Coastal Cleanup California: right from your doorstep!

Almost 50 years ago, 1972 to be exact, California voters supported the passage of Prop 20 which eventually led to the passage of the Coastal Act and the establishment of the California Coastal Commission. Since then, September has seen the world largest organized beach cleaning event. For obvious this year, we aren't called to all gather along the California beaches on the same day. This year, we are invited to participate, not virtually but actively and remotely, from our own neighborhood. Knowing that every piece of garbage on our streets eventually finds its way to the sea, unless we act!

This manhole cover and plaque is at the corner of my street, a great reminder I can't miss every day! As another job at work, I support our California Environmental BRG (Business Resource Group). At IBM, BRGs gather volunteers around a common passion and theme: LGBTQ+, Asian-American, Veterans, work&life integration, Women, BAME (Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic), environment, ...

For September, one of our Bee Green challenges at the state level is to participate in this monthly Coastal Cleanup program. There are multiple activities offered including one that everybody can do, right from home (albeit not from your couch though! ;-) ). It consists in picking trash in your neighborhood and log it on the CleanSwell mobile app. When I saw that, I didn't feel it was appropriate to my situation. I'm fortunate to live in an upscale neighborhood of Silicon Valley, with neat sidewalks mostly bordered by manicured front yards with green grass. Well, that's what I thought, I must have been running way too fast to notice... ;-) Back in 2011, I paid a tribute to the numerous trees in this neighborhood, really feeling blessed, especially when our nearby hills are still burning...

This Saturday, I did my usual 5K loop in blazing heat and poor air quality when I noticed a huge piece of styrofoam on the sidewalk. That was it, I picked it up and stopped by the house to drop that trophy and pick an empty bag, a pair of gloves and my phone with the app; let the treasure hunt begin! For those who aren't familiar with my blog, I love running. The neighbors who are used to see me running for hours must have wondered what happened to me: I was running a few steps, and stopping every time I was spotting a piece of trash. I never thought I would have to stop so often... That didn't make for a great run but I managed to fill two bags of trash, yikes! Here you are, a disgusting picture just after 5 kilometers.

I let you click on the image to see the details: 3 gloves (including 2 a few hundreds yards from a COVID-19 community testing site...), 6 face masks (people lose their masks while walking or driving by, really?), countless pieces of paper and shopping receipts and the usual beer cans and plastic cups. Oh, and if you though the sanitizing wipes were dissolving in the air, think again, that's not the case AT ALL; got a dozen of these, yes, disgusting!

Also, 6 cigarette butts which is quite low compared to France! Speaking of butts, watch this 6-minute story on what happens to this type trash, I'm sure you'll learn a lot, as I did a few weeks ago. I had no idea for instance that ic could resist for so long in water, and arm fish...

By the way, I picked everything but... poop bags, you are welcome! Even wrapped in a plastic bag, there is some limit to sanity and devotion to embellish the neighborhood...

While I was astonished with what I collected, I was sad to spot some new trash on my run on Sunday morning, very disappointing.

With that, your turn now, let's each do a piece to embellish our environment and protect Mother Nature, ok? Right at our doorstep! Go, walk or run, and clean!

2020 PA MUT Grand Prix: it's a wrap! Down that is.

It's going to come as a relief for quite a few local runners who lobbied for it, a disappointment for others: we are concluding and terminating this year's USA Track & Field Pacific Association Mountain Ultra Trail running Grand Prix (sorry for the mouthful acronyms)! This microscopic corona virus continues its ravage, especially here in California, and challenging the self-discipline of our American way of life, or lack thereof in too many places. Some people call it a monster; it's impact on our society surely shows in the numbers and the fact it touches everything. And, our world being so connected, everybody. In multiple waves.

(Photo credit: CDC's Public Health Image Library)

Although a few good news keep emerging with regard to progress in treating patients for instance, or how many infected end up being asymptomatic, every step forward comes with two or three backward ones, like the multiple hot spots created by the social isolation fatigue of younger generations in particular. With that, and in particular the potential 2-week transmission lag, it's impossible to build any reasonable or consistent trend, neither long term nor even short term.

In the case of our Grand Prix, we solely rely on Race Directors. Some of you, runners, had asked the Pacific Association to intervene but, apart from passing the guidelines issued by our National USATF governing body, it was up to these valorous RDs to decide on the fate of their events. Sincere thanks to all these RDs who had to endure so much trouble, incertitude, stress, financial burden, either to keep their event up, postpone or eventually cancel them.

All that being said, we still had a Grand Prix a week ago, at least for individuals. Our LDR (Long Distance Committee) virtually met on Sunday July 12, and here are the resolutions which I brought forward and were all voted:

1. With Skyline 50K being postponed from August 4 to September 26, that created a scoring conflict with Dick Collins Firetrail 50-mile. We agreed that individuals could score in either one.
2. One of the most pressing requests from the team captains was that we canceled at least the team competition, to avoid peer pressure (runners feeling obliged to run for their teammates). Since we had canceled the team scoring for the mid March Pioneer Spirit 50-mile Trail Nationals anyway, the cancellation of that part of the Grand Prix was voted at that meeting.
3. From the initial 17 scoring opportunities for the whole year, that left us with 4 more on top of the 4 we had in the winter, enough to have a meaningful Grand Prix. As a matter of fact, we agreed that, even if 2 of these scoring opportunities vanished, we could still proceed with 6 scores. That meant that we set an automatic cancellation of the Grand Prix as soon as 3 events were canceled.

Well, fast forward 2 weeks and...

1. Last Friday, Adam Ray from Scena Performance had the regret to email us about the cancellation of SkyFire, that is both Skyline and Firetrails. 2 races but one scoring opportunity down.
2. On Saturday, the Quicksilver RDs, Pierre-Yves Couteau and Loren Lewis, emails all the registrants to Quicksilver 100K that they had to cancel that race too, in October. Minus 2!
3. On Sunday, Steve Jaber and Anil Rao, RDs for Ruth Anderson Memorial Runs 50K and 50-mile, let me know they were cancelling as well.

We were still in July and, like that, in the midst of a new wave of Covid-19 cases in South California in particular, the Grand Prix was shut down. Not a pleasant decision but such an insignificant one compared to the case of reopening school and businesses of course! Or making both ends and surviving for tens of millions of Americans, and many more around the globe.

Ironically, with ultra race registrations starting so early in the year, some as early as September, August had become the time we had to plan most of the next Grand Prix season. Given the current situation, I trust nobody is going to pressure me on that planning, this year. We can't even plan a race for this Fall, we can barely figure out if the situation is going to get worse or better with the flu (!) season. We can only pray that we'll get to some new normal sometimes in 2021. But when?

I've interacted a lot with Race Directors, from those who have lost their business income with this pandemic, to those who were volunteering to help our ultra community by perpetuating race traditions. I'll keep this communication channel active to be ready to plan 2021 as the current fog and incertitude dissipates.

By concluding and terminating, in the introduction, I mean cancelling in terms of overall year end scoring. I still asked our GP Scorer, Nakia, to bring back the scores as they were after 4 events, for the sake of recognizing those who participated through last Winter.

Speaking of recognition, the 2019 Age Group Champions will keep their race discount benefit through 2021. But there won't be prize money or plaques, even based on the first 4 2020 events; and likely no PA banquet either.

If, despite this lack of competition, you are in top shape, kudos for your intrinsic self-motivation! If you are missing our opportunities to meet at these races, hope you still considered leveraging virtual races and challenges, while keeping physical distance. If you have been injured or even caught the virus (I heard of a few and I think I got it too), enjoy this time off competition to rebuild and come back stronger.

Oh, and it it feels safe enough by early December, let's all show up at PCTR's The Ridge event which was on our Grand Prix calendar and got moved from June to December 5, OK?

We all look forward to physically reuniting in the not too distant future, stay safe, healthy and sane in the meantime!

Trans-USA Road Cruise: a visual recap

I imagine a time where, like on sea cruises, we'll be able to sleep in a self-driving RV and wake-up each morning at the door of a National Park or Monument for a full-day visit! With a shower available after a daily run! Paradise on Earth! :-) And this futuristic hope should be available in just a few years. Well, it our world doesn't fall apart in the meantime, meaning that we stop the dumbest behaviors we see within our country!

