No Impact Canoeing

Right before I started this blog post about my canoe trip last week with some friends I read an article about the eco-movement and "No Impact Man". As such I thought I would explore how I might have made a seeming low-impact activity in to a no-impact activity. First of all, none of us should be wearing life jackets, those are made of lots of high impact materials. Also we shouldn't be in a canoe the materials of which were stripped from mothers earths' bosom. Instead, we should have floated down the river on logs that had naturally died or fallen from the original tree. Our paddles should have been smaller limbs fallen from a tree whittled into paddle shapes. Finally, we should have broken down the two dams that allowed us to take a leisurely float down the river because who knows how many fishes' yearly migrations were foiled and Herons that went hungry because of man-kinds impulses to tame the elements.

Alas, I did enjoy the canoe trip and kind of agree with the "Save Argo Pond" people who don't want the Argo dam to be removed; but purely for selfish reasons, as I jog around that pond multiple times a week.

Just for fun, here's a Colbert interview with No Impact man.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Colin Beavan
www.colbertnation.com
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AB

I am a little obsessed with Pitchfork's videos right now and had to post this one. Back in March I saw Andrew Bird perform at Borders in Ann Arbor and then went to his concert. I tried to record a little bit of video to show his amazing talent but this video captures it all about 10 times better than my shoddy videos. Plus, he is playing one of my favorite songs. 

One day I will be his back-up whistler. His velvet whistles can't last forever, although I hope they do. 

Dan Deacon Video

Until I load pictures from my southern food extranvaganza I hope you enjoy this video:

5-K Glory

Enough of my not-so-scary-to-other-people-but-really-scary-to-me posts and back to self aggrandizing. I returned to AA at the beginning of August and the first weekend back ran a 5-K.  I enjoy running and at certain points in my life have even been termed "a runner" but I hurt my knee in the UK in May and the road to recovery was slow and arduous. I could barely run a mile without my knee starting to hurt and having to stop jogging and drag myself home like a person with a wooden leg (not that's there's anything wrong with wooden legs). Lucky for me in mid-July the higher powers of knee injuries smiled upon me and I had a break-through run exceeding 2 miles with no pain.  Since then I have had few problems with my knee (knock on wood). 

In celebration I signed up for the 5-K with some friends as motivation to keep jogging. The morning of the race was cold and wet. This was unusual for me as I am use to running in humid 80+ degree weather in Rockville. While the cooler weather may have helped me run faster-I heard cooler weather increases speed, from a if not reliable at least very confident source- I think it's safe to say the soaking wet shoes and puddle hopping counter-acted any gains from cooler temperature. Regardless, I must have had made some gains because I placed 3rd in my age group. This was a lovely surprise as I seldom win things. Here are some pictures offering evidence of my glorious day:)

All nice and dry before the race.

Hanging out by the finish line

My 3rd place medal. Please notice how it is exactly the same as the 1st place medal which Amy secured.

The whole gang after the race