Scratching an old itch

Well folks, many of you know that I lived and breathed college radio for a solid 4 years at WRCT Pittsburgh (CMU). This week I'm starting back on the road to musical enlightenment, by showing up to the new DJ infosession at KZSU Stanford. This comes after an almost three year hiatus, partially self-imposed, partially imposed by the TWO YEAR waitlist at WMBR Cambridge (MIT).

Now that my full-time job no longer directly causes me to dabble in music, I'm definitely missing a large outlet of my love for music -- especially new music. It is time to scratch this old itch, in the best way I know how.

The thing I miss the most about college radio is helping others learn about radio. Now that I'm no longer a student, I still want to practice what I preached as General Manager at WRCT - college radio is a tremendous learning opportunity--especially for students. It's a huge social and interpersonal challenge to work and play in a college radio station. What I'm getting at is that, as a community member, and not a student, I'll want to play a more hands-off, mentoring role at a future station. Hopefully that station will be KZSU. Wish me luck...

What I Do At Work All Day

Many of you have asked me, "gee Andrew, what do you do all day at work?" It's simple, really. Watch this video that was posted in an obscure part of the official company blog to see what we do. Basically, we fuck around all day with Nerf guns and we celebrate Festivus. Send me your resume today!

Party Weekend

Well, Christmahanakwanzika is practically beating down our door, so that means it's time for the endless string of party invites. More on that in a subsequent post, including my special take on the holidays.

This weekend I danced my butt off. Starting early, on Thursday once again I returned to the Salsa Rueda classes at work and had a blast. We had one of the largest groups of people I've ever seen at the class, so much so that I ended up helping teach the second wave of (mostly new) people who showed up.

Saturday night was the night I went to the company holiday party. The company is so huge now that this year they had to split the event into two nights, of which you could attend one. I kid you not, they must have spent at least a half mil on each night. It was ridiculous. The place was packed, and there was a very very good DJ in the one large room, and a live band in the other. Lots of dancing was had that night.

Sunday was the big game between the Steelers and the Patriots. The Steelers had a shot at breaking the Patriot's thus-far perfect record. I went up to Zach's in Millbrae with Yaneeka H, Derek P, Dave B, and Derek's buddy Sam. Unfortunately the Steelers were pretty much helpless against the Pats, and they were not the best in the sportsmanship department. :( But, my buddy Eric D was able to use my Steelers ticket (since I no longer live in Boston), so all is well.

Then, Sunday night I went to Eric P.'s birthday party at Jelly's, a Salsa club in SF. I knew I was in trouble when I was tired BEFORE getting to the club. Somehow, I rallied and we all had a great time in SF.

Cal International Marathon

Looking chipper around
the 11 mile mark.

On Sunday I ran in the California International Marathon (CIM). After prepping all of my running equipment, checking the course maps, and setting multiple alarms for 4:15AM, I got to bed on Saturday around 10:30PM. The next (early) morning I got ready to go, had a muffin and a banana at the special early edition of the Holiday Inn's continental breakfast, downed three pills of Aleve for preventative sake, and then hopped on a shuttle bus to Folsom for the start of the race.

It was a long trip to the start line, the whole time being in the pitch black night. On the bus ride I met a runner, also named Andy, who has been running marathons since 2001. When we rolled into Folsom, I stayed in the bus for a half hour, in order to keep warm. Then, the early light of dawn started to creep in, and I got off the bus in order to use the bathroom and check my equipment bag. On the way, I bumped into Donna T., so we hung out and kept each other company until it was race time. Perhaps we got carried away and didn't look at the time, because before we knew it we realized there was only three minutes left before start. I slammed down a GU energy gel while frantically stretching. The race gun went off and I dived over the barrier into the starting corral roughly around where the 3:35/3:40/3:45 pacing groups were situated.

Over the first two or three miles, I ended up being near the 3:35 pace group. As much as I tried, I couldn't seem to slow down enough to find the 3:45 group. Every time I looked forward I always found myself closer to the 3:35 group. Another mile or so into the course my running buddy from the "running over lunch at work" group, Bill B, met up with me. He was planning on catching up with the 3:35 pace group. Finally, I gave up on the hopes of falling back enough to stay with the 3:45 group. I just moved up and planted myself in the 3:35 pace group.

Things went well, and I'm glad I made the decision to join that pace group. Every mile is marked with a large banner. The miles seem to be coming fast - at around 8:10-8:15 pace, which is close to what I was doing for Chicago (8:00 pace for the first 10 miles, before I started to bonk.) When I passed 10 miles and did not slow down, I was pleased.

The course had its ups and downs, and it certainly wasn't flat (unlike Chicago). Also unlike Chicago, the spectators were more subdued and were way way fewer in number. Where in Chicago people were at least three deep for the whole course, in Sacramento there were long stretches of time where there weren't any spectators at all. Of course this makes sense considering the relative magnitude of the two races. Chicago had 40,000 entrants, versus the 5,000 or so at the CIM.

There was a fair amount of wind on the course, so it was tremendously helpful to have a large group of people to huddle together with, and especially to draft off of. Tim Twietmeyer, the pace leader, was a particularly tall guy, so even I could benefit from tucking in behind him. I know many people in turn drafted off of me, so it all worked out. Tim has been a pace leader in the last 6 CIMs, so he was an invaluable resource. He kept us engaged and interacting throughout the whole race.

Andrew with super fan Derek P

As previously arranged by Derek and I beforehand, he is waiting for me at around 11 miles in. I asked him to cheer me on from the top of the biggest hill in the course, so I'd have motivation to take the hill in order to make it up there to see him. Derek hilariously runs side by side with me, and tries to get me to laugh by telling dead baby jokes. This may have mildly alarmed the pace group ;).

Around 15 miles into the course, I started getting some tightness in my left calf. I had noticed a bit of discomfort during last weekend's run in Eugene, but shrugged it off. I was a little worried that the pain would increase, but I otherwise felt fine and decided that it would be better to keep going with the pace group, than to take the hit of falling back. The next time I saw Derek was around then, so I asked him to get me some more Aleve. Unfailingly Derek was able to navigate the maze of closed off roads, find a drug store somewhere, and get back on the course in good enough time to catch me around mile 19. What an A+ spectator, I tell you!

Right at 19 miles into the course, I went from feeling fine to suddenly hitting a bump in my pace, and then I realized I did not have the energy to continue with the 3:35 pace group. This was compounded by the onset of nausea I had from dry-swallowing two tablets of Aleve that bounced around in my stomach and esophagus. This was hard because I knew that as soon as I let go, I wouldn't ever be able to pick it up enough to catch them again. It's a split second decision, but one that my body was effectively making for me. I knew I couldn't force the issue and rejoin, because I would blow out a muscle or overexert myself and seriously regret the decision sooner rather than later. The other downside to leaving the pace group is that there's about a 4 minute gap (and growing) between the 3:35 group and the 3:40 group. If I were to slow down enough to drift back to the other group, I would be out in the wind alone by myself for quite some time. Alternatively (and probably worse,) if I recovered from my drifting and resumed the same pace as before, just behind the actual pace group, I would be indefinitely without a group of people to draft on.

Thus as I passed the twenty mile mark, it was a bit surreal. There they had "the wall", which was a inflatable fake brick wall. A few people were dressed up as the grim reaper, which was comical. Passing this mark in the marathon is supposed to be encouraging, because if you've made it this far--and are still feeling well--you're cheating death. Er, you haven't hit the wall, right. So I kept going. My leg wasn't feeling great, but I was still plodding along just fine, now more at like a 9:00 pace rather than an 8:20 pace.

Around mile 23 the 3:40 pace group passed me by. By my calculations, if I had dropped 5 minutes of pace between miles 19 and 23, It was still doable to meet up with the 3:45 pace group within the next three miles, and finish strong. But alas, it was not meant to be. Right around 24 miles, both of my legs painfully and majorly seized up. Despite having eaten some banana (for potassium/anti-cramping sake) and Aleve (as a muscle relaxant), I was suddenly in very, very bad shape. My best guess is that I was so depleted of salt that by the time I noticed, I was well into the cramping phase with no real way to fix things within the time remaining. It was horrible. The next 2.2 miles were the hardest, most painful, and most frustrating miles I have ever run in my 13 year history as a runner. I spent perhaps a third of the time slowly and gingerly jogging, a third walking, and the other third standing still. Standing still was the worst. If I could have kept moving, I would have, but all of the muscles in my legs were simultaneously cramping up, rendering me helpless. At one point I just had to hug the nearest lamppost and wait as my legs trembled with the high tension and fury of salt depletion. They had a coke and pretzel stop around 25.5 miles, so I chugged as much of both as I could in the hopes that the salt and caffeine would propel me towards the finish.

