We Don't Walk Slow

Broad Street Run

I rushed a post this morning so I wanted to go into more detail about the broad street run. I went to sleep around 11 and woke up at 5:15. I had eaten pizza the night before and drank plenty of water. I took a shit after I woke up and it was pretty wimpy. I knew that after I ate that much food, I should have had a better shit. This was the first minor issue. I picked up Laura and we park in Citizens Bank and got a Subway to the start of the race. We were at the start at 7 or so which is a lot earlier than I’d like but certainly not a problem. I ate some pretzel but really wasn’t very hungry which is a bit odd too because I didn’t eat any breakfast. So I go on a warm up run and had to piss so I went down this street and next thing I know I have this security guard yelling at me. I figured I was getting a public urination but my plan was to take off sprinting and to get lost in the crowd but he didn’t say anything other than you can’t be in this area. I tried to piss behind some houses but Fido put a halt to that with some barking that scared the shit out of me. I then did some stretching and had to take another piss. So I went down a side street and went right on the corner. No problem. Now the race is getting close and I get in the corral and what do you know, I have to piss again. I don’t know what was happening but I was now stuck in a corral with no where to go and my only option was to hold it. I considered going behind some houses right by the starting line but there were just way too many people for it to be appropriate. I’m sure you’re wondering why I don’t use the porta-potties but the lines are so long and I’m not into waiting.

So the race starts and I feel fine. I actually felt really good. I went out in a 5:45 and after 5 miles I was at 29:15 which I thought was just about perfect. I would be giving myself plenty of time if I fell off pace a little bit. Problem was I started to fall off pace a lot. By mile 7 I knew I had no chance to break 60. I think I came across mile 7 at 42:20 and then 8 was 48:30. I started to get my legs back a bit for the last 2 miles and ran them decent but it was too late. I had 3 females pass me in the last 3 miles so I knew that I was going to slow. It’s really annoying when you are right where you are supposed to be and then you start to die and people just constantly are passing you. I ended up holding the piss the entire race which wasn’t horrible but not ideal. My feet held up fine so that wasn’t an issue. I just lost focus on a couple miles there and that’s why I wasn’t able to reach my goal. I don’t set a lot of goals and am pretty disappointed by not achieving it. I also took a huge shit after the race so my timing on that just wasn’t right. You want to run on clean pipes and I think that may have been a minor issue.

I did get interviewed by an Asian reporter after the race. I was probably one of the first people to start walking to the car because I wanted to beat all the traffic and she was standing on the sidelines with her camera man. I saw her and knew what she was after so when she asked me if I can do an interview I rolled my eyes and said “fine” under my breath. I think she asked how I did in the race and I told her “I failed miserably.” Then I made some comment about lactic acid and how it was pretty hot. I don’t know if it ever made the news or not but it was CW or something like that. She was pretty hot too for an Asian.

Next race is Phil’s 5k and then the Sea Isle 10 miler, followed by the distance run. I’m a really annoyed with myself for not going under 60 and I’ve lost some motivation but I just have to keep at it and move on. I’m going to see what I can run a 400, an 8, and a mile in. I think I was 4:59 in the mile last year so that will be my goal this year. I don’t have good times in the other two to work off of. I’m really happy it’s hot out again because I think sweating while running in the heat is really healthy.

On an unrelated note, I put a bunch of books on half.com and actually sold one today. I sold a Kurt Vonnegut book that I used to read in the bathroom. I don’t really think there is anything wrong with that. It doesn’t carry around an odor and just because my hands are touching it while I’m shitting doesn’t mean it’s contaminated. If I was the buyer and I knew the last owner used it while taking a dump, it would probably bother me a bit but without that knowledge, seems alright to me. I’m still reading the Hunter S Thompson autobiography but after that I’m on a clean slate and will have to find something new. Suggestions?

By Tom Stortz|2013-03-15T03:33:39-04:00May 3rd, 2010|Running, Sports|0 Comments

Broad Street & Weekend

This was one of the few weekends where I remained sober the entire time. Wagon and I golfed after work on Friday and I probably had one of the worst rounds in years. I was pretty awful and there really are no excuses. Then Saturday we had softball, which again I was not hungover for. The other team was awful and we ended up winning. After that we painted the beer pong table and watched basketball. I completely failed in the race two times. Number one, my bib didn’t register so I was a phantom runner. Number two, I didn’t do better than last years time. I crossed the line at 60:45 or so and I figure there was probably a 5 second delay so that puts me at 60:40, 25 seconds slower than last year. I’m really disappointed. I thought I put in a lot of effort into training and to not improve over last years time, AND letting girls beat me is really disheartening. I did however execute the strategy of getting there and leaving perfectly. I parked in Citizens bank, subway to the start, and then after I finished I abruptly left and went to my car and jumped on 76 which was empty at 10am. There’s really nothing else of interest.

By Tom Stortz|2010-08-11T16:04:20-04:00May 3rd, 2010|Sports|0 Comments

Broad Street Run

I finished in 60:15 which was 15 seconds off my goal and finished in 170th out of 23,000 people. I’m pretty pleased with the result. If I had a couple of more weeks to train I think I could have dropped a minute or two off my time. I felt pretty good the entire race. My legs started to fatigue at mile 7 and I dropped to probably 6:15 mile pace for mile 7,8,9 but the last mile I finished at 6 pace. Next race I”ll do will be the Sea Isle 10 miler in August I think. Then the Distance run in September and I’ll contemplate the Marathon in November but most likely I won’t be motivated enough to train for it. If I’m not going to take the race seriously and train I don’t see any point to doing it.

