Broken Band

Two things: One, lot's of news in the last week about Lance Armstrong. My thoughts fall closely in line with the local blogger The Washcycle. This blogger lays out the best explanation I've seen about why stripping him of all his titles since every second place finisher in all of his victories has also been implicated in doping scandals, too. And to me, the Tour de France titles don't matter. I still think he's lying just to prop up his nonprofit and for that reason, no yellow bracelets here, ever. Plus, he's been a bully to everyone who ever tried to speak the truth.

Two: Will be watching the GOP convention closely this week like much of the rest of American. Don't think I'll agree with much they have to say, but I'll keep an open mind. Wish more people would try to do the same.

Photo by thefleeg.

Plan B and Other Stuff

Having twice tried to run and again, each time followed by limping around the next day or longer if a tender left foot, I think it's time to take a break and give my foot a couple of months rest. That probably means no fall marathon. I can't come back in October and try to get ready in six weeks. That's just asking for trouble.

I still plan to map every street in Arlington this year, but I'm going to do the rest on my bike. Will still use the GPS and post the updated maps, but imagine I get a lot more ground covered each week.

By the way, I omitted the YTD thru July map in my last post. Here it is:

July

Oh, and one final unrelated note on a personal/political level: The latest comments by Rep. Todd Akin just reinforces why I can't get behind most GOP candidates. They may talk a good game about the importance of fiscal responsibility, but once in office they seem to want to apply ignorant views on abortions and gay marriage. Enough already.

From the Depths of Inaction

Ok. Lost steam. Haven't posted since March 5. That's more than 6 months for you keeping score at home. It happens. My cousin Scott Moore has challenged my to blog more, at least weekly, starting two weeks ago. I accepted (sort of). He's been doing it. I'm just getting around to my first. Fail. I guess I already owe him a bottle of Titos Vodka. So I'm recommitting to write for the paltry time of 10 minutes. What I can say in that time is what I'll say, and then hit 'publish'.

So what's happened since my last blog. I've still been running, tracking the streets of Arlington. Not as much as I had liked, but plenty. Enough that I think I've wrecked my left foot to the point it will need surgery. Kept thinking the toes would magically re-align, but the don't. Below are the progressive photos of the streets covered in March, April, May, and June. Just to show I haven't given up. I'll still do it, but it will likely take longer than a year. Especially if I have surgery.

March

April












May

 June

Also, I started a new job as executive director of a local nonprofit, Phoenix Bikes. We do good work, and I'll be blogging for them as well. New website to come next month. Stay tuned.

Oh, and since last March, Lance Armstrong has been forced by the USADA for prove he hasn't doped. He's crying foul but bottom line is he still can find courage to tell the truth. Sigh.

Dang. I'm over 10 minutes already. Oh, well. See you in a few.

Henry

Run Goals; Feb Updates

I just completed my updates for February in my quest to run every street in Arlington in 2012. Better mileage than January, but still need to step up the long weekend runs. So far I've run 150 miles over 27 runs, 145 of it on Arlington streets and trails. The longest: 13..8 (twice!). The shortest: 1.9. So I'm averaging a run about every other day, with an average length of 5.6. At that rate, I'll hit mile 1000 mile goal, but I'm not sure I'll get to cover the 900+ miles of streets in one year. Again, need more days with shorter runs covering new streets.

March has started well, but took a nasty fall yesterday, tripping on my own double-knotted shoelace and jamming the big toe on my right foot, Got a nice plum on that knee as a souvenir.

The run routes map coverage for January and February combined is below. Compare to January here.

Henry

Truth, cont.

Livestrong, a photo by Stewart Dawson on Flickr.

As a follow-up in fairness, I must report that federal prosecutors have closed their investigation of Lance Armstrong and will not indict. What does the mean? Simple that federal investigators have closed their investigation and will not indict. Many questions remain and we will have to wait for the tangled truth a bit longer (and maybe forever).

