Saturday, December 27, 2008
ATY 2008 Live Report
December 31, 2008, 11:11 AM
Dave again. First off, a big correction to yesterday's report. 72-hour race leader William Sichel is a Scot, not Irish! I'm not sure where I got Ireland from. ;-) William continues to look really good--he's a small, light guy and has a nice low stride and doesn't seem to waste any energy at all. He just keeps cranking out laps--they don't look very fast, but he doesn't seem to slow down much over the hours, and I've only seen him walk for a short distance a couple times, and the miles keep racking up. He's using this as a test race before a six-day in Athens in the spring. I'm betting that unless the wheels fall off or he decides to shut things down early, he's going to come very close to, if not pass, 300 miles. If so, he'd be the third person to do it in the history of the race, following John Geesler and Yiannis Kouros. Juli Aistars continues to lead for the women, and has extended her lead over perennial contender/winner Martina Hausmann. Juli's moving well again as the day warms up, and might get 250 miles. On a personal note, after my troubles with blisters and nausea/runs yesterday, a little Imodium and getting fixed up by Chris O'Loughlin and Andy Lovy did wonders. Another 55 laps put me ahead of race host Rodger Wrublik's son Gavin (he's almost 8 ;-) but he's since passed me again. I'll concede the victory if he gets past 50 miles. Gavin is currently going around with John Geesler, whose heel problems (some sort of bone problem, not the blisters I thought it was) have reduced him to a slow limp the last day or so. John stays out there, though he could pack it in anytime and nobody would fault him at all for it. 11-year-old Aaron Doman continues on his quest for 100, totally 33 and 66 the first two days. He'll have no problems.
In the 48-hour, it looks like a number of the second-day starters will do really well in the overall race. My current bet to take the win in Jeff Hagen, and I think Lisa Bliss might also pass first-day leader Hans Bauer. Lisa just ran by with her 100-mile lap, and looks like she's in good shape for her second day. If Jeff falters for any time at all, Lisa could pass him for the overall win. Early leader Tracy Thomas took a long break, and may be out again--I haven't seen her for a while. Jamie Huneycutt is coming up on 100 miles in the next couple hours, and will also finish among the leaders.
In the 24-hour, Wendell Doman took off as expected, and is cranking out consistent sub-3:00 laps. It'll be fun to see him move through the field as the day goes on.
Phil Rosenstein just walked by the start/finish and said "tell them how awesome I am". Okay, Phil, it's done! ;-)
Oops--just realized I screwed up an adjustment to the live results. All the 3rd-day starters in the 24-hour are displayed as Finished, while they are actually only 2 hours into their run. Better go fix it!
More later,
Dave
December 30, 2008, 1:32 PM
Dave again. Sorry for the long delay between posts, but things have been "interesting" here. Yours truly went out yesterday afternoon and decided to put in 20 miles, hoping to put together 50 over the three days in addition to timing duties. With little training, the 20 was rather painful, and resulted in a couple large blisters and some soreness. I stuck around until 9:30 p.m. or so last night, but the combination of miles and starting to get sick (a couple people in the area were already a little ill with colds, nothing to do with the race itself) just wiped me out, so I went off to sleep for eight hours or so. The first-day runners were into their last couple hours when I arrived back on the course around 7:00 this morning.
We sent the second 24-hour and 48-hour runners off at 9:00 a.m. Matt Watts finished his 24 leading that race with 117+ miles, though I'm guessing he'll get passed by one of the later runners. Wendell Doman has gone over 120 here before, and he's my current pick.
In the 48-hour, Tracy Thomas (dropping down from 72 hours because she has a tendency to get injured at the longer distance) has a comfortable lead over last year's winner Hans Bauer. After seeing Dr. Andy Lovy doing his medical magic on her early on day 1, I'm guessing she'll do well. We'll see whether any of the first day competitors can mount a charge, and how the second set of 48-hour folks do as they move up through the ranks.
