Bart does not like thunder.
More flippin problems with the Garmin ANT stick. Now the Garmin software does not even detect the thing is installed. And for whatever reason, it stopped appearing the OS’ device manager. Got a call into Garmin support and they are sending me a new stick.
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Good reading. Kierans report on crewing for Aish. All about Aish but other good gems in there like“Ten minutes later, Clark came through. Everyone knows he's a tough mother, but man, he looked like shit.”
Chatter on Leadville race management and organization is still pretty high, with several folks swinging back that issue is more about the runners than the management/organization (runners create the litter, runners create the crew problem, runners create the aid station problem by being underprepared). Interesting stuff.
The Leadville growing pains conversation is not new really – this sort of thing happens everywhere. We all like it small and intimate. Except big and cookie cutter makes money. Maybe the internet swell will cause a change, but I am a bit cynical that it would. I hear alot of the traffic about it because I am close to it, so I suspect that the outcry is really from a small percentage of participants.
I am not of the camp that a race making money is a bad thing (yes, I support that sort of capitalism). I just don’t expect Leadville to change unless they have big business drivers to make them change. In other words if people flocked away from the race (they won’t) or if the town or law made them change (possible). Maybe they will though … course change, lottery, cap entrants (and probably raise prices along with it), cap crew access … all possible … we’ll see.
I love the blunt talk that is occurring in the blogosphere though – some straight shooting from Rod, Wyatt, Nick (godamn, as a fan of the sport, I so want to see him win the Grand Slam or make Sharman bleed to take it … watch Nick cross the line and then count the minutes before Sharman crosses … 70 to go, 69 to go, will it be enough?), Elevation Trail, and Pittbrownie. Seems that part of the course of these sort of discourse is that somebody’s feelings get hurt …why do we do that? Why when folks are really for a common cause (in this case improvement of the race) do they crap on each other. Meh.
All of it makes me understand a bit why races that have a permit cap (Hardrock) or won’t allow races at all (Boulder or National Parks) are not really interested in going to that. Can you imagine if there was a Rim to Rim to Rim race now like there was in the 70s? What a crap storm that would be.
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In 2007 I started browsing athlete blogs more … Lucho, Chuckie V, Pittbrownie. Before that, I had perused tech blogs, and even had one of my own at work. Then I started keeping my own as a training record. Now it seems at least 1/2 the folks I know who run have a blog or at least tried it.
One guy who was part of that early circle of blogs and still is and that I have traded notes with over the years is James Walsh. His story is one I have watched (stalked?) for close to six years. Like my own favorite reality TV show, seeing James’s ups, downs, good races, bad races, experiments with diet and mileage, biking, running and triathlon, and brew choices – it became a story that I was interested in, and invested in. The guy embodied working hard, but having fun while doing it.
But until this AM, we had never met face to face. Time to fix that. JW was out here for a few days from zero feet sea level (SD), pacing Maggie Nelsen at Leadville (where she finished 10th in her debut – watch out for her in the future). They had a small window this morning to get a run in and we agreed to meet up for the Boulder classic – Green Mountain.
Without missing a beat, we fell into the conversation like we had been running together every week. Chatter about Leadville, Pikes, plans, dreams, injuries … we headed up the back route and then came down the front.
In addition to having the benefit of getting to know the guy a bit, put a name to a face, JW was a bit too heavily stocked on brew before he hit the plane out of town. I was willing to help him out (and owe him a couple next time he heads back into town).
Awesome way to start the AM: Meeting a good guy, getting up Green, and brews in the mix. Hard to beat. Green 47.
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Latest ATU.
