Friday, March 30, 2007

Thousands on the Trail

OK, I'm not completely sure what this means, but I'll report it anyway.

The Traverse City (MI) Record-Eagle of 29 March 2007 has an article (part 5 of 5) by Al Parker titled "In it for the long run; Traverse City's Kenny Thomas went from a 5K to this summer's 100-mile ultra race." That part makes sense.

What I'm not sure about is the mention of the AT: "In November, Thomas followed up with an even more remarkable performance in the JFK 50 Mile in Md. ...

"The event made history by becoming the first ultra race to ever attract more than 1,000 runners. The starting line, along the famed Appalachian Trail, posed problems for many runners. [emphasis added]

"'The first 15 miles or so was along the trail and was rocky,' said Thomas. 'You really had to watch where you stepped.'"

First of all, if they want 'rocky' then they should run in Pennsylvania, not Maryland. But is this saying that last November there were over 1,000 people running "15 miles or so" on the Appalachian Trail??? A) I don't want to be hiking anywhere near that kind of crowd; and 2) [remember Paul Reiser in 'Mad About You'?] what would that kind of pounding do to the trailbed?

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