Roths Down Under

For the next few months while (whilst) I'm still in Australia, I'm only going to post to our 'other' blog. Getting to be too much to keep up with both so please come visit us over at Roths Down Under. Looking forward to hearing from you over there, and of course, g'day mates!

Write your own caption

The Three Amigos
Originally uploaded by ed_roth.

So... what do you think the caption should be for this photo? This was us last year at the Lansing Capital City River Run.

Kalamazoo Foot Chase

OK - how cool does this sound?! My father in law was part of the NYPD for 15 years - count me in on this one!

The KAZOO AREA FOOT CHASE is a 3.5-mile run patterned after a police foot chase in pursuit of a fleeing suspect. This is an unconventional course that includes fences, fields, business districts, school grounds, neighborhoods, and even buildings before reaching the finish line. Witnesses located along the route give the only clues where to go next. The course is not certified, but the event is timed. Awards to the top 2 times in each age category (male/female). Door prizes to runners who recover contraband found along the way. Additional prize to the first police/corrections officer or dispatcher (ID required) across the finish line.

The race is sponsored by a Michigan based non-profit organization that aids the survivors of police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

What I do when I should be running

OK - this was pretty cool. Click the link and check yourself out!

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English

25% Upper Midwestern

15% Yankee

0% Dixie

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Not burning up the pavement, but..

OK, so it wasn't at an Olympic pace, but I probably had my best run in the last 6 weeks last night. I took off about 4:30 p.m. and because it's Autumn down here right now, that was a perfect time of day. It was still sunny out but it had cooled off quite a bit and the weather was just gorgeous. The first part of a run is almost always the most difficult. My body just screams STOP, and sometimes WHY AM I DOING THIS AGAIN? pops in to my mind. I am not a mentally disciplined runner, or at least the discipline goes in stages and I would say in general, I have been in an undisciplined stage since 2 or 3 weeks before I left. Anyway, the first 10-15 minutes was tough, especially as this is a relatively hilly area. I don't know what happens, but at some point with only about a mile to go, things felt better. I don't know if they actually felt better or I was just inspired that THERE WAS ONLY A MILE TO GO but ... in general, I just felt under less stress, physically and mentally... something just let go.
A few key features include shorter overall time, obviously a faster overall pace, but also, a slightly slower "best pace" so I guess overall my pace was more even. Anyway, according to the Forerunner:
Run Time: 35:45
Run Distance: 3.11 miles (5k)
Avg Pace: 11:30
Best Pace: 8:50
Calories: 624 (because of the hills - the Forerunner measures change in elevation also and calculates that)

One last thing, and I'm sorry - I don't mean to be gross, but one thing that was annoying during the run was the amount and "type"? of spit my mouth was generating. It was thick, and for lack of a better word "syrupy". Anyone have any idea what causes this - too much of ??? in my food that day or too little ??? in my diet - wagging tongues would like to know!

Running Down Under

IMG_0003
Originally uploaded by ed_roth.

Just to prove to my friend and co-blogger that I actually have been running, here's a photo of me coming back from a run the other day! The weahter was perfect - even though it is Autumn here, it is still HOT in the middle of the day - about 75, so when running in the mid-day heat, it gets a little warm!

Just the Stats Ma'am

According to the Forerunner:

Run Time:37:30
Run Dist: 3.11 miles
Avg. Pace 12:03
Best Pace: 8:17
Calories: 423 (not that I care, but it reports it so...)

I know it seems like squat to most/many of you - but this was a tough run for me today - don't know why. Hanging in there though right!

On the Road Again

OK - went for a 5k run around the athletic grouns on UQ's campus tonight - had a good time (sort of). I didn't use my "virtual partner" correctly and these will be slower than what I actually did because I didn't shut it off until about 90 seconds after I stopped running but ....Stats from my Garmin Forerunner:
Run Time: 37:43
Run Dist: 3.14 miles
Avg. Pace: 12:00/mile
Best Pace: 7:46/mile
Calories: 443

Good Runner Bad Runner

OK - I talked with Jeff this morning back in Michigan and completely shocked him. He had no concept of me calling him from Australia and thought that would probably be costing me "50 dollars a minute" - which it does not, which is why I was able to talk to him for 15 minutes or so - cost all of about 50 cents for the whole call.
Anyway....
He's the good runner and I'm the bad runner. He said he's been running three days a week and walking in between (such a good little "Calloway-er". I've been running two days a week top (bad runner) but the bigger problem is that I run two back to back days, or run twice with a day break in between and then don't run for the rest of the week. I WILL get back on track and you WILL be the first to read about it!