I Ran All The Way Home OR A Study In Contrasts

Tags

backpacks, kids, phones, Running

I was out walking the newest member of the family yesterday who happens to be a one year old pooch but this is not a post about dogs, cats rabbits or other pets. The time of day I was out, well, the two of us were out is significant because it was somewhere in the time frame of when schools dismiss for the day and the local streets are crisscrossed by school buses bring their weary charges back home.

Let’s say it was sometime after 3pm or so. Me and Fido are minding our business and I spy from about a block away a young girl on the run, obviously form the nearby elementary school and she’s running with her jacket open and flapping, backpack bouncing with every step and she’s running in the same manner that kids have when they care not one whit about form or economy of style.

She’s oblivious to her surroundings and seems to have only one intent and that is to get herself home as fast as she can. She is all arms and legs and enthusiasm. Remember those days?

Now to the contrast portion of the show.

The school busses are dropping their passengers on various street corners around the neighborhood and most of the deplaning or debussing travelers are distinguished by two immediate and distressing characteristics.

One – They all have backpacks which are far to heavy for their growing skeletal systems so they are weighed down giving them the appearance of a slouch fighting gravity and Two to add to their poor posture they mostly seem to be locked into a permanent downward glance focussed on their phones.

No runners in sight as they disembark from the yellow hell ship back home to continue their downward gazes into who knows what app or game or devil created mind waster.

I guess kids ain’t what they used to be but then nothing is anymore I suppose.

In other news I had a Doc appointment this morning. We chatted about my current malady and I saidI’m doing my utmost to relax by walking, running, playing music, etc. I asked the MD what he did to relax and in his unguarded moment he said – ” I don’t.” ” Relax that is. Work here all day and read medical journals at night.” He seemed taken by what he had just admitted to someone he only knew by name, birthdate, blood type and medications.

I told him I would’ve him guitar lessons for free. Stay tuned.

Stupid Things I See While Running

Tags

cars, lawns, Running, stupid

Stupid thing # 1 – I’m out on a three miler. I pass a couple arguing over who is going to mow the lawn while the gas powered mower is running. I had seen this coming as I approached the house.

The wife is mowing the lawn.

Husband is sitting on the front steps hurriedly putting on shoes as though he was supposed to mow the lawn but fell asleep or something.

Wife spite mows the lawn.

Husband hustles to mower where he and wife begin to argue. I can’t catch any of the conversation/argument because the lawn mower is running spewing fumes and noise as though it wants to have a say in who wins the day and the grand prize of mowing the lawn.

Most of the lawns in my neighborhood are the size of your living room. Push mowers, electric or battery mowers would do the job just fine but we seem to addicted to making noise and waking up neighbors when we mow.

I keep running and never catch the end of the fight.

Stupid two – I’m running loops at a local park and part of the loop takes me through parking lot. The loop is only 3/4 of a mile so I circle at a fairly regular and uptempo pace.

I see a white Mercedes in the parking lot. As I approach I can see the windows are all closed ( tinted of course) and the engine is running.

As I approach the car and prepare to swing around it I notice a woman, not picking on females, men can be just as stupid.

She is standing outside the car smoking a cigarette while the car’s engine is running and presumably the air conditioning in said auto is running.

Wouldn’t want to get the smell of tobacco in the fine hand crafted leather upholstery now would we?

I flash her a dirty look as I run by but I doubt she senses my aggravation and so I let my anger pass as I head around for another trip around the park.

The next time I’m at her location she and her car are gone.

Club 502 OR ( It’s All) A Numbers Game OR My 500 Mile Summer

Tags

math, numbers, Running, summer, wandering minds

I never seem to be able to settle on a title for theses posts. I suppose since I’m covering a lot of ground that one specific title wouldn’t do.

Alternatively, I could limit the post to one subject but in my mind with things all running together at a blurrying pace I have trouble keeping my thoughts from mashing up at the end of the street like a three car pile up.

Club 502 sounds like one of those places where one would knock on a barely visible door in the seedy part of town, a peephole would open and you would say ” Joe sent me” and those magic words would gain you admittance. The password could also be Swordfish – See the Marx Brothers for that payoff.

My first waking thought this morning was seeing the number 12 spelled out before my eyes as in “Twelve.” I have no reasonable explanation for why. Apostles, Epistles?

Numbers on my mind and in extrapolating, which might or might not be the right word to use here, the numbers came to me in a flash it’s all a numbers game anyway isn’t it?

The answer to all of the following questions is numbers.

How old are you? How tall, how much do you weigh, what is your heart rate, your blood pressure, how many hours did you sleep last night, how many brothers or sisters, how many children?

What year is your car, how old is it, how many cylinders, what’s your mileage, how big is the gas tank, what do you pay for insurance?

And so on and so forth and so what? Surrounded by numbers, enveloped by math only we used to call it arithmetic.

The unified theory of the unified and unknowable universe is a set of numbers. Get them in the right order and bingo ( again numbers) you win something on a cosmic game show. Maybe ” The Price is Galactically Right.

Running the numbers down the rabbit hole. Running the numbers and we finally get to where we’re going as postulated above somewhere between the multiple titles and here.

I started a run streak on Memorial Day of this year because I could I suppose and what else was there to do except to not get sick and to not infect anyone else. So far, so good. Tragically I am unable to share my luck.

So I ran and I ran and I ran and after 50 days of running I took a day off and then went back at it. The odd fact in all of my running which continued to yesterday was the number 502 as in that’s the total mileage on my running feet since that day in late May 2020.

That number is well beyond my wildest running dreams or expectations or anything in my running memory or history.

I don’t know how this happened and as winter starts to slowly creep down the lane I wonder how much mileage I’ll continue to accrue. I’m not a big fan of running in cooler temps or when the numbers Celsius or Fahrenheit start to drop.

The nice thing for me, the bonus in all of these words and sentences and phrases and non-sequiturs is I can let my mind wander or RUN if you will.

You start at the starting line aka the top of the blank page and you end up at the finish line which is right HERE.

The Crazy Store

Tags

coffee, crazy, friends, Running

I stopped at my favorite local coffee shop yesterday after a good sized run of about 6 miles.

The sun was warm and with only outside coffee service available all of the sidewalk tables and chairs were occupied. No matter, I was getting mine to go.

I was still in running gear which included shorts on a day with temps in the high 50’s when I arrived at the coffee joint.

I got my order and stopped to chat with a couple of friends who were enjoying what might be the last decent day to sit outside in warm sunshine until maybe sometime next March.

Ok, to the point.

One of my friends introduced me to his table mate saying this is Phil and in a nod to my apparel he said – ” He usually dresses normally, not in shorts.”

I said I appreciated the normal comment but that I had been to the Crazy Store on the crazy side of town and of some of their ideas were not so crazy anymore.

No one seemed to take issue with me or my shorts or my mention of the Crazy Store. In fact, it seemed like a good idea to everyone who joined in the conversation.

Being crazy that is.

My 400 Mile Summer of 2020

Tags

Running, streaks

403 so far to be exact.

Back in May just before Memorial Day I read an article in RW magazine online suggesting folks start an everyday running streak. The streak would run from Memorial Day to the Fourth of July for a total of 41 days.

I was intrigued because I had never considered doing anything like that and besides it was the summer of 2020 where all hell was breaking loose and nothing was going right.

Normally I have been a run every other day guy and that has served me well in the 50 plus years I’ve been a runner. Yes, I know, another Boomer extolling the virtues of running. So what?

I just kept running. The years piled up by themselves, something I had and currently have no control over.

Off we go, one day, then two then three then four and while the mileage was modest, no more than three miles a day the expected aches and pains never surfaced.

Soon it’s ten, then twenty and with the Fourth in sight I hit forty days and push past America’s birthday to fifty days. I take a day off and get back on the horse.

The miles pile up as my runs go from threes to fours to fives and I’m amazingly not showing any signs of overtraining or injuries.

Yesterday I joined the Four Hundred Miles Club for the summer which although by the calendar it ended weeks ago was still moderate in the temperature department to allow runs in tank tops and shorts.

Today it’s chilly and rainy and I’m fresh off an NFL afternoon couch nap.

I’ll have to dig out my transitional weather running gear.

I’ve run races in November and December and January where the weather was much worse than this afternoon.

It’s getting one’s behind out the door when it’s cold that is the issue.

The summer is officially over in terms of temperature. It’s full on Fall now.

All hell continues to break loose and still nothing is going right.

Running and running and running might get me through this.

The Long Shadows

Tags

Fall, leaves, Running, shadows

Out for a run this afternoon.

Sun was out and shining brightly and casting long, long shadows where there never were shadows a few weeks ago.

I’m happy for myself I noticed them and even happier that the mental note I stashed away during mile 2 stayed with me long enough to remember and mark this little observation.

Long shadows and as leaves fall and get swept away the shadows get longer and thinner.

Nice to notice changes.

The Almost Last Perfect Day of the Year for Running

Tags

CSN&Y, Fall, Rocktober, Running, Tom Rush, Woodstock

If you run cross country or if you ran cross country you know all about October. You know about who didn’t run all summer because they are rounding into shape too late for the championship races.

