Running Commentary

It can't really be March 29. All I can do is say, well OK, and post a few photos that have been piling up. After I do, it's off for a little 10-miler by the Bay. A week ago Friday I had a great little SF run, north along the Embarcadero. It was a perfect spring day. I made it to the top of the hill, where I joined the other tourists snapping pictures from a scenic overlook. That's the GG Bridge w-a-a-a-y in the background, Ft. Mason in the foreground. Last Sunday, I did my longest run to date in this current training that is targeting the Ave. of the Giants Marathon, on May 3. I did the old run/walk--run 15 minutes, walk 1 minute--for most of the 15.41 miles. This photo was taken the following day because on the actual run I managed to disable both my camera-phone and my digital watch. Typhoid Mary works out. (Ps. They are both working again.) Later in the week I went out for speed. Blinding speed in my case, of course. Hee hee. Anyway, I passed this beached boat along the...

It is spring in SF. Coming in early to work I walked past a glassy Bay. But I don’t want to skip a short report on my Arizona trip, which was last weekend but is already receding into memory. I haven’t downloaded my people pictures (taken with the “real” camera), but do have these few landscape, which were taken on one of the two morning runs I did. It was one of those magical dawns where the sun followed close on the heels of the moonrise. Needless to say, the brighter light soon chased the dimmer. I ran in Papago Park , which is increasingly surrounded by an urban morass but remains a lovely pocket of desert. Cottontails and jackrabbits abound (and bound), while quail scuttle under spiky bushes. Did a little mild hill-climbing, enjoying the cushioned surface of soft dirt. There's that moon again, holding its own for a few more minutes. I turned in at the Desert Botanical Garden and found a sweet rock-bordered path to follow for a short way. At the end of the trail I found this s...

I saw the most incredible moon yesterday morning, a mesmerizing searchlight slowly sinking toward the horizon. I snapped a photo, which came out looking like it had been taken under water. The lesson here: When your lens is smeared, you will have trouble capturing the world around you with any clarity. I realize my camera's lens isn't the only one that's been mucked up lately--in the last few days my baby blues have been seeing a lot that's out of focus. So I'm working every day at calling on my metaphorical lens cleaner to help scour my vision clean. Mental lens cleaner ingredients: plenty of sleep plenty of exercise good, healthful food in moderate portions the love of family and friends hard work a cookie now and then My prescription calls for ingesting all these things with frequency. And if the prescription doesn't always work, I may sic my watch-cat on whatever's haunting me. It's obvious when you see this guy that he is guarding me against the bi...

What am I meant to learn from the challenges being thrown at me these days? That I am strong. That I am loved. That life goes on and can be good. My favorite nephew congratulated me for making lemonade when I'd been handed lemons--not sure his belief about me is justified, but I deeply appreciate the notion. Plus, I have an actual lemon tree in front of the house, so I've been practicing my tangy-beverage making. My ribs have healed up well. I'd say I'm at about 95%. I'm glad my minor medical matter is clearing up so I can turn my energy to a more major one: Z is scheduled for big-time surgery on March 31. He is calm; I am calm. Aaaaaaack! Oops, I meant of course I'm serene. The procedure he faces, which involves patching up some crucial circulatory parts, is a common one, and the success rate is high. But still. Send good vibes our way, if you'd be so kind. In other matters, I did run 10 miles Saturday. The run itself went well--I went down to the Bay Trai...

Last Saturday I ran with the running club. We started at Lake Merritt and then headed up the hill into Piedmont. My ribs didn't hurt very much--it was my best run since my biking mishap. I got a bit lost, but there were street signs, and I had a map. I finally made my way back down the hill, so I ran around the lake before calling it a day. The rain held off as I stopped briefly to take another photo. Across the water, the small white building directly behind the fountain is the Lake Merritt Hotel, where Z and I spent our wedding night almost seven years ago. Monday I headed out from work and ran along the Embarcadero in SF. Unlike on Saturday, Monday the rain came down in buckets. As I ran around the staduim of that Bay Area baseball team that isn't the Oakland A's, I reflected that it was indeed a good day for ducks. And for seals. Last but not least, I was out on the Ohlone Greenway this morning. The rain had only just stopped, and the world was wonderfully clean. All pu...