I'm Almost Through Talking About Running

The race is tonight. I haven't run since Tuesday, and I only did light exercise Wednesday. Last night, I did nothing that could be described as exercise. I'll do some light work tonight, work up a sweat, and stretch an hour before the race. Travis and I will meet up not long beforehand, and I'll offer him a wrestling mask to wear. I bought more Velcro to adhere to the wrestling belt. It's meant for kids and barely fits on me. As if I didn't feel fat before all this started. I'm eager to end the day and get a'runnin'. I've anticipated this for two years. It's going to be wet tonight, raining all day and into the night, but not as cold as first forecast. I hope to have a heavy lunch today (work permitting) and snack the rest of the evening.

Picture of the Day
Art created with one sheet of paper. You can see more here.


In the News
An Australian Islamic cleric made a ruckus by suggesting that women who don't wear the veil bear responsibility for rape. Why is this news? Christian fundamentalists say the same thing. Christian radio host Dr. Albert Mohler (heard here daily) instructs brides to consider the male attendees of their wedding lest their dresses arouse lust. There's no difference.

She's Sick Again

Your Sis should enter the Olympics for cold catching. She stayed in the sick bed last night after watching "Studio 60" (a standout episode) and finishing off pumpkin pie. My gym rearranged their equipment so I couldn't use the weights, and they reduced the number of treadmills. I ran about 3 miles there yesterday, but I was bookended by people who apparently missed the other available treadmills. I don't like the kind of clustering; it's a small neurosis.

The NFL
Her Teams
New England (5-1), NY Jets (4-3), Oakland (1-5)
Philly (4-3), Detroit (1-6)

My Teams
Miami (1-6), Pittsburgh (2-4)
Philly (4-2), Carolina (4-3)
Carolina's losses to Minnesota and Cincinnati were caused by late turnovers. They should be 6-1. Miami is just horrible. Thoroughly, utterly bad. Pittsburgh can't get rolling, and their quarterback now has a concussion on top of his recovery from an offseason motorcycle wreck.

Picture of the Day
Now this is cool. This is what the shuttle launch looks like from the international space station.


In the (Geek) News
Lucas obviously cribbed material from Japanese filmmaker Kirosawa for Star Wars. Hunt down a film called Hidden Fortress and watch in shock. But a French site is now comparing Star Wars to mid-'70s European comics. The similarities are startling.

Fourth 5k

[Samuel L. Jackson voice] Yes, it was fucking cold out there. Yes, it was windy. Yes, I saw snow as I left work. But if I'm going to run in the mountains at midnight three nights before Halloween, I had to know how it would feel. So I ran. I ran 5k. In the muthafuckin cold goddammit. [/Samuel L. Jackson voice]

I got home from work, pulled on a sweatshirt, wore some baggy shorts, donned a ski cap, and, to quote George Thorogood, out the door I went. For the first half mile, I regreted not wearing gloves, but that pain faded soon. It felt like my lungs were leaking. I had less lungpower, and I blame the cold for that more than the wind. Once the wind died down, the run was not bad, but the wind made the air much sharper. The legs were fine, the cramping was minimal (to which I credit the inability to breathe deep), and my head felt OK with the cap. I think I'll indeed run with a luchadore mask Friday night. My legs were bright red from the run, by the way. I passed by two runners last night, both young women, and now I wonder if I've done enough to be considered a member of the running community. Maybe it's too early for that.

I was winded more than usual after the run, and again I blame the cold. Travis called to say he ran a little bit yesterday to acclimate to the temperature and would definitely be there for the race. I told Your Sis that she didn't have to be there. It's going to be a late night.

I've run 5k four times in two weeks. I'm 34 years old. I've never tried something like this before, and except for random leg aches, I feel pretty good. I'll hit the gym lightly tonight.

Picture of the Day
Saturn has been my favorite planet since elementary school. We studied them in I think third grade. I was a little space nut. I read Sagan's Cosmos, and I got space books for Christmas and birthdays because I was such the nerd. AndI read them all because I was such the nerd. Jupiter may have the Red Spot, and Uranus may have vertical rings (or is that Neptune?), but Saturn as the first God King and head of the Titans, and I read mythology too as a kid. Double nerd! Gaze upon the coldness of space. That's what it felt like last night. And with that, I shall cease the whining.

In the News
During the 2004 elections, Democrats called for a timetable to hand over control of Iraq security to that country so we could bring our guys home. That was packaged by the GOP as "cut and run." Two years later, the U.S. bigwigs in Iraq announced they have a timetable to hand over control of Iraq security to the country so we could bring our guys home. This can cyncically and appropriately be called "midterm election desperation." After three years of repeating "stay the course," Bush said in a recent ABC interview that he never said "stay the course."

We Got Movie Sign

Because it was very cold and Your Sis was tired, we did not go to the high school game but bought a pizza and rooted ourselves to the new loveseat. We watched House of Flying Daggers, one of about a dozen Chinese martial arts movies starring Ziyi Zhang. Everyone knows Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but my favorite so far is Hero. It's nonstop, eye-popping goodness. Oh, Daggers wasn't bad, but it couldn't live up to the Hero standard. And I'll happily watch Zhang for two hours.

Before I got home that night, I hopped into Wal-Mart to find a costume, and it was only when I strolled the toy section did it hit me. I found a toy replica of the WWE U.S. title belt, and I decided to put together as much of a wrestler costume as possible. I've got luchadore masks and wrestling t-shirts. I bought the belt and some athletic tape for my wrists. And that's really all I need. Costume finished. Now, I'm not sure I can run in that mask, but if it's cold enough, yeah, I think I will.

Saturday I finally saw the race route, and it's easier than what I've been running. In fact, right before I bought the new shoes, I ran 3/4 of the course. Look at the comparisons of the elevations.



The W in the top line shows where I turn around and go back up Jailhouse Hill. The only drawback to the race route is that the hill is closer to the end of the race than it is to the end of my regular run. When I run and hit that hill, I've still got a mile to go. In the race, we'll have half that. That means I have less time to settle back into my run and sail to the end. I worry about the traffic control because we'll be running during the first night of the weekend-long Halloween events. And of course the cold. We picked up most of some wine bought at the previous weekend's tasting and looked at stove wire for making candle holders for the front walk. Your Sis napped most of the day, and I worked on her drawing some more. That night we watched Dave Chappelle's Block Party, an energetic film that not only shows how easily Dave is funny, but also presents one helluva concert.

On Sunday, we put up Halloween decorations and bought pumpkins to carve later this week. I still have decorations given to me by the crazy ex-neighbor who emailed me a few months back about the divorce. We walked the older cat outside -- yep, on a leash -- for about a half hour. We hoped to have Kathy and Travis over for pie and coffee, but they had to cancel. Baby Stress. It happens. So the two of us instead watched Master and Commander and ate some pie. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite movies, and I'm still curious to hear the commentary. We've enjoyed the film itself so much we haven't gotten to the commentary yet.

I just returned the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof script to theatre. Holy ow, it's cold outside, and the wind is everywhere. Tonight I hope to run for the last outdoor 5k before Friday night. But this is gonna be a hard run tonight. This is gonna suck.

Picture of the Day
Here's what the belt looks like. It's actually a stylish belt plate, much different from traditional wrestling belts. It's a toy belt I bought, and it barely fits me.