Some Shining Moments

OK, the NPR note: a couple weeks ago, Anita DeFrantz from the IOC debated Canadian civil rights attorney David Kilgour over the Beijing Olympics. Anita was cool as a cucumber; Kilgour was explosively jerky. They both had valid points about human rights debates reaching the media and corporate sponsors making bank, but I couldn’t quite hear the human rights perspective over all Kilgour’s mudslinging.

And it offended me that people who spend their lives fighting for human rights and civil liberties were getting such poor representation. I just think there are better candidates for such speaking engagements. I just think Jessica Simpson would have served them better. Maybe even Britney Spears or George Bush.

So, I wrote a letter. I was angry, I wasn’t taking sides, and I won’t take one here. But in my letter I gave the debate trophy to Anita because she remained calm and civil (even if a little smug and quietly condescending) as diplomats are appointed to be. Whatever their cause. If only human rights organizations had such organized PR, eh?

As their representative, Kilgour made human rights supporters sound like “bitter, raving liberal kooks… just how their opponents like it.” Mine was a long, redundant letter that quipped about Kilgour’s ineffectual rhetorical cruelty that was a total disservice to all humans and their rights. Anita could have been arguing for ritual puppy executions and still sounded more credible and convincing than Poopy Von Slingsomemud.

But alas, the public reading of my letter ended with “..liberal kooks,” which made it sound a little more conservative, a little less compassionate, a lot more corporate than I, umm, tend to be. It’s NPR’s right to edit as necessary (it was a long note; it was filled with rage). I just never thought I’d be funneled into that opinion.

Sigh. And that was my one shining moment.

On the plus side, traffic to my Web site and blog(s) spiked for a few days, and I received a number of emails from long, lost friends and schoolmates who heard my letter during All Things Considered. Who doesn't love Google?

If you’re still curious, you can listen to the letters clip and the debate.

What’s been up other than defending my good, liberal name? Well, Neil and I will be closing on our first home purchase by the end of this week; my second-ever 5K runs this Sunday at John Carroll; I’m still abstaining from sweets until the Cleveland Half and obsessing over cakespy.com; I’m totally digging my job; and I started following a marathon training plan today.

I spent the past couple weeks building up mileage, winding down with an easy two-mile run with Neil around our neighborhood on Sunday. The boy can run fast, but I kept our first-mile pace around 13:00/mile as part of his endurance-building and then took mile two around 10:00 pace. We invoked the singing/talking pace suggested by Salty last year (if only I had listened the first time!) and felt all right. After walking a half-mile cool down, we did post-run stretches in front of Sunday’s Indians win vs. the Oakland A’s. Welcome back, Cliff Lee!

It’s high time Neil has hit the road: he turned 28 last Friday (happy birthday, man!) and knows that his godsend metabolism won’t stick around forever. If only I could eat an entire row of cookies to no ill effects – or having them show up on my butt two hours later.

Neil rested today while I completed 5 x 1000 yards (it was supposed to be meters, but I got lost in my Americanness) on 4:20, 4:20, 5:00, 4:20, 4:40 with 2:00 recovery walk/jogs. My plan prescribed 5K pace, but I think it’s probably a little early for me to do this tip of “speed” work. So, I took it around 5-mile pace.

My sciatic nerve almost started acting up during warm-up, but I was so distracted by the lovely evening (72 degrees and sunny at 7:30 p.m. in early April? I’ll take it!) that I don’t even know when it went away. I’m just glad it did.

Should it flare up again this year, I think I better understand my nerves, my body and my training this year, and I shouldn’t be out for two months with aches and pains. I have a busy schedule to keep!

Tomorrow: an easy 5 miles, 2.5 of them with Neil. If we can muster the energy after staying up for One Shining Moment, that is.