Downtime

Sometimes I wonder about the attention my illness would have gotten in the medieval era. Would the doctors be preoccupied with draining excess "humors" or might a clergyman have been called in to perform an exorcism?

Thankfully, it's 2010 and the demon that's been possessing me turns out to have the modern name of Duodenitis. I'm making strides towards controlling the symptoms, but the ordeal has been leaving me feeling drained. Running is still absent from my life; I'm hoping to work back to at least walking regularly sooner than later.

Yesterday was the last day to exercise the option to defer registration for the Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston Half Marathon. I know it was the right thing to do, but clicking Submit was like swallowing bitter medication. My five-year streak of running on Marathon Sunday comes to an end. A new option for Houston this year, the deferment bargain means giving up eligibility to run 2011 in exchange for a chance to register for 2012 without being subject to the lottery. (In case you're wondering: No, the 2011 registration fee is not transferred to 2012. We would pay again. I did say "bitter.")

With some of the surplus time non-training, I've rediscovered video games -- specifically, the indie sensation Minecraft at the moment. Even in its pre-release state -- it just went beta today -- the open-world challenge to survive in a world of raw material and thrive through ingenuity has captured my imagination. I play enough in my living room that I added in a 3D graphics accelerator for the HTPC I built earlier in the year. I jumped on a sale at Fry's for a board with nVidia's GeForce GT430; it's low-end, but gives more than enough framerate firepower for this game. Maybe it'll be enough for that new Civilization release too?

Readers: Are you running Houston on January 30? If so, I'll be cheering for you! Until then, I'll get back to excavating the minecart tunnel I need for my underground rapid transit line....

(P.S. If you happen to be a "blockhead" and know of a newbie-friendly multiplayer server I should visit, fill me in!)

Timeout

Getting sick has become entirely too frequent for my comfort. So now I'm out to find a path to get myself right again.

My training for the Aramco Half has been close to mothballed. Last week I logged exactly zero miles running.

When this whole "mystery" is unraveled it will likely be post-worthy, but I'm not feeling ready yet to document details here. Meanwhile I'm still around, and came by to quench that self-obligation to not let this blog grow stale. (I'm sure my fellow bloggers understand!)

Park to Park Run

A five-mile race -- and a point-to-point one at that -- is a rare thing to find in this town. I've been intrigued with the idea of doing the Park to Park Run for a few years, but it always seemed to conflict with something else I was doing in the spring. After finding out that the event was shifted to this autumn morning and seeing the Katy Fit training calendar calling for a six-miler this weekend, I figured the timing was right.

"I'm running this morning in honor of Columbus, Ohio," I thought to myself after parking my car in the Toyota Center garage. I pondered how the years of working in call centers and telecommunications have permanently warped my brain as I fastened my race number (614 -- you knew that, right?) and timing chip. I hurried across Discovery Green to have the honor of being the last one across the starting mats and out to race:

Mile 1 (11:09) -- Yeah, picking off walkers at the start shouldn't be anything to brag about, but I'll use anything these days for a pick-me-up! We passed the left-field wall of Minute Maid Park and then made a turn for the south.

Mile 2 (10:46) -- A "Toyota: Moving Forward" banner in the windows of the Rockets' home arena had an arrow that conveniently pointed us under the Southwest Freeway and into the condo-filled blocks of Midtown. I laughed as I heard a driver plead for permission to go through a closed intersection so he could make it to a convention. (Unless the GRB is hosting a vital organ transplant convention this weekend, that officer was going to continue shaking his head.)

Mile 3 (11:40) -- This stretch of Almeda Road has a definite Third Ward flavor to it. Barber shops and soul food restaurants hadn't woken up yet, but the music from 4212 Cafe was already calling people in for Zydeco Brunch.

Mile 4 (11:13) -- The highlight of this mile was yet another driver/police confrontation. I'm not sure what started it, but at this point, the officer felt the need to roar, "ME. YOU NEED TO BE WATCHING ME!" The Third Ward faded behind me, as my run replaced the scenery with the condos of the Museum District.

Mile 5 (11:11) -- The final mile brought me past some familiar landmarks leading into Hermann Park -- the McGovern Health Museum, the Chinese Pagoda, and the Museum of Natural Science. After passing the equestrian statue of Sam Houston, the sounds of the after-race party tantalized from the other side of the reflecting pool, but there was still a half-mile arc to go....

I did a sloppy job of starting and stopping my Forerunner, but it recorded my elapsed time at the five-mile mark as 55:59. Mindful that this is actually slower than my 10K PR from last year, I'll be happy at this point that I completed today's distance in less than an hour without any achilles trouble or nausea issues. Most importantly I hope I haven't brought any dishonor on the great people of Columbus.

Overall I think this run benefiting the Hermann Park Conservancy was a well-run event. I imagine that a big chunk of the race budget was devoted to traffic control. At least one of Space City's finest was posted in every intersection along the course. The words, "Good Morning! Thank you, officer" passed from my lips about forty times.

By the time I figured out where the T-shirts were being distributed, they were all gone. I'm not really bothered, though. I simply packed away an extra can of Michelob Ultra on the way out and called it even.

As dissonant as when seven is ninth in line

Up at this late hour, I find myself compelled to blog, because my mind cringes at the thought of having zero posts for the month of September -- our ninth month of the calendar which gets its name from the Latin word for seven. Nonsensical, eh?

It's been a month of transition in season. Certainly we don't have a true autumn on the Gulf Coast, but I'll happily take the cooler weather that's arrived recently. 60F is a lovely temperature to find at dawn for a run, and yesterday I marveled at having no beads of perspiration appear until I was a mile and a half out. Compare that to a Labor Day fun run I did earlier in this same month where three and a half miles in "eighty-eighty" conditions was enough to sweat myself into an uncomfortably low state of hydration.

During that same sweltering holiday weekend, I realized that there's been a uncomfortable change that's been happening in my inner self. In a phenomena that I could call leisure anxiety, my very body can feel threatened by fun situations. Nonsensical, eh? How I've discovered and begun to cope with this are topics that deserve fuller elaboration in another blog post when I'm better prepared to sketch it out.

In tribute to the passing of September, I'll close this post with seven of my old and new favorite destinations to visit on the Internet, presented in a rapid-fire itinerary like destinations on my favorite returning "reality" TV show, The Amazing Race.

• Our first leg starts with the words and images of Jenny Goellnitz in Ohio. After her pictures seize your attention, you'll lose yourself in her vivid narratives on running and surviving cancer.
• One state over, from the unpaved stretches of Pennsylvania, ultrarunners Chris and Dave talk about going the really long distance on Trail Musings.
• On Pennsylvania's paved surfaces, you might run into Flo, a.k.a. "Girl In Motion." Not only does she write a great blog, but she also has a great eye for designing running-related accessories.
• Not far away from Flo and the Trail Musings guys is another runner and self-described "mom blogger" that frequently rises above the easy "baby did cute" to genuine self-effacing hilarity. Here's a shout-out to MommysStillFab.
• Speaking of coping, I thought I'd share a link to a new series by a writer mom friend of mine concerning an entirely different condition. World, I introduce you to"CP Chick."
• From life with CP to life with PC: In the audio podcast Monitor Tans, a gaming couple discuss the highs and lows of what they're playing on the computers each weekend.
• This list finishes with a site that helps me cope between weekends, the webcomic xkcd. The humor can be esoteric, and sometimes I'm surprised at how much potential for pathos can be conveyed by scrawny stick figures.

22.5 Percent Better Than My Bestest

Running in its basic form is a solitary endeavor, but having others around to motivate and challenge us can lead to milestones we may not have reached on our own. In track and field a couple of weeks ago, we saw Tyson Gay's aspiration to catch World's Fastest Man Usain Bolt help propel the American sprinter to 100-meter victory in Stockholm.

Of course, I'm in a universe apart from Bolt and Gay -- who can both break the speed limit by running through a school zone -- but I did take advantage of the same principle on this morning's Katy Fit group run with the Red pace group. Coach Doug led us 10:1ers out slowly on a planned negative-split loop. By the time his last mile brought us in at a significantly quicker 11:30 pace, I was at the tail end of the pack toiling to keep up. But if I was by myself, I probably wouldn't have been pushing myself like that in mile 3.

This week I was thinking about the limits of coaching as I finished reading Lucy Kellaway's Who Moved My Blackberry? The main character, Martin Lukes, is representative of the self-interested excess and double-speak in corporate executives nearly universally despised by all of us. In a hilarious tale told entirely through glimpses into Martin's email, we see messages exchanged with his executive life coach, Pandora. At first Martin pledges to put 105% effort into improving his performance. Pandora insists that this is small thinking; her coachees are challenged to achieve 50% above their maximum capabilities. Martin ultimately agrees to split the difference with a promise to work "22.5 percent better than my bestest." (Luckily for his employer, Martin's job doesn't require proficiency with numbers.)

22.5 percent better than my bestest would result in making me a 20-minute 5K runner, which I don't ever see happening, even with the bestest coaching, but it's a nice dream. In various aspects of our lives, how valuable do you think a coach can be? Certainly they can provide a third-party perspective on our stated goals and what is required to achieve them. How far do you think an effective coach would be able to push you beyond where you might be on your own?

Random postscripts:

• The excitement of the morning came in our first mile as a runner found the edge of the pavement with her stride, going down for a scrape a couple feet long. We doubled-back to make sure my new scab-buddy was OK. As a fellow Red squirted ice-cold water over the freshly minted trail burns, I congratulated her on getting the stumble over and done with now, which means race day will be flawless. Hilariously, her first concern was whether the skid had chewed up her calf tattoo.
• Those who didn't get picked in the Houston Marathon lottery are likely looking at alternative goal races. Here's one more: After an absence of a couple of decades, a marathon-length race returns to the Isle. The Galveston Mardi Gras Marathon and Half Marathon is coming February 20. (As always, my blogging alter ego continues to track events at Houston Running Calendar.)
• As a regular NPR listener, I'm mostly glad to see KUHF expand its public radio services to a second slot on the FM dial by taking over Rice University's 91.7 station. But will they be able to fill the airtime with compelling programming? (Oh, and while I'm thinking about it: KUHF, where's my app for streaming audio on Android? Those iPhone users have all the fun.)
  
• If you use Facebook, be aware that a new feature called Places was rolled out last week. Yes, if you're not interested in sharing your locations with others online, begin by simply not using Places. But also be aware that by default, others can "check you in" to locations without your permissions. Lifehacker has a good guide on how to turn that annoyance off.

Houston, we have ignition

It's official -- I'm registered for the Aramco Houston Half Marathon!

The way this first Houston Marathon lottery announced results was a bit backwards in my opinion. The first email was a credit card receipt from Marathonguide.com, which made the "congratulations" email from the marathon committee the next morning more whimper and less bang. But the important part is that I can light the fuse on a training regimen that will culminate in that familiar cannon blast to start my next goal race in 23 weeks.

Meanwhile I'm still dealing with August here and the scheduled workout for this date was "sucky run."

Yeah, I'm being facetious. It started with the alarm clock sounding at an early hour, but by the time I was able to dump my butt out of bed, there was no way I was making it in to run with the Katy Fit crew. So I took myself out to my familiar trail on edge of the reservoir, where it was dam hot with the morning sun shining directly on the shadeless trail. I tried to compensate for the heat by going shirtless for most of the four miles. Fortunately, it's a lightly traveled path up there and I don't worry much about scaring innocent orphans and pets with my bared flesh. Even so, conditions were really tough and I ended up walking a lot of the distance.

In better news, I think my core conditioning is going in the right direction. I'm able to hold a plank position for 30 seconds now. Since I couldn't even make it to ten when I started, I'm celebrating this as progress.

