Something Bothers Me, and It's Not My Running

"The world belongs to the energetic" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

You know, I love America, but a couple of things about it bother me. No, I'm not going to be so foolish as to go down the political highway...that is social suicide. But, actually, THAT is one of the things that make the USA great. I may think your ideas are way the heck off base, but it is ingrained in us that we have the right to say what we believe (no matter how off the wall they are!!).

What bothers me is this country, in a very short period of time, is getting dumber and fatter and the fact that the dumber and fatter majority seem to be making the decisions so that we never will climb out of this hole. We used to be the leaders of the world in science and math and education. We used to value fitness and activity. Now it seems like these values have circled the drain and I'm not sure we can get it back. This is supposedly a running blog, so I'm not sure how far I can dive into this education part of the sinkhole, but when kids are graduating from High School and can't read at a seventh grade level, doesn't that raise a red flag somewhere with people that can change it? Some kids are not even taught to write cursive anymore! Not a BIG thing, but a THING. They can text a million "words" a minute, but their phoneticized abbreviations spill over into their ability to communicate when needed properly - like a job application. And things are getting worse. Here in Birmingham (Alabama), our school board would be the funniest show since I LOVE LUCY and THE HONEYMOONERS if it wasn't so utterly sad. Where do we dig these folks up from? But, it's not just here in Alabama, though here, education seems to take a huge backseat in funding to sports, and if it wasn't for football, I think many folks wouldn't know why we have High School in the first place. They (there's that "they" again) say that sports drive the engine, but it seems to me that sports sustains it's own huge appetite while the other programs starve to death (English, Math, Science, etc). Poor us, and poor USA.

Ok, let's get to this "fatter" thing. It is amazing how obese this country has gotten. During my bi-monthly visits to see my family up in Boston, I fly twice through Logan and Charlotte International Airports. Just sitting there watching slices of America walk by, it reinforces to me that the United States has the highest rate of obesity in the whole wide world. The latest stats show that 35.7% of American adults are obese, as are 17% of American children.

Every day, as a Physical Therapist, I see it in the clinic. I work in orthopedics and so a large portion of my patients are total wrecks who have had to have total knees. The greater majority of these knees have just worn out from years and years of abuse - not the abuse of physical exercise as many non-exercisers would like you to believe will happen to runners - but the abuse of every WALKING STEP putting 1.5 times their body weight on their knees. So, for a 300 pound office worker, just the 500 steps he takes from his car to his office is 450 pounds of crunching stress on EACH knee with EACH step. So, eventually the cartilage between the two long bones that meet at the knee are flattened away and you have bone-on-bone. Ta-da: Total knee! And that's just one little segment of our health demise. I heard once that something like 85% of all non-accident hospital admissions are contributed to by a preventable cause (smoking, drinking, eating, etc).

I'm asked several times a day by well-meaning patients how to lose weight. Well, what they usually say "I can't lose weight", "I wish I could lose weight", or my favorite, " I can't find the time", to which I say 'Look harder!". My approach, though, is simple: calories in have to be less than calories out. But folks are resistant to this thinking. So, I add a few side doors to this thinking: DON'T give up the things you love. Crave ice cream? Fine, have some. Love chocolate?

Great, have a piece or two. The point is don't gorge on it. If you try to give up something you love, that'll last a few days and then you'll eat a whole half gallon of ice cream or a whole giant bag of chips. A fad diet will NEVER work over the long haul. It's doomed before it gets off the ground. If you want to lose weight, it doesn't have to be some crazy-off-the-wall restriction "here" and stuff yourself "there" type diet. But, it has to be a lifestyle change that will allow enough food to fuel you through the day's normal activities, PLUS any crazy extras you tag on...I choose running miles and miles!! But, that's excessive, and I know it, but c'mon people, take some responsibility.

For much of these folks, it starts as children sitting in front of the computer/TV. Sure, I can sound like my grandfather talking about the good ol' days when we used to play from morning till the sun went down. A whole day would pass without going home and Mom would say "What did you do today?". The response, "I don't know...messed around I guess". But messing around was constant moving, playing ball, tag, running from getting caught after doing something bad! We had "social networking" - it was called OUTSIDE!! We moved around outside, and we moved around in the sun. Our friends were real friends. Now, one of the prime vitamin deficiencies is vitamin D.

