The Eric Wroolie Blog

Overpass Experiences

Train Warnings

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I get the impression that train managers have their favourite warnings to give during train journeys. There are a few standard warnings, but then there are the “Where did that come from?” warnings.

Last year, a train manager came onto the speaker and talked for nearly 5 minutes about how important it is that we don’t flush the toilet in stations. Saying it once, I can understand, but this guy wouldn’t let it go. “I must stress that you must not flush toilets in stations. It is acceptable between stations, but not while stopped in a station. I repeat, that flushing toilets in the station . . . “ and on and on he went.

Why can’t I flush the toilet at the station? Is there a trap door that drops under the train and leaves a turd in the middle of the tracks? Is it so we don’t have to stand on the platform waiting for a train while trying not to acknowledge the huge dump in the middle of the tracks? Toilet paper and all? If it is a trap door, why is it okay to do it while travelling through the residential areas leading into the city? If we aren’t allowed to flush in the stations, can you still use the toilet without flushing? Do they just leave it there until the train leaves again and they can dispose of it away from platforms?

The only reason people run to the toilet before leaving the train is that the toilets at Paddington station cost 30p to use. 30p is not a lot of money, sure. But there’s the whole problem of fishing around in your pockets for the right change when you’re dancing around with a full bladder.

Anyway, this is not about train toilets.

Last week, a train manager spent a few minutes explaining to passengers why it is a bad idea to put our head out the windows while the train is moving. It wasn’t a joke, she was serious. I suspect someone must have done it and she saw him and didn’t want everyone else to jump on the bandwagon. She talked at length about how close some objects pass to the train and how it could result in injury. We sat there, many people in their business suits and blackberries, being lectured to like children. It went on for over a minute.  When she finished talking(“I must stress, once again, that you must not hang your head out of the train window while the train is moving. Thank you”), someone sitting a few rows behind me added, “Yeah, and don’t mess around with the electric sockets.”

Outran my nipples, but am ready for the Half Marathon

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Training for the half-marathon is going well.  This morning, I woke at 3:30am.  I dressed, synced up my iPod, and hit the road by 4.  I ran 13.25 miles.  It took me 1 hour and 50 minutes.

I now don’t have to doubt whether I can run the half marathon in 12 days time.  I know I can.  The only question is how well will I do on the day.  And can I keep from injuring myself until that time?

This morning’s long run was interesting.  Although it’s getting lighter earlier, at 4am, it’s still pitch dark.  This morning, while running through a long stretch of road with no traffic lights or buildings, I heard something rustling in the bushes besides me.  You never seen someone run so fast!  I was hoping a car would drive past so I would have the benefit of some headlights instead of my small wind-up flashlight.  Whatever it was, it didn’t chase me.  I made it through the rest of the run pretty well.

I’m on the train home from work now.  The run was ages ago. I think I found every opportunity today to casually mention my run this morning to anyone I could.  Like, I’d stand up and my legs feel very heavy, so I’d say “Yeah.  Went for a long run this morning so I feel a little sore.”  But no one would ask “How far?” So I just add an unsolicited “Yep, 13 miles.”  It was shameful, really.

But my biggest problem today is my nipples.  Back when I first ran a half-marathon at age 20, I was surprised how my sweat-soaked shirt bounced up and down and basically rubbed my nipples raw.  So, I used to either tape them up or cover them in Vaseline.  Well, the same thing happened this morning.  I didn’t noticed how bad it was until I got home and jumped in the shower.  I yelped at the stinging sensation.  There’s blood on my running shirt.  For the past few weeks, I’ve been doing ten mile runs with no problem, but today they chafed at 13 miles.  My nipples have a 10-mile limit.  Who knew?

But, it’s nice to know that at age 36 I can still run the distance I did at 21.  Not as fast, of course, but I could endure it.  So as I sit here, trying to restrict my movements so my shirt doesn’t rub against my chest, I can be satisfied with what I’ve achieved.

What’s going on with me lately

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It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted anything here.  Over the past few weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time running and playing with Twitter.

Twitter has grown so fast it’s incredible.  It seems like every day more and more celebrities and politicos are joining.  Of course, the celebrities immediately have loads and loads of followers almost immediately.  Other people follow loads of other people in hopes that they will reciprocate and give them a high number.

The avalanche of Twitter use really hit me when Kevin Pollack posted a few days ago “After 19 days of Twittering . . . “ but it seemed like he was one of the early adopters and was one of the top 10 Twitterers (with the most followers) when I subscribed to his feed.  I’ve been following Newt Gingrich, Jonathan Ross, and Scott Hanselman among other people.  They post several times throughout the day.  But having only done it for a few weeks, I think it’s something that will lose it’s novelty soon enough.  A year from now, we’ll be saying “Remember when we were all into Twitter?” and laugh and laugh at how silly we were to latch on to that fad. 

I’ve been Tweeting once or twice a day. Usually to say how far I’ve run or what I had for lunch.  Nothing major.  If I have an idea about something, I can keep it to myself or write it.  It makes no difference, really—it’s easy enough to do both.  If anyone is interested in what I’m doing, they can follow it—but if it evaporates into the ether without anyone noticing but me, I see no problem with that.

I still don’t talk about Tweeting when with my friends or colleagues—they are too cynical and it exposes more of my nerd-dom.  They may latch on in a few months or a year (like they did with Facebook).  There are still people I don’t tell about the blog, because they see it as superfluous anyway.

The other activity that has been taking a lot of time recently is running.  In two weeks, I’m running the Reading Half Marathon.  The last half marathon I ran was the Kole Kole Pass Half Marathon in Hawaii back in 1993.  I was 21.  I’ve run ever since then, but never with the regularity to run 13 miles.  My practice runs take place in the very early mornings—the longest so far is 10 miles.  It’s odd to run 10 miles before 6am.  The run is long forgotten by lunch time.  At that time, it’s dark and quiet and cold.  Strangely, morning running suits me as it rarely has another activity (like a meeting at work or a situation at home) to delay it. 

The Half Marathon is on the 29th.  Baseball season starts a week later.  Perfect timing.  My early morning runs will be replaced with watching Padres night games in the early morning hours here.

Oh, and I recently bought Guitar Hero for the Wii.   Fantastic game.  I have a habit of buying video games thinking I immerse myself into them, but never do.  This game is different.  The big plastic guitar is fun to use and it’s an easy game to pick up, play for twenty minutes, and then move on to other things.

That’s it.  That’s what I’ve been up to.