How do you lead?

Seth wrote an interesting article a few weeks ago I haven't been able to get out of my head. For those that don't know, he's the author of the most popular blog in the world, and it focuses on business. The article in question is about how going around the room to see what everyone has to say is a waste of time. I'm not sure that I agree with him totally, but I have been trying to come up with an argument to dispute the idea, and the one time from my experience when it really makes sense was in grad school when our lab group had our weekly group update. We were all working on similar projects, so when someone had a breakthrough or needed help, he or she could share that and likely enlist help of others, or help others through the same breakthrough. I liked it because we didn't all sit by each other so we didn't talk about our research every hour, which is to say physical proximity is a huge benefit for collaboration. Plus, rather than unexpectedly going around the room people often had a slide presentation to show to prepare for a conference, and you knew that every week you would have to give an update on your progress.

What really intrigued me was the thought that leaders fail when saying, "let's go around the room". In other words, meetings are usually not the best use of everyone's time, everyone knows that, but the idea that a leader can fail... I just don't think in those explicit terms. I mean, for the leader of a meeting the meeting is most helpful and not a waste of your time, afterall you called it, you want everyone in the room at the same time. Yet this reminds me of my favorite Lao Tzu quote,

"Of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will say, “We did this ourselves.” 

In other words, calling a meeting, and having people actually show up, means you are something of a leader. If you were not a leader in some manner, they would not show up. (Shoutout to W.L. Gore organization studdies, and Gary Hamel, for making this explicit for me!) Yet at the same time a good leader is not necessairly the one getting the credit. Much of today's organization in many organizations is based on military efficiency, platoon leaders report to the company leader, who reports to the battalian leader, who reports to the regiment leader. In that way, status reports go up the chain and orders go down the chain. This structure ultimately rewards much of the credit to the generals at the top. This structure works, it has been around a long time, but just because you are a leader, and you get the positive credit for your team's work, does not mean you are a very successful leader. If we say that people work a 40 hour week, one hour is 2.5% of that time. Two hours is 5% of that time. The point is, getting the best out of the team usually means letting people do the things they are skilled at and not slowing them down with bearaucracy. 

Teams Are Beautiful!

I screwed up. I dropped the ball, and making up for it will take more time and effort from the whole team. However, because we are a team, the mistake was found well before going to production. In fact because we found the mistake as early as we did, it is hardly even a setback, but rather the normal development process. A good team complements each other and makes up for each other's weaknesses. Teams are beautiful!

The Everest Ice Fall Incident 2014

Written Friday the 18th, but not published until I have 3G access in Gorak Shep today:

Wow, this is so bad. This is the worst mountaineering disaster in the history of Mt. Everest. It will take some time to figure out (I’m thinking Mt. Rainer avalanche in like 1986, or some of the early avalanches like 1950 Annapurna, and Manaslu 2012) if it is the worst, but it’s bad. There may be as few as 5500 Sherpa people in the Everest valley, and that is where the majority of climbing Sherpas come from. As of 4:30 PM Nepal time Friday, the confirmed death count was 13, with three still missing (missing = really really low chances of survival). Added to that there were several critically wounded and a number of walking wounded. One Sherpa even broke his femur and then still managed to descend 200 meters on his own power. 

Heros for the day include Jason, the high altitude helicopter pilot who flew a constant 7 or 8 hour day at altitudes from 17,000 to 20,000. You try doing that. Also, Melissa Arnot, who was transported to the scene of the disaster and helped triage the wounded and transport the deceased. 

This affects everyone. I have heard that on one of the small teams three of their six Sherpas died. On two larger teams five Sherpas both died. Our team, Asian Trekking, Eco-Everest 2014 came through totally unscathed, physically. Mentally, 16 people just died while I was drinking hot chocolate this morning in the same location I was supposed to be on Saturday! Honestly, it’s easy for me. I didn’t know any of the deceased. But for the Sherpas, all of the Sherpas, this is a little valley, everyone knows someone affected. Roughly .3% of the valley, let alone the 20-40 year old male portion of the valley, just died. 

What happened, as I have heard is that there was a ladder crossing a crevasse or ascending  something, and there was a queue of people waiting at the bottom of the ladder. A serac fell, and boom, just like that it was over for many of them. We heard the avalanche in base camp, but to be honest, didn’t think much of it aside from the fact it was in the direction of the ice fall. However, as I was talking with Melissa and other teammates, a radio call came through and the paramedic that she is left the dining tent, not to return until the middle of the afternoon. 

After lunch I walked up to the helicopter pads and watched. Yes, I took a few pictures and some video. You are not going to see any of it. The video I took next to the helicopter, when I was 20 feet away and they put a body in, I turned around and walked away crying. Another video, the high altitude helicopter pilot was carrying a body on a rope below the helicopter and the man’s arms and legs were splayed out. It was sickening. 

Written Monday the 21st around noon:

I am sure you have heard by now, 16 people died due to a serac falling, with three unrecovered. While we may call it an avalanche, this is about as far from a US powder avalanche that you can get. Think of a ten story building, made of solid ice, that falls over. For those people under it, that's it. 

We all knew this could happen eventually. The Kumbu ice fall is a deadly place and people die in it all the time, but never 16. This is the worst disaster in Everest history. Period. 16 people die on April 18th. 

Not to be callous, we 8000 meter climbers are maybe type T personalities. Death happens. It affects us, but we keep going. However, there is an interesting dynamic at play right now. We clients, western climbers, are here by choice. We pay to come here and test ourselves. The Sherpas, the people that carry our loads, set up our tents, cook for us, set up the ropes on the mountain, they are here because they are paid 10-15 times the average annual Nepali salary to do this for two months. When a tragedy like this happens they are justifiably concerned that their loved ones are not taken care of. There is no $200,000 life insurance policy for these workers. 

The comment has been made that it would have been more appropriate that it was an even mix of Sherpas and western clients. I certainly won't argue with that thought, but in a way this is the defining event for the climbing Sherpa community. 

Just so that I acknowledge it, the incident last year [that may have painted Sherpas in a negative light] in my mind was due to a couple of people [both western and Sherpa] in stressful situations that had tempers flare and said and did things that in the moment seemed like a good idea. Haven't we all done things we regretted the next day when we were stressed?

Now, I may not have all the story, but from what I understand Easter Sunday the Sherpas had three meetings, with up to 300 climbing Sherpas attending and they came up with a list of 13 requests. One of which was that 30% of the climbing fee be dedicated to a life insurance and retirement pension fund for the climbing Sherpas. Considering I paid $10,000 for the fee to climb Mt. Everest and next year it is going up to $11,000, and, I am not sure where that $3,000,000 goes every year, I totally agree with the Sherpas. 

