[11 July 2021> back to journel archiving
, picking up from post #889, beginning of 1999 in Tucson, AZ...]
January 1, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 8 mi.
accomplished: 8.7 mi.
Pretty much jogged most of the way, though I did time myself on the middle 3 miles and ran them in 20:02, though I made a half-ass effort.
January 2, 1999 -- Tucson
No running today. Rest day. Writing on my laptop outside at the Coffee Plantation. In shorts and T-shirt in the sunlight and it is absolutely beautiful. Blue skies, birds chirping -- and it's January. This is what Tucson is all about. I don't take advantage of it enough. Now that I am working and writing on my PC. Not that big of deal to work on this and transfer the files (which is what I am going to do today.) Working on "Drinking Halos". But first I need to reflect on my resolutions. [Our bedder-½] and I are going to do are predictions again this year, last year none of them came true. Oh well.
- First resolution is to disobey resolutions. Pig out or get drunk, etc. Resolutions are not made to be taken seriously, they are just guidelines. It's okay to break them every once in a while.
- Run the Phoenix marathon in under 3:00. I will aim to do it in 3 hours but if I don't I won't be bummed out. Now if I don't finish at all, that's another story. But I will make the best effort possible and I will carry some of Kevin's ashes the distance being that he never got the chance to run a marathon (not that I know of anyway).
- Pay off all debts. Of course they will get paid off and then we will take an extravagant vacation and be back in debt, but that's okay. Approximately $11,000 to go, so a thousand a month should take care of it. Then again, at this rate, we may have to buy or lease another car as Nandi [our Isuzu Trooper] is slowly dying, which would effect this resolution.
- Treat our bedder-½ right. Okay, at least 95% of the time. She is the best thing in my life and I should be thankful for that every day.
- Good posture, as usual.
- Get published, for real. Okay, get published 5 times.
- Write at least a short story a month.
- Finish "Navigating the Senses".
- Read at least a book month.
- Maintain my health.
In other words, all the things that I strive for every day and have been striving for quite some time.
We went tried to go out on New Year's Eve. Tried is the operative word. We tried Pastiche first but it was rez only. Then we went to DaVinci's and we had terrible service. Took forever just to get our wine. Finally after over an hour of waiting for our entrees we just left. At least we got wine, salad and bread for free. We tried to go to Presidio Grill but that was an expensive fixed menu and finally just went to Chuy's.
Did the usual New Year's Day activities yesterday, washed windows, cleaned our venetian blinds, went through the mound of papers on my desk, went through my file box and threw out all sorts of junk.
where we were writing from in 1999
outside our house on Norton + 8th St
January 3, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 2:30
accomplished: 20.0 miles (in 2:46)
Broke the 20-mile barrier today. Made the mistake of not waiting long enough after breakfast to run. The first couple of miles up Tucson my breakfast of cereal, coffee, orange juice and lots of water was churning around making me burp. I was competing with my digestion. I cruised down Kleindale to Dodge and crossed the Rillito then continued down River. By then I was feeling pretty strong. Ran up Swan and then down Sunrise until I got to the Sabino Canyon parking lot. I arranged with our bedder-½ to meet me there with the Trooper. I got some water and caught up to her running a mile or so up the tram road. First time she’s run in a while due to her knee. I was still feeling good, until about the last mile of the tram road (about the 16th mile or so). It was steep uphill, probably a few thousand feet higher than home. At least the last 4 miles was downhill back to the parking lot. I took it easy just to save my knees. All in all it took me 2:46 which is an 8-minute pace – I knew I was running a 7-7 ½ pace most of the way, I guess I lost time at first and then towards the end.
I was pretty trashed afterwards. Really low on energy, I’ve been pretty much eating all day. My legs are sore, but nowhere in particular. Just sore all over. I probably overdid it, It was a pretty big jump in mileage. This week I will tone it down and maybe lift some weights now that the rec center is open. Tomorrow I start my full schedule. Still a little upset that I didn’t get any writing done.
January 4, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 7 mi.
accomplished: 0 mi.
