MWC vs. Pac 10...No Contest!!

The Mountain West Conference gets no respect. For any of you familiar with the BCS and their "National Championship" shennanigans, I would like to state as a fan, that the remainder of this season is being observed under protest. It seems as if there is a bit of a ceiling when it comes to non-BCS conference schools; and why the Pac 10 is currently one of the "it" conferences I'll never know! BYU shot up to #7 in the coaches poll and has been languishing around 8 or 9 ever since. This is in spite of winning each week and having several teams ahead of them lose. This past week for instance, BYU was ranked #8, & #9 in the two main polls going into the weekend. BYU then won 21-3, and three of the top four teams lost and BYU is still ranked #8, & #9. Teams leaped ahead of BYU and others fell back, but with all of the commotion going on in the rankings, BYU has remained eerily motionless.

The only hope comes in that several teams (the Big 12 in particular), have to play against each other, so several of them will pick up a loss (or a second loss) before the end of the season. One exception to this is USC. They should not have lost to Oregon St., but with a win the following week, they bounced back up to the top 10 and their schedules shows no sign of slowing them down. Playing in a weak PAC 10 conference with only an average Cal team on the horizon, they shouldn't lose another game. Since the year began, the MWC has a 6-1 record against Pac 10 schools including a 59-0 BYU thrashing of UCLA as well as a UNLV victory over an overrated ASU team who was then ranked #15.

So do I think the MWC is that good, or is the Pac 10 that bad? It's a little of both.

The best of the best:

The class of the Pac 10 is clearly USC. Their annual oversight of a poor team (see Oregon St. '08, or Stanford '07) notwithstanding, they should never lose a game in that conference. The class of the MWC is BYU, Utah and to a lesser extent, TCU. They are currently a combined 19-1 with wins over Michigan, UCLA, and the same Oregon St. team that beat USC, with the lone loss coming against a then #1 ranked Oklahoma team.

The worst of the worst:

The bottom of the Pac 10 includes the University of Washington who is currently 0-5 still having to play USC. They have what may well be considered a lame-duck coach in Tyrone Willingham since everyone knows he can't survive this season. Keeping them company at the bottom of the heap is Washington State who has one victory in 7 tries and it came against PSU; no, not Penn State University, but Portland State University, a I-AA team. This last week WSU gave up over 60 points for the third time this season, this time to Oregon St. WSU resorted to playing a walk-on at quarterback when their third stringer went down with significant knee damage. The dregs of the MWC includes Wyoming and San Diego State who lost a tough 21-13 game at Notre Dame earlier in the season.

I've got high hopes for BYU and the rest of the MWC. The way I see it, either BYU or Utah will go to a BCS bowl while the loser of their season finale will beat up on another Pac 10 team in the Las Vegas bowl. TCU will bowl somewhere as will Air Force and possibly Colorado State. If MWC teams only had to play Pac 10 teams all season and vice versa, the Mountain West could have several undefeated teams this year. :-)

Homeownership, Pneumonia & Forest fires...

I am a homeowner! Well, the bank is anyway, but I get to live there. We do have quite a bit of painting and carpeting to do, but it is nice as it is anyway. The previous owners had some interesting color choices for the front room. (purple and mint green)

I went on the annual BYU MBA rafting trip with all of the OB/HR hopefuls. It was reminiscent of vikings raiding passing boats what with all the carnage on a daily basis. I ended up with Pneumonia and a broken nose. Not bad for $235 bucks.

My wife thinks I'm competitive and I suppose I am. One student on the trip was much more competitive than I'll ever be. Five minutes into a week long rafting trip he was bleeding from both knees in a failed attempt to attack another boat. The irony in this story is that this young man happens to be my wife's first cousin! I love repeating that story to her. She's still trying to find who in her family was adopted in order to bring their families together, because she's certainly not related to him.

My broken nose was mostly my fault. It was sustained while performing the "Flying Dutchman" maneuver on the recruiter from Microsoft, Jason Carson. While pulling the unsuspecting swimmer what he thinks to be into the boat, he is unceremoniously tossed clear over the boat into the water on the other side. My injury happened when his lagging heel caught me in the face. I was swallowing blood for the next 20 minutes and am still very tender to the touch three weeks later.

As you can see from my previous blog entries, I ran a marathon just a few months ago. I've been a bit tired lately, but felt that a short, two mile run would lift my spirits. I had to stop twice during my run due to shortness of breath. This, I felt, was not normal for me so I went to the doctor. He listened to my lungs and sent me for chest x-rays and diagnosed me with Pneumonia. About halfway through my antibiotics, I'm beginning to feel that little bounce in my step again.

If you're a forest ranger the last thing you expect to see from a group of MBA's from BYU is a forest fire that was started by a smoldering cigar. This is exactly what happened the Sunday we were there. Most of us were down enjoying a lovely devotional down at the rivers side when one of the students came running down in a panic yelling that their was a forest fire about 50 yards from our campsite. We all ran up the hill back to camp and started a bucket brigade to douse the flames while the rangers were on the way.

Come to find out, the fire was started by one of our guides no less. He had been smoking a cigar and tried to extinguish it on a bone dry, dead fallen log. Yikes!

Corporate Housing

For the last 6 weeks we have lived in corporate housing just outside of Seattle but things are about to change. Jennifer and I are putting the finishing touches on our financing for a house in Auburn which is about 40 minutes south of Seattle. It will be nice to get all of our stuff back which has been in storage since we moved up from Reno. I've been rotating through what was suppose to be 3 weeks worth of clothing which will ultimately be 7. Commuting on the bus is a new experience. When we move to Auburn my commute will be about 40 minutes and will include a 30 minute train ride.

Note #2, Tomorrow is Nathan's 3rd birthday. Hopefully he'll be interested in being potty trained soon.

Note #3, Jennifer wants to watch Catwoman tonight. Hmmm. Does that qualify as an action flick? I'm trying to convince myself that it is.

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Finish Line with Christian...

This next one is just a small thumbnail video but it shows the last 50 yards of the race. I am running with my son Christian who joined me in running up the final chute.

One Marathon Down...

The day before the race Jennifer and I drove up to Ogden and met up with Joe and Brandi Heywood, our friends of about 13 years. We were much younger then and Joe had a bit more hair. Joe and I worked on the grounds construction crew together. I spent the majority of my time painting the lines on the football field and practice fields. Joe and I were putting up some railroad ties outside of the Manwaring center one day when Joe's cousin came to say hi. She introduced us to Brandi who Joe ended up marrying. 13 years later and each of us have 4 kids and we're running Marathons. After our time at Rick's, we ended up in the same Married student ward at BYU and were actually home teaching companions for a semester or two. We use to play basketball pretty regularly at the church and I don't think either one of us had any idea we'd be running Marathons a few short years later. Distance running has never been our forte.

Anyhoo, we met up with Joe and Brandi and picked up our packets. I was pleased with the shirt they gave us, but I had to return it and get a smaller size. Fully fed, and fully hydrated I weighed about 166 lbs at the starting line. At the end of the race I was about 159. We drove up the canyon to the top of the course and then slowly drove back down to get a feel for where I would spend the majority of the following day.

I slept as long as I could that night. I went to bed at 10 and woke up around 4:30. I met Joe at the shuttle around 4:55 with him in a panic. He'd been there for about 25 minutes and thought I'd slept through my alarm. No such luck. We rode in the dark with about 50 other very sleepy Marathoners up to the starting stable. They had a couple dozen barrels full of wood that they fired up to keep us warm. I had to stand in line for the port-o-potty for about 20 minutes before the race. Since Joe had run one Marathon previously, he was the cagey veteran that was giving me advice to calm my jitters. Strangely enough, I didn't really have any. When the cannon sounded Joe took off and I started the most pleasant run I'd ever had. We'll, the first 10 miles or so anyway. For the first half of the run I was having a great time. I wasn't trying to beat everybody else, I was just running along looking at the scenery, peering over the side of the road to the river below, talking to some of the early morning spectators and enjoying a beverage every mile or two.

At about mile 10 or so there was a woman sitting on the side of the road with her husband ringing a cowbell and cheering folks on. I said to her, "Do you know what this Marathon needs?" Reply, "What?" Answer, "A little more cowbell!" I don't think she got the Saturday Night Live reference, but it gave me a chuckle. There were people all up and down the course cheering us on holding up signs, ringing cowbells, giving us stuff to drink and eat, all in the middle of a beautiful canyon setting.

I felt great for quite a bit of the race. I'd say I started to struggle at about 16 miles or so. I kept running until about mile 20-21 though which is where I started the walking. I walked about 30-40% of the rest of the race due to sore and just flat out tired quads. My lungs felt fine and my calves could have gone on forever, but my quads had just lost their bounce. I finished in about 4:44. I took about 1 min to go to the bathroom at about mile 8 but I stopped my watch while I was in there. My watch showed 4:43:59 when I crossed the finish line. The computer chip on my shoe showed 4:44:59 so I guess my bathroom break was exactly one minute.

At about mile 23 one of the aid stations was handing out sliced watermelon. That was a little piece of heaven. Ice cold and tasty. When I crossed the finish line they gave me a beautiful finisher's medal. At that point I had about 6 minutes to check out of our hotel. I climbed the barricade and gingerly walked to our hotel about 2 blocks away. There was no elevator at our end of the hall so I climbed the stairs, some on my hands and knees. When I got into the room Jennifer checked out over the phone while I attempted to take off my clothes to have a quick shower. It was difficult to get off the floor.

After we got some food, my mom dropped Jennifer and I off at the airport. We flew to Seattle for 3 days of house-hunting. The ones with stairs took a bit longer to check out. Jennifer pampered me all week. She gave my quads a few much needed massages. The balls of my feet were nearly as bad, and they have hurt a little longer. The pain in my quads was gone by Tuesday morning and the Pain in my feet was gone by Wednesday.

I went on a bike ride yesterday for 4 miles. It felt good to get the blood flowing again. I've got myself on another running schedule in order to run the Teton Dam Half-Marathon in Rexburg, ID on June 14th. That gives me 4 weeks after my Marathon to prepare. This first week has been primarily rest. I'll bike some tomorrow and maybe run a slow 2 miles. The last 5 miles of the Marathon may have been difficult, but I'm willing to do it again.

I thought that I would train for and run a Marathon just so I could say I had done it and then say goodbye to running. But running is in me now. I don't know how it got there, but at this point I think it would be hard to let it go.

Body-smithing...

I'm one week away from the Marathon. Last week I was very nervous, and I suppose I still am, but last week I was dreading the run. This week I'm feeling better about it and am looking forward to accomplishing something big. On April 26th, the day I turned 37 years old, I ran 20 miles. It took me 3:35:20 and I was a bit sore for the next 24 hours. I'm on the downslope with my training. My "long" run yesterday was only 8 miles. This coming week I have 3,4, & 2 before taking two days off before the race. I've taken the liberty of photographing myself in my skivvies to keep a bit of a photo log of my progress.

This is the "before" picture. This was December 22, 2007. My first 1.5 mile run was on Dec 21, 2007 and hurt like the dickens.

This was taken May 3, 2008. After about 4 1/2 months of running I'm quite a bit lighter than I use to be. I think Jennifer is the primary beneficiary of the results. ;-)