Garrett M. Vonk

I’ve paid my registration and I am set to compete in the 2008 ING Georgia Half Marathon. My hope is to shave at least twenty minutes off my finish from last time, but maybe three hours works as a nice, round goal.

That said, the training effort is back. I’m making another attempt at daily exercise, but doubling the timeline from last year. Instead of 12 weeks, I’m doing 24+ weeks, which should help with the overall level of fitness. I’m starting with a mix of walking/jogging, which is really a lot easier now that the temperature is approaching that which we would expect from fall weather. I’ve had enough of this 85-degrees-in-October business; I’m ready for it to actually get cold. I’ve added my workout log (wlog?) to the blog, but suppressed it from my RSS feed so that I don’t clog up your tubes. (Thanks, Category Visibility plugin!)

I’m also back in the saddle in another sense. In college, my favorite mode of transport was my 1987 Honda Elite CH250 scooter. I bought it for $900 and sold it for $800 two years later, so you can’t beat the value. It got 50 mpg and would get me around campus comfortably. Plus, I could park it at the bike racks around campus, subverting the wholly infuriating parking situation on campus that I understand has only gotten worse. At any rate, I definitely got a lot of enjoyment out of tooling around campus on the step-through beast, and I jumped at the opportunity to do so again. Living in midtown, I’ve never been convinced that we needed two vehicles, but Heather’s lease and my loan still had some time left on them. Finally, her lease was up and my vehicle had enough equity that we could both get into new rides.

Yes, I’m back on the scooter. I’m now commuting on a 2006 Yamaha Majesty from home to the office (about 2.9 miles). It’s a whole lot of fun, and between parking for free much of the time and getting 75 miles to the gallon, I’m really having a blast on my second scooter. We are now a 1.5 car family. There are a few logistical issues having only one proper car, but it’s absolutely worth commuting on two wheels and being able to fit in tiny, non-existent parking spaces at work. And despite what the photo below might indicate, I do wear a full motorcycle jacket with pads, long pants, and a helmet each and every time I ride, and I recommend that everyone else do the same. Dress for the crash, not the ride.

We finished. Heather and I crossed the finish line on Sunday at 10:25:44 AM. Our time of 3:13:34 was by no means remarkable, but we had a really incredible time doing it and I’m proud of us just for finishing.

The day started early Sunday at 4:45, when we wedged ourselves out of bed and attempted to function. Actually, our upstairs neighbors started it for me at 4:15 with their post-drinking, noisy return to the house. I think the people who own the unit above ours generally sleep most of the day and then strap on hiking boots and recreate scenes from Stomp whenever they think we’re sleeping. Anyway, just a few moments after I finally tuned them out and got back to sleep, it was time to arise. We took Marta down to Five Points–presumably a Smarta choice than jockeying for parking spaces with 12,000 other participants–and milled around in the pre-dawn confusion on Alabama Street near the starting line.

Note: twelve thousand is an insane number of people. Overweight husbands kissed their wives, wished them good luck, and then painfully forced their way through the morass of stretching runners to get to the sideline and unfurl their signs reading “WE LOVE YOU TAMI”. Runners with that über-serious I-have-vaseline-on-my-nipples look on their face pushed past us in an attempt to start closer to the front of the pack. I don’t know why it really mattered, since we all wore chips that tracked our progress to the second. I suppose you get more of an adrenaline boost being at the front of the pack.

The adrenaline was something I didn’t expect. I remarked to myself several times over the course of the race that if I had this kind of encouragement every time I exercised, I’d never have motivation problems again.

The route was absolutely gorgeous and–for the most part–well thought out.

Highlights:

• Mile 1: The multitude of secluded bushes for the, ahem, gentlemen runners with a need to relieve themselves. It’s not illegal if you’re in a race, right? Right?
• Mile 3: The gospel singers on the side of the road near Inman Park. How these people could get that excited at 7:30 in the morning still eludes me, but I cracked a big smile jogging past them swaying gently in their robes, so I guess they served their purpose.
• My iPod Shuffle, which was a tremendous aid in my motivation and concentration. “Eye of the Tiger” and “The Final Countdown” both came at appropriate moments in the race, but I did end up skipping “Don’t Stop Believing” when it came up in Mile 4. (Too soon.)
• The portable toilets with the moniker “Happy Can” situated at convenient points along the route, including Mile 6. These seemed to be frequented mostly by the female participants, probably because the bushes I mentioned earlier proved much faster for the men. I’m not sure how the serious runners–who are often trying to milk every precious second out of their time as possible–handle this matter. I guess they probably just let loose whenever, or more elegantly, pace their fluid intake precisely in order to never exceed the volume they lose through sweat.
• Around Mile 7, we were passed by the male leaders in the full marathon and I marveled at the fact that they had already completed a staggering 20 miles and showed no signs of stopping.
• Mile 8: The “Beer Table” set out by cheering revelers along Virginia Ave near Piedmont Park. I was pretty tempted to grab a plastic cup of cold beer, but I was worried this might not be the best way to stay focused.
• Mile 9: Several of the runners (probably actual athletes, who, you know, tried and pushed themselves and stuff) chose scenic Piedmont Park as the spot to forcibly heave their Clif Bars and Gatorade back out and onto the grass. Meanwhile, I saw cameras with particularly long lenses in use throughout the park, and made every attempt I could to sprint in a picturesque fashion whenever I detected one aimed at me. Hopefully, I can geta photo out of them that makes me actually look like a runner.
• Mile 12: For some reason, as we got closer to the finish, more and more people started reading our names off of our bibs and offering anonymous-though-personalized encouragement. We probably did a double take a half dozen times to an onlooker shouting “Go Heather and Garrett!!! You can do it!” before we realized that we didn’t know anyone in the crowd.
• Mile 13.1: Crossing the finish line was euphoric. I don’t know if I’ll be able to justify $15 for the 60-second video download, but the moment itself was priceless. Heather and I decided months ago that we were going to do this crazy thing and lo and behold, we achieved our goal.

