Racing?

One of the bulletin boards I frequent has a discussion going on about racing and how it's changed over the years. While that discussion centers on the marathon, the basics apply to all distances.

The crux of the discussion is this: If you run in a race for pleasure, at a pace that you don't find challenging, have you raced? This is more than an argument about semantics, rather it's, in many ways, a discussion of the non-competitive environment that seems to be permeating our culture.

What is the point of a race? Is it to see how fast you can get from point A to point B on a given day? I'd say the answer is yes. Is it to challenge yourself? Again, yes. Is it to mark off another box on life's checklist, with a minimum of commitment? I'd hope not. Does that last sentence mean that I condemn first-time marathoners whose only goal is to finish? Maybe.

One of the things that has happened to racing is that many races have become events. This tends to mean more amenities for runners, but it often comes with a price. As a long-time runner, I have more t-shirts than I know what to do with, so for me, running a race that doesn't give out a shirt is no big deal. The only time I really care about getting a shirt is when it's a technical fabric shirt (yes, they really are better). Yet, I know that for many people, that shirt matters. It's a badge of having done something physical, and in today's over-vehicled world, I have a hard time arguing with something that makes people active.

Some people, who I will identify as "joggers", run regularly to improve or maintain their health. They don't train for running performance, but they are in shape, and, hopefully, strive to perform better on race day than on an average day. Others aren't active throughout the year, and they run the local race in town because of a desire to be seen there or to participate in a local activity. I'll refer to these as "social runners." Along with these groups, there are the "racers." Some of the racers are names you know, they get called up for trophies at the end of the race and show up in the results published in the local paper. There is another group of racers, they challenge themselves to run faster than last month or last year, or to go further than they ever have. They toil in obscurity, doing every bit as much work as those who make the results, but due to lesser genetics or the ravages of age or illness receive little or no recognition for their efforts. Now that I've categorized the runners, we can look at why I have an issue with some of them.

Here's why I have an issue with those who run a race socially, especially with those who do it only once or twice a year - they aren't committed to running for any good reason. They're out there because it has social value. Many of them don't make an effort to maintain their health, in fact, because of this, they are at greater risk when they show up at a race. They don't care about improving their performance. While it can be argued that those who race do too much to achieve optimum health, in trying to achieve good performance, they will do a reasonable job of managing their weight and many other health risk factors because they will impact negatively on performance.

In the end, a race is just that, a race. I can easily forgive poor training. I have no issue with those who have incapacities. My issue is with those who don't try to do more than just jog through the race. The only exceptions I make to this is for those who run to support another racer or for racers who want to participate, but whose training plan proscribes racing at that time. Race the race, don't just jog it. I can't judge if you're trying, (well, I can look at you as you run and make a fairly educated guess), only you really know. Do you race your races?

The Worth of a Law

New Jersey has a law requiring helmets on bicyclists under 17 years of age. Its text follows: (I'd encourage anyone reading this to read the first paragraph of the law, then skip down to my commentary. In my commentary, I'll direct you back to parts of the law that are interesting.)

Title 39:4-10.1
39:4-10.1 Bicycle helmets, requirements.

1. a. A person under 17 years of age shall not operate, or ride upon a bicycle as a passenger, unless that person is wearing a properly fitted and fastened bicycle helmet which meets the standards of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI Z90.4 bicycle helmet standard) or the Snell Memorial Foundation's 1990 Standard for Protective Headgear for Use in Bicycling. This requirement shall apply to a person who rides upon a bicycle while in a restraining seat which is attached to the bicycle or in a trailer towed by the bicycle.

As used in this act, "bicycle" means a vehicle with two wheels propelled solely by human power and having pedals, handle bars and a saddle-like seat. The term shall include a bicycle for two or more persons having seats and corresponding sets of pedals arranged in tandem.

b.The director shall publish a list of bicycle helmets which meet the standards described in subsection a. of this section and shall provide for its distribution in as many locations frequented by the public as the director deems appropriate and practicable.

c.The requirement in subsection a. of this section shall apply at all times while a bicycle is being operated on any property open to the public or used by the public for pedestrian and vehicular purposes; however, a municipality may by ordinance exempt from this requirement a person operating or riding on a bicycle as a passenger when the bicycle is operated:

(1)on a road or highway closed to motor vehicle traffic and limited to pedestrian or bicycle use at all times or only during specified periods of time during which bicycles may be operated; or

(2)exclusively on a trail, route, course, boardwalk, path or other area which is set aside for the use of bicycles or for the use of pedestrians and bicycle operation is not otherwise prohibited. However, an exemption may not be granted under this paragraph for any portion of a trail, route, course, boardwalk, path or other area which is immediately adjacent to a road or highway used by motor vehicle traffic and which does not contain a barrier of sufficient height and rigidity to prevent the inadvertent or deliberate entry of a bicycle operator onto the road or highway.

d.An ordinance enacted pursuant to subsection c. of this section shall specify those roads, highways, trails, routes, courses, boardwalks, paths or areas within the municipality where helmets are not required during the operation of a bicycle.

e.When a bicycle is being operated in an area where bicycle helmets are not required, the operator or a passenger, except a passenger in a restraining seat or trailer, shall dismount from the bicycle and walk whenever it is necessary to enter a crosswalk or to cross a road or highway upon which motor vehicle traffic is permitted.

L.1991,c.465,s.1; amended 1997, c.411, s.10; 2005, c.208, s.1.

Like NJ's cell phone headset law, it's widely ignored. I support the intent of this law, but I have some issues with it. First, doesn't creating a law affecting kids, then failing to enforce it, create an environment that breeds disrepect for law among young people?

Second, why write the law to only apply to areas where motor vehicles are used? (Please read part C of the law.) It seems to me that a crash into a tree, curbstone, or other deadly object can occur whether or not a motor vehicle is present. Additionally, this raises the question of whether this law was written to protect young cyclists or to diminish liability of drivers who are involved in accidents with bicycles.

Third, why does the Director of Motor Vehicles have to publish a list of compliant helmets? (Please read part B of the law.) It seems to me that gathering the information is time-consuming, considering the number of companies making helmets and the number of models they offer and frequency of changes. This seems to simply add cost to the process. Why not let customers simply check if the helmet lists itself as compliant with one of the applicable standards?

The idea behind this law is good, but if we don't enforce the law, then what is its value?

Of Medals and Baseball

In raising our son, my wife and I try to take a zero-tolerance approach to mistakes. That doesn't mean we discourage mistakes, rather that we encourage pre-checking and require prompt fixing mistakes we discover.

I'd recently discovered that my Boston Marathon finisher's medal had summered in a jacket packet. This prompted my son to make an observation about the (near)homophones "medal" and "metal", he noted that while medals are often metal, they aren't always. My wife then pointed out another homophone in the set, but we were unsure of its spelling(s), we knew the word meant "to insinuate oneself in another's business." I thought it was "meddle", while my wife thought it was "mettle". By cracking open the dictionary, it turned out that I was correct, so we have "medal, metal, and meddle."

Over the weekend, I got corrected during a discussion of baseball. In a discussion of bat design, I cited that the kinetic energy of an object is mass times velocity squared, one of the men in the conversation corrected me, correctly noting it to be KE=½mv². While my mistake of doubling the energy wasn't pertinent to the discussion at hand, I was wrong and am glad he set me straight. (The discussion related to the cupping out of the business end of a bat, to permit it to be accelerated more rapidly, thus having more energy to transfer to the ball. The significant thing here is the fact that greater bat mass yields a linear change, but greater bat speed yields an exponential improvement.)

Rain, Soccer Confusion and A Walk At 93

Thursday and Friday in New Jersey had been marked by overcast skies with frequent drizzle, occasional rain, and constant overcast. The rain had pretty much abated by mid-afternoon Friday. My son, who'd been scheduled to miss practice for his school's back-to-school picnic still missed practice because my wife scheduled dinner with friends to replace the picnic. The kids who made practice were rewarded with excellent running in a park virtually devoid of people.

Rain related confusion continued on Saturday. On Friday night, we'd gotten an e-mail that said fields would be inspected by 7:30 AM and we'd hear if practice was cancelled. Shortly after 8:00, we checked e-mail and the soccer website. There was no e-mail and the website listed certain fields as closed, but others were listed as open. The field my son was to play at wasn't listed. We interpreted this to mean that soccer practice was on. Off we went. My son's coaches weren't there, but there was a large group of third graders including 3 from his team. He joined the practice. While down there, we heard that there was an e-mail. On returning home after practice, we checked e-mail, and found one sent at about 9:15 that said practice was cancelled.

On Sunday, my club had a walking race followed by a picnic. This event is sponsored by an older man, who had been a very age group fine walker almost 20 years ago. The race was a 5.2 mile race, four laps of a 1.3 mile circuit. The race was a handicapped race. If you've never participated in a handicapped race, they can be a lot of fun. Good handicapping means all finishers will arrive at the line essentially simultaneously. Coming off my cold, I didn't race well, and one person hadn't raced in a while, so couldn't be handicapped well. She wound up winning (this is one difficulty to handicapping such a race - the other is sandbaggers, who will misrepresent their abilities). Anyway, the sponsor of this race is now 93 years-old. He moved to a retirement center this past year. His mind is still sharp and his body is in good shape, for a man his age, who was diagnosed with diabetes 50! years ago. He now walks an hour a day, most days. His doctor has said he's good for 10 more years. Harry walked one lap of the circuit. Knock wood that when I get close to his age, I can come close to doing that.

What Sports Ought To Be

It's not my sport, but I thought this article does a great job of pointing out what sports should be.

Peeing In A Cup

Yesterday morning, I had to pee in a cup. Those of you who are regular readers know that the likelihood that this was a visit of USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) is almost as likely as my getting struck by lightning, and you'd be right. This wasn't a test for PEDs (performance enhancing drugs), rather, it was a test for illegal drugs. I was being hired as coach for the youth cross-country and track program that I'm involved in. There's no real money in it, but the tiny bit helps a bit. The organization involved requires a drug test and criminal background check. It was also the first time I've needed to go through the "proof of employability" process, so I had to bring my passport.

Meanwhile, the cold that I had seems to have progressed into a serious sinus infection. I'm feeling all clogged up and have yellowish sinus drainage making me hack away. (Sorry for sharing so many details.)

My Son's Coolest Birthday Gift

When my son celebrated his birthday several weeks ago, one of the gifts he received was the clock above. It's a science geek's dream! The batteries are wet cells, with zinc and brass electrodes that you assemble yourself.

You can use any liquid in the cells, but we set it up with water, and haven't changed it. Within a few days, the zinc electrodes began to corrode, but they've been running for three weeks or so. I'm impressed as heck with this product.

The current issue of Make magazine, which I'm falling in love with, happens to have a related project, using an ice tray, paper clips, and $1.21 in dimes and pennies to power and LED. And I happened to notice that Joan Nesbit Mabe's husband, David, had written one of the articles in there.

Anyway, if you've become interested, you can find the product here.

A (Good) Crazy Day

Yesterday, I left my house a bit before 7 AM to go help out at the USATF National 40 km Racewalk Championship. I ran a bit at the walk, checking with the judges if the had any "cards" on athletes. I interrupted that to run the annual 10 km road race in the town I grew up in. I got to hang with one of my high school teammates and his brother. Then, I got drafted by the folks who organize the race to shoot the award winners (with their camera), so these were mostly my shots. Thank heavens for automated cameras, as I could not see what I was doing for much of the early part of the shooting.

I'd been told that it was a new camera, and I was pretty astonished at how bad it seemed to be. As I was checklisting things that would be wrong between shots, I settled on one probable source of trouble, my glasses. Sure enough, when I cleaned the lens behind the viewfinder, my perception of the quality of the camera went up tremendously. I had dried sweat caked on the lenses of my glasses!

On finishing that duty, I returned to the 40K and did what more I could to help out. I needed to leave during the awards ceremony to attend a social function. The walk had started at 8:00AM, and most walkers finished between noon and 1:30...well, actually, most finished ahead of that, as the race accomodates those who wish to go shorter distances, like 10, 20 or 30 km as well. That willingness to accomodate the racers was part of the reason for the lateness of the awards. A few racers continued to the 50 km mark, including one who apparently set an American record for her age group, I think it was the 65-69's. One of four believed to have been set at the event.

On arriving home, I jumped in the shower and we headed to a barbeque at the home of one of my son's classmates who will be returning to Australia in a couple of weeks. I had a wonderful time there. On arriving home, I pretty much collapsed into bed.

Day One

Today, our youth cross-country program got underway. Eighteen kids were there. Two were not signed up, two who had signed up weren't there. Most ran two laps of the park (1.6 miles), a few ran just one (0.8 mi), and one kid, who'd been out of the program in the spring did three.

We're trying to set up our schedule of meets, which are on Sunday mornings. I'm not sure if there are Saturday meets available - I don't want to penalize churchgoers. I'd had a conversation over the summer with a very fine runners who is also a born again Christian. One of the topics we'd touched on was whether racing on Sunday was a violation of the Sabbath or if it is a celebration of the gifts given you by the Lord.

He'd pointed out to me that that was one of the themes that was touched on in the movie Chariots of Fire. I don't recall the name of the athlete involved, but, after not competing on Sundays in (or in the run-up to) the 1908 Olympics, his eventual decision on the topic was that competing on Sundays was a way to glorify the Lord and the gifts he'd given us. While it's not my place to make any decisions for the kids, I'd also like to be sure that doors are not closed to them as a result of decisions I help make.

Knocked Down

I spent most of yesterday barely functional. On Sunday evening, I felt a bit of a sore throat. I wasn't sure if it was allergies - I have a little trouble with ragweed this time of year...and I can't really complain, the effects are usually mild and last about 3-6 weeks. It turned out that it wasn't allergies, I was sick.

I got home from the weekend away, and am pretty sure that I got infected on Thursday, when I visited the Basketball Hall of Fame. One of the more fun coincidences of last week's travels was the fact that the all-time highest single-game scorer in the NBA (Wilt Chamberlain) performed his feat in Hershey, PA in March, 1962 in the building that's today the HersheyPark Arena. That fact was mentioned on Chamberlain's "plaque" at the Hall. (The profiles are small plexiglas panels with printing behind, there are large photos above which can be lit by pressing a button on the panel below.)

The Tyranny Of The Each

When you are waiting to make a turn out of a roadway, each car matters. Ignore one and make your turn and you'll have an accident. Today, my son wanted to "play tennis", an activity that I hadn't participated in in more than a decade. I played tennis, and tonight, my back tightened up. I was clearly not ready to be torsionally loading my back.

In a similar vein, when preparing for a race, especially for the marathon, each workout has a job to do, and doing each one matters. Leaving out the long runs will put you in trouble in the latter portions of a race. Leaving out the speed work will mean a slower race than your condition dictates, and the associated worse placing.

Each and every part matters, whether we're talking about our bodies, our training plans, or almost anything else.

Agassi vs. Running

Watching the news about Andre Agassi being retired from tennis (yes, it was his choice on general timing, but the specific timing was handled by Donald(?) Becker) at the age of 36.

Running and tennis are different; don't get me wrong, both are excellent lifetime sports. I got my introduction to tennis at a summer camp where the camp director was a regular player at about age 80. Both can be competed to very advanced ages. The key difference is in how they're competed.

Tennis is a sport of twos and fours, and if Canadian doubles is counted, threes. Running is a sport of ones and hundreds. It's almost impossible to train for tennis alone, though some ancillary training can be handled solo. Running, at least distance training, can be done solo, though many runners find greater success by training as or with teams. Some activities like speed work are vastly easier in groups rather than alone, and the efforts of the coach/timekeeper benefits more people. Racing usually involves hundreds of people, and at the extremes, dozens or thousands.

The real key to the difference is that any runner CAN line up with the best runners in the area on most weekends and can toe the same line, albeit several rows back, with the best runners in the country or the world. It's even possible for a virtual unknown to win a major road race. Due to the limited fields in a tennis match, combined with the fact that the worst players in a tennis tournement normally must play a string of the best players, this is nearly impossible.

I have to say that Agassi had a great run with his tennis career, and I think he knew it was time to put it to bed. My hat is off to him. I've enjoyed atching his matches at least occasionally through the years (including a little of his match last Thursday). He was a great champion.