McConnell's. A foggy and perfect day for running and swimming. The 5k started out great with SBAA members Todd Booth winning the 5K in 17:07 and Annie Toth in 17:50. Todd said he wasn't going to run the 10K and then he did, but, Tyler Rattray (of DP fame) won the 10k in 33:00 with Drea McLarty winning the women's division in 40:48. The kicker was Andrea McLarty winning the overall Biathlon in 1:11:58. She beat all the boys. Thanks to Wally, Jose, Jake, Ron, Elaine, Joe, Megan, and all the volunteers. Results here and www.sbtiming.com. --Paul Williams (8/17)

So close. Olympic coverage is elsewhere, but you might not have seen: in the men's 10,000, the difference between a Bronze medal and 4th place was less than 5/1000ths of a second. Five one-thousandths. (8/17)

Flanagan Bronze. Olympic track and field has started, an in the day's only running final, Shalane Flanagan broke her own American Record in the 10,000 to take the Bronze medal. Flanagan's 30:22 put her nearly a half-minute behind deserving winner Tirunesh Dibaba but was nonetheless her personal best and the new American and Area record. Incredible race: Olympic record and the fastest clean 10,000 ever run, 29:54, with former Ethiopian Turk Elvan Abeylegesse only two seconds back, and fourteen women with personal bests, Area records, or in one case the new World Junior record. One marker of the depth and quality: Kara Goucher ran 30:55 to finish tenth. Fantastic running. (8/15)

New blog link. Nite Grooves is now in the list (lower left). Great place to visit if you need a shot of cheerfulness. (8/15)

Really pretty good. Some of the results here are difficult to believe, but... Well, read it and decide for yourself. (8/14)

He may be an egomaniac or he may be the nicest guy in the world. Hard to tell from a distance, and publicity rarely clarifies the more subtle matters of character. Whatever is true, he can run farther than you. Dean Karnazes at Borders, downtown, Tuesday next, August 19th, 7:00 pm. (8/14)

Free food, free stuff. Outfooters and Merrell present Merrell Fun Runs. Demo Merrell running shoes, get free stuff and meet multi-sport athlete and Merrell-Zanfel Captain Robyn Benincasa (one of the founding figures in Adventure Racing). It takes place at Outfooters on Tuesday, August 19th, from 6-9pm. There will be pizza, wine, and cheese. Fun for everyone. (8/12)

Westmont XC. Coming up Sept 20, a great event, and we're graciously invited every year by Russell Smelley and the Westmont XC crew. For this year's team, Drea McLarty has volunteered to be the women's team coordinator. You do not have to be young and fast to run with the team. (If you want to be a role model, be not-young and not-fast and still out there--great for the kids to see.) Men's team coordinator to be announced soon. (8/11)

National masters: a few more notes. From Terry: "...The 800 finals on Saturday. Hot hot hot (90 + degrees) with an unpredictable wind. Went from 4th to 2nd in the last 100 meters - no chance of catching the leader, he made an early move that I did not cover. Last up was the 1500 on Sunday. A big change in the temp, down to around 55 degrees at race time. Keeping with my theme of running people down in the last 100 meters I did just that in the 1500, only this time I went from 5th to 2nd and nearly had 1st (if only the race 1505 meters instead of 1500 meters). Championship races are rarely fast, its more about trying to get one of the medal spots and doing whatever it takes. It was great seeing John and Bob run the 10,000 - they both looked great. John, Bob, Robin and Sally stayed in Spokane through Sunday to watch me run the 1500, which was really nice of them to do. I went there to race and compete to the best of my ability and I can honestly say I did that. A big thanks to Rod Garratt for working out with me the last month. He would start each interval ahead of me and then I would try to catch him - it sure paid off based on my ... finishes." (8/11)

