Life Adventures

Last Saturday, Debbie and I were back on the Long Trail for the first time in nearly three years. It was only a brief excursion. In town for the Green Mountain Club celebration, we decided to run up the toll road from the Stowe ski area. It was 3000 feet of elevation gain in a little more than four miles. Running up the slopes of Mt. Mansfield, to the Chin, brought back some great memories. We thru-hiked the LT in July 2005, which seems like eons ago. Still, we rarely go a day where we don’t bring up the trip. Long distance hiking is in our blood, though we don’t have the time to do it as much anymore. We are GMC Long Trail End-to-End Mentors and normally a week doesn’t go by without us sharing our experience with another potential end-to-end hiker.

We were joined on our run up (and down) the Chin by Ben Rose, the Executive Director of the GMC. Ben is a runner and has many consecutive finishes at the Key Bank Vermont City Marathon. He had done an historic running race up and down the toll road before, so he knew what he was in for. Mostly, it was Deb setting the pace and Ben and I struggling to keep up. Of course, we all did better on the descent. The views from the Chin were fabulous, stretching far to the Adirondacks of New York in the west, far north into Canada, and to the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the east. We chatted amiably (though mostly on the way down) about GMC, Vermont, AMC, New England, hiking, running, Lake Champlain, kids, education, family business, and a host of other topics.

It was a fine morning. The LT itself was pretty much impassable. We ventured onto the trail briefly, though it still had two to three feet of snow on it. That is proof that it is going to be a long mud season in Vermont. End-to-enders who think they are going to get an early start this year should bewarned that going could be slow…and messy. Best to wait a bit longer and minimize damage to the trails. Too much foot traffic on soft trails isn’t good for the Leave No Trace ethics.

After our run, we drove up into Smuggler’s Notch. The road was sort of open. Folks were up there and we had a nice view of a couple of rock climbers high on the rock face.

The trip to Vermont was just what the doctor prescribed. Clean air. Great trails. Good vibe.

Ever since Debbie and I thru-hiked the Long Trail in 2005, we have become loyal supporters of the Green Mountain Club. Last Friday, we made the journey to club headquarters in Waterbury Center, Vermont. We got to see where the old barn/visitor center was before it burned. We got to see the makeshift offices where the staff has been living/working for the past several years. Best of all, we got to see where the new visitor center will be constructed. We even got to shovel a little dirt as part of the groundbreaking ceremony. The trip was for a good cause. 

After visiting HQ, we joined a group of dedicated GMCers at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe. There, we celebrated the success of the clubs $5.25MM Second Century Campaign. Hanging around with a group of “real” Vermonters, transplants, and interlopers–all in support of the GMC’s mission, was a fabulous way to spend an evening. GMC has been maintaining and protecting Vermont’s Long Trail since 1910. As 2010 approaches, the pressure of keeping the trail the way it is and was, is greater than ever. Even in Vermont, capitalist temptations conspire to damage the environment and specifically the trail. Vermont needs to keep its “footpath in the wilderness” as it is, and even better, as it was. 

The most influential book that I have read in a long time is The China Study. I’m already vegetarian, so I don’t need any convincing that a whole foods-plant based diet is superior to the traditional American or Western diet. However, I’ve recently cut way back (virtually eliminated) dairy products from my diet as well. The China Study, written by T. Colin Campbell and his son, Thomas Campbell II,  is provocative and has its fair share of detractors. One example of disagreement that I found online from Chris Masterjohn:

Yet the 19 years of research into this project leave us with more questions than answers, and have left T. Colin Campbell with a foundation of unsupported conclusions upon which he has built his tower of vegan propaganda.

Propaganda? Yeah right! Read the book yourself. If you don’t have an “a ha” moment, then you are probably not interested in making the radical changes necessary to improve your lifestyle. I’m sure that there are others detractors, like Masterjohn. I’m sure that many of the have Ph.D’s. I am not a student of medical research, but I have still read a lot about nutrition over the years. I’ve paid close attention because there is a long history of heart disease in my own family. The Campbell’s profess that the ”moderate” low fat diet that is professed by major US organizations, like the American Heart Association, is “watered down.” The Campbell’s believe that a much more rigorous approach to diet and nutrition is the only way to reverse the effects of heart disease and other “diseases of affluence” that primarily impact Americans and other Westerners.

