Sometimes the phrase "better late than never" just doesn't fit the occasion. It's really and truly just best to be on time.
My family just got back from Waldo Lake, which is east of Eugene in the mountains, near Willamette Pass ski area. This lake is amazing. It's so clean you can see to depths of over 100 feet. It contains no fish or plant life because it doesn't have a permanent influx of water. No motor boats are allowed, so there is no pollution. Just crystal blue peace and beauty. We arrived on Friday night just in time to see the lake go from this:
to this:
As we canoed on it, looking through the blue water at sunken logs, stones and white silt, Mike and I thought of the deep pools of hot water at Yellowstone. Only this water was cold--too cold for me. The kids, however, swam from sunrise to sunset. They mostly ran back and forth on this platform with cousins, trying to rock it and throw each other off.
We were there in honor of my brother Neil, who was running "Where's Waldo,"
a national championship 100K race, which is roughly 62 miles of mountainous trails. It takes about 10 hours to run 100 kilometers. That's if you are super fast. Course-record fast. It would take more like 1 week for me, and I'd be dying at that. Of the ~70 people enrolled in the race, several took over 14 hours. Some even longer. Some, of course, came to their senses and dropped out altogether.
Neil has this down to a science. He studied the course and could tell us down-to-the-minute where he would be at mile 30, the half-way point, which happens to be right by our campground and an easy location to cheer him on. We did not attempt any other check points. We got there about 15 minutes early and were able to see the 3 runners in front of Neil, all young (not in his age group) and looking good. It was exciting. Neil came in about 9 minutes behind the lead, and one of his shoes and socks was bothering him so he swapped it. Only the one foot mind you, which saved precious seconds but drew amused attention from onlookers. We refilled and reshirted and shoed him, and sent him on his way. He had told us the course record for the finish would be about 3:15 pm, so we aimed for that time to see the winners come in. Alas, there was already some clapping when we pulled in at 3:13. We thought we'd look around and see what was going on, then get in position to cheer for Neil. But alas, he was already there! New course record, first place OVERALL! National champion of the 100K!
Better late than never? I don't think so. I can't get over missing that amazing win!
And maybe there is something to this strategy after all:
