Monthly Archives: March 2010

Once A Runner. John L Parker, Jr.

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Wow, another running book.  Go figure.  🙂

This one is the first fiction running book I have read, and it is a great story about a college miler.  Beyond the fictitious story, you get a great view into the world of an elite level runner and some view into some of the more intense workouts.  It certainly captured my attention and kept me interested throughout.  And of course I as glad to see Cassidy, the main character, a fan of barefoot running.

Quotes:

  • A runner is a miser, spending the pennies of his energy with great stinginess, constantly wanting to know how much he has spent and how much longer he will be expected to pay. He wants to be broke at precisely the moment he no longer needs his coin.
  • He sought to conquer the physical limitations placed upon him by a three-dimensional world (and if Time is the fourth dimension, that too was his province).
  • If he could conquer the weakness, the cowardice in himself, he would not worry about the rest; it would come. Training was a rite of purification; from it came speed, strength. Racing was a rite of death; from it came knowledge.
  • She found it impossible to tell him that this simply wasn’t the way she had imagined it would be. She was not experienced enough to know that it rarely is.
  • There was no refuge in injury, his body could not be injured in this way. There was no refuge in mercy, there was nothing to forgive and no one to issue dispensation. And at last he saw: there was no refuge in cowardice, because he was not afraid. There was no alternative, it just had to be done.

Worth a read when you need to mix in something fast ,easy, and entertaining into a non-fiction reading list.

Haw River West “Scramble”

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I’ve wanted to attempt this run for a while…  Turns out it is much more of a scramble than a run, as there is not a whole lot of trail.  Lots of bushwhacking, bouldering, and even a couple cliff climbs.

Here is what I wrote on Daily Mile:

Ouch! Brutal! Loved it! 🙂

That was much harder than I thought, even though I have done much of the southern sections of this route before, though not all at once. I had not been on the last 2.5 miles or so of the north part before the turn around at Bynum…

Lots of bushwhacking, a few cliff climbs, bouldering. In fact I’d guess that less than 35% of this is on a real trail. And once you pass the power line north of 64, there is NO trail.

I made it to about a quarter mile south of the old Bynum bridge, and I could see the dam at 15/501. But I turned there because I reached someone’s personal property. There were yellow signs showing the “state park” land but with the water as high as it was, I didn’t feel like trespassing. Never know who might pull a shot gun on you! (Next time I’ll just jump on Bynum Beech Road, which I ran next to for a bit.)

I experimented with Chia “fresca” as my only fuel. Two 20 oz bottles of 3-4 TB of chia seeds, a little lime juice, and a little honey, and the rest water.. I will need to try this again. I felt pretty dead by the end, but I can’t tell if that was the course beating it out of me or if it was Chia not fueling me as much as my normal fuel, pPerpetuem.

About 9 minutes slower on the way back, but some of that was route selection. Instead of going “up and over” I went down by the water and with the water level it more bouldering and climbing than I expected!

Looking forward to trying this on the “east” side soon!

Same Kind of Different As Me. Ron Hall, Denver Moore.

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This is another example of how dangerous the Kindle is!  Being able to sample a book, a book I probably would not have glanced at a 2nd time anywhere else, can get you hooked!  I saw this mentioned in blog post by John Piper, where all he said was:

If you want to crawl inside the possible world that opens when a dirt-poor, illiterate, former-share-cropin’, homeless 50-something enters the life of a swank, upscale, southern, Christian art dealer, read Same Kind of Different As Me. These two men tell their increasingly interwoven stories in alternating short chapters that kept me coming back night after night.

So I downloaded the sample, and was hooked a few minutes later.   It was really a great story, well told by the two men who are completely different and write in completely different ways.  Ron, the “rich art dealer,” really strikes a chord with me personally, in how he shows how easy it is to give charitably, but in a distanced manner where you don’t have to risk getting too close, to personally involved.   How true that is!

And Denver is full of wisdom, yet is a person you would never expect it from:

  • There was found in the city a certain poor man who was wise and by his wisdom he saved the city.
  • But you go on down to Louisiana right now, and take a drive on down the back roads in Red River Parish, and you might be able to see how a colored man that couldn’t read and didn’t have no radio, no car, no telephone, and not even ‘lectricity might fall through a crack in time and get stuck, like a clock that done wound down and quit.
  • the more I became convinced we’d enjoy life a whole lot more if we owned a whole lot less
  • on saying yes to being a friend: “Don’t catch and release no matter how difficult it gets.”
  • A successful person is one who is living a joyful life with the hand he or she was dealt.
  • A successful person is one who can thank God for nothin’, and then He’ll give him everything!