Another awesome give-away

Head over to YoMommaRuns Blog to sign up for a great give-away from Runner Box! This is a newer company that sends a box full of goodies (bi-monthly) every runner will love! Good luck to you!

Yay!?

OK, so I actually won the Ambler Heat Beanie give-away from The Arty Chick's blog! It is lightweight, fits perfectly, and has extra material to keep your ears warm during a cold weather run.

I must say it totally rocks! Please visit their website and see their other products.

I got my package Friday night and my wife immediately falls in love with it (Strike One!). GRR!! Not good for Johnny! And to top it off my 7 year old daughter, Lala, has her eyes on it as well (Strike Two!).  Here is the conversation I had with her:

L: "Hey, whose hat is that?"

RR: "It's mine! I won it. Doesn't it look cool?"

L: "Yeah! But not for you! HAHAHA!"

RR: "Why not?"

L: "It's kinda girly, Dad! It would totally look better on me."

   (I think she just threw a Fast Ball, high and inside. A little chin music to throw me off balance here)

RR: "Really? What makes you say that, honey?"

L: "The color and all the pretty designs on it. It's SO made for me."  

     (She wastes another pitch, this time a Curveball,  low and outside. She's trying to get me to swing at a bad pitch, me thinks! Sneaky, this one is!) 

RR: " I think it looks cool on me! Don't you?"

L: (laughing now) "Whatever, Dad! But that hat is gonna be mine or Mom's. Just live with it."

    And there it is... a 90 mph Fast Ball in the middle of the plate, and I just looked at it. (Strike Three! You're OUT!)

I still think I'm cool enough to pull it off. What do you think?

Free Giveaway..

Not my giveaway, mind you. My blog isn't popular enough. Or even good yet ;) This give away is over at The Arty Runner Chick blog for a Heat Beanie to protect your noodle. They look really warm! Check it out. While you're there check out some of her shirt designs. More to come on the Magic City Half soon! Happy running!

Magic City Half Marathon, Part One

Triple Crown Challenge: Leg 3 of 3.

Playlist for the race:  Grateful Dead’s 3-30-90 show from Nassau Coliseum, a hot show from the 1990 Spring Tour!

Birmingham is hillier than Talladega and Florence. There was a long steady climb in the meat of the route -along with a headwind- making this race the hardest of the three in the Triple Crown Challenge. 

This is the 2^nd year for the Magic City Half Marathon. It’s a smaller race with a lower budget so it doesn’t attract the elite athletes looking for prize money. The proceeds go to the Ruben StuddardFoundation. 

The weather was perfect for running: mid to high 40’s at the start with the temps reaching into the 50’s by the finish and a moderate, easterly wind. There was a 30 minute delay to the race’s start because Coca Cola’s truck carrying all the beverages for the water stops didn’t start! While I didn’t like the delay I can  understand why so no biggie. I’d much rather know there is water, Powerade and GU gels waiting for me during the race than hear, ‘sorry, no go!’

While warming up I felt a tear in the good old hamstring mentioned in my earlier post. I was feeling concerned and disappointed about not being 100% and was torn between pulling out of the race or pushing through and running.  It would suck training for 5 months, be SO close to completing my goal and not even trying. 

So with that in mind I found the 2:20 pace group, figured I’d stay with them for the first few miles, see how I felt and adjust accordingly. NO sense in going for a PR. I just wanted a nice, easy training run today and told myself,   “Don’t screw this up by pushing too hard and really mess up your leg.  Don’t race. Just finish!” It didn’t take long for me to ignore my own advice. Go figure....

Miles 1-4 offer the highest and lowest elevation points on the course. 

Starting from Linn Park you head west on Rev. Abraham Woods Blvd.  I ran super easy for the first mile even though it's downhill. The leg felt a little weird but nothing too irritating so I pressed on, silently saying goodbye to the 2:20 pacer and went looking for the next, running at a 2:10 pace. So much for taking it easy. I should’ve known!

At mile 2 you enter McLendon Park, home of Legion Field, the UAB Blazers and host of the 1996 Olympic Soccer games. I saw Mexico defeat Italy here, and some really great Alabama football games. 

  You have a steep incline of about 100 feet leading you to the campus of Birmingham Southern College.

 You’re rewarded for this climb with a left turn on 12 St. West and a nice, quick ¾ mile descent to the oldest surviving professional baseball park in the U.S., Rickwood Field

 It was built for the Birmingham Barons (AA ball team for my beloved Chicago White Sox) in 1910. 

 This is the lowest elevation for the course. At this point I'm feeling okay. Legs seem to be holding up well and I'm just churning away, singing along to the likes of "Little Red Rooster", "Dire Wolf", and "It's All Over Now".  l love me some Blues music! But people are looking at me kind of strangely. I guess no one else sings when they run? 

Splits for the first 4 miles:
Mile 1: 10:31
Mile 2: 9:40
Mile 3: 9:07
Mile 4: 8:42

Short Post

I actually ran the whole way in the Magic City Half despite my injury.  I'll try to collect my thoughts and give a report later. Since I'm new to this I'm not sure how thorough it will be but I'll try :) I mean, I have a lot to say. It's just all in my head and scrambled up like the eggs I had for Breakfast. They were yummy too. With salsa. Always with salsa. For now, at least.

