Half things in New Jersey

It is thanks to Thomas that I am sitting in front of my computer on a beautiful Friday afternoon, attempting again to compose my first real posting. Last night I worked more that an hour and while reviewing what I had written (since the writings were "Sauvignon Blanc aided" I thought it was a good idea to read my own ramblings first before other people were subjected to it). Anyway, I lost the first half of my musings somewhere in the stratosphere and a bit later, everything. That was not a real confidence builder. I have decided though to give it another try and if the blog eats my words again I think I will go right back to share my thoughts and news and gossip over that "lowliest" life form on internet communication, the much hated and maligned aol.
So anyway, thank you Thomas for getting me all stressed out about this blogging (only kidding). Let's see what happens this time
Of course some news is long overdue and there could not have been a better occasion for my first real posting than the New Jersey half marathon last Sunday, April 30th. Five local SLG'ers were there to run, Erik (with home court advantage), Gil, Stefan Mark and myself. It was a perfect day for a run, cool in the morning but very sunny and with a bit of a breeze, which was mostly felt in the last 3 miles when it was really a headwind near the Shore in Long Branch.
The goody bag was the best I had ever seen, the bag itself was made of fabric, there was a "Technical" T-shirt with a nice design, there was a baseball hat that could actually fit an adults head (unlike those silly hats that are given out for the New York marathon), and the medal was probably the best medal I have ever gotten.
By the way, can I just share my pet peeve here about the techical T-shirt. Would it be such a big sin to call it "polyester" which is truly what it is. Admittedly, the "wicking" action (who dreamt up that word) prevents the shirt from getting heavy with moisture unlike cotton T-shirts, but boy, do they get smelly in a hurry.
Anyway, as I said, it was a great run. The only not perfect thing about it was the ungodly starting time, 7.15 a.m. But even that had a bright side, we were basically done at 9 a.m.
For in depth results, you can go check them out on www.njmarathon.org but here is what we did.
Gil really burned the road, came in in 1:36:26. That was his fastest half marathon ever and it earned him an award in his age category with second place. But here is the catch about Gil's time. He learned from Mike the flyer that a time below 1:36 earns you a starting place in the Preferred Start I in the Chicago marathon. As of now, Gil has to share the Preferred start II with me (having both run a sub 3:55 marathon in the past year). He first thought it was just fine to to stick with me in the Preferred start II, so that he would run with me, not go out too fast and finish strong. See how that "Catch me if you can" motto can get in your brain? Let's face it though. I will see Gil's butt at the start for about 4 seconds and then he'll be gone. As he should. I guess he must have come to his senses about that himself because I got a call on Wednesday. Gil was wondering whether I would consider running the Long Island half marathon this coming Sunday, May 7th. Another flat course and the forecast calls for more perfect conditions. I passed. And I am wondering whether he will go out there by himself. ....
Founding fathers Mark and Stefan managed to keep there sub 8 racing streak going and ran an average pace of 7:59 min/miles. I did better than I had hoped. I thought it would turn into a longish training run because of my nagging sore but but I thought I did pretty respectably and finished in 1:51:44. That made me 6th in my age category, out of 117 runners. As I said, I was happy with the result but a bit frustrated when I thought about what could have been.
Erik also had a PR for his half marathon races although he was hobbled by some tendinitis. Anyway, he ran an average of 8:39 min/miles.

The only thing that did not work out as expected was the half portions at the breakfast/brunch/BBQ later on that Sunday at NJ headquarters at Wendy and Erik. They obviously have issues with portion control. Although half portions were advertised, I took home a small cow (or pig)'s worth of food after the party was over. I surely was glad we did not have whole portions

On an even more serious running note, I would like to wish both Patrick Bijnens (member from Belgium) and Clem the supercoach good luck in their upcoming marathon events. Patrick is running a marathon in Vienna, Austria this coming Sunday and Clem is running in the Belgian marathona championships in Vise next week Sunday. Good luck to the both of them and let them be an inspiration to start training for the Chicago marathon.
There are rumors that Steven Vandenabeele and Philippe Schaillee are running the Brussels 20 km. Is there any truth to these rumors?
In the category of non-running news, there does not seem to be a whole lot to report. The headquarters of the New Jersey chapter (chez Sevenants) have been expanded. A nice lounge area (they call it the living room) has been added which makes the house very airy and light filled.
Renovations of the headquarters in New York are almost finished. Although I do not really believe that it will be finished before its may 31st deadline, I think the space looks great and I have been very happy with the architect, the contractor and the workers. The 4th floor shower was tested last weekend and has been deemed a great succes. It will be excellent for showering after the races in Central Park. Actually, it is so excellent that you might consider flying for a shower from wherever you are running. Minneapolis, Mol, Chicago, Bilzen,.... you name it. Just let me know when you want to come and I will leave a key under the doormat.
One more thing. THE LOGO. Stefan designed a card for the Sevenants family and among other things, it had an abstract drawing of a runner on it. This Stefan guy seems quite talented. With a few strokes of the pen, the runner's body could easily read "SLG". I have been trying to upload the picture on the blog, and although I succeeded last night, it does not want to work today and I can no longer postpone my posting.
We do have some high speed issues and hopefully these will be resolved in the next few weeks so we are fully functional.
I sent out pictures on shutterfly anyway some maybe somebody els could post some pictures on the blog.
Stefan, if you could post your design, that would be very helpful.
David, if Stefan posts his design, maybe you could make the final touches or should we just get into a designing competion for this logo??
Keep on running. Lief