Mileage, Caves, and Trail-Running with the Stars

Mission Accomplished
With very little fanfare, almost no pomp, and a definite lack of circumstance, I surpassed my goal for running 2010 miles in the year 2010 last weekend. According to my scrupulously kept records, I passed the 2010-mile mark about halfway up the Phoneline trail in Sabino Canyon. To make the momentous occasion even more memorable, I celebrated with a big swig of Gatorade and a bite of peanut butter flavored Clif bar. Woo-hoo. This was so momentous and meaningful that I think I’ll go for 2011 next year (since it will be 2011 next year – get it?).

The Cave - Continued
Some of you may be familiar with Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” which is relevant to this entry because, as some of you may already know, we currently have a cave under our kitchen. On the other hand, the more I think about it, the more I realize that Plato’s allegory is all about how perception and reality aren’t necessarily one and the same, which may or may not fit the situation we find ourselves in – I mean, I perceive that there’s a cave under our kitchen, and there really is a cave under our kitchen, so maybe it’s not all that relevant to our situation, other than the pretty obvious fact that both situations involve caves. Unfortunately, we learned this week that our insurance won’t cover taking care of the cave under our kitchen, because it was caused by a leaking pipe that’s outside of the foundation of the house. Which I really, really, really, didn’t appreciate in the least – I mean, isn’t the whole point of having insurance so that when something goes wrong, like, oh, I don’t know, you discover that you have a cave under your kitchen, they swoop in and save the day by helping you pay to repair whatever went wrong? I guess it’s one of those grandly ironic situations that I would probably appreciate a lot more if it wasn’t happening to me, but insurance seems to be one of those things you need to have until you actually need to have it. But that’s neither here nor there in the greater grand scheme of things, but it is a definite drainer on the ol’ bank account. Right now, we’re planning to open up the entrance to the cave so we can spelunk on in and take a look around in order to assess the size of the situation. Hopefully, it only is as big as we’re currently able to see. If not, this could become really, really, really ugly. Stay posted – I’m sure there will be more on this in the future (and if you’re interested, I posted a couple of pictures of the cave on facebook).

Ultra-ing
As I begin to train seriously for the 50-miler (is there any other way to train for a 50-miler? Half-heartedly? Joyfully? Spectacularly?) I’ve decided it might be a good idea to start doing some of my running on trails (since a lot of the event is on trails, this seems like it might be a good idea). So, as noted above, I took a little run up the Phoneline trail in Sabino Canyon, which I figured would be a pretty easy way to get started, but I have to say that running on a trail is way harder than running on the road – partly because it’s steep at times, and partly because there’s lots of rocks, and partly because you have to really pay attention to every footfall, and partly because you’re taking all these little mini-steps and having to walk in certain parts and you can’t really shuffle along because if you try to do that you’ll probably wind up stubbing your toe on a rock (which hurts your toe, and if you trip and fall, could wind up hurting other body parts as well). So I made it to the end of the trail, and then I ran down the road to the parking lot, and then I ran back up the road to the end of the road, and then I ran back down the road to the parking lot, and then I was really, really tired so I called it a day. And my legs definitely were feeling it the next morning.

I’m all out of ideas for this edition, so until next time, may your floors remain solid and unfettered, may your trails remain smooth, and may your insurance remain unclaimed (unless you need it).