It Takes Two.

It takes two to make a thing go right
It takes two to make it outta sight
Hit it!

What the frig am I talking about?  OK, I had to stretch it a bit and go back to my DJ days to find a song that would go along with today's post. 

I'm Rob Base and I came to get down
I'm not internationally known
But I'm known to rock the microphone

Back on topic.  Two.  Two updates on past posts.  The first?  Refueling gels.  Back in February/March I compared several different energy gels and rated them.  Guess what?  What Keith?  The first place finisher "Body Glove Surge All Natural Energy Gel- Chocolate", they stopped making it!  Say what?  What?  I love that one.  So much for the influence that my first place nod for it had on the manufacturer.  Oh, well...

The reason why, man, I don't know
So let's go, cause
It takes two to make a thing go right
It takes two to make it outta sight

 

Never fear!  Replacement Gel is here!  A new 1st place winner has been crowned (I used it during the B.A.A. Half Marathon two weekends ago).  It is an all natural product called "Accel Gel Rapid Energy Gel" and which is made by the same manufacturer as the "Body Glove Surge Gel" was.  It has all the same chocolately goodness as the original first place winner but without all the, let's see now, how did I put it before... that's right "texture".  It was as smooth as "(insert your own favorite phrase of choice here- example: baby's bum, silk, glass, velvet, butter, a southern drawl or aged whiskey- just to name a few).  It is a  dry, medium-bodied red, offering sappy black cherry and plum sauce flavors, with dried herb and olive tapenade notes. Balanced, with a moderate finish.  Sorry, wrong blog for that one.  It does however have a mild natural chocolate flavor and pleasant aftertaste.  The Accel Gel has a great consistency and is easy to get down while you are re-fueling mid-run.  It supplied an even and consistent level of energy and is made of all natural ingredients.  The only downside that I have with it?  It only has 20 mg of caffeine versus Surge Gels' 150 mg.

Cause I'm Rob, the last name Base, yeah

And on the mic, I'm known to be the freshest

 

Number 2.  No, not that "number 2".  Boy that stinks.  That's crappy.  Courtesy flush please?  OK, the second update is on the B.A.A. Distance Medley results.  My official results over the three races are:

 

	5K Finish	10K Finish	Half Finish	Cumulative Time	Overall	Percentile	In Age Group	Age Group Percentile
	22:01 (613)	45:41 (522)	1:37:53 (449)	2:45:35	150 / 833	81%	25 / 147	82%

My 5K and Half Marathon times were PRs for me as well as the Half time being a course PR for me.  I'll take all of those stats any day.  And that is no steaming pile of number 2 but it does take two to make a thing go right!

Until next time, keep on runnin'!

Rice Medley.

A delicious and wholesome medley of whole grain brown rice, wild rice and red rice mixed with vegetables and seasonings.  As Mr. Food would always say, "Ooh, it's so good!".  Sorry, I meant "Race Medley".  Such a goof ball sometimes. 

Today was the 5K race which was the first race in the B.A.A. distance medley and was the kickoff to Marathon weekend.  It was such a good feeling to run a race again after all of the training runs the past several months.  I had wondered if the fact that there were going to be 10,000 entrants running in this race was going to make the course very congested and slow the pace down.  Luckily, it didn't.  It was a bit slow at the start but once we got onto Beacon street it opened up pretty quickly. 

The race today was a bit of a dress rehearsal for Monday as part of the course included the last part of the Marathon.  It was really cool to actually run "Right on Hereford, Left on Boylston".  Making that "Left on Boylston" was a truly emotional point of this race.  The Boston Fire Department had a fire engine with it's ladder extended and a huge American flag hanging from it over the street.  As I went under it, all I could think of was the two firefighters, who passed away a few weeks ago, that were from the firehouse that this engine was from.  Really powerful stuff.  My thoughts quickly went to the events from a year ago as I was approaching where the second bomb went off last year.  I tried to imagine what it would have been like for all those people around that area.  It quickly changed again as I approached the Marathon finish and the site of the first bomb.  I continued down Boylston weaving my way through other runners and then made the final turn onto Charles street.  I put everything into it to finish strong.  I ended up setting a PR for myself for a 5K finishing in 22 minutes 1 second with a pace of 7:00 min/mile.  My race results overall were: I finished 770 out of 8,640 participants and 65 out of 451 in my division.  I'll take that any day.

What an emotional roller coaster this race turned out to be.  From start to finish.  It is something that I will never forget.  I can just imagine what Monday's race is going to be like if I thought this one was emotional! 

Until next time, keep on runnin'!