My Designed Running Loop Courses, Then and Now

My old running block (~3 miles) from my late teen years in Davie, Florida is the standard I use to evaluate the various training courses I've designed, especially those within the past twenty years.  These days my running (often combined with walking) takes place on asphalt road surfaces, while back then practically the entire loop was off-road, on the grass.  For a south Florida locale like Davie...where I went to school...running on grass was totally fine since there wasn't the prevalence of holes in the ground to trip up on like there are up here in northern Florida. I like seeing where I'm stepping...in my own back yard I have to be careful where I plant my feet.  But hitting a hard surface still takes its toll on legs' soft tissue, and I have to take care not to over-train.  That's one big reason I've taken to increasing my speed-walking emphasis...less taxing on the joints. My current standard 3.3-mile neighborhood loop has me passing many, many houses while I have to be attentive...even during low-traffic times of the day...to residents and visitors pulling in and out of driveways.  And then there's often a creepy vehicle or another that drives around me and then just stops in the road, as if the driver is some kind of stalker or Zimmerman-type neighborhood vigilante.  Pedestrians are truly the vulnerable class in this world loaded with suspicion and violently-inclined folks with weapons.  One of my favorite books from some fifteen years ago is Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes.  In it he describes his late-night early morning long-distance training runs...one time he ran thirty miles around San Francisco in his underwear!  I can see myself doing something like that...and then get arrested and have my mug shot plastered over my local news station's screen: no thanks.  No, there are definitely times I want to stay off the road, and one of these is when it's dark outside. As for multiple laps on my loop, fifty years ago in March 1975 I once ran five laps on my old Davie loop, amassing nearly 15 total miles.  In Gainesville, unless I'm running or walking around the block (.7 mile), I don't do multiple laps.  Instead I have extensions designed to the course that create the desired distance.  When I ran 26.6 miles on January 15, 2011 I had a pretty complex running route that took me into some interesting territory.  I haven't ventured any distance near that far in the last few years, unless you're talking the marathon I completed last November along the eastern end of the Hawthorne trail.  But training? I keep it measured and consistent, with lots of time for rest and recovery.  Still, I'd like to revisit that old Davie trail from time to time...

Football Just Not One of My Interests

Are you getting excited about the upcoming football season? I'm not. One reason rests in the fact that in my nearly 69 years of existence on this Earth, I have never, ever played a single down of tackle football. Sure, I've played flag football at school and touch football on informal occasions, but the sport that people get so riled up about is something I've never been an active part of. I watch my local news program and revel in the fact that the head sports announcer almost exclusively covers either University of Florida sports or high school athletics...and football regularly gets the heavy emphasis. I despise the coaches I had in both high school physical education class and that one time I was on the track team. In these settings there is a martial, military spirit about minors...albeit adolescent ones...having to snap to attention for their coach like he's some kind of boot camp drill sergeant: disgusting.  I see some of these power-sick individuals on the sidelines going off loudly against players who, God help them, actually make mistakes and wonder why everyone doesn't just turn off the TV or go home in protest to this kind of abuse.  And they actually make statues of star players and stage them outside home fields, as if these people were larger than life.  No one covers with enthusiasm when kids do well in math class at school, and I suppose that makes sense...but I never see any coverage either of local running races, at that's definitely a part of sports..  But football? You can have it. The other day there was a season-opening game between Iowa State and Kansas State...I couldn't care less who won.  But then the officials called a delay of game penalty on the Iowa State defense and their head coach literally went berserk on the sidelines, jumping up and down and screaming at the referees.  That dude should have been sacked on the spot...

