RFTM, B-ship, SSRelease, Finally found it

On Saturday I handled most of the stuff that needed to get done for the weekend, including tending the garden.  I harvested another big load of broccoli.  My broccoli crop this year has been the most productive in recent memory.  I bet I have been pulling florets for close to 3 months at this point with no signs of it slowing down.

I had the girls out at the house with me most of the day Saturday.  As always, their presence makes anything I am doing better.

I also had a chance to watch Battleship, the latest Netflix dvd that was sitting on my counter for a week or so.  It was a quality action film that kept me entertained from start to finish.  It’s a strong rental if you like this type of genre, B+.

I had to do the prep for the big 10K race I was timing on Saturday.  With this race I take on some additional responsibilities beyond race registration and timing, namely making sure the registration area is set up and running efficiently.  I got the truck all loaded up and ready to go Saturday night, I wanted to be on the road EARLY.

The alarm clock went off at a very unwelcomed 3:30 AM but I pulled myself out of the sheets, the drive to get the task accomplished taking control.  I was on site at 4:30 AM, a full 3 hours before the race start and an hour earlier than I normally would show up for any other race.

I was the only person there other than the security guard for the Philharmonic who let me inside so I could set up the registration tables.  I worked solo for nearly an hour, it was kind of weird, knowing that in a short period of time the area was going to be swarming with people.  I enjoyed the calm before the storm. By the time others started to stream in I had the registration area ready to go and had done everything I could until the equipment truck showed up.

The timing for the race went well, even with over 800 runners signed up.  Other than a few minor things everything ran smoothly.  I got off site by 10 AM, not bad for a 10K event.  Unfortunately I still had a bunch of race work to do once I got home as well.  This race has some additional requirements, similar to the half marathon which require me to do some data massaging.  I had a frustrating issue getting a file created for the race photographer, something I had done before, which made it more frustrating.

Right was in the midst of this aggravation I received an email from a race participant.  The man was complaining that we based age group awards on gun time (time when race starts to when you cross the finish line), instead of chip time. (time you cross timing mats at start line to the finish line).   I responded back to him saying we always base awards on gun time, thinking that would be enough to satisfy him.  No, instead I get this back in a few minutes.

Thanks for the reply. But I remain curious as to the reason?

I find it useful to be able to compare my true chip time time amongst the entire field of participants.

If GCR uses a computer program – this ranking can be done in seconds.

Just some feedback.

Well maybe I was just cranky from being up since 3:30 or it was the building frustration from my data export problems, but these few sentences really annoyed the shit out of me.  Especially the suggestion that I could meet his needs in a few seconds if we used a “computer program”.

I wound up deleting my original draft email which was chock full of sarcasm.  Instead I took a few seconds to locate an article that explained that the primary reason this is done is because it is the official way a race is to be scored by the the USATF, the governing body of the sport.  Luckily, this response was sufficient to answer his curiosity and end the message thread. If it would have continued beyond that my inner smart ass would have run wild.

I finally figured out my data issue and decided to go blow off some stress in the SSR.  I hadn’t driven the truck for over two weeks.  I made a road trip up to the outlets.  A few hard acceleration starts where I chirped the tires in second gear followed by top down highway cruising with Linkin Park blaring was all I needed to ease my bad mood.

The outlet trip was to buy stuff for one of my Bar-baric buddies in Russia.  He won a contest back in January but his prize somehow managed to vanish in the shady Russian postal system, never arriving at his door.  So I bought some new prizes and am hopeful they arrive safely this time around.

On the way back I had a weird urge.  I wanted to find a set of pull up bars and do some reps.  I remembered someone telling me that Pine Ridge Middle School had a decent set of pull up bars as well as other outdoor exercise stations.  After finding the school I walked around, having no idea where the stuff was located.

The school grounds looked a bit dated by Collier County standards which has a number of modern, lavishly equipped schools dotting the area.  In contrast this place looked like it had been around for at least 30 years.

Finally I found a huge field behind the school and spotted the pull up bars.  The bars, like everything else outside looked old.  I hopped on and did 20 pull up reps, it felt solid enough.

I then started walking around the perimeter and came across 10 more fitness stations, including monkey bars, parallel bars and even a balance beam.  I did a little something at each station.  I imagined how cool it would be to make a full workout of the circuit.  I estimate the run around the outside of the field is at least a half mile long, probably longer.  Repping and running from station to station would be a great way to spend an hour or two.

This was the first place I have found outside of my back yard in the Naples area that has legit calisthenics equipment.  I was very pleased with my discovery.  If you want to see the pics of the different stuff you can see it here.

The combo of the SSR ride and the the quick bodyweight work out soothed my inner beast.  It was a good weekend.