ING Miami Marathon

Update: Want to see photos from the race? Go to www.marathonfoto.com and enter the last name "Vannier" or "McClintock" the event is the ING Miami Marathon. Dave said he took some photos on his IPod too, so when I get those I will post them as well!

One down, 11 to go! Dave and Andrew completed the ING Miami Marathon this morning! They arrived in Miami last night, went to the expo and picked up their packets and admired the view of the ocean from their 36th floor hotel room. :)
The race started at 6:15am this morning. I signed up earlier in the week to receive text alerts, so I set my phone to vibrate last night so I wouldn't be woken up from the first message. But I didn't get any messages at all! Dave hadn't set up any other tracking for me to follow, but luckily Andrew had his results posted to his facebook page. I knew Dave would be running pretty close to Andrew's times, so at least I had some idea how Dave would be doing.
Dave ended up finishing about 20 minutes after Andrew. Dave said the course was great and the fans were awesome in a few of the locations. Having people cheering you on while you are running is a huge boost for those guys, even if they don't know who is cheering for them. That is one thing Dave really likes about the Rock and Roll Marathons, all the bands set up playing music, it gives him something else to think about and see other than just running with no entertainment.
Dave said he felt good after the race too. I think he was a little worried before the race as to how he would do. He had a "long" week at the PGA show, so he didn't get any training in. We were in Iowa the week before and Dave did get a few runs in, one when it was about 10 degrees outside!

Here are the details from the ING Miami Marathon. There were 3943 finishers (2580 male/1363 female) according to active.com.

Here are Dave's stats: 
Chip time 4:27:02
Overall 1811
SexPl 1332
DivPl 214

Here are Andrew's stats:
Chip time: 4:07:32
Overall 1177
SexPl 909
Div Pl 160

Way to go guys!!

The next race is Myrtle Beach on February 18th. Stay tuned for updates!

12 in 12ish

Well sort of...Dave and Andrew are planning on running 12 marathons next year. They've already signed up for the first three, Miami, Myrtle Beach & Atlanta. Then comes the Knoxville and Nashville marathons in April followed by Pittsburgh in May. June, July and August are slow months for marathons and really, who wants to be running a marathon when it's super hot (really who want's to be running a marathon at all...wait these guys I guess)?

Fall marathons up for consideration are Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, Savannah, Huntsville, and New York. There may be some others, the schedule for the second half of the year hasn't been set yet.

I know Dave needs to start getting more miles in to really start getting ready for the tough schedule next year. He is always in pretty good shape and he started distance training again in October. He is running in the Santa Hustle in Sevierville on December 11th, which is a half marathon that should help in getting his miles up. But he just needs to do better running during the week, other than on the group run night.

We will be chronicling the marathons here on hamtowne and if I can get them to do it, maybe we will even have a few guest posts from Andrew and Dave. This would also be a great excuse for me to get a new lens for my camera. You guys want to see good photos from the races, right? A zoom lens would be excellent to get photos of Dave and Andrew from a distance and at the finish. It would also be a great pain and suffering present, I get super nervous for Dave before a race. Maybe I need to get Xanex and a new lens :)

We are all going to Myrtle Beach and staying a few days. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough to spend some time on the beach! If anyone wants to join us for the marathons let me know. Dave and Andrew love to see friendly faces in the crowd cheering them on!

Let me know if there is anything else you want to know about the crazy year we have coming up!

Another race for Dave - Men's Heath Urbanathlon

This weekend Dave is heading to Chicago to run in the Men's Health Urbanathlon. He will be running with his usual racing partner Andrew, and a few friends from high school, Andrew and Tim. (I know, two Andrew's will make this confusing, so High School friend Andrew will now be referred to as Andy).
Dave and Andrew are flying up to Chicago tonight to check in and meet up with the other guys. Tonight is the welcome party and registration.
The race starts tomorrow at 7:45am and the participants will go off in waves according to their age group. There are over 6,000 people registered for the race this year! Dave, Andrew, Andy and Tim are all in the same age group so they will be starting together. This race is a little different than the other races Dave and Andrew have run, as they are running individually instead of as a group. However, they will be sporting their Olympic Couch Riders shirts and I am sure they will all try to stay together. This race also has 9 miles of running in addition to the obstacles, which include running stairs at Soldier Field (check out the video for the stair running, it's crazy!), and other obstacles at Navy Pier, DuSable Harbor, & McCormick Place.
I'll let you know how Dave does later on Saturday or Sunday and hopefully we'll have pictures up early next week!
Have a great weekend!

Two-fer Tuesday

Olympic Couch Riders

The Race

The moment you have all been waiting for...no, not the results of Dave's beer tasting. The race results, Dave and Andrew (the Olympic Couch Riders) came in 16th in the North Chick Greenway Challenge! They are both a little disappointed in their finish, they started out really strong and did well throughout the entire race, but ran an extra mile or so due to a part of the course not being very clearly marked. That and some canoeing "issues" put them behind. They had a great time running the race and said that this one was harder than the Knoxville Urban Wilderness Challenge since there wasn't any downtime in this race. In the KUWC they had to wait to repel and for a few other challenges so they had time to catch their breath, that didn't happen in the North Chick Challenge. Nina and I (and all the kids) were able to see Dave and Andrew (and Bob and James) as they went through the transition area 3 times which was exciting. We were able to watch them do the frisbee golf, bow and arrow and then at the finish. This race was a combination of running, biking, challenges, canoeing, and swimming.
The kids had fun running around the huge open space and playing with the new kickball's we got them at Wal-Mart while we waited for Dave and Andrew and Bob and James to finish.
After the race Nina and I took the kids to the Tennessee Aquarium. We all had a great time petting the sting rays, looking at sharks, turtles, jelly fish and other fish. The aquarium is in two buildings, the Ocean Adventure and River Adventure. Both are huge and have a ton to see, they are also very kid friendly. I didn't have to lift Dylan up too much to be able to see into the tanks and there were a few animal interactions that all the boys really liked. We would definitely go again.

What we are doing this weekend...

imATHLETE Greenway Challenge Hixson, Tennessee, USA May 08, 2010

Or more so what Dave is doing on Saturday, running (and biking and kayaking) in another adventure race. This one is in Chattanooga, we are heading down there the night before with Dave's race partner, Andrew and his family. This race actually publishes the map ahead of time so Dylan and I, and Andrew's wife Nina and kids can hopefully watch at a few points.
The last race that Dave and Andrew (and our friend Jesse) ran was the Knoxville Urban Wilderness Challenge in March. They all had a great time and finished 15th out of 45 teams, not bad for their first race. While they all thought the race was tough they had a great time and immediately started looking for other adventure races to particpate in. Which has brought us to the North Chick Greenway Challenge 2010.
We haven't been to Chattanooga before and we are staying in the Hamilton Place area which is fairly close to the aquarium and other attractions so it should be a lot of fun. The winners of last years race finished in a little under 2 hours so hopefully we will have time to visit the aquarium before we head back to Knoxville on Saturday night.
I'll let you all know how the race goes and hopefully get some good photos to post!