Sweaty and aching, we piled onto the ridiculously packed train and made the short trip home, where we sought to obtain the greasiest pizza and coldest alcohol we could find. Now, if we can just make it through the week and slowly heal our joints and muscles, we leave for vacation this Friday and all will be right with the world. More on that later.

Update: Thanks to an intrepid geotagger on Flickr, I actually found a photo of the gospel singers that inspired us to keep going at Mile 3. Thanks, semantic web!

Yes, we lost. And yes, from now until 12:00am, next Sunday morning, this blog will be prison jumpsuit orange.

I don’t want to talk about it.

The rest of the weekend went well. Saturday was a day of fun and excitement at the Food and Wine Festival.

EPCOT, as you may know, is partitioned into countries, with scenes exhibiting the plethora of stereotypes that Disney engineers held about all 12 nations of our great planet. So, in that vein, the food/wine/beer exhibits were sectioned by country. Heather enjoyed a Lamb Slider from New Zealand. In “Argentina”, I had a Spicy Beef Empanada worthy of José Olé®. I sipped, even in 90 degree weather, a small cup of Cheese Soup from Canada.

You’d think this would mean there were exciting beer selections from these countries. But unless Tsing Tao, Kirin, and Peroni make you feel like you’re sitting in Beijing, Tokyo, or Milan, the beer selections at the Festival were nothing to write home about. The only beer I hadn’t heard of at the entire festival was Brahma, a fruity Brazilian brew. Blah.

Sam Adams, over in the “America” exhibit, had a whole smattering of Sam Adams brews, like their Cherry Wheat and whatever. That normally wouldn’t pique my interest at all, but they had a “11th Annual Festival Brew” that was a nice robust porter. Probably the best Sam Adams I’ve ever had, though their Summer Ale isn’t terrible.

All in all, there wasn’t much free beer, and there wasn’t anything I hadn’t had before, so I call it less than optimal. However, it was a day of walking around, stopping every 10 feet to eat and drink, and watching fireworks, so as far as theme parks go, I wholeheartedly approve.

Saturday evening was fantastic. We filled up exquisitely at The Yachtsman steakhouse and then had a front-row seat for the fireworks display back over at EPCOT. We returned home only to watch Georgia squeak by yet again against Ole Miss. Do I regret this year’s wager with Rusty? No. Am I worried about it? A little.

As an experiment, Rusty and I are going to attempt to predict the outcome of several key college football matchups using nothing but our Xbox 360s and our copies of NCAA Football 2007. We’ll simulate the games and attempt to determine how accurate this $60 testosterone simulator really is.

Notre Dame (#3) vs. Georgia Tech (#25)

The trusty Xbox has Georgia Tech opening up with a field goal in the first quarter, but our virtual Notre Dame hammers the NATS with four touchdowns in the second quarter alone. Tech outscores Notre Dame 18-10 in the second half, but it isn’t enough.
Notre Dame wins 38-21

Tennessee (#18) vs. California (#15)

The boys in prison jumpsuit orange are on top until the fourth, when Cal mounts an impressive comeback. Unfortunately for the Golden Bears, Tennessee has a comeback of their own up their inbred sleeves, putting it in the end zone twice in the last 3:30 to squeak by. Cal posts 496 yards of total offense to Tennessee’s 378.

Note: We would have actually played this game, and perhaps others, if our online action hadn’t been cock-blocked by a flaky network connection.
Tennessee wins 36-33

Florida State (#12) vs. Miami (#11)

Miami lets FSU score 20 unanswered points before, er, answering. Another close one.
Miami wins 24-23

USC (#4) vs. Arkansas

The Trojans run up the score on the Razorbacks this week, passing for 447 yards on their way to 740 yards of total offense. Incredibly, Southern Cal only punts once in sixty minutes of play, despite never converting on 4th down.
USC wins 51-27

Auburn (#7) vs. Washington State

This one looks like a pretty boring game on the Xbox 360. Nobody converts on 4th down, nobody fumbles the ball, and there are only three trips to the end zone all game. Neither team even kicks a field goal. Come on, people spice it up a bit! These games had better be more interesting in real life.
Auburn wins 35-21

Speaking of keeping up interest, I can’t really say whether I’ll do this every week throughout the season. I guess we’ll see how prescient the simulations are.

