Juneathon Day 30 - Liberty Sandwich with a Side of Juneathon

It's over.

Let's be honest.

Juneathon cannot compare with Janathon.
Sure, you might have a warm day here or there.
You might be tired.
Unwilling to sacrifice precious daylight for precocious blogging.
But, that's it.

No freezing temps.
Ice storms.
Snow storms.
Thundersnow.

That said, Juneathon was still a good test.
Logged 105 miles this month which is about half of what I should have done.
But that's because I had to focus on biking and swimming as well.

So to wrap up quickly.

Within the past week, I have now consumed a Liberty Sandwich.

Liberty Island swim.
My first visit to the Liberty Bell.
And today, another encounter with Lady Liberty.

What's up with that?
Um, not my fault.

Last week, I had a race in New York Harbor and another in Philly.
This week, we entertain out-of-state relatives with their anticipated visits to, oh, uh, New York Harbor and Philly.
Thank you, sweet Irony.

Today was my first sightseeing trip to NYC.
I fell in love.
Need to go back.
Need to run 26.2 miles there.
Need to get a real personal picture with this guy.

He was a little too busy today.

Meanwhile in Juneathon land, I ran twice.
1 mile at home to start the day.
Another mile at Liberty State Park (Jersey City, NJ) to retrieve our extra camera battery and memory card before the ferry departed.

Juneathon was fun.
I did not participate in the blogging as much as preferred.
Still, props to Erin and Hennie.
Committed Juneathoners, and great storytellers. A fun blog post every day. And inspiring runs in the face of adversity.

And while my carpal tunnel would advise me to never blog again, I have a few races throughout the summer, so I'll pop back up.

Thanks to all of the fellow Juneathoners for putting in the time and effort.
And thanks to You. For reading and some of you for persisting in a personal Commentathon.
You know it helps.

And finally.
The kids had a sleepover tonight, so no bedtime.
But had we a bedtime, here was the intended post-NYC lullaby.

Juneathon Day 28 - Just a Filler Post

I know I know.
Today I was supposed to publish my Liberty Island race report.
Tomorrow. I promise.

Today was instead spent in Philly.
Beautiful day to be out.

I mean, if it helps, I am wearing the shirt we got at the swim.

So while I could have been typing up a nice long post, I was playing Dad all day.
Normal Dad things like comforting your son while urban wildlife look on.

We learned a lesson in that picture.
When you ask your kiddo, "Want to bring your sunglasses?" and he says, "No."
We learned that you should bring the sunglasses anyway.
Lest he be blinded by sun glare.

Did I Juneathon?

Did I have a choice?

Woke up, sprung out of bed for 2.5 strong miles.

On the unstrong side of things, I'm having a little bit of exercise-induced asthma. Or at least, restricted airway.
That hasn't happened since I first started seriously running back in 20 aught 4.

My IT Bands are also really sore from the Philly Tri.
I've been sticking them, but just barely keeping them in check.

So that's the deal.
Maybe I'll have a tad more time to bloggify tomorrow.
If not, I'll just produce the compressed report and go about life.
My dozen faithful blog readers probably don't care one way or another.

End the day with lullabies.
After citying all day, the kids were exhausted, so bedtime was succinct.

Classic Tuesday night song


To which Goodles replied with his final sleepy thoughts, "Why do you always sing the same songs?"
Because you kids don't seem to respond well to new lullabies.

But to answer his question as desired.


2 more days of Juneathoning.
We can do it.

Juneathon Day 27 - Who Swims? Who Bikes?

Who Hoots?

The kids and I loved reading that book.
It's the type of baby book I can slip in every now and then because we like to entertain independent reading.

This is one of my favorite training times of the year.
But, I'll fess up. (I'm also not sure that "fess" is a word.)
No, I confess that I have so many favorite days and times of year that the whole concept is diluted.

So the current favorite of the day of the week of the year:
No more triathlon training.
Just ultramarathon training.

Whew.
What a relief.
Burden off my shoulders.

Plus.
And what Juneathoner wouldn't enjoy this?
Sleep.

One of my guardian angels asked me to sleep more.
Here you have it.

I'm trying to average 8 hours of sleep per day, at least for a straight week.
And if that means I have to take a nap, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to commit.

So, how was Juneathon Day 27?
Hard.

A hard 5 miler effort on tired legs of a tired body with a tired mind.
But, I pushed through it, with all the effort I had.

Gotta go Stick my legs now, then off to bed.
Tomorrow is another Libertastic day in the life, so I should have some pretty pictures and an overdue race report.

For now, two fresh lullabies, proven successes by my two sleeping kids.

New Eminem Video


I do intend to raise well-adjusted kids.
They only get a few edited/polished lines from the song plus the chorus and they sure as hell aren't watching that video.

