tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48414650341400323612024-03-18T20:36:45.679-07:00Foot and Pedal DiseaseSlushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.comBlogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-38556666085657310472022-11-15T12:30:00.008-08:002022-11-15T12:43:22.982-08:00DJ Slush Pup's Best of 2019<p>DJ Slush Pup's Best of 2019</p><div><span><a href="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/6nJiSOJSqXGGisnVJV2A9S">Spotify Playlist</a><br /></span></div><div><span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">47 - Guster - Overexcited</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">46 - Ra Ra Riot - Bad to Worse</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">45 - Wire Faces - Party Hat</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">44 - Weyes Blood - Everyday</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">43 - Esther Rose - Handyman</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">42 - Beck - Saw Lightning</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">41 - Vampire Weekend - This Life</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">40 - Cage the Elephant - Ready to Let Go</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">39 - The Still Tide - Change of Address</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">38 - The Avett Brothers - High Steppin’</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">37 - Trash Cat - Robot Girlfriend</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">36 - Katie Pruitt - Expectations</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">35 - The Interrupters - Bad Guy</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">34 - Sarah Slaton - Dance in the Sun</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">33 - Miranda Lambert - Bluebird</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">32 - Beach Bunny - Dream Boy</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">48 - People in General - Cinderella</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4: 16:45</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">31 - Taylor Swift - Lover</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">30 - Jade Bird - Uh Huh</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">29 - Future Crib - Astronaut</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">28 - Black Midi - 953</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">27 - Sports Team - Here It Comes Again</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5: 17</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">26 - Benee - Glitter</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">25 - Sleater-Kinney - Can I Go On</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">24 - Noah Cyrus - July (Leon Bridges)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">23 - Roseville - Lucky Cigarette</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">22 - Cut Throat Finches - Ignition</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">21 - Pip Blom - Daddy Issues</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6: 19?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">20 - The Heavy - Heavy For You</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">19 - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Bright Horses</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">18 - Bon Iver - Hey Ma</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">17 - Fea - Itch</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">16 - Sturgill Simpson - Sing Along</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">49 - Chess at Breakfast - Pushing Daisies (On Your Day Off)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7: 18:00</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">15 - King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Fishing for Fishies</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">14 - Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - Keen for Kick Ons?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">13 - Cole Schiefele - Flightless Astronaut</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">12 - Lil Nas X - Old Town Road</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">11 - Black Pumas - Colors</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">8: 20:00</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">10 - Titus Andronicus - Just LIke Ringing a Bell </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">9 - Steve Mason - America Is Your Boyfriend</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">8 - Lizzo - Tempo</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7 - SOAK - Get Set Go Kid</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6 - Big Thief - Not</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">9: 19:30</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5 - The Claypool Lennon Delirium - Little Fishes</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4 - Serpentfoot - Oh, Lowly Fog</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3 - Angel Olsen - Lark</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2 - Amyl and the Sniffers - I Got You</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1 - Fontaines DC - Big</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span></div>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-1378824789803312362021-12-31T09:12:00.070-08:002022-01-10T08:28:52.725-08:00Slush Pups favorite songs of 2021<p>Slush Pup's 60 favorite songs of 2021, ranked!</p><p>I'll be updating this post as I count down the songs from 60 to 1</p><p>Why 60 songs? That's about how many songs I can reasonably squeeze into 2 two-hour radio shows.</p><p>What's the criteria? The songs do need to be something that I could reasonably play on my radio show at KRFC Radio Fort Collins, so some genres that I enjoy will be under-represented. I ranked the songs based on personal preference, with a bit of an eye towards objective quality, if that's even possible. I've never really done a "ranking" before, and it was interesting to realize through this process why I like some songs more than others. I tend to favor songs with interesting melodies and lyrics, and I do enjoy songs with fun musical "hooks". There are exceptions to every rule, of course, but I think one could categorize my core musical preference as "indie pop".</p><p>You'll note that many of the songs on the list contain swear words; those I typically have to edit out for radio broadcast, but links here will more often than not contain the "full" lyrics. Also I limited myself to one song per artist. In the case of some of the artists, I think I could have placed 3, sometimes 4 songs in this list (see Wolf Alice, Japanese Breakfast), but I wanted to represent more artists in this list.</p><p>Without further preamble, let's get into it!</p><p>#1 - "Chaise Lounge" - Wet Leg</p><p>The song we needed in 2021. Self-assured, eccentric, escapist, fun. Weg Leg dropped this in time for the summer of 21, providing a post-punk slice of nonsence with a gloriously silly video to boot. And that eye contact! Wet Leg didn't even have a supporting album (coming in April of 2022!) for this comet blast. The song ostensibly deals with that post college graduation low-level "what now" feeling, but I think you can read into it what you want. Or simply read nothing into it if that's your mood. Fans of that late 70s post-punk wonder-era will instantly gravitate to this bouncy masterpiece. Long live Wet Leg.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zd9jeJk2UHQ" width="468" youtube-src-id="Zd9jeJk2UHQ"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#2 - "Paprika" - Japanese Breakfast</p><p>This is a statement of joy in a somewhat grim, but wonderful, album, the joy of experiencing your artistic creations come to life and have an impact on others ("it's a rush!", she sings). This is a delightful synth-pop gem, the opening track from her critically-acclaimed 2021 album "Jubliee". I could have chosen 4-5 other tunes in this spot (see Wolf Alice at #3 for a similar argument), and "Be Sweet" deserves recognition as one of the first songs in 2021 to grab my attention. But the effortless, winding, never-ending melody of "Paprika" keeps me in a state of bliss like few other songs in this year. Also note the bridge, which provides a terrifying counter-argument to the theme; the recognition that within the "rush" lies a bottomless void of despair waiting to welcome you to the comedown with open arms when the lights dim and the applause stops. Beautiful and meaningful and if not for a blazing comet at #1, my favorite track of the year.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bsGGzWh9V3k" width="488" youtube-src-id="bsGGzWh9V3k"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#3 - "Lipstick on the Glass" - Wolf Alice</p><p>My album of the year presents about 5 songs that could have been in my top 60, but I decided to rep each band with only one song, so I picked my favorite from them, "Lipstick on the Glass". Here Wolf Alice creates an atmosphere of resigned hopeless malice that matches the lyrical content beautifully. The singing is otherworldly, and goodness, can Ellie Rowsell hit some high notes here. The bridge features some spoken word a la their earlier hit "Don't Delete the Kisses", but mirrored darkly, without hope or love. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KX_QelwuC8I" width="485" youtube-src-id="KX_QelwuC8I"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#4 - "Open Up the Heavens" - Jade Bird<br /></p><p>24- year old English musician Jade Bird roared out of the gates in '21 with this tight and taught Nashville-tinged rocker. I love the construction of this song, each section building on the last, nary a wasted moment. Jade treats us to an aggressive, throat-searing vocal in which I fear for her longevity, and love her all the more for it. This song grips you tight and only loosens it for a brief respite in the middle 8/bridge section, somewhat ironically when the song title is uttered. If you're looking for that perfect no-nonsense 4-on-the-floor rocker by a very promising young artist, hop on this thrill ride. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZtXjBMQjpLk" width="496" youtube-src-id="ZtXjBMQjpLk"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#5 - "Pay Your Way in Pain" - St. Vincent</p><p>St. Vincent gives us a tour of the 70s in her great 2021 album "Daddy's Home". "Pay Your Way in Pain" is good old fashioned dirty funk from who might be the closest thing we have to Bowie in this age. The song is clever, fun, raw, constantly shifting and sliding around. Greasy.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZUTu65AXrJw" width="461" youtube-src-id="ZUTu65AXrJw"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#6 - "Disco" - Geese<br /></p><p>I know, I know, stop trying to make Geese a thing, right? I've been obsessed with this song since I randomly came across this single over the summer. These kids from Brooklyn have just released their debut album, and "Disco" (not a disco song at all) was the lead song. This is not a perfect song by any means, it's probably too long, and the parts seem stitched together inelegantly, but the overall effect is perfect NYC/Brooklyn post punk glory. The lyrics fall into that glorious NYC tradition of obsessive, self-involved paranoia, reaching back to the best of Television and Talking Heads via Interpol and The Strokes. Long live that angular, arty, unhappy NYC music scene.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BvAlWXmy1iA" width="442" youtube-src-id="BvAlWXmy1iA"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#7 - "Tend the Garden" - Gang of Youths</p><p>Australia is pumping out an outsized share of great music these days. This lead single from Gang of Youth's new album "Angel in Realtime", "Tend the Garden" wins my coveted (I swear) "best of down under" for 2021. GoY tells a story of a deathbed confession by the singer's father, about a secret child, a half-sibling he never knew. This revelatory and sad tale is backed by a smooth disco vibe. This improbable combination works incredibly well. This is dance pop full of heart and feeling. I keep coming back to this gem. Can't wait to hear the rest of the album!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XmLtHVyYEs4" width="497" youtube-src-id="XmLtHVyYEs4"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#8 - "Broken Harvest" - Madison Cunningham</p><p>This is an astonishing, meditative, reflective acoustic masterpiece from Madison Cunningham. "Broken Harvest" approaches the untouchable For the Roses era Joni Mitchell. I'm beguiled by this song; introspective lyrics, innovative melodies and surprising chord changes abound. The song never seems to settle down or do what you expect, but it's not strange for the sake of being strange. There are lovely surprises around every corner, and the outro part seems to dissolve into beautiful nothingness, as we follow her as she fades away. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hdVF3HzyRhE" width="469" youtube-src-id="hdVF3HzyRhE"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#9 - "Kill Me" - Indigo De Souza</p><p>This is the closing track from Indigo De Souza's acclaimed 2021 album "Any Shape You Take". What draws me into this song in particular is the way it keep building upon itself. It's really fun to listen to how she adds more and more insanity to what is at its core a somewhat straightforward melody. It's yet another youngster looking back at 90s alt rock, and I'm loving it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xE07X_qqZWI" width="440" youtube-src-id="xE07X_qqZWI"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#10 - "Like I Used To" - Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen</p><p>This collaboration between indie darlings Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen bursts out of the gates like a powerful "Born to Run" aftershock, but with a fully modern sound. VE & O give us a beautiful romantic duet full of longing, nostalgia, and faint hope. The melodies are so perfect they must be stolen from somewhere, but I can't figure out where exactly. Their voices contrast each other but blend wonderfully. The song reaches a nice over-the-top drawn-out crescendo which leads to a somewhat surprising instrumental outro, leaving me wanting one more chorus. I may have had this tune on repeat as a result. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5ibj87fwRaM" width="420" youtube-src-id="5ibj87fwRaM"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#11 - "Good Days" - SZA</p><p>This is a stunning, beautiful R&B tune from St. Louis native SZA (no association to the Clan, she's just a big fan). This was a massive hit single in 21, and one can see why. The melody is endless and beautiful, and the chord progression is varied and surprising. To me it channels some of the best of Prince; think a slightly more subdued "Adore". Simply gorgeous.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IKk1OO-jq4A" width="480" youtube-src-id="IKk1OO-jq4A"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#12 - "Nice Guys" - Beach Bunny</p><p>Lovely it is to experience the age where the kids born after the 90s are mining, sifting, and interpreting the big loud fun music of that decade. Beach Bunny released a stellar little 4-song EP in 21, featuring this mid-tempo monster. This sound right in place on the first Weezer album, with huge guitars, soaring choruses, and some sing-along bits. The lyrics are passionate, earnest, and a big middle-finger to insincere "nice guys". Awesome stuff.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/orWJkDUKGpM" width="463" youtube-src-id="orWJkDUKGpM"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#13 - "Seventeen Going Under" - Sam Fender</p><p>Tyneside lad Sam Fender throws down a good old fashioned earnest big music tune, a letter to his somewhat younger self. This is sincere, immediate, real, from the heart stuff. It's not groundbreaking or full of surprises, but fans of that big 80s stuff (think U2, The Alarm, The Waterboys, Simple Minds, etc.) will find much to enjoy here.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WAifgn2Cvo8" width="477" youtube-src-id="WAifgn2Cvo8"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#14 - "If I Don't Hear From You Tonight" - Courtney Barnett</p><p>Courtney Barnett released a lovely new album in late '21, and this is my favorite single from the lot. Courtney Barnett sings a world-weary love song in her distinctive Lou Reed-esque delivery. Her vocal style may not be for everyone, but on this I think her voice suits the vibe perfectly. This is a quietly resigned defiance in the face of disappointment, backed by a solid, unassuming mid-tempo rock vibe. To me this song has spring form the same deep well from which Johnny Thunders pulled some of his amazing tunes. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u-NmWxIeCSA" width="457" youtube-src-id="u-NmWxIeCSA"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#15 "Don't Play" - Turnstiles</p><p>Pinning this band down is like pinning wind to a wall. Their entire "Glow On" album is a hard-rockin' delight. For sheer fun it's hard to top "Don't Play", which roars out of the gate like a d-beat Bad Brains classic, before settling in to something resembling Seplutura with less aggro vocals. The vox are all emo oughts, but not overly whiny. Great stuff.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t43dyhMudIA" width="465" youtube-src-id="t43dyhMudIA"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#16 - "Bunny is a Rider" - Caroline Polachek</p><p>Man, watch this space. Caroline Polachek is destined for the big-time in the electronic dance-pop arena. The former "Charilift" chanteuse has been on her own for a couple years, and is now collaborating with the likes of Charlie XCX (who narrowly missed my list this year), and Queen Be herself. "Bunny is a Rider" is slinky, cool, and beautiful. Caroline possesses incredible range and tone, and this song spectacularly highlights her vocal, songwriting, and production chops.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h_V2ccs_Urk" width="446" youtube-src-id="h_V2ccs_Urk"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#17 - "Cheers" - Faye Webster</p><p>"Cheers" is funny, dirty, spacy, cool. Faye's delivery is tired, sexy, melancholy, and full of feeling. And those fat synths! Faye is somehow lumped into the country genre, I guess b/c she is from the south. There's nothing traditionally country here. Not sure what it is, exactly. 'Cept very cool.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7oq-lvTXf3s" width="432" youtube-src-id="7oq-lvTXf3s"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#18 - "Valentine" - Snail Mail</p><p>Very much in the emo-soft-loud-soft 90s vibe, nonetheless Lindsey Jordan came roaring out of the gate with the advance single of her new LP, "valentine" with this title track. Atmospheric verses dive straight into soaring, big-music choruses featuring the requisite musical and vocal hooks. The middle 8/bridge section ends up putting the breaks on the entire song, serving as a somewhat surprising outro. Hey it's a pop song, no need to prolong things unnecessarily, I suppose! Backed by a big budget and frankly terrifying video, Snail Mail makes a bid for the biig time with this radio-friendly (minus the f-bomb) tune.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZxarOZ0JBcc" width="430" youtube-src-id="ZxarOZ0JBcc"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#19 - "Unsmart Lady" - Dry Cleaning</p><p>Dry Cleaning dropped a bomb with 2020's "Scratchcard Lanyard", and followed it up in early 2021 with 2021's best noise rock pop single "Unsmart Lady". Florence Shaw talks her way through a minefield of post punk guitar (think Bauhaus' Daniel Ash) and a menacing rhythm section. Fans of Sonic Youth will rejoice in the wake of this arty, uncomfortable brilliance.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/--gEZsKFoj0" width="511" youtube-src-id="--gEZsKFoj0"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#20 - "Where's My Brain???" - The Lazy Eyes</p><p>Australia seems to be in the middle of a psychedelic reawakening. Relative newcomers The Lazy Eyes make my list with this runaway 6+ minute tripped out thrill ride "Where's My Brain???" (yes, three question marks are part of the title). A driving beat propels the song straight into interstellar space, featuring spacy vocals, precise guitar leads, and room to contemplate a hyperdrive repair job before a final successful blast into mega-super-hyperspace. Set the controls for the heart of the sun, and hold my beer.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a8Mw6RjWGeI" width="433" youtube-src-id="a8Mw6RjWGeI"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#21 - "Two Face" - L'Rain</p><p>Yeah. This is beautiful, interesting, stylish indie dance pop. It is full of fun surprises but not to the determent of the songcraft. And that drum track, funky as all get out. Yeah it's weird, but good weird.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LWmN7vXnnCo" width="484" youtube-src-id="LWmN7vXnnCo"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#22 - "Little Things" - Big Thief</p><p>Big Thief is back with a new double album in 2022, and "Little Things" is the advance single. It's gorgeous. It's like Stevie Nicks hooked up with The Cocteau Twins and wrote a song with Kim Thayil from Soundgarden, which was the combination I never knew I needed. Seriously what time signature is this in?? The whole thing is astonishing, enveloping. The lyrics free-flow over the music, which is gorgeous, layered, from somewhere not near the earth we inhabit. The secret sauce is the really cool lead guitar, which starts to sneak in around 1/2 way through, and eventually takes over, but does so subtly, organically. This is an absolute stunner.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qF0dXT-v-vY" width="491" youtube-src-id="qF0dXT-v-vY"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#23 - "Dark Horse" - The Velveteers</p><p>ok I'm biased, obviously. This doesn't pretend to be an objective list, but we all knew that. I'm rooting for this Boulder-based trio of misfits. The Velveteers signed to Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound label in 2020, and dropped their debut LP "Nightmare Daydream" in late 2021. My favorite track is the opening number, "Dark Horse". It's a crunchy throwback to early 70s heavy sludgy proto metal, with a dollop of psychedelic wizard stuff. It's melancholy and terrifying and extending a hand to either take you on a quest or throw you in a dungeon. And that instrumental middle 8, so heavy and crunchy. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YpMrMFYZLPs" width="473" youtube-src-id="YpMrMFYZLPs"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#24 - "Walking at a Downtown Pace" - Parquet Courts</p><p>This is everything great about NYC music. Parquet Courts hit a home run with this DFA-via The Hacienda dance pop single. Love the beat, love the bass line and rhythm guitar, the lead guitar, the vocal melody, the gang vocals. It's fun, trashy, bouncy, slightly obnoxious. An absolute banger.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0R7wpcw1Z4A" width="435" youtube-src-id="0R7wpcw1Z4A"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#25 - "Brightside" - The Lumineers</p><p>Colorado's own The Lumineers (I think we can claim them, right?) surprised me with this fuzzed out, sparse love song in late '21. For me this feels like a 180 from their recent fare, which has tended arty and adventurous. Stripped of ornamentation and resting on songcraft and emotion, "Brightside" is in some ways a throwback to their debut, but sonically really quite different. Quite a lovely little tune, this.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sbNyqDz40HI" width="320" youtube-src-id="sbNyqDz40HI"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#26 - "Days Like These" - Low</p><p>This is an astonishing track. Low manage to write something very assessable and completely insane, all at once. The song starts with a very lovely melody, and then repeats the melody with a completely disorienting and overblown amount of distortion. This is all over in the first 2:30 of the song, leaving about 3:00 for an extended ambient outro. Props for creativity!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d8QiSZRX8dA" width="438" youtube-src-id="d8QiSZRX8dA"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#27 - "See Me" King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard</p><p>GH&LW released two albums in 2021, the in-form slightly strange "L.W." in the early part of the year, and the really very strange "Butterfly 3000" in June. "See Me" dives head-first into psychedelic disco with an infections shuffling off-kilter beat and a driving bass line. The band riffs on a somewhat chromatic exotic-sounding melody and drives it into the ground. I'd have chosen "If Not Now, When?" as my favorite from this album but it technically came out in 2020. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BNJiUlW2-pw" width="414" youtube-src-id="BNJiUlW2-pw"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#28 - "Nudge It" - Sleaford Mods (f. Amy Taylor)</p><p>I think we in the states can comfortably, if not a little lazily, lump Sleaford Mods in with bands like Idles and Fontanes DC, i.e. post-punks with a message. There's quite a bit more techno and hip-hop going on with this track, however, a call out to "class tourists" who didn't actually come from the grimy North, from the council estates. The backing track goes absolutely nowhere but the groove is so good it hardly matters. And a pedantic rap from none other than Aussie nut-job Amy Taylor (from Amyl & the Sniffers) adds a lovely bit of over-the-top kookiness to the track. I feel like I'm dissing the song, but I love it because of it's simplicity, not in spite of it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xhdGipqrKNY" width="431" youtube-src-id="xhdGipqrKNY"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#29 - "Too Good" - Arlo Parks</p><p>Backed by a sparse funky R&B vibe, Arlo Parks lays down a cool soul vocal steeped in a hip-hop vibe. This is 21-year old Arlo Parks' debut release, and "Too Good" is the last of 7 (!) singles released from the album. It made a bit of a splash stateside, and is album-of-the-year material back home in England. This track sounds beautiful. If you like something smooth and funky, give Arlo a listen.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6gNDqxQwEKo" width="473" youtube-src-id="6gNDqxQwEKo"></iframe></div><br /> <p></p><p>#30 - "Alaska" - Pinegrove</p><p>This is just a perfectly constructed two-minute blast of big jangle-pop music. Every part flows seamlessly together, the vocal melodies build on each other with the right amount of drama in the verse and chorus, and it doesn't hang around too long. Maybe not long enough, even! Not a wasted moment in this song, well done.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_GB26TguHGc" width="402" youtube-src-id="_GB26TguHGc"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#31 - "Sometime" - Ritt Momney</p><p>I keep thinking I shouldn't like this song as much as I do, but there's no accounting for taste, is there! Ritt Momney is out of SLC, so bonus points there for the spoonerism of LDS politician Mitt Romney for the band name. There's that 90s alt rock sound again. Can't get away from it in 2021.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UVDfMtgbdeE" width="460" youtube-src-id="UVDfMtgbdeE"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#32 - "Foutre le Bordel" - La Femme</p><p>French alt rockers busted out with this up-tempo new wave throwback single in early 2021, in advance of their really interesting album "Paragidms". This is a hyper-kinetic dance-punk romp featuring a fantastic guitar freak out, 100% harmonized / gang-vocals, and an infectious pogo-dance-inducing beat. Nothing to see here, just the French going à l'état sauvage.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d_pg_lvgnNM" width="445" youtube-src-id="d_pg_lvgnNM"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#33 - "Pretty Picture" - The Pleasure Dome</p><p>Bristol England is killing it right now. Maybe The Pleasure Dome is riding in the significant wake of Idles at the moment, but this blast of punk-metal is en fuego, as they would say in Bristol (note, they probably aren't saying that). This song checks all the boxes: sung-shouted vocals, heavy, loud, and fast driving beats, and massive distorted guitar lines. It's an arresting listen and features a hilarious (to me) drum break towards the end of the tune. Also the irony isn't lost on me that the lyrics of this song are all about the artificiality of your life on social media. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yG02iN4UEvM" width="420" youtube-src-id="yG02iN4UEvM"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#34 - "Hey Lou" - Liz Phair</p><p>Well well well, look who the cat dragged in. With all this 90s nostalgia in 2021 I suppose it was only a matter of time before Liz Phair made a return to form. "Hey Lou" is a delight, a quietly funky, mostly acoustic ballad with some orchestral flourishes. LP sings the song from the perspective of Laurie Anderson singing to Lou Reed, mostly castigating Lou for his well-documented loutish behavior. This is getting all the way back to LPs early vibe, fairly lo-fi, fun, thought-provoking and provocative material. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WkX3XPt4irk" width="459" youtube-src-id="WkX3XPt4irk"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#35 - "Baby Don't Cry" - Sunflower Bean</p><p>SB continues to tease us with really fun singles during the pandemic. No word on if there is a full length album around the corner here in 2022, though a tour may hint at more material. No matter, "Baby Don't Cry" is a fun, fuzz-blasted slice of 90s alt rock from this NY trio. Shirley Manson, Kim Deal, Justine Frischmann, come see what your musical children have built upon your edifice.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vJkzrb7QJFU" width="481" youtube-src-id="vJkzrb7QJFU"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#36 - "Jazz on the Autobahn" - The Felice Brothers</p><p>The Felice Brothers turn in a sunny ode to the apocolypse that give a nod to Dylan, certainly, but also Lou Reed, Guthrie, The Band, etc. You get the drift. Nonetheless, for all its influences, the tune feels fresh somehow. There's a strong upstate NY vibe here. Good stuff.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_WLaWauXW4w" width="455" youtube-src-id="_WLaWauXW4w"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#37 - "Waiting In Line" - Kiwi Jr. </p><p>Wow, this song vibes hard as an outtake from "Of Skins and Heart" from The Church, down to the vocal stylings. This is a happy, bouncy ditty with very melancholy lyrics about a failed relationship, and it's perfectly put together. Imagine my surprise to discover these lads are not from Australia, but Toronto. Go figure.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jpQX2DhtE-0" width="428" youtube-src-id="jpQX2DhtE-0"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#38 - "Ut Oh" - Children Collide</p><p>Yeah this is more like it. Trashy guitar rock with tons-o-hooks. Admittingly this is stealing a bit from the old 7 Nations Army riff, but with more of a fuzzed out 70s stoner rock feel. I'm just saying, I don't see marching bands lining up to learn this one, but this song rocks, and that's good enough for me.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FAMp2oxjEgw" width="449" youtube-src-id="FAMp2oxjEgw"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#39 - "True Love" - Hovvdy</p><p>I've decided the correct pronunciation of this band is "Ho-viddy". All my references are coming up 90s today. This song somehow reminds me of Built to Spill without electric guitars. And a little home spun sincere Americana in there. Beware, potential listener; this sweet little nugget is extremely catchy. Listen to put yourself in a good mood.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/G7Sk1g2qWH4" width="428" youtube-src-id="G7Sk1g2qWH4"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#40 - "Gorgon" - Juliana Hatfield</p><p>I must admit I've been sleeping a bit on Juliana Hatfield since the 90s. She wrote a great memoir "When I Grow Up" in 2008, and has continued to release quality music with consistency since the days of "My Sister" and of course, "Spin the Bottle". Her 2021 album "Blood" is another quality effort, and I particularly dig the song "Gorgon". This is a sprightly piano-fueled pop tune with defiant feminist lyrics. The extended outro is pure gold, the sound of a band enjoying the moment, being spontaneous, and feeling the minimally funky vibe.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/taFRh9Qj0wI" width="447" youtube-src-id="taFRh9Qj0wI"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#41 - "Hush" - The Marías</p><p>The advance single from this LA-based band's debut LP "Cinema", "Hush" is a downtempo synth driven pop tune that checks all the boxes for me. The sections flow together nicely, there is great variety in the singing and vocals, and it maintains a cool, slightly nasty vibe. It was nice to see this song get a little airplay from the local stations when they came through town in late 2021.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jFy03i_LRO8" width="390" youtube-src-id="jFy03i_LRO8"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#42 - "Get High" - Chet Faker</p><p>This came out early in 2021, while we were still mostly going stir-crazy in the winter and collectively losing our marbles in frozen isolation. Chet Faker comes along with a downtempo funky electric-piano driven balled and brightens my mood considerably. Thanks Chet! Great vibe, and a super funky keyboard-synth solo to close out the track. Man, this was a top 5 tune for me early in in the year. That it fell so far may be due to a bunch of other great tunes that came out throughout the year, but I still love this funky little gem.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0OoPePl7iYM" width="428" youtube-src-id="0OoPePl7iYM"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#43 - "Puppy and a Truck" - Jenny Lewis</p><p>Jenny Lewis has put out a ton of interesting stuff over the past decade plus. "Puppy and a Truck" finds her in an autobiographical country mood. What's not to like? Good chorus, great middle 8 section, amusing and self-deprecating lyrics, great melody, and a few swear words thrown in for good measure.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zv8aibmIqag" width="459" youtube-src-id="zv8aibmIqag"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#44 - "Bones" - Rosali</p><p>I can't remember how I stumbled upon this cool tune, but PA-based Rosali turns up a great downtempo rock song in "Bones". I hear Neil Young via The Drive-By Truckers, with just a sprinkle of Tusk-era Lindsey Buckingham on lead. Rosali's alto has that Chrissie Hynde vibe. It's a big, messy, old school rock song. Rock on, Rosali.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D-RFcMRZSnM" width="387" youtube-src-id="D-RFcMRZSnM"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#45 - "I Need You" - Jon Batiste</p><p>A joyful deep south hip-hop spiritual from Jon Batiste is one of several standout tracks from his awesome 2021 release, "We Are". There is nary a wasted second on this tight little track. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H8E-yy3ACJU" width="434" youtube-src-id="H8E-yy3ACJU"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#46 - "B-Side" - Khruangbin & Leon Bridges</p><p>Come on, now, this is beautiful stuff. Texas-based indie artists Khruangbin & Leon Bridges have teamed up for a couple EPs, and "B-Side" is my favorite track from the lot. It's a somewhat sparse mellow funk, with a nice little nod to Remain in Light era Talking Heads. The groove is deep, not fierce. What a cool pairing!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CgugkEB-q_Q" width="387" youtube-src-id="CgugkEB-q_Q"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#47 - "New Romance" - Beach House</p><p>You like your synth with a side of synth, and your vocals with mostly echo? Beach House has what you came for. New Romance is one of a few advance songs from their upcoming new album "Once Twice Melody". Yeah, maybe it's a bit 80s 4AD but it's so beautiful and pure.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/80mz7OhyBUo" width="398" youtube-src-id="80mz7OhyBUo"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#48 - "Church of The Misdirection" - Kate Vargas</p><p>The spiritual love child of Tom Waits and Betty Davis, NYC artist Kate Vargas sounds spiritual and dangerous, unafraid to sound raw and unpolished. "Church of The Misdirection" is a wonderful little New Orleans - inspired stomper, right out of the Mr. Waits playbook. Big props.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zpe7i618Q08" width="398" youtube-src-id="zpe7i618Q08"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#49 - "Hypotheticals" - Lake Street Drive</p><p>Some easy, breezy blue-eyed soul from Boston's Lake Street Drive. This feels a bit backhanded, but they are excellent craftsmen and women, and this song is beautifully put together. It's all a little AOR-safe, but there are tons of fun hooks to enjoy, and everything about the song is perfect, if perhaps just a bit on the safe side.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BGQWnWgr8Nk" width="410" youtube-src-id="BGQWnWgr8Nk"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#50 - "Doesn't Matter" - Benee</p><p>I was just thinking about N. Ireland singer SOAK recently, wishing for something new from them. Benee will fill in quite nicely, thank you very much. Benee is a bit of a star in native New Zealand, but not yet well known in the states. "Doesn't Matter" is a wonderful late-night mellow and melancholy tune, perfect for late night/early morning. And perfect for song #50.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R6r5IUM5LqY" width="392" youtube-src-id="R6r5IUM5LqY"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>#51 - "Fisher Island Sound" - Beirut</p><p>The advance single from Beirut's new album of b-sides and rarities, "Artifacts" (due in January 2022), this is a bouncy mellow somewhat twee tune that has its feet firmly in the baroque pop style of the late 'aughts. It is thoroughly enjoyable, and has a nice instrumental section. It wraps up a little too quickly for my taste, but it's a nice sunny vibe.