Positive Tension

Sooooo. A week after NYC and I feel pretty good. My quads were pretty sore for a few days and I felt ready when I ran 5 miles on Friday morning. Of course, about halfway through the run they started getting pretty tight again. And I realized that during the marathon I had sustained a monstrous blister on my right little toe; I originally just thought it was the nail digging into the toe, but since it wasn't bleeding, I paid it no mind. I took a few more days off and it seems close to normal now. Ran today with no problem; of course, how could you have a problem when it's pushing 65 degrees in mid-November in New England? Sweet.

There are a few photos of me running NYC up at Brightroom.com. A bunch of the finish line pics are pretty crowded, but there's one shot of me wincing right after I stopped; this is a better shot of me earlier in the race, when I still had hope for the future.

Good luck to my bro-in-law Matt, who will be running the Philly Marathon this coming Sunday; he should have cooler weather than I got in New York on the 6th.

Whoop de doo:

• Is it possible for an entire nation to not have a sense of humor? I'm talking about you, Kazakhstan.
• Now this is where I want to go when I'm old and in the way: to the nursing home/pub.
• I've run five marathons and I play hockey, but this woman kicks my butt.
• I don't pretend to understand the intricacies of the Muslim world. I respect it as an ancient and popular religion, and I condemn its extremists just as I would those of any other religion. But what's up with some Saudi Muslims calling a fatwa against soccer rules? I guess some folks in the Middle East are taking a page from the NHL and trying to make their game more fan friendly. (Thanks to Deadspin for the tip.)
• A healthy "Channel 11" salute goes out to Sony BMG, which installed copy-protection software on about 20 new CD releases designed to prevent users from ripping MP3s that can be played on iPods. Fine, whatever, but when you accept the XCP software installation, it uses a "rootkit" program that hides on your PC and makes it vulnerable to viruses. After taking mucho heat and facing a class-action lawsuit, Sony BMG last week said it was halting production of the CDs with this software on it. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the tainted CDs include new releases from Trey Anastasio, Celine Dion, Neil Diamond, and Life of Agony, among others. As if people needed another reason not buy CDs.