It's worth saying that when we had news of the avalanche, probably 60% of the people in base camp were asleep in their tents. I was awake, but I have been waking up around 5:30 AM without an alarm. So using the word, "escaped" to describe what was a dull murmur 1.5-2 miles away from me, and most of us at base camp, is not the best word. Had the serac fallen the next day… well I might have been under it along with a slew of other western climbers. I have always known, since probably 2002, before I even decided I wanted to try Everest, that the Kumbu ice fall was an unpredictably deadly place. In my opinion life in the US is so sanitized and safe, that we have lost some appreciation and acceptance of risk. I certainly don't seek risk, I think bungee jumping is stupid. I don't even speed when I drive most of the time. I rarely rarely check my phone when I drive too because I've swerved seemingly every time I do check it. Sorry, I'm rambling. 

 What does the future hold this season on Everest? I have no idea. Climbing is closed through Friday. Those of us on the Asian Trekking Eco-Everest 2014 that did not go climb Lobuche East are going to do that tomorrow. If possible I think Adventure Consultants has some tents near the top (about 20,000 feet) that we might use. This probably means I'm out another grand, but what else are you going to do? (Well I did just demolish the speed record on the Kalla Pattar weather station by 11 minutes. 1500 vertical feet from 17,000 to 18,500 in like 32 minutes. It's on Strava if you want to check, average heart rate 174!)

We are all stunned that this happened so early in the season. 16 people dying on April 18th. I have some pictures and video, but I'm not going to share it. It's not gore, but it's personal. There were people that were probably laughing eating breakfast early Good Friday. We climbers sometimes talk of the brotherhood of the rope. When you tie in with someone, you are seriously trusting your life to them. It creates a strong bond. Even if I didn't know any of the people killed or injured, they were my friends. I'm tearing up just writing this. 

Everest From Kalla Pattar Weather Station April 21, 2014

So things are in flux. Buying that inReach was a good idea, I like sending satellite texts from wherever I am. So I will keep you updated on where I am. Again, I think this is a defining moment for the true workers on Everest. When every single person that dies, is a Sherpa… It's not a good situation.

While we western people are being encouraged to be patient and stay out of the discussion at the moment, I want to make a difference. Melissa Arnot, one of the people I view as a hero in the situation, although she would never say she is, started a charity a few years ago, The Junpier Fund, to educate the children of workers killed on the mountain. Just imagine, 16 bread winners in one day, 17 Sherpas so far this season, have been killed on the mountain, and many, if not most of them have wives and children. I encourage you to give something to The Juniper Fund. (On a side note I am trying to get a charity started, Sustainable South Sudan, but it takes a lot of work to get a charity off the ground.) 

This mountain is different than any other mountain I have climbed. Normally, I do the climbing, I carry the gear, I set up the tent, I use the stove, I place the gear. Here we have 20 climbing Sherpas and 14 cook staff, plus a team doctor and expedition leader, all for 15 client climbers. I never directly asked for this system, but I paid for it with my checkbook. We had Sherpas just 30 minutes ahead of the serac fall in camp one, they escaped while I had hot chocolate in base camp. Talk about guilt.

Well, I'm still here. I would still like to climb this mountain, but there are things at stake more important than my selfish, arrogant, and egotistical summit ambitions.  I have not planned to return to work in Iowa until Monday, June 9th so I'm here. If you donate to The Juniper Fund, thank you! This is very much a story in progress. Thank you for your prayers! There is nothing more important. 

Teamwork

I have had to delegate a few tasks lately to others. I am not a big fan of doing that. I am the engineer, I want to do all the engineering. Yet the fact is, I can't do it all and get to the final goal on time. That uncomfortable feeling I have farming out my work is in reality the beauty of teams. A collection of people with different skills capable of doing things really unimaginable for just one person to do. Teamwork is how big things get done.

Take a Break from Running, Then Rediscover Running

The runners are back from break! While this is partly cause for celebration, it also involves comments like, "I needed a break from running" or "I only ran one day over break" or "It was really snowy and there is nowhere to run where I live". Great, take three weeks off so that you are really ready to start racing most weekends for the next four months.

First of all, to develop long term as a runner, one needs to run often. I'm talking 40+ weeks a year, preferably 45+ weeks a year. Running, once past the 2000-3000 mile break in, is fun and you feel good afterward. That alone is enough to keep me motivated most days. One must run to get better at running. Strange, I know.

That being said, sometimes people need a break longer than two or three weeks at the end of a season. I have a feeling that younger people need longer breaks from organized training. In other words, elementary middle schoolers might benefit most by doing six sports over a year for 6-10 weeks at a time, while high schoolers 1-4 sports in 8-16 week blocks. By college most have found a single sport. However, the college aged person is often still not ready for the 45-48 weeks of sometime monotonous and repetitive training that must occur to excel in a single sport. I get that, I've been there, and I have two examples.

Senior year of high school we ran our legs off in cross country. I ran 191 miles in September 2003. Since I didn't run on Sundays that's just over 7 miles per day. At the time it was way too much. I set a personal record of 18:26 at the state meet that year, and our team finished 7th the highest finish for our school at the time. The women's team won state by the way. Kind of a big deal. So the miles made us do so well, but I lost much motivation. Sophomore and junior year I trained for and ran a half marathon between cross country and track. Senior year I had no motivation for it. My senior year of track I did not PR. That summer I decided to take six months off, July 4th to January 4th. I did not run a step, not even to catch up to my friends when I was late. I also gained five pounds the first three weeks of college.

When January 5th, 2005 came around I went for a run. I was itching to get back out by that time. January and February I ran by myself at like 8 in the morning listening to Frou Frou and Coldplay as I slowly trotted around the street of Worcester. It was slow and I didn't do any workouts, and I probably way over estimated my mileage, but I was rediscovering running. The joy of going for a run on a bright crisp winter morning is something akin to getting a good grade in a hard class or coming out of treeline on a mountain or a really good cup of coffee combined with a good view. In March I joined the track team and proceeded to run 19:07 sort of 5ks around the track. Not pretty, but I was back on a team working toward a goal. Three years later I set a school record in the 10,000 at the conference meet. Things worth having take time and effort to acquire.

A second example, my friend L in college came in as the best freshman of his class. He ran cross country his freshman year and did fairly well, but then he needed to take some time away from the team. A family member died and he needed some time to think on his own without the pressure of a weekly race or conversation with obstinate teammates. I would often ask him, because we saw him all the time, "are you planning to run on the team at any point in the future?" He typically responded, "Probably." That was all I needed to hear. He went and ran a 2:54 marathon or something that year and after missing a full year from the team, came back and contributed in a number of ways.

