And the Winner is. . .

After weeks of suggesting names to my wife and weeks of her saying "no, I don't like that" I gave up on suggesting names and told her to pick one herself. She came up with. . .

It's a BOY!

I guess I'm going to be the father of sons.

We got our 20 week ultrasound today and while I was hoping for a daughter I am happy that I'm going to have another little boy around the house soon.

I was curious to see what a little girl would look like though.

All we know is that the middle name is going to be "Michael".

Any suggestions?

Heartbeats

Kim and I got out the stethoscope this morning and attempted to find the baby's heartbeat. When Kim was pregnant with Nathan we heard his heartbeat with our 'scope for the first time around 15 weeks in but we haven't had the same luck with this one. We are nearly 18 weeks along and I was able to find the heartbeat this morning. I guess the baby was feeling cooperative because I think it rolled for me because I could hear "swooshing" sounds and then the beat got louder.

We go in for the 20 week ultrasound on October 30th so hopefully the child's spirit of cooperation persists so we can discover if Nathan is going to have a baby brother or a baby sister in March.

Heroes Run for Hope

I ran the Heroes Run for Hope 5 mile in beautiful Chatham this morning. I LOVE having a race in the town where I live and I was heartbroken when the Race for Brazil/Race to Cure Lymphoma dissolved two years ago.

I love racing in Chatham because I know the streets, I know the hills and I like to do well on my "home" course. This morning dawned sunny and cool with temps in the mid-50s by race time. As I stood on the line I did not see any of the big horses from the SRRC and was wondering if the race was going to turn into a lonely slog in the lead. I didn't have anything to worry about though because when "go" was yelled a guy next to me on the line shot to the front. I let him go and focused on finding my rhythm as the race headed north on Rt. 4. As we passed Walgreens heading to the one mile mark another runner passed me. I didn't feel like chasing and hit the mile in 6:33.34 which was a bit faster than I wanted to go. I didn't feel over-extended and I tried to stride out on the downhill heading toward the railroad trestle. As I crested the hill heading toward the high school I felt like I had quite a bit of life in the legs and attempted to run the tangents as Plummer Rd. wound its way to Gordon Dr. I hit mile two in 13:26.21 with a mile split of 6:52.87.

After rounding the turn onto Gordon I knew that it was a long, straight shot to the three mile mark. Luckily for me the course basically mirrored the first three miles of my six my training loop that I have completed numerous tempo runs on. I settled into a rhythm and hit mile three in 20:05.58 with a mile split of 6:39.37. I ran up the next to last decent hill on the course and wound through the Breckenridge sub-division heading toward the four mile mark. As I rounded the corner with the four mile mark in sight I heard the scuff of shoes right behind me. I snuck a peek over my shoulder as I turned and saw a guy not quite ten seconds back and gaining. I noticed him at the two mile mark when he was about 30 seconds back. It seemed apparent that he was gunning for the bronze medal.

I surged hard at four which I hit in 26:48.70 with a 6:43.12 mile split. I cut a tangent heading to Park St. and swooshed around the corner into the last 3/4 of a mile and the last two hills on the course. I easily crested the first of the bunny hops and surged on the downhill side. As I approached the last hill a block later I lowered the arms and shortened the stride and gave it all I had. As I turned into South Park I dug deeper and sprinted as hard as I could to the finish. I could hear myself whimpering with effort and crossed the line in 33:00.62, having covered the last mile in 6:12.92. I managed to hold off my shadow by 11 seconds and just barely avoided vomiting on his shoes as he came over to congratulate me.

My shadow started running seriously this past spring after spending years on an elliptical machine. He is in his forties and knocked down five miles in 33:11 today. Personally, I am glad he didn't start running seriously a month or two earlier than he did or I would have had to settle for first in my age group instead of third overall.

