G- Day Minus five!- Grandma's race report

Yeah yeah, I know. I''ve been neglecting the three people who read my blog. My bad, yo. But its summer, you know, like going to the beach summer? nah. Its the working full time taking 8 hours of class, and coaching track summer. That's the worst kind. I'm terribly unmotivated. I need a break. I got one. I need another. But whatever, let me take a break from reading Powell v. Alabama and tell you about my marathonning experience.

So, Friday brought an early wake up call. Early, but later than normal. At 7:30 I got up and busted out 2 miles at 8 minute pace or so. Nothing special, but something to shake out the rust after two days off that week. I had about an hour to shower, eat a little breakfast, and finish up packing before the rendezvous at Heather's where we would all ride down to Duluth. All three of us, plus Heather's foster Dane. See, Heather's an animal rescuer, she rescues Great Danes from abusive households. She was actually fostering two at the time, so she had to take one up to a kennel for the weekend in Stacey, MN. So, the first hour was a pretty tight fit.

We got up to Duluth, checked into our hotel, and went out to eat as a team. Okay, it wasn't with the whole team, but enough of it. After that, we headed over to the DECC to hear Kara Goucher speak. She was engaging and pretty funny too. Plus, she's hot- too bad she's married. After the talk, I got a picture with Kara, only I don't own a camera so I had some guy take a picture of us. Only, I didn't give him my email address so he has no way of getting it to me. That makes me sad. But whatever, after that I met up with a couple folks from Daily Mile that were running Grandmas and took a picture or two with them, then walked around the expo a little. It was a good sized expo, but in too small of a space. Man, was that cramped. And I didn't even get any free stuff. Disappointing. But on the good side, I got out of there and only spent $1 which I was super pumped about. Then I headed up to the TCRC field HQ (AKA our hotel room) to set up the kitchen for the pasta potluck that night.

After that, most of us went out to see the 5k which started at six. It was actually a pretty slow race, the winner ran 16:30, but then people don't come to Grandmas weekend to run three miles. While we were there I saw some guy collapse in front of me. It was pretty scary. The guy was stumbling a round the corner, faceplanted, got up and took a couple more steps, and ate it again. Luckily we were close enough to the finish that somebody was able to come out of the crowd and help him cross the finish. It was weird because its not like he was flying or anything, it was well past the 30 minute mark. It was hot though, so maybe he was electrolyte- deficient or something . Once we saw our two runners cross the line we went back to HQ to eat. Then we went to bed early- everyone went to bed around 9:00 but I was asleep long before that.

Only four of us were running the marathon, with another four running the half, so it was a 4:00 wake up call for everyone. The Half started at 6:30 and the full at 7:30, so the half marathoners grabbed the showers first while the full marathoners milled around and settled into pre race routines. Me, I made my race day breakfast of tea, an apple, a banana, and a blueberry gel. Looking back, that probably wasn't the best idea since I had a good three hours before the gun. But anyways, we hit the door at 5:00 and were at the busses shortly after. We had a good 20 minutes before the busses started bringing people to the marathon start. During which I was cold and repeatedly heard about how brutal lemondrop hill was. When we got on the busses, I was pretty jumpy, but I took a seat in the back of the bus and tried to collect my thoughts.

We got to the race in good shape, a good hour before the race. I stretched out a little, but didn't do any warm up running. Is that good? I'm not sure, I was second guessing myself a lot, but I figured the hay was in the barn, so to speak. The weather was good at the start, in the low 60's. It looked like rain, and I wish it would have rained, but the sun poked through the clouds a little a few minutes before the start. I was running with one of my club members to start, which was really really helpful. I was in good shape at mile 3, albeit a few minutes slower than I had hoped. I had to make a pit stop at a porta potty at the mile 3 water stop which slowed me down a little. After I was finished with that escapade, I ran to catch up with my friend that I had been running with. And I mean I did run after him. I was doing like 8:10's and running through water stops, crazy stuff like that.

I stopped for another pit stop at mile 7, then kept on trucking-- until mile 9. I looked at my watch. 1:12. Are you kidding me? I'm in bad shape both physically and in the fact that a crash- and- burn is immanent. It came, and the middle miles were just a world of suck. I crossed the half marathon mark in a shade over two hours for my second fastest half to date. Then it went downhill. I could feel the sun baking me, the wind coming off Lake Superior, all of that good stuff. I knew I was low on salt and regretted leaving my salt bag in my backpack. We passed a medical drop out zone past mile 13 and I was thinking to myself that wouldn't be so bad right now. I kept going. I wasn't inspired or compelled or any of those things, I just wanted to get my ass in Lake Superior ASAP, and that involved crossing the finish line. Honestly, I don't remember much until mile 22. I definitely did not hit that runner's high though. But, it wasn't that I was worn out either. I felt like I could keep running, and I probably should, but I didn't want to.

Mile 22 through 25 was just one big party. I saw my dad and brothers at mile 23, lemondrop hill. I don't understand what the big deal was, I got up it and everybody cheering was congratulating me, and I was like "that was a hill?" Its little more than a bridge really. There's a picture of me on facebook going up lemondrop and I'm smiling having a grand 'ole time and everyone around me is just dying. I love it. I got up lemondrop, then we came to UMD's sorry excuse for a frat row. No Sigs, but there was a guy trying to get me to take a pull of vodka. Not happening buddy.

I "sprinted" mile 24, which is in quotations because I thought it felt fast and like more effort, but I really was slow and couldn't get any leg turnover. Mile 25 just pissed me off. You Go up a hill, turn right, go up another hill, run down the hill, run parallel to the finish line, make some turns around the DECC, and did the whole thing over again, except this time we ran the extra two blocks to the finish line. Supposedly you could see the finish line at mile 9, but 25 was my first view of it. It didn't make me want it more, it just confused me. Throughout the race, the only things I said, minus the idle chatter with a few runners was yelling "why does Duluth have to be so God d*** far away? come closer" and "Jeezus, we're two blocks away from the finish line... this is bull****, lets just turn left and we'd be done."

It finally got over with though. I ran 4:28:58. Everybody says its your first marathon, feel good about it, but nah, that's not going to happen. I was twenty- eight minutes and fifty- eight seconds of my goal time! that's unacceptable! and what's worse I wasn't even tired, I wasn't that sore either, I just wanted to stop running. In fact, I did go running the next day. Yep, 3 miles in 37 minutes, plus a dip in the Lake.

In conclusion, that was awesome? Will I run a marathon again? I'm thinking late October. Will I run Grandmas again? of course, albeit maybe not next year. One thing I loved was running trough the little towns. They were so friendly. They had their own water stops set up, the High School band was playing, the cheerleaders were out- man, that was awesome. One thing I'll take away from the race is this little girl yelled at me at one of the towns we passed "This is your race" to which I responded, "yeah, but I don't know what to do with it."

