It's been a long road

My friend Damian Doty recently encouraged me to give Star Trek: Enterprise another chance. I'd watched maybe a dozen episodes before tuning out entirely. One of the biggest bones of contention for me at the time was the theme song. Every other outing into the Star Trek setting was an instrumental piece that set the tone for the show. ...what was THIS crap.

Surprisingly when I go back to Enterprise, I like the theme now. I find it very moving. So that made me ponder on why. My exposure to Star Trek started with the original series. I was a suburban "latch key kid" and in the 19070s, the show still lived in syndication. I'd come home, do my homework (sometimes) and then it was time for Star Trek.

Let me tell you a bit about the early 1970s for those who weren't there. This country was about space exploration in a huge way and we were all excited about it. The Apollo missions had just finished, we had our first space station in orbit, we had managed an orbital rendezvous with the Soviets, we were about to put our first landers on Mars and there was planning on the first of the fleet of "space trucks" to ferry people into orbit. The prototype of these reusable space ships was to be named the Constitution but a huge write-in campaign (no small feat pre-internet) to the then President, Gerald Ford convinced him to direct NASA to change the name...to the Enterprise. While she was never launched, she was the first shuttle to ever fly.

Space exploration was proceeding at a breakneck pace and to a young boy, the future that Gene Roddenberry proposed looked undeniable. If anything, his timeline was looking conservative. Surveyor 1 had preceded humans to the moon by three years so we figured with Viking touching down in 1976 that humans would be on the surface of Mars sometime before the end of the decade.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, the value of exploration as a propaganda tool evaporated. Cynicism replaced pride in the US and the public just kind of lost interest in space exploration. The plans for the rockets we were going to build to replace the shuttle fleet got scrapped, the shuttles got retired and it really started to look like the shortsighted among us would allow the human race to go extinct at the bottom of the Earth's gravity well.

...and then the Curiosity landed like a BOSS! We have a new generation of people who have not seen the like and they are excited to be exploring a whole different planet. Bobak Ferdowski is now a rock star and it's very possible we might make it off of this pale blue dot before our species dies out. It's easy to look at some reality TV, read the newspapers and come to the conclusion that maybe, we deserve to end here. If this is the best we can do, we might be best left as a bad example for the next civilization that comes along.

but here is the thing to understand. The stakes are higher than that. We aren't in it for the fans of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo." This is about Shakespeare and Mozart and the Beatles and Ansel Adams and Martin Luther King and the millions of books and songs and images and thoughts of those yet to be born.

So, what the hell does that have to do with the Enterprise theme?
When I first heard that song, I was still coasting from my childhood, this future was a given in my mind. It was going to happen. Now, I see the USA as possibly the most scientifically illiterate developed nation in the world. We spend our money saving the bacon of rich bankers but people squabble over the .4 cents on a dollar that it takes to fund NASA. I'm starting to realize that exploring the galaxy in ships capable of faster than light travel has a lot of question marks associated with the prospect. I also see the excitement and the sense of pride from putting a robot on the surface of Mars, I see discussion of a space station built at L2 and I realize that we still have time to turn this around before we reach a tipping point on the natural resources of the Earth. That future is still in play.

So for the first time for me, I'm no longer certain we will continue the very human tradition of exploration...but I have faith.

Harrisburg Half Marathon

It was an almost perfect day for a race. The morning was cool and clear, if there had been some cloud cover, some absurd times would have been posted. Doreen came with me to lend some support and I met up with Joe Earley so that was cool.

Before I get into the race, some of the good, the bad and the ugly.

The good were the spectators. It seemed a sizable chunk of Harrisburg showed up and they were ready to get crazy. The energy on course was palpable. Some of them even made use of bikes to cheer at multiple sections of the course.

Packet pickup was tight. Check your bib number, go to the volunteer in that number range, take your packet and enjoy.

The bad was all about the planning. As Joe noted when he got a bit sidetracked, there were no course markers to speak of. Directions came from the race volunteers...which was fine as long as the volunteers were engaged and on task instead of chatting with friends.

Water stops had issues. The first water stop was at 4.8 miles. It's a darn good thing it was a cool morning. Barring thirst issues, many slower runners are already into their first gel before then. I'm glad I brought my handheld.

Other people were the ugly. I can live without people who: Move slowly more than two abreast...especially when they are too busy chatting to be utterly oblivious to the pile up forming behind them.

People who don't know how to spit. I mean really? You have to be told to spit into the bushes, not into the middle of the race course?

Flailing elbows! This is almost exclusively a lady runner thing and one day, I'm going to get elbowed hard enough to reflexively hit back.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, FUCK Harrisburg cyclists. About a dozen members of the local cycling club showed up to do their Sunday ride. Of course they didn't check for upcoming events when planning this and nor did they decide that since the race was almost over, maybe grab breakfast...or just ride another route. Nope, two by two they took off down the race course.

So, on with the report!

The first mile was fairly typical of the first mile of any race. Lots of excitement, people ramming into one another and screaming and joy. As we hit that first mile and got up on the bridge people settled down, I put on my Walkman and was greeted by, not making this up, Joan Jett: I Love Rock & Roll. Since the device was set for random, I took this for a good omen.

At mile three, we got a little rural and turned off the paved road. We ran almost a full mile through a chunk of Harrisburg's "Green Belt." Happily the group of men that usually hang out in one section got the memo and found somewhere else to engage in in their shenanigans.

By mile 4, we were back out on the path by the river...this is my home field advantage and I wondered how much effort I was going to put into the race. I was debating just taking it easy, phone it in, just run the 13.1 and be content with 2:45-3:00. Then music played a roll again. A song that I have recently adopted as my "power song" filled my ears. Ozzy Ozbourne reminded me that I'm either in or in the way and I Don't Wanna Stop. So I dialed in a pace a few seconds behind last year's race pace and it was on.

Around mile 6 it became apparent that my bladder wasn't going to be okay with another 7 miles. There were exactly two porta-johns at Maclay...both occupied. So, a quick break took a bit over two minutes. Around mile 8 things got interesting for me. We did a dog leg back through a residential area. Lot of families had turned out to cheer but more significantly, the sun was becoming a factor. I was unsure how well I could keep my pace until the end. A smarter runner would have backed down a bit, I'm not always that smart.

At mile 11, I had a realization: There is no way they closed Forster Street for us. That means we are going under the bridge, more significantly, we are going to have to climb the hill by the Walnut Street bridge, that's about ~400m from the finish. So I had a mile or so to figure out if I was going to be a hero, kick OR run up the hill. I invoked Zombieland rule #17 and decided that I would walk the ramp and make up the time that I lose with a ferocious kick across the bridge.

It was a bit claustrophobic running the bridge. Everyone wanted to cheer their runner for the last 400m and maybe get a picture, so the crowd was pressed in right up to the sidewalk and most of them were leaning in trying to catch a glimpse of the runners.

All in all, a good race. The complaints I have were minor ones. The energy was insane and the course was quick. I'm proud that I found a pace that gave me a finish I can be proud of without running hard enough to end injured. While not injured, yesterday I was a bit tired and sore and my day today started with two Aleve.