Class reunion

I will be meeting with my high school classmates for dinner tonight after work. This weekend marks the Sand Creek High School Class of 1997 15th year class reunion. We are having dinner tonight at a restaurant. A family lunch will be Saturday afternoon and a bonfire for adults later.

I graduated in a class of 67 people. Going to a small school and you know everyone. I didn't talk to everyone in my class, but that is not because I was ignoring them. Those classmates weren't in the same group of friends. We were all like that. Not ignoring people on purpose. As a class, we all got along.

I attended my 10 year class reunion five years ago. A mix of classmates showed up with their spouses. I talked to everyone. Even the people I didn't say much to in high school. It was great to catch up with everyone. We are all spread out. Some people live in Northern Michigan or out of state. A few of us are still in the area.

Another five years has gone by. We all of living our lives. My sister graduated one year ahead in 1996. I don't think her class has had a reunion in a while. I'm really glad that our class still has reunions and I can't wait to see everyone. Tonight should be fun and pleasant evening.

Michigan Interscholastic Horsemanship Association District 10 Equestrian competition V - Adrian, MI

Michigan Interscholastic Horsemanship Association
District 10 Equestrian competition

Adrian, MI - Lenawee County Fair and Event Grounds
September 16, 2012

Books read in 2012

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling 
Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal, Toni Bentley 
Chasing the Runner's High, Ray Charbonneau 
The Perfect Mile, Neal Bascomb 
Cleopatra, Stacy Schiff 
The Carrie Diaries, Candace Bushnell 
Summer in the City, Candace Bushnell 
Forgotten, Cat Patrick 
Deja Dead, Kathy Reichs 
Pretty Little Liars, Sara Shepard 
Flawless, Sara Shepard 
Perfect, Sara Shepard 
Unbelievable, Sara Shepard 
Wicked, Sara Shepard 
Killer, Sara Shepard

Heartless, Sara Shepard

Wanted, Sara Shepard

Twisted, Sara Shepard

Ruthless, Sara Shepard

Fairy Tale Interrupted, Rosemarie Terenzio

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

Pronto, Elmore Leonard

Riding the Rap, Elmore Leonard

Raylan, Elmore Leonard

The Coffin Quilt, Ann Rinaldi

A Life Without Limits, Chrissie Wellington

Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, John Le Carre
Eat and Run, Scott Jurek

Clearing Hurdles, Dan O'Brien

The Sugarless Plum, Zippora Karz

Girl in Motion: A Novel, Miriam Wenger-LandisBreaking Pointe, Miriam Wenger-Landis

The Cranes Dance, Meg Howrey

The Eighty-Dollar Champion, Elizabeth Letts

Renegade Champion: The Unlikely Rise of Fitzrada, Richard R. Rust

That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, Anne Sebba

The President's Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity, Nancy Gibbs

Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir, Clint Hill

Currently Reading: Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever, Martin Dugard and Bill O'Reilly

World Half Marathon Championships

The IAAF World Half Marathon Championships took place Saturday in Bulgaria. Universal Sports Network had promos during other broadcasts saying it would air the same day. I set my DVR to record it and planned on watching it Sunday.

When I played the broadcast, I saw that the men were at the start line. The men started and I figured that the ladies would start about 10-15 minutes after the men. What ended up happening was the women actually ran their half marathon first. The men ran second.

Universal Sports broadcasted the entire men's half marathon. During the course of the men's half, a clip of the women's race was shown. That clip lasted about 30 seconds. I was very disappointed. I wanted to see both the men's and women's race.

Universal Sports always does a great job of showing coverage of men's and women's sports. I love to watch the network for their track and field, triathlon and equestrian coverage. For their ITU World Triathlon coverage, each gender has their own braodcast from each race. Usually the women's race will be shown on a Saturday and the men's race will be aired on Sunday. I was wondering why they didn't try that method with the World Half Marathon?

I sent a tweet to Universal Sports saying I was disappointed in the 30 second clip of the women's race. In a second tweet, I asked why they didn't show the men and women's races like they do with the ITU triathlon series? I don't know if they saw it or not. I just wanted them to know that I wanted to see the women race too. Maybe other running fans would have liked to also watch the women's race.

