Category: Rants

So Many Answers

David over at “Adventures in the Thin Trade” has some interesting questions:

1. So if you are someone who likes to run with headphones/earbuds, do you like to race with them too?

Yes – helps me focus, helps me concentrate, and gives me somewhere to go when I’m pushing hard other than that dark “Man, this really sucks” place.

2. If you like to race with headphones and had a free entry into the Minneapolis Twin Cities Marathon would you race? Headphones are forbidden on the course and those confirmed to have used them (photos/videos) will be disqualified.

Not just yes, but heck yes. I’m actually tempted to see exactly how many races I can register for and get disqualified from for wearing headphones. The rule they use to ban headphones (USATF Rule 144.3.(b)) should also disqualify folks for things like GPS and heart rate monitors, but I don’t hear people getting kicked out for them. The rule used isn’t a safety rule.

3. Do you think wearing headphones is a safety hazard?

4. Do you think headphones are less of a hazard in a controlled route race?

On a closed course? Probably less of a safety hazard than a live band or a water stop.

On an open road? It depends. I try to keep the volume low enough that I can hear most traffic over whatever I’m listening to.

5. Do you find those who wear headphones to be a hazard to you on the course/road?

Nope. No more than folks who walk through water stops, or stop to tie shoes, or who fumble around with those freaky looking gel belts, etc…

6. Spirit of the Marathon is screening in theatres all over America on January 24. Are you planning to go? Is it sold out yet where you are?

7. Have you ever heard of a one-time-only screening of a film before? Unusual to me.

No, dunno, no.

8. Have you ever seen a running watch that gives you an air temperature reading? That would be cool

.Or hot, depending on what kind of a day it was.

Oh, and I gotta brag on my Alma Mater again – we just got mentioned during the National Championships, something that’s never happened before, and not likely to happen again, due to our being DIII:

F’n Webkinz

So, my kids got Webkinz for Christmas, and there’s a little snag.

Using a Mac, OS 10.5.1, with a fully patched version of Safari 3.0.4 and a fresh install of Flash Player 9, I cannot see the confirmation code when trying to register a new account.

Cannot get confirmation for Webkinz login

I tried using a system with Ubuntu 7.10, Firefox 2.0.0.11, and Flash 9 as well, but could not see the login.

The minimum requirements are:

Windows Requirements

  • PIII 1.2 MHz or higher
  • Windows OS 2000/XP
  • RAM: 512MB recommended
  • Browsers: Internet Explorer 6, Netscape 7.2, Firefox 1.0, AOL Explorer 1.5
  • Monitor Resolution: 1024×768
  • High Speed Internet Required
  • Adobe Flash 9

Mac Requirements

  • 1.2 MHz or higher
  • Mac OS X 10.3
  • RAM: 512MB recommended
  • Browsers: Safari 1.2.3 or higher, Firefox 1.5
  • Resolution: 1024×768
  • High Speed Recommended
  • Adobe Flash 9

I clearly meet the Mac requirements, yet when I try to register – Bupkis.
To make matters better, you can’t even request help from Webkinz without having created an account (I deleted my email and the Webkinz code before taking the screenshot):
Send Help request to Webkinz
While I’m thrilled to see that Webkinz is trying to work with Macs – decent low end specs as their minimum requirements, I will not purchase any more Webkinz until they actually are compatible, or can tell me what’s wrong with my machines.
And I do have to give them Kudos – on my Ubuntu machine (Firefox and Flash 9), everything was working flawlessly until the same breakpoint I got on my Mac. So it does look like Webkinz is making an effort to be cross platform.
Postscript: I tried to do this with Parallels and an XP virtual machine, but that was running IE 7, so it didn’t work. Finally, our computer for running Quicken, a Windows 2000 machine, was able to get us logged in. Not quite sure what the trouble was.

