Knoxville marathon, April, 2013 Training for week of September 15, 2013: walked 5, ran 5. Raced canoe one 3-mile course. My excuse for so little training: torn rotator cuff; doctor, therapy, severe sciatica. Tore it while loading my canoe onto my car. Unlucky.
Hopeful schedule for September 22 week: run 30 miles or more. No more canoeing this season!
RUNNING MEMORIES FROM A 91-YEAR-OLD
About 1960, age 38, I began running every day after work, say 5:30, 7-1/2 miles, at Sharon Woods, a Hamilton County park. I ran for fun, on the trails until deep in winter when it grew too dark, and thereafter only on the blacktop. Running became therapy for me since my wife died a few years before this, leaving our three young children and me behind.
I didn't race until 1970 when I ran my first marathon in 1971 in Monroe, Ohio, wearing heavy Sperry Topsider boat shoes. I finished in a minute or so under four hours, suffering a diaphragm cramp for the last half hour and bent over, clutching my stomach. (Remedy for this: exhale a few times, hard!) Three girls took pity on my condition and drove me to my car 100 yards away. I worried that I couldn't operate the clutch and brake but made it home.
I ran my first Boston in 1973 and didn't drink any water until the Prudential Building when a few of us runners snatched some water from uncleared restaurant tables from lunch. Carried a glass down to the bathroom where runners were crazily draped along the stairs and against the walls. A guy asked, could you spare a drink for old Johnny Kelley? I said sure. He was on the floor, back to the wall. Ed. note: Johnny Kelly was a Boston marathon legend.
In the mid-'70's Bill Hegwood and I founded the Duck Pond Athletic Club at Sharon Woods
where small numbers of us have been meeting every Sunday at 8:00 AM to run 5 miles or more, sometimes 20 miles (4 circuits). Over the years we have graduated a number of marathoners and Boston qualifiers. I started out faster than most of the rest but now I am the slowest of all: so we don't run together any more but we socialize in advance, shivering in the parking lot, while I listen to the younger members as they post mortems on the Saturday baseball, football or basketball games.
Since I run alone I can stop and talk with people, many of whom are regulars, some coming from nearby as often as three times a day, some with up to 5 dogs, many of whose names I know - for as many as 3 dog generations. In their wisdom, some (not the dogs) have become vegans after being hectored by me. Dogs love the parks which are museums to them because of the countless smells that they must investigate.
No matter the weather, these runs are an unalloyed pleasure. To be able to run 15 miles without any concern (except that it takes me forever with such socializing) is an unbelievable gift, to which in my younger days I would never have dreamed of aspiring. Twenty miles takes a little forethought about weather and plans for the evening. After having run a 20, running a marathon is not physically that difficult - unless you want to win (first place or an age bracket award).
I owe this gift primarily to the whole-food plant-based diet I have pursued for 22 years, acknowledging that life has permitted me to be stress-free, independent and domestically content. These factors are some of what the LifeNuts principles that promise successful living.
Note on the American Condition: I have a date this week with an MRI machine because of the rotator cuff injury. To confirm this appointment, a medical person called me and proudly announced that their new machine, the latest design, could now accommodate up to a 550-pound person. There must be a demand ....
Ed. note: you gotta love the sense of humor in this 91-year-old!
Hopeful schedule for September 22 week: run 30 miles or more. No more canoeing this season!
RUNNING MEMORIES FROM A 91-YEAR-OLD
About 1960, age 38, I began running every day after work, say 5:30, 7-1/2 miles, at Sharon Woods, a Hamilton County park. I ran for fun, on the trails until deep in winter when it grew too dark, and thereafter only on the blacktop. Running became therapy for me since my wife died a few years before this, leaving our three young children and me behind.
I didn't race until 1970 when I ran my first marathon in 1971 in Monroe, Ohio, wearing heavy Sperry Topsider boat shoes. I finished in a minute or so under four hours, suffering a diaphragm cramp for the last half hour and bent over, clutching my stomach. (Remedy for this: exhale a few times, hard!) Three girls took pity on my condition and drove me to my car 100 yards away. I worried that I couldn't operate the clutch and brake but made it home.
I ran my first Boston in 1973 and didn't drink any water until the Prudential Building when a few of us runners snatched some water from uncleared restaurant tables from lunch. Carried a glass down to the bathroom where runners were crazily draped along the stairs and against the walls. A guy asked, could you spare a drink for old Johnny Kelley? I said sure. He was on the floor, back to the wall. Ed. note: Johnny Kelly was a Boston marathon legend.
In the mid-'70's Bill Hegwood and I founded the Duck Pond Athletic Club at Sharon Woods
where small numbers of us have been meeting every Sunday at 8:00 AM to run 5 miles or more, sometimes 20 miles (4 circuits). Over the years we have graduated a number of marathoners and Boston qualifiers. I started out faster than most of the rest but now I am the slowest of all: so we don't run together any more but we socialize in advance, shivering in the parking lot, while I listen to the younger members as they post mortems on the Saturday baseball, football or basketball games.
Since I run alone I can stop and talk with people, many of whom are regulars, some coming from nearby as often as three times a day, some with up to 5 dogs, many of whose names I know - for as many as 3 dog generations. In their wisdom, some (not the dogs) have become vegans after being hectored by me. Dogs love the parks which are museums to them because of the countless smells that they must investigate.
No matter the weather, these runs are an unalloyed pleasure. To be able to run 15 miles without any concern (except that it takes me forever with such socializing) is an unbelievable gift, to which in my younger days I would never have dreamed of aspiring. Twenty miles takes a little forethought about weather and plans for the evening. After having run a 20, running a marathon is not physically that difficult - unless you want to win (first place or an age bracket award).
I owe this gift primarily to the whole-food plant-based diet I have pursued for 22 years, acknowledging that life has permitted me to be stress-free, independent and domestically content. These factors are some of what the LifeNuts principles that promise successful living.
Note on the American Condition: I have a date this week with an MRI machine because of the rotator cuff injury. To confirm this appointment, a medical person called me and proudly announced that their new machine, the latest design, could now accommodate up to a 550-pound person. There must be a demand ....
Ed. note: you gotta love the sense of humor in this 91-year-old!
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