Jump to content

Cliff

The Help

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Country

    United States
Send Sticky Note
View Profile Find content

Posts posted by Cliff

    Posted

    Last Saturday I ran up the Mt Washington auto road.  In July I will do a cycling century riding around it, then in August I will ride my bike up the auto road.

    Here are a few details of the run.

    ----------------------------------------------------

    So, admittedly I was getting a little freaked out about the weather.  The week up to the run temps were I the 20s and 30s, several inches of snow, freezing rain and winds averaging 50 mph with gusts in the 90s.  Those are far past the conditions for which they would simply cancel the race.  If it were in the 20s or 30s alone the race would go on.  I was not prepared for those temps.
    The day before the run was beautiful.  The forecast for Saturday was also perfect, I started to relax a little.  Dawn and I went to pick up my number the night before, I also wanted to check the place out.  I’ve driven up Mt Washington many times, but this was my first race of any kind ever.  It was a pretty big deal.  The starting banner was set up the night before.

    20160617_163124.jpg


    I got my number, not sure how I scored such a low number, but I was happy to have an actual race number.

    IMG_2326.JPG.jpg

    The morning of the race I was again concerned about the weather.  Predicted 40s at the top, while not cold, it’s colder than I would run in just shorts and a shirt.  I had on a compression shirt (love that thing) a cycling jersey (for those that run and don’t cycle, these are cool as they have pockets), tights and shorts.  I was also planning on carrying a sweatshirt tied around my waist.  I changed my mind an took off the tights and left the sweatshirt behind.  Once Dawn headed up the mountain, no turning back.  I walked around for almost 2 hours (cars had to head up very early) and started to get a little chilled.  Clearly I need to HTFU.

    IMG_2331.JPG.jpg


    While I was waiting I met George Etzweiler.  Really cool guy, his 11th time running it.  He’s 96!  They are pretty good about giving him a bib with his age.

    20160618_082159.jpg

    Finally the race was about to start.  Again, I’ve never been in anything like this, so it was all really pretty cool to me.  They had us all line up at the banner, the people that were expected to win / place well were in the front.  A few minutes of talking, some words from our sponsor, a singing of the national anthem, sounding of the cannon and off we went.  All 1140 of us.

    20160618_085713.jpg


    The first mile we all stayed together.  Some of the fast people obviously went ahead, but the rest of us lumbered along.  By mile 2 I was happy with my decision to leave the clothes, I was soaked with sweat.  At this point I was still running.  By mile 3 it was a mix of walking running.  I took off the compression shirt and stuffed it in one of my jersey pockets.  It was soaked.  I was trying really hard to drink as much as I could.  My breathing and heartrate were too high to sustain.   This is when the walking started.  It was mostly running until mile 5, then it switched to mostly walking, running when I could.


    I am also doing the bike ride in August, that is going to be a lot harder.  At least with the run I can stop, or walk.  There is no comparable option with the bike, it’s go or stop.  On a hill like that there is no starting again once you’ve stopped.  So the whole run I was saying, this section will be hard, but not too bad.  This section will be really hard and about all that I can manage.  Uh oh, this section is probably harder than I can handle, what will I do?  I had to stop doing that and focus on the run.


    By mile 6 I knew I still had a long way to go, but I was convinced I’d make it.  By mile 7 you could see the top, then you turn a corner and you can see the observatory.  I knew I was close, and I knew I had someone who loved me and was cheering me on waiting.  I am very lucky.
    The end is a brutal 22%.  I was mostly walking at this point but needed to make a good show of it and tried my best to run that hard part.  The crowds cheering you on really helped, but it was more than I could do.  I ran most of the 22% hill, walked for a little, than ran across the finish line.  2 hours 17 minutes.  910 out of 1140, clearly no record, but I wasn’t last.


    Actually the guy in last was pretty special, it was George, he finished!  He’s 96.  His son and grandson started with him, not sure if they finished.

    20160618_122502-1.jpg


    At the top they packed the cars in like sardines, Dawn said it looked like a scene from the Walking Dead.

    IMG_2339.JPG.jpg

    I got my participant trophy.  The blanket was nice, I was pretty overheated and the air was cool.

    IMG_2367.JPG.jpg

    20160619_065314-1.jpg

    Then the best part.  I haven’t had a soda in almost a year.  I love soda.

    IMG_2370.JPG.jpg


    So there it is, the hardest physical event I have done (to date).  Will I do it again?  Possibly.  At lunch with Dawn yesterday I suggested she do it next year.  She didn’t say I was nuts.  She’s thinking about it.  If she decides to do it I will start training this fall for a run that is next summer.  I want to run the whole distance next time.


    As far as winning, I feel like I won.  I have a lot of respect for Mt Washington.  I’m saying Man 1: Mountain 0, but suspect it’s more of a draw at this point.  Next up is the century around it next month, then the ride up it in August.  

    1. In the past 12 months have you seen a doctor for evaluation or treatment for an illness or injury?
    2. . In the past 72 hours have you taken any medications including over the counter medications?
    3. In the past 48 hours have you been to a dentist or do you currently have any incomplete dental work?
    4. In the past 4 weeks, have you been in any of the areas listed on Form #16-04 “Donor Self-Deferral Information Sheet to Reduce the Risk of Transfusion-Transmitted Zika”?

    32 minutes ago, goodchild said:

    I like how your document control system gives generated documents a single day expiration date. I wish ours would do something similar.

    Thanks, it's a homegrown document management system I built for our website.  We decided on Word docs as compared to pdf's.  It's a simple date field that updates to the date opened.

    We are looking at other systems, like Master Control or Title21.  They will embed the date into the pdf each time it's opened.

    I've been through many inspections / surveys / assessments over the years.  I have found all of them to be biased, it's just a degree of how much they are biased.  Also, pretending that "tracers" are being done well is frustrating.  For us, it turns into "go gather lots and lots of records on patients we are tracing and let's go sit in that room and plow through those records".  So often the inspectors do not talk to staff.  That is a shame.  We are a large, complex organization, I would imagine it would take 5 people a week to review all of the Standards for us, but we got 3 people for 1.5 days the last time.

    I think the one that comes the closest to getting it right is FACT.  You must submit a pre-assessment checklist that covers every Standard (and their Standards are free for download and very concisely written).  Then when they come, they review every single Standard - they can do this because you've already submitted your checklist and you're prepared.  There is no bias on picking and choosing what Standards they like or have time to assess.  The one thing I will ding them on is again, not spending time with staff.

    Phew, I feel better.  I am not knocking anyone in this thread, I think the system is very flawed and offers no real value to patients or donors.

    54 minutes ago, amym1586 said:

    It says  List the objective evidence that supports the nonconformances.

    What are they looking for here?

    That should have been provided by the assessor.  They cite a standard, then list the objective evidence they found.

    Are you using their form to submit your response?  The first time I responded (100 years ago) I didn't realize they expected me to use this form.  It's found here.  I also attached it.

    corractplan.doc

    1 hour ago, pinktoptube said:

    Same format. Just curious Cliff, what do you do when  your computers are down? (I'm assuming the procedure are electronic)

    I'm not following about the computer down part, but yes, we do maintain one set of procedures on paper if we have a network downtime, but we also have the SOPs updated locally to several PCs each night.  We can access these PCs even if the network is down.

    Our paper manuals are almost gone, but we have something similar to you.  Each SOP has it's initial approvals documents on the last page, then we have an annual sign off sheet for each SOP.

    We switched to every two years for a brief period, only to learn that our DPH requires every year. :(

    I've been through 7 or 8 now.  My first was terrifying, now I'm OK with it.  Between AABB, TJC, FDA, FACT, DPH and any other acronym you can mention, I've been through a lot of inspections / surveys / assessments. :)

    I do find AABB to be wildly inconsistent.  I suppose that is part of the nature of peer assessors, but until this last assessment, we have always had an AABB employee as the lead.  It really feels like they can't leave unless they find something.  Rarely it's significant, often several small / trivial non-conformances, but never none.  Our TJC and FDA are almost always without citations.  FACT, we might get one small ding (they are ruthless if you've never had one).  We've even had AABB, FDA and TJC in the same year.  TJC = clean, FDA = clean, AABB = 20 non-conformances.

    How did you do on the BB?  I took mine so long ago I suspect I have forgotten most of what I learned. :)

    I didn't take the BB, I took the MT, so I don't have a reference, but I'd suspect the SBB is a lot harder.

    You'll do fine.  Remember, most people do not pass.  If you fail, learn why and pass the next time.

    1 hour ago, blut said:

    Did not sign up for ChemLabTalk newsletter. Only want BloodBankTalk. How do I stop receiving ChemLab Talk? Thanks.

    I checked and you are subscribed to all 5 of the BloodBankTalk newsletters, but not any of the ChemLabTalk ones.  It's possible I sent you one by mistake, my apologies.

    7 minutes ago, Teristella said:

    There should be an unsubscribe link at the bottom of it.

    This is true.  All newsletters are a double opt in, and a 1 click opt out with an unsubscribe link at the bottom.  The host of the site required that to ensure I was not putting people on the email lists without their knowledge.

    I suggest you consider what you are doing with the data logger.  When we validate coolers we set ours to every minute.  Our Rees system that monitors about 100 fridges and freezers is set to every 4 hours.  Clearly a large difference, but both are doing what is needed for the purpose.

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.