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2 months out…

MCM is exactly two months away. Yikes. I’m up to 11 10.38 miles for my ‘long’ run:

It took me 1 hour, 42 minutes to do this route, which is a 9:50 pace. Eh. I did take two (short) walking breaks and the conditions were absolutely disgusting. Which is to say, the weather was typical for a late morning in late August–sticky hot and humid. Though I imagine that my ‘training’ is still insufficient, I’m actually a little impressed with my own progress. After all, I had never run more than 1 or 2 miles before April of this year. I can live with almost 11–the longest distance I’ve ever run thus far–by August. It’s a very cool thing that every subsequent long run I attempt will be the longest ever, right up to the actual marathon.

My work running buddy and I made a field trip to Pacers earlier this evening. Their new downtown Silver Spring location just opened ten days ago. The guys there were awesome; they identified my foot type (somewhat flat arches apparently) and running style (slightly pronating.) I really enjoyed it. They even had me ‘test drive’ a few different pairs around the block. I finally decided on the Nike Air Structure Triax+10.

This coming Monday, I will run the Abebe Bikila Half-Marathon in Alexandria. Bikila, an Ethiopian, won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1960 Olympics in Rome with a then-record time of 2 hours, 16 minutes. And oh, yeah, he did it barefoot. He was the first African to win the Olympic marathon–a sport that has since been dominated by athletes from the continent–and repeated as champion in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, just over a month after receiving an emergency appendectomy. Sadly he was paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident in 1968 and died five years later from lingering complications.

I will be absolutely ecstatic if I can do the 13.1 in under two hours. That’s my goal anyway.

(This entry posted via Windows Live Writer, which I will begrudgingly admit is a pretty slick, client-based blogging application.)

synchronicity

9:57 PM. Experiencing sudden feelings of nostalgia about my trip to India back in March, I rummaged through a dresser drawer filled with trinkets I brought home. Most of them are gifts and souvenirs that haven’t found recipients yet. I immediately thought of the favorite gift I received–a small, oil-fueled glass and silver candleholder my uncle gave me. Recalling my previous visit eleven years earlier, my uncle was adament that I tell him what I wanted as a gift. (Even relatives I see on a decade by decade basis know of my reputation for being picky!) But I graciously declined to do so and quite truthfully told him that I would be happy with whatever he selected as a suitable gift. I am happy.

I lit it a couple times right when I had returned home, but not since. So I lit it again tonight.

9:58 PM. My father called to inform me that said uncle passed away earlier today. Like most of my extended family, I’ve only met him five times in my life, but I am filled with sadness. I’m glad that I had a chance to visit with him before it happened.

lo, an update!

The bjournalism world is in tumult due to my lack of substantive updates in well over a month. Time to set the world right again.

Running:

I’ve been a bit better about my ‘training,’ though I’m not nearly at the level I feel I should be by now. I started to do some speed training last week. The theory is interesting; apparently there is a direct correlation between one’s 800 meters (half-mile) time and one’s marathon time at almost exactly an one minute to one hour ratio. Thus, if my 800 meters time is 3 minutes, 30 seconds, I can expect to run the marathon in 3 hours, 30 minutes.

This weekend I plan on running 10 miles on the Capital Crescent Trail from Silver Spring to Georgetown. It will be the longest run I’ve attempted thus far (previously 8 miles) and should be good. (EDIT: This didn’t end up happening, though I did run over 8 miles, mostly in the pouring rain, the following Monday.) I’m just a bit discouraged, though, since 10 << 26.2. *Sigh*. I’ve also signed up for two half-marathons between now and MCM. (2 half-marathons = 1 full marathon, right?)

I can’t overstate the importance of running/training buddies. I’m not a self-motivator; having a friend along to push me and offer encouragement is awesome. Plus I ‘cheat’ when I run on my own. And I’ve recently stopped drinking ‘adult beverages,’ which I’m sure will help.

Arts:

• Bodies - I generally don’t have such voyeuristic tendencies, but I thought this would be neat. It was. It’s essentially a series of rooms featuring deskinned, preserved human (Chinese specifically) cadavers that are dissected in various ways. Each room is devoted to a body system, i.e., cardiovascular, circulatory, digestive. I wish I hadn’t seen so many photos of the bodies themselves beforehand; it sorta detracted from the ‘wow’ factor. I also was hoping that I’d learn a lot–a short course in anatomy and physiology–but there really wasn’t anything I hadn’t covered in ninth grade biology class. It was très expensive, but even purely as a spectacle, it was worth it. (I hate Rosslyn.)

• Modernism - I was able to catch this show on its final day at the Corcoran. This exhibit, a lot of which was artifacts and architectural models, encompassed Modernist ‘movements’ that took place mostly in Europe between the two world wars. It’s so funny how the pages of the Ikea catalog today owe so much to the cutting edge designs of eighty or so years ago. I was especially interested in Modernists’ visions of utopia–avante garde design and manufacturing that also functionally improves the quality of peoples’ lives. (I hope I’m not turning into a communist.) [Also see: King of Pointland, Washington Post]

• Useless - Perhaps this is the antithesis of the Modernism exhibit–form and no function. [CP]

• Wolfgang Tillmans - I love photography in theory. In practice, I find exhibitions of photos very uneven and a little tedious. Tillmans’s self-curated attempt that recently closed at the Hirshhorn was no exception. Highlights were the ‘paper drops,’ his weird method of developing certain photos (the one on the left,) his seemingly random series of concorde jets captured midflight, and this one. Lowlights were the rest. I went to the Hirshhorn’s ‘After Hours’ night to see the exhibit and captured David being silly via cameraphone. The photo was projected on the wall in one of the galleries inside the museum later that night. I’m strangely proud of this.

Zoophilia and Fairness:

I visited the National Zoo last weekend with Shannon and Chris, who are friends and neighbors of the zoo. They could have easily been mistaken for docents, as their running commentary throughout was very insightful. It could have been all lies, though, and I would have never known. Damn.

My impetus for going was to see the newborn baby anteater, which I find adorable in a repulsive sort of way. Alas, I just missed him/her. I was able to see most other mammals–the elephant house makes me sad for some reason, so I skipped it–including this little half-deer, half-esquilax creature:

That same day, I went to the Montgomery County Fair. Fairs are a guilty pleasure of mine. I’m almost embarrassed to admit this. I won a goldfish, but sadly his soul was too beautiful for this wretched world. Action shot:

(photo credit: Sarah)

Concerts:

• Lucinda Williams - I couldn’t pass up free tickets (thanks, Justin!) to a show at Wolftrap, even though I’m not too familiar with her stuff. The music was good, but she was a bit of nervous wreck. The show suffered from long, silent pauses between songs and very uneven pacing. I had never been to a concert that’s coda was a depressing song. Now I have. I was told that Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is one of the ten or so greatest albums ever by two independent sources. I’m sold.

• Band of Horses - I love Everything All the Time. Their live show was good, but not great. They played a ton of stuff off a forthcoming album–unfamiliar music is an instant live show buzzkill. But it was a good night out nevertheless.

Phew, my fingers are tired! I’ll check back in a month…

fudgepacking

“You don’t see something like that every day.” Indeed.