Boilermaker 2013

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Sue Brumm

Boilermaker weekend is one of my favorite times of the year.  The whole Utica, NY community comes out to support this 15K road race.  It is always fun, exciting and inspiring; this year was no exception.  I had a lot of family come in for the weekend, some to run and some to cheer on those running.  We all checked out the expo on Saturday, loaded up on pasta and water and tried to get some sleep.

Sunday morning dawned beautiful and we had another gorgeous race day, albeit humid.  My husband ran his 4th Boilermaker and had a respectable time despite some training setbacks.  My dad finished his 3rd Boilermaker with a personal best.  Go Dad!  My mother in law and sister in law both ran their first Boilermakers.  Welcome to the club, ladies!  My father in law ran the 5K race that follows the end of the 15K course.  So proud of him for deciding to take on that challenge!

My mom and brother staked out space at the finish line to cheer for everyone.  As for me, I was technically just a spectator, but got quite a workout in over the weekend anyway!  I snagged a T-shirt for doing push-ups at the Beef Council booth.  On race day, I logged almost 10 miles on my trusty, folding, 1-speed commuter bike.  After parking the car at the finish line, I rode to watch the start of the 5K, rode further down the course and watched some more of the 5K, rode up to my traditional spot just past the start of the 15K and cheered on all the runners.  After the last one ran by, I jumped on my bike, zipped back to the finish line, folded up my bike, and hopped into the bleachers just in time to see the winner coming down the home stretch.  Then it was time to cheer for the other 13,999 runners:)

Boilermaker is one the few sporting events in my life where I am just a spectator.  For most of my life I have either been one of the ones competing or coaching the competitors.  The few events I did get to go watch were massive pro or DI college games, where I didn’t personally know anyone who was competing.  At Boilermaker I get to cheer on my friends and family and watch them achieve their goals.  It’s a nice change of pace and I am looking forward to next year already!

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World Cup Toronto 2013

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Sue Brumm

When I checked on the IFSC Bouldering World Cup schedule sometime in the middle of this past winter, the Toronto World Cup was the one I was most excited to see on the list.  Toronto is only a 5 hour drive from my house.  My husband and I could hop in the car, drive up to Toronto, and see a World Cup live!  I was pretty jazzed about the possibility.  I’ve never even gotten to see a World Cup online.  We live out in a fairly rural area with satellite as our only internet option.  Even if our connection were fast enough to support a live stream, we would exceed our monthly data limit before the action really heated up.  So I set my sights on going to Toronto in person.  But life is what happens when you are busy devising the best laid plans…

First, I found out that my husband would have drill that weekend, so if I wanted to see the World Cup live, it looked like I was going by myself.  This was disappointing, but I was as yet undeterred.

Next, I found that the week surrounding June 1-2 was going to be very busy indeed.  A visit from my dad while he was in town on business, then a visit from one of my closest friends who I don’t get to see often enough, then meeting my mom at the capitol for a little shopping/political rally/lunch date.  And add in a town garage sale I participated in, a couple parties, and 8 workouts (luckily most of this fell on a recovery week).  Yikes!  So I conceded going to Toronto.  I tried to console myself by saying I couldn’t have gotten tickets anyway.  And I resigned myself to getting updates on Facebook and Twitter.

“Eureka!” I said to myself on garage sale day.  I’ll be outside.  I can plug my phone into its charger.  I should have 4G.  I can watch qualifiers live while I sit around hawking my goods.  I tried connecting from half a dozen different places.  I refreshed pages.  I begged my phone to work.  I held it perfectly still with a strong signal.  I cursed technology.  Nothing.  I could not get it to work.  So I read the results when it was over.  Congrats to Meagan, Sierra and Alex on making it to semis!

The next morning, I apparently had forgotten that I swore to never speak to my phone again.  Here I was, trying to load the live feed for semis.  When I finally got it to work, I watched Sean McColl on the last problem of semis, then it froze.  Oh the frustration!  Again, I read about the results.  Congrats to Alex on making it to finals!

So Saturday evening, I’m at a friend’s place for a small get-together.  By this point, I’m desperate.  All I want to do is watch finals.  Luckily my friends are very nice and understanding people.  They are also sports fans, which is why they had no problem with me being anti-social and watching finals while they ate dinner and hung out.  It took my friend 40 minutes to get the stream going on his laptop for me.  His commitment to making sure I got to watch it was impressive.

Here it was!  I was finally going to get to watch a World Cup!  At this point, you are probably a little nervous and thinking that any time now, I will tell you the next thing that prevented me from watching.  But have no fear!  I did indeed get to watch the whole thing.  I cheered.  I gasped.  I answered my friends questions about climbing and scoring.  I sat on the edge of my seat.  It was everything I wanted it to be.  I was so excited to see Alex make the podium!  I just hope I am recovered in time to start trying to watch Vail…

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IOC Decison – May 29

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Sue Brumm

I am disappointed that the IOC did not select climbing as one of the sports to remain under consideration for inclusion in the 2020 Olympics.  It was a tough choice to make, as all the sports put together excellent bids.  Congratulations to squash, wrestling and baseball/softball!  I am happy to hear that the IFSC plans to continue to get climbing added to the Olympic program.  I would really love to see it happen:)  Meanwhile, I will continue to help support and grow competitive climbing here in the Northeast.

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