I spent 2009 in Iraq. I ran some during the first part of the year, but not enough, and certainly not many long runs. As the mid point of the year approached, and as I got ready to return home to my family in Hawaii, I decided that I’d crank up my miles to the point where I’d be able to run a half-marathon without dying. My R&R arrived, I flew to Hawaii, and while there, I did some running.

But after my R&R, I returned to Iraq and a new, very stressful job. Long hours, crazy hours. So, I kept running. I realized that the long runs were helping with the stress, helping to keep some sense of balance in my life. Sure, I was running in the dark of night, and sure, I was spraining my ankle from time to time, but it was working for me.

So, I set my sights on the Honolulu marathon, in December 2009. I dusted off my Excel spreadsheet for the Hal Higdon mileage plan for training for a full marathon, and I started to put in the miles. December came, I ran the marathon, and life was great. I closed out 2009 by resting; it had been a hell of a year.

2010 started with no great design. I was home from Iraq, work was OK but not crazy. I still had the same job, it was still stressful, but at nowhere near the levels it had been in Iraq. I was going to exercise with my unit in the morning, and I quickly discovered that, one most weekdays, I’d have about 50 minutes to run.

Hmm. 50 minutes, five days a week. I could easily run 5 miles in those 50 minutes. I’m in decent shape, I thought — I could probably do that 5 days a week. 25 miles a week — that’d be neat to do. I could totally do that.

But what if I snuck out one morning each weekend, and went to run some different parts of the island? 25 miles per week with the unit is a respectable amount of miles, but really — it’s kinda boring. It’s a lot of streets in the neighborhoods, lots of trips around parade fields and between tanks. There’s no jungle canopy, no dirt trails along a cliff. There’s no exploring that way. I asked the wife, and got the go-ahead to add in a weekend run.

Hmm. 25 miles during the week, and, say, a half-marathon or so on the weekend. Geez, I’m up to almost 40 miles per week. That’s kinda cool. I wonder if I could do that all year. And if I did do that all year, well, 40*52 is over 2000. Wouldn’t that be something, to run 2010 miles in 2010. I wonder if I could do it.

And that’s what set the tone for the year. I started to read books and look online for places to go run here on Oʻahu – and ended up starting my own separate blog to write about my adventures running (and to make the website I wish I could have found when I decided to start exploring this island on foot). I found Na Ala Hele, and it changed my life — so many good trails to run and explore, so little time. My plan became to run 25 miles during the week, pick up some more miles on the weekend, hope to average 40 miles per week, and maybe — just maybe — put in 2010 miles in 2010.

But things change. In June, I ended up in Iraq again, for a short visit. Did it alter my plans? Only slights — 5 runs for 66 miles over the two or so weeks I was off-island, and it actually included an 18 mile, middle-of-the-night trek, too. 5 runs for 66 miles — that’s averaging a half-marathon every time I ran, with the shortest of those runs being just 10 miles (and that was the night I landed in Iraq — I landed, dropped my bags, ate a light meal, and then ran 10 miles).

As July started, I joked with some of my soldiers — I could probably run 10 miles every day, for a month. Thus was born the Sparta Challenge — 300 miles, in 30 days. I’m still not really sure how that came to be, but it was really neat to do — and left me feeling fantastic about my fitness and conditioning levels. 300 miles in 30 days? Wow – I am indeed a runner.

That left just three things.

1. There are two state trails that require special permits in order to access them; I’ve now run one of them, and am working on plans to run the second one at the end of this month.

2. My unit had an exercise set for most of September. That would eat into my running time. Instead of my usual 160+ miles per month, I managed just 138. It was off by a bit, but I don’t see this as derailing my efforts to run 2010 in 2010. I was worried, though.

3. I’d never run an ultra. I’ve run two marathons in my day, a couple of ~20 mile runs, and gobs in the 13.1+ mile range — but never anything father than 26.2 miles. Ever since Luxembourg, I’ve had “Run an ultra” on my bucket list. Well, i did that Thursday night. I ran from my house, half-way across the island to Schofield Barracks, where I took the long loop (11.25) around post and up Kolekole Pass, before running back home. 5+ hours, 31 miles — I think 50km is considered the baby of ultra-marathons, but it counts.

I never thought I’d run 40 miles per week. I never thought I’d run 300 miles in 30 days. I never thought I’d take off one night and run 50 km (especially since I’d run 10km that morning at PT).

Today, I am 83 days out from the end of the year, and I need to run just 382 more miles to reach my goal of running 2010 miles in 2010. Granted, during those 83 days, I also need to close up shop here in Hawaii and move back to Iraq for another year — but I can work with that. 382 miles in 83 days — that’s an average of just 4.6 miles per day, and only 32 miles per week. In July, I averaged 10 miles per day, and this week I ran almost 80 miles — I think I can do this.

For not having a plan when the year started, it sure seems to have come together nicely since then.

1. Dress appropriately. Good grief, Charlie Brown — so many terrible accidents could be prevented if people would just learn to dress appropriately for the conditions. That shirt can come off it’s too hot, and with that color, it can be left just about anywhere on this island and it will be perfectly camouflaged — perfect for stashing and retrieving later. And those long baggy shorts? It things just get out of hand, they’d be perfect for going commando.

2. Wear comfortable shoes. If you can, well, go barefoot. But if you’re going to be someplace adventurous, or some place where their might be sharp rocks or something, at least bring them along in case no one is looking and you want to wear them for a little bit. It’s best if they’re small and lightweight, so if you see someone, you can take them off quickly and chuck them.

3. Prepare for the worst weather imaginable. Really. Because you never know when mother nature is going to rise up and try to smite everyone. There’s nothing worse than feeling a little bit chilly, when it like drops down into the high 70′s or something crazy like that, and you slip up and say something. Or if it rains, and it gets in your eyes and stuff.

4. Bring life sustaining nourishment with you. You never know where or when you might get stuck, and there’s nothing worse than being without in a time of need.

5. Pack enough, in case you’re stuck for a while. It’s easy to think that nothing bad will happen, or if it does happen, that everything will be ok soon enough. But really, you could be stuck somewhere for a while — pack enough.

6. Do what you can to prepare for a rescue. The time to think through these worst case situations is before they happen, not after. If you’re really in a jam, you’re going to want to be ready to help out your rescuers when they do get to you.

7. Plan for what you’d do if you were without power for a long period of time. Losing power can bring that sense of helplessness — what do I do now? Who will look after my crops in Farmville?

8. Plan for back up communications. If your cable goes down, how will you update your status? Know which neighbors have open WiFi, and for those that don’t, crack their WEP ahead of time, before you need it. Because who wants to go all the way to Starbucks for WiFi?

Do this, and you should be able to survive the worst that Hawai’i has to offer. I think the kids and I will be rehearsing this all weekend long.

Getting ready for the Honolulu Marathon, for me, was less about the marathon itself and more about the running. I ran in Iraq, I ran in Hawai’i, I ran in Oregon and even some up in the mountains near Lake Arrowhead. I ran and ran and ran, mainly to deal with the stress of being either in Iraq, or of coming home and trying to adjust to something of a normal life.

But that was then. That was what got me to the marathon two weeks ago. I am soooooo past that now.

Now, I want to see Oahu.

So I am making plans. At the library last week, I picked up and spent some time flipping through A Runners Guide to O’ahu. When I saw it on the shelf, I thought just for a moment that it might be just what I needed. Well, it wasn’t, but it was a good start. It seems more focused on the running than on the island — and I want to see the island and all her beauty, using runs as the means.

With a little help from Google Earth and the wife, I have a small list of places to go and runs to see. And I am sure that list will grow and change over the coming year. I have no idea how many runs I will make, or how many places I will visit, or how well I will do blogging it all. But I’ll give it a short. There’s just too much on this island to see, too many places of such amazing beauty.

I’ll probably write them up as best I can, to post here on the site. I need to think through some of the basic things I will need to cover about every run — where to park, how to rate them, etc. I should be able to provide GPS data for them all, since I tend to run with my Garmin. And I should be able to make a Google Earth file for each on, too, to share more information as well. So far, I’ve started to play with the EveryTrail site (my stuff is here), to see how best to represent the data and fuse the GPS data to the photos. I may put some of the stuff onto that site as well, and talk about it on Facebook, too, but will likely try to point folks here to this address.

A year from now, I hope to have collected the information that I was hoping to find this month. I want to run trails and valleys, ridges and bike paths. I want to see the many facets of the island, her beauty and her various climates, and find a way to tell others about them while encouraging people to get out and run for the fun and adventure of it. Who knows, maybe I’ll have some luck with it. And who knows, maybe I’ll package it all up in a year and port it to the Kindle or something.

At some point, I’ll probably post my running ideas; I’m still working up that list. By all means, chime in if there are things that you think are worth seeing or visiting on a run.

I came to Oregon with my family, to spend the Thanksgiving holiday time period with family and friends, to decompress some after Iraq, and to get away. But I also came here to run. Since 11 August, I’ve been running 4 times a week and at increasing distances, all in preparation for the upcoming Honolulu Marathon. But it’s been more than that — the running, and this trip. I’m running to find myself, and I’m finding myself running.

Early in life, I wasn’t a runner. I swam like a fish, I played soccer when I could, I loved to ski. Running came late to me, when I started this demanding relationship with the Army and like a trying girlfriend, the Army said I ought to get out and run some, maybe lose a few pounds, add some plaid shirts to my wardrobe, comb my hair differently. And so I ran. Some.

In 2002, I was injured. Nothing too serious — I just couldn’t run for a few years. Well, I could, but doing so would take me out of commission for a week or more. I still did it — Friday 10km runs around the airfield, just to show the troops that, pain and misery or not, it can still be done. But I still wasn’t a runner. I ran because I was expected to – like wearing that sweater because you know that Aunt Martha will be there and will be pleased to see you in it.

When they patched me up some in 2005, they told me I’d be able to run — some. 2, maybe 3 miles, four tops. Never, say, a 10km run. Which really made no sense to me – I can run 4 miles, but not six? I set out to prove them wrong, and somewhere along the way, I became a runner.

By accident, of course. I never meant to become a runner. I never thought I’d take to it. I never thought I’d need it, much less want it. But as I slowly got back to running, first short distances a few times a week but slowly longer distances 4 times a week, I found it to be both an awesome experience and a positive influence on my daily life.

Maybe some of it had to do with where I was running. I’d started in Germany, taking to the tractor trails and heading up into the woods. By the summer, I was in Kansas, running through the heat and humidity, scampering up the one ridge line close enough for me to run. And as summer waned, and as my long runs pushed first past 10km and then past 10 miles, I started to revel in my weekend solitude, exploring the area and the changing colors of fall-time foliage. By the time I was finished in America and had returned to Germany and the cold, cold mornings and snow, I was a runner. I ran.

I didn’t compete. I didn’t enter some event every weekend, didn’t collect bibs to hang on the wall. I ran, just to run.

It didn’t take much then to push me to train for a marathon – not for the event itself, but for the challenge of just doing it. The 10+ miles I could do by the time I was leaving Kansas easily grew to half marathon distances, and the more I ran, the more I began to wonder just what my body could take. Push here, push there, and everything seemed to hold. Nothing was breaking. A marathon seemed possible. I searched and found the one scheduled in Luxembourg, I dig out links for the Hal Higdon training plan, I bought my Garmin Forerunner 305 and running clothes and new iPod headphones, and I let my running go. I dropped the reins and stopped holding on.

And it felt great.

But in becoming a runner, I seemed to be missing one key thing: PR’s. Most everyone I encountered thought I was nuts for running like I did — both for the distances, and for running after having just been so broken. But the rare ones I encountered, the fellow runners, all seemed to be chasing some personal record. And I wasn’t. Was I suppose to? I didn’t get it, didn’t see the need. I ran, and I enjoyed it; when the run was over, I’d take a shower and get a meal, not scribble down notes in some log or deconstruct what I had done in an effort to squeeze (something) more out of my (something) time.

And, after completing the Luxembourg marathon in 2007, I remember thinking — I’d have been OK if the run had taken longer, because 1) I had not died, and 2) the process itself had been so much fun.

Was I truly a runner, thinking such thoughts? Running today, all the moreso on the web and in the magazines, is about speed and times and improvements and races and going faster, faster, FASTER. Everyone I talked to, everything I read online and in the fancy running magazines, all seemed to say that I was missing something for not chasing PR’s — 5km, 10km, half marathon, etc. I was a fake. I was something other than a runner, because I wasn’t chasing some land speed record. PR’s. PR’s, PR’s. Lighter shoes, to shave time off your PR. Less chicken but more salmon, to shave time off your PR. Less slow runs, more hills or intervals, to shave time off your PR.

But I didn’t. I spent more time spent playing with my kids, without a thought for my PR. More 14 mile runs up and back down the Königstuhl, without a thought for my PR. I was busy living life, without a thought for my PR.

And that was OK.

When I got back to Iraq this year, I kept on running. Slowly, at first, just to keep some miles flowing. But as the spring wore on, I got back to the point where I was running a half marathon every weekend. 25 to 30 miles per week felt right. It wasn’t crazy distance running, just longer runs during the week and once around the entire airfield on the weekend. No PR, but running to run.

But in July, I met Frank Shorter and Bart Yasso. And was shooting the shit with them and Kelly Calway, who is about to head off to the Army’s World Class Athlete Program to hopefully prepare for the 2012 Olympics. PR, PR, PR — it’s the mantra all three of them hit on. This, with me standing there in my Vibram Five Fingers shoes — the anti-running running shoe. One of the top runners in the US Army, one of the top voices in the American running community, and one of the top runners ever. And me. Three people very concerned with PR’s, and then me.

I knew then, but likely would not have said it with my outside voice: I’m a runner, because I run and I love to run. You can have you’re PR’s, I’ll take the miles and the hours and the great outdoors.

I do know where this puts me in the running community, but I’ll be honest — these days, I really don’t care. Thinking about all this has only ever caused me to want to head out into the sand and grit and wind and dead of night to go put some more miles in.

And it’s brought me here, to this place and point in time, and the realization that I am never going to set records, radically improve some PR, or gain some wild notoriety for doing this. I’ll never be a racer; I’ll always be a runner.

My hosting company made their planned move — and I guess my server didn’t fare as well as that of the wife. Mine lost a few days of data, which I was able to restore with a helping hand from the Google cache.

We made our way by foot into Eugene tonight, to go get some dinner at the Bierstein (map). As best I can recall, when we last were making plans to come to Eugene a couple of years ago, my sister told me about the Bierstein and said it was worth the visit. We didn’t make it there that year, but we made the time for it tonight.

Oooooooh, doggie – it was worth it, too.

We called ahead to make sure kids would be welcome; it’s a beer place, and you just never know. Kids are indeed welcome – before 9 pm. Perfect.

It’s twice as deep as it is wide, with high tables and high bar chairs, and wide ledges around the edge where folks can also stand to eat and drink. The back half of one side features a good ten or so sections of refrigeration, filled will beers of all kinds. About half of the space is set aside for beers from across the US – mostly microbrews, and lots from the NW – and then there are sections of German, Belgium, and other European beers. No Japan, no China – this is pils and kristallweissen country.

(Gotta love the Pilsner Urquell glass, too!)

