It’s Not Fair

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When: Saturday, February 05, 2011 7:45 AM-11:00 AM. Central Standard Time
Where: Veteran's Park (21st & Boulder)

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It’s Not Fair
When: Saturday, February 05, 2011 7:45 AM-11:00 AM. Central Standard Time
Where: Veteran's Park (21st & Boulder)
Nothing like getting an unprovoked shovel or two of freshly dumped snow down your compression shorts to put a damper on your running buzz. Yeah, the one we got last weekend while trekking 14+ miles of map challenged miles, where to the outside observer we surely resembled a well organized unit, while internally, and all too often guilty of thinking out loud, were utterances of “OMG! Where is he taking us now, and why can no one seem to be able to read a map with printed instructions?”. Willing to forgive and hold deep seated grudgements, it’s time to move on and talk about, oh, I don’t know, could it be the weather? Last weekend, 70+ degrees, worried that we might not be consuming enough fluids, we found ourselves (literally, we had to re-find ourselves several times) cruisin’ along, feeling somewhat cheated as 70% or so (liberal rounding at work) of the course consistently headed down hill. It was so bad that whenever we would find the occasional uphill, there would be those amongst our group who would give an “I love this hill” shout out, triggering a unified lumbering gait.

So I’m not sure if this week’s snowfall was payback for setting off every possible neighborhood dog alarm,
or causing several labor stoppages at the Braden Park Pond while workers gazed in amazement at our magellanesque guide skills and our ability to seamlessly run and bicker and talk constantly without saying much of anything, or the way that we carefully made sure that we covered the right side, the left side, and the center of each roadway that we wandered, or possibly the reverbs from way too many hip hop tuned iphones/MP3’s which caused a shifting of the earth’s forces – enough to cause a record blizzard only 2 days removed from a couldn’t be better last Saturday of January.

So we got a lot of snow, with reports swinging wildly depending on who and where. Being kind of scientificologically oriented (I think this means that you’re always supposed to point your compass to semi-true north), I elected to employ rarely used and unskilled measurement techniques with the intent of officially determining the amount of snow that we received in midtown Tulsa.
So I carefully took and recorded 7 vertical snow measurements in random non-drifting yardish locations, threw out the high and the low as variable control datum, and then added the remaining five 12” to 14” carefully collected readings. Being the perfectionist that few people recognize that I am, I not only double but I triple checked my math, and averaged the three various summations. With a precision unmatched by many, I hereby proclaim that we received in excess of 5 feet of snowfall (exact amount is still being determined, as there is this somewhat messy and complicated issue of converting inches to feet to resolve).

It’s enough snow that I am able to hesitantly predict that it is going to be with us for a while. Ordinarily, if we received this much snowfall in the summer, it would be gone pretty quickly, but something about the relatively short days and long nights in February, combined with minimal foliage to reabsorb the moisture into plants and trees, plus the fact that hardly anyone is driving these days to help slushify the flakes, it might be good to break out a snickers bar cause we’re likely gonna’ be stuck with this for a long time.

Which brings us to this Saturday’s scheduled 14(Int)/16(Adv) training run – or not. Actually, an executive decision has been concocted that we all are eligible for a “Get Out of Running” invisible coupon for Saturday’s Run. Rather than physically run the miles, we are allowed, on this one time only offer, to borrow from The Music Man (an old style musical), and employ the “think system” to satisfy our physical mileage affliction. Since running is something like 72% mental (and only 65% physical and only 23% stylin’ and only 17% groovin’ on tunes), the “think system” will allow us to exercise the noodlin’ aspect of lung distance running. Plus, we are only 1 week away from the infamous 5-Mile Runners World Poker Run, where each runner skillfully and artfully runs in a fashion so as to assemble the best “no bluffing allowed and $1 maximum bet” poker hand, which can then be gambled for wonderful prizes on public school property. So naturally, wanting to excellerate at this walk up only everyone can enter event, we all need our taper, and this would be a good weekend weather wise to get it in.

On the other foot, if you do insist on potentially moistening your backside with a slippery Saturday morning run, then you will want to do so by starting at Veteran’s Park at 7:45 AM’ish. Just look for the small crowd and you know you’ll be wherever you are standing at the time.
Due to the streets expected to still be a mess, we’re making a course deviation of running South down the River Park trails in hopes that they will be cleared. If you do run South, don’t forget to turn around at some point and return North, cause continually running South is the long way around. Although someone with Runners World connections will always be running, please exercise caution and your own judgment on whether you come out or save it for another day. (NOTE: Actual serious part of this invitation.)

(Snow plow picture courtesy of Charlie Wilsey.)

So, be safe this week, ‘cause we’ve got many more miles in store down the path, and we need you to be healthy and bruise free to truly be able to enjoy future guilt free tortuous training runs.

Don’t Be “FAIR” – as in meeting at the Tulsa Fairgrounds this weekend.

Larry