Tonight's other song is just chill.
I was reading KRS-One lyrics earlier and this song seemed fitting.


KRS-One is a rapper, his name means Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone.

Wow, 3 days of Juneathon left.
I'll have to figure out how to celebrate.

Juneathon Day 25 - For the Kids

The kids and I woke from our coma this morning with a busy little day ahead of us.
With a busy little day behind us.

Since we were out until nearly midnight, I carefully OK'd the plans with them, but when the plans involve the Philly Tri Kids Fun Run, all you get is an emphatic, "Yes!"

Off we went.

Hit the Philly Tri expo.
I don't do expos.

Signed the kids up for the Fun Run.
Made some cheerleader signs.

Did the packet pickup. Got my free t-shirt.

Then we had time to kill so we hit the Please Touch Museum.
I limited the kids to just a few exhibits. Difficult.
I promised we'd go back, briefly, after the run.

First there was a kids duathlon (children ages 7 and up) in progress as we walked over to the race course.
It cleared out and the young kids were lined up in age groups for their respective dashes.

I set up as cheerleader.

They both had a great race, collected their finisher medals, a soft pretzel and water.

We walked back over to the Please Touch Museum and played some more.
Then we were off quickly to fulfill the remainder of the day's family obligations.

No lullabies tonight. The kids are staying at my in-laws.
Which means they won't be at the race tomorrow.
Guess how I feel about that?

HoneyBunny and I just sang a little song to cheer her up as she said goodbye.


You can choreograph that song pretty well.
Pretend to drop your kid half a dozen times.
Always generates a smile.

But, you're not interested in today's lullaby.

And, you still probably don't care to hear about the Liberty Island Swim.
Like how we got into the water and what the starting line looked like.


You just want to hear about Juneathon Day 25.

Fine.

This evening, I got my gear together for tomorrow's triathlon.
Properly inflated my bike tires and took it for a spin around the block.

Stowed the bike in our truck and then hit the road for a nice 1 mile run.
During that run, I told my legs how fast I need them to run tomorrow.
And asked them to hold it for 10K.

It should be fun to see how it works out.

Juneathon Day 22 - Almost Wasn't

This post will be short and semi-sweet
Because I am tired and semi-asleep

Started the day with a swim.
Mostly freestyle.

Honestly, my primary reason for being at the pool was to talk with a girl at the gym who promised she'd bring in a 25% off Saucony coupon. My ProGrid Ride 3's are starting to hurt my feet.
Good, we swam next to each other and the coupon was received. It is actually 15% off but I'll see how far it will go for me.

We were the only two swimmers in the pool. Normally there are 6.
Turns out there were thunderstorms last night during my 4 intense hours of sleep.

Everyone figured the pool would be closed due to lightning.
It is an indoor pool, but that's an electrocution precaution.

Like my mom didn't let us take baths/showers during thunderstorms. That's normal, right?
I don't think I enforce that rule with my kids.

After work, I was expecting to change the oil in my car, then hit a casual bike and a short run.
Oh, but instead we went to a local carnival (we were supposed to go tomorrow).

Backup. Before the carnival, I took the kids to a local restaurant to fulfill today's promotion:
Bring your kid dressed up to satisfy their "Under the Sea" theme and they get a free meal.
Awesome.

Honeybunny was Ariel of The Little Mermaid.
Goodles does not have an "Under the Sea" costume. He was gonna wear HoneyBunny's standby Ariel dress.
But then he said people would think he is weird.
Where did that come from? We care what other people think?

After a little bit of moping, we had a resolution.
His Finding Nemo costume. From when he was about 2 years old.
He squeezed in and we rolled up to dinner. I've never seen him happier.

So how did the carnival affect my Juneathon?
Well, we were out the door 20 minutes after I got home and we stayed at the carnival until 10PM.

That left only 2 hours to find some Juneathoning.
But my wife also had to babysit, predicting until 11:30PM.
I almost just went to bed and called Juneathon quits. Believe that?

My wife popped in the door just as I finished bedtime stories.

I got to run out for yet another quick Mile. Juneathon Day 22. Done.

Here's your lullabies of the day.

Ben Folds - You Don't Know Me


HoneyBunny started singing along to this song at age 3. She quickly decided we would make it a duet.
She still gets mad when I sing the Regina Spektor parts by accident.
And yes, I do obfuscate the F-bomb every single time we listen to it.
Lovely song. Weird, weird video.

Oasis - Champagne Supernova


One of my favorite memories is walking in the door from work one afternoon a few years ago.
Unprompted, HoneyBunny is just in the middle of the chorus. I was so proud.
There's a better version of the video on YouTube but they don't allow embedding.

