KRAC Blog

The course map for the Half Marathon has been released; it is quite a different route this year. We'll start on Franklin near Tupper, then go out along Niagara to Porter, then back through LaSalle Park, past the condos and around the Marina. From there we head out Marine Drive and down South Part to Ohio to Fuhrmann until we get to Tift Street. We'll turn around there, and work our way back until the finish, in front of the Convention Center.

Frankly, I think it is a more interesting course than the Journey Into Kenmore-- but there won't be much by way of crowd support. Runners who are going whole hog will go around Niagara Square, up Delaware to North, over to Richmond, around Colonial Circle to Bidwell to Middlesex.... They'll tak in some of Hertel, Delaware Park and Forest Lawn, then head for home down Linwood. It looks to me like a course that will showcase some of the most attractive parts of the city, with very little of the industrial desert that characterized LA.

Actually, the Wineglass might be fun to do as a relay. Too bad there isn't a Half Marathon.

How are they going to get Keith out of the stable and on stage?

In this month's Runner's World I learned two interesting things. My favorite comes from "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me"'s Peter Sagal: when Lance Armstrong ran the New York Marathon he had an energy gel every mile. I haven't done the math, but it seems to me that he probably ended up with a net gain in calories. It also seems to me that eating 26 packets of Gu would be almost as big an endurance feat as the race. Do you suppose they were all the same flavor, or did he mix it up for variety? (Actually, after a quick Google I now know that Lance is a PowerBar man.)

I like to listen to other people's stories about running, mostly, I guess, because if I listen politely sometimes they give me a turn after they are done. I listened to my physician's assistant's story Friday (injured-- so sad). And Sunday, when asked, I described the LA Marathon to friends over brunch. "It was fine for the first 22 miles or so," I told them, "And then it was Golgotha." They laughed, and one asked, "So, are you done now? Have you got this out of your system?" Actually, I haven't, and I said as much. As I write this Boston has pretty much wrapped up-- I'd still be out there, but I'd have to get there first. I'd say my best shot is to get so old that the qualifying time comes back toward me, but I suppose I could get faster.

Project A13: "Are you tired of being against him? Are you tired of expecting him to fail, and standing up to boo when he does so? Are you tired of not feeling good about having Alex Rodriguez play third base for your favorite team? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you are ready. Welcome to The Movement."

Watching A-Rod the other night it occurred to me that the last player the Highlanders had that was this under-appreciated was Dave Winfield. I am of half a mind to go see a game just so I can stand up every time Rodreguez comes to the plate. (I think, however, that I will probably go watch David Wright and Jose Perez instead.)

I suppose it's possible that he's just making it up to mess with people's heads, but the plausibility of it is pretty daunting: Keith Richards: 'I Snorted My Father'. Man, remember when drugs were glamorous?

Outside of my area of expertise, certainly. Probably esoteric even for the reasonably sophisticated fan of the genre. Funny? Yeah, they're funny. The 10 Worst Rap Album Covers Ever Made.