I wore green...

I didn't think to look to see the color of the team visiting KGGO Arena tonight. When I presented my ticket, the ticket taker went a bit out of her way wish me an enjoyable evening... apparently seeing my green jacket and concluding that I was one of the Cedar Rapids faithful. Fortunately, I was able to take off my jacket and stash it on the bench beside me.

When I arrived, Bill was already in our section and enjoying the atmosphere of the place. As the pregame announcements were being made, he commented that it had already been an evening with a stepped up intensity.

This evening, the Bucs had their Halloween costume night and the turnout was pretty good. More than a dozen of those in costumes went out onto the ice between the second and third periods to compete for prizes. There were probably as many adults as children but the kids were more creative; most of the adults were in pirate (buccaneer) costumes. My disguise as a Cedar Rapids RoughRiders fan wasn't going to win so I stayed in the stands.

The Bucs scored on several of their power plays and twice killed off pentalties that put them two men down. To their credit, Cedar Rapids stayed in the game and closed to within one in the final minutes. The final score of 7-6 may look a little closer than the game was but, in the end, the RoughRiders were within striking distance as time was running out. Since the Bucs won and scored at least six goals, a local donut shop will give out half a dozen donuts to each ticketholder in the morning. I don't think I'll take the drive for the donuts but it is a nice promotion.

A Walk in the Woods

This evening was unchar-acteristically warm and clear; a nice evening for a walk. Fortunately, Linda called and suggested we take advantage before the other evening plans kicked in. We met at the Raccoon River Park and turned a decent lap on the three mile trail. This trail is not as developed or popular as Gray's Lake but is a pleasant walk. I was a bit short of breath at points but was able to keep it going and finished well.

I'm seein' red...

There was more red in the stands for last night's World Series game than at most NASCAR races... and that's sayin' somethin'.

After a successful and entertaining gaming session Thursday night, I turned on the television in time to see most of the bottom of the seventh inning of game four. The pitcher for the Tigers promptly put his team in the records books by making the fourth error by one pitching staff in one World Series. It also pulled the Cardinals even with the Tigers on the scoreboard.

As I continued to watch, I really found a better appreciation for the camera work and production team at Fox. Their images of the game and individuals in the crowd really conveyed the tension and excitement of the game. They showed timely glimpses of fans hoping, praying, and cheering their team on; it was an excellent job of telling the story around the story. I wonder how much of the story would have been apparent with the sound turned off.

It was a great night to be a Cardinal fan as their team rallied for the win, 5-4, putting the Tigers behind 3-1. Being a Cub fan, I'm not thrilled to see this happen but respect the work.

Rain...

Wednesday, I felt the urge to get out for a walk before all of the training goes away. I left work anticipating walking after completing a few far flung errands. As I was making my last couple of stops, raindrops were falling on my windshield. One of the last things I wanted to see was rain. Rather than get caught in an autumn shower a mile away from my car, I decided to stay indoors... have some soup... maybe watch the World Series. Those of you following the Series know what I found; it was raining in St. Louis... for hours. I guess it was just one of those nights. Maybe Thursday...

It's been a quiet week...

After reporting so much activity for a month or more, maintaining this blog is having an interesting and unexpected yet reasonable effect. I'm very much aware when I'm NOT doing something "interesting," something to talk about. That said, it doesn't mean that I'm doing something not worthwhile, it's just different. I will admit that training reports of painful shins probably weren't the highlights of your day either but it was reportable in the context of a blog about training for long walk. This may be like the feeling when someone keeps track of when they smoke or what they eat; when you actually see it in a log, you see it with different eyes; there's a different awareness of what you're doing.

Monday, I was feeling the beginning signs of a sinus cold and took the day off from work to rest and prevent it from getting worse. I didn't go anywhere, I didn't do anything of note. What I did was important to maintaining my health but not much to talk about.

Tuesday, I was ready for work, had a good day, went for pizza with Joel, stopped at his house for Deal or No Deal, and went home. I caught up on NCIS and Boston Legal and called it a night.

That's What Dale's Doing Now...

NASCAR - Martinsville

I spent this afternoon on the couch watching the NASCAR Nextel Cup race at the small town short track at Martinsville, Virginia. Jeff Burton, leading the Chase for the Cup, had car trouble early and finished forty-second. My other three drivers, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, and Jimmie Johnson lead the majority of the race. In the closing laps, Jimmie held off Denny for the win. Jeff Gordon finished fifth. My fantasy league team may have clinched first place today. I'll have to see what the standings are Monday.