Yes, I felt bad for not making it out to my training group, but found a way to make the situation work. I took the opportunity to perform an overdue spark plug change because I didn't drive anywhere this morning and my car's engine block was "cold." (Note to future self: If you're still driving the Blue Wagon of Happiness a couple of years after this blog post, it probably has between 210,000 and 220,000 miles now. Go change them again, buster!)

Here's hoping for smoother running all around in the near future!

I believe there comes a time when everything just falls in line

Another Katy Fit group run is in the books, and it turned out to be a really good one. This particular Saturday the marathon and half marathon training groups were starting together. Coach Maria took us 10:1ers on a three-mile loop, during which nothing of mine was hurt, bloating, or crashing into the pavement. Most of the run portion was roughly in twelve-minute pace, and that left plenty of energy for a strong finish. Even finding a parking space was easy today.

Sure, the post-stretching core routine kicked my butt again, but at least it felt like it left the steel-toe boots at home this time. I'll be working more of these exercises into my in-week workouts. (Hey readers, do you have any first-hand comments on Wii Fit, specifically on core?)

And after devouring a plate of whipped-cream-topped waffles and posting this blog update, it will soon be nap time for me. I was slightly shorted on sleep last night after coming home from Pat Benetar's show downtown. Yes, at age 57 she's on tour and still dealing aces from her deck of hits. It doesn't get better than being part of a packed-house chorus of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" with a future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. (They ARE going to induct her someday, right!?) Have a rockin' weekend, y'all!

Here's Your Sign

Standing at this spot, facing a sidewalk on Eldridge Road in Sugar Land, this beacon of clarity helps pedestrians figure out which structure is the church, and which is the Valero gas station. Just imagine all of the confusion this expenditure of our tax dollars has prevented. Bravo!

Scraping By

After scraping by during the first couple weeks of Katy Fit with worn down New Balance 1224s, I finally treated myself to new shoes. After a couple of years away, I've returned to the Saucony camp with the Grid Fusion 3. "Great shoe for the budget conscious pronator," says the marketing copy. Hey, that sounds like me! I hope they turn out to be the true heir to the Grid Phoenix that I missed so much when Saucony seemed to get frilly with their lineup.

At this time, a kudo is rightfully bestowed upon Academy Sports and Outdoors. The display tags with some of their running shoes now carry actually useful color codes for Stability, Neutral, and Cushioning. The other blather that typically gets put on those shelf signage is nearly useless for shoppers attempting to differentiate between various models.

When a shoe is right, there's really no such thing as a break-in period, so I didn't hesitate to initiate this new pair with this morning's group run. It felt great to have my heels suspended again in the Saucony Grid cushion as I took off with the 10:1 group, once again led by Coach Doug.

Now if this was a story being told to a three-year-old, this is where you'd say, "...and then CurrentlyVince fall down, go BOOM."

Ironically, I had my mind focused on our group conversation about injuries when I tripped on the trail near our halfway point. I bounced right back up off the pavement, assuring everyone I was OK -- "I was running the edge, and the edge caught me." Just like the last memorable running spill I had, a handheld Amphipod bottle helped break my fall nicely, and the bottle even survived this time. I finished up the run with a lightly scraped knee, but no further embarrassment.

The embarrassment was waiting for me afterward, when core work kicked my butt once again. (Sigh.)

Now it's time to flip on some tunes and take care of some chores at home. This week I have not just one, but two newly released digital download albums joining my music collection. Gaelic Storm parties on with its fresh Cabbage, while Arcade Fire takes us out to The Suburbs. How has your summer sounded so far?

Takes a Licking....

Readers who have been paying abnormal attention to my long-distance race reports in the past know that my pace always fades at the end. Sadly, I am the master of the positive split. With the Katy Fit training season officially under way, I've decided explore the possibility that a run/walk training path might actually lead me to a better pace.

After arriving later than intended and scrambling for a parking space at Terry Hershey Park, I jumped in with a small Red sub-group led by Coach Doug on a two miler using rough 10:1 intervals. Today this worked out to yield one walk break in the middle. This was followed by stretching and the workout finished with some plank holds. After mere seconds the planks had me wincing as my core was licked; I definitely have room for improvement there!

My door prize karma decided to show up today as my number was drawn for a CoolMax fabric Timex cap. The "keeps on ticking" slogan on the back could become a new mantra for me as the season moves forward.

Additional Notes:

• One of the post-workout speakers was there to spread the word about an anti-slavery 5K being hosted by Kingsland Baptist Church -- the Just Run for a Just Cause.
• Due to Marathon Sunday coming to Houston a couple weeks later than usual in 2011 and because of the uncertainty of the Chevron/Aramco lottery, Katy Fit will be keeping registration open well into August.
  
• After coming home I checked on my beer-bottle marigolds this morning and was pleased to see that one stem has sprouted root hairs in just plain tap water. There will be a transition to potting mix in its near future.
  

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Last night I took advantage of an opportunity to get into a preview screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I went into the theater as a Gen-Xer unfamiliar with the graphic novels that serve as the movie's source material and in this post I'll share some observations as a non-fan of the series that might be useful for those trying to decide whether to go see it when it goes into wide release in mid-August.

Michael Cera plays the title character; Scott Pilgrim is a 22-year-old Toronto slacker who gets riddled with grief from his roommate, sister, and bandmates when he starts dating high school student Knives (Ellen Wong). Pilgrim's interest in Knives is barely lukewarm, though, and at first sight during a party he begins pursuing the aloof Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

At its core, this is a boy-getting-the-girl flick for Generation Y, with comic book and "augmented reality" gaming visuals splattered all over the frame. I found it all a little tiresome, though, and I was already trying to glance at my watch before the first hour was up. Despite the fast-paced activity seen in the first part of the movie, I still felt as if the plot wasn't appreciably moving forward fast enough. The plot itself is something that could have been lifted from a video game: To win Ramona, Pilgrim must defeat a series of her ex-lovers in fantasy encounters that are conducted as live-action video game duels. And in true video game fashion, there is hardly any backstory shown to explain why the "League of Exes" finds itself so united and motivated in defeating Pilgrim. I can only presume these are items much better explained in the books. Michael Cera does a bang-up job of being, well, Michael Cera -- which left me never completely sold on why we should be rooting for his Pilgrim to reach his desired destination of being with Ramona.