Didn’t run but did arm weights, pull-ups, dips, etc.
January 5, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 9 mi.
accomplished: 6 mi.
Still a little sore so I did leg weights and then ran only 6 miles at a pretty moderate pace. Dad died 17 years ago today, or tomorrow.
January 6, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 9 mi.
accomplished: 5.7 mi.
Worked late tonight so I didn’t have much time to run. I did do the Randolph park loop, ran the middle 3 miles in 19:41, that’s at a 6:34 pace. Not bad.
Had a long meeting with Ralph, Mark and Beth today about the manuals [working at B +H]. It’s a pretty good setup, especially when I think that, with overtime, I made over $250 today. Need to finish this “Operator Console” manual by Monday.
January 7, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 13 mi.
accomplished: 0 mi.
Didn’t run. Not giving my legs time to heal and they get sore all over (mostly my butt from doing leg presses).
January 8, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 9 mi.
accomplished: 11.7 mi.
Ran to Randolph and then around Randolph 3 times. The 3 laps around Randolph (9 miles) I timed and did in 62:54, broke the 7-minute barrier for 9 miles, barely. Now if I can just keep that up for 26. The first lap I was easily under a 7-minute pace, I slipped on the next lap and then had to make up for it in the last lap. When I got back, Rich Otto was at our house (as was Mark and his friend Vianni, and Gwynn). We all went to La Fuente and listened to Mariachi’s while we chowed down. We went to what used to be the 4th avenue social club and now is just some bright bar with lots of TV’s. Lots of college kids smoking. Rich Otto is the same as ever. Living at home in upstate Pennsylvania, bigger than ever, the ultimate slacker. Besides Mark maybe. Together they make quite the team. They kept getting on my case for not having vices, for not taking drugs, for not wanting to do shots or drink more beer. I guess they must feel insecure about themselves or something. They kept asking me what I did that was “bad”, acting like I was some sort of purist or something. Meanwhile they’re hacking and wheezing from being sick and smoking cigarettes. Once again, couldn’t understand the enjoyment of going out to bars. And you go home and have to wash your clothes they smell so bad.
January 9, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 2 mi.
accomplished: 0 mi.
Didn’t run. Played 18 holes at Silverbell with Scott and shot 95. My drives and long irons were great but my chipping and putting sucked.
January 10, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 2:30
accomplished: 20 mi. in 2:42
Did the same route as last week, up to Sabino Canyon and then ran the tram road. But only 4 minutes better than last time. At least I wasn’t as trashed as last time. I gave myself a little extra time to digest my breakfast, and also ate a little more. And I carried Gatorade. Still can’t figure out where I went wrong as every chance I had to time myself I was running a 7 to 7:30 pace. Well, I remember my times at various points so I’ll figure out where I slacked off.
Interesting. I slacked off big time running the Sunrise leg. I would have never guess it. I thought I was hauling ass, I know I was the last part of it. But apparently not. I guess that was the up and down hills, whereas the Swan leg was gradual uphill. This was the same pattern as my 9 mi test the other day, I start strong and end strong, but suck in between. I have to push myself in those middle miles. I guess I shouldn’t get to down on myself considering the elevation gain on this route, not to mention waiting at traffic lights and stopping for water. Maybe next week I’ll do a flat route and see how I fare. Our bedder-½ ran 3 miles and her knee was okay. She probably won’t run the Phoenix ½ marathon (though she’ll run the 2 mi. fun run) but might be ready by early April, so maybe I’ll be running another marathon by then.
January 11, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 6 mi.
accomplished: 0 mi.
Didn’t run, but I did cross train. Regardless of what that schedule says, I don’t think it can be good for you to run every day. I did the elliptical for a half an hour and did weights (arms and upper body).
January 12, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 9 mi
accomplished: 2.5 mi.
Ran to the gym, and then ran to our bedder-½’s building to try to find her (to renew my membership). Ran back to the Gym and did leg weights, sit-ups, etc. and then ran the mile back home.
