New Concepts: Dakota Jones’ Road to Cavalls del Vent
September 26, 2012 by Dakota Jones · 54 Comments
I spent most of August doing two things, preparing for my trip to Europe and explaining to people the races I intended to run while there. The conversations began to follow a formula:
“Oh! You’re going to be in Europe for two months? Are you going to run UTMB again?”
“No. I’ve got one race at the end of September and another a month later.”
“How long are they?”
“The first is eighty-four kilometers and the second is about seventy-two.”
“What is that in American? Like, forty something….“
“It’s roughly 50 miles.”
“What are they called?”
“The first is called Cavalls del Vent and the second La Course des Templiers.”
“…..oh. Hey look, there’s our mutual friend!” grateful for a distraction. “Hey mutual friend!”
Mutual friend walks over.
“Hello good-looking and tan young friends of mine. What fascinating conversation were you engaging in?”
“Well,” says the first friend, “Dakota was just telling me about the races he’s going to do in Europe, Cabalstabet and some French thing.”
Mutual friend turns with interest to me.
“Oh you’re going over to Europe to race? Very cool! Are you running UTMB?”
“No, I’m doing two shorter ones instead.”
“Oh, how long are the races?”
“Roughly eighty kilometers.”
“Eighty kilometers? Let’s see, that’s… That’s a long way, probably.”
“Indeed.”
“Where are they?”
“Well, the first is in the north of Spain and the second is in the south of France.”
Mutual friend’s eyes take on a glazed look. “Wow, that sounds so beautiful. Hey, have you met Co-worker Bob? He runs some trail races! Hey Bob, Dakota is going to be racing in Europe this fall.”
Co-worker Bob comes over smiling. “Oh yeah? Are you running UTMB?”
Grinding my teeth, “No. The first race is called Cavalls del Vent and the second is called La Course des Templiers.”
Bob’s eyes narrow. “Huh. I’ve never heard of them. How long are they?”
“About eighty… Let’s just go with fifty miles.”
“What are they called again?”
And it was at this point that I would usually take the nearest chair and ask them to beat me over the head with it and just get the job done quicker. I learned several things from these encounters. 1) Americans have no conception of what a kilometer is; 2) Americans have enough trouble with English, and anything beyond that is asking far too much; and 3) Nobody in America has heard of any European race besides UTMB. To make this point clearer, and since I’d be surprised if anyone is still reading by this point anyway, I’ll make it visual.
Then again, once I got to Europe I encountered a whole host of new problems, primarily due to the fact that I am in no way exempt from the American label in the graph above.
But why dwell on that which is frustrating? Better to focus on the future, instead. My future looks like this: 
That’s the course profile for the race I’m going to run this Saturday. For anyone reading this who may be unfamiliar with the metric system, those numbers on the left are called “meters” and you can roughly multiply them by three to get an idea of what the vertical is in feet. Or, I can tell you: according to Google, 6,000 meters equals 19,685.04 feet. And while we’re at it, I’ll add that 84 kilometers equals 52.195 miles. Here is a rough outline of my enthusiasm for this race since deciding to run it:
As you can see, my levels of psyche and utter terror stayed at a consistent 90% and 2%, respectively, from May through June. But starting in August comprehension began to dawn and by about the beginning of September (what we’re calling here the “Reality Benchmark”) two things happened: utter terror began to skyrocket while psyche started to waver.
The significant volatility of psyche combined with the steady rise in utter terror has had more than a few investors ridding themselves of stock and running instead to the much less risky Anna Frost (FRST). Then again, while Dakota (PREZ) is by no means a blue-chip, I’ve been yielding dividends of nearly 8% since April, and just released my latest training as well. Here’s a summary:
The secret to success, my friends. You know, it’s not easy living the running-and-travel lifestyle in Europe but, well, somebody has to do it.
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- Dakota Jones Post-2011 Hardrock 100 Interview An interview with Dakota Jones after his second place finish at the 2011 Hardrock 100....
- Dakota Jones 2011 TNF 50 Mile Post-Race Interview Video interview with Dakota Jones following his second place finish at the 2011 The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile Championships....
Filed under Dakota Jones' Column ·
Dakota Jones runs for the Montrail Trail Running Team while exploring the wild places of the world. He publishes the blog Living the Dream.
All posts by Dakota Jones
Too much time invested in mtn climbing, should put that in the women ;-)
Allez allez, go for it at Cavalls !
Bonne course !
hahaha! I’ll be in ‘cabalsdeblen’ to cheer up and support! You’re a very interesting individual. If I ever talked to you I’d be able to help thinking what must he be thinking right now out of this conversation…?? ;))
Good luck on saturday!!
I am dead set on shorting PREZ unless the women category goes up drastically before the race Dakota.
Well, if this running thing (how long again?) doesn’t work out, you’ve got the charting and writing thing covered. I hear Wall Street calling your name…
You seem to be one angry lettle guy,Dakota. Lol.
you always make me laugh with your witty posts… it made my morning!
Best of luck with UTMB!
I wanted to say something witty but decided that your post could not be beaten lol
+1 Like (PS. Like is an Imperial unit, suitable for American understanding.)
That’s so funny. Why didn’t I think of that.
