Tag: Death

2019 week thirty five

Book Read
34. Grief is the Thing with Feathers – Max Porter

Kilometres Ran
week thirty five – 61

2019 to date: 1,681

In this pretty great debut novella a father and two sons deal with life and grief at the loss of partner and mother, along with a crow who serves as a sort of asshole grief counsellor who promises to hang around for as long as the family needs. Porter’s experimental style is not easily accessible but I liked it a lot. I am sure most of the Dickinson and (Ted) Hughes references went right over my head but I really enjoyed this book regardless. A relatively short read that you might have to work a bit for, but worth it.

Saturday was the third and final event in the Vancouver Distance Track Series hosted by Nic Browne and the Vancouver Falcons Athletic Club. Initially billed to be a 10,000 on the track up at UBC, a couple weeks ago Nic added an 800 and mile to the event so I signed up to see if I could better my mile result from back at the beginning of June. The field was a lot thinner this time out, which I think turned out to be a disadvantage. My goal was to try to run 1:25 laps for the first three and then try to explode my heart on the fourth but without a pacer my timing was merely guesswork.

Photo by Debra Kato

First lap I came through at 1:26 and I was rather pleased with myself and settled into a rhythm that, turns out, was a bit slow. Second lap the clock read 2:58. Third and into the bell lap and I don’t recall the numbers on the clock but I had a feeling it was my slowest. I pushed hard through the 300 metres of lap four and then tried my damndest to cough up a lung on the final straight to the finish.

Photo by Debra Kato

I crossed the finish 5:52 for the same finish time as my first mile attempt back in June, proving, I guess, that it was not a fluke. Hindsight being what it is, I think that I could have given more on lap three. I also think that back in June I benefited a lot from having people close to me throughout the race. This time out I was 14 seconds ahead of the runner behind me, and 38 seconds behind the next person in front of me. But then this morning I checked both times again; my run Saturday was 7/100 faster than June. I’ll take it. Twelve days until Eastside 10K. BONUS: I knew that Rachel Cliff is the current Canadian women’s marathon record holder, which won me an entry into the Gunner Shaw Cross Country race in December. Yay! BUT: I think I’ll be in Sacramento running the California International Marathon. Boo! I need to double check.

2018 week thirteen

Books Read:
13. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life — Mark Manson
14. From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death — Caitlin Doughty

Kilometres Ran:
week thirteen — 50.3

To date: 493 KM

At the risk of jinxing myself, not just because it is week thirteen, I decided to gasp admit to reading two books this week. Which, if you’re following me on Goodreads you’ll know is not the case at all. I’m considerably ahead of pace to read 52 books in 52 weeks, so I’ve decided (and here’s the jinx) I’ll double up here and there. So here we are. A book that encourages you to give no (or few, he contradicts himself a few times) fucks, and a book that seems to argue that, in America at least, too many fucks are given about what we do with our bodies after we die. So they’re sort of similar. A lot of people found the Manson book rather meh, or thought that it started well and then went downhill. I too found it meh overall, but I started out really disliking it and found that it got better later when Manson dropped (or forgot to so fervently continue) with the crass too cool dude thing. I did have a couple personal a-ha moments in the book, I’ll admit without getting into details. But I also picked this up during the height of my newfound no-fucks-given sobriety, and I still believe that if you really want to learn to give no fucks then try giving up drinking. I picked up the Doughty book and do not know why I decided to read it before her earlier Smoke Gets in Your Eyes that was also on my to-read list. I say was because I’m no longer sure. From Here to Eternity was an easy, entertaining read but I went into it wanting more substance, à la Mary Roach’s Stiff, which, admittedly, I read quite some time ago and may over-romanticize. I wanted Eternity to have more meat on its bones. It was good, but I think could have been better. Worth reading though.

My (fingers crossed) final physiotherapy appointment came and went on Wednesday. We talked about the tools I now have to take better care of myself and about my missing Alex Hutchinson’s talk at Forerunners and his new book Endure, which is now on my to-read pile, and the lab-tested notion that smiling makes you run faster. And I’ve thought about that a lot, especially that my favourite races, the races that I remember having the most fun running, turned into personal bests. I spent the Easter long weekend in Oak Bay on Vancouver Island running into hills and headwinds and in my head not worrying about my meniscus. Not exactly smiling, but staying in the moment and enjoying running for running’s sake. Maybe the smiling will come.