Mill Creek Park Trail Run

(view of Lake Glacier from the Fellows Riverside Gardens building)

This morning Bob Combs and I headed over to Mill Creek Park in Youngstown for a trail run and to do some trail maintenance on the YUT-C 50K course. We met at the Fellows Riverside Gardens parking lot around 8:00am and then headed out for a URINEO loop (approx. 8 miles). On the run we noticed that the majority of trees down from the last big storm were on the west side of Lake Glacier. Besides this area though, the trails were in decent shape. On the run I was also able to capture a few more videos of the YUT-C 50K course, which will soon be posted on the race page to give runners a virtual tour.

As you can see from this picture taken at the waterfall at Lanterman's Mill, we definitely have not been getting much rain lately. Usually this waterfall has a tremendous amount of water flowing over... today it was broken up into 2 separate falls.

Rockin' On The River

Tami and I headed over to the Falls River Square in downtown Cuyahoga Falls tonight to check out the only nationally touring Dave Matthews Tribute Band which hails from Nashville, Tennessee. This is part of the Rockin' on the River Concert Series, which takes place every Friday from May 25th through August 31st. Along with the music there are food stands and beer/drink tents scattered about. The best part about this event is that admission and parking are free. The band was pretty good and sounded a lot like Dave Matthews. As you can see from the picture above it was jammed pack full of people. The amphitheater can be seen on the left side of the picture where the white pillars are. Luckily we were able to find an open balcony on a nearby building to stand on and capture these pictures....

Geneva-on-the-Lake

With the nice weather this weekend, my wife Tami and I decided to head up to Lake Erie today. This is where we got married last July 14th (which is also the same day as the Buckeye Trail 50K this year)... at the Lodge at Geneva. My family was also planning on going to the lake today and renting a cottage for the evening at The Kramer Cottages, which is next to Geneva's famous summertime hangout, Eddie's Grill.

After enjoying one of Eddie's famous foot long hot dogs, we headed over to Chalet Debonne (one of our favorite wineries). They had outdoor music under their tent, as they usually do on weekends, which we enjoyed along with some great appetizers and wine.

After leaving Chalet Debonne, we then headed back up to the lake in time to enjoy a beautiful Lake Erie sunset at the Lakehouse Inn & Winery. Here are a few pictures of the recent additions they have made to add more outdoor seating which overlooks the lake... They did a really nice job...

Some sunset photos I took.....

Dancing the Bear

This evening I decided to purchase a new DVD on Amazon.com entitled "Dancing the Bear". The Bear 100-Mile Endurance Run is the backdrop for this story of two women and their emotional journey through southern Idaho's Bear River Mountain Range. Pushing their bodies to the limit, they strive to accomplish the impossible, to run 100 miles of wild mountain trails in less than 35 hours. Looks like this film will be a good one. I'm already looking forward to getting it in the mail.

To view the movie trailer - CLICK HERE

Here are a few other movies that I own and recommend:

Chariots of Fire

Fire on the Track

Four Minutes

Prefontaine

Running on the Sun

Touching the Void

Without Limits

Peter Frampton & Doobie Brothers Concert

A few days ago my brother and I decided to surprise our dad by purchasing tickets for the Peter Frampton & Doobie Brothers concert that was being held at the Chevy Centre in Youngstown on Father's Day. Tickets were around $40, but with the small size of the arena, 2 big name groups, and affordable food/concessions, it was definitely worth it! Anywhere you sit in the arena is pretty much a good seat. This was my first concert at the Chevy Centre but I hope to make it back there again sometime soon to check out another one.

As for the show, both bands played all of their hit songs and spent a lot of time getting the crowd involved. It was great being able to see two legendary artists at such a small venue, and being able to spend it with our dad on Father's Day made it even more enjoyable.

My brother (left), dad (middle), and me (right)

Here are a few videos that I took at the concert tonight...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjlFo_pAOes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU6WljRosEA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPdGtsvvnE8

To view all of the videos I took - CLICK HERE

Mill Creek Park - Storm Damage

To take advantage of the perfect sunny 80 degree day today, my brother and I decided to drive over to Mill Creek Park to record some video of the Youngstown 50K course, which I will soon post on the race website. This will allow runners to get a better perspective of the course, especially where there are important turns to make.

On our way to Mill Creek Park we decided to stop at A&W and pick up a few foot long coney dogs and fries. After eating lunch, we started taking videos and pictures of the course and noticed the large amount of damage that resulted from last Friday's storm that blew through Youngstown. There were reports of hail as large as softballs and winds gusting over 65 mph! Luckily the 50K course was in pretty decent shape but once we got up by Lanterman's Mill we noticed a sign saying that the Mill was closed due to storm damage and also a sign stating that the boardwalk path north of the Mill was closed due to unstable soil. Hopefully the park will have the boardwalk fixed by September since it is part of the 50K course. The good news is this section is highly traveled by visitors, which should put it on the top of their priority list.

The rest of the pictures we took will be posted on the race website soon.

Ohio Police & Fire 5K

Today I decided to drive to my hometown for the 5th Annual Ohio Police & Fire 5K in downtown Warren, Ohio. Even though I am still getting back on track after running the Cleveland Marathon and not really in tip-top shape for a 5K, I decided to give it a whirl. This is one of my favorite 5K races since the course is run on my old training grounds, plus they offer quality t-shirts and refreshments afterwards.

So... during the week I tried to put together a team of 5 people like I had done in the past (this race has team competition based on cross country scoring). I was able to get Pat Dillon and Eric Pustay to agree early on. Eric said that he had a friend (Lance Ronghi) that would run with us, which gave us 4 people on our team. Now we just needed to find one more person on the day of the race. When we all met up the morning of the race Eric saw another runner he knew (Greg Mickel) that said he would join us, so now we were ready to go!

As the race began, the runners up front pulled me along and I could tell that once again this would be another 5K where I was going out a little too fast... When I reached the first mile in 6:18 I knew that the last couple of miles would hurt! However, my breathing was doing fine. It was just my legs that felt a little tired. The 2nd mile I slowed up but was still able to do it in 6:57. Now I just kept telling myself to hang tough for the last mile. The last mile is really flat except for a pretty big hill that leads you out of this city park and into downtown for the finish. Once I got to the top of that hill I gathered myself and finished the last mile in 7:28, which gave me a 21:20 finish time and an average pace of 6:53. I was very happy with my time considering that I had not done much speedwork lately and was glad that I made it out for the run this morning.

The rest of our team did great as well. Lance Ronghi finished 2nd overall with a time of 17:17. Greg Mickel finished 3rd overall with a time of 17:22. Pat Dillon finished 4th overall with a time of 17:39. And Eric Pustay finished 24th overall with a time of 21:17.

Here's a picture of the medal that we each recieved for placing 2nd out of all teams...

I was also given a nice award for placing 2nd in the Male 25-29 age group... (kind of looks like me huh?)

Click Here to view complete results or Click Here to check out more pictures from the race