tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21136115491355516442024-03-13T13:13:58.502-07:00The 22nd MilerShare my view from the 22nd mile of the Boston Marathon as I consider my runner's past while forging towards my fortysomething's future on the roads.
There's a plethora of running advice out there. Here, not only will I share what I know about training for road racing and marathoning, but you will simultaneously see how well I take my own advice.
Will my running fly or freefall? Enjoy the ride on the 22nd mile.John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-70550003061306142872012-06-02T08:45:00.001-07:002012-06-02T08:45:31.483-07:00Useless Fenway fact of the day.One could run 112.5 laps of the Fenway park warning track and run a marathon!<br />
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Each lap is 0.2328 miles around. <br />
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In 1991, working security at Fenway Park, I once ran 17 laps counterclockwise, 17 laps clockwise, and one more lap for good luck, in an 8 mile run! (Thank you, Joe Mooney!)<br />
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Have a great weekend ... Go Sox!<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NHUP6YCgG9U/T8o0_VBEyHI/AAAAAAAAAFU/dl0cCEws44Q/s1600/afenway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NHUP6YCgG9U/T8o0_VBEyHI/AAAAAAAAAFU/dl0cCEws44Q/s1600/afenway.jpg" /></a></div>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-86065621318907376132012-05-27T17:33:00.002-07:002012-06-02T09:33:05.958-07:00An Emerging Natural Act<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <strong>“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."</strong></span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">..... It's profoundly good advice. However, when it comes to matters of self-coaching and running, I can be a bad student.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I am struggling. I have run more this month than I have in many months. That is good. I have lost 12 pounds over the past three weeks. A good start. It's just that ... I am not feeling like what I am doing remotely resembles ... a natural act. When I run, as I just completed doing over the past hour, I feel awkward. Perhaps the beautiful, sun-drenched Boston weather in the 70's F contributes to this awkwardness. As I run around my local reservoir, I feel my neurotic self-awareness heightened by onlooking critical eyes wryly watching me stride past them in the opposite direction resembling a shuffling, out-of-place Hulk of gammaflab attempting to leap across the stage of Swan Lake. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Others running in my direction pass me. I can <em>rationalize </em>this repeated act of perceived dominance over me as not bothersome. I know that today, for instance, I ran 5.3 miles in 63:05. Unlike most of my runs of late, I did not run/walk the distance. However, I did use my heart rate monitor, and I ran as slowly as I had to to keep my heart rate around my target rate of 134 BPM. Over the last two miles, I allowed for cardiac drift in the warm weather, allowing the heart rate to climb to 140 BPM - but no higher. The first mile or so felt very pedestrian. My proud Clydesdale's trot dissolved with every passing mile, however, into an increasingly painstaking crawl. One foot in front of the other. Muscles feeling like over-boiled shrimp without any crisp synapse capabilities. Just neuro-patterning strides restricted by an oversized haul in tow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> However, it was a successful run. Running the trail at the Chestnut Hill Reservoir that I have run, some years much more than others, since 1973, it's calm beauty remains an urban oasis hiding us who circle it from the swelling industrialization lurking just around the next construction site. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will always enjoy coming to this area, and I find it absurd to even fret about faster runners passing me by. It's just that that used to be <em>me</em> doing that <em>here!</em> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em> "</em>Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So it's time to release the anchor of my ghostly fleet feet to spring forth with 'a new thing'. I love the honesty of running. One becomes as fit as one commits to the pursuit. If you run more, to a certain extent, you will get faster. I'd like to get faster. At least, faster than today. However, I need to get healthier, and I know that running is one key component, along with diet and stress management, that will take me to a healthier me. That's important, because I want to keep up with my six year old son for many years to come, and most critically, I do not want to get older. I will age, of course. None of us get out of here alive! My point is, I want to <em>live </em>for a long time, with as much vitality as I can joyfully muster, and I am not willing to settle for getting <em>old.</em> Maybe that is what Pete Townshend meant when he wrote, "I hope I die before I get old"? If that wasn't what he initially meant, I bet it is now!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Therefore, I accept this awkwardness. We wait, in soreness, for muscles to recover from a workout with new, gained strength. Likewise, self-image is relative. It is worth looking and feeling a bit awkward now, because I have faith that the honesty of running will prevail, exactly to the extent that I commit to it. There have been too many days, even within this past month, where memories of how effortless running used to be restrained any fledgling enthusiasm for today's run to emerge. Just thinking about that day's run would suffocate it in a sea of excuse, dreading that baseline awkward feeling, that feeling of one's own body not even feeling like your own in motion, before I could even lace up my shoes. Excuses tempt me with empty guilt.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Today. Clear the distractions. The past was never committed to memory in order to choke today. Memories are fun to spin at campfires and the like, but the past, for better and worse, does not equal the future. Do the 'new'! Forge a new path. Create a natural act. What can you climb today?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Don't look back.</span>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-45598311209965247322012-05-09T11:25:00.004-07:002012-05-09T11:25:53.839-07:00A quick updateHiya!<br />
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firstly, I would like to thank everyone of you who have humbled me to graciousness with your well wishes. Thank you, and I pledge to not let you down. Wouldn't it be something if we could all pull ourselves up together? I have joined the Facebook group, 2012 Spring Clean Reboot, and hope to become active over there with you as well. <br />
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I am seeking recommendations regarding online log books to begin recording my runs on. I have used Buckeye Outdoors happily in the past, but I must admit I am out of the loop of cutting edge web-bery, so if you love <em>your</em> log, let me know why? Thanks. <br />
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I ran a nice 5 miler with Riley T. Dog this morning. He's happy to have his personal training job back! While out there, I listened to the latest episode of The Runner's Roundtable <a href="http://www.runnersroundtable.com/">www.runnersroundtable.com</a> Dr. Dave and his band of doctoral gypsies spoke about stain drugs that fight cholesterol, and of how studies with rats have suggested that statins drastically increase muscle fatigue and inflammation. As it turns out, I have been on a statin since 2009, when I got my arterial stent. This study fascinates me, and I want to research this finding more before I confront my cardiologist. What do you know about statins? If you think you can help me, kindly forward your knowledge here in the comments. Could it be that I have been sabotaging my health, as well as my running, with a pill that is supposed to be helping me? I am particularly concerned about anything that I may ingest that could lead to chronic inflammation. That's the big, silent killer out there, in my opinion.<br />
