Skline to the Sea ?'s

[JJ]

One thing your calculator does not take into account is height. At 200 lbs. I might sound pretty big, but at 6'3 my BMI is just within the "normal" range(whatever that means).

[GP]

It's not my calculator. It belongs to someone smart.

In my humble opinion, your point doesn't matter that much JJ. I think it's more a factor of the weight you have to carry. Of course, 200 lbs, with 180 lbs of bone and muscle, would most probably move up the trail faster than 200 lbs with 150 lbs of biscuits and gravy.

Still, go to Gold's gym and grab "Hans and Frans" off the bench press, put them on the trail, then wait 3 hours for them to complete a 10Km. No longer so impressive, are they? All that extra upper body muscle does as much good as running with a Kelty backpack full of Crisco tubs. It's not about the muscle. You don't complete ultras, or even half marathons, by posing.

I was running yesterday with one of the Bay area's top women ultra marathoners. Even in my present Auswitzian lean condition, I still outweighed her by 50 lbs. She royally kicks my butt. If we weighed the same she would just marginally kick my butt (at least, I'd like to think so ). Just as in gymnastics, or rock climbing, weight is a handicap in long distance running.

Actually, you may have a worse handicap than the 5'6" fat guy. He can slim down, but most of your weight is "trapped" by your height (frame). Just be happy and realize that shrimpy guy who passed you can't dunk a basketball or spike a volleyball. We're all special in our own way. ;D

[JJ]

As always, good points GP. I guess, as a competitor, I have a tough time with someone telling my that I have a built in(unfixable) disadvantage going into a race where I intend on beating as many people as I can. Not that I am going to let that bother me, I just love to run!

[GP]

That's the attitude JJ. Do not go softly. Rage, rage... My intent was not to discourage, or offer excuses. Do the best you can, but don't be harsh on yourself if you get beat by younger and/or smaller guys.

I'm not going to beat myself up because a lot of people 20, or 30 years, younger can beat me. Instead, I'm happy that I can beat a majority of them and that I do well against the people in my age group and the next younger group. It's about having reasonable expectations and goals. And having fun and enjoying the trails and the other folks running them. ;D

In a lot of races they have an age/sex score to give you some idea of how you are doing in your peer group. I'd like to see that expanded to include weight, using a formula like the one I posted a link for. Of course, you'd still recognize the actual winners, but it would give some of the mid and back of the pack people a chance to see how well they really did on a handicap basis.

[tigerterrie]

I have a question....is there alot of swarming yellow jackets through this trail? I did the BIG BASIN AND another one and it was awful. Do yoiu know?

[mweston]

They were really bad the first year this race was held, but that was in September. I was really lucky to have been stung only twice. Note that it seemed like darker clothing was stung more than light clothing.

I didn't do it last year, when they moved it to Spring, but I thought I heard it wasn't an issue.

[GP]

Terrie

Friday and Saturday, I was on 22 miles of the race course, plus other parts of Big Basin, and didn't see a single Harpy (Any flying biting things are now dubbed Harpies in anticipation of Accurano's upcoming Homerian Epic race report).

But what I did see was a park flyer on the Yellow Jacket (harpy) menace. It indicated the problem is primarily in summer and attacking swarms are protecting their nests. Also, it said not to swat the buggers (easy for them to say). That indicates the best defense is to pick it up and get out of the area pronto. Just as with zebras and lions, the oldest and most infirm runners would seem to be the most vulnerable.

The flyer also said not to wear any scented creams, perfumes etc. and that the harpies were especially attracted to bright colors. Mr. Weston's experience with dark colors seems to jive with mine, however. I find bees seem to attack blue.

At any rate, I think we'll be safe next weekend. ???However, a couple of weeks ago I was telling people not to worry about rain after the first week in April. It was pouring over there for at least 6 hours today.

[acurrano]

Forecast is now calling for some rain on race day, but sunny and partly cloudy for a few days beforehand. Hopefully this storm will pass quickly and leave things dry enough that some light showers will be a welcome cooling mist rather than an epic-TR inducing nightmare.

I took a nice easy 45 min run on Mt. St. Helena this afternoon in intermittent showers. The footing was good even though it had rained all day, which was encouraging...