Wirefly National Marathon in Washington DC on March 24th

Hey, since I'm not running myself I might advertise for a marathon I've heard about in Washington, DC, on March 24th. It's the Wirefly National Marathon, which is obviously sponsored by Wirefly and is a marathon around the greater Washington DC area and looks pretty interesting to me. Unfortunately I'm still running track or I'd consider running it since it's a Boston Marathon qualifier for all you fast guys out there as it's sanctionned by the USATF.

Just looking over the course map and elevation profile for you guys, it's a pretty decently flat course, a couple small rolling hills then a solid hill (75 ft elevation) around the 19th mile, so right before you hit the wall you'll get hit with a nice uphill but after that it flattens out 2 miles later and you can coast it in. I don't know how fast times are there since the winner only ran a 2:30, which isn't that fast so either the course is challenging still or the quality of the field wasn't up to par. That can be good for those looking to score a bit of prize money. Also the half-marathon had a winner with a 1:08 time, which is pretty nice, so the course isn't that slow, it really depends on the field.

There's other reason to run the marathon though. It's a great challenger for those non-runners or beginning runners out there, and it's for a good cause. The Wirefly National Marathon benefits a number of causes such under the League of Charities, such as the YMCA, Special Olympics, etc. You have to admit running and helping out people is a great thing, for yourself and for those you're helping out.

If you're looking for a spring marathon or willing to give it a shot, check out the Wirefly National Marathon in Washington, DC. As usual, post your thoughts on it? What marathons or races you run?

-Steve

Week off running and Yoga

Hey no track updates this week since I have the week off. It's nice not having to run at 7am, or run twice a day. I've been relaxing, I only lifted and ran 3 miles Monday and today, and I feel great. I lifed 225 easily on my squats (full squats), went through my workout no problem, ran 7min mile pace easily and I feel rested.

Friday I'm going to run and lift but with one change, I'm going to attempt Yoga for the first time. It looks like a challenge, I've never done it, nor have I even been flexible either, so I'm really looking forward to it. What you guys think? Ever done Yoga? Let me know.

-Steve

Nice new health site, great for a quick reference

I was looking for some quick article on Arthritis to give to my mother when I stumbled upon this new health site. It's a Medical Health Information Resource with articles on everything from Fibromyalgia to Skin Care. The best thing about the site is that the articles aren't long, they're brief and to the point while still being very easy to understand for the common person. They're made for real people, not doctors, so if something's bothering you, take a look for some quick info, might help you out.

Thanks,

-Steve

Tags: Medical Information, Medial Articles

Negatives and Positives at the NYU Last Chance

Yesterday was my last chance to qualify for IC4A's, which is a championship meet where entries get in on time, and unfortunately, I didn't qualify. I had a good shot of making it in the 1000m, I was ranked 8th, was in the fast heat, yet it didn't pan out. I could blame the fact that the WHOLE heat ran slow, no one in the heat made the qualifying standard, but people in the other heat did, so there's really no excuse, I should've gotten up and ran.

The second race of the day was a big positive for me in that I overcame my fear to take the lead and PUSH. I was the lead off leg of the Distance Medley Relay, which is a 1200-400-800-1600 meter relay, so I left it off, and I ran a really solid time of 3:08 for my split. Overall we improved like 6 seconds, but I improved like 8 seconds, so we slowed down as a team apart from me, so we got work to do.

That was the last race of my indoor season, which was a pretty decent season, where I learnt a lot, but it was my last season as a collegiate athlete. Last chance is outdoors, and I got nothing left to lose.

More later,

-Steve

Nice car site, Lemonfree.com

I'm in need of an automobile to take on weekend road-trips, since the Greyhound can only take you so far, and one of the best used cars sites I've found has to be Lemonfree.com. They have easily one of the largest Used Cars classifieds or directories that I've seen, much bigger than Craigslist. It's really a great site since it not only has the car you're looking for, but the information on the car in boxes comparing the different models and engines, the recalls on the cars, the crash test results, mileage on the highway. Take for example Honda Civics, if you search for one, then select it, all this will appear, making your decision easier which helps you choose the right car.



I love Civics, my father has owned 2, and I'm looking into getting a 97 or a 98 for myself. Anyone else have any good Used Cars they want to share with me? Post away,

-Steve

Another race this weekend, and an interesting story of a Sudanese basketball player

Hey once again I've had another tough week at practice, 6x300m at under 43 seconds, so that's pretty exhausting, but overall I'm still in one piece. I have what could be my last indoor race of the season. It's called the NYU Last Chance meet, it's on Friday at the Armory, and it's a place where people who haven't made standards in their events to quality for IC4A or NCAA championships give it a last shot. I'm going to try to qualify in the 1000m, I'm ranked 8th so I have a shot.

