Play this game! It rules!

(see paragraph for link)

The person of the week, this week? Larkin! I haven’t seen him in 354 days, the longest stint in my life. But just because he is out of sight doesn’t mean he is out of mind and vice versa. He sent me this link yesterday and single-handedly slowed the productivity of Pacific Cycle. But I love this game, I love the board game and the computer game. I can’t get enough of it and can’t wait to get home so I can play more! Other factors in this determination are his proximity to the restaurant below and the fact that he will make me an uncle for the first time this spring. Oh yeah, and the fact that in like 9 days he will be the proud owner of some really cool new stuff! And he sent me a 25X25 grid sudoku that will give me a weekend of fun! :)

Well just an update on the Jinglebell Run. My official time was 55:57, so 2 seconds slower that I thought.

I am the guy in the royal blue pants and the yellow headband in the photos. As a bike racer I pinned my number in the back…I guess in running you don’t do that.

Took the lead here from some bozo who just wanted to lead a little bit!

Look who’s leading, commandingly!

Still leading here!

Held it to about here!

Digestive issues seem to be going away. I’ve ate minimal (less that 1000 calories) of solid food since Saturday evening. Today I tried some crackers and ice cream and am doing well. Being sick is an easy way to drop 11 pounds though, I am at an all time low, even after I spent the last 36 hours hydrating as much as possible (1.5-2 gallons of fluid each day.) Not eating for 4+ days makes me realize A. how much I enjoy food and B. how much I don’t need to eat as although I had some hunger pangs a lot of that could be offset with water, apple juice or chicken broth.

Tomorrow night is the big Pacific Cycle Christmas party. We go to the most uppity place in Madison, the Blackhawk Country Club. Phat Phunktion is playing an exclusive gig at the party too! According to Yahoo they are a Funk band. I think I’ve seen them a couple times before but I can't really remember. Anyways, it should pretty entertaining since free cocktails start at 6pm and the Phunktion not until 8:30. My guess is that there will be more than a few rough Pacific Cycle Saturdays for employees! Thank god for Saturday NFL games in December.

Still awaiting Popeye’s test results. I went to the Russell house today, scary! I think Russ left a bunch of his groceries and stuff. And he left like a saw in the living room and lumber. Nice condtions for the Riz. Riz hasn't sprawled the house into his own yet though...but I expect that for the next 4 months it will be Riztastic! He's at least using the garage and garage door. What a sweet deal! Oh yeah, Riz sucks! He's is so going down this weekend! He may have won the division but he's going to get stomped! Anyone doing anything on Saturday in the PM? Maybe some lazy afternoon games or something? I'd like to keep it chill and I won't see many of my friends the next couple of weeks so we should hook it up! I wonder what Hez is doing right now?

Next summer I am going to Mecca in the land of Nirvana: OK, they don't have my favorite burgers nor my favorite fries, but it is tough to beat the combonation of everything they offer and the chance to go to the first one ever with old logos in an old building is simply too much to resist! It's almost my birthday, can't wait for my birthday club burger! :)

Jinglebell Run!

So I know you all are wondering, Mark, how did the Jingle Bell Run go? Well I’ve been illing for about 2 days now so I haven’t gotten to update it yet.

Saturday was supposed to have a high temperature of 24 degrees, not bad. Only problem was that at 11am, the temp was about 15 and we had a cold 15 mph wind right at the start. I decided that I needed to do better than the Berbee Derby but to my surprise much (most) of the course had slick snow on it. Anyways, I huddled with Jordan before the race and told him that I was going to try and lead because about a tenth of a mile in there were a bunch of photographers. So I got a place right in front and waited for the gun! At 11am, bang, the gun went off. I went at an almost full sprint and was amazed to find myself out front with a decent lead. Around the 1/10 of a mile mark I got passed, but that guy clearly only wanted to lead for a close moment and I passed him back. I kept the lead until about a 100 yards from the bridge near Vilas zoo and then it was all backwards from there. I settled into a nice pace and hit the one mile mark at 8:30, which is a good time because there was some snowy roads and it was mostly uphill. I didn’t get another time reading until we entered the arb, at 3 miles I was at 27 minutes which was good for me because that was the uphill part. The arb was very slick though as minimal traffic and a poorly scraped road left a slick 1” hard pack with a bunch of wet slushy prints. But at least it was mostly downhill. I reached the 5 mile mark at 45 minutes and was hoping I could kick some butt and get the 10k in under 55 minutes. I picked up the pace and I think I hit mile 5.5 on pace for that goal. Then we turned left towards the home-stretch. By this point I was so warm and stripped off my gloves and headband. Well I hit that same headwind that we had at the start and on top of that the 5k fun-run/walk was taking up almost the whole road. At least the road non taken up by the people who are fast at the 10k and were trying to drive out. So I was trying to pass walkers, people in my race and eluding oncoming traffic all while facing a brutal headwind. Needless to say, 55 even wasn’t going to happen so I sprinted in just to beat 56 minutes which is 9 minute miles. So if I can do that for 26.2 miles I can break 4 hours. Guh! I just got to keep training! I wonder what it is like to run in nice weather! Anyways, afterwards I met with some co-workers for some lunch at the Laurel Tavern and watched the Badgers crush Marquette.

Shortly after that I got sick and got progressively sicker. I think it is food poisoning and I have hardly ate anything in the past two days. No idea where I got it but it really sucks! Sunday I logged 16 hours of ill couch time trying to stay awake enough to follow the football games. I kicked the Beav’s butt in the first round of Fantasy Football playoffs (recording the highest score of any team this season) so that was nice! Today I am dragging at work but it is better than taking a sick day. Might as well be borderline miserable at work then stuck at home watching daytime TV. That way I can use my sick days when I am healthy! Our company works that way, all days off are the same so you can use them for anything you want! That way if I stay reasonably healthy I can get an extra week of vacation!

Anyways, I hope all is well with everyone! I wonder what Barry is doing right now?