At the movies

Amy and I saw this movie yesterday:

Some notes:

• God I love Hunter S. Thompson.
• God I love Johnny Depp.
• There was so much rum in that movie, I practically had a hangover by the time it ended.
• I thought they said run diary.

Cold

Woke up to 35 degree weather with sleet and rain outside my window this morning.

Given that I'm not training for anything at the moment, I don't know how I even made it out the door.

Nothing makes me feel more badass than running in the freezing rain.

Big Brother

This is on Apple's webpage at the moment:

It's kind of creepy that that's actually my dad's birthday.

Philly sells out

I'd recently made the decision to not run the Philly Marathon this year, which was a decision weeks in the making.  Between the show and the new job, I knew I wouldn't have the time to properly train for it.  As much as it pained me, I knew something had to give, and the marathon was it.  This is not to say that I didn't go back and forth, hemming and hawing in those weeks, wanting to relive the emotion and splendor of last year's race and damn near signing up several times.

But I knew if I wanted to retain some semblance of sanity this fall, I would have to bow out of marathon season this year.  Though I felt I was at peace with this decision, I was still sad to see this today:

Whereas before, I still had the ability to change my mind, crank out a few 20 milers and add another medal to my wall next month, now it's official: I won't be running the Philadelphia Marathon this year.

It's been a long October

Is October over yet?

Can't wait for November and its many days off...

Jesus Christ Superstar

Just finished opening weekend of Jesus Christ Superstar at Haddonfield Plays and Players.  It's been an exhilarating eight days as we stumbled towards a coherent production.  The eight days were not without drama and a few stumbles, but I think it's safe to say we have a great show and three more weekends to show it off.  I wish I could take more credit for it, but the power of the show lies in the talents of the actors involved.

Brian Mackalonis as Jesus Christ

It's been a nightmare trying to balance assistant directing this show with the new job I started last month, and I oftentimes found myself falling asleep all over the theater during rehearsals, but I can now say it's been worth it.

If you're in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area and want to support community theater, check out www.haddonfieldplayers.com to get tickets.

Welcome to the world

Speaking of giving birth, my dear pregnant sister is pregnant no more.  She gave birth early this morning to a healthy baby boy.  Meet my new nephew Soren:

My new nephew, Soren.

Congratulations to Kirsten, Chris, and Oliver, and may your family be blessed with health and happiness.  Welcome to the world, Soren, and I hope you fulfill your family legacy and someday run a faster marathon than your uncle.

Time to look for baby clothes with 26.2 on them...

What's your excuse?

It seems with every major marathon comes an amusing human interest story or two.  In last spring's L.A. marathon, we saw a man run a 2:36 after consuming nothing but McDonald's over the previous 30 days, and a 400+lbs man take over nine hours to finish.

File this one under: you can't make this stuff up.

Amber Miller completed yesterday's Chicago Marathon in 6:25, then gave birth seven hours later. She even beat her husband who joined her out of solidarity at the last moment after no training whatsoever.

Foolish?  Inspirational?  Badass?  I'm torn on this one.  On the one hand, I can't help but wonder if she needlessly risked her baby's safety.  On the other hand, according to the article, her doctor signed off on it, and I've always said that a person knows his/her body better than anyone else.

What do you think?

Fall

First run in months in which I had to wear long sleeves.

Perfect fall run tonight.  Past a campfire.  Past Halloween decorations.  Chilly.  Fast.

Perfect.

Collingswood Book Festival

The Collingswood Book Festival was today, and among the featured authors was Christopher McDougall, author of this book:

While I have yet to read the book, I've read a lot about it, both in official book reviews as well as ordinary running blogs like this one.  I feel like I'll be the last runner on the planet to read it.

I loved his talk because I realized how many opinions we have in common.  He also finds it ridiculous how laden with equipment people let themselves get while running (iPods, cell phones, water bottles, head bands, etc.).  He also finds it ridiculous that people think the only way they can run properly is to buy expensive shoes.  And he also finds it sad how we've let ourselves get away from our roots as human beings in the last century by chaining ourselves to our cars, desks, houses, etc.  At the end of the talk, he said, "when you do what the creature evolved to do, the creature will respond."  I loved that.  You can talk all you want about how you could never do [insert strenuous activity here], but the body is highly adaptable and can respond to incrementally increased training.

Write a best seller, end up on some random guy's running blog.

He was a great public speaker, and if his book is half as entertaining as his talk, I'll be in for some good reading when I finally get a chance to read it.  I'd bought a copy of the book before his talk, and afterwards I introduced myself at his table and had him autograph the book for me.

From the man himself: run wild, friends.