Kilometres Ran:
week forty — 33 km
week forty one — 20 km
To date: 2,299 km
I loved this book. It’s a great collection and really deserves the positive critical reviews it is getting. I’m very happy for Dina. I’ve managed to have my name end up on the colophon page of a few books but never the acknowledgements. None that I’m aware of anyway. So the acknowledgements shout out to my old little Downtown Eastside gallery where Dina happened to be in the last show I was involved with there gave me all the feels. Granville Island Turkey Trot
I Turkey Trotted, and it was a lot of fun and I set a new best for 10K shaving over 2:30 off my PB at the 2016 Eastside 10K, and I scored my first top 10 finish with a seventh in my age category. I was less excited when I saw the posted results at the finish, with me coming in seventh out of nine. But by the time all the results were in it was 7/153. My knee is still not very happy with me and my physiotherapist said no running if I want to be better by the Fall Classic and I do but I went out on Friday the 13th and did the Ghost Race because Don’t Tell Me What to Do (thanks Dina) even though I dislike Lululemon (but have somehow managed to justify Kit & Ace). But since then I’ve run none and I’m going a bit crazy even though I’ve put about 100 km on Mobi Bikes it’s just not the same. I’m still over 200 km ahead of pace to reach my goal of 2,600 km in 2017 but for my head’s sake I really need to go for a run.
A rather warm and lovely autumn day and I strolled on down to the Vancouver Public Library for the annual WORD festival and I ran into Brian Kaufman at the Anvil Press table and I think I called him Kevin and I picked up a copy of Melissa Bull’s Rue, which is really great, as well as a copy of the late Jamie Reid’s posthumous book A Temporary Stranger, which I’m told is really great, and I hope to get around to reading it soon. I stopped by Talonbooks’ table and said hello to Kevin Williams but I don’t think I called him Brian. The weather was really nice, especially for an otherwise cursed WORD and yet Elee Kraljii Gardiner managed to find a table in the shadows from which to shiver and hawk her new chapbook Trauma Head. And so another onto the to read pile. I made it to 30 at 39 weeks. I have 13 weeks to read 32 more books to beat last year. Or 65 to reach my goal. Neither seems likely.
However, surpassing my running goal does seem likely. At the end of 39 weeks I should be at 1,950 kilometres. So I’m about 300 ahead, which is good because my knee has been bothering me since Copenhagen and I finally went to see Timberly at City Sports & Physiotherapy today and she basically (not really basically, ahem…) told me that she doesn’t want me running for a couple weeks, which she also acknowledged with perhaps a slight sideways eye that I probably was not going to follow so maybe no more than 5 km no more than two or three times per week for the next couple weeks but she’d prefer I just ride a bike, which is all going to really throw off my plans to set a new 10 km PB at the Granville Island Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Monday morning. Also I think that this might be my last 10 km race. I don’t really like the distance, and I’m pretty slow. I much prefer the longer runs. But also if you’ve been following this you’ll probably have found that I tend to say I’m not interested in doing that and then doing it anyway *cough* marathon *cough* so who knows? To be honest I only signed up in order to get the RUNVAN Hat Trick.
A couple poetry books (both excellent) and a few articles in the September 11 New Yorker and Sep/Oct Playboy and, ahem, (online, does that count?) Canadian Running (I’ll get to that later don’t you worry). Jared Kushner’s Harvard Admissions Essay in NY was very funny. The long interview with Patton Oswalt in PB was very good. I mostly want to write about running because stuff happened. So let’s get to it, yes?
I’ve written a few times about my inability to taper and so with seven days to go before the Copenhagen Half Marathon, and not to feel left out of the party I ran a rather casual 21.1 km all to get The Great 13.1 Record digital badge in my Strava achievements. I have no idea if the record (most half marathons recorded in one day) was broken. Anyway, it didn’t seem to bother me. After a quick loop around Stanley Park I boarded an Iceland Air flight on September 13 and after times zones and, well, some time, landed in Copenhagen just after noon on the 14th.
At the Wall of Runners
The flat I let was a nice 15 minutes walk to Fælledparken were all the CPH Half stuff would take place. The expo started at 2 p.m. and I was there (a bit zombied but alive) by 4 p.m. to pick up my race package. Friday morning I woke, kicked jet lag’s ass, and went for a 13 km run around The Lakes and back through Langelinie. Then in the afternoon I grabbed a Bycyklen and rode the race route through the city, with a few detours and wrong turns. I thought it would help, but in retrospect I’m not really sure that it did. Maybe?
Windmill at the Kastellet
Saturday morning I went for a short 7 km run along Langelinie again and up and around the Kastellet ramparts, and then spent most of the rest of the day on a Bycyklen or relaxing in the Botanical Garden and the Assistens Cemetery in anticipation for Sunday’s race. I was looking forward to taking in the pre-race festivities on Saturday, which I had in my head starting at 2 p.m. They ended at 2 p.m. I still think that’s a stupid time to end but feel equally stupid that I didn’t notice until 1:45 when I was about to head over to the grounds.
Obligatory gear shot
Sunday race day. Well the race made news around the world for the ensuing thunderstorm. Canadian Running magazine found out I was there and asked me to write about my experience. I’m waiting to see if they accept my story. If they do, I’ll link to it here. If they decline then I’ll post shortened version of events here. Either way, stay tuned.
Midrace selfie at the Black DiamondThe only photo I could find with me at the finish. I’m under just barely visible under the volunteers right arm in a black Adidas Canada shirt.
I had a great race in spite of the weather at the end, and posted a new personal best of 1:38:27. I loved that the race started at a rather civilized 11:15 a.m. On course entertainment was really great, and the crowds of spectators cheering everyone on were huge, like nothing I’d experienced before. I thought it weird that they used plastic cups at the hydration station. Because of the storm the finish area was shut down, so I didn’t get a photo with my finisher’s medal and I was really looking forward to the post-race festivities, especially after missing out on Saturday. Instead I went back to my flat and had a very long, hot shower.
I ran 12 km Tuesday morning before packing up and heading to the airport just before noon. I had four full and two half days in Copenhagen, and I ran four times for 54 km. It was a great trip. I’d do it again.
Sunrise loop around The Lakes on my last Copenhagen day
