Discussion: Harriman Training Camp

There will be a US Team(s) training camp run in conjunction with this year's Hudson Highlander in Harriman St. Park. The training camp will commence on Thursday 8th and there will be training on the 8th, Friday the 9th, Saturday the 10th and we all plan on running the Highlander on the 11th.

I expect more information to be posted but for now, if you are a member of either the senior team or the junior team you should be thinking about how you can come to make some or all of this camp! Contact Mike to get put on the email list for this.

Space may be limited but all others who are interested in this opportunity should contact US Team coach Mike Waddington ( jm.waddington @ gmail ) to inquire about availability.

Please keep in mind Rockhouse and Jackie Jones maps are embargoed for the TT 2010.

Well, I guess that narrows down where this year's Highlander will be. Or not.

If you are coming, might be a good idea to brush up on your French.

Pourquoi? Les gens qui parlent français seront partis avant de quand je suis fini. Ah, peut-etre je peux parler avec Mr. Breton...

(And I think I really screwed up the conjugation there... been too long...)

It looks good enough to me.

Wait. I'm with JJ. The only talking where I'll be in the race is grunts of pain and exhaustion. The language is universal and you needn't worry about conjugation.

Your written french is reasonably solid JJ.
We need to slow those French runners down so that you can run with them.
There is a very large French (well, creole) speaking community just a few miles from Harriman. Plenty of restaurant there: si nous leur donnons un grand dîner la nuit avant, peut-être ils seront plus lents.
( if we give them a big dinner the night before, maybe they will be slower)

I'M SUPER JEALOUS!!!!!! i want to come soooo badly but i can't :( I have to sit the silly SATs that weekend and my parents won't let me come after :( although you would be done by then anyway. I hope you all enjoy it and learn a ton!

How do you say "Will you sign my jersey?" In french?

Well, that's funny! And ironic too, because to be 13 and taking the SATs?--probably 100% of the people who will run the Highlander would trade places with you faster than you can say "text messaging", if they had the chance!

Fapos>>"Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir?"

I would not advise saying that to any of them (unless they happen to be a particularly cute girl and you are feeling particularly bold)...

Hopefully I will be able to come on Saturday....must find a way to get out of mandatory football game attendance...

ACampbell is 18 (or will be by year's end)

Oh. That's different. In that case, nobody would want to trade places with her. Who would want to spend the rest of their good years taking SATs?

Maybe I am missing something--what does ACampbell's age have to do with anything?

It looks as though JJ ought to have no trouble making himself understood but he did use the wrong conjugation and, getting nitpicky, he said he expects the French speakers will leave before he is finished (rather than before he has finished), i.e. taking him at his word, he expects to die or otherwise meet his end sometime after they leave. Here's to it being well after.

More importantly, it is my experience that the gentlemen in question speak English just fine, so if you're fast enough to catch up, jabber away en anglais.

That's for sure.

Also, and I am sure jtorranc knows this far better than I do, but the criticism hinges on the idiomatic expression "to be finished" being invariant between French and English. Is it?

Pretty much, though I think it's actually a formal more than idiomatic distinction in French - it was certainly one of the traps for English speakers we had to learn to avoid in my French immersion schooling.

The ambiguity over exactly what sort of doom "finished" refers to is also more or less the same.

And I believe the phrase "je suis terminé" doesn't imply doom but just that you are finished with your meal.

It's amazing and a little scary that I can relate to a thread that starts out announcing an event and end up as a discussion of french idioms....go figure.

All part of the plan to make sure that team folks know that some special French guys are going to be there. And they better get their act together and be there too.

Remember, the only thing worse than bad PR is no PR at all. And this thread isn't even bad PR.

http://www.tero.fr/

c'est terrible, non ?

Time to present the Highlander rumors:
1) Tero will be handicapped with mirrored maps.
2) There are three loops and the trail run on two maps.
3) The race food is exclusively croissants.
4) There is a loop without any useful trails.
5) The King/Queen of the Mountain has 90 meters of climb.
6) The start signal will trigger immediate head scratching.
7) Any American finishing within an hour of the French guys will receive an chocolate croissant.
8) The course setter upgraded the course to 42.195 k just for fun.
9) The best training for the Highlander is a 13 hour run from Suffern to Bear Mountain and back.

According to Wikipedia, #'s 1-8 are confirmed facts, while #9 is a basic universal principle that holds true regardless the situation.

You're releasing a large flock of lice as the start signal?

For #7, does it matter which French guys?

Well folks, the non-team member camp positions have been filled. If you were too late to grab a spot I suggest signing up for the
Highlander and crushing all the exhausted camp-goers.

Just remember to bring your nit combs with you!

And I guess if we beat the French guys by more than an hour, no chocolate croissants.... :-(

I wish so much that I could go....

Next year...

6B) Mosquitoes, flies, trapezoid wingeaters and Australian kangaroo lice or the first look on the map will trigger a monkey like fast reflex to the back of your head.
7B) Any American who is within an hour of a French WOC competitor (bee stings and skewered legs encountered by the French will void the offer) gets the chocolate croissant.
7C) If a US or Canadian runner beats any French WOC competitor by an hour or more, PG will bake them a perfect French souffle on the grill.
10) The longest leg is 29.125 times longer than the shortest leg.
11) Control #3 has the best view. #16 is at a house sized boulder.

While the Team camp may be filled, there have been rumors of a parallel, "unofficial" camp.

As a local with some time on his hands, I would be interested in participating in some training activities. Perhaps "unofficial" exercises could simply happen after the Team does them.

Tell us how many lucky non-team members that were allowed to join? Was there any favoritism involved in the selection process? How about any exclusion criteria? Hopefully there was some sort of bias involved.

I'm pretty sure that monetary contributions to the Team Fund were not a factor. But for such a limited group, perhaps they should have been.