The Drive Home

Well, we all got back safely to Coquitlam exhausted from our 8 hour drive home. Here's a final collection of thoughts/ideas/comments that come to mind.

On the trip home I learned the following:

1. Tinari spelled backwards is "I ran it". Now that is cool :)
2. George Gluppe spelled backwards is Eppulg Egroeg. Not so cool.
3. Reed backwards is "Deer". Appropriate as Dave runs gracefully like a deer.
   
4. The handles above the doors in a van can come in very handy when navigating tight mountain roads while George is driving.
5. GPS devices are very cool. But why the hell at 10PM, we got off of I5 heading North to go on a sightseeing tour of downtown Bellingham and then got back on the I5 15 minutes later do not know.

Dave and I got hooked on a reality TV show called Ca$h Cab - check it out. It may be on Discovery. this prompted me to come up with my own reality TV show called "Road Trip". The idea is that you get 5/6 people who know each other pretty well (like a running team) to go on a road trip in a mini-van. They all take turns driving and every week they vote someone out of the van....last one left wins.

We stopped somewhere in the middle of nowhere to get some dinner. I thought pizza would be good so while the others headed to Subway I popped into the pizza store next door. Since we were in a hurry to get home, I enquired how long it would take to get a pizza. "Five minutes" I was told by the kid behind the counter. Then, after pausing, he added "but you have to cook it yourself". WTF??? Where the hell am I going to find a pizza oven? I don't think the cigarette lighter is going to do a very good job cooking my pizza. Apparently, this pizza joint is quite popular in the US. I thought the whole idea of going out to get pizza was that you didn't have to cook.

Now I am really dragging things out here. Dave's bib # was 800 - pretty cool for an 800m runner. My bib # was 642, which was only significant in that the sum of my finishing places was 6 (two third places) and I am 42 years old. Spooky.....

Now how cool is this race? M40 200 Meters "Johnny Speed" running against "Rod Jett". I think I am now going to officially change my name to "Warren Whizzer"

M40 200 Meter Dash
========================================================================
Name Age Team Prelims Wind H#
========================================================================
1 John Simpson M42 Corsicana, TX 23.42Q -1.6 1
2 Aaron Thigpen M43 Brentwood, CA 23.69Q -1.0 2
3 Johnny Speed M44 Oxnard, CA 23.70Q -1.0 2
4 Andre Freeman M44 Carlsbad, CA 23.88Q -1.6 1
5 *Christian Lemassif M41 Canada 23.72q -1.0 2
6 Felton Turnage M42 San Marcos, CA 24.23q -1.6 1
7 John Garratt M41 Santa Monica, CA 24.50q -1.0 2
8 Rod Jett M41 Sacramento, CA 24.87q -1.6 1
9 Todd Freitag M42 Kennewick, WA 47.44 -1.6 1

On that note, I shall now go and watch the Olympics. Thanks for reading!

Woz

Day 4

Sunday - our last day in Spokane and lots of action from the Phoenix Team.

It was much cooler than previous days - I even put on a long shirt and pants to warm up in. Nothing like the dry heat of previous days.

Nancy was first off in the W45 1500m. After a slow start Nancy decided after the first lap she'd had enough jogging and quickly opened up a 20-30 meter lead. She bravely managed to hold the lead until the last few meters of the race when she was finally over taken by Mary Thane to finish in second place with a time just a tad under 5 mins of 4:59.95.

W45 1500 Meter Run
================================================================
  Name                     Age Team                    Finals
================================================================
1 Mary Thane               W45 Missoula, MT           4:58.49
2 *Nancy Tinari            W49 Canada                 4:59.95
3 Carmen Ayala-Troncoso    W49 Austin, TX             5:04.51

Dave Reed "The Canadian" came back from a disappointing 800m on Saturday to run a very strong M50 1500m finishing in 5th place with a time of 4:36.98 - missing a medal by only 3 secs.

M50 1500 Meter Run
================================================================
  Name                     Age Team                    Finals
================================================================
1 Paul Fragua              M51 Albuquerque, NM        4:33.10
2 Terry Howell             M52 Santa Barbara, CA      4:33.53
3 David Cannon             M52 Seattle, WA            4:33.58
4 Rob Duncanson            M53 Trabuco Canyon, CA     4:34.34
5 *Dave Reed               M54 Canada                 4:36.98

I finished 3rd in the M40 1500m with a time of 4:19.43 secs. I was pleased to get the bronze as I felt like dropping out after 600m since my arms and legs felt very heavy. I was told by George after the race he could hear me breathing heavily from where he was sat in the stands (and no I wasn't letching after some good looking Californian girl!).

M40 1500 Meter Run
================================================================
  Name                     Age Team                    Finals
================================================================
1 Kevin Forde              M44 Philadelphia, PA       4:10.78
2 Sean Messiter            M42 Bellingham, WA         4:14.52
3 *Warren McCulloch        M42 Canada                 4:19.43
4 Scott Pesch              M41 Eureka, CA             4:22.04

Next up was our speeder Kim Ross in the F45 200m. Kim powered through the line against a strong headwind in a PB/PR (depending if you are English or North American) of 27.53 seconds. Winning the Bronze medal in a World class field is quite an achievement and well deserved for Kim as we all know how hard she trains.

W45 200 Meter Dash
=====================================================================
  Name                     Age Team                    Finals  Wind
=====================================================================
1 Joy Upshaw-Margerum      W47 Los Altos Hills, CA      26.52  -0.6
2 Jai Black                W46 San Diego, CA            26.75  -0.6
3 *Kim Ross                W47 Port Moody, BC           27.53  -0.6
4 Liz Palmer               W48 Folsom, CA               27.87  -0.6

Kim finished off the day helping the Canadian W40-49 team win the 4x100m relay and spanking our gracious US hosts in the process :)

And that my friends, was that!

Final Phoenix Medal totals:

2 x Silver - Nancy 800/1500
3 x Bronze - Warren 800/1500, Kim 200
1 x Canadian Record - Kim W45 100

I am very proud of all our efforts and must say that I had an extremely enjoyable time with my team mates. It's not often you get to spend so much much time with such great people as George, Nancy, Dave and Kim and I will cherish this trip for a very long time. Special thanks go out to George for dedicating all his time looking after us, humouring us and just being there for us. Thanks also to Dave and George, for driving us safely there and back (even if there were a few "white knuckle" moments!).

Woz

Photos - Day 3

Medals Medals!!

Lots of activity on the track today. If you are really interested you can see all results here.

Kim was 4th in a very competitive 100m with a time of 13.42. You can see how close it was from the results!

1 Joy Upshaw-Margerum      W47 Los Altos Hills, CA      13.17  -1.8
2 Liz Palmer               W48 Folsom, CA               13.36  -1.8
3 Jai Black                W46 San Diego, CA            13.40  -1.8
4 *Kim Ross                W47 Port Moody, BC           13.42  -1.8

Nancy picked up a Silver medal in the W45 800 Meters with a time of 2:27.12 This sets her up nicely for a good rematch with the gold medalist, Mary Thane, in the 1500m Sunday morning.

Dave ran in the M50-54 800m Final placing 8th in a time of 2:13.83 He was up with the pack at the bell and was in good position but told me he slowed down at the end saving himself for tomorrows 1500m.

I finished third in the M40 800m with at time of 2:01.43

1 Neil Fitzgerald          M40 New York, NY           1:59.51
2 Kevin Forde              M44 Philadelphia, PA       1:59.82
3 *Warren McCulloch        M42 Canada                 2:01.43

I was very pleased with this considering I have been struggling with injuries for the last 6 weeks. Amazingly I woke up this morning and all aches and pains had gone (for now anyway). Maybe that ART stuff does actually work or is it the vast quantities of Ibuprofen and ice?
I race against the the Silver medallist Kevin Forde tomorrow in the 1500m.

Had a great meal again in one of North America's finest Italian restaurants (ranked #17). Probably the first only time I will get to sit at the same table as two former Olympians; Nancy (1988) and George's old friend Laird (1956).

Next update will be in a few days as we have to check out of our motel tomorrow. Hopefully there will be some more good news...

Woz

Pictures Day 2

Kim Sets Canadian F45-49 100 Metre Record!

Our very own Kim Ross broke the Canadian F45-49 100m record in the heats today! Even though she had problems with the starting blocks, Kim powered her way up the track and almost caught the eventual winner of her heat, Joy Upshaw-Margerum. Kim's time was 13.17 seconds! Not bad for a Granny, eh?

Up tomorrow:
Dave, Nancy and I run in the 800m finals. Nancy last ran an 800m on the track at least 30 years ago so she is really looking forward to this event :) Kim has the 100m finals followed by the 200 heats.

Thunder-storm warnings are being broadcast on TV so we are in for a big one tonight - hopefully it will all be gone by tomorrow...

Storm just arrived WOW! I have never seen anything like this - incredible light show. We must have seen a couple of hundred lightning flashes in 20 minutes. We had to come inside as the rain started. Very weird in that there is so much lightning but it is quiet except for the wind noise - very surreal. I've seen more lightning tonight than in my whole life!

