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

Jul 22nd Doing Laundry Midweek?

I’m a madman I tell you! A MADMAN! I needed to wash a pair of running shorts I’ll need this weekend. Tomorrow night I pack for both races, even though I will be returning home in between, but I figure I’ll be tired and rushed enough I will forget something. This is going to be a bit of a feat, I’m psyched and a little scared. It’s 214 miles between Wakefield, MA and Queens, NY. Luckily my house is in the middle. So I finish the marathon Friday night, rest a little, drive home, sleep more, head to Queens. That should work.
That’s where we’re at. I’m antsy, I’m worried, I’m excited. This is a huge adventure and I can’t wait to see what happens. Alright, I need sleep, have fun and keep running!

Jul 21st A night off

So with no running, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to stay calm. People are annoying me today. Look I don’t ever want to put people down, but there are some folks who just don’t understand what I’m saying. I wish they would just accept that they don’t get it and leave it at that. Instead of trying to somehow prove their point. It’s just a waste of time. I don’t like wasted time.

Jul 20th 4 days until the start of the big adventure!

So Friday night, we run a marathon. It is a stretch goal to hit 2 marathons on back to back days this year. I’m really hoping I make it.
So fellow runner and blogger and seemingly all-around crazy guy Dane Rauschenberg posted today about some other runner/running-commentator type person about how she didn’t want to run a marathon, and marathon people were annoying, and she’s just not going to try because if she couldn’t do her best, blah blah blah, and she has “nothing to prove” at the same time.
So yeah, you can read his post about what she said, I agree almost completely. But why do people think someone running a marathon is trying to prove something? I run for myself, I blog/vlog in the hopes of inspiring and motivating people.
But anyway, I commented that I probably wouldn’t like this woman if I ever met her and that I often wear my H2O singlet which reads “Nothing to Prove” on the back. So that song is stuck in my head, so now I share it with you!

Because me and all my friends, including the non-running ones, we have nothing to prove and nothing to lose. So hold it down and keep the PMA! have fun and keep running!

Jul 19th We’ve come to another End and a new Beginning!

It is Sunday, my knee is still being troublesome, I got 8 miles (13 km) in, and I walked almost half of it. I’m shutting it down for the week anyway, with 52.4 planned miles (84 km) over next weekend, I really have no need to run at all until then.
Meanwhile, Manchester United looked huge in their first exhibition game against Club America. Depay, Darmian, Schweinstagger, and Schneiderlin looked pretty comfortable in their new home. I was pleased, I feel like this season should be better. And Rooney, Blind, Mata, Carrick, and the rest of last season’s regulars that played looked good. Then a friend asked on facebook what EPL team he should support, and he was against supporting United since all his friends support them already and such. So then I suggested Tottenham, because they’re fun, why not and better than City or ARSEnal or Chelsea or, god forbid, Liverpool! So that’s what’s up there.
Meanwhile, it is hot out here today, in the 90s, sunny, tough conditions, but the contractors are at my house working, less than two weeks we need to be done. Floors, painting and cabinets should happen this week, too exciting!
Make sure to drink plenty of water and stay cool! If you’re out running, or going to run bring fuel and water, and make sure to have some money or a credit card on you in case you need to stop in the store and buy something more to drink. I’ve totally done that! Or ask a restaurant to refill your water bottle, I’ve done that too! Hydration is super important on days like today. So stay cool, have fun and keep running!

Jul 18th A nice Saturday morning and a surprise

So I got my run in just before the rain started, which was fortuitous. A 9:08/mi pace (5:41/km) is about a 4 hour marathon. So right about 8 am I run up to the corner of George St. and Church St. and who do I see on the opposite corner but my cousin and her boyfriend. Very cool. by that point all I could hear was my own heartbeat and breathing, but I did my best to yell out a conversation and remind her I still owed her a sweet potato burger. So Janet, I’ll get you that sweet potato burger!
So yeah, that was really cool. I love being friendly when I run, but it’s also cool to run into people you know. There’s this one lady, almost always out on the weekends at the same time as I am, and she shuffles along, clearly she’s elderly and whatnot, but it’s so cool she’s out there pushing as hard as she can. Really inspirational. And she always smiles and says hi when we pass each other. It got me thinking of a meme I saw the other day, a 12 minute mile is just as long as a 6 minute mile, and it’s true. It doesn’t matter if you’re running a 3 hour marathon or a 5 hour marathon, you’re still running a marathon. That’s what matters, that’s what’s important!
The only other thing today was Mathematics. The song by Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) from 1999. All I could think about was how President Obama and Senator Booker (and now some others) have started a conversation on criminal justice reform, among other things. And of course the national discourse we’re SORT of having on ethnic relations throughout the country. I don’t think we’re having a real conversation, because a large majority don’t understand the issue, but that’s alright, we’ll get there. Anyway, here’s this song, over 16 years old and still just a relevant. Just remember, back then there were 9 planets, until Neil DeGrasse Tyson wrecked it! (JK, it wasn’t really him, but he defends it, so I like to blame him).

Yo, check it one for Charlie Hustle, two for Steady Rock
Three for the fourth comin live, future shock
It’s five dimensions, six senses
Seven firmaments of heaven to hell, 8 Million Stories to tell
Nine planets faithfully keep in orbit
with the probable tenth, the universe expands length
The body of my text posess extra strength
Power-liftin powerless up, out of this, towerin inferno
My ink so hot it burn through the journal
I’m blacker than midnight on Broadway and Myrtle
Hip-Hop past all your tall social hurdles
like the nationwide projects, prison-industry complex
Broken glass wall better keep your alarm set
Streets too loud to ever hear freedom sing
Say evacuate your sleep, it’s dangerous to dream
but you chain cats get they CHA-POW, who dead now
Killin fields need blood to graze the cash cow
It’s a number game, but shit don’t add up somehow
Like I got, sixteen to thirty-two bars to rock it
but only 15% of profits, ever see my pockets like
sixty-nine billion in the last twenty years
spent on national defense but folks still live in fear like
nearly half of America’s largest cities is one-quarter black
That’s why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack
Sixteen ounces to a pound, twenty more to a ki
A five minute sentence hearing and you no longer free
40% of Americans own a cell phone
so they can hear, everything that you say when you ain’t home
I guess, Michael Jackson was right, “You Are Not Alone”
Rock your hardhat black cause you in the Terrordome
full of hard niggaz, large niggaz, dice tumblers
Young teens and prison greens facin life numbers
Crack mothers, crack babies and AIDS patients
Young bloods can’t spell but they could rock you in PlayStation
This new math is whippin motherfuckers ass
You wanna know how to rhyme you better learn how to add
It’s mathematics

Yo, it’s one universal law but two sides to every story
Three strikes and you be in for life, manditory
Four MC’s murdered in the last four years
I ain’t tryin to be the fifth one, the millenium is here
Yo it’s 6 Million Ways to Die, from the seven deadly thrills
Eight-year olds gettin found with 9 mill’s
It’s 10 P.M., where your seeds at? What’s the deal
He on the hill puffin krill to keep they belly filled
Light in the ass with heavy steel, sights on the pretty shit in life
Young soldiers tryin to earn they next stripe
When the average minimum wage is $5.15
You best believe you gotta find a new ground to get cream
The white unemployment rate, is nearly more than triple for black
so frontliners got they gun in your back
Bubblin crack, jewel theft and robbery to combat poverty
and end up in the global jail economy
Stiffer stipulations attached to each sentence
Budget cutbacks but increased police presence
And even if you get out of prison still livin
join the other five million under state supervision
This is business, no faces just lines and statistics
from your phone, your zip code, to S-S-I digits
The system break man child and women into figures
Two columns for who is, and who ain’t niggaz
Numbers is hardly real and they never have feelings
but you push too hard, even numbers got limits
Why did one straw break the camel’s back? Here’s the secret:
the million other straws underneath it – it’s all mathematics

Jul 17th Gil Can Run Show Episode 11

Wow, yeah. This was a heavy show. We talk about vagina exercises apparently, and my natural inquisitiveness and how it gets me in trouble and misunderstood. Then I go on a whole thing about how to take the power back from the man! Yes really. I get into it again, and then I talk about how I am going to try and make my own gummies to eat while running.

