Jim and I ran really long runs on the 4th and again on the 11th. Our goal was 20 miles, and to try something different, Jim wanted to park at the train station on the towpath, which is usually my southern terminus for my runs. I was game to see new parts of the towpath. The only downside was we had to run past the sewage-treatment plant that is just a half-mile south of the station. Jim calls the place the “poo-plant” and I have been referring to it that way as well. The first Saturday was cool and foggy, and the poo-plant was in gag-worthy form. We pressed past the stench, and settled into new (for me) territory.

The trail going south becomes fairly wide, easily accommodating three and even four abreast. About 3 miles or so into the run we came out suddenly near Weathervane Theater, which is a theater Mer and I like that is located in the Valley. That was a fun surprise. We crossed under the road, and ran back into the woods.

There are happily three water stops on this section of the trail. The trail itself is very pretty, with a golf course and a few long bridges, and with the Cuyahoga River plunging down out of sight from the trail. Jim and I got to an old Towpath general store that now houses exhibits on the history of Akron and the Towpath. Jim had thought about turning around here (and we did on the 11th), but I wanted to run to a full hour in that direction, and we were only at 55 minutes, so we pressed on. And up. The trail became paved and went up a fairly long 5% grade. We turned a corner, and there it was. Akron. The actual city of Akron. Not in the distance to the south of us, but right there next to us. We had actually run all the way to Akron. We finished up this segment of the run by crossing over the MLK freeway, which put us right at the edge of downtown. It was amazing how quickly you could go from woods and trails on the Towpath to being in downtown Akron. 

We finished the runs both weeks, but they were very difficult. 20 miles is running for 2:40, and everything after 2:00 is hard, and everything past 2:20 is trying.

Last weekend we had to run on our own, and without Jim watching our pace (usually 8-minute miles), I ran 6.5 miles at a 7:25 pace and that is all I could do.

Usually I take Sundays pretty easy, but a couple of weeks ago (Sunday the 5th), we hooked up with our friends Zach and Londa. Oddly, we have built up a tradition of going to see the singer David Wilcox whenever he comes to town. He was in town in Westlake, a western suburb of Cleveland, about 45 minutes away. Zach was kind enough to drive, so we piled into Zach’s car, and away we went.

It was a pleasant enough trip – lots of talk about CVCA (not surprisingly with three CVCA employees in the car), and we got caught up on Londa’s job as well (she is a proofreader for a Christian publishing company). We made it to Westlake Methodist Church (where the concert was being held) with time to spare. We grabbed a pew in the second row, and we waited the half hour or so for the concert to start.

I love folk music. David Wilcox wandered around the church briefly before the concert. He appeared to have guests there, which makes sense since he is from Ohio, so they could have been family. Once the concert started, we were only about 20 feet from David. I have to give LOTS of credit to Westlake Methodist – I don’t know if I have ever been in a better acoustic space. Both the guitar and lyrics came through richly and fully – it was great. David did a number of his more spiritual songs, but he also sprinkled in a few others as well (including “Captain Wanker” and “Rusty Old American Dream.”). It was a very good concert, and I believe it is the third David Wilcox concert that I have seen with Zach.

After the concert, the audience was invited to the church basement for snacks. David was there, selling CDs and signing them. I had some cookies, and then waited around to tell David thank you for his music. I had to wait a fair while, as the man in front of me was a guitar nerd and was asking David a lot of questions about his guitar and his tunings. That was okay. I thanked David, and the man next to David (whom I took to be David’s engineer) offered me some of his sushi. Did I mention I love folk music (but not sushi)? The man even later offered sushi to everyone that was still around in the basement. It was a fine evening.

Using my spiffy new Nike+/iPod combo, I have been logging my running. I like being in shape, and I hope to be in training for a marathon sometime, but the major driving force of my running is trying to lose some weight that I put on last spring and summer. I have had the iPod working for 16 days (11 workouts) now, including my run today. Let’s review the results! How fun!

12 hours of actual running time
About 88-90 miles of distance covered
About 12,000 calories burned

Wow! That is spectacular, I hear you say. I’m pretty proud of it. Net result: 2 pounds lost. Sigh. Back to the pavement (or the Towpath, which is more likely).

Craig likes to use the term “Jesus Economics” quite a bit. Jesus Economics can probably include many meanings, but I understand it to be two-fold: 1) blessings that come unexpectedly and often in unusual ways, and 2) any economic transaction that makes no sense to the world, especially in light of U.S. materialism.

