Hiving some bees.

This weekend I got to help my friend Becky to start off a new bee hive. This is one of the most satisfying jobs in beekeeping. You have a queen all packaged up in a little container about the size of your thumb and a few pounds of bees ready to join her in the hive. You place the queen in her container in the hive (she can’t get out until the worker bees eat the sugar plug at the end of the container to free her from confinement) and then you get to pour the bees into the hive on top of her. At this point since they haven’t really bonded with the queen or the hive the bees are not at all threatened and are quite benign. The act of pouring in all these bees is just very satisfying.


The idea is that by the time that the other bees eat away the sugar plug to the queen container they will have bonded with the queen and they will join together and build up the hive. If things don’t go to plan – perhaps the queen gets out too early before she is bonded with the others – then the other bees kill her. Nature is cruel sometimes.

A Trip to the Santa Cruz Mountains...

Last Sunday I went down to the mountains just north of Santa Cruz to attend the jukai ceremony of my friend Brian. A jukai ceremony, to the best of my knowledge, is the lay ordination of a member of the Zen Buddhist community. I had never been to one before and did not quite know what to expect, particularly since those Zen Buddhists and, in this case, those Soto Zen Buddhists are quite formal – lots of bowing and prostrating and bell ringing in just the right order and at just the right time.

The ceremony was very nice indeed and Brian seemed to make all the right responses at the right time, though he later admitted he only had a brief rehearsal 5 minutes before the ceremony. Anyway, it was a privilege to be a part of the ceremony – Brian has been diligently studying and practicing for the last 5 years and it is part of a life long commitment for him – very admirable.

The location was at a the Vajrapani Buddhist retreat center was an idyllic spot back in the hills behind Boulder Creek, just north of Santa Cruz – very close to the Big Basin Redwoods State Park. What a beautiful part of the State that is.

The American River 50 Miler

Yesterday I ran the American River 50 from Sacramento up the trails to Auburn. Not quite sure how I got to that state where I would think that running for 50 miles was a good thing to do, but at 6:00 am yesterday on a rainy morning I found myself at the start line down by Sacramento State University.

As the distance increases in these running events and particularly on the trail runs, the body shapes and the age distributions changes. At yesterday’s start there was a motley looking crew with a much higher proportion of older people (like me) and all sorts of body shapes and sizes. Looking at some folks you just would not think they would be capable of running that far – they looked so un-athletic. I suppose it is more of a mental game at that distance and all you need is the will to keep going rather than the speed.

I had decided to try and run the race in three parts, a 30 mile run up to Folsom (Beall’s Point) followed by two 10 milers to Rattlesnake Bar and then on to the finish at the Dam Overlook in Auburn. I figured that if I could get the first 30 out of the way with something left then I could hang on for the next two sections.

I got to the first 20 miles done but then I started to feel way too tired for not being even half way. From 20 to 30 miles it was a tough section for me and I had doubts about not being able to get through it. However, at mile 30 I changed shoes and picked up my pacer Michelle and things got a lot better. That is where the real trail section of the course starts and we slopped along through mud and muck and I was enjoying it again. I picked up my next pacer (Brian) at Rattlesnake and he got me through the final 10 miles.

The finish of the race is a 3 mile uphill out from the bottom of the canyon to Auburn – a cruel but fitting end. At that point I just wanted to be done with it so I was able to muster some energy to run at least parts of the hill. At the finish it was a wonderful feeling, there were a bunch of friends there and it really felt that I had done something. My time was 12 hrs 5 mins, so not fast by any means but that was not the goal.

It was a good experience, I am glad I did it, I am very grateful to all the friends who gave me encouragement on the way and at the finish, but I am not sure it is something I want to repeat. And as far as going further is concerned – 100 K or 100 Miles – of which there are plenty of races – I just don’t think I need to go there.

Bonking...

It was pointed out to me that I should be more careful with my language. When I stated earlier this week that I “bonked” during my weekend run, I was using the term in its American sense, which as everyone knows is to become exhausted while exercising due to the depletion of glycogen.

I was not using it in its more proper English sense, which according to the American’s Guide to Speaking British is "Bonk - Same meaning as shag. Means to have sex. E.g. 'Did you bonk him/her?'."

However, I was similarly surprised and amused at the sponsored link that popped up when I Googled the term “bonking”.

Now you all know where you can get it – just go to eBay.

Anti-Bush Protests...

In recent weeks, there have been protests against the Bush government here in Sacramento (just down the street from my house actually). A motley crew of sign and flag waving people gathers at the intersection of Broadway and Land Park Drive and solicits responses from the passing traffic. As far as I could see they were getting a lot of positive support.

It’s good to see this reaction going on again. For a long while there were weekly protests against the Iraq war, but they fizzled out last year. Now it seems there is a bit more enthusiasm for this type of thing.

Way Too Cool

Saturday was the Way Too Cool 50K – the run I have been training for all this year. The weather forecast was quite foreboding, with possible snow in the area, and a sever storm warning. Thankfully the weather people got it wrong, very wrong, and it turned into quite a nice day – cool, but dry and even some sun at the end of the day. There was a lot of water from the storms earlier in the week, so all the stream crossings were in full flow and for most of the course we were slopping through mud – all good fun!

I finished in just under 7 hrs and that felt like quite long enough to be on your feet – I was pretty tired. There were some dark times for me in the middle of the course when I bonked pretty bad coming up the infamous “Ball Bearing Hill”. I did a lot of walking after that, and a lot of evaluation of why I was doing this silly thing. But by mile 25 things picked up and I sort of enjoyed the finish.

So what’s next? During the middle of the run, I had vowed never ever to do a long trail run, but now I am thinking - I am somewhat trained now so why not keep going .That means the American River 50 Miler next month – now there is something really foolish.

Lunchtime encounters…

At lunchtime today, I went over to my local REI to get some essentials for everyday life (Gu), and I had the strangest encounters. In the store I saw two friends who I hadn’t seen for quite sometime and I got quite opposite reactions.

When I walked in the store I was greeted by a hearty “Hey Steve” and my first encounter came up to me shook hands and then hugged me like a long lost brother. Now you know, we Brits do not do this hugging thing very well, particularly between the male of the species, but that was all right; it was good to see him and we chatted for a while and all was well with the world.

Then I walked to the back of the store and saw my other friend, who I called out to – “Hey Jim!” (Name changed to protect the identity). He didn’t respond, so I called out again, and this time he did look at me and I said hello again, but again no reaction. So I said, “Jim, it is Jim isn’t it?” and he looked at me blankly and said “No”. On that I moved on. Now, I would normally assume that I had made a mistake, there are indeed people that look similar out there, but no I couldn’t have, Jim has a distinctive car which just happened to be in the parking lot, and there is just no way it was not him.

So I was left wondering what on earth is going on with the world. How could I bump into the extremes of friends within 5 minutes of each other? Even with the hugging (full frontal might I add, we Brits do better with a side on hug sometimes) I preferred the first encounter and was just baffled and troubled by the second.

A couple of good films

This last week I saw a couple of very nice films. The first one was The World’s Fastest Indian (as in Indian the motorcycle). I read a review and it said that it was a must see for anyone who has been saying they are “too old for this sort of thing anymore” and, I must admit, I have been saying just that lately. So this sounded like the film for me.

I thought it was wonderful, a great story, even a true story, a great piece of acting by Anthony Hopkins, and it even had motorbikes in it! What more could you ask for? And yes, for those of us saying we are too old for this sort of thing, it is an inspirational movie and you know the answer, we are never too old.

The other movie I saw was Grizzly Man. I missed it at the theatre so I watched it on DVD. I had heard the story line of this movie and it hadn’t really interested me so much, but what a great piece of film-making it was, both by the subject of the documentary, Tim Treadwell (who shot some great scenes of bears in the wild), and by the director Werner Herzog (who put the whole thing together). Tim Treadwell was the man who lived with the Grizzly Bears in Alaska. He was quite nuts I am sure, and he inevitably got what was coming to him, in that he got eaten by the bears, but the amazing thing was that he survived for 13 years in that extremely risky position before succumbing and in the process he captured some very good video records.

One of the bonus things about the DVD is that there is a added film about the making of the soundtrack to the main film. The main person involved in that effort was Richard Thompson (of whom I have a great deal of respect and admiration). So anyone who is a Richard Thompson fan, get the DVD and watch the soundtrack movie. For me it was as interesting as the movie itself.

Its a shame that none of these films got any nominations for the upcoming Oscars this year.

Nothing but running, and more running....

Not much happening on the blogging front these days. Life goes on but nothing particular dramatic. I did do some lovely runs this weekend, but you are likely fed up with me singing the praises of trail running up in the foothills. But we did 14 miles yesterday, and 26 miles today, so we are feeling ready for the Way Too Cool 50K in a couple of weeks (that’s Way Too Cool as in the town of Cool, California where the race starts and finishes).

We did see something interesting today – a nice set of mountain lion prints in the trail. Two sets actually, perhaps a mother and a cub; at least one was significantly larger than the other. I have never seen a mountain lion in the wild, but obviously they are around. Interestingly the tracks we saw were just a mile or so away from the memorial to Barbara Schoener, a trail runner who was killed by a lion in 1994. That’s one of the reasons that we never run alone out there. There’s safety in numbers and so long as you aren’t the slowest runner you are alright – no?

There are not a lot of attacks, as you can see from this website, but we are encroaching on their territory more and more.

Valentine's Day

As we move into another holiday season, albeit a minor one created by Hallmark Cards, my neighbours, true to form, have floated another inflatable device on their roof.


This time it is some kind of frog or toad with Happy Valentines day on it's shirt. I am not quite sure what the connection is between Valentine's Day and frogs is, but, it's the thought that counts. A Happy Valentine's day to you!