pedestrian saga

In spite of some unsure-footedness late in training, on October 12 I ran my first-ever 10K, without stopping (well, pausing the bounce long enough to snap a few photos). My official time was 1:19:26―slow and steady for sure, but a 5K split that blew our July Midsummer Night’s Run time out of the water. The fearsome threesome was awesome!*

Here we are at the start of the 2008 Great Columbia Crossing:

And celebrating total bridge domination around Mile 5:

Still smiling!

I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our Astoria visit too. An after-dinner perambulation happily coincided with the Second Saturday Art Walk and intersected Lunar Boy Gallery, a delightful outpost of pop surrealism. The column on Coxcomb Hill was very cool; I hope it will be open for climbing next time! The hilltop views afforded me the most effective geography lesson in ages. Best U.S. history lesson in ages? A stop at Fort Clatsop, the site of Lewis and Clark’s 1805-1806 winter encampment, with a bona fide Lewis and Clark geek. The enthusiasm was truly contagious!

How to articulate my gratitude to Rachee for their companionship in training and attaining? Two crazy inspiring ladies!

*The Great Columbia Crossing was brought to you by the letter A (for awesome!) and the number 2 (for the multiple of cockatoos). A big shout out to Tony and Helen for the awesome! sag wagon and team support.

This novel was a very rewarding left turn for me. I’d been solemnly poring over a bunch of nonfiction and then pow! Colson Whitehead tells me a serious story.

It’s an extended parable about race relations, corporate culture, consumerism, and social change, conveyed by the adventures of a marketing genius with a stubbed toe. The protagonist is an expert namer (”nomenclature consultant” in the delicious corporate-speak of the book) who, many have observed, remains unnamed himself. He is dispatched to a small Midwestern town to settle its brand identity crisis. A bizarre and fabulous plot; bonus the digressive lingering on phonetics, the apex of such exercise being a rhapsody on the word apex itself. Double bonus the depiction of a public library in, er, transition (it’s being displaced by a crap chain clothing shop) and riffs on “Marian the Librarian.” (more…)

Documentary reenactment of a crazy mountaineering accident and rescue, featuring some nasty frostbite and the world’s worst case of song-stuck-in-the-head. Very manly and claustrophobic.

***1/2 (straddling the crevasse between “solid, recommended” and “okay, but not my cup of brew”)

Desire may oftentimes be greater than readiness.
—”The Top Five Running Injuries Seen in the Office,” Podiatry Management, April/May 2008

Pfft-pfft! Krinkle-knock!
—Me, a few minutes ago, ripping off the athletic tape and applying the ice pack

Things were going super swell since the launch of my Ziggy Stardust phase. As in, 8.3K-two-Sundays-in-a-row and “This 10K is so in the bag” swell.

And then late Sunday, after the a.m. run and a p.m. crosstown tandem errand, my right foot began to…swell? A tingly ache permeated the base and side, radiated up my calf, and threatened to retake the knees.

Initially I cursed my Fate and pleaded for St. Sebastian to intercede. Then I calmed down and listened to Reason. Who appeared in the form of my mum (and former Track Coach) insisting, via e-mail, that I tape my foot immediately and “[stop fussing about doing it exactly right and] just try it!” I wasted some time at the pharmacy trying to pinpoint a distinction between “first aid” and “athletic” tape and decipher bandaging diagrams on various packages. When I finally slapped some of the sticky stuff around my foot, by golly, it contained the hurt almost instantly. And so, less than four days from the Great Columbia Crossing, I’m icing and taping and tapering like heck to keep it in check.

Epic showdown in Astoria Sunday (Sunday! Sunday!)…Pod-estrian Saga confronts the Arch Nemesis…