Runner’s diary, Thursday

This post’s headline is, well, misleading. Yes, it is a diary of my running experiences, but there was no run this morning thanks to the wonders of home ownership.

To explain: We have no water. Our hot water heater sprung a leak last night, leaving a huge puddle and soaking the carpet in our den (the water heater is located in a closet in the den because we live in a ranch house on a slab without a basement).

We called PSE&G last night and a serviceman was dispatched. He couldn’t do much last night, but I did arrange through PSE&G to have a plumber come out today to replace the tank. The cost is likely to be around $1,000, which I’ll be able to pay back over 12 months interest-free on my utility bill. In any case, I had to wait for the call to arrange the appointment and then came in to the office.

I have to be back at the house between 1 and 5 to meet the plumber. This doesn’t help with the carpeting, which is going to be a nightmare — I’ll probably have to rent a carpet cleaner to suck as much water from the carpet and padding as I can and we may have to pull the carpet up and let some fans run to dry everything out. Of course, if we do that, then someone will need to help me (I am woefully out of my league when it comes to this handyman stuff) put he carpet back down.

If we had the cash right now, I’d have the carpet replaced with faux wood, but that will have to wait at least until the end of the summer. I just hope we can keep the thing from become a mold trap.

Ugh.

If I’m lucky, I’ll get out for a run later or tomorrow. If not, then I’m at a paltry 13 miles for the week.

Runner’s diary, Tuesday

Dow Jones 5
Find more Runs in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey
Here is a new toy I found on the Web — alerted to it by NY Times Health Writer Gina Kolata, whom I interviewed for a story on running taht will run in our over-50 magazine. The mapping tool can be found at http://www.mapmyrun.com/.

It allows you to map out and save your running routes, calculating mileage for you while giving you a chance to experiment without being out there in the hot sun. It is quite cool. I’ll try and post occasional maps with my running posts in the future.

Today’s map shows the route I ran Monday and today — a little over five miles. I am without a GPS right now, so I have no idea what my time is, but that maybe to the good. I’ll see how it goes for a while.

iPod: podcasts from Truthdig.com.

Runnier’s diary, Friday

Five days, five miles a day, 25 for the week — nice. Today was a rough one. It was hot and humid, almost like the thick weather that I ran in when I did the Long Beach Island 18-miler in October. Plus, my GPS wasn’t linking to a satellite so I had to guess on the mileage, running a regular route and just running until I hit 50 minutes.

Music: a mix