Hamptons Marathon September 26, 2009

What time is it? I remember wondering this countless times in the middle of the night only to find that it wasn’t time to get up. I wanted to get up but forced myself to lye in bed for the duration figuring it was what I needed to do. My first marathon was only a handful of hours away so sleep wasn’t so easy. I finally got up and ready around 4:45 A.M. after waking up my mom, who has been my racing enthusiast, and Jameson.
After getting dressed and fueled up my mom, Jameson, and I loaded up in the X terra for a nice, peaceful drive out to the hamptons. Well it was a drive to say the least. Despite the dog running into my rear window compulsively trying to attack passing headlights and getting her ear caught in the window we made it to the start/finish area.
By the time we parked and got settled to where we needed to be we had a little under 45 minutes to start. There was plenty of commotion and excitement around. Most of the commotion being Jameson seeing other dogs to scream at. Another interesting thing that happened before the race even began was that all this blood got on the back of my race bib, seemingly out of no where. No I didn’t poke myself with the safety pins, I’ve learned that lesson before. My mom was helping me with the bib and shoe timer and cause of Jameson’s constant pulling on the leash made my moms hand bleed all over.
Looking back on all the craziness of race morning kind of prepared me for the race in a way. I didn’t worry and wasn’t anxious at all. I didn’t have time to be. Regardless of that I still wouldn’t change a thing cause it added to all the excitement.
The time finally came to get in line and ready to go. After some last minute pictures I disappeared into the crowd and immediately struck up a conversation with another runner. Runners are some of the most friendliest people you will ever meet.
When the gun finally went off we wished each other the best and followed the sea of people in front of us. I never ran with so many people around before, it was quite interesting. Before I knew it we reached the split mark for the marathoners and the crowd of people immediately disappeared. Leaving me and the few other marathoners in my vicinity to trek through the beautiful country roads.
I remember all the aid stations and the support that were at every mile. I talked to a couple runners as I was running, but for the most part let my mind ponder on things and also focus on the task at hand. We ran along near wide open fields, near the beach, and even through some backcountry dirt roads. I remember at one point I felt like crying. I’ve gotten this feeling occasionally on long runs and I guess you can consider this a long run. The feeling comes out of no where, usually after the feeling that this is probably all a dream, go figure. Anyways after the mix up of hormones dissipated I got back into the swing of things maintaining my robotic like motion to the finish. My goal was just to finish. In the back of my mind I wanted a 4hour 30minute marathon but would have been happy just to finish. At mile 25 I realized I had about 15minutes to go till the 4 hour mark. So knowing this I stepped it into high gear. I was surprised by how much I had left in me. I think it had been the track work I did Monday nights. I blew past all these people. I wanted someone to step it up with me but I guess everyone at this point was spent. I remember being thankful for all the track work I did around this time of my race. I reached the finish line at 3 hours 52 minutes and 57 seconds. With excitement and awe being surprised I broke the 4 hour mark.
My Mom and Jameson were right there to congratulate me. The race was surprisingly easy. Don’t get me wrong it was hard and painful at times, especially afterwards. I loved every minute of it. It was easier in a sense that the training, the journey, to get there was the real challenge. Intervals, low blood sugar bouts, loss of a toenail…again, and early morning headlamp runs were just some (and still are) of the challenges I faced along the way. The funny thing is I brought this type of training onto myself. There were times when I had a run scheduled and forced myself to go do it, always glad and happy afterwards. Training really does help you be more focused.
So after I got my metal and tried to remember where I was again I found my mom and Jameson. I say this because at some point in the race due to lack of sleep and running this long run I didn’t know where or what state I was in. Maybe I was dreaming, this feels like a dream. It took me a while to stop moving. It was painful to stop so I had to walk around in circles with this confused look on my face for a bit. That was fine everyone else was doing the same thing.
After settling down I got some food and played in the athletes village for a bit before the long walk back to the car. When we finally arrived I got situated in the back seat and proceeded to hold onto Jameson for the entire ride. I was in such a good, positive mood I didn’t mind. I remember talking a whole lot, eating a whole lot and having to ask my mom to pull over a whole lot because of all the fluid I inhaled during and after the race. It was all in all a very good day and wouldn’t have changed any aspect of this crazy, fun, and exciting day.

