No Longer a Minor, 18 Is Major.

Today, we reached a new distance. Lots of races are 5Ks, and you've probably dones a bunch during your life. Kinnier is even running a 5K, the Race Judicata, this Thursday.

We ran eighteen (18) miles, which is a lot like a 5K . . . if you do it six (6) times. The temperature today was great, especially for August. It was approximately 65 degrees when we watched the sun rise over Lake Michigan during the 5 o'clock hour. The high temperature during our run was probably 71 degrees. While we certainly could not complain about the temperature, it was really windy, and we battled the opposing gusts for the entire second half of the run.

Kinnier slept poorly last night for no clear reason, waking up multiple times throughout the night. He did not suffer from too many nagging injuries today, but he definitely felt the burn in his muscles during the last few miles. Jennifer was one of the pack leaders for most of the race. Jennifer's outperformance of Dave (our pace group leader) and Kinnier is particularly notable because Dave and Kinnier were originally assigned to a pace group thirty (30) second faster. They dropped down to Jennifer's group so that they could run with Jennifer.

In honor of the Olympics, here is some trivia about the significance of the number eighteen (18) internationally in various religions and cultures.

There are 18 chapters in the Bhagavad Gita, which is contained in the Mahabharata, which has 18 books. The Kurukshetra War which the epic depicts, is between 18 armies (11 on the Kuru side, 7 on the Pandava). In Chinese tradition, the number 18, normally 十八 (shí bā), can also be read as 幺八 (yāo bā), which sounds like 要发 (yào fā), meaning that one is going to prosper. Thus, building floors numbered "18" are often very expensive in China

The Hebrew word for "life" is חי (chai), which has a numerical value of 18. Consequently, the custom has arisen in Jewish circles to give donations and monetary gifts in multiples of 18 as an expression of blessing for long life.

In fact, Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 was originally named Catch-18 because of the Hebrew meaning of the number. It was changed to avoid confusion with another war novel, Mila 18. (Kinnier would not have been confused because he had never heard of the latter.)

Statistics:
Distance: 18.0 miles
Start Time: 6:19 a.m.
Time: 3:41:21
Temperature at Start: 65 degrees
Temperature at End: 72 degrees
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Maximum HR: 166
Average HR: 140
Money Raised to Date: $4,810
Days until Race: 65