Carpinteria Triathlon
My assigned post, along with two other volunteers, was a busy intersection on the running route of the triathlon in downtown Carpinteria. Our instructions were to simply cheer on the runners and we were specifically told that we were not to direct traffic. But it quickly became apparent that if we didn’t take matters into our own hands somebody would get hurt or killed so the three of us marched out into the intersection and for about three hours did our best traffic cop impersonations.
I don’t know who planned this route but it was definitely a Bad Situation. Carpinteria is a fairly sleepy little beach town but with 900 triathlon participants things felt busy. At one point cyclist were still completing their course down Carpinteria Avenue while the first runners headed outbound on their 10K. Then the runners returned along the same route, turned the tight corner at our intersection, colliding with cyclists and late outbound runners while the whole lot of them were dodging the enormous car traffic that was pulled in by the two Sunday services at a large nearby church.
It would have been a good idea to have police officers to handle the traffic, to re-route runners or cars and to have, at the very least, some orange traffic cones to define the runner’s lane and alert drivers to what was going on. Without these it was chaos. Thank goodness I’d been issued an orange safety vest because it gave me a small measure of authority (and visibility) while I stood in the street holding back long lines of car traffic to allow runners to cross the street in safety.
Keep in mind these runners had already had a bracing early morning 1.5K ocean swim, then a 40K bike ride and were at the end of their 10K run by the time they passed me for the second time. The pain was visible in their limping gait and contorted faces and more than one asked me, only half-jokingly, if I would call them a taxi. Many of them were light-headed and zoned out and at that point couldn’t comprehend our clearest instructions as we attempted to guide them around the corner into the bike lane. They were understandably confused by all the traffic and quite a few darted out in front of cars, giving me a near heart-attack. I’ll be writing a letter to the organizers of the event with suggestions on how to improve the situation for next year.
Meanwhile, it all finished well with no major mishaps and I was so inspired by all that grit and determination that I went home and knocked out a quick and easy seven miles along the waterfront.
21 Miles - Ouch
I also began to feel warning twinges from my left iliotibial band (ITB), a band of connective tissue that runs along the outer thigh from the hip to just below the knee. I injured that in 1999 while training for my second marathon and it took about nine months to fully heal. Symptoms are pain on the outside of the knee and then when it’s really bad the knee simply locks up. I’ll need to pay attention to good stretches for the ITB, do strengthening exercise for the supporting muscles, get massage and work on my gait. Sometimes in the attempt to run faster I overextend so my foot fall is in front of my body which puts stress on the knee and ITB. A shorter quicker stride with the foot strike falling directly under the body is more efficient for speed and easier on the joints.
Thankfully I have two days of rest, then just a couple of short runs this week and over the weekend I’ll do a seven miler. That should be easy - especially since the place I run looks like this:
I can hardly believe that in less than three weeks I’ll be running 26.2 miles through downtown Chicago with thousands of other crazy people. Who’s idea was this? I’m starting to wonder what’s wrong with me and I just hope I don’t hurt myself!
Paddy Keenan concert
Paddy is legendary for his unique style on the uillean pipes - an instrument that is quite unique to begin with and one that is difficult to play. He makes it look easy though, a zillion notes flowing and trilling forth to become happy dance tunes or melancholy airs. He plays the low whistle too, which brings haunting mystery to any melody. Paddy’s musical sidekick Tommy O’Sullivan plays driving rhythm accompaniment on guitar as well as sensitive finger-style for his own soulful vocals.
The band I played with for the first set is a new group, all made up of Santa Barbara area musicians who’ve been playing together just a few weeks. Gilles Apap, fabulous fiddler, pulled us all together for this event. Here we are from left to right (band photos by J. Downs): Gary Jensen, bodhran; me; Gilles Apap, fiddle and Eliot Jacobsen, guitar and flute.
And here’s Treasa McGettigan, our lovely Irish songbird.
At the end of the show Paddy and Tommy invited us, along with a couple of extra fiddlers, to join in on a set of reels.
While we waited backstage to go on Gilles demonstrated one of his many talents - he can balance his violin bow on the tip of his nose while doing sit-ups. The rest of us are still learning how to do that and when we figure it out we'll all join the circus.
