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What Came First, The High Incomes Or The Safety?

I was presented with the following top 10 list in a local development forum recently. My area is nothing short of obsessed with top 10 lists. It’s like Christmas every day in RDU for top 10 lists. A quick Bing search (sorry I just abandoned Google) gives us lots and lots of scholarly articles on income correlations and, well, things we deem desirable. Good physical health. Good mental health. Life expectancy (assuming long is good). Educational attainment. The good ol’ cycle of poverty is a tough nut to crack in the face of these obstacles. But I had a hard time coming up with any studies on public safety and high income areas. I am sure they are out there, but they sure didn’t float to the top of the search results (I used Google too, to be sure).

So, from deep within the well, I conjured up, what might be a thesis…..the title of this post….had I been thinking about this stuff back when I was university aged. And had I not flunked out of undergraduate school at one point making graduate school all but impossible. Anyway, I’ll let my post on that development forum represent the defense of that thesis, that I never undertook.

“I had a bit of a revelation the other day driving past a gated community….it was a bit ironic that the wealthy folks living behind that gate, in many ways are responsible for creating the conditions that require them (in their minds anyway) to live behind a gate.

Absolutely nobody wants to be a victim of crime. Obvious. But a surprising few perps *want* to be committing crimes….but people get admittedly desperate just trying to survive…in my neighborhood I meet them all of the time…all of this just to say, I’d be careful bragging about how safe a community is….the big picture never goes away, and low crime areas are tethered to all the other areas in ways less flattering than anyone but a Sociology PhD will ever think about…

Put another way…shouting “we left all you other poor f&*#ers behind!” is what this list says to me. Good job Cary. ”

Cary is the white flight version. Put the rich folks in this here gated cow field with not a sidewalk or bus connection to the City proper anywhere in sight.

The gentrification approach is the other way to get yourself on such a list. Good job Alexandria. Downtown Raleigh has itself almost completed this process by attacking it in reverse. Kick the poor people out by starting with “targeted enforcement“.  The high incomes will follow.

As an aside, put top 10 lists, on my top 10 list of things I am sick of.

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Asphalt IS Litter

One of the required classes for an Environmental Engineering degree at NC State is (or was) taking an entry level solid waste class. It was taught by the well known and well regarded Dr. Morton Barlaz. At that point in our educations, the underlying student opinion of Dr. Barlaz was how could someone be so into the piles of decaying garbage he kept in the basement of Mann Hall. Looking back, I’m sure we all now know how important this dedication to science was to keeping us all safe from our wanton ways regarding waste.

On the first day of this class, Dr. Barlaz asked a simple question; “What do you all of you think is the most pressing issue is today regarding solid waste?” I was debating between nuclear waste and chemical toxic waste…along those lines anyway. Dr. Barlaz totaled up the answers among the 20 or so students and not all that surprising to me, something over half of the class said….litter. The every present emotion of intertwined sadness/anger washed over me. Litter? Really? A paper bag blowing down the highway is a bigger issue than the PCBs washing down Crabtree Creek? Alas. Dr. Barlaz saved me from public embarrassment and politely explained that litter is mostly bad manners and there are many actual pollution issues related to solid waste disposal that we’d be learning about in his class. Thank you Dr. Barlaz.

Fast forward to some mundane drive down Interstate 40. Or was it Capital Blvd? Both chew up and spit out souls with equal efficiency. Driving these roads, and having no real other option but to drive these roads to take care of some of life’s chores, makes me furious. Railing about this will be the topic of many future posts. But for the moment I want you all to consider one, often overlooked objective fact about roads. A fact that collided with the memory of that day in Barley’s class: Roads are giant strips of asphalt (concrete, gravel etc. notwithstanding). Giant strips of tar are spiderwebbed all over the world. Most of us, drive daily on the largest single piece of litter on the planet. How could this be overlooked for a paper bag?

According to the Federal Highway Administration there are 4.12 million center line miles of roads in the United States and 2.68 million of those are paved. Using a 12 foot lane width, and assuming most are only two lanes and we have about 8 million acres of asphalt. That’s a lot of unnatural crap, wantonly placed all over the ground by us people.

Roads, destroy and intersect wildlife habitat, and enable the killing many more animals than we probably care to think about….approximately a million a day in the United States alone. Roads create additional stormwater runoff that further degrades adjacent ecosystems. Roads can potentially cause species to go extinct in localized habitats. People die on roads. Over 100 per day. Roads enable access to and trampling of every corner of the world. These are all things, that even the lauded electric vehicle and driverless vehicle revolutions will not address (future post!).

So I say to you, the 50% of my solid waste class and the rest of the commuters trapped in this way of life…when you are driving down the highway, as aggravating and unsightly (and admittedly in some cases actually damaging) as roadside litter may be to you, focus on the the real trash of the road system…the road surface itself.

Asphalt IS litter.

 

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Possibly I have No Business Trying This…

The Beginning

Ten months ago I had yet to attempt to run a marathon. I was signed up for and ultimately finished the Kiawah Island marathon in an ok but nothing to brag about 3:48. I am not a gifted runner, but enjoy chipping away at my times and seeing improvement. The original idea, was get a marathon off my 40 year old bucket list and move on. However, shortly before that race, I watched the Netflix documentary about the Barkley Marathon. I was smitten. Smitten with the idea of lots of pain? Not so much. It was a fascinating race, put on by, and entered by people I couldn’t get enough of. I think the moment where I was truly struck with the desire to *think* and work towards possibly doing this one day, was when John Fegyveresi talked about living his life. Live your life. He’d lost his father recently…something I could, unfortunately, relate to. Something just wasn’t doing it for me. I am not unique…most people are looking for their *thing. This is how ultra trail running became a thing I have come to love. Anyway, thanks John. And Laz. And Jared. All of you. I’m going to go ahead and say this documentary saved me.

The Buildup

So Kiawah came and went. It was hard considering the most I had run up to that point was the standard 20 mile peak. In February, I then ran the Uwharrie 40 mile. It too was hard considering the longest run I had done was the Kiawah 26.2 back in December. I range a slightly better than 50th percentile, 9 hours 25 minutes. I couldn’t walk the next day for busted quads…good god I had a ton to learn the hard way…but I had finished. Yay. Next up was the Grandfather Mountain marathon in July. I was sort of in 100 mile training already, which included stairs and attacking hills instead of dreading them. I finished this in a proud 3:51 (it had 3700 feet of gain +-) and I had finished 43 of about 300. Top 15%!. Next up, Iron Mountain 30 miler in September. This was the dress rehearsal for No Business 100. I managed to hack though this course in 5 hours, 30 minutes almost on the dot. A full 30 minutes faster than my predicted time. 21st out of 102 entered. I was feeling good about my progress as a runner overall.

No Business Race Report

A grand total of 34 of 76 who started (85 registered) finished the inaugural No Business 100. It did not have a qualifier race, so perhaps a lot of people signed up who might not otherwise have tried this race, I mean…I was one of those objectively speaking.But I felt ready. Anyway here is the play-by-play…

Through Mile 15 I was running a sub 24 hour pace and was hanging with the top 15 or so runners.  I felt great. (24 hours is sort of a benchmark for slightly above average runners and many of us aim for this who are between the two extremes of ‘could win it’ and ‘just trying to finish’.) The sun came up shortly after mile 15.

Through mile 25, I was still on track for a 24 hour finish. But the heat was starting to get to me. I had run out of water when I reached the mile 25 aid station at Duncan Hollow (I had water, and topped off at the previous 4 stations).

I reached the mile 32 aid station at the head of the Grand Gap Loop, again out of water but my crew was there to pick my spirits up. Not being especially tired, but just thirsty, I gulped down some coffee (will explain coffee need later) and extra water and felt the whole game was still within reach as I was still on 24 hour pace.

Mile 32 was followed by the 6 mile ‘side loop’ of Grand Gap. It was out on an exposed ledge with wonderful views, but in the direct sun. Also this was the southeast corner of the 100 mile loop the most exposed part of the course and hottest part of the day converged here…I ran this loop between 12:30PM and 2 PM. As I approached the Mile 38 aid station (again at Grand Gap’s trailhead) I felt noticeably hot and fatigued. I learned later it was around 85 degrees at this time, several degrees hotter than I had planned for.

At mile 44 aid station at Bandy Creek an elite ultra marathoner was there volunteering helping the other volunteers assess people’s needs. He frowned at me, asked some questions about how i felt and said to immediately drink 32 ounces of electrolyte fluid plus eat all the salty food I could stomach. I did, and bounded out feeling much better after about a 7-8 minute total break. I was off my 24 hour goal but still thinking 25-26 hours was within reach.

That uplifted feeling lasted about 3 miles as the heat continued to wear us all down. The next stretch did take me through three ice cold river crossings which were very welcome at the time but later would be my final undoing…

Mile 50’s aid station ended with a 1000 foot climb we all later called ‘endless hill’. I saw a guy there I met back in April (Greg White…he operates Charit Creek Lodge…I highly recommend staying there if you like being deep in the woods, plus Greg is a one of a kind top notch guy), and his kind spirit and concern helped me get going again though my running pace was slowing significantly.

Out of Charit you climb to the majestic Twin Arches. This was close to dusk and we were running west now so the sunset was beautiful at the top of the arches. I put on some music and enjoyed a nice downhill run from the arches feeling like I could still do this.

Mile 55, Sawmill aid station, I was still running decently. The aid station was run by a family whose little girls enthusiastically filled water bottles and husband and wife fed and tended to us. They were so nice. Also the husband had run (and completed) one of the hardest 100 milers on the planet called Western States out in northern California and his expertise is crewing was apparent as he ran is station. I am tired, but spirit was unbroken.

So to this point I had been dealing with two big miscalculations on my part. One obviously was the heat. The other was I spent the week up to race time, trying to adjust my sleep schedule to get ready for the 3 am wake up time (5 am start). All I did was exhaust myself waking up at 5:30-6-00 all week but still not falling asleep until too late…this is not new info to people who know me…I am not a morning person, but I was trying to adjust for a known shortcoming of mine. Race night I slept 4 hours to go with my less than 6 a night all week leading up to the race. So on top of these two things, somewhere between mile 55 and 62 I started to feel blisters. Those 3 cold river crossing followed by the 1000 foot climb had blistered my feet. I had never had blisters of this caliber before and therefore had no experience dealing with them, or mentally understanding how to cope with them.

When I got to aid station mile 62 at Pickett State Park Tennessee I took off my shoes and saw quarter size blisters on the ball of each foot. I popped them, put mole skin on them and hoped for the best. When I stood up though, It felt like knives being stuck in my feet and I unleashed a barrage of 4 letter words in front of about 30 aid volunteers and other runner’s crews. I walked off into the night.

For the next 4 miles, to aid station mile 66 called Powerline,I could only walk. When I got there I drank some chicken broth, started shivering because I hadn’t been moving fast enough to stay warm (we all carry space blankets in case we’re actually stuck in the woods in the cold), and after 20 minutes of watching a couple other runners stumble in behind me decided to call it quits. Walking for 35 miles on those feet seemed like a terrible idea in that moment.

So I was undone by sleep, heat and feet (as were many others). On the bright side my often nauseous stomach was in great shape, and my body as a whole feels very good still…only slightly sore..so 6 months of training did what it was supposed to do. Also 65 miles is my longest distance in one single go.

The last week or so, I have gradually digested the entire experience and can say it is among the most fun things I have ever participated in. I met so many nice people. People I respect. People I enjoy sharing the trail with and a beer when the opportunity arises. I am in the best shape of my life. I never really thought this would become a *thing for me, but it has. So I plan to be out there, again struggling in the night with a headlamp and not enough sleep, with the handful of others roughly my pace, trading self deprecating remarks, and kindnesses, and mundane trail banter, quite happy, to be happy.

Cheers

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Cup-a-Joe

We all have our comfortable places. We need these places for our sanity. The routines that are familiar, and allow our overworked minds to work a little less, reduce stress and are therefore as important as any healthy eating, or exercise ever was to our well being*. For the average Cup-a-Joe (aka Cup) regular, who is I daresay, borderline not-sane, this is the place where they…..we….always feel welcome and at home. I once read about another Hillsborough Street institution, Sadlacks (RIP), described as the Island of Misfit Toys. This label most certainly applies to the regular crew here.

In 1991, when Cup-A-Joe opened, modern coffee culture (if we consider the proliferation of Starbucks an indicator) was in its infancy in the U.S., and was essentially an unknown in North Carolina. But my initial doubts about why anyone would want to sit around and drink coffee in a place other than their kitchen table, were quickly replaced with important thoughts about how to fit a Cup visit into my day. Broke and bored? Crossword and a short coffee would fill the time and mental space. Time to kill before a show at the Brewery (also RIP) when you’re too young to drink alcohol legally? Hungover? Home base for a day of walking up and down Hillsborough St? Cup-a Joe it was, and still is.

Should this post be enough to make you want to visit Cup for the first time ever, it’s important that you have some idea what you are getting into. First, there is no latte art here. It functions more like a Soup Nazi line…order, pay, and step aside. You stir your own drinks. The food is decent but not gourmet. It is for students living on a budget, and is many steps outside the mould of Raleigh’s more and more out of reach and out of touch dining scene (another Bitching article for the future). But the food is fresh or marked (and priced) as day old. The 20+ varieties of beans are roasted in the front of the store and Cup takes seriously the term “fair trade”. It plays NC State radio station 88.1 exclusively. Frank Zappa and Elvis are apparent heroes to the owners. The interior is not fixed up…..even a little. The furniture may very well be stuff that was being thrown out, but is appreciatively repurposed here. But the space is not dirty. The counters are wiped down any time the employees have a spare second. The bathrooms are cleaned multiple times a day. The store operates with a distinct understanding about what is important and what isn’t. So I mean quite seriously if you come, love it or leave it. But do not denigrate it. You might just earn yourself a full on Bitchin’ article directed right at you.

Future posts will honor the regulars i’ve known here over the years and go through the evolution of and describe the interior of this marvelous place.

It makes me sad to think one day will the be last time I ever set foot in here (typing this in Cup naturally), but that day is most likely not today.

* – In addition to being a favorite routine, multiple stress reduction techniques are in play here. For me, first and foremost it is a relaxation technique. I also make sure I allow for Cup a Joe time so time management is incorporated as well. Reading, listening to music and being social also often overlay my time here, and are all credited with being important stress reducers.