Starting Up Again

   Christmas is finally over and I can almost physically feel myself starting to de-compress from it all. Most of the leftovers are finally gone and the shopping's been completed. If there were returns to make, this has been done. The familial obligations have ceased and I also have another week off. So, right at the moment, life is fine.
  

Me, post-run, it was good
to get out again! Need a new
hat, though...

It now seems like a good time to get back into a running routine. I realize there are likely several million runners out there who are all quite likely feeling the same way right about now--it's almost impossible for the holidays not to have some effect on your normal routines, running or otherwise. The extent with which we get back into our normal routines will vary, of course, but my plan is to get back to doing what I was doing this time last year.
   A year ago, I was running at least every other day. In  many of my off days I was playing ball hockey in a league (let's call it interval or speed work, if you like) and might occasionally double-up on the running. On Saturdays, I was slowly building up my long runs and was at the 9k mark when the PF hit. The PF and a couple of other niggling little medical concerns derailed huge chunks of my running this year and fingers crossed that it won't happen again!


New tights (Sugoi) and, yes, my legs DON'T
join at the top...

   All this being said, I headed out for a run today. I did a run a couple of weeks ago but with Christmas stuff going on I hadn't had the time or energy to get in any more. That run was a 3k and I decided today's would only be a 4k. I ran for 2k, walked a minute and then finished what was left of the final 2k by running it. The best part was at the end I was pretty sure I could easily have kept going.
   Today was also an opportunity to try out my new running tights. I had very generously been the recipient of a multitude of Running Room gift cards this past Christmas so I headed down there yesterday and picked out some tights and running shorts. Last winter, I ran in an old baggy pair of sweatpants and although the warmth factor was present, they were lacking in a couple of other important areas. Wind resistance was an issue--I remember them whipping around my legs constantly. As well, I simply didn't feel like a runner when I was wearing them.
   Today, new tights on, and it was great! Lots of warmth, no flapping, lots of ease of movement. And, according to my wife, I looked like a runner!
   All in all, it was a successful run today. The underfoot conditions were a little iffy in places with lots of slush and/or melting ice so I tried if at all possible to stick to the roads, which were fine. Tomorrow, Doralyn and I plan on hitting the gym, which neither of us have been to since the early fall. My plan is to alternate gym and run days, get back to the point where I can run 5k without stopping (again) and then find a goal race to sign up for!
    In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!

   The running conditions were just not that good today! You can even see the tracks my wheelchair someone's stroller left...

Run....maybe??

   So I was thinking that maybe I'd go for a run today. It's been so long since I've gone for a run that I couldn't even accurately remember when the last time was.
   I knew I could find out if I just went into the "history" on my Garmin but, as I said, it's been so long since I went on a run that I wasn't even sure where the Garmin was!
   Okay, I did eventually find it and discovered (once I remembered how to start it up) that the last time I'd been out was November 8.
   Five freakin' weeks ago.
   Now I call myself a runner but I can't really call myself a runner if I'm not...well...a runner. I also call myself a running blogger but if there's no running then there's no running to blog about.
   If I'd been injured and hadn't been running then that would be one thing. But the fact f the matter is that I've been more than  capable 0f running for the last couple of months now and the running has still been almost non-existent.
   I've had a list of pretty minor and pathetic excuses (tired from work, getting the place ready for Christmas, blizzards, family issues, etc.) but this ridiculous situation needs to stop.
   So today I'm going for a run and here's what the weather looks like out my window:

   Yeah, did I mention that I live in Canada...???
   So it's snowing again today and I guess it's snowed enough that my neighbour now has his snowblower going and I'm headed out for a run. Hope he's done before I get out there or he's gonna think I'm a.....runner?
   Well I guess I've now stalled enough that I should get out there. Took forever to find all the cold weather running gear but it did eventually get found, I had a bit of nutrition, and I'm gonna get out there.....right...NOW!

   Okay, I did it!
   I didn't run far (3k) and I didn't run hard but I did run. I went through all the pre-run prep (sometimes the most daunting part) and I got out there again! Whoopee!
   It was cold (16F) and blustery and there was about an inch and a half of snow to run through but it was kinda fun at the same time and somewhat reminiscent of much of the winter running I did last year.
   What I didn't mention up above is that, in the space of time I haven't been running, I have also put on about 11 pounds! Sad but true. Some of that is due to not running and much of it is due to the arrival of the festive season as well. Last weekend, we had my wife's family Christmas celebration here and the place was inundated with rich food and sweets. After the family left, there was just the two of us to finish consuming all this goodness and, as history has demonstrated, I do way more than my share. I found I was eating long after I was full and eating food I wasn't accustomed to. Eventually, I ended up feeling like crap.
   More than anything, this is why I need to run again. I remember the pain and the work involved but, more than that, I remember how good it made me feel!
   Although right at the moment I might cough up a lung...lol!


My place, after the run and a tiny bit of shovelling...

  



Winter Arrives

My Honda's under there...somewhere.