I have been the happily surprised recipient of Jesus Economics several times in the last year. A few months back, Shannon and James teamed up to give me a camera to replace one that I dropped and broke. That was wonderful, and unexpected.

We recently found out that we have season tickets to Actors’ Summit theater again, but I have no credit card or check book record of having paid for the tickets (and it is unlikely we paid in cash). Again, a wonderful surprise.

Then, Jo gave Shannon a new iPod Nano, so Shannon shipped me his old one (which is not that old – it is a second-generation Nano). Not only did he pay to ship it, but he sent me the Nike+ system that keeps track of your running for you, and he sent along a shoe pouch to hold the part that goes on the shoe. Amazing, and it has been useful and welcome.

Most recently (as in yesterday), our friend Dubbs got an iPhone, and in a very selfless act she gave her “old” iPod Touch to me and Meredith. I’m sure she could have sold it on eBay for $75-100, but she choose to give it to us instead.

I am very grateful to people who love to put other people ahead of themselves. I hope to go all Jesus on some of you in the future, too. 🙂

Ahhhh, the backblog has reached new heights of silly, with this post being about two weeks ago (Saturday, October 4th). For someone with very little social life, I seem to have very little time. I’ll blame my running addiction.

I started this Saturday off in the same fashion that I have been doing for a couple of months – Jim and I went to the Towpath and ran. I may blog about the run soon because I found it interesting, but I’ll spare you for now. After I got home and got cleaned up, Mer and I headed off to Streetsboro to got to an apple-butter making that one of the CVCA folks was hosting.

We found the house with only a little trouble, and found our way around back to where everything was set up. Dennis and his family take apple-butter making seriously! I had no idea. There were a slew of people, and there was tons of food, and a roofed-in shelter where the food was set up, and a cider press, and the most enormous fire spit of chicken and beef I have ever seen. And all of this was set up in front of the ever-present Cuyahoga River, which flowed through the back yard. It was an amazing sight of hospitality.

Mer and I spent a little time watching Dennis operate the cider press. The previous night, Dennis and his family  had peeled and cored 15 bushels of apples, and they used the peels and cores in the press (as well as new apples). They were not wasting anything. Mer and I then helped ourselves to intemperate amounts of food (I was fond of the spicy rice and sausage jambalaya). We were entertained by watching the popular Ohio game of cornhole (where you try to throw beanbags through a hole in a target). It was a pretty day, and this was all most pleasant.

After we were fortified, we wandered over to the huge cauldron where the apple-butter was being made. I had no idea how apple-butter was made, but now I know. You throw peeled and cored apples into a copper cauldron that is over a fire. You add just a little water (or cider – I forget), and start stirring. The apples will boil down to a butter-like consistency, and then you add more apples. You must keep stirring at all times so the mixture does not burn. After about eight hours of this, the cauldron will be full. Then you add sugar and spices, and stir for about another hour, and then you can everything. It was interesting. Oh – and you can only use wooden implements when stirring or tasting – any metal (other than the copper pot) will contaminate the mixture and it will end up tasting metallic.

Both Mer and I had a go at stirring the apple butter, which is more work than you might think. We had a good time chatting with people around the fire, and yes, “Double, double, toil and trouble” did come up more than once. We stayed for about an hour and a half, and then went home, since I clearly needed a nap and Mer had another social outing to go to with some friends of hers.

Ahhh, but our very busy Saturday did not end there – after Mer got home (and I got up), we headed off again, this time to another CVCA-related party at Nate and Rachel’s house in Akron. They had invited us over, so we expected a small to mid-sized gathering of maybe 20 people. Ha! We were told to park next door at a baseball field, and I was quite surprised when I had trouble finding a parking spot. There must have been over 100 people at the party. Turns out that Nate and Rachel invited people from CVCA as well as three different churches that they have relationships with. It was quite the gathering. Craig, his wife, and his youngest child were there, which was much fun. Craig and his family make me laugh. Nate had broken out his deep fryer, and although I had missed the deep fried turkey, I got there in time for the deep fried chicken tenders. Yum! There was also pizza, and salads, and chips, and waayyyyy too much dessert. Meredith and I again ate rather intemperately.