Blog Devices that never get old

I hit the pool tonight for the first time in a while. The pool was good – I think, after three years of attempting self drowning, that I’m finally developing a little bit of muscle memory. No attempted drowning at this return. Bilateral breathing was working well, and while I was painfully slow, at least I didn’t feel like I was drowning. 25 laps or so – just over 1K. Nothing earthshattering, but nothing to shake a stick at.

Jake got his first book report back from second grade. His teacher gigged him for leaving out a comma in a sentence that doesn’t need a comma. I’m pretty spun up about it – dangling prepositions aside, I care greatly about grammar and good writing. Even the greats who took liberties with the English language knew how to write properly before they bent it. Missy’s not so worked up about it, though she agrees the teacher’s wrong. In her defense, the rest of the comments on the paper were ones that Missy and I made to jake when he was writing, so the teacher’s up overall in our book. The comma, I think, was added just ’cause second graders generally don’t think about things like that.

My kid’s the exception. He’s smarter.

(Just like yours are).

((And, for the record, almost all of my parenting decisions are made out of a pathological fear of being “that parent”))

Anyway, I finally came up with an idea for a blog meme. I haven’t googled it, so I’m sure that it already exists, but for a brief moment let me think that i had an actual original thought, instead of reprocessing things that I read half awake and forget that I read. The theme is:

Literary Devices that you use in your blog. Here’s my favorite five:

  1. Run as a song. Pick your current favorite song. Dissect your run as an embodiment of the song. My favorite use of this personally was when I used jazz as a metaphor for trail running.
  2. Invoke old girlfriends. This one is more dangerous than I give it credit for. Luckily for me (a) None of my old girlfriends read my stuff; and (b) Missy didn’t go to high school with me
  3. Stuff as a solution. We know it’s not really. But stuff gives us something to blame for our failures besides ourself
  4. Dialogue. It’s as old as people trying to fill pages – enlisting someone as a literary foil to make the protagonist (and, in a blog it’s always one’s self) look handsome, erudite, and sexy.
  5. and finally The list of 5 things. Pick a topic. Make a list.

So, what did I leave out?

Chicago Rant

So, by now I’m sure that y’all have read up on the disaster that was the Chicago Marathon – closure of the course after 3:30 or 4 hours, depending on reports, no water for the first 10K for anyone running less than a 3 or so hour pace, etc. Wicked hot.

Frankly, that blows, especially the reported shortages in at the first aid stations.

I crunched a couple of numbers for an email exchange that Mark and I had, and pulled the following numbers:

Marathon Finishing Tims
Race Finishers Under 3H Under 4H

NYC 2006

38,000 900 12,000

Houston 2007

5,300 125 1650

Chicago 2006

33,600 900 11,700

Even with the extreme heat, the planners should have realized that fewer than a third of the field is going to finish under 4 hours, so there should have been SOMETHING at the first aid stations for those runners. I find it hard to believe that even with the increased heat, the front of the pack third consumed three times as many resources as they have in the past.

Honestly? My take? There’s a move afoot in elite running circles to discourage average runners – mid to back of packers – from racing. Hence the iPod bans, hence poor support at a marquee race.

The solution? Get faster.*** But moreso, get involved. (Pot, this is kettle) One of the beautiful things about running for me is that it’s all a personal challenge – can I improve upon my last performance? Races are a dispassionate judge of that. I can always fudge whatever timing/mileage device I’m using. I can’t fudge a chip.

*** EDIT/Clarification – this is meant to be tongue in cheek.

What’s with the headphone ban?

So, I’m actually in the habit of reading the small print when clicking “accept” on End-User License Agreements, and on waivers for races and such, and I noticed that the Oklahoma City Marathon, and almost all USATF sanctioned races for next year have a clause saying “headphones strictly prohibited”.

And, yes, I know that traces back to USATF rule 145 or liability, but c’mon – does it really matter if runners outside of the top 100 in any race are listening to iPods or dressed with different colors on the front and back of a shirt (violation of rule 143)?

