My “unretirement”
Today was the Beer Mile. I would have to label my performance a qualified success. I had a few goals in mind when I committed to the race a couple of months ago and I met several.
My first objective was to lose some weight. When I decided to do this back in July I weighed 244.5 lbs – grossly overweight. I ambitiously set a goal of losing 30 lbs by race day. My battery died on my scale Friday so I don’t know exactly what my weight was today (the scale uses a 3 volt watch battery which isn’t exactly carried by your local mini mart). However, I was at 222 lbs Friday so I’m pretty pleased with the 22.5 lb loss even if I didn’t make my target weight (I’m going to keep working on getting it down further).
My next objective was to break 15 minutes. As a reminder, the rules of the race call for the runners to drink a 12 oz can of beer, run a quarter mile, then repeat three times. When I told my buddy Kevin (he’s the Tavern bartender, and former race winner (specifically in 2004), that invited me to participate) that that was what I wanted to do, he looked at me askance and said “that’s pretty aggressive, that would have beat my time last year”. I assured him that I thought it was doable.
However, I also acknowledged that one of my competitive advantages in the Phi Psi 500 was going to be negated by a specific Beer Mile rule. One thing that set me apart in the Phi Psi was the ability to throw up without having it affect my ability to run (one year I ever ralphed without breaking stride). In the Beer Mile, though, you are penalized if you throw up by having to run an extra lap (once you throw up though, you’re golden – you can throw up as many times as you would like after that – the max penalty is just that one lap). While I continued to publicly state that my objective was 15 minutes, I privately acknowledged to Kevin that I was worried about throwing up and would be happy with a 20 minute time if I had to do the extra lap.
One of the things that my experience in this race has taught me is that getting the beer down while you are breathing heavily is difficult (Ron will attest to this 😆 ). That factored into my strategy. Basically, I formulated a plan that called for me to walk about the last 100 yards of each lap so that I would get my breathing under control before I chugged the beer. I figured I could make up considerable time in the beer drinking part of the race by doing this.
Last night I upped the ante a little. I told two of Kevin’s roommates – one current – one ex, who was back in town for the race – that I was planning on beating them. They are both in their late 20s and had run previously with times in the 15-25 minute time frame. I’m not sure that they took the braggadocio of this 62 year old too seriously.
When I got to the race this afternoon I found out some more details of the race. There were about 40 people participating (maybe 30 were running individually but some others were just competing in a relay version). The entrants were broken up into 8 person heats. Kevin and I were in the second heat. Also in heat two were Kevin’s girlfriend Ellen (a runner who had actually beaten Kevin last year), Kevin’s brother Ryan, Kevin’s old roommate Rob who I had boasted that I would beat, and a couple of people that I didn’t know. We would all stand around this high table and would start the chug at the beginning together. At that point, I made another prediction. I told the group that I planned on being first away from the table. I also said that I would probably be last at the halfway point but that my strategy would mean that I would be catching people in the last half of the race.
The actual race started at about 4 PM. In the first group was the two time defending champion so Kevin paid particular attention to him since Kev was intent on winning it again. The champ got away cleanly and was off to the races. His first lap split put him under record time (at least the State College Beer Mile’s record time) but he clearly looked like he was struggling a little with the second beer. By the time he finished the second lap it was clear that he wasn’t going to set a record. He also really struggled with the third beer – he must have taken a good 45 seconds getting it down (Kevin was smiling the whole time). He finally finished it and pulled away from the table. Now the course is set up so that you run about 50 yards to a small track where you do about a 300 yard loop then run back to the start along the same 50 yard stretch that you started out on. As the defending champ started out on his third lap, a girl was approaching him just finishing her second. When they were about 6-8 feet apart he let lose with a projectile vomit that just missed her by inches (I when I say missed, I don’t mean missed her feet, she ducked and it went right over her head). Needless to say that got a HUGE roar from the crowd (it also delighted Kevin because it meant the guy had to do an extra lap and the race was wide open). The winner of that heat finished around 11 something – the former champ’s time was around 12 minutes. At that point, I told Kevin the race was there for his taking. I told him I expected him to lap me during my second and his third lap.
Our group was next. Now while there were a couple of guys running who were 40 or 50ish, I was clearly the oldest and I’m sure some people were looking at me askance. Right then Kevin pointed to me and announced to the crowd “Don’t underestimate him. He’s a former Phi Psi 500 champ”. One of the guys in our heat that I didn’t know turned to me then and said “Yeah but how long ago was that”. “OK. 20 years” I admitted “but experience IS a factor in this race”.
