citizen of the planet

OK, so I can’t claim the award because I’m not going to post this to seven other bloggers. Sorry, no dice. That being said, since it was requested and I don’t seem to mind, I’m going to post seven quick tidbits about myself.

1. I am a Scorpio and the sign rising over the horizon at my birth was also Scorpio. So my inner and outer self have that characteristic. My moon was in Pisces meaning my emotional nature is Pisces-like (whatever that means). Yes, my vitals are all in water-signs. Would indicate that my emotions play a big role in my life. Very true.
2. I have helped to organize and emcee orientation week at university. Time leading up to it was probably one of the hardest years of my life. The week itself was completely hellish. Those people that I’ve ushered in have since graduated.
3. I’ve had three cars: an Oldsmobile Cutless Ciera, a Pontiac Sunfire, and a Toyota Corolla. They all had spoilers. I now can’t picture myself with a spoiler-less car. Such cars kind of look bare, don’t they?
4. I have notoriously flat feet. I always used that as an excuse as to why I just wasn’t meant to run. Who knew that I’d be running half marathons?
5. I bake relatively frequently. I often take pictures of what I made. I’m really not that bad of a baker. I’ve gotten good reviews for a lot of stuff that I’ve come up with.
6. I’ve been to Japan twice. I’m pretty sure I won’t be heading back any time soon. That being said, I find the memorization of Kanji to be fascinating. I’d like to take on Mandarin Chinese as my next challenge.
7. According to Last.fm, my music tastes tend to be: rock, indie, female vocalists, pop, alternative, Canadian artists. I really like quirky stuff, hence my propensity for Alanis and Björk.

I wasn’t expecting to do so in the last running class, but I was sort of thrust into the spotlight as the guest speaker asked for a volunteer. Because I wanted the class to pay attention, I decided to just volunteer myself. It turns out he wanted me to be his foot/leg model. So, I shucked off the shoes and socks and stood on a bench as he point out common foot injuries. The class got a really good view of my shins, calves, ankles and ridiculously flat feet.

I think there was a time long ago when I would have been embarrassed to show off my feet. I mean, flat feet aren’t normal. Sure, they’re common, but they’re still they’re kind of an abnormality as well as a hindrance. For the longest time I’ve had so much trouble walking long distances. It wasn’t until I did something to address my flat feet that I finally got to a point where walking wasn’t so bad. A little arch support goes a long way. Well, I think all of this running that I’ve done as well as all of the talks that I’ve attended have made me realize that no matter what, I’m still more than capable of running with such feet. As such, I’ve grown to respect my feet for what they are. Hence, I’ve had less issue with showing them off.

Thing is, if I had known I’d be showing my feet off, I’d have cleaned them up a bit. I wish I’d clipped my toenails. I wish I had time to take a pumice stone to them to wear down calluses. Is that so bad? I’m quite sure that people have already made judgements about me long before this foot modelling stint. So what am I worrying about? Bah.

Now that I’ve been running for a while (I guess), I’m starting to wonder what my pace time is–you know, besides the general idea of “SLOW.” I want to know how long it takes me to reach each kilometre mark, and whether my kilometres are faster or slower as I progress through the run. Does elevation play a factor? I don’t know. I think having that kind of information would help me a great deal in terms of figuring out what I’m doing right or wrong.

So, most people that I’ve been running know about the Garmin Forerunner. It’s a really nice GPS tool that keeps track of all of those things that I mentioned in the paragraph above. I’ve been eyeing the 205 and 305. Really the big difference between the two is that the 305 also monitors your heart rate. However, since I’ve got a Polar F6 already, I decided there’s no need. I’m willing to make the fashion faux-pas of wearing two watches. Whatever. The only thing that’s has stopped me from already getting one is that the watches expensive little buggers. In store, the 205 costs about $210; the 305 costs about $320 (all Canadian dollars). I was thinking that at that price I better be darn sure I’m going to stick with running. And here I am, months later and I’m sticking with it. Who knew?

Anyway, instead of getting a new watch in store, I started poking around eBay and found factory sealed refurbished ones for a lot cheaper than the newer counterparts. I remember they were $149 in store back in December when they still had refurbished ones, so I used that as my jumping point. A few auctions later, and I was able to get one for US$107.50. Crazy. With shipping, the cost was $137.45. With conversion, it’s still under $149. I’m quite alright with that. So, in a week or two I’ll at least have some GPS based digital confirmation that I’m velocity-challenged.

Hey, also I’m considering getting another pair of shoes. I’m currently using the NB 858’s I got back in September. They’re still alright and treat me well enough. However, I’m questioning whether they’re wide enough. After a long run, the medial parts of my feet inevitably feel bruised. Since I over-pronate, when I walk I really feel the bruising. It goes away after a few days, but I can’t help but wonder if the shoes are wide enough. I’m currently in a 2E width, and the medial part of my foot still overhangs the sole by a little bit. I think the overhang is what’s causing the pain. I mean, that part isn’t being supported properly, so of course it’s going to ache, right?

I’m thinking that I might want to try out the Brooks Beast in a 4E width. Yes, I had a previous bad experience with the Beasts. Back then, I was actually using the shoes incorrectly. How the hell did I bungle something like that? Seriously! That one bad run back in May, I remember actually running without the sock liner and the orthotics. No wonder I was in horrible pain. The difference this time then, I think, is that I’ll be sticking with the liners that come with the shoes. I stopped using orthotics when running back in October/November. If the Beasts are really the gold-standards for my type of foot, then I really think I should give them another look. I can at least rotate them in an out with my current shoes.

We’ll see if I actually dive in and make the purchase in the next few weeks.

First I want to say something about the PATH: Toronto’s underground is pretty darn confusing. I haven’t really had a need to go wandering around there because I’ve never had a job in one of the tall buildings in the area, however, after meeting with Hui at Union Station I thought it would be a bit of fun to try to wander from the station all the way to the Eaton Centre. How hard could it be? HA! At first it was an adventure. Seriously. When Hui stopped to ask a stranger for a bit of direction I kind of expressed some displeasure. Where was the spirit of discovery, you know? Well, after doubling back through the same bloody building three times I got frustrated–not at him or myself, but more at the labyrinth we were in. We overshot where we want to go several times increasing the distance we travelled by a good chunk. We did eventually find our way and made it to the mall, but damn, that was crazy. Prior to meeting with my friend, I’d already spent an hour wandering the city killing time. So, after wandering the path I think I’d been walking around for two hours straight. My flat feet killed!

Anyway, ultimately we decided to watch a movie. We settled on Be Kind Rewind. I saw posters for the flick illegally plastered on some buildings along Spadina. It looked mildly brainless, really, so I was sort of prepping to turn off my brain for 2 hours. I was bamboozled!

Let’s see. I could say that the movie can be divided into three parts. The first part was plainly silly with things like Jack Black’s character becoming mysteriously magnetized by a freak power plant accident involving a grappling hook. Yeeeeah. I thought my initial gut feelings toward the movie were justified. By the second part where the video store plot really started coming into play, the movie suddenly morphed into something a lot more joyful. It was all still silly, but I think my brain had gotten to the point where it was deliberately suspending disbelief, and just revelling in the awesomeness of the improbabilities of it all. By the third part, the movie morphed once more into something that actually had a great deal of heart. I wasn’t anticipating it at all, but wow, bravo.

So yeah, I came out of the theatre utterly confused–not at the movie itself but rather about what I actually felt vs. what I was anticipating that I should have felt. Maybe being confused in such a way is a good thing once in a while.