Women's Half Marathon results
1. Meseret Hailu - ETH - 1:08:55
2 Feyse Tadese - ETH - 1:08:56
3. Paskalia Chepkorir Kipkoech - KEN - 1:09:04
4. Lydia Chermei - KEN - 1:09:13
5. Emebt Etea - ETH- 1:10:01

Top 3 U.S. Women
13. Meagan Krifchin - 1:12:29
18. Adriana Nelson - 1:13:30
25. Shalane Flanagan - 1:14:41

Women's Team results
1. Ethiopia
2. Kenya
3. Japan
4. Great Britian & N.I.
5. United States

Men's Half Marathon results
1. Zersenay Tadeses - ERI - 1:00:19
2. Deressa Chimsa - ETH- 1:00:51
3. John Nzau Mwangangi - KEN - 1:01:01
4. Pius Maiyo Kirop - KEN- 1:01:11
5. Stephen Kosgei Kibet - KEN - 1:01:40

Top 3 U.S. Men
15. Augustus Maiyo - 1:02:33
17. Luke Puskedra - 1:02:46
28. Ian Burrell - 1:04:37

Men's Team results
1. Kenya
2. Eritrea
3. Ethiopia
4. United States
5. Uganda

Photo Credits:
Top: Meseret Hailu of Ethiopia celebrates her victory as she crosses the finishing line during the 20th IAAF Women's World Half Marathon on October 6, 2012 in Kavarna, Bulgaria. (Getty Images Europe/Scott Heavey)

Bottom: Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea celebrates his victory during the 20th IAAF Mens World Half Marathon on October 6, 2012 in Kavarna, Bulgaria. (Getty Images Europe/Scott Heavey)

 

Favorite photos from October 1-5, 2012

Michigan Interscholastic Horsemanship Association District 10 Equestrian competition IV - Adrian, MI

Michigan Interscholastic Horsemanship Association
District 10 Equestrian competition

Adrian, MI - Lenawee County Fair and Event Grounds
September 16, 2012

Other racing news

Photo credit: Nils Nilson/XTERRA

Max King from Oregon is on an awesome winning streak. King has won three titles in less then a week.

King won the USA 50K Trail Championship in Bend, Oregon on September 22. On the very next day, King won the 21K XTERRA Trail Run National Championship in Ogden, Utah. On Saturday, Max King won the Ultra Race of Champions 100K (UROC) in Virginia with a time of 7:57:02. In the women's UROC race, Canadian Ellie Greenwood won the title in 9:04:09.
 
Also racing on Saturday was the University of Michigan women's cross country team. The ladies ran in Rim Rock Farm Classic in Lawrence, Kansas. Michigan senior Rebecca Addison was the overall 6K winner with a time of 20:29.20. Michigan teammates Jillian Smith (20:51.60) was fifth and Shannon Osika (20:54:10) was sixth. Rounding out the top 10 was Wolverine Lindsey Hilton in 21:00.40. Michigan won the team title with 33 points. Runner-up Toledo finished with 43 points.

Photo credit: University of Michigan

Michigan's women's cross country team will run next in the NCAA Pre-Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky on  October 13.

Sunday was the BMW Berlin Marathon. Geoffrey Mutai was trying to break the world record on this course (2:03:38 WR) . Mutai won the race, but did not break the world record. Mutai finished in 2:04:15.

The second place finisher, Dennis Kimetto, is Mutai's training partner. He finished in 2:04:16 and set the fastest marathon debut in history. I read a bunch of articles stating that it looked like Kimetto let Mutai win. Kimetto stayed right on Mutai's shoulder until the finish line. I watched the marathon and I thought that too.

Photo credit: PhotoRun

The other thing about the marathon was that the clock on the car behind them was incorrect. I noticed that the pace car clock and the timer on the screen were a couple of seconds off from each other. If the pace car clock was off, it could have cost Mutai the world record. According to this, the clock on top of the elite pace car froze on 2:50/kilometer read-out early in the race, giving the runners the impression they were under their 61:40 first half pace. Actually the elite runners were 32 seconds slower then they wanted to be.

Geoffrey Mutai just missed breaking the world record this year in Berlin. I hope he gets another opportunity to try again and successfully do it.

Bulldog 5K Run

I ran the Bulldog 5K Run Saturday. Coming into the race, I had already run 91 miles. I really didn't have a goal coming into the race, except to have fun.

The race crowd was small, probably about 60-70 people. I started the race a couple of rows behind the very fast runners (the overall men/women's winners). The first strides of the run, my legs felt funky. I was thinking it was all the miles I had on my legs coming into the event. I kept going and eventually that funky feeling went away.

By the first mile, which was the only mile marked on the course, I was running alone. I always seem to end up by myself no matter the race distance. I knew I wasn't really alone as I could hear two guys behind me talking. I was working hard to keep them behind me. Probably around the 1.5/2 mile mark, the guys ended up pulling beside me and passed me. The guys also pulled along a college girl with them. I was step for step with her for a bit, but she pulled ahead of me also.

After they passed me, I really didn't want their lead to grow more. They were about 10-15 seconds ahead of me. The space in between us really didn't grow or shrink which made me happy. All of us did catch a teen girl and pass her. I saw her before the race warming up. I really thought she looked tough and fast. I'm thinking she actually went out too fast. While I was catching up with her, I noticed she was taking walk breaks.

The final stretch of the race had a long straightaway, a turn on a short uphill, a turn onto a service drive leading us to a lap around a football field. I picked up my pace on the straightaway. I used my arms running up the final uphill and ran as fast as I could around the football field. When I turned the final corner on the field heading to the finish line, I looked at the clock. It read 25 minutes. I was a little disappointed. Only the first mile was marked. Since the other two miles weren't marked, I didn't even look at my watch. I felt I was running faster then I actually was. I finished the 5K in 25:52. With all the miles I ran before the race, I was happy to finish only 51 seconds off my 5K PR.

This year the age groups were separated into 10 years instead of five. I was unsure of how I finished against a larger age group. The final results were posted online and didn't list anyone's ages.  I was hoping to find out if I placed in the top three in my age group. Now I will never know. According to the results, I finished 22nd overall out of 70 runners and was the 6th overall female.

Favorite photos from September 24-28, 2012

Famous black and white photos

I read a story on Huffington Post about famous black and white photos that were colorized. Artist Sanna Dullaway posted some colorized photos on Reddit and it got attention. I learned about the amazing photos from the Huffington Post story.

I'm glad I found it because seeing these famous photos in color adds so much more character. Having a glimpse of what these people looked like in real life takes the mystery out of what color their hair was or their clothes. Dullaway's color interpretation may be wrong, but it is just fascinating.


Besides the wonderful Abraham Lincoln photo, Dullaway added her color treatment to Dorothea Lange's 'Migrant Mother' photo. To me, Lange's photo is the most famous from the devastating Dust Bowl. Seeing the photo in color makes it come alive. The mother with the worried look on her face, the whole family in drab colors. Life during the Dust Bowl was difficult and the color brings it out much more. These color photos jump off the screen and make history come alive for me.


Photo credits: Sanna Dullaway via Library of Congress

Books read in 2012

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling 
Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal, Toni Bentley 
Chasing the Runner's High, Ray Charbonneau 
The Perfect Mile, Neal Bascomb 
Cleopatra, Stacy Schiff 
The Carrie Diaries, Candace Bushnell 
Summer in the City, Candace Bushnell 
Forgotten, Cat Patrick 
Deja Dead, Kathy Reichs 
Pretty Little Liars, Sara Shepard 
Flawless, Sara Shepard 
Perfect, Sara Shepard 
Unbelievable, Sara Shepard 
Wicked, Sara Shepard 
Killer, Sara Shepard

Heartless, Sara Shepard

Wanted, Sara Shepard

Twisted, Sara Shepard

Ruthless, Sara Shepard

Fairy Tale Interrupted, Rosemarie Terenzio

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

Pronto, Elmore Leonard

Riding the Rap, Elmore Leonard

Raylan, Elmore Leonard

The Coffin Quilt, Ann Rinaldi

A Life Without Limits, Chrissie Wellington

Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, John Le Carre
Eat and Run, Scott Jurek

Clearing Hurdles, Dan O'Brien

The Sugarless Plum, Zippora Karz

Girl in Motion: A Novel, Miriam Wenger-LandisBreaking Pointe, Miriam Wenger-Landis

The Cranes Dance, Meg Howrey

The Eighty-Dollar Champion, Elizabeth Letts

Renegade Champion: The Unlikely Rise of Fitzrada, Richard R. Rust

That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, Anne Sebba

The President's Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity, Nancy Gibbs

Currently Reading: Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir, Clint Hill

Michigan Interscholasic Horsemanship Association: District 10 Equestrian competition III - Adrian, MI

Michigan Interscholastic Horsemanship Association
District 10 - Equestrian competition
Adrian, MI - Lenawee County Fair and Event Grounds
September 9, 2012

This was the first of three shows that will be held at the Lenawee County Fair and Event Grounds.

Fifth Avenue Mile

The Fifth Avenue Mile was held in New York City on Saturday. The men's race was won by Matthew Centrowitz in 3:52.4. Centrowitz edged out defending Fifth Avenue Mile champion Bernard Lagat (3:52.9). Leo Manzano finished in third place with a time of 3:53:1.

In the women's race, Brenda Martinez won in 4:24.2. Coming in second was Anna Pierce in 4:24.9 and third was Hannah England in 4:26.0. The 2011 winner Jenny Simpson finished in 10th place.

Photo Credit: (Top) Matthew Centrowitz, center, crossed the finish line in the men's professional division in the Fifth Avenue Mile race on September 22, in New York. (Associated Press/Mary Altaffer) 

(Bottom) Brenda Martinez crossed the finish line in first place in the women's professional division in the Fifth Avenue Mile Saturday, September 22 in New York. (Associated Press/Mary Altaffer)