And, what is it with bacon? This country has gone bacon crazy!I don't often give nutritional advice on this site but I'm going to today. Don't eat the Baconator. That's it. Pretty simple huh? Now I know that you're probably thinking what could possibly be wrong with two hamburger patties, 2 cheese slices, cheese sauce, mayonnaise, and 6 (count 'em 6)slices of bacon? And the answer is nothing at all, providing you spread that out over 4 meals and 3 days, but I don't think that's quite what Wendy's had in mind. On the other hand, bacon sure is tasty so let's say you head in to Wendy's to "do what tastes right" and you order the Baconator. Why yes, I will make that a combo meal. No, I don't want to Biggie size the fries, I'm trying to control my portions! I'd better do a diet coke too. Here's the stats on your lunch: 1250 calories, 71g total fat, 175mg cholesterol, 88g carbs and well on your way to taking big chunks off your life. We won't even get into the sodium! Whew! Good thing you went with the DIET coke!

Boy wasn't that good? But your sweet tooth is kicking in and you could really use something chocolaty, something like the Brownie Earthquake from Dairy Queen. So you head over to DQ because you want to "DQ something different" and you figure you'll reward yourself for being so good by getting that diet drink with your lunch. Besides, you've already screwed today's calorie count straight to hell so why not? At 740 calories, 28g total fat, 60mg cholesterol and a whopping 149g carbs it can't hurt right? Right? In one meal you're now pushing 2000 calories and almost 100g total fat! You could drink bottled water for the rest of the week and you'd still gain weight. Do you realize that you would have to run for over 18 miles to burn off the calories from that one meal? (Based on an estimate of burning 110 calories/mile).

Is it any wonder that America continues to get fatter and fatter by the day? It's making me feel fat just to sit and write about this, on the upside I have plenty of motivation to go workout today. I realize I got a little off the tangent this week, but yesterday, I flew through Charlotte to Boston, so I got a new infusion of viewing my fellow Americans. I don't recommend going nuts with a wild-off-the-wall diet, but just a little restraint people. You don't have to become a vegetarian, though I just read Scott Jurek's book, Eat & Run", and I highly give it a thumb's up. Remember calories in/calories out. It's not quite that simple, but it's a good start.

Ok folks, time to take the grandkids to the park and do some messing around. Hope you all have a good weekend and I'll see you on the roads - AL

