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.

And now, drinking

Last 5 miles of the year logged. Now, a shower and then Mr. New Year is headed for Hunters Pub. Greetings of the season to all!

My love for Lizzy Hawker in endless, but...

A 10-mile run this morning puts me over 1,200 for the year, a long weekend's worth for Lizzy Hawker (OK, a few months anyway) but it feels like a nice number for an old(er) dude who only dabbles in distance running.

With earmuffs and a big-billed cap to keep the glasses dry

"It was raining and I didn't want to run in the rain but I got over myself and I ran anyway." -- Danny Dreyer

Let it snow my ass

My nobby Hoka One One Stinson trailies and I just spent 9 miles telling the snow to go f--k itself...assuming snow could accomplish such a feat.

Brrrrr

At some point after mile 18 in the next marathon I will call how much not fun it was running 7 miles at 4 degrees this morning, and remember that I kept moving anyway, right to the end.

Monumental

Chilly today, hot in the showers after

Nice hot shower at the Y after the St. Nikolaus Day Lauf 5 miler, 10 degrees at the start. Now lunch (and beer), the Apple Store and Rudresh Mahanthappa at the Jazz Kitchen.

Leftovers, and brew

Some of that leftover turkey went into the turkey chili at the Upland Leftover Turkey trail 10K. The chili, and the Upland IPA, get my post-race repast seal of approval.

The legend of the headless snowman

That'll teach the bastard.

Tokin' and strokin' is OK by me

Personally, I think if more of our public offices were held by honest recreational drug using practitioners of consensual cunnilingus we would be better off for it. Congressional seats in particular.

El Chapultepec is jazzy

I stepped through the door into the '50s and half expected Monk to be at the piano. I think I'll stay awhile.

Death comes to the convention center

We're all going to die.

Runners talking

Not boring!

Baby, it's cold outside...

And you think you have problems.

And I looked good doing it

All week I have been thinking about ways to train my body to process lactate more efficiently. Why yes, now that you mention it I have indeed completely lost it.

Everybody has a plan (and sometimes they work)

While still by no means fast, my best marathon time is 30 minutes lower now, because I'm not getting older, I'm getting faster. OK, I am getting older. And faster. By the time I am 150, slow Kenyans will be looking over their shoulders for me.

Don't shoot, not before the finish line anyway

If there are hunters in downtown Indianapolis tomorrow morning I don't want them to mistake me for a fleet-footed deer, or a lumbering bear, one of those.

Time, please

Come on, you mean it isn't time for that beer yet? (Checking my pace in the Boilermaker Half Saturday morning.)

Everybody has a plan, until...

Oops, the easy training run for the Monumental Marathon turned into a couple minutes faster than last year and my second best half marathon time. Screw it, I've two weeks to recover.

Fado face

Fadista Aldina Duarte, whose face, in my opinion, is as magnificently expressive as her music. Look it up.

Almost there

21 miles this morning, all I have to do now is not hurt myself before the Monumental Marathon in Indy 3 weeks hence. Oh yeah, and have a beer.

Now that's what I call idyllic

Sitting under a shady tree drinking Founders All-day IPA listening to Shinyribs, I think I finally found my calling.

I must be in the front row...

Rodd and Kathy and the Blind Boys of Alabama at Stubb's. Our seats just suck, heh, heh, heh.

Crafty

Craft beer tent at ACL, best invention ever!

A modest proposal

I don't understand why we keep having to argue about this Affordable Care Act thing. The problem is easily solved. Just let the sick people without coverage die and everybody will be covered. I can't believe nobody is promoting this simple and obvious... Oh, wait. Never mind.

Doesn't know when to quit, and why should he?

I was talking to this guy before the Wabash Heritage Trail half marathon yesterday. He was running the full marathon. He admitted to being "in his early 70s." Then his buddy (another old(er) guy, wearing a shirt that read "Ran a marathon in every state. Twice.") told me, "Yeah, and this is his 132nd race so far this year." I shook both their hands and said, "You guys are my heroes."

Bay Jay, bad bad!

Bad Jay is quarterbacking the Bears today.

Leg up, one foot at a time

Put 18.1 miles on them today, 5 before the Wabash Heritage Trail half marathon and 13.1 in the mud and rain.

Saturday night devotionals

I don't need to go to church in the morning because Rev. Peyton (and his Big Damn Band) is giving me all the preaching I need. And there's beer.

When opportunity knocks

So say I'm running along and I see Danny Hope and Nancy Reagan lying in a ditch. Of course I stop to kick Danny Hope. It's not like I'm going out of my way or anything. And if I have time, I kick Nancy Reagan, too.

Nice guys finish happy

End of the North Face trail half marathon in Wisconsin Sunday. I could have smoked that 10K runner at the end, but I was happy not to be a jerk about it. Then they gave me a free beer and a brat, which they probably would have done anyway. Still, not being a jerk made it taste better.

