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Showing posts from March, 2010

Race Report: Catching up with ketchup

This morning I ran the first repeat 5K of my racing days - the Zeta Tau Alpha Run for Life . Last year, it was my second race of my life. Since then I've ran a few other races. I wanted to run this one as a warm-up for the 10-Miler next week, to remember what the feeling is like of competing with other people so that I don't overdo it from the start. This morning, I could not find either of my watches. I don't know where my Garmin is, or my cheap Timex. I spent 30 minutes or so frantically searching my house. I even considered not running the face because I was worried I'd have the same issue I've had in all other races I've run so far - puking because I run way too fast without realizing it. It's easy to get caught up in the adrenaline when someone shouts "go!" and a thousand footfalls drum you on. At the start today, I held back and tried to pretend it was just another run on a sunny Saturday morning in the cold. I did not fool myself. Aft

In the right place

The place is maybe a quarter full, and there's good music playing. Bob is sitting at the bar doing whatever it is he does when he's here, drinking his two beers while listening to music on his yellow headphones. There's a group of four guys who have split three pitchers of beer. The only one wearing glasses decided to try out three different kinds of beer. There's five people sitting at another table who stopped drinking an hour or so ago, but they're still talking about philosophy and religion. The big group is taking up the forties. They've had maybe 30 pints between them, as well as some shots. They're a lot of fun, and I got to do some dramatic acting with them earlier. Only a second or so, but it was fun to try to make them laugh. A trio came in about 30 minutes ago and are busy taking pictures of themselves. One of them is drinking a ginger ale while the others nurse a couple of pints. When I'm here, I don't question if I'm doing what I'

Hitting eleven

In this one, I'm going to gloat a little. While it may seem like that when I write about my running, that's not usually my intent. Today, however, I'm most definitely going to gloat. I skipped my long run yesterday. I was just tired and wanted a day off. I had an appointment in the middle of the day, and afterwards, I didn't much feel like doing an 11 mile. Being in a somewhat depressive mood, I worried this meant I'd finally decided to give up on running. Of course, I'm definitely not going to stop running. After yesterday's day of being an Eeyore, I woke up this morning refreshed. All day, I knew a run awaited me after work. I just didn't think I was going to try for 11. Why 11? Well, that is what I scheduled myself to run. I'm informally training for the ten-miler and or the Charlottesville half-marathon, loosely based on the program I had during last year's marathon training program. Life and injuries caught up with me, so I didn't get to

Pathways, roads, streetscapes (and the importance thereof)

Lady Liberty was on her cell phone when she should have been jumping up and down to get people to hire the services of Dell Tax. Usually when I drive by, she's dancing up a storm. On foot, I was able to watch her for a little while longer. Being Saturday, there wasn't nearly as many people driving down Cherry Avenue. I don't usually walk down Cherry Avenue. But, being Saturday, I took Billy for a longer walk than usual. The temperature has finally risen to spring-like temperatures and it was time for us, man and canine, to enjoy a little bit of the splendor. This winter, I've grown overly tired of walking the same streets over and over again. The park outside my house remains closed off by wire fencing, a barrier that has buckled after being opened and closed so often to accomodate all the earth movers that seem to shift dirt from one end of the park to the other. The new water park remains unfinished, though the fake boulders are now in place for the climbing wall. Soo

Embedded gardens

Soon the flowers and plants will begin to grow again. Imagine those seeds down there in the ground, bathed in the exodus of the snow and ice. At times, this winter seems to have been kept on hold in order to torture us. I can't remember a time when I actually liked the cold until I go back and read through journals. I am counting on this spring. I know it will come. Previous winters have always come with temporary vacations in temperature. When I lived in Canada, I remember my dad bragging to me that it was 70 degrees one January afternoon in Virginia when it was -2 degrees celsius at my house in Calgary. The past three months have felt they did that year I lived in New England, where there was no respite at all from the plunging of the jet stream. I'm still bracing for another snowstorm, not quite convinced that we're out of the drifts yet. Surely, there's one more storm left in this young whippersnapper of a winter. In any case, even if it comes, I know warmer days