Get Miles

I’ve been a Gomez fan since sometime in 2002 when a local radio station played “Drench” maybe three times in the course of as many weeks. It was one of those moments where I thought “ooh, like that one” and then promptly missed the title. I became obsessed – listening to the same radio station for weeks until it played again to try and catch the title. (This was before the days of easy access to the interwebs kids. I’m not even sure this station ever had a website.) I know I was in the car when it FINALLY played again and that I sat in a parking lot until the jockey gave the name of the song and group. “Gomez” I thought. “I wonder who that is….”

Of course, Gomez is five guys, but I didn’t know that yet. I went and picked up In Our Gun immediately and took off for England a few months later. There isn’t a song on that album that doesn’t remind me of walking around that city. When “1000 Times” comes on I tend to stop what I’m doing, sing along, and think back to walking down Theobald’s Road to school. About the time “Drench” began I had decided that I could skip class again and walk down to well, wherever. I got to know central London pretty well that way.

(This is worse than it sounds. On the album those songs are Tracks 11 & 12. I had burned them onto an mp3 cd – again olden days and while ipods were around I couldn’t afford one – so the track listing was in a weird order. So “1000 Times” was track 1 and “Drench” was track 2. Basically I made it about three blocks on my walk to school before I was headed somewhere else. In short, I was not a very good student when I was in London. Somehow I still managed to get an A in all but one class. The one class I did poorly in was Urban Geography: London or some such. As far as I could figure the point of the class was to put a bunch of Americans into a dark theater and talk to us about walking around London. I found it so ridiculous that I changed my grade option to pass/no pass and proceeded to skip class a lot to actually walk around London. Learn by doing I figured. Admittedly, I think my prof was pretty annoyed when I pointed this out on the final exam. Again, I was not a very good student when I was in London. But I digress.)

I’ve picked up most of Gomez’s albums since then. I’ve liked some more than others, but I’ve always have had a soft spot for their work. They’re a band that consistently puts out albums with songs I’ll just put on repeat until I know the words and find myself walking around a different town or city just like I did in London.

A couple of minuts ago “Get Miles” came up on my laptop and all I could think was: yes. Very yes. This sums up the last couple weeks for me as I’ve been grading, working to meet dissertation deadlines and scheduling my dissertation defense. I’m feeling more than a little burnt out, but this helps.

Running, Zombies, and Some New Goals

A few months ago I signed up to run a half marathon. I ran one of these for the first time last year to show myself that I could manage to pick a goal, stick with it, and succeed at the race. I should say what I mean by succeed though. I’m not a fast runner. Success for me was hitting the correct mileage in a decent time rather than what would be considered by most runners to be a good time.

I had a lot motivating me last year not the least of which was that I had just turned thirty. This didn’t freak me out so much as remind me that I’d spent most of my twenties contemplating things like running a half or full marathon without ever, you know, getting up to actually go running. I was also at a point in my dissertation where long runs in blustery weather made for some good contemplation time while I started to figure out how all the various pieces I was working with would fit together. The exercise had the added benefit of being a way of working off stress and otherwise being all round a healthier, happier individual. In fact, I went from being a horrible insomniac to having a relatively mild case here and there. Frankly, that last one made the whole thing worth the time and effort.

All of this leads me to my real reason for writing: I can’t run worth squat right now. Prior to getting sick last month I was running a regular four miles at a decent clip. I wasn’t in shape, but should the zombie apocalypse have happened I would have had a decent chance at survival. Then I caught the flu and a throat infection. Or as I prefer to think of it, a plucky band of germ friends set up shop in my throat and hijinks ensued. It lasted so long and was so painful that I decided to liken it to the clichéd set up of a sitcom that everyone shakes their heads about and wonders how it can keep getting renewed every year while a show like Firefly got cancelled.

That’s right. Firefly. I went there.

Anyway, after the nagging death cough had finally dissipated I went out for a quick run thinking I’d bounce back easily enough so long as I took care not to over do it. This led to the following inner monologue while I tried to run just one mile: “Ok, I’m running. Good deal. Off we go. Gotta get some mileage. Already signed up for the race. Nothing to it. Phew, I’m feeling pretty beat up here. How far have I gone – oh, thirty feet. Crap. The zombies! The zombies are totally gonna eat my precious brains now!!!” And so on. After a few more runs I’m up to a decent two miles and some change. My biggest issue thus far has been the battle between my mental expectations and my feeble body’s inability to meet them. I want to be running five or six miles right now (as I was last year at this point). The stitch in my side says otherwise.

Since I’m starting practically from scratch (or at least it feels that way), I decided to start posting about my training and progress here as a means to get some motivation and as a way to record my training so I can look back on it next year (when I may try to do a full marathon). I still have enough time to train for the race and I don’t doubt I’ll complete it so long as I don’t get sick or injured. Completing it isn’t my main goal though. My big goal is to improve on last year’s performance. The time to beat is 2:19:03 at a pace of 10:37. Here goes.

(Also, just so you know, if you have a golf cart, I may be in touch. You may be my only hope.)

The Fog of Mining

Ken Ward Jr. has an interesting post regarding the rumors about new strip mining at Blair Mountain. Right now it seems that everything is a bit hazy. The Sierra Club’s press release about the increased activity at Blair can be found here. I’ll be trying to keep up with this one as it develops.

[Update 2/9/12]: Ken Ward Jr. has a statement by an Arch Coal spokeswoman denying that there are any plans to mine Blair Mountain.

Implicit Blame

For the past six months or so my dissertation work has kept me from keeping up with any mining or mining safety news. Nevertheless, I do my best to watch the headlines. The latest headline out of West Virginia’s legislative response to the Upper Big Branch Disaster in 2010 has me boggled. Dave Jamieson at Huffington Post has what looks to be a good overview of the situation. The legislation in question is pushing for mandatory drug testing. This is in spite of the fact that drug usage played no role in the disaster. I also want to emphasize that there seems to be no evidence of any drug usage by any of the victims of the disaster.

More than likely there are any number of influences from the industry on this legislation. That said, I have to go even further than Celeste Monforton, the public health expert Jamieson quotes in his article. Monforton describes the drug testing discussion as a distraction. I think it’s worse than that. There’s an implicit cast of blame that occurs with this rhetoric when it’s attached to legislation specifically labeled as a response to Upper Big Branch. It becomes a red herring that suggests the men who died were somehow responsible for the fate that befell them. Whatever the merits of drug testing in the mining industry, the legislative battle over it has implicitly created a fallacious discourse about Upper Big Branch that needs to be cut off before it can get started.