Item 1 - Run a marathon

He has no idea what's in store for him

I was going to run my first marathon last year. I had been practicing for almost a year prior to that; I had slowly ramped up my training, plugging away with good gains on both distance and time. The marathon I was running was in September. Then three days before my marathon I started to get sick. Up until the day before the event I still thought I could do it, but the sheer amount of crud that I was coughing up told a different story. I dropped out and spent the next few days in bed. It was a crappy end to an utterly crappy September.

So this year I planned to really get a marathon done, come sickness or shin-splints. I maintained a good training regimen and my health has been relatively good all year. Summer hit and the heat meant that I fell off on my distance a little bit, but nothing that I couldn't make up. A little over a month ago I realized that it was do or die time. I signed up for a marathon that was in a nearby town and started making plans.

In the days leading up to the marathon this year a lot of people asked me things along the lines of "Are you sure you can do a whole marathon?" or "How far are you running these days?" My answers were "Of course," and "Around 20 miles," respectively.

Here's my confession: the real answers to those questions were "God, I hope so" and "About 13 miles."

Okay, so saying I fell off a little bit is kind of like saying that "Pacific Rim" was a bit of a disappointment. I got downright lazy. But marathon season is almost over and if I had told people the truth they might have (rightfully) tried to talk me out of it. In my defense, I really wanted to do it (which is, of course, the greatest defense ever.) Also, I'd like to point out that the question "Are you sure you can run a whole marathon?" or any variation thereupon is one of the more belittling questions a person can ask, so maybe just don't do that.

The first 14 miles actually went pretty easily; the scenery was beautiful, I was keeping a good even pace, the terrain was easy but hilly enough to keep it interesting.

And then I hit the trails.

I'm an alright trail runner but I run in minimalist shoes, so I tend to do trails that are mostly dirt. These were gravel covered trails, with very large rocks. I managed to hit every single sharp rock I could over the next 10 miles. Add to this the fact that I bonked around mile 16 and you have a poor first showing for a marathon.

When I finally crossed the finish line I didn't feel the sense of accomplishment that I had envisioned. Mostly I felt sore and tired. And one thought kept occurring to me: I could have done better. And I will, next time.

One final note: the sense of accomplishment did come, but it was a bit later. In one day I doubled my most recent best distance. It wasn't pretty and I wasn't particularly fast, but I finished a goddamn marathon and not everyone can say that.

The very last bit of energy I had

Appropriate for the month

The blog lives, I've just continued being lazy. A real update tomorrow, just wanted to post this because I love this movie.

Item 16 - Finish 30 3 books - "The Sisters Brothers" by Patrick deWitt

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So apparently I took a bit of an unplanned hiatus. In my little vacation from blogging I have still been working on my list. That's included finishing this little gem. I've always loved westerns and this one is a nice quick read and fills the void that "Deadwood" never coming back left. The comparison to "Deadwood" is deliberate, though, as this book uses the same sort of lofty language as that show to create a sense of disconnect between the characters surroundings/actions and their words. In places it felt a little forced, but overall it was enjoyable.

One thing that did stick out for me was the episodic nature of the book. Maybe it's just because I spent the last month playing "Fallout 3" (which of course has nothing to do with my lack of updates), but the whole story almost seemed like an RPG campaign: the characters would drift from place to place, be given a quest, get a reward and move on towards their final goal. This isn't necessarily a bad thing (I'd actually kind of like to try a western themed RPG now that I think of it) it just sort of made it a little strange.

Housekeeping Item 27 - See a live comedy show Item 28 - Go to a concert

I didn't do entries on them but I went to a concert and two live comedy shows (one of them way back in March). The concert was Sallie Ford & The Sound outside, they were spectacular with an awesome energy that was really infectious. I made the mistake of going to the show by myself, however. Awkward guy standing by himself is never a good thing to be at a concert. Even so, it was fun.

More recently I went to see Howard Kremer's "Have a Summah" tour. It was a blast and I even got to meet Howard, which was a real thrill for me. It's hard to explain, but I really connect with his comedy style (which when I write it out kind of sounds creepy). Kyle Kinane did a set also and it killed; my only previous experience with Kyle was his bit he did on "Drunk History" but I've been watching clips on Youtube ever since the show and have really been liking him.

