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2019 week forty seven

Book Read
43. Berlin – Jason Lutes

Kilometres Ran
week forty seven – 61.0

2019 to date: 2,466 KM

I was looking for something easy and casual to read because I just haven’t been in the novel mood lately and I’m pretty tired of short stories so I was poking around and came across this graphic novel called Berlin that I thought looked interesting and familiar. A while ago I picked up a copy of the Left Bank Gang by Jason; it’s a fun, easy read set in Paris. So when saw the cover of Berlin by Jason (Lutes) I expected a fun, easy read set in Berlin.

They’re nothing alike. At all.

Berlin is not a fun, easy read. The book is a collection of Lutes’ 20 year long, 22-issue series exploring the life in Berlin from 1928 until 1933. It’s a very deep dive into historical fiction. It’s all drawn black and white or whatever the graphic-novel lingo is for black and white and my only complaint is that from time to time the text is really small and dense and difficult to read. Otherwise, it’s really great. It’s timely what with the re-emergence of fascism that is currently happening here and south and in Europe. So, yeah, not a happy read. Makes me want to revisit Maus though. Maybe I’ll just read comics for the rest of the year.

It only happens once per year. Thank gawd.

So after not shaving my face since October 31 I got out the clippers and cut away the sparse sprouts from my cheeks and chin, leaving behind a snot saver just below the nose, and then jogged down to Second Beach in Stanley Park for the annual Moustache Miler. The weather wasn’t great but the rain was trying to stay at bay. With just two weeks until CIM I threw in for the one mile race, a short loop east and back on the Seawall, starting and finishing at Second Beach Pool. It’s a fun run, but I was taking it seriously only in that I felt like I had some unfinished business at the mile distance. I ran my first mile on the track in the spring and managed 5:52. Fast forward towards the end of summer and I set out to better that, once again on the track. I finished 5:52. I’m pretty certain that I am faster now, but I wanted to prove it, and find out how much. This course had some tight turns and a bit of a hill up and down, so slower than a track for sure, but also a lot of people who run anywhere from marginally to significantly faster than me for me to chase.

Coming Around Second Beach Pool, finish line in sight. I look surprisingly chill.
Photo: Jeanine Avelino

I got off the line okay and felt like garbage sooner than I was hoping to, then the climb from the Seawall up to Beach Ave and the turn around back towards the pool. I tried to check my watch at the halfway marker but whatever it said didn’t register. That second half is a blur. I got passed a few times until the pool when there was one just ahead who I thought I might be able to catch on the sprint to the finish. I managed to get by him and crossed the line and stopped my watch. It read 5:59.52. So that sucks. But it also read 1.69 km. The course was long. Later I checked Strava, and it said I ran a 5:41 for my fastest mile yet. I was 15th over all, and second in my age group. I am very please with all of that, but I’m also rather annoyed. I ran the fastest mile (and kilometre for that matter) in my life (so far…) but I don’t actually know what that is because the course was “a mile” and not one mile.

After party with Phil Finlayson who jogged the mile, thereby letting me have AG 2nd (and also helped take care of my free beer), and Declan White who jogged his way to first overall in both the mile and the 5 KM races.
Photo: Jeanine Avelino

But in the end it was all for fun and for a good cause. I’d set a goal to raise $614.54 for the Movember Foundation supporting men’s mental and physical health – one cent more than last year – and it wasn’t looking like I was going to make it. I was happy with the support regardless, but on Saturday morning before the run I was still a bit short. Then another donation came in, and then another, and I was closer. Then later in the afternoon Stephanie and I stopped for a coffee on our way to the Vancouver Art Gallery and two more alerts in my inbox tipped my total over to $621.45. Thanks so much to everyone who donated: Albert, Shannon, Dan, John, Kelly, Stephanie, Ryan, Sandra, Roland, Steve, Jeff and the five who wish to remain anonymous. I sincerely appreciate your support. Plus it was a lot of fun.

2019 week twenty four

Book Read
24. When Running Made History – Roger Robinson

Kilometres Ran
week twenty four – 41.2

2019 to date: 1,162 KM

I read and wrote about this book last fall just before I ran the Victoria Marathon, after meeting Roger Robinson at Forerunners on West 4th while out on his book tour. (A book tour of running shops, go figure.) What struck me then, and having a bit of a reread now, are the bits about running’s connection with charity.

