Covered in sauteed onions browned and succulent the Chicago Dog was an A+.  Get it if you can.

Ironman Louisville 2014

Posted by Undercover Reporter #002:

The Weather: Humidity- Persona Non Grata

Ironman Louisville definitely deserves an entire section dedicated to the weather.  I’ve raced in heat before, Ironman Canada in Penticton was 95 degrees, so I naturally ignored all caution about the Louisville weather.  There is heat and then there is suffering.  I should have known I was in trouble when the national weather service had a heat advisory for Louisville all weekend long.  I’m from Indiana and I thought we had humidity, this humidity was impressive.  It rained every night we were there.  On race day the temperature was in the 90s and the humidity ranged from 65% to 75%-an improvement from the 85-95% the day before.  Apparently more than 400 competitors needed some kind of medical assistance.  Ironman Louisville consistently ranks as one of the slowest Ironmans globally because of the heat and humidity.  In fact, after this year they are moving the race to October because of the weather. 

Heading south towards Louisville.  Storm clouds on the horizon, the heat and humidity are building, and we could smell the rain in the air.  We only passed one car with a bicycle headed towards the race on the entire trip to Louisville.

The Swim:  Current-a love hate relationship (Time 1:04)

The swim isn’t a mass start, but a time trial start.  Everyone lines up and jumps off 2 piers one at a time into the water.  The crazy part is the swim line forms first come first serve so racers started waiting in line at 4:00 AM for a 7:00 race start!  My dad (he was also racing with me) got in line around 5:45 and even then the line seemed to stretch on forever.  You start swimming between an island and the shore upstream for the first third of the swim.  The current here wasn’t too bad, its mildly protected from the main current.  However you have to swim for about 300-400 meters past the island and there you could really tell the current had a mean side.  The entire time I just focused on rotating and not being a barge going through the water as Coach Bill will frequently call me.  I also really worked on swimming downhill and sighting every 3 strokes.  Visibility in the water was minimal, you could see you elbows but not your hands!

I have to give a special thanks to Coach Bill and the entire tri team on my swim.  I finished in 1:04:33 good for 44/170 in my age group and 431 overall!  I couldn’t believe my watch when I got out-I was ecstatic!  This was 17 minutes faster than my last ironman and I could really feel the improvement I had made in my swim.  All those Tuesday night swims and OWS swims really paid off and having Coach Bill around can’t be understated.  Thank You

The Saturday Practice Swim: The river was open for practice Saturday morning 8-10 A.M.  We swam by the swim finish, and not in the channel where the race begins.  The current was very strong and most of the swimmers were surprised by how rapidly it pulled you downstream and how difficult it was to make headway upstream.  Many swimmers overshot the exit and had trouble getting back.  Race day we swam up a channel that was protected from the current and it was much, much easier.  The practice swim gave us lots of anxiety for no good reason.

The Bike:  Horse Country

The bike was gorgeous.  It’s nothing but picturesque houses and fields with horses hanging out, with the occasional Tobacco farm J.  It became abundantly clear to me why they call it horse country (not a creative name).  I would call the bike course fair with 5,300 feet of gross elevation gain but with the majority of it in the form of rolling hills.  For some reason the GPS on my Garmin was acting up so I didn’t have speed or distance for the entire race and regulated my effort off of heart rate and cadence alone. 

After my last Ironman my mission on the bike was to fuel up a lot, given the heat and humidity.  I had 12 electrolyte pills, 4.5 cliff bars, 2 water bottles of Hammer Sustain, 3 bottles of water and 2-3 bottles of PowerAde Perform, and one banana piece.  (I ate 1 banana before the bike and 1 before the swim).  After the bike I was sick of PowerAde perform and it made me nauseous as well.

The first 85 miles of the bike went by well.  Then around 1:30 PM-2:30PM the hell fire and brim stone god of the old testament decided to show us who was boss.  The heat picked it up into high gear and the humidity decided to envelope you.  I say envelope because even on the bike you could liteally feel the humidity.  I ended up finishing my bike in 5:36:01 which I was surprised by as well.  I had made a point to not crush myself and still averaged 20 mph.  I think all those spinning classes really paid off!

This reporter's wife cheering on the team during the bike race.  She herself is a Boston Marathon racer and completed the final 13 miles with the reporter.  During the double-loop section of the race there is a spectator viewing section in LaGrange.  It was difficult to get to and there wasn't much to see, so probably this portion of the spectating experience wasn't worth the effort, but the riders were all scanning the sidelines to see if their loved ones were present so it was definitely appreciated!

The Run: Where I met my maker

The run was TOUGH!  I started the run around 3:00 pm and at the point I was feeling really proud of my race.  I had PR’ed massively on both my swim and bike, beyond my expectations.  I knew if I could put together a 4 hour marathon I had a could break 11 hours and given my two marathons in May were 3:05 and 2:59 I felt pretty confident about my chances.  However, those races were in sub 70 degree weather not in 90 degree weather and high humidity.  I’m also not Felix J  I started running an 8 minute mile for the first 2 miles but then quickly my body started rebelling and my pace dropped down to a 9-10 minute mile pace.  By mile 11, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to run the entire marathon and by mile 14 my body was in full revolt and I had to walk a mile run a mile for the remainder of the race.  I wasn’t alone, I saw several people collapsed on the side of the road during the run.  At mile 8 I saw a woman walk up to the aid station to get water and she just passed out onto the ground like a rag doll.  That and the countless other people I saw receiving medical attention definitely put the fear of god into me.  The main thing stopping me on the second half of my run was very painful cramps throughout my entire core.  It felt like my diaphragm was seizing up along with my entire stomach.  I’m not sure what caused this but even still I have pain in my core when I lay down or take deep breaths.  I’m still trying to figure out if it was something I did on the swim or just the heat, exhaustion, fitness and nutrition.  It was a bit disappointing to have such an awesome start just to lose it on the second half of the run (especially since that’s my strong suit) but the second half of the marathon is also where the race part of the Ironman begins-so I can’t complain.

In the end my time was 11:56:31 good for 27/170 in my age group and 351/2095 and I massively improved on my swim and my bike.  Unfortunately my dad had to DNF after mile 13 of the run which was disappointing. Given the conditions though its completely understandable.  My main take away is PowerAde preform is not good, and makes you feel sick.  I also need to continue to work on my nutrition.  I did a better job of it this time but there is still lots of room for improvement.  I also foolishly spent little time training for the run, expecting all my training leading up to my marathons in May would suffice.  This proved incorrect and ultimately proved my doom.

A special treat: The Twin Peaks High School cheerleading squad was in attendance  cheering on the runners and sending the spectators into a frenzy.  They were gracious enough to mingle with the crowd, but "no touching please".

I would like to thank the entire MIT Tri team.  I really enjoyed training with everyone this past year and all of you helped me improve so much.  Not to mention you made working out so much more fun!

After the race.  Beer and pizza at the Sicilian Pizzeria with our excellent server.  

Race Recommendations:
Carb loading or just good eating, we recommend Bistro 301 as a necessary dining visit.  We stumbled in accidentally, but all 6 of us were raving about our meal the next day and sinc.http://bistro301.com/menus/dinner-menu-2/

The chosen one and I carb-loading at Bistro 301.

At the Expo the SeaSucker Bike Rack was advertised.  It is intended to fit to any car by vacuum sealing cups and requires no installation.  My sister has a VW Eos and it will not accommodate a rack or any good strap-on systems.  My Dad purchased and installed the SeaSucker rack for her: Voila!, problem solved.

SeaSucker Rack attached to VW Eos.

Savageman Triathlon 2013

Savageman Triathlon, 2013

Savageman was my favorite triathlon, and my favorite race, of all that I have done.  The organization was superb, the venue perfect, and the challenge/reward ratio excellent.  I signed up for both the Olympic Triathlon on Saturday and the Half-Ironman on Sunday, and I recommend that pairing to anyone.

The main goal of Savageman is to get a brick, and that is not a sure shot by any means.  Dave Scott, the champion of Kona, failed to get up the short section of cobblestone and gravel that decides the issue, and about 30% of the riders overall fail to ascend cleanly.  I was confident that I could do it, but I was traveling east a few months before the race and I stayed in nearby Frostburg so that I could reconnoiter the course.  My practice run was NOT encouraging.

My first try at the Westernport Wall.

My first run up I clipped out at exactly the point where I had seen others fail on YouTube videos.  It happened so fast I was down before I knew it.  I tried a second time and succeeded so I figured I just had bad luck on the first try, but no.  I fell off my bike on the third try, and was one for three.  By the end I had ridden it seven times and ultimately got up four times and fell three times.  I knew that anything could happen on race day, but success was dependent on my legs –shaky – and the nearby riders at the time I hit the hill.  I saw so many videos of people taking down their neighbors with them that I knew it was best to be alone if possible.  My practice session is below:

My son got up three times without much effort and never fell.

This is the section that will do you in.  Go as hard as you can.

The Swim:

I got to do it twice, once at Olympic distance and once at half-Ironman distance.  The second day the water was warm and the air cold, so the lake was incredibly misty and foggy.  No one could see anywhere and we all just tried to follow the pack.  I actually swam directly into a buoy that I simply couldn’t see until I was right on it.  The fog made Sunday’s swim fun, but both days were nicely laid out.  They have a turtle and a swan as the turnaround buoys and those were had to mistake.

The swan is in the background.  The air was cold, the water warm.

The Bike:

Of course this is what it is all about.  The main climb consists of four parts with the hardest being the last.  On my practice runs I did the final street that decides the brick 7 times but I would have had a better idea of how to handle it if I had started from the very bottom each time.  By the time I got to the final section on race day I had been exhausted by the three smaller preceding climbs.  Getting over the top took everything I had.  I made it, but just barely.  Looking at the video of me ascending makes my climb look even worse than I remember it.

After the main climb there were plenty more to come.  It was truly savage, but that is what we all signed up for.  I was happy to get off the bike at the end, and very happy that I had bricked.  Really, after that, I didn’t care what else happened.

Road bikes way outnumbered triathlon bikes.

The Run:

Normally the run portion of a triathlon is flat.  Not this one.  We ran up a seriously steep dirt road that I think I would not have been able to climb on my mountain bike, and overall I think there were many three hundred yards of flat road.

You'll be glad when it's done.

The Swag:

You have to pay for it, but you can get a brick for your office.  I have one and I treasure it.  The shirts were also very good: cotton, well fitting, and comfortable. Surprisingly there were no finisher medals.  I would have liked one.

Finisher's shirt.

Conclusion:

Do it!  This is a race that anyone will be glad they did, and if you get a brick you will be especially happy.

Posted by Undercover Athlete Reporter #001

Cincinnati Triathlon 2013

The Cincinnati triathlon is a fun and well-organized event.  It has a sprint distance and an Olympic distance offering, and I recommend it to anyone in the area.  We took it on as a family outing, with my daughter running and winning the sprint distance, and two of my sons and a future-daughter-in-law and me doing the olympic distance.

Registration was available the day before or the morning of, but parking was a real issue the day before so I recommend checking in in the morning if you can.  We were there in the pre-dawn darkness and had plenty of time to unpack, set up, and stretch.

The race was not crowded, and it should have been.  I think the reason is that most people were afraid of swimming in the Ohio river.  The universal reaction of anyone hearing the swim was in the river was "There's no way I would swim there!"  I don't know if there were even any native Cincinnatians in the race.  Too bad, because the water was clear in my hand and tasted fine.  There was no gasoline taste and only minimal debris like logs and branches.  No rashes or sore throat afterwards either, so I think the water quality was high.

The bike course was on the Columbia parkway, a big multi-lane highway by the river which was entirely closed for the race.  I'm surprised they did this, but it made for an awesome bike leg.  There was one very steep hill near the baseball stadium, and some of the racers were surprised in their big gear and had to dismount and walk.  We all managed to power up it, but it wasn't easy.  My personal bike leg was fast in the beginning but I flagged near the end and ran out of juice.  My usual goal is to let no one pass me.  One guy did early on and I tried to reel him in but failed.  Another guy passed me after the first loop, and we went back and forth for several miles.  Finally he passed me for good, and then a few others did too.  If there had been more time I might have ground to a halt entirely.

The run was my favorite part of the course.  It was a two loop course over the Purple People Bridge and through a riverside park which was pretty and shaded.  The finish line was still a welcome sight, and the surprise for us was that three of our team won podium positions.