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See ya!John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-60590054390301791252012-05-08T12:04:00.002-07:002012-05-08T12:04:58.200-07:00I'm 'Howard Beale':<br />
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<span class="linksoda"> " ... get up out of your chairs, open out, and yell, and say it: "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"</span><br />
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<span class="linksoda"> I have finally hit it. the bottom. The abyss. The reflection of myself that speaks back to me, "HYPOCRISY". </span><br />
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<span class="linksoda"> As a runner, I have run marathons, including a BQ. I have run one mile under four and a half minutes. I have run up the entire access road of Mt. Washington, and I generally earned a reputation among my peers of a tough, but amicable competitor. Perhaps you could beat me, but you would sweat to do it. As a running advisor, I have given prudent advice to hundreds of people, maybe more, and most of them have achieved remarkable heights in fulfilling personal goals. I have been proud to have helped their running progress a little more prepared for having lent my proverbial two cents to them. </span><br />
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<span class="linksoda"> Never wanting to live my running dreams vicariously through others achievements, I have always deflected credit given to me towards the runners themselves that I worked with. They did the work, and so, they deserved the credit. I was most proud of runners who were able to hit personal goals without me after spending some time with me. If I helped them to achieve self-sufficient running, then I felt I had been a good teacher. Truly, advising in an arena of shared passion left me feeling good about having given back just a little to a sport I so love.</span><br />
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<span class="linksoda"> Yet, something was amiss.</span><br />
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<span class="linksoda"> The ironic paradigm that follows is one that I am not rejecting, but rather, one that I am proud of. Nonetheless,my approach is in need of a tuneup.</span><br />
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<span class="linksoda"> For the past several years, I have kept busy. No more busy than most of you, I imagine, but, suffice to say, my time has seldom been idle. I work as a Deputy Sheriff in Boston, which in this context accurately implies a wealth of accumulated stress wrapped in a blanket of forced overtime made from the fabric of care and custody of thousands of lost souls. My wife and son are blessings beyond compare, but I would be typing less than honestly if I were to suggest that I never brought the byproducts of my profession through the radiations of my furrowed brow onto the dinner table. Stress, in fact, has been the mostly senseless jailer separating my spirit from my being over recent times. I work responsibly. I am, I think, a very attentive husband and daddy. I am generally proud of my contributions to my community and to my family. </span>However, I am losing my fight with stress. <br />
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It has been over three years since I have posted an original blog entry. I have not run a race of any accomplishment or satisfaction since 2010. Moreover, the number of miles I have run over the past year totals approximately the amount of miles I used to run per week when I was running competitively. As I write, I am exactly 70 pounds heavier than I was when I last ran the Boston Marathon in 2005. Of more grave concern, in that time of weight gain, I have been diagnosed with cardiac disease to the extent that a stent was placed in my LAD "widowmaker" artery in 2009 as I was, according to my doctor, "one cheeseburger away from a heart attack." <br />
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Yet, I have <em>gained</em> weight since that procedure.<br />
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Am I crazy? I have helped people to greater fitness and health, but I am watching my lethargy towards running ... RUNNING(!) assist in essentially shortening my lifespan. I love to run. I really do. Yet, for the past few years, I have all but ignored it. "What is (my) major malfunction?"<br />
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Overtime .... overeat ... overwhelmed .... over! I have been chained to a couch of'something else to DO', but I have had the key all along! I have something I need to do: to run! I'm pain free, gym boss buttressed, and praying that this moment of catharsis doesn't dissipate upon the first time I have a new conflict of interest. After allowing myself to believe in any number of pitiful excuses as to my premature retirement from my own well being, I am at the point of this realization: if my life is to continue, if my life is to be authentic, if I am to reclaim my life from being defined ONLY by the responsibilities to others that I keep, I must manage my time. I am not going to stop keeping my responsibilities.I love my family and that will always be my first priority. However, if I am dead in five years, as my doctor has suggested to me that I could be on this path, then how much good will I be to anyone then?<br />
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I have allowed myself to believe that my stress was unique, that no one, not even my wife, could understand my pressures. Stress is poison, but having recently extracted my head from a pile of self pity, I know that you, yes, YOU, likely have just as much daily stress my yours truly. Maybe more! Yet you are running, reacting to the stress instead of surrendering to it. The author, Danzae Pace said, "Stress is the trash of modern life - we all generate it but if you don't dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life." There are a plethora of healthy ways to take out the stress, as it were, but for me, I have always enjoyed the soul cleaning satisfaction of coming home after a good, sweaty run. have you ever felt worse after a run? Yeah, me neither. <br />
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So I have arrived at this point of declaration. I, hear by, am taking on the most challenging person that I have ever advised in running ... myself. I have started recently. I am running up to 8 miles at a time, but utilizing the Galloway run/walk method. I am humbly but happily running at a 2:1 ratio for the next few weeks, when I will evaluate my fitness with a "magic mile." Some days I will run less than others, but I will try to run more days than I do not run. <br />
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But wait! There's more!<br />
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I also want to commit, at this time, to this blog. I hope that it will motivate me to continue when I am less motivated, and I also want to pro-actively re-enter this community with you, because I have missed speaking with you all, and I hope this blog can serve to help you invigorate your running as much as I hope it serves my own running. So if you have a chance, sometime hopefully in less than three years, write me a quick note here and let me know how you are doing, okay?<br />
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I'll see you back here soon .... because I am sick of acting as mad as hell, and I am not going to take any excuses anymore.<br />
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John E.<br />
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<span class="linksoda"></span>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-36635859477831984182012-05-01T08:53:00.000-07:002012-05-01T08:53:12.350-07:00dun dunt .... dun dunt ... dunt dut dunt dut dunt dut dunt dut dunt dut dunt dut dunt dut dunt dut - dnt ta dah!!!!!
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<b>JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO DELETE THIS BLOG ....</b><br />
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<strong>IT'S COMING ...</strong>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-711362476797214882009-04-11T11:16:00.000-07:002009-04-11T11:21:31.428-07:00Is Bill Rodgers Running Boston?!?<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SeDfiaaqpBI/AAAAAAAAADg/x4yRd4CfLAo/s1600-h/IVPTCIWUNYUZGDR_20090410133100.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323500541851640850" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 134px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SeDfiaaqpBI/AAAAAAAAADg/x4yRd4CfLAo/s200/IVPTCIWUNYUZGDR_20090410133100.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="color:#ff0000;">thank you Universal Sports!</span><br /><a title="Universal Sports" href="http://www.universalsports.com/HomePage.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000"></a><br />Weather to dictate Rodgers' Boston return<br />Fri Apr 10, 2009 By Dave Ungrady / Universal Sports<br /><a title="Send this article to a friend" href="http://www.universalsports.com/EmailArticle.dbml?SPSID=105671&SPID=13048&DB_OEM_ID=23000&ATCLID=3717182"></a><br /><br /><a title="Watch Boston Marathon LIVE on Universal Sports" href="http://www.universalsports.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=23000&KEY=&SPID=13048&SPSID=105672" target="">Watch Boston Marathon LIVE on Universal Sports</a><br /><a title="Bill Rodgers did not compete in the 2008 Boston Marathon, but he did attend a press conference during race week, shown above. " href="http://www.universalsports.com/ViewImage.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&PHOTOID=3613787"></a><br />Bill Rodgers did not compete in the 2008 Boston Marathon, but he did attend a press conference during race week, shown above.<br />A suggestion for those who hope to see running legend Bill Rodgers take part in the Boston Marathon on April 20 for the first time in 10 years: pray for cool weather. Rodgers said this week that he will run the 113th running of the race if temperatures stay around under 70 degrees. If not, he’ll likely be an impassioned spectator. “My plan now is to run it,” Rodgers said by phone from Boston, where he still operates his running store. “The last I heard we’re expecting some cool weather. But if it’s hot, I might have to wait until next year. After all, it’s been around for 113 years. I think it will be around next year.”<br />Runner often don't know how they're body will react to conquering Heartbreak Hill on the Boston Marathon course at about mile 20. Due to the course's proximity to the waters of the eastern Massachusetts coast, weather on Boston Marathon day can be as strong a variant. Races have been run in chilly, rainy conditions as well as in sun drenched heat as high as 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Sunny skies and temperatures that rose to the high 60s greeted runners at the 2008 race.<br />Rodgers has completed 15 Boston Marathons, winning four times from 1975 to 1980. He last ran the race in 1999 but did not finish. At age 48, Rodgers last completed the Boston Marathon at its 100th anniversary in 1996 in 2:53. He had planned to run the race in 2008 but recovery from prostate cancer surgery in January 2008 forced him to drop out. The cancer is still a concern for Rodgers, 61, who may face radiation treatment in May. Still, he’s been able to train well for this year’s Boston race, running as much as 70 miles per week. He’s also logged runs of 16, 20, 21 and 23 miles, the latter on the Boston marathon course. “It beat the living daylights out of me,” he says. “I haven’t done such a long run in 10 years. I didn’t drink enough. But training’s going okay.”Rodgers completed the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in Washington, D.C. last weekend, running a 7:10 per mile pace to finish in 1:12.02, 9th in his age group and in 798th place overall.Rodgers has not completed three Boston Marathons three times, a fate he hopes to avoid this year. In addition to the 1999 race, he did not reach the 26.2 mile mark in his Boston Marathon debut in 1973, dropping out at mile 21. He was a victim of a too-fast start on the slight decline in the first few miles and a general naiveté about running marathons on such a demanding course. Oppressive heat stifled Rodgers in the 1977 race, forcing him to drop out a couple of miles from the finish. Rodgers chose to seek cool refuge nearby in the renowned Eliot Lounge, a pub frequented by runners in Boston that closed in 1996. He said with a laugh Thursday that since he will not be near the lead runners he might have to seek out a television in a pub during the race this year to find out who’s winning what will likely be an intriguing race with top U.S. marathoners Ryan Hall and Kara Goucher expected to content for victories. The only time Rodgers remembers walking in a marathon occurred at the Vietnam International Marathon in 1992. He led up to about mile 23 but walked some from there to the finish due to the heat and ended up 19th. Rodgers welcomes walking part of the Boston race on April 20 if required and hopes to break four hours. “I’m not racing on the course,” he says. “I’m retired as a competitive marathoner. I’ve got too many miles in my body. After cancer, it means a lot more to me. If I finish it will feel like a victory. When I ran the 100th Boston, I didn’t race that one. It was pure celebration. That’s what I want this to be.” </div>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-8350185953158806342009-03-29T12:55:00.000-07:002009-03-30T19:34:20.155-07:00The 2004 Changling<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">By 2004, I needed to get healthy. Never mind that 287 pounds on my 6'3" frame was not helping my re-entry into running with any grace of movement. 287 pounds just wasn't healthy at all. It wasn't muscle: it was 32 percent body fat. Double shifts and last call, with 3 hours of sleep before repeating the process -- yeah, I reaped what I sowed.</span><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ok0rau4BTr0/SF1L0ZGSj3I/AAAAAAAAAv0/pDhalU_qcSk/s400/27CXCA313ZP6CAVBW8Z1CA40ICB1CA8J5KTWCA4IZRSZCA245HQVCA4LIWJPCAQJ7X8WCAQZIKUSCATAY1EBCA3DW7KYCA9IUV25CAVB4A1UCAZ4PHT8CAS6PY2VCASX3WYACA7WZ2NICA3YUOYMCADE4ATU.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 116px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 105px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ok0rau4BTr0/SF1L0ZGSj3I/AAAAAAAAAv0/pDhalU_qcSk/s400/27CXCA313ZP6CAVBW8Z1CA40ICB1CA8J5KTWCA4IZRSZCA245HQVCA4LIWJPCAQJ7X8WCAQZIKUSCATAY1EBCA3DW7KYCA9IUV25CAVB4A1UCAZ4PHT8CAS6PY2VCASX3WYACA7WZ2NICA3YUOYMCADE4ATU.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">John Belushi: <span style="color:#000099;"><em>"I logged a lot of miles training for that day. And I downed a lot of doughnuts. Little Chocolate Donuts. They taste good, and they've got the sugar I need to get me going in the morning. That's why Little Chocolate Donuts have been on my training table since I was a kid."</em></span></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#000000;">So, on Friday, the 13<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">th</span> of February, I resolved to get back into shape once and for all. Or, at least for now. I was living with my girlfriend, and I knew that marriage and family were on our horizon. (It was, thankfully, and we have a three year old son now!) The way I looked at it, if I didn't give myself this year to turn my physique around, it was only going to get more challenging in subsequent years when I was would happily choose to place myself away from the center of my own world. 'If I couldn't balance my fitness into my life now, I might not ever get it right', I feared.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Indeed, I committed to this year as a last chance.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Barbara, who became my wife, saw from my early attempts at running through this New England winter out of shape, and frustrated with the impossible task of trying to run alongside my ghost of fitness past, that I needed a seismic shift to my training's focus.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">"You can't run until you lose some weight (she is a nurse practitioner). You're going to get hurt again unless you cross train."</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">"But ... I'm a runner and"</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">"You're overweight. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">C'mon</span>, join the gym with me?"</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">So, realizing the validity of her suggestion sometime after the initially succumbing to the thriving treatise of <em>whatever she wants, </em>we joined our local gym. As a result of being just smart enough to listen to her further, I also saw a nutritionist, who got me to restrict my calorie intake to 1800 calories for the day initially, and got me to rediscover the joys of grapefruit, oatmeal, and really, that whole fruit and vegetable category at large. I began eating six times a day, but I ate smaller, more balanced meals, and I found my body adjusting to this culinary revolution quite nicely. Just as I began to get a bit hungry -- it was time to eat again: cool!