Pics!

Action Sports International has posted the Lakefront Marathon photos, and I went ahead and bought some.

This is a pretty good shot, showing my race number, and also my American Cancer Society short. Notice my left hand. I'm counting comments about my tights. The hand shows eight. I kept track of the tens digit in my head, so that could be 8 or 28 or 98. Judging by how much I'm smiling, I'm guessing it's still early in the race.


Here's a better shot of my tights. Apparently, I saw this photographer. I don't know why the "thumbs up" was my gesture of choice for this race, but it was. I understand that's obscene in some South American countries. If you're from there, sorry about that.


At the end of the race, without really planning it, I jumped on the finish line. I kind of like the way this photo came out. Notice I'm still counting. My left hand shows 3. The total was 123.

So what's next? I had planned to run Madison in the spring, to finish what I started last May. But now I'm not so sure. I had a great run last Sunday. Perhaps it is time to take a break.

Day 1224 -- Back in the U.S.

Actually, I ran back into the U.S. on Sunday, about halfway through the marathon. But I didn't post any journey pic on Sunday, so here it is. The photo is from New York State: Back Roads and Byways, a New York State Travel Page by Stephen-KarenConn. No idea whether the sign is anywhere near where I just crossed into the state.

I ran a very gentle 5K this morning. It felt OK. I loosened up a little after a mile or so, but never really got loose. But it was nice to get back out on the road. With no particular pressure to train for anything at this point, I might take tomorrow off again.

Day 1223 -- Race Report: Lakefront Marathon

The Lakefront Marathon is a point-to-point marathon. They take us 26 miles up the lake shore, to the town of Grafton, and we have to run to downtown Milwaukee. This is my first ever true point-to-point. The Fox Cities Marathon has a short distance between the start and the finish, but the shuttle bus ride is only a few minutes. There's nothing quite like taking a half-hour bus ride and realizing that you have to run back to the start.

I got to Grafton just before 7:00, and the race started at 8:00. They opened up Grafton High School for us to wait in, so I did the obvious. I pulled off my sweatshirt, folded it up for a pillow, and lay down for a half an hour. The alternative was to pace, and with 26 miles on the schedule, I thought I'd better stay off my feet.

For the last half hour before the start, I milled around a little, waited in line for the porta-potty, and chatted with a few other runners. At just about 8:00 exactly, the gun sounded, and we were off.

It was pretty good weather. Cool the whole way, and mostly sunny, although there were a few very brief misty showers. I wore my Running Funky tights, which was a good thing. Not for the warmth, in particular, but for the attention. It occurred to me early on to count the number of people who commented on them, which gave me something to do besides fret about the miles yet to go. I counted 123 comments, an average of almost five a mile.

I started out too fast, of course. I made myself a deal. I had planned to walk through the aid stations, and for a while, I made myself walk until the 4:45 pace group caught up with me. I figure that would mean that I got plenty of walking early, and I did. But at each aid station, the wait for them to catch up was shorter, until somewhere between mile 14 and mile 15, when they passed me on the run. I waved them goodbye, and never saw them again.

It was actually sort of a relief. From about mile 10, I'd been pushing myself to keep ahead of them, and after they passed, I let go of my Ultimate Goal of a marathon PR, and held on to my Challenge Goal of walking only at aid stations. I'd say that I made it. It's true that for the last four of five aid stations, I stretched that walk out quite a bit, to maybe as much as a quarter mile. I thought maybe I could skip the last two aid stations, at 24.2 and 25.2 miles. I skipped the penultimate one, but that came back to bite me, so I actually started my walk a little in advance of the last one.

But really, I didn't have any long stretches of hopeless walking, and I actually ran in the last mile. I'm happy with my performance. Although it was the slowest of my four complete marathons, I would judge it to be my strongest finish.

My overall time was 5:03:44. I was 1691st, out of about 1903 finishers. I was 1018th male, out of 1105. In my age group, I was 148th. Out of 152. Pity those four old guys who couldn't even beat me. I had told Grandma earlier that I was probably the oldest guy in my age group, thinking that it was 41 to 45. But in fact, it was 45 to 49, so a lot of those 147 guys who beat me were even older than I am.

Anyway, I'm happy. I will now proceed to take a few days off, and then do some running just for the sake of running. I'm still serious about running Madison again next year, to prove I can do it. But I don't need to worry about that for a little while. I'm going to enjoy some time where I'm not training for a blessed thing.

Wish me luck

Well, here we go.

I slept OK last night, in spite of some ruckus in the hallway. At about 3:00, some kids got loud enough to get me all the way to consciousness. I lay there for a little while trying out various strategies. I had just decided to go out and ask them for their room numbers, so that I could make noise outside their doors in a few hours, when I was awake and they were trying to sleep. At that point, I drifted off.

