66F and a steady rain in the morning when I ran to work. Had to go to the airport and clear out some items from the hangar, and ended up with a carload of stuff… so I drove home. Also, I was out of clothes… so I’ll probably run home on Thursday evening and then back again on Friday morning.
We’re in the midst of closing everything down, but I am still working… so I can still run back and forth occasionally and it’s very rewarding to me when I choose to commute via running shoes. So I drove in, ran home. Will run back to work Wednesday morning.
Strength circuit at 5am, 5.7 mile run later.
This week was like a punch to the nose. Found out that I lost my job and had 6 weeks to find a job, then dealt with total work chaos the rest of the week, and on the running side, I managed to squeeze out a total of 5.2 miles Monday through Friday.
Ran the Historic District Preservation Society 5K on Saturday morning… and got a trophy for winning the Master’s division! Obviously, none of the good runners in town ran in the race, since I normally just struggle to place in the top 3 in my age group. Even that is dicey, most of the time.
One cool thing: check out these shoes! First time I’ve ever seen anyone running with them. Very nice guy and a fast runner, I’ll put the name to the shoes eventually, but check this out:
I only had my camera phone with me, but I’ve got a few more photos from the race on my Flickr site.
I was on track for a 200+ mile month until the job thing disintegrated… but I’ll try to get back into a better fitness routine on Monday.
We found out yesterday that my company, Bill Heard Enterprises, was closing. It was very traumatic- lots of great people lost their jobs. People with kids, mothers and fathers who depend on the health insurance benefits, employees who take care of their parents… it’s hard to fathom the hateful comments I’ve seen in the local newspaper.
I’ve worked in the corporate office as a Systems Administrator for 4 years and have enjoyed my challenges: I put in an Exchange server, Blackberry server, Windows Sync Enterprise server, Tandberg videoconferencing system… we went from just pop3 email to having 5 Exchange servers with 1500+ users, 225 Blackberry phones, 40 Windows Mobile phones, 4 Cisco Call Manager/Unity servers, and videoconferencing between 20+ endpoints while I was there. It’s been great for me, since I love being on the creative end of it- making use of current technology to improve productivity. Unfortunately, the current economic climate is just horrendous, and the car business took a nosedive.
So what now? I think back to when I was 22 years old and struggling in Officer Candidate School, or in Ranger School, and the bottom line is I’ll keep putting one foot in front of the other, stay positive, put my resume out and hope that I can find employment soon. It looks like I have about 6 weeks to find something.
Will this impact my running? Yeah, of course it will. But running has been an anchor for me for a long time, so I will be back on track starting today. Running not only builds up the endorphins I like, but running gives me the time alone to be reflective. Here’s a good quote:
“Running is the classical road to self-consciousness, self-awareness, and self-reliance.”
-NOEL CARROLL
5.2 miles run to work
Sunday = scheduled rest day.
Monday = unscheduled rest day. Life sucks sometimes.
Took it easy today, just 17 miles at an easy pace. Great weather - nice and cool. We’re coming to that really nice part of the year. I think we have only 2 seasons here: hot and cold. It’s either hot or it’s cold, and fall & spring last just a short time and are hardly worth mentioning.
My running always falters at the end of the summer, then again at the end of the winter. Not sure why, but I’ve gone back through all my logs and it’s the same pattern, year after year. Thankfully, the run commute thing has sort of locked me in to a certain number of miles per week.
Thursday was pretty exciting! Julie Bercik, from News Channel 38, WLTZ, was waiting for me when I stepped out the door to do my normal run commute to work. She put me at ease right away, and we chatted a bit, then she filmed me stretching and finally starting my run to work. She was at my building when I arrived, too, to film me running up to the front door. Afterward, she interviewed me for a few minutes as part of her news story on the gas prices and the Georgia Clean Air Campaign.
Julie did a great job. It’s unnerving to be interviewed but she was awesome- very personable, very friendly, very interested in what I was doing and why I was doing it. More importantly, she didn’t mind that I was all sweaty and worn out from the run! The final product was really good and the whole thing just proves to me that some people have a talent for journalism…
Anyway… Thursday run to work - 5.2 miles. Run home from work - 5 miles.
Friday: run to work = 5.2 miles.
I’m at 40.7 miles for the week so far.
I’ve been commuting to work by foot or bike for several months, but in July I signed up for the Cash for Commuters program. It’s part of Georgia’s Clean Air Campaign. I got an account, a log-in and a password, and every day I record my commute. My log goes from July 27 - October 25th. I earn $3 each day that I use an alternate form of transportation: walk/run, bike, telecommute, carpool, public transportation, or vanpool.
So why did I start running to and from work?
I’m just one person, but I’m one more person who is doing something to lower the demand for gas. Many people have no alternative- they have to commute by themselves in their car for whatever reason. Kids, daycare, remote location, baseball practice, whatever… they just have no options. But I do have options, since I live relatively close to my job. If everyone just used an alternate mode of transportation 1 day a week, the demand for gas would go down, and gas prices would drop.
At first, I alternated cycling and running, but as the days wore on, I found that running was a little easier for me to do consistently. I just put my running stuff on and head out the door. I drive to work on Monday and bring everything I need for the week, including clothes, food, equipment and personal hygiene items. On Friday afternoon I gather my stuff up and drive home. In between I just run home and back every day. My route is 5.2 miles to work, and it’s 5 miles exactly coming home from work. So I get roughly 40 miles of running from Monday-Friday.
There are some rough days. It’s been in the high 90’s on my run home a few times, and when that happens, or it’s pouring rain, I just think about the servicemen and women in Iraq & Afganistan… and how hot it is over there, and how they are wearing body armor…and it just doesn’t seem so hot to me anymore. I drink some water, eat a few salty pretzels and head out on my run.
I’ll continue to run commute for as long as I can. I’m very lucky to have an employer and a boss who support me, and we have a shower at work, so it all works for me.
There’s a great slogan for the World Wide Festival of Races, which I’m taking part in: “Think Global, Run Local”.
