Today I got up bright and early (OK, maybe I wasn’t feeling so bright) and drove to Boston to do the Run to Remember. It’s a half-marathon, 13.1 miles, and it commemorates Massachusetts law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty. With a huge police presence, it’s the most crime-free race going!
I finished in 2:04:31, and that comes out to one minute per mile slower than I did two years ago. I couldn’t run it last year because of my ankle trouble. Between this race and the marathon last month, I’m feeling confident that I can bring myself back up to what I consider to be good shape.
Much of the Run to Remember is along Memorial Drive in Cambridge, going past MIT and down to Harvard and back, but the start and finish go through Boston, which sure looks different than the last time I ran this race. The elevated highway is completely gone now, in post-Big Dig Boston. The total cost for the massive project, known for its mismanagement and corruption, was about $14 billion over 25 years. Compare that to our occupation of Iraq, known for its mismanagement and corruption, which costs about $12 billion per month, with no end in sight, and none promised by John McCain if he becomes President.
Good for you, Joan! Walking is, for most people, a better alternative. The health benefits are almost as great, and there’s much less stress on the joints.
I feel that inside exercise is something to do when the weather’s bad, and for occasional weight workouts. Otherwise, being outside is the way to go. Mall walking is a good compromise.
The running bug I’ve had for 35 years, four years before meeting my wife, but I must give her credit for the way I eat. I used to be a cheeseburger and chips man, with Cherry Coke to wash them down, and Haagen Dazs ice cream for dessert. I still occasionally eat all of those things, but nowhere near to the extent that I did 20+ years ago, and I really don’t feel as though I’m missing out in any way. In fact, I enjoy them more, precisely because they are relatively rare treats.
Good luck with your increase in activity, Joan!
Hi Doug! I admire you and Dan D for running half and full marathons! I’m more of a walker but need to get in shape. Being 46 and near menopausal age makes me think of the adage (and truth)! that it’s harder to lose (weight) after 40. Because I hate heat and humidity I have free weights, a Body By Jake Firmflex (a much cheaper, smaller, less technical Bowflex-type device), and standard and skating-motion steppers, plus, of course, mallwalking. My motivation is to get in shape for rollerblading, cross-country skiing, or even my dream sport of over-40 ice hockey (no checking allowed) without getting winded, needing a tank of oxygen, paramedics, or just plain keeling over. I’m a hot-weather wuss, but aim to be in better shape at 50 than I was at 40, and more in line with what I was at 25. Wish me luck! 🙂
I know Pittsfield. The wife of the couple we had dinner with, mentioned above, is from Pittsfield.
A while ago (here) I highlighted the comparison of dollars between Iraq every month and the entire Big Dig. It doesn’t take much to put myself on a political screed. It’s true that the north/south run of the Big Dig is where most of the work was done, and where most of the traffic is, but the money flows from the west, from the Mass Turnpike tolls. I spend about $30/month in Pike tolls.
That’s a fantastic time, 1:23, for a half marathon, especially without benefit of a serious training schedule. Only a few years ago I was doing 1:37, but age and injury have taken their toll. I should be able to get back down to 1:45, but it will take some work, and after 35 years of running I’m not so sure I’ll be investing that much effort. My plan is to see if it’s practical get some exercise by riding my bike to work.
I being from Pittsfield, yes Mass does go west of 495, love the fact that we are paying for the big fiasco, I mean dig. It is funny how a post race blog entry can evolve into a political rant. I love it! My blog has been down for 3 months because the genius’ that be at Google have determined that it may be a spam blog. You have to wonder if any of the 4000 rumbling runners started a cascade of falling debris beneath the city causing another lawsuit/ litigation bringing the real cost to god knows how many tax fed dollars. Well as for the race, I went with 5 hearty souls, who had trained for like 5 months for this thing. Diets, training schedules, one dude even gave up drinking to do a sub 90. Saturday was filled with hydration, carb loading and a night cap of yoga. As disturbing as all of this was, I spent the day drinking beer, and watching baseball, followed by the Celtics game. As I woke in our hotel to a group of nervous nuts, I was sporting a nice hangover. Bananas, Gator Aide, and Goo. Hell no. coffee, aspirin and a bad ass attitude. As they garbed up in high end color coordinated track suits covered in glide, I through on my zunnos, shorts and that was that. Well, the 29 YO ring leader AKA yoga leader ran a smooth 1:37, yes the same dude on the wagon who thought it was a brilliant plan to walk 6 miles on saturday in a pair of powder blue crocks with no socks, the other dude a blistering 1:48, the ladies did a very respectable 1:47, 2:05. the latter by a 50 YO female (a very strong effort). I cruised to a 1:23+. Nothing great, not elite, just pretty descent for an age 46 skinny old man. Moral of the story, no freeking training plan, no life changing prelude.Just go for it, Run hard, just run as hard as you can until you see a sign that says finish.
That last statement calls for a “Laurel and Hardy” clip. Got any that are applicable to today’s administration?
We went out to dinner with old friends Saturday night. The husband has Libertarian leanings, and he sees signs that George Bush is finally realizing how he was suckered in by the Neocons. The only concession I will grant Bush is that due to his lack of intellect he was, to an extent, a tool of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Rove. But I’m not willing to think better of Bush, because he wasn’t just a passive participant. He was their enabler, and he made it possible for them to realize their agenda. And look at the mess they’re leaving behind.
Joan, Cactus Liz and Dougie, YES! NPR has gone all “warm and fuzzy.” I call it the “Terry Grossination” of the news. I usually listen to her show, “All Things Considered,” while I wait for Molly’s bus in the afternoon. She’s great on entertainment and American culture, books, etc., but she coddles the subject of war, even past wars. What? I say to myself. Don’t think I can take it? I dated a Vietnam Vet (who taught me how to figure skate, incidentally), and he’d bolt up SCREAMING at 2 a.m. He told me that would happen, and to just LEAVE HIM ALONE. It was scary as shit, because he’d start talking to other men in his company. When he was woke up, he wouldn’t remember a thing. He went on one too many reconnaissance missions and helped put too many body parts back together in the bags. To this day, he has never married (no, he’s not gay), but has a terrible time with intimacy. Oddly enough, his father survived Pearl Harbor!
One more thing: when I saw the Vietnam Vet memorial in DC, its simplicity blew me away. All those names, but what was even more powerful for me was thinking about all the people who loved and cared for EACH of those names. The mathematics was staggering and heartbreaking. Everybody around the monument was totally silent. Yep, and just like Terry Gross would say, “Some held their hands over a name and quietly wept.”
Doug, my immediate family has all said the same-every soldier killed in Iraq is a life cut short by lies. My comment about Vietnam-I saw my first dying person in a news piece-a U.S. soldier crouched down holding his friend next to his chest and he was getting them out of the line of fire, but with all his friend’s blood loss…just a 5-second shot gave me an indelible picture. I was 6 yrs. old-yes, even then I would watch. If Dad wasn’t in, (Mom usually did dishes at that time and seldom watched the news), to see or talk about the news-He knew if I couldn’t take it I’d leave the room. Rarely would he not allow me to watch. Now a few days ago I hear Phil Donahue say: “These soldiers, many are blind because when their vehicle hits it, this device is so strong it vaporizes your eyeballs…”. When you hear that and think of the lies…what a waste. The soldiers I’ve seen with their injuries from in Iraq make you wonder how anyone can justify this war.
I’d better be more specific before what I said is misconstrued as being a knock against military troops on Memorial Day. Should the soldiers who are wounded and killed be honored? Of course. Absolutely. I’m not in danger of being blown up by an IED, and that’s a reality that military personnel deal with day in and day out. It’s what I think needs to be thrown in the face of American’s so we can all see what’s really going on.
But I’ve been getting a sense lately that their stories are somehow supposed to justify the invasion and occupation. And I feel that’s wrong.
Here’s an opinion that some won’t like, but I won’t back down from it. Have more than 4000 American soldiers died in vain in Iraq? That’s not something most families of the fallen, other than Cindy Sheehan, will even consider, but in my view, yes. It’s all been a monumental waste.
“Same as it ever was.” I agree with your comments above, Doug.
If cutting our losses and getting out of this hopeless civil war situation as quickly as possible is the goal, then I think this is the quickest way to get it done: Elect a Democratic President, and consistently vote to provide him a solid Democratic majority in both the House and Senate to work with him.
This business of having a Democratic President and a Republican-ruled House and Senate doesn’t work. (Just listen to former President Jimmy Carter.) Nor does it work to have a Republican President and a Democratic-ruled House and Senate. It’s not a “check and balance” system to vote that way. Unfortunately it just becomes gridlock, because both sides of the aisle have proven time and again that they will not work effectively with each other to get any meaningful work done, in anything remotely resembling a timely fashion. No matter WHAT the politicians promise during a campaign about wanting to be “cooperative” with the other party.
So as I see it, unfortunately, it’s either vote a straight Democratic ticket or a straight Republican ticket in this country.
And then…”Get on our knees and pray, – We don’t get fooled again!”
I’m appalled by what I’ve heard lately on NPR. So many stories about brave and honorable young soldiers who were killed in Iraq, as if that somehow justifies why they were there, and lends validity to what Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld did. I think we need to have the occupation thrown in the faces of the American public, so everybody can see how things really are. I’m so tired of every temporary reduction in violence being seized upon as proof that things are getting better. The situation is simply hopeless. If it can’t be done in FIVE YEARS, then it can’t be done. Let’s cut our losses and get out of there.
It’s already been a couple of years since I first saw a young man in a wheel chair at the mall. I’ve seen several since then. I suppose they could be paralyzed from car accidents, but I doubt that.
“Apocalypse Now” showed how American soldiers in Vietnam were stoned and listening to music. It seems to be true that a lot of Army troops in Iraq are cranked up on speed, with music blasting in their iPod ear buds. It’s become a video game, yet the outcome is the same it’s always been — dead bodies, severed limbs, and shattered lives.
Dougie = Born to Run
Iraq War = Born to Stun (the terrorists)
American Public = Bored and Glum (with the Bush war strategy)
Hi! It was a nice day for the run today. Bite your tongue though-I hope John McCain loses for the sake of us all! I had on PBS’s Memorial Day concert and celebration-the only network carrying one here. They present mostly stories of WW2, and Charles Durning, a WW2 vet told a graphic story of his experience at Normandy. Thing is, kids not hearing this think Iraq is a video game. Phil Donahue was on a show “My Generation” addressing that and there’s either a movie coming to the theater or on DVD concerning what our soldiers are going through. Phil said this war is so sanitized-and it sure is. I remember seeing Vietnam footage when the news was on before “The Wonderful World of Disney”. Now war is presented by a new Mickey Mouse outfit!