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!

Outback Surprise Comes Full Circle

Those of you who know me very well know that eating good food is one of my passions and that Outback Steakhouse ranks at the top of my list of places to eat. Most of you who are familiar with this blog probably also remember how Outback shocked me with a package full of "Outback Surprises" for me and 40 of my friends on my 40th birthday back in November. As you can see in that recap, I had fun distributing the prizes to various people and even making some new friends like Mount Vernon mayor Richard Mavis and Jack Hanna of the Columbus Zoo along the way.

Well, it took a little bit of detective work and then some patience, but I was able to get the Outback Surprise concept to go full circle much to the surprise and delight of the social media folks at Outback. When they sent me the box, the only directions they provided were to watch the video on the flash drive that was enclosed. It was highlights from Lucas Jatoba's 30th birthday in Australia when he wrapped up 30 presents and gave them to random people. It's basically what inspired Outback's birthday idea for me. Outback didn't ask me to do anything else...they left it up to me as to what I would do with all the wrapped presents.

That's where I feel like Outback made a great choice in choosing me. I saw this as an opportunity to once again prove the power of social media and especially Twitter to others. I tracked down Lucas and got him to follow me on Twitter. He was kind enough to give me his mailing address after reading my initial blog, and I shipped him one of the surprises with the only requirement that he film himself opening it so I could include him among my videos. The biggest catch was that once the package got to Australia he was out of the country until the beginning of February. However, once he returned home, he was quick to hold up his end of the bargain and you can see the video below:


Once again, I have to say a huge thanks to the folks at Outback who have made me feel like part of their immediate family. If you aren't following them on Twitter (@Outback), you need to because they interact with everyone in a very personable way. Just tell them that @MVNUSID sent you and they'll take good care of you.

Oh, and one final note...If you have been counting the Outback Surprise giveaways (and I know that some of you were), you'll probably point out to me that I only gave out 39 of them. That is correct. While the hope was that Lucas was going to get the 40th one, I still have one that has yet to be delivered. And, with my wife rolling her eyes as I type this, it's got Debbie Gibson's name on it. :) Yes, being a fan of 80's music, I'm a big Debbie Gibson fan and I thought she would be a fun person to try to get involved with this 40th birthday fun.

So, Debbie, help me finish off this project and take a quick break from your Celebrity Apprentice duties to be a part of what has been a pretty entertaining adventure for me. Everyone around me tells me that I won't get you to do it AND I've also had to explain to a lot of people 25 and younger who you are. However, I have a feeling that you'll come through for one of your fans 'cause that's just the kind of person you are. I know this request is "Out of the Blue", but help me show people that "Anything is Possible". Thanks in advance, Debbie! :)

Taking Things to the Next Level

Last year, I had the opportunity to be a part of history during the Major League Baseball season as on a couple of occasions I was able to land a seat in the Cleveland Indians' Social Deck. This was an area set aside for fans, bloggers, and other personalities to use social media platforms during games to spread the word about the Indians, the game, and whatever else they wanted to talk about. The Indians were the first pro sports team to have a special area set aside on a game-by-game basis for their social media community.

Fast forward one year. Much like the team on the field that sports the best record in the majors, the Indians' communications and creative services staff has upped the ante again by moving their social media community from the Social Deck in the leftfield bleachers to the Social Suite along the third base line above the Indians' dugout.

On Sunday afternoon versus the Cincinnati Reds, I had the privilege of checking out the Social Suite for the first time with my family and my friend, George Hartz, and his family. We picked up our tickets at will call courtesy of @tribetalk and quickly found our seats. As we were walking to the Social Suite, one of my daughters commented that it was like we were entering a fancy hotel. Little did we know just how right she was as we prepared to enter the Social Suite.

While the Social Deck was nice last year, there was the disadvantage of being stuck outside if the weather was inclement or extremely hot with no shade. Well, the Social Suite has nice shade and protection with the overhang, and the option to sit inside in the air conditioning was something that the kids enjoyed as well. The Social Suite is also much more conducive to in-game blogging if attendees so desire.

