Had it not been for a highway accident 39 years ago next month (May), my great pal, Doug Marshall (known simply as Marsho), would still be giving me the gears -- and schooling me in lacrosse, which he succeeded in showing me a thing or two. To know Marsho was to know that he was a tiger at fighting against the odds to get what he wanted. His voice is one I hear often -- especially on those long runs that, even now, during my gray-hair days -- take me to the next plateau.
"The night is still young, sort of thing," he would say.
Next: Running for Your Life: Is Everybody Running?
Running for Your Life: Steady Does It
Maybe it’s because I consider myself an asterisk athlete. If
I don’t run, my deep vein thrombosis kicks in and my left leg is prone to
swelling. I don’t know how debilitating it would’ve been had I not taken up
jogging in my early twenties, during the early months after I suffered blood
clots in my left leg and a pulmonary embolism. In my mid-twenties, I considered
myself a runner, and ran in my first 10 kilometer race, a festive international
romp between Prescott, Ontario, and Ogdensburg, New York.
Slowed by my bad leg, seeing the whole practice as being
more about staying healthy than being competitive, I finished well back in the
pack. But I was on my way.
Since then, I’ve run in eight marathons, completed six of
them. In one, the 2010 Steamtown Marathon, I finished at 3:33:08, my personal
record, which I’ve gotta acknowledge will be my fastest marathon. An eight-minute
mile pace comes to just under 3:30 for a 26.2-mile race. I daresay I won’t be
doing that kind of thing again.
After all, I’m 60 in October. On the treadmill, I’ll average
a pace of 8:30 over five miles. That seems plenty fast enough, thank you. If I can manage a nine-minute mile pace over
26.2 miles, that’s a time of just under four hours. Will that get me back to
Boston? Well, the qualifying time in the 60-65 age category is 3:55. Worth shooting for!
That is, if I go about it smartly. Steady has been my mantra
for almost four decades. I shouldn't be looking to rock the boat now.
Running for Your
Life: Is Everybody Running?
Running for Your Life: What If the Greats Were Us Thursday
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who perished at the hands of his blood
foes, the Nazis, would have us meditate on the lessons to be learned from
Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.
How often, in these days of hate and suspicion between God
fearers and liberal sneerers, between Fox believers and Comedy Centrists, do we
pause and try to hear the uncluttered message of love and forbearance, of
meekness and faith, what Bonhoeffer would say if he were alive today, that:
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people
in order to be seen by them … sound no trumpet before you.”
Next: Running for Your Life: Steady Does It
Running for Your Life: Clutter Fighter
Take an hour, any hour. Pick through stuff in your closet. Set aside three distinct piles, to wit:
1/ Sucks as fashion item and will always suck as fashion item
2/ Reminds you of some unpleasant memory (person or thing)
3/ Provisional and dead obvious keeper
Then get big non-see-through bag(s) and throw in contents of first and second piles. No need to sort these piles at this time.
How about that? You just save yourself $20 in book costs and didn't add to your clutter. Congratulations !
Next: Running for Your Life: Steady Does It
1/ Sucks as fashion item and will always suck as fashion item
2/ Reminds you of some unpleasant memory (person or thing)
3/ Provisional and dead obvious keeper
Then get big non-see-through bag(s) and throw in contents of first and second piles. No need to sort these piles at this time.
How about that? You just save yourself $20 in book costs and didn't add to your clutter. Congratulations !
Next: Running for Your Life: Steady Does It
Running for Your Life: Jazz Palace, NYC !
They’re off! The lives of Benny, Pearl, and Napoleon et al,
are in the minds of thousands, with book launches in Chicago, and most
recently, in Brooklyn. At the party of the year, the cocktails – Al Capone and
the Plot Twist – were delicious, thanks to my multi-talented daughter Kate and
actor and friend Michael Early, the Audio Book reader of The Jazz Palace, did a
dramatic performance of the place they called The Stroll.
People streamed to the party at the Community Bookstore on Seventh
Avenue, some sipping wine at the back or in the garden, listening to live jazz,
and others in the front where the cocktails were poured. Next in Manhattan, the
Center for Fiction on Tuesday, April 28, http://bit.ly/1F83MgD.
Oh, and you don’t have to make a beeline to the next event. See what all the excitement
is about. Read the book of the season: The Jazz Palace http://bit.ly/1AWKSSS.
Next: Running for Your Life: Steady Does It
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)