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EenQuqpVllA" width="475" youtube-src-id="EenQuqpVllA"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#52 - "Jackie" - Yves Tumor</p><p>Yves Tumor threw down a quick little EP in 21, featuring this big-music electro-pop single "Jackie". YT serves up a sweet melancholy lovesick tune with synth hooks out the wazoo. It's not really pop, or dance, or rock, it sort of slots in right between all that. It sort of feels a bit by the numbers given the insane genius we know inhabits YT's brain, but even Bowie wrote hits, right?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bQpaWvPFx8A" width="467" youtube-src-id="bQpaWvPFx8A"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#53 - "Are You Ready" - The Allergies </p><p>Hailing from Bristol, England, The Allergies give us a slappin' good facsimile of early 90s New Jack Swing / Northern Soul / New Power Generation Prince. The Allergies throw the kitchen sink at this track, with featured rap spots, soulful female vocals, horns, old school scratching, and a good old fashioned dance floor call to arms. I find myself wishing for one more guest MC, maybe someone with a more rapid flow to take the track up another notch, but even still this is one fabulous party jam. Party on, Bristol.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R5Yrov89n9Y" width="420" youtube-src-id="R5Yrov89n9Y"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#54 - "Weights" - Bartees Strange</p><p>Speaking of Bob Mould...</p><p>Bartees Strange released a deluxe version of his wonderful 2020 album "Live Forever" in 2021, featuring this b-side "Weights", which features a straight-ahead muscularity also strongly reminiscent of Mr. Mould, and Bloc Party for that matter. There's something joyful and pleasing in the simplicity of this power rock tune from Mr. Strange. Hopefully something new from him in '22!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j2xplsdve0M" width="445" youtube-src-id="j2xplsdve0M"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#55 - "The Way I Feel" - Alien Boy</p><p>The force of the 90s is strong with this one. Portland (OR) based Alien Boy turned out a critically-acclaimed album in 2021, featuring this very enjoyable 80s-90s alt rock pastiche "The Way I Feel". It reminds me of a less strident Bob Mould, but with one eye on the "jangle pop" vibe of those early days of alternative rock. Vocals can be a but whiny and the vocal range is a bit limited, but yeah, this is my kind of tune. And any band named after a classic song by The Wipers gets a thumbs up in my book.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uusz_Puwl9s" width="479" youtube-src-id="uusz_Puwl9s"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#56 - "WHO" - The Crooked Rugs</p><p>Ft Collins' own The Crooked Rugs released not one but two albums this year, busy little bees that they are! "WHO" is taken from the first of the two releases, and it is a bit of a psychedelic rave-up and reminds me a bit of "Yin and Yang and the Flower Pot Man" from Love & Rockets, but with a bit more fuzz, and much more abbreviated. I noticed a few throwback trends with my list of songs this year, psychedelic being one of them (90s revival being another). I'm excited to see what these lads serve up in 2022, can they keep up this turgid pace? Hope so!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YLyms_tZXiM" width="456" youtube-src-id="YLyms_tZXiM"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#57 - "High In The Grass" - Sleater-Kinney </p><p>S-K continues part II of their revival with a new album and this, my favorite track from it, "High in the Grass". HitG is a study in contrasts, with dreamy melodic verses, interspersed with heavier choruses and a driving middle 8 section. Corin's voice is in fine form, with beautiful tone and expression. There's an interesting tension to this song, like they are trying to convince themselves that things are fine high in the grass, but not quite believing themselves. I like it. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UkPJtv32WtA" width="482" youtube-src-id="UkPJtv32WtA"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#58 "Deja Vu" - Olivia Rodrigo</p><p>Jumping right into the fray, this massive hit song from This Year's Girl (7 Grammy nominations) Olivia Rodrigo is a wonderful teen confessional electro ballad a la early T. Swift crossed with early Lorde. Yes please. OR is picking up accolades from the mainstream (Time magazine's "entertainer of the year") and the "cool" press (#10 song of the year from Pitchfork) alike, so this pop debutant just might be on to something. Songs "Drivers License" and "Good 4 U" were bigger songs, but I like this one better, for it's dynamic range and fun musical hooks. Play on, Olivia.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cii6ruuycQA" width="536" youtube-src-id="cii6ruuycQA"></iframe></div><p>#59 "Safer" - Roseville</p><p>Local Northern Colorado band Roseville released a mini-album "Something About a Fig Tree" in 2021. Opening track "Safer" draws from that deep well of early 90s alt rock shoegaze vibe, with a languid pace, off-kilter rhythm, and a lovely and vulnerable melody. The recording production is excellent and this song sounds great cranked up. I'm a little self-conscious that I have so few local bands on my top 60 list but I'm pleased to represent Roseville. Thanks for writing a lovely, atmospheric, melancholy tune.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-4xe8iXqAyU" width="468" youtube-src-id="-4xe8iXqAyU"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>#60 "How High" - The Record Company</p><p><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The lead single from the new album by The Record Company, "How High" is a solid and well-constructed bit of mild-mannered soulful rock. It's a good tune, and a people pleaser. There's nothing groundbreaking here but I like it. I feel like I'm damning it with faint praise, but there are great songs the didn't make Slush Pup's Top 60, so there's nothing TRC should be ashamed of </span><span class="pq6dq46d tbxw36s4 knj5qynh kvgmc6g5 ditlmg2l oygrvhab nvdbi5me sf5mxxl7 gl3lb2sf hhz5lgdu" face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; display: inline-flex; font-size: 15px; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 16px;"><img alt="🙂" height="16" referrerpolicy="origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/ta5/1.5/16/1f642.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Enjoy this solid mid-tempo AOR rocker!</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MJEA9NLVTX4" width="482" youtube-src-id="MJEA9NLVTX4"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-43794491890884235692015-11-04T16:16:00.001-08:002015-11-08T12:57:23.907-08:00Marathon Du Slush, 2015<br />
Marathon Du Slush<br />
November 7, 2015, 8 am<br />
Fort Collins, CO<br />
"It's legit!"<br />
<br />
The Recap:<br />
<br />
https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNwiCizsdMLwIyktfVcTotN_2Bol2JUb7dXRyAw<br />
<br />
A charming mid-Fall day in the Fort witnessed the beginning of a special tradition. The First Marathon du Slush! 10 competitors toed the line on a crisp, sunny morning for the 8 am start. 7 completed the surprisingly challenging and leg-destroying course. 2 Brits half-assed their way through a self-proclaimed half marathon course. And 1 participant inaugurated the "mystery k" Sherpa course. <br />
<br />
The field started out in a bunch for the first 10 miles, with scant seconds separating first from last. This began to change after the Whiskey aid station at miles 10, when Mike and Sarah broke apart the field with a surge down the backside of Bingham Hill. The remaining 5 marathon participants jockeyed for third on the Horsetooth Hills. By the time the runners reached South Dam, Ryan and Emily and Alex had gapped Justin and Slush. At the May Aid at mile 20-ish Justin and Slush caught up with Alex, and Justin made a late charge. Slush and Alex plodded on through Spring Creek and Alex eventually surged past Slush, and then caught Justin as well. <br />
<br />
Up at the front Sarah and Mike ran together with Mike graciously granting Sarah the overall at the nose. Emily entertained thoughts of catching Sarah but ended up settling for a podium spot some 8 minutes off the pace. Ryan cruised in comfortably under the 4 hour barrier, with Alex, Justin, and Slush all sauntering in a bit over the 4 hour mark and in the case of Slush, complaining loudly, and wondering why he thought this was a good idea.<br />
<br />
All agreed that the course was tough, and that including south dam and its attendant hill was "totally unnecessary" and "not at all appropriate". But there are no plans to change the route.<br />
<br />
In the half-marathon division a couple of Brits ran around for a bit and then wandered off for a pint and a bowl mushy pees.<br />
<br />
And in the mystery k division Chris Roberts took the crown, and took a bunch of jackets and hats back to the start/finish, so that's pretty legit as well.<br />
<br />
Will this become an annual thing? Stay tuned!<br />
<br />
The Results:<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 266px;">
<colgroup><col style="mso-width-alt: 5046; mso-width-source: userset; width: 104pt;" width="138"></col>
<col span="2" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl65" height="17" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 104pt;" width="138"><span style="background-color: cyan;">Runner</span></td>
<td class="xl65" style="border-left: none; width: 48pt;" width="64"><span style="background-color: cyan;">Time</span></td>
<td class="xl65" style="border-left: none; width: 48pt;" width="64"><span style="background-color: cyan;">Place</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="border-top: none; height: 12.75pt;"><span style="color: blue;">Marathon</span></td>
<td class="xl66" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></td>
<td class="xl66" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;"></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="17" style="border-top: none; height: 12.75pt;">Sarah Omann</td>
<td align="right" class="xl68" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">3:34:22</td>
<td align="right" class="xl67" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">1</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="17" style="border-top: none; height: 12.75pt;">Michael
Hinterberg</td>
<td align="right" class="xl68" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">3:34:22</td>
<td align="right" class="xl67" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">2</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="17" style="border-top: none; height: 12.75pt;">Emily Warner</td>
<td align="right" class="xl68" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">3:42:06</td>
<td align="right" class="xl67" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">3</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="17" style="border-top: none; height: 12.75pt;">Ryan
Quinnelly</td>
<td align="right" class="xl68" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">3:47:07</td>
<td align="right" class="xl67" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">4</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="17" style="border-top: none; height: 12.75pt;">Alex May</td>
<td align="right" class="xl68" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">4:11:04</td>
<td align="right" class="xl67" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">5</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="17" style="border-top: none; height: 12.75pt;">Justin Liddle</td>
<td align="right" class="xl68" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">4:14:10</td>
<td align="right" class="xl67" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">6</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="17" style="border-top: none; height: 12.75pt;">Scott Slusher</td>
<td align="right" class="xl68" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">4:21:19</td>
<td align="right" class="xl67" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">7</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="border-top: none; height: 12.75pt;"><span style="color: blue;">Half Marathon</span></td>
<td class="xl66" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;"></td>
<td class="xl66" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;"></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="17" style="border-top: none; height: 12.75pt;">Ruth
Waller-Liddle</td>
<td align="right" class="xl68" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">1:44:21</td>
<td align="right" class="xl67" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">1</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="17" style="border-top: none; height: 12.75pt;">The Nick
Clark</td>
<td align="right" class="xl68" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">1:44:22</td>
<td align="right" class="xl67" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">2</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="17" style="border-top: none; height: 12.75pt;"><span style="color: blue;">?k</span></td>
<td class="xl66" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;"></td>
<td class="xl66" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;"></td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td class="xl67" height="17" style="border-top: none; height: 12.75pt;">Chris Roberts</td>
<td class="xl67" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">??</td>
<td align="right" class="xl67" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">1</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
the route:<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/905919199" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/905919199</span></a><br />
<br />
the map:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-if1dcR5c1PQ55dpQAqGY6S62nFWNcCYXO5Z6R9M46XTlNdITsoeRsaQVMAaZhUWRVMq77fWY3JXw5khjaadcB_1IRnnaZBs2TSrTTJaORTu7Fv5Z562FPy1yk3-7vZkMwtsov5lhsiiC/s1600/marathon+du+slush+map.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-if1dcR5c1PQ55dpQAqGY6S62nFWNcCYXO5Z6R9M46XTlNdITsoeRsaQVMAaZhUWRVMq77fWY3JXw5khjaadcB_1IRnnaZBs2TSrTTJaORTu7Fv5Z562FPy1yk3-7vZkMwtsov5lhsiiC/s400/marathon+du+slush+map.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The entrants:<br />
-------------------<br />
Slush Pup<br />
MAH<br />
Alex MayDay<br />
Q<br />
Emily Airheart<br />
<strike>Marie-Hélène Far-running</strike><br />
Justin a Liddle farther to go<br />
Twiglet<br />
Jomann<br />
<br />
FAQs:<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Q: I couldn’t find any particulars on the gel brands you will be stocking at the aid stations… </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> A: Uh, that's aid STATION, not stations.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Q: Also, what assorted corral/wave starts will there be, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> A: The runners should thin themselves out by dodging traffic on Shields at mile 0.1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Q: and what about gear check? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> A: Just put everything with Maggie Mae </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Q: Chip timing, or chronotrack? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> A: I'm trying to get Pete to sit on the porch all morning and yell at you when you finish.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Q: Finally, is there a live app where all my family and friends can follow my progress?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"> A: No but they can check out my band's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS7E_IMbsiOhTew4GO79N1A">YouTube channel</a> all morning, that's pretty cool.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">Q: </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Is there a wheelchair division? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> A: Wheelchairs will be available after the race.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;">Q: A relay division? </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;"> A: never.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;">Q: Will the shirts be technical or cotton, and are they gender-specific? </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"> A: thick, absorbent cotton</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;">Q: what time is the race expo tomorrow?</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif;"> A: 7:37 - 7:38 pm</span></span></span><br />
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The Passion:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioddoXWMNwbcFlTdIC3BXDmQlaH6XsJjNxp2qdhVyn3b6zD5QeB_NOBWUIer3ZoRstMSaBvzBSuhIRP6qQMbRhGLMUgCoQBlzymwuF4T-VYpFWFFl_uHLR9ubg9UOBaM0pogjCc3yQCcs0/s1600/glass+cage.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioddoXWMNwbcFlTdIC3BXDmQlaH6XsJjNxp2qdhVyn3b6zD5QeB_NOBWUIer3ZoRstMSaBvzBSuhIRP6qQMbRhGLMUgCoQBlzymwuF4T-VYpFWFFl_uHLR9ubg9UOBaM0pogjCc3yQCcs0/s320/glass+cage.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-87693738383595236732013-01-06T17:49:00.000-08:002013-01-23T07:09:31.278-08:006th annual Human Powered Brewery Tour 2013: The Next Generation<br />
6<sup>th</sup> Annual Human Powered Brewery Tour for ALS<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidyBSRfwCy-UVT1CiGPZQrkLAk0IhREn_SC5K3KnMFml8-vbax5sxFtcxOYjtr3Z-ahU0qxoLcoA3MUw60obpnnRSv9uce4Jt5ETzu-30ykdM-Wbbr64MsfT8yfHMY4etHafJQHnNHwXJP/s1600/4569_1_remastering_star_trek_the_next_generation_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidyBSRfwCy-UVT1CiGPZQrkLAk0IhREn_SC5K3KnMFml8-vbax5sxFtcxOYjtr3Z-ahU0qxoLcoA3MUw60obpnnRSv9uce4Jt5ETzu-30ykdM-Wbbr64MsfT8yfHMY4etHafJQHnNHwXJP/s320/4569_1_remastering_star_trek_the_next_generation_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Saturday, February 16<sup>th</sup>, 2012. 10:00 am.<br />
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<pre style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;">Fort Collins... the final frontier....</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">These are the voyages of the Human Powered Brewery Tour.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Our five, er, Six year mission: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">To explore strange new breweries, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">(without the aid of motorized transportation).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">To stamp out ALS once and for all. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">To boldly go where no man has gone before.</span></div>
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The tour of the constellation of Fort Collins breweries is as follows:</div>
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(Times estimated)</div>
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a.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.newbelgium.com/">New Belgium Brewery</a>. 10:00 am. </div>
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b.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.fortcollinsbrewery.com/">Fort Collins Brewery</a>. 10:45 am (ish). </div>
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c.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.funkwerks.com/">Funkwerks Brewery</a>. 11:30 am.</div>
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d.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><a href="http://odellbrewing.com/">Odell Brewing Company</a>. 12:15 am.</div>
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<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">e.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.pateroscreekbrewing.com/" style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Pateros Creek Brewing Co</a><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">1:03 pm</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">.</span></div>
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f.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.equinoxbrewing.com/">Equinox Brewing</a>. 2:00 pm</div>
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Raffle prizes along the way, including race entries, and other cool stuff!<br />
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2008, First, uh, annual!</div>
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2009, 2nd annual!</div>
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2010, 3rd annual!</div>
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2012, 5th annual!<br />
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<br />Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-44872463845472588042012-10-02T07:20:00.001-07:002012-10-02T07:20:33.447-07:002nd annual Runners Without Borders, 10/28<br />
2nd annual Runners Without Borders<br />
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It's back!<br />
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Please join me for the 2nd annual Runners Without Borders!<br />
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Let's do a recap for those who may have forgotten:<br />
<br />
Last year about this time I said to myself, "Self, how's about we raise some money for <a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/">Doctors Without Borders</a>? Gee, that'd be swell, huh!" <br />
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Then this happened: <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/10/runners-without-borders-recap.html">RWB</a>. <br />
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And now it's going to happen again! With a few minor changes to the format, because, you know, I like to mess with success.<br />
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Let's start with the basics. <br />
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It all goes down on SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28th, 8:00 am - 4:00 pm<br />
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Get yourself to <a href="http://www.parks.state.co.us/parks/lory/Pages/LoryStatePark.aspx">Lory State Park</a> on Sunday, October 28th. You don't have to be there for the whole day. <br />
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Start at the "Eltuck" picnic area. See map here: <a href="http://www.parks.state.co.us/SiteCollectionImages/parks/Parks/Lory/HPLO1001_Lory_TrailMap_Sign_05.16.11_FINAL_WEB.pdf">Lory map</a><br />
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Run to one of the very lightly defended "borders" between Lory State Park and Horsetooth Mountain Park. <i><b>You choose the route</b></i>. There are two border crossings as you know. Valley and Mill Creek, we'll call them. <br />
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Pick up a poker chip at the border crossing, there will be a bag of them at each crossing.<br />
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Return to Eltuck with your poker chip. This represents a "lap". One poker chip per person per lap, people.<br />
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Repeat. Or don't. (yes do...)<br />
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But wait, there's more! So much more...<br />
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<b>The Pledges</b><br />
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<b>Me</b>:<br />
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Just like last year, I'm donating one dollar per "lap" per person to Doctors Without Borders. Up to $250. Last year we combined for 168 laps. I know we can get to 250 this year. Don't let me down, people.<br />
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<b>You</b>:<br />
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Express yourself, people! Please show up and get one or more of those poker chips and bring them safely back to Eltuck. It's worth money to DWB! And I encourage you to pledge as well. You can match my pledge. You can pledge for yourself. You can get your friends and family to sponsor your laps. You can make up some insanely complicated formula (Laura B, I'm pointing at you; well I'm pointing in the general direction of the Vet Hospital right now. Well I'm typing, actually, but you get the visual)<br />
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What else is different?<br />
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<b>New starting point:</b><br />
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This year I've rented out the Eltuck picnic area in Lory, it's about halfway between the Lory st park entrance and the Arthurs Trailhead (our base of operations last year). I wanted more space and more amenities, picnic tables and the like. <br />
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<b>No fixed route:</b><br />
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That's right! I continue to turn the concept of an organized run on it's head. Just get to the border. Or the other border. How you do it is up to you. Clearly there are speedy and slower ways to get to the borders, but part of the fun should be to explore the trails. Which is why I'm dispersing a as-yet-to-be-determined number of...<br />
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<b>Magic Tokens!</b><br />
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Magic tokens will be placed in secret locations along the trails of Lory state park. Find one on your lap, and bring it back for a fabulous prize. One magic token per person, please. What prizes? TBD. How many tokens? TBD. Wha-? Quit asking so many questions. Friggin MAGIC TOKENS, people! Go find them!<br />
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Still with me? Good.<br />
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Here's what I need from you.<br />
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<b>RSVP</b><br />
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Please let me know if you're planning on showing up. I'll add you to my online RSVP list. There is no charge to participate, other then the Lory State Park fee ($7 per car, so carpool).<br />
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Wait, when is it again? <br />
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Sunday, October 28th, anytime from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Get there early if you want to find a (friggin) magic token though.<br />
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<b>Pledges</b>:<br />
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You don't have to pledge but of course I encourage it. Last year we raised over $4,000 for DWB. Yeah that's right. I think we can top that this year. Give me some sugar, people.<br />
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For point of reference, here are last year's participants and pledges:<br />
2011 Participants:<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0AnHzNSLdK1pGdEE3R3ZsSFdiQ0VOMG5pUDQ2dFhoRFE&output=html&widget=true" width="500"></iframe>
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2011 Pledges:<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0AnHzNSLdK1pGdEc3Nm5PaUwwNk03MGVPMHFhS0FNNEE&output=html&widget=true" width="500"></iframe><br />
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ok that's it for now. <br />
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<br />Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-11353235211195202082012-01-03T20:12:00.000-08:002012-01-03T20:12:30.685-08:00FCHPBTH<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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5<sup>th</sup> Annual Human Powered Brewery Tour for ALS</div>
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Saturday, February 4<sup>th</sup>, 2012.<span> </span>10:00 am.</div>
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On July 27<sup>th</sup> of this year, the<a href="http://usapentathlon.org/"> finest, most handsome competitors</a> from around the world will gather in swinging, rioting London for the <a href="http://www.london2012.com/">Games of the XXX Olympiad</a>!<span> </span>Oh that we could be
there, to <a href="http://www.javelinusa.com/">hurl a silvery spear</a> into the steamy <a href="http://www.millwallfc.co.uk/page/Welcome">yob-filled night</a>, to toss
aloft the gossamer weight of a <a href="http://www.usatt.org/index.shtml">gleaming white plastic ball</a>, to swim, swim
<a href="http://synchro.teamusa.org/">synchronously and true</a> in costumes scant, yet somehow tasteful.<span> </span>I fear I’m mixing up synchronized swimming
and ice dancing.<span> </span>Maybe they should be
mixed up.<span> </span>No matter, off subject as
usual.<span> </span></div>
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But alas we are no Olympians, merely mortals who like to
compete.<span> </span>So compete we shall, in the
Fort Collins Human Powered Brewery Tour Heptathlon!<span> </span>In honor of this being an Olympic year we
will transform our annual brewery tour into a quasi-competition and celebration
of international costume and bad accents.<span>
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Here, then, are the rules:</div>
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<span>1)<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Choose
a country and align yourself with that county.<span>
</span>Lean their dress, their customs, their favorite sport, their favorite
beer, their favorite accent.<span> </span>Come
prepared, come dressed up.<span> </span>Medals will
be awarded to the three best representatives.<span>
</span>More than one person can be part of the same country.<span> </span>Then you will be a team!<span> </span>Organize yourselves accordingly.<span> </span>My inclination is to represent Ghana of
course!</div>
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<span>2)<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Give
generously to the <a href="http://www.alscolorado.org/">ALS Association</a>.<span> </span>Every year we do
this as a fund-raiser for ALS and this year, particularly this year,
is no exception.<span> </span>5 years ago Celeste lost her cousin Annie to ALS. Last fall <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/173030462782703/?ref=ts">she lost her cousin Bob to the same disease</a>. We honor their spirit and memories by hosting the brewery tour and raising money for the ALS association. We raised over $400 last
year, and we want to raise over $1,000 this year.<span>
</span>Medals to the top three fund-raising countries.<span> </span>That’s a good reason to get together and join
a team!!</div>
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<span>3)<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Visit
all 7 old town Fort Collins
breweries by human powered means only.<span>
This means anything not motorized! Bike, run, walk, skate, roller-blade, big wheel, pogo stick, kayak, you get the idea. You will cover about 4 or 5 miles if you hit all 7 breweries so crawling or leap-frogging is not totally encouraged. </span>Obtain a coaster or a photo of yourself from each brewery and bring your
coasters/camera to the <a href="http://trailheadtavern.com/">Trail Head Tavern</a> for verification.<span> </span>Sampling of beers at each brewery is
technically optional, but, you know, whatever.<span>
</span>Participants who visit all 7 breweries will be eligible to medal in the
FCHPBTH (Fort Collins Human Powered Brewery Tour Heptathlon).<span> </span>It is not a speed competition.<span> </span>It’s a style competition.<span> </span>A, dare I say, <i>competition de panache</i>.<span> </span>I’ll
know it when I see it.<span> </span>You will be
competing in the following events at each brewery.<span> </span></div>
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<span>4)<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>The
7 breweries and competitions, you ask?<span>
</span>IN THIS ORDER:</div>
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<span>a.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><a href="http://www.newbelgium.com/">New Belgium Brewery</a>. 10:00 am.<span> </span>Competitions:<span> </span>Frivolity, Punctuality. </div>
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<span>b.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><a href="http://www.fortcollinsbrewery.com/">Fort Collins Brewery</a>.<span> </span>10:45 am (ish).<span> </span>Competition:<span>
</span>Generosity.<span> </span></div>
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<span>c.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><a href="http://www.funkwerks.com/">Funkwerks Brewery</a>.<span> </span>11:30 am.<span> </span>Competition:<span>
</span>Panache.</div>
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<span>d.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><a href="http://odellbrewing.com/">Odell Brewing Company</a>.<span> </span>12:15 am.<span> </span>Competition:<span>
</span>Levity.</div>
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<span>e.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><a href="http://coopersmithspub.com/">Coopersmiths Brewpub</a>.<span> </span>1:00 pm.<span> </span>Competition:<span>
</span>Brevity.</div>
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<span>f.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><a href="http://www.pateroscreekbrewing.com/">Pateros Creek Brewing Co</a>.<span> </span>1:03 pm.<span>
</span>Competition:<span> </span>Orienteering.</div>
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<span>g.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><a href="http://www.equinoxbrewing.com/">Equinox Brewing</a>.<span> </span>2:00 pm.<span> </span>Competition: A certain daring-do, a certain <span class="st"><em>je ne sais quoi</em></span>.</div>
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Yes, everyone starts at New Belgium
at 10:00 am.<span> </span>We have a lot of stops on
this year’s tour, so get cracking (remember on the first year, when there was
only one brewery in town?<span> </span>Me neither.).<span> </span>Everyone meet at the <a href="http://trailheadtavern.com/">Trail Head Tavern</a> after
it is all over for awards.<span> </span>Believe me,
they’re the only place that will accept us by then.</div>
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Oh and, special prizes for legacy members, you know who you are! The prizes will be even more special than last year! </div>
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Here are some pictures from previous years:</div>
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2008, First, uh, annual! </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OKTa-g2aV-U/TwO7lDNPaVI/AAAAAAAADJo/hpRRzuyr78M/s1600/HPBT+2009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OKTa-g2aV-U/TwO7lDNPaVI/AAAAAAAADJo/hpRRzuyr78M/s320/HPBT+2009.jpg" width="320" /> </a></div>
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2009, 2nd annual!</div>
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2010, 3rd annual! </div>
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<br /></div>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-55643668032784472332011-10-28T08:42:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:17:48.361-07:00One<a href="http://www.one.org/">One</a> came out with a new famine video today, thought I'd promote it with a quick post:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="236" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-ufRSwcneis" width="420"></iframe>
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Quick comment on the video; why does the cool edgy guitar music represent famine, death and destruction, and the piano music represent redemption, peace, and hope? So typical. I'd like to see that reversed, because, you now, pianos are inherently evil, right? j/k. One is a funny sort of organization, I don't think they take donations directly, but they act as a sort of message-driven outreach voice for African development issues. They're sort of a "celebrity" organization, with <a href="http://www.atu2.com/band/bono/">Bono from U2</a> being their most visible supporter, and they spend a lot of time making slick and flashy videos and what not. This can be a little off-putting for some but I think it's fine to use a little star power to get your message across, and I like what they are trying to accomplish. Here is <a href="http://www.one.org/c/us/about/3782/">One's mission statement </a>from their web site:<br />
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"ONE is a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights
extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa, by
raising public awareness and pressuring political leaders to support
smart and effective policies and programs that are saving lives, helping
to put kids in school and improving futures. Cofounded by Bono and
other campaigners, ONE is nonpartisan and works closely with African
activists and policy makers."<br />
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That sounds fine. So One isn't really on the front lines administering aid. Rather, One works with and supports <a href="http://www.one.org/c/us/partner/">several dozen aid organizations</a>, including notably (RED), Oxafam, Bill & Meninda Gates Foundation, Water.org, and CARE, US Doctors For Africa, and several dozen others. Ideally this allows One to focus on getting the message out to people like me, and to politicians, and allows the aid organizations to focus on solving the problems on the ground. Of course this can also cause problems, particularly when and if One's messages don't align with their partner's aims and goals. But One tends to keep things pretty generic and simple, by design likely, so there's probably less of a chance of that happening.<br />
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The full list of One's aid partners is impressive and comprehensive, indeed. But notably absent from One's list? <a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/">Doctors Without Borders</a>, baby! Why? I doubt there is any serious schism between One and DWB, I rather suspect it is because DWB strives very hard to maintain absolute neutrality, and therefore can not align themselves with any umbrella organization. Respect. But a quick glance at all of the One partner organizations reveals many worthy aid organizations who are trying to do the right thing. <br />
