I saw the movie Due Date. I think it was chiefly financed by the TSA.
In the movie, due to a minor incident, a man gets kicked off a flight and put on the no-fly list. You could say it is just a wildly improbably occurrence that is just the set up for a bad comedy.
Or is it?
The TSA only really functions when the American population are living in total fear of terrorist attack. Or fear of the TSA itself. Face it, if you have spent hundreds of dollars on a flight, and probably even more for the vacation, the last thing you want is to be kicked off your airplane. And if you decide to exercise your constitutional rights, what are the odds that that will happen.
If the TSA keeps people scared, they’ll shut up and do whatever they are told to. And then the TSA can say that no one is complaining and keep racking in massive amounts of government money for security theatre.

Last week I decided I wanted to vote for the premier. There wasn’t an official election, since it was only the leadership of the Alberta conservative party that was up for grabs. But the leader of the Alberta conservative party will be the leader of Alberta; probably for several years.
Let’s face it, after the next official election, the conservatives will still be in power. And probably the one after that as well.
Unfortunately, to vote in this election you have to be a member of the conservative party. It only costs five bucks.
The entire time I was buying my membership, the words “member of the ruling communist party.” I know conservative is the opposite of communist but the feeling is the same. It feels like a third-world country where you have to be a member of the ruling party to do anything. If that government collapses, then all the members of the former ruling party are looked at with suspicion, even if they got membership just so they could get a teaching job.
So now I’m a card-carrying member of the conservative party. Well, the card hasn’t actually left my car. So I guess my car is a card-carrying member.
At the line to actually vote, I was behind a woman dressed in a Fringe Festival sweater. “You don’t look like part of the conservative base.” She seemed embarrassed.
I’m fiscally conservative, but rather left in my social views. But I hope I will always think before voting, and not just go with a party line.
Then again, the person I voted for wasn’t one I had researched, but had been told by a friend I trusted that she was the best candidate.
Sheep.

On Saturday I drove out to Innisfree where a friend had purchased some land next to a lake. It was totally undeveloped, but he and his wife went out regularly in their camper to spend time there. They have an eventual goal of putting up a cabin.
The place is filled with “No Trespassing” signs, and I guess you could say it is a gated community. But that is all due to the gas well there. It does allow a nice place to park.
From there you go into the woods, where they have been working to make a clearing amongst all the poplar trees. So I was put to work chopping down trees, cutting up branches, and piling up wood. The wife did the burning, but she got a little zealous at it and put too much wood in the fire pit. The coals burned all day, and probably still are.
I didn’t head out as early as I could have. It wasn’t the best weather in the city, but it was nice out there. A little cloudy, but an acceptable temperature. Once you got working, it was perfect.
It was nice to do some physical labor. It’s a change from using your brain at your job. And you get to see immediate results from the work. And I only once hit my leg with the machete. Thankfully, I never did with the chainsaw.
The wife gave us a goal of getting to a certain fallen tree. That helped me a lot. My sister describes me as goal oriented, and I’ve come to accept that. So I focused on that, and we got there. Unfortunately the chainsaw ran out of gas while we were cutting it up, but I still think of the mission as accomplished.
The clearing is now bigger.
We had a dinner cooked on the firepit, and then sat around the coals until it started raining. (Hopefully that will put them out.) By then it was pitch black and we had to use the flashlights to get out. As always happens in those situations, you don’t realize how much smoke you’ve breathed until later.
I drove back to town that night.

In my younger days I was always on time. Well, actually I was usually early, but you get the idea. These days I’m not quite as reliable. I like to think my punctuality was beaten out of me. Too often it has happened that I show up on time for some event, and then spend long periods waiting because other people didn’t have the same standards as I had.
I was punished for being on time. So you learn to adapt to not be punished. But today I fell off the wagon and showed up early.
In other words, my company had an outing to the Edmonton Corn Maze. It’s a nice place, with various farm stuff happening around it as well. The maze is divided into two sections. Each section has five parts, marked by signposts. These signposts basically mark mini-mazes. You have to hit all ten signposts, which means you aren’t searching for the exit, but the next signpost. You are given some questions, and if you answer correctly, you get a hint as to which direction to go.
When it (finally) started, I stayed with the group. But that changed eventually. What happened was that I started paying attention. When I was going with everyone, my mind shut off. But then I started going ahead a bit, and I concentrated on paying attention to where I was and what paths were leading where. Note the paths not taken, and be aware when you think you see another path that is probably the other end of that untaken path. I had more fun that way, I think. But isn’t the point to get lost, and make mistakes?
On the second phase, I stuck with a group of coworkers who had arrived on time. We got to the sixth signpost, and we were pretty sure of our answer (which was wrong) so we headed left. Eventually, all routes looked like they headed back to the signpost, except for this one which was over a lot of fallen corn. But there weren’t any ribbons blocking it, so it looked like a valid route. However, after passing it, we promptly found the ninth signpost. Okay, we had missed the seventh and eighth.
This is where you get to note various personalities and get to make stereotypes. I, the software developer, decided to go back and do the maze properly. The point wasn’t to get out as fast as possible, but to play the game. All the others were marketers and sales, who did want to take shortcuts; tired of pushing the baby stroller. Later, I found the program manager made sure his people/children were happy and left the maze after only the second signpost.
I would go again, but I used a GPS along the way so that I could see the results of my wandering. I’ve started at it and compared it to the aerial photo of the maze to figure out where I went.
I think I know the maze too well now.