Sports Wrap

Wow! A VERY rough weekend for the football teams I support. Good thing the Bears aren't playing!

Michigan 20, Iowa 6
Texas Tech 42, Iowa State 26
San Diego 37, Drake 0

Iowa Stars 8, Syracuse Crush 5
Des Moines Buccaneers 3, Sioux Falls Stampede 2, in overtime

Linda and I did brave the elements to support Drake's Sellout Saturday and see the number-one-in-the-nation San Diego Tereros at Drake Stadium. Unfortunately, the number-two-in-the-nation Drake Bulldogs did not have one of their better showings. San Diego moved the ball in moderate chunks that Drake could just not stop. On offense, the Bulldogs were never really able to get it moving with any consistency. In the end, the score reflected the game: Drake was beaten by a team that was clearly superior tonight. On top of that, the band didn't show up, even in the stands. Fortunately, the one-dollar hot dog offer was a very successful promotion.

Des Moines Buccaneers

Tonight, Linda and I checked out the Des Moines Buccaneers, a USHL Tier 1 team that has built a history of remarkable success. That success has produced several champions banners positioned all around the flag of the United States of America. Before every game, everyone in the place will pause and look at that part of the arena while listening to our national anthem. The eye can't help wandering from the flag to those banners. It was pretty impressive to me.

Attending a game at the arena is a combination of excellent hockey, great fans, and an arena music coordinator with an amazing sense of humor and timing. The smaller ice and speed and skill of the players made for a very active and entertaining evening. The play included successions of end to end breaks by both teams as well as very controlled passing sequences leading to excellent shots and many great saves by both goalies. These players are all twenty years of age or less and amateur. Three former Bucs are in the NHL at this time. These guys are good.

Linda and I had several good chuckles at the musical selections that were perfect fits for the situations. As soon as there was any break in the action on the ice, an appropriate song snippet was playing on a sound system that was suprisingly well suited to the Quonset hut style arena. Some of the memorable examples: Carly Simon's You're No Good as the opposing team came onto the ice, the theme from Law and Order as the officials skated in, and a particulary good choice when one of the Bucs was skating off after a particularly hard check into the boards: I'm Alright. We also noticed that very few songs were heard more than once in the evening; they must have access to a great library of songs and well thought out situations for their play.

The fans are passionate about their Bucs. These two senior ladies were very much involved in the game, at one point, even leading a "Go Bucs!" cheer in our section. A group of eighteen boys, probably about eight years old were in the rows directly behind them. Their dance moves caught the attention of our section from time to time as well. Unlike a lot of stadiums, when the scoreboard asks for noise, these fans produce! Big time!! The amazing energy of the place made for a great experience.

Oh... the game... Tied at four at the end of regulation play and the five minute fourth period, the Bucs won in a shootout 5-4.

Chilly Breezes

This evening, Linda and I thought the weather would make for a nice walk around the lake... we were wrong! Neither of us were really dressed in our cold weather gear so, when the breeze blew, it went right through us. We went about two and one-half miles and that was enough tonight. We spent some time talking about how to be better prepared for the upcoming cold if we're going to continue walking; something we both would like to do.

Wednesday Picture Show

When I got home from work this evening, I checked my email and found a note from MarathonFoto, the group that showed up to take pictures at the race. They'd completed sorting out the pictures and I could go see mine. Well, since my bib number was generally blocked, they'd only found two images that were for sure me. I browsed the "Lost and Found" section and found five more of me. It was pretty easy to recognize me; big guy, walking, wearing black pants... not many of those were in the race Sunday. Unfortunately, their site doesn't like people accessing it through a link or bookmark so I can't link you in to see them.

With my pictures properly assigned, I headed out to meet Linda to see The Illusionist, a very nicely done movie about a tricky magician in Vienna in the early 1900s. Just about anything with Edward Norton is going to be interesting and this didn't disappoint.

After the movie, we took a little stroll and I found myself having to resist the urge to pick up the pace. The training has stuck. We'll probably have to go for a walk some day soon.

Service

I headed up to Joel's for our weekly pizza last night. On my way, I stopped at my "regular" gas station. Every Wednesday for last few months, if I needed gasoline, I'd been stopping at this gas station to buy fifteen dollars worth of gas and five dollars of PowerBall. It got to the point that, when the girl at the register saw me at the pump, she'd set the pump to stop at fifteen and print up the lottery ticket; that's service! Now that our weekly outting has moved to Tuesday, I thought I'd probably better stop in to start the training even though I didn't have room for fifteen dollars in gas. I pulled up to the pump, put in eleven-fifty and went in to pay.

