I may not be able to run in the Elysian Fields with DR, but a morning run along the Maumee River isn’t too bad.
Pants Off Racing
Pants are for Fools
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Pants Off Racing Jerseys!
We reprinted our POR jerseys this week. This time we ran some in new colors: black, purple, and Texas. We’re going to look fantastic this race season. Hopefully you ordered one for yourself. If not, we need to have at least 12 to order more. No worries since you probably want a dozen anyway.
Chris Koegel Wins the Hamptons Marathon
Pants Off Racer Chris Koegel won the Hampton Marathon, his first marathon victory, this October with a time of 2:46:46. He ran the race in honor of his cousin U.S. Army 1st Lieutenant Joe Theinert who died in Afghanistan.
Chris "Teapot" Koegel
This is amazing. Chris is our first team member to win a full marathon. He rana 6:15 mile pace. He’s a machine. Every time he runs there is a group of friends that circulate messages back and forth in awe of his times. That’s probably my favorite part about his races, the “Did you hear about Teapot’s race?” texts.
27east.com has a full recap on the race. We expect more victories from Chris in the future.
Johns Hopkins Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine
There is a great video on CBS about the pancreatic cancer vaccine our mother is current taking at Johns Hopkins. You should watch it. Her oncologist, Dr. Dan Laheru, is featured.
Pants Off Racing Champions: Minds Over Matter 5K
Teapot
Our most celebrated racer, Chris “Teapot” Koegel, once again proved his largess by winning the Minds Over Matter 5K in Sag Harbor. Chris is an absolute machine and dominated the field in his new POR jersey. Being one of the prettiest members of Pants Off Racing, the photographers got their fill of him during the race. Enjoy the photos below and be inspired by Chris’ immortal work ethic and win a race of your own this year.
CHAMP
Chris Koegel, Pants Off Racer
Chris Setting the Pace
Captain America
POR loves America. We need to sign this guy up for our team.
Home Alone
As we’ve covered before, it’s important to look your best at the finish. You’d think Kevin McCallister’s brother would realize the cameras are always on him and drop magnum at the opportune time.
Look Pretty At The Finish
Gym recently noticed the photos from the Cincinnati Flying Pig Half Marathon are online. He was excited to finally see them. Unfortunately, I failed to mention to Gym that they take our photos at the finish and he forgot to break out his duck face. At least he survived the finish swine unlike the runners below.
These photos were grabbed from runphotos.com. If you’d like to see more photos of the finish, Gym is bib #19063 and Patrick is bib #19073.
DeSean Jackson: Foundation 10 For Pancreatic Cancer Research
OK, I can’t embed the video for some reason. But head over to NBC Philadelphia to see a video about DeSean Jackson and his experience with pancreatic cancer. The more attention we bring to the cause, the better chance we have to make a different for those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the future.
Eagle DeSean Jackson is waging a war off the field against a disease that took his father from him – pancreatic cancer. Jackson and his mother are working with their foundation to work to eradicate it.
For more information on Foundation 10, click here.
This Is Why We Run: Chuck Daly
Chuck Daly, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2009, died today.
Here are a few reminders about pancreatic cancer:
- Nearly 42,470 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, and over 34,000 will die from the disease.
- Pancreatic cancer is one of the few cancers for which survival has not improved substantially over the past 30 years.
- Seventy-five percent of pancreatic cancer patients die within the first 12 months of the diagnosis. The 5-year survival rate is 5 percent.
Support the cause, join Pants Off Racing and donate to the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.
St. Rose Teens High On Life 5K Race Report
Pants Off Racing showed up in force at St. Rose in Perrysburg last Friday for the Teens High On Life 5K. Most of the Pants Off Racers are proud alums of St. Rose and haven’t been back in years. It’s fun to feel nostalgic. In attendance was Pants, NJ, DR, Katie, John, Sloth Bear, and first time PORers, Jay, Bart, and Doug. The Teens High On Life race is an annual event run by the seventh and eighth graders. The race was fun and we spent a lot of quality time with Katie and her second grade class. Here are a few videos of the run.
The Start.
Here comes Doug!
Fr. Borger loves high fives.
