#24 Heating UP

    As promised, here is another example of my stupidity. In this example, I must drag Josh and Hunter into believing the same thing though. United we stand, stupid. First day in the new house we realized that there was no hot water, but the stove was working; had a frozen pizza. We could not spark the hot water tank in the basement, but there was gas in the house because the stove was working. So I called the local fixer-upper, pops, and when he came over he walked into the kitchen and said "that's an electric stove you must not have the gas turned on." My response was- Yeah, that's what I was thinking too... Luckily the local gas company was able to rush over and turn our gas on 11 days after requested (5/28). And let me assure you- there is a big difference between a cool shower when you are overheated, sunburned, drunk, etc. and a cold shower that lacks the ability to warm up in the slightest. Some of my worst recent experiences all come in the shower recently. I have been timing my showers. My personal best cold shower time was 2 minutes and 10 seconds. I know that I heavily reference awesome movies, but I look like Marv in Home Alone when he is taking the electrocution; just standing and violently convulsing until I can't take it anymore.

Sunday 5/25- 15 miler with the housemates. I am convinced that someone slipped a few dozen horse laxatives in my drinks last night as the three of us watched the Pacers blow another game. Adam is an Indianan so is a lifelong Pacers fan, and I hate the Heat so currently we are rooting for the same team. I'd pick OKC if I could choose even though I am upset with them for letting James Harden go, never let a beard like that go. It's stupid easy to run from our place and I love it. We just went down the arb and out and back on the trail. I assume that will be a normal long run route. Simple and easy, aside from having to crawl back up the arb at the end of every run. It's weird, like every time we run down hills on out and back we end up running back up those hills. Who would have thought.

Before Conor started. Once he did, I was enjoying it too much for pictures.

     Conor Oberst did not fail to amaze me in Pittsburgh. It's crazy to think about for me. For the last 7 years I have listened to heavy doses of his work. Often times his music served as therapy for me; anything bothering me and it goes away once Conor is in my ears. There probably hasn't been a more influential person in my life that I had yet to see in person. I wish that I could have shaken his hand, but that dream will live on until I hopefully catch him one more time on this tour. That dream will most likely live on forever. He performed a good chunk of songs from his latest album, Upsidedown Mountain, but brilliantly mixed in some of his older songs that helped turn him into the legend that he is. I can't really describe the show in much detail. The more I think of a way to put it into words the less confident I am in my ability to do so. Let's just put it this way- If I was given the opportunity to pick one person from the world, past or present, to watch on stage/meet in person it would be Conor and I can't think of a reasonably close second to him. So it was two of my favorite hours so far in life. I've only listened to the newest album 15ish times through, but currently this is my favorite from it. And like all of his albums, every song on there will serve as my favorite eventually.

Oh and that reminds me, Dawes is an excellent band. They tore it up for 45 minutes before Conor and played his songs with them. I now own all three of their records and I'm trying to get to know them more and more. I want to see them again on this tour. Ideally, I will find my way to Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island this July. But like the saying goes- shit ain't cheap.

Monday 5/26- 8 miles with the Patrick through town. Patrick crashed on my mildly comfortable futon after the show and we planned on running once we woke up. And after we woke up and played a few hours of NBA 2k14 we did run, just as planned. Then I went to my dads after dropping Pat off and discovered that he can cut hair better than the people I pay. It's not saving a lot of money because I rarely cut my hair, but it's pretty neat. I then went to celebrate an American holiday full of meat and cookies. There were other options but I'm convinced the healthier the food is the harder it is for me to see it so I can't report on what else was there. I enjoyed it, my philosophy on rating how much I like people consists of two tests. Are they cool while sober? Check, well anyone can be cool sober. Are they cool while not so sober? If that checks out then they are cool. Alcohol brings out everyone's true colors and if those colors are awesome then I dig em. Oh one funny story about it. If you have seen the episode of Family Guy where Brian sees a dog tied up and decides to take it off it's leash and says be free. The dog immediately ate a smaller dog and killed two people I believe. Then Stewie said- that's probably why he was tied up, classic Brian Stewie scene. Well the beagle on the back deck was all tangled up on the leg of the table and a different Adam lifted the leg and untangled the dog. It immediately went and ate the food that a little tike was trying to eat. It wouldn't have been as funny without loving the Family Guy scene. Thanks to that show a lot of random happenings comes off a lot funnier to me than others.

Hot wheels, beat that.

Tuesday 5/27- 6 miles. Slacking on the mileage. That's okay though because I feel healthy and when running 26.2 on a trail I am just happy to not have any tweeks. I went in Fairmont with the town's star in the making. Then I went to Chauncy's for the first time since the Fairmont tried to take my license. My younger sister and pops have the same new fancy phone. There is this game on it called don't touch the white tile or something, basically it's like Dance Dance Revolution on the phone. A few days prior she was stuck at 175 trying to catch her friend at 186. Let me try a few times then I got hooked for fifteen minutes. I put it down with a 195. Then she cheated the next day and claimed(lie) that she did 282 which made me mad. I posted a 297 and said you'll never beat me. she then responded with a picture of a 401 and said beat this! I am still convinced that it is not her phone because I haven't seen her to confirm it. I took my dad's phone after finishing up dinner and waiting for the check and played once. I ripped off a 404 and sent this picture to her with the caption- K, now what? That summarizes our relationship. She tries to beat me and fails at everything. I have never let her have anything, and I'm going to be the same way with my kids. For years she would storm into her room mad that I would always just hammer her in whatever we were playing. But what I wanted to happened has happened. She got genuinely good. When we play super smash bros or super mario kart it is a toss up. And on super mario sluggers it is an upset if I win. I figure you can baby your siblings/kids and let them win everything and watch them amount to losers or you can whip em in everything until they are winners. I am proud of her rage quits though. She's just like me when if she is losing she will just toss the controller, turn off the system, and walk out of the room. Moments later returning like nothing happened. That's okay with me because a sore loser is only sore because losing is a rarity.

Wednesday 5/28- 11 miles. 5 and 6 double. I plan doing 6 right after uploading this so I'm going to go ahead and log it on here. It's been thundering all day but I stayed dry earlier on my run. I want to get stormed on. I love running through heavy rain accompanied by thunder and lightning. Only on short runs. I'd be pretty unhappy if I had a longer run and got dumped on early on. It's a nice break from getting burnt. I don't want to brag, but this place totally has hot water now... High roller alert! I said that I would give you all a tour of the new place, but I'm postponing that until next blog.

 Q &A, clothing optional.

1. How do you feel about your Minnesota Wild getting eliminated by Chicago for the second straight year?

    To be Franklin the turtle, not happy. This has been the best Minnesota Wild team in their young franchise. After gift wrapping two games for Colorado in the opening round and went seven games against an inferior opponent had me livid. Had we lost that series I would never forgive the team. At least I could fathom a series defeat to the Hawks; they won the cup last year so they can't be terrible. I respect Kane, Toews, and their top D pair. I don't respect their depth and think we could have won the series. And I especially think we would have won the series if Chicago had to play their 4th string goalie like we did, or if we had Harding in net; that would be more fun. It's like Prefontaine says in one of the two movies- your opponent is not better than you unless he beats you at your best. Do I think Chicago is better than Minnesota this year, no. Were they better due to injuries and deserved to win the series, yes. Am I salty as hell about it, yes. I am rightfully salty because after next season an inevitable chunk of talented youth will depart because they will be off of their entry level contracts and begin making real money that we can't provide to all of them. I say it every year, but this time it's truer than ever: Next year has to be the year. A sliver of me wants them to keep losing because I love them so much and the first time I walk downtown in Morgantown, 17 hours from St. Paul, and see Mr. Frat doucheface sporting a Wild snapback I am going to just lose it. People around here lie about bandwagoning like they lie about being racist. President Obama and Govna Manchin practically stand together on every subject, WV elects Manchin, but goes red. I can only think of one difference between Obama and Manchin...

2. How many tattoos do you have and do you plan on getting any more?
    4. I got my first one on my wrist 3 years ago. Three on my right leg: ms yellow bird, mr demon, and McDagger. I do anticipate one more on my right leg in the next year. Then that will probably be it. If there are more in my future I'm certain they will stay on my upper legs. Though I wouldn't mind getting a blank tattoo often just for the feeling. I feel like there is a reason that you rarely see someone with only one tattoo, it's an addicting pain. Hurts so good.

3. What are your favorite shoes to train in?
    This one is a toughie. Not because I am in love with various shoes; I really don't care too much about shoes. In high school I went all adidas and had four pair of Solutions. People tell me that isn't a good shoe, but who's to say what good is. Shoes that I hated- old Adidas glides, Brooks Cadence 2, most New Balance trainers. I don't like Nike either, unless I'm going to play basketball. In that case I would wear Iversons. Trail shoes are easier for me to talk about. I've only worn the NB 110v2 (coming out in July) and I love them! But I have absolutely shredded them because I either have wide feet or I go too hard in the paint. The original Brooks Cadence are probably the best shoe ever. I still walk around in those bad boys. Today if I had to pick up shoes I'd probably go with Saucony Kinvara because I feel like it. I never have fancy reasons to get shoes. I like em, or don't.

4. Where is your ultimate vacation destination?
    I don't think this counts, but a vacation that I have dreamed of and plan on doing is training through Europe and Scandinavia. Training- to travel via train. Figure that I would start in Switzerland, train all through there- Geneva, Saint Moritz, Zurich. Then go damn near everywhere in Germany, but highlighted by Munich and Dusseldorf. Then to Amsterdam. If I somehow escaped from there I would return to Germany en route to Poland. I would be sure to not travel east of there and head up to Scandinavia. Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, and on to a ferry to Finland and if I never return from there I am cool with that. My vacations aren't to specific locations. To this point my favorite vacation has been driving to Eugene, Oregon and back. That's a vacation.

