Showing posts with label Profile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Profile. Show all posts

How Fast Did Oprah Run a Marathon?

Do you want to beat Oprah's marathon time? In 1994,  at the Marine Corps Marathon, Oprah Winfrey ran a 4:29:20 in her first and only marathon.

Her finish time is roughly the average finish time of the Top 25 Marathons.

A Passion for Racing: @RunTriMedia's Top 100 Race Finisher Bib #s



Back to Badwater: Lisa Smith-Batchen's Badwater Double

By Raymond Britt
Published in Running Times magazine, July/August 2007

Why?

It was about reaching a lifelong goal, about completing unfinished business on the course, about celebrating a new lease on life, and about helping others.

It was also about making the impossible possible, navigating between hope and despair, transitioning from dejection to elation, overcoming unexpected obstacles, surviving bad patches and finishing in an inexplicable blaze of speed.

At 10am on July 24, 2006, veteran elite ultramarathoner Lisa Smith-Batchen stood at the start line of the Badwater endurance run, billed as the toughest foot race in the world. She’d been there before.

But on this day, 135 miles was far short of Lisa’s goal. Her plan was to finish the race, then continue past the line to summit Mount Whitney, at 14,491 feet the tallest peak in the US. After that, she would then retrace her steps back to the Badwater 135 start line.

Lisa called it the Badwater Double. 300 miles. Give or take a few.

A Killer Resume

Lisa, now 45 years old with a home in Idaho, is an elite ultra-distance athlete, a marathoner, an Ironman triathlete, and an EcoChallenge adventure racing veteran. In her 1995 Badwater debut, she finished as second woman overall in 41 hours and 24 minutes.

In 1997 and 1998 she won the women’s division of Badwater. And she also is the only American woman ever to win the women’s division of the grueling Marathon Des Sables. She’s done it all.

But that was a lifetime ago. Lisa’s success, while it made her one of the strongest and fittest athletes on the planet, was unable to prevent the increasing grasp of an invisible force.

In The Grip

You can run, but you can’t hide from depression. It catches you by surprise, then overtakes you. Lisa got to the point where hundreds of training hours and thousands of miles were not enough to outrun the battles inside. The mind and body that once completed 100-mile runs with ease was forced to surrender. Abruptly.

She courageously sought help, but she also disappeared from racing. “It wasn’t even that I couldn’t race,” Lisa said. “There were a couple of years where I didn’t do much of anything at all.” A champion, rendered effectively immobile, though temporarily.

With recovery came rejuvenation and a renewed interest in getting back to her full-time job and raising a family with two young children. Lisa put her running career aside for a while to deal with depression, and just did what was right for her, a step at a time.

Over time, those steps multiplied. Her love for long runs around her home near Jackson Hole Wyoming soon evolved to a new kind of competitive desire: to run for a charity she deeply believes in. And soon, as the fire returned, so did the increasingly strong desire to do something most people would consider completely impossible. The Badwater Double. Lisa’s comeback.

The Point of the Journey

“This is my Mount Everest”, Lisa explained shortly after setting her sights on the Double in early 2006. “When I’m old and gray, I want to feel like I did it all. This is it. ”

Lisa had attempted the Double this once before, but a crisis broke her spirit during the attempt. She longed to return and erase that memory. Now it was time. But things would be different.

Lisa’s approach to running had changed dramatically since depression entered the picture. “Now, it’s about seeing racing from a new perspective, being driven for the right reasons, the sights the sounds, the spirit of running. It’s not racing anymore . . . it’s about the experience.”

Inspired by her cousin Joe, who died of AIDS nearly to the day Lisa ran Badwater for the first time, Lisa would be running to raise money orphaned children who have AIDS. She started the Double with $140,000 in contributions expected at the end of her journey.

So she had several reasons for attempting the unimaginable. All she had to do now was start.

Smile: It’s 125 degrees in the Shade

Minutes before start at the 2006 Badwater 135 Ultramarathon, the mood was upbeat among the small community of athletes. Runners posed for photos with each other and with their crews. Among those at the start were former winner Pam Reed, who had joined Lisa for training earlier in the year, and Dean Karnazes.

“I ran with Lisa at her first Badwater 135,” Dean reflected. “She’s obviously matured a lot, but has the same twinkle in her eye. Her speed may be decreasing, but her spirit is enduring. That’s the best word I can come up with: Enduring.” She was going to need it.

As the clock reached 10am, at 282 feet below sea-level one of the harshest weather climates in the world, optimistic runners began their journey toward Mount Whitney, 135 miles away. Each runner knew there would be good times and rough ones on the course. The trick would be knowing how to handle it. Before the race, Lisa already had her racing plan in mind:

“This year I know so much more about what I’m getting into. My goals are just to put one foot in front of the other and not worry about time or the miles I have covered. I will deal with it one step at a time, and I will deal with each obstacle as it comes.”

Lisa and the other runners, with their own plans to follow, started running on asphalt so hot it can melt your shoes. The journey had begun.

The first 41 miles of the race are relatively flat, in scorching heat that exceeded 125 degrees. Only ultramarathoners can truly comprehend the following statement: these 41 miles are the easy part of the course.

Before the race, Lisa laid out her early expectations. “Stovepipe Wells -- mile 41 -- is the first big landmark. I will not stop until getting there.” What sort of training had Lisa done to give her such confidence?

Ultramarathon Training for the Working Mom

The kind of training any working mother of two would do, when they are facing a multi-day endurance effort: whenever the time was available, hour after hour of running, walking, hill training, pulling a tire for resistance, and the like.

No time during the day? Start training at as early as 3am or as late as 10pm, which Lisa did every Friday night leading towards the Double. She would sometimes run/powerwalk 30 miles in those middle-of-the-night sessions.

What about quality time with the kids? Lisa happily incorporated her kids in two-hour hill training runs --pushing one child in a baby jogger, and pulling the other in a cart -- running through beautiful scenery in Idaho and Wyoming. The kids reportedly loved these outings, often asking her: are we going running soon?

Smooth Sailing

Despite several months of training mainly when time and life allowed, Lisa had declared herself better prepared than before any other Badwater. So it was no surprise when she arrived in Stovepipe Wells Monday evening with a relaxed smile, looking as if she had simply walked around the block.

She took a seat as her crew offered nutrition, fluids, and began conducting an interview with a reporter. With a pitch-black evening fast approaching, Lisa changed clothes, donned a bright reflector vest, and headed toward her next major destination: Keeler, after mile 102 or so.

“I want to smash through Keeler,” Lisa confided before the race. Dean Karnazes explained why that mindset is important:
“When you reach Keeler, it can get very depressing. You’ve gone 100 miles and you’re destroyed already, then you see a very long 20 miles to Lone Pine in front of you. After that you know there’s another 13 to climb. If you’re not mentally prepared, all you can do is hunker down into survival mode, putting one foot in front of another, to keep going.”


Continuing forward in the dark, the miles ticked by through the evening and into early morning. Lisa reached an interim checkpoint at Townes Pass at mile 63, where the first major climb of the course commenced. In the past Townes Pass had been a place of grace for Lisa, one of spiritual renewal that helped spur her forward. This time, for some reason, she didn’t have that feeling. Something else was up. She trudged forward.

Meltdown

“I expect obstacles and pain,” Lisa said before the race. “And I’ll be ready for them.” Ready or not, they came hard and heavy at Lisa as she got deeper into the course. She began having gastrointestinal problems that seemingly could not be controlled. By mile 90, she was unable to hydrate or eat effectively. The gas was running low. Lisa was getting sicker and sicker. Just short of Keeler, in the middle of the night, she was in trouble.

News filtered back from the course, and it was not encouraging. “Latest reports from crew members have Lisa at Keeler on Tuesday, July 26th at 2:00am,” crew member Colleen Woods reported. “This is approximately seven miles since the last update at 7:00pm. The good news is that Lisa has got some shut-eye in that time, but the truth of the matter is that Lisa is suffering.”

The race doctor, Lisa Bliss, stopped by and found Lisa had a 101+ degree fever. Dr. Bliss suggested Lisa might have a 24-hour bug, but that knowledge was of little comfort with so far still to travel. How to get through the pain and suffering? “I closed my eyes and prayed for a new body,” Lisa said later. “I needed it, fast.”

Deliverance

One of the more remarkable experiences on a race course is the dramatic deliverance from the depths of discomfort to the rebirth of spirit, endurance and performance. There’s nothing like breaking through the pain barrier, and finding a better and stronger runner on the other side.

And that’s just what happened for Lisa. Waking from the nap in the back of the crew van, she greeted the dawn of a new day, figuratively and literally. Lisa, whose spirit was additionally boosted by the arrival of her endurance mentor Marshall Ulrich, awoke ready to do what she had planned all along: blast through Keeler. She stepped back onto the asphalt with a smile, eager to go.

The resurgence of strength and spirit helped Lisa drive forward toward the finish without reservation or concern. Across the long, lonely miles to Lone Pine, and on the ascent toward the finish on Mount Whitney. The energy and enthusiasm continued unabated.


Approaching the end in 2006 was significantly different than in past races where she was driven at all costs to finish as fast as possible. “I knew I was on 48 hour pace – the pace where you earn a buckle – but I knew I had much further to go,” said Lisa. “I paced myself to preserve my body for Mount Whitney and beyond.” Lisa’s crew surrounded her on the final picturesque steps toward the finish line, and then it was over.

After 49 hours, Lisa crossed the finish line at more than 8000 feet above sea level,135 miles into her Badwater Double journey.

165 miles to go. Now it Gets Interesting.

Hugs, smiles, tears, photographs and a medical check followed. The doctor who had visited Lisa at her sickest point on the course was stunned in her excellent condition at the finish. “I’ve never felt better at the end of Badwater,” Lisa recalled. “I was emotionally charged up, maybe a little overheated, but ready to go.” It was indeed as if Lisa had the new body she requested before Keeler.

And she would need it, because she still had 165 miles to go, beginning with the summit of Mount Whitney. The ‘easy’ part was over; the work was ready to begin.

Except for a small detail: you don’t just get to hop on a hiking trail to climb Whitney. You need a permit. And for all the details Lisa’s crew had under control for the entire journey, securing the right permit had slipped through the cracks. So while Lisa and team were ready to continue in daylight just a few hours after finishing Badwater, they would have to cool their heels and wait for the red tape to be sorted out.

Know the feeling after stopping a long distance race, and your legs and muscles just cramp up, especially as the hours go by? Now imagine that feeling, after covering 135 miles over the course of two days. That’s what Lisa had to deal with.

When the permit arrived late in the day, Lisa and Marshall changed into colder weather climbing gear and finally headed toward up Mount Whitney. Carrying the burden of endlessly stiff legs and sleep deprivation, they moved on. But, unfortunately, not all the way to the summit.

It’s Over

By the time Lisa reached 12,000 feet in the cold, dark night, she was shivering uncontrollably in sub-freezing air. The stunning midnight sky could not offset extreme cold, nausea and ringing ears she was experiencing. A veteran mountaineer who knew the signs, Ullrich insisted they abort the summit attempt. With severe disappointment, Lisa followed Marshall’s retreat to the base of the mountain.

“It’s over,” Lisa thought.

A car met Lisa and Marshall and drove them to nearby crew members Ben and Denise Jones’ home. This was not anticipated. Lisa expected to be on the mountain, not in a living room. Now everything was up for grabs.

Her mind scrambled for workable scenarios. She called her husband Jay with an idea: “Maybe I can create a different Double – return to the Badwater finish line, and run to the start, forgetting the summit. Would that be enough?”

Lisa’s mentor, Marshall, was not about to let her off the hook. “If you want a true Double,” he said, “you have to summit. But it’s your choice.” He knew that would fire Lisa’s competitive instincts. Another crew member put it more directly. “You don’t need to have the summit,” Bob Sitler counseled, “but you do need to have your dream.” And a true Double has been her dream for years.

It’s Not Over?

So, in short order, Lisa decided the team must return to try again. Lisa was ready to go at 9am Thursday morning, 71 hours into her journey. But first there was the pesky issue of acquiring a new daily permit to climb Whitney again. The hours again ticked by as Lisa and the team waited.

The permit arrived mid-day, and by 1:20pm Lisa and Marshall began the ascension again, feeling confident. But this time, heavy weather at the top threatened a summit visit. Climbers ahead of them had run into a rough storm and were retreating before reaching the top.

Marshall was sure that it would blow over, and his mountaineering instincts were correct. After some more patience, Lisa and Marshall reached the summit by early evening, the only ones to make it there all day.

They sat there alone on the summit for an exquisite sunset and moonrise. “Had we gone earlier, we wouldn’t have had that spectacular moment,” said Lisa. “Every obstacle before that led us to a perfect summit.”

Back on track, Lisa and Marshall had returned to the base of Mount Whitney by 3am. On that early Friday morning, after 89 hours of mostly continuous forward motion, with more than 165 miles under her belt, Lisa was feeling “perfect in every sense. I knew I was going to make it.”

Only 135 miles to go.

And The Stars Looked Down

Day became night. Then night became day, as Lisa continued her quest deep into Saturday, after more than 5 and a half days on course. Continuing to display unexpected power, she smashed through the invisible wall of Keeler yet again. Just 100 miles to go. Can you imagine what that feels like?

As Lisa and her crew pressed on into Townes Pass with 63 miles to go late Saturday night, the night sky was nothing short of stunning. Two comets appeared out of nowhere, crossing each other’s path. Sister Julie then pointed out the strikingly brilliant stars.

“Each one of those stars represents one of the children with AIDS you are helping to save with your Double,” she said. The tears poured out, and hugs were shared. It was indeed a key moment of the journey. And one that gave Lisa more faith then ever that she would see the finish line soon.

Breakdown, Dead Ahead

But early 24 hours later, a final obstacle presented itself: the limits of human endurance.

At 2am Monday morning, with only 17 miles to go, Lisa’s pace had slowed to the point of almost going backwards. She was staggering in the pitch black road, desperate for sleep.

“I was so so sleepy and so so emotional,” Lisa remembered later. Completely spent – as nearly seven days and 283 traversed miles can make you -- Lisa broke down. She simply sat down in the middle of the road, in the darkest dark of the desert night, and cried. They were tears of pain, tears of frustration, tears of missing her kids, tears that would not stop.

“It was so hard for me at that time, I felt really alone, really sad,” Lisa later recalled. So she just sat there.

It was the worst she had felt on the journey since the first approach to Keeler, days earlier. At that time she asked for and seemingly received a ‘new body.’ Or at least one that could run. She needed the same miracle again.

Everything was hurting: strained quads, bruised feet, and a deeply fatigued mind. Lisa slowly stood up, put both arms out, and exclaimed to the heavens: “Get me to the finish line, let me have what I need!”

There are times on the course when it just comes down to a final push. All you need at that point is to want it bad enough. All you need is the spirit to drive through the struggle. And once you decide to fight for the final steps to the finish, you have succeeded.

Standing there with arms outstretched, Lisa found that final push, she wanted it bad enough, and she became driven like never before. Lisa swears that suddenly she found the strength to run 6-minute miles and the nimbleness to do bounding drills on the road.

What she found in those final miles was dignity, grace and glory. The sun rose on her seventh morning of the journey with only 8 miles to go. Then 4. Then 1. Then . . .

There it was. The ‘282 Feet Below Sea Level’ sign. The place it all began nearly one week earlier was within walking distance. “In those final steps, I was thinking: thank you, thank you . . . look back at all of those obstacles, challenges, hoops . . . they were all meant for a greater purpose to get to where you want to be.”

And with that, she was done. 310 miles, actually, when you factor in the distance from the first Mount Whitney summit attempt.

The Badwater Double. Wow.

One Last Time: Why?

Lisa explained it best afterwards.
“I am in such a different place now. I was missing the ability to open myself to pain, suffering and find life at the other end. To break through it and deliver for everyone -- myself, my family, my devoted crew, and the AIDS orphans. I’m proud of myself, honestly. With every obstacle, we never failed.”


Then Lisa laid it on the line. “Why? Candidly, because I always knew I could. There are a handful of people who can do this, and I am one of them. And I’m proud that doing this helped so many others. That’s what I was put here to do.”

Martin Barre: Running Free - Jethro Tull's Guitarist Rocks on the Run


Jethro Tull, now in its fifth decade of performing, continues to thrill audiences with an extensive set that includes the timeless classics “Bouree” and “Aqualung." After more than 40 years with Jethro Tull, you might expect the band’s lead guitarist to be a little less than excited about the downside of touring, going here, there and everywhere.

Not necessarily so, it turns out. Not if you’re a runner, like Martin Lancelot Barre.



The Runner

 “A run before the show can be the best part of my day,” insists Barre.

He’s a veteran of three marathons, including a 3:47 personal best at the London Marathon. But he hastens to add that he’s not a competitive runner. Barre runs for enjoyment; finish times in marathons are the least of his concerns.

“I like to run about 5 to 6 miles per day,” says the runner. While he’ll admit that if he really pushes the pace, he can run a sub-seven minute miles, speed isn’t important to him. It’s just that if he doesn’t run on a given day, especially before a concert, he notes, “I just don’t feel like myself.”

Fellow runners know exactly how he feels. Except they don’t get to go on stage and play “Locomotive Breath” as an encore after a successful day at the office. 

The Rocker

Which brings us to Martin’s day, or rather, evening job. He’s been the rock of Jethro Tull since joining the band in 1968, to play on the band’s second album, “Stand Up.”

“Stand Up” features Ian Anderson’s adventurous rearrangement of J. S. Bach’s “Bouree.” The song is instantly recognizable, carried along by Anderson’s unique lead flute playing, backed by the foundation of Glenn Cornick on bass, Clive Bunker on drums, and Martin Lancelot Barre, the runner of the group, on guitar. But there’s more: listen to the first few measures and you’ll hear an accompanying flute – that’s Martin playing, a sort of second flute to Ian’s.

In 1970, Tull recorded the classic album “Aqualung,” highlighted by the fury of Martin’s solo, played on a Les Paul Junior guitar, that was recently named on of the top solos of all time by Guitar Player magazine.

In the four decades that have followed, Barre has been on Tull’s Stage Left, the anchor of the band, quietly but forcefully driving home the notes, arpeggios and chords that, along with Anderson’s inimitable flute playing, make Jethro Tull’s sound both unmistakable and timeless.

In concert, it can be said that Martin’s playing is perhaps best realized on the songs “Budapest,” which features several minutes of guitar artistry, “Hunting Girl,” a power chord clinic that occasionally seems to tip its hat to Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen,” and the rarely played “Wind Up,” in which Martin’s playing is nothing short of stunning (see/hear what I mean: get Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung Live” CD).




Stage Left

When the band takes the stage, you can always expect to see Barre buried somewhat on Stage Left, while Ian Anderson, Tull’s iconic leader, owns the spotlight and theatrics. Barre will be there, to one side, playing a setup that will likely include his custom-made PRS 513 guitar, Soldano amplifiers, various and assorted guitar effects through a Marshall 2x12 cabinet.

Barre has been known to stick with a single guitar for most performances, but he's got a large collection to choose from. His arsenal of guitars on recent tours include the Line 6 Variax sound modeling guitar (“it’s amazing, on-board effects make this one guitar sound like so many others”), black and white Fender Stratocasters and his Hamer guitar (custom-built by Paul Hamer, who once ran a guitar shop in Wilmette, IL).  He also plays the Bouzouki or mandolin when the song calls for it, and of course, the flute.

A complete showcase of Martin’s guitars, styles and sounds are found on his recent solo CD, appropriately named Stage Left.  His catalog also includes previous solo CDs A Trick of Memory, The Meeting, and the rare recording A Summer Band. Recently he took part in the production of Excalibur, a new rock opera which premiered in 2009 at Europe’s medieval festival Kaltenberger Ritturnier.


The Road

It’s natural to assume, with his musical talent and success, that playing guitar would be considered his greatest achievement. Surprisingly, perhaps, it’s not exactly so.

“I am more proud of my running than anything else, really,” Martin told me, almost without hesitation.  Why, I asked. “Because when I’m having a good time, running is a reward, and when I’m having bad times, running is the medicine that keeps me going.”

As we talked further, the reason for this point of view became obvious. Sure, he can bring audiences to their feet night after night with his signature guitar solo in the song Aqualung, but Barre is relatively shy and retiring on stage. He leaves the attention to Jethro Tull front man Ian Anderson.

But off-stage, Barre will -- in his own words – “become alive when I run.”

And touring with the band, he seeks that feeling in the beauty of a great running route whether it’s along Chicago’s lakefront, in New York’s Central Park, or among the machine-gun toting soldiers in Lima, Peru.

A New Day Yesterday

Consider this, said Martin, setting up the story: September 2006; El Paso, Costa Rica yesterday, Quito, Ecuador tomorrow, and on a bus today to Lima Peru.  And this is just the middle of a multi-week travelcade tour of fun. 

As the van traveled the long and winding road to Lima, he was once again – he’d been there before -- struck with the beauty of the area. Martin sensed an opportunity for a magnificent run through the picturesque terrain.

That run was exactly what he needed to clear the cobwebs of the road, exactly what he needed to approach the evening’s concert fresh, ready and raring to go. The van arrived at the hotel, a pretty nice one at that. And time to spare before the evening concert. “Perfect,” Martin said to himself. “Plenty of time for a run.”

Go ahead, admit it: that’s what you’d be thinking. That’s what you’d be wishing for, if it were you were a runner, if you were on that trip to Lima with Martin.   But it wasn’t going to be that simple.

It was September 2, 2006, and it wasn’t necessarily a great time to be a tourist in Lima.  Slightly less than three weeks since a complete government restructuring scattered any semblance of civility to the wind, to be replaced by near State of Emergency conditions.

Martin appeared in the hotel lobby, ready for a brisk run. Or so he thought. “Not so fast,” hotel security snapped, stopping him in his tracks, or, well, running shoes.

Conundrum

“We were ordered not to leave our hotel. It was a time of political and social unrest, they told us,” Martin explained.  “Soldiers standing watch over parts of town with guns at the ready. But I saw a clear path to a great run, just out the door.”

What would you do? You might not be as bold as Martin.  He was to have none of it. His mind was made upHe was going to run that day, no matter what. So Martin shrugged, looked both ways, and he was off, into the streets of Lima. 

Why did he ignore security?  “No matter where I am in the world, the minute I step out of the hotel lobby, I feel free,” he emphasized. “I couldn’t stay in, I just had to get out and run.”

What was it like when he got out into the menacing streets of Lima? “Even with all the machine guns around, there I was, just with shorts and a watch on the beach, leaving the turmoil and turbulence behind.”

Was it worth it? “Absolutely . . . it was actually a quite beautiful day for a run.” Did anyone point a gun at you? “Do you think they thought I was a threat? In running shorts?” He laughed at the reminiscence.

Such is life on this rocker's running road. At every stop, the potential for an exceptional, if not a little risky at times, run.

Martin notes that he makes a point of running along the banks of Lake Titicaca when in the area, even if it’s a bit more than dangerous. It’s a hair-raising bus trip to get there, he says, and the area is also often under machine-gun toting military guard, but Martin sees past that. “It’s a truly beautiful place to run. You have to try it sometime.” OK, I said. “No, really,” he insisted. “It’s amazing.”

In the US, Martin’s favorite running cities are Chicago, along the lake, and New York’s Central Park. What he appreciates in these two cities is the embrace of the community of runners, while also allowing an escape from the role of adored rock star.

Being out on the running road is what matters. For Martin, the point of running is not the destination, but it is the journey, the path, the sights, the experiences and the stories.

Running Free

In the US, Martin’s favorite running cities are Chicago, where he has taken 90-minute runs along the lake, and New York’s Central Park, especially running around the reservoir.

In these two cities, and others, he particularly appreciates what he calls a temporary state of “anonymity tantamount to being a traveling salesperson.” Because of that, “I’m truly running free.”

At the same time, in that freedom of anonymity, he welcomes the feeling an almost immediate kinship with local runners. “I feel a sort of unspoken bond with them, like we’re all part of this silent community of runners, nodding as we pass, sharing the fresh air on a beautiful afternoon run.”

