Weekly Training 9-29

Since this is my blog and I talk a lot about running and training, I'm going to use it as a place to post/track/brag about my weekly training.

Sunday, 9-22: 6.01 mi trail run in 1:44, 17:18 pace at Cedar Ridge Preserve
Wednesday, 9-25: 2.01 mi road run in 00:24:38, 12:15 pace around my neighborhood
Thursday, 9-26: 3.7 mi  trail run in 00:55, 14:51 pace at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve
Saturday, 9-28: 6.99 mi road run in 1:45, 15:01 pace in Atoka, OK

Road runner achievement unlocked: Narrowly missed stepping in roadkill

Week total: 18.71 mi
Month total: 46 mi
August total: 25 mi
October goal: 70 mi
End of year progress: 25 mi (from 9-18 start)
End of year goal: 150 mi

New gear this week:

• Compression calf sleeves - Mother-freaking-magical! I wore them the two days following the 6-mi trail run, and calf pain was virtually nil. I am going to wear these to tatters.
• Arm sleeves - Run was warmer than expected, but the sleeves easily become comfortable wrist bands. I guess I'll try 'em again in a few months.
• Running water bottle - At 20 oz, the full weight is a bit awkward. It's very unpleasant to hold in humidity with its slick sides. Solid spout did the job I needed it to.
• Reflective vest - Supposedly one size fits all, but I couldn't fasten the velcro as tightly as I needed around my waist, and it slid up around my rib cage, creating an awkward chest bubble. I didn't get run over, but it was ugly, bulky, and uncomfortable. I don't think I'll wear it again. Wonder if I can find a kid size?
• LED bracelet - Identical to one I own and like, but the closure on the new one slides open if I look at it wrong and is awkward and difficult to fasten. At least it was only $2.

chart

HASH!

I got into running through hashing when I lived in South Korea in 2010. The hash house harriers are a worldwide organization of social running clubs, more commonly billed as "a drinking club with a running problem." It has nothing to do with illegal drugs, just lots of booze. Insert obligatory shout out to NQR, Yongsan Kimchi, PMS, OBH3, Seoul Full Moon, Southside, and the 38th Parallel.

Fucking classy

Hashers get together weekly and perform a warm-up a ritual involving bawdy and absolutely vulgar songs and welcoming first-timers in frequently lewd and embarrassing ways, all in good fun. The "hares" have volunteered to lay trail and will have typically scouted the area in advance during the week. They get a head start to mark trail in chalk, flour, shredded paper, or whatever's handy and safe, though the cops aren't particularly appreciative of piles flour on random streets anymore . . . because: anthrax. The hares mark a mix of true trail, wrong trails, dead-ends, double-backs, and other silly things for the runners to stop and do.

The pack, or "hounds," then follow and puzzle out the true trail by sending the speediest runners in different directions at intersections to search for true trail markings, and they will run, whistle, or call back for the others to mark that direction as correct and then carry on. The goal is to catch the hares before they finish, or not, and for everyone to finish and drink together and sing more wild songs.

On through

On down

I don't know how it's done in the states, but in SK, trails wound through city streets and alleyways, up over fences and into yards, up and down mountains, through drainage pipes and even waist-deep rivers, through national monuments, temples, and construction sites, through subways, onto trains, through marketplaces and sometimes uncomfortably close to the DMZ.

No kidding

I got to see a side of Korea that few foreigners ever will. The cops tried to stop us more than once, but they're not very tough and don't like to bother with foreigners because the language barrier just isn't worth the effort, and we clear out quickly enough without destroying anything.

On in

Be Very Fucking Careful!

Everyone always helped everyone to the finish and would double back if we lost someone. I became especially adept at fence-scaling, even for a short gal of 5'3". We also registered for legit road races and ran 5k and 10k events together while singing obnoxiously and complaining at the lack of beer and "shiggy," frequently dashing to the subway to run the hash immediately after crossing the finish line.

Energizer rainy night 5k

About four months before my flight home, I began searching races online, hoping to run a half marathon the next year. What I found was the 2011 Warrior Dash being held a couple weeks after my return, which was considerably easier, safer, and more legal than what I'd been doing all year with the hash. I talked four friends from home into registering with me. We brought warrior paint and had a freaking blast. The sport of mud running really burst on the scene in about 200, but hashers have been doing it worldwide since 1938, and I credit the hash for my love of obstacles and trail running.

Before & After

To exercise or not exercise: you decide

I tried to get this across in a post a few days ago:

Fitness, movement, and exercise are personal choices. Independence and the right to pursue happiness are pretty damn important. Self autonomy is pretty damn important. You do what you want to do. Don’t do things that make you miserable or because you hate your body and yourself. You will fail at hating yourself smaller. So STOP it.

And/but Ragen over at Dances With Fat posted a much better one today.

"What’s your excuse for having such an unbelievably over exaggerated sense of self-importance that you actually think that everyone should aspire to the same things that you do?" 

So go check it out.

I like running. If you like running or want to, I will definitely encourage you and talk your ear off. But if running makes you want to drown kittens, then don't do it. You get to make choices for your life that will make you happy. Giving into exercise moralizing or body shame and stigma may make some people happy, but it's not for everyone, and neither does it have to be.

Update: I think this thing is worthy of some silly memes.

I have a blog. What's your excuse?

Activism at work

We have an interesting mix of characters at the office, not just those we develop in-game, and it's always a surprise to see how things will be taken by coworkers and higher ups and to hear the off-hand comments and off-color jokes in the hall.

Hi [Head of math curriculum development],

I was looking over the common character phrases and am concerned about [a character]’s use of “beautiful, man.” Though it’s a culturally popular construction, there’s obviously no equivalent of praising women and girls, so it feeds into cultural tropes and stereotypes about “masculinity” being more valuable and praiseworthy than traditional “femininity” and “feminine” traits as well as the concern of it being socially acceptable to refer women and girls in mixed-gender groups as “men” and “guys,” when the reverse is not socially accepted. By comparison, obviously, we wouldn’t ever have a character saying, “You go, girl!” to the user. 

This is an issue I feel strongly about on a personal level, and I believe as educators that we have a responsibility to strive for gender equality and diversity in the content we produce; however, this is not my call to make, and if you think the phrasing is benign, I will defer to your judgment. 

Regards,
Me

Edited to add:

Hi Moniqa,

I totally follow you and actually we've tried to keep them gender neutral as much as possible. . . . Some of the phrases were early brainstorms. Perhaps soon we should review and remove statements that we think should be removed.

Isn't it nice when your personal concerns turn out to be a benefit on the job?

Ethics of meat

I’m feeling icky after reading and briefly commenting on a heated debate on the ethics of eating meat, with the conclusion being that I’m a shitty fucking person for being an omnivore and that valuing my personal emotional, mental, and physical health, abilities, and income over that of farm animals is morally lazy and inferior.

1.       Where do these skeptics get off assuming that vegan is the objectively morally superior choice?
2.        Where do these atheists get off cramming their “morals” down my throat?

Going vegan is literally the least efficient way to effect change in the brutal farming industry: you’re enacting a significant effort to accomplish zilch. If you want to end animal cruelty and your food restrictions are so easy to afford to accommodate, donate to lobby efforts to change industry regulations (or buy me a Whole Foods gift card), you self-righteous cunts. All your raging is doing is making me want to go out for steak tonight and talk about how rude vegans are and how fucked up their priorities are.

I'm going to continue to eat meat for the foreseeable future for many reasons:

• I’m struggling enough, as is, to deprogram the food moralizing thrown in my face at every turn by this culture within the context of anti-fat bias, to say nothing of food ethics in addition to that.
• It takes a LOT of bandwidth and a lot of my income just to feed myself ENOUGH on a daily basis without adding dietary restrictions or guilt to the mix.
• I am only just learning how to cook at all in the last few months, and it still requires considerable effort to do better than fast and frozen foods for every meal.
• Food restriction is super-triggery for many people and is not something I can safely attempt at this point in my life.
• Though I know it can be done, I can’t imagine how I would sustain my highly active lifestyle, including marathon training, on a vegan diet. 
• And let's not overlook the social, emotional, and cultural value of certain foods, including meat, and what it would mean for me to ask or expect others (friends and family) to accommodate me if I had dietary restrictions.
• I'm reaching now, but I could also cite my obese family and my present over-consumption of delicious, glutenous starches as a further obstacle to purging animal products from my diet.
• I don't care for rice.

