Tagged!

So a.maria over at Little Miss Runner Pants tagged me. Here's the deal:

Write 5 random facts about yourself, and then list the names of 5 people whom you in turn infect. Also, leave a post to these people letting them know they have been infected.

Hm. Okay.

Fact 1: Once, I was running down a street in Galway and I ran into - and knocked over - Van Morrison.

Fact 2: I have a law degree I don't deserve and have never used.

Fact 3: I kinda wish I was an astronaut. I tell myself that the reason I'm not is that I have very bad eyesight (now fixed with Lasik).

Fact 4: I live in the Northwest but I can't stand microbrews. I don't care for flavor and interest in my beer. I like Bud, Corona, and most Japanese beers.

Fact 5: I love living in the city, and I love living in the boonies, but the burbs freak me out. Comes from growing up on an island.

I now tag Sarah, Trish, PartyRunner, Britt, and Scott.

Worried. Scared. Excited.

So.

For the last ten years, I've worked for a Very Large Software Company. Actually, I've worked for the Very Large Software Company. And it's been very good to me: I've had fantastic opportunities, met wonderful people, discovered my inner geek, learned more than I could have imagined. It even took me from Dublin to my beloved Washington State, more than seven years ago now.

And now I'm saying goodbye. In just over a week I'll be starting a new job, at a Very Large Online Retailer. I'm bouncing between exhilaration and fear. What am I giving up? What am I going to? The VLSWC has kept me warm and dry for a very long time. Can I survive on the outside?

If a man in a white coat says it ...

A study says people who have one alcoholic drink a day are 54 percent less obesity-prone than teetotalers are. (But those with four or more drinks a day are 46 percent more obesity-prone.) Another study indicates that among people who weigh too much or drink too much alcohol, those who drink more than two cups of coffee a day are only half as prone to chronic liver disease. Each study involved more than 8,000 people. Cynical take: Wash out your fat with liquor, then rinse out your liquor with coffee.

From Slate's Human Nature column.

Tracking the Las Vegas marathon

Live updates on Scott's and PartyRunner's marathon going on over here.

Darwin's face appears miraculously on frying pan

The wonderful Panda's Thumb announces:

From London comes the astonishing news that the unmistakable image of Charles Darwin has appeared in the bottom of a postdoc’s frying pan. Scientists around the world1 are puzzled about the possible mechanism that might have resulted in the 19th century naturalist’s portrait being deposited on the suface of a cooking utensil.

In one attempted application of the Explanatory FilterTM it was found that the probability of this occurance is less than that of fairy circles appearing to form a mole on the face on Mars2. (This is, coincidentally, precisely equal to the probability that Nicholas Caputo would have hit David Berlinski if he had fired an arrow at Albert Einstein’s door during a total solar eclipse.)

Full article here.

I run Seattle does Vegas, baby.

Well ... if Riona can't go to Vegas, Vegas will just have to come here.

I'm gonna be blogcasting the Vegas marathon over at Scott's place, tracking the process of Scott, a.maria, and anyone else who cares to send me their chip #.

jeff is even gonna send me text updates and photos from along the course. Go Jeff.

It still breaks my heart that I won't be there to run it, but it's going to be awesome tracking the progress of those who do.

Any ideas for making blogcasting work better? Shoot me a mail.

Question for ya

Last week I almost fell on my ass on a patch of ice. It's been pretty mild here so far, but I'm sure we'll be facing ice before long, and they're predicting snow.

Anybody used YakTraks or similar? Any recommendations / disrecommends?

Thank you!

Twenty questions meme

From the even-cooler-than-I-thought Trish:
1. What's for breakfast?
Sometimes I miss the days when breakfast was a Diet Coke and a Marlboro Lite behind the wheel of the car. I'm ashamed to say that these days it's often just a Diet Coke, but I do have porridge sometimes. Mmm with dried cranberries.
2. Do you read a newspaper daily? More shame! I subscribe to the Irish Times online. I read MSNBC, but not always the newsy bits. I read pretty much everything in Slate. But no, I don't read a proper newspaper daily. Most of the rest of my news I get from NPR.
3. What do you do when you can't sleep?
Fret. Twitch. See #1.
4. Say a word that sums up your mood.
Currently a bit stressed. Almost always happy.
5. Do you remember your dreams?
I've been having bizarrely detailed dreams recently. I'm discussing Iraq with Gloria Steinem (I come out of the discussion badly - see #2).
6. Name something from your dream last night.
But no dreams last night. We're in Cupertino, visiting P's dad.
7. Name a food that describes you.
Irish stew: a bit different each time, unpredictable (or predictable in certain ways); a random mix of various things.
8. Today you are wearing:
Right now: sweaty orange running shorts, shirt, Asics Gel Nimbus.
9. What's in your pockets?
Nada
10. Did you sing in the shower today?
Haven't showered yet - I'm blogging while I wait for it to be free. But I usually do sing in the shower, and lately it's usually John Spillane's The Dunnes Stores Girl. That won't mean much to anybody who isn't Irish or who doesn't live in our house.
11. What's the last song you heard? See #10, sung by P in the shower. Round here we're all about the Dunnes Stores Girl.
12. Looking forward to the holidays? Yes!
13. Where do you want to be this instant?
In the shower. I came back from my run a little while ago, and I suspect that I'm beginning to smell.
14. What's for lunch? I hope dim sum! We're going into San Francisco, one of my very favorite cities, just as soon as I have sluiced off the worst of the dirt and gotten dressed. Later on, we're going to Teatro Zinzanni. It's P's birthday!
15. What's something you would like to do soon? Start knitting Alice Starmore's Inishmore design. I'm waiting for the yarn to arrive.
16. Reading anything now? What is it? Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.
17. What's for dinner? That's up to Teatro Zinzanni.
18. A favorite part of the day is: Hanging out at home with our ritual huge pot of rooibos tea, a cat on each lap. Cooking dinner.
19. Are you happy? Yes. I'm a bit stressed out at work these days, but really I am the luckiest woman in the world. I have some great friends who mean the world to me, I love my wonderful man (who is celebrating his birthday today), we're planning our wedding, and we're lucky enough to have good jobs and a tiny mortgage, and therefore not too many worries. I love my life, and I am confident that it will only get better.
20. Will your friends do this meme? Very few of my real-life friends read my blog, so probably not - though Therese, I'm looking at you. Blogfriends: I hope so.

It's never too late to learn "the ropes".

You know that full-page ad, the one that appears towards the back of every edition of Runner's World?

In the European sexual underground, the term ropes refers to the number of physical ejaculatory contractions a man has during a climax.

Now read that again, in your best Law & Order voice.

Much better.

"Everything in the world is plenty for me."

If you didn't hear Penn Jillette's This I Believe essay on NPR's Morning Edition, go listen to it now. It made my day. It might make yours.

Oh, Penn Jillette! The uncovering of charlatans (the magic shows)! The challenging of received wisdom (the cable show Bullshit!)! The sublime The Aristocrats! And now this.

Penn Jillette is my new hero.

If you can't listen right now, here's the full text of his broadcast. I'd love to know what you think.

I believe that there is no God. I'm beyond Atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy -- you can't prove a negative, so there's no work to do. You can't prove that there isn't an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again. Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word "elephant" includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire?

So, anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God. She needs to search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage. The Atheism part is easy.

But, this "This I Believe" thing seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life's big picture, some rules to live by. So, I'm saying, "This I believe: I believe there is no God."

Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I'm not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it's everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I'm raising now is enough that I don't need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I get joy every day.

Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.

Believing there's no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I'm wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don't travel in circles where people say, "I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith." That's just a long-winded religious way to say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, "How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do." So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun. It means I'm learning something.

Believing there is no God means the suffering I've seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn't caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.

Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.

Budhia Singh may be "at risk of exploitation". Ya think?

A while ago I posted about Budhia Singh, the three-year-old sold as a child to a man who is training him to run marathons.

Government officials are looking into the case, but his "coach" claims that:

Budhia’s health is being monitored by doctors at regular intervals and that he is following a regimen prescribed by the doctors.

"Doctors."

Full article here.

The Flawed Philosophy of Intelligent Design

The time has come to be blunt. The problem with Intelligent Design is not that it is false; not that the arguments in its favor reduce to smoke and mirrors; and not that it's defenders are disingenuous or even duplicitous. The problem with Intelligent Design is that it is dumb. I would contend that ID is dumb biology; even if it is on to something, what it is on to has no connection and does no meaningful work in biology (or physics). However, and more significantly, ID is dumb philosophy.

Full article here.

New York Marathon Notes, Fort Greene

A few years ago, I stumbled across Dervala's blog and was fascinated by her writing about her travels in SE Asia. Then I read something that made me think, cool, she's Irish. Then it became clear she was from Limerick, my home town. Then she mentioned her school, and that's when I sent her mail. Her father was a former teacher of mine, one of the very few I remember with any fondness. Later, we met up in a Limerick pub. Since then I've been following Dervala's stories as she moves from Mexico to Canada to Brooklyn and on to San Francisco. She's a wonderful writer, and I urge you to bookmark her now.

I love her observations of this year's NYC Marathon:

I have whippety friends who finish the New York Marathon in under three hours, but the born-to-run amateurs bore me as they piston past, looking comfortable and determined. It’s the mid-pack runners I go out to see every year, with their strange gaits and unsuitable bodies, and all the fear, doubt, and bewildered joy that comes from their audacious try.

Check her out; you won't be sorry.

Official, a matter of scientific record: the best chat-up line in the world

A little quiz for you. Imagine you're a single woman and a man approaches you with these words: "It's hot today, isn't it? It's the best weather when you are training for a marathon." Should you, a) Smile kindly and assume that he is involved in some kind of care-in-the-community situation; b) Ignore the loser because he is making a rubbish pass at you; c) Be impressed and flattered. He has repeated the exact wording of the official best chat-up line of the modern age.

The answer, apparently, is C.

Full article here.

Running-related content will return shortly, probably

Many things are no longer valid in Kansas, thanks to the November 8, 2005 mandate by the Kansas State Board of Education. As a public service, the boffins at the Annals of Improbable Research have created warning stickers that say:

NOT VALID IN KANSAS
as per order of the Board of Education, November 8, 2005
Use of this device or substance may require, imply, and/or endorse the existence of one or more of the following:
chemistry; evolution; electromagnetism; gravity; mathematics; thermodynamics; education.

Printable PDF file available here.

Things are looking up!

Voters threw out the Pennsylvania school board that approved "intelligent design." Eight of the nine board members were up for election; all eight lost to candidates who opposed the ID policy. This happened in a district that voted 65 percent for President Bush in 2004.

From the Human Nature column in Slate. Full, encouraging (until you reach the part about the lunatics in Kansas) article here.

Nicest birthday dinner ever

Saturday was my birthday. P met me at the train station and surprised me by taking me to the Oyster New Year at Elliot's Oyster house. Imagine it: maybe 30 wineries, and a 90-foot open oyster bar. Every possible variety of oysters there for the taking.

If I die tomorrow, before I go I'll look back on that day and think: Once there was a day when I had my fill of oysters.

Off to Portland for a night with the lasses.

I've just packed a picnic for the train.

• Three delicious baguette sandwiches from Le Fournil: one pate, one Camembert, and one ham and swiss.
• Three delicious little tarts, also from Le Fournil.
• Little bottles of wine.
• Big bottle of Pellegrino.

(and, of course, plenty of Diet Coke.)

Trains are the best. It's going to be a fun overnighter: we're staying at the Jupiter Hotel, and the plan consists of foofy girlie drinks, dinner, and some tax-free shopping tomorrow.

*excited*

Woo-hoo!

www.live.com

I don't think Seattle is rainy at all. But then I grew up in the west of Ireland.

So since I started running back in April, I've had to run in the rain exactly three times. Three. Maybe four, max. And not because I was avoiding the rain, or because I cancelled or postponed runs when it was bucketing down. It was just never raining whenever I wanted to run.

How unlike my homeland, with its eight months of winter followed by four months of early spring.

But oh, this morning in Seattle at 6AM it was cold and wet and dark, and heading out took the willpower of an Omarosa hunting down a TV crew. But you know? It was only about three minutes before I heated up, and for the rest of my run it was like I was inside this glowing Riona-shaped heat capsule, pounding its way down Eastlake Avenue.

