Hodgepodge

Sometimes I think about writing down some other stuff besides training, and then I forget/fall asleep on the couch while watching shitty movies on USA (tonight is Skeleton Key, starring Kate Hudson). Before I forget, I'm going to type some words.

Here's how an SMS interchange went with me and my little sister tonight:

RM: I just finished watching the worst season of Real World ever.
MM: Oh no! It's over?
RM: Yes tonight was the finale. Gay. Hope next season is better.
MM: Prob won't be, but we'll still prob watch it anyway.
RM: Yes. Yes we will. Because we're McGraths

I then tried to remember how many seasons of The Real World I've watched since I've lived in Maryland. I may be forgetting one or two, but I can remember Denver, Key West, San Diego, Los Angeles, Sydney and now Brooklyn. Each one is worse than the next, and this was the worst. I don't want to see boring people. I want to see sluts and fights and people hooking up. "America wants to see how Tron's livinnnn for the citaaaay."

I also like reading funny stories from the news. In fact, it's the only type of news I care for. Like the story about UCSD sending out an email to all 29,000 kids it did NOT accept for matriculation, informing them (mistakenly) of their acceptance. Ha. Ha.

And then I just logged on to the Baltimore Sun and found this article about a pornographic film being screened at UMD.

At first I thought maybe it would be some wartime porno where the nudity was heartwrenching. But NO, it's real hardcore porn. In fact, it's a movie I've been wanting to see ever since we heard about the original, Pirates. I had heard about this movie that had the largest budget of a porno of all time at $1 million. I saw posters for it in the windows of an adult video store in Philadelphia during the marathon. Bryan, Emily and I watched the trailer. It looked awesome. Great CGI, reasonably plausible storyline.

THEN they one-up themselves and make a sequel. Normally I'm not into sequels, but this has all the trappings of a great movie franchise. Oh, and it just topped the original's budget. At $10 million, it has become the highest ever budgeted hardcore porno.

I just wish the movie wasn't playing at midnight. If I didn't have to race on Sunday morning at 7:40, I'd totally go. $4 to see the movie is well worth it. But who am I kidding, I should see Pirates before I see the sequel. Or read the book, cause I hear the book is better.

And now for a little bit about my run tonight. Wednesday Night Run has seen a gradual decline in attendance for a few weeks. Most of this is because Ben and Arjun gave themselves an extra day for a few workouts (moving them from Tues to Weds) and same with Brennan, who is also now done for the season. Barf is out of shape, but trying to get back, MGP moved to Charles Village and some others have just disappeared. As I arrived at the Square at 5:59 tonight, I gave my usual minute past the church bell and then rolled. I was running pretty slow and even got stopped at Boston St, desperately looking back to see if anyone would come. I was hoping to see Ben, but alas, I did not.

I then decided, this being my 15th straight day of running (which I rarely do), that a little tempo run was in order. Not only do I need to start making my legs move quicker than they've been running, but I'm kind of tired of running this same run all the time. I picked up my pace to what I figured was about 6min/mile for approximately 4 miles til I reached the Taint.

I stopped and stretched, wondering if Barf might be making an appearance, and just as I was about to roll out, there he was. We ran pretty easy for the 1.75ish miles up Baltimore/Lombard to the Park, where we parted ways. I wanted to run the next 2.25ish miles hard again, through the Park, up to the Square and then continue uphill back to the crib. I figured it would be about 8 minutes to the Square and then I could drop under 6 for the mile home.

I had not been feeling well for most of the run, just out of synch, but as I began my next little tempo session I felt much better. I made it to the Square in 7:10 and turned the corner to run the mostly uphill mile home. I anticipated somewhere in the realm of 5:40, and was completely surprised as I passed the 3/4 mark in 3:55. The last quarter I was trying to get after it, and knocked out a 73 to finish in 5:08. I'm willing to say the mile could be marginally short, but by no more than a couple of seconds, and I've always counted the uphill nature of it to counteract those few seconds. Basically the effort was that of a 5:08.

I was pleasantly surprised, as it's the fastest I've ever finished any of my runs from the house, and I feel like it's got to be a good sign for the next couple of weeks.

I'm going to try and post a few more non-sequitur, non-running related things over the next few days, because they're funny, but here's one Alex sent me earlier. Just zoom in and enjoy. Particularly Ben and Kris, you'll appreciate it most. Note: the typos are obviously because I did not make the thing.