|
|
|
|
What's
|
by Michael Selman It has been said that runners have their best thoughts of the day while out running. Runner and writer Michael Selman shares his "Thoughts on Running" with us here at ontherunevents.com.
" W-O-W-W-W, Y-E-A-H, HEY BABY WAKE UP, COME AND DANCE WITH M-E-E-E....." Monica's chicken alarm clock bellows these words loud enough to get us all up on a typical Saturday morning. The clock is completely obnoxious, but I bought it for her when she was still living with her mother. Poetic justice, I thought at the time. How was I to know she was going to come and live with us? Nevertheless, this is what we are greeted with, and it's somewhat of a call to arms. We all slowly crawl out of bed, feel our way downstairs to brew a fresh pot of coffee, and put on the weather channel so we can try to determine how to dress for today's race. We grab a couple of bananas, and we're out the door. I drive and the rest of the family goes back to sleep for an hour or two. It doesn't bother me. I like the peace and solitude of watching the sun peaking over the eastern horizon. ( Naturally, I DO have to wake Lori up as we approach the race sight. After all, someone has to ask for directions ;-) Sunday afternoon races are completely different in all aspects. First, there are no chickens to deal with. That's the dominant plus. Eating also becomes a part of the approach. You want to eat long enough before the race so the food won't still be in your stomach trying to digest at race time, but you have to eat something or you'll be seeing spots by the time the flag drops. The best part about a Sunday afternoon race is the drive up. In stark contrast to Saturday mornings, the family is awake and talkative. And our conversations give me ideas for new articles, like this one. We were driving up to do the Barnsley Gardens Daffodil cross country run on March 24th of this year. Gerry Fahey hadn't given us the blow by blow description of the course until after we had already sent in our applications, so it was too late to back out. We were chatting with our "young adults" ( they insist we don't call them kids any more ) about what's going on with their schoolwork, and Monica started telling us about a research project she had to compile data on over the next month. It is called "Operation Road Kill." Their assignment was to look for and identify various dead mammals, reptiles, and amphibians along the Georgia highways, byways, and back roads. Additionally, they needed to note the surrounding terrain where the dead animals were found as part of their study information base. The following ground rules applied;
2) If the fleshy mound is decomposed to the point it can't be identified, it can't be used in the study. 3) You are not allowed to have your parents intentionally run over the animal. 4) You cannot find a dead animal in the woods and drag it out to the street. If you do a lot of your training on the roads of Georgia, I'm sure you've had your share of encounters with roadkill. If you run the same routes often, you've undoubtedly monitored the deterioration process of these victims, and how the effects of rain, sunshine, heat and humidity aid in that process. If you are in a larger city, you can usually call the department of highways and transportation, and they will send someone out to scoop up the remains before any damage is done. In smaller rural towns, it becomes more difficult. The powers that be will often refuse to clean up the refuse, as a dead opossum can suddenly become a significant landmark. "Well, you go down past three dirt roads, make a left after the second dead raccoon, and it's the third trailer on the right once you pass the dead possum." If your expired animal has to stay, the first day or two is not so bad. Rigor Mortis may set in during this time frame, but I can deal with that. It's days three through ten that make running really difficult. It becomes a question of how long you can hold your breath as you pass the carcass. Don't look down as you pass, either, because decomposition has already started. Hot, sweltering summer days accompanied by strong afternoon showers only enhance the experience. Finally, after about two weeks, the remains are pretty well flattened, and now it's mostly only a visual delight. We were all really excited about Monica's project, and, since we were already approaching Adairsville, we decided not to procrastinate any longer. Her requirements for the project were to identify ten different roadkills. They didn't all have to be different species, but ten different isolated incidents. Within two minutes, we had our first "kill." It was definitely a possum. The terrain was flat and wooded. Another three minutes and there was another sighting. This one was a squirrel. This was near farmland surrounded by pines. Kim, (call me Kimberly) squealed with delight. "This is fun" she said laughing. And then she added, "Hey Michael, you should write an article about this." Consider it done, Kimberly. We got to the race, ran through the most difficult cross country course any of us had ever experienced, and we all lived to tell about it. I suggested after the race that Monica might want to comb the course and find something else for her ever growing roadkill list. She gave me one of those stupid parent kind of looks. "Dad," she said. "Humans don't count. They are considered domestic animals." By Friday afternoon, Monica had identified nine different roadkills. She had a nice variety, including a rabbit, a hawk, a frog, and several possums. She still had one more to go. The following morning, we were greeted with " W-O-W-W-W, Y-E-A-H, HEY BABY WAKE UP, COME AND DANCE WITH M-E-E-E.....". An hour later, she had her tenth victim. It was a chicken alarm clock, and the terrain was our driveway.
Thanks Michael for sharing your "Thoughts on Running" with us here at
ontherunevents.com
Subscribe here to his list or just send him some feedback...he would like to hear from you !
Have you got a human interest story about a runner you know, running news or a race report to share ? ontherunevents.com is happy to share stories with our readers. Send us your stories, your experiences!
Copyright © 1999 ontherunevents.com, All rights reserved.
please visit
|
?
