Aimlessly Happy
What US Air taketh away, US Air giveth back - sometimes.
US Air screwed up my flight arrangements going to Columbus yesterday, canceling my flight and forcing me to go to Columbus via Charlotte and resulting in a 3 hour delay. However, my business in Columbus was done early today and they bumped me up to a 3:00 flight instead of my scheduled 5:50 flight.
That meant that I had time to run when I got home. It was getting dark by the time I got my shoes on and took off. My pace is always faster on afternoon runs, and today was no exception. I left my iPod home and instead lost myself in my thoughts. Happy thoughts, aimlessly happy thoughts.
"Aimlessly happy" is the best compliment I remember ever receiving. It came from my friend De, back when I first moved to San Antonio in the late 80s. She said that it was from a poem by Pablo Neruda, and she applied it to me despite life circumstances that were anything but joyous at the time. I've tried to track down that line, but even google fails me here. That just reminds me I should contact De directly and ask. And if she can't remember I'll just attribute the phrase to her.
Aimlessly happy described my mood this evening. I ended up down along the river, where I love to run under the bridges in the tender evening darkness, the shadows and big stone hulks obliterating just enough of the city to let me pretend its Paris. And for a mile or two, up to the lights of Boathouse Row, my world is transfixed as I fly along infatuated.
The back four miles of this course then takes me through Mantua, where the shadows appear more malicious and the streets more haunting than in the early mornings when I usually run them. But even there, on 44th and Haverford I come up to a line of rowhouses that looked like they were coming down until I got closer and saw that they were actually going up. . . new construction in a place that just three years ago looked hopelessly forlorn.
8 aimlessly happy miles in 56:54.
Shameless vanity
It was pointed out to me that I am on the Parkway Run's promotional webcast located at http://parkwayrun.mypodcasts.net/. There are actually several glimpses of me but the only real good shot is at a few seconds after 2 minutes into the clip, right after a shot of the finish line clock reading off 9:42, when you can see me, in blue, blowing away Stuart Calderwood down the homestretch.
I'm posting some race photos from Virginia Beach emailed to me as well. The shots are good enough to where I almost feel bad ripping them from the website. The shots come just before, and then just after the finish. The first I am flying (literally), the second shows some of the agony I was feeling, and the third is just pure relief.
US Air screwed up my flight arrangements going to Columbus yesterday, canceling my flight and forcing me to go to Columbus via Charlotte and resulting in a 3 hour delay. However, my business in Columbus was done early today and they bumped me up to a 3:00 flight instead of my scheduled 5:50 flight.
That meant that I had time to run when I got home. It was getting dark by the time I got my shoes on and took off. My pace is always faster on afternoon runs, and today was no exception. I left my iPod home and instead lost myself in my thoughts. Happy thoughts, aimlessly happy thoughts.
"Aimlessly happy" is the best compliment I remember ever receiving. It came from my friend De, back when I first moved to San Antonio in the late 80s. She said that it was from a poem by Pablo Neruda, and she applied it to me despite life circumstances that were anything but joyous at the time. I've tried to track down that line, but even google fails me here. That just reminds me I should contact De directly and ask. And if she can't remember I'll just attribute the phrase to her.
Aimlessly happy described my mood this evening. I ended up down along the river, where I love to run under the bridges in the tender evening darkness, the shadows and big stone hulks obliterating just enough of the city to let me pretend its Paris. And for a mile or two, up to the lights of Boathouse Row, my world is transfixed as I fly along infatuated.
The back four miles of this course then takes me through Mantua, where the shadows appear more malicious and the streets more haunting than in the early mornings when I usually run them. But even there, on 44th and Haverford I come up to a line of rowhouses that looked like they were coming down until I got closer and saw that they were actually going up. . . new construction in a place that just three years ago looked hopelessly forlorn.
8 aimlessly happy miles in 56:54.
Shameless vanity
It was pointed out to me that I am on the Parkway Run's promotional webcast located at http://parkwayrun.mypodcasts.net/. There are actually several glimpses of me but the only real good shot is at a few seconds after 2 minutes into the clip, right after a shot of the finish line clock reading off 9:42, when you can see me, in blue, blowing away Stuart Calderwood down the homestretch.
I'm posting some race photos from Virginia Beach emailed to me as well. The shots are good enough to where I almost feel bad ripping them from the website. The shots come just before, and then just after the finish. The first I am flying (literally), the second shows some of the agony I was feeling, and the third is just pure relief.
posted by seebo | 9:08 PM
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