The Cincinnati triathlon is a fun and well organized event.  I recommend it to anyone.

Tough Mudder Tampa 2013

It is hard for me to generate enthusiasm for this posting.  I enjoyed the Tough Mudder, but must give it a failing grade because of the logistics.  The Tough Mudder events bill themselves as "Probably the Toughest Event on the Planet", and they are certainly not that.  They might be one of the most fun, and I think that a team doing this together would have a blast, but it's not really an aerobic endurance event and should be viewed as an enjoyable group outing.

First the bad news: getting there.  Our event was at the Hightop Ranch outside of Tampa, and we got there early in the morning, several hours before our assigned starting time.  Even so, traffic was backed up onto the Interstate, and it took us about 90 minutes to travel the final 2-3 miles.  Our friend, who came later, was stuck in traffic for 6 1/2 hours waiting to get into the event!  There was nothing else going on, and the Tough Mudder was the only cause of the congestion.  Police directing traffic?  Zero.  Entrances to the parking lot?  One.  Number of entrants in the event?  25,000.  Do the math and you can see that this outcome was predictable.  So if you want to do a Tough Mudder choose an early start time and get there a few hours in advance..., unless you live next door.

Now for that good part: the race was fun, well organized, and definitely worth the money.  We ran about 12 miles, and topped maybe 23 obstacles.  There was freezing water, morasses of mud, plunges from heights of 20 feet, monkey bars, live electrical wires, and barbed wire.  The race is patterned on the training for the British Special Forces, and all we were lacking was live fire overhead and 40 lb. backpacks.

If you do this race bring a tall and strong friend.  Todd was our go-to-guy at 6' 3"; lean and muscular, he was able to help the rest of us ascend the wooden walls and then pull himself up behind us.  Without him we might have resorted to chicanery, but with him we were unstoppable.  Since Doug was stuck in traffic so long we started in the very last group to leave.  Throughout the race we were passing through some of the slower teams that started ahead of us, and near the end a large number of teams that had slowed to a walk.  That made us feel good, but didn't really reflect our abilities.  We never caught any really dangerous looking crews.

My favorite event was the Monkey Bars.  I thought I should train for that, so I went to the local elementary school and tried them out.  I could only do three before dropping.  This event had 27 which I knew from my research, so I decided not to train for it at all.  That turned out well, surprisingly.  These rungs were closer together and much easier than on the schoolyard.  All of our team made it across without a splashdown, though I couldn't have gone much farther than I did.

So the Tough Mudder is a fun event, but marred by logistical issues.  If you do it bring a large team and have fun, get there early, and don't worry too much about training.  And if you're as lucky as I was your Mom will be there to take pictures of you and your team!

Giant Acorn Triathlon 2012

The Giant Acorn Triathlon

Lake Anna, Virginia

October 6, 2012

Setting the Stage:
Over the year planned competitions dropped off my schedule like nuts falling from an oak tree, until finally the Giant Acorn Triathlon was the only one left; by default, my A Race.  It is held in Bumpass, Virginia, and on the way down my wife and I stopped in Cincinnati to see two of our children and watch the first presidential debate at their apartment.  What at great way to start the trip!  Our guy won, and we had the entire next day to hear about it over and over again on talk radio while we drove the rest of the way down to Charlottesville.

Goal: do the race like Romney did Lehrer

 

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Son #2 was registered for the event, but a shoulder injury put him on the disabled list.   We rendezvoused with my parents as planned in Charlottesville, and spent a few days with Brian at the University of Virginia before heading off to the race.  Charlottesville is a great town, and we had a fine time with him and his friends.

Carb-loading is essential

We got the competitive juices flowing with a few games of corn-hole:

The winning corn hole team

And my son had an opportunity to test his shoulder just before the race (no dice):

Live to race another day

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I spent the weeks leading up to the race training in Michigan, running and rolling over the thousands of acorns on the roads.  I love the crunching sound they make beneath my wheels, and their feel as they are crushed beneath my heels.  I especially love when I catch an acorn just right on my bike and I send it flying sideways at high velocity.  I felt the organizers implied I would find some particularly massive nuts at the Giant Acorn Triathlon, but that was one of the only ways the race disappointed.  Virginia’s acorns were small and forgettable.  I did see a few giant nuts at the swim start, but I think they were hickory nuts, and there were a few 6 year old boys scouring the grounds for all the best specimens to throw in the water.  I had no chance of finding a decent whole acorn, giant or otherwise.

Acorn? Hickory Nut?

The Drive In:

Onward to Bumpass!  If we hadn't had a GPS I would never have thought we were going in the right direction.  This race takes place deep in rural territory, and I could hear the Deliverance banjos playing.  It was a beautiful drive in, and the countryside was spectacular as we headed out of the mountains and down in to the rolling hills.  The weather was wonderful: 74 degrees and sunny was predicted and delivered.  The race was sold out, but there was plenty of room in transition. I kept my bike set-up tight and tidy but there was no one edging into my space and everyone had plenty of room to move.  The 10am start was very nice also.  No darkness, no anxiety, and plenty of time to drive in and even get lost.

See all the empty space?

In set up I recognized Cort the Sport from her blog: http://unblob.blogspot.com/2011/10/race-report-giant-acorn-sprint.html, which I read to prepare for the race. She was setting up right across from me in the corral, and seemed fit and ready to go.  I never did see her on the course, but she did great -- 5th overall.

The Swim:

   How can you be disappointed with a heated lake?  The organizers promised warm water (the effluent from the adjacent nuclear power plant is discharged into the lake near where we swam) and they delivered on their promise.  Water temperature was 79 degrees -- indoor pool temperature -- and wetsuits were not allowed.  That's a bit of a problem for me as I rely on the wetsuit to improve my body position, but it was nice stepping in water that was warmer than the air.

Downhill on gravel.  We'd run this later.

   The swim start and finish were at different locations, and it was about a half-mile walk to the start on a gravel road.  No one seemed overly anxious unless they didn't have sandals.  Before the swim we had a playing of the national anthem, and then it was off to the races.

Miss Campbell was the eventual female winner

   There were six waves, and no bumping or thrashing that I could see.  I left in the 5th wave, and for a short time I was able to follow the feet of a faster swimmer from the final wave, but he shook me eventually.  At some points the water level was so low my fingers dragged in the mud and I had drifted so close to shore once that I stood up and walked about ten yards to deeper water.  A few other swimmers did the same I could see.

• My swim time:  31:20.  Age Group Rank: 5/22

Why am I wearing my shirt?

T1:

Always glad to get out alive

The run up to transition from the lake was carpeted and a smooth ride.  There was so much room in transition that you could post a great time if you wanted to, and there were plenty of volunteers directing traffic.

About to begin the bike

The Bike:
The bike route was two loops on a road that was closed in our direction.  There was some oncoming traffic, but very little.  The scenery was nice and the road was smooth.  We passed over a bridge, and up one very steep hill.  There was one tight turn, but again it was well marked and there were volunteers to warn us early on.  I went as hard and fast as I could and being in the fifth wave meant there were plenty of cyclists on the road ahead of me.  One guy on a Quintana Roo tri-bike passed me five times... but I passed him six times.  Our back-and-forth helped both our times, and we both knew that any lead on the other wouldn't last too long.  My average speed was 23.1 mph, which is way faster than I have ever gone before.  I was hammering as hard as I could, and I even passed a car that made its way onto the course.  Still, there were three people that went harder and faster, and one was the age group champ.

• My bike time: 1:04:26.  Age Group Rank: 4/22

I'm thinking about getting a tri-bike

T2:

About a hundred yard walk from the road to transition, then out the chute to hit the run.  

The Run:
The run is always my weakness, but this was a nicely laid out route so the pain wasn't too bad.  We did two loops, and the out-goers were side by side with the in-comers.  I always prefer a two loop course to an out-and-back.  I prefer to get familiar with the trerrain.  Many of the cyclists I had put behind me were happy to pass me on the run, but you get used to that.  Near the end of the loop we ran down the gravel road to the swim start, then back up out of the pit.  Most of the spectators were there, and it was a fun section.

• My run time: 57:53.  Age Group Rank: 14/22.

The Summary:
All-in-all this was a great race.  Well run, fun, and worth the trip.  I would certainly recommend it to anyone in the area.  The next day I found out that I was fourth place and only two minutes off of the podium.  Maybe someday....

The goal

(Special thanks to the photographer)