Another lovely Monday morning here in New Wye, and as yet, nothing horrible has happened. This is a massive improvement over last Monday morning in almost every way.
The weather here has gotten (at least temporarily) cold and crisp and blue and dry and perfect. I plan to enjoy every minute of it while I can because soon enough, like tomorrow, it’s going to be back up in the mid-to-upper 70s with humidity and clouds. Lately I’ve been especially loving the weather while running. It’s approximately fifty times more enjoyable to run out among the trees than it is to run on the treadmill, so as long as the New Wye weather obliges, I’ll be taking it outside where the air is fresh instead of stifling and reeking of sweaty sorority girls.
Speaking of running, the 5K I am doing with a couple of friends has crept up on me — it’s taking place this Saturday! I feel ready. I just hope the race officials don’t object to runners wearing iPods, because frankly I will be lost without my Power Tunes. I have also decided to run a 12K race in December. I was looking for something to do this winter to keep myself motivated, and I happened to find a 12K on 12/12. Twelve is my favorite number and 12/12 is my birthday and, even better, this is exactly 8 weeks away and I found an 8-week training plan. Training starts today. Clearly this is fate, right? So I’ll be ringing in my 33rd year* by running more miles** in a row than I have ever run before. Here’s to new things!
Asterisked Bitching Commences Below:
*I hate it when people misuse the phrase “my Nth year.” If I am turning 32, I will be beginning my 33rd year of life. Not my 32nd, because clearly I will have already lived 32 years on that day. Why do people always get this one wrong?
**Why are running races mostly measured in kilometers even in countries where we use imperial measurements? Why do we run 5 kilometers instead of 3 miles? Also, FYI, 12 kilometers is equivalent to 7.5 miles. Holy crap.
Raveling Out 
I’m guessing you got the same ulcers I did in 1999 and 2000 about there having been NO YEAR ZERO.
Oh, I think I even talked about it in all caps like that, too!
Why are running races mostly measured in kilometers even in countries where we use imperial measurements? Why do we run 5 kilometers instead of 3 miles? Also, FYI, 12 kilometers is equivalent to 7.5 miles. Holy crap.
Cheeky Answer: Because SI units are better.
Less cheeky answer: Because most of the rest of the world uses metric and running is an international thing, so they need to use the unit that is most common. You get used to it after awhile. I’ve run enough races and these days spend enough time in the lab that I don’t think about metric but get confused by my cookbooks.
Yeah, metric is definitely better. But then I know how long it takes me to run a mile, but not how long it takes me to run a kilometer. Also, why are some races always imperial, like especially ones known for their distance, like 26.2 or 70.3, etc.? OH WELL. I will just have to get used to it (or continue converting things into units I understand).
Marathon is usually 50k, half is 25k.
You can time yourself in the kilometer! It’s just 2.5 laps on a standard track, so if you start at the 3k start line and run two laps then to the finish line. If your goal in the 5k is, say, 20 minutes, this should take you 4 minutes, etc.
Enjoy!