more of Sugiton at dawn [jatp]

Argentan half-marathon

Today is the day of the Argentan half-marathon which I will not run this year as I have not yet fully recovered from my Achilles tendinitis. (If running too many days in a row, as I indulged in while in Salzburg, inflammation is back!) Frustrating, as this is my “race of the year” in the Norman countryside. But another break also occurred ten years ago, when I missed the 2009 and 2010 episodes. And somehow this is the “best year” to miss as I am switching to the next age group, V3 or grand-master!, in less than a month, and will thus end up as one of the youngsters in the next race I run! As an indicator, in the 5km trail I ran last Sunday in the Parc, I ended 4th (by one position and 6 seconds!) in my category and 2nd (by three positions and 16 seconds, plus a month!) in the following one.

free fall [fake]

As I was looking for the location of a picture serving as a background image for Windows 10 log-in page, I came across several versions of the above, supposedly showing a climber failing to grab another climber’s hand and as a result falling. Or “falling” as the image is obviously doctored, most likely by removing the ropes securing both climbers. This is fairly ridiculous, from the top climber hanging by his hand to the bottom one carrying quickdraws on his harness, as in the worst climbing movies… Still, I wish the location of the shot was provided on the website. (As an insider joke, I had a fall when running that was definitely not fake during the Xmas vacations, scraping a fair amount of skin on the gritty sidewalk, but with no apparent lasting damage, although I am barred from running by a tendinitis which started in Warwick last month..!)