Dancing with the Staff: the results

Last night I won first place in a dance competition.  There is just something so strange about that sentence. Let's just say I never thought I would start a blog post like that.  Yes, I can do flips and the like, but I've never been a strong dancer and usually only take to the dance floor at weddings when I've had some liquid courage.

Anyway, this was the first year they've ever tried this at my school, and it was held on a Wednesday night, so I wasn't sure how good the turnout would be.  Turns out hundreds of people were willing to pay the $7 entry fee, and the auditorium was packed.

Stevie, my high school friend Amy, and my dad and Debbie all came out to watch too.

8 teams competed with songs like "Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men, "Pump It" by the Black Eyed Peas, and "Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer.  Votes were cast during intermission, and during the second act several students performed songs while the votes were being tallied.

At the end of the night, they brought all of the teams back on stage, and Team Spartenheimer prevailed! Dancing with the Staff champions!  

Though the rehearsal committment had been a bit larger than I would have liked, it definitely paid off.  I honestly wouldn't have cared who won.  The best part was watching the staff and students come together for such a fun event.  We raised a lot of money for a great cause, as well.

With my dance partner, one of my German I students

This morning one of my German III students gave me a hand-made blue ribbon in German.

The first place trophy and the ribbon one of my German III students made me

I played a lot of baseball and soccer as a kid and won my share of trophies back then.  I have since won some hardware in running as well.  But dancing?  Now I've seen everything.

And without further ado, here is the spectacle that was our dance last night.  I give full credit to my dance partner, who came up with about 97 percent of the dance and waited patiently for me to master simple moves throughout the rehearsal process.  (And thanks to Stevie for filming.)

Disco Pogo

This is about to happen.  I'm actually about to go dance in front of hundreds of people.

And yes, our team name is Team Spartenheimer.

The dress rehearsal was yesterday, and I went full out, and consequently woke up with an increibly sore back this morning.  I joked all day with my dance partner that I'm an old man and can't be cutting a rug on a stage with a bunch of teenagers.

I'm about to head over to the school for the show.  Let's crank it up to 11.

Beer Run

Interesting article from a few weeks ago about the merits of beer paired with running.

Apparently they go together better for women.

Excuse me while I go test the theory.

Dancing with the staff

At my school we have an event called Dancing with the Staff.  Modeled after Dancing with the Stars, it involves students teaming up with teachers and dancing to different songs.  One of my students actually asked me to participate, and for some reason I said yes.  I'm not very good at dancing, you see.

Here is me in my classroom today practicing the routine:

Yes, I am supposed to be wearing 80's sunglasses.

Even worse, the song we are dancing to is some crazy pumped up German club song (which would explain the fist pumping going on in the picture).  It is all I can do to keep up with the dance moves my student has choreographed.

Here is the song, if you're curious/want to start your own fist pumping party with your friend Hans:

The show is this Wednesday in the school auditorium.  Stevie is coming and bringing several friends.  Nah, no pressure or anything.

Master of the Pizza

I was at it again tonight:

I made a chicken pesto pizza tonight from scratch.

• dough made from half wheat, half white flour.
• cheese: parmesan, mozzarella, gouda and colby-jack.
• chicken coated with salt and pepper, cooked then shredded.
• onions.
• roma tomatoes.
• pesto as sauce.

It wasn't quite as good as the barbecue chicken pizza I made awhile back, but this was certainly close.

Movie Monday: elite stair racing

Article from The New York Times last week about stair racing:

There is actually a community of elite level stair racers out there.  With little prize money to be had, though, they spend a lot of their own money to fly around the world and race up the world's tallest buildings.

There is still so much that falls under the general umbrella of running that I fail to understand.

And here is a video from last year's Empire State Building Run Up to give you an idea of what it's like:

100 days of riding my bike: update

All three of my readers may recall that last October a teacher bet me that I couldn't ride my bike to school 100 days this school year.

I am at 58 days and counting.

I should be one six-pack richer by April.

A bad day for running minimalists

If you know me, you may know I don't go in for trends.  It's why I will never go on a Paleo diet or be seen planking on a fire hydrant, or join Twitter, and it's why I have no regrets the year the macarena came out.

