Friday, June 6, 2008

Final Thoughts

Gee, that almost seems like a dark title.

First of all, if any of you are in the Twin Cities area this weekend, make a trip down to Lake Nokomis to cheer on the FANS runners. You can meet many of the Motley Crew.

There will be

Steve Quick 24 hr(if only he did the 12 hr instead, he could battle Adam for the win. who knows how far he will go in the 24 hr?)
Carl Gammon 24 hr (a man with many great stories, yet modest and humble. Let's see that 100!)
Pierre Oster 24 hr(one of the most interesting characters around. Ask him about how he accidentally shot a grenade at his friends house. He might ride his bike there as well)
Julie Berg 24 hr (will she add more hardware to her mantle?.)
Adam Harmer 12 hr (looks like the only guy who could break 70 miles... but who knows).
John Taylor 24 hr (always has a funny anecdote during one of these. he is solid and experienced.)
Karen Gall 24 hr (she claims she is not that fast, but once she is in her zone, she can go far. at least 100 for her).

Those are the only people I know, but there are many more formitable competitors.

For me, well.... I will use some musical thematics to describe how I feel right now. I have always thought one of the best "build up" pieces of music was "The Pines of Rome" by Respighi. The final movement gets to my soul and brings me somewhere else.

I had the honor to play in the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra when I was in high school, and we played this piece my final year. The fourth movement starts out with a very soft marching beat. It is almost a sinister march. But there is a point when the woodwinds come in where it switches to the major key. At that point, it seems like a light of hope is cast upon everything (it is supposed to simulate an army marching on Rome). From that point on it builds up, slowly adding the brass with increased Fortes. The final bar includes a backup brass section blowing at an unprecidented 5 fortissimos. The piece is famous for that (the only piece which has printed 5 "F"s on the last note.

If you saw Fantasia 2000, this was the piece with the whales. They got close to what the depiction was supposed to be, but I always saw it different.

So, the 5 "f"s is the finish line with an incredible march toward it.

I will also be thinking of the people who have inspired me throughout my life. One being my mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984. She went through chemo hell for over a year. She never complained and never missed a beat. Back then it was pretty barbaric. Through all of her suffering and pain, she still made it to all of the kids events and would yell "run hard, play well". My brother used to mock her by saying that to me (in her voice), so those word mean a lot to me know. She still will say it with a smile when I do stuff like this. (my brother never moked her when she was sick, he is a good man).

Tomorrow can't be as hard as going through chemo for a year. So that will be it.

I will be yelling out to the FANS crew on Saturday night. I hope they can hear me.

And finally, the forecast looks tough.

3pm tomorrow - Whitewater, WI
90 degrees
68% dewpoint.
holy cow, that's hot.

At least we are not running fast!

If you have not read the "you might be an ultrarunner if..." on the right, do it.

Here is my favorite, which applies to this weekend.

"You might be an ultrarunner if...... the winner of the race finishes on a different day than you do"

And with that, I am out of here!


keith said...

It sounds like it's going to feel wet out this weekend. If not literal rain, then for sure tropical humidity.

I kinda like that, though. Good for the sinuses.

Get your aid station card pinned on and get yer shoes tied up!!

Runnin-from-the-Law said...

Good luck Matt! Can't wait to hear how it goes!

SteveQ said...

Oh goody, you have even worse weather to contend with than we do. I'll think of you whenever I feel like stopping.

Elephant rock is worth the side trip!