Sena Wanawake at Headwaters

I'm recently returned from an amazing weekend of running and had to share. It hasn't been a great summer for me runningwise - convincing myself to go for a run after working out in the sun for nine hours is difficult even when the running is fun, but for some reason (boredom, being out of shape, lack of running buddies, who knows) I seemed to have lost whatever it is that makes running so enjoyable for me. I still don't know what it is, but I think I've found it again.

Despite my lack of training, last Thursday I set off for a 3 day, 222 mile cross country relay in south-central Montana, near Bozeman. It's called Headwaters, and it runs from Missouri Headwaters State Park to Hellroaring Creek, "the ultimate source of the Missouri River". The relay runs through an incredible range of locations: along the side of highways, down dusty two tracks, and even in a couple places on true trails. It goes across bridges, streams, and cattleguards; up and down mountains; through farmland, high-elevation sage/juniper deserts, forests, Montana-style sand dunes, and wildflower-filled alpine meadows. It begins at 4000 feet, and goes as high as 9500 on the third day. I've done it once before when I was in high school, and both times it was an incredibly demanding, incredibly enjoyable experience.

There were fourteen teams total, four of them forming a group from Missoula. I was on a team with 8 other women, including a couple running buddies from high school. We camped Thursday night with the other Missoula teams and woke up at 3:30 Friday morning (and every morning after) so we could make it to the start of the run by 5:30. That day is the longest day, and probably the hardest for me, though it was the flattest. My first leg started out with a pretty steep uphill, which I had to walk a lot of, then turned into a long, long downhill. This day was the lowest in elevation, only 4-5 thousand feet, but I was struggling a bit with the altitude on that first run. The second run I did was actually just a part of a leg called the Miler's Revenge, where seven of us each ran a mile. That was a lot of fun, but my last leg was late in the afternoon, so it was very hot, and the leg, though only three miles, was flat and exposed and extremely boring. Because of the heat, I had to stop with .8 to go and have a teammate finish for me, which was disappointing, the next day I got to run an extra 4.6 miles because another runner had accidently been assigned two legs that were too close together. I'd run that leg the other time I did the relay, and I really liked it then. It starts with half a mile of uphill, but the rest is a great long downhill into Nevada City (which is not in fact a city but rather an old west mining town now turned into a tourist trap. There's a similar town two miles down the road called Virginia City where I think people actually still live). It was significantly harder this time than the previous time, but still a great leg. That run was midway through the day, again without much shade (there aren't many trees in that part of Montana). I'd already run the first leg that morning, which was incredible. Again, we started at 5:30, so it was still dark and a bit chilly. This was my longest run of the weekend, 5.8 flat miles through some pretty farmland. As I was finishing up, the sun was beginning to rise above the mountains on the horizon. It's hard to get up so early, but totally worth it for a run like that.

By Sunday, the final day, I was so sore and tired, but I'd done 19 miles already and only had five more to go. We started out at 5 that morning because the start was closer to our campground, so even though I was the second leg the sun hadn't risen by the time I finished. That was my hardest leg of the day, two miles of nothing but steep uphill, but after all the downhill it felt pretty good. I walked for a little bit in the middle, but fortunately by the time the first car for the college boys team passed me (their team started behind us, and didn't actually pass us for another couple legs, but the car came by early) I was running again, so I didn't have to feel too embarrassed. My next run was part of a five-mile Miler's revenge, again a lot of fun and this time mostly downhill. My last run again was in the afternoon, but there was a breeze and it was a bit rollier than my run the first day, so two and a half miles was actually pretty comfortable. And then I was done- more than 24 miles in just 3 days!
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Familiar places

