Bigger event isn't always the best

On Thanksgiving Day, runLawrence hosted its 2nd annual 5K Run. Why another run when Kansas City attracts thousands at the Sprint 5K & Family Stroll, or the Parkville Turkey Trot also on the same day? Well, a few people came to Lawrence from KC, Bonner Springs, etc., to get away from the crowds. The Parkville event is well attended by most of the KC running crowd, is fun and is convenient. But it has grown. So, runLawrence is happy to host a crowd of about 200. If we continue the trend, we will again offer homemade cookies, hand-crafted awards, the 5K distance, and the smalltown feel. All events are great; we're just the small town version. All the volunteers seemed really happy to help - and probably happier to be able to get home about 10:30 to spend the rest of the day giving thanks.

Good Day to be a Jayhawk!

Lawrence is happy with the first victory over Nebraska football team in 36 years. KU volleyball won in Manhattan, also another long-time losing streak ending. Saw a falling star on the way home last night from the PTOC meet at Blue Springs earlier in the day and the ngiht O'.
Good weekend to be a Jayhawk!
Rock Chalk!

Shrouded Phog

Just in time for Halloween - Phog Allen's outfit. Renovation on AllenFieldhouse is just weeks away from completion. Phog decided to dress up for tomorrow night. "Beware ye all who enter. . ."

My grandfather, King Mar, was an avid amateur photographer. During the day he was the cashier/manager of the Pan American Cafe in Wichita. He took lots of pictures and lots of pictures of the waitresses that worked at the Cafe. The cafe thrived because of its downtown location (150 N. Market) and businessmen appreciated the quick lunches for about 60 - 90 cents a plate. Don't know who these two ladies are, perhaps waitresses. They're dressed up pretty nicely. The photo was taken in King's apartment (above Pan American) in the 1950s. Looks like he used his floodlights (from the right). Behind the light in back are photos of King's parents.

The apartments above Pan American (I wonder how they decided on that name for a Chinese-American cafe?) looked a lot like the tenement photos you would see in 1900s back East. There was an open space in the middle that went up three(?) floors. Each floor had a balcony all the way around. Clothes lines were strung across all the time. The floors were dark, probably unpainted. I lived there the first year of my life. After we moved to 350 N. Topeka, I would often visit King in this apartment. It was just like any set out of a film noir movie. King and my Dad were pretty dapper when dressed in suits and looking very much the man of the 40s and 50s (Tyrone Power, Humphrey Bogart, etc.).

Any way, a nice photo of the period.

O'run videos

Mike Eglinski recommended Thierry Gueorgiou's latest "Follow Me" video. He shows a leg of the world cup sprint race in Italy. Don't think running on the KU campus will be that intricate.
Mike did his own video running at Knob Noster SP as well.

Then Patrick Nuss ran a white course in Seattle last weekend. Check his video.
(My apologies for the bad link that played every time.)

All of these would be great to show at a club meeting (if we ever do meetings again...)

We're not in Kansas...

Aspens were in full fall colors. Dee & I went to Beaver Creek, Colo, Sept 25-28, for the Dean Evans & Associates conference for users of the Event Management System. This was just up the hill from the Park Hyatt where we stayed for three nights. Further up we got within ten feet of a mule deer.

An intelligently designed sign?

Gene on the way to the stables. The family name , Mar, means horse in Chinese. Since Kansas questions the theory of evolution, I may not have been visiting distant "relatives."

River Trail Run

Headed out from the house through Lawrence and on to the river trails (bike trails to Mud Creek and back). Just a nice morning for a run. The leaves are still green, but yellow leaves were falling here and there. The sun streamed through the trees and a cool breeze picked up on the return leg back. Noticed the lack of spider webs across the trails - different from a week ago.

About a mile into the trails, heard the rumble of machinery harvesting the corn crop - you could see the equipment over the other side of the levee. Saw two deer about 15 meters to my left about a mile from Mud Creek.

On the way back, started to take one minute walked to ease up - that helped and I finished tired but without stress.

Noticed a marker just before the Mass Street bridge indicating the top level of the 1993 flood.

"Till Eulenspiegel" - thought came to mind I'll sign a quote for the Late Night with Mook Trail Run with Till's name. The fun run without sun; you do LNWM to vary your routine and enjoy a chat with friends on the trail; the headlamps some people will wear will impress you; etc.

Total run time: 2 hrs 28 min - marathon training run

web authoring is hard work

Labor Day Weekend was a holiday weekend. It was also time to update the running club's web pages. Info was needed for the Sun, Sept 4 meeting. Finished the draft for the Thanksgiving Day entry. Worked with Photoshop Elements to create the turkey chasing a group of runners. Also put together the first draft of the Late Night with Mook flyer. After the club meeting, created the club store page so members could order running gear. Then, Mon (Sept 5) went to Leawood to photograph Dee and Karen Hyde at the 5K. Added results and photos to website.
Fun work, lose sleep, get addicted to the creative process, lose energy to train. But accepting the fact that I don't have the talent to be a pro at this stuff, but there's enough talent to be a good amateur and still enjoy the creative activity. It's like my running - good enough to enjoy and train, but not among the best in the world.

Damon biking in Topeka

Damon was one of the judges at a skateboard/biker event in Topeka, Aug 6, 2005. Afterwards, the judges had a chance to ride.

Shop Class Desk

Here's the desk I made in 1962-63 in 9th grade woodworking class. The desktop was supposed to be made of glued together solid birch wood. This project took most of the 9th grade year. After the Christmas break, the whole desk had warped due to the desktop curling. Had to redo the top (2x4s, and 1/4" birch plywood on top and sides). Anyway, it still stands today in spite of some hard use by my brothers using it over during my college days.
Legs never broke on this project.

Sam Mar's Family (1950s in Wichita). Standing in the beige jacket is Junior Mar and his wife ("mumu" to my brothers and me). For Ken and me, Junior and Mumu's house was a second home. Our parents were close to them. One of the cousins made a coffee table in junior high (I think it might have been Robert, the one on the far right). He brought it over to our house for storage until he had a chance to get it home. The design had all four legs angled out (about 45 degrees). The legs broke as soon as the table was set in the entryway room. Mom, who was always quick to offer an opinion, commented, "don't ever make a table like that when you take shop." My first project was one of those pine foot stools. Straight legs, but it still cracked within a few weeks.. Eventually, in 9th grade, I made the desk I still have today.

Lance for President

CBS reported Lance Armstrong's ride into Paris - winning his seventh and final Tour de France. CBS asked, "what's in the future?" Lance didn't rule out politics (never say never). If he attacks working in politics like he did the Tour - why not? Lance in '12?

Movie theme songs for Lance

Don't want to jinks Lance, but if he gets seven this year, OLN or CBS ought to use the music from the "Magnificent Seven" on the last day coming into Paris. It's the Texan riding off into the sunset (Go Yul! Go Lance!). Olympic coverage over the years (ABC and NBC) has used Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" as the background music for the closing segment of the broadcast. For the Tour when an American wins it all, it should be Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue from an American in Paris."
1999 theme: Gene Autry's "Back in the Saddle Again".
I'll stop here. Someone else can come up with the other years.

Losing balance

Went to Red Dog's Dog Days 6 AM workout at the stadium. While doing stretching at the start, noticed I can't keep my balance when doing any kind of lunge - need to use a hand to keep from tipping over. The aging process continues. . .
Just a blah feeling working out. The Saturday run (Heather's Run 5K) will be tough if I don't have more energy.

Steady rain the entire 3 hours (thundering in the distance). 

Dee Boeck finishing under 3 hours. Team TJ (in background) with their getaway car. Two families piled into the van and found all the controls. Two groups did the auto O' version. 

MOP Run Instructions

June 11, 2005 MOP Run, Too Instructions

Essentials of the Game
1. Find as many control points in 3 hours or less.
2. Bring a pen and a watch with you.
3. Check in before 7:30. Maps will be issued at 7:40 am. Start is 8 am.
4. Points awarded: controls 10-19 = 1 point; 20-29 = 2; 30-34 = 3.
5. The exact center of the circle is the location of the control.
6. Water fountains are marked on the map - it's best to bring your own water.
7. Run on public streets, trails, park land & parking lots, but respect private properties. Exception to standard map colors: white is out of bounds.
8. The honor system: Don’t guess the answers for locations you did not visit. Groups: do not split up. Everyone has a chance for awards. Honi soit qui mal y pense.
9. Finish time is when you put your scorecard in the drop box. No bonus for coming back early.
10. The suspense of being late, even one second over 3 hours, has been kept. Lose a point a minute for the 1st 10 min; after 10 minutes, all points lost are 2 per min.
11. Newcomers: read the map like any street map (except no street names) and use whatever symbols make sense and ignore the rest.


Awards
12 awards: top male & female 25 & under, top male & female 44 & under, male & female 45 & older, 1st two groups, 4 random drawings.


Stop, if you don't want to read any more. . .
1. Hint - thumbing. Without street names, use your thumb to keep track of where you are on the map. Move the thumb on the map as you move along.
2. Shades of yellow or light brown (park areas or parking lots) are OK to run through. The solid yellow is mowed grass. Lighter shades of yellow may be slower - cutting through a short stretch may be manageable, but scratchy. Use the green for navigating reference - the woods are thick.
3. Most of the control points will have a street address. Others are identified the traditional orienteering way - e.g. "depression" - read the map to see the depression symbol.
4. The purple crossing symbol suggests possible passage ways.
5. A few control points will have a sports logo painted on stone slabs, about 0.3m high (= 1 ft). like this KSU Wildcat.
6. With the recent rains, your shoes may get wet in some off-road areas.


Disclaimer
. . .the questions have been painstakingly researched, though the answers have not. Persons searching for the truth should sit on their hands or host their own orienteering event… Anyone thinking otherwise is itching for a fight.


Gene Wee
Questions (before June 11): 785-841-3587 or gmw@ku.edu


Here's a Yahoo map showing where Dad Perry Park is located.

Amy Thompson 8K

Dee and three other runLawrence members ran the Amy Thompson 8K yesterday (Mon, May 30). A lot of pizzazz (parachutists landing; nice crowd, cool weather, radio DJ announcing). Too bad the results for the 8K were messed up. Stayed for the awards and had to leave because they couldn't figure it out - like last year. Fortunately, the results were eventually done the next day - and with times. The link above will get you to some photos I took of the event.

Do you want to run Lawrence like Mike?

Lawrencians know that Mike Wildgen, city manager, runs Lawrence. He also runs Lawrence. Perhaps you don't control the city budget, but you can run around Lawrence like Mike. Come out June 11 to see a whole lot of Lawrence. This 3rd annual urban orienteering event is a continuation of the "scavenger hunt with a map" done two years ago with the Jayhawks on Parade statues. Here are some photos from 2004.

Runners training for a marathon can get in a long workout but making a game of it really makes the time fly by.

Orienteers, who usually run in the woods (and in the winter around here), will find a few more route choice decisions and can take advantage of their mapreading skills with increased IOF symbols added to the map.

Groups wanting to play a walking game don't have to stay out the whole time limit. There will be plenty of control points close to the start area.

Awards will be given not only to the top finishers but also by random draw. Winners can be anyone, not just the random luck of having "fast runner" genes. Come run, enjoy the workout, and earn a prize.

If interested, please submit entries before June 9 to insure your copy of the color map. Questions? Email me at gmw@ku.edu.

Reunion weekend - fun weekend

A lot of people associated with cycling I haven't seen in awhile appeared at the races this weekend. Friday, Cal Melick and David Conrad volunteered to help. So did Mike Riehm. John Giele took a lunch break to check the criterium. Cal, David and John raced with me in the early 70s. Ken Mackenzie was there, too. John and I rode to Canada with Ken one summer.
Lawrence Bike Club leaders - former presidents Jim Turner, Jim Baze along with Randy Breeden, too. Randy & I worked the Fri 3 am shift. Saw John McClure monitoring the 10th & Vermont corner - forgot to ask him about his bike trip to Portugal. Mike and Ed Eglinski were there and Rick Hermesch and Mike Harmon - bikers who've orienteered.
Rich Backus came by the 8th & Mass corner.

Sunday morning, I rode to the K10 trafficway to watch the team time trial. Standing at the K10 & 15th intersection was an older man along with the fire and police officials. His daughter (grand-daughter?) was riding for Colorado. Said he's from Topeka; we reminisced about Stephens Bike Shop, riding BAKs, and him now riding recumbents. He was Karl Hummel, one of three people who helped form the Kaw Valley Bike Club. I asked about Phil Menninger - the first Topeka guy I met who organized the first century I ever rode. The third founder of the club Karl couldn't remember. I asked if it was Gene Wansing (who's still active the KVBTC) - Karl said - "ah, that was the other third guy."

Met a guy along side the race course dressed in leather to ride Harleys. Said he was from Wichita and he and a friend rode from Wichita to Florida in 3 1/2 months on bikes from Hamilton's Bikes (no toe straps).

It was so easy to strike up conversations this weekend. The work week is hard these days and I look forward to every weekend. This one was special.

Sun

Collegiate Natl Champs in Lawrence

The NCCA (collegiate) National Championships were awarded to Lawrence Kansas for three years. It's an impressive accomplishment because the organizers thought big, for Lawrence very big, did their homework and got the best local people to get it done. The KU Cycling Club got KLM Marketing from Kansas City to be the professional organizers. Former KU Athletics director, Bob Frederick, lent his name and got many of his sports management students to volunteer. Plus the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Lawrence Sports Corporation now have the vision and staff to encourage major sporting events. Closing off Downtown Lawrence just never was allowed in the past.
The photo is from the men's division 1 criterium.
Tomorrow we take them to the Kansas hills.

I volunteered to help with the setup this morning (3 am!) setting up barricades - in the rain. Lawrence had about 3" last night.
 

No solo orienteering for young Scouts

Came across this guideline in the new Orienteer Kansas webpage. The sidebar had a link to scoutorienteering.
What's New
Subj: GSUSA Position on solo Orienteering. Feb 20 2004

"Competitive Orienteering Courses often require participants to operate independently. While solo competition is not recommended for inexperienced or other program levels, girls 11-17 years of age whose skills match or exceed the demands of the course may participate in such competitions. As with all orienteering sites, there should be a clear area of safety (Safety Lane), a specific finish time and location and Search and Rescue procedures designed by the competitions host and the Girl Scout advisor/leader."

Boys Scouts have always promoted the buddy system and over the years I've rarely seen locate Scouts out for the first time going out alone. Looks like the Girl Scouts have a similar concern. A few years ago while teaching orienteering to some Cub Scouts, an adult leader asked that I accompany him with the yound Scout he wanted to teach - he quoted a rule that an adult cannot be alone with a single Scout. I supposed it's a good rule for safety, but was life much simpler and people more trusting back 30-40 years ago, or were we lucky or were we duped?

Mop Run, Too (June 11)

This will be the third year for the annual urban orienteering run in Lawrence. "The Mop Run, Too" is set for Sat, June 11. Click on the title above for a pdf-file that better to print.

Let's jump for joy! Kim turns 45 on Saturday. Can he recreate this photo - 40 years after it was taken? Have a Happy Birthday, baby brother! 

The 2005 Relays claimed it had the 2nd largest crowd (24,200). Here's the crowd from 1967, which sure look huge. 1972 is the largest (30,000+?). It was one of the years, Jim Ryun ran. Here's the 100 race (can't remember if it was yards or meters); I think (Jim?) Hines was the winner. (gmw photo) 

The Krentz-Wees news

Got the news yesterday that my nephew, Adam Krentz-Wee, will be going to Washington University in St Louis next fall. St Louis is where his parents (Sam, my brother, and Rev. Elizabeth) were married. I first met the Krentz Family in St Louis. Carl Graesser, a good friend of the family, was a SLOC member and coined the phrase "stalking walking" in contrast to the "cunning running" to promote the sport.

The Krentz-Wees took a mid-April trip to Germany, including Tubingen where Elizabeth spent 12th grade. Her father, the other Rev. Krentz, and Carl spent many days in the Tubingen area.
Apparently, so did the the new Pope Benedict.

Small world, I was in St Louis a few days before Adams decisive trip to Wash U. Also in 68, could I have bumped into Joseph Ratzinger around SW Germany during a trip to Munich? Ratzinger's reactions to the student protests of the times were more theological than mine which were more mundane. French students in Bordeaux would throw bread at anyone in the cafeteria so bourgeois as to wear a hat to dinner.

KU Relays

Today is clear and sunny, a bit cool but the organizers hope for a record crowd today. Dee & I plan to be at the "Gold Zone" - the 2 pm to 5 pm prime time races.

The university 4-mile race last night was won by the KU. It was the 1965 4x1 mile relay I watched which impressed me about KU 's long history of good distance runners. While Tim Weaver has promoted this year's KU Relays as the best five spring relays, I would still disagree as the Penn Relays is so huge and on the East Coast and televised.

KU Relays (April 1965) - the high school mile. Jim Ryun is leading Wichita East teammate Mike Pederson. In 4th is Steve Perry, the junior from Wichita North. At the end of season, Perry had a 4:18 time - 3rd best mile time in the nation. That time was also the 3rd best time in Kansas in 1965. 

July 1950: This is a self portrait of King Mar taken in his one room apartment above the Pan American Cafe (150 N. Market, Wichita, KS). The business suit was typical of what he wore during the day as the manager/cashier of the Pan American. A nice photo using just the table lamps. An avid amateur photographer, he won trophies from the annual Shutterbug Field Days shooting color slides, stereo slides, black & white prints. His trophies were on display at the cafe. Models from the Stevens Beauty School posed for the amateurs at Riverside Park. This photo was originally a Kodak 35mm transparency.

Sat, Apr 16 (2005) Cliff Cave green course. One of my better O'runs - clean, not perfect, no big booms. Did not want to repeat the last short course experience (Dec Tall Oaks meet was a disaster - more time on the error on one control than the rest of the course). 2 to 3 was all trail and wondered if I could have handled the direct route this day. ET: 26:54 - first M55. Best time was 19 min among the intercollegiate guys.

Groundhog Run 2003 

Cyclocross race at Martin Park (Lawrence, KS) Dec 1976 Either Ed Abrahamson or Danny Caplan took this picture.

Opener

This blog was simply created to respond to other bloggers. Possible blog themes:
1. King and Me - My grandfather's name was King Mar. He owned the Pan American Cafe in Wichita, Kansas. Without looking up the exact dates, the cafe was around from 1913 to the 70s(?).
King was also an avid amateur photographer and an annual winner in the Wichita shutterbug competitions. I hope to share some of his photos on life in Wichita and of the Chinese-American community.

2. A shared blog for my brothers - the Five Chinese Brothers of Wichita.

3. sports - orienteering, cycling, and running