Filter Concert

This past Saturday Tami and I had tickets to see Filter at the House of Blues in Cleveland. The show was awesome and the two opening bands, Opiate for the Masses & Ours, rocked as well.

Displaying my can of Pabst Blue Ribbon
with the lead singer of "Opiate for the Masses"

Here are some videos from the concert:


Opiate for the Masses


Ours


Ours


Filter's new song "Soldiers of Misfortune"


Filter - Hey Man Nice Shot


Filter - Take A Picture


Filter - Trip Like I Do


Filter - Welcome to the Fold

Filter - Where Do We Go From Here

After we left the concert and headed back to our car we looked up towards the skyscrapers and saw a ton of seagulls circling overhead. It looked really strange since the spotlights lit all of them up...

20 miles in the sun

Looking across Lake Glacier

This morning I arrived at the Fellows Riverside Gardens parking lot in Mill Creek Park at 8:00 AM to run trails with some of my running buddies. The weather today was supposed to awesome - Sunny and mid to upper 60's. It turned out to be just that. There was even a nice cool breeze that felt really good in the sunshine. Here's a picture of us before we hit the trails...

From left to right: Bruce McMurray, Dan Kuzma, myself, Jesse, and Greg Murray

This was Greg's first visit to the park so he really enjoyed the new scenery. Our plan today was to run one big YUT-C loop around all 3 lakes and then run one inner loop from the Old Log Cabin to Lanterman's Mill and back for a total of 20 miles. The weather made the run seem easy for all of us and we were able to keep a nice conversational pace. After the first big loop though I thought about calling it a day. I felt pretty tired but I knew that I needed to take advantage of the day, especially since I don't get to Mill Creek Park as much as I used to. After finishing the run I was really glad that I decided to continue on. Today marks the 4th weekend in a row that I've run 18 miles or more as a long run. My body felt pretty good afterwards and I think that I'm in pretty good shape heading into the Laurel Highlands 70 Miler which will take place on Saturday, June 14th.

Here are some more pictures from today's run...

Next to the Lake Cohassett waterfall

Tulips outside of Lanterman's Mill

A blue heron standing next to the waterfall at Lanterman's Mill

Lake Newport

Bruce taking in the view

Mother goose guarding her babies

Live Chat with Kathrine Switzer

This evening Kathrine Switzer will be speaking live on the TeamPR chat room at 8:00 PM to answer questions and offer advice to anyone that is interested. The chat is free and can be accessed by visiting - www.teampr.info/chatroom.htm

Kathrine Switzer will always be best known as the woman who challenged the all-male tradition of the Boston Marathon and became the first woman to officially enter and run the event. Her entry created an uproar and worldwide notoriety when a race official tried to forcibly remove her from the competition. Three decades later, the incident continues to capture the public imagination and is, in part, the reason Switzer has dedicated her multi-faceted career to creating opportunities and equal sport status for women. That career has included creating programs in 27 countries for over 1 million women that led to the inclusion of the women's marathon as an official event in the Olympic Games, changing forever the face of sports, health and opportunities for women around the world. As a leader, athlete and woman, Switzer continues to inspire women everywhere. She tells her story in her new book, Marathon Woman, which was recently released on the 40th anniversary of her first running of the Boston Marathon. To read Kathrine's complete bio and to visit her website - Click Here

5 Mile Happy Days Run

Can anyone guess what is on the right side of this picture?

Tonight my brother and I ran a quick 5 mile run by starting at Happy Days, heading over to the 1.5 mile Pine Grove trail, and then coming back via the Octogon trail and doing a short section of the Boston Run trail. Boy... we sure look happy in this picture!!

Tami's first 10K

Today my wife Tami ran her first 10K in Cleveland at the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon, 10K, & Half Marathon. She was only anticipating running between 60 and 70 minutes but finished with a chip time of 59:29, breaking an hour by about 30 seconds and finishing in the top half of female runners. I am very proud of her and hope that this will continue to build her confidence for future races.

Pine Lane to Snowville Rd.

This morning, for the 3rd weekend in a row, I decided to get in another 18.5 mile run. I met Greg Murray at Pine Lane and we ran the Buckeye Trail to Snowville Rd. Along the way we ran into another one of my friend's, Derek, who was late meeting us this morning so he decided to start from the Boston Store and run towards us. After we passed the Boston Store we noticed some commotion over by the railroad tracks and realized that the "Thomas the Tank Engine" tour was in town. We couldn't pass up this opportunity and went over to check out the animals with all the children. This was definitely an unexpected twist to our run today...

After we made it to Snowville Rd. and were heading back to Pine Lane we ran into another runner on the trail - John Pope. He was very friendly to chat with and we ran with him all the way until the Boston Store where he was parked. Here's a picture of us close to Blue Hen Falls and a few other photos I took while the sun was coming out on our way back to Pine Lane...

MMT 100 Miler

Good luck to my friends and N.E. Ohio Trail Club members - Bob Combs, Roy Heger, Bill Losey, Joe Novicky, and David Peterman - as they set out to run the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 Miler at 5:00 AM this morning. I will be watching their progress on the web. For live updates during the race visit - www.vhtrc.org/mmt/update.htm

If you're happy and you know it...

My brother Jeff, Greg, and I (from left to right) met up tonight around 6:30 for a trail run from Happy Days to Kendall Hills and back (7 miles). The weather was absolutely perfect for a run. Sunny and 70 degrees with very low humidity.

Happy Days to Kendall Lake

After work today my sister Jamie decided to drive back to Streetsboro with me to run some trails. We parked at the Happy Days Visitor Center and ran from there to Kendall Lake and back, and also added in the 2 mile loop which is the course for the upcoming "No Frills, Just Hills" FA run. The temperature was cooler today but great for running. At the start it was mostly cloudy and looked like the clouds were going to open up, but by the time we got back to our cars the skies were clearing up and we were treated to a nice sunset. Total miles - 7.5

Here's Jamie stopping just in time before falling off a cliff

Jamie enjoyed the run so much that she made out with a CCC worker

Jeff turns 21

Here's my brother drinking his first official beer. This is the best that he'd look all night. For a more detailed report of the evening talk to me in person!

Deja Vu

This morning I met up with Greg Murray to do a long run from Pine Lane to Snowville Rd. and back (18.5 miles). This was the first time running with Greg after meeting him on the VR message board. The weather seemed incredibly similar to my long run here last weekend (sunny and 60) and I was looking forward to another awesome day of running. Greg originally planned to just run an out and back from Pine Lane to the Boston Store because of a previous knee injury, but after running with me for awhile he realized that he could probably keep up the pace for awhile longer and decided to go the whole way with me to Snowville Rd. We both finished feeling relatively good and Greg even decided to sign up for the BT50K following our run. Here are some photos from the day...

Does anyone know what this plant is called?

Easy like Sunday morning

This morning I met up with the Vertical Runner group at Pine Lane at 7:00 am. Once everyone arrived, there were probably around 10 or so runners. Among those that I already knew were Brett Himes, Jim Chaney, Lindsey Loftus, Bob Clarke, and Mel from Vertical Runner. Everyone started out on the Buckeye Trail and headed towards the Boston Store to do an out and back. Jim and a couple others ran the BT but veered right on the first pavement path that intersects the trail to go measure a section of the Burning River course near Happy Days. My plan for the day was to run to Brecksville and back to complete the BT50K course in reverse. I wasn't able to talk anyone into joining me though, so I just decided to run until I felt like turning around.

I met a couple new people this morning - Chris (left in picture) and John - and stuck with them all the way until the Boston Store since they were running at a slower pace. They were both nice to talk to. John told me he had too much cheap wine to drink last night and I could definitely tell every time he breathed.

The trails were pretty sloppy due to all the rain we had yesterday but the weather was great! Skies eventually became mostly sunny and the temperature was in the low 50s. The air was very crisp and refreshing today. Some sections of the trail were dry but there were parts that were extremely wet and muddy.

After leaving the group at the Boston Store I continued on the BT on the other side of Riverview Rd. and thought to myself... Do I really want to go all the way to Brecksville by myself today? It's always more fun to spend time on the trail with other runners but it was an incredibly gorgeous day. Hmm... I decided that I'd just play it by ear. Here are some pictures I took along the way...

When I reached the power lines I had to stop for awhile and enjoy the view. The warm sun and the cool breeze felt awesome...

About a half mile or so past the power lines I saw this tree on the left side of the trail that had some pretty flowers. Does anyone know what kind of tree this is?

Soon I reached Snowville Rd. and decided that 18.5 miles would be enough for me today. The good thing was that I felt great during and after the run and could've gone longer if necessary. Hopefully we'll continue having many more spring days like this!