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

Jun 19th Some Friday night thoughts

Alright, looks like I can kind of type a post tonight through the CMS. I opted against running today, due to schedule concerns. I will do my yoga and my run in the AM. Drive to the dirty Jerz for a party, then back for the race. That’ll be fun! So I didn’t talk about the whole domestic terrorist attack in South Carolina in my video last night. When I get more thoughts on it I will. Needless to say, I’m fairly sickened by this whole thing and make no mistake, this is domestic terrorism. The man is a racist, a terrorist who listens to too much conservative echo chamber, believing that “they” are taking “his” country from him. What a load of horse shit. Listen people, everyone has a right to exist, and everyone has a right to a voice, equal treatment, equal voice. It pains me so much to see so many beautiful, capable, intelligent, caring, kind people discounted because they look different, or they act different, or they were born different. Yes, we all have differences, we all have our own story, Some people’s stories intersect, others remain parallel. It doesn’t matter though. Like I’ve said, we need to respect all our brothers and sisters, as a family. Even the completely rotten ones, like this jackass in SC. Yes, he needs to be removed from society, he cannot function with the rest of us if he is going to kill. He is not respecting his brothers and sisters. But we should not hate him, and while we should keep him locked away, we should show him the kindness and compassion that is surely lacking within him. Perhaps our example will lead him to a revelation, but if nothing else, at least we will not lower ourselves to his base actions.
Kindness can win the day, love can win the day. It was said by MLK Jr. and it is true, darkness cannot drive out the darkness, only light can do that. Where there is darkness, we must shine our brightest if we hope to defeat it. We should work to defeat this, to end the inherent systemic racism, and to stomp out the individual hatred and racism that so many still hold in their heart. The bigotry, the violence, it all has to go, and we have to keep asking ourselves, “What are we (as a species) accomplishing?” But we can’t let the horrible actions of a few get us down and defeat us. We must keep pushing forward, examine what we can do as individuals to create change, no matter how uncomfortable it may make us, and then we have to move forward to become that change. I think more than that, I think we need to become the love we want to see in the world.
We need to start teaching that all humans, and all other living animals have a right to be here, a right to live, and none of us have the right to say otherwise.
Ok, I’ll get off my soapbox now. But we really need this madness to stop, once is too many times, and now this seems almost normal, and I know that is a terrible thing. So let’s get out there and do our best to end this violent, virulent racism. Let’s dedicate ourselves to love, and dedicate ourselves to being (as they said in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure) excellent to each other. Goodnight

Jun 18th Episode 7 is in the bag

We’ve hit Thursday. I got 7.75 mi (12.5km) in and took it nice and easy for a pace. No way I was pushing too hard. I think I’ll do my 5 for Saturday tomorrow night after packet pickup. Always nice to drive down to Main St. in Branford. If you’re ever in the CT Shoreline area, we have tons of really nice, Main St. type areas. Local shops, run by local people, it’s all very New England and nice.
So why was it a tough day? Work was life-stealing today. I really need to work on finding a new job. But more than that, someone broke into the house and stole the drywall installer’s tools, all the extension chords and cut the extension chord between the General Contractor’s house and our house. Yes, my GC is my neighbor.
So I was late to making the video and there’s a terrible jump cut thanks to dogs barking! But enjoy the show, we talk about Branford, Walkway Marathon, the Pope, the environment, what it means to explore, exactly why I’m doing all this, a little bit about Southern Italy and bad people, oh and folks stealing shit from construction sites. If you steal stuff from construction sites, fuck you, by the way.
Also, when I mention having to go to yoga class, Yoga is great! Just don’t rush to it, don’t make it a “have to do” d it because you enjoy it, stay relaxed, or you’re missing the point.

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Jun 17th Energy to spare this week!