   There are a handful of Canadian running bloggers I follow on a regular basis and they, already, have had to come to grips with winter in Canada. Yesterday, it was my turn.
   My part of London got dumped on overnight Saturday, to the tune of about 70 centimeters (slightly over 2 feet), even though the east end of the city only officially got about 11 centimetres. Looking at the weather radar first thing Saturday morning was interesting--one narrow lake effect blizzard knifing in off Lake Huron and, basically, just hitting my part of London. We're so lucky. Glad the boys were with us this weekend or I'd still be shovelling!
   Of course, I knew winter was coming. I didn't expect it all at once but that's beside the point. Funny thing is, as I was shovelling yesterday I couldn't help but think to myself cool, I get to run in the snow again. 


Patio furniture--that's the table on the right.

   Last winter, my first as a runner, was filled with many memorable cold-weather runs and I survived them all. This year, I see no reason not to continue enjoying them. At the same time, I also now have access to a treadmill, courtesy of the local Goodlife Fitness centre. Nice to have an option! The only thing is, you don't hear about too many runners who are in love with their treadmills, so I think this might be a last resort more than anything else.
   Last year, I also promised myself some running tights for when the weather got like this. I had been running in old baggy sweatpants and that just wasn't cutting it at the time. Well, it looks like another month or so of baggy sweatpants as I can't really see footing the expense for tights this close to Christmas (did I mention I was poor? yes, in a much earlier post), I try not to let my running break the house budget too much. Hmmm....they would make an awesome present, though....
   So I look forward to hearing all your winter wonderland running tales! Hopefully I won't hear about too much actual frostbite or nasty falls! And, at the same time, I will also enjoy all the pics from places like Florida, California, Texas (apart from the occasional arctic blast they seem to get there) and Africa. Maybe someday I'll be off somewhere warm this time of year........
  

In Which Me Asks Myself "Am I A Real Runner?"

Me: Good Morning, how are you?
Myself: Oh, not bad thanks, how are you?
Me: Hey, not bad at all. Was wondering if you could help me with something.
Myself: Go ahead, shoot.
Me: Okay...now I know I've asked you before but I was wondering if you could maybe tell me again...
Myself: Yes?
Me: I was wondering. Am I a "real runner"?
Myself: Oh, for goodness sake! AGAIN? (sighs)
Me: I know, we've talked about this before...and I thought I had a bit of a handle on it...but...
Myself: Okay, I don't mind doing this one more time, here we go. "Do you run?"
Me: No
Myself: What? Any other time I asked, you said "Yes".
Me: I know...(anxiously)
Myself: So what's different now? Are you injured?
Me: No, not really.
Myself: Well then, is it just a really busy time of year and you haven't had the opportunity to get out there?
Me: Don't think so, it hasn't been any busier than last year at this time and I was running tons back then.
Myself: So is it just a motivation issue?
Me: Not sure what else it could be. It feels stupid cuz I remember all the times I was desperate to run but I couldn't. And now that I can run....I'm not! I hear about all these injured runners out there and it's almost like hey, wanna borrow my legs, cuz they're perfectly fine and I'm not usin' them anyway!
Myself: Hmmm. How's your weight?
Me: Yeah, it's going up a little. I don't run and that's what happens...
Myself: So are you watching what you eat?
Me: You bet. I watch it on the plate, I watch it onto my fork and then I watch it go into my mouth.
Myself: You're funny. Not. What's the snacking like, still doing the celery and peanut butter thing?
Me: Yep. And then I do the ice cream thing, the chip thing, the chocolate bar thing, and the buttered popcorn thing. And lord help me if there's leftovers from dinner...
Myself: Oh. My. God.
Me: I know. It's bad, isn't it?
Myself: You bet. I don't even really know what to say or suggest doing differently. So do you miss it, the running?
Me: I do, I used to live for the run days and was always sort of at loose ends if it wasn't one. And now I pretty well couldn't care less. So that's why I asked you again if you thought I was a real runner. It's almost as if I can feel it all slipping away.
Myself: Okay, here's what I know. Running will always be there for you. As much as you might not always be there for it, it will be like the most faithful and forgiving girlfriend you could ever wish for. It will pass no judgement and will greet you with open arms whenever you choose to run again. And when you do go back to it, cuz you and I know you will, it will once again give you back more than you could possibly give it in return. 
Me: You're sure about that...?
Myself: No doubt about it. And as to that "Am I a real runner" thing you keep springing on me, I don't think there's a runner out there who at some point didn't have that very same question, possibly over and over again. And I think a lot of them maybe even stopped running altogether, for whatever reason, and wondered what role it played in their lives. And then...because they were a real runner...they ran!
Me: Okay. (pause) Cool.

Yes, It's That Time

   I went for large chunks of late spring, the summer, and early fall without being able to run on any kind of regular basis. There were a variety of reasons for this and at this point the reasons have been exhausted.
   So you'd think I'd be out every day running my little heart off and jumping for joy at the same time!
   Well, I'm not.
   Don't get me wrong, I love the idea that I'm able to. For what it's worth, though, back when I was running regularly I was also into the routine of it, both logistically and motivationally. I knew ahead of time what days I would be running and I planned the rest of my life around that. Motivationally-speaking, the fact that I was making steady progress also helped greatly to make sure that I was getting out there, maybe even on days when the weather was crappy or I was already tired.