Also in other news I read a really good article on a Sudanese basketball player who's from war-torn Sudan (the region close to Darfur I think). He has a really riviting story of what he's been through with his home country, his family and his career. It's quite amazing to tell the truth, and worth the read. You can check it out HERE if you want.

Enjoy!

-Steve

Help make some money blogging for Payperpost

I haven't spoken much about Payperpost on this blog since it's relatively new compared to my long established blog but I've been with Payperpost for over 6 months on my other, more established blog. What payperpost has allowed me to do is great, I've been able to pay my school taxes (going to NYC on a track scholarship isn't free), have some spending money, buy my parents gifts, including paying for the installation of Satellite TV for them and much more.

The next big thing for my Payperpost money is going to be helping finance that trip to China I've been talking about in a post below. Every dollar I make with Payperpost, and I've nearly made $2000, I'm only 19 dollars shy, will help make that trip a reality. Payperpost has been great to me, they've sent me some free stuff. I love writing about products and things I enjoy, just like the Eurail site I spoke about earlier, since I've actually taken the train around Europe and I have first hand experience. I don't see it so much as sponsored content but as promoting the things you like and enjoy. Maybe that's me, but I love Payperpost and their staff, and I'm 100% sure you will as well.

Check them out at http://www.payperpost.com and get paid to blog about the things you love!

-Steve

Tags: Payperpost, Paid Blogging

Peter Forsberg Traded!

Sorry if you're not a hockey fan but there's some big news in the NHL tonight. Peter Forsberg, the 1991 1st round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers who played most of his career in Quebec City/Colorado before returning to the Flyers a couple of seasons ago, has been traded to the Nashville Predators.

What the Flyers got in return were forward Scottie Upshall, defenseman Ryan Parent and two draft picks.

Pretty amazing news, since it means Nashville is even stronger now with the addition of Forsberg they can really make a serious charge for the cup. Sure they lose out on some long-term future stability after losing 1st and 3rd round picks but that's the price you pay to win sometimes.

On other sports news my favorite soccer team Arsenal beat Bolton 3-1 to advance in the FA Cup, just thought I remind you guys since it happened on Tuesday.

Enjoy my sports update,

-Steve

Tags: Peter Forsberg, Predators, Arsenal, Avalanche

When travelling to Europe, think about getting a Eurail Pass

When me and Carter went to Europe in the summer of 2004, we had 10 days to travel around and we had to choose the best and most economical option of getting around since we had such a short time. Being that we wanted to get around the most countries without the logistics, costs and hassles of an airport, we bought a Eurail student pass, which is similar to the eurail global pass but it's for those under 26. It allowed us 5 days of unlimited travel around Europe, minus a few fees for extras such as our Hotel Car which gave us a good nights sleep from Milan to Barcelona. It's a great way to travel and it's cheap, we only paid 150 pound, and it saved us easily double that. Check out the RailShopper.com for more information on all the Eurail pass types, it really could save you a lot of time and money, and make your travel much easier.

Enjoy the free tip!

-Steve

Tags: Eurail Pass, Trains, Europe

Trip to China, planning has begun

Yep for those who don't know I'm hoping to take a trip to China in the 2nd half of August until the 1st week of September. The dates aren't 100% certain yet since and my friend, Carter, who has a house down there, haven't figured out the details but we've begun to undertake the details and logistics of taking the trip down there.

So far a flight to Beijing from New York is around $1000, which isn't too bad, but then we gotta figure out how to get from Beijing to my friends house, then what we're going to do, and all those little things. So far we want to visit Tibet, Great Wall, and many other things. It should be a great way to start off my post-university life.

More news later, but anyone with any suggestions/tips for airfare or travel to China is welcome.

-Steve

Tags: Travelling to China, China

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition

I'm a sports fan, and so is my father, so I've been reading the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition for many years now. It's great since I've seen all the models come and go, from Tyra Banks to Kathy Ireland and Heidi Klum, pretty much all of them. This year they choose Beyonce for the cover, which is pretty sweet since she's beautiful and she's the in girl right now. You guys can go direct to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition website for all the pictures, and this year they got a great amount of mobile content in the form of cell phone wallpapers. They're straight from the photo shoots in the magazine, and they're only $1.99 to get your favorite model directly on your phone with you all the time. Can't go wrong with that, since having a nice model on your background can make anyone's day better, even on a day like this.

Check it out and tell me which one you pick, I enjoy this one below, she's smoking.



