Pre’s Trail

The other day, when I ran and freaked myself out while listening to a podcast, I was running on Pre’s Trail.  I don’t think he ever ran there (and certainly not on the trail as it exists now – it was built after he died), but it was built as a tribute to him.  It was his idea, inspired by the soft-surface running trails he had seen in Scandinavia.  The soft surface is why I’m running on it now.  Well, that and it’s Pre’s Trail and it’s close to our house.  I’m still working my way back up to normal running, and I think technically I’m still supposed to be on a treadmill, but I really wanted to get outside, and the wood chip-covered trail is way better for me than the hard paths in the park.  What I didn’t anticipate is how dusty and dirty I’d get.  Until this past week or so, all of my outside running, for years, has been on paved paths.  Unless there are puddles, you just don’t get dirty on paved paths.  On this bark and dirt path, though, every step I take kicks up dust and pieces of wood, and it gets everywhere.  When I get home, I have to take my shoes off outside and shake them out.  My socks are brown with the dirt that sifted into my shoes, and when I take my socks off, my toes are covered with the dirt that somehow sifted through the fabric of my socks.  And my calves!  All dirt up to my knees.  When I take my socks off, I look like I have a really dark tan line right around my ankle.  I assure you, I do not.  It’s straight-up dirt, so it’s pretty much directly into the shower for me when I get back every time.  Do not stop and rest, do not go into the kitchen, DO NOT PASS GO.

Even with the dirt, though, I like it.  My feet don’t hurt, and it’s pretty.  I’m in and out of woods, sometimes next to a pond or a canal.  The paved paths are pretty, too, and since this trail is only 4 miles long, I’ll probably go back to them once I get back to that distance, but I think it’ll be a while.  I’m still following my physical therapist’s instructions and sticking to 30 minutes only.  I think I have one more run at 1 minute walk, 5 minutes running, and then I’ll graduate to 20 minutes of running, no walking.  I’ll do that three times, every other day, then 25 minutes three times, then 30 minutes three times, and then I’m back to normal.  I hope.  Then I can go back to working on distance.  Just in time for winter.  Can’t wait!

Yup, still weird

I biked in the park this afternoon for the first time in a couple of weeks, and once again, the park didn’t let me down.  Today, I saw the biker guy from The Village People walking down the sidewalk with a calico cat on his shoulder.  It’s just as well the guy was wearing a leather motorcycle jacket (although I don’t know how he can handle that in 95 degree heat) because that cat must have had her claws in deep to be as still as she was.

Whiteaker Block Party

Whiteaker is the funky, artsy, be-weird-it’s-encouraged neighborhood in downtown Eugene, and there’s a huge block party there every year.   It was today, and the band John is in (yes, he’s still in the band I keep promising to talk about) played on one of the many stages this afternoon (they were great).  We wandered around for a bit afterwards, taking in the sights.  Like this guy:

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He’s riding a motorized wheelchair, no shirt, with a carousel horse attached in front to lead the way and a trailer full of what appears to be Ninkasi beer (the brewery is on the other side of the street from him).  If I ever need a motorized wheelchair, I want it to be pulled by carousel horses, too.

Also, someone has stenciled these cute little birds on the sidewalk around the neighborhood.

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Pictures of athletes, not much of substance. Heh, like I ever say anything of substance.

Ignore the random people in this picture.  I think it’s a cool sign.

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We were THIS close to the track….

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…and it was a beautiful day.

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And look!  The women competing in the heptathlon getting ready for their 200m race.  Butts in the air…

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Pushing off the blocks…

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Burst of energy at the beginning of a short, fast race.

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Check it out!  It’s Maggie Malone, she of the cool name and the world-class javelin-throwing arm.

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And HERE is a picture that shows all three of the men who will be running the 5000m race for the US in Rio.  You can see Lagat (check his bib) and the other two are in Chelimo (in the Army shirt in front) and Mead, in the green shirt behind.  took that picture because I was that close.  Such a cool day.

