Daily Mutilation

Kickin' it in lazy Sunday afternoon mode. We got back yesterday afternoon from Maine and the Around Mount Desert Island Relay. We left Thursday after 1 and made good time with surprisingly light traffic for the 279-mile trek to Bar Harbor; took us about four and a half hours, including a couple of bathroom stops. We met up with the other folks on the relay team at a pizza joint about a half hour from our hotel: Jon and Kerry, Rick and his family, and Jon's buddies Ken and Tom, who both live in Maine. We were dubbed RW2, in a nod to the team we entered in the River to Sea relay in NJ a few years back. There were eight teams total and unlike the NJ relay, we wouldn't have to worry about starting too late. The race didn't take itself too seriously; each team was given a Barbie doll as a relay baton. Ours wore a purple dress.

Back at the hotel, we hung out in Ken and Tom's room drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon, which has its appeal, I suppose, but is not recommended on the night before running a hilly relay race. I wasn't too concerned, since I wouldn't be running until leg 6 (of 8), meaning I didn't have to run until around noon. Of course, my stomach didn't feel particularly great Friday morning, so I had several hours to ponder what that would mean for my 8.45-mile leg, which was described as "VERY HILLY!"

The weather was nice in the morning, clear and not too warm. Kerry led off and kicked butt, but as Jon and I drove the route in one of the two support vehicles, we noticed a lot of hills. The surrounding scenery was incredible as we ran and drove around the island. As the morning wore on, it got warmer and warmer, so I knew I'd be in for a tough one. I just hoped I wouldn't experience any gastric distress. Jon felt the after-effects of the PBR and hurled during his first leg (he and Rick both did two legs). Of course, he still burned it up at a 6:20 pace. Dude can flat-out fly.

Meanwhile, Deb and the girls went to the July 4th parade in Bar Harbor and then hung at the hotel pool.

Finally, it came time for me to run. I was expecting the worst in terms of hills and heat and I got it. There were all sorts of hills: gradual, steep, seemingly endless. I kept chugging along, occasionally walking a bit after a particularly brutal climb. Jon and Kerry brought me water and Gatorade every mile. I took advantage of some long downhill stretches to make up time and finally I saw Rick waiting for me about three-tenths of a mile away. Fortunately, it was all downhill and I just kicked it into high gear, hoping I wouldn't go too fast and wipe out. I finished in 1:06:57 (about a 7:50 pace) and felt pretty good. I was also glad I didn't have to run again. Rick and Jon finished strong and overall, we came in fourth.

We hung out at the finish for a while, enjoying the beer and pizza as well as the nice weather. After showering back at the hotel, we piled back into our vehicles and drove close to an hour away to Prospect Harbor, where Ken's parents threw us a post-race bash. Any grumbling about the drive dissipated when we saw their house, which was ridiculously nice and had about as perfect a view as you're going to find anywhere. It was right on the harbor; talk about doing it right. We spent a few hours there and the kids had a blast running around on the grass and looking for sea glass on the beach. Finally, we left around 9:30 and drove back just in time to get stuck in traffic from the aftermath of Bar Harbor's fireworks. Apparently Bar Harbor shuts off the streets, so we sat for nearly an hour; fortunately the kids had fallen asleep. Very frustrating. Once we got back to our hotel, we all were so wiped, we just went to bed.

Saturday morning, we went downtown for breakfast and then headed out, stopping at the LL Bean outlet for a bit. Again, the traffic wasn't bad and we made it home in decent time.

Footsteps

Holy humidity! Man, it has been moist around here the last few days. Not great sleeping weather. We've also had a lot of Florida-like volatile storm systems kicking around lately, making things even more unpredictable than they usually are. On Saturday, it was actually kinda chilly as temps hovered around 60 degrees. I played nine holes of golf at Salem Muni with some buddies from work and although I shot pretty terribly (59), I had a good time. Later that afternoon, we went to a birthday party and people were actually cold at times. By Sunday, the humidity moved in. I ran 10 miles in the a.m. and figured the 65-degree temps would make for a great run. Wrong. It was so humid, I was drenched halfway through. Later in the day, Deb and I drove down to Stoughton to go to IKEA to buy a big-ass shelf unit for the guest room; took me a couple of hours to put the thing together. Then I threw myself into another huge project: Putting my entire CD collection into CD wallets. I've got over 1,200 CDs by my estimate and they were in various locations throughout the house and driving both Deb and I crazy for different reasons. I actually bought a 300-CD wallet last year and started to fill it, but got sidetracked and never went back to it. At IKEA, we found 80-CD wallets for $3 each, so we picked up five just to get me started again. Sunday night, I spent about five hours just alphabetizing everything, as well as separating bootlegs, mix CDs, EPs, soundtracks, and other crap. Then I started refilling the big wallet; right now, I'm up to the D's. This is going to take a while.

I've been pretty wiped out all day because last night I went to the Pearl Jam show at the Comcast Center in Mansfield with my friend Gary and Brad. Awesome show. It was the last night of a short 12-show tour of the East Coast; they don't have a new album to promote, they just toured for the hell of it. As such, they played a ton of old stuff, especially from the first three albums, and generally seemed to have a blast. We got there and saw the last half of Ted Leo's set; he rules. Walking around, we saw a ton of frat boys and their girlfriends, but we also saw a fair amount of parents and their kids. I guess some of those parents were in their 30s when Pearl Jam released their first album in 1991, 17 freakin' years ago. The band played for about two hours, culminating in a smoking version of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" with Ted Leo and his band. PJ probably would have played another hour if it wasn't for the stupid Mansfield 11 p.m. curfew. Just as well, since I had a long way to go. We parked in a side lot behind a nearby business, so we didn't have to wait quite as long as the folks in the official parking lots. Finally got home a little after 1:30, so I'm pretty fried right about now.

Flyin' the flannel:

• The NHL's silly season, aka free agency, began today. The two biggest available free agents, Mats Sundin and Marian Hossa, were still unsigned as of this writing, but they have received some huge offers; Sundin was offered $10 million a year for two years. He's a great player, but that's crazy money. The Leafs signed three players--forward Niklas Hagman, defenseman Jeff Finger and goalie Curtis Joseph--but none of them are particuarly impressive to me. Lots of moves are being made, but it looks like my team will continue to suck next season.
• We're getting ready to head up to Maine on Thursday. I'm running with some friends in the Around Mount Desert Island Relay on Friday; it's an eight-leg, 61-mile race. It takes place at Acadia National Park and should be fun. We head back on Saturday to beat the traffic hopefully.
• Happy Canada Day! To celebrate, here's some Canadian content for you: Rush performing "YYZ" in Brazil. The amazing part is that the audience is actually singing along to an instrumental. Of course, it's a terrific instrumental.