And the winner is...

Scott!

With a staggering loss of nearly 7% in five weeks Scott, who took the lead in week 4, goes on to win in week 5. In a toughly fought out second place Lily on the Road edges out Nick who picks up third for his efforts. Laura who, despite moving apartment and, after spending 2 hours on elliptical machine retains fourth, Swimfan13 moves from eighth from fifth in the final week nudging out Kevin and Ms. V in a photo finish who take sixth and seventh respectively. Bringing home eighth place is everyone’s favorite New Yorker Marcy.

Congratulations to all our winners, well losers actually if you know what I mean, and to everyone else who participated. A big, nay huge, thank you to our sponsors: Marianne at Headsweats, Xy at Dirty Girl Gaiters and Julie at Wicked Fast Sports for there extremely generous prizes which will be winging their way to our winners very soon, please email me your mailing address etc. Don’t forget to post photos, comments and links back to the sponsors once you get your goodies, it’s the least we can do. A big congratulations and thank you to everyone who participated, as javamom said…“it's amazing how motivating it is to have someone waiting to hear your weight at the end of the week”, well I couldn’t agree more!

The final prize for the potty mouth goes to Marcy! Who else? Her delightful ditty of, when referring to javamom…“hopefully her GI tract will hold onto everything she eats and then unload itself the day after the contest ends :P…” really merits a mouthful of carbolic soap and so Marcy you get some extra goodies that I am sure you’ll find useful, I know you love your camera so remember; photos please!

OK and so now we move on. As noted last week I have a whole new bunch of prizes and another competition to put together, but I am going to wait a few weeks before posting the details, so don’t consider that time an excuse to go crazy on Dunkin or Crispies depending if you live in the East or West.

So once again congratulations to everyone and I look forward to looking at the photos and reading the reports from our "Worth the Weight Eight"...hey I just made that up, pretty cool huh!

Hold the front page...

I just heard that a new Sponsor for Worth the Weight has come on board! They agreed a while ago but have only just sent me the stuff; they've been pretty busy with an event last weekend (hint), it’s yet to arrive but unless there is a royal disaster with the USPS it should be soon, it’s only coming from Oregon (hint hint). They were the catalyst for my reincarnated running and the genesis of this blog and my so I have to send them big thankyou for that also (hint, hint, hint...ok if you haven't worked it out by now...well there's no hope!)

However with one week to go it feels a little unfair to dump a load more prizes in the mix, afterall that’s part of the motivation, so I am thinking that I will have a “Worth the Weight Too Challenge” or "Sum of Worth the Weight" or “Thanksgiving it’s Gone Challenge!”; (yeah I need to work on the marketing), reopen enrollment; there were some disappointed folks who missed the start date and run another competition.

As soon as it arrives I post up the swag, start date, rules etc…just when you thought it was safe to go back to the fridge!

Worth the Weight; penultimate weigh in!

Well I told you to expect some changes in the leaderboard and here they are. With Jenn not reporting Scott moves into first place, Nick and Laura are wrestling over third, and Laura is laying it down thick with the trash talk!

Ms V comes into 6th place hot on Kevin's heels with jkrunning not so far behind and swimfan bringing home 8th place and the last of the prizes!

Finally we have everyone, who has reported at least, in negative territory.

Everyone should be sending Second Chances get well vibes; she managed to give herself a stress fracture and is hobbling around in a air-cast, and she spent her birthday last weekend volunterring at the Duathalon that she should have been racing in; she will hit a karma payout big!

One week, well half a week to go, and a sprint finish is on.

Good luck everyone and remember to post your weight as per my last posts details, yes that means you will have to go to the actual blog to read it!

Worth the Weight; the home straight!

I have results from only two thirds so as a gentle nudge, please send them in, I'll update this time tomorrow, it looks like there may be a shift around in the top 5! I need to have everyone's final weigh in number from this coming Sunday, September 7th, by 5pm Pacific Time Tuesday the 9th, that's the cutoff, if you're late you can go cry in your momma's lap 'cos I ain't listening! The winners will be announced shortly afterwards.

I have also sorted through the swag and this is how it will play out, consider this your incentive for a sprint finish:

1st: Nike Tailwind SDM (thanks Nick), Headsweat's Supervisor and Race Hat, a bottle each of Recover-Ease and EnerG-Ease and a pair of Dirty Girl Gaiters

2nd: Cateye Astrale 8 bike computer, Headsweat Race Hat, a bottle each of Recover-Ease and EnerG-Ease and a pair of Dirty Girl Gaiters

3rd: Headsweat Race Hat, a bottle of Recover-Ease and a pair of Dirty Girl Gaiters

4th: Headsweat Race Hat, a bottle of EnerG-Ease and a pair of Dirty Girl Gaiters

5th: Headsweat's Race Hat and Visor a pair of Dirty Girl Gaiters

6th: Dirty Girl Gaiters and Headsweat's Supervisor

7th & 8th Headsweat's Supervisor

Conditions for acceptance is that you need to write a short review and post of photo of you wearing the aforementioned prize(s).

There are some Hammer and Gu bit's that I'll throw in as I am packing and there is also the secret prize for the smakiest smack mouth!

The finish (measuring) tape is in sight...dig deep and go for it!

Worth the Weight Wk 3

Here are the week 3 standings in the competition.

It looks like Jenn is running away, pun intended! with it. However things are hotting up for the remaining podium slots with jkrunning and Lily on the Road, battling it out for second. In like a bullet is Run for Life giving Scott a run for his money. Then there is real bunch of two percenters with six people spread over less than one percent (is it me or does this sound like milk commercial?).

Personally, after last weeks race, I am ramping up, dusting off my bike and trainer and digging out my road shoes, Base building is nobody’s favorite pastime but it needs to be done; I have another 220 running and 360 cycling miles to cover before hills and intervals training kicks in over the next 7 weeks. The good news is that while my mileage increase so does my caloric burn. So I hope to be moving up those rankings.

This weekend I have a scheduled 50 mile bike ride with Jes from TRC who is training for a triathalon so that's going to help.

So with just under two weeks to go and Labor Day just around the corner it looks like it’s going to be about resisting temptation, staying on the straight and narrow and hoping we all end up skimmed!

Florida all over again!

Time for a recount!

Quite clearly working in Excel albeit at an extremely simple level is beyond me in the wee dark hours, several errors have been pointed out during the day and I have had to go back and recheck.

So here we have the official recount, Scott moves into fourth place and javamom moves into the middle of the pack hot on Marcy’s heels or flats or runners, whatever she’s been out shopping for today!

Unfortunately there was no error in my own measurement! Oh well.

I am in the process of working out the prizes, I have one more sponsor that I am hoping will come through, fingers crossed and also the handpicked prize for the pottiest, smakiest, trash talking mouth !

Let the insults fly!

On a completely different note, this came across my desk(top), anyone who works in IT will totally get it.

A day late and a dollar short...

OK here we are, Week 2’s results, a day late a dollar (or pound) short, I was ambushed at work, you know how that goes…"can you just”…3 hours later, so by the time I got home I was banjanxed! So these are percentage reductions from you starting weight. Jenn maintains her lead but Laura is hot on her heels basking in the joy of a post marathon caloric burn and Lily on the Road is gaining some momentum. A little further down Scott Nick and Kevin are battling it out for a place in the Top 5. Alas myself flipped flopped back to where I started, damn those children’s birthday parties at the weekend! There are still a few DNR’s and Christie reported in as having technical difficulties.

As mentioned earlier Wicked Fast Sports are going to donate 3 bottles each of Recover-Ease and Energ-Ease. Having used it I can certainly vouch for Recover-Ease, it works every time, I am sure the winners will want to write up on their on blogs of their experiences.

So we’re half way there today, it’s still pretty tight, just like my waistband!, and anyone’s game.

(Sorry no nice links, I come back and tidy it up later, I need to fly out the door this morning.)

CORRECTION: Scott is actually at 2.39%, my error, the downside of working in Excel at 5am!

Early moning antics!

The TRC plan was to meet at the trailhead at 6:00am Sunday however I had agreed earlier in the week to meet with Jes at 5:00am. I had a new flashlight that I wanted to check out on the trails, it’ll be used more and more as summer ends and fall turns into winter. I was on replen duty this weekend and so by the time I had loaded the car stopped for a top up of ice at a local 24 hour pharmacy I was running late, I arrived at the trailhead at 5:15 and Jen turned up shortly afterwards. Within 10 minutes we were heading up the familiar Westridge Trail, it’s a nice wide fireroad and so there was plenty of space, a headlamp each and the new flashlight (review to follow) to light up our way, the cloud was thick and low and the sun was struggling to break through. After 20 or so minutes we turned around and headed back meeting the main running group at a little after 6:00am. The group run set off back the way Jes and I had come back down. After a mile or so we came to the optional loop which diverted us down into a canyon and back up the other side, I headed off down into the canyon, I reached the bottom and looked over my shoulder to see a grand total of no one following me! Oh well, onwards and upwards and upwards and then up a bit more and I was back on the far ridgeline which then curved round and linked back up to the trail. A couple of other runners passed me as I stopped to take some misty photos, I continued up to the Nike Station and saw Sara and another runner heading back down. I realized that I should to think about heading back to the start otherwise there were going to be some hungry and thirsty runners waiting for me. I had planned to take the optional loop back, I managed to find the turning but lost the trail shortly afterwards so ended up running the ridgeline as per the photo above, I finally made it back to the parking lot in good time with 11.25 miles on my Forerunner and just in time to set up before everyone else arrived. A rep from Bear Naked had dropped off a bunch of free samples; another club perk, in fact two runners, Billy and Ernie were running in free Teva Trail shoes! Although Billy had a rough morning suffering from post wedding reception (he was a guest not the groom) early morning wake up jitters. So not quite the scheduled route but a fun run nevertheless.

I nearly have a full set of week 2 returns for the Worth you Weight Challenge. I’ll give everyone an extra day to email me their weight from Sunday. In the meantime I am glad to announce additional prizes to be added into the prize pool, the good folks at Wicked Fast Sports, the manufacturers of RECOVER-ease which I reviewed last month have stepped up and will be generously be donating a few bottles from their product line, please join me in thanking them for their generosity.

It looks like it’s going to be another close week and with three weeks to go there is everything still to play for!

Weekend round up...err out!

Not much to report from the weekend and certainly no running. I threw a surprise birthday party for my Wife on Saturday, I had been planning it for a month and had enrolled a couple of her good friends into the scheme and she was totally unsuspecting! So I spent all of Saturday morning running around like a headless chicken and all Saturday afternoon burning food on the BBQ! I was to be found crashed on the sofa by 9:30pm! After a night spent wrestling with a teething toddler Sunday Morning came and went with me doing nothing but taking a nap, no TRC, which was probably a good thing! Later in the day we headed out to Ventura for a pootle around the Marina, a harbor tour and some ice cream, it's compulsory...honest! an early dinner, and that was the weekend that was, bang, poof, gone!

Nearly everyone has posted in their updated weight and here are the losers and gainers for the week, (DNR; Did Not Report) I was hoping for a little more of a substantial effort but with steak, potato salad, beer and Coldstone Creamery ice cream cakes at every turn and no weekend running it just wasn’t happening for me! The trash talk seems to have died down so hopefully with some results people can start pointing and laughing…in the nicest possible way of course. It's close at the top with only 0.37% separating the top 3 and 1.18% across the top 5, but with four weeks left to play it's still anyone's game.

My race calendar already has holes in it; I spent Monday trying to find a hotel on Catalina Island for the Eco Marathon in November and came up cold, still now I can look further afield; like anywhere on the West Coast…suggestions anyone! I still have the PCTR 50k so I am not totally without an event for November. I was also looking at some hiking books and stuff over the weekend and I have decided to have a stab at running the Backbone Trail in February, it will be good practice for C2M which is March and it’s a pretty cool thing to have done, I will be by no means the first nor the last, but I don’t think there’s too many people who have done in it under 24hours. The Trail is around 70 miles and connects from Pt Mugu through to Pacific Palisades, there will be a few logistical things to sort out; drop bags and the like but I think it’s very doable.

Finally a shout out to the TRC runners who completed Mt Disappointment last weekend and especially Jes who won her Age Group for the 50k.

Farewell my sweet!

So with great fanfare, pomp and circumstance the competition begins…what the Olympics you say? No say I the Worth the Weight competition. In the opening salvo, Robin from Gotta Run (there are two Gotta Run blogs) traded blows albeit with some gentle smack talk with Marcy. I have to say that I was impressed by the reserved nature of it all but like the long run it’s all about pacing.

I am going to come up with a special Smack Down prize not previously listed for the wittiest, smartest comment or retort made in the comments section, so let the creative juices start flowing.

The line up is now complete and entry is now closed, there were a couple or three late entries who squeezed in and so now the complete line up is:

Christie, Gotta Run, javamom, Jenn, Jes, Jess, jkrunning, Kevin, Laura, Lily on the Road, Luis, Maddy, Marcy, mcmmama, Mendy, Ms. V, Nick, Non Runner Nancy, Run for Life, Sara, Scott, Second Chances, swimfan13, Viv, Wendy and moi! I still need a starting weight from Mendy.

In my attempt to reach my stated goal of between 160-165, which alas is only around 8%, I finished up my supply of ice lollies and managed to avoid the frozen section while grocery shopping last weekend. So here's my start line, I should point out this this is post trail run, my feet are usually quite clean. Extra points if you can figure out which toe I broke and can you see why black toe is never an issue!

I other news I registered for the Bulldog race on the 23rd, I squeezed in a mail entry at the cheaper rate and avoided the Active.com fees, I am only running the 25k but expect it to be a long hot morning! Tonight I am off to see Eddie Izzard live, he’s an acquired taste but I’ll leave you with this tidbit and remember step away from the cookies!

Amber, Amber, Amber...Green!

Ok so this is the staring grid lineup for the Worth the Weight Challenge: Lily on the Road, Jess, jkrunning, swimfan13, Jenn, Gotta Run, Nick, Kevin, Viv, Run for Life, Second Chances, Non Runner Nancy, Mendy, Wendy, Marcy, Laura, Sara, Jes, Scott Ms V, Christie, Maddy and yours truly. I am still waiting for initial weigh ins from Christie, Jes, Mendy, Ms V. Scott, Second Chances, swimfan and Wendy but some of them have promised it to me asap. So let the lights go green and let’s get this show on the road. The next weigh in is next Sunday. Good luck everyone.

Everybody's working for the weekend...photog!

My early start: if you like it you can do it whatever the hour!

My commute: I love the smell of the open road!


My parking: there's always a space!


My footwear: where the rubber meets the road...or trail!


My confine and my comfort!


Have a good one everyone!

Oh yes, one last thing, there seems to be some confusion over the Worth the Weight start date, mostly my own created by me and my clumsy semantics! I need your official start weight, which should your weight on or around August 3rd, before August 10th, then an updated weight on August 10th and then updates every Sunday thereafter until September 7th, you see that was easy!

Start your engines...

On the grid we have:

Lily on the Road, Jess, jkrunning, swimfan13, Jenn, Gotta Run, Nick, Kevin, Viv, Run for Life, Second Chances, Non Runner Nancy, Mendy, Wendy, Marcy (edit) and Laura.

If I have missed anyone just ping me again at quadrathon at gmail dot com.

The competition starts Sunday the 3rd, to ease you in the first week I need a starting weight emailed to me by the 10th and then you new weight each Sunday, updated standing will be published the following Monday or Tuesday.

We also have a new prize to enter into the pool, donated by Nick there is a Nike Tailwind Speed and Distance Monitor! Thanks Nick, that's awesome. There’s still plenty of time to sign up, just get to it!

Finally good luck to Billy and Kenna from TRC running at RunSFM this weekend, along with everyone else in blogland.

And now a message from our sponsors!

Not my sponsors but the sponsors of:

The Quadrathon;
It’s Worth the Weight Challenge!

First a little background. Last month I partook in Viv’s weight challenge and managed to drop 6/7lbs which was great news and put me under 170lbs for the first time in a, well, long while, and I even got a free T-shirt for my efforts (thanks Viv, Tom and Amy). The competitor in me realized that this was the perfect way for me to get to my race weight to where I want it to be for the Fall/Winter racing season and to achieve that the best way would be to throw down the gauntlet and pull in some competition.

So now I present to you your generous sponsors who have all donated the prizes:

First you’ve seen me wear them, you heard me talk dirty to you about them, yes; Dirty Girl Gaiters. Handmade by the dirtiest girl on the trail herself; Xy, these are the best things to happen to trail runners since, well, trails! I have four pairs of mens and two pairs of womens to give away; receipt of these is conditional on you providing a photo of you wearing them, either posted on your blog or sent to me!

From one end of your body to the other. Tired of sweat running down you nose? Need to keep the sun out of your eyes? Want to look the sharpest runner at Sunday’s 5k, HM, Ironman or ultra marathon or just be the cool kid on the block, well now you can with the one, the only, Headsweats; I have five SuperVisors and five Race Hats to give away .

On top of that I have some Hammer Nutrition bit’s, some Cliff Shot Bloks, and a Cateye Astrale 8 bike computer.

Prizes to drool over!

I hope to have a few other sponsors coming on line (one has agreed and I am awaiting the arrival of the swag) I will announce them as the prizes arrive; of course if anyone reading this wants to pitch in please do so. I am not sure how I am going to divvy it all up but it looks like the awards will go at least 5 deep for men and women the more stuff I get the deeper they will go.

I am sure you will all agree that these are some excellent prizes and will be worth the blood, sweat, tears, gears, lengths, leks, hills, laps, loops, miles and pain. And I am sure you will join me in thanking the sponsors for their generous support a link to their websites is in the right column.

So here’s the skinny on the competition, the rules, all the other important stuff and the small print:

1. The competition will start Sunday August 3rd and will finish the Sunday after Labor Day; September 7th , winners will be announced shortly after
2. Email me your name, blog url and current weight before August 10th to: quadrathon at gmail dot com
3. Email me your new weight every Sunday, I will update and post the results every Monday or Tuesday
4. Weight loss will be calculated as a percentage, to level the playing field and maintain some privacy
5. Feel free to blog about the challenge to share the love and drive up the competition
6. Winners must post a photo on your blog or email it to me of you in your winner’s garb for publication here or by the Sponsors
7. This is the small print!

So that’s it, whatcha' weighting for? Let’s get to it!