I’m not done with the book yet. I’ll be diving into the obesity chapters next, then on to cancer. I’m sure the Campbell’s have even more to say about how the typical American is killing himself/herself with an animal protein laden diet. Good luck trying to convince your friends that going vegan, or at least vegetarian, is the best way for them to lower their cholesterol. They won’t hear it. They won’t believe it. We have been brainwashed into thinking that cholesterol level under 200 is good. Folks in Asia, who predominantly get their protein from plants, and who get less than 10% of their protein from animal sources, have cholesterol levels under 100. It is a world of difference. Their hearts are much healthier.

Another reason why this book’s message is resonating with me: healthy eating is MUCH less expensive than surgery (by-pass, angioplasty, stents, etc.) and less expensive than drugs (statin drugs, blood pressure medication, etc.); and it focuses on preventive maintenance. None of the practices that are common in the bloated, inefficient, and wasteful US medical system are nearly as cost effective as prevention. I think that most of our society is blind to the real cause of our demise. No one wants to admit that in our fast food society, we eat a lot of crap. Hey, it isn’t just at McDonald’s, Burger King, and Taco Bell. Even the best five star restaurants serve dishes loaded with animal protein and fat. It takes real knowledge, effort, and conviction to eat a healthy diet. I know. Most people live in denial. Give me a pill so I can keep on eating my 32 oz. steaks and washing them down with Coke. Many Americans are just plain eating themselves to death.

The 7 Sisters Trail Race was all suffering today.

1) Debbie and I both started the race (in the rain) with bad colds and ran below par.

2) I lost my GPS watch.

3) I was mad because there were runners without numbers.

4) I miraculously found my GPS.  Well, that isn’t a bad thing.

No excuses, but we were both hoping to run a little better today. It wasn’t to be. The whole family has been sick this week and for the most part, hasn’t been healthy at all recently. Normally, a nagging cold wouldn’t debilitate you, but 12 miles across the rocky Holyoke Range with 3700 feet of elevation gain and loss, requires a little more lung capacity than the average jog. This was Debbie’s 9th Sisters in a row and first time outside of the top three, not counting the year she ran it five months pregnant. Credit goes to the three women up front who battled the wet and slippery conditions. Going up the first climb, the race order was pretty much set, thought it looked like there might be a pitched battle for the top spot. In the end, Beth Krasemann reprised her Northern Nipmuck performance and took her first 7 Sisters title, beating Ruthie Ireland. Ruthie was second for the third year in a row. She is going to nail first one of these years. Each of the past three years, a different woman has edged her out (Kelli Lusk, Debbie, and now Beth). Abby Woods also had a strong race and finished third.

I don’t have much to update on the men’s race. My mid-pack viewpoint requires me to wait for the results before commenting. I saw many of the usual characters up front, including Ben Nephew, Leigh Schmitt, and Greg Hammett. The first runner to pass me going in the other direction had an Inov jersey and Ben and Leigh were in hot pursuit. Maybe the Inov runner hung on. Like I said, the results should be out by tomorrow.

Just to illustrate how much oxygen debt I was in, I didn’t realize I lost my Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS until the five mile mark. This isn’t a little watch; you know when it is on your wrist! Apparently, I lost it in the first mile, but I didn’t know that until after the race. Debbie caught me shortly after crossing the porch on the Summit House, and I looked at my wrist to see how much time had elapsed and I couldn’t tell. A sinking feeling entered my brain as I realized that not only was I running slow as molasses, but I couldn’t prove it!

Debbie gapped me on the descent to the turnaround at six miles, but I clawed my way back to her on the the uphill climb. I caught her on the return trip across the Summit House porch, then she blew me away. The last four miles were agony and involved a lot of walking.

I figured that with 200+ runners on an out and back course, someone must have seen my GPS. My hope was that if someone found it, they already had one and didn’t need another.  I was also hoping that Dick Stoeffler, who was hiking one way from the turnaround to the finish, would see it as he passed by at a more pedestrian pace. Before we left the venue I checked with race director, Scott Hunter. Amazingly, someone had just told him they found a GPS. It was Dick Stoeffler who had it, but he didn’t find it. His son, Brett, found it running on the way back down Bare Mountain. The measurements prove that I lost it just after the top of the first climb around .75 miles. Brett, I owe you one! The wrist band clasp had broken off. I was fortunate. Phew.

Runners have been running races without numbers for years. Commonly known as “renegades” these folks simply don’t register for the event, but do it anyway. This is a lame practice and in my mind, qualifies as theft. 7 Sisters was $15 if you pre-entered and $20 if you registered today. That is a bargain. For your dough, you got an organized event on a great course. You got race direction, race volunteers, aid stations, traffic police, water, bathrooms, medical personnel, post-race food, and a bunch of people to run with. If you are a renegade, you may rationalize your behavior by not taking water or by peeing in the woods, but that doesn’t make it right. 7 Sisters supported by the Sugarloaf Mountain Athletic Club, benefits the Friends of Mt. Holyoke Range. These groups, like many others in New England, are stewards of the trails. So, by registering today, your money went towards the maintenance of the very trail that you ran on. What a privilege.

