White Gloves

Tonight is the annual dance for my 9 year old's manners class.  It is very Old School.  The girls wear white gloves.  They sit, and have the boys ask them to dance.  The boys are all wearing sport coats.  They dance things like the hokey pokey or the foxtrot.  And repeat the process, as a teacher calls out the etiquette steps "Gentleman, put your right hand on the lady's shoulder; ladies offer your hand; dance slowly, and now spin,..."  Then, the boy fetches the girl a glass of lemonade and a cookie.  Of course, my daughter hates it.  She will inevitably complain that she had to dance with "Tommy Barnes" or someone and he is just gross.  But tonight, the Dads come and dance with their daughters.  Last year, my daughter won one of the prizes (to keep the kids interested, they get prizes).  You would have thought she won the lottery by her reaction.  A really nice night that both makes me smile and feel old all at once.

And what does that have to do with running?  Nothing, I suppose.

In response to various questions (both in blogworld and in real life), my injury may or may not have been a stress fracture.  The doctor said it looked like it, but to know he would have to order an MRI, which would likely be inconclusive given that the pain had just started. And the prescription would be the same: no running for four weeks, and if no pain then, start back.  Also, after four weeks, change shoes and training pattern to avoid the things that led to the injury in the first place -- if I did the same thing, it would produce the same results regardless of whether it was or was not an actual stress fracture.  In other words, something caused the pain, and if I didn't change, it would likely return. Of course, if I did change, it was no guarantee the pain would not return, but hopefully it would not recur.  We'll see but so far, so good. Hope springs eternal.

And, finally, my least commented post in recent months was the post on my running music.  So, I have avoided continuing that thread.  But a recent song has just stuck in my head.  "Lay Me Down" by The Dirty Heads with Rome.  If you are inclined to punk/ska/reggae music, check it out; it is also the #1 song on Billboard's Alternative Music chart.

My Wii Fit Age

After too many serious posts, a lighter one. Over New Years, my wife and I were with a bunch of friends celebrating the New Year. After many drinks, we busted out my friend's kid's Wii and started playing Wii Fit. The first thing you do in Wii Fit is create a character and it asks you various questions: how old you are, how tall you are, etc. Then you stand on a platform and it measures your balance, center of gravity, etc. It is really pretty clever. Then, the Wii crunches some numbers and spits out your Wii Fit age based on weight and physical coordination. My friends went first and their Wii Fit ages came out close to their actual age. Then I confidently stepped up, eight weeks out from running a 3:42 marathon. My Wii Fit age: 72.


Another story, drawing off a comment in my post about giving up beer and hard liquor for Lent. I thought I meant to say I rarely drink hard liquor, and by "rarely" I mean once or twice a week. I did not mean that I rarely drink beer. To the contrary.

Last Father's Day (in mid June) I ran a Fathers Day 5 mile race in 35:08, at 7:08 pace, setting a PR. Later that afternoon, someone asked my then 8 year old daughter if her dad (me) was doing anything special for Father's Day. She said "No, he is probably at home, sitting on the couch, drinking beer and watching football."