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Stuff that don't fit in other places

BelowReproach.com - Stuff that don't fit in other places

Fun At The 2013 Horsetooth Half Marathon

Approaching the second, 9.2% grade

I’ve long been registered to run the half marathon course for the Colorado Marathon in Fort Collins, Colorado on May 5th. Through a coincidence in work scheduling, yesterday I had the opportunity to participate in the 40th annual Horsetooth Half Marathon only two weeks before the Colorado. What an epic run it was for a flatlander like me!

The Horsetooth Half is a relatively small event for such a longstanding race; 1500 people registered this year. There The REAL Fat Tire cruisersare no big starting announcements or huge banners at the start, not even a starting gun (though it's timed). It's community sponsored, so you see Boy Scouts and the local running clubs doing all the work. Instead of a big expo hall, they use a community room at their primary sponsor, New Belgium Brewing. The logo gear for sale is on a 3' clothing rack. For participating you get a nice technical shirt, a pint glass, and for this anniversary, a small Lucite plaque with the now-infamous course profile etched into it (and your mind).  It's a nice contrast to the traveling circus of a Rock 'n Roll marathon.

The weather

Everyone was watching the weather closely this year. Fort Collins received about eighteen inches of snow in a spring WP_20130417_001snowstorm a few days before I arrived on Wednesday, and took another hit Wednesday morning as well. It was a bit surreal to sit on the taxiway in an 86-degree Dallas, wait for the Denver weather to clear somewhat, and once there drive up to Fort Collins in heavy blowing snow. This was the first year for a marathon course, and it was dicey as to whether it would even be held due to the snow (it was a mixed on/off road route). But the weather slowly cleared and we had great running weather on Sunday. As I write this, the weather is closing in again, and my flight to Dallas took off just ahead of another 1 to 3 inches of snow already hitting the Front Range cities.

The course

For the first few miles of its route, the Horsetooth Half follows Centennial Drive along the top of the artificial ridge of the Ascending the 9% hilldam that creates the reservoir. Then it descends down to the countryside, and follows the countryside until it joins the Poudre River Trail back into Fort Collins. The course profile shows a tough first few miles, plus the fact that the race beginning is itself almost exactly a mile above sea level. Within several hundred yards of the start, the road immediately climbs and switchbacks at 6.4% up to the top of the reservoir. After a short descent, it runs along the top of the dam (the top photo), then climbs at 9.1% to the highest part of the reservoir (“monster mountain”), all within the first two miles of the race.

At mile 4.5, Dam Hill is a half-mile climb at 5%, and finally Bingham Hill at mile 7.5 at 6%. STEEP descent off the high pointsAs if the ascents weren’t enough fun, the descents presented their own challenges, especially running down the back side of Dam Hill at almost 8%. At that grade, you just can’t put your feet in front of you fast enough, and a fall would be disastrous. So you have to balance speed descending (to help make up for what the inclines did to your overall time), with pounding your quads as you brake yourself as little as possible.

The experience

We ran in perfect 40 to 60 degree sunny weather alongside banks of melting snow. Nevertheless, the Colorado sun is so intense that when we rarely passed into shade I realized just how hot I was becoming. In some places we ran with snow-covered fields on either side of us, and the cool breeze off the snow was invigorating.

The woman running packet pick-up gave me sage advice: As you run up the hills, keep shortening your stride until your speed or your heart tell you to start walking. About half the people around me (including me) followed this advice. Even then, you have to be careful. Long, strong strides at this incline quickly wear out your Achilles, so you have to shorten up and take faster steps.

Shortly after the marathoners joined at mile seven, I had a pleasant surprise. One of the other runners asked if I was one of the marathoners! I can’t imagine why. I either looked like I knew what I was doing…or I looked exhausted from the muddy marathon course run. Another treat was that at the top of the last (Bingham) hill, what looked like the Colorado State University road cycling team all kitted out in their green and white jerseys, stood in a double line to high-five the runners as they went past. Nice!

The Poudre River trail that takes you the final six miles into town is pretty, but hard to appreciate at this point in the race. After all the ups and downs, you’re just trying to concentrate on a sustained fast run to the finish with whatever you have left in the tank. There are several long stretches out in full sun away from the water, and those are mentally tough. I felt okay by that point, but the hills had ground off any speed I might have had; my tempo pace finishing was the same as my easy pace back in Dallas – a full two minutes / mile slower. I knew I was tired when one of the hardest mental challenges of the race was making it up the short sharp inclines as the trail passes under a road! The grind was relieved by very non-Texas sights, like running past a couple of fly fisherman along the river, right at the edge of town.

