Wow, it has been a long time since I was in so much pain. On Thursday I went in for my Rhinoplasty and since then I have had never ending pain. Right now my noise feels like it is going to explode from the splints holding it in place. My eyes look like I’ve been beaten up by bullies. I cannot sneeze out of my noise or blow my noise until next Friday (which is not that bad). My main problem is the sleeping with out waking up. Right now I have to sleep by taking pain pills. Which is fine, but if you don’t have a lot of food in your system it makes you feel like you’re going to throw up. Well I am falling asleep right now so I’m going to go. Cya.

Today in Rochester I went on my longest run in over a month. I ran around the bike system in Rochester for about 9 miles. I finished off my run with two fast laps around Soldiers Field Track (which is dirt and flooded). For those of you who do not know the weather that Rochester had tonight, it was a little windy and rainy. Not too bad, but it was good running weather. It was also cool outside. I was flying through puddles and taring up pavement as I went along. It was great. For about 98% of the run I felt little or no pain in my leg. It was amazing. I cannot wait to run again!

Well another track season is over. This season was a little more disappointing and more of a let down than I expected. It started off with a very slow mile at the Luther Alumni Meet (http://wayzataresults.com/track/2008/LutherAlumni/Results.htm). I did not even run under 5 minutes! After that we traveled to UW-Platteville, where I met up with some very nice timers. I ran the 800, an event I have not ran since I was a senior in high school (and not competitively since I was a junior). I ran a 2:13.29 and finished 2nd to last in my heat. I wanted to run under 2:10, so I was a little disappointed (results: http://www.uwplatt.edu/athletics/track/2008/uwpopen08.htm). Next we traveled to UNI for what would turn out to be my last race of the indoor season. I ran the 3k and I was in the lowest heat, I was ranked first in the heat. This other kid went out from the start and grabbed the lead, he held it for a little over a mile before I went in front of him and started to push the pace. But I could not shake him. With about 4 laps from the finish (a half mile) I finally started to pulled away, but with 2 laps to go he started to kick for home. But it was not until the last 100 meters when he went by me and beat me by four seconds. He had quite a kick. I was not that disappointed in my race, I ran my race and I got beat, which is fine by me (results: http://sports.luther.edu/stats/men/track-and-field/2008/UNI-DomeOpenResults.htm).

My outdoor season was quick and painful. After a 100% mileage spring break, my shins have been killing me on EVERY RUN! The last three weeks I have not run more then 3-4 miles a day. It hurts too much. Our first meet was the Meet of Champions at Augustana. I ran the 1500, I wanted to run under 4:30, but I fell a little short after a very slow first lap (74), but I worked my ass off from that point on, running in no mans land for the rest of the way. But I was still decently happy with how I ran. After that I went on a 4 mile cool down with very little pain in my shins, so I was happy (results: http://sports.luther.edu/stats/men/track-and-field/2008/MOC_Final.htm). My next race was at the Loras Open, I ran the 5k. I was the only Luther runner in the race. I had everyone cheering me on. It was a great feeling to know that my teammates were cheering for me as loud and as hard as they could. It kept me going when I had to battle the wind for most of the race. I was again stuck in no mans land. But I ran a decent race, despite the weather. I was happy with how I did (results: http://sports.luther.edu/stats/men/track-and-field/2008/Loras%20Open%202008%20Results.pdf).

Overall it was an alright season, but I’m looking forward to cross country and feeling better.

Your Results: Email Your Results (See link below this list)

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
2. Barack Obama (77%) Information link
3. Joseph Biden (withdrawn) (76%) Information link
4. Dennis Kucinich (withdrawn) (75%) Information link
5. Hillary Clinton (74%) Information link
6. Alan Augustson (campaign suspended) (68%) Information link
7. Wesley Clark (not running, endorsed Clinton) (68%) Information link
8. John Edwards (withdrawn) (68%) Information link
9. Al Gore (not announced) (65%) Information link
10. Bill Richardson (withdrawn) (64%) Information link
11. Christopher Dodd (endorsed Obama) (63%) Information link
12. Michael Bloomberg (says he will not run) (61%) Information link
13. Mike Gravel (46%) Information link
14. Elaine Brown (42%) Information link
15. John McCain (39%) Information link
16. Ron Paul (concedes nomination not possible) (38%) Information link
17. Rudolph Giuliani (withdrawn, endorsed McCain) (37%) Information link
18. Wayne Allyn Root (36%) Information link
19. Kent McManigal (campaign suspended) (34%) Information link
20. Mike Huckabee (withdrawn) (33%) Information link
21. Chuck Hagel (not running) (27%) Information link
22. Tommy Thompson (withdrawn, endorsed Giuliani) (26%) Information link
23. Alan Keyes (25%) Information link
24. Mitt Romney (withdrawn, endorsed McCain) (25%) Information link
25. Sam Brownback (withdrawn, endorsed McCain) (21%) Information link
26. Newt Gingrich (says he will not run) (20%) Information link
27. Fred Thompson (withdrawn) (19%) Information link
28. Tom Tancredo (withdrawn, endorsed Romney) (17%) Information link
29. Jim Gilmore (withdrawn) (12%) Information link
30. Duncan Hunter (withdrawn, endorsed Huckabee) (12%) Information link
31. Stephen Colbert (campaign halted) (7%) Information link

Here are my results from a political test that I took online.

Your Results:
89%
Kucinich Dennis Kucinich
87%
Gravel Mike Gravel
84%
Biden Joe Biden
80%
Dodd Chris Dodd
80%
Edwards John Edwards
79%
Obama Barack Obama
77%
Clinton Hillary Clinton
76%
Richardson Bill Richardson
37%
Giuliani Rudy Giuliani
28%
McCain John McCain
25%
Paul Ron Paul
22%
Huckabee Mike Huckabee
21%
Romney Mitt Romney
13%
Tancredo Tom Tancredo
12%
Thompson Fred Thompson

The first semester of my Sophomore year is over. All my homework, papers, and tests are finished. Now we wait until Dec. 27th to find out what the final grades are. Some classes were hard and some were a little easier. But I wont go into that. I’m not going home though until this Sunday. I have to stay for basketball, stats of course. But I’m not complaining they are paying for my meals and hopefully I will be getting paid extra.

Right now my training is starting back up again. I’m training everyday, but I’m heading back into consistent training. My mileage is low, but slowly building up. My hope for track is to train for the Steeplechase, 3k, 5k and 10k. I want to run at the conference Indoor meet and Outdoor. My big goals are to be All-Conference for either Indoor or Outdoor (both would be great). I want to go under 16:00 for the 5k, under 9:00 for the 3k, and under 10:00 in the steeplechase.

This weekend I have a lot of work to do with the Minnesota Running Data Center. I have to go through all my emails and enter the results for each race that is certified and has sent in their paperwork. This should take me no less than three hours. This will be great fun! One slip up and I have to start over!!

We all know that you go to college so that you can get a good education and thus get a good job and raise a family or do whatever in the world that you want to do with your life. Now I my majors are Computer Science and Physical Education (non-teaching plan), but I plan on finishing up my education at St. Thomas. While I’m there I plan on getting my teaching degree, along with hopefully getting my Sports Information degree as well. But thats not point of this entry.

The point of this entry is to talk about how some people come off when talking about college life and studying. Now if you knew me at all in high school, I didn’t study much and mostly my grades reflected that. But I really did try my last year in high school. But again thats not the point. My first year at Luther was a rocky one. First off because I didn’t study that much in the first semester and so I didn’t get the best grades and I was put on academic probation. That is why I didn’t run track last year. But this was a blessing because it jump started me into getting my homework done and getting my grades up so that I could run cross country in the fall. As it turns out I really improved and my GPA jumped from a 1.6 to 2.3 or so. Now I don’t plan on not doing my work and slacking off, I’m still working just as hard.

But thats only a background to the main point. Last year I was at the cross country/track table and people were talking about how some people spend so much time doing homework and not being involved in activities(sports or anything). The conversation soon led to some people agreeing with this statement, “I would rather get A’s and B’s and be involved in sports then getting all A’s.” Now thats all well and good for most people on the cross country & track team. Because as we all know cross country athletes are some of the smartest athletes. Now I’m not the smartest athletes or people in school, but I’m pretty smart, in the long run. But for me it’s a challenge for me to be in a sport and keep my grades up, and it was a challenge for me in high school, because I didn’t do both, I did one (sports). And my grades suffered. The person that said this will remain nameless, but I can tell you that grades and school come very easy for this student. While he actually does put a lot of work into his work, I have seen him BS (Bull shit) his way through a lot of work and still get better grades then me, in the same class. Which tends to make me believe that while he still tries, I have to work even harder just to stay within touching distance of his scorers on tests and grades.

This just comes down to that some people with good grades don’t understand how hard it is for other people to do what they are doing. Like in my case school doesn’t come easy for me. And I have to work a crap load more just to maintain B’s & C’s in classes, while my teammates can do the same amount of work and get A’s & B’s. But I’m saying that the system is broken, just how some people think about how others do in the class.

When I first told my teammates that I wasn’t going to be running track because of my grades, a lot of them said, “What in the hell did you do? How could you not get passing grades?” And yes mainly the reason that I wasn’t running track was because of my grades, but they just don’t understand how hard it was for me tell them and they didn’t seem to see that. Their reactions didn’t make it easier for me to stay positive and keep my grades up and work hard. But I fought through it anyway. With positive reinforcement from Katie Dolan, my parents, coaches, and most of my teammates.

Well right now I’m on track to run track next spring, but I’m still working hard to keep my grades up and stay afloat. Not that I’m in trouble. Well I have work to do, bye.

P.S. Good luck wayzata & Luther @ nationals.

Yours in Running,

Gerber

Well as all things seem to come in this world, my sophomore cross country season came to an end. My season finished off with two races, one at St. John’s and one at the U of Minnesota Golf Course. I’ll start with the race at St. John’s, seeing as it was my last official college race.

The race was of course held at St. John’s in Collegeville, MN. It was a JV meet, for the runners not competing in the Region Meets this weekend. The course was mostly on roads and some trails. I of course don’t race well on the roads. There were some top DIII teams there (St. John’s, St. Thomas) and some top DI teams as well (U of MN & U of MN Alumni). Well the women’s and men’s race started at the same time, the women started 30 meters ahead of the men and were asked to move to the right so that the men could pass them. Of course not all of them did that. When we got into the woods they were running right down in the middle of the path, blocking the way. The guys had to pass them on the outside, right next to the woods. Well I just didn’t feel fresh at all. And throughout the race I felt worse and worse. I was getting passed by people who hadn’t beaten me all season. I didn’t think I was running well at all, which I wasn’t. But my kick was fantastic, in the last 50 meters I passed at least 10 people if not more. Afterwards I was mad, because on the bus ride up if the varsity isn’t there, some people act like total jackasses the whole way up, which of course breaks everyones concentration. Most of whom were seniors who didn’t care how they did. And what makes me mad is that they both beat me, I was mentally strong for this race and I was pissed off that they beat me. But I wont have to listen to them anymore, because all races from now on are with the varsity.

Well that race was on a Friday and I had another race on Sunday. But before that I had to go watch my former high school team compete at the state championships. An event which I myself have never competed in. It was great seeing them move up throughout the whole race. It was like watching Luther race the whole way. It was great to see them take the state title for the first time since I was 7th grader. And I hope they race well this weekend.

On to my race on Sunday. This was race was called Rocky’s Run and I ran it every year I was in high school. In 9th grade I ran the 5k (well I tried, but I was coming down with pneumonia), I dropped out about 1 mile into the race. The next year I ran the 8k, and finished in a time of 30:24 in 6th place or so. When I was a junior I again raced the 8k, running a time 30:26, but this time I actually went out and raced it full out. The year before I didn’t and I still ran faster. When I ran the 30:26 (as a junior) we got lost on the course and couldn’t find our way, so we added on time that way. Otherwise I think I would have run about 10 seconds faster. Anyways, my senior year I didn’t run any faster, even though I seemed to try just as hard. I didn’t race it last year because I wasn’t in town and I didn’t want to race again. So this year, I just wanted to run another race. So I decided I was going to run the 5k and not the 8k. Plus my legs still hadn’t recovered from conference the weekend before. Also adding on the fact that I raced two days earlier, my legs were far from fresh. So my plan was simple start out kind of slow and move up and pull away after 3k and just go for the win. Well after 1k I felt like I was moving pretty well, I was in 3rd place and the leaders were pulling away. I hit the mile mark in about 5:45 or 5:47. Still in third place, my legs now started to feel the previous races before. And as we got into the hilly part of the race my legs just kept feeling worse and worse. The last kilo of the race I was just trying not to get passed, and I didn’t. I kept my position of 6th place for the last 2k. I didn’t feel good at all, but I don’t have any regrets.

Right now I’m just running, no more then 5 miles a day and I’m staying on grass for all my runs. Just running how I feel and staying relaxed. I don’t plan on not running for the rest of the year. But I have lowered my mileage a lot. Also right now I’m working with another kid on the Cross Country team in planning some time trails so that people can see where they are right now. We are hosting one this Thursday and one the following Monday. I’m of course doing the timing! We are hosting it on Luther’s track, but we are calling it a cross country trail, haha. Oh well thats all for me right now. I’ll write again soon.

Yours in Running, and life.

Josh “Dartos” Gerber

This past weekend was the IIAC (Iowa Conference) Cross Country Championships. This year there was only two races (Women followed by Men). They were still giving awards to the top JV runners and top team. For the women Janet Dobyns, my teammate, won the race by 20 some seconds, with a dominating performance! The Luther women also took home the title. Their JV went 1-9 and took 10 of the top 15 spots. Katie finished 7th on the team and made All-Conference, she was 15th. For the men’s race (since I was running it I’m repeating what I’ve heard), Matt Busche (Flip) took the title away from Ben Grant (defending champion). Flip took the lead for good with 1.5 miles left (less then one lap left), he won with a 10 second lead. Luther put 7 in the top 15 and won for the 2nd year in a row over Wartburg. For the JV part of the race Luther went 1-5 in the JV race and put 9 in the top 15 (including yours truly). Top 15 in each race get All-Conference Honors, I was 13th in the JV and 49th overall. But because this year they only awarded the top 7 on each team per race I got screwed out because I was the 8th runner on the team. That doesn’t make sense to me why you would only award the top 7 runners per team per race that just means that the conference only cares about the top 14 runners for each team and not the rest. But oh well. I’ll be back in action at St. John’s this Friday @ 4:30.

Well it’s been a while since I last posted so I’ll leave something now, before I leave to go back to school. I’ll start off with my race at La Crosse two weeks ago. The course was so muddy and crap, it was great. But I didn’t get out fast enough and was stuck weaving in and out of people the whole race. And with less than 3k to go, my stomach started feeling like crap every time I picked up the pace. I ran 29:09 so I was right around my time from Eau Claire. My first mile was 5:52 and my pace for the race was 5:52, so its good to know I can run pace for the whole race.

My last race was the Luther vs. La Crosse Dual @ Luther. I ran 5:47 for the first mile, I wanted to get out fast for the first mile. But I was pretty far back. I felt good throughout the whole race and I felt that I was picking up the pace the whole race. I finished in a 5:36 mile or so. I felt really good. I know I can run faster and pickup a couple other people by the time Conference comes around this weekend.

School is going well, I’m passing my classes and staying on top of my homework. Which leads me to my store of the Norse Soccer game this past Wednesday. Stig and I were watching the womens game and at half time they were up 1-0. Then it started raining. And for the whole second half it rained. The other team tied it up 1-1. The game went into overtime and it just kept on raining. By the time the game was over (Norse 2, other team 1) Stig and myself were completely soaked. I went up to my room and dried off my close and backpack. It was great!

Man what a race…..I’ll take you through it:
First off we were racing on a golf course (99% all grass), so I was talking to Steve (my coach) about running barefoot, and he said it was a smart idea, so I did it. The first mile I went through in 5:55 (not that fast), but it was my first 8k of the season, so I’m not too worried. After that things went kind of bad, at 1.5 to 2 miles I felt like shit….I couldn’t move, I felt like I was slowing down. When I passed the 3200 mark in 11:30-45ish, I said,"WHAT ARE YOU KIDDING WE ARE ONLY THIS FAR INTO THE RACE!!!” I said this in my head mind you. But after 3 miles I started feeling better and started to cruise again. Man did I start to really feel good, I was passing people like no ones business. There was this kid from Wartburg who kept taking the flag markers and pushing them to the ground so that they hit people…this really made me mad. He almost hit me! I said to myself again, alright if he does it again I’m taking him OUT! Well he didn’t (or maybe he did) it really didn’t matter because I crushed him right after that. With one mile to go I was closing in on Ean & Civil (two of my teammates) and I was flying. I felt great and with about 600 left I just cruised into the finish (sprinting but leaving some in the gas tank). I almost caught another teammate of mine (Drew Burmahl), about 10 seconds in front of me. My final times was 29:05 with a place of 132 (and for the first time ever I scored for Luther College!). Not my best time ever but I know have faster races left in me. While I was at the race I got to catch up with some of my old teammates (John Lambert, Mike Burgmeier, Chris DesRoches, Michael Letich, Mason Bacso) and a couple of old running buddies from high school (Chad Ernst, Patrick Lowder, Phil Rietcher (I hope I’m spelling it right). And of course Tim Miles (Bill’s brother). I talked to him for about 10 minutes during the awards presentation. It was a pretty good day overall and I hope to have many more races like that! I would like to thank all of you that came out to cheer me and the rest of the Norse on today!!

Hey all, I’ll update this blog tonight after I get back from my race (in Eau Claire, WI @ 5pm), if you want to come, haha.

Today was just like all the other Tuesdays and Thursdays. I only have one class on those days and it’s Politics of the Middle East. Right now we are on the Israel and Palestine conflict. Today we talked about the wars that Israel has been apart of. It seems as though Israel was provoked in the second war (Suez War) to fight because Britain and France (mostly Britain) wanted to retake control over the canal. But that aside, I was surprised to learn that Israel also started some of these wars (one looked as though it was completely unprovoked). This is the kind of stuff that they don’t teach you in Hebrew school. All they thought us was that Israel has never lost a war and that Israel didn’t start any of them. I was amazed to hear this information and to see what lies I was told during those years at Hebrew School. But that aside, it was a pretty good day overall. My leg didn’t hurt me as much, I walk on it with little to no pain all day. My run today was 4.5 miles, easy, on our cross country course (groomed grass and all). I started off slow and slowly began picking it up and cruising the last 2 miles or so. During the run my leg felt a little tight but nothing to worry about at all. After the run my leg got really tight and it was hard to walk without limping, I’m stretching it out and hope that I can do the workout on Wednesday.

Today’s long run led us to some deserted road out in the middle of North East Iowa outside of Decorah. All day I was walking around with a tight groin muscle. I tried to stretch it all day, but nothing worked. We started the run and I couldn’t get my stride going. But after about two miles is was loosing up a little bit but it still tight. After about 5 miles I stopped and talked to Steve about it and he said to stop. While I was stretching my leg we talked about the All-American meet, he thought I went out a little slow, and I agree (put you can read that post later). After waiting for about 10 minutes or so, until Belgium came back and I ran back with him for a total of 8 miles on the day. I hope I can get back in stride quickly so I can kick some ass. See ya soon.

Saturday’s race wasn’t really a race…..but it felt good to get my legs moving fast again. It all started really slow, everyone bunched up (except for the LaCrosse pack with Chris DesRoches). Some kid from Clarke College (about 400-600 meters into the race) said,"Does anyone know where the half-mile mark is?” We all laughed and didn’t answer him. I went through the mile above 6 min. I went through the 2 mile in 12:00. I felt slow but I knew I had plenty left in me. After 2 miles I started to pick it up and I went through the 3 mile in 17:55 (5:55 mile). After that I really started to pick up and cruse. My goal was to get the three runners in yellow who were about 10-20 seconds in front of me at 3 miles. With only the river loop left I knew I had to keep cruising. Half way around the loop I already passed 2 of them and moved on the last two (I added one during the loop). I passed the 2nd to last guy on with about 500 meters left. With less then 300 left in the race I was along side of the last guy (an Indian Hills Jr College runner). I kicked passed him down the last little down hill. He caught right back up, I stayed on his shoulder until I could see the finish line and just kicked passed him (he kicked as well but couldn’t match my kick). I felt like I used more energy on that last kick then I did throughout the whole race. I spent most of the race running by myself, but I’m happy with how I raced. I know I have plenty left in me and I’m ready to really start flying on Friday for our first 8k in Eau Claire. Click here for results.
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