I gotta say – the range of beers was impressive. No, it doesn’t have 1000 different types of beers, but I sure had a good time picking one. From good Czech beer to staple German ones, to favorite microbrews from up and down the left coast, to a truly appealing range of Belgian beers, there’s something for everyone, and something for every whim or beer fancy – light, dark, seasonal, regular.

The wife and I went with this wonderful Kristall, but Grandpa Doug opted for one of my all-time favorites – a true Budweiser, which was strangely not labeled as such (even when the courts have always sided with the Czech brewery as being the true Budweiser).

But in addition to the beer, we also hit up the dinner menu for a wide range of true treats. I had the french dip, which though lean on the amount of roast beer, was very good likely owing to the great bread used. Right size, too. Numerous side dish options, too – I went with the pasta salad, which I’d give a 7 out of 10 (the sandwich was an 8).

Zavi went with a BL-no-T – yes, he had a bacon sandwich. Smart kid. He opted for chips (crisps, not pommes) which were good. If you’e into bacon sandwiches, well, they make a mean one, again owing a lot to some great bread. They also served up these two sandwiches with a wedge of pickle – good fresh pickle, too. You’d think that it would be hard to mess up a wedge of pickle, but some places manage to – which is pretty sad.

The wife and daughter split some sausages (sadly, more American in style, like a hot dog, than German or European), while Sherr and Doug had tasty salads (and were about the right size – not too big, not too small). While the food choices and quality will probably never match the beer choices or quality, it did not detract in any way. You’ll go there for the beer, but won’t regret also getting a meal.

So, if you’re gonna be in Eugene for any reason, make the time to stop in – nice place, great staff (friendly and kid-friendly), good food, and good beers.

Good running. At night, too, which helps with the heat. 3 x 3 miles, 1 x 6 miles. The 6 mile run (last night) featured some pretty strong winds, which killed my pace. But I ran, which is good enough.

I wanted to post a link to a file I whipped up, for training for a marathon. It’s an Excel file (here) and it’s all geek. It’s built on the Hal Higdon novice marathon training plan, which I swear by for anyone just wanting to run and survive a marathon (it’s fool proof).

On the first sheet, you’d enter the date for the Monday before your planned marathon. On sheet 2, you’d record distances and times for the various runs. And then, behind the scenes, it does a ton of math – pace per run, pace per week, and all kinds of other eye candy stuff, to include charts and graphs.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Week One, Day One of training for the Honolulu Marathon was Tuesday. Tuesday was also the day my boss told me to go back to bi-phasic sleep, until further notice. Could life be more complicated? Yep. So be it!

So, go get your geek on and check it out.

Figured it out yet?

That is, of course, me and Frank Shorter. Frank Shorter (book), winner of the gold medal in the marathon at the Munich ’72 Olympics (YouTube). And silver medal winner in the same event in ’76. And winner of just about everything else. Frank Shorter, arguably the American voice of marathon running.

I say arguably, because there’s this other American runner, Bart Yasso, who could also be described as the American voice of marathon running.

That’s Frank and me and Bart Yasso (blog, book, Twitter, Yasso 800′s).

Wow. Just wow.

These two superstars came to Iraq with the groups, The Warriors Tour (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter), which was sponsored by Under Armour.

Oh, and with them were others — like Sandy Magnus. (Twitter). Did I mention that she was amazingly nice? Even gave me a signed photo to take to my daughter — girls need to go to space (she was there 4 and a half months).

Sadly, we did not get to race. The crew brought with them everything necessary to have a fully sanctioned race, just like in the US. Only weather shut us down.

I thought it looked OK. But what the hell do I know?

Does make for some pretty photos, though. Here are some of the war / peace machines.

I told Frank that I took to running because of my PTSD. He said he took to running because of the stress of Yale. Oh, and he said that life has been grand because his running has not defined him — when he runs, he runs, but the rest of the time he has a life.

Oh, and I love that everyone was blogging, posting to YouTube, active on Twitter, etc. Very well covered events.

I hope I hear from Frank. I was to ask him about ’74 an Japan. And Bart? Egads, he has me wanting to go run, and run long again. He’s a dangerous man!

This was the view of my world, an hour before the start of 30 June. Dark, quite, not much moon. Alone. Many people, I suspect, fear darkness because of the great unknown. I have come to embrace it, for all the potential it holds. It’s fitting, then, that this was my image heading into 30 June.

In 2003, I spent the dark hours listening, watching. If I found you, I probably tried to kill you. Depending on how you view things, I was probably either a great guy, or the harbinger of death. I usually vote for the former.

But like then, I have been quietly waiting for the arrival of 30 June, waiting through the nights, listening, looking. Waiting, since the US and Iraq signed the security agreement which said that US forces would be out of the cities, villages, and localities by 30 June. Or maybe on 30 June. Whatever.

Out of the cities. It such a simple thing, that is really so very complicated.

The US, I fear, is very worried about not just security in Iraq, but all of the folks and groups here who really, really, really hate America. In the grand scheme of things, that’s probably less than 1 billionth of the total population of Iraq, but when you line them up, shoulder to shoulder, or AK47 to AK47, car bomb to car bomb, it’s a bunch of folks. And US forces have been in the cities, because that’s where they are, and they’ve been in the cities because that’s where we have been.

