Author: Swansong0930

First Ultra in Review…and Beyond

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I’m a little over a month post race at this point which I cannot believe. Was truly the hardest physical challenge I’ve ever attempted. Though giving myself only 2.5 months to train was not the path to greatness I originally hoped I did get the job done, not with a good time but with a finishing time nonetheless.

Above-Thundering ahead, nearing the 28 mile mark

How did it go:

Frankly, the veteran Cross country runner in me is not happy with my time. I averaged a 13’22” mile for the race with a final time of 7:25:38. While I can blame the hilly course, the foul weather, the mud and the extra 2 miles added to what was already the longest race I’ve ever run by a 25 mile margin I have to blame myself first and foremost. I was undertrained and under prepared. That being said, I finished a race that many people will never even attempt, this brings me great pride.

The finishing proof

Lessons learned:

  • Hydration- My camelback, full of water was far too heavy for a long distance race like this. Especially on a 40 degree winter day. In the future I’ll underfill the bag or find a smaller water bottle that can be filled up at aid stations
  • Training- 2.5 months is not enough to go from couch to trail 50k. Not with a good time, and not on hilly terrain like this at least. I needed more mileage, and more hills in my training program
  • Clothing- I actually nailed this part. Had a variety of layers that I was able to switch between as the temperature changed throughout the day.
  • Keep your mind sharp- after 7 hours of running I really lost the mental game, with just a couple miles left I felt my will falter. Only way I was able to get it back was by keeping a positive attitude, and cracking jokes. At the final aid station, after over half of the 100 finishers, I asked the volunteers “you guys know how far in front I am” to a couple motivating laughs. Pic related

The Future:

My ultra career is just beginning, of that I am sure. The first thing I said as I sat in the car, writhing in pain to my Girlfriend was “I’m doing this again”. Now whether that was due to my masochistic desire to destroy my body or due to the fact that I know that I was capable of more I cannot say. What I can say is that I’ve signed up for a 50 mile race on October 14th in Chicago, a race that promises to be flat, and with ample training time, I am confident that I will finish with a strong time.

That brings me to how that applies to this blog. With a 50 miler comes hundreds of miles of training, over scores of hours split between dozens of workouts. This will not be a fun journey, but it will be an interesting one, for me at least. Stay tuned to learn, grow and sweat with me.

Stay Loose -Jerry

Spring Wargaming Updates: Adepticon, old friends and Titanic Tales

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As march fades into April, and April into summer I look back at this year’s building, painting, and gaming. Catching the blog up for what promises to be an exciting year for my tabletop wargaming career.

This Year So far

Let’s start with a recap of this year’s progress:

Last year Gamesworkshop (GW) made the decision to remake their whole Imperial Guard product line… a line that some of you may know is what got me into the war gaming scene. This, combined with my discovery of the old Imperial Armour campaign books, proved disastrous for my saving account as I quickly became inspired to build, and paint an airborne desert recon force. This force’s main objective being to participate in a campaign against my longtime hobby-homie Mike (you’ll hear about and from him a lot I reckon). This army was quickly assembled and promptly wiped off the table at every game they fought in. No matter, guardsmen are meant to die.

As the new edition of Warhammer 40k looms in the not distant future, expect to see these guys often as I bolster their ranks in the coming months.

The Tallarn so far

The second, and more important project was the completion of my Ultramarines Horus Heresy (aka Warhammer 30k, or 30k for short). A labor of love over the past 2 years I managed to finally compile the 3000 points necessary to participate in all of the Adepticon events I was interested in.

My Completed Adepticon Ultramarines

I’ve got a feeling there will be a large addition to those ultramarines coming in the next couple weeks…

Adepticon: The big show

For those of you that don’t know, Adepticon is the largest wargaming convention in the world. Widely regarded as a holy pilgrimage for the biggest nerds in the country. This was my second time making the trek to Chicago for this massive event, and while I lost my usual gaming partner due to work commitments, I was determined to make the best of it.

Day 1

The opening night of the con is always exciting, Games workshop again bringing an exciting preview of the months to come. Whereas last year we got to see the trailer for the new edition of Horus Heresy, this year’s headliner was 10th edition 40k. The crowd was absolutely electric this time around, and as an added bonus I ran into a group of guys from Philly that I ended up spending most of the con hanging with.

The first vendor as always, always a good place to score rare models

Day 2

Day 2 was my big game day, with 2 Horus Heresy games and a massive game with dozens of titans on the table-only problem was I had no titan of my own… In steps my main man Mike. His first, but not last, legendary act of weekend being his purchase of the below Reaver titan.

Absolute beauty, the first of the two Reavers that would be headed home with me this weekend.

Day 2’s games proved to be as fun as previous cons, the event organizers doing a bang up job with the event.

Game one, my massive Falchion tank chewed through his armor with the highlight play of the day.
That’s a lot of titans!

Day 3

While days 1 and 2 were fun, day 3 proved to be the high water mark of the convention.

Restarting his own wargaming Journey, one of my oldest and best friends Sam came by to see what Adepticon was all about. After taking a couple laps around the convention floor, we settled down and had our first 40k game in nearly 10 years.

I can confidently say that Sam used his decade to prepare for our rematch a lot better than I did. The game was a total slaughter, wiping my Imperial Guard right off the table.

The setup.
This brave Guardsman held the line for 3 turns against Sam’s Chaos scum

With almost perfect timing as our game ended. In flew my main man Mike. Escaping from the prison of his old job, he made his way straight to Chicago. Once our twosome was upgraded to a threesome, the night only went uphill from there. With the drinks and stories flowing, we tied one off. I even managed to muster the courage to challenge Sam to a rematch -which I promptly lost. Better luck next time!

Look at these Studs

I know this was a total ramble but I just wanted to get everything down before I forget it

PS- Mike’s Reaver Titan will NOT be the only Reaver we see on this blog this year

The Beginning

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Hello to all that visit, I’ve found that the older I get the more hobbies I seem to acquire. While some might call me a Renaissance Man, I think I would prefer to be called the El Camino of people. Not too good at any of the hobbies I pursue, I try to improve a little every day. Not sure how often I’ll be posting, my goal is at least once a week for each of the main topics so if you see me lacking, hoot and holler at me to keep me honest.

In the beginning I intend to focus on a couple main topics, Fitness, Tabletop Wargaming, Sports and Cooking. These are not the only topics I intend to cover but they are the meat and potatoes that consist the meal of my life. If none of those topics interest you, don’t fret as I intend to cover many other things including but not limited to Cars, Trucks, Lego, Movies, Music, Camping and Fashion.

Happy to have you here and hopefully I can keep you entertained for a couple minutes each week. Adios for now, I have some posts to write.

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