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Social distancing. That’s the new catch phrase for everyone to follow. COVID-19 did that to us. And don’t forget to wash your hands!

At a time when a worldwide pandemic is threatening our day-to-day lives, it’s important to take the time and reflect on our outdoor experiences. Even get out of the house to do so and pick up a fishing rod to do some exploring. However, it’s important to put some distance away from other people. Use some common sense and give that 6-foot barrier some serious thought. In fact, when it comes to fishing, you can put a lot more distance than that when it comes to finding that secluded fishing spot. Six feet is easy to figure out when you have a fishing rod in your hand.

As the inland waters continue to be stocked around the state in preparation for the inland trout and salmon opener on April 1, think about going back to “old school” type fishing. Keep it as simple as possible and stay completely away from other fishermen. Try and stay away from each other when you are in a boat, too. These certainly are scary times and it’s simply not worth it to take any unnecessary chances.

Stocking around the state is being ramped up to get those fish in the water, a direct impact from COVID-19. The Randolph Fish Hatchery made the announcement last week that staff will be putting as many as double the stocking numbers early on to clear the hatchery out as soon as possible – before mid-April.

It’s important to get out and stretch those legs. Nature has a way of calming our fears. Fishing has a way of distracting us, allowing us to make time stand still, if even for a few hours. We need this time to relieve the stress we are experiencing every day.

The best distraction is the fact that the fishing has been great! Lake Erie perch fishing has taken off, the lower Niagara River trout fishing has been very good, the Great Lakes tributaries have been keeping anglers busy and the piers in Lake Ontario have been on fire. Get out there an enjoy some time outdoors.

One of the hardest hit groupswill be the guides and charter captains. If COVID-19 didn’t scare off clients, it was the fact they had to travel or were laid off from work and they just didn’t have the funds available. Keep that in mind when this all turns around – and it will – and normalcy returns to our day-to-day lives. Support local businesses as best you can.

I’m just getting ready to head out for a fish fry pick-up from a local restaurant to help the cause. I could thaw some walleye, perch or salmon out of my freezer if I wanted to but decided I would try and do more things for the community when I can. I bought groceries from a small market down the road and purchased new tires from a shop in town that was struggling. A little bit can go a long way if everyone chips in.

Just around the corner is another distraction that many have been waiting for – spring turkey season! The Youth Weekend Hunt is set for April 25 and 26, so make your plans now to get those junior hunters out chasing bearded birds. The regular season is May 1-31, giving you plenty of time to fill your tags. At the very least you can get your gear organized, sight in your gun and practice your calling. There are no excuses this year about not having enough time to get ready!

As we all learn to deal with this pandemic, realize that it could be worse. Say a prayer and think about the good times – and make some new ones – as we band together and move forward. And take this all seriously, including social distancing. Here’s hoping everyone is staying safe out there.

Categories: Blog Content, New York – Bill Hilts Jr

Tags: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Social distancing

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A lot can happen when you’re trying to run 26.2 miles as fast as you can, so it’s not always easy to predict how elite marathons will unfold. (That is, unless you’re weighing the chances of a certain invincible Kenyan.) As a rule of thumb, the odds of an upset are higher in races that don’t use pacemakers (i.e. “championship style” events), and higher still when conditions are tough. Case in point: the 2018 Boston Marathon, where freezing rain and brutal winds decimated the professional fields and paved the way for Des Linden and Yuki Kawauchi to secure their first victories in a Marathon Major.

While it’s still too early to forecast what kind of weather we’ll see at the USATF Olympic Team Trials for the marathon, which are taking place in Atlanta on February 29, we already know one aspect of the race that is sure to make things interesting: it’s going to be hilly. According to the elevation chart provided by the Atlanta Track Club, the circuit course will feature 1,389 feet of uphill running and 1,382 feet of downhill. That may sound unimpressive to an ultrarunner like Jim Walmsley (who, rumor has it, was raised by wolves on Silverton Mountain in Colorado) but for a road marathon it is significant. For context, the Boston Marathon, whose second half features the famous Newton Hills, has only 924 feet of total uphill running, according to the Boston Athletic Association.

