Posts Tagged ‘Dave Matthews Band’

One of my favorite Dave Matthews Band songs is “Rhyme & Reason,” which has the lyrics “My head won’t leave my head alone.” That’s the way I have felt about choosing a race for next spring. I’ve hinted at a few things in a previous post, but that was only the beginning of some thoughts.

Here are things that have actually crossed my mind — in no real order — and why I have legitimately thought these things:

• Upgrading to the Shamrock Marathon
  At one time this was my most realistic next marathon. Then I went back and re-read a post from March when I missed the race due to my injury: “I’m going back to Virginia Beach next year for the Shamrock Half as a stronger runner, but perhaps more importantly a smarter runner. (Although is saying publicly that I want to break 1:40 being smart?)” The only thing that’s certain right now is that in 4 months I will toe the line of the Shamrock Half. That sub 1:40 goal? We’ll see.
• Charlottesville Marathon
  I’ve had this race in the back of my mind for a while. The timing of it actually would work well too. If I did this, the Shamrock Half would be the ceremonious ending to training as I tapered for this race, which is April 7. It definitely makes sense to choose this marathon, but the $90 price tag for a smaller marathon makes me hesitate a bit. However, it’s proximity to me offsets any travel costs.
• Marine Corps Marathon
  After I signed up for Baltimore and then had time to think about what I had done, I wished I had made the snap decision a month earlier and signed up for MCM. Hindsight is 20/20, though, so now I’m setting my sites on March 7 — the signup day for the 2012 Marine Corps Marathon. That, of course, is subject to change.
• Cleveland Marathon
  I had a realization on my recent Ohio trip — I use a lot of my vacation time visiting my in-laws. So why not turn a trip to Ohio into something more? How about a spring marathon (May 20) in Ohio? Right now this scenario has an edge over Charlottesville.
• Glass City Marathon
  It’s funny how things I’ve never heard of seem to make their appearance several times over a few days on my Twitter feed. Toledo is known as the Glass City? Never heard that. A marathon in Toledo? It turns out this is a pretty popular marathon in Ohio earlier in the spring (April 22). It also has a respectable price tag, but I’d have to say right now from a timing standpoint this is the least likely of the races I’d chose in the spring.
• Ragnar Relay
  I can’t even begin to explain my thoughts about this. I would love to participate in a Ragnar Relay. At this point, there are a lot of logistics I need to work out for any of them to become realistic. And if the stars aligned, most of these other things besides Shamrock won’t happen. Simply put, a Ragnar Relay would be THE highlight of 2012.
• Blue Ridge Marathon
  I’ve thought about this marathon, yes, but it’s nowhere near realistic thoughts. I’d really like to do the half again after missing it this year and seeing if I can beat my time from a couple of years ago when I didn’t really race it. This race is April 21, which would be a nice follow-up to the Shamrock Half, similar to what I did 2 years ago.
• Richmond Marathon
  As usual, Richmond has the temptation of a lower entry fee for next year through this Thursday. It’s my home away from home race course, and I would love to go back there for a third time and break 4 hours. My biggest hold up from taking advantage of the price is my desire to do the Marine Corps Marathon.

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I actually have a list of ideas for these 11 things posts, but none of those themes seem to fit right now. So I’ve decided to be completely random this month. COMPLETELY.

1. It drives me nuts to see the many spellings of the Libya leader’s name. So much so that I’m not even typing it. This article gives a good explanation of why there are so many variations.

2. If Donald Trump is going to run for president in 2012, why wait to announce it until June?

3. I have a blog entry in my head about “The Biggest Loser.” I’m just trying to find the right way to say what I want to say without being too negative since I do like the show.

4. Did you know there is a Smurfs movie coming out this summer?

5. My birthday is June 24. In Atlantic City that weekend there is something very special going on related to the Dave Matthews Band. Who’s buying me tickets? Click here for information (and to buy me tickets).

6. If you work for me and I give you a deadline, don’t miss the deadline.

7. As a NASCAR fan, I like being able to explain the new points systems to people. I’m finding it hard, though, to encourage people to still watch races that are 500 miles or 500 laps. The races are too long and the final 20 laps are so are the best to watch. Otherwise, I’m getting some good Sunday naps in.

8. I haven’t had Frosted Flakes in a while.

9. If you’re an NFL fan, you really should be paying attention to what’s going on right now with the labor issues. I’m a big NFL fan, but when millionaires (and billionaires) can’t see eye to eye on things, I question how much I care about whether a season happens or not.

10. I’ve never heard the term “SuperMoon” until this week. Apparently the moon will be the closest to earth in many years, thus causing some people to freak out. It will also make for a very big full moon next week. Read the story here.

11. Speaking of freaking out, I read another interesting story this week about the End Times coming this year. Apparently judgment day is coming May 21. Not my words — these people’s words.

Image: Exsodus / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As I promised last month, I’m doing a post of 11 things on the 11th of the month. This month is another list of things you may not know about me, and I’ve taken the theme off 11 localities I’ve spent at least one night of my life beyond the obvious of where I’ve lived in my life (Bedford, Lynchburg and Richmond, Va.). Also, while these do have numbers, these are in no order of “favorites.” I don’t want any cities to get jealous out there.

