The JJW Blog

Imogene up next

Saturday is the race I have been training for this summer, the old Imogene trail race in Telluride, CO.  It is a 17.5 mile point-to-point race from the town of Ouray, over the 13,200 foot Imogene pass, to the town of Telluride.  I will be running with, well hopefully fairly close to, the fast Naz Alvarez, my trail running friend.   Imogene is an alpine mountain race like Pike’s Peak and so takes that high altitude fitness that is hard to come by without some regular above tree-line runs.  I have done over 6 in the last several weeks so I should be in good stead for finishing the race and running most of it.  I feel very strong currently.  I am in the middle of a 2 week taper and my legs feel very strong and loose.  

This year I changed my training routine quite a bit.  I only ran 3 or 4 times a week and rarely ran on consecutive days.  This kept my legs fresh and my hips, glutes, and calves from soreness and tightness that can lead to injury.  Last year I ran every day and developed a neuroma and lots of severe tightness that prevented me from racing Imogene.   Another thing I did this year was train alone a lot on the trails.  I moved to Boulder early this summer so a lot of my early training was done on the Mesa Trail system.  In early June I could not run to the top of Bear Peak.  By early July I could, and was starting alpine runs.  I had a nice gradual progression.   I ran Herman Gulch, RMNP, and then 4 runs from the Hesse trailhead to King’s Lake, Devil’s Thumb loop.  All these runs except Herman Gulch were by myself.  Running by yourself teaches you that core motivation you need to do things like get over mountains fast.  It’s also much more relaxing.  Perhaps a bit too relaxing, because racing is done in groups and you have to learn how to deal with your nerves as well which running in groups can do.   But I feel a lot more confident about the race because of all the solo training and it feels special because I discovered personally alpine running by myself for the most part.   Since I listened to my ipod on many of these runs, they will of course be associated with the soundtrack of my training as well, mostly Belle and Sebastian, Hot Chip, White Stripes, Outkast, the Impala Lounge, and a few other things as well as dozens of podcasts such as Backpacking Light, Practical Backpacker and Dan Savage.

See, who says running is boring?  You can learn a lot while running with an ipod. Besides, the training was challenging, never dull.  The largest thing I took away from it is that I thrive on challenges, as in when I challenge myself on random days to push myself just for the heck of it.   

How will I do Saturday?  I am in shape to run up that mountain, even though it is a super long 9 mile climb.  I am in shape to run down it, I am a good downhiller and will be able to endure the 8 mile descent.  There are 2 areas of concern, one is getting over the very top in decent time. The last 1000 feet are brutal and grueling and my strategy is to save enough energy to get over by not running too hard in the lower elevations.  The second area of concern is the loose gravel descent.  My strategy is take it easy until I get used to it and make sure that I breathe really well and stay very controlled.   In general I want to run light and controlled with a strong and smart race attitude.  And of course have fun running with Naz, my running partner and other people running the race.  Oh yeah, and I want to party afterwards.

Renee and I See Obama

Last night was historic for America, for Denver, for me, for my daughter Renee and ironically for my Dad (more on that later).   Last night Renee and I were dropped off at Invesco Field about 5 p.m. filled with anticipation and honor to watch Barak Obama accept his nomination.   It was an inspiring, fierce, humorous, rousing, warm, and close American night for the Barak supporter family that gathered to watch him accept his nomination.

Renee and I were greeted with that line you see in the pictures, which at times seemed to have no beginning and a far out of sight end.

However, nobody seemed that pissed and were more interested in finding a good solution to the problem of getting in on time to see Barak then mad at somebody for screwing things up.  We ended up standing next to this couple from Brooklyn, Ullyses and Sarah, just married and attending an event like this for the same time.   We chatted with them for some time in line and Sarah asked Renee all types of smart questions, so I immediately liked her.  We shared an adventure together when we overheard that on the east side of the stadium there was no line, which was hard to believe.   Ullyses told me to go to the top of the hill and look how long our line was to see how bad it was.  Renee and I got to the top of the hill and waved them to follow us as the line was very long and I wanted to make a run for the east side.  The came scrambling up and we were off.  We got lucky and found a taxi who took an awesome U-turn and dumped us very close to the east side where we needed to be.   On the way there I learned that Ullyses was a descendant of Mark Twain and he and Sarah planned to celebrate their 1 year anniversary in Hannibal, MO at the same Gates mansion at which April and I shared ours.   Not that anybody gives a shit about that, but since that was one of the most romantic times of my boring marriage,  that endeared them to me a bit more.   We then rode a rickshaw the final few blocks and finally triumphantly walked right into the stadium with not one, not one person backed up in the security line.   We said goodbye to this very cool couple (Ulysses does pro bono Guantomo bay prisoner defense)

All night, the volunteers and supporters were very cool, diverse, friendly, and warm.   Obama seems to bring out the best Americans to his events, you know the smart ones, who are all shades of colors and ages and are not ugly redneck idiots.    I first noticed this at a rally I attended in KC where I had never seen so many cooly dressed and smart looking and people you just want to know and talk to.

The Obama speech was so strong it was exhilirating.  I felt like I did when I watched Bill Maher live, completely intellectually stimulated and laughing at times at the barbs Obama took at Bush.  I think he should use humor more, such as the line about Mccain not even willing to chase Osama to the caves of Afghanistan much less the gates of hell.  Naz and I goofed off the whole speech, riffing on lines, cheering wildly, and talking about Nancy Pelosi’s big tits.  Oh yeah, we made fun of Kate a lot too.  Kate is awesome, and so is her grandma.   With me last night was my daughter Renee, the Nazman a mexican trail running hip-hop loving globetrotting porn star, Kate who got us the tickets and has no shortage of enthusiasm for the labor movement, running, or beautiful Colorado trees, and Kate’s grandma and her friend, 2 ladies who had traveled all the way from Indiana that morning to see Barak.  

Internally, what I felt was more powerful.  Obama inspires excellence but excellence in people, togetherness, and family.  Having Renee there was most special of all, watching her soaking it all up in her way of not getting too involved but being a smart observer.   I breathed in Obama’s combination of strength, warmth, and compassion and felt connected to everybody else who admired Obama for the same reasons.  As he waved goodbye during the final dramatic and very intimate moments with that stadium, we waved back watching him leave and knowing that he is our man.  He really brings out a very cool side of his supporters.  As we walked out, everybody seemed so confident, mature, and self-assured.

Obama also brings out parts of people you never knew existed.  Much like finding out somebody is a Mac lover (not just user), finding out that somebody is an Obama supporter tells something about them very quickly, and how they can recognize quality and embrace it.   One of these people is my Dad (also a Mac lover) who has recently been embracing Obama full-on and after the speech last night, was so moved, that he donated (and my Dad rarely gives donations) $100 to his campaign proudly.  Damn, that is inspiring.  He also has been fiercely defending Obama to all his conservative friends.   To watch my Dad admit this to his Mom, a very conservative Christian voter, is very very gratifying.   Way to go Dad, showing some serious courage!

So this isn’t terribly well edited.  But I am going to post it anyway, since it’s only a damn blog and I am too tired from last night to edit it much more.