Training Log Archive: PG

I don't know, maybe I was running a little too quick, though it didn't feel stressful, but my calf started twinging again. Stopped. Pissed. Not real sore, but enough that it's a definite step backwards, and indicates no O' this weekend. Had been planning on going down to Trout Brook Valley for Joe's event. As I said, rather pissed.

But my golf is getting better and better. That may seem like little concern to most rational folks, but I have had in the back of my mind that it is one thing I could keep doing in my sunset years, well past the time when O' has been packed away. But I was playing very little up to this month, and playing badly, and not enjoying it, and thinking, hmm, maybe golf isn't going to be a lifetime sport. But October has been different, completely different. Played a bunch, much better too, and definitely enjoying every time out.

I wonder if people orienteered more than whatever the average is even for very active orienteers -- maybe once a week? -- then maybe they might get a good bit better? And enjoy it a lot more?

Anyway, very zippy today, 2:20 to get around. Helps if you're not having to look in the woods.

C • frequency 6

C • so 2

A couple more things I want to add to my story from a couple days ago about running Sunderland's finances.

The first is one of those things that you walk away from with the message -- hopefully I've learned something from that stupidity and I won't ever do it again.

There was no such thing as a year when we had enough money, so we were always looking for ways to economize. And one of the committee members most eager to economize (i.e. cut) was this woman, maybe in her 60s, very conservative, totally lacking in empathy (or any other redeeming features as far I was concerned). But difficult as she was, you still had to listen to her, because there were lots of other people in town who shared her views, though usually not a majority.

As we were discussing wages, and what sort of cost-of-living increase to give (usually 2 or 3 percent), she suggested that we not give any increase at all to all the people who worked part-time for the town, on the theory that they had other income and weren't relying just on their town job to make ends meet. I don't remember the total savings from this, but it was probably about a thousand bucks. Neither trivial nor huge.

I went along with it. To my regret. Because when we published the budget, and the justification for this particular item, well, it just sounded mean. And it pissed off a bunch of people, like all the "volunteer" firemen, who got paid minimum wage when they were called out, hardly anything, but an essential and respected group in town, because the message that we were sending, even if was not intended, were that these people weren't important.

By the time town meeting came, we had reversed ourselves, but the damage was done. Took a while to repair it.

The second item was something that happened at town meeting a year later. We had worked our way through most of the agenda, and certainly through all the contentious items. As sometimes happens when the hour gets late, people would look at the time, look at the number of items left, do a little figuring, and there would be an unspoken consensus that if we moved things along, didn't talk too much, then we could finish that night and not have to come back the next night,

So this time it was getting close to midnight, we had been in hurry-up mode for a while, and there were only three items, and three votes, left. All three related to the same issue, that somehow we had made a deal with the state to sell to the state two little islands in the middle of the Connecticut River that belonged to the town. The state was going to assume liability for anything that happened on the islands (their main use was as an illegal campsite), the state was also going to take care of any maintenance or clean-up issues, and finally, the best part, the state was going to pay us $5,000 for the privilege. A very sweet deal.

For some reason we had to have three votes, different aspects of the deal, and each vote had to get a 2/3 majority to pass.

So the first issue is on the table. I gave a short explanation of the situation -- you had to be an idiot not to vote for it -- answered a question or two, no more discussion, the moderator called for a vote, let's try a voice vote, he said. He called for the Ayes, sounded like everyone (we were down to the hard-core, maybe 30 or 40 people). He called for the Nays, one lone voice, the pain-in-the-ass woman on my committee. Well, it was clearly more than 2/3, but on a voice vote the only way you can be sure is if it is unanimous. So it looked like there would have to be a standing vote.

But the moderator had just been to moderator school and he had learned a little about how to be a power moderator. And he banged his gavel, and with a trace of a smile on his face he said, I declare it unanimous. And banged his gavel again, and called for the next item on the agenda. And the woman was sputtering and turning quite red in the face. And a few others who had caught on were smiling.

Second issue. No more discussion needed. Call for the Ayes, almost everyone. Call for the Nays, the woman again, louder. I declare it unanimous, says the moderator, down came the gavel again.

Third issue. Just like the second. More people are laughing. She is furious. And then the final vote, to adjourn, and all but one of us is walking out in a very good mood.

She never came to a town meeting again.

Normally I would be troubled by the way she was treated. Normally I might have regrets. But in this case she really deserved it, she was just being her usual difficult self, nothing useful to offer.

As I think back on these two matters, of course it is easy to find parallels with USOF. The first is a classic case of not thinking through an issue, not thinking of the message that will be perceived even if it is not the message that was intended to be sent. I believe the phrase in politics is having a tin ear.

And the second, well, there are times when you just need to get things done, when it is obvious what needs to be done. And then you need more people who look for ways to move forward, and fewer people who look for ways to slow down.

I've still got more to say about last weekend, but that will wait a little longer....

Did a lot of walking today. Met up with Peter Goodwin at a spot roughly halfway between us, west of Manchester, for a round. Off before dawn, on the course before 9, beautiful day, no one in front of us. Done by noon, smiles all around.

And then since it was such a nice day, and life is short, stopped at another course on the way home. More smiles.

Actually did a little training, on the treadmill, partly because it was raining but mainly so I could stop if things complained too much. Ended up doing the 3 miles I had planned. 9:20, 8:27, 7:49.

Ribs have gotten much sorer over the last couple of days. Quite strange -- actually managed to get out a play a little golf, swinging seemed OK, but walking felt like I had a knife stuck in my back a lot of the time. Running today was reasonably tolerable, though I'm sure some ibuprofen helped.

Mainly out of my own curiosity, but also maybe for the benefit of George and Hannah (and other troubled orienteers), I figure that on Sunday I checked my compass carefully at least 63 times. And I used 42 different handrails. In just 5.4 km. The actual number of compass uses was almost certainly higher.

As a result the orienteering was quite easy. :-)

C • Compass peeks 4

Feeling a little battered, the usual post-O' situation. Primary ailment this time is a rib job. Crashed going down to the next last control on Sunday, head first, moving pretty quickly (for me), felt like I'd just strained my back afterwards but that was just a side effect. I've got the key symptom of a rib job -- sneezing is a definite no-no.

I hope it is a less serious rib job than usual, though that may just be wishful thinking.

Other than that, not too bad. A few thorns to pick out, a little stiff. Clearly my incredible tapering plan worked.

My routes from Saturday and Sunday.

C • I witnessed that crash 2

Time for a lengthy story....

On the plane trip home from Wisconsin a pleasant memory, not thought of for many years, suddenly resurfaced. I have no idea why. Before it disappears again, I need to write it down. As is often the case on this page, it has nothing to do with orienteering. Though in a way it does.

This was in the early 1990s. I was living then just where I am living now, Sunderland, MA, a small town right along the Connecticut River in western Massachusetts. The population was about 3,000. An old farming community that over the years had slowly shifted in the direction of a bedroom community, with the major employer being the nearby University of Massachusetts.

We moved there in 1984. At some point thereafter I felt I should get involved in town affairs, most of which were handled on a volunteer basis, and after looking around a bit as to what might suit me, and what I might be suited for, I got myself appointed to the town's finance committee. The finance committee's role in town was to develop the annual town budget, monitor it throughout the year, and in general ensure that the town's finances were handled in a proper manner. We had a treasurer and an accountant, both paid, who did the daily work, so we didn't have to do that, but we did have overall responsibility for the public monies.

I got on the committee in 1989, I think there were 7 members. Either I had a knack for it, or just more interest, but by the following year I was chair, and that lasted for 6 more years. The annual budget was about $4 million, plus there was debt, plus some enterprise funds, overall some reasonably complicated stuff. The fiscal year started July 1 each year. We would start budget hearings in January, bring in all the various parts of town government and the schools and go over what they were asking for, then come up with a plan by late March. Then go sell it to the town, the final step of which was annual town meeting. That was like defending a thesis. Stand up in front of a couple hundred people, explain, they could ask anything they wanted, they could offer amendments. And maybe at the end of a couple of hours of debate you had the budget you started with. Or maybe there were some changes, though usually not much. Because we had put a lot of work into it and done it well.

It was always interesting. Even when times were good we were going over every part of the town's operations, looking for efficiencies or for better ways of doing things. Decided to privatize the sewer plant. Decided not to privatize the highway department. Decided to set up a special fund to deal with deferred maintenance. Convinced the volunteer firemen to accept billing for their ambulance services, with the income to fund replacement of the ambulance.

Some things were tough. One year money was real tight and the school got less than it wanted and when the school year started, the fourth grade teacher had 34 kids in her class. I scheduled a hearing, went to visit the class beforehand, there is nothing like seeing something with your own eyes. We clearly needed to allocate more money from reserves. The hearing was contentious, parents on one side, old folks and conservatives on the other, we passed it 4-3 in the committee and then by a narrow margin at a special town meeting. The right decision. And it taught me a good lesson -- go to the source, talk to the people involved, don't just rely on hearsay. I got in the habit of visiting the town garage, the fire station, town hall, just to make sure I knew what was going on.

There were at least a couple of really tough years, the state's finances were bad so they reduced the amount of aid they gave us. We cut, and then we cut some more. And we had a problem collecting some of our taxes. There were four large apartment complexes in town, and one of them in particular was delinquent on its taxes. A classic slum landlord. We filed liens and took him to court and at the last minute, just before the court would seize the property he would pay just enough to hang on. He owed us close to $500,000. Meanwhile we were looking at laying off teachers.

The case was back in court, down in Springfield. I went down just to see what would happen. Smallish courtroom. Judge, no jury, lawyers for both sides, a couple of court officers. I think I was the only one in the spectator seats. Both sides had their say, lots of dry stuff, technicalities of the law. It seemed like it was likely to just end up in more delay. At some point I stood up and asked the judge if I could say something. He looked quite surprised, who was I? And I told him, and then said I just thought he ought to know how this non-payment was affecting the lives of real people, and I told him what it was doing to our town. Maybe 5 minutes. Sat down. The process ended shortly thereafter with the judge deferring a decision.

The judge ruled a few days later, and he decided it was time to get serious. Within a month we had a check for not quite $500,000. I wish I remembered more of the details, but I won't ever forget the results.

=================

Perhaps I was reminded of this by the thoughts of the USOF budget that was voted on this past weekend. There are obviously differences between USOF's budget and Sunderland's budget. But there should be similarities in the process, in how the budget is developed, and reviewed, and presented, and justified, and finally voted on.

So far USOF's process seems to leave a lot of room for improvement. Perhaps next year it will go better.

C • Great story 22

Warm-up, feeling a little stiff.

Day 2 in Wisconsin. Not a championship event but still everything was first-class again. What a fine meet.

Good run, better than yesterday. Ran a little harder, though my conditioning still sucks. But I certainly put out more effort. Navigating was mostly excellent, just a little diddling around several times in the latter part of the course, not getting lost, just not being very efficient. But still very pleased with both the effort and the result.

Will said at some point that it seemed like yesterday's AP post indicated quite a bit of displeasure with my orienteering. That wasn't intended. I was just remembering how much I have loved this kind of negative terrain, and how over the last 30 years I have had some wonderful runs in such stuff. But obviously I can't move as well as I used to (by a long shot) nor see as well, so it's not quite the same feeling (although there were a couple of legs yesterday and maybe 3 or 4 today that had that good feeling) -- but it was still really fun.

Stopped on the way to the Milwaukee airport at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Beautiful. No time to visit the Andy Warhol exhibit but just seeing the building was a real treat.

And then a quick tour of the lakefront and downtown. Lovely afternoon, lots of people out, beautiful. As opposed to Friday when we arrived, rainy, dismal, looked like the last place in the world you would want to live.

C • Art Museum 5

Green Day 2 - Splits

US Classic (or Individual?) Champs at Greenbush, Wisconsin.

Our traditional original championships, except this year it was only one day. (It's been one day a couple of times in the past, but that was because the other day got tossed out.) I've always been a big fan of the 2-day event -- if you're leading after the first day you have to sleep on it and then go do it again the next day. If you're behind, you still have hopes. In either case, the event lasts for 24+ hours instead of being over in just an hour or two.

Hopefully next year it will go back to two days. And I think one other benefit of that will be to draw a bigger field. The field today was good, a lot of the best folks here, but not deep.

I had low expectations. Partly because my body has been complaining a bunch since I did the 50-miler, and partly because my focus for the year in orienteering was this summer in Europe, so any orienteering I might do this fall has seemed not so important. Seems silly to say that about our national championship, but it is what it is.

But low expectations didn't mean not trying. The pre-race plan was just two items -- simplify the orienteering, and go to all the controls. The latter seems to be a necessary concern these days. The former was just an extension of what I was doing in Europe -- simplify, simplify, simplify -- so that you can go both more safely and also faster.

And there was also the concern that my left calf would crap out....