When you finally exit the trail at Linden Street, you turn left for the final quarter mile to New Belgium; in two weeks I’ll Ahh.be turning right for the Colorado Marathon, which ends the same distance into Old Town Fort Collins. Your name is announced, no formal photos are taken, and the local Boy Scout troop presents everyone with their plaque. There’s a band playing. New Belgium had set up a truck with unlimited refills of Fat Tire, Rampant Imperial IPA, or Shift lager. I stood in line for a free massage, but by the time I was finished the last bus to take particpants back to the start had left. I caught a ride back from a generous race organizer, who I learned was just a few years younger than me and an awesome marathoner in his own right.

Recovery was all about the right things: A hot tub at my AirBnB home, some Odell 5 Barrel Pale Ale and Cheez-its, then a most excellent beer sampler at Equinox brewery just up the street from where I was staying, and finally a couple of delicious pizza slices from Coopersmith.

I doubt this will be an annual excursion for me, but I really appreciated the beauty of the course, the hospitality of the organizers…and the fact it didn’t hurt as badly as I thought it was going to! I’ll be back to Fort Collins in just a week to work in the office and run the Colorado Half with several of my coworkers…and I’m looking forward to it already.

Inside and Outside: The Post-Race Ritual

"Congratulations!"

"You suck ;-) !"

Anyone that's done any racing recognizes that competition comes in two flavors: external and internal. In external competition you're obviously competing against another individual or team, but with internal competition it's just you. On race day, we often deal with both.

The footrace is the about the oldest form of competition there is. But unless you're an elite runner that's in the running to win the event, or a speedster with a chance to win your age group, for most of us these races aren't external competition. They're actually time trials, the "race of truth" as they say in bike racing. It's you against the clock. So these races are really about internal competition. How did you run? Did your average pace improve? Did you set a personal record? Failing those, did it just feel like a good run?

At the same time, the groups of people we run and socialize with are, by and large, very competitive people. You don't train 4 or 5 days a week by yourself, then get up at 6 AM on a Saturday to run 10 miles in the cold and dark, and perhaps rain, if you aren't disciplined, driven, and at least a little competitive.As a result, when you learn of your friend's race results you feel a combination of happiness for their success – and, if they're faster than you, a pang of envy. (Unless they're an elite runner like our local Logan Sherman, whose sustained speed and energy output are so far beyond most folks you have to simply stand back and be astounded.) And no matter how well you do, you're never quite satisfied.

The (tongue in cheek) post-race ritual process goes like this:

The Post-Race Ritual

(Click to enlarge)

(Actually, I prefer to ask "How was your race?" rather than anything quantitative, to give them the option of not bringing up times at all if they weren't happy with it.) You'd think that after so many years of teaching martial arts and watching many of my students equal or surpass me, this envy wouldn't be an issue any more. But though it gets easier with age, asses-and-elbows competition is a fire that's hard to tamp down.

 

What really makes a difference is the great groups of folks I run with. Like a Venn diagram, the Luke's training program and the Thursday Night Social Run are two different running circles that overlap where some members have had some association with the Plano Luke's Locker running store. Regardless of which group I'm with, they are some of the most positive people I've ever met. After a race, Facebook is awash in runners posting times and experiences, and their peers sending congratulations in all directions.

I've often said that it's a good thing that running is such a social activity, because a race is damned hard work. The Dallas Rock 'n Roll half marathon was windy (20-25 MPH) and cold (wind chill in the 20's). You must get up early, Runners huddling away from the wind in a City Hall Plaza stairwell at 6:30 AM

 

huddle together out of the wind in your racing clothes trying not to freeze, strip down to the essentials before the race – I saw many lean women shivering uncontrollably before the start – do your best race, then try not to get hypothermia afterward when your clothes are soaked in sweat.

Commiserating with fellow sufferers over a few pints afterwards is every bit as important for recovery as that long drink of chocolate milk.And your congratulations to your fellow runners really are genuine…because you know they're feeling the same emotions you are.

Drivin’ The Dream: Ferraris and Lambos and Astons, Oh My!

Driver change. F430, 360 Spyder, AM Vantage convertible, Lambo Gallardo

It seems that in any extended conversation I've had in the last year, the idea comes up that if time doesn't necessarily bring wisdom, hopefully it does increase your sense of perspective. Thanks to my wife, on Sunday I had the opportunity to happily extend my perspective of what "fast" means.

For my birthday, my wife bought me a 50% off Living Social deal for a "speed tour" with DFW Drive Your Dream. This deal gives you a 2 1/2 hour drive in 4 supercars, mostly on open country roads. The Living Social deal puts this experience within reach for a special occasion, about the same price as an expensive dinner for two.

(Best appreciated full screen, of course)

I'm lucky enough to be able to drive the Midlife Crisismobile, a 2013 Mustang GT. It has "FAFNR" vanity plates named for Fafner, the dragon from Wagner's Ring Cycle, a part I played as an extra in two Dallas Opera productions. To be honest, I stalled a little bit on this deal because I was a little nervous. At 420 HP, Fafner's no slouch, but I'm not a lead foot driver any more. I have no desire to get a ticket in this very visible car! And a couple of the cars I'd be driving in this experience have far more power and even greater power-to-weight ratios. I finally registered for the deal, and drove it on Sunday. My perspectives are blissfully ignorant of the hundreds of thousands of words already written about these cars.

It was easy to find the place, in a warehouse area just east of Fort Worth, when I got close. It was the only Pahking the cahs. Note the 458 Italia on the left. No, no one drove it!business with a Ferrari F430, Ferrari 360 Sypder (convertible), Aston Martin Vantage convertible, and a gold Lamborghini Gallardo out front! I learned more about this unusual business once I met the tour director and signed a fairly normal rental car agreement. The cars are all privately owned by one fellow, part of his larger collection. It's a little hard to wrap your head around, but these cars are his second tier autos. When he puts some miles on his exotics, he waterfalls them to this driving experience, then eventually sells them. He's a real example of the old saying about getting rid of a car when the ashtrays are full!

I needn't have worried about the driving experience. Though you are indeed in sole control of a supercar, you simply follow a lead car (a BMW X5) that the tour director drove. He knew the route, the places to slow way down for low-clearance vehicles, and the wide-open areas. (He also presumably had a radar detector.) We followed him and stayed in line, in order. It was a three-quarter-million dollar rubber band experience; the tour director would accelerate where the road was clear and safe, F430 following him would wait a few seconds, then punch it to catch up. No one seemed to have any problem with this; we all had our hands full just absorbing the cars.

As we moved into the driver's seat of each car, we got a brief rundown of the basic controls – seat and mirror adjustment, how to start the car, and choice of manual or automatic shifting -and off we went. This was a hilarious, and frustrating, reversal of the usual situation: Staring into an exotic's interior from behind a velvet rope line, hands in pockets or on camera, studying the controls and wondering what it would be like to drive. In the Gallardo, I had about 30 seconds to get set in a completely unfamiliar environment before we took off!

I asked the tour director how the local cops felt about this regularly scheduled Top Gear-style parade through their territories. He said that in the two years he's been running these tours, no one has ever gotten a ticket. In fact, out in the country where we drove, there are at least two sheriffs that are exotic car buffs that have stopped by at our driver/car exchange stops to look at the cars. One of them even offered to lead! (which he politely declined.)

We went out to the cars, and he handed me the keys to the 360 Spyder. (Think about those words for a second!)

Ferrari 360 Spyder

400 HP
0-60: 4.2 sec
Quarter mile: 12.8 sec

The 360 was a great car to start the tour with, and I mostly drove it on the freeway as we (quickly) drove the quartet out to the country. The car's power was within reach of what I was familiar with in the Mustang, though the experience is of course Ferrari 360 Spydercompletely different. When you get in, you immediately notice how low to the ground all these cars are. The seats are very firm, with a feeling of being a bit more rocked back than I'm used to. The side bolsters are designed for narrow Italian torsos; even though I'm a fit 40-42R, it was noticeably tight.

All the cars have F1-style clutchless paddle shifters rather than conventional manual shifters, which takes away the need for skilled clutch driving. I was a little disappointed at first, but for this drive it was perfect as these "flappy paddles" (as Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson likes to call them) protect both the driving…and the car. We
were so occupied with the driving experience already, it good to not worry about grinding a very expensive gearbox.

And of course the engine is behind you rather than in front. A mid-engine car is such a different experience! There's very close-to-the-road feel, with very good visibility, and the wonderful 50-50 balance that allows you to feel confident in the turns.

