Sunday

Just a few lines today to check in.

It has been a good weekend, but no major highlights. I played golf with my pal Roy on Saturday, and my back reminded me why I do not play regularly. I suppose that if I did some stretching and strengthening exercises specifically for the muscles that are affected by "the turn" when you swing a golf club that I could play with less pain, but I don't, and I pay when I do play.

I was back on the bike today, and went down for the first time in a while. It was on the bike path at a Davenport street crossing where the street pavement had settled over the Winter a couple inches below the level of the path at the street's edge. That's not a problem when you are riding in the direction where you just drop down a little, but when you are riding into it, you can blow a tire or worse. I tried to lift the front wheel of my bike when I saw the variance, but I lost a little balance and then went down sideways. I wasn't going that fast and my only injury was a little road rash on one finger and my right knee. But the incident is an example of Rule One of cycling: If you ride, you will eventually crash.

My ride was for 20 miles which means that by the weekend I should be ok for the open road. Traffic on the bike path just makes me nervous. Kids, dogs, families and other users require a lot of defensive riding. At least on the road you know that most cars are going to try to avoid hitting you. Most cars.

My writer friend from SB's gave me a signed copy of his book this AM. Very cool. He had been in Indianapolis yesterday to help friends time a half marathon that had 40,000+ runners. I don't know if those numbers were all half runners, or whether there were shorter runs as well, but that's a lot of runners! He said that their software allows for automatic wireless notices to family and friends of splits while you are on the course. And it spits out your splits and whatever as you go across the finish line. That's a long ways from tear-offs in the chutes.

In a separate conversation at SB's yesterday, a couple of women runners from a regular group that meets there on weekends said that Chicago had capped their entries at 45,000. I clicked on the website and it does say that registration is closed. There are a lot of nutty people in the world.

Less than a week to go for 3. Has anything been decided on the celebration? Do we need to make reservations?

Hope everyone has a good week.

Be careful out there.