Hope that makes your day a bit better, it's helping mine after the long day,

-Steve

Tags: Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, SI

Tough Practice

It seems I only come here to talk about the tough practices or races and not the easy ones. Maybe that's only because I remember the hard ones and don't care about the easy ones, lol.

Today there's a snow storm in New York, so instead of running morning practice, I had to run at 6:15am for 30 mins on the treadmill. Normally easy but it makes you feel tired later on in the day. So around comes 3pm, I'm already feeling crappy, and we have a hard workout, 800-400-400 with little rest in between. The times were 2:12 for 800m, and 64 for the 400m, not the toughest times but still tough since we had 2 days off and I was up early today. Luckily I hit all my times, 2:11, 2:12 for the 2 800's, and 64.4,64.4,64.3 and 62.7 for the 400's, so I managed to get through it. I felt like throwing up after but I did it.

Yep not too interesting but that's pretty much what I feel like on this crappy day.

More later,

-Steve

Tags: Track

Need an orthopaedics surgeon? Try Gustafson Orthopaedics

Those who know me know I've battled injuries throughout my track career, and unfortunately those injuries took me out of competition for the better part of 2 years. I had 2 cartilage tears in my hip, which caused me tremendous amounts of Joint Pain, one inside the acetabulum and another in the labrum which holds the bone into the hip joint (the Athletic Trainer in me is talking right now). The only way to deal with these kind of tears is through rehabilitation or surgery. The rehab didn't go well, however surgery worked for me. That's why having a good orthopaedist is instrumental in recovering from these kinds of injuries. A good docter, like Dr. Allen Gustafson, who's a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon, can provide you the basis for dealing with these kinds of injuries and many other types of joint or bone pain. They have a complete protocol involving the following steps:

* Thorough evaluation and accurate diagnosis of joint pain
* Effective treatment recommendations
* Patient education resources
* Expert surgical intervention, if needed
* A complete recovery program

It's a very complete program, similar to what my clients get at the Athletic Training room I work at, and I definetly recommend it. Check out Dr. Gustafson's website to learn more about this and let me know how it's working out for you.

Thanks,

-Steve

Good day for me at Conference!

Yea just updating you guys on the races on Sunday. Unfortunately things don't always go to plan, I wanted to medal, I was ranked 4th in the 800m and was hoping to improve on that. I came 6th, and ran a time slower than the day before, but I was happy on how I ran the race. Things just didn't work for me.

I also ran the Mile, where I finished 8th but managed to set an Indoor personal best at 4:25. I'm much faster than that, I didn't even feel that good but ran hard and just couldn't turn on the jets went I want to at the end of the race.

My last event for the day was the Distance Medley Relay. I led it off, running an average 3:16 for the 1200m, however I was only in 5th when I handed off the Baton. My fresher teammates were able to get our team into 4th place by the time we handed off the baton to our last member, Dan, who was running the mile leg. He ran his heart out, and unfortunately, as he was crossing the line, he got passed at the end, and hit the guy who passed him with the stick. He didn't mean to, it was a kind of reaction, and instead of finishing 5th we were Disqualified. IT happens however I'm still proud of my team, we ran our hearts out, it just didn't happen for us.

I'm just happy at the overall weekend, who knew I could come back from Hip Surgery to be a conference finalist in 2 events and compete for medals. The best thing is that I keep improving, so things are looking good for outdoors. I just can't wait for the weather to improve.

My indoor season isn't done yet, so more news from the indoor track will be coming.

Until then, enjoy some of the other aspects of this blog,

-Steve

Place I want to visit for today - Bulgaria

Since Bulgaria just joined the EU I've heard a lot of good things about the country. They got some nice beaches, great ski resorts and tons of nice sites and places to visit. I haven't been to any former communist countries yet but I think I'd make Bulgaria one of the first countries I visit in Eastern Europe. I'm guessing property in Bulgaria has to be cheap to, and if it's on the rise then maybe it might be a good investment. What you guys think?

More later,

-Steve

Updates from Maryland and the NEC Indoor Championships

Hey guys, quick post updating everyone how I did on Saturday at the NEC Championships (read previous posts for more details) in Landover, MD.

I made the finals in both the 800m and the Mile! It's a first at NEC's for me but it should've happened many years ago but various things such as injuries, lack of fitness and lack of experience.

So that means I don't only have 2 Finals today to run, I have the Distance Medley Relay, for a total of 3 races for the day.

Yep long day, wish me luck and there'll be updates later.

-Steve

Random places I want to visit

When I travelled to Europe in the Summer of 2004, I had a blast and visit many countries, including Italy. I found Italy had the most history, it seemed everywhere in Rome and it was beautiful. I wonder how expensive Italian property must be, can't be too cheap in Rome, even more in Venice, another place I was fortunate enough to visit. I just found out George Clooney has a house there too, must be nice.