I saw several people on the trail without numbers, but I’ll give them the benefit of doubt. They may have been hiking, but, it didn’t look like it. Debbie witnessed a finish line incident when the RD asked a finishing runner what his number was. He said he didn’t have one. When asked why he was racing, he replied, “Just for fun,” and walked away. Like I said, lame. Debbie is the RD of the Soapstone Mountain Trail Races in two weeks. The entries are filling up our mailbox, so I know that there are a lot of honest runners out there. $17 for pre-entry. You get 13.5 miles instead of 12 and a post-race cookout. $17 isn’t as cheap as 7 Sisters, but damn close! Let’s hope the renegades stay home.

When you are the CEO of a mid-sized business, you never know what each day is going to bring. This past week, I had no idea that I was going to have to invest time and energy into the East Hartford (Connecticut) strip-club issue. I mean, come on. I’m busy all of the time and this issue popped up out of nowhere. At least there is some comedy involved.

The story is this: I’ve known about the ongoing struggle between the town and a couple of adult entertainment entrepreneurs. The town already has a couple of “establishments” focused on this type of XXX entertainment. I’ll let the readers explore some of the options on their own. Apparently, there are some folks who do very well ($$$) with this sort of thing. It is also apparent that these businesses attract crime. I’m no expert on the subject, but I read the papers and there are a heck of a lot more incidents involving the police at these businesses than there are at the one I work at.

I don’t even have the whole story, but a couple of lawsuits have been filed, including one against the town for denying first amendment rights. It seems that federal law requires that the town designate at least one area (zone) where these businesses are permitted. This is how I got involved. They picked our neighborhood (the North Meadows) and another industrial park (Prestige Park). The Town of East Hartford didn’t heavily promote that they were hosting a hearing at town hall, but word go out. So, we sent a representative to the hearing last Wednesday to get the lowdown. I also contacted the mayor and our local legislative representatives. Most of the residents of East Hartford don’t want these kinds of businesses anywhere in town and they have expressed their feelings through various forums. Mind you, our legislators and town leaders are the people who should be making legilsation that will help us navigate our economy through the economic morass that we are in. They are also tasked with setting rules, public safety, and preserving freedoms. They also have better things to do than deal with “strip-club anxiety.” I won’t get into the morality issues. I’m more concerned with the fact that a sex related business isn’t appropriate in our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is one of the original industrial areas in town. At one time, it was all residents, but it flooded frequently until they built the dike. Once the levee was up, businesses moved here, but that was 60 years ago. We lack some of the more modern characteristics of a new industrial park and the buildings are old. We have our challenges. I guess you could call me a NIMBY. The town shouldn’t be wasting resources on this type of economic development and I told them so. We support more manufacturing businesses and good service businesses, but not this kind of service business.

One of the funny things to come out of the hearing was that the new club or clubs are supposed to be “high end.” That’s funny. One resident told one of the attorneys that they should locate their high end club in a high end town. We have plenty of those in Connecticut, and East Hartford isn’t one of them. Believe me, that isn’t a knock against our community. Avon, Farmington, Glastonbury, and West Hartford have their own issues.

I did offer a proposal to the mayor. I said that since there was so little action at the Rentschler Field development (other than Cabela’s massive 200,000 sq/ft store), that we could move our whole neighborhood to that site and designate the North Meadows as the equally massive Connecticut Riverfront Adult Entertainment District. We could establish a special tax rate for these businesses to fund the construction of a 12 foot high wall the entire length of Governor Street. I’m sure the huge profits generated by teh businesses in this district would help the beleaguered East Hartford School System. The best part about this idea is that Horst Engineering would get the extra space it needs and our neighbors would get to upgrade their infrastructure. This could be a win for everyone involved. Now we just need to find a developer.

I enjoy reading Robert Reich’s stuff. I’ve mentioned Freakonomics (the book and the blog) in the past, and was pleased to see an interview with Reich earlier this week. He is the kind of gadfly that I like. I don’t agree with all of his ideas, but he is a voice worth listening to.

Leigh Schmitt, Debbie Livingston, and some of the other runners at the North Face Endurance Challenge (Bear Mountain), are the stars of this video. Even the Shep-Man has a cameo.

