The Runaround

On April 16th, 2011 I will run the Salt Lake City Marathon. It will be the fifth time for me. My goal is to finish the marathon in less than 4 hours. Even if I finish at 3:59:59 I will be happy. To do this I need a minimum pace of 6.56 miles per hour, which sounds pretty easy as I sit here at my desk. To reach my goal I have employed a radical strategy: I am going to train. For real. I have once again joined the Huntsman Cancer Foundation’s Hometown Heroes program, which has a running coach who is helping us to reach our goals. Last December I started training for the marathon, and I was fat. There’s no nice way to say it. This year I started in August, and I am less fat than I was at this time last year, which gives me hope. As I have been training for real, here are some of my observations:

· Running on the street is better than treadmill running, for many reasons. The biggest one is that you are more motivated. When you’re four miles from home, you can’t quit.

· If you have to run on a treadmill, do it when The Biggest Loser is on one of the TVs. But not during sporting events. When watching football, when a running back would find a hole, I found that I would start running faster, crashing into the front of the treadmill.

· When I was a teenager I believed that it was funny to drive by people who were out running and either yell at them or splash them. Now I believe in Karma.

· People think that running is an inexpensive sport. They are wrong. Not only are running shoes expensive, but the cost mounts when you have to buy long running pants, sweatshirts and gloves and glucosamine. And don’t even get me started on how much I spend on band-aids for nipple protection…

· A hot shower is always nice, but it is even more so after running out in the cold for an hour or more.

· People comment to me about how much I love to run. I must be clear: I don’t ‘love’ to run. What I love is the feeling I get after the run.

· I could run without headphones and an iPod, but why would I want to?

· In addition to old staples like AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’, Metallica’s ‘Seek and Destroy’ and Soundgarden’s ‘Rusty Cage’, I have found some new songs that are good for running, like Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’ (go ahead and laugh), The Dropkick Murphys’ ‘I’m Shipping up to Boston’ and The Street Dogs’ ‘Justifiable Fisticuffs’.

· No matter how much reflective gear you have, running outside after dark in Utah is a dangerous proposition.

· Cyclists look down on runners.

· Cyclists look down on pretty much everyone.

· With 13th east torn up for construction and 7th east torn up for construction, and the gulley blocking northern routes, I am limited to running to the south, which can get pretty boring.

· Inversions suck.

· My ears sweat a lot. I have killed three sets of earphones in three months.

Now that I am running consistently I sleep better and feel better. Though I don’t hit the weights like Kate does, I feel better knowing that the kids have two good examples for physical health. I have been keeping a log of times, distances, weights, etc. that I will post as we get closer to the marathon. If you would like to contribute to my fundraising efforts for The Huntsman Cancer Institute, please contact me. I would be appreciative of any help.