It's still almost three hours to the gun. I need to drive to the finish line, which will take about five minutes, and get a shuttle to the start, which will probably take a half an hour. And the rest, I'll just be fretting. Maybe I'll knock on some random doors.

Tomorrow's the Day

The weather looks great. I'm rested. I'm ready. This is it.

I got to Milwaukee about 3:30. I checked into the hotel, then found the expo. It was just about what I'm used to. I couldn't find the American Cancer Society booth, and then when I found it, there was a note saying they had already gone to the pasta dinner. I met them there, eventually. Oddly, the volunteers didn't seem to know where to find the pasta dinner, but eventually I found it. They recognized the DetermiNation runners, which was nice. It is not too late to donate, if you want.

I'm going to try to do some grading, and go to bed. I'll check in again in the morning.

No run today

Well, it looks like the the first run of October will be the marathon. The schedule has an easy four, and I was going to run it, but I just couldn't get up. And of course, I'm not going to make it up tomorrow.

Day 1222 -- Jogger's Progress

	Trip	YTD	Sep
Distance	7743.2	1348.9	152.6
Time	52 days, 16 hrs, 3 min	9 days, 21 hrs, 2 mins	27:55
Days	1222	191	20
States	23	4	0
Provinces	1	1	1

Interesting fact of the month: I ran 27 hours and 55 minutes, exactly the same (to the nearest minute) as in August. However, I ran two miles more, so my average pace was up this month. On the other hand, I had two extra running days, so my average time per outing was down. Is there nothing a geek can't overanalyze?

I realized that when I grab this forecast from weather.com, I'm actually looking at the low for Sunday night, not Saturday night. Saturday night is the one that's going to effect me. And it's going to be even colder! OK, 38, instead of 39, as of today's forecast.

Day 1221 -- Maitland

A very nice ivy covered tower in Maitland, Ontario, uploaded by "americatramp" to Panoramio.

I ran a really easy five this morning. My main goals this week are to stay loose, but not hurt myself.

They have reduced the chance of rain for Sunday, but also reduced the temperatures. 36 degrees? Really? That's barely above freezing!

Weather Update

It's foolish, of course, to watch the forecast this closely. It's going to change, slightly, every day. Today, they've changed it to partly cloudy, with a 20% chance of rain. Tomorrow, who knows? As long as it doesn't heat up, I'll be happy.

The forecast, by the way, is from weather.com.

Day 1220 -- Brockville

A rare Monday run, for two reasons. First of all, I didn't work too hard yesterday, so I had energy this morning. More importantly, the Packers are on Monday Night Football, so I expect to stay up late tonight and sleep in tomorrow. Right now, they are beating the Bears 10-0 in the second quarter. Both teams are 2-0, so it's a pretty important game for this early in the season. And, of course, it's the Bears.

Day 1219 -- Front of Yonge

Another little township with a strange name: Front of Yonge. I see from their web site that they are home to Canada's smallest national park, the St. Lawrence Islands National Park. I don't immediately see where they got the strange name, but it's probably there, somewhere. The photo of the fire van comes from Fire Buff's page of Ontario Fire Departments.

Only ten miles this morning. I had to do something to make it a challenge, so I ran it nonstop. It was cool enough that I could carry two hours worth of water, so I could do that. It felt pretty good, all told. Now I just take it easy this week, and kill myself next Sunday. Piece of cake.

I read somewhere that you should set three goals for a race: a basic goal, a challenge goal, and an ultimate goal. Your basic goal is what you expect to make if you don't disaster. If you make your basic goal, you've had a good day. Your challenge goal is a step up. If you make your challenge goal, you've had a real good day. Your ultimate goal is what you might make if everything goes exactly right. If you make your ultimate goal, you kicked ass.

So, here goes.

Basic goal: finish the race. Walk, limp, crawl, I don't care. Finish under my own power, under the 6.5 hour time limit. That would put me ahead of the Madison Marathon, after all.

Challenge goal: Walk only through the aid stations. There are 14 aid stations, just under one every two miles, which should be about right. If the weather isn't hot, and if I don't go out too fast, I can do this. It's only a couple miles further than I ran two weeks ago, and I didn't do any unscheduled walking that day.

Ultimate goal: A marathon PR of 4:50:29 or better. This would be quite a feat. I would need to hit the perfect pace. Too fast, and I'll burn out and finish walking. Too slow, and I won't make the time. Frankly, I doubt that I can do it in the shape I'm currently in. But that's what makes it the ultimate goal.

Day 1218 -- Leeds and the Thousand Islands

Leeds and the Thousand Islands is apparently a single community. It contains (they contain?) this plaque, commemorating the site of the Landsdowne Iron Works. The photo of the plaque can be found at OntarioaPlaques.com, which is a cool idea for a site.

As promised, I ran six miles yesterday, and none today. I wanted to sleep in, but didn't have much luck.

In weather news, October 3 has made it into the 10-day forecast, and right now, it looks great. I suppose I would prefer overcast to sunny, but if the temperature doesn't go above 57, I'll be really, really happy.

My Three Sons

Well, this is interesting. Some time in the spring, we adopted three new kittens: Aslan, a boy; Merlin, a boy; and Rhia, a girl. Yesterday, we took them in to get neutered and spayed, respectively. Only the vet took a better look at Rhia and decided he had better be neutered, too. It was the same vet who originally confirmed he was a girl. So now we have three boy kittens, one of which has a strangish name. We're still deciding whether to rename him. Hell, we're still getting used to thinking of her as "him".

Days 1216 and 1217

I don't know whether this semester is actually busier earlier than previous semesters, or whether old age is just catching up to me. But I'm feeling seriously run down, and I have a long way to go, yet.

I ran four miles yesterday, and six more today, so add 10 miles to Joyceville, and that's where I am. No picture, because I'm away from my home computer. Tonight is the first exam in calculus. About 40 of my 50 students have come and gone, and no one's head exploded, so I guess it wasn't too hard. Now I'll have to grade the damned thing.

The marathon is 10.5 days away. Not quite close enough to show up in the 10-day weather forecast. It's looking good at this point. There is about a week of cool, dry weather leading into the marathon. Unless they're wrong, of course.

Look for no post tomorrow, because I don't plan to run. Then no post on Friday, because I have to go up to Madison for a meeting in the afternoon, and I will be home late. But I'll get caught up on Saturday.

Day 1215 -- Joyceville

This is a little sad. Gary and Ray Ellis have a whole page of Canadian trucking companies that have folded or gotten bought out. Network trucking, seen here, was based in Mississauga, but the photo was taken in Joyceville, and so labeled.

Medium long run this morning, almost 16 miles. I reflected that if the weather is like this in Milwaukee in two weeks, it's going to be a very pleasant marathon. It was cool and overcast, with just a hint of rain for a few minutes. I felt strong for ten miles, and then struggled a little with the last six. But I'm happy with what I did.

An Open Letter to Academic Administrators Everywhere

A college faculty is hard to lead. They are all highly intelligent, and used to an awful lot of freedom in their everyday decisions. Many of them are stubborn as hell. If you pushed a typical college faculty off a cliff, 10% of them would fall up, just to establish the principle of academic freedom. So the number one rule leading a college faculty has got to be: Don't pick a fight with the faculty over trivial stuff. You can't possibly win. You'll get a small handful who will grudgingly cooperate, a larger group that will be outright defiant, and a very large group that will simply ignore you. And a lot of people from all three groups will take it as further evidence that you are a clueless pencil-pusher who has no idea what goes on in a college classroom.

I can think of situations in which you should tackle the faculty.

1. When you have a legal obligation or a mandate from further up the administrative food chain. "I know you don't like it, folks, but we have to do it."
   
2. When you have some actual power to enforce. "If we don't get cooperation with the new policy, we won't be able to fund Project X. Take your pick."
   
3. When you have strong support from vocal and respected campus leaders. "On the recommendation of the Faculty Senate, I am instituting the following policy."
   
4. When your position is so morally compelling that you couldn't do anything else. "I cannot in good conscience support the current policy."
   

It helps if you have more than one of the above.

Note, oh administrator, than I'm not claiming that this is the way things should be. It's the way things are. And if you don't recognize it, you're going to have a very hard time.

Days 1213 and 1214 -- Kingston

I found this photo of the Old Courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, at a rather unexpected place: the School of Science and Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. It's from the personal page of some guy who traveled to Canada back in 2005. It's a nice shot, though.

And where have I been? Thursday, I slept in. That's two Thursdays in a row. I don't know why. Wednesday isn't any harder than any other day. I got up Friday and had a nice medium-long run. It was just what I needed to get me through the day. There was thunder and lightning early this morning, so I turned off the alarm and slept in again. But I was cranky in the morning, so I ran a quick three before lunch, which again got me through the day. But barely. Just barely.

Days 1211 and 1212 -- Loyalist

Welcome to Loyalist, ON, "a growing community of 15,000+ people situated on the north shore of Lake Ontario between the Town of Greater Napanee and the City of Kingston." Seems as nice a place as any, I guess.

I ran a nice 10K yesterday, with a little speed through the middle part, then an easy 4 miles today. The weather continues to be great for running. I don't know how long it can keep it up.

In non-running news, I'm keeping busy at school. A lot of meetings. A lot of grading. So I've been home in the evenings, but haven't had a lot of energy for blogging.

Sorry.

Day 1210 -- Napanee

Well, it's been a busy couple of days.

Yesterday started, of course, with a long run. 23.7 miles, to be accurate. I left the house at about 4:30, and didn't get back until 9:45. I can surely make the marathon distance. It's only a couple miles further than I ran yesterday. But, as I said two weeks ago, it's not clear that I will be as fast as I'd like to be. This will likely be my slowest marathon ever, and I'm OK with that. I ran--well, shuffled--the last three miles yesterday without stopping. If I can do that again at the marathon in three weeks, I think it will be a victory, no matter how slow my overall time is.

Anyway, shortly after I got home and changed, Mrs. Jogger and I hopped into the car and drove up to Spring Green for an American Players Theatre production of All's Well that Ends Well. As always with APT, it was excellent. But unfamiliar. My records say that Mrs J and I saw this play in Stratford, ON, in the late '80's, but you couldn't prove it by me. I'll be damned if I remember anything about that production, or anything about the plot of AWTEW at all. It seemed brand new to me.

When we got home, I sat down to watch the end of the Packers game (They won!) and grade. And grade. And grade. So I didn't get a chance to blog last night. But, since I didn't run this morning, I haven't fallen behind. Not really.

Above, a mural "Archways to Napanee", from GiantTiger.com.

Day 1209 -- Trenton

Just beyond Quinte West is Trenton. In fact, they seem to be pretty well linked. You can see this picture of the Welcome to Trenton sign says "Quinte West" at the top. And when I was searching for pictures of Quinte West, I found at least one building that was called something like the Quinte West Medical Clinic but had a Trenton address. Wikipedia says that Trenton is "a community in Southern Ontario in the municipality of Quinte West." Not real helpful. But if you click through to the page for Quinte West, you find out that Quinte West is another amalgamated town, formed from Trenton, Frankford, Murray, and Sidney. I don't know why they didn't just call it Trenton-Frankford-Murray-Sidney.

Anyway, I ran six and a half miles this morning, with six hill sprints thrown in. It was a good workout, and now I'm thinking I'll skip tomorrow's workout, to make sure I have a good long run on Sunday.

Day 1208 -- Quinte West

The City of Quinte West has this nice photo of the Ontario Provincial Police station. Contrary to rumor, I'm not fleeing from the Mounties. I'm just running past.

I ran yesterday. I got up and ran a nice, easy six. It was still nice and cool, and the wind had died down, so it was a great day for a run. I didn't get time to post last night. However, I overslept this morning. I forgot to set my alarm. Some time in the middle of the night, I rolled over and wondered whether I had set the alarm, but I figured that if I hadn't, it was a good excuse to sleep in. Which I did. This may not have been the best decision, but it's not one that I can go back and change.

Day 1207 -- Wooler

Will S., on the Flickr page from which I stole this photo, says, "I just like this old convenience store sign." You know what, Will? I do, too.

It was bordering on chilly this morning. It was cool and dry, as it has been, but there was also a pretty gusty wind. But that's OK. It chilled the body, but not the soul. I had a good run, and overall a good day. I'm still getting used to this idea of going to the office and putting in a full day's work. It takes more out of me than I remember. j

Day 1206 -- Brighton

Roger Kramer went on a "BiQue" ride in Canada back in 1997, and took this picture in Brighton. He had never been to Canada, before, and he seems to have enjoyed it.

I enjoyed my run this morning. With four weeks to go to the marathon, I took an off week, if you can call 16 miles an off week. The weather was still gorgeous, and I felt good. I was a bit faster than my last long run, but not fast, by any stretch.

Day 1205 -- Alnwick/Haldimand

Maybe I ought to go to Ontario for real. Here's a website devoted to the Waterfront Trail along the Canadian shores of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. They describe this section of the trail as "a pastoral paradise".

It felt like paradise here in Joggerville this morning. A front came through Thursday night, and Friday was the first genuinely cool day in months. Of course, Friday was a scheduled day off, but that's OK. It was still cool this morning. In fact, it was about a perfect day for running. About 50F, dry, and still. If the weather is like this for the Lakefront Marathon, I may just make it.

Day 1204 -- Cobourg

I love The World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things, but they don't really have a research department. If someone claims to be the "world's largest", they believe it. They list as the World's Largest Apple the one in Cordelia, Georgia, which Wikipedia says is "7 feet high". I don't know whether that includes the pedestal.

I can't find the actual measurements for the apple near Cobourg, ON, but according to Roadside America, it has an "observation deck on top, and a restaurant inside". That's bigger than 7 feet high. The photo of the Cobourg apple, above, comes from nonamedufus.

The photo of the Cornelia apple, below, comes from notduck.



When I hit the track this morning, it was basically 100% humidity. It wasn't actually raining, but there was a thick fog, and dew was forming on things as I watched. The fog lifted a little during my ten 800 m intervals, but it was still humid enough for me.

Day 1203 -- Port Hope

This photo of a street in Port Hope is from a montage of "Pictures of Ontario" at PhotoTravelPages.com. You'll have scroll down using the thumbnails on the right to see it, but it came up pretty high in the Google Image search.

Today was an easy run. We had a little rain overnight, so it was a little cooler and less humid, but still not terrific. And I certainly didn't want to overdo it. But it was a good run, to gear me up for the last day of prep before classes start.

Day 1202 -- Jogger's Progress

	Trip	YTD	Aug
Distance	7590.6	1196.3	150.4
Time	51 days, 12 hrs, 8 min	8 days, 17 hrs, 7 mins	27:55
Days	1202	171	18
States	23	4	0
Provinces	1	1	1

Not a bad month, I guess. I took more days off than I really expected. Only 18 running days, my lowest total for over a year. The last time I ran only 18 days in a month was May, 2009. (Interesting that both were 31 day months.) Traditionally, August has been a pretty heavy month for me, but it just wasn't, this year. Part of that was the heat and humidity, and part of it is burnout. I'm definitely pushing too hard. After the Lakefront Marathon, I'm going to take a big break.

Speaking of heat and humidity, I had a nice run this morning. I ran a total of 10K, with the middle 5K being at a slightly faster pace. I felt good, but man did I sweat! Another couple of days of this, and then the weather is supposed to cool off again.

Day 1201 -- Newtonville

OldGas.com. Another cool idea for a web site. You can find anything on the web. They say, "When visiting Eastern Ontario Canada be sure to check out Frank & Betty Stapleton 's B/A Station on Highway #2 Newtonville." So I did.

I ran 21.7 miles today. It was hard, but I finished. I feel like I can run a marathon. With more rest, and a little cooler weather, and I can do it. What I'm not sure is that I can run much faster. I was definitely shuffling at the end. So this may turn out to be my slowest marathon ever, and I can handle that. At this point, finishing will be an accomplishment.

Day 1200 -- Whitby

I'm not sure that I'm quite to Whitby, yet, but if I get my 20 miler in tomorrow, I'll be past it. As you can see, it's a town of over 100,000, which makes it a pretty big city. (For example, if it were transplanted to Wisconsin, it would be the third largest city, smaller that Madison, but bigger than Green Bay.) But it's sitting there in the shadow of Toronto (which has 2.5 million), so you've never heard of it.

Yesterday was a scheduled day off, and then ran an easy five this morning. One more day of cool weather, and then it will warm up early next week. If it's not too hot for tomorrow's long run, I won't complain. (Well, I probably will complain, but not about the weather. (Well, I probably will complain about the weather, but I'll feel guilty about it.))

Day 1199 -- Ajax

I don't know if you'll be able to tell, but this isn't a photo at all. It's a computer-designed image of what this building will look like. The site from which I lifted the image, Architext Consulting, doesn't actually say when -- or even if -- this building will be built. They merely point out that they "provided construction specifications" for Karp Namisniak Yamamoto Architects, who designed the new Ajax Fire Station. The building is designed to "attain Silver Certification under the CaGBC LEED Green Building Rating System." So there.

It was a glorious morning for a run, so I overdid it. I've been sore and tired all day. I have a softball game tonight, but my plan is to show up and, if there are enough players without me, volunteer to keep the bench from floating away. Which is, in its own way, a major concession for me. In my younger days, I wouldn't volunteer to miss a game for anything short of a broken leg.

First Day of Meetings

Today was the first really cool morning in weeks. So, naturally, I slept in. No reason. I just didn't feel like getting up to run. But it's supposed to be even cooler tomorrow, so it should be a good day for a run. I hope I make it.

In other news, today was the first day of meetings at the university. Many years ago, in my first full-time job, a wise person told me that the first day of meetings were typically a week before classes, to make sure the old tenured professors realized that classes were about to start. Now that I'm an old tenured professor, I realize he was dead right.

Day 1198 -- CN Tower

Well, I couldn't leave Toronto without a shot of the CN Tower. Of course, there are a bajillion photos of it all over the web, but I just settled on this one from Destination360.com.