So Juneathon almost wasn't, but it was.
With 2 races this weekend, I'm taking it easy again tomorrow.
And getting a good night's rest tonight.

Juneathon Day 21 - It's a Swim Thing

Juneathon was nearly an afterthought today.
Or maybe it was a forethought.

Woke up. Flipped out of bed. Ran a mile in the rain.
Call it a Rest Day.

My legs did feel heavy.
I left the afternoon free of training. Almost.

The kids and I did put in 45 minutes of training wheel-less biking.
Pushed them down the hill about 30 times each.

It is amazing:

• How much progress they have made in just 2 days
• How much fun they are having

Last summer, I tried several times to get them biking without training wheels.

They hated it. Screamed it away.

And now I realize that learning to ride a bike is a lot like trying baby food.

They say, if your baby doesn't like a particular type of baby food like carrots, you need to feed it to him something like 17 times.

Don't give up. Eventually he will eat it.

That's what we've learned with the bike.

You're gonna fall off, you're gonna crash, it's not gonna be fun, but keep at it.

I would love to apply this strategy at work.

But, the target of this training method would probably stab me with a pair of scissors.

Speaking of keeping at it, I have finally done it.

I have identified and completed the logistical requirements for the Liberty Island Swim on Friday.

Here's a sample of the path to the swim:

• Register for swim back on Christmas Day. $95
• Hang out
• Complete qualifying pool swim a few weeks ago
• Scan pool swim certification and upload to NYC Swim website
• Receive acceptance notification
• Purchase 8AM ferry tickets for myself, my brother and the kids to get to Liberty Island
• Realize that 8AM on the ferry means like 4:30AM departure from home. No good. Need to leave later
• Chat with online ferry representative who tells me to go to Hell. In so many words.
• Call ferry representative who gladly lets me bump departure time to Noon. But we have to give up the actual tickets for Inside the Statue of Liberty. Fine.
• Confirm with my little brother that he is indeed going
• Find out that he isn't
• Figure out who can go with me on a few days notice on a Friday and can capably watch the kids during the 20 minute race. Aka nobody.
• Ask my brother one final time and he decides he will go
• Calculate that I will need 3 Guest passes for my brother and the kids to take a specially chartered ferry off of the island after the race
• You only get 2 Guest passes
• Post a sob story to the NYC Swim Facebook page
• Have a girl offer me one of her guest passes
• She registers my brother as her guest. Perfect
• As instructed, send an email to NYC Swim requesting the "special" instructions for registering my kids for guest passes, as they are "minors"
• Get the instructions which involves requiring unique email addresses for the kids
• Set up email addresses for the kids
• Send a test email back-and-forth with my kids' email addresses
• Why does that bring a tear to my eye?
• Successfully register the kids as guests
• Breathe

It is VERY hard for me to do that kind of stuff. Very hard for me to follow through with all of those little details.

Fortunately, most of the people I have dealt with throughout the process have been nice and helpful.

If I do this race again in the future, I will be much better prepared.

Now just a few little things remain.

Do I buy new goggles before the race? My goggles usually spontaneously explode this time of year, costing me $20.

I need to make a checklist both of supplies like food, drink and sunblock to get us through the day as well as racing gear. I need to figure out how to carry a camera during the swim.

As for the actually swimming, it will be short but tough.

It is only .7 miles.

The current and tide will probably knock me around.

It's also my first open water swim of the year. With water temperature in the 70's it will be very inviting.

One final practice swim tomorrow in preparation.

Did I mention this is my favorite day of the year?

Longest day of the year.

Which also makes it kinda sad.

Every subsequent day for 6 months will be shorter. Damn.

We've made the most of each day so far.

And maybe I've celebrated by staying up way too late.

Or maybe that's because some stuff at work exploded tossing a 2-hour interlude into my night.

Still got to put the kids to bed.

Let's wrap this up with the lullabies.

This one was pretty random.

And I heard this song on the radio today. Takes me back.


I hope you enjoyed the first day of summer, too.

Juneathon Day 16 - Getting My Bearings

Juenathon has seen its first victim.

Relax, it's not me.
Hell, this weather isn't even in keeping with the Juneathon prophecy. It's been gorgeous all week.

Who wouldn't want to run in gorgeous weather?
Who wouldn't want to maintain Juneathon compliance by running a measly mile each day?

Sorry.

The victim:
Rep. Anthony Weiner

Dude succumbed to The Curse of Juneathon.
Let's hope therapy delivers him a renewed happy marriage and prospects for fantastic fatherhood.
Let's hope they recommend he take up running. Take up Juneathoning.

And he should probably downgrade to an old school, no built-in camera, cell phone.

It's a good thing he resigned, too.
Because I was gonna have to do a post in a few days containing all of the leaked photos.
That wouldn't be fair to you.

