Daddy's Got a Bubble Butt

Distance: 5.15 miles
Weight: 166 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: PowerBar Triple Threat
Time: 6.45 am
Temperature: 64º
Weather: cool and a little humid

Chunk Style
Get Ready for This - 2 Unlimited
All This Time - Sting
Freaky - Soho
Jingling Baby (Remixed But Still Jingling)- LL Cool J
Real Real Real (The Real Pop Mix) - Jesus Jones
Good Stuff - The B-52s
International Bright Young Thing - Jesus Jones
Doin Da Butt - Gap Band
New Power Generation - Prince
Closer to God - Nine Inch Nails
Cooldown: Disappointed - Electronic

The vanity of an ancient king

Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 164.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: Slim Fast meal bar
Time: 3.30 pm
Temperature: 73º
Weather: still warm and breezy

Chunk Style
Closer - Nine Inch Nails
Never Let Me Down Again (Aggro Mix) - Depeche Mode
Hippychick - Soho
Burn - Nine Inch Nails
Shake Your Rump - The Beastie Boys
Mad About You - Sting
Cooldown: Mama Said Knock You Out - LL Cool J

I don't wanna hear. I don't wanna know.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 164 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: No
Time: 5.30 pm
Temperature: 75º
Weather: warm and breezy

2007 RunMix
Sorry (Man with Guitar Mix) - Madonna
Tracking Treasure Down - Gabriel & Dresden
Merrymaking at My Place - Calvin Harris
Dangerous Power - Gabriel & Dresden
Love Today - Mika
Cooldown: Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above (Calvin Harris Remix) - CSS

Playing with fire

Distance: 3.5 miles
Weight: 165.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Dinner: baked mac & cheese, freshly shelled peas, white ale w/lemon
Time: 10.30 pm
Temperature: 90º - 86º
Weather: What do you think?

2007 RunMix
Ohh La La - The Ditty Bops
Mass Repeat - Gabriel & Dresden
Dashboard - Modest Mouse
Flathead - The Fratellis
Dust In The Wind - Gabriel & Dresden
The Girls - Calvin Harris
Cooldown: Closer - Gabriel & Dresden

Just couldn't see starting my day with a run this week, so I'd end it with one. Big risk. Last Tuesday, the day before the race, I felt like I pulled my back. Nothing debilitating, just very sore all across the large of my back. Felt the same race day, fine the rest of the day. By the time the evening was over, man was I in pain. And Thursday? Woo. Just wasted. Would have preferred not to have had Wednesday off work.

So. I thought running Bay Village brought me low with complicated memories. The Heights have gotten that way, ackshodry. Can't live anywhere for sixteen years without accumulating a lot of thoughts. I changed my route some time back, the way I was going was filled with pain and anxiety. That's the firehouse, where the guys came from the take my boy to UH with a shattered skull (that's almost a year ago, you know) and over that way? The House of Filth and Lies.

Angst and bitterness, that's me.

Tonight I wore my new white jersey out for the first time. Still almost got hit by a car.

And I ran. I ran ... so far away.

Bay Days 5 Mile Run
Official time: 37:01.9
Place in divison: 21
Place overall: 178
Pace: 7:24

Pre-Run Warm-Up Playlist:
Oblivious - Aztec Camera
Obsession - Animotion

Run Playlist:
Situation - Yazoo
It's My Life - Talk Talk
The Glamorous Life (Club Edit) - Sheila E
Space Age Love Song - A Flock Of Seagulls
Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl) - Haircut 100
Someday, Someway - Marshall Crenshaw
Down In The Cockpit - XTC
Maniac - Michael Sembello

Post-Run Cooldown Playlist:
Dead Man's Party - Oingo Boingo

The Bay Village five miler is generally the most boring and awful race. It's a flat sludge through uninteresting suburbia and, most years, really hot and bright with no shade anywhere. This year it was blessedly overcast and not so humid.

So why return? Because it's home, I guess.

I don't have the opportunity to do this run every year, sometimes I am out of town, or it's just inconvenient. I know no one here, expect an English teacher I had, Mr. Knapp, it's always good to find him before the run. He's easy to spot, I just look up, the man is nine feet tall.

Taking a warm-up run I look around at the familiar/bizarre surroundings. Really? This is exactly where I found my bike after it had been stolen and run over by someone's truck? I made out with Wendy on that bench - did I? Or was that someone else? Where does that doorway go? Can't remember. Were we smoking pot by this fence or that one? Why can't I remember ...

Oh. Right.

The run itself becomes disorienting after the first turn and I forget where the hell I am. But I was definitely on Bates. Word up to your old house, Admiral. And to the rock star next door.

Not a great time. I started slowing after three miles, getting very hot and weary, not winded. I thought I could pour it on during the last quatert mile, make up a few seconds, but due to construction, there were a number of narrow turns through the homestrecth, and the last tenth we were virtually going single file. Then the guy in front of me starts slowing down before the clock. If I had it in me I would have yelled at him to get over, but I was stymied. I guess he wanted an even 37 minutes. What a dork.

It's my time

Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 165 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: NutriGrain Bar
Time: 6 am
Weather: 63º
Weather: cool, man

Playlist:
Drive: Nike+ Original Run - The Crystal Method

Started feeling strain in my shins partway through. Stopped, stretched, continued. Good man.

My wife got back yesterday, time to run in the morning. One year ago around this time we all got back from Vermont, I had just started my training for the marathon at the beginning of July. I tried to psyche myself up by getting some music I could use on my runs, the first time I had shopped for music just for this purpose. July 8 was the first time I used this Crystal Method mix.

The shoes are the same shoes. I need to get new shoes, these are quite worn after a year, and I have begun wearing them for purposes other than running (walking, lounging, potlucking, chasing small children.) God, what great shoes. And I got them on sale!

Tomorrow I intend to do a Fourth five miler. I have no idea what music to listen to. I have never run the Bay 5 Mile with an iPod. Maybe I should do something retro ...

Maybe not.

You're invited into my house

Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 164 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: PowerBar Triple Threat
Time: 2:15 pm
Weather: 68º
Weather: bright & sunny

Playlist: Calvin Harris
Merrymaking at My Place
Colours
This Is the Industry
The Girls
Acceptable in the 80s
I Created Disco

A jockstrap wreaks havok on a recently shorn scrotum. There, I said it.

Well. Almost two months off the circuit, the spare tire is back in place and I am huffing my way around town. And yet I didn't gain any weight in Britain. The wife comes home tomorrow night, and I can persue this more regularly - ideally before the sun comes up. Or just after the sun comes up, you know, midsummer was only last week.