The point of both of these stories is that running, and a team environment, can become a mandatory chore and that attitude is not sustainable. I have a feeling that is why so many D1 athletes burn out. They work so hard for scholarship reward, and can't quit for fear of losing the scholarship, until finally, they really quit. Given the mix of adrenaline, testosterone, and cortisol that accompanies difficult team training it is no wonder that people want a break. Extrapolating farther I think that is also why people retire. Physical, or chemical, stress is simply easier to recognize in athletics than in intellectual pursuits.

How do we, or how do I, go about managing a positive mental attitude full of motivation over the long term? Well, I did take a six month break once. I didn't run with a team in 2010 or the first half of 2011. I bicycle and take days off. Plus, I have written concrete goals (such as a 2:17:39 marathon which is 5:15 pace) that I know require total commitment even on days when sleeping in or not running in the afternoon would be easier. Same for my career, not every day is exciting, but every day is an experience that will help me in the future. Also, it is realistic to admit that some days are bad days. Some days are no fun. For me though, I feel that the hard times make the good times so much better. Knowing that helps me lean into the difficult things. Yesterday, at practice I talked about how nice it was outside. The wind was not blowing. The temperature was in the 20s, not below 0. The sidewalks were mostly clear. It was not snowing or raining. There was more light out at 4:30 PM than two weeks ago. I feel one has to look for the positive things because life is hard enough on it's own. Sometimes you might be unemployed for 57 weeks despite a pair of engineering degrees from a respected engineering school.

Development is non-linear. Sometimes long term progression involves short or even medium term regression.

Rule #3: Do Not Complain. About Anything. Ever.

I believe it was in the year 2002 at Philmont in ROCS that I was first exposed to the Ten Rules of Expedition Behavior. Although it may have been 2001 at Philmont. The point is these ten rules give an overview of what one needs to do to avoid being the despised guy on the trip. Rule #3 has always stuck out to me. Basically, whatever you are doing, wherever you are, for most people, at least Americans, you made choices to get to this place. This place is probably part of development into something grand and worth having and sometimes it is going to be hard. If it was easy everyone would do it. (For example, everyone starts blogs these days, but how many keep at it for four years?)

There was situation recently where a number of people complained about something they "had" to do. On the one hand I understood why they were upset, I was surprised they had to do it. On the other hand, I understood why they had to do it. After more thought I realized that the thing they had to do, I needed to do to improve myself, so I jumped in on the next round and helped white wash the fence metaphorically speaking.

Another story, February 2006, the north side of Mt. Adams in the Presidentials, New Hampshire on a Saturday was the worst weather I have ever encountered. Temperature was about -10F and winds were around 50 mph and gusting to over 70 mph above treeline. My face was cold, my hands were cold, I could hardly balance, we were moving slow, then my partner had cold feet in his leather boots. That was it we turned around. We did not reach the top, but neither had any permanent damage. The point is, we knew it was not going to be easy and given our two personalities there was no complaining. It is an extremely memorable trip for me that is entirely positive.

The point of all of this is, do you want to be here (wherever that may be) and suffer and work hard or not? You can quit, that is okay. But for those of us that stay, it is going to be tough. We will struggle. We may not even reach our goals, but when all is said and done we will know we gave our best.

The Difference of One Person

In the past few days I have been in several (three) groups where there was a new person in the team. A person that has not been exposed to the last 18 meetings or ten months of work and problems. The dynamics of the group change. There is an energy and excitement, not necessarily from the new person, but from the old people who now have the opportunity to share their art with a new person.

One person makes a difference. That person does not even have to say anything, in fact, not saying anything might be more influential or at least dramatic. The simple presence of a new person causes excitement. Everyone wants to participate with his or her best contributions.

This makes me wonder, how did I change things or how do I change things when I am somewhere? Obviously I have never been part of my groups without being there. I suppose I hope my presence encourages excitement, commitment, comfort and faith.

In other words, thank you for coming! Not to read my blog, I appreciate it, but I get more out of this blog than you probably do. I mean, thank you for being part of the groups you are a part of. 'Thank you for being here' is something we do not say often enough. Your presence is valued. On behalf of your group-mates: thank you.

27:23: What Happened?

I ran a race last night. I ran an 8k cross country race on a very fast course. Given that my college PR was only 27:34 I thought that considering I had run 8k during a 10k in April in 25:45 and 5 miles in a half marathon last fall in 26:58 I should be able to waltz my way to a 26 flat finish. That did not happen. Given that slowing down dramatically is a relatively common occurrence, not just for me, I thought I would lay out what happened. Not so that I can prevent it from ever happening in the future, but when it counts, in the big races, I will not make the same mistakes. I will explain in graphs.

Time per Two Kilometers in Seconds

This first graph is a graph of my splits. The light blue is the horror story. Now to run 26:00 one must average 6:30 per 2k. That's what I intended to do. However, I'm not in shape to do that. My lactate threshold and anaerobic capacity and aerobic capacity are not at levels for me to do that right now. So Had I run a more conservative race such as the dark blue, I would have ended up with a better time instead of getting passed by 60 or so people over the last 6k.

Approximate Lactic Acid Accumulation per Two Kilometers in Millimoles/Liter

So what happened is that I went out too hard and even five seconds per kilometer is enough to dramatically shift the amount of lactic acid accumulation, especially to a moderately trained individual such as myself. The dark blue is about how it should have gone down, but the light blue is about how it went down. I went out too hard and I did not have the aerobic capacity to handle all of the lactic acid in my legs. Once you get above a certain level somewhere in the range of 4-10mmol/l (I'm making that range up, but it's a pretty good estimate based on Canova, Daniels, Noakes, etc.) your body can not clean out any additional lactic acid so it just accumulates until the running either stops or proceeds very slowly (7 minute miles or slower for me).

I am drawing on the assumption that 4 mmol/l lactic acid in the blood is about half marathon pace for me and the approximate pace that one can maintain and produce lactic acid at the same rate it can be processed. In other words, going over that threshold means that the legs get heavier with every step, even if the pace slows marginally. In other words, if the pace slows from 8 mmol/l to 5 mmol/l you end up with a net of 9 mmol/l because the pace is still more than your body can aerobically clear out.

Plus, my legs felt heavy on the warmup because I have been upping the mileage, I might even get over 80 miles this week for the first time since May. Increasing mileage is the most physically stressful part of a training cycle and it does not make racing any easier.

