On a day that should have been filled with bright smiles, of pure celebration, when all eyes turn to our sport's premier, most historic event ...... our community of runners instead finds itself in tears over a senseless, horrific act that displays that there truly is a "meanness" in this world. But you know there is something about running that tends to attract good, smart, caring, supportive people. And although we are a diverse group, we all can speak the common language of appreciating the wind in our hair, the trail or road beneath our feet, the satisfaction of a good run. And, I have no doubt the running community will continue to prove that although there is much darkness and meanness and hurt in this world, there is far, far more light and goodness and caring. Be that goodness and light in the darkness and run on, Friends...

A tumor (not related to Hodgkin's Disease) that went awry that led to secondary complications ... mostly related to my back ...

But I am back running, even if it is shorter distances than before ...

And back doing photography, even though less than before ...

I had been planning to run the Big Sur Marathon again, but I have been unable to run further than eight miles since ...

But I did run this five-mile race last Sunday and even picked up some hardware. And things are much, much better now. Life is returning to being normal again.

It is just taking a bit of time.

This route went through some absolutely beautiful country, especially along US 17 and on I-66 through the Shenandoah Valley. I saw many beautiful horses. Also, I was surprised the fall foliage was still so good in Virginia; here the trees lost their leaves fast.

So here are some of the sites I did:

Petersburg Eastern Front. This is the main Petersburg battlefield, and it includes the "big" sites - the Crater, Fort Stedman, Colquitt's Salient, etc. If you're only going to hit just one site in the Petersburg area, this is the one to do. It is pretty well preserved, and there are lots of trails you can get lost on .... (not that I would know anything about that ...)

Petersburg Western Front This is a mainly driving tour of a series of forts, the best of which were Fort Fisher and Fort Gregg. It is also called the Siege Tour. Although it is mainly intended to be a driving tour, you can get out and walk around at the forts, and Fisher and Gregg are definitely worth wandering around.

Richmond's Monument Avenue Richmond was a "side trip" this time. So I didn't aim to hit all the major Richmond sites, just a few. I was last in Richmond in December 2010. Anyway, I had a juvenile red-tail hawk decide to hang out on General Lee's head! In the same circuit, I also went out to see A.P. Hill. He's in the northern end of the city. Monument Avenue is definitely worth walking down.

Fort Harrison This is actually part of the Richmond National Battlefield park. A very cool site. There are a series of batteries and forts (including Brady and Johnson) that are part of this portion of the park. They are set off in basically little housing developments. Fort Harrison is definitely worth a visit even if you don't tour the other forts that are part of the driving tour.

Drewery's Bluff. Also part of the Richmond Battlefield. An awesome spot - very well preserved with a great view of the James River.

City Point Grant's headquarters at the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers. Appomattox Manor and Grant's cabin still stands, and you can walk down a set of steps to look at the James. A neat place.

Malvern Hill and Glendale. There really was not much to see at Glendale (Frayser's Farm), but Malvern Hill is definitely worth a visit - one of the best preserved sites. This is also part of the Richmond Battlefield park. Apparently Glendale is a more recent acquisition which is why there isn't much there (yet) as far as interpretation. Malvern Hill is spectacularly well preserved - rural, beautiful, with walking trails for interpretation. There are many cannons at the site as well.

White Oak Road. This is a Civil War Preservation Trust battlefield; no cannons or monuments, but there is a nicely marked trail. A nice battlefield to stop off and visit on the way to Five Forks.

Five Forks. The so-called "Waterloo of the Confederacy." There isn't a lot there as far as monuments and cannons, but they have a beautiful brand new visitor center and the site is pristine. Definitely worth a visit.

So anyway, those are some of the sites I saw on my trip. Petersburg - Richmond are of course definitely worth a visit if you're a Civil War history buff.

I did get a good chance to try out my Garmin foot pod on the indoor track this week. I will run out in pretty much all weather, assuming it is reasonably safe to run outside. Since Sunday, it has not been reasonably safe to run outside. We had gusts up to 70 mph on Monday night. Today was the first time all week it was safe to run outside, and even then with the combination of total darkness caused by a ridiculously late sunrise and the lack of many streetlights (politicians: you can buy my vote for a fix of daylight savings time), I still had to dodge some downed (or hanging) wires and many fallen tree branches.

I love the foot pod, by the way. I hate that little track, but the foot pod makes it tolerable: no more counting laps.

I guess rain beats snow, but if it doesn't rain again, I really won't be sad. Many people in my area are still without power - apparently at least in part because a lot of our linemen and power company support staff were sent to the East Coast in anticipation of the hurricane. Wonderful planning on their parts considering that they were predicting the entire time that Cleveland would see very, very strong winds. This is why people in the midwest get annoyed at being treated as "fly over" country. Fortunately at my house we just had the power blink on and off many times, but it always came back on within a minute or two. But needless to say commuting to work was a lot of "fun" this week, and a lot of people here are miserable. Nowhere near what NJ is dealing with, but not fun. Sandy, go away.