Training Log Archive: Swampfox

It was a rare summer day for the area, completely overcast all day long, repeated rains, and quite cool. It felt exactly like a nice day in Scotland. For both biking and running, I wore a medium weight jacket with some amount of water shedding capability, and at no point was I in danger of getting warm. So fine!

Running was extra fun, with lots of puddles to splash through, and no dust anywhere. At one point as the trail I was on was getting pinched between dense forest on the downhill side and a big, steep open slope on the uphill side, I saw a cow ahead blocking the trail. As a veteran runner, I knew enough to double check: if it was a cow, then eventually it would move aside and run off. But if it wasn't a cow, it was a moose, and the moose might become enraged when it saw the bedraggled status of the O' pants I have on.

So I double checked. It was a moose, a medium sized bull with a very impressive set of antlers. And it wasn't moving anywhere, so I stopped and attempted to engage the animal in conversation. It was not in the mood for conversation, as it turned out, and the more I looked at those massive antlers, the more I thought it was time for me to head uphill and execute a big rounding movement. So that's what I did. I guess the moose thought wasn't moving fast enough, so it took a few steps up the hill, too, in my direction, and then for sure I was moving fast enough! ; )

Might be time to replace my bedraggled O' pants, at least if I'm going to be running in the woods again any time soon. Moose just really can't stand it when you're not fashionably attired.

While I was out and not thinking about moose stompling, I was thinking about the One Cowboy Relay. I was pretty happy with the design and was confident it was going to be good. But what if "good" wasn't good enough? What if all the runners who have registered for the finest relay event on the continent were expecting more than "good"? What if nothing less than exceptional would be enough to satisfy them? The more I thought about that, the more I realized "good" was not not going to be good enough, and that in order to make it truly exceptional, I would have to add a fifth loop to the race.

True, that would mean printing up the extra loop, which would probably mean going through a few more ink cartridges along the way. And with my printer, any time you change an ink cartridge, you can pretty much count on some quality time doing some cleaning cycles. I am already looking forward to some more quality time with the printer.

C • Five? 10

On the event conference call the other night, there was some discussion about whether to have awards for Day 3 or not. After listening for a while, I said there was no reason to bother.

Nearly everyone will find at least one control on their course (there is streamering to follow to the first control, which should help), many people will find a few controls, some of the exceptionally good racers will find most of their controls, but nobody will find all the controls on their course. It's really, really hard. We had a stern directive from the SEA to make the courses as difficult as possible, and when you get a directive like that, there are no half measures.

Ran the Day 4 Blue course; I thought it was pretty good--about the right amount of challenge and making a rather good survey of the sorts of details and vegetation Pelican Bay offers. It's actually too good to waste on the Blue runners, however, since there are only 6 registered (so far) for this race.

We will probably therefore switch Blue with Brown, since there are so many people eager to run Brown. Boy, will they be surprised (both Brown and Blue runners)!

While I was getting ready to run, I eventually reached the point where I was putting on my O' shoes, and to do that I opened up my truck door and stuck my feet out. As I finished tying the last shoe, I looked up, and there was Runner Dude--I hadn't heard a thing, maybe because I was listening to the radio. Runner Dude was shirtless, in running shorts, looked to be in his 20s, and had a hydration pack on.

Raymond was right behind him. I had no idea who Raymond was, but it didn't seem to matter. As soon as he spotted my open door, he made a dash straight for it, and with one mighty leap he cleared me, hit the passenger seat, curled up, and immediately fell asleep. The whole sequence took a good bit less than 2 seconds.

Raymond was a Cattle Dog, and, apparently, much more afraid of thunder than of me.

I like Raymond's style, and I have thought for a while a good Cattle Dog might be just the thing.

I told Runner Dude: "I already like this dog so much I think I'm going to keep it."

Runner Dude said: "My wife will kill me if I come home without Raymond."

I told him: "Well then either you better not go home or else you better start singing your Death Song, and I hope you have a good one."

He started singing, but it wasn't a good one at all.

I told him: "Stop that right now! My god, that's no death song, that's Barry Manilow!"

Runner Dude said: "I know it, if I'm going down, you are, too."

So it was a standoff and as much as I was taken by Raymond, I knew keeping him wasn't the right thing to do, so I let Runner Dude grab Raymond by the collar and drag him out--which he had to do, because there was still some thunder, and Raymond wasn't budging. He really, really didn't like the thunder. But once Runner Dude had him out and I got the door shut, they took off at a trot and that was that.

100% true story.

Checking off various items out at Granite Planite, and streamered a ruined fence for the Day 1 race. Another very smoky day.

C • Smoke 3

Quite hazy out, from fires far off to the west (California?.) You would have no idea there are mountains on the other side of the valley.

Time flies, and one sure sign of that is that it is only 1 1/2 weeks until the start of a new football season (Wyoming's first game.) Right now every team has a perfect record and can dream, but in 2 1/2 weeks, nearly all teams will have played their first games, and at least half of them will be sitting on a win and the end of their dreams of going a perfect 0-12.

I finished up a second visit of all control sites at Granite Planite in advance or the arrival of my vetter--JP. It went so fast that I was unsure what to do at first. But I went home and read "War and Peace" cover to cover, biked up to Bosler and back a few times, and finished off by running up Pole Mountain and dragging home a large beetle kill ponderosa pine tree. Getting it through all the barbed wire fences was not easy. All in all, not a bad day.

Weather led to a change in plans, and ran late in the day after storms had passed. It ended up only sprinkling some in town, but up top extensive washing on sections of trails were evidence that rains had been quite heavy.

Test ran the Blue Middle course at the end of the day. There were only a few cattle scattered around, but it was still a lot of fun. It's already exciting to think about race day with people running around in every which direction, in this very special piece of terrain!

I see that there are more than 100 racers signed up for the day already, which is good for out here. Actually, for a race in Wyoming, anything over 3 people is pretty good. Sometimes, when you get 5 or 6 people and you think "hot potatoes, we're going to have a real race today!" the wind will come up and sweep everyone away and then you are left thinking: "Oh, well, we tried."