January brings us a New Year and a new decade. It also brought the coldest weather we have had since we have been living in Florida. The temperatures were so bad I had to stay in the house since the cold air aggravates the lungs. It even brought ‘sleet’ to some highways another first in Florida for us. It reached 27 degrees in Tampa and many record lows were set. One morning June saw ice on our windshield and that certainly a first. It was suggested in the daily newspaper here that you could use a credit card since you probably don’t have an ice scraper! It was gone in a few hours so we didn’t need to use our credit card. But looking north we are still a lot warmer and there is no snow accumulation! The lowest temperatures were still high compared to the below zeros found in a number of the northern cities. Some wise man was right when he said, “The only thing you can do about the weather, is talk about it!”
I read a review about a book entitled “Born to Run”. It brought back many memories of my days of running. I began in early 1968. It came about from a visit to a headache specialist. I had been having a continuous headache for weeks and finally went to my personal physician who sent me to the specialist. He said he could give me forty reasons for a headache but in my case he noticed that there was fat around the back of my neck. As a matter of fact since I had left the service in 1958 at 155 lbs. I had worked my way up to around 215. The specialist suggested that the fat was reducing the amount of blood getting into my head. He asked what exercise I did and I had to say none. He suggested I start. I decided on running since having run in high school and college and of course in the Marines. I ran track and cross-country in high school and in our last year in high school (1947) we were so good as a team we won both City Titles. So with his advice I decided to start again. I began by walking and eventually running a mile. It was 1968 since I found records I kept in those days of my mileage and races. I went to a “Jog In” sponsored by the city in 1969 and it was there that I met Bill King. How I know it was 1969 is that he was picked out for being the first over 40 to finish. It was between March and May that this occurred. I know that because Bill King mentioned he had just turned 40 in March and I would do so in May. I remember he also had a cardboard sign hanging on his back that read something about giving the Postman an honest wage. So in speaking to him I found he was a postman and was very interested in running and we became friends. That friendship led to years of running all over the East Coast and lots of laughs and joys together. Sometime in 1969 we met Browning Ross. He had run steeplechase in the 1968 Olympics. He was track coach at a school in New Jersey. He published mimeographed sheets, which listed future races and results of those already run. He always noted when someone did not finish with a “DNF” next to his name. On one occasion we had the unfortunate event of someone collapsing and dying. He never the less made Browning’s results list and it noted he DNF but he added RIP!
I am grateful for a reminder of some of that information from an essay my son Andy wrote entitled “Boston Legacy” in 2001.It was a report of a trip he took to Boston to watch his brother Dan run the Boston marathon. His brother Paul and I also were there to watch and support Dan who is the youngest.
Browning’s mimeographed sheets also carried ideas by other runners including one by Tom Osler suggesting we wear Hush puppies or soft slippers to run long distance. Osler published a book in 1978 called the “The Serious Runner’s Handbook”. We had no ‘running shoes’ in those early days. In the book, I mentioned early, “Born to Run” written in 2009 the author, a runner, argues, and alludes to scientific evidence, that wearing running shoes for long distance runs creates injuries. The flat sandal or ‘hush puppies recommended by Osler he shows reduces the chance of injuries. In the book he writes about ultra races of 50 miles and up! So Tom Osler’s idea turns out now from years of running with ‘running’ shoes to have been more apt than even he probably even thought.
The book had a subtitle: “A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race The World Has Never Seen” It concerns the tribe of Tarrahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyon. They have “run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it.” (Quote from the cover leaf of the book). The author, Christopher McDougall, a journalist and runner tells the story of the tribe’s running and participating in 100-mile jaunts in soft sandal like shoes. He goes on to offer scientific evidence that for long distance running the foot is better without artificial supports since it, as the title says, was “Born (or evolved) to Run”
I did wear so-called running shoes when they became available. I was able over the years of running and preparing for Marathons not suffer any severe injury to my feet or legs. I ran marathons from 1971 till 1981. In 1972 I ran five marathons and before I had finished with running them in 1981 I had a total of 22 all with no injuries except what are called ‘shin splints’ or pain in the leg. They never lasted too long. In the book the author reports of several doctors who are specialist recommending no ‘running’ shoes for long distance. In fact one a research paper in the “British Journal of Sports Medicine” stated there is..“no evidence-based studies not one –that demonstrate that running shoes make you less prone to injury” He then issued three challenges to the running shoe companies as follows: “Is any running shoe company prepared to claim that wearing their distance running shoes will decrease your risk of suffering musculoskeletal running injuries? Is any shoe manufacturer prepared to claim that wearing their running shoes will improve your distance running performance? If you are prepared to make these claims, where is your peer-reviewed data to back it up? Dr. Richards waited, and even tried contacting the major shoe companies for the data. In response, he got silence” In an article a few weeks later in the local paper there was a report of a woman’s 25 years of running. They listed the number of shoes in her closet and right now (Jan.2010) there are nine pairs!
When I began to run we were lucky in some of the races if we had 50 runners. It is reported that “last year (2008) in the United States 425,000 marathoners crossed the finish line, an increase of 20 percent from the beginning of the decade” I recall how impressing it was in 1972 running at Boston that there was nearly 2000 runners! Frank Shorter had won the Olympic Marathon in 1971 and caused an increase in people seeking to run marathons. I think that when my son Dan ran Boston in 2001 there had to be near 40,000 runners! Ultra marathons were hardly thought of in the 70’s. I did run two 50K’s, which is 31miles plus. But those kinds of runs were rare and now with people running 50 and 100-mile races the 50K has become a dash.
Doing a little research in writing this issue I came across some history of the marathon that was different from what I had thought. One was the distance from Marathon to Athens was 25 miles when I thought it was only 24.The report of soldier named, Pheidippides, making the run and dying, is now considered a myth. That the marathon went to 26 miles and 385 yard did so in 1908 in London so the Queen could watch the finish. I had thought it went from 24 to26 because the Queen wanted to watch the finish and also begin at the Palace. All of which was not so. Now I know this is important information that you all will want to know!
As I finish these ramblings the weather has warmed up and I am beginning to be able to go out again. Now instead of running marathons I am hoping one of these days I can walk around the block. Because that is as far as I can hope for says my pulmonary doctor.
Until next time Pax Tecum!