The impulse among the majority of runners to run for a cause other than, or greater than, their own result has brought measurable enrichment to the work of many charities and thus society.

Roger Robinson

As my personal situation has improved I’ve been able to give back to the arts and culture community, which is easy if you’re able. It’s a lot harder to ask other people to join in. I learned pretty quickly that I’d never make it as a development officer or a fundraiser, and yet I’m currently trying to figure out how to ask my social circle and beyond to support The Capilano Review just because I’m running twenty-one point one kilometres in a week’s time, along with 5,000 other people many of whom are likely asking their social circle to support their charity of choice. While it does seem a bit weird to choose a running race to raise money for a pauperous literary arts organization, it was around the time that I took on their managing editor role that I gave this whole jogging thing a try. So for me, it seems, the two are rather tied. In timeline at least. Since I left The Capilano Review office, they continued to bring me a certain amount of enrichment. I always look forward to the writers and artists that I’ll be introduced to, always exceptionally curated, and often stuff that I wouldn’t otherwise see. If you’re familiar with their work, I hope that you’ll consider making a donation in support of my run next Sunday.

USE THIS LINK TO DONATE

If you’ve never head of The Capilano Review, I hope that you’ll check them out. Maybe attend an event, or purchase a subscription, or just get lost in their massive archive of work that was recently posted online in collaboration with Simon Fraser University Library.

Mile2Marathon train on the track at Swargard Stadium for Chase the Pace at the Pacific Distance Carnival. Photo by Debra Kato.

On Thursday I made my fifth attempt to run five kilometres in under 20 minutes, this time at Mile2Marathon’s sixth-annual Chase the Pace 5,000 on the track at Swangard Staduim in Burnaby. The event was in collaboration with the first Pacific Distance Carnival put on by BC Athletics, Mile2Marathon, and the BC Endurance Project. The evening started with a few 1,500 metre foot-races and a wheelchair heat, then four heats of 5,000 metres with pacers. I registered with the goal to run 19:59, which put me in the 7:55 p.m. heat where I and about 30 others chased three different pacers. The gun went off and I tried to get in behind pacer Laurel Richardson (19:55) but got stuck in the crowd for the first of 12 and a half laps of the 400 metre track. The field started to thin after the first couple laps and I managed to find a rhythm that felt ok but not great. By the eighth lap I’d slipped quite a bit and knew that I probably wasn’t going to be able to catch the pacer. There was a cluster of us that were right on the cusp of 20 minutes and we traded leading a few times. On the second last straight I remember M2M coach Rob Watson telling us we only had about a minute left and to give it hell. I didn’t have much to give but I managed a bit of a sprint coming out of the final turn. Ryan Chilibeck from East Van Run Crew was in front of me and I tried to catch him but he crossed the finish a few tens-of-a-second ahead of me. Perfectly ahead of me, if his intention was to block my view of the clock. Not that it mattered. I knew that I was over 20 minutes. Strava said I ran 5 KM in 19:53 but my Garmin said my run was 20:12. I checked the results board and my official time was 20:10:97. Not near my goal, and third in terms of attempts. It’s not a great result but, unless you count running loops of a park in Paris, I’ve done just two speed workouts since running the BMO Marathon at the beginning of May. While I do feel a bit like it was a missed opportunity, I’m really rather pleased with just how well it went.

With Philip Finlayson (who’d just run a 17:40 5,000) getting ready to cheer on the 10,000 Canadian championships at the Pacific Distance Carnival. I bet he loves this photo by Debra Kato almost as much as I do.

After the 5,000 metre heats were complete, the Pacific Distance Carnival main events got underway, with Canadian 10,000 metre championships. The 25 laps of the track saw Ben Flanagan finish in 28:37 in the men’s race, followed by current record holder Natasha Wodak finishing in 32:09 holding off B.C. 5K champ Sarah Inglis, and Canadian half and full marathon record holder Rachel Cliff. The whole event was a lot of fun both to participate and to watch. I look forward to next year.