I decided not to run in the Febapple 50k this weekend. The conditions were, as I can say elegantly, not good. As a matter of fact, if the warm days today and tomorrow don't melt a significant amount of snow off the trails, the conditions would be actually worse than Watchung in January.
It's sad too. I really wanted to do two consecutive 50k ultras in as many weeks. I guess February is just not a good month to try to do it.
As I was "running" in South Mountain yesterday, I realized how dangerous things were. Not that I don't welcome a challenge, but with both Massanutten and Leadville trips already committed and paid for, I was not going to risk my health in a minor race like this.
There is an outside chance that I may try a 50k run of my own this Sunday. I have to see if it works for me though. The sudden absence of a 50k run on Saturday really throws my running training scheule into chaos and I need to set that right today.
My mind is still on The Beast Series. Namely, how to get to Terrapin Mountain for their 50k next month without all that driving?
Amtrak does have direct service to Lynchburg from Penn Station. Their schedules though leave much to be desired.
The earliest train from Penn Station arrives in Lynchburg arrives at 8:36PM. That's not a whole lot of time if I come in a day before the race.
Secondly, the venue, Sedalia Center, is about 25 miles away from the train station. I'll need to either try to get a ride over there or rent a car for a day.
The return schedules are even worse. Most of the trains from Lynchburg go in the morning or early afternoon, well before the time I finish the race. That might mean an extra day, and, of course, extra cost. Still, the first train on Sunday leaves at 6:00AM so I can camp a few hours overnight somewhere, right?
Either way, I don't want to drive long hours the way I did for the Holiday Lake race. I'm sure my companion in the car for Holiday Lake would think the same way also.
I might have a pacer for Leadville! He just e-mailed me saying that race weekend (August 20-21) is actually open in his schedule and that he would be willing to fly there. Well, misery loves company, and I would be sure glad to have him pacing me in the nighttime hours at Leadville.
In the wake of last year's registration process, in which it only took 8 hours to completely fill the Boston Marathon, the BAA came out with its new registration process. It calls for rolling admissions, with the faster people in each age group invited to register first. The slower people who qualified would wait a couple of days before registering. Right now, the way I see it, it actually looks quite fair.
Yes, Watson did beat two great competitors in Jeopardy last night, but I am still amazed at the human brain and its ability to process information. Whereas Watson needed a large room and millions of processors to "reason" out a question, our brains can do that and a lot more and can fit into a small space between 2 ears. Although we might not have the entire knowledge of the Library of Congress stored into our brains like Watson, our brains still have the info processing beat, by a large margin.
Ken Jennings came out with his own article on his experience. Quite an interesting read.
OK, time to go outside and have fun with this gorgeous day. Until tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment