My last long run was completely in the rain. It was wonderful! I left my MP3 player at home since I did not want to get it more wet that it normally does from my sweat. That allowed me more time to think and pray than I normally do. The rain was not a complete downpour, rather a consistent steady rain all day. I explored new territory and enjoyed the fact that it was a wet Saturday morning which kept some of the cars off the roads. The only thing I regret is not using my BodyGlide on the prone-to-chaffing areas (i.e., nipples). Will I ever learn?

Other than that long run, which was almost 7 miles, I have run 3 days a week keeping the runs between 2.5 and 4 miles.

Biking
I have put several miles on my new tires, though most have been from commuting rather than for exercise. I did, however, have a really nice 30 Km (almost 20 miles) ride last Saturday. The trip out was into a slight wind. The road I was on did not have any turns and very few lights. I did not have to stop any going out and only 3 times coming back. Because I was coming back with the wind in my favor I ended up riding a negative split of about 3 minutes.

While I have narrower tires on the bike now than when I got it–but it is still not a speed demon. I rode an average of 14.5 MPH. The bike would not go into the highest gear because of poor adjustment on the dérailleur. I have since remedied that and should be ready for the next fast ride.

My interest in taking a multi-day tour on my bike has been heightened and I am planning something for when the weather turns consistently favorable again in the spring. That is what I get for trolling around some bicycling blogs.

I read Freakonomics a couple of years ago and was eager to get my hands on the new book, SuperFreakonomics. I managed to snag a copy at a Walden Books (RIP) that was closing in Chicago a few months ago. This book was a touch edgier than the first one, which was a bit out of my comfort zone to begin with. The first book spent quite a bit of time talking about drug dealers while this one gave the inside scoop on prostitution.

The subtitle of the book is: Global cooling, patriotic prostitutes, and why suicide bombers should buy life insurance. With a subtitle like that you can imagine my heart skipped a beat when I got stopped by airport security to have my bag full of books inspected one by one. Fortunately the “SUICIDE BOMBERS” phrase did not catch their attention.

The premise of the book is to show how that not every conclusion is as simple as seeing a few facts and making assumptions. The first book was subtitled A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything and gives you an idea that the purpose of these books is not really to solve any specific problem, but to let you know that sometimes there is much more to an issue than what you might first conclude. Some of the topics discussed in the book I imagine are, or will be, subjects of much discussion since the authors contradict conventional wisdom and popular myths in several areas. One of the controversial topics I hoped would be in the book was the subject of a TED Talk that one of the authors, Steven Levitt, gave a couple of years ago. He shows the power of scare tactics and powerful lobbyists. In that talk Levitt goes against what we “know is true” about the effectiveness of car seats compared to seat belts.

I enjoyed the book, but I have to say it is not for sensitive eyes. I had to make sure no one was reading over my shoulders at different points in the book. It is quite graphic in some areas. I don’t know if I can say it is a must read, but I did like many of his conclusions.

SuperFreakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. William Morrow Publishing. 288 pages. 2009.

Wanna Trade?
I am offering this book to anyone who wants to send me a good book. This is an experiment to see how long it takes to send a book from Argentina to wherever you are and vice versa. Leave a comment with what you have to offer in trade.

She needed tires and I have been wanting narrower tires for my bike. Her’s is a “beach cruiser” style bike; a single speed bike that you sit up-right on and has fatter, mountain-bike style, tires. Mine is a mountain bike with 18 speeds, of which I generally only use 4. I had fairly good used tires on mine (it was a used bike too), but wanted the narrower tires for lower rolling resistance. I picked out the tires I wanted at the bike shop, but he only had one. He ordered a set for me on Tuesday which were to be ready for pick-up on Thursday. I knew that meant that it might not be until sometime next week before I got the tires, but at least they were on order. When I stopped by the shop on Friday morning the tires were not there yet. I had not planned to go back to check on them until Saturday, but ended up having to buy a new tube later on Friday afternoon. I was pleased to find that my new tires had arrived by then.

The reason I needed a tube that afternoon was that my wife’s front tire was so bad that the tube protruded out of one of the holes and got punctured. I patched the hole in the tube, but when putting it back together I broke the valve stem. That tube already had 3 patches in it. It had served its time.

A simple 45 minute job of removing her tires and transferring mine onto her bike while installing the new tires on my wheels ended up taking 2.5 hours. On top of that I managed to puncture one tube so badly that it needed 3 patches! I also broke another valve stem, but was ultimately able to salvage it.

The narrower tires roll better and will be much faster with less effort. There are downsides to the skinnier tires though. The ride is smoother on smooth roads, but much rougher on rough roads. Any linear crack in the road (going the same direction as I) tends to suck the tires in and makes it harder to control the bike. Those were things I knew and was prepared for since I have done my time switching between a road bike and a mountain bike back home. What was a funny surprise though is that the new tires make my bike considerably shorter. My kickstand is now too long!

When he punched up the price on his calculator he put in $6.70 (Argentine Pesos). I would not have cared most of the time, but I happened to notice that the price was $6.40 when I picked up the bottle. I didn’t want to let him get by with charging me too much. What if I had to go in there again? Would I stand for him charging me more for every purchase? I decided to nip it in the bud and pointed out to him that the price was $6.40 on the display.

He said, “That is the price for the warm ones, not the ones from the cooler.”

Most of the little stores I have been in charge more if you buy a drink already cold. It makes a little sense because they are paying for the electricity to cool it down for you.

“But, I didn’t get it from the cooler. I got it off the display.”

He said that it was cold; therefore, it had to have come out of the cooler. I told him that was fine, I would take the Coke back to the display and swap it out for another one so he could see I got it from the unrefrigerated display. I grabbed another one and handed it to him. He thought it was too cold too. So he went to the display and dug through the bottles until he found a hot one and shoved the 2 that I had already tried to buy into the cooler.

Did I mention that it was 54 degrees and all the windows and doors were open at the store? Everything was cold in there! But he managed to find one that made him feel better about loosing a little profit.

I didn’t care. I was going to put the Coke on a bus and let it sit there for 3 hours before consumption. It would be the same temperature as the outside air by the time they drank it, which ended up only being 57 degrees for the day.

Pre-Race
While I have not been training for any particular distance, I have been running more regularly in the last 2 weeks since we got into our own house. I learned of this race just a week ago and was not sure I could still do a good 5 miles. I went out last Tuesday at an easy pace to test the distance. I enjoyed a nice casual 6 mile run and knew that a 5 mile race would be something I wanted to do. On Thursday I just did some shorter intervals. That was my specific pre-race training.

Circuit
The race was held at a large fruit and vegetable market. I thought we would just start there and then run through the neighborhood. But we actually did the whole race right on the market grounds. They set up a 2 Km track that wound back and forth through the huge quonset hut type buildings. We did 4 laps. This was not my first time to do a multi-lap race, but this one doubled back on itself so often it was pretty easy to watch the front pack as they fought for position. The track allowed the runners to also be spectators.

Times
The winner finished the race in 25:20. That is not a screaming fast pace, but at 5:06 per mile, that is a lot faster than I was running. The last runner finished in 54:46, which is still a very respectable 11:02 per mile. I remember when I started running that 11 minutes per mile was a goal to be achieved.

Not knowing the running community here, I was concerned when we got started that I would be the last runner. It seemed like there were some very serious competitors in the crowd. I was pleased when the race started to know that there were some people behind me and I passed a few on every lap of the course. I ended up in 127th place out of 152 runners.

My time was 45:03, which is a PR. I was in 11th place for the 40-44 year old men. With the exception of the first and last kilometers, which were my fastest and second fastest respectively, my split times were almost identical. They only varied by a few seconds from one Km to the next.