"It's not Wednesday... and that's not fifteen dollars in gas." My Powerball ticket was on the counter. She works Tuesdays as well! I explained that it was all the car would take and that I'd now be showing up on Tuesdays... at least for a while.

Joel and I went to our regular pizza spot and when we were seated in our traditional location, the server brought the table service and menus. Hmmm... "We won't be needing menus."

"Ah... it's you guys," said our server with a smile. "Large sausage and pepperoni? Anything to drink?"

"I'll have a Pepsi," said Joel.

"So you'll have the Mountain Dew?" she asked me.

"Yep." It's nice to find good service.

We enjoyed our dinner and headed back to Joel's to chat with Marlene and let him prepare for work.

Very Lucky Night

Monday night, I went to play cards with the Kevin's crew at Bill's house. (Not the Bill I often lunch with, but still a co-worker.) I was a little late arriving due to a number of less than lucky minor situations: late start, had to buy gasoline, got behind a law enforcement vehicle, and turned a block early.

The football game and my cards started off no better. Slowly but surely, players were being eliminated from the card table and I was winning just often enough to hang around a little longer. In the end, there were three guys with LOTS of chips and me with only a few. As luck would have it, they got cards they thought would win and put their game at risk... and were eliminated. Similarly, the Bear defense started playing well and stopped the Cardinals and started scoring some themselves.

Finally, the cards came down to me versus a guy I only know as Cubic. With little chance of winning, I went All-In without even looking at my cards. When the hand was played out, I won. I did it again... and won! Again... and won!! The Bears scored again! Things were going my way on all fronts! Cubic and the Cardinals got cautious. Momentum was with the Good Guys and we played on. Finally, Cubic got a hand he wanted to play and I was All-In. He turned a pair of sixes, a good starter. I turned Cowboys (a pair of Kings). He got no help and I WON a HIGHLY improbable come from behind victory. The Bears returned a punt for a touchdown and took the lead! Maybe, just maybe they could pull it out too. We all hung around and watched the Cardinals drive for a game winning field goal... that sailed wide left. Bears WIN! A wild and crazy turn of events made for a memorable evening out.

Marathon wrap-up and Future Plans

Friday, I'd anticipated needing / wanting to not be in a rush to get to work this morning and scheduled four hours of vaction. It was nice but really not needed. Tonight, I feel fine and am happy to have gone on another very long walk. I'm not sure when the next one will be but I think another full marathon may be in order for 2009; time will tell on that one.

I started this blog largely to communicate what was going on related to the marathon. During this month, that purpose evolved into something more. I've found it to be a fun activity and one that a number of you have said was interesting for one reason or another. I'm going to continue ... at least for a while.

Finish in Sight!

We finally were closing in the end of our walk. The first ten miles went pretty well. The last few were certainly testers. That said, we probably turned the miles at a very consistent fifteen to sixteen minutes per mile, some of our best sustained times yet!

5 the Hard Way

5 the Hard Way played us through the deepest portion of the course with some very good covers. I think that a couple of the band members were amused that a marathon participant was taking pictures along the way.

Dragons!

These two dragons high fived us as we reached the back of the park. The little lady in the picture was fun to chat with for a while as we would our way along.

From this point on, I felt like a horse heading back to the barn. Linda later commented that I'd been energized as we cleared this portion of the course.

Joel and Marlene Show Up!

Joel and Marlene came out to provide their support. Fortunately, they caught this image of us as we went zipping past their location. About the same time, from the left, the lead woman half marathon runner was approaching fast. The cheers for her nearly drowned out Joel and Marlene's calling out to me. It was a real treat to get to see them there; I had a good chuckle over the next mile.

A Walk in the Park

Racers snake along the road in Water Works Park. The overcast sky had been a concern early; it had actually rained overnight. Fortunately, the rains stayed away during our walk.

Drum Line

At the first turn in the course, we enjoyed the rhythm of this drum group. It set a nice pace for us as we were starting off. We encountered them again a few blocks from the finish line.

Line up!

It's just about time to start out. Over three thousand people were registered for the various events of the day. An unexpected little touch was a bugler in full costume playing the call to the gates heard at horse races. As expected, when the gun to start was fired, we all just stood there and clapped. In a few minutes, I could see the ripple of heads bobbing up and down working its way back to us.