Kieran Culkin delivers many of the funniest moments in the film as the gay roommate who tries to get Pilgrim on the road away from going-nowhereness and eventually towards literally "getting a life." As I watched Wong's portrayal as Knives, I breathed a sigh of relief as she wasn't steered into any embarrassing movie Asian stereotypes. I wouldn't be surprised if Pilgrim turns out to be a film that pulls in lackluster numbers at the box office, but grows legs in the DVD market and eventually picks up a cult following. It's not an in-theater must-see in my eyes, but if your movie house also dabbles in adult beverages, I'd endorse the idea of marinating a viewing of Scott Pilgrim with an adult beverage of your choice as the show begins. It would likely enhance the appreciation of this off-the-wall graphic presentation. By the end, however I couldn't help but draw comparisons to an earlier Cera-getting-the-girl comedy -- Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist -- that I found more enchanting.

My verdict is "wait-for-rental" on this one. It will lose nothing when transferred to the small screen. In fact, the film would probably feel even more at home played on someone's living room XBOX.

Can I propagate marigolds from cuttings?

The renovations in April threw a kink into my plans for the patio this past spring. The stress from being moved around and stuck indoors killed off all of the flowerbox plants except for one gold marigold. After being put back out in the sun, it flourished for a while, but now appears to be succumbing to some sort of disease.

I've had very limited success in sprouting replacement from seed -- as in exactly one plant from a whole envelope of seeds. So I'm going to take a shot at propagating new plants from cuttings. From this healthy parent plant, I snipped off three stems, nipped their buds, and immersed the cut ends into brown beer bottles filled with water. I used wadded paper napkins around the stems as stoppers to discourage evaporation and any chance of mosquitoes using the containers to breed.

Will I get roots in just plain tap water without the aid of fertilizer? Will the brown glass of the Abita bottles be enough to keep light from interfering? We'll find out in a few weeks.

Groupthink

As of this morning, I'm pretty sure that I'll be joining the lottery sometime in the coming weeks in the hopes of landing a spot in January's Aramco Half. The estimated odds are 4-to-1 in favor of an entrant to get picked, although as I've said before, it wouldn't be crushing if I'm not. There's lots of other events to run.

In the never-ending search for motivation and variety, I've signed up with the Katy Fit training program for the coming season. Mostly, I've been working out on my own over the past several years, and the "group thing" will be something new and fresh for me as I look for half marathon finish number ten.

After checking in, I took in my first orientation this morning. Then we set out for a "pacefinder run" to help separate us into groups. (As demonstrated for me numerous times during pre-race lineups, there are lots of people who really have no clue about what pace they run.) So after a mile-and-a-half, I grabbed a cupcake from one of the sponsors and gathered with my cohorts in the "red" group. It was like the sorting ceremony scenes from the Harry Potter books, except with less CGI and more heavy breathing.

See y'all in the fall!

(We do have autumn weather coming -- right!?)

Freedom 5K

After a one-year hiatus to get a taste of the Run Wild 5K, I returned to starting my Independence Day in Sugar Land with the run at Lost Creek Park. During my sunrise drive to the race, I was listening to a radio broadcast of "Appalachian Spring" by all-American composer Aaron Copland and thinking that any sub-35 time would be just fine in the extreme humidity. I have no complaint with my result:

Mile 1 -- 9:50
Mile 2 -- 10:53
Mile 3 -- 11:10
5K elapsed time -- 33:04
(per Garmin Forerunner 205)

After crossing the finish line, I went back on the course to join the cheer squad until the lovely Laurie came in, and then we sought a shady spot to view the awards presentation. It was great to see Fort Bend resident and septuagenarian record-holder Ino Cantu appear to claim a win in his age-group. A couple of years ago, I had looked up his Athlinks profile and noticed a long gap of several months since his last race result, and my mind had jumped to the worst conclusions.

We dodged the hardest punches of Hurricane Alex, but his outer rain bands had been giving us wet, sloppy kisses for days. The wet weather had prompted race organizers to alter the course; instead of finishing on the Oyster Creek trail, the final mile was a U-turn on Lexington Boulevard back to the main park entrance. To their credit, at least they didn't settle for the half-mile hatchet job they took to the course in 2007.

Happy Fourth of July to all from my tiny corner of the blogosphere! Thankfully the skies cleared up before the race and I hope they'll stay clear for area fireworks celebrations tonight. Last night, right before bed, I listened to NPR's reading of the Declaration penned by Thomas Jefferson. Even in 2010, it stands out to me as a message of humility delivered in powerful language.

Sky Show

The biggest advantage to running outdoors is that the environment demands that you pay attention, which keeps your mind engaged. Earlier in the week my attention was drawn to the ground. Wednesday's run on the dam featured several deer sighting, but with multiple snakes also encountered directly on the trail in front of me I was watching my every step.

During this morning's six-miler, it was just about the exact opposite. My eyes were scanning what was above me from beginning to end. Not only did I want to get my run over and done before the sun was up and scorching, I also wanted to experience the uncommon treat of a partial lunar eclipse. I got some pictures, but my digital camera fails to convey the true beauty of the moon's colors and light very well. The shrinking moon fell away to the west, almost as if it was being melted by the heat of the rising sun to the east.

When I began my run, I wasn't decided on which direction on the trail I would go. At the end of the eclipse viewing, my eventual choice was rewarded as I found a crew firing the burner under a large ready-for-the Fourth balloon. A hot air balloon is a simple pleasure made nearly larger-than-life and I stood admiringly and snapped a few photos as balloon and basket sailed up and away over the trees.

