Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Takedown

This evening, I had the misfortune to see a car strike a bicyclist. There was a stopped car in the traffic lane. I had just come around a corner, and a bicycle had made a turn from the opposing direction. He was wearing a helmet, had a headlight and a flashing taillight. In short, he'd done everything right, except one thing. He passed this car, well actually a crossover SUV, on the right. As he passed, the driver decided to pull into a drive area, I'm assuming to park or stand. He was beside the vehicle when it suddenly moved forward and to the right, he was knocked sideways, and down to the pavement. He seemed to be alright, but shaken. The driver called 911. (He got them while my phone wasn't going through.) After the accident, he acted quite responsibly. I left to park after the police began arriving. The cyclist chose to be transported, and I returned and described what I'd seen to one of the police officers.

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A Firm, But Gentle Hand

Last week, I mentioned Jim Schlentz in this post. This past weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing two of Jim's athletes place well at the regional Footlocker race, but almost as significantly I saw Jim coaching in action. While I was talking with him, one of his girls came up and asked to take a few days off from practice. Jim's response was immediate, "Sure, you've been working hard for weeks, a few days to let you recover is reasonable." (paraphrased) She went on to mention that she wanted to run a race the following weekend, and it was here that the real message was sent, "No", if you're too beat up to practice, then running a race would certainly negate the recuperation the rest engendered. There seemed to follow a bit of negotiation, and Schlentz seemed to relent, at least slightly. If I understood it correctly, his runner explained that she wanted to run the race for reasons other than racing and would do it as a training run with a friend. This seemed to satisfy him that it wouldn't be run as a race. The message was sent clearly, "follow a plan", yet remained flexible. It was both nice and instructive to see.

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Sunday, November 26, 2006

Paying The Price

One race that I like to run is the Ashenfelter 8K on Thanksgiving Day. I hadn't been training, because I was trying to get my feet in shape. The result was that I ran this race untrained. I posted a time around a 40:15, but the more significant thing was that my legs were sore afterwards, and not by just a little bit. I went to the race in part out of respect for the only American man to have held the world record in the steeplechase.

Yesterday, I went with my son to the Footlocker Northeast race. This race was something of a "How good are they really?" race. State champs come and go, but if you win a Footlocker race, you're the real deal. Yesterday, the NJ boys champ managed a victory. The girls champ had looked good going into the back wooods. When I saw her again, she looked like she was struggling just to hold it together. This morning when I read press reports, I saw that she'd collapsed, gotten up and still finished tenth. Whatever happened, I'd thought she'd have won the race more reliably than the boys champ. I saw her after the race and she looked fine, though perhaps shaken by the experience. Regardless, she survived, and did so well enough to make the national race in two weeks.

I had to run from near the start to the bridge at the 1.5 mile mark, then back towards the finish several times yesterday. I'm pretty sure that the running, easy, though with a pack on my back, done with my son, who seemed to like the experience, helped my legs to recover.

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Wednesday, November 22, 2006

It's Time!

I've been frustrated a lot by being unable to comment on blogs in the "new" Blogger, and it looks like some of the tools in new blogger make sense to have, so I've pretty well decided that I'm going to bite the bullet and port over to "Blogger in Beta" over the weekend.

Meantime, Happy Thanksgiving to all!

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Monday, November 20, 2006

That's How You Win Championships


This SUV was painted for the meet.

Here, Craig Forys powers toward the finish, you'll note that his dominating performance meant nobody was in sight.

Danielle Tauro leads Ashley Higginson to the finish line.

Jim Schlentz, who coaches the top boy and #2 girl in the state, and the #1 girls cross-country team was overheard in discussion with someone tied to Jackson Memorial HS talking about a kid. The guy from Jackson said that Chris had been tripped, got up and finished sixth in the race. Without skipping a beat, Schlentz' reaction was, "That's how you win championships." Jackson had just won the state's team championship.

It's this kind of lesson that every runner should learn, and by my thinking, there's no better way to learn it than from the history of our sport. While this incident points out the lesson, a kid at NJ's state meet bears little merit to most people, but the same lesson was taught by Lasse Viren in the 10,000 meters in the Munich Olympics in 1972. Viren was tripped, went down and made chase. He finished with an Olympic Gold, one of two that year, and he became a true legend of the sport by repeating this 5000 and 10,000 meter double in Montreal four years later. The "double double" marked him as THE dominant distance runner of the era. Without getting up, he wouldn't have achieved the legendary status he attained.