January 13, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 9 mi
accomplished: 8.7 mi.
Ran 8.7 miles with 4 x ½ mile sprints of 2:45, 2:41, 2:48 and 2:36 each, and I kept my pace in between.
January 14, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 13 mi
accomplished: 11.7 mi.
Ran 11.7 miles in 88 minutes (7:30 pace). I felt sluggish and weak. I also rode my bike to work and will start doing that, so that tags 8 miles of bike riding a day to my schedule. It’s kind of a pain getting across Aviation Highway. I have to carry my bike up a few flights of stairs and then cross the Palo Verde bridge.
January 15, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 11 mi
accomplished: 8.7 mi.
Ran 8.7 miles, the middle 6 miles in 44 minutes (7:20 pace). And the 8-mile bike. Still not feeling very strong. Don’t feel like my muscles are getting info fuel.
January 16, 1999 – Tucson
Ate a huge breakfast, 3 eggs, 2 potatoes, cheese, black beans and a bagel (1400 calories) and plan to sit around on my ass all day unless Scott calls back to play golf. I really need to start sending out writings, not to mention actually write.
January 17, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 2:45
accomplished: 2:46 (20.1 miles)
I had the Sunday theory all wrong before. Sunday is supposed to be a day to run for time, run for 2:45 without stopping. I’ve been stupid to push myself the last few weeks (on Sundays that is) and may have been suffering in strength because of it. So today, I JOGGED for 2:45 which ended up being around 20 miles. I’ll save the sprinting for the weekday runs. I ran up mountain and then along the Rillito river pathway thing all the way to it’s end and then some. Had to take a crap big time about ½-way through the run. Luckily I remembered there being a restroom, but it was a few miles until I got to it and I almost exploded in the meantime. My pulse is down to almost 50 when resting and aerobically I’m probably in the best health of my life. But my muscles have not had sufficient time to thoroughly rest and have been sore in 1 way or another for the past month.
January 18, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 6 mi.
accomplished: 6.4 mi.
Actually got off work somewhat early because I had to go to the dentist and get my teeth cleaned and a few more of those receding gum cap things. Ran up Tucson to Glenn over to mountain and back down. Timed myself each mile and was under 6:45 and as low as 6:30. Then did upper body and arm weights.
January 19, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 11 mi.
accomplished: 6 miles.
Ran to campus and met our bedder-½ and then I ran ¼ mile sprints while she jogged. Did 5 x ¼ mile sprints between 55 seconds and 1:05, okay, maybe it was less than ¼ miles, I’m guessing. Jogged ¼ mile in between each. Then did a leg workout after eating Guatemalan food with Scott and Kayo. We’ve seen 2 crappy movies in the past 2 days. Thin Red Line and Meet Joe Black. I guess Thin Red Line wasn’t crappy it was just long and boring and just kind of random.
January 20, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 0 mi.
accomplished: 8.7 miles.
Broke up my 8-mile run with 1 mile sprints of 6:21, 6:29, 6:42 and 6:15. Terrible when I look at some sprints I did in the end of December – I was breaking the 6 minute mark. I’m not getting faster. Then again, I didn’t push myself quite as much and didn’t stop running in between. And my butt is sore from doing weights yesterday. Also been riding my bike 8 miles to work which is even more exercise to tag on.
January 21, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 13
accomplished: 2.5 miles
Just didn’t want to run. I ran to the rec center (actually to our bedder-½’s office), then worked out.
January 22-23, 1999 – Tucson
Didn’t run. Sick of being mildly sore (plus I have shin splints). Seems like whenever I take a day off I feel worse, so I figure I was due for at least 2 days off. Saturday Scott and I went golfing at Enke and I shot a 92. This time my short game was good but my drives sucked.
