Tag: Timothy Taylor

2019 week thirty nine

Book Read
38. The Body Artist – Don DeLillo

Kilometres Ran
week thirty nine – 69.2

2019 to date: 1,954

Another short novel about death and the human condition. I found this one sort of interesting because I was interested in the artist, and I found the review of her show written by a journalist friend in the latter part of the book to be the most interesting part. I was often tired when I was reading this book and, I don’t know but there’s something about DeLillo that I know I’m supposed to like him because he’s supposed to be this brilliant American novelist but I always find him a bit drab. I remember a review of a Timothy Taylor novel – I don’t recall which novel or by whom – and they compared Taylor to DeLillo as a compliment and I quite like Taylor and just did not take it that way. Anyway, this book was short, which is good because I think there’s a good chance I would not have gotten to the part that I actually liked otherwise. But it took me three tries to finally get through White Noise so what do I know.

Above, a couple frames from the finish video shot by Jeannine Avelino. Thanks Jeannine!

Today was goal race day and I’d been looking forward to this day for the whole year because last year I ran the NorthVanRun 10K as a tune up for the Victoria Marathon, so I ran the first half at marathon pace and then picked it up for the second. And I loved the course and I thought that this course style really suites me and I figured that I could really rip on it. There are some hills but nothing onerous and every one of them has an equal downhill right afterwards, with the start and finish at sea level. I was feeling great right up until Thursday evening when I felt the plague coming on, so I took Friday off and willed it at bay as best I could and it mostly worked. Head was a bit stuffed this morning but otherwise I felt pretty great. This was my last chance on my 2019 calendar to sub 40 minutes a 10 km race, and after missing the mark by 20 seconds at Eastside two weeks ago (without reeelly trying*) I was pretty sure that barring disaster today was going to be the day. And disaster abated! I went out a little bit hot but settled into a great rhythm at 3:55/km right behind Shauna Gersbach and in front of Jordan Hurdal and the three of us paced each other perfectly, right up until about 8 km. Gersbach started to pull away and I felt like I was fading and then Hurdal passed me and I hit a wall where I wanted to quit so badly and then at about 8.5 km I suddenly got really nauseous, but I swallowed hard and just willed it all to go away. The last half kilometre drops 17 metres before a couple tight turns and a sprint to the finish at the end of the North Van Shipyards pier. I had nothing left for the sprint finish, but somehow managed to maintain pace and crossed the finish line 39:22 gun time, for a new personal best by nearly a minute, third in my age group, and 15th overall.

This is my happy-and-also-everything-hurts-and-don’t-forget-coach-wants-another-10-or-12-km-today face.

I really wanted to stick around for the awards, but when I asked I was told they weren’t happening until noon. The race started at 9 a.m. and I had only paid for parking until 11, so rather that wait around another couple hours (plus I was freezing) I went home. And that’s my only regret. I wish that I would have stuck around for the awards, or that they were a bit sooner. This is only my third running award, and I am zero-for-three for the ceremony. But I ran an excellent race. My splits are nearly dead even. My goal was sub 40 but my number in mind was 3:55 pace, and I finished 3:56. My last three kilometres were 3:56 / 3:54 / 3:52 and I had nothing left at the end. I am absolutely satisfied with this race. The only way I am running faster is by getting faster.

*I can admit that now, but oh boy that could have blown up in my face. And I won’t be doing any of that sort of nonsense again.

2019 week thirteen

Book Read
13. Vancouver Noir – Sam Wiebe (Ed.)