I love running in the rain.

You know ...?

I'd just love to stop getting postcards and e-mail relating to marathons I'm so not going to run this year.
Official postcards and e-mail. From the race organizers ...

Lovely morning. And the day's only half gone.

I love the day the clocks turn back. I deliberately try to forget about it, so I get up at my usual time and get surprised by the extra hour. It didn't work today, but I still got up in time to gather six garbage bags of books, household stuff, yarn - yes, the guilt of the unfinished projects was getting to me - and drag them to Value Village. I love getting rid of stuff. Since P and I moved in together, almost two years ago now, I reckon we've gotten rid of about 60% of our possessions. We still have too much, though.

And then I went running in Discovery Park. It's just so beautiful: you'd think sometimes you'd ended up in Neah Bay, out on the Olympic Peninsula. Sunday mornings it's full of happy dogs and quiet couples. The leaves are still rich and gold, the air was crisp, and it was a fantastic day to be running the trails. I'm going to try to make it out there every weekend: not only is it a wonderful place to visit, and a great change from the neighborhood streets, but the softer trails and the frequent hills can only be good for training.

Tagged!

The lovely Lara over on her snazzy new blog - see, I have been away a while - tagged me for the 5th sentence of my 23rd post.

I'm talking about the Golden Gate Bridge:

Every time I'm in San Francisco, I walk across the bridge, and am continually awed by the scale, the setting, the extraordinary engineering of it.

I'm tagging Sarah, Bound-for-Boston Trish, Scott, Britt, and Naomi.

Here's the deal:1. Go into your archives.2. Find your 23rd post.3. Find the fifth sentence (or the closest one to it)4. Post the text of your sentence in your blog along with these rules.5. Tag five other people.

A perfect autumn day in Seattle

I've been the worst blogger ever. Haven't been updating, haven't been reading, still owe the wonderful Scott a mail about Vegas, feel totally out of it. Wanna catch up soon. Life with the new job has been pretty much work and sleep. I rarely leave work before 10 these days, and I'm back in before 9. I'm hoping it won't last long - I'm getting extra help - but let me tell ya, it's not helping the training schedule any. Progress back to pre-injury levels is painfully slow and I'm not getting in all the time I want.


But today I did a four-mile run (with, ahem, a bit of walking) along my beloved Burke-Gilman trail to Gasworks Park. Have you ever been? It's perhaps my favorite park anywhere, ever. Hulking rusted gasworks loom against little hills and sparking water, and the Seattle skyline. It's the perfect example of how industrial scenery, and things that were never, ever meant to be beautiful, can break your heart. Today, the little store by the water fountain was closed for the winter, but the sun was shining, kites were flying, and the lads were riding unicycles along the winding paths. And even in October, there were still a few blackberries on the bushes.


In other news, we sent got our save-the-date cards and sent them out into the world:

Train interrupts marathon

EAST MOLINE, Ill. - Passing freight trains disrupted the 2005 Quad Cities Marathon, prompting a race organizer to drive a pace truck into the path of an approaching locomotive.

After runners were forced to stop and wait as two trains made their way through East Moline on Sunday, Joe Moreno sped over to an intersection near the 22-mile marker and parked his truck on the railroad tracks, blocking a third train from passing ...

[He then] sat in the vehicle with the doors locked for nearly 1 1/2 hours as several hundred runners crossed the tracks. A railroad employee tried to get Moreno to move his truck, but it wasn't until police arrived that the former East Moline mayor agreed to move the vehicle.

"With every minute, I was buying time for the runners," Moreno said.

Crazy mofo. Full article here.

Come Back to the Big Easy

In an unprecedented move to assist with the rebuilding of New Orleans, the 41st running of the Mardi Gras Marathon and Half Marathon will donate all net proceeds to a special Hurricane Katrina Fund called "Back to the Big Easy". This fund will give ALL NET PROCEEDS from the Mardi Gras Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K to local charities based in the city to help with the Big Easy recovery efforts.

It's next February. Full article here.

Slow and steady does not, actually, win the race. But it does keeps you in the race, and that counts for a lot.

I've been a bad blogger, and haven't been updating. Truth to tell, I've had little to say; there hasn't been a lot going on here at I Run Seattle. I've started a new job - at the same company - which I think is going to be very challenging. Last weekend we took a wonderful road trip along the Cascade Loop. I'd done this drive before - it's magnificent - but never in the autumn. The whole landscape was golden, the light was ethereal, the apple trees were dripping with fruit, and the wine tasting was casual and delicious. Go when you can.

I'm just back from my first official post-fracture "run". I've been working out at the gym a little bit, walking for an hour on an incline, but today was my first technical day out. It's sobering to realize that pre-fracture, I could run ten miles and now, about eight or nine weeks later, I can't do two miles without stopping to walk.

But. But!

Here's where keeping a training journal or blog really pays off. Looking back to when I first started training, back in April, I couldn't run much further than I can now. It's encouraging to browse through the entries and realize how a little effort really does pay off, and gradual increases in mileage really add up. Almost before you know it, really.

So here is my rough plan.

I'm going to follow Bob Glover's beginner schedule for the next six months, gradually building up mileage to 30 miles a week. Only then will I start thinking about marathons.

I'm going to lift weights three times a week. This is for two reasons. Firstly, I have to fit into the wedding dress I bought on my trip to Ireland. I have determined weight-loss goals to get me down to my fighting weight. A measurement of my determination is that I am allowing myself wine or other drinks only 1-2 nights a week. Nice dresses do, after all, require superhuman sacrifices. Secondly, Jon's recent entry made me think a lot about my running form. It's awful, and reading tells me a lot of that can come from weak muscle structure.

Now I am going to shower and get ready to go out. I have a waxing appointment at a salon today, and that means that today is not only a wine day, but a Quick Glass of Wine and a Couple of Extra Strength Tylenol, knocked back at a rate unsuited to a lady, day.

Four runners die during half-marathon in northern England

Unseasonably hot temperatures seem to be to blame.

A Northumbria Police spokesman said: "I can confirm four male participants in the race have died, which is more than the usual one or two - but every year more people are taking part."

