2012 Holiday Running Challenge! Who's game?

[Parrot Head]

The cells are frozen when I view it in spreadsheet mode, although lately it always opens in a weird edit view.

I'm also excited that I had the long run for Saturday! (barring a late entry from someone else.) This is perhaps my greatest running accomplishment ever considering the company I find myself in (though fully recognizing that nik has already almost doubled that today).

[Pheidippides]

Today's run(s) were a bit different. A friend of mine had a race near my house so I started running very early to fit my own run (21 miles, last three at 8 flat) and still make it in time to cheer her on. This I did, but also ended up adding on four more running on the course to take pictures of my friend. 25.1 is my longest cumulative total ever, I think...and I feel magnificent. I did a very slow and sluggish 11 yesterday and today I just had it. I can only surmise that the increased mileage is having an effect because right now I feel like Superman.

[bluegoose]

The cells are frozen when I view it in spreadsheet mode, although lately it always opens in a weird edit view.

You're right. For some reason it has been opening up in edit mode lately. When I click Spreadsheet mode the columns are frozen.

My run yesterday was a two-parter. I ran an early morning 10K with the dog on some local trails. Then, I ran a 5K race with my 9 year old daughter as part of the season-ending Girls on the Run event. It was a lot of fun to run with her and two of her close friends. My 7 year old daughter bandit-ran the race and did the whole 5K as well.

[Moliere]

Elidente and Parrot Head are making this a close race for 7th place. Good thing I have an amped up week this week :devil: It looks like I have no chance to catch Cupcake.

[Pheidippides]

Elidente and Parrot Head are making this a close race for 7th place. Good thing I have an amped up week this week :devil: It looks like I have no chance to catch Cupcake.

Where are we map-wise these days? North Platte?

[Moliere]

Where are we map-wise these days? North Platte?

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid...0096,47.197266

We've blown through North Platte thanks to your "almost marathon distance training day" yesterday and are almost to Kearney.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I'll help us through Kearney this morning. As with most of the burgs we're running through this week, it's along the Mormon trail, although I can't recall (and couldn't find) much about the town, other than it was a film location used in Jack Nicholson's About Schmidt, which I liked a lot (I was in a distinct minority on that one).

[OhioBlue]

Ahhh, Kearney. Am I correct that it's pronounced like the creepy carnival worker? My experience with Nebraska, as some of the rest of you, consists almost entirely of traversing the country via I-80. I've done it a handful of times, sometimes in a Penske with car in tow, others to scout out future places of residence.

One such time was in 2005; my wife and I were headed to Ames, Iowa to find an apartment to rent for the year we would be there during my residency/internship at Iowa State. The trip started auspiciously enough; though it was May we hit a mix of rain and snow in Park City, which turned to full on white-out snow in Wyoming. Already hating the trip, we were relieved when we got over the mountain in Colorado and started flattening out on our way into the Midwest.

Our relief was short-lived. Into Nebraska, the skies darkened, the wind picked up, and the hail started. We switched to local radio and heard a lot of chatter about two different tornadoes tearing through the area. I recall us trying to ascertain where the tornadoes were relative to our own position and eventually figuring out that we were heading straight into them. Uncanny timing on an already crappy road trip. As cars and trucks started pulling off the road or hanging out under overpasses, we tried to figure out what we were supposed to do, not having experience with tornado weather. Conditions got so bad that at one point we pulled over and scouted out a nearby ditch; we were that sure the damn tornado was heading straight for us. My wife documented the whole thing on video and it's funny to watch it now, but at the time I was pretty frazzled. I just remember lots of talk on the radio about Kearney and coming to realize that this experience fully ruined Nebraska for me.

We made it safely through and into Ames, and were welcomed by 25 mph winds and a crappy hotel. Let's just say at that particular moment we weren't incredibly happy to have matched at Iowa State. But the highlight of the day definitely belonged to Kearney freaking Nebraska.

[chrisrenrut]

. . .it was a film location used in Jack Nicholson's About Schmidt, which I liked a lot (I was in a distinct minority on that one).

There is only one scene I remember from that film, that I really wish I could forget.

[PaloAltoCougar]

There is only one scene I remember from that film, that I really wish I could forget.

I know the scene and won't relate it here lest I ruin lunch for the board. But I loved the scenes when Nicholson was writing his letters to his African rescue kid, Ndugu. His brief scene in Kearney (and OB's right, it's pronounced like the carnival worker, you know, small hands and all) was during a tourist stop to see the arch at the Platte River. Let's hurry on to Lincoln.

[Flystripper]

I'll help us through Kearney this morning. As with most of the burgs we're running through this week, it's along the Mormon trail, although I can't recall (and couldn't find) much about the town, other than it was a film location used in Jack Nicholson's About Schmidt, which I liked a lot (I was in a distinct minority on that one).

Kearney. Home of the Kearney State Lopers. The mascot seem appropriate for this group. As a 10 year old I attended a week-long basketball camp at Kearney State. I stayed in the dorms and had a blast. I was awarded the camp MVP for my age group and received a rad t-shirt.

[Moliere]

We've blown through Kearney and are now just shy of Omaha. I'm thinking if we push it we could be through Iowa by the end of the week. If Nikuman would stop taking Mondays off we'd probably be half way there already .

[happyone]

I've made the 454-mile drive through Nebraska on I-80 several times, following the Platte River for much of the way. Back when I was making the trek from the heartland to Provo a few times a year, the Cabela's in Sidney(?), NE was the only Cabela's showroom store in existence. That was a fun stop to break up the drive.

When I was stationed at Ft. Campbell, I made the drive several times. All I can say is that it is better than I-70 across Kansas.

Did we stop at Kimball so I could visit my wife's grandparents and aunt's graves?

[PaloAltoCougar]

Did we stop at Kimball so I could visit my wife's grandparents and aunt's graves?

We didn't stop, but we passed through and paid our respects. I believe it was Cupcake who leaped over their grave markers, respectfully of course.

At the moment, we're closing in on Lincoln--it's less than 20 miles away. In addition to serving as the Cornhusker State Capital, it is also the site of the National Museum of Roller Skating, the delicious Capital City Ribfest, and, lamentably, the home of Zager and Evans who hold the dubious honor of performing perhaps the most irritating song of my adolescence: In the Year 2525.

And I continue to be impressed with how everyone is piling up the miles. nikuman is in a class by himself, of course, but he's motivating the rest of us to come along.

[Pheidippides]

And I continue to be impressed with how everyone is piling up the miles. nikuman is in a class by himself, of course, but he's motivating the rest of us to come along.

I'm typing this during my cool down from today's run. Tonight I came home a bit tired but spent quite a bit of time building a gingerbread village with my kids (pro tip: hardware clamps do wonders. Also, I think my son should avoid architecture as a career).

I went off to my room to read for a bit and started to drift off to sleep. As my book slipped from my fingers and my arms involuntarily reached for my pillow, visions of happyone trudging through the snow with his dog, OhioBlue finding yet another new way to run a 10k, PAC and Parrothead fighting over who is going to do better at the Dworld half, Moliere coming over to break my kneecaps, and a hundred other similar scenes filled my head.

Somewhere deep in my soul an inner Aragorn appeared, screaming that someday my legs will fail, but it is not this day!

In a last gasp act of desperation, I grabbed a double caffeine Espresso Love Gu from the box on my nightstand and choked it down. Not five minutes later I was dressed in my Stupid Sexy Flanders tights and long sleeve shirt ready to go. 10 miles later (9.67 to be precise - I have about a third of a mile to go) and here I am.

When Moliere suggested this challenge I had just unexpectedly taken a week off from exercise and had lost all momentum - and I was staring the toughest six weeks of running (and six months of training) right in the teeth. This challenge has renewed my desire to crush my...er, friends, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentation of their women. All for charity, of course.