Random News and Battle of the Sexes

If you are like me, you have drawers full of running shirts that you never wear. Every time you register for a race, you get another shirt to add to the collection. Some are made of technical fabric that wick moisture away from your body. These tend to be the ones we run in, but what about all those cotton shirts?

I have been running races for over 20 years and recently pulled out a box full of shirts and counted over 30. Well, Cara and I have decided to make a quilt out of them as a keepsake. Actually she is going to do all the sewing but I, unfortunately, have been designated cutting boy.  I will be so busy snipping shirts into neat little squares that I will nary have any time for running now.

In other news, Desert Exposure (The Biggest Little Paper in the Southwest) has featured an article about Cara’s Great Grandfather, C. E. Waterhouse, who in 1928 discovered one of the best preserved sloth fossils at Aden Crater in New Mexico. 

Read: A Lost World  (How an 11,000-year-old sloth... taught us about the world of the last Ice Age.) – Jay Sharp

You may remember that I hiked the Aden Crater about a year ago and vowed to further research the fossil. (Read my post: A Sloth Ran Here)

A sloth ran here

Aden Crater

In inquiring about the discovery of the sloth, I learned that some misinformation was out there on the internet such as: “the fossil is on display at the Smithsonian” when in reality it is at the Peabody Museum (Yale University). Sadly, several UT El Paso (UTEP) professors, at the time, didn’t believe that a few young jazz musicians (Mr Waterhouse played banjo) could have stumbled upon something remarkable in Aden Crater, but a Yale professor did.

I was able to find accurate information by pouring through the C.E. Waterhouse papers at the UTEP Special Collections Library. Many newspaper articles, drawings, correspondence, and photos were available about the find and I have been trying to set the record straight.

In more news, I ran the Mt Cristo Rey Challenge 8 mile run this past weekend and had a good time with members of the Run El Paso Club. We had a beautiful morning to run up to the 29 ft statue of Christ and some friendly competition was going on between the men and women to see which team would have the fastest times. 

Tony, Carlos and Greg

Following the race, at least one of the women (not to mention any names –Becky) claims the race results were accidentally destroyed by fire and that the women won. It seems the women had to resort to a bit of skulduggery in their quest to win. I personally noticed several women short cutting the course from the Mexican side of the mountain, as my photo shows, and therefore believe the men won fair and square.

I'm pretty sure that's the girls short-cutting

Elena and Paul battle to the finish

Finally, in even more news, I rolled my ankle in the Franklin Mountains this week and have been taking it easy and icing my foot. I started running from Anthony’s Gap at dawn and had a hard time seeing all the tripping hazards on the trail. I was still able to complete a five mile run and cached some water to use on another day. 

That's why it's called shin dagger

My dogs had a great time and, surprisingly, I met Dave on the trail who said in the two years he has been running the trail he had rarely seen anyone on it before. If you are looking for beautiful scenery and solitude, hike or run the Franklins from Anthony’s Gap NM. To quote Dave – “Watch out for the cactus and rattlesnakes.”

See you on the trail.