   Nowadays, it's little difficult because I've lost quite a bit of what I'd gained over the winter and there is very much a starting all over again kind of feeling. That's a bit of a mental setback, for sure. It's a little hard having to work your butt off just to get back to where you were before.
   I also miss having stuff to blog about! When you're injured, you can sometimes at least blog about your injury and how it's progressing (or not), how the latest doctor appointment went, what the newest therapy tool is, etc. When there is no longer a viable injury to discuss, no races have been run and no real training regimen to comment on it's just a touch difficult to blog. Sort of like today!
   I have gotten out a couple of times this past week and it was rough. The running has not been terribly easy and I have only been doing 5k runs to this point. I used to be able to run a full 5k without stopping but not now. So that is a goal, for sure, either to run them faster or to run them without stopping. I never seem to be sure when I head out whether I want to simply run the whole way or whether I want to beat the last time I posted. It seems as though I can run hard for spurts, then walk, and get a decent time. If I run slow enough, I can run the whole thing but the time then suffers.
   At this point, I'm inclined to go for the fastest times. At some point this pretty well has to end up with me running the whole way, doesn't it? Gonna be a lot of work but that's okay.

First Blogiversary of "Strides"!

   "Strides" just celebrated its first anniversary!!
   It's now been one year since I began to describe in writing my little running "adventure". Of course, it seems as though I just started it yesterday!
   At the time, I thought I was engaged in a pretty solitary pursuit--who really knew that anybody other than me might be running and then writing about?

   Well, one day it occurred to me to hop on Google and find out if anybody was doing something like that. What I then discovered was that tons of runners were blogging. Or was it that tons of bloggers were running? Not sure on that one but the fact of the matter was there were a lot of us!
   As running bloggers, we come in all ages, sizes, body shapes and skill levels. Our blogging styles go from folksy to technical. We talk about what motivates us and what presents roadblocks (including, of course, actual roadblocks).
   As bad luck would have it, many of my posts this past year have dealt with either injury or other assorted reasons why I couldn't actually run.
   I went through a long stretch when I was recovering from plantar fasciitis. I was able to run for awhile after that but then found myself undergoing a treatment course for sun damage on my face. It has only been within the last day or two that I've been able to get back out there.


WAY too much opportunity to talk about THIS!

   What I found while I was off from running was that I blogged about medical stuff. I blogged about PF treatments and whether they seemed to be working or not. I blogged about my visits to the SoleScience centre at Western where I underwent a gait analysis and walked away with orthotics. And they even paid sixty bucks for my old, worn-out running shoes! I read other running blogs voraciously, looking for anything which might provide a topic for my own, seeing as how I wasn't actually running.
   More than anything, this past year has connected me with a whole bunch of other bloggers. Some of their stories and reasons for running mirror my own and some are vastly different. As a whole, though, they are very engaging and quick to offer advice or moral support. They also offer an audience and nothing's much more important to a blogger than to know that someone out there is actually paying attention!
   Hopefully, Year Two of "Strides" will find me doing more posts on how the running is going (not stopping) and more race updates as well. I know that the past year of running has left me in much better shape and the hope is that this trend continues. We also now have a gym membership (sadly unused lately) and this should also help, just need to actually go!
   At this point, I just wanted to thank you, the reader, for showing up here as often as you have! As I just stated, it's really not a lot of fun blogging if nobody's reading (although I would blog regardless) and the odd comment from y'all certainly makes it worth the time and effort! Cheers and good health to you all!
      

Back On The Pavement Again!

   Yesterday, for the first time in about six weeks and only the second time in the last two months or so, I got out and ran.
   Although the residual healing still has a way to go, the Efudex face treatments I'd been undergoing have come to a conclusion and so now I am able to return to running as well as the gym. If you actually want to see what the treatment and healing process looked like you can make a quick trip to my other blog, "Neanderings", and take a boo at the "Man On Fire" postings--there's a bunch of them!
   I had no real goal or plan with the running I did yesterday, other than for the fact that I knew there would likely be a fair amount of walking involved and I had given myself permission to do this.
  

What my legs actually look like...

The running was difficult.
   More than anything, I quickly developed this pain in my chest I wasn't used to. This began less than a kilometer into the run and briefly gave me cause for concern. You always want to pay attention to chest pains and I made a pretty constant assessment of it as I ran. After awhile I put it down to more of a lung issue than anything. I attributed the discomfort I was having to the fact that I'd lost a lot of the meagre supply of cardio I'd previously built up and that I was also now running in the cold, rather than the superheated temps I'd experienced over the summer. I remember having an issue in this area last fall when the weather turned cold and this felt very much the same.
   I also seemed to be having unfamiliar stride issues---my feet felt as though they were pounding down on the sidewalk. This then would shake the whole rest of my body. Nothing felt really comfortable yesterday! And to top it off, there was this niggling little pain on the inside of my left knee that I'd never felt before.
   Eventually the chest pain and the striding issues and the knee pain seemed to more or less resolve themselves and the running became a little more comfortable. I still decided to curtail the running sooner than I'd planned--I'd set out on a 5k route in my neighbourhood but decided to take the short way home, changing it into a 3 and a half k run.

Is this in my future?

   All in all, though, it was good to get out again and work up a sweat. It had been awhile! Really not sure what my running plans are for the foreseeable future, there are no races on the horizon. I have a 2014 goal of running a 10k somewhere so I know that I'm soon going to have to start upping the mileage. It also feels as if I'm starting from scratch but that's okay! Just good to be out and running again!

