Because
there were a few hours between Stan Hywet (see entry below) and my
half-marathon (entry below), Mer and I filled the hours up by going to
CVCA’s Homecoming banquet. This is the CVCA equivalent to public
schools’ Homecoming dances. We don’t have dances at CVCA (although we
have had one square dance, last spring), but we DO get to eat.

It
is good fun to see the students dress up, but Mer has instructed me
that if we ever have a kid, that we need to tell her that when you are
gussied up, you may want to lose the gum. 🙂  That aside, the kids
looked great, and they were well behaved. Most spent the pre-meal
wanderings visiting friends and taking pictures. Mer and I got to sit
at one of two teacher tables, and it is MUCH fun to be at the teacher
table. I think the kids have all of this pressure on them to behave for
their dates, to look good, to see all of their friends, etc. Too much
work for me! The teachers don’t worry about most of that stuff – we
want to eat and laugh. We did quite a lot of both.

The evening entertainment was the kids playing Family Feud based on questions asked at CVCA. It was much fun, and surprising how many had not seen Family Feud
before, and so only knew partly what they were doing.  [Mer’s
note:  Apparently, after we left, there actually WAS some dancing,
of the hokey group variety – word is that our principal does a
kick-butt chicken dance.]

Mer and I had to go a little early (because we had to be up at
5:00 the next morning), so we took off in the middle of CVCA Family
Feud (probably about 9:15 or so). A nice evening. So, all in all, this
last weekend was very busy, but it was also nice.

 Stan Hywet is
always a fun place to go. It is a beautiful house, and the grounds are
extensive and well maintained. Mer and I see Shakespeare at Stan Hywet
every summer, and there are other things that go on there as well.

This
last Saturday was Ohio Mart, a fundrasier where craftsmen set up booths
on the grounds and sell their wares. Stan Hywet gets part of the
proceeds to help maintain the grounds. Mer and I got free tickets, so we
decided to go. We pictured a few booths scattered around the grounds
with a few people milling around looking  at handmade dresses and
stained glass.

Boy, were we wrong. Our first clue that maybe Ohio
Mart was a bigger deal than we thought was that the parking at Stan Hywet,
which is ample, was full. We were directed to Firestone High School to
park, a 1.3 mile walk. We could have waited for a shuttlebus, but the
line was enormous and it was a perfect day, so we walked.

Once we
got on the grounds, we saw that there were lots of people, and there
were several huge tents for the vendors. There were people everywhere.
We decided we would take things mellow, and we wandered around the
grounds, heading toward the back of the property. We found a small road
that took us to the back of the grounds, where we had never been. It
was wonderful. There were no people back there, and it was really
pretty. Here are (many) pictures of the back side of the property. I
recommend checking it out if you get to Stan Hywet sometime.

A perfect day!

The grounds have a Japanese-influenced garden.

We
did poke around in the vendor tents, and the stuff was nice. There was
a cool exhibit of quilts in the house itself. Still, the real show was
the grounds. We stayed for two hours or so, then walked
back to the car. A very nice afternoon.

Sunday morning, things were not looking good. Conventional wisdom is
that you want a good sleep the two nights before a race. Friday
night/Saturday morning I woke up early and often. Saturday itself was
very busy (that is another post), and I did not get to bed until 11:00
and I woke up at 4:00 with cramps. I was tired and did not feel good.
But, I had been training for this for months, and spent $45 to run a
long ways, so I was going to give it a try.

Conventional wisdom
also tells you to hydrate by drinking a lot. I drank a glass of water
and a 32-ounce bottle of Gatorade for breakfast, along with two
English muffins with raspberry jelly for the carbs. Mer, ever
supportive of her insane husband, was up early for the privilege of
getting to see me for about a total of 1 minute during the actual race
– in this case, the start, once in the middle, and at the end. I
married me a good ‘un.

Anyway, after I went to the bathroom
(again), we climbed into the car and started off north. I got all of a
half hour away before I had to stop at a gas station to use the
bathroom again. Then, we made it another 15 minutes before I stopped at
school to use the bathroom. Again. We finally made it to our
destination around 7:30 a.m. for the 8:00 start time. By 8:00, I really
had to go to the bathroom. Again. So started my first ever
half-marathon at the Cuyahoga Valley Towpath Half-Marathon.