Choosing Sides

With another story in today's paper about the Susan G. Komen flap (this time a profile on founder-president Nancy Brinker), I reflect again on what it is that bugs me most about the entire sad saga (well, aside from the bald-faced lies they told while in CYA-mode). For me, it's that the anti-abortion movement has brought their fight to this arena where it really doesn't belong, and it turn forced everyone involved to pick aside. They won't allow anyone to pull a Switzerland on this topic.

The amount of money clearly is not the issue (it's minuscule to both organizations). What I don't understand was that if some donors were bothered by the Planned Parenthood grants, why didn't they just opt not to give? Was this really costing Komen that much in donations? It couldn't have hurt that much given they are widely recognized as the Google of Cause Related Marketing. It appears that for this AA crowd, it wasn't good enough to say we'll withhold all our money if you give one dime of it to PP. No, we don't want you to give them anybody else's money either, even if it is for breast cancer screening for women in poverty. Instead,  by forcing Komen's hand, they stirred up a hornets nest they clearly underestimated.

The episode has been called a proxy for the culture wars and I'm afraid we'll have to go on fighting for quite a while longer. I'm reminded of the scene in Saving Private Ryan, when a exhausted army sergeant, played by Paul Giamatti, stops with the platoon to rest inside a half blown-up house. As he sits to remove his boots from his aching feet, he accidentally knocks a loose beam into a wall, which collapses to review a roomful of Germans. Both side quickly grab their guns and start screaming at the other side to drop their weapons.

I assume that most people were like me, and had either raced for the cure, or donated money to someone else who was racing or walking for the cure, and hadn't thought too much about how Komen spent it. (A recent survey I saw said only about a third of donors to charities do ANY research on the organizations to which they give.) We gave and had a good time. Only now, someone has knocked down the wall and we find ourselves standing between two armed factions screaming past each other. They probably didn't know each other was there, but now that they do, the fight is on. And we all need to decide which side we're on. 

I know I've learned more about Komen and PP in the past two weeks than ever before, and a lot about who dislikes both and why. I while I wasn't planning to get involved, I know what I need to do when it comes time to write the next check. I'll make it out directly to Planned Parenthood.

Between the Uprights

Funny thing about goals. They say that if you really want to achieve them, you need to make them public. Say them out loud. Display them for the world to see.

Well, here goes. I've got some strange ones. I've been running a lot for the past five years, averaging more than a 1,000 miles in each. The vast majority of those have been run on the same bike trail near my house, the W&OD Trail. I like it because I know every crack and mile marker in a 10-mile stretch, and thus can step out my front door and know exactly where to turn around for anything from 3 to 20 miles.

But on January 1, bored with the trail I've literally run 1,000 times,  I stepped out the front door and headed the other way. I've done this before, mind you, so those course wasn't unknown. But two miles into the run, something different happened. I stopped to tie my shoe, and when I was done, I looked across the street and saw a park that I had never been in before. There was a trail off to one side leading to the far end of the park and I decided to follow it to see how far it went.

Not very far, as it turned out, and it spit me out onto a street. But again, it was one I can't recall having ever run (or driven or ridden) and I was only about 2 miles from the house I'd lived in for 18 years. So I followed it and soon found myself back on familiar turf, knowing exactly where I was. Then I realized that I could quickly turn off this street and back into uncharted waters (for me) and see some things I'd never seen before in my own neighborhood and community.

Years ago I read about some guys who set out to walk every street in Manhattan. One did it in 2 years. Another tried to finish in 2 months. So it occurred to me that I could knock out every street in Arlington county in a year, and hit my annual goal of running 1,000 miles. With just 26 square miles, Arlington is one of the smallest geographic county in the U.S., and has 961 "lane miles" of roads. I'm not going to run every lane, but I figure hitting them all once is going to get me close to 1,000 (I will obviously need to run parts of some multiple times).

There are a few rules:
1) No interstates or major highways.
2) For now, every run will start and end at my house. I may revise this as the end gets near.
3) If it's dangerous, I can skip it. I already had to do this once on Glebe Road near Chain Bridge. No shoulder, blind curves. Not a place to run.

Why? You ask. Why not? I reply. It's my own version of trainspotting. It doesn't make any sense but it's what I'm doing.

The map below, created with my handy-dandy Garmin Forerunner 310XT GPS watch, will show you what I covered in January (12 runs for 61 miles: will need to step it up if I'm going to make my goal). I can also see that I need to study maps before I go out. The long run up to north corner of the county shows where I turned around at the end of a loop street. I didn't know where I was or where the street was heading, it was getting late and I needed to get back. Turns out I could have kept going and knocked out that little secluded neighborhood. Now I have to go back to pick up those three blocks. Ugh. (Again, it makes no sense.)

(and I'm working on embedding the Google Earth map directly in the blog. If any of you readers know how to do that, I'd be much obliged.)
Goal post photo by Anthony Ferretti.

Baby Steps

The woes of the DC metro system are legion and a daily point of frustration. I largely avoid them by riding my bike to as many places as is practical (and just about every time I do ride metro I am reminded why). I assume the good folks at Metro try hard to fix the problems, but they never seem to make much progress.

Which is why I'm baffled why they don't do one very simple thing that to cure a major pain in their rails: Abandon the escalators in favor of steps.

Some of the biggest failures and more regular delays come from the breakdowns and bottlenecks created by the moving stairs that are largely unnecessary. So when I hear that Metro is going to undertake yet another major overhaul of yet another constantly malfunctioning set of moving stairs, it stops me, well, in my tracks. People can, should, and need to walk.

I just came back from New York. They don't have this problem. Granted most of their stations were built before escalators were common, and they aren't as deep, but they save a LOT of money, use no electricity, and NEVER break down (snow and ice excluded). For those who claim that steps at the really deep stations (like Dupont Circle and Forest Glen) would be impossible and dangerous, I say okay, leave in one set, up only. Coat the rest in concrete (with non-skid paint). Build in some rest platforms if need be, but people will adapt. Even if it takes a while.

Remember, steps are good. There are 12 steps to recovery. Hitchcock had his 39 steps. Lynryd Skynyrd begged Mister "Gimme 3 Steps". Please. All good.

Good for you.

Good for me.

Good for Metro.

Photo by Thomas Hawk.

Start Spreading the News ...

No doubt from the title above, a certain song is setting itself as an ear worm right now.

I have to add my voice to the chorus and say I love the place and find it quite friendly. So imagine my surprise to read this recent (obviously nonscientific) poll which rated New York as the Rudest City in America (country of the world's rudest people).

"What ev's" as the kids today like to say. My wife and I were just there last weekend (to see the Daily Show courtesy of the always thoughtful and amazing Cody Ruxton [yes, Cody, I'm about to ask you for a favor]) and we're going back up tomorrow, right into the maw of a ferocious winter storm (4-inches of snow!!!). We are taking our three kids Nam, Rachel, and Lydia (plus Nam's fiance Lisa) to the City for a day of street food and a Broadway show. It's all a belated Christmas present. (The only negative query we've gotten is from Lydia saying "Can we go to New York sometime when it's warm?" This'll be her fourth trip, all others in December).

But during the trips, if the weather's been cold, the people haven't. For example, on this last trip I poked my head into a small bike shop W. 24th (Zen Bikes), just to browse while Deb did the same at an antique store up the block (both promising not to buy ANYTHING). I politely asked a couple of questions about some frame models and fixed-gear set-ups, figuring that as soon as they knew I wasn't buying ANYTHING, they'd give me a load of attitude until I left. Instead, they couldn't have been nicer, and, upon learning I was from outta town and on the board of a bike nonprofit in Virginia, engaged me in pleasant conversation for 20 minutes before they loaded me up with free water bottles and stickers from the store.

In most trips I can find recall a similar encounter. My faith in the Big Apple's humanity has never wavered. I can't wait to get back.

... I want to be a part of it in ... Well, you how it goes.

More on the Truth

Years ago I wrote an article for the Washington Post Style section about how I was afraid that people were stealing ideas from my head. For a while, all I had to do was think of something to write about and in a matter of days, it seemed, it would appear in print ... written by someone else of course.

So imagine my surprise, when I finally got around to putting this blog up and posting on my disappointment in Greg Mortenson and Lance Armstrong, that I would get a copy of Outside magazine with a huge expose on Lance's LiveStrong (laced with ample disappointment for Mortenson, too). It was happening all over again.

Obviously, I've been humbled again by the fact I am not the unique thinker I like to think I am (and I'm sure many other people think so, too). The best I can do is get them out of my head quicker and committed to 'paper' before they get stolen again.

Meanwhile, there is a local political race that is stretching the boundaries of truth, with a candidate neglecting to pay her taxes a few years back, then expressing shock --SHOCK! I tell ya!--when she learned there's an IRS lien against her. Again, I don't know if she did or didn't pay them, but it strains every sense of reason that she knew nothing about this. She must have the worst luck in the world given that neighboring jurisdictions PG County and Washington, DC have been plagued by having elected officials profess ignorance when confronted by charges of wrong doing. And we know how those stories ended.

Let's move on.

Photo: Truth by lizmcdaniel.

What’s the Trouble with the Truth?

2011 was a tough year for two giants in the world of outdoor sports and American charities.

Greg Mortenson, author of the bestselling books Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools, and founder of the Central Asia Institute, has been long and widely criticized for loose accounting practices, often blurring the lines between his personal fortunes made for sales of the book and the everyday operating expenses of the charity he founded to build schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. What’s more damming, to some, are more recent allegations that his inspirational story outlined in the books is riddled with distortions, exaggerations, and lies, and the many of the schools the CAI has built now stand empty. Mortenson’s fall from grace has been so far that he was recently included on the dubious CharityWatch Hall of Shame, with its parent organization (the American Institute of Philanthropy) calling for his resignation in December.

Much of the evidence for Mortenson’s ignominy was outlined by a scathing piece on 60 Minutes last summer. And a report by fellow writer and climber Jon Krakauer. And Outside Magazine. In follow-up interviews with many involved, and close examination of the times and locations of many of Mortenson’s tales, they conclude things could not possibly have played out as presented.

Meanwhile, 7-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has had his name surface in multiple investigations of the rampant use of performance enhancing drugs in professional cycling, the most damming of those coming from his former teammate Tyler Hamilton. This also was the subject of a scathing 60 Minutes story (ironically within a week of when the Mortenson story aired). And a Sports Illustrated expose. And Men’s Journal. But the only one that matters is the federal investigation being led by Jeff Novitzky, who could bring indictments against Armstrong in 2012.

As with Mortenson, Armstrong’s claims ring false. When hearing the accounts of so many people who were so close to Armstrong for so many years, that seemingly everybody in the sport of cycling was doping, including much of his own team, you have to wonder how it was possible that the dominant rider for more than a decade not only didn’t dope, but claims to not know about anyone else doping either. Really?

I’ve had a tough time reconciling my opinions of these two. On the one hand, they have both unquestionably done amazing things that have helps thousands – if not millions – of people less fortunate. On the other hand, you can’t listen to what they say and not sense that their credibility has been stretched well past the breaking point.

Many people will say their stories don’t matter, that the good these two men are doing borders on heroic, and that deceit in the past is of little relevance to their work today. I guess for me, while I can appreciate and admire the giant feats they’ve accomplished (schools in the far corners of the Earth; beating cancer and dominating a sport), I desire something a lot easier in my heroes. I simply want them to tell the truth.