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Just for Bono:<br />
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"One life, but we're not the same, we get to carry each other, carry each other, One"<br />
-- One, U2<br />
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Johnny got it right: <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/99Q-HFFIzo4" width="420"></iframe>
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<br />Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-3614854127455894992011-10-25T20:50:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:37:52.301-07:00What's Going On?The latest from Somalia:<br />
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So what's going on in Somalia, you ask? Ahh, you don't want to know. There's trouble over in the horn of Africa, some of it involving our dear Doctors Without Borders. As you probably know, we got together and raised over $4,000 for DWB at the Runners Without Borders event last weekend. I requested that the money go to Somalia if possible (DWB does critical work all over the world so I'm sure it could be put to good use in many places, but Somalia seems to need assistance the most right now). One of the super-critical and time-sensitive tasks DWB is trying to accomplish in Somalia right now is a massive measles vaccination campaign for children. Yup, that measles shot we all got as babies in the USA, well, they don't get those shots over in Somalia. And measles is actually a nasty and virulent little disease with a very high fatality rate among small children, particularly children who are already malnourished.<br />
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So DWB took it upon themselves to try to vaccinate as many high-risk children as they could, focusing efforts on the capital, Mogadishu. But last week heavy fighting erupted (side note, does "heavy fighting" ever do anything besides "erupt"?) in Mogadishu, forcing the DWB doctors to abandon the campaign for the time being. Read DWB's press release here: <a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=5571&cat=field-news">Somalia: Vaccination campaign Suspended Due to Fighting in Daynile</a>.<br />
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Some thoughts from the press release; Daynile is on the outskirts of Mogadishu, and I'm assuming this is where a lot of the refugees are coming from the famine-striken areas. So it's an important base of operations for DWB, since this is likely as close as they can get to the people that are the worst off. Although they have suspended the measles program, they are still at the hospital, providing medical assistance and nutritional assistance as much as they can. I take two things from this. One, the DWB doctors are total bad-asses and I am more proud than ever to support them, and you should be too. Two, the Somalians really need to put down their guns, even for just a little while, so these doctors can save the lives of their children. Priorities, people. It's all very irritating. <br />
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The other bit of news from DWB in Somalia is the news of a kidnapping of two DWB staff members from a refugee camp in Dabaab, Kanya, which is serving as a Somalian refugee camp. This happened on October 13th, and as of yet I believe the two staffers are still being held by their kidnappers. You can read this article here:<br />
<a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=5562&cat=field-news">Kenya: Two MSF Staff Abducted in Kenya (Updated)</a>. Dangerous indeed. You can read the article, but the effect of the kidnapping is that DWB has suspended much of their operations in the Kenyan refugee camps until they can get the situation resolved. Maybe the refugee camps need more protection, but DWB tries very hard to distance themselves from the conflicts that cause these refugee crises, and not take sides, but as you can see it's difficult not to get into trouble. Trouble has a way of finding you, I suspect, in places such as these.<br />
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What is also interesting to note is that DWB does not want this kidnapping to be publicized, as publicity is not helping their efforts to get the staffers returned. So, uh, I'm not totally sure I should be writing about this, but <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ibvL43EthA_-TR_hWdYW5Up9B_DA?docId=CNG.9a36daffa5420a1b7ebbb0dad8ac623c.601">the story went out</a> on much larger news organizations already, so it's probably ok that I'm bringing it to your attention today, since I expect about, you know, 23 people to read this.<br />
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What's my point besides being full of rather depressing news today? I wanted to give you all a greater appreciation of the dangers that the men and women of DWB face in trying to help people in the worst places in the world. Major props to them. Hopefully the money we raised last week will do some good there, hopefully they can get back to working at full-capacity soon. <br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="236" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ev2yO-OHc58" width="315"></iframe>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-3207421438451482122011-10-24T07:15:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:05:06.096-07:00Runners Without Borders: Recap<br />
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Where do I start? The stats? The donations? The idea? The need? How about the people! At some point during the day Saturday it dawned on me with amazement that whatever the motivation, 97 other people came out to run and do something good. I knew my wife would be there, she helped come up with this plan, and she was the most supportive of my idea, and she was out there running over 30 miles herself on the trails, earning money and generally going way above and beyond. I knew my crazy trail running friends would be there, heck they would have been there anyway, I just gave them a wonderful excuse to do something they wanted to do anyway! And they came out in force. Heck, a few of them just happened to stop by on their regular run and got involved on the spur of the moment. But right away at 8:00 am when the first runners showed up to run 5 and 7 mile trail loops through Lory State Park and Horsetooth Mountain Park for Doctors Without Borders I realized something cool was happening: people whom I didn't even know decided to show up and run. 39 out of 96 by my rough count, 39 people who didn't know me, but heard about the event somehow or through someone, and wanted to participate, wanted to run, wanted to do something good. It was one of those days where I felt that people generally want to do something good; it's just sometimes they need a reason, a little push out the door. I was so happy and proud to help provide that reason, even if just for a day.<br />
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And what a day it turned out to be! Apparently it is supposed to snow here on Wednesday, so we may have enjoyed the last beautiful weekend for a while. A thin veneer of clouds kept the sun a bay just enough to keep the temperatures warm but not baking hot. There was just a whisper of wind in the valley, and the cottonwoods along the creeks were in full color. Up in the trees the smell of pine filled the air, as the evergreens seemed to stretch their limbs one last time in the warm sun before donning their white winter cloaks for another season.<br />
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I'm not going to lie, if you missed this event, you missed out on one special day. It was a sustaining sort of day, not only realizing that people want to do something good, but also being reminded that what we do matters, what we do can make a difference. And it doesn't really take much to make a difference, not when you have your friends out there helping you out. But don't worry, I think we're going to do this again next year, so you'll have another chance to run without borders.<br />
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98 people (including myself) came and ran at least 1 loop, with many running more than one loop. A special mention to 6 runners who ran at least 4 loops: Celeste and Kristel each ran 4 loops, Cat, Mindy and Pete each ran 5 loops, and Shannon ran 7 loops! All told the 98 participants ran a total of 168 loops. We had 50 women and 48 men participate. I was able to sneak out and run 1 loop myself, and enjoyed sharing my loop with Celeste. Also we had 7 dogs run a total of 11 loops!<br />
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And we raised a lot of money. $3986.78 at this point, with apparently a few more pledges yet to come. We had 82 people pledge money, at least a dozen of which were not even at the event, and they were some of our biggest contributors! A heartfelt thanks to all of you who contributed, and special thanks to those of you who believed in my vision enough to pledge even though you were not able to participate. Anyway I'll go ahead and call it $4,000 raised for Doctors Without Borders, and it looks like the total will exceed that amount. And that entire amount is going to be matched by Audrey Steele Burnand, so basically what I'm saying is that we were responsible for sending $8,000 to Doctors Without Borders on Saturday.<br />
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Even though it was only about two months ago, it seems like a long time ago when I thought I should "do something for Somalia" and thought about going on line and sending them a couple hundred bucks. It could have stopped there, and that would have been great, but I felt so strongly about what I was doing that I knew I had to try to do more. I drew inspiration from my wife and my mom and my friends, who help keep my moral compass pointing North, so to speak. I drew courage from the unwavering support of my best friends, who stepped up with pledges right away, and were always there with encouraging words, and there to assist me in planning and implementing the event. I literally could not have done this without you all -- I certainly could not have ran 168 loops on my own! -- so thanks again. I think this was a pretty neat idea and I'm happy to see so many people participate. And yes, I think we'll crank it up again next year, so stay tuned! <br />
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-Slush<br />
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Participants:<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0AnHzNSLdK1pGdEE3R3ZsSFdiQ0VOMG5pUDQ2dFhoRFE&output=html&widget=true" width="500"></iframe>
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Pledges:<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0AnHzNSLdK1pGdEc3Nm5PaUwwNk03MGVPMHFhS0FNNEE&output=html&widget=true" width="500"></iframe>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-3976688846278458342011-10-20T21:09:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:05:54.270-07:00Famine<br />
I have hesitated posting this, because the subject is unpleasant for me to write about, much less for you to read about. But in the end I feel that it is important to write a little bit about why I have put so much effort into the upcoming <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/10/runners-without-borders-last-minute.html">Runners Without Borders</a> event scheduled for this Saturday. I am so very grateful for the tremendous support that everyone has provided up to this point, and I know the event will be a fun, joyous occasion for all, and that is the intent of this fund-raising exercise. And maybe it is best in the end to simply focus on that; the camaraderie, the <i>joie de vivre</i> of the occasion. But some sober reflection is in order as well, for the reason we celebrate life with so much passion is partly because we know that is it precious, and that we are lucky to enjoy it as a precious thing. <br />
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If you don't want to get into the heavy stuff today, then stop right
here. I will think nothing less of you. Otherwise, brave reader, read
on.<br />
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I don't want to get too over the top with the pulling of heartstrings and such, because I find that approach manipulative and ultimately condescending. But I do want to express how I feel about famine and why the work that <a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/">Doctors Without Borders</a> (DWB) does is so important. Famine is a horrible thing. And in this day and age famine is a man-made thing, and should be completely preventable. Say what you will about drought, overpopulation and overgrazing, and climate change and water issues. Those are all contributors to conditions that can cause a famine. And many if not all of those are man-made conditions. But ultimately there is enough food to feed everyone. Famine is inexcusable. So why does it happen? Sometimes we just can't get food to the people who need it. And sometimes people are actually prevented from getting the food they need. Sometimes intentionally.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYC1i4IlhsZMuAXgtrUPwilNXC_njLqdBWEU6As2YGNcA7d_8fuTewgZJgHDSfh2IAy7BSUQ9uW44SnTIZ_5fz-yEOEGoFzqoSV08jCnCK-5Oo6AyiuHjSZwe-X2nTRWtAw4d5x339Dm8R/s1600/%25D0%2593%25D0%25BE%25D0%25BB%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B4%25D0%25BE%25D0%25BC%25D0%25BE%25D1%2580.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYC1i4IlhsZMuAXgtrUPwilNXC_njLqdBWEU6As2YGNcA7d_8fuTewgZJgHDSfh2IAy7BSUQ9uW44SnTIZ_5fz-yEOEGoFzqoSV08jCnCK-5Oo6AyiuHjSZwe-X2nTRWtAw4d5x339Dm8R/s200/%25D0%2593%25D0%25BE%25D0%25BB%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B4%25D0%25BE%25D0%25BC%25D0%25BE%25D1%2580.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>Голодомор </b>is a word I hope you will never see again after today. I'm not even going to link that word to a web site, for I don't want to encourage you to look too closely into the hollow eyes of famine. I'm not even going to tell you how to pronounce that word. It is a sacred, terrible word. Голодомор means "Killing by Hunger", and it is the word for a devastating famine in the Ukraine that occurred about 80 years ago. The truth will never be known, but is it estimated that somewhere between 2.4 million and 10 million people died of famine -- starvation and attendant disease -- in the Ukraine between 1932 and 1933. Aside from the huge number of people who died, what I find striking is that the death estimates vary so widely. I presume this is because entire towns starved to death and were depopulated, and the town records were subsequently altered or destroyed by the Soviet regime, who were both the cause and the amplifiers of this famine. In my opinion Голодомор represents Josef Stalin's worst crime against humanity, and that is saying something. It was his Holocaust, with comparably grim statistics to boot.<br />
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When I read about this famine I shook my head and wondered why this was allowed to happen, as would anyone to comes to know about such horrible things. The causes of this famine are still debated, but the prevailing thought is that the famine was caused largely due to the failures of the Soviet food collectivization programs of the 1930s. Many also believe that the Ukrainians were intentionally starved by the Soviets. Of course in 1932 in the USSR it was rather difficult to obtain credible information about what was happening, much less why it was happening. But for whatever reason, whether because of malice or pride or something else, Stalin and the Soviets denied that the famine happened. They wanted to keep the news of the famine quiet. Голодомор was a man-made famine, entirely preventable, but ultimately preventable only by the Soviets. And Голодомор isn't even the worst famine in history. I use it as an example here to reinforce my statement that famine is ultimately a man-made problem, and requires a man-made solution, and also to illustrate the usefulness of unbiased and credible reporting of famines.<br />
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Why is this relevant and how does this compare with what is happening in Somalia right now? In Somalia, a drought in the southern part of the country has created conditions that have led to a famine. The drought alone would have caused hardships, but a civil war and a jihadist militia called Al-Shabaab have essentially amplified the drought into a famine. Furthermore, Al-Shabaab is accused of preventing aid from reaching the most distressed areas, and is also accused of preventing people under their control from leaving the famine zone for the capital or fleeing to refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. Even still, many thousands of desperate Somalis have been able to leave the most affected and closed-off areas, and are now able to receive aid from organizations such as DWB. But many others are stuck in circumstances most dire, and even for those who have fled survival is no guarantee; only a possibility.<br />
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This famine in Somalia differs from the Ukrainian famine in one minor and two major aspects. First the minor difference; in Somalia the famine appears to have been precipitated by a drought. In the Ukraine it appears to have been precipitated by the Soviet policy of collectivization. But both situations, combined with tyrannical and repressive governments, have resulted in famines.<br />
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The first major difference between the two famines is in terms of information and access, and our collective ability to react to the disaster. In the Ukraine, foreign journalists were not permitted to access or report on the famine. <a href="http://www.garethjones.org/">One reporter</a> did in fact try to report on the famine but his reports were discredited by the Soviets and by Communist sympathizers and Soviet appeasers in the free world. The reports became rumors and were ultimately ignored, with the result that the famine was allowed to continue uninhibited.<br />
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In 1932 Doctors Without Borders didn't exist. Would DWB have been allowed to go to the Ukraine in 1932? Sadly probably not, but it's difficult to speculate. It is a different world now, a world still in crisis, but a world that now contains organizations like DWB that can fight against famine, or at least mitigate their effects. DWB is on the ground in Somalia, reporting on what they see to a world that listens, because they are viewed as an independent organization with no political or religious agenda. And of course DWB is actively administering aid and saving lives in this most dangerous country. Ultimately DWB can't solve the problem on their own, but they can save lives and bring the issues to our collective attention. They are helping the world realize that there is a problem that needs to be solved. As much as the actual tangible aid helps, so too does the flow of information. Clearly many Somalians would die if DWB wasn't administering vaccines and treating malnutrition right now. And many more would die if no one outside of Somalia knew about this famine, a la the Ukraine in 1932. The work that DWB is doing is both timely and important, and the world is a better place for it.<br />
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And the second major difference between the famine in the Ukraine and the famine in Somalia? The famine in the Ukraine happened almost 80 years ago. The famine in Somalia is happening right now. That's a sobering yet galvanizing thought. It is true that Somalians right now are in desperate straits and need help. But it is also true that unlike 80 years ago, we have the ability to help. And luckily and ironically enough, it is easy and even fun to help. All we have to do is get together, run some trails, and raise some money. Thankfully we don't have to look into the eyes of famine to help defeat it. And even if we contribute just a little bit of money, heck, even if all we do is continue to raise awareness about the famine, we're doing something good. It really doesn't take much. Consider that a measles vaccine costs about $1. That may be the difference in saving a life of a severely malnourished child who otherwise may lack the strength to overcome the disease. What we do this weekend matters. So run, laugh, and enjoy the day, and know that with every loop you complete you are doing something good. The work that DWB does is so very important, and the support we give them makes a huge difference. Thank you.<br />
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<br />Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-32628318992383854982011-10-19T10:39:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:05:06.101-07:00Runners Without Borders: Last Minute Information<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizFR_Xzrfo_bLnHrPZF_gfwyEIR6W8czFGzlzhlLB7TfOO_wQIqwqYRNb8bEbhNQSnFIqeea0BPWb1ujitMfnrYcUfq0XmTAGzQSrh97KPK_HgLLsUYTbXLivah1ySnoCjiB5RS0W_-5Yp/s1600/start_finish_date.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="82" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizFR_Xzrfo_bLnHrPZF_gfwyEIR6W8czFGzlzhlLB7TfOO_wQIqwqYRNb8bEbhNQSnFIqeea0BPWb1ujitMfnrYcUfq0XmTAGzQSrh97KPK_HgLLsUYTbXLivah1ySnoCjiB5RS0W_-5Yp/s320/start_finish_date.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Some last minute questions and answers about RWB this Saturday:<b><i><br /></i></b><br />
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<b><i>How do I get there?</i></b><br />
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The official host location of
this event is<a href="http://www.parks.state.co.us/parks/lory/Pages/LoryStatePark.aspx"> Lory State Park</a>, and we will be at the Arthurs Rock
trailhead, which is the parking lot at the farthest end of the dirt road
that travels the length of the park. There is a $7 entrance fee so I
strongly encourage you to carpool and save money and space!<br />
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Also
many of you have Larimer County Parks passes, you can park at the
Sodeberg trailhead and access the trail from that location. Again,
please carpool to save parking space and ease congestion and pollution.
You will have to run an extra 0.4 miles to access the loop via
Soderberg, and obviously your loops will be offset since you're not
starting at the "official" start, so just sign in when you reach the
truck at the halfway point of your loop. I'll assume you made it back
to Soderberg!<br />
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<b><i>Where do I check in?</i></b><br />
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It is important that you check in at the big white truck at the Arthur's Rock trailhead at each loop. I or someone else (if I'm running) will have you sign your name and note the time on a log sheet. We need you to log each loop so we can get an accurate count for those people who have made "<a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/10/runners-without-borders-update-on.html">global-dynamic</a>" pledges.<br />
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<b><i>How do I actually give money?</i></b><br />
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Someone, usually me, will be at the truck signing in participants and collecting and logging pledges. I prefer checks made out to "Doctors Without Borders" but we will accept cash if necessary. I will bundle up all donations and send them in to DWB on Monday. Also you can go on line and <a href="https://doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/">donate directly to Doctors Without Borders</a> if you prefer. Those of you who are pledging based on "<a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/10/runners-without-borders-update-on.html">dynamic</a>" formulas may not know your pledge commitment until after 4 pm. For those people I will contact you shortly after the event, and post on my blog with your final pledge amount.<br />
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<b><i>What sort of aid are you providing?</i></b><br />
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In short; not much! I'm not promising any aid in the way of food or drink, I'm going to try to round up some coolers and fill them with water, and I'll get some snacks from the store, but please assume that this is a self-supported event. Bring your own water and food! We will have limited first aid at the truck as well. And massages for $1/minute, with half the proceeds going to DWB! Now that's my kind of aid.<br />
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<b><i>Do I need to start at 8?</i></b><br />
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<b>No</b>; Unless you're planning on running for 8 hours, you do not need to start at 8 am Saturday. The weather forecast calls for a sunny day with lows in the 30s and highs in the 60s. I expect the temperature at 8 am on Saturday to be in the lower 30s, so if you want to wait for the temperature to warm up a bit, try coming at 10 am or so! It looks like the weather will be really nice Saturday so we have that going for us, which is nice.<br />
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<b><i>Do I need to finish by 4?</i></b><br />
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I suggest that you do try to finish your last loop by 4 pm, which means you should probably be starting your final loop before 3 pm (see below for loop time estimates). I'll need to sweep the course and take down the signs, and it will start getting dark pretty quickly up there after 4 pm, so please try to finish by then.<br />
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<i><b>How long will it take to complete a loop?</b></i><br />
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Obviously it is difficult to answer that question for everyone, but I have ran the "grande" loop 4 or 5 times in the past two months, and it takes me between 1:10 and 1:30 to complete the loop, going at a moderate (medium effort) (1:10) to easy (walking the steep bits) (1:30) pace. The "petite" loop is both shorter and easier so I suspect it would take me about 50 minutes at a moderate to easy effort. So if you have ran with me and know what constitutes a "moderate" effort for me, then you should be able to estimate accordingly.<br />
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<i><b>Do I need trail shoes?</b></i><br />
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I recommend trail shoes for the grande loop, as sections of it are loose and rocky. The petite loop can be ran in regular shoes.<br />
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<i><b>Will the loops be marked?</b></i><br />
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I am planning on going up Friday afternoon and marking the loops with little tags, particularly the grande loop since it contains many turns.<br />
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<i><b>Will it be fun?</b></i><br />
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Nope. It will be ultra-mega-dank-fun, and you will all be super-stoked to be there. Your support means a lot to me, and you all can congratulate yourselves on doing something that really matters this Saturday. Not to get too over the top, but your actions are literally saving lives. Feel good about that!<br />
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<b>Loop maps:</b><br />
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<b><i>Le grande loop: </i></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPpigMO8W6Do6rSUFbW1YWDDrTD9udI6hjTxXxowxCoBsMoVbZBWaD7VyQSUwB9IrzoWSNATAje3hUje5kT1LIKwd7h7ool50J5i5Nmcy2E_fdIRupmoaU-0AU4NgspAM5hllE3kItLZFN/s1600/runners_no_borders_6.6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPpigMO8W6Do6rSUFbW1YWDDrTD9udI6hjTxXxowxCoBsMoVbZBWaD7VyQSUwB9IrzoWSNATAje3hUje5kT1LIKwd7h7ool50J5i5Nmcy2E_fdIRupmoaU-0AU4NgspAM5hllE3kItLZFN/s400/runners_no_borders_6.6.jpg" width="315" /></a></div>
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<b><i> Le petite loop:</i></b><br />
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<br />Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-84640261501230606202011-10-12T19:16:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:18:40.495-07:00Runners Without Borders Update: On Pledging<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello everyone! Only 10 days until <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/09/runners-without-borders-10222011.html">Runners Without Borders</a> kicks off on Saturday, October 22nd. I'm very pleased to announce that we have 51 people who have RSVP'd to run for <a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/">Doctors Without Borders</a> on the 22nd. And I suspect there will be even more who show up, I'm hopeful that we will have over 75 participants next Saturday. <br />
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Also we have collected 28 pledges of various types to donate to DWB/MSF on behalf of the runners, and again, I think we will get some additional pledges on the day of the event. I think we have a chance to raise in excess of $3,000 for Doctors Without Borders! <br />
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Some of you have mentioned that you're not sure just how this pledge thing works. As you can tell, I'm not charging an entry fee for this event. Also, I'm not providing really anything in the way of support, so, you know, you get what you pay for! What I'm asking everyone to do is show up and run, and also to pledge to give something to Doctors Without Borders. At the end of the day you're on your honor to give the money; if you want to bring a check with you to the event I will mail them all <i>en masse</i> after the event, so you can save some money on postage. Another option is to donate on line from this link: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/. Also if you want to donate cash (I prefer checks), we will accept that as well and donate the funds on your behalf. Someone will be at the loop start/end area from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm to collect and log donations, and log loops.<br />
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Logging loops is very important because several pledges are based on the number of loops ran by participants. For example, I am pledging to donate $1 for every runner who completes a loop, up to $250 total. So quite frankly even if you can't pledge to donate any money of your own, simply by showing up and running one loop you are raising $1 for Doctors Without Borders. And much to my pleasant surprise, a bunch of you have stepped up with similar pledges. So much so that as of this point, the first 50 loops are each worth $13.50 for Runners Without Borders. So simply by showing up and running a loop you are earning as much as $13.50 for DWB, and this number is likely to go higher as we get some more pledges leading up to the event. So when you finish a loop, make sure you get it logged! <br />
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So how do you pledge? You can email me at srslush@gmail.com to pledge, or just show up and pledge on the day of the event. If you want to keep your pledge anonymous let me know and I will honor your request.<br />
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So how much should you pledge? What kind of pledge can you make? Well in general, you can pledge whatever you like. <br />
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But pledges have roughly broken down into 4 basic categories, which I will explain here. The categories are; <b>fixed-amount, dynamic-self, dynamic-other, </b>and <b>dynamic-global</b>. <i>fixed-dynamic-what-huh</i>?<br />
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Let's review:<br />
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<b>Fixed-Amount: </b><br />
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This is easy. Just pledge a fixed amount to DWB. $5. $20. $50. $8.71. Whatever. If you run one lap, if you run 10 laps, if 1,000 people show up, if no one shows up (I'll be there), you contribute a fixed amount.<br />
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<b>Dynamic-self:</b><br />
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This is a little more exciting; pledge a certain amount of money for each lap you run, or each mile you run, or even how many vertical feet you climb for the day (yes, <a href="http://irunmountains.blogspot.com/">one creative participant</a> is pledging a penny for each vertical foot gained). Want to challenge yourself to run 4 loops and pledge $20 all told? Pledge $5/loop. It adds a little excitement to the day. Believe me, I know some of you who have pledged on a per-loop basis, and you will be sorely tempted to run one more loop than the next guy. I encourage this sort of competition!<br />
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<b>Dynamic-other:</b><br />
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Want to encourage one of your friends to run a lot, or even show up at all? Pledge 'em. Pledge 'em good. Pledge the hell out of 'em. One person has actually pledged to give DWB $10 for each loop I run. Talk about pressure!!<br />
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<b>Dynamic-global:</b><br />
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This is quite exciting indeed! My pledge fits in this category. I'm pledging $1/person/loop, essentially. If 10 people show up and each run one loop, I give $10 to DWB. If 70 people show up and each run 3 loops, I'm in for $210. If one runner leaves Lory at 8:00 traveling South at a rate of 9:00/miles, and another runner leaves Soderberg at 8:45 am traveling North at a rate of 9:45/miles, I will pledge a maximum of $250. I was never that good at practical algebra. At any rate, I won't know my final pledge until 4:01 pm on Saturday 10/22. And neither will 6 other fellow pledgers who have made similar pledges! And <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/09/one-million-dollars.html">one very wealthy lady</a> whom I don't know and who doesn't know me and isn't even showing up but I am including on my list anyway is pledging to match all contributions to DWB regardless of reason between now and November 15th, up to one million dollars all told. Now that's global.<br />
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<i>Slush figuring out how much he owes (circa 1993)</i></div>
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Incidentally for those of you doing dynamic pledges, I will post final results on my blog as soon as possible after the event, and will let you know personally what your pledge turns out to be, so you don't have to stick around until 4:01 to find out. But it might be fun to see who cuts it the closest to the cut off time!<br />
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Now if you want to see the current list of pledges and participants, avail yourselves to the spreadsheets below. If you don't see your name on the list, let me know and I'll add you! If you are ready to announce your pledge, and/or your intention to run, email me at srslush@gmail.com.<br />
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Thanks and see you in 10 days!!!<br />
<br />
Slush<br />
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Participants:<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0AnHzNSLdK1pGdEE3R3ZsSFdiQ0VOMG5pUDQ2dFhoRFE&output=html&widget=true" width="500"></iframe>
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Pledges:<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0AnHzNSLdK1pGdEc3Nm5PaUwwNk03MGVPMHFhS0FNNEE&output=html&widget=true" width="500"></iframe>
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More information:<br />
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<a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/09/runners-without-borders-10222011.html">Runners Without Borders</a><br />
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And finally, appropo of nothing; Tegan and Sara just kick ass:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="220.5" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3PcVHDZZquI" width="392"></iframe>
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<br />Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-65591127239420969822011-09-29T20:30:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:05:06.111-07:00One Million Dollars<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7-jIDD7w6UDj-wy_K6CM1gWz7DO7WluWVfAwvDIRJhh_2GaMo6gnK15lb4zcLFhqshNMb3-QxyNF_4-8AiJpmgI3IVOQdDHyUw6hZ9l96li7jjYTTDkw2nxbwQd2q1HvLuK1wZoYSZpfF/s1600/start_finish_date.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7-jIDD7w6UDj-wy_K6CM1gWz7DO7WluWVfAwvDIRJhh_2GaMo6gnK15lb4zcLFhqshNMb3-QxyNF_4-8AiJpmgI3IVOQdDHyUw6hZ9l96li7jjYTTDkw2nxbwQd2q1HvLuK1wZoYSZpfF/s400/start_finish_date.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Well this is odd; I got a letter in the mail from <a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/">Doctors Without Borders</a> today. As you may know,
I’m attempting to raise money for DWB on October 22<sup>nd</sup> at the <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/09/runners-without-borders-10222011.html">Runners Without Borders</a> event (click the link for more info). I have donated to
this organization at times in the past, and for their part they, like everyone
else who wants your disposable income, periodically send me letters exhorting
me to send them even more money. <i>I’m working on it</i>, I think, as I open
the letter which states in red bold letters, <b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">MATCHING GIFT OPPORTUNITY</span></b>. Usually this means that they want you to hit
up your place of employment for matching contributions from them. That’s all well and good for some, but I
happen to know my employer won’t do that for me. So I almost don’t even bother opening the
letter, since I’m pretty sure I know what it’s going to say.</div>
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But the envelope seems thicker than usual, so I open
it. And they’ve included a cool map of
the world, and a letter that contains a pleasant surprise for all of us Runners
Without Borders participants and donators.