Some, but not all, of those same people also hate 1. the government of Iraq, 2. the Iraqi military, 3. the Iraqi police, 4. other Iraqis, and / or 5. something else about the Iraq of today. If the US were to actually get out of the cities, what would this do to the Iraqis themselves?

Together, these form something of a Jungian struggle — protect ourselves, but protect them, too.

But for the Iraqis, I think this all has been so much simpler. US, get the hell out of the cities, and in due time, get the hell out of Iraq. Love ya, love what you’ve done for us, but it’s time for you to be going. Ready or not, the Iraqis seems committed — socially, politically, and every other way you can think of — to taking care of themselves, their way.

Not long after we got here, we started to throw around the phrase by, with and through. I am unsure how many of us here really understood what our leaders meant when the started to use this phrase, but I think I picked up on it pretty early on. Instead of waking up and deciding what we needed to do that day, we needed to start waking up in the morning and asking the Iraqis what they wanted to do today, and if there was anything they needed us to do to help.

If others didn’t pick up on that back then, they’re seeing it today. Because that is the really of today. There is very, very little that US forces can or even want to do unilaterally — or, entirely on our own.

In four words, Iraq belongs to Iraq.

And I’m just here for the comic relief. I saw something in the paper the other day, saying that in this new era, post 30 June, information was going to be key. Information, and how it’s used in cooperation between the two countries. I firmly believe this — and not just because I’m an information guy. And it’s not just information about what the bad guys are doing — it’s information about repair parts, about new training techniques, about best practices, or ideas for new or unexpected problems. It’s about waking up in the morning, and sharing information about what to do today.

It’s exciting. In many ways, it may seem to observes that I’m still sitting in the dark of the night, watching, listening, taking it all in. Which is fair, I suppose. But this is their deal now, completely. If I can help, I will, If they need me, I hope they’ll ask. I will work as hard as if I was about to send my own soldiers out into harms way, because in many ways that has not changed — it’s just that the first guy going in the door is probably going to be an Iraqi, not an American. So be it, and good for them. I hope we help, not hinder. Iraq stands on the brink of such amazing potential, I hope they are able to realize all that they can be.

So, thanks man. You rule.

Post-Sandstorm

Ok, enough of the drama. Yes, I’m back in Iraq. No, I’m really not blogging. There’s a reason.

I changed jobs. And my life was turned upside down.

Coming back to Iraq from Hawaii — I kid you not — took 7 days. 6 x 24 hours, and 1 x 20 hour days of nonstop movement, from when the wife and kids dropped me at the curb, to when I was in the terminal here. Un-freakin-believable.

Bizarrely, I made it to Kuwait in less than 24 hours. Poof, just like that — HI to Los Angeles, to Atlanta (and 12 hours at the USO), then to Shannon, Ireland to refuel and on to Kuwait.

And then, I settled into the oven. It was 120+, and windy. My skin could possibly have cooked like bacon and come off. I tried my best to keep to a reverse cycle of sleep — sleep all day, party all night. In actually, we were on 12 hour shifts, where every 12 hours we had an opportunity to move to a flight if there was one. A couple of time, we didn’t even try. Many, many times, they were canceled while we were getting ready — maintenance, weather, etc. But all too often, we’d finish a few hours of sleep, only to meet again and be told to be back in a few hours, to wait and here to stand down and come back in a few more hours. Exhausting.

But, I made it. I got it on a Sunday morning, about 6 am. I checked in at the office, to tell them I was “home” and OK. I grabbed some breakfast — the maybe third time I’d done that here — and then I went to sleep. At 8 pm, I was heading in to get ready for a 9 pm / 2100 shift change briefing. Poof, right back to work.

Most days for me now start around 6 pm. Around — I’ll explain in a minute why that is so. I either get up and run, if weather permits, or head to get cleaned up and read email. If I run, it’s all I have time to do, and it can’t take more than an hour, to include shower. If I don’t, I have time usually for one thing — which might be a laundry run, or some tech support thing, or some blog reading, etc. But’s it’s maybe 45 minutes or an hour. By 8 pm, I am heading into the HQ to see the boss and start the day.

I work special projects until maybe 1 am, and read a TON of stuff. By then, I try and hit midnight chow before it closes — which usually means driving to a distant chow hall that stays open until 0130. Dinner is often to go, and often enough for a midnight meal and a 3 am sandwhich or snack. And Diet Pepsi. By 2 or 0230, I am being handed things to read and edit, and that goes until 6. In between all of those, I have more reading and more questions to answer, and some orders to bark at other readers and writers — I am the senior guy at night. By six, the day guy is there and we talk shop / resolve problems until 8, when we tap in to listen to a brief (and about half the time, someone brings me back an omelet and fresh melon to eat during the brief). By 0845, we’re in a meeting with the boss (who I see around 0500 every day) and a few others, and then it’s back for shift change at 9am.

On a good day, I can close out things at walk away by 0930. I’d been as late as 1100 before. My goal is to be here — right here — at 1000 hitting start on my timer. An 8 hour timer. I get 30 minutes to be asleep, and 7.5 hours to actually sleep. That’s it. I fight to keep it at 7.5, because if not, it’s 6 sleep with the same buffer up front. So, 10 Am is my goal every day. And it wakes me up around 6 pm. Or so.

