Tag: The Capilano Review

2020 week seventeen + eighteen

Books + Stuff Read
19. My Heart is a Rose Manhattan – Nikki Reimer
20. Just Like I Like It – Danielle LaFrance
…. The Capilano Review Issue 3.40 – Winter 2020

Kilometres Ran
week seventeen – 68.9
week eighteen – 65.4

2020 to date: 1,157

What’s so funny about death, grief and isolation anyway. Another National Poetry Month has come and gone and once again I read much less than I’d intended to read. I swear that Anne Carson’s Float will be my death. Or wait, am I allowed to count each chapbook towards my reading goal? Of all of the tragic poets exiled into prairie purgatory Nikki Reimer is literally the most tragic / favourite. “you had me at the word ‘literally’ seventeen times in a row” (83). Yeah you did. In spite of an ongoing pandemic that’s caused me to rarely leave the house I’ve somehow managed to read very little and cannot even keep up with posting a weekly reading and running blog. The latest from The Capilano Review is gorgeous not least because the short-lived (too long, IMO) experiment with disrupting the cover art with contents graffiti seems to be over, hurray! The issue was compiled during the activism in support of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and it resonates (seems like a lifetime ago) regardless of whether or not intentional, from the Krystle Coughlin Silverfox art on the cover, through the Beau Dick retrospective inside and all the other stuff in between. Also feeling like a lifetime ago, the night before I flew away (remember when we could do that?) to get together with 8,999 others (remember when we could do that?) to race the California International Marathon I went to a pub (remember when we could do that?) for the East Van Publishers Party (remember when we could do that?) primarily so that I could buy books (you can totally still do that) and amongst the pile I picked up the Reimer Rose and this latest collection Just Like I Like It from Danielle LaFrance, which/whom I saved for last, apparently, and it did not disappoint, as LaFrance is quite apt not to do.
SOMETHING I WROTE YESTERDAY IS LOST
SOMETHING ABOUT DIPSHITS
I AM NOT EXCITED ABOUT IT UNLESS IT IS
NEAR AND RADIANT
STILL, I WILL FUCK ANY SEXT THAT GIVES IT TO ME
INTENSE, SMELLS NOTHING LIKE THE PORK
BELLY IN MY BOARISH BELLY
IT IS IN THERE, SOMEWHERE (85)
There’s a lot of shouting but frankly we all deserve to be shouted at right now and not just because of right now.

Wouldn’t you like to.

I’d outwardly been holding out hope that the Berlin Marathon would somehow not be cancelled knowing all the while that even if it somehow by some miracle or Trump-esque level of incompetence and irresponsibility went ahead that I would not be attending and yet still when the official news came down I was pretty sad so I went for a run, accomplished a very long-time-coming running goal, and then wrote a little story about it on Instagram and it went something like this: Six years ago I moved to the West End. I was sad and lonely and I started jogging because it made me feel better. I thought the Seawall was only for “real runners” so I stuck to the streets of my new neighbourhood. Later someone told me about Strava, and I learned about segments, and there was this segment on my street, from Denman up the hill on Barclay to Bute finishing near my front door. I thought maybe one day if I could get the fastest time on that 840 metre hill climb, maybe then I’d be a real runner. I moved a couple blocks down the street, forgot about that segment, and kept on jogging.
Then the world changed, races were cancelled, runners started chasing segment crowns, and I remembered that Barclay hill. The 2020 Berlin Marathon was cancelled. I knew it was coming but it still made me sad. So I went for a jog and finished it off by hammering that Barclay hill. It’s small consolation, and I know it won’t last long, but for now that segment crown is mine.

It’s my Crown #4 and as of typing I’m still holding them, so that’s pretty cool. I mean, one is near my office out in Port Coquitlam, but the other three are all within the Vancouver peninsula so surely some buck (or doe, cause there are some absolute bangers around here) is going to accidentally casually crush them without even noticing. But speaking of casually crushing stuff, just eight months ago I raced to a new half marathon PB (at that time) in 1:31:43, and it took a friend on Strava to point out that on Wednesday I came within four seconds of that time during a 21 KM tempo workout. It is so damn easy to lose perspective. This is shaping up to be the year of the virtual races, and while that sucks, I think I’m ready to knock down some PBs.

2019 week forty six

Book Stuff Read
The Capilano Review 3.39 (Fall 2019)

Kilometres Ran
week forty six – 83.8

2019 to date: 2,405 KM

Help me raise money for the Movember Foundation!

Click here to donate!

I didn’t read any books again but the new fall 2019 issue of The Capilano Review arrived in the mail and as usual it is beaut AF and as usual has a bunch of work by people I love and a bunch of work by people I’ve never heard of and that is just the best. I’d be lying if I implied that I’ve gotten all the way through it yet so I will probably keep picking away throughout this week but maybe I’ll also pick up a book. Who knows. Inside the issue, a tribute to Kevin Killian and the wave of regret returns that I didn’t see him when I brought Poets Theatre back to Vancouver this spring and I suddenly remember that buried deep in my phone is a video clip of Clint Burnham paying tribute to Kevin at the launch of Some lit journal back on June 23. I remember the date because it was the evening after I’d ran the Scotiabank Half Marathon and in the process helped raise a few dollars for The Capilano Review. I really need to dig out that video file.

Moustache Miler 2018 – Photo by Jeannine Avelino

My first foray into fundraising and running (fundrunning? Rundraising?) was the Moustache Miler last November and it was a lot of fun. Well, as I sit here I recall that it was a lot of fun. Fundraising really isn’t very much fun most of the time. My experience with both giving and soliciting (from long before the Moustache Miler) is that the cause is often secondary to how much you like the person who is doing the fundraising. It can be a humbling experience. And yet, here I am taking another stab at it because why not? I’m running anyway.

Warning signs are up at Second Beach. Gross face coming along grossly.

Last year I somehow raised $614.53 so I though that this year I would aim higher and go for $614.54. If you’re reading this and maybe think that I’m alright then perhaps you’ll feel inclined to help get me there. All donations $25 or more receive a tax receipt. You can donate here or paste this URL into your browser if the link isn’t working: https://raceroster.com/events/2019/26302/2019-moustache-miler/pledge/participant/6930111

Yesterday I ran my last looong run before CIM – 35 km out to Confederation Park in Burnaby and then back under the Iron Workers’ Memorial Bridge, through Hastings/Sunrise, Strathcona, Coal Harbour, and finishing up with a loop around Stanley Park. It was a killer route with some hearty incline up Adanac just east of Commercial, and then some rolling hills before a long climb from Boundary to Willingdon.

And it went really great. It was a nice confidence boost for a last long run, something that I haven’t had in my past two marathon builds. With three weeks to go I’m not saying the work is done but this was the big week and I came out the other end of it with a solid week’s load and feeling pretty great. It’s made me reconsider my goals going into the home stretch (I need to have a conversation with coach Kevin…different Kevin, ahem…). I am feeling pretty excited to see what happens in three week’s time.

2019 week twenty five

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.

Scotiabank start line, 7 a.m. This face look like how I feel.

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.

Sprint finish photos thanks to Stephanie, who also chauffeured me to the start because she’s the best.

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.

Does this angle make my feet look huge? and other commentaries on being conscious of perspective.

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.