</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">... and did I mention the "cheat days"? Once every month, it was a wonderful, one day digression back into all things involving a greasy Italian pizza! The trouble was, once I started gaining fitness, I didn't want to break my momentum, so even the cheat days became more moderated ... <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">y'know</span>, with veggies on the pizza! (insert wink here)</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">What I began to discover for myself was what I came to refer to as my <strong>triangle of fitness</strong>: <strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">running, weight training, and responsible eating</span></strong> . I won't call it dieting, because that term infers a short term regimen. We're talking lifestyle changes in how we choose food, here!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">My laymen motivation for weight training stands as follows: for every year we age over the age of 30, we humans lose approximately one pound to one percent of our body's muscle mass each year, which is oftentimes replaced by fat on our frames. (see Sherri <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">MacMillan</span>, owner of Northwest Personal Training in Portland, Oregon, and author of <em>Fit Over Forty: The Winning Way To Lifetime Fitness</em>.) At age 38 in 2004, I deduced that maintaining some regimen of weight training was the closest thing I was going to find to my personal Fountain of Youth. If I could gain a bit of lean muscle back onto my frame, I hoped that I would have more muscle available to burn fat from my midsection and beyond. </span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"></span>I had seen a certain 'fit but fat' phenomenon in myself over the years, and among many other runners I saw through the Bill Rodgers Running Center and at local road races. Aging runners who could put up some impressive performances on the roads, who physically <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">looke</span><a href="http://blog.oregonlive.com/runoregon/small_henry%20rono%20crop.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 244px" alt="" src="http://blog.oregonlive.com/runoregon/small_henry%20rono%20crop.jpg" border="0" /></a>d strong in the legs, but a bit rotund around the middle. These runners, some of whom are friends of mine, (that's Henry <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Rono</span>, former world record holder in the steeplechase, 3k, 5k, and 10k ... all done over 80 days in 1978) could still run well on the roads, but it seemed that they were, nonetheless, slowly losing the lean tone that defined their physiques just a few years before. These are often gloriously trained runners, running year after year without major injury, so it seemed increasingly peculiar to me that these same athletes of such merit could, after all of those miles, still be getting somewhat thicker through the middle, while simultaneously losing their former muscle definition throughout their bodies. Sometimes, I saw an increase in bad knees and sore Achilles tendons in formerly Teflon-like trainers. Other times, I'd see a former speed demon not gain fat around the middle, but lose so much lean muscle tone that they became brittle with age, even suffering from osteoporosis. </span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Consequently, I felt that if I could get lean and stronger, that I could <em>then </em>maximize my running towards a place I hadn't seen in years. I didn't have a racing goal in mind at this point. I didn't even know if I could race anymore. I just wanted to feel like I was flying on the roads again. I wanted to float through some miles with a sensation involving not always involving maximal effort, but absolutely involving that quiet harmony of fluid movement and ease of pace that felt just occasionally like ... flying, where one feels totally in control of an act that, by virtue of its pace, was essentially out of control. </span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">That's fun! I wanted that feeling again.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">It came slowly, but I began to see some small changes, changes which motivated me to stay consistent through the inevitable challenges of time management. After two months of my triangle training program, I had lost thirty pounds and had simultaneously felt systemically changed. I became a vigorous human, and it was a welcome return.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">At about this time, I ran in a 5 mile road race that I ran in every year, regardless of fitness, because it was a charitable run that drew many entrants from my workplace along for the run and subsequent post race festivities.</span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I ran 41:10 that day, and it was a hard effort. However, it was fun, too, in that a scant 8 weeks earlier, I could barely cover 5 miles without stopping for a portion of humility. It was a pace that would become a bookend for me in this year ....</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I trained very consistently, with some small amounts of variety to my workouts, but more consistency than works of whim. The following was a sample week from May 10 -16<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">th</span>:</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">M: 5 miles easy, plus 2x circuit training routine (total body weight training)</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">T: 6 miles easy over hills.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">W: same as Monday.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Th: 7 miles on the Charles River (from work) out to River St. Bridge tempo (8:19 pace for 3.4 miles in 28:19) </span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">F: same as Monday.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">S: 3 miles (bonked out after work from a longer run -- nothing in the tank!)</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">S: 7.5 miles over hills.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Tot: 37.5 miles.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">That was pretty typical for that period, though during most weeks I had a day off in there from running. I do clearly remember having a handful of bonked runs during that period, though. They were much more rare in my 20's! A concession to age and recovery. </span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">By mid June I had lost over 60 pounds, down to 224, on a morning I was off from work. On a cable TV program called "Cold Pizza", I perked my ears when I heard the tease for an <a href="http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Track/9064/bobkennedy.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 120px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 201px" alt="" src="http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Track/9064/bobkennedy.jpg" border="0" /></a>interview with American distance running legend Bob Kennedy. I was in the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta in 1996 when Kennedy made a bold move with several laps to go in the 5000 meters, gallantly finishing in sixth less than 5 seconds behind <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Vénuste</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Niyongabo</span> of Burundi. I admired Kennedy so much for his bold efforts that warm and muggy evening, even if a medal was not in the offing for his decisive run. He made that race exciting. Now he was on TV, announcing his intent at running that fall's <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">ING</span> New York City Marathon, his first marathon. I think everyone likes to root for the home team, and Kennedy is an American running a race more recently dominated by foreign champions. As a fan of professional racing, I was excited at Kennedy's prospects. However, I became intrigued when the talking head opposite Kennedy mentioned something about the lottery still being open online for random entry into this race!</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I felt more energized than I had in years, and my legs were responding well to the increased training. A marathon, though? That represented a leap into the blind. I had not run a marathon in 21 years, and though that one yielded a 2:46, my current condition had nothing to do with that runner! I couldn't run five miles in early February!</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I received an email from the New York Road Runners Club a few weeks later.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WZxb9c6r0YM/RukRFrdcSaI/AAAAAAAABdE/XVg7Jfv4mHk/s200/Gary_Park2.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 133px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WZxb9c6r0YM/RukRFrdcSaI/AAAAAAAABdE/XVg7Jfv4mHk/s200/Gary_Park2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I was accepted. I was in. Running the same race as Bob Kennedy. The same race my some time employer, Bill Rodgers, won four times. The same race my former boss in my time in New York City working at Super Runners Shop, Gary <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Muhrcke</span>, won in its inaugural year of 1970.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I would be running the New York City Marathon.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Now what do I do?!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">NEXT TIME: Running towards New York</span>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-90162252046069367442009-03-24T00:49:00.000-07:002009-03-24T20:58:14.126-07:00Get Your Wings (again)<span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">There's a state of denial to the long, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">insidious</span> process of thoroughly getting out of shape. In terms of our own running, it doesn't come to us with any sense of jolting percussion, even when the performance stuns us with underwhelming mediocrity. One of the triumphal appeals of running is the sheer honesty of it. One generally gets out of the sport exactly what one invests in it. Consequently, how can it be that we can run in a local five mile road race every year, clearly see our finishing times corrode from their former, loftier summits of achievement, and yet somehow or other, we are able to personally rationalize how we are not in as rapid a decline as we actually are?