Mini-Seminar on Avoiding Falls

This past Saturday morning (somebody) presented an educational meeting about the dangers of falling for seniors and ways to avoid them.  Melissa arranged it for us...all I had to do was drive us down to the gym conference room where it was being held.  We heard a nice talk describing the various situations that can put folks in danger of falling, and also participated in a test of our own individual susceptibility for falls.  Melissa and I did well with the tests...since I tend to be a bit on the athletic side I figured I would.  As people age, they tend to lose muscle mass and strength, especially regarding the "fast-twitch" muscles that can quickly straighten them out when they lose balance, averting fall situations.  Also, bone density tends to lessen, creating the hazard of injuries from falling being compounded with broken bones. Sometimes I get down on the way the world is going, and it seems like people are getting meaner and meaner.  But there's good stuff as well, and this mini-seminar is a useful example... 

Showed Up at Today's Cancelled Depot Parkrun 5K

I had some insomnia early this morning.  I woke up around 5 and stepped outside on my back porch...the sky was clear with a couple of bright planets just over the eastern horizon.  I prepared for the 7:30 Depot Parkrun 5K, which I planned to run today.  I felt a little rough, but hopefully I would find a groove to settle into for the race and maybe finish under 30 minutes.  There were a lot of people at the park...this I expected, it being the beginning of the UF fall academic semester with Gainesville's population swelling.  Before the race started, the director gave us the "bad news": look out west at the storm clouds...they're coming our way quickly and will likely cause today's Parkrun to be cancelled.  Still, they started it at 7:30 and I was awkwardly off in the middle of the very crowded group of runners.  Sadly, a little down the path a young woman had fallen but managed to get herself back up.  I ran gamely but, after the first lap marking .7 mile, only had a time of 7:25, lagging well behind a pace to finish it in 30 minutes.  By that time after just a lap, the storm clouds had quickly swept over the sky and I thought that it was just a matter of minutes before the race was called off...so I stopped and went to my car, driving back home.  Later, online, my hunch was confirmed: the race was indeed cancelled, and in less than 10 minutes after the start.  Oh well, at least I showed up.  Later that morning Melissa and I went to an information session held at Gainesville Health and Fitness promoting seniors' balancing and fall avoidance.  They had some tests we took that revealed our individual likelihoods for sustaining falls, and we both did well in them.  Still, you have to be careful.  Pictured is a photo that Kristen Bryant, the Parkrun director, took of the then-impending storm and put on Facebook...looks pretty eerie, doesn't it...

People in Groups: Always a Power Struggle

In the preamble to the first Lord of the Rings movie, Fellowship of the Ring, the "Lady of the Woods" elf Geladriel (played by Cate Blanchett) explains the origin of the conflict about the special Ring of Power that the evil spirit Sauron used to bind under his domination all of the rings he "gifted" to the different nations of beings.  To the nine men-kings he bestowed each with a ring, for more than anything they coveted power.  Yet upon each's passing, they found themselves completely bound to Sauron, abject slaves to his will. Still, to the extent that they could strike terror in the hearts of ordinary people, I suppose that they would have derived much pleasure from this evil bullying.  I think J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of this fantasy series, had much insight into the basic, rank human nature that is much more universal among our species.  The truth is that you can't get three people together into a group without them sorting out their respective ranks...from top to bottom.  I'm not just theorizing this: I've lived it, going on 69 years come this October.  Barbara Streisand once sang, "People who need people are the luckiest people in the world."  But beyond the benefits and protections that an advanced civil society can bestow on me, I find it annoying, demeaning and stifling to find myself entangled within groups...and I'm sick of that sorting of pecking orders. Just before the Beatles broke up in late 1969, there were two group meetings, one on the 8th and the other on the 20th.  In the earlier meeting, John Lennon made the all-too-reasonable proposal that he, Paul and George each be accorded four songs on their future albums, with one or two given to Ringo. Paul, full of his perceived role as the the group's leader, rejected John's offer.  After Lennon's successful concert adventure a few days later, he announced his "divorce" from the Beatles on that second meeting twelve days later.  There was a flexibility, a willingness to work things out, in Lennon's original proposal, but people stuck in their minds with power aren't rationally reasoning things out.  The general problem I personally see in this translates into all social situations, whereby there are individuals consumed with their own sense of standing within the group, and they will sabotage any meaningful input from me while putting me down in what they regard as my "proper place". I am so sensitive to this that I don't even want to "show up" in some of the gatherings offered at church or in connection to the Parkruns I frequent...and when I was at the post office I tended to avoid union meetings: now it's retirement reunions I steer clear of.  But you know, I can always attend and just sit in the back and keep my mouth shut or just engage in small talk...

Looked at "New Student Edition" Florida Alligator

About a week ago I picked up a copy of the free local paper titled The Independent Florida Alligator, and opened it up to look for anything of use to me.  This issue's called "new student edition", so since I'm pretty damned old in the grand scheme of things I guess they're not all that concerned about me...but that's all right.  The contents were full of upbeat, encouraging articles aimed at helping students avoid burnout while offering suggestions on where they can hang out, eat, exercise, and so on.  I enjoyed reading the opening article describing the recent politicized crap surrounding who gets to be University of Florida's president ever since our excuse for a governor, Ron Desantis, appointed Nebraska senator Ben Sasse to the post, only for him to suddenly resign one day, leaving many angry people in his wake.  Then they brought back Kent Fuchs, who had served at the post for eight years, as interim president until they completed their search and confirmed a new one.  University of Michigan president Santa Ono was picked, resigned his old post...and was ultimately rejected by the politically obsessed Florida Board of Governors, leaving Fuchs still in charge.  He's retired now, and maybe UF doesn't really need a president anyway...what a pathetic joke this once-respected office has been degraded to.  I enjoy the creative writing in the Alligator, and it tends to have a personal edge to it that I can relate to...kind of like blog articles.  And of course I enjoy their little puzzle section toward the back, especially the "spot six differences" one.  But would I ever shell out any money for the Alligator? No way...

Snug-Fitting Old Brooks Shoes Seem to Improve Walking

Today on my neighborhood 3.3-mile loop speed walk, I tried wearing my older Brooks running shoes that fit my feet more snugly than the pair I had been wearing regularly.  I seemed to be able to pick up my walking pace with the old shoes, and it may well be because my feet are tighter in them, not moving around wasting energy with each contact on the road surface.  If I walk this coming Saturday's Depot Parkrun, I plan to use the old Brooks for it and see if I can't bring down my finishing time.  Should be interesting.  In any event, I plan to ask around for advice about who can give me authoritative pointers on race-walking form and evaluate what I'm doing wrong or right with it.  I sincerely believe that endurance speed-walking can well be the way to go with my advancing years as I am intent on maintaining high-functioning mobility, as athletically as possible.  I know the non-profit Florida Track Club, of which I am a member, has an auxiliary, commercial "Team" Florida Track Club that offers (for various fees) coaching and advice...and I believe that race walking is covered in it somewhere.  In today's digital information world, it seems that it shouldn't be all that hard to get some sound coaching with my speed-walking...

The Fallacy of the Dead-End Job

If you're an advocate of the practice of mindfulness, then you just might not need to read this piece about how some of us put down our own employment status as "dead-end".  I recently heard, second-hand, about a loved one who has expressed that her current job was dead-end, with no real prospects for growth.  It was a striking criticism, for I had gleaned from her previous descriptions of her work life that she enjoyed the relative autonomy that the daily routine granted her.  It's a position that demands some physical fitness and endurance...lots of walking!  I think I might have liked that kind of work were I her age...but I get at least her "old" way of looking at work: it paid the bills, she could get through the work day without being bullied by managers or co-workers and when she left, she was done and free for the rest of the day.  I've always worked for the same things and never rated a job as "dead-end" or depriving me of growth...about which I think she meant "opportunities for promotion".  I worked at the US Postal Service for 37 years and had ample opportunities to seek entry into management.  But I was consistently focused on treating each workday as an opportunity to perform my duties well, and when I clocked out at the end of the shift, I was satisfied and went on to what was next for me.  I totally understand that people have differing ideas about ambition and climbing status ladders in their respective fields of employment...a lot of it has to do with cultural values and family structure, as well as with being around certain more alpha-personality types that promote such outlooks and who may be intent on exerting undue pressure. I've encountered some of these pushy folks whose idea of getting to know me is centered around where I rate according to their scale of respect...and that means how prestigious (or not) is my job title and how much money I make on it.  I don't owe anyone an explanation for my motives in job selection, but any revelation from them that they feel entitled to negatively judge me accordingly quickly and automatically condemns them as unworthy of friendship and respect. Back when I first started working for the USPS, they hired...outside the standard-practice sequence of the register list of candidates according to their exam scores...the son of a current supervisor.  He was arrogant with an entitlement mentality, and performed his assigned tasks sloppily, but escaped discipline because of his connections.  Well, one day he came to work full of the advancement promises that being an Amway member gave him.  With Amway, the important thing is to get people "under you", through which you get a cut of their sales profits.  His idea was that eventually he could live effortlessly through the efforts of those supporting him.  Fine if that works, but his sales pitch to us coworkers was that it was better than this "dead-end job" we were doing.  That aroused some offense from me and a colleague, and the matter was squelched among us.  A couple of years later that dude was fired for outright insubordination...since his "daddy" supervisor had already retired, he was no longer under that umbrella of protection and they were only too eager to get rid of this troublemaker.  So that's where I stand whenever someone starts playing the "it's a dead-end job" hand.  Do whatever you want as long as it's legal and you do no harm to others, but leave me alone if you're going to use that bullshit excuse for an argument...

Evangelicals, Worldliness and Cognitive Dissonance

I've written before on this blog about how I'm put off by people who devote much of their very-verbose speaking efforts at defining their theology within the conservative evangelical Christian movement and discussing different people they personally know, employing a judgmental yardstick behind their backs regarding their salvation status and Christian walk.  Frankly, I just wish these good people would just shut up and sit back.  They also seem predisposed to be much more worldly in their materialism and status within the world system's pecking order.  For some reason church lay leaders place very heavy emphasis on people's professional and financial status.  Business owner, physician, college professor, engineer, lawyer, overall rich person...they seem to confirm that these individuals have leadership (over me) qualifications because of their worldly achievements and that they, by default, have more spirituality than someone who has lived a responsible life for themselves and their family but doesn't check the "right" boxes.  I've encountered this worldly, unspiritual snobbery on multiple occasions at church social gatherings...hard to digest and reconcile without the word "hypocrites" screaming out to me. I think, however, that I can deal with that sort of elitism better than the two-faced kind of cognitive dissonance I've noticed among some who, while insisting on their own high level of spirituality, are completely immersed in the struggles for political power in this world, particularly between the Republicans and Democrats in this country.  I mean, if you're on the "wrong" side, which they literally hate while extolling the name of Jesus, you might just consider carefully keeping your own counsel around them.  I have a choice with these folks, several of whom seem to harbor good will toward me since they do not know of my political leanings. Either I can eschew politics when around them or I can eschew them for my own mental and emotional peace, God bless 'em. Or maybe just try both paths...solitude can be a true blessing...

On Being One-Upped by "Non-Competitive" Park-Walker "Volunteers" in Parkruns

I like my habit of going out on Saturday mornings and participating in one of Gainesville's two Parkruns.  I either run it, speed-walk it, mix up the two within the same race or volunteer.  So far since 2019 I have finished 84 such events.  You're accorded the privilege after reaching 25, 50, 100 and 250 milestones of ordering special tee shirts bearing the achieved level.  I had their pretty lavender "25" shirt but a few months ago either misplaced or lost it...sad.  But now I'm going with "50", red-colored.  If things go according to plan I should be eligible sometime early in 2026 for their "100" shirt...looking forward to it.  As Shauna (the Parkrun leader here in Gainesville) has said on multiple occasions, the Parkrun 5K is not a competition per se but rather an event designed to bring people together who embrace fitness and bettering themselves.  I'm in agreement with her on this: my priorities with Parkrun are (1) show up, (2) finish, (3) do the run or walk or volunteer gig true to my standards, (4) as reasonably as possible be friendly and accommodating toward others attending with me and (5) write about it on my blog.  Well, here's one of those (5)'s! Starting a couple of years ago I decided to phase more speed-walking into my workouts and racing.  With this I began inserting, every few weeks, a Parkrun event in which I walked the 3.1 miles at my then-top pace.  My speed did pick up to the point where, a year ago, I regularly finished the 5K distance faster than 40 minutes, my top two days both at 38:19.  I was also some 25 pounds lighter at the time, something that I believe contributed to my speed and progress.  Since then, though, the weight has come back up and my finishes have gotten slower.  And a couple of annoying things happened as well.  One of the volunteer slots available to choose for a Parkrun is to be a park-walker.  You don a blue park-walker-volunteer vest and then simply walk the course during the race, presumably as someone who can be supportive to other participants.  Back on June 21st, I was speed-walking at Depot Park when a little boy, wearing that park-walker-volunteer vest, casually walked right past me toward the end, eventually leaving me far behind.  I was a little disconcerted at this, because I thought damn, I could have done what he did and race-walked, getting an extra volunteer credit in the process.  Then last week I was speed-walking at their newly begun West End Community Park course when the identical thing again happened.  This time the "volunteer", as it turned out, was an elderly woman in my same age group (65-69).  And she seemed to be having quite an easy time passing me, too...and it seemed to mean something to her to do so.  The fact that some others are so casual about walking so quickly shouldn't bother me, but it does because I take speed-walking seriously and see it as a promising vehicle for me to maintain a robust level of ambulatory activity deeply into my senior years, God willing. I'd like to even speed-walk a 26.2 mile marathon race in under 6 hours, but I feel I need to get my weight back down to a more reasonable figure first.  And I suppose that in the meantime, anybody can have their grandson or granny "volunteer" to fly right on by me in a Parkrun if that makes them feel higher on the pecking order.  I just don't see how that's doing any of the rest of us good if they're doing it as "volunteers"...  

Mixed Walking and Running at West End Community Parkrun 5K Today

The dog days of summer drag on, and I dragged myself down to West End Community Park to engage in their weekly Saturday morning Parkrun.  At 7:30 race time, it was a very uncomfortable 75 degrees with 98% humidity...and the sun rose to clear skies, practically blinding anyone facing the east during the event.  I had originally intended to run this 5K, but with the grounds being so slick from dew and the previous night's thunderstorms, I instead decided to go with a speed-walk and see how that worked.  This went well, until I decided mid-race to treat it all like a neighborhood workout and mix some running into the formula.  At 21 minutes I began running, alternating it with spurts of speed-walking: at the end, I finished with a time of 37:14, 13:14 spent in running.  You can view the posted results by clicking HERE.  I am getting more accustomed to this very convoluted course, but I still prefer the setup at Depot Park across town where I'm always on pavement and can easily determine my progress by how many laps I've covered...here at West End I have to go completely by my watch and the elapsed time. I also don't care too much for having to drive a substantially longer distance to get to West End Community Park, which is a quick right-hand turn just a few blocks west of NW 122nd Street off Newberry Road.  I do like the fact that afterward I can (and did) go to the Tioga Town Center across the street to dry off and change at Gainesville Health and Fitness there and then walk over to Patticakes, where I'm writing this out and drinking a chai latte.  And now it's time to go home! Looking forward to a nice weekend, for me, Melissa...and you!

Looking for Useful Stuff in Free Brochures and Newspapers

I retired at the end of November last year, but I still get my union's newsletters in the mail, as if I am somehow still listed somewhere as a member.  Let's see...this one is titled "Florida Postal Worker", representing the American Postal Workers Union of Florida.  Good enough, let's open it up and see what's inside. Headline item: Ratification Happens...the new collective bargaining agreement has been overwhelmingly ratified by the rank and file.  On turning the page, there is an article on how to avoid scams, an anti-Trump piece titled "No Kings in America", and an urging for members to contact their elected representatives with their opinions. Then there's list of 30 reasons to thank unions, a section listing general guidelines for emergency preparedness, an article about the APWU Auxiliary, and a few other trailing articles. Overall I found this issue to be informative and potentially helpful, assuming I come back to it and refer to it.  I think this idea of picking up a piece of literature like a brochure or newsletter and determining whether or not it contains anything of value is constructive...future such blog articles are in the works for other publications...

Swimming Between Two Medical Issues

I'm currently swimming between two different health issues that will probably be under medical scrutiny for the remainder of my (hopefully long-term) existence on this Earth.  The first one to crop up was a congenital defective heart valve and accompanying aortic artery aneurysm that was diagnosed in late 2011/early 2012 and surgically corrected through open heart surgery in July 2021.  For this, post-op, I take regular medications and undergo periodic testing and specialist consultations...I just finished one with my excellent thoracic surgeon yesterday, to meet again in two years. The second medical issue is cancer, more specifically that of the prostate, which for me was diagnosed through biopsy in mid-December 2024.  I underwent a robotic laparoscopic prostatectomy in March and seem (so far) to be doing quite well without that malignant prostate.  But this issue also involves periodic blood tests for PSA (protein-specific antigen) levels that might indicate a return or resurgence (or not) of the cancer.  On my second post-surgery PSA test, the level was at .1, which may or may not be significant. The urology department at UF Health has me scheduled for a PSMA PET scan later this month, and thereafter yet another PSA test to be taken at the start of September. Then I'll meet with my specialist physician to determine a constructive course of action with all of this...or in the best-case scenario, inaction. It's during times like these that I can sit back and feel gratitude for the wonderful state of medicine, and my access to it.  I'm looking forward to staying active and positive, taking each day one at a time and appreciating the great people and circumstances around me...

Keeping "Track" of Tropical Storm Erin

It looks as if this weekend the moment of truth will come out regarding what is destined to be Hurricane Erin, which is one of those Atlantic tropical storm systems that developed off the west African coast and traversed the high seas deep into our western hemisphere.  According to the projected various possible paths the storm could take, I'm not too concerned from my north-central Florida home location, but I'm not so sure I'd want to be on a cruise ship anytime in the near future that has the Bahamas and eastern Caribbean on its course.  My own cruise concern is projected for the first couple of weeks in October, when I'm afraid it might be a bit more touchy with the tropical storms during that period.  But we'll see. I'm guessing that Erin probably won't make landfall on the continent, but might threaten Bermuda and cause a lot of warnings about rip current along the Atlantic coast from Florida on northward. In any event, I guess this means we're finally in the middle of hurricane season.  Now that I'm retired and out of school for decades, I'm naturally hoping that they all stay away...

Will Trump Follow in Neville Chamberlain's Footsteps over Ukraine?

So it looks as if our current president will soon be meeting with his Russian counterpart in Alaska to present proposals for peace in Ukraine and try to come back with some hope for the future.  Having studied some history myself, I know that Great Britain's prime minister Neville Chamberlain met with Germany's dictator Adolf Hitler in 1938 to resolve the latter's instigated "crisis" as he threatened neighboring Czechoslovakia under the guise of protecting ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland part of that peaceful country's territory.  And Chamberlain came away from that encounter waving a signed piece of paper, declaring "Peace in our time".  It was nothing more than a capitulation to the Nazi warmonger and sped the international community toward eventual world war as Germany only accelerated its military aggression.  I have a suspicion that something similar will arise from this "summit" between a dictator masquerading as a democratically-elected president and a democratically-elected president masquerading as a dictator.  Only when it comes to strength and integrity, "my" leader, I'm afraid, is an ignorant, weak puppet for Russia's government...but I already knew that for nine years.  Get ready for Ukraine to be sold down the river while Trump proudly waves his own paper in the air and makes like he stood up to Putin...