In the 72-hour, perennial winner John Geesler led early, but blister issues on one foot have really taken their toll, and he's dropped several spots down the leader board. Achim Heukemes and Ireland's William Sichel were right there to grab the lead. Juli Aistars has looked very good since the start and currently has a 10-lap (5km) lead over Dagmar Grossheim. On the younger front, Aaron Doman, 11 (son of Wendell Doman and Sarah Spelt) is doing well. He comes out, runs a while, goes off to play with some of the other kids for a while, then comes back to run some more. He's shooting for 100 in 72 hours.
On the technical front, my apologies if you've noticed some odd displays on the leader board. We have had some "issues" with losing connectivity to the net, which resulted in "losing" runners from the board. We still had them in the timing computer, and no laps were lost in the main timing system. Those issues have since been fixed, so things should run a bit more smoothly from now on.
Back to the race!
December 29, 2008, 10:33 AM
Dave again. Everything went off at precisely 9:00 a.m., with Jamil Coury sprinting a first lap to assume the lead for a minute or two. ;-) Everybody's looking good, and in good spirits, settling in for the long day, two days, or three days that they're going to run. One quick note on the leader board: what you see through the web site is the same as they see here at the race, and we're finding that it's a bit too bright for people to see the leader on a big movie screen we have near the track. We're trying to fix it by changing fonts and colors, which is why things might look a little odd to those viewing on the web.
December 29, 2008, 7:32 AM
Dave again. We've made it to race day! If by any chance you've been looking at the timing information up to now, it's been showing test data that we're running here, to make sure that all the electrical and computer connections and other stuff are working. The leader board you see on the web site is the same one that's being projected to a screen alongside the track. We're a bit less than 90 minutes from sending everybody off for three days of fun! The weather looks good for the next three days.
December 28, 2008, 12:35 PM
Dave Combs here. Preparations are going into high gear here at Nardini Manor. As usual, race host Rodger Wrublik is trying to get a ton of the last-minute small details done but not getting enough sleep! Lots of runners are arriving already, though check-in doesn't actually start until 1:00 pm. I've just set up the ATY "race-day" page on the main race website (www.acrosstheyears.com), though of course the race doesn't actually start until tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. AZ time (1600 GMT). More later as things really get going!
December 27, 2008, 6:36 AM
Greetings to all readers! Lynn Newton, ATY's webmaster here. I'm writing this message from my home office in Columbus, Ohio, where today the unseasonably high temperature is predicted to reach the upper sixties! Today is packing day for me, as I have had little time to give any thought at all to preparations until now.
The purpose of this ATY News Blog entry is to initialize the page that will become the location of this year's Live Report. Periodic updates will be prepended today, tomorrow, throughout the race, and maybe a bit afterward, that will summarize progress and notable evens at the race site. There will be a link directly to this blog article at the top of the Web site's front page.
The weather during the race promises to be ideal, with daily high temperatures around seventy, the lows around forty-two, and sunny all day every day—utterly perfect for running! Nonetheless, for those who are coming into town for the race, we highly recommend that you bring warm clothing. The nights in the Arizona desert can chill one to the bone, and forty-two is not warm! And weather reports are not always reliably accurate.
Once again we are planning on presenting a webcast, this year with all the same features as before, but with better implementations, and the addition for the first time of a leader board that will be displayed on a screen to runners, and will also be visible to Internet visitors. Also, after a couple of frustrating years, Rodger finally seems to have worked out the problems that previously existed with his webcam, so looked for substantially improved reporting on that front. Ironically, because I also run the whole 72-hour race, I myself have never seen the beast in action.
Most returning runners know by now that the layout of the track and location of certain facilities will be changed substantially this year. Since I have not set foot on the property myself since I left last year's race, I know only what I've seen from the pictures Rodger sent, and from the descriptions he has provided, so it will be just as new and exciting to me as to everyone else.
