Various Photos From Cincinnati

Where I went each night After a Long Day

The real reason for the trip (Work)

Practice field for the Cincinnati Bengals

Paul Brown Stadium (home of the Cincinnati Bengals)

Leaving Ohio and Entering Kentucky on a run

Same Run, leaving Kentucky and coming back to Ohio

Paul Brown Stadium from across the Ohio River

Great American Ballpark and US Bank Arena across the river

more of Great American Ballpark (hey, I love baseball and it's my companies park)

across the river and under a bridge

view at night of Fountain Square

picture taken from the "Purple People Bridge"

looking over the river at Kentucky

look at Frank Robinson swing that bat

Joe Nuxhall sure was an icon in Cincinnati

another view of Mr Robinson

Here's the pitch................

my companies Stadium

view from across the street

Side of my hotel (The Cincinnatian Hotel - built in 1882)

Cincinnati Trip/ The Winter Park Road Race

Greetings Fellow Runners

So my week of change has came to an end. Monday morning started out with Crystal driving me to the Orlando Airport for my flight to Cincinnati. I arrived into the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport at around 1:30 where I caught my shuttle to the Cincinnatian Hotel in downtown Cincinnati. After getting checked in, I decided I would go out for a run as there was nothing planned with work for the day and the day was still early. First, I learned that it is not as easy to get signal on my Forerunner 305 the first time in Cincinnati compared to Ocala. I ventured out in an exploring mode with my camera in my pocket. First I decided to head over to Great American Ballpark(the home of the Cincinnati Reds). I found this to be a very nice stadium with some nice statues out front of some former Reds Greats. I then continued my run down to the "Purple People Bridge" which is a pedestrian only bridge that crosses over the Ohio River and into Newport, Kentucky. After going about 1.5-2.0 miles I finished crossing the bridge and arrived at Newport on the Levee. At this point I decided to take a break from my run and walk around here for a little while. I walked around here for a while then decided to catch a movie (Gran Torino - which was VERY good) before heading back towards the hotel. I ended my run at right around 6 miles. I then cleaned up and went for a burger and a beer at a local hole in the wall type Sports Bar named Rockin' Robin's which was a very good place where one can feel very comfortable.

Tuesday, I had my training class go until 5-5:30 and the I ended up going out for another run that went from Cincinnati, over the Ohio River into Newport, KY, over a bridge crossing the Vickings River into Covington, KY then a 3rd bridge coming back over the Ohio River before coming back into Cincinnati running by Paul Brown Stadium (home of the Cincinnati Bengals). On my way back towards my hotel I ended passing THOUSANDS of people walking to US Bank Arena. I ended up asking a cop that was directing traffic what was going on, and found out it was a Elton John and Billy Joel concert on their Face 2 Face tour.

Wednesday, after getting out of training a group of 10 of us went out to Nicholson's which is a great Irish/Scottish restaurant/pub. This place was awesome, the food was SUPERB!, and has a beer list that was like 10 pages long. I ended up drinking a English Pale Ale that I had never had before and it was also great (Old Speckled Hen). We then went to an ice cream place where I had some excellent Black Raspberry Chip Ice Cream. This ended up being a day full of great food and beer - all of which unfortunately I do not think I can find any of in central Florida.

Thursday, was Graduation day from my training class. Once graduation was over a group of like 10-15 of us went over to Cadillac Ranch (a local Sports Bar with a southern feel) and had some drinks. We all had a blast and a good handful of us ended up riding the mechanical bull here which I never imagined could have been so much fun!

Friday, we still had a 1/2 day of training to go to before I left to the airport to head back to Orlando. Grant picked me up from the airport, went to Olive Garden, then went back to his place as we had our 10k race in the morning.

Saturday - RACE DAY - The Winter Park Road Race - We arrived in Winter Park right around 7am for a 7:30 race start. We got our bib numbers and Chip Timers on and then settled into the field of nearly 2,000 runners. The race ended up going pretty good and I felt really good throughout. I will say that I used up some extra energy trying to maneuver through the large field of runners (largest field I have ever had in a race yet). I ended up sprinting nearly the last 0.2 miles and finished the 10K race in a time of 53:17 for a pace of 8:34 per mile. I finished in 563rd out of overall 1,911 finishers (top 29%), 392nd out of 908 male finishers (top 43%), and 50th out of 104 in my 25-29 age group (top 48%)

I will post some pictures of the trip in the next day or day as I have not had a chance to upload the photos yet.

Til Next Time

The Evil Peacocks!

Greeting Fellow Runners



Well, another month has come to and end. I ended up having my best month ever as far as total mileage ran goes. I finished the month of February with a total of 92.2 miles and honestly felt like I could have ran even more. I felt great throughtout the entire month and suffored no real injuries other then my left knee hurting a little from time to time. The month of February also included my FIRST EVER half marathon as I completed the Ocala Half Marathon in 2:14:43.



I now look forward to future PRs and record months. I will have numerous 5Ks that I plan to run thorughout this year, plus so far I know I have a 10K that I am running on March 14 (Winter Park Road Race), the Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon on October 3, and my FIRST EVER full marathon on January 10, 2010 - Man, am I anxiously awaiting that day.





To start the month of March, I went out for a 8 mile run. I decided to switch up my route for a little variety and turned down some roads that I had never been on before (by foot NOR by car). I ended up turning down some old abandoned looking dirt road that was very peaceful. However, after getting about a half mile down theis road I look ahead and what do my wandering eyes see? 3 Peacocks standing in the middle of the road! (I later found out they were peahens as they were females - thank you google) These birds were just staring at me as I approached with caution, and man did they look EVIL. I have very limited knowledge on peacocks and did not know if they were mean, agressive animals or not. So I proceeded with caution and VERY SLOWLY passed them and kept going. They did come towards me a little bit, but I did not give them a chance to get any closer then necessary. Apparently this road ended about a quarter mile later and I had to turn around and come back by them again. They were still there and I repeated doing the same thing as before. Ended up being a nice little comfortable run of 8.11 miles in 1:16:32 for a pace of about 9:25 per mile. I also did receive my book in the mail yesterday (Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide by Hal Higdon) I read the introduction last nice and found what little I have read so far to be good. Now let's just hope the rest of the book is as good or better.



Next week, I will not be home as work will take me to Cincinnati for the week, then I come back and have my 10k on Saturday immediatly after getting back in Florida. I am looking forward to the trip as I think it should be a fun, interesting experiance (Sorry Crystal for leaving you alone with the circus). I plan on doing some nice runs while there, and for the first time ever I should be able to go for ONE run in TWO states as I cross the border into Kentucky on a run.

ALSO - I just wanted to let everyone know that I have decided to join TEAM WORLD VISION. If anyone is interested in helping me raise money, please visit my fundraising page at
http://www.firstgiving.com/thecrazyrunner Any donation would be greatly appreciated as this is a great way to help children around the world.

Well, that will bring today's rambling to an end.



Til Next Time