Gil Can Run!A blog on Running and all the crap that runs through my head while doing it

Sep 29th End of the Quarter

Yep, 3/4ths of 2016 are done! Well tomorrow, but I’m not running tomorrow, because it’s Friday. I ran today. I seem to have rebounded nicely from earlier in the year. My conditioning is still not where I want it to be, but that may be an artifact of all the moving around and lack of routine. And, while I don’t have a scale, I’m sure I’m still carrying around some extra weight. People don’t think 5-10 lbs (2.5-5 kg) is THAT much weight, but over the course of a marathon, or even a half marathon, it really is.
So for September, 145 miles (233 km) again, over 22.39 hours, so about 9:12/mile (5:43/km) a little slower than last month, but my long run last weekend was pretty much all of that. So, even with a very anemic June where I rehabilitated and rested, I’m at 1130 miles (1820 km) for the year, over 180.53 hours! I’ll round the pace up to 9:36/mi (5:58/km).
Assuming no more injuries and an average work rate, I am projected to top 1500 miles (2414 km) again this year. Remember, at the start of this year I set no goals. Unlike last year, in which I set out to run 1 marathon (or greater) per month, and to complete at least one of those in under 4 hours, plus 1500 miles for the year. All goals I hit. At the end of the year though, I knew I was injured, and did not want to push myself until I was healed. I think stupidly took part in a challenge from my running club, which I don’t regret, but would not do again under similar circumstances. The problem with me is, when I say I’m going to do something, I do it. End of discussion.
So, as far as running goes, I’m having a great year. Even though the last couple of weeks have been a little rough on me physically and mentally. I’m doing alright.
So something happened last night that baffles me. It illustrates the problems I talk about perfectly. The Senate and House of Representatives in the United States overrode a veto by the President (in a bipartisan vote) to pass a law that said victim families from September 11, 2001 could sue the government of Saudi Arabia, since some people in the government there supported the terrorists, and ostensibly because most of the people who committed the act were Saudi?
Let’s forget about the issue of forcing a foreign government to adhere to the decisions of a court in the United States. Let’s forget about what this means for other governments opening up their laws to allow their citizens to sue the United States. I mean the millions between two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the birth defects caused by the weapons we use. The Kurds could come after us for selling Saddam Hussein the mustard gas he used on them in the 80s? We’ve been sending drones all over the world there have been innocent bystanders killed in these strikes. It’s a huge can of worms. But more than that, and exactly my point.
Let’s go back to when? The Crusades? I don’t care when, I don’t care who started it. There will always be an aggrieved party. “Well, they killed 3000+ Americans in one day.” Well, the West, including America, has been responsible for the deaths of millions over the centuries, and they have been too. So where does it end? Are we hoping we’ll stop murdering each other in the name of revenge and just keep suing each other? This is asinine. It will never end. And it’s always been about resources, and money anyway, so now it’s just court battles?
Maybe it’s time to stop being aggrieved. Look, if the United States was so inclined, we can do something they can’t. We can literally destroy the entire planet. I don’t know if everyone understands this. The United States is among a few countries in the world which could literally carry out a genocide, or even simply wipe the entire Earth clean if they wanted to, and there’d be very little the rest of the world could do about it. It’s hugely scary, and shows how much restraint and care must be taken by us when selecting leaders. Something we do a better job at than we get credit for sometimes, and something we could still be much better at. I think that has to be good enough. The knowledge that we hold this super-scary power.
It’s like the teenager that picks on the grade school kid, and when the grade school kid hits him, he laughs. Not literally of course, any loss of life is tragic. But we can be the bigger nation, we can simply just ignore it. We did our damage, we have to say, “OK, we’re done”. That doesn’t mean “they win”. We can completely destroy the Earth if we wanted, without any other nation acting at all. There is nothing they can visit upon us that we cannot return 100 fold. But what is the virtue in such an action? What is the virtue in perpetuating the cycle of aggression? How does this end, if everyone’s constantly a victim looking for their “justice”? Is it possible we’re all wrong here? I think so.
So, terrible tragedy can be met with forgiveness, with love, kindness even, and maybe that will break the cycle of terrible, endless tragedy? Instead of constantly trying to “recover” your losses in some manner, either through returned violence, or some other aggression. It just seems silly to me. I don’t see where this is going to solve or stop anything, and if anything it will most likely escalate international tensions. Good for arms manufacturers, bad for humanity.