5. my son is starting high school XC in the fall...right now he's barely under a 7 min. mile for the 5K. Do you have any tips for how to run faster and uninjured for younger runners?
    Consistency. The best way to improve, especially during the summer, is just consistent running. Gaining fitness doesn't have to be complicated and actually running in general isn't complicated early on. As long as he doesn't spike his mileage too quickly, he should be injury-free. Of course there are always inevitable injuries in all sports. I've had my share of bumps in the road, and progressions. It may still be May, but cross country season is just around the corner. Running should be year round to see the best results. Plus running is fun, why wouldn't ya want to do it year round.

6. If you could live anywhere where would it be?

    I am going to stick with places that I have visited before because it's hard to say I would like to live somewhere that I haven't visited. I see two potential final destinations for me and they are quite different. If I live in or around a city it will be the twin cities. Minneapolis and St. Paul are both in my top three cities individually, along with Pittsburgh. If I move to the great white north( Minnesota. There is nothing north of MN in my mind) I will live out my dream of being the 90 year guy in Xcel Energy Center who hasn't missed a Wild home game in 50 years. Crazy old guy is my dream regardless of where I live. The second area I'd like to spend the majority of life is the Teton Valley. I traveled out to the Grand Tetons on a whim for my first trail marathon and honestly getting in my car and driving back home was one of the hardest things that I have done. I stayed in Driggs, Idaho but I spent time in Alta and Jackson, WY. It is the most beautiful place in the world, that I have seen. I would have to take up cross skiing if I wanted to maintain any sort of fitness though. Sidenote- my two favorite campuses I've visited are Colorado State in Fort Collins and surprisingly Ohio University in Athens. It's surprising because Ohio sucks.

7. What books are on your summer reading list? 

    Jo Nesbo's Snowman is next. A good friend recommended it when I spent the night with him in Kansas City and I purchased it shortly after. Every time I go to start another book I keep picking one over Snowman, so it's definitely passed due. Time and Again by Jack Finney will be after that. I am reading that because Stephen King was inspired and credited this book largely for his 11/22/63 novel that I just finished so I have to pick that up. I always follow books and music to its roots. For instance, Conor Oberst has time and again said one of if not his favorite musician growing up was Leonard Cohen and that he has influenced a lot of his work. So I listen to Cohen and try to take from it what Conor would; I am sure that I don't but it passes the time. I also anticipate having my first fictional book published this year. But I won't go further into that until it's out.

8. When did you first know you had a passion for running?

'07 Team. I overdressed with bball shorts. Best fall ever.

    I love this question! Because it is an easy one, and funny to me. First glimpse of running came in 8th grade track. My girlfriend that remained on in off 7th-10th grade ran hurdles and told me I should come out even though I played baseball. Claimed that they do nothing at practice and we could just hang out a few extra hours, I was out the next day. "What do you want to run?" My response- One or two laps. Don't want to sprint or run too long. Ended up 2:26 and 58 that spring. Decided to go out for CC because of the friends that I had made that spring. Freshman year was probably the most fun I've had still to this day in a season. But I was more invested in the social aspect than the training. Then 8/8/08 came and snap goes my femur. After hating the world for a month or so I found my passion. It took not being able to run to discover that I needed running. I also think that caused my to be easily annoyed when I see talented runners go through the motions. I honestly think injuries can be a blessing not so disguised. I broke my leg and prior was all about having fun and screwing around. Came out of the cast determined to snap everyone's neck. So to speak. In the past few years my passion for running has been tested, but no matter how low the coaster has taken me I have kept my passion alive.

9. Are you considering career options as a runner?

    Depends on your definition of career. Do I plan on making running my only source of income? That would be a terrible decision. Unless there was a weekly Clarksburg 10k. Do I plan on making any money as a runner? No. I'm sure I will make child's money here in there throughout life, but I never plan on it. Running is one of the last sports to try to make money in. I anticipate running forever though, so it's a career addiction. I mean after Sunday I will only have 3 out of 50 states x'd off for my goal of racking up 50 trail marathons or longer. Then perhaps I will take to the roads. Completely different races so I have trail and road marathons rightfully in different categories. I will always have goals as a runner, varying in impressiveness, but $$$ isn't one of them. I am planning on doing the US Skyrunning series fall '15, but that's not really a career; just a plan.

Next:

• Monday, I know I said Sunday but that was when I was under the impression that my marathon was on Saturday. It's on Sunday.
• Review of Conquer the Cove Trail Marathon (Roanoke, VA)
• House tour
• Continuing the constant flow of random happenings/ movie references. 

I enjoyed all of the questions!

 One Love!