Date:    Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:14:04 -0500
From:    Lynn Newton <lynn.newton@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Festivus 50K report

Yesterday (Sunday), I walked a 50K "race" plus an extra mile in 10:21:11. Don't laugh In contrast, my PR for 50K (from 1999) is 5:49:10 -- nothing to alert the media about, but 4:32:01 faster than my performance yesterday, not making adjustment for the extra distance I went.

This was my last outing prior to Across the Years, which begins two weeks from today (Monday). By the time I get to the race I still will not have passed 1,000 miles for the year. (My average from 2001-2008 was 2281 miles per year.) And 75% or more of that was walked.

The race was the Festivus "Fat Ass". For readers unfamiliar with the ... ummm ... "cheeky" genre, in the ultra world it refers to a race that is entirely informal -- no registration, no fee, no tee shirt, no food or drink, no support, no official times, no nothing. You just show up and run a planned course with a bunch of people. Someone may post results somewhere. The race type got its name from its first instance, when a bunch of runners who acquired a bit of lard on their derrieres during a holiday season and lacking a race, decided to take matters into their own hands and throw one ad hoc. The idea took off, and now there are many such races.

Yesterday was the second annual running of Festivus. Last year the weather was so cold, wet, snowy, windy, and icy that even the people who live here hated it. About ten people showed up, and only two or three finished. I remember the day. I stayed home that day, in fact the whole weekend, as I was still far from being used to running in the weather here.

This year we got a relative break. I told the RD, who is the president of the Columbus Road Runners Club, that I'd plan to be there, depending on the weather, and that I'd decide on Saturday. All week the predictions were for cold but clear on Saturday, and cloudy but not rainy, and unseasonably warm on Sunday, with a high temperature of 51. Saturday's prediction held true, and for one of the few Saturdays of my life, I never left the house all day.

THEY LIED!!

But it wasn't that bad -- it did rain on and off all day, but very lightly, and the temperature did reach at least 50.

I was surprised to see about fifteen people show up, and since I don't know many runners in Columbus, all but a couple were new acquaintances, including two who told me they recognized my name from the Ultra List.

We all took off at about 8:39, with the temperature about 40. I made the mistake of running with them and trying to chat. I lasted about two and a half minutes, before stopping to walk, gasping for air. The truth is I can still run a few miles without stopping if I start out very carefully and concentrate, and it's a good day. I did abou seven miles not long ago. But today was not going to be one of those good days.

So for the rest of the day I was alone, and because of the weather there were few people out at all. Just me and nature. All summer long I saw deer cross my path almost every time I went out. Haven't see any for a while? Where are all the deer!?

Oh yeah, I think I remember learning in school that they all fly south for the winter.

The race route was the one I know best here, starting at the far north end, at a park in Worthington, so I had to drive about 14 miles to get there, running south along the Olentangy River bike path, but going beyond my usual starting point by a couple of miles, into an area where I had never gone. And then back again, so I got to see how many hours behind everyone at exactly 3:00 into the race.

By the time I got to the turnaround point, the Running Times magazine that had been left out as a marker had disappeared, possibly picked up by a park ranger who thought it was trash. Therefore, I kept going until I almost ran out of real estate by a boat launch at the end of a peninsula. My stopwatch told me that surely it was time to turn around by then. When I checked Google Maps last night, I found out I actually went 0.53 miles beyond the correct turnaround point, which is not otherwise noteworthy for any outstanding landmark. This made my total trip 32.13 miles. I didn't mind the extra mile, having done 40 miles just three weeks before, 33 three weeks before that, and a marathon two weeks before that. For me these days it's all about distance and time on my feet. I hardly ever get more than two or three miles once or twice a week on the treadmill at the club.

Yesterday's walk was slower pacewise than any of my other recent outings. For most of the time I was just going through the motions. Sometimes a person just has to do that. It's either that or give up. Also, this race was an out and back. As I've often said, the outer I go, the backer I have to come. So once I got to the turnaround, I knew that short of calling my wife to come bail me out, which I've never done, I'd have to get back to Worthington to get my car, then drive home, where my wife was waiting a pot roast dinner for me.


--
Lynn David Newton
Columbus, Ohio