I keep finding things to think about other than tomorrow's comprehensive exam. I skipped the Holiday Marathon fun run today. With the potential heat and its late start time of 10am, it was not reasonable considering the preparation needed for tomorrow. Did my own half marathon on the Triboro and Queensboro bridge loop. Avoided the mega-heat but was still dripped with sweat like I stepped out of a pool. Then in the early afternoon I studied for four hours with a schoolmate who lives nearby. We are all ready to move on.
Weekend runs are wonderfully peaceful for the first half. The second half only gets diminished by the masses joining you outside. (The increased heat during the second half also lessens the fun of it, but that is merely seasonal and regional.) The quiet and calm make me love the city again, but the throngs of other residents and tourists makes me day dream about the day I get to leave. I also start thinking of those places currently residing on my list of possibilities. In no specific order, Boulder/Denver, Seattle, central/north New Mexico, maybe northern California.
One day....
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Hoping I don't jinx this one....
Have been itching to add a cat or two to my humble home. There was potential for kittens from a feral mama in Queens. The home owners went through an organization specializing in feral cats. They spay and release the mama cat from the original environment, and they board kittens until they can be fixed at 8 weeks and adopted out in pairs or into houses with current cats. Turns out the shelter is some 40 miles out on Long Island, based out of Massapequa, NY. It would take some two and a half hours to get there (subway to the Long Island Rail Road and then walking to the location) since I do not have a car and rentals in NYC cost a minimum of $125 per day plus gas. I was going to visit the kittens and decide a) if I like their vibe, b) if they like my vibe, and c) which ones I actually might want. Yet I didn't have 3/4 of a day to burn just to decide if I wanted them.
If the kittens didn't work out I had plans to start looking in local shelters for adoptees. (True local, as in Harlem, thank you very much!) Friday I went to get preparatory supplies from the East Harlem PetSmart just because I had the time and needed a break from studying for the end-of-year comprehensive exam. Was looking at the litter boxes, searching for an inexpensive but lidded model, and then I see a cat through a window along the back wall. This particular PetSmart has a station for Anjellicle Cats, a fantastic city-wide organization that operates largely with volunteers and gives cats regular medical assistance and foster/adoption homes. There were a dozen or so cats viewable through glass windows inside a closed off adoption area, and I left with strong suspicion of four of them based off their descriptions.
Yesterday they kept itching in the back of my head. I emailed the kitten shelter again to ask for information, if I could visit (assuming the time worked out), etc. Still heard nothing as of this morning. Friends reassured me that kittens are easier to find homes for whereas older cats don't go so easily. I knew this, but I felt bad because of getting my toe wedged into the door with the kittens. Yet some of these cats drew me enough that I returned to PetSmart today with no preconceived ideas other than eventually wanting a feline friend.
Aaaaaaaand almost immediately these two stuck out. Siblings, 3 years old, white and brown tabby mix, green eyes, very well adjusted, get along well with other cats and animals, good mix of cuddle and play. Currently named Mary Kate and Ashley, which will most likely get changed. They remind me of Tigger and Tinkerbell, my parents' cats that they got when I was ten. From three kids handling them since kitten-hood they would soften when lifted and were always calm. If a cat is okay being picked up then I like to go nose to nose, and each of them turned out to be head butters! Oh my. I swooned. I stayed for almost two hours, talking with the volunteers who know the cats rather well and playing with six of the available cats to be fair and to get a good idea. These two kept coming over to me. I knew I'd take at least one of them. Mark Kate ended up sticking her nose over to watch me fill out the entire adoption form (see below), while Ashley held down the cat tunnel two feet away (again, see below). I ended up applying for both.
Here's hoping I hear back soon.
If the kittens didn't work out I had plans to start looking in local shelters for adoptees. (True local, as in Harlem, thank you very much!) Friday I went to get preparatory supplies from the East Harlem PetSmart just because I had the time and needed a break from studying for the end-of-year comprehensive exam. Was looking at the litter boxes, searching for an inexpensive but lidded model, and then I see a cat through a window along the back wall. This particular PetSmart has a station for Anjellicle Cats, a fantastic city-wide organization that operates largely with volunteers and gives cats regular medical assistance and foster/adoption homes. There were a dozen or so cats viewable through glass windows inside a closed off adoption area, and I left with strong suspicion of four of them based off their descriptions.