It has been 2 weeks we quarantined ourselves again just to make sure. As a matter of fact, I'd rather being tested for antibodies now since I believe I might have contracted COVID-19 back in February when I came back from Vegas with a super bad and dry cough and without any voice left. Of course, that would be called a mild version since I was still able to win my age group at the 50K Road Nationals in New York a week later but, still, running has been super painful because of chest/lung pain in the first 2 to 3 miles of every run. 4.5 months and, unfortunately, still counting...

One more reason for Agnès and I to wear a mask, to protect others. Although I don't think we would transmit it after all these months. And, again, assuming we do carry antibodies. When will we know... My doctor says that the test is still so off, it's not worth it. Every day I see long lines at local testing sites, but I'm stunned we don't hear much about antibody testing on official or social medias.

With this new quarantine behind us, and a new confinement order anyway, I feel more comfortable turning the page on this amazing American experience. Coast to coast road trips are more popular among college students but there must be many less with the current distance learning mode. At least we didn't have any issue find rooms.

To connect the dots of my eight posts, here is a visual summary. Another picture worth many thousands words!

There are so many different options for crossing the US. Many people would take the shortest path along Interstate 80. Do the whole crossing over 3 or 4 days without stopping and seeing much. Others would spend several months and camp. With this itinerary, the first question we got was: "why going so far North?" The key reason is that we had already visited South Dakota several years ago and it was taken by Trump and his fans around our dates so we much welcomed keeping our distance! We have also spent much time in the Southern States and their parks (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona) and even Colorado, but we were dreaming of visiting Yellowstone and Grand Teton. In between these key landmarks, there are fewer options to pick from, yet a few very worth ones.

Overall, that represented about 55 hours of driving and limited time in each National treasure, but still enough to get some good taste of the many Americas of our Federation. Including the many different Americas with regard to our handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. From this vantage, the worst experiences included:

• Several stops are rest areas and gas stations;
• The Chicago crowd invading the narrow beaches at the Indiana Dune National Park (we left promptly at 10 am to avoid the healthcare crisis!);
• And our stop at Austin, Nevada.

While we love Austin, Texas, for its liberal, relaxed and open-minded atmosphere, Austin, Nevada, seems to be the anthesis. We had tried to book a room there at the last minute but there isn't even a hotel, only less than a handful bed and breakfast. After our aerial stop by Great Basin National Park, we had quite a few miles and were hoping to get some quick dinner around 7 pm on Independence Day. We found a bar which was quite busy but were bluntly told they weren't serving any food. We stopped at another one to be told that the kitchen was closed. And that we looked dumb with our masks. That they didn't have 5G so no risk of corona virus. And we got asked if we had noticed the Trump sign on the side of the road which they proudly maintained for the past 4 years. Dang, we were just asking for some food, why did we deserve such a hate in the middle of nowhere??!! Another big American disappointment...

Two more personal anecdotes before turning the page and moving to relating new adventures.

First, a weird picture which, no, isn't about Black Lives Matter (although, yes, as I reiterated in the first post of my road trip series, they really really do).

I had just woken up from a nap while Agnès was driving through Montana when I see a sign "Yellowstone River." I quickly open the window, take a shot while going at 80 mph over the bridge and want to frame it better... Dang, lost my iPhone only to see it flying high up in the air. The time that Agnès got to a stop on the emergency lane and started carefully driving backward toward the bridge, a big truck passes by the bridge and I thought that was it. I finished the few hundreds yards by foot and was happy to see the phone had landed in the emergency lane, not on the highway nor in the water, first sign of luck. As I approach more, I see the phone lying on the protective case, not on the screen, phew! Now, I'm close enough to see that the screen doesn't even look broken. As I grab the phone, the display comes up, wow! I'm happy to report that everything is in order, except for small silent mode switch which doesn't hold the lower position (but I can still do a soft switch). Frightening experience...

Back to that black picture: it may interest Apple to see what one of their iPhones experienced while flying 8 to 10 feet above the ground while spinning at 80 mph. I'm adding the details below. Also, pointing out that, if you click on and open the above picture, you'll still see traces of lighted pixels...

The second image is more personal. If you followed every post of this journey, you recall I badly twisted my ankle while coming down Death Canyon in Grand Teton National Park. That was on Thursday afternoon. I didn't run on Friday, just hiking a couple of miles in Fossil Butte National Monument. Thanks to a lot of icing in the car, I managed to run 10 hilly kilometers, part of the climb up Wheeler Peak in Great Basin National Park. Including technical trails with loose rocks. At least I was double careful this time. Well, as I stepped out of the shower on Sunday evening, Agnès points to my ankle, noticing something...

Typically, when an hematoma forms this way after a few days, it means something broke. A bone possibly. Touch was a bit sensitive at the top of my foot but I still don't exactly understand what happened. I ran 118 miles since the incident, all good, phew! As we joked with the friends we stopped by in Salt Lake, their dog having had at least 9 lives, my ankles survived many lives too; I'm quite proud of their flexibility, a gift for trail running!

There are many other anecdotes to recount from this 10-day adventure, but you don't have time so I'll just conclude with a cool encounter with a bison as we were exiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We saw more from a distance between Yellowstone and Grand Teton but that one was just on the other side of the road. A few days later, medias were running a story of a woman injured after she approached one of these beasts. Be careful out there! As for bears, still no luck but it's another animal I dare to get too close anyway...

With that, let's be grateful for the wonders our country has. Hopefully we manage to agree our environment is worth protecting (hint: that means reviving the EPA and rejoining the Paris Treaty; and fixing our judicial system too!). Hopefully. Not only for our generation (selfishly) but for the many generations to come (selflessly). PLEASE ALL!

Running in Utah: getting high in Great Basin National Park

After twisting my ankle on Day 7 of our cross-country road trip, running down Death Canyon in Grand Teton National Park, an easy hike in Fossil Butte National Monument on Friday brought some relief. What another experience to drove through rural Wyoming, along the border with Idaho! Like their plates say: "For ever West..." They surely kept the Far West spirit alive and you see an America which is living a basic life, so far away from our urban areas' busyness.

In our quest for a National Park a day, we had initially planned on stopping by the Craters of the Moon NP. We changed plans to visit good friends in Sandy, Utah, and we were delighted by this opportunity to visit a National Monument really off the beaten paths. We learned so much about the billions and millions of years which led us to where we are, we highly recommend the detour or trip up there. This park opened in 1990 but the visitor center is brand new and super modern (architecture inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright). Great exhibit showing a great variety of super detailed fossils. And we hiked to an archeologic site where we arrived as researcher just uncovered one of a fish, before our astounded eyes. (See pictures at the bottom of this post.)

We left Sandy around 9 am on Saturday (Independence Day) and, thanks to our ultimate time zone change, got to the 9th and last National thing of our road trip (thing meaning park, monument or recreation area). Because of the last minute decision and the lack of cell coverage in the car on such remote roads, we hadn't prepared our visit at all. Thankfully, this is a very simple park, there are just a handful of key highlights. While the caves must be something exceptional, it requires a reservation of a guide, so we skipped that. We drove the only road in the park, from the visitor center in Baker at 5,317 feet (1,621 m) up to the Wheeler Peak parking lot at ~10,200 feet (3,109 m)! Only in America do we have roads to these elevations, like Pikes Peak above 14K feet (4K meters)! No wonder why some tourists visiting Chamonix ask where the road is to the top of Mont Blanc... ;-)

Proud flag flying at the visitor center on Independence Day, with the peaks of the park in the background

 Getting very high on the aerial road to the Wheeler Peak parking lot

The time to eat our picnic, it was 1:10 pm Agnès allotted me until 2:30 pm to hike the trail to the summit. That meant 1 hour and 20 minutes while the 8.6-mile round trip to the summit of Wheeler Peak is supposed to take between 4 to 8 hours per the sign posted at the trail head! With my ankle still swollen, I just wanted to see how high I could go...

I started hiking but the trail was actually very nice and rather flat. After a mile of alternating power walking and running, I had gained only 100 feet of elevation, dang! By mile 2, 10,700 feet, slightly better. Then the trail became more technical, especially with loose rocks. I did average 14:35 min/mile for the first 2 miles but it took me 21:45 for the third mile. At that point I was really happy to reach a patch of snow and see 11,625 feet of elevation on my GPS (3,540 meters). I really wanted to keep going for the last 1.2 mile to the summit but it was more than time to turn back. Although 1.2 miles don't seem a lot, there were 1,400 feet left to climb and, worse, descend, in these tricky loose rocks.