Well, the game moved along and the Indians dominated the Reds 12-4. In the bottom of the fifth inning, my opportunity to play in the game came when Jack Hannahan fouled a ball up to the Social Suite which I promptly snagged in mid-air (photo above). It's the third foul ball I've grabbed over the years, but the first outside the state of Colorado as the other two came at a Colorado Rockies game and a Colorado SkySox (Triple-A) game. (The ball at the SkySox game was off the bat of Alex Rodriguez.)

We enjoyed the rest of the game and the kids had a great time. It was the first MLB game for George's two boys and it was fun to watch them take it all in. The only downside is that it will be a little bit of a letdown when they go to their next game and don't have such great seats. :) Following the game, the kids all got to run the bases to cap off what was a great day (photo below).

I need to say a big thank you to Curtis Danburg, Rob Campbell, and Danielle Cherry for the great job that they are doing and for making our fun day possible. For more information on how you might score a seat in the Social Suite, check out this link and follow @tribetalk on Twitter.

Be Careful What You Tweet

Hi, my name is Dave and I'm a social media addict. Yes, I am going to admit what my wife has been telling me for awhile now.

First, it was Facebook and reconnecting with old friends from high school and college or getting to know work associates better as well as adding all my every-day friends. It made picture-sharing of my kids so much easier and provided a way to keep up with what's happening in the lives of my friends.

Then, along came Twitter. I signed up, but was very skeptical at first. I liked Facebook so much that I felt that Twitter was basically just Facebook status updates. And, I really couldn't find very many of my Facebook friends on Twitter. It seemed like it was just total strangers and celebrities.

Fast forward a year later and I am now a huge Twitter fan. Those total strangers have become some great tweeps. Being in a PR-related field as a college sports information director, I have started following a lot of great PR people in all industries. This has become a great way to share ideas through discussions like #sportsPRchat and #SIDchat and also a great support network through initiatives like #HAPPO.

And, when it comes to celebrities, I have enjoyed following some of them and even interacting with a few of them. However, one set of interactions over the past week or so has been quite the case study in social media for me.

Just like over 600,000 other people, I started following @ConanOBrien when he joined Twitter after having the Tonight Show taken back from him by Jay Leno. I was amazed at the rate by which his followers grew, but not surprised because of the outcry after he was released. Obviously, his popularity is probably at an all-time high.

After a couple of days of Conan's once-per-day tweets, I realized that he was still not following anyone. For me, it intrigues me to see who celebrities follow. I'm not sure why, but it does. The fact that Conan wasn't following anyone yet seemed like an opportunity for maybe something special.

So, on March 2 at 11:46 p.m., I sent him a tweet that said "@ConanOBrien, I think you should follow someone random and anonymous like me for your first follow just to make people go 'Hmmmm....' :)" Yes, it was a shameless plug for myself, but I thought that it was a good idea.

Fast forward a couple of days and poof....Conan apparently took my suggestion and followed @LovelyButton. She instantly went from three followers to now over 20,000. She and Conan have now been all over the news and just today Conan announced that he'll be doing a multi-city tour. There have been several articles about all of this including my favorite one in the LA Times.

I say all of this not to toot my horn or draw attention to myself. As someone who by the very nature of my job is used to promoting other people, I chalk this one up to just that...promoting someone else. I just find it kind of cool to think that I actually started the ball rolling on it.

People who know me know that two of my favorite things are meeting new people and connecting people with like interests. I enjoy trying to help people find jobs that fit their skill set and desires, I enjoy introducing people with mutual interests, and I've even tried my hand a few times at match-making (although my wife strongly suggests that I just mind my own business and let things take their course there and she's probably right).

This is my first take at writing a blog and I'm not sure where it's even headed in days to come. One thought that I had was to introduce to the world some of the great people that I've gotten to know thanks to Twitter and also share some of the fun experiences that I have as they happen. It never ceases to amaze me just how small this world is...we are all connected. My goal is to make a positive difference in the lives of those I come in contact with.