On the sun-drenched return leg of my journey, I thought the sky show was over, but it wasn't. A pair of nesting birds -- sparrows I believe -- are raising a brood close to the driveway right off the road. As I approached, I heard them squawk, then turn and perform a high-speed fly-by towards my head. They kept repeating this, pursuing me for about a tenth of a mile as I scampered past, waving them off with my arms.

Good luck finding a program for this stuff on any treadmill.

Everyone else is doing it, and I might not

Happy Summer Solstice! This is the time of year when the words "torpor" and "estivation" become my favorite vocabulary words. This past weekend I found it really difficult to get out and run with the rays of morning sun heating up the previous night's dew. I'm not quite ready to commit myself to the treadmill, but it does seem that the only sane time to be outdoors on the trail is at twilight. And because of the late sunsets, this ends up messing with sleep cycles. It's hard to win this game.

In the height of summer, the running community is already hot about the coming winter. I've been sampling some of the online reaction since the Houston Marathon announced the introduction of a lottery into the registration process. Most of the comments are angry and to be honest, I think they're misguided. Let me put this bluntly:

What will happen with a lottery: Registration hopefuls take their chances; some will be shut out.

What will happen without a lottery: Registration hopefuls take their chances; some will be shut out.

We saw what happened last July when the registration servers got pummeled. Just like a concert for the flavor-of-the-year pop act after Ticketmaster lights up the cash registers, the demand simply outstrips supply. Looking back, I now see how I was part of a cresting "running boom." My first Aramco Half in '06 was the last time that a sellout did not occur. Since then, the day the "SOLD OUT" press release has went out has gotten earlier and earlier, despite a rising registration cap.

If 22,000 is really the limit to the number of participants the George R. Brown Convention Center can handle on a single morning, then I have to ask if it's time to run the Aramco Half on another day. I have to believe that the convention center is the limiting factor, because surely organizers could easily alleviate on-course choke points simply by staggering wave starts more creatively.

Meanwhile, I think my chances are 60-40 (maybe dropping) that I'll even bother to enter the lottery. If I do enter and don't make it in for my sixth consecutive hustle past the ABC13 cameras, I won't be sad. It's been a great five-year "run" and nothing will change that now. The good part of the "boom" is that there are significantly more options now than in 2006. As for Marathon Sunday, I could see myself on the volunteer side of the fence this time in January.

Heights Fun Run

I was reaching around to pat myself on the back. Before I even crossed the start line at this morning's Houston Heights Fun Run, I was pretty darn proud of simply getting up early enough to have breakfast, leisurely drive myself towards Marmion Park in plenty of time for packet pickup, and even get a relaxing warmup before gun time. Yes, the Green 6.2 fiasco still stings.

Beginning at 18th Street, the 5K course is a very straight and flat shot down Heights Boulevard to 5th Street before turning around and returning back to 18th Street -- 26 blocks in total. As the starting horn sounded, I thought I'd be clever and entertain my mind by meditating on a letter of the alphabet on each cross-street.

"A . . . B . . . C . . . D . . . E . . ."

At a half-mile in, I felt the need to go ahead and reach for a PED. In my case, the "PE" stands for Puke Evading, not Performance Enhancing; I had simethicone with me to soothe my guts.

"F . . . G . . . H . . . I . . . J"

We cheered the race leaders coming back northbound as we arrived at the first water station. Mile 1 came for me in 9:23. I knew this pace realistically couldn't last, but it did feel great to lay down one mile at this speed.

"K . . . L . . . M . . . N"

At the turnaround I could already feel my fast-twitch muscles going down for a siesta. Fast Vince was beginning to feel like Fat Vince again.

"P?"

Mile 2 in 10:02: Now with roughly one mile to go, I was struggling to hold pace. I had also lost track of my alphabet musings. This might have been a poor time to attempt a sobriety test. At 13th Street I let go of my fantasy goal of breaking 30:00, because five blocks in four minutes wasn't going to happen.

Mile 3 in 11:05: With the finish line in sight, a couple of other runners and I were mutually encouraging each other in Wizard of Oz fashion. "Follow the yellow big sign! Follow the yellow big sign!" we chanted. I hopped onto the finish mat, looking down to confirm that the D-tag timing chip was still attached to my ankle Road ID. 31:34 was my elapsed time per my Garmin Forerunner. If I didn't fade so much by the end, I could have had a shot at a 10:00/mi overall pace or faster.

Two years ago, I defined success at the Heights Fun Run as making it to the finish line before all the breakfast tacos were eaten. Phil's Texas Barbeque did a great job in covering us, because despite coming in four minutes slower than I did in 2008, I was able to enjoy not one, but two small brisket-and-egg-stuffed bundles of tortilla bliss.

Now what? I'm not sure. But just being within sniffing distance of a 30-minute 5K again is a welcome confidence booster.

Running America

After hassling with more than an hour of Houston rush hour traffic to cover 13 miles to the theater, I settled in with a few hundred others in one of the Alamo Drafthouse's larger auditoriums for last night's Houston premiere of Running America.

This documentary follows ultrarunners Charlie Engle (Running The Sahara) and Marshall Ulrich in the fall of 2008 as they attempt to break a time record for crossing the United States on foot from San Francisco to New York City. Their adventure coincides almost too neatly with the fall presidential campaign. Remember back when we thought that terrorism and the wars on foreign soil would be the dominant issues of the campaign? Well, as Ulrich and Engle started their trek in California and Nevada, the financial crisis story takes center stage instead as the political fight ignites over the proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout. The filmmakers spent a lot of time interviewing random folks they met in America's heartland about where they think the country is heading.

I found myself with mixed emotions about this movie by its end. On one hand, the actual running portion of the story was great. And outside of the closeup blister-popping scenes, this is a beautiful one to watch, with many great views of America from the road. But I did feel emotionally manipulated as the words of Barack Obama's acceptance speech overlaid scenes of Ulrich arriving triumphantly in Manhattan on Election Day. (Engel found himself sidelined with plantar fascitis earlier in the attempt and couldn't complete the mission.)

