The Historic Hell Half-Marathon

It was hot when I walked out of the house this morning.  According to my sources, it was around 76 degrees, 84% humidity.  That’s not the kind of weather you want at 6:30 in the morning when you’re planning to run 13 miles and change starting at 7:30. 
Oddly enough, I didn’t really think about the [...]

Marathon Training: Hitting the Wall

I’m going through the motions this week.  I had a completely joyful run last Wednesday, Saturday was tough but fine.  Since I skipped both my short weekday runs, I ran a hilly 4 on Sunday which came within 1 mile of making up my recommended weekly mileage.
 Yesterday,  I procrastinated the hell out of my 3 [...]

Marathon Training: Week 12

The past week was a lazy one.  I skipped two of three weekday runs.  I got my 7 in on Wednesday morning, and what a glorious run that was.  At 5:30 AM, it was chilly. 
Saturday I got a little off route and my 12 miler turned into a 12.5 miler.  Very nice run also.  I felt [...]

Gut it out

I talk to myself when I’m running and climbing.  I don’t say anything aloud when I’m running, but during the hills, the heat, and the bad miles, I’ve got a near constant mental dialogue going on between the part of me that wants to quit and the part of me that will push through:
“Come on, [...]

Marathon training: Week 11

I can’t believe I’ve been at this for 11 weeks.  My past two long runs have been on my own.  I knocked out a miserable 9 the weekend I spent at a music festival in the hills, and the next weekend I did 10 at a 9:30 pace in miserable heat.  (And I didn’t stop [...]

Shitty Parent Stories

My family moved a lot.  “Rootless,” get it?  Yeah, pretty subtle. 
I attended two high schools, but my youngest brother Peter attended three.  Yes, my parents moved twice during his high school years.  The moves likely cost him a division one athletic scholarship, among other things. 
Peter has been visiting, and one night last week he told me about his first day [...]