Putting the "13" Back Into 2013?

   It's been a strange kind of year, this 2013.
   From a running standpoint, it started out fine. The winter weather here in Canada never got to the point where running was impossible, although there were a handful of nasty days.
   I was loving it and started piling on the mileage. Well, I piled on the mileage a little too soon. And I ran in shoes that were already worn out. No sooner said than done and I had basically started 2013 with plantar fasciitis.

Particularly bad if you've placed
all your eggs in the same basket!

   If you've had PF you understand how pernicious it can be. It was very much a trial-and-error kind of thing, attempting to heal it up. Just when you think you're good to go, you find out you're not. Then, when you actually are good to go, you feel as though it may only be fleeting. So I briefly got back to running when suddenly I was dealing with biopsy  stitches and sun damage.
   So I sat on my butt while letting stitches heal and undergoing face treatment. This was strange, because I was all set to run--I was rested and the legs felt good. But I couldn't, for this reason and that reason. At the same time, there were time limits on all my limitations and I knew when they would be up.
   They were up this weekend. As luck would have it, though, while sitting on my bed Thursday morning, pulling on my socks, I strained my back badly. The scary part is I'm not really sure how I did it--I wasn't lifting anything heavy and had not gotten myself into an injurious position. It must have been the "perfect storm" of back injuries--the right amount of pressure at just the right angle with just the right amount of ill-preparedness. So, in rather freaky fashion, I am "on the shelf" yet one more time, though I suspect only briefly.

   As is my habit, I move from one setback to the next rather effortlessly. Not a lot of hand-wringing or teeth-gnashing going on here. But when I look back at the year, there does seem to more than the usual bad luck going on.
   I'm not really the superstitious sort and the fact that I've had this run of bad luck (did I mention I need a hearing aid?) during a year which ends with "13" hasn't really even fizzed on me. My "bad luck" I think has been nothing much more than things catching up to me all at the same time.
   At the same time, I am glad the year is almost over...
  

Biding My Time...Barely

   Last year, dead in the middle of a Canadian winter, I became a runner.
   I had taken my first tenuous strides toward this in the summer, at the beginning of August. Doralyn had registered us for a ten week Learn To Run course at the local Running Room and I spent August and September learning to do just that---run.
   I was pretty sure when I began that I would make it through this course and then just stop running. Really, I had never run before, found it kind of boring and could not see myself becoming a runner. Then a funny kind of thing happened when the course ended. I didn't stop!
   I kept on running, partly because I was starting to feel the health benefits and partly because I was amazing myself.
   Along the way, I began to ask myself the same question all of us runners have asked ourselves at one point or another. Am I a real runner?
   This question was answered for me in the middle of the aforesaid Canadian winter.
   I was running at the tail end of blizzards. I was running

One of my run days last winter...

through sleet storms. I was running through fog and rain. I was running on slush which turned to ice which turned to slush again, all in the same run. I was running in snow above my ankles. I was running in temps cold enough to bring tears to my eyes.
   This, then, was when I knew I was a runner.
   No casual jogger would have done what I did. They would have taken one look out the window and found something else to do.
   I actually put on the bulk of my miles over the winter. This is also when I lost the most weight. At some point, it occurred to me that running was something I was always going to be doing and I desperately began to look forward to Spring. Because now I was a runner.
   Unfortunately, Spring and PF arrived almost simultaneously. There were bare roads and sidewalks to run on but I couldn't. Gradually, the PF healed and I was able to more or less get back to where I was but then, all of then sudden, I've got biopsy stitches that need to heal and then, right after that, a three-week face treatment which also requires me to be on the sidelines. And I am still in the middle of that...
   I am anticipating that sometime in the not-too-distant future I will be running once again, unimpeded by outside forces. And when that time comes...it will be Winter again!

Half-Marasprinters!

   A few weeks ago, after I'd finished running in the 5k event at the Springbank Road Races, I hung around and watched the finish of much of the half marathon.
   There was a reasonably steady stream of runners crossing the finish line and, for the most part, by the time they got there they were single runners, with occasionally two of them running fairly close together.
   A couple of times, however, runners found themselves more or less shoulder-to-shoulder in the last two to three hundred meters and a strange thing happened. They began to race each other! In a full-out sprint!
   So, I know you're thinking well, it was a race wasn't it?
   Of course it was a race and that was part of the fun of it, being timed and photographed and maybe getting some swag and perhaps collecting points but the very few times I've raced I've clearly still considered it a very individual kind of thing, comparing my race results more with what my own expectations might have been rather than how I fared running against other people.

A little bit of confusion going on?

   Now, I have no idea whether these half-marathoners-turned-sprinters knew each other or perhaps had had some earlier interaction during the race or whether it was just a little bit of competitive overdrive going on as they bolted down the stretch but it raised some interesting questions, at least in my mind.

