I Run

As soon as a snow squall started yesterday, I dressed up and went out. I love running when it snows. Weatherhead Hollow Rd. was a bit slick, but I managed to keep the pace just slow enough to run pretty effortlessly for about 12 miles. Whenever cars approached I'd get off the road since visibility was not very good. I stopped at home after about 10 miles and took a couple of electrolyte tablets that I'd received as a sample. They seemed to give me a pretty good boost to run another 2.5 miles. I don't know if I'd use them in a race when there's Gatorade available, but on longer runs during training they might be a very good thing to have.

Unfortunately, the type of calories I'm taking in around the holidays are not conducive to very energetic runs. So I have to work doubly hard to burn them off. Instead of cookies, I ate celery sticks after my 6 mile run today. Then I had chocolate. Just too many temptations.

OK, Dean K. stopped running halfway across the U.S. That's still a whole lot of miles. I can relate to the grand ambition that running brings, pushing yourself to extremes. For me, two marathons a year was grand enough. But at some point you have to tell yourself, "enough is enough", at least for a little while. Since I've not been training for anything since September, my running has been more relaxed and unstructured. Though I know eventually in the coming weeks I'll need more variety and a goal.

To me, running home is running from Richmond Auto after I drop my car off. Or from my mom's house in Brattleboro. Or from the school. For Dean Karnazes, it's way beyond that. During my woefully short 12.5 mile run today I thought about Dean and how I really hadn't paid much attention to his recent 50 marathons in 50 days feat. I figured I'd read up on his adventures tonight. And then I found that he hasn't stopped running. New York to San Francisco. Just a quick hop across the continent.

My dad likes to say that there's never too much chocolate no matter how much chocolate you put into a recipe. Or too much garlic. They're just so good that there's never the chance that you'll overdo it. But apparently, you might overdo running when it comes to marathons, as this New York Times article examines: Is Marathoning Too Much of a Good Thing for Your Heart? Heredity seems to be a big culprit (from the article: "You can't outrun your genes"). Hmm, let's see...my grandfather had heart disease nearly his entire adult life, then died of a heart attack. My dad has a pacemaker. My 43 year old brother died of a heart attack. Not good odds from a DNA perspective. Then again, since I started seriously running three years ago, I brought my blood pressure down, which eliminates a risk factor. And I haven't had a cold. Nary a sniffle. It could just be my age - I've built up enough antibodies - but I think running has a lot to do with it. So I'm not just going to stop running marathons (and experts agree that nobody should stop running in general because of this study). But I'll probably be more aware of how my body is feeling and visit my doctor a little more regularly.

Supposedly an "Arctic chill" is coming our way, but I've yet to feel it. Today I was quite comfortable wearing shorts. Since I was in Chester, I ran the Green Mountain Turnpike loop, one of my favorite routes in that area. I added a little bit more with a trip up over the foot bridge that crosses the Williams River to High St. My overall average pace was around 8:25 - not too fast - but enough to get me pretty warm by the end. I think I need more sleep, though, because I really wanted to take a nap after that.

So I had to run up and down the driveway because I couldn't see the road. I made a game of tripping the photo sensor on the barn, then running as fast as I could down to the mailboxes, back around the house, then to the barn again before the light blinked off. If I ran comfortably hard, I didn't make it. If I ran all out, I did. A good December evening workout.

Now there's a phrase that gets attention. I saw it in the classified section of Runner's World. Apparently it's a writing contest at http://www.breakawaybooks.com with a $1000.00 first prize for a personal essay extolling the virtues of these two physical pursuits, done somehow in tandem I suppose (though probably not simultaneously). But you need to pay $5.00 for your submission. If it doesn't win, it might still go into a book but you won't get compensated for it. So anyway, $5 isn't that much to get a chance at $1000. And the odds are probably much better than playing a lottery, especially if you're a decent writer. But I'm hard pressed to come up with anything to write that a) is true and b) isn't just plain weird.