Running Commentary

Yesterday I did run the Oakland Running Festival Half Marathon. I felt under-trained and, because of that, extremely nervous at the race's start. (Note: Click on the photos to see them larger.) I needn't have worried. What a great race! Well organized, with a smörgåsbord of neighborhood sights and sounds for all of us, slow and fast, to enjoy. So much fun that I (almost) forgot how much work I was doing. We saw all kinds of bands. My baseball team was well represented by some hard-core fans. In West Oakland we ran under a flaming arch, courtesy of The Crucible , a nonprofit arts education center. And just when we were all about out of steam, with only three-plus miles to go, we got sprinkled with fairy dust by an official emissary from Children's Fairyland . I came in 11th in my age group, but got the same medal as those ten people who finished ahead of me. Who could ask for more? Well, I could ask for more. From myself, that is. The more I am asking for is related to t...

That would be yesterday not in the long-range, historical sense, but yesterday as in the day before today (and today not in the larger, metaphorical sense, but as in plain old March 21). Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Hey, that could be a song. Nah, would never catch on. Anyway. Yesterday I went up to Inspiration Point in Tilden Park for the weekly LMJS fun run. I'm consciously taking it easy from now until next Sunday, the day of the half marathon that I've so cavalierly committed to. So I figured I would run about 6 slow miles as I watched the rest of the pack disappear in the distance. Didn't happen. Instead, I ran with my new running friend, B. I'm pretty sure his natural training pace is about 9.5- to 10-minute miles, but he kindly slowed down for me. The result was that I ran probably a minute per mile faster than I would have on my own--and had a great time! My run couldn't be described as "taking it easy," but for now, anyway, I d...

It just struck me how odd it is to use the expression "hold on" when really what I'm trying to say to myself is "let go." Let go of all that's gone on in my life since last I posted. Let go of that urgent feeling that I have to relate everything that's happened in my running life and the rest of my life (if the two are in fact separate). I call it the James Boswell syndrome, naming it after the 18th-century biographer of Samuel Johnson . I fell in love with Boswell during my college years--not for his biographical skills but for his addiction to recording every possible detail, the tedious along with the interesting, about his own life. (His London Journal is a good starting place for anyone interested in his autobiographical oeuvre.) So. What's been going on with me and isn't so soporific that it could be marketed as the new Ambien ? Work, a lot of it. (That's my excuse for not posting.) But other than that, plenty of fun and quite a bit o...