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Olympians

Yesterday was the coolest day.  We went to the next to last day of the US Track and Field Olympic Trials at Hayward Field (home of Prefontaine and Bill Bowerman), and it was INCREDIBLE.  It’s highly unlikely we’ll ever watch the actual Olympic Games in person, but yesterday, we got to watch the best track and field athletes in the US compete for a spot on the US Olympic team – those were actual Olympians, and it was unbelievable to watch.  I mean, I’m saying this even about sports I don’t care about and know nothing about, like the high jump and the javelin throw.  Those were neat to see (and the woman who won the javelin throw has the best name – Maggie Malone), but we were really there for the running events.  Us and everyone else, really.  The place was packed by the time the men’s 5000m final started.  Watching an Olympic (near-Olympic 5K) is NOTHING like watching a neighborhood 5K.  There were 16 men competing, and since we didn’t know anything about any of them, we decided to cheer for the oldest guy, Bernard Lagat, who is 41 years old and holds the American record at this distance.  I got video of them coming around during the first lap.

I forgot to mention that we had AMAZING SEATS.  We were right in the center of the long straight stretch of the track, on the starting line side (behind them – we could see butts in the air at the start), IN THE FIFTH ROW.  We were on the wrong side for the finish, but we could see plenty.

My plan was to get that video (accomplished), then conserve my battery (I was down to 13%) and get another short video as they came around for the final lap.  That first lap was relatively slow, and I wanted to be able to contrast that to the effort they’d be putting in on the final lap.  On a track, a 5K is 12 and a half laps long, so I had plenty of time to watch a few laps and then get ready to record again.  The race was crazy exciting.  Two guys were out front at first, but they tired out and didn’t end up staying in front.  Then there were another two in front (way out front), and then, right at the end, everyone else started catching up.  The guy we were cheering for, Lagat, was in the middle of the pack the whole time…right up until that last half-lap, when he SURGED AHEAD AND WON.  The 41-year-old won the race.  It was incredible, and I was screaming my head off and then his face crumpled in happy tears and so did I.  I was highly susceptible to those athletes’ emotions yesterday.  So was the lady next to me.

Anyway, I’d have video of that last lap (or at the least the part right in front of us, like in the earlier video – I had every intention of cheering, not recording, as they headed to the finish), but my phone chose the moment I pressed the record button to crap out on me and tell me my camera crashed.  SO ANNOYED.  This is the last disappointment I’ll take from you, phone.

You can watch official video of that last lap (like I just did) here.  If you pause the video at 41 seconds and squint, I think you can see John (grey jacket and his hat) and a blur that might be me, 5th row.  Or I might be imagining it.  But we’re there!

It was so cool.  Honestly, seeing this in person was one of my top five reasons for moving to Eugene.  Tomorrow I’ll post some of the pictures I took.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Rock Star Astrophysicist

We saw Neil deGrasse Tyson last night at the Hult Center, where he gave a talk called “An Astrophysicist Goes to the Movies”, and it was great.  He’s a funny guy, and he treats his audience like the intelligent geeks we all are (seriously – we were surrounded by our people).  If you ever get a chance to go see him, I say go.

It was a night out for us, so we got semi-dressed up, went out to dinner at the nicest restaurant within 4 blocks of our house (Oregon Electric Station, which used to be a train station, and is pretty darn nice, actually), and then walked the one additional block to the Hult Center.

Then we climbed four stories to our seats in the upper balcony.

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No nosebleeds, but I was afraid to lean forward.  The screen for his presentation was GIANT, which is a good thing because I couldn’t see him at all.  He was a blur – my eyesight sucks.  Although maybe everyone would have a problem seeing details at that distance.

Still, it was a good time, lots of laughter, lots of funny (and well-handled) heckler moments.  His books are now on my To Read list (where they should have been before).

Too close

I saw a raccoon on my bike ride, right in the middle of the highly-traveled, well-populated park.  It was the middle of the afternoon, not dark, not all that overcast, and in the spot where I saw it, there were half a dozen people running, walking, and biking in both directions on the path RIGHT NEXT TO THE RACCOON.  There was also a guy on a bench nearby watching it.  I sent him a “Was that really a raccoon?” incredulous look, and he gave me a “Seems to be.  What can you do?” shrug in return.  I know Eugene is in the Pacific Northwest, and by definition, that makes it closer to nature than anywhere else I’ve lived, but I think today’s encounter (fine, “encounter”) took it a step too far.

