Stress Fractures Suck

bummed, bummed, and really bummed

Garmin 305

I sent this letter to Garmin today.

My running and biking life before Garmin was great. I have always had a love for maps and my pre-Garmin life was a never ending quest to find maps of all the places I ran and biked. Christmas 2006 changed my life forever, under the tree that year was a Garmin Forerunner 305. If life before my Garmin was great, life for the last two years has been near perfect. I have now mapped everything I have run and biked, have helped my local community map our network of trails and have turned what used to be a hobby of running into an integral part of my life. My 305 has joined me for over 1,000 miles in 2007 and another 1,200 in 2008, and that is just on my runs.

Tuesday of this week, 12/9 9:00am EST to be exact, after dropping my 1 ½ year old off for pre-school, I drove to my favorite trailhead for a run. I placed my 305 on top of my car to find a signal and then my cell phone rang. I had to drive home to take care of a work related issue before I ran. I got home and the second I pulled into my garage I realized my mistake, I left my watch on top of my car. Of course it was no longer there. Barely able to focus on the small work task at hand, I wrapped that up quickly and proceeded to run from my house back to the trailhead, retracing my drive, no 305. I spent the next 1 ½ hours running back and forth along my route. No 305. Not only was I dejected about not finding my watch, I realized I had become dependent on the watch to run. I felt lost trying to run w/out the watch, I kept looking at my wrist to check my pace, the time etc. Oh yeah, no 305.

Upon returning home, I sent an email out to my trail running group, the trailheads, www.trailheads.org, and asked for help, if anyone is out running along the route I drove, please keep an eye out for my watch. The forest manager happens to be on this list serve. Five minutes later I get a call, “We found your watch, it looks a little worse for the wear, but it is on and is still working. It looks like someone ran over it!”.

I picked my watch up a few hours later and sure enough, it did look like someone ran over, the gray casing was chipped in several places and the left side was about to open it. The LCD screen had some smearing and I could not turn it on or off w/out using a sharp object to push the power button. I have run with it twice since Tuesday, it is indeed still working but yesterday’s run in the rain created some serious water damage. I fear it is on its last legs. I cannot fathom going back to life before my Garmin, my dilemma now, do I wait until this one dies, do I get another 305 (about half the price we paid in 2006) or do I get the 405?

Thanks for changing my running life and thanks for such a great product. I attached a few pics of the damage, in a couple of them you can even see a water bubble on the inside of the watch from yesterday’s run.

Sincerely.

Upcoming Races

February brings two very exciting races my way. First up is a repeat attempt at the Uwharrie 20. Last year I went out there under trained and really suffered through the 20, the previous year I raced the 8 miler. I am hoping to shave 15 minutes + from last year's 20 time. The course profile below is for the 40 miler, which is an out and back. It is pretty hilly.




Following this race, I was invited to join a few guys from my company to run the 8 Tuff Miles race, never run in the Carribean and certainly have never run a race with this much elevation for this long, should be very interesting. My company owns a house on St. John's so I am very excited to check this place out.



February is shaping up to be a fine month!

Run 1000 miles a year

I was just downloading a recent run and looking at my current training progress for the 2009 Uwharrie 20 mile race, which is Feb 7, 2009. I am very pleased with my training thus far, it is early but I am already up to 16 miles on my long runs and have been doing all runs, except speed workouts, on single track. Last year this race kicked my butt, looking back at last year's training, I really did not run very much, and did not do a single run over 18 miles.

This year I have been running alot, am up to 35 miles a week and have also been running at Umstead Park again, specifcally the Company Mill loop. This is a pretty hilly 6 mile loop, we try and run it somewhat fast, with the goal always to be your best time. Part of my Uwharrie training includes a double and then a triple Company Mill loop. If I can do three loops out there, I will be ready for Uwharrie.

I was curious how many miles I have run in total the last two years. 2007, 1065, so far in 2008, 933, I should come in at just about the exact same amount for 2008, pretty cool. I did not use my gps in 2006, I suspect my mileage that year was higher, that was the last year I did a marathon.

Now I just need to get back on my mtn bike.

Halloween 2008

Halloween 2008, Friday October 31, 2008


We have started what we consider a very nice tradition, we have the Moyes, the Davidson's and the Galloways of Barclay over around 5pm for pizza and drinks. Our neighbors Meridith and Megan have joined us every year as well. We eat, drink and get geared up for trick or treating. Our neighborhood does a really good job with Halloween. Next year I will institute the idea I saw others doing, a wagon, cooler and beers. Great idea!


Halloween this year went off w/out a hitch, unless you count Reilly being so excited the night before he couldn't sleep and halfway through trick or treating he hit the wall.