Apparently I don’t have to hit up my employer, because a nice lady named
Audrey Steele Burnand will be matching <b>all donations to Doctors Without Borders</b>
between now and November 15<sup>th</sup>, up to <b><i>one million dollars</i>! </b>So that includes us!<b><br /></b></div>
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yes, feel free to say that in a Dr. Evil voice.
It may not be appropriate but it sure is fun. Is it wrong that the first thing I think of when I read about this incredible act of generosity from Ms. Burnand is Sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads?</div>
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In all seriousness, now that is generous. Wow.
And you know what? I am including
Audrey Steele Burnand as a pledger (seriously is that a word?) to my Runners
Without Borders event! Basically we just
doubled this whole thing thanks to Ms. Burnand.
I suspect she, like I, is motivated by the seriousness of the situation
in Somalia
and the need to get medicine and help there quickly. A tip of the cap to the generous lady, and we
will try to do our part to make her write a check with 7 digits.</div>
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Now as of today in our fine event we have 5 pledgers who are
donating one dollar for each person who runs a lap at RWB, up to varying
amounts. Which means simply by showing
up on October 22<sup>nd</sup> and running a loop you are raising $5 for
DWB. And now with Ms. Burnand’s matching
gift, you are earning $10 per loop. And
if you’re pledging a dollar per mile that you run, which is another popular pledge,
well, now DWB is getting $2 per mile for
your efforts. A $10 flat pledge just
became $20. Easy money. Nice.</div>
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So if you’re on the fence about joining in and running,
please come out, even if you can’t pledge anything. Last Saturday when I started this thing you
were worth $1 to DWB. Now you are worth
$10. And if we get some more pledges,
well, you do the math. This is pretty
freaking cool.</div>
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The <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/09/runners-without-borders-10222011.html">older post</a> contains a list of current participants and
pledges. To add your name to the list,
please email me at <a href="mailto:srslush@gmail.com">srslush@gmail.com</a> or
click “<a href="http://www.facebook.com/srslush#%21/event.php?eid=278079282210345">attending, yo</a>” (or whatever the button says) to the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/srslush#%21/event.php?eid=278079282210345">facebook event page</a>. And if you have worked out a
pledge and care to share it with me, also please let me know that as well, thanks!</div>
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I’m attaching a scan of the letter for your perusal:</div>
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No word on the sharks with laser beams though.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBNetLCGYf_75Hcbzbg8j_x1PDxxTx_G7w-o9LXgmjXNorL2lcG8h3srXH9UH1BSTtLP-1-5PHCaINd5hBEPGNkwYYlEo12QmxNHaHnttGiPfm4CZi2gSbNxfb8coNKlJGbh3bpAG-DKPt/s1600/sharkslaser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBNetLCGYf_75Hcbzbg8j_x1PDxxTx_G7w-o9LXgmjXNorL2lcG8h3srXH9UH1BSTtLP-1-5PHCaINd5hBEPGNkwYYlEo12QmxNHaHnttGiPfm4CZi2gSbNxfb8coNKlJGbh3bpAG-DKPt/s320/sharkslaser.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-36068126672090319302011-09-24T20:51:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:05:06.106-07:00Runners Without Borders 10/22/2011<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizFR_Xzrfo_bLnHrPZF_gfwyEIR6W8czFGzlzhlLB7TfOO_wQIqwqYRNb8bEbhNQSnFIqeea0BPWb1ujitMfnrYcUfq0XmTAGzQSrh97KPK_HgLLsUYTbXLivah1ySnoCjiB5RS0W_-5Yp/s1600/start_finish_date.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="82" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizFR_Xzrfo_bLnHrPZF_gfwyEIR6W8czFGzlzhlLB7TfOO_wQIqwqYRNb8bEbhNQSnFIqeea0BPWb1ujitMfnrYcUfq0XmTAGzQSrh97KPK_HgLLsUYTbXLivah1ySnoCjiB5RS0W_-5Yp/s320/start_finish_date.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Update: <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/10/runners-without-borders-recap.html">check out the event recap here</a>! <br />
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Update: as of October 12th, we have 51 RSVPs, and 28 pledges!<br />
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Update: as of September 26th, we have 21 confirmed RSVPs, and 9 pledges! <br />
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This is so on! Come one, come all, to Lory State Park on Saturday, October 22nd, 2011 for the inaugural "Runners Without Borders"! I've decided to host a trail running event to get all of us runners to together to enjoy our spectacular trails and raise some money for <a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/">Doctors Without Borders</a>. For a few months now I've read with growing concern about the famine and attendant humanitarian crisis in <a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=5512&cat=field-news">Somalia</a>. I thought maybe there was something I could do to raise awareness about the issue, and maybe help out a bit. At first I figured I would just write a check to Doctors Without Borders and be done with it, and I still aim to do that of course, but Celeste helped me come up with an even better idea, and that idea became Runners Without Borders!<br />
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Here's the plan, and I'll need your help to execute it:<br />
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On Saturday, October 22nd, 2011, anytime between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm, for every runner (or hiker or biker!) who completes either of two trail loops (designated below) that span Lory State Park and Horsetooth Mountain Park, I pledge to donate one dollar to Doctors Without Borders! If you complete both loops, I'll donate two dollars (cash) to DWB. If you complete one loop 2 times, that's two dollars. 10 loops, 10 dollars. You get the idea. Sadly I probably need to put an upper limit on my contributions so I'll cap it at $250. And I would very much like to donate $250, so if 250 of you fine folks come out and run one loop each, then we're all set. Or if I can get 25 of you to run 10 loops each, then, well, you're going to need to run pretty fast, because the loops are 6.7 miles long and 5.2 miles long! I'll describe the loops momentarily, but suffice to say the longer loop is more difficult and sports about 1,000 feet of climbing, and the shorter loop is easier and has about 200 or 300 feet of climbing.<br />
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Now I'm throwing out a lot of stuff you might find at a normal running event. For starters, there is no entry fee. Instead I encourage you to make a DWB pledge of your own! You don't have to match my pledge of course. You can pledge a flat amount, say $10 or $20. You can pledge a certain amount for each loop you complete, or each loop I complete, or each loop <a href="http://pineridgerunner.blogspot.com/">Alex</a> or <a href="http://ashleytrailrunner.blogspot.com/">Ashley </a>or <a href="http://alenegonebad.blogspot.com/">Alene</a> or <a href="http://mortalonthemountain.blogspot.com/">Mindy</a> or <a href="http://frontrangerambler.blogspot.com/">Mike</a> or <a href="http://irunmountains.blogspot.com/">Nick</a> or <a href="http://thatdakotajones.blogspot.com/">Dakota</a> or <a href="http://csuramfan.blogspot.com/">Brian</a> or <a href="http://eanmccrystalmay.blogspot.com/">Ean</a> completes (you all better show up!). You can get your family or coworkers or neighbors to pledge for you. You can pledge a certain amount if <a href="http://k9runner.com/">Pete</a> runs a loop in his new red-man suit. You an pledge a certain amount if <a href="http://k9runner.com/">Pete</a> does not run in his red-man suit. The possibilities are limitless. Too confusing or expensive? You can simply show up and run. I'll donate a dollar on your behalf, and so will some others (see the bottom of this page for current pledges)! Although obviously I encourage you to make a pledge, don't stay away simply because you can't donate any money of your own.<br />
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Additionally there is no mass start and there are no prizes for completing the fastest loop or the most loops. You all have from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm to complete your loop or loops. Come for the day, come whenever, enjoy the company, and do your thing. I will have an official log book at the start/finish/aid station at the Arthur's trail-head parking lot in Lory, so we will be keeping count of participants and the number of loops completed for pledging purposes, but we will not be handing out any prizes, except maybe to Pete. And although Mary Boyts has created an awesome logo for the event (thanks Mary!), I'm not planning on doing shirts this year. Though they would look amazing. Hummmm.<br />
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As mentioned earlier in passing, I will have a limited aid station at the Arthur's trail-head parking lot with some water and some snacks, and some limited first aid supplies, but please bring your own water and food for the event. There is no water at the Arthur's trail-head parking lot, although there is water available at the Soderberg trail-head, which is only about 0.5 miles from the southern end of the loops, so with about one mile extra of running you can refill there.<br />
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Speaking of Soderberg, I know that many of you, myself included, have parking passes for Larimer county / Horsetooth Mountain park, and not Lory. Although the event is officially a Lory State Park event, if you want to park at Soderberg and save the $7 Lory State Park daily fee, I understand completely. Save your $7 and pledge it to DWB instead! You'll have to run an additional 0.5 (easy) miles to get to the southern end of the loop, but just start your loop at the south end of the route and sign in when you reach the parking lot in Lory. I trust that you'll complete the loop, you'll have to in order to get back to your car!<br />
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Which brings me to another point; you will have to pay a fee to park at Lory (or Horsetooth). I believe the fee is $7 for Lory. So be sure to carpool! I encourage you to carpool anyway in order to save parking spaces. If this thing goes straight-up-viral, parking will become an issue.<br />
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And now, the routes:<br />
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<b>La grande route, 6.7 miles, 1,000 feet up/down</b><br />
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The standard route is a 6.7 mile loop featuring about 1,000 feet of climbing. This is a lovely loop that features a flatter eastern side along Lory's West Valley trail, and Horsetooth's Nomad trail, and a decidedly less flat western side featuring a section of Towers Road, Stout trail, Sawmill trail, Loggers trail, and Mill Creek Trail. Mary Boyts has created an amazing map of the loop which you can peruse and download here:<br />
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The route can be completed in either direction. I have ran it in both directions recently and I do prefer running it in a clockwise direction, mostly because the majority of the uphill is accomplished on Towers, which is steep but not technical. But both directions are a lot of fun.<br />
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<b>La petite route, 5.2 miles, 250 feet up/down (approx.)</b><br />
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The shorter route is a 5.2 mile loop that features the lovely West Valley / Nomad trails just like the grande route, but opts to run back to Lory along the Shoreline and East Valley trails instead of tackling Towers etc. This is a great option for those of you who maybe have not done much trail running as this loop is far less technical and can easily be run in regular running shoes.<br />
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As with the other route this can be run in either direction. Mary's map indicates a counterclockwise direction as the standard here, and that is probably the best option but it really doesn't matter. <br />
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Weather, safety, mishaps, etc.<br />
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In the event of inclement weather, and I mean really inclement, like the <a href="http://ccc.atmos.colostate.edu/%7Eodie/climsum/oct97.html">October blizzard of 1997</a>, Lory state park and I reserve the right to postpone the date of the event. The likely makeup date would be the following Saturday, October 29th. Also, I should state that although I firmly believe that trail running is less damaging to runner's bodies than road running long-term, there always exists the possibility of acute injuries while running trails. We will have some limited aid available at the Arthur's trail-head parking lot, but if you are seriously injured, wait for help, and someone will come by to assist. We will have course sweepers making sure everyone is off the trails at the end of the day. Having said that, your participation in this event is voluntary, and I, Lory State Park, Horsetooth Mountain Park, Doctors Without Borders, and even Pete are not responsible for your health and well being. Now having said that, let's all watch out for each other out there and take extra water and jackets and hats, etc. If you see a runner in need, please offer them your help.<br />
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Getting lost, i.e. alternate routes<br />
<br />
I wasn't planning on marking the course just to cut down on trash, but I've since reconsidered, and I will mark the loops somehow. Participants are welcome to execute extended loops. I imagine a trip up to Arthur's rock or Horsetooth Rock or both might be a lot of fun for some participants, and that is great. Ultimately as long as the loop hits the Arthur's trail-head in Lory so you can sign in, and you make it to Towers road / nomad trail junction in Horsetooth mountain park, then I will approve it as an official loop. I encourage you to run the standard loops because I think it will be more fun to see more people on the trails, and quite frankly that is the loop that I will be sweeping at the end of the day!<br />
<br />
ok you've made it this far, you're obviously still interested in participating. May I request an RSVP? Please email me at srslush@gmail.com to declare your intent to participate. You don't need to tell me when you plan on showing up or how many loops you plan to run, or where you plan to park (Lory or Soderberg), but if you can tell me that info that would be helpful. This allows me to give the Lory/Horsetooth guys some idea about how many people to expect, and also I and fellow pledgers (is that a word) will have some idea about how much money they're going to have to donate!<br />
<br />
And if you're going to pledge something, I would like to know that as well; I am interested to know if this event will be successful from a fund raising perspective, and I think all the participants will enjoy knowing how much money we collectively raised for DWB.<br />
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I will track RSVPs and Pledges on these spreadsheets below, and they will update themselves as we get closer to the event. <br />
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After the event I will post the "loop log" here as well and total up the pledges.<br />
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My goodness, I had no idea running an event required so much writing! For all that, please come out and enjoy the day. Let's keep our fingers crossed for good weather!<br />
<br />
Thanks, Slush<br />
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Participants:<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0AnHzNSLdK1pGdEE3R3ZsSFdiQ0VOMG5pUDQ2dFhoRFE&output=html&widget=true" width="500"></iframe>
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Pledges:<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0AnHzNSLdK1pGdEc3Nm5PaUwwNk03MGVPMHFhS0FNNEE&output=html&widget=true" width="500"></iframe>
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Results:<br />
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<br />Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-21320017331218626482011-09-19T20:26:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:06:34.754-07:00Somalia<br />
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Somalia.</div>
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What’s the first thing that came to your mind upon reading
the word “Somalia”? I’ve been doing a
lot of thinking about Somalia lately, so I’m not even certain I know how to
answer that question for myself anymore.
My answer is probably “Runners Without Borders”, of which I’ll speak
more about later. Let’s get back to
you. When you read “Somalia”, perhaps
you first thought about Johnny Depp?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcjLtboqoLAEBRFiryVnbAoHlagwxewcxAhaDSanrhi2JxoUUKpE0it3WNMGjkrTql-yLeJRgcX8r8Wn83bEHyXyxrPJDKOpvouAi2l8-vjflmMbXF7UXTKigbAw5rNWw832KJsERerFlM/s1600/pirates-of-the-caribbean-johnny-depp-orlando-bloom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcjLtboqoLAEBRFiryVnbAoHlagwxewcxAhaDSanrhi2JxoUUKpE0it3WNMGjkrTql-yLeJRgcX8r8Wn83bEHyXyxrPJDKOpvouAi2l8-vjflmMbXF7UXTKigbAw5rNWw832KJsERerFlM/s200/pirates-of-the-caribbean-johnny-depp-orlando-bloom.jpg" width="200" /></a>You know, Somalian pirates. No? Maybe not rakishly handsome pirates with a
hearts of gold and an insatiable lust for the same, but <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_Somalia">actual real pirates</a>? Apparently the real ones aren't at all like Johnny Depp. We’re talking legitimate bad guys, hijacking
unarmed freighters, stealing their cargos, and kidnapping, terrorizing and
murdering their crews. Yes, piracy still
exists. And Somalia, you may know, is
the base for most modern-day pirates that roam the Gulf of Aden, and serve as a
gauntlet of trouble for commercial fleets travelling between Europe and
Asia. Like I said, from all accounts I
can read these are not long-haired, fun-loving, cutlass-brandishing Disneyesque
animatronic stereotypes brought to life, but extremely dangerous people. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhij5Uij7iHYeQGAg4l24iv6Z6qZ9Ku5krThlZRbtwFBKYbIaMrCW7vGm1NWlc0xkANhj0Boq0ywZ9-zKoTsrgxkWin-o_5q35lifwfLMYQu1QXenJ0CfdU-8GbM9Fzx6mJtHFPWzCCYbfU/s1600/somali-terrorist-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhij5Uij7iHYeQGAg4l24iv6Z6qZ9Ku5krThlZRbtwFBKYbIaMrCW7vGm1NWlc0xkANhj0Boq0ywZ9-zKoTsrgxkWin-o_5q35lifwfLMYQu1QXenJ0CfdU-8GbM9Fzx6mJtHFPWzCCYbfU/s200/somali-terrorist-1.jpg" width="200" /></a>I don’t claim to be an expert on the issue of Somali prates,
but I suspect they exist because a) although the risk is great, the rewards are
tremendous, b) the opportunities to earn a legitimate living in Somalia proper are
few and far between, and c) there is very little internal Somali governance and
punishment of pirates.</div>
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I’m sure we’ll revisit the pirates, but I’m off track
here. Maybe pirates aren’t the first
thing you thought of when you read “Somalia”.
Maybe you visualized the shape of the country itself. It has a funny sort of shape, like a triangle
of cheese with a smaller triangle bitten out of it. It is one of several oddly shaped countries
in Africa (I’m looking at you, Zambia and Senegal). It is also one of only two predominantly contiguous
countries whose geographic centroid is (probably) not actually located within the boundaries
of the country itself (Croatia being the other “predominantly contiguous”
country. Yes, I’m looking at you,
Indonesia and the Philippines. I’m
looking at a lot of places, apparently).
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMUyKP5Ie7SU_Jj6dNR6D-2B5X1tJmJs2jIyehmg_eAJItLKW84xTGPKXYuWh0AYSJGuIh1jevaZtSWZPBRkUNaPyw7Jo-1MZptO2XOhDjFBoOj4xBu6NkFNVPVv5-ipPvOcsa5qKmJ5s5/s1600/somalis+map.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMUyKP5Ie7SU_Jj6dNR6D-2B5X1tJmJs2jIyehmg_eAJItLKW84xTGPKXYuWh0AYSJGuIh1jevaZtSWZPBRkUNaPyw7Jo-1MZptO2XOhDjFBoOj4xBu6NkFNVPVv5-ipPvOcsa5qKmJ5s5/s320/somalis+map.gif" width="292" /></a></div>
In the case of Somalia, I believe its “centroid” is actually in Ethiopia,
in a place called the Ogaden. The Ogaden
used to be part of Somalia, but Ethiopia successfully lobbied to keep it after
World War II. And the remaining part of
the triangle, so to speak, was for a time separated into two European colonies,
British Somaliland in the North, and Italian Somaliland along the East and
South. I like to think of Somalia as
having three bits; the former British bit in the North, currently called
Somaliland, the larger bit in in the east and South, the former Italian colony
which is divided into Puntland, and Central and Southern Somalia, and finally the “missing
bit”, that is, Ogaden, where apparently most of the people speak Somali, but is
technically part of Ethiopia. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha1ZZmLa9IzoO2Y1xv-Kf_JPYDuNjDCGQ04pLkzGcDsDP04pbI-VeGrgq_F8Cxr5DS_04dGhMyeD5jTiY4P6VI3_JzWaZYmYKu6JddIoF1YGhWKbN-MINxhNYzsYlgJIe5Uz8aG7N5vDBU/s1600/black_hawk_down_7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha1ZZmLa9IzoO2Y1xv-Kf_JPYDuNjDCGQ04pLkzGcDsDP04pbI-VeGrgq_F8Cxr5DS_04dGhMyeD5jTiY4P6VI3_JzWaZYmYKu6JddIoF1YGhWKbN-MINxhNYzsYlgJIe5Uz8aG7N5vDBU/s200/black_hawk_down_7.jpg" width="200" /></a>But once again I’m off subject. Perhaps upon reading “Somalia”, you thought
neither of Jonny Depp, nor triangles of delicious cheese, but of “Blackhawk
Down”. In late 1992 The United States military
assumed command of a United Nations peacekeeping effort in Somalia. The UN was in Somalia to help deal with the effects
of a terrible civil war, which started in 1990 or so, and by late 1992 had helped lead
to a massive famine, and the attendant deaths and displacement of millions of
Somalis. Originally the United States
provided logistical support and food and medicine, but gradually as the effects
of the war became worse, and conditions more dangerous for the peacekeepers,
the United States assumed a more militaristic role in the operation.</div>
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At some point it would appear that the UN and the US took
sides in the civil war, and this led to an attempt to capture the head of one
of the rival militias, Omar Salad Elmi, and his deputy, Abdi Hassan Awale
Qeybdiid. On October 3, 1993, the US led
a military operation into the heart of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, to do just
that. But as chronicled in the book/movie “Blackhawk Down”, the operation did not go well. The operation was supposed to take only 30
minutes, but it lasted for about a day, and the bulk of the operation was
concerned with rescuing soldiers who became trapped behind enemy lines. At the end of the battle the Somali targets
were not captured, two US black hawk helicopters were shot down (hence the book/movie
title), and 18 US soldiers were killed.
