Getting Started

This blog is going to focus on my efforts to run the 2011 Redding Marathon. Of course, it will also mention jiu jitsu, Team Quest, my wife, various personal details of my friends etc. They won't be reading it anyway, so I get to fire away.

So, why the hell am I writing this? The answer is pretty simple ... if you are going to run a marathon you need encouragement. If you are like me (God forbid), you'll look on the internet to try to find someone with enough hubris to think that other people actually care how he/she trained for that particular little gem of a marathon you have in mind and how the marathon experience was.

I'm currently doing this exact thing (reading blogs) because I'd like to run the Disneyworld Marathon sometime in the future. The reality is that I know that my kids will suck every spare dime out of me, and I'll never make it to Disneyworld until I'm too damn old to run a marathon. Katy Perry will also be too old for me to meet her as Snow White during my 26.2 miles of Disney fun. She'll probably be too old to impress by then. She'd make a good one right now, right? I'll be too old to remember this particular fantasy anyway and time won't be doing me any favors either. All too depressing. Here's Snow White right now!!!



As for blogging, I'm starting a bit early. I'm just doing base mileage, and that roadwork is simply to build a foundation prior to starting Higdon's Novice II marathon training program. I was going to wait until I actually launched on the program, but that would require me to wait two weeks. Frankly, I need something to do on those lunch hours when I'm not sneaking off to Team Quest to get my arm wrenched and my neck choked.

Today's treat was a 4 miler at pace along the ACID canal to the Turtle Pond just on the other side of the Sundial Bridge. If you aren't familiar with the Turtle Pond, its that little pool of sludge, green with algae. You'll find a couple of forelorn turtles on a couple of logs in that sesspool sticking their little turtle necks as high out of the muck as they are able. Oh, to be a turtle in that pond. Redding turtles look like this but not as happy.



During the run, an unexpected treat was dialed up by my Ipod. Judas Priest's "Victim of Changes" came on in full glory. For those of you who don't know, the song is about a guy who gets a beautiful girl. She then promptly proceeds to get fat, old and ugly. Thus, the singer is the "victim of changes". Rob Halford (the lead singer) obviously solved this thorny problem of the ne'er do well, trickster woman, by deciding that he preferred his same sex. Not so fast, Rob, guys get fat too. Honestly, was anybody really surprised when Rob came out of the closet. See the picture and mouth the word "No".



Anyhow, a great song and, for the sake of my relationship with my wife and all of my female friends, I do not agree with the sentiment in this song. No ... actually, I do. Please send hate mail to my home address and not to my work address.

Anyway, what do you expect from a band named Judas Priest? I only mention it to describe how this song caused me to think "deep thoughts" on an otherwise, sh*t nasty Redding 400 degree day. Curse you Redding!!!

Well, enough for now. Tomorrow is a rest day which means I'll be at Team Quest allowing some other "friend" to stack me until my heels are behind my neck. I do intend to post my expectations for Saturday's long run, so stay tuned.