Book Read
25. Daisy Jones and the Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid
Kilometres Ran
week twenty five – 38.4
2019 to date: 1,201 KM
I spent the first dozen pages of this book wondering how I had never heard of any of these people and even Googling a couple before it finally sunk in that fiction means what it says it means, in case you were wondering how naive I am sometimes. I basically hide in the fetal position all day every April 1. But also, credit to Taylor Jenkins Reid. I really liked the style of this book – the story is told through interviews with people involved, without narration or even a voice to the interviewer (mostly). I really like how Reid wove in inconsistencies amongst the characters’ memories, and (sometimes wildly) different perspectives on shared events. I really liked this book a lot, in spite of not being very much of a Fleetwood Mac fan. I mean, they’re alright and I might have Rumours on vinyl but I’ve never actually spun it.
Today was the Scotiabank Half Marathon and I went in not feeling ready at all. I’d done little speed work, and, to be honest, not a lot of running, what with 45 KM bicycle commuting everyday that the weather allowed (all of them). Mix in some crap at the office and some crap in the house and not only am I not physically where I wanted to be, my head was just not in the game. But according to my race calendar it was also probably my last chance this year to run under ninety minutes. So I gave it a shot. The conditions were perfect as they rarely (never?) are for a race this late in June. Overcast and about 13 degrees at the start and barely a breeze. But I just wasn’t feeling it. So I went out pretty hard at the start, or what I thought and felt was pretty hard and knew I was in trouble pretty quickly. The 1:30 pacer caught me before the 2 KM marker and I tried to hold him but by 5 KM I was far at the back of the pack and really not feeling great. But I checked my cumulative average pace and I was right on the mark. I lost a bit of ground around UBC and made some up coming down the big Marine Drive hill. Goal pace of 4:15 means 42:30 for a 10K and I crossed at 42:26. The wheels never came off over the next 8.5 KM to the peak of Burrard Bridge. I just had a few bad splits.
I managed a decent kick through the last 2,600 metres but it just wasn’t enough to make up for the losses. As I crossed the line I saw 1:31 on the clock. So it was not the 1:29 that I wanted, and that’s disappointing because the conditions were perfect for it and I feel like it’s an opportunity missed. But a new personal best. With all the other crap I still managed to gut out a new personal best, and finished in the top 5 per cent of the field, and Strava says new 15KM, 10 mile, and 20KM best efforts too. I’ll take all of them.
In other news, if you’ve been following along these past few weeks you know that I was also running to raise money to support the Capilano Review Contemporary Arts Society. I set a goal to raise $500 and when I exceeded that I bumped it up to $750, and just as I was crawling into bed last night an[other] anonymous donor pledged to get me to $750. I’m so very grateful to the friends and colleagues who made it happen, and I’m sure that The Capilano Review is as well. If you’re one of the three people reading this, thank you.