And don't get me started on Vibram Five Fingers and the importance runners today place on avoiding a heel-strike running form.  As I've said before, if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.  With so serious injuries to date, I'll continue heel-striking away.

If you're new to the debate, here is a brief intro: When wearing a shoe, a runner's foot tends to land on the heel, roll forward and push off from the toes.  People have come to blame modern running shoes for this change in running form as we tend to land on the middle to the front of our feet when barefoot.  Our ancestors had neither the fancy shoes we have now, nor the injuries that plague runners nowadays. The running shoe must be to blame, and so an industry was born.

Here's an article from the New York Times today that cites a study in which that very wisdom is contradicted.  Apparently there is a tribe of distance runners in Kenya that are primarily heel-strikers.  In addition, a study conducted at the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon found 94% of runners were heel-strikers.

The jury is still out on this one, it seems, and in the meantime I'll just keep doing what works for me.

Teaching is like running a marathon

Speaking of teaching, I came into school today to find this in my mailbox:





















It's a flier that advertises pre-made, movie-based lesson plans for teachers to buy and use when they need a break.  Stressed out from teaching?  Pop in a movie and relax!   While watching thousands of sweating, cursing, defatigable runners in the 2012 Philadelphia Marathon, Judy Sugarman thought to herself, "huh, teaching is kind of like this."  Nevermind that she has probably never run a marathon herself; a marketing tagline was born.

"Once the race begins (and some of us would call it a rat race), we don't have time to catch our breath... You have little or no time for yourself and your family."

Having run 9 marathons and with a few years of teaching under my belt, it got me thinking how alike the two activities actually are.  Training for a marathon can be physically exhausting, naturally, which coupled with the loss of one's free time, can lead to mental and emotional exhaustion.  One will certainly find the latter in teaching, but I wouldn't call it physically demanding.

During marathon training, you have an out.  Don't like it?  Hurt yourself?  Can't deal?  Drop out.  You will suffer a bruised ego and maybe lose money if you've already registered, but that's about it.  Quitting a job or profession is much harder.  Don't like it?  Oh well, any number of circumstances may prevent you from moving on.

Marathon training, and the marathon itself, are singular activities.  But teaching is a community of influences and annoyances and rewards and incentives from the size of my classroom to the entire nation.  How well I run my marathon may not determine the fate of America, though some politicians will make the same comparisons with my teaching, my school and my coworkers.

Perhaps it would have been more apt to say "teaching is like training for a marathon." Because it's in the training period when dedication and obsession bleed into other areas of life and threaten to take over.  That's kind of how I felt last Monday.

Marathon training.  Teaching.  In the end they are both long roads with excruciating highs and lows, where reward is neither a right nor a certainty, and shortcuts only making it longer.

On angry running

For those of you who like to bitch about how teachers get summers off, may I kindly remind you of the work we put in during the school year.

I have the day off of school today, but I've spent the majority of it at the kitchen table grading tests and papers.  The end of the marking period coupled with midterms has made me struggle to keep up.

Getting stuff done at the kitchen table next to a giant mural of the world

I knew what I was getting into when I signed up for this gig, so I won't complain too much, but it doesn't make days like today any less miserable.

So I went for an angry run tonight.  Four miles in the freezing cold darkness turned into something of a tempo run.  It was nice to get outside for a bit and feel the pain of the cold and to get my mind off of work for awhile.

Now excuse me while I go look up margarita recipes for this summer...

Time for the Tough Mudder

Time Magazine, proving to be a bit slow on the uptake, has an article in this week's issue claiming that "obstacle-course racing is taking off."  Really, Time Magazine?  What is it, 2011?  Mudruns exploded ages ago and you're just now writing about it?

I only have two mudruns to my name, but hope to tackle a Tough Mudder this June.  The very first Tough Mudder was a mere two hours from me, but I didn't hear about it until afterwards.  The next few times it rolled around it kept selling out before I had a chance to register.  Which means I should probably register soon...

The article also describes the cult-like following that Tough Mudder enjoys.  Will it truly live up to the hype?  We shall see...

In the meantime, here's a link to the video about the author's Tough Mudder experience.

Learning how to use the Garmin

I've taken the Garmin out for a spin a few times.  I need to dedicate some time to the instruction manual because right now all I can get it to do is record my time, distance and pace on this basic screen.

Went out for an easy 5k this morning and enjoyed being able to see exactly how many miles I run.  It'll be nice to not be dependent on a specific, pre-designed running route to hit the day's miles anymore, or to have to estimate the miles run based on my time.  Now if I want to run a five miler I can just go run wherever I want and know exactly when I'm finished.

And hopefully I'll be adding fun charts and graphs to the blog soon.

Drink like it's a marathon

Stevie posted this on my Facebook wall today:

You pick the 5k and I'll meet you there.

Resolutionary

People used to make resolutions this time of year, but most scoff at them now on account of how few people keep them.

I remember my new year's resolution for 2005.  It was the über-clichéd "I'm going to get fit" resolution that leads most people into ridiculous gym contracts.  I was annoyed with myself over a five year lapse in fitness and decided to reclaim the athletic ability and accompanying body I'd had in high school.  So I buckled down and 11 months later I ran my first marathon.

I like the idea of resolutions because I like the idea of self improvement.  I try not to beat myself up if I don't follow through, and in the meantime I like giving myself specific things to focus on.  

I also like the idea of creating inspiration from within.  In this day and age inspiration is everywhere, but instead of getting caught up in false prophets of inspiration, just be your own inspiration.  I think it's fine to draw inspiration from others, but in the end I want to be amazed at the feats I accomplish and let them fuel future successes.

With that said, here are my resolutions for 2013:

• Read more.
• Write more.  Not just on this blog, but in my journal and stories/plays/novels.
• Keep up the fitness.
• Make a serious effort at Boston this fall.  No half assing.
• Run a Tough Mudder.
• Consistently work on my relationship and future marriage with Stevie.
• Be my own inspiration.

Happy New Year, folks, and here's to reaching our goals in 2013.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Stevie and me.

Running vs. Jogging

Interesting article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer by a high school/running acquaintance of mine:

She starts out by tracing the etymology of the word "jogging," which I find really interesting given my proclivity for language.  The term started out in the 70's with the first running boom as an innocent word to describe the activity of those lunatics in painters' caps and tiny shorts legging it down the sidewalk.  As we see in the article, and in this post of mine from awhile ago, it has since evolved into a bit of an insult.

Yes, this is another post about the age old debate in the running community regarding the use of the word "jog/jogger/jogging."

The author takes issue with faster runners appropriating the word as their own and leaving angsty slowpokes to reckon with the insulting nature of the titular word.  But is this so terrible?

One of the appealing traits of running is its egalitarian nature.  Cheap and simple and capable of doing just about anywhere, running all but demands the participation of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.  This is precisely what differentiates running from every other sport in that it is the only one in which elite professionals literally compete against average Joes just weeks removed from the couch.

Imagine what other sports would be like if they shared this approach.  Professional basketball players would have to worry about ladies in tutus crowding the court.  Professional ice hockey players would share the rink with a guy still two hundred pounds from goal weight.  Even minor league baseball players would see third base being covered by some asshole tweeting from his cell phone.

Is it so terrible to take a semantic stand in order to distance yourself from the hobbyists?  To separate the two into categories of running as competitive sport and running as recreation?

In the end, I think it's less an issue of speed and more an issue of taking the sport seriously.  I doubt most runners would balk at welcoming a 5+ hour marathoner into their ranks as long as he or she is genuinely busting his or her ass in training.  But with the advent of social media, in conjunction with the rise of themed fun runs, comes the worry over the loss of running's competitive edge.  Too many people make the leap too early to the half or the full marathon and congratulate themselves for their grit in completing it instead of racing it.

So what is my personal take?  Well, let's just say I don't call myself a football player because I join the occasional game of pick up football, nor do I call myself a writer because I keep a mediocre blog that no one reads.  I wouldn't call myself a runner if I didn't sign up for the amount of races I did and push myself as hard as I could.

Your turn.  What do you think of the debate?