January 24, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 3 hours.
accomplished: 3 hrs. (21.5 +1.5 miles of walking)
Ran the first 18 miles in 2:15 (7:30 miles). Then I just hit a wall. Completely ran out of energy, slowed down to probably like 10-minute miles and eventually just walked the last 1.5 miles. I was completely trashed. Ate a bagel and a glass of gatorade for breakfast, guess that wasn’t enough. Ate tons of pasta the night before, but I guess I should have been eating that Thursday and Friday night, thought I ate a lot of fish and chips on Friday. It’s really a science of nutrition. I was like a car that ran out of gas. I’ve never felt that depleted before. Spent most of the day recovering so still haven’t done much writing. Too tired to even write journal entries. But this was the apex of training. Now I taper off.
January 25, 1999 – Tucson
Didn’t run. Rode my bike to the Rec center and did an upper body workout.
January 26, 1999 – Tucson
Ran 5.7 miles, including the middle 3 in 18:49 (6:16 pace). Better than last time, when it took me about 20:00. I’ve been reading up on nutrition for endurance athletes, because when it comes down to it, that’s what matters. It almost doesn’t matter how good of shape you’re in, actually that’s not true – I guess what I mean is that you can only condition yourself to a point. It’s not humanly possible to run over 2 hours without some sort of input. Unless you’re from Kenya.
January 27, 1999 – Tucson
Ran 8.7 miles including 4 x 1 mile runs at 6:02, 6:15, 5:45 and 6:05. I drank a bunch of Gatorade and a chocolate Powerbar that interrupted my run with major diarrhea (luckily I found a bathroom). But I had plenty of energy.
I want to ride a story about some regular guy that is getting dressed in the morning and he decides to wear a shirt he hasn’t worn in years. When he puts it on, a bone falls out of a crease, he doesn’t know where it came from (this much of is true, except the bone was a piece of a hangar.) His wife is a biologist and he asks her to analyze the bone for DNA. She analyzes it and finds only trace DNA that is not recognizeable as any known species. She carbon-dates it and discovers it’s 10,000 years ago. It’s a mastadon bone.
January 28, 1999 – Tucson
Goal: 13
accomplished: 11.7
Ran in the cold rain. Ran the middle 9 miles in 62:03. That’s like a 6:53 pace. Ate a powerbar right before running and it seemed to give me a boost about a half an hour to 45 minutes into the run just like yesterday. Except this time I didn’t drink gatorade and didn’t get the shits. U of A vs. Stanford is on.
January 29
Ran 2 miles to the gym and lifted weights.
January 30
Didn’t run. Played golf at Trini Alvarez El Rio. Sucky course. I shot 96 and Scott shot 76.
January 31
Goal: 2 hrs
Accomplished: 16.7 miles in 2:03
That’s about a 7:22 pace. Went to GNC last night with Scott and got some Carbo supplement crap, and some gels etc. This morning I experimented with the powder stuff. Seemed to help a little. I ate a power bar and some toast before I left. Mixed up a bottle of Carbofuel and hid it into the bushes. After I had gone 7.5 miles, I drank it. I was breaking a 7-minute pace up to that point and slowed down a bit after that. But I did have some energy. And I felt better afterward, even though I only ran 2 hours (my training program is waning). I got on my bike and rode with our bedder-½ while she did 3 miles around Randolph and I paced her. She ran 3 miles in 28:16 (that’s like a 9:25 pace overall).
Last day of January. Watched part of the Superbowl and it was boring. Both our bedder-½ and I got shoes today and she got a watch so she can time herself. We had lunch in the outside patio of Ovens. Beautiful day as usual. Not much else to say.
February 1, 1999 – Tucson
Ran to the rec center and back (2 miles) and of course did a workout at the rec center. Did pullups and dips where I go all the way down, I mean all the way to a dead hang. Biceps near my elbow are sore.
