September mileage

One of my biggest goals of 2014 is to run 2,014 miles.  I've never kept track of my mileage before other than weekly mileage during peak marathon season.  This year I've been writing down my totals on a simple wall calendar.

My other monthly mileage totals:

January: 65
February: 131
March: 173
April: 201
May: 237
June: 146
July: 170
August: 144.2

And September:

An even 100 for September.

That puts me at 1,367.2 miles for the year so far with only three months to go.  That's 215.6 miles per month.

I once said that 2,014 miles was a totally arbitrary goal and I wouldn't be upset if I didn't make it.  But now I think I might be.

Another record day in Berlin

The men's world record has fallen yet again, and again in Berlin.  Wilson Kipsang's world record time of 2:03:23 last year was broken this morning by his countryman Dennis Kimetto. Kimetto ran a time of 2:02:57, the first man to go under 2:03.

This is the 7th time a world record has been set at Berlin (and the 6th since 2003), which only makes me want to run the Berlin Marathon even more.  To be so close to such greatness must be so inspirational.  That and the fact that I used to live in Berlin and love that city more than any other.

I'm sure I'll run it someday.  For now, though, I'll settle for Boston first.

I'm going to Boston!

I've been waiting a week and a half for this beauty to arrive in my inbox.  The BAA made us wait until damn near the last second today, but it was all worth it in the end.

The cut-off this year was 1:02, so I made it with 53 seconds to spare.

10 months of uncertainty came to an end today.  It's official.  I'm Boston-bound.

Movie Monday: Race the Tube

Here's a video in which a guy races the London Tube between stops in the ultimate man vs. machine throwdown.

1 minute 20 seconds to make it to the next stop.  380 meters, 2 ticket barriers and 75 steps.

Guess who wins.

Talk like a pirate day

Apparently today is National Talk Like a Pirate Day, for all you pirate fans out there.

For those in the know, Krispy Kreme spent all day rewarding people for walking into their stores by giving them free donuts if they talked like a pirate.  If you dressed like one, you could have taken home an entire box for free.

I live a half mile from the nearest Krispy Kreme, so I planned to finish my five mile run tonight there and then walk home.  I walked into the store a sweaty mess and said, "Arrrr, I hear I be gettin' a free donut if I talk like this."

The guy who gave me my free donut, bless him, looked amused rather than wanting to hang himself from listening to bad pirate talk all day.

A match made in heaven.

Back to school

I've been back at work for the past two weeks.

The teachers started on September 2nd, and the students returned on the 4th.  

Our building does not have any air conditioning outside of offices and computer rooms, and we've had some pretty heinous days of humidity so far in which people could talk of little else. Funnily enough, I'm pretty sure my marathon experience prepares me well for such days. When I've put myself through the masochism that is marathon training, being trapped in a room with smelly teenagers with sweat rolling down my back doesn't bother me too much.  I'm also the only teacher in the building who hasn't brought in a fan from home since the school won't provide them.

While we aren't provided fans, it turns out that every teacher in the district is receiving a brand new iPad this year.

I'm pretty excited since I've never owned one (seems kind of silly when I already own an iPhone and MacBook), and there are a lot of interesting German-related apps I can use in the classroom.  But while I'm ready to embrace the change, there are teachers in my building who have been teaching since the seventies, and I don't think they quite know what to make of this shift.

Then, in October, every student in the district, from 3rd to 12th grade, is going to receive an iPad as well.  I've seen how my students take care of their smartphones, so I'm a bit dubious as to what will become of the majority of these iPads.  But I'm in a district that wholeheartedly believes in technology as the wave of the future, so fad or not, it looks like they're here to stay.

Looks like it's going to be a long year with a steep learning curve.

A new hope

Here we go again.

After waiting a full week for registration to open to all qualifiers, I was finally able to throw my own hat into the ring for the 2015 Boston Marathon.

In the first six days of registration, 16,000 runners registered, leaving 8,000 spots for those who register this week.  It's looking possible that there will be a cutoff time again this year, but obviously it remains to be seen just what that time will be.

It'll probably be another week before I find out if I made the cut.  It's going to be a very tense week...

Rainy run

5 miles in the rain today.  I don't mind running in the rain when it's warm out as it's a nice change of pace from running in the blazing heat.  And anything beats the treadmill.

This shouldn't come as a surprise to most, but running with a newborn at home is hard.  I expected this, but nothing could have adequately prepared me for the exhaustion I feel.  I haven't felt like myself for weeks now, and consequently I fight for every mile I run these days.

Also, I finally took a chainsaw to my face shaved off the summer beard.  When I found a family of birds living in it, I knew it was time.

Hope everyone's fall is off to a good start.

Movie Monday: Boston registration

Registration for the 2015 Boston Marathon opened today.  Unfortunately I didn't qualify by 20 minutes or more, so I can't register yet.  Assuming the race doesn't sell out this week, I'll get my chance one week from today.

I ran a BQ-1:55 (to use the parlance of our times) last fall, and from everything the Runner's World message boards tell me, it sounds likely I'll get in.  But I won't believe it until that confirmation e-mail is sitting in my inbox and I can finally let out a a sigh of relief.  After all, I know all too well the pain of qualifying only to not get in later on.  This Boston dream is now coming up on five years...

Here's a video explaining the registration process:

2015 Boston Marathon Registration Process from Boston Athletic Association on Vimeo.


I find the whole idea of putting this video together endlessly amusing.  Let's face it: the faster folk won't have anything to worry about anyway and can register whenever they damn well please.  Meanwhile, the slower qualifiers will have been obsessing over this crap for months now and don't need a video to explain the whole process to us.  We've had the registration date and time circled on our calendars since March.

Here's hoping things work out this time.