Day 1: A Line in the Sand

So it begins. You have to draw a line in the sand somewhere – then straighten up, compose yourself and say loud enough for someone to hear: “today, I’m starting training for a marathon.”

Did you hear that?

Maybe I’ll say it again so I’ll convince myself that it’s true – I’m training for a marathon.

Oh boy.

I think it was Frank Shorter who said that he didn’t start training for another marathon until he forgot his last one. I still remember my last one. Vividly. It was Ottawa in 2009. I blew that race. It got hot – I didn’t adjust. No. Instead, I went out too quick. Did 10k in 39 when I’d been training to run 4:00/k pace. Not smart. Died over the final 12k.

So why go back for more pain?

Well, I made an agreement with Alex. He wants to run a long one – and I always wanted another shot – so here was a chance to focus on a race with a training partner. We’re both hungry to succeed – we both drink too much beer. But we will help each other over the next 247 days.

That’s right – 247 days. We’ve chosen the Goodlife Toronto Marathon as our goal – and even though it’s so far away – not until May 6, 2012 – it looms on both of our horizons. There’ll be a lot of miles (kilometres, sorry!) between now and then. It’s hard to know what life will throw our way, but I’m willing to see – willing to give this race a real try – to work hard, get fast, and finally answer my own burning question: how fast can I really run?

This is the point – we both have a desire to put in the work to see what we can do. Alex is used to this – he knows how to do it. I don’t. I’m the perennial “full of potential” guy who never gets it done, never actualizes what could be. But I can learn actualization from Alex. What he can learn from me is how to achieve long-run mind. My gift will be showing him how to turn down the stream of mental demands and just lock in a comfortable pace and roll through the landscape.

Day 1 was yesterday. We ran together for the first time in over a month. Back in Shubie for about 14k. We went from 4:40s to 3:40s over the course of the run. Felt great. Then we had lunch and beer at the Celtic Corner – on the rooftop patio overlooking the harbour. It’ll be hard to cut down on scenic beers.

Today was Day 2. Nice and easy 7k along the Dartmouth waterfront, talking about how the city will change when the King’s Wharf development finishes. It’s funny – we’re both uncomfortable with gentrification – but we’re a part of it. We won’t get pushed out, but some will. It’s surprising, though, that it took this long for money people to figure out that Dartmouth downtown is one of the best places to live – the view is the best in the city and the commute takes less time than Clayton Park – and for now, the housing market is way cheaper. But that’s going to change.

Anyway... stay tuned for this adventure as Alex and I reshape ourselves into marathoners. I might even be able to convince Alex to contribute an entry or two as we go along – no guarantees, though – he is, after all, one of our country’s best young literary fiction writers, and his pen is in demand.

But you never know – maybe he’ll share an insight or two with RINS.

Either way, there’s no backing out now. We’re locked in.

A Good Running and Philosophy Blog

When I first started this blog, my entries were long and introspective. I thought they were insightful and poetic while at the same time readable – deluded boy that I am. J-A told me (gently) that they were boring and painful. They were too “academic.” But one of my stated goals in taking up blogging was to expand my writing voice beyond the dry one I’d developed over my decade of lying prostrate to the higher mind (I do miss it, sigh). So I set myself the task of learning how to write “breezy.”

It hasn’t been easy.

Nevertheless (I had to throw a big word in there!), I feel like over the past couple of years I’ve tossed my inner academic out of the blogosphere. I may not be any less boring, but at least I’m easy to read!

I’ll admit, though – I miss the rush of stringing together complex sentences in order to weave a rich intellectual tapestry of compelling ideas (oops – those words just slipped out, my apologies). Good thing that there are bloggers out there who still believe in striking a balance between readability and substance.

One of my favourite running blogs that digs deeper than the self-indulgent and banal ramblings of a mediocre recreational runner (should that be my blog name??) is called The Logic of Long Distance. It’s written by an academic philosopher in the southern US, and he writes very readable essays that bring great ideas and running together. His latest post takes up a philosopher’s lament about the over-valuation of “usefulness” in all aspects of modern life – and shows how running is a kind of resistance against this soul-destroying narrow mindedness in that its value cannot easily be categorized as “useful”; rather, its value – like the value of a life – is not exchangeable on the market; it is inherent in the doing.