Ice Run

ICE_RUN

I was never really good at ice skating. Sure I know how to do it, think its great and all that. It is however not something I go out of my way to partake in. Or so I thought. This winter around…on new years I received some words that sparked some anger. I wasn’t angry but was in a way. Just annoyed is a better way to put it. I saw the energy as some good motivation to go for a nice snow run in the trails.
Anger/Annoyance is a great motivator. So much so I sometimes try and make myself angry to poke the fire inside. I find that this is rather easy for me cause I have a good focus (Or at least I try to think I do). Mostly due to my job. It really helped me to learn patience and focus. Or maybe being a cytotechnologist is just the right job for me. Anyways I digress.
So having all this energy I headed out for the trails which are approximately 0.79 miles from my house. Very nice to have something that close to my house. I would drive to the trails if I had to but there is no need. The trails are a whole lot more peaceful and allow you to really think and ponder.
I do go out of my way to run sometimes. But not to ice skate. There is an interesting thing that happens to the trails by my house when it snows. Normally the snow makes people want to stay inside there cozy homes. Not where I live. When the snow hit’s, the mountain bikers apparently come out. I love to mountain bike, but I put it away for a portion of the winter cause its snowboarding season. When you mountain bike in the snow you make tracks. When enough bikers ride the trail it creates a path. The path of flattened snow being more dense turns to ice, creating a path which requires ice skates to be on it. Nevertheless, I continued on the path trying to run on the edges as much as possible and not to slip and crack my head open. The trees around me where covered with snow, giving an errie, serene feeling. Different. I felt more at peace with the world. More alone. Which was good cause I could really think without being distracted. Turns out I survived and gained some real insight into the way some people act. Four months is way to short a time… it’s called infatuation. You really need plenty of time to really get to know someone. Problem solved that’s all I‘m going to say about that.

-Barton-

Getting Lost

“Control is never achieved when sought after directly. It is the surprising outcome of letting go.”
-James Arthur Ray






If you never explored you would never be lost. The bad part is that if you never were lost you never explored. I’ve been lost on many occasions and in multiple scenarios. Once at night while I was in the woods. Other times, when all was visible. I’ve gotten lost while on rides, runs, boarding trips, even in familiar places. Being lost is not necessarily a bad thing; in fact I sometimes go out of my way to get lost. It adds a new sense of adventure to whatever I’m doing. It makes me have a new sense of purpose to the task at hand. The objective being to find your way.
You may not be sure what way to go, or what you may see when you decide to embark on this course. The one thing that is for certain is that it is an adventure. It may not seem fun at the time. In fact you’re more likely to be frustrated and annoyed. But when you finally get back on tract. Back to what is familiar; you will be better able to appreciate the adventure that you just undertook. This appreciation is further enhanced when finding your way out of darkness.
On one night ride, me and as couple guys got separated in the woods. Going down a trail at night is a very different, exciting experience. I mean I knew the people I went with were somewhere in the darkness and that if I didn’t meet with them after the ride they would come find me. At least, I kept telling myself this for my own sanity’s sake. I also knew that if I kept following the trail it would eventually led me to the safety of my car. Even knowing all this, I still believe that riding at night you will always be lost in a way.
One thing I did that I recommend and it’s pretty much required by anyone who is out in the woods at night is to turn off the lights and experience getting totally lost. When I did this it was a new moon night so the overall experience was further enhanced. As I stood there straddling my bike on a trail. I wondered how much different it would be if I wasn’t as familiar with the trail as I knew I was. The next thing I wondered was will the trail even end? Maybe I went the wrong way! Maybe someone made a new trail for the sole torment of swaying an unsuspecting biker to his eternal rotation of the same trail loop for all eternity. The thought of a hamster in one of those metal wheels popped into my head. Then another thought, a more abrupt one, came to my mind, “You better put on the lights right now before another rider or deer crashes into you.” Heeding my counterpart, I obeyed.
Another equally scary yet exhilarating time I got lost, happened to led me into a cemetery. My oxygen deprived, endorphin tripped out brain led me down some trails I never seen before. They were most likely fire roads and not an actual part of the trail. So after a while I stumbled upon a black, iron clad fence and thought to myself, “Ok, this is definitely not a normal trail obstacle.” This was not your normal iron clad fence either. In fact I never had seen anything even similar to it. It wasn’t too tall, but it was obvious from the design that it was meant to keep people for getting in. The gut piercing sabers on top stared mischievously at me. I didn’t leave a trail of bread crumbs from the start of this maze of fire roads, so I decided to hop the fence (carefully and with my bike as well) and see where the trail took me.
So once I climbed this black, spiky, sharp obstacle, it wasn’t long before I realized I was in a grave yard! It was a little creepy to say the least. This creepiness was further enhanced due to the descending sun. This being the case I pedal through the graveyard at a very fast pace due to the fact that, I was not suppose to be riding my bike between tombstones. Also, due to the fact that it was a graveyard. Both thoughts made me increase my cadence. After a short time frame I again found myself in front of the black, iron clad human skewer and had no chose but to climb over. Upon dismounting from the top of the fence, leaving the cemetery grounds, I got that feeling you get when someone is staring at you. My spidey sense was going off, so I looked around to find a young child watching me from his front lawn across the street. But not for long. The child immediately turned and ran when he noticed that I saw him. I guess I was pretty scary looking to this child. It just so happened that I was in fact scary looking considering the area in which I just came from.
After watching the terror in the child’s face at seeing me. I happened to look down and noticed what I had been wearing. I was dressed like a biker, yes. The thing that put me over the top was the fact that I was wearing a biking jersey that was showing the outline of a skeleton. Poor little guy must have thought the dead really do come out at night. I was laughing the rest of the ride home.
So as you can see, getting lost and then finding your way can be quite the adventure. It completely destroys the standard routine you are use to. So my request to all who are reading this is to, “get lost.”