So recreational reading. No blogging. No podcasts, which sucks. Very little blog reading, though I do love seeing what my wife and awesome kids are up to. No Skype yet, I don’t think. Non stop, back to back.

I did run three times last week, 3.5 miles being the longest (and done at midnight, when it was still around 100). Too damn hot, too much sand and dirt right now. And yes, I can and do run in sandstorms, and I can and do get upper respiratory infections from it. Like I have right now. (cough cough).

That’s it. That’s my life. I work, I sleep, I eat a little bit. I live for cookies from my sister, email from family and friends, and sleep — glorious sleep. And I get by on Diet Pepsi, and disciplines sleep. Yes, I could keep this schedule for a year. I’ll keep it until I’m told otherwise — I’ve adapted quickly.

And I would not change back to my old job for a dump truck of money. This is a ball. Hard to believe they’re paying me to read and write and be in charge again.

Is it just me, or do others think that this is truly amazing?

In 1932, my grandmother went to LA to go to the Olympics. Reading her account, it sounds as if that trip took more effort than the American effort to put someone on the moon. But today, in less than 2 days, I can move clear around the world, from an island in the Pacific to the Middle East.

Wow.

At Tantalus, overlooking Diamondhead

That’s Diamond Head in the background, and beyond it is the Pacific. I could not be further from Iraq, even if I tried — physically, emotionally, or mentally. If this is what turning 40 is suppose to feel like, I can say that it’s a good thing.

We have done a few things.

This past Saturday, we went to the 17th Annual British Car Show, held down in Waikiki near the zoo. The local British car club invites the Hawaiian Mini Motoring Club (of which I am a member), as they view the Mini — even the new ones, made by BMW in England — as being true British cars. Well, who am I to pass on a chance to go to a car show?

Naturally, I put my Germany badge on the front of the car. The kids and I had a great time of it all — from the pre-meet at the mall downtown, to the slow procession through downtown and Waikiki (honking and waving the whole way), to parking in the shade and swapping stories all morning.

And while there were some exotics there, this car below is the one that caught my eye. I could not stop staring. Lovely Austin-Healey — just lovely.

I also loved the wide range of MG’s that were there — quite a few of which were adamantly described as daily drivers (which has to be easier to do here in paradise).

I was surprised, though, to see a fleet of Cobras and even a GT40 roll in as part of this group. I had expected the MG’s and the AH’s, even the Jags and the Land Rovers and the Rolls’, but these ones caught my eye.

I had to go do some reading, to learn that yes, the GT40 was designed and built on UK soil. And the Cobras? Yeah, I’m a dumbass for forgetting that it’s an AC Cobra — which is most definitely British. Nice and loud, too. Great crew of owners, very nice people.

The other thing I’ve been doing while here is running. Well, running and shoe shopping, as I’ve purchased a new pair of running shoes, a new pair of Five Fingers, and now a new pair of combat boots (that feel like running shoes).

How much running? Try 45 miles. I’ve been doing 4 runs a week, using the Hal Higdon running formula (though not adding miles) — short runs on Tuesday & Thursday, medium run on Wednesday, and a long run on the weekend that about equals what I ran during the week. 45 miles seems like a lot, though.

Today, I had a wild hair and I ended up doing 10 miles. I pushed through the fields on a route I had scoped out via Google Earth. I’ve been trying to find a semi-legal way to get from my house, to Schofield Barracks where I will work post-Iraq. There’s a road that drives there, but it’s certainly not running friendly. That leaves the pineapple fields — which are all adorned with NO TRESPASSING signs. Leaving at 6 AM this morning, I moved with people going to work in the fields — all of whom waved and seemed OK with my being there, which is all I needed to keep going.

I had no intention of doing ten miles today, but the sun was low, the clouds blocking the sun very well, and I was on a roll. Here is a Google Earth file from today — I think this might be my new favorite route, though I do worry about the work area in the middle (I think it’s part of the Dharma Initiative).

Why am I running so much on R&R? I have no idea. Running & More Running. It feels great, though. Last week, I was still dealing with jet lag, so running early — between dawn and sunrise — was working out ideally. Now that I am sleeping well, I should — should — lay off the miles some. Maybe. We’ll see; I am very excited about finding this new route, and may need to go back there once more before I turn into a pumpkin.

Running big. As in he did a 50km / 30 mile run this week. He ran for — are you ready for this? — 5 and a half hours. I don’t even like to watch TV for that long.

And did I mention that he blogs in German and in English, or that from time to time he runs with his camera in order to share photos from along the way, or that he, too, is a Garmin user?

Or that on 12 June, he’s going to tackle a 100 km / 60+ mile race?

So, yeah. Follow along. Running with Jack — it’s the new black this summer.

Saturday we went to a pool party. The families from my unit had a pool party scheduled, and my wife and kids had already made plans to go. Seemed like a good idea for me — who doesn’t like going to the pool? Within about 12 hours of getting home, I was already working on a sun burn.

After the pool, we stopped off on post and saw my Iraq-roommate, on his last day in Hawaii. Small, small world, that we’re both in Hawaii at the some time, when we share a room in Iraq. What did we do? Not much. Sat around, chatted, had a beer, got our geek on over his new stereo set up (and over how cool the iTunes remote is for the iPhone / iTouch).