I had a nice run this morning. It was a tempo run -- 10 minutes easy, 25 minutes fast, 10 minutes slow. That's a long time for me to keep up a fast pace, but I did OK.

Day 1197 -- North York

From Waymarking.com, the entrance to the Disney Store at the Yorkdale Mall in North York, Ontario. According to Wikipedia, North York doesn't actually exist anymore, having been absorbed by Toronto. But it still appears on my mapquest map, and Waymarking locates this mall in North York, not in Toronto.

Last year, on the day after the Madison Mini-Marathon, I ran another 13 miles, to complete the marathon. I fully intended to do that again this year, up until the time my alarm went off yesterday morning. Then I decided I could sleep another hour and run maybe six or seven miles. Three hours later, I rolled out of bed and ate breakfast.

Having had two unauthorized days off last week, I went ahead and ran this morning, on what was a scheduled day off. I got in those seven miles, and didn't feel too bad. I had had an extra day off, of course.

I'm not feeling real good about my conditioning for the marathon, now less than six weeks away. Nor am I mentally where I want to be. This week wasn't great for me mentally, and don't get me started on the Madison Marathon in May. I hope that I'll get my act together in time to have a good run in October.

Day 1196 -- Race Report: Madison Mini-Marathon

No packet pick-up on race day, so the race report begins the day before. Yesterday, we packed up all the Little Joggers (and Hurricane Andrew, the medium Little Jogger's friend) and drove up to Madison. Besides the packet pick-up, we took in the State Historical Museum, walked down State Street, and stopped at the Memorial Union for ice cream. It was a good time.

One thing I love about Madison is all the people. It's a people-watcher's dream. Neckties and tie-dye. Young women with purple hair and young women in hijabs. State legislators on lunch break and families on holiday. Hippies, rastas, emos, steampunks, you name it. It's just fun to hang out there.

One thing I hate about Madison is all the people. It's crowded. Walking up and down State Street with five kids in tow is an adventure. Worse is the traffic. Here in Joggerville, three cars at a red light is considered a traffic jam. In Madison, there are thousands of cars going in random directions, weaving around the inevitable construction projects, and basically making me feel like a small town hick. I was a bit more used to it when we lived there, in the mid nineties, although I was never entirely comfortable. Now, forget it. Madison gets on my nerves.

But other than that, it was a good trip, and the kids were reasonably well-behaved. We had a good time.

This morning, I popped out of bed early and headed back. With a 7:00 start, I wanted to be on the road before 5:00. It was dark and foggy all the way up. That didn't make for very relaxing driving. Of course the traffic was light, which helped.

When I got to Madison, everyone else was getting there, too. There were almost 5000 runners, plus volunteers, and we all wanted to park in the very closest parking ramp to the starting line. I didn't make it, and I ended up in a metered ramp with very prominent signs saying that the meters were enforced all the time. Problem: they were two hour meters. It was over an hour before the start, and I had over two hours to run. So, what to do? I supposed I should have moved to a different ramp, but I elected to ignore the meters. After all, how much could a ticket be?

Walking around before the race was the usual mish-mash. Most everyone there was younger than me or slimmer than me or both. Some were clearly experienced runners, and some were clearly running a big race for the first time. I saw t-shirts from most of the local races I'd been to -- the Madison Marathon, the Fox Cities Marathon, last year's MMM, and of course, plenty of this year's MMM. (Only newbies wear this year's race shirt to actually race.) I did not see anyone with a Team Pikermi t-shirt. Next year, I'll have my own, but right now it's in the mail.

The race itself can be roughly divided into three parts. The first four miles, I was feeling pretty good. I took a couple of walk breaks at the three- and four-mile marks, but even so I was hitting my goal pace. But I was heating up, and feeling tired, and I didn't think it could last.

It didn't. Miles five through about eight were really rough. Between mile five and six, we saw the ambulance come and pick up someone who has succumbed to the heat and the humidity. Not a good sign, when you aren't even halfway through the race. I got very discouraged. I kept taking walk breaks. I'd try to goad myself to run to the next mile marker, but I would stop short. At this point, I mentally quit the Madison Mini-Marathon, and also withdrew from the Lakefront Marathon, and also gave up on pretty much any future run over 5K. And I wasn't too sure about 5K.

Around mile eight or nine, I got my second wind, and, more importantly, got my head together. I was still running slowly, and taking walk breaks, but at least I felt like I was in control. I think I ran from mile seven to mile nine without stopping, and I know I ran from mile nine to mile eleven. It wasn't the greatest athletic performance of all time, but I still feel like I finished strong.