The 360 was very easy to drive, with the high-idling, high-revving 4.3L V8 easily doing whatever I wanted. I also learned the value of the aluminum plate in the passenger seat's footwell – to keep from wearing out the carpet as you clamp your feet down to hang on!

The most noise generated wasn't from the Spyder, however; it came from the F430 just in front of us.

Ferrari F430

483 HP
0-60: 3.7 sec
Quarter mile: 12 sec

The F430 was the successor to the 360. It has almost 100 more horsepower than its predecessor. And it has, hands-down, the DreamDrive-2247coolest sounding engine / exhaust combination. You wanted to play with this car just to hear the sounds! Unfortunately, the full video at the bottom just doesn't convey quite the sound, but I did make a recording with a 24-bit digital recorder. It still doesn't do it justice; you can better hear what the car really sounds like from my recordings from the cars behind it.

This car was a ton of fun, and I wish I'd been able to drive it longer and in less traffic. The exhaust note, the responsive engine, the shove-you-back-in-your-seat power, the bright red tach…it was just a wonderful experience.

You can listen to a minute or so of my F430 recording here.

Lamborghini Gallardo

512 HP
0-60: 3.5 sec
Quarter mile: 11.5 sec

This car (named after a famous Spanish breed of fighting bull) was very different than the Ferraris. It's to be expected, as tractor DreamDrive-2240maker Ferrucio Lamborghini started making cars when he became disgusted with Ferraris and what he felt was their lack of power (!). It was a bit tougher to get into, and the control layout and style was brand new. And as I said, I had about 30 seconds to get it figured out before the cars started moving!

The windscreen was at such a steep angle it was a bit tough to see out of when headed into the sun. And, unlike the Ferraris, the tach and speedo were rather small and matter of fact. I hardly ever looked at them because they were hard enough to read and I was generally preoccupied with other things, and chose to drive by sound. I do know Lamborghinis are far more comfortable to drive than they used to be; the joke was that your left leg would wear out from pressing down the huge clutch long before your desire to drive did.

But I did find the gas pedal. Did you know a Gallardo makes a "chuffing" sound during shifts after strong acceleration? It quite surprised me; the tour director later explained it was the big air intakes just back of both doors "inhaling" fresh air. The downshifts were distinctive as well, because the engine management electronics pre-match engine speed to the gearbox so if you aren't too close, you get a big rev out of it. The brakes took longer to engage firmly than either of the Ferraris, which was a bit disconcerting entering the first bend.

But oh, the power! With all wheel drive, I could just tell that we were really not tapping fully into this car's power. And the sound is also distinctly different than the Ferrari's (especially the F430's) howl.

You motorheads can listen to the Gallardo here.

Aston Martin Vantage Roadster

379 HP
0-60: 4.6 sec
Quarter Mile: 13.4

The Vantage was a different animal than the rest, a luxury sports car. It was also black, so in this bright collection of reds and Aston Martin Vantageorange it was very easy to go unnoticed. The leather seats felt almost sinful after the firm and spartan racing seats of the other three. We had the top down on this one, and it was very quiet, both the engine and the wind.

Until the tach cleared 4K RPM, then a little solenoid down somewhere in the exhaust flipped and we could suddenly hear the muscular V8, so much more like my Mustang than any of the others. It was definitely a fun drive, and we certainly kept our place in the long rubber band of exotics, but it wasn't the "oh my god" experience of the F430 or the Gallardo.

 

All these cars were very tight, responsive and fast. With the exception of the Astin Martin, they all made you want to stomp on it  and drive high on the tach. That's what they were made for! And the newer of them had safeguards in place to protect the car from the driver. The almost universal favorite among the drivers was the F430, with the Gallardo coming in second. The 360 was a lot of fun, too; I'm sure it would have really shown off its skills had we been able to drive on twistier roads.

This drive reset my perspectives on what fast and powerful really is, and how the Mustang compares to them. Though it's close to the same weight as them, the much greater horsepower, very high revving characteristics, and mid-engine configuration really made this a memorable experience.

PS: Dang it – I forgot to honk the horns! Guess I'll have to go back.

Drive Your Dream photos

Drive Your Dream video

On The Road Again

I'm spending the week driving through Texas, doing Windows Server 2012 road shows in Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. I've enjoyed doing these half-day shows, partly because I think WS2012 is a great product – but also because it gives me the excuse to take my new 2013 Mustang GT for some long drives!

If you've not been able to make any of these shows (I'm doing one more on Microsoft campus next week), I've made the links to these presentations for both waves of this show available on my Presentations page.