Pi Day Preview Run

Dec. 4, 2010 by Gary "Story Hawk" Henry

Our upcoming Pi Day River Rotation Trail Run is going to be a huge success, if this morning's Pi Day Preview Run is any indicator. What a fun run!

Despite temps in the low 30s and blustery wind from the North, under sullen cloudy skies, nearly 20 Hawks and friends of Hawks showed up to see what Race Director Laurie "Pixie Hawk" Euler has in mind for her math-minded March half-marathon, set for the first Saturday following Pi Day. Pi Day is March 14 -- the race is set for March 19.

The Greek letter Pi is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14th. Pi = 3.1415926535…

With computers, Pi has been calculated to over 1 trillion digits past the decimal. Pi is an irrational and transcendental number meaning it will continue infinitely without repeating. The symbol for pi was first used in 1706 by William Jones, but was popular after it was adopted by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1737.

That's from www.piday.org, and may be more than you wanted to know about Pi Day. Pixie Hawk, a Math enthusiast and hundred-miler, holds Pi Day dear, though modestly never boasts about how she shares the same last name with Pi adopter Leonhard Euler.

Anyway, our run was terrific. Not everyone made the full 13, but most did. And two Hawks, Karen "Sassy Hawk" Collier and Jacob "Pony Hawk" Kaplan-Moss joined us for the last three miles.

We managed to get Ashley Toft christened with her Hawk name -- Cake Hawk. Alas, I had my first failure to name on this run. I suggested "Candy Hawk" for Ashley's Auntie, Kristen Toft Harms, but several other Hawks voted the name down in favor of "Candy Pants Hawk," which I'm not too sure about.

Also had a camera failure while taking the group pic. The shot came out blurry, and went I went to try again, I got an "exhausted" battery" prompt. I need a new camera anyway, since the latch that holds the battery and card in is broken. I have to secure it with duct tape and a finger.

Other than that, though, had a great run. Got to spend a little time with Kristie "Black Mamba Hawk" Mayo, who we see too rarely, probably because she lives far away on planet Kearney, Missouri. Also Coleen "Lil Big Hawk" Voeks, who we learned got into Western States today. Woohoo!

Two other Hawks who will be WS bound in June are Brad "Pastor Hawk" Bishop and Danny "Study Hawk" Miller. Congrats! Now it's up to you to bring home the buckles!

Also ran with Julie "PAL Hawk" Toft and Lloyd, brother of Debbie "Wheat Hawk" Webster. Lots of laughing and joking around, highlighted by Lloyd's Star Wars impressions of R2D2, C3PO and Darth Vader.

Trails were fast and breezy. Big fun running in a tight conga line for mile after mile. Felt like I was part of a big trail-running creature.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went to breakfast at the Mirth Cafe in downtown Lawrence, ostensibly to plan for the Pi Day race, but it turned into the usual riot of jokes and laughter that occurs whenever Hawks get together. Did manage to talk about food for the race -- Pony Hawk, a baking enthusiast, is planning to make a dozen or so pies for the event. We're looking at engraved pie servers for place awards.

We were also graced by the presence of Felix "Little Hawk" Smith, coming up on a year old, I think. His Mom, Liz "Spider Hawk" Smith did 10 of 13 with us this morning.

We also got to see Nate Henning, coming up on 3, I think, son of Sarah "Scoop Hawk" and Justin "GNT Hawk" Henning.

Sure was a great way to start the weekend.

gary

• ← Older
• Newer →