The year and a day rule was a principle of English law holding that a death was conclusively presumed not to be murder (or any other homicide) if it occurred more than a year and one day since the act (or omission) that was alleged to have been its cause. The rule also applied to the offence of assisting with a suicide. [Read more...]

I have now confirmed my long-held theory that the secret to trail-running success is not consistent mileage or strength training or nutrition or mental fortitude, but selecting a sufficiently obscure, small, and unknown event, ideally one where you are likely to be the only person in your age group. It also helps if you don’t tell all your speedy running buddies that you plan to go. (Ever heard of the Haddam April Fool’s 10.5 Mile Race? the Greenville TN 30K? the Colchester Land Trust 5 miler? I promise… this strategy works, though it seems to be a bit easier for women to pull off). [Read more...]

Girl Run July 13, 2010

My wish for rain was granted, Ticket promised storms and she delivered… or was it the collective energy the girls generated by meeting in the woods just before dusk, or maybe all of the above?

Guthrie lead us in a reverse route up the hill and into the woods in her usual effortless, bird-like style. We hoped for showers, the ground was saturated but the rain had stopped coming down at the start of our run. As we entered the woods we experienced “the wet leaves dripping on us as if it only rained under the canopy of trees” phenomenon. We “woohhoed” and “hollered” in our primal tongues as we made our way through the trails, the earth so soft under foot, we began to maintain a magical rhythm! And then the skies opened up and it began to POUR!! Woohoo!! We celebrated and enjoyed pagan like cathartic nature rituals. Smudging, synergetic energy and the pure thrill of running like wild animals along single track in the rain were the highlights of my experience tonight. We all enjoyed the rain washing and drenching us as we stood on bridges over creeks allowing the water to wash away the stress of our daily lives.. off our bodies dripping down into the river to be washed away forever further down stream. [Read more...]

Mr. Bimble has, from time to time, admonished me to not pay TOO much money per mile of race. As a “good consumer”, I strive for the “holy grail” of $1/mile. Ultra recently reminded me that it is best to not spend more time driving to/from the race than is spent RUNNING the race. With all these rules firmly in mind, I went to the race to accomplish some goals. [Read more...]