Running

1 January 2012

             48.11 seconds   I think this is my new record for the trip up the hill.  It certainly felt like a new record.  I gave it ALL my energy ALL the time, with no pain, running on my toes, trying to make the least possible amount of contact with the ground.  It’s possible that I could improve my time if I found a running surface without bumps, broken concrete, potholes and mud puddles.  As is, I need to select where I am going to place each step. 

            I woke up today in Oskar’s room where we laid down last night at 2 am.  He, with 6 layers of blanket and me, with two.  At 7:00, I changed my clothes into my running outfit.  I wear a t-shirt and un-insulated, thin nylon pants and a pair of gloves.  This way, I don’t sweat as I run and I can wear the same clothes every day. 

At school--3 pullups

            As I left the house, I found my glasses because I can’t read the iPod without them.  I flipped through the playlists and found one that was automatically created—the mechanism by which this is done, I don’t know.  It started with the Newsboys and some kind of ‘praise’ song—it has a fantastically motivational beat.  Then it goes into Barry Manilow for a few songs, and I thought, “What the heck?  I’ll try Barry as a running partner.”  Turns out that he’s terrific.  As I was doing my 40-minute jog before the final sprint, I sang along to Even Now, and Mandy, and Ships.  Jump, Shout, Boogie made me want to punch the air and slap high 5s with an imaginary dude hanging from the trees.            

Random door frame -- 5 pullups

Tree branch -- 7 pullups

Bar in tree-- 9 pullups

            I ran through the park to a disused amphitheater with crumbling concrete seats.  I had been doing pull-ups here for months on a metal tower to the side.  This was the first day that I walked around it and noticed the metal steps of a ladder.  I climbed up to a platform about three stories above.  It was a tad unstable as the tower continued to sway as stood on top.  I wasn’t sure whether the movement was due to the nature of the decaying tower or to my shaky knee syndrome that is the last residue of my tractor accident 25 years ago.  Some might saw my obsession with Barry Manilow would also fit into that ‘residue’ category.

random doorway for future entrance to something

Maxim at the top.

 

tree branch -- 7 pullups

door frame --5

school -- 3

Maxim -- self portrait

            The last song on the playlist finished in the middle of my final uphill—it was “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” by England Dan and John Ford Coley.  I could never understand the words to this song.  I thought it was, “I’m not talkin’ bought my lid in.”  I looked on the internet and it’s “I’m not talkin’ ‘bout movin’ in.”  When I listen for those words, they are clear. 

            The internet—how would we live without it?  Just move along in a cloud of misunderstanding, I guess.

On Januray 3, I ran 48.51 seconds.  In my ears this time was Toby Keith's "I Should've been a Cowboy"  Maybe I would have achieved a better result if the next song, "Waka Waka" by Shakira from the 2010 soccer world cup would have come along.