Forbes a Double Winner at Elite Meet

The sustained excellence that has defined Carla Forbes' high school track and field career was on display again Sunday at the MSTCA Elite Meet at Reggie Lewis. Forbes was the only athlete, male or female, to win two individual events, taking the 55m dash in 7.17 and the long jump in a meet record 19-06.5. Both marks are best in the state this year, as is Forbes' 40-10 triple jump form the Dartmouth Relays.

In the long jump, Forbes effectively won the competition on her first jump, a leap of 18-04.5 that only hinted at what was to come. She followed that initial effort with the following series: 18-08 18-07 18-04.25 19-04 19-06.50. That's six jumps with no fouls and none worse than 18-04. By the way, Jessica Scott won the battle for second, jumping 17-05.5.

In the 55, Forbes won her heat in a personal best 7.26, and then somehow found another tenth of a second, setting another personal best and school record 7.17 in the final. That time was only 0.07 of the previous meet record, set 25 years ago in n 1987.

Forbes wasn't the only NN athlete to excel on Sunday. Teammates Kayla Wong ran a personal best 8.28 in the 55 hurdles to finish 4th behind the state's three best hurdlers Nicole Genard (8.00), Vanessa Clerveaux, and Jen Esposito. Wong also placed 8th in the long jump with a leap of 16-09. Kayla Prior also competed in the LJ, and had a best leap of 15-10.05.

Newton North's 4x200 team was also in a position to compete for the win, but contact with the Brockton team (who were disqualified for interference) ruined their chances.

For the NN boys, Swardick Mayanja had the best performance of the day, winning the shot put with a throw of 54-02.05. Not to be overlooked, Young Guang also broke 50 feet, placing 5th with a mark of 50-10.25 on his first throw.

Ryan Lucken placed 5th in the 300 (36.08) and, according to published meet results, ran on both of NN's relays. The 4x200 team (Bressler, Lucken, Menninger, and Seamons) placed 4th (1:33.36) and the 4x400 team (Keefe, Lucken, Wagner, and Seamons) placed 7th (3:32.16). If others ran instead of the ones listed, please let me know!

In the 1000, Justin Keefe was 8th (2:34.71) and sophomore Gabe Montague was 13th (2:36.90).

Elite Relays - Complete Results on MSTCA Web Site

Photo Coverage by NewtonSportsPhotography

Jess Barton Runs 1:15:53 in Half-Marathon Debut!!

In her first attempt at the distance, Newton North grad Jess Barton placed second in the 3M Half-Marathon in Austin, Texas, in a dazzling debut time of 1:15:53 (5:47 pace).

She might have run significantly faster, but according to her own account of the race, after leading the race through 8 miles (5:40 pace / 1:14:25 pace), she experienced increasing quad pain from the net downhill course (315' drop over 13.1 miles), and slowed down significantly over the final 5k, despite feeling strong, aerobically.

Her 2nd place finish (behind world-class triathlete Kelly Williamson) earned her $1000.

Barton, who graduated from Northeastern in the Spring of 2011, now lives and trains in Boulder, where her focus is on training to be a professional triathlete. She was a two-time MA D1 cross-country champion (2004 and 2006), and graduated from NNHS in 2007.

Congratulations, Jess!!

NNHS Alumni Results 2012 BU Terrier Invitational

On Friday and Saturday Boston University hosted the Terrier Invitational, and as it always does, the meet served up heat after heat of really fast folks running season's best times.

In the mile, Providence's David McCarthy scared the collegiate record, running 3:55.75 to finish ahead of Mass. native and former BC star Tim Ritchie, who also broke 4:00 with a 3:58.49.

I counted four Newton North alumni in the meet, although I might have missed some. There were also a slew of former Brookline H.S. distance runnners, and several friends of NSRP competing.

In Saturday morning's unseeded 5000, Bates senior Ben Chebot ran what I believe is a personal best 15:14.59, finishing 4th in the second of 4 sections.

Hymlaire Lamisere competed in both the 60m and 200m dashes. Hymlaire ran 7.27 in the short sprint, and then won his heat of the 200 in 22.93.

Respectable citizen and certified adult Dave Cahill continued his quest to get back under 52 seconds for the 400, running a very respectable 52.42 to place 2nd in his heat.

MIT's Jared Forman had a nifty time in the 800, clocking 1:57.61 to place 2nd in section 8.

I mentioned the Brookline distance crew. Rob Gibson ran 14:14.85 in the seeded section of the 5000m, and I believe that's a personal best for him. In an unseeded heat, Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot ran 16:09.81. In the 3000m, Christian Sampson ran 8:50.50, and Chris Mercurio ran 9:00.70.

Also in the 3K, friends of NSRP Paul Norton ran 8:40.83, and Andrew Wortham ran 8:44.23.

Results Courtesy of Lancer Timing

Depth, Balance Carry NN Boys to 2nd in DI State Relays

Justin Keefe anchor's NN's 3rd-place DMR (photo: Patrick Bendzick).

Newton North's boys indoor track team placed in the top four in five separate events, earning a runner-up finish in the D1 State Relays Saturday.

North showed balance, getting 14 points from the sprint relays, 12 from the mid and long medley relays, and 10 from the field events.

Their lone first place came in the shot put relay, where the Tigers threw for a combined 42.91m (140-09.5) to win by four feet.

North also placed 4th in the 4x50 (22.61), 2nd in the 4x200 (1:33.24), 3rd in the sprint medley (3:40.21), and 3rd in the distance medley (10:43.92). The Tigers also placed just out of the scoring in the high jump relay, missing 4th place by a mere 1.5 inches.

Heading into the final event, North was tied with Lowell for the lead in points. Unfortunately for North, they had used their runners elsewhere and didn't have a team entered. Having only to place in the top six, Lowell finished 4th, earning the points that brought the school its first-ever Relays State Championship. Newton hung on for second, two points ahead of Acton-Boxborough.

In a Class By Themselves:NN Girls Rule D1 State Relays

Kayla Wong anchors the record-setting hurdle relay (photo: Patrick Bendzick)

We all knew they were good, but 59 points at the State Relays?!

The Tigers won half of all the events contested, and four of the seven running events, on their way to scoring an incredible and unassailable 59 points, or 12 points more than they scored to win in 2011, and 23 better than runner-up Andover. (Bay State rival Weymouth also had a strong meet, finishing 3rd with 30 points.)

The NN girls finished 4th in the 4x800 (9:56.01), then won the sprint medley (4:15.05), shuttle hurdle relay (29.11, all-class record), shuttle dash relay (24.52, all-class record), and 4 x 400 (4:03.74). In the field events, they won the long jump with a meet record 15.04m (49-04.25), and tied for 3rd in the high jump with a combined 4.27 (14-00). The Tigers very nearly got more, finishing just out of the points (7th) in the shot put.


Carla Forbes anchors the NN 4x400 (photo: Patrick Bendzick)

Results on ma.milesplit.com

NN Teams Up to the Challenge, Sweep Weymouth

Although many of us focused on last night's battle between the Newton North and Weymouth girls, it was the boys meet that nearly became an instant classic. Event-by-event, the Wildcats held their own against the heavily favored Tigers, and it looked like it was going to come down to the relay.

Here's how close it was: Had Weymouth's Tyler Mulcahey managed to clear any of his three attempts at 5-11, and if Ronald Homere managed to hit the finish line of the 55m dash two-hundredths of a second faster, it would have been 47-43, Newton going into that final 4x400. But those things didn't happen. And even if they had, North had the horses to run a season's best 3:33.14 in the relay, leaving no doubt about the outcome.

The Tigers won seven of the ten individual events, with particularly strong showings in the shot put (9-0), 300, and the aforementioned 55 dash. Ryan Lucken was a double winner (300 and 55), while Young Guang had another strong meet, winning the HJ and finishing 2nd in the Shot Put. I wonder if Young is planning on competing in the individual pentathlon. Here are his marks from yesterday: 5-9 high jump, 49-3.5 shot put, 9.55 hurdles (in addition to a 7.07 55 dash).

In addition to their strength in the sprints and shot put, North won three close races in the mile (Justin Keefe, over Nolan Parsley), 1000 (Gabe Montague), and 600 (Daniel Swain). Those were welcome points, as Weymouth took 2nd and 3rd in each of those events to keep the score close. The Wildcats went 1-2 in the long jump and 55 hurdles, and also won the 2M. They came very close, but in the end it wasn't quite enough to dethrone the decade-long defending Carey champs.

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The girls meet had some great individual performances on both sides, but Newton North had the greater depth as well as the incomparable Carla Forbes, and in the end pulled away to leave-no-doubt 64-31 win.

The first event was a harbinger for the rest of the meet, as Evie Heffernan won a terrific battle in the mile against two of Weymoth's best, Julie Tevenan and Bridget Jaklitsch. The momentum continued in the 1000, with Miller McCarthy-Tuohy winning another close race against Allison Brady. In the 600, Jen Kimball (league best 1:39.49) raced to victory over Meghan Bellerose (1:39.86), but with the exception of the shot put and 2M, there were few other highlights for the Wildcats.

Newton dominated the sprints and jumps. Not coincidentally, that's where Carla Forbes keeps office hours, and the junior scored a career high 19 points by winning three events outright (300, 55, and LJ), and sharing first place in the high jump with teammate Lucia Grigoli. Kayla Wong won the hurdles and took 2nd in both the long jump and 55 dash, scoring 11 points.

And for good measure, North won the relay in 4:10.15.

With the Bay State Care Division well in hand, now it's on to the State Relays, and a big test against the rest of the state.

Full results are posted on Cool Running.

Newton North v. Weymouth on Thursday (Girls Preview)

It's a big week for Newton North's indoor track programs. On Thursday, North competes against Weymouth in a much-anticipated dual meet, and on Saturday the Tigers compete at the DI State Relays.

Mike Miller would like a preview of the NN-Weymouth girls meet, and why not? These have been the two preeminent teams in the Bay State league for the last few years, and their battles usually bring out big performances.

However, with the exception of 2010, these meets have turned out to be LESS close than predicted. In 2010, the meet came down to the relay, but that hasn't been true in any other recent year. Weymouth won decisively in 2008 and 2009, and Newton won decisively in 2007 and 2011. Then there was 2010, where an epic and close 4x400 settled the matter in North's favor, 46-40. It's a curious fact that if Weymouth had managed to win that one relay (and it was very close), the total number of points scored over the last FIVE YEARS of dual meets would would be 232.5 to 232.5 -- I'd say that's a pretty even rivalry.

Of course, scores don't tell the whole story. Meets can be very close without the score reflecting that closeness. A few hundredths of a second here or there can make a big difference. Anyway, that's the way I've felt about these meets for the last few years.

But this year feels different. This year, it feels as though the score will be close, perhaps very close, but many of the individual events seem to have clear favorites.

Taking the events in roughly the order in which they will be contested, I'd expect the mile to be one of the exceptions to my point. above. That is, the mile should be a close event that could go either way. Weymouth's great distance crew are regaining racing sharpness after a long cross country season and some recovery time. Newton's Evie Heffernan is a formidable foe. I'm going to say 5-4 for the Tigers.

Reverse that for the 1000, with Weymouth getting the win, and Newton taking the next two places for a 4-5 score.

In the 600, Meghan Bellerose appears to be on a new level. She won last year, and I don't see anyone beating her this year since she's gotten faster. 5-4 for Newton. Likewise, Carla Forbes in the 300, with Madi Nadeau 2nd.

In the sprints and hurdles, Kayla Wong is the best hurdler in the league, and Carla Forbes is money in the 55. Both of those events should go to Newton, and I think the Tigers will pick up thirds in both events.

Weymouth has dominated the 2M in recent years, and I think they'll go 1-3 this year, with Becca Trayner taking 2nd. If my math is correct, that gives the Tigers a 36-27 edge in the running events (minus the relay).

The high jump is the most unpredictable event in the meet, and it happens fairly early. Weymouth really has to win it to have a shot in this meet. I think it's a toss up between Kate Pearce and Lucia Grigoli, and no doubt I am forgetting someone who will end up out-jumping both of them, but I'll score it 4-5, with Weymouth getting the win.

The long jump will be exciting, but it's hard to imagine any result other than Carla Forbes first. Let's say this goes 6-3 to North. In the shot put, Weymouth's Nostia Amazan gets the win with Michaela Salvucci second. The field events make it 49-41 in favor of Newton.