I took a somewhat extended bike trip through Missoula today and went to a couple of my favorite places. I also went to the bank, which was nice because I had money to deposit, but more of a detour than a real stop. It did let me bike through the park, which is also nice. Some of the girls I run with say they get sick of running laps there (a lap is just a mile and a quarter) but if I'm in the right mood I could run in those circles forever. The scenery and people are changing all the time, you just have to look. Today it was a few groups of little kids at basketball camp, and the soccer player of the day (I swear, there's always someone there) was a older man kicking a ball around by himself near one of the goals. Unfortunately, though, my bank is also near the mall, which is an area that's a real pain to bike around. I felt like I was continually in the way of some car trying to pull into or out of some lot. On the other side of South, though, everything is much more residential. I rode past a little park I'm not really familiar with, then across another busy street and back into retail-land. My destination: the Book Exchange, a nice used book store in this little shopping center. The bookstore and a couple other places in the strip are locally owned, which is nice. Instead of Starbucks, the in-store coffee shop is Liquid Planet, a great local company (weird coincidence - one of the few non-MT locations is at PGE Park in Portland). I don't usually buy books - that's what libraries are for! - but I occasionally make exceptions at places like the Book Exchange and Powell's. Today, I was looking for cookbooks, which are not especially great to get from libraries anyway. I had a lot of fun looking through the books they had, though it was hard to choose the ones I wanted. I'm pretty happy with the four I ended up with (including a cute cocktail book!)
It rained, briefly and without determination, as I was biking off. These are my favorite types of summer days, I think - warm, mostly sunny, with the occasional refreshing cloudburst. All the ingredients balance out so perfectly. And there's something inherently cool in the idea of being rained upon while the sun is still shining.
Though I bike past it almost every day, I hadn't been to Rockin' Rudy's yet this summer, and it would have been a true crime if I had been home without ever going. It is possibly the coolest store on earth (I haven't even found anything in Portland that can quite compare) and it was really relaxing just to wander around soaking in the vibes. There was a lot of stuff I considered buying, but fortunately left it all alone for now at least. I'm a fan of the theory that you should avoid making impulse buys: if you still can't stop thinking about whatever it is even after you've left the store, then you can go back in a day or week to buy it. I may end up having to go back for one of the cool "GObama" posters designed by a local artist. My roommate and I are currently trying to come up with ideas to make our dorm awesome next year, and I definitely think that might help. Also, though I already have the CDs, I noted with approval that Rudy's now carries the Blue Scholars and Common Market. They did not the last time I checked, a couple of years ago.
Anyway, after about an hour there spent perusing political bumper stickers, MiSOULla t-shirts, cool jewelery and nice smelling things of various descriptions, I headed over to the library. And got a biography of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been a political prisoner in Burma for years. Even though I wasn't going to get anymore books.
I just taught lessons a work this evening, which is much preferable to coming in early and having to guard as well. Teaching is a little scary, especially with all the parents watching, but it can also be really fun when the kids are listening and learning and enjoying themselves. My first class was definitely stressful, but the second was a lot better, and by the time I headed for home I was in a pretty good mood. It rained again for a bit as I was biking home, and then I was treated to a glorious view of sun rays radiating out from the single storm cloud that had covered the sun. The edges of the cloud were glowing and over the top beams of light were spilling. It's easy to see where artists get the idea for halos and deities radiating light; there is something quite so clearly spiritual about that kind of phenomenon.
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Bloggish update

So I spent most of the afternoon updating my link lists, labels, photo credits, and so forth. I couldn't remember where all of my pics came from, but I tried. I also added some new stuff - most particularly photos - to a couple of old posts. I'm working on a new post with lots of photos of attractive men, but have not yet completed it.

Unfortunately, I still haven't found a picture that really satisfies my desire to stare at shirtless boys in kayaks, but my search turned up several interesting things, most particularly this blog - what a clever way to get new readers! Also, curiously enough, the first thing that popped up when I googled "kayaker shirtless" was an article from my local paper. And when I switched to image search, I swear that about half the pictures were of David Beckham. Since when has he ever kayaked?
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I am SUCH an athlete!

Or at least, that's how my roomie described me after reading this blog. And this evening we have another unabashedly sporty post. (Expect one tomorrow, too...)

First news of the day: Mark Spitz, a swimmer who earned 7 gold medals in the 1972 Olympics, was at the pool where I was working today in order to talk to our swim teams. I didn't really get to see him or anything, since I was working, but it was still pretty cool.

In addition, today was a pretty physical day for me personally. I did sleep in late, since I didn't have class or work in the morning, but in the middle of the day I took my bike over to the university and ran the two miles home. After work, I ran back to play a couple hours of ultimate. Great fun, cool people, and as much running as you want. I'm not an especially good player, and for a while there were really too many people to do much anyway, but it's always enjoyable. And then I biked home again. I think I burned more calories today alone than I have been burning in an entire week. Of course, then I had to go and make cookies, with all the dough and cookie consumption that implies. Still, despite my heavy belly, all the exercise has left me exhausted, nursing a jammed pinkie, and quite happy.

Other note of passing interest: there was a big kayak thing last night by Caras Park. I biked by/through on my way home from work. Pretty badass. I can't find ANY info on what it was, though...
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Happiness

Though I had a statistics class, a doctor's appointment, and a sunburn yesterday, it was nonetheless a wonderful day. Because of the appointment, I didn't go home between my shifts at work (it was the last day of this session of classes - another reason for joy). Instead of fussing around on my computer and being fussed at by my mother, I went to the library and then to a park. Honestly, there are few things in life so relaxing as a good book, sunshine, and the freedom to enjoy both. A bike and a surfeit of trails to ride it down are also pretty nice. Lucky me, I had both. In a summer that is most remarkable for its blandness and lack of deep feeling, these truly happy moments are especially valuable.

Plus, I ran yesterday, the second day in a row. I was planning on doing a couple more runs, but then the wind came up and I chose to relax instead. But it's a good start nonetheless.
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Things people do for fun in Montana

Um, stare at wildfires...

Why we don't play with matches (photo stolen from the Missoulian. Never fear, copyright lawyers, it shall be replaced as soon as I get the pictures from my dad's camera.)

So I was at work this evening, about to start cleaning the party room, when my boss comes in and stares out the glass wall facing east. I come over to see what he's looking at, and half of Mt. Sentinel is black and smoking. According to the janitor, the fire had been burning for no more than an hour, but the flames had already moved almost all the way to the top of the hill. There was a huge cloud of smoke up near where the trees start.

I biked home past numerous people who had come out of their houses to stand and stare - the only thing to impede the view in most of Missoula is the trees. People had gathered in streets and parks in order to get a better view of the blackened hillside with smoking edges and the occasional glimpse of flame. Some have even hauled out the lawnchairs and beers so as to enjoy the show in maximum comfort. It's almost like people coming out to watch the fireworks on the fourth of July. (And no, the proximity to that holiday is not necessarily coincidental. Fireworks set the other hill on fire around this time last year and this is hardly the first time part of Mt. Sentinel has burned.) This is a major event in a town like Missoula, and people are definitely making the most of it. When I got home, even my parents were out standing in the street in front of our house, my dad happily snapping pictures.

As it gets later, it's easier to see the flames. By the time I got home, the wind had died down a bit and they were becoming partially visible. The smoke continued to dissipate as it got darker, colder and less breezy, so that just before I came in to go to bed, around 10:30, the flames formed a few glowing stripes up and down the mountain's face.

There were three fire trucks that could be seen in the middle of the hillside, one well into the blackened patch. Now they are only a row of glowing lights. One helicopter was making water runs, but the darkness has put a stop to that. This is a ridiculously small response to a fire of this size, but supposedly a lot of our firefighters and gear are fighting blazes in northern California at the moment. (In exchange, Missoula is getting whiffs of smoke from those fires.) Hopefully we'll have some of them back tomorrow, since its supposed to be windy. Unfortunately, we always seem to need our firefighters from July 4th on till sometime in the middle of September.

New West and the Missoulian both have articles on the fire already. At the moment, New West has more information and is more up to date. Apparently a couple of kids started it. Fortunately no people or houses seem to be in immediate danger. I'll bet the M trail is gonna be closed for the season, though...