Yesterday they kept itching in the back of my head. I emailed the kitten shelter again to ask for information, if I could visit (assuming the time worked out), etc. Still heard nothing as of this morning. Friends reassured me that kittens are easier to find homes for whereas older cats don't go so easily. I knew this, but I felt bad because of getting my toe wedged into the door with the kittens. Yet some of these cats drew me enough that I returned to PetSmart today with no preconceived ideas other than eventually wanting a feline friend.
Aaaaaaaand almost immediately these two stuck out. Siblings, 3 years old, white and brown tabby mix, green eyes, very well adjusted, get along well with other cats and animals, good mix of cuddle and play. Currently named Mary Kate and Ashley, which will most likely get changed. They remind me of Tigger and Tinkerbell, my parents' cats that they got when I was ten. From three kids handling them since kitten-hood they would soften when lifted and were always calm. If a cat is okay being picked up then I like to go nose to nose, and each of them turned out to be head butters! Oh my. I swooned. I stayed for almost two hours, talking with the volunteers who know the cats rather well and playing with six of the available cats to be fair and to get a good idea. These two kept coming over to me. I knew I'd take at least one of them. Mark Kate ended up sticking her nose over to watch me fill out the entire adoption form (see below), while Ashley held down the cat tunnel two feet away (again, see below). I ended up applying for both.
Here's hoping I hear back soon.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Colloquialisms
I did not realize I had a twang until I moved to NYC and then 4 months later visited family for the holidays. It bugged me, because I thought Kansas City was rather accent-neutral, but I have come to terms with the twang and, quite honestly, have come to like it. Maybe its because I'm so over this city and its Brooklynisms and Long Islandisms. Anyways, with the twang also comes phrases than drive Nathan absolutely bonkers. I've had a few other New England or New York raised friends also balk at these, either finding them funny and endearing or just peculiar. Another one popped out the other day, and it brings me endless humor to expose Nathan to these phrases.
What are they? They aren't that creative. The first is oftentimes. A former roommate with a secret love of grammar always claimed that it is a double statement since often already describes a frequency of times and thus the times is repetitive and should not be included, whereas sometimes correctly quantifies times by the use of some. Well, seeing as how oftentimes is to my knowledge a valid entry in the OED -- I win! I also find it interesting that this same former roommate asserts the incorrect number of periods necessary for use of an ellipsis. He uses only two dots ".." for every instance, whereas accurate punctuation requires three dots "..." mid sentence or three dots followed by a period "...." as the end of a sentence. I may not have a stellar vocabulary, but those things instilled in me early by Mrs. Black (the engligh and newpaper queen at the former Hickman Mills High School) are strong and true. Regardless though, the debates with said former roommate became unnecessarily heated in a way that I no longer use the term. And yet I year almost everyone else using it, including those educated with doctorates and with years of experience.
The next is sh*t ton. When I use it regarding my own affairs, Nathan gives me another of his "you've got to be kidding me" looks. N: "Sh*t ton?" Me: "Yes. Sh*t ton." N: "Why can't you just say 'a lot'?" Me: "Because I have a twang and I need em-PHA-sis." And then Nathan just shakes his head. Sh*t ton is meant to describe when there is an obscene amount of something that you find more than a little distasteful or annoying, hence adding the tone of the first word. I was momentarily vindicated when I used the term in a conversation about baseball, of which he is mightily, at times almost fixatedly concerned whereas its one of few sports I just can't get into aside from cheering against the Yankees. I don't remember how the term was used exactly, but it probably had something to do with talking down about the Yankees the day that the ever-so-sad Royals beat them by an obscene amount of runs. I pointed out that he understood exactly what I meant. Nathan replied that yes, it made sense, but real english could also have been employed. At least it was a small, partial victory. My younger brother Sam's suggestion was to next time use metric sh*t ton. Nicely done, little one. Nicely done.
I also use my Gramma's term hot spit every once in a while. There's no getting Nathan to even remotely understand this term of excitement, so I usually let him have his moment of giving me the look and move on. Then there's the use of the silly this-them-that-there. Nathan's response: "Why?!?" Me: "Because I needed silly em-PHA-sis. And why not?" Again he shook his head, and I let the subject drop.