In the underground, integrity lies within
in the underground, image doesn’t mean a thing
when the substance lacks it’s plain for all to see
if the deal is right then respect is where it should be.

For the fakes and frauds it’s a fucking fashion show
total compromise will have them sell their soul.
all the negative all the useless influence
all the emptiness all the violent detriment
makes no sense…

Please have more to give than fashion and images
please have more to give than fashion and images

Caught up in a trap of media crap that’s no way to live
Caught up in a trap of media crap so little to give
Caught up in a trap of media crap that’s no way to live
Caught up in a trap of media crap so little to give

In the underground, integrity lies within
in the underground, image doesn’t mean a thing
we can do away with this negativity
it’s a golden day we can force them to stepdown

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Sep 28th Down-side, I keep oversleeping

I can’t seem to get myself out of “vacation mode”. Thankfully, I don’t have any days next week where I have to be to work early until Saturday. So when I finally rolled out of the apartment and ran today, there wasn’t much stress. But it does bother me that I’m not waking up on time, and getting things done when I want to.
Speaking of doing things, City of Montreal, Quebec, Canada shame on you! They banned all “pit bull” type breeds of dogs. They made massive restrictions on dogs already owned by individuals, and when the law goes into effect all abandoned types of these dogs are to be euthanized immediately. OK, a few things. First, people SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR DAMNED PETS! All types of domestic animals overpopulating is bad. Second, these dogs are only “more dangerous” because they are trained to be. Breed specific legislation is ridiculous. Third, breeds are ridiculous. I want a dog, I want a cat, I don’t much care what specific traits humans have bred into or out of the particular animal to make it “different”. It’s bullshit, it’s bad for the genetic and overall health of the animals, and it’s cruel. Fourth, we have created this issue through improper breeding and care, why are the dogs being punished for it? Fuck you Montreal City Council, fuck you Mayor of Montreal. That’s all I got today, just fuck them.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Sep 27th Sometimes it’s easier than you think

Really. I thought today was going to be a total bear. But it ended up being a pretty nice run. Yesterday was stressful. big meeting at the new job, orientation sort of thing. Got an idea of the schedule and what level classes I will be teaching. Also a little bit of a disappointment on when Christmas Break starts, and realizing I’ll not get to spend as much time with my family as I’d like over the holiday.
As I have already cast my votes via absentee ballot. Yes, I vote for every office, and on every question on every ballot, every year. The debate last night was largely unimportant to me personally. But obviously, I wanted my preferred choice to do better, and the other choice to do as poorly as one could. Unfortunately, the bar for that person was set so amazingly low, that it was very difficult for him to screw up. Luckily, it seems he did! It just doesn’t get any better than that. It seems there was a problem with him sniffling, lots of interruptions, and of course “I never said that” when he totally said that. So good, hopefully people start realizing how truly horrible he is as a choice.
So chances are I won’t be running the half marathon in town this weekend. Nobody has answered my inquiry about how to register. I’m not dealing with anymore stress than I absolutely have to. I’m never going to have endorsement deals, sponsorship, or any of that mess. I move up an age group next year and this is only my 4th full year running, 5th overall. I don’t run, blog, post on social media, work a job, or anything in life to be well-liked, popular, rich, famous, attractive, all of those things are fairly meaningless to me. I do all this to try and make the world a better place. That’s it. If one person reads, or listens to one thing I ever write, and it makes a positive impact on their life. If it motivates them to be better in some way, shape, or form I have succeeded. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. To make the world a better place.
Every day, it’s all I strive for. I find emptiness working for a paycheck. I saw someone, who I consider smart, post about how we can’t force morality from corporations, and their inequity is a simple fact of life. This is someone who rails against inequity all over the place, yet complacently accepts the very system that puts that inequity in place. I was dumbfounded. They then said, “To have a bad job is better than no job.” What is the virtue of work, of having a job? If we are not making the world better than what we found it, if we are not filling our purpose as thinking, empathetic beings, if we are destroying the very things we need to survive, what good is our job doing? When the lands and waters are all poisoned, we will find we can’t eat money.
If we are to be virtuous beings, then our systems must also be virtuous. Business is not a natural state of being. We create the system, and we intentionally make it hurt people, and then we claim that’s just the way things are, and we can’t force the system we created to be fair? That makes no sense to me. I participate in the system as much as I have to, beyond that I simply use what I can to try and help and make things a bit better. I can’t repair the system. I’m one person. But I can see how it can be repaired, and try and share what I see and what I know, and maybe people listen and it catches on, or maybe I am ignored. I still did what I could to help.
That’s it though. So I’m not here for my ego, money, advertisers, even to tell people how to live and be. I’m just here sharing what I think and hoping it makes someone’s day a little better, in some way. That’s all. The good news is, even if no one listens, even if my words are useless, every day I don’t eat meat, and that makes at least one animal’s life better. So every day, I’ve done something good, regardless of all other things that happen.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Sep 25th A long run, kind of