I finished the Tour of the Battenkill road race in Salem, New York, today. The race was truly a classic. The race is nicknamed Battenkill Roubaix because it is an April road race on an epic course with five sections of bumpy dirt road. It pays homage to Paris-Roubaix, one of the most prestigious one day races in the world. Paris-Roubaix is known as “The Queen of the Classics” and is famous for the pavé, or cobblestones that line much of the course. Paris-Roubaix was last Sunday. The Sunday prior, was The Tour of Flanders, another one of the spring classics. I’ve ridden much of the Flanders course and it is very unique. In Flanders, there are several steep cobblestone hills that are treacherous when wet. Today’s race was actually more like Flanders than Paris-Roubaix, which is a relatively flat race. Battenkill Roubaix would have been more like the European spring classics if today’s weather would have been more traditional (lousy) for early spring in the Northeast.  

Battenkill Roubaix has no cobbles, but the sections of steep dirt road are very challenging. In addition to the dirt, the course is very hilly and consists of several other significant asphalt climbs. We had unseasonably warm weather today with temperatures reaching 80 degrees Fahrenheit. I posted a more detailed race update and some photos on the Horst-Benidorm-Property Research Corp. Cycling Team blog. The course was gorgeous, the weather was fabulous (thought too hot for April), and the race volunteers were great. Battenkill is east of Saratoga and just to the west of the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts and Vermont. It was a great day for a bike ride.

This is insane! I was billed $1406.00 for five stitches and 30 minutes in the Emergency Department at Manchester Memorial Hospital. That is $2800/hour or $281.20/suture. Connecticare says I only have to pay half-$703.00. This is going to require a letter writing campaign. I’ll be contacting some folks at www.echn.org, the parent organization of the hospital, to learn a bit more about this. Of course, I’m happy for the care and grateful that the cut wasn’t worse, but I recall that Rambo stitched his own for a lot less!

Over the past 17 days, I’ve suffered from a badly lacerated left hand that I injured in a freak kitchen accident. After a long trail run with Debbie on the Quinnipiac Trail in Prospect, Connecticut; I decided to carbo load with a beer. I decided I would go high class and pour it into a glass. Two glasses were stacked in the cabinet, and when I tried to separate them, they shattered, fell out of the cabinet, and I caught them. The result was an ugly gash. 

Unfortunately, the cut is in a bad spot. Fortunately, it is my left hand and I can still type. Well, the accident has taught me several things, especially about the current medical model in our country. I harp a lot about the cost of medical care. I can’t comment on quality of medical care, but I know that the insurance premiums that our business pays are outrageous. 

The sutures were installed at a local hospital’s emergency department. Since we have an HDIP/HSA insurance plan, I was looking for the lowest cost solution. I still haven’t seen the bill, but I’m assuming that the ED option was not cheap. I did my best to help the nurse practitioner who stitched me up, minimize the expenses. It was a vain attempt to save the hospital a few bucks so that they could pass the savings on to my insurance company. I gather that it was a fruitless effort. You wouldn’t believe how many supplies were consumed in the stitching process. It was crazy. Everything, including the stainless steel scissors and tweezers was disposable. It was all thrown out. No wonder it cost so much! Yeah, I know, infection and cleaning costs are issues, but isn’t this just another form of environmental waste? 

When it came time to remove the sutures. I opted for a cheaper method. I’ve got video, but haven’t figured out how to upload it yet. The cut is healing, but very slowly. I expect the bill any day now and will report back on the real cost.

Well, the results are finally in for the North Face Endurance Challenge at Bear Mountain in New York. My original post on the race generated some feedback and forced me to reflect on both my comments and the event. It seems that I overlooked two aspects of the race. First, apparently, there was a significant controversy over the cutoff times. Second, I neglected to mention that the first two finishers, Leigh Schmitt and Glen Redpath, missed the 3rd aid station. I’ll get to the miss in a moment, but first, about the cutoff times.

My day was very busy, hustling from aid station to aid station with our little guy in tow. I was consumed with the action, but I still noticed that something was not right. By the last aid station, I realized that a lot of the 50 mile runners weren’t going to finish the race. Of course, I sort of knew this as early as aid station three, when it took forever for the first runners to arrive. 

I didn’t analyze the cutoff times for each aid station, but in the case of the 50 mile race, 13 hours for the whole race wasn’t long enough. The last official finisher in 19th place, finished in 12:52. Eight of the 19 finishers ran between 12 and 13 hours! The course was rated on the website with five out of five stars for overall difficulty. Compared to the other four races in the series, this one, the first, was clearly rated as the most difficult in terms of elevation change, technical terrain, and overall difficulty. Again, I don’t know enough about the circumstances, but I do know that I would be disappointed if I had trained, prepared, traveled, and paid to run; and was not allowed to finish. Did all the runners know what they were getting into? I would assume most did if they were committed to running 50 miles, starting at 5:00 A.M. with headlamps. Debbie doesn’t recall that there were any prerequisites (e.g. past ultra experience, etc.) to registering for the event. Our friend, Nipmuck Dave, has a hilarious race application for his race, the Nipmuck Trail Marathon. Cloaked in the humor is a very serious message, that a trail race of that distance (26.4 miles) is a serious undertaking and that you have to train for it and understand that you can get hurt while spending a lot of time in the woods. He has prerequisites for running the race and also has the right to not let you in. Running a road marathon to qualify, will get you nowhere with Dave.

The Bear Mountain race winner, Leigh Schmitt, has run the same distance on different courses, at least two hours faster. Debbie’s fastest 50 mile time is 7:54 at the Vermont 50 Mile Run. That is also more than two hours and twenty five minutes faster than her time in this race. The VT50 is no slouch of a course with a lot of climbing, less singletrack, and a little more dirt road, but still tough. Would Nikki Kimball have run the Bear Mountain course faster than Debbie? Probably, but again, times are relative and every runner has different strengths that are suited to certain terrain. Bear Mountain was just about perfect for Debbie. Nikki did run the 1/2 marathon on a bum ankle and commented that it was challenging.  Debbie says Bear Mountain was less than 10% dirt road and that it was rugged dirt road. The rest was singletrack and doubletrack with a little bushwhacking. April is early for a nasty 50 miler in the Northeast. Debbie was concerned about running that long this early in the year. If it wasn’t for our trip to Australia, where we ran the Six Foot Track Marathon (45km) last month, she may have opted not to run this far so soon. Our original plan was for her to run the Zane Grey Highline Trail 50 mile race in Payson, Arizona at the end of April. We backed out of that one because of our busy travel schedule, race logistics, and childcare challenges. Zane Grey is often regarded as the hardest 50 mile race in the country. I guess she has to run it next year or in 2010 to see if it is harder than Bear Mountain, a different kind of course, but seemingly a worthy challenger for the toughest title. I would be curious if any of the 19 Bear Mountain finishers has a Zane Grey finish to compare it with. So, I guess the cutoff time debate is exactly that…a debate. Most people run ultras for the fun and thrill of finishing. I’m a mid-pack guy myself, so I know that just getting across the line is a challenge. Runners like Debbie and Leigh are usually finished, showered, and on their way home long before the back of the packers end their day. The cruel irony is that the last finishers run the same distance, but technically spend a lot more time on the trail. Is their effort harder? I’ve said many times that I wouldn’t want to be out there that long. Well, that is what makes those folks heroes in my eyes. They deserve as much, if not more credit for being out there, as the champs do for crossing the line first. 

As for this tricky little third aid station issue. I was reminded by a reader of this blog that Leigh and Glen did not “complete the course.” I don’t know if there times were adjusted, but they did not run the out and back section to aid station three (15.7 mile mark). I was at three, so I know it. I think that the first runner to arrive was Marc Gravatt, who ended up finishing fourth. Debbie was the second to arrive and she finished third. We suspected something was up because it was taking too long for Leigh. He was the heavy favorite and we never saw him. I ended up trying to catch him at several other aid stations, but I kept missing him. I only missed him by seven minutes at the last aid station, but that cost me any chance of getting his photo on the trail. You would have to piece together the facts, but apparently, this one section of the course leading to aid station three, was not marked very well. The 50 kilometer was blue ribbons and the 50 mile was white. The course came down the trail to the aid, where the blue continued and the white returned to where the out and back started. Debbie says it was confusing and even one of the race organizers said it could have been marked better. He ended up going up the trail and re-marking it, but not until Leigh and Glen had passed. 

They eventually realized that they missed the aid station because they inquired about their status at aid station four, and were both told to continue running after volunteers radioed the base for guidance. In this case, the way the course was laid out, there was no way to indicate that they were headed the wrong way. Little out and backs like that are tricky. Even the map wasn’t detailed enough to really show this. So, in my opinion, it is hard to fault them. I spoke with both of them after the race and they expressed regret. Even if it saved them 10 minutes between the downhill, fueling at the aid, and uphill, they had a healthy cushion over Debbie, the next finisher. I’m sure that they may have even slowed a bit after realizing the mistake. That kind of stuff messes with your head. Do you run another 33 miles only to be disqualified? 