Observations
The race was held at 3:00 in the afternoon. That was an odd time. I am not sure if it was because the market area was busy until then or because they just wanted an afternoon race.

Because of the timing of the race I was able to stick around for the awards which I have rarely been able to do. The winners got a nice fruit and vegetable basket (plus some cash I think). These weren’t your typical little fruit baskets though. They were about 2 foot by 4 foot at their base and packed full of things for the winners. I guess that is one of the perks of having the race sponsored by the fruit and veggie market.

At the end of the race there were bananas and oranges available. In Mexico many of the races would have fruit after the race too. But there I almost always had to get my race bib marked in some way to show that I had already gotten my food. The concern (a very real one) is that not just the runners, but the spectators would come over and fill their pockets full of the “free” food. When people were not guarding the tables closely enough I have seen spectators filling up purses and bags of food that was reserved for the runners.

However, at the race yesterday you were free to take as much as you wanted and there was nothing to prevent a spectator from taking food from the runners. No one was loading up their pockets to feed their extended family. I also did not see any spectators taking from the food that was obviously for the runners. The difference between the way the food was handled here and in Mexico is a difference in mentality and level of respect for others.

I enjoyed my introduction to racing here in Argentina. I am afraid I won’t be able to do as much racing here as I did in Mexico though. Like Mexico, most of the races I have seen advertised are on Sunday. It is a rare treat to have a Saturday race. But in Mexico we would run races early to avoid the heat. That is not as much of a concern here. On Sundays in Mexico our church services started at 11 and most races were at 7 or 8 in the morning. It was easy to be done by 9 and cleaned up for church. Here in La Plata most of the races I have seen advertised start at 9 on Sundays and church starts at 10. I will take part in all the races I can, but I just won’t be able to race as much as I have in the past.

Along with the neighborhood markets, we also have neighborhood services available. Just 5 blocks from the house is a bike repair place. We are already on a first name basis in there.

So far the repairs have been:

• Flat on my wife’s bike patched
• Axle on my bike rebuilt
• Wife’s rear wheel straightened (after she spent time riding through a rough ditch)
• My brakes adjusted
• My axle adjusted again

Repairs that are imminent:

• Wife’s front tire needs to be replaced
• Her front wheel has 2 broken spokes as well as several loose ones
• A need for carrying bags/basket on my bike

I will get some tools and do most of the work myself. I have a nice spoke wrench sitting in the drawer of my room in Florida. But that does not help alot here. The pastor we are working with recommended a place that will have a good selection of bike specific tools that I may visit tomorrow.

The next big adventure is to take my bike on the train to get myself downtown with the bike and then I can get anywhere I need to go. The buses don’t have a way to tote your bike with you, so you either have to ride into town (we live outside of town by a couple of miles) or take the bike on the train.

We will keep looking for bikes for our kids, but so far we have not found any good deals. I am nervous about our daughter (6 years old) using a bike to actually go anywhere, but it would be a great help if our 120+ pound son had a bike of his own to ride instead of riding on the back of mine.

We have moved into our new house for the next couple of years. It is a nice place. Very rustic feeling. There is a huge fireplace that I just can’t wait for it to get cold enough to use. The stairs are made from rough cut wood, but sanded and waxed to a nice slippery shine. So slippery that our daughter lost her footing on the last four steps and landed smack on her back and slid the rest of the way down. When she hit the bottom of the stairs her legs crumpled under her and she immediately fell forward doing a faceplant right onto the tile floor.

We are getting around with bikes, taxis, buses and shoe leather. It is nice living in a place that has good, cheap public transportation. We may eventually get a car, but at this point I think we are going to be just fine without one.

There are neighborhood markets for just about anything we need on a regular basis. Wal-Mart is also just a 5 minute bike ride from the house. But if the Wal-Mart trip is going to generate more bags of stuff than will fit in the basket on front of the bike, we have to walk 10-15 minutes to get there and take a cab back home with the loot.

