Marathon Update: Week 1

Thursday, July 10: 3 miles

Saturday, July 12: 5.5 miles

Week Total: 8.5 miles
Grand Total: 8.5 miles

Oh yeah... we moved!

I completely forgot to post an update on the move. We got mostly moved in, thanks to a lot of help from family and Jeff... (Thanks, Jeff.) Then Katie's parents and brother visited for 4th of July weekend, so I wasn't on the computer much. They helped us with a few home improvement projects and let us show them a few of the cool places in Indy before heading back to Iowa. We also hosted the monthly family game nite last nite with my mom's family. So, all my relatives on that side got to come down from Boone County and get a look at the new place. They also got to participate in a rousing game of DVD Family Feud (which the men won 804-295, despite being outnumbered four to eight). Now that we've got an empty house for a while, we can start hanging up some pictures and making the place a little more ours instead of just a place to put our furniture!

Here's a few photos of the house I took over 4th of July weekend. It's messy and not set up, but I'll go ahead and insert them into the posterity of the Internet.

Indianapolis Monumental Marathon

Indianapolis has a new marathon this year on November 1. Straight from their website, "The Indianapolis Monumental Marathon Course highlights a number of great buildings and features in our beautiful and convenient Indianapolis downtown including: the Indiana State Capitol, the Arts Garden, Lucas Oil Stadium, Circle Center Mall, Monument Circle, a number of federal monuments, the Cultural trail and the Mass. Ave. District. We are also happy to showcase several interesting and lovely neighborhoods including the Old Northside, Fall Creek Place, Meridian-Kessler, Butler-Tarkington and Broad Ripple."

I ran the Chicago Marathon a few years back, and the thought of doing something that's happening for the first time is pretty cools, so I decided I'm going to give it a shot. It's pretty late to get into the training schedule (most of the shorter schedules run around 18 weeks, and there are about 16 weeks til the race), but I think I have one modified to get me ready for the race. The route map on the marathon site is super low res and sucks, but if you compare it to Google Maps, you can figure out where it's going. They also posted a video of the route, for those of you familiar with Indianapolis:


I'll do my best to stick to the program and try to update my progress here once a week or so. Anybody else wanna join me?

Move Update

It looks like pretty much everything is squared away for the big move. After a couple agonizing weeks dealing with mortgage people, it looks like everything is where it should be. I'm not going to get too far into it, but let's just say you should avoid getting your mortgage through Bank of America if you can help it. Customer service is not their forté. A quick call elsewhere and all of our headaches were gone.

We close on the loan on Wednesday and should get the keys sometime on Friday. That means this weekend is "packing" weekend, and next weekend will be moving weekend. I say "packing" because we are only moving a few blocks, so it's going to be real half-assed packing. I think the plan is to throw the kitchen in some boxes, move them to the new house, put them away, and bring the boxes back to the apartment for the next room.

Today, my manly self installed a trailer hitch on the Escape so we can tow a trailer with the big stuff on it. I know, I know, pretty impressive. My hands were dirty and everything. The instructions said it would take 40 minutes, but it took me an hour. I guess I needed more pictures. The important thing is: it's done and it's at least sturdy enough to support my weight on it. We'll see how it does with more next weekend.

An Open Letter to the MLB Chief Blackout Officer

Dear Sir or Madam:

I have been a huge baseball fan since sometime between 1984 and 1987. The first year I actually played little league was in 1984, when I was four years old. Don't ask, I was from a small town, and we just made it work. The first time I fell in love with the Chicago Cubs was in 1987. Back then, the Cubs were on WGN every DAY (yeah, day, not night). I, like many other kids, would run home from school to turn on the last couple innings of that day's game. I learned to keep scorebook, and I have since found countless books from games stashed all over my old bedroom. Suffice it to say, I'm a pretty big Cubs fan, and I like to watch a baseball game any chance I get. Let's get to the point.

I live in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is home to the Indianapolis Indians, AAA farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Because of your — what some would call arcane — blackout restrictions, I don't get to see many Cubs games these days. I've always been under the impression that the point of blackout restrictions is to make sure fans go to the ballgame. If there's a home game and it's not sold out, the game is not on TV in that team's market. This is where it gets cloudy. Why am I in so many teams' "markets?" There's no way I could possibly go to Cubs games in Chicago very regularly when I live three hours away. I'm in everybody's market. I can't get Cubs or White Sox games. I can't get Reds games. Despite what the map above appears to say, I can't even get Cardinals games. (Trust me, they're playing KC right now on Fox Sports Midwest and I've got test bars.) St. Louis is NEARLY FOUR HOURS AWAY!

Anyway, I would like someone to explain these rules to me. I just want to see my first place Cubs play a game every now and then. I have made trips to Wrigley Field every year for a long time. Last year I purchased the Extra Innings package because I was out of the Cubs market for the summer. I have paid for MLB.com's Gameday Audio every year for as long as I can remember. I'm not trying to escape expenses. Throw me a bone MLB!

Sincerely,

Scott Allen