A closer reading of Rule 145 reveals it would also ban GPS receivers (such as the Forerunner) and Heart Rate Monitors, as the rule is broadly written to ban video or audio cassette recorders or players, TV’s, CD or DVD players, radio transmitters or receivers, mobile phones, computers, or any similar devices in the competition area shall not be permitted. If you wanted to be really strict, complicated digital watches could probably fall under the category of “computer”…

In any case, I fired off a question to the OKC Marathon to see how strictly they were going to enforce the rule before I sent in my entry fee.

I also wrote to Carmen Triplet, USATF’s Sanctions Point of Contact (Sanctions being getting a race approved) and Jill Greer, USATF’s Communications and PR person. The text of the email is below:

Ms. Triplet –

I’ve been running for several years – nothing serious, but a solid 20 mile per week guy. It’s been good for me – I’ve lost about 20 pounds, improved productivity, etc. What hooked me was the ability to have a half hour to an hour at a time with a series of music players – getting absorbed in whatever my tunes du jour were, and recently in listening to podcasts – making my running time not just a physical release but a critical and essential part of keeping current with the world.

More importantly, my music player helps me with my training. I’ve been using a device that not only plays music, but it keeps track of pace and distance while I’m running. Streamlined the process of keeping a training log, and giving me more incentive to run.

However, as I’ve been looking to do a third and possibly a fourth marathon in 2008, I notice that many registration sites in their race waivers are stating that headphones are “strictly prohibited”. A little bit of research leads me to believe that this is due to a strict interpretation of USATF rule 144.3.(b), which states “The visible possession or use by athletes of video or audio cassette recorders or players, TV’s, CD or DVD players, radio transmitters or receivers, mobile phones, computers, or any similar devices in the competition area shall not be permitted.”

Is this the reason behind the language in the waivers?

If so, why is similar language prohibiting devices such as GPS receivers (radio receiver) or heart rate monitors using wireless heart rate sensors (both a transmitter and receiver) included in the waiver?

I don’t think that I am in the minority in finding that using a portable audio player greatly enhances my running experience – a rough survey of runners that I pass in Mystic and Newport shows that about half of the running population prefers to train with a little bit of audio accompaniment. Similar observation at the races I’ve done this year yields similar results. If you include the number of runners in the races that are using devices such as wrist-held GPSes (such as the Garmin Forerunner devices) or HRMs, the number of non-compliant runners would be closer to 75%.

Strict enforcement of the rule makes sense for the less than 1% of runners with any realistic chance of winning a given USATF sanctioned event. However, for the other 99+% of us whose entry fees subsidize the sport of road running, this sort of wording is a disincentive to paying our race fees and participating.

I am eager to see the early 2008 marathons, and the vigor with which the headphone ban is enforced. If it is enforced on the huge body of mid-pack runners, I will be interested to see how race registrations and revenues are affected. I know I will be much less likely to run in USATF sanctioned events if the ban is strictly enforced.

Thank you for your service to the sport. Running is a great release for me, and I hope to pass the love of sweat and effort to my two sons. We are not genetically gifted athletes who will ever be in the 1%, but the chance to see the 1% run in open events, like this weekend’s Mystic Places Half Marathon in Niantic, CT (where my wife broke 2 hours in preparation for the Hartford Marathon, with headphones this year), is a great inspiration to us.

Very Respectfully,

Bill Jankowski
Mystic, CT
runmystic.jankowskis.net

I know there are a ton of purists out there who think that I’m evil for racing with my iPod – a risk to myself and others. But where are the statistics about the number of injured people at races with iPods? And as far as the purity of the sport – what’s the harm if someone’s iPod gets them out the door, or gets them under 4 hours, or gets them to a Boston Qualifying time (actually, that one might raise my hackles, as they are getting some tangible reward for athletic performance with something that violated the rules…)

This wouldn’t bug me so much if it weren’t for the selective enforcement, focusing on headphones but not frisking people for GPSes or HRMs. No, sorry, it would still bug me as it does seem sort of arbitrary and capricious, trying to limit participation in a sport that’s a remote-click away from irrelevance in a nation where the average mass of an adult is rapidly approaching 200 lbs without a substantial change in the average height.