Since I first visited the race in progress in Queen Creek on December 31, 1998, Across the Years has played a significant part in my life, becoming in turn a milestone, a tradition, a hobby, and an obsession. For as long as I live, my involvement with this race will be one of the top items in any list I make of Big Things I Have Done in My Life. This year will be my tenth consecutive year of participation, both as runner and as a volunteer, and as I now finally turn my thoughts toward doing it once again, despite being less trained than ever this year, I look forward to the tradition of meeting and saying hello to arriving runners the day before and on race morning, the joy of circling the track for hour after hour, the hope of racking up enough miles by the end that at least I won't be embarrassed by the total, the afterglow of the awards luncheon, and the satisfaction of writing up my inevitable report, for better worse.
And at this time, as people stream into town for the race, I can only hope and wish that all who participate, whether as runners, volunteers, crew members, or just observers, will find the experience as rewarding and satisfying as I have over the years.
Let the games begin!
—
Lynn Newton
Your Faithful Webmaster
Dave again. First off, a big correction to yesterday's report. 72-hour race leader William Sichel is a Scot, not Irish! I'm not sure where I got Ireland from. ;-) William continues to look really good--he's a small, light guy and has a nice low stride and doesn't seem to waste any energy at all. He just keeps cranking out laps--they don't look very fast, but he doesn't seem to slow down much over the hours, and I've only seen him walk for a short distance a couple times, and the miles keep racking up. He's using this as a test race before a six-day in Athens in the spring. I'm betting that unless the wheels fall off or he decides to shut things down early, he's going to come very close to, if not pass, 300 miles. If so, he'd be the third person to do it in the history of the race, following John Geesler and Yiannis Kouros. Juli Aistars continues to lead for the women, and has extended her lead over perennial contender/winner Martina Hausmann. Juli's moving well again as the day warms up, and might get 250 miles. On a personal note, after my troubles with blisters and nausea/runs yesterday, a little Imodium and getting fixed up by Chris O'Loughlin and Andy Lovy did wonders. Another 55 laps put me ahead of race host Rodger Wrublik's son Gavin (he's almost 8 ;-) but he's since passed me again. I'll concede the victory if he gets past 50 miles. Gavin is currently going around with John Geesler, whose heel problems (some sort of bone problem, not the blisters I thought it was) have reduced him to a slow limp the last day or so. John stays out there, though he could pack it in anytime and nobody would fault him at all for it. 11-year-old Aaron Doman continues on his quest for 100, totally 33 and 66 the first two days. He'll have no problems.
In the 48-hour, it looks like a number of the second-day starters will do really well in the overall race. My current bet to take the win in Jeff Hagen, and I think Lisa Bliss might also pass first-day leader Hans Bauer. Lisa just ran by with her 100-mile lap, and looks like she's in good shape for her second day. If Jeff falters for any time at all, Lisa could pass him for the overall win. Early leader Tracy Thomas took a long break, and may be out again--I haven't seen her for a while. Jamie Huneycutt is coming up on 100 miles in the next couple hours, and will also finish among the leaders.
In the 24-hour, Wendell Doman took off as expected, and is cranking out consistent sub-3:00 laps. It'll be fun to see him move through the field as the day goes on.
Phil Rosenstein just walked by the start/finish and said "tell them how awesome I am". Okay, Phil, it's done! ;-)
Oops--just realized I screwed up an adjustment to the live results. All the 3rd-day starters in the 24-hour are displayed as Finished, while they are actually only 2 hours into their run. Better go fix it!
More later,
Dave
December 30, 2008, 1:32 PM
Dave again. Sorry for the long delay between posts, but things have been "interesting" here. Yours truly went out yesterday afternoon and decided to put in 20 miles, hoping to put together 50 over the three days in addition to timing duties. With little training, the 20 was rather painful, and resulted in a couple large blisters and some soreness. I stuck around until 9:30 p.m. or so last night, but the combination of miles and starting to get sick (a couple people in the area were already a little ill with colds, nothing to do with the race itself) just wiped me out, so I went off to sleep for eight hours or so. The first-day runners were into their last couple hours when I arrived back on the course around 7:00 this morning.
We sent the second 24-hour and 48-hour runners off at 9:00 a.m. Matt Watts finished his 24 leading that race with 117+ miles, though I'm guessing he'll get passed by one of the later runners. Wendell Doman has gone over 120 here before, and he's my current pick.