The Somali belligerents, for their part, did not treat the few captured
dead US soldiers with respect, dragging their bodies through the streets of the
capital. As a result, bilateral appeal for staying
in Somalia and helping to mitigate the effects of or even help solve the civil war
were quite diminished, and by early 1994 the US pulled out of Somalia.</div>
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I must note that I never read the book nor saw the movie (though I have heard both are very good), but I do remember the failed military mission, which coincidentally happened while I was living in Africa myself, teaching high school in Ghana for the Peace Corps. It seemed to me to be an embarrassment for the United States along the lines of the failed Iran hostage rescue mission in 1980, and I was in favor of leaving a country that did not seem to want us there, even if the original intent of the mission was to help, not harm. </div>
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Now if black hawk down was your first thought, and you are an American, you may not have a very good impression of Somalia and Somalis. Fair enough. But I'm guessing most of you didn't think of pirates, or helicopters, or cheese.<br />
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Maybe you thought of this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihW1IqAZl3Nztz6B0Oow7hW9YQsNgrAiWPEKN7I-o_kQGtaAaxVbutnyOiMTDQCtuyucca7ddcHSW4Ndwy24BuSObE9R8U6Fz09XgYGT7LaUP26whToP5xoQqzdX58wLwdBllReUWZ83TT/s1600/drought+in+somalia+goat+children.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihW1IqAZl3Nztz6B0Oow7hW9YQsNgrAiWPEKN7I-o_kQGtaAaxVbutnyOiMTDQCtuyucca7ddcHSW4Ndwy24BuSObE9R8U6Fz09XgYGT7LaUP26whToP5xoQqzdX58wLwdBllReUWZ83TT/s320/drought+in+somalia+goat+children.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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or this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAkaa8enbUl4TczRVF74Hlz0Hd1IKHeVfrcBXUKCJEPAlmjm6LaM-K5GwElYOYqFZWHxgPCQZ-NIjOJHLbj30eWOwNk-e887mF7Qj7StxEPqt2XvZ3tN1npQPfDhnmhGu52txd9u_Wao2a/s1600/somalia+msf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAkaa8enbUl4TczRVF74Hlz0Hd1IKHeVfrcBXUKCJEPAlmjm6LaM-K5GwElYOYqFZWHxgPCQZ-NIjOJHLbj30eWOwNk-e887mF7Qj7StxEPqt2XvZ3tN1npQPfDhnmhGu52txd9u_Wao2a/s320/somalia+msf.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
or this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Ga7atJ1ld6t3a0mEMhS2GKzR0-upw7Awv57uPeyml_C0hgxL1R_HX-4pNKywbAEjUzgMcct5VreWeSIFM-oRhmfgCsTyMI6DvOyUpa0F1FmpaE29LLW_vm5DcmXrX5Nob8H6nEJH6RZG/s1600/somalia+msf+brendan+bannon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Ga7atJ1ld6t3a0mEMhS2GKzR0-upw7Awv57uPeyml_C0hgxL1R_HX-4pNKywbAEjUzgMcct5VreWeSIFM-oRhmfgCsTyMI6DvOyUpa0F1FmpaE29LLW_vm5DcmXrX5Nob8H6nEJH6RZG/s320/somalia+msf+brendan+bannon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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And this is why I'm writing about Somalia today. This is famine, and not to understate things too terribly, it's bad news. Somalia has endured famine before. In fact famine was one of the reasons the United States got involved in Somalia in the early 1990's. And in 2011 famine has returned to Somalia, and believe it or not the United States is starting to get involved again, and more importantly the situation looks pretty bleak for many thousands if not millions of people.</div>
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In an article from September 15th, Jeffrey Gettleman from the New York Times reports via the United Nations that is it possible that 750,000 Somalians may run out of food completely in the next few months, because of a failed harvest due to drought, and also due to bad governance and outright malevolent behavior by the various militias currently in charge (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/world/africa/famine-hits-somalia-in-world-less-likely-to-intervene.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1316475033-of04ObJPKEEpZWjrbvfl9Q">read here</a>):</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqecLEZzLT9_vWp_gSCokyFTTZjK-1Ak37YfTtCdxQ1EYFLb3YXLx2FkGFdrT3I-9nEJMH8QM6JYJNtInlEA2iCCpBzHWJYN-aYn3-TSo23hkAoSuPR938EaRbClXvOWOBzd8d_hEaBkBO/s1600/somalia-famine-2011-07-25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqecLEZzLT9_vWp_gSCokyFTTZjK-1Ak37YfTtCdxQ1EYFLb3YXLx2FkGFdrT3I-9nEJMH8QM6JYJNtInlEA2iCCpBzHWJYN-aYn3-TSo23hkAoSuPR938EaRbClXvOWOBzd8d_hEaBkBO/s200/somalia-famine-2011-07-25.jpg" width="200" /></a>It's bad, and many thousands of Somalis have already died and many thousands more have fled the country into Kenya. And it is about to get worse. The article goes on to state that Somalia is very soon going to enter it's rainy season. At first blush one (like me) would think that the advent of the rains is a good thing. Rain means food means famine over, right? Actually this is not the case. Apparently the onset of the rainy season will spread diseases like malaria, cholera and typhoid, diseases that will cause many more deaths before crops can grow to fruition. So in order to save lives at this point it is important to administer aid in the form of emergency food, but also medicine and disease control.</div>
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Jeffrey also reports that even though this is a bad crisis and much emergency aid is needed, that the international aid community is not "stepping up" they way it did back in the early 90's. I suspect this reluctance may stem from the "Black Hawk Down" experience of 1993. Then as now, Somalia was for the most part controlled by militias who answered to no government, prevented aid from reaching recipients, and took aid for themselves. This perhaps is causing some reluctance to provide aid to Somalia. Why give money to help Somalians if the money is simply going to end up in the hands of militias, and not in the hands of the starving and the sick? </div>
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And it gets more troublesome. Apparently the largest and most feared militia is "<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/al-shabab/index.html?inline=nyt-org">Al Shabab</a>". According to state-side accounts, this militia is disturbingly similar to the Taliban. They are accused of blocking international aid to Somalia, and also accused of preventing Somalians from leaving the country in order to seek aid in Kenya. Again, this tends to give would-be donors pause when thinking about assisting Somalia, and for two reasons; One, the likelihood that aid will be misused seems high, and Two, there is an understandable reluctance to provide assistance to a country that is in part controlled by people that are on the official United States Foreign Terrorist Organization list</div>
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And yet for all that, I can not shake the feeling that innocent people are literally starving to death, and that there may be something that I can do to help. One of the few aid agencies that is being allowed into Somalia right now is an organization called "<a href="http://www.msf.org/msf/articles/2011/09/a-reality-check-on-somalia.cfm">Doctors Without Borders</a>". Well actually they're called "Medecins Sans Frontieres", but no matter how you say it, these guys are in Somalia right now trying to help. They won't be able to save everyone, in fact their task is darn near impossible, but I applaud them for trying.<br />
<br />
And I want to do more than just applaud, I want to send them some money so they can try to save more lives in Somalia this year. And I want you to help me. So I've come up with a fund-raising idea I am calling "Runners Without Borders". I will post the details in a couple of days, but the general idea is that on October 22nd, 2011 (date pending), for every person who runs a 6.7 mile trail loop I have measured out in Lory State Park and Horsetooth Mountain Park (west of Fort Collins) I will donate a dollar to Doctors Without Borders. If you run two loops, I'll donate two dollars. 10 loops, 10 dollars (there are several of you who could do that). I will pledge up to $250 total. All you have to do is show up and run, or hike, or ride your bike, and you will earn money for Doctors Without Borders. And if you want to do more than just show up, make a pledge of your own! You can pledge a dollar for each loop I run. You can pledge 10 dollars for each loop I run. (I will probably run two loops). You can pledge a dollar for each loop you run yourself. You can get your family and your coworkers to pledge a dollar for each loop you run. You can get creative with it. And if you're shy and don't like asking people for money, or poor and can't afford to give money to a charity right now, just show up and run. I'll chip in a buck for you.<br />
<br />
I hope to get official approval from Lory in the next few days. At that time I will post the details of the route. At this point I can tell you that there is no entry fee, this is not a timed event and there are no "winners". You have from 8 am until 4 pm to complete your loop or loops. You will have to pay to park (or use your pass), we will have one basic aid station, and the route encompasses both border crossings between Lory and Horsetooth. The official loop start and end is at the south lot of Lory State park but the loop passes very near the Soderberg lot at Horsetooth so that is a viable place to park for those of you who have Larimer Country passes.</div>
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Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you on the trails next month!<br />
<br />
-Slush <br />
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<br /></div>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-40926167490558491692011-08-26T12:03:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:07:15.871-07:00Leadville 100: Judgement of the Stars and MoonA Pacer's Report: <br />
<br />
“Alex left Winfield at 4:45.” Finally, some communication from the mAy Team! It is 6:00 pm, and I am standing on a quiet street in Leadville, Colorado. It’s raining ever-so-slightly. My friend <a href="http://pineridgerunner.blogspot.com/">Alex May</a> is running the <a href="http://www.leadvilleraceseries.com/">Leadville100</a> trail race today. My wife Celeste is his crew chief, and his family including his wife <a href="http://eanmccrystalmay.blogspot.com/">Ean</a> and our friends are also here helping him out and pacing, including Mindy, Cat, and Kyle. In fact dozens of my trail running friends are up here this weekend, racing, pacing and crewing, including my friend Lindsey, who was pacing her friend Danny. And that’s what I’m doing here as well; I’m standing in front of <a href="http://frontrangerambler.blogspot.com/2011/08/lt100-2011.html">Mike Hinterberg</a> HQ in Leadville, preparing to pace Mike for the final 24 miles of his attempt at the Leadville 100. Mike has been out on course now for 14 hours and over 60 miles. At this moment my friend Dan is pacing him from twin Lakes to Fish Hatchery and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they are keeping dry. 30 minutes ago I left Dan and Mike at the Twin Lakes aid station at mile 60 of the course, and soon I will meet the two of them and take over pacing duties from Dan at the Fish Hatchery aid station at mile 76 of the course, and hopefully bring Mike the rest of the way to the finish line. But I have a couple of hours to wait, so right now it is time for dinner, a nap, and most importantly a good hot shower.<br />
<br />
I needed a shower because although I was getting ready to pace Mike these last 24 miles, Dan and I had already ran a race of our own that very morning; the <a href="http://www.pikespeakmarathon.org/">Pike Peak Ascent</a>. So we had 13 miles and 7,300 feet of climbing and a lot of accumulated dirt and sweat and drool in the books already. Dan and I woke up in Colorado Springs that morning at 5:00 am, one hour after Mike and Alex and Danny and more than 600 other participants began their “Leadvillian” quests to run 100 miles in less than 30 hours. When the gun sounded for our race in Manitou Springs at 7:00 am, they were all ripping through the first aid station at May Queen and making their way up the north shoulder of Sugarloaf Mountain in the cool misty morning air. At 10:00 am I was climbing the famous “16 golden stairs” at 14,000 feet with less than a mile from the finish of my race, which incidentally featured exploding electrolyte tablets, vomiting, general wooziness, and a nip of lukewarm PBR just below the summit. It was fun, I assure you. More on that later. But while I soaked up the always inspirational view from the summit of Pikes Peak at 10:07 am, Mike, Danny, Alex, et al, were making their way from Fish Hatchery to the village of Twin Lakes, running along the east flanks of two other 14ers, Mount Massive and Mount Elbert. And while Dan and I drove from Manitou to Leadville Saturday afternoon to meet up with Mike, they were all hoisting themselves 3,000 feet up and over Hope Pass to the turnaround at Winfield, in order to turn right around and come back over that same ironically named pass to Twin Lakes, and back to Leadville.<br />
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Quite honestly Dan and I thought we had no business trying to pace an ultra-runner after racing to the top of Pikes Peak, but we wanted to be part of the excitement. I would have been up at Leadville anyway, just to cheer on Alex and hang out with Celeste, so when Mike asked if I wanted to pace him about a month prior to the actual event, I agreed. And then I drug Dan into the fray as well, although he didn’t really require much convincing, suffering as he does from the same sort of mental illness as I.<br />
<br />
That’s how we found ourselves in Twin Lakes at 3:00 pm that day, waiting for Mike to come back over hope pass so Dan could start running with him. Dan was getting much less rest than I, having to pace Mike first, but I had to run farther. I couldn't decide which of us drew the shorter straw, but I wanted to run the later sections to get more experience with night running, in the event I ever decide to do one of these myself someday (<i>that wasn’t a yes, but it wasn’t a no either</i>).<br />
<br />
It was hot at twin lakes, hot for 9,000 feet anyway, and I speculated that our runners and indeed all the runners would be having a tough time in the heat. Some clouds were building in the west, and the shade would be welcome so long as it didn’t develop into anything more serious. The previous night Leadville got raked by a nasty thunderstorm that lasted several hours. No one would benefit from a repeat of that tonight, so I kept my fingers crossed and wandered around Twin Lakes in search of a cup of coffee. I was going to be up late tonight.<br />
<br />
Mike arrived at the twin lakes aid station, 60 miles into his race, at about 5:00 pm. His shoes and socks were soaked from several stream crossings so he decided to sit down and change his socks, which was a wise move. Barring any deluges from above the rest of the course would be dry, and keeping one’s feet dry is an under-appreciated and important part of long-distance running. Blisters can ruin your day. Mike looked really good, particularly considering he’d already ran farther than I have ever run in a single day, and Dan and he trudged up the short sharp slope leading out of Twin Lakes in fine form.<br />
<br />
I was really hoping to see Celeste and the mAy team arrive in Twin Lakes before I left, but as it turns out they were still in Winfield at the time, having paced Alex to the turnaround at 4:45 pm. Although dozens of friends of mine were out on the course, racing, pacing and crewing, I was not able to see them for the most part. I considered waiting around Twin Lakes until they showed up, but I had to make sure I would be ready to run with Mike later, so I left Twin Lakes on my own and headed back to Team Hinterberg HQ in Leadville for a shower, a burrito, another burrito, and a quick stretch and nap on the floor. We thought Mike would make it to Fish Hatchery by 9:00 pm so I left Leadville a little before 8:00 pm just to make sure I would be there on time. Mike’s crew skipped this aid station so I would fulfill crewing duties as well as begin my pacing duties at this point.<br />
<br />
Mike was ahead of the teeming masses at this point, probably running in about 30<sup>th</sup> place overall, so the Fish Hatchery aid station was pretty quiet and un-crowded when I arrived. I got to see a pretty impressive duel between two of the top female runners, both of whom came in within a minute of each other, and some of the other top male runners came through while I laid out all of the clothing and lights I thought Mike and I would need for our journey. While I waited, dusk settled into the hatchery. The trees began to whisper and the crews got quiet and started putting on their jackets in nervous anticipation of the arrival of their runners. The little rainbow trout and cutthroat trout in the hatchery pens turned from silver and pink into little blurs of grey, their energy, if not their colors, undiminished.<br />
<br />
I felt more like a trout and less like a tree, walking back and forth along the aid station in anticipation as well. Finally I’d had enough and started jogging down the road to where Mike and Dan would be arriving from Twin Lakes. I brought along a couple of headlamps because I knew that Dan did not have one, and Mike may have forgotten his as well. That was a mistake on our part, since those two did have to travel about 30 minutes in the dark on the paved road leading up to the aid station. I jogged only about one quarter of a mile before I saw them coming up the road, as silent dark shadows cast against the forest gloom. Arrival at last, and now it was time to get to work. Dan and I got Mike all geared up for the evening and he drank some fluids and had a couple of snacks, and we were off.<br />
<br />
Now it was me and Mike, and the night, and 24 miles of road and trail separating us from Leadville and the successful conclusion of his 100 mile adventure. My job was to keep him moving and motivated, distracted and entertained. I love a stage! Right way I started with the exciting and improbable tale of my Pike Peak Ascent race from earlier that same morning. I now present it to you as I presented it to Mike, so please enjoy, <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>The Tale of the Exploding Salt Tablet, as told to Mike by Slush:</i></div>
<br />
“So I'm running well, probably in 25th place, heading into the Barr camp aid station [roughly half way up Pikes Peak], when all of a sudden I feel like I'm having an asthma attack on the trail. I'm having trouble breathing, my heart rate shoots way up, and I'm beginning to see stars and get dizzy. I've never had asthma or had anything like this happen to me before so I'm kind of freaking out! I know my effort having just ran this at the Barr trail race in July, so I know I wasn't pushing it too hard, but I don't know what the problem is. I make it to Barr camp, walk a bit, take some Gatorade and eat some grapes and slow down for a minute to see if it gets better. I feel a little better so I start up again, and as soon as I do I start hacking and coughing, and lo and behold I heave a mighty hack, and forcibly expunge a mostly-intact salt tablet that I had ingested a little before Barr camp! And hey, now I can breathe again! Aaah. I ate a salt tablet a little before Barr, but instead of swallowing it as recommended by most runners I must have lodged it in my windpipe!<br />
<br />
“Well, I thought, that could have been a lot worse, as in not being able to breathe at all and what not. So I was happy to breathe again but the salt tablet had mostly exploded on the way out of my mouth, so my throat, mouth and even my sinuses and nasal cavities were now coated with salts, which really stung! Also as you know one way to make people vomit is to force-feed them a tablespoon of salt. So I now quite involuntarily proceeded to go to the side of the trail and puke; the first time I've ever puked while running! Isn’t it nice to get that rite of passage over with? All the while I'm losing time, and position, of course, and now quite frankly I'm freaked out and off my game. But at least I can breathe again!<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiodMyJ4eP5moiz9kvAonpcD1JYrFoRTwOveQQGw8AdDZkr7eBh3PfbDJx80bE2Slf_ZJ-oobzkAAv0fydj6LCsD_WSaG8gz3gN_nsbdONmot0FwKOeFcQos_U-w7Gpxxfe6Q1t494KEL5R/s1600/slush+pikes.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiodMyJ4eP5moiz9kvAonpcD1JYrFoRTwOveQQGw8AdDZkr7eBh3PfbDJx80bE2Slf_ZJ-oobzkAAv0fydj6LCsD_WSaG8gz3gN_nsbdONmot0FwKOeFcQos_U-w7Gpxxfe6Q1t494KEL5R/s200/slush+pikes.JPG" width="161" /></a> “So I start back up again but the fire just wasn't there anymore, sadly. But I made a decent show of it until about one mile to go, and then I started getting dizzy from the altitude and couldn't run without feeling like I was going to fall over, so I power-hiked to the end, and came in at 3:07. I don't think I had 2:45 in me Saturday but I think 2:55 would have been possible without the choking, wheezing and vomiting. But for all that I'm happy with my time and it's something to build on for next year or whenever I do it again. Also I had a nasty headache after I summited, but I think that was due to the fact that I did not get my normal cup of coffee this morning; as soon as I got back to Manitou and got a cup the headache went away. Yes, it could have been the altitude as well but I know the lack of caffeine didn’t help any.”<br />
<br />
Well that took up a cozy 5 minutes. All I had to do now is keep Mike entertained for another 5 hours and 55 minutes or so, depending on how long it took us to scale the heights of sugarloaf, wind around the north shore of Turquoise Lake, and trudge back to Leadville.<br />
<br />
I quickly learned that at this point, 76 miles into his race, the Mike-machine was equipped with two useful gears; “slow jog” and “purposeful hike”. I idly wondered what sort of shape I might be in after traveling 76 miles. I knew that “stumble about” and “crawl” were also in the gearbox, but I hoped we wouldn’t have to shift into those. We were quietly moving along the flat road towards the steeps of sugarloaf when through the forest I heard the unmistakable sounds of <a href="http://www.enya.com/">Enya</a>. “<i>Is that Enya?</i>” I somewhat stupidly asked Mike, completely blowing my man-cred. “<i>Yup</i>,” came the reply (utterly blowing <i>his</i> man-cred). Now that headphones are mostly frowned upon during races, some runners like to carry little speakers with them while they run. But this sound was clearly too loud and all-consuming to be coming from portable speakers. Up ahead we saw bands of soft yellow light coming from the source of the music, highlighting the tree trunks at the edge of the road. It was as if the music was actually flowing to us on these bands of light, it was a very eerie and otherworldly scene. And it was so loud! Enya’s music always sounds louder than it actually is, because she overdubs her voice so many times on her songs and creates a huge wall of sound. The juxtaposition of this ethereal music and strange light in an otherwise pin-drop quiet forest was distracting and disorienting. This was a good thing, incidentally. As we approached the source of light and sound, I discovered that we were passing a cabin in the woods, and the music was coming from two very large amplified monitors on stilts, situated in front of a house. The speakers and stands reminded me of little <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga">Baba Yaga</a> huts. I could see Enya as a witch. The Enya song ended as we passed by the house, and a familiar guitar melody started up. “<i>I know this, what is this?</i>” I asked Mike. He answered right away; it was David Gray, Babylon. I was encouraged that Mike was still coherent enough to recognize the song that quickly. More than 75 miles into his race and he was still totally in the game.<br />
<br />
<i>“If you want it, come and get it, crying out loud.</i>”<br />
-<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hri6ft52YA8">David Gray, Babylon</a><br />
<br />
Soon after that we left the road and turned up towards the climb to sugarloaf. The road was deeply rutted at the beginning, and fairly steep. We made slow but steady progress and picked our way up the road in good spirits. I assumed the role of “pacemaker” and route-finder for Mike, staying a few paces ahead of him on the long climb up.<br />
<br />
Lindsey, who paced Cat on this section the previous year, had told me to be wary of false summits on Sugarloaf, so every time the trail began to flatten out I guarded against celebrating and particularly against telling Mike that we had “made it”. But as we reached yet another flat bit I could just sense that we had arrived at the rounded summit of sugarloaf. Even in mid-summer, on these windswept heights I already felt the chill of winter here. I thought that winter probably never really leaves this place, and thought that it was smart that I brought gloves along for the run.<br />
<br />
At the summit I briefly turned off my headlamp and my hand-held light, and tilted my head up to the sky. The sky was clear, and since the moon was not yet up I was greeted by panoply of brilliant stars. I looked north to find <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris">Polaris</a>, to get my bearings. Above and to the south I could even see the Milky Way, awesome in its mystery. Just then my eyes were drawn to a shooting star, knifing through the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_%28constellation%29">Swan of Cygnus</a>, which was making its slow summer nightly flight from east to west above our heads. I realized that while I was pacing Mike, the stars had been pacing me. It was a comfort to know that a graceful Swan had been my faithful guide up the south face of sugarloaf. But we were heading away from Cygnus now. Perhaps the shooting star indicated that Cygnus was handing over pacing duties to the Wolf of Polaris. This seemed less comforting but was maybe necessary, for we had a long and potentially grim journey still ahead of us. The moment was brief but altogether wondrous. I considered that moments like this, moments that maybe last only five seconds, are why I seek out silly adventures such as pacing Mike 24 miles through the night. There are few things more fulfilling than cresting a mountain pass under your own power in the middle of the night and finding yourself bathed in silence and starlight.<br />
<br />
The world is a funny place. At my exact moment of bliss, under the same stars, rebel fighters were <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14677754">pouring into Tripoli</a> to unseat Muammar Gaddafi, ready to lay down their lives for freedom. Starving refugees were clambering into Kenya to escape <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14248278">Somalia</a>, in a desperate bid to save their own lives. And closer to me, hundreds of tired and increasingly desperate competitors were scaling the heights of sugarloaf behind us, in pairs of runner and pacer. Danny and Lindsey were back there somewhere, and Alex and Cat, too, perhaps, or maybe Alex and Kyle yet.<br />
<br />
It was a nice moment of contemplation, but I did have work to do, so I turned my lights back on, blabbered on about the beautiful stars to Mike for a spell, and led him down the north side of sugarloaf in wide switchbacks to the valley below.<br />
<br />
Mike was able to jog a bit on this stretch so we made good time towards the next aid station at May Queen, on the far western corner of Turquoise Lake. As we descended, the waning moon ascended as if we were actually pushing up the moon with each step down towards the valley floor. I briefly marveled at its orange hue before it hid itself behind a band of clouds. I couldn’t decide if the newly noticed clouds were a portent of good or ill. Benign cloud cover helps keep the temperatures warmer, but they can also turn malevolent and rude, like they did the previous night.<br />
<br />
At midnight we arrived at the May Queen aid station. After a quick stop, where Mike and I filled up on hot noodle soup and coffee, and stashed some cookies and mini chocolate bars in my pockets, we turned our attention to the final lonely stretch of the Leadville 100. May Queen is the final aid station on the course, and there are still 13 miles of trail separating participants from their goal at this point, with no assistance in the intervening miles. It’s a long dark road ahead, and best not to tarry at May Queen any longer than necessary.<br />
The bulk of the final section winds its way around the north shore of Turquoise Lake, which was relatively flat, but the tail was faint. I had been warned that the trail was difficult to navigate through this section. Now that the moon was up, and the clouds were beginning to build, I had lost my guide, the dog star Polaris. And my swan star Cygnus was long gone, having descended over the mountains to the west for the night. It was up to me to navigate Mike through the old forest on the edge of the lake. A long trudge ensued. We were both quieter now, and colder. I slipped on my gloves, and pulled my hat down tight. On we marched, in “purposeful hike” mode, and periodically I offered Mike cookies and chocolate. Mike was impressive in his quiet resolve and determination.<br />
<br />
We finally began to round the eastern shore of the lake, from which vantage point I could look in brief intervals over my right shoulder and spy dozens of lights behind us spread out along the shoreline. The lights, in pairs of two, faded softly into the long dark north shore of the lake, from where we had come. And higher, and across the lake, the lights of racers and pacers descending sugarloaf cascaded down in a serpentine pattern as if someone had set a pinprick to the stars themselves, and let loose a thin stream of lights from the heavens into the lake. It was difficult to tell where the lights ended and the stars began. I knew that somewhere back there one of those lights, probably on the shoreline, belonged to my friend and fellow pacer Lindsey, who was running her friend Danny to the finish. And farther back, winding down the mountain, a twin pair of lights surely represented my friends Cat and Alex, one pacing the other patiently down to the lake.<br />
<br />
As I picked my way through the slumbering campgrounds and led Mike on the faintest of trails towards the dam, I thought about Lindsey, and Cat, my fellow pacers, and Danny and Alex, their runners. I thought about Lindsey and Cat in particular though, since the three of us were comrades in arms this night. We were together alone, each going through the exact same experience on the same night, but with different runners to pace, and separated from each other by time and distance, but not by heart. I hoped they were doing well, and I cast one last glance into the gloom over the now-moonlit surface of the lake and sent them all best wishes from the shore. I hoped that their runners were doing well, that they were dressed warmly enough in the rapidly chilling air, and wondered if they were thinking of me too, as Mike and I quite unexpectedly arrived at the dam, and therefore now at the end of our seemingly endless lake excursion. A Crowded House song came to mind, which is not unusual for me:<br />
<br />
<i>“Together alone, shallow and deep<br />
holding our breath, paying death no heed<br />
I'm still your friend, when you are in need<br />
as is once, will always be </i><br />
e<i>arth and sky, moon and sea”</i><br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">
-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_696110477"> </a></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6clOaNae8sg">Crowded House, Together Alone</a></div>
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<br /></div>
As we approached the road over the dam, a solitary race volunteer, a vigil of the night, sitting in a folding chair by the side of the road and dressed in multiple jackets to fend off the chill, and an orange safety vest to fend off inattentive drivers, motioned Mike and I across to the continuation of the trail on the other side of the road. I knew that we were now close to the finish. I asked her how much farther, and she replied “5 more miles”. Wow. Deep in the night, and all that separates Mike from completing the Leadville 100 is “5 more miles”. I congratulated Mike on this milestone and exhorted him to push the pace and get this race over and done with. I may have used several swear-words in the process of giving my pep talk.<br />
<br />
We descended a tricky bit of “trail” that mimicked the length and pitch of the dam to which it was adjacent, and found ourselves on a flat, even runnable stretch of dirt county road. With renewed vigor and a sense that the barn door was ajar and waiting, Mike and I picked up the pace. The finish line is wonderful, but this is probably the moment I savor most of all; when the realization sets in that your runner is really going to make it. I have paced several friends to successful races, Lindsey, Kerry, Dan, and Nick come to mind, and now Mike, and each time my favorite moment comes before the finish. Maybe because in that moment it is still just the two of us, sharing in the struggle for accomplishment. The finish line always fades into soft white, almost out of time and place. The pacer’s work is done, and the runner is wrapped in glory. Whereas the miles right before, when success is all-but-guaranteed but for now nothing else exists but the determined footfalls and the bond between runner and pacer, those moments seem to stand out for me in sharp detailed relief.<br />
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But don’t get me wrong, I was elated to watch Mike cross the finish line in Leadville, at 4:11 am, in the dead of the night just over 24 hours after he started. His cheering fans consisted of his family, his pacers, the race organizers, and a couple of foul-mouthed and drunk spectators. I had the distinct pleasure of spending 7 hours with Mike on the trail, and his spirit never flagged. He provided me an example of how to comport myself with both the determination of Polaris, and the grace of Cygnus, should I ever gird up enough courage to try this race or this distance myself. The moon and stars judged in our favor tonight.<br />
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<i>“Show them you won't expire<br />
Not till you burn up every passion<br />
Not even when you die<br />
Come on now<br />
You've got to try”</i> <br />
-<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMD7mcEpU6U">Joni Mitchell, Judgment of the Moon and Stars</a><br />
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<a href="http://frontrangerambler.blogspot.com/2011/08/lt100-2011.html">(Photo from Mike's blog)</a></div>
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We took pictures, and then Mike wandered off into the medical tent to get warm, and immediately my attention turned back to Lindsey and Danny, Cat and Alex. They were out there somewhere and more than anything now I wanted to bring them home as well. Tired as I was, it was all I could do not to run back down the course to meet them! But runners are really only allowed one pacer at a time, so I would have to leave them to their own judgments, and bide my time at the finish line in the cold and dark. I started to get really cold myself, standing in the 40 degree chill at 10,000 feet in naught but running shorts and a thin jacket, so I decided to trudge the two blocks up to Hinterberg HQ to put on some clothes.<br />
