The Rowe Family Blog

First see my review at tripadvisor.

When I checked out of this hotel I had to leave my email address because their computer systems were down.  They sent a receipt to that address.  They also chose to sign that address up for their Choice Hotels mailing list.  Luckily I was smart enough to use a throw-away address that is no longer valid.

Choice Hotels/Quality Inn is another company that feels that spamming is OK for them to do.

I think with running, half the battle is just getting yourself out there.  That was my goal this morning.  I have been tired during the day the past couple of days and decided that I needed to get off of my butt and get out there and run.  Since I procrastinated this morning, I only had enough time for the 2 mile loop, which was okay with me.  I set out with the goal of completing the 2 mile run and the hopes of finishing in under 20 minutes.  However, that was a bit overambitious since it is 2.2 miles.  The run itself was not too difficult.  I didn’t seem to have the speed that I wanted today though.  I suppose that could be because I had my step class last night and my legs are probably shot.  The sun was beating down and the humidity was 74%.  I finished the first 1.1 miles in 10:05.  I finished the 2.2 miles in 21:14.  This morning was successful because I got out there and did better than a 10 minute mile!  Ahh…now let’s hope that I have some energy today!

Last Saturday morning I ran in the rain for the first time.  I tried out the “hydration belt” that Mary bought me.  I ran for about 6.4 miles on a brand new course.  I ran from our house to Black Creek Park and back.  It wasn’t hot out, the sun wasn’t out, and it was raining gently.  I was expecting an easy run but it wasn’t.  It wasn’t difficult either but I thought it was going to be a piece of cake.  I finished in 56:00 which is actually really pretty good now that I do the math.  That’s an 8:45 pace which is much better than I am accustomed to for a distance of that length.

On Monday night I went out for a short run.  My plan was to do the 3 mile loop, and I did.  I didn’t want to run but I forced myself to go.  Once I got out there it wasn’t bad but I almost turned around at the beginning because my knee felt strange.  I continued though and my knee loosened up.  The run turned into a speed run of sorts.  I finished 3.2 miles in 24:48 which is a 7:45 mile.  That is, ny far, the fastest I’ve run that distance.  I still am surprised that I ran it at that pace.

I got our annual bill from Waste Management a few weeks back. The bill was for about 300$. What bothered me about the bill is that they apply “fuel surcharges.” I’m sorry but I really don’t care about what does into the cost of their business. Time Warner doesn’t apply “electricity surcharges” to my bill. So I decided to call around and maybe switch to a new collection service. Most of the companies I called had been purchased by Waste Management. The only company I could find that wasn’t owned by Waste Management was Boone and Sons. Their service was a full 85$ less expensive than Waste Management. I called Waste Management to cancel. They offered me a deal that still wasn’t as good as Boone and Sons if I were to stay on. I said “no thank you.”

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…And we were off. Donna with a terrible cold, Mary with tired legs, and me just not quite feeling like running and being worried about the sun…

We were now “running” the 2006 Boilermaker 8 minutes after the gun went off. Much of the initial effort was to get around packs of people that were running slower than we were. While running I thought that this could actually be beneficial as I tend to run too fast at the beginning of runs. Even if it was beneficial it was certainly annoying! At many points in the first 2 miles I ran along the grass on the side of the road because the road was too crowded with slower runners. Read the rest of this entry »

I really hadn’t planned on running tonight.  The thought had crossed my mind, but I wasn’t really sure I wanted to with the temperature being 85 degrees and the humidity being around 70%.  I set out anyway, but I brought a water bottle and my cell phone in case things went badly.  I’m not sure who I would’ve called though.  Greg was at a bachelor party, his parents are in Florida, and Emily was at the game with Molly and Alex.   I really had no  idea how far I was going to run tonight, but I knew the route since I wanted to see Molly’s soccer game tonight too.
Well, I decided to run to the gym and do a leg workout.  I left the house at 5:50pm.  I ran the .9 miles in about 8 minutes.  That wasn’t too bad for me.  I pushed myself on that part of the run tonight.  I knew it was short and I knew it wouldn’t be bad to push myself for that long.

