Tag: Forerunners

Summertime Slacker

Books Read:

25. Hysteric — Nelly Arcan
26. Chinese Blue — Weyman Chan
27. Forthcoming organized labour history book

Kilometres Ran:
week thirty — 58.3
week thirty one — 56
week thirty two — 69.7
week thirty three — 56.6

To date: 1,922 km

So rather than read and write about it I decided that since I’ve barely read anything there wasn’t much point in writing about how I’ve barely read anything. So I didn’t. As you can see. Does anyone enjoy reading Nelly Arcan? Are you even allowed to enjoy reading her? I think I have two left to read of hers. Her work is so good but so heavy and depressing. I got to see and hear Weyman Chan read at the Talonbooks launch for Human Tissue, which I also purchased along with Chinese Blue but haven’t read yet. But I will, not least because Chinese Blue is so damn good. Trudging through nearly 400 pages of MS Word manuscript is rarely enjoyable, but I find the subject matter very interesting. I hope it gets published. And properly edited. You know, unlike this blog.

In three week I fly to Copenhagen for the Copenhagen Half Marathon on September 17 and I’m pretty excited about that. Travelling gives me an excuse to update my wardrobe, so travelling for a race must mean new running gear, right? It’s not like I need a new pair of racing flats but that didn’t stop me from picking up a second pair of the Adios 3. Plus they were on sale. I’ve been very curious about On Running shoes since their propaganda somehow started ending up in my Gmail inbox. They’re a bit pricey to just take a chance on, which makes me lament that there’s no test drive for running shoes. And then, as if my mind had been read, on Thursday at Forerunners on West 4th’s sunset run On was supposed to be on hand to demo their line up so I showed up. On, however, did not. But I had a good time anyway, with a short 9 km out to Spanish Banks and back to the store. The group is really friendly, and the run met at 7:30 p.m. rather than the typical 6:00 p.m. that every club seems to love but precludes me from being able to participate. I make it sound as if I would if I could. I’ve written here before, and numerous times, how I enjoy running for its solitude, But once in a while it’s nice to get out and be around people that also like to run. I do not know very many.

forty two by forty two week three

Books Read:
11. Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse — Ed. John Joseph Adams (in progress)
12. Everything is Awful and You’re a Terrible Person — Daniel Zomparelli (in progress)

Kilometres Ran:
week twelve — 71.6

To date: 646 km

So continuing on with the theme of reading collections of short stories, but breaking away ever so slightly from George Saunders, I stumble upon the apocalypse, and the gay male dating apocalypse. First impressions of course, because as you can see above both are still in the works. And that’s really the beauty of short stories. For my short attention span. Daniel launched his book last night at a fancy hipster donut shop in East Van that ran out of donuts. Before I arrived. Which makes it read as though I would have contributed to the selling out, which if you would have believed, you would be wrong. Consequently, I was under no peer pressure to consume deep fried dough. Just as well. Daniel read an entertaining story that involved a Bill Murray looking dude in a Hawaiian shirt but in the story it was a “tropical” shirt because, I assume, “Hawaiian” is trademarked or something. Probably by that old Global BC weather guy. I’m cognizant of the possibility that I wasn’t entirely fair earlier when I wrote “gay male dating apocalypse” but I’m a couple stories in and, well, maybe. It’s not quite cooking and eating dog or some near future neo-luddite theocracy.

I forced my cough to get back into running. It’s still lingering, but I don’t feel like it’s hindering. I went to Forerunners because I had a coupon and gawd knows I love a deal and it expired at the end of March and I wanted to have a conversation with someone about gels because I do not know anything about that sort of stuff and I’d rather have someone talk at me than Google. Most of the time. And I still have trouble wrapping my head around this because maybe I read too much about the apocalypse or dating or maybe having lived both in some form or another but the people at Forerunners are really nice and helpful. I learned a trick to put a gel into my Fuel Belt bottle and that worked out pretty well. Except that I have to actually wear my Fuel Belt. This week was supposed to be a milder week but I modified since I basically missed all of last week. So I did 30 kilometres today and it was awful. It was cold and it rained and by the time I hit 15 km right around the concession at Sunset Beach I had to use the washroom to thaw out my (soaking wet, gloved) hands under the hand dryer. I think it might be the most miserable run that I’ve ever done, that I can recall. But I did it. Onto the next one.

persuasion

Books Read:
9. In Persuasion Nation — George Saunders

Kilometres Ran:
week seven — 53.4
week eight — 68.3

To date: 434 km

I lent someone my copy of Tenth of December and I cannot for the life of me remember who. I thought that I remembered who but I asked her and she does not remember borrowing it, which doesn’t necessarily mean that she didn’t or and that I didn’t but it also got me to thinking that maybe I didn’t lend it to anyone and maybe my copy was an epub copy and not a physical copy at all. My copy of Persuasion Nation is an epub copy. I really liked Tenth so I thought that I would really like Persuasion but I didn’t really like I just liked it. It was good. It didn’t make me want to stop reading Saunders or anything. Yet I’ve been having trouble finding motivation to read much of anything lately. I do spend a lot of time on the sofa listening to music and just thinking about stuff. And the clock just seems to spin.

Strava says third best half at 1:45:14. Doppelgänger says that’s what you get for being social.

I am not bored with running, though I still only run three or four days per week. But I’ve been running longer on those three or four days. In lieu of the canceled Vancouver First Half, Forerunners hosted a social half marathon on February 18. It took a little bit of sitting on the sofa listening to [probably Underworld] and pondering the mysteries of the universe to persuade me to participate. I’ve written many times about my solitary-itude when it comes to running. But I did it, and I’m glad that I did. I even *gasp* talked to people while I was running. I blame being social (though it could have very well been the stopping for water around kilometre 15) that I failed to post a new PR, but I had a good time and I ran a route that I’ve only sort of run once before — the route follows parts of the Scotiabank Half route. And I learned that running down hill (obviously forgot after last year’s Scotiabank) absolutely destroys my quads and maybe I need to do some hill training or something. I’ve been saying that for about a year now…. So I didn’t post a new PR, but I learned something and had a good time. Also, beat my Scotiabank time, so there’s that too. So now the lingering thought, do I persuade myself to up my BMO Half to the full marathon. I turn 42 in June, and I’ve been thinking that running 42 the year that I turn 42 would be, I dunno, interesting? I checked the other days, and I have until mid-April to persuade myself, and put down the $70 race registration change fee. I think I need to decide sooner than that.