Item 16 - Finish 30 4 books - "Packng for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void" by Mary Roach

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This is the second book by Mary Roach that I've read, the first being "Stiff". I felt that book was the stronger of the two, but this one was still engaging. Mary Roach is a funny, clever writer who always manages to talk about science-ish subjects in a fun way. I say "science-ish" because you don't really come away from these sorts of books any smarter, but you are primed for any cocktail party you might find yourself at with little factoids to drop into lulls in the conversation (this could be called the "Gladwellian school of science" if  you wanted to put a name on it.)

That may sound derisive, but I assure you it's not meant to be. I enjoyed this book and loved the little stories from her various interviews and resources. My only real problem with this particular book was the title: it makes it seem like it's going to actually be about the science of humans reaching Mars, or at least the plans to visit our second closest neighbor. That takes up a very small part of the book, mostly at the end of chapters where she will take on a couple of sentences about the subject she has just discussed and saying something to the effect of "and just imagine doing that for two years, which is how long it will take to get to Mars." This is largely due to the very nature of getting humans to Mars. It's such a theoretical proposition at this point that there is very little that can be written about it. To that end, I think that the very subject of Mars or theoretical space exploration could have been it's own chapter and the book could have just used "space" as the uniting theme.

The whole book does have a sort of unfortunate sadness about it. Now that our government has decided that manned spaceflight is far less important than invading other countries (as if there was ever any doubt about their priorities) it looks as though our role in flinging humans towards the red planet will be greatly diminished. Why should it be the United States' responsibility to stand at the forefront of science and exploration? I mean who wants to do that, right? Regardless, I sincerely hope that someone from this planet does continue funding space exploration. As Mary Roach quotes Ben Franklin in her book when he was asked what use a hot air balloon (the first human flying machine) was "What is the good of a newborn infant?" There is near limitless potential in the human animal, we just have to strive for it.

Review of "Pacific Rim" Item 2 - Watch 6 3 movies at the theater

Pacific Rim/Jaws by Matthew Ferguson, this mash up is much better than the movie

I am on a roll recently for consuming bad media. I actually had highish hopes for this movie, I didn't expect it to reinvent the wheel or anything, but I respect Guillermo del Toro and figured he had something in mind. That something ended up being every summer action movie ever. He hit every single cliche that you can think of. Impassioned eleventh hour speech by the elder statesman? Heroic sacrifice? Protagonist's rival comes to begrudgingly respect him? Generically handsome lead ends up with the only female character given more than two lines? Yup, "Pacific Rim" ticks all the boxes essential to make a boring actioner.

And it's not just the writing that puts you to sleep; Idris Elba, who is usually such a powerful actor, sleepwalks through the entire film. Charlie Day and Ron Perlman do their best to inject some sense of life into this film, but they aren't enough. It was beautifully shot and there were some great props, which is no less than should be expected of Del Toro, but it lacked the practical special effects that made "Pan's Labyrinth" so amazing and "Hellboy" so detailed. I will rescind my previous assertion that it was a bad movie, it was just a rehash of something that we should all be tired of by now.

Item 16 - Finish 30 5 books - "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi

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I bought this book because of a thread on Reddit about great first lines in books or something like that. The quotation used was interesting enough that I decided to give it a shot:


Which also makes this another instance of me buying and reading a book because of a good high-concept. Thankfully, this one worked out much better than last time.

I'm not about to heap praises on this book though. We're offered glimpses of some great premises that I'm sure will be fleshed out in the further books in the series, but I just don't feel a desire to seek those books out. There's a scene in the book where the protagonist suddenly has a breakdown on the battlefield, realizing he's been killing dozens or hundreds of alien combatants since joining the army. It's actually a moment I waited for, since the rest of the book he deals with mowing down aliens as if he were talking about his laundry. But then the scene fizzles without any real resolution, he just kind of gets over it. That kind of sums up how I felt at the end; I'll never really know much more about this series, or if the hero ever truly feels anything about his actions, but I can live with that.