Corn Maze, a photo by ad_havoc on Flickr.

I’ve been feeling good lately. There are a number of reasons possible for this.
Now that I’ve finished my Death Races for the year, I have more time for other pursuits. I’ll be going to Jamaica in less than two months, to a place where there will be many pretty women, and I want to look good. Running does not make me look good (it doesn’t hurt though). I need to bulk up my upper body, so on Tuesday I went to my gym and tried to put it through its paces. My muscles still ache, but I have an endorphin rush. Those usually only last for a few training sessions before my body adapts. In a week, my training will do nothing for me. I should enjoy it while it lasts. For most of Wednesday morning I was feeling powerful.
I’m employed again. This boosts my self-confidence. So far the job has been good, and I like my co-workers. And this is a job where the boss isn’t constantly stressing me out. I hope I’m doing a good enough job that they want to keep me.
I’m smiling more. I come into my work with a good attitude, and I seem to like smiling while there. Don’t know if that is happening outside of work…
It’s nice having confidence. I think it is allowing me to talk to pretty girls easier. Although that might be a subliminal order from the hypnosis session I had in Jamaica last year. I’ve probably already said too much…
Doesn’t make asking them out any easier, but I think I may have given up on that.
All in all, feeling good.

So, in one of those sleep deprived hazes I started think about the mountain lake on Deathwater Island within Narnia; as chronicled in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Okay, the water turns anything it touches into gold. Lord Restimar died when he dove into it.
I was thinking about that in particular, and was wondering if he would have felt any pain when his hands turned to gold before his head. Would the nerve pulses travel faster than the speed he entered the water? Would his brain feel it.
But then, his brain never touched the water. It was in his head. Then I thought some more.
Gold, as far as I know, doesn’t let water pass through it. So really, it should have changed the surface of his skin and his hair into gold. Probably painful, definitely unhealthy, but if he never opened his mouth, that should be it. Gold is also somewhat flexible if it is thin, so I would think he would be able to swim his way out. Possibly blind?
Or we could just say it was magic.

I have found an area of self-improvement for myself.
I don’t drink, but I have friends who do. Because of a party, my fridge is full of beer. Hopefully it will get drunk at the next party I have.
Last week, a friend said to me, “I don’t think you have enough beer in your fridge.” His wife told him not to encourage me. At the time I was heading towards a stash of beer that wasn’t in the fridge to go put it in, until he said “[eallen] can recognize sarcasm.”
I can. I often employ it myself. But I also act dumb and pretend I don’t. This may be funny a couple of times, but it is no way to live.
I should never purposely act stupid. I know I do, and it is something to work on. But it’s such a broad area that it is hard to really tackle it. But if I can focus on stopping the I-don’t-recognize-sarcasm habit, I think I’ll be able to make headway.
Hopefully my friends will point out if I start backsliding.

The Edmonton Gorilla Run was yesterday.
I had a friend who insisted that she get a picture of a gorilla in a tutu. I didn’t protest much (or at all) so I went and picked up a tutu from the halloween section of Value Village. It was a women’s size (as opposed to what?) so it was a little tight. But I could still get it on over the suit.
The biggest problem with the outfit initially was that it shed. Little tufts of gorilla hair are now roaming my condo. (I haven’t done an analysis of the car yet.) But once it was on, it was very enjoyable to wear. Probably more than the law allows. (Don’t judge me!) I decided to wear my foot gloves instead of regular running shoes; they looked more like gorilla feet. (Although I’m debating going to buy a pair of gorilla feet to make it a complete costume.)
I was actually hoping to run into neighbours when I left my place, but the hallways were completely empty. No one to freak out.
At the event there were probably about 200 gorillas milling around. It is probably good that I was wearing a tutu, because I can’t see how you would be able to tell people apart. Honestly though, girls are very sexy when they are in gorilla costumes. I don’t think I’m a furry. The story that I’m stinking to is that because so much is covered, you have to leave a lot to the imagination. And the imagination is always better than the real thing.
The gorilla suits were fairly good for the event. Or cheap? Either way, they let the breeze go right through them. Which was important, considering how hot it was.
When the run started, I kept my mask on. That lasted about a kilometre and a half and I’m surprised it was that long. My peripheral vision was shot, so I had to call out to anyone trying to pass me to make themselves known. After that, I only put it on when I saw a course photographer. And even then, putting a mask on, while running, with poor vision was not the safest course of action.
I did my best to keep the pace-banana in sight. I could have been faster, but the initial route was over a rocky path. And through my foot gloves, I felt everything. It didn’t take long for me to feel water pooling in my rubber gorilla gloves.
A cute girl I had been talking to, also wearing foot gloves, caught up with me. She hadn’t run in a year due to an injury, so I made it a mission to get her to the end. Encouraging words, keep pace, stop with her for water. I think she placed in the top three for women on the race. Some photographers from the newspapers came up afterwards asking for our names; I haven’t seen my picture in either paper, but I haven’t looked online yet.
At the end, they were handing out bananas. The lemonade was more needed. We hung out for awhile, watching the other gorillas come in. There were some really good costumes out there. One had a belt that held up a pole with a little plane flailing about. He had broken chains and a barbie doll to complete the imagery. There was a fashion faux pas where I found someone wearing the same costume.
All in all, it was a great run. I would recommend it to people. Even if they only walk it.