OK, I ended up walking much of the last 6 miles. It was very sunny, and I lost focus. Two dangerous things. I needed a long run today, and I wanted to do something not too long, plus it’s my eldest niece’s 16th birthday, so 16 miles made sense. Right around mile 10 I said, “enough” and just started walking. When I got back into town I hit the first water fountain (tons of public water fountains around here in the cities) and stood there for a couple minutes, refilling my bottle, drinking, splashing water on my head and neck.
But the nice part is, when it cools off in the late Fall and Winter, this will be a pretty nice course to run, it’s pretty flat. Tons of olive and grape farms to run past, a few nice views of the Adriatic. Also, some of the marble businesses have stones just sitting outside the gates. They look like maybe they’re not 100% proper, so I’m guessing they can’t sell them so they just leave them out for people to take if they want. I certainly could, if I were building a home, make some very nice things out of a lot of the stone that was outside the stone cutters. This may be something to keep in mind in the future!
So I saw this post about death row inmates’ last meals. That’s got me thinking, I’ve said it before, this whole thing, the problems with cops, and murder, the problems with wars and violence. We can solve this. I see too many people on all sides, talking about what people “deserve”. That’s a problem. Look, I have plenty of people I disagree with. I have plenty of people who I think are morally reprehensible, wrong, dangerous, causing pain, violence, even death. Do they “deserve to die”? No. That’s not for me to say. They need to be stopped, surely. If you can keep them from getting into a position to cause pain and violence, do so. But they do not deserve to die. Nobody deserves to die.
Even if I was 100% certain that I was right, and the other person was wrong, it’s not my decision to make, and we need everyone to understand that. Nothing in this world is black and white. Look at the Central Park 5. This is relevant because of the GOP Presidential nominee. They had signed confessions (coerced) from the defendants. That is what they were convicted on even though there was no other evidence. Years later, while they’re rotting in prison, literally for a crime they did not commit, another person, who was in trouble for something else confesses and his DNA is a match, and all the other evidence lines up with this guy being the person who committed the crime!
Now, all these people who screamed for the death penalty for the Central Park 5, because they confessed, they deserved to die. But they didn’t do anything wrong. They confessed because the police coerced them into a confession. People, including Donald Drumpf (R – Presidential Nominee) were convinced these 5 kids were guilty. They were sure they were right in demanding the deaths of these 5 people. They were all horribly wrong.
We have killed people in the name of the State, in the name of justice, when they have done nothing wrong. When it’s a war, we call it collateral damage. You’ve seen the pictures of young Syrian children bloodied, covered in dust, we may or may not be dropping those bombs, but it happens. In Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, everywhere we have been and gone. Wherever a military plies its trade, there are innocent civilians killed for doing nothing more than living their lives.
Nobody deserves to die. If somebody wishes to kill me, that’s their problem. I know it’s wrong to kill others regardless of what their perceived injustice is. It does not matter to me. I do not consent any government, state, organization, or individual to kill anyone in my name for any reason, at any time. Once everyone starts to recognize that there is never a reason to kill anyone, we can start to heal this miserable condition we live through here. The first part of this is to teach people to never be certain about anything. Once you are certain that you are right you can justify just about anything. There’s always a chance we are wrong, not one human being, not one living creature is perfect. We all make mistakes, we all make errors. They will always happen. That uncertainty is enough to say we should never take a life, under any conditions. There is always another way. This is where it starts, recognizing that you, your family, your community, your pastor, your church, your elected officials, your news broadcasters, every single being great and small you will ever meet is imperfect. The only one of those imperfect beings you have any hope of having any control over is yourself. That’s it, not your wife or husband, not your kids, your grandkids, just you. Humility, true humility is what is needed. Because once we are sure of ourselves, we can justify the most monstrous of things.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Sep 24th Totally have been vegged out