Alright that's my random travel thought for the day.

Enjoy,

-Steve

NEC Indoor Conference Championships!

Hey I'm in the hotel waiting for my races tomorrow. I'm running the Mile, which takes place at 1:20pm, and the 800m, wich is around 4, so I have enough time to recover for the 800m.

Yep I'm a little nervous, I took an ice bath so I'm nice and relaxed, my muscles don't feel like crap. Don't know wat else to say, just gotta represent my school, get into the finals on Sunday, and feel good.

Alright enough for now,

-Steve

Can't wait for conference

I'm leaving tomorrow for the NEC (Northeast Conference) Indoor Track and Field Championships in Prince George Country, Maryland. It's exciting for me this year since I'm in great enough shape to compete for a medal, not just making a final. It was tough last year going there and not making the finals nor being able to run the DMR, and now I've gotten to exactly where I should be.

I'm going to post more about it but that's the only thing going on. Track workouts have been great, and I feel great, so let's see what happens.

More later,

-Steve

Tags: NEC, Track

Yes the Colts won

As everyone probably knows by know, the Colts have won the Super Bowl by the score of 29-17. It was actually a closer game than the score suggested, with the Bears defence keeping them in the game, unfortunately Rex Grossman and the bears offence couldn't get it going at all and they lost.

There's a lot of talk about Peyton Manning shedding the curse of never winning the big game, but all he did was play smart, his teammates really did all the work, with Addai and Rhodes coming up big and the Defence shutting down the Bears all he had to do was not lose the game.

Also, I hear some rumours about Tony Dungy possibly leaving the Colts and retiring, I wonder why he would do that, unless he's tired or still reeling from the loss of his son. He's got the Super Bowl champions, a great offence, a defence that works, why wouldn't he come back.

Anyways that's my sports rant for the day, and the Canadiens won.

More tomorrow on track,

-Steve

Tags: Super Bowl, Colts, Tony Dungy

Super Bowl Predictions?

Bored at the library as usual waiting to watch the Big Game today. I know everyone is talking about it, the newspapers, internet, ESPN, every other TV station, etc. But since the Colts are 7 point favorites who do you think will win? Will it be the Colts with their powerful offence? Or will it be the Bears and their ferocious D?

I'm going for the Colts, but you never know with the Super Bowl. Anyways post your thoughts/predictions.

-Steve

Hey I'm ranked 4th in the NEC in the 800m

Wow I actually have a decent ranking for once in an event. I'm ranked 4th in the 800m after my 1:56 yesterday. There's still some other races around but I shouldn't be any worse than 5th. Maybe I can even medal at conference if things go well.

Update as I write this, I just checked the Performance Rankings of the NEC at Direct Athletics and I'm still 4th, however there's 5 guys at 1:57, so it's crowded at the top. Should be interesting this weekend.

Alright more later, including Super Bowl stuff and predictions!

-Steve

Just got back from Yale

I have never run a track race in Conneticut nor have I been to Yale so it was interesting when Coach Sandiford took us up there to run today. I had heard the track was fast, since it was a banked 200m Mondo rubber track, but never ran there so I didn't know what to expect. I wished I had more time to explore, since there was a lot of nice facilities and things to see but I was there for business, not pleasure pretty much. Overall I was happy with the track but all wasn't good once I was about to start my first race, the Mile.

We all got up to the line, and there wasn't much space since it's a 4 lane track and once everyone moved up I was pushed in between 2 ppl. That made me off balance and before the gun went off I fell and false started. I wasn't too happy and they DQ'ed me. Oh well I was pissed but there's not much I could do about it.

Next up was the 800m, and while I was still fuming from the Mile I had to set it aside and run the race. I had my former teammates from Canada who had gotten scholarships to Georgetown there watching me and I couldn't let them down. So I went out, ran really nice splits of 56 on the 1st 400 and followed up with a 60 second 2nd 400 and ran a 1:56.79. I finished 3rd but I was set since I had a good heat and we all ran hard. I wonder how that places me in terms of the conference.

Alright more later,

-Steve

Waste of time at the New Balance Collegiate Invitiational

Yea I just spent all day today at the New Balance collegiate invitiational in the Bronx today. I didn't even get to run so it was a real waste of time. I was supposed to be in the 1000m but they only ran 3 heats so I was an alternate. Therefore I had to wait for people to strach from the race to run. People did since I saw some people not start the race yet they wouldn't allow me nor my teammate to run. It was crock of crap (for lack of better words).

Oh well going to Yale tomorrow to run there in their meet, should be good and fast and a lot of decent schools are going. More news tomorrow,

-Steve