February 2
Ran 7.8 miles, including 4 x ½ mile sprints of 2:32, 2:43, 2:41 and 2:41. A little better than the last time I did that (Jan. 13). I’ve finished first drafts of 3 manuals for B+H. The Console Guide is about 88 pages, System Admin Guide is about 232 pages and the Software Engineering Handbook is around 100 pages. Yah. I’m feeling healthy. I’m making money. I ride my bike to work. Our bedder-½ has been cooking more and more though I cooked tonight. Eating like a pig. By the time I wake up at 6:30, bike to work, work a 9 hour day eating lunch at my desk, bike home around 5:00, run for 6-13 miles, then eat . . . by the time all is said and done and I sit down to write or read I am too tired to do anything. Like now, I just sat down to log my miles and check my e-mail and it’s already past 9. So I might piddle around ideas for an hour but I’ll probably fall asleep before I accomplish anything besides satisfy our bedder-½ whose feeling frisky.
February 3
Ran 8.7 miles.
February 4
I don’t think I ran, I can’t remember for sure
February 5
Ran 8.7 miles, including 1-mile sprints of 5:41, 6:02, 6:02 and 5:55. The 5:41 time is probably my p.r. to date. Not that I couldn’t beat that if I went all out for 1 mile.
February 6
Didn’t run. Played golf down in Green Valley at Torres Blanca. We played with some cupcake and his fogey father who were playing from the Championship tees. I was playing bogey golf except for 1 hole where I had a 10. And then the last 2 holes it was getting cold and late and I don’t know what happened but I completely came part. Swung and missed the ball completely not once but twice and hit some terrible shots. I just gave up and didn’t finish the last hole.
February 7
Jogged 11.7 miles in 1:30. Woke up and did a trial run of the marathon and failed miserably. Woke up at 6:00 ate a bagel and a cliff bar and 1 scoop of carbofuel in water, and a cup of coffee. Probably about 600 calories which is too much. Not to mention that we went to El Parador last night and didn’t get served until 8:30-9:00. I should probably eat earlier. Anyways. I took a shit in the morning, but still . . . 4 miles into the run I had to make a run for the locker room at Randolph. My legs weren’t feeling to hot either, below the knee was achey and 1 of my calves was twitchy. Like all the blood was in my stomach digesting. Had gas. It wasn’t good. Barely made it home before I exploded into the toilet again. Hmm. I feel great now. Energetic. I just have to figure what to eat before the race. And wake up earlier.
February 12, 1999 – Tucson
Not running much this week and pigging out on carbos. Ran 5 miles on Tuesay, including a mile in 5:36 (a personal best?). Thursday I also ran 5 miles (three miles in 19:45). Tuesday night we went to see the Australian Dance company. It was pretty boring, but they did some cool stuff swinging around on ropes. Wednesday Max and Ginny took us out to eat. They’re pretty cool people to have as neighbors. Max [Max Cannon, of Red Meat fame] signed some deal with Fox to do a pilot. He’s on the cover of Tucson Weekly this week. He’s pretty successful at what he does. He’s got some pretty wild stories to tell. They just seem like solid people with no real hang-ups. Besides that been working hard. I’m kind of getting into it, when it gets to the point where you’ve accumulated and compiles all sorts of information into a cohesive document. I’ve also been playing around getting into various different WinHelp and HTML help formats, and we hooked it up to 1 of the applications. And trying to eat a lot of food for the marathon.
February 17, 1999 – Tucson
I ran the marathon on Sunday. It’s been a few days, I’m still sore and I’ve just been too busy to write. We went up to Phoenix on Saturday morning. Registered and ate Thai food and went bowling. Then went over to Kim’s and hung out watching videos and ate a lot of pasta.
Didn’t sleep too well. Damn cuckoo clock kept going off every hour. Woke up at 5:15 and ate a bagel and a banana and some coffee. Stretched. Left the house in the dark and drive to Scottsdale Community college. It was still a bit nippy out. Waited in line at the outhouses. That was quite the scene. That seemed to be people’s prime obsession. Waited. And then we were finally off. All this training, all this eating, the past 2 months, all for this. All down to this moment and I was stuck in that moment thinking about the outcome.