In Bears ghetto

They're making me sit over in the corner to watch the Bears, but I'm doing it.

Happy birthday to me

Birthday yesterday North Face Endurance Wisconsin trail half marathon tomorrow. Because time will catch me eventually, but the wanker is going to have breathe hard to do it.

Born this way

As far as I know when I was born about this time XX years ago I wasn't standing in a bar with a pint listening to master bluesmen play, but it would have been appropriate.

So long big Z

I lament the passing of Zelmo Beaty, fine center, worthy foe and memorable villain for those of us who rooted for the Indiana Pacers when the ball was red, white and blue.

Birthday greetings to Mr. Rollins

Listening to Mr. Sonny Rollins, 83 years young today, play Salvador on This is What I Do always makes me have happy feet. And then, I get to listen to the rest of the CD. Happy birthday S.R.

I got it Al

The unboxing, just so my old pal Alan Lee knows.

Spooked, but it could be the booze

Why is it that whenever I walk through here I think a about The Shining?

Hanging in the bar at West Baden

It's kind of like drinking in the Astrodome, or the Duomo.

So begins the 33rd IOSF

It's on! When will it ever go off?

Twerk this

I always twerk at the end of a race, if you count bending over my knees, ass pointed at the sky, and gasping for air.

B3 or be square

A Mound Builder IPA and I wait for my man B3 god Tony Monaco at the Uptown Jazz and Blues Festival.

You gotta be comfortable doing it

Let's rock! Suiting up for the Southwestway Trail 15K.

Hot and sweaty

That big glass of water I drank before running this morning was gone by the time I got back.

Kids these days

In the older building where my office is located, in an older restroom where you have to push a handle down to flush the urinal, kids frequently don't because they have grown up in a world where urinals routinely flush themselves. It annoys me, yes, but more than that it makes me feel sorry for them. They never experienced the thrill of dodging Jarts, either.

After the Nearly Sane (depends on your perspective) half

I like a race that personalizes my number--and puts a beer opener in my swag bag.

No gnomes here, just us zombies

New in the butterfly garden, where I saw my first butterfly, briefly, today. What can I say, I'm just not a garden gnome kind of dude.

Punt, pass, kick it ain't

Arrive Indy from San Diego 1:30 a.m. Drive to Chicago, arrive 4:30 a.m. Shower, pin number on shirt, nap 30 minutes, get up, stretch, suit up, walk/jog about 2 miles to start line, run Big 10 Network 10K--2 minutes 14 seconds faster than last year. Followed by shower, lunch and collapse. Later, beer.

Late lunch

Sampler at Neighborhood (a San Diego bar suggested by the Big C). Pliny the Elder second from right.

He's Rapid Roy on that guitar

Listening to Lenny "Fuzzy" Rankins play the blues at Jim Croce's wife's bar. I think Jim would have enjoyed it.

Candye is dandy

Tonight... Candye Kane. I've been waiting for this all my life.

Night, night sailor

I have to say the room Purdue arranged for me at the XSEDE conference is not the greatest.

With an ocean view no less

I could probably get used to running along San Diego Bay with the sun coming up.

Undestructable

How many darkest moments and traps
Still lay ahead of us
How many final frontiers
We gonna mount
And maybe no victory laps
But if you stepped on path of sacred art and stuck it out through thick and thin
God knows you become one
With undestructable
--Eugene Hütz

Every journey starts with...

Monumental Marathon training starts the same way as Illinois Marathon training, by putting a foot out the door. Warmer weather, however, about 65 degrees warmer according to my training log for Jan. 2.

Great morning for a run

Nice romp in the Water Drop 5K at Wabash Riverfest this morning, which makes 9 races in the last 8 weeks. I have to take a break from racing now or someone will call for an intervention. Not to mention that Indy Monumental Marathon training starts Monday.

Open for business butterflies

New butterfly garden, although the only thing I've seen in it so far is a chipmunk.

Well, they were new shoes

Before. After.

My name is mud

I got your Tough Mudder right here bub. End of the Brown County trail 15K (which is actually a 10 miler).

Wetter is better

Let's race trails.

Life is short, run fast(er)

I just don't know how my life spiraled down to a point where this is the case. I was 3 minutes 16 seconds faster in the second 3 miles of the Firecracker 6 than the first and it makes me very happy.

Firecracker 6 receipt

>

My receipt.

My new bible

Of course I wanted to drink with Sena all night, but the bible (this bible) says a righteous man will hit certain paces in the Firecracker 6 mile in downtown Indy tomorrow morning and so, being a more or less righteous man, I will go to bed (relatively) early and try to hit those paces.

Sena and the brew

This beer and Sena Ehrhardt, priceless.