2014 Tri-loppet

Weather for the 2014 Tri-loppet did not look the most promising. There was rain in the forecast, and wind was high, over 15 mph from the south. The loppet crew was unfazed however, and with a couple small changes to help mitigate the impact of the wind the race was ready to get underway. The race begins with a canoe leg starting on Lake Calhoun. This is a decent sized lake and the waves were just beginning to whitecap at the North end where the race started. The North end of the lake can get quite treacherous in high wind because there is a breakwater and the waves reflect off of it unpredictably, but this year the water level was so high it is over the top of the breakwater, so that issue was avoided anyway.

Choppy Water for the race start - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

The typical course follows the edge of this lake around, but they modified the course to go straight across the lake so the boats would go directly into the wind and directly back. This meant a lot of water crashing over the bow of the boat, but no side waves, which are the ones most likely to flip a boat over. The other change was instead of starting on the water the race would start on shore, paddlers would have to get in their boats and get them out into the water after the gun went off. This plan was absolute mayhem, but it was at least safe mayhem. Every single pro-boat in the race flipped at least once crossing the lake. For quite a while the front of the race was one guy in a surf ski and a bunch of plastic kayaks.

Paddling out of a jam at the start - Photo: Mike Kosloski

I was paddling with my co-worker Dave Rowe, who's paddling experience is quite limited. We put in a few practice paddles, and he went to rookies a few times to get some actual coaching, but he had never paddled in high waves, so we were both a bit nervous waiting for the race to start. When the race got going however we were both focused and in control. We waited for the first line of boats to go off and all flip over, then we just put in and paddled by them. I tried to keep us directly into the wind and waves, the boat was really hopping for a bit, but it stayed remarkably stable and we made steady progress.

Dave was all focus on the Paddle - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

We had a stellar buoy turn and used the sailboats on the north side of the lake for a bit of shelter on the way back to the channel. After going from Lake Calhoun to Lake of the Isles the water calmed down and we could really put some work in.

Racing strong across Cedar Lake - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

A few of the pro boats got back in the water and passed us, and we passed some of the kayaks. I could tell Dave was getting fatigued by the time we got around the last buoy on Cedar Lake, but he kept up the power and we continued to slowly pick off boats across Cedar and into the tunnel to Brownie Lake, where the canoe to run transition was.

Getting ready to run - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

After hopping out of the boat the legs always feel stiff. This year I took a bit of extra care to stretch the legs in the boat a little, and reminded Dave to do the same. The beginning of the run is always interesting. I made sure to stay relaxed for the first mile, which is almost all climbing. My first year doing this race I cooked my legs going out too hard and the rest of the race was miserable. I have had the fastest run leg every time I've done this race except for getting beat by Kelly Brinkman by 1 second (in the same race I helped her fix a dropped chain), so my goal every year is to throw down the fastest run time. I slowly ramped up the speed after the mile mark and started passing runners pretty steadily, keeping a strong steady tempo going uphill, keeping the wheels spinning going downhill, and trying to hit tempo pace on the flats.

Hammering on the run - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

I did end up having the fastest run split on the day, 19:58 for 3.2 miles (6:25 pace), so mission accomplished. I never felt like I was running all that fast, but I guess that is relative when I ran a marathon at 6:04 pace a week earlier. I tried not to think about the bike still ahead and just run all out.

I went into this race with a decidedly un-racelike mentality, and my transition times reflected this. I didn't fight to get on the front line for the paddle, and I took extra time to get my bike jersey on at the run-bike transition and actually untie my shoes before removing them. Once I was riding though I kept looking ahead and hoping to move up. I passed a few riders and then I caught a glimpse of Erik Pieh up ahead.

Chasing on the bike - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

Erik was my paddle partner at Chippewa a couple weeks ago and beat me there, so I wanted my chance to get even with him. I passed him and pushed on ahead to catch one more rider. Shortly after passing the next rider however I waited a bit too long to drop to my small chainring on an uphill and dropped my chain shifting. I kept my cool, shifted the chainring back up while running up the hill, and spun the chain back on at the top. The rider I had just passed got back ahead of me, but it cost me maybe 2 seconds at most. Mentally though I just switched out of race mode and that was it. After that I slowly watched the rider ahead pull away and I just worked my way in to the finish.

