happy b-day!

If any of yunz run into the lovely and talented Social Retard today, be sure to buy her a beer and wish her a happy 31st birthday!

seven years of college down the drain...

So I've been chasin' this chick around recently, and she wasn't giving me the time of day. Then she finds out that not only am I Colorado's biggest Pitt fan, but I actually graduated from that fine university. Now all the sudden I'm OK in her book. Which is quite funny, because I was a lot wilder back in my colledge days (DNA can attest to that) and I probably lost more brain power due to drinking than any educational benefits I got from my five years in school (four at Pitt and one at Temple).

Anyways, my uncle sent me a bunch of those motivational pics you've been seeing on my blog, and this one reminded me of my days at Pitt.

mug update

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run #38 - return to Quinn's

Was able to welch out of work a bit early and got to Quinn's in pleanty of time. Decided to leave early to get a few extra miles in. Great run under the full moon. Even behaved myself after the run, having only two beers. A fact I celebrated by heading over to the Finish Line for two more beers, which happened to be pitcher sized!

Start time: 5:45 PM
Distance: 5.75 miles - Fountain Creek out and back
Time: 45:19
Pace: 7:52 per mile
Weather: 20F, chilly but clear

for all the Lakers fans...

bad back

So all brokeback jokes aside, I somehow managed to screw up my lower back. I feel really old, like Lulu. I think I either A) messed it up in my fall on Sat, and didn't notice it due to the pain in my knee; B) twisted it at the gym last night; or C) slept on it wrong last night. I didn't notice it on my run this morning but sheesh, it's killing me at work.

So any of you athletes out there ever have lower back trouble? What did you do for it?

Aim High!

run #37

Really didn't want to get out of bed this morning, but I had to get in an extra workout to justify Quinn's tonight. Kept up a decent pace and no problems from the knee.

Start time: 5:15AM
Distance: 4.3 miles - Knob Hill short
Time: 32:46
Pace: 7:37 per mile
Weather: 13F, "feels like" 2F; partly cloudy; I really wish winter would end

Thurs night track workout

For the folks involved in Jack Quinn's, rumors are now flying that there will be a breakoff group to train for the Chicago marathon in October. The group will still do the Tues night thing, but there will be more workouts during the week as well. I plan on training with the group for quality workouts, even though I won't be running Chi-town.

So I took the opportunity to start a Thurs evening track workout group. First meeting will be this Thursday, 6PM, at the Colorado College track. All are welcome. No set workout, though Josh and I are gonna churn out 6 x 800 meters with one lap rest in between. I'm gonna try to average sub 3:10 for all of 'em, but it's been a LONG time since I've been on a track so it might take a bit for me to figure out pacing again.

Of course, just as important as the killer workout is carbohydrate replinishment, and as all of yunz should know Tony's is just down the street from the CC track...

Rumson rocks!

The following quote is from this month's TrailRunner magazine. It is taken from the disclaimer for the Rumson H3's Freezing Cold Hash Run on January 6, 2007, in Edison, New Jersey:

"Be cautious - this is woods running - not a nice road with course marshalls. Potential exciting dangers if you go off trail are: getting bitten by starving animals, exploding gas pipelines, 29,000 volts of electricity, wind burn, running into tree branches and poking eyes out, sticker bushes, crawling under barbed wire, sliding down mud cliffs, slipping on ice or snow and breaking bones, encountering swamp gas or frozen rats."

run #36

Ended up 11th out of 83 finishers at the winter series eight miler. Had a bunch of Air Force Academy guys there, and I whooped 'em all, as well as a ton of high school cross country runners. Pretty happy with my race, especially the huge negative split I pulled off. Knee is still a bit sore from the fall but I don't think it's anything serious.

Start time: 10:15AM

Distance: 8.0 miles - south Fountain Creek

Time: 54:44

Pace: 6:50 per mile

Weather: Cloudy, temps in the mid 20s with light snow showers, and light wind; icy trail

wounded knee

Here's a pic of my mangled knee from yesterday's race. Sure doesn't look as bad as it feels. Austinites wouldn't know, but it really, really hurts when you fall down on frozen dirt.

