| Memetic Rick Semi-regular ramblings from a Los Angeles transplant, science geek, and home-brewer all rolled into one guy. |
Current Terror Alert Level |
| Memetic Rick Semi-regular ramblings from a Los Angeles transplant, science geek, and home-brewer all rolled into one guy. |
Current Terror Alert Level |
We ran the San Francisco half-marathon last weekend. I've never wanted to murder a hill before. My right calf still has a nasty muscle knot of doom in it five days later!
Still, my time was only about 7 minutes slower than the Long Beach Half last year. Hills be damned, I'm in better running shape this time. Must continue this trend!
Jen posted an amusing accounting of the rest of the weekend.
I am a well-meaning but dumb person sometimes. Take, for example, the fact that I signed up for the 2005 Las Vegas Marathon despite knowing that I would be preparing for orals and have little time to train properly. I went December 4th and did it anyway. This was also an excellent excuse to party it up a little in Vegas for my birthday.
The race started at 6:00am, because that's how the organizers obtained permission to close half the Vegas Strip. So, we got to run up the full strip just at dawn. That was pretty nifty, expect for the frigid head wind. No more marathons in December for me. Because I hardly trained, I didn't improve my time much. I improved some, and had a better time recovering than in March, so at least my base fitness level is higher this year.
I also managed to win about $120 in various slot machines. Booyah!
(I wanted something zippy for this post title, and definitely found one...)
The three stupids (me, Jen, Craig) ran the Long Beach half-marathon yesterday. We've not trained very hard, so we were all pleasantly surprised at our results. For me, I finished in under 3 hours (2:53 chip time, versus the 3:07 gun time, matching our estimate that we started about fifteen minutes late due to freeway traffic getting there...). That's a happy improvement over my LA full marathon results from March, with much better run-to-walk ratio and better pacing. This was also a mere training run, since I and Craig are stupid enough to wish to run the Las Vegas marathon in December. This is fun, but I might be done with full marathons for a while after that one.
Still, races are a good incentive to actually work out and jog. Fitness good!
I finished the 20th Los Angeles marathon.
It took slightly more than 7 hours, but
I finished a marathon.
I had to walk most of the second half because my thigh muscles were rebelling, but
I finished a marathon.
I only trained hard for 2 months, really, but
I finished a marathon.
I even had a lingering sinus infection, and a coughing fit for most of mile five, but
I finished a marathon.
I finished a marathon.
I barely noticed that there was a season missing in the first place, but I am waist deep in graduate school after all. Still, I am shocked that the NHL decided to cancel their entire season over a labor dispute.
How did we get to a point where a $40 million salary cap was unacceptable? What am I missing?
I have made little mention to people with whom I do not have constant face-to-face interaction about the marathon, but I am indeed joining Jen (and Craig and Michelle) for some quality time on the streets of Los Angeles on March 6th. I'm doing the run/walk option with the modest goals (in order):
1) Finish
2) Finish in 6 hours
The official course map is a fun and inspirational desktop, but it isn't to scale. So, geek that I am, I fiddled with Google Maps and Photoshop and produced this beauty:
(or a larger version @200kb for spiffier effect...)
I lived in Boston for about 7 years, so I know the constant rumble of "curse" and whining about failure as September and October roll around. But, now that the Red Sox have won the World Series for the first time in 86 years, will those fans finally shut up? Will they just invent new outside influences to explain failure if there is no victory repeat next year? Or will they finally fess up to the fact that the Red Sox have always had good players, but has rarely been a good *team*.
Even this World Series, what I had time to see of it anyway, was a symphony of "which team can screw up less each game?"
Regardless: celebrate, Boston. You deserve it.
Boston.com: Victory transforms a region's identity
I have to wonder, though: what the hell is the deal with Red Sox flags in graveyards?
What the hell is with all the doping scandals at the Olympics this year? There seem to be more than usual for some reason.
I do know that the science of testing is amazingly advanced. Mass spectrometry, a merry little technology that's part of my schooling, last year identified a new designer drug using only its metabolized fragments.
A lot of the complaints I've been reading focus on the waste of scientific knowledge on making new steroids when we should be fighting disease and what not. That's valid, but I also shake my head at these "competitive athletes" utterly disgracing themselves and their country.
During the Women's Gymnastics All-Around tonight, one of the commentators, while doing the usual harping on every little detail and how many tenths of a point deduction is made, actually then apologized and acknowledged that these were the top altheles in their sport in the world.
Women gymanists no longer all look like they're eight years old (although they're still kids, mind you). The floor routines were also more modern dance than I remember.
Iraq's Olympic soccer team, who've advanced almost to the semi-finals, have taken issue with GW Bush using their success in political ads. Some choice bits:
"Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign," Sadir told SI.com through a translator, speaking calmly and directly. "He can find another way to advertise himself."...
But they also find it offensive that Bush is using Iraq for his own gain when they do not support his administration's actions. "My problems are not with the American people," says Iraqi soccer coach Adnan Hamad. "They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?"
Full article: SI.com - Iraqi soccer players upset about Bush campaign ads using team - Thursday August 19, 2004 4:59PM (Sports Illustrated, pointed to by Salon)
Why wasn't this hyped more in advance of the Games? The opening ceremony (boring again) was suddenly on television, though only for a few minutes in my house.
I watched 5 soccer (or fútbol) games on Telemundo this past weekend, and an observation from that time was reinforced by the schedule listing announced on NBC late last night. The TV coverage seems to be heavily programmed according to demographic/stereotype.