Memphis...It's Fantastical

If you have followed this blog very long at all, you know that my wife, Carla, and I enjoy checking out Broadway musicals whenever we can. Well, last night, we had the opportunity to attend the opening night performance of Memphis at the Ohio Theatre in Columbus and we were blown away by the show!

The backdrop for the story is 1950s Memphis, Tennessee where segregation is still a very real every-day issue with a strong line drawn between black and white. Enter Huey, a white man with only a 9th-grade education but a love and appreciation for the rock and roll music of the underground black clubs and a penchant for creating his own words and off-the-wall sponsorship plugs as a radio DJ who plays black music on a white station and the journey begins. The plot explores the racially-charged issues of the day and shows how music has a way of bringing people of different races together.

This show, which won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Show, was high energy from the very beginning with incredible voices, talented and funny actors, and fast-moving, high-flying dance scenes. There was not a weak link in the cast and every one from the lead performers to the ensemble and swing groups contributed to the success of the show.

Bryan Fenkart as Huey was a perfect fit. He has a great balance of comedic timing, strong singing voice, and dance skills to successfully lead the show with pizzaz and humor. Felicia Boswell as Felicia, an undiscovered black singer longing for her big break, has incredible pipes and kept the crowd clamoring their approval on several numbers as she just kept going for more and more as she knocked out several big songs. Quentin Earl Darrington is another incredibly talented performer with a booming voice in the role of Delray, a club owner/music producer and Felicia's brother. Will Mann (Bobby), Rhett George (Gator), and William Parry (Mr. Simmons) are also exceptional in their roles, while Julie Johnson steals the show from time to time as Huey's doting mother, who can sing even better than she can keep you in stitches with her lines and dance moves. Seriously, the entire cast is incredible and I could go on and on writing things about all of them.

I've been to several musicals like Mamma Mia! and Rock of Ages where the crowd really responds to the songs because they are so familiar with them. While I had never heard any of the Memphis songs before, I felt like the crowd really embraced each number and the whole theatre was just waiting to explode as we all had a great time. I've been humming the songs ever since and I can definitely say that now "Memphis Lives in Me".


If you want to enjoy a night out without the kids and watch some incredibly talented performers execute a well-written script and belt out some great songs, then Memphis is the show for you. But, don't waste any time as it will only be at the Ohio Theatre through June 3. For complete ticket information, visit the CAPA website.

One Half Goofy, Amazing Race Weekend (Part II)

(This is the second of my two-part racing recap from May 5th-6th when I did the Cap City Quarter Marathon and the Pittsburgh Half Marathon on back-to-back days - my own unofficial two-state, half Goofy Challenge)

With the Cap City Quarter Marathon just a few hours behind me, it was time to continue a whirlwind weekend adventure that rivaled anything my favorite reality show "The Amazing Race" could throw at me. As soon as I took a quick shower, I had just enough time to grab the essentials for a quick overnight trip to Pittsburgh for my second race of the weekend. Fortunately, my dad had volunteered to drive me there, so we headed out in the car with the GPS telling us we were going to be cutting it really close to make the 6 p.m. packet pick-up deadline.

As we drove across eastern Ohio, a brief bit of West Virginia, and then into western Pennsylvania, I thought back two months earlier about how entering the Pittsburgh half marathon even came about for me. I had always heard good things about the race, but I had never seriously thought about trying to do it. Then, back in March, I was in Orlando with the MVNU baseball team waiting to fly back to Ohio from the team's annual spring trip. As I scrolled through my Twitter feed, I noticed a message from the Pittsburgh Marathon account that one of my tweeps, Nikki Conroy, had retweeted saying that you could win a free entry if you tweeted a picture of your Toyota (one of the race sponsors). Well, we had just purchased a new Toyota RAV4 in December and I had a picture on my phone and so I tweeted my entry back to them just before boarding the plane to fly back to Ohio.

To be honest, I forgot about the tweet and the contest as I slept most of that flight home and was looking forward to seeing my family after being gone for over a week. You can imagine my surprise when I turned my phone on after we landed and started checking messages that had come in while we were traveling and found this one:

@mvnusid mvnusid Congrats! you are our winner of a free reg. from @Toyota! Email your contact info to socialmedia@pittsburghmarathon.com
— Pittsburgh Marathon (@PGHMarathon) March 22, 2012

Needless to say, I had to do some quick searching on the internet to see when the race even was and then began to plan ways to make it happen. I thought at first about trying to do the full marathon despite doing a full two weeks earlier, but then after much thought and listening to the advice of some of my running friends I decided to do the half so that I could race it and try my very best. So, I signed up and then started to find out more about the race as I looked forward to this new adventure.

