An Essay: On My Summer Break I Ran Across 3 States!

Fall is back to school time and my kids love catching up with their friends on all they've done over the summer.  My own work gets back in gear when school bells start chiming again and my summer report sounds different than the others.  I ran 500 miles across three states in June.

The States Runner Finds His Achilles Heel

Summer of 2014 was a challenging year for me as a runner.  In my attempt to cross Oregon and Idaho I encountered several obstacles.  First, there was a massive forest fire on the Pacific Crest Trail which would have required a nearly 100 mile detour on forest roads.  If I had been on my own schedule that would have been fine but with a support crew on a tight timeline and my family expecting me back home I couldn't afford the detour.  Instead, I decided to get shuttled west to the coast and continue my northbound trip due west from where I got off the PCT.  On the coast I was trying to follow the Oregon Coast Trail, a loose network of short beach sections joined by busy segments of Highway 101.  Getting from the beach to the highway proved difficult at times, navigating inland marshes and rising tides.  The traffic on the highway and narrow shoulder were also harrowing.  Don't worry, it made for some great filming!  However, halfway across the state I stepped off the road in mid-stride to avoid an oncoming RV at a spot where the shoulder completely disappeared.

LIVE! From Your Computer! It's The Latest Film!

At long last, you can view the latest film from my recent 541 mile trail run across Wisconsin and Michigan.  I tried to pack in more details about the in's and out's of the run in addition to the folksy format you've come to love and expect from me.  I hope you enjoy it!  Feel free to spread the word!

Brian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0kr6E3V05w

Edit, Render, Convert and Import: Not Your Everyday Runner Jargon

The past 200 hours of my computer's life have been eaten up trying to finalize my latest film about my recent 500 mile run across Wisconsin and Michigan. If there ever was a doubt, there isn't one anymore: I have moved beyond iMovie.  Not to geek out on you too much here but I've learned that it encodes in 32bit but needs to render in 64bit.  Basically, when you create a video more than 10 minutes long, filled with voice-over narration, background music, captions and transitions it all becomes too much data to sort out at the very end.  Turning to good ol' Google, I found discussion threads on how to complete my film using various tricks and finally found one that worked. The film got "finalized" or finished after more than 2 weeks of failed efforts at 20 hours per day.

But then I had to get it on Youtube.  It is just over 16 minutes and Youtube prefers videos that are 10 minutes or less, and some people get up to 15. To have permission for more than that you have to have a good track record of honest use on the site and a verified account.  After a few more data conversions, shrinking down the data and voila - it went live.

It was an incredible feeling of accomplishment, getting a short film uploaded to Youtube, like completing a second ultra (from my couch) after jumping into Lake Huron (on the run).

I learned a lot about using my new GoPro camera and iPhone5.  I hope you enjoy the results! I plan to use my filming skills to make an even better video on my next run across Oregon and Idaho in July 2014.  Enjoy! And if you'd like to come along and support this project, have a look at my new Kickstarter page to tag along.   

I was a Guest on the NPR Program: A Way With Words!

Sunday was a lot of fun. An episode of a fun language program aired where I had called in and the hosts Martha and Grant had answered my question. The show is called A Way With Words and the hosts tackle nuances of the English language as they try their best to explain possible reasons behind the weird things we hear each other say.  My question was about how I've noticed that people give directions in vastly different ways in different regions of our country when I'm running across states.  I wondered what led to that and these two did a great job helping to explain why it happens.

To hear the segment, click on the link below, then select the last segment and my call starts about 3 minutes in.  The segment is titled AWWW 06. Enjoy!


http://www.prx.org/pieces/107016-not-quite-a-boyfriend-1384#description