Surf the Murph Checklist

Just a little more than 1 day out and all things are coming together quite nicely. I am in the middle of working out the final details of what I think I need to do to be ready for race morning. I went for a short 3 mile run tonight, no issues except for the branch I stepped on that I thought went through my foot. Then I have work, it is doing a great job of keeping me distracted of course not in a good way but hey, I will have 50 miles to work that all out.

My plans for the race are real simple go out slow, keep going, finish. I thought about posting about the weather and then I thought why? Regardless of what it is I will be there and will try to be ready.

Here is my current checklist:

Fuel
Clif shot electrolyte - 4 1/2 liters (2 bladders - 1 is 2 liters, 1 is 1 1/2 liters, 2 1/2 liter bottles)
Clif shot bloks - 2 packages
Chocolate #9 - 4
Sport beans - 2
Peanut butter sandwich - 2
Water - 6 1/2 liter bottles
Nuun tablets in case the water needs some flavor
S-Caps - 20

Clothing
Race start - Jacket, shorts, socks, running pants, long sleeve tech shirt, gloves, hat
extra running pants
extra long sleeve shirt
extra short sleeve shirt
extra socks
extra shoes
extra jackets
more gloves
costume - still thinking about it

Misc.
Headlamps 2
Flashlights 2
extra batteries
Garmin
usb battery charger for Garmin (need to create it yet)
extra watch

I am pretty sure I have forgotten something, oh well still time to correct it.

Ok, I changed my mind, here is the latest and my last weather forecast and it looks just fine.

From Accuweather - 34 at race start

Saturday, Oct 31

High: 50 °F RealFeel®: 39 °F

Breezy with times of clouds and sun

From Weather.com

Partly Cloudy High
45°F
Low
35°F

From Wunderground

45° F | 34° F

STM forecast update

After last nights blustery forecast I decided to check Accuweather again and less than 12 hours later it is an amazingly different forecast.

Saturday, Oct 31

High: 52 °F RealFeel®: 52 °F

Cool with times of clouds and sun

Saturday Night, Oct 31

Low: 39 °F RealFeel®: 31 °F

Partly cloudy with a passing shower late

It appears the wind forecast has been move to Thursday and Friday. Since Accuweather seems to have some consistencies issues, I checked Weather.com (oh I should add that they seem to have the same type of consistency issue).

Day	Night
Rain / Snow Showers High 42°F Precip 30% Wind: From WNW at 16 mph Max. Humidity: 75% UV Index: 2 Low Sunrise: 6:50 AM CT Avg. High: 50°F Record High: 83°F (1950)	Clouds Early / Clearing Late Overnight Low 29°F Precip 10% Wind: From WNW at 5 mph Max. Humidity: 79% Sunset: 5:03 PM CT Avg. Low: 32°F Record Low: 15°F (1878)

I also checked the wundergrund and it looks closest to weather.com Hard to believe any of the forecasts so I think I will get back to planning for anything.

STM Forecast Update

A little more than 3 days out, I know I am getting excited how about you? Interesting forecast update.

Saturday, Oct 31

High: 44 °F RealFeel®: 29 °F

Very windy; mostly cloudy and colder

Saturday Night, Oct 31

Low: 30 °F RealFeel®: 20 °F

Partly cloudy

Saturday winds

Winds:	W at 24mph
Wind Gusts:	50 mph

Saturday night winds

Winds:	WNW at 14mph
Wind Gusts:	32 mph

Neat symbol to show very windy and I would say 50 mph gusts qualify as windy, the southern loop may be a bit more interesting. Also, the Friday overnight forecast is looking a little less promising.

Friday Night, Oct 30

Low: 36 °F RealFeel®: 22 °F

Partly cloudy and breezy

Sure hope they got the forecast wrong one more time. Time to finish up the planning although it looks like a few warm clothes will be a good addition to the list and a good idea for loops 2 and 3.

STM Forecast, Facebook, Twitter?

Less than 5 days out, here is the latest forecast for Surf the Murph

Saturday, Oct 31

High: 49 °F RealFeel®: 39 °F

Breezy and colder with clouds breaking for some sun

Saturday Night, Oct 31

Low: 34 °F RealFeel®: 23 °F

Partly cloudy

They are saying that the overnight low on Friday will be 44 (high of 60) and except for the fact that they say it will be windy with rain and drizzle it looks like a decent temp for the race start. I added Saturday night as I am pretty sure I will experience a bit of it and it looks ok.

Now about Facebook and Twitter, Ok, I admit it I am getting old and this must confirm it, I don't get Facebook and Twitter.

A while back, I set-up a account on Facebook, looked around and deactivated it. Am I missing something, should I give it another try? I only checked it out as a blog I used to enjoy reading Runalong with Pastor Mark, said goodbye to blogosphere and hello to facebook. In a comment he made concerning his decision, he stated "For now I'm going with the conversation of FB over the monologue of blogging".

Maybe, I am just better at monologue than conversation. Is that my real issue with FB? Why would I want to share info about myself? I am a fairly private person (especially at first contact), non-social, not outgoing, introvert, non group person. Yet I have a blog? I think I have it because it allows me to document my running. As I original said as I have gotten older, I tend to forget the details of past running issues and it's good to have an accurate account that I can look back at. So for the most part my blog is only about my running. When I started it I never gave much of a thought to if anyone would read it. Although I have to admit I do like getting comments. In person, I can and do talk but mostly only about things I care about, am I that shallow or do I just lack the skills of smalltalk? Maybe I will leave that for another day.

Wayne mentioned to me that many in the local ultra community have Facebook accounts, my wife and daughters have Facebook accounts. What am I missing?

I signed up for a Twitter account I think to follow DirtDawg's 100 mile event. I have yet to post any random things about myself as why would anyone want to know what I am doing 140 characters at a time? What am I missing?

Maybe I should just reactivate my FB account and give it another try, maybe I should send out a tweet, then again maybe I should just maintain my current status quo? If anyone reads this and wants to educate me, feel free to post a comment or drop me a note.