{"id":15852,"date":"2017-09-05T14:31:18","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T18:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=15852"},"modified":"2017-09-05T14:31:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T18:31:18","slug":"the-inaugural-mainly-marathons-northwest-series-day-4-once-again-clarkston-wa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=15852","title":{"rendered":"The Inaugural Mainly Marathons Northwest Series \u2013 Day 4 \u2013 Once Again: Clarkston, WA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky. \u2013 Deep Purple.<\/em><\/p>\n

This morning, I thought it looked a bit misty as I pulled shut my hotel\u2019s flimsy door.\u00a0 Only later did the smell of ash jog a memory from the wet noodle that is my brain.<\/p>\n

Before I left and took a sabbatical from Facebook and social media, I recalled seeing a post to the Northwest Series group about wildfires in the area.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Today was the first day the reality of going into the eye of a brushfire confluence came into focus\u2026 or more accurately, hazy, ashen diffused particulates hanging in the air, and yes, smoke that got into my eyes, lungs, and soul.<\/p>\n

With the lingering head cold and a nasty bit of \u201cI\u2019m not a doctor but I\u2019m almost certain of my self-diagnosis\u201d bronchitis, the air quality played a part in a slower pace.\u00a0 So too does the toll three previous days of marathoning.\u00a0 And as I predicted, the knowledge that the loops were long didn\u2019t help my feet move any faster.<\/p>\n

To be honest, the physical exhaustion has been a chronic issue due to insomnia, travel, and just general wear and tear.\u00a0 The mental and emotional exhaustion, both of which have waxed and waned (but more waxed than not) saw a rise in me today.\u00a0 Again, I\u2019m not a psychiatrist but I\u2019m almost certain I can point to the issues that weigh on me \u2013 there\u2019s the obvious macro geopolitical clusterbomb of North Korea, Russian machinations, US abdication of moral and social justice and leadership.\u00a0 These are beyond my control yet still contribute to a darkness that envelops me.\u00a0 And there\u2019s the obvious-to-me micro elements, the personal issues and miscues and missteps that I continue to grapple with on an individual level that ostensibly should be within my control and yet\u2026 and yet\u2026<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not by nature a very good social creature.\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty poor in groups and have a tendency to withdraw from larger gatherings.\u00a0 With the super early starts I try and get my run in and leave before too long, thus I know I\u2019m missing out on the opportunity and privilege of cheering on some amazing people at this series.\u00a0 There are people on their feet, traversing the miles, enduring the heat for literally hours after I\u2019ve gone back and had a shower and started posting things to my blog.\u00a0 They\u2019re great people and I enjoy chatting with them\u2026 but I\u2019m really not great at parties or gatherings.\u00a0 I may have a doctorate in Dazzling Conversation from summer 1999 but the shine is rusted on that if ever there was any.<\/p>\n

And so this morning I found myself haunted by dark memories of the past and darker visions of the future.\u00a0 Amidst the smoky shoreline of the Snake River, on another iteration of loops and loops, I find myself slowing both in running and in existence.\u00a0 The repetitive cycle of going round and round, round and round, round and round may not have been the ideal means to breaking my mood.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The irony of course is that as supportive environments go, you\u2019d be hard pressed to find a more enthusiastic and caring group than Mainly Marathons.\u00a0 That includes the people running the race and the people \u201crunning the race\u201d behind the scenes.\u00a0 One of these days, I should tell them that.\u00a0 Maybe once I break my social media fast, I\u2019ll post a little note to the group page and say thank you.\u00a0 Though it doesn\u2019t always work as a magic bullet to cure what ails me, it\u2019s certainly not because they aren\u2019t amazing.\u00a0 More likely it\u2019s a failing in me.<\/p>\n

The point of all this is that I didn\u2019t take a lot of photos.\u00a0 I\u2019m not even sure I know what I was doing this morning during the run \u2013 I just kinda went round and round.\u00a0 For the first time this series, I popped in my headphones and shuffled songs on my iPod (yes, I still have an iPod.\u00a0 It works fine.\u00a0 Yet it like me is soon to be if not already relegated to the dustbin of past its prime usefulness).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I did try and snap a better photo of the \u201cewe\u201d turn black cone:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And I made some efforts to document the red sun that would break through the smoky haze.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\" <\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But my photos paled in comparison to the work of Dennis R Smeltzer who shared this lovely pic with the MM group (I may not be on Facebook at the moment but there is more than one way to steal a photo from someone):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the old saying?\u00a0 Red skies in morning, sailors take warning?\u00a0 Red sun in morning, runners heed warning?\u00a0 Red sun in morning, Superman is a powerless mortal?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Google it.<\/p>\n

Unofficial timing results for the day:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tomorrow it’s on to Hells Gate State Park in Lewiston, ID… which is about 5.5 miles from today’s event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky. \u2013 Deep Purple. This morning, I thought it looked a bit misty as I pulled shut my hotel\u2019s flimsy door.\u00a0 Only later did the smell of ash jog a memory from the wet noodle that is my brain. Before I left and took a sabbatical from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}