To Nathan's credit, he merely strives to be understood correctly. I greatly appreciate that this means he simultaneously tries to understand me correctly. He also indirectly challenges me to be a better person, which I think should be a part of any relationship.
[An early] summertime in the city
This week NYC temperatures shot into the 80s. A handful of friends originally from CA commented that it finally felt like spring -- spring?? Pshaa! Spring was a month ago when the high was 60. I acclimate to cold very well, but to hot... yea, not so much. I don't sleep well (or very much at all), I sweat all the time, and I end up with light sensitive headaches because maintaining actual hydration becomes difficult while I continuously melt onto the floor. I ended up geeking out yesterday over hydration analysis.
An interesting take on hydration that seems physiologically grounded rather than assumption grounded appeared lately on Marathon Talk, a UK based weekly podcast. They've had a 3 part series with guest Dr. Mark Hetherington (BSc, PhD), a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Membrane and Systems Biology at the University of Leeds. The second part was of most interest regarding how fluid that is sweat out by the body correlates with appropriate fluid intake. That is, Hetherington describes how the common assumption that any loss of body weight after prolonged exercise means that exact amount of fluid must be replenished. I.e., if you end a run having lost 2 kg (or 4.4 pounds), then the assumption is that you lost 2 kg of blood volume and thus should drink back that same 2 kg (or 2 liters, since 1 kg = 1 liter) of water to regain proper hydration. According to Hetherington this is wrong on two counts, and this is why so many distance runners are in danger of hyponatremia, a state of abnormally low levels of salts/electrolytes in the blood.
The first point deals with the origination of sweat, which comes from two sources. One source is from the blood, like most would assume, which secretes the fluid through the skin in order to cool you down during/after such physical exertion. But apparently this only accounts for 50% of the sweat created by physical activity. The second source is is a byproduct of cellular metabolism of glycogen/glucose and fats. That means the sweating out of this byproduct water has no affect on blood volume -- your body creates the water as you burn fuel during exercise (same as it produces CO2), the water goes into the blood stream to then join in the fun as sweat (just as CO2 is transported by blood to then be exhaled through the lungs). Herherington breaks it down into three sub-categories: of the total fluid sweated out (including true blood volume fluid) 25% is produced by releasing glycogen (i.e. concentrated glucose stores) from storage in the muscles, 16.7% is produced by burning of glycogen (breaking it down into glucose) and fat, and 8.3% is from oxidizing glucose -- thus contributing to 50% of the fluid lost via sweat.
What does this mean? If this hypothetical runner lost 2 kg during the run, then only 1 kg was from blood volume, necessitating that only 1 kg of fluid be taken in. Otherwise you'd be taking in twice the fluid you need, and if this is straight water then you are at risk of essentially diluting yourself to death. This is Hetherington's second point -- that the composition of sweat is not pure water, it is an isotonic fluid. So if you drink plain water you'd have to consume food with the requisite electrolytes. Otherwise your blood will be diluted while cells will retain their normal isotonic properties, and this will cause osmotic flow and retention of water with cells. When this happens to your brain, this is when things get really bad really fast.
I also found an article described by exercise phys site called Sweat Science that publishes the results of current literature -- "Effect of exercise-induced dehydration on time-trial exercise performance: a meta-analysis" by Eric Goulet, published in April of this year in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Comparison of 5 studies that met analysis criteria yielded that those who drank according to their thirst lost up to 4.0% of normal body mass (average 2.2%) , and yet these subjects performed better in a self-paced time trial than those who drank nothing or drank to maintain a near-perfect body mass (losing only an average of 0.44% of normal body mass). The premise is the latter category was over-hydrated despite maintaining "normal" body mass and thus hindered their performance.
So that means I don't need to freak out as much when comparing my fluid intake with others, or with temporarily dropping a few pounds after a really long run. I just wonder how I can apply this to non-running life in hopes of surviving the real summer once it gets here.
An interesting take on hydration that seems physiologically grounded rather than assumption grounded appeared lately on Marathon Talk, a UK based weekly podcast. They've had a 3 part series with guest Dr. Mark Hetherington (BSc, PhD), a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Membrane and Systems Biology at the University of Leeds. The second part was of most interest regarding how fluid that is sweat out by the body correlates with appropriate fluid intake. That is, Hetherington describes how the common assumption that any loss of body weight after prolonged exercise means that exact amount of fluid must be replenished. I.e., if you end a run having lost 2 kg (or 4.4 pounds), then the assumption is that you lost 2 kg of blood volume and thus should drink back that same 2 kg (or 2 liters, since 1 kg = 1 liter) of water to regain proper hydration. According to Hetherington this is wrong on two counts, and this is why so many distance runners are in danger of hyponatremia, a state of abnormally low levels of salts/electrolytes in the blood.
The first point deals with the origination of sweat, which comes from two sources. One source is from the blood, like most would assume, which secretes the fluid through the skin in order to cool you down during/after such physical exertion. But apparently this only accounts for 50% of the sweat created by physical activity. The second source is is a byproduct of cellular metabolism of glycogen/glucose and fats. That means the sweating out of this byproduct water has no affect on blood volume -- your body creates the water as you burn fuel during exercise (same as it produces CO2), the water goes into the blood stream to then join in the fun as sweat (just as CO2 is transported by blood to then be exhaled through the lungs). Herherington breaks it down into three sub-categories: of the total fluid sweated out (including true blood volume fluid) 25% is produced by releasing glycogen (i.e. concentrated glucose stores) from storage in the muscles, 16.7% is produced by burning of glycogen (breaking it down into glucose) and fat, and 8.3% is from oxidizing glucose -- thus contributing to 50% of the fluid lost via sweat.
What does this mean? If this hypothetical runner lost 2 kg during the run, then only 1 kg was from blood volume, necessitating that only 1 kg of fluid be taken in. Otherwise you'd be taking in twice the fluid you need, and if this is straight water then you are at risk of essentially diluting yourself to death. This is Hetherington's second point -- that the composition of sweat is not pure water, it is an isotonic fluid. So if you drink plain water you'd have to consume food with the requisite electrolytes. Otherwise your blood will be diluted while cells will retain their normal isotonic properties, and this will cause osmotic flow and retention of water with cells. When this happens to your brain, this is when things get really bad really fast.
I also found an article described by exercise phys site called Sweat Science that publishes the results of current literature -- "Effect of exercise-induced dehydration on time-trial exercise performance: a meta-analysis" by Eric Goulet, published in April of this year in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Comparison of 5 studies that met analysis criteria yielded that those who drank according to their thirst lost up to 4.0% of normal body mass (average 2.2%) , and yet these subjects performed better in a self-paced time trial than those who drank nothing or drank to maintain a near-perfect body mass (losing only an average of 0.44% of normal body mass). The premise is the latter category was over-hydrated despite maintaining "normal" body mass and thus hindered their performance.
So that means I don't need to freak out as much when comparing my fluid intake with others, or with temporarily dropping a few pounds after a really long run. I just wonder how I can apply this to non-running life in hopes of surviving the real summer once it gets here.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
I [heart] black and white
Just because I like these shots a lot. Nathan will kill me for posting one of him. Whatever.
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| Cowgirl Alex (Austin, TX, 2011) |
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| Nathan (2010) |
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| Blessing of the Bikes, St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Morningside, NYC, 2010) |
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| Bike parking (Boston, 2010) |
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Therapeutic long run
The weekend's to-do list was filled with a variety of study-related tasks. Half way through spring finals - five exams down and five more to go. And so the reprieve of a long run was heartily welcomed, as it usually is.
This weekend I returned to the Palisades park road, which I hadn't done in a while. Stuck to the road instead of the Long Path (trail route also in the Palisades) so that I didn't need to watch the ground or worry about tripping/falling. The blooms have mostly faded and now everything is a super-plush green; I almost missed my turnaround landmark due to thick foliage. I can only speak for the weekends, but until 10am everyone you encounter on the bridge or the Palisades road is in similarly calm and friendly spirits. People smile and give a little nod or a wave as they bid each other "good morning," and they look others in the eye at the same time. Very unique atmosphere, which is why I love mornings in the Palisades so much. Fewer were out today thanks to overcast skies, but once 10am strikes the weekend warriors come out in full force unless there is precipitation (which is also part of the reason I enjoy running in the rain, so long as its not torrential). I wasn't able to start early enough to avoid this shift, but I was able to time things so that it only affected the latter third of my run from the bridge to back home.
(A note to weekend warrior cyclists: the successive 90 degree turns that lead around bridge pillars right-left-left-right are sharp enough that you have to come to a near standstill to negotiate them. Runners barely have to slow down. So when you jump in front of me directly before the first turn you have in fact rudely cut me off only to make me stop running while you and your 3 buddies try to figure out how to stay clipped into your pedals. I'd have been through the turns before you got half way. Just saying. Now back to my happy place....)
Mornings like today make me think of my list: Denver/Boulder, Seattle/Portland, New Mexico, and as of late also including figments of northern California. One year and a licensure exam away....
Mornings like today make me think of my list: Denver/Boulder, Seattle/Portland, New Mexico, and as of late also including figments of northern California. One year and a licensure exam away....
Today's run: 13.7mi, 1:52:15, total elevation gain of ~850 feet. Song looping in my head: Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Tick." (I found this odd since I hadn't listened to this group in about a year.) At some point I'll figure out how to get a map in here....
Monday, May 16, 2011
A little bit of slide film
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| 40 St - Lowrey St station (Sunnyside, Queens) |
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| (Morningside, NYC) |
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| (West Harlem, NYC) |
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| Summer sky (from RAGBRAI 2010, middle of nowhere IA) |
Sunday, May 15, 2011
TNF Endurance Challenge - Bear Mountain 50k
6:04:15, 2nd female and 29th overall. 4854 feet of total elevation gain, 9708 feet of total elevation change. Tripped at least 20 times, but never went down. Pretty good for my first ultra.
The real ultra studs were in the 50mi race, of which the men's podium passed us 50k-ers in the last few miles despite having started 2 hours earlier. That was amazing to see, particularly since this was during the race's roughest stage between Queensboro and 1777 aid stations - 2.5 miles worth of loose rocks the size of my fist piled deep atop what used to be a forest road, not a speck of dirt available for relief, and for the last 1/2mi the rock road becomes a 30-45 degree hill.
This leg sticks in my memory because my body was putting up with it but my mind was starting to shut off. I was fortunate that two fellow racers, Joe and Marco, who helped me continue to put one foot in front of the other during the last 10 miles. I couldn't thank them enough, both during and after the race. I know all the reasons for which pacers are present for safety's sake for races longer than 50mi, and now I've experienced first hand just how beneficial they can be. I ran with Joe from a couple miles before Anthony Wayne #2 to half way to Queensboro, and the rest of the race from there on out was with Marco. Were it not for them, I would have stopped dead somewhere around mile 26 and just cried. But seeing Marco bounding up behind me with encouraging words forced me to keep going. All the walking I did to as part of my training (I only run 3, occasionally 4 times per week; the other days I walk the 6-7 miles to school) payed off big time, since I was only fighting the mental will to finish rather than fighting the face that I was on my legs all day. Meaning, the only thing missing from my training was the experience of having raced an ultra before. But you gotta start somewhere.
I ran with Patricia through the middle, longer leg from Arden Valley to Anthony Wayne. She looked calm and consistent. I was thoroughly impressed. My intention was simply to finish - to stay true to my own pace as dictated by effort level, to drink every 5 minutes whether I wanted to or not, to eat at every aid station unless it made me puke, and to cross the finish line. In truth, I expected a minimum of 7 hours. As it ended up, I entered the first three or four aid stations as the first female. The reception was entirely different to being in the lead. Volunteers immediately offered to fill my bottle with whatever I wanted, smiles and supportive words flew all over the place. Trish had the lead from Anthony Wayne #2 through the end, but even then my entering the Queensboro aid station at mile 25.3 was received with a guy smiling and announcing "2nd female, 50k" and sounding a cow bell. Totally awesome. I'm sure it was the luck of having the real big-wig females in the 50 mile race, and east coast trails are less popular than west coast due to their propensity for tons of loose rock and going straight up/downhill rather than using switchbacks. But it was awesome nonetheless.
Other gear decisions that I'm glad to have made in the month leading up to the race. My previous kit included Body Glide, spandex-style running shorts, Smartwool socks, Brooks Cascadias, and Nuun/Camelback Elixer. Trial and error, and reading recommendations from other such as Running&Rambling, lead me to the following, all of which made an incredible difference: Aquaphor knee length running tights (shorts never stay down on me), DryMax socks (not a single blister! no alien toenail baby!), Montrail Rogue Racers (again, no alien toenail baby!), Gu Brew, and chugging Pepsi at each of the aid stations from Anthony Wayne #2 on.