I rushed back to the parking lot which I reached at 2:40 pm, close enough... Next time, I'll negotiate an earlier departure! ;-)

That's a really cool and accessible summit to climb, at almost 4,000 meters (just missing 18 meters!). Under this peak, there are nice trails circling Stella and Teresa Lakes. And several other trails in nearby canyons which we surely didn't have time to explore in such a ridiculously short visit (e.g. Lehman Creek, Snake Creek, Baker Creek/Lake, Timber Creek).

A 3D flyover of this short but Alpine 10K (click on this link, or the picture below):

If you can stay overnight, star gazing is supposed to be incredible given the park is literally in the middle of nowhere! As a matter of fact, it's on Highway which, on GPS maps, is tagged as "The loneliest road in America!" If you are driving there on your own, you are up for a good spiritual retreat, with so many miles at 70 miles per hour without saying any car. Better car pool then!

A few more pictures of that run/hike...

An easy flat and super pleasant first mile

 The joy of finding and touching snow again this week!

 Stella Lake from the Summit Trail

Loose rocks ahead, only the beginning at 11,000 feet!

 Up to the peak from the right side

 Back, almost on time...

 10K-round trip to that tiny patch of snow!

 The Wheeler Peak Summit Trailhead

Passing the Utah/Nevada border and getting on NV HWY 50, that Loneliest Road in America

 Full moon rising in the desert

 Watching the July 4th fireworks from ugly Fallon downtown

 The full moon at night (although we missed the eclipse)

And now, a few pictures from our stop at Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming on Friday.

The super modern visitor center

A timeline of 4 billion years!

From the bottom of the lake, way back then, now corresponding to the white layers on the next picture

Picnic area, then a hike to the excavation demo at the top of the hill in the background

 Yet another one!

Running in Wyoming: Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park touches Yellowstone yet it's hard to imagine so much difference. If Yellowstone is all about fumes coming from boiling water under the surface, Grand Teton contrasts by its peaks, with 34 of them culminating at more than 11,000 feet!

From Jackson we drove to Teton Village and Phelps Lake in the morning, then Jenny Lake, and a hike to Taggart and Bradley Lakes. I told you in the previous post, we make the most of the time we have!

I did run up and down Death Canyon, passing along Lake Phelps.

Lake Phelps lookout:

 Touching the snow!

 At the Alaska Basin Trail junction

 This marmot was so social!

 Back at the car

In this Strava trace, you'll notice a major bug of my Garmin GPS watch which got me flying over a mountain. I only wish...

I included a few pictures in this 3D flyover (click on this link or the picture below):

Only 9 miles but it reminded me so much of the Alps with the breathtaking views, the varied vegetation and terrain, and technical sections, I highly recommend this route for quite a workout. I was super careful on the way down but stupidly twisted my ankle in the very last easier section, just before getting back to the trail head. No cracks but quite painful this Thursday evening. Fortunately, we don't have any big hike planned for tomorrow. We were supposed to visit another National Park tomorrow, on the Idaho side, Craters of the Moon but opted to stop by a friend in Salt Lake City instead. The ankle should appreciate the 6-hour drive instead! ;-)

Speaking of (Facebook) friends, I was hoping to run a few strides with local running legend, Lisa Smith-Batchen (e.g. 10 time Bad Water including 2 wins), but she was working all day today. I was looking forward to the encounter and another #RunningBuddyTourism opportunity like the last minute meetings with Mike Wardian then Mark Godale, I will have to come back and try again!

Both Yellowstone and Grand Teton are spectacular, yet so different. If it was a popularity contest, my love for the mountains would place Grand Teton to the top of the 7 National places we visited these past 7 days. Our heads are fulled of wonderful images, as well as our cameras! And, again, we know we rushed these visits way too much, still, what an enriching cross-country road trip experience until we have more time to come back! Maybe include some biking on the many miles of pristine bike paths across the park, more runs and hikes definitely, and some rafting? We can't let these bears having all the fun, can we?