I have found a way to post onto my site while it’s still under attack from hackers. In credibly, I know MySQL and database management. I’m a pretty bug nerd, like I said. So I realized, since I can access the database, I can post by creating it strait in the DB. So I got a great run in today. I pushed a little harder than normal and beat my target pace by over 30 sec/mi. So tomorrow night I want to get another run like this in, but slower, and then Friday night get 5 more mile in or so, this way I can rest Saturday, go to my friends’ yearly awesome party in New Jersey, then run the Branford Road Race on Sunday. Yep, party and then run a 5 miler. Although, I won’t do it in under 40 minutes this year, but I signed up for it months ago, and I’m just not into DNS/DNF.
I’m amazed my legs are feeling so energetic this week after a marathon on Saturday. I think the difference is Yoga. It’s the only thing in my routine I’ve changed. I really haven’t felt enough soreness to justify taking a day off this week, I didn’t cramp at all during the race and I feel like I’ve turned a corner on my training. So I’m going to stick with the yoga, and see how well it serves me.
So I’m having a great week! I hope you are too, really. Don’t get too wrapped up in the circus of life that is presented to us through modern media, whether it be the interwebs, the television, or newspapers written at 3rd grade levels. Have a great day coming up, and do the best you can with whatever comes your way! I’ll see you tomorrow with a new episode of the Gil Can Run Show!

Jun 16th Oh, I do get to post!

Alright, looks like I get a second to try and cobble something together. Alright, everyone won’t shut up about this woman with the NAACP. I don’t care. Shut up if she annoys you that much, she’ll go away, I promise. No seriously. I don’t give a crap what she did. the NAACP has very important work to do (like it or not) and this is distracting them from this work. We love to hate, I don’t understand why. The whole internet it seems is full of hate. I have to sit net to a guy at work, all day all he does is talk about things he hates. I can’t understand it.
Live and let live. If someone is “offending” you, if it’s that important, say something and move on. Beyond that, you have no control over anything really, but definitely no control over whatever person is bothering you. So why does it matter? Let go, forgive, forget, move past it.
as I grow as I learn from each experience, running and otherwise I realize that wasting time on hate, dwelling on the things that bother you, serve no purpose. If something I am doing bothers me, then I can change it. I do. That’s all that can be done, that’s all I have any sort of control over.
So listen, just like the Kardashians, Walmart, One Direction, Twilight, or whatever is bothering you, it can only bother you if you let it, and it will only exist as long as we all pay attention to it. This woman that everyone hates so much, she will be nothing but a distant memory the second we all stop complaining about someone we don’t even know. From all I hear she’s probably fairly awful. That’s her problem, her kids’ problem, her husband’s problem, her family’s problem, the people who know her’s problem. I will not make it my problem. If she is going to see an error and correct it, that’s fine. If her family helps her, that’s great. If she asked for help from me, or if someone I know was asked for advice and came to me about it, I would do everything in my power to help, but beyond that it is completely a non-issue for me. It should be for everyone, save the people directly involved. She didn’t do anything to you, and I will still give my money to the NAACP when I have money to give for charity. Why? Because it’s a good organization.

Jun 16th We’re back it seems

Slowly but surely the site is loading for me so I can update it seems. I will try to post my run this evening. Hopefully it works.

Jun 14th Sunday Funday

Guess  what? I ran today! hahaha
So it was a good weekend even though I was a little short of my 10 mile (16.1 km) goal for today, but I did run enough (8 mi or 13 km). And my pace was good, 10:17, considering I want to average just under 11:40 minute miles (7:12 min/km) during the 6 hour pajama romp, I’m in good shape.
So the downside of my weekend is, my first pair of shorts I ever purchased specifically to run in ripped after the race. That was sad, but they lasted me 3.5 years, so I can’t complain. Lots of miles in these shorts.

Requiem in Pace

So off to the store I went today to get replacement(s) and some new socks and I needed band-aids and some dental floss, oral hygiene is massively important!

Check it out, I’m a medium now! Holy crap, I’m a medium.

Jun 13th Walkway Marathon, 6 down, 6 to go!

So the Walkway Marathon is complete! I’ll edit with my official time when I get it, it will be faster than what my garmin says, someone forgot to hit stop when they crossed the line, and for about 5 minutes after lol. It was a nice marathon, some first year bugs to work out, you start on a steep incline for the first mile and a half or so. It’s mostly on a rail trail, so the asphalt gets hot and you just cook. But it was beautiful scenery and the run across the longest pedestrian footbridge in North America is nice, although today it was exceptionally windy. The downside to that is you’re over the Hudson River and totally exposed to the sun, plus that wind. But what a great view of the river and everything. Aide stations were great, people were friendly, really positive vibe. I was cheering everyone on at the two turn arounds on the course, that was awesome. I got lots of smiles per hour today, that makes my day a great success. Of course, I think the even more herculean task for today was that I managed to drive a 1989 Jeep YJ Wrangler with a 5 speed manual transmission and no air conditioning home after a marathon. It’s about 95-100 miles from Poughkeepsie to New Haven, there was some traffic.
Alright, let’s run down how I’m doing so far this year, and I’ll throw in last year’s marathons at the end, since we’re half-way through the year now on marathons, let’s recap!

Walkway Marathon (Unofficial): 4:38:00
Vermont City: 4:31:10
New Jersey: 4:34:17
Savin Rock: 4:42:50
Caumsett 50K (Non USATF): 6:22:06
Arena Attack Indoor – XL Center: 4:30:17

So that brings us up to speed with 2015, 6 months in, 6 marathons done. Let’s compare to all of my marathons from last year:

Roxbury: 4:50:04
Philadelphia: 4:27:17
Brooklyn: 4:34:16
Buenos Aires: 4:36:20
Yonkers: 4:51:05
BUS 6 hour Pajama Romp (Completed 50K): 6:00:00
Central Park: 4:59:08

So that’s 11 full marathons in my life, 2 50k races. Caumsett took so much longer because of the snow, I had full-on snowbeard, it was epic!

What a great weekend though, I’m going to take a nap now.

Jun 12th Greetings from New Paltz!

Yep, in New Paltz tonight. Tomorrow I run the Walkway Marathon. Got my bib and have everything set for the morning:

Yeah it’s blurry, I don’t care, wanna fight about it? Ha!
So New Paltz is a cool place. No cell phone reception, but tons of great little restaurants, and cool people. There was a group of maybe six folks holding signs at an intersection asking people to take action to stop arctic drilling, I didn’t get pics of them, but I did grab a flyer:

And finally the food. I wanted to go to this place called A Tavola, but it was packed with people and no room for me. They are Zagat rated and all, would have been good. Instead I went to a place down the road called Lemongrass for some veggie Thai. It was excellent, had som tum and green veggie curry, washed it down with lots of water and a Singha.

I am impressed with the area, still not excited about having to pick up my packet today. Alright, so wake up early and run a marathon, sounds like a good time. I’m heading to bed, be excellent to each other, Namaste! ^^

Jun 11th Episode 6 is live! Also, I fix some horrible carpentry

So we go over some running stuff, talk about expos and advertising and about how human beings are awesome and so kind and capable and smart. The importance of applying the knowledge you gain to real world situations. I think it’s a fun one, and a good one. Keep the #PMA

So also, in the video I mention how terrible my plumber on my house is at carpentry, so I fixed it, I wasn’t able to remove all the bad nails, I didn’t have a hammer. but you can see the screws

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Jun 10th Midweek malaise

Alright, not really a malaise, but I’m so beat right now. My general contractor is pretty pissed, and rightfully so at some of the other contractors. The sheet rock guys ground to a halt today, because the other contractors haven’t finished the things they needed to do. So, that gets me down.
Anyway, enough of that mess, onto some awesomeness! Saturday, Walkway over the Hudson Marathon. I am going to run over the Hudson River, pretty cool. I had to get a hotel room, which I didn’t want to do because of no race day packet pickup. This is becoming a trend, which I do not like at all! Race day packet pickup is crucial people. All the race directors out there need to take notice. I’m feeling good, I’m feeling strong, the yoga is helping with that.
I’m preparing some thoughts for tomorrow. We may touch on “nerds” and “geeking out”, being the weird kid. My thoughts on the commercialization thereof. I started thinking about it because someone commented on all this stuff I seem to know, and I explained I just read, and then apply that reading, I experiment, I try new stuff, I make sure the stuff I read is real. I would never suggest someone do something that I hadn’t tried first. Well, I will post recipes on my personal page. Maybe I should share those here. But, point being, I’m never going to say “You should do x” if I haven’t tried “x” yet. It’s just how I am.
So we will probably get into that a bit. Might be fun, might be worth watching. I’ve also been working on polishing up the different social media faces of the whole Gil Can Run “brand”. Yes, I’m not really a brand, even though it kind of is. I’m not going to sell this. I will just put everything out there and I hope you enjoy and share and we reach as many people as possible.
Hope you’re having the best week ever! Can’t wait to see you out running, have fun and we’ll talk to you tomorrow.