Tuesday’s Bee has the strangest story about a local Hash House Harrier run gone seriously, epically, sideways. Apparently, some hashers were allegedly caught on Aerojet property and Aerojet security allegedly roughed them up went all “Guantanamo” on them.
Reportedly, the security guards generally went nuts over the flour the hashers were using to mark the route (HAZMAT!!!) and hilarity ensued.
Some of the hashers sued and in response, naturally, Aerojet filed a counter-suit. Two years of intense legal wrangling were followed with–silence from all the interested parties.
Some of the details in the Bee story seem to be a bit off –in particular identifying the Doughnut Dash as a “hash. It just happens to be listed on the club’s bulletin board.
Here is some good news about the long term prognosis for those of you who are facing possible knee replacement surgery: the long-term prognosis is pretty good.
A long-term study of knee replacement patients, presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons in San Diego, found that most patients were doing very well 20-years later–even those who had broken all the rules and ran or played tennis.
A majority of the patients could walk indefinitely, and about the same number were “pain free.”
It is important to note that these patients were pretty old, as the average age at time of surgery was 64. So being pain free and highly mobile 20-years later (with one or more knees replaced) is a pretty sweet deal!
You will be pleased to learn I finally got around to performing a thorough update of the race calendar for 2011. There are now around 40 events listed. These are generally limited to within 50-miles of the Capitol, but some significant regional races are also included. Go crazy!
I’m not done adding events. (Well, I’m done for the evening.)
I’m no longer including start times because I figure runners should check the actual race site for that level of detail.
If you’ve been isolated from your email and the internet for the past few days, you might not be aware that the Boston Marathon has finally made changes to its registration process.
These changes are an attempt to address complaints about the race filling too rapidly and faster runners getting shut out by the overwhelming number of slower runners.
As written about here, and elsewhere, the 2011 Boston Marathon sold out in eight hours. This led to immediate speculation about whether the qualification standards were too loose.
The BAA chose to leave the qualifications standards intact for the 2012 race, but will open up registration earlier for runners with qualifying times well below the standard.
Rumor has it they are finally enforcing the parking restrictions at the Aquatic Center.
Some time ago, I reported here that the Aquatic Center, would begin restricting parking access to Aquatic Center users (i.e., not the runners and cyclists). And then nothing happened.
This past weekend, there was an attendant turning people away from the parking lot. There doesn’t appear to be much logic associated with the move since the lot is generally half-empty whenever I’ve been there. One runner noted that last weekend, “My wife and I felt bad for the girl they made sit out there to protect their empty parking lot.”
What to do? Get a Golden Poppy Pass, you free-loader, and then park at Nimbus Flat, right around the corner. You should do this anyhow, then you can park at any lot along the river upstream from Hazel–and support the State Parks System that you use all the time.
Running around Lake Natoma is going to be tricky for a couple of weeks while the county installs retaining walls along the north side of the lake.
Managers at Folsom Lake State Recreation Area announced that the paved bike path along the north side of Lake Natoma will be temporarily closed due to construction activities along the trail from January 24-27 and January 31-February 3, 2011. The trail closure will be in effect on those days from 7:00 AM until 4:30 PM. The specific section of the trail to be closed is the portion of the trail along the Orangevale Bluffs, from the intersection of the Main Avenue access spur to Negro Bar.
It appears that the trail will be open during the weekend. Here is a map of the closures.
You can still run between Hazel Avenue and Beals Point by using the south side trail and crossing the Historic Truss Bridge in Historic Folsom.
After years of solid performances in shorter, regional races, local speedster Iain Mickle knocked out a really fast marathon at Rock and Roll Arizona last weekend.
Mickle’s2:38:54 was good enough for 19th overall, first in his age group, and a life-time personal best. He just turned 50. The Bee’s Bob Shalit gives him a shout-out in the business section.
For weeks now, my copy of California Track & Running Newshas been languishing in the bottom of the old Gatorade bucket where all the bills go after the postman shoves them through the mail slot of the Sacramento Running News world headquarters. When I finally dug through the layer of Final Notices to retrieve it, I was delighted to see Joey Bonfiglio’s photo gracing the front cover and again on page 16.
Bonfiglio is not so local now that she is living and tearing up the roads around San Diego, but for a while there she was abusing the Sacramento running scene and even kicking me down in the last 400 meters of the 2008 Buffalo Stampede. (Not that I’m bitter or anything.)
Apparently, she is running the XC circuit for Team BSK/Running Center–whatever that is–and won the City College 10K, took 3rd at the Bonita Stampede 8K, and won the Cougar Challenge 5K. Nice!
While I don’t think that LaLanne was really a runner, he certainly was ahead of his time with regard to promoting the value of a healthful diet and exercise.
Rather linking to a news article about his passing, I thought I’d share a couple of clips from his show. Here he is, sometime in the late 50s or 60s, ranting about diet and exercise as the fountain of youth and happiness.
Rumor has it they are finally enforcing the parking restrictions at the 
