With our trip to Olympic Trials pending, I was inspired to start a blog about some of our travels. When I say we, most of the time it will be me and Chris Hunt, ArmoryTrack.com’s writer.

PHOTO GALLERY FROM TRIALS AND BEYOND

June 19th - NY State Meet/Traveling to Buffalo

June 25th - Nike Outdoor and trip to Delaware

June 30th - Arriving in Portland, Ore.

July 2nd - Arriving in Eugene, Ore.

July 3rd - Morning run and Pre's Rock

July 4th - The Eugene Experience

July 5th - Distance Night at Hayward

July 9th - Crater Lake and Redwoods

July 23rd - Rain Storm Race

TRIALS BLOG: Continuing to San Fran

TRIALS BLOG: It’s all about the journey - 6/30/08

BLOG INTRO

With our trip to Olympic Trials pending, I was inspired to start a blog about some of our travels. When I say we, most of the time it will be me and Chris Hunt, ArmoryTrack.com’s writer.

I got to know Chris when he worked at The Journal News covering Section 1 track and field. Over the years we’ve spent a lot of time together at state meets and national meets. Even before we worked together officially here at The Armory, we always worked well together at the bigger meets, often sharing hotels when one of us forgot to book our own (this happened often).

Since I recently did a triathlon (pictured left - and I am ready for the abuse from my friends for this pic) and I'm training for another one as well as a fall marathon, I’ll be blogging about races, food, travel, places to run and bike, as well as any other strange stories from the road. Follow me from Buffalo to Greensboro, NC to Rehoboth Beach, DE to Eugene, OR to San Francisco and northern California, to The Adirondack Mountains in upstate NY, to Sebago Lake in Maine, and to the Green Mountains of Vermont for running camp. I'll mix in work with a few vacations and hopefully some great runs, long rides, fast times at the meets, and some tasty food along the way.

The New York State Championships

We started what I consider our summer traveling on Thursday, June 12^th as we headed to the NY State Championships in Buffalo. The week before we had driven all over NY State to cover meets, includingt eh Section 2 State Qualifier west of Albany in Johnson, the Section 11 State Qualifier way out on Long Island at Port Jefferson HS, and the Lenox Fast Times Relays in Warwick Valley, which is always farther away that you realize.

To get to Buffalo I drove out to Chris's house in Queens and left my car there (I didn’t want to leave my car in Somers like I did for the indoor state meet because while I was in Ithaca a tree fell on it and totaled it). From there it was an easy trip to JFK airport, literally taking 25 minutes to leave his house and get through security. I was amazed.

At the airport we saw a few people we knew in the terminal. Bay Shore was on our plane as was the entire Monsignor Farrell team with coach Tom Cuffe. Cuffe actually came up in the middle of the flight to ask if I knew anything about some XC meet in Idaho. I did not.

Thursday night me and Chris went for a short jog around the campus from out hotel and found the track. The stadium was bigger than I imagined it would, with huge stands surrounding the entire track. I couldn’t imagine the stadium feeling packed at all for the meet, and I wound up being correct. On Friday and Saturday, except for the home stretch, it looked empty. I was pleasantly surprised at the volume of the crowd though. Anytime a move was made or someone ran a spectatular time, the crowd was very load and very knowledgable.

It was a tough meet to cover as a photographer. First of all, even though we called ahead of time for a press credential, they were no where to be found when we arrived at the stadium on Friday morning. We walked around, from one side of the stadium to the other, for over 45 minutes until we located some guy who had a box of credentials. It was very frustrating and I apologize to the college age girl working security who I was a little rude to. Not a good start.

What makes the meet tough to cover is one of the things that coaches and fans were talking about all weekend. The divisions. Basically there are two division by school size for every event and then there is the “Federation Championships’ which encompasses as teams from any kind of school. Only NYSPHSAA teams (teams from numbered sections 1-11 as opposed to the CHSAA (Catholic), AIS (privates), and PSAL (NY City Public) can win medals in the Division I and Division II but all schools win medals in the Federation.

So that means that in order to get a picture of every state champions, I have to get pics of anywhere from 3-5 people per event and I have to know what schools are NYSPHSAA and what schools aren’t. Thankfully I’ve been coaching in NY State since 1996 and I have a very good idea of who’s who. I actually got a picture of all but three or four state champions.

Talking about divisions leads to conversation on how you qualify for the NY State Championships. Basically two athletes in each Section (including the 3 non-NYSPHSAA Sections from the Catholics, Privates, and PSAL) automatically qualify – the small schools champions and the large school champion. The next best athletes from either division qualifies IF they meet a strict qualifying standard.