In the 48-hour, Tracy Thomas (dropping down from 72 hours because she has a tendency to get injured at the longer distance) has a comfortable lead over last year's winner Hans Bauer. After seeing Dr. Andy Lovy doing his medical magic on her early on day 1, I'm guessing she'll do well. We'll see whether any of the first day competitors can mount a charge, and how the second set of 48-hour folks do as they move up through the ranks.
In the 72-hour, perennial winner John Geesler led early, but blister issues on one foot have really taken their toll, and he's dropped several spots down the leader board. Achim Heukemes and Ireland's William Sichel were right there to grab the lead. Juli Aistars has looked very good since the start and currently has a 10-lap (5km) lead over Dagmar Grossheim. On the younger front, Aaron Doman, 11 (son of Wendell Doman and Sarah Spelt) is doing well. He comes out, runs a while, goes off to play with some of the other kids for a while, then comes back to run some more. He's shooting for 100 in 72 hours.
On the technical front, my apologies if you've noticed some odd displays on the leader board. We have had some "issues" with losing connectivity to the net, which resulted in "losing" runners from the board. We still had them in the timing computer, and no laps were lost in the main timing system. Those issues have since been fixed, so things should run a bit more smoothly from now on.
Back to the race!
December 29, 2008, 10:33 AM
Dave again. Everything went off at precisely 9:00 a.m., with Jamil Coury sprinting a first lap to assume the lead for a minute or two. ;-) Everybody's looking good, and in good spirits, settling in for the long day, two days, or three days that they're going to run. One quick note on the leader board: what you see through the web site is the same as they see here at the race, and we're finding that it's a bit too bright for people to see the leader on a big movie screen we have near the track. We're trying to fix it by changing fonts and colors, which is why things might look a little odd to those viewing on the web.
December 29, 2008, 7:32 AM
Dave again. We've made it to race day! If by any chance you've been looking at the timing information up to now, it's been showing test data that we're running here, to make sure that all the electrical and computer connections and other stuff are working. The leader board you see on the web site is the same one that's being projected to a screen alongside the track. We're a bit less than 90 minutes from sending everybody off for three days of fun! The weather looks good for the next three days.
December 28, 2008, 12:35 PM
Dave Combs here. Preparations are going into high gear here at Nardini Manor. As usual, race host Rodger Wrublik is trying to get a ton of the last-minute small details done but not getting enough sleep! Lots of runners are arriving already, though check-in doesn't actually start until 1:00 pm. I've just set up the ATY "race-day" page on the main race website (www.acrosstheyears.com), though of course the race doesn't actually start until tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. AZ time (1600 GMT). More later as things really get going!
December 27, 2008, 6:36 AM
Greetings to all readers! Lynn Newton, ATY's webmaster here. I'm writing this message from my home office in Columbus, Ohio, where today the unseasonably high temperature is predicted to reach the upper sixties! Today is packing day for me, as I have had little time to give any thought at all to preparations until now.
The purpose of this ATY News Blog entry is to initialize the page that will become the location of this year's Live Report. Periodic updates will be prepended today, tomorrow, throughout the race, and maybe a bit afterward, that will summarize progress and notable evens at the race site. There will be a link directly to this blog article at the top of the Web site's front page.
The weather during the race promises to be ideal, with daily high temperatures around seventy, the lows around forty-two, and sunny all day every day—utterly perfect for running! Nonetheless, for those who are coming into town for the race, we highly recommend that you bring warm clothing. The nights in the Arizona desert can chill one to the bone, and forty-two is not warm! And weather reports are not always reliably accurate.
Once again we are planning on presenting a webcast, this year with all the same features as before, but with better implementations, and the addition for the first time of a leader board that will be displayed on a screen to runners, and will also be visible to Internet visitors. Also, after a couple of frustrating years, Rodger finally seems to have worked out the problems that previously existed with his webcam, so looked for substantially improved reporting on that front. Ironically, because I also run the whole 72-hour race, I myself have never seen the beast in action.
