New Year's resolution for 2015

Ask not for victory, ask only for courage. In your pursuit, you bring honor to yourself. But more important, you bring honor to us all. Let's kick some ass in 2015!

Relentless, or at least pretty consistent, forward progress

6 miles at 9 degrees makes an even 1,200 for the year, including 5 half marathons, 2 marathons, a 30-mile ultra and personal best times in the half, 10K and 6-mile. Not a bad year's work.

Krampus Eve

Eagerly awaiting the arrival of Krampus.

Worktime

Going to work.

In the church of Al

Last night, a Swiss jazz trio followed by Dirty Bourbon River Show (the musical bastard child of Gogol Bordello, Man-Man, Tom Waits and a brass band) playing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club. Not just the song. The whole damn album. Tonight, after warming up with the Hot Club of New Orleans, I felt the need.

Stretch

Freakishly tall people at the supercomputing conference, which just ended, which means the drinking lamp is lit for this dude in Nola!

Good old Flamehead

Oh the humanity, somebody get me a fire extinguisher, or a bucket of water, or a beer. Because I like a to drink a beer or two with my entertainment.

Dreamy

The stuff dreams are made of. Really disturbing dreams.

New Orleans snow flurries

Note to self, when eating beignets, the player's move is to wear the white shirt not the black. (Damn old gold and black color scheme.)

Pass the Louisiana hot sauce, please

Zydeco, followed by red beans and rice and a cold Abita Amber.

Lookin' good E-money

Brushing Ely's tux. I want him to look coiffed when I go to New Orleans in the morning. He doesn't get to go. But every burglar's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man.

Mr. G went up the hill, and down, and up, and down, and...

-30-

Strange brew

On the road jamming to Lady Gaga's Artpop, followed by Beverly Sills singing Cleopatra in Handel's Julius Caesar, as I drive south to the Kentucky border, intent on running 30 hilly miles in the morning, and suddenly it hits me: I am one strange dude.

Old school, like me

The Marques Carroll Quintet is like straight out of late '50s early '60s hard bop, which is actually when I was meant to be haunting jazz clubs anyway. Then again, I was age 0-6 in the late '50s and early '60s so they probably wouldn't have let me in jazz clubs...even with the beard.

It's the journey, not the destination

I passed the guy at the top of the hill, not working at it mind you, just moving along in rhythm, and I think he really really wanted to pass me back. I didn't have the heart to tell him I ran 8 before I even lined up at the start. End of the Boilermaker Half Saturday. (I ran 1 after, too. 22.1 mile day. And taper.)

The tribe

When I cross paths with some other wayward soul, light strapped on, running against the dark and the rain, I feel all tribal.

Way down hill

Coming down that damn near vertical hill looming over my shoulders at France Park Saturday.

Relentless forward progress

Looking at the daunting week ahead I am keeping in mind the sage words of the great Shalane Flanagan: Let's fuck shit up!

Trail eyes

Lesson learned on the hilly (we even had a couple kind of mountain goaty paths to traverse under cliff faces) rocky and rooty (and sneakily covered by leaves) trails at France Park: racing this stuff is like whitewater canoeing. You've got to keep your eyes aimed downstream to see the obstacles in time to react. Learn something everyday. And I didn't hit the dirt once today.

Nice work if I could get it

If somebody said to me, "Hey, we want to hire you to sit under a clear blue sky, with a nice breeze blowing over you, drink beer and listen to live music" I might have to take a femtosecond to think it over, but I probably would decide to do it. I'm adaptable that way.

I could have danced all night

I could have sat there drinking to that pulse St. Vincent was laying down all afternoon. But one of us would have passed out. I like to think it was her.

ACL me

It's on!

Tasty payoff

Lemon Custard Cup after the Wild Wild Wilderness trail race today (on top of the Knobstone Trail Mini yesterday). I think I can say I earned it.

Torture devices for runners

8:30 on Friday night, I'm in a cheap motel south of Indianapolis, I've rolled the nubby green ball under my feet and The Stick over my legs and I am about to go to bed. Somewhere, my life got seriously off track, or on it, not always sure which. Off the track tomorrow anyway; Knobstone Trail Mini.

Just call me crusty

If I had collapsed in the woods instead of finishing the 18 miles deer would now be coming up to me saying: "Cool, a salt lick."

Wild thing

Look, wildlife, and right outside my office door this morning. I think they count that as a benefit

Life's a bitch

Drinking Bitches Brew (thanks to the Big C) and listening to Bitches Brew. Some people have a personal relationship with Jesus, I have a personal relationship with Miles.

That was fast

About 10:30 I'll be 57 (and probably asleep). This morning I'm 1:57 (and change) ... or about 2 minutes faster in the half marathon.

It lives!

Maybe the best IOSF ever. We should cancel it every year. But this morning I feel so bad thinking about the people who couldn't attend the 33rd IOSF because they had to go to a Ball State-Colgate football ga... Oops, never mind!

That was a hot one

Trail racing tan, so to speak. Two-plus hours humping in 90ish heat and humidity really leaves you feeling like you've done something. Like taken a hot, salty shower. Even the inside of my shoes were swimming, without any creek crossings you couldn't hop over.

Divine Davina

I am having an orgasm with Davina (and with the Vagabonds, too), in a this-music-is-so-freaking-awesome sort of way, of course.

Little Ricky needs a spanking, or a nice nap in the slam

So I don't think they hang public officials who commit felonies in Texas anymore and I'm for that, but I think a public spanking, bare ass, of course, would be nice.

Hot tamales, so to speak

End of the Augosto 12K in San Antonio Saturday; 7.45 miles at about 90 degrees and 85 percent humidity and I'm cooking … literally.

Smooth sailing

Schooner at the ersatz Texas Ranger Museum (and saloon) in San Antonio makes me flash back to Snap's Cafe in Jasper, IN. But the beer is better!

I'm trying to forget

Ignoring The Alamo.

Down in the dirt

The medal/bottle opener is for running a series of trail races. The knee, which I picked up this morning in the last one, the Eagle Creek half marathon, just kind of emphasizes the point

Sun ship

Heading back to the beach so I can run some more. If I'd been able to do the running part of the Iron Eagle Paddle & Run Saturday as fast as the paddling part, I would have finished a lot sooner. But at least I can still work the sticks.

I was running a 10K and a canoe race broke out

Canoe Saudade and me after the Iron Eagle Paddle & Run, kind of a 10K on trails with a canoe race in the middle. The boat smoked some people but I had sea legs the second half of the run.

Next April? Already got plans

A leap of faith is me registering for the April 25, 2015, Illinois Marathon this morning, on the day registration opened.

It's on!

Bra-zeel!

Força Brazil!

It's the shoes, but I helped

Two races in these Altra One2s, two best times. This morning, the Firecracker 6 miler in Indy, 3:12 faster than last year (woot) and 49 seconds better in the second three miles than the first (negative split, woot, woot). I'm kind of on love with some shoes.

Thanks, dude!

Obrigado Cristiano!

Magic shoes

I am shepherding new students today (which is a scary thought in and of itself) and I swear every one of them is wearing Nikes or Chuck Taylors and I'm like, "Come on man, get radical, rebel, break the mold, let's see some Altras, or Hoka One Ones or some damn Sauconys." I'd even settle for a pair of Crocs at this point.

Cup me

Força Portugal!

Anything worth doing is worth doing to excess

Lit up for the night quarter marathon on the trails at Eagle Creek. Unlike the Hog Jog this morning, it will be a leisurely run ... but not too leisurely.

I got there as soon as I could

Love that traditional grilled pork burger after the Flora Hog Jog 10K. Love knocking 1:52 off my best 10K time, too.

LeBron has a boo-boo

I just don't understand how they could make the poor NBA players FROM MIAMI play in an arena without AC.

We love pain

What a wonderful morning to run, or to otherwise be alive. Did about 9 miles easy then ran the Legal Aid trail 5K; practice running fast(er), and in pain, in the end game. Also a good cause.

10 almost a 10

First run in double figures since double marathon April and it felt pretty good. Then again, running in the woods mostly does.

Easy for me to say

On the other side of the aid table today volunteering at the Gnaw Bone trail marathon, 50K and 50 mile, waiting for the 50 milers to come through on their second loop. Tough bunch of guys and gals.

5x5

Doctor reviewing blood tests at my checkup this afternoon: "And your liver function is completely normal." Me: "Man, my liver is one tough little motherf----r." But I only thought it, I didn't blurt it out. Thankfully.

That's the way the whole thing ends

Ahhhhh!

Carb me

If I ever come to New Orleans to run the marathon, I'm thinking the bread pudding in praline sauce would be great for carbo loading the day before. It was superfluous after a day of music, but still mouth watering.

Where nobody knows your name

Since it is in New Orleans and everything I decided to get a little fancy with the name of my new restaurant.

Free and easy

I'm in church and we're all clappin' because Pharoah Sanders is preaching up a storm, with his tenor and otherwise.

Soul man

Big Al and I are in the house.

It sure ain't Iowa

Is this heaven? No, it's a bar, on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans, with music and cold beer. Close enough, another Abita Amber, please.

Post double marathon blues

Thank goodness I don't remember the truck my body is saying hit me over the weekend.

Plan executed, albeit slowly

It was hot. I sweat like a big dog. I was slow. I had a lot of fun. I finished...my second marathon in two weeks. Now I don't have to do that again, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

It's a plan

I have my Illinois Marathon game plan for tomorrow on the front of my shirt because, you know, I wouldn't want forget or anything.

On the path less traveled

Running is good. Running on trails, in the woods, along a river, with the sun rising is awesome.

Root, root, root for the dropouts

So the team that got in trouble for its low graduation rate beat the team that has no intention of graduating its players. Let's celebrate!

Crazy for the lady in red

People's Conccinati Red Wheat. So pretty, and so hoppy. I think I'm in luv.

To run long you have to run along

I don't sweat when I run long. I bleed liquid awesome.

Up I go and they go down

The two big hills in mile 17 taunted me, so I ran over them.

Sim, bebo vinho e cerveja

In today's Portuguese lesson we learned that "o escritor bebe vinho" and, I might add, in the case of this particular escritor cerveja.

P-H-A-T Fat (as in Tuesday)

Just dawned on me that it is Fat Tuesday. Time to start drinking.

All hopped up

Hoppy brew before Pink Martini at the Shriners hall in Indy. Hoppy Brew used to be my FM radio name.

Clothes make the man comfortable

Watching Habib Koite I've decided to get some threads like his because A) they look really comfortable and B) people will look at me and think, "That dude knows something I don't."

He's a complicated man

Whenever I hear the Theme from Shaft I always think of the famous alternate lyrics. (Who is the man that wears a thong and shakes his can...) OK, they're not all that famous.

Tolerate-hate relationship

Tempo Intervals I will never love you. I will do you. But it will always be an occasional quickie not a lasting relationship. Sorry.

Die Hoosier scum; OK, don't actually die, but suffer a lot

In life, I think it is vital to test your limits, to keep trying new and challenging things. But there's nothing wrong with taking timeless pleasure in some things, too. Like Indiana getting its ass kicked. By Purdue. In hoops.

Robot harp seal is angry with you

Be afraid, be very afraid. Robot harp seal has powerful laser eyes and cuts anybody attempting to club him in half, and sometimes just people who piss him off in general.

I see your Roomba and raise you one proto-terminator

All hail Bartron II, your new robot overlord.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste

Pew survey figures from a session on public views of science I'm attending this morning: 33 percent of Americans believe humans are unchanged since the beginning of time, 39 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of white evangelical protestants. Even if you dispute the mode of transport by which we got here, to deny that a journey was made is only possible by being willfully ignorant. Their outlook on the reality of and potential dangers posed by climate change is similar, by the way.

Simple pleasures

Sitting outside having coffee and waiting for the airport shuttle. My phone says it's 0 degrees in Indy. Maybe I won't get on the bus.

We'll make more

So much to do and so little time.

And how about a little carbo loading with that music

OK Dewars (who had my back). I took the light rail down, too. Easy. Of course you know spending the evening with Alejandro is going to make me run slower tomorrow.

Having a heat wave

Currently 39 F in Houston, going up to 57 today and 72 tomorrow. I'm thinking of stripping down to my underwear, or at least running the Rhythm & Blues Half Marathon Sunday in shorts.

Nutz

I'm not much for religion, but I do believe a damn good job was done on pistachios.

Neko mania

Neko is just such a songbird extraordinaire.

Running is...

That's the way the whole things ends

That's the way the cornbread crumbles
That's the way the whole thing ends
--Gillian Welch, The Way the Whole Thing Ends

1/22/14

Indiana's Purdue University shooting leaves one dead, man in custody

(Reuters)-A man was shot to death at Indiana's Purdue University on Tuesday and a male suspect was taken into custody, police said, in an apparently targeted killing that follows a rash of shootings at U.S. schools this month.

On Monday night, a student was shot and critically wounded outside an athletic center at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. Last week alone, two students were shot at a high school in Philadelphia, another was shot at a high school in Albany, Georgia, and two students were shot at a middle school in New Mexico.

Gun ownership laws in the United States have come under intense scrutiny since December 2012, when 20 young children and six educators were shot dead by a long gunman at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut.

1/20/14

Gun access tied to greater suicide, murder risk

(Reuters) - People have heightened risks of dying from suicide and murder if they own or have access to a gun, according to a new analysis of previous research.

Researchers found people who lived in homes with firearms were between two and three times more likely to die from either cause, compared to those who lived in homes without guns.

For the new review, the researchers analyzed 14 studies that looked at the risk of committing suicide among people who did and didn't have access to guns and five studies that looked at gun access and the risk of being murdered. Four of the studies examined both suicide and murder risk.

The studies were published between 1988 and 2005. All but one found people with access to firearms had heightened risks of dying from suicide and murder.

The researchers found having access to a gun was tied to a three-fold increase in the likelihood that people would kill themselves.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About 12 out of every 100,000 people commit suicide each year.

Anglemyer's team also found about a two-fold increased risk of death from murder among people who had access to a gun, compared to those without access to firearms. For women, the increased risk of being killed was even higher.

Firearm ownership is more common in the United States (upwards of one-third of households) than in any other country – and firearms cause more than 31,000 deaths a year here, according to the review. Further, the annual rate of suicide by firearms in America is higher than in any other country with reported data; the annual rate of firearm-related homicides in America is the highest among high-income countries.

Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.
--Narcotics Anonymous

Toasting being toasty

It required 120 laps to get in 12 miles on the indoor track, boring, but warm. Hunters Pub is warm, but this People's 4th Anniversary IPA is by no means boring.

Frozen rewards

1.6 miles to the drug store to get out of the house, pick up a prescription and answer the silly question: Gee I wonder what running at minus 13 is like? I figured I owed myself the Heath Bar.

Beat up, but going strong

I got to visit with my longtime newspaper colleague (and Boston Marathon qualifier, she's much faster than I'm ever going to be) Jodi Heckel at the Siberian Express trail race in Illinois this morning. It was cold, but not really Siberian. The trails were nice and gnarly though.