The Little Girl and the Orange Slices

A few days ago, a reader passed along a link to a brief online Q&A with a runner named Alex J. Taylor, of Somerville, Mass.

Alex is fast. He finished this year's Boston Marathon in 2:22:19, a PR.

That's not why the reader passed along the link, though. The reader passed along the link because she found some of the questions (obviously posed by a non-runner) amusing.

Questions such as, "How is Somerville as a jogging city?" And, "Why participate in such a grueling sport? Aren't there other sports that are just as fun but not as punishing?"

My favorite bit, however, came during Alex's response to the question, "How do you like the crowds drinking beer and passing out cups of water along the (Boston) racecourse?"…

The crowds along the Boston Marathon route are the best of any race I've ever been to. They're very supportive and they give a lot of support to local runners in particular. The running community is big in the greater Boston area, so I get to see a lot of familiar faces along the way of runners that aren't competing who come out to watch and cheer everyone on. My favorite person handing out food/water along the course was a little girl in Natick who insisted that her orange slices were getting lonely.

So this guy, clearly an experienced runner, shows up to run what is possibly the world's most prestigious marathon; takes off in a field of 27,000; follows an historic, landmark-filled course lined with hundreds of thousands of cheering spectators, including screaming college women; and crosses the finish line in a personal-best time, amid the spine-tingling roar that is Boylston Street. He does all of this over a period of hours, and his most persistent memory is…

A little girl in Natick who insisted that her orange slices were getting lonely.

That bit touched me, for two reasons:

1. It's adorable.

2. It says so much about the beauty of running in general, and marathon running in particular.

That thing, of course, is running's ability to clarify.

This is what many people, especially non-runners, just don't get about running: That if you do it long enough, and keep your mind open enough, it can bring certain seemingly trivial details into super-sharp focus. That it can make you notice things, and appreciate them — sometimes in much deeper ways than you ever expected to.

Every time it happens, at least to me, it gives me a little buzz. And makes me feel a little bit more alive. Little moments like the girl with the orange slices turn out to be not little at all. They're huge, and they always feel like gifts, from running to you.

Are there "other sports that are just as fun but not as punishing?" Maybe.

But maybe that's the wrong question.

Attention, Lehigh Valley (Pa.) Area Runners!
If you're running this weekend's Lehigh Valley Half-Marathon and 5-K — or, heck, if you just live nearby, come meet a few Runner's World staffers at the race expo this Saturday:

Amby Burfoot, signing copies of The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life
Budd Coates (9:00 – 5:00), promoting CoreSliders and signing copies of Run Your Butt Off!
Sarah Lorge Butler, delivering a talk on Run Your Butt Off!, at 9:00, then signing copies of the book afterward
Charlie Butler (10:00 – 5:00), signing copies of The Long Run and delivering a talk on the book's subject, Matt Long, at 2:00
Mark Remy (10:00 – 2:00-ish), signing copies of The Runner's Rule Book and The Runner's Field Manual

Where: Holiday Inn Allentown, 904 West Hamilton Street (click here for details and map)

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Category Running |

Our Ancestors Ran Animals to Death? Well, Not Exactly

He never stood a chance.

If you happen to be a distance runner or a quadruped, there's an article that may interest you in the May 2011 issue of Outside magazine.

The article is titled "Fair Chase" and subtitled "On the plains of New Mexico, a band of elite marathoners tests a controversial theory of evolution: that humans can outrun the fastest animals on earth," and you can read it right here.

The framework for the article — let's pit some fast marathoners against a pronghorn antelope and see if they can't pursue the thing until it overheats and falls over — is a little gimmicky, but fun. And I won't give away the ending here.

The underlying idea is the theory that, as Outside explains, "our ancestors evolved into endurance athletes in order to hunt quad­rupeds by running them to exhaustion." (This is called "persistence hunting.")  Harvard's Daniel Lieberman, an evolutionary biologist, is among this theory's most visible proponents.

Well, with all due respect to Dr. Lieberman and his fellow experts: I think you're close, but not quite there.

My own theory is that our ancestors did indeed use running to hunt — not by running animals to exhaustion, but by cornering them in social situations and talking to them about running until they collapsed of boredom.

At which point the runners could surround the quadruped and devour it at their leisure, using the calories to fuel more long runs and speed workouts, which they could then describe at agonizing length to future quadrupeds, who would then collapse of boredom, etc.

You know. Circle of life.

A typical scenario might play out like this, at a gathering of our australo­pithecine ancestors, one of whom has buttonholed an obviously uncomfortable antelope by a crude, stone punch bowl:

*      *      *

Australo­pithecine ancestor: "Me been runner for long time. Me not training for anything right now. Maybe spring marathon. Whatever 'marathon' is. And 'spring.' You run? You have four leg. You probably run."

Antelope: [snorts]

Australo­pithecine ancestor: "Me bet you run fast. Me no run fast. Me more of jogger. Ha ha. But at least me out there. Me try to do many short run most time, then one long run some time. Also Yasso 800."

Antelope: [eyes dart nervously, looking for an out]

Australo­pithecine ancestor: "You barefoot runner? Me into barefoot running. Change life. Just seem more natural."

Antelope: [snorts, shudders]

Australo­pithecine ancestor: "You know where me like run? Savanna. Flat, pretty. Me feel like me can run forever on savanna. Me perspire, but that okay. You perspire? No? Ha. You look like you want perspire now. Anywaaaaaay… Me tell you about time me hurt leg?"

Antelope: [twitching, panting, scratching at ground]

Australo­pithecine ancestor: "Me try to run through hurt. No work. Hurt spread! Look, me show you where pain go…"

Antelope: [falls over, unconscious, bored out of its skull]

Australo­pithecine ancestor, to others: "Dinner ready!"

*      *      *

…Like I said, this is also just a theory. Maybe someday I'll test it. As soon as I finish that crude, stone punch bowl.

Attention, Lehigh Valley (Pa.) Area Runners!
If you're running this weekend's Lehigh Valley Half-Marathon and 5-K — or, heck, if you just live nearby, come meet a few Runner's World staffers at the race expo this Saturday:

Amby Burfoot, signing copies of The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life
Budd Coates (9:00 – 5:00), promoting CoreSliders and signing copies of Run Your Butt Off!
Sarah Lorge Butler, delivering a talk on Run Your Butt Off!, at 9:00, then signing copies of the book afterward
Charlie Butler (10:00 – 5:00), signing copies of The Long Run and delivering a talk on the book's subject, Matt Long, at 2:00
Mark Remy (10:00 – 2:00-ish), signing copies of The Runner's Rule Book and The Runner's Field Manual

Where: Holiday Inn Allentown, 904 West Hamilton Street (click here for details and map)

Tags: Amby Burfoot, antelope, area runners, australo­pithecine ancestor, Barefoot running, boredom, calories, Charlie Butler, circle of life, controversial theory, cornering, daniel lieberman, distance runner, due respect, elite marathoners, endurance athletes, evolution, evolutionary biologist, exhaustion, Fair Chase, fast marathoners, fastest animals, fellow experts, Field Manual, Holiday Inn Allentown, Hunting, jogger, Lehigh Valley, Lehigh Valley Half-Marathon, Life Budd, long run, long time, marathoners, Matt Long, My own, New Mexico, Our Ancestors, outrun, Outside magazine, perspire, pronghorn, pronghorn antelope, proponents, punch bowl, quadruped, quadrupeds, race expo, Rule Book, Runners World, Sarah Lorge Butler, savanna, social situations, speed workouts, spring marathon, stone punch bowl, subtitled, The Long Run, The Runner, The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life, theory, theory of evolution, typical scenario, uncomfortable antelope, United States, West Hamilton Street, World staffers
Category Running |

Freebies and Discounts for our Facebook Fans!

By Susan Rinkunas

Earlier today, Runner's World surpassed 200,000 fans on our Facebook page! To commemorate this milestone and to thank you for following us, we’ve got some giveaways and discounts, including the lowest prices ever on RW training plans and several RW books.

First, we're giving one free issue to the first 200 U.S. residents who sign up here! UPDATE: We've reached the maximum of 200 free issues.

And for the next 200,000 seconds (through 2 am ET on Thursday 4/28), we're also happy to offer:

• 40% off all Runner's World training plans (use code Facebook200K)
• 50% off "The Athlete's Palate Cookbook"
• 50% off "The Runner’s Rule Book"
• 50% off "The Runner's Diet"
• $20 off the Runner's World Challenge: Chicago Half-Marathon (use code RW11CH; limited to the first 100 people). Learn more about the RW Challenge at the Chicago Half here.

The book discounts are available to residents of the United States and Canada.

Thanks for following us, and happy running!