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But when I checked the voice mail on my phone from HQ, elation and satisfaction and nervous anticipation gave way to sadness. The call was my wife; the time of the call was 3:18 am. She was calling to tell me that Alex had dropped out of the race at Fish Hatchery at 3:00 am. Leadville, like most all ultra-races, imposes cut off times at various points along the course. Alex had made it to Fish Hatchery just under the cut off at a couple minutes before 3:00, so he was eligible to continue on to May Queen and hopefully to the finish, but Alex made a tough and courageous choice at Fish Hatchery, and decided to end his race there. My wife was his crew chief, and the emotion in her voice on the phone belied just how much she was invested in Alex and his journey. Runners who do these races really rely on their crew and pacers to keep them going, and they are always very appreciative of the efforts other people give to help them to their goals. But less noted is the emotional investment that crew and pacers place in the success of their runner. They are all in, so to speak. And since the finish rate at Leadville usually hovers around 50%, there were a lot of broken hearts out there in the dead of the night. Even runners who achieve their goals and finish, with arms in the air and all that, will do so with a touch of sadness for their friends who invested just as much into the race as they, but were not able to finish that day. And this emotional intensity lies at the core of what draws me to the sport. Witnessing this first-hand I came away with an enormous respect for everyone who was courageous enough to line up at the start, and put everything on the line.<br />
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Deflated, I went back to the finish line to wait for Lindsey and Danny, who I thought were about two hours behind Mike, but the cold and dark seemed colder and darker now, and the disappointed tone of my wife’s voice kept echoing in my head as I paced up and down the final stretch. I made the decision to head to Alex May HQ and go to sleep and be with my wife, whom I had not seen all day. But I wished I had stuck it out at the finish line a bit longer. I missed Danny finishing by about 20 minutes is all, ironically adding just a bit more disappointment to my evening. Not because Danny finished of course, I was really impressed with his performance and happy for both him and Lindsey. It’s just that I could have used another good memory in store as I crawled into bed next to my wife, fully clothed and ice cold, and slept for the first time in over 24 hours. Almost at the exact moment my head hit the pillow, Danny crossed the finish line with his pacer and my friend Lindsey in tow.<br />
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No one at May HQ had heard Dan and me come in at 5:30 am, so they were a little surprised when they woke up and we were there. After a huge breakfast and balloon animal festival featuring hearty pancakes and a really impressive balloon monkey with a working prehensile tail, it was time to bid adieu to Leadville and head back home, until next year. I will be back for certain, probably to pace, maybe to run, you never know.<br />
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<a href="http://eanmccrystalmay.blogspot.com/2011/08/may-team-goes-to-leadville.html">(photo from Ean's blog)</a></div>
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<br /></div>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-66781661025599292132011-08-11T20:50:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:07:51.081-07:00Courage ClassicOnce again, thank you all for your kind and generous support for our <a href="http://www.couragetours.com/">Children’s Hospital</a> fund-raising efforts. We had a goal to raise $2,000 for the Hospital, and as of yesterday we were at $1,943! I never thought we would get even that close; you all have far outstripped my expectations and I am honored and humbled to have such fine and generous friends. Thanks. And apparently you can still contribute until the end of August (I thought we were done after the ride) so, if you are interested in helping us get that last $57, then feel free to click either of the links below and make a tax-deductible donation on our behalf. Thanks again.<br />
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste</a><br />
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OR<br />
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush</a><br />
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But at any rate, the big ride is actually over; it’s been over for over a week now, I’ve been remiss in writing a follow-up, so I’m here to right all wrongs and write about all the thrills, spills, and chills of the Courage Classic Weekend. <br />
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And I sort of wish there were more spills to write about. If you know my style, you know that I prefer to write about misadventures and things gone wrong, more than writing about when things go well. You know, <i>happy bike rides are all alike; every unhappy bike ride is unhappy in its own way</i>. Thank you, Tolstoy. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina">Anna Karenina</a> as an allegory about cycling. Of course Tolstoy’s implication is that one really only needs to write one story, if that, about a successful Courage Classic venture, and be done with it. And sadly for my blog, but happily for me, on the whole the bike trip was a grand success. But I’ll see if I can’t tart it up a bit nonetheless. We rode 200 miles over three days, over several classic Colorado mountain passes, in beautiful weather and with great friends. But I think I can cherry-pick some of the unexpected mishaps and make this narrative at least somewhat entertaining for both myself and you all. But alas, no one threw themselves under a train, so right away I’m playing from behind.<br />
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As mentioned, the “Classic” took place over three days. Although we stayed in Copper Mountain for the duration, the first day’s ride started in Leadville on Saturday. This necessitated us driving over Fremont pass early in the morning, with bikes in tow, to get to the official start of the ride. We would leave our truck in Leadville all weekend, and ride back from Copper to get it on Monday. So basically this meant that we had to ride back to Copper from Leadville on the first day. These two towns are only about 25 miles apart from one another, but the Classic elects to take a longer route betwixt the two, summiting Tennessee pass between Leadville and Minturn, and Vail pass between Vail and Copper. It was a ride of 58 miles and 4,000 feet of climbing, half of which would be on the Vail pass climb at the hot, sticky end of the day. Vail pass. This could be the chance for disaster I’d been craving. I did ride it just a few weeks prior after competing in the Vail hill climb, but I had a delightful tailwind that day, and was, even after running a 7 mile race, fresher than I would be on this day so I anticipated glorious struggle ahead.<br />
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There are probably 2,000 riders in this event, but they don’t all start at the same time – too bad, actually, another missed opportunity for mayhem and chaos. Our little team started the ride at the tail end of the recommended “start window”, which ended at 9:00 am. I think we started at 8:45 am. As the weather was beautiful with very little chance for rain, we figured there was no point in starting early when it was cold. Biking seems to turn me into an instant wuss, particularly in such matters relating to cold temperatures, so I was more than happy to start as late as possible on this day.<br />
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No one can accuse the Courage Classic of saving the best for last; the first 20 miles of the ride are arguably the best of the entire course. Any rider who has been will tell you that Tennessee pass is an absolute treasure. Gorgeous scenery, smooth pavement, steady grades, light traffic, great weather; to steal from baseball, it’s a 5-tool road. I was enjoying my day and riding nice and easy when I came up behind two girls who were singing “<i>Don’t stop believing, hold on to that feeling…</i>”, just as I passed them. Without missing a beat, I sang back “<i>Street-light, people-whoah-oh-oooooh!</i>” and just kept going. Celeste and I sing that song all the time, it was pretty surprising and rather awesome to hear some other girls singing the same song and having fun. <br />
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Aaah, but that’s too nice. Couldn’t something have gone wrong here? Oh yes, now I remember. As mentioned, the route climbed to the top of Tennessee Pass, and then revealed a long descent to Redcliff, before a short climb up Red Mountain and a steep descent into Minturn. Our team hung together to the top of the pass, and then we all took the descent at our own pace. My teammates Tim and Tony quickly got ahead of me on the way down, as they are much better riders than am I. But I can climb faster than they can. By the time I got to the base of Red Mountain climb I could no longer see them but I thought I would get out of the saddle and see if I couldn’t reel them in nonetheless. Tony I was able to catch part way up the hill, which gave me hope that I could catch Tim as well. Alas, as soon as I put in a really hard effort, or perhaps because, I slipped my chain as I tried to shift into a higher gear. Tim was out of reach as a result. Actually I think he was out of reach regardless, but I can blame the chain. Quite embarrassing, really.<br />
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Red Mountain successfully navigated, we all descended into Minturn, hit the eagle river at the lowest point of the weekend at about 8,000 feet of elevation, and started heading back up the Vail valley to the pass. The Classic provides a lunch stop here so we all stopped and took a long and leisurely break. Last year we ate too much at this lavishly appointed lunch stop, so I tried to reign in my deep-seated instinct to eat everything in sight, and opted for a PB&J sandwich, some chips, and some fruit, and a coke. And a cookie. And potato soup. Oh I give up. As we were wrapping up we ran into our friends The Cycling Amers. The Amers are family friends of Tim and Brian from Santa Fe, and they are crazy-good cyclists. Daughter Tess is a competitive triathlete for the University of Colorado, but all of them are amazing riders. The Amers pulled out of the lunch stop just ahead of Tim and I, and I asked Tim if he’d be interested in riding with them through Vail, at least. He was up for the challenge so we put in a little effort and caught up, and rode through Vail in a little pack up the valley, which was delightful. <i>Delightfully boring</i>, you might add. Not to worry; I’m setting something up here. <br />
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Vail pass proper is a funny sort of climb. Because, you know, all flat rides are exactly alike, but every hill climb is hilly in its own way. It starts out with a ridiculous pitch, then levels out a bit, then even has a slight downhill section as it crosses under the interstate about 2/3 of the way up the climb. Then the route becomes insanely steep again, before mellowing out ever-so-slightly at the finish.<br />
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The initial pitch completely blew up our group, and I found myself chasing Tess’ dad, her brother, and her boyfriend up the hill all on my own. Those three animals ate up vertical like a <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/07/shavawesome.html">bear ransacking a cooler full of cheese</a>, and it was all I could do to keep up. Somewhere along the way my little brain blew a fuse, and I decided that I would do everything in my power to keep up with these dudes who were clearly out of my league. Aaah, the competitive spirit comes out at last! I was able to stick to them through that little under-the-interstate downhill bit, but on the near-vertical pitch directly following that bit they started to pull away, ever so slowly. I was broken! But not completely. I kept them in sight and kept pushing. And I had the advantage of knowing that the course does, in fact, mellow out a bit towards the top. I don’t think they knew exactly where the top was, so I perceived that they were starting to ease up a bit as they neared the final pitch. I put in a stupid, drooling, bug-eyed effort and got pretty close to them at the top. Holy crap that was difficult and pointless! I realized then that this is how I would spend the rest of the weekend. Totally sandbagging it on the flats and downhills, and hitting the hills as hard as possible. Why? I seriously have no idea. I like hills? Do what you like.<br />
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At the top of the pass the Amers gathered together and then all took off while I waited for my team, and got a free bike tune at the summit (see <i>chain, falling off all the freaking time</i>, above), which was pretty sweet, and actually quite necessary. Team Ziggy thusly congregated, we all started down the East side of the pass to Copper, but were quickly stopped before we could enter the bike path that winds its way down to the resort between the twin strands of interstate. Apparently there had been a collision on the path, and that had snarled up traffic, much less busted up one or more riders, so they were only letting us down the path in small groups. This situation took a little wind out of our sails as we cruised on back to Copper, but I didn’t see any carnage on the trail so hopefully it wasn’t that bad and everyone involved was ok. <br />
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That evening we all enjoyed beers and pasta and hot tubbing, and I cut a striking figure in my newly-acquired bike “tan”. More like a bike burn, really. I swear I put on sun screen, it must have sweated off during the day. Ouch. So day one carnage consisted of bike chain slip-age, Vail pass drool-age, and bike tan burn-age. Not Tolstoy-esque, but not bad with a little embellishment.<br />
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Sunday was the big day. Tim and I got out of the condo early, as we were the only two who had aspirations on taking on the big 100-mile ride that day. The others, sensibly, slept in and opted for the 50 mile (I think?) option. Tim and I were in the saddle at 7:04 am Sunday, nearly two hours earlier than the day before. The “century” (actually only about 94 miles I think? Whatev, close enough) starts out with a mellow ride down the bike path from Copper to Frisco. Just mellow enough where you don’t really need to pedal. A situation that did me no favors as I was freezing in the shade of the canyon on that initial drop. We started to warm up when we made it to relatively sunny and therefore relatively balmy Frisco, and then Silverthorne. But I didn’t remove my jacket until about 25 miles into the ride as we stopped at the base of Ute Pass. <br />
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Ute Pass is another funny sort of climb, isn’t it? Aren’t they all, Tolstoy? Funny in what way, you ask? Well for starters unless you are a miner of molybdenum, Ute pass really doesn’t take you anywhere. A real road to nowhere, Mr. Byrne. Secondly, the road is in such good shape as to seem unreal. The grade is steep, but consistent, and the pavement is pristine, black, smooth, banked in the corners and gleaming without traffic, a delightful side-effect of the not so delightful gigantic mine hidden away on the other side of the pass. As Tim and I climbed towards the pass we salivated at the thought of returning down this beautiful road. Well, I may have been drooling, not salivating exactly, but we were excited nonetheless.<br />
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And the descent did not disappoint. Neither did the views form the pass at the snow-capped and spear-tipped legion of the Gore range to our west, the same mountains I spied from the other side with furtive glances from the Vail valley floor the previous day. It was fun to think I had come so far, all under my own pedal power. But this view was not spied, furtively or otherwise, as we sped back down to the valley floor on this most perfect of mountain roads. I’m such a tentative downhill rider but on this stretch of asphalt I was able to release the brakes more than usual, and enjoy a (for me) screaming, barreling, tear-inducing descent back to the blue river valley. Quite frankly it was altogether too fun for this narrative, as I’m trying so hard to wring out the tension and drama from this weekend. But it was pretty awesome at the time, I won’t lie. <br />
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Speaking of time, Tim and I felt like we were under the gun a bit on Sunday, as the weather forecast called for a 40% chance of rain that day. I have always wondered if “40% chance of rain” means that the entire area of weather prediction has a 40% chance of getting rained upon during the day, or if instead 40% of the area of prediction has 100% chance of getting rained upon, or if 40% of the area has a 40% chance of being rained upon for 40% of the day? I know it logically means the first clarification, but I amused myself by thinking that since Tim and I were essentially covering the entire area of prediction that day, that being the length and breadth of Summit County, then my chances of hitting some of the “40% area”, however interpreted, were pretty high indeed.<br />
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The previous year when Celeste and I rode this same route we did get drenched on the final 15 miles of the ride, and I was not eager to repeat that experience, so Tim and I tried to keep up our pace and out run the predicted afternoon storms. We had what we thought were two more climbs left in our day; a soul-sucking climb from the “<a href="http://www.outletsatsilverthorne.com/">mountain shopping experience</a>” of Silverthorne-Dillon to Keystone on a busy highway (<i>where have you gone, Tennessee Pass, a courage classic turns its lonely eyes to you-ou-ou-ou</i>), and the much more pleasant – scenery-wise, at any rate – climb up sawn mountain between Keystone and Breckenridge. As was my mode this year, I kicked it into big-jerk competitive mode on the climbs, and rested on the flatter bits. Our route included an out-and-back to Breckenridge where we finally, 80 miles into our ride, had a sponsored lunch stop. We were both getting pretty tired by then but had avoided getting wet, at least, so although my neck, knees and back were starting to complain about so much time on the bike, we were feeling rather chuffed as we coasted into the parking lot where lunch was served. <br />
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Happily for you all, my long-suffering readers, I would soon have something to complain about. This is because I now proceeded to make the near fatal mistake of gorging myself at the lunch stop on room-temperature Asian stir fry, chips, coke, and cookies. Here we go again. The chips, cookies and coke actually were not so bad, but a simple PB&J would have been far and away the superior choice, and that staple was an option. But I was so impressed that the Courage Classic would even attempt to roll out such an exotic spread that I just had to reward their culinary verve with a Gore-range monument of almost-warm vegetable fried rice and young vegetables stewing in cool brown sauce. Yes it was quite nearly as delicious as described. I had a much easier time circumnavigating that mountain of food than I did the actual mountain range that somehow inspired this tacky monument of gluttony. Objectively speaking the food was not good, well, the cookie was good, but after riding 80 miles I laid waste to that quivering plate like a Barbarian horde of One. After pillaging my tender and defenseless Chinese vegetables, my victory was completely satisfying initially, but ultimately pyrrhic in nature. Alas my careless aggression at the buffet table would haunt me for the next, oh, 16 hours or so, and make me persona non grata of the team during that span, not to put too fine a point on it. Now that’s how we wring out the drama!<br />
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So lunch was in Breckenridge, but dinner was in Copper, so Tim and I had to saddle up and finish the ride before we could call the day a complete success. Judging from the course profile the span between Breckenridge and Copper looked to be flat, which was encouraging. It was not flat. At least 90 miles into the day what normally might have felt flat felt like another mountain climb. Tim led out and I tried to hang on to his wheel on the pretty and scenic bike path between Frisco and Copper on the final 7 miles of the day. Back, knees and neck were now joined by stomach in a chorus of complaint, led by my legs, which were conducting a symphony which seemed less like an ode to joy, and more like a dirge, if not a full requiem of fatigue. And somehow I had to get up and do this again tomorrow? I marveled at the endurance and stamina of Tour de France riders as the pitch began to finally truly flatten out as we entered the vale of Copper Mountain to finally conclude day number two. 150 miles in the bag, and another 50 to go. And my bike tan was looking even more dramatic, thus proving that not all suffering is in vain.<br />
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As Monday morning dawned, I enjoyed a sensible and bland breakfast of toast and vanilla yogurt, and the team, once again together after splitting up on our separate quests of day 2, started en masse on the route back to Leadville from Copper. It was at this point that teammate Chryss became the lucky recipient of our one and only flat tire of the weekend, not even out of Copper Mountain resort proper.<br />
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Happy to have that bit of tradition out of the way, we then made the turn towards Leadville, passing by the “A” lift ski runs at Copper along the way. I gave “Far East” a salute as we rode by its grassy green summer ribbon. Far East is one of my all-time favorite ski runs with its broken fall lines and enormous moguls. Of course this being summer the moguls were absent, but I mused to myself about when I was maybe 7 years old, and thought that the ski areas created moguls by piling up dirt into malicious mounds in the summer months, for the snow to collect upon in perfect piles during the winter. I had no idea that they were created by the action of skiers themselves until I was older. But as we rode by I reminisced about all the times, 30+ years’ worth of times, I suppose, that I’d set off down that particular ski run that has always been there to give me a challenge.<br />
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<i>far east on the far left of the photo</i></div>
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Riding by that ski slope made me appreciate that I have been fortunate enough to have been able to ski that particular run for so many years. And appreciate, in a more abstract sense, that there are places out there that I can come back to, year after year. I’m all for novelty, and trying new things, but there is something also rewarding in being able to mark the span of years by coming back to a place more or less physically unchanged over time. It’s not home, it’s even better in some ways. After a certain point <i>you really can’t go home again</i>, (to paraphrase Thomas Wolfe, or was it Tolstoy? I’m giving it to Tolstoy. To heck with Wolfe.), because home really does change on you. But you can always go to the Far East. <br />
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And I began to consider that this event, the Courage Classic, might start to become one of those events for me. This was the second year of our participation in this event, and we all talked about doing it again in 2012. Of course this was before we hit the main pitch of Fremont pass. Fremont pass separated us from Leadville, and us from our truck, so there really was nothing to do but climb to its mine-scarred 11,000 feet summit. Thank you, molybdenum. Last year Celeste and I rode this together and we sang Journey all the way up. This year I was all business and dispensed with the singing, I think Celeste was singing though. I should have been singing, I think, and I was reprimanded by the Courage Classic spirits in the form of having my chain fall off again, just before attaining the summit. Note to self; next year less grunting, more singing.<br />
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Now once again the towns of Copper Mountain and Leadville are only something like 25 miles apart from one another (albeit separated by Fremont pass), but the bike route elected to take us on a scenic circumnavigation of Turquoise lake to pad our ride to something along the lines of 45 miles for the day. Well it’s a lake, how much climbing can there be? Quite a bit, as it turned out. My legs were pretty fatigued from the previous two days’ worth of riding, much less from good old Fremont pass, so I thought I would just take it easy on the final climbs of the weekend and enjoy the rest of my ride at a sedate pace. That attitude lasted for about 5 minutes, and then I was back to my old drooling self as I bested the numerous false-summits towards the high point of the road at the back of the lake. Young habits die hard.<br />
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We ran into the Cycling Amers again on the back side of Turquoise lake, they had started their ride from Breckenridge that day and actually had no ride home from Leadville, but didn’t seem too concerned about taking Fremont pass back to Copper and Summit county. Animals. As for us, after a long slog back to Leadville after the lake, we concluded our ride in good form at the Leadville High School. We laid waste to yet another lunch buffet – portabella mushroom burgers this time, no stir fry, thank goodness – and swapped stories and made promises to do it again next year.<br />
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So there you have it, our second courage classic successfully navigated, with an eye towards doing it again next year. If you’re interested in joining our team, let me know! My only requirement is that you like to sing. And don’t mind a little drool.<br />
<br />Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-17326305219294183242011-07-21T10:23:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:20:07.283-07:00Triple D<div class="MsoNormal">
One final update before we head up to the mountains tomorrow in advance of the <a href="http://www.couragetours.com/">Courage Classic</a> this weekend! First and foremost, the stats: Celeste and I are now at $1,420 raised for Children’s Hospital, thank you all so very much for your generosity! We are still reaching for that elusive goal of $2,000, so if you’re still considering making a donation on our behalf, you have another day. Once again for your convenience, here are the links:</div>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste"><span class="red"><span style="text-decoration: none;">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste</span></span></a> </h5>
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After Sunday’s <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/07/two-towers.html">trail running adventure</a>, my legs felt a bit tired, but I wanted to participate in one last crazy adventure before the ride. Luckily Dan Porter and the good folks at <a href="http://www.yourgroupride.com/">Your Group Ride</a> had just the thing; a bicycle time-trial up and around the horsetooth hills west of town. They call it the "DDD TT". The Triple D. I know what you're thinking. That's right. The Triple Deuce. the long-awaited follow-up to the cinematic masterpiece "Roadhouse", which takes place at the Double Deuce. </div>
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<i>"hey, mijo"</i></div>
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(note that I just found out that there was indeed a sequel to "Roadhouse". Yikes. Probably not as good as Godfather 2.) But alas, DDD TT stands in this case for the "Double Damn Dams Time Trial". The DDD TT is a 12 mile ride along the Horsetooth Reservoir road (hence the "Dams"), out and back (hence the "Double"), featuring lots of hills (hence the "Damn"). Perfect. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYMPBCZF95gULy9Irvn3cEQS9-1xnpqPRRib8TR94SStyg26TuyCGfZ7sMRwnmzhhPkxUPK7o8YEJwY1LOgzdFQVFqF3o6fbpCMVGy-KPJX49yGXBFlSTmALFcyvpD7RFVq9Qpdx1Cw_FS/s1600/2011-07-21_08-32-37_120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYMPBCZF95gULy9Irvn3cEQS9-1xnpqPRRib8TR94SStyg26TuyCGfZ7sMRwnmzhhPkxUPK7o8YEJwY1LOgzdFQVFqF3o6fbpCMVGy-KPJX49yGXBFlSTmALFcyvpD7RFVq9Qpdx1Cw_FS/s200/2011-07-21_08-32-37_120.jpg" t$="true" width="112px" /></a>Now mind you these are roughly the same people that hosted the team training ride the previous Wednesday, so I knew I’d be riding against some pretty talented riders. I couldn't hang with them <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/07/house-of-pain.html">last week</a>, so what the heck was I doing here? But this ride had the advantage (for me) of only being 12 miles long, and being very hilly. I like hills, it’s the flat stuff I have a problem with. So I paid my $10 entry fee (bike racing fees are delightfully cheaper than running race fees!) and signed up. There was a spot for “team name” on the entry form. This was of course supposed to be for your bike team. Lacking a proper bike team to call my own, I could have left the spot blank but I decided to give a shout-out to my <a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/team/ziggy">courage classic team</a>, so I filled in “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars”.</div>
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For the rest of the day leading up to the race I was vaguely regretting my decision. I participated in another of Jeanie’s insane boot-camp workouts that morning so my legs were not fresh at all. I did not relish the thought of being dead last, I felt like I should try nonetheless. Besides, I felt a little like an ambassador from the Trail Runners to the Bike Riders. Again, it's important to go and do things outside of your comfort zone. Mission accomplished.</div>
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Jimmy Dan was there, and showed me where to pin my re-usable number (they expect me to do more races, I presume? Ok then!). As usual these days, the sky was filled with thunderous, murderous intent, with bands of rain to the north, and a particularly malevolent looking storm approaching from the south. This set me on edge as I awaited my start. The route we were to race featured by my count 4 distinct steep climbs, each over 10% grade I think, and 3 harrowing descents. One hill in particular unnerved me; the North Dam. This hill is a straight shot down the east side of the north dam of Horsetooth. I think some of the other hills actually have steeper sections, but none of them match the North Dam’s sustained difficulty and pitch. Compounding this was the very real possibility that we might get rained on, and the road might be wet during the descent of this hill.</div>
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<i>A wee bit blustry before the start, eh Jimmy?</i></div>
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But it wasn’t raining at the start, so off I went at my appointed time. Since this was a time trial, riders went off at 30 second intervals. I was placed about half-way through the field, so I had riders in front of me I could mark, and I knew that there would be riders behind me trying to catch up to me. Both of these conditions I found to be quite motivating, and I really started to push it up the first two hills as a result. Although I think this is not proper cycling form, I pretty much stood up out of the saddle for the entirety of all the significant climbs. I figured that standing up would allow me to make better use of my trail running muscles, but I knew I would go anaerobic pretty quickly doing that. Whatever, if I go down, I’m going down big.</div>
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I couldn’t believe how hard I was pushing my pace on the climbs, and even on the descents. I guess paying $10 and being in a competition really brought out the best of effort in me. I loved it. At least until I reached the crest of North Dam hill. The route was such that we went down North Dam, rode almost to Bellevue, and then went back up North Dam. And North Dam was wet. It wasn’t raining at the moment, but a squall had just passed through, and the road was freshly glossed with summer rain. This set me completely on edge as I coasted down the hill, as a straight arrow probably approaching 40 miles per hour – and that with applying the brakes now and then. I’m sure braver riders regularly hit 50 or more on this hill. The bottom of the hill features a turn to the right, which I was dreading down to my now-wet shoes. But before I could get too worked up in anticipation, I was upon the turn. I tapped the brakes a few more times and cautiously banked into it. The tires held. Of course now I’d lost all my momentum and had to crank it up to get back up to speed, but I survived the hill.</div>
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After a fairly comical U-turn on the road (thank you Marcel for volunteering and directing traffic!), I turned around and started the gradual approach back to North Dam hill. It was fun to see the other riders who had started after me coming down the same stretch of road, and we waved to each other and offered encouragement. As I got back to the base of the North Dam hill proper I got passed by one of those riders. I had already been passed by one or two others as well by this point, but that didn’t really bother me. But after getting passed on the North Dam I decided to really put in the effort and try to mark this guy up the hill. I was fairly successful, too, until I crested the hill and attempted to switch back to my big gear; then my chain fell off! Oh what a bother. I really need a tune-up. So I stopped, got off, offered a few choice words to the ether, slipped the chain back on, and continued on.</div>
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After cresting North dam there was a long, gradual climb to the top of “monster” hill, then another steep descent featuring a sharp left-hand turn that exposed a precipitous drop over a guardrail into Horsetooth Reservior, and then one final climb up “maniac” hill. The race didn’t finish down at the stadium where we started, it finished uphill, just like a real mountain stage! It was pretty fun. The clouds continued to build from the south, but the rain held off, and I gave all I had on the final climb. I think I may have even drooled a little. </div>
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<i>The gang at the finish. The gentleman in black competed on a fixed-gear single-speed. Now that's crazy.</i></div>
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<i>Yeah I've got a number on and everything. It's legit.</i></div>
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Celeste makes fun of me for being so competitive, but it draws out the best in me. I would never push it that hard on these hills if I wasn’t participating in some sort of competition on them. I would never know what I was capable of. I managed to finish somewhere in the middle of the pack on the ride, which I was very happy about. I think I know my strengths, or strength; hills. Bring ‘em on.</div>
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Now the courage classic is not a competition, it’s a charity ride. I’ll try very hard not to treat it as a competition. Quite frankly I find it to be bad form to treat a charity ride as a competition. No one cares if you’re riding at the front of the pack on a charity ride, you kind of look like a jerk doing that, actually. But I think I’m ready for the event, and I’m really looking forward to all the climbs that this event has to offer. So once again and once and for all, thank you all for your support, and for reading along with the blog, and I’ll try to fire off an update this weekend while we’re up there riding and having fun. Thanks!</div>