I’m sure that others have a different opinion. If there was more competition, there may have been a bigger controversy. The rules posted on the website clearly state that you must check in at every aid station. Well, it is ultimately the race organizers who make the rules, so they can change them too. Leigh and Glen were OK’d to finish the race and claim their spots on the podium. I’m sure they understand that cutting the course and missing an aid in other races could result in a DQ. It isn’t a simple matter because marking a course is an imperfect science. Nature and sabotage have caused runners to lose their way in the woods many times in many races. 

Do the cutoff time and course marking issues make the race a bad one? That is for the runners to decide. They each have their own perspective. Do these issues reflect poorly on the race and the North Face brand. Probably, but that is how things go. It was their first race in the series this year. Hopefully the lessons learned will transfer to the folks promoting the other regional events. Every course is different and according to the website, the remaining four race courses are going to be a lot easier. The bigger concern in my mind is if a first time race like this has “legs.” Will it last 24 more years like Nipmuck, Western States, and some of the other great ones? North Face and their co-sponsors have clearly pumped a lot of dollars and marketing might into their series. Brands like the North Face don’t often last 25 years and marketing budgets shrink. Think back to one of my more infamous race reports after the HERC Open last year. I think the company behind HERC and the $25,000 prize list, Unither Nutriceuticals, Inc. is bankrupt. I know their website is down. The races that are now legendary all have great courses (like Bear Mountain) but they also have great race directors and/or running clubs who have had long tenures putting them on. They also tend to have no or very small prize lists. It is the honor of finishing that is significant. 

Three cheers to all of the racers who ran on Saturday at all four of the race distances, and kudos to everyone who toed the start line, not just those who crossed it heading in the other direction hours later. 

Yesterday, the 2008 edition of The North Face Endurance Challenge kicked off at Bear Mountain State Park in New York, and proved to be a worthy challenge. The Endurance Challenge series was first promoted in 2007 and consists of a full day of races for runners of all abilities, including first timers. Each event in the series has races at the 10 kilometer, 1/2 marathon, 50 kilometer, and the marquis, 50 mile distance. This year, regional Endurance Challenges will also be held in Washington D.C.; Seattle, Washington; Madison, Wisconsin; and the national finals will be in San Francisco, California. 

From my perspective, the 50 mile and 50 kilometer Bear Mountain races were epics. I didn’t run, but my crew mate, Shepard, and I made it to six aid stations and saw a lot of the course. As far as I know, this was the first time that an ultra-marathon trail race was held on these trails. The final results had not been posted when we left the venue around 5:00 P.M., but in the 50 mile event, it looked like the 100+ field of runners who started the event at 5:00 A.M. had been whittled down to less than 20 official finishers, and nearly half of those folks were still out on the course. It turns out that 19 people finished the 50 miler. 65 people made it to the 26.5 mile aid station, but 46 missed the time cut.

50 mile results

50 kilometer results

The single loop course through Bear Mountain State Park and adjacent Harriman State Park was even more rugged than predicted.

We camped near the venue on Friday and it rained most of the night. It wasn’t raining at the start, but it was very foggy and quite dark. However, at 5:20 A.M., the skies opened up and we had a huge thunderstorm that lasted about 45 minutes. Shep and I watched the start, then he insisted that we play a full-court basketball game. We were eating breakfast in our van when we heard the first loud thunderclaps. Deb and the other runners were well on their way at this point and I’m sure their feet were wet. I’m not really sure why the basketball court was fully lit all night long, when the NY State Parks are facing budget cuts, and charging higher usage fees on top of tax revenue. Regardless, Shep was thankful.  

Even by the time runners were reaching the first aid station, merely a handful of  miles into the race, the organizers were realizing that the time cutoffs were way to aggressive. With 8000+ feet of climbing and an equal amount of descending, all in short bursts; the route was a classic Northeastern layout with lots of single-track laden punctuated with rocks and roots. Debbie described it as “technical, rugged, slippery, muddy, well-marked,  with very exposed rocks…and hilly.” She thrives on that kind of course and it showed. She had one of her better recent results, finishing in 10:18:11, as the first woman and third overall. Only Leigh Schmitt (8:26:22) , and Glen Redpath (9:39:31) finished ahead of her. I spoke with both of them and they regarded the course as difficult. Leigh said that the first 30 miles in particular, were hilly and technical. He said it was Seven Sisters style up and down with lots of rocks and scrambling. Another runner compared the trail to the Escarpment course, which would make sense because that is another New York trail race. Deb has done the Escarpment Trail Run (18.6 miles) once and both of us have run Sisters (12 miles) many times and those two races are high on the epic scale, and notably, a fraction of the distance of yesterday’s race. I asked Leigh how the course compared to the Jay Mountain Marathon, another race that we have done several times. He said it was harder, which is a strong statement. Again, Jay at 33 miles has more climbing over a shorter distance, more bushwhacking, and that crazy river running, but the key phrase is “shorter distance.” Leigh has run Jay in under six hours which is much less than the eight plus that it took him to complete yesterday’s course.