Tags: athlete, book discounts, Canada, Chicago, Chicago Half-Marathon, code rw11ch, discounts, Facebook, Facebook Fans!, Facebook page, free issues, freebies, Half Marathon, Happy, Human Interest, lowest prices, Marathon, milestone, Palate Cookbook, Rule Book, Runner, Runners World, RW books, RW Challenge, Sports, Susan Rinkunas, Susan Rinkunas Earlier, The Runner, training, United States, USD, World Challenge, World training plans
Category Running |

Freebies and Discounts for our Facebook Fans!

By Susan Rinkunas

Earlier today, Runner's World surpassed 200,000 fans on our Facebook page! To commemorate this milestone and to thank you for following us, we’ve got some giveaways and discounts, including the lowest prices ever on RW training plans and several RW books.

First, we're giving one free issue to the first 200 U.S. residents who sign up here! UPDATE: We've reached the maximum of 200 free issues.

And for the next 200,000 seconds (through 2 am ET on Thursday 4/28), we're also happy to offer:

• 40% off all Runner's World training plans (use code Facebook200K)
• 50% off "The Athlete's Palate Cookbook"
• 50% off "The Runner’s Rule Book"
• 50% off "The Runner's Diet"
• $20 off the Runner's World Challenge: Chicago Half-Marathon (use code RW11CH; limited to the first 100 people). Learn more about the RW Challenge at the Chicago Half here.

The book discounts are available to residents of the United States and Canada.

Thanks for following us, and happy running!

Tags: athlete, Canada, Chicago, Chicago Half-Marathon, discounts, Facebook, Facebook page, free issues, freebies, Half Marathon, Rule Book, Runners World, RW books, Susan Rinkunas, training, United States, World training plans
Category Running |

Janitor’s Gift to Kids: A New Track

Tyrone Curry. Screen grab via MSNBC.com

Regular readers of this blog know that every so often, we take a break from the weird and the wacky to spotlight an unusually inspirational or moving story.

Well, it's time for a break.

Today's moving story comes to us courtesy of MSNBC.com, which reports that a high school janitor in Washington state is buying the kids at his school a new track.

Curry, who is also the school's track and field coach, won nearly $3.4 million in the state lottery five years ago. Now he's making good on a promise he made to himself long ago, says MSNBC:

"Ten years ago, I said if I win some money, I'm going to put a track here."

In early April, coach Curry presented the district with $40,000 to go towards a brand new track. …

Curry said the gift he has given Evergreen pales in comparison to what the kids have given him.

"Kids do things for you," says Curry. "They keep you young."

Clean-up in Aisle Heart!

Have a good weekend, everyone.

We Have a Winner! Finally!
Two weeks ago, I asked you to write captions for three of my race photos from the Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10-K. The winner, I said, would get a shout-out here and a signed copy of The Runner's Rule Book (Rule 2.38: Race Photos Never Look Good).

It was a tough call. But the winner is…

"Damn the knackwurst, full steam ahead!" (For photo #2.)

The winning caption is from Run Hard Run Happy, who in a stroke of tactical genius simply reused a recent RW Daily headline.  RHRH edged out an identical entry from Swirling Eddy by 56 minutes. (Sorry, Eddy.)

Honorable mentions go to…

Huskerme, who wrote:
"This is just like beggar's canyon back home…woooo!" (Photo #1.) (Star Wars reference! Nice!)

Hotshot320, who wrote:
"Why would they make us run through Cabbage Town?" (Photo #1.)

And everyone who made a flatulence joke. Always a nice touch.

Mr. or Mrs. Happy, expect an email from me shortly to arrange delivery of your prize. And thanks to all who contributed.

Tags: aisle, Aisle Heart, beggar, blog, brand new track, Buying, cabbage town, California, canyon, captions, Clean-up, coach, coach curry, curry, damn, Evergreen, field coach, flatulence, flatulence joke, Gift, good weekend, Happy, High school, high school janitor, high school janitor in Washington state, Honorable mentions, identical entry, Janitor, knackwurst, minutes, Monument Avenue, monument avenue 10 k, moving story, msnbc, MSNBC.com Regular readers, new track, nice touch, pales, photo, Photograph, prize, race photos, regular, Rule Book, Runner, Runners World, RW Daily headline, s canyon, school, school janitor, screen grab, shout-out, Sports, star wars reference, state lottery, steam, stroke, tactical genius, Track, Track and field, track and field coach, Two weeks, Tyrone Curry, ukrop, United States, USD, Wars, Washington state
Category Running |