Woz

Ranked #8 in the world!

Holy Running Spikes Batman, I am currently ranked 8th in the World Masters M40-44 800m.

I should save this page to show my Grandkids. Now if only they had updated this list in April I think I would have been ranked #2 :)

Woz

Pictures Day 1

Day 1 - Thursday

Dave and I got up for an early morning run then hit the not so Super 8 breakfast room for some toast and coffee. mmmmm.....

We left the motel an 9:00am and headed for Spokane Community College where the meet was being held...or so we thought. We drove around the campus and could only find an empty track - no sign of any runners at all. It was now less than 3 hours to race time and we still had to pickup numbers and check-in. I was getting a little worried now as I hate to rush around just before a race and wanted to have a really good warm-up. Kim was cool and calm in the back seat but then she didn't have to race until tomorrow.

Since we all assumed this was the venue, none of us had bothered to look at a map or get an exact address. I tried to fire up my laptop and see if I could find a wi-fi hotspot (being on a campus I figured the chances would be good) but the battery was dead - not so good. Fortunately, a very nice student came to our rescue and logged into one of the computer lab PC's and let us find our final destination. We should have gone to "Spokane Falls Community College" - doh! Apparently we weren't the only ones to have made this mistake so we didn't feel too bad.

Temperature at the track was around 30C and it wasn't even mid-day! As our 800m race times approached the wind picked up and the clouds ominously darkened as the thunder storms that were forecast rolled in. Fortunately nothing came of it and it remained dry . As there were only 11 athletes registered for the M40 800m it was decided 30 minutes before race time there would be no heats at all and we would run a straight final on Saturday. All that warming up for nothing! Actually, I was quite relieved as it gave me a few more days to rest up the injuries and recover from the long drive yesterday. We'd had a great warm-up and I was feeling the best I had in a long time and felt more confident than I had in quite a while.

Dave's race went ahead and he came in 4th in the first heat in 2:12 (66 sec split) qualifying comfortably for Saturday's final.

We all then headed downtown for lunch and Starbucks then back to Super 8 for some R&R.

Well, Dave decided to cook his dinner in the motel room microwave. Salmon and rice. At first I wasn't sure if the smell was from our running shoes or the bathroom. Ugh!!! Even George woke up from his sleep because of the stench. Time to get some fresh air.

Woz

The Journey to Spokane

Coquitlam 10:10am: Dave programs George's fancy GPS unit with our final destination. With no map on board, George assures us we will get there safely and on time if we follow the directions the GPS unit spouts out to us...

The journey was very scenic and we were all thankful for the air conditioning. We were reminded each time we stepped out of the van how hot it was (30C). We got across the border relatively easy though I had to hand over another $6USD to the nice customs man.

Conversation on the way revolved around our two drivers, George and Dave (thanks guys!), assuring us that their vision was good for driving but not so good for reading ; whether we would actually get there if we followed the GPS and of course Dave recounted stories of the many races he has run over the years complete with split times.

Snacks along the way included trail mix, carrots, grapes and Ibuprofen (our favorite and vast quantities are sure to be consumed over the next few days!). Nancy divulged the secret to her champions diet... ice cream and pie in large quantities :)

Amazingly, we arrived at Spokane's Super 8 at the exact predicted time of 19:32 accompanied by lots of "oohs" and "ahhs" from the passengers and a knowing "I told you so" from George. BTW why is is called Super 8? There isn't anything too "super" about it though we did help ourselves to the free Otis Spunkmeyer®’s cookies at the check-in desk (I kid you not, that is the name of the company, I didn't check the ingredients). Nancy was also reading a book called "Spunk and Bite" so what that means I don't know...

After check-in we had a late dinner at Marie Callender's (the famous pie maker), Nancy gorged on one of the famous pies (pic to follow), she'd already downed a huge ice cream earlier in the day - how she keeps so slim I don't know :) Of course, she doesn't have to race tomorrow so she can afford to indulge a little.

Events tomorrow: Dave and I have our 800m heats at lunchtime. Thursday's weather forecast is for 30C and thundershowers ...perfect! Nancy and Kim get to rest, though I'm sure they will manage to squeeze in a few workouts.

Woz

2008 US Masters Track and Field Champs in Spokane

This year the 2008 US Masters Track & Field Champs are being held in Spokane. Four of us athletes: Dave Reed, Kim Ross, Nancy Tinari, myself (Warren McCulloch) and Coach George Gluppe are going to represent Phoenix Running Club/BC/Canada. Hopefully I will have some time and an internet connection in order to keep you all up to date with our efforts.

Woz