Seriously, ran Thursday, ran today. It’s been tiring. But I think I haven’t been eating enough. Now that I’m aware, hopefully I won’t have these problems anymore.
Meanwhile, there’s a half marathon in town next weekend, and I can’t find out where to register for it. You have to register online by the end of this week. But it seems you can’t register online without a login and you can’t get a login without physically handing in paperwork in Rome. That’s just obscene.
So I wrote the organizers and asked them, but who knows if they’ll get back to me. On the good side of things I got my phone sorted and everything else seems to be easy sailing through calm seas. So that’s a plus.
Other than that I really have nothing. I voted, mailed my ballot back. The lady at the post office was funny, “You’re not voting for Trump are you?” Seriously people, it’s not bullshit, the rest of the world does not want us to vote for Trump, they understand the particular danger he represents. They get that he is not a good person and would be bad for America, and what’s bad for America is bad for the world. It’s not because of “aide” we may give places, we don’t give much to Europe at all. It’s because when our economy tanks, when we pull away from the world, we cause depressions, we cause bad economies all over. We hurt people. When you get people who don’t understand how things are connected, that’s when really bad things happen, that’s what Trump is. And the European people, by and large, understand it. We need to wake up.
I have always felt voting and participating important. I have always felt there was a dangerous path America was headed down and that working the way I do helps avoid that path. I have never felt it as viscerally, I’ve never felt the danger so close, so palpable as I do this time around. I hope this is the last time in a long time I feel this way. I am legitimately afraid of what a Trump presidency would mean. We have just over a month to go, and hopefully this round of fight the fascists ends well.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Sep 21st The machine keeps running

I woke up late, got out to run late. I’m not as tired as I was yesterday, but pretty close. Took a nap, you know I’m tired if I take a nap.
I like that I seem to be keeping a consistent pace overall with my runs. I do not like that I am so damned tired. Hopefully, tomorrow will show more improvement.
Meanwhile, I finally figured out my address here in town. I still haven’t gone to my favorite pizzeria, and I realized tomorrow I must buy a lid for one of my pans so I can cook rice! What was I thinking? How is one supposed to cook rice without lids for their pans? Things we take for granted sometimes.
So I still have a week and a half to spend doing something before work starts. Doing nothing all day is actually rather difficult. Just trying to get everything settled and set is a lot of hurry up and wait. Although, I heard from the Italian Consulate in New York today, they sent my information to Barletta almost 2 years ago, and yet Barletta does not have it in the system. What a giant pain that is. At least Barletta is a quick train ride from where I am, so I will be able to easily sort all this out, even when I start working, it shouldn’t be much of a problem. Logistics and administration is not my strong suit, and doing it in a different language makes things tougher. I complain, I get frustrated, but overall it could be much worse.
So tomorrow I wake up and try again, hopefully things improve. Although, as this day has gone on, I have gotten more and more tired. So we shall see. A fresh round of mosquito bites aren’t helping at all. I really don’t like these little bastards.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Sep 20th I might be sick

