Runner's Heights: The Wisdom of Colin Powell

Cumulative mileage: 250 miles

The shin splints are back with a vengeance -- like the scummy and vicious politicking of some members of the Republican Party over the last few weeks in the American elections. Today, Colin Powell, addressed a disease afflicting his fellow GOP members that has taken the party down the slippery slope of religious- and racial-bigotry. We are referring to a steady stream of religious and racial insinuations that are being inveighed at Senator Obama by GOP supporters while their party looks away in quiet consent.

Here's the exchange at a McCain rally that illustrates the fervor and magnitude of this bigotry:

GOP supporter to McCain, "I don't trust Obama...He's an Arab."

McCain stood shaking his head as she spoke, then quickly took the microphone from her.

"No, ma'am," he said. "He's a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with." '

Was McCain implying that law-abiding, American citizens of Arab descent are any less decent than other citizens?

A New York Times article today succinctly and stridently demonstrated that religious- and racial-bigotry is not cool. Here are some excerpts from the article about the death of a Muslim soldier, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, of Manahawkin, N.J., who was killed in Iraq on Aug. 6, 2007, and whose remains are buried in Arlington.

"Mr. Powell mentioned Mr. Khan’s death to underscore why he was deeply troubled by Republican personal attacks on Mr. Obama, especially false intimations that he was Muslim.

Mr. Obama is a lifelong Christian, not a Muslim, he said. But, he added, “The really right answer is, what if he is?”

“Is there something wrong with being Muslim in this country? No, that’s not America,” he said."

Thank you, Colin Powell, for articulating a matter that Senator Obama should have had the courage to address many months ago.

Runner's Heights: Prop. 8 Licence to Hate

Cumulative mileage: 205 miles

So, we have some answers about the tingling feet, pins and needles, or numbness in the foot during running. I checked several runner's forums and some of the observations seem to be:

* Tight shoes (solution: wear thinner socks; get a larger shoe-size; loosen the laces; be sure that your heel is right against the heel-cup of your running shoe by kicking a wall with the back of your shoe)
* Tightness in the calves -- this was the case during my last run (Solution: stretch your calves midway through your run; try stretching exercise with emphasis on the muscles around the calves)
* Tightness in the veins/arteries around your ankles (Solution: please talk to a qualified sports therapist or an orthopedist)

There might have been a few other recommended solutions but the bottom line is this. If it happens a lot during your runs, please see a doctor or a specialist. Today, I got some Nike, moisture-wicking, thin socks and I will try these on a run because I am really not keen on buying another pair of running shoes.

In this election year in California, one of the hot potatoes is probably going to be Prop 8. In effect, it is a Same-Sex Marriage Ban and implies that "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Once again, it is an effort by religious bigots to decide what the morality and meaning of marriage is. It is not enough that these religious fanatics and sheep are content with following some ancient scripture in deciding what to do with their scripted lives, but they have to define it for others who don't subscribe to their canned-life-out-of-a-holy-book lifestyle. If the Same-Sex-Marriage opponents are so fired up about saving marriage as an institution why don't they use their energies to fuel a California Proposition that makes divorces illegal? For every issue that they raise, the Religious Right conjures up a passage from the scriptures to convince the people that they in morally right. Not too long ago, many sections of the Christian church justified and condoned slavery by conjuring up a relevance between the institution of slavery and biblical morality. Today, they are doing the same, using morality to deny the joy of two same-sex couples who want nothing more than to enjoy the benefits of marital bliss, a right and a choice that should be guaranteed to all citizens of a certain age who wish to enter into matrimony. Talk about dogs in the manger!

To see what happens when theocrats decide on matters of state, just look to Iran and Saudi Arabia. The founding fathers of this nation were right in separating the church from the state. Religious ideologies and dogma have no place in social governance of an egalitarian society composed of believers and non-believers, straight and gay.

Say no to Prop 8!

Runner's Heights: A Moose in the Crosshairs is Worth Two in the Bush

Cumulative Mileage: 202 miles
I am still trying to find out whether it is more effective to take electrolytes (Gatorade, Zym, etc.) before my run or after it. I am not sure that I will ever find out the answer unless I am in a laboratory with a hundred sensors strapped to my body as I try to keep my 10-minute-a-mile pace. I have discovered that, after a run, I crave the sugar and the tangy taste that over-the-counter electrolytes. But like I said, I am never sure whether I need the magnesium, potassium, and sodium before, or after, the run. My guess is that I might need it before the run to minimize cramps and stitches but then, I am only guessing.

So, how about that? It's been some weeks that a bible-thumping, backwoods politician who calls herself a "feminist" has charmed the U.S. media. Sarah Palin is such a study in contrasts that the media cannot stay away from her from the time being. She is pro-life and yet she engages in hunting and guns, which cause loss of life. She professes that she is a feminist and yet she is against a woman's right to choose. She claims to be distant from Washington outsider and yet she parrots the same right-wing, Republican Christian hard line that Creationism should be taught in schools. She exhorts the armed forces to fight an illegal war that has caused hundreds of human casualties because she is yet to realize that there was no established connection between 9/11 and Iraq. All this makes her sound like an ignorant bigot and a religious zealot, quiet like the religious clerics that resent and oppose the egalitarian society of the U.S. In times like these, when the U.S. is hit by a serious economic and political downturn, we need a pragmatic leaders, not religious ideologues and fanatics like Sarah Palin. She and her supporters need to understand that the separation of church and state is entombed in the U.S. Constitution and the people of America will resist her vision of turning America into and evangelical Bible belt.

