Update.

At the suggestion of Adrianne, Josh's wife, I have visited the Chicago marathons website. There they have a section that allows you to sign up and receive updates for specific runners at set milestones...10k, halfway, 30k, and of course the finish. The updates will be sent to me via e-mail. I am pretty excited to track his progress, and send out my good vibes. A lot of time and dedication goes into training for a run like this and I really want him to do well.

And now for something completely different...

I am getting ready to bottle my German Altbier. I used very little grains in this brew, mostly extracts so there is not as much of need for it to sit in my brewing bucket. I would like to get my vanilla porter brewed tomorrow as it will need more time to come together...more grains in this recipe.

Another subject change...

Did I mention I got new glasses?


You like?

Cheers

Send Good Vibes, Please.

I, well, not me perse, but my good friend Josh is in need of all of your good vibes. I am very serious when I say all of your good vibes. Do not hold back. Give until it hurts. What is so dire that I make this plea on his behalf you may ask? 26.2, that's what. My buddy Josh, and his sister are running in the 31st annual Chicago marathon. The farthest I have ever run is 12 miles and let me tell ya...it hurt. Josh has to run 14.2 miles further. He and his sister need all of the Chrisophiles pulling for them. So, beginning at about 8a.m. on Sunday through about 11a.m. be sending your thoughts to Josh and his sis.

Wow

Nora floored me yesterday. I was getting ready to work out, she and Nigel were down in the workout room and I was upstairs getting my mp3 player. All of a sudden I here a very excited yell from Nora, "Daddy, I just did a one-arm chin-up." Now not that I consider my daughter a liar, but a one-arm chin-up from a 6 year old? I figured at best she was holding on to the bar and hopping up and using the momentum to complete the chin-up. So, I went downstairs and asked her to show me. Nora walked to the bar, grabbed on with her right hand, gripped her right wrist with left hand, hung for a moment, and then pulled herself up. No hop, no jump, just a good clean one-arm chin-up. Then, just for good measure she did one with the left arm. Gotta have good balance you know. WOW! My little muscle girl. During the remainder of my workout she would do one-arm chin-ups, and on one occasion did two in a row.

On the running front, Nora and I have hit a little bump in the road. She had been using her old Wal-Mart tennis shoes and the heel support had broken down. Due to that she hurt her left heel. Therefore we took most of last week off and have got her some good Nike running shoes. Her heel now feels fine and we will begin running again tomorrow.

As for my running I am well on pace for the Pumpkin Fest 10k. I am not going to have the same kind of success as I have in the 5k, but I think I will do just fine. I have not yet decided which superhero I will channel for this run, but I have narrowed it down to Superman or Batman. In fact, I think this calls for the input of the Chrisophiles, check out the poll and help me decide. The poll will be open until the night before the run. Which t-shirt will it be?

That's all for now.

Cheers

The Week In Review

I got some very good news early in the week. Brett, Jori, Kiernan and Grayson are coming back to visit in September. While here they will take in the Morton Pumpkin Festival, visit friends and family and take care of a few errands. Most importantly they are going to have Grayson baptized at Bethel Lutheran, Brett's and my childhood church. He and Jori have asked me to be Grayson's Godfather. It is a great honor and I gladly accepted. Grayson, as your Godfather, be aware that someday I will need a favor...maybe not today or next week but.....

Nora and I have continued our running. Today we will wrap up week two with a 8 minute run. She has made nice improvements in her stride and endurance. Yesterday we covered the most distance to date, .62 miles. The best part of it all is she is having fun and we are able to do this together.


Off we go.

On Monday Robin and I surprised Nigel with an early birthday present. We got him his first bike. To say he loves it would be an understatement. He is pretty fearless on it and is already cruising around on his training wheels. It works out for Nora as well. She has her own, but it is much bigger and she does not feel as stable. Nigel's is lower to the ground and Nora feels much more secure. They both love riding it and are making great strides. We also bought a scooter for them to aide in improved balance.


Nigel and his new bike.


Nora scooting along.

Early Tuesday morning a big wind storm blew though Central Illinois traveling at 61 mph and bringing 60+ mph winds with it. I am fairly certain that our little town of Eureka got the worst of it. 2700 homes were without power for most of the day, including ours, and you could not drive by a house without seeing limbs and branches all over their yard. Many people lost entire trees, including a huge one in the high school parking lot. We were lucky and only had branches down in our yard. We did have a big branch down on the roof outside Nora's window, but no damage was done.


Down tree at Eureka High School.

Today we had a few big plans for the weekend that are in jeopardy due to a light rain. I volunteered to mow the lawn at our church, and wanted to put up our tent for a little camp out tonight. They say this rain is supposed to pass quickly, but it has been coming down for about an hour now. I need everyone to send their clear skies vibes this way.

I do have a back-up plan. The OLYMPICS! Robin and I love the Olympics, particularly the summer Olympics. We watched as much of the opening ceremony as we could stay awake for, and I am watching women's volleyball as I type. The US women are playing Japan and have a 1-0 lead, but are trailing in the second set. USA! USA! USA! I think my affection for the Olympics is tied to two major events in my life. First, the Robinson family moved to Illinois prior to the '84 summer games. Those were the first games I really remember watching and they are tied to a major change in our lives. Second, my personal branch of the Robinson family tree moved to Colorado just before the '96 summer games. Robin and I broke newly weds and did not yet know many people. So, our entertainment for two weeks consisted of a 6-pack and the Olympics. Oh the memories.

Update: Japan has tied the US at one set a piece.

Cheers!

Happy 4th of July!

The Robinson Household wishes all the Chrisophiles a worry free Independence Day.

Our day has started out early and quickly. As I had mentioned before, I was running in the Firecracker 5000 5K this morning. Nora and Nigel really wanted to go watch Daddy race, so, the whole family was up and going at 6 a.m. We met my parents at the race starting area around 7, and I was off and running by 7:30. It was really nice having such a great cheering section, and it paid off. I turned in a personal best time of around 22:04. You may remember I ran my last race as a female and turned in a time of 23:44. From now on I think I will run as a male. I will post some pics from the race later.

The rest of our day is action packed as well. As I write this the rest of the family is getting ready to go to the Eureka July 4th parade. After that there are several activities in town and a big family cookout at Robin's sisters family's house. A great day will be had by all and I trust your day will be great and Worry free.

Cheers

Washington Cherry Festival 5K

Yesterday i got a phone call from the Washington Park District, they helped organize the 5k. The gal on the phone asked to speak with Chris Robinson. I said, "This is". She then told me that they had a trophy there for me from the 5K,and that I could pick it up or they could mail it to me. Since we are leaving for vacation I asked if they could mail it. Then since I could not wait until I got home to see how I did, I asked what place the trophy was. She said she would have to go check, but would be right back. When she returned to the phone she informed me that I was the overall winner in the 35-39 age group for....females.
Female 35 to 39

Place Name City Age Overall Time Pace
1 Chris Robinson Eureka IL 35 68 23:44.3 7:39/M
2 Amy Lee Morton IL 39 121 26:25.0 8:31/M
3 Heidi Ricker Deerfield IL 39 126 26:56.7 8:41/M
I replied that I was a male. She agreed. We decided there must have been a paperwork error.

On the positive side, I placed 68th overall and was in the top quarter, aprox. I am very proud of my performance for a first race. Not to mention I am the fastest 35-39 year old female in Central Illinois.



In other news, we leave for vacation in a few hours. The lap top is making the trip so there just may be a No Worries update or two.

Cheers

Big Doings

As you can see from my previous pictorial post the Sporting Extravaganza was a giant success.

As for the pictures, Nora is going to be on the front page of the Woodford County Legal Record. It is nice having a newspaper in the family! Grandpa Fyke is using the pic of Nora throwing that is featured in my blog.

Nora loves playing ball. We had another practice session on Sunday. We worked on playing catch, throwing, hitting from a pitcher and from the "T". After we finished up and I started dinner, Nora continued batting from the "T" and was making some good contact. She is very excited about her next game on Thursday.

As for me, I was very happy with my result in the run. I have only been running for 2 months. So, to be able to have that kind of time and to finish ahead of as many as I did made me feel pretty good. My next race will be the Firecracker 5K downtown Peoria on the 4th of July. That will most likely be my last before the Pumpkin Festival 10K, the race for which I have been training.

This is going to be a busy week in the Robinson household. We are preparing for our summer vacation to CA. Aunt Linda and Uncle Mike are flying us out and putting us up for a week of fun, sun, wine, perhaps a Martini, and Nora and Nigels most anticipated attraction...Monterey Bay Aquarium. Nora is very excited as are Robin and I. Nigel lives for the now so he is all good. We have lengthy lay overs in Minnesota, which is an airport I spent a ton of time in during my traveling days with Orion. I am excited to show Robin and the kids a bit from my past. It should be fun...there is a mall in the place you know!

That's all folks.

Cheers

Big Day

I cannot wait for tomorrow morning. It is a very special day at Nora's school, donuts with Dad. To make it even better Nora is going to come to work with me in the morning. After the first few hours we will head off to her school for the donuts, and then some entertainment. Nora and her classmates are going to put on their class play for the dads. What a day! I am not sure who is more excited, Nora or me.

In addition to the already planned activities of the weekend I am hoping to get in a little brewing related activity. I would love to be able to bottle my latest brew, Beach Blonde. I am not too sure if that will fit in with everything else going. If I was really ambitious i would include brewing a vanilla porter, but that may be a stretch. We have been having unseasonably cool weather...perfect for brewing, and I do not want to miss it.

You know what else this weather is great for....running. It has been great getting out in these temps. I am sure I am one of a handful of people that like this weather. I went out for four miles today, walked a half mile and ran 3.5. It was my best run to date.

On to the word of the day...going to give you a double dose today as I missed one.

This week's theme: words related to beards.

Vandyke or Van Dyke or vandyke (van dyk) noun

A short, pointed beard.

[After painter Anthony Van Dyck or Vandyke (1599-1641) who painted
portraits of people having these v-shaped beards.]

bluebeard (BLOO-beerd) noun

A man who marries and kills one wife after another.

[After Bluebeard, the nickname of the main character Raoul in a fairy tale
by Charles Perrault (1628-1703). In the story, Bluebeard's wife finds the
bodies of his previous wives in a room she was forbidden to enter. Yes, he
did have a blue beard.]

That last one was news to me. I hope Robin does not want me to shave now.

Cheers