An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors

Today's joke was that if someone asked me how I did in this morning's 5K, I was going to respond that I was fifth overall. Of course, with a pace that was roughly half that of the fastest runners, I didn't really finish the race anywhere near fifth overall. I did, however, have bib number 5, and so my answer, while disingenuous, would have technically been correct. I really was fifth overall - to register, that is. My bib number last year was 1024, a good number for geeks, as it's a power of 2, but there's also something cool about a really low number. This was my second year in a row running the Clarendon Turkey Trot 5K. The race is a benefit for two local charities and is run early Thanksgiving morning. My two experiences with the race were somewhat different. I don't run many organized races and so last year I didn't really know what to expect, while this year I knew the details and even all the turns (all 15 of them!). Last year I had been running pretty...

I always like the idea of doing something outdoors for my birthday. Unfortunately, my birthday falls in late November and so the weather is usually not particularly accommodating for outdoor celebrations - no pool parties for me. Today's outdoor birthday plan was to help our friends at Jack's boathouse move their docks downriver for the winter, then paddle back. The plan to move the docks got postponed, but I suggested going out kayaking this afternoon anyway. It seemed like a grand idea ... until I tasted the weather. It was pretty cold, and quite windy - prediction of gusts up to 30 MPH. I started to back out of the whole kayaking idea, but I couldn't reach my friends by phone or email, so I figured I'd better go down to the launch point and at least tell them I wasn't going. And just in case the weather seemed better than forecast, I figured it would be prudent to bring along the kayak. I tossed the Tempest on the car and off I went. I arrived at Columbia Island ...

Way, way back in January my friend Tom and I put a Fall Foliage trip on the Chesapeake Paddler’s Association calendar. We set it up so long ago that we kinda forgot about it until just a few weeks ago. I did a quick update to the listing to say more than the “check back later for details” that had been there since January. We both fielded some calls. Then Tom headed out on a succession of business trips. With this smooth and thorough level of preparation, it’s completely surprising that we got only a small turnout. We got one last minute dropout, so the group turned out to be only five people. We had judged the weather, if not the foliage, just right. It was a glorious day. I brought along my dry suit – normal gear for mid-November – but given that it was pushing up near 70 degrees, and that we were paddling a totally calm reservoir, I opted for lighter gear. Good choice – in the dry suit I would have been safe from hypothermia, but would probably have succumbed to heat stroke inste...

Having signed up yesterday for a Thanksgiving 5K run, I figured I should go out and try and run that distance. Over the past year I have my emphasis to other forms of exercise, so now running is just an occasional thing. The neighborhood has a lingering aroma of Halloween. The cool morning air is punctuated with the smell of burnt pumpkin, emanating from the hundreds of jack-o-lanterns left over from last night's Halloween festivities. The air is just cool enough to make my breath visible, and the sky is clear and blue. As I hit the trail I break into my usual leisurely running pace. I'm used to being passed not only by stronger athletes but also by toddlers taking their first steps, three-legged dogs, and, in the Springtime, energetic caterpillars. But I plug along. Soon I come up on Ralph the Dentist. He's a walker and so is much slower than I am - I like that. He's ready with his usual gruff, gregarious "Good morning!" I don't know if Ralph is actually ...