MM #5615
Okay--I did my...RAW (see, I'm paying attention)...10.2 miles in 1:10:17. I pushed it a little bit, today. It was the first "shorts day" of the year for me and it just felt good to be in the sun...although I really didn't feel all that great.
Larry--it's nice to know I have a brother my own size out there--my other "little brother" is 5'-11".
Steve--I always hate losing that hour, but I agree--it's nice to finish a run with the sun still out. And, yeah, I always loved running Twin Cities. It's kind of big, but I think they do a pretty good job.
Oh, Leslie--I stumbled across a post of yours where you said that you wished you were a better writer. Are you kidding me? While I was reading your blog about your 50K, I felt like I was right there with you. I think all of us have experienced having those songs in our heads, and our hands so cold we can't untie our shoes at the end of a run, and the cool experiances with race volunteers--and you explain it all perfectly. I'm looking forward to reading more.
You're right, Tammy--this place is more interesting. And, besides--I need a place where I can talk about running with people like to run as much as I do.
Okay--that's it from me for the day...maybe tomorrow I'll figure out what "greta" and "carp" mean.
Maniac 505
Hi Mike, welcome.
Steve, sorry work is such a pain, hope things work out soon.
no run for me today, it was pouring and hailing when I woke up this afternoon, paid my bills and finished my taxes. My work week is over, I get the next 7 off YEAH!.
Tammy and others,
for my background. I am no where close to a Nuclear engineer but some of my co-workers are. I had a couple semesters of nuclear power engineering classes. The main difference between Boiling water reactors like the Japan reactors in the news and the steam ships I have worked on is how we make the steam (but there is a BIG difference in how we make the steam.) The control room of my 2500 passenger, 250 car ferry looks very much like the pictures I have seen of the Japan control room (though their control room isn't good for much now since there is no power to it)
RE: ((((Japan's))))) nuclear emergency. I understand the concern and even fear. The invisible and unknown risks are scary. I am sure many of us remember Three mile Island and Chernobyl. as those situations developed, every day we were told things seemed to be in control, but just a little worse then they were yesterday, I don't exactly recall Chernobyl (I was at sea), but TMI went on for a week or two before they finally said things were critical.
This seems to be playing out in much the same way, but some things are different here. I spent 10 minutes on Google and couldn't find a link to a Hanford test. I might spend more time later. I think it was in the late 60's when Hanford did a loss of water test on a boiling water reactor. They put a reactor on a flat bed rail car. ran it up to full power then drained the water from it. the core melted down as expected. the primary containment held the molten Uranium (Thank god), (there was no secondary containment). as I recall, it was a couple weeks before the core cooled and solidified, then they rolled the rail car into a hot room and dissembled it to see the results. there were no surprises.
one concern is that one of the troubled reactors has a fuel mix of uranium and plutonium. Plutonium is really nasty stuff, and that fuel is hotter then what was tested at hanford
RE: the threat to marine life? I am embarrassed to say I hadn't really considered that angle. I hope we don't soon see Bart Simpson's three eyed fish. but I suspect there have been much worse things dumped in the ocean over the years. I spent 3 weeks in Guam many years ago. We spent a few days partying with the crew of a ship that was a submarine tender. (Guam at the time was a US sub base). One of the sailors told us they went to sea 1 week a year to dump "coffee grounds" the inference was they went out to where the ocean was deep and jettisoned spent fuel rods.
I suspect lots of stuff like this is out there. None of it is good, but I am optomistic the dilution has prevented us from killing our planet.
as has been said many times, this is no Chernobyl but it is ugly.
Tammy, You are understandably worried. I am Hopeful. I suspect that when things cool down the final environmental impact will be somewhere between what the two of us invesion
Sigh... too late in the day to catch up on all the posts and too close to bed time to write much.
Welcome to Mike..... this is an interesting bunch.... you'll like it here!
6.2 mile RAW, in the sunshine for a pleasant change. Wasn't sure how the foot would hold up, but with two metatarsal pads, it felt pretty good. Iced when I got home and it's almost feeling back to normal now, which was never perfect, but I think I can probably rule out stress fracture. Don't think I could still do this if anything were broken. Will find out for sure next week, so won't push it.
.....Nancy The road to hell is paved....... run trails!
usandtoto-2@msn.com
Dive,
Re: dumping coffee grounds once a year.. I think it was probably the USS Prodeus if it was the 80's as I was also stationed in Guam for 3 years at that time. Anyway a sub tender does not have the capabilities to open up a reactor to remove spent fuel rods. Fueling/Refueling a reactor or even deactivating a reactor only happens at three shipyards in the US (two for subs and one for carriers). So I would think that thier reference to coffee grounds is they needed to clean out the ships CHT (sewage) tanks. Still not a very nice job.
Yes, I agree that the fuel mix of uranium and plutonium is really nasty stuff. Plutonium is both hotter in the sense of radioactivity and also in temperature of the reaction it creates. Even when the fuel rods are lowered into the control rods, they still produce a large amount of heat for several days. Hence the need for cooling water to be circulated continuously through the reactor. If for any reason the cooling water is allowed to drop below the tops of the fuel rods the heat generated in the reaction can melt the fuel rods and the control rods together (meltdown). A side effect of this is hydrogen gas is produced. This increases the pressure in the vessel and if not relieved can cause the vessel to rupture and/or explode. Worst case. In Japan they lost the primary, secondary and emergency back up cooling systems due to the tsunami waves that hit the plants. I heard they were/are using firetrucks to pump sea water into at least two of the reactors. (this was two days ago now). Not a very good situation over there is an understatement. For us.. 4500 miles is a long way for radioactive material to travel on the winds. Time is also a factor as the materail radioactivity deceases with time.
For those interested - the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki was a Plutonium-239 bomb (Fat Man) and the one dropped on Hiroshima was a uranium bomb (Little Boy) .
Keeping my fingers crosssed for a better outcome. (((((((((((((((((((((((JAPAN))))))))))))))))))
Along with Tet, I too have many friends over in Japan. But, thankfully they are all about 100 miles south of Tokyo and have weathered mother nature ok so far.
Marathon Maniac #530 Mike (My Indian name is "Runs for Beer")
Carolyn
Wow, I've missed a day or two and a lot is going on!
Interesting discussion of the Japanese nuclear problem. Dive and Mike, thanks for your insights! I used to work at a DOE facility that made plutonium bombs but they're quite different from nuclear reactors. During the Three Mile Island disaster, I was in college not too far away in Philly, and I was taking a nuclear engineering class at the time. We spent half the semester discussing the current events - interesting stuff and we got lots of good info from the professor on what was really going on. But he said the final would still cover all the stuff we should have been learning...
Only had time for 3 miles after work so I made them relatively fast - 9:40 ish avg pace. Of course, relatively fast for me is relatively slow for most of the rest of you. I ran along Clear Creek in Golden again - really a lovely trail, and it was warm enough for shorts and short sleeves.
Welcome, Mike! You're younger than me and you have 16 grandkids already??? I have one daughter who is only 17! She'll be turning 18 next week, though. How time flies.
Today is my 29th anniversary! We celebrated with a nice salmon dinner.
Jlynne, I hope baby Leo arrives soon!
Mary, glad your mom is OK.
Timbo, please stick around!
OM, good luck with the surgery.
SteveP, I hope your work situation improves. Can't you use you superpowers to do something?
I hammered down the trail, passing rocks and trees like they were standing still.
Steve - sounds like things are a little tough at your place of employment these days. Hang in there. I also forgot to comment on the great Grandpa/Noah pictures from last weekend. The one of you and the young man in the superman outfit was the best.
I went and asked him, "Don't you think you're a little too old to dress like that?". Tell your DIL to hurry up and get us a little one!!!
Running in Ludington is great TomS. I like the stretch from the city park to the state park.
Yeah Wild Child!! 29 years rocks!!!!
SteveP