For the average runner reading this, “easy” for Leigh means “hard” for mere mortals. So, when he says it was hard, he means it. The results were eerily similar to the 55 mile Pittsfield Peaks Ultra Challenge which was also a new course, back in June 2007. That race was also run much slower than the race organizers had predicted. Deb also finished 3rd overall (1st woman) behind Leigh and Courtenay Guertin. Yesterday, both Leigh and Deb were rewarded with cash prizes, plus free registration to the San Francisco championship event. Last year after Pittsfield, I noted that it was rare to win money in this sport. I repeat that comment now because it is atypical. Some folks prefer the grassroots, apple pie-first prize, approach. Deb has an open mind and the race winnings merely offset expenses, though she likes apple pies too.

The third place male runner was Marc Gravatt. The second woman was Carol O’Hear and third woman was Elizabeth Carrion.

In this one post, I’ve mentioned several of the most challenging trail running races in the Northeast. I remarked several times that I wished some of the talented trail runners from out west had come out to test their legs on our terrain. We know and love those folks and they get a lot of attention in the running press and run some pretty fast times on those great events in their regions, but we are partial to our kind of courses. Like I said, I’m curious to see the results for both the 50 mile and 50 kilometer races. Even though the rain was done shortly after 6:00 A.M. (and prior to the 50km start), it left the course slippery. I saw several runners with scrapes and lacerations to their heads and legs, so I know that not everyone stayed on their feet. The course was trecherous in spots. The wind picked up and by afternoon, the temperature was warmer thanks to the sun peeking through the clouds.

This Bear Mountain race had it all. Darkness, cold, rain, thunder and lightning, hills, and rocks. I told Deb that I hope they have it again next year. A course this classic deserves to be run again. Though the entry fee was relatively high, the sponsorship and race organization were very good. A few of the aid stations may have been too far apart based on the course difficulty, but it was an early spring race and heat wasn’t an issue. I hope there aren’t too many complaints from the runners who were pulled off the course for missing time cuts. It is disappointing and I do fault the organizers for not having someone pre-run the full course to gauge the proper cutoff times. If someone did this, their math was wrong. I know, awards ceremonies and insurance are common reasons given when hard line cutoffs are enforced. I say, if you let people start a race with headlamps, why wouldn’t you let them finish one with headlamps? Arguably, the cut off times are there for the safety of the runners, but anyone crazy/smart enough to run 50 miles should know the risks. The cutoff issue seemed to be one of the only blights on the event. The volunteers that I encountered were very helpful and there were lots of medical folks on hand to assist with first aid. The multi-race format is difficult to pull off, but it seems to have worked. Originally, I was signed up for the 50km, but my hand injury, bum ankle, and childcare duties kept me on the crew for the day, which is OK. Deb says I would have complained about the rocks. She hates it when I complain. 

Until last week, I figured that The Brookings Institution, was just another Washington D.C. based non-profit public policy organization focused on research and democracy. It is true, that is what they are, but now at least they have a little more personal face for me. Tara from Brookings contacted me a month or so ago. She said that she was doing research on the Connecticut economy, specifically the Hartford region, and that she was hoping I would meet with her team to explore the questions. I said, “Sure.” Then, I Googled Brookings. Why me? Well, the CBIA gave them my name. Thanks CBIA! Seriously, I was happy to help, especially when they were going to ask questions that were right in my wheel house.

Here are a few:

What explains the performance of the regional economy in terms of its replacement of jobs lost in the manufacturing sector over the last couple of decades with jobs in other sectors? There are two types of explanations for performance: policy/strategy and exogenous factors. We want to know about both.

Also, what explains the shift in jobs amont manufacturing subsectors?

Did individual firms adopt explicity strategies to improve their performance?