PPRR winter series

Just a quick note as I'm about off to the hash, but I had a pretty good run this morning. Eight miles along the Fountain Creek Trail. And despite the frigid temps, light snowfall, an epic wipeout during the first mile, and a halfway time of 28:45, I still managed to beat my goal of holding a sub-seven minute mile, finishing at 54:45.

I'll post a report, and even pics of my now-torn up and extremely painful left knee, later on. Good race though, hopefully it's foreshadowing the great effort all the Austin 3Mers are gonna have tomorrow!

CoTex

Major announcement over on the CoTex blog.

kimchi mugs

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future hash article

So I've been asked by el presidente of the Pikes Peak Road Runners to write an article about hashing for the upcoming PPRR newsletter. Gotta be a somewhat decent piece, as it'll be read by over 1000 runners. I got all shitty drunk last night, first at the P2H4 happy hour at the OT sports bar, and then at my new local hangout, the Finish Line Lounge, where I wrote out a basic outline for the story. Looking at the outline now, while sober, it's quite funny and almost on par with the "Kimchi manifesto" I once wrote while at $3 pitcher night at the Knob Hill Lounge.

Anywho, what are some of the aspects of hashing I should include in the article?

run #35

I actually got into trouble at work for working too many hours, so sadly I agreed that I would start going into the office later in the morning. Good stuff, now I can get my runs in during the morning, which opens my evenings up for more drinking! On a bad note, my garmin stopped working halfway through this run, sure hope there's a warranty on it.

Start time: 6:30AM
Distance: 5.5 miles - Rebekah's loop
Time: 44:00 (guessing, as my watch froze up at 5:29)
Pace: 8:00 per mile
Weather: 28F, still a bit icy in spots but a good morning for a run

62 and counting...

Fell a bit short of my goal, but all in all 62 new pubs in my first year in COS ain't too shabby. Figure I've been to about 20% of the bars in the city now. If you count the mountain towns of Leadville, Alma, Fairplay, and Durango, the count is well over 70 bars. Here's the list of COS drinking joints I've been to in the last year, most more than once:

Ancient Mariner
Arctic Brewery
Back East Bar & Grill
Bambino's
Baracuda Bob's
Benny's
Bernie's Lounge
Bijou Bar and Grill
Bristol Brewing Company
Bull McCabe's
Caddyshack Lounge
Calamity Jan's
El Dorado Lounge
Erin Inn
Finish Line Lounge
Il Vicino
Irish House IV
Jack Quinn's
Jim's Neighborhood Lounge
Jose Muldoon's
Judge Baldwin's
Keg
Kelly O'Briens
Kinfolk's
Knob Hill Lounge
Meadow Muffin's
Mission Inn
Murphy's
Murray St. Darts
Navajo Hogan
Old Chicago's
Old Mill Tavern
Old School Tavern
Oscar's
Overtime
Penalty Box Lounge
Phantom Canyon Brewery
Pine Top Lounge
Putting Green Lounge
Red Rock Lounge
Robin Hood
Rondeveux
Rumbay
Sam's - The World's Smallest Bar
Sharky's
Shot's
Skybox Lounge
Southside Johnny's
Squatting Chicken
Thirsty Parrot
Thunder & Buttons
Time Out Lounge
Tony's
Townhouse Lounge
Triple Nickel
Union Station
V-Bar
Vue
Wagon Wheel
Walkabout
Wayfarer
Yukon Tavern

run #34 - CRC happy hour

Beautiful evening for a run, even had a hint of sunlight for the first mile or so, a first for a post-work run this winter. Days are finally getting longer! Warm temps today (got all the way up to the mid-40's!) made for a muddy trail but it was a good time. Finished the run with some volunteering for the Pikes Peak Road Runners, putting together the monthly newsletter.

Start time: 5:20PM
Distance: 7.4 miles - CRC along Fountain Creek to the Zeb Pike skate park and back
Time: 61:14
Pace: 8:16 per mile
Weather: 28F, "feels like" 21F; one of the better CO nights in a while

mug update

Heard from the mug company today, and they'll gladly do the mugs. If ten or more are ordered, the cost will be $24 per mug, plus probably $3-ish per mug for shipping and handling. Twenty or more mugs and the price would drop down to $22 per mug. I'll post to the hash lists tomorrow and set a deadline for cash, at least a month away.

kimchi hash mugs

Looking into putting together an order for wooden Kimchi hash mugs. The design would be the following, with your hash name on the back:

Let me know who all is interested. Expect the mugs to run about $30. First ten hot, single harriettes to order one will get a free dirty sanchez from the current CKH3 GM!

