Wondering What We’ll Do

Now that we’re getting close to December, I’ve been wondering what marathon I’ll be running. The prospect of New Orleans got me off my butt; the difficulty of my work has now sharpened my focus on the goal of finishing, itself.

Mulling over these thoughts, I pulled up some runners’ comments on the 2005 Mardi Gras and Freescale marathons online. Each race had many runners praising it for being well organized. Several runners complained that the Mardi Gras course had rippled asphalt and potholes. Several runners complained that the Freescale course seemed hillier than advertised. Both races had complaints about parking, food, not enough (or the right kind) of hydration, a lack of spectators and a lack of organization (apparently what’s organized to one ain’t necessarily organized to another).

About what you'd expect when hosting an event for thousands.

A few of the comments for the Mardi Gras race actually alarmed me, however, and Tim suggested I post them. Fellow tribe members, please take a look at the excerpts below and tell me what you think.


It was advertised as a 7-hour race, but way before that time the police were on their bullhorns telling us our time was up and to get off the course. Very demoralizing to slower and first-time marathoners. Then when I reached the 1/2 mark back at the Superdome some organizers were yelling for me to go inside because I wasn't going to finish. Not having run a marathon before I started to listen to them but thank God I didn't and like Forrest I kept running. If I had listened to them I wouldn't have accomplished my goal of finishing a full marathon.
C.D., Arlington, VA, 11/15/05


The stellar job done by the police was dimmed somewhat when they shut down the advertised 7-hour course in 6 1/2 hours, forcing runners to the sidewalks with no help at cross streets. Similarly, most of the food vendors (except Subway!) left before the 7-hour finishers arrived in the Dome.
D.W., Minnesota 3/21/05


From the e-mail of Feb. 23rd:

"Course Time Limit for the Half-Marathon is 4 hours and is 7 hours for the Marathon. After that time participants must use the sidewalk and proceed at their own risk. A pace of 16:30 per mile must be maintained in order to be covered by the NOPD course traffic control."

This statement, plus others, leads one to believe that this is a walker-friendly marathon.

When the police passed us, the course effectively closed; and yet we had several miles to go. After that time, there were no course volunteers to direct the runners/walkers where the turns occurred. There were no people directing traffic so we had to wait for the lights. The water stations were closed and the water station workers were cleaning up. I’m not talking about the last stragglers - a group of us walking together finished in under 4 hours (3:40), and yet we were at our own risk as if the course had closed. If it were not for the team that was running for an AIDS charity, we would have gotten lost, too, as the course took an unmarked left turn but their volunteers were there to direct us.

You can’t advertise a 4-hour cut off, and then have the cut off actually be at 3-1/2 hours or less.
N.M., Chicago, IL 3/3/05

Ah-ah-ah-allergen Report

Contaminants:

There is fecal coliform and E. coli bacteria in the canals. This is being tested about every two to four weeks and it rises and falls. How much does this matter? I don’t know. The EPA isn’t identifying the specific type of E. coli that has been found, and there are hundreds. Only a handful of types are life-threatening. The others are just different from your own, friendly, E. coli, which happily help you digest the food in your intestine. Foreign E. coli can cause your friendly kind to die, giving you what most people consider food poisoning. You probably have foreign E. coli on your keyboard right now.

Right after the flood, there was a lot of testing for chemicals, petro- and otherwise, in the standing floodwaters and sediment in New Orleans. In the last month, not much testing has been done. Most of the stuff found early on was below what the EPA considers dangerous, but there were some areas with some contaminants above those levels. It appears that most of the danger from heavy metals and petrochemicals occurred during and just after the flood and the cleanup of sediment has reduced, and will further reduce, the danger. I don’t think this is a real issue for us, barring some new information.

Mold:

I don’t know. You heard me right – I don’t know. How can this be, you may wonder, when every night you watch the television news for your city - or the nearest one, anyway - and you hear what the pollen and mold counts are, right?

The official source for this information is the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Allergy labs and clinics around the country volunteer to measure the number of mold spores and/or pollen particles in their areas and report them to the Academy. Your news station gets this information and puts it in the weather report. Since approximately May 2005, the only reporting clinic in Louisiana was in Baton Rouge, and that clinic doesn’t even measure mold counts, so there’s no reasonable way for us to know the answer to the mold question.

Outdoor molds aren’t really that big of an issue, anyway, and that’s the only kind of mold for which the AAAAI gathers information. The mold that makes you really sick grows in buildings. The only testing done for that kind of mold is paid for by private business owners, and we’d have to know exactly which buildings we will be in and somehow induce the owners to give us the information. I’m guessing that most business owners haven’t even done such testing.