No pun or double meaning, I really think I might be ill. I’ve been very fatigued for many days. More tired and more sore, generally, than I’ve ever remembered myself being. Totally bonked again during a relatively short run. No injuries, not much more stress than normal. Just something is sucking all my energy away from me. I think I’m eating enough (although I was just able to do my first food diary entry in days, and I did eat more today than I have been). Definitely been drinking enough water. So I’m starting to think I might have come down with something. It doesn’t help that I’ve been getting eaten alive by mosquitoes the last few nights.
I finally have real internet today. Well, it’s the mifi device I have been using in Italy. I keep getting apartments without internet, next time I need to find a place to live it’ll be at the top of my list. So I’m sorting out the last few little things, hopefully. I’m glad I got into town early enough to iron out some of the finer points. Even though it created a few extra problems. But that’s the thing, it’s give and take.
Meanwhile, the world needs America to knock it off with the conman, fascist Drumpf. Clinton needs to wipe the floor with him in the commercialized advertising events, I mean debates. They’re not real debates anymore. Which is both good and bad I suppose. Also, America, could you stop shooting unarmed peoples please. While some people will say stupid things like, “more white people get killed by police” the fact is, proportional to how much of the population each group makes up, you are much more likely to be unarmed and murdered by police the darker your skin gets. This is irrefutable fact. Knock it off. Speaking of guns, it seems less people own more guns now, and about 50% of all guns are owner by about 3% of the US population. To that 3% of the population, I think you need help. I’m sorry, but that sounds like a sickness. What’s wrong with you?
My absentee ballot came this week though, and I will mail it back by the end of the week. The only other thing I have to sort is my running shoes. It seems New Balance has discontinued my model in Europe is what it comes down to. I can stay with the same shoe, if I want to pay for the shoe, plus the shipping, plus the import tax. Making it twice as expensive. Of course, I should have just got a new pair when I was back in the States for the Summer and brought them back with me that way. But the other models New Balance (I use them exclusively) suggests are lighter, have a lower drop and are still rated highly for overpronators. The irony in it is, one of the models the 860v6 is already being replaced in the US by the 860v7! They make this more difficult than it needs to be I think. So I have lots to think about on the shoe front. My first pair of NB was actually a 1080v4 I think, v4 or v3. Then I switched to the 940v2 when I started using my running club’s shoe store. I don’t even know how many pairs of the 940s I’ve been through. It’s been a few years, and about 3 pairs of shoes a year, so maybe 9? 10? It’s been a lot.
I worry about things like this, because of my severe overpronation and the amount of miles I do. I don’t want to have to deal with injury and such. Although, there will surely be some discomfort with any shoe change. The big problem is that my current pair should be out of useful miles by mid-October. I will, of course, stretch that until the end of October; but still. At this point, I’m hoping the fatigue goes away and I’m all better by then. Tomorrow morning I will get up and go out for another few miles and see how it goes. I may shorten my weekend runs and see if that helps next week. I’m doing well so far this month on goals and mileage. Not that I have any definite goals. But I am going to see if I can manage 1500 miles again this year, since a sub 20 5k is not going to happen. I don’t even have anymore 5ks on the schedule, in fact only one more definite race, the Puglia Marathon.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Sep 18th Sunday Run day

Almost got 10 miles in. I was not easy at the end. Lots of sun, high heat, I was exhausted. I even stopped in the park to use the water fountain. Did not stop me from bonking.

The rest of the day was finishing unpacking and I was going to go to the beach, but the weather changed and it’s been pouring rain all afternoon and at the start of this evening. But my apartment is clean, and I have space to live now.

With no real internet right now, again, and not much to do, I finally sat down and watched the new Star Wars film last night. I had downloaded it at the end of May, and then my computer died, and I figured last night was as good a night as any.

Very quickly, it’s a modernized, rehashed Star Wars: A New Hope. Holy crap, what a shitfest! It wasn’t a bad movie if Star Wars: A New Hope didn’t exist, well except for the whiney asshattery of Kylo Ren. Fuck you, that’s how Han Solo goes out? Yeah, he was supposed to die in A New Hope, blah blah blah, I’m sure Harrison Ford didn’t want to go through 3 movies again. Fine. But having him just get run through by his cry-baby kid. Whatever.

I hate JJ Abrahms still. It will continue, I don’t want to watch any more of his films. Hollywood has always been about remakes and sticking with what’s popular and safe, but it seems they have hit new heights of laziness and money-grubbery.

