Discussion: Highlander: Flying downhill

Here is the list of registered runners for the  Highlander.

This year's course designer(s) refuse to disclose how much climb the course has. They will calculate how much downhill running there will be.

Now you can start guessing if start and finish will be at different places or not. Some people will argue all kind of things, including that -n has to be equal to +n, but I prefer to say it might be -n+1.

With a few contours that end, you can have a lot of downhill with much less uphill.

On the list of registered runners there is an entrant who appears to be an angry j-man. Watch out for him!

Not angry anymore, he was grapefied. There were other name variations, of the type 1+n (an n too much), but it pointed out to me before the grapes of wrath came flying.

Could someone please calculate j-man's age? It arrived in a somewhat cryptic code: (pi*ln(4.482762)^3)/(((e^(-10)*10^21)/21!))/365.

There are 64 minutes and 28 seconds left for in time registration via e-mail. Unless you live in NYC and want to drive to the 34th Street post office and get today's date on your envelope. Maybe they are closed till you get there.

If you send me an e-mail registration with a good, publishable excuse I might be forgiving. E.g. I was lost in the woods while scouting streamers for a long distance orienteering event.

j-man's age = 32.70600

You are the second math wiz kid (or people with ample time) who submits this result. j-man, what do you think, you want this age? -

The age is one factor, how I match people with a good trivia question at control #32. E.g. Which year the Yankee's were eliminated from the World Series in the first round? Younger people might not remember this.

I would take that age, but unfortunately, as there are no real constants in the Balter universe, my age is not constant, either. But, I think the age is correct to at least three significant digits, which for anything involving Balter, is a feat of precision that belies his inscrutability and unpredictability.

Three significant digits means roughly 'to the nearest nine hours', so if it is right now, it was wrong when you wrote it on the form.

TempUs fugit.

Why exactly does Tempis, as it were, fugit? The spelling of the young in this debased age leads to thoughts more like 'o tempora, o mores'. Kind of the opposite of 'w00t'.

I suppose my reading is also off, though - 'nine hours' = 'three decimal places,' not 'three significant figures'.

Tempus fugit, nunc est edendum repasticulum quoddam.

I am no longer talking (communicating?) with you.

We were communicating?

We have, in the past.

En ce temps-là.

Arma virumque cano. You bring back my worst memories of 8 years of Latin. French is alright.

Or Ukrainian, since this seems to be the language of the week with the significant changes of the Balter (non-) constant which are about to happen. We don't know if he will be running the Highlander, since the otherness factor rules now, understandably. --

Anyway, I am number crunching and hope to be able to publish lots of futile data about the course some time today. Stuff which lets you speculate without gaining much of a sense what will go ion.

I put in an order for brilliant, cool October weather. They say, they can't guarantee it. Some Canadian high pressure system might help.

À la recherche du temps perdu.

I've never been able to bring myself to finish that.

Yes, this is what I hear some people say at control #17. This might be the trivia question for #17: When and where did Monsieur Proust find the weather again? (Isn't that cool, a language in which time and weather is the same?) And there are severe extra loops for wrong or missing answers.

A first hint: Control #19 is on top of a seven legged animal, which you will scramble after dancing across the water or slug through the green. The beast is said to be about dinosaur sized and has been a quiet citizen of the woods until this weekend. This is what I heard from my Irish scout, I have not met it in person.

Where's Bernie? Bernard Breton is the only one of the 10-time finishers who's missing from the start list. I'll check the rest of the list for accuracy when I get home, but I did notice one discrepancy: Ralf Becker's name is in green, but I'm pretty sure he has finished at least one Highlander (HH III, 1997).

Bernie is in, just didn't make it to the list on the web, yet.

Ukrainian the language of the week? Not yet - we're only on k. But I promise when we get to u ...

Golly, gosh & wow. I make a Greg Balter directed joke and it ends up being a veritable institution. Vive le Kele!