No matter how many people say start out slow, it still seems like everyone else is going in slow motion at first so I felt compelled to pass every one. I was up in front at the beginning. It felt pretty comfortable. I just picked this long haired Mexican guy with flowery shorts and tried to stay behind him. At the 3-mile mark I was averaging a 6:30 pace. I brought a liter of carbo-fueled packed water and 2 power-gels. Nobody else was. We were running along rural roads through agricultural areas and I swear I had a funny taste of pesticides in my mouth. Then we got up to the canal and we looped 1 way and turned around and looped back into incoming runners. I had less than 20 runners in front of me, and then when we got to the turnaround point for the ½ marathon and I realized that most of them were running the ½. If I ran the ½ I probably could’ve have a really good finish. But the running was getting progressively harder. I remember at around 15 miles I still had under a 7:00 pace going. I ran next to this Kenyan guy from Winslow that had dreadlocks. He had just run the Las Vegas marathon the weekend before in 2:47. That inspired me for a while that I was keeping up with him. We were running along the canal and there were coyotes yapping. But then I started losing energy. I drank all my drink and was eating my power gels. I don’t know if I was losing energy so much as my legs were killing me. My quads were burning. I rounded the point where we turned around to return and counted about 15 people in front of me. But more and more people started catching me and I wasn’t passing anyone. But there was still a hell of a lot of people that were way behind me.
Our bedder-½ and Rob and Kim had run the 2-mile run and were rooting me on at every chance they got. They would jump in the car and find another spot where they could intercept me. It was pretty cool. But by the 20th mile I had slowed down to a crawl. I could barely run. It was all I could do to just pick up my feet and jog. It seemed endless. Finally off the canal bank and onto the road. I could see a little light at the end of the tunnel when there were only a few miles left. And then I could see the college. Long distances between me and other runners. Rounded the corner into the parking lot and then heard my name being announced as I rounded the last corner. People rooting me on, the clock said 3:36. It never felt so good to just walk. Ate some food and drank some water. I wasn’t feeling too bad until I tried to sit down on the grass and my legs were so sore I could barely squat or lean over. All in all it was worth it. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t pace myself very well and might run another marathon someday to try to improve on my time. For now, I am just glad it’s over with. Here’s the official results. [we copied + pasted the entire results in our journal which we'll omit—we got 52nd out of 301 w/ an official time of 3:36:39]
along the irrigation canal in Phoenix Marathon
February 23, 1999 – Tucson
I’ve recovered from the marathon. Now I’ve signed up for the Rock’N’Roll marathon on May 23 in San Diego. And a 10K in a few weeks. I’m going nuts. I’m not going to run much for the next weeks, besides the 10k of course. Then I’ll start “training” 10-12 weeks before. I ran 6 miles tonight (including a 3 x½ mi. sprints of under 3:00). I also ran 5.7 miles on Saturday and a few miles here and there like running to the rec center. I’ve been lifting weights more, trying to build my muscle mass back up unsuccessfully and of course I’ve been riding to work and back every day.
The IS4 documents are at the printer right now to have 40 copies made (at over 300 pages that’s like 12,000 sheets of paper that I’m indirectly responsible for. I’m going to have bad dreams of trees attacking me like in the Wizard of Oz). Almost have them converted over to help files – Thursday marks the release of version 4.1 so I’ve been working long hours to try to meet that deadline. So making tons of money, over $850 a week, but even still, doesn’t seem like the debt goes away very fast. Always something unaccounted for, almost $500 for my teeth last month, new running shoes, lots of dinners, or whatever, I’m not sure what. But slowly but surely it will get paid off.
Finished up some random projects that I’ve been working on as far as writing and started writing a new kind of creative non-fiction piece about the Phoenix marathon and what I WASN’T thinking about during the race. Went to Yan and Roberts wedding the other night, and I filmed it for them. That was kind of cool. Liz is in town living in some house with 7 big mastiffs. The weather is absolutely perfect. High 70’s or 80’s. Would be nice to get a little rain though.
Sound Furies back in 1999 w/ L on flute
Sound Furies + L being shadow puppets at Romero pools
February 28, 1999 – Tucson
Hiked to Romero pools yesterday. I tagged along with Liz and our bedder-½, I power-hiked ahead and made it to the pools in about fifty minutes (almost 3 miles). I started to come back because I was supposed to meet them at a designated time but ran into them and then went back to the pools. So really it was more like an 8-mile hike for me. It’s been a very dry winter and everything is dead. Never seen it this bad.