Then our heat started. I slammed the beer down and, true to my prediction, I was the first one away from the table. The race start takes place in this women’s backyard and she has a raised porch which the racers run parallel to for the first 30 feet or so. Most of the crowd spectates from the porch. As I took off, it gave me great pleasure to hear someone in the crowd say “Wow. The old guy is off first”.
I held the lead for about 30 yards before Kevin blew by me. One by one, everyone else in the group passed me too. Sticking to my strategy I walked in the last 100 yards of the lap. I was the last one to get to the table. Kevin had already taken off on his second lap and his brother might have also. This would have to be the point where I made my move. Pop!. Slam! (ok – semi-slam. I did stop to take a breath about 2/3 of the way through the can), and I’m off (I think in third place but things start getting a little fuzzy at this point).
In retrospect, I was perhaps a little too aggressive on the drinking end. I got all of about 15 yards away from the table and started to ralph. I held back the first spasm but realized that there was no way I was going to hold it back for the whole race so I just let it go. Upchuck city – although it was just a small one and wasn’t nearly as spectacular as others I would see that day. However, that meant I was doomed to another lap.
The second lap was a carbon copy of the first. One by one, even though I was third out, one by one, most, if not all, of the others in my group passed me. Also as I predicted, Kevin lapped me with about 50 yards to go in that lap. When I got to the table for my third beer, the others were all standing around drinking their beers… but none of them were downing them too rapidly. Once again, I drew upon my strength – Pop! Semi-Slam! (this time I stopped twice while chugging the beer though), and I’m off again. I even left Kevin at the table doing his fourth beer (he admitted later that he was quite impressed that I arrived after him but left before him). Of course, he repassed me about 10 seconds later.
Again the rest of the group passed me during the lap (to be honest I don’t know if they all did or not but certainly MOST did). As I arrived at the table there was the usual cast of characters there, however, they most definitely were struggling. Once again, I made my move, chugged the beer, and left others standing around nursing theirs. As I pulled away from the table I heard Kevin yell for me to go. I yelled back that I had to pace myself because I had to tack a penalty lap on. Right then, Kev said “Don’t worry. Rob has a half mile to go too.” That helped inspire me.
My strategy now became to just make sure I stayed ahead of Rob. It helped that decidedly fewer people passed me on this lap. Now that was partially because two or three had lapped me and had already finished but it was also true that I had left several of the others a good distance behind still drinking their last beers.
I was walking the last few yards of my mile when the crowd started to yell at me to run because someone was gaining on me. I started to run but yelled back in protest that I still had another penalty lap to run. In retrospect, I’m glad I did because I touched the table just before the guy who was trying to catch me. It was the guy who made the comment to me at the start about “how long ago was that?” It did give me a little satisfaction to know that my time for the mile was actually better than his even if he did beat me in the race because I had a penalty lap tacked on (it also meant that I was able to exactly pinpoint my mile time as 15:41 – not the 15 minutes I had hoped for but also not too bad).
For the last lap, I pretty much went into one of those survivor trots that you’ve no doubt seen many a runner do at the end of their race. I had a couple of hundred yards on Rob and I just had to basically hang on to beat him which I managed to do. A couple of other people, including Kevin’s girlfriend Ellen, did pass me on the last lap though. I think I came in 7th in our group. My final time for the mile and 1/4 was 19:13, so I did get under the 20 minute window that I was worried about with a five lap run.
Jason was in the next group and he started out with a vengance. He downed the first beer and was the first one out in his group. I looked like I might be in trouble. He wasn’t near as quick with the second beer though and by the time he got to the third, I knew he didn’t have a prayer. In fact he must have spent about five minutes at the table downing the third beer (much of the time hanging over the fence behind the table losing his lunch). He finished around 25 minutes.
Kevin did wind up winning the race although it did turn out to be a little difficult. As he was finishing, his brother was a few yards behind him. Kevin slowed up so that they could cross the line together (they finished in 9:48). However, the race commitee refused to recognize this gallantry, declaring that no ties were allowed and made them run a two lap two beer tie-breaking match race. Kevin beat his brother by about 5 seconds this time to win the title for the second time.
I had a lot of fun doing it and might continue to work out to give it a go again next year. I’m curious about how well I coud do if I were actually in any kind of decent shape.
