Magic City Marquee, Welcoming New Readership

I would like to take a moment to welcome a new sect of readership. This blog has been picked up by al.com, and you can find it here: Magic City Marquee. I chose that name because of the Birmingham-centric nature of this blog, through which I hope to bring to light the nuances and underappreciated aspects of this city. Additionally, I get out and explore Alabama as much as possible, sharing it here, and generally hoping to entertain as much through misadventure as with executing planned excursions.

So in an attempt to acclimatize any new readers as to what to expect here, I have linked some past blog posts as a sampling:

• Warded Off by Drunken Hillbillies :: Went camping on the banks of the Cahaba River near Centreville. It went badly.
• Oxmoor Road Tunnel in Homewood :: I think the title kind of tells you what to expect here.
• Bovine, Barn, and a Misplaced Van in Blount County :: A rural scene from Blount County.
• Huntsville Half Marathon :: In November, I ran the Huntsville Half Marathon with a friend, my second half.

I hope you will enjoy the offerings here and choose to make it a part of your regular perusal on the interwebs. Please feel free to leave comments and contact me with any questions.

Pecans :: Morris, Alabama

Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, Atkeson Trail

On my way up to Huntsville on Friday (in order to run the Huntsville Half Marathon the following day), I decided to stop at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge on the Tennessee River, near Decatur, Alabama. I didn't have a great deal of time, so I stopped at the Visitor Center where I found a nice half-mile trail, called the Atkeson Trail. This little hike contained all sorts of flora from bamboo to a bald cypress grove, hackleberry to red oak.

In addition to carrying my Panasonic LX3, I have just acquired an iPhone 4 and wanted to test its abilities. I used the iPhone to take the first two photos below.

And while I was pleased enough with the results I achieved, it certainly can't replace a camera, except in a pinch. Just too many limitations. I did download the ProCamera (which gives you greater control over focus and exposure) and Adobe Photoshop Express (which has some nice little post-processing options), which increased some functionality.

The below photos were the best of the photos taken with the Panasonic LX3, which is quickly approaching the its second anniversary with me. It was my first digital camera, and I have just loved this thing.

Huntsville Half Marathon

In February, I ran my first half marathon, the Mercedes Half Marathon, in Birmingham. In July, I set about looking for the next Half I would run and came across the Huntsville Half Marathon on November 12, which gave me plenty of time to re-train (following a very lazy June) and cooler temps to run in. I then convinced my friend Mark Gouge to run with me; it would be his first Half.

So with each short run, long run and cross training day, D-day drew nigh. And on Friday, I went to the thrift store to pick up throw-away sweatshirts for Mark and myself. I was incredibly fortunate to find these lovely bowl game sweatshirts from 1998 (below).

USC-TCU at the Sun Bowl, and Tennessee-FSU at the Fiesta Bowl

The Huntsville Half is a much smaller race than the Mercedes, with about 950 registered runners. On Friday evening we went to pick up our SWAG bags and numbers.

 Due to the slow nature of our pace, Mark and I elected to start at the very back of the pack. We ended up placing in the mid-600s, meaning we passed about a third of the field. So here's a day, in a slideshow (but for those of you using portable Apple products that don't support Flash, you can find the gallery containing these same photographs: here).

And since finishing was really the highest of priorities for Mark and myself, here's a video of us doing just that.