Today's long-distance running training advice: In the long run, one must be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Moving Right Along

In one months time I shall move back to the great state of West Virginia. Eight years have I lived in the merry state of Virginia and I'll miss it. Well, except for the high tax rate...but that's another story.
 
"And just how long do you plan to stay in West Virginia, Jason?"

Good question. I really don't know. I've moved...in the last ten years...at least ten times. You could call me a traveling nomad. I've always known I never would live permanently in VA or WV for long so I've been renting off people and never bought a house. The West Virginia thing seems...right now...and semi-permanent situation. I could see myself living anywhere in this country of ours except for perhaps Alabama or Louisiana. Don't get me wrong, I like these states...in much the same manner one loves certain relatives who chain smoke, tell obnoxious jokes, and kick cats...but some places you can, and should, appreciate only from a long distance.

Seattle or Portland is a possibility. Albuquerque another. New York City...definately...under the right circumstances...as in if I found a great deal near Central Park so I could run 10 miles a day and feel like I was in the country...situation. London is yet another possibility. Sometimes I think I was born there and kidnapped by hippie bohemians during the 70's, hidden in the cargo bay of a rather large ship, and dropped off at an orphanage in Fairmont, WV. This would explain my difficulty in remembering the first two years of my life and these recurring dreams that involve lots of water and boxes.

Today's long-distance running training advice: in the long run the long run should only be a "long" run if you run the run long, so...run long.

"Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything." --Thomas Merton

You know. No matter how sincere someone is when they try to persuade you the color of the sky is purple, I cannot help but think it is, always has been, and always will be blue. There is a hidden meaning here.

After 25 years...guess who is back?

No Sweat.

8.2 pounds-amount of weight I lost due to sweat during today's hour and a half run in 91 degree heat.

Peace Tea

Leave it to some Californian tea company to actually design a proper tea can.

I can quite honestly say I have no more problems with houseflies...

Meet Myrna and Loy. My newest fishy origami creations.

More Origami Madness

12 pieces of paper folded into this contraption called the WXYZ Project. Yes-it was difficult.

The left item was made using 6 sheets of square paper and the tiniest bit of glue. The right item, called the I-Ching Square, was created using 8 sheets of paper-without glue.

Bookcase with little origami books. OK...OK...so I do have quite a bit of free time.

Close-up shot of one of the mini books.

Origami Madness

With the advent of a 4-day period of no water or electricity this week, I decided to practice my origami skills. Origami, you should know, is the Japanese word for the art of paper-folding. Coincidentally, in Korean it is the word for torture. Here is a Kusadama ball I made from 60 small square pieces of waxy paper.

Stage 1: the little papers are folded into triangles, glued, and clothes-pinned together.

Close-up shot of the little papers ranging from perfectly flat to folded to glued together. 5 triangles were glued together to make one 5-petal flower.

Next, two flowers were glued together petal-to-petal, clothes-pinned,, and resting precariously in a beaker filled with paper clips. Note: glass beakers also make great green tea holders.

Finished! One Kusadama ball that will be sent to a special friend of mine for inspirational purposes.

Sometimes, I think God arranges the hearts of men so they hopelessly in love with a girl. And the girl, try as hard as she might, finds it difficult to not reciprocate the action...

Quite True

2012 Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon

Finish Line

I woke the next morning at 4AM and consumed a pre-race meal consisting of fried lamb and curried rice. A note from my journal reads:

Seattle. Marathon starts in 85 minutes. pre-race meal of fried lamb and curried rice-check. Last will and testament donating all my worldly possessions to the Society for the Prevention of Country Music-check.Nectar-flavored energy gels on hand-check.

A couple other notes I wrote read:

I feel like that mouse who after a few drinks got brave and said, "Now where's that darn cat everyone's talking about."

Should today not go so well, I've a couple of kidneys, a heart, and a liver or two I'd be willing to donate.

Naturally I wasn't feeling over-confident.

Surprisingly, the marathon went well. I walked the 25th mile since my legs felt like somebody spent all morning running a jack-hammer on them, but the 26th mile I continued on. The last 400 yards were uphill and I think I almost cried. That afternoon walking was extremely difficult but surprisingly next morning I felt fine...just some somewhat sore quadriceps.

Sunday morning I went to Christ Church Kirkland where a former Regent U classmate of mine used to attend. I met a most classy blogger whose blog, I must add, totally rocks...and a must-read. It's called Southern Nomad.

Later I explored the Capital Hill District of Seattle.


Odd Fellows Cafe...a must go to place...this is the perfect writer's hangout. Not necessarily on Sunday afternoons as it was quite crowded, but during the day it would be perfect.