Nate had a projector and (20-foot) screen set up outside, so once it got dark, we all settled back in the now-nippy air to watch National Treasure. The film was totally ridiculous and improbable and ignored common sense everywhere, and I had a great time watching it. It was a foolish movie, but it was still highly entertaining – I really did enjoy it. Combine the movie and the atmosphere and a huge plate of dessert, and you have a great evening. We moseyed home sometime around 10:00. What a grand day.

The backblog bug has struck again – this entry is for two Saturdays ago, the same day I ran my half marathon (September 27th). It was Mer’s Date Day – she was in charge (other than my race – she was very patient with that even though it was certainly not her idea!).

After I cleaned up from the race, Mer took me out for brunch. We headed the short distance to Big Boy, where they had a breakfast buffet available. Mer took advantage of the buffet, but I just had to try the cinnamon French toast. It was nice to just sit and eat after the morning excursion.

Mer ran a few errands while I napped, but then took me a little north to a movie theater to see the movie Fireproof. Mer had seen it just the day before, but she liked the film and likes to share such things, so she was willing to see it again. I knew very little about Fireproof, except that churches were endorsing it. I liked it quite a bit. It is explicitly a Christian movie with a Christian perspective. I thought they did a very good job of portraying tough situations, given that movies can only be about two hours long. I suspect that the movie will be lampooned for having a happy ending, but many movies have happy endings, so I cannot fault it for that. Probably if the name of Jesus were removed from the film and was replaced with self-help language instead, the movie would be getting average to good reviews (the IMDB reviews are mostly polar – either 10’s or 1’s). Anyway, I think the film was good – I don’t think it was a 10, but it was certainly a 7. It made me misty in a couple of places, and actually made me cry in at least one spot (I have a soft spot for men who sacrifice and/or try to get better).

We went home again after the movie. We had theater plans in the evening, so I got spiffed up in my suit. Mer then took us out to dinner – two meals in one day! We headed northward, and ended up at Chick-fil-a. And me in a suit! We had coupons for free sandwiches, and Mer wanted to use them. The fun irony is that it turns out that the coupons were for another location, so we could not use them. Still, I really like Chick-fil-a sandwiches (and their cookies-and-cream shakes!), so that was well. After dinner, Mer had more in store – we went to Starbucks to get dessert, using a gift card that a student gave Mer (I’m still boycotting Starbucks, but will go there when given a gift).

After the food-fest was over, we headed to Hudson to see the first play of the season at Actors’ Summit. I have no record of ever paying for them, but somehow it turns out that we bought season tickets for Actors’ Summit last May, so we get another year of good theater. On this evening, we saw a musical called Main-Travelled Roads, based on the some short stories by Hamlin Garland. It was about turn-of-the-century Wisconsin, and featured four actors who each played at least two roles. I always enjoy seeing multiple role plays because I like to see how actors use voice and posture and body language to define character. The play was well acted, and the singing was very fine. All music was provided by solo piano. The actual story was only okay. I’m not sure why it was not more gripping, but it wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong – it was still a fun evening, but I did not feel very invested in the characters.

A run-13-miles, eat, movie, eat, theater sort of day is a busy but happy one.

Last Saturday was showtime. It was the 6th annual Akron Roadrunner Marathon (and half-marathon), and my second attempt at the half in Akron (my third half overall). I was running it again with my running partner (and boss), Jim, and Mer and Jim’s wife Andy came out to support us.

I described the course in a good amount of detail last year, so I’ll spare you the play-by-play. Some things of interest were different this year. The first was around mile two or so. Jim’s breathing sounded forced, so I asked him how he was doing. He replied that he was okay, but he seemed to be struggling to me. Within a half mile of there, I started to pull away from Jim. I felt bad about it, but I wanted to run well (I was feeling very strong).

Around mile three, I got to see Mer for the first time. She was going nuts in the crowd as always, and I pulled aside and kissed her as is our tradition (dating back to my first marathon in 1998). The crowd around Mer thought it was cute.

Mile 4-5 was rough – it is hilly, and I was fighting some slight pain in my right hip and right Achilles. I was thinking I might have to slow down, but then I crested the hill and was able to rest going down the hill on the other side (thanks for that tip, Mr. Easter, my high school coach!).

I had eaten a TON of food to prepare for the race. I had put on FIVE pounds from Friday morning to Saturday morning. Turns out this was a little too much food – I felt uncomfortable in my stomach, especially when I had Powerade during the race – I actually had to switch to just water after only 6 miles.