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Sunday, November 19, 2006

NJ MOC

Yesterday, I went with my son to watch the NJ High School Cross-Country Championships. Technically, it's the all-group meet, but it it commonly referred to as the Meet of Champions. It's the meet that is considered the state meet in other states, but in NJ, for whatever reason, it's MOC.

On the girls, side, the meet was expected to be a foregone conclusion, with Southern Regional's Danielle Tauro winning another big meet. She may be the most dominant runner to come out of NJ in fifteen years or so. The boys side was a bit more of a wild card, with a sophomore, Doug Smith, from Gill Saint Bernard's expected to challenge last year's winner, Craig Forys of Colts Neck.

The course at Holmdel is tough to see at multiple points, you can watch the runners at the start and the finish, or you can go up the hill and see them twice (at least the leaders), then scramble down the hill and catch the finish. It doesn't make for easy spectating, and thus far, nobody has done the work to bring video to the course. The result is that until the runners come out of the woods, most spectators have no idea what they'll see.

Past times predicted that we'd see a 15:30ish finish, and that Jason DiJoseph's 1988 record, 15:16, would be safe for another year or several. We were watching the finish, and checking the clock, and around 14:40, the judge's flag started waving. One head crested the final hill, rising briskly. Many heads cranked around, wondering if their understanding of timing was right. We all knew that yesterday was special, the singlet rising over the hill was green, Colts Neck's color, Forys was going after the record. Down the final straight he came, absolutely flying. Very quickly, the talk was of the record. Forys got the record, but due to regulations, it goes into the book as a 15:16. (If scuttlebutt was right, Forys ran a 15:15.5, and DiJoseph's mark was 15:16.2, and Forys is credited with the record, even if it shows the same time.)

As expected, Tauro won the girls race, though not crushing the field. She ran slightly ahead of Colts Neck's Ashley Higginson. Tauro was just running her third race of the season. She'd raced through the summer, finishing with the World Juniors in Beijing, China.

Interestingly enough, both of yesterday's winners are heading to the University of Michigan. The other big news of yesterday's meet was that Jackson won the team boys title, unseating Christian Brothers Academy, who'd won it for several years, the school with the longest dual-meet winning streak in history. (This result doesn't affect that streak.)

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Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Leaf Blowers - Arghhh!

For the past 90 minutes or so, I've been auditorially assaulted by the incessant drone of leaf blowers. My neighbors' landscape service has been using their leaf blowers to clear the lawns of leaves. I don't know how much environmental damage is being done by these annoying devices, but I suspect it's not insignificant. Meantime, I don't know what the sound level of the blowers being used are, but they seem awfully loud, and perhaps more annoying, they are used for a long time. I'll need to check what our town's rules are, but I'm pretty sure that if they exist, these blowers are in violation.

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Monday, November 13, 2006

Tied And Sick

On Saturday, my son had soccer practice. At the end, they normally play a game. Due to teacher's convention, many kids were away. There were 5 kids, so the 3 adults played the kids. We held them to a 1-1 tie, but it took some effort. My feet were unhappy afterwards. Oh, and Docksiders aren't the best on a muddy field.

After practice, my son collapsed on the couch. He'd been griping about not feeling too well. It turned out he has a sore throat and had a fever through yesterday. He seems to be doing well now, though he's out of school today.

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Saturday, November 11, 2006

Ending The Great War

Today is Veterans' Day. It began as Armistice Day, marking end of the World War, which happened on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 1918. One of the great tragedies with a scheduled end to the war was that at 10:57 and change, shells were fired, in order that they should land prior to the end. Thus, moments before the peace, soldiers were being maimed and killed.

Once the "War to End All Wars" ceased to be that, the World War became World War I, and Armisitice Day became Veterans' Day. So, to any veterans who read this, thank you. To the families and spouses of anyone serving or who served, thank you for the sacrifices you've made. And to the families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice, whether in the current or earlier wars, thank you.

One final note, I heard a radio report yesterday about the 14 remaining veterans from the First World War. Many of those remaining had lied about their age in order to enlist.

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Friday, November 10, 2006

The Rutgers Ruckus

Last night, Rutgers beat Louisville 28-25 in a game that seemed to have tilted from one side to the other during halftime. It's fun to see a local team getting some national attention on the football field. I didn't go to Rutgers, but having grown up and living in NJ, I know quite a few Rutgers alumni. I had also taken a summer course there while in school, and had dated some Rutgers students while younger. I figured a post about this was in order, and out of respect for the Scarlet Knights, it should be presented in scarlet.

