Home Improvement?

Currently, I'm writing this blog as an asian couple accompanied with an older british man walk through our new house here in Guelph looking to purchase it.

great show, creepy neighbour still kinda scares me

Yeah... so we just moved in on May 1st and it turns out our landlord is seeking to sell the place. Although we are guaranteed the house for the length of our lease, it isn't exactly an ideal situation. It might turn out that an investor buys it and we're good to go with a new landlord for the next few years. It might turn out that the asian couple buys it and we're off to the cannon again in January. Regardless, one thing that's certain is the fact that the next couple of days will produce their fair share of awkward moments. And I'm excited for them to take place.

Oops, sorry, I didn't hear you come in, would you like me to put pants on?

etc...

Should be fun.

Beyond the household shenanigans that are bound to take place, a lot has been happening in Guelph that's worth mentioning.

As mentioned above, we moved in to our new house! And it's sweet! We have a fireplace... and a french door! We fancy huh? Yes, 163 Ironwood is shaping up to provide the setting for what can only be an epic second year. Our location is clutch, right on the 52 bus line and minutes away from Stone Rd Mall and other essential undergraduate services. Across the street from a public school that apparently houses an outdoor ice rink in the winter and down the road from the trailhead of what will provide some sweet untapped off-day adventures. Our build quality rivals any student house you could put it up against in the city. Built in 1984 and at 1085 square feet, the house is straight gangsta with a quality deck (with wooden awning) and barbecue that would make Rob Rainford jealous. Yeah, and the kids in the house are known to have fun too.

Outdoor track is finally upon us and if early season efforts are any indication, this year is going to be a memorial one. Last weekend saw action from Speed River in Hillsdale, Michigan at the Gina Relays, in Alto Palo, California at the Payton Jordan Invite and in Toronto at the Sporting Life 10k. All across North America Speed River made a statement that we're ready to compete with the best and that it's not just something in the water in Guelph that makes us run. Big shout out to papa Genest who threw down a great steeple at Stanford, running just shy of the World Champs B standard in 8:33.85, his fastest time on the track in almost 2 years. Watch the video below, you'll see for yourself that he's going to be doing big things this year.



I too ran a steeplechase this past weekend. 9:36 and change. It was not exactly what I wanted it to be but I did get a feel for the track again and the pace that I'm hoping to maintain for the entire race... not just the first 2k of it. The steeple is a tough race. I was reminded of that fact in what is truly the only way that you can be reminded of it, by running one. All in all, it was a stronger debut on the track than last year so I can see the positive from that, but there is still much work to do in order for me to visit Disneyland this coming July. However, with the success that my fellow steeplers, along with the other, inferior-event track people are having, I'm excited to put the work in.

So yeah, there's a lot going on here, and I'm excited to spend my summer immersed in it. Clerke has headed back to la belle province de la Colombie Britannique, Proudfoot is chilling with the likes of Bernard Lagat and Nick Willis in Flagstaff, Arizona and Geiser is living the life in Mississauga writing up a storm on his blog (check it out if you haven't) and preparing for his comeback, reportedly throwing down a 27' 200 yesterday at the track. Yeah, I was there, believe. (edit: it was a 26' after all; read about his outlook on running on his new post here. I'm rooting for ya man!)

So ya, expect more from the blog in the coming weeks as the summer brings with it more time and more excitement to write about.

Doha Diamond League just ended, sweet 3k over there.

10000 m Ontario Champs on Sunday, should have some studs throw down.

Speedy Manure this weekend, get ready for the shit show.


Excited for it all. Well maybe not that last one.

- Chris

Resuscitation

I'd say it's about time to clear the spider webs and start throwing some blogs up here... well atleast for the next two weeks well I'm bored as shit in Flagstaff Arizona. I have nothing against the place, It's actually pretty cool, but when your at altitude and only running 60-80 minutes a day with not too much else to do one tends to get restless. Restless enough to say, start up an old blog that's been dead for around two months. So far I've been up here three days, running some of the coolest trails I've came across in my 19 years on this planet. I've already come across a jackrabbit, groundhog, two squirrel-rabbity things, and a horny toad (which I almost stepped on), all without running close to a fraction of the little dirt trails right out the door. Anyways the reason I'm up here is for a National Center training camp so pretty soon I'll have to hit the track and actually do some workouts, but for now I'm pretty content with my little senic runs. The other guys here are all pretty big studs so it won't be all that terrible when I hit the track on Saturday with them. Thats really all there is to update the last two months, some exams and then Flagstaff with a crummy race thrown in there that doesn't need to be talked about.

Hopefully the other dudes will start bloggin aswell, seeing as they are much better writers and school is finally out.

Later.
- Ross

#winning

What's up what's up yall! Running Down a Dream here and we've got some great updates on the happenings of your favourite Guelph rookies to let you in on. With just over a month left as rookies at UoG it feels like time is flying by these days with school and running and girls and #winning occupying all of our time. Yeah, thats right, we've been #winning a lot lately.

Allow me to elaborate...

#winning

We want to thank everyone who helped out in liking our video on youtube, because WE WON! $500 is a sweet prize and we are definitely going to be spending it with the intention of increasing the party potential of our new house. Sound system, Tv, shamwows, enough said. Our house will be bomb.

