I'm not moving

That's actually a pretty big announcement for us. At 2 years and 2 months, Shannon and I have hit a new record for the longest stay at a single address in the last 11 years. We don't have any plans to move, either, so this is really uncharted territory for us. As it turns out the total times I've moved in life isn't totally unusual. I'm never quite sure how to count the college years (Does moving home for the summer count? Moving back into the same apartment, but different bedroom, the next year? That week between the end of one contract and the start of the next one?) Nor do I know what to do with time as a missionary. (MTC? Each missionary apartment? But all my mail went to the same place for 22 months . . . ) So, my total number of residences could be anywhere from 12 to 17 (and counting residences and not moves eliminates the college/home issues).

But, until we moved to Illinois a couple of years ago, I had never lived on the Eastern side of a time zone. And let me tell you, it stinks! What is so different? The sun comes up way too early. Sunrise tomorrow is at 7:21am, and that is the latest sunrise of the year. (Thanks, daylight saving time!) In June, the sun comes up as early at 5:15. The downsides to all of this are several. First, young children wake up with the sun, regardless of what the clock says. (I had to unfortunately remind a very tired co-worker with two very young children that he would not be getting any extra sleep this weekend when the clocks change.) Second, I like to sleep in and stay up late (to a small, not-quite-Brian, degree), and it's nice when the sun matches that a little better. Third, the sun goes down so blasted early in the winter - 4:19pm at its earliest. Even leaving work at a very reasonable time still means driving home after sunset in December.

Finally, there is actually one time that I want to be up before sunrise: running is best just before sunrise. I don't know why, but it is. If you're going to be up before the sun, you might as well actually be outdoors to enjoy the sunrise. I run pretty regularly (121 times so far this year), and these last two weeks are about the only time that I am able to get myself out the door before the sun comes up. The only redeeming factor here is that these are also the two weeks where the leaves are at their peak, and I know just where to go running to see them. A few days ago I found some gorgeous leaves in the pre-dawn light, along with 3 deer. I don't run with a camera on me, but I did send Shannon out to go see for herself, and she took a few pictures, which everyone needs to appreciate. So, here you go. Maybe the best reason to run all year is so that when the planets align and you get to go running on a morning that looks like this, you are in good enough shape that you can enjoy it.

All Aboard the Calling Carousel

It's been about two years since I was called to be the choir accompanist in my ward, which made the 5th ward in a row where I held that calling. At the time, I estimated that I had accompanied 2,229 songs at church meetings over the years, which is a very conservative guess.

Well, for the first time in nearly a decade, I was released from playing for the choir without moving out of the ward. (I think they forgot to actually release me. But they called someone else, and that's what really counts.) Within a week or two of that release, I was also released from my other calling as EQ secretary.

Obviously, it was time to hit me up with some new callings. First, I was called to be the choir director. We'd been without one for a few months after the last one moved away. I wasn't thrilled. I'm still not thrilled. We finally had our first choir practice last week, and let me tell you, I was nervous. I would rather do nearly anything than lead the choir. I would rather speak in church every single week. I would rather teach any class. I would rather sit on the stand and conduct sacrament meeting. (The three hours at church as the bishop wouldn't be all that scary. The other 165 hours of the week as bishop are another matter entirely.)

A week or so later, I was called to teach the 12 and 13-year-old Sunday School class, which I think would be a lot of fun. What with General and Stake conferences, it was going to be a few weeks before I got to actually teach the class, but I was already looking up who was in the class and mulling over upcoming lessons.

Oh wait! Never mind! I got released from that calling last week. Yup, released from teaching a class that I never even got to teach. They offered me the customary "vote of thanks" on Sunday, though I'm not sure what anyone could be thanking me for. I never even got around to getting set apart for the calling.

And so, after a break that technically only lasted a couple of weeks, I'm back to twiddling my fingers at church, now as the Primary Pianist. So, that accompaniment total isn't going to stop going up any time soon. I'm reasonably excited for the calling. Primary can leave you feeling a little bit isolated from the ward, and I'm mostly hiding behind the piano (*ahem* electric device that looks like a real piano but most certainly isn't). But the kids (even my own) seem excited to have me there, perhaps based on me subbing as the primary chorister two times a few months back.

So, that's the story of getting 3 callings over the course of about 5 Sundays. Maybe I'll report back in a few weeks to let you know if they've moved me around again.

Prairie State Half Marathon Race Report

I generally try hard to not go on and on about running to non-runners who generally just don't care. Now is not one of those times. So, right up front, here's your tl;dr: I ran a half marathon, it was good.

For those of you who are still with me, here's more than you want to know. Just be glad that I'm not embedding any spreadsheets.

Training:
Training was good. I follow the official "run as often as you can get your rear end out of bed in the morning and as far as you feel like at a pace that won't kill you" plan. I got in about 90 miles per month for the last 3 or 4 months, which is as good as I could have expected. When Trent convinced me to run this race, We talked generally about trying to run it at a 7:30 pace (1:38:15), which didn't seem totally ludicrous. I did the Moonlight Half Marathon in May at about 8:35/mi, but that was at night, after a whole day of touristing, and there were hills. Oh, were there hills. Leading up to this race, based on training runs I was thinking that 7:20 would be doable (1:36:04). And then last Saturday I went out and ran 14 miles at 7:15 (1:35). I figured with other runners to chase, fans to cheer me and the excitement of a race, I should be good for even a little bit faster than that, so I set my target at somewhere in the 1:32 (7:01/mi) to 1:34 (7:10/mi) range. The plan was to go out at 7:10, pray that it went well, and then maybe push a little harder in the last few miles.

