Runalong

Well, duh; I wouldn't be "runalong" if I stopped moving now, would I?

But I'm going to be changing blog software and my blog address sometime in the next two weeks. This site will remain open for awhile to direct folks (both of you) to my new site. I'll be glad to be rid of Rapid Weaver, whose slowness and buggishness have been two of my main reasons/excuses for blogging so sparingly as of late.

Stay tuned for details.

So, first my life was upended by the installation of new wood floors, requiring us to abandon our kitchen and living room for a couple weeks. Well worth it, I might add!

Then I got sick. Not just the usual bothersome cold, but the knock-me-down and confine-me-to-quarters-for-several-days sort of "cold" like I haven't suffered through in a decade or more. No running for Markie! (No blogging either, in case you didn't notice: Sorry, but when I get sick I just have nothing to say).

Last Monday I woke up feeling OK but a little blah. I headed out for my first run in ten days and it wasn't bad. And when I got home the blahs were gone. That blah feeling? I remember that. It's how I used to feel all the time before I started running. Back then I wouldn't have called it blah, I just thought it was normal. It only seems blah in comparison to how I feel most of the time now. New Year's Resolution anyone?

Tuesday morning I woke up with sore quads (quadriceps are the big muscles in the front of your thighs, the ones that hurt after a lot of downhill running). Sore quads after an easy, flattish 6-mile jog? Not good! My main objective this fall has been to toughen up my quads in preparation for the 24,000 feet of steep downhill running at the HURT 100 next month.

OK, they'll get better after a few days, right? Wrong. I ran 10 miles Tuesday and they got worse. Cut back to 7 miles Wednesday- no better. 12 miles Thursday and on Saturday morning I found myself lined up at Muir Beach for a 50K with over 7000 feet of steep downhill running. Leaving my motel that morning my quads were burning as I walked downstairs. A little soreness the day after the race would be fine, but not at the starting line!

I started out slow, just hoping to be able to finish (before the day was over I would see lots of people walking slowly and painfully down hills, their quads blown out by the previous miles). The fact that my lungs weren't yet clear of residual gunk didn't help either.

Headed out slow, talked with some old friends along the way, took it easy as planned. The quads hurt, but not a lot, and they never got any worse. About eight miles in I found myself running along a ridge, with Hwy 101 and the Golden Gate Bridge and SF skyline below me and to my left, as I chased Santa Claus.

I eventually passed him, wondering how in the world he was going to get all those presents delivered in one night if he couldn't even keep up with me, and found myself finishing the first loop (33K) in 3:51. That would have been good for 23rd place out of the 78 runners who chose the 33K option, but I still had a 17K loop to go. Since I've run this race twice before and my previous best time was 6:08, I realized I had a decent chance for a PR for the course and a sub-six-hour finish. I wished I hadn't spent so much time on the first loop standing arond chatting and such at aid stations, and off I went on loop two.

Despite my handicaps, I finished in 5:56 (same time as at Quad Dipsea three weeks ago), with quads intact (yes, they are quite sore today, but not as bad as I expected) with a new confidence for HURT (it's always a good feeling when you hand Santa his butt on a platter!). Apparently all those extra miles this fall are doing some good. I'll be pushing it hard now for two more weeks before tapering.

For your Christmas enjoyment, my daughter has a lovely ASL interpretation of the Amy Grant song on YouTube. Check it out...

I'm sure most of you remember the classic rock song by that name. Well, the hit tune has now been made into a real blog! David is a professional writer so don't expect any of the trivial drivel you find here at Runalong. Lots of Harry Potterish insights though, from an evangelical Christian perspective:

Moral Imagination Now

A lot of nonsense is being written, but this article by Rod Dreher is well-worth reading.

He makes a point about Mormonism that I have been waiting for someone to make, then he goes on to explain, correctly, that this is not a reason to not vote for Romney (though there ARE other reasons not to!):

2. Anyway, the Latter-day Saints church teaches that all other Christian churches are apostate. A heretic is someone who rejects one or more doctrines of religion, but an apostate is someone who has rejected the religion entirely. How is it, exactly, that you can get mad when people you regard as apostates consider you to be ... apostate? How does that work?

I thought, "what a dumb idea." However, on further review, I hope this is a big seller this Christmas. It's the next best thing to being there.

(Click on the pic for the link to the video).