Happy to be done! - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

I ended up 7th place overall (6th male), about 2 minutes off the podium. Full results are here. I think this might have actually been my highest ever tri-loppet finish, mostly because all the faster canoeists ended up doing some swimming. Not too bad a week after a marathon; I was happy with how good my legs felt, not at all sore, just very flat. Besides the wind the weather turned out to be wonderful, and after the race I had some amazing watermelon, a taste that was a good reminder that summer has arrived.

Grandma's Marathon 2014 - Wandering through the Fog

Thursday evening was a late arrival up in Duluth, and everyone pretty much went straight to bed. Friday was cold, so I was wearing a large fraction of the clothes I had brought with down to bib pickup, including some pretty classy John Deere tractor pajama pants my mom sewed for me. In the excitement of the Expo I decided to take the plunge and sign up for the Birkie Trail Marathon in September. I did this race in it's inaugural year and haven't been back since due to it being on the same weekend as the Trail-Loppet half marathon. I talked Nate and Jake into signing up as well, so TNC will be well represented up there. It should be a fun race, so I encourage anyone reading this to sign up (hint, hint). Then we headed out to do a shakeout run and preview the last mile or so of the course. This would prove to be helpful information for race day, since the last mile is a bit of a maze.

TNC Crew at the Expo

 The rest of Friday was spent on last minute physical and mental prep for the next day. Topping off the glycogen stores, formulating mental strategies, planning gel strategy for the next day (Nichole gave me a fail in this department), applying nail polish, and laying out all our gear for the next morning.

Team glitter, thanks Sharon!

Marathon morning was a bit surreal. Everything was shrouded in fog, narrowing my focus to just what was going on in my immediate vicinity. All I had to think about was keeping the nervous race day energy in check and getting the body ready to GO. I got to the start line with just enough time to get a quick bathroom stop in, get my warmups off, and get a spot in the corral.

My goal pace was 6:00 miles, my end goal of running sub 2:40 required a 6:05 average, so I started a bit conservatively at a 6:10 before dropping down to six minute pace. I ran the first few miles with Shad Gausman, a River Falls Alum. We worked our way through the thinning race field over the next few miles, just staying relaxed. The mile marks seemed to come and go remarkably fast (one every 6 minutes, duh). This worked well until one of my shoes came untied. I have to say I was quite frustrated with myself for having to leave let a great pacing partner get away because of a rookie mistake like this. I hadn't double knotted them because I wasn't sure if I would need to take them off to get my warmup pants off before the race, and I just plain forgot to check them before race start.

Not a good sight mid race

This minor shakeup led to a 6:11 mile, actually my slowest of the whole race. I was a bit off my game after this, turning in several 6:08 and 6:09 miles. After passing the 10 mile mark and seeing I was behind my goal pace to break 2:40 I decided I would have to let myself start hurting if I wanted to have a shot at my goal. I stopped to tie my other shoe before it became a problem and brought the pace back down to 6:00 miles until about mile 17, with a couple sub 6 miles when there were cheering cows on the course for added motivation. I was running tangents well, using the bright jerseys ahead of me in the fog to get a feel for the curving of the course. The miles were not seeming to pass as quickly as they had been, but I was still feeling alright.

The course is curvier than it looks, but visibility was low.

I hit mile 17 where there was supposed to be Gu available, but for whatever reason I didn't see it. Again, a pretty minor issue since I still had 2 gels in my pocket and wasn't even sure my stomach could handle them. I was a bit bothered by this for about a mile and at mile 18 decided I needed to try to take a gel and hope my stomach could hold it down. I sipped on it slowly as Nichole recommended (and got sticky, gooey gel all over my hand, as I predicted) but it sat well until I got to mile 19 where there was water and banana waiting. For a while I was trying to juggle a half eaten gel, a mushed and half unpeeled banana, and a glass of water all while trucking along at 6:00 pace. I heard there was a guy who ran the marathon juggling the whole time, I could have used some of his dexterity.

Where were you when I needed you Gel?

Mile 20 I had another 6:11 mile, but for the first time I passed a 5 mile checkpoint ahead of my goal time, so this gave me some measure of confidence. I decided to start making myself hurt and just take it one mile at a time. I figured if I could put more time in the bank whenever I did blow up I would hopefully be close enough to the finish line to limp in under 2:40. With 10k to go it was time to get serious, leave tactics and pacing aside, and race, hard! It helped that a guy in a red jersey with a very exaggerated arm swing passed me as I was putting on my gel/banana/water juggling act, so I literally dropped everything and gave chase.

We ran neck in neck for several miles at about 5:50 pace, neither of us getting more than 2 or 3 meters or so on the other, until I finally got a bit of an edge going over Lemon Drop Hill thanks to some great cheering by Brendan Huber. I kept driving on, deciding I want to look like I'm running fast when I see my friend Erik downtown. I felt like my legs were no longer working correctly, but to my own surprise I was still running sub 6:00 pace when I hit mile 23. Miles were seeming quite laborious at this point, but then I saw Erik and he reminded me rather loudly that I was in a race and I should be chasing people down. This was the shift in mentality I needed, and for the next couple miles I went on the hunt, doing my best to chase down anyone I could see. According to the results I passed 13 people from 20-25 and another 6 in the last mile.

As the finish line came in sight I saw the clock ticking it's way towards 2:39:00 and my final drive was to make it under this mark. I ended up with 2:38:57 gun time (2:38:47 chip time), good enough for 82nd place.

TNC Crew post race (I missed out on this one)

After the race walking was hard, as is to be expected post marathon, but I was absolutely over the moon at surpassing any realistic expectation I had for the race, especially the second half. Thinking about the race still boggles my mind days later. Not necessarily my finishing time, although that is pretty decent and a 13 minute PR is crazy, but the fact that I was able to execute my race strategy so well, run a negative second half, and race hard all the way through the finish line. Every marathon I have finished before was just about finishing, this one was a true race, especially in the final 10k.

So now that I've had few days to think about the race what do I think?

The biggest part of me is still super excited with how well everything turned out, how well I raced, how much mental fortitude I was able bring to bear late in the race, how great it is to prove to myself that all that training was effective. I'm excited with how well all the TNC athletes did, all these great folks that understand and share in my excitement over the race.

A large part of me is also relieved. So much had to go right for this to happen, and it all did. My training was far and away better than it has been for any other marathon. I have run over 800 miles this year so far, more than I did the entirety of 2013, with no injuries. I had my first 100+ mile week, pushed my tempo pace down to 5:40, and set a half marathon PR on the way. The weather for race day was pretty close to perfect (good enough for a 30+ year old course record to finally go down). I had friends and teammates racing and cheering to add a strong motivation to perform well. It made it extra exciting that all the TNC athletes who were racing set huge PR's, so the atmosphere after the race was very celebratory.

A small part of me is still dissatisfied, or at least curious. Could I handle more miles next training cycle? Can I bring my tempo pace down further? Running a 3 minute negative split is not an ideal race strategy. How much harder could I have pushed that first half, what if I had remembered to tie my shoes and could have continued to cruise with the pack I was with? What if my stomach had felt better, could additional fuel have helped me go faster? 82nd place means there are a lot of people for me to still chase down. This already has me excited to get back to training. I'm smart enough to work back in to it slowly though, right after the Tri-loppet which I'm racing next weekend.

If you want to read more about the race:

• Nichole put up a really great blog post that summarizes how all the TNC athletes did and captures the day from a coaching perspective.
• TNC athlete Sharon Snyder, who came all the way up from Indiana to race, has a great blog post about her weekend.
• Northlandnewscenter has a video that features Claire as a cheering cow, and has a shot of Sharon crossing the finish line.
• And I'll have a couple more posts up later in the week about race day nutrition (this one will be boring) and the mental side of the race (this one might actually be good).

Finally I want to say thanks congratulations to all my training partners who set marathon PR's last weekend. Great work Jeff, Jake, Nate, Sharon, Amy, Rael, and Brian. Also thanks to everyone who was up there cheering, Nichole, Claire, and Cary the best cheering herd ever, T-1000 (aka Kara) who gave me such a great high 5 that my hand hurt for miles afterwards, Brendan for being in just the right spot, Ben Kirmse for running along for a bit on a lonely stretch of road, Erik Teig for getting me in race mode for those final miles, and another thanks to Nichole for all the support and strategizing leading up to the race and Nate for joining me for some hard workouts in truly terrible weather this spring.

Load up!

Whew, what a weekend! Grandma's Marathon went well for everyone in the TNC crew who was up racing. Nichole requires a couple days thought/reflection before putting up a post about the race, so expect race details later in the week, but many PR's were set and the 30+ year old course record went down, so it was a good day to be racing. In the meantime, here is a post about the leadup to the race.

After getting back from Chippewa last weekend I spent most of Saturday sleeping. Good thing too, because at 4:00 AM Monday morning I got called in to work because a pH meter had failed on one of my machines. I changed it out but could not get the new probe to calibrate. After several hours of troubleshooting and talking with tech support I finally ended up swapping some parts with another pH meter on the machine and was able to get it up and going, then I snuck out of work early that afternoon and convinced myself to get in my last solo run in before Grandma's. I started this training cycle super motivated, but the last 4 weeks the motivation to train really hasn't been there. I may have pushed a bit too hard on a couple of the longer weeks, so I have been counting on my taper to bring me back around physically and mentally. Since I had some extra time that afternoon I also baked some banana bread to bring up for the weekend. I was a bit worried because the cooking timer I was using didn't go off, so the loaves were in for longer than they should have been, but they turned out amazing, some of the best banana bread I have ever made, certainly the most moist. Now my goal will be to try to recreate this recipe if possible (my banana bread baking tends to involve a lot of estimation).

Two loaves for the trip, one for "quality control"

The bread turned out great, despite this lazy guy not doing his job

Tuesday morning was another early day, I met Nate at 6:30 to get our last Tempo workout in, 3x1200 meters just to keep the legs used to going fast. Wednesday was a technique/Video session at Vakava, so the effort level was nice and low. I have some work to do in the classic skiing technique department (I'm barely even a top 10 Birkie skier as Nate would say) which actually motivates me to get out on the rollerskis a bit more and hopefully make some strides in my technique (pun intended).

Thursday was wet so I took the day off from working out and instead joined a few co-workers for a trip to Chapati, the Indian restaurant in town, for some carbo loading. We also took a few minutes to appreciate the power of the Cannon river which is in serious flood stages after another wet week. After work I quick buzzed over to pick up my CSA share and get home for some last minute packing. Nate and Nichole picked me up in an already pretty loaded down Prius for an exciting crossing of the cannon river where it was spilling over its banks across the road we were taking out of town. We made it out of town and up to Jeff's house to pick him up. Next we headed to get Sharon at the airport, then took a short detour to Fort Snelling when we found out her plane was a bit delayed (more than the delay she already called to warn us about earlier). Her plane made it in though, and she was smart and wore her Boston Marathon jacket so she was easy to spot at the airport. I don't know for sure because I have never run Boston, but I think if you have a Boston Marathon jacket it is actually a requirement that you wear it to any other marathons you go to.

Boston Jacket, good for airport visibility and general awesomeness

We got up to Duluth and pretty much went right to bed. Sleep would be important for the next couple days, there was a lot of nervous excitement to keep reigned in, a lot of pasta to be eaten, and last minute planning and preparation to handle. Look forward to more details in the next few days...

Wet racing season continues

The Chippewa Triathlon is a unique event, one that I cannot encourage people enough to give a try. Even though it is a bit of a logistical advantage and is way up in Cass Lake it is always a great weekend. Each of the three legs presents it's own challenge and potential accomplishments. The navigation, varied race conditions, and sheer length and diversity of this race in a gorgeous northwoods setting make the Chippewa an adventure like few other races out there, and the camaraderie of the racers and volunteers who endure these challenges together is something special.

This year had the addional complications of being the weekend before Grandma's marathon, and of rain, wind, and lightning in the forecast. Fortunately I have had some experience with multi hour races in pouring rain and wind, but my canoe partner Erik and I did not deal well with the wind while canoeing earlier this spring. As such I was a bit nervous as we went through the logistics of loading two canoes, four bikes, paddles, life jackets, shoes, helmets, wheels and four people into Erik's station wagon for the trip up to Bemidji on Friday.

We stopped on the way up to scout out "the snake pit" a windy marsh at the end of the canoe course that takes good navigation and good mobility to make good time through. Last year Jallie and I made a wrong turn here that cost us some time, and possibly cost me the win, since Ryan Peterson only beat me by about two minutes. This year we would know the course and be ready for it... Except when we arrived at registration we found out that they had changed the canoe route due to the wind and potential for lightning on race morning. 

The new course would be an out and back across Steamboat Lake and up the river on the far side of it. I was less than excited about 10 miles of paddling with no portages to break things up, but that is part of what makes Chippewa so great, you have to be prepared to take on whatever the course throws at you. 

Headed upriver - photo by Northwood Images

 Erik and I got out to a decent start in a light morning rain and settled in, trying to ride wake where we could, but soon finding ourselves on our own. We could see the leaders pulling steadily away up ahead, and were hearing fewer voices behind us. Although we could hear the voices of Erik's wife Elspeth and roommate Emily the whole way across the lake. The four of us carpooled up together and knew it would be a close race between our two boats.

Top boats making the buoy turn - photo by Northwood Images

We navigated the curvy river on the far side of the lake, a mini snake pit almost, dodging the leaders on our way up the river and further back boats on our trip back down. We did not have a very good buoy turn and as we started back down the river Elspeth and Emily were hot on our heels. It was a good competition, their superior skill and carbon JD Pro boat against Erik's and my guy strength.

Elspeth and E Arr J hot on our heels - photo by Northwood Images

We found a shortcut on the way back down the river, but the girls followed us through, so there was no advantage to be gained there. When we got back on the lake they were right on our wake so Erik and I put in a surge to get a bit of a gap on them. We held this gap until we got around the point in the lake and then we hit the wind... At this point racing was less about the other boats and more about fighting the conditions. Erik picked a good line that balanced pushing on toward the next buoy with getting close to the south shore where the paddling would be easier. Driving directly into the wind was hard, but much easier to keep the boat upright than trying to cut crosswind. This section seemed to take forever, the shore always ahead but never getting closer, fighting the oncoming waves and trying to paddle strong and steady while being tossed around. This is the part of paddling that both scares and excites me, I'm striving and racing but seemingly not in control of my own destiny. We put several minutes on the girls in this section however and passed several other boats so from a racing perspective the wind worked in our favor. 

Erik was right out of the boat and onto the bike, while I intentionally took my time changing and riding to give the legs time to loosen up. It was hard to watch riders go on ahead, but the goal was not to put fatigue in the legs before next weekend. All in all this actually made the race a rather fun experience. The bike started out with more rain, but I had eye protection to keep sand (and sticks) out of my eyes. The temps had gotten up over 60 by now too, making the day much more pleasant than Ragnarok a couple months earlier. The bike course was quite wet however, with some long stretches of wet gravel, stream crossings, and unavoidable puddles. Here is a video showing how ridiculous some of those puddles are (the levels did not go down, but all of these puddles were ride-able).

I rode with Elspeth for a while, got away from her, stopped for peanut butter sandwiches at an aid station, got passed by her, caught her, and rode with her for a while again before getting away on the faster road and trail sections. I had a speedy run transition because I couldn't get out of my soaking wet socks and shoes and in to dry running gear quickly enough for my own liking. I took the run pretty controlled, just a few easy miles to finish off the day. A speedy relay runner buzzed by me at about 5:45 mile pace and it was fun to jump on his heels for a quarter mile or so before backing the pace off again.

Erik and I after the race - photo by Northwood Images

I finished in 4:33:44, my fastest Chippewa time ever due to the shortened course, especially the paddle leg. Looking at results it could have been my race to win this year. Dave Nelson won the men's category despite fixing a flat tire on course. Erik had a great race and charged his way to second place less than a minute back. Ryan held on to third despite it being his first time on a bike this year. I ended up 11th, about 1/2 hour behind Dave. I did not win a feather (very nice looking carved wooden feathers are the prize at this race) and I'm still waiting to see if I won the bonus prize.

Bonus Prize! - the run course was thick with this stuff

Now it's just a few more easy runs until the big race for the season. I felt a little guilty not going out and giving it all at Chippewa, but just reminded myself that I have put a lot of hours towards having a chance of a good race next weekend, so whenever I held myself back I made a mental note of the frustration so that late in the race at Grandma's when I feel like settling in I could remind myself "I held back last weekend so would have the opportunity to give everything I have today, so don't waste it!" I am putting a lot of pressure and expectation on this race, but I think that focus is what most of my non-ski season racing lacks, so I'm excited to see if it will pay off.

Just Sitting Around

Only two weeks left until Grandma's Marathon!

 A few of us TNC athletes who are running the race got together Saturday morning for the last hard workout leading up to the race, 13.1 miles at marathon pace. I mapped out a flat, paved course around Northfield and Dundas that would be our workout course for the day. The loop was just over 6 miles long, so we would run it twice with Coach Nichole manning (womanning?) a water stop at the halfway point to make it as close to a race simulation as possible. My Friday project was to procure some course marking materials and mark the course. I was able to legally acquire some spray paint and marked the trickier corners of the course to help make sure people didn't get lost. I also sent out  a map to everyone who was running so they could study up. Much of the race was on bike trails, which limited the possibility of wrong turns. Surreptitiously marking the corner right in front of the Northfield Police station was rather exciting.

In order to make the weekend as much of a race simulation as possible I busted out the Thermarest on Friday night, tossed and turned worrying about racing the next day, and woke up early so I could eat and give my food some time to digest. When I woke up it looked pretty nice out, but by the time I headed out the door to run over to Nate & Nichole's and meet the rest of the crew it was raining pretty hard. I wore my raincoat for the warmup so I was actually able to get warm, but still got pretty chilly in the rain the first lap. There was not much messing around, we got down to Sechler park, got our warmups off, shot a quick snapshot of our soggy crew, and got the workout underway.

A wet group having a bit of fun before the workout.

My race goal is rather ambitious (at least in my mind), to go under 2:40. This isn't a terribly meaningful mark except for the fact that it should be achievable for me. It will take over an 11 minute PR to make this mark though, so no easy feat. According to my workouts and my recent half marathon I should be able to run a 2:36, but I'm planning to play it a bit more conservative than that. I'll try to go out at 2:37 pace to bank just a bit of time for if I'm having trouble late in the race. On the other hand, if I'm feeling really good going out at a slightly faster pace will set me up to run a very good time.

I've done very little running at marathon pace, so dialing into that pace took a bit of effort, and throughout the workout I felt like I was fluctuating quite a bit. When I looked at my data afterwards though my heart rate stayed pretty stable around 165 and my mile splits were actually quite good, 5:57-6:02 for 9 of the miles, with one mile faster than pace and a couple miles slower, but still very close. With the warmup and cooldown I ended up with 19 miles for the day, a decent last long run in and of itself. My mileage has been much higher this spring than before any other running race I've done ever, so hopefully it gives my legs the durability they need for late in the race.

Sunday was the first day of my taper, so I spent most of the day sitting around, in a canoe, that I was paddling. Before Grandma's I have the Chippewa Triathlon, and the first leg of that race is a 15 mile canoe with portages. So I got one last long paddle in with my canoe partner Erik. Things went pretty well, so I think we'll be set to go come race day. I also sat around on a bike for a while, until Erik got a flat tire and I ended up running his bike back home since his repair goo was not up to the task of sealing the hole. The rest of this week will be pretty easy stuff besides a double pole time trial on Wednesday, hopefully the legs come around well and don't get too fatigued at Chippewa next weekend. Bring on race season!

It's grown on me

Last weekend was pretty quiet for the most part, although endurance activity ADHD is kicking in for the summer. My running has been a bit less consistent as biking, rollerskiing, and canoeing enter the workout schedule. That is neither here nor there however, my post today is on a different dilemma, something is growing on my face. It has been for several months now, and I've put off dealing with it, but it's starting to get a little out of control.

Just look at that fella!

Usually my beard size gets dramatically reduced when summertime rolls around, but it filled out really well this winter and I'm reluctant to do anything with it. It has been many years since I've let my beard get this long, and I like the full beard look, but it is getting a bit warm on some of these summer days. I recently watched a video where they tested having a beard vs. not having a beard in a wind tunnel and found no aerodynamic difference, so I'm not worried on that account, but heat dissipation is a bit of an issue.

On the other hand, beardliness is a common trait among elite ultra runners, so it can't have too much of a detrimental effect on endurance running.

My tentative plan before Grandma's is to trim the sides down a bit so I keep the length without quite so much volume, but I'm not sure if I can do that in a way that doesn't look terrible. For the Chippewa 50k last spring I was sporting some sweet mutton chops, but decided it wasn't a good long term look for me.  I would love to have someone with any kind of fashion sense (good, bad, or otherwise) weigh in. What kind of facial hair should I be sporting when I show up on the start line at Grandma's marathon in a few weeks?