Fast forward back to the car ride to the expo to pick up my race stuff on Saturday evening and time was really starting to be close. As we got within 15 miles of downtown, traffic was really picking up as the Pirates were hosting the Reds that night with a 7 p.m. game. I got more and more nervous that we might not get to the expo in time and that I might not be able to run the race as a legit runner since there was no race day packet pick-up. I began to tweet at the Pittsburgh Marathon account in hopes that someone would take mercy on me and wait around a couple of extra minutes, and my friend Nicki saw my tweets and did too.

We got to within a block of the convention center where the expo was being held and I could see people with packets walking towards me. We were down to just a couple of minutes left until 6 p.m. and we were still moving slowly in traffic. I told my dad to just circle the block and that I would call him to find him, and then I darted out the door and sprinted for the convention center. Once inside and out of breath, I quickly made my way around the expo (which was being torn down as I entered) and found all of my necessary stuff just as time ran out. Whew! I had made it! As I started back to find my dad outside, I saw that the social media person from the Pittsburgh Marathon had sent me her cell number and was working to have my stuff set aside in case I was late. I called her to say thank you and found out that she had taken time away from a dinner out to do this. Talk about great service and once again proving the power of Twitter.

With my race entry secure and since we were already downtown, I talked my dad into going to the Pirates-Reds game. PNC Park (pictured above) is a beautiful park to watch a game at and we were able to get good seats just up from third base. We watched through the bottom of the eighth inning before heading out of the stadium and cross the bridge back to our car with the plan to watch the postgame fireworks display from our parking garage and then beat the traffic out of town. The plan worked to perfection as we enjoyed an awesome display of pyrotechnics and then scurried out of town to find our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express near the airport. (Side note...the benefits of being a Priority Club member paid off on this trip as I had enough points saved up to stay for free and this was a GREAT hotel with GREAT staff that I would highly recommend for anyone staying in the area.)

After setting out all of my race gear (pictured above) for the next day and then setting my alarm AND getting a wakeup call, I called it a night in hopes of getting a little over four hours of sleep after what had been an exhausting day with another one sure to follow. I think I was asleep when my head hit the pillow and the next thing I knew the alarm was going off and it was time to get up. That may have been the best sleep I've ever had the night before a race as I usually toss and turn and toss and turn thinking about it.

Dad and I headed back downtown and parked in the same parking garage as we had figured out that it would provide one of the best routes back out of town after the race since lots of the bridges and roads were closed for the full marathon. We started walking towards the race area and explored the finish line spot and talked about our plan to meet up after the race since I wouldn't have a phone on me and there were 25,000 people doing the race. We didn't want to assume that we would see each other right as I crossed the finish line. Then, we headed to the starting corrals where we bumped into Nicki. We chatted for a few minutes and it was nice to meet her in person. We parted ways and Dad and I also said our farewells as I got ready to hop in my starting corral. First, though, I made a stop by the stage to say hi to Bart Yasso, who is one of my running heroes. It was nice to chat for a minute and he left me with the words "Run a smart race today!". I thanked him for his time and then left to get ready for the start.

As I stood in my starting corral, I realized that I had never really decided how I planned to run this race. Usually, I've spent hours thinking about every detail of a race, studying the course map and elevation guide, and talking to my friends who were running the race with me. Well, with the exception of Nicki who I had never met in person before that day, I knew no one else in the race. And, while I had looked briefly at the elevation guide and the course map, it was more to just have a basic idea of what to expect and not to plan how to race. I had always wanted to run with a pace group and I thought that this might be the perfect time to try it since I would be with them for the first 10 miles before they turned off to do the full marathon. I had attempted this once before at Columbus in the fall in my first marathon, but I abandoned the plan less than five miles into the race. This time, I was determined to stick with the group, but now I needed to decide which pace group to go with. I started out behind the 3:30 group which would yield me a 1:45 half (8:00 pace), but I decided that I needed to push it more than that since I had been training to attempt a 3:15 marathon (7:25 pace). So, I moved up a little further in the corral to the 3:20 pace group (1:40 half). As the start time got closer and closer, I talked myself into running with the 3:10 pace group (1:35 half) and inched forward once more. My thinking was that my half marathon PR was a 1:34 and change and that I could always slow things down at the end if necessary. So, I fist-bumped the guy next to me and said good luck, heard the crack of the gun, and we were off!