Here
is my “before” picture standing in front of the Boston Mills ski slope.
For those of you not from NE Ohio, there is one major valley, known as
“The Valley.” Everyone around here will know what you are talking
about. The few ski slopes in the area ski down into the Valley. As far
as I could see, Boston Mills makes my hometown ski slope, Spruce
Mountain, look huge. But I digress.

Despite the sleep and
bathroom issues, the day itself was shaping up to be a wonderful day
for running. The sun was out (if not yet really over the horizon), and
the starting temperature was somewhere in the low 50s. This is the
first year the Towpath Marathon had offered a half-marathon, so there
were about twice as many people at the starting line as had been in
previous years – probably close to 900. I somehow was near the front
(probably from my wandering up to the starting line early to stretch).
The organizers had a man sing the National Anthem just before the race
started. There is something special about hearing “The Star Spangled
Banner” in the early morning light with a bunch of anxious runners who
all cheer when they hear the song. Neat.

Anyway, the race
started, and I started running. As an additional bonus to my morning, I
had forgotten my watch, so I had no idea how fast I was running. I just
started running at a pace I thought was comfortable. To my great
surprise, I started passing a lot of people. To be fair, the
marathoners were in the group, so they had a long ways to go yet. But,
still, I was surprised. I have not been a “passer” in many a year, and
I was worried that I was going out too fast. Without my watch, I had no
way to know, but I felt good, so I just kept running. Well, I mostly
felt good. (***ATTENTION – perhaps too much personal
information ahead!***) I really really needed a tree so I
could relieve myself, but the first two miles of the race were on a
road, so there was no good opportunity. Even after we got into the
park, things were looking dim on the bathroom front. The few
porta-potties on the course had lines, and I have no great aversion to
using the woods (I did grow up in Maine, after all).

Imagine my
surprise when I rediscovered that the Towpath (as in an old towpath)
had a river on one side, and the old canal on the other. I did not
relish the idea of getting my feet wet to go to the bathroom, plus I
did not want to go in a body of water. Plus, I am shy, and I prefer a
private area for these things. If I seem to be spending much time on
this issue, I am. It was a very important issue to me! I did not find a
nice field until around the four-mile mark. I tore my legs up on
pricker bushes, but boy, was it worth it. I felt so much better!

I
also felt good. I still had no idea how fast I was going, but I felt
strong and I was still passing people. I was worried about burning out,
but for the time being, I went with it. I also discovered that for much
of the race, I was with serious runners who were focused. While most of
the runners would respond to a “Nice job!” or “Good morning!”, that was
it. There was very little banter or conversation. This is odd to me,
since I have often hooked up with another runner in long races just by
chatting. Odd.

Anyway, the trail was stunningly beautiful. The
sunlight was slanting through the trees (keeping us in shade!), the
leaves were pretty and falling and smelling wonderful. My body felt
great, and I experienced some rare moments of true beauty.

As the
myriad fans of Musings know, I am a Christian. My faith is largely
intellectual – Christianity makes sense to me, logically and
intellectually. I occasionally “feel” God, but not often. I am 1) male,
2) from Maine, and 3) a Riordan, so I do not express emotion very well,
so sometimes I struggle to have an emotional link to God. Sunday, God
gave me one of those rare times. I was surrounded by natural beauty and
I was rejoicing in the gift of my body – I felt strong and “the nature”
around me was so beautiful. I felt a peace and love that connected me
back to God. What a great feeling. Those moments are rare, but are so
worth the training.

The trail also has some pretty cool man-made
stuff going on too. Since the trail is in the Valley, we got to run
under one of the bridges spanning the Valley. I don’t often get to see
a 150-foot bridge from the underside, but it is pretty darn cool. There
are also some remains of the old canal still in existence too. I’ll
have to bring Sonotmu there sometime – he likes bridges, and OrangeJoJo
will like the trail too (Orange leaves! Everywhere!).

I got to
the 6.7-mile turn-around spot (a painted dot on the trail) and I turned
around. I was still feeling great. I felt a little wind in my face, and
that worried me – maybe I had been feeling good because of a tailwind,
and now I was going to have to run 6 miles into that wind. But after a
minute or so, I never noticed the wind again.

Soon after the turn around, a man I passed announced “only 45 minutes
left to go” and I thought he was nuts. We still had 6 or so miles to go
– that is almost an hour by my normal pace. Still, I took this as a
good sign – maybe I was going fast, and I still felt good.

