13.1...again!

Last Wednesday, I posted that I had just signed up for a half-marathon... (This is a nice event, too, in that it's varied--on the same morning, on the same course, there's a 5k, a quarter-marathon, a wheelchair-race, and the 13.1. So...all you friends who live in colder climes--come on down next March and run in the sunny desert with me!)

So...this morning--I DID IT! My second one! The Phoenix half-marathon in January got me started, and I think I'm 'hooked' now...

Earlier this year, when I caught the 'walking pneumonia' that was going around at the school where I teach, I missed an entire month of long runs...So I really didn't think I should try again so soon, but with the beautiful spring weather, I thought--hey, I'm back to my regular weekly runs, why not just TRY a half-marathon again--even if I end up running it a lot slower than I did in Phoenix, so what? I'm not 'competing'...

It was a chilly start--49 degrees as the sun came up over the Santa Catalina Mountains...The route takes you through rolling high desert--from the foothills of the Catalinas to the foothills of the Tortolita mountains--so scenic, its suburban reality notwithstanding...

Here's an elevation profile of the course--HILLS:

Along with the fact that I hadn't gone on any runs longer than 9 miles recently, the hilly terrain led me to have a more modest goal-time of finishing in, maybe, 2hrs10min...

(I'd finished the pancake-flat Phoenix course in 1hr58)...

By the time I got to mile ten, this morning, though, I realized that I just might be able to finish in less than two hours after all! So I pushed hard the last three miles...and finished in 1hr59!! Just barely, but still--a sub-2-hr. time! With hills! and without recent long training runs! AND...I'm not writhing in pain!

(I can only hope this posting doesn't sound self-congratulatory...but seriously, I am thrilled at my time today...and still bemused that I've taken to running later in life than most peple--I like running?--moi? oui, moi.)

 The view from the parking lot at the finish line:

...just a few desert marigolds in bloom in the foreground--after this year's unusually dry winter, the Catalina foothills are a far cry from last year's wildflower show in the same area:

With flowers or without--a beautiful spring morning to go for a run in the desert...

Friday-afternoon preview of Sunday morning; fun with phone-camera after work

After work today I needed to drive up to the far NW side of Tucson to pick up my packet and t-shirt for Sunday's half-marathon...The running-store where I picked those things up is not far from the actual course for the race, and I hadn't been up in that area in a while, so I thought I'd drive along the running route.

It's not actually in Tucson; it's in Oro Valley--intriguing name for a town only incorporated in the mid-1970's. There is no 'downtown.' It's suburbia: strip-malls of chain-stores and traffic...but it's suburbia-with-scenery. The 'backside' of the Santa Catalina Mountains is gorgeous--canyons and uplifted outcroppings soaring above the saguaros.

Spring evening light flatters cell-phone-camera-photos:

(...gotta love panorama-stitching apps on the iPhone...)

These photos were taken in an area along the route called

 'Honeybee Canyon,' a natural preserve surrounded by

the Rancho Vistoso 'master planned community.'

Looking forward to Sunday morning...

This is "afterNICA," after all...

We're coming up on five years now, since my wife and I returned al norte after our year-in-Nicaragua...

A friend of mine pointed out to me recently that Anthony Bourdain (chef/writer/tv-show-traveler) had a new episode of "No Reservations" featuring Nicaragua on the Travel Channel. We don't have cable tv, so we weren't able to watch it, but maybe some of you saw it? (Ironically, when living in Nicaragua, we did have cable--over a hundred channels! solamente 6$/month!) I can't say I endorse Mr. Bourdain, but he is a gifted writer, and some of his episodes are gems...Anyway...

Here are a few things I gleaned online about it:
THIS is the official Travel Channel info about it--it's supposed to air again at the end of the month.
Click here for a video preview ...
Pupusas--not 'native' Nicaraguan, but mmm, centroamericano streetfare at its best...

From Bourdain's own blog, he writes:

“Nicaragua is a spectacularly beautiful country. The food is great. The rum even better. The people are proud, generous, funny and sophisticated at every level of society. I hope the show makes people want to visit this poor but beautiful nation with so much to offer–to see not only what Nicaragua is, but what it can be.”

Amen...Visit La Tierra de Lagos y Volcanes...
Go to Nicaragua!...and see what it can be; if you only see what it is, it's too sad.
(How true that is for so much of the world...)

(Click here to buy this book--
this was our logistical guide when we decided to move there.
The Lonely Planet guide is good, but this one goes deeper.)

Before it gets too hot...

...I'd like to run another half-marathon here in southern AZ. So, during my lunch hour today, I signed up for a race for this upcoming Sunday:

                          

This event will take place at the base of the NW side of the Santa Catalina mountains--very scenic, and March is perfect running weather here in Tucson.

I don't think I'll be able to run it any faster than the one in Phoenix back in January--I missed 2 weeks of running due to being sick a while back, and this route has a few hills--but I'm excited that it'll be closer to home and that it'll benefit cancer research...and I'm just excited by the fact that I'm still enjoying running so much!


Truth be told, I've become maybe even a bit 'dependent' (?) on running--to keep sane, to clear my mind after troublesome days in highschoolland. 'Teacher' is not an accurate job-title for what includes being an arbiter, insolence-fighter, pop-psychologist-motivator, vocabulary-police, ethics-instiller, etc. etc.--it's like trying to herd cats some days! I am perfectly willing to handle youthful exuberance, passing immaturity, attention-hopping--but insolence pushes all my wrong buttons. Or maybe they're the right buttons...At any rate, some recent insolence had become long-term and tiresome, and fortunately, the issue has been resolved. (The kid is out of the classroom...woo-hoo!)


We had a bit of rain the night before last--but the YTD rainfall for Tucson is less than 15% of what it should be! Yes, it's a desert...but still! So--no fields of wildflowers this year--no vast carpets of poppies and lupine, alas...But the temperatures are perfect, and I'm looking forward to 13.1 on Sunday morning.


Before things get too hot, run.

(I'm a fan of this ad series...it's true!)

Snow!

No insights/opinions/pontificating--just SNOW!
Snow down in the Tucson basin is always exciting...

Yesterday, that is...(Today was 70 degrees)...I slept in a little later than I wanted to, so I didn't get to actually see the flakes falling, but the car windshields in our neighborhood were covered in white--our back patio table was covered in slush, and cars driving from further east were blanketed... The sun was coming out, and things were beginning to melt quickly, so I gulped down half a mug of coffee, put on a sweater and drove down to the park down the street:

The back area of Udall Park, behind the soccer fields, is a 'natural' creosote flat area...not particularly scenic, but from there you can get a good view of the whole Santa Catalina Range--and as as you can see above, the snow was practically down to the base of the mountains...All of the mountain ranges around the city--even the low Tucson Mountains and the Tortolita range (site of the current golf championship tournament at the Ritz-Carlton) were completely white...

Crazy late-winter weather--Saturday was 70 degrees...Today was 70 and the day after tomorrow will be up to 80...but Saturday night a front came through and dropped the temps almost instantly...Mid-day on Sunday, as we were out and about, we drove through a couple of 'snow-pellet' squalls in the foothills...

Perhaps winter's last hurrah for Tucson.
Last week I went for a long run out in Saguaro National Park, (yeah--finally!--my first 8-miler since having pneumonia), and the first desert marigolds and fairy dusters have already begun to bloom...

Secession in the Sonoran Desert? "Baja Arizona?"


Huh? Yep--an idea is floating around, gaining momentum, apparently. With all of the revolutionary action in North Africa and the Middle East, why not spread the spirit of revolt from the sands of the Sahara to the sands of the Sonoran Desert?  Here'sThe article in yesterday's New York Times that alluded to this movement:  "Arizona Lawmakers Push New Round of Restrictions."  Now, note today's headline here in Tucson:

(I have the day off--it's "Rodeo-weekend" in Tucson--

instead of a Presidents' Day school-break, 

we get a four-day weekend for the annual "Fiesta de los Vaqueros"...

thus, the leisurely latte-with-baguette-breakfast, 

along with the time for gratuitous iPhone photos and blogging...)

