Running

So Saturday I hit the road, I mean the actual road, not a track, or indoors or anything, in quite a while. Did a little under 3 miles, slower than my 'normal' pace, about 11:40/mile - which is all o.k. - but man was I tight and sore afterwards - particularly in my shins, the bottoms of my feet, and whatever that white fascia is called below your calves and above the Achilles tendon. Luckyily for me ..... I'm married to a massage therapist! I don't think I've evern mentioned before what Karen does for a living. Man, I came in, stretched out as best I could and began the begging. It didn't really last that long, maybe only 10 minutes or so - then came the pain! But you know, that kind of pain ... you want :) I must have asked her at least a dozen times "no, not there... there, yeah and then push with your thumbs"... etc. etc. which she completely disregarded at least a dozen times. Once I finally shut up and stopped begging and directing, I let the pro do her thing and I felt so much better. Went back out on the road today, a little less distance, same general pace (2.5 miles; 11:45 pace) and felt good about it. I definitely need those new shoes though. The bottoms of my feet ache. Partly, I assume because I haven't been pounding the pavement much, but these shoes easily have to have that 300-500 miles on them by now, I assume more than that. Jon said he just picked up a pair of Reebok Premier Road Lites which I will definitely be checking out. I also need to get myself squared away for winter. Last winter just blew my training apart - I tried to run at the gym on the indoor track, and I did manage to get a few days a week in, but I'm just not set up to run hamster-esque. I hate the 'round and round' and would love to run outside if I could. It gets crazy cold here in the winter - usually has highs in the low 20's in January and February although you can catch a day here and there that is 10 degrees colder and 10 degrees warmer. I'll have to explore this a bit and am asking all you Eskimo types to chime in with ideas regarding gear and techniques for winter road running. I also need a good springtime race to use as a target. I am not the type to train just for the health of it ;) and need some event to train for. Something in late March or early April would be ideal.

I'm Baaackkk!

Hey RBF!!! Unbelievable - I just looked at the site - nearly a month and a half since my last post. As you know I've had my head down, making sure that the whole tenure application process was as overwhelmingly convincing as possible. It was worth it, dig this ..." ... and Prof. Roth's record of scholarship, service, and public outreach has far exceeded our expectations for him and we unanimously recommend the granting of tenure and promotion to Associate Professor." I'm sorry, did I hear somebody say Woo Hoo!!!!! O.K. - back to reality - that letter marks the 3rd of 6 reviews - now it just has to go through the Director, the Dean, and the Provost - but things sound good so far don't you think?

Man, so much has taken place "since I've been gone". Jon ran his first marathon and rocked Detroit, little miss runner pants ran San Francisco, Lara ran a half and has since announced that she's in training for her first marathon, Joan hosted a wonderfully successful race and keeps writing the most beautiful poetry, and Iron Wil runs an awesome tri AND launches her new online store! Man you all have been busy! I've still been carrying on the running "burps" I mentioned previously, short little spurts of running; 15 minutes here and there, a mile or 2 here and there, you get the idea.

If you haven't heard of this yet, I SO can't wait to tell you. My kids are going to college for free! And so will roughly 11,000 other kids from Kalamzoo public schools. You see, last Thursday on Nov. 10, the superintendent of Kalamazoo public schools announced that for the last 2-3 years, a group of wealthy philanthropists have been considering a multitude of ways of donating a large sum of $$$ that would have the greatest impact on the entire community over sustained periods of time. What they came up with is stunning, brilliant, awe-inspiring, and exceptioanlly generous. It's called The Kalamazoo Promise. In a nutshell, these people have committed the cash to pay the tuition, from 65%-100% depending on how long a student has been in the KPS system, of every child who goes to a Michigan public university or community college for at least the next 13 years! You would not believe what it has already done to this community as well as the surrounding communities. There are kids who never EVER even thought about going to college because their families could not begin to afford it who are suddenly presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. Realtors have created lawn signs to be placed next to the real estate signs the read "Kalamazoo Public Schools - College Tuition Qualified" for all of the people who may be looking to move to Kalamazoo to take advantage of this enormous gift. The Kalamazoo convention and visitor's bureau have already run out of relocation packets as both potential homebuyers and businesses have snatched up the 1100 plus they had on hand prior to Thursday's announcement. Local school boards and city commissions have had impromptu meetings called to figure out how they will deal with a flow of students out of their districts into Kalamazoo. The Kalamazoo city commission has put together task forces to handle the influx of interest from the various regions around the country.

Then ... I heard one of the most beautiful things last night that's come out of this. A group of high school students have banded together and started a small trust of several thousand dollars to "give back" to the coummunity in ways yet to be determined. Groups of parents, teachers, business executives, local politicians, etc. have also been volunteering in droves, to help students who may be underprepared, and functioning as academic mentors and tutors. You can find another excellent article about how it has already, less than a week after its announcement, affecting people in this area - in The Kalamazoo Gazette

In more trivial things that I still draw joy from ..

The Pistons are still undefeated
Western Michigan beat Central last weekend
The Lions actually won a game
It snowed - about 3 inches - last night
I got a VERY small raise as a pre-cursor to promotion (every little bit helps!)
Eddie joined the boy scouts
Heather is jamming at her swimming class
I'm in the market for new running shoes (any tips?)
My volunteer application for the Super Bowl was accepted!!!
Thanksgiving is only a week away! (and there is so much to be thankful for!!!)