A Hectic Weekend

Saturday morning, I did my work with kids at the "Y". My family then went to the local bagel place for lunch. I then relaxed a bit before taking my son to lacrosse practice. On Saturday evening, I took a risk and travelled up to Allentown, PA in hopes of being able to attend the pasta dinner prior to the Lehigh Valley Half-Marathon. On arriving, I asked one of the event people whether I could attend the dinner. I was told there was a table down the hall where people were giving out tickets. I headed over there.
After telling the people at the table that I had been sent down for a ticket. I made the point of saying that "I was told you were giving out tickets to the dinner, I understand the term 'giving out' was metaphorical." Thus, I departed the table $20 lighter, but with the right to attend. The food was decent, if unexceptional, but I wasn't there for the food. I was there for the speakers. Prior to the meal, I headed up to the head table and greeted Amby Burfoot, whom I'd missed in Boston.
First up among the speakers was Bart Yasso of Runner's World Magazine. I've seen Bart before but I hadn't seen this speech before. The talk was quite amusing and nicely illustrated with photos.
The second speaker was my main reason for making the trip, Ryan Hall. For those of you who don't keep up with the racing world, Hall broke a 25? year-old Amewrican record in the half-marathon with his stunning 59:43 run at Houston in January. He'd followed up last weekend with a 2:08:24 at London. That was the fastest debut at the marathon by an American.
Hall's talk was fairly brief, but it taught an important lesson. He told the tale of going up into the California mountains to visit his family prior to the Houston race. As our good pal Murphy tends to do, everything turned bad, sliding off the road, a missed plane flight, etc. The stage had been set for a bad performance. Mr. Hall ran his race by feel, and although all the preliminaries had gone badly, he felt good. I wonder if the bad luck reduced expectations and let him run more relaxed. The upshot was the race of his life. I particularly like his use of the term "brave, yet wise" when describing how to race. I had the chance to speak briefly to Mr. Hall after the event ended. He was gracious and giving. I saw him give his hand-written notes for his talk to someone who asked for a copy of it. I don't know if time will harden his attitude, but his attitude was wonderful to see.
The final speaker was Dottie Lessard-O'Connor. She is one of Runner's World's Heroes of Running. This cystic fibrosis sufferer told her tale of the progress of her disease and her desire to run. A double lung transplant saved her life, and allowed her to run for the first time since she was a young schoolgirl. She was well and healthy until she suffered kidney failure. Again, she was blessed to get a transplant. Today, she's healthy, a relatively new Mom, and, as she says, "a RUNNER."
Following the dinner, I had some driving to do, about 90 miles home. Followed by sleep and an early start to go about 40 miles to the NJ Marathon. After taking some photos of the start, I met up with running writer Roger Robinson and his wife, Katherine Switzer. They headed out for a short run while I shot some additional pix. We rejoined for breakfast and some conversation relating to Johnny Hayes, the 1908 Olympic marathon champion.
I spent most of the afternoon photgraphing a sheep shearing at the local living history museum. I followed this by an informal meet between the kids I coach and the local Catholic school team, with whom we're friendly. I'm pretty sure they won, but the kids seemed to have a good time.

Photos & corrections to follow.

I checked Amby Burfoot's blog and found his comments about the Lehigh Valley Half. He brings up a few points I hadn't and his statement "impossible not to like" is right on the money.

Railroad Device - Track Tray

I was listening to a documentary about trains and heard about a device I hadn't known about. This device is called a track tray. Throughout much of the golden age of rail, the glamour route was the New York to Chicago run. In order to make the trip, a steam engine needed to be fed two things, fuel and water. The volumes of water were prodigious, and according to the documentary, the water needed to be refilled about every 50 miles. In order to be able to refill the water supply, the trains, running at speed, could drop an intake nozzle. This would scoop up the water, and using its inertia, drive it up into the water tank. The system wasted a lot of water, but it kept the trains from having to slow. The trays were apparently about 2 feet wide and guessing from the nozzle picture I saw, perhaps five inches deep. The documentary said the track trays could be a half-mile long. That's a LOT of water!