The "usual" one or two? The usual "one or two"?

I haven't yet found any updates with more info, but full article here.

Two shoes, goody!

Went to the podiatrist today, got x-rays, and the foot is well on its way. I can finally wear two shoes (I brought three right shoes to Ireland, saving a considerable amount of space). I can start walking - gonna do about an hour a day. In about three weeks, she says, I can start running (though not too much straight away).

I've gotten some great advice from Lara, and will be spending the next three weeks planning the training and race schedule. I know this: I'm in this for the long term, and I can force myself to build slowly.

I'm so happy.

Bush asks Condi for permission to pee.

See Yahoo! news

Gordon saw this and said, "You'd think the President of the United States could go any time he wanted. But then what makes this country great is its system of checks and balances."

This used to be my playground.

Dream house. But you'd want a satellite dish. And high-speed internet access, for sure.

Traditional curraghs at Keem Bay, Achill Island.

The Cliffs of Moher.

The Burren: Not rope enough to hang a man, nor water enough to drown him, nor wood enough to burn him.

A High Cross at Kilfenora, Co. Clare.

The last photo of me in the loathed boot.

Himself in a traditional fisherman's cottage, Bunratty Folk Park.

Things sure have changed here on Walton's Mountain.

That's a lap-dancing club, right in the heart of Galway, next door to Ireland's finest music venue.

Bunratty Castle, ladies and gentlemen, built by the MacNamaras and therefore rightfully mine.

Does performance wicking gear actually cause you harm?

I sweat when I run. I sweat a lot, as anyone who has seen Himself flinch and recoil when I come in from a run will testify.

So I was very interested in this review of wicking gear from today's Slate, and surprised to read the following:

Is it possible that these shirts do their job too well? A small company called TR Gear thinks so. "Our extensive research shows that the high wicking fabrics currently used in the industry can actually increase the risk of injury, fatigue, overheating, and dehydration by not allowing sweat to affectively cool the body through evaporation against the skin," reads the company's Web site.

Mike Smoltz, the founder of TR Gear and the brother of Braves pitcher John Smoltz, told me that newfangled wicking shirts counteract the body's natural thermal regulation mechanism. By drawing sweat away from your skin as soon as it rises to the surface, he says, your body won't cool properly. That will make you sweat even more, which will lead in turn to dehydration and compromised muscle performance.

Hm. I wonder?

For those people for whom 26.2 miles of asphalt is too easy, how about doing it underwater wearing 120lb of old-fashioned diving suit?

"I've had to cope with poor visibility, which has at times been nil, I've had to work against the resistance and the pressure of the water.

"You don't know what's underfoot - sometimes its mud, silt, rocks or nothing.

"The airline also kept getting caught and I also had to deal with a build-up of carbon dioxide in the helmet. It's also very cold and very lonely."

In something of an understatement, this guy, quite possibly a lunatic, admitted: "It's definitely been far more difficult doing it underwater than it has been on land."

Man. Man.

Three-year-old boy to run marathon

He runs seven hours at a stretch, sometimes as much as 48km (30 miles). On a daily basis.

And Budhia Singh is just three and a half years old.

The boy's story is heartbreaking. Full article here.

A run-through wedding chapel! In Vegas! Utter brilliance.

From a mail from the Las Vegas Marathon promoters:

Today we are pleased to announce the world's first Run Thru Wedding Chapel and are issuing a call for one or more couples who are running the marathon and would like to get married on race day. Please send an e-mail to weddings@newlasvegasmarathon.com with your names, location, phone number and tell us in 100 words or less how you met, how long you've been running together and what getting married on race day would mean to you. One lucky couple will be chosen at random to spend their wedding night in a honeymoon suite at Mandalay Bay.

It's pretty tempting.

The Ireland trip was wonderful; I'll post some photos when I have a minute. Right now I'm still ploughing through work e-mail: then I have to catch up on my blogs. Looks like there's been a lot going on!

I'm off ...

It's not yet 6 AM and we're about to leave for the airport for a week in the Ireland.

And I have a doctor's appointment the week I get back, so I might actually start running (and adding running-related content).

Have a great week and some great runs! I'll look forward to reading about them.

Slán anois.

Well then.

Full article (well worth reading) here.

I'd probably do a Buffy marathon. Maybe Twin Peaks or The Sopranos. Or Father Ted. I'd definitely do Father Ted.

" ... The best thing a marathoner can do to delay the onset of discomfort is begin properly, by warming up with a hot bowl of chili and stretching out on the couch."

Bryce underscored the importance of carbo-loading and regular hydration, saying, "I don't want to be like that guy who passed out during the Happy Days marathon because he hadn't been drinking enough Mountain Dew."

Full article here.

Lament for my lost youth

When did I become the sort of person who learns about hip-hop from NPR's Morning Edition?

Bill Maher on Intelligent Design

New Rule: You don't have to teach both sides of a debate, if one side is a load of crap.

http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/new_rules/20050819.html

What makes a runner?

I was thinking about this today as I read this article.

I was a bookworm child and rarely went outside. When I did, it was often just to wander about by myself and make up stories. But I was shortsighted and physically uncoordinated, and if they'd had any teams at all, I would have been picked last.

Even now, in my extremely middle thirties and when I have two functioning feet, I don't think of myself as a runner. I'm someone who runs - not terribly fast or terribly well. I just run the way I do most things: clumsily but with enthusiasm. (Exception: I knit pretty well and very fast. But that's it.)

But I love it. The few races I've run, I've loved the simplicity of it: it's you and your body, pushing towards the finish.

I live vicariously through other runners' blogs. As I'm not running, I've got little to talk about, so I read instead. I really miss running in the mornings right now. When I got my injury, I assumed I would just lapse and soon enough lose interest. But instead I think obsessively about getting back on the road.

This makes me hope that, just maybe, I'm a runner.

Time will tell.

Endurance exercise can cause loss of iron and anaemia

Most athletes are far less aware of the fact that iron is one of the most difficult minerals to absorb, and that they are especially vulnerable to iron depletion through training-induced losses, especially if their event involves endurance training. To make matters worse, the latest ways of measuring iron indicate that that it is perfectly possible to have a healthy blood Hb count while simultaneously suffering from depleted levels of tissue iron. And, if that weren’t enough, new research published this spring has demonstrated this tissue iron depletion impairs the ability of the body to adapt to endurance training.

