Hey, remember me?? FANS 24 looms

I won’t even apologize – it has been too long since I last blogged. Mea culpe. There will be some changes coming to the Where’s Chris Scotch campaign, so look for those in the near future. Along with some updates of some great races and awesome places I have been lucky enough to run. Also, for the foreseeable future, most of my time will be spent in California. Helen and I move into our rental house on Monday in Los Gatos. Lots of change going on with me recently. Change is good. Looking forward to what life has in store for us!

I am going to take a crack at something new tomorrow at FANS 24. It may turn out to be one helluva way to gain insight into the mind of a hamster while on his wheel. FANS is a 24 hour race on a 2.4 mile path around Lake Nokomis. Run as many laps as you can in 24 hours. Pretty simple. No forks in the trail, no markers to follow, no packs to carry. Just run, run, run for 24 hours. And it is for a good cause, which is always nice.

FANS 24 has been on my radar since last year, when Helen and I volunteered and watched part of the race. The loop is a 2.4 mile paved path. I don’t particularly like running in circles, and despise running on pavement, but I convinced myself that two wrongs might make a right this time. (and I can run in the grass next to the path for a majority of the loop).

If you are local, come out and watch the race. Bring your run shoes and do a lap or few with me. Or look for the Fitsok http://www.fitsok.com/ tent and stop by to chat with Helen. There will be some great racing going on, as this is the last race for people to qualify for the US National 24 hour team. And sometime random people show up to watch – Scott Jurek made an appearance last year.

I also have a bit of inspiration propelling me to do FANS. Michael Henze http://a-big-horse.blogspot.com/ . You might say I have a man-crush of sorts. Or perhaps more accurate, a Clydesdale crush. Yes Clydesdale – You know, the 200+ pound division some races offer so the fat kids can say they placed in the top ten in their class (if there are even ten entrants  – it seems  running and cycling competitors are a bit heavy on the skinny side).  I am bigger than your average bear, weighing somewhere around 220 pounds. I have joked for years (starting back when I mountain biked) that I am going to have a race shirt made that says “Skinny People Suck.” It just gets frustrating sometimes seeing tiny little bird legs flying by me on the trail. I wonder how fast they would be if they had to carry my weight around?? A totally rhetorical question, as I know all I have to do it train more and eat less, but logic gets lost sometimes. That all being said, Michael will run FANS 24 this weekend tipping the scales north of 200 pounds. But don’t think he is soft. He puts in more training miles than anyone I know. And he is fully capable of running more than 142 miles, which will put him on the US National 24 Hour team for a second time. Yup – as a Clydesdale, Michael is one of the premier 24 hour racers in the country. So it gives me hope, that with enough dedication, hard work and training, that I might someday be able to run fast. Or far. Or maybe even both.

Chris

FANS (http://www.fans24hour.org/)
The FANS 12 & 24 Hour Run supports the FANS Scholarship Fund. FANS, which stands for Furthering Achievement through a Network of Support, is a program of Pillsbury United Communities (PUC) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. PUC initiated the FANS project in 1989 with a group of sixth-grade students from North and South Minneapolis. The Project has a vision of sending inner-city kids to college or to another post-secondary institution. FANS works with the youth and their families in a wide variety of activities geared to providing support for the vision.