Often, they won’t really be cell photos anymore

I got a new toy for Xmas – a Canon PowerShot SD770 IS.  It’s tiny, but has a lot of power.

Some of the first pictures taken with the camera are from our trip to Vermont for Xmas (of course).  Click on the picture to view the Picasa album:

Your running stories/thoughts wanted!

I’m working on an old-fashioned collection of text about running. Sooner or later, it’ll be publicly available in some format, but in these modern times, it’s hard to say at this point what that format will be.

Anyhow, I’d like your help. Below are a list of questions/topics that I’d like you to write about if you’re interested. You can pick any of them that interest you, or reply to all of them if you feel like it. 

Post it as a comment or send it to writeray@y42k.com.

Answers can be as long or as short as you want. You can reply to some of the topics now, some later, though hopefully I’ll be done in a few months. Feel free to send along things you may have already written. Anything from a sentence up to about 300-400 words would be great!

The best thing you can do is make it _personal_. There are plenty of running books, articles, or web sites out there, but very few (if any) have YOUR story. For example, while the Boston Marathon is a great race, and fleece is a critical part of any New England runner’s wardrobe, I’m more interested in hearing about how and why Boston (or Doyle’s or the Gobble, or whatever) was YOUR greatest race experience, or how your fleece jacket kept you warm while dodging snowplows in that great storm of ‘05.

Serious, funny, odd, whatever. It’ll be interesting because it’s about you.

Don’t worry about making it perfect. I just want your story. I’ll clean it up or edit for length if necessary. 

Don’t worry that you’re not that fast, or you’re not a “serious runner.” Who cares?

Make sure to include your name in your reply, in case I don’t recognize your email address. If I use what you send me, you’ll get the credit, wherever it ends up.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Suggested topics

• Why did you start running?
• How did you start running? What did you do first?
• Why do you keep running?
• When you don’t feel like running, what do you do to get out the door?
• Got any good race stories?
• Do you have any training tips? Rules-of-thumb for how to do something? What one tips do you think everyone should know?
• Any difficult injuries? How did they affect your running?
• What’s your favorite piece of gear?
• What do you like about the running lifestyle? The people, the competition, friends?…
• Who are the most interesting/significant (to you) people you’ve met? Famous or not – husbands or wives count too!
• What are your goals for the future?

What plastic beast floats towards Bethlehem…

…(Haverhill, actually) to be born?

It’s (cue Depeche Mode)…

Your own inflatable Jesus
Someone who’s filled with air
Someone who cares

 

Is it love and compassion I sense emanating from our vinyl Lord, or the warmth from the 100 watt bulb illuminating his smile?

Run Boston on New Year’s Day

For the past 4 years, Gary Allen has gone to Hopkinton at 6AM on New Year’s Day.  Gary, the race director for Maine’s MDI Marathon, then proceeds to run the Boston Marathon course.  It’s quiet, the roads are almost empty of cars, and the hordes that cover the course in April are still sleeping off the previous night’s entertainment.

I met Gary while looking for someone to run with while on vacation in Bar Harbor.  We ended up running the first 30 miles of the Maine Special Olympics torch relay, and while we were doing that, Gary mentioned this run.  I wasn’t able to get there last year, but I plan on making it this January.

Anyone is welcome to show up and run.  Gary says he hopes to match the 15 runners that finished the original Boston Marathon.  That would be a big step up from previous years, but there’s been a mention of the run in the Jan ‘09 Runner’s World, so who knows?

For more info, visit the Crow Running web site.

For the boys

Years ago, I found a great jock strap for running, the Sportjock by Techspand, a local Wellesley, MA company.  These jocks predate widespread public use of the Internet – Techspand.com is now apparently a company that recruits for the video game industry.

After years of use, these jocks are in pretty sad shape.  But I haven’t been able to find a good replacement.  With something as personal as a jock strap, I’d prefer to see it before I buy, and nothing in the stores I’ve been to has been anywhere near as well designed.  A surprising number of jocks have a ribbed pouch, something that leads to raw, chaffed thighs after a few miles.  And many jocks seem to be more of a girdle, with wide, excessively sturdy waistbands.

So I’ve kept using my old jocks well past when they should have been replaced.  But the stitching is falling apart, the elastics are dried out, and the cloth is ragged, so it’s time to move on.

I searched the Internet and found a number of web sites with a wide array of jocks, briefs, and thongs for athletic use.  After perusing these sites for awhile, I couldn’t help but notice that there was another use for these that I had been oblivious to.  Besides keeping men comfortable during exercise, jocks are also good for “lifting and holding you forward when you go out for a night on the town.”  The models and the ad copy they use make it pretty clear that this presentation isn’t necessarily intended to attract women, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Anyhow, I ended up ordering two jocks from FreshPair, whose motto is “Buy underwear in your underwear.”  They have free delivery, so I can try a jock and order more later without wasting money on shipping charges for multiple orders.  I’m trying the $9 Bike Performance Elite Jock Strap and the $24 Calvin Klein Tech Active Jock Strap.  They both look pretty comfortable.  Since I’ll be wearing them running, if they happen to attract anyone, they’ll have to catch me.

Just hangin’ around

You know how people often come to resemble their pet dogs?  Now that I’m spending much more time at home I find that as days pass, I have much more in common with our cats.

My face gets sort of fuzzy, with a few long, scraggly whiskers.  I sometimes eat pre-packaged food, stuff that plops right out of the can, ready to eat.  I’ll randomly poke around the house, staring out the windows at passing people, squirrels, or leaves blowing by.  Whenever I feel like it, I take a break in the day for a nice nap.  But no matter how lazy I get, I still wash myself regularly.  And when Ruth gets home, I bug her for the attention I haven’t been getting all day.

But no matter how much I try, I still can’t do this: