No water system here.

Usually by now the weather in Texas is cooling off and my long runs though hard do not take as much out of me. Singapore is a different story. It is 75 degrees in the morning and around 90 in the heat of the day even in October.

Yesterday I had 18 miles on the training schedule. Since I am running the Singapore Marathon without Jakeb my motivation for it is not as high as it would have been but I am determined to finish the training and run the race. I am also determined to run it easy and make it the slowest marathon I have ever run. That way I will be able to recover well for whatever marathon Jakeb and I decide to run together.

Saturday night I filled up my Camelback and put some Gu in the zipper pouch. I thought surely 2 liters of water would last me 18 miles but my camelback was empty at about mile 13. I stopped at a brand new apartment complex and asked a security guard at the gate if I could fill up with water. He looked at me sternly and said, “We do not have a water system here.”

Yeah right. I felt like a homeless guy asking for a cigarette. Oh well. A couple of miles down the road I tried again and this time the security guard was more compassionate and let me use the water faucet outside of the building.

I have 5 more long runs left. 19 this weekend, 12 after that, 20 then 12 then 8. Then on December 6th I intend to run my 6th and slowest marathon.

Assaulted by emotion

I like to listen to live albums. Not just a song from a concert but the whole concert because I think that if they are thoughtful about it an artist is telling a story for that night by the way the concert set is built.

I bought John Mayer's album 'Where the Light Is- Live from LA' not too long ago. I bought the whole thing because I wanted to listen to it in order as if I were there.

The next morning I put on my headphones and took off for my morning run. I had built a playlist of the album and started from the beginning. The first part of the concert is an acoustic set. It is cool to hear how good John Mayer really is when he is out there by himself with a guitar and maybe one other acoustic instrument to accompany him. Both his voice and playing are really good.

A couple of songs in there is a dobro just playing chords and John Mayer playing over the top. It was nothing I recognized but I was really getting into it. Then seemingly out of nowhere he starts playing the chords to daughters.

Fathers be good to your daughters ...

I almost had to stop running because of the water in my eyes - and it was not sweat and there was no rain.

I was assaulted by emotion. With Tori being at college and Anna just going on a mother daughter weekend where she and Andrea talked about some very grown up things I had a strong realization of the fact my kids are growing up. That is not a bad thing and I do not wish for them to stop becoming who they are supposed to be. I just know I have a short time with the Tori, Jakeb and Anna. And I will (and do) miss them when they are not in my house.

The rest of the album is pretty good too. I like the acoustic part best.

In other news Andrea, Anna, Jakeb and I went to Nepal week before last. Jakeb and I trekked the Ghorepani / Poon Hill trek, we all saw some beautiful sights and ate some really good food. Here is a picture of Jakeb and I from our trek.

Well I'm not one to sit and spin
'Cause living well's the best revenge
baby I am calling you on that
from REM Live at the Olympia (the live album I just pre-ordered)

You can hear the whole album here --> link