A Well Executed Prank

On Monday, my son came home with a practical joke kit. It included a handshake buzzer; a miniature, self-inflating whoopee cushion; and a "baby snake" in an envelope. On Monday evening, my son had trouble getting cooperation with the buzzer. Handshaking is done less often today, and very rarely by kids, so the handshake buzzer loses much of its potential impact.

It struck me that we could use me as a set-up tool for the prank, so yesterday, en route to school, when I found by son, who I'll refer to as Lumpy (love that pseudonym), had brought the buzzer, a plan was hatched. After being crossed by the crossing guard with whom we're friendly, I said, "Joe, Lumpy and I were practicing manners last night." Joe responded graciously, inquiring about what we went over. I explained that greetings were one of the things, whereupon Lumpy piped up with "Good Morning, Mr. Joe," and stuck out his hand. Joe, playing along, pulled off his glove, and firmly grasped Lumpy's hand. The buzzer buzzed, Joe yelped, and we all had a good laugh. The set-up worked to a tee.

Afterwards, Joe said, "I hold you responsible." He was right. I just wonder how and when he'll get us back.

Good-Bye, Mr. Halberstam

I just read of the passing of one of my favorite writers, David Halberstam. While I was aware of him as a journalist during the Viet Nam era, my love of his writing really grew during the 1980's and later when he was working as an author, especially of some very fine sports books. During the mid-1980's, I was dating a rower, and his book, The Amateurs, came out. She loaned it to me, and I became a fan of his. A few years later, I read his Summer of '49, and became an even bigger fan. It also brought me up to speed on some Red Sox lore that I, having grown up in the NY metro area hadn't known. This year, I read his The Teammates, the story of four guys from that era and their friendship of many decades.
This was the article on his passing. As I wrote this, I checked Wikipedia, it was already updated with his death. The power of distributed writing is pretty remarkable.

An Annoying Man!

On Sunday evening, I had the pleasure of having a beer with Vince "Boston or Bust" Hemingson. He insisted on taunting me by calling me "Scooter", a name he knows I don't use in real life. He kept saying it was "self-inflicted", so he was merciless. Vince went on to run a 3:48:53, a very solid performance on a less than ideal day. A picture will follow. I had a very nice time finally getting to visit with Vince. Last year, we had some communication issues, this year, my phone went on the fritz, but was usable, so while our communication wasn't optimal, we did manage to get things set up.

Not If, When

When I was riding my bike a lot, some people in the club I rode with made it a point to, when talking about helmets, say "when you crash" indicating that a crash was an inevitable part of riding. This lesson applies to lots of other safety gear as well.
This week, the governor of my state, Jon Corzine, got an up close and personal lesson in this truism. When you're in a car, accidents are almost inevitable. Corzine was not wearing a seatbelt. The result, 12 broken ribs, a fractured sternum, broken leg, and other injuries. Since it's not an if, wear your seatbelt!

Flatlining

The New York Times has an article (registration required) on heart disease. It's a profile of a man who had a heart attack after making some progress with weight loss and exercise. He made the mistake of taking himself off his medications for his heart condition (he is a big guy who'd had an earlier heart attack). It's worth a read.

Back From Philly

My family went to see the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The exhibit was excellent, but too crowded for my taste. We stayed overnight in South Jersey, and went to the Battleship New Jersey, which is berthed in Camden, yesterday. We had dinner with friends last night and arrived home late. Pix to follow.

Paper Mill Playhouse is in Trouble

New Jersey's legendary Paper Mill Playhouse is in serious financial trouble. They have hit some bumps with their management and the result is that they may need to close their doors. They are a fine organization and bring some quality productions to the suburbs of New Jersey. I hope that anyone who is in a postion to, will make a contribution. I hope we can save this landmark. It's a special place, and it opens doors for many young actors and actresses. Please help. I believe that purchasing tickets will also help, so that's a route that has several benefits, if I'm correct, first, it sells seats, second, for you, it transfers the risk to your credit card issuers. I hope they make it through this crisis.

Master of Escape

As a kid, I was a big fan of Harry Houdini. I was a fan to the point where related to some kind of school report, I was tied to a chair in fifth grade (I think it was fifth). Using some things I knew from books on him, I had a very easy time escaping. The wonderful Boing Boing blog mentioned a Houdini slide show posted by the Smithsonian. It provides a good overview of the life of this great illusionist and escapologist. I hope you enjoy it.