Simon Yates

Had the pleasure of hearing Simon Yates speak this evening in Palmer Lake. I'm sure nobody who reads this knows who he is, but he's one of the world's top mountaineers. He was the subject of the movie "Touching The Void" about one of the epic mountain mishaps of all time.

I figured the entire talk would revolve around the events that shaped the movie, but it was more of a highlight reel of Yates's accomplishments. Lots and lots of first ascents of impossibly difficult peaks all around the world. I'm not really into the technical stuff he does, but the presentation was awesome and included tons of pics from the world's highest and toughest peaks.

Even more fun was getting to hang out with the Colorado Mountain Club at a great dive bar (O'Malley's) before and after the gig. I ordered a burger, and the waitress brought me out a raw beef patty. You're supposed to go cook it yourself on a grill inside the bar. Luckily there were women around to take pity on me and make sure I didn't ruin the burger.

Stanton Moore

Wow, what a great show last night at the Black Sheep! I'm sure the Stanton Moore Trio will pass through Austin soon, so yunz guys need to check out the show. Band has an organ player, guitar player, and of course Stanton on drums. You can definitely hear a Galactic influence, but it's a much more jazzier sound.

Even got to get rid of a can of chicken soup I've had for over a year by hitting up a drum clinic featuring Stanton before the show. It was pretty cool, he did a quick history of the sound of New Orleans music and then rocked out on the drums.

Good to see Strip Me and Butt Mustard at the show, at least I'm not the only hasher around here with decent taste in music.

run #33

Decent run tonight. Would like to go on record by saying that the Nike Free has absolutely horrible traction on ice. Supposed to hit the mid-40s the rest of the week, hopefully it melts some of this snow and ice that has me running so friggin' slow.

Start time: 6PM
Distance: 5.5 miles
Time: 43:42
Pace: 7:56 per mile
Weather: 18F, "feels like" 11F; chilly but no wind;

Cross Country Caper results

Results are finally posted. I ended up 8th place overall, out of 40 finishers. Final time was 25:02. Catwoman was 21st overall, and second overall chick, in 33:29. Slow times due to a super difficult course that was ice and snow covered. And I'll find out Wednesday, but I'm pretty sure the course was a bit more than the advertised 5K.

Rescue Run

Couple 'o action shots of me at this year's Rescue Run. You can see how icy it was.

Ran 25:02 on a ridiculuously hard 5K+ cross country course this morning. Report will follow. Congrats to #2 female finisher Catwoman!

CCAF

So besides getting all kindsa benefits like groupies and discounts to big races like the Run the Register, being in the Air Force Reserve automatically enrolls me into the Community College of the Air Force.

I don't really want to go back to school, but I figured that most of my credits from Pitt would transfer, I'd take advantage of the 100% tuition assistance for Pikes Peak Community College, take a few classes full of hottie co-eds, and get an associate degree in criminal justice.

So I called up the education center on Peterson this afternoon. Here's the main conversation:

Me: "Hi, how do I get college credits transferred towards the CCAF program?"

Ed guy: "Where are the credits from?"

Me: "The University of Pittsburgh."

Ed guy: (long pause) "Where is that located?"

Me: (long pause): "Uh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania"

Me: (after another too long of a pause from the ed guy) "It's an actual school in Pittsburgh, not some online diploma mill."

Ed guy: "OK, you'll hafta bring in your transcripts in and we'll take a look at them."

So hopefully next week I'll be on my way towards that prestigous CCAF certificate. Hopefully it won't dumb me down to the level of the AF education center workers.

run #32 - back to the Incline

Snow covered and slippery, but the Incline was definitely doable. Took me a whopping 38 minutes to get to the top, and a hell of a long time to get back down, but the slow pace didn't mean it wasn't still a killer workout. For those that did the asshole trail in El Paso, the black top road to the top of the mountain that just about sapped the will of every hasher was no problem for me, since it wasn't half as bad as doing the Incline.

Start time: 3PM
Distance: 4.0 Miles
Time: 1:09:41
Pace: 17:25 per mile
Weather: 35F, chilly but no wind; beautiful views of a snowed in city

FRBs rock!