Feel Excluded By Both Political Parties' Ideologies

It used to be that being a politically pragmatic centrist was a pretty reasonable, popular thing to be in our republic that has functioned through democratically elected representatives comprising governments on national, statewide and local levels.  Nowadays, however, I find myself extremely marginalized as the two main political parties are each practicing ideologies and policies that exclude me and my interests.  I'm repulsed at the increasingly autocratic Republican Party and President Trump on the national level and Florida's Governor Desantis at the statewide level.  On the other hand, I am one of those folks who are put off by a burgeoning Woke movement in this country, very sensitive to how its advocates group and label people while practicing cancel culture as they condemn anything or anyone they see or hear violating their special rules of speech and behavior.  The latest example of this is the furor being whipped up over the clothing company American Eagle and their ad campaign featuring an attractive young woman wearing their product.  Even Rachel Maddox on MSNBC is getting in on it all, lending her politically correct opinions.  In Gainesville we have a leftist news rag called The Iguana, and in all the years I've picked it up and read it I have yet to see anything in their issues that speak to my interests.  No, I seem to belong to all the wrong demographic categories, and not only am I the "bad guy" by default in any diversity/"inclusion" discussions, but I'm now adjudged to be guilty of being privileged whether or not I show any signs of prejudice or compassion.  I know a dude I used to work with who is very proud of his own Wokeness...I realized at a point that I could never talk to him about anything without him coming back at me with some Woke spin on things.  Such people are innately full of their own pious self-righteousness and see themselves as qualified to point their accusing fingers at anyone who uses the wrong pronoun or engages in the healthy, mature habit of playing devil's advocate in a discussion of issues or politics.  So no, I feel no love for either party, and I really feel like avoiding the creepy, stupid people who like to speechify on what is correct and what isn't... 

Comparing Depot Park and West End Community Park Parkruns So Far

I feel blessed at my age to still be fit enough to engage in 5K (3.1-mile) walk/run events.  I'm also grateful that my home town of Gainesville now has two free weekly 5K events, each held Saturday mornings at 7:30.  The older of the two, Depot Parkrun, I've participated in since 2019, finishing so far some 82 races at this writing.  The most recent one, West End Community Parkrun, held its first race on July 12th, and I ran my first race there on August 2nd.  I now have a choice for each Saturday morning: stay in bed at home, get up and do the Depot Parkrun...just south of downtown Gainesville...or travel a bit further west of town to West End Community Park for their event.  I've written before that I prefer the Depot Park course, which consists of four laps on a paved pathway around the park.  They also have park restroom facilities there, as well as plenty of parking.  My only objection is that the town surrounding the park is kind of run down, with plenty of homeless people walking the streets and planting themselves around the businesses that are trying to function there...including the nearby Starbucks, sigh.  As for West End Community Park, the course is nearly impossible to figure out, zigzagging with sharp turns and uneven concrete sidewalks, interrupted by stretches of grassway slickened by the morning dew and in different states of mowing.  Last week I speed-walked the four laps at Depot Park, and following the race I ran an unofficial bonus lap...this is unfeasible at the new site.  Also, West End at this time only has a couple of porta-potties: pretty primitive.  On its upside, though, just across Newberry Road from the park is a classy shopping center, highlighted for me by a branch of Gainesville Health and Fitness Center that opens at 8 am.  I can go there after the race, cool myself down at GHF and change clothes, and then walk a few steps over to Patticakes, a very nice coffee shop that used to be a Starbucks for years.  This Saturday my plan is to try out West End again and see how it all goes...