-Barton-

Bound to Offend


“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”

Henry David Thoreau


It was a beautiful day. The sky was clear, birds were singing, and the snow was a fine powder giving you a feeling of weightlessness as you floated down the trail. I was peacefully going down the slope in a very smooth and eloquent fashion when all of the sudden a sharp pain arose on my left side. The next thing I noticed was that I was not upright anymore. After being thrown off balance, I looked to my immediate left and their, looking like a fence after a tornado hit it was, ‘a skier’. His poles were thrown down the mountain in the same way a harpooner attacks a whale. His two fence pieces that were previously attached to him had run away off the edge of the trail into the forest. Legend has it that they still reside their to this day. The gentleman looked up and in his disheveled, confused state proceeded to accuse me of the calamity that just occurred. A lot went through my mind while this was happening. For one thing, I noticed right away the hatred in this skiers eyes for snowboarders. By his words and actions it was obvious that this skier had the snowboard envy. What is the snowboard envy you ask? Well its simple. As time passes things are constantly being improved upon in almost all aspects of life. Snowboarding is a relatively new sport and completely improved upon the art of going down the side of a mountain. One of the biggest differences being the lack of excess equipment. When you snowboard you only have one thing to worry about not four as skiers most often do (two poles and two skis). Its this simplicity that makes snowboarding an art form. When your life is simpler you worry less equating to a happier life. So anyway lets continue with the story. After witnessing the hatred in the mans eyes I kindly stood up, (still attached to my board, of course) smiled (under a facemask) and said, “have fun connecting all the dots” and continued on my way down the face of the mountain. I often wonder how long it took him, if he even did, to find all his missing pieces. No, I didn’t feel bad for just getting up and leaving. I would have gladly helped by at least going and acquiring the whaling spears from the white beast and returning them to this captain Ahab. But he made the mistake of being a skier and calling me some not nice words and then proceeding to tell me it was all my fault. There was no need to blame me. He had only himself and the fact that he was misguided in the art of going down the mountain.
Perhaps he did not want to be one with the mountain. I’m not saying all snowboarders are one with the mountain you can clearly see that for yourselves on any mountain that’s covered in snow. But most tend to have flow and respect for others. Therefore I am petitioning that skiers please throw down their weapons and connect their fence pieces together to better be one with the mountain, or just buy a snowboard. Then tell yourself that your life is about to get happy.
-Wolves and Penguins unite!!!-