Geni.com
Geni.com is a combination social network/genealogy site. They are trying to use the social network concept to create family trees with the eventual goal (quite ambitious I might add) of creating one giant family tree that includes everyone in the world – hence their motto “Everyone’s Connected”.
The site is extremely easy to use and is growing by leaps and bounds. They only went live six months ago – within one month they had signed up 100,000 users and they just recently added their 5,000,000th profile. I’ve registered on the site and started building the Fall Family Tree. I’ve also created a link to Geni.com under Web Identities on the blog sidebar. However, you won’t be able to get to the tree until someone who is a part of it invites you to be a part of it. Once you accept an invite to join, the link in the sidebar will take you to your view of the tree.
I though I’d run a little test case and see what you guys think of the idea of continuing to build the tree (I know Marilyn had a little bit of a genealogy urge a while ago but don’t know if that’s still there).
I added us, Mom and Dad, and our grandparents, along with Harry, Grace and Jack. That gave me a pretty good perspective of how the tree is built. I’m going to extend an invitation to Marilyn and Gary and encourage you two to add to the tree and invite others in your family to join (you can invite someone to join by merely putting them in the tree along with their email address – you can also add people without their email addresses if you just want to expand the tree).
Marilyn – I suggest you add Shannon and as much of the Bergquist clan that you can get to buy into it (also this might be a good opportunity to include Linda, Richie, and Carol). Gary – add the kids and see how many Cortners you might get to go along.
If that little test seems to go well, then we can open it up to Ken, Steve, and Ron and their in-laws and we’ll run with it.
One thing to keep in mind is be be sensitive to how much personal information you include when filling out an individual’s entry. At least for the living, I’m just going to put in their name (and email address when I invited them), then let them make the decision about how much info to include.
The two of you should be getting an email invite shortly (Marilyn – I’m sure this means tomorrow morning for you but Gary may still be awake). Let me know your thoughts as you play with it.
For any others who might be making their once a month visit here and are curious about what the site is like, here’s a Wall Street Journal article on Geni.com.
Thinking about coming out of retirement
No not that way.
But, after getting out and exercising for four straight days, I’m getting the urge to get into competitive shape again. Unfortunately, the Phi Psi 500 no longer exists. But there is another possibility:
The Beer Mile is a unofficial worldwide competition where competitors drink a beer, run a quarter mile, then repeat three more times.
A friend of mine here in State College, Kevin Becker is one of the organizers of the local version of the competition. In fact, there is a YouTube video of the 2005 State College Event (it’s held every Labor Day). The event is nothing like the Phi Psi which drew about 2000 entrants and 10,000 spectators. The State College Beer mile draws maybe a dozen entrants and another couple of dozen spectators.
You can see the SC Beer Mile video by clicking here. My buddy is the guy with the shaved head that appears several times in the video. He won the event that year (you can see him cross the finish line at about the 4:30 point in the video – he’s also the guy doing the cartwheel/moon at the end of the video).
While I don’t feel I can be competitive with Kevin (he trains a lot, runs marathons and triathlons, and even ran a 50 mile race two years ago), I certainly feel I can be competive in my age group. I just went to the beer mile records page and I see that, while there’s no official 60+ record only a super-Masters group that starts at 50, the fastest time for a 60+ entrant worldwide is 9:54. While it would be tough to get to that level this year, I certainly don’t think that number is out of my reach in another year or so. The best time for a 62 year old is 10:35 and that’s not out of the realm of possibility (I would have to alter one of my strategies though – in the Phi Psi, I always forced myself to throw up – in this race, if you ralph, you run an extra lap).
The Ultimate Rube Goldberg Device
Normally you see this things set up on stages using all sorts of esoteric construction materials but this was all done in a couple of apartments with everyday normal items.
It’s a masterpiece (although I do wonder how many takes it took).
Go here to see it in action.
Where are they now?
Just in case they didn’t know it, I thought I’d update Ken and Gary on the whereabouts of a couple of old friends of theirs from our Chalfont days.
I’m sure most of us second generation Falls remember Conti’s Cross Keys Inn in Doylestown. I had my high school graduation dinner there with the family shortly after the graduation ceremony and shortly before I rear ended a car on 611 on my way to a party – which not surprisingly I never made.
