Movember update

"It is looking great," said no one ever.

But I am doing it for a good cause.

Please support my stash and help find a cure for man cancers.

Movember

With one week of scruff on my face, I had wanted to have pushed my man-cancer-facial-hair-race a bit more this month, but something came up. Regardless of natural disasters, men are still getting cancer and research still needs to be funded…so I am growing a mustache.

Here are some stats about man cancers, some of which I just made up:

1. 100% of men are at risk of man cancers.
2. 97.5% of men don’t mind getting checked for man cancers; in fact they kind of liked it.
3. 72% of men vigorously self-check for man cancers.  100% of them like it.
4. Early detection of man cancers increase the likelihood of the man surviving.

Man cancer is bad news.  Even without my fake stats above, testicular and prostate cancer kill entirely too many men every year.  Because of the Breast Cancer Awareness bonanza, pink-washing and all, women have begun to take significantly better care of themselves in this regard and now have wonderful research to rely upon if their awareness finds something bad.

 You could say the mustache is the pink ribbon of November.  My current plan is to just let the beard go for two weeks and then get rid of everything but the stash.  This will make for the best awareness building tool and hopefully fundraising juggernaut.

But most importantly, I now have the excuse, nay obligation to sport the creepiest of facial hair options.  I am so excited about wearing a mustache.  I also hope to raise a few dollars for cancer research.  But more, this is about the facial hair.

So throw me a few bones as I grow my stash.  The more you give, the bigger the stash will grow, I think.  Give the most you get to choose the style for the last week of November.  If you give big money, I will continue to wear the stash during the California International Marathon.  That Monday I will shave because I am sure my wife would like that…and I am not hipster scrum.

Random Thoughts

Some random thoughts:

1. I am running a marathon in 10 days and again in a month and nine days.
Back when I was trying to prove to myself that I was able to do anything I set my mind to, I signed up for the California International Marathon. Mind you I was already registered for the New York City Marathon.  All of my training has been focused on New York. My hill mantra is "5th Avenue" and I visualize my kick starting as we run through Engineer's Gate.

But I have another one to consider...and I think that just hit me, especially as I deal with my shin splint. But in reality, I am ready for both and I am just getting into my head.

2. Being the Bandwagon is fun.
Let's go Giants! My lovely wife is a life-long Cards fan and I am sorry she doesn't get to watch her team in the Fall Classic, but come on!  This is exciting. San Francisco is acting like a normal city with normal sports fans.  We were there for the Perfect Cain so it is clearly our arrival to a City by a Bay that took the team back to the World Series.  One down side: Listening to Joe Buck for another baseball series. I really dislike that man.

#PerfectCain

3. This is my soft launch of asking for money.
I have often coveted those with fantastic facial hair. Due to my impatience and my wife's insistence, I have never sported much more than a week and a half of beard, stash, or anything else. However, now I have committed to raising some money for testicular and prostate cancer as part of Movember, in order to be forced into facial hair.  I will be using this forum as a progress report but I will not go all Armstrong and use Rogaine or Just For Men, no matter what.  I want my contribution without controversy. (I intend to make a lot of jokes at Lance's expense.)

4. This election could be over now. 
I am done. And so are most Americans. Here in California we have all these wacky Props that will most likely not work and I am sick of the ads.  I bet FOX is pretty excited that the election is after the World Series...at least they get the reveune from these interminable ads. I will be voting for the goods guys and not the bad guys. That is all.
 
5.  I am now on the Board of Directors of my running club.
I was honored to be asked to join the SFRRC board and I think based both on my presentation of ideas and my outfit, I got the job. 

A Pro Running Outfit

I am excited to take part in organizational management and help our club be even better. Join us for a run sometime.

6. In one week I will fly to NYC. 
I am excited to see friends and family. Also I get to run the marathon...in case I didn't mention that.

My Bib - 42053

Spectating a Marathon

When the wife and I were walking back to the bus yesterday after watching the Giants loss to the Cards, we were talking about another sporting event that took place in San Francisco during the day.  Not the 49er's loss but rather the Nike Women's Marathon.

She said to me that is nice that I get so excited to watch other regular Joes (or in this case mostly Janes) run for 4+ hours for no good reason.  I said to her, I know the pain these people have chosen to inflict upon themselves and the joy they have created for themselves. I get it. I like ringing my cowbell and showing off my inappropriate signs.  It is fun. And I know it helps.

While I didn't race yesterday, I feel like I spent nearly as long as I will on the course next month, so here is my spectating recap.

Sometimes the weekend lives up the hype

Over the past four months I have either traveled or recovered from traveling on my weekends here in San Francisco.

This past weekend did not follow that trend.

Needless to say, people like me don't often have weekends like the one I will recount in all its glory for your reading pleasure. It was rare for me to have such a weekend even in the best city in the world.  So I can now say, without any doubt, that after a weekend of epic proportions, San Francisco has a lot to do. Perhaps, it has more to do than New York. Or at least it is easier to do it here.

But now, for my epic weekend of epic-ness. It all started as the sun was breaking the horizon and other overly-dramatic descriptions of Saturday morning.

Politics of Charity

Susan G. Komen has stopped funding of Planned Parenthood due to political pressure. This is bad.

It is no surprise to anyone that politics drive charity and I wouldn't want someone or some organization to financially support another person or organization she or it does not support fundamentally.

However, in this case, a political witch hunt supported by radical elements of the rightwing have pushed an organization dedicated to the health and well-being of women to strip its funding of an organization that provides health and wellness services to women.

My good friend Adam has never given money to those really-well-meaning-but-always-in-my-way-street-volunteers before. Today he gave. I logged on to Planned Parenthood's website and made my donation. We need more men to do the same in the face of this news, and it has nothing to do with politics.