Most returning runners know by now that the layout of the track and location of certain facilities will be changed substantially this year. Since I have not set foot on the property myself since I left last year's race, I know only what I've seen from the pictures Rodger sent, and from the descriptions he has provided, so it will be just as new and exciting to me as to everyone else.
Since I first visited the race in progress in Queen Creek on December 31, 1998, Across the Years has played a significant part in my life, becoming in turn a milestone, a tradition, a hobby, and an obsession. For as long as I live, my involvement with this race will be one of the top items in any list I make of Big Things I Have Done in My Life. This year will be my tenth consecutive year of participation, both as runner and as a volunteer, and as I now finally turn my thoughts toward doing it once again, despite being less trained than ever this year, I look forward to the tradition of meeting and saying hello to arriving runners the day before and on race morning, the joy of circling the track for hour after hour, the hope of racking up enough miles by the end that at least I won't be embarrassed by the total, the afterglow of the awards luncheon, and the satisfaction of writing up my inevitable report, for better worse.
And at this time, as people stream into town for the race, I can only hope and wish that all who participate, whether as runners, volunteers, crew members, or just observers, will find the experience as rewarding and satisfying as I have over the years.
Let the games begin!
—
Lynn Newton
Your Faithful Webmaster
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Things Are Coming Together
ATY Runners,
We started setting things up on Saturday and have added some more pictures to the "ATY Track Improvements" album.
Jim O'Neil and Sue Norwood also added some pictures of their own, to their blog. You can view those at: "ATY Work Day"
We have a few changes this year that are really important, especially for those that are used to the way things have been for the past 5 years. New this year, setting up close to the big tent will no longer be allowed. The timing area has been moved to this location so that runners entering and exiting the big tent will no longer have to worry about which direction they were going in after extended stays in the big heated tent. All runners will be required to cross the mats before entering the tent and not allowed to cross the mats when exiting.
For those that are not familiar with how things work at ATY. every two hours the runners change direction on the track -- clockwise, counterclockwise, clockwise, etc. In the past, when runners went into the big tent to take a nap, change clothes, or whatever and then came back out, it's been troublesome trying to remember which direction they needed to go in. It will no longer matter, they will go in the direction that all of the other runner are currently going in.
Another change this year is the addition of a new "Quiet Tent" which will be located in the SE corner of the track. This tent is much smaller than our big tent and has limited space. We've had some complaints in the past that it's too noisy in the main tent, which has been really confusing to us to say the least (we thought this was a run, not a slumber party), but we want everyone to be happy and because of that, decided to have a dedicated tent for those that just have to have their quiet time. :-)
You will have to RSVP to get a spot in this tent and it will be on a first come, first serve basis - and only for runners that are actually running in that days race. There will be no 'night before their run' runners allowed. This tent will be heated and some cots will be available and like the big tent, the direction you go in when waking up from a long break will not matter. It is located at exactly the halfway point on the track. Contact me if you want a spot: nardinimanor@gmail.com
We have more people than ever before this year and are worried that we may run out of room in the big tent. We asked that everyone who planned to bring a tent, let us know in advance and with everyone that replied, we'll have just enough room for the runners only and nobody else. Crew members are welcome to share their runner's tents but we can't allow non-runners to setup their own personal tents inside (this only applies to inside, not outside on the grounds). Again, crew members are more than welcome to share your runners tent or set up as many tents as they wish outside on the grounds but first and foremost, we must take care of our runners. And please, the smaller the tent, the better (inside) - the limit is a 10 x 10 but remember, if everyone brings a 10 x 10, we'll only have room for about half the runners.
Also new this year, all runners will receive an 8.5 x 11 laminated name tag that you must display where you will be, when and if not running on the track. Whether it's on a table, chair, tent or even on your vehicle, for safety reasons, we want to know where you are if you're not on the track. No tents will be allowed in the big tent without one of these name tags. If staying in the quiet tent, you can pin your name tag on the sidewall above your cot. No small tents will be allowed inside of the quiet tent.