Mold was originally the expressed concern and I would like to re-address that issue for myself. At the time we first discussed it, mold was not a big concern of mine. It’s not the most important thing to me now, but lately I have begun to have some problems related to my nose surgery, and I’ve become a bit more worried about the prospect of staying in a place that may have a larger-than-usual amount of mold spores and that may, if the latest reports are correct, simply smell bad.

When I complete a long run, my nose swells and I have a 24- to 48-hour-long recovery period during which my nose is extremely sensitive. I can smell the fabric softener in another person’s clothing from about ten feet away. I can smell people’s feet inside their shoes. I can smell the shampoo residue, or the oil, in others’ hair.

Irritants are everywhere and they make me sneeze uncontrollably. My nose runs. This is considerably more uncomfortable than anything I go through on the run itself. My doctor doesn’t know how long this will last, but he believes I have at least another three months before my swelling completely subsides. Running seems to be slowing that process, because I have at least a little swelling each time I run. The long runs are the worst. My nose was actually purple yesterday when I finished, and today I am experiencing a most unpleasant sensitivity. I count myself lucky that no one at the office has worn perfume.

The prospect of trying to sleep in a place with additional irritants and strong odors is very unappealing to me as I write this.

Okay, tribe – that’s all I’ve got. Your turn.

As you know, I'd planned to post regarding the mold in New Orleans this week, but I have used all my energy on other concerns and now I find myself without time to write today.

Soon, though.

A Tribute to Anonymous

There was a girl (or was a boy)
Who had some comments to relate.
Though he (she) sometimes tried for coy,
It seldom helped in a debate.

So she (he) darted in and out-
He (she) was there; she (he) was gone.
When he (she) took a covert route,
Was it to dodge the denouement?

So blame and honor, both escaped,
His (her) sporadic intercourse
In anonymity was draped.
(To duck the check, do not endorse.)

Post Script:

I thought I might, in blank disguise,
Assert myself (a daring crime!)
And bait my bro, but realized
He’d know ‘twas me, when writ in rhyme.

Stand by . . . Tribal Service Announcement to Come Next Week

“Ain’ta dad-blamed thang wrong down heah in Looz-i-ayna, axseptin’ the biz-kets all got lootered.”

“Cripes, naw. Weeze thankin’ it stanks a lot gooder’n afore Kertriner come.”

“Ah-hup.”

“Y’all got biz-kets orn yuh?”

On Arguing with Dan

Tribal eyes are getting glazed
Amid all of this shoutin’
I offer truths I learnt whilst raised
Nearby where Dan was sproutin’

A row to hoe inside the fence
You work to keep it straight
The to and fro makes you incensed
Berserk, you can’t debate

He finds the points that you don’t know
And tethers down your foot
Now you’re in a fine tableau
He’s free while you stay put

Around you go, inside your head
He circles back to bite your rump
And, apropos of being led
He begs attack and up you jump

You dig a deeper hole each twirl
Around the central terminal
Soon you’ll tunnel through the world
(The tribe, they can confirm it all)

You seem to be the kind who’s pleased
My words to disavow
So . . . when you see the dear Chinese
Tell them I said, “Nihao!”

12k

Pony Bridge at Lake Overholser in Oklahoma City



We did our run.

All three finished.

All three used the Galloway method of walk breaks.

All three were comfortable at the finish.

The run was well supported and the other runners were friendly.

The weather was beautiful – sunshine and 75 degrees with a cool wind off the lake.

I heard a runner behind me talking about marathoners. He said we’re crazy . . . certifiable.

For the first time since this thing started, I didn’t agree with that sentiment.

Listen to me:

It will happen.

In Austin

I've been hearing and reading some news stories recently, that some prominent New Orleans musicians have decided to permanently relocate in Austin. If these stories are true, it will cause me to place my bid firmly in the Austin marathon camp.

The first thing I heard was a story on NPR last Friday and I've excerpted some of the meat from that story below. You can click on the link if you want to listen to the whole thing.

From: New Orleans Musicians Fearful of City’s Future by David Brown, All Things Considered, Friday, 10/28/05

Cyril Neville: “I wouldn’t want to go back to a place that they’re sayin’ is gonna be a combination of Disneyland and Las Vegas.”

Producer Leo Sacks: “There’s an undercurrent going on here. Their lives are in transition . . . they’re wondering what kind of New Orleans could they potentially be going back to. . . . is New Orleans going to turn into one big, uh, casino or Bourbon Street?”

Reporter David Brown: “It’s a growing concern among New Orleans musicians that, no matter how much is done to rebuild their city, the street music scene may be lost for good, that reconstruction will leave little more than a plastic, family-friendly imitation of what the Crescent City once was . . . one senses that, for some prominent musicians with ties to New Orleans, Austin’s looking like more than just a temporary home.”


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4980270