I tried these potato chips the other day and they were the blandest potato chips that I have ever had. Baked potato chips are a compromise in taste but this item is freeze-dried. It may be low in calories but it is rock-bottom in taste. In fact, it doesn't taste like a potato chip at all. The freeze-drying must have sucked out the last drop of flavour from these potatoes. But try it yourself...and here's a picture of it. They call it new and revolutionary -- I think it is a new low-point in taste!

Runner's Heights: Olympic musings...

Cumulative Mileage: 180 miles

Irony of ironies...I ran the least during the last two weeks of the world's greatest sporting event -- the Olympics. Anyway, watching Usain Bolt was a revelation, his legs reminding me of the giant pounding machines of the Terminator. And, in my opinion, the team sport that captured the imagination of this Olympics was volleyball. I predict that, one day, NCAA Volleyball will be as big and as exciting as the NCAA basketball or football and I hope the NCAA Women's volleyball gets a word in, edgewise, to popularize this amazing, minimal-contact sport among the citizens of the world. American football is barely a world sport, as evidenced by the very few nations that engage in it, and that is just as well, because it is more about brute force than pure atheleticism. Now, that's going to rile a lot of fans of this so-called sport but just look at how scant the popularity of this game is around the world. The rest of the world is crazy about basketball, baseball, and volleyball but American football...umm, sorry, no takers. And what's with the name anyway...why is it called football when most the time, the players are grappling with the ball with their hands?

The Democratic convention is on and Obama hagiography is in full swing this week. Hillary Clinton gave the best speech so far and it makes you wonder why, with 18 million votes to her credit, she was passed over for the veep position. Strange are the mores of politics.

"That's it, Joe...Let's join our corporations with your jumbo stapler!"

Runner's Heights: Beer with Me

Yes, yes...I know...I have been a slacker and I haven't written in ages. But I swear that I wuz writin'...Between the last time that I made a new post and now, I must have written over a hundred e-mails, signed scores of receipts, and scribbled on plenty of pages in meetings. As for the cumulative running mileage...who knows! So, let's just start with 200 miles which is an understatement because each month since January--which is when I last blogged here--I have run about 40-50 miles a month. So, 200 miles it is...and that includes the 6 miles that I ran yesterday in a beautiful, cool, summer evening caressed by a misty breeze from the ocean. I have switched to a North Face Arnuva Running shoe and I am quite happy with the shoe although it is, technically, a trail-running shoe. It has a fairly wide toe-box, ample support and a robust outsole -- all in all, a comfortable, yet rigid, construction.

Today, I must thank a Miller Genuine Draft Light beer billboard for inspiring me to get back to my blog. Now, this beer is advertised as being only 64 calories. I don't know about you but when I am enjoying a beer, I am usually enjoying the taste of the beer, the company I am with, or the conversation that goes along with it. Who really cares about the calorific content of a beer? I thought beers were supposed to be about the taste, the hops, and the brew. Only in America would the greatest selling point of a beer be its calories. Beers repeating!

Runner's Heights: Easy on the Cheese

Cumulative mileage...134 miles.

Still recovering from the cold and sore throat and yet the day's short run was remarkably easier. Maybe, it was because I paced myself a slot slower, at about a 12-minute-mile. No shin splints and no undue stress on those old muscles, only a reinvigorating feeling after. One thing didn't change however and that was the amount of trash scattered around the Ballona Creek. I hear that the rains bring in more of the debris from connected streams and rivulets, but this is really an eye sore in the last remaining wetlands in West Los Angeles.

It seems like a serendipity, but I might have finally stumbled upon a cheese-less pizza that is delicious, healthy, and fairly easy to buy at Trader Joe's. Despite the fact that it is a frozen pizza, you can still taste the bell peppers and the mushrooms that are the toppings. And of course, you don't feel so heavy and bloated (especially if you are lactose-intolerant) because there's no cheese! I added a few toppings of my own with a sauteing a package of Trader Joe's soy ginger carrots and sliced, baked tofu. Takes less than 20 mins. and is just scrumptious and mostly cholesterol free.

Runner's Heights: The Cold or the Soot?

Cumulative mileage...131 miles.

This mileage above includes a 2-mile run in near-freezing weather in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and some runs on a treadmill in a hotel in Chicago. But, I am discounting the run on the treadmills because there are some purists who are puritanical about running on terra firma only. Yes, I am bowing to the purists but the point that I would really like to make is that running in cold weather is a whole new game, as I discovered the hard way. Unless you have proper gear in cold weather, your body reacts to the cold by stiffening up the muscles and that makes for a very strenuous run and makes you a very likely candidate for a sore muscle or shin splints. And since the air is colder, it is seemingly heavier and you have to strain harder to fill your lungs.

The one big difference between Chicago, Chapel Hill, and Los Angeles is that the air appears to be much more clean in Chicago and Chapel Hill around this time of the year. When I returned to LA from my trips to Chicago and Chapel Hill, I promptly experienced allergy symptoms from the dust and pollution. So, take your pick...freezing cold weather, or dust and pollution in a warm setting. It's a tough choice when you wish to be outdoors all the time.