Ultramarathon Daily News | Thurs, Apr 22

SCMP: The worst people to see on Hong Kong’s (or any!) trails. It’s simple…keep your music and your trash to yourself.

iRunFar: Excellent post by Sabrina Little about role models and how we can turn our admiration into action. Sabrina mentions her infant daughter and how she subconsciously mimics mom’s facial expressions. Same goes for older kids…many don’t have the faculties to really dive into the why of emulation, they just do it. Luckily our sport is replete with excellent role models for kids and adults alike.

The BBC’s in depth article about Big’s Backyard Ultra.

Something I’ve been thinking about and I’d love to get your opinions on it. As stoked as I am to see a return to racing and events, the excessive Covid protocols are nuts. How can I support RDs and a “return to racing” but also show that I don’t want to support rules like these (for a kids race!?!)

Race walker busted for doping. I’ll take this space to remind you that there’s a damn 50k race walk in the Olympics, but still no 50k run.

Trailsisters/Anish: How to fuel on the trail without getting addicted to sugar. As someone with a sweet ~~tooth~~ teeth, I’ll take all the advice I can get.

I guess this good boy was identifying as a female high school runner that day. (Total DQ for lane violations, BTW.)

Goggins Challenge, next level: Save a drowning kid in the middle of a run portion.

While I agree with the message, could we never use the term “stoner-ciser” again?

Follow along on Saturday as I’ll be announcing and live tweeting Canyons 100k. It’s a super stacked field on a new course with what may turn out to be decent weather. Who’ll get those final Golden Tickets??? See you there or at #canyons100k.

15 Responses to "Ultramarathon Daily News | Thurs, Apr 22"

scottywk2 says:

April 22, 2021 at 7:07 am

Re: Covid Rules. This is a really complicated issue. First, you have to factor in whatever the local permit agency/municipality requires, then you have to look at it from the standpoint of putting out a product for customers anywhere between “terrified of getting covid” to “you can’t make me wear a mask” and everything in between. I don’t mind over regulated or even under regulated races, as long as they do what they say they are going to do. But I think the challenge for us to get our heads around is that people with different levels of comfort are traveling to these races. And sometimes we have to set the standard for the most concerned and deal with the complaining by the most concerned. My goal is for people to feel safe. If a few people think its overkill I would rather be accused of that then “underkill.” But either way…..giving the people what you say you’re going to give them is a must, in terms of mitigation. It’s for sure going to be an evolving issue.

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  April 22, 2021 at 7:20 am
  
  Weird that the trail running market is being controlled by consumers who want 100% “safety.”
  
  This will undoubtedly spawn more outlaw races will it not?
  
  Reply
scottywk2 says:

April 22, 2021 at 7:35 am

“Outlaw races” wouldn’t get by local permit rules. That’s probably the biggest driver. My guess is we are moving toward a consensus that “outside is ok” and maybe we won’t have as much. But as I have said in the past about Covid, no one knows anything and it changes every day.It is probably even more complicated for RD’s who host races where there are NO rules, for people coming from places with tons of rules. I just say “let’s be glad we’re all running” and be patient. The vaccine issue will be next. Can a race require vaccinations? Are there TUE’s? What about travel? I think France is close to saying “vaccinated Americans can come here.” It’s an interesting time.

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  April 22, 2021 at 7:42 am
  
  Exactly. Outlaw races will happen regardless of permitting. You can find me at those events.
  
  Reply
Sabrina Little says:

April 22, 2021 at 8:00 am

Thank you for including my article, Eric!

Reply
Ron B. says:

April 22, 2021 at 9:47 am

Yah I don’t know if you noticed but we’re still in the middle of a pandemic with over 50,000 new infections daily in the US. If you have had anyone close to you get COVID you know it’s not pretty. I say take what you can get and be happy you got it. These RD’s are taking on an enormous responsibility and deserve our respect for their difficult decisions and our support for bringing these events to us in the first place.

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1. eric schranz says:
  
  April 22, 2021 at 12:10 pm
  
  We’re going to have to disagree. I don’t believe we’re “in the middle” of a pandemic and that outdoor activities for both vaxed and unvaxed people should be wide open.
  Holding an event where no one is allowed to spectate or accompany kids is ludicrous.
  
  Reply
Todd Sears says:

April 22, 2021 at 12:44 pm

I understand that you have been close up to sickness and/or death due to this illness. But, we are in the Endgame of a pandemic and the preponderance of data point to the astronomical unlikelihood of contracting the virus in an outdoor environment, even more so when close contact is fleeting. And as vax rates increase, likelihood of illness will decrease even further. We’ll all be better off when we default to reason and science, and not emotion.

But this says nothing at all about the entirely accurate statement you make about the challenges and heavy responsibilities taken on by RDs as they attempt to comply within a dynamic regulatory environment. Tough gig.

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  April 22, 2021 at 12:57 pm
  
  Very tough gig. Couldn’t agree more. My question is how to use the power of the dollar to show we want races but not excessive rules/restrictions.
  
  Reply
MD says:

April 22, 2021 at 2:24 pm

Re COVID

And then there was this gem sent out from the RDs of San Diego 100.

“We did have our meeting with the permitting rangers today. We were told that the head district ranger was meeting with the other Cleveland National Forest district rangers on 4/21 to finalize decisions regarding permitting races so that there was a forest-wide consensus on racing. Hopefully for us, these district rangers have that meeting (that was supposed to take place last week) and come back with an agreement that they are ready to permit races, although that is certainly not a given. We have had no contact with these rangers (though not through lack of trying), so we don’t know where they stand. Even if they agree to permit races, we have another issue. The permitting rangers we work with told us that even if racing were permitted, they were leaning towards following the San Diego County guidelines related to the Orange Tier (San Diego’s current tier) which allow for 100 people at an outdoor event.

Not 100 participants. 100 people.

That would mean including volunteers, crew, pacers, etc. We can tell you right now that it takes about 100 volunteers just to hold the event, so that number is completely unworkable for us. If the rangers stick to that number, we will be unable to hold our event this year.

We then had a very long and hopefully productive discussion with the rangers as to why that 100 person limit doesn’t apply to an endurance event and shouldn’t apply to us. We included the argument that we are only transiting USFS land; that the largest gatherings would be at aid stations where there are no more than 10 to 15 people max at an aid station at any one time; and that we were on our way that night to a Padres game in which 10,000 people were going to be gathered to watch (and what a painful watch it ended up being). We pointed out that the County is not following the rules on its website as it had already permitted an event, the Ranch 50k, that allowed more than 250 people to participate, and that was while San Diego was still in the red tier. We showed them numbers from races around the state, including Canyons 100k, that were permitted by different USFS jurisdictions in areas with the same or more restrictive tiers, that had signed up over 400 racers. We also pointed out, on a practical basis, that the proceeds of our race go to fund Trailfit which the rangers themselves admitted is essentially the only group maintaining the trails in their district. By failing to allow the race, they are cutting the funding for their own trail unit.

And we covered all of that in just the first few minutes of the discussion.”

I support most COVID protocols for races for this summer. Aravaipa Running has proven that big outdoor running events can be done safely for all participants. Other than the environmental impact things like single serve packaging can have, they’re not annoying to deal with at all. It’s the disjointed recommendations and COVID theater that means a 10,000 person Padres game can happen but a little trail run in the mountains cannot that kills me.

Reply
micahward says:

April 22, 2021 at 3:39 pm

We are in the early days of reopening society from the pandemic lockdowns. It will be a gradual process and maybe it should be. While a lot of the policies on dealing with COVID were regrettably driven by politics instead of science, I fear that the policies of reopening will be driven by fear of lawsuit rather than science.

Reply
Roman Almeida says:

April 23, 2021 at 2:25 am

It is even worse in Europe (in my case Austria). You can still go to the office unmasked but there are restrictions on how many people you can even meet outside in a private meeting.

I am super cautious and one thing that really works well in Austria is that you can get up to 3 PCR tests per week, so reasonable people can now make very sure they are not infectious. Combine that with being outside and you have an extremely low likelihood of transmission. I much rather do logical things to make sure not to get infected or infect others than just follow the rules. Especially if they are so obviously stupid.

Reply
Todd Sears says:

April 23, 2021 at 3:48 am

Yeah, sorry. My comment was supposed to be a reply to Ron, above.

Still, thanks very much for getting these topics out here.

Personally, for this year I have and will continue to pay for official races because I want to support the sports’ RDs. But I will grumble quietly to myself about the inevitable safety protocol overkill.

Reply
scott says:

April 23, 2021 at 7:49 am

Re: Support

I would assume most RDs are only following what they’re required to do by their state/forest/park. Emails to permitting organizations/persons would show you don’t support the rules while signing up for the races would show you support the RDs.
If you don’t want to run a race with major restrictions, it seems like you can basically go to any state that doesn’t touch the Pacific ocean.

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  April 23, 2021 at 10:57 am
  
  Hard to tell if the restrictions are all based on mandates from CDPH or if the RDs are being hyper-cautious. There are instances where there are two events in the same city, and only week apart, but both have wildly different levels of safety theatre.
  
  Reply

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