Book Review: Coast to Coast

This is the story of the 2004 RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) cross country relay team running across the country. Fitting. They ran a continuous relay from San Diego to Annapolis, MD in just over 12 days.

They dipped the relay baton in the Pacific and then celebrated with the baton in the Chesapeake Bay of the Atlantic less than 2 weeks later. Of course much more went on between those two events. The story includes more than just who ran when. Ryan Pancoast did a great job in capturing the feelings that occured during the relay. Way too many people packed into too little space for too long leads to many intense moments.

I was most interested in two things in this book. First, knowing it was a group of college students running the event, there had to be a lot of stupidity going on. I was amazed to think that they could actually do it. So in reading the book, my curiosity for how they would make it to the end was satisfied. Imagine all the stupid things you would do if you were with a group like this and that is what you have in the book. Fun to read for that factor alone.

Secondly I wanted to see a book published by Lulu Press. I have read and heard quite a bit about the quality of the final product, it was good to see it on my own. The book is well bound. The cover seems a bit flimsy, but the pages are good quality. You would not expect this book to fall apart after several readings. Good job Lulu. I am much more interested in reading other books printed by them now.

Kudos to RIT for making this an official school event. I am sure it was a tough decision by the decision makers. Or, if it was not, it should have been. After they read the book, they should have seen it as a very important decision. They have already committed to allowing another group of students to run the event in 25 more years. There will probably be much more planning involved by the school the next time around.

In the final pages of the book Pancoast (or Sanford as he is called in the book) says: “In those last few moments, we loved each other like family and hated each other like family.” If you want to know how that could come about in just 2 weeks, you must read the book. Imagine a group of 20 brothers and sisters and you have an idea of what 2 weeks of running will do to a group of college kids.

But, due to the raunchy language used in the book, I will not personally recommend it to any of my friends, nor allow my children to read it.

Nose dive on a 5 miler

Had my 5 mile run all mapped out on Google Earth last night. Ready to run this morning. It was to be a “tempo run” which means that I should run at race pace. I decided to run my tempo runs at the pace I would like to run my 1/2 marathon. That should be 10 minutes per mile. Which will give me a time of 2:10:00 (plus a little bit) for the half. If I run a bit faster for a few miles, I might even get closer to 2 hours. My last one was 2:29:00.

My run took me on a dirt road between miles 2 and 3. I had run on this road several times before and was congratulating myself on the difficulty of that road and the fact that I have never face planted there. It is quite a technical run. Lots of big rocks stick out along with having to dodge the mud puddles. About half way through my congratulatory speech to myself a rock grabbed my right foot. I started going down fast. Fortunately the rock let go of my foot in time to shove it under me and keep me from hitting the ground with my face.

I did, however, violently rip my ear phones out of my head. I wear the kind that loop around the back of the ear like a hearing aide. Hurt just a little, but far less than scraping my nose off of a rock with a spatula.

Good run. I have almost 20 miles on my new shoes. I am not really even thinking about them anymore. They are noticeably more comfortable, but only if I think about it.

Gnats and Telephone Poles

I ran through several clouds of gnats last week while running in south Texas. They certainly don’t go down very easily. They tend to get stuck in the back of the throat. Ick!

One day last week I got to do something enjoyable, besides get my protein fill of gnats. I noticed while running that there were telephone poles in regular succession. I was able to do some speed work by sprinting from one pole to the next and taking the next pole at a relaxed pace. They certainly were not 200 yards apart and therefore did not fit with my current interval plan, but it was something I could do without being at the track.

Today while running along a beach in Ciudad del Carmen, México I could have done the same thing with trash cans. It was amazing to see the number of trash cans they have right along a particular area where they obviously host quite a number of events. There was a section where the trash cans could not have been more than 20 yards apart for close to a half mile long.

Sizing problem

When I was wearing pants size 40+ (up to 44 at one point), I noticed that in the thrift stores most of the pants were 38. I looked forward to getting down there so I would have a wider pants selection. Last year when I got the chance to get back to the US and thrift stores, I had worked my way down to size 36. Oops. I missed the good choices at 38. But I was not complaining.

This last week I was in the US to do some shopping. I needed a new pair of jeans and have a particular brand and model that I like. Fortunately Wal-Mart carries them and they are pretty available. My size 34 are getting a bit big so I wanted to check out 32 to see how they fit.

What!? No 32? That’s right. Now I am falling out of the sizing range for even new clothes. What is this world coming to? I did finally find some 32 at another store. I would have bought a couple of pair, but at this rate, I am not sure how long I will be at that size. Ah the trials of losing weight.

Running again

I had to lay out of running for a week. When we were at camp I was not able to run. I had looked forward to getting in a nice easy 3 mile run just to wake up each day. But, as camp director, I had to be up and ready at 7:00 each day. That meant the run had to be over before about 6:50 so I could be showered and ready to go.

Problem was that we were on the other end of the time zone than I am used to. The sun did not start coming up until 6:45. The camp was right on the main highway. Major road. That said, it was a 2 lane road with no shoulders. Which meant I would have to either run right on the edge of cars coming or off to the side. The side had some nice foot paths. But not a pleasant thought when it is dark and cars buzzing by at 60 mph in unfamiliar territory. Therefore, I did not run all week.

I started running on Sunday again. Just 4 miles. This was after crossing the border into Texas. The next day was 3 miles. The next 2. I took today off and will probably get 3 in tomorrow.

Next week I finally am able to get into my routine again and will be ramping up my mileage for the half marathon I am doing in October.