I'm also supposed to share lullabies, but I was falling asleep while tucking the kids into bed tonight, and I can't remember what we sang.
Wait. Here's one.



Juneathon was pressed to the backburner today.
Slept in this morning.

This afternoon, my wife had a meeting so I would have to wait until she returned home. Late.

Took the opportunity to get my bearings.

Because I have to replace the front wheel bearings in my car annually.
I know it's time when my car hums (loudly) in direct proportion with acceleration.

This has been happening ever since the fateful snowy day a few years ago where:

• I slid into a curb
• Minutes later got hit by a car

Oh well. For $100/year, I think it is an acceptable expense.

Big plus+ this year. Goodles got to harness his inner mechanic.

The kid loves fixing things.

Today's lesson included using an impact wrench to remove the lugnuts (he likes to hold the trigger on the wrench well beyond when the lugnut is removed) 

And a ratchet to remove caliper pins.

And he helped me pull off the stubborn wheel bearing hub

The job went well and now my car rides like new.

Until this happens again next year.

So after putting the kids to bed, Juneathon kicked into high gear.

It came in the form of Lateathon.

1.5 miles in the dark, with headlamp, in a light mist, shortly after a steady downpour.

I could have run all night.

Juneathon Day 15 - Rules of the Road

Damn. It's late.

Good for you. It was worth the wait.
Tonight's triple lullaby. Hopefully I got the right versions. Close enough.

Jason Mraz - Childlike Wildlife. I've also seen it called "Childlike Wildlike."


That is a long song.
Sometimes HoneyBunny will still be singing along 4 minutes in. Even the scat.
This is the most likely song to leave me passed out on the kids' floor.

Jason Mraz - Remedy


Counting Crows - Hangin' Around


I lost one kid by the time that song started.

And then there was Juneathon.
Or rather, first there was Juneathon.

Swam to start the morning.
Misplaced my goggles yesterday.
That means Kickboard.
Tired legs + Kickboard = Make sure you have your goggles before leaving the house.

Afternoon I found an 8-mile bike.
Such beautiful weather.
Fast bike ride, practiced cornering because ya know that'll save me like 7 seconds in the Philly Tri.

Got home.
Supposed to, as usual, brick the run.

Nope. Tennis baseball with the neighbor kids.

Tennis baseball complete, prep for run.

Kids want to run with me.
Yeah. So we run like .01 miles and hang out at the playground well past dark.
Perfect night for it. Late sunset. Full moon. Clear sky. Fireflies.

Return home, attack a quick 1 mile run. Juneathon Day 15. Done.

Let's wrap up with the title: Rules of the Road

My friend Matt emailed me and asked about biking protocol.
Which isn't always followed.
Well as both a runner and triathlete, I am disliked by all. Runners, bikers, and triathletes (wanna-be-bikers).

That gives good perspective.

Rules when riding your bike on the road:

• You are traffic
• Bike with traffic
• Bike in shoulder
• Shoulder not available. Stay within 18 inches of side of road.
• Stop at red lights and stop signs
• Only run stop signs that cars normally run. And, just like cars, at least fake a stop.
• Do not cheat. You cannot cross the street on a red light. You are traffic.
• Signal
• Work with cars. Tell them with hand signals when NOT to pass you because of oncoming traffic. Tell them when they CAN pass you if the road ahead is clear.
• Wear a helmet
• While biking within a group, with an approaching car from behind, do not ride abreast. Ride single file
• Do not use your cell
• Do not listen to music. Even a single ear bud.
• Give cars the right of way. Hope that cars are thinking "give bikes the right of way"
• Give runners the right of way.
• Do not kick or punch cars that make you angry.
• If you must bike within traffic, for example to make an upcoming left turn, make sure traffic can accommodate you. Otherwise, wait.
• Get a car's permission if you must enter traffic for safety reasons, for example a steep downhill that is launching you at 40+ MPH and you need better cornering
• Finally, yes. You as a biker have a pretty quick option to convert to pedestrian. But you have to be consistent.
• If you are biking on the sidewalk, stay on the sidewalk
• If you are biking on the road, do not use the sidewalk unless it would be foolish not to do so. For example to bypass a back-up of 20+ cars.
• If you must disobey traffic signals, get off your bike and pedestrianicize yourself.

The bottom line is that I want to respect the opportunity to ride on public roads.

I want cars to respect me as a biker.

I do not like bikers that ignore the rules of the road.

I do not like cars that assume all bikers are pricks.

I do not like cars that rush to get in front of me as we approach a red light or stop sign.

I will see how Matt responds to these rules that I follow and recommend.

Perhaps he will be a guest blogger.

Until then, on to Juneathon Day 16.