Ben's Log

The Burn

Yesterday I completed the Tillamook Burn. I can sum it up in a single word and that is brutal. The course description warned of "lung busting" hills which admitaly I didn't really read until after the race. However when I see lung busting on the description I still think long steady incline, I used to do hills in cross country miles of hills in some cases. But these lung busters were not just lung busters they were soul crushing piles of earth hell bent on destroying your mind and body as you attempted to ascend them one step at a time...

The course was somehow more up hill than down. The first section was pretty easy nice long easy hill then down by the river and then quick up and down stuff into and out of mini gulches while following the shore by the river. The middle killed me with the hills. The last mile or two was fairly flat, but very wet as a good stretch was in a creek (not across but up and in stream) and some culverts under the road.

If I'm gonna keep doing this kind of think I may need to find some place new to train for these kinda hills and terrain...

Running Beyond Empty

Saturday I was on my way to Salem to hang out with my long time friend Stephanie. The drive was the typical boring drive save for one detail.

As I approached the Corvallis exit I noticed a tow truck. Just a bit beyond the tow truck was the driver walking back to the tow truck with his gas can. A few yards further was a Toyota Prius. The Prius had ran out of gas.

I don't think too highly of most Prius owners. They think they are soooo friendly to the world so they can drive how they want. But they are really not much or any more eco friendly cause their car is full of heavy metals that have to be mined, refined, processed and manufactured into the batteries this spans at least two continents. There are also studies that say a land rover does less environmental damage after so many years than a Prius, and that a Hummer H3 is cheaper to own after several years. So the thing they really save is a bit of money at the pump.

I have never run out of gas. I know many others who have never run out of gas. My 1994 BMW 325i's gas gauge would stick at empty for an entire tank. But I never ran out of gas. It's not like the Prius didn't know they were low on gas.