On I went, out of the wood, passing the man leading without knowing I was going to do so. Flip-flap, flip-flap, jog-trot, jog-trot, curnchslap-crunchslap, across the middle of a broad field again, rhythmically running in my greyhound effortless fashion, knowing I had won the race though it wasn't half over, won it if I wanted it, could go on for ten or fifteen or twenty miles if I had to and drop dead at the finish of it, which would be the same, in the end, as living an honest life like the governor wanted me to. -Alan Sillitoe, "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Relaxation...

I swear - like, totally pinkie swear - that I'm not training for anything.  Starting... today.  It's actually pretty liberating to not feel like I have any obligation to any running schedule or calendar.  Predictably, I want to run now more than I have in the past few months.  I also took a kick-ass spin class last week and started doing the Bar Method this past weekend.  But that's, like, boring and not running.  So I'll keep it to myself.  (Do you really want to read me talk about ab exercises?  Loud music in a sweaty spin studio?  Because I don't want to write about these things.  And there will not be pictures.)

FINE.  Okay.  Stop giving me that look.  YES, I did register for the Egyptian Marathon.  After that: nothing.  I swear.  How could I resist?  After filling out the online form, I received this confirmation:


I love Egypt.  And I guess I have to figure out how to do an international bank transfer before the date line passes me by.

The start and finish?  Here:

But I'm not really training for it.  I'll have to do a couple of long runs between now and my early-January departure, but it's going to be a fun run.  (Notwithstanding the dream I had the other morning wherein I floated through next year's NYCM in 3-something.  The dream only got less plausible and more pleasantly surreal from there.)

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6 comments:

  1. MichaelTue Nov 30, 10:44:00 AM EST

    A PAPYRUS certificate!!!! How cool is that??

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  2. MikeTue Nov 30, 01:52:00 PM EST

    I'm sure you'll end up on some watch list after making that bank transfer, but that papyrus certificate is too enticing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousTue Nov 30, 02:59:00 PM EST

    Oh man. This is too good. Will the certificate look like some kind of ancient scroll? Is that start/end picture at Valley of the Kings? I need to brush up on my Egyptology. Nevertheless, this all sounds terrific. What an experience.

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  4. TWed Dec 01, 12:28:00 AM EST

    I highly, highly suspect I'm already on that watch list. But times are lonely these days. At least now I'll have a nice TSA pat down to look forward to!

    And the start/end is at Deir el Bahri, the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut. The Valley of the Kings is just over a cliff to the right. It is pretty cool, isn't it?

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  5. UnknownThu Dec 02, 10:58:00 AM EST

    A three hour New York marathon? Wow, I'd love to be in a dream like that!

    ReplyDelete
  6. TSat Dec 04, 09:19:00 AM EST

    Ian, keep working out and maybe you'll get there. Maybe I'll get there. I'm sure my dreams would be much better were they, you know, REAL and not completely imaginary. But that was a lovely dream.

    ReplyDelete

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