Walt Conti, was the proprietor of the Inn, and I got to know Walt later through my association with the Tavern Restaurant in State College. Walt was one of the original Tavern waiters hired while he was a student at Penn State in the late 40s early 50s. Walt maintained close contacts with the original Tavern owners and even helped train the first Tavern bartenders when State College finally allowed liquor sales in the late 60s (people used to have to drive 10 miles to Bellefonte to buy a drink or a bottle of booze).
Walt was quite successful in the restaurant business rising to head the prestigious National Restaurant Association. He was remained connected with Penn State serving as a long time Board of Trustees member and even chairing the Board for several years. Walt is now retired and living in South Carolina. However, Walt isn’t the reason that I’m making this post. His two sons, Joe and Mike, are.
Joe Conti was good friends with Ken in high school. Ken can provide more details but my understanding was that at one time Joe and Ken had talked about going to Penn State, majoring in Hotel and Restaurant Administration, then opening a restaurant together. As it turns out, when the family made the move to Illinois following Ken’s senior year in high school, he decided to stay closer to home and enrolled in Illinois State instead.
Joe continued the family tradition and enrolled at Penn State. He also followed in his fathers footsteps by working at the Tavern Restaurant where I got to now him. Joe eventually took over management of the Cross Keys Inn from Walt. But like his Dad, Joe wasn’t content to just run the family business. Joe got involved in politics eventually getting elected as a State Senator from Bucks County. The demands of his new political career forced Joe to sell the two family restaurants – the Cross Keys Inn and the Pipersville Inn – in 1999.
In 2006, as is wont in politics, Joe got caught up in a political football (state legislators voted themselves a 2005 midnight pay raise that became to be known as a greedy money grab by the public – Joe made an ill fated joke about the pay raise that came back to haunt him and he fell out of favor with the Bucks County Republicans). Joe elected to retire from the Senate rather than fight what appeared to be a losing battle (even if he had won the fight against his fellow Bucks County Republicans he might have lost the war when many Republicans were swept out of office by the Democrats in the 2006 election).
Don’t worry about Joe though. He landed on his feet with a nice appointment as the head of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board aka the LCB. Pennsylvania maintains an archaic system (maybe even more so than Utah) where all liquors sales are controlled by the state. You can’t buy a bottle of booze in this state anywhere other than one of the 600+ State Stores scattered around the state. So Joe is now effectively the manager of those 600+ stores that bring in a staggering $1.6 billion in sales. Nice gig Joe. Oh yes, also like his father, Joe served on Penn State’s Board of Trustees.
That brings us to Mike Conti. Mike and Gary were friends in junior high school. Mike followed in his brother and fathers footsteps by also going to Penn State, working at the Tavern where I got to know him, and also becoming a friend of mine (I even went to Mike’s wedding in 1978).
After graduation, Mike went to work for his dad at the family inn back in Doylestown. However, like many of us, Mike couldn’t get Penn State out of his blood. In 1992 he returned to work for the University as part of the University’s Hospitality Services. Hospitality Services runs Penn State’s two on property hotels, the Nittany Lion Inn and the Penn Stater Conference Center.
Mike started out as the Food and Beverage Manager for the restaurant at the Nittany Lion Inn. Today he is the General Manager of the entire hotel. The Nittany Lion Inn has been an on campus fixture since it was built in 1929. It features 220+ rooms and is the place to stay to for alumni returning for campus visits. During it’s 75 year history, many notables, including numerous presidents, politicians such as Barry Goldwater and Martin Luther King, actors like Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman, and entertainers as varied as Billy Joel and Brittany Spears, have been guests at the hotel.
My hat’s off to the Conti’s – one of Penn State’s most highly regarded families.
Hypothetical Moral Dilemma
I just finished reading this interesting article on moral principles. A Harvard researcher hypothesizes that evolution has provided us with a base moral compass. As evidence he offers these three intriguing questions on morality.
Question One:
A trolley is coming down a track and it’s going to run over and kill five people if it continues. A person standing next to the track can flip a switch and turn the trolley onto a side track where it will kill one person but save the other five. Is is morally permissible to flip the switch?
If you answered yes, then you have responded the way that most people do – they feel it’s morally permissible to harm one person when five are saved.
Question Two:
A nurse comes up to a doctor and says “Doctor, we’ve got five patients in critical care; each one needs an organ to survive. We do not have the time to send out for organs, but a healthy person just walked into the hospital – we can take his organs and save the five. Is that OK?”
Not surprisingly, no one says yes to this question.
Question Three:
What’s the difference between these two situations?
According to the Harvard professor, people of different ages, people of different religious backgrounds, people of different educations typically cannot explain why those cases differ. He proposes that there is some sort of hard wired unconscious process at work during moral judgments.
I found that quite intriguing and I certainly couldn’t rationally distinguish between the two hypothetical situations.
If you are interested, here’s the online version of the article.
Sometimes the internet is freaky…
I spend a fair amount of time on a sports forum called PennStateHoops.com dedicated naturally to Penn State basketball. There was a thread today that was off on a tangent where someone mentioned a couple of famous Fordham basketball players/coaches. In that thread it came to light that the poster didn’t know John Bach who coached at Fordham before he came to Penn State as their coach. I decided to educate the guy a little on Bach (see my post).
Since Natalie Berrena is John Bach’s granddaughter I couldn’t help but include a quick paragraph, and a little commercial, about her. I wanted to put a photo in the post so I naturally Google “Natalie Berrena” for images. Low and behold what popped up on the Google results page but this photo:
Needless to say I did a double take.
Google found one of my posts in our blog and I guess Natalie’s name was fairly close to our image so it tagged the image with her name.
Try it yourself – Google image search for “Natalie Berrena”.
A real hero’s story
A friend of mine, Matt Emmerling, was just honored by the Carnegie Foundation’s Hero Fund. Honorees receive the Carnegie Medal
and a financial grant ($5000 in Matt’s case).
The award was established in 1904 by Pittsburgh Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. His deed commissioning the establishment of the fund noted:
We live in a heroic age. Not seldom are we thrilled by deeds of heroism where men or women are injured or lose their lives in attempting to preserve or rescue their fellows.
Matt’s story, as told in last week’s press release announcing this year’s award winners.
Matthew J. Emmerling and Kevin J. Mahoney saved Seth L. Mattleman and others from burning, State College, Pennsylvania, April 2, 2006. Mattleman, 20, was asleep in the 2.5-story house he shared with other university students, some of whom were also inside the building. Fire broke out before dawn on the back porch of the house and, spreading rapidly, entered the structure, including into Mattleman’s first-floor bedroom. Emmerling, 21, university student, was nearby when he saw the fire. He and Mahoney, 22, lifeguard, who was walking nearby, responded to the front of the house, where they entered through the front door, shouting to alert any occupants. Two of the residents fled the building. Although dense smoke limited their visibility, the men entered Mattleman’s room and shouted for him to leave, but Mattleman was disoriented. Emmerling grasped him about the arms and pulled him to the front door and outside, Mahoney following. Emmerling and Mahoney then re-entered the house, through a side entrance, and went upstairs, where they evacuated the second floor of at least one occupant. Finding a disoriented man in a bathroom on that floor, Mahoney pulled him by the arms to the stairs, and they stumbled partway down before exiting the house along with Emmerling. Flames soon engulfed the interior of the structure and destroyed it. Mattleman suffered burns and was treated at the scene. He recovered. Emmerling suffered smoke inhalation, for which he sought medical attention the following day, and Mahoney sustained a minor ankle burn. They too recovered.
The actual incident took place a year ago and was written up in a couple of local newspapers including the Penn State student newspaper, the Daily Collegian, where Matt works.
Here are some of them:
The Penn State Daily Collegian on the original incident:
After seeing smoke coming from the back of a house at 700 West College Ave., Emmerling ran into the burning building and was able to fight off the heavy smoke to wake the sleeping residents and, with Mahoney’s help, get everyone to safety before flames engulfed the house.
The Centre Daily Times on the Carnegie Hero Award:
Matt Emmerling, 22, and Kevin Mahoney, 23, didn’t even know each other when they spotted a fire about 4:30 a.m. April 2, 2006, at 700 W. College Ave.
They just happened to be nearby.
Together, they dashed inside and helped wake the eight college students sleeping there. The house ended up being a total loss, but no one was seriously hurt.
The Daily Collegian on a fund raiser to help the kids in the house:
For Brian McHale, this week has been hectic, to say the least. But the fire that brought his house down could not bring his spirits down, especially not last night.
“Without those two heroes, there wouldn’t be a celebration tonight at all,” McHale (senior-supply chain management) said.
Those two heroes are Matt Emmerling and Kevin Mahoney, who saved the lives of several of the students whose house burned down in a fire last weekend.
Photo of Matt with the mother of one of the kids he saved:
Really Bad Day at Work
