the Way of the Turtle

LEATHERMAN'S LOOP
A Preview of Sorts...
Saturday, April 26, 2008

I first ran the Leatherman's Loop in 1999, after hearing about it from a running friend who told me about this crazy trail race in Westchester where the runners went through mud and streams and looked like absolute hell when they finished. Naturally, I had a blast, but didn't manage to get back to it until 2005, when I resumed running and riding in earnest. (In fact, in many ways it was the Leatherman's Loop that got me started running on a regular basis again... during a break from school I visited the race website and while looking at the pictures found myself thinking of how much fun it would be to run it again... and it all just kind of took off from there. This blog might not even exist of it wasn't for the Leatherman's Loop, since I originally started it as an easy way to post race reports and pictures after my first season back.)

One of the cool things about the availabilty of technology is that just about anyone with a camera and a little know-how can make a video these days and then post it on-line for all the world to see. As it happens, Rob Cummings, one of the runners in the 2005 race, took a camera along and shot many short segments of the race; they can be found here. Needless to say I thoroughly enjoy watching them, especially segment 19 which features an appearance by a certain running Turtle... I'm briefly visible in segment 20 too, but you really have to know what to look for, because the picture gets very shaky as Rob makes his way through a flooded section of trail.

At some point in the last year, Rob took a few of his video clips and assembled a Leatherman's Loop 2005 video, complete with a nifty soundtrack. It's available via the race site and also on YouTube.



Having watched it a few times, I'm now wondering if I'm going to find myself hearing "Take Me to the River" in my head, at least as I run the start of the race tomorrow...

JMH