More to come, maybe? its 1:00 and I've got to wake up in five hours

G- day minus 21

Its coming. I'm getting psyched about this marathon, but also doubting myself big time. I keep thinking that I've slacked on my training too much, that I'm not in marathon shape. Maybe that's true, maybe its not; we'll find out in 22 days. I've had a tough couple of days of workouts lately. No so much because the distance or lactic acid or whatever but its just been hot as hell. No kidding, my Monday and Tuesday runs were both above 90 degrees, which is a lot when you're used to running in subzero temperatures most of the year. Luckily, Monday and Tuesday were both "short" days; 6 and 8 miles. Its all good. I struggled through Monday, but thats okay because it was an easy day anyways. Tuesday I smartened up and wore a water belt, but I poured more water on myself than in my mouth. That was a weird run. I was a little more than halfway through near Hamline, and the temperature dropped 15 degrees just like that. I mean, I've ran in and out of storms before, but I've never felt anything like that. One minute it was 95 and sunny, the next it was 65 and cloudy. Yesterday I ran a track workout, 12x200's. Not too difficult, right? I didn't go all that fast either; the first five were around 40 seconds and the last seven all at 44 seconds. I ran it after I ran a track workout I had made for the kids I coached. Only one showed up so I figured I would run with him to give him extra motivation. That was designed to be a lactic threshold workout, and I think it worked. We did a race sim last practice, and the kid totally lost it in the last 100 meters of his 800, just totally died. So, I wanted to get him used to running hard on dead legs. We did a five minute easy run, followed directly by three 200's back to back. We did three sets of that with three minutes rest in between. So, that's that.

Last I left you, I was still in school. Well, now I'm not and my five day summer vacation is coming to an end. I'll be starting up my Constitutional Rights and Liberties tonight, which I've heard is a pretty interesting class. However interesting, its still going to suck because its five hours two days a week. Also, since school has been over with, I moved into a house with a couple of my fraternity brothers. Actually, I moved in last Thursday, and was finished with school on Friday, but whatevski. Anyways, this house looks- well-- it looks like four guys have lived there for the past 20 years. Everything's fallen into a state of disrepair, the windows are cracked and fixed with scotch tape, that kind of stuff. So, my question to anybody who reads this is how do we clean the place? Last night I suggested that we have a Friday or Saturday night where we lock the door and say that no one can go out and party until the house is spotless. The problem is no one would buy into that. College kids are very good at making up excuses to go drink.

One of the problems we have is that my house is also the "chapter house" for our Sigma Chi chapter. I put that in quotes because even though we're a chapter house in Sigma Chi's eyes, we aren't in the City of St. Paul's, so we have to conform to residential housing laws. Specifically, we can not have more than 5 people in the house legally. Since the brothers use it as a chapter house though, brothers tend to congregate at our house, party there, crash on the couch, that stuff. So instead of trying to clean up after four people, we have four people cleaning up for 20. Its an uphill battle and no one seems to want to take up the cross. I cleaned up the kitchen last Saturday morning after I got out of class on Wednesday and it was a mess by Sunday night.

Um, other than that, I'm sure you've heard that Nike's coming out with the Victory XC, which drops sometime in July. They look sick, and first to the finish has them in seven colorways. Yeah, they're way out of my price range at $110, but hopefully if I can save my pennies over the summer I can pick up a pair before cross country season. Yes, I know I run for Brooks, but some Acitone will take the swoosh right off, allthough by July the Mach 12 will come out, so we'll have to weigh our options then. Who knows though, I'm broke like nobody's business. Its not like I spend my money irresponsibly, but it seems like every couple of weeks I end up broke. This week's going to be especially bad because I have to pay for a hotel room for Grandmas, a book for my class that I can't find anywhere online, and I have to put money on my bus card. I have $12 in my bank account right now, and all told that will probably cost me $130. God, stuff is expensive. I don't get paid until next week, and rent comes due then too. I want to believe everything's going to be okay, but in the back of my mind I know it isn't.

G- day minus 32/ 2 race reports for your reading pleasure

Hey guys. We're on the advent of finals week, and my last week as being a Sophomore. I move into my house on Thursday, and I have one more week at 69mpw, two at 70, then its taper time. I'm super excited. I don't understand why finals week is a big deal for everybody. It seems like everyone on this campus goes crazy when the calendar hits May. I won't lie, I've been obscenely busy too, but hey, thats college life. I dunno, the way I see it is if you manage your time effectively, don't do anything stupid, and take good notes, you'll be okay. But then, I'm also not taking bio, engineering, chemistry, those types of hard classes. For me, finals week is the least stressful weak of the year. Any week I don't have to wake up before 6 everyday and have one class a day is awesome.

