The “beat the fountain” run

I had a couple of goals for tonight’s run. I wanted to improve the time on my first km and tighten up the overall pace a bit. When I got into the final km, I created a third goal: beat the fountain. In my previous run I had finished a little ways past it but this time it seemed possible to finish before reaching it.

And I did. Woo. Plus there was only one bee again and this time it was down low so I didn’t have to shush it away when I went to get a post-run drink.

However, there were four soccer balls kicked into my path during the run. You’ll never get to the World Cup with that kind of ball control, guys! The guy on the scooter with the dog in tow also made a re-appearance. For awhile it felt like the jogging version of Groundhog Day.

There were two baseball games underway when I arrived but both wrapped up in the first 15 minutes or so. At one diamond they later resumed with some ad hoc baseball-ish game using a large plastic ball (the kind you kick around). It was a bit weird but everyone was very excited about playing. Almost too excited, if you know what I mean.

Speaking of which, for three laps a couple of guys were parked near the path smoking those funny cigarettes. It was a bit distracting.

For the run itself, it was 18ºC, with a mild breeze and the sun low enough to not be an issue. Yesterday we had winds gusting up to 70 km/h so there were a few branches on the path but nothing that couldn’t be easily navigated around.

My first lap time was a much better 5:10 and I had another strong, consistent finish. In fact, my 9th and 10th km times were identical. My overall pace was 5:30, a seven second improvement over the previous 10K. Overall I’m pleased with the progress.

Chart:

Distance July 13th July 11th July 5th
1 km 5:10 5:15 5:10
2 km 5:14 5:20 5:13
3 km 5:18 5:24 5:14
4 km 5:21 5:27 5:18
5 km 5:23 5:29 5:21
6 km 5:25 5:31 5:24
7 km 5:26 5:33 5:27
8 km 5:29 5:35 5:30
9 km 5:30 5:36 5:33
10 km 5:30 5:37 5:34

An evening run full of numbers

What a difference nine degrees makes! Not to mention there was no waterslide getting in the way of tonight’s run.

I had an atypically slow start (tentative, I suppose) and that actually affected my overall time, a rather unusual occurrence. The good news is I steadied out into a comfortable pace and maintained it for the remaining 8 km, ending with an average pace of 5:37. Stamina was not an issue at all, to my surprise. My legs are feeling a bit sore, but I don’t consider this odd given that it is only my second 10K in the last 80+ days. I plan on doing some strength exercises on the off days to reduce the chance of injury.

And now the stats:

  • Cap Tug Number (CTN): 3 (slick forehead played a factor here)
  • Temperature: 21ºC
  • Number of bees at the fountain: 1 (it had been plugged up again and was once more a mini-reservoir. I dumped a handful of water on the bee twice before it was convinced to leave)
  • Number of smarty pants joggers who ran past me: 1 (he stopped running after getting about half a lap ahead)
  • Number of guys wearing climbing gear in a nearby tree: 1
  • Number of waterslides: 0 (yay!)
  • Number of scrimmage soccer games in progress: 1
  • Number of soccer balls kicked in front of me due to the above: 2
  • Number of kids who didn’t seem to realize than standing in the middle of the path does in fact create an obstacle: 3
  • Number of guys sans shirt: 1
  • Number of women sans shirt: 0
  • Number of old men on electric scooters racing along the path with a dog in tow: 1
  • Number of people out with their dogs: many
  • Number of people out with their cats: 0
  • Number of coyotes spotted: 0
  • Number of drinks I took from the fountain at the end of the run: 3

And the comparison chart where you can see how the times get closer the longer the distance:

Distance July 11th July 5th
1 km 5:15 5:10
2 km 5:20 5:13
3 km 5:24 5:14
4 km 5:27 5:18
5 km 5:29 5:21
6 km 5:31 5:24
7 km 5:33 5:27
8 km 5:35 5:30
9 km 5:36 5:33
10 km 5:37 5:34

Bees, water and no run

I had planned things perfectly for today’s run. With the sun setting at 9:16 p.m. and temperatures slightly cooler today, I headed out just before 8 p.m. This would give me enough time to finish a 10K just as the sun was beginning to set, insuring that most of the run would be done in the shade.

I got to the park and notice something over on the large hill that runs along the western side. It is a makeshift waterslide. It extends down the hill and well across the path. It is not something I could easily jink around. I contemplate what to do as kids go sliding down, hollering with delight. (The photo is a low light capture from my iPod’s video camera, so the quality of the image is not exactly high.)

I figure they might pack it in soon so I stick around and head to the fountain for a drink while I wait. The fountain is full of bees, like a bad Nicolas Cage movie. Of late the ‘bowl’ of the fountain has been brimming with water, like a mini-reservoir, but apparently someone unplugged whatever was in there keeping the water from draining. The now dry fountain has apparently become the hot new bee gathering spot. This makes getting a drink of water rather more hazardous than I’d like so I passed.

In the meantime I noticed that a section of the waterslide had become unattached. I also noticed someone laying at the bottom of the hill spread eagle and not really moving much. It looks like this unlucky girl had managed to snag and pull away one of the plastic sections of the slide then tumbled the rest of the way to the bottom. I did see a little movement as people gathered around her so perhaps she was just winded. Amazingly, someone began stitching the wayward bit of the slide back together. Injury or death would not stop the fun tonight!

I went home.

Here’s hoping they all decide to go to the beach tomorrow.

Job (not so) fair

It has been a long time since I went to a job fair. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I did. I was informed of one recently and so yesterday I found myself attending the 6th Annual PICS MEGA JOB FAIR. The ads for it suggest all caps and bold are necessary. It ran from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and was located at the North Surrey Recreation Centre.

I went with Denis and the plan was to leave Vancouver around 2 p.m., spend an hour or so at the fair and then get the heck out of there.

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being Greatest Job Fair Ever, I would rate this one -700.

It started with us walking to the Burrard SkyTrain and getting on The Noisiest SkyTrain Car In the History of Forever. I swear there were hidden speakers piping in additional sounds of the train rattling down the track. At times it was difficult to have a conversation and we were sitting close enough to each other to have Eskimo relations. Even the recorded station arrival announcements were being drowned out. I suggested Denis stand up and use ASL so people would know what stations we were pulling into. Since we had to traverse the Expo Line nearly in its entirety, it meant we had to deal with this for 35 minutes.

Fortunately, the arena the fair was being staged in was located right next to the Surrey Central station. I think it took longer to exit the station, which is mysteriously built as if to emulate Cloud City from The Empire Strikes Back (read: really freakin’ up there), than it did to traverse the short expanse of sidewalk between it and the rec centre. With the smell of chlorine from an unseen swimming pool filling the warm summer air, we followed the helpful signs and entered the fair proper.

Ten minutes later we were on our way out.

Given that the economy is not exactly overflowing with jobs right now, my expectations were minimal. The exhibitors on hand fell into these categories:

  1. Colleges and universities I’ve mostly never heard of
  2. Jobs no one really wants
  3. Government jobs
  4. Recruiting agencies

#1 and #4 actually want to take money to you, which does not seem particularly in the spirit of a job fair to me, though maybe that’s just a case of being on the wrong side of the tables covered with informative and glossy pamphlets.

#3 had exhibits extolling the virtues of everything from working for the city of Surrey to joining the Canadian Armed Forces, the Canada Revenue Agency or helping out with WorkSafe BC.

#2 had some overlap with #4, mostly by having an exhibit for BC Corrections, one of the top jobs no one really wants. Mr. Lube and Safeway were also seductively offering the lifestyle of oil changes and stocking shelves to attendees.

We did one loop, insuring that we had seen every exhibit, then left, our freshly-printed resumes staying with us. We ended up returning briefly — to use the washroom, which turned out to be the most worthwhile part of the trip. We climbed back up into the upper reaches of Surrey Central station, where the upper atmosphere begins to thin and waited for one of the newer trains to arrive, since any one of them would be quieter than the tooth-rattling one we had arrived in. The first train to come into the station was an old one and Denis decreed it better to leave Surrey noisily now than less noisily 6 minutes later. I agreed. Fortunately the transit crew had remembered to oil the wheels on this train so it wasn’t that bad.

And that was it. We made the round trip (70 minutes of travel time) on a single transfer. There are no zany stories to report, no colorful characters to recall. It was a complete dud. But now I know about the modern state of job fairs and knowledge is power. Right now I’m feeling pretty powerful.

Hot doubles run

Hot = temperature (30ºC)
Doubles = two baseball games in progress
Run = what I tried to do today!

It seems the weather decided to skip the usual intro to summer with seasonal temperatures and jumped straight into the heat wave part. With the thermometer reporting 30ºC I headed down to China Creek Park at 7 p.m., hoping the sun would be low enough to take the edge off the heat. For the first km I was okay but after that I got really hot and not in the sexy way, more in the ‘sweating like crazy and feeling like you’re going to melt’ way. The trail was only about one-quarter in the shade at this point and I had to make a couple of stops at the water fountain by the 3K mark. The second time I did a dog stood patiently beside me, waiting his turn.

The problem with stopping for a drink is while the water refreshes, resuming your pace takes a little more effort than maintaining it. You also heat up a lot while you are stopped at the fountain, which exacerbates the whole resumption part.

There were two baseball games underway and at one point someone in the southeast diamond hit a ball down the third base line which sent it flying over the trail about 15 feet ahead of me. The girl who ran across and threw it back either did not see me or did not care. All that existed to her was The Ball. If I hadn’t momentarily paused I would have caught it in the side of my head. That was the only near-hit, though.

By the time I got to 4K I knew I would not make it to 10. I had simply started too early and I am not yet back in good enough condition to battle through this kind of heat. I decided I would go to 5K and see how I felt. As I hit 5K I also exited a patch of shade and moved back into the blazing sun. I called it good and stopped there.

My pace was actually 1 second slower than my 10K run three days ago. Ouch. On the plus side, I officially passed the 500 km mark, according to my Nike+ sensor.

Here’s a comparison of how the two runs stack up to the 5K mark. You can see how I pooped out after 1 km.

Distance July 8th July 5th
1 km 5:11 5:10
2 km 5:18 5:13
3 km 5:24 5:14
4 km 5:30 5:18
5 km 5:36 5:21

This is the July weather I ordered

Weather-wise June can be a tad unpredictable. Any day could be sunny and warm or cool and showery. It’s no gauge of how the overall summer will be. Come July you can usually tell if you’re in for a stinker or not.

Today summer officially arrived in Vancouver:

The official forecast calls for a high of 30ºC tomorrow, which means it will only be one day before people start complaining about the heat. Run under a sprinkler, I sez.

Sidewalk penis art

Is this a new trend in Vancouver? Recently I have come across two depictions of male genitalia etched or sprayed onto a sidewalk in the local neighborhood. What compels someone to memorialize such a thing for all to see? I cannot say.

The first one is on Glen Drive, along the route I take to China Creek Park for my runs. It was carefully created before the fresh concrete had a chance to set. At first I thought it might have been the start of a brontosaurus or some other similar dinosaur since the scrotum looks more like a pair of legs. I hope this was not a self-study.

Concrete penis

The second one appeared recently on the sidewalk beside a boarded house where Knight Street turns into Clark. By coincidence the house was being torn down today when I took the picture, so it is possible this particular piece of art may not last much longer. There is little ambiguity as to what the artist is depicting here in bold, vibrant strokes. I wonder if this spot was chosen because it was next to an abandoned property. I suspect so. It suggests a certain thoughtfulness one wouldn’t necessarily expect from someone spraypainting a penis onto a sidewalk.

Orange penis art

Dust run

Today I had vowed to do my first post-injury 10K run.

And I did! Woo!

It was breezy but I must have tugged with an extra bit of manliness on my cap because the Cap Tug Number was only 1. It was about 19ºC and sunny, though I found the sun was not really an issue until the last km or so.

I had girded myself for the run by dividing it into chunks that could be managed more easily psychologically — the first few km as one, getting to that halfway mark as another and so on. As I passed 5 km I was reasonably confident I could make it. By the time I hit 8 km I knew I would and even thought about trying that little extra burst of speed in the final stretch. It was in the last km that my body began feeling like a furnace, so instead of turning on the boosters, I focused on just maintaining my pace. I added roughly three seconds every km and ended with an average pace of 5.34/km, which is pretty decent for 75 days between 10Ks, so I’m fairly pleased with how it went.

As expected on a sunny afternoon there were a decent number of people in the park but no remarkable incidents to report. Tiger Woods congratulated me for another 250 miles completed. Yet again.