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Monday, November 06, 2006

A Few Images From My Day Working At NY City Marathon

What better to start a post about the NY City Marathon than a race banner?
As I crossed the park, I passed these tents being used for volunteers to sign in.
I shot a photo of this temporary pedestrian bridge by 72nd St. It would prove to be important in my day.
I also shot a picture of the finish line at about 8:30 AM.
This was the group which got sent over to Queens. Here were are in the subway, en route.
We were sent to Queens in order to help with the wheelchairs, getting them to follow the correct routing onto the 59th St. Bridge.
There were more runners with prosthetics than I recall in the past. I think this is at least in part the result of the Iraq War.
The race used SmartCars, a European built micro car that gets 40+ mpg, as lead vehicles. I always smile when I see them.
It also gave us an excellent view of the women's leaders. Here are Prokopcuka and Hladka.
This is the women's chase pack. It contains, amongst others, American Deena Kastor, and Kenyans Catherine "the Great" Ndereba, and Lornah Kiplagat.
Shortly behind them came Katie MacGregor and Amy Rudolph.
The men's leaders were still a pretty massive pack, though a move was about to be made on the bridge.
When we ceased to be useful, we returned to Central Park and were reassigned to the temporary pedestrian bridge at 72nd St. They were having trouble controlling traffic there.
I spent a fair amount of the afternoon watching the parade of finishers pass by, en route to the chip clippers and baggage trucks.
Oh, and Dianna, look what I got, an orange hat!

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Sunday, November 05, 2006

Tired

I spent the day as a volunteer at the New York City Marathon. I left home about 6:30, and didn't get back until about 7:15. I found myself being sent to Queens, where I was assigned to help get wheelchairs moved to the left to cross the Queensboro Bridge. Later, I was in Central Park, trying to get pedestrian traffic on the new temporary bridge under control. Eventually, because of a MASSIVE traffic jam, we closed the park entry at 72nd St, and I spent some time as Mr. Megaphone. After that, I had to help a foreign Achilles runner get reconnected to the Achilles people, and as I headed in with him, I was encouraged to job swap with one of my co-workers, who headed off with him, leaving me doing security at the gate into the course at 72nd St. I saw a runner go down with a cramp, so I dashed over. There were several runners trying to assist, so I shouted, "Medic" and got in front of him to stand as a blocker, causing the runners to have to go around me. As far as I know, having a downed runner kicked in the head isn't a good cure for cramping. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I think I have a few decent pictures, I'll post them tomorrow.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Looking Forward to NYC Marathon

If all goes to plan, on Saturday, my phone will ring. I will be told where and when to be somewhere on Sunday morning. I've volunteered at the NYCM for about 15 years.

I've gathered tear-offs from bibs in the pre-chip days. I've recorded leaders numbers in Brooklyn. I had the pleasure of sitting at the finish line with Arthur Lydiard in 2004 (after doing early duty). I appeared in Runner's World Magazine, in the background of a finish line photo. I've clipped chips from shoes several times. I had runners vomit just inches away. One year after an overnight storm, I chased down some brooms and got some other volunteers together and we swept the wet leaves off the roadway in the chutes (where the street sweepers hadn't been able to go). I once had to drag a porta-john out of the way of an ambulance. I normally know what I'll be doing several weeks ahead. This year, I'm assigned to a jump team, and I have no idea what I'll be called on to do. The jump teams can probably be best described as "bodies to throw at problems as they arise."

I do know that whatever I'm asked to do, it will be necessary. It probably won't have the glamour of giving blankets or medals to finishers (jobs which I've never had). I'll do it, and I'll be glad to do it. Why? Because it needs to be done and because someone, somewhere, did something sometime to make a race I was running better and I must repay that effort.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Little Piggies

This morning, as I walked my son to school, I was appalled to see many candy wrappers on lawns, sidewalks, etc. These kids seem to treat lawns and outdoor areas like garbage cans. I don't know if it's a function of the "me" generation. I know it can't be because little Dick or Jane didn't have a place to put the wrapper, as they were all carrying a candy bag. Would it be such a crime to put the wrapper into the candy bag for a ride home? These kids will eventually be inheriting the earth, and it appears that we've done a miserable job of preparing them to be caretakers of it.

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