There’s 3 days left… well really now just two as the twilight of the Thursday Sun fades in the West. OKay, so 2 days… and let me tell you… I AM A HUNGRY MOFO! Oh my goodness! I have been eating everthing that I can get my hands on. I ate 3 Clif Bars this afternoon, just so that I wouldn’t shove candy in my mouth. I mean, a bag of Smarties does sound good right now!

Like the title suggests, I am starting to get into Monkey Mode. I have looked at the Map and they sure do promise hills! I wonder if the running bib doubles as a sickness bag because if you look at the Map Profile on the MAP Page, it’s insane. Someone would have to be a maniac to go across these hills… You are never on a flat spot, wait, I take that back… the first 10 feet of the race is semi-flat. But you are either going UP HILL or you are going DOWN HILL.

I need to podcast this, just for the potential Train Wreck that is Terry on Sunday.

A big difference than Rutledge is that you are never in one direction very long. Where as in Rutledge, you were running either North, East, South or West… At The Monkey, you are running… SSW then W then NNW then NWN, the SE then SSEENNEWNENWWES

So, at least the directional changes will help mitigate any FREAKIN’ 15-20mph headwind that might be present on race day. And seeing that it’s 3, “no 2 sir”, days out I thought I would peek at the weather. 3 days out here in East Tennessee and the weather people have about a 75% chance of being 50-50 about the weather. “If the Storm ain’t not git hare t’ay… it’ll git hare t’m'row”

I don't want to see about the Wind yet...

Another that is nice despite the HILLS being wind blockers is the number of trees around. Reminds me of Chickamauga 2007 when the trees provide a HUGE reprieve from the Sun when it finally broke out. So good wind blockers and sun blockers, even if the leaves ar down. That will allow us to see the Killer Death Flying Monkeys before they attack.

I’ll be posting a Pre-Monkey Race Week Post, but I thought I would share this communication from the Main Monkey Race Director, just so you can get a feel for what kind of race we are going to have this weekend:

Friends, runners and monkeymen, lend me your ears.

I come to bury your hopes, not to praise them.
The evil that monkeys do flies around them;
While the good is oft interred with their victims’ bones;
So it may be with you. Your humble race director
Hath told you that monkeys were ambitious:
If it were so, it was their grievous hunger,
And grievously may you fulfill it.
(Here, under leave of runners and the rest ???
For running may be an honorable escape;
So are they all, a most honorable escape )???
Come I to speak in advance of your funeral.
You were a runner, faithful and just to the race:
But monkeys, I say, were ambitious;
And while you may be an honorable runner.
And will bring many others with you to the park,
Whose bellies the ravenous monkeys will fill:
Did this in monkeys seem ambitious?
When that the slow had cried, monkeys hath wept.
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet we say they are ambitious;
And we are all honorable men.
You all did see that on the Shell Hill
I thrice presented them a kingly sacrifice,
Which they did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet runners say they are ambitious;
And, sure, runners are honorable men.
I speak not to disprove what runners speak,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did fear monkeys once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to run from them?
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason! Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with you runners,
And I must pause till you come back to me.

Oh yes. And again, packet pickup will be at the Gordon JCC on November 22, 2008 between 2pm and 4pm. The JCC is located at 801 Percy Warner Blvd, Nashville, TN 37148. This is less than 2 miles from the race start/finish area. Here is a map to the GJCC: http://tinyurl.com/MonkeyPacketPickup . Packet pickup will also be available race morning adjacent to the starting line.

Travel safely. Finish your wills. Holler with comments or questions. Bring some chow. See you soon. In fact, see you in under 100 hrs…

Trent
carpe simiam