I got injured back in February. That destroyed my plan on running many ultramarathons this year. I had planned to do two in May, The Death Race in August, and the Lost Soul in September. At the time I had only signed up and paid for the Death Race. I didn’t sign up for the others because I wasn’t sure I would be able to run them at all. It was a bad injury.
I got better; enough to do the Death Race. But I didn’t sign up for anything else.
In that time, one of the ultras moved from May to October. I could in theory have done the three ultras needed to get the Alberta Triple again.
But I am somewhat glad that I didn’t sign up for the Lost Soul. It is tomorrow, in Lethbridge. That is a desert environment, and it gets even hotter in the coulees. And the forecast is for 30 tomorrow.
I would melt.
Don’t get me wrong, I want to run that 160km event again, but not under these conditions.
Maybe next year.

I went to a game of paint-ball today. It was a company team-building exercise.
Apparently there are no paint-ball facilities in the city, so we had to commute well outside. But it was a nice outdoor setup, with interesting fields of battle.
I don’t know how it went for the team-building though. I don’t know if I feel closer to my boss when I was trying to get him to cover me while I was pinned down my enemy fire. He didn’t help me. It would have probably helped if I knew his name though. Hey, I’m still new at this company!
There was one guy who came with his own equipment, including a vest (which I think was bulletproof) and fancy gun. He claimed to not be good at paint-ball, but he was in marketing so we assume he was lying. (He was.) I did hear him say, after a couple of games, “I forgot how much fun it is to shoot people.” (Or something like that.) I’m voting him most-likely-to-snap.
I would recommend it to a friend, but I would also recommend eating a lunch beforehand. I think I was running out of energy towards the end. But I frequently forget to eat. My bad.

For years I’ve been going to the Running Room on Wednesday evenings. Initially it was a great place. I always had a group to go with and, because I could schedule it, I would go regularly. There were groups that would go at specified speeds for a decent run.
But for the past few years, it has gone downhill, and not in the fast running way.
Nowadays, it is catering only to the running clinics. Now don’t get me wrong, the running clinics are great for learning how to run or to improve your distance. But once you have “graduated,” the Running Room doesn’t seem to want you around anymore.
I showed up today, and could not find any group to run with. It was only clinic runs that were going 5km or under, or doing hill training. I just wanted to go out for a decent run with friendly people. This is a constant problem, where I don’t know if going to the Running Room will give me people to run with. When I expressed my concern to the staff, they didn’t see it as a problem. They almost seemed to think it was great that you could show up and not have an idea as to what you will be doing.
But if every group is going too short, too slow, or too hilly, I’m going to have to run alone. Why do I even go to the Running Room then?
When I took off on my own, as luck would have it, I came across Beto and his group. Beto is one of the best runners in Edmonton and he now works at United Cycle where they have their own running groups. Their groups are organized by speed, not clinic. I immediately turned around and ran with them. It was great!
I’m going to start going there on Wednesday evenings.

I believe in the power of healing through running.
I’ll be the first to admit that the Death Race can be damaging on my body. Since I ran it, I’ve had various aches and pains. Mostly these happen while I’m running, which has meant I am running less and taking it easy. Letting my body recover. There was one pain that was happening in situations not related to running though. My ankle, which shouldn’t be surprising after the nasty accident several months ago. Mainly, it would hurt going down stairs.
Well, after my reasonable 16km run on Sunday, it hasn’t been bothering me.
So what I’m taking from this is that I should be running more often. I haven’t been doing the Wednesday evening runs, and I think that needs to change.
There is also an interesting race that I HAVE to sign up for. The 5km Edmonton Gorilla Run. I think it is for some good cause or something; I don’t really care. Because you GET A GORILLA COSTUME! Who can’t use a gorilla costume?

Let’s look at my result compared to previous years.

For each point on the race, the top number is the overall time to hit that course point, while the bottom number, in italics, is the time to reach that point since the start of the leg. For purposes of ranking (among other things) I am male and aged 30-39.
The rankings also don’t tell the whole story.

This was a bad race for me. As I’ve previously mentioned, there were a number of things going against me. But my family got me up to Grande Cache, and we got into Tent City. The day we arrived it was breezy, so there weren’t any mosquitos to bother us. And it didn’t rain overnight. But the weather prediction for the next day was a hot day and a cold night.
I was still under a bit of a cold that drained energy from me and I really noticed it on the first leg. I was slower than I have ever been before. That might have been the mud from all the rain this year. But once I got out of the woods, it was dry enough, but I think I was going too fast; trying to make up for lost time. That would probably hurt me later.
One of the most fortuitous things I had done was to prepare for wet conditions. MEC gave me the advice of Gore-Tex socks. And they were great. With them on, I didn’t have to try and avoid all wet spots. If my shoes got wet, my feet would stay dry and not end up in blisters. This really helped me get through parts faster. I could run through mud instead of trying to figure out a dry path. Valuable time was not lost.
The second leg wasn’t too different from previous years. It was muddier at the bottom parts of the slugfest. At the bottom of one of the valleys, I found a man wading in a mud pool up to his shins. Apparently he had lost his shoe in there and was looking for it. After I left him, I think I heard him say he had found a shoe, but it wasn’t his.
I finished up the leg, slower than usual, but still standing. Years ago, when I had first signed up for the Death Race, the form had asked me to put some biographical detail in. They probably weren’t going to vet it, so let’s have some fun. For three years they had completely ignored it, but at this transition point, when my mother is in the crowd the MC loudly announced that I was an adult film star. And he seemed to be enjoying it very much.
Leg three always seems to do me in. It is claimed to be the easiest, because it is all downhill. But by this time of day I’m hot, tired, and the trail is uneven. When it is over, I’m completely knackered. And I made it only half an hour before the cutoff time. Part of me was thinking of quitting. But I had made myself a promise that I could not decide to quit. I could only fail to make a cutoff.
I did do something different on that leg that I’m thankful for. At the start, while climbing up the first big hill, I took a look behind me. The Smoky River valley was spread out before me, looking gorgeous. I do believe I saw Hell’s Gate for the first time.
Leg four is a good leg for me. It is considered one of the toughest, but I guess I have a good attitude about it. That and the stair training seems key to doing well. But an hour and a half in, it started to rain. I wasn’t really dressed for it, but it wasn’t bothering me that much. It was keeping me cool. And that is especially important if you are trying to scale a 6986′ mountain. It only became an issue when I got to the very top and had to do some running along the spine. Then the wind was blowing and I was getting cold. And night was falling.
But once I was done on the spine, I went down the other side and the wind wasn’t that big a problem. Unfortunately, it then started to really rain. I kept moving, so it wasn’t too bad. But I was getting cold and miserable. Puddles were getting bigger and bigger. When I got to the Ambler Loop station, I found Beaver Dam Road, previously a lovely dirt road, covered in muddy puddles. The run down it was not especially pleasant.
And to add insult to injury, there was the bridge over Malcolm Creek. It was having maintenance done on it, so there was construction equipment on it. Cars could still use it, but someone had decided runners couldn’t. That was just malicious. We had to go down into the creek and wade through the water to the other side. This of course filled my nice Gore-Tex socks with water. At least the transition was only a few hundred metres further. We did our best to dry them out, and the new socks seemed to make it possible to continue. The rain had died down a bit while I was at the transition. Thank goodness I was still convinced to ignore that and I put on a rain jacket and a toque. I would need them.
Leg five was muddy. The first part, before the river crossing, has always been slow for me. If something goes wrong in this area, I have no idea how they would get someone out. And now it was slippery muddy too. So despite the narrow trail, with many roots acting as tripping hazards, I have to fear any small decline. I remembered the treacherous climb after the third creek, that is difficult even in dry conditions. It didn’t get better in wet.
After the river crossing at Hell’s Gate, I climbed the hill and tried to run so I could get a good time. Or at least reach the end before the cutoff. But since it had been raining constantly all night, there was mud everywhere. My plan to run as much as possible was actually a dangerous idea. I did eventually fall behind someone who seemed to be good at picking routes around mud puddles and was running, so I got myself some breathing room. But about seven kilometres before the end I was having a lot of trouble running. And my fingers were getting cold. I think my body was shutting down! Maybe I hadn’t been eating enough?
Fortunately, I knew I had made it. I knew I had no one to compete with. I knew I had nothing to prove. I walked the rest of the way. Many people passed me. I didn’t care. There was the sign that said “Hamburgers in five kilometres”. Those sound good, but I kept walking. In town I saw a familiar face from earlier in the run. She had been on a relay team and said she had “Run leg two yesterday”. Leg two did not feel like yesterday to me. It felt like today, and a lifetime ago at the same time.
I only started running a few hundred metres before the end. I hope, for once, I didn’t have a pained expression as I crossed the finish line. And of course the MC was still happy to announce my adult film star occupation. Apparently at the same time my sister was trying to chat up a cute Sergeant in the military.
THE HAMBURGERS WERE A LIE!
There wasn’t any food at the end. I was forced into a shower and then we went to a restaurant. But that took an hour and I could have really used the food faster.
But I’m done. I have run four Death Races. And I get to lord it over my friends who have only run three. For the past few days I’ve been convinced this would be my last one. But doubts are starting to form.
I probably need help.

