Ultramarathon Daily News | Mon, Mar 11

iRunFar: Weekend round up of all the trail and ultramarathon events from around the world. Highlights for me include seeing Alex Varner back at the ultra distance and Katie Arnold bagging a 50k win in the Bay (more on her later.)

Fast Women: And here’s a deeper dive into all the female results from this weekend, from indoor track on up. That HS girls 800 was awesome. Mu just seized up and the freshman Willis was there to clean it up.

Sarah Lavender Smith: Why she ran the Napa (road) Marathon even though she didn’t want to.

Mountain Outhouse News update with JamJam. Check it out.

Kids Line up at Araivapa Running’s Mesquite Canyon Kids Run.
(Pic from Araivapa Twitter post)

I released a special podcast to the Patreon community last week and lost two subscribers who didn’t like my opinion on something. Curious? Check it out.

TrailRunner Mag: We’ve been talking about this race for awhile as being one of the most stacked of the year…Santa Barbara Nine Trails. Unfortunately I won’t be there…I’ve organized a big Nerf game that day. #lifebalance

Ultrahistorian Davy Crockett: 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours? Let’s time travel back to the genesis of Big’s Backyard Ultramarathon.

Twittah: I don’t know the whole backstory to this issue, but AJW went after Camille Herron for plagiarism this weekend when her eponymous camp used similar language to a camp that AJW’s involved with.

Forbes: The NFL (and other sports!) should adopt the NHL’s stance on cannabis. This makes absolute sense to me.

Smile and Flow: Remember this interview with Outside Magazine’s Katie Arnold? She’d just won Leadville (as a mother of two) and shared with us her simple mantra…smile and flow. Katie’s got a new website and is on a book tour for her memoir Running Home.
Sacramento area people! Katie will be at Fleet Feet Davis this Thursday 3/14 for a fun group run (6:15pm), followed by happy hour post-run beers from Sufferfest Beer, followed by a reading and book signing next door (7:30pm) at Avid Reader Davis. I told Sunny that since it’s Pie Day we might get some dessert. Hope they come thru. ~

FloTrack: 2020 Olympic Qualifying times released. 50k race walk is cut to 30k, and race walk community freaks out. I feel for the people who’ve worked for this event, but…I mean…come on.

Adventure Blog: “Bruh, I was in the Austrian Alps and we got dropped onto a peak by a giant zeppelin! It was eeeeeepic.”

Industry people: I’m working on a piece for unique running eyewear (not just glasses, but tech intonations, new designs, etc.) If you’ve got a pitch, let me know

Later this morning I’m interviewing Miguel Ordorica, aka “Kaci’s pacer” about what it’s like to train and run with everyone’s favorite Pixie Ninja. I don’t know much about him, but I’ll bet he’s got some stories and lessons to share. Stay tuned.

33 Responses to "Ultramarathon Daily News | Mon, Mar 11"

Alex says:

March 11, 2019 at 6:51 am

-Chips in shoes might hurt racewalking initially, because times would get way slower and it would make clear how “weird running” the sport has been for a while. But I think ultimately, insofar as it would make it more clearly a unique event, it might benefit. “Who is the fastest walker in the world?” is kinda weird, but way more relatable and compelling that “Who is the best hip swiveling pseudo runner?” And the more walking actually resembles walking, the longer races would make more and more sense. And I mean… it’s not going to become a crazy popular television sport no matter how short you make the races.

-It would be easier to take anger about Camille seriously if the same demographic didn’t get angry about Camille so often, for generally stupid reasons. Maybe this is a serious issue, but I just can’t be bothered anymore.

Reply
1. Melissa says:
  
  March 11, 2019 at 10:36 am
  
  How can anyone get angry at Camille?
  
  Reply
William says:

March 11, 2019 at 7:02 am

Cannabis is not a miracle drug. We are going to have a lot of mental health cases in the future if more states continue to legalize cannabis for recreational use.

“There is now reasonable evidence from longitudinal studies that regular cannabis use predicts an increased risk of schizophrenia and of reporting psychotic symptoms.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2424288/

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1. Jay D says:
  
  March 11, 2019 at 8:17 am
  
  Eh… there’s a HUGE caveat about the study right in the third paragraph; “cannabis could also be used to self-medicate the symptoms of schizophrenia.” I don’t know how or If you can control for that, but I’d be shocked if people who were attempting to deal with symptoms were not smoking up at a MUCH higher percentage than the overall population.
  
  Reply
  1. William says:
    
    March 11, 2019 at 11:06 am
    
    And the next sentence states “The consistent finding of an association between cannabis use and psychosis makes chance an unlikely explanation of the association, and there are also now a number of prospective studies showing that cannabis use often precedes psychosis.”
    
    Reply
    1. Jeremy C says:
      
      March 11, 2019 at 2:46 pm
      
      William – Alcohol has significant costs for society as well. Given the incidence of schizophrenia (and then the smaller subset that might be exacerbated by cannabis) in the general population, this would hardly seem a reasonable justification for its outlaw. Arguably all drugs have costs and benefits associated. The existence of costs does not in itself negate the benefits. As an aside – from a Canadian perspective – I have always found it fascinating how quick some Americans are to fight vehemently for the right to individual freedom, such as gun ownership (in light of its clearly demonstrated, and arguable unjustifiable costs), yet at the same time vehemently argue to outlaw cannabis and fill its judicial system with its offenders. Hard to reconcile, eh?
      
      Reply
Scott W. Kummer says:

March 11, 2019 at 7:19 am

Dear whoever is enraged about this Camille thing: congratulations, you’re officially out of real problems.

Reply
1. Todd says:
  
  March 11, 2019 at 8:28 am
  
  If you were a photographer and Camille/husband took your photo without giving credit would you be cool with it? I teach scientific writing and those who plagiarize are just lazy. As AJW mentioned, if I was trying to have a brand I would approve everything released.
  
  That being said, public shaming on social media is poor form and does make AJW look immature. I would think as a high school principal he would be a little more self-aware of the consequences of social media. However, I don’t know the backstory maybe AJW tried to contact Camille privately and had no response and he used twitter as a last resort.
  
  Reply
  1. clareelizabethruns says:
    
    March 11, 2019 at 12:07 pm
    
    There were several people who tweeted that they tried to privately contact Camille about it for weeks via email and they got no response, so I imagine twitter was a last resort.
    
    Reply
    1. Conor Holt says:
      
      March 11, 2019 at 12:26 pm
      
      That is false information. I manage the camp website so any messages would come directly to me. As I mentioned below, I was contacted by Rob Krar (private message) at the end of January and I then completely forgot about it due to our terrible accident. I do appreciate everyone’s concern with this matter though.
      
      Reply
      1. Todd says:
        
        March 11, 2019 at 1:47 pm
        
        Connor, having had my mom go through a major car accident years ago, I can tell you the mental trauma from that is as real as it gets.
        I wish you, Camille, and the rest safe travels and happy days
2. RBC says:
  
  March 11, 2019 at 1:57 pm
  
  I’m a litigator who makes a living from people insisting on furthering all manner of petty disagreements, but this one is impressive even by my standards. I suppose it’s clear enough that whoever set up the website for Camille Herron’s running camp cut and pasted some thoroughly-mundane language concerning lodging and the like from Rob Krar’s similar website. There’s some sentiment that’s been expressed along the lines of “You would be upset if someone similarly “plagiarized” your work.” Nonsense. I couldn’t possibly care any less if Scott Kummer looks at my law firm’s website, decides he likes how I’ve described my practice or experience, and lifts the language to describe what he’s doing at his law firm. Nobody is going to hire him instead of me because of something so absurd.
  
  This sort of thing happens often enough in other contexts, and folks tend to not get all exercised about it because it really doesn’t matter how you describe mundane details like the lodging accommodations at Adams State University or the Embassy Suites in Flagstaff. There isn’t a single person who is going to look at Camille Herron’s website and decide to go to her camp because of the generic language that was lifted from Rob Krar’s website. There’s no actual harm to anyone. It couldn’t have take more than a couple of minutes to draft the language initially, so it isn’t a case of someone profiting from another person’s work. At least not materially.
  
  The general sentiment of everything on AJW’s Twitter thread was just gross. Okay. Camille Herron’s folks were lazy and unresponsive. So let’s all pile on and demand explanations, reject the explanations that are offered, accuse Camille Herron of commenting through her husband without any basis, and generally turn something totally insignificant into an attack on someone’s character. Yuck.
  
  Reply
  1. Scott W. Kummer says:
    
    March 11, 2019 at 2:00 pm
    
    Totally checking out your law firm website now to see if it could be an upgrade.
    
    Reply
  2. Melissa says:
    
    March 12, 2019 at 4:29 am
    
    Lawyer here. 100% agree. This is pretty generic stuff.
    
    Reply
Conor Holt says:

March 11, 2019 at 8:20 am

Conor here, I manage Camille’s camp website. This is my fault. It should of been fixed a ways back. Rob Krar had reached out to me via private message about it back in late January ( a very nice message about the issue) but I completely forgot about following up with our website developer as we were dealing with Camille’s horrific car crash and the now ongoing legal ramifications from the accident. Our lives have been turned upside down the last 7 weeks with the accident and stress. I wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone. I tell ya-I always knew Camille was tough as nails with her running but her level of mental toughness is at a whole new level after this terrible accident. I am planning on meeting with a new website developer this week and update our camp. I also followed up and sent a private message to Rob explaining everything this past weekend. Apologies to everyone involved. Conor Holt

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  March 11, 2019 at 8:25 am
  
  Thanks Conor. Seems to be fixed and we can move on.
  
  Reply
2. Rob Krar says:
  
  March 11, 2019 at 9:02 am
  
  Onward friends.
  
  Reply
Nicolas says:

March 11, 2019 at 8:26 am

AJW not casting himself under a great light here. Ouch.

Reply
1. Jay D says:
  
  March 11, 2019 at 9:37 am
  
  “A-Jizzle-Wizzle” comes across as “A-Friggin’-Asshole,” if I’m honest.
  
  Reply
  1. Ben says:
    
    March 11, 2019 at 11:04 pm
    
    That’s actually pretty funny
    
    Reply
2. Jeremy says:
  
  March 11, 2019 at 11:12 am
  
  Not the first time, either. He was gathering up the pitchforks on Facebook after someone ran the loop incorrectly during Cruel Jewel last year, which was found to be an honest mistake, and resolved by the race directors in a way that any reasonable person would find satisfactory. He seems to be a shoot first, ask questions later kinda guy.
  
  Reply
SteelTownRunner says:

March 11, 2019 at 9:34 am

The Barclay Challenge referenced above was not quite the inspiration of Big’s as Laz first dreamed of the Backyard concept long before he was aware of Captain Barclay. To be sure, Barclay’s feat is one of the great ultra accomplishments in history.

Reply
AJW says:

March 11, 2019 at 9:41 am

Dear Friends,

I think it’s fair to say that many of us, myself included, have learned much from this experience and, I, for one, am ready to move on to better things.

AJW

Reply
1. Jeremy C says:
  
  March 11, 2019 at 3:34 pm
  
  Just reviewed your twitter to see any admission of what you’ve “learned” (admission to overreacting perchance, or maybe as RBC pointed out, admission that maybe the harms caused here aren’t well aligned with your apparent level of outrage – this is not for example *nearly* in the same league as when TNF ripped off Yassine’s Animal Athletics logo). Nope. Whose battle was this to fight anyways? We all make mistakes. A small dose of heartfelt contrition on your part would go a long way to win back what are likely many in the community who you just turned off from wanting to read your cheesy columns again.
  
  Reply
  1. eric schranz says:
    
    March 11, 2019 at 4:31 pm
    
    Let’s keep this civil. Thank You.
    
    Reply
  2. Doug says:
    
    March 11, 2019 at 5:00 pm
    
    We’ve all popped off and would like to take it back at some point. I like his column and podcast appearances. He messed up, don’t look to kick him while he’s down.
    
    Reply
    1. eric schranz says:
      
      March 11, 2019 at 5:59 pm
      
      Exactly. Let’s move forward.
      
      Reply
Gord Kidd says:

March 11, 2019 at 9:53 am

Wow AJW has really taken the trophy showing he is one of those grumpy old men who has too much time on his hands. I recall an article “Fact or Fiction? The Ultrarunning Boom And Burnout” he wrote in irunfar that contained misinformation about Ellie Greenwood. I think that is far worse than Conor being accused of plagiarism over the wording describing a running camp. Really!! Who cares!

Reply
1. Scott says:
  
  March 11, 2019 at 11:20 am
  
  A lot of people. Plagiarism and stealing of intellectual property is serious and I wouldn’t be so dismissive about it, that’s how people end up in this kind of trouble to be honest. Don’t think you’d appreciate it if someone took your work and passed it off as their own.
  
  That said, it has been an ugly affair, sad on both sides it couldn’t be resolved privately.
  
  Reply
Andrew says:

March 11, 2019 at 12:01 pm

I know this isn’t a track website and I could probably get this answer from the trolls on Letsrun, but does anyone know why the women’s javelin standard is so much less than the men’s? The difference in qualifying standards is significantly larger than the other throws.

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  March 11, 2019 at 12:02 pm
  
  No idea Andrew. I’m assuming they base something like that on past throws and competitions?
  
  Reply
Dan C. says:

March 11, 2019 at 6:10 pm

The part about staying in the Adams State dorm brought back a nice memory. As a youngster of 18 who ran a 4:30 mile, I wasn’t getting a scholarship, so I packed my bags a week after graduation and headed from Ohio to Alamosa. After a month of staying in a tent, I rented one of those dorms for the two months before school started. Only lasted a year but training under Joe Vigil and the experience was great. (except trying to get out of the valley in the winter)

Reply
Rachel Morris says:

October 27, 2019 at 7:05 am

Who the fuck is AJW?

Reply

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