Just Another Day in Studville...

JMC Ends with "South Side Slaughter"

It's offically a wrap with a full ten days to go in the month.  Challenge organizers were hoping that the two-Highlander vs. one-Scrapper format would produce a nail-biting Mileage Challenge, but it was not to be.

After an unprecedented (and arguably inhumane) 25 to 6.5 beatdown at the hands of Apple Hill, South Side stormed back with four straight wins which gave them 16.5 points; a half-point more than was needed to statistically clinch the JMC.

South Side also did a number on the Highlanders in terms of total mileage; 207 to 170.

And so, the JMC ends with the final score of...

South Side:  16.5

Apple Hill:  4.5

On the bright side, the two teams now have plenty of time to prep for the August Mileage Challenge (AMC) which starts in just ten days.  The AMC's format will pit the same teams against each other, except it will be based simply on total mileage.

The South Side front office will try its best to recruit Shocker back to the team to participate in the AMC, but since August takes place during the summer the hopes are not high.  Nonetheless, buoyed by the JMC results, K-Law has announced that he will participate regardless of what Shocker decides. 

In the meantime, Scrapper Nation is celebrating wholeheartedly on the south side of town, relieved that they will not be subject to any of the "now, slide to the left..." nonsense. 

At least, not for now.

Insurmountable?

Well, K-Law has returned from a mileage-silence-induced trip to internet-free Maine (similar to Coach's trip last summer) and has logged his miles for the past week, finally making it possible to tally up the current score for the JMC. 

And the result is not a pleasant one if you hail from Apple Hill.

Day #8: Apple Hill wins, 16.3 to 9.

Day #9: South Side wins, 13.8 to 0.

Day #10:  A friggin' tie!  Double goose eggs!

Day #11:  South Side wins, 10.3 to 0.

Day #12:  South Side wins, 11.5 to 7.7.

Day #13:  South Side wins, 12.4 to 9.2.

Day #14:  South Side wins, 11.3 to 0.

Day #15:  Apple Hill wins, 15 to 12.1.

Day #16:  South Side wins 9 to 6.

Day #17:  Apple Hill wins convincingly, 25 to 6.5!

Day #18:  South Side wins a tight one, 6 to 4.5.

And so the dust settles on a current score of...

South Side:  13.5

Apple Hill:  4.5

That means the magic number for the Scrappers is just 2.5, while the Highlanders still need to rack up 11.5.  Somehow.

The Highlanders are certainly known for their legendary come-from-behind wins, but this would require a downright supernatural come-from-behind effort.

And somewhere in the Glastonbury Highlands, a bagpiper preps his pipes for the Scottish death knell...

Scrappers and Scouts Combine for a Streak...

The Highlanders have caught a spell of bad luck the past few days as Coach has been stuck out in the woods with a troop of Boy Scouts who are apparently testing out their knot-tying skills on Coach's ankles as he has managed just 6 miles in the past 3 days. 

This has left Shortcut to battle K-Law more-or-less on his own, which has proven to be a problematic match-up for Apple Hill as South Side won a super-narrow one on Day #5 (12.3 to 12), again on Day #6 (10 to 5.5) and yet again on Day #7 (10 to zero!).  Throw in a Scrapper win for Day #4 and you've got a 4-day winning streak for South Side...

South Side: 6

Apple Hill: 1

There's now a sense of unease stirring among the Apple Hill faithful as they were expecting a much tighter battle than this for the first week.  And the fact that K-Law is prepping for a presumably mileage-stuffed week while camping in southern Maine next week (no Boy Scouts involved) is certainly not easing Highlander nerves.

But famous Apple Hill archivist, Seamus Macleod, points out that the Highlanders have a history of starting off painfully slow and then surging near the middle and end of the month, which usually results in a (very) narrow win.

So the Apple Hill fans are left to helplessly wait for that "Highlander surge".

And the statisticians are left scratching their heads, trying to figure out how South Side can possibly be MORE competitive WITHOUT Shocker!

The Scrappers' "magic number" stands at 10...

South Side Enjoys Surprising Early Lead

K-Law, anticipating a serious drubbing over the weekend from Coach (in heavy training for his 24-race at month's end) with Shortcut chipping in, cranked out a pair of 12+ mile runs for the first two days of the Challenge, winning both Day #1 (12.1 to 6) and Day #2 (12.4 to 8) with ease. 

Annoyed by South Side's early lead, the mighty Highlanders dished out a pounding of the first order on Day #3 combining for a show-stopping 37.5 miles while K-Law could "only" muster 13. 

Although the Apple Hill fans thoroughly enjoyed watching South Side getting squashed, analysts pointed out that the Highlanders are clearly not coordinating their resource expenditure.  While Coach let loose a near-epic 32.5-mile run, certainly well beyond whatever K-Law could run, Shortcut inexplicably threw in an unneccesary 5 miles. 

The lack of coordination was also evident on Day #4 when the Highlanders followed up their 37.5-mile day with a big goose egg, which was unfortunate given that K-Law cruised through an 8.6 Mesh run with Shocker as he anticipated a dizzying two-day mega-mileage delivery from Coach, similar to what he unleashed last weekend.  Luckily for the Scrappers, the "two" half of the one-two punch was never delivered.

So...after the opening 4 days of the July Mileage Challenge:

South Side: 3

Apple Hill:  1

A rather promising start for the Scrappers, but there's still a long journey to magic-number 16!