If you want to help, I can really use you on my support team next year.

Tomorrow I leave for Grande Cache and then to do the Death Race on Saturday. I hope I’m ready. The signs haven’t been good. Let’s list them, shall we.

1. My friends aren’t doing it as well.
2. My knee got badly hurt in February.
3. My hotel decided to cancel my reservation.
4. Two months ago, I twisted my ankle bad enough that it still has a bit of pain.
5. I came down with a cold a couple of days ago. I’m pretty sure I caught it last Friday, and I could see it coming almost immediately.

All this will make victory that much sweeter.

Now that is an interesting thought. Maybe the reason I feel so out of it, and have trouble thinking, is not because I have no carbohydrates in my system. Maybe it is because I have nothing in my system.
Yesterday was a weird day, considering I was up until 4:00 AM the previous night, and I didn’t really sleep in as well as I could have. So I was running on lack of sleep; that doesn’t help matters. But I also didn’t eat much. When your meal is going to consist of things you don’t want to eat, you don’t want to eat. QED.
I even had trouble forcing breakfast down my throat this morning.

I really want a glass of orange juice.

Two weeks ago I ran 60km. I did it. There were some very long hills in it, so a lot of walking was involved.
The next day, my family went for a 12km hike in the mountains. It felt exhausting and I ached.
So doubt continues to accumulate for the Death Race.
My ankle is still feeling a little off. Since there is nothing you can do in the last two weeks before a race to improve your fitness, I’ve decided to take time off from running. Hopefully my ankle will recover and I won’t have any issues on the actual race.
I noticed I had been accumulating a lot of other injuries. My arm started aching after a day of heavy mousing. My neck got a huge crick in it after a tense meeting. I thought those were the excuses, but I think it might be something else. I’ve been taking a lot of ibuprofen to help with my ankle’s inflammation. This has been going on for over a month. That can’t be healthy. I decided to stop. Many problems started clearing up.
This weekend is also the start of the Atkins part of my carb loading. It hasn’t been going well. No sweets or breads or cereals or juice or anything that makes life worth living. I’m pretty much confined to meat, eggs and cheese.
Yesterday I went to a surprise engagement party for a friend. He was going to propose to his girlfriend as a surprise with all his friends there. That sounded lovely. It was only after we all arrived that we found out we were the ones surprised. It was a surprise wedding. They were skipping the public engagement and going straight to getting married. It was a pleasant surprise, and apparently saved them a lot of money.
The big problem was that they served cake, fruit, cupcakes, crackers and all sorts of delicious goodies that I could not eat. I could only nibble some sausage and cheese.
It is getting hard to think.

Last week, I think I reached my goal of running further than I drove in a given week. I can’t categorically prove it; I didn’t track how far it took to drive to and from the grocery store. But I can’t believe that it was more than four kilometres. But let’s look at the facts. I drove approximately 20km, because I barely left my condo. I ran approximately 23.5km. This doesn’t feel like a victory. I didn’t do much of either. Victory is mine, but it is a bitter taste.
So, today I’m going to run 50km. Well, that is the plan. I wanted to do that three weeks ago when I got my ankle injury. It might be better if I let my ankle heal a bit more, but I’m three weeks behind schedule and I need to be Death Race ready.
My plan is to go down Millcreek ravine, cross the river, head towards River Valley Road, cross into Hawrelak Park, continue on past Fort Edmonton Park, Terwillegar Park, and then across the Anthony Henday Bridge. Then up to Cameron Heights, and follow the suburbs on the north side of the river until Laurier park and then back to Hawrelak park. At that point I’ll play it by ear to get up to the 50km. I’m going to have to avoid some of the steep or narrow trails that I want to do so I don’t risk my ankle. Plus Edmonton is rather wet, so let’s stick to pavement as much as possible.
If all goes well, I’ll be back well before four o’clock and I’ll post that I’m home.