On the Garmin

I once read a fellow runner's blog entry in which she recapped her first marathon.  She ran a 4:08, as I recall, but claimed she could have broken 4 hours if she had been using a Garmin.  Well no, I thought, if you had run 9 minutes faster, then you would have broken 4 hours.  The Garmin had nothing to do with it.  It only served to reinforce my thoughts on running and how people tend to rely too much on the gear that goes with it.  Worse, I see too many new runners who convince themselves that buying a Garmin makes them a "real" runner.

I try to live simply, and that philosophy extends to my running.  I refuse to spend so much money on such a simple sport, and consequently own very little running gear.  I have two pairs of running shorts - one is just a pair of gym shorts.  I have a few tech shirts culled from past races.  I never get fitted for shoes or get my gait analyzed; I just buy whatever is comfortable and cheap.  I never run with heart monitors, hydration packs, headlamps, music or GPS devices.  My approach seems to be working, which my PR's on the right will show.

I have nothing against any of these things or the people that use them, mind you, but as I have stated before on my blog, these things shouldn't be thought of as the only way to become a faster runner.  Hard work in training will make you better, not a fancy watch the size of a klondike bar.

So guess what I got for Christmas this year:

Not only did I get a new Garmin Forerunner 410 (which appears to have more technology than the original Apollo space program), but I got a Nike +.

Having already set new PR's in various distances in the past two years, including a BQ, I feel like I've proven my point, and I'm kind of looking forward to using these new devices and seeing if they really will make a difference in my quest for a 2nd BQ.

Christmas in Florida

Stevie is originally from Florida, and her entire family still lives down there, so this year we headed south and spent Christmas with the nutty people I now get to call family.

On Christmas day, the womenfolk posed outside on the front lawn:

Stevie and I posed by her mother's tree:

We made a fire when it got chilly:

And her father went in the pool with his clothes on to retrieve a fallen skewer:

Just another South Floridian Christmas.

Merry Christmas y'all!

Running in Gettysburg

Evergreen Cemetary, Gettysburg, PA
Photo by Stevie

Stevie and I went to Gettysburg this weekend.  Because my mother's side of the family comes from Gettysburg, I've been there more times than I can count.  We went partly to pay respects at my mother's grave just a few days after the 6th anniversary of her death, and partly because Stevie had never been there and we thought it would be a fun weekend away.

We stayed in a bed and breakfast that used to be my great uncle's photography studio just a block from the center of town.  In addition to my mother's grave, we toured the battlefields and the visitors' center (the 128-year-old cyclorama depicting Pickett's Charge is alone worth the $12 admission charge), sampled wine in the birthplace of Jennie Wade (the only civilian to be killed during the battle), and strolled the streets and poked around in the many Civil War themed gift shops.

Downtown Gettysburg

This morning I went on a run through part of the battlefields.  The battlefields of Gettysburg are one of my favorite places to run, given the scenic quality, the empty expanses, and the feeling of running through history, not just the history of my country, but the history of my family as well.  Running forces introspection and reflection, especially in a quiet town like Gettysburg where our nation's fate was once decided, and today's run made me think about family, both past and future:

At my mother's (and grandparents') gravesite

Atop the Pennsylvania Memorial

I think I knew Stevie was the one when I realized how much it hurt that my mother would never get to meet her.  But I'm sure that my mother, ever the history buff, would be happy I brought her out here.

Jingle Bell 5k

Another Saturday, another 5k.






















Arranged to run the the Jingle Bell 5k weeks ago with Suze, so this morning I dragged myself out of bed and headed down to the Cooper River.  Got there super late, as usual, and managed to register and get to the starting line a minute after the start, but wasn't able to find Suze.  Because the race was so big, they offered chip timing so it didn't really matter when I started.

I was hating life already by mile 1.  I wanted nothing more than to finish, and when I finally did I realized I've gotten even slower since the last race.  I finished in a dismal 20:55, so the slowing trend continues.  Just hope this isn't how the rest of my thirties are going to be.

The post race spread was great, with all kinds of food and giveaways.  Also caught up with Suze whom I hadn't seen in awhile now.  Suze is trying to get me to sign up for the Spartan Race next September.  Another mudrun with Suze?!  Count me in!

All in all a fun race that supports the Arthritis Foundation, with plenty of people in Santa outfits and more runners sporting jingle bells than I've ever seen before.