7.1 Miles

After running 4 miles in Portland this week I avoided my training. I've been working a lot and been sleeping a lot.

Medicine?

Emotional inventory?

Today I decided to return to my training after laying in my bed with a terrible headache and seeing that my phone would not relieve me. No one was calling me. Today was an alone day, despite my calling a few folks.

At 6 pm I set out on my run with the sneakers Mitzi gave me a few years ago.
Today I ran my 5 mile route and headed up highway 13 to Thornhill and back.

My knees feel worked right now, but they kept me going. A new playlist on the iPod kept me pushing past the internal limitations.

Today was a lonely day where my run had me asking questions of my worth, ability, reason and the rhythm of running allows me to ask these questions while moving. Even if I don't answer these questions, my body is moving and I am not drowned by my questions.

When I returned home I examined the bottom of my shoes. The training book mentions wear and tear on shoes.

I was a nay-sayer because I have never worn athletic shoes through before, but I find that these shoes that Mitzi gave me are showing wear. The heels are thinning. The rubber padding is not as protective as it used to be.

I am learning that running is a discipline that requires one to use the right equipment. The right shoes are a necessity, not items of vanity.

I am 25% of the way to my marathon.

Palabras Para Hoy 24 de abril 2007

“Miracles are natural. When they do not occur something has gone wrong.”

Wow. So this weekend I took a much needed vacation up to Portland to be pampered by my friends Mike and Megan. Friday night I missed my flight by moments at the Oakland airport and was stressed out. I called exasperated and they reassured me I would be taken care of, to get on the plane.

I took their advice. I fell asleep on the flight and arrived at 8:30 (a mere half hour after my expected arrival) and was treated to a beautiful warm home with wine and homemake fondue about to be started.

The table was set.

Fondue was being made by our host with a family recipe that gave off such an inviting aroma of garlic, wine, cheese, and kirsch...

Much to my surprise fondue is not a sticky slog in which bread is dipped...it is a delicate flavour that coats and absorbs into the cavities of fine bread. Served with wine and an assortment of fine meats and a salad it was the warmth to relax to and have a pleasant family-style meal to.

Kudos, once again, to the warmth that is Mike's gift to his guests. Never a care or a need...simply relax, enjoy, and partake.

By the end of the weekend I had enjoyed bocci ball in the rain, danced among bellydancers, reminisced about the Muppet Movie, heard an otter grunt, marveled over moss and flowering trees, and marveled over waterfalls.

The weekend was nothing short of a miracle.

This image is from our hike around some falls in Portland.

5 Miles!

I ran up and down the hill, both ways, in the wind at night, losing myself around Dimond Park and walked for 3 blocks while I got my bearings. (2.7 miles each way)

I've completed 20% of a marathon without dying.

WOOT!

July 29th, here I come!

Moment for Virginia Tech...and ALL Victims of Gun Violence

My heart goes to the Virginia Tech campus, community and families. When I attended Syracuse we played Virginia Tech often.

Not sure what's going on today. When I read about the shootings on Virginia Tech's campus my heart sank. I know today's shooting were horrific. I know that people must feel fear and betrayal of safety on their campus today. There are families that live with the horror of gunshots in their neighborhoods daily without international attention. Perhaps this incident will make us mindful of all victims of gun violence.

I'm sitting with 6th graders and just thinking to myself...am I doing the most I can so none of my fellow human beings needs to brandish a gun to inflict harm on another human being?

Let love rule. Let peace dictate.

Free Alan Johnston

The past month has been heartwrenching to hear the story of Alan Johnston's disappearance. He's a BBC Correspondent in Palestine and is believed to have been kidnapped.

On April 12 three news agencies joined to recollect his work: the BBC, Al-Jazeera, and Sky News.

His father read a simple and moving statement on behalf of his son for the captors to release him.

Free press is a right we have as human beings to know the world around us and the lives people across this planet experience. Journalists have been under attack over the last few years, not only in the Middle East.

Lend your support: Sign the Petition. Send your message of support.

May his captors have mercy and let him free.

10 Miles So Far...

This week started the official mileage count for the marathon in our training.

Up to this point we were running to build up time stamina. This week we're hitting numbers...3 miles, 4 miles, 3 miles, and 5 miles.

Tomorrow I will do 5 miles and it will be the longest distance I have run.

Yesterday when I completed 4 miles I was glowing with the thought of having completed 1/6 of a marathon.

I hit the wall at about 2 miles but then I just kept on running...and my path took me from my home in the San Antonio district to Park Boulevard, south to Dimond Park and onto Fruitvale and Farmer Joe's close to MacArthur.

I drive to Farmer Joe's. It's one exit down from my house.

I ran that myself yesterday.

Whoah.

Here's to the next 4 months of training. I AM training for the San Francisco Marathon. I'm 10 miles into now...

Woot!

Palabras Para Hoy 10 de Abril 2007

There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them. ~Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

I am adjusting to new medication. It makes me sleepy. It takes away my mojo. I yawn a lot.

On Good Friday I came home after a long day, the sky was overcast with Bay Area Fog and I was alone. Friends and family were doing their own thing.

It was me and me.

I've been prone to napping a lot and opted for a change of pace. I set on NPR's Friday programming on KALW and drew the bath. I took out my Django Reinhart biography, put on a candle and some incense and floated in warm water until I fell asleep sometime later.

It was healing, wonderful and time passed...I was in there for hours before I toweled off, put on pjs and set to bed properly.

My Neighbor, the Goat

Yesterday morning I woke groggily to the sound of someone crying.

I was annoyed and was hoping that the baby upstairs didn't have something serious going on with him. He's generally a well-behaved kid.

I showered, got dressed for the day and left my house only to hear the crying more clearly. It came from next door and there he was, floppy ears and all and bleeting: a full-sized goat.

He's very cute. A mottled brown and white coat, pale green eyes with vertical slits.

And he bleets.

I bleeted back and welcomed him to the neighborhood.

Palabras para Hoy - 3 de abril 2007

[S]leep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together. ~Thomas Dekker

The last week and a half have disrupted my usual 6, 7, and 8 hour evening's sleep. Like clockwork I have been in bed by 10:30/11:00 pm and my eyes spring open about 2:30 am. I then try to read, turn on the BBC, toss, turn, drink water, relieve myself, and get to bed some 4 hours later.

The rest of my waking hours are then filled with extensive yawning, a gnawing sensation in my brain, and just a slight sense of not being 100%.

I just came back from a run. I had a 4 hour unintentional nap Monday evening. I woke up about 10 pm, groggy and sad to have missed such a lovely afternoon.

For an hour I lazed in my bed and then after a few moments of Love Line and a few phone calls returned (I missed 5 of them) I decided to run. It was 11:36 pm. If I am going to be awake, why not?

I put a jacket on over my pajamas and out the door I went.

The San Antonio district of Oakland is quite lovely in the evening. A few cats roam the streets as I get into the rhythm of step-step, step-step. I crossed the bridge, I went further up beyond numbered streets and onto streets with names like Ardley. Lovely homes with gardens that scent the evening air under the full moon.

During "Naked Eye" by Lucious Jackson and about 20 minutes out my iPod mini crapped out. I was about halfway out and I had no music. I was thrown off for a moment.

Could I finish my run without my rhythm?

On my return I had the step-step of my feet and my breath: in-in, out-out.

I made it back home. Cats crossed my path. Flowers filled my nostrils. A few cars sped on past my person.

I'm a little sleepy and hope to sustain sleep at least for a 5 hour stretch.