Full article here.
Luckily, Guinness is a good source of iron.

This guy is totally inspiring

In February 2004 (18 months ago), Stephen Johnson, 50, was overweight with a cholesterol level of 270 and blood pressure reading of 150 plus over 100 plus. The treadmill bored him, but when he was persuaded to try training for a 5K, he lost 40 pounds in the first month.

He recently competed in the Pennsylvania State Senior Games, where he won the 1,500-meter race with a time of five minutes, six seconds.

Full article here.

Michael Osgur White MacNamara

The brother's still dazed.

The Vegas marathon gets a little bizarre ...

A CEO Marathon event will be run in conjunction with the New Las Vegas Marathon on December 4, 2005, on a marathon course that, for the first time, will run the world famous Las Vegas Strip. The race will start and finish at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Convention Center, and the Four Seasons Hotel (which is attached to Mandalay Bay) will serve as the CEO marathon host hotel.

The CEO Marathon Competition will be open to any CEO or Company President (min. annual gross revenue of $5 million US), with awards to the top three in four categories: Female, Male over 50, 40 – 49, and under 40. The top finishers will be ranked vs. other CEOs racing at subsequent CEO Marathon events throughout the world.

Wonder if any of them are bloggers. Full article here. Will be interesting to see - not long now, folks! And Scott is making great progress with the RBF t-shirts. I'm excited.

In other news, the Rundown is up. I love Naomi's site.

Finally, thank you all sosososososo much for your good wishes on my last post. I've had a few requests for the proposal / courtship story - best told over a cocktail in the Mandalay Bay in December. Thank you again - it really does mean a lot to me, and to the tall fella.

We're getting married.

Happy.

Naomi could probably help out here but the rest of us would be caught like a deer trapped by, well, a lion

Three lions showed up as unexpected guests while a marathon race was underway in South Africa's famed Kruger National Park, forcing runners to stop until the animals left the road, local media reported on Tuesday.

Elephants were also an issue:

The elephants left the village before the race started, but the athletes had to run around heaps of dung, the newspaper said.

Full article here

In Which The Avoidance of Laundry Leads to the Sniffing of Shorts

I tell you this with an odd mixture of glee (it's fast! it's efficient!) and embarrassment (I'm not certain if it's gross or not. Something tells me it might be, but I can't pinpoint the exact source of the actual potential grossness.)

Lisa Lisa, a character in Po Bronson's novel Bombadiers (Catch-22 based in San Francisco's financial district) can run four miles in 28 minutes, and when she gets home, she showers in her running clothes, then swishes them around to rinse out the soap.

I thought of this a few weeks ago when it looked like I was drowning under a pile of sweaty Cool-Max, and tried it out.

Washing your clothes in the shower rocks. Go and do it right after your next run. Seriously. Here's what happens: You wash them while you wear them, then rinse them under the shower. If you wear tech fabrics, they dry really really fast. They seem to get really clean: I was initially skeptical until I smelled them the next day (yes, I sniffed my shorts. Shut up.) and was greeted with nothing more offensive than Irish Breeze. (Shut up!) And - this is anecdotal, but it kinda makes sense - handwashing in the shower seemed to restore all the original wicking properties that tend to disappear after multiple machine washings and dryings.

Perspective

• Ticket to Shannon via Newark, leaving 2 September: Check
• Reservation for the doomed rental car: Check
• Itinerary planned (Limerick - Galway - Connemara - Achill - Donegal): Check
• Discovery at this morning's doctor appointment of second stress fracture (in right shin): Suddenly less important.

Hornet Juice Secret to Success for Olympic Winners

The women's marathon winner at the Sydney Olympics has revealed the
secret of her success --- she drank the stomach juices of giant, killer hornets
that fly 100km a day at up to 25 km/hour. Naoko Takahashi, from Japan, consumed
the hornet juice during training and the ace itself after scientists discovered
that it had astonishing powers to boost human stamina.

Man, I'm all over it. It's worth scrolling to read the testimonials.

Because I just can't write enough about my feet.

Monday I went to a podiatrist at Virginia Mason in Seattle. Well! I just can't say enough about VM: Pilar Almy was just the coolest thing ever. I reeled off the list of variables I thought might have caused the injury: increased mileage, new shoes ... and finally, changing my gait to land on the midsection / ball of the foot. Because of Chi Running, I explained. "Ouch-chi running," she said.

I love puns.

She sent me off for a bone scan, and I'm just back.

First thing this morning I went in and received an injection of a radioactive tracer fluid. It was a little disturbing to see the syringe arrive in a thick metal safety container, but the technician explained that it was to protect her: it isn't highly radioactive, but she's exposed to it all day, every day. Then I lay on the bed and she taped my feet together, not an experience I've had without at least a bottle of wine beforehand. I had to lie still for five minutes at a time while she photographed the soft tissue. I didn't see any of those pictures.

Then I was sent home to work and wait while the tracer fluid settled in my bones. The scan works because the fluid settles in the part of the bone that is growing most: the injury site. I had to drink 8 ounces of water every 30 minutes, and pee every 15. Apparently. Then I came back for the interesting part.

I love Yuri and Luke, the guys who do the scanning in VM. "Hm," said Yuri, looking at the images on the computer, "that foot is going to have to come off." "He's my Obi-Wan," said Luke, taping my feet together. Turns out Yuri is a serious runner himself. "You've been putting in the miles," he said, pointing out the areas on my shin bones where the bones were getting stronger. "Plus, you've had shin splints." I said no, I'd had no trouble. "Uh-uh," he said, pointing at the screen, "I can see them there."

The stress fracture showed up as a very distinct pink dot, indicating a high concentration of the tracer fluid. Interestingly, there were some other pink areas around the front of each ankle. I haven't been experiencing pain there, so it's kind of sobering to see evidence of even minor injury. "Stay off concrete," Yuri warned.

Okay.

On Monday I go back to the podiatrist. I'm gonna take Jeff's advice and hit the gym hard. I'm wondering whether to knit while on the stationary bike.