   Was it appropriate? What I mean by this is was there any intent on the part of either of the runners to "show up" the other runner and pass him in front of the bulk of spectators? Or did one runner simply maintain his race pace, which then took him past the lead runner, who then felt compelled to respond? Was it just good-natured competition...?
   Should you pay any attention the runners around you? In my short-lived racing experience, I have yet to feel comfortable passing people. I know that it's inevitable that you will both pass and be passed during the course of a race but I still feel way too apologetic in my head whenever I'm the one doing the passing. Not that it happens all that often...
   If you have enough energy left at the end of a race to go into a full-out sprint, then have you been rationing it properly? Perhaps if either of those runners had used that extra energy a little earlier in the race, then there wouldn't have been that head-to-head finish at the end. I know for a fact that I could have sprinted at the end of my 5k but I chose not to because I was...well...tired. But the energy was there so why didn't I expend it during the race, or any of my training runs, for that matter?
   Was testosterone a factor? In both instances, it was guys sprinting at the end, which did not surprise me. But is this behaviour totally a "guy thing" or would you be just as likely to see two women battling it out at the end like that?

   I have always had a bit of a fantasy about coming to the last three or four hundred meters of a race, having maybe four or five runners ahead of me and then passing them, one by one, as I head into the finish line. I'm not exactly sure what fuels that particular fantasy (perhaps it's the drama) as I am not overly competitive by nature. So far, I've never been in that situation either--the finishes I've been involved in have all been where, as I got close to the finish line, the runners ahead of me were way ahead of me and basically out of reach. What I also find is that my fuel for fantasy has been all used up just getting to the damn finish line!


Have you ever found yourself involved in an all-out sprint against a fellow runner at the end of a distance race? 
  
  
  
  
  
  

Possibly The Most Ironic Moment Of My Life

   Yesterday morning I had the happy opportunity to run in the 5th annual "Going the Distance for LDs" 5k walk/run, held at Springbank Gardens. This is a fundraising event run by the Learning Disabilities Association-London Region.
   This association's mandate is to assist people of all ages who have learning disabilities to reach their full potential, through either coping strategies and/or different forms of accommodation. So, all in all, a good cause to be running for! Doralyn and Callum and Quin were also supposed to be there but they got conscripted at the last moment to go help Oma close the trailer for the year.

Stephanie, leading the kids out on the
500m "Hunter's Kids Dash". The tall lad
in the middle with the white shirt is her son Michael.

   What makes this particular run even more special for us is that Doralyn's cousin, Stephanie Quigley, is the race co-ordinator and that her sons, Michael and James, were also running.

Michael, the birthday boy (13!!),
returning from the dash.

   So the day had kind of a "family" feel to it right from the beginning and, to top it off, the morning was beautiful.
   The run started from Springbank Gardens and headed along the bike/running path which skirts the river, towards Springbank Park. About half a kilometer into the run, I realize that I'd forgotten to start my Garmin, which was slightly annoying, but I figured I'd just wait til the next mile marker and start it then. I couldn't get it going then either so basically I thought to heck with it, this is a fun run anyway. The course was clearly marked for every half a kilometer, and this was awesome.


Steph's Dad, Uncle Doug, one of the
resplendent walkers.

   There was one water station and it was at the 2.5k turnaround (it was an out and back run) just past Storybook Gardens. Now, I'm still not exactly sure how this happened, but somehow or other I completely missed the turnaround! The water station was clearly marked as 2.5k and my math isn't that bad but somehow I missed it. So I simply continued to run. There were runners up ahead of me but I noticed after awhile that there were no runners coming towards me with bibs on, runners who would have been running the second half of the race. About this time I started to get a bad feeling and I turned around. I made it back to the water station, saw the mileage marker and realized what I'd done. The guys manning the station apologized for letting me slip by but I certainly didn't consider it to be their mistake! In retrospect, I remember seeing all the water there and thinking to myself should I or shouldn't I and then I just ran past the whole thing. I eventually made it back and there was nothing really too wrong with my time, given that I'd just run the 6k version of the 5k run/walk!


 "Wrong Way" Baker

   It then suddenly dawned on me that here I was running in a learning disabilities race and I hadn't even been able to figure out when to turn back! This, then, had to be simply one of the most ironic moments of my life! In next year's race, I can almost envision a giant "Brian Baker Turnaround Point" at the 2.5k water station...
   As embarrassing as this kind of was, I'm also kind of at the point in my life where I find it pretty easy to have a chuckle about stuff like this. This was also my last official run for awhile as today I begin my Efudex treatment. Steph pointed out to me yesterday that, seeing as how it was my last run, that it was probably good I got that extra "k" in!
   Steph, by the way, did an awesome job of organizing the race and it has a very fun and relaxed atmosphere to it so, if you happen to be a runner from London or thereabouts, you might want to keep your eyes open for it next year!
  

Anonymity

   I've been weaving in and out of multitudes of running blogs for the last several months now. Like I'm sure many of us have done, I've developed a few favourites and blogs I eagerly gravitate to whenever I am notified of new posts.
   In this way, I have formed a certain level of comfort and familiarity with this blogger and that blogger, their interests, their families in some cases, their occasional pains and occasional triumphs.
   A few weeks ago, I was happily faced with the task of nominating ten fellow bloggers for a Sunshine Award. This was not particularly an easy job because there are just so many good writers out there whose work I enjoy.
   What I found though is, after I picked which blogs I wished to nominate, that even though I was familiar with the blog, I didn't necessarily know the name of the person whose blog it was!
   At my age, little lapses in memory aren't too terribly uncommon but what I then discovered was that with some blogs the author's name was not first and foremost (or even necessarily there for that matter).
   I knew that I very much wanted to list the blogs I was nominating along with their authors' names so I scoured peoples' blogs from head to foot, checking through all their "About" pages and contact info. I ended up digging through their Facebook pages, if they had them, simply in search of real names. Finally, I was able to nail down all ten.
   At some point, though, I did begin to wonder if I was being perhaps overly investigative. I wondered if perhaps there was a reason why names weren't more prominently displayed. Was it a privacy issue? And were people going to be annoyed with me for going above and beyond in my search?
   The more I thought about it, the more it occurred to me that people weren't overly trying to be secretive if Brian (Who Only Looks Like Tech Nerd) Baker was able to track down their info using just his laptop and questionable skills. This made me feel a little better.
   All this did lead me to ponder blog anonymity.
   Some bloggers are happy to publish their names, their family member's names and pictures of all of them. Some will publish pics and only nicknames or sometimes just initials. Not surprisingly, people are a little more protective of their kids' identities, a bit of a sad commentary on the state of the internet today.
   For my own part, I'm pretty open with identifying myself and family members on both my blogs. The kids are all active on social media for the most part (which is not to say they're past the point of getting into trouble on it) and have had some schooling on safety and some of the pitfalls involved with what's appropriate or not.
  

In pondering the seeming anonymity of some blog authors, I have come up with a bit of a theory. I now wonder if perhaps the act of running somehow or other takes us outside ourselves and changes, in a small way, both our self-perception and perhaps even the way other people see us. I then wonder if shedding the names which have always tied us to our jobs, our homes, our schools and the humdrum of daily life allows us to more easily be apart from all that routine, if however briefly. It would be almost as if, having discovered that we have this superpower of RUNNING, that we now need the pre-requisite secret identity. "You seem to be running pretty fast today, Clark." "Oh, Lois, you say the most preposterous things!" 

Aah...the Batman I grew up with!

   A couple of times lately, though, I've kind of run into a reverse sort of anonymity issue while blog surfing. A couple of blogs I read regularly employ one of those widgets which keep track of visitors in real time and identifies them by the city they live in and more or less when they logged on. At first, I thought this was kind of cool, being a "visitor from London, Canada" on someone's blog. I remember once, though, when I left a blog and then went back to it and saw my previous visit still on their counter plus my new one! All of the sudden I felt like a cyber stalker lol! I consoled myself with the fact that there are actually three or four running bloggers from London (which, come to think of it, might be a blog topic some day) and that my visits could possibly be attributed to people other than just me showing up so often! Whew!
   Part of the whole anonymity issue for me as an old man who gets easily confused is the fact that there are so damn many of us and that there also seem to be so many recurring themes to peoples' blogs. Many of them concentrate on their fave colour (which, in a lot of cases, seems to be pink!) How many variations of the "Eat. Drink. Sleep. Repeat" style of blog title do we run across in a single day? Is it just my imagination or at some point about 25 years ago did a lot of parents start naming their little girls some variation of "Jen" or "Kristy"? And it really doesn't help me when two different bloggers end up using the same blog template! Not to mention the blogs that are written by anywhere from three to six different people and trying to sort all of them out...can't tell you how many times I've been reading a post I thought Dave wrote, only to find out it was Andrea (names have been changed to protect the innocent)! And, as an old man, I also have a hard time trying to keep track of which working mom it is who's also trying to raise a family, promote a healthy lifestyle and train all at the same time and, occasionally, with the help of God.
   All of this then, seems to contribute to an overall sense of anonymity.
   Now don't get me wrong, if any of these sound familiar or maybe even if they sound like you, then please don't be hurt or offended (I love you all), I point all of this out simply to demonstrate how 1: easy it is to confuse the elderly and 2: when once we thought we might be alone, we find that we are way more interconnected than we thought. I know that when I began to write my running blog I thought to myself hey, this is a pretty cool idea, I bet no one else is writing a running blog! How wrong I was! 
  

