Duck-Farm

Today was my day. The local running club sponsored a half marathon in which I was a participant. In the overall standings I finished third (from last). And, I have a fight for it over the last 20 yards. On a brighter note, I had run 21km and some change exactly 14 days before and had a time of 2:39, today I completed at 2:22:28. While not earth shattering, it does make a person record. Not every pachyderm is quite so quick.

While not trying to take away from Chris’ most recent and incredible accomplishment I would like to describe this little event. It was held at the sports club at the next village over. To the “way-to-cool’ Chris, this would be the equivalent of the Rescue Half Marathon. I think there were like 100 participants in the half marathon. It was very different from the MCM. Numbers were issued from 0900 until 1025 with the starters pistol at 1040. AT 1030 I went outside. It was cold and threatening rain. By 1040 the threat had abated and there was a nice drizzle. In no hurry what so ever I found myself at the back of the pack. I had decided earlier to wear running tights (stretchy pants) and my old RED jacket that my wife has taken to calling Pinky. I am glad I had pinky, my other jacket was way to warm. In fact if this jacket did not have a significant emotional attachment to me I would have probably would have ditched it. That would have been a big mistake as it was only thing providing me with warmth as we turned into the wind over the last 2 km. Oh yes, thank you Chris, the tip on the gloves worked out wonderful. The drizzle was constant. While not making me think specifically of the Marines per se, it did make me think of many PFTs in a driving snowstorm. By the end, I was soaked through. There was nothing dry on my body. The last two KM were over open farm lands with a driving wind in our face. Did I mention the rain too? Almost the entirety of the rest of the run was through the woods. Pleasing in a way; but with limited crowd support.

When I passed the 11km marker I turned off the Ipod and did some quick math. I can normally run a consistent 7 min KM, slow but effective. My time at 11 KM was 1:08; Nearly a full KM faster than normal. I was running too fast. Where was my pace man Leroy! So, I struggled at slowing down until the last 5 KM where I struggled to keep up. The finish was fun. One of the ladies that at the back with me slowed down inexplicably at the 100m mark. I had been walking a lot do I was rested. I just kept rinning at that point. No sense in slowing down when the barn is in sight. At the end I heard her friends cheering and heard her coming up from behind. In a fit of competitiveness I picked up the pace and finished about 1 foot in front of her. Not very chivalrous, I know.

We had a bit of problem with logistics too. I told my wife that I would shoot for 2:30. So, after waving me off, her and the kids took off to do wife things. They came back 2:20 later. I saw the car pulling in as I battled for my third to last finishing position. Since we had no plan for meeting we walked around the building several times afterwards looking for each other. I was also a little miffed at the aid stations. They had no water! Just warm sweet tea that gave me a stomach ach. Even at the finish they had no water, just more nasty tea or bubbly water that you buy. I did not want to make a Jacuzzi, I was parched. Next time I will carry a bottle of water in my ‘kit bag’ just in case and create a proper extraction plan. Thank god that I had my own water bottle during the race.

Driving rain and all, it was a great day to be alive. Nothing like a little liquid sunshine!

–
Buford
AKA “The Pachyderm”

By now, many of you may have heard the rumor that I came from behind and won the Way Too Cool 50K in dramatic fashion with a 7 minute per mile pace over the entire 31 mile course, winning an automatic entry into this year’s Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run in June.

Those of you who have only known me for a little while probably dismissed it because you think I am way to slow to ever pull it off. And those who have known me for a long time may have raised an eyebrow because you know there was once a day when I could probably run a hilly mountain course faster than a lot of people, but then you remembered that I am not above starting an audacious rumor about myself in order to increase my popularity. So you dismissed it as well.

With many rumors, you often find upon further investigation that there is an interesting bit of information even in the midst of all the falsehood. So it is in this case.

You see, the winner of the Way Too Cool 50K has the same last name as me and his number was only one digit from mine. So that is probably how the rumor got started…. you can all relax now. I won’t be running the Western States 100 in June.

Details later this week when I have more time.

A cheery greeting to you all from the far side of the planet. Contrary to rumors I was neither abducted by aliens nor have I fallen off the edge the earth. Before I was able to squeeze a few ramblings here and there while at work. I can do this no more. Turnover has nearly doubled my daily workload. I am longer able to work smart in place of working hard. Nor am I able to simply work hard to accomplish everything. At current I am prioritizing each task and moving through queue as time allows. Often I am at work more than 9 hours a day and have done absolutely nothing but the bare minimum and still have mountain of queued problems to look forward to the next day.

After the Marine Corps Marathon I ran once to loosen my legs and then ran once more a week later. Then, I proceeded to exercise only my mind by thinking about running. Naturally, over the course of the holidays I looked a few beers and my weight began to blossom. So, in early January I began my walking again in a silly attempt to get things under control again. This helped to some degree. Soon, I was starting to think about riding my dirt bike again this spring. Just about this time my wife suddenly found a local half marathon for me to run. At that time it was in 9 weeks. I did the math and figure I could train enough to make it with a few weeks cushion. It is in 10 days. Unlike tackling a major event like a 50 km hill climb I will be participating in a 21 km gentlemen’s stroll. Oh yeah, a significant portion of this jaunt will be over my normal training area. Since the run starts and finishes 2.5 km from my front door I am debating on driving or walking to the start/stop line. 2.5 km is at least what we meandered on the way to the start of the MCM.

Last Sunday I completed my last big training run of 21 km. Due to family considerations I have taken running in the dark. My night vision is coming back, it is generally cool out and there is little traffic. Last Sunday I started at 9:15pm and finished just before midnight. I made it to bed and sleep a fitful 8 hours. At 2:39 I should be able to handle the run in 10 days with not much problem. Unless I get sick I should be able to zing under 2:30.

To Chris, good luck and god speed. I will be cheering for you from afar.

http://home.arcor.de/tsv1913harreshausen/volkslauf2007.htm