Saturday night, we went to California Pizza Kitchen (here), just because we could. Their food is the opposite of what we get in Iraq, in addition to being damn good. Surprisingly, we ran into a chaplain from my old unit, from my first stint in Iraq.

After dinner, we stopped off for some shoe shopping. Running shoes, as I clearly have too many miles and too many months on my old shoes (Nike Pegasus). I was torn — shoes built to last, to shoes that are super squishy. The shoe guy told me to expect only about 300 miles from any super squishy pair of running shoes — like the Pegasus ones I just destroyed, via the 400 to 450 miles I ran on them. I was seduced by the squishy – and I bought a pair of Nike Vomero+ 4 that, at size 13, were a full size larger than the Pegasus I’ve been wearing. And thanks, Foot Locker — very nice of you to give me a 20% military discount.

I was really torn about picking shoes. These days, I am running about 30 miles a week. If I keep that up when I get back to Iraq, I’ll get 10 weeks of running out of these new shoes. If I drop to 20 miles a week, I’ll get 15 weeks of running out of them. That’s almost 4 months — and I have another 5 months to go in Iraq, or thereabouts. Logically, I should have either purchased two pair, or gone ahead and purchased less fickle, more rugged shoes that would last longer. But, truth be told, I was totally won over by how squishy they are. We’ll see how it goes.

Saturday night, I was probably asleep before the kids were. I was out like a light — a trend that is still ongoing.

Sunday morning, I woke up early and realized that it was Bay to Breakers day. So, at 0500 — the same moment the race was kicking off in San Francisco — I took off on my own 12 km run, up through the pineapple fields. Torture, for my new shoes. Torture, because they came back soaked and fully saturated in the red, red Hawaiian soil. Good run, though — they are going to be good shoes.

Sunday we went to North Shore with Kathleen and Cam, and then on to Sunset Beach to frolic in the water and lay in the sun. And work on the sun burn some more. There’s no such thing as a bad day on the North Shore, and no such thing as a bad day at Sunset Beach.

Monday, I saw the kids off to school, and then headed out to run some errands. I brought home a list of things to do over R&R, and I headed off to see about three of them — shoes, some love for my Mini, and some love for my MacBook Pro. I struck out on the shoes — they place was closed. For the Mini, I stopped by the dealer to talk about the car not keeping a charge, and set an appointment for Tuesday morning to drop it off. For the laptop, the Apple store was willing (for free, even) to give the machine a full service and cleaning, if I’d leave it for two days. We agreed that it’d make more sense to do that after the year is up; it was very cool of them to offer to do it, and is something far beyond what I had even hoped possible. Monday closed out with Taekwondo.

Tuesday morning, bright and early, I knocked out a 4 mile run. I dropped the car off at the dealership, and they gave me a ride back to the house. After that, I didn’t really do much — ran a couple of errands, upgraded the other Mac to 10.5.7, installed another external HD for Time Machine, etc. Puttered. Tuesday night, we hit Cold Stone Creamery for some quality family time.

Wednesday, I did a 7.1 mile run in the morning — a hair under 12 km — and then I cooled off on the lanai. It is so awesome to: 1) run, and not be rushed afterward (to get cleaned up, to get to work, etc) 2) have such a nice place for cooling off. Wednesday was my 24Hour photo day, and I happened to be on the lanai when the prescribed hour arrived:

Flowers in the morning

I’ve been a part of this web-effort for a few months now. Pam and I went to high school together, so it’s not quite six degrees of Kevin Bacon. At the prescribed hour (based on GMT, no less), everyone takes a photo and shares their thoughts. Photos in Iraq are probably a lot less exciting than ones I can take here. The next scheduled date is the 30th; I’ll probably be finished a long run through the countryside when the prescribed hour arrives.

After the run and the cooling off, we rotated cars. The Volvo went in for AC work, and we picked up the Mini (whose work was all done under warranty, thanks to the awesomeness of Mini of Hawaii and their super service folks).

At noon, I went for another run. This is very unlike me, to do two runs in one day. I am a very regimented runner — Tuesday and Thursday are short runs, Wednesday is a medium run, and one long run on the weekend. Two runs in one day? Yep — something special. I ran at noon — when it was far warmer than I prefer for running — to match the running my cousin and her family were doing in support of the Concord Hospital Rock ‘N Race fundraiser. I was just tired from the 7.1 mile run that morning, and just running up into the hills and pineapple fields; my cousin was pushing twins in a stroller.

At some point along the day, I broke out the old PC and fired it up – I need to harvest a hard drive from it (IDE, actually) for a project I am doing in Iraq. While I have it running, though, I am rolling it back to Windows XP from Vista, which I just don’t like. The day closed out with more Taekwondo and, for the first time, I managed to stay up past 9 pm.

I also have been slowly sneaking time in with a new book. I finished A Million Little Pieces on the flights over here, and am now (finally!) reading Three Cups of Tea.

– I picked up A Million Little Pieces from a stack in Iraq. No, I would not buy it. I had a good laugh when the whole scandal broke over at The Smoking Gun; I loved that Oprah so loved the message of the book, but was so hurt to learn it was fiction. And her love it the book got so many people to read it, too. I try and alternate between books I want to read, and books I should read; this fell into the latter case, mainly because I often feel out of touch with American culture. Oh, and the book isn’t that good. Good message, I just did not care for the style of writing, or the characters for that matter.

