Heart in the teeth

Tomorrow is the second race of the year and the first one that matters. The National Half is the strongest signal of marathon fitness before the marathons come in April. So geez I'd like to do well. A few thoughts that swirled through my head while heading to packet pickup, randomized and recounted in the stream of consciousness:

Is it "ironic" to wear a Jingle All the Way 8K t-shirt to the packet pickup for a half or full marathon? Because I felt a little like a hipster, in a kind of "I'm too cool to take this seriously" frame of mind.

The promoter Rock and Roll, with primary sponsor PF Chang's, is now in charge of this race. As you'd expect, it feels commodified. Last year it was poorly run, but at least it was quaint. Do you have to be the McDonalds of marathons to produce a good race? (Actually, PF Chang's is a good analog, isn't it?) This brings to mind the Lande/Averitt/Kirkwood line of articles on consumer choice. Also Stucke/Grunes on diversity as an antitrust goal.

Should have worn my compression socks today. It hasn't been a high mileage week, but it has been a lot-of-time-on-my-feet week. My legs feel a little used. Just put the socks on this afternoon. They are helping. Must remember to wear them to and in Boston next month.

Here's what I know will happen between now and tomorrow noon: (1) I will be jumpy and unable to concentrate, which will make work difficult; (2) I will pick at my food even though I want to consume calories; (3) I will crab at P__ if she dares to recommend we do something that requires me to move very much; (4) I will wish halfway through the race that I could quit, and come up with all kinds of reasons why quitting would really be a demonstration of my being smart rather than weakness; (5) no matter how the race goes, I will be satisfied while metroing home, then frustrated once I recover at just how much better it could have gone.

I won't want to go to bed tonight. Race-day-eve I fear sleep, because it removes the conscious time before race morning, when I have to be really anxious, and then hurt for 85 minutes or so. This must be what it is like to know you are reporting for jail, or military duty, the next day. (Sleep is worthless the night prior anyway. I would guess 3 hours total.)

D__'s workout, which I joined on Thursday, of 2x3 miles at "threshold" (10 mile or so) pace, was a confidence builder. But I hope I can recover by tomorrow morning!

Does this kind of self-induced stress keep one young or make one old?

First Time Out

Got out for a slow, hot humid 5K late yesterday afternoon. Other having to adjust to a record 81 degrees, felt good, nothing bad happened, and nice to actually be able to breathe for a change. 

I also thoroughly enjoyed my first ever in ASICS DS Trainers.  They are halfway between the Kinvaras I race in and the Brooks Ghost I train in during the winter.  Little more structure and cushioning than the Kinvaras with an imperceptibly higher heel to toe drop.  Nice little weight shoe without being totally minimalist.  Nothing like breaking in a new pair.

DC Triathlon Canceled

I received this announcement today. Too bad, kind of, but it's an expensive race and it was coming at an inconvenient time.

I'm intrigued by two things. First is the permit requirement for such a race. I am told NPS permitting is the bane of hosting races in this region. I imagine permits are required for nearly all races, but the federal government has market power state and local governments lack, so perhaps permitting is more of a headache here than elsewhere. I think it stands to reason.

Second is the insistence on holding to the March 28 date for refunds or transfers. Do they really mean that if I don't tell them I want a refund by then they will keep my money and not hold the race? I would need to reexamine the agreement I signed, but I'd be a lot surprised if I agreed to pay for a race that is not being held, or agreed to be held to their schedule for changing even if they fail to hold the race. An analogy are those gift cards that used to expire or devalue with time, before that contract term was prohibited: has my entry fee become a gift card that must be honored?

On an entirely different note, I'm thinking of hanging up triathlon for a while. These things are hugely expensive, take huge amounts of time to prepare for, and take up at least the whole day for a small race -- three whole days for a big effort -- before you take into account traveling. Meanwhile, you can find a good local half marathon, show up the day of, and be home in time for brunch. Of course, I have several planned races this year before I can execute on this new life plan. If those go well I would bet I change my tune.

Reading, Writing, no Running

So I am on the shelf for a week or two as I recuperate from some long planned minor out patient surgery that should ultimately massively increase my oxygen intake for future runs.  But for the moment, I am home on spring break as our freakishly warm and snowless winter winds down.  Using the opportunity to finish a 5,000 essay for a festricht in honor of Bill Kovacic to be published in Concurrence and read The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America.  This is terrific book about the growth of modern branding and retailing in America and the forces that led to the passage of the price discrimination laws.  It is leading em to eventually trying to write something that is at least faint hearted praise for the Robinson-Patman Act which is  basically a generational equity argument that it allows progress toward greater efficiency in a gradual way that the change does not destroy the immediate economic and social order.  I hope this is an argument that makes sense in the internet and superstore era as it was in the early chain stores versus the mom and pop grocers.

MCM 2012 Registration

Right here, right now. Sure to fill up by tomorrow. One of these days I'll have enough of being behaviorally exploited by big city races and their 8-months-in-advance registration policies, get off the cycle, and start living run to run, but this year, well, I'm signed up once again.

Tom Rosch Limbaugh

This is not about running, or even writing, though it does call to mind comments by Kovacic about other commissioners -- so it might be about reading. Here (excerpted from an article by Reuters) is the latest lob over the transom by the soon to be outgoing Comm'r Rosch at the FTC:

"Last summer, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder appointed a task force to look at the issue, which included the FTC and CFTC as well as several other government agencies.

That task force has "done nothing but sit on its hands," said Thomas Rosch, a Republican commissioner at the FTC.

"It has been nothing except a charade designed to let the public know, or at least think, that we're doing something about it (gasoline prices). I don't think we're doing anything about it," Rosch said at a hearing."

As I was trying to divine how Rush Limbaugh could possibly have gotten to the point of the comments he recently made about the Georgetown law student, I concluded that some combination of needing to outdo himself show after show and living in an echo chamber was the best explanation. By contrast, I too frequently see over-the-top commentary by Rosch, implicitly or explicitly criticizing staff at his own agency, and I don't think he has an excuse.

Outsprinted him!

After D__ wore me out on a long run yesterday and talked me off the ledge re going to the track today, I made today's run a super casual 5-or-so mile run down Mass past AU law school, up Western to Chevy Chase Circle, and back home through the 'hood. Easy runs are daydream time.

So for this one, I was running behind Micheal Wardian at the Rocky Raccoon 100 in Texas. We were entering an aid station at mile 90. He went in for food and drink and I sprinted past. The last 10 miles went in around 65 minutes. (At one point it was 62 minutes, but that was too silly even for a daydream.). Wardian passed me again with 1/2 mile to go. But he didn't take off, so I knew he was toasted. We entered the high school stadium where they have the finish line (no idea if that's true!) and he got caught up high-fiving spectators. He was surprised when I caught him with 200 to go, or so, and I nipped him at the line Quentin Cassiday style.

Next time I will report on my daydream of publishing in the HLJ. Or maybe it will be Yale.