I actually enjoyed my sober weekend. I woke up each day feeling good and got things done. I have one more book to read before I exhausted everything I bought from Amazon. I started Schindler’s List and Get Shorty so I’ll finish them this week. I’m also going to start a poker tab up top to give an overview of the games I play and money I try to make. Other than that everything is business as usual. People have been told me that my posts haven’t been as good lately and for that I’m sorry but my life isn’t non stop entertainment, my bad.

By Tom Stortz|2013-03-15T16:42:08-04:00May 4th, 2009|Running|0 Comments

My thoughts on Catcher in the Rye

In an unusual turn of events, I was updated to the fact the broad street run is this Sunday and not the next Sunday. This means that I will remain sober throughout the weekend so that I can do well in the run. My bib number is 1206, which means I should finish around that spot out of 26,000 people. I put my time in at 65 minutes which would equate to 6:30 mile pace but I’m hoping to be closer to 60 minutes.

I went out to the bar last night after only 3 beers, normally i’ve drank 12+ before going out and it certainly is a different experience. I notice people who are too drunk and it’s a real I opener to how I probably act 95% of the weekends a year. Plus when I go to the bar now everyone seems really young. I’m fairly certain that this will continue to occur as I get older. Another noticeable fact is that the majority of people aren’t very attractive. Alcohol really does wonders to increase having a fun time on a weekend. On a plus side I remembered everything that happened last night and I woke up today early and finished up Catcher in the Rye.

I started the book on Thursday and literally read it throughout the majority of my free time to finish it up this morning. This was a really entertaining book and I’m glad I reread it. I’m not sure how they can teach you this book in high school. Time and time again I keep thinking the same thing about my school experience. I wasn’t ready to really understand ideas being taught to me. I felt this same way about college. I think it’s funny too that Holden thought it was ok and interesting when people got sidetracked and digressed from the main topic which I feel i’m doing now. What I mean is that they taught me about interest rates and how to calculate values of companies but I had no real world experience so I didn’t understand what I was learning. Sure I could put numbers into formulas and figure out answers but that’s all they were, answers. It’s the same thing with the Catcher in the Rye. I read it in high school and did all the outlines and answered all their questions and learned the vocab, but at that point of my life it had no meaning. It was just learning enough to get a passing mark, it had no meaning, there was no thought behind it.

That being said I want to write what I took out of the novel sitting here 10 years after reading it the first time. I read the wikipedia page too after I finish the book so that I can see what other people have already thought. This actually would make me a phony because I’m not coming up with my own thoughts but since I know this I think it’s acceptable. The concept of him being the catcher in the rye and trying to save the innocent children from falling off the cliff into adulthood intrigues me. How he only relates to young people and considers all adults phony is interesting as well. His infatuation with Jane and his inability to talk to her is unusual, always waiting to be in the right mood. He tries to act mature and thinks he’s mature even though he’s just a kid. He presents himself as an adult yet I think he is doing everything in his power to stop from becoming one. I like how he always describes people by telling you about their faults. Everyone is phony. I’m not sure how that correlates to life as I see it because even though I do think people have hidden agendas sometime and they may be putting up fronts to make you think about them differently, there are genuine people out there. I try my best to be honest and candid and I think I display that a bit in some of these posts. If people can’t trust you then they probably aren’t your friend.

If you’ve read this much more power to you because I feel like I just wrote a paper for school. However, when I’m not hungover on a weekend and have plenty of free time I amuse myself by writing. Tomorrow is the 10 mile run where I will beat 25,000+ people and give myself an ego boost. It’s a good feeling going to the run and pointing out person after person and saying i’m faster than you, i’m faster than you… Here’s to another sober night.

By Tom Stortz|2011-05-18T22:26:48-04:00May 2nd, 2009|My Life|0 Comments

Update

I figured I’d start with an update of what’s been going on with my life. Fortunately it won’t take too long to write as I’ve been doing nothing. My life basically breaks down into work the business for 5 days, have 2 nights of drunken weekends and then repeat. I do have a little change to the routine coming up. The Broad Street run is May 10th and I actually will attempt to do well. I went running yesterday starting here in Manayunk and running to the light post a bit before the art museum. Literally 5 minutes into the run I am crossing the street and fail to lift my one foot up over the curb and clip it and fly face first on the sidewalk, something you would see straight outta failblog.org. Some bro is looking at me like I’m retarded and I’m thinking I’m just getting started on this 12 mile run and I have scraped hands and knees. Anyhow I did the run at about 6:50 pace and then today I ran 3 miles at 6 minute pace. I intend to cut back on my drinking over the next couple weekends and get in top shape for the run. It’s unusual I am prioritizing anything over weekend sloppiness. I’m going to work on making this domain name a bit more popular but that will take some time. I will leave this post with an unusual picture of 16? year old Shawn Johnson. fail-owned-discretion-fail2