</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Do we confuse our hard efforts with personal performance? 'Well, I certainly hurt as much in that race today as I ever have! That was <em>pretty</em> good!' Are we made to be vacuously content with our distending finishing times by a consciousness of colorlessness? Where did the passion go to our training that our racing has become so vapid?<a href="http://www.hogwild.net/images/Misc/britney.spears-bra-vapid.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 191px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 273px" alt="" src="http://www.hogwild.net/images/Misc/britney.spears-bra-vapid.jpg" border="0" /></a></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I used to run like Lennon and McCartney wrote albums ... nobody told me I was running with the rapture of Britney Spears! (I know Britney has had her problems -- but I assure you, I am giving you the milquetoast Britney <em>at her peak</em> as an example, okay?!?)</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Some excuses are immanently more excusable than others. Our lives are not as single minded as they might had been at another time of our lives. Family, careers, and changing priorities rightly take their needed positions in our evolving lives. </span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">'Running isn't everything!'</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">... but it is <em>something</em>!</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Indeed, by 2004 I had come to the realization that the elixir of passion that drove me to excellence, not only in terms of personal records on the road but also in terms of achievement in the classroom and in my relationships as a living entity, was running. It was my moxie, my vehicle of vitality ... it was the fire in my belly that defined me, as a runner, as a neighbor, and as a person with a passion for living.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Awoken at last by a cathartic run in a February snow storm that ended so miserably premature, with legs reduced to formless flesh and lungs seared with the shame of a runner lost to years of languid noncommitment, I impossibly remembered a simple solace:</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I liked to run.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I liked to run fast.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">So, flabby, wet, and exhausted, it was at that defining moment that I found my wings.<a href="http://www.funbumperstickers.com/images/Aerosmith-Red-Logo-S.gif"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 180px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 180px" alt="" src="http://www.funbumperstickers.com/images/Aerosmith-Red-Logo-S.gif" border="0" /></a></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">(Some of my best running has been run to the internal soundtrack of one of my favorite bands, who perpetually play within the ipod in my mind's eye, so was it any coincidence that as my running improved in 2004, that Aerosmith released their most blusey rip roarin' rock record in years with <em>Honkin' on Bobo</em>? Just a thought.)</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Okay, it's early, but not that early, and I have to go to work! Later this week, I will post some of the things I did to get back in shape! </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I will leave you with this; it took more than just running!<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-40313659148057296722009-03-08T19:50:00.000-07:002009-03-09T18:42:36.202-07:00TEAM POINT TWO: RULES CHANGE!!!!!!!<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">We are going to have some difficult decisions to make soon. Everyone who has sent in an entry to be part of this year's <span style="color:#ff0000;">TEAM POINT TWO</span> experience has been terrific! The problem we have had, so far, is that some of the best entries we have had have come from entrants who have had one terminal flaw:</span><br /><a href="http://www.fmft.net/doh%20homer%20simpson%20doh.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 153px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 145px" alt="" src="http://www.fmft.net/doh%20homer%20simpson%20doh.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">They've already ran at least two marathons.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I have discussed this dilemma with the selection committee of Toni Harvey and Steve Runner. We examined what priorities were important to us in assembling what we feel is going to be a very exciting team of varied runners going into the autumn <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">marathoning</span> season. While we acknowledged that the concept of continuity between a group of otherwise differing personalities was essential to the success of this project, we agreed that we could achieve this continuity without necessarily adhering to an artificial barrier of having only run one marathon to one's credit prior to joining <span style="color:#ff0000;">TEAM POINT TWO</span>.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Consequently, on behalf of the selection committee, I <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">hearby</span> announce that entry into the six roster positions for <span style="color:#ff0000;">TEAM POINT TWO</span> will be chosen with the following amendment immediately enforced: to be considered for TEAM POINT TWO, <em>one must have run at least one previous marathon, <strong>but may have run more than one marathon</strong> prior to the autumn of 2009.</em></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">... How's that for legalese?!?</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">So that's it -- if you haven't entered yet due to the previous restriction, drop me a 50-100 word email telling us why <span style="color:#ff0000;">you</span> would help to make <span style="color:#ff0000;">TEAM POINT TWO</span> a most dynamic assembly of marathoners. My email <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">addy</span> is <a href="mailto:john_j_ellis@hotmail.com"><strong>john_j_ellis@hotmail.com</strong></a> .</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">No need to be fast. One just needs to want to be faster, and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">should</span> want to share that experience with us along the way generously, through new media channels of blogs and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">podcasting</span>.</span><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">We'll gather all of the entries and announce the members of the team before the end of next week.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">So <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">c'mon</span>! I WANT YOU!!!! Join <span style="color:#ff0000;">TEAM POINT TWO</span> TODAY!</span><br /><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">P.S.: I need a volunteer artist! <span style="color:#ff0000;">TEAM POINT TWO </span><span style="color:#000000;">needs a better logo than this increasingly annoying red font! Can you help? (thanks!)</span></span></p><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-5554818819024554122009-03-04T18:08:00.000-08:002009-03-04T18:59:21.646-08:00Casting Call: join TEAM POINT TWO!<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/Sa80Y315uyI/AAAAAAAAADQ/MQendgjdqc0/s1600-h/Marathon-26-2-tattoo-34852.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309520087604640546" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 214px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/Sa80Y315uyI/AAAAAAAAADQ/MQendgjdqc0/s320/Marathon-26-2-tattoo-34852.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">We're impressed with anyone who completes a marathon, and I always love to hear from runners as to how they achieved the results that they earned. However, I am increasingly saddened to see a number of runners set a goal to run a marathon, achieve that goal, and then suddenly disappear from the sport. </span><br /><br /><br /><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></p><br /><br /><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Why leave the floor when the dance is just getting started??</p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309527164865210978" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 173px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/Sa8600sT6mI/AAAAAAAAADY/XeWOpyQO4z8/s200/c.jpg" border="0" />So, with that in mind, Toni Harvey from the <a href="http://drusy.blogspot.com/">http://drusy.blogspot.com</a> , Steve Runner from the great podcast Phedippidations <a href="http://steverunner.com/">http://steverunner.com</a> and yours truly have come up with an idea: we want to promote running as a lifestyle, not just as a temporal challenge.</p><p>If you heard us during today's episode #19 of the Runner's Roundtable <a href="http://www.runnersroundtable.com/">http://www.runnersroundtable.com</a> , then you heard us introduce a concept that we think will make for a lot of fun this summer into the fall. It's the creation of <span style="color:#ff0000;">TEAM POINT TWO</span>, and you could be part of it!</p><p>Here's the deal: if you're planning on running a <em>second</em> marathon this autumn, then you may qualify. We are going to put together a team of 6 runners, all of whom are training to run their second marathon this autumn. We'll ask that you contribute to up to 7 episodes of the Runners' Roundtable, and we may have you post your training updates to a blog we may form as well. Age, sex, or ability do not matter, but what does matter is a willingness to train to better your marathon time from your first effort over 26.2 miles. If your thinking of that second marathon this fall and you want to share your road with us via the new media of blogs and podcasting, then let me know ASAP!</p><p> </p><p>Just send me an email of between 50 and 100 words or so explaining why you would make a dynamic and fun team member, and if Drusy, Steve, and I pick you, then you will get unlimited running advice from me, John Ellis, and you'll have a real opportunity to help other runners from around the world learn from your collective experiences. <span style="color:#ff0000;">TEAM POINT TWO</span> is based on the notion that 26 - point-two miles is a very special experience, especially when it's the 2nd time at the marathon. The race is no longer an unknown adventure -- NOW let's see how much better you can be!</p><p> </p><p>It promises to be very rewarding experience in a variety of ways, from your soles to your soul, so come along by emailling me now! My addy is <a href="mailto:john_j_ellis@hotmail.com">john_j_ellis@hotmail.com</a> </p><p> </p><p>Be a part of <span style="color:#ff0000;">TEAM POINT TWO</span>!<br /></p></span>NEXT TIME: I will do "Get Your Wings" very soon!John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-2819503604528338642009-02-22T19:35:00.000-08:002009-02-22T19:49:52.132-08:00Phoenix Rising, Part One<div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_c9w3rKoNHdg/RgHnh3Psr6I/AAAAAAAAATw/lSw40h1Dgi4/s400/bud.gif"></a><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SaIaAxsKt4I/AAAAAAAAAC4/R6KLrvQae_g/s1600-h/http---www.scsdma.org-news-newsletters-0504.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305831911636776834" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 214px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SaIaAxsKt4I/AAAAAAAAAC4/R6KLrvQae_g/s320/http---www.scsdma.org-news-newsletters-0504.bmp" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">These sort of things seldom happen overnight. In retrospect, I suppose there just came a time in my life where other interests claimed my passions. Not all of my passions in the Nineties were necessarily productive, either. While I did focus a fair amount of energy working overtime at my law enforcement assignments, and an increasing amount of energy in the latter half of the decade working at a variety of radio stations, I must confess to you that I also exchanged an enormous amount of time contrasting the 'last call' routines of many a barroom in Greater Boston and beyond. I still ran some during these days, but for the time being I was finished with training. No track workouts. No hill workouts. Very few long runs, and very few races for me in the nineties. No PR's.<br /><br /><br />It was a revelation, therefore, when I discovered the cathartic teachings of Larry "Bud" Melman.</span><a href="http://www.spencersundell.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/larry_bud_melman.jpg"></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> His soul purification ... err ... oh .. no! Ah, we miss you, Larry, but ... no.<br /></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></div><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 147px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 165px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.spencersundell.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/larry_bud_melman.jpg" border="0" /><br />No saga, either. I scarcely drank enough to embarrass myself (okay, there was that one night in Waltham, but I never touched Jack Daniels again!) Looking back, I think I drank just enough to stay out late just enough to get functional, just enough, three hours later to work just hard enough to get to the end of the day. No running that day. A few years later, I drank much less, but slept even less than that, moonlighting between jobs to the extent that I spent a lot of downtime on the weekends catching what few hours sleep I got in my Chevy before sometimes driving upwards of 90 miles to the next gig. No run that day, either.<br /><br />The months turned into years and the lost miles on the road inversely remodeled their way onto my waistline, to the point where, by the end of 2003, I knew that if I did not make some wholesale changes to my daily routine, that I would soon reach an apex remanding me to a 'fat and 40' point of no return. A foundational influence upon me at this juncture was the woman who would become my wife, the ever bewitching Barbara, whose poise and guidance underlined her Thoreau-ian pleas for me to "simplify, simplify!"<br /><br /><br />So, I did. By the start of 2004, I had shifted my work hours to a more orderly daytime schedule, and we both joined a local gym. I invested considerable time with a nutritionist, and after the superficial pretense of New Years' resolutions had passed, on February 13th, 2004, I finally stopped dismissing my divine spark, and sought to reclaim my own initiative through the most direct means I knew towards rekindling my own honor. I ran. I ran, not only because running taught me to excel on the roads and in the classroom before ... not only because the primal act of moving quickly unlocked the doors to many of my most treasured friendships ... not only because running fast proved to me that heights were within reach with drive over drama ... but I ran, because I liked how I felt in flight, and running could be so much fun!<br /><br /><br />Not so much fun on that first run, however. Mind you, I had been going to my gym for a few weeks by then, and I had gone for some runs over the previous year - I even remained on staff every few weeks or so at the Bill Rodgers Running Center - so the mere act of running was not entirely foreign to me. However, this run was different, because it was not just a jog around a few blocks. It was the first day of training: for what I did not know, but I was back in training. I knew I wanted to race.<br /><br /><br />I didn't make the 5 miles. I was a bloated 287 pounds on my 6'3" frame, and 'flight' had nothing to do with this run. It wasn't even running, at least by my former standards. I walked across a bridge over the Mass. Pike about a half mile from home and, cold from the falling wet snow and swirling wind, I ran the final minutes of this run as fast as I humanly could. It hurt. A LOT. I didn't care, though. Dismayed but not frustrated, I promised myself, even bent at the waist while involuntarily clearing the weeze from my head, that I would STAY CONSISTENT.<br /><br /><br />I will never forget that moment - it was my personal epiphany. I was dedicating 2004 to the changeling, and I knew it would take time to lose weight, gain strength, and get to the point where I could even consider running quickly again. Through every temptation to concede to age, I kept my mantra born on that run: STAY CONSISTENT.<br /><br /><br /><strong>NEXT TIME:</strong> <em>the next part: Get Your Wings.</em></span></div>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-11875870134840468442009-02-14T11:50:00.000-08:002009-02-14T21:55:10.532-08:00The Bill Rodgers Running Center School of Running<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SZcvvtlBLfI/AAAAAAAAACI/dKwTlVdPq1M/s1600-h/1978BR.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302759582987267570" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 225px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SZcvvtlBLfI/AAAAAAAAACI/dKwTlVdPq1M/s320/1978BR.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">In November of 1977, the Bill Rodgers Running Center, one of the first running specialty stores in the nation, opened its doors for business. Located on the Boston Marathon course in the 23rd mile at Cleveland Circle, its existence primarily became a means to keep Bill Rodgers from having to continue working as a full time special needs teacher. From now on, Bill could, in essence, become a full-time professional runner, with the 1980 Olympic Marathon in Moscow on the horizon.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The benefits of self employment for Bill became apparent the following April, when Bill won the Boston Marathon for the second time (pictured above) wearing the logo for his store across his chest.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">As luck would have it, I played for the Giants of the Brighton East Little League. We were the best team in the league, and I was proud to make three all-star teams, at first base and at catcher. Most kids made only two teams if they were good, so I was proud of my consistent play on the diamond ... a diamond located directly across the street from the new store on the block, the Bill Rodgers Running Center.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">As mentioned previously, I first ventured into the store to meet Bill in my Little League uniform, but as the months and years went by, I began to show up a lot more often, and the only athletic gear I ever brought again was to be my running shoes and clothing. In fact, I 'd save my money from the after-school dog-walking jobs I had (remember I was 12-14 years old!) to pay for my own running shoes from there. I paid $42.95 in 1980 for a pair of adidas Marathon Trainers that I know, from the log I kept, got me safely through over 1,100 miles of running! You do what you can with what you got, y'know?