My unofficial finishing time was 2:25:35. I don't seem to have an official finish time. The results are posted on-line, but I can't get them to display me. I guess it's just a glitch in the chip timing. It's not like I need an official time to qualify for the Olympics or something.

Anyway, even though it was my slowest official Pikermi ever, I feel good about my performance. At this point in my life, any race I finish is a good race. And when I got back to the car, I didn't have a ticket.

Day 1195 -- Mississauga

This is an award winning sign. It is the Premier Free Standing/Roof Sign, as awarded by the Sign Association of Canada - Association Canadienne de l'Enseigne (SAC-ACE). It was designed and constructed by the Pattison Sign Group of Toronto.

I managed to run another six this morning, although I wasn't as strong (or fast) as yesterday. It was another nice day for a run. We'll see if I can get out again tomorrow. I spent quite a bit of today putting insulation into the new room, which is harder than you think it is. So I'm good and tired right now, and I think I'll go to bed.

Pikermi!

I learned a new word today: pikermi.

It's a race of 13.1 miles. Such a race is traditionally called a "half marathon", but a lot of us feel that that's selling it short. A "half marathon" sounds like it's not a real race. You often hear people say, "I only ran a half marathon," as if 13.1 miles isn't a very hard distance to run.

Well, Team Pikermi isn't going to take it any more. They are leading a campaign to give the race its own name. Their Facebook page has 669 follower. The name, of course, comes from a town that's approximately halfway between Marathon and Athens. It's pronounced "pee-KER-mi". And I never intend to run a "half marathon" again.

This comes right in time, because I have a pikermi coming up this Saturday. It's the second annual Madison Mini-Marathon (another unfortunate name.) Now I'm going to lead a campaign to get the official name changed for next year.

Day 1194 -- Meadowvale

How about a drink? Meet me at the Manchester Arms on Derry Road in Meadowvale.

It was noticeably cooler and less humid this morning. Not cool and dry, mind you, but everything is relative. In any case, I was well rested after a day off, and I got in a good run. I was happy.

Day 1193 -- Milton

Check out the Galaxy Cineplex in Milton. I particularly like the tower, which looks like something out of the Jetsons. If you appreciate this theater as much as I do, go to Fabiani Architect, Ltd. They seem to be the creative force behind it.

I managed to make my 18 miles today. Almost 19, in fact. It wasn't really pretty, but I'm happy. I didn't take any unscheduled walk breaks, although my last scheduled walk break went into extra innings. I usually try to walk 100 to 200 yards, but for this break, I walked about a quarter of a mile. But after that, I picked it up and ran the last mile and a half without stopping.

I'm beginning to realize that I really have slowed down this summer. Some of that is the heat and humidity, I guess, but I think some of it is the inevitable and irreversible effect of aging. I'm now not thinking at all about a personal record (PR) in the marathon in October. I'll be content to finish it.

Day 1192 -- Moffat

I haven't visited RailPictures.com for a little while. Here's a MLW RS-23 that was spotted near Moffat, Ontario.

Friday was a scheduled day off. I thought about running anyway, since I took an unscheduled day off Wednesday, but I didn't want to overdo it. That would have had me running three days in a row going into my long run Sunday. I really need to do the 18 miles that I missed last week. So, no run yesterday, and a fairly easy six this morning. And tomorrow? Well, tune in tomorrow....

Day 1191 -- Puslinch

Looking for a semi tractor? This 1999 Sterling At9513 is available at Buckshot Truck Sales in Puslinch, Ontario. I found it on-line at a web site called yakez.com.

I just couldn't get going yesterday morning. I tried, "You're already awake, you might as well run." I tried, "If you run today, you can take tomorrow off." I tried, "Yesterday's run wasn't so good, so you should run today and redeem yourself." I even tried, "How are you going to run a marathon in seven and a half weeks if you can't even run five miles today?" Nothing worked. I went back to bed and slept for another hour. I was a little grumpy later in the day, but not as bad as I sometimes am when I skip a run.

I did run today, and nice six miler. I certainly worked up a sweat, but it was a good run.

Day 1190 -- Cambridge

This photo of the old post office in Cambridge is available from Wikimedia Commons, but the top Google hit for it was from some aggregater named xiongdudu.com. No doubt, it's important to somebody whether you visit one or the other, but I'm not the person.

The first 35 minutes of my run this morning went pretty well. I warmed up for 15 minutes, then picked up the pace for another 20. At that point, I should have dropped back to jogging, but I dropped all the way back to walking. I jogged a little and walked a little for another 20 minutes or so, which got me cooled down. At least as cool as was possible. Overall, it wasn't quite the run I had planned, but it wasn't bad.