One child lost is too many...one child saved can change the world

LiveStrong Lance

"Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wing, only character endures."- Horace Greeley Last week, I read where Lance Armstrong had won a marathon a couple of weeks ago over a tough course in Pennsylvania. I had to say to myself "Well, good for him". And I meant it. When I began to write this post earlier this week, there seemed to be an obsession with exposing Lance Armstrong as a drug cheat. He won the Tour de France seven times...beat cancer...was named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year...4-time AP Male Athlete of the Year...donates a gazillion dollars to cancer research. Of course, that has nothing to do whether he doped or not, but there seemed like there was this constant vendetta out for him. The Drug Police have been after him for more than 15 years. He has NEVER failed any of over 500 drug tests! The blood tests that USADA (The US Anti-Drug Agency) used for the latest allegation were from 2009! The results have not been released, but USADA were going to use them against him in a trial this year. Maybe he did "enhance", maybe he didn't. What the heck do I know? My knowledge of professional cycling is not extensive, but from what I've seen in professional cycling, there did seem to be a lot of that going around. Anyway, late this week, it all became mute because Lance dropped his fight against USADA, saying "Enough was enough". That ended the need for a trial and essentially meant he would be stripped of all his victories since 1998, including his 7 Tour de France victories and his Olympic Bronze medal. Also, he received a lifetime ban, though I'm not quite sure from what...biking, yes...running, don't know...fantasy football, hope not! As they say "Specifics need to be worked out". I'm in no way condoning drug use in sports here, but it's just funny how I see myself viewing it. Last week, Melky Cabrera, a baseball player for the San Francisco Giants, was suspended for FIFTY games for drugging up. What an idiot is how I see it. I mean, after he was caught, you have to give him credit for admitting it and apologizing to his family, fans, God, the seven drawfs and all humanity. Then, this week, Bartolo Colon, another Bay Area baseball player, also was banned for 50 games for the same damned thing! But, c'mon...baseball has a "we-can-drug-test-you-anytime" policy, so why risk it? Just take your talent and hit the damn ball! Throw the damn ball!! And this is why it's even contradictory to me how I'm looking at this Lance thing. I love baseball, and so I hate Barry Bonds, the biggest ALLEGED drug cheat of all time. Hit the most career home runs in the history of baseball, thus tainting one the most sacred records of our National Pastime. His feigned denials were almost as big as the size of his suddenly growing head. He's not the only one...it seems like baseball of the 90's and the early Aughts should be called the pumped up era. In the summer of '98, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire put on a Home Run battle that captured America with it's excitement. Both men broke the single season HR record, but in essence, it just turned out to be a battle of "My drugs are better that your drugs" and both men left the game in disgrace. Then we get to running. This year, the winner of the famous Comrades Marathon, a 56 mile ultra in South Africa, was kicked out of the winner's circle when he was found to be using some super-duper nasal decongestant. And I think more than a dozen Olympians were sent packing from London, including one Gold Medal winner, for dipping into the magic potion. I think, from a scientific point of view, it's interesting that the Statute of Limitations on Drug Testing is EIGHT YEARS, so the labs now hold the drug tests of all the athletes until the testing gets better to catch them...at least up to 8 years. Just this year, a Gold Medal Belarus Shot Putter from 2004 was stripped of his medal for failing his stored-up blood test! Man, he was so close to the eight year get-out-of-jail rule. All of these athletes cheated (allegedly). They went outside the rules most athletes follow....the sweating, panting, build-my-own-endurance-limits. The black hole that draws the bad guys to try to get that extra edge is too tempting sometimes. Baseball, football, track or field...it doesn't matter...they cheated and they must accept their punishment in disgrace. Anyway, back to Lance. I understand that if he really is guilty, I will go through a short "Say it ain't so, Joe" period (obscure baseball reference) and accept that another sports icon has gone down the black hole, but here's the deal. This October, he was going to line up in Hawaii to do the Ironman Hawaii. This is the World Championships! I was sure looking forward to that because, let's face it, here you have all these clean shaven (I'm talkin' full body shaven), chisel-cut Europeans and Aussies and Canadians who have trained for Triathlons all their lives on one side, and USA's own 41 year-old Lance on the other. So, the gun goes off, they jump in the water and Lance holds his own for 2.4 miles getting back to dry land. Now, I think he probably has that bike-thing part of the race down pretty good, so he should be at or very near the lead after the 112 miles of biking (a short leg in the Tour de France). Then the marathon begins - Lance had a 2:46 PR at a time when his main focus was still biking. However, just this last May, he won a 70.3 Race (Half Ironman, but they don't like to call it that) where he finished it off with a 1:15 Half Marathon (I don't mind calling it that, but I REALLY hate when somebody calls it a "Half Mary"). Yep, this would have been one heck of an Ironman, but the Drug Police have banned him from competing. Now, we can only speculate what would have happened. I think I feel cheated from not being able to see how this would have panned out. So, I feel cheated because Lance may have cheated. What do I BELIEVE? I believe USADA has treated Lance as guilty until he could prove himself innocent, which he chooses now not to do. How do I FEEL? I feel sorry for Lance, whatever the truth is. If he is guilty, I feel sorry that sport has sunk so low that athletes with the talent of this icon has to sink as low as the other vermin that feels they have to cheat to keep up. If he is innocent, which I want to believe, I feel sorry that he has been dragged through the mud & muck created by others. LiveStrong Lance! And so another exciting week comes to a close. I hope you all keep your performance enhancing supplements to your morning cup of coffee. Clean, slow, and slowly recovering, I'll see you all on the roads - AL

"One child lost is too many...one child saved can change the world"

I'm a Little Jealous

"I used to think youth was wasted on the young. Now I think middle-age is wasted on the middle-aged" - Drabble

I must say, I'm a little jealous this morning. You see, although my engine doesn't hum like it used to, I still consider myself first and foremost, an ultrarunner. My favorite running is far and away (could put the period here) being in the woods, with the starting line hours behind me, and the finish line too far ahead to realistically think about. Vicariously, I read running magazines and picture running those trails of Colorado and California for hours at a time. No bears or mountain lions in my daydreams. Maybe in a previous life, or maybe in the next one, I'll find myself on that side of the country and have that opportunity, but with my luck, I'll wind up being some stranded city slicker wondering why I'm stuck in such a God-forsaken place.

