Where the pigeons and seagulls meet

I was in Santa Monica, California this week on conference and stayed at a hotel right near the Santa Monica Pier. I had a beautiful view of the beach and the pier.

The conference organizers put together a party the night before the event and a run/walk at 6:15 the first morning of the conference. The high attendance for the party led to low turnout for the run the next morning. There were between ten to fifteen folks who showed up.

I ended up running with a couple of other guys, one from Adobe Systems and the other from Northwestern Mutual. We were the lead group. I think we were each setting a pace faster than the three of us were used to. We ran out to the Venice Pier and back. It was a fun run that went for about 5.5 miles and lasted about 45 minutes.

That was Thursday. On Saturday, before I flew home, I ran the same route again. I think there were more people out this time because it was a little later in the morning, and Saturday is probably a little busier.

I went by Muscle Beach. A bunch of movies have been filmed there, including, "White Men Can't Jump".

I saw surfers, but not that much surf. There were lots of runners, walkers, cyclists, roller bladers, and people with dogs. The city runs right up against the beach, so it has a flavor of both; very good people watching.

BTW, if you check out the Santa Monica Pier and Muscle Beach links, they're to a site called the California Coastal Records Project, which consists of over 12,000 photos from the Oregon to Mexico borders. Ken Adelman, who put the site together was sued by Barbra Streisand for the photograph of her home. Adelman not only won, but received over $150,000 in legal fees. You can read about it here: http://www.californiacoastline.org/streisand/lawsuit.html

Uh oh...New Food Pyramid May Be Difficult to Scale

You may have heard the recent announcement on the revision of the food pyramid. For those of you who follow the government pronouncements on healthy eating, you will probably remember that the last time it was revised the government took a lot of flak for bending to the food lobby.

This time it's different. Now the pyramid is tailored to your age, gender and activity level, and...they put it online! That's good, right? The feds are keeping up with the times and meeting the public on their own turf. Maybe.

It would be easy to be hypercritical and point out that even if everyone had access to the internet, it's just not convenient for people to figure out what it all means. While there's certainly some truth to it, the fact is that we don't know how it will be communicated to the public. It's not really a pyramid either, though they're still calling it that, so that doesn't make it any easier.

The new food pyramid isn't going to directly help those who need it. If you're reading this, it's likely that you've been thinking about what you eat for awhile too, and thus it won't significantly change the way you eat.

If you really need help with your diet, this may not be the place to start. Seems like the only way this is going get legs is if agribusiness and the food industry get behind it and support it. They have to make it part of the vernacular. Don't laugh. I wouldn't bet on it either, but it could happen. It wasn't uncommon to see the pyramid on the side of some food boxes.

Come on KGF, Kellogg's and ADM fire up the PR departments!

For what it's worth: www.foodpyramid.gov

Fox 2 News Detroit on Pope Watch

I was out running this morning and as with many of my routes, this one took me by the National Shrine of the Little Flower Catholic Church--Shrine for short.

This morning, the Fox 2 News was camped out in front of the entrance asking the parishioners as they went in about their feelings about the Pope John Paul II's condition.

I wish the Holy Father well and peace from the press. I know they're camped out around the Vatican City too.

In case you weren't familiar with it, this is the Shrine.

Follow Up to Dean Karnazes' 300 Mile Attempt

You can read an excerpt from Dean Karnazes' book and hear the interview here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4566124

Jon, of the Chocolate Running fame, pointed out that Karnazes said, "he would have finished if his race was flat like Reed's." I think that no matter how you look at it, that was a unsportsmanlike comment.

I respect Reed for running 300 miles without sleep. I admire her for owning the world record, female division, at the midsummer 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon, a 30-hour run through Death Valley. Karnazes is great in his own way, but Reed is on top in my book.

So, on a slightly different topic, here is a story that Kevin Kling did on running in Grandma's Marathon in Minnesota. The story was broadcast nearly ten years ago, but still every bit as funny: http://www.npr.org/ramarchives/nc6J1101-7.ram

Ultra Marathons on NPR - Wednesday Morning, March 30

I just heard a promo for a story on NPR's Morning Edition about ultramarathoners. It sounded like they interviewed Dean Karnazes, the ultramarathoner that ran 262 without stopping. Karnazes was featured in a recent Runner's World magazine. His plan is to run 300 miles without stopping.

Don't ask me what, "without stopping", means.

Looks like Pam Reed beat him to it. Yesterday, Reed ran the 300 miles without sleep. I know what without sleep is.

Check out Morning Edition tomorrow morning (3/30/05).
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3
If you click on this before, or after, tomorrow you won't see the right show.

Learning About MS In My Sleep

I woke up Sunday morning at 4:45 and thought about going running. I thought better and turned on the radio to the local NPR station. While drifting in and out of sleep, catching bits and pieces of Terry Gross, Elvis Mitchell (former Detroit boy) and the Motley Fools, I seem to remember something about Multiple Sclerosis.

After going back to the program grid online, I discovered that a program called, The Infinite Mind had covered an hour’s worth of the topic of MS.

As the fog of sleep may keep me from remembering the details of the program, the miracle of the Internet couldn’t hold back my education. I’ll be first to admit, I didn’t know much about the subject.

The show was great for giving a good overview of the MS, what is known, and what isn’t. There were a variety of guest experts and people with MS.

The host of The Infinite Mind, Dr. Peter Kramer, asked many of the people on the show how they felt when they learned that they had MS. I wasn’t prepared for the range of responses; in many cases, it was relief. It turns out that not knowing what’s wrong, having people think you’re crazy, and not having it be a worse prognosis were the alternatives.

The show ended with a commentary by Zoe Koplowitz, author of Winning Spirit: Life Lessons Learned in Last Place. Zoe was diagnosed with MS in 1973 and basically did her best to live with it for the next fifteen years.

It wasn’t until the late 1980’s, when she had a near-death experience that caused her to change the way she was living her life. Between 1988 and 2002 she’s completed 16 marathons, all in last place, and averaging 28 hours each. I won’t belabor the details. Needless to say, for those of us whose only issue is the magnetic attraction with the couch, Zoe’s is a very humbling story.

So, I did go running in the afternoon.

You can read more about MS, and listen to the show here: http://www.lcmedia.com/mind366.htm

Streets Trips Software from Microsoft

Streets Trips Software from Microsoft

I use Microsoft MapPoint to calculate the distance for my runs. It works really well most of the time. It's especially helpful when I'm out of town. I've been using it for about four years.

MapPoint is a little on the expensive side. I think it's a little over $200. I didn't have to pay for it as my brother gave me a copy of it.

You can do the same thing with another Microsoft product called Streets & Trips. It's much less expensive and does all the same things as MapPoint, except for map your own data (e.g., sales by zip code).