The raccoon was in the grass between the sidewalk and the trees (with the river on the other side of the trees), and it was barely in the grass – less than a foot from the sidewalk, I think.  It was HUGE – bigger than Roxy, smaller than Riley – and it had its front paws on the ground and its back arched like a cartoon cat.  Really big head.  I didn’t have much time to think about it, but if I’d been any further away when I saw it, I might not have ridden by it so close.  I whizzed by with no more than 3 feet in between us, I think.  It happened so quickly I didn’t have time to be nervous.

Fact: raccoons don’t look so cute when they’re that big and that close.

Getting comfortable

Have I mentioned that I really like riding my bike places? One evening last week, we rode to the library, hung out for a bit, and then rode another couple of blocks to this really good pizza place.  Will was in town, so he joined us, and we ate pizza outside and then rode home.

Remember the guy we saw last October, the one playing the recorder with a cat on a leash at his feet?  He’s still around.  And there’s a drum circle that meets across the street from the market every Saturday – John does not see the point of drum circles.  Last weekend we found a game store that hosts game nights.  The plan is to go, meet people, play games.

I like it here.

Barely a river

I biked to Massage Envy this afternoon for my facial, and on my way home, I detoured down to the riverbank.  My whole ride is along the riverbank, but I followed one of the wider paths to a quasi-beach.

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I like the funny little tree islands.

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It was a little before 3pm, and, like you’d expect in the middle of a Monday afternoon, no one was around.

COMPLETELY UNLIKE YESTERDAY.

Yesterday, I could barely see the river for the people.  This past weekend was SO HOT, mid to upper 90s.  Not as humid as the east coast, but still pretty damn hot for a state that doesn’t believe in air conditioning.  The entire city of Eugene was on, in, or next to the river yesterday afternoon.  We went shopping for a portable A/C, which now resides happily in our bedroom.

Today is hot, tomorrow will hot, and then the temperature for the next 10 days will be in the low 70s or 60s.  I WELCOME THE COOL.

Rose garden with actual roses this time

There’s this really nice house I see on my bike ride with a really nice backyard.  The back is all tall wrought-iron fence, and there are rose bushes blooming along the top of the fence every few feet.  Pretty.  The other day I noticed that the yard between the patio and the fence was all dirt, and I briefly wondered what they were going to plant there.  Today as I rode by, I noticed it looked different, but I was a couple minutes past it before I figured out what it was.  (I’m very observant.)  Sod!  They sodded the whole thing.  Maybe it didn’t register because it was still flat?  Very green, very nice.  I might not have noticed at all, or it wouldn’t stuck in my head, except that our yard has fresh sod (fresh from March, I think), and you can still see the edges of each piece.  I wonder how long it takes for it to all mesh together?

Now, have some pretty.

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Rose garden, but without the roses

John and I went for a walk the other day (the one I could barely walk back from), and I took a bunch of pictures of this really nice public rose garden.  Today, though, I’m not showing you any roses.  Sorry.

First this sort of sweet, sort of really strange bench.  Does it want to hug you?  Squeeze the life out of you?  Feel you up inappropriately?  Hard to say.

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Then, this tree.  It’s some sort of cherry tree that was planted in 1847, and now it needs cables to keep it together.  No climbing allowed, sadly.

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It was a really nice morning.

Foot Update

By Sunday afternoon, my foot didn’t hurt anymore (I didn’t run on it – that helped), so I bought the shoes I said I wasn’t going to buy.  Then I took Monday off entirely (because my foot hurt while I was testing the shoes at the store) and biked Tuesday – still no running.  Wednesday, my foot didn’t hurt all day, so I figured I’d test it out.  It was not a good test.  I didn’t even make it half a mile before I could feel the discomfort coming back, so I walked back home and called my new doctor (who I haven’t actually met yet – I have an appointment for late May).  They have after-hours appointments with PAs, and they had one for that night at 6:45, so I went.

Inconclusive, of course, but the PA said he didn’t think it was a stress fracture (which was my worst case scenario, according to Google) because it doesn’t hurt ALL the time and I can stand on it without pain (after the pain from running has receded).  Basically, I should use ibuprofen and see if it goes away.  He said I could run if I can handle it, and if it doesn’t go away in another week or two, I should see a podiatrist and maybe get a bone scan.

Eugene is TrackTown, USA.  I must run.