Walked the Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning

I decided this morning to go to Depot Park to speed-walk their weekly Parkrun 5K.  It was warm and muggy...as usual...as I felt my sore legs and decided to give the joints a break with a walk instead of pounding the pavement with a run.  As it was, the walk was easy enough, but with my increased body weight the speed has suffered over the past year and I finished it with a time of 42:42...click HERE to view the posted results.  I did feel energized enough at the end to run an unofficial bonus .7-mile lap...did that in 6:49.  Maybe in the future...at Depot Park at least...I'll tack on an extra lap or two of running following a speed-walk.  In any event, I feel I'm experiencing a sort of reset with my level of speed with the recent walks and runs.  That's all right: for the time being, the main thing is simply showing up. Besides, it's still the dog days of summer, with the temperature at race time 68 degrees with a muggy 94% humidity.  After the race I tried going to Maude's, a nearby coffee shop...wasn't impressed: going elsewhere in the future...

Enjoyed Some Time at Daytona Beach

 

Melissa and I made a somewhat spontaneous decision to go to Daytona Beach for a couple of nights...we just got back this afternoon.  It was pleasant to see the ol' Beach again...nice to be able sit out on our oceanfront room balcony and take in the scenery.  Since we're talking Wednesday check-in and Friday check-out, this stood as the last full weekday stretch for a while in which kids weren't going off to school.  Hence there were a lot of families with children everywhere...and especially in the hotel's swimming pool.  We did avail ourselves of it Thursday...I think our local pool is a lot more convenient, though.  I went on a couple of walks along the beach, each in a different direction.  The weather was a mix of rainstorms and sun.  The tides seemed to come in a bit too strongly, impeding walking paths along the beach...I timed my walks to coincide with receding sea levels.  We also ate out at a couple of our favorite area restaurants.  The whole experience was fun...except for the sometimes exasperating drives from Gainesville to there, and back.  And it's good to be back...

At Doughnut Shop Again, with AlphaSmart

 

I'm sitting here in my nearby Dunkin' Donuts writing this on the above-pictured AlphaSmart portable word processor, which is completely off-line and runs on AA batteries, automatically saving whatever I type in one of the device's 8 built-in files.  Now I do have a cord for it that allows me to transfer my writing to another computer...that's how you're able to read this! This doughnut shop first opened during the COVID-19 era in early 2020...I remember voting that March in the Florida Primary and then going through the store's drive-through, only to be told that the employees were "in training" and that the grand opening wouldn't be for another few weeks.  As I remember, Lord Voldetrump was president back then as well, and I was eager to support Joe Biden in his campaign to unseat him.  I felt that Biden did a credible job in his four years as our president. Apparently, though, you have to be a show-biz whiz in front of the cameras and mikes to make it in this social and mass media-based society we're subjugating ourselves to nowadays.  Biden in his earlier years probably would have come out looking and sounding better, but from 2021 to 2025 his best efforts resulted in a more subdued and less dramatic presidency: it worked for me, albeit not for the attention-deficit general population. Yesterday I was here typing out another blog article when an old friend from a now-defunct church came in and we talked (or more precisely, I listened to him talking).  My church buddies present a kind of predicament to me.  This guy was meeting with a couple of friends regularly on Monday afternoons to discuss "Jesus", but when they did get together they seemed bent on discussing sports and politics, the latter with an built-in presumption that the Democrats were villains. But that's the way it is for me with people I like from church: the overwhelming majority of them are Trump followers who get their information from FoxNews and their opinions spoon-fed by people like Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity, Greg Gutfeld and Mark Levin.  If Trump says something it's automatically true and you can't argue otherwise.  Sigh. So with these good folks I have the choice of either consciously avoiding discussing news with them or consciously avoiding their presence, period.  And, sadly, the trend for me has been to just stay away from them and leave them to their own self-imposed feedback loops and cult personality idol worship...