So running. Running has been awesome lately. I'm already up to 150 miles this month, which is 20 more than April already and 50 more than March. This last week though its been tough to get excited about any of my runs. Last week it was in the low to mid 40's and raining every day. It was downright depressing. I may have just hit an all time low there. However, the weather seemed to take a turn for the better on Saturday and its been in the mid 70's ever since. I did an awesome 17 mile long run on Sunday that I'll post, but I think I'm going to do that this weekend too, assuming I'm in St. Paul and not Edina. I was actually supposed to do 16, but I couldn't pass up that nice of a run on such a nice day.

In terms of race reports, I ran two this week. First was the Twin Cities 1 Mile, which was run down Nicollet Mall on Thursday, may 13th. Before the race I ran a quick mile, mile and a half with Andrea, and then took the St. Thomas bus to the Minneapolis campus, and ran the three quarters of a mile or whatever to the start line on 3rd. Saw my running club on my run there, most of which were hitting the bars. I was running the 29 and under open wave because even though I signed up with the TC Running Club, Twin Cities in Motion finally got smart and realized that I couldn't actually compete with them since my USATF membership ran out last year. I thought it was worth a shot though; it got me a discount on my Get in Gear registration.

When I got to the start line, I did a couple striders and a little more short and fast stuff. Too much running? Who knows, but that would probably be a big factor in my poor performance. Before I get to the race, lets get to the weather. It was low 40's on race day, with a pretty sharp crosswind once you got past 10th street. I was actually feeling pretty good when the race started, I moved up into like the third row of people in the start area. I went out way too fast. I went out with the chase pack and went through the half mile in 3:10 and fading. As expected, I flew through the 10th st. intersection and died. Except I died harder than I thought I would. I was standing still and getting passed left and right, or at least that was what it felt like. Fun's over, I had to gut it out from that point on. I finished in a respectable time I guess, 7:04, but I got outkicked by everyone and their mothers in the chute.

The second race I ran on Saturday was the Autism 5k at Lake Harriet. Note that I said I ran it, I didn't race it. I ran it with Andrea, the girl I took to sweetheart, as well as her roommate and their friend. We got there at 8:00: 8:15 maybe? I didn't have a watch on; I purposely left it in my dorm. Throughout our runs, I could tell that Andrea was worried about hitting a certain time, which is a path to injury for all new runners. Its pretty simple- you push yourself too hard and get injured, and then lose interest in the sport altogether. Even so, I was planning on racing this one (and winning it), so I had myself chip timed. That worked well because since I ran with Andrea the whole way, her time was the same as mine; 38:33. Andrea's roommate and her friend Lucas took off on us a half mile in, so we were alone most of the way. The pack really thinned out over the first mile, there weren't that many people in the race. We talked about love, life and setbacks (that's a line from an Atmosphere song; we talked about running mostly and the various setbacks she had with it. I did a couple rudimentary gate analysis too, and figured Andrea was in a neutral shoe whereas she needed support, and her roommate needed a neutral shoe. (she wasn't wearing running shoes) I think she's going to take me up on getting a new pair of shoes too, which is kind of cool. I looked at the results the next day- the winner (and the winner of my age group) ran a 17 something. That hurt, I guess, because I knew I could have won that race easily. I could have easily been polishing a trophy right now. That got me thinking though- there's more to life then medals and recognition. What are medals anyway? Just symbols of memories in a sense. That would be cool to look at for a while, but all luster fades over time. I don't know, to me, a trophy can't hope to replace those 38 minutes. Maybe I'm romanticizing a little bit, but is it a problem if my slowest 5k turned out to also be my best?

G day minus 45/ miles apart

I've been really busy lately with finals coming up, so the blog is playing fifth wheel behind school, running, work, and Sigma Chi. So for the one person who reads this besides me, sorry mom. I mean its rough. I've got the coffee pot going constantly. Most days I'll do to bed at one or two in the morning and wake up at five thirty or six. Is that what the real world is like? Anyways, enough complaining. I'm not going to go into detail about my running because if I did so it would take forever. Just know that running doesn't hurt at all anymore and because of that I ran my first 55 mile week in probably three months. But, I want to talk about life. I don't even care if anyone reads it, I just want to get some things off my shoulders. K, so here's 19 years of my life in three paragraphs:

Relay For Life Friday night was fun even though it got moved inside because of the weather. That was okay with me because I had to get up early to go to SLP and they ended the thing at midnight or there abouts. Its too bad though because I think the whole event lost something, especially the Luminaria ceremony. And I got my event budget extended for food from $50 to $100 because I went shopping Thursday night and bought Ground Chuck, spices, buns, etc. and obviously with the event being held inside we couldn't grill so we had like no food. So I had to make another food run to get sandwich stuff Friday before the thing started.We grilled out Saturday afternoon and cleaned the house and it was pretty delicious. We have some awesome chefs in the chapter.

Sweetheart was awesome- it was at the St. Paul Athletic club in the room where our charter was signed 20 years ago and it was super classy. I went with a girl who went to Edina and who I've had a crush on for since as long I can remember. I'm just glad I got a date, I was 0 for 5 in asking girls before her and was getting pretty down on myself. It was a great time and it was really interesting. We had a couple of the charter members of Delta Sigma Chi (they started the fraternity before it was chartered, but before the colonies become official Sigma Chi chapters they have to serve something like a probationary period) as well as most of the first Iota Tau pledge class and the Grand Consul (president of the fraternity at- large) who presented the charter speak. We also crowned a new Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, which was pretty cool.
Unfortunately, Andrea missed when we sang the Sweetheart of Sigma Chi to the new sweetheart so I sang it to her during the car ride home. It was as an awesome time though; I'm already looking forward to next year.

Next week is Sigma Chi Derby Days, which is something akin to the Mifflin Street party in Wisconsin at the bigger schools with less drinking. Its basically six philanthropy events on each night of the week where all the proceeds go to a charity. This year its Huntsman Cancer Institute, so that should be a lot of fun. We're doing meal donations this week for Huntsman where students can donate a meal from their plan and some of the proceeds go to Huntsman while the majority go to the St. Thomas administration. Oh whoops, did I really type that? Really, why is ordering T- Shirts so convoluted? Why do they tell us which vendors we can and can't use? We have to get them cleared by Campus Life, Res Life and Public Safety? Why can't we just be students for once? do you hate fun? One more thing, Why must you skim $6.50 off a $8.50 donation? That's criminal. In the real world, thats called embezzlement and you go to jail for it. I should probably stop, lest I risk getting arrested by the secret police or the Gestapo or something...

Brooks Green Silence review

Wow, its been a long time since my last shoe review. Since I've put 45 miles or so on my Green Silences so far, I figured I might as well post my thoughts on them. I'm not a big racing flat fan; I usually race in the Brooks Ghost or the Launch or something. However, I picked up a pair for $50 because of all the hype they were getting figuring I'd wear them for tempos, and the odd 5k or 10k. Yeah yeah yeah, they're environmentally friendly and all that, personally I don't put much stock in that. Maybe I'll catch some flak for that, I'm not sure. I know a guy who got a pair early and said they were just awesome. Obviously, they're pretty minimalist in their construction which I'm not a huge fan of because my foot bows out a lot, and the shoe offers zero structure to speak of. Surprisingly, these shoes are really well cushioned. So much so that I took out the insole and was able to run just about perfectly in them. They are really roomy in the forefoot area, the toebox, which I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of, but more room is better than less. Since I'm running most of my miles lately on these babies, it definitely exaggerates some of the issues. That said, there aren't many gripes I have with these kicks. They're really light too, which is awesome- I think they might replace my spikes for track workouts. The lacing is kind of weird though. I like it, but I was trying to relace them- I love running in loud colors so I put some neon green laces in there and there was definitely a learning curve there. While they are excellent shoes, they're no different than the T6's really. If you're willing to pay more for the whole environment deal, go for it, but if moneys an object, I don't know if these are a shoe to splurge on.

G- Day minus 59/ dejection, rejection, and depression

Well, lets get into it, I guess. First, running. Its happening. Its ugly, but I'm gutting 'em out. Actually, I'm not really. Last week, I ran two days and spun once. Granted, for a total of 55 combined miles, but its not the same thing. Yes, I'm hurting, a lot, but I can't let that take over my life. Yes, I know you're not supposed to run on painkillers, but right now I'm searching for answers, and nothing seems to be working. I saw the doctor, he referred me to a shoe store for a meditarsal pad. The shoe store guy basically blasted the doctor and gave me some insoles. I went to Run 'n' Fun, and the guy there blasted the shoe store guy saying that the insoles won't do a thing for me. I'm tired of this s***, I really don't need it right now. I have to run, its my way out, and I really need an escape now.

In addition to not running, my professors figured now would be a good time to dump a semester's worth of homework. In addition to that, I'm being constantly reminded of how awful I am with women. See, we have the Sigma Chi Sweetheart ball coming up, which is a formal, so we have to find a date. So far, I'm 0 for 5 in that department, with a really good chance of striking out again when this girl calls me back. Oh well, at least its not for lack of trying. This usually wouldn't bother me so much, but combined with everything else going on... life sucks right now.

To round out my list of ills, I'm dead tired and apathetic about everything. I haven't gotten over six and a half hours of sleep in two weeks or so, and tonight looks like the first time since spring break that I'll get anywhere close to eight.

I should stop whining and man up. You guys don't care about my problems.

I actually was going to see a podiatrist today to see if he could fix me. I'm not counting on it though. A while ago, I explained it on daily mile:

You've got to understand that this is more of a defensive reaction than anything. I went to the doctor, and that was no help. I cut my training volume, and that didn't help. I stopped running completely for two weeks and that didn't help at all. If I knew what move to make, believe me I would. Maybe I should see a specialist, and I will look in to that, but the problem is that Doctors' schedules- especially specialists- and my schedule usually don't coincide. Like I said, if I knew a specialist could help me, I'd be more then happy to make time ASAP, but I'm apprehensive about continuing this cycle any longer because its kind of depressing. All they say is "don't run." I hate to do that, but I did, and that didn't solve a thing.

They had an in house- podiatrist at Marathon Sports on the first and third Tuesday of every month, and I was hoping he could tell me what's what. The podiatrist wasn't there because his wife just had a kid, but I did get some reinforcement from Jason Lemkhule's wife that I was in the wrong shoes and some neutral- cushioned shoes would do me well.

So, I ordered a pair of Ghost 2's off Running Warehouse, because I can't plan ahead for s*** and can't afford to wait the three weeks that the ID site takes to ship things, so I spent $40 more than I needed to. Sweet. They're much needed though. The only pair of neutral shoes I have are my Green Silence racing flats, which are awesome, but at the same time, they aren't meant to be worn on everyday medium distance runs. They just don't have enough structure to go 6+ miles, and I have blisters to show for it.

I also registered for the Get in Gear 10k this Saturday. I was initially shooting for the half marathon, but after I cut today's run short, I was pretty sure I couldn't race a half marathon, so I compromised on the 10k. I'd love nothing more than to do well in my age group. I just need something good to hold on to.

G-day minus 68/ Dye or Die: save the stat

Wow, well its been a while. My bad. Lets see, what have you missed? Well, for one, I got back to marathon training milage this week, which is generally anywhere above 50 mpw. I did 52, and it was a struggle. The running not so much, but just finding time to get the miles in was an uphill battle. It was Initiation week for Iota Tau last week, and that took up a lot of time. As an active you had a lot more to do- plan who's doing what, set up the events, watch the pledges in the library, all that stuff. Even though we got done with the nightly events earlier- midnight instead of 1a for my pledge semester, it was still a headache. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but it was a time crunch. I ended up pulling three all nighters including initiation night itself, and I was just worn out. It was a satisfying worn out though; I couldn't be more proud. I got the milage in, Wednesday and Thursday were tough though. I completely bombed my tempo run on Thursday, but came back strong on Saturday. Friday was an off day obviously because Initiation started Friday afternoon and went into Saturday. Saturday


I went down Iglehart until I couldn't anymore, then instead of merging onto Marshall, I ran on the railroad to get to Concordia, then ran Marshall down to UST. I heard running on railroad tracks was awesome because there was some law passed in the 1800's saying that train tracks couldn't be at more than a 10% grade. It was pretty easy going, you just had to make sure you lengthened your stride so you didn't step awkwardly on a tie. Yes, I know, running on active train tracks is dangerous, but honestly, how are you going to miss a train? They're big, loud, and slow. Today I went 16, and it was awesome. I had some trouble getting up in the morning, but it was an absolutely gorgeous day. I went up the Minneapolis side of the river, through the West Bank of the U of M campus, and wound my way around to Target Field before crossing the river and going home. Awesome. You know what else is awesome? my Ghost 2's are on their way to my mailbox.

So, whats all this about saving the stat? well, DyeStat track talk is under attack from the massive multimillion dollar corporate conglomerates. ESPN, who owns DyeStat, is planning to migrate Track Talk to the ESPN/Rise forums. Why is this a bad thing? well, the ESPN/Rise forums look like they're straight outta the '90's. The boards themselves couldn't be more awkward and un- user friendly. Instead of Track Talk where the content is displayed vertically, on the Rise forums its displayed horizontally. Adding to the confusion, to see replies to a topic, you have to keep hitting the 'x replies' button at the bottom of the post. Maybe I'm articulating it badly, but i just don't like the ESPN forums. They're far inferior to DyeStat, which begs the question: why doesn't ESPN just slap a logo on the current Track Talk forum and call it good? honestly, there's probably going to be a higher return rate in terms of members (and therefore revinue) the less they change.

When I've emailed ESPN/Rise, I got the normal cookie cutter answer of 'bear with us, we're working on adding features, but give us a chance.' That's fine, you can add all the features they want, but would a DyeStat by any other name ever smell so sweet? probably not. Even if they clone every feature of DyeStat on ESPN, it still won't be the DyeStat we know and love. ESPN doesn't have a clue. Look around. Your attempts of creating message boards and fostering community for big market sports have failed; look at your football and basketball message boards and you can see that nobody cares. The Track Talk community has been dealt a major blow. Another great resource for runners has given way to a media giant that doesn't give two s***s about our sport. Corporate greed and pursuit of profit once again rules the day. Attention ESPN: look around. Actually look at what the members of Track Talk have to say. No one wants this and by continuing on you are alienating the very fan base you are looking to court. No doubt, DyeStat must have cost you guys a lot of money, so why are you wasting it by completely moving sites?

Most of the members of Track Talk won't move over to your site, thats a fact that I think no one can blame them for. Inferior boards with inferior functions combined with inferior coverage and a historic neglect for the sport of track is a recipie for disaster. Face it, its a lose- lose, unless ESPN lets the Track Talk forum be. I can't imagine waking up in the morning and going to a mass produced message board and reading mass produced track coverage written by some cushy executive in Bristol. No, I'd rather read what's actually happening in track, thank you.

I'll stay loyal to the 'Stat until the end, but if if comes to that, maybe we can petition Flotrack to start a message board.

Dye or Die!

Disclaimer: The training part of my post, the first two paragraphs, were written Sunday night, 4/11. The rest was written on 4/13