He Tasks Me

I recently watched Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan again for the first time. I had forgotten how good that movie is. Considering all the Trek flicks, it's certainly the best of the bunch. There are at least two quintessential Star Trekky and quite memorable lines. One occurs when Khan cunningly traps Kirk in the center of a planet. Kirk tries desperately to find a way out, telling Khan that he will have to come and get him. But Khan answers, "I've done far worse than kill you. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on... hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her. Marooned for all eternity, in the center of a dead planet... buried alive. Buried alive." As a result,  all Kirk can do is yell, at the top of his lungs, KHAN!. The other memorable line occurs as Khan is thinking out loud about how Kirk Tasks him. Please do click at least that last link. I'll wait...

Okay, welcome back. Now of course you're wondering, "Who tasks you, Dan?" Well that's easy.  It's my running coach, Sven. Sven, by the way, is invisible.

It seems as though Sven's been tasking me more lately. Said tasking has involved 60-mile weeks through the thick and thin of January in Northeast Ohio. It's involved slogging through snow like I did for several runs last week, and trying to keep up with the fast kids today. It's even involved staying off the treadmill and getting outside as much as humanly possible in January in Northeast Ohio.

On Thursday, Sven had me run 10 miles in the park through a couple inches of new fallen snow. It actually took me two hours to accomplish that feat, and it was tough. Yet I enjoyed that winter wonderland run as much as any I've done in a long time. I followed that up with 13 from home in much milder weather on Friday.

It was today, Sunday, that Sven tasked me the most. At least the most in the last couple weeks. He had me show up at Hinckley to run with the fast kids: Frank Dwyer, Caitlin Oblander and Debbie Scheel. Frank seemed well-rested as usual, but recovering run-aholic Caitlin and super-mileage specialist Debbie ran well despite other recent running. Recent running, that is, of the fast variety.

It was a good thing that they all took it easy on me. They politely waited at the top of Effie and the other Hinckley Hills, and didn't even complain when I launched my usual silly stories. Those were fewer this time around however, because I was pretty anaerobic today.

All in all, it wasn't a bad day: I did a 3-mile lake loop, the usual 9, then another lake loop and a couple more with Debbie.

I think Sven is happy with me... For now.

After the run with the other kids, another bunch showed up, and I managed to photo-bomb their picture. Jeanne Ineman photo