Be sure to share with everyone if you find it interesting, or cool, or stupid!

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Jul 16th Will do episode 11 tomorrow

I can’t give you my best tonight, I’m just beat. But I got my run in. Took it super easy today.
So, something I will talk about tomorrow night, a friend of mine posted about nasty energy gel flavors. I’ve decided, as I’ve discussed, I don’t use energy gels anymore. But I will try to make my own gummies. Why, first I like gummy candies, second I may as well.
Then I watched a video about palm oil and peanut butter, yeah, we’re probably going to be a bit heavy on the food tomorrow night.
Alright, take it easy, have fun, and keep running!

Jul 15th A birthday, an anniversary, and a good run

So it’s my sister’s birthday, she’s 40 today. And that’s the way it is. Age is a number, but in the end we’re only as old as we feel, so I’m still like 15 years old, if you don’t like it, tough. Plus, my sister will always be older than me!
Speaking of birthdays, 3 other people I know have a birthday today. So happy birthday to them, I’ll spare them getting called out, two of them are named Lou though, isn’t that strange?
It’s also one year since my house burned down, would you look at that, who would guess. But yeah, one year since I didn’t have a house. I posted before about that. Listen, if you can do stuff for the truly homeless, the truly disadvantaged, go do it. There’s a great place in New York City, Covenant House, takes care of homeless teenagers, lots of people I know have been helped by them. But there are local places to you, there are national charities. Definitely do some research, find the folks you’re happy with and go help out, or give them money, or blankets or stuff. Maybe that’s what I should do, a blanket drive this fall for homeless folks.
Anyway, speaking of the Fall, wow I got a flow going today. I signed up for the Hartford Marathon October 10. I got a free entry, thanks UTC! I like running for free. Hugely exciting right?
Now, onto today’s run. While my knee is still iffy, I’m of the opinion “run until it breaks”. It’s not getting better, it’s not getting worse, so I’m just going for it. Plus I’ll be taking all next week, until Friday, off. I felt good though, averaged 9 min miles (5:29 min/km) again. So while it’s uncomfortable, I’m clearly going faster than I have been all year. So whatevs. I’m going to go out and enjoy while I can. I still have to sign up for the Self-transcendence marathon next month. and then figure out what I’m doing in September.
Alright kids, I need to save some awesome for Thursday night! Take it sleazy, have fun and keep running!

Jul 14th This was surprising

Seriously, I did 9 minute miles for 7 miles tonight! That’s 5:35 minute chilometri per undici e mezza chilometri. (5:35 mi/km over 11.5 km) I was not expecting that pace. But I’ll take it.
So today was huge, tomorrow we start getting pictures of Pluto as close and high def as we’ve ever gotten them. I also applied for a job. It’s a two week, temporary position off the coast of Africa. No joke. Let’s see what happens, I hope it works out, will be fin for a couple weeks and it starts just as my job at Sikorsky ends, so that’s perfect. The downside is I’ll be away for my birthday. Oh well. I’m keeping it short tonight, I have much to do. Have fun everyone and keep running!

Jul 13th Interesting Monday

So tomorrow morning New Horizon’s makes its closest approach to Pluto, we’ve already learned a lot. Like Pluto is larger than we have always thought. Not much larger, but every little bit helps! We’ve seen some interesting geology, maybe some cliffs. this stuff is exciting! We’re learning new things, all of us! It’s right there, all you have to do is read! Seriously, and try and stay away from the filter of media, even the interwebs. NASA is very good at writing this stuff up, they have decades of practice!
In more awesome exploration news, there is new evidence of possible tectonic activity on Mars. Plate tectonics is the process we know on Earth in which the crust moves above the mantle and things shift around. Totally exciting stuff, the solar system is amazing, what awaits us beyond.
Meanwhile on a personal front, the house is getting closer to completion. Bathrooms should be done this week! Monday was a great day and tomorrow I will run. I decided an extra day of rest would be good for my knee, which is still a bit sore, sore enough I was hitting the tiger balm. remember if you need to take a break, take a break, listen to your body while training!
Alright, have fun, stay safe, and keep running!