Adventures in Onionism

What have I been up to lately? I did a speed workout at the track today (part of which was a disappointing 6:04 mile) and I'm getting my dissertation ready to file. I wrote two of my papers in LyX and one in Word, and I'm now converting everything to LaTeX. The next time I get a PhD I will be sure to write all my papers in straight LaTeX from the get-go, because that is how real men do it. This past weekend I set up my replacement Henry Shires Contrail in my backyard to seam-seal it, and realized that I own 6 tents, which is probably too many. Does anyone want a well-used Sierra Designs Lightyear or an REI Roadster? Also, a size-small Gregory G-pack, OR Rocky Mountain Gaiters, size 9-11 or so Yaktrax sole inserts, and similar sized NB inserts (all unused). All free to a good home. I've got a Contrail that's been used less than a dozen times, I think it's a 2007 model. I'm selling that for $120. Most importantly, I'm headed to San Diego on Thursday for the AD...

I ran PCTR's inaugural Tilden 50K today. Today was the last PCTR 50K I have on my schedule for the next several months, and since there are obvious employment-based reasons that I might not live in the Bay Area next year, it might be my last for quite a while. Thus I really wanted to go all out and break five hours. I wasn't certain I'd be doing the race until this past week, since I just ran a 100-miler last weekend and a friend wanted me to go to the Grand Canyon with him, but once I signed up I was mentally ready to go all-out in my home park: Tilden. The course started at Lake Anza and repeated a 13-14K loop three times, then finished with a 9K lollipop-shaped out and back. The plan was to run the three loops in 1:20 each and the out and back in under an hour. I ran the loop in a practice run on Thursday and my time, as best I could tell, since I ran it with a slower friend and did all sorts of stops and starts on the watch, was 1:22. Under race conditions I thought I...

One week ago today I ran the Badger Mountain Challenge 100-mile race. I was in DC the first part of the week, then decided to take a few days of spring break to roadtrip up to Washington state with a friend. I stopped and hung out with the always-awesome Chigger, Lint, and Tomato in Portland, bought a dozen vegan Voodoo Donuts (meh) and wandered around Powell's city of books (awesome). I made an obligatory stop at the obvious waterfall on the drive east from Portland to the tri-cities area of Washington state, where the race was held. Signing up for the race was a last-minute decision, having not known how my legs would feel after the Pirates Cove 50K, or how my body would feel after another job interview. So I wasn't able to investigate the race or do much in the way of pre-race preparation. I began to sense frustration when I showed up Thursday afternoon at the running store where race packets were supposed to be held. The packets were not there and had all been taken to the ...