David Monti, who is the editor and publisher of Race Results Weekly and has covered every U.S. Olympic Trials in the marathon since 1996, says that he expects the tough course to be a “huge factor” at the 2020 Trials and that he anticipates a “very slow” first 5K (i.e. 16:00 for the men and 19:00 for the women). “Strong, mature, and smart athletes, like Jared Ward, Sara Hall, Steph Bruce, will definitely benefit from the course,” Monti notes. “It’s definitely a grinder’s race.”

Ward affirmed that the course was likely to favor “grinders” and “experienced runners,” while adding that he is expecting the race to unfold like a “cross country version of a marathon,” where the race actually feels longer than 26.2 miles.

On the face of it, that would also seem to favor a guy like Walmsley, who last year ran a world record over 50 miles. The colossus of the ultra scene has never raced a normal marathon, and qualified for the Trials by hitting the standard in the half marathon (1:04:00) in Houston last year. (Walmsley raced another half marathon in Phoenix last weekend and clocked 1:02:13, though it turned out that, due to a misplaced cone, the course was approximately 313 yards too short, according to azcentral.com.)

To be clear, the odds of Walmsley finishing in the top three at the Trials and making the U.S. Olympic team are extremely slim—on par, perhaps, with 2016 Olympic triathlon gold medalist Gwen Jorgensen’s stated ambition to eventually also win an Olympic marathon. Indeed, in the seething underbelly of the running community represented by the LetsRun message boards, any speculation that Walmsley might have an outside shot tends to inspire maximum derision. (See: the message board thread from two days ago titled “Walmsley runs a fake 1:02 half, trail trolls lose their minds.”)

For his part, Walmsley doesn’t seem to harbor any illusions about his chances.

“Do I know it’s almost impossible or a moonshot or probably not going to happen? Yeah, absolutely,” he told LetsRun in an interview last May. “But I think with my ultrarunning background, I do bring in a way to approach the marathon a little differently, especially on a course like Atlanta, that maybe I have a little niche if the race plays out [a certain way] that I could compete for a spot. But yeah, dream big, swing big. I don’t think there’s anything to lose there.”

On the women’s side, the undulating terrain in Atlanta only adds to the intrigue of a race that has several legitimate contenders, but no clear favorite. The three women who have the fastest PRs in the field are Jordan Hasay (2:20:57 Chicago, 2017), Amy Cragg, (2:21:42 Tokyo, 2018) and Sara Hall (2:22:16 Berlin, 2019), but those times were achieved on courses with flat profiles. In terms of raw speed on the road, there may be no American woman who can currently compete with Emily Sisson, but Sisson has only run one (flat) marathon (albeit in 2:23:08—London 2019—the second-fastest debut by an American woman) and has yet to show what she can do on a tough course. Given that the topography in Atlanta is going to be more similar to a course like New York City, the race might end up favoring veterans like Linden or Molly Huddle, both of whom have run well in NYC in recent years.

“I agree with Jared on the cross-country feel—the course rolls the whole way,” Huddle says. “It reminds me of the NYC marathon course but without the big bridge hills.”

Speaking of NYC, maybe Atlanta will see the long overdue coronation of Kellyn Taylor, who finished 7th in New York last November (2nd American, behind Linden) in 2:26:52—the fifth-fastest time by an American woman on the course. In recent years, Taylor, who is a 33 year-old mother and competes for the Northern Arizona Elite, has balanced her marathon training with getting certified as a professional firefighter, a profession she plans to pursue once her running career winds down. (At a press conference last fall Taylor assured me that she could do “a lot of pull-ups.”) If, as Monti has prognosticated, the Trials course will favor “strong” runners, Taylor might be another athlete to watch.

Ben Rosario, who coaches Taylor and Bruce, told me in an email that the challenging elevation profile required targeted, “course-specific,” preparation. He added, however, that he didn’t think that the hills in Atlanta would ultimately favor one type of runner.

“The fittest athletes will make the team, given that they are properly prepared,” Rosario says.

Of course, you can be the fittest, most well-prepared athlete and still race poorly—be it by overextending yourself in the early miles, or by underestimating the seriousness of a late-stage move from your competition. That’s why, if we want to see a thrilling competition in Atlanta, we should probably hope that Walmsley and other runners with nothing to lose take a few big risks. Dream big. Swing big.