Last-Minute "Highland Storm" Wins Week #4!

In a coordinated move that harkened back to last summer's intense mileage wars, Shortcut and Romance reportedly met at the track late yesterday to execute one final effort to put them past the Scrappers at the very end of the week. 

In fact, to add an exclamation point to their Week #4 victory, the Highlanders combined for over 16 miles yesterday (plus .2 miles of jigging) when only 11.9 was needed.

Reports from Apple Hill indicate that jigging, bagpipe-playing and public drunkeness continued well into the night and early morning, prompting the Glastonbury Police Department to put in a little overtime.  Meanwhile, a rather large group of Scrapper fans converged on South Side Tavern to (once again) burn Shocker in effigy.  The Portland Police Department was called in to address that gathering since the GPD was tied up on the other side of town. 

And so the final points were K-law with 3, Romance and Shortcut with 2 each and Shocker with zilch (which was perfectly fine with him).  In the tie-breaking tally of total miles for the month, Romance blew away his fellow Highlander for 2nd place.

Congratulations to all the competitors (including the "non-competitor) for a well-run month, and best of luck with the Highlanders vs. Scrapper face-off in July!

July Mileage Challenge Details Released!

Emboldened by what appears to be a South Side win over the Highlanders in the final week of the June Mileage Challenge, the Scrappers are ready to square off against their arch-enemies once again, this time for a full month-long mileage challenge. 

Or should we say "a Scrapper"...

Despite lucrative signing bonus offers and outright begging, Shocker is officially not interested in participating in a mileage challenge this summer.  So K-Law will go it alone in a two-on-one matchup against the Highlanders in July.

We'll be reverting back to an older format: whichever team logs the most mileage on any given day earns a point.  With the 31 days in the month, the first team to earn 16 points clinches it. 

They're probably already jigging up on Apple Hill since they've got a team that's now twice the size of South Side.  But keep in mind that K-Law will have one "bachelor week" this month where he's home on his own, which creates plenty of two-for opportunites.  He's also camping in Maine for a week where he won't need to cut any runs short to get to the office in the morning. 

Of course, the Highlanders are expected to win in spades on July 30th.  But will it matter?  Could the whole thing be over by then?

I guess there's no rest for the weary.  The July Mileage Challenge (JMC) starts at 12:01am.  It's gonna be a long, hot month!

Too Close to Call

We're just about at the end of an extended Week #4 and it's a (relatively) close one. 

These are the numbers as of right now, and we've confirmed that K-Law is definitely done for the day, but we're not so sure about the other three competitors...

South Side: 117.1 miles

Highlanders: 105.3 miles

So, the boys from Apple Hill are going down at the hands of South Side (despite Romance's downright heroic efforts) unless they can dig deep and come up with at least 11.8 miles by midnight.  That's assuming the enigmatic (and presumably uninterested) Shocker decides not to do a lunchtime run.

By the way, the individual finishing order for the month has already been decided, regardless of what happens for the rest of the day:

1st: K-Law

2nd: Romance

3rd: Shortcut

4th: Shocker 

However, as to which team wins the latest round of the historic feud between the Scrappers and the Highlanders?  Well, we shall see... 

We've Got a Race On Our Hands!

With an unprecedented one-two punch that has sent Highlander fans into a jigging frenzy (see left), Romance single-handedly dragged Apple Hill right back into the competition for Week #4 with a 21-mile run on Saturday, followed up with a friggin' 28-mile run on Sunday which was, by far, the biggest one-day individual total of the month.  Perhaps the year?!

Meanwhile, Shortcut and Shocker cancelled each other out on a joint Sunday run while K-Law's weekend mileage was badly hampered by competing in the Firecracker 5K.  And when the dust settled...

South Side: 94.6 miles

Apple Hill: 91.4 miles

So, just a 5K plus a hair separates these two arch rival teams with only 2 training days left in the month!

A South Side Beat-Down

It appears that another nail-biting, tight mileage contest between the Scrappers and the Highlanders is not in the cards for Week #4 as South Side has opened up a damn-near unsurmountable lead of 31.7 miles on Apple Hill (59.6 to 27.9). 

So if the Scrappers hold the lead for the next 5 days (Week #4 is the longest of the Challenge weeks by two days) then we'll end up with a three-way tie for 2nd place with Romance, Shortcut and Shocker each owning one point.

The tiebreaker is the total individual miles for the month.  Shocker's essentially out of the running with 84.4 miles.  And Romance has a robust 17-mile lead on Shortcut (114.6 to 97.6).  So it will take a "mileage miracle" for Shortcut to overtake Romance in the next five days. 

Scrappers Lovin' Their Early Lead

Shocker and K-Law may be duking it out in an epic, trash-talk-filled online chess game, but when it comes to the MCSD the South Side Scrappers are combining for an early rout of their arch-enemies, the mighty Highlanders of Apple Hill. 

I'm sure the Hillbillies are dying to bust out their world-famous "Highlander Jig", but it appears they may have to wait a while...

As of press time:

South Side: 28.9 miles

Highlanders: 12 miles 

If Apple Hill doesn't close the gap, and close it fast, Shocker will be on his way to his first point of the Challenge, producing a 3-way tie for 2nd place.

In the individual mileage department and the tie-breaking race for 2nd, Romance enjoys a hefty 15.1-mile lead on Shortcut.  That's a big gap to close in just 5 days...