Tag: Vancouver Falcons Athletics Club

2019 week thirty four

Book Read
33. The Story of My Teeth – Valeria Luiselli

Kilometres Ran
week thirty four – 59.9

2019 to date: 1,619 KM

I went to the dentist the other day and it was fine and then at the end of the cleaning the hygienist said that the dentist will want to refer you to a specialist to have a look at those lesions in the back of your mouth and I said haha what is it mouth cancer because I’m hilarious and the hygienist and dentist both put on that face. You know the one. Then the dentist said “biopsy.” So, anyway, a couple weeks later the specialist office calls and books an appointment for a couple weeks later and so after about a month of thinking that I’m probably dying of mouth cancer, which to be fair was kind of asking for it throughout most of my twenties and thirties, I went to the specialist and he said that it is 99.9% nothing to worry about; however, he would still like me to see the doctor of oral medicine in September. So I’m probably not dying. I mean, we’re all dying but mine is probably not that accelerated. So I picked up this copy of the Christina MacSweeney translated The Story of My Teeth and it was really good. It has absolutely nothing to do with oral cancer but is much more hilarious than any mouth cancer joke that I might make in a dental office. I look forward to reading more of Luiselli’s stuff.

I found Gordon’s photographs from last weekend’s Seawheeze on the Marathon Photos website and if you’re completely confused then go back and read last week’s post. I’ll wait. Anyway, to my shock a few are not that bad and so in spite of my hatred of Marathon Photos I bought them because apparently you get all nostalgic (or vain?) when you think that you might be dying. However, this upcoming Saturday I’m going to try to give myself a heart attack again as I attempt to better my one mile personal best time of 5:52 with four laps around the track up at UBC at the final instalment of the Vancouver Distance Track Series. This event on August 31 features an 800, 10,000 and one mile distances. I missed the 5,000 back in mid-May but ran my first and only timed mile on the track and immediately thought I can do that faster. So we’ll see on Saturday. Although I’m seriously considering taking on the 800 too, and then cheer on the crazies running 25 laps before the one mile event. It’ll be a day-of decision.

2019 week thirty one

Book Read
29. No, Wait. Yep. Definitely Still Hate Myself – Robert Fitterman

Kilometres Ran
week thirty one – 42.3

2019 to date: 1,457 KM

I picked up this long poem expecting a bit of dark humour but instead found only dark. It’s not funny at all. Okay, there are accidental moments of humour sprinkled here and there, but over all it’s just banal, self deprecation that goes on for 88 pages. Fitterman trolls social media and blogs to compile a singular voice of abject sadness. Not this one though, as far as I could tell. The endeavour is interesting, and the way in which he manages to string it all together so that it seems to be coming from one voice is impressive, but otherwise it’s really rather meh. I mean, I’ve encountered the very real people whom Fitterman gives a mic with this work, and I’ve muted them. The (surprisingly?) out of print book is available for free as a PDF press proof here in case you’re in a fine, level mood or better (worse?) and have had just about enough of that shit.

Finish line sprint for a 40:40 at the 2019 VFAC Summerfast 10K. Photo by Taylor Smith (cropped).

So it happened that I was at Summerfast 10K to run around Stanley Park and I ran into local marathoner extraordinaire Walter Downey (PS this link will only work until his next marathon PB) and we got to talking about running and he asked me about what I was up to and I told him about my long goal to get into Boston #125 in 2021 and that meant running a late summer / early autumn 2020 marathon to go along with turning one year older and therefore ten minute qualifying time slower next year. If you’re confused, imagine moi. So Downey took pity on me and set me straight on how Boston qualifying actually works and then I said, “Oh.” And then, just to be sure, I asked, “So, what you’re saying is that I can run a marathon this fall that would qualify me for Boston #125 in 2021 and if things go terribly I won’t have proverbially put all my eggs in one basket?” and he said, “Yes.” So I asked, “What do you recom…” “CIM,” he replied. So I ran Summerfast and then for the next week I was basically that kid in The Wizard.

The Wizard California GIF from Thewizard GIFs

(Have you guessed my BQ age category yet?). So after a few days pondering and without confirmed time off approval from the office and with only about 4% space remaining I registered to run the California International Marathon in Sacramento, CA on December 8 and then booked a hotel and then booked a flight and then I met my past Mile2Marathon coach Kevin Coffey for coffee and asked if he’d be willing and interested in doing another marathon build with me and he said, “Yes.” Next week is sixteen weeks from CIM and Kevin and I start building on Thursday. I’m pretty damn excited.