Category: Read Run Write

2019 week seven

Book Read
7. Conversations With Friends – Sally Rooney

Kilometres Ran
week seven – 38.4

2019 to Date: 291 KM

I’m reminded of when Sheila Heti’s How Should a Person Be? started getting armchair reviews from casual readers who hated it because they expected it to be a self-help book and they learned nothing about how to behave. That has nothing to do, per se, with Sally Rooney except to ask, is Rooney the Irish Heti? I find their style very similar, not to mention their telling of contemporary life. Rooney was born in Ireland and lives in Dublin, the primary setting of the book, which follows the narrator Frances and her self-absorbed friend Bobbi. Much like Heti’s breakout book, Rooney’s Conversations With Friends is a rather polarizing novel, with many people hating the pace, events, and characters. And while I too find some of the characters grating – I loathe Bobbi, for instance – I am on the love-it side of the continuum for this novel, and I’m looking forward to reading Rooney’s new novel Normal People after it is released in Canada in April.

Kiboshed plans for a double Stanley Park Seawall loop long run on Sunday. (The white streak in the water in the background is a capsized boat with a half dozen paddlers having a much worse day than I am.)

After racing the First Half Marathon last weekend, this week was pretty relaxed. Not because I wanted it to be but rather because I’m trying to do as I’m told, which is just as difficult as it sounds. After over three weeks straight of running every day, this week I was relegated to three short and one long run. It feels like a set back but I have to trust that I’m in good hands and I realize that all of this sounds rather vague because it is, because that’s all I want to put down about it for now. It’s now eleven weeks until the BMO Marathon and while I’ve been filling my non-running days (and some of my running days, too) with riding my bicycle, it feels like I should be running a lot more than four times, for under 40 KM in a week. Trust has never really been my forté.

2019 week six

Book Read
6. Circe – Madeline Miller

Kilometres Ran
week six – 54.1

2019 to Date: 252 KM

So I decided to read the fantasy/mythology book that was on just about every single best of 2018 list that I came across just to see what all of the fuss was about and for the first few chapters I was not convinced and then Circe finds out that she is a witch and I was hooked. I admit that I don’t know Greek mythology very well. Sure I have the two-volume Greek Mythology set from the Folio Society that I think probably every English Lit major got suckered into ordering *For Free* because while we’re book-smart we sure didn’t learn our lesson from Columbia House. But I didn’t ever get around to actually reading it, and maybe my cursory knowledge of mythology is also why I enjoyed the book as much as I did. It’s just not my bag, so I probably won’t be picking up Miller’s earlier, and equally lauded, Song of Achilles.

Pre-race shake out in the chute through the construction zone under Granville Bridge. On race day this section descends to the 3 KM marker. Coming back it’s the last incline, followed by a 600 metre sprint to the finish.

And speaking of achilles, on Wednesday I did a 10 km load test to see how it would hold up at something farther than the five or six I’ve been running the past few weeks. It was okay enough that my physiotherapist gave me the green light to run the First Half Half Marathon this morning on the promise that if it turned badly I would walk off. My race day plan was to test my achilles tolerance and test my current fitness level so I divided the race into thirds – 7 KM easy, 7 KM at goal marathon pace, and 7 KM at whatever was left in the tank.

This morning was cold, hovering around -6 plus a breeze that put the wind chill at -13. I lined up with the 1:45 pace group and we set out. Garmin got lost going under B.C. Place so at 3 KM in I was guessing pace, trying to stay at 5:00/KM. Achilles started acting up and I was concerned I’d have to quit, but it plateaued and then diminished a bit through 7 KM and I pushed the pace up to 4:30/KM. At 14 KM I caught the 1:40 pace pack and I felt great so I stayed at goal marathon pace through to the finish, crossing the line at 1:37:43. While that’s over five minutes off my personal best, it’s also over five minutes faster than my First Half 2018. I’m still elated with how today went, from expecting to gas out, and mentally preparing to have my first DNF, instead I ran my fourth fastest half marathon race and have a huge confidence boost in my current fitness with 12 weeks until the BMO Marathon. My achilles is still a bit of a concern. While it was just okay through the race and the walk home afterward, it’s less happy with me right now. So we’ll see how it feels in the morning. For now I’m too runner’s high to worry.

Disaster Averted.