email from Turkey #3

Sorry for the delay. The internet was scarce in the places I've been
recently. I'm home now, and I just slept for 10 hours. Much better.

The race went well, I thought. Results are here:
http://www.wmrt2006.org/ (they have fixed the senior men's link). I
finished 122 out of 147 I think, so beating 25 people is better than
the 6 or so I beat last year. As a team we did well, I think,
considering our inexperience, and considering our most experienced guy
had a horrible race. Jason Loutitt finished 110th and he only went
past me at about 8k. He was 38th in Italy, I believe. Stefan Jacobson
had the best race, beating that American, Paul Low, and finishing
60th. Morgan was 93rd, Simon was 120th. We were 21st as a team, out of
26. I think though, that everyone is keen to continue as mountain
runners, and that will show in the next two to three years. For Morgan
and Stefan to do as well as they did with almost no uphill experience
is really great. If Jason can get himself back on track, he will be
an asset to the team, and I think Simon's prowess lies more in the
up-and-down. Anyway, since I'm in charge now (insert wicked
world-domination-type laughter) we are going to start moving up the
charts. If the 2009 up-down championships are held in Vail Colorado,
as expected, I think that would be a good year for Canada to break
through with a podium finish. If the American women managed to do it
(and their senior men got third) then so can we, because we have about
the same topography.

The women did reasonably well, finishing 14th out of 19. Katrina
Driver was 56th, Amy Golumbia 61st, Shannon Elmer 73rd and Michelle
Cormier 76th. Not a great day for our most experienced runners
(Michelle and Jason), but for reasons I won't get into. They will be
back, there is no question.

The best result was Shaun Stephens-Whale, who was 41st in the Junior
men's race. He was actually further up for a while, but he suffered a
cramp. It is not a good course to go out too hard on, but I think in
Shaun's case it had more to do with the food this week, as he has
alergies and the turkish delights, so to speak, weren't agreeing with
him. He is only going to get better, though.

The reason I say it was the endofanera is that because Jonathon
Wyatt of New Zealand lost the uphill race for the first time in 6
tries, I think, to Rolando Ortiz, a Colombian. Jono was attacked by
wild dogs on Friday, but he refused to use it as an excuse. It came
down to a great kick, apparently. Also, the Eritrean team beat Italy
in the senior men's race, the only team ever to do so. The streaks are
over. Ana Pitchrova was 7th in the senior women's race, and her Czech
team lost by two points to the Americans.

It was a great and exciting year for mountain running. We had 36
countries participating, and medalists from all five continents.
Mountain and trail running is the fastest growing sport in the world
right now, with more than 40million adherants (or addicts, if you
prefer). Danny Hughes, our president, was relentless in all his
speeches, pushing Otto Klappert of the IAAF to make the trophy race a
true IAAF championship. Otto is very supportive, but of course, in the
end it comes down to money. Still, the sport is growing.

The trip was great, though I got kind of sick at the end, probably
from running uphill all-out for 12k or something like that. I'll have
to go to the doctor to make sure it's not something worse than a sore
throat.

I spent Monday night in Paris, and took some cool photos. I'll post
lots of photos here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/47977673@N00/ in the
next few days. I think I took over 200!

Finally, I was really sad, shocked, I don't know what to say, really,
to hear about Emilie Mondor's passing on the weekend. I was on the
plane back from Paris and I saw someone reading La Presse, and I saw
that her photo was on the front page. I thought maybe she had run on
the weekend in the Montreal half or something like that. I asked the
flight attendant for a copy, and when I got it, it took me about three
reads to figure it out. It's pretty hard to believe. I suppose there
is no good way to find out that someone you know has died, but let me
tell you, being on a plane with a bunch of strangers is not ideal. I
was just looking around, wondering if any of these people knew her.
I'm sure some of them knew of her. When I got back to the office at
Concordia, I mentioned it to Sheila, and she had heard, so I was glad
at least that her life was being celebrated. It's just really sad. For
those of you who don't know, Emilie is one of Canada's best distance
runners.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1157925009905&call_pageid=969907740050&col=970081602428

She was going to do the New York marathon, and I had emailed her about
it in the summer. I think we were both shooting for the same time
(2:30--me at Toronto) and I was hoping to better her time. I wrote to
her about the kind of shape I was in, thinking I might be able to run
around 15:30 for a 5k. She said "good to know that now the men in
quebec start running in the 15:30 and under. should be that way."
Indeed it should.

So, the endofanera in another, sad, way, too.

I'm home now. I hope to see you all soon.

John

Photo update

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47977673@N00/

email from Turkey #2

On 9/8/06, John Lofranco wrote:
> Ok, so we made it to an internet cafe in Bursa. The food is good. It's
> like at Banff--buffet styles. I ran part of the course yesterday and
> part today. It looks good. Nothing as steep as Sulphur mountain at
> all. Th efirst 4k is a long grind on a drit road that is quite
> reminiscent of the dusty dirt roads you see in newsreels (yes, Joe,
> newsreels, just like my hired car) of middle east bombings. There have
> been no bombs though. The second part is rocky trail covered in
> leaves--it kind of alternates between flat and up, and then moves into
> a forest trail. I saw an old man walking up with a bag in his hand and
> I thought, oh, how nice, an old Turkish man going up the mountain to
> pick berries. Then, when I was walking back down, looking for Shaun
> (the lost junior--I found him) I saw the old man from the front. He
> was wearing a Nike cap and had an ipod on.
>
> The gondola rides are steep. The air is very dry. Everyone is in good
> spirits, except Ceri and Stefan who have yet to arrive. Apparently
> they are lost in Istanbul. Hopefully they'll arrive soon!
>
> What else to say? Thanks for the messages. I am going to try to read
> them now. I probably won't respond though. I hope things are going
> well with the team. I'll be back soon. Probably one more email, maybe
> from Paris, after the race.
>
> Talk to you all soon!
>
> John

email from Turkey #1

> On 9/6/06, John Lofranco wrote:
> > Hey Canada,
> >
> > So, by virtue of the tried and true Debardi method (thanks buddy!), my
> > flight to Paris was spent luxuriating in the extra-wide seats formerly
> > known as first class. Wow, it really makes a difference. And the hot
> > towels...great stuff. I actually slept 4-5 hours. Air France flight to
> > Istanbul was boring. I slept. The food was crappy.
> >
> > Once at the airport, I hired a car to take me to the Crown Plaza to
> > meet Jason, Michelle and Amy. All the Turkish car guys were much
> > impressed with out choice of hotel: "oh, Crown Plaza, is expensive,
> > yes." It is indeed a fine establishment. On the way here, my driver
> > rear-ended a lady and her daughter, causing their car to rear-end
> > another van. Much Turkish swearing ensued. Istanbul is apparently the
> > car crash capital of the world. How appropriate.
> >
> > So I recovered from that with a nice little hot tub session with Jason
> > and Amy, and then the four of us went out to dinner. What a dinner. It
> > was a little pricey, but our meals our paid for for the next few days,
> > so it was good to sit and eat. And eat. I ate two steaks--that was
> > after the cold mezzah (kind of like greek pikilias, a sample plate of
> > salads) and hot mezzah (a shrimp thing and a meat roll). Michelle ate
> > a fish. Like you know when you get a fish on your plate and it still
> > has eyes? Yeah, that kind of fish. Then the dessert was milk pudding
> > with ice cream.
> >
> > Don't worry, I won't be too heavy to get up the mountain. ;)
> >
> > We're getting the shuttle to Bursa in the morning. I suppose there
> > will be more in a few days.
> >
> > Have fun! Play safe.
> >
> > John
> >

Last entry from Banff

I picked up my team uniform for Turkey this week. I'm starting to take it easy now, with a day off yesterday, and just a short run today. I'll probably run hard up Mount Royal on Sunday, and then do a 3k time trial on Tuesday.



That's my buddy, Martin. He's a...pine martin. They are like pole-cats or weasels, but obviously much friendlier. He hangs out on my balcony and in the trees behind the studio.

I've written more in the last two weeks than I thought I would, and I managed to prepare a few classes, and work on some stuff for the xc season, too. I also got to be in a play, which was quite the success. A group in the science-communications workshop needed actors for their final presentation. They presented work on HIV and AIDS, in a multi-media gallery presentation. Sameena Darr and I played a couple going to the show. We were imbedded in the audience, and when we started our lines, the other gallery patrons were not meant to know that we were actors. It was pretty cool because a lot of people thought we were having a domestic dispute. My character (John) is a bit ignorant of HIV and AIDS, so he spouts wrong-headed clichés, while Sameena's character (Mary--yes, original names, I know. The science people wrote it.) gets mad at him. In the end, she reveals that she brought him there to tell him that she is HIV positive. John's reaction is not positive. It was tough--especially since I haven't acted in 14 years--but I think we got it just right when it counted. Having a beer bottle to walk around with kind of helped me feel like an asshole. I don't know why, just holding it in my hand made me feel more agressive and arrogant, which was just right for the character.

I've met some interesting artists of all sorts--a really old lady from New York City who is still hanging on to her sexual-anti-church painting, despite way too much plastic surgery; an Irish conceptual artist who is exploring event horizons; a photographer from New England, living in Miami, with a show in Toronto; and a musician/poet from Montreal. It's been cool.

Here's the last poem I wrote, part of a series with titles from the Phonetic Alphabet (hence the title):

Zulu

It’s hard to find the heart of darkness on sand
dusted plains—it’s really more of a jungle thing.
There’s something about the grit that sticks
to the hair on your forearm that keeps things
superficial, and with so much squinting
into the sun, you can never really see inside.
That itinerant, exiled existence is not much
different from riding the express bus
to work, wondering at the hearts
of the other passengers: which are broken,
which are soaring? But there’s too much heat,
and the fumes ride up into your eyes
like grey tears scurrying home at dusk,
so there’s no time to give a thought to your own.