Chance of Snow - 50/50

Biggest snowfall of the year. It's gonna take me hours to shovel.

Before I begin, I want to wish big congratulations to all of the Trail Hawks that raced this weekend at the Rocky Raccoon 100mi and 50mi, and the White Rock Classic 33.4 mi. It is cool that you guys and gals let me hang out with you.

I had an extremely light week of running. It was light, but high quality. I did a nine miler on Sunday, 5 mi on Tuesday, 4 on Thursday, and 6 on Saturday. So 24 miles total. The best of the runs was the 5 miler with Chris Ford (see pvs posting) where we saw a bald eagle and encountered the snake. I've got a crazy rash on my right knee and running down my calf, so since I can't get to a doctor until Monday,my Sunday run (today) is going to be in the 6-ish range. I'm going to try to keep off the main roads so as not to scare little children with the weird, oozing thing on my leg.

I finished (finally) Again to Carthage and also Tobacco Road. As a follow-up to Once a Runner, Again to Carthage leaves a bit to be desired. It loses the innocence and the joy over running that the first book had. But, if you liked the characters and want to follow them a bit longer, Again to Carthage is a decent read. If a book comes out following the characters into their 40s and 50s, I'll probably buy it as well.

I had the chance to see a couple of really good movies this week. I know that everyone has been talking about Moneyball. And, after seeing it, I think they are talking about it with good reason. It is a fun, none-too-cerebral flick that addresses an issue (small market vs big market) and resolves it in a new way. I still don't understand why anyone from a small market follows baseball. World Series and league championships don't mean much when 2-4 teams buy up all the top players. What a hollow victory it must be...Yay! NY wins again! The rest of the nation yawns and doesn't care.... Sorry about that, but for me, the disparity in dollars has sullied a beautiful game.

The second movie really got to me. 50/50 is a story about confronting cancer. It has a fantastic script and is pretty seriously funny. In fact, there is one of the most uncomfortable scenes I've ever witnessed in a film that actually caused me to laugh out loud. I had to watch it again to catch everything that was said. There are poignant and tense scenes as well (as one would expect in a cancer film). But the movie is seriously smart, life-affirming, and worth watching.

Well, I'm going to be heading out the door shortly. It is a sunny, beautiful day that deserves a respectful, joyous, life-affirming run.