A Little Down But Not Out

So, I'm in the final stage of Birmingham Track Club's  Triple Crown Challenge.  I had no expectations going into this since I've only run one Half Marathon in my life (Mercedes Half, 2/12/12) and suffered an injury afterward. I hadn't run a race since then so my main focus was to train better and complete the Triple Crown without injury.  So far so good until yesterday afternoon.

Since I had a day off from work I wanted to get a 6 mile run in to keep the legs loose and get my taper week off to a good start. I headed out the door and drove to Mountain Brook for my normal 6 mile route when all of a sudden, after a mile and a half I feel a pain in my hamstring! OUCH! WTF?? This isn't supposed to happen. At least not until NEXT week when I'm basking in the glow of success and admiring how expertly I ran in the middle of the pack.  HA! If I'm lucky! More like the back of the middle?

At least I had my wits about me.. My immediate thought was, 'cut the run short. See if you can get in 4 miles . Only one more steep hill then cruise the last 2 downhill and you're home free.'  I have the devil on one shoulder urging me on, and the angel on the other telling me, ' stop! Turn around and go home! Rest up for the race'
Clearly this is quite the quandary. Do I let the ego win or listen to the brain? What would you do? The pain is bearable but certainly something isn't right. I feel it on the foot strike and when I push off. Ah well, it's only a training run. I listened to the angel and went home.

Now my concern is how to get myself ready  for Sunday's race? I'm on my feet all day at work so I have that to contend with. I'm alternating heat and ice, and just started using a foam roller so I hope that helps. I would really HATE to walk this Half. It would feel like I cheated or something. And this race will qualify me for the Half Fanatics.
Any thoughts?  Have you experienced this kind of injury?   What did you find was the best treatment?

Thanks for reading!

A New Beginning For This Blog

I don't play online poker anymore (thanks, Republicans, for the dirty handed UIGEA) but I DO love running and that may be the new focus for this blog. I'm currently in the midst of completing 3 Half Marathons in 3 months, with a 10K thrown in for good measure.

We're Moving!

I'm moving this blog to here if anyone still happens to read the drivel I spew. I may update here from time to time though. Please visit and bookmark the link above. Hope to read your comments there! Good luck onthe felt and may the good cards hot your hand!

Tomorrow's Video on Deucescracked.com

Recently I played a "home game" on Poker Stars that consisted of 6 members from Deuces Cracked playing some micro limit hold em.

The bonus to playing against 5 other really tough opponent's was that it was recorded and used in one of the many great series that DC has every season. This game will be part of Passing The Torch, run by PygmyHero who is coaching Adrienne'sRevenge and helping her ascend to higher levels.

The other great thing about this video is DC's awesome technology of the hole card cam, where all our cards will be seen during the entire video. This enables PygmyHero, and his special guest (another coach from DC) to critique all of the players during this session, which will greatly benefit all of us and show us the weak spots to work on in our game. and They are the only poker training site out there with this feature and it is truly cutting edge. So this will be further proof of how much of a donk I really am. I ran pretty good after making some horrendous errors which I'm sure will be pointed out. I hope all my fellow BGLL members get something out of it besides knowing what a fish I can be.

Talk to you all soon....

Hmm... Anyone have some advice here?

Lately I've been having some frustration with my favorite kind of fish.. the loose passive player who NEVER. RAISES. EVER. How does one combat the emotions that come with playing this type of player? I know most of the time I'll amass a nice stack from him but here's a hand I played recently that may sum it up a bit.

Here's the stats for both villains and a bit of a read... ( and sorry, Adri the converter has a 4 color deck... and the spades are yellow, ugh!)

SB is 48/0/0.3 over a smallish sample (75 hands) and has cold called JJ to my EP open, x/c on a Q high flop and call down UI, chases draws and didn't raise a rivered nut flush 3 way;

The BB is 32/20/4.7 after 50 hands and his favorite move is a x/r on the turn and is a bit more aggressive on the later streets. He's won at showdown 5 out of 15 tries so far and seems to rely on fold equity.

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 89451

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



Pre Flop: (1.4 SB) Hero is CO with A 8

1 fold, Hero raises, 1 fold, SB calls, BB calls



Flop: (6 SB) A T 9 (3 players)

SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets, SB calls, BB calls



Turn: (4.5 BB) T (3 players)

SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets, SB calls, BB raises, Hero calls, SB calls



River: (10.5 BB) 8 (3 players)

SB checks, BB bets, Hero calls, SB calls



Final Pot: 13.5 BB

Hero shows A 8 (two pair, Aces and Tens)

SB shows T A (a full house, Tens full of Aces)

BB shows K 6 (a pair of Tens)

SB wins 12.9 BB

(Rake: $0.30)




First does anyone see a weak spot in my line? Did I over play this on the turn? Do we ever slow down our betting against him? The BB's x/r doesn't really scare that much given the read. According to stove I'm not too bad.

The real question is what is the SB thinking? Why not put in a raise somewhere? Does anyone have a good understanding on what goes through the mind of this type of player? I understand the rationale of "I don't want to lose any customers" but what gives?

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand...