New years Eve and I am eagerly awaiting the big plans I have for the coming year. I just had my annual physical this week and the Dr. says I am in amazingly good health as usual. I am also feeling great and the training continues to go well and bring me great enjoyment. I look forward to spending many hours out on the roads and trail with my friends and making new ones along the way. So here are the big events I have planned so far.
After Boston I will once again return my focus to Ultra's
April : Promise Land 50K May: New River Marathon June: Boogie 50 miler ( This depends on the arrival of my 3rd Grand- Child which is due on the 10th.) July: Tahoe Rim 100Mile, my first attempt at a 100 in 3 years. Sept: Hinson Lake 24 Hour Nov: Mountain Masochist 50Mile + Derby 50K
That's all for now. I will probably add a few more events as the year progresses.
It's the day after Christmas and I'm looking at 10" of snow on the ground so while I'm snowbound with no more plans for the year, it is time to reflect on what has been another fantastic year in my life.
2009 had been a re-building year with my focus on cross-training and preparing for Ironman but after that event my focus returned to running with a long range plan of returning to the Boston Marathon in 2011. Karla and I had agreed that once she was again strong enough , we would return one more time and so now that we were both healthy it was time to focus our training on that goal.
I began the year off with a good start running a strong 5k on Jan. 1st at the Resolution Run. I followed up a week later with a 50k Pr at the Salem Lakeshore Frosty Fifty K on a frigid morning. Not bad for a 54 year old with 50+ ultra's under his belt. The day was made even more special by making the trip with 3 of my Angel Team, Karla, Lisa and Jenn.
Now the focus would be on training for our Boston qualifying attempt. Over the next two months there would be no racing but many long runs and nights running in the cold and dark on track nights. One particular workout stands out on March 2. It was 35F, raining and the wind was blowing 20mph with gust up to 30mph yet Karla and I got out in it and ran 6 x 800m. Lisa was with us on all of our weekend long runs and finally the test would come at the American Tobacco Trail Marathon on March 21st. It was a perfect day for the race and all three of us would qualify as I ran my fastest marathon since Feb 2006.
Now with the pressure off to qualify I could focus on just having some fun over the next several months. In April I ran the Tarheel 10 miler for fun with Karla and she ran a pr. Then two weeks later I traveled to Asheboro with Karla and Frank to run the 5k there where I ran a good time and won my age-group.
2 weeks later on May 2nd it was off to Cincinnati with the Werners and Jerry for the Flying Pig Marathon. I had a disappointing race but a fun trip. Followed that up a week later and ran a 21:33 5k in Garner which was my fastest time in a few years.
On June 12th I returned to The Bethel Hill Moonlight Boogie for the 50 miler. Despite one of the hottest years ever, I was able to complete it for my longest run in over two years.
On July 10th I had probably the most fun of the year making the trip to Grandfather Mountain Marathon accompanied by by my wonderful team of Angels, The Marathon Princess, Mountain Girl and Ultra Angel. This would be a special year as I planned to do the first Grandfather Mountain "Double" Marathon. I would run the race with Karla in 4:56 and then run back to the start in Boone with Jenn. Lisa and Karla would crew for me on the return trip which I completed in 11:33 to be the first person to ever do it. Woohoo , a world record !
Now once again it was time to begin focusing on preparing to get in the best possible shape over the next few months with the long range goal of running fast at Boston next April.
The remainder of July was for recovery and then training through August. On Sept 12th I made the trip to Allentown PA for the Lehigh Valley Marathon with the Werners. We had a great trip and I ran my 2nd fastest marathon ever in 3:44,another Boston qualifier.
Returned to the Selma Railroad Run 5k in Oct and was 2nd in my age group in a fairly good time of 21:57 and then a week later made the trip with Karla and Lisa to the New River Trail 50k. Not my day but it was a beautiful day on a lovely course and a great race by Annette Bednosky and her crew of volunteers.
2 weeks later I would have my longest mileage training week ever at 102 miles.
Then in November I returned for my 4th OBX Marathon. Another disappointing outcome but another wonderful weekend with friends , the Howells and Werners.
I finished up my racing year with a good time at my 7th Derby 50k running 4:55.
Overall a very good year and I am so fortunate to have some wonderful friends and training partners to share it with. But besides running this was certainly a FANTASTIC year personally as I was Blessed with the birth of two beautiful Grand-Daughters, Aurora Ann on Feb 11 and Rachel Marie on Dec 18. Now that is something to look back on with pride and joy !!
The picture is me finishing my 1st Marathon in Wilmington NC in March 1981. I would not enter another marathon until November of 2002 after running my 1st ultra in Feb of 2002. There were quite a few other shorter races before this one and many since so with nothing else planned for 2010 I thought I would do a little re-cap of the number of races I have completed.
Total # of running races since my first 10K in March 1978 is 312.
Of those 312, 34 are marathons and 57 are ultra-marathons and all of them have been since 2002 except for that first marathon. From the first one in 78-79 I did 26 races. The decade of the 80's I did 120. the 90's I didn't do much running at all but I did compete in 24 races. the decade from 2000 to 2009 was my most prolific decade of racing years with 130.
Pr's 1 mile, 5:25 5k, 18:40 10k 39:00 10 mile, 64:42 half marathon, 1:34:42 ( always thought this was soft compared to my 10k-10 mile pr's but had few options back then to run a fast course on a cool day) Marathon, 3:35:15 (at age 50!) 50K, 4:44:11 (at age 54) 50mile, 10:34:20 ( I've run faster several times in the middle of other longer races) 100 mile, 23:15:59. (in 2007 at age 51)
In addition to those I have completed 48 Triathlons since 1998 including my one and only Ironman at Coeur D'Alene ID in 2009
I did one Duathlon in 2002.
so that's it.
Looking forward to continuing with another great decade of racing ahead. and I may be delusional but at age 55 I think I may still have a shot at improving my pr's in all distances from the marathon up to 100 miles so stay tuned.
This video is a song I wrote and recorded back in 2006. I was driving back from Virginia and it came to me while cruising down I-95 and I wrote it on a notepad as I was driving. Not the smartest thing to do but I knew if I didn't write it down while it was flowing from my brain that I would lose it. The inspiration was from the experience of training and qualifying for the Boston Marathon and the group of people who were a big part of that.
Now that I had the lyrics I was determined to make it into a song but I didn't know if I would have the necessary skill to actually pull off what I was hearing in my head. I also had no way of recording it so I used it as an excuse to go to Guitar Center and buy a Digitech GNX4 guitar processor with a built in digital recorder. As soon as I arrived home I set it up in my kitchen and began trying to figure out how to use the machine and practice the song.
I became very excited as I soon figured out that I would actually be able to do what I wanted. The first thing was to get the intro recorded and after I was satisfied with it I set the drum machine to the tempo and beat I wanted and recorded the guitar rhythm track with my Stratocaster played thru a Crate XT120R amp. If I had more time and access to a better recording software I would have been able to do more with the basic track but since I didn't I was limited to a very simple line with the drum machine.
Next I used the Ibanez bass guitar I had given my younger son to lay down the bass track. Then it was time to record the vocal track. I was not really satisfied with the singing but under the circumstances I was happy just to get it done. Next I took the whole set-up over to a dinner at Margo's house and had all my friends sitting around the dinner table to sing along on the chorus.
The next day i went back and recorded the lead fills and solo guitar to complete my first ever recording !!
here are the liner notes I added for the cd
"Once a decade someone comes along to shake up the Rock establishment. Anderson will affect everything you listen to for at least the next 10 years." Creamed Magazine
"Each generation has it's Guitar hero to inspire millions of young people to pick up a guitar.Hendrix,Van Halen, Stevie Ray Joey Anderson is our Guitar Hero for the 21st century" Geetar Playa Magazine
50 years in the making. Well the wait was more than worth it. Every so often an artist or band comes along and completely changes how we listen to music. From Elvis to the Beatles. Led Zeppelin and Arena rock. The Sex Pistols and Punk. The re-birth of Metal in the 80's. Nirvana and Grunge in the 90's. Now we have, well I'm not really sure what we have but it's really good. And I should know.
(Insert name of your favorite Rock Critic)
Track One: 26 Miles to Go written by Joey Anderson Track Two: Moonlight Boogie written by Joey Anderson Track Three: Hinson Lake Blues written by Joey Anderson Track 4: I'm an Ironman written by Joey Anderson ( are you seeing a trend here?)