Lest this be a self-pitty-fest UD did great! Well, 23rd out of 34 for the men isn't exactly great, but it is far better than we did last year and we have nine men under 30 minutes. On the women's side we did even better at 17th out of 32 teams with most our top runners in the 24s and 25s. Our women's team is more experienced than our men's and that helps at the longer distances. Our team had a good night and we are in a great place to build on and really turn some heads over the next few weeks, months and years.

One other event happened, which I must mention because I feel it is important. I was out sprinted by 0.3 seconds in the last 15 meters by one person on our men's team who has never beat me before last night. So now both of our top two men have beaten me. It's important because I think they see my PRs and see me tearing it up in practice every day and think that somehow I am better than they are. Which is totally not true. I am sure that over the next two years both of them, and perhaps more on our team, can develop into D3 national caliber runners, something I still have not done yet despite running the 3476th fastest marathon time in the world in 2011.

We have Recruitment, Retention, Retirement, and Education Wrong

I should have called this blog "DOing" so that I could just brag about my accomplishments. Alas, I must discuss the things that I learn, and my failures. There are more similar articles in the pipe along the lines of my personal failure the next few weeks. Okay, here we go with this topic.

I always thought that one goes to school, gets an education, gets a job based on that education, I suppose gets promoted several times, and if one lives long enough, retires. Ah, the simplicity of childhood! Now that I have a few years in the post-formal-education ("real") world I see it is not like that, it's all over the place! If you want to make billions drop of out college and start a company. If you want to make millions go into investment banking, no particular degree required.

First of all, an education is not a guarantee of economic employment. That's a big issue to wrap your head around. It took a fair bit of unemployment for me to understand that. What does that really mean? Employers are not looking for you. The people who stand to economically benefit from your skills aren't searching for you. Day to day business continues and the business is not getting new people to fill new roles, it is producing a product or a service. Instead of education and recruitment being related as it seems wise, they are mostly unrelated. It is ludicrous, that the ability to have a job once you graduate is not based on your education. I mean, what's the point?

In other words, companies rely on resumes of people who have been self-developed and self-motivated coming to a website or the human resources department. That way they can be screened and some of the best ones can be offered an interview. I say self-developed and self-motivated because that is how you get an advanced education. You have to be motivated to struggle for the standard four years in college. Up until about age 22 or 23 the model in society is to, seriously, do what you want. What one does during that time does say something about one's motivation.

Unfortunately, once you join the post-formal-education world an impersonal business economy directs your monetary success and your most possible opportunities. There is still a disconnect between the education that is provided to the next generation, the opportunites provided to the next generation, and a third factor, future economic opportunities. Part of the reason for the disconnect, I feel, is the lack of recruitment from one generation to the next. For example, I came up with a possible model of corporate recruitment. What if companies would offer prospective high school students something like, 'come work for us over four 10-week summer internships and we'll give you $10,000 per year, then work for us two (or three or four) years after you graduate and we'll pay whatever student loans you have left, contingent on satisfactory performance reviews. No contractual obligation, you can leave early if you want, but if you stay that is what you get.' Kids are so influential that over six or seven or eight years you could develop precisely the set of skills that you would want for a promising 25 year old.

That brings us to another issue, retention. How do you get people to stay? After all, I did jump ship twice in the last 18 months and I am sure that both of my former employers would have liked to keep me. Well, amazing 401(k) matching that doesn't vest for three years is one incentive. It is good to have a certain amount of turnover to get new ideas in. Still the cost of losing an employee and all of the extremely relevant experience is not something that any profitable business would look forward to. In the past I feel that compensation, for the most part pay, was all that was needed to retain most employees. In other words, everyone looked at their neighbors and looked at themselves and decided life was good and everyone lived pretty similar lives and nothing needed to change. Unfortunatly for companies, the Internet came along and people's horizons were expanded. It is not that everyone wants more money to be in the 1% or to travel the world or have three months of vacation, but there is a slew of interests and desires that are unfulfilled in the working population. I realize I just alienated everyone over 40 and you are all thinking that I am a lazy free loader, but take an example of a man in his upper 50s. He is a social worker who works with disadvantaged people. He helps several dozen people every week and does pretty well at it. Unfortunately, you can't sustainably help a couple score of people emotionally every week. Half a century ago he might have muscled through it to the detriment of many, especially those close to him, but now we recognize it's an unsustainable situation. So how does his employer retain this employee? Hire another employee?

I feel that one strong method of retention is recognition. I don't even mean public recognition, I just mean letting employees know that they did well on something. I feel that unfortunately, managers often don't know what their employees are doing. That is the consequence of having subordinates, one person can not do all the work or know everything everyone is doing. I am very fortunate that recently I received a three sentence email from a senior engineer I work with complimenting me on my progress the last year. It feels pretty good. On another note I have been trying to take notice of other people who are doing their jobs well and telling them that when I notice. The results are often surprising. People respond thankfully and very graciously, and a little shocked. It is as though people are waiting for a complement subconsciously, but certainly not expecting one.

Another way that I feel employers can encourage retention is to offer diversity, and I don't mean hire people with different skin colors to fill some quota. If that is solely how our culture judges diversity than how shallow are we? No, I mean exposure to experiences that are alien or uniquely interesting to an employee. For example, I work on forestry equipment, I would love to take a trip to the Southeast or South America to visit a logging operation. The people I would interact with would come from a somewhat different background than myself, I assume. Their perspective on the final result of my work would enable me to make more appropriate recommendations in the future, I assume. Plus, it would show them I care about doing the best work that I can.

Switching subtopics we get to retirement. This modern invention is ridiculous! No one is entitled to live 20+ years golfing, eating at restaurants, taking trips, and doing the things we put off the rest of our life. The entire concept of delayed-life makes me cringe. What are you waiting for! One possible solution to the retirement issue and how to afford pensions is a solution that would likely increase retention as well. For example, a 35 hour work week with a retirement age of 75. There is so much knowledge and experience and capabilities wrapped up in the 55-65 year old crowd that more or less disappears from the economy every year. How many thousands of mistakes could be prevented if those people simply listened to our ideas every week and commented?

What I am trying to convey is that I feel it would be possible for people to contribute to the economy at a younger age similar to an apprentice if companies would recognize that future needs 10, 20, 30 years down the road will require the adolescents of today instead of focusing on the next quarter or next three years. At the same time we could have more time throughout our lives with family and friends and pursuing interests outside of work and continue to meaningfully contribute to a much later age, at least well into our 60s and even 70s. I also feel that with more freedom to pursue those topics most interesting to us including at work it will enable greater productivity and to quote a friend from college "revolutionary innovation". It is all just an idea. Take it and run.

Cultivating Motivation

This article is inspired by Ryan Hall's blog post Keeping The Main Thing The Main Thing.

Additionally, motivation is included in my three principles of athletic training are:

1. Stay Motivated
2. Stay Healthy
3. Train Hard

These can apply to other aspects of life outside of athletics, but often in that realm staying motivated and staying healthy become the same thing with mental training being similar to those two. That is a whole other topic for another day.

As I was running earlier this week I was trying to come up with an analogy for motivation. I have plenty of motivation and I notice that others do not always have the motivation that I have. So I asked myself the question, 'how did I get so much motivation?' Which precipitated another question, 'who or what conspired to produce so much motivation for me?' In this instance I will talk solely about running because spending an hour and a half every day running I have plenty of time to think about my running goals and my progress, which are parts of my motivation.

I came to the conclusion that motivation is like a plant. A tree that starts out as a tiny seed or a flower that starts out as a seed both take time to grow and develop into a fully functional plant. Motivation is exactly the same way. You can not directly give someone motivation the same way that you can not make a plant grow. You can provide all of the necessary resources for a plant to grow and I believe that you can do the same for motivation. 

Addressing my own running career, I started with very little motivation. I ran because I wanted to be in some sort of shape and have a healthy lifestyle. I suppose that is a pretty mature concept for the average 13 year old, but that is why I ran. Then my motivation developed into training for mountain climbing and backpacking early in high school. Later in high school it became a combination of seeing how well I do, as well as the previous factors. I would be lying if I didn't at least mention that girls run, and there is some motivation to that for me.

When I took six months off of running my freshman year of college I returned to running both for fitness but also for the mental aspect. I feel better after more than 99% of my runs. I dare any drug to be more than 99% effective at making me feel better. I would not take it anyway because I have found running and that is my 99% drug. I also missed the competitive aspect of running, which is funny because my freshman year of college I ran four races and was last place in every one.

Later in college the year 2007 happened and that was really the year that formed most of my current goals. Ryan Hall and Peter Gilmore blogged for their upcoming marathons while I was in Costa Rica. That summer Flotrack got off to a great start and consumed hours of my time as I watched professional runners run amazing races. That fall the build up to the Men's Olympic Marathon Trials in New York was amazing with the Chasing Glory series from the New York Road Runners that I checked into every day and a slew of Flotrack videos as well as Runner's World Racing News which I began to check regularly. That November I went to watch the trials with a few friends and I was motivated to run there eventually.

That is the short story of my running motivation. But, there are so many other factors that got me to that point. Had I had the chance to play soccer in Oklahoma or Kansas I might not have taken up running. If I was taller I might have played basketball. If I was bigger I might have played football. If my dad did not take cholesterol medication and my mom did not have diabetes perhaps I would not be motivated to eat well and exercise. If my high school biology teacher had been able to walk perhaps I would not feel a desire to run for those that can not run. Had any one of several coaches told me to go home because I was too slow, that would have been it.

Using the plant analogy I needed my carbon dioxide, sunlight, soil, nitrogen, and water, and all in the proper proportions. Too much or too little of anything and I would have quit. What does cultivating motivation have to do with my life now that I have it? I want to know how I can create that kind of environment for others. Not an environment of dreamers who get nothing done, but highly motivated people with a strong work ethic. As of Wednesday I have run 141 days in a row. I don't know if that counts as a strong work ethic because many of those runs have been slow or short and I was unemployed for part of that. The point is, no one runs 141 days in a row and well over 1,000 miles on a total whim. There has to be some motivation.

I intend to coach a team of high school or college runners some day and I know that if I could put my mentality in each of their heads, we would be incredibly successful, but that is ridiculous because everyone is different I would go insane if most people were like me. So I wonder what sort of general situations can cultivate motivation in a person. I know what worked for me, but I have a feeling that that exact set of circumstances will only present itself to me alone. Everyone has a different history and different cultivating requirements. 

I do not have the answer to the question, 'how does one cultivate motivation in another?' But I feel that just using the verb cultivate instead of create or give or even motivate is a huge step in the right direction.

I Want to Be Part of a Group

I was watching the movie Angels and Demons, which is remarkably similar to the book, and it got me thinking. Specifically, the part where all of the Cardinals go behind closed doors to elect a Pope. How interesting must it be to be in that group? The few people in the world tasked with picking the next Pope.

It must be rewarding to be part of a group that does something beneficial like that. I imagine that most Cardinals work very hard to achieve being a Cardinal. The reward, or I suppose worst part of the job depending on your view, is getting to be one of the few people in the world that pick the human leader of the Catholic Church.

That scene reminded me of several instances from my past. One of those instances was when I desired to be part of a group, yet I did not make the cut.  It took me a long time to mentally get over the fact that I wasn't going to be part of that group. After hours of thinking about it I realized, to the best of my knowledge, that group really wasn't benefiting the community in a way that I thought they had the ability to benefit the community. Instead it created tension and anxiety. The group was very good at recognizing significant contributors, yet when it had all of these significant contributors in the same place nothing seemed to develop for the benefit of others.

I thought about other groups I've been apart of like clubs, teams, social circles, states, cities, and staffs. I asked myself, 'what type of group is it that I really want to be part of?' I realized the answer pretty quickly. I want to be part of a think tank with some of the smartest people in the world that solves the world's problems. After laughing at that ridiculous notion I realized that while I define smart as problem solving ability I have no idea who the smartest people in the world are. I can't name one for certain. Is Bill Gates one of the smartest people in the world? Or is he just an average technology guy with a fair amount of drive that was in the right place at the right time who knew the right people? Is Barack Obama one of the smartest people in the world? Or is he just a really good public speaker that a bunch of people convinced to run for President? Was Albert Einstein one of the smartest people in the world? I think he was. Or is it possible for one of the smartest people in the world to never learn how to drive a car because he was confused by mechanical things?

It's interesting the twists our mind takes. Getting back to the original topic... everyone is a member of society in someway. We are all part of the group. Everyone has a mother and a father and four grandparents, biologically anyway. I wonder as I live in my parents basement, what am I possibly contributing to the world?

Engineers often struggle with the notion that we are in the world to solve technical problems and make people rich. How do I positively address the fact that I helped Sikorsky improve a heat treating process? How does that help anyone?

