NASA facilities have inter-center running competitions: races are held around the same day, and times are compared to determine the agency-wide winners. Today's 2-mile Fun Run is one of these events, perhaps the most popular; held in Spring and Fall. My initial encouragement to start running came from women I worked with at the GSFC in the mid-1980's - I ran in their Fall '84 and again in the Spring '85 Fun Runs. After a long hiatus I rejoined those running/walking throngs today, at the ARC where I work now. <1> Since I put in the equivalent on a treadmill every other day I feel no need to "train" for this distance of a run. Still, I shoulda taken two instead of just one puff of Ventolin prior <2>, since I was asthma-wheezy for about the middle third of the race, and hence weakened. I wound up towards the rear of the pack of runners, but I was passing people in the final stretch. My time: 18:21. The most fortunate aspect of the race was the weather - it rained before and afterwards, but not during; and the sun even came out at the finish. The least aspect: it was essentially a linear course, out & back. Our reward: cookies, "Snak-Pak"s of crackers, apples, oranges, and a ribbon. Turns out that among all the centers, GSFC and ARC have the best turnouts.

A new journal I'm reading has an interesting page on toilets in Germany, a topic which some find baffling and/or annoying. Check it out if you are, or think you might be, among those intrigued. I like this journal because author Scott Anderson lives in Vancouver and has lived in Berlin, and he has a Teutonic POV which I find refreshing. See this entry for an excellent rant-paragraph about American commuters who buy cheap houses an hour's drive from work.

Phone calls today with G, and B (who informs me that Hugo Bass is the more upscale choice given that or Doc Martens - I should know? Shoes all look alike to me).

Watching vintage videos on a ten-year-old tape from my brother N. I'd forgotten about the genius of Peter Gabriel's video of "Big Time".