Last year was Griffin's first and we really didn't do anything with him, this year he was SO excited about Halloween, made obvious from the pictures below.


I went back to previous blog postings and pulled in these pictures of Reilly, here is in from 2006, a spider.

Here is 2007, froggie boy,

And this year he was a skeleton.

Griffin was our little ham, he really enjoyed trick or treating, he outlasted his brother, and he loves eating the candy.

Our little monkey boy at an Apex Halloween parade the weekend before, it was alot of fun.

Here is the Halloween crew, Reilly, Louis, Addie, Emmie, Madeline, Dylon, Griffin and Henry. It is very cool to think we started this 4 years ago, with a few kids, now every family has doubled in size. This will be a great tradition for years to come.

My 20 Year High School Reunion

Beth and I attended my 20 year high school reunion on 10/4/08. I have never attended an event like this so I was a bit apprehensive and more than a bit nervous about to what to expect. I was excited as I was hoping to see a few old friends and see how everyone was doing. Looking back on my days in high school, I have very fond memories, memories of meeting my first real friends, of finding what my strengths and weaknesses were, learning how to treat others (and sometimes how not to treat others), learning how to have fun, and basically learning how to have fun while at the sametime working hard, both academically and in other areas of life.
The night started out perfect, in the parking lot we pulled up at the same time as an old friend Andrew Burhans, Andrew and I go way back, Greystone Baptist Church back, and he has always been a very nice guy. He looked GREAT and I only regret that after seeing him in the parking lot I did not speak with him for the rest of the night. This is something I regret with a lot of people, there simply was not enough time to talk to everyone.

Upon entering the event, I was immediately confronted with a slight feeling of being overwhelmed , this feeling never really left me throughout the night but it stayed manageable. For me the hardest part was figuring out who was who, who you wanted to talk with, you wanted to talk to you, etc. I never figured this out but I erred on the side of trying to talk to just about everyone. The entire night was a balance of old memories and trying to stay in the moment. Shortly after arrival, I ran into an old friend who have shared more than few memories with, John Rush, it was then that I realized this night was going to be MUCH more fun than I realized. You can think about the moment that you will see and hang out with old friends, but for me, it wasn’t until I was in that moment that the gravity of it all hit me. I missed these people, I missed those days, I missed that feeling of innocence, of losing it, of growing up some, and mainly just hanging out and making friends. As we walked from the registration to the bar, I literally and mentally walked down a hall of memories, there’s Boo Rigsbee, there’s Troy Holloway, there’s Rebecca what’s her name, didn’t I kiss her? there’s someone I know but I cannot remember their name, their’s Marcus Burch, forgot he would be here, there’s that girl that was in my math class, no idea what her name is, and on and on.

I knew that who we sat with at this event would be a key to having fun, I also knew I could not go wrong if I stuck with John Rush, I heard him say something about Trout, no sooner did I ask he was there than I looked up and saw him. Jeff Trout was my best friend through high school, we stayed in touch through college and both he and John Rush attended our wedding. We have both been through our share of fun, trouble, figuring out a path, finding that path, and settling down, for the most part. It was when I saw him that I realized this night had already exceeded my expectations, and we were about to have a lot of fun. From there, the night turned into a great party, lots of beers, vodka tonics, beers and just good ole’ fashion fun. Beth really hit it off with Trout’s wife and John’s girlfriend, they took care of her and I kept socializing. Around 10pm my other best friend, Mike Montogomery showed up, he looked great, still had his sense of humor, and we basically picked up where we left. Trout, Mike and I, along with a few others, had a great night. I cannot stop thinking about this reunion. One, for how fun it was, but also for the lessons I learned, that the people I went to high school with are doing great, we’re raising families, making a difference in the world, contributing to society, and still having fun and enjoying our memories from high school. It was really a great night, one that far exceeded my expectations, and one that I will remember forever, I hope we have a 25 year reunion b/w now and our 30. The years truly did melt away this night and I will really try and stay in touch with the friends I have missed but have now reconnected with.

Prost Frankfurt am Main

Frankfurt Germany, September 10 and September 11, 2008 (work related travel)

Frankfurt, originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

Following my two great days in Paris, I had the pleasure of getting to go work in Frankfurt for the next two days. This was only my second trip ever to Germany, with my first trip about 60 days ago, for just over a day, to Berlin.

I emailed Beth these short, not terribly insightful, observations based on just a few hours in Berlin.

