Thursday, September 24, 2009

FDA/Statistics Industry Statistics Workshop...I never knew it would be an endurance event

Today I finished my second of three days of co-chairing a 750 person workshop/conference. The first day was not too bad with simply several 4 hour courses in the morning and several 4 hour courses in the afternoon. Other than mad rushes during registration and dealing with last second issues at the begining of the courses it was not too bad (I even got to post mid-day) Today I was on my feet from about 5 a.m. until late afternoon. During this time I took over 35,000 steps as per my pedometer. And I also learned either I am the only person who walks with purpose or else I have a freakishly long stride as I tried to deal with all sorts of glitches, challenges and crisis. Out of over 100 folks I interacted with, not one kept up with me and towards the end of the day I realized I needed to try to slow down as to not be several turns ahead of people I was trying to assist.

I also figured out my ultra ability to eat on the go was a benefit today as I sat down twice. Once when I needed to attend to a blister and at the end of the day when I was feeling exhausted and needed to take a breather. In fact as I sat down I debated this wisdom and mentioned to the person I was talking to "I hope I don't succumb to the Lure of the Chair". I think she had no idea what I was talking about until I suggested I might not be getting up anytime soon:-)

Tommorrow I have a jam packed morning however, hopefully most of the crisis will be averted because we learned lessons today. And tommorrow afternoon the conference ends at 3, so hopefully I will be able to get home, pack and rest a little before my Epic adventure to Vermont/New Hampshire starting with a flight at 6:15 on Saturday morning. I really need my head examined because in the past 7 days I will have gotten up prior to 4 a.m. at least 5 times. And by Sunday this statistic will be 7 times out of 9 days!

On a positive note practicing functioning with little rest and lots of "time on feet" should prepare me well for Javalina Jundred...if only I can make it through VT50 50km, New Hampshire Marathon, New River Gorge 50 km and Marine Corps Marathon. I will have to dig deep but I know I can do it!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So you were on your feet for 12 hours, passed a bunch of people, dropped your pacers, ate on the go ... sounds like a successful race to me.

Runner Tammy said...

Ha, ha!

You crack me up Pacer Shane!

Looking forward to seeing you tommorrow:-)

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

I succumbed to the lure of the chair TWICE just reading this post.

And by that I mean I had sex with my chair. Twice. What can I say? I'm a very giving person.

Runner Tammy said...

Wow...I hope you were not at my conference when you succumbed to the "lure of the chair".

Twice, no less!