6:15 AM

A recent study of the use of ibuprofen by endurance athletes has yielded some surprisingly dangerous results. I urge anyone who takes ibuprofen or even knows anyone who takes it routinely to read these two links. The first article involves the study of endurance athletes and the alarming effects of ibuprofen.

Please click through to read the whole article.  We need help TODAY!
 
Governor Schwarzenegger's proposed cuts to reduce California's budget deficit include closure of over 200 of the state's parks.  This includes many of the state parks in the Santa Monica Mountains including Topanga, Will Rogers, Leo Carillo,  Malibu Creek, Malibu Lagoon, and Los Encinos to name just a few.  Unless we all take action now to save the parks, they may be closed as early as July 2009.
 

It started innocently enough. Our own infamous Black Widow, aka Mieko, heard of a Pier to Peak Fun Run from some of the ultra-runners she had met during previous events. It starts out on the Santa Monica Pier on a Friday evening at 6:00 PM, and after 63 miles finishes at the top of Mt. Wilson, favoring fire roads and trails where possible. This year’s run was dedicated to Craig Chambers (Moose), a much beloved ultra-runner who passed away last year.

After a Sunday run, Ann and Mieko celebrated their runs the previous week. They indeed have contrasting training techniques. Ann focused on training for the Catalina Marathon for the better part of a year. She is extremely disciplined, and always kept the final goal in perspective as she incrementally increased her mileage. When her day finally came, she breezed through the marathon, running a negative split, and taking 5th in her age group. All without a single injury—just like in the books. Mieko’s is a different story. She is from Japan, and evidently there if no Japanese word for “quit”. She started running with the club 1 ½ years ago, and went from 10 miles a week to participating in 50 mile trail runs and last weekend the Coyote Two Moon 100k, with 19,000 ft. elevation gain. She completed it in 23 hours, starting Saturday morning at 10AM, running all day and night, and did the victory lap at 9:00 the next morning. To acquaint you with this run, the pitches in the course are of the 3,000ft in 3 miles variety, there are stream crossings, the temperature ranges from the low 30’s to the 70’s, and a lot of your running is at night—alone. None of this seemed to discourage the squealing with joy Mieko. At mile 40, she went into multi-tasking mode. That is simultaneously running, vomiting, and dealing with diarrhea and dizziness. Not being able to keep anything down—not even water—didn’t help. Picture yourself under these conditions in the dark with 22 miles to go, then you come to a 4,000ft. hill. Well, our Mieko never considered quitting, and finished passing other runners at the end, and winning the Zombie Runner Award. Most would say “I’m glad that’s over”. Her words-- “I really loved it. Yes, I will do again. Maybe 100miler next time…” Incredible.