run, fat boy, run a.k.a. the story of derek

Semi-recently we dialed up Run, Fat Boy, Run from Netflix after seeing a preview for it on another movie from Netflix. We are very much the Netflix family now, especially after little Lauren was born and our "going out to dinner nearly every night" lifestyle changed to be more of a "lucky to eat dinner nearly every night" lifestyle. Those of you with a child understand this. And those of you with more than one, or twins (!) well, my hat is off to you. I have no idea how you do it. Anyway...

So out of five stars I would give the movie four. It should probably really only be a three star movie, but the basic premise hits very close to home for me. (And to be clear, it's the running premise I'm talking about, not the leaving a pregnant fiancee at the altar part) The movie in a nutshell is that a chubby dude is trying to get his lady friend back by training for a marathon to show up her new, smarmy runner boyfriend. He (chubs) of course, is the epitome of health in that he drinks a lot, smokes a lot, sleeps a lot, etc. I won't ruin the ending for you (he gets her back) but here's how this hits home for me....I have started running on a fairly regular basis also training for runs. Not marathons, but still. The reasons for this are threefold:

1. To appease my lovely wife by getting my heart rate up a couple times a week, which she helpfully suggested I do, so I can be around for a long time and remain to be in my peak level of hotness. Okay, I made the last part of the sentence up but I'm guessing something about physical appearance has crept into her mind when she encourages me to run.
   
2. To shed a couple pounds. I believe it was shortly after our wedding where I hit my all-time high of 170(ish) pounds. This is a large number for me since my standard weight was between 150-155 for a long, long time. (thank you very much aging body with a slowing metabolism. now I know what happened to Rosanne Barr, John Candy and the like)
   
3. For my health. Also around the time I got married it was discovered that my cholesterol was a whopping 340 which means I was basically a walking heart attack smothered in a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. It was suggested that I start exercising more and eating better to see if I could lower it, which I did, to what I thought was a fantastic number of 240 (ish) but apparently the doctors felt differently as now I am on medication for it which has a side effect of ruining my liver but hey, at least I would die with great looking LDL levels!

Notice that nowhere in my 3 reasons listed above do you see the words "because I like it." I don't. Not much at all. I like that I'm getting healthier. I like that I've dropped some mass. But that's about it. I don't like the running. Believe me when I say that my desire to improve my running times is only a result of my desire to get the run over with. It's not to brag that I am getting faster, oh no, it's to just be done with it quicker than the previous time I went for a run.

So why do I do it? Why don't I bike or play racquetball or something like that to get some exercise? Well it all comes back to what's most important, my lovely little family. Kirsten is a life-long runner (and an excellent one at that) so this not only makes her happy that I'm working out, but it also gives us another thing that we can do together which is great.

This past weekend we went up to Green Bay and ran the Bellin Run. It was my first time not only running the Bellin, but also running a 10k. I know, this is not a marathon or anything, but for me it was tough and a great accomplishment. I still remember the first couple times going to the gym where I could barely run 1 mile. I also remember the day I ran 2.75 miles (not sure why, it just sticks in my head) thinking that I was superman. And now, I ran a 6 mile race! Feels great and as the picture (below) shows, it was a great family day. Kirsten pushed Lauren in "the B.O.B." (pictured, left) and finished I believe as the first mommy/stoller runner which is awesome. There were a couple guys ahead of her, but no ladies, so she was incredible and I was in awe of her as I usually am when it comes to running. As for me, I finished 2 minutes over my goal of one hour and 3 minutes behind Kirsten (and the stroller) which yes, is a little humiliating, but it's all worthwhile when we can pose for a picture after completing something hard together as a family.

(have a great weekend)

ups and downs

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

This past weekend Kirsten and I headed up to Green Bay for multiple, yet equally important, reasons. First, we participated in an American Cancer Society Run/Walk. My sister Gina, her husband Chris and myself all ran the two mile portion while my part deer yet beautiful wife ran the five mile. As for the two mile group, we were happy to finish while Kirsten, like the Irish Fest run, finished first in her age group. Overachiever. We were running as part of Team B.S. organized by a neighbor of my sister's and I believe overall we raised $1,300+ so hooray for us. Good feeling.

Saturday evening was the annual De Groot family chicken booyah cookout where my parents spend three days (!) preparing and cooking delicious chicken booyah. After the initial whining by my Dad that no one would show up, the neighboring um, neighbors came over in swarms and all was right in the world.

Sunday was the day of ups and downs. I awoke from a nestled sleep under a pile of blankets. A large pile because my parents do not believe in turning on the heat in the house prior to November 1 and even then, it's negotiable. Anyway, we had four tickets to the Packers game so my Dad, myself and my 2 sisters donned the gear and headed out. It was nice to see a victory, as ugly and poorly officiated as it was, especially after being there a week prior and witnessing the Bears loss. Brutal. So good times, beer and even coffee were had. Go Pack..5-1 heading into the bye. I don't think anyone would have predicted that. Ups...

...and Downs. Sunday evening our family needed to attend the visitation for my Uncle John, who passed away recently. Another sad day for our family and particularly my Dad who has now lost 2 brothers in the past 18 months. Very emotional as all types of situations tend to be. Good Bye Uncle John, you'll be missed.

fish day & warf

I did it! I finished the 8K at the Port Washington Fish Day event in a slow, but steady, 55 minutes. I think I figured out that this is the longest run I am interested in. I felt pretty good throughout the whole thing but the problem was I was sooo bored near the end. I just wanted it to be over. To me, that's what I'd like to think of as a warning sign, a red flag if you will. So I think that's it. The Fish Day 8K and maybe the 8K Shamrock Shuffle in Chicago and that will be my "marathon" of sorts. Anything more I just ain't that interested in.

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So I'm out in San Francisco currently on a last-minute (read: trouble's brewing so time to get the project back on track) work trip. I wasn't very excited to come out here again since I was just out here in May and already have my September and November trips booked. This is a little much.

However, I am having a pretty good time. I've been getting out and checking out some places and things that I haven't in my previous trips here, like Chinatown. One decent story so far took place on Sunday night after I got here. I went and (of course) dialed up some sushi at Hana Zen, a multiple visit place with each trip to SF, and then went to First Crush. First Crush is a restaurant/wine bar that I also go to each time I come out here. Sunday I was there just for a glass of wine (or three) to hang out. The place was pretty quiet as you would expect on a Sunday night. A young couple came in though and sat at the table right behind me. When they were getting seated, the dude handed something to the hostess. I assumed that he was slipping her some cash, but that didn't make sense since seats were so easy to come by this night.

Well the hostess brought the object, an engagement ring, to the bar and said "we need to do something with this...get creative guys." So after some deliberation, a cosmo martini was concocted and on the straw sticking through a lime wedge went the ring.

Back to the table the hostess/server went and dropped off the drinks and in two seconds we got the "Oh my God!" yell to which we all clapped and laughed a little. I wish a simple proposal followed but the guy pulled out a large sheet of paper and read this "story" about love and blah blah blah..."where you are is where I want to be"...blah blah blah. Man just get it out will ya!

Anyway, congratulations and good luck to the nice young couple. May you live long and happy lives together and for the guy, try to shorten up your speeches because if you want any say in the marriage, you better be able to talk fast. :)

keep on running

Those 5K's ain't nothin'

Thursday night I totally stormed the Bastille with relative ease. I'm really getting into this running thing now especially with my new Nike+ thingy. Next up, an 8K (!) this weekend for the Port Washington Fish Day. This one, I'm not so sure about. Though I may be able to conquer the 5K, an 8 may be a bit much for these old bones to handle.

We attended this race last year and I ran in the 2-mile fun run (read: fat, unmotivated person run) while Kirsten and our friends Emmett & Julie ran the 8K. I do recall even having to walk a couple times. Pretty funny. I guess it's a good feeling knowing I can knock out a 5K pretty easily when last year I couldn't even run the 2-mile one. One item of note though is the punks up in Port Washington have 2 huge hills at the beginning of the run which could have caused my issues. Anyway, wish me luck for this weekend. My Nike chip and I will need it!

5K and the Curse of the Cristo

As I eluded to earlier, Kirsten and I were in Indianapolis this past weekend participating in a big run called the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon. It's one of the largest half-marathons, if not the largest, in the world with 35,000 people participating. It's a weekend event really as we found out Friday afternoon when we got down there. We rode down with our friends Emmett & Julie and were to hitch a ride back with other friends Mark & Carmen who were coming down a little later than us. When we arrived around 2, tons of people were already in the convention center where you could pick up your registration packet and then go through the center where various sponsors had booths and were pimping their products and also giving away some free stuff. Pretty good time. I had no idea there are so many all-natural drinks out there. Some of which tasted like snake pee though. Gross.

Friday night we headed over to a restaurant called Bennigan's which is like an Applebees, or a TGI Fridays, only not as good. Time to carb load for the run early the next morning. Around the table we go placing our orders. And then we come to Emmett who orders.... The Monte Cristo.

From the Bennigan's Menu:
A delicious combination of ham and turkey, plus Swiss and American cheeses on wheat bread. Lightly battered and fried until golden. Dusted with powdered sugar and served with red raspberry preserves for dipping.

Yikes. The first sentence makes this out to seem like a delicious, healthy club sandwich. The second and third sentences destroy all possibility of that. He orders it, we all laugh.

The meals come and then we laugh even harder. This thing was ridiculous. First of all, they say it's "lightly breaded." Lightly breaded my ass. This thing has a good 1/4 inch of breading on it, deep fried and if that wasn't enough, it's covered in powdered sugar! I mean I'm all for being disgusting and eating things like chicken wings for every meal, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Emmett manages to knock down about a quarter of it before he started to lose consciousness. This "sandwich" has no business being on a menu anywhere in this fine nation of ours. Just gross.

The next morning we're up at 5 AM to get ready to go down to the race. (We were staying at a hotel outside of the city) and Mark, the one non-runner in our bunch, decides to be proactive and go get gas while we're still getting ready. Well he goes outside starts to back up the car and snap! breaks a strut and a spring on his car rendering it useless to us. The Curse of the Cristo is born.

Emmett & Julie swing by and pick us runners up while Mark has the unfortunate task of waiting until normal business hours to see if he can get his car fixed. (Our fingers were crossed since they were our ride back!) So we all pile into one car and head on downtown for the run.

The 35,000 or so half-marathoners get a move on including Emmett, Carmen and my lovely wife (all of whom completed the 13 mile trek with ease) and I wait with the 2000 or so people left for the 5K which includes morbidly obese people, retirees and me. Off we go...

... and I finished! My first 5K that I was able to run through to completion. I'm not sure why running comes so hard to me but it does so leave me alone. Next up for me, the 5K Storm the Bastille run this summer. Looking forward to it.

So we finish the run and, with perfect timing, the car has been fixed! So we go meet Mark, who has been at Midas and it's surrounding shops for the past 5 hours. Off we go, just need to stop for gas. Mark fills the tank and click! The car's battery is dead. The Curse of the Cristo continues. Back to Midas for a new battery.

We eventually get out on the road and make it back home, conquerors of the races but not quite conquerors of the Cristo.