In the last five years, only one event has tracked the result of the meet exactly. The team that wins the relay wins the meet every time. Even if it's closer than what I've outlined above, I think North will win the relay and the meet.

In any case, predictions are just for fun, and they don't matter! Good luck to BOTH teams. I hope that the competition brings out personal bests on both sides.

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The boys deserve a preview, too, but I'm not going get to it. My prediction: North will be tough to beat.

Thoughts on the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials

Was this the best "Trials" ever?

For the men, the times were certainly at a new level this year. Before Saturday, only one American, Ryan Hall, had ever run under 2:10 in a Trials race. At Houston, four men did it in the same race, with 2008 Olympian Dathan Ritzenheim in the excruciating position of running a personal best of 2:09:55, becoming the fourth-fastest Trial performer in history, and not making the team.

To put those times in perspective, the previous fastest Trials race was in 1980 -- the so-called "race to nowhere" since the U.S. boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games -- where three runners, led by Tony Sandoval in 2:10:19, finished under 2:11. Other than Ryan Hall's Trials record from 2008 in NYC, no other American man had EVER run under 2:11 in a trials race.

By the way, while I don't begrudge Meb his heartfelt celebrations and grabbing and waving an American flag in the final 400 meters, I think there's little doubt that he was capable of taking Hall's record and running the first sub-2:09 Trials had he focused on running hard to the line. But never mind that; Meb has never been about time, but about competing, and he won the race just 69 days after hanging in with the world's best at New York. Meb can do whatever he wants, as far as I'm concerned.

The depth of the race extended deep into the pack, with 8 men running sub 2:12, and 22 running 2:15 or better.

As impressive as the finishing times were, what was more striking about the men's race were the splits. Thanks to Hall, the men ran hard from the beginning, splitting 29:53 (2:06:08 pace!) for 10K. That's basically unheard of for an All-America race, and yet, even at that pace there was still a pack of seven runners in the mix. Remarkable!

The women didn't start out fast, in fact, they dawdled through a 6:11 first mile (2:41:30 pace) before Desi Davila ratcheted the pace down to something more reasonable. Once they got going, however, the women were all business. The first half was run in 1:13:30, and the top three women all negative split the second half, with Shalane Flanagan running 1:12:08 to win in a Trials record 2:25:38.

Davila and Kara Goucher finished only 17 and 28 seconds back, respectively, and the top three were not seriously in doubt over the final five miles. Amy Hastings, Davila's college teammate at Arizona State, took the fourth spot in a PR 2:27:17, also under the old Trial record.

The performance of the day might have been that of Linda Somers Smith, who, at age 50, ran 2:37:36 to finish 28th. You are forgiven if you don't recall that Somers Smith finished second in the 1996 Trials race -- SIXTEEN YEARS AGO, and at age 42 finished 10th in 2004 in 2:37:28. So she slowed down one second per year over the last 8 years. Unbelievable. In case you're wondering, plugging Somers Smith's performance into an age-grading calculator yields an age-adjusted time of 2:22:21.

So it was a great day of racing. It's too bad that there was no live TV coverage of the race, and that the delayed broadcast by CBS was, as usual, mediocre. I'm not sure why the network thinks that Tom Hammond is the right person to host the coverage; he doesn't appear to have any insight into distance running, and never offered much in the way of background information about the athletes or the Trials race. The two experts, former USATF CEO Craig Masback and former Olympian Todd Williams, provided the occasional background story or insight into the race, but the whole team seemed to be hampered by not knowing (or not bothering to mention) the split times, the gaps, etc. It's a shame that the networks still struggle with basic stuff like this, and can't seem to cover long distance races with a passion that matches the excitement of the running community.

Lucken, Guang Lead NN Over Brookline

In a meet that was closer than the score, Newton North's boys mostly neutralized Brookline's distance strength, and pulled away in the sprints and field events to defeat the Warriors 61.3 to 31.6.

Senior Justin Keefe and Sophomore Gabe Montague had big (and close) wins in the 1M and 1000, respectively, to get the Tigers off to a solid start. The teams traded 1-2 finishes in the 600 and 300, before heading into the sprints, where North had a decided edge.

As expected, Ryan Lucken won both the 300 and 55, with North sweeping there. Senior Young Guang had a big day, winning the 55 hurdles and the shot put (what a double!) and taking 3rd in the 55 dash. Shawn Seamans also had a key role in the win, as he won the long jump and placed 2nd in the 300.

North mostly dominated the field events, at least as far as the points were concerned. The Tigers swept the shot put, went 1-2 in the high jump with Hansen Yang winning, and 1-3 in the long jump.

As for the girls, in their first meet since the Dartmouth Relays, they won every running event, and swept all but three events (Brookline won the high jump, got a 2nd in the 2-mile, and a 3rd in the shot put) to hold the Warriors to single digits in an 86-9 win.

Kayla Wong (55 hurdles and LJ) and Carla Forbes (55 dash and 300) were double winners. Evie Heffernan (1M), Miller McCarthy-Tuohy (1000), Meghan Bellerose (600), Becca Trayner (2M), and Michaela Salvucci (SP) all won their events.

Bay State Meet #3 Results on Cool Running

Tanzania Journal Day 12:Ngorongoro Crater

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Running Log, 1/4/11 -- Rest

January 4th was Joni's birthday, and as hard as it was to believe, this would be our last day of Safari. Waking in the cold pre-dawn and looking out over the edge of the world, Arusha seemed a thousand miles and a lifetime away. And yet, our plan was to spend all morning and early afternoon in the crater below, and then pack up and return to the city that evening in time to celebrate with dinner in an actual restaurant. But first, Ngorongoro lay all unexplored beneath us. With the sun not yet up, we dragged ourselves from our tents, ate a quick breakfast and drank instant coffee, and then climbed into the Land Rover for one more adventure.

Descending into Ngorongoro Crater from the rim is not a casual undertaking. Although the floor of the crater covers approximately 100 square miles, there is only one road for vehicles like ours to use to enter the crater, and only one road (a different one) for leaving. Since the rim is 2000 feet higher than the crater floor, these roads are steep and winding. It took us an hour from the time we left our campsite to when we reached the bottom and began to explore.



Hyenas

There is a quote, attributed to Maurice Greene, I think, that goes like this:

"Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must move faster than the lion or it will not survive. Every morning a lion wakes up and it knows it must move faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn’t matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be moving."

This is a great quote, but now seems to me completely wrong. Gazelles don't survive by running around all day in the hot sun, they survive by sticking together and avoiding places where the lions like to hang out. Lions don't survive by challenging every random Zebra to a footrace, but by sleeping in the shade as much as possible, and by killing when success is near-certain. The animals in Africa seemed to have a limitless patience and spent most of their time watching, waiting, biding their time. And if there was one characteristic that seemed common to every creature on the Savannah, it was the desire to avoid unnecessary effort. Which brings me to the hyenas.

We had only been driving in Ngorongoro for a 5-10 minutes when we came upon a developing "situation" involving zebras and hyenas. The zebras were grazing, but warily. Nearby, a hyena was approaching but at an agonizingly slow pace. Every so often, the hyena would stop, and look around for reinforcements. We saw that there were other hyenas not far off, and that they were also walking very slowly, almost in formation, approaching the zebras. The zebras kept lifting their heads, looking around, moving off a little ways, re-adjusting their circle. The hyenas kept closing in. Rob pointed out a hyena that was not participating. It looked like its leg had been damaged, and Rob guessed that it had been injured by a swift, powerful kick from one of the adult zebras in the family now being stalked.

This went on for a half an hour, with us not able to take our eyes off the drama. Eventually, we counted seven hyenas in a deadly formation drawing closer and closer to their prey, and we were sure that at any moment they would launch a coordinated attack on the youngest or oldest or weakest member of the herd. Instead, when they reached the moment of truth, they all seemed to look at each other, look at the strong adult zebras staring back at them, and they gave up. They simply dispersed back into the tall grass and saved their energy for another time. Even with seven of them, these hungry predators couldn't afford to waste calories on a high-risk sortie and get a fatal kick for their trouble. They would wait until another time, perhaps when a foal didn't stay close enough to its mother, or a a zebra came up lame and couldn't keep pace when all the others began to run....

Lions: No shade left for me?

As in the Serengeti, there were many Land Rovers driving the dusty roads at the bottom of the crater. All of us were looking for the same big animals, and whenever any one of our vehicles spied something interesting, it was only a matter of time before others would gather. It was not uncommon for two dozen or more Land Rovers to pull of the road in approximately the same spot for the same view of Lions or Rhinos.

So it was that when we saw a mini traffic jam of vehicles, we headed over to see what was going on. Out in the field, we could see three young male lions. This was impressive, but what happened next was unexpected and unforgettable. The first lion got up and began to walk very slowly directly toward us. When he reached our truck, he turned and walked alongside and past it, and then lay down in the shade, directly alongside one of the other vehicles.




If you have ever seen a lion in a zoo, I am sorry, but you have seen an out-of-shape lion. You have seen a lion that has not been hitting the weights, a lion that is flabby and untoned. Having a fit lion amble within a few feet of you, it's impossible not to notice that there is no fat and a LOT of muscle. In that moment, all of the jokes we had made about lions liking to lie around (they do) and being lazy (they are) seemed pathetically beside the point. These creatures are nature's ultimate sprinting and killing machines, superbly designed for hunting down large quadrupeds and tearing them apart like six-hundred pound breakfast pastries.

And at that moment, this heavily muscled thug just wanted to find a little shade from the mid-day sun. All these land rovers filled with camera-wielding tourists -- just an opportunity to get out of the direct sun for a few minutes.

Then, the second lion repeated the same performance. And then the third lion thought it was a good idea, so he came looking for shade, too. I managed to get a video of the third lion:



I wonder what the driver of the other car was thinking, with those animals under his window. I know what I was thinking: "close the window!"

Rhinos



The picture above was taken from many hundreds of yards away, which was the closest any of us got to the pair of black rhinoceros slowing making their way across the plain.

The rhinos are a sad story, it seems to me. There are very few of them left, having been hunted nearly to extinction for their horns. Within Ngorongoro, the rhinos are under 24-hour protection from poachers.

Baboons

There were forests in the crater, and in the forests were our old friends the elephants and the baboons. The first time I had seen baboons in Tarangire, I had been intimidated, but the more I watched them, the more I liked them. In Ngorongoro, we came across a large colony of baboons and spent twenty minutes watching them forage for food, the babies riding on the backs of adults, or clinging to their bellies.

Like the elephants, the baboons seemed mostly to want to be left alone to enjoy life with their large extended families. Here's another short video of baboons having a nice family dinner... and absolutely nothing happens...



Other Creatures

Water Buffalo, Golden Cranes, Warthogs, Maribu storks, Ostriches, Wildebeest, Secretary birds, and a Serval Cat... I like cats, but this was the strangest "cat" I'd ever seen...



Next: Leaving Ngorongoro

NN Girls 2nd at Dartmouth Relays

A slew of outstanding individual performances and relays nearly brought Newton North's girls another Dartmouth Relays title. The Tigers finished with 60 points, tied with La Salle Academy (RI) and a mere two points behind Colonie HS (NY).

Carla Forbes had an incredible meet, even by her standards. The Newton North junior won both the long jump and the triple jump, finished 3rd in the 55 dash, and ran on two scoring relays, including the winning 4x200 relay. In the triple jump, Forbes mark of 40-10 obliterated a 15-year-old meet record by nearly a foot and a half. In the long jump, her mark of 19-4 won by 8 inches.

Steph Brown had the other individual win for the Tigers, Brown was the only competitor to clear 11-6 in the pole vault, earning 10 points for the victory.

Other NN athletes scoring points were Meghan Bellerose who placed 3rd in the 800m run in 2:22.27, and Kayla Wong who ran 8.58 in the finals of the 55 hurdles to nail down 5th place.

In addition to the winning 4x200 team (1:48.29), NN's sprint medley of Wong, Forbes, Madi Nadeau, and Bellerose, placed 3rd (4:17.13), and their 4x800 team (Maggie Heffernan, Bellerose, Miller McCarthy-Tuohy, and Evie Heffernan) finished 8th in 10:06.79.

2012 Dartmouth Relays - Final Girls Results

Tanzania Journal Day 11:Empakai

View from the rim of Empakai Crater

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Running Log, 1/3/11 -- 3M at Ngorongoro Campground

This was Day 7 of our Safari and for the first time we would be staying the same place for more than one night. It felt luxurious to watch other campers pack up all their stuff, knowing that we were staying put.

Although the wonders of Ngorongoro beckoned to us from below, our plan for today was to drive about 2 1/2 hours further up into the hills to a smaller, more remote crater called Empakai. Unlike the game drives, where we were more or less confined to our vehicles, we had chosen to drive to Empakai for what Rob said was the opportunity to spend much of the day hiking. That was the plan. It turned out that we didn't fully understand the nature of the adventure, and the hike ended up being quite different from what we had imagined.

The first clue came only a few minutes after we set off in the Land Rover. Instead of immediately heading North, toward the higher mountains and our destination, we backtracked to the local ranger station. There we picked up a park ranger who would be escorting us for the entire day. It turned out that this was a requirement for visiting Empakai.

Our ranger-for-hire wore a dark green uniform and carried a rifle. His bearing was that of a military man, alert and all business as he took a seat next to Rob in the front of the Land Rover. Although he spoke English, he and Rob would periodically exchange brief remarks in Swahili, presumably about wildlife activity where we were headed, and other practical matters.

We soon turned off the paved road, and began heading Northeast. We were now approaching the massive Ol Doinyo Lengai from the highlands to its West, effectively completing a huge circle that had begun several days ago. After our first night in Tarangire, we had driven the better part of a day through the dry valley on the Eastern side of the Rift Escarpment gazing up at the imposing and mysterious Ol Doinyo to the West; we had camped at Lake Natron near the Kenyan Border; we had turned West to climb the escarpment on the worst roads any of us had ever seen and had entered the Northern Serengeti near Loliondo; we had made our way South through the Seronera and Central Serengeti to follow the lives of the wildlife there; we had driven further South to Lake Ndutu, and from Lake Ndutu we had driven East again to enter Ngorongoro Conservation area and begin the long climb up the into the highlands. Like the Wildebeest, we had been migrating across the plains almost non-stop. Now we were on the upper shelf of the Escarpment and climbing towards the mountains that we had once admired from thousands of feet below.

It was a long drive, and for the most part it was quiet in the car. The road passed through broad valleys whose slopes were dotted with Maasai villages. The scale of these valleys was so vast that even the large herds of cattle that grazed there seemed to be only insignificant smudges of brown and white in a never-ending landscape of green. Unlike our recent travels, we saw no evidence of other tourists on this leg of our journey. In contrast to Ngorongoro, Empakai Creater is not on the beaten path, even by Tanzanian standards. Unless you are ready to leave any vehicle behind and hike for days along the edge of the Escarpment, it is a dead-end trip to an out-of-the way location where you need to be escorted by a man with a gun.

It was almost noon when we stopped. There didn't seem to be any reason for stopping where we did. There was no landmark or other indication that this was the beginning of somewhere, or the end of somewhere for that matter. We just stopped the car and got out. It seemed the first part of our hike would be just continuing to walk down this road for a while. Our guard told us to keep together. He said that if he was forced to use his rifle, the first shot would be in the air, and the second would be to kill. Ann asked if he had ever had to kill an animal. "Oh yes, many times."


The hiking party.

So we grabbed a couple of backpacks with water and lunch, and we set off down the road. We walked for about 15-20 minutes until we came to a little clearing where we could see the crater below us and the sulfur lake that covered most of the crater floor. The view was very beautiful, but we didn't see any way down the steep slopes. Then Rob pointed out a narrow path that plunged away from the road to our left. With our guard in front and Rob bringing up the rear, we started picking our way down the twisted path to the bottom of the crater nearly a thousand feet below.

The walk brought out our guard's talkative side. He started describing the plants and trees along the path. He stopped to show us what he called a "strangle tree" -- a vine that germinates in the upper branches of an existing tree and grows down to the crowd, sometimes strangling and killing the original tree (see below).



When we reached the bottom of the crater, we seemed to have entered a hidden paradise. The bowl of the crater was about 6km across a narrow salty shoreline surrounding a natural sulfur lake. There were flamingos here, lots of flamingos, as well as other birds circling and circling, perhaps hunting for insects.



With our guard still urging us not to wander too far away from the group, we gradually dispersed to our own pursuits. Peter took pictures of birds and wildflowers. Ann examined paw prints in the sand and wondered what animal had made them. Loren walked a long ways along the shore, testing the boundary of what "too far away from the group" meant. Joni chafed at the realization that we really weren't going to be hiking much, except of course to climb back up out of the crater at some point.

We ate lunch. We lay on the rocks. We strolled on the beach. We saw no ferocious animals and no other people.

By mid-afternoon, we were ready to head back, and so we retraced our steps. The climb was strenuous and it took us a while, but felt good after our "confinement" in the crater.

The drive back to our campsite was very long, and we all realized we were tired. Maybe after a full week of Land Rovers and being wary of predators we were ready to end our safari. But before we returned to Arusha we had one more adventure planned: we would be doing a final game drive in Ngorongoro Carter in the morning. Would we see anything we hadn't already seen?

Once back at the campsite, I changed into running clothes and while everyone else rested before dinner, I ran about 25 minutes around the perimeter of the camp. Since it was sloped and since we were at nearly 7000 feet, every time I turned up hill I felt like I was getting in very intense fartlek. I felt very good. My legs were good, my breathing came hard but that was ok. It was my second run of the new year. It was also my last "good" run for two months.

Next: Ngorongoro Crater

Frank Horwill: 1927 - 2012

UK Athletics coach Frank Horwill passed away earlier this week.

Although not well known in the U.S., Horwill was hugely influential in the U.K. and tributes to him have been appearing in Athletics Weekly and elsewhere.

When we say that someone is an "Old School" coach, we usually mean that they do not coddle their athletes, but instead preach hard work and personal responsibility as the true paths to success. But however we define it, when we use the phrase we probably have some specific person in mind. For me, the coach who best exemplified "old school" was Frank Horwill.

The remembrances describe him as a unique man and true eccentric, who coached a slew of international athletes over the years, but who also coached kids and pretty much anyone else who asked him for advice. He founded the British Milers Club in 1963 after observing that no British athlete had appeared in any of the world or European top ten lists for distance running. He brought a common-sense approach to training for the events that was based on analysis of the demands of the different events and observations of how successful runners trained. He then wrote out training programs that were logical but very, very hard. Indeed, he encouraged athletes to identify what was hardest for then and do more of it.

Peter Coe consulted with Horwill and used many of his ideas to design the training program for his son, Sebastian Coe, who became the only man to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the 1500m. Horwill explained those ideas in many articles and two books.

I remember the first time I stumbled upon Frank Horwill's articles, which you can read here.

His writing slapped you awake with its directness. Every brisk sentence crackled with energy and insight and a "let's get going" confidence. Do you want to run faster? ... Here's how you're going to do it. here's one example, from an article on improving your 5K times:

"Supposing you are a runner who doesn’t believe in all this aerobic and anaerobic stuff, you train by instinct. Fair enough. However, there are a few common sense matters to consider. If you want to run 15 mins for 5km, you have to know that’s 72 secs per 400m and get used to it for spells lasting 3-5 minutes’ duration with short rest."

He loved giving examples, especially to show that something was possible, even if it was not easy. Here's Horwill explaining why Coe's 800m record lasted so long:

"Where did Coe get his amazing endurance from? The answer came to me in 1986 when I went to Battersea Park Track one Saturday morning with a 13:11 5km performer to do a session of 7 x 800m at 5km speed with 45 secs rest. The rep times were fixed at 2:08 because the 5km runner was returning to fitness after injury. Coe was on the track and came across and asked what we were doing and could he join in? I felt a little apprehensive that an acknowledged 800m/1,500m runner would not survive a 5km pace session with a short recovery. The 800ms went like this: 2:08, 2:06, 2:04, 2:02, 2:00, 1:58 and 1:56! Coe led them all. Afterwards, he confessed that he did a 5km pace session at 13:20 speed each week. I ventured the opinion that he could run a good 5km anytime. He agreed, but said he didn't like the event! It is doubtful whether any 800m runner before or since could have completed such a session in such times."

And here's Horwill on why running to (and from) work is beneficial:

"We often hear some athletes saying that they don’t really have time to train. I recall a mediocre athlete many years ago with a best time of 4:12 per mile. His coach told him he should go for the 10km event, but the mileage the coach asked him to do was so extensive that the athlete, a carpenter by trade, who traveled long distances to work, could not fit it in. The answer was to run to and from work. However, at the time, his work-site was 15 miles away. He was undaunted by the prospect and ran the 30 miles involved daily, five days a week. He rested Saturday and Sunday. This athlete, Roger Matthews, became the 4th fastest 10km runner in the world in 1970."

There it is. A mediocre athlete becomes the 4th fastest 10K runner in the world. That's the message that Horwill communicated for over fifty years. If you were willing to put in the time and the effort, you could do great things.

The most successful athlete Horwill ever coached was probably Tim Hutchings, who won a silver medal in the World Cross Country Championships and finished 4th in the Olympic 5000m. After Horwill's death, Hutchings wrote:

"He was one of the last of the great old school of coaches: whistle, stop-watch, baseball cap and a bus ticket to get to and from the track – and he was very rarely late for a session for decade after decade of coaching at a wide variety of London tracks. And all this after living one of the most fascinating lives one could imagine before athletics became his love."

Tanzania Journal Day 10:Rim of the Crater

Ngorongoro Crater from above

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It was already three in the afternoon when we left Olduvai Gorge and began our two-hour drive East out of the plains and up into the hills. At first, the road was flat and the terrain barren. But soon we began climbing and as we did the hills became green and almost lush with low vegetation. We also began to see numerous Maasai villages on these hills. While in the Serengeti, we had been in a wildlife protected area. When the National Park was created, the Serengeti was made off limits to the nomadic Maasai. We had now passed into the Ngorongoro Conservation area where settlement was allowed, and we passed dozens of large Maasai settlements as we continued to gain altitude and ascend.

Early in the planning stages of our trip we had been told to bring warm clothes, and the reason given was that we would need them for the two nights we would spend camping on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater. The campground where we stayed was nearly 2300 meters (7500 feet) above sea level, and the temperatures at night got down to 5-10 degrees Celsius. Indeed, it was already considerably cooler, although the afternoon sun was still bright.

I think it's fair to say that nothing on our trip so far had prepared us for the experience of Ngorongoro Crater. The Crater itself is a wonder, an immense volcanic caldera measuring 22km across and 600 meters deep. It has been estimated that the mountain that erupted to create the crater was 5000-6000 meters and rivaled Kilimanjaro. Within the crater is a population of 25,000 large mammals, including what is thought to be the densest population of predators in Africa.

When we arrived at the campsite, we found that we would be pitching our tents on a large circular green looking out over the crater. In the middle of the green was an ancient tree. The effect was magical.



There were other things about this campsite that were different than what we had experienced so far. For one thing, we had an armed guard here patrolling the perimeter of the campground with what looked to my untrained eye like an AK-47. Rob explained that the guard was necessary to protect against incursions of water buffalo and bush pigs. As we disembarked from the Land Rover, he also pointed out a young elephant hanging out in the sparse bush about 100 yards away from the camp. It seemed that this elephant was fairly well known to the guards, and hung around the campground for its water. I made a mental note that it would be a bad idea to meet either the elephant or a bush pig on a midnight trip to the bathroom.

I also noticed that the campground was ringed by a red dirt road and grass path that was perhaps 500 meters long. It almost seemed designed for high altitude intervals. I had to remember my promise to myself not to run.

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As it grew dark, we played cards in the common dining building while Henry prepared another incredible dinner. Our meal was especially satisfying that night, since we were hungrier than usual after our improvised lunch. It was also very lively at the campground, with perhaps a hundred fellow campers from all over the world. I happened to be sitting next to a Japanese woman and a Tanzanian man who were conversing in basic Japanese. It was a perfect multi-lingual eavesdropping opportunity for me, as I knew a bit more Japanese than the man, and the woman spoke very slowly and explained everything twice.

Heading to our tents after dinner, the sky shone with stars, and the black outline of the single sheltering tree stood out against the deep blue of the heavens.

I fell asleep easily that night.

Sometime after midnight, I woke again to the sound of an animal snuffling up against the side of the tent. My heart froze. Was it a bush pig? Something worse? I lay there trying to be as quiet and uninteresting as possible, my mind racing with images of a big ugly brute rooting around our tent, ripping a hole in the canvas.

This went on for several minutes. I seem to remember the snuffling sound stopped for a while, then sounded again a little ways off. I wondered what it was after.

The next morning, I woke up before the sun. Peter was also up, and took some spectacular photos of sunrise over the crater. As for the midnight intruder, there was no sign of any damage to tent or camper. That might have been the end of the story, but it turned out other members of my family had been up and had heard the animal. I know this because at breakfast Joni asked, "did you hear the Zebra last night?" Apparently my fierce bush pig had actually been a meek and harmless ruminant.





Two pictures of sunrise at Ngorongoro Crater

Tanzania Journal Day 10:Olduvai Gorge

Exposed monolith formation in Olduvai Gorge

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Running Log, 1/2/11 -- Rest

On the morning of January 2nd, 2011, I woke up early. I had slept well, enjoying the relative luxury of our spacious tent -- a tent that felt more like a small apartment complete with a real bed, a toilet, and even a makeshift shower. Outside, it was still fairly cool, as the sun was just rising above the horizon. I could smell the smoke from charcoal fires as I walked the hundred yards to the main tent to read a little, and spend some more time with my Swahili book.

We had stayed the night at a tented camp near Lake Ndutu, an alkaline lake in the Southern Serengeti. Unlike the busy campground where we had spent New Year's Eve, this place was fairly quiet. The camp consisted of twelve large canvas tents for the guests, a larger open air tent for the dining area, and miscellaneous structures for the staff.

Lake Ndutu itself was a bit of a mystery to me. I don't remember seeing it, or if I did, I mistook it for something else. Instead, I remember only muddy tributaries surrounded by low scrub forest and a network of twisting dirt roads. When we drove on these roads in the Land Rover, we raised great clouds of dust that hung in the air long after we passed, and I could never tell whether we were leaving or heading deeper into the forest.

Our plan for the day was to spend the morning on a game drive around Lake Ndutu, then head east to the famous archaeological site at Olduvai Gorge, and finally drive up into the Ngorongoro Highlands where we would stop at a campground and pitch our tents on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater.

On this morning, I didn't attempt a run. After 372 consecutive days of running at strange hours and in strange places, I had arrived at the long planned-for day off. So no claustrophobic circuits of the campground today.

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I don't remember too much of our morning game drive. I remember the dust, and I remember that we got a flat tire at one point (it was expertly fixed with no loss of life). Peter took a couple of pictures of a mother leopard and three leopard cubs that I think came from that morning. Mostly I remember the thickets of low trees and bush, and how all the colors blended together, making it hard to spot the animals.




When we finally left the Lake Ndutu region in the late morning, we came out into open plains that seemed especially vast and empty. We were headed East now, driving toward the Southern "Gate" of the Serengeti at Nabai Hill, a massive and unexpected hill rising up out of the flat grasslands.

There was a park station at Nabai Hill, which meant a stop where Rob had to present the permits that would enable us to continue on our way. During the short delay, we climbed up to one of the highest points on the hill and took in the impressive views of endless plains in every direction.

I no longer remember exactly where Peter took the picture of ostriches, below, but it shows the openness of that part of the journey, and a distant rock formation that might or might not be Nabai Hill.

Olduvai / Oldupai

In the early afternoon, we arrived at Olduvai Gorge, one of the most famous and important archaeological sites in the world.

In the 1930's, Louis and Mary Leakey began archaeological excavations in the gorge that would continue for decades and would ultimately change our assumptions about the origins of mankind. The Leakeys discovered tools of different ages, some dating back 1.7 to 1.9 million years. At the time they began their work, there was no consensus about when and where humans had emerged. Many archaeologists were skeptical of the theory that the first humans had come from Africa. The Leakeys' work provided extensive evidence for that this area in the Rift Valley was "The Cradle of Mankind," as it came to be known.

In truth, it was hard to imagine this dry ravine as a fertile land that could sustain life, an area where homo habilis had left footsteps in the volcanic ash. Standing on the edge of the gorge and looking out, there was nothing much to see. Perhaps down in the gorge where the excavation sites were it would be different, but that area was off-limits. Instead, we had to content ourselves with wandering through a small, rude museum that contained artifacts from the excavations, explanations of the work done there, and historical photos of archaeologists and various government officials in stiff poses.

We learned that the name "Olduvai" is a mispronunciation of "Oldupai," which is the local word for the sisal plant that grows in and around the gorge. The world knows the place as "Olduvai" but we were encouraged to begin using the correct pronunciation and spelling.


Peter in front of OlduPAI Gorge

I should also mention, although it seems hardly worth the space, that while we were in the museum, the box lunches that our crew had prepared for us went missing. Every morning, Henry would pack simple but ample lunches consisting of crepes, hard-boiled eggs, bananas, muffins, chocolate bars, and juice boxes. Every day we would have these, and we would never be able to eat all the food. At Olduvai, Rob had put the stack of white boxes on benches that overlooked the gorge. When we came out of the museum, they were gone.

No big deal, we thought. We had plenty of crackers and trail mix in the Land Rover, and would be completely fine until dinner. But Rob was extremely upset, and was insisting that he had to make this up to us by stopping somewhere else and getting lunch. It actually got a little tense, as we tried to convince ROb that it was ok, and Rob continued to insist that it wasn't and that he needed to make this right. In the end, Peter, Rob, and I held a council and negotiated. Peter and I were firm that we did not want to delay our trip to get lunch elsewhere, but we would gladly let Rob buy us all soft drinks at the museum, and we all agreed that we should ask Henry to prepare an early dinner at the campsite. Crisis averted, we left the Gorge and drove on towards the distant Highlands.

NEXT: The Rim of the Crater

You Don't Know Until You Race

I coach an athlete -- a sprinter -- who has been reluctant to enter any track meets this winter -- even low-key, all-comers meets -- because she feels unprepared for competing in a "real" meet. Being a nice, sympathetic coach, I direct most of my efforts at helping her feel more confident. However, I also find myself selling the idea of competing, even when under-prepared, as a learning process. In that spirit, the other day I told her, "Every time you compete, you learn something. Running a race, getting a mark or a time, is like having a good friend who'll tell you the truth about important things when no one else will."

I felt like a hypocrite.

The truth in my case is that for far too long I've been reluctant to race on the track because the idea of running fast had become a mental obstacle for me. The thing is, it has been nearly two years since I last put on my spikes and heard the starter say "on your marks." In that time, I've lost touch with speed and definitely lost the "edge" that you get when you race middle distances. Being older, I never lacked for reasons and excuses to avoid the more intense races, but even when healthy, I never could seem to motivate myself to start working on speed again. It was much easier to keep running slow mileage and lots of it and postpone my rendezvous with the track to the next season... and the next... and the next.

With the year winding down, I felt like it was time to take my own advice and get back to racing. Maybe the result wouldn't be a pleasing one, maybe my ego would take a little bruising, but it was time to find out where I stood. If I ran poorly, I would be motivated to train better, and I believe that whether you're 15 or 50, it's still all about the training.

So I entered the third and final BU Mini-Meet, signing up for the 3000m. The BU meets are low key, with plenty of heats for "sub-elite" (the old, the lame, the infirm...). But here was my first problem: I didn't know how to seed myself. I didn't want to be last in a fast heat (Oh, the vanity! We never want to finish last...), but I knew that I would run better if I was in a heat with a lot of people running my pace. I finally settled on the roundest number I could think of, 10 minutes even, or 40s per lap. Immediately after sending in my entry by email, it occurred to me to plug my most recent 5K time into a race prediction calculator to see what IT thought was realistic 3K time for me. The answer came back: 10:23. Terrific.

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Arriving at BU on Saturday morning, I was surprised how nervous I was. Somehow the concept of "low-key meet" had been replaced in my brain by "life or death struggle to maintain the last shreds of self-esteem as a runner." Well, I told myself, no one else will notice or care whether you run well or poorly... Relax, you're anonymous here... No pressure...

At that moment, I ran into Chris Barnicle and Paul Norton. Both of them were running the 3k. Chris had recently returned from Iten, Kenya, where he had been training with world-class runners. A couple of years ago, Paul had also spent significant time training in Iten, so they spent a few minutes chatting, sharing stories and impressions of the experience. Chris mentioned that he had really learned the value of running long runs at a hard pace, for example, 3:20 per kilometer for 30-35k. After a few minutes more of such talk, the subject turned back to the meet, and Chris politely asked about my goals for the race. I told them I wanted to break 10:00 --- 3:20 per kilometer, or Chris' new long run pace.

There were a lot of people entered in the 3k. Chris and Paul were in the first heat (of six total) and I was in the fifth. So I got to watch Chris take the race from the gun and rip off a 60s opening 400 before settling into a rhythm of 32s per lap. He finished in 8:00.82, lapping several runners in the process. It was very impressive, even though I guessed he wouldn't be happy to be on the wrong side of 8:00. In any case, watching such a fast race made me feel very slow, indeed.

In the third heat, Newton North Asst. Coach Sean Wallace used a great move in the final 600m to win n a time of 8:55. "Everyone is fast," I thought, "except me."

Finally, it was time for the fifth heat. Standing on the track with the other 15 runners, I remembered how I hated those last few moments before the start. Better to make the mind go blank, or focus on responding to the first command with two small, patient steps to the line. Then, after a second that seems like a minute, the gun, and the end of all that terrible anticipation.

I got off the line quickly and settled immediately in fourth place around the first turn. My goal was to run 40s per lap. Simple. In theory, there were only a few people in this race who would average better than that. However after we passed first 200 in 39, about 3-4 runners behind me decided the pace was too slow and passed me. 400 in 79 and the crowd in front opened up a little gap. My friend Joe yelled at me to let the pack pull me along, but I wasn't budging from my pace. Let the pack come back to me.

I passed 1k in about 3:19 in about the same position, and then, sure enough, people started coming back. I almost tripped someone clipping their heel from behind, someone almost tripped me in the same way. We had bunched up, which meant that the pace was going to slow down, so I ran wide for 100 meters and improved my position a little bit. 1600 in 5:19, 2k in 6:38. Just run 40s laps.

Through the middle part of the race, I was really surprised at how, despite running evenly, I didn't feel good at all. After the race it didn't seem like a mystery. I was running at a pace that I rarely run in practice. I was NOT prepared to feel relaxed and efficient at this pace, but I was also just fit enough to keep it going. In other words, I was in good enough shape to make this really hurt.

Still running very close to 40 per lap, I started moving up. My mouth was very dry, and I knew from previous experience how my lungs would hurt after I finished. With five laps to go, I started thinking that maybe I could go a little faster if I had to. With 3 laps to go, I picked up the pace just a little to go around another runner. With 2 laps to go I was pretty sure I could break 10:00 after all if I didn't die first. With one lap to go, I threw what was left into the effort and passed one more person, moving up into 3rd on the final turn. The last 40 meters were pretty ugly, but I pushed hard through the line and held my place. Final time: 9:55.64.

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On the plus side, I raced. Although my lungs hurt all day, and my legs felt like they had been in a street fight, but it was exhilarating to be racing people. In my heat, seven runners finished within five seconds. That kick mattered!

On the plus side, a bunch of Newton North alums showed up, including Dan, Jesse, and Ben Chebot, Evan Morse, and Chris, of course. It was great to have them yelling as I tried to finish what I had started.

On the plus side, I ran faster than I expected, and on the plus side, there's no reason for Speed and I not to become better acquainted again.

On the minus side, well, it hurt! I'm telling you, getting older, running slower, it doesn't matter, you can still make yourself suffer.

Other meet notes:

- NNHS alum John Blouin competed in the mile, running 4:50.13.

- Peabody senior Nick Christensen ran a huge PR in the mile, coming from behind to win the seeded heat in a time of 4:12.56. According to DyeStat, that is the #2 HS time in the country so far this season.

- Kara Haas set an American age-group record for women 40-44 in the 3K, running 9:50.16, breaking the old record of 9:51.60.

- There was a 4 x 1600m relay at the end of the meet. The Whirlaway Racing Team destroyed the listed world record for men 50+, running 19:17.61, but I didn't stick around long enough to see it. Liberty AC set the Over-60 women's world best with 28:57.57. Brookline had a team in the relay, as did a college team with Brookline alums Mike Burnstein and Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot. I was rooting for a tie.

- I saw a bunch of kids with Newton North singlets, but I didn't recognize them and I don't know what they ran. Maybe the relay?