Run DMZ

Some weekends I feel closer to my food and this is one of them. That’s partly because yesterday we made our annual pilgrimage to Little Quail Farm in Valley Center to pick our own ripe persimmons. Partly it’s because I finally made it to a farmer’s market and felt a little pious buying direct from growers versus grocers. But mostly it’s because of pigeons. Yesterday morning I drove down to Coronado to babysit canisters, cups and a couple of jackets while everyone in our half marathon training program ran around town at daybreak. (I even saw AKA Alice gearing up for a Silver Strand ride in a chance encounter.) Once everyone took off, I sat on a concrete bench with a book and about 10 minutes later noticed a couple of pigeons walking toward me. Soon more pigeons were on the move and before I knew it they were arriving en masse. Feeling like a hapless victim in the early 1970s movie “ Willard ,” I stood up to leave, which is all the action it took for them to fly away. But they kept comi...

Interesting piece in today's Wall Street Journal about attempts to bring the Rock 'n' Roll franchise to New York City and the resistance the Competitor Group's encountered to host a Bronx-only route in the spring. Is One New York Marathon Enough? When I ran the New York City Marathon years ago, there was a record crowd of 32,000. Now it's 45,000. And I think I paid $60, compared to up to $250 today. Plus, if you ran at least a half marathon under a certain time, you got in as long as there were still slots, and for no additional cost. Now, you have to pay $11 just to get lucky. A lot has changed. San Diego has the same problem with neighborhoods that go before the city council each year demanding the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon be rerouted away from them. In addition to traffic hassles, runners tend to generate more trash and noise than you might think. They also spend a lot of money on themselves that ends up being a huge boon to local businesses. Personally, I...

You’ve probably heard this one before, but everyone wants to be a television (or radio) weather forecaster. Why? Because it’s the only job where you can get it repeatedly wrong and still not get fired. This time, though, even the normally accurate weather.com and weatherunderground.com were way off, leading to a very wet opening to the three runs I’m hosting this fall. Just an hour before the run, the forecast was for rain in Scripps Ranch between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. One television meteorologist said the rain would miss us entirely. And yet the skies opened just as we started the 7 a.m. warm-up stretch. It was pouring by the time everyone hit the first of three hills on a 9-mile route I call the Lake Rim Run because you climb up and around the perimeter of Lake Miramar. It also includes two short trails, one of which qualified this as a mud run too. Everyone in my track club's fall training program took the conditions in stride, considering it good training if they encounter a rainy...

Taken by my daughter Elise last weekend driving in Sonoma County.

This morning I did something different (for me) and participated with my co-workers in the 20th annual Memory Walk in Balboa Park. Walking 3 miles, especially in light rain, beats running when you want to savor every moment. Alzheimer's is the 7th leading cause of death in the USA and, unfortunately, expected to move up in ranking because of our aging population. Right now someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease -- the most common form of dementia -- every 70 seconds . There are 5.3 million people with Alzheimer's, a disease that currently cost caregivers and employers and taxpayers $172 billion. Consider this comparison of Alzheimer's to other diseases: Source: Alzheimer's Association Here's a video I made of this morning for work: