Ugh...

I had a 90-day checkup for the Jetta this morning at the dealership, which is located off the Georgesville exit on 270. It's on the southwest side of town and I really know nothing about it. If it's not Grandview, I'm a lost puppy. But I had to run out the door and wasn't able to get any breakfast. Upon exiting, I saw there was a Kroger and decided that I'd walk over while the mechanics marveled at the amount of tread I burned through in three months. I try and keep my rants to a minimum anymore, but I couldn't help but feel absolutely disgusted with the planning, or lack thereof, of the immediate area surrounding the VW dealership. It was the most pedestrian-unfriendly place I've been in some time. Not a single sidewalk. Crossing the main drag was death-defying. I felt like Frogger. The side street that got me to Kroger was dotted with restaurants of comparable quality... just different signs welcoming you in. It was shit. It still is shit. It's low quality everything... food, infrastructure, planning, etc, etc, etc. It's like the community equivalent of the Verizon logo. I would like to think that a change is on the way. Like the '08 election. You just felt that a change was coming... but there is no changing this. It really makes me want to cry. Have we settled, or do we just not know? I wish we could put all this and those that support it on a reservation with all the cars and asphalt parking lots they please. Why walk 200' to the store when you can drive it. And when you're done there, and it's time to head to the store 200' from the one you were just in, you can drive that, too. It makes me think of Wall•E (found it) and how brilliantly and blatantly true it was. Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest.

I have been flirting with the idea of running marathon #2 on the 6th of June in South Bend, IN since the Mini. It's basically the closest "last shot" of the spring marathon season. Over the summer, they're few and far between and I'm not in the market to run 26.2 when it's 90. Sorry Chicago. When I thought this all over, I knew that I'd have a month to "prepare" but I thought the extra miles I was putting in for the half were a good base. So I came up with a training plan that would help me decide what to do. Last week was a 16-miler (one week removed from the Mini) and this week was the one and only 20-miler. The 16 miles were hard as hell and I didn't see this turning out well, but I thought I'd at least run the 20 and make a decision based on that. Well amigos, it's go time. The weather was perfect, and I had a pretty fantastic run to boost my spirits. I had that appointment at the dealership at 9am so I knew I had to be up earrrrly for this one... and on top of that, I played volleyball last night until 9pm. But the alarm went off at 4:45 and I knew there wasn't much I could do after that. I was out the door by a quarter after and went about my business. I took it out slow and made sure I kept it that way. The patience paid off when I brought in the last 5.5 miles at my goal race pace (7:15/mi). So that leaves an 18-mile rehearsal run followed by a two-week taper. I'll drive over Friday night, run the race and be back in Columbus by 3pm Saturday. Should be fun.