So, I’m breaking out the Scotch again

A couple of years back, I decided I was going to see what all the fuss was about and buy a decent bottle of single malt scotch. Nothing crazy expensive, just something that was recommended by a friend.

I didn’t like it, at all. Like trying to drink rubbing alcohol filtered through half-burnt wood. Blech.

But the Great State of Connecticut has driven me back to the bottle.

See, we made the unforgivable sin of using our mailing address in Connecticut when we filed our 2003 tax return, ’cause in April 2004, when we filed, we were living in Connecticut.

Somehow, that triggered the computers in the Department of Revenue Services a week or so ago, and we got a notice requesting that we pay a couple grand in tax, penalty, and interest, or provide documentation that we were not, in fact, idiots who couldn’t figure out how to file a state tax return. The fact that we filed a Partial Year Resident Connecticut tax return for Tax Year 2004 listing details of the move didn’t seem to have any bearing on the case.

So, I spent this evening digging through the final half-packed boxes of paperwork from the move (which coincided with not only a job change but also a birth), looking for evidence to substantiate our position that we aren’t idiots or criminals. I copied, typed up a nice letter explaining that “No, we aren’t idiots or criminals”, copied everything again, and have the package ready, labeled, and stamped to take down to the post office to get sent certified mail within the 30 day deadline given to us by the state.

Based on prior experience with the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services, I estimate that I have at least three more rounds of correspondence with them before they agree that we are neither idiots or criminals. Unfortunately, this time I do not have Navy Legal Services on my side, nor a set of official Active Duty Military orders sending me to Connecticut. No, we came here on our own volition, which likely is a check box on the “Is the filer an Idiot?” worksheet that the fine folks at the Department of Revenue Services are completing with respect to our case.

It’s not that I’ve got any objection to paying taxes. In fact, I’m actually happy to have moved to a state that charges an extortionate income tax (Connecticut) instead of a state that charges an extortionate sales tax (Texas). In Connecticut, I’ve at least got an annual reminder of what I pay for the privilege of living here, whereas with Texas I kind of had to guess. But the schools are good, the roads are decent, and the state parks are phenomenal here, so honestly, I don’t mind paying what’s due the state.

I do mind being retroactively billed under the assumption that I am a criminal or an idiot, though.

Stupid Taxes.

Oh, and I did run today – two whole miles! Yippie! The boy and I did 4+ on River Road on Saturday.

More thoughts on Doping and Jan

So, Neca got me thinking with this comment:

I don’t think the Tour will ever be quite the same for me. Not just because of his retirement (which saddens me), but all these rumors and accusations have gone a long way to ruining the sport for me.

Yep – the first week of August 2006 kind of soured me, too.

In a way, it would have been much easier to take if Landis were definitively positive, and if Puerto had conclusively taken down Basso, Ullrich, etc. The sport would have shown effective policing, and we could have moved on from the “Era of Doping”.

Instead, there’s serious questions about Landis’ test (which, coincidentally is the same lab that hung Hamilton out to dry, leading folks to wonder if maybe the Man from Marblehead was screwed, too), nothing substantial from the Spaniards, and a sense that the UCI and WADA are out of control, trying to get the peleton to look like they want it to. Woe be unto Levi Leipheimer if things continue as they are.

The amount of good will towards pro cycling that’s been burned with the fiascos of the last two years is incalculable. If the regulators had been able to control leaks, provide airtight cases against dopers (or at least plausible), and acted swiftly rather than dragging procedures on and on and on, there wouldn’t be much sympathy for the accused.

Instead, it’s March, and Landis won’t have a hearing in front of the USADA until mid-May, more than 9 months after his alleged positive test. For a career that might last all of 10 years, that’s an eternity.

Is doping an offense against sport? Most assuredly.

But a larger offense is when the folks who are supposed to be leveling the playing field use the rules to arbitrarily knock out competitors they don’t like.