I highly recommend keeping tabs on this blog. And maybe one of these days I’ll slip in an entry or two that is a little less breezy...

Garmin Scare

I’ve had my Garmin 301 for over six years. I’ve been married to it longer than I’ve been married to J-A (well, she gave it to me, so it’s not cheating). You can imagine, then, the flood of emotion I had today when I tried to plug it in to recharge it and nothing happened. Normally a message flashes on the screen and bounces all around: Charging in Progress. This time: blankness – the void.

Oh god.

I instantly jumped to the worst conclusion – the Garmin’s tiny USB port was forever compromised, severed so that power could never again ignite its tiny little heart. How would I talk to the angelic satellites above who so generously bestow the divine wisdom of pace and distance? I imagined life without running data – it was grey, bleak.


I googled the problem. Not much doing. Everyone was talking about software and uploading and such – what did I care about that? One guy said spray the darn thing with WD-40 to remove the corrosion caused by salty sweat. I was about to do that when I figured I’d try one last thing – using a different cord, the one that attaches the wee USB port on the Garmin to the big USB port on my computer.

Ah, it was a miracle. The message appeared: Charing in Progress, bouncing off the sides of the tiny screen. It was the cord that plugs into the wall that failed, not my little wrist prophet. Can you imagine my joy? Are there words...?

I don’t care what the “purists” say – I like my Garmin. It’s logged a lot of mileage – been through a lot of weather with me. I know it won’t live forever – but I’m glad it’s going to live another day!

Cross Country Tour -- Part 3

They say that Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene is 700km wide. That’s huge. We’ve got the hem of her cloud skirt over us now, but we’ve barely had any rain, and the winds haven't gotten over 40km/h yet. We’re supposed to get some more intense weather overnight, but the worst of it is tracking far inland, up through Quebec. Looks like we dodged this one – although Tropical Storm Jose is brewing off the coast of Bermuda right now and tracking our way...

Despite the threat of dramatic weather, today was perfect for running – overcast with a cool breeze. I was able to get an easy one in with J-A in the morning and then a faster one (4:03/k for 10.4km) in the afternoon on my own. I’ve been battling my hip injury for five weeks now. I think it’s getting better finally (fingers crossed), but my mileage has tanked, and I haven’t run a hard workout in over a month. I’m starting to go a bit squirrely. I wanna run hard – but I wanna get to the line healthy for Rum Runners and for the PEI Half Marathon. Ack!

After a few massage sessions with Monica at the Tower Life Mark (she’s the best I’ve seen by far!), I’ve discovered that the main problem is with my gluteus medius (glute meed to those in the know). It’s strained or tight or whatever and causing a cascade of problems – IT band, quads, and lower back. But them’s the breaks – I just have to run easy, stretch it out, and roll it while lying on a tennis ball. Fun.


In the meantime, I’m going to do an update on my fabulous (virtual) cross-country running tour. When last I checked how far across Canada my yearly mileage has gotten me, I was in Thessalon, ON, just south of Sault Ste. Marie. My grand mileage total is now 2620.7km, which puts me in (drum roll) – Lake Superior Provincial Park.


I’m on the shores of Gitchi Gumi, the largest freshwater lake on the planet.


The star attraction of this park – other than the intensely beautiful scenery – is Agawa Rock and the ochre pictographs that are painted all over its face just above the water line. Ojibway shamans and warriors have been coming to this rock to paint their dreams for millennia. It’s a place I’ve been dying to see for years – too bad this tour is virtual!


The picture above is of the great lynx that dwells in the lake and pulls the unlucky down into the murky depths. His name isn’t supposed to be spoken in summer – only in winter when most waters are frozen over. Look at the great cat’s spine – the angry chop of stormy Superior waters. Those waters can easily turn fatal.

Perhaps I’d do well to respect Tropical Storm Irene. We may only get brushed by the hem of her skirt – but what a skirt!