I nearly moved to Seattle. I suppose it still might happen, but not today.
I had been putting my resume out on job boards and, out of the blue, I got phoned by a contracting firm. They had a position in Seattle for a major company that they thought I was a good fit for. I didn’t think much of it, until a week later they wanted me to come down for an interview.
The thing is, I had never heard of this contracting firm. And I was supposed to pay my own way to Seattle. I was more suspicious than excited. I didn’t accept right away and instead tried to get in contact with the big company to confirm that this was legitimate. It all checked out, so I spent $700 to buy a plane ticket to go down to Seattle for the day.
I flew down on a Thursday before the crack of dawn. I got into my rental car and drove to the interview. The campus was large and it felt like a fun place. Not really an office building. The contracting firm told me to sound excited, and that was easy. I tried to sound excited for everything, even if I didn’t always feel it.
I had two interviews. The first one was where I was given some programming problems and had to write pseudo-code on a whiteboard to solve them. It was actually fun, and I did learn a bit. The second interview had me go over an existing interface and I had to describe all the ways I would create a tool to help test it. That didn’t go as smoothly, but I still did my best. I got the impression that this is what I would be paid to do if I got the job.
Afterwards I briefly saw a friend and then jetted back to home.
On Monday, I was given the job offer for an eight month contract. This was an amazing opportunity to work at a big firm and get solid experience with a popular language. So I verbally said yes, still sounding excited. I started the paperwork, but I never signed anything. That same day I got an interview request for a local firm. I had that meeting the next day because I had told them I had an offer in hand. That job really did sound interesting.
I was feeling sick about the idea of going to Seattle. A couple of days later, I sent an email expressing my doubts. I was trying to be nice and polite and not burn any bridges, so I told them I needed time to think about the job. Really, I was stalling for time to see if the local offer would pan out. But that job kept me waiting. They didn’t seem to really want to make a decision quickly.
By the next week, the contracting firm was starting to wonder. And on Tuesday I let them know I wasn’t interested. They didn’t take “No” for an answer. I once again got phone calls.
I eventually figured out several reasons why I shouldn’t take the job. The chief one was that the job, as described, didn’t sound like what I wanted to do. I would be writing testing automation infrastructure; I would be writing something that no one would enjoy using. I want to like what I write. I want to make things as easy as possible for the end user and that, although they may not want to use the software (because it is work), they would not mind using it. It makes their lives easier. Testing infrastructure just makes a test script easier to write. It is an important job, but not one I would like to do for eight months. And on top of that, pay rent in a foreign country away from all my friends and family.
I explained this to the contracting company, and they understood. They would contact the big company and see if that is what I’ll actually be doing. That was last monday, and I haven’t heard anything since.
Guess I’m staying.

I decided to do some stair training today.
Yesterday I had gone on the treadmill for ten minutes. My ankle actually looked better after the run than before. There is still a little pain, and it is swollen at times. But I have to get back into training. There isn’t much time left before the big race.
So I did 16 sets of a staircase into the river valley known for having 100 steps. (And there is a small escarpment I have to go over on the way back that has seven steps.) I noticed a few things about it.
The ninth set is one of the easiest, because that is the first one after the halfway mark. You feel better because you know that every step you do now is one you won’t have to do again. (The logic is very shaky, but then your brain isn’t really working at that point.) The hardest set is the tenth as you realize you still have a long way to go.
I actually noticed that the trips down started to get harder than the trips up. You have to brake constantly, but it might also be imagination is making you dread what is coming up worse than it actually is.
Anyway, my legs feel like rubber.

It’s like something doesn’t want me to run the Death Race.
Or really make any of my running goals…
Let’s recap my Death Race travails.

• Doing it alone. My friends have better things to do. (Like having children.) Fine. I’ll show them.
• I hurt my knee. Thought to be a torn meniscus, but possibly only bruised. I got better.
• My hotel reservation is cancelled. Okay, I’ll go with Tent City. Not nearly as nice, but approximately 14% of the price.
• Possible job in another country: Will they even let me run the race?

Well, we get to add another item to the list: Twisted ankle.
I was running today, along a route I’ve run dozens of times. I stepped on something incorrectly and a lot of pain. A LOT OF PAIN. I hobbled a couple of kilometres to my friend’s place and was able to get a ride back home after they finished the run I was supposed to accompany them on. My plan to run 50km today was cut down to 9km. My ankle is very visibly swollen. I have faith it will heal quickly. But all these setbacks are getting discouraging.
In other running information, I drove all of 60km in Canada last week. I ran approximately 85km. But I also took a flight to Seattle and drove 50.8 miles. And I don’t see me doing better this week. I’m staying off my ankle as much as possible.

Scona road has been shut down. So far, I’ve been enjoying this.
Now don’t get me wrong, I like Scona road. It is my route of choice if I am returning from downtown. But since it has been closed for construction, there is a lot less traffic on Saskatchewan drive. It is so easy to cross it now when I’m out for a run.
If I want to run that route though, I figured I could take the secret path down to the running trails. Then there is nothing stopping me from enjoying the fully operational river valley. I wanted to do that today. With the fact that I was sleeping most of the day, I wanted to cap off my total laziness with a 20km run. I would go down to the river valley and then head west. But I had a lot of trouble finding the secret path today, so I had to use a street instead. It removed a bit of distance, so I had to make it up later.
But, I would take the secret path back. It is impossible to miss from below. So, after 18km, I went up the muddy trail and started climbing the stairs back to Saskatchewan drive. Wait a minute. Where are those stairs.
They were gone. All that remained were some piles to prove that they had been there. So, with some death defying stunts, I clambered over the railing and back up to Saskatchewan drive, next to a sign I had missed earlier. “Stairs removed for safety reasons.”
What safety reasons?! I nearly got myself killed because you decided to remove them! I certainly didn’t feel safer.
Who authorized the removal of a running trail in Edmonton? That’s a hanging offence!

My opinion of driving in America has been somewhat tainted by Los Angeles. I assume it will take forever, and be confusing, to drive within a US city. But Seattle was nicely laid out and I didn’t have too much of an issue. I drove 50.8 miles though, so I don’t think I will reach my running goal this week. If I tracked from Wednesday to Wednesday I would totally have it made, but that would be unethical.
There were two interviews. I think the first one went well. It was actually fun; I was given a programming problem and had to find a solution. The second interview didn’t go as well. I didn’t flub it, but it was dealing with an area I wasn’t too familiar with. Could have gone better.
In any case it was a nice experience. The company had a wonderful layout and an impressive building. Interesting art too. It would be nice to work there.
Yesterday, when I should have been studying for the interview, I was dealing with another interview test with a different company. I thought I had provided a good answer, but I just received an email saying “No, thanks for trying.” I’m hoping I can get from them a reason why; where did my program fail. It worked on my machine.
So I’m feeling a bit down right now. I’d like to believe I’m intelligent, and employable, but evidence is starting to mount otherwise. Are my skills out of date?

I’m not in Seattle yet. But the Vancouver airport appears to have free wireless.
I’m nervous and I didn’t get enough sleep. I should be studying a bit for the interviews, or I could take a nap.

Okay, my plan to run more than I drive hit a speed bump today. On Thursday I need to be in Seattle. So the drive to and from the airport is going to slap on at least 50km. Who knows how much driving I’ll need to do when I’m there to get to and from the job interview.
It will be a lot of driving. And I don’t want to overtrain to try and beat the car. I’m still going to pay attention to odometers. It may work out. And there is always next week.

It’s hard to make scientific progress when the variables are too variable.
I am trying to figure out the best way to improve my running. When I ran the first 30km since my injury, I went through Millcreek ravine and headed east, eventually turning around to return. That time I felt horrible by the end. No energy left. I was even walking flat parts. I figured that the reason it went so badly was that I started the run going too fast; I used my energy up too quickly and burned out. Sounds plausible.
On Thursday I did the same route. I kept slow, and I was able to keep running for the entire time. It was even a few degrees cooler. And at the end I felt powerful.
And apparently I was thirty seconds slower?
That’s disappointing.
Today, for the second consecutive Sunday, I ran 42.2km. (I you are running around that distance, you are going to end it at the perfect distance to say you’ve done a marathon.) The first Sunday felt horrible by the end. No energy left. I was even walking flat parts.
This time I started slower. The route was slightly different, but mostly the same. But I was able to keep running the entire time. And this time I brought enough water that I could keep hydrated the entire time without mugging people in their garage. It was even eight degrees cooler. With all these factors, I should be a lot faster. But in the end I was only seven minutes faster.
That’s disappointing. Still, progress.
I’m going to try and focus on the fact that I was feeling fairly good by the end. I could have probably kept running if I had wanted to. But I had gotten my route to end nearly in front of a Subway restaurant and I needed calories. Stat!
I’m thinking of giving myself a challenge. One of those things that prove nothing, but can become a personal accomplishment. The conditions are fairly good that I could try and run further this week than I drive, or am driven. I’ve run 42.2km. The only driving I’ve done today is about 6km to pick up a large pizza that I just inhaled. I don’t foresee much more driving at all this week. Nothing I need to get to except to help a friend move. If I pile on the running, I should be safe even from unanticipated automotive use.
It’s too bad stair training causes so much exhaustion for such a short run.
When I do run, I seem to be trying to make my routes go over trails I know about but aren’t on OpenStreetMap. That way I can add them in when I plug my GPS in. Today’s route followed that pattern. However, my GPS seems flaky lately. It keeps track of distance travelled and speed, but every so often it decides it doesn’t want to keep track of the exact route. So nothing I can use to add to OSM. Especially annoying today when I purposely went down into a rather daunting ravine/cliff near Cameron Heights. I suppose it might not be a trail that can really be navigated safely, but it is still a trail. And once you are in the ravine, there is a realistic trail that should be included.

In the near future my life could go in one of two completely different directions. On Friday I had two job interviews. Both went well. (I think. They did in my head.) One is located in Edmonton, the other is in Pasadena.
Both jobs look exciting and interesting. But the one in Pasadena terrifies me. If I get offered it, I would be a fool not to go. Unless I’m already employed locally. Will I be offered one job? Will I be offered both?
This feels a lot like when I first came to Edmonton. I was employed in Winnipeg at a job that didn’t use my programming talents to their full potential. A company in Edmonton offered me a job related to my skills for quite a bit more money. So I left behind all my friends, family and the only home I knew and moved out west.
This feels very similar. Except in Edmonton I built my life here. In Winnipeg it was essentially handed to me. Here, I had to make friends from scratch. I purchased my own home. I learned all the good running trails. It will be hard to leave that. But because it terrifies me, is one of the biggest reasons to actually go. I should try and be uncomfortable. It can only be good for me.
In sitcoms, if the show is retooled by moving to a different city, they find excuses for the rest of the cast to make the move as a whole. The real world doesn’t work like that.
At least in Pasadena I would have some friends nearby.