I got
to see Mer at a trail head around mile 9. I love that she supports me.
It gives me something to look forward to, and for all her waiting and
patience, she gets a nasty, sweaty kiss for her troubles.

After
the morale boost from Mer at the trail head, I only had about 4 miles
to go. Mile 9-10 was the first time I started to feel tired, but I was
still passing people. Finally, at mile 10 (3 miles to go), I started to
get really tired, but I also managed to strike up a conversation with
another runner. He had run a half-marathon before, and he was running
about my pace. I told him my goal was to break two hours, and he said
that was not going to be a problem – we were going much faster than
that.

At that point, we started pushing each other – I did not
want to leave him by my walking, so although I was tired, I kept up the
strong pace. A shared burden really is easier (especially when some
competition is involved!). I was taking things one mile at a time, and
I was determined that my will could be exerted to keep my tired legs
pumping along. I was very happy when we got to mile 12 – only one more
mile to go. There was a group of three of us by that time running
together. We pushed each other until we could hear the finish line.
Brian (the runner I had hooked up with at mile 10) gave us some
encouragement and took off. I got to the finish area (the Boston Mills
General Store) and passed the 13 mile mark. You would think that .1
mile would not be much – only about 530 feet. How hard could that be?
Darn hard! I gutted it in as hard as I could. I was thrilled – I had
shattered my goal, and I had “left it all on the course” – I had run
hard and was beat. I was thrilled. What a great day!

For
those who like numbers, here they are. I am very proud of this race. I
had a goal of breaking 2 hours with a secret goal of 1:45 (I always
have a secret pie-in-the-sky goal). I broke both! 🙂

2006 Towpath Half-Marathon (13.1 miles), Sunday October 8:

1:40:28 finish time, 7:40/mile pace

Finished 9th out of 37 in my class (35-39, male) and finished 47th out of 399 overall.

What a great race. Thanks to Mer for her uncomplaining support and thanks to God for some very special moments.

Last weekend, Mer’s parents were in town, so we took a trip to Amish country. It is a pretty drive, and the food is fantastic. We saw 5 or 6 buggies, and I saw one work (cargo) wagon pulled by two horses. I like it down there (south of us by about an hour and a half).

For Sonotmu’s sake, I’ll post this. He likes junk food, and he likes a bargain. Amish bakeries are full of both. Here is the chocolate chip cookie cake Mer and I bought for (ready for this, Sonotmu?) less than $5.00.

I check CNN.com every work day to check the tech and science sections.
Today, when I checked, there was a big yellow banner of “Breaking
News!” about a possible shooting at a school in Minnesota. I got
interrupted, and when I came back, there was a new “Breaking News!”
banner about Anna Nicole Smith “exchanging vows” with Howard Stern on a
boat. Their lawyer explained the vows were not legally binding.
1) And they say romance is dead.
2) What is wrong with the media, and by extension, our country? Since
when does “news” about two celebrities doing something trite and
meaningless trump a news story about a possible school shooting? I love
my country, but sometimes we are a bunch of idiots.

Mer and I just got back from a picnic lunch put on by our church and the Kent branch of the China Outreach Ministries,
where we were able to have lunch with graduate students from China,
Taiwan, Malaysia, and India. Talk about your assembled brain power! Mer
and I got to talk to Sinu (from India) who is entering his
PhD program for some kind of human genetics (I forget the official
term for the study), and we had a long conversation with a professor at
Kent, who was at the picnic with her very cute daughter and with her
mother. She spoke very good English, having studied in the Northwest
for six years before coming to Kent.

One of the great things about America is that it is still a desirable place for foreigners to come to. It is really
cool to get to interact with people from other cultures and
experiences. Since it was a church function, we were certainly willing
to talk about God, but not in a forceful way. Mer and I talked a little
about God and Christianity with the professor and a little with Sinu,
but both times were natural enough in the conversation. Mostly it was
about showing love and hospitality to people who may still be getting
used to America (Sinu has only been in Kent for a month).

We did
get to finish the afternoon up with getting to see the students riding
horses (if they wanted to). The professor and Sinu both took the
opportunity. What a nice way to spend an afternoon – people from
five countries coming together to eat in New Baltimore, Ohio. How fun
is that?