For many people, I'm nothing but a disappointment.

I'm looking at you, person who got here by Googling "porno race".

It's the Rundown, and it's here all week.

Sometimes you have a dream week, run, or race, and it’s what you hoped it would be. Dianna and Annalisa are officially triathletes – what a inspiring day, even for those of us who thrash in the water like a drunk drowning. Dark O’Clock set a goal and kicked its ass. Dawn ran a relay and even shared her socks. BD did a personal best on the 5K.

Sometimes, though, you hit the wall. Sometimes during the race, sometimes before or after.

Maybe it’s a race that turns out harder than we expected. It might be something you’ve lived with your whole life, like Brooklyn, but refuse to be beaten by. Injury takes its toll: Mark tells how he endured pain for years before finding a treatment that works and keeps him on the road, shoes or no shoes. In a thoughtful post, April-Anne shares a hard long-run day and the reasons why a runner might fall out of form. Chocolate Runner did the smart thing with his foot pain and lived to run another day. Stephanie’s run the numbers, figured the odds, and is going to run her marathon after all, no matter how many hours on the elliptical it takes. Nic’s recovered from a stress fracture, and ready to tackle the San Francisco women’s marathon in October, hangover or no hangover (Nic is my kind of runner). After a few great races, Sarah is doing what it takes to get herself back on the road and feeling good, and all our best wishes go to her.

When it gets hard, Alison finds encouragement with running partners, in a post that shows how sometimes it takes the presence of another person to make us hit the road. Chelle gets through her race even when stung by bees!


It’s at times like this that I’m thankful for the Running Blog Family. A few years ago, if you were injured and your partner or lover or friends or family weren’t runners, you could have been on your own, without access to people who truly understood your pain, your struggle, or your goals. Now we have this huge worldwide family of talented runners who understand, help, and encourage. Thanks to The Miracle That Is Technology ™, this is a fantastic time to be a runner.

Stephanie tagged me, so here goes...

I like Stephanie's blog.

Q: What are you training for now? (Oh! The timing!)
A: The Las Vegas Marathon (December) and the Royal Victoria Half Marathon (October). If those don't work out, the Connemara Marathon in March, in Ireland. Plus, if I can't do Vegas, I still have an entry for the Seattle marathon, which I might just change to a half.

Q: If you are raising money for a cause, what is it and why is that cause important to you?
Um, I'm not. I should be, but I'm not. AIDS research, poverty relief. Science education for girls. Actually science education for everybody.

Q: What is the furthest distance you've run in your training and what is the furthest distance you will run before your event?
A: 10 miles. If I stick to my schedule, I should do three 2o-milers.

Q:What is your favorite flavor of gu? (or other sports gel)
A: So far I've only tried Road Runner Sports own brand vanilla. It has the texture you'd expect to get if you blended a selection of body fluids with a bunch of sugar. I'm open to something new.

Q: How many days a week do you run?
A: Five, all being well. My natural instinct is to do everything to excess. If five days is good, why, seven must be even better. Three miles are good? Watch me do five! See last couple entries for information on how that all turned out. :-)

Q: Are you injured in any way right now? If so,what are you doing about it?
A: Why, yes, I am! My therapy so far consists of bitching on the Internet and wearing a big ol boot. I have a podiatrist appt on Tuesday.

Q:What is one item of running clothing/gear (shoes don't count) you can't run without?
A: Running bra. Bandanna on warm days: I sweat so much that putting sunscreen on my forehead blinds me when it melts. Plus I think it makes me look like a pirate.

Q: Do you have a talisman you are planning on taking to your event? If so, tell us!
A: My boyfriend gave me a lovely necklace for my birthday. In one way it's too fancy to run with, but it's light and when I'm tired it makes me feel good to put my hand to my throat and touch it.

Q: Share one thing about yourself we don't know.
My first job involved copyediting Doctor Who books and soft porn. Not as glamorous as it sounds.

Now I tag Jeff, Sarah, dark o'clock, and Trisha.

Don't want to get all The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow on your ass, but you know, things aren't so bad

I'm feeling so much better today. First, I have a stylish orthopaedic boot, which I anticipate being a pleasure to bring through airport security tomorrow - especially flying to D.C. - and secondly, I'm really encouraged and boosted by thoughtful e-mails and comments that have made a huge difference to my mood. They really did help. Thank you so much (and thank you to P for putting up w/ the histrionics).


And anyway, I did a bit of research. Sometimes you're only off for around three weeks - even five will probably put me in the ballpark for a long slow Vegas run (not that I was expecting a fast one). And if that doesn't happen - why, I've just registered for the Connemara Marathon! Twenty-six and a bit miles through the some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, and another opportunity to go home (and in March! When the west of Ireland is at its most magical!). Not a bad alternative, and an extra four months to train, so I might even do a better time.

Plus, off to D.C. tomorrow. When I get back, I'll be hosting the Rundown. You know the drill - got some interesting posts or news or race reports? Bring it!

So it goes. I guess.

Thank you for the good wishes on the foot. I appreciate it a lot.

It looks like I have a stress fracture in my foot. The pain increased a lot today, and my foot was swelling over my shoe like bread in a loaf pan, so I decided to see a doctor, which involved much fussing over the internet on account of the fact that I've never gotten around to getting a primary care physician and needed to find someone in a hurry.

I have to see a podiatrist to confirm - apparently these things don't always show up on x-rays - but for now, I have to stay off the foot as much as possible. It can take 6-10 weeks of healing before you can run again. So Vegas might well be out for me this year.

I had no idea just how much I love running, and love the progress I've been making; I had no idea how important running this marathon is to me, or how much I love connecting with fellow runners on the Web, until I sat this afternoon watching fat salty tears fall beside my foot on the x-ray mat.

"Your foot must hurt a lot," the technician said sympathetically.

I'm lucky that I rarely stay down for long, and I'm sure that in a day or so I'll be feeling positive again - plus there's a chance that the podiatrist might have a different view - but I have to admit it: I'm feeling pretty low right now.

