Run DMZ

The highly competitive 5000m race was underway when people started asking if anyone knew who was winning. He wasn't preregistered, so he wasn't on the runner manifest the USATF announcer held as the men wound round and round the track this morning at Cal State San Marcos. Fortunately, I knew who he was, and if you are a longtime reader of this blog, you would know too. He was my friend Akos , a three-time runnerup and record-breaker at the Badwater Ultra Marathon. Now a PE teacher in his native Hungary, this summer he returned to San Diego and to his roots. He handily won his event at the annual Chuck McMahon Master's Track Meet, which included some of the fastest master's runners in the nation. But what was really amazing was his time. The last time Akos entered the 5000m was in 1992, when he finished in 16:12. Today, almost two decades later, he ran a 16:32! Who says ultra runners slow down with age?! There were plenty of stories like that one at an event that feature...

It's been a terrible week for those of us whose commute includes the I-15 corridor. CalTrans closed the express lanes for construction, and my normally 30-minute drive home in "normal" San Diego freeway traffic grew to 90 minutes no matter which alternate route I sought. This is the problem with living around millions of people, all of whom get around by car. (And in my defense, there are no other public transportation options where I live in Carmel Valley, which is, of course, why the roads are so congested.) Sitting so long in traffic has had one advantage -- more time to catch up on news. I used to listen to NPR on my MP3 when I commuted by bike at my previous job. Then they outlawed earplugs/headphones for cyclists in California and the trips became better remembered for grinding up the 56 bikepath hills in sweltering 90-degree heat. I saw some current cycling sufferers on one ill-fated attempt to get home sooner and was wistful. One report that was particularly of in...

Thanks, Deborah J.!

Not sure how I feel about an editorial in the New York Times that questions the ubiquitous charity fundraiser walks in most urban areas and many suburban ones. I've done both charity walks and run on behalf of a charity, and they are both similar and different. And, even if they annoyingly violate basic race etiquette or use a charity to do an end run around a sold-out race, charity runners (and walkers!) deserve a certain amount of respect. It is not easy to ask for money, especially in this economy, and many have personal ties to the cause they are supporting. On the other hand, consider this passage from the piece: In the charitable ritual that has evolved, two sides expend energy, but only the sponsors’ efforts directly aid the poor. The others’ is pure sweat equity that goes nowhere but down the necks of the participants. Consider, too, the public resources expended: the rescue squads and medics along the way, the police sealing off urban arteries, the snarling of traffic. We ...

Like Mom, Like Child (thanks, Elise!).

The first time I ran along the UC Davis Arboretum trails, I wondered what would unfold during the next four years and what it would feel like to be finished, as in “done done” – a parent of grown children. I never pictured graduation day, and maybe that’s a good thing considering how the real day developed. We arrived in Davis hours later than expected due to airplane delays, cutting off an afternoon of planned activities once we reached our destination. I am not complaining because you can’t predict the weather. Still, it was an omen. “Get out of the car – now! I don’t care that it’s moving!” The next morning, we were enroute when we were asked to buy bandages. Our older daughter had cut her foot. She also was (temporarily) ill and vomiting. On the way to the pavilion, we hit heavy traffic and our daughter got sick again. On the outside of the car. Both girls were told to get out, one to get fresh air and one to get in her graduation line on time. At the time we were stopped at a tr...

Some snippets from today's graduation, which did not disappoint in the drama department. "Get out of the car - now! I don't care that it's moving!!" "Can we please go to a carwash and clean off the puke before we drive to Benihana's?" "Call 911!" "Where's all this carwash water coming from? Oh my God, MOM!!!" "We are still 13 miles from the restaurant."

It's a big week in our household, one that signals yet another major transition in family life. Our younger daughter officially graduates from college on Friday morning and then in a few weeks, all four of us reunite again for our first bona fide family trip in eight years. I love this article in the New York Times and particularly this paragraph: The entry into adult childhood, with its complex alchemy of separation and attachment, is as fraught a time as the baby end of childhood. More so, for the parent, anyway. When he is 5, a child has no choice but to be with you. When he is 25, he is with you only by choice. As most of us don’t want to lose touch with our kids just when they become truly interesting people, we have to figure out how to navigate that perilous, post-adolescent territory.

I live near a popular hiking area and can understand these residents' concerns. Makes you really think about what happens to an area when it's made more accessible to the general public.