First let me say that while I've run a couple of big races (the Columbus Marathon and Cap City) there is nothing like starting with 25,000 people. Since I had moved up in the corral, it took me less than 30 seconds from the time the gun went off until I crossed the starting line and the race had begun! The 3:10 pace group had two guys with signs they were holding up and I kept those signs in sight. They were weaving in and out of people just a bit and I tried not to do that and just held steady as I kept following them. We hit the first mile in 6:56 and then approached mile 2 and the first water stop at 6:59.

As we approached the first water stop, Bart Yasso's words to run a smart race echoed in my head. I have also done a poor job in distance races of drinking enough fluids. In my recent Earth Day Marathon attempt, I paid the price in the second half of the race as my legs cramped up on me and that's been a consistent issue in all my other distance races. On Saturday at Cap City, I had really preached to Ashley about drinking during the race and she did a great job. I figured that it was time for me to practice what I preached, listen to Bart, and just see what happened. So, I took a cup of Gatorade and downed it and then two cups of water and did the same. (I really liked having the Gatorade first AND on both sides of the road so you had easy access and then could wash it down with water which was also on both sides of the road.)

During the third mile, we went up and over the first of what would be five bridges. The first four bridges were probably some of my favorite parts in the race. Each one was packed with people cheering us on and it was just really cool to run over them. Mile 3 came and went in 7:11 and then we dropped back down to a 6:59 for Mile 4. There were a few hills as we wound through the different streets, but the great crowds kept spurring us on. At the second water stop, I once again had one Gatorade and two waters and was feeling great.

During Mile 5, we crossed two more bridges and ran past PNC Park as it ticked off in 7:10. As we approached the water stop in Mile 6, I took a Honey Stinger gel to fuel me for the second half and then grabbed another Gatorade and two waters as I finished the mile in 7:17. We crossed another bridge in Mile 7 and I knew that I was starting to slow down just a bit as that mile was a 7:20. However, I picked things back up and caught back up to the pace group in Mile 8 as I posted a 7:11 AND passed one of the Kenyan runners who had pulled the plug on the race for some reason and was walking at that point. I continued to follow my pattern at the water stop at Mile 8 as well.

Mile 9, Mile 10, and Mile 11 were very consistent at 7:22, 7:21, and 7:21 respectively and then I said good-bye to the 3:10 pace group as they veered to the right as we all headed up the steepest bridge yet. Lots of people were starting to walk at this point and I tried to encourage anyone I passed. I came upon one runner who was starting to struggle just a little and I began to talk to her as we ran. I told her she was doing great and that she still had enough in her to keep going with me. She thanked me and I told her that if she had the energy to pick the pace back up that it would help encourage me just as much and we would try to do the rest of it together. She perked up and before I knew it she was back to full speed and it was all I could do to keep up with her.

As we turned a corner to start Mile 12, I realized that the elevation guide on the Pittsburgh Marathon site was a total fabrication. (This was the only negative to the whole race, but it's not like it really mattered 'cause you still have to climb whatever they throw in front of you.) Anyway, I really let this hill (a little over 150-foot elevation gain in less than a mile) get the best of me, but I forced myself to keep moving as I remembered that my 10-year-old daughter hadn't walked a bit in her longest race ever - a quarter marathon - the day before. I finally crested the top of the hill and started down towards the finish line with an 8:17 for the mile. Mile 13 was a little faster at 7:43 and the guy I had started next to (who was from Bexley, Ohio ironically) when the race began had pulled alongside me. We chatted a little as we made our way to the finish line. As we got to within a quarter of a mile of the finish, I really picked up the pace and then flat out sprinted to the line over the final tenth of a mile as I hit a 4:09 max pace to finish with a 6:30 pace overall for the final .26 of the race. What a fun finish!!!! I ended up finishing 344th overall out of 12,142 half marathon finishers and I was 35th out of 534 men in the 40-44 age group. Not too shabby at all!