Midnight update: I went out for a last minute viewing before I go to sleep. The smoke has drifted down into the valley, a sure portent of un-fun running tomorrow, but most of the fire has either died down or moved to the back side of the mountain. Over in the west, though, the moon looms low in the sky, glowing orange.
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Just one of those days

I am pedaling against a strong headwind today. I am traveling on only four or five hours of sleep and my thighs still ache from biking up a hill yesterday to visit a friend. Progress is slow and painful. The bottom edge of my shirt is crunchy with flour, or lentil paste, or yogurt; there is a streak of mango down my shorts from the time I dropped the fruit and did not catch it. Nothing seems to be going quite right for me today.Class is tedious, but I am out of absences and missed homeworks. It represents two hours I might have been sleeping but instead must spend struggling to focus my mind on a lecture I don't need and homework I already know how to do. I am only scheduled to work six hours today, though it will be no surprise when the final total is nearly half an hour more. I struggle to stay alert, finding it difficult to pay attention to the few patrons even for the fifteen minutes assigned to me. Though I look forward to the escape from the guard stand, my lessons are equally excruciating. My students are exceptionally energetic and inattentive. Even the little girl who once clung to me and had to be continuously pried off and sent back to the wall can now put her head underwater. This new discovery has made her suddenly gung-ho, and now she has to be repeatedly hauled back to our group and told to keep her head above water to listen. Another boy's father stops by to tell him that he must listen to me; the command produces little effect on the boy but provides me with yet another sign that I am losing control of my class. Back in the guard room, my conversation is awkward and stilted, even by my own low standards. I escape as soon as I possibly can, only to be faced with yet another bike ride. My legs are as dry and flaky. Though there are for once several patches of my skin that have managed to achieve a color at least a couple shades darker than my default translucent white, the tan is obscured by chlorine-fueled desertification. I have spent far too much time immersed in pool water. The smell clings to my hair, lingers on my body, and emanates from me whenever I sweat. This might be a problem if I had a social life outside of the pool, but the only people I am hanging out with tonight are my family. We play Apples to Apples and by the time my father wins the game with six cards, I have only managed to acquire one. Later, I nearly pass out into the dishes I am supposed to be washing. Perhaps it is time for bed.
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Thoughts for today

I'm really enjoying biking around town this summer. It's been years and years since I spent much time on a bike. I've mostly given up on driving, though, and walking takes much too long for someone whose time management skills are as terrible as mine. I may have mentioned earlier how much I love the river front trail from the university to the pool, but in any case it's worth mentioning twice. The bank is gorgeous and woodsy on the one side and you can look across the water and see little snippets of downtown on the other. Riding by Caras Park on a warm day, you can see the kayakers on Brennan's Wave and all the people who've gathered along the railing above the watch. Wednesdays and Thursdays are especially great, with Out to Lunch and then the evening version, whatever it's called. You get a strange bit of detachment from being able to see the excitement without being able to hear the music or smell the food, but I kind of like the feeling.

The past couple mornings I've had half an hour or so between my class at the U and teaching lessons at the pool, so I took the opportunity to follow the trail further west. I'd never been out that way before, and I had a lot of fun exploring. The path splits and rejoins all over the place. I rode circles through all of it, around the 'new' baseball stadium - I don't remember how long it's been there, but I hadn't actually been out to see it yet - a big, junk- and rubble-filled field that is apparently mapped out for some sort of development (just like every other vacant lot in this town - it'll be interesting at least to see what it turns out looking like, it's ugly enough now), the county mental hospital - didn't even know that was there - and even ended up heading across to downtown. I'd known in theory that there was another bike bridge somewhere, but I'd never seen it and probably couldn't have found it intentionally.

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On another note, my family is going to go see Paint Your Wagon at the summer theater this weekend, and decided to watch the movie beforehand. I'm not attending the play, but I did enjoy the movie, even though I'm not big on 60s-era musicals. It's ridiculous, shockingly lewd for its time, and still manages to be far classier than most of today's "comedies" (Love Guru, anyone?). Plus, it has some really good songs and some really funny songs - one particular favorite is "Best Things" (in life are dirty). If you've never seen it and are looking for something different than summer's normal Hollywood fare, I highly recommend giving it a try.
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Oh, the pressure

Go me. I managed to run for twenty whole minutes this afternoon, though I thought I might be crushed by the pre-thunderstorm air. 80 degrees and humid (for this state) wasn't so nice, either. Elevation or water in the air - I can deal (almost) with one at a time, but both just about killed me. I haven't panted so hard since I first saw that clip of Iker running around in his undies after the Euro final. There was a breeze, but its main function seemed to be shoving bricks of warm air into my face every time I tried to breath. Best of all, my pores have soaked up so much chlorine over the past couple days of lessons that every gallon of sweat that dripped off me smelled like it could have come directly from the pool. It's the only thing worse than sweating tequila.
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July Preview: Reading, Running, Sunning

Sadly, June has come and gone. It's always been one of my favorite summer months (yes, I have favorite months. What's it to you?) but this year I was so busy studying and working that I just couldn't appreciate it. I did enjoy having soccer on channels normal people get, but I spent far too many games sitting around in the sun hating my life instead of inside in front of the TV where I wanted to be.

Luckily, July looks like it may turn out to be a much more enjoyable month. This weekend I'm going on my first vacation since I started my job and attending a friend's wedding. At the end of the month, I'm taking four or five days off work to go run a 3 day, 200+ mile relay race in the mountains. And in the meantime, I'm working as a swimming teacher, which is more fun and pays better than being just a lifeguard; hopefully running a lot (I'm going regret it later if I don't get back in shape now...) and working my way through the tall stack of books that has accumulated on my floor. Plus, now that I know my grandparents get ESPN2, I can go watch the MLS on Thursday nights, so I won't have to go cold turkey on the soccer.


Other excitement this month::

- My little brother's birthday is in July. They grow up so fast, don't they?

- Olympic Track and Swimming trials this week! (Ooh, the last Olympic qualifier for Canoe/Kayak is also coming up. Maybe I should look into that...)

- Free ice cream at the pool for the 4th of July!

- The end of my stats class. Thank god. I haven't been so bored since I took it in high school.


List of the Month: Books I am or will be reading

-The Handsomest Man In Cuba, Lynnette Chiang. Nonfiction. An Australian bikes around Cuba. I'm a third of the way through and have started to ponder possible locations for my own cycling pilgrimage, though at the moment the only bike I have belongs to my parents and might fall apart at any moment.

-Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson. I just discovered the brilliance that is Neal Stephenson this spring, but I'm doing my best to make up for lost time. I have all three novels of the cycle in one book, which is approximately the same size as the combined Lord of the Rings trilogy. Oh dear.

-Letters from the Earth, Mark Twain.

-The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind.

-Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby. You didn't really expect me to leave European football behind completely, did you?

-Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi.

-Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov. It's a classic, I've never read it, and it seemed an appropriate companion to the previous book.

-The Puzzle Palace, James Bamford. A 26-year old book on the NSA. A Legacy of Ashes made me a fan of in-depth studies of intelligence agencies. I just wish I could find a more recent publication on the NSA that was of the same quality.

-How to win the Nobel Prize, J. Michael Bishop. Always a helpful thing to know.

-Dreaming in Code, Scott Rosenberg. Reading Cryptonomicon (by Stephenson) in May rewoke my dormant interest in computers in mathematics. Unfortunately, as the rest of this list reveals, it did not put to rest any of my other interests. For the moment I will confine my technological explorations to easy things like blogging and reading about other people programming.

-Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond. Borrowed from my grandparents, who own one of the most amazing private libraries I've ever seen.

-Septembers in Shiraz, Dalia Sofer. Also borrowed from (and recommended by my grandmother. We don't agree on a lot of things (politics and religion, for instance) but she has great taste in books.

-A History of the World Cup, Clemente Angelo Lisi. Yes, more soccer. If I learned anything in June, it was that my knowledge of international football is woefully limited. I am taking corrective measures.

-American Crescent, Imam Hassan Qazwini. I'm already partway through this book already, and I'm learning a lot about historical and contemporary Islam. Really, really interesting.

-Not Buying It, Judith Levine. I admit it, I am one of those people who talks about needing to protect the environment but nonetheless owns far more things than I really need. Maybe reading this book (borrowed from the library!) about a woman who tried not to buy any nonessential for a year will help me overcome my addiction to consuming...
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