Not Just A Hat Rack

Ogden Marathon Recap

I'm happy to report that Teri and I completed Saturday's Ogden Marathon - one of the prettiest courses on one of the nicest days one could ever ask for. In fact, about 10 Utah Team in Training alumni competed and finished, once again raising important $$ for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and raising awareness with our purple jerseys, signs and cheering section.

In a nutshell, Steve had a great day. I set out with a plan to stick close to 8-minute miles and maintain it for 26.2 miles, and it worked. I felt very strong, ran my fastest miles AFTER mile 20 and finished with a huge smile and a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Teri was halfway to the same great success - until a bout of exercise-induced asthma sent her to the paramedics, Eden Fire Station and the post-race medical tent. True to her nature, she said "I don't quit" and finished with a pretty respectable time despite the detours. For the first time in our recollection, we crossed a finish line together, as I headed back onto the course to bring her in.

The weekend was a little bittersweet. Steve's friend, whose father passed away of lymphoma earlier this year and inspired his run, lost her mother-in-law on Thursday. Our chapter president, Meg, lost her honored patient just hours before the race began on Friday night. We all remain steadfast in our determination to beat these insidious cancers.

That's probably what most of you want to know. Oh, and that we celebrated with burgers at Hire's after the race.

For the few of you on this list who are serial marathoners, or gluttons for detail, a couple of other notes:

- We rank Ogden as the second-prettiest course we’ve ever run – trailing only Anchorage.
- For those of you who might want to run a race here (like you want to run all 50 states or something ridiculous like that), Ogden is a great choice. Great support, well-organized, incredible course...
- Jeff Galloway spoke at the expo and was trying to run-walk his wife to a 4:30 finish and a Boston Marathon berth... And while his training methods were the talk of the weekend and many people (including Steve) tried it to some extent, it worked - the Galloways finished in 4:29.
- Steve’s highlight was before the race even started – we gathered in a cow pasture 5 miles up a canyon from Huntsville, where they had two dozen barrels filled with firewood for us to huddle around during the 75 minute wait until the start... Very unique, very warm.
- We both appreciated the selection of food on the course including licorice, cinnamon bears, gummy bears, jolly ranchers, oranges, gu, power bars and more. You had to make a conscious decision not to eat too much – it all looked so good!
- Descending into Ogden Canyon after Pine View Reservoir, race organizers lined the road with helium balloons anchored by old running shoes. It was quite a sight.
- Crowd support was fairly small in numbers but great in enthusiasm – great small town race feel. We passed many sheep, cows and llamas too – and Teri’s convinced she inspired a whole herd of horses and their colts (yearlings? Foals?) to race around their pasture
- Snowberry Inn was a great host to our team until our 4:15am departure (we awoke at 3:15am!)

Anyways, thanks again everyone – so, who’s running a marathon next?

Where I'll Be

USSoccerPlayers.com has a feature where they occasionally write live at a game and file the story as the final whistle blows. Or something like that. It's called Where We Were, or something like that. I volunteered to try it out at Saturday night's RSL game, so look for my story on the game by 9pm MT. (Kickoff is 7pm.) Just for kicks, I may do some live blogging here as well.

Storylines... Jason Kreis suspended. Carey Talley just traded. FC Dallas flying high. RSL looking good at home but "needs to go for the jugular," says Big Man Deuchar.

Tune in, we'll see what happens.

Also on Saturday, we're running in Susuan Komen Race for the Cure 5K - a breast cancer benefit event. If you'd still like to support Teri and I in NEXT WEEKEND's Ogden Marathon, visit our fundraising page. Not all donations are reflected here (just the online ones), and we're over $3,000. Thanks, all!

Container House

I had lunch with a developer who is using 35 shipping containers to build a 7-story condo complex in downtown SLC. The containers have little value after being shipped full of Chinese goods to America - we don't export enough to use them, the Asians don't want them back empty, so they are piling up by the millions. See City Center Lofts here.

Each container is 8' wide, 9.5' high and 40' long. They are designed to stack nine high and withstand turbulent seas, which apparently, makes them earthquake-safe if you happen to build a seven-layer condo out of them in the middle of a fault zone like Salt Lake. All the strength is in the corners and frame, so you can cut out the side panels and doors and voila, you have industrial strength legos that you can live in.

Many come with teak wood floors (I am not making this up), but the developer plans to pour concrete for pipes that will circulate radiant heat in his super eco-friendly complex. He has multiple deposits and a waiting list of 40 for the seven units, although he hasn't revealed pricing yet. He figures he'll either make a mint or go bankrupt. "Just breaking even doesn't seem like an option to first-time condo developers," he said.

By the way, the containers are being retrofitted out-of-state as we speak and will be shipped to Utah in February. By April, he says, the condos will be ready to inhabit.

Here's more on the architect, Adam Kalkin:

Happy Anniversary

This is what I wrote a year ago tonight.

Life throws curves. Sometimes you were looking fastball. Sometimes you just swing and miss. In my case, they called in a pinch hitter tonight. I'm out. Back in the clubhouse, I'm swigging gatorade and planning my next at-bat. Guess it will be in a different uniform. I guarantee it means more entries in the 'Hat Rack. Peace.

Mrs. 'Hat Rack and I are celebrating with a date tonight.

A lot has transpired in 365 days, including the fact that I haven't set foot on an airplane in that time. I'm pretty proud of that.

All my favorite teams have lost a lot of games, notably the Giants, RSL and Northwestern football & basketball. Mrs. 'Hat Rack completed an IronMan. We're both just weeks away from the Ogden Marathon (marking at least 25 marathons between us!). We're watching people we love battle insidious diseases and trying to do a few little things to make a difference. I write a lot for work and pleasure. I don't read enough. Our boys have learned to ski. Our "princess" has learned to chatter and disperse hundreds of pieces of (fill in the blank here) all over her room and our house. One dog proved she has 9, no, 99+ lives. And we're thankful for friends (like ones who sit through snowstorms to watch U.S. Open Cup games), running friends, cooking friends, kids' friends and family and friends.

And somehow, against all odds I would have predicted last year, we're still here... with the inch of fresh snow on the lawn and the bright/frozen tulips... on 900 South in Salt Lake City (where they really do name streets like that). And life seems perfectly normal.