Unfortunately as I limped, struggled, and hurled myself towards the finish, both the 3:45 and 3:50 pace groups passed me by. That was hard, but the height of frustration came from the fact that my upper body strength, my lung capacity, and my mental state were 100% fine and were raring to go. If I could have raced on my hands, I damn well would have. By my calculations, I still had a chance at making it in under 4 hours, so I did my best to make it. In fact, I did make it, with an approximate time of 3:56. I'll know my official time in a day or so.



Derek was awesome and when we met up after the race, he took care of me as I cramped up and hung out on the grass for several minutes. It takes a good sport to hang out with a confused, sweaty, convulsing pile of freezing human like me.

Fellow PARC teammates Donna T. and Marty U. had awesome races. Marty had a goal of qualifying for Boston, which for his age group means running faster than 3:20. He's going to Boston folks - he qualified! Donna had an AMAZING performance and finished at 3:09. So awesome. Does this mean I need to run Boston this year on a charity number? It's tempting..

Without Limits

Since the early days of college, it has been a tradition for my friend Adam K. to help prepare a Turducken. This Thanksgiving, along with about ten other people from the bay area, I trekked up to Eugene, Oregon to visit Adam and to share in the continuation of that tradition.

Eugene, Oregon is also known as "Track Town, USA." The beginnings of the Nike shoe company happened there at the University of Oregon, and legendary American runner Steve Prefontaine set many a record while there until his tragic death at age 24.

I had the opportunity to run a 15 mile workout while in Eugene. My friend Will H. joined me for the run. It was really inspiring to run in the area where "Pre," as he was affectionately known, had put in the miles that enabled him to simultaneously hold all of the American records for every running event between 2,000 and 10,000 meters.

This got me thinking about my upcoming race at the California International Marathon. I decided that it would be a fun way to prep for CIM by hosting a movie night for my running friends. So, on Friday night I got together a few people from PARC and friends, and had a showing of "Without Limits," which is the 1998 film starring Billy Crudup as Steve Prefontaine, and Donald Sutherland as Bill Bowerman. It was a lot of fun getting together with fellow PARC runners Chris, Donna T, and Mandy E. to watch the movie.

I'm writing this post from the Holiday Inn in Sacramento. My good buddy Derek P. (who is not a runner) and I are up here the night before the Cal International to get a good night's sleep before the marathon. Derek is prepping his cheering/hollering voice and looking over the course map. I am ready. The race starts at 7AM. Wish me luck tomorrow...

Hell has frozen over

Thanks to repeated beatings^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hencouragement from a friend (*cough*Darren*cough*) I have finally gotten around to posting my story about the Chicago Marathon. Plus, I had a few other blog postings in the queue that I hadn't published, because I was blocking on that post. So please, let's catch up, but I ask that you first read my account of the Chicago Marathon, so that it all makes sense.

Fastest course in the west!

Well, in light of my lackluster performance at the Chicago Marathon, I decided to investigate other options for running a second marathon. Several CRCers decided to run the Philadelphia Marathon. This was basically out of the cards for me, because I wasn't really up for another cross-country flight (since I was travelling to Pittsburgh.) Fellow PARC runner Marty also wanted to best his Chicago time, so he suckered me in to running the California International Marathon, which is on December 2nd. Good news: it can't possibly be five bajillion degrees outside, and also it's a mostly downhill course. Yesssssssss



Bad news: I haven't done that much training since Chicago. I've done a long run (13 miles, 15 miles, that sort) just about every weekend, and on average about one other run a week. That's very little training. But, I had some foot pain in my left foot that was exactly the same as my right foot pain, so I wanted to give it time to recover. We'll see how this goes.