That we will be able to replicate last year’s amazing day once again: Chicagoland’s SECOND Annual February Fool’s Goal Half Marathon/Debacle???.
Fairly often out at restaurants, the server or food runner will approach our table with two plates: a steak or giant, multi-layer hamburger, or some similar mound of meat in one hand and a salad or light chicken dish in the other and try to put the heavy dish down in front of me and give the salad to Erica. You know, of course, by the way I have structured this that the salad is usually mine and the big meat platter is usually Erica’s.
There is, however, a way that I do resemble a Felix Unger-esque character from a ’60s sitcom (or a cartoon cat): I love sardines and anchovies. And Erica doesn’t really like the smell. So I’ll wait for an evening when she’s out of the house to make a sardine sandwich or, as tonight, to get… The Salt Pizza.
Apart Pizza, my favorite-closest pizza place*, makes what they call a “Calabrese”. Anchovies, capers, black olives. So salty. So good. I get a 10” (the “small” at Apart) and 7 slices is the perfect amount. But then I don’t want to leave a piece out and offend Erica’s sensibilities, so I eat the last slice as well and it’s just a little too much salt and I’m a little dried out and burpy the rest of the night. So worth it.
* I mean, of course I have lots of favorite pizza places, with all the different kinds of pizza in the world, but Apart definitely wins out of anything I can walk to.
It’s a parody of an homage to a masterpiece or something. And it’s got a certain bearded man in it. The rest of Episode 9 awaits you as well.
It’s been long enough since we’ve been down to Austin for a Gerdes family holiday that there’s a new person we hadn’t met yet (and other little persons who are really becoming distinguishable as individual persons instead of just “bundles of cute”). Sadly, weather conspired to keep Jeanne in Ohio, so it wasn’t a complete family get-together. So, you know, it was only the 25 of us you see pictured (plus turkeys).
It used to be that if I was traveling, the first thing I did was to check listings to see if I could see an improv show or some other comedy show while I was in that town. Now, the first thing I do is see if there are any races happening. So for a trip down to Austin to see my family for Thanksgiving, right after I booked the plane tickets I signed us up for the 5 mile Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot. (For the record, we did also see Master Pancake Theatre’s Hanksgiving show while in Austin.)
Erica and I ran the Turkey Trot back in 2010 as well, but that year there was a mistake by the leading runners that ended up mis-routing the course for everyone following them (which is to say, just about everyone) and we only ran 4.5 miles of the route. There were no such problems this time around and I ran a full 5 miles. And did so at a personal-best pace, as well. Disco ran at his own pace (which is to say, fast) and Erica wasn’t feeling well and so opted for a shorter course, so I ran on my own. My headphone jack on my iPhone is busted, so I was without my Nike+ pace feedback, and I’m really pretty bad at knowing what my pace is based on just feel. The clock at the first mile marker let me know that I was at 10:00/mile, so I was expecting a pretty average race. The clock at the second mile marker was broken and so by the time I got to the third mile and saw that it was 27:00 or so, I was really surprised and figured it must be off as well. I guess somewhere in a year of endurance training I got a little faster as well.
Official Results:
Time: 45:03
Pace: 9:01/M
Overall Place: 1672 / 4191
Gender Place: 1168 / 2423
Division Place (M40-44): 138 / 253
Dear Friends[1],
FuzzyFest, my annual celebration of the continued existence of me, isn’t until February 2014, but I’m alerting y’all early because this time there’s a third-party registration component, should you choose to accompany me on that phase of the party. There are going to be three phases to the day and you’re welcome to join for any combination you like. The deets:
FuzzyFest - February 2, 2014
Phase I - Too Much Healthy!
FuzzyFest is going to start out with me running a 10K that starts and ends at Soldier Field. The Chi-Town Big Game 5K/10K is at 9:00 am/9:20 am respectively. One of the enticements of the race is that you don’t have to stand around in the cold waiting for the start, nor waiting for other finishers at the end — the United Club will be open to participants before and after the race. There’s also a tech t-shirt and race beanie.
The 5K and 10K are $48/$58 through the end of the year and then go up $7. No pressure, of course—I know many of you are not runners and even the ones who are are probably not running outside over the winter, because you are not idiots.
Phase II - That’s More Like It!
After the race, around 11 am, the party will move to our house for a recovery brunch with beers and mimosas and bloody marys. Oh yeah, and I suppose some brunch food as well.
(Email me if you don’t know where our house is.)
Phase III - Sportsball Contest!
The party will keep rolling through the day and at 6:30 pm we’ll turn on the aforementioned “Big Game”—i.e., the Super Bowl. It’ll be the kind of Super Bowl party where we talk through the game and everyone pays attention to the commercials, so if that kind of thing bugs you, I’m guessing there might be one or two other places to see the game? We’ll have sports-game-watching foods like more beer and pizza and chips in a thing that looks like a football field and cupcakes in the colors of the appropriate teams. Sports!
Same place as Phase II.
I’d love to see you on February 2!
your pal, Fuzzy
[1] If you’re not my friend you can just stop reading now.
I’m pretty sure that when Lou Reed wrote I’m Waiting for the Man, about buying drugs in New York, what he was really “waiting” for was for Steve Gadlin’s Star Makers Ensemble members Katie and Neil to perform this stunning cover version. And for a certain bearded man to bring to life the lyrics “Here he comes, he’s all dressed in black / P.R. shoes and a big straw hat”. Rest in Peace, Mr. Reed.
Anyway, the rest of Episode 8 has been posted as well. You’re welcome, world.
It’s hard to form a habit.
There’s some sort of life-hack-y rule of thumb that if you can force yourself to do something for two weeks or forty days or something that it will just become a habit and you won’t have to work at it any more.
Training for the Ironman this last year was a solid year of charts and schedules to make sure I did six days of workouts a week. By now, I should just leap out of bed every morning and wake up somewhere around the second mile of a run or bike. Instead, I leapt right back into staying up late and watching a lot of TV and then dragging myself out of bed at the last possible second to get to work. I’ve got a sore knee and I don’t think it’s a running injury or anything, just soreness from not enough sleep.
“You deserve some time off!” people say, in a well-meaning way. Yeah, but I like the shape I’m in and I want to maintain that. And it turns out I need a to-do list to do it. Time to schedule a race…
Erica is all over this town!
- Erica and Noah were interviewed by Newcity about Snorf. This one is in the print edition as well, if you want to pick one of those up around Chicago. The next Snorf show is tomorrow afternoon at the Playground and continues monthly.
- Red Eye interviewed the creators of Just the FAQs—Erica will be a panelist on their inaugural show, this Sunday at Stage 773.
- Gapers Block interviewed Alisa Rosenthal about her ensemble show Plucky and Friends, wherein Erica is an amazing ‘dance teacher’. There’s one more show of this preview run, Thursday the 21st at Gorilla Tango Theater.
- Count Gregula’s Crypt reviewed Boobs of the Dead: A Walking Dead Burlesque which Erica choreographed both last year and this remount. Their review says “the choreography was brilliant.”
It was a two-race weekend for me this weekend as Shaun and I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K on Sunday. The race has gotten a lot better since I last ran it in 2010 (as a 5K). The course is mostly on very wide city streets and the run down South Michigan Ave was especially nice. And, as last time, I got a pretty nice hoodie.
Also, I set a PR for a 15K. Because I’ve never done a 15K before. That’s one way to set a bunch of personal bests—run distances you’ve never done before. Now I’m sad I missed that 6K up in Evanston a few weeks ago.
Official results:
Time: 1:28:54
Pace: 9:33 min/mile
Place: 3678 / ?
Place in Sex: 1698 / 2925