I love fall. It is my favorite time of year. The days get cooler, I get “good sleepin’ weather” at night, the leaves turn pretty colors. One of my stranger addictions during the fall is running. I love to run during the fall. When the air turns crisp, I get edgy if I am not running (fortunately only a couple of times over the last 8 years).

This week the temperature dropped into the 60’s. Things were still humid, but I was able to get three 1-hour runs in. I ran twice with the CVCA cross country team, which on Thursday made me run faster than I normally do, and keep doing the hilly-loop part of our woods trail, which was hard. But it felt good.

There is some point for me in running where running becomes peaceful. That usually happens when I can run for about an hour comfortably. That happened this week – my runs allowed my body to do its thing while I was able to enjoy my surroundings and think (or not think). Granted, the uphill parts on Thursday were not in this category (I was running hard by the end), but running is comfortable again.

I have a pattern at work where I have a “crash” around 1:30 where I am tired. It usually lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. The odd thing is that during these times, I really look forward to my run. My runs are my time – where I can be by myself, be away from computers, where I can think about my day, about God, or about other big (or small) issues. I have also been using running time to listen to books-on-tape (or books-on-Shuffle), which is a great use of the time.

I started training this year for an unknown marathon. Usually I have a specific marathon targeted. This year, all the marathons seem to be in late September or early October, which I won’t be ready for (I’m behind schedule for a marathon by about three weeks). So, running has been largely its own end, but I do have my eye on the Towpath Half Marathon. I should be ready for that, and I have never run a half marathon before (a half marathon is 13.1 miles, or about two hours of running for me). I like having a goal in my running – it keeps me on task. But at the end of the day (literally the end of my work day right now), running is something I like to do. I have been running on and off since I was in eighth grade (22 years).

Next week is looking fantastic – temperatures in the high 50’s or low 60’s and dry. I should be able to move up to a couple of hour-and-a-half runs next week. Oddly, it will be one of the best parts of my day.

I clicked on this picture in my blog to see it more closely (I like it).

Xanga, as many have noticed, has advertisements across the top of the page that are linked to what is on that Xanga page – a form of directed marketing.

When I clicked on this picture, the ad at the top of the page became a 2-choice survey asking which of two Victoria’s Secret models was “hotter.” I can ONLY conclude that the ad came up because I was looking at pictures of Riordan mega-babes. The proof is in the advertising!

Last weekend, Sonotmu flew out to Ohio to visit me and Mer. At least that is what we told ourselves. I am SURE it had nothing to do with OrangeBlogger being
on a business trip to Pittsburgh, which is conveniently located only 2
hours from our house. But I get ahead of myself.

Since Sonotmu
flew out on Friday, he agreed to fly in at 4:30 so he could attend the
staff picnic at CVCA and see a home football game. Mer and I had
forgotten that non-Christian and/or city-folk do not go to potluck
suppers very often (we Christians like to eat!). Sonotmu was pretty
impressed with the amount of food available, and even better was the
huge variety of desserts available. Readers of OrangeBlog will know
that Sonotmu has bet off desserts for September. *I* had no problem
eating 2 helpings. We had lots of good food, and had lots of laughs
with Mr. Churchill and his girlfriend (they are great people).

Since
we had time before kickoff, I showed Mer and Sonotmu the new cross
country trail at CVCA, which I am strangely proud of even though I had
nothing to do with building it. Still, the finished part is really
nice, and I took the opportunity to explore the rougher unfinished
part. ATTENTION, younger folk: do NOT take your love tromping through
the woods when she is in a skirt and dress sandals. The trail was cool,
but Mer had some trouble traversing parts of it. In her defense, she
laughed about it. Later.

We got back to the football game having missed 2 minutes or so, and we hooked up with Ombudsman and his kids. They were most amusing, but had to leave near halftime due to bedtimes (the kids’, not Ombudsman’s).

Anyway,
the game was quite exciting, and it was the first high school game
Sonotmu had been to since high school (17 years). CVCA won, 17-7, and
it was a most entertaining time. After the game, I got to introduce
Sonotmu to our local (non-Starbucks) coffee house Rico Latte where we got hot chocolate (not considered a dessert by the official scorekeeper, OrangeBlogger).

