The Marathon is Not For Everyone

The following is an excerpt from Runners' Books and Smart Ware which was the title of a catalogue put out by John L.Parker's Cedarwinds Publishing Co. The date for this catalogue was Winter 1997-98.As mentioned the other day,the best feature of these catalogues was that they always included an article by Parker.To provide a little background on the excerpt you are about to read, he relates his impressions on aspiring marathoners after reading John Krakauer's book,Into Thin Air, which gives an account of some ill-equipped novices who attempted to scale Mt.Everest and ending up dying in the process. I should also add that Parker is not a fan of the trend that was quite popular at the time,and may still be,of taking a person who runs very little and having them do a marathon within a year or less. Those who promoted this like Jeff Galloway and others, encouraged people to try it with the inference being that in doing so it would be a kind of transcending,be all, end all experience John writes: "Absent from some pre-existing medical condition, very few people will die attempting to run a marathon,but for many their effort will be every bit the fool's errand of those Everest climbers. They will buy the books,hire the coaches,join the groups,learn the latest techniques for carbo-loading or pre-race hydration. They will consider the "walking break" approach. They will follow the Galloway Method or the Henderson Method. They will do all of this with one goal in mind: surviving a marathon.Many of them will hardly consider or cede much importance to events of lesser distance. There is,apparently,no spiritual transcendence to be had overcoming obstacles not sufficiently imposing to the man on the street. Hardly anyone brags at a cocktail party about "finishing a 10k" anymore than a novice would set out to climb K2,the second highest peak in the world; no cachet,you see,no dining out for the rest of your days on such a non-brand name achievement(when compared to Everest). I would be the first to cheer would-be marathoners if their first event was a stepping stone to a well-rounded life of health consciousness,continuing fitness or regular participation in athletics. But so many of these efforts follow a well-worn pattern: months of intense effort,family disruption,happily lost weight,unhappily acquired injuries and fatigue,followed by the final,cathartic Event. Then after that,nothing. Once the merit badge is metaphorically sewn into place and the conquest rendered into a picture on the mantle,the great quest no longer resonates. Finishing a marathon now represents another ticket punched in a long life of restless accomplishment. Surely,you know them. Those energetic friends,relatives perhaps. Hell,Oprah's done it. And that all strikes me as a pretty fair prescription for becoming what might be called a spiritual dilettante(or amateur). Aspiring to be one in the marathon,while certainly not the unworthiest activity I can think of, is also surely not a direct path to enlightenment or even a more robust life." John really nails it in this article. It is so unfortunate that the majority of people described above give up on running after it is all over.

Yiannis Kouros Speaks

Yiannis Kouros is the greatest ultrarunner of all-time--bar none-- no dispute--no question.If you don't believe this then simply do a search on Google for a list of his records and you will see for yourself. His running accomplishments can be best described as otherworldly. I would highly recommend his documentary Forever Running to anyone who has a love of running. In this video you will get into the head,heart and soul of a genuine superstar. When Yiannis speaks we should all listen. The following is from an interview done in the mid 80's, he said: "I always choose new goals, it inspires me to try something that I think may be impossible." Have we set any new goals recently?

A Good Summer Read

As summer approaches, you will often read reviews for books that are described as being great for taking along to the beach.In keeping with that tradition I am going to recommend a book that was revised,expanded and then republished in 1989,it's called Runners and Other Dreamers by John L.Parker. John is known best for his novel Once a Runner which is considered a classic within the running world. What many may not know is that over the decades he has written for a variety of magazines. I recall buying one magazine called Ultrasport just because John was a regular contributor to it. He also headed Cedarwinds publishing that offered excellent books and videos on running. The highlight of the catalogue he sent out periodically was an article he wrote commenting on some aspect of the running scene. John is insightful,blunt and sometimes sarcastic. He raced at an elite level and knows running like few others do. The sub-title for Runners and Other Dreamers is,"True stories about long-distance races and those who run them.....". One of the many great things about the U.S. distance running scene was that up until around 1985, it was loaded with American runners who competed and did well against anyone else in the world. These runners were,for the most part, engaging and charismatic, coming from a variety of different backgrounds. Sadly, this is no longer the case in this 21th century,at least in comparison to the amount of U.S. runners that were around back then. The book takes you back to those days and offers a veritable who's who list of great racers. It gets you into the heads and hearts of these athletes which is always insightful and inspiring. The book is also loaded with memorable quotes,a few that come to mind: "to judge a coach's ability I need only look to the performance of his or her athletes,period." On achieving running success: "You must be true to yourself and not create myths and excuses." One article entitled, "Smoke and Mirrors," offered his thoughts on Jim Fixx and his untimely death. It would not be a stretch to say that few writers would have had the courage and honesty to write the things he did about Fixx. His comments caused an outrage in many parts of the running community. I recommend this book to everyone but especially to runners 40 years of age and under. I say this because they will get an idea of what elite distance running once was in this country. It is my hope that those days will someday return.

Dr. Ernst Van Aaken on The Key To Living a Long Healthy Life

I recognize that over the past few decades there has been much discussion as to whether or not running is actually condusive to living a long healthy life. As mentioned recently, the reknown one time advocate of aerobic exercise, Dr.Kenneth Cooper, wrote a book that in part cautioned people on running too much. He said something to the effect that if you run more than 3 miles a day you are running for reasons other than fitness. I would dispute this statement for a variety of reasons. The main one is that it is not the aerobic running that is the problem,it's the excessive and habitual hard (anaerobic) training and racing that are potentially unhealthy. That is what is stressful to almost all systems of your body. If you ever want to read something on this subject,for starters Google in a question that asks what happens to the body after racing a marathon. You might also include the words blood values and tissue breakdown to the question, you will be surprised at what you find. In addition, you may have read something else I've learned, and that is that the majority of athletes who have raced and trained hard for years do not always live long, healthy lives. I will quickly say here that I am not discouraging hard training and racing. What I am getting at is that running is great for your health when approached in a thoughtful,intelligent manner, when the athlete recognizes the whats,whys and how they should approach their running. One example: Joe the jogger who is 35 lbs overweight should not try to run the local 5k as hard as he can. I think you see what I'm getting at. As I said before,we must think about what we are about to do before we start,not just put on the shoes and go. Dr Van Aaken,who was referenced in an earlier post, had this to say about what happens to the sedentary person,by the way, he was a huge proponent of aerobic running for those who desire a long healthy life: "The tissues and organs age as a result of insufficient blood circulation and decreased stimulation; psychological tensions and burdens hasten the process of decay; lack of activity in physical and mental functions brings about the inertia of the mental processes and breeds indolence,excessive appetite and actual laziness,until the life stream finally becomes dammed up." Running is, and continues to be, one of the the keys to a long and happy life.

Grete Waitz

Many runners may not have known much about Grete Waitz prior to her passing yesterday. She was a great runner who accomplished much during her career. If you are unfamiliar with her I would suggest that for starters you go to Wikipedia and read her bio. She won the New York City marathon 9 times, qualified for the Olympic Games 5 times, set several marathon and distance records and won countless prestigious road races. But,as is often the case with the running greats, she was a genuinely good person who was a wonderful ambassador for her sport. She offered the following quote in commenting about the illness that eventually led to her death. It is both insightful and instructive. What she said made me realize that events and things in our life which may seem so troublesome or important, really aren't when you look at what truly matters. Something we should keep in mind each day is that tomorrow is guaranteed to no one. Grete said:

"You go into the disease as one person and come out of it as a different person. It has changed my perspective on everything,things that upset me no longer do."

The Sports Media,Ryan Hall and Missed Opportunities

A few months ago I lamented in a post about the lack of coverage given to American distance runners these days. I referenced back to the 50's and 60's when this wasn't the case. Well, this past Monday afternoon we witnessed a tremendous marathon run by Ryan Hall. He placed fourth at the Boston Marathon,running a time of 2:04:57. The winner ran 2:03:02 to set a new world record. So, if you do the math,Ryan finished 1:55 behind the winner. Oh yeah,he also ran the fastest time ever for an American in a marathon. For those of you who follow running, would it be an exaggeration to say it was the best marathon by an American male since the days of Alberto in the early 80's? I don't think so. It was a flat out phenomenal run. Predictably and sadly,there has been minimal coverage of Ryan and what he did in the sports pages. It was noted as a kind of sidebar feature to the winner's profile in the biggest state newspaper I read. Apparently,the preferred stories still lie in covering the pro sports whose seasons never seem to end and rehashing the nuances of the Nascar race held this past Sunday.What a missed opportunity by the media. It was a great effort by a personable and engaging American runner. What makes this lack of coverage all the more discouraging is that this is yet another missed opportunity for kids to read about someone who is not a whole lot older then them, running, and running exceptionally. It's another lost opportunity to cover an athlete who just might inspire our youth to take up this sport that we love. Some of the internet running sites should not be immune from a little criticism either. A few of the bigger ones seemed to focus more on the second place finish by American female Desiree Davilia than Ryan's race. The reality is this, no matter how good her run was, she finished 7 minutes off the world record while Ryan was 1:55 behind. And please,before anyone calls out the PC police, I am in no way disparaging Davila's run. It was a great day for American distance running, now if only the media would write more about it.

Teach Your Children Well

For several years I was a freshman cross-country coach at a high school in Buffalo,N.Y. I also trained the distance runners for track at that school. It was from my contact with other coaches that I came to understand what Arthur Lydiard meant when he criticized coaches for the way they trained their runners. The overwhelming majority of them believed in the, "you have to run fast to be fast" mentality.Consequently, workouts for their athletes were heavy on speedwork and hard runs.This "run fast to be fast" mentality comes primarily from an ignorance in regards to the physiology of children and young people. Lydiard correctly taught that young,developing runners can handle large amounts of aerobic running and training but heavy doses of anaerobic work is too stressful on their "highly sensitive nervous systems." In February, under the post entitled Lessons From Lydiard,pt.1, I wrote what I hope most readers recognize,that properly executed aerobic running is not just "junk miles" as some critics like to say. Lydiard,in his book, Running To the Top (Meyer and Meyer),repeatedly references the Kenyans as being Exhibit A in what happens when young runners have a background that includes years of aerobic running. Developing a high oxygen uptake through aerobic training is the key to running success. "Anaerobic training is what destroys young runners," he writes. There is a place for leg speed drills and hill work that are nowhere near as stressful as what most kids are subjected to in their school programs today Lydiard asserts.

Properly training our youth lays the groundwork for potential success in the future, but more importantly, it lays down the foundation for a lifetime of involvement in running.

May we have knowledgeable coaches who look at the "big picture" and don't sacrifice their athletes in a quest for momentary success.