Magee-Womens Hospital has opened a umbilical cord blood bank for either public clinical use or research. This a great boon for raising awareness of a rich, ethically acceptable source of stem cells. Kudos to Magee and Carol Berger for spearheading this, and if you know people expecting to have a baby at Magee, encourage them to make use of this.
National Geographic has a nice little article on umbilical cord blood stem cells here.
Yesterday morning I ran the IKEA Half Marathon. It was very humid, which was less than ideal, but between the light drizzle and the temperature being about 20° cooler than last year, the conditions were pretty good. Things got off to a bad start for me, though, because the organizers banned iPods this year. That really pissed me off. Consequently, I may boycott this and any other race that bans iPods.
Anyhow, I’d hoped to finish under 2 hours, but I’m not disappointed with my 2:03:07 (9:24 pace). I wonder how the use of an iPod would have affected my time. Also, I had to pee at about 4.5 miles, which cost me at least a minute. Damn you, enlarged prostate!.
On September 1, I ran the Gatorade Steelers 5K. I finished in a reasonable 25:27 (8:12 pace). I want to break 25:00, so I guess I’ll have to do it at Run Shadyside.
The race started at least 15 minutes late because we had to listen to umpteen introductions of honored guests (yawn) and wait for late-comers to register. The course was incredibly boring. If I thought looping around a parking lot was exciting I’d watch NASCAR. The biggest disappointment, though was that the mayor beat me with a time of 24:34. He’s running the Great Race, and I will not let him beat me again.
It’s on, Mayor Opie, and you’re going down.
On August 25, I ran the Run Around the Square 5K. Since I’d run about 9 miles the day before (in preparation for the IKEA Half Marathon), I treated the race as a tempo run. I finished in 27:59 (9:01 pace), which isn’t great (and is actually kinda slow for a tempo run), but at least I beat the mayor, who finished in 29:18. 😉
Western Pennsylvania Track Club, for which I am recruiter and membership committee chair, has a new website. It’s not quite complete, but I think I’ve gotten it to the point of being usable. Many thanks go to Nina Ehmer, the previous webmaster, for all the work she did on the old site.
For the curious:
The Western Pennsylvania Track Club is a club for runners of all ages and abilities. Members compete in track and field, cross country, and long distance running. They compete at all levels of competition — local, state, national, and world. West Penn has over 150 members.
Members of the Western Pennsylvania Track Club strive to promote long distance running and track and field by:
- sponsoring clinics, training programs and work shops
- conducting cross country races, road races and track meets
- providing support to athletes who compete at the national and international levels
Club headquarters is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but club members also reside in Florida, New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio.