Training for my 13th half marathon

I just put together my training plan for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Philly on 9/18. It will be my 8th time running that one and my 13th in total. With any luck, I will still be doing them in 10 years when I will move up to yet another age category. My goal has been to run at a pace which would qualify me for the Boston Marathon but I am realizing that unless I hire a running coach, that will probably never happen. (The other factor is that now Boston only takes marathon results, not half.) It's just a fact that, as I age,  I am slowing down. I ran a 10K on July 4th under very good conditions - flat course, low humidity, mid-70s, lots of shade. My goal was to run it in less than 50 minutes. I thought I was pushing myself more than normal but still did it in 51:40. That was faster than last year which was hot and humid but still somewhat disappointing. On the bright side, I was 6th of 46 runners in my age group so still respectable. The fastest in my age group was among the fastest runners in the whole race. If I had done 49:50, I'd have been 4th so not that much of a difference really. I'd still like to do another marathon but only if it's a destination one, like Paris, Dublin or Lisbon. If I am going to spend all of the time training, it should be worth it. All three of those are open marathons so no need to qualify. But, for right now, it's #13 in Philly.

Looks like a nice place!

For some reason, I have started getting emails a few months ago from this resort, which looks to be very elegant and very pricey too.

 
Little Palm Island Resort and Spa from Noble House Hotels and Resorts on Vimeo.

Catch the Old Rockers before They Die

I really wish I would have seen Prince again before he died. I had seen him back when Purple Rain came out in 1985 and he was great. I have a tendency to forget how good performers are and let them pass through town without even trying to see them. That happened with Bob Marley, whom I had seen in college when Rastaman Vibration came out. He was through my town twice after that and then he went and died on me. So now I have a list of performers I need to see before they go. I saw Merle Haggard last June. I have Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and Neil Young on my list. Also some country performers like Loretta Lynn.  Paul McCartney will be in both New York and Philly but he sold out. Dylan will be here next month so I hope to catch him.

I also missed this great performance of Prince at the Super Bowl. I think I was at a meeting or doing something I liked a lot more.


 

This made my weekend!

Still a bad season but all the same....

Hurray!

Mission accomplished!

This is as good an historiographic essay as I have read in any grad colloquium I've taught at *******. I don't usually like the form. But, if they all read and were put together as thoughtfully and elegantly as yours, I would happily read more of them. It is banal for teachers (as you no doubt know) to say they learned from their students' work. But I really did learn from this.

Just 10 pages...

of a a term paper stands between me and a master's degree.

Rhapsody is still going, but not necessarily strong

Rhapsody predated Spotify by at least ten years but somehow it never really caught on. I still like it especially the radio stations, which have introduced me to lots of new music I never would have found.