The Glass City Marathon With DR and Rohn
the glass city marathon in toledo, ohio (what, you didn’t know toledo was the glass city?) was my second marathon. my inexperience paid off.
the glass city marathon was much improved compared to last year. in 2009, i ran the half. the route for the half began at the 13.1 mile marker for the full and began at the same time. it went along the river from perrysburg to toledo. this year the start for the full and the half was at the same time and location, adjacent to the university of toledo football field. the half course was very nice. it ran through the ottawa hills neighborhood and through wildwood park. the route for the full stayed the course and kept going on to some mundane country miles out to sylvania. not much fun, but still an improvement. the finish for both courses was on the football field. since most runners are wannabe athletes that never played a real sport or are trying to duplicate athletic success from their youth, this was quite a thrill for most.
please let it end soon
so, how’d it go? well, i finished. yesterday’s glass city marathon was probably my worst run ever. this was the first race i ever felt prepared for. i actually trained, man! the training did pay off – i ran my fastest half marathon time ever (around 1:38). however, the training didn’t translate into preparedness for a full marathon. somewhere along the course my nutrition imploded and i ceased moving quickly. fortunately DR was there to prod me along and willed me across the line (that’s what pants off racers do. TWEET! TWEET!).
DR makes it look fun. it's not.
despite the struggle, i accomplished what i set out to do: finish a marathon in under 4 hours. my time was 3:57. i was dangerously close to falling short. at the end, my final motivation was that if i finished in under four hours, i would never have to run a marathon again. for about half the day after i finished, that was my mantra: i’m done with marathons, it feels so good. but here’s the thing: i know i can run better than i did. i should be finishing marathons much faster. i want to run a faster time. so, even though i spent yesterday swearing off marathons, i know i’m going to run another. no matter how miserable they are and how terrible yesterday’s was and how close i was to quitting, another marathon is in my future. i’ve never met a greater challenge. running a marathon is horrible. it’s easily the most difficult thing i’ve ever done. as long as i can run a marathon, i know there is no challenge too great.
agony
PORers katie amato, sloth, emily florian, and beth and meg poz all ran the half marathon. they all ran PRs. katie bested her PR by over 10 minutes and emily by 2!
Boston Pronkathon Photos
here are a few photos from annie of pronkstars pat and teapot pronking the boston marathon. they’re fast.
what’s the word for pronkstar groupies. we need one.
Pants Off Racing at the Boston Marathon 2010
Ace, Teapot, Pelner
Three Pants Off Racers off racers qualified for and ran in the Boston Marathon on this Patriots’ Day. That all posted incredible times. Running the Boston Marathon is as good as it gets for long distance runners. Hopefully we’ll have a larger team presence next year. Pictures on the way.
dublin ohio half marathon race report by coach rohn anato
taken from rohn’s personal blog, juplife.com. all ohio state fans should check out his sweet osu shirts.
today’s race in dublin, ohio was amazing. we had a great group put together. DR, katie, sprout, and i drove down saturday for the race. saturday night we had our ritual prerace night dinner at panera. we took fellow POR team member cousin jeff mcclellan with us. jeff wasn’t signed up for the race yet. we put pressure on him right away to run. by the end of dinner, he was figuring out the route we were going to run. that’s commitment to the team.
jeff crosses the finish
the race had significance for a lot of us. it was katie’s first race, sprout is in training for the philadelphia marathon in november, jeff was completely unprepared, and i was just hoping my knee would survive.
kat money finishes
katie finished her first half in under two hours. quite impressive for a first attempt and very little preparation in recent weeks.
sproutworx
sprout and his fancy green shoes kept to the training program with a strong run. he finished ahead of katie with a specially designed air conditioning beard. he’s ready for the real deal.
twins fans
emily and allison florian are our biggest and best fans. this is the second race they’ve come out to support us. they’re teaming up at the spirit of columbus and running as a relay team. i think emily is ready for a half on her own.
who's the big winner? DR is.
