clock … watching time, the only true currency

My high school coaches impressed upon me very clearly the importance of getting a good night’s sleep the night before the night before a race or competition. The theory — which I subscribe to — is that nerves and anticipation may disrupt your sleep on the eve of the event. Accept that, and don’t worry [...]

[Read more →]

I haven’t read a word of the fiction that makes Haruki Murakami famous. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running logs the author’s real-world training for the New York City Marathon. The structure of the training journal doesn’t bound the words or topics, though. Subtitled “A Memoir,” the book explains the start of [...]

[Read more →]

This neglected blog (damn you, Twitter!) reached its sixth birthday today. This is the 1,435th post, but the pace has definitely slowed. I’m glad to say that my birthday mile has not. Yet. 5:22 for the 4 loops (1:20 / 1:22 / 1:21 / 1:18) around Kezar is a second faster than 2008 and 2007. [...]

[Read more →]

I’m a week late on this, but I started Super Bowl Sunday (February 1, 2009) in my traditional way, with a race in Golden Gate Park. I finished the 5K 10th overall with an 18:44, for 6:03 miles, if distances are accurate. One of the two runners right behind me had a GPS on his [...]

[Read more →]

Official results weren’t posted until earlier this week, so I’m late posting this, too. In 2007, I jogged the Miracle Mile with the boy. This year, I got the entire family out for the mile race, and then I ran the Christmas Classic 5K on my own. The rain held off until the second mile [...]

[Read more →]

For the 8th year in a row, I ran a race in Golden Gate Park on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The “Run to the Far Side” fades deeper into memory, but Run Wild continues as a satisfying routine for many in San Francisco. I did the 5K distance, finishing in 18:38, for 11th place overall, [...]

[Read more →]

Clock (this blog) is now 5, and I’m (cough) older than that. Still, I matched last year’s mile time of 5:23 (1:19/1:20/1:22/1:21 splits), which brightened the already-beautiful day a bit more. Only hiccup was Kezar was closed for pesticide application, which I found out after running over this morning. So I had to drive over [...]

[Read more →]

The boy joined me this morning for the first road race using his own muscles. (His earlier efforts were riding in the jogging stroller, not always happily.) The “Miracle Mile” was the right distance in the right location (Golden Gate Park). The crisp, clear weather (40+ degrees) meant hat and gloves for the boy — [...]

[Read more →]

The post-Thanksgiving tradition continues. I ran the 5K in the Run Wild event this morning. A month ago, I was targeting the 10K, but a few weeks out of commission due to a back strain left me less confident of my fitness, so I stayed with the familiar. I finished in 18:46 officially, 29th place [...]

[Read more →]

The San Francisco summer (September) delivered another beautiful morning today. The Bridge to Bridge 12K race is a local fixture I’ve never run. Starting at the Ferry Building, the race has only one short, steep hill, as it stays along the water almost the entire race, finishing in the Presidio. The official results are not [...]

[Read more →]