Next morning it was time to go home and I flew to New York...then to Pittsburgh where my bleary-eyed parents took me to their house. This morning, I drove back to Merry Ol' Virginia.

Marathon Traveling and Marathon Running

At precisely 4:56 PM last Monday I began a journey of 6,000 miles via plane, train, and automobile.
First, I packed up and drove the Mazda to my parent's house in West Virginia.

I camped out here for a day before my mom and sister dropped me off at the Pittsburgh Amtrak station. There were about 30 Amish folks there traveling en masse to Chicago with me and well got on the same car.


Elkhart, Indiana...minutes after being involved in an Amish pillow fight.


Union Station, Chicago


Milwaukee, Wisconsin


Near Madison, WI...1st amber wave of grain sighting.

Wisconsin Dells,WI...getting ruraler...train is temporarily stopped due to small herd of badgers.

 

Winona, Minnesota...Downtown Winona Minnesota...the...um...business district of downtown Winona.

Fargo, North Dakota

 

Rugby, North Dakota

 

Little house on the prairie.

More evidence of human overpopulation in North Dakota...if you look closely you'll see an old house about 5 miles away.

 

Perfectly flat dirt roads for dozens of miles. This is perfect training ground for ultra-marathon training and crop-circle making activities...still in North Dakota.

 

Train Literature, fascinating reading.

 

Havre, Montana...dinosaurs used to live here. Thank god and extinction they're on vacation.

 

Shelby, Montana

 

Columbia River, Washington.

 

(I didn't take any pictures whilst in Idaho as I was overcome with sleepiness)

 

Bingen-White Salmon, WA

 

Vancouver...the American one...we're getting closer.

 

Random Note#1: Dear Conductor-There's an old fellow snoring like the London Philharmonic warming up. My psychologist tells me I've Chronic Snoring Syndrome that causes me to go into violent spams of senior citizen choking yoga (his words, not mine). I propose we ditch him at Walla Walla where he can snore happily ever after.

Windmills on the Columbia River early Friday morning.

Mt. Hood, Oregon


Portland, OR...I shall

Random note#2...Amtrak baggage guy's name tag reads 'Hi...I'm Gregory Peck.' I think he's lying.

Finally, after nearly 60 hours on a train I arrived in Seattle.

 

In celebration of the up-coming election season I have decided to post some sentences from this neat random sentence generator I discovered whilst preparing a kiwi fruit/vanilla ice cream/ginger smoothie for dinner.

Ahem...

The drunk bird reiterates a wisest hobby.
When will the immortal flip beside the overall disco?
Inside your astronomy reacts the justifiable sauce.
The sitting beer fears the handy chicken.

The accountant grinds against a mailbox before the incapable cheek. How will the energy dictate after each wee cow? The inconsistent piece devastates a rot opposite a restricting elitist. Throughout the functioning midnight fails a cracking rag. Some of these, especially after drinking a third Monster Energy drink, seem almost mystic and carry hidden meanings.

One month from now you will find me standing in a crowd of 26,000 people wearing orange Adidas shorts and blue Adidas shoes. I'll be wearing sunglasses and chanting my private mantra,

"What the heck was I thinking, What the heck was I thinking, What the heck was I thinking."

Over and over again to the tune of the Beatle's Yellow Submarine.

At precisely 7 AM, I will commence running 26.2 miles through downtown Seattle and hopefully finish before collapsing somewhere near Pike Place Market. Come to think of it, I might just purposely collapse there since I love good seafood.

Seafood being defined as any creature with fins and scales. I don't consider lobsters, crabs, mussels, shrimp, or oysters as seafood. These creatures are called bait.

I do, however, like chicken livers...fried and sprinkled with organic goat cheese. Some people call chicken livers catfish bait, but I think they're confused. Why would a catfish eat a bird that inhabits hen houses? Bait is generally something that a creature would eat under normal circumstances. Bait for a human, for instance, would be a bacon cheeseburger. Women seeking husbands secretly know this which explains why at some point in every relationship a woman will drag a man into the nearest Arbys... is she's really interested in him.

My marathon training is going well. I'm running from 7-13 miles a day and vomiting, on average, every 8 miles. The synthetic thyroid hormone I'm taking every morning has made a pretty good improvement in my health. It does make one quite aggressive though.

Number of miles run today: 17
Number of carrots eaten today: 8
Amount of mg of caffeine consumed today: 300
Number of dairy cows that chased me today: 7

Dental Loot

The best thing about visiting the dentist every six months? Two words. Dental loot.