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Regressing

I finally put a basket on my bike!  I’ve been meaning to do that since I bought the bike years ago.  We biked over to the bike store, bought the basket, attached it to the bike, and then biked to Trader Joe’s for bread, milk, and flowers.

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I swear I didn’t just buy the flowers so I could bike home with them peeking out of my new basket.  Now I need a light and a bell.  And possibly a rack to go over the rear wheel.  I can’t wait to bike to the library!  Yes, I’m a grown-up.  I’m a grown-up in Eugene, where EVERYone has a bike.

More mildly strange, but closer to home this time

Our house is on a pretty quiet street.  One side of the house (the side my office is on) is on an alley that slices through the block and is shared by at least 8 other houses.  There’s plenty of room, but it gets used as a shortcut pretty often, sometimes by residents (I think) and sometimes by random people (I think).  Yesterday, I was startled by someone singing.  It was so loud, I thought someone was in the room with me, even though there’s basically no space behind my chair, so that’s impossible.  I froze for a second, freaked out a bit, and then looked out the window.  There was this woman with headphones and a discman* very slowly walking down the alley by our house, singing her heart out.  Then she stopped, right under my window (I don’t think on purpose – she wasn’t looking at the house).  It was weird.  I hid from her.  I’m aware that that is also weird.

*The dream of the 90s is alive.  I know that’s Portland, but based on my experiences this past month, it applies to Eugene, too.  There is a real, honest-to-god, working pay phone (that takes COINS!) in town (maybe more than one, but I’ve only seen one), and I saw a woman wearing basically this outfit last week.

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If that doesn’t scream “I can’t leave the 90s behind”, I don’t know what does.

I am a failing failure who fails

Shoot, I missed a day.  For those of you keeping track at home, yesterday is the first day I have missed since November 22nd.  And….now I’ll just have to give up.  Missing one day is the same as screwing up whole lives, right?  I’d better lock my doors.  The scary witch who lives in the woods at the top of the hill might be after me now.

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This is about two blocks from our house.  Maybe three.  And sadly for the scary witch,  her view out the front door (and down the hill) is of railroad tracks.  Not so scenic.  I should stop giving her reasons to come after me, since she’s obviously a dedicated reader (because who isn’t?), and I have let her down by skipping yesterday.

(Really, I am annoyed.  I could keep it up during a cross-country move but I can’t remember to blog on a normal Sunday? I am disappoint.)

SETI is alive and well in Eugene

The other day, in the park (where you could be forgiven for thinking I LIVE now), I saw a couple of sheriff’s deputies roaming the tree line between the path and the river with these big grid-like antenna things (like an old-fashioned TV antenna).  Naturally, I assumed they were searching for aliens.  I’ve checked the news and haven’t heard anything about it.  I shouldn’t be surprised.  That’s just the sort of thing they would keep quiet.  I’ll just have to pay more attention.

The truth is out there.

What does one do with a leprechaun?

Eugene has a real leprechaun.  I’m not kidding – I saw him yesterday.  He had a green top hat, a green shirt, a gray beard (medium length, not quite ZZ Top), and he was riding a green bicycle.  I couldn’t tell if he had a pot of gold, and then he got away from me.  He was on his bright green bike, and I was running.  Couldn’t keep up.  I’ll keep an eye out for him.

Oh, I know – he got away because I wasn’t wearing my shamrock necklace.  Damn.  Gotta plan my accessories better.

Outside

We went hiking today!  Okay, “hiking”.  Fine.  We went for a walk.  We live at the base of Skinner Butte, and there’s a trail that winds around it to get to the top.  After more than two weeks of looking at it, we finally climbed it.  I think the walk up is prettier than the views from the top.  We’re going to have to get out of town to get the truly spectacular views.

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Paths.  I love my paths.

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I was waiting for something to come crawling out of this tree trunk.

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Overgrown path…and I have a picture of these GIANT primordial ferns, but I get an error when I try to transfer it to my laptop, so you’ll just have to imagine the giant ferns.  I noticed that when we went hiking with Will and Christina last October.  The woods looked prehistoric.  I expected dinosaurs to come charging through.  Not so much THESE woods, but I want to get out of town again soon.

Couple of views from the top, facing south.

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I think that peak is Spencer Butte, but what do I know?