I went for a 35km run in the Kananaskis foothills today. It was a learning experience. Which is annoying because I have to learn things that I already learned before.
Apparently I’ve forgotten some basic running rules.
1) Use Body Glide. Chafing hurts.
It started out nice and cloudy and then got surprisingly sunny. And hot. The wind the weather report threatened me with, wasn’t providing near enough coolness.
2) Sunscreen is a good idea when you are at a higher altitude.
I was on a new route that I had never taken before. It worked out rather well. There are three types of roads out there. Major ones that try and get from point A to point B in the most direct route. Minor ones that are probably laid out in a grid and don’t care about what’s in the way. Medium roads that were probably first designed by settlers who had to take horses everywhere.
3) Medium roads will actually try and go around hills. This is a good thing.
I listened to an iPod most of the way. An audio story would have been nice, but then you might miss part of the story if a motorcycle roars by. However, music isn’t always appropriate.
4) “Eye of the Tiger” while on a hill will not end well. Ignore the music and slow down.
A lot of the route was possibly on the Cowboy Trail. Well, I think I saw a sign marking it as such, but Wikipedia seems to disagree with me. In any case, Highway 762 was actually part of Google Street View. Surprising! It is not a major road or in a urban centre. So before the run, I could take a look as to what the route looked like.
5) In Google Street View, roads look a lot leveller than they are when you are on foot.
It wasn’t horribly hilly, and the road skirted around a number of them. But it certainly wasn’t completely flat.

I’m a big, fat, slob.
In my head, I’m just as healthy as ever. I could probably go run 100km and be fine. Why wouldn’t I be?
But I went out for a run yesterday, planning to do 30km. (I need to get the distance up.) The first half went okay, but I did find I had trouble with the hills and needed to walk parts of them. On the way back though it got worse and worse. Eventually I was walking even the flat parts. I was out of it.
This scares me. A lot.
So, since I’m a disgusting slob I went out and ate lunch (at 6:00 pm) at McDonald’s. Seemed appropriate.
Now, the hope I’m going to cling to is that the reason I did so poorly was that I was running by myself. Usually on the long distances, I’m with friends who slow me down to a reasonable pace. This time I was going at a faster speed, and maybe that burnt out too much energy too soon.

A while ago I discovered Open Street Map.
I didn’t think much of it at the time, having bigger things on my plate. But I’ve gone back to it, and I like what I see. It is basically a combination wikipedia and google maps. All the mapping data is there, and anyone can edit it. I noticed that there was a small paved trail in Edmonton that wasn’t shown, so I added it.
Felt empowering.
But now I have to wonder what evil I can do with this new knowledge.
At the very least, I can start adding in all the running trails that are in Edmonton. I know several that aren’t listed, and it would be nice to have a repository of all of them. (Hmm. Not much information about Grande Cache. That’s not right.) At the very least, it should help for times when I forget my GPS and have to manually figure out how far I ran with a website pedometer.
In other news, I am actually out and pounding pavement as a real runner again. I did 27km on Sunday even. My goal is to be able to run 40km by the end of the month; the sooner the better. In June my goal is to have a 50km and 60km run under my belt. If I can do all that, I should be ready for the Death Race. I know I should go slow and temper my recovery, but I have a deadline looming.
Unfortunately, I did stair training yesterday for the first time since January. My legs are hurting.
Knee feels fine though.

I’ve been getting interviews from several out-of-town companies. This makes me nervous. The idea of leaving Edmonton is scary. But I should do things that scare me.
I don’t make friends easily. Starting over from scratch in a new place; dread. I’ve made very good friends here. Interestingly, when most hear about me possibly moving, a lot of them express interest in visiting whatever new place I might be going to. I got a (weird) interest from a company in Pasadena. When a friend heard this, she promptly said that she would visit me if I was there. I pointed out that she already knew someone in California. “Yes, but you are so welcoming.” That makes me feel nice; I’m apparently learning to be a good host.
The last time I moved was over fifteen years ago. Very few of my friends from before have ever visited me. I can only think of one couple who were happy to visit me when they passed through, and a friend after he had moved to Calgary.
I think I’ve made more friends in Edmonton than I ever did in Winnipeg.
And to this day I still think of a girl I knew in Winnipeg. We briefly played D&D together, but then she moved to Vancouver in a surprisingly short time. We had a number of things in common (things I didn’t even realize at the time we had in common) and I wish I had a chance to know her better. Or at least take her on one date. (I was an idiot back then.) I wonder what life would have been like if I had stayed a bit longer after my university convocation. She was apparently there, graduating too, and I never saw her.
Life is full of regrets. I wonder what she is doing these days?