Another change is where you will go for registration. New this year, you will go to the front of the house and enter through the front door. We'll have a fire going, as well as warm fresh coffee. As in previous years, you will once again need to fill out the medical waiver. We wait until race time to do this so that our medical people have the most up to date information possible. Please allot enough time for filling out this form. To ease the onslaught of all those entering on the 29th, we've decided to offer early packet pick-up on the 28th, from 1:00 to 6:00 pm. My daughter Erica will be helping out in checking runners in.
See everyone really soon,
Rodger (ATY Host)
We started setting things up on Saturday and have added some more pictures to the "ATY Track Improvements" album.
Jim O'Neil and Sue Norwood also added some pictures of their own, to their blog. You can view those at: "ATY Work Day"
We have a few changes this year that are really important, especially for those that are used to the way things have been for the past 5 years. New this year, setting up close to the big tent will no longer be allowed. The timing area has been moved to this location so that runners entering and exiting the big tent will no longer have to worry about which direction they were going in after extended stays in the big heated tent. All runners will be required to cross the mats before entering the tent and not allowed to cross the mats when exiting.
For those that are not familiar with how things work at ATY. every two hours the runners change direction on the track -- clockwise, counterclockwise, clockwise, etc. In the past, when runners went into the big tent to take a nap, change clothes, or whatever and then came back out, it's been troublesome trying to remember which direction they needed to go in. It will no longer matter, they will go in the direction that all of the other runner are currently going in.
Another change this year is the addition of a new "Quiet Tent" which will be located in the SE corner of the track. This tent is much smaller than our big tent and has limited space. We've had some complaints in the past that it's too noisy in the main tent, which has been really confusing to us to say the least (we thought this was a run, not a slumber party), but we want everyone to be happy and because of that, decided to have a dedicated tent for those that just have to have their quiet time. :-)
You will have to RSVP to get a spot in this tent and it will be on a first come, first serve basis - and only for runners that are actually running in that days race. There will be no 'night before their run' runners allowed. This tent will be heated and some cots will be available and like the big tent, the direction you go in when waking up from a long break will not matter. It is located at exactly the halfway point on the track. Contact me if you want a spot: nardinimanor@gmail.com
We have more people than ever before this year and are worried that we may run out of room in the big tent. We asked that everyone who planned to bring a tent, let us know in advance and with everyone that replied, we'll have just enough room for the runners only and nobody else. Crew members are welcome to share their runner's tents but we can't allow non-runners to setup their own personal tents inside (this only applies to inside, not outside on the grounds). Again, crew members are more than welcome to share your runners tent or set up as many tents as they wish outside on the grounds but first and foremost, we must take care of our runners. And please, the smaller the tent, the better (inside) - the limit is a 10 x 10 but remember, if everyone brings a 10 x 10, we'll only have room for about half the runners.
Also new this year, all runners will receive an 8.5 x 11 laminated name tag that you must display where you will be, when and if not running on the track. Whether it's on a table, chair, tent or even on your vehicle, for safety reasons, we want to know where you are if you're not on the track. No tents will be allowed in the big tent without one of these name tags. If staying in the quiet tent, you can pin your name tag on the sidewall above your cot. No small tents will be allowed inside of the quiet tent.
Another change is where you will go for registration. New this year, you will go to the front of the house and enter through the front door. We'll have a fire going, as well as warm fresh coffee. As in previous years, you will once again need to fill out the medical waiver. We wait until race time to do this so that our medical people have the most up to date information possible. Please allot enough time for filling out this form. To ease the onslaught of all those entering on the 29th, we've decided to offer early packet pick-up on the 28th, from 1:00 to 6:00 pm. My daughter Erica will be helping out in checking runners in.
See everyone really soon,
Rodger (ATY Host)
Saturday, December 06, 2008
DryMax New Sponsor
We are pleased to announce that DryMax Sport Socks has just joined the ranks of Across the Years sponsors. We are pleased and grateful for their support and generosity, and look forward to seeing what they contribute.