...and here's the article:
"Could Baja Arizona be 51st State in US?"


Geographically, Baja AZ would be larger than several New England states. Population-wise, it would be larger than several New England States and also Wyoming. So, I guess it might be 'viable.' 


And there IS historical precedent--in the early 19th century, Maine broke away from Massachusetts...and during the Civil War, West Virginia broke away from its Confederate/slave-holding 'mother'...


A tongue-in-cheek proposition:
 http://www.bandersnatch.com/bajaz.htm
 (This has been around for years, by the way...but never as a serious proposition until now.)

So. This is where we live. Tucson, the would-be-capital of a potential new state.

Two weeks ago, S. and I headed up to Seattle for a quick four-day visit. (Our friends' wedding was lovely.) But being 'back home' where 'home' is no longer--lots of mixed feelings. Voluntary as our move to Arizona may have been, we can't help but feel, at times, that we are in exile. Overly dramatic, that phrase, perhaps, but I can't come up with another word...

An old family friend, an ex-pat from the UK who's spent most of her adult life here in the US, has said that living in two countries 'makes one a citizen of both and a citizen of neither.' 

Hear hear. I wish we could just fold the map--bring the bookish amenities of Seattle right next door to the open landscape and sunny climate of Tucson...marry the cityscapes of Paris and Seoul...the deciduous forests of the East Coast and the evergreens of the mountains Out West...combine the friendliness of Nicaraguans with the relative functionality of North American public service...the Asian food of San Francisco and Los Angeles with the Mexican restaurants here in Southern Arizona...the Canadian concept of universal health-care with the lack-of-long-waiting-lists south of that border...

Fold the map. Erase the lines. Be happy.

If only.

(And to all our friends whom we just got to see briefly two weekends ago--it was so good to see you! We're sorry we couldn't have spent more time TALKING and getting caught up! Alas...)

========== warning: the rest of this entry is inane,

 à la Twitter...but it IS an 'update' =========

Today's minutiae:
It's sunny--will be in the mid-60's today.
This weekend will see snow, though, down to the base of the mountains here--temps in the 40's.
Our frozen week earlier this month completely shrivelled our citrus trees; will there be grapefruit this year?
After walking pneumonia and then a sinus-something I caught on the flight back from Seattle, I am finally feeling closer to 'normal'...Looking forward to a run among the saguaros this afternoon...

Today's cartoon: "I'm from --insert 'safe' place-name here--."

From this morning's Tucson newspaper:

Remember how it was popular for a while, among Americans traveling in Europe, to put a Canadian patch on their backpacks? They hoped to be seen as 'friendlier,' or perhaps 'less politically offensive'...

Now AZ residents (known in the SW as 'zonies' in other states...kind of like people from Maine are 'mainiacs' elsewhere in New England) are starting to feel that being known as someone from the Grand Canyon State is a similar liability. (Any of you catch the big article in last week's TIME magazine re: Arizona's loco-status?...not to mention how comedians and news commentators are having a field-day with AZ...)

By the way, if you're going to put a Canadian Maple Leaf on your backpack, you have to know some basic Canadian facts.
--They speak French up there?!
--Stephen WHO? Harper. Yes, Harper. He's their national leader. No--not a king--nor a president. A prime minister. Yes, a 'prime minister.'
--Queen Elizabeth II is also technically the Queen of Canada.
--It's "Canada," not "Canadia."

========

After two weeks of pneumonia--only the 'walking' variety--I am up and running again.

Tomorrow my wife and I head up to Seattle--a quick trip to attend a dear friend's wedding.
Alas, to leave the sunny 70-degrees of a Tucson February for the rainy 40's of the Emerald City--the only reason to go up there this time of year would be a dear friend's wedding...

Winter has done its damage down here too though--several nights of temps in the teens last week--thousands of homes here were left without water (frozen pipes) and also no heat--too high of a gas demand! Prickly pear cacti have been decapitated by the rare cold and any remaining citrus fruit on the trees has turned into pithy mush...