C.T. Charles

Crossing the Finish Line - 2008 Marine Corps Marathon

I’ve been a runner off and on most of my life. Over the years I’ve run a few local races; mostly 5Ks (3.1 miles). A few years ago my daily mileage was averaging 5-6 miles, so I thought it would be easy to do a half-marathon. The first one I did in training made me feel invincible. Then I started training for a real half-marathon – a race – and found out how hard it can be! But I completed it and, as is usually the result for people who do this said, “Never again!” Two days later I said, “I wonder if I could run a marathon?”

Two years ago I trained for, and finished, the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC. Training was hard, but I really enjoyed it. I find running can be like meditation and the more I do it, the more I crave it. Turns out the actual marathon was a very difficult race for me, as I had injured myself within a few weeks of the race. And as I did after my half-marathon I said, “Never again!” And just like before, two days after that, I said, “I wonder if I could run another one faster and better if I wasn’t injured.”

After taking a very long year-and-a-half off to recuperate from my race (and just being lazy), running is now something I’m doing once again. And I’m training for another marathon. On October 3rd I’ll be running the First Annual Crazy Horse Marathon in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Now I’ll include in my blog a little about my training, my general thoughts, and anything interesting I find on running.

I read a LOT. I’m usually reading at least a couple of books at a time, one fiction and one non-fiction. Books are my candy, and I can’t pass a book store or book shelf without stopping to browse.

When I find a well-written story, I like to share it with others. When I find something I can’t believe ever got published, I find the need to let that be known as well. I’ve written a few book reviews for PaperBackSwap.com and Amazon.com. I’ll also begin posting them here as well. Of course, it’s all subjective. What is one person’s caviar is another person’s smelly fish eggs and vice versa. But it’s fun to share and helps me learn the techniques of writing. Hopefully anyone reading will find it helpful, or at least entertaining.

Why not? If you’ve been online for any time at all, you’ve come to find that a lot of people are bothered by a lot of things. Some of them are trivial, and some not. Some are bizarre, but most are universal. The truth is, we’re all more alike than we think we are and if you’re anything like me, too many times you’ve heard, read, or seen something that made you nod your head and say, “Oh, yeah.” So every now and then when I find something I just need to comment about, I’m going to do it here under the RANTING category. It might be political. It might mundane. It might just change the world (probably not). Feel free to read and respond. Trust me, ranting can be very cathartic — and it’s a great way to exercise those writing muscles.

(This is from NaNoWriMo.org)
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• This year, we had 167,150 participants, up 40% from 2008’s total of 119,301.
• We wrote a total of 2,427,190,537 words, up 48% from 2008’s collective word count of 1,643,343,993.
• This averaged out to 14,531 words per person.
• We had 32,173 winners, up 48% from 2008’s total of 21,683
• This gave us a 19.2% win rate, the highest in modern NaNoWriMo history. (Last year we had an 18.2% win rate; in 2007 it was 15.1%).

Number of…

Cafe’ Mochas drank: 42
Times the theme song from the movie “Rudy” played: 64
Hours spent procrastinating: Too many to count
Times I was going to start over: 3
Times I actually did: 0
Words written: 50,419
Novel Completed: 1

NaNoWriMo Experience: PRICELESS

WhoooooooooooooHoooooooooooooooooo!

2,872 words to go…

This cartoon from InkyGirl.com says it all:

Too funny.

I’m really happy right now. As of 11:59 pm today, I have COMPLETELY CAUGHT UP in my word count, and in fact am over for the day by 200+ words!

It took several days of constant writing (well, not constant writing, but I was constantly in my chair attempting to write) but it worked. Whenever the going got rough, I just kept plugging away until finally, the story was flowing, the ideas were flying, and the words were piling up. I’m still in that groove and I’m loving it! This whole process reminds me of my marathon and the training that went into it. Right now I’m on the equivalent of a runner’s high – writer’s high. I hope it lasts. All I can think of at this moment is that this feeling is what makes NaNoWriMo so worthwhile.

My story is coming along strong now. My characters are not exactly taking over and writing it all themselves yet, as I’ve heard often happens, but they’re certainly influencing the outcome and making their voices heard. And I’m seeing the loose ends come together and now I believe my 49,999 and 50,000th words will actually be, “The End” and Not “To Be Continued…” as I once had thought. Awesome.