My Track Record

I was very relieved to wake up from a dream I had this morning. In my dream, a friend (can't remember who) and I were house-sitting for another friend, who was out of town. Everything was going fine until this really buff, balding old guy showed up and started ordering us around. He looked like Mr. Clean minus the earring and the smile; in fact, he was downright menacing. When we first noticed him, he was in the yard chopping wood in a manner that made you feel sorry for the logs.

My friend and I were afraid of Mr. Clean and wanted to put some distance between ourselves and his ax. As if reading our minds, Mr. Clean said, "So, you'd like to get away, huh? Do you think you can outrun me?" Then he sprinted across the yard in an intimidating display of masters running prowess. Our spirits sank, and we resigned ourselves to being Mr. Clean's prisoners for the immediate future. Mr. Clean had somehow decided that the house needed a major tune-up, so he sanded the deck, mowed the lawn, and so forth -- all with astonishing speed -- while he made us perform lesser tasks such as taking out the trash. The progress might have been satisfying had we not been so worried that Mr. Clean was going to kill us.

Eventually, I woke up.

Anyone want to take a shot at interpreting this one, just for fun? Dr. Harbison?

Posted by crowther at 3:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Today is Memorial Day.

I may be a cynical pacificist, but this Civil War letter from Sullivan Ballou to his wife still moves me. So does this Iraq War letter from Cpl. Jeffrey Starr to his girlfriend (scroll to the end of the article).

Posted by crowther at 10:38 AM | Permalink

I don't know who was favored to win the Washington state 1A high school 800-meter race this past weekend, but it sure as heck wasn't Will Moseley.

Will is one of the distance runners coached by my wife at the Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences. I've only met the guy once but am predisposed to root for him, since both of his parents went to Williams College, as I did, and his sister will be a student there in the fall. Plus his name is William. It's hard to get much more Williamsy than that, short of getting a Purple Cow tattoo.

Anyway, Will heads into the Tri-District track meet needing a top-five finish in the 800 or 1600 to qualify for States, a fairly lofty goal for a sophomore. The 1600 is a bust, though, and he only has the 8th-best time in the 800 heats, barely avoiding elimination. In the 800 final, he takes the lead, gets tripped from behind by a competitor, manages to stay on his feet, and winds up 4th in 2:01, a personal best time by 2 seconds.

On to the state meet in Cheney. Will runs 2:03.18 in his heat; 2:03.19 turns out to be the cutoff for advancing. In the final, he's 4th for a while, makes a charge into 1st ... and then holds everyone off in the final straightaway for a 1:59 victory! Incredibly, this is the first 800 that Will has won all year. His improbable but well-deserved triumph reminds me of two points:

1. Few things are as exciting as the discovery of previously untapped potential.

2. With all due respect to the Lord Jeffs, Polar Bears, etc., it never hurts to have the Purple Cows on your side.

Posted by crowther at 11:31 PM | Permalink

But my wife is, and a couple months ago we adopted Lucy, a 4-year-old Australian shepherd / border collie mix, from the pound.

My wife is Lucy's primary caregiver but is out of town for four days this week, so I've had to revise my attitude toward Lucy from "indifference" to "polite acknowledgment." She's become another distant colleague whose work I don't fully understand.

Canines can have a maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) of well over 200 milliliters per kilogram of body mass per minute; I suspect that Lucy's is quite a bit lower than that. Like a novice cross-country runner, she goes out fast, slows way down after the first couple miles, and occasionally veers off course. She seems to be developing some racing tactics, though; yesterday I could swear that she was boxing me in as we ran beside a long fence, presumably to slow me down to her preferred pace. I wasn't sure whether to be proud of her cleverness or annoyed that she was trying to set up a kicker's race.

Ultimately I responded with a hard one-minute surge to put her into oxygen debt. I may not be a brilliant strategist, but I know how to get the best of an out-of-shape dog.

Posted by crowther at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Over the last couple days, some web hosting issues have prevented running-blogs.com from accepting updates from bloggers or readers. My apologies to anyone whose comments were rejected during this period. I think everything is working again now, though, so comment away!

Posted by crowther at 8:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here’s the fascinating story behind the rather prosaic title of “My Track Record.”

I was recently talking to my dad about an upcoming racing opportunity that might be bad for my marriage. My dad listened patiently for a while and then said, “You realize, don’t you, that if you do this, it will be on your record ... forever.”

I basically cracked up. My parents are gentle people who rarely offer unsolicited criticism, so hearing my dad say even this much was kind of shocking. It was as if a normal dad had said, “Son, if you do this, then you’re dumber than dirt.”

I eventually decided that my dad was probably right: skip the race, keep the marriage. In addition, though, this “on your record” business got me thinking about my perennially shoddy records: diaries started and abandoned within a week, photo albums containing no photos since 2004, etc. I decided that it was time to do a better job of capturing and preserving experiences that I might want to revisit someday. One week and a couple of inquiries later, here I am with a new blog, ready to chronicle my ups and downs.

After all, even an incriminating record is better than no record at all.

Posted by crowther at 8:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

Some biographical info on the guy who's writing this blog [updated in October, 2007]....

Academic version: Greg Crowther received his B.A. in Biology from Williams College in 1995 and his Ph.D. in Physiology & Biophysics from the University of Washington in 2002. He is currently a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering Research Scientist in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington. His research focuses on metabolic transitions in methylotrophic bacteria. high-throughput screens of enzymes in Plasmodium falciparum, which causes malaria.

Family version: Greg grew up in Rutland, Vermont, where his parents (Jack and Sue) still live. He has one younger sister, Lauren, who resides in New York City; aunts and uncles in NYC, Houston, Duluth (MN), and Kenosha (WI); and one brave cousin who attends the U.S. Naval Academy, as well as one who does not. Greg is married to a nice woman who prefers not to be discussed in this forum.

Political version: As a liberal Democrat, Greg holds fairly predictable opinions regarding the invasion of Iraq, same-sex civil unions, the teaching of evolution in public schools, abortion, the death penalty, etc. He thinks that these issues are important but does not have much to add to what is being written about them elsewhere.

Self-absorbed athletic version, suggesting misplaced priorities: After modest success at Rutland High School (9:35 for 3000m), Greg flourished under the guidance of coach Pete Farwell at Williams College, where as a senior he captained the cross-country squad to the 1994 NCAA Division III team championship. More recently, he has recorded top-three finishes at the Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver Marathons and was a member of the 2005 and 2007 United States 100K World Cup teams. His personal records (PRs) are 30:57 for 10K, 2:22:32 for the marathon, and 6:59:40 6:52:52 for 100K, which are pretty good considering that he's never broken 60 seconds for 400m.

Posted by crowther at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

For anyone with a few hours to kill and an insatiable curiosity about my weekly mileages and races since the '80s, here's a Microsoft Excel workbook summarizing my entire running career: http://running-blogs.com/crowther/Running2Excel.xls.
Note the separate tabs at the bottom: intro, races, key workouts, etc. I plan to update this file every month.

For those whose curiosity is rather satiable in this context, tune in tomorrow for the short version.

Posted by crowther at 1:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Hello world! [Tap, tap.] Um, is this thing on?

Before introducing myself, I wanted to introduce two little-known Internet-based races that are open to everyone regardless of geographical location. First, there is the Million Mile Ultra Run, which is essentially an online database for recording your training mileage, except that you can also check everyone else’s mileage and try to beat them to certain milestones (10,000 miles, 20,000 miles, etc.) The “race” started on January 1st, 1997, but you can enter your data retroactively if you’ve kept good records.

If running a million miles doesn’t fit into your schedule, you could instead participate in the Titus Van Rijn Invitational One-Hour Distance Classic. The name of this race is a mystery to me, but the concept is simple: run around a track for an hour, record the distance that you covered, and send your result to the race directors. There is no race website that I know of; below are the details I received via email.

You and yours are invited to participate in the Eighth Annual

TITUS VAN RIJN INVITATIONAL ONE-HOUR DISTANCE CLASSIC

WHAT: A one-hour footrace
WHERE: Your local track
WHEN: Anytime between April 22 and May 29

RULES

* Your performance must take place on a standard 400 meter/440 yard track. Include partial laps in your final total; estimate distances as accurately as possible within reason.

* Send results to andrew.roth@sonoma.edu by midnight, 29 May 2006. In your results, please note name, total distance completed (in meters or yards), age, date, and location. We encourage you to include a brief report of your experience for the official race report.

* You may run the event more than once if desired, but only submit your best performance.

* You are encouraged to invite others to participate in the event. In many cases, our address list of past participants is incomplete, so we especially appreciate your forwarding this invitation to past runners not included in the original mailing.

* Complete results and race report will be sent to all participants.

TRADITION

World champions in football and baseball celebrate with champagne; the victor at the Indy 500 gets a bottle of milk. At Titus Van Rijn, the celebratory beverage of choice for all participants is black cherry soda. We encourage you to maintain the tradition.

ONE-HOUR TRACK RECORDS

World, women: 18,340 meters (~11.4 miles) -- Tegla Loroupe (Ken), Borgholshausen, Ger 8/7/98
World, men: 21,101m (~13.1 miles) -- Arturo Barrios (Mex), La Fleche, Fra 3/30/91
U.S., women: 17,273m (~10.7 miles) -- Nancy Conz, Amherst, MA 6/25/81
U.S., men: 20,547m (~12.8 miles) -- Bill Rodgers (GBTC), Boston, MA 8/9/77
TVR, women: 12,453m (~7.7 miles) -- Sarah Brooks (MN), Northfield, MN 2002
TVR, men: 17,360m (~10.7 miles) -- Dan Church (MN), Northfield, MN 2005

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS?

Please contact Andy Roth (andrew.roth@sonoma.edu) or Mike Persick
(mpersick@comcast.net), TVR Race Directors.

Posted by crowther at 4:49 PM | Permalink