Pre-Race:
The race was in Libertyville which is about an hour away. My alarm was set for 5am, but I had trouble sleeping past 3:30. I finally got up, checked the weather a few more times and had my bagel and banana. 3 other guys that I know were also doing the race, so we all met at my house at 5:45am and drove up together. The parking lot is a few miles away from the start line so we parked and rode school buses over to the starting line. By the time we waited through the port-a-potty line there was just enough time to do a very quick warm up and head for the start line. I'm not even sure the warm-up was necessary, as I felt good and loose. I tried to wedge myself as close to the starting line as possible. There were about 1000 people doing the race (half and full started together) and I was probably behind about 100 of them.

First half:
I don't have a fancy watch that records all my mile intervals, so you won't have to suffer through that list. The start line was only about 10 feet wide, so it was a little bit congested to get through, but not too bad. I hadn't pushed forward enough and so was passing people pretty consistently for the first mile or two. I'm always interested to try to size people up at the starting line - do calf sleeves mean someone is really fast, or do they just spend too much on accessories? Is that guy in my age group? What about the guy in the Brazilian soccer jersey? (That's me.) Anyway, off we went. It was about 44° at the starting line and would rise to the low to mid 50s during the race. Pretty darn good weather for running. About a half mile in I caught up to Trent, who had apparently managed to slide in closer to the start line than I had. I checked with him that he was at a 7:17 pace and after a brief chat, I pushed on ahead to try and find 7:10. I didn't. I hit the first mile right at 7:00, and the second at about 13:57 or something. There were signs at each mile which lined up pretty well with all the beeps from other people's GPS watches. After the first two miles I had passed most of the people I was going to pass for the race.

We had a little group of 4 or 5 of us form for a mile or two, but for some reason, I ran away from them as I kept throwing down remarkably consistent 7 minute miles. Around mile 4 I hooked up with a guy who was doing the marathon and we ran together until the half marathon turn around point. I told him that I was about 30 seconds ahead of schedule. He said, "that's awesome" and I replied, "or ominous." (See, I'm still witty in the first third of the race.) I was 15 seconds per mile ahead of my best long run and 5 to 10 seconds per mile ahead of my goal - things like are either great news (you're faster than you thought!) or terrible news (you're going to die in the last few miles!). Having never attempted a run this far at this pace before, I was in uncharted territory here. At about the 5.5 mile mark, half marathoners started passing us on their way back. I counted that I was in 27th place. There was a timing mat at the 10k point (basically half way) which put me at 26th. I finished the first 10k at 6:56/mi (42:59.0, which is actually a 9 second PR at that distance!).

Second half:
I had a plan for the second half of the race: don't die. For the first half of the second half, there were lots of runners coming back the other way - I saw Trent 1 minute after I made the turn, and the rest of our group at later points. I continued to very slowly pick off runners in front of me, perhaps one per mile. It's a very slow process to reel in someone you can see one or two hundred yards in front of you over the course of several minutes. The race course was mostly on a crushed limestone path through fields and woods and vaguely along the Des Plaines River. There were some small ups and downs but nothing all that dramatic; it's a lovely course. Add in leaves that were just starting to change colors and the last wisps of fog from the night and it would have been a great trail to walk along and enjoy. Sadly, no enjoyment allowed during a race.

All of a sudden in the last 3 miles, it got very lonely. All of the slower runners had already passed, and at times I couldn't see anyone in front of me, or hear anyone behind me. In the last 3 miles, I passed 1 (maybe 2) people. In the entire second half no one passed me (I'm not sure that anyone passed me in the last 10 miles, actually). With everyone so spread out, it was a little hard to keep pushing toward the finish. Over the last mile or two I could see someone out in front of me, but I was closing on him so slowly that there was little hope of ever catching up. The race was nice enough to give us an uphill finish over the last 200 yards. There weren't tons of spectators at the end, but my personal cheering section was there with signs and pom-poms. I'd be curious to know what my last couple of miles were like time-wise, but we'll all have to live without knowing. I didn't even notice the official clock as I crossed the finish line. I stopped my watch at 1:31:03 - a full minute ahead of my best expectations.

Results:
My official time came in at 1:30:59.5 (6:57/mi). That put me 21/808 overall, 19/355 among the men and 3/35 in my age group. As the overall winner came from my age group, that left me with the second place award in the group. We were hanging out waiting for everyone in our group to finish, and not paying attention to the awards, so I missed hearing my name, but luckily I wandered over to see if by chance I had placed, and found my name on the list.

Overall I'm quite pleased with how the race went. As far as I was able to figure and remember, my splits were remarkably even (averaged 6:56/mi on the first half, and therefore 6:58/mi on the second half.) I think at this point I've written more than enough, so how about some pictures?