While I caught my breath and grabbed my finisher's medal, someone came up and tapped me on the shoulder. It was the girl that I had encouraged on the hill. She had taken off over the final mile when I hit the tough last hill, but she had waited for me at the finish line to say thank you. I thought that was extremely cool! We chatted for a couple of minutes while I caught my breath and I found out that she had just graduated from Penn State the day before. Talk about a fun way to celebrate your college graduation. Anyway, it was just another great example of how running can bring total strangers together in a way that helps both of them out. I thanked her for waiting on me and then headed off to find my dad. He was waiting for me at the end of the food line after I had grabbed a Panera cinnamon crunch bagel and one of the famous Smiley cookies (they are really good) as well as an assortment of other food they had available. The race organizers did a great job of keeping the lines moving and funneling people into the celebration/family reunion area. My dad and I hung around for a couple of minutes there and I got a picture taken at the Dick's Sporting Goods tent (very nice to give each person a free picture that was emailed to them immediately), and then we realized that we still had time to high-tail it back to the Holiday Inn Express in time to catch the free breakfast before it ended at 10 a.m. (Yes, you know I wasn't passing up free food).

After I got cleaned up, we headed for home and I began to check all my messages that had poured in thanks to the live runner tracking system that the race had in place for people to follow via text messages, Facebook postings, or tweets. People from all over had been following my progress and chimed in with encouragement and congratulations. Races that have yet to embrace this technology are really missing out as it's a great way to get the event in front of a lot of people.

I would be remiss if I didn't say a big thank you to Toyota and the Pittsburgh Marathon social media people for making this race possible for me. I would highly recommend this event as a very well-organized, fun race to be a part of. While I'm not sure if I'll come back and attempt the full, I will definitely try to come back and run the half again as it is a challenging but really fun course. Besides, I still have something left to prove to that final hill that surprised me at the end. :) I'm really happy with the way that I ran this race (thanks for the pre-race advice, Bart Yasso), and while this was not a PR for me I feel like I executed a lot of things in this race that will lead to a PR on a flatter course if I follow the same plan. I can't wait to get back out and embark on the next amazing race!

One Half Goofy, Amazing Race Weekend (Part I)

Several months ago, I made plans with my 10-year-old daughter, Ashley, to run the Cap City Quarter Marathon with her, but little did I know what an adventure would be waiting for me as this would turn out to be just the start of an amazing race weekend. Ashley had done several 5Ks and a four-mile race, and the quarter marathon (6.55 miles) seemed like the next obvious challenge for her to undertake. In addition, the Cap City event (both a half marathon and a quarter marathon) is really one of the best races around from a crowd support standpoint, a post-race food standpoint (always important to a guy whose motto is "I run to eat"), and a relatively flat course standpoint.

So, we did a little training and joined up with nice-sized group of the Mount Vernon Running Buddies (pictured below) as we set out to attack the course. It was a hot, humid day, so staying hydrated and not overdoing it needed to be a big part of our race day plan, and I knew that I was going to need to watch Ashley like a hawk to make sure that she didn't have any problems.

We set out with Chad Sims and his 11-year-old daughter, Hanna, who was also doing her longest race. Starting in Corral B, I was a little worried that the girls would start out too fast, but Ashley did a great job of running a 9:55 first mile and just letting the crowd go. We hit the part of the course where you could see the lead runners coming back towards you, and it was fun to cheer on some people we knew including several of the Running Buddies and some Run DMC'ers including my pal, Brian Vinson, who was on his way to a blazing PR in the half.

We hit the first water stop and I had told Ashley to just stay in the middle and to keep running while I grabbed two cups of water. I made her drink all of hers and asked if she needed any more before downing the second cup when she said no. I'm awful about drinking during a race, but I knew that as hot as it was that I needed to set a good example and make her do it and to her credit she did every time.

Mile two came and went in 10:03 and then mile three in 10:14 even with a slight uphill that had some of the runners walking. Several friends passed us through here and it was fun saying hi. Usually the races are a blur if I'm focusing on my time and trying to meet a goal, so it was fun to be more relaxed and able to take in all of the other aspects of the event. At this point, we split off from the half marathon crowd and continued on and faced another hill during mile four that she conquered in 10:39. Man, she was doing great with no hint of walking at all!