After the film, Marshall Ulrich and his wife Heather took the stage for a Q&A period. I had some fun while livetweeting some of their responses via my still relatively new Backflip:

• Ulrich lost only a net four pounds during the entire trip. He was eating 10,000 calories a day -- the same as his entire four-person crew.
• Colorado was Ulrich's favorite state to run in, because he's from there and does like hilly terrain.
• Ulrich used 32 pairs of Pearl Izumi shoes, not because of outside wear, but because the inners were breaking down.
• Charlie Engel is working on a future run across Cuba, after Badwater.
• Ulrich has a book coming out in 2011 about his experiences on this run.
• The best way for a marathoner to transition into ultras is to run a lot! (Duh!)
• Heather Ulrich accompanied her husband during Running America as part of the support crew. She admitted that she was yelling "quit" in her head numerous times, but managed to keep her mouth shut.
• Ulrich has "circumnavigating Death Valley" as a future goal. I'm not sure what this means exactly, but he said it's something that hasn't been done yet.

After the show, I bought one of the DVDs and got it autographed.

Cool: Going home with an autographed DVD
Not Cool: Discovering that it won't play in any player in my living room (three so far).

I have Ulrich's business card, so I'll be sending him an email to describe my problem. Let's hope his organization can make this right.

Astros Race for the Pennant 5K

All I had to do today was simply show up on time and the 2010 edition of the Race for the Pennant would be considered a success to me.

But as long as I was there, I figured I'd run the course too, finishing the 5K in an even 38 minutes according to my trusty Forerunner 205. This might have been closer to 35 minutes if I didn't take a few stops to take some snapshots with the Backflip. This was my first time to return to the RFTP since the switch to the out-and-back course over the Elysian viaduct. While I have a hate-hate relationship with this roadway overpass, tangling with it many times on Marathon Sunday and on Rodeo Parade mornings, it can reward the amateur photog with some nice vistas of the north face of the downtown skyline.

With the fifth anniversary of my first 5K behind me, it's time to look forward to one of my favorite neighborhood running events -- the Houston Heights Fun Run on June 5.

Shelter From The Storm

I'm in a feel-good mood today. Last night we took a figurative trip back in time with the sounds of Toad The Wet Sprocket at the House of Blues. It was my first time at the venue and my first time to see this group live. As far as I was concerned, they were still every bit the band that left its mark in the 90s, all the way from the curtain opening with "Something's Always Wrong" to the encore farewell with everyone singing with the wistful "Walk On The Ocean."


I'm also feeling good about running too. I've been a decent job of getting out there recently. The nausea and achilles issues of last year have abated. I'm readying myself for a rematch with the Heights Fun Run. There are 21 miles going into my running log for the week last completed, including a seven-miler yesterday -- my first rain run since the thunderstorm that killed off my old cell phone.

Speaking of storms, I was relieved that rain stayed out of the picture for as long as it did. The bane of my home life this past month was the renovation project at my apartment. It all started innocently enough with a notice at the beginning of April that we'd be seeing some stucco repairs that would take approximately six days.


Well, one thing led to another over the past six weeks, and basically the entire perimeter of my apartment was eventually sucked into the renovations. At various points in the project, I was worried about my porous walls, with accidental holes in the drywall that led directly to the exposed stucco frame. As I watched rain pounding the windows on Friday night, I felt as if Providence held off that deluge until every chink in the structure was patched up. This weekend I've been able to return stuff back into my bedroom and living room. My patio garden will be basically restarted from scratch. But it's over and getting "my place" back to myself is cause for feeling good!

I could feel this blog going stale, so it's it's nice to come back with an upbeat post. Last night as "Toad" rocked the House of Blues, I was wondering to myself why I don't go see more rock concerts. I was also thinking about the contrast between last night's show and the last concert I saw, The Steep Canyon Rangers fronted by Steve Martin.


On a geek note, that bluegrass concert in April was my first time to see the new Apple iPad in live use. Martin was using it to organize his setlist.

I hope all my readers had a good spring. I can feel Houston's trademark humidity returning as summer comes back to rule.

Seven days with the Motorola Backflip

My well-loved Nokia 6820 -- a text messaging powerhouse -- succumbed to water damage a couple of weekends ago. While running I got caught in a spectacular lightning storm and made the mistake of taking the phone out to reply to a text message. Oops!

While losing my phone was bad, in retrospect it could have been a lot worse. At the time another runner and I were running home along the trail on the top of the Addicks Dam, which is at treetop level. We remarked that we were some of the tallest objects out there when a bolt of lightning struck less than a half-mile in front of us. After seeing the resulting red sparking fireball in our path, I can honestly say that we were pretty foolish for not descending to lower elevation sooner. So here's my public service announcement for today: People and massive discharges of static electricity do not mix!

Returning to the phone discussion: In need of a new cell phone, I shopped for a new model just as I do for running shoes: I read reviews to develop initial impressions, then did a lot of test-driving in the store to select a final winner. After nearly thirty minutes of giving in-hand time to all the display models in the AT&T store, I had confirmed that my number one candidate, the Motorola Backflip was the right choice for me.

At first glance, the reverse-clamshell design struck me as odd. But the more I have handled it, the more brilliant this arrangment appears. Opened, the screen and keyboard are aligned at virtually the same angle as the two halves of the Nintendo DS Lite, and it's nearly as natural to handle. Closed, the Backflip operates as a simple touch-screen slab, just like the Apple iPhone.

By the way, I really wanted to like the iPhone, but a combination of three things put an end to that:
1) An iPhone (and Motorola's Droid for that matter) is a half-inch taller and a half-inch wider than a closed Backflip. The Backflip is a better fit in the palm of my hand and is better at sharing space with the wallet in my pocket.
2) After being spoiled by the old Nokia, I really do want a tactile physical keyboard on my phone, and it has to be well-sized. (I can't help but think that the Blackberry engineers at RIM are all dainty ladies with tiny hands.)
3) iTunes for Windows makes me want to tear my hair out. The less I have to see of it, the better.

In the closed position the Backflip's keyboard is disabled, so there's no worry about the dreaded "butt dialing" phenomena. And despite being always exposed, I'm not very worried about the keyboard. It has no discrete keys, having one imprinted and continuous sheath covering the keyswitches.

The camera in my old phone was terrible, so the Backflip's 5-megapixel camera with LED flash is a welcome step up for me. I discovered that the reverse clamshell design enables the use of the LCD screen as a viewfinder in both directions. Want to take one of those phone-in-outstretched-hand self portraits? The Backflip makes this easy. I'm surprised that none of the reviews I've read has pointed out this fun fact.

On the back of the touchscreen is a small trackpad called "Backtrack" used to scroll and select items on screen. I'm rather lukewarm about this feature. It sounds great in concept, but so far it doesn't seem to be much more effective to me than the arrow keys on the keyboard. Perhaps I just need more practice to appreciate its true value.

I trashed the Motoblur widgets that display by default on the home screen of the phone. It's supposed to be like a running ticker of social networking notifications, but I find it more showy than useful. In addition, the default setting of Motoblur to continuously get background notifications is a battery drain. Instead, I've installed full-featured clients for Facebook and Twitter (Twidroid) and just refresh their listings only when I want to.

I do like finding so many free apps in the Android Marketplace. So far the most expensive app I've splurged on is the MLB At Bat 2010. I'm listening to streaming audio play-by-play broadcast of a Cardinals-Braves game right now as I type this.

Now what I might really enjoy is a dependable Blogger app. I actually began composing this post originally in the application AndroBlogger right on the Backflip itself, but it crashed on me ("force close") right as I was nearing the end. AndroBlogger is a free app, and I suppose I got what I paid for!

Green 6.2

For Sale: One (1) wildflower-seeded race bib and one (1) D-Tag from the debut running of the Green 6.2. Potential collector's item, pristine condition, never used. Will take pint of frustration-soothing chocolate ice cream or best offer.

I remember being so pleased with myself this morning -- getting up early after a good night's sleep, getting a decent breakfast and leaving home when I intended. It was quite a surprise when I arrived at CityCentre and was told that I had completely missed the start of the race. As it turns out, for weeks I had the wrong gun time written on my calendar. I was so late that the course was already dismantled, except for the finish line welcoming back the last stragglers.

I had come prepared to run anyway, of course, so I simply took off on my own unsupported run around the Town and Country area -- an impromptu eight-mile double loop, featuring an up-and-down the five levels of the CityCentre parking garage. For this morning, score me as "DNS due to incompetence."

"On your left" . . . times thirteen thousand

I planned today's six-miler so that I could take a break in the middle and watch one of the starts of this weekend's BP MS150. Shortly before dawn, I reached my perch overlooking the Omni Hotel just as the singer began belting out the first bars of the national anthem.

Over the next 45 minutes, wave after wave of cyclists pulsed out over the Addicks Dam and down into the misted forest. The State Capitol in Austin -- their final destination -- waits for them 180 miles away. It's a sight you don't see every day:

As I was leaving, I couldn't resist snapping a final picture of the Brightroom photographers. After having them capture my not-so-glamorous side at so many events, turnabout is fair play, I say!

Dear Jerry

Has it really been a year since you hurtled into my life while being rudely hurtled out of your own? Not long after the hit-and-run accident that brought us briefly together, I saw that your loved ones had planted a cross in the ground at the crash site. I've wondered if they needed the landowner's blessing to do this.

This eventually developed into a two-part memorial to you. Close to the curb where your motorcycle went airborne, a heart-shaped patch of mulch marked "JERRY" faces Katy Freeway traffic. The cross still stands on the downslope a few yards away, on the edge of the detention pond where your body came to rest until LifeFlight arrived to take it away.

Eventually, I became comfortable enough to resume running in this area again. (I run exclusively facing the oncoming traffic now. I still carry my cell phone with me and I'm very good about wearing my Road ID -- two choices that I still heartily endorse for anyone who runs outdoors.) During those runs, I could pause by that intersection to look at the changing selection of seasonal items that they're leaving in your memory. During my last run-by, I took note of the Happy Birthday balloons. You're certainly on their minds.

The driver of the truck that hit you is still unidentified. Sadly, a year later no one has been able to come forward with information that could hold someone accountable. Crime Stoppers still has the Jerardo Luis case in their "unsolved" files, and a reward could still be out there for the right person that picks up the phone and dials 713-222-TIPS.

With the passage of some time, I came to accept that there was really nothing I could have done to save you that night. Anyhow, I resolved to do something to make myself feel less helpless in a crisis, so a couple of months ago I took part in a mass CPR/AED training by the Red Cross in the NFL Texans practice "bubble."

During the class I got really good pointers on how to remove rubber gloves without getting cooties on my hands and how to roll unconscious persons into a "recovery position" so they wind up in a good place to gain consciousness and puke. Oh, and I also learned that delivering sets of chest compressions are a pretty good workout in itself. By the end of the morning, I joked that perhaps I should bring one of the dummies home as cross-training equipment.

Doing a thousand practice compressions on dummies couldn't have helped your situation last April. But I guess I do feel better knowing that maybe I'll be better prepared to help someone else in a different type of emergency. I suppose that's one important takeaway I gained from the whole ordeal: We can't change the past, but with a little foresight and preparation, maybe we still have a shot at making the future better.

I'd like to think that I'm now driving sober more often. Mind you, to me driving sober is much more than just a BAC number. It's the having the mindfulness of the responsibility we take when we pilot a car on the roads, and a focused awareness of what's around you. Uncontrolled, the amount of kinetic energy that two tons of steel and plastic has at highway speeds can really ruin a lot of lives. I've wondered if your hit-and-run driver may have been occupied on a cell phone, or simply neglectful of checking a blind spot that terrible night.

