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I've just returned home from running in the South County Hospital Run for Your Life 5K road race. What was my time? I don't know... somewhere around 30:20... I ran slow and then had to stop and walk a few blocks... I had donated blood after work on Thursday and they had said it would affect my performance. They were right. I had run three miles this past Sunday. On Monday I did a bit over two miles on a treadmill at the YMCA at lunchtime and ran for around two miles on a beach at noon on Wednesday. I had not expected a fast run... I was running with my brother-in-law Tom... although he is a dozen or so years younger than me, we're old enough now so that isn't a major factor, and neither of us was coming into it having put much effort into preparation... so we were just running along together at an easy pace, having a pleasant time running and talking... but at around the two mile point I suddenly felt exhausted and told him to go on while I walked for a bit. I walked for a hundred yards or so and then started running, but at the next hill I had to walk again for a block or so, then picked it up and ran the last third of a mile or so. Boy, was I tired! I had not expected that the blood donation would take quite so much out of me. By the way, I urge anyone who is in good health to consider donating blood. It is (relatively) painless... I mean a little pinch when they insert the needle and that's about it (and I apparently have very difficult veins to deal with, it would probably be easier for you)... I don't enjoy the process but I do like knowing that I'm doing something special that could save someone's life. (One of my college roommates had hemophilia; he died of AIDS early on, before the dangers were realized and blood was tested.) One of the gripes I have against politically correct idiots is in regard to blood donations. I got involved in being a regular blood donor when I was working for Binghamton University. (I'm proud to have given more than four gallons of blood and am closing in on number five.) The university had been a major source of blood donors in that area. This source was lost once the forces of political correctness got involved. You see, because of the dangers of AIDS-infected blood, one of the things that will put you in the do-not-donate category is having lived in or visited most African nations or Haiti. This is not politically correct; those who are of higher moral and ethical standing than we mere human beings declared that the Red Cross should accept anyone's blood no matter what the risk of death to those who receive the blood. They began to demonstrate against the Red Cross and finally attempted to block access to the blood drives. (The university caved in to these creeps... which is one of two reasons why I refuse to make any kind of alumni contribution to the school.) Nancy is off buying plants, part of an on-going (never-ending?) project of landscaping our yard... Jennifer has been at work since nine a.m.... and it's almost noon, time to take Sean to work. (He was quite delighted to receive his first paycheck this week.) I've not being updating as often as I had been earlier in the year which is beginning to affect my hit count but I just don't have the time these days, just much too busy... and I expect to be pressed for time for at least the next five or six weeks. |