Alright, dinner is calling my name. On dreary days my hunger level seems to increase. The less I do, the more I want to eat? I guess so.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Sep 17th Birthdays and moving!

 Excuses out of the way, I ran the day before my birthday, it was slow and arduous. Then another slow trudge on my birthday.  Skipped my usual Thursday because I moved to Trani, and between getting the rental car in Napoli, getting my shit together, getting out here, finding an apartment, hanging out with friends, then visiting my new job yesterday, life was actually too busy to run.

Now, anyone that knows me and knows this blog knows that I do not name names, and I do not talk too much about the people in my personal life. But I would be remiss, without breaking my own rules here, if I continued without mentioning that the whole time I was moving, and for my birthday, a very special person was there to make a very stressful time into a great pleasure. Everything would not have come together so easily and it would not have gone nearly so well without them. As I know this person reads this, you know who you are, thank to so much!

So finally, I woke up this morning and ran. Of course, on the run I ended up making a new friend, how great is that? It’s the power of being positive. The irony is, his wife is an English teacher in town! The run was shorter than I wanted, I miscalculated the return distance, as I didn’t retrace everything. But it was for the best, I was pretty beat, I’ve been working very hard the last few days and I am still recovering from the layoff, after being injured. Which, I do need to be careful of the Lecce stone streets, very easy to turn an ankle. The good news on that is, it’s only in the historic district. The downside is, I live in the center of the historic district! 

But that is significant. I talk a lot (those that pay attention) about deciding what you want, setting goals and making it happen. It’s part of having the #PMA. Well, when I first visited Trani in 2008 I said, “one day I want to live here.” Now some people in those world have the means to just do that. Most of us do not. Most of us have to put in lots of work. I still have tons of work to do to make this happen for any reasonable duration. I won’t get complacent. But in less than 10 years, I made it happen. Patience, hard work, thoughtfulness, these things make a difference, in anything. Figure out what you want, and go for it. No thing, no place, no person, is going to give you happiness and freedom. Happiness and freedom come from finding what you want, deciding you really want those things and giving your all to make it happen. And if what you want changes along the way, then change! Easy as that, and if you fail, it’s fine. That’s part of life too, keep moving forward, adjust, adapt, overcome! We are flexible, we are adaptable, that’s what being human is. We’re not sharks, who have to keep swimming (yes, I know not all sharks have to) no matter what, we can stop, look, rethink, rest, recoup, and change.

That’s what we always need to keep in mind. To be human is to be a survivor. Of course, on a macro scale, if we don’t change soon we won’t be able to adapt away from the impending doom. But you just  keep voting for the Trumps of the world, because they keep you comfortable, see how comfortable you are when the world literally burns.

Not getting into that today, have to keep moving, I got a good thing going here.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Sep 11th I ran a race, seriously, I was not expecting it either

Friday night, my friend tells me there was a half marathon in town today. So I woke up early, got my shit together, went down there, Kroners in hand, and registered for a race. I ended up surprising myself. Until the last few miles/km I was actually on pace for a PR. But a couple hills at the end just killed my stride. Oddly, it was right around the same pace as my last half, which was last year’s Gulf Beach Half Marathon. 4.5 minutes off my PR.
Had I been rested this week, had I not pushed so hard, I think I could have PR’ed. But oh well, it’s my last day in Denmark and I want to enjoy it. Beautiful weather, it was a great day for a run, and now I will go enjoy some of the local area. Fun fact, Lego is from Billund, Denmark. I’m going to enjoy some of Legoland. Also, I was in shock the other day when I drove past a Danfoss factory. Most people will have no idea what Danfoss is, but they make HVAC valves and fittings, and components. They also make nozzles for oil-fired furnaces, boilers, and water heaters. For years I had seen the name Danfoss on things and never once realized where they were from. When your grandfather is a plumber you are exposed to things most folks never see.
So, Denmark, I would highly recommend the visit. Enjoy the countryside, enjoy the cities, enjoy the history. I have to say I like Denmark in general. Next visit, I’ll see Copenhagen and maybe drive over to Malmo, Sweden. Why not right? But I am sleepy, and have lots to do before I leave early tomorrow morning to go back home to Italy.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!