National masters: 1500 thriller. Men's 50's saw the top four runners within 1.2 sec of one another. Our man Terry H. finished second, a scant 5/100th's of a second ahead of third, only 4/10th's behind the winner. Outstanding race, and exactly what every racer hopes for. Congrats to Terry. (8/10)

More on race fees. Joe Banach writes, "I read the SBAA website recent comments about race fees. People need to run races around the country to find what race fees are elsewhere. For example, in the Denver area, most 5 KM and 10 KM race fees are between $30 and $40.  The weather is also much more unpredictable during a limited racing season in this area.
    Santa Barbara is paradise for all-around all-year race conditions and the SBAA race fees continue to be a great value in my opinion." (8/10)

National Masters. Update from John B.: "Terry Howell qualified for the 800 yesterday in 2:12.98 (89.60%) and got second in the final today in 2:07.39, coming from 4th in the last 100m. Bob Brennand ran 3rd in the 40-49 div. for the 10K in 35:00.46 [I] was 2nd in the 70-74 div. in 48:11.56. Second was all I could hope for, but Bill Iffrig lapped me twice and was over 3:00 ahead. Given the falls I've had since March I am not complaining. Terry runs the 1500 tomorrow." (8/9)

John not fleeing country. John Brennand is staying in Santa Barbara, independent of his retirement as Treasurer. (8/9)

Profile: Ricky Ho. World's Nicest Guy Ricky stars in this month's profile. (8/8)

World record attempt at SBCC. While obviously concerned not to draw the limelight away from the athletes fo the Beijing Olympics, Geoff Gray is shooting for the Guinness-recognized record for one mile, done as lunges. Geoff explains, "Saturday, August 16th at SBCC track at noon. The record is currently 30:50 and I am attempting to break 30 minutes in celebration of my 30th birthday. Guinness has a bunch of lunge rules: 1 foot always on the ground, knee has to touch the ground, you must alternate legs, and the back knee must get straight after it touches the ground and before beginning the next lunge. The facts on the attempt workout something like this: 1.13 meters per lunge (my own lunge length), about 1422 lunges per mile, at a pace of 1.26 seconds per lunge. Should be pretty awesome. The event is also a fundraiser for DAWG, and in honor of the 1400 lunges, I am asking for $14.00 donations to DAWG at the event."
    SBrunning of course supports such an uncommon aspiration. In answer to the first question that may come to many minds, Geoff says, "Yes, I am pretty crazy." (8/8)

Race fees, 2. Some readers have written to correct the dollar figures, below. Response in two parts:
    First, they're right. The numbers were based on previous years' entry fees. The three "big" SBAA races have varying entry fees, and have even had different fees for different stages of pre-registration. The GP rules require a $5 discount from all GP races for the no-shirt option (for pre-registration). In addition, for the SBAA majors, there's an additional $5 discount for SBAA membership.
    The second point is more uncomfortable. People generally place a higher value on things they pay more for. Experiments with moving wine from bottle to bottle show that people take more pleasure from wine they believe to be more expensive. Some runners will certainly feel more special, more elite, more distinguished for paying a higher fee for a race, regardless of the cost of putting it on or the interest of the course.
    The SBAA has no influence over the price of races that we don't sponsor (and in fact, the individual directors of our races do not consult with the Board in setting fees; so as a club, we don't even explicitly control the costs of our own races.) Race fees aren't even necessarily correlated with course certification, chip timing, detailed results, better-designed shirts, or a superior post-race buffet. One local race director greatly increased the fee for a race and found that entries doubled. Race directors decide what fee to charge; you as a runner decide what races to enter, and whether you think the fee is fair, and whether you want to talk to the race director about his or her choice, and the degree to which the fee influences your choice. (8/7)

Race fees. "Why are race fees so high?" For SBAA-sponsored races, the answer is, they're not high. SBAA races are generally uncommonly inexpensive--pre-register for Resolution Run, the Semana Nautica 15K, and the Half, choose the no-shirt option, and it costs $5/per race. Vicki's and Psippi's both cost $8, and only Tough Enough is "expensive" (mainly for the shirt, but even with that it's half or a third of the customary fee for the type of event).
    The GP commissioners periodically get requests to limit costs on the GP races, or have a general GP entry fee that covers any eight races, but the pragmatics don't really allow it. The GP strategy has been to provide a lot of races, allowing those who wish to select the lower-cost events. If you pre-register, the five SBAA GP events cost a total of $31.
    Different race directors have different goals with their races, and set their fees accordingly. SBAA members are prominent in technical direction of races (Wally, John, et al.) and this site reports local racing, regardless of who directs or sponsors the race, the reach of the SBAA may seem to be greater than in fact it is. (8/6)

Board meeting minutes. Posted. Neglected in the note below, Rob Olsen took over as Treasurer from John Brennand, a position John has occupied for 48 years. During that time, John retired and he and Robin bought a condo in the Canadian Rockies. Hmnn. Meeting minutes from the Club page, or here. (8/6)

Summer Try. Paul Williams writes, "The Summer Try was a big success. The results are posted on www.sbtiming.com. The Ducky Bouy's were the hit of the event. Pictures of them are on the web site. Thanks to the UCSB Triathlon team, Wally, Carly, Matt and Jay for their help." (8/3)

SBAA Board meeting. Short version: Jill Zachary and Rob Olsen were elected to the Board. Many things were discussed (see announcement, below); signaling a decisive Board, nearly everything was deferred to committees for further discussion. The exception: the $1000 Kevin Young requested for kid's running was authorized. Main event was making official Jim Sloan's assumption of the presidency of the Board and Des O'Neill's yielding of the president's gavel. (We don't actually have a gavel, but if we had, Des would have wielded it presidentially.) Des has been president for forty years. In that time the club has continued to exist. That may sound like faint praise, but in fact it's pretty uncommon to see that degree of continuity for a running club, and Des's persistent insistence on not over-reaching was important to that achievement. Thanks, Des. (8/3)

Science: Free fitness. The New York Times reports on the second generation of "supermouse" work done at Salk (Evans et al., Cell), of a pill that can produce fitness. Magic. AICAR... "resembles a nucleotide that prompts the production of an enzyme that activates the high-endurance genes." Given at high does to mice, even sedentary mice become more fit. Experiments to date on humans have found no effect, although the dosages have been much lower than those given to mice. Humans are not mice--although the mammal gene signaling is similar, we have very different kinds of metabolisms. No-one yet knows if high doses of AICAR will have a fitness-enhancing effect in people. (Current research focuses on heart patients with severely reduced capacity.) Clinical-grade AICAR is costly (~$120/gram), and for human-equivalent dosages, the cost would be thousands of dollars a day (according to the Times' report). Whether AICAR or other chemicals will work in people, how effective they'll be, and the consequences of decoupling exercise, which has myriad effects, including endorphins and endocannibinoids that affect mental health, from fitness--all yet-to-be-answered questions. (8/2)

Russians nailed. Or not. Six leading Russian runners, including the current world leader for women in the 800 and 1500, have been busted by the IAAF for potential drug use. The IAAF claims that the DNA in the urine samples provided by each of the six at two separate competitions didn't match--that in at least one case for each athlete, urine was illegally substituted (as would be done if the athlete's urine were likely to reveal illegal performance-enhancing drugs). This is unfortunately not uncommon. The athletes are banned from the Olympics. This is a mixed blessing in the doping conflict. If it's true, it's good. But--only Russians? No-one else did this? And results were held until only a few weeks before the Olympics? Worse, because as a whole the doping labs are known to lose and to mistakenly switch samples, the argument from statistics is that more innocent athletes will be accused than guilty caught.
    A brief trip into the math. Suppose the lab error rate is 1%--for 100 paired samples, one of the pairs is mistakenly swapped. Suppose that the cheating rate is 10%. (Which we hope it's not.) If a lab tests 10,000 samples, the 1% error rate means that 100 will show up as "cheats." The base rate, 10%, still applies, so ten of those will be actual cheats. From those numbers, 90% of those accused of cheating will be innocent. One percent and 10% aren't the actual numbers--since labs may not detect many of their own errors, and are in any event not eager to publicize their own error rates; and since no-one knows how may elite athletes cheat, or to what degree, we can't know the real likelihood that an accused athlete cheated. But it's good to bear in mind that a small lab error rate will result in a lot of false accusations, dirtied characters, and ruined careers. (8/2)

Club records wrecked. At Wednesday's Nite Moves, Drea McLarty ran 17:45 to put herself in 5th place on the women's club records. Pretty awesome. For whatever it means, four of the top five women's performances have been in the past two years; the top five men's are from the 70's and 80's. (7/31)

Running stats II. Second installment on the state of the sport, courtesy of Running USA's Ryan Lamppa: here. Striking: for "core runners," defined in the article, 42% of the women and 37% of the men have advanced degrees. (7/29)

Local lad joins the family business Former UCSB physicist Martino Poggio has accepted a tenure-track position at Basel, the Argovia chair at the Swiss Nanosciences Institute. "I'll be focusing.. on using ultra-sensitive micro- and nano-mechanical resonators to probe quantum states." (Picture the way the body of a guitar amplifies the sound of the string.) Martino is happy to point out that with his appointment, Ludvig Edman's at Umea, and Carl Legleiter's at Wyoming, Rod Garratt is now the Old-Guy professor. (Rod: "I'm so glad Martino has finally been institutionalized. He so richly deserves it.") Fantastic news, and Martino joins both father (MIT) and mother (Northeastern) as a university professor. As Feynman said, "There's plenty of room at the bottom." (7/28)

Fame, if not fortune. Hans von Koppen, bon vivant and mountain unicyler, becomes famous. (Thanks to Fred M. for the link.) (7/28)

Science: EPO testing. Short version: don't believe EPO results. People who didn't use EPO, ever, will be disqualified for EPO usage during this Olympics; lots of people who've used EPO will not be caught. Bizarrely, WADA (the international anti-doping authority) hasn't even released the test protocol for the CERA EPO "test" the Italian Tour de France cyclist was accused of failing. (For non-scientists, not publishing the protocol is Renaissance science--that is, about four hundred years behind the times.) (I exaggerate; it's how science was done up to around 1780-1790, so ti's only 220 years out of date).) (Roche, the pharm giant that makes CERA, tagged it for manufacturing and IP rights, which means it's uniquely detectable, which means that dopers will either detag it or use a different compound.) For the details, read this. (7/27)

All Comers. More strong running. Terry H. doubled 2:09.79/4:49.57, the 800 a 91.1% performance, the latter a legitimate mile. Board member Rusty Snow ran 4:38.36, and blogger Drea McLarty doubled 5:17.03/18:18.53. Many SBAA members taking advantage of the opportunity provided by Van Latham and the team at Carp High. (7/26)

Ex-Gaucho at the edge of the upper reaches. Tetlo Emmen ran 1:46.04, a time that not so long ago would have gained an Olympic spot. (A little while ago.) Des points out that Tetlo's victory in the "B" race was a touch faster than the "A" win (Duane Soloman, ex-Lompoc HS runner). Nice night for our ex-locals. (7/26)

SBAA Board meeting Thursday evening. Agenda:
    1. New Board Members/Board composition - All
    2. Club Jerseys and other apparel - All
    3. Financial Status - John Brennand
    4. Race Update (if any) - Wally Marantette (?)
    5. Santa Barbara International Marathon (SBIM) and SB Half Marathon, does it make sense to combine these two events - Rusty Snow
    6. General topics relating to club sub-committees, race team, organized workouts, club support of membership base, etc (see attached note) - Kevin Young
If you have additions, comments, requests, humorous asides, or anything you'd like the Board to address, please send to the webmaster. (7/23)

Semana Nautica: Aaron and Sierra. Successfully completed after the fire-and-smoke rescheduling. Aaron ran in the 49's, and Sierra 64's for their victories. Travis was second for the men, with former sub-30 10K runner Ray Knerr, now 48, third. Amy Alzina and Marian Thomas we second and third among the women. John B. thanks Wally, Lee, Paul, Rusty, Terry, and Toni, and race-winner Aaron for recruiting the SMHS distance squad as volunteers. Complete results. When was the last time you sent a thank-you note to a race director? (7/21)

Science: men and women need different diets? Crickets were the study animals, so too early for generalizations. Alexei Maklakov, of the Evolution and Ecology Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, found that for both reproductive success and long life, males thrived best on a 8-to-1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein , while females did best with 1-to-1. Given free choice, both males and females picked a sub-optimal mid-way diet. While generalizing from crickets has to be cautious, the sex differentiation in physical investment in childbirth and child-rearing in humans is far more pronounced. Interesting to see what can be discovered about human diets in this regard. (Original reseach in Current Biology, reported on ScienceDaily. (7/21)

State of the sport. Running USA gathers the stats annually, and makes sense of them, too. (Thus far no venture capitalists have approached Psipsina's, Juliet's, Cecelia's, Ajax's, Violet's, and Penelope's Annual XC with major dollars. It remains untainted by Mammon.) Read it here. (7/16)

Citizen's Nine Trails? Through a dropped communication, the 9T web site said registration will open August 1st, but in fact registration opened a short while ago and the race is full. If you're interested in doing a self-supported, no-shirt 35-mile training run on Sunday, November 30th ("gently rolling, with views"), please e-mail. (7/16)

UCSB: Tetlo runs 1:47.41, winning the Euro B-league meet 800 meters. Excellent run for the ex-Gaucho. (thanks to Des for the tip.) (7/16)

Drug testing. A little geeky (a little) but before you believe the next drug test, read this on the topic. (7/15)

Running Shorts. New one. Available on-line, or as a 9.2MB downloadable file. The download has pics, but it may take you a moment to download. (7/14)

15K registration. Re-opened on Active, here. Also, need someone to mark the course. The prestige job. (7/14)

Health: Cipro-family antibiotics. Maggie M. writes, "I took Cipro about four years ago while in marathon training, and 2 days after starting it, while on a tempo run, experienced sharp, debilitating pain in both my achilles tendons, almost simultaneously. I could barely walk. I read the insert, found out acute tendonitis was a 'rare' side effect, and called my medical group. The on-call doctor pooh-poohed me. When I spoke to my regular doc, he immediately took me off of it. It took about a week to resolve; I was lucky. I did more research on the 'net, and found out it has caused hundreds of cases of severe tendonitis and complete achilles tendon rupture in runners, who are particularly susceptible.
    "On the few occasions I've had to take antibiotics since, I insist on an alternative to fluoroquinolone drugs. Our runners should all be informed about this very real hazard. According to the article, the FDA is not doing enough to publicize the dangers to physicians, so self-education is critical."
    Learn more here. (7/13)

Fantastic running. Terry Howell ran 2:07.21 at this week's Carp All-Comer's, a 92.96% performance. (For reference, that's equivalent to an open male running a 13:53 road 5K). The previous week, Terry hit 4:27.90 for 1500 (91.53%). Terry's had a long streak of injury-free running and is having a fabulous time. Additional performances of note: Rod Garratt hitting 2:12.57, Willy Rossow 2:16.38; Terry, Rod, and Willy ran 57.79, 58.61, and 59.37, respectively, in the 400 the previous week. Ricky Ho edged Ed Mitchell in the 5000, 17:58.74 to 18:02.54. The meets are going exceptionally well--here. (7/13)