Also, in keeping with our promise, anyone who liked our video on youtube is free to party with us next year/crash at our house for a few nights provided you have a signed screenshot of your 'like' on youtube. No exceptions. Yes, even you DST.

google images never fail; #winning

10000 is a lot. It's number of connections each neurone has to other neurones in the brain. It's the age of Charlie Sheen's brain according to him. It's the record Bekele holds in 26:17.53. It's the number of views RDAD has received since its launch on Nov. 23, 2010.

Holy crap guys. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see what we're talking about, all the way down. That number, yeah, that's views. Yeah it's sweet. We all started this blog with the intentions of just throwing up some stupid stuff for our friends to see, with a little bit of running stuff inbetween, but we didn't think it would be so well received. I've got to admit, we were in it for the money at one point (see: "Click On The Ads" chant at XC Nat's Afterparty) but now that we're just writing for fun again, its cool to see people coming back to read what we're up to. We'll keep it going if people keep reading.

jealousy does not begin to describe it. proudfoot is #winning

In other news, Ross is in Spain. Prolly bro'ing out on the beach. Throwing disc and stuff. Breaking hearts of Spanish girls, the usual. He's also running World XC's, hoping to keep his stellar season going in what Bairu calls the Super Bowl of distance running. Good luck boys and girls, shout outs to Genest, D. Snides, Carise and Emily who also are gearing up to take on the world.

Closer to home, the hunger for speed and the taste of rubber brought us to St. James this week for some solid 400s to bookend our tempo sesh. Ripping it us (except not) on the track has really gotten us excited here for the outdoor season which is coming up fast. It's almost April, which is almost May which is almost June. Pan Am Jr's anyone? I really want to see that new Harry Potter Theme Park in Florida. Big motivator.

Other than that, we're just trying to get through school and avoid thinking of finals for at least another 3 weeks. At least that means we'll all be on likealittle again.

- chris

Guelph Summer Semester Video Contest

Hey everyone, so we here at Running Down a Dream are in a little contest at the University of Guelph and we need your help to help us win. Our video on Youtube needs the most 'likes' in order to win $500 which we will use to help us buy a TV and sound system for the Rookie boys' house next year!

Why does this concern you?

A) If you like our video, you are welcome to crash at our house whenever you're in town.

B) If you like our video, you will help to make parties at our house incredible, which you are all invited to.

C) If you like our video, you are promoting the arts in our increasingly arts deprived society.

So yeah, login with your youtube account(s), or make a (few) youtube account(s), and LIKE our video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQm3sJBKw_k

Thanks!

Edit: Video embedded below!

First the Americas, Now the World

Well done boys.

I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords

Greetings readers, we here at RDaD sincerely apologize for our lack of blogging over he past few weeks as we have all been occupied with consuming the souls/hearts of women midterms. Many midterms. But we are back, and are ready to pleasure you in ways that only three good looking, intelligent, athletic men can.

The interwebs have been blowing up this week with stories about the Robot Revolution that is soon to take over our gentle human species. First, it was the story of a supercomputer built by IBM that took to (in RDaD's opinion... well Chris' opinion) the greatest show on earth, Jeopardy!, and completely crushed its competition in a two day grudge match. The computer, named Watson (not to be confused with that other Watson that mercilessly destroys his competition), defeated Jeopardy! legends Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter and established its place as the leader of the impending Robot Resistance.

Seriously, the most exciting television you could have seen this week... right? Anyone?

However, it was not until news broke about the world's first robot marathon taking place in Japan on February 24th that we here at RDaD really began to fear for the future of our species.

"The Robot Marathon will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Feb. 24. Robots must cover 422 laps of a 100 m loop course inside the Trade Center within a time limit of four days and, apart from time off for battery changes and on-the-fly maintenance, will run nonstop."

They can take our Jeoprady!, they can take our freedom, but our running? Thats where we draw the line.

If anyone should be concerned, we at Running Down a Dream think it should be Rob Watson; they take your namesake then they challenge you in the marathon? We can only hope that the impending Robot uprising has not yet learned the ways of the FFTF, it's our only hope at this point. 

In other, more uplifting news, Athletics Canada has released more information on its Inaugural National Track League. The big news to come from AC is the pot of $300 000 up for grabs this summer to athletes competing in the league, an incentive that should bring about some good competition this summer on home soil. Prizing structure has yet to be announced but with the talk of a Diamond League-style points system in effect it should be interesting to see who will take advantage of densely scheduled league and who will set their sights on a more spread out season (or European season) in vying for a spot on this year's World Championship team. I for one am interested in the money available for the sparsely contested race-walking events as it has come to my attention that they are not that hard.

In the meantime, RDaD's own Ross Proudfoot is off to Trinidad & Tobago for the NACAC Cross County Championships as we speak, and has brought our beautiful HD camcorder along with him to document the journey. We expect big things from this guy and if his performances over the past few weeks are any indication, we could potentially see some hardware being brought back through customs in a few days. We'll be sure to throw up any videos he brings back as well as have the exclusive post-race interview with the ridiculous-looking sunburnt kid in the days to come.

Finally, as usual, heres a pic of Boorsma looking dumb, have a good day!

-Chris with a splash of Connor

A picture can say a thousand words

none of which are good

- Chris

via Trackie.ca