The race was won by the guy who passed me at the mile mark. He caught the early leader with about a half mile to go and triumphed in 31:45 (I think) to 31:59. I remember when I could run that fast. . . on hilly, solo tempo run days even. Those days were nice. Those days were also about 13-14 years ago. Hopefully those days will come around again.

My legs felt pretty good after having felt dead every time I ran for the last month or so. I started doing the Core Secrets workout with Gunnar Peterson again the last two weeks and I think that is helping me out immensely. I think I'll have to keep that up.

I am getting ready to start two ten week long grad classes on Monday after finishing my first one a few weeks ago. I expect the blogging to go on hiatus for awhile, though I will post updates about our pregnancy toward the end of the month or beginning of next as we'll be discovering the sex of our child then. I'll also try to get a race report up if I decide to run the Jingle Bell Run 5K in the middle of November.

Take care and have a nice autumn!!!

Extra Credit

For two (2) extra credit points:

1. Identify the diagnostic imaging modality utilized to obtain this image.

2. Identify the anatomic structures demonstrated in this image.

I am not a good prognosticator.

I competed in the Polka Pace Race 5K in beautiful Havana, IL this morning. We had some nice weather with temps in the high 50's and sunny skies. The PPR is a flat and fast course and is where I ran my post-married-with-children PR (19:02) last season. If any race on my club's Points Series can be described as a "home" meet for me it is this one. My grandparents live three houses down from the starting line, a block before the two mile mark and about four blocks from the finish line. Add them to a town full of aunts, uncles and cousins (many of whom I have never met) and a good friend's parents who live around the corner from my grandparents and I have I rather large cheering section.

I had high hopes for this race even though my training has been derailed a few times this year by IT band syndrome, a hamstring pull, grad school and a new job. The plan was to hit the mile in 5:55 - 6:00, two in 11:55 - 12:10 and then try to hold on and get the last mile under 6:20 where I could use my finishing speed to dig under 19:00.

I got in a two mile warm-up and took my place on the line with a few high school football players. As the starting gun (siren) went off I broke my cardinal rule of racing, "don't get caught up in the initial sprint". I could tell that it was going to be a long day as I was breathing hard by the time we hit downtown Havana, not even 800 into the race. I hit 800 in 2:50, surged down the hill to the riverfront and found myself in 4th place as I passed the mile mark in 5:59. I was surprised to here 5:59 as I felt like I had run 5:50 or faster. I managed to hold form and could see that I was only 20 - 30 seconds behind the leaders as we wound our way to the 1.5 mark. I can't remember my exact split at 1.5 but it was sub-9:10.

I was passed by a guy from my club who passed me in the exact same spot as last year and I tucked in behind him and rapidly fell off the back about two blocks after the two mile mark (12:17). The hardest part about the final mile is that you basically have two long straights of about a half mile where you can see exactly how far you have to go to the turn or the finish line. As I approached the 2.5 mark I felt as if I was in a bad dream where I was running and running but not moving any closer to my destination.

The third mile was a long, shoulder-cramping, lung-searing stagger to the finish line where I ran fast enough to get passed by two more runners and finish in 19:22.79.

I finished in 7th overall (again) and won my age group only because the fastest 30-34 year old in the race placed third overall. On a happier note, I believe I clinched my club's Point Series championship for my age group to defend the title I earned last year. I also earned 8 points in the overall standings as I was the third club finisher across the line today. I have no idea where I am in the overall standings because they haven't been updated since late May but I finished 15th last year.

I think I am going to run the Shoreline Classic 15K in a few weeks but I'm not locking myself into it as I think the IT Band is flaring up again.

I think I'm going to have to give up on the sub-19:00 goal for at least this year.

Maybe I'll go play the lotto with the 18:34.64 from my dream.

Weird Dream

I dreamt last night that I ran the PPR in 18:34.64. I have no idea what my splits were in this Dreamland run but I was pretty happy to run that fast.

Unfortunately, I think they only way I'll run 18:34.64 at the PPR this weekend is if I have the same dream early Saturday morning or late that night.