Here's a pic of the FRB's from the 16.5 mile asshole trail. The sign was found somewhere on trail.
FYI, the redhead Arizona chick offered me a blow job for the shirt I'm wearing in this pic. I turned it down, because she hadn't done the trail (though I did offer her an Austin hash shirt instead). Asshole hounds hafta keep the standards high!

here's to plan B...

...which I knew nothing about.

congrats!

My dad retires today after working the last 600 years at a jewelery store in Sunbury, PA!

blast from the past

Sunday will mark the end of my rookie year in Colorado. Been trying to work on a "best of" post, but the change from Adelphia to Comcast has screwed up my internet at home so it may be a bit late.

But if yunz're bored at work today, here's a link to all my posts from last January. Included are my final days as an Austinite, the Bandera 100K, TexMex '06, Durango Snowdown, and the move to Colorado. And, though it seems like a decade ago, the run up to the Steelers super bowl victory.

run #31 - Rebekah's loop

New course this morning. Down Cache La Poudre to CRC, down Tejon, cut across Acacia Park, west on Kiowa, west on Boulder to the Olympic Training Center, and back home. Good loop, glad I was able to drag myself out of bed on a cold morning for it. Sure wish more people would shovel their walks up here, and that includes the City of Colorado Springs finally plowing some of the side streets.

Start time: 5:15AM
Distance: 5.5 Miles
Time: 53:04
Pace: 9:38 per mile
Weather: 9F, chilly and windy, much better suited for staying in bed

run #30 - CRC happy hour

Met at the Colorado Running Club for their weekly happy hour run. Unfortunately, my watch crapped out just after halfway, so I gotta guestimate. I'm pretty sure I had a good negative split though. Hard run on the slippery Fountain Creek trails, but the free Laughing Lab afterwards is more than worth it.

Start time: 6PM
Distance: 5.7 miles
Time: 44:00
Pace: 7:43 per mile
Weather: 35F, clear but chilly

WOOHOO!

Stanton Moore Trio this Sunday at the Black Sheep!

friends in low places

I actually knew the guy who has been charged with starting the recent apartment fire here in CSCO. Real class act, shoulda been in jail for drug use but the prisons are too crowded here. Looks like they'll find him some space now though!

more TexMex trash...

I'm not gonna steal Gagger's thunder by stealing all her pictures, but I think this one sums up the weekend pretty good...

I'm never drinking Absinthe again!

run #29 - the asshole trail!

I normally don't count hashes as a run, but I gotta make an exception for the recent asshole trail in El Paso! Greatest trail I've ever hashed! Had tons of difficult checks, a check back 69, two beer stops with warm Tecate, a college campus, lots of elevation change, and lots of good Texas shiggy. I was one of four who was fooled into the entire check back 69, which added two miles to trail, and I also decided to bag the summit of Franklin Mountain since we got so close to the top, and at the end trail measured out to 16.5 miles! Woohoo!

Start time: 12:30PM
Distance: 16.5 miles
Time: 4:11:06
Pace: 15:13 per mile (this includes standing around for the beer stops and the class 4 scramble up to Franklin Mountain)
Weather: 60F, warm and sunny

CKH3 #94

Wankers,

Despite the recent debacle that was TexMex, the Kimchi hash will be on the piss again this Saturday!

Start point: Jim's Neighborhood Lounge, 1833 Peterson Road, CSCO, 80915. Not exactly sure but I believe this is near the intersection of Peterson Road and Palmer Park Road.

Start time: 3:30PM

Hare: Grannylingus. He said it would be just a bit shorter than the Asshole trail in El Paso.

on-on
brownie

King Cool

The radio station I listen to at work, 98.1 KKFM, just played Donnie Iris!

shitcanned!

Got fired from my job at the liquor store yesterday! Well, wasn't really fired, but the boss wanted me to show up to work at 5PM from now on, which I'm not able to do. So no more cheaper booze for me. However, I'll once again be a regular at Quinn's Running Club! Of course, no running tonight as I'll be at the bar watching the Pitt/UConn game and then off to the CMC meeting, but I will enjoy a few pints of Laughing Lab and share some El Paso stories tonight.

quick update

Had to run to Kinko's to print out some CoTex rego forms, so I thought I'd post a quick update.