</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I had become friendly with the store's co-owner and manager, Charlie Rodgers (Bill's brother) and most of the staff, including Jason Kehoe, Gene Caso, Dave Dial, and Jimmy "the hat" Henry, to the point where over the next few years, I was asked if I had wanted to come by the store for the Saturday night run after 5 O'clock. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">This was tantamount to a call to battle. I knew the staff schedule by this time: everyone took a break for an hour or two in the middle of the day during the week, one person at a time, and that time was for training. On Saturdays, however, the store hours were 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the store was just too busy at week's end for anyone to take a long enough break to go running. It was the weekly retail long run, a mental challenge at times to remain friendly and informative amidst a populous that invariably included the impossibly neurotic. By the time the last customer departed and the door was locked, what was left was a room full of retail wearied runners who hadn't had a chance to do the one thing they did best, which was to run ... hard and fast!</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Add a small number of friends, such as I came to be, who had not worked all day there (yet!) and all of the elements for combustion were set. It came to be known as the "Hate Run", a weekly 10 to 12 mile purge of accumulated aggression among the regular band of merry warriors, fighting to defeat the rage within each of them. Therefore, the run was not a test of the fastest over the ordained distance, rather, it was a test of the who could suffer most victoriously. Over any set route there were several places where it had been agreed that everyone would gather together, just to start together again. These were usually water fountains in a park or at a fire station along the way. Consequently, a 10 mile run was, in reality, 3x 3 miles with short rest interval breaks. It was a great run to get in shape, and a better way to release enough aggression to be made compatible with society again upon conclusion of the run, which is often just what happened over the Saturday night that followed. </span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">By the spring of 1982, I suppose Charlie realized that as long as I was going to be around so much, then he might as well hire me, and so he did. Over the years, I have worked at the store full time, part-time, or just some of the time, but I have remained connected to the store since. Though the store has gone through some changes and some relocations, it remains a living museum of running history, expertise and knowledge, located at Faneuil Hall Marketplace in downtown Boston. If you're in the area, stop by -- you'll love it! You can also check out the store online at <a href="http://www.billrodgers.com/">http://www.billrodgers.com/</a> .<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SZeoaPrr_HI/AAAAAAAAACY/fdKuwJQQZn8/s1600-h/IMG_0170-1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302892255091883122" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SZeoaPrr_HI/AAAAAAAAACY/fdKuwJQQZn8/s320/IMG_0170-1.jpg" border="0" /></a></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Through the Bill Rodgers Running Center, I have had a chance to run with and pick the brains of some incredible running minds, from the late, great Andy Palmer, to Boston Marathon legends Greg Meyer and Patti (Catalano) Dillon, to two time Olympian and exercise physiologist Pete Pfitzinger (he lived upstairs from the store once!)and, of course, Bill Rodgers himself. Furthermore, through the store I have become friendly with coaching legend Bill Squires, and I was lucky enough to have been coached for years by coach Fred Treseler, who is at least as good a person as he is a coach.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Cumulatively, I have been very fortunate to have lived in a place and at a time of such great American distance running, so much of it occurring from the hub that was the Bill Rodgers Running Center, a place almost literally in my backyard growing up. I learned by example, by oral tradition, and by the experiment of one that my own running became. I want you to know where I came from now, so as we venture forth together this year with my attempt to return to the marathon, you'll be familiar both with my theory, and with the spirits that I'll be running with.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><strong>NEXT TIME:</strong> Phoenix rising?</span> </div><div></div><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Also check out this story from my old friend, Dave "Elwood" Dial: <a href="http://www.billrodgersrunningcenter.com/leinlionrust.html">http://www.billrodgersrunningcenter.com/leinlionrust.html</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><div></div><div></div><div><br /></div><br /><div></div>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-11855509070222017212009-02-07T19:13:00.000-08:002009-02-07T22:12:47.619-08:00Racing blindly with Dow Jones<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SY5vhUE9u2I/AAAAAAAAACA/MXV4YbVo9Gs/s1600-h/alandmein%2779.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300296429577550690" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 314px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SY5vhUE9u2I/AAAAAAAAACA/MXV4YbVo9Gs/s320/alandmein%2779.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>I have an odd theory regarding the success of distance running and of those most successful at it: your <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">economy</span> has an inverse relationship with your success at running long and fast. Think about it. If you're out of work, not only do you have more time to run, but you just might need more time on the roads to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">alleviate</span> the anxiety associated with being unemployed. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Been there -- done that.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>On a championship level, the last few years have seen some breakthrough performances by American runners ranging from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Meb</span></span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Keflezighi</span></span>, Ryan Hall, and Deena <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Kastor</span></span> in the marathon, to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Shalane</span></span> Flanagan and Alan Webb in the middle distances. By all reasonable accounts, American distance running has been more competitive on the world's stage over the past few years than it has been since ... the last time the U.S. economy was in a recession! The <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">economy</span> is sliding downward as fast as many people's marathon <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">PR's</span></span>. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Such was also the case in the late 1970's, when OPEC held a stranglehold on the price of oil (sound familiar?) and President Carter tried to promote the use of alternative energy to the extent that he had solar panels installed on the White House roof (Reagan took them down). Jobs were scarce, inflation was raising, and the running boom, spurred by performances from Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Mary Decker, and Joan Benoit, was expanding fast and furiously. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Running, seemingly overnight, had gone mainstream. Road races were being broadcast on TV. Michael Douglas did a movie called <em>Running</em> that was unfortunately forgettable. Jim <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Fixx</span></span> had the best selling book in the world with his <em>Complete Book of Running</em>, and I, aware of the price of gasoline approaching one-dollar-a-gallon but too young and relatively secure in my middle class family's home to worry about it, witnessed swelling numbers of people standing in the street at the start of a simultaneously growing number of road races throughout greater Boston and throughout the country. </div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>College graduates were not automatically advancing to the Fortune 500 the next day in 1979, and so I noticed them taking to the road. I only had my paper route and my homework to worry about, and many of them were running to keep themselves occupied while waiting within the green rooms of their stalled careers, but we were all starting to run <em>a lot</em> of miles each week, and when Sunday came, and the starter's pistol rang, for a few minutes nothing else mattered except getting to the finish line fast. Preferably faster than you, but above all, faster than one ran the month before at the same 10K distance. It was the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">ecstasy</span> of intensity. Available every week for a nominal, tax-<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">deductable</span></span> fee to the charitable cause of the day. Was it a mass act of 'self discovery'? My experiences suggest to me that it was a mass act of <em>going-for-it! </em>The first running boom was made fertile in a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">populus</span> wound from capital retrograde, but not made personally sluggish by it. On the contrary, the boom trained many in conquering all kinds of life's hills.