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<i>Ziggy Played Guitaaaaaaah!</i></div>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-19257226193085615412011-07-18T07:50:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:20:40.842-07:00Two Towers<div class="MsoNormal">
Or three towers, or four, aach, who’s counting. We’ll get to the towers momentarily. First, the much-anticipated update regarding our <a href="http://www.couragetours.com/">Courage Classic</a> Children’s Hospital fund-raising:</div>
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Oh yes, we are now north of $1,000 raised for Children’s Hospital, checking in this afternoon at $1,255. We have until this Friday, I believe, to try to raise the remainder. So if you’re considering donating to our ride on our behalf, please click one of the links below, thank you!</div>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste"><span class="red"><span style="text-decoration: none;">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste</span></span></a> </h5>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush"><span class="red"><span style="text-decoration: none;">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush</span></span></a></h5>
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Last we left off, I was <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/07/house-of-pain.html">getting my shorts handed to me</a> at the local Fort Collins Cycling Team weekly battle royale, which left me rather stunned and impressed. As an aside, those of you who have seen my biking shorts lately will be happy to know that they have been retired and replaced. I’ll say no more on that subject, other than to say that many of my trail running friends have been recently scarred by the sight of me bounding up hills in my far-too-old-and-baggy bike shorts. You’re welcome, Fort Collins. Where was I? Oh yes, the team bike ride also took me within view of Towers, the Fort Collins Trail Runners bi-weekly group handicapped time trial excursion. And lo and behold, the next day (last Thursday) was another Towers run, so <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/06/celeste-and-i-are-still-soliciting.html">just like two weeks ago</a>, I found myself back on the bike and riding the same hills I rode the previous day, but in reverse direction, to get to towers after work. My legs were plenty tired from the beating they took the previous night, but the weather looked good on a Thursday for once, and I wanted to get some more riding in but still run towers with my gang, so I did both activities once again (hence the sight of me running up towers in my bike shorts). And I managed to stay dry, at least!</div>
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<i>And I was rewarded with a golden sunset from the south dam on my ride home. That's the "tooth" on the high point of the ridge there, and towers a bit to the right of that.</i></div>
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My legs felt fairly tired trudging up the hill but not overly so. I have been wondering lately how much cross-over there is between running and cycling. You know, does riding help one’s running and/or vice versa? I’m certain that there are good cardiovascular benefits to doing both activities that translate across, but I can’t shake a suspicion that running only builds cycling strength to a point. In fact in certain situations running may actually be counter-productive to cycling. Situations like, I don’t know, running up towers.</div>
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But we <i>wants</i> towers! I can’t live without my precious towers. And I had signed myself up for the <a href="http://www.runpikespeak.com/index.htm">Barr Mountain trail run</a> on Sunday at Pikes Peak so I needed some hill climbing practice. I had entered this particular running race long before I committed to the courage classic. The intent was to run Barr Mountain as preparation to running the Pikes Peak ascent in August, since it occurs on the same course. Basically Barr Mountain is the lower half of the Pike Peak marathon course. Barr sports about 3,600 feet of climbing – and descending -- in about 12.5 miles of running, round trip. Our local Towers route, mind you, is about 1,650 feet and 6.8 miles. So Barr Mountain can quite rightly be considered to be, wait for it, about Two Towers worth of running. Barr trail even sports a tunnel with what I must assume to be a giant arachnid lurking in its darkest recesses. Quite coincidentally, Celeste and I have been picking our way through the Two Towers DVD over the past week or so. It’s all towers, all the time with me. </div>
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But the affect of the Barr trail race, this weekend, aside from encouraging me to indulge in some of my favorite towers-related activities (luckily I had no access to mashed potatoes with which I could have made a giant replica of Devil’s tower), was to keep me off the bike all weekend. Not good Courage Classic preparation, I know. I got in some riding Friday, mostly my 10 mile work commute plus a few odd-additional miles around town, but no cycling at all on Saturday or Sunday. No cycling Saturday because I knew I had the running race Sunday, and no riding Sunday because quite frankly I was altogether knackered after running Barr.</div>
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And I needed all the rest I could get, for after the twin virtual charley-horse of last Wednesday and Thursday my legs were sore! On Friday my legs were completely shot. On Saturday they were marginally better, but I didn’t like my chances for Sunday’s race one bit, even after I was informed by <a href="http://irunmountains.blogspot.com/">Nick </a>that the field this year was “soft”, and that I was capable of a top-5 finish. Jeez, no pressure.</div>
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Now earlier in this post I had speculated here that it is possible that running does not necessarily help one’s cycling, other than to a point. But is the opposite true? Does cycling help one’s running? Again, noting the obvious cardio benefits, I think we may be on to something here. For starters, cycling is far less damaging to the body than is running, even trail running. Provided there are no accidents, obviously. As I get older I may find that I need to cycle more just for that reason alone. And while there’s nothing to replace experience gained by running, but I think maybe, just maybe, hill-climbing strength gained by climbing hills on a bicycle may translate better to running up hills. In the past four weeks, since I ran my first 50 mile race in Wyoming in June, my weekly running totals have dropped noticeably, with the extra training time filled in by more cycling, of course. In the past four weeks I’ve ran an average of about 27 miles per week. This is lower than my average for the year so far by about 20 miles per week, so I’m running about 60% of my usual mileage this past month. Believe me, it’s good that I’m getting a bit of a breather on the miles, actually. I’ve been enjoying the bike riding and although clearly I’m not as accomplished on the bike as I am on foot, I still like doing it and I suspect I’ll improve if I stick with it some more. Which I am happy to do if I find that it does not diminish my running ability, of course!</div>
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Which finally brings us to the Barr Mountain trail race. Noting that my weekly running mileage had been dropping, I was a little concerned that I would have some difficulty on the race. I mean, there’s always difficulty on a mountain trail race, it’s a freaking mountain after all. I suppose I was concerned about abnormal or extraordinary difficulties on the race.</div>
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So I was a little more amped up than usual waiting around the starting line with Celeste and <a href="http://csuramfan.blogspot.com/">Brian</a>, with whom I had carpooled from the Fort that morning. Adding to my sense of apprehension was the fact that my gps watch had lost all of its battery charge, so I was flying blind today. Not that it mattered all that much, because I had as usual failed to study the course or determine any time goals whatsoever. Nick suggested I try to beat his time up the hill (64 minutes), which seemed like a good plan, but other than that I was just going to try to put in a hard effort and see what happened.</div>
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The Barr trail race is a funny sort of race. Like the Pikes Peak marathon, it starts on the pavement of Manitou Springs, and then attains the actual Barr trail a mile or so into the race. The first section of the Barr trail, called the “W’s”, is rather steep and narrow, and it is difficult to pass slower runners on this section of the trail. My legs felt a bit heavy and sluggish on the first mile leading up to the “W’s”, but they started to come around and I felt pretty good after that. I was able to pass a few other runners who had perhaps been a little too aggressive at the start, but I really had no idea how I was doing relative to the field as a whole. Since the race is an out-and-back, as I approached the turnaround point I was able to count runners as they came at me in the other direction. I was happily surprised to discover that I was in 15<sup>th</sup> place at the turn-around point. Not 5<sup>th</sup>, mind you, but it had a 5 in it! </div>
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I am a better uphill runner than downhill runner, but I tried to hold on to my position on the downhill by really extending my stride and keeping the effort honest. I find that I tend to relax too much on downhill grades and this always costs me in races. And today was no exception! I thought I was pushing the downhill, but I got passed rather quickly by a gentleman who was shorter than I, but somehow appeared to have a stride that was three times the span of mine. Then I was passed by a younger guy, who looked familiar to me, and turned out was Nick’s second favorite pacer, the remarkably talented <a href="http://www.solarweasel.com/">Brendan Trimboli</a>. Who is Nick's favorite pacer, you might ask? Why it's Scott, of course; <a href="http://teamfasteddy-fasted.blogspot.com/">Scott Jamie</a>, that is.</div>
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I was then passed by another gentleman, <a href="http://bradpoppele.blogspot.com/">Brad Poppele</a> (2:42 marathoner), who as it happened was in my age group, and by passing me beat me out of a free pair of shoes, and $50! Big props to Brad, and note to self, run faster next time! Also near the end I was passed by the 3<sup>rd</sup> place female runner, <a href="http://brandyerholtz.blogspot.com/">Brandy Erholtz</a>, who unknown to me at the time was the two time defending Women's champ and course record holder for this race, and two-time U.S. Mountain Runner of the Year (2008, 2009), and all around general bad-ass. Note that one of the unwritten rules for running this race is that you must have a <a href="http://www.onehorseshy.com/highbrow/no_one_cares_about_your_blog?p=onehorseshy.38754666">blog</a>. Anyway, Brandy passed me at the last aid station with about 1.5 miles to go, but I marked her pretty well after that until the final three blocks, which featured a very nasty and steep uphill slog to the finish line. Finally, some uphill. <br />
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Noting that I’m a better uphill runner than downhill runner, I found myself quickly catching up to, and then passing Brandy. I felt rather like a jerk, passing her back, so I tried to be a gentleman about it and urged her to pick it up and finish with me. What I think I said as I passed her was “<i>Come on, let’s do this</i>”, but those of you who have heard me “speaking” at the end of a race know that what came out of my mouth was more along the lines of “<i>sghheoeor wraauuah ruuuurha</i>”. Likely for that reason she declined to come with me up and around the corner to the finish. I crossed the line in 1:56:15, arms in the air and all that, happy to come in under 2 hours just because that sounds cool. I ended up 18<sup>th</sup> place overall, and 2<sup>nd</sup> in my age group. Looking back at the results I had almost reeled in Brad as well, finishing a scant 7 seconds behind him, although I don't really recall seeing him after he passed me and Brandy on the downhill pavement stretch.<br />
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Overall the legs felt pretty good, so I was pleased about that, and pleased that all the extra biking and diminished amounts of running do not seem to have taken too much off my running results. Come to think of it, I think I was a gentlmanly 18<sup>th</sup> at the Vail hill climb two weeks ago, and a rakishly handsome 14<sup>th</sup> at the Bighorn race two weeks prior to that, so I think I have a rough target to shoot for at the Pikes Peak ascent in August.</div>
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But before that there is the little matter of the Courage Classic, which starts this Saturday. I may only run once or twice this week, and I have one more special ride planned for Tuesday, but if I’m not ready now than I won’t be ready on Saturday. I think I’m ready, it will be a lot of fun regardless. Thanks again for following along and donating, we really appreciate it. I will probably post one more time between now and this weekend, and I’ll try to post something during the ride itself. Once and finally, the links to donate are here, thank you!</div>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste"><span class="red"><span style="text-decoration: none;">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste</span></span></a> </h5>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush"><span class="red"><span style="text-decoration: none;">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush</span></span></a></h5>
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<i>If you blew it, don't reject it Just sit drawing up the plans and re-erect it </i></div>
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<br /></div>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-35597862877822337342011-07-14T07:05:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:20:55.614-07:00House of Pain<div class="MsoNormal">
First an update on our fund-raising efforts for the <a href="http://www.couragetours.com/site/pp.asp?c=5oJHLTPxFgJSG&b=6304705">Courage Classic</a>: Thanks to you all, Celeste and I have now raised $930 for Denver's Children's Hospital! Our goal is $2,000, so if you're still considering donating, please feel free to click one of our links below and give a little something to Children's Hospital on our behalf:</div>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste"><span class="red"><span style="text-decoration: none;">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste</span></span></a> </h5>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush"><span class="red"><span style="text-decoration: none;">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush</span></span></a></h5>
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<i>Eat a big lunch</i>, I told myself yesterday, <i>you’re going to have to put your big-boy pants on today. </i>So I horfed down my usual peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and supplemented that with Monday’s leftover coconut curry stir fry (one of four or five “go to” dinners I can make with some competence, incidentally), hoping the extra calories would help see me through the <a href="http://www.provelobikes.com/21/Rides%20-%20Teams%20-%20Events/">Pro Velo Fort Collins Cycling Team</a> weekly group ride. </div>
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I had asked my friend Dan if there were any “spirited group rides” I could do to get in a tough cycling workout in advance of the Courage Classic, which is how I found myself leaning against my trusty <a href="http://www.rei.com/product/807240/novara-strada-bike-2011">Novara Strada</a> (oh, yes, with a name like “Novara”, it has to be Italian, right? <i>Right</i>??) with 29 other spandex-clad bean-poles Wednesday after work. Quite a few of the riders were wearing the local <a href="http://www.fccyclingteam.com/">Echelon Energy team</a> riding kit (expertly modeled by Dan on the web page there), and several others sporting other local bike team apparel. These were like, real riders, on real bikes. These guys (and ladies, of which there were 3 I think) actually train and compete on these things. Oh yes, I was solidly out of my league.</div>
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I felt like I was 13 years old again, trying out for my junior high school baseball team (I made the team, backup outfielder, emphasis on the backup part). Quite frankly I had no business being there, but it was too late to turn back now, and besides, what’s the worst that could happen? Well seeing as though there were no other 13-year old kids standing around and waiting to point fingers at me and laugh and make fun of my sub-standard hand-eye coordination (what’s the use of being able to run to the ball if you can’t catch the darn thing?), the worst that could happen is that I could get “dropped”. You see, group biking isn’t like group running. There’s a huge incentive to stay bunched together in a group, or dare I say, peleton, in order to minimize the affects of wind-resistance. At running speeds this affect is far less pronounced, so runners don’t typically feel the need to run in a tight-knit group. Group cycling, on the other hand, is all about the group. And if you’re not fit enough to hang on to the group, well, you may want to consider going on a solo ride. I had no idea if I could hang on to this group, advertised as an “opportunity to ride with some of Fort Collins fastest”, but I was going to give it a try all the same.</div>
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<i>I think the Decemberists say it best...</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpDx-4m49pLBmGKlymIIu76pmV1Nw8GB2tUH110bFwke3JPjxfJsIrJS6jvZ5eh_RlYMdwz3F8u5p4mWxtG5iN245BvQe_jfEKiG6RFxdFfXaR_73cqD0Ko9KxYum2U02sX6uFH8gk93_g/s1600/better+off+dead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpDx-4m49pLBmGKlymIIu76pmV1Nw8GB2tUH110bFwke3JPjxfJsIrJS6jvZ5eh_RlYMdwz3F8u5p4mWxtG5iN245BvQe_jfEKiG6RFxdFfXaR_73cqD0Ko9KxYum2U02sX6uFH8gk93_g/s200/better+off+dead.jpg" width="170px" /></a>I looked around and went through various scenarios of shame and glory in my head. Worst case; some peroxide-blonde 80s villain jerk takes one look at me and my $750 bike (“<i>but it’s Italian, I swear!</i>” (it's not) ), and declares that I am unfit for the ride, and I slink back to my running friends with tears in my eyes and malice in my heart. Clearly I’m still stuck on the 1983 team sports memories here. Only slightly less humiliating; I am allowed to ride with the group, but am quickly dropped by all 29 other riders as they fly away from me in a monolithic fascist peleton, leaving me as the only person who can not keep up. Somewhat acceptable; I am able to hang on to the back of the pack and actually ride with someone. Maybe not the lead group, but I am actually involved in the ride. Better still; I am in the lead group, I am mixing it up, I even take a turn pulling the front of the peleton. And best of all; I find out that I am the strongest rider of the group, a cycling savant as it were, and they ask me to be their king, and buy me beers and peroxide.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVFVb1WUSk322q8WCWLHk16Mi_7kcWWI5DNwcT27kIk224TZCHhhHczGAmciqAWPiWbBEAirD3EWwGFx6ynB3DDVU5KNeTYu6x586dqMflwBIn0d1a3uM1tq_-7F-6sbwQFEu5PLrUQyOu/s1600/the+peleton+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200px" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVFVb1WUSk322q8WCWLHk16Mi_7kcWWI5DNwcT27kIk224TZCHhhHczGAmciqAWPiWbBEAirD3EWwGFx6ynB3DDVU5KNeTYu6x586dqMflwBIn0d1a3uM1tq_-7F-6sbwQFEu5PLrUQyOu/s200/the+peleton+2.JPG" width="111px" /></a>So the ride starts out; so far so good. We are riding through town, heading towards Loveland via Shields, and there are plenty of stoplights so the group stays together. I am in the middle of the pack and feeling guardedly optimistic that I won’t get completely dropped. Mostly I am enjoying doing the cool “watch out for this stuff on the road” hand signals and getting used to riding in close proximity to other cyclists. South of Harmony there is a 2-mile stretch of road uninterrupted by stoplights and featuring a small hill. I find that I have to put in a tough effort to keep up, and I’m getting passed by a couple of cyclists, but I make it back to the pack at the light at Trilby.</div>
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Then it happens. The light turns green, and the real ride begins. Oh. My. Goodness. The main group charges out ahead and I am quickly gapped, although I am not last. We are riding into a headwind and I know that it is critical to find some people to ride with in order to take advantage of drafting. I start to put in a huge effort, and I manage to catch up to a couple of other cyclists who have also been spit out of the main group. We take turns pulling each other along and try to make up ground on the lead group, but it’s hopeless. But I keep trying all the same. I’m not going to give up without a fight, so I keep pushing. It’s hot out, I’m sweating like an African zebra being chased by a Tasmanian Devil, my thighs are screaming at me (and this on a relatively flat stretch of road), and I am having trouble keeping up even with my little pack of five. One of the riders, Ryan, notices my distress and offers that maybe I should “hang on the back” for a bit, meaning I should stop taking turns leading the group. He’s being nice, and he’s right, but I want to feel like I’m contributing and not just hanging on, so mainly I ignore him. I’m going down in a blaze of glory, baby.</div>
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Our chase group splinters into two groups of 2 and a single rider off the back. I’m in the middle group of two. We’re taking turns pulling each other along Highway 34 west of Loveland and glade road. I can see the lead group of two and I decide I want to try to catch up to them, so I max out my effort once more and reach them where Glade road meets the main Masonville road. Ryan goes right, towards Masonville, and the other cyclist left, back towards Highway 34. I follow Ryan to the right, although I later find out the group route was supposed to go left here. I catch up to Ryan and we catch another rider. “I’m trashed,” I say as I latch on to this new group of three. “No problem,” he says, “we’ll catch our breath a bit and then do some short pulls.” You know, these cyclists are really nice. Very few of them are even blonde. It’s encouraging. It’s all I can do to keep up with my little group of three, but I take my turns leading the pack all the same. If I’m going to participate in the ride I am going to work my share.</div>
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Our little group makes it to Masonville and as we begin the climb to Horsetooth Mountain Park I realize that I am completely shot. I have no energy for this relatively minor climb, having spent all of my strength trying to keep up with these spandex-clad crazies on the flats. My two partners quickly leave me behind, and finally, 24 miles into what turned out to me a 38 mile ride, I let them go and start to ride at my own pace.</div>
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Now at this point I actually had managed to keep several of the other riders behind me, but now several of them start to reel me in on the hill. And some of the “big dogs” catch me as well, even though I took a 4 mile shortcut to Masonville. Heck, I’m sure some of the really fast riders beat me to Masonville even though they took the longer route.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvC4SoGjStUY47S4sSEGHWOm-DLJ7cEUZqCJzKT6jhXD89whJ4AdMspyEMJ-5dKrWgOzaJsBb9V_IC4QX-i3bLF6lz2rx93lOiLvxB8A2qExI-qU9bjnk7aiKVIu9CoEz8IzDOrOP9LG9I/s1600/maniac+hill+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200px" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvC4SoGjStUY47S4sSEGHWOm-DLJ7cEUZqCJzKT6jhXD89whJ4AdMspyEMJ-5dKrWgOzaJsBb9V_IC4QX-i3bLF6lz2rx93lOiLvxB8A2qExI-qU9bjnk7aiKVIu9CoEz8IzDOrOP9LG9I/s200/maniac+hill+2.JPG" width="120px" /></a>Up and over Horesetooth mountain park I went, where I could see the top of <a href="http://irunmountains.blogspot.com/search/label/Towers">towers</a>, and I wistfully thought of my bi-weekly group trail run up to that shining landmark. For you see on towers I feel like a hero. Out here on the bike getting passed, I feel more like a zero. But it’s ok. I realize that it’s good to be humbled, to stick out your neck, to try and fail. Fail big, in full color. I got a lyric from Prince stuck in my head, “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA4d9OaCxoM"><i>Whenever you say that you can’t, that’s when you need to be trying</i></a>”, and that brightened my mood as I separated completely from the group ride at the South dam of Horsetooth reservoir and took a crack at maniac hill, before dropping down to Hughes stadium and thence directly back home.</div>
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<i>Prince knows what I'm talking about</i></div>
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So I’d say that the experience fell somewhere between “hanging on to the back of the pack”, and “getting dropped completely”. I’m no king, but I didn’t get laughed at either. I’m happy that I tried to ride with the big boys and girls, happy, even, to have been dropped and humbled by the experience. And I’ll try it again in a few weeks, absolutely. </div>
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And once again, the links for our courage classic fund-raising:</div>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste"><span class="red"><span style="text-decoration: none;">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste</span></span></a> </h5>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">or:</span></h5>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush"><span class="red"><span style="text-decoration: none;">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush</span></span></a></h5>
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<br /></div>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-27258787284611389912011-07-11T07:49:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:11:45.802-07:00ShavawesomeHow has the training for the Courage Classic been going, you ask? Great, if climbing a 14er is appropriate training for a 200 mile bike ride. If not, well, at least we ate a lot of cheese, so the weekend was still a success.<br />
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First an update on our fund-raising efforts: Thanks to you all, Celeste and I have now raised $880 for Denver's Childrens Hospital! Our goal is $2,000, so if you're still considering donating, please feel free to click one of our links below and give a little something to Children's Hospital on our behalf:<br />
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste"><span class="red">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste</span></a> </h5>
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or:</h5>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush"><span class="red">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush</span></a></h5>
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In what is now pretty much an annual Summer tradition, Celeste and I packed up the car and met our cousins from Santa Fe, Tim and Michaela, for a jaunt up to the top of one of Colorado's many "<a href="http://14ers.com/">14ers</a>", or 14,000 foot peaks. We've done trips to Handies, Elbert and Massive, Quandary and Democrat, and now this year, Shavano, Tabeguache (pronounced "tab-uh-wash," with the accent on the first syllable, I just found out, although I would prefer to pronounce it "ta-wash", so I could sing "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru3gH27Fn6E">ta-wash, ta-wash, ta-wash you want?</a>"), and Antero. In fact last year we were going to climb Democrat, Lincoln, and Bross (and don't forget Cameron!), but as is our style we got started too late and did not feel like we could summit all of those peaks early enough in the day to avoid the temperamental Colorado high-alpine Summer weather. So the original plan this year was to take care of "unfinished business" and climb all of those aforementioned peaks. But the Spring was snowy in and around that area this year, and reports indicated that some of the peaks further South, namely Shavano and Antero, were snow-free and rather more climb-able this particular year. So we changed our plan at the last minute and agreed to meet at the Shavano trail head Friday night to camp.<br />
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Celeste and I rolled into the trail head just at dark, where Tim and Michaela had already set up camp near the trail head at the edge of a meadow ringed at all sides by a grove of aspen trees, and dotted with old-growth ponderosa pines, and sporting a close-up view of Shavano. Rather lovely, all told. The weather during the 4-hour drive to the trail head was choppy. We drove through two major rainstorms, one just outside Fort Collins, and another on the way to Buena Vista. The weather lately has been very unsettled, and we all knew that there was a pretty good chance of getting rained upon during our hike the next day, so we agreed that we should get up early and hit the trail before 6:00 am Saturday in order to minimize our risk of getting caught above timberline in a thunderstorm.<br />
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So we set our alarms for 5:00 am and settled into bed. Since we were car-camping I brought pillows and our old coleman sleeping bag to sleep on for extra comfort. It was all rather plush and I slept well, until just before 5:00 when I heard the unmistakable sound of ice sloshing violently against plastic; that sound made manifest by an unseen entity dragging our cooler around our campsite. Oh yes, my friends, a bear was trying to abscond with our precious cheese and bud light! <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/07/je-taime-ziggy-je-taime.html">First skunks</a>, now this. I'm just glad we decided to leave Ziggy at home this weekend.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjagxFR4zAhSShu6aIAEqYoIafgJoU-_O1gjXV02FgotlZJKzQAci6mY495eB-tDRl0Yj-YhKTyrpzXp3niVoVwPynFSMYhhQp6fybo1Ocg2wtvSs09UI7M7UMZjoNctUR2oV7qRTeD64VF/s1600/bern+swiss.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjagxFR4zAhSShu6aIAEqYoIafgJoU-_O1gjXV02FgotlZJKzQAci6mY495eB-tDRl0Yj-YhKTyrpzXp3niVoVwPynFSMYhhQp6fybo1Ocg2wtvSs09UI7M7UMZjoNctUR2oV7qRTeD64VF/s1600/bern+swiss.png" /></a>I must be the lightest sleeper of the bunch, because I woke up first and said "<i>bear</i>", which although said softly by yours truly, instantly awoke the others into a state of wide-eyed alarm. We all sat in the the tent in silent nervous expectancy <i>(of what? the bear cracking open a beer? or cracking open our tent??)</i> and listened to the sound of the cooler being dragged away. Then the noise abruptly stopped. Tim and I grabbed flashlights and headed out into the dim light of the early morning to assess the situation. We found the cooler on its side, about 30 feet from where we had left it the night before. We didn't see a bear or any other creature, human or otherwise, but we both figured that the cooler was probably too heavy to be dragged 30 feet by a raccoon or lynx or marmot. It didn't appear as though the bear actually took anything, either, but later we did notice that our swiss cheese was missing, although the white cheddar was still intact. So it must have been a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bern">Swiss bear</a>. And yes, I know, we made a very stupid mistake in leaving out the cooler, one we managed not to repeat for the rest of the trip. And our tent was a good 25 feet away from the area where we ate and prepared our meals. We actually do know the rules, we just don't always follow them.<br />
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Well that was better than any traditional wake-up call, and after a quick breakfast of coffee and cereal, we packed up and headed off towards Mount Shavano. Shavano is the southern-most 14er in the Sawatch range, and is an impressive peak when viewed from the highway leading from Buena Vista to Poncha Springs. And it was an impressive climb as well, featuring 4,400 feet of climbing from our campsite at 9,800 feet to the summit at 14,200 feet in a span of 4.5 miles. The climb was fairly typical for most 14ers: a steep cool ascent through a forest of thin Lodgepole pine and Engelmann spruce, then breaking out of the forest at timberline to a wind-swept tundra of lichen-covered stones and traces of winter's snow, and finally a scramble up the final summit cone, guarded by sharp stones, and finally the summit, already populated by gore-tex laden hikers eating trail mix and enjoying the view.<br />
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<i>The Angels of Shavano</i> </div>
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Although Shavano was my 14th successful unique 14er summit (a nice bit of symmatry there!), I do not consider myself a "peak-bagger", obsessed with summitting all 50+ 14ers in the state. Not that there's anything wrong with that; I admire the Will that drives people to want to accomplish such things. I think I'm just a little too lazy to seek out all of the far-flung peaks, and find myself climbing the ones closer to home over and over again. For example, I think I've climbed Mount Quandary four times, simply because it is so easy to get to from the highway! But I do enjoy the novelty of each mountain, and I particularly enjoy the unique vistas provided by each mountain in turn. The view from Shavano is similar to the view from Quandary, you know, lots of other mountains and what not, but at the same time the view is wholly unique and special in its own way. For the views, I suppose, I would attempt to climb all of the 14ers. We'll see if I get there.<br />
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<i>Ah yes, the views. And the clouds.</i></div>
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And in order to climb all of the 14ers, Shavano guards the approach to another 14er, Mount Tabeguache<i>(-chu want!?!)</i>. Tabeguache is only assessable (by normal people) via a high ridge that separates it from the summit of Shavano. So in order to climb Tabeguache one has to summit Shavano, then hike the exposed ridge between Shavano and Tabeguache, climb Tabeguache, and then return via the same connecting ridge to Shavano. It's fairly exposed, but not technically difficult, and the round-trip takes about 1.8 miles. The general rule for 14ers is that one really should be off the summit before noon. After noon, the weather on the peaks gets rather dicey, and there is literally no place to run or hide in the event of a thunderstorm. We had decided that if we attained the summit of Shavano by 10:00 am, that we would allow ourselves to hike the ridge to Tabeguache and summit that peak as well. An in fact we did summit Shavano by 10:00, but since the weather had been so unsettled, we noticed far more clouds than usual on the summit at this time of day. We decided that even though we had made our time goal, that the weather was just too sketchy today, and decided not to try for Tabeguache. In my opinion, a big part of being a good mountaineer is knowing when to turn around. I'm as bad as anyone when it comes to contracting a case of "summit fever", but I know when it's time to pack it in and live to climb another day. So we bid Tabeguache a farewell from afar, with a promise to return someday, and made our way back down the windy summit of Shavano, and back to camp. Not one hour after we made it back we got hit by a short and fierce little rainstorm, which seemed to reinforce our decision.<br />
