Don't drive or fly, RUN.

The airlines are upping their “fuel surcharge”. What the fvck? I’m not against a company charging extra for a special service, but what were we flying on before? Were the gas tanks being filled up with water?

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Detroit complains about cheap overseas labor, but they forget about those domestic plants being opened by foreign companies. For some reason a Camry from Georgetown, KY can be made more cheaply than its counterpart at Ford (the Taurus, I think) or GM (the Genericrap, I think). Toyota is regarded as a high paying company with excellent benefits. So you have to wonder what they do that the big 3 don't.

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When I run outside, I circle my neighborhood several times. Some people have asked me how I can pass by my house and not just stop. It’s like anything else in running. You train for it. And what I mean by “it” is the starting back up again. At first, I did it mentally because at the top of my street, there’s a big downhill. So I’d tell myself that even though I’m running another lap, I get to go downhill. By the bottom of the hill, I’m stuck and I have to keep going.

If I do stop, I have a bottle of water there, and I grab a drink. Maybe I’ll take a few bites of power bar. Sometimes I ditch a layer of clothes. I make my stops useful. I’ve run 20 without stopping for water, but I don’t advise that. During a race, you can get water on the fly.

I was on Google maps, and that street level view is way cool. You can see 360 degrees around and look up to see the tops of the buildings, too. Theoretically, you could run the Boston Marathon virtually by moving along the route. I don’t know about you, but I get really sweaty from surfin’ the internet.

Other people have told me that when they run, they’re in pain for most of the day. If I felt this crappy after a training run, how the hell can I run a marathon? By running but feeling even crappier at the end. That was my solution, anyway.

After the first marathon in 05, I noticed a great deal more ability and stamina. It wasn’t some mental thing of having a marathon under my belt, it was real physical ability that took a full year to develop. With a few years of conditioning, a 20+ mile run isn’t as debilitating as it once was. But I’d be lying if I said that I ever looked forward to them.

I’m thinking that after the next race, I’m taking a week off. Then I’m going to hold my running down to 40 miles per week or so. However, I’ve said that before every race and I’ve never done it.

I’m going in to my another big race wondering why I do this. I suppose the same reasons apply as the first big race, but since I didn’t know what those were, I’m still sort of searching.

In Philadelphia, the web site said that finishers receive a “technical t-shirt”. I didn’t know if that’s a large piece of cloth or what. “Although it hasn’t been cut and sewn, technically, it is still a shirt.”

At least in the Boston, like in Phili, I was amongst more serious runners. I hate it when slow people crowd the starting line. Call it a pet peeve.

A 5K is short, but very, very intense. You come out of the starting line really moving and you’re expected to keep it moving for the whole trip at that frantic pace. A setback of a single minute really counts. With a jogging stroller, that can happen, too. It’s hard to maneuver in traffic. And, of course there were hundreds of people lining up at the front that didn’t belong there and I had to get around. Do they not understand the concept of a timing chip?

I heard an announcer before a race explain in diplomatic terms that although everyone was there to have fun, some people were very serious about their running and there was a need to differentiate these two groups to reduce traffic jams. No one moved. I would have taken a less subtle approach. “You, Fatty! How fast you gunna run? Yeah, right, take a hike. All you 17 year old chickies, move it back about 50 yards. That’s not 50. That’s not 50. No wonder you believe your boyfriends when they say that this (hold up fingers) is eight inches. You laughing, fat boy? 20 yard penalty!”

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I get a big thrill out of the crowds when I do a race. I don’t get applauded for my efforts elsewhere. I love giving high fives. I love being singled out “Go yellow shirt!” “Go #142!” That sort of stuff. I applaud the crowds, too. It’s got to be pretty boring to watch a bunch of tired, listless runners go by without acknowledging them. So I make eye contact, wave, give the thumbs up, “woo-hoo!”, all of that. Well, between miles 23 and 26, not so much. Too tired. Sorry. Take it as a compliment if I so much as look at you.

I can't say enough good things about the Boston crowds, though. Friendly, enthusiastic, encouraging, and they didn't bat an eyelash when the runners on the other side of the road dropped trou and peed no more than 3 feet from the race course.
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My wife made me see Mama Mia, and now I have these Abba songs locked in and cranking on my mental iPod. The only remedy for such an ailment is a brain-wiping lobotomy. She absolutely loved the movie. I thought that without the music, it would have been paper thin. I would add that Pierce Brosnan needs singing lessons, but my wife says that he got the lessons. If he gets his money back, I will bill him for my movie ticket.

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About once per week, there’s an op-ed in the paper that decries the stereotyping of the Appalachian accented people in this state. They don’t say that having a heavy Bronx accent is also a stereotype for those of lesser intelligence, and being Italian means “having mob connections” and it is a well known fact that all persons of Oriental descent have awe-inspiring martial arts training and sage advice as they age.

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’m watching a documentary series on the City of New York. It’s 14 hours long, but the first two hours covered 215 years. The second two cover up to the end of the Civil War. I’ve calculated that at this rate, I’ll soon be writing to you about the problems with flying car traffic that NYC will experience in the 2080s.

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I have the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War. It’s good, but the narrator is the same guy who did the voice over for a Woodford Distillery short film. It’s hard to get it out of my head that he’s talking seriously about a nation torn apart and not jovially about the fine quality craftsmanship of genuine Kentucky bourbon.

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I’ve been watching some Japanamation mini series called Flag. It’s really good. It’s about a photojournalist covering a conflict in a small, fictitious South East Asian nation. The coolest thing about the show is that while the credits roll up at the end of each episode, the camera pans around a messy desk, because all journalists worth watching on TV are slobs. Amidst the pictures, papers, scrap, do-dads and whatnots is a half empty bottle of Early Times Bourbon – woo hoo! Kentucky product placement! Interesting fact, though, is that Early Times exported is of higher quality than the local variety. But the Flag show is good.

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I watched a bit of “24”, season 3. Dennis Haysbert played a Presidential candidate season 1, then moved to President for seasons 2 and 3. There is always a scene where someone presents him a speech. He glances at it briefly and says “It’s good, but invert paragraphs 3 and 4.” Can’t his writers understand that he wants the third to be after the fourth by now? Or, maybe “inverted”, means that he wants them printed upside down? I’m probably not going to finish this season, and I don’t think I’ll be any poorer for it.