But, back to why I'm jealous. Today is the both the Leadville 100 Mile Run and the first half of the Pikes Peak Weekend. About a year ago, I wrote here about my experience in 2004 doing the Pikes Peak Marathon. Of all the 131 marathons and ultras I have done, that one still tops the list for awe, excitement, challenge, but mostly, personal pride. Boston was a race I was always be proud of doing. Running 100 miles in 24 Hour events has always been a thrill. But, going from training in relatively flat Alabama to go run up and down 26 miles of trail on a 14,115 foot mountain...well, that's where faith and trust come in. I trained at Oak Mt State Park, where the highest point is 1036 ft, and did my excessive "hill climbing" on a treadmill (Pikes Peak AVERAGES 11% grade for the first 13 miles!). On top of that, it takes at least 2 weeks for the body to make cardiovascular adaptations to high altitude. During those two weeks, your body is making hundreds of thousands of changes on a cellular level. But, some of us work and have a life and just can't give up two weeks to "adapt". Strategically, showing up in Colorado two days before the race doesn’t appear to make any sense - but logistically, it was the best I could do. If you can’t be in the thin air for 2 weeks or more, your next best option may be to just show up as close to the race as possible in your best shape possible, and limit your expectations while hoping that your body can function sufficiently well on 50% of the oxygen it's accustomed to processing. As it turned out, I didn't kill myself, and that was goal #1, but seriously, it was an experience I will always put at the top. I had a fantasy of one day going back to do the Double - the Ascent (13 miles UP) on Saturday, and the Full Marathon on Sunday. Sounds good sitting in my chair writing this blog, but those are days missed and gone. So today is the Ascent for those in Manitou Springs and tomorrow is the Marathon. Wish I was with you guys.

Also, this weekend is the Leadville 100 Mile Run. This "Race Across The Sky" is one of the Ultrarunning classics that I have known about since I began doing ultras. It begins in Leadville, Colorado, which is the highest town in the US - I believe about 9600'. The race is totally above that level, up to 12,600', for the 100 miles. Now, that has to do a number on your physiology. It won't make you "Everest" crazy, but I'm sure you'll hear voices from deep inside asking "What the hell are you doing?". The challenge of these 100 mile trail runs have always intrigued me, and I always find it interesting how the times are thrown around like we're talking about 5K times - "Oh, he finished in 23:04" - that's 23 HOURS!! Like staying awake, in the woods, up & down mountains, eating on the run, hallucinating, hoping you don't get lost. Doesn't get better than that. And this year, I've actually got a Twitter friend running (Now, there's a term I never would have used a couple of years ago). Eric lives in St. Louis and is a flatlander ready to run the toughest run of his life. He's also put his wallet where his mouth is, raising over $13,000 for the local Cancer Hospital. You can read his blog here and I'm sure he would still welcome any donations to his Life & Hope Fund.

And so, that's a couple of things going on this weekend in Al-World. To try to divert some of feelings of jealousy for all these runners doing their thing, I set out early this morning in the rain to do an epic long run...ok, only about 2 hours...but was turned back a couple of miles into the run by a thunderstorm that just wouldn't go away. When the time between the flash and the thunder is less than "one-thousand-two", it's time to head home. As Eric said last night "the temperature at Leadville will be between freezing and 8000-10,000 degrees if I get hit by lightning!".

Hope you all have a great weekend and you all have a great run, whether you're running high, low, slow or fast. I'll see you all on the roads - AL


"One child lost is too many...one child saved can change the world"

Greatness

"A lifetime of training for just ten seconds". - Jesse Owens

For the past two weeks, I, like most of you I guess, have been absorbed in the every 4 year spectacle of the Summer Olympics. With it being based in London, the hardest thing for me is avoiding knowing the results before I see it on the nightly recap. I mean, the plague could break out, or downtown Birmingham could sink into a giant sinkhole, and I wouldn't know it because I'm avoiding the news. I tried watching the NBC national news one night and they said they wouldn't spoil it, so you could look away from the screen and they would show the results without a voice over. Fine, but then later in the show, they're doing one of these sappy human interest athlete closeups, and Brian Williams starts off with something like "On top of the USA's monumental gymnastics results today...". Good grief, give me a break.

Like many people, I’ve spent the last two weeks soaking up as much of the Olympic coverage as I can and with that, NBC has given us an Olympic amount of commercials. The Olympic experience has reacquainted me with the “commercial break” bigtime. In the men's 10,000 meter race, a race that only goes about 27 minutes, there were FIVE commercial breaks! Nothing like getting into the flow of the race, seeing the Kenyans battling the Ethiopians, and the crowd going nuts for the home favorite, Mo Farrah, and his American training partner, Gaylon Rupp, beginning to make a move..."And we'll be right back"!!!...then I have to sit through 2 minutes of some new show ad starring a monkey.... A FRICKIN' MONKEY!! I could certainly live without the vast majority of commercials, but I understand the necessity of advertising to help pay the bills, and let's face it, NBC is still bringing this to us free. The days of free sporting events is gradually fading away, so I'll sit through some monkey Doctor commercial to see it free.

Of all of the commercials I’ve seen, Nike put together a series of (I think) 13 "Find Your Greatness" ads. My favorite was of "The Jogger". If you want to see the series, click here. It only takes about 5 minutes to see the whole series.

I think the nationalism is the neatest part of the games. I'm as patriotic as the next guy, but I really pull for an athlete who excels at what he does. Oh, sure I pull for the Americans (except for the basketball team - it doesn't make my patriotic muscles tingle seeing some spoiled rich professionals crushing lesser powers at a game we invented, but that's a discussion for another day). Does it matter if China wins more medals than we do? You better believe it does! I want to beat China at EVERYTHING!! But, watching a Chinese Archer shoot a bullseye in a driving rainstorm to win a medal, with the rain pouring off her visor sure got my attention. How many arrows has she shot in practice in the rain, in the wind, in the dark, when no one was watching? Then she steps up on the biggest stage and bangs a "10" so Al DiMicco in Birmingham, Alabama can say "Wow".

Usain Bolt of Jamaica has my attention too. Track & Field is my Bread and Butter of the Olympics, and Bolt's domination is inarguable. He literally plays with his competition. But, what got my attention was during an interview after his 100 meter win, he paused the interview because in the backround, the Star-Spangled Banner was playing as Sonya Richards-Ross was recieving her 400 meter medal. He's Jamaican...she's American...What class!

OK, one more class moment. In the Men's 400 meters, the Gold Medal winner was Kirani James from Grenada. It was the first medal of any kind gained by his island nation. Yes, that was a BIG deal, but the class moment was when immediately after crossing the finish line, he went up to last place finisher, Oscar Pistorious, to exchange his race bib with him. Oscar is the first amputee (a double amputee at that!!) to participate in the summer Olympics. Just a local side-note...Kirani Jones ran Track at the University of Alabama (but I certainly won't hold that against him).

It's almost finished. Sunday is the men's marathon - the Olympic high point for me. But, I have thorouly enjoyed it all ( a few less commercials would have been nice). It has been one great time and I'll be back in 4 years. In the meantime, I'll see you all on the roads - AL

"One child lost is too many...one child saved can change the world"

Ever Heard of Edgewood Lake?

"Happiness is good health and a bad memory" - Ingrid Bergman (1917-1982)

For what seems like a thousand years, the go-to running route for Birmingham long distance runners is what's called the Lakeshore Trail or the Lakeshore Greenway. Even before the Greenway was built about 10 years ago, we used to gather at the old Brownell Travel Agency Building and run along Lakeshore Drive, dodging early morning traffic. But, one day we noticed that parallel to Lakeshore was a cleared dirt path that extended basically through the adjoining bushes and briers, next to Shades Creek, which is a meandering small river that never widens to more than 8-10 feet. This cleared dirt path was eventually (everything constructed, repaired, or planned in Birmingham must also be preceded with "eventually") paved and is the first 2.5 miles of an "eventual" 5+ mile bike/run path - remember I said this was completed about 10 years ago, so I'm not sure we'll ever see that additional 2-3 miles. Anyway, we usually start a mile to the east of the path, at the NBC Bank Building, and add a 1.5 mile loop on the west end to have a total 8.5 flat circuit by the time we get back to NBC. This has been essentially the default that is included in most long Sunday long runs. From this basic start you can morph into any long run distance you want through Homewood, Mountain Brook, and the Southside of Birmingham. All of the run courses on the sidebar of this blog under "Mercedes Training Runs" include this loop.

So, what's the big deal about all of this? Well, one of my major interests is local history, and in my search as to why this area is called "Lakeshore" I came upon a bit of almost forgotten history that probably most runners who traverse this area never had the slightest idea ever happened. Then again, maybe everybody knows about this EXCEPT me! But, I'm going to tell you all about this. Hopefully, those here in Birmingham will find this interesting, and those of you living elsewhere...well, I'll be back next week.

You see, many years ago, this loop of ours ran along the shore of a 110 acre lake! Edgewood Lake, as it was called was an artificial lake created by damming Shades Creek at Green Springs Highway in Homewood. Lakeshore Drive was so named because it paralleled the northern shore. The dam was first announced in June 1910 as part of the proposed Birmingham Speedway to be constructed for the Birmingham Motor Club. A streetcar line ran from downtown Birmingham, 5 miles to the north, to a point on Old Columbiana Road just shy of where it crossed Shades Creek. This is usually one of our turn-around points on our long runs and there is a sometimes working water fountain at this point where a trolley once dropped off folks from the city. I never realized that Shades Creek, which runs next to the water fountain, was dammed here in 1912 and became the western bank of a lake over twice the size of East Lake, which is still currently in East Birmingham. From this current runner's watering hole, Homewood would become a "streetcar suburb" to downtown.

A log clubhouse was erected for the Edgewood Country Club that same year. It was purchased two years later by the Birmingham Motor and Country Club. The club lobbied for the paving of the streetcars right-of-way to allow for Birmingham's new elite class of motorists to make the journey into the valley. They planned a "motor speedway" circuit around the lakebed. A great race track, designed after the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was begun and graded but never completed. It's north and south straightaways are now today's Lakeshore and South Lakeshore Drives (which used to be part of the route of the old Vulcan Marathon in the 80's and 90's). Amenities at the club included a swimming pool, dance pavilion, fishing, boating and parking for hundreds of automobiles. Similar to golf or tennis clubs, this was instead a driving club since the ownership of an automobile was the latest rage. The place became a favorite locale for dances, barbecues and meetings for as many as 25,000 people at a time.

By the fall of 1915, the lake, 6,500 feet long and no more than 750 feet wide at its western end, was filled and stocked with bass and bream for fishing. It was the signature feature of the club's 400 acre property. In the mid 1920s the clubhouse was opened to the public to what was then known as Edgewood Park.

Early in the 30's, and again in 1933, the lake was dry because torrential rains had destroyed the dam, emptying the lake and causing flooding downstream. In 1934, Edgewood Park was joined by Homewood's Shades Creek Park to the east, at the present site of Brookwood Village mall, in providing recreational opportunities in the valley. A walking path connected the new public park with the circuit around the southern shore of Edgewood Lake, basically South Lakeshore Drive.

In 1935 Jefferson County repaired the dam, restoring the lake. The vacant clubhouse was demolished in 1938 and the land deeded to the County, which had difficulty maintaining it (things don't change, do they?). The county claimed that the lake was too shallow for good fishing anyway and that extensive improvements were needed. Thus, Jefferson County drained Edgewood Lake in the spring of 1946 ostensibly for repairs. The repairs never came about (surprise!), and they turned over 100 acres of the again-dry lake bed to Howard College, which later became the present Samford University. Attempts by residents to have the lake restored failed and redevelopment of the area was allowed to proceed. And now, this once magnificent area is home to Homewood High School, Samford's Soccer field and a beautiful Track and Field Stadium. It also has a Retirement Home and assisted living houses that I'll bet house several elderly folks that very well remember what history lies beneath their feet. And of course, it is used daily as a central gathering area for Birmingham's long distance runners.

I hope I've brought to light a little history that sadly seems forgotten. I do find some pleasure and a distant connection in the fact that our frequent running visits keeps this area alive. It's still a place to meet friends, to have fun, and now, a place that I'll have a lot more appreciation when I see you all on the roads - AL

If you want to see what the lake looked like superimposed on a map, click here

"One child lost is too many...one child saved can change the world"

Push Just a Little Harder!

People will watch this race and say "Why didn't that guy who finished 2nd by one-tenth of a second run a little harder? It's just a tenth of a second!" And the answer is: Because he couldn't. That guy couldn't run a one-tenth of a second faster. - Dave McGillivray, Boston Marathon Race Director

Every one of us, no matter what level runner we are, have been in a situation during a race where we were in a race, giving it everything we could and finish just short of...our time goal...our adversary...our goal finish place...a myriad of goals we set up for ourselves. A few minutes later, we're thinking "Where could I have picked up just a little more time" and here and there memories pop up as possible places where in our minds we just didn't push. The fact of the matter is that we did push. It doesn't matter most of the time, but if we're in a race, we're going to give the best we can on that given day at that given time in the race.

A few weeks ago, during the Olympic Trials, there was that now classic race where Jeneba Tarmoh and Allyson Felix finished in dead heat for third place in the 100 meter finals. Tied to 1/1000th of a second for the last place for a Olympic Team berth! Couldn't one of them given just a little more? C'mon, just a final last ooommmph? No, they couldn't. I guarantee you some joker was sitting on some couch, eating Cheetos, saying "I would have pushed just a little harder". Yeah, right! These girls were pukin' their guts out for that finish line and no chronograph was going to separate them. It was finally settled when Tarmoh pulled out of a one vs. one run-off.

It doesn't have to be a sprint to the finish for that "Couldn't he push a little harder" thought to enter your mind. Last week was the Badwater 135 race in Death Valley, California. I wrote about it in a blog two weeks ago - 135 miles through the desert, with temps approaching 120 degrees, from 262' below sea level to halfway up Mt Whitney at 8800' above sea level. Three major climbs (one 17 miles long!). Now, in this race is a fellow named Mike Morton. Mike, back in the 90's set a course record at the Western States 100 Mile Trail Run in a little over 15 hours. Mike had a severe hip injury shortly after that and had to quit running. He joined the Marines, made that his career, did a tour or two in Iraq/Afghanistan and then was reassigned to an office job back in the States. He decided to pick up running again and has been putting up some super-human times at 100 milers (13+ hours) and 24 Hour runs (163 miles) since...and this is at 40 years old! So, he decides to try Badwater and finishes in 22:52:55...misses the course record by 86 seconds! Surely his crew let him know how close he was to the record. Surely he could have pushed a little harder. Wouldn't you or me pushed a little harder? No, I'm sure Mike was pushing his tachometer into the Red Line the whole last 11 miles (did I mention the last 11 miles of the race is uphill?). On this day, in this race, Mike could not push any harder.

As we always say in endurance training, just worry about the things you can control. Train your best, whatever your "best" is. Run your "best", whatever your best is. And when you give it your all, that's your ALL, and there is no room for "Where could I have done better". If you had to slow down during the race...if Mike had to slow down at Badwater...it's because it was needed at the time so you could finish your best. I've hit the finish line many, many times where I was disappointed with my times, but I must say, more times than not, I said to myself as I hit that line "As crappy as that run was, that was all I had today". You have nobody to answer to you but yourself, but under NO circumstances should anybody ever say "Couldn't you have gone just a little faster? Couldn't you push a little harder?".

Ok, we're two days into the Olympics. Here's my quick observations:
1) Let's just admit that Beijing pretty much ruined the Opening Ceremonies for all Olympics to follow. London was too disjointed, too much attempted humor, too much rap singing, and with NBC throwing in their "Be sure to show our spoiled basketball players in the crowd", I just felt I wasted a couple of hours of my life that I'll never get back.
2) It's going to be a long Olympics because this morning I actually got excited watching the USA beat World Champion Korea in...are you ready?...ARCHERY!!! How the heck can I get excited watching Archery? I better not watch Fencing because I sure will never admit that I got excited watching THAT!
3) As an endurance athlete, I know just a touch of what goes into the training of all these athletes and what a thrill it must be for them to be at this level. One of my favorite quotes is "A champion is someone, bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion...when no one is watching". All of these Olympians have been there.

That's it for this week guys. Hope you all stay hydrated, run smart, don't run with scissors, and I'll see you on the road - AL

"One child lost is too many...one child saved can change the world"

Do You Remember Your First....?

"Whenever a thing is done for the first time, it releases a little demon" -
Emily Dickinson

My running has now spanned over five decades (Ok, it hasn't been FIFTY years, but I have run in the 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's, and now 10's) and it seems the more my running goes objectively and subjectively south, I think of those Good ol' Days when things flowed a little more smoothly. Recently, I tried to think of how many "firsts" I could think of. Time goals that were met are fun to think about, but I was wondering how many of you can remember some universal milestones that most of us have. So, do you remember...

THE RUN THAT BEGAN YOUR SERIOUS RUNNING - When I worked at Cooper Green Hospital, I used to go to the UAB Gym next door at lunchtime and knock out 3 games of Racquetball. Well, I only had an hour for lunch and 3 games took longer than that, causing me some heat in my Department about my after-lunch-back-to-work-punctuality.Then, one day, a few days after my mom passed away, I decided to see if I could run a mile around the UAB Track, figuring running would take much less time than racquetball games and it would be a better stress reliever. To my surprise, I did that mile, felt good, and ran another mile. I was late again from lunch, couldn't walk the next day, felt much better, and that day in August 1978 began it all

YOUR FIRST COMPETITIVE RACE - In February, 1979, I had some friends running the old Magic City Marathon. So, being interested in photography back then, I grabbed my Minolta SLR and took a few rolls of black & white photos. Although I marveled at their extreme endurance to be out there for 26.2 miles, I knew I could never do something like that, or WANT to do something like that. However, a racing bug was fed that day and a month later, I ran my first race ever...The Hungry Fisherman's 10k. Holy Cow...6.2 miles! A hilly, 2 loop course. There was no stopping me. I flew in at 47:01, not having any idea what I was doing and was hooked on racing. Now, back then, we had 10k's and 2-mile fun runs. No 5k's. After a few 10k's, it didn't take long for that marathon seed to be fertilized and by summertime, I was training for that impossible 26.2.

YOUR FIRST MARATHON - Vulcan Marathon, November, 1979. I used to work with a friend of mine, Max Michael, who was Chief of Medicine at Cooper Green. He had run, now get this...TWO marathons. I literally absorbed everything he said about training and we ran most lunchtimes (yes, it took more than the allotted hour) over the hills of Southside Birmingham. Doesn't matter if you're a young buck in '79 or a not-so-young-buck 30 something years later...26 miles is a long way. But, I held together to come in at 3:14. My most vivid memory is going under the finish banner on 20th Street, leaping up to try to slap it, coming down and both my thighs cramping like steel pillars. I couldn't move!! Kind of a Phiddippides moment...Rejoice! We Conquer!! I can't move!!! Great finish line photo. I still remember Max telling me before the excitement wore of "You're not a real marathoner until you've run your 2nd marathon, because then you know what to expect!". Not sure I believe that, but I keep running them.

YOUR FIRST ULTRAMARATHON - Ok, this is not necessarily a "universal" first for everyone, but seeing that it's my blog and ultras are an important part of my running, I wanted to include it. The marathon bug had bitten and wouldn't let go. I had run 2 or 3 when I heard that there was some crazy races that would go further! And to top it off, there was a couple of my friends going to this crazy-ass race and wanted to know if I wanted to take the dive. Sure, why not? So, in May, 1981, I was off to the 3rd Annual Strolling Jim 40 in Wartrace, Tenn. This race was in the country - I don't mean the suburbs - I mean the Tennessee country. 70% rolling county asphalt and 30% dirt jeep roads. Aid stations were 5 miles apart and were simply 5 gallon jugs of water placed on the ground with no cups. My wife and my friend's girlfriend would meet us with the car every couple of miles with the theme to "Chariots of Fire" blaring from the car's tape deck. 41.2 miles and 6 hours later I crossed the finish line and although I, of course, didn't realize the significance at the time, I was now an ultrarunner for the rest of my life. Strolling Jim just ran it's 34th edition this past May, but it's gotten pretty sissified...all paved roads, actual aid stations with food and drinks, chip-timing (good grief!!) and probably a fancy medal too! Oh well!

YOUR FIRST RUNNING SHOES - Nike Elites. Now, my actual 1st pair of shoes that I ran in were some Puma's that I probably picked up in the shoe department of Sears, but my 1st REAL shoes were given to me by Versal Spalding, who owned Birmingham's First Running "Store" in Crestline. I say "store", but it was just actually a garage with some metal folding chairs and boxes of shoes lining all four sides of the garage! Anyway, I had treated Versal's wife and as a thank you, he gave me a pair of these super-light Nike Elites. I couldn't believe how light and comfortable they were. Looking back, they were probably equivalent to the minimalist shoes of today. I did ALL my running in them...70+ miles/wk...training/racing...great shoes... except fpr the rip-roaring case of Plantar Fasciitis I got because of the zero support they gave. This is probably one reason I have such an inborn aversion to minimalist shoes today!

YOUR FIRST RUNNING INJURY - I mentioned the plantar fasciitis above, but the big 1st injury I remember getting was a pain in my foot about 3 weeks before one of the early Vulcan Marathons. I went to the doctor and he confirmed a metatarsal stress fracture...no running...it would take 6 weeks to heal. So, I did no running for 3 weeks, but a lot of biking. I went back to the doc and told him I had no pain - "What would happen if I went and ran the marathon?". I'm a Physical Therapist, so it was really a question that I knew the answer. He just shrugged his shoulders and said "One of two things: 1) you'll get through it fine or with some pain, or 2) it'll crack like a pencil and you'll have a full blown fracture". Hmmm....so I decided to run on it, did a 3:18, and said a real loud "Whew".

So there you have my little jaunt down another of my many memory lanes. What are some of the "firsts" that you hold near and dear? Let me know in the Comments section below. In the meantime, I've been doing this quite a long time, but I'll bet I still have a few more firsts to be had. Maybe you'll be there with me because I'll see you on the roads - AL


"One child lost is too many...one child saved can change the world"