Smoove out.

god DAMN it, my foot hurts

So this morning I pretty much had to limp home from the Fremont Bridge: my left foot hurts like hell when I put weight on it. What can be the cause? Hard to say. Mileage has gone up, but by a reasonable amount; new shoes seemed to be fine after their first long run. The pain is at the ball of the foot, right under the toes - it hurts when I flex. This better not be anything scary. So I'm gonna bite the bullet and rest tomorrow, and longer if necessary. One friend has already had to cancel his marathon plans because of injury. It sounds heartbreaking. Better to take a couple days off now.

But in other news - on Friday I'm of f to DC to see my oldest and dearest friend before her baby arrives and our landscape is changed (and improved!) forever. I'm so excited that if I didn't have a painful foot I'd be dancing down the corridors.

Runner to tell female marathoners' stories on film

The subjects of his film are four women runners, three of whom are training to qualify for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Delalis and his wife, Eve Drinis, 43, travel to various races around the country to film the four women as they train and compete.

"We want the general public to know that women can be just as accomplished out in the running world as men," Delalis said. "It's getting better, but there's still a bias against women in running. You tend to think of male runners."

In addition to showing the relevancy of women runners, Delalis wants to portray how these particular women incorporate running into their busy lives.

Full article here. I couldn't find any references to this on IMDB.com, but while I was there I decided to check out marathon movies. There are seven just called Marathon, of which this - "a view of the Olympic Games at Barcelona, using the marathon race as the weaving thread" - seemed the most interesting. The search did yield the intriguing The Porno Race, "also known as Marathon Love, VM i samlag (Sweden), and World Sex Festival (USA)."

Netflix is less useful: The Sports Documentaries section puts has no running category, and the Other Sports category offers movies about poker, ice skating, and Lingerie Bowl 2004: The Ultimate Catfight (2004).

Any recommendations for great, inspiring distance-running movies that don't feature drill-wielding Nazis?

I'll share the Burke-Gilman with you ladies any day.

Here's what I saw when I crossed the Fremont Bridge yesterday to get onto the Burke-Gilman trail: 2,400 women on the last leg of a 60-mile walk that raised over $6 million for cancer research.

Man, this was awesome: apart from maybe one or two tired women grimly trudging to the finish, the whole trail was full of laughing, partying women who'd walked almost 60 miles and were closing on the finish. Saturday night they'd spent camped in Marymoor Park - can you imagine how fun that was?

Next year, I am so there.

www.the3day.org

Back in the running world there are challenges I can't imagine facing...

On July 12, in 24 hours, 36 minutes and eight seconds, the Seattle man won the Badwater, one of ultrarunning's toughest events. Before the California race, Jurek had never run more than 90 minutes on pavement. Nor had he trained for the intense desert heat, except for arriving a week early to the Death Valley start area. And, he'd just come off of winning another world-class ultramarathon two weeks earlier -- barely any recovery time between two colossally demanding endurance feats...

"You dig down deep, whether it's the deep recesses of your body or your soul. It's very soul-searching in a way," he said. "Even though everything else seems to be unraveling, you try to find a way, a source of strength. And, you don't always know where that comes from."

Unimaginable.
Full article here

"It is time now to get serious about religion - all religion - and draw a firm line between the real world and the world of dreams."

Polly Toynbee in today's Guardian (what a motherlode today!):

Enlightenment values are in peril not because these mad beliefs are really growing but because too many rational people seek to appease and understand unreason. Extreme superstition breeds extreme action. Those who believe they alone know the only way, truth and life will always feel justified in doing anything in its name. You would, wouldn't you, if you alone had the magic answer to everything? If religions teach that life after death is better then it is hardly surprising that some crazed followers will actually believe it.

Full article here.

Perhaps they told you that science wants to reduce their life to simple laws.

The Guardian's Bad Science column is the highlight of my Thursdays, debunking the pseudoscience that gets passed off on the gullible by what columnist Ben Goldacre memorably called "New Age moron-fleecers". What's the dumbest thing anyone's ever said to you about science at a party?

Last week, I was at a party and somebody starting telling me that the theories produced by science would be different if it had been done by women. I asked her whether she thought Newton's three laws of motion might have turned out differently if he had been a woman, and she said yes, of course. I asked her how, exactly, she thought that Newton could single-handedly change the fact that acceleration of a body is proportional to the force acting on it, divided by its mass? And she walked off.

Full article here.

Does this mean I've become a serious runner?

So a couple of years ago (there was no snow this year in Washington) I decided to learn to ski, and off we went to the slopes. My friends would vanish to the high pistes, and I would practice on the bunny slopes with the babies. I'd lie on the snow like an overturned tortoise while these tiny space creatures would come flying past me, sailing on toy skis. One of the space creatures - I will always remember this - was clutching a blankie.

So two things mark the beginner skier: the whole lying-on-the-snow thing, and the brand-new shiny ski clothes. Meanwhile local kids in ratty rain gear pulled over their jeans are carving up the mountain, way up there on those peaks that will be forever foreign to me.

A while ago I bought a spiffy Adidas running shirt. I loved it so much - it really does wick everything away, an important factor when you sweat like I do - that I went and bought the matching shorts.

This morning I pulled them on and just before leaving saw myself in the hallway mirror in my matching branded shirt and shorts, and thought: You look like a dork.

Do run run run do run run

Check out the latest Rundown here. Nice job, and a good intro to a few bloggers I haven't read before.

I'll be hosting on August 2. I'm still trying to come up with a theme - the pressure is on - so send me your blog links!

60-year-old blind woman completes half-marathon...

... two years after breaking her leg in a skiing accident. Extraordinary.

Full article here.

Double it and add a 10K - why, that's a marathon right there!

Ten miles! Ten miles!

I'm ecstatic, I'm high on nature's MDMA, and I'm full of excellent dim sum I ate right afterwards.

I know I've got a long way to go yet, and ten miles must soon seem like not such a big deal - but right now, I'm over the moon to have reached double figures without aches or pains, falls or flaying.

New kicks

I quit work early yesterday - I've been working crazy hours - and headed off to Road Runner Sports in Greenlake for what was an interesting if financially imprudent visit.

It was time to get new shoes. I'd had my gait analyzed at The Seattle Running Company, and I've been fairly happy with the Brooks Adrenaline shoes they recommended. But they didn't feel perfect, so I wanted to try something new.