As we headed into mile five, we merged back on to the half marathon course just ahead of the half marathon leader and eventual winner, Matt Folk, as he came flying along with over eight miles already completed! It was fun to see how effortless a 5:18 pace looks as he blew by on his way to a 1:09:20 finish!

It was also during mile five that the crowd really picked up in size and volume as we ran along High Street, across Nationwide Boulevard, and then turned on to Long Street. People were really cheering for Ashley and calling her by name, and the encouragement fueled her to pick up her pace as the crowd cheered even louder as she nailed a run-best 9:36 for that mile!

Mile six proved to be the toughest mile as the crowds thinned back out and the burst of speed took its toll. When we reached the 5.5-mile mark, we were entering unknown territory because she had never run that far before. She never complained, though, and she also became the inspiration for several runners as they saw her and ran alongside us. Those of you who ran along with her and encouraged her through this point...thank you! It really made a huge difference! Mile six ended with a 10:47 pace, but still no walking as she was determined to finish the whole thing on the run!!!

Then, it was time for one final turn and we could see the finish line. The crowd was huge at this point and once again they were cheering her on by name!!! I'm still getting goosebumps and a little misty-eyed typing this recap three days later when I think about what she did. She gave it everything she had as she sprinted for the finish line...finishing the final .66 miles (yes, my Garmin had the course a little long, but it might have been me swerving to pick up all the water for both of us) at an amazing 8:58 pace that including a Kenyan-like 4:56 dash at the very end!!!! I had planned to make sure she crossed ahead of me, but there was no worry of that as I couldn't keep up at that point as she finished her first quarter marathon in 1:07:07 with me two seconds behind. Unbelievable!!! A 10:15 pace!!! (She ended up 561st out of 1,788 people in the race and 11th of 37 in the female 19 and under age group.)

After we spent a little while cooling down and celebrating what Ashley had just accomplished (yes, that means I had a few cinnamon crunch bagels from Panera), it was time to head back out on the course to cheer on other members of our group as they finished the half marathon. After cheering Teri Pokosh to the finish, I was waiting for my other running buddies, George Hartz and Scott Burgess, to come along. It was fun to encourage all the runners over that final half mile as they wrapped up their 13.1-mile journey in some tough heat and humidity.

It was during this time that I noticed one lady coming along at a pretty good pace, but with her legs getting a little more wobbly with every step that she took. After being at the finish line watching helplessly when Matt O'Brien collapsed last year just 25-feet from his goal at this race, I started to have a sinking feeling in my stomach. As I watched, she stumbled and started to fall as myself and several other spectators rushed out to her. She was very pale and was struggling to try to get back to her feet as dehydration had really set in. One lady who identified herself as a nurse helped me hold the runner up as she in a daze muttered about trying to continue on, but there was no way we were letting her do that on her own. Soon, another guy who had also finished his race and was waiting on his girlfriend to finish appeared out of the crowd and identified himself as a doctor. He told me to help him do a fireman's hold to make a chair for her out of our arms so we could carry her to the finish and she could cross the line.

As we got closer to the finish line, the runner was making attempts to hop off of our arms, so we decided to see if she could stand and walk across the line. The whole time she had been alert enough that she kept checking her watch as she kept murmuring about wanting to make it in two hours! :) We promised her that we would help her meet her goal, and we walked arm-in-arm with her to the end as the crowd cheered her on. Once she crossed the line (and I'm pretty she made her goal), we set her in a wheelchair and let the medical staff take over. I have no idea who she is although I think the name on her bib started with an "A" or who the other man was who helped me get her to the finish line, but I am just glad that she made it there safely and hopefully is fully recovered by now. I know first-hand after my recent Earth Day Marathon how the running community comes together to help each other, so it was a no-brainer for me to jump in and do what needed to be done. Any other runner would have done the same.

I have to give a big shoutout to the Cap City race staff on putting together another amazing event. Not only do they always have the best medals each year, they really do a great job of making sure that it's an event for everyone. The course is a fun course to run and this race will always be on my calendar as a must-do event if at all possible. While it would have been fun to have raced the half marathon as I've found that's my favorite distance, I am so glad that I did the quarter marathon with my daughter. It's probably just a matter of time and a few more races until she's racing me in the half. :)

And here's the crazy part...this is just the first part of what would be one half Goofy, amazing race weekend! Stay tuned for Part II!