Competitive Running is Trying to Depress Me

Yesterday, news broke that the Beeb - BBC - was releasing a documentary that Coach Alberto Salazar had been doping the Nike Oregon Project team members for years. The alleged doping included Galen Rupp. More than one person came forward and they brought a slim bit of physical evidence with them.

This follows on the heels of the sudden departure of Mary Cain last week from the team. She headed back to Bronxville, NY. One reason was offered and her decision was one of the big topics of conversation, always hushed, at the PRE last week. Now the rumors are starting to swirl.

Along with the setbacks from Rita Jeptoo and the transgressions of the Russian Federation, this is one more sign of the rot that exists at the elite level, which begins to remind one of the peloton at the Tour d' France.

Since I coach at a much younger level, this normal doesn't hit home quite so closely, except that one of the allegations is that Rupp began doping back in high school. That would match the efforts of the Russians, if true. One of the reports suggested that the Russians began doping prior to the athletes reaching elite status to reset their biological passport, the set of individual parameters of blood work used by WADA and USADA to determine if an athlete has been cheating.

That frankly disgusts and depresses me. I send the kids out asking that they do their best. Not win, but compete hard, run with guts, and leave it on the course. If any wanted to cheat, I'd be distressed that I hadn't done my job properly.

As for the elites, maybe they need to go back to junior high.

PRE Classic - Final Thoughts

Let’s start with the most unlikely to be reported result from the meet. Alexa Efrainson ran a 4:03.39. That put her in rather interesting company as she broke Mary Cain’s 1500m record for high school girls. Given the mysteries swirling around Cain, this adds to the question everyone here seems to be asking – Is Cain going to come back to form? My guess would be yes, once she gets her head squared away. In the meantime, the protégé following in Cain’s footsteps has overtaken the leader.

Hats off to Genzebe Dibaba. She lived up to the Pre Classic, blowing past the pacers to take the lead early. Then she blew up the field on her way to the fastest women’s 5K ever run on US soil. She did it the same way Pre did, running to the front, and paying with her heart. In the last 200 meters, it looked as though she might miss the 14:20 mark, but she buckled down and sprinted in. That’s the Pre attitude on the track. Off the track, she’s not nearly so flamboyant.

Someone who was, post-event was Chinese jumper Guowei Zhang who set a personal best with a jump of 7’09.25”. He hit the jump, bounced off the mat, and sprinted on the track with his arms flailing in his excitement. Putting it in metric terms, hit jumped 2.38 meters. The Chinese record is 2.39 meters. Given his reaction to the PB, I would love to see what happens when he gets that last .01 meters.

Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay won the 200m and 100m respectively. I didn’t cheer. Can’t, not for men that cheated. Sue me.

I need to apologize to Bernard Lagat and Silas Kiplagat. I got autographs from both. Both finished fourth, Lagat in the 5,000m and Kiplagat in the 1600m. Might just be a coincidence. Might not, can’t take the chance. No more autographs before the meet.

Renaud Lavillenie is a showman, in addition to being the world indoor recordholder in pole vault. Today, he nearly added the outdoor record to his list. Unfortunately, he only broke the records for the Hayward and vaults on US soil. Not a bad days work. He thanked the crowd afterward, so add gentleman to the list with showman and freak athlete.

Ben Blankenship doesn’t look much like a miler – until he wins the dang thing. With the long hair and beard, he’s a perfect fit for Eugene. He and Jonathan Kiplimo Sawe traded the lead back and forth the entire last lap, though Blankenship started making a move on the second lap to put himself in position to win. Small decisions, to push a bit early, that pay off with a .04 second win. Great race.

Tonight it’s meeting more people (and handing out some books) while everyone starts to chill over steak and salmon, wine and beer. A convivial time for all, I hope.

Pre Classic, Distance Night

I was a little late to the meet, so finding seats was a challenge. The meet had open entry for the first night to bring in a crowd for Distance Night. Most of the races were high school kids running as the warm-up act and we arrived in time for the high school women's and men's 1600m.

The lateness was due to stopping for dinner at Beppe & Gianni's Trattoria on 19th and Agate. I highly recommend lingering. Sampling wine would also be encouraged. Leave more time than I did to get to the track.

The girl's fired off and the pack stayed pretty tight through the first three laps with Devin Clark leading them out. The race was tight with Ryen Frazier hanging close, Christina Aragon and Jordyn Colter just back a touch. The race came down to Jones and Frazier dueling the entire final lap with the race not decided until the last straightaway when Ryen finally got a step in front at the tap.

She also had the best interview line of the night. When asked, Frazier was bubbling as she said, "Danielle and I have battled like that a lot, but this place is so awesome. I kept having to tell myself to stop smiling, you're supposed to be racing." Utterly charming and refreshing.

The men's side had the field separate much faster. Mike Braningan took the early lead and pushed the first lap in a 61. Salisbury, Barnard, and Ratcliffe were all in the mix as they juggled positions.

Villareal running in a box.

Hidden in the pack, Carlos Villareal floated in back in about sixth or seventh place for the first half of the race. By the end of the third lap, he was up to about fifth when Brannigan and Salisbury took off. The rest of the chase pack went after them but the two leaders had smashed open a 15 meter lead.

Coming off the final turn, Brannigan opened some more, but back 35 meters, Villareal exploded. The crowd responded as he flew down the straightaway, picking of Ratcliffe, then Barnard, then Salisbury. With 40 meters to go, only Brannigan was in front. With 20 meters to go, and the crowd on it's feet, he sprinted into the lead, and the win, and a PR of 4:05.

The featured events were the 5000m and 10,000m and the races lived up to the hype, especially the 10,000m with Farah and Tanui taking turns leading laps and Kamworor hanging on to third. The race came down to the last lap. Nobody outkicks Farah on the last lap. The times were the fastest of the season in the world, a good omen for the upcoming outdoor meets.

Bernard Lagat, ageless and graceful, ran his way into fourth position. Love to watch that man run.

Loved watching the high school kids taking a victory lap together. I don't think our runners have every had that honor. They grinned all the way around, high fiving along the way.

The Pre-PRE

The Pre PRE      

A day before the opening ceremonies of the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, many of the volunteers gathered for the pre PRE at Lewis and Clark Catering on the riverfront, along with a writer or two, and athletes such as former world record holder and marathoner Jacki Hansen and Olympic steeplechaser Mike Manley.

The event was kept low key as everyone seemed to be catching their breath with the meet set to start on Friday night. Jack Anderson, a board member for the Oregon Track Club, and his wife Kathy acted as the hosts. They both managed to be everywhere, easing people into the event without ever looking harried.  

Tom Jordan, the meet director, made an appearance looking surprisingly relaxed after months of hard work to set up the PRE for another great year. He made the usual and as always, sincere, comments to the volunteers.

As usual with runners, even when they’re in volunteer mode, the conversations turned to running. I chatted with Barry Jahn about high school and junior high runners and then met a fellow ultrarunner with fifty races under his belt. We compared notes on the folks that we had raced against and where. With a lot of the older runners, the question of what happened to the 2:40 marathoner kept coming up.

The elites are running as well as ever and participation levels are at record highs but there’s a hole in the results where the dedicated, but not quite as talented, used to chase after the elite runners. No one knows why.

Jack Welch, the TAFWA award winning author, made the rounds, meeting old friends. He wrote, in an article about the Honolulu Marathon, that his finishing time in 1978 which was good for 169th place then would have placed him 63rd now. The times didn’t change but the field seemed to suddenly grow discontinuous. Perplexing.

That won’t be an issue at the PRE. The fields are stacked. With a little luck and a break in the weather, a couple of new world records are possible. The volunteers got some rest and their night. Friday they go to work and, knowing the Hayward crew, we won’t even notice them as things run as easy as water downhill.

Instead, we’ll watch world class athletes running, jumping, and throwing, all looking to score the win.

Sitting down with running history

Not that my lunch mates were history, just a part of it. Jack Welch set up the lunch with his friends, Joe Henderson and Jacki Hansen, both acclaimed, for different reasons, in the running world. Joe wrote extensively about running, on everything from running form to his adventure with an ultra to an insightful piece on the late, great George Sheehan as Sheehan moved from the front of the pack to the back during his battle with cancer. Joe was also a middling good runner, by his own admission.

Jacki Hansen was more than middling. The lady set the World Record not once, but twice in the marathon. She joked during the lunch that she was all "lungs and legs" though I suspect a mighty heart rests in her diminutive frame. She also has a book out - Jack mentioned it to me when I asked whether there was a full-fledged running museum.

Both are friends of Jack's and watching the interactions brings a swathe of the running world to life. Behind the stories in the press of world record efforts and training programs, these are warm and inviting people striving to reach the pinnacle of their sport (in Jacki's case) or the best in a challenging genre (in Joe's case.) Both do a tremendous amount for the sport.

Me, I didn't have much to add.  I listened a lot, and recognized names, but I don't have the backstory to contribute to the conversation. Instead, I watched as friends, for their friendship spans the better part of four different decades and still going strong, caught up after too long apart.

The subject of Boston came up and I found that Jacki had been there, coaching. She was the first to say that she had been safe and hadn't been at risk behind the finish line barriers. Still, my eyes got a little damp as she showed me her pictures from the marathon, showing me the pictures from her phone. The teary eyed part happened first when she recounted having a runner still on the course while Jacki was in lock-down and unable to go find her runner.

The second time was when I flipped to a picture of an American flag at half mast. The picture was from L.A. ,from when she got back from and immediately went to find a tribute, to find "something that was good" about the event.  She found it in her fellow runners.

As I said earlier, I think that there's a pretty big heart that went with the legs and lungs.

Joe has an impish side, something I didn't realize from his writing. His comments were on the money, though he deflected attention from himself and toward Jacki. He's written a dozen books (I brought my favorite with me to get signed - yes, it's a  total fanboy move but he wrote some great stuff.). He told me to stick with Jack if I wanted to learn a thing or two.

Seemed like good advice. Bet I could learn a lot from Joe too, but his dance card is full this weekend.  

Jack Welch on the left (in full ready-to-joke mode), Jacki Hansen front and center, and Joe Henderson with the big grin on the right.

Pioneer Square with Jackdog

Drove into Portland to meet Jack Welch yesterday afternoon and my small town habits had a minor run-in with the big city streets. Forgot that half of downtown Portland is one way streets,. A single wrong turn and I was headed in the direction of Beaverton.  Which would be fine if I want to interview Phil Knight. Wanted to meet Jack Welch, so I got turned around and circled his hotel until I found some parking.

Everything after that got easier. Portland is hosting the 2016 Indoor Championships. The unveiling of the countdown clock was held in Pioneer Square. Jack and I walked down. A pretty good cast of athletes attended, including Bernard Lagat. I wanted an autograph but had a hard time catching up to Mr. Lagat. Jack rode to the rescue and snagged it for me while I got Silas Kiplagat to sign the little program the media tent handed me. A two-fer on that score.

I also had a chance to meet Ian Dobson, a coach now with Team Run Eugene. The Olympian looked fit and is an incredibly pleasant man to chat with. I also had a chance to talk to Bob Williams, who is a distance coach with Portland State, another cool dude.

Also met author Rod Schumacher, a Canadian who is visiting the region. The meeting was accidental as Rod and his wife were enjoying a cappuccino while Jack and I indulged in a beer. Jack and I were kvetching about marketing our books and Rod overheard.  We chatted for thirty minutes comparing notes, and decided that writing was hard, regardless of genre.

Now, onto today. Planning on meeting Joe Henderson. (newbie tip - hang with a guy that knows everybody. That, in my case, means Jack, who's a character in his own right.)

Pictures from the District 7 and 9 Meet at Central Valley

Madison Ward, St. George Academy, in the lead of the 4x400 relay.

Chandler Teigen (Asotin), leading, with Nathan Vanos (St. George)  running a strong race behind him. Jack Ammon of NW Christian Colbert and Thomas Weakland round out the top four.

Duncan Forsman leading in the 1B race with Spencer Reiss of Curlew chasing.

How tough is the race? Less than a quarter second of a split between the two teams.

Zoe Robertson launches after getting the baton from Emma Perry

Tracy Melville of Lind-Ritzville leads the 3200M with Marika Morelan (St. George) challenging her. Lucy Eggleston holds a steady third with Waitsbury-Prescott's Emily Adams grabbing fourth.

Coach Tim Gundy of Asotin with Lucy Eggleston (left), Maria Eggleston (with back turned), and Kat Stephenson.

Runners can be . . . Touchy

Fair warning, you need to bring a sense of humor today. For our jumping off point, let's start with an article from Philadelphia, titled A message to runners: shutttttt uppppppp! The article itself is pretty funny, but it probably should have come with a trigger warning for the sensitive types. Based on the comments at the article, The Evster entertained some of us and managed to offend a few runners. A lot of them took it very, very personally.

Too bad.

HIs basic premise, that runners incessantly talk about running, how many miles they completed, their pace, the food they ate to PR in the local 5K, and how virtuous it makes them, is spot on. We also talk, though more discreetly, about bowel movements, snot rockets, and how to spit, with the usual warnings not to expectorate on thy fellow runner's shoe.

He's got a point. Runners love to talk about their sport, with the zeal of the newly converted seeking to proselytize. Old runners tend just to go out the door and run but start following runners on twitter and you'll get a daily deluge of mileages, and heartrates, and #runderfulrunners hashtags. Read the magazines, and it's a unending pitch for more running gear interposed with articles to run faster. (I'm excepting Like the Wind from that, though.)

From the magazines and blogs, I don't know how I ever managed to run a step without my FitBit GPS-enable wrist appliance that doubled as a music player/cell phone/text-messenger/selfie-taker while it measured steps taken, pace, altitude adjustments, relative and personal humidity levels, and the current state of my sleep patterns. I've been assured that all this is necessary to run. Gone are the days where a pair of shoes, a pair of shorts, and a tee shirt (optional - and yes, it's sexist) got you out the door.

Interestingly, it's not the elite runners who talked gear and miles and OMG GREAT RUN!. The elites mostly post of the people they're running with, and the joy, though you'll catch some of the marketing from their sponsors. The point is, the elites talk about a bunch of stuff that inspires them, not themselves. They tend to celebrate the successes of others.

The article even managed to trigger a debate on Letsrun.com, too. Several of the Letsrunners pinned the blame squarely on the hobby-joggers, with a couple saying they just don't talk about running with non-runners. Skipping for a moment the irony of the semi-pros at Letsrun thinking the hobby-joggers take it too seriously (first reaction), the fact that the second reaction is to simply protest that the sad little non-runners just don't understand how hard running is, is rich.

Non-runners know how hard running is - that's why they don't do it. Almost everyone has run at some point in their life, either through the threat of failing PE or because someone in a hockey mask was right behind them with a chef's knife. Some time in life, even non-runners ran. They just don't like it. That's okay.

Now if a non-runner wanted to buried me under a hundred tweets about the greatness of French films, I'd find that a touch boring. As in, I would nod off and likely start snoring. People talking about fishing have the same effect. To each, their own, I guess.

Maybe - and this is just a wild thought - maybe if we didn't inundate people with running, and actually laughed at ourselves a little bit, we wouldn't see articles like this. Or at least, not get offended by some poking some fun in our direction.

Run gently friends and find something to laugh about today.

Paul

"The Dude buys a stopwatch."

The title comes from Bill Bowerman's book called "Jogging" in the section on how to jog. The idea of jogging isn't the first to immediately come to mind when you bring William J. Bowerman, co-founder of Nike, coach of Pre, into mind. Usually, it's the magnificent runners charging across the Eugene landscape, or powering through the final lap at Hayward that catch our imagination, not a very pedestrian jogger out on the road.

Yet, more than any one individual, except perhaps Dr. Kenneth Cooper, did more to set the spark to the original running boom in the United States. He did so after his well-publicized visit to New Zealand and meeting with Arthur Lydiard. Embarrassed by his own lack of fitness, he returned to the States an acolyte for running for everyone instead just the elite masses.

In Jogging, Bowerman lays out a simple-to-follow program of exercise in 127 pages. Most of those pages are devoted to one of the three training programs but the first forty pages or so is devoted to everything you need to start a jogging habit now. Those introductory pages include the reasoning behind the program, namely we're an unfit nation - in 1967, mind you! That assessment certainly will not have changed. He also gives the new jogger all the tools needed to run. For clothing, anything loose and comfortable from your drawer, a pair of shoes, though not necessarily running shoes ("You may purchase a pair [of running shoes] or get by nicely with what you have at home.")

That's it. For timing, he suggested a wristwatch or pocket watch. Nothing was so exact with a jogging program that a few seconds of sloppiness in the timing department would ruin things. You can almost hear the derision in Bowerman's voice when he writes, "The dude buys a stop watch." For those of you under, well my age, dude hasn't always been a greeting you toss at your friends. It used to be a term more synonymous with a dandy or a pretender.

Bowerman also reserved some pointed remarks for the sports culture in the country. Again, remember that it was 1967. Things have not improved. He makes the interesting point that most ordinary people have been discriminated against in the field of sports. The best coaching, equipment, and venues are reserved for two groups: professional athletes, and youngsters. Before you scoff, go to a big city and try to access the school track outside of school hours. There's an excellent chance that the gates are locked and, if you're caught on 'their' track, you'll be warned against trespassing. Grossmont Community College in San Diego comes immediately to mind.

Bowerman favored the creation of running clubs but I'm not sure what he would have thought of our current crop. I suspect he'd be a bit dismayed. One of the admonitions in the back of the book as he talks of forming clubs, both formal and informal, was this: "Watch out for the "professional," who urges you "ever upward." This type of instructor regards you as something akin to un-American if you don't strive all the time. That's not what jogging is about."

Something to think about the next time you head for the track and I'll throw in another question as a bonus.

Are you having fun?

Time to Catch My Breath

Over at letsrun.com, they're having a fun little thread about middle school coaching and proper breathing techniques. Since I help coach the same age range, I put my two cents in. I spend a bit of time working with them on abdominal or belly breathing, but it really isn't a major focus given the really short season we have to work with.

The other thing I teach them is sequencing. In. Out. In. Out. And at every race I remind them of that little factoid. Some of the parents will laugh but it helps a lot of them. Not that they literally forget to breathe, but it gives them something to focus on other than their nerves.

In my case, I breathe about as well as a corked bottle of wine. I compensate by being very mechanically efficient and do the best that I can to improve oxygen uptake. There are a ton of books that will proclaim to teach a runner how to get more air in, and there's plenty of workouts, too.

I find that long intervals do the best job of driving improvement on lung power as well as long steep hills. Unfortunately, I haven't been doing either lately, so while my legs have gotten a lot stronger, I haven't picked up any noticeable top end speed.

That will probably be the case for the next couple of months while I build up my base to handle the mileage around the Seven Devils. Once the base is built, I'll do some sharpening to bring the lung power online for the trip.

And, just in that little description, you get an idea on why teaching breathing techniques to the kids isn't a good time investment. We only have eight weeks total. So, yes, we give them some exposure to the ideas behind breathing and running, but much more of our time is spent getting the kids fit enough to run the entire race and stay healthy at the same time.

Plus have fun.

If you click on the letsrun link, check out the name of the guy posing the question. Middle school Drama. Funny, because every year Steve and I promise "No drama." Every year, we're wrong - though last year set a new speed record.

Run gently folks. Don't forget to breathe. In. Out.

Long Singles

Nope, not baseball. I know it started last week but I gave up on baseball a long time ago. We're talking running. First, a recap of the week.

I ran six times last week, which will probably surprise my running coach since two of the days were supposed to be cross-training days. Yesterday, I finished with an 8.3 mile run around Troy, Idaho. The route I did I call the Orchard Loop. It's one of my favorite runs, one that I did first a dozen years ago when I moved up from SoCal. The GPS called it "Hilly Medium Long." That's about right as there's not a flat stretch on the whole run. It is a remarkably pretty run, with views of Moscow Mountain, the greening wheat fields, and open road.

Back when I live in Troy, I ran a minimum of six days a week and averaged upwards of 300 miles per month. Needless to say, I went through a lot of shoes. I was also as fast as I had ever been. I only did one run a day with speed work on Tuesdays and a long run on Sunday. Most of the advice seems to suggest that once you cross the fifty mile a week barrier, you should consider switching to two-a-day runs. The thought has been that fitness is driven by the frequency of exercise bouts so a runner completing two workouts a day will develop more fitness than one doing the same mileage in a single bout.

I never switched. I hate morning runs and thought my regimen was working quite well. Now comes an article from RunnersWorld about Yuki Kawauchi, the Japanese runner who shocked the world in 2011, about his training philosophy. One run a day, one speed session, one long run, one trail run. The other three were longer runs between 70 and 100 minutes.

Sounds awfully familiar.

There are considerable advantages for the long distance runner to the single workout schedule at the physiological level. From the article, Hudson notes that studies have shown that the differences of enzymatic production from 60 to 80 minutes are enormous. The muscles and connective tissues also adapt, getting stronger to handle the increased load. On a personal note, when I was running like this, my legs and feet felt indestructible. (Question - do you consider your feet when training? Would love to hear comments.)

An important consideration is the pace of that single run. Most people are going to run them too fast, especially if they're used to doing doubles. The inclination is to run at the high end of the aerobic range, burning more glycogen than fat. The long singles are fat-burners for people looking to cover ground, a lot of it. Trying to tackle a 10-miler in the same way that you would try to handle a 10K is going to leave your fuel tank empty and increase the risk of injury. Psychologically, it can be hard to watch everyone fly past you as you grind out miles. The trick is to stay focused on what you plan to accomplish on the run.

Since I brought up fueling, if you decide that long singles are your ticket to the start line of a marathon or ultra, don't forget to refuel after every run. Your body will need it. The runs will deplete you and if you screw up the refueling it will bite you the next day.  

Hopefully I'll see you out there.

Run gently, friends.
 

Like the Wind Magazine

Like the Wind Cover, Volume 4

Several months ago, I ordered a shirt with my middle daughter's favorite Pre quote. The only one that I found that looked as though it was of decent quality shipped from the UK, so I ponied up the money via Paypal. Not long after, the shirt arrived, along with a hand-written note of thanks.

Hand-written. I was surprised and pleased. The card was crafted from one of the Like the Wind magazine covers - another surprise as I didn't realize that they were publishing a magazine, too. Junkie that I am, I ordered a slew of their back copies, which sat on my table begging me to clear time to read them.

Yesterday, my first day off in three weeks, I read Volume 3.

First, it's not a slick, glossy magazine along the lines of Running Times or Runner's World. Using sustainable materials, Like the Wind delivers a beautiful journal with original artwork and stunning photography. The pages have weight to them and each edition a sense of heft.

Where Like the Wind also diverges is that the articles inside are not written in the usual bombastic "5 Tips to Improve Your 5K" format so familiar to us. Instead, each is a thoughtful drop into the running experience, some from the perspectives of incredible runners like Jillian Kornet or Lizzy Hawker, but there are articles by more mortal types, charity runners explaining why they run in 'fancy dress' (British for costumes) or the pleasant surprise one runner encounters in a 15K she had planned as a time trial before discovering that it was an old-fashioned trail run with a couple of hundred runners and no marching bands to generate the excitement.

The range of voices are diverse, some of the articles written by professional scribes, while others rely on the emotion running, and their individual reasons for running, evoke on the page.

The magazine first published in 2014 and clearly stands as a work of devotion, not just to the running community as a whole, but to the idea that there is more to running than a PB. By approaching the sport as a way of life rather than simply a competition, they give credit to the vast majority of runners that seek a voice that talks to them.

If you would like to contribute to Like the Wind, here's the page to their information. If you want to subscribe, here that link. If you live nearby and would like to borrow a copy to read, let me know. I do want it back, however. These are keepers, to be kept on the shelf next to my favorite running books.

Are You Competitive?

Runners get asked all sorts of personal questions, starting usually with a query about basic sanity. Wait, that's not quite it . . . usually it starts with a statement, not a question.

"You're crazy!"

"Nope," I reply, "except without a run, then I'm a crazy sonofagun. If I run, all the little floaty bits inside my head settle down instead of playing bumper cars with, you know, thoughts. Makes everything better."

This elicits one of those looks, with the more easily frightened sidling back a step, just in case. You can read their thoughts in the wide eyes. He's a runner. What other crazy crap is he into?

"How far do you run?"

"Not too far, usually. Maybe 3-4 miles some days, or 15 on trails if I'm out playing."

"Oh." Always a pause. "I could never do that." That's the typical comment. They're wrong, even if they don't know it. They could do it. Human beings are capable of so many great things and running is both the best and the least of them.

The other response I get is "I only run if I'm being chased by a bear" which really isn't at all sensible since a bear can sprint in excess of 30 mph. Not even Usain Bolt can out-sprint a bear. You're better off relying on a gun. Or, in my case, a pleasant disposition, and a squadron of harried-looking guardian angels desperate to find a better gig.

"So do you do marathons?"

This is were I get in trouble.

"Some, but I actually prefer longer stuff and smaller crowds."

Longer stuff takes a second to process. To most reasonable folks, a marathon is an already unreasonable distance to run. I mean, there are reasons why wheels, and bikes, and cars were invented and it wasn't to create full employment for union workers named Bubba or Ski. (If I were a politician, I just lost the Pennsylvania and Ohio votes. Fortunately, I have higher standards for myself.)

"So, what's the farthest you've run?"

"101.43 miles in 22 and three-quarter hours." My turn to pause. "It was a track race in San Diego."

Truth. My longest run ever took me 400-plus laps around the same track and deposited me exactly where I started, with tired legs and one small blister. I didn't say I was sensible.

Now it's back to them. They still are puzzling out which made less sense, running for nearly 24 hours or doing it on a track. The skittish ones will quiet down at this point, and try to avoid eye contact. That's what they do with the buzz-cut crazy man on the corner of Thain and G streets who pummels the air with his hands as he shouts at the passing cars. The brave ones have to know.

"Why?"

"Damned if I know."

"Are you competitive?" This one gets delivered with a frank look of confusion. There's got to be a reason.

"Absolutely."

The look on their faces is pure relief and a smidge of faith in the universe is restored.

"I guess it makes sense to run if you're good at it." They don't really mean it, but it at least fits. Running isn't a practical activity, leads to sweat and getting teased by shouts of "Run, Forest, Run!"

"Oh, I pretty much stink at running."

Eyes spring wide and stare. I continue, hoping to clarify.

"I'm way too tall, way too broad for a runner. Plus, I don't breathe to well." I say all this with a rueful smile. It's all true, every word. I'm 6'3" and 180 pounds. Too big. The good runners are 5'8" and 135 and don't use an inhaler."

By now, they've resigned themselves to the idea that for the foreseeable future, be it 10 minutes or 2 hours, they're stuck with a loon. Still, there's one more stab at getting to the heart of the crazy that is me.

"So why do you do it?"

"It's fun."

Fun, in this case, might be a relative term, kind of like-and maybe related to-crazy.

Myth Always Overruns Reality

I did the workout the coach prescribed yesterday, an easy run. I've been having trouble slowing myself down on the easy days, usually running a minute per mile faster than I am supposed to, so I slipped on my barefoot shoes.

I got an earlier version of these Osma's about the time that Born to Run came out. That was when the barefoot craze cranked up and everyone seemed to want some, usually the Vibram's because of the coolness factor. A few people, like my youngest daughter, went truly barefoot for some of her runs. Drove her coach nuts when she did.

I was thinking about barefoot running and barefoot shoes after reading an article about the cancellation of the Ultra Caballo Blanco. The Tarahumara live in the cartel infested badlands of the Copper Canyons and live with the violence year-round. The race organizers decided that the level of violence was too high and cancelled the race at the last minute.

Some runners completed the race anyway, in a tribute to their hosts. Kudos to them.

The author of the article, Justin Mock, got one thing wrong though, and it would have annoyed the heck out of Micah True, aka Caballo Blanco.

He lived in the remote area of the Copper Canyons to be close to the Tarahumara (also known as Raramuri) people, the barefoot Native Americans known for their long-distance running prowess, whom the race benefitted by providing vouchers for corn, beans, rice, and flour.

Micah True made a visit, not long before he keeled over dead in the New Mexico desert, in Moscow, Idaho. He talked about why he started the ultra (which wasn't named after him at the time) and his love of the Tarahumara. In his voice, you could hear the pride he felt at being accepted into their community, a man who finally found his home.

He also talked about his disappointment with Christopher McDougall, the author of Born to Run. Two points in particular upset him. The first was a breakdown of trust, of confidences shared in private that reached the pages of the book in overly dramatic prose. The hurt was palpable.

It was the barefooting craze, though, that annoyed him. For a fee, True would guide Americans around the Copper Canyons, promising them that "he would run them 'til they broke if they wanted." It seemed that some of them felt gypped because he ran in shoes. They'd accuse him of being a fraud when in fact, they were the victims of their own poor comprehension.

Justin Mock either didn't read Born to Run, or needs a refresher. Barefoot Ted ran without shoes. The Stanford track team would run without shoes. The Tarahumara, as recounted in the book, ran in huaraches, thick soles from reclaimed tires, tied together with string. Caballo Blanco ran in whatever he happened to have.

We unfortunately live in an age where people expect miracle cures (why do my feet hurt?) and latch onto the next, greatest thing - or The 10 Things You Must Do To PR Your Next Race hype. (I made up that title, but you get the idea.) When Born to Run came out and clobbered Nike, a lot of people cheered, convinced that their running problems were someone else's fault and that barefoot running was the new miracle pill.

I am not sure that Micah True got this part. All he knew is that he presented himself honestly and, because someone didn't read a book accurately, he got accused to misleading people. It didn't help that he thought barefoot running was a stupid idea. He was right, as a cure-all, but it has its place.

All this rattled through my head yesterday, a result of my run. In the middle of the night, a small regret re-emerged, the same one that I had the day I heard he'd died a runner's death outside of Albuquerque,  that I didn't find the wherewithal to head to the Copper Canyons before Micah True passed. I didn't need him to run me to death, or challenge me. What I lost was the opportunity to see the Tarahumara through his eyes, and to see him from their's.

I'm not big on miracle cures, but the magic that happens between people - that I find awe-inspiring. That was the big point that Micah True thought everyone missed in Born to Run.