Double make up and rant

Thursday I decided I needed to find some hills and run the eight miles expected of me. I used the Google pedometer mapping to figure out that my neighorhood and the one nearby (Virginia Heights) could dish out four miles of up and down parallel roads. I did two laps for my eight miles in 1:13:17, a 9:10 pace. Good enough for me. I need to do more hills.

Today was race day. It was perfect for good times with temps in the mid-50s. It was all good except that 3,300 people signed up (none of them named Jason I might add). That was a record. The narrow lane roads were swollen in spots where masses of runners played bumper cars with each other ("Sorry.")

My good friend who ran my campaign for city commission four years ago decided to come out of the political closet herself and run for election. For all the traipsing around town she did for me, the least I could do was race wearing her campaign T-shirt (so whispered my conscience of fairness and guilt). For three miles, I figured I could live without a tech shirt even though I abhor campaigning now. Fortunately the shirt was a good color, went with my shorts and the design was tasteful. I ran with it.

As people mingled around before the race I heard the announcer bragging about the number of registrations. I reconnoitered the start area and decided I would be smart to stay near the front if I had any interest in a good time. A guy from Boston wearing a Dunkin Donut Cape Cod Marathon T-Shirt and I chatted about New England races for awhile; then the horn sounded.

I took off with a spurt. Fortunately there were not too many race walkers, slowpokes and pedestrian entrants in my way through the first mile. The last two miles were a breeze and I was never winded, despite a brisk pace. I did negative splits of 7:50, 7:32 and 7:30 to finish in 23:36.

That was my second best PR time among the 31 5Ks I have done since 1999. I was 22nd out of 110 in my age group. and would have been 12th in the next age group up that I join in six days. I beat all the ladies in my current age group for a change too.

Where's Susie when I need her? In the middle of the race I checked to feel for my keyless entry remote to the car. It was not in my waistband pocket where it was supposed to be. I had recollections of maybe putting it down in the trunk pre-race when I changed into the campaign shirt. (I told you I hate campaigning). So I ran the race distracted about how to deal with my brilliance. In the end, I ran home the two miles to get my spare keys.

Mrs. T dropped me off back at my car where, yes indeed, I found my remote in the trunk. I put it in my waist pocket again and headed off to the farmer's market to see the beautiful people that come out on Saturday mornings. After awhile I felt my waistband pocket. No remote. And the spare was locked in my car now too! Oh sh_t.

I started retracing my steps and after about 20 minutes someone I know asked me what I was doing and I explained it. He laughed. I showed him the pocket the remote had been in. Then ... as if deja vu could happen all over again, Susie popped into my head and a memory of a similar experience in New London, CT when I accompanied her in the Sailfest 5K race. I lost her car key that time and we did the same retracing thing. Where was that key? Excuse me Susie, while I check the bottom of my shorts liner. Ah ha!

Where was that key remote today? Same place. Oh happy day. Sounds like something Jeanne would do, huh? She cracks me up too.

Internet Exploder did it in the hard drive with the seven version. You may recall I mentioned my laptop died. Lost configuration/operating system problems .... The same messages popped up on my back-up laptop yesterday and I was out to solve the puzzle. What did they have in common? I had downloaded the latest version of Internet Explorer 7 to both of them recently.

The security guard at the college art museum (hey; he's a geek in his off hours) told me the new Internet Explorer 7 program has some effect on operating systems that does just what mine had done. So I have removed IE and am now running on Firefox. I still need to find the system discs for the old laptop; unless somebody is smarter than me and has a suggestion. It does not boot up.