Mr Trail Safety Speaks!

Aug 1 97 Exhumed dispatches from the long-lost summer of 1997  Boulder, Colorado, just now digging out from the bungled Ramsey murder case now has the "Divine Madness' running club in the public eye. We have a Cult That Claims Not To Be A Cult; complete with the charismatic "leader" and his late night lectures, monitored eating habits, a heavy tithing program, and oooooooh boy, the kicker: *Sexual Selection*. That's right folks, Mr Tizer has caught the attention of the press because in addition to piling capricious ultra workout mileage on his club, he's culling out the prize fillies from the herd. Maybe he's also surveying jogbras as well. But seriously, being a coach is a tough job, and you gotta hand it to him. This scam is every guy's Totally Forbidden Fantasy. I can see some of you protesting vigorously "No! Not Me!! My secret fantasy is finding out more about brown urine and potassium imbalance...!, Blisters!! Orthotics...!!!" OK. All ...

1993 Angeles Crest 100 Mile Finish line at Johnson's Field, Altadena, CA.  L to R: Nancy, Coach Jim O'Brien, Larry Gassan, pacer Ray Deschenes. I repaid Ray by pacing him at WS in 94. On June 13, 2013, legendary coach Jim O'Brien was fired by the Arcadia High School for unspecified transgressions, despite two national titles and a winning record going back almost thirty years. ...O’Brien, now 60, was abruptly fired from his head coaching position at Arcadia. Runners, students, alumni and parents were shocked. O’Brien was not apparently involved in any scandal and, though his style has been described as intense, had no real detractors, other than the personnel associated at Arcadia High School associated with his firing. [from the TrailRunner article]   On July 24, 2013, friends, students and supporters of Coach Jim O'Brien came out and spoke directly to the Arcadia Unified School District Supervisors in an open meeting as to why Jim was important to them, th...

A while back there were a spate of posts on the presumed dangers and evils of NSAIDS. Whooooooooo, was I scared. There were sober-faced recitations of all the really Baaaaaad things that it would do to you, followed by 2nd-hand fatuous advice from MDs regarding same. But guess what? NSAIDS were taking the heat for incompetent training, bad "coaching" advice, and poor judgement by many ultrarunners. Several years ago, we were all treated to an account of a gal who turned her guts inside out at Across the Years, who was dehydrated, went to the hospital, was a CCU guest and all that...and NSAIDS got the rap. I can hear the wailing now, and little hands pounding away on the keyboards. Relax, it'll get yr minds off Jeopardy questions regarding the Southern flag, [of which there are 2: the civil ensign and the battle flag, but that's one for the re-enactors out there]. I digress. Where were we...pain killing! Pain killers MASK pain. Imagine. Blocks transmissions at c...

This could be you. Have a nice day. I originally posted this in 1999 or so. It has a long shelf-life and the mouth-feel is still wonderful. Recently there have been a spate of anguished "drops" from the UltraList regarding content, tone, and suitability of the message, if not the messenger. Inasmuch as the majority of these messages appear to be from relative newcomers to the sport, or the List, some clarifications are necessary. I want to thank Suzi Shearer and Laurie Staton for their historical reviews of basic Ultra Facts, such as "Grand Slam" info and other epistolary nuggets they kindly shared out amongst all of us. Be glad they paid attention to your requests...they are wonderful people with busy lives of their own. Also: The List is not a 7-11 One-Stop Info-Dump Carry-Out designed to get Newbies thru "Baby's First Ultra". It is a bulletin board. Most of the posts are superfluous and meaningless. Some are even pretty funny, intentional...