This system creates a lot of animosity in our sport. The better Sections feel that they should have more athletes at the meet because they have kids sitting at home with a chance to win state medals. The smaller, less deep sections often like the system because they are well represented at the state championships. One things seems for sure – no change seems to be in sight for the meet. I personally feel that there should be qualifying standards that if you meet them, then you compete. You can’t tell me that anyone who breaks 4:20 in the mile shouldn’t be at the state championships. Our sport in quanatative. We can measure performance with a stopwatch or a tape measure. Why not use that to our advantage. It just makes sense.

The meet is always good. I loved watching the 4x800’s. It was hard not to root for Pine Bush as they battled Shenendehowa down the back stretch. I’m a Shen fan too, but they have had so much success over the years. Everyone likes to see new teams win titles. I was happy for Pine Bush.

The work is never done when the meet is over. It took all night Saturday and all day Sunday to edit the 2000 pics, all while I was trying to get a run in Sunday night and pack to go to North Carolina for Nationals.

We flew home Sunday afternoon and I left for NC Tuesday morning. I decided to drive down while Chris flew. I drove because I wanted to bring my bike with me to get a few rides in. I did just that in Washington, DC. I hadn’t been to the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, or the Vietnam Memorial since 8^th grade so it was nice to take a little spin around the city. Afterwards I had dinner with an old friend before driving to Richmond and staying overnight. The next day I awoke early and arrived in Greensboro around 1:00pm.

The MileSplit Webmasters Convention - Greensboro, NC

ArmoryTrack.com joined the milesplit network a little less than a year ago but it was at this meet last year that Don Rich of PennTrackXC.com approached me with the concept. This year MileSplit.us is hosting our first ever webmasters convention to get to know each other better and to learn and teach each other new skills. After trading so many emails with Jason Byrne and others it’s been great to get to know them better.

I did my first triathlon a few weeks ago and when I started training in January, I made some changes to my diet in an effort to feel better. The triathlon went well and in the process of training and diet changes, I lost over 15 pounds. So when I got here I promptly googled for a organic market and found Deep Roots Market. We’re staying at one of those extended stay places with our own, very small kitchen (with ONE spoon so me and Chris have to take turns eating cereal). I picked up some of the best granola I have ever eaten as well as some essentials for survival – fruit, yogurt, cereal, orange juice, milk, etc. It’s amazing how bad the food can be at track meets considering how healthy most of the people attending the meet usually are. This is my first long trip away from home with my new diet and it will definitely be a challenge to stick to it, but it is doable.

Wednesday I found a state park to run in – Hagan Stone State Park. It has beautiful, well groomed trails that are all shaded very nicely. I liked it so much that all of the other websmasters got together this morning for a run there. If you’re ever in the area, check it out. The trails are easy to follow and you can’t really get lost.

Nike Outdoor Nationals - Greensboro, NC

The meet starts tonight (5000m) so we’ll start having race coverage, photos, videos, and all the usual content, but look for travel blogs from me and Chris the rest of the summer. I’ll be blogging about races, food, travel, places to run and bike, as well as any other strange stories from the road.

Nike Outdoor Nationals – the meet

The meet was fantastic as usual. It did seem slightly less attended and seemed like the depth in certain events was off and that probably had to do with the USATF Jr. Nationals taking place in Ohio the same weekend.

The boys 2 mile was just outstanding. Fernandez is just an unbelievable talent. To run 8:34.40 for 2 miles just amazes me. The crowd was impressively loud throughout as the announcer begged and pleaded for them to help him to the record.

The girls of Warwick are just amazing as well. They destroyed the field in the 4x800m to win by over ten seconds and then they bounce back to break the national record in the DMR.

How good are NY girl’s distance relays? Well the NY girls won the 4x8 and placed 5, 13, 14, an 15 and that’s without our 2^nd and 3^rd best teams in the race (Suffern and Saratoga). If they’re in there, I bet we go 1-2-3. In the DMR, they actually swept the top 4 places with Warwick, Saratoga, Garden City, and Burnt Hills doing the honors. The 4xmile saw Burnt Hills win with Shen and Bronxville going 4-5 and North Rockland and Ursuline 7^thand 9^th. Year in and year out, the NY girls dominate the distance relays.

The meet has some problems for sure. Saturday afternoon just drags on with all of these “emerging elite” races. I’m sorry but can someone explain to me exactly what a senior in high school is emerging to? I’d almost like these races more if they were called what they are – slower sections.

The 4x200m relay outdoors is as boring event as there is. Indoors the 4x200m is literally my favorite event. Only the first leg is run in lanes and the exchanges are tight and there are always lead changes and contact. Hearing Ian Brooks call out “NY vs. Pennslyvania” as Simon Gratz races Midwood down the back stretch here at The Armory still gives me good bumps. Outdoors it is run in lanes and it just puts me to sleep.