1. Mystic, Connecticut
One of the secrets of the Northeast has to be Mystic. I visited Mystic in the fall of 2006 on a mini-tour of the Northeast, including the Mystic Aquarium (above photo). From the outside it seemed like I was stepping back to the 1980s, but inside was pretty cool. If you go to Mystic, be sure to check out the nearby casinos.

2. Granger, Indiana
Just outside of South Bend is Granger, where two of my cousins grew up. I’ve been there a few times in my life — I think once when I was 6 months or so old and as recently as 2003. The highlight, though, was when I traveled there by myself when I was 18. A 12-hour drive by myself … seems surreal now.

3. Amsterdam
In the summer of 1999, I had an awesome college experience of going to London to study for three weeks then getting to go on a tour of Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. The highlight was surprisingly Amsterdam. Such a great city for so many reasons. Above is a scanned in photo of one of the canals in Amsterdam. Another city on this trip makes the list below.

4. Cortland, Ohio
It’s where my in-laws live. I sort of have to stay there.

5. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
I’ve seen a lot of ads for Myrtle Beach this year with a great tagline: Where America comes to play. Pretty good for an ad campaign. I have spent many, many nights in Myrtle Beach, ranging from my early teens to senior beach week in 1996 to visiting my sister when she lived there. I know the area very well, but it’s been quite a few years since I’ve been there.

6. Southern Shores, North Carolina
Keeping with the beach theme … the photo above isn’t precisely Southern Shores, but it’s close enough. A few summers ago a friend of mine got married on the beach in the Outer Banks. If you’ve never been, GO. Southern Shores is nice as it’s kind of in between the popular section of Nags Head and the very cool Duck.

7. Hershey, Pennsylvania
My wife and I made a stop on our honeymoon in 2004 in Hershey and we’ve been back twice for Dave Matthews Band concerts. (For the record, I’ve spent the night in several places for DMB concerts in addition to what’s already been mentioned: Cherry Hill, N.J., for a concert in Philadelphia; Roanoke, Va.; Blacksburg, Va.; Virginia Beach; and Greensboro, N.C.) Anyway, Hershey is a must-see sometime in your life if you like chocolate.

8. Middletown, New York
My first roommate from college lived in Middletown and a few of us went to his house for our first fall break in October 1996. It was truly my first road trip in college.

9. Brooklyn, New York
My roommate mentioned above lived in Brooklyn for a while. In the winter of 2005 my wife and I drove to New York for a couple of Dave Matthews Band concerts at Madison Square Garden. While it was nice to have a free place to stay, I got what I felt was a true Brooklyn experience — staying the night in an apartment above a shoe store, Brooklyn pizza and a local bar with drink five times what I’m used to paying. It was also winter, and it snowed, so I got to experience the city at a very awesome time of the year.

10. Birmingham, Alabama
A couple of summers ago I got to spend some time at a social media seminar in Birmingham. It was much smaller than expected, but I got to experience true southern humidity. Sure it’s bad in Virginia, but this stuff was thick.

11. Edinburgh, Scotland
On my trip mentioned above, I spent a weekend in Scotland. It was amazing. Great weather, great castles, great whiskey … it’s on the top of my list of places I want to visit again. (So yeah, No. 11 is No. 1, but who’s counting?)

In the course of a bunch of 11s being thrown around today, I thought of a post — how about 11 things you may not know about me? Then I took the idea another step — how about an “11 things” post every month this year on the 11th of the month in this year of 2011 (my initial thoughts are this will make a year go by even quicker).

It’s just 11 things on my mind — maybe it’ll have a theme like this one, maybe not. Maybe I’ll forget a month from now and this whole thing will be ruined. (I want to give a quick shout-out to Steena who posted something similar today.)

Anyway, I’m in the mood for a non-running post, so here it goes.

1. I’m a huge Dave Matthews Band fan. 19 full band shows and two Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds shows since winter 1997. Those numbers are actually somewhat small compared to some people out there.

2. Speaking of concerts, my first-ever concert was Bryan Adams when I was in 7th grade during the “Everything I Do” hype.

3. My grandma used to live on a farm and some guy used to keep cows there. My sister and I got to name two of them once. Pete and Itchy. Why Itchy? Because he was scratching himself.

4. I spent 3 weeks taking a theater class in London in the summer of 1999 when I was in college. That trip included a weekend in Scotland and a 10-day tour to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

5. I have to sneak a running thing in here … I’ve mentioned before that I ran track in high school, but I’m pretty sure I never mentioned the time that I fell for no reason at all in a parking lot. The coach made me sit out of the rest of practice. You see, I was falling then too.

6. I’m watching the Biggest Loser right now. I still despise the “marathon episode” at the end, but I still really enjoy watching the show.

7. First job: Winn-Dixie grocery bagger. Length of first job: 6 hours.

8. My first car was a light blue 1990 Ford Escort. I still have weird dreams about said car.

9. I know at least five people who I have worked with at two different jobs. It’s possible one of those people will be a co-worker for a third time. That just seems weird to me, but life is often about who you know.

10. To continue to show you my music variety, I’ve seen Vince Gill in concert three times.

11. I secretly would rather play tennis and be decent at it than ever run a marathon again for a really long time. (Not such a secret now I guess.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEbb621s_GI]

Sunday’s Shamrock Half Marathon will be my 41st race since I start running again in 2004. That also happens to be the name of one of my favorite Dave Matthews Band songs, “#41.”

“I will go in this way, and find my own way out …”

Kind of like a race, right?