I can barely keep the American races straight, what with all the new startups the last few years.
and now I’m supposed to learn Spanish and French !!?
sometimes English feels like a second language.
I was long on MIKE & CDV about 3 months go myself, but arriving here in Baga last night and touring the mountains today, I believe I am going to short MIKE and buy more CDV. Given the mounatins and the rain here… *shudder*
O great Dakota… We in America are not worthy. All Bow down!!!!
Ha! Marvelous article! I like how you put in the true subtle perceptions of our view on the Eurpoean racing scene. Genius! But one thing I have to humbly disagree with…Id ride my chips for (PREZ) stock anyday! Its a win win everytime! :D The (KJOR) AND (TONK) stock seems to be on the rise as well. Ha! My best to you at both races Dakota, buena suerte amigo!
Fernando Najera Baeza
San Antonio, TX.
Always good for a laugh.
Ride that horse, Dakota. Ride that horse.
If my American conversion rates are correct, it seems your training consists of somewhere around 8 miles of women per week.
Thanks Dakota for your great writing, both on your blog and here. It’s great to see young people possessing such a combination of cultural sophistication and athletic skill – for most of us, it’s hard enough to gain any understanding in even one of those areas with the years. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to visit the region where Cavalls is held, and even do some running there. It’s absolutely beautiful, no doubt it will be a great race in every way. Good luck & have fun!
At least we’re kickin @ss in car size.
This fits perfectly…
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/senior_year
Go get em Prez!
Based on the utter-terror trend carrying it well above 100%, I would expect PREZ to split before the end of the quarter, although as other analysts have noted, an increase in women may stabilize the outlook.
Good luck Dakota!
Good luck Dakota! Have fun!
I love it. This article is hilarious. People at work always ask me the same thing, “how long is the marathon you are running this weekend?” I don’t say anything anymore.
Then there are the people who will tell you they used to know someone who ran “marathons” all the time and died of a heart attack, so maybe running is not so good for you after all.
Buena suerte en UTMB Dakota!
:)
But, I was told 35 years ago that we will be switching to the metric system “anyday” now. haha
The course profile looks awesome, best of luck. Luckily rock climbing and running have familiarized me with the metric system. And thanks for the formal lesson in Dakota-nomics! Now if only I could figure out how many stones I weigh.
FYI 14lb (pounds weight) to one stone
I would like to see what the columns in the training log look like after the race;-) Go get em’ Young Money!
Dakota, so what grade do some of those technical climbs get? 7c, 6b+? Oh wait, Americans can’t convert European climbing grades to our much more micro-contrived Yosemite decimal system, created to stroke our own egos. Go ‘Merica!
Brilliant!
Thanks for that, it’s one of the funniest things I’ve read in years…
As a British ultrarunner I just have the one questions – do you Americans have any other races than Western States ;-)
Great sense of humor. Love it!
And it’s all SOOOOO true… ;-)
Keep up the good work!
Enjoy Cavalls!
Jörg
Hilarious :)
This made my day.
DAKOTA FOR PRESIDENT !! CIAO MARINO
Laughing to the point of tears.
so where’s the ‘Like’ button?
In Portugal we also have some races with peculiar names, such as the “Oh meu Deus”, which means “Oh my god” – it´s an 100km race with 4200m +. Do the math!
Along w more cowbell we need more charts- they are too funny! Good luck on your race. Your utter terror:) will serve u well!
Great graphics…loved the article…pleasure to have met you in Leadville this August…best wishes in your race this weekend!
Interesting that while Americans don’t (regularly) use metres when measuring distances they still feel the need to spell it incorrectly.
Good luck for the races!
Metres is one of the stupidest spellings in English!(funny how the IRUNFAR spell check highlights the correct spelling as wrong).
I’m certainly overweight FRST for this one.
Please go on about why the spelling is stupid. The unit of measurement originates from France (I believe), hence the ‘re’. America, fuck yeah?
Yikes, can an admin please modify my language (not the metres though!), please?
How’ you like it modified? Also, how would you like your comment attributed? We’re a community and we greatly appreciate one taking ownership of his or her comments.
Thanks,
Bryon
Swearing to be removed, if you wouldn’t mind. Anon can be changed to Stephen Johnston. The tone of previous posts were intended to be coming across as cheeky, rather than dick-ish, btw.
Bạn có làm toán để xem những gì 4 lít khí sẽ tương đương với 1 gallon xăng. Một số toán học kỹ năng cần thiết :-)
You are just too funny Dakota, I am glad you are enjoying Europe. Maybe 2013 UTMB :-))))
Great article, very funny too, made me chuckle on my tea-break :-)
Great article. Good luck for UTMB ;o)
oh, man…that’s the funniest post i’ve read via this site yet! keep em coming, the people around me are amused by all the ‘lol’ing :)
haha that was so funny, thanks! Good luck! ahhhhm…where are you going again?
Please put together a task force to leverage synergies to help drive improvements in the “Women” KPI.
Good luck at le UTMB, buddy!
I’m sitting here laughing out loud at the graphs. Well done Dakota!
Well done !!! So funny
Excellent !!! congratulation for the post. And the run ? was good ?
laurent