As I remember all this, I am affirmed in my belief that the act of running is a declaration of my vitality. To go outdoors, draw breath under the skies and propel my legs over the ground is my acceptance of an innate directive to pursue the horizon. All the while, I'm mindful that this ability -- and my very life -- could be taken from me at an hour and in a manner we have no way of predicting. As a witness pointed out to me afterwards, I was crossing that very intersection less than a minute before the wreck.

Once in a while, especially when crossing that curb at Memorial Brook Boulevard, I feel like I truly am running some of these miles for you and others who won't run on the earth again. Rest in peace.

By the Book

At a minimum, I need to drop 10 to 15 pounds -- again.

Two and a half years ago, my weight had bottomed out at a nearly magical 199, before stabilizing around 210 pounds.Today the scale at my office building told me I've reached the 225-pound mark. I can't ignore the reality of having gained back half of the weight I had lost since my epiphany moment on Thanksgiving '04.

So there it is: I've admitted there's a problem.

Now comes the hard part: doing something about it. I remember what lost the weight for me in the first place -- portion control and running regularly. I've slacked, and it's time to live by the book again. In addition to being more conscious of how much food I'm consuming, I'm going to take the extra step of abstaining from soda (including the diet stuff) during the workweek until further notice. This probably won't shave off too many calories, but at least it will be a tangible sign of a return to self-discipline.

My running is slowly coming back, helped along by the arrival of spring. (Winter blues in even our mild climate has convinced me that I should never be a Yankee again.) I had a nice four-miler along the Buffalo Bayou hike/bike trail last night. I spent much of that run thinking about the extra pounds are literally weighing my running down. The 30-minute 5K and 60-minute 10K were things I could just about take for granted; now they're dream runs once more. As I encountered a lot of cute bunnies along the trail on that Easter Monday, I was thankful that they seemed to be all out of Cadbury Creme Eggs or other fattening treats.

I find myself wishing that I was returning to Angie's Half Crazy this weekend, but this spring a 10K (and one somewhere around 1:15 at that) may have to be my distance benchmark.

Before taking off on my run, I briefly explored the new Kendall Neighborhood Library, which conveniently sits at the intersection of Eldridge Parkway and the aforementioned trail. I decided that after nearly a year-and-a-half of living in this Houston neighborhood, it was a good time to get myself an HPL library card. Oddities I found here:

• Half a dozen parking spaces have signs proclaiming that they are set aside for "fuel efficient vehicles." I'm OK with setting aside some spaces based on vehicle size, but in my opinion this is going too far.
• The circulation desk has a drive-up window -- fitting for America's driving capital.
• On the far wall of the teen section, there are two large TVs equipped with Nintendo Wii consoles. What are students studying these days, anyway?

Four The Park

Mouth is alive with juices like wine and I'm hungry like the wolf....

It still feels odd to see that 80s pop music has become the "safe choice" for DJs and cover bands to play at family-friendly events. So I let out a little snort when I stepped off the shuttle bus this morning and was greeted with Duran Duran's greatest hits gently blowing through the trees in front of the Memorial Park Tennis Center. I was here to test my feet against a four-mile loop course in the creatively named "Four The Park Fun Run" benefiting the Memorial Park Conservancy.

I suppose I may have to give the DJ an itsy-bit of credit for switching to something more recent-sounding immediately before the kids 1K run/walk. Still, I don't think any of the wee ones that were getting their pictures taken with the Easter Bunny were even yet born when the Backstreet Boys were in their heyday. After watching the children scramble out of the starting corral, I started in the opposite direction for a couple of warmup miles on the Lieberman Exer-trail. After getting passed by Lisa Foronda, the former KHOU news anchor, I had a brief notion to try to keep up with her, but decided against it when I noted that she was jogging at what would likely be my race pace.

My race itself had no real surprises. With a twinge of discomfort in my achilles area during mile 3, I stepped off of the unforgiving macadam of Memorial Drive to stretch, then opted to finish the mile on the softer trail surface next to the road. The final mile found me just about out of gas, so I had to save the energetic-looking strides for the areas in front of the Brightroom photographers. When I crossed the finish line, I was back in the 80s once again as the live band was covering Mötley Crüe's "Home Sweet Home."

The not-really-positive positive splits, for the sake of full disclosure:

Mile 1 - 10:37
Mile 2 - 10:29
Mile 3 - 12:00
Mile 4 - 13:52
Elapsed time per Garmin Forerunner 205 - 46:57

My award for best in-race advertising goes to the bridal shop that had several young women running in white veils and T-shirts with the store logo.

With the race site sandwiched between the Uptown district and the emergent "strip of hip" on Washington Avenue, I should have been expecting post-race fare a cut above the usual bananas and bottled water. Michelob Ultra was representing with a sponsorship tent, and with the temperature approaching 80F, some of those cans of brew were getting tucked into sports bras as cooling devices. Freebirds had attracted a line for their chow, but I wasn't really in the mood for a burrito. Instead, I wolfed down a slice from the California Pizza Kitchen, then sated my craving for a Firkin fruit-filled crepe from the guys at Firkin & Phoenix.

While I didn't spot any bananas, on the shuttle bus ride back to my car I did notice that runners were going home with other tropical fruits in hand -- pineapples, coconuts, and bags of key limes. Not mere slices of pineapple, these were whole fruits that would make some good pies after ripening a little more. If I return here next year, I'm going to have to pay more attention to the edible giveaways.

Other notes:

• I was a little disappointed by the crowd behavior prior to the race during the national anthem, as most of the race participants just ignored it and continued chit-chatting with one another.
• For those that haven't visited Memorial Park in a while, a new pedestrian bridge now connects the north-to-south over Memorial Drive. Look for it on the west side of the park; it parallels the railroad tracks that run over the Woodway/Memorial split.
• Another race sponsor I was introduced to, providing some of the shuttle service today, was The Washington Wave. A dedicated transport catering to crosstown pubcrawlers -- where was this when I was in school!? (Is it only a matter of time before Houston is ready to be covered by jeepneys? Mabuhay!)