Bone Jarring

Since I did such an abbreviated post yesterday, I thought I'd supplement it a bit today. I have noticed an odd sensation on runs longer than 7 or 8 miles. What I notice is not muscles working (which is a relatively normal thing to notice on a run), but bone awareness (stop laughing, pervs). What I feel with each footstep at some point is the bones throughout my legs. It is very odd, but somehow, I feel each impact, compression in the joints, and the ripple effects of the jarring going up through each individual bone. The sensation doesn't last too long, and normally occurs on downhills or flats. It is not painful or unpleasant, just odd. If anyone else who runs ever gets this sensation, let me know. I don't recall experiencing it when I used to run years ago.

The Winter Olympics ended on Sunday. The ceremonies surrounding their openings and closings don't really interest me in the slightest. People who put emphasis on which country won the most medals (as if they can somehow bask in the reflected glory) also don't interest me. The overwrought television background stories are a needless distraction (leave the tears to Lifetime). In short, there are a lot of things about the way the games are presented that leave me cold.

The athletes and events, however, do not. While I will admit that I am not a fan of hockey or curling (is that a sport or a game, c'mon), I did have ass time on the couch watching both of these. And they were oddly appealing. My absolute favorite events, though, were the men's and women's short-track speed skating, and (oddly) any of the nordic cross country-type events. I'll admit to being crazy about Apolo Ohno as he strove to vanquish the (unfairly demonized) Koreans. I also loved the Chinese women. They were absolutely amazing in their effortless ability to surge ahead on a moment's notice. And the nordic events had more down to the wire finishes than many other types of races I've seen. And since they are on skis, and cover long distances, the nail biting moments actually took a heckuva lot longer than they do in other races (ie 100 meter dash). When I first had turned on the tube and saw a nordic event, I thought, great, how boring. But after a couple of minutes, I was hooked.

Frankly, I loved almost all of the events. The skiing and snowboarding was great. Speed Skating (now I guess called long track speed skating), bobsled, luge, skeleton, (and really crazily for me) ice dancing, were all wonderful.

If you missed it, you missed out on something that even chatty, insipid, America-centric television coverage couldn't destroy - athletes coming together from around the world to compete in interesting events in brilliant and amazing ways. I'm looking forward to Sochi in 2014.