So, Tara, and two colleagues, Howard and Alec, met with me at Horst Engineering for an hour long discussion. They took copious notes and I rambled (a bit). They were particularly interested in gaining an understanding of why Horst, and some of our peers, have thrived while other Hartford based manufacturers have faded into obscurity. There are a lot of reasons, but in a nutshell, manufacturing in Connecticut has gone high tech, high mix, and low volume. It is a niche business with strong companies focused on specific sectors like aerospace, defense, and medical. I spoke about how our customers first looked to Mississippi, Arizona and the Carolina’s in the mid-1990’s quest to find lower cost domestic sources. I spoke of more recent low cost sourcing in Eastern Europe, South America, and Asia. I told them why we were choosing to expand both in East Hartford and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. This intrigued them. I explained that it was less about low cost and more about growth. We have established a second operation in a region where manufacturing is king. Manufacturing was king in Connecticut in the 1940’s. It has only gotten worse since then. We haven’t given up. We have gotten better, but we haven’t shaken the stigma. Kids just don’t dig manufacturing as much as other stuff.

In the Brookings interview, I didn’t hold back and contrasted the productivity growth at Horst with the lack of productivity at the two Connecticut casinos, the Cabela’s store, the strip malls, and the “fast casual” restaurants that  litter the landcape of our region now. I’m not a big fan of those enterprises, regardless of what value they add to the economy. One service sector job does not equal one manufacturing job. All of those cheap imports and all of that lousy look-a-like food are not going to be as cheap as they are today or as cheap as they were last month. The goods and food are only contributing to the United States’ malaise with the average American’s home overstuffed with crappy products and their belly overstuffed with crappy food. I stayed calm throughout the questioning, even when they asked if government was a help in keeping us competitive. I shook my head. I simply said that the small and middle market businesses in our industry had taken matters into their own hands. We wrapped up with a quick shop tour. I showed them how high tech precision machining is. I also showed them how significant the capital investment is. Lastly, I illustrated how important a skilled workforce is to the production of highly engineered products.

Tara and Alec are in their first year with Brookings. They are recent college grads. Alec manned the Apple PowerBook. Howard was the “grizzled veteran” with three years of Brookings experience under his belt. He was a speedwriter in six point font. No, they weren’t the high powered trustees that are often quoted in the media, but they are the worker bees that get those reports done. No reports; no quotes. A quick review of that trustee list reveals some serious firepower.

I’ll be looking for that finished report to see what conclusions were made about manufacturing and the economy. I’ll also pay more attention in the future when the work of The Brookings Institute is cited.

International Medical Corps first came to my attention in the fall of 2004 when I chaired a panel discussion for a group of business leaders at the Basketball Hall of Fame, in Springfield, Massachusetts. On the HOF court, I met Nancy Aossey, the dedicted CEO of IMC.  She participated in a panel on Middle East affairs. I recall that she was a little under the weather. Her organization is as global as it gets and she had been traveling heavily prior to the event. Her schedule was crazy and that was prior to the tsunami that devastated Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia in December 2004. That disaster thrust IMC to the forefront of humanitarian aid organizations. Horst Engineering has supported IMC ever since. They are a four star Charity Navigtor non-profit and leader in their field. The blog of an IMC aid worker caught my eye last week. She is running marathons in the Middle East to support IMC. It goes to show that running and social enterprise fit together very nicely.

The New England Grand Tree Trail Running Series kicked off yesterday, with the 16 mile Northern Nipmuck Trail Race. The gloomy New England weather has continued into April, but that didn’t prevent a good turnout for the race. Bigelow Hollow State Park had traces of snow left from winter, but the Nipmuck Trail was in decent shape. Friday’s rain made the trail wet and slippery in spots, but overall, the course was in really good condition.

Northern is one of Debbie’s favorite races, mainly because it is so rugged. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I’ve improved in recent years, but six years ago, this was my first long trail race and it was a DNF in my first try. Fortunately, since then, I’ve been able to pace myself better and make it to the finish without blowing up as badly as that first time. This year, I faded a bit after the turnaround, but that gave Deb the opportunity to catch up to me. We ran together for the last four miles. We were in hot pursuit of Beth Kraseman, who dropped me like a wet sandbag around mile 10. She said something like, “I’m going to surge now.” I replied something like, “I’m not.”

Beth had a fine run and was first woman. Deb left me for dead on the final descent and came in second. We weren’t able to close in on Beth. I was happy to finish. I only fell on my injured left hand once. A week ago today, I had a wrestling match in the kitchen with two stuck glasses and ended up with a trip to the ER and five stitches. I wore one glove in the race to pad my hand and protect the laceration. It was also in homage to Michael Jackson, who memorably wore one white sequined glove for most of the 1980’s. It was great to see some of our friends from the trail running community at Northern, and it was good training for some of the tough races ahead.