But it turned out to be a good day. The leg felt OK all the way to the end. My orienteering was so-so. Actually, I seemed to start out quite tentatively, and it wasn't until halfway through the course that I felt like I got moving a little. The motivation was that I had just screwed up #6, and just as I got back in touch with reality Ethan Childs and Tim Parson came by, both moving faster than I had been moving.

We punched 6 together, and then took slightly different routes to 7, and I never saw either again. And was quite pleased to get in before them, though Ethan still got me by three minutes on the day.

But the rest of the way I felt that I was moving better, and also more in touch with the map, and reading it better on the run. Just a little bit of the feeling like I used have much more often. Terrain like this is so sweet, and I used to feel totally comfortable in it while running as fast as I could (such as WMOC up at Camp Ripley in 1997), but now it seems that my ability has deteriorated significantly. Can't run so well, can't read the map when running very well, can't remember what I've seen on the map, and therefore just generally much less sure of myself.

So it was a lot of fun today to have at least a few legs where it felt a little bit like old times.

I think I ended up 3rd on the Green X, Ethan was 47, Ernst 49. I think I was first M60, Walter Siegenthaler next in 58, Jeff Saeger next at 60, roughly.

And as far as the pre-race plan, most of the time I simplified pretty well. And I did go to all the controls. :-)

Course is here. I'll post my routes later.

C • Nice job 8

C • calf stuff 7

Decent warm-up, also well timed, got to the start just as I was being called up.

Elevatoring with Sandy and Valerie.

Green X Day 1 US Champs - Splits

Event: US Individual Champs 2009
 

To Milwaukee. Bouncy, but survived. Did get to see Air Force One at Logan.

One last day to taper. Not wanting to risk not tapering enough, I blew off the model event. It was raining....

Feel totally unprepared to orienteer tomorrow.

Continuing my taper for this weekend.... :-)

Back from Maine this evening after two different stops for more walking. Very fine.

Seems like a lot of venom around AP. I've heard it said that most relationships that founder do so around the issues of money and sex. So far just the former seems to be sufficient.

AOWN moment -- So it was about 5:45, starting to get a little dark, I had one more hole to go. I'd just played a hole with a couple of ponds and a nice flock of geese feeding and pooping on the fairway, maybe 30 or 40 of them. I noticed a guy heading my way in a golf cart.

Are you chasing me off? (Maybe he wanted to close the gate to the parking and there were only a couple of cars left.)

Nope, going after them, he said, pointing towards the geese.

They seem to be enjoying themselves, I said, for lack of anything else to say.

Well, he said, don't be surprised if you hear a shotgun go off. Just giving you a warning.

And he drove off in the direction of the geese. And a minute later I hear a Boom, and then two more, Boom, Boom. And a minute later, one more Boom.

Another guy was in the parking lot, looked like he might work there.

Is he trying to scare them or hit them, I asked.

Hit them, I hope.

================

Aren't there laws about this? Though he may just have been trying to scare them. I was too far from the scene by then to get a body count, if there was one.

C • laws 1

C • Money and sex 5

Time for a road trip.

Drove to Belgrade Lakes, Maine, for a round of golf. Of course it's silly. But it was nevertheless a totally fine way to spend the day, as long as one excuses the waste of some gasoline.

Got a note from Mike Fritz a couple of days ago, he was heading there with a friend, with a friend of the friend coming up from Portland to join them. Was I interested?

Of course. We were going here, Mike had been before and said it was his all-time favorite place. And the late-season half-price rates were in effect.

Had a wonderful time. Fabulous course. Good company, the friend, and the friend of the friend, both very friendly. Regular ventures into the woods to look for balls, mostly theirs. The usual mix of shots from all of us, some appalling, many undistinguished, a few brilliant. Mike and I had a battle as to who could behave better (you got extra points the more challenges your golf game threw at you), I'm not sure what the final tally was but we both scored pretty high. Had an 86, better than expected, included a 9, but there is always a bad hole or two, or more. Totally satisfied. And then a stop a local tavern for a little food and drink and more good company before going our separate ways.

Didn't think about orienteering, or training, all day.... :-)

Gary has sent out the following. Note in particular items 1 and 3. I think these are good ideas. First, remember that money is tight. Second, the Junior team is in tougher shape financially right now, therefore the 2K direct to them. Third, the deal on the sanctioning fees gives the possibility of a reasonable amount of team support. Fourth, given that money is tight, this may not be that much, won't know for a year, but it feels a lot better than the goose eggs that were in the first pass at the budget.

I am sure some will think it insufficient (and others maybe too much?). I think it's a good step in the right direction.

The latest budget proposal is here.

Things are changing. It will be interesting to see what develops. And also a challenge to keep adapting....

===================================

Here is version 3 of the 2010 USOF proposed budgets. This will be the final version before the Board meeting. Any changes to the budget proposal will need to be made at the Board meeting.

Some substantive changes:
1. $2000 is being transferred to the Junior Team Fund from the Operating
Fund
2. The starting balance of the Sponsorship & Marketing Fund has been
reduced by $3400, to reflect 2009 planned spending for the fund, and USOF Rebranding has also been reduced by $3400.
3. An agreement with the U.S. Teams has been reached, to transfer any 2010 A meet sanctioning fees in excess of $33,000 directly to the Junior Team Fund (50%) and the Team Fund (50%). This is in lieu of direct support from the Operating Fund. It is hoped that many USOF clubs will choose to host A meets and many people will choose to participate in A meets, thereby directly helping our teams.

Gary Kraght
Chair - USOF Finance Committee

Still minimal training. Stopped at Northfield after the usual (at least in the last week or so) walk. Calf start to act up a little after a few minutes. Thought I would end up walking back to the car, but managed to jog back easily without it getting worse.

This is all so trivial, meaning the amount of exercise. Except I have had calf problems before, and they are not fun, and they can stop me dead, and it can easily mean a month or more off from running. So I am trying to be very careful.

At least I am doing a lot of walking.

C • Have you thought about using skins? 7

A new proposal to get a little funding for the teams next year is under consideration, depending on the level of sanctioning fees generated by A meets next year. Don't know yet if it will come to pass, or how the numbers will work out, but good to see some new thinking. Inspiration seems to have come from Gary, Glen, and Cristina. Progress!

Event: NEOC 2009 Club Championship
 

Back to the treadmill again. Maybe ok, hard to tell. But probably good enough. The goal is just to get back to running by next weekend. And I think that is doable.

The more I think about it, the more it seems like one of the things USOF ought to look at in its current budget crunch is what to do with ONA.

In all honesty, I hardly look at it. Most anything in there has been on the web a couple of months earlier. In this web era there are still a lot of good print publications, and even they are struggling. And ONA, well, it's pretty lame.

The budget situation is such that it's not just a one year but probably a several year crunch. At some point we are going to shut down ONA as a print publication. If that is the case, we should do it sooner rather than later. And we should start planning it right now.

The flip side of this is that our web presence needs to be seriously upgraded. And the planning for this ought to start right now too.

C • web presence 12

C • ONA 15

Back on the treadmill. Felt OK while I was doing it, but the calf seemed to tighten up right after I stopped. Got to keep working on it.

I believe there is a saying that a crises is a moment of opportunity. Now the current funding issue with the team is certainly not a crises (nothing involved in it is really all that important, not that we can't get rather hot and bothered by it), but it still offers an opportunity. An opportunity to look at the various things the team does, both individually and collectively, and the various things the federation does, again both individually and collectively. And hopefully think about what might benefit from some change.

We certainly shouldn't have a resistance to change. It's not like the current system has been a roaring success....

C • If this were a facebook ent... 2

Another short session, calf and back a little tender but not bad.

Strange the numbers you remember. Such as my time of birth, 9:44 am, 65 years ago. :-)

And old enough that I'm willing to let a little shit hit the fan from time to time. Such as the latest with the USOF proposed budget. If there's no money for competitive stuff, at least explain why, and explain what the longer term plan is. Right now the perceived message, rightly or wrongly, is USOF doesn't give a damn.

C • What?! 1

C • Damn, I missed it! 14

Wow, I post a little something about USOF's funding for the teams being eliminated, and I wait around a little while to see what the response might be, and the response count gets up to about 25, pretty good, but it's midday and I haven't made any progress on my prime activity for the day.

So I close the laptop and head for the golf course. Overcast and about 40, a definite chill in the air, but being out still always beats not being out.

I skip the warm-up, as usual, don't I ever learn, so the front nine (43) is a mix, some good and some not so good. But by the back nine (36) I am firing on all cylinders. Life is fine even if it feels like snow is about to arrive, being 65 isn't so bad, and coming within 14 strokes of shoot my age is about as close as I've ever come.

And then I get home and the thread has nearly 100 comments, various people pissed, Cristina offering a valiant defense, though part of me thinks that she should be defending USOF a little less vigorously under the circumstances, if she really thought about it.

The circumstances being that a first-class crappy job was done in presenting the budget, draft budget that it may be.

I say that because Tom and I went back and forth with Gary yesterday evening trying to get some simple answers, like why did you put the budget together this way. And he either couldn't or wouldn't provide them.

If he couldn't, then shame on him for putting a budget together without knowing what the priorities were. And if he wouldn't, then we've just been given the mushroom treatment (kept in the dark, fed a bunch of shit).

I also sent a copy of the e-mails to Clare, to Glen, and to all the VPs. Not a response from any of them.

Now Gary's a real good person, so this was even more perplexing. At some point I just figured it was time to go public. But do it in as non-inflammatory language as I could.

Funny thing is, guess what showed up in my in-box this morning -- a copy of Glen's draft for the strategic planning meeting. No mention from anyone that such a document existed. So of course it got posted, as it should have been a long time ago.

Now I'm wondering, were any minutes kept of the Rochester meeting and circulated? Or any summary written of any sort? I would sure hope so.

If such a document exists, and if by any chance it could show up in my in-box (pg@crocker.com), that would be mighty fine. :-)

In the meantime, I'll share my last e-mail to Gary yesterday evening ----

=========================

Gary,

Look, if you want to cutoff funding for the competitive side of USOF, it will survive. Or at least I will.... :-)

But at least be more open about it.

You're already going to piss off a bunch of people, just for cutting all support, and the general message that sends.

Why make it worse? Why publish the budget only on the BoardNet where most people won't see it? Why claim it follows the priorities set by the Board, when those priorities aren't spelled out? Why suggest we work up a counter-proposal as an extension of the Rochester discussion when we don't know what was being discussed at Rochester?

I would have thought that the Finance Committee should not only be proposing a budget. It should also

(1) Sell the budget, i.e. give as much supporting information as possible to make the case for the budget (the narrative as I called it earlier), and

(2) Offer an alternative or two.

Right now I would have a real hard time putting together an alternative. I don't know how hard or soft any of the revenue figures are. I don't know what priorities we are trying to be faithful to. I don't know the implications of any possible changes I might suggest on the expense side.

But in the spirit of trying to be constructive, I will offer two alternatives:

-- A very small change -- cut the support for teams and coaching and juniors by 80 or 90%, but not by 100%. Cutting 80 or 90% sends a message that times are really tight. Cutting 100% sends a message that USOF doesn't give a damn.
-- A bigger change -- eliminate ONA as a print publication. Publish it, or some version of it, online only. Reallocate the freed-up funds.

I'm sure there are others.

Peter

==============================

It was clear to me that this budget presentation was being handled unlike any I've ever been involved with. And I don't mean that as a compliment.

If people are pissed, they have a right to be.

C • less vigorously 27

Holy cow, AP shuts down for 15 minutes to celebrate (or mourn?) my 65th birthday.

C • shutdown 1

Time to see if a little exercise is possible, and the easiest way to do that is with the treadmill, since I can stop any time if things start hurting. Note that there are some parts of me that may hurt and I don't worry about, but others (like my calf muscles) that I have to watch out for because they can stop me real fast when they go bad.

Seemed OK. Just planned a mile, for starters, and did that. Hopefully a few easy and short sessions will get me back going again. Need to make a little progress before Wisconsin next weekend.

Back is still fragile/sore but not terrible, ditto for the hands. Haven't helped the cause of either by spending time on the golf course the last three days, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Yesterday was perfect, upper 40s and rain seemed imminent, but it held off and I had the whole course to myself, got around very quickly. And the game is coming back, definitely better than earlier in the year.

Also bought a hybrid (that's a club, not a car). Had some credit I had to spend, use it or lose it. Not sure it will do any good, but why not try.

Got a note from Ronny Angell, boss of Odyseey Adventure Racing, real nice guy, he organized the "AR Ogaine" in western Virginia that I went to last November with my "At One With Nature" teammates Barb, Kissy, and Peggy.

It was an interesting variation on a rogaine. The terrain was split into 4 quadrants. You had to do the quadrants one at a time. The control points were given to you one quadrant at a time, just UTM coordinates, had to plot them on the map, then do as much of that quadrant as you could before the 6 hours were up, then come back, get the coordinates for the next quadrant, and so on. If you came back early, you could get a head start on the next quadrant.

Prior to doing it, I thought that all sounded a bit lame, but it turned out quite nice. Plotting the points took longer than I thought, you didn't want to make a mistake. So it gave you about 20-25 minutes of enforced rest, plotting plus eating/drinking a little plus maybe changing batteries or shoes. Quite civilized. And since we were in early November, night was about 14 hours long, so it was very nice psychologically to get a couple breaks.

Another thing that really surprised me was that it was OK to go solo. In fact that's what most of the people were doing. Though it also seemed like some of the solos were grouping up, at least for part of the time.

All that has had me thinking about doing it again, but as a solo, just to see what it's like. Of course I'd have my friend Tesla with me. But it would still be interesting to see how freaky it was. But given my current condition, I'd say the odds of doing it are very slim.

Anyway, Ronny is looking for more entries. As I said, he does a real good job organizing it and the points were all in the right place. Map was USGS, but quite sufficient. More information about the event is here.

Didn't get the camera fixed, but got an alternative method for extracting the photos, which seems to work fine. :-)

Tero checking out his kingdom before everyone arrived for the relay....



Though not everyone treated him like royalty.



And a couple of other shots from the relay, the start (from left: Alex, Lori, Nikolay, Andrew, Ali, Kat, Emily, Samantha, Hannah, Cristina), and the podium (from left: Matthieu, Emily, Sam, JB, Nikolay, Eddie).

C • 64 in a 40. That's going to... 18

Results from the Training Camp --

1. First event was the bowling, Thursday evening, 13 participants, 2 games each. There was some remarkable bowling, and the word remarkable, as in other orienteering contexts, can mean either remarkably good or remarkably bad.

Andrew: 187 + 103 = 290 (remarkable deterioration)
Matthieu: 117 + 120 = 237
Ian: 99 + 137 = 236
Linda: 115 + 121 = 236
John F.: 144 + 91 = 235 (also remarkable deterioration)
Brendan: 129 + 105 = 234
Jean-Baptiste: 85 + 146 = 231 (remarkable improvement)
PG: 90 + 109 = 199
Alex: 102 + 91 = 193
Tero: 99 + 85 = 184
Hannah: 73 + 102 (remarkably bad, then remarkably good)
François: 84 + 75 (remarkably hopeless)
Emily: 77 + 72 (well, she's Canadian)

-- In the first game, the team of Linda, Tero, Emily, and Ian had a total 7 pins after the first frame, all from Ian with one ball. The other 7 balls were in the gutter. It did get better.
-- Hannah had a total of 14 pins for her first 4 frames, then a strike, then a bunch more bad frames. In the second game after a bad start her last seven balls were strike, 3, gutter, strike, strike, strike, gutter. Sort of the way she orienteers?
-- Andrew was really good in the first game, but then he was a team captain in the second game and the pressure got to him.
-- And I had mistakenly thought I had beaten Tero both games when in fact we were 1-1. I guess there will have to be a rematch.

The raw data: game 1, game 2.

2. The second event was on Friday, and the competition was to see who could drive the fastest within the park, and you had to have proof of your speed. Clear winner was Tero, clocked by the park police at 64 mph in the 40 mph zone. He was claiming something about mixing up miles and kilometers....

I have photographic evidence if/when I get my camera working again.

3. Third event was the two-person relay Saturday morning. The course was set on paper by Tero, but he hadn't been out checking points so he could run too.

Teams were made to pair the French with women and to try topair the rest with someone they wouldn't normally run with.

Results are here.

4. And results from Saturday afternoon's rerun of the WOC-93 short final:

23:20 Tero
28:44 JB
30:17 Matthieu
32:56 Sergei Z
34:37 Ross
34:46 Nikolay
34:53 Clem
36:23 Jon
37:30 Eddie
38:11 Emily
38:17 Andrew
39:03 Vladimir
44:38 Samantha
46:36 Ian
46:57 Cristina
47:26 Ali
51:01 Hannah
72:52 Lori

Original results are here.

C • Canadians play 5-pin 3

C • Hubble Servicing on TV 3

Event: Hudson Highlander
 

Passed on the Highlander, no way I was ready for that. Drove home. Headed up to the power line, running, slowly, huffing and puffing. Back still a little sore but tolerable. But then left calf acted up again, a little lower down than last weekend. Don't know if it is referred pain from my back or what. Stopped immediately, slow walk back. Pissed. Conditioning sucks, weight is up, and I don't see a reversal in the near future.

---Note --- Maps are posted, plus a few more comments on the relay. Still need to add results but not until tomorrow....

A review of the Harriman training camp.

1. Pre-camp planning.

I'm not sure how long this training camp was in the works, as I'm only marginally involved in Team stuff these days. I wouldn't have had much interest in it, except that I'd heard that Tero was going to be there with a couple of friends, and I was curious to meet him and maybe see him in action. Participating in the camp wasn't appealing in my current state, nor was getting involved in organizing it, but it seemed like offering to hang controls would useful and would be a valid reason to be there. And also might make it easier to meet the French guys. So that's what I did, made my offer a couple of weeks ago.

And then Mike decided that he couldn't come, and was stepping down as coach too. So there was a bit of a leadership gap. But Eddie and Clem stepped up and got things organized, and the camp happened.

The plan was to start Thursday afternoon and run through Saturday afternoon, and then run the Highlander on Sunday. Hard training in the days leading up to the Highlander may not be the best preparation, but the thinking was, the training is more important than the Highlander and if you start the Highlander tired, so what.

Some Team members were coming for the whole thing (Eddie, Clem), some just for Friday and Saturday (Nikolay and Kat, though she only stayed part of each day), some just for Saturday (Cristina, Samantha, Ross, Ali), and some not at all. In addition, there was two promising juniors (Andrew Childs and Hannah Burgess) there the whole time plus a couple of Canadian team members (Emily and JT). And then in addition to that were several others, mostly CSU members. I'm not sure how it happened that they came (it was no problem as far as I was concerned), though I know there was some discussion about which and how many non-team members could take part. I never bothered to try to find out the details.

2. Thursday.

Eddie organized the training for Thursday. I met him there late morning to get enough of a head start to get the controls out in time. First was corridor training. Note that I had the whole map; participants had just corridors maybe 50-75 meters wide to use.

Corridors map.

Following that immediately was a control picking course --

Control picking map.

My timing was just about perfect. As I was hanging the last control Tero appeared. Glad I wasn't a minute later.

Folks arrived after a bit, with Eddie last, having not just run both courses but picked up all the controls in the process! Meanwhile Linda Kohn had arrived, and headed out to hang controls for the middle course for Friday morning. I went out to take care of the controls for the O' intervals for the next morning.

The others went off to our two wonderful hosts for the camp, Alan and Mairead Young, and Bernie and Liisa Breton. Both families were just unbelievably hospitable, including hosting dinner for all of us Friday at the Youngs and Saturday at the Bretons.

But for Thursday evening we went out for dinner, French guys included, at a local diner, and then bowling after that. Very good fun.

3. Friday

Clem had organized the training for Friday, with some help from Sandy who printed the maps. This was the only wet day, raining quite a bit in the morning, not much in the afternoon though the woods were still wet, though it really didn't make much difference.

First up were the O' intervals, to be run in small groups, with forked controls and breaks between each section to regroup and take a short break.

Intervals map.

Then there was a middle course. No route because Linda hung those.

Morning middle map.

Both these courses included sections with a mix of small features and patches of laurel, not at all easy. Other parts were wide open.

Meanwhile Linda and I were hanging controls for a rerun of the middle course from the Team Trials in 2003. We used stands for these to make sure we could get them in the right place (there is a real lack of trees in Harriman for hanging controls).

Lunch was both good and bad. Good because we all drove off to Sloatsburg to get lunch, all together, good company. Bad that it took quite a bit of time, so it was mid/late afternoon before they all started the TT course, and getting dark by the time some were finishing.

Team Trials middle map. Linda hung the 6 eastern controls.

Seems like everyone did all the training. The controls were left out in case anyone wanted to run any of the courses on Saturday.

Wonderful dinner at the Youngs, everyone there and a ton of food.

4. Saturday

The French guys had said they would organize a training for Saturday morning. Tero planned the courses at lunch on Friday and I hung the controls that afternoon, so all of them could run too.

It was a 2-person, 8-leg relay, so everyone ran 4 legs, total distance for each person was 5.6 km. Tero and I went off set up the start/finish while everyone else got a hands-on participatory warm-up led by François Gognon, another of the amazing French guys of the past decade. I gather the warm-up consisted of 10 minutes of jogging, and then 10-15 of running drills (crazy walks), and then a couple of uphill intervals to the start/finish.

The relay was excellent. Serious competition but also good karma. Winning team was Sam and J-B.

The format was two-person teams. Four legs run by each, the first three in varying order, then the last one common. The first three legs are shown in red on the map. That's what the lead-off runner got, but both runners on the team used just that one map for the first three legs each, i.e. the tag was just hand the teammate the map, they'd do same first leg, then both the second, then both the third. Six possible combinations, broke things up nicely. And then the final loop, just 800 meters, shown here in black, was actually on a separate map, again each teammate did it. Tero's time on the last leg was 3:38, Ross next best at 4:02, trying to hang with him, did good except on the uphills.

Relay map.

Back to the parking lot, which several folks pitching in to retrieve all the controls. A short but wonderful awards ceremony orchestrated by the French. Then off to lunch again, except for Ross who ran the morning middle course from the day before and picked up the controls too. Jon Torrance ran the TT course and picked up those controls. And Brendan, suffering from a sore knee, had skipped the relay and picked up the controls from the O-intervals.

Back from lunch, the serious part of the training camp, at least for Tero, was a rerun of the Short final from WOC-93. He was taking it especially seriously because his current coach is Petter Thoresen, who won the event 16 years ago.

Eric Weyman had come up just to set up the course (he was the original course setter). Everyone ran it late afternoon. Tero was 23:20 for the 4.75 km, would have been 3rd back in 1993, though the vegetation has changed some and it's hard to know how much of an adjustment to make. On this day he was way ahead of any of the North Americans.

WOC-93 Short final map.

Then Eric set off to pick up all the controls, and take all the gear back to Sandy (we had borrowed it from DVOA). And the camp was over. Except for another great dinner,this time at the Bretons, probably 30 people there.

6. Observations

-- Mostly it went well, especially considering the last-minute scrambling just to make it happen. As usual, people were willing to pitch in to help, though often not willing to commit until the last moment. There was lots of training done, despite the fact that the Highlander was looming on Sunday. No one seemed to be dogging it on Saturday. The accommodations were superb, and free. The vibes seemed to be very good.

-- So what was missing?

First, this was a training camp where you were given the opportunity to train, but you were mostly on your own as to what you were working on. Other than François's session on warming up, there was no coaching. So I'm not sure how much people got out of the camp. Or how much more they could have gotten.

Second, it seemed a bit of a missed opportunity with the French guys. They were clearly not there to be in any leadership position, they were on vacation. Nevertheless, they offered to organize Saturday morning and that was really cool. But it seemed to me that people were hesitant to make connections. They were with us from Thursday evening on, doing the same trainings, eating and relaxing together. I just think people could have been much more assertive in connecting, and learned stuff in the process.

Note that beside Tero and François, the other two French guys were also very good -- Jean-Baptiste was at two WOCs, 31st in the long-distance final in both 2003 and 2004, I think he is ranked 7th in France, and Matthieu was a little slower but not much. All were very cool, would chatter away in French, but anytime anyone engaged them, they were glad to talk about most anything, and all spoke good English. I really enjoyed having them there. I hope the others did.

Third, again because of a lack of a coach and planning, there were no indoor or evening sessions. I went to a training camp in Hamilton several years ago, where the guest stars were Holger and Sandy Hott, and there were classroom sessions every evening, and very interesting sessions. This camp had none of that. My sense was that everyone was having a good time, but that much more could have been accomplished.

Fourth, if there is a lesson in this it is that planning needs to be done much earlier and more thoroughly. Planning the woods training. Planning the non-woods training. Getting the equipment and the maps. Arranging for e-punching (didn't have that this time). Getting commitments from team members (senior and junior) to come. Getting helpers. Figuring out what policy to have about non-team members (and what to charge them, they got a free ride this time). All this is work, but it makes for a much better final result.

Fifth, as I said, the one real coaching moment was about warming up properly. So then it was interesting to note a couple of things. During the relay Saturday morning, where you were running four times with rest intervals averaging 10-15 minutes, the French guys were continually moving during their rest intervals, staying warm and ready to go. Everyone else was standing around chatting and spectating and not moving at all. And before the WOC93 race in late afternoon, the French guys did a very thorough warm-up (Tero was breathing quite hard as he stood waiting for the start command). Ditto for Jon Torrance and Nikolay. No one else did anything.

At what point do we take things seriously?

And finally, I have a lot of admiration for those team members who had the attitude that they were going to train hard, and then run the Highlander on (very) tired legs, and even flew in from some distance to do it. And not much admiration for those who showed up for the Highlander but couldn't come at least a day earlier to try and learn something. Especially with a world champion there.

C • thx 16

C • race prep 13

C • WOC 93 Short Final 2

C • It's a start 9

Just a little today. Icludes, as the previous two days, about 10 minutes jogging at the end.

More control hanging, a couple hours in the morning, lots of rain, a couple more in the afternoon, dry.

My camera isn't working right. Now my toys are falling apart too.... :-(

C • My camera isn't working right 1

Hanging controls for the team training camp at Harriman. First Eddie's corridor course, then his control picking course, perfect timing, was just hanging the last one as Tero appeared. And then one of Clem's courses for tomorrow morning, took a little longer than I expected and I finished not that much before dark.

Back held up well, just a little sore. Left calf was a little sore early on, had me concerned, but as the hours went by I sort of forgot about it, a good sign. And even though walking, still fell a few times, which the hands did not appreciate.

It's always an interesting experience hanging controls when the sites haven't been field-checked. Not only are there no streamers to mark the spot, there's also no guarantee that the feature selected is appropriate, or even exists. But the maps are already printed, so you do the best you can. Had a couple of dot knolls, clearly someone's lively imagination at work, a couple of reentrants that were so shallow that they could have also been called shallow spurs. And so it took a little extra time. Plus there was a distinct lack of trees to hang the controls on. You really do need stands.

Linda took care of the other course for this morning, so there is just one for the afternoon to do and maybe a little for Saturday morning. But the large part has been done.

C • lively imagination 1

After dinner it was time for the second training of the day, a trip to the local bowling alley. Eddie passed on this, but the rest were game. The bowling was amazing (note that "amazing" does not equate to "good"). The competition was fierce. They did not evict us. A very successful outing.

Results will be published shortly. For now, I will just reports that in the all-important Nations Cup, the order of finish was --

1. USA
2. France (quite a ways behind)
3. Canada (quite a lot farther behind)

And I am now 2-0 against Tero lifetime, all sports included.

Back still complaining, but not terrible. Went out for a walk, could tell things are tight by a comparison of pace and effort. Clabrook, Park, Silver, 47.

Off in the morning to tromp around at Harriman, hanging controls.

Technology is great when it works and a real pain when it doesn't. Like right now my Mac won't print. Nothing. Neither of our two printers. Driving me nuts....

C • did you upgrade to OS 10.6?... 3

Back definitely getting better, at least good enough to do yoga, which felt like it was helping it a lot more. Progress.

Walked a couple of miles chasing the little white ball. I'm not sure that was good for any part of me except the psyche, but it was good for that. Hands are still distressingly painful, back didn't really appreciate it but I do'nt think any further damage was done. Just good to get out, especially with the forecast for rain tomorrow.

Looks like I ought to be able to go down to Harriman for the training camp to help hang controls, can do that even if just walking, just need to allow a little more time. But Highlander looks very doubtful.

On the rebound, hopefully, can at least walk today without too much pain. Spent most of the day on my back, legs up, trying to relax whatever it is that is in spasm.

Did find time for two training sessions. The first was a slow walk down to the end of the driveway and back. The second was a slow walk to end of Claybrook and back, total a half mile. Tried jogging, no way.

Finished What Happened to Anna K.. Reasonably interesting despite being filled with characters for whom I had little sympathy. Soviet immigrants in Queens. I kept wondering if there were similarities in life experiences to orienteers of a similar background. Had me thinking about stopping in Queens sometime, having a look around, never really have.

Also finished The Angel's Game a couple of days ago. Enjoyed it quite a lot, even if the story was strange, just liked the writing and the characters. Might have to try his other book.

At some point I will have to add up the books I've read in the last year. I'd guess it's more than in the previous 30 years put together.

C • Russians in Queens 4

C • 2003 TT Middle control descriptions 2

Actually got a good night's sleep, but woke up this morning and my lower back was killing me, could only move around the house by holding on to things, could get my shoes on but not reach the laces to tie them. Took some pain stuff.

Figured I might be better in a while, kept Gail company on the trip back to NH for the Boulder Dash. We parked, slowly got out of the car, couldn't walk without holding on, wasn't going to get far that way. Spent 15 minutes trying to gently loosen up, but that didn't do any good. Settled in for a long lonely wait.

But then Rhonda came to the rescue, not with a miracle cure but a book for Gail (What Happened to Anna K., a modern version of Anna Karenina), which she pronounced to be weird and depressing. We chatted a bit, she took off, I launched into the book. I mean, if you know it is going to be weird and depressing, then that makes a big difference, you can read it with pleasure. Just a matter of managing one's expectations. Also helps if you have nothing else to do.

And so the morning passed quite pleasantly as long as I didn't try to move. A few folks stopped to chat. I heard stories of the depressing control #11. At some point I did my major training of the day, summoning my courage and walking very slowly over to the tress to pee, maybe 20 yards, but then it was out and back so really 40 yards, so not at all trivial.... :-)

And then eventually back home.

The day could have been much worse. Seriously.

I sure hope this goes away as fast as it appeared. At which point, if it happens, I can concentrate on my sore calf.

Boulder Dash, day 1 at Fox Forest. Rain, about 50. Green M, strange course.

Suffering. First my back was very sore, a real struggle just to run. And then about 10 minutes into the run my left calf started to complain. I've had calf issues before and they are not fun. Tried to adjust how I was striding but it seemed like it was just going to get worse, so I stopped. No point in making it worse. Hopefully I have a one week problem and not a one month problem.

Trying to loosen up.

Event: UNO Boulder Dash
 

Got my annual flu shot today. Been getting them for 15-20 years and haven't been sick in that time, flu or serious cold or whatever. There may be no cause and effect, but who cares, not going to stop now.

No swine flue shot. I'm old enough to be in a low risk group. Can't think of anything else I could say that about. Well, actually, now that I think about it, there is paternity.... :-)

No ibuprofen today. Hands very sore, legs feel fine but big toe still complaining. Tomorrow may be a struggle, though the odds are I'll pop a few pills. Seems like I'm reverting to being a weekend warrior. :-(

C • low risk 1

Medical report -- legs seem fine, except big toe is still sore, so I'm not sure how much running I will manage at the Boulder Dash. Fingers are worse than before yesterday's golf. I can't imagine a doctor saying that was a smart thing to have done, but it sure was fun. And getting some blood taken today, got to use my Medicare card for the first time.

All you young folks -- keep working hard. Got to make sure there is enough money in the system to pay the medical bills and social security of us old folks. :-)

A couple of photos of the Vermont trail, this one just slightly muddy. At times it was very dark in the forest, close to needing a light....



Every once in a while there were a couple of boards down so you wouldn't get your feet wet. Yeah, right....

C • Tax dollars at work 1

Ultra Tales, part 7 -- Another go at Wasatch

My records show that after the Pine Mountain 50 Mile in early April,1988, I was at it again in mid-May, though just a short one, the Doc Holliday 35 Mile in the mountains around Glenwood Springs, Colorado. It seems like a lot of traveling, but then I was one of three editors of Ultrarunning magazine, and we had plenty of room in the budget for travel, plus we needed to get around and meet people, plus of course it was all tax-deductible. The Doc Holliday was a fine course. The race director, I don't remember his first name, but his last name was Julich, said his son Bobby was a bike racer. I looked at dad, quite pudgy, figured like father like son, the son would probably never amount to much.... :-)

But the main event for the year was another attempt at Wasatch. It was attracting more people now, and a good number were finishing. The course had been changed some, mainly at the end, heading east to Midway over the last 10 or 15 miles instead of southwest to Alpine. Probably just a little easier for that part, but then in the middle of the course 6 miles of pavement were replaced by rough trail and the course was considered to be an hour slower. The course still had a reputation at the time as the toughest 100. Western States was the best known, Leadville had the altitude, Old Dominion in Virginia had the heat, but Wasatch was just mean. People were breaking 20 hours at the other ones, but not at Wasatch. I'd made it about 70 miles in 1982. Clearly I had to go back.

This time the goal was to be a little better prepared. The first part of preparation was training. The race was on September 10. I looked up what training I did in August (before a final taper) and found the following --

-- 13 days off. Most people would say, are you shitting me, you can't train seriously taking almost every other day off. But it depends on what you do on the other days.
-- Hardest week was the third week of August. 80 miles, about 16,000 feet climb in 4 days of running and 3 days off. Monday: an easy 90 minutes to the top of Toby and back. Tuesday: Fred's old 50K course from Northfield Mt. ski area to the top of Mt. Grace and back, 5:21 (felt good, my notes say). Wednesday: off. Thursday: Up and down Mt. Greylock twice, 18.4 miles, 5000', 3:28. Friday: off. Saturday: off. Sunday: Virgil Mt. Madness Trail Race in central New York, 21 miles, 3:03 (good race, ran hard, my notes say).
-- Thursday the following week (2 weeks before the race) was the last of the longer stuff, 5 times up and down Mt. Toby, 3:19.
-- Even the first and second weeks of August were pretty decent. The first week was 52 miles in 4 days, all hilly trails of course. The second week was 56 miles in 4 days, including 25 miles on the 50K course in 4:49 on day when it was over 90 and humid (lost 7 to 8 pounds, my notes say).
-- And all of this was in August. My notes for the second week say "Hot, humid all week -- terrible!"

So the first part of preparation was done. I felt as ready as I could be, plus I now had two successful 100-milers to look back on and draw a little confidence from. But there were still memories of the first time at Wasatch, and especially the difficulty in following the course.

So the second part of preparation was out there. Gail and I flew to Utah a week before the race so I would have a few days to check out the course. Sunday was the section from Brighton over Catherine Pass and down to American Fork, the trail hard to follow at times, and this was a section we would be doing at night. Monday up to Dog and Desolation lakes, another night section. And Tuesday the bushwhacking section early in the course along the Francis Peak ridge. Taking mental notes all the time.

And then 3 days of doing nothing, just resting, getting nervous of course. Because no matter how well you have prepared, you just never know what will happen.

Saturday, race morning, 5 am, dark, finally time to get going.

It had been 90 the day before, at the start at 5,000' it was still 75, but a front was coming through and by 8 am up on the ridge at 10,000' it was 50, overcast, and blowing hard. The temperature kept falling, thunderstorms moved through, by evening it was in the teens, occasional bits of snow, and blowing even harder.

I was delighted with the change in the weather, cold is always better than hot for me, and I made steady progress all day long, endlessly up and down through the high country and managing to miss the worst of the storms. Nighttime came, the high open ridge before Scott's Pass was bitterly cold, bless the people up there at the aid station and their hot coffee. Then came a new section up a steep section of the Solitude ski area and back down some steep trails to the ski lodge at Brighton. When I left there, I was farther than I'd made it before but still some 25 miles to go.

Up and over Catherine's Pass was next, hard to find the trail in the dark, was I ever glad I'd checked the trail out the week before. Someplace in here I remember one of my favorite ultra quotes running through my head, said by someone to describe the good progress he was making -- "I hammered up the trail, passing rocks and trees like they were standing still." :-)

Down to American Fork, another aid station, 15 miles to go, all dirt road now, daylight coming in another hour or so. Took in more supplies, but not any more caffeine, and by halfway up the long switch-backing climb I was falling asleep. Still moving, mind you, but falling asleep. Three or four times I suddenly woke up to find myself in the bushes along the side of the road. But kept moving, relentless forward progress as they say. The sky started to lighten as I hit the top of the last pass. I was surprised to see several people along the side of the road at this hour, including a guy on horseback, though they all seemed to turn into bushes as I got closer. I guess I was pretty tired.

One last forever downhill, quads still reasonably OK. A last aid station at 95 miles, they asked if I wanted to sit and rest a while. No, thanks, I remember saying, I just want to get this fucking thing over. Manners had disappeared along with any energy.

The last 4 miles were flat. Country road. Totally wasted. Wanted to get it over as soon as I could, but the best I could do was run to one phone pole, walk to the next, and just keep doing that. You can do that for a long time.

Two miles to go and I see a guy running toward me. He reached me, turned around, could he join me, he was a pacer and his runner was a DNF so he'd had nothing to do. Fine, I said, but I'm going real slow. And we started chatting and jogging to the next phone pole, and then a little more still jogging and still talking, and the next thing I knew there was the finish right in front of me and I had run the last two miles, no need to walk at all. It is amazing what the mind can do.

For all the notes I have about my training, my entry for September 10 is very terse -- "Wasatch 100 - 26:53!" I ended up 11th out of 55 finishers and 108 starters. And no need to run the race again. Though that was mainly because there were so many other cool courses out there that I still wanted to have a go at.