Westmoreland Asays

Instead of writing something that I think appropriate, I'm going to give you what you want for once: I'll ask the questions that you are too scared or embarrassed to ask. Then I'll provide the answers. If I somehow failed to ask/answer YOUR question, please write a comment and I'll provide a prompt answer. Oh, I should say that this is about my experience taking pictures during Hood to Coast 2009 on Legs 5 and 34. 6. How many times were you the butt of a joke from an HTC competitor? Quite a few times, but it was always for the same thing: it STANK at my location on Saturday , because a farmer was spraying liquid cow manure all over his field. Do I need to explain what the joke was? 5. Hood to Coast, from the perspective of a spectator, is pretty dang boring. With runners passing by on average every 45 seconds, how on earth do you pass the time? I have nearly 9,000 songs on my Zune120 and brought the two latest issues of The New Yorker with me. And thanks to Meg'...

I took Aaron and Eddie car-camping to Humbug Mountain State Park for three days and two nights. We came home a day early because the boys both wanted to (and partially because I thought I was going to get the third night free, but I didn't read the fine print: the free day can't be Friday or Saturday). My goal is to ease them into outdoor adventures so when they are older they will want to go on long trips in the middle of nowhere (my preference over car-camping). Meg took Ian up to Seattle to stay with her friend Susan; maybe she'll write about her adventures here sometime. We left around 12:30 on Wednesday afternoon, a few hours before the 100-degrees settled in. It took about 4.25 hours to drive to the state park on the southern Oregon coast (the farthest south on the coast I've been). The boys behaved for most of the drive down--Aaron read from some books and played his GameBoy, while Eddie slept and was otherwise quiet--even though they had to sit together in the...

Ian's a mama's boy, so he usually isn't separated from Meg for more than a few hours. As such, he got to accompany Meg and I on our day to commemorate nine years of marriage together. This limited our possibilities, but we had fun at Northern Lights (Star Trek), Olive Garden, the Lancaster Mall Theater (G.I. Joe), and Sonic (frozen treats). Ian fussed only once during the final movie; he is very well-behaved when out-and-about. I think we all had a great time, but I was surprised at how fast the time flew--we were gone for nearly eight hours, but it seemed like only two or three.

Ian is four-months old today. It's also Happy Hiroshima day. Here's what Ian is like these days: Weighs 17..6 lb.s (with clothes) Rolled over once back to tummy and once from tummy to back Was sick for the first time (with Dad) with a fever Likes to look at himself in the mirror for long intervals Likes to go on long walks in the stroller Likes to go swimming in the pool Likes to sleep in his own bed through the night

I retired from competitive running after acting as a mercenary for an out-of-town team at Hood-to-Coast 2006 . I accepted that age was stymieing my physical abilities and thought it best to go out on my own terms. So for the past four years, I have regularly run 40 minutes a day, four or five times a week. I've run in the occasional easy fun-run, but nothing serious. And I did all of this training with a laid-back attitude, never really pushing it for extended period. But it didn't seem to matter. A few weeks ago, my left knee started hurting for no apparent reason. It hurt all the time, not just during or right after running. Outside of injuring my hip flexor in college (right after I returned from two years of "hard exercise deprivation" in Japan), I've enjoyed an active, injury-free lifestyle, and have been able to do pretty much whatever I wanted. Not any more. After trying to figure out where the pain resonated, and then researching the Internet, I concluded ...