Today was well into the eighties. Went down to Tubac with Scott and some friend of Scott’s brother that’s in town visiting. The golf course down there is nice. It feels like you’re in a different state or something, and almost like you’re 20 years back in time. Nobody ahead of us and nobody behind. Managed to shoot a 91 (taking mulligans into account, more like 95) even though my driving really sucks. I don’t know what’s going on there. My irons were pretty good and I think I may have 3-putted only once or twice.
Tired. Been getting up at 6 even on the weekend, working on the non-fiction marathon piece which now has the working title of Phoenix-Egg Omelet and is about 6 pages.
March 2, 1999 – Tucson
Ran 6.5 miles on Monday, with a lot of sprinting. Then did leg weights.
March 3, 1999 – Tucson
Ran 2 miles then did arms and chest.
Kind of reached a wall at work. Worked on the Internal “Software Engineering Handbook” and converted it to WinHELP just to do something besides the other 2 guides. And now I have to reformat the guides to the new specifications of Durham. Just tedious grunt work. I think everybody at B+H is kind of burnt out as we just released 4.1 yesterday. Brent, Rey, Victor, Brian, etc. were going nuts today, rubber band wars and playing darts. This is not uncommon but usually we do it for a few minutes a day, but it seemed like people were goofing around all day. I should probably start describing these characters but dinner's ready.
March 7, 1999 – Tucson
Just ran my first 10k... actually, I just remembered I ran 1 back at Foothill College, but I have no idea what my time was. Anyways, I ran it in 42 something, (pace of 6:46) which I am not very happy with considering I ran 6 miles in 40:03 last Wednesday (6:40 pace) and that was in the middle of a 9-mile run. I just don’t think I’m that competitive. Plus everyone jumps the gun running fast. My first mile was 6:12 and that probably hurt me. I tried to pace myself but I had quite a few people in front of me even at that pace. Our bedder-½ ran it in 1:01 something, I’m sure she could have gone faster but she was running with Liz. She finished strong. Anyways, enough slacking off, I’ve got to start my training program, now.
Here’s the official results [again ommitted, but we got 40th out of 176 w/ an official time of 0:42:05 6:46]
March 14, 1999 – Tucson
I paid taxes. I read Steve Lattimore’s Circumnavigation. I wasted 2 hours of my life seeing 8mm. I ran some. I ran some more. our bedder-½ is running the Rock N Roll Marathon now so she is running more. U of A lost. I am thinking about writing. It’s overwhelming. Trying to pick up “Navigating the Senses” where I left off. There just isn’t a block of time big enough. Let alone to start soliciting my writings. It’s like a needle skipping across the grooves of many records, sampling bits and pieces of inspiration, but never completing a song.
Here's a recap of running this week:
Mon: Ran 2 miles and then cross-trained (legs)
Tues: Ran 5. 7 miles including ½ mi sprints of 2:46 and 2:42
Wed: Day off
Thurs: Ran 8.7 miles including 3 miles in 20:41 (not feeling to strong).
Fri: Didn’t run
Sat: Ran 6.5 miles with our bedder-½ including a 5:27 mile (a PR?)
Sun: Ran for about an hour and half, probably about 11 miles. Ran with our bedder-½ along the river. Unfortunately we ran at 1:30 and it was way too hot. So I was running back to check on her and, but I ran Country Club to Orange grove and back, including at least 2 miles of backtracking.
March 21, 1999 – Tucson
We have had a lot of house guests in the past few weeks and now they’re finally all gone. First Cathy was in town and I guess Liz didn’t feel comfortable having her stay at her house with all those dogs and everything so they both stayed here. And this past week Laurie was in town from New Hampshire. So it’s grind the coffee beans in the shower, tip toe around at night, etc. Right now our bedder-½ and Gwynn are watching the Oscars and BBQ fumes are sifting up the window from Max and Ginny’s side of the yard. I just ran 15.7 miles, here’s a rundown of the week in running:
Mon: Ran 2 miles and then did leg weights
Tues Ran 5.7 miles with a sore butt including 1-mile sprints of 6:05 and 6:17
Wed: I don’t think I did anything.
