Seven days to the Oakland Marathon

Back at it again, yes, the taper period.  Seven days and counting. This go around however I'm feeling like the legs have a little bit more pep to them than in Napa. Nowadays, before I head out to a run, I've learned to take my time to stretch and make sure the legs are properly warmed up.  I know I should do an easy miler first before the stretches, but I feel weirded out when I have to stop in the middle of a road or street corner to do the stretching. I don't like cars seeing me in my stretching modes, plus the kind of stretching I do, I have to have a clean place to sit or lie down. So with that, I do all the stretching at home and then I run.

I've been putting off this 4 miler all morning. I need to run it easy just to keep the cobwebs off, but I am torn. As I sit here typing, I am looking out at my front window and all I see are gray skies, and occasional wind blowing the branches. It's been drizzling on and off. What if this air and rain contain radioactive stuff? Am I wrong to think this? But then again, I already know of a family this past week who has already taken potassium iodine as a precaution. Consider this, we're five thousand miles away from Japan.  But what about  residents in Sendai and Fukushima? I wondered if they've taken their iodine. This morning, news from Tokyo revealed that they found radiation in the water supply, however "neglible". I can't help but think about the Japanese engineers who have to work so closely at the Nuclear reactor sites, in their futile attempt to cool it down. They know in their hearts of hearts that they are facing radiation levels that are way above normal. I can't even imagine what they are going through. And all the families who have lost their homes, their land, especially their missing loved ones.  This catastrophe is truly a test of what we, as humans are made of.  The effects will never be known. But what else are they waiting for? Why not encase the doomed reactors in sand and concrete like they did in Chernobyl in 1986? Stop the radiation leaks before catastrophic levels are released in the air. They are probably doing the best they can, with the best engineers from around the world. The rest of us will have to hope and pray that it will be fixed soon.

We are fortunate, everyday that we can wake up and still be able to do what we want to do.