Day 1189 -- Waterloo

Nice building, huh? It's the Perimeter Institute, an international center for basic research in foundational issues of theoretical physics, in Waterloo, ON. I stole the photos ArcSpace, an on-line architecture magazine.


I walked out this morning determined to do 18 miles. I missed another long run last weekend, because of the funeral, so I was going to finish my 18, if I had to crawl the last few miles. What I didn't count on was the weather. At about nine miles, I started to see thunder and lightning in the distance. I switched my route so that I was sticking close to home, and I got in almost six more miles, but at that point, the rain started to pour, and the lightning seemed to close, so I cut it off. I made just short of 15 miles.

It rained like hell for about an hour. Someone at church said their rain gauge, which measures up to five inches, overflowed. I'm not sure when they emptied it, though. In any case, we got a lot. As usual, we got a little in our basement, but we cleaned it up.

Day 1188 -- Wilmot

As you can see from this sign (lifted from waymarking.com), Wilmot, ON, is home to Castle Kilbride. The castle is the most important historical building in Wilmot Township. Or so they claim on their web site.


It was hard to get started this morning. I was fairly tired, and had to drag myself out of bed. Then I noticed that it was pouring rain. Ugh. But I hadn't run yesterday, so I had to go. That first step out into the rain was a tough one. But once I got going, I was OK. And pretty soon the rain dropped off, leaving just a few puddles to avoid.

That was in Grandma's town, but in the mid-morning, we jumped into the car and drove back up to Joggerville. It's good to be home. I'm planning to relax a little this weekend, and then on Monday I really need to be thinking about classes for Fall.

Day 1187 -- New Hamburg

The New Hamburg Independent has its own weblog, from whence I stole both these photos. Founded in 1878, the Independent is published weekly.


I ran 6.5 miles this morning. It was a good run, but slower than I wanted it to be. I've now run three days in a row, and I'm ready for a day off.

Propostion 8

OK, I usually try to stay away from politics, which are covered much more adeptly on other blogs. But today's ruling on California's Proposition 8 is such good news that I can't help but celebrate.

Image via The Daily What.

Days 1185 and 1186 -- Stratford

From the blog This Gaudy Gilded Stage, a picture of a statue of Shakespeare in Stratford, ON. Stratford has a big Shakespeare Festival every summer. When we lived in Ann Arbor, we came up a couple of times. We saw a pretty good King Lear, and a pretty bad Othello, and we must have seen a couple of other plays, but I don't remember them in any detail.

I ran yesterday morning in Joggerville, then loaded half the family into the Joggermobile and drove down to Grandma Jogger's town. The first Little Jogger was away at Girl Scout camp. She gets back today. Mrs. Jogger decided to stick around to feed the beasts and oversee the home improvement project. The medium Little Jogger just decided to stay home, because he was afraid he wouldn't have much fun. I don't know how much fun he's having at home with no other kids, but we decided there was no good excuse to push him to come.

This morning, I did a slow five miles in Grandma's town. Cousin Jogger has suggested that no one north of the Mason/Dixon line should complain about heat and humidity, so I'll just say it was a great run. I wished I could have run further.

Days 1183 and 1184 -- Jogger's Progress

	Trip	YTD	Jul
Distance	7440.2	1045.9	123.7
Time	50 days, 8 hrs, 13 min	7 days, 13 hrs, 12 mins	22:13
Days	1184	153	19
States	23	4	1
Provinces	1	1	1

So, what have I been up to?

Thursday evening: The church softball team won its second game. Everyone played pretty well, and we got a couple of breaks, and it turned out to be a pretty one-sided game. The last time we played these guys, they beat us by a couple of runs. I hurt my abductor muscle a little bit on a stupid play at second. I had no chance to make the play, so I should have just gotten out of the way, but instead I tried to cover the bag, slipped, and did an impromptu splits.

Friday: A very, very slow six miles. A fistful of ibuprofen afterwords. Then I jumped into the car and began the drive down to Nashville for Uncle Not A's funeral. I got as far as Marion, IL. I stayed there in an Econolodge. It wasn't real great, but after I turned out the light, it looked like the Ritz.

Saturday: My abductor felt much better, so I did a faster five miles around Marion. It was a nice town for a run. Good sidewalks, nice and flat. A little steamy, though. After, I drove the remaining three hours to Nashville. The funeral was nice, as these things go. Family came from all directions. Many of couldn't stay long. I stayed through until...

Sunday: Drove all the way back to Joggerville. It was about 11 hours driving, with quite a few stops. I stopped and ate both lunch and dinner in restaurants, just to be off the road. So I didn't get in until close to 9:00 last night.

Today: I should have gotten up to run, but I didn't. Maybe tomorrow.