Barton

Focus

Focus, to concentrate attention or effort (Webster’s ninth new collegiate dictionary). Without clear focus life would be a blur. It makes sense that if you have trouble focusing on one thing at a time you don’t focus well enough on any one thing. Now I just want to start off by saying I am one of the worst when it comes to staying focused. My mind is constantly wandering or getting distracted by the birds in my head. But, I’ve learned that when I do focus on one thing I benefit greatly. Largely due to the fact that I only have that one thing to worry about. When snowboarding and biking you need to focus, you don’t really have a choice. If you lose focus you will crash, I know from experience. By forcing your brain to focus on what you’re doing you are living in that moment, where you should be. Let me explain. It’s a proven fact that people have negative connotations about themselves. We all view ourselves in a negative light more than we view ourselves in a positive light most of the time. We either view some aspect about us as negative or we also look to the past or future with negative thoughts. We may feel things would have worked out better if we had only done something a little differently. We may also have negative thoughts about what the future holds. The truth is it doesn’t matter! You should look to the past and learn from it but don’t live their (this idea was also discussed Oct. 4, 5 2008 for those of you who know what I’m talking about) the only reality is the now, what’s happening right now. If you’re unable to focus and do good now your future may turn out exactly how you negatively think it will turn out. That’s called a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you tell yourself you can’t do something or how much you suck, your thinking in this way will most likely led to that conclusion. Fortunately this can also be used in positive thinking as well. It might be good every once in a while to tell yourself how good you are doing, just don’t get conceded. One thing I do when I start worrying about something or am looking at the past in a negative light, is I picture a traffic light that’s red to remind myself that it isn’t helping me to worry about whatever it was I was thinking about. But an even better way is to do something that requires your complete focus.
--Snowboarding off roofs--VT--
Barton

Swim fan

Everyone think back to your childhood for a second. What key memories do you have? You no doubt have many, but I’d like to bring your attention to how you played. Play, being a big part of how we develop into who we are right now.
I recently went swimming at a friend’s house for about an hour which consisted of various speed/form workouts. When I was finished I began to remember when I was younger (probably getting delirious from exertion). One of the things I remember about my childhood was swimming. Not that I’m a particularly good swimmer but the fact that it was one of my trainings in play. I remember going to the Holtsville pool on long island and being able to swim to the other side which amazed my swimming teacher so much he put me in a higher level. I also remember how drained I was wishing there was a shark in there to end my misery (hence the photo, even though it’s a dolphin or something cause the fin and tail don’t match that of a shark…still a very cool photo). More memorable was all the times I went to my aunts house with my parents and didn’t necessarily swim laps but rather just jumped around and stayed in the pool till my hands turned into a prune.
Well, after my recent swim workout I got that same youthful, play feeling. I was no longer training or working out, I was playing. Another time a couple of my friends and I were at a beach and someone came up with the idea to swim out to the buoy and back. From shore the buoy did not look that far away and there was three of us, so I promptly accepted the challenge knowing that if I was to drown at least someone would know. This reminds me of a quote, “Warning, objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” Yes we were deceptively fooled (as you can be with a mirror) as to the distance of this buoy. When we finally reached this seemingly moving floatation device we all held on to it and rested for a while before heading back to the safety of shore. I remember getting back to shore and being completely spent. Surprisingly, that was a lot of fun.
I’m glad I remembered how much fun this sport can be. Though I’m not particularly fond of open ocean water swimming is still a blast. I was surfing one time when a couple of fins decided to surface, that really freaked me out. I still manage to surf at least once a year. As for regular swimming I’ll just stick to lakes and pools as much as possible. Now all I need to do is actually learn how to swim well enough to not make it look like I‘m drowning.

--Jumping into cold water--
-Barton-

Starting it up again

Hey all just want you all to know I'm starting to post on a blog again. No names or pictures. I just didn't want to have to send all you emails of something you don't want to read. If you do however, here you are. Hope you enjoy. Send feedback and comments and your opinions. Please. Let me know if my writing is at any level Improving. Much Brotherly (Philidelphia) Love.

Barton