Wow – talk about lacking a sense of humor

So, yesterday I linked to a VeloNews bit on Jan Ullrich’s retirement.

I thought it was brilliant – As an opinion piece of the cyclist who’s drawn the karmic short straw for most of the last ten years, I thought that O’Grady was brilliant.

He gave credit for the distinguished Palmares that Ullrich earned during his career, acknowledged that Ullrich’s retirement would be credited as one of the finest cyclists to come along in a long time, but would have been even more amazing absent one single-nutted Texan, and gave grief to the boneheads behind Operacion Puerto for robbing Jan of last year without a shred of evidence coming to light.

Apparently, I’m in a strong minority among VeloNews readers. The majority reacted in typical lycra-wearing, weenie fashion, saying that O’Grady was kicking a man while he was down, blah, blah, blah.

A couple of my favorite excerpts:

  • From Scott in Florida: Way cold. I hope you’re tutoring blind orphans in your spare time because otherwise your karma bank is gonna be way upside down afterthat number.
  • From Scott in California: So, you are going to nail him for being second five times in a race where just making the team makes a pro career, finishing is a mark of true grit, winning a stage makes you a hero, and being on the podium makes you a God. * Uh, Scott – the plaque for second place is in the Ladies’ Room
  • From Sam in Austin: O’Grady claims Ulrich underachieved and squandered his talents, but how many
    professional riders would trade their careers for Ulrich’s? A Tour title and five second-place finishes is nothing to scoff at, yet he condemns the man.     *Sam commits the sin that too many of these letters do, failing to acknowledge exactly *HOW* physically gifted Ullrich was. On paper, in a lab – there’s no way on earth that Armstrong should have been able to dominate Ullrich as thoroughly as he did. If Ullrich had fully kept his head in the game, the little faults that kept him on the plaque in the Ladies’ Room would not have mattered.

Finally, I’ve got to give Sven in St. Louis props for hitting the nail on the head:

Ullrich’s big crime is that he was born in the wrong era. Had he been born between Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain or Indurain and Armstrong he may have won a few more tours but the fact that he showed up every July and finished second is no small feat. … What’s sad is that this ridiculous Operación Puerto inquiry has ruined what should have been an incredible career from anyone’s standards. One to be very, very proud of. But nowadays it seems accusations are all that’s required to end someone’s livelihood. That is the true crime.

Again, I thought that O’Grady was spot-on: Ullrich was truly a great rider, but failed to live up to his potential. A string of seconds and two Grand Tour wins is impressive, indeed; however, the ease with which he was able to dispatch every other rider in the peleton makes his second places all the more poignant.

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Blogged with Flock

Dick Pound on Fresh Air

So, I’m leaving Boston Monday afternoon, and I find “Fresh Air” on the radio. The main guest was Dick Pound, the man with the name that’ll get any site that tries to discuss doping, etc, blocked on every elementary school computer in the world. The interview’s here.

I really, really enjoyed the bit. Dick’s clearly committed to fighting doping. But he’s been tagged as a bit of a facist for wanting harsh penalties for folks caught doping.

One of the bits that really resonated with me was that, under the current system, the only folks who really get punished for doping are the atheletes. Known “bad” coaches and other facilitators can usually skate. Which is wrong, IMO.

Dick also relayed a bit about Juan Antonio Samuranch’s (then director of the IOC, the head of the Olympics) reaction to the 1998 Festina Affair at the Tour de France that made my blood run cold, and put Pound’s perceived excesses into perspective.

As background, in 1998, the Festina cycling team was caught by the French police with industrial quantities of doping agents. Pretty much the entire team, from the director sportif and the cyclists on down to the kid who fills the water bottles was involved and charged. Big deal.

Samuranch’s reaction? Something along the lines of “To me, this is not doping.”

Anyway, check out the audio. Good stuff. Dick was on to pimp his new book, Inside Dope. Haven’t read it, but might have to after I get done with “Foucault’s Pendulum”. Umberto Eco absolutely rocks.