I kept missing the mile markers, so between miles six and nine I thought I was way off my pace from last year. I came up on ten miles, and started doing some math, and suddenly realized that my pace had me very, very close to my last year’s time. I tried to maintain my speed. I was boosted by seeing Mer for the second time, with another kiss. I was also cheered on (in a non-lip way) by a friend that was at the race to cheer for her husband – that was a happy surprise.

I got on to the lonely and difficult Innerbelt, a four-lane highway that is mostly a slight uphill for the first half, and is about two miles long. It is right after the marathon and half separate from each other, and so most of the runners leave, and the crowds disappear. It is rough.

I kept checking my watch, and I continued to see that I was going to be very close to last year’s time. The sad thing was that I could not remember what my time was. I knew it was 1:30-something, and I thought it was 1:34 or 1:35. I hit the last stretch leading up to the stadium (the ballpark where the Akron Aeros play is the finish), and I was hurting but kept at it. I managed to cross the finish line in 1:35 something, but I forgot to stop my watch, so I was not sure what my official time was.

It turns out that Jim had a heck of a race – he was feeling really bad, and considered dropping out of the race around mile four. He decided to keep going and treat it as a training run, and then he got a second wind back around mile eight. He finished in 1:37, only about 20 seconds slower than last year – that is a remarkable race for starting poorly.

I got home and looked up my time, and I was very happy. I came in 1:35:34, which was a personal best time by seven seconds. I told you it was close! Given that I was 10 pounds heavier for this race compared to last year, and that it was 5-10 degrees warmer, I was thrilled at this race. I felt as if I ran it well, and I had very little left at the end.

The crowd support for the race was decent, but I had not remembered that there were a few stretches where the spectators got thin. There were two high school bands on the course (one band was positioned so it could be heard three times during the race), two (church?) choirs, and one rock band. The rock band was probably driving people around them nuts – they had a good sound, but they kept singing “There goes my hero / He’s ordinary” over and over. That was awesome for me as a runner, and cheered me up quite a bit (this was around mile seven), but I’m not sure how the people around them were reacting.

The race was well run (ha!). Kudos to Akron. For those who care, here are the finishing details for my race:

13.1 miles
Finish time: 1:35:34
Pace: 7:18 per mile
Overall place: 60th out of 1582 finishers (top 4%)
Gender place: 53rd out of 785 finishers (top 7%)
Division (age) place: 6th out of 129 finishers (top 5%)

10k time: 44:51 (7:14 pace)
15k time: 1:07:46 (7:17 pace — 7:24 pace from 10k to 15k)
Last 3.8 miles – 7:35 pace

Last Wednesday (drat this backblog!) Mer and I were invited to a bonfire and prayer session by one of CVCA’s seniors who is a member of my improv group. Moops (his nickname) is a great kid, and his mom is a music teacher at CVCA as well. I very much wanted to support Moops in his desire to lead a prayer gathering, AND there was going to be food, so off we went. Turns out Moops lives out near where we used to live – it was a good 45-minute drive.

Moops and his family live out in the country, and he has an enormous back yard. We let ourselves in to the house (the front door was open), and met with Moops’s mom, who promptly encouraged us to go out to the back for food. We were greeted by the sight of several students, and Moops’s dad, whom I had never met.

The group was small, but I am pleased to say many of them were affiliated with me in some way. I had one Fool/Ceili Club member, another Fool, and two more Ceili Club dancers show up before the night was out. Not too bad, for me to know four people out of about ten.

The food was simple pizza, but BOY, did it hit the spot. Then, Moops’s mom brought out warm brownies which were made by Moops’s sister. Yum!

We ate and chatted until it started to get dark (probably about 7:00). We all headed to the back of the property where there was a really big pile of tree limbs and brush that had been soaked in gasoline. We pulled up chairs that were set out, and Moops talked a little about the wonder of God and encouraged us to look up at the stars while remembering that God still cares for us. We then sang several songs and hymns a cappella (Moops’s mom IS a music teacher, after all!). It was beautiful.

Some of the students had to leave around 8:15, so Moops set off the bonfire. It was enormous! The flames must have been shooting 30 feet in the air, and the heat was pretty intense even 10 or 15 feet away. The ash from the fire fell downwind and looked like snow. The students put on a little music and danced a couple of line dances, of which I tried one and stank. I’ll stick to ceili dancing, thank you.

Mer and I stayed and talked and laughed with folks until after 9:00. Yes, that means we were out until about 10:00 on a school night! We are such wild things!