Day 1: I got retardedly drunk, had a spectacular fall down a mountain during the hash, threw up at King's X, and ate lunch at Sunset Pizzera. Great start to the weekend!

on-on to Rosa's Cantina!

TexMex!

Woohoo! Finally time for the road trip to El Paso/Juarez! Just to show yunz how much cooler than the average hasher I am, while everyone else has been singing that horse-theif-gets-shot tune that mentions Rosa's Cantina (I'll be eating there tomorrow!) I've had the El Paso song from the Gourds running in my head.

I'll be offline until at least Monday, hope you wankers can survive without me updating my blog for that long.

new monsoon

OK, so I should have posted this blog last week, but the New Monsoon show was awesome! Lincoln, you're a total fag for bailing on this, I doubt you'll get to see a show this good while you're living in the Springs. Not quite as good as the time I saw 'em after the MOFRO/Galactic show at Stubb's, but I can't ask for a better show at the Black Sheep.

Rest of the pics can be seen here.

Colorado weather

Woohoo! Headed out of town at just the right time! Weather forcasts for the Springs includes another blizzard and highs not expected to reach double digits! All you Coloradians think of the Kimchi hashers this weekend, we'll be running around drinking in shorts!

hey, it's all gonna work out...here's sports...

1. It was really great to see Ohio State get beat so badly last night. I've always thought of that team and their fans to be classless. When I was at Pitt, we, uh, had somewhat of a below average football team, and OSU came to town one Saturday and beat us by 70 points. Not exaggerating there. There was no call for it and I've hated them ever since.

2. If I had a vote in the AP poll, Bosie State woulda been my number one. Well, they woulda been #2, behind Pitt, but you catch my drift.

3. I'm glad Mark McGwire didn't get into the hall of fame. I wish Goose Gossage would have gotten in.

4. Felt super old today when someone asked me my marathon PR. Not too shabby with a 2:55 (better than Lance, FYI), but they asked when I ran that. It was Pittsburgh 1997! A decade ago! Sheesh.

5. Free pint 'o brew to whomever can figure out which comedian said the quote that inspired the title of this post. Yes, Smut, I still owe you a pint from the Kelly Bundy trivia, and you'll get it if you ever decide to hash in Colorado.

fuck Winter Park!

The front page of today's CS Gazette had an article on Alma, at 10,578 feet above sea level the highest town in the country. But recently, the yuppie ski resort town of Winter Park (many hashers were at the Invihash there a few years ago) annexed a mountain so they could now claim to be the highest.

I'm a huge fan of Alma, population of less than 200. Nice little mountain town that I've visited several times due to it's proximity to several 14ers. Only two pubs in the town, the South Park Saloon and Alma's Only Bar (possible pub crawl site for CoTex), both of which get you treated like a local if you visit. Nothing like the yuppie ski bars where you gotta wait 20 minutes for the priviledge of paying $4 for a can of budweiser.

Alma also won cool points with me for taking up a lease for the DeCaLiBro land. When Nicole and I hiked those 14ers last August, we were tresspassing. The mining company, due to liability issues, didn't want folks on their land. Enter Alma, who now leases the land and any liability issues that go along with it. And the hike is now legal. Which gives me a good excuse to go back and climb 'em all again!

Anyways, the town of Winter Park, which sits at just over 9,000 feet, now claims 12,060 feet, because one of it's mountains (probably Mary Jane) hits that height. And of course WP now claims to be America's highest town. And you know that all those yuppie posers who need a ride to the top of a mountain are already buying the "Get High in Winter Park" shirts.

Just venting here. In my short time in Colorado (coming up on the year anniversary, FYI) my favorite places have been the small mining towns like Alma, Fairplay, Leadville, Salida, Lake City...I could go on and on. I find the few major ski towns I've been to way too fake, and it irks me to see the big ski places trying to take something away from the smaller towns.

Read the article here.

AF weekend

Finished up my second weekend with the Air Force Reserve.

Saturday was a bunch of newcomers briefings. Really boring. A lot of the people here aren't from Colorado, so one of the briefings was about the city of Colorado Springs. The instructor asked me where my hometown was, and of course I said Pittsburgh. He then told me that since I was from sea level, if I were to climb Pikes Peak the altitude would make me sick and perhaps kill me! I told him I would keep that in mind...

Sunday was spent in the unit storage shed cleaning weapons. Not my favorite thing to do, especially since I didn't even fire the weapon. But it was fun bullshitting and getting to know everyone. Also got the paperwork to go pick up my uniforms, so I should have some more military pics soon.

Found out that the cop school I'll have to go to is 4.5 months long. It's in San Antonio, so yunz Texans will hafta deal with me during the upcoming year. Trying to get there as soon as I can, I'd love to have an excuse to bail on this Colorado winter.

Tried to volunteer to go to Kurdistan (sp?) for a 45 day deployment to guard an air base that we use to re-fuel planes going to Iraq and Afghanistan. They wouldn't let me since I haven't been to the above school.

As soon as I'm allowed to volunteer for stuff like that, I'm gonna try to go to Afghanistan. I want to do a mountain patrol while I'm young enough that I won't crap my pants if someone shoots at me.

run #28

Got in a decent run this evening, highlighted by a spectacular sunset behind Pikes Peak. Still a lot of snow and ice on this course, which makes for slow going.

Start time: 4:20PM
Distance: 9.0 miles (Monument Creek)
Time: 1:29:38
Pace: 9:57 per mile
Weather: 17F, "feels like" 4F

Leadville week #7

Decent week, though mileage was a bit short due to a 5K race and the Air Force weekend.

Week #7 distance: 29.9 miles
Week #7 time: 5:06:54
Average week #7 pace: 10:15 per mile

Total quest distance: 175.8 miles
Total quest time: 28:07:03
Average quest pace: 9:35 per mile
Average weekly mileage: 25.1 miles

three bands

Stole this idea off of Lulu's blog, but since her blog sucks and nobody reads it, I thought I'd post it here. I listed Widespread Panic, John Butler Trio, and the Beatles. The question has been bugging me all morning though, that's a tough call to hafta make.

If you could only listen to three band/artists for the rest of your life, who would they be?

run #27 - more snow

I stepped out my back door this morning and was greeted by even more snow. Supposed to get up to four more inches from this storm. Big deal for me, since the city still hasn't bothered to plow either Alexander or Willamette Roads from the first blizzard we had. Spent most of the run trying to keep from falling down, this is probably the worst the roads have been all winter. Best part of the run was deciding to call in sick for work today!

Start time: 5:45AM
Distance: 5.6 miles (Knob Hill - east)
Time: 51:00
Pace: 9:06 per mile
Weather: 30F, heavy snowfall

mark your calendars

Just talked with MeatGazer, and the dates for the Sand Dunes hash campout will be May 11-13! Woohoo! Quite a few of those dunes are listed on Summitpost too, so besides getting all shitty drunk I can pad my summit list!

I am not a wus...

Yes, while I did accidentally shy away from the Rescue Run 10K for the much less challenging 5K, I did get my entry in today for the San Juan Solstice! Woohoo! Technical trail running averaging over 12,000 feet!

CS - new live music capital of the world!

New Monsoon will be playing the Black Sheep on Wednesday. Doors at 8PM, $10 to get in. I'd invite everyone over to my place for a warm up but I really don't have much of a place now. We could always hit up the Knob Hill or Wagon Wheel first.

Opening band is Manitou's own Creating a Newsence!

Gonna be a great show!

Lance is a pussy

What a chode. Probably woulda gotten his ass kicked by some of the Colorado mountain bikers before he failed a drug test anyways.

Pussying out on Leadville

run #26 - Rescue Run 5K

Beautiful way to start the new year at Palmer Park this morning! I screwed up and took a wrong turn, ended up doing the 5K instead of the planned 10K. Whoops. Didn't run too bad, and my feared lack of speed isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I ran 22:11, which sounds slow but due to all the ice and the hills, and the fact that I thought I was doing a 10K for the first two miles, the time isn't too slow. In fact, I'll be looking to go sub-20 in two weeks at the Cross Country Caper.

Had quite a few hashers show up, below are Chucky Cheeks, All Nighter, and Bloody Z.

Start time: 10AM

Distance: 3.1 miles through the icy roads of Palmer Park

Time: 22:11

Pace: 7:09 per mile (first mile, up an icy hill, was 7:40)

Weather: 40F, clear skies, windy