Kilometres Ran
week thirteen – 58.6

2019 to date: 600 KM

Last year I received a review copy of Nathan Ripley’s highly anticipated first novel Find You in the Dark and I had no idea who Nathan Ripley was but I read it and then I had no idea who was highly anticipating his first novel because I didn’t think it was very good at all and then I picked up this collection of noir featuring some local authors that I really like, like Carleigh Baker and Timothy Taylor to name two, and I was looking forward to reading Don English’s piece because I’d only ever read his non-fiction and along the way through this Sam Wiebe edited collection I got to the Nathan Ripley story and it was really, really great and then I got to the end of the collection and while Baker and English and Taylor did not disappoint I think I liked the Ripley story the best of the whole bunch, which made me understand why Find You in the Dark was so highly anticipated and yet made me wonder, oh boy, if I was disappointed imagine the people actually doing the highly anticipating. Anyway, Vancouver Noir continues the Akashic Books collection of noir set in major cities around the world. I liked it a lot. If I lived somewhere else and knew the city well enough I’d probably like that iteration too. Except Winnipeg. Fuck that place.

I am not an early morning runner but sometimes I get it and sometimes it’s the only way to get the work done between getting work done. Plus this shot is kind of noir-y no?

In the words of Al Jourgensen, this week was the way to suck eggs. It start out fine but job got in the way and by the time track Wednesday rolled around I was already exhausted. Wednesday is typically my day off but for most of March I’ve been embroiled in negotiations so after a day locked in a hotel meeting room in Surrey (like Winnipeg, but closer…) I drove to the track and managed to squeeze out six and a half 1,000s with 200 metre breaks out of a planned “between six and ten but try for eight.” Thursday wasn’t much better as it turned into a 15 hour day that should have resulted in a deal but to my frustration ended up in filing for federal conciliation and meant that I missed my Thursday run. Today’s long run was supposed to be 20K easy then a slow, gradual build to 8K at marathon pace and I just didn’t have it in me today. I misjudged my route, ending up at 28.4 and could have and should have gone the other 600 metres, but I’d only managed five of the 8K at marathon pace -ish and then a jog home and now I’m grumpy and perhaps slightly less confident in my goals at BMO in five weeks. Next weekend is the April Fool’s Half Marathon from Gibsons to Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast and it will be a real test to see where I’m at but after today the idea of setting a new personal best let alone going sub 90 minutes seems outlandish. So we shall see.

2018 week thirty eight

Book Read:
45. The Rule of Stephens — Timothy Taylor

Kilometres Ran:
week thirty eight — 52.5

To date: 2,071 KM

I read this book quite a while ago and I had a problem with it and I wanted to ask Taylor about it but then I didn’t and then I forgot about it and then I realized that I’d forgotten about it so I hadn’t added it here so now here I am adding it here, but without getting around to asking the author about it. Anyway, I really liked Taylor’s earlier book Stanley Park and apparently Taylor did too because Rule of Stephens feels very Stanley Park. The formula at least: struggling and flawed but likeable protagonist who is exceptional at this one very niche thing who ends up courting a wealthy investor only to find that they’ve made a deal with the devil. Within the first few pages I’ve grown an affinity for the protagonist Catherine Bach and I have this growing feeling of dread waiting to read what Taylor is going to do to them. It’s a good book and of course its fans will say that there’s so much more to it than the cursory glossing over (wait is that redundant? Hmmm…) that I’ve given here and that’s maybe true. But still.

The office hosted a conference at the Sheraton on 104th in Surrey which meant that I was the lucky duck that got to spend a couple nights at the Sheraton on 104th in Surrey. So I took a look at Strava Global Heatmaps for something fun to do Saturday evening. Downhill heading east on 104th approx. 5 KM from the hotel is a little ferry that carries two or three cars at a time over the Fraser River to Barnston Island, which happens to have a perfect 10 KM perimeter road. So that’s fun. The island is farmland complete with medium and large dogs behind fences that want to eat me, and medium and large dogs not behind fences that just lazily lay on the road as I run by. Free-range chicken farm. Herb farm. Cattle and sheep and donkeys. Abandoned and derelict houses. With my overactive imagination I spent the last couple kilometres expecting to run into (and then away from) the Sawyer family at any moment. A ferry ride back across Parson’s Channel to the mainland and then the long slow slog back up the 104th Avenue hill to Guildford. A nice change of scenery to usher in the beginning of my taper. Two weeks until Victoria Marathon.