Also must give major props to Nathan, who finished at 6:51:14. It was his first ultra too, but he barely trained thanks to a crazy work schedule. We did the Easter half marathon fun run that's part of the Holiday Marathon series put on by local runners in Van Cortlandt Park, and he had a few other hour long runs. That's it. And yet he still managed to finish sub-7 hour. I would have DNF were I in his shoes. Determination? Lots of time on his feet at work? Natural ability? Probably yes to all and then some. Hopefully next time he'll be able to train and run it the way he'd prefer. Still, proud of him.
The real ultra studs were in the 50mi race, of which the men's podium passed us 50k-ers in the last few miles despite having started 2 hours earlier. That was amazing to see, particularly since this was during the race's roughest stage between Queensboro and 1777 aid stations - 2.5 miles worth of loose rocks the size of my fist piled deep atop what used to be a forest road, not a speck of dirt available for relief, and for the last 1/2mi the rock road becomes a 30-45 degree hill.
This leg sticks in my memory because my body was putting up with it but my mind was starting to shut off. I was fortunate that two fellow racers, Joe and Marco, who helped me continue to put one foot in front of the other during the last 10 miles. I couldn't thank them enough, both during and after the race. I know all the reasons for which pacers are present for safety's sake for races longer than 50mi, and now I've experienced first hand just how beneficial they can be. I ran with Joe from a couple miles before Anthony Wayne #2 to half way to Queensboro, and the rest of the race from there on out was with Marco. Were it not for them, I would have stopped dead somewhere around mile 26 and just cried. But seeing Marco bounding up behind me with encouraging words forced me to keep going. All the walking I did to as part of my training (I only run 3, occasionally 4 times per week; the other days I walk the 6-7 miles to school) payed off big time, since I was only fighting the mental will to finish rather than fighting the face that I was on my legs all day. Meaning, the only thing missing from my training was the experience of having raced an ultra before. But you gotta start somewhere.
I ran with Patricia through the middle, longer leg from Arden Valley to Anthony Wayne. She looked calm and consistent. I was thoroughly impressed. My intention was simply to finish - to stay true to my own pace as dictated by effort level, to drink every 5 minutes whether I wanted to or not, to eat at every aid station unless it made me puke, and to cross the finish line. In truth, I expected a minimum of 7 hours. As it ended up, I entered the first three or four aid stations as the first female. The reception was entirely different to being in the lead. Volunteers immediately offered to fill my bottle with whatever I wanted, smiles and supportive words flew all over the place. Trish had the lead from Anthony Wayne #2 through the end, but even then my entering the Queensboro aid station at mile 25.3 was received with a guy smiling and announcing "2nd female, 50k" and sounding a cow bell. Totally awesome. I'm sure it was the luck of having the real big-wig females in the 50 mile race, and east coast trails are less popular than west coast due to their propensity for tons of loose rock and going straight up/downhill rather than using switchbacks. But it was awesome nonetheless.
Other gear decisions that I'm glad to have made in the month leading up to the race. My previous kit included Body Glide, spandex-style running shorts, Smartwool socks, Brooks Cascadias, and Nuun/Camelback Elixer. Trial and error, and reading recommendations from other such as Running&Rambling, lead me to the following, all of which made an incredible difference: Aquaphor knee length running tights (shorts never stay down on me), DryMax socks (not a single blister! no alien toenail baby!), Montrail Rogue Racers (again, no alien toenail baby!), Gu Brew, and chugging Pepsi at each of the aid stations from Anthony Wayne #2 on.
Also must give major props to Nathan, who finished at 6:51:14. It was his first ultra too, but he barely trained thanks to a crazy work schedule. We did the Easter half marathon fun run that's part of the Holiday Marathon series put on by local runners in Van Cortlandt Park, and he had a few other hour long runs. That's it. And yet he still managed to finish sub-7 hour. I would have DNF were I in his shoes. Determination? Lots of time on his feet at work? Natural ability? Probably yes to all and then some. Hopefully next time he'll be able to train and run it the way he'd prefer. Still, proud of him.
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