Saturday, August 8, 2009

Running; Journal

Well, I ran with my friend Steven yesterday. I ran four miles. I felt good. I ran an easy mile to warm up and then I stretched. I then ran a mile. I wanted to run 6:30 or under. Becky and Gabe went to the track with me so I asked Becky to time my laps. I said that I wanted to aim at a 90 sec lap time (6:00/mile). I ran laps 1, 2, and 4 under 90 sec and I ran lap 3 in 92 sec. Becky was only marking lap time and didn't look at the total time but it was less than 6-minutes. I would say that it was about 5:45. I felt good. It felt easy to run that pace. I then jogged two miles at a comfortable pace. I am not planning on running today. I have a 7:00 AM 5-mile race tomorrow. I feel a lot better about it after yesterday's run than I did earlier in the week. During most of the week I have not felt good about tomorrow's race. I have felt tired, tight and heavy. I felt a lot looser yesterday though and I think that resting today is going to be good for tomorrow. I feel good right now. I don't know what to expect for tomorrow. I have never run a 5-mile race. People sometimes ask me if I run marathons and I always answer no but in my mind I think 'I have never competed in anything longer than 5 kilometers'. I don't totally know how to prepare for a marathon but what I am seeing on-line is encouraging. I am doing a lot right. I would run today but I feel like resting for tomorrow's race. Hmm. This is not much of a journal entry.

On a completely different note, I have spent a lot of time today reading about George Sodini. He killed four people in an LA Fitness in Pennsylvania on Tuesday of this week. He walked in with four loaded guns in his gym bag and then shot up an aerobics class before killing himself. He had a blog that documented his deranged thinking as he planned to kill. I did not read the whole thing. I browsed it and read other people's comments on several websites that dedicate a lot more space to this incident than I am dedicating here. It is pretty sick stuff – sort of terrifying really. The whole story sort of humbles me, makes me want to take better care of people, show more decency. But it is all really scary to think that this guy, or somebody like him, could be anywhere.

I will share just one of his particularly bothersome entries:

January 6, 2009:
I can do this. Leaving work today, I felt like a zombie - just going thru the motions. Get on the bus, get the car, drive home.....My mind is screwed up anymore, I can't concentrate at work or think at all.
This log is not detailed. It is only for confidence to do this. The future holds even less than what I have today.
It is 6:40pm, about hour and a half to go. God have mercy. I wish life could be better for all and the crazy world can somehow run smoother. I wish I had answers. Bye.

It is 8:45PM: I chickened out! Shit! I brought the loaded guns, everything. Hell!

It scares me that he did what he did, period. But it also scares me that seven months earlier he walked into the gym with a bag of loaded guns and the intention to unload them into people. How many other times did he pack that gym bag with guns? How many other people are there like this guy, walking around with a bag of weapons and hearts filled with hatred? Wow. This is disturbing.

I feel for the people killed and otherwise affected by this man.

me

1 comment:

  1. Crazies are everywhere. My hope is that I (or anyone that I love) never meet any of them while they have a desire to act on their insanity!

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