DR set out to qualify for the new york marathon with his run today. in order to do that, he needed to finish in 1:23 or better. he finished in ~1:21:30. the route we took had us cross paths a couple times. a tall bearded man led most of the run. after i crossed the finish, DR was already out looking for the rest of the team. i approached the assumed winner and asked him his time. he said, “1:23″. so i asked about the kid who finished behind him and he said, “you mean the kid who beat me? he finished about a minute and a half in front of me”. that means that team POR claimed yet another victory this weekend. it is DR’s first race victory. not bad for a kid who doesn’t even consider himself a runner.
DR is a better eater than runner
perhaps DR’s greatest accomplishment of the day came when we dined at thurman’s cafe after the race. thurman’s cafe was in a recent episode of man vs. food. DR has had an absolutely insatiable appetite lately with all of the training he’s been doing. we both ordered a thurman-ator: two 12 oz beef patties, ham, bacon, cheese, grilled onions and lettuce. he devoured his, the side of fries, and some of sprout’s pretzel bites. eating the entire thurman-ator was twice the challenge as the race for me. i nearly horked on several occasions. DR hardly broke a sweat. that’s the stuff champions are made of.
team POR at the dublin half maraton
it was a great day. i’m so glad sprout survived his megabus trip from chicago, jeff was fun enough to sign up the night before, katie challenged herself and exceeded her expectations, DR accomplished what he set out to do and brought home the gold, and my knee held up. we were all champions today. anyone willing to train, get up in the early morning, stare at the 13 miles ahead of them, and keep moving until they step over the finish line can’t be anything but a champion in my eyes.
the key to a race is simple: 1) start running, 2) don’t stop, 3) stop at the finish line.
Binger’s Pronk-a-thon Report!
THE 2009 SAN FRANCISCO PRONK-A-THON REPRONK
by Binger Von Bingerstein
HURD! All that turbopronk’n of pavement, prairie dogg’n of hills and hampster wheelin’ 10-15 miles a day really paid off for Binger Von Bingerstein and P-Dinger!!
However, suspicion has it that P-Dinger might have cheated to be able to turbopronk that ‘thon in 3 hrs 4 min because Binger Von Bingerstein pronk’d just as hard if not harder and the judges say he timed in at 4 hrs 38 min.
The night before the Pronk-A-Thon, Binger Von B and P-Dinger stayed with P-Dinger’s friend, Frosty, up on Larkin Street, which is located at the top of San Francisco’s tallest hill. Only the strongest prairie dogs can pronk it. Frosty, a generous man and a big part of Team Pronk / Pants Off Racing came through huge with providing his out of town roommate’s bed for P-Dinger and a couch for Binger Von B. P-Dinger and Von B bought Frosty a coffeemaker and a toaster because they needed coffee and toast in the morning before the race. Frosty needed these two accessories anyway.
What follows is an actual conversation between Von B and P-Dinger the night before the ‘thon:
VON B: Should I pronk my cell phone to the ‘thon Dinger?
P-DINGER: Nah, leave it. We’ll meet up at the finish line and I’ll drive us back to Frosty’s in my rented Mercedes pronkmobile.
VON B: I’ll probably finish turbopronkin’ the ‘thon between 11:30am and noon.
P-DINGER: Hurd. I’ll meet you at the finish line between 11:30am and noon and I’ll pronk us back to Frosty’s. Capiche?
VON B: Capiche.
(remember this conversation)
It’s 4:45am Sunday morning: the morning of the SF Pronk-A-Thon. P-Dinger and Von B’s
nipples are Neosporin’d and Band Aid’d to circumvent pronk-chafing. Baby Powder is the prevailing scent in P-Dinger’s rented Mercedes pronkmobile (Von B’s secret remedy to avoid bum chafing – apply liberally). You could cut the tension and focus in the air with a slap chop. P-Dinger’s struggling to find the route from Frosty’s to the Pronk-A-Thon on his iphone. Binger Von B is requesting that they listen to Seal before the ‘thon. “We’re never gonna survive, unless we go a little crazy.” A motto Binger Von B pronks his life to, but P-Dinger denies Von B of his Seal fix. So instead, Team Pronk’s soundtrack on the way to the race consists of Lil’ Wayne or something like that. P-Dinger’s taste in pronkmusic isn’t his most sophisticated trait.
Von B and P-Dinger finally find parking near the starting line and the lines for the pronkrooms are several miles long, but P-Dinger and Von B wait it out to get a quick pronk in before the ‘thon. Binger Von B escorts P-Dinger to the starting line as he is in the first wave among the Kenyans and Olympic turbopronkers. Von B is in the eighth wave among the first-timers, cougars, snapping turtles and all around slower pronksters.
The clock strikes 5:30am. The pronkgun fires and P-Dinger sling-shots out of the pronkgate to turbopronk the 2009 SF Pronk-A-Thon.
Binger, in his “Go Dumb” shirt, waits an hour for his wave to start pronkin’. 6:52am rolls around and Binger Von B kicks off his turbopronkin’ with a bang! Von B rockets past every member of his wave justifying an earlier wave for the next pronk-a-thon he pronks.
Binger Von B turbopronks the Golden Gate Bridge, prairie dogs Golden Gate Park and powers through the Haight Ashbury District where psychedelic hippy pronksters cheer Binger on because they know Binger Von B’s a kindred spirit. Seeing Binger’s shirt they yell “Go Dumb!” And Binger passionately replies “GO DUMB! PRONK HARD!”
Binger soars through the finish line chute with tears of victory and glory! P-Dinger has long finished the pronk-a-thon. It’s 11am. Binger has finished early, so he figures he’ll wait a half hour or so for P-Dinger to pick him up because, as per their conversation, they were to meet at the finish line between 11:30am and noon. P-Dinger is nowhere to be found. Von B is worried that P-Dinger may be in the hospital suffering some fluke pronk injury. Quite the contrary, true colors were pronk’d when a cashless, cell phoneless Binger Von B is waiting for P-Dinger at the finish line so he can drive him back up the 90 degree hills of San Fran to Frosty’s apartment, but P-Dinger never shows. Binger Von B’s elation after having turbopronk’d that ‘thon quickly turns to fury and frustration. There sits a dejected, sun-burned, sore and frustrated Von Bingerstein waiting at the finish line for two and a half hours for P-Dinger, who is already pronkin’ his way down the 101 freeway in his rented Mercedes pronkmobile with his lady pronkbird LA bound pronkin’ a 6 dollar pronkburger from the Arroyo Grande Carly Jr. burping “tweet tweet.”
Von B is left in the lurch. What does Von B do? He gets in a cab and begs the cabbie to take him up to Frosty’s apartment with the faith that Frosty would be home to let him in so he could grab cash and pay the cab fare. The cabbie says “NO DEAL.” The cabbie was, however, generous enough to give Von Bingerstein the longest possible walking route to Frosty’s apartment. Von B ends up prairie dogging another 6 miles up the treacherously steep San Francisco hills back to Frosty’s apartment. Luckily, Frosty was home to let Binger in.
Needless to say, Binger Von Bingerstein deserves another medal for pronking a total of 32.2 miles on the day of the San Francisco Pronk-A-Thon. No thanks to P-Dinger who claims he took a half-hearted gander around the finish line looking for Binger, but didn’t see him. All is not lost though, P-Dinger has agreed to treat Binger to a juicy steak at The Sherm (Binger’s favorite eatery) to make up for his selfishness and Binger Von B has graciously accepted the offer and has since forgiven him.
Let this be a lesson to all you at Pants Off Racing. Either pronk a phone with you or drive yourself to the pronk-a-thon. Pronk hard everybody! Go Dumb!
-Binger Von Bingerstein LLC Inc. 2009 ©
Race Report: World’s Toughest Tri
Team Members: Pat Amato, Dan Pelner
Location: Auburn, CA
Event: World’s Toughest Trithlon, Half-Ironman
Date: May 31, 2009
Worlds Toughest Half 5/31/09 – Dan Pelner & Pat Amato
Trip There:
The trip started out as most of them do, with us packing up Pat’s car on a Friday afternoon at least an hour later then planned. Lucky for us the race wasn’t until Sunday so we weren’t in too much of a rush. We headed up for Northern Cali in time to beat most of the traffic and even stop at some legendary road side stands. We’ve seen the sign for the “Fudge & Pies” stand many times over the past few years but never stopped. This trip we could resist no longer and decided to check it out. Sadly they had no pies, not to fear as we bought plenty of fudge instead! After our detour we headed back on the road and into what felt like the surface of the sun. Since Pat refuses to drive with the windows up, Dan’s hair almost caught on fire and the fudge may or may not have turned into syrup. Had to be the hottest place ever, at least it was getting later and it cooled off after not too long.
