Tag: Stanley Park Seawall

2020 week twelve

Books Read
13. My Year of Rest and Relaxation – Ottessa Moshfegh

Kilometres Ran
week twelve – 62.2

2020 to date: 738 KM

I little while ago, back when we could and we did, we went to the Vogue Theatre to see and hear David Sedaris speak, and at the end he did a short Q & A and someone asked what books he had recently read that he would recommend. He replied with two: Less by Andrew Sean Greer and a debut novel called Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh. I picked up both, and then picked up Less and left Eileen in the to-read pile. Fast forward, and I cannot recall why or how I came across My Year of Rest and Relaxation but I did and then read the author bio to discover it was Moshfegh’s sophomore novel. I think most people would think, maybe I should finally read Eileen, but I’m not most people. My Year of Rest follows an unnamed young woman (or I missed it) in first-person as she sets out to do what I suppose a lot of us probably find rather appealing in this current, socially isolating pandemic – completely disengage from society, and with the help of a veritable plethora of pharmaceuticals eagerly prescribed by a less than scrupulous psychiatrist, sleep for four months straight in an effort to reset. I mean, it sounds rather delightful to be honest. I spent most of the novel trying to decide if I liked or hated the narrator, all the while both feeling sorry and rooting for her. I loved this book. I might even read Eileen now. No, not next, but sometime soon.

Sure I *only* ran 62 KM this week but that’s because I added some variety to my isolationing with 85 KM on the bicycle. I am way behind on my 2020 bicycling distance goal.

Running has become running for running’s sake again. Everything is cancelled, and I expect that running will be cancelled soon too, since every self-absorbed Gen-Z (stop calling them Millennials; Millennials are turning 40) thinks COVID-19 only kills old people so social distancing doesn’t actually apply to them. So while I’m out for a sanity run around Stanley Park, clouds of virus factories are having YOLO picnics together. (Let’s be clear – it’s not just Gen-Z or whatever they’re called. Post-Millennial?) Today I decided that I really don’t want to be caught in the next crowd shot of Sunset Beach to go viral (ahem) even though my thorough Gen-Xness means I am absolute pro at being socially distant. So I’m not running on the Seawall for the next bit or while or for some indeterminate amount of time that I’ll decide on later. All because people cannot stay the fuck home and flatten the curve.

2018 week forty four

Book Read:
49. Instructions for a Funeral — David Means

Kilometres Ran:
week forty four: 27.3

To date: 2,193 KM

I received an advance copy of this new David Means book of short stories. I was previously unaware of him or his work and I am not sure that I’ll bother to pursue any more after trudging my way through this collection. I see that he branched out briefly from short stories to write a novel that was nominated for the Man Booker. Perhaps that one is worth a look. Means has quite the résumé and I feel like I should have liked this a lot more than I did. The title story was dark and funny and okay, and I also liked “The Terminal Artist” about a serial-killer nurse. But I spent so much time going through this collection like running in the pool. So much work for so little satisfaction and often seeming to get nowhere. Then one day I was clicking through the Guardian online and came across this Tom Gauld comic and thought yep. But what do I know. Anyway, thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the review copy.

I bicycled a lot less and ran a bit more this week. The bicycling less due to the torrential albeit prototypical rains that have arrived in Vancouver, well, let’s be honest, about a month later than usual. So October was spectacular and I ran a grand total of 72 KM so I feel rather ripped off. But things are starting to feel a bit better so on Hallowe’en I took a Mobi bike from the station around the corner from my place and rode down to Sunset Beach and (since I missed the actual one this year) I ran the Ghost Race segment from Burrard Bridge out to Third Beach and back and it didn’t suck. I was slow and exhausted but the pain was manageable and knees and stuff worked the way they’re supposed to work.

Now I just need to not rush stuff. And with that in mind I did not run the Fall Classic this year but instead after wasting my extra hour of sleep from daylight savings time change overnight I got up at the crack of dawn to watch the NY Marathon on television and then bicycled up to UBC (PS Arbutus to UBC up 16th sucks BTW) to catch the half marathon and 10K finishers and then bicycled back home plus a loop around Stanley Park Drive and then had a snack and a short nap and then went a ran a 10K loop around the Park and wondered why I was so exhausted that I barely ran it sub-50. I’m taking tomorrow off.

2018 week twenty eight

Book Read:
35. Runner: Harry Jerome, World’s Fastest Man — Norma Charles

Kilometres Ran:
week twenty eight — 47.0

To date: 1,414 KM

Weeks like these I’m very glad to be ahead in my reading goal. I didn’t know this was a children’s book. I just knew that it was nominated for a 2018 BC Book Prize. That it is a children’s book I figured out in the first few paragraphs, unlike, for instance, by the fact that it was nominated for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize. Anyway, the book is a biography-as-novel that tells the true story of Harry Jerome, a kid from Winnipeg whose family ends up in Vancouver, and who goes on to crush the 100 metres in the 1960s, earning the title World’s Fastest Man. There’s an excellent bronze statue of him at the 1 mile marker on the Stanley Park Seawall. I liked this book because I like Harry Jerome. I also like how well Norma Charles did capturing and presenting the ugly racism that Jerome faced throughout his career, and especially her presenting it in a way accessible to young readers. The book is a quick read–it is a children’s book after all. I think it’s worth reading at any age. I’ve made habit of late of linking the book I write about back to its publisher’s page whenever possible, and I have here as usual. I wanted to buy my copy straight from Red Deer Press. The problem is that the list price for the book is $12.95 but the shipping was an additional $19.07 so I bought it from the devil for $12.95 plus free shipping. I still feel bad about it. Sort of.

Slacking off in the sunshine.

Weeks like these I’m very glad to be ahead in my running goal. I’m 331 KM ahead of pace to reach 2,018 KM this year. However, I am 329 KM behind pace to reach 2,018 miles this year. And if I’m going to achieve my BQ goal in twelve weeks I’m going to need to have no more 47 KM weeks for at least the next 10 or so. The excuses for the paltry running this week are threefold. First, I spent today, AKA long-run Sunday, at the office, and now I’m typing instead of running. Second, instead of 8-12 KMs of hills on Thursday, I did the Grouse Grind, which is only a couple KMs. Or, according to Garmin, 1.9 KM. And third, my knee is acting up. This is the very frustrating since bad knee is right, but current acting up knee is left. So I’m trying to be careful with my load, while at the same time loading for Victoria Marathon, and staring down a 21.1 KM race in Kamloops in seven days. I was born and raised in Kamloops, but I’ve never run there unless you count my single day on the high school track team where I ran the 200 and 400 metres 25 years ago. So we’ll see what happens on July 22. The course is flat and fast, but it’s at elevation (only 345 metres, but that’s about 300 more than I’m used to) and, as usual for summer in B.C.’s interior, it’s going to be about 34 C and forest fire smokey. Should be great fun.