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!
  
  

My 8K Photo Essay

   A few of us have posted their "favourite runs" here in the past and this is what I offer you today.
   Not only is it one of my favourite runs but you could almost call it the running hub of London so popular is it. It utilizes the roadways in Springbank Park and the paths along the Thames River. I've been running it a lot lately as it is also the venue for a 5k race in the Springbank Road Races I'm running a week from today.
   Here's how it looks:

Flint Shelter

   I start from the same starting line they'll be using for the race and I then simply follow the course. The course begins at the Flint Shelter, one of the oldest buildings in this end of London.

   We head from there down the roadway to one of the two main park intersections. The park is full of wonderful flowerbeds.

   You continue on past this intersection toward the far end of the park where it then curves around and heads back in the same direction you came in, but on the other side of the park. At this point, a nice little downhill.

Nice, little downhill section...til you run back!

   Not too far after this, the roadway heads on down to the riverside, the first major hill.

The damn dam's busted!

Scenic

   At this point, there is a long stretch which runs along the river and past the ill-fated dam. They tried to make some improvements to the dam a few years ago but the first time they tried to use, it broke! All sorts of lawsuits that still aren't resolved and, in the meantime, the river is way low.

   Shortly after you pass the dam is the first major hill going up you have to contend with. It's pretty enough but it is a hill...

Storybook Gardens

   After this, there's another long stretch which takes you down to one of London's longest-running tourist attractions--Storybook Gardens. It's the site of the castle and I remember going there as a kid (fifty years ago). They re-did it a few years back and the debate these days is whether it was better then or better now.

The merry-go-round hasn't changed

   At this point, I stopped and took a pic of the merry-go-round. I did this more for nostalgia's sake--I spent the whole Spring and Summer of 1972 running the thing, to make enough money for university. In 1972, my wife was 5, lived right near the park and used to ride on the merry-go-round all the time. I was likely the guy that helped her get on the horse...

Turnaround point.

   Just past the merry-go-round, is the turnaround point for the 5k race. Here we turn around and run back past all the things I just showed you. For the purposes of a better photo essay and to give you an even better idea of where London runners run, I continued on past the turnaround point.

The Pumphouse

   Next stop, the old pump house. Way back when, it used to be a sulphur spring and the water you would get from the fountain there was, essentially, undrinkable. Smelled like rotten eggs, big-time.

The footbridge...

...and the view from the footbridge

   From there, it's just a short jog to the footbridge over the river, my chosen end point. The running path continues on much farther, however, essentially traversing the city. I have included a view of the beautiful Thames River, taken from the middle of the footbridge. In years past, it was much fuller and no rocks could be seen along the edges.
   At this point I turned around and re-traced my steps, all the way back to my car which was parked at the Flint Shelter. The Garmin had me at almost exactly 8 kilometers. Much of this was running, with some walking portions interspersed. At the same time, it is three kilometers farther than any distance I've run since the end of March. My knees are sore and my heel is suggesting that it may be acting up in the morning (BAD heel!), time will tell. In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!