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After a dinner which consisted of an appetizer of cheddar cheese on triscuits, another appetizer of cheddar cheese quesadillas, an entree of cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches, and for dessert, more cheddar cheese on triscuits, we thoroughly secured the campsite and went to bed. The next morning we were originally going to climb either Mount Antero or Mount Princeton, or the high-13er Mount Ouray, but in the end we opted to sleep in and hike the Colorado Trail, which intersected the Mount Shavano trail very near our campsite. Also the weather played a factor in our decision; we got another rainstorm at 2:00 am that night, and woke up to a sky filled with heavy clouds. I'm sure we would have been fine, climbing another 14er on Sunday, but ultimately we decided on the easier and more convenient option of the <a href="http://www.coloradotrail.org/">Colorado trail</a>, since it meant we would not have to drive anywhere or break camp.<br />
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<i>That's how you ford a stream!</i> </div>
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We enjoyed a delightful 11 mile hike on the famed trail, passing by several groups of people that were "through-hiking" the entire 470+ mile span of the trail from Denver to Durango. We plotted and planned our own through-hike adventure (someday!) and enjoyed several vistas of my new favorite mountain, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Ouray">Mount Ouray</a>. Mount Ouray is not a 14er, but it's darn close (13,961 feet), and it enjoys a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographic_prominence">prominence</a> that give it an impressive air that many of its taller and more-often-climbed neighbors lack. It is, in short, a beautiful mountain and I intend to climb it; partly because it comes so close to being a 14er and I assume simply by dint of lacking a mere 39 feet of prestige, is almost completely ignored even though it is undeniably more impressive and beautiful than many other peaks that by some accident of commercial standards sit above a completely arbitrary numerical threshold of elevation. What if the length of a "foot" was only 0.3% shorter? Then Ouray would also be a 14er, and would be undoubtedly be one of the more popular ones, to boot. I understand the desire to climb the tallest peaks in the state, for the adventure and sense of accomplishment (and the views!), but I get the feeling there is a significant drop-off between the number of people who climb, say, the 10 least tall 14ers, and the number of people who climb the 10 tallest 13ers. I'm guilty of that as well; I think I've summitted 3 or 4 13ers, and as mentioned, 14 14ers. Maybe it's time to even the score.<br />
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<i>Mount Ouray</i> </div>
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Well enough prattling on about mountains, I could go on all day. As you can see we spent not a second on our bikes this weekend, but we did "scout out" Freemont pass via automobile, so I guess you could say we did some recon work for Courage Classic. Today, we ride. Hills. I promise.<br />
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<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/srslush/Shavaweseome?authuser=0&feat=directlink">Many more pictures</a>: <br />
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And if you're interested in donating, here are the links once again, thank you!<br />
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste"><span class="red">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste</span></a> </h5>
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or:</h5>
<h5>
<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush"><span class="red">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush</span></a></h5>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-37151831322073743632011-07-08T07:41:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:12:12.166-07:00Je t'aime, Ziggy, Je t'aime<div class="MsoNormal">
Time for an update! I am very pleased to report that we have raised just over $700 for our courage classic ride! You all are most excellent and generous friends, and I will reward you with a story of grand excitement and odors.</div>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste"><span class="red">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste</span></a> </h5>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush"><span class="red">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush</span></a></h5>
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Well the big plan for the 4<sup>th</sup> of July was to volunteer at our local 5K race in the morning, the Firecracker 5, then ride Rist canyon, then take the dogs up into the mountains so as to avoid the noisy, scary fireworks display. One out of three isn’t bad, right?</div>
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The 5K race was a lot of fun and we saw a bunch of our running friends volunteering and racing. Our super hero Nicole won the women’s race and set a course record to boot! Celeste and I were put in charge of the bike storage area, which seemed appropriate considering the courage classic. The race was encouraging participants to ride to the event and provided a secure storage area for bikes, and even a special raffle prize drawing courtesy of REI for bikers only.</div>
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<i>Celeste and Lincoln, keeping out the riff-raff </i></div>
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Our plan was to get out of there by 8:30 so we could go on our own ride, but we were not able to escape until after 10:00 am! By then it was getting pretty hot, and we had to drag ourselves out of the house to go for our Rist canyon ride. About oh, two blocks into our ride we decided to scrap the Rist idea, and we rode out only to Bellvue and back, via Bingham Hill on the way out, and “the barrens” on the way back. My local running peeps will know what I’m talking about. It turned into a leisurely 14 mile ride in the heat instead of the 40+ mile epic suffer-fest we’d promised ourselves. Well hey, it was hot, what do you want from us! More suffering and blood, I know. Just wait, you’ll get what you came for.</div>
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<i>A leisurely ride to Bellvue and back.</i> </div>
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We spent the bulk of the afternoon staying out of the heat and watching the neighborhood fill up with people and cars in anticipation of the fireworks display at city park. We found it amusing that many of our neighbors were putting out chairs and sawhorses and large buckets in front of their houses in order to prevent strangers from parking there. It reminded us both of the North End in Boston, where there are unofficial reserved parking spaces for local men of dubious repute. Since we are new to this neighborhood we didn’t realize how crowded things were going to get, but we didn’t really care because we were planning on vacating the area for the evening.</div>
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For you see Ziggy, our newest dog and the namesake of our Courage Classic team, is terrified of loud noises, and we figured it would be smart for all of us if we were nowhere near city park for the thunderous fireworks display that evening. So about 5:00 pm we bundled Ziggy and Duke into the pickup, and headed up the Poudre canyon with Cat and Sarah for a nice evening hike up Hewlett’s Gulch trail.</div>
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The trailhead was almost completely deserted by the time we got up there, which was great. We were able to let both dogs off leash (it is allowed there) and let them roam up and down the trail without fear of confrontations with any other dogs. The mosquitoes were rather voracious at that time of the evening, and none of us brought bug spray, but other than that it was a wonderful cool quiet hike up the gulch through cool green forests and meadows, and featuring numerous stream crossings. </div>
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At one point some dark clouds rolled over and threatened to rain, and Ziggy got frightened and actually started to turn back to the trailhead. I called for him to return but he was having none of that, so I had to chase him down the trail for a good half of a mile until I could convince him to let me leash him back up and return to the others. After the clouds rolled past Ziggy seemed in good spirits once again so I let him off leash once more. In retrospect that was a big error.</div>
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Hewlett’s Gulch trail opens up into a lovely meadow near it’s far point, and we were in the clearing and almost to the high point when we noticed that both Duke and Ziggy were rooting around quite enthusiastically at the base of a bush some 10 feet of the trail and 20 or so feet ahead of us. I started calling the dogs back to us, and Duke came cruising back, licking his mouth like he just ate peanut butter. But I don’t think there was a jar of Skippy under that bush, and anyway I then caught the unmistakable scent of skunk. Crap.</div>
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Ziggy came running out of the bush, chasing a small and very irritated skunk. At this point the skunk fluffed up its bushy tail, turned away from Ziggy, and we all got to witness a skunk spray. Ziggy took a shot point-blank to his face. Which deterred him not in the least. Duke clearly had more common sense, having come back to us at the first attack. Ziggy was either too stubborn or too stupid to stop harassing the skunk, for he continued to chase this poor animal across the trail onto the other side of the meadow, proceeding to get sprayed about 3 or 4 more times while we all screamed his name but kept our distance from the fray. </div>
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Finally Ziggy decided he’d had enough, and disengaged from the fracas and headed towards us, his normally white head literally stained yellow by the skunk’s spray. And the skunk was so enraged that it was actually chasing Ziggy towards us! Luckily the skunk decided that it didn’t want to spray everyone in the vicinity. Maybe it was bluffing; do skunks have an unlimited supply of spray? We were not going to find out. It was time to high-tail it back down the trail to the truck. </div>
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The poor dogs spent a fair amount of time rolling in the dirt, trying desperately to rub that foul stinging odor off of their faces. We tried splashing water on them at the stream crossings, but it was difficult for us to stop because as soon as we did, hoards of mosquitoes descended upon us and proceeded to turn our skin into a reasonable facsimile of bubble wrap. We were concerned that they may have gotten sprayed in the eyes but they seemed ok from that perspective. All we could really do was get them back to home so we could subject them to a tomato juice bath (yes, that actually works pretty well).</div>
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<i>The crew, post-skunk-attack</i></div>
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There was no way we were going to let them sit in the cab of the truck so Celeste and I rode in the bed of the truck with the two dogs while Cat drove our truck back down the canyon. I’m reasonably certain it was illegal and I know it was dangerous, but luckily for us the traffic was quite sparse, because everyone was heading to city park for the fireworks, a fact we discovered when we arrived back at our house, just in time for the fireworks display. You know, the thing we were trying to avoid in the first place!</div>
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So Celeste took the dogs inside while I drove around my neighborhood looking for a parking spot, and considered that some well-placed chairs in front of my house may not have been such a stupid idea after all. So the dogs got subjected to a triple-horror of skunk, bath, and loud noises. They really haven’t been the same since! In fact Ziggy didn’t even want to leave the house this morning, four days after the fact. It’s a dangerous world out there, isn’t it. And even after the tomato juice bath, which stained their white fur the color of Thai iced tea, I can still detect a hint of skunk in the air. It will just take time to fully dissipate. But the dogs will be fine, and hopefully they will think twice before taking on another skunk. And I will most certainly think three times before letting them off leash in the forest again, particularly at that time of the evening. What a mess.</div>
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But this blog is supposed to be about training for the courage classic, is it not? Well you know, a skunk attack is far more entertaining then more accounts of me riding my bicycle. But I will fill you in on my progress nonetheless. It’s Friday today, and the 4<sup>th</sup> was Monday, which featured 14 miles of riding between the 5K race volunteering and the skunk incident. On Tuesday I managed my normal 10 miles of commuting, and the same on Wednesday. I was able to ride more miles on Thursday (yesterday), to the sum of 20 or so miles, 5 of which were done in a torrential rainstorm. What is it with getting soaked on Thursdays? So quite frankly I’m not putting in the biking miles I’d like, but I’m probably doing enough to get by. I’m thankful that I got to ride Vail pass last weekend, that gives me some measure of confidence as I approach two weeks until the start of my ride.</div>
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Once again, thank you for your continued support, and here are the links you can click to donate to our ride:</div>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste"><span class="red">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste</span></a> </h5>
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OR:</div>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush"><span class="red">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush</span></a></h5>
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<span class="st"><i>Je t'aime</i></span><i>, Ziggy, </i><span class="st"><i>Je t'aime</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-90843374600488671152011-07-06T07:35:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:12:50.775-07:00Doble-Vail<div class="MsoNormal">
My training for the <a href="http://www.couragetours.com/">Courage Classic</a> in 2+ weeks continues, with many detours along the way. First of all, let’s review our progress towards our goal of raising $2,000 dollars for <a href="http://www.childrenscolorado.org/">Childrens Hospital</a>:</div>
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Celeste and I have raised $580 so far, thank you all so very much! We are over one quarter of the way there! If you are considering making a tax-deductible donation to Childrens Hospital on our behalf, I encourage you to do so by clicking one of the links below:</div>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste"><span class="red">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste</span></a> </h5>
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or:</div>
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<a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush"><span class="red">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush</span></a></h5>
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And for those of you who have donated, a heart-felt thank you! Your support means a lot to me.</div>
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So how has the training been going, you ask? Well, you know, some good, some bad. Last we left off last <a href="http://footandpedaldisease.blogspot.com/2011/06/celeste-and-i-are-still-soliciting.html">Thursday </a>I had decided to bike to Towers and then run towers through a dangerous storm, and then bike home through the rain.</div>
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Friday was far more sedate, probably too sedate, as I only logged about 13 miles of city riding, much of that during my normal work commute. And Saturday was even worse; housework beckoned so I spent no time on the bike at all, and did fun things like trim the trees and drain the hot tub.</div>
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But I made up for my slothfulness on Sunday. Sunday I got up very early and drove to beautiful Vail, Colorado, for the 300<sup>th</sup> annual La Sportiva Vail Hill Climb race. Or 30<sup>th</sup> annual, I don’t remember. Point being, people have been lacing up their running shoes and climbing the cat trails up the side of Vail mountain long before I even contemplated doing something this nutty. Yes this was not a biking event, so I’m still not really on the ball here. Regardless, it is a good workout; the race climbs over 2,000 feet from the covered bridge in Vail Village to the top of the Lionshead gondola at Eagle’s Nest. There were about 400 competitors lined up at the start, including me and my friends Sarah and <a href="http://ellenlsilva.blogspot.com/">Ellen</a>. Thankfully for all involved, the course did not go straight up the ski slopes, but rather chose a twisty route up the service roads, which double in the winter as the “easiest way down” trails with such names as “Cub’s Way”, and “Getalong Road”, and “Eternal Peril” Wait, I must have misread that last one, that doesn't sound right. </div>
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No matter, <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtKdz-0KN1lni2ogdVgbupDA1lZShUCpkxCrh8LV8H6xWVTGPtRJlGZbNnAvo63Hl8bErVdeUIRmeHdWqp2alENTSOFL_BKnpasKxFwaqwbqAouakSuzFiNnQbZ5r9-zWNy3WZJG00ZfQS/s1600/slush+vail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtKdz-0KN1lni2ogdVgbupDA1lZShUCpkxCrh8LV8H6xWVTGPtRJlGZbNnAvo63Hl8bErVdeUIRmeHdWqp2alENTSOFL_BKnpasKxFwaqwbqAouakSuzFiNnQbZ5r9-zWNy3WZJG00ZfQS/s200/slush+vail.jpg" width="133px" /></a>I like to climb hills, and I thought I would be relatively competitive in this event, so I lined up right at the front of the pack like a big boy. I realized quite quickly that I would not be winning this event right after the race started and the leaders blasted out to a 5-minute mile in the first, flat mile through town. I knew what effort felt good for me and let them go, and tried to maintain a hard but sustainable pace. Happily I was able to reel in quite a few runners who may have been a little over-eager at the start, and by about mile 4 or 5 everyone was pretty much settled in to their slots. The road kept climbing up the side of the ski hill, and we crossed under numerous chairlifts, and across bare ski slopes, and through shady groves of trees as the views of the surrounding mountains got more and more impressive. But the more impressive the view got, the less interested I was in enjoying it, as the climb, as climbs are want to do, got more and more difficult. By mile 6 (out of 7.3 miles total) my legs and lungs were at the breaking point. My only thought was not to let those people whom I passed pass me back. A point of pride, I suppose. There were two racers just ahead of me but I could not close the gap on them, no matter my effort. </div>
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<i>Ellen cranking it out on the final climb</i></div>
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<i>Sarah looking strong in a picture that is in no way staged whatsoever</i></div>
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I was trying to climb the hill in under one hour, and as I rounded the final switchback and the finish line came in to view, I saw the race clock at the side of the finishing arch, and it read ”59:59”, and quickly rolled over to “1:00:00” before I could muster the strength to cross under the banner. Alas, I came in just over one hour at 1:00:04, finishing a gentleman’s 19<sup>th</sup> place overall, and a, uh, gentleman’s 4<sup>th</sup> place in my age group. </div>
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The weather was beautiful at the top of the mountain, and we enjoyed a nice cool down run on the trails and then took the gondola back down to Vail. Then I ate lunch at the Red Lion bar in Vail Village with Sarah’s family, and then started part two of my Vail adventure.</div>
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You may be wondering why all this running, and writing about the same, when I should actually be riding in preparation for the Courage Classic. Fair enough. That’s why I packed my road bike with me on my trip to Vail. I decided that after the run, if I felt up to it, I would ride my bike from Vail Village to the top of Vail Pass and back down. What was I thinking? And of course I had to open my big mouth and tell everyone I was doing that so now here I was, at 1 pm, clipped into my bike and trying to navigate the Vail Village parking garage in order to strike out for mountain adventure number two for the day. Finally, some biking to write about!</div>
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Vail pass is a lovely mountain climb that is made even better by the fact that it is a car-free climb. The route uses what I must assume is the old Vail pass road, and then a purpose-built bike trail that parallels the interstate up to the top of the pass. It is also the centerpiece climb of the first day of the Courage Classic ride, so I figured it would be good to know if I could handle this climb on tired legs. I changed from running to biking gear and washed my face of salt and trail grime in the public restroom of the Vail parking garage (how glamorous is my life!), applied another round of sunscreen and thought that any day that required multiple applications of sunscreen is a good day, and as mentioned, wound my way out of the parking structure and pointed my bike towards the hill.</div>
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<i>I'll be back here in a few weeks!</i></div>
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And you know what, ultimately it really wasn’t that bad. Indeed I took my time, I think it took me about 1 hour and 45 minutes to reach the top of the pass, but other than being fairly stiff at the beginning of the ride I felt better than I thought I would feel. Of course a large part of this may have been do to the fact that there was a spectacular tail-wind pushing me up the pass, but let us not obsess over minute atmospheric details, shall we? Also I must mention that although Vail pass is significantly higher than Rist canyon in Fort Collins, I think Rist is more difficult.</div>
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Having successfully attained summit number two on the day I pointed the bike back down to Vail, and then drove back to the Fort for a well-earned dinner at Enzio’s with the Speights, where we were expertly-waited-upon by super-nice <a href="http://www.coloradorunnermag.com/2011/05/31/race-recap-bolderboulders-33rd-running/">Nicole</a>, runner-extraordinaire and apparent inspiration for many dashed adjectives. </div>
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For the 4<sup>th</sup> of July the plan was to ride Rist canyon with Celeste, after we volunteered at the local Firecracker 5k. And then take the dogs up into the mountains so they would be out of earshot from the loud and scary city fireworks display, which happens to be staged right in our neighborhood. But nothing went to plan and everything fell apart. But you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to read about that because I have to go to work!</div>
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Again, thanks for donating, and once more here are the links:</div>
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<br /></div>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-25254272560539041922011-06-30T21:14:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:17:27.581-07:00Dumb and DumberCeleste and I are still soliciting donations for our <a href="http://www.couragetours.com/">Courage Classic</a> Ride in July. We're trying to raise $1,000 each, $2,000 total. Any amount you can contribute would be just wonderful, thanks! Donate here:<br />
<h5><a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste"><span class="red">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/celeste</span></a></h5>or here:<br />
<h5><a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush"><span class="red">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush</span></a> </h5><br />
And I'm blogging about my attempts to train for this ride. Follow along with my misadventures! And donate!! <br />
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Well things got a little crazy today, and probably not in a good way. Today was a <a href="http://irunmountains.blogspot.com/search/label/Towers">Towers day</a>, which means all the crazy trail runners in town congregate at Horsetooth Mountain Park west of town to run up Towers road. It's a beast of a workout, and we do it every other Thursday, rain or shine. I had the hair-brained idea to ride my bike to towers, run towers, and then bike back home. And believe it or not, <a href="http://pineridgerunner.blogspot.com/">Alex </a>had the same idea! Hey if another person wants to do it, how crazy can it be? And our friend Jonathan Z does this all the time, so it really wasn't that special of a plan.<br />
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So after work I rode to Alex's house, and we biked up to Towers together. The Fort was pounded with a furious rainstorm earlier in the afternoon but things seemed to be clearing up, and our bike ride was dry and uneventful. We got to towers, changed from biking shoes to running shoes, and ran a little one mile warm up. Oh I hate how my legs feel trying to run after a ride, all wobbly and such. Best to work out of that before tackling towers.<br />
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<a href="http://k9runner.com/maps/towers-road-horsetooth-mountain-park/">Towers</a> is about 3.4 miles one way, and sports about 1,650 feet of climbing. It's a beast, don't kid yourself! I was planning on giving it a nice easy effort today, knowing that I still had to ride my bike home after the attempt, but two things happened that caused me to end up pushing the pace. One, well, hey, it's towers, baby, and I just get excited chugging up that hill! I can't help it, somehow I think this is fun. But second, the relatively nice weather we were enjoying started to turn naughty. First a brisk wind picked up, usually in our faces. Then low ominous clouds started to roll in from the south. We were going to get hit with another storm. I picked up the pace, thinking I could literally outrun the worst of the storm. In hindsight I really should have just turned around. Summit fever, catch it like the plague. Thankfully nothing bad happened to me or any of our group but I don't think we were being very safe out there today. I got to the top of towers and immediately turned around and headed back down.<br />
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By the time I got to the bottom the rain had started to come down. Alex and I thought about throwing our bikes into one of the other runners' cars, but ultimately ego took over and we decided we'd ride home through the rain. Last year at the Courage Classic Celeste and I got caught in a tremendous downpour so I figured I could use a little wet riding. Oh what fun it was. I was a little timid on my skinny tires, but Alex and I made it back to town without incident, unless you consider my feet getting soaked and my bike getting filthy incidents. But it was yet another dumb thing to add to the rapidly growing list of dumb things I did today.<br />
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So when you add it all up, I got 26 miles of riding with probably 1,500 feet of climbing, and 8 miles of running with about 1,700 feet of climbing, all told. A pretty good day's work. A dumb day's work, but it's a good dumb.<br />
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This is for brave little Ziggy, who toughed out the thunder and lightning with Celeste on Towers today. Yes this is pretty much the best painting ever. I'm getting a tattoo of it on my shoulder. Maybe the malamute on one shoulder and the lightning on the other.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRc3CZnAK-h8a71_Lqf6kJ8NLq_j8OWX0FBhzmOqrSIgGEhhw9U7SJwttfsYfT5gdW1oqXDIxVg1WQ6n_gzO2kOH_a-GseW6jHqLUrAChl4DDgUYxRUqx7k-Ic_4zia-3GEV27x-WRKV7u/s1600/BabetteWolf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRc3CZnAK-h8a71_Lqf6kJ8NLq_j8OWX0FBhzmOqrSIgGEhhw9U7SJwttfsYfT5gdW1oqXDIxVg1WQ6n_gzO2kOH_a-GseW6jHqLUrAChl4DDgUYxRUqx7k-Ic_4zia-3GEV27x-WRKV7u/s320/BabetteWolf.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841465034140032361.post-41340084221708205042011-06-28T20:53:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:21:36.075-07:00Eddie Vedder OperaSo I'm at the <a href="http://www.theclubatoldtown.com/">health club</a> this morning taking <a href="http://articulatecity.com/">Jeanie's</a> group strength and cardio class, which is awesome, and not riding my bike; in fact I jogged over to the club (about 1.5 miles) instead of riding even that distance. After work I went to the track for <a href="http://users.frii.com/jwelzel/">Jane's</a> equally awesome track workout (running). Apparently I'm training for the courage classic by doing a whole bunch of stuff that isn't actually riding a bike. Well scratch that, I did commute to work on the bike so that's 10 flat miles for the day. Incidentally not going to get it done. Whatever.<br />
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Actually that's not what I wanted to write about today. First, the pitch: Celeste and I are still soliciting donations for our <a href="http://www.couragetours.com/">Courage Classic</a> Ride in July. We're trying to raise $1,000 each, $2,000 total. Any amount you can contribute would be just wonderful, thanks! Donate here:<br />
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<h5><a href="http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush"><span class="red">http://www.couragetours.com/2011/srslush</span></a> </h5><br />
Anyway, while I was at the health club I heard a song I've not heard in some time: "Black" by Pearl Jam. It was fairly faint in the speakers so I didn't recognize it until they got to the end bit, where Eddie Vedder sings:<br />
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"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be the sun in somebody else's sky, but why, why, why can't it be, can't it be mine?"<br />
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Except of course as you know, he doesn't sing "mine" like that, he sings it like:<br />
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"Muhhhhhhhhhh-aaa-aaaah-ahhhh-hiiiii-ja-jaaa, whooo!"<br />
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(I had to look up the lyric on line b/c I wasn't completely sure that the word was, indeed "mine", incidentally)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgONm9fBNVgiCQB1wFDdQZlyToV8PFKhYSbcFU9qvTvOh-hrNIEkZTbQp1no9ZNXGHjo7tdzhh6k6chhgJB6f54ty2tuLYuHYNKk7AhoapDpc4tN2SQZx27FGLxa_ytYgJB-0md_Q1nOIvc/s1600/Eddie.Vedder-1993.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgONm9fBNVgiCQB1wFDdQZlyToV8PFKhYSbcFU9qvTvOh-hrNIEkZTbQp1no9ZNXGHjo7tdzhh6k6chhgJB6f54ty2tuLYuHYNKk7AhoapDpc4tN2SQZx27FGLxa_ytYgJB-0md_Q1nOIvc/s1600/Eddie.Vedder-1993.jpg" /></a></div>Yeah, you know the part, everyone does! In fact, as I'm listening along I realize that this is a live version of the song, and when he gets to the word "mine", the entire crowd sings along with each and every heartfelt inflection and vocalization of the word, in a grotesque echo of the original. And I would do exactly the same thing if I was there, oh yes. And how that must annoy Mr. Vedder! Actually he's probably come to grips with the fact that every time he sings "black", this totally sincere, passionate, sad, intense, wonderful song, a bunch of idiot frat boys in the front row are going to bellow it right back in his face. I'm certain he's simultaneously touched and appalled! "Black" is one of those songs for me that I really liked, then I hated because I heard it too much, but now it is ok for me to like it again. There's probably 4,000 other songs like that for me, all in various stages of that likability U-shaped continuum. <br />
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But I actually had a good reason for hating that song. I was in college when "Black" came out, and suddenly every girl on campus was in love with Eddie Vedder, which was bad news for the rest of us very non-Eddie Vedder types. I heard the song and was impressed with the soulful intense vocal, but the girls heard that song and were instantly smitten with what appeared to be our generation's Van Morrison. Overflowing with smit, I tell you. Believe me, us normal guys had no chance to compete. Oh, I grew my hair our and tried to look grunge, or at least tie a long sleeved shirt around my waist, and write poetry, and say deep things, and look both hurt and angry and cool all at once, but I was a fraud and all the girls knew it. Damn you Eddie Vedder for being so perfect! So I turned up my nose on Pearl Jam and went right to, uh, INXS apparently. Hopeless.<br />
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But now I can like it again as I have come to grips with my own inadequacies in comparison to Eddie Vedder. It's tough to be angry with him for stretching out the word "mine" into a 5 second aria, I applaud his verve. Which brings me to my final observation about "black". I've decided that the song is all rather operatic in nature. You may scoff, but the overwhelming sense of sadness and lack of any redemption, lyrically or musically, rather strongly reminds me of some of Puccini's best work. I'm thinking Tosca, but I always think Tosca. Well, here. Compare Placido Domingo with Eddie Vedder for yourself. It's rock vs. opera, but they share the same intensity and passion, and in this case, the same ability to really milk a word for all it's worth.<br />
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First, Placido Domingo:<br />
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And here is Eddie Vedder:<br />
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Maybe I'm the only one seeing the similarities here? Well, it sounds like opera to me. And that's a good thing!<br />
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Ok tomorrow I will ride. More than 10 miles. Should be all rather exciting. Hopefully not operatic though.<br />
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Oh and one more thing, congratulations to Ft. Collins' own <a href="http://irunmountains.blogspot.com/2011/06/western-states-2011.html">Nick Clark</a> for finishing in 3rd place in last weekend's Western States 100 miles race! Jolly good Nick. See you at Towers on Thursday. I might ride my bike to the bi-weekly suffer-fest on the hill!Slushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00365933945254895448noreply@blogger.com1