The NSSF always takes care of the meet officials and press with free meals all day. It’s a great service they provide and you can’t complain about a free lunch. One note – they served a lot of fried chicken. One day they had it for both lunch and dinner. There was dessert at both lunch and dinner, which I am sure most people liked. When I see the menu choices I can’ help and think about the obesity epidemic in this country and how hard it is to maintain a healthy diet. Even in our supposed healthy sport there are so few healthy options.

Leaving the meet to Rehoboth Beach, DE

Saturday night was spent at dinner with the entire Milesplit crew recapping the day’s highlights before coming up with a plan to post pics, results, articles, and videos. Dinner was solid - nothing special. I had a dish called "Chicken Bryan" and while I inquired about who this "Bryan" was, our server did not know. I informed her that the meal was better than the name. Afterward me and Chris met up with our buddies from Warwick Valley, Curtis and Mike Potter.

Potter called me the next morning at 8am to ask if I could help him with a ride. Curtis apparently had taken his keys to the rental car to the airport with him in Raleigh and Potter was trying to figure out how to get to Raleigh, get the keys, and get back to Greensboro. When you’re a coach and have athletes with you, there’s always something. I did not envy Potter on this morning but I had to get on the road and drive to Washington, DC to get my girlfriend Carolyn off the train. We were on our way to Rehoboth, DE for a few days of vacation with my family.

The drive from Geensboro to DC wasn’t all that bad but Don Rich of PennTrackXC.com had warned me that northern Virginia traffic is brutal. It lived up to it’s reputation but I still arrived in DC at 2:15pm. The problem is, DC roads are about as confusing as it gets. I am sure when you live there it’s easy to figure out but with all of the streets having NE and SE and SW and NW on them, going in circles on crazy on ways became a habit. Me and my girlfriend were actually standing under two different street signs that listed the same intersection even though we were about ¼ mile away from each other. It was very frustrating to say the least.

Either way, we left DC at 3:00pm and headed east on route 50 toward Delaware. It was a pleasant drive and we arrived in Rehoboth Beach, DE at 5:30pm, which meant I had been in the car since 9:00am. I said hello to the family, throw on my running shoes, and headed out on the beach with my brother in law Jeff for a 40 minute run. Running on the beach was exactly what I needed after a long drive and the cool breeze felt fantastic. We even had to jump a fence in someone’s back yard to get off the beach and onto a side road. At some point in a man’s life he should probably stop jumping fences, but I’m not ready to give that up just yet.

Rehoboth Beach is a typical beach town. You have the boardwalk carnival rides and games and the t-shirt shops selling a bunch of crap (I still remember getting my Nirvana t-shirt on the VA boardwalk when I was 16), and the plethora of fatty foods to eat. Hanging with my niece (pictured less) is always a blast. After she saw me biting my finger nails she asked me "Uncle Timmy, why are you eating your fingers." I guess I don't really know.

Rehoboth also has a few bike shops, a running store, and a swimsuit shop. I needed some new swim trunks to I went in a found a pair that looked good. The problem is that all of the small sizes were on the top rack, and being 5-05, I just couldn’t reach them. So I actually had to go ask a 17 year old girl with the reaching stick to get a suit down for me. I of course proceeded to ask her the thought process behind having the smallest suits on the top rack and she agreed with me. Just another day in the life of a short man.

I did go on some great runs and rides while there. My brother in law Jeff is a former college teammate of mine who is a very good runner and triathlete. Sunday we did the short run and Monday I road 15 miles on my road bike without him. Monday afternppn we went for 70 minute run down the beach to a state park. We found a sandy trail that became quite narrow with knee high grass. Jeff was actually scared there might be alligators and made me lead. I never felt comfortable on the run and just dragged my body through it. I chalked it up to a lot of work on my feet over the weekend and put it behind me. It was still a nice and run and I told myself at least it was flat.

Tuesday morning we left for our long ride at 8:00am. The plan was for 50 miles on a loop course if possible. I mixed up my Accelerade for the ride we took off heading north on route 1. We found one or two back roads that gave us a break from heavy traffic but what struck us about the ride was how wide the shoulders were.

Often we road side by side, looking at the corn fields and discussing track meets, bike gear, triathlons, and which road to take. The last 10 miles we had a head wind that could have knocked off a toupee. My legs were pretty dead as I sucked the life out of Jeff’s back wheel, cracking the 50 mile mark on my bike for the first time. There are few things that make you feel that good when laying on the beach on vacation. A 15 mile run or a 50 mile bike ride are two of them.

After the ride I had a serious hankering for a burrito so me and my girlfriend Carolyn walked around the town a bit and finally stumbled upon Dos Locos. It was our servers first day but the food was delicious and very affordable. It was time to go back to the beach, take in the sun, and take a nap. That night my sister made her world famous bruscetta while the main course included snow crab legs and three different types of sausage, all cooked by the family. It was a nice close to the trip before we drove back to NY.