Comparison chart of today’s 10K and the last one on April 21st:

Distance July 5th April 21st
1 km 5:10 5:04
2 km 5:13 5:10
3 km 5:14 5:14
4 km 5:18 5:18
5 km 5:21 5:21
6 km 5:24 5:24
7 km 5:27 5:26
8 km 5:30 5:28
9 km 5:33 5:29
10 km 5:34 5:30

Curse of the Quiet Car

One of the advantages of hybrid or electric cars is the relative silence of their operation. No longer do you have loud engines rattling and revving along the roadways. Instead the streets are quiet, save for the delightful laughter of the children playing hopscotch on the sidewalk or the cooing of the young romantic couple out for a stroll through the neighborhood.

But not if American legislators have their way. The silence of electric and hybrid cars is a liability, not a benefit, they say. It turns these vehicles into quiet killers and something must be done to protect those who would unwittingly put themselves into the path of one of these deadly, shark-like terrors.

“This is an example of too much of a good thing. Cars got quieter, that was good. Suddenly they got to be so quiet that it added an element of danger.” – John Pare, executive director for strategic initiatives with the National Federation of the Blind

It seems to me that quiet is good, unnecessary noise is bad. If you’re stepping into the path of vehicle, regardless of the level of noise it is making, I am thinking the problem is with the person doing the stepping, not the vehicle. Bicycles have been a threat to the vision-impaired and elderly for over a hundred years on the streets — why hasn’t it been legislated that every bicycle be outfitted with mandatory baseball cards in its spokes to warn of its approach?

Here is my solution that requires no legislation at all: Remind drivers of electric and hybrid vehicles that the low noise level means they should be extra vigilant as society slowly transitions to the idea that a car doesn’t have to make a lot of noise in order to function properly. Remind others like the vision-impaired or elderly of the same thing and to use aids or take extra care when out on the streets.

Either that or give everyone in a hybrid a vuvuzela.

Honey, I shrunk me

One of the pieces of info you are typically asked to provide on a profile for a dating site is your height. I had measured my height long ago and recalled it as being slightly under 5′ 11″. Don’t ask me what that is in metric, it’s one of those things my head never wrapped around, probably because the closest equivalent to a foot in metric is the decimeter. Now think of how often you hear people talking about decimeters.

Today I whimsically decided to measure my height using the good ol’ ‘mark a line with a pencil on the door frame’ trick. It turns out I either mis-remembered or mis-measured, as it seems I am actually under 5′ 10″ — about 5′ 9¾” to be a bit more precise. I may have to start using metric instead. 177.8 cm kind of sounds impressive.

I am not sure how I feel about being a full inch shorter than I had always thought but I don’t think I like it. I feel slightly less manly now.

I’m off to rip a phone book in half.

On ‘social anonymity’

Scott Jennings has some interesting thoughts on social networking on his blog Broken Toys. You can read the entry here. The included quote he references is especially worthy. Sites like Facebook allow people to share every mundane event in their lives — and furnishes them the ability to create many more — but does so without the context that comes from everyday conversation that occurs face-to-face, so you are left with a jumble of random updates that don’t resonate or particularly inform. And yet some people post these non-essential bits of personal errata to the point where they wonder if they are becoming addicted to it. (I also realize the irony of talking about all of this on a personal blog.)

When I think about why I post the occasional update to a site like Facebook — which I clearly have a tepid like/hate relationship with — it basically comes down to one thing: attention whoring. I know there is a built-in audience of at least 29 people (my Friends list) and that others via proxy will also see my updates. Everything that’s posted is done in easily-digested chunks. There is no need nor even desire for in-depth discussion. In fact, discussion just gets in the way — it bogs things down and clutters up the page for the next update about not much of anything.

When I write a post here, it is either as a journal entry to myself — the jogging updates, for example — or because I want to muse on a particular subject or experience. Occasionally I post something that fits the Facebook criteria but that occurs less often. And on this blog, I do all of this with the knowledge that the audience is minuscule or accidental. The only time people are likely to see a post here is when I specifically link to it elsewhere. But here I can provide context, I can expand and ruminate. It doesn’t seem so much like attention whoring as genuinely sharing ideas and thoughts. How worthy those thoughts and ideas are is, of course, open to debate.

If I Like R.E.M. on Facebook, it’s a piece of trivia that is irrelevant to people in a general sense, if I write about R.E.M. here it will be something like my recent review of Accelerate that attempts to convey information or opinion with a smidgen of substance behind it.

Ultimately I don’t object to social networking because I can’t articulate why sharing a bunch of random trivia, photos, links and simplistic musings is a terribly bad thing. It just seems unnecessary.