Our stop for the night would be Aunt Celeste’s, in Davis about an hour away from the race site. When we arrived the whole family was there to greet us and a little surprised that D.R. wasn’t with us. When Pat told them Dan was coming they were expecting Dan Amato! Thankfully they didn’t make Pelner leave, but instead began serving us tons of food. Pat spent the night doing laundry and asking cousin Bob about his old friend Norman, who it turned out was actually named Melvin. The next morning more food appeared including some delicious smoothies laced with steroids.
Unfortunately, after eating, we had to head off for Auburn (California not the school) to check into the race and our hotel for the night. On our way to Auburn we were beginning to think that “John Denver was full of crap, man”. But as we got closer we found out he was right after all and there was plenty of rocky mountains for the race.
When we got there we checked into the hotel and went off in search of the lake to go for a swim. Naturally we got lost a few times trying to find the lake, GPS is for chicks…good thing we checked it out Saturday and didn’t wait to get lost the day of the race. When we finally reached the lake, there were a lot of boats in the water and we decided it was probably a bad idea to go for a swim. So we went to pick up our race packets at the expo instead.
Around this time we started to realize that this race wasn’t going to be like most races. It’s not organized by a big event company like most races and instead has a more laid back feel. This actually adds some interesting dimensions to the race and it is still pretty well organized. Despite being a USAT sanctioned race wearing your bib/race number was optional…this probably made it a little hard for them to enforce penalties!
Side note: Most of the girls there looked like they were carved out of granite, yet oddly had the same length hair as Pelner or Pat. So for awhile we thought we were at a lesbian tri, which worried us, since we usually judge success by how many chicks we beat in the race. However, guess there were just a lot of ridiculously strong looking chicks at this race over the age of 35. Some of those same chicks filled out their sleeveless tri tops a little better than us too.
After getting our packets and attending the pre-race briefing we went and found some food and Pat picked up some sweet Women’s shades at the supermarket. Then for the first time ever we made it back to the hotel with plenty of time to get our gear ready for the race in the morning, relax, put our feet up, and get to bed at a reasonable time.
This was fortunate since we had to get up at 4:30AM for the race. We groggily ate some food in the morning, packed up, and headed for the race. To get to the race we had to bike a good 6 miles once we parked. This was fun, since we hadn’t been up for an hour yet. It was already somewhat warm so we were getting ready for the worst, and prepared for the heat. As we slap chopped some sunscreen on each other and told each other how awesome we looked in our wetsuits, we were told there would be a “mandatory” 10 minute swim warm up. Apparently some research has shown that the sudden shock of cold water has led to some heart attacks or something so they made everyone get in and warm up. It didn’t really matter at this race since the water temperature was perfect.
Dan’s Race:
True to the laid back nature of the race it started a few minutes late. Other then the usual getting punched and kicked at the start, the swim was pretty uneventful. I settled into a decent pace (for me) and was actually with a pack of swimmers for the whole race…this rarely happens unless it’s a pack from the wave after me. Though as I got out of the water and looked at the clock, I noticed that I logged my slowest swim time yet…maybe those were swimmers from the next wave after all! Either way the swim course felt a little long, later at the finish I heard a lot of other people saying this as well, so I’m sticking with that excuse.
After tearing off my wet suit I hopped on the bike. The hills started right away and I couldn’t catch my breath for like the first 10 miles…guess I need to do some more swim/bike bricks. The bike course was a pretty strange one as at one point it seemed like we were riding through someone’s backyard. Later I saw some old dude walking down the road carrying a harpoon…either that or the heat was getting to me. With over 6000 ft of total elevation gain it was a tough
bike…I’m a decent climber so I was able to pass a bunch of people on the hills and make up for my poor swim. Just as things were looking good, I heard the sound of the gates closing at a train crossing…crap. I had to sit there for what felt like an eternity (after the race I would find out that it was actually 9 minutes) as what seemed like the worlds longest freight train crossed the road, giving all those people I had passed earlier the chance to catch back up to me. After the train finally passed I continued on the bike (a little demoralized) and set about making up for lost time. I definitely spent more energy then I should have in the last quarter of the bike trying to make up for that train. But my final time on the bike was decent given the challenges. After the race Brad, the race director, said he would subtract the time for the train…but doesn’t look like that’s happened yet.
The run course was also pretty tough with a bunch of nasty hills. There was a lot of good scenery though to keep my mind off the pain. Most of it was on trails…I think…which made it less painful. By this point in the race its hard to remember too many details. My run was pretty strong and in the end I was glad for it to be over, as I crossed the finish line Pat was already there getting some good pictures of me finishing.
Pat’s Race:
All I remember is waking up really early then finishing 6 hours later with some chap that called himself Booth. Whether he was made up or not is unknown, I think my uncle Kelly use to have imaginary friends. I have some claw marks on my face, and I know that no cougars got to me this weekend, since I was holed up in the sticks with a small dog named Pelner.
The marks actually came from a wayward swimmer. I think he actually swam the course backwards, which is weird since no one else does that. But this guy hit me pretty solid, as u can see above my eye as I type.
The bike dominated me. It was my strong point and I think it went well. I didn’t get any flats and I rode past some hot old ladies in the race. Pretty noteworthy I know, but really the bike was just pure pain throughout. No let up on it, much tougher than the 3 century rides I have done this spring, even though it was 44 miles shorter.
Running, man, I think they should cut that part out of it. My favorite part almost ruined me. After the bike I felt pretty top notch. But honestly I think my head game is weak and I need to do some more racing and training in order to be ready for another hard race like this. Feeling sorry for yourself or worrying about how much longer the race is will not help when you have a half marathon or even a full marathon left after the seat of ur spandex jumps off the bike.
Today I am sore. Totally worth it. Looking forward to another challenge and preparing for it a little more. Going to Austin TX the week before and not training doesn’t constitute a taper week.
Trip Home:
After the race we both agreed that it definitely lived up to its name of the “Worlds Toughest Half.” With 70.3 miles down, 400 miles to get back home, and not a
shower in site we pulled a little surfer change in the parking lot. Dressed in boardshorts we hit up some sandwiches at “Mr. Pickle’s”…the favored sandwich shop of Graham and Faye. The staff there was pretty cool, or high, and let Pelner play with the etch-a-sketch, sadly they no longer sell jars of pickles so we couldn’t bring any home for Uncle Kelly.
The ride home was pretty uneventful other than some power napping by Pronk, and remembering that we had over 12 bottles of water for the day apiece, and neither of us had to drain the lizard yet and it had been 10.5 hours since we had started the race and last done that. Oh well, sleep, eat, and apparently pee when ur dead.
If this isn’t motivational you should definitely try your own and see how much you want to saw your legs off come 30 miles into “LeMond Hill”, or when the second loop of the half ironman course comes and you wish you could just hide in the grass and pretend you already ran it. The course humbles you and your mind plays tricks on you, but you know that the only way you will be satisfied is if you finish and stay mentally strong. Good luck, the payoff is totally worth
Welcome to Pants Off Racing!
Pants Off Racing is your reason to exercise, get in shape, travel, and hang out with your friends that you don’t see enough. POR is here to promote a healthy, fun, and different way to spend your time. POR’s goal is to encourage everyone to do something that they may never do on their own. Basically, POR is here to make your training more enjoyable and help you push yourself mentally and physically in a friendly environment.
We like to travel, race, and have a good time. In no way is this a “serious” racing team. POR is more or less just a good way to keep in touch with everyone who even remotely enjoys running, biking, swimming…or whatever it is that you like to do. For some reason we get some sort of gratification from running, biking, and swimming everyday.
POR will be providing training schedules, race information, personal updates, travel plans, pictures, and classic stories. This team isn’t a complete joke…we do get down to business when we need to, and our main objective is to get more people involved. The good thing about this group is that it doesn’t take any special talent or ability, just a little mental toughness at times.