Rocks on the Run

Every time Jethro Tull plays, Martin is far from anonymous, stage left, laying the foundation for Jethro Tull’s catalog of songs. But before the concert, in whatever city the band is playing that evening,  if you’re running or cycling in the area, keep an eye out for Martin. He’ll be there, a fellow runner, sharing the path, sharing the experience, sharing all the city has to offer.

Among the legions of runners heading north and south, east or west, at the shore or in the hills, in the middle of that community of athletes, you may just run into one very passionate runner, one Martin Lancelot Barre.

And if you do happen upon him running his daily 5 to 6 miles, just nod and enjoy the run of a lifetime. Martin certainly will. Because that’s how Martin rocks: on the run.



TSO 2011: Trans-Siberian Orchestra Photos and Video



More Photos: TSO 2011: Trans-Siberian Orchestra Live

















Sarah Palin Runs Half Marathon in Iowa -- 1:46:10, 2nd in Age Group

Sarah Palin ran the Jump Right in and Run Half Marathon in Storm Lake, Iowa, on Sunday September 4, 2011, finishing with a time of 1:46:10. At a pace of 8:06 per mile, it was fast enough to win her second place in her age group.

It was also an unexpected, unpublicized and nearly anonymous run for Palin, who registered for the race using her maiden name, Heath.






Overall she finished in 5th out of 33 women; impressive. Photo and results by www.stormlakerunningclub.com.










Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Triathlete and Chicago Triathlon Finisher

[See new photos from the Mayor's 2018 Chicago Triathlon here]





























Chicago's new mayor, and President Barack Obama's former relentless Chief of Staff, is a triathlete. Not just any triathlete; he's a pretty good one. Rahm raced the 2011 Chicago Triathlon's Sprint Distance event, covering 0.75k swim, 20k bike and 5k run in one hour, 36 minutes. Here are the details:
  • Swim Time 0:20:56
  • Transition 1 Time 0:02:15
  • Bike Time and Speed 0:43:34 18.8mph
  • Transition 2 Time 0:02:05
  • Run Time and Pace per Mile 0:27:58 0:09:01/mile
  • Finish Time: 1:36:50
How did his performance stack up against those in his age group and the overall field of finishers? Impressively, finishing in the top 11 of M50-54 age group and top 18% overall, besting their respective times in swim, bike and run.


He was just as intense on the triathlon course as he has always been in politics and business. Driven, determined, unwavering in his dedication to to succeed. You can see it in these photos, as he leaned into the triathlons 5k run.




For more photos of Rahm and other Chicago Triathlon competitors, see our Chicago Triathlon 2011 Photo Gallery.

Also see our Complete Chicago Triathlon Coverage for results and more.



Imagesby Raymond Britt

Jethro Tull's John O'Hara: Orchestrating Tull

By Raymond Britt

Though 300 years apart, Jethro Tull (the inventor) and Jethro Tull's (the band) John O'Hara have more in common than you might expect, in ways that may surprise you. Consider these fast facts:
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  • Jethro Tull, multi-dimensional inventor of the modern seed drill, was originally a keyboard player, in the early 1680s, or so.
  • Jethro Tull's multi-instrumentalist keyboard player John O'Hara was originally a percussionist, in the early 1970s and 1980s, 300 years later. 
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  • “When I was young my diversion was music,” wrote Jethro Tull in his biography. Though he quickly added that, to paraphrase, he was quite bad at it. 
  • "When I was young, I was gigging in my father's band," Jethro Tull's John O'Hara told us. Though he's too humble to say so, he was quite good at it. 
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  • In 1701, using his experience as a keyboard player, Jethro Tull would rise to global fame by inventing the modern seed drill. 
  • In 2003, using his experience as a keyboard player, John O'Hara would rise to global fame by reinventing some of Jethro Tull's modern music for Ian Anderson's orchestral solo tour. 
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Though, of course, Tull and O'Hara ultimately pursued different primary professions -- Tull as inventor/agriculturalist/lawyer/author, O'Hara as Tull's keyboardist/accordionist/orchestrator -- it can be said that both are known for innovation and creativity in their respective paths.



Tull, The Inventor / Tull, The Band

Yes, Jethro Tull was an admittedly poor musician. But he did pay attention to the instruments, to the gear, as it were. It was his understanding of the keyboard, the organ and its construction and function that led him to inspiration, to invent the seed drill.

In his 1731 book, Horse Hoeing Husbandry, Tull explained that by “altering [the soundboard of an organ] just a little and some parts of two other instruments as foreign to the field as the organ . . . I composed my machine,” the seed drill, in 1701.

The celebrated invention revolutionized worldwide agriculture, serving to plant seeds that led to significantly more productive personal and crop output. And it helped bring Tull to the attention of Ian Anderson, a musician in need of a new name in 1968, when his band was given the moniker: Jethro Tull.

Jethro Tull, the band, is in the midst of a world tour commemorating the 40th anniversary of  classic rock's classic album, Aqualung. taking the stage each night are band founder, composer, flautist, singer and charismatic leader Ian Anderson (see our interview with Ian here); 4-hour marathon runner and 40+ year Tull lead guitarist, Martin Barre (see our interview with Martin here); drummer Doane Perry; bassist David Goodier; and keyboard player, accordionist and orchestrator John O'hara.



Tull's John O'Hara, Perspectives

We spoke with John when he was touring with Ian Anderson on Anderson's 2010 solo tour. John generously spoke at length with us on a variety of topics, from his musical career progression, influences,  joining Ian's band, then Tull, the process of orchestrating Ian's and Tull's music, to gear choices and performance insights.

Here are the highlights.

Musical Career Progression
I started off just gigging as a teenager in bands my father was a musician so I found myself playing in a few of his bands from time to time. It was all kinds, it was Doobie Brothers, it was that kind of period. So it was kind of rock music . . . late seventies, early eighties, I was still in school. 

But then I got into music college, which was kind of decision that actually I could make this as a career, the decision to and I went to a classical music college as a percussionist. 
And then I got into a jazz course at another college. Royal Northern College of Music . . . the Royal had a better ring to it . . . THE  Royal Northern College of Music, which was very grand. I did undergraduate there and postgraduate . . . as my blurb says on the  . . . and so that gave me a pretty basic grounding in music. 
I was always playing piano, I graduated as a percussionist but was always a second-study pianist. So when you get to year two in music college in year one I think you usually get the option to drop; I actually kept it going. 
I was fascinated by it, and by then I was writing with it and composing and the piano was a great source, a tool, for that. But then of course that led to me getting a job as a percussionist with the dance company.  
Basically the story want that call came in ‘we need a percussionist NOW is there anyone who is available tomorrow night to come to Birmingham which was two hours away from where I lived.  I said I’m free, I’ll do it! 
I literally ran down there and got into the orchestral pit. Basically had to sight-read all of the material, but by the end of the gig the director said that was great, do you want to stay the rest of the week, and I said sure I’ll stay for the rest of the week. And after that I stayed for what must have been 5, 6, 7 years . .  It was a long time. 
I played all kinds of percussion instruments, marimbas vibraphones it varies from to timpani in a Mozart symphony. I wasn’t using midi controllers, it was all natural instruments, all acoustic, a big trunk full of gear.  
I then went to working in theater, it was my writing that took over . . .  music for Shakespeare, music for contemporary modern theater.

Influences Along the Way
I was being influenced by the composers that I was playing, the people I was performing with because that was all brand new music, music that was commissioned for that company.  
You get a chance to meet the composers and work with them, so they were influential.
I was always a bit symphonic . . . I really liked Richard Strauss, not the Johann Waltz Strauss, but the Richard Strauss with the big, symphonic orchestra, big tunes melodies, fantastic harmonies and an amazing orchestrator. 
That sound the he would create, such as the John Williams’ of the world take on . . . . so much, just so much in that big room.  
Think about it . . even in one measure, the texture in that measure is in that one romantic period and that’s the Richard Wagner’s, the Richard Strauss’s of the world, that’s what we were doing and that’s what inspired me, that’s what I listened to.  
So a lot of when you listen to orchestrations relate, when I look ahead a bit, like I now do for Ian and others, you know I’ve got that big sound in my head often even though we’re working with different musical forces. 




Joining The Band
Dave Goodier, who plays bass with Tull now, he and I used to work a great deal together, he would play bass for me on all of the projects that I wrote in the theater world, so he and I had a long-standing relationship for ten or so years. 
In fact, I had to take some publicity photos for Dave to give to Ian when Dave was introduced to Ian so there’s a little circle there. 
He found out that Ian was looking for a new accordion player and piano player.
I had just started to play accordion at that point, just a few months, actually, and so Ian just phoned me up, said would you like to come and audition, and I said sure.  
So he sent me a couple of audition pieces, one for the accordion one for the piano, and I went along and we did some playing, some improvising and it went well.  
At the end of that he said would you come out and do the Rubbing Elbows tour, which I think was about 2003 which was my first outing with Ian. 
That then progressed to Ian saying, 'look I’ve got this orchestral project . . .' and by then, I already had orchestrated a considerable number of pieces for Ian.  
Thick of a Brick and Aqualung had already been scored and David Palmer’s music had been orchestrated, and most of that work had been done by another orchestrator, someone that Ian had worked with very briefly.  
I then came to those scores, he handed me, and said, 'those scores, look, load them into your computer and then we can work through them again, because there are a few alterations I’d like to make.' 
So once I had started to get used to the way Ian worked and liked to work with orchestras, I was able to subsequently make an orchestration and hand it to Ian having known, pretty much, the fashion in which he likes to work.


Orchestration
Ian’s work is very pure sounding, the chords tend to be very pure. 

Often Ian will work with chords that don’t have a third in them so it could be a major or a minor chord that’s leaving an openness so the person who’s improvising has room to move around it, has the choice whether to play major or minor.  
It may be Martin’s influence . . . often chord five, that’s often the same, probably because they have been together for 40-odd years, that's the same school. 
I didn’t orchestrate Aqualung, but I did alterations in Aqualung. 
The body of Aqualung, this current version of Aqualung is in a different key than with Tull, down a semi-tone. Tonight, we will do a version of that, the orchestral version because we are playing more acoustically but where the orchestra had that big symphonic section unfortunately we edited that out. At the moment, we’re playing Aqualung in F I think the beginning we play in D minor and at the end we’re playing E minor. 
An example? God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen was mine. It just had to be orchestrated as a big swing number. I’ve heard Ian’s version on the Christmas Album, but when it came to orchestrating it just had to be like that, because of that shuffle -- kjook kijack kijook kijack -- because the shuffle is there, it just had to be a big band number.
The scoring is for full string section, three woodwinds, two horns one trumpet and one trombone. So it’s quite tight, it’s quite small. I use a lot of doubling and I use quote a lot of open things with the brass so you’ve obviously got your horns in the middle, your top and the trombone on the bottom, but the trombone is not always playing the root of the chord, it’s just a little bland. So I often get him up playing a harmony note as well.




Touring Gear
I’m using the Roland 700, the new one as well, the GX, which is absolutely gorgeous . . . I use the GX as a controller, and it controls the Phantom, so I’ve got a rack-mounted phantom sitting beside me, and in England I’ve got the phantom keyboard, but it’s just too big to fly with.  
Under that I use the MOTU as a mixer really because I can get two inputs from the phantom, two inputs from the organ module and two inputs from the accordion. So, that’s six out of the 8 inputs used, and my in-ear mix that’s central so I can now control the gain, I’ve got it literally by my hand at mid-body height. 
I do the patch changes not triggered externally and usually, I do them on the keyboard sending program changes. Actually on this tour, because it’s a simple one, I’m actually just using the daisy wheel. I’m doing it literally on the machine.  
Having the drawbars on the organ, having three different pre-sets, on Thick as a Brick, for example, using a quieter sound, I can just hit the button on the thing, glorious piece of equipment, it really is.   
I couldn’t say anything more about it, except, now don’t tell Roland about this, I’ve had two crashes on this tour. Once, it crashed and it was absolutely dry in the middle of the show. 
The first one was Thick as a Brick, it was stuck, but in the middle of it, I have to change. I had to turn it off and turn it back on to reboot it again. And, of course it just takes time to load the samples. Seconds were going by, and I was thinking, 'I should have been playing that there . . .' From Ian there was a moment of ‘what was going on’ but I’m sure it was just a glitch.  

New Songs on the Ian Anderson Solo Tour
You’re going to get a new song on this tour – two new songs on this tour – one of which is an instrumental.  
There’s a new one, which is instrumental, which doesn’t have a title, and there’s also a new song which I think it really really clever, really strong and it gets quite rocking in the middle, and its called Adrift and Dumbfounded. 
The other interesting thing to look out for, of course, will be from the passion play, we’re going to do the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles, and I will play John Evan’s part.  
Ian will narrate, it’s not been done on stage, ever. Jeffery did it for the recording, and then of course mimed it on film, and of course it was orchestrated with a small ensemble.  
I could have put patches in, and oboes in but actually we just wanted to keep is simple and the piano sound on the roland is just great. I use the pure ‘complete piano’ sample card on the inside – it’s much better than the ones that are in there.


And with that, it was time to prepare for the concert, which was brilliant. See our show review here. And catch John and Tull in 2011 on the current world tour.

Also See:


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For more, see www.jethrotull.com.

Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson: The Complete Solo Tour Interview



By Raymond Britt

Ian Anderson, the founder and creative force behind the classic-rock band Jethro Tull, is taking his show on the road once again. We had the good fortune to speak with Ian about five specific topics before the tour began: Stand Up, Bouree, the Solo Tour, Saving the Planet and Aqualung.

Stand Up

Anderson’s solo tour coincides with the recent re-release of the classic Tull album, Stand Up. Originally released in the UK on August 1, 1969, the record reached the top of the UK record chart within one week, and remains Tull’s only chart-topping disk.

The Stand Up re-release comes in the form of a 3-disc set. The first disk contains remasters of the complete original album, plus additional tracks recorded around the same time, including the radio-friendly 5/4 time classic Living in the Past.

The additional two disks – a CD and a surround sound 5.1 audio DVD – feature Tull’s legendary 1970 concert at Carnegie Hall, and the set includes a new set of liner notes by Anderson. Here’s what Ian had to say about Stand Up:

"The original Stand Up album was the album that was -- on our second tour, I think, in the summer of 1969 -- released and went to the top of the charts. I was sitting in Loews Midtown Manhattan Hotel having breakfast and Joe Cocker came in and said “Congratulations, your album has just gone to number one in the UK.”

"And we thought ‘wow, that’s great’ because we were, at that point, just starting off in the US, and not terribly well-known.

"It was essentially the beginning of Jethro Tull’s US career. It gave us confidence that the music that we were then playing live on stage during our shows was already successful in the UK and in Europe and when it was released in the US it hopefully would mimic that European success. And indeed it did quite well for us, inasmuch as that album was contemporaneous with those early tours of that year, 1969.

"And it wasn’t, of course, our first album, which was released in 1968, but Stand Up would generate a wider interest in many different countries. At that time we were obviously playing the Stand Up music. Some music that was recorded around that time for singles, usually back in the UK while we were away on tour.

"And we also recorded a show that we did, in 1970, at Carnegie Hall for a New York drug prevention charity. The live recording of that, part of which went out later on the Living in the Past album a couple of years later; again that was the music from the Stand Up album we were playing at Carnegie Hall as a result.

"It was bundled together at the suggestion of EMI. I have also been involved with the remastering and the liner notes and that sort of stuff. As a collector’s edition it puts together a big bundle of music for people who perhaps have some of the component parts of it but not all of it on the same CD, if anyone buys CDs any more . . . do they?"

Ian has written new liner notes to accompany the Stand Up Re-release. One of the interesting notes is about the band’s creative approach to spicing up the sound. We asked Ian to elaborate:

"You know back then in a recording studios people were always inventing new things, you know, things you could do, things perhaps you weren’t supposed to do.

"On the Stand album it was just a bit of wacky improvisation really, standing on top of a speaker and swinging the mike around mimicking I suppose the effects of a Leslie cabinet, you know the rotating speaker cabinet, spinning around in the cabinet and keeping the microphone still.

"We just kept the speaker still and moved around the mike. it was a bit of fun, and it was an amusing sound, and it had its effects and it was a way of doing something new and different.

"By the traditions of professional recording techniques that we were young musicians – we tried different stuff, and as long as we didn’t break anything, we got away with it."

Bouree

Stand Up is perhaps best known by the band’s instantly recognizable, genre-busting jazz/blues interpretation of Bach’s Bouree. Led by Anderson’s inspired flute arrangement, Tull’s Bouree has, over the course of forty-some years, become the gold standard of flute/rock instrumentals. And yes, Mr. Anderson will be performing Bouree in October’s concert.

We asked Ian what led him to decide to include a Bach piece on a rock album:

"It was a piece I had heard just after I started to play the flute. I heard it in the context of classical guitar, as it such there was a student living in a room underneath mine in north London learning to play classical guitar. And he kept playing this piece over and over and over again, so I kept hearing it coming up through the floorboards.

"When Martin Barre joined the band I mentioned to him, I guess in the early months of 1969 uh, there this little tune . . . I played it for him, and he said, that’s a piece by Bach – I learned to play that song on classical guitar.

"He knew what it was, we identified it, we made an arrangement of it using kind of swing syncopating jazzy feel, you know, sort of cocktail lounge jazz version of Bouree. So it became the notable flute instrumental, I supposed, from those years, and one which I still play today pretty much at every concert."

The Solo Tour

On this tour audiences can expect to be treated to Anderson’s inimitable blend of acoustic, electric, and occasionally orchestral rock music. Further, Anderson promises the show will contain a mix of new material, classic Tull fan favorites, new arrangements, and the occasional surprise tossed in here and there.

Here’s what Ian had to say about the songs we’re likely to hear:

"We’re playing a mixture of classic Jethro Tull songs – some of the more famous pieces – like Aqualung and Locomotive Breath, though perhaps done in a way different than the original recording. We try some different arrangements of those.”

"Then there’s a bunch of stuff that I call the deep catalog, those that are among the more obscure Jethro Tull songs that maybe aren’t usually played on radio, and are there for the more knowledgeable fans.

"And then some stuff, a few new songs, four new songs I’m playing, including a couple of Bach pieces I’ll be playing. Of course, our guitar player will be playing one of them -- it’s a solo piece, the shred-metal version of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue.

"The other piece which I will play with our keyboard player which is the Bach’s Prelude in C Major for which I’ve written a flute melody to go over the original Bach piano piece, which is really just chordal arpeggios all the way through. So I wrote a melody that I hope alludes in some way to the kind of Bach style of that era.



"You know we’re all a bit loose about it because as we go into rehearsal, as there’s usually a bit of redundancy inevitable two or three pieces. So we go into it with a little extra material so that we can switch things from night to night or we can remove things that didn’t go well in rehearsal. I guess I know 50 percent of the set list I know will be in there but the other fifty percent depend on how we feel.

"I guess there will be two or three pieces in there that get, either get the chop, or at least they’re not performed every night sequentially on the tour, and at least we can have some musical alternatives. So we don’t have to play the same songs every night sometimes nice to refresh yourself with a song you haven’t played for a couple of nights."

Anderson’s band on this tour includes Jethro Tull’s six-string bass player David Goodier, Scott Hammond on electric and acoustic drums, German rock and flamenco guitarist Florian Opahle, and classical musician John O'Hara, Anderson’s occasional orchestral director who also plays keyboards and accordion with Jethro Tull. Knowing Ian has often welcomed additional musicians to the stage, we inquired as to whether that might happen on this tour:

"At this point, there are no planned guests traveling and touring with us, other than me and the band guys. You know, I’m used to playing with various guests, as I did in Armenia last week. But on this tour it’s the other band guys who get their moment to shine with some stuff.

"I don’t have a fiddler this time as I have in the past.  Last year we were working with Meena Bhashin, the violist. And I have a bunch of concerts coming up later this year, which will have a string quartet, a few string quartets, actually, in different parts of the world.

"And it’s possible that someone that I know will show up on the day and say ‘well, can I come play with you . . ?‘ . . . maybe they can, maybe they can’t . . ."

Saving the Planet

Ian’s passion for the preservation of threatened species of wild cats is well-known. When we raised the topic, Ian voiced an over-arching concerns – about threats to the planet and impacts on the human population. Here’s what Ian had to say on the matter:

"Well, my position on the wild cats is they are a particular example of threatened wild life that um and of course people have their favorites. Some people want to save the whales; some people want to save giant pandas; some people want to save the spider mite. I my case it’s cats . . .

"But you know it’s symptomatic of a bigger degree of threat to the ecology and the enormous variety of wildlife on the planet, our little planet. I guess as I get older my interest is in fundamentally saving the species that I am really close to . . . of all . . . which is homo sapiens.

"I really do fear for my descendents a few generations down the line. If we can’t settle the problems of protecting some endangered species, cutting down rain forests and plundering our limited resources, you know, there is, very very soon, there can be no doubt . . . we don’t have any hope when people can’t take the big view and look ahead a couple generations.

"Unfortunately so far neither politicians nor the general public are willing to look beyond their immediate lifetimes or perhaps those of their children. I suppose our politicians are always coming about them with incredible inertia, a willingness to deal with only the things that they can see stretching four or eight years ahead according to their electoral chances.

"You know we have to look forward to a time . . . we know that in 2050 there can be no doubt -- short of in itself a worldwide disaster -- there will be nine billion people on planet earth. We can’t even feed six billion . . .

"And we’re facing the peril of climate change, which is going to knock the stuffing out of a lot of grain-producing areas around the world and our ability to produce food for the six billion, let alone the nine billion we’re going to have in 40 year’s time.

"So we are really really up against some big decisions that are going to have to be taken and my greatest concern as I grow older is protecting the us among all the other species, though we are likely to lose thousands of species of animals and plants over the next few decades.

"And as a result our insatiable quest for limited resources -- can we get any more? -- taking out of our planetary availability. We can’t take any more of it up whether it’s oil, whether it’s coal, whether it’s gas.

"Or whether it’s fighting for the remote possibility that we are able to produce mass quantities of hydrogen power transport needs, sun power, wind power to provide a lower cost way to provide what we consume.

"At the moment they’re not even producing a dent compared to the increased use of energy use across the board. And that’s just us not just North Americans or us Brits, what about the Chinese, what about the Indians, what about the Africans . . .

"There are so many people just waiting to get their refrigerator, their spin dryer, their motor cars their mobile phone their air conditioning, they just want a little piece of the action, they want to catch up to us guys and we’re the guys who have done all the damage.

"I’m concerned about cats . . . that’s because I like them . . . I’m also concerned about people . . . I like those too."

Aqualung

Changing the topic from the future of humankind back to legendary rock was quite a reversal, but it was worth it, to ask Ian a final question: how did he select the five simple notes that make up the immortal guitar riff on Aqualung:

"I suppose because of an awareness that we lived in an age of rock riffs back then and there had been, I guess through artists like Jimi Hendrix and Cream and later Deep Purple, these bands that came up with these epic, very simple groupings of notes that were rather dramatic riffs.

"And I was reminded, when I started to hear that kind of music, that in fact it had already been done before in the world of classical music and particularly of course Beethoven who managed with just two notes. Rather, I mean four notes but only two, separate, different ones . . . ba ba ba bum ba ba ba bum [Ian sings Beethoven’s Fifth riff].

"I just sat down and tried to come up with something that no one else had played at that time. It was that kind of a functional introduction to a piece of music, just as Beethoven did in his Fifth Symphony or of course in the Toccata and Fugue.

"You know you have those big sort of dramatic statements right at the front of a piece of music and those are quite memorable.  When you get one that’s a good one and no one else has done it before . . . well, you know you’re onto a good thing then.

"And so ba ba ba bu ba bum [Ian sings Aqualung riff] was just one of those very memorable yet simple and dramatic motifs. And then I made the most of it."

There really was nothing more to be said. Or so it seemed; he had one last note to impart:

"One note of deep sadness . . . I’m not the guy who wrote bum bum bum bum bum ba da dabum [Ian sings Smoke on the Water riff]. That was Ritchie Blackmore dammit!"

And with that, we thanked him for the words, the music and the inspiration.


Also See:
Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson: Four Centuries of Tull
Ian Anderson: Chicago 2010 Concert Review
Martin Barre: Rocks on the Run
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