We can be in downtown La Plata in about 20 minutes for $0.50 on the local buses.

We really enjoy the church we are working in. The pastor will probably become a lifelong friend. Even though he is about 10 years younger than we are, we have learned quite a bit from him and his preaching. It is an honor to be able to assist him in the ministry God has used him to start.

We are still getting some basic things together. Trying to get all the utilities worked out has been my big challenge this week. One of the terms of the rental contract was that we would put all utilities in our name. I still have one more to go. When I was at that office the other day there  was a line of 58 people which caused me to walk out the door and try again when I can get there first thing in the morning. Friday will be the day I attempt to make that trip.

So it has begun, our life in Argentina. I look forward to telling you all about it.

I found Travis’ name and looked up his website. Come to find out, while I did not know him personally, it seems that we had a lot of mutual friends in the ministry. I sent him a quick email and he replied positively about doing an interview. When we got on Skype together I asked him what he knew about Missionary Talks. Turns out he had never even heard of Missionary Talks previous to my email. That is not unusual for the missionaries I interview, but the fact that he was gung-ho about doing the interview with me made me think he probably was a listener.

We are in the middle of trying to get ready for our move to Argentina while also being involved in a pastor’s conference this week, traveling to a church in Kentucky this weekend and spending most of next week in a mission’s conference in Tennessee. I am trying to do anything I can to distract me from the fact that I should be packing for a major move in 13 days. So, I spent all morning yesterday recording an interview and editing it. Seemed like the responsible thing to do.

As an added bonus to this episode, if you go to the Missionary Talks fan page on Facebook you can listen to a clip of the interview that did not survive the editing process, but was a very interesting section of our conversation. Don’t forget to become a fan if you go there.

Yes, the above linked Twitter account is the account where I say more mature type things as opposed to my other Twitter account which is the real me.

Mary:

• Focused on the most important–worshiping God (Christ). Luke 10:38-42
• Faithful in trials. John 11:21-40
• Forsook her greatest possession. Mark 14:3

Judas:

• Criticized intimate worship. Mark 14:4
• Complained about God’s work. Mark 14:4. 5
• Confided with wicked people. Mark 14:10, 11

What struck me is that while many look at missionaries and think that we are willing to give up many things to go live on a foreign field, most of us don’t see that as a hardship. However, we struggle with giving up some things. Maybe your struggle is the thought of giving up regular electricity, or moving away from family. We do give up those things, but personally my struggles are in giving up things of even lesser value.

I don’t think I fall into the category of a Judas, but I am not sure I am a Mary either. Sure, I am willing to give up some comforts to be a missionary, but am I willing to forsake what I see as materialistically important? I am not sure I am there yet.

The reason for doing a video version is that many of our friends are Deaf. This would allow them to get content in their language while still making it accessible for the hearing. Meaning that I would both sign and speak each one of the updates.

I don’t plan on this being a traditional podcast in that I will provide content that the general public might want to consume. Rather it will be simple, short updates about what is going on with us.

What do you think? I know that those who pray for us would like more regular content so that they know how better to pray. Is this the best way to deliver that content? I have intentionally avoided using my prayer letter mailing list as an “update” medium. I would rather those who are more connected with us go to the website and get that additional information. Do you agree?

**What is meant by “podcast”? This is a format for providing content that the “subscriber” can receive automatically via software that grabs the new information when it is available. All the content will be available at the website to view on-line, but by making it a podcast that simply means that the user could go to one piece of software to consume all the content, i.e., iTunes.

There are also forums where you can discuss miscellaneous topics in your language of choice. Currently they boast 10 languages that you can learn on the site. Registration is free and there is quite a bit of study you can do without having to shell out bucks. But for paying customers you can get personalized tutoring based on your needs as represented in the reading and audio portions of the site.

You can also interact with real people. But what Internet junkie would want to do that? I will stick to the training sessions and forums where social interaction is limited.