I want to be part of a group. Margaret Mead said it well, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

A Visit to my Hometown

About six years ago my family left a small town called Sabetha, Kansas. The circumstances that led to our leaving left me with very negative and bitter feelings about the town. The reality is that only a handful of individuals really caused the negativity, a number I could count on one hand. Furthermore they were people I rarely interacted with. They also acted in what seemed to them their best interests. How can I argue with that?

My anger masked the truth. I had the feeling that the whole town was against me, save a few close friends. This time when I returned, for the first time in more than four years, I had the opportunity to see about 30 people that greatly influenced me. These people helped make me who I am. They took an interest in my life. They contributed dozens and even hundreds of hours individually to just me.

For more than six years I distanced myself from most of the town. It wasn't very hard going to school in Massachusetts, living in Wisconsin and working in New Mexico and Colorado. Returning to some of the places that I spent hundreds of hours with some of the people I spent hundreds of hours with was unforgettable. People continually change and the places that we remember have new and different people, so it will never be the same. That is fine by me. What happened is done and as awesome as it was, it had the painful moments as well. I've said and done so many stupid things. For so many things that I did to you my friends I am sorry. I will not live in the past, at least not until I get Alzheimer's or something.

In the one day that we were in town I made more contacts about possible jobs than a month on my own. I finally had the chance to tell a number of people thank you face to face. For sure, I hope that I contribute and share with others the way this little town, with 4% unemployment, shared and contributed to me.

A Full Time Coach

WPI, my alma mater, now has a year round track and field coach. I pushed for that the last several years I was at college because I realized the importance of that contact. Running is a simple sport. Yet I had to learn many of the details on my own because access to a coach was limited. I had plenty of opportunity to ask questions, and I did, yet at 11 AM on a Wednesday when I thought of something, my coach would be at his job. I always envied the other sport players would go hang out with their coach between classes. There is a certain education and motivation that is derived from a coach. The more I understood my sport the better I became. The more I knew my coach the more I understood his methods, and the better I became.

More important than the facilities athletes have, it is about the people the athletes have. I remember distinctly one morning at about 8:30 AM I was working out in the morning, alone, and the basketball coach was working with one of the basketball players one on one in our dusty old practice gym. It was just the two of them, and I think that the basketball player was mostly just shooting free throws. It's not just about the shooting hoops, they were also talking about the most recent game. They were talking about ways to get better. They were probably talking about life in general as well.

First, there is the thought.

Second, there is talking,

Third, there is doing.

A coach can provide many athletes with the thoughts and the talking as well as a way to accomplish the doing. It seems simple, but without some direction most athletes at my former college, or at least runners, would never think of getting to nationals. They wouldn't even realize that nationals exists until their third year running with us and if you haven't made the commitment to work hard to get there by that point you will probably not go. Now with a coach around all the time I am hoping that that seed of greatness will be planted early in their career. Instead of first and second year student athletes dwelling on their suffering compared to high school they might be thinking of goals, and what it takes to get there.

For example, take two runners. Both raced about the same in high school and ran about 40 miles per week. Now it takes a whole lot more than mileage (workouts, injury resistance, mentality, attitude, etc.) to make a good runner but for the sake of simplicity that's all I'm going to talk about. Both runners get to college and their first week they each run 50 miles. Runner A immediately gets stressed out because classes are hard, the running is hard, he is away from his old friends and family, he used to be one of the best on the team now he is not even in the top ten on his new team, and he really only sees the older runners when they run a workout and they are so much faster. Runner B on the other hand is talked to by the coach as soon as he gets to college. The coach tells him to relax and be patient. He says it takes several years to develop as a runner so he comforts the young runner through lackluster workouts and even races compared to what the runner did in high school. The coach continually reminds the runner to be patient and just keep showing up every day. The coach schedules a meeting with Runner B so that they can just talk. Sort of a counseling session where the runner talks not only about running but also about missing his old friends and the classes which are harder than he expected. Runner B leaves feeling refreshed and more comfortable on the team.

The next year Runner A struggles again having never really even done the freshman workload. He skips practice from time to time and runs the same times in workouts and races that he did as a freshman. He still has trouble maintaining 50 miles per week. Runner B upped his mileage during the summer to 65 miles a week and when he gets back to school in the fall is now possibly looking at a spot on varsity (top seven runners on a cross country team). The trend continues and by their fourth year Runner A is running faster than he ever has because he adjusted to college finally. He places well in some smaller races. Runner B has developed every year, despite missing some time running due to injuries because he didn't listen to the coach all the time. He is trying to qualify for nationals and coming pretty close.

It also self perpetuates. A coach who develops some mediocre athletes into good athletes will be recognized by high school recruits. Then several good athletes will come to the program and develop into national champion caliber athletes. Good athletes will continue to come because they see the national champions on the team and want to be that good themselves.

The point is, I have seen my team, my friends, take a number of steps both forward and backward over the last half of a decade and this is by far the biggest step forward in recent history. I am very excited to hear how the school year goes.

Working at Boy Scout Camp

Recently one of my bosses told us that he delights in seeing the Boy Scouts scrutinized in the media for this mistake or that mistake. He said the reason for his pleasure was that the Boy Scouts were doing so much good and were so successful that other people were out to get the Boy Scouts. It is a different point of view to be sure.

I can say with certainty that Boy Scouts changed my life, several times. For example, I went on a ten day backpacking expedition at Philmont Scout Ranch in 2001 the summer after my freshman year. I also ran track in the spring of my freshman year in large part to get ready for that trek. I would have never guessed nine years ago that my exploits in the spring and summer of 2001 would have such life changing consequences. My two physical "hobbies" both took a big step up that year. There were steps before that point and after that point but that specific year was one where I really committed to both sports. Many of the pieces of gear that I bought for Philmont I still have and use occasionally. Those two weeks in New Mexico inspired me to spend a good part of three more summers are Philmont. That fall in cross country I had a breakthrough season and it pretty much cemented my passion for running.

So now as I am most of the way through my fourth summer at a Boy Scout camp I have been doing some reflecting on the whole experience. Why do I spend my summers teaching teenage boys outdoor skills? Why do I spend my summers with teenage boys instead of working with adults at a corporation? Why am I working for 20% of the pay that I thought I would be making with my education?

The answer is actually simple. We staff members don't really ever talk about it but you can see it during a flag ceremony or a mealtime prayer. You can see it when we are trying to get a 12 year old to do the 30 foot tall rappel even though he is crying and his legs are shaking. You can see it when we are handing out hot chocolate after swim tests (or the canoe T exercise) in our 64 degree lake. The reason is that we simply believe in what we are doing. It is honest work that makes kids... better. They have more confidence, more appreciation for the environment, they trust each other. Even though I don't talk to the kids I went through Boy Scouts with too often anymore we still have a bond. Like the 15 degree night in Kansas when the liquid soap turned into a solid. Unless you were there you can't appreciate how interesting it was to do dishes that night.

Someone once said, "it is better to give than to receive." I received so much in my seven years as a Boy Scout that I hope to give back some of that to the next generation. It is very rewarding when a 12 year old with shaky knees and tears gets down the rappel and shows up back at the head of the line five minutes later with a huge smile on his face because he had fun and wants to do it again.

Many people get paid only with money. I get paid with smiles, yells, and quiet compliments. Plus a little money. Life is good.

8th Grade Basketball

I am five feet and four inches tall. That’s about 163 centimeters for you Euros. Basketball is a tall person’s sport. Sometimes I don’t understand things terribly quick. I used to think I was quick learned, I'm not so sure anymore. For some reason I thought I could make a decent basketball player. So when my basketball coach told our team to quit drinking pop (soda, coke, mountain dew, etc.) for the season I quit drinking pop. I was never a heavy drinker and after the first month I didn’t even miss it.

Since then in the late fall of 1999 I have not drank anything carbonated on purpose. I had a Red Bull once and I had an upset stomach for two days. I have also tired punches and beers since that time but the bubbles are just too much for me to handle. I will have an upset stomach if I drink anything carbonated.

This was a significant event in my diet. Each can of soda has 10-12 teaspoons of sugar. How much sugar I have not drank in the last 10 years I have no idea.

It’s strange how one sentence in a 20 minute speech has altered the course of my life. Obviously I have no proof that I would be any different than I am now if I drank soda or beer but I think I would be different. I am convinced that those are calories that would have just never ended up on my midsection. Perhaps when I took six months off of running my freshman year of college I would have gained more weight and never gotten back into competitive running and then were would I be now?

I read a little of Malcom Gladwell’s Tipping Point book where he suggests that small actions can have huge consequences if they come at the right time. Well, an eighth grade basketball coach telling the team to quit drinking pop for the season seems to have lasting consequences for me.

2009: My Year In Review

January: The year started out well with me traveling back to WPI early to work on my thesis. I was also back running after a long term injury. I bought a season pass to Wachusett mountain and I was getting better at skiing by the day.

February: I went to the Mount Washington Valley Ice Fest and had a few good ice climbs as well as talk with people and learn. I also ran my first race in like four months, which while slow was a race I was very happy to run. I also started blogging and teaching the world!

March: Running and researching mostly including a sub 34 10k that was pretty easy showing that I could make a comeback. I also entered the Strage Innovation Awards and won!

April: Research was going full bore and so was the stress. My track season fizzled out due mostly to the stress of finishing my research. There were moments of grandeur here and there that kept me motivated.

May: The stress reached full tilt. I was going back and forth about what I was going to do once I came back from Pakistan. I considered dropping out of school and starting a company or being a climbing bum until the loan companies actually came for me. I learned how frustrating research can be and how deadlines are almost an arbitrary thing because things often finish when they finish not when a month ends. I also ran 52.4 miles in one shot.

June: After a short trip back to Wisconsin to pack my stuff I headed to Pakistan. Wow. Not your average summer.

July: More Pakistan.

August: A short trip to Colorado to use the full extent of my acclimatization then back to Worcester determined to actually finish my thesis. Suffering from a little post-traumatic stress I was determined to work harder in everything that I did.

September: Research was progressing as I was finally figuring out some of the basic mistakes that I just didn't understand before. I ran the Presidential Traverse with a bunch of friends then ran Reach the Beach with a bunch of other friends. The weather was nice and research was going well, more or less.

October: A nice month to be in New England as the leaves change colors and the temperature is nice enough to wear shorts during runs but warm enough that jackets are not yet needed. It's about this time that hot mochas come back into style taking a market share away from the iced mochas. I also had like 400 channels of cable. Work was accelerating, but in a good way.

November: Things were starting to look better. Research was going well enough that I was going to graduate in 2009. Running was going well as I was averaging more miles than ever before. I had finally settled into a great daily routine. In fact day to day life was so good that I'm actually considering going to school again because it was a nice place to be. My future was looking like I would start a company. I wrote a business plan and filed two patent applications. I also published a book. I also ran a PR in the half marathon in the middle of base training.

December: Things got a tad stressful as I finished my research and writing my 104 page masters thesis. However, finishing was a huge accomplishment. It was another huge confidence booster. Unfortunately I also left Worcester after getting to know my friends there so well. A month of great accomplishment and also great change as I enter the real world.

2010: Here I come!

Tying up loose ends

I am graduating in December. My advisor liked the draft of my thesis I gave him last week. However, I still have a few things here in New England I need to do before I leave. Sunday I accomplished one of those, I ran 21 miles to the nearest mountain and ran up to the top. It's the kind of thing you think about for a long time but requires a friend to pick you up because a 42 mile run is a little beyond me at this point.

That also means an ice climb on Mt. Washington and since Baxter State Park just changed the winter regulations I would like to get up there before I leave. It also means spending time with my friends before I leave because I have no idea when I will come back. I'm sure I will but I do not know when. I think that moving around and traveling so much when I was young has kind of made me a mover and shaker. Worcester has a lot to offer. I have so many great friends in New England. But at the same time I feel stale, and reminiscent (not a bad thing but not a great way to live). I run around Worcester alone thinking of the shenanigans we pulled and I smile. A gut wrenching smile because I know we will never have that day to day revelry that we did before. Well, actually I can think of a few situations where we might... But those are rare and probably unlikely. Unless someone wants to come out to Boulder with me and live poor while we start a company and run our legs off.

I try to live with no regrets. For the most part I do but there are things I have done and said that I regret. I am about to go from sophomore graduate student to freshman of real life. How many mistakes have I made? How many more will I suffer through? At what point will I look in to my friend's eye and know that the only future we have is a few emails a year and a Reach the Beach or alumni meet here and there?

On the other hand, who will I meet next month, or tomorrow, that will change my life?

12 Step Plan for Running More Miles

Now running more miles is not really the best goal in the world. Running races faster or losing weight are better goals. Still one of the ways to accomplish running faster or losing weight is to run more. So you run xx miles and a week and you want to run xx or even dare I say xxx miles a week. How do you do it? Here is my 12 step plan:

1. Do a long long run. 18-25 percent of your goal weekly mileage. It doesn't have to to fast. You can walk part of it if you get tired. You just have to finish it. If you run five or less times a week and are training for a marathon you can have a long run up to 30 percent of your weekly mileage.

