Monday, October 11, 2010
Sports Tape
Well, there's nothing more annoying than struggling with an injury, for months, only to find a relatively simple therapy that seems to make it go away. After struggling with heel pain since late July, I decided to try taping the back of my heel, and, wonder of wonders, the inflammation seems to be going down, the pain at the Achilles insertion seems to be going away. Who knew?? I'm quite hopeful that this will finally work. That's the good news. The bad news, of course, is that I'm creaky, slow, and out of running shape. The other bad news is that it's too late to get back on course for the Philadelphia Marathon, so for the rest of the Fall, I think I'm just running for giggles. Oh well.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Writing About Running
Whenever there is a baseball game on the radio my wife usually remarks how evocative the game is in this format. She is right. Baseball is evocative and even more so on the radio with its built in nostalgia and call upon our imaginations to supply the missing sights and sounds of the game. As a result baseball has some of the best sports writing in history with superb writers like Gay Talese and John Updike writing on themes of redemption or the search for reclaimed glory.
Writing about running seems harder for some reason. Sprints are too short and marathons are too long may be part of the problem. Maybe also that the greatness is as much internal as external and harder to capture. Where are the stories about Deena Kastor and her brilliant and gutty strategy at the Athens Olympics starting out so slowly that she wasn't in the top thirty half through the race and than reeling in the now faltering runners ahead of her in the heat and humidity of Athens until she captured a rare marathon medal for the US?
Here's to Jere Longman of the NY Times who profiled Joan Benoit Samuelson this morning before she became the first woman marathoner in history to go sub-2:50 in five different decades. Sandwiched between a photo of a triumphant Samuelson at the inaugural woman's marathon in Los Angeles in 1984 and one of the middle aged runner of today were these words: "She is 53 now, her hair has gone gray, and there is autumn in her legs."
Today Joan Beniot Samuelson ran a 2:47 on an unseasonably hot day and Jere Longman became one of my favorite sports writers.
Writing about running seems harder for some reason. Sprints are too short and marathons are too long may be part of the problem. Maybe also that the greatness is as much internal as external and harder to capture. Where are the stories about Deena Kastor and her brilliant and gutty strategy at the Athens Olympics starting out so slowly that she wasn't in the top thirty half through the race and than reeling in the now faltering runners ahead of her in the heat and humidity of Athens until she captured a rare marathon medal for the US?
Here's to Jere Longman of the NY Times who profiled Joan Benoit Samuelson this morning before she became the first woman marathoner in history to go sub-2:50 in five different decades. Sandwiched between a photo of a triumphant Samuelson at the inaugural woman's marathon in Los Angeles in 1984 and one of the middle aged runner of today were these words: "She is 53 now, her hair has gone gray, and there is autumn in her legs."
Today Joan Beniot Samuelson ran a 2:47 on an unseasonably hot day and Jere Longman became one of my favorite sports writers.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Feeling Funky
After turning a paper over to the editors, beginning the next project is a monumental task. After finishing a race, concentrating on the next one is a major hurdle. Marine Corps Marathon is only three weeks away and I . . . just . . . don't . . . care. I'm supposed to run 8 x 800m today (the infamous "Yasso 800s"), but will probably read about neo-Chicago antitrust on the Kindle instead. (A positive externality of my running funk seems to be getting work done!) Any ideas?
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Chicago Marathon
This Sunday is the Chicago Marathon. It was my first, my last, and my favorite. There is nothing better than waking up in one's own bed at a relatively decent hour, getting ready in the comfort of one's own home, and then moseying by car, cab, or el to the start of a race which I know like the back of my hand. I pass my apartment going north at mile 6.5 and then going south on a different street at mile 8.5. I pass old schools and offices and usually see a dozen or so folks I know at corners where they live.
But I am not entered this year. It was part of my New Year's Resolution to get healthy and put 18 months of plantar fasciatis behind me. I may pace a friend or may just run a bit of the course once the elite runners are long past. Banditry you say? Maybe so, but as long as you don't try to start or finish nobody bothers you. And with a water belt and a few snacks in pocket, I am not taking up any resources, even on the warm day that is expected for Sunday.
10-10-10. I'll be there but only probably from about mile 6.5 through 20 (Chinatown) then a quick el ride home. Nothing like a pleasant jog with a million or so of my friends and neighbors.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Kindle
The jury is still out -- as a consumer law prof, I insist on using my 30-day return period to its utmost -- but I am really, really excited about my Kindle. For my birthday this year I received the cheapest of the current available models. The "free 3G" on the more expensive ones would be a neat way for me to pay Amazon for the right to be tempted by their latest offerings even when away from wifi, and as far as I can tell serves no other useful purpose. (Free 3G does not apply if one wants to load one's own documents using cellular service -- there's a charge for that. It only works for loading Amazon documents, which are primarily e-books for which one pays.)
Kindle is easy to use, which is essential for me. It lacks almost all of the neat functionality -- read, distractions -- of a laptop or iPad, which is unequivocally a good thing. Probably partly for that reason, the battery life is remarkable. I'm three days in on a charge, with a couple of hours per day of use, and the meter suggests I am at 80% or better. I can e-mail myself PDFs (to a special Kindle e-mail), load them on the Kindle by turning it on in the presence of wifi, and read them wherever. It's small, light, and easy to carry. This last feature was my primary hope. I am constantly carrying a heavy briefcase -- even a litigation bag -- full of documents when traveling, for the privilege of reading maybe 10% of what I carry. Kindle should solve the sore shoulder problem.
And my reading is better than using paper. First, the part of the page I am seeing is much smaller, so I am not distracted by (e.g.) the footnotes. Second, the note-taking function, which is kind of neat, is hard enough to use that I am not constantly running down tangents in the margins. Few things frustrate me more than cluttering up the abstract of somebody's paper with my own notes and never actually reading the paper. That is the norm for me with airplane reading. On yesterday's flight, I worked through a first read of three very helpful articles in 75 minutes. Now, that is productivity.
I don't envision reading a lot of literature on the Kindle. I like my wall full of books, which is as much my own version of artwork as it is reading material. But I have downloaded a few dozen free public domain e-books, which for some reason are classic horror works that I've not yet read. So around Halloween I'll test it as a book reader!
Kindle is easy to use, which is essential for me. It lacks almost all of the neat functionality -- read, distractions -- of a laptop or iPad, which is unequivocally a good thing. Probably partly for that reason, the battery life is remarkable. I'm three days in on a charge, with a couple of hours per day of use, and the meter suggests I am at 80% or better. I can e-mail myself PDFs (to a special Kindle e-mail), load them on the Kindle by turning it on in the presence of wifi, and read them wherever. It's small, light, and easy to carry. This last feature was my primary hope. I am constantly carrying a heavy briefcase -- even a litigation bag -- full of documents when traveling, for the privilege of reading maybe 10% of what I carry. Kindle should solve the sore shoulder problem.
And my reading is better than using paper. First, the part of the page I am seeing is much smaller, so I am not distracted by (e.g.) the footnotes. Second, the note-taking function, which is kind of neat, is hard enough to use that I am not constantly running down tangents in the margins. Few things frustrate me more than cluttering up the abstract of somebody's paper with my own notes and never actually reading the paper. That is the norm for me with airplane reading. On yesterday's flight, I worked through a first read of three very helpful articles in 75 minutes. Now, that is productivity.
I don't envision reading a lot of literature on the Kindle. I like my wall full of books, which is as much my own version of artwork as it is reading material. But I have downloaded a few dozen free public domain e-books, which for some reason are classic horror works that I've not yet read. So around Halloween I'll test it as a book reader!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Race Report -- Halfmax Championship
USA triathlon -- the national governing body for multisport -- holds so-called age-group championship events for various multisport disciplines, with the goal of crowning a national team for the yearly age-group world championship in that discipline. This year's age group long-course triathlon championship was held in Myrtle Beach, SC, on Saturday. My first multisport event this year was the age group duathlon championship. This was my last multisport race of the year.
We suffered severe rains in the mid-Atlantic states over the week prior. At home in DC we had several inches of rain that week. In Myrtle Beach they reported a whopping 22 inches. Driving from DC to Myrtle Beach was a little like competing in the swim leg of the triathlon. It was extremely wet, and the bigger athletes (SUVs and Semis) pushed us around mercilessly. It is a good thing I got the experience in the car. The rain created massive run-off, and the intracoastal waterway, which near Myrtle Beach is a narrow canal dredged by the Corps of Engineers, registered unsafe levels of e-coli. The swim leg was canceled.
We raced the bike and the run portions of a half-iron-distance race. ("Long-course" usually means half-iron- or iron-distance, although it can also include non-traditional distances that exceed a mid-course "olympic distance".) The racecourse was flat and uninspired. Although Myrtle Beach hosted the race, you wouldn't know it; the run and the bike were on roads far enough from the water that the only sign of the Atlantic Ocean's proximity was the 15-mph wind from the northeast. Is it asking a lot that a destination race have a course designed to show off the destination? Ironman Cozumel, last November, involved biking thrice around the tip of that island, with views of the Caribbean nearly constant. (The swim was in the ocean as well, rather than an inland canal. An ocean swim Saturday might have mitigated the e-coli problem.) Ironman Louisville plotted a course through horse country and along the Ohio River. I have recently reported here that the Nation's Tri races through downtown DC, within blocks of the Capitol and White House. Not so in Myrtle Beach.
One might also complain of USA Triathlon's abysmal lack of foresight. The purpose of this race was to pick a team to compete in the world championship in Henderson, Nevada, in November 2011, over a notoriously difficult and hilly triathlon course. The most successful competitors on Saturday were biking-and-running specialists who contend well with high winds and flat terrain.
The race was well organized and well-staffed, with enthusiastic volunteers. I love the feeling of goodwill that comes during a distance race. Everybody there -- spectators, volunteers, even competitors -- is pulling for you to do your best. Maybe that changes when you start winning, but I'm in no danger of that. So I spent 4:13:01 feeling like a part of a larger community effort for everybody there to elevate their game to the highest possible level. And that's how it feels in every race I run.
I was pleased with my results. It is essential to discount for the lack of a swim. Avoiding 35 minutes (my average split for that distance) of battling a crowd of 30-something Type A males, during the one portion of the race when one's competitors are literally pulling _against_ one, presumably has a real impact on the ability to perform during the bike and the run. Or the run, at least, which comes at the end, when reserves are depleted. But I did establish new personal records for each the bike and run legs of that distance of multisport race. If the performance discount from the swim is not too great, I can consider myself as having met my goal of a sub-five-hour finish. I was 27th place in my age group, five minutes from qualifying for the age-group US team for the 35-39 age group -- far enough that I'm not kicking myself saying "what if"; close enough that I will likely try again next year.
On top of all that, Patricia and I had fun with friends and some quiet walks along the beach. The traffic returning to DC was surprisingly humane. It made for a pleasing weekend indeed.
We suffered severe rains in the mid-Atlantic states over the week prior. At home in DC we had several inches of rain that week. In Myrtle Beach they reported a whopping 22 inches. Driving from DC to Myrtle Beach was a little like competing in the swim leg of the triathlon. It was extremely wet, and the bigger athletes (SUVs and Semis) pushed us around mercilessly. It is a good thing I got the experience in the car. The rain created massive run-off, and the intracoastal waterway, which near Myrtle Beach is a narrow canal dredged by the Corps of Engineers, registered unsafe levels of e-coli. The swim leg was canceled.
We raced the bike and the run portions of a half-iron-distance race. ("Long-course" usually means half-iron- or iron-distance, although it can also include non-traditional distances that exceed a mid-course "olympic distance".) The racecourse was flat and uninspired. Although Myrtle Beach hosted the race, you wouldn't know it; the run and the bike were on roads far enough from the water that the only sign of the Atlantic Ocean's proximity was the 15-mph wind from the northeast. Is it asking a lot that a destination race have a course designed to show off the destination? Ironman Cozumel, last November, involved biking thrice around the tip of that island, with views of the Caribbean nearly constant. (The swim was in the ocean as well, rather than an inland canal. An ocean swim Saturday might have mitigated the e-coli problem.) Ironman Louisville plotted a course through horse country and along the Ohio River. I have recently reported here that the Nation's Tri races through downtown DC, within blocks of the Capitol and White House. Not so in Myrtle Beach.
One might also complain of USA Triathlon's abysmal lack of foresight. The purpose of this race was to pick a team to compete in the world championship in Henderson, Nevada, in November 2011, over a notoriously difficult and hilly triathlon course. The most successful competitors on Saturday were biking-and-running specialists who contend well with high winds and flat terrain.
The race was well organized and well-staffed, with enthusiastic volunteers. I love the feeling of goodwill that comes during a distance race. Everybody there -- spectators, volunteers, even competitors -- is pulling for you to do your best. Maybe that changes when you start winning, but I'm in no danger of that. So I spent 4:13:01 feeling like a part of a larger community effort for everybody there to elevate their game to the highest possible level. And that's how it feels in every race I run.
I was pleased with my results. It is essential to discount for the lack of a swim. Avoiding 35 minutes (my average split for that distance) of battling a crowd of 30-something Type A males, during the one portion of the race when one's competitors are literally pulling _against_ one, presumably has a real impact on the ability to perform during the bike and the run. Or the run, at least, which comes at the end, when reserves are depleted. But I did establish new personal records for each the bike and run legs of that distance of multisport race. If the performance discount from the swim is not too great, I can consider myself as having met my goal of a sub-five-hour finish. I was 27th place in my age group, five minutes from qualifying for the age-group US team for the 35-39 age group -- far enough that I'm not kicking myself saying "what if"; close enough that I will likely try again next year.
On top of all that, Patricia and I had fun with friends and some quiet walks along the beach. The traffic returning to DC was surprisingly humane. It made for a pleasing weekend indeed.
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