Category: Sports

In November 2008, my friend Jay and I completed the Richmond Marathon. It was the first for each of us, and a successful culmination of a 16-week training program to get us across the finish line. The goal of our program was to simply complete the marathon, not in any particular time, but just to complete it. Among the many sights along the course in Richmond, was the shirt of an older gentleman that proclaimed he was ‘Larry’ of the ‘50 State Marathon Club‘. He was an inspiring and humbling sight. Jay and I finished in 5:56:57 and were both happy just to have completed the race before the course would have closed after 7 hours. Having assumed at the time that running one marathon would be enough to check that off my ‘bucket list‘, I was a bit surprised when, within an hour of our finish, Jay said, “I bet we could do better”.

The idea of running a marathon was not a recently found fascination for me. As a kid, I read both of Jim Fixx’s books from the late ’70s that helped to spur the increasing popularity of recreational running. And I referenced the first book extensively in a grade school report I wrote titled ‘The Marathon’. My mother and I gave the second book to my Dad for Father’s Day in 1980, and in the inscription I wrote, “Dad, We’re gonna run a marathon by 1983, so start reading!” So I was off by 25 years on that prediction, but clearly the idea stuck.

Jay’s suggestion that we could do better stuck as well, and just less than a year after Richmond I ran my second Marathon in Baltimore, where I beat my goal of breaking five hours with 10 minutes to spare. Done, right? No. Earlier in the summer the Surf City Marathon in my hometown of Huntington Beach, CA called out to me, and when Jay said he’d like to do it too, we signed ourselves up and ran it in February. A trip home is always nice, and I shaved a whole 24 seconds off of my Baltimore time, and we brought back some excellent surfboard medals for our effort. And then, just six weeks later I found myself in Virginia Beach running in the Shamrock Marathon, in which I ran with an orange beard, fell short of my goal time or a PR, but was consoled by some fine Yuengling Lager’s provided by the race sponsor.

Last July there was an article in Runner’s World about a man named Larry Macon. Larry earned himself a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for having completed 105 Marathons in a single year. It turned out that this was the same Larry that Jay and I had run behind for a good portion in Richmond (he finished a minute and 42 seconds ahead of us). I’ll certainly never challenge Larry’s record. And it’s unlikely I’ll ever be a member of that 50-state club. But I do believe I’ll keep running marathons, maybe one or two a year, hopefully in different cities; Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Dublin, OBX… so many choices. Running down the middle of closed streets with thousands of other runners is a truly unique way to see city.

Today I registered for the Marine Corp Marathon which will be run next Halloween. This one is really the DC area’s premiere marathon, and so a must do for any local marathoner (To the 50-stater rules, it counts as a Virginia race since it starts and finishes in that state, despite being run mostly in DC, so it does nothing to help me advance towards that membership and I already have two Virginia marathons now). The Marine Corp Marathon sells out quickly each year, so I was happy I got in. And this afternoon I learned some more good news, my running buddy Jay is registered as well!

Last month, when entering a run in my running diary, I noticed an anniversary was approaching. One year ago today, I put on a pair of crappy sneakers and set out on a run. It was a Thursday morning, and I did a three mile loop in 45 minutes. My doctor had told me that I could afford to drop 20-pounds, and I thought I’d do some running in addition to the weight training I also started doing.

I hadn’t run since high school, at least not without being chased. I had done a few 5 & 10ks, and my longest run had been a 10-miler around the Newport Beach Back Bay. I read Jim Fixx‘s book, The Complete Book of Running, and shared with my father an idea that maybe we’d do a marathon one day. But that dream got shelved and forgotten for 25 years.

But a year ago, at age 43, I took up running again, and a year later, I’m still at it. Time to reflect, why have I stuck with it and what good has it done me?

Keeping a running diary has played a very major role in my running. I was fortunate to find a great Mac program, TrailRunner, for logging and mapping my runs and maintaining a diary. I recommend it highly to anyone. Not only is the program great, but the developer is very responsive to help requests and is constantly improving what is already a great program. And it’s because of that diary that I can report that in the last year I’ve headed outside to run 123 times, and covered a total of 652.45 miles. I also recently added a Garmin Forerunner 305r to my running gadgets, and it does much to feed my tech geeky need to track every step.

I read somewhere that the difference between a jogger and a runner is the ‘entry form’. I’ve certainly found that a looming race provides much needed motivation. In the last year I’ve run two 5k’s, a 10-miler, two Half-Marathon’s (1,2), and last November in Richmond, completed a Marathon with my friend Jay. The picture above shows us running in the final mile, joined by our kids. That was definitely a highlight.

I’ve been chased by big snarling dogs in Vermont, and out-paced by my boss in NYC’s Central Park. I ran to the top of the hill in Kitty Hawk that the Wright Brother’s launched their gliders from, and the country roads of Central Illinois. I’ve run along the shore of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, and Cherry Creek in Denver.

I lost the 20 pounds, and two toe nails (they came back, hopefully the weight won’t). And for every time that I find myself asking what the hell I’m doing, lifting legs that feel like sandbags, there is usually a nice Forrest Gump moment to capture the quiet peace and beauty of just running through your surroundings. It took until last year for me to figure out what IS chasing me… age. Hopefully my running will keep me just a few steps ahead of it.