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Over the next ten years, from 1979 through the last in a series of stubborn hip injuries and stress fractures in 1989, I ran 40 to 60 miles most weeks, and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">occasionally</span> ran over 100 miles-a-week. It's not my intention to bore anyone with my autobiography here, so I won't, but I am proud of the following <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">PR's</span></span> that I collected in that period. The immediate future of this blog will explain in more detail how I got myself to the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">PR's</span></span> I achieved. I will also try to explain how my early inability to be more flexible in my training likely kept me from achieving much better times. Here are a few of them:</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>1 mile: 4:29.3</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>5K: 15:33</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>10K: 32:44</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>10 miles: 55:11</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>13.1 miles: 1:15:11</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Marathon: 2:46:33</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>The 80's eventually became economically prosperous, if not culturally polarizing, and furthermore, Wall Street seemingly soared through the 90's. Is it a coincidence that U.S. distance running <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">receded</span> internationally during much of this same period? I dunno. I do know that as my own careers in radio and law enforcement took more of my time in this period, that ultimately my running took on a lesser degree of importance. It took a few more years for me to learn to balance my life more consistently. I will not try to capture that struggle in one line or posting, but I'm sure the topic will be the focus of upcoming blog entries. Like Einstein said, "life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." So I will try to keep moving more this year, literally and otherwise.</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div><strong></strong></div><div><strong></strong></div><div><strong></strong></div><div><strong></strong></div><div><strong></strong></div><div><strong></strong></div><div><strong></strong></div><div><strong></strong></div><div><strong></strong></div><div><strong>Next time:</strong> <em>The Bill Rodgers Running Center School of Running</em></div><br /><div></div>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-37278201215223227532009-02-05T19:06:00.000-08:002009-02-05T21:36:30.212-08:00Who's this 'running advisor' guy?!?<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SYuqWRfn9gI/AAAAAAAAABY/Rm7RCwVy_r0/s1600-h/lntb__80_odie.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299516686161409538" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 192px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SYuqWRfn9gI/AAAAAAAAABY/Rm7RCwVy_r0/s200/lntb__80_odie.jpg" border="0" /></a> You may know me from my contributions to Phedippidations, The Extra Mile Podcast, and the Runners Roundtable, but if you have ever been inclined to heed my advice regarding periodization in training and running a little longer and slower to get faster (see Fdip #126), it seems only fitting at the onset of this blog that I fill you in a bit about who I am and how I collected what I know about this sport that has followed me for the majority of my life.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 156px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 112px" alt="" src="http://www.edroman.com/guitars/bcrich/images/celebbcr.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><br />In 1977, I was the lead guitarist for the rock band, Aerosmith, when I came to the realization that .... um .... sorry. No. Not me. Only in my dreams. I was 11 at the time. Always wanted to do that, but I digress ....<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I always remember my father running. He had joined the Boston Fire Department in 1970 following a career in electronics that had been doomed by President Nixon's initiative to build up California's silicon valley, taking jobs away from the greater Boston area. Consequently, my father, spurred by reading the book <em>Aerobics</em> by Dr. Kenneth Cooper, began running 1.5 mile laps around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir to keep fit for the rigors of firefighting.<br /><br /><br /><br />By 1973, your six year old running advisor had successfully begged to join his father on the run, I think, as I recall, because I was quite enamoured with his all yellow adidas running shoes (some things never change!). I would struggle to finish one mile and a half loop with him, but I loved the camaraderie that I gained with my dad "'round the res", and I became amazed at flipping through my father's leather bound, self-styled running log, adding up the miles he had run over a month's time and beyond. Soon, I was presented with my own leather bound book of blank pages, and I commenced to filling the pages.<br /><br /><br /><br />Winters of lessened activity led to springtimes focused on Little League baseball, but by 1978, the running bug had taken hold of my imagination. A series of seminal moments occurred to me in April of that year. On Monday, my family, as we did every Patriot's Day, had walked the three quarters of a mile from home to Commonwealth Ave. to cheer on the Boston Marathon. This year, a local man named Bill Rodgers held off a closing Jeff Wells to win this epic race for the second time. I remember watching him and the women's champion, Gayle Barron, being interviewed live on Good Morning America the next morning, and I was excited to see that they were being interviewed at the site of one of my dad's running loops that I joined him on, by the Brookline Reservoir.<br /><br /><br /><br />Later that day (it was April school vacation week) I had Little League practice at the field at Cleveland Circle, complete with my wool "Giants" baseball uniform, my cleats, mitt, and bat in hand, when I decided to finally venture into the new store that had opened across the street from my baseball diamond. It was the Bill Rodgers Running Center, and sure enough, upon entry, amidst the slightly curious glares from the lean, athletic staff and comparably athletic band of customers assembled to buy new Nikes, Etonics, Tigers, and adidas shoes, was the champion himself - Bill Rodgers!<br /><br /><br /><br />It must have taken me two long minutes to muster up the courage to approach this so recently wreathed king of the road, but I finally stepped towards him, awkwardly sputtering, "I saw you run yesterday -- good going!" he thanked me and, spotting my baseball gear that must had appeared to be a Halloween costume to those assembled there, replied, "how did your game go?" I shot back in nervous glee, "oh, um, we were just practicing today, but uh, I jog with my dad a lot and, um, can I have your autograph?"<br /><br /><br /><br />He readily signed a brochure on hand in the store with his picture on it. I thanked him and departed immediately afterward. It was about a mile home from the store, and even in rubber cleated shoes, I ran the sidewalks all the way home. I don't think my feet spent much time on the ground for that run, and I'm sure my lungs tempered my joy with ample oxygen debt, but my new dream was, nonetheless, crystallized in that impromptu run down Chestnut Hill Avenue: I wanted to become a runner, and a fast one! I continued to play baseball that spring, making the All-Star Team at first base, but I also reopened my leather bound log, and this time, I had plenty to write inside of it. With my autographed brochure hanging in my bedroom as I dressed for each run, I lost 18 pounds over the summer school break, running nearly every day. By the autumn, my father suggested that we run a 7 mile road race together. The race would run over the legendary "Heartbreak Hill", and competing in the race would be non other than ... Bill Rodgers!<br /><br /><br /><br />My organized baseball career was over.<br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>NEXT TIME:</strong> <em>Racing through the "Running Boom".</em><br /><a href="http://www.edroman.com/guitars/bcrich/images/celebbcr.jpg"></a>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-8297687089394715192009-02-03T12:56:00.000-08:002009-02-03T12:58:09.980-08:00This is absolutely incredible!!! a 2:36 marathon at age 60?!?<a href="http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2009/02/masters-runner-yoshihisa-hosaka-sets-60.html">http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2009/02/masters-runner-yoshihisa-hosaka-sets-60.html</a>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2113611549135551644.post-85257554999293135482009-02-02T19:58:00.000-08:002009-02-02T20:17:12.892-08:00It's all about to begin again!<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong>Introducing my new blog: The 22nd Miler!</strong> </span><br /><br /><p><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SYfBNnISROI/AAAAAAAAABI/YjqKk-Ph-BQ/s1600-h/0405071421.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298415926210872546" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SBjd5OQ6wwI/SYfBNnISROI/AAAAAAAAABI/YjqKk-Ph-BQ/s400/0405071421.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Welcome! I promise to teach a bit, to share a bit more, and to walk the walk and run the run with you in 2009 and beyond! <em><strong>What would you like to see here?</strong></em></span></p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Above all, I pledge to run with the purpose of experience, but tempered always with the passion of child's play ... running is recreation, the toy store of life!</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So let's go play!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">-- John E.</span></p>John J. Ellishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07743601249606172953noreply@blogger.com8