We all slept in some on Saturday, and Sonotmu was feeling edgy, so I took him to Quail Hollow State Park
to tromp around in the woods again. It was a nice morning, but I was
disappointed in the trail marked “Beaver Pond,” where the pond appeared
to be an algae-encrusted water hole that was about 15 feet across.
Still, a nice walk.

We also watched some DVDs (including the last
half of a Royal Fools show). But the big excitement of the day was the
road trip to Pittsburgh. We drove there, and Sonotmu had promised
OrangeBlogger that we would be there unless hit by a hurricane. So, of
course, we spent about 45 minutes driving through one of the heaviest
downpours I have seen in a long time. Mer compared it to a car wash
(which our car needed). We got there safely, and found OrangeBlogger in
her VERY swanky hotel, the William Penn Hotel. Mer and I did not get to stay in a hotel like that at our business (ASCI) conference last year….

Pittsburgh was south of the heavy rain, and it was a beautiful day. We walked about a mile to Station Square,
a cool shopping complex, where we ate at a Chinese restaurant. The food
was great (get the lettuce-wrapped chicken appetizer). After supper,
Sonot and Orange wandered off to be romantic by shooting zombies with
shotguns in the arcade while Mer and I ate chocolate while sitting on a
bench.

We then rode the Incline trains up the hill. I handled it
better this time (from when I was in Pittsburgh with Diakonos last
spring), but it is still high and steep. For some reason there were
fireworks going off in the northeast part of the city, so we watched
those for about 15 minutes. They were really good fireworks, too. We
wandered around the top of the hill and visited a really cool Catholic
church. We also got to see the ridiculous site of a man embracing a
woman in a romantic spot while she blathered on her cell phone. People
are odd.

We
took the nice walk back to the hotel, where the non-dessert-eating
Orange gave us her hotel mints. They really should have these bets more
often. We then drove out of the city, after only one wrong turn. A very
nice evening.

The next day being Sunday, we went to church
and Sunday School. We then went home and ate, and went back to Quail
Hollow (with Mer this time) to stroll around some more. We got back
home to catch the Bills-Patriots game on TV, but had to leave during
the fourth quarter to get Sonot back to the Akron Canton airport.

Sonot
has an interesting travel life. He seems to be able to only have one
leg of a trip go smoothly. Since his flight to Ohio went well, I have
no idea why we did not check on his flight before we left for the
airport. Mer and I go home to have Sonot call to let us know his flight
was canceled. So, we took the 25 minute trip back to the airport to get
him. To make up for the flight, I ordered pizza for us, one perpperoni
and one green pepper (Sonot is a vegetarian). When we got home, we
discovered we had two pepperoni pizzas. It was that kind of night for
Sonot. But, we got to spend some more time watching football, and I got
him to the airport the next morning where everything went smoothly,
getting Sonotmu back to work by 7:30 a.m. (in Chicago).

All in all, a very very nice weekend.

Oh – odd note – Mer and I have now seen Sonot and Orange in Chicago, Los Angeles, and in Pittsburgh in the last 5 weeks.

Sorry
for the many work-induced delays, but here at last is the post where I
get to rave about my perfect niece. A couple of weeks ago Mer and I got
go out to southern California to see our niece get baptized. It was
quite a wonderful weekend.

I *know* that she is related to me and so I am biased, but I think
Sammy is great. She is the least fussy baby I have ever seen. I think
in a little over 3 days I saw her fussing about a total of 10 minutes.
Of course, being ADORABLE, she had me wrapped around her very tiny
finger. If she fussed and we were alone, she immediately got picked up
and walked around the apartment while I introduced her to alternate
scales by humming random tunes.

Mom
and Dad are rightfully proud. Sammy was born about 10 weeks premature,
and so she has had some rough times. She has come through them well,
and she seems fine. I guess it takes some time for premature babies to
“catch up” to their real age, but with that taken into account, Sammy
is doing fine. She is VERY curious about what is going on, as you can
see from the picture with Mom and Dad.

I was very honored to be asked to be a godparent (along with Auntie
Jolene). My understanding is that, along with praying for Sammy and
being there for her, I am required by spiritual duty to buy her lots of
gifts as often as possible. It is quite a responsibility.

We did some other things in L.A. other than adore Sammy, but I’ll let
this entry be all about her (as is appropriate for my only niece). I’ll
leave you with a picture of my (obvious genius) niece mulling over the
various merits of her playmat toys. She clearly needs more…