2018 week twenty one

Books Read:
Mostly tourist stuff

Kilometres Ran:
week twenty one — 71.3

To date: 998 KM

Vacation has put a damper onto my reading. I started reading a new book while sitting in YVR ten days ago waiting to fly away to Helsinki via Frankfurt, a book of less than 200 pages, and I am still slowing trudging through said book. I hope to finish it before I get home to Vancouver on June 2. I don’t feel too bad since I’m still quite a bit ahead of pace for my goal of 52 books read this year. I am also, however, cognizant of the fact that post-May vacation tends to be when my reading slows down, an occurrence I’d rather not repeat.

Morning in Helsinki. I really like the composition of this photo. I wish I could say it was on purpose.

I have done a lot of running, though. Normally I run four, maybe five days per week. Monday tends to be my regular day off. Friday is usually the other, then Tuesday or Thursday gets a run in or not. I took Monday off after racing the Helsinki Half, but I’ve run every other day since, hence a week with over 70 KM an no run 15 KM or farther.

Distance estimate on this one was way off. But the morning light is excellent, taken a couple hours before boarding the Tallink/Silja ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia.

I’m convinced that running in a new place is the best way to see it, or at least survey where to explore later. I’ve managed to get lost a few times, and my run times and paces have been pretty slow. I complain about the lollygaggers on the Seawall back home. Now I’m the lollygagger.

Tallinn is known for its old stuff, but it also has some pretty great new stuff, some of which is on top of old stuff.

I usually start by checking the Strava Global Heatmap to get a sense where people run, then sometimes map a route just to get a sense of distance, then head out and see what happens. What happens is usually a lot of checking Google Maps along the way, and a plethora of mediocre photos. Sometimes a decent one or two fortuitously develops. Often I’ll see something and take a photo either to check out later, or if I’m out touristing, to run by on my next run.

Last Tallinn run along the Baltic Sea coast, here with the weird old Soviet Maarjamäe Memorial in the background.

Tomorrow we fly to Stockholm. It’s Monday no run day. I was last in Stockholm in October, 2016, which was the first time I took running stuff with me on vacation. I’m really looking forward to rerunning a couple spots around Södermalm, as well as exploring a few new routes. And maybe I’ll get some reading done too.

2018 week twenty

Books Read:
27. Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl — Carrie Brownstein

Kilometres Ran:
week twenty — 52

To date: 927 KM

I wasn’t a Sleater-Kinney fan. I wasn’t not a fan either. I mean, I didn’t dislike them in the active sense, I just never really listened to them. I’ve also never watched an episode of Portlandia. So why this book? Well, mostly because I won it in the raffle at the Real Vancouver Writers Series even a little bit ago. Times change. I used to be the guy that would buy an arm’s length of raffle tickets and never win anything. I’d be standing there, clutching my plethora of tickets, always the bridesmaid. All that’s long forgotten now. Now I’m the guy that shows up and wins the t-shirt every event. T-shirts coveted by others in attendance that I will likely not wear outside my house because they are either entirely too large (an XL Feminist Killjoy in a bluey sort of grey) or if my size, not exactly my colour, as would be the case this time ’round with the size M Anvil Books in hot pink. And a book about a band I did not listen to and a show that I do not watch. But I enjoyed the book. That era in Pacific Northwest music is close to my heart and brought back a lot of memories for me. Plus I think I now better understand the song “Olympia” from Ninety Pound Wuss‘ self-titled debut album. “It is completely lost on me why Jeff Suffering hates Olympia so much,” thought early-20s me. “JHC that was over 20 years ago,” realizes current me.

This week I flew 7,500 KM to run 21.1 which sounds cool even if it’s not quite the truth. That the Helsinki City Half Marathon was at the same time that we’d planned our annual spring sojourn was coincidence. A happy coincidence non-the-less. Friday we rode bikes to the race festival to collect my bib and race package and race t-shirt. My pink race t-shirt. My dusty pink Helsinki City Half Marathon 2018 t-shirt. Did I mention it’s pink? For those keeping track, I’ve suddenly gone from zero to two t-shirts for Anti-bullying Day.

Pre-race with Lasse Viren.

I wasn’t out to break any PBs. Rather, I wanted to run 4:37 as a bit of practice for my full marathon goal in the fall. Plus the terrain, with seaside breezes and the occasional gusty headwind, and rolling hills throughout, matches what I’m expecting in Victoria on Thanksgiving. I also thought it would be a nice test of pacing during a crowded race. And it was. The course started rather narrow, which made for a very slow first KM and I was bumped a few times before the group spread out. I was on goal up until around 15 KM, and then started to fade. The rolling hills, especially over final few KMs really killed me. The heat didn’t help either.
Pre-race with Paavo Nurmi

I somehow missed the final two KM markers, trusted my watch and started sprinting with what Garmin said was about 500 metres to go, and crossed the finish line inside Telia 5G arena at 1:39:09 for my third fastest chip-timed half marathon. I really wanted to be 1:37:24 but anything sub 1:40 is pretty great.
Official Time: 1:39:09

My overall impression of the course was that they’d picked a route that they really liked and then measured it and realized it was a couple KM short, so they arbitrarily tacked on a dirt trail loop through the woods behind the finish stadium to make it up to 21.1 KM. It was really weird. Otherwise, the race was fun, and the organization that put everything together had it together. I was honestly disappointed when I saw the t-shirt colour. That’s my only real complaint. Now for a couple weeks of casual runs around Helsinki, Tallinn and Stockholm.