Recognizing, accepting, and honoring my personal limitations and applying myself to other forms of activism is a good choice to make. We all have to choose our battles and how we prioritize our individual well-being.

Running ain't just for affluent, cranky, middle-aged white men any more.

This article, The Slowest Generation: Younger Athletes Are Racing With Less Concern About Time,
has been circulating a few of my groups lately, and I have a lot to say about it. In it, a middle-aged runner complains at length about the decline in the number of competitive racers among the millenial generation—a new twist on the tired "Wah, wah, millionals suck, get off my lawn" theme.

Before reading the article, I said I had mixed feelings about the issue. Aren't there a number of elite and timed road racing events, some of which require qualifying times? Aren't there a number of mud run events that provide chip timing and elite waves in addition to open waves for everyone else? To suggest that greater interest in movement and fitness activities and greater inclusion is a negative thing is some snooty, privileged, disablist bullshit. Everyone who wants to should be allowed to participate in fun fitness events safely.

HOWEVER, these events absolutely need to limit the number of registrations they accept in order to maintain a fun and safe environment for everyone who participates. I've been learning first-hand in the last two years about shitty fucking races that are poorly organized, poorly budgeted, and straight-up dangerous: Patriot Games in Denton 2011, Firefly in Plano 2012, Mud Factor 5k in DFW this year, and the egregiously aggravating Neon Splash Dash in Arlington last weekend.*

On the upside, I'm planning 2014 more carefully around established and proven events, with a greater focus on half and full marathon road races than fun runs, adventure runs, and obstacle runs. But these hellish gimmicky first-time events are endangering their participants, leaving a bad taste in their mouths, and literally turning them off to running altogether.** THAT is what is doing the sport of running a disservice, not participants who are not competitive.

Since reading the article, I would like to say that I think the author draws a lot of faulty conclusions and is probably not very good at math. Because of the explosion in fun run event popularity, there are more races for competitive runners to choose from, so you're less likely to compete against the best at any one event, AND there are thousands more run-walkers and walkers registering and skewing the median and average result times without necessarily impacting the number of competitive runners out there, just the percentage.

I don't know anything about Olympic and world championship racing, but I fail to see how it is related to regular road races and fun run events, which happen to get more people into running at all levels of ability who never would have tried it in the first place. You can't open a running mag without seeing a profile on a now-competitive runner who got into the sport "for fun."

I find it interesting/disappointing that the Tough Mudder uses dis/able-ist language, calling timed races "lame," and am especially glad I passed that one up for the Spartan Beast instead.***

*I should put together a page where I review the events I've run and link it here.

**A friend of mine had so much difficulty getting to Neon Splash Dash and was treated so poorly at the event and refused any kind of refund that she has sworn off all races.

***My buddy bailed, so it looks like I'm going alone. Drop me a line if you'd like to run with me, pretty please.

Neon Splash Dash 5k-Fail

My friends and I had the distinct displeasure of running shuffling through a 5k 4k fun run this weekend, so here I want to review the Neon Splash Dash (Dallas) at the Ballpark at Arlington.

It's pretty obvious that the Neon Splash Dash organizers know approximately jack and shit about the location of the race they hosted. Early packet pickup was held at a location in Dallas at least an hour from the event itself. This is great for me because it was near my office, so I got my stuff and a friend's, and two other friends also live near the pickup. The 5th in our party, though, lived on the far side of town and had already arrived at the event and paid for parking before realizing she forgot her ticket, and the check-in table refused to accept and scan it from her smart phone. Others of us were already on the road and unable to help, so she went home in tears, unable to run at all.

The rest of us arrived about an hour before the first wave, and a good thing, too, since it took a full 20-25 minutes once we arrived to park and walk to the event. The first wave was scheduled to take off at 8 and did start shortly after that. Each wave would be divided into a few hundred people with runners at the front, followed by joggers and walkers. Except that's not what happened because the Neon Splash Dash was so egregiously oversold with many thousands of people too many for the venue. We wanted to get into a jogging wave, but there was no organization, just a massive crowd milling near-ish the starting line, moving 10-15 feet closer as each wave was released. We couldn't hear a word from the announcer but finally passed the start line at 8:32.

I'm in the purple fluffies.

The course itself was marked by nearly invisible traffic cones without even reflective tape and wound back and forth through a parking lot. Yeah. Unable to see the Neon Splash Dash course or any of its turns, we had no choice but to follow the crowd and try to shuffle through, with no opportunity to run except for the slowest of slow trots.

A few runners passed, courteously calling out as they did, "Walkers to the left!" A woman near me remarked in a nasty tone, "Guess they didn't get the memo that it's about FUNness not fitness," like she was so clever. So I shouted back, "Guess some people didn't get the memo about basic race etiquette. And just what the hell do you think DASH means, anyway?"

The splash zones where they sprayed us with neon water were actually well-lit and well-padded with a great cushion to absorb extra wetness before runners stepped out onto the pavement again. That was a good design.

I quickly lost count of participants that I saw darting across race markers from one turn to the next, skipping every possible corner. Three of found an easy pace, including myself and an extra we picked up through Meetup who had run a 10k obstacle that morning and was grateful for an easy run, and we jogged the whole course and finished together in 34:37. Hm. I'd run a 5k less than a week ago, found it very taxing, and finished in 39:37. I definitely did not pick up 5 minutes in a week while chatting comfortably throughout and without breaking a sweat. I'm guessing the course was about 2.5 or 2.65 miles instead of the purported 3.1. An email from Neon Splash Dash had this to say about it:

The course was marked by Police Officers & Ex-Military Soldiers with 25+ years of service. They take pride in doing their job, and doing it well. We take extreme attention to detail when it comes to measuring the course. We can assure you that the course as marked was EXACTLY 5k in distance. Additionally, we would NEVER mark a course with curbs & sidewalks you would have to cross over, and this course definitely didn't have any as we marked it. HOWEVER- during the event, there are always a select few who would rather take short cuts than to stay on the marked course. We don't mind, except that when they do that everyone behind them tends to follow. That is exactly what happened Saturday night. A few decided to take some shortcuts, and lead a number of you off course, over curbs/sidewalks while cutting some distance off at the same time. As soon as it was brought to our attention, we scrambled as many Staff & Volunteers over to re-correct and get you back on track.

I'm really glad that Neon Splash Dash emailed me a link to participate in a survey about the event, and I really enjoyed filling it out.

Where do you think we should advertise in order to obtain more participants?

Maybe you should put that effort into improving the safety* and enjoyment of this event instead of unnecessary promotion. I really think you need to put a cap on this event and that having so many thousands of participants was largely a detriment to the enjoyment of it. I'll be certain never to register for this event in the future. Finding a venue that can support such numbers of people with a wider, safer course to run is imperative.

(*We passed a woman who had tripped and fallen on a deep, unmarked hole in the pavement, of which there were many throughout the course. Did I mention this was a night race?)

Besides lowering the price, what else could we do to entice more people to Register for our Event?

You were unable to adequately support and run the event for as many people as did attend; why do you think you need more? You provided only a handful of porta-potties that ran out of paper at least an hour before the race began, a course too small for the number of participants, cones that were practically invisible and mostly knocked out of place long before most runners even started instead of visible course markers. You could have used the pre-race notifications and participant packets to educate participants about basic race etiquette in order to make it safer for everyone involved.

Neon Splash Dash did get pictures posted quickly; they were up Monday after a Saturday night event. But instead of setting up a photography website that is searchable by bib number, they posted 600+ photos on Facebook and directed participants to tag themselves. As if we have the time or desire to do your photographer's job for him. Fortunately, one of my friends did get a before and after picture of us, so I feel free to do any number of better things than pore over blurry night photos.

Far right, you can almost see my twinkling tutu.

I have to say, with the raging popularity of fun run events, the scores of events available, the years of experience in race organization compiled into published books and guides, and the millions of dollars these events make on participants' registration fees, merchandise purchases, and parking fees, there is absolutely NO excuse for this kind of shoddy execution.