– my wonderful sister has been after me to read Three Cups of Tea. It just took this long to get to it. And yes, it is good. Very good. I should have read it sooner.

This morning, I did not get up at run, having run twice yesterday. Kristin and I took the kids to school, as today was their curriculum day, which featured a bunch of exhibits in the library and a chance for me to meet Z’s teacher. Afterward, K and I puttered around the house some until the Volvo folks called, and we headed that way to get her car. First stop, though, was Hank’s Haute Dogs for lunch (they were insanely good).

After that, headed back over to Tropic Blends, to see about shoes. Not just any shoes — Vibram Five Fingers shoes, and in particular the KSO model. Totally cool guys, and they even throw in a pretty awesome military discount. They seemed to think that it was pretty sweet that I am going to run in these. Yes, I really did just say that — I intend to run in these. I’ll give them a test run on Tuesday, a short run day, to see how well they work. The shoes are AWESOME — I really, really, really hope this works out.

And since then, well, I’ve played a little Quake 4 and done some blogging. Supervised some homework, too, making a certain someone rewrite about half of it because it was messy enough that I could not read it.

What else to do on R&R? We’re going to see the new Terminator movie (trailer), for sure. There’s a car show this weekend — Tess Turbo is entered, and the kids and I will hang out at the show while the wife is at a quilting event. And I might drink a couple of beers somewhere along the way, too.

Oh, and this might have the most links of anything I have ever posted.

I think I am found the culprit.

Try this (the regular RSS feed) or this RSS feed (is all else fails), and see if it works better.

The first one is the better one to use.

So, what happened?

For starters, the plug-in for feedburner needed to be upgraded. WordPress is so good about these things, auto-updating seemingly everything else, that I was surprised when I looked, to see that there was a new one.

Also, WordPress changed its RSS defaults on me. Not sure if it was a glitch (remember my recent gremlins?) or what, but instead of tinkering with the code, I copied the new one and added it into Feedburner.

Then, the output code for Feedburner had changed. Feeds2, with that extra 2 for good measure, apparently.

So, I better, I think. Sorry for the delay in getting to this — I was in Iraq, and then I was sneaking to Hawaii, and then I was OFO — out fraking off. Fixing the RSS feed? Yeah, come in just below Cold Stone Creamery trips and visits to Sunset Beach on the list of priorities right now.

Up next? Some Windows XP tinkering.

You can download it here: The Arrival at the House

Priorities -- Wife, then beer

65 hours and 13 time zones later, I have completed the secret mission. I made it to Hawai’i and surprised my family by ringing the doorbell late on a Friday night.

So, if you need me, I’ll be at home. Yes, I’ll blog more about this later — sneaking out of Iraq and to your house is a pretty neat trick, I think.

Tired, and a bit hungry, I tapped it. She and I were on Skype, and I ended up on chat with the guys running the server. Not a WordPress issue, after all, but a change in the settings on the server itself (mod_security was somehow activated). Once again, my powers of Boolean saved the day. Exhausted, I crawled into bed.

I got up yesterday, ran just over 4 miles, and skipped breakfast (and told everyone to avoid getting between me and lunch, just to be on the safe side). I made it through the work day decent enough, and I made it to dinner and got home in time to try and blog for the 24h World project (see below). Low and behold, my WordPress and my blog were acting up — I had lost data (Earth Day post was gone), and I could not add some (but not all) new types of posts. 1st Tech Support guy via chat said it was not the same thing, but my troubleshooting indicated it really, really was the same thing. Half an hour later, #2 tech support guy found that yes, it was the same thing. Great. All seems right in the world. I posted a couple of entries, and crawled into bed.

I get up this morning, and did not run. I fired up my page, to make sure things were still ok. Um, no. The two new entries are gone, but I got back the Earth Day post that had vanished yesterday. Great – FML. I’m hammering out this post, hoping it’ll take — and am saving it to a text file, in case it doesn’t. Ah, the joys of technology. Suddenly, pen to paper has a new appeal.

[UPDATE: Well, it posts. And I lost the Earth Day post, but got back the two posts from last night. Odd.]

These battered feet of mine

5 days, 4 runs, 30 miles. My soles are like alligator skin. I managed to get a blister on the arch of my foot. My pi?ce de r?sistance is a blister on a blister, on a blister that has now popped.

But these aren’t complaints; this is my reality. I’m a runner, and these things won’t stop me.

Why am I doing all this? My server is wonky right now. Symptoms are showing up in WordPress, but the support stuff from WordPress all points to server end issues. So, I am in chat with Tech Support at the server, and trying to figure it out.

The symptom, if you’re curious, is that it won’t save new drafts or posts. The solution, it turns out, is to edit the .htaccess file and turn off mod_security feature.

I have faith, though — I went through this last night with the wife’s server. Same deal — out of the blue, WordPress got wonky, and it turned out to be settings on their end. Hers was misbehaving a little differently, but same solution. And I have no idea why both of these suddenly developed these problems. Time to go back up, though!

Oh — one more thing, if you’re still reading this. I podcast — did you know that? I am not posting the link, but email me and I’ll likely send it to you, along with more about it.