Uh oh, I have to go… The Insider is showing the wedding videos of a couple who died in the Kentucky plane crash over the weekend. That’s just classy.

Update: Rusty posted his results. His Xbox predicts fewer nail-biters, and predicted Cal to win over Tennessee. Let’s hope it’s mine’s right.

After 4 months at my job, I’ve reached the 120MB limit of the Exchange mailboxes here at work. I’ve commiserated over this before, but at this job, they send you an email every day to remind you that your mailbox is full. I guess nothing says “mailbox space is precious; you’ve run out” like clogging my inbox with apoplectic nastygrams.

Yes, I know that my linkdumps don’t actually count as posts, and I’ve been pretty blog-negligent lately. (Blegligent? Blogligent? Nlogligent?) Here’s a weekend recap:

• Friday: Heather flew back in from Orlando. Her plane took off early and landed early. Does that ever happen?
• Saturday: I went up to Jasper to help my Dad paint the mountain house. Moderate bonding and extremely dirty clothes ensued. For probably only the second time, I missed my SUV terribly as I gingerly wedged my paint-covered self into the driver’s seat, trying very hard–and failing–to keep my seats clean.
  Also, we saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. It was cool, though I’m definitely still over disgusted at paying $9.25 for a movie ticket.
• Sunday (yesterday): We walked over to the AVP Beach Volleyball tournament at Atlantic Station. It was enjoyable, though hot, and despite my inital suspicions, it had nothing to do with Alien Versus Predator. For some reason, the women’s tournament is more popular than the men’s. I wonder why that is…

Well, it was an SEC weekend for the ages. In the Vonk household, we returned from camping Saturday morning (photos and a summary coming once I get my memory card reader working) and warmed up the high-def for a seriously entertaining day of football.

Carolina-Florida and LSU-Bama were good to watch, though going into the game I thought the Tide deserved to stay unbeaten. Maybe it bodes well for UGA in the SEC game, or maybe it doesn’t matter. Hats off (visors off?) to Spurrier, of course, for that performance. Making Meyer and Fulmer his bitch right out of the gate probably makes him a new UGA fan favorite, for the first time in decades.

Yes, we were absolutely heartbroken at the loss to Auburn. I’ve got plenty of comments about our secondary allowing the miracle play at 4th and 10, and about Richt’s conservative playcalling, but I’m a little late to that game as it’s all been said by now. This recap sums up the action quite nicely.

Sunday morning, Heather and I got a little exercise in, and after lunch I headed out to our final kickball game of the year, which Los Kickball Fantasticos lost convincingly. I hear there’s a Spring season, so I’m sure we’ll get a chance to improve on our 2-9 2-7 ( I apparently can’t subtract)) record.

Every Georgia victory is a moment of triumph, and yesterday’s thrashing of the Volunteers was particularly sweet.

Besides remaining undefeated, positioning ourselves well for an SEC run, and shaming 100,000 country folk on their turf for the third time in a row, I also get to enjoy the fruits of a wager I made (along with some other UGA fans) over at Rusty’s blog.

Which is now sporting the Red and Black. For 6 weeks. NICE.

Kudos to Rusty for being a man of his word and going through with it.

Edit: I found a more kickass photo of a UT player eating it, so I took down the photo of Flowers scoring that touchdown.

Heather and I went to see UGA vs Louisiana-Monroe yesterday in Athens. It was fantastic to be back on campus, amidst the fun of the game day atmosphere.

We bought our tickets online on GeorgiaDogs.com last week when a few became available. This was somewhat of a mistake. We were seated in the 600 section, the huge addition that was completed in 2003 (login).

The Teeming Masses

These truly are the nosebleed seats, reaching up to the sky higher than I’ve ever been in a football stadium. The scalpers were probably selling seats closer than ours, for a better price, but I guess that’s the price we pay for wanting to have tickets ahead of time.

The experience was exactly how I remembered it… Sitting around in the sun drinking beer out of a can, people dropping food on the ground and just laughing and eating it…. The long trek to the stadium and the absolute herds of people trying to get in the gates.

There were some Christian protesters out on Sanford Drive trying to get me to put down the Miller Lite and pick up a bible.

The game was a great rout, as expected, and today my legs are a little sore from all the walking, standing, etc.

[Flickr Photoset]

Last Sunday was our first kickball match. Our team, with the totally awesome name of Los Kickball Fantasticos, got off to a promising start, holding a seasoned team to only 2 points. Unfortunately, in our rookie outing we only managed to score 1 point, so we lost 2-1.

Highlights:

• The opposing team was composed of many players who’d played on the championship team last year, which was a little intimidating for our first match.
• We got off to a lead in the second inning, scoring a run that would remain unanswered until the fourth inning.
• One of the team members on the opposing team had had quite too much to drink, and after being tagged out by the kickball (thrown by our pitcher) halfway to first, continued toward the base and went into a full slide on his face, bloodying himself up and causing riotous laughter across the field.

Our next game is tonight, and we’re better prepared this time, with Hoover planning to grill out before the game and my fridge actually stocked with beer, rather than being empty like last week. (Blue laws suck.)