2. Take easy days. Of course this also implies harder or longer days. Try not to run the same distance two days in a row.

3. Run slower. If your goal is just to cover a distance take it 10 seconds a mile slower, or more.

4. Have some goal (besides the mileage). Trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon or run a PR at whatever distance will help keep you motivated on the cold, wet, windy days.

5. Stretch. I prefer active stretches like swinging my legs before runs and static stretches after my runs. A flexible runner takes less energy to move his or her legs.

6. Run with friends who are trying to do the same amount as you are. If someone else is suffering doing the same thing it makes it more bearable.

7. Run a different route every day. This keeps it mentally new and interesting.

8. Keep a running log. This way you can track your progress and see accomplishment. I use Running Ahead.

9. Do a medium long run. This is kind of a more advanced method but it is good for aerobic development.

10. Run twice in one day. This can take some getting used to but it is a sure fire way to run more miles in one day with less stress on your body than the same distance in one run.

11. Celebrate the little things. Your first 13 mile run! Your first 70 mile week! A 5k PR by only 2 seconds! Keeping a positive attitude keeps you working.

12. Don't be a slave to your mileage. If you are hurt, injured, burntout, tired, or sick take the day off. A day or even a week off now is better than three months off down the road because you didn't take care of yourself.

So those are some steps you can take in order to run more miles. Get out more!

Coaching: The Physical Part

I have only been an actual assistant coach for about a month but I like to imagine that I've been helping mentor my teammates, especially the younger ones, for years. The advantage is that I am so young that I can easily relate to their situation. The disadvantage is that I don't know everything. Also, I am a runner with the other 41 million Americans that run so I can not comment on "common" team sports.

In running a large part of the performance of a race is based on physical limitations. From the 2:13 marathoner to the 25:30 5ker everyone is gasping and has burning legs at the end of the race. For a coach the pressure is on to maximize the performance of the athletes at some race or races. I was reading Brad Hudson's book "From the 5k to the Marathon: How to be your own best Coach" and he gave the following example. In sailing you can take multiple courses to get to your destination. He said you could sail into the wind at a steep angle and go slow or take a more shallow angle and go much faster but have to tack back and forth. I created the chart below as an example:

The point of this is that you can not push your body to the limit every day and hope that it will achieve the results you want as quickly as if you varied the stress on your body. That means taking it easy sometimes and listening to your body. It also means that it is okay to add on more mileage or repeats or run faster if the athlete is feeling good. Why slow down an athlete's progress?

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers suggests that 10,000 hours of practice is what is needed to move someone from the bottom of the pile to the top. This goes along with what my friends and I discovered by experience: To get better at running you have to run more. So there you have it. The shortest description of how to maximize physical potential that you will probably ever read.

Reach the Beach 2009

I completed my first multistage relay race this past weekend. Reach the Beach is a race that this year was 207 miles long consisting of 36 legs averaging 5.8 miles each and teams from 4-12 people would work to cover the distance. This is the 11th year that RTB has been run. Our team, The Ninjas, had ten people and we came in 10th in a field of 399 teams. Last year, with a slower pace The Ninjas came in 5th. It seems other people trained harder this year.

The race goes from Cannon Mountain Ski Resort to Hampton Beach. Each team is given a number (we were 359) and each runner a number (I was 7). At every exchange or transition area the person that was running hands one of those slap on wrist bracelets to the next runner. At the transition areas the staff keep track of the runner numbers to make sure that the teams maintain the same order. We were fortunate to not have anyone drop out this year so everybody ran their assigned legs. That's a good thing because I was the first alternate and I was pretty tired another four miles would not make me feel better right now.

We had a pretty strong team with maybe half of the team still actually training 50+ miles a week. In total it took us 22:35:17 for an average pace of 6:32. We had several people with legs that were at sub 6 pace and a few people averaged 6:0x pace. Personally I ran 23.1 miles in three legs of 7.2, 7.4 and 8.5 miles and averaged 6:11 pace over all. That is only 5 seconds per mile slower than my half marathon PR. That is also about 2:42 marathon pace, a pace I could clearly not run for a marathon right now. That pace was fantastic for me because I put down 6:30 as my approximate goal pace and I was not sure if I could do that or not. To get that far under 6:30 with only a few weeks of training raises my goals for the rest of 2009. I would like to find a half marathon or something in November where I can knock a few minutes off of my PR.

What carnage did I come away with? I went for a run with the girls yesterday at 8:35 pace and I feel better. However, yesterday and today I am having trouble going down stairs, standing up, and doing anything involving my quads. I'm taking today, Monday, off after 25 days of running and not even bike riding for my first complete day off in like five weeks. It hurts... in a good way. I feel great! I am not injured! I feel more fit then I did four days ago. It is desirable to start a new training cycle from roughly the same place you ended the last one and I feel this preseason indicator was a very strong indication that I will run fast this spring.

Will I do it again? Most likely. I'm reading a lot of Lydiard training and I like the idea of a yearly cycle instead of a four or six month training cycle so I think that spring and summer will most likely be my highly competitive months and fall will be the build up phase where I can take the time to waste myself over 22 hours of torture. In fact, if people are willing to train a little harder, it would be really cool to try and win this thing.

Some rough quotes:

"It's all about the Grape Nuts. They have lots of fiber. I'm probably going to eat a whole box. Do you want some?" - Mark

"There was a female moose in the road and I didn't know what to do. Fortunately, it ran back into the woods before I got to it" - Nick

"Have you even run nine miles this year?" - me

"No, I don't think so." - Matt

After the 9.2 mile leg

"I passed 12 people...(three seconds later) and got passed by 16 people." - Matt I have to give Matt credit because he had a very long leg and he didn't walk at all despite the obvious pain he was in. It helped our team save some time.

"Hey, there's a corner up there slow down." - Paul to me who was driving the van at 5 am.

The first words I heard when I woke up from sleeping alone in a field Saturday at 8 am after an hour of sleep: "I almost ran over that person sleeping over there in the field."

"Oh a real runner." - Some guy I passed in the morning.

On a separate note: Why do I put all of this effort into running and climbing mountains instead of working hard and finishing my thesis? I do work hard at my thesis, but I am in a place where everyone works hard so it is not too unique. Also, people treat you different if they think you are smart regardless of wether you are or not. So many of the hard working students I know are somewhat ashamed or secretive of their talents and accomplishments. Additionally, who really wants to read about the nodes that I'm constraining or how excited I get when the deformation in my simulations is on the same scale as the measured values?