Once I got to the gym, I did abs and a quicker leg workout than usual, BUT I still pushed myself hard with the weights.  I was dripping with sweat.  I’m sure people at the gym were grossed out by the massive amount of sweat on my body and the equipment.  Don’t worry, I wiped the equipment down after each use.
Anyway, I had decided to go to Molly’s soccer game so I had to hurry since it was scheduled to start just shortly after 7.  I finished the leg workout at 6:35 and took off running…for real!
I went west down Chili Ave to Union and went south to Blackcreek Park where her game was to be played.  I arrived in 34 minutes after 3.17 miles.  It is definitely not my best time, but it was difficult since there was sweat pouring from every pore on my body!  I don’t believe I have ever felt sweat running down my legs before.  It was disgusting, but I was very proud of myself just for being out there.

Molly’s game was a lot of fun to watch.  I was really glad I went out to watch her play.  I was impressed with her dribbling abilities and determination tonight.  She dribbled from her team’s goal almost 3/4 of the way down the field with no one being able to touch her.  I was definitely impressed!

Overall tonight I ran 4.07 miles in 42 minutes.  That’s over a 10 minute mile, but I’m happy with it because tonight was all about getting myself out there to exercise.

On Tuesday night I set out for a long run. It was a hot day so I planned a new route using gmap-pedometer.com that ran north-south to maximize the amount of shade I’d find. Also, my official fan club was out of town so I needed a shorter leg so that I could easily return home for water.

I set out on my new route at about 6:10pm. It was 87 at that time. My plan for running north-south for shade worked out well. Almost the entire route was shaded. Only about a quarter of a mile or so was not shaded. I made sure that I kept my pace down since I was worried about staying hydrated (and my legs!) for the distance I was hoping to run. Read the rest of this entry »

For Christmas I was given an electric Remington electric shaver. It’s a decent shaver but the company isn’t very decent. I registered the product on the web as it was simple and it probably had a contest associated with it (with worse odds than winning the lottery probably). Yesterday I got an email from “The Shopper’s Voice.” In their email they say:

“Some time ago, you completed the Consumer Product Survey of America
and joined the growing ranks of consumers who are part of Shopper’s
Voice(r).”

I can assure you that I did not opt into a spammy company such as this. They make no mention of Remington but, based on the address that they sent the email to, I know it was Remington that released my information. Remington has the distinction of being the third company to release my address in an unethical way. They join the ranks of Directed Electronics and Black And Decker. Isn’t it great that companies reward us with spam when we give them money?

After settling in to our crappy accomodations and devouring a bag of goldfish we set out to head back to Utica. The plan was to find Donna and then find a place to eat a simple pasta dinner. I think that we made it back to the expo area with out making wrong turns but my memory is probably fooling me. We made so many wrong turns that weekend that I find it highly unlikely that we made it there correctly in one shot. Anyhow, we did make it there and quickly met up with Donna. We decided to drive the course and then find a restaurant.

We made the mistake of using the map provided in the race packet for the course. While it is a decent map of the course it omits pretty much everything except the course. Not having side streets or other landmarks on the map makes it hard for non-natives to navigate the streets of Utica. That seems to be the trend with the directions and maps for this event. They seem to be great if you are familiar with the area but horrible for everyone else. Even the course was very hard to follow. They had mile marker signs but they were brown posted on brown street signs. They weren’t very large and they weren’t mounted very high. At first I didn’t believe the others when they told me there were mile markers.

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On Saturday evening Mary and I decided to run the 3 mile loop.  When you consider the 0.1 miles from our mailbox to the begining of the loop the distance ends up being 3.2 miles.  It was around 8:30 in the evening.  It was a very hot and fairly humid day.  By the time we got out to run it was pretty comfortable in the mid to upper 70s.  We set out together to enjoy a nice simple run.  We stayed together for the first mile.  After the first mile I started to pull a head a little bit.  Mary wanted to try to keep up with me and I wanted to take it easy.  It worked out well for both of us.  When I arrived back at the mailbox it had been 29:30 – just over a 9 minute mile.  Mary arrived only 30 seconds later.  Considering that this was a “rest” run I was surprised at the time.