To analyze your gait, the Seattle Running Company videotapes your feet and ankles as you run on a treadmill. Then the guy looks at the footage to see how you run.

Road Runner Sports, however, uses a different system, called Gait Analysis by Presto Scan. You walk onto a pressure-sensitive pad, and a snapshot of the pressure patterns on your foot is sent to the PC.

It's really interesting to see. Turns out that while my previous analysis said I was slightly pronated, this time the guy told me I had a high arch and a very balanced foot for my height and build etc. "I'd just recommend a cushioning shoe," he said.

After a few runs around the block I ended up with the Asics Gel Nimbus VII. I love them. They feel like I'm walking on air; they have a funky design; and the mesh in front is so light you can feel the breeze on your toes when you run. It's a lovely, lovely feeling.

I'm in love with my new shoes.

A simple idea. Let's do it.

From an e-mail forwarded by my sister in London:

Following the disaster in London . . .East Anglian Ambulance Service have launched a national "In Case of Emergency (ICE)" campaign.The idea is that you store the word "I C E" in your mobile phone address book, and against it enter the number of the person you want to be contacted in case of an emergency. In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them. It's so simple that everyone can do it. Please do. Please will you also email this to everybody in your address book, it won't take too many 'forwards' before everybody will know about this. It really could help the emergency services in doing their job. For more than one contact name ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc.

Get that ICE.

You've got 50 minutes to beat Beethoven

Something new in road racing events is happening Friday night in Windsor. The Beat Beethoven Run for Breast Cancer will challenge runners to cross the finish line before the conclusion of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which will start at 7 p.m.

Brilliant idea. Full article here.

I have foreseen the manner of my death.

My end will come either under the wheels of a Burke-Gilman summer cyclist or, all murder conviction appeals exhausted, at the hands of the Washington State executioner.

And you know something? It will be worth it.

Exercise withdrawal can be mood-altering

This totally makes sense to me. Since I've started running I've become intolerably chirpy in the morning. I missed running this morning because of sleeping late, and already I feel grouchy and unfocused.

"After only one week of exercise withdrawal ... approximately three workouts missed ... there were significant increases in feelings of fatigue and decreases in feelings of vigor."After two weeks, the symptoms got worse: The subjects were more tired, depressed; they felt pangs of guilt over missing exercise. These feelings correlated with a loss of physical fitness. "The people who lost the most fitness were the ones who experienced the largest increases in negative mood," Berlin said.

Full article here

O Canada! Oh yeah. For sure.

God, I love Canada.

I'm actually lucky enough to have a Canadian passport - I was born in Montreal - and it's looking pretty good after our road trip through British Columbia.

We headed through eastern Washington - due to some poor navigation on my part, with a brief detour to the Grand Coulee Dam - to take the good ship Martha S. across to the Colville reservation and on to the nicest border crossing in the world: Danville.

Then on to Nelson: a perfect mountain town. It has everything: good food, bookstores, a beautiful bridge, fantastic coffee, and intoxicating, dizzying mountain scenery. Plus, everybody is skinny there. The local newspaper has a "Pet of the Week" column, which last week featured a ginger tom called O.J.


We stayed nearby, in Banfour, for three nights - I was ready to move to Kaslo - and then took the ferry across Lake Kootenay - it must be the most spectacular ride in the world. Then on to Invermere, and some kayaking. My friend and I took a trip to Banff, hoping to find out something about the exhibition my sister, her partner, and her ex-husband had there last year. No luck - but we got to see Banff, and we also got to see Lake Louise, which looks like somebody took a perfectly beautiful Alpine lake and did some entirely gratuitous Photoshop job on it to make it even more beautiful.

Kelowna was a surprise. You don't get much Canadian wine in the States, and we chose our first winery pretty much because it was near the hotel.

The Mission Hill winery was as beautiful a setting as I've seen. It's designed like a contemporary version of a Tuscan villa. We ate like kings and I've decided to assume that the waitresses found our conversation amusing. We did, anyway. In fact, the last three days of our trip were just full of the most fantastic food. At Mission Hill we had a tasting menu, of which I especially remember the pea soup: bright and zingy, with a spoonful of goats cheese in the centre.

In Vancouver, we had another fantastic meal at Tojo's - recommended without reservation: go for one of the chef's tasting menus.

Did I run? Well, I ran four days, including one eight-miler. Man, that was hard - I haven't checked the elevation, but I think we were pretty high. But I'll run this week. Right now I'm sleepy and tired and ready for work in the morning. We've just eaten lobster and mussels washed down with a lovely Mission Hill Pinot Blanc.

I can run tomorrow.

Life doesn't get much better than this.

• Friday - 07/01: Drive Seattle -> Nelson BC
• Monday – 07/04: Drive Nelson -> Invermere
• Thurs – 07/07: Drive Invermere -> Okanogan
• Friday – 07/08: Drive Kelowna -> Vancouver BC
• Saturday - home
  

Fishing, hiking, camping, beer, good company, hot springs, wine tasting, and, I hope, some running.

Back in a week or so. Best wishes to Jeff at Seafair!

Are you a runner? Wear sunscreen.

Graduates of the 2005 Run For Your Life Training Program: Wear Good Supportive Athletic Shoes (fade in background music.)

If I could offer you only one tip for future training; good, supportive shoes would be it. Studies have indicated that a good training shoe will reduce injuries. The rest of my advice has no basis other than my own collective experience. I'll share it now.

Don't worry about winning. Sometimes you will and sometimes you won't. Losing will give you motivation to try harder.

Don't worry about coming in last. Finishing an event is an accomplishment, in and of itself.

Keep your old race T-shirts. Be kind to your body. Don't be ashamed of it. It's a gift.

Stretch. Don't feel guilty if you miss a week or two of training. Your body will appreciate the break.

Full article here.

Best. Runner. Hack. Ever.

I am so glad Marshall stopped by. Not only is he eminently rational, but his blog pointed me towards The Google Maps Pedometer - a truly useful hack of Google maps that lets you calculate the distance of any route you run just by clicking waypoints on the map. I'll be using this every weekend - thanks, Marshall, for the heads up! Wish this was available for MapPoint ...