Thurs: 11.7 miles, including 6 miles in 40:40
Fri: ran 5.7 miles
Sat: Only ran 1 mile but did lots of waist up weights.
Sun: Ran for 2 hours exactly, 15.7 miles which is a 7:38 pace average.
Been reading Steve Lattimore, I really like him. He’s up there with Scott Bradfield and Mark Leyner. Wrote a draft of something I don’t know what it will be called, maybe “Chain Gang” [never published]. It’s about cat and horse tranquilizers. Based on that Mitchell guy I worked with in Savannah and my dorm-mate at RLS who OD’d on horse tranquilizers. I’m not sure how it will end. It’s kind of got the dysfunctional Steve Lattimore feel.
What else . . . went to the Tucson botanical gardens yesterday and got some plants. Been doing a lot of planting. Our 1 bonsai is blooming. Our big white rose tree that covers our patio is lot like a sea of little white roses. The weather is perfect. Not too hot, not to cold, no bugs. Basically it’s like living in void where there are no external distractions. Raymond Carver was probably right when he said he did his best writing when there was a lot of distractions, when things weren’t going well. If life is pleasant and comfortable and I’ve got a good job and a beautiful wife and everything is going good there’s nothing much to write about, is there?
March 28, 1999 – Tucson
Our bedder-½ and I were vegging out a few nights ago when we heard sirens blaring down our street and then a loud crash. I ran outside and there was like 8 cops pointing guns at the completely wrecked cars, yelling “manos arriba!” and telling bystanders to get down. As if anybody in the cars was in any condition to be firing back. Evidently the cops were chasing this red sports car down 8th st., right by our house. He blew through the stop sign at 8th and Tucson ave (a block away) and broad-sided a mini-van with a family. They ended up tangled up in somebody’s yard in a heap of cactus. Completely totaled. I read about it in the paper and the driver of the sports car died. It was a grisly scene. There were cops with dogs at odd hours of the morning looking in our yard for what I presume was probably drugs or a weapon that the people in the car threw out the window before crashing and dying.
Second time in a few weeks that happened. The other day I was meeting with Ralph when I heard a loud crash and I went outside and a little sports car had pegged a big Industrial Isuzu truck. It hit it so hard that truck rolled. When I ran up, the guy was okay but delirious. He couldn’t get out of his door because the truck had rolled. Me and this other guy were asking him if he was okay and if he wanted us to help him out the passenger door. He was scratching his head and sifting through a heap of papers and junk that got scattered in the wreck.
What else. Ralph has kidney stones and has been out for the past 2 weeks. Had Indian food with Max and Ginny. Gwynn invited us over another night. I helped Kayo move yesterday to a new apartment on Orange Grove. It’s a really nice place. But she is hard to be nice to, cuz then she starts calling more and being needy and feeling sorry for herself, still hung up on Scott (who gets back from Australia tonight). Rusty Jones invited us to his birthday party tomorrow night. Duke and Connecticut for the final game. Oh, yah, we’re about to go to WW3. We’re bombing the shit out of Bosnia or Yugoslavia or Croatia or whatever you call it these days. Far as I’m concerned I don’t care and they can deal with their own problems. Here’s my running summary for the week:
Mon: 2 miles and did leg weights
Tues: 6.7 miles with ½ mile sprints of 2:42, 2:44 and 2:45
Wed: rest
Thurs: 11.7 miles (including 9 miles in 62:47 – 7:58 pace)
Fri: 6.7 miles
Sat: rest
Sun: 17.5 miles in 2:25 hrs (our bedder-½ dropped me off at Tucson and Glenn, ran up to Sabino Canyon and did the tram road, so it was pretty much all up hill).
[... onward to April–June 1999]
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