A Result I Wasn't Expecting

   Two weeks ago, the morning after I ran my 5k in the Springbank road races, I found myself in in a dermatologist's office. I was there so that she could take a look at an odd, circular spot on the outside of my right calf.
   She examined it and pronounced it as non-threatening. I then asked her if it might be at all related to this reddish spot on my left cheek. She took a look at that one as well and finally decided to do a biopsy of both areas.
   MY plan had been to go into her office and, at the most, come back out with some sort of cream for my leg, I really wasn't counting on her cutting bits of me out and then leaving her office with stitches in a couple of places. And, as if this wasn't bad enough, she told me I couldn't run.
   Even though this was the morning after a race, my legs were feeling really good and I was looking forward to getting into a more normal non-training training routine (if that makes sense!) The reason she told me I couldn't run was due to the stitches and their ability to do their job properly. I immediately thought of all the hockey players I'd seen who'd gotten sliced up during a game, had slipped into the dressing room for ten stitches, and come back out good as new, prepared to continue on in battle. And I couldn't at least run?!
   So here I was, itching to run, no foot or ankle or knee or hip problems, but I can't run. No big deal, one way or the other, I'm getting kind of used to it after all the PF issues I've had this year.
   A week after my initial appointment, the face stitches come out. Three days later, the leg stitches are out. Okay, the stitches are all out and I'm thinking yay, I can run again! But with the leg stitches also come the biopsy results.
   The thing on my leg is still fine. The mark on my face has been diagnosed as pre-cancerous skin damage and she decides not to take any chances and go ahead and remove it.
   It's too large an area to remove surgically so the other option is to, essentially, burn it off. She, of course, doesn't use the term burn it off but, as she describes the process, it becomes clear that this is what is going to happen.
   The process involves a twice-daily application of a chemotherapy cream which, at the height of its power, will cause the skin to become inflamed and then blister and fall off. This part, as nasty as it sounds, didn't really freak me out. The part that did grab my attention, however, was that I get the weekends off so that I can recover, and that there is a totally separate cream to assist me with this. This is a three week treatment but, as if I'm not getting freaked out enough, I need to go back in two weeks after the treatment begins just to talk about whether it's a good idea to continue or not! She then asks me if I need to attend any weddings or special events in the next three to four weeks or so. I guess this is so I don't scare any of the guests or something. I say no so this means we can get started anytime. After consulting her schedule, we decide to begin all this at the end of September. While snuggling with my Sweetie last night, I asked her if she would still love me when parts of my face started falling on her. She just giggled.
   Part of what all this means is yay, I can run again! The other part is but only for about a week. There will be no running during this course of treatment. So, once again, I will feel perfectly fine (at least my legs will) but running will be on the shelf.
   And this will be no big deal because...yay, I can run again!
   I'm including a link to a cancer survivor's blog at this point, as I have just discovered it myself. She herself has used the same cream I will be and she even went so far as to document the day-by-day effects. If you are extremely curious, then please feel free to visit. Honestly, though, the pictures and descriptions can be a little unsettling...
   At this point, my plan is to go for a run! Because I can!
   In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!

Do you take special precautions while running in the sun?
Do you have an odd-looking spot or mole but have been putting off getting it looked at? Don't put it off anymore!! 

A Different Perspective

   I may be wrong but more than any other time since I started following running bloggers religiously, it seems as though right at the moment we are all injured. I cannot remember such a litany of fractured feet, strained quads, wonky knees, bad hips, PF and burning shins.
   With all of this, we have been stopped from running. Some of us are only missing our daily runs, others have lost out on races they'd placed many of their recent hopes and dreams on.
   There have been tears, anger, depression and, if none of those, then at least a sense of wistfulness and loss.
   All of this over not being able to run.
   As difficult as it might have been for me to understand this over a year ago, now that I am a runner myself and have also been deprived of that ability for periods of time, I fully understand.
   From time to time, I have offered whatever advice, support, or encouragement I thought I could to any of my fellow bloggers who were out of commission and struggling with it. I have what I think is a fairly analytical mind and I believe I offer well thought-out opinions.
   Here is an opinion I have not offered before.

   Get over it!

   I know how that sounds. I know the harsh, dismissive ring the words seem to carry because, believe me, I apply it fully to myself as well. Hang on, though, and I shall explain.
   I know three people who are unable to walk, either as the result of an accident or due to a rare neurological affliction.
   These were people who, for most of their lives, had been as spry and able as any of us. They walked, they ran, they played sports. And, I'm certain, took all of this for granted.
   One of them, a high school compatriot, became a paraplegic as the result of a car accident which was not his fault. Another is a person the agency I work for supports. His decline has been very slow and agonizingly deliberate and is nerve-related. The other is my brother-in-law who severed his spine in a mountain biking mishap.

   We who have been briefly deprived of our ability to run are, I'm sure, still able to walk to the doctor's office, walk around the grocery store, head upstairs to put the kids to bed, take the dog out in the morning and step outside for the mail. These three people I have mentioned have not only been deprived of this briefly, they have been deprived of this forever.
   I can assure you that any of them would be happy to be able to walk gingerly down steps, worried about whether your knee might give out. There is no doubt in my mind that feeling that searing pain in a heel as you step on the floor first thing in the morning would leave them breathless and ecstatic. To be out doing their weekly long run and all of the sudden feel that all-too-familiar twinge in the hip would leave them dancing for joy, pain or not.
   Yes, these three people (and millions more in the world) would love to feel your pain because what they feel now is nothing.

  
  
  

Goals

   Now that I've completed this past weekend's race and currently have no races on the horizon, it feels like time to sit down and do a little self-evaluation.
   With this race fast approaching, I had more or less (and probably stupidly) given up on the cross-training I had been doing in order to concentrate on the running. Now, perhaps, I can get back to a combination of the two. Apart from that, though, right at the moment I really have no idea what I'm doing with this running thing.
   I wasn't particularly happy with my results in the race but I was pretty bang on with what my expectations were. The time I ran, 35:33, was pretty well what I'd been doing in training and this had me placing 144th out of 180 runners. I can rationalize this in a whole lot of ways (relatively new runner, in his sixties, lost a couple of training months due to injury, etc.) but it still doesn't sit too well.
   Part of the problem is I don't know what a realistic goal is right at the moment. I don't know whether to stick with 5k races or maybe start thinking about longer distances. I guess I'd be happy enough to be down in the twenties with my times on the 5k, rather than the mid-thirties, for starters.
   Sunday's race seemed like the most "professional" I've been in to-date although I've been in races that had more swag, better food and better-run prize announcing. The runners seemed more well-seasoned, for one thing, and it was a bit of an eye-opener for me to just be there, watching them. I guess the other part was that it was one in a series of races, with overall points being kept and prize money being offered. It was also my first experience with race photography. All-in-all, I want to look (and run) like one of the good runners.
   To this end, I train. And train. And then train a little more. And watch what I eat (while I drool over what I'm not eating). More than anything, I suppose I need to remember where I am on my life's journey.
   My Dad passed away last year at the age of 85. He was only in ill health for the last month of his life and prior to that he was one of the healthiest 85 year olds you'd want to run into. I don't work on Mondays (or very hard the other days of the week) and our Monday morning routine consisted of getting together with my Dad and playing nine holes of golf. We did this every Monday morning for about 8 or 9 years. At his ripe old age, my Dad was mystified by why he couldn't hit the ball as far as he could when he was in his thirties. I always explained to him about the aging process but he would have nothing of it. He was an old man who, simply, still felt like a young one.
   I am a bit of the same way. Honestly, I don't feel any different in my sixties than I did in my twenties. Common sense tells me otherwise, obviously, but this is why I sometimes have a hard time setting realistic goals. I see all those half marathon runners coming down the homestretch, still maintaining good form and not appearing as though they were even terribly exhausted. I think this could be me someday...
   In the meantime, here are:

What I'm looking forward to doing!

A Handful Of Race Day Observations

1. I didn't leave it all on the course. I know I had reserves I didn't even bother tapping. Shame, Brian!

2. There are photographers. Pretend you're not tired, especially the closer you get to the finish line...

3. If you're two feet away from another running blogger, say hi!

4. Check (no, double-check) your orthotics. There should be two.

5. Take a selfie, for goodness' sake! Do it yourself or there's lots of other people there who would be more than happy to oblige.

   Well, there you have it, another batch of running ruminations. I've had a couple of recovery days, I'm feeling good and itching to get out again and just run.
   It will be kind of cool simply to be running for the fun of it!

   Okay, I thought I was done with this post but, suddenly, I have decided to set some kind of goal.
   I will:

   1. Be running 10k once a week by the end of 2013
   2. Sign up for both a 10k and a half marathon in 2014.

   Now I've done it.....

   And in the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!

  

Springbank Race Recap In Which The Unthinkable Happened!!

  Okay, I imagine when you read the title of this post and saw the word "unthinkable", you probably thought to yourself omg, he won!
   Well, actually, no I didn't so we'll get to the "unthinkable" part toward the end of this post.
   Today I ran in the 5k division of the Springbank Road Races here in London. It was a beautiful day for running, sunshiny with a bit of a breeze and almost no humidity.

Start of the half!

   There was also a half marathon division which started half an hour before the 5k race which took off at 8:30 in the morning. I got to the park and was making my way to the starting line when the half marathon runners passed me going the other way, right after their start. It was actually quite the sight, this mass of runners and I managed to get a pic as they headed my way. Maybe some day, when I grow up, I'll be a half marathon runner! 
 
 

   I had just enough time to get my stretching in and down some fluids before the race began. I started about three quarters of the way back from the front because, essentially, this seemed like the polite thing to do, didn't want to slow down any of the fast runners.
   My racing experience is very limited but so far I've found that if I'm running in a group then I tend to run at whatever pace that group is running at. Letting other runners dictate your pace seems like a terrible strategy and I remember thinking I should get away from this group of people and follow my own strategy. Then I remembered that I had no strategy and so hung in with them for awhile!
  

Lined up for the 5k start

Eventually, things started to thin out and I felt unencumbered by the masses.
   It was a fairly easy run and I only walked the one time, up the last hill. This was a planned walk that I timed for a minute and at the end of it continued running. At this point I was able to finish the race sans walking which, for me, was a bit of an achievement. I've been running this route pretty regularly the last month and I've never been able to complete the last stretch without a walk break. Yesterday, however, this was not an issue. Here, I think, is the difference between a race and a training run. By the time the last stretch arrives, there are actually people cheering you on, you can see the finish line up ahead and stopping to walk is about the last thing you want to do. Well, it wasn't the last thing I wanted to do but it was the last thing I was going to do!

Last loop for the half marathoners

   Approaching the finish line was pretty cool, I could hear my name being announced and people yelling "Way to go, 404!" (not an "error message", it was my bib number). My Garmin clicked in at 35:11 and I believe the chip time was 35:55, not a time I'm happy with but still pretty consistent with what my training was.
   After the race I hung around and cheered in some of the half marathoners, watched the 5k awards being handed out, took a couple of pics (way too self-conscious for a selfie) and headed for home.
   This is where the unthinkable occurred or, at least, where I became aware of it.
  

After the 5k, cheering on the others!

When I run, I wear custom-made orthotics, part of the PF treatment I've been undergoing and I'm continually transferring the orthotics from my running to my regular shoes. After the race, when I got home, I looked down at where I'd left my regular shoes and there was one orthotic sitting there! Knowing what I would find, I immediately went and checked the shoes I'd just raced in. One orthotic in, one orthotic out! Not only that, the shoe without the orthotic didn't even have its sock liner! Aren't I such a professional runner?! I can only surmise that with my mind so preoccupied with getting ready for the race and with the systems amped up a bit, I never even noticed one shoe feeling slightly different than the other. Hate gettin' old, seems like the unthinkable slowly starts to become thinkable!