Germans like beer
They have really bad toilet paper
In general Berlin is very American, you would not know the difference it weren’t for the buildings and language
They like American music
They are to the point and lack tact
They are not flexible
Bathrooms are very small and not very well marked
They apparently do not use ice when drinking water or soda
They love coffee, cappuccino, lattes etc.
They smoke a lot
They have pretty good food
They are very efficient
They like riding bikes and have designed the city around it
They also know how to use trains, subways and mass transit

My second trip was to Frankfurt, started perfectly, as we took a train from Paris to Frankfurt, a very pleasant way to spend four hours. The thoughts above hold true and I would add a few things to this list.

Their economy seems to be doing very well, shopping and money being spent everywhere

They have tremendous pride in being German

They have very strong values, apparently low crime, and can be strict when they need to be

My first view of Frankfurt, from our seats in the train

I enjoyed the mix of older archecticture along with skyscrapers and modern buildings, Frankfurt has been predominatly rebuilt since WWII, so much of it is modern and since it is the financial center of Germany, it has a fair amount of modern skyscraper type buildings, here is a picture, from the Internet obviously, of Frankfurt before WWII, you can see the city centre, and the big church is St. Barthelomeum.

Below is a picture of the current skyline, quite the difference.

My favorite activity of the short trip was running a loop around Frankfurt, like many old European cities, there used to be a wall around Frankfurt, they have built a park where this wall used to be, along with the river, this makes a nice 6 mile loop around the city. Luckily this park ran through the back of my hotel. You can see the loop on the map below, it is the green circle around the city.

Below is the view from the back of my hotel, the park was about a 1/4 mile wide and had paved and crushed gravel trails running through it. It was full of fountains, playgrounds, gardens, and sculptures. It was a great use of greenspace in an urban setting and also appeared to be the primary bike path for getting around the city. It was a great way to see the city and it also ran by some beautiful sites, including the old opera house.

This is along the Main River, my favorite part of the loop.

After my run I got out and did some sight seeing, below is the center of Frankfurt and the area where a few of the older buildings still remain. As you can see, it was a very busy area.

Here I am with my colleauges after our research, my clients are on the left and my German Moderator, Hartmunt, on the right.

Work in Paris Sept 8 & 9

Work brought me back to Germany and Paris again, this time a different client and much more relaxed research schedule. Two focus groups each night, which means our days are free from work. The clients I traveled with are very fun and seemed more interested in seeing Paris's sights than anything else, fine with me.

This is my third trip to Paris and my second in the past 60 days. While I love traveling to new cities, there is also something to be said about returning to a place you have already been. Knowing the "system", the process getting into the city, to your hotel, basically how things are done, that is very comforting. I stayed in the same hotel Beth and I stayed in last time, Hotel La Bourdonnais, I really like this hotel and the neighborhood, two streets away from the Eiffel Tower and just around the corner from a metro stop. I also felt like I really did not have to see everything, I have seen all the big tourist sites so this time I could explore things a little more deeply. I have not been to that many cities outside the US but I have been to just about every "big" city in the US. Paris is at the top of my list for many reasons, it's absolute beauty in terms of the buildings and the city, its history, food, wine, come to mind. The only thing that comes close is Amsterdam, but that's another story....

Upon arrival I had a few sleep deprived hours to kill before checking into my hotel, so I made my way over to the Eiffel Tower and climbed up as far as they would allow.

Obviously there are great views of Paris from the tower, I was very impressed

These are the stairs in my hotel, I really like this hotel and highly recommend it.

Today ended up being a GREAT day in Paris, starting at 11am meeting a group of strangers underneath the Eiffel Tower for a Fat Tire Bike Tour. This four hour tour was EXCELLENT, not at all strenous or dangerous and frankly a very relaxing tour. It helped having temps in the low 70s, zero humidity, light breeze, no clouds in sight. I was a little worried about biking in Paris, after seeing all the cars, bikes, scooters and traffic, but I found the roads to be bikeable and those driving on the roads courteous. Parisians get a bad rap, while not as friendly as other people in other places, they are relaxed and are not bad people. Here are a few pics from the bike tour.

I wore my Garmin 305, using everytrail.com, I embedded a few pictures along the route, you can find that here.

You can find all of my pictures from this trip here.

Fat Tire Bike Tour in Paris at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

The Life of Reilly in Boone, June 2008

In early June we headed to the mountains for what has become at least an annual trip, sometimes more often. This time we went with our closest friends the Moyes. We stayed a great place, Echota, which I highly recommend, both for how nice the place was and the incredible views.

After an incredible night watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, hands down the most incredible thing I have ever seen on TV, we awoke to a misty mountain view, really cool stuff.

Boone 2008, originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

This was our view from our back porch, Grandfather Mountain and beautiful weather.

We took the Moyes to Linville Falls, which was packed, but still worth the trip.

I only wish we had more time.