You know how weather can be changeable and fickle and you know how the air smells and how the leaves crunch under your feet at this special time the year and the cross country season.

Today, in these parts, it was warm and sunny with a moderate warm breeze which I think they call a zephyr out west.

The thing about the last almost perfect day is that no one tells you when it has happened. The temperate days for running are drawing an end.

In chatting with a neighbor during the late morning we both remarked how beautiful the day was turning out to be. She asked if I was going run.

I told her that my Runners Club of America card would be revoked if I did not take advantage of a day like today.

So I laced up and ran. Instead of listening music or books on tape or a podcast or whatever else people listen to when they run I ran sans headphone as I always do.

And that’s when the Last Almost Perfect Day though hit me right between the eyes.

You don’t know when the Last Almost Perfect Day will be. I guess there are a lot of things that don’t know that are the last time will be either.

I’m going to go off into the weeds here because today’s run inspired me to take a deeper look at the world and my place in it.

Face it – We’re all just specks in the great scheme of things although sometimes we tend to think we are specks in control it’s obvious we are not.

Covid 19.

I’m out there running and sweating and striding and dodging traffic and waving at dogs, it was a great day to be a dog although I suspect every day is a great day to be a dog.

How do I know if today, October 15th will be the last almost perfect day to run? I don’t. No idea.

The day was given to me and I used it well. I’d like to think I did.

There’s a line in a Tom Rush song that goes ” We are only Stardust.” And Joni’s “Woodstock.” ” We are stardust, golden…”.

CSN&Y took that tune and killed it. Both versions tell a story and move you from point A to point B.

Off topic here but rounding third and heading for home.

The almost last perfect day might have been today.

I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

A Runner who Runs

Tags

Biden, Harris, Hilary, hills, Running

Yeah, it’s an odd title but I’m trying to catch the reader’s eye, ear, nose, whatever.

Trying to be obtuse and flashy right out of the gate – attention grabbing as they say.

I am that runner who runs and today on a 6 miler (pats self on back) I ran up a hill past a house that was sporting a Biden/Harris lawn sign.

It struck me that 4 years ago I ran up the same hill and there was a Hilary Clinton For President lawn sign in just about the same location.

I made a note to call that hill Hilary Hill and here we are four years later The hill now becomes Biden/Harris Hill.

In other news I keep getting texts from a reprehensible state politician who sends me campaign literature along with a picture of himself asking if he can count on my support.

I text back the word No or Nope.

I’m open to suggestions as to what I should tell this guy the next time I get an unsolicited text,

A Perfect XC Day

Tags

Memories, Running, September, xc

Off on the roads this afternoon.

Out in the sun.

Partly cloudy.

Cool breezes.

Warm sweat on my forehead.

Cool sweat on my arms.

Just like I remember it all those Septembers ago.

Here Comes OR There Goes The Sun

Tags

climate change, Fall, George Harrison, mileage, Running, the sun

Hmm…interesting title. What could this be all about?

Climate change, which is or isn’t real depending on whom you ask.

Mostly a small and select group of older white men who live in Washington DC say no while everyone else who can see lightning and hear thunder says yes.

A re-write of the tune? Not a chance since I have no plans to mess with perfection.

No, this is about running in September and it being dark by 7:30 in the evening. Mostly about September running.

Having been a runner since forever I have an inner sensibility about the sun and it’s ways and it’s seasons.

All spring the sun is low on the horizon climbing slowly every day and creating spring shadows through trees that are just starting to bud and leaf out.

In the summertime when the weather is fine you can sing that song and also run in as much shade as you can find. I often take the long way home just for shade.

And now, here we are with the sun loosing height on a daily basis and the noon sun that used to be directly overhead is now somewhere over there and not quite where it used to be.

The shadows are different too. They’re no longer overhead, it’s all sidelight. Shadows are longer and more diagonal.

Grass covered in morning dew stays wetter longer in the morning and your shoes and feet will get wet.

Puddles hang around longer.

There are early leaves starting to fall. Pretty soon the aroma of decomposing leaves will be an additional benefit to a fall run.

No more sun block – yeah!

And somehow due either to all the summer miles or the cooler temps you get faster and stronger.

You can tell you’ve run all summer as your times drop and your distances lengthen.

There’s no goal in mind, only satisfaction and the feeling that after five miles you say – Did I really go 5?

These days I get myself to 3 with no problems and pretty soon I’m pushing up against 4 and then I’ll just go for 5.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll due 6.