Run DMZ

If ever there was a month I wish not to repeat, it’s this one. But if I could replicate a morning, today would top the list. With the station wagon loaded with lots of homemade and store-bought goodies, posters, stickers, helium balloon machine and a cooler full of ice, I picked up my former training partner at 5:15 a.m., stopped at Starbucks and headed down to Hospitality Point in Mission Bay. A few years ago our track club marathon training program started The Welcome Committee to greet runners, especially the slowest ones, returning from touring 18 to 20 miles of San Diego on foot. I’ve always been its chair. I decided to run part of the course with everyone since tomorrow morning I’m leaving early for the Festival of Books at UCLA . We first ran along a flood channel, and before too long we were heading into Ocean Beach, a part of San Diego everyone loves. We passed pooches having a ball at Dog Beach, a trio of dudes in dreadlocks (OB is a haven for hippies) and as we climbed Sunse...

Have you ever found yourself on a Friday baking sheet cakes to go with the 150 homemade brownies (a few MIA, you just noticed), 75 mini muffins, granola, oranges, peanuts, pretzels, tortilla strips, Dum Dums and Red Vines – what I forget? I know there’s something -- while you’re having the carpets in the house professionally cleaned and hoping no one from work calls and asks, “What the hell is that noise?!” because you might just loose it, not because you’re getting tired of all this cooking (the beneficiaries being hundreds of ravenous marathoners-in-training doing 20 miles on Saturday morning) but because your heart’s aching knowing your college kid, who’s injured no less, is performing tonight and tomorrow in her final dance show 650 miles away and you won’t be there, for the first time since she started performing at age 3, and not only that, but you strongly suspect the missing muffin batter hidden in your belly is about to make a sudden reappearance, or maybe it’s because you jus...

There are not enough martinis, no-hassle master cleanses or Spicey Boob Racks to ever thank this woman for what she did to this blog. If you love the new look (and who doesn't?!), you should check out all the other clever creations at Sumy Designs . Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the spa, the mall and then maybe one of the Dr. 90210s for a makeover that matches my new virtual image.

I was happily crawling along the edges of the Del Mar Fairgrounds when the electronic sign switched from greeting La Jolla Half Marathoners to expressing condolences for the victims of Virginia Tech. The nerves in my nose pinched and my eyes began to smart, then water. Not now, I begged. My goal on this tough course was 2:10 to 2:20, which is about as good as gets for this mid-packer with so many “issues.” A 2:10 would be on par with the pace I’d held a few weeks ago at the El Cajon 20k, also known for its brutal hills. I haven’t done a big race since last year’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, so it was kinda cool to constantly be surrounded by lots of other runners the entire way. After circling the fairgrounds and moving through beachfront, I finally caught up to two girls in Tech regalia. One was an alumna in her 20s who had done the same marathon training program as me. We talked for a couple of miles and then I filed in behind them again just as we started up the big Torrey Pines hill. T...

Graduation, 1984 Homecoming, 1987 The family at a football game, 1994 Chasing after the next generation of Hokies on the Drillfield, circa 2000. That's my nephew, Austin, whose tutor was "Stack," the resident advisor killed in the dorm shooting. I may have had fewer degrees of separation than many; still, I've been overwhelmed by the outpouring. It's been much appreciated since I wasn’t prepared for the toll the Virginia Tech tragedy took on me. Monday, like everyone, I just watched as the bad news got worse. Tuesday, the tears kept coming; I had to stop watching TV. Wednesday, I don’t really remember except I sat down after dinner and next thing I knew it was an hour past my bedtime and the dirty dishes still sat on a darkened countertop. Somehow the remote kept coming back to CNN and MSNBC despite the fingers being given strict orders to stick with TBS sitcoms. When I slept, I slept hard and through alarms. And when I finally woke, the day felt dreamlike as an i...

Today was about as weird as it comes. I went into it convinced the day would suck and I was right but for the wrong reason. I expected to be fielding calls and e-mails all day after a major work project failed to come out on time. Instead, I was fielding calls and e-mails all day after a senseless rampage that now marks a nadir in U.S. history. It was nice to reconnect with high school and college friends and even to be approached by strangers who noticed my Virginia Tech Alumni license plate holder. I helped my sister in Blacksburg craft a thank you note to go with the hand-delivered baked goods for the local police, who are in for some very dark days and tortured nights. We weighed how she could help the mourners. I admit I only watched a small fraction of the Boston Marathon and had trouble relating to running blogs when there was so much chaos and carnage being reported. I’m sure I’ll be fine in time for the next round of race recaps. The last time I was on campus was on a muggy Mo...