Running Commentary

That's me. A senior-citizen newcomer. Oldish in years--but newish in an unfamiliar town. Today I bring you two tips for runners who abruptly move from known surroundings to a completely new environment: 1) Around midday Friday, notice that there's a race scheduled for Saturday in a town 20 minutes from your new home. Sign up online and show up at the race the next morning about 7 o'clock. That's tip #! (Full disclosure: I received this lovely medal because I was the only female runner older than 69 years. The man announcing the winners said, "First place ages 70 to 79, Elaine Merrill," and I gasped in disbelief. Then he said, "Second and third place ages 70 to 79, Elaine Merrill," and I started to laugh--and so did everyone else.) 2) The Sunday after you do the race, wake up before sunrise and go for a 25-minute walk in your new neighborhood. And that's tip #2! Have a lovely summer walking and running wherever you are!

Went out for a brief run this morning. I thought I'd deviate from my usual blog-writing habit of sitting down to write after I've come back from my run, stretched (sometimes), and eaten breakfast while reading the paper. Today I thought well, when I write about running, I'd like to be a bit more connected to my recent run. Especially these days, when reading the paper is like walking into a blizzard in a short-sleeved shirt and deciding just to ignore the weather; that is, after you've read the news, just thinking that you'll ignore it doesn't make it go away. Yikes! So here I am before having even looked at the paper and still having trouble ignoring it.  I feel like this pole I saw on my run. (Whew. Glad I'm back to writing about running.) The pole, which struck me as looking seriously alarmed about something, is part of an outdoor exercise area at the Pleasanton Senior Center. I like to stop off there during a run and do a few ugh-ughs to break up the