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Brad Pitt

Posted in boston marathon, Odd Ball, other, training, tagged boston marathon, Brad Pitt, running, training on March 23, 2011| 17 Comments »

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It’s less than 4 weeks away. It looms larger and larger with each passing day. The Boston Marathon will be here before we know it, and to be honest, I’m starting to get the butterflies.

But I’ve been training hard. Once or twice a week I’ve taken to running parts of the Boston Marathon course. The hills coming into Newton, especially after 17 miles, can be brutal whether in the race or on a training run. But I’ve stuck to what I said back in November – I have been trying to live by the mantra – Train for the Terrain. Hills have been part of my training.

What the hell does this have to do with Brad Pitt?

I want you to look at something:

What do you see?

Yes, yes, it’s Brad Pitt. Yes, it’s Brad Pitt with his past girlfriends. But take a closer look. In each of these pictures, you will see that Pitt has adapted himself to take on the look of his main squeeze of the moment.

Uh, right Luau. Been reading a little too much US Magazine lately? What the frak does this have to do with running and the Boston Marathon???

Well, it has less to do with the Boston Marathon specifically and more to do with Marathon Training in general, as in training for the terrain – adapting to the current situation. My hope is that I have managed to “Brad Pitt” my training and will be perfectly matched up for Boston – downhills early, uphills late, more downhill near the end.

My stated goal at the beginning of the cycle was 3:15 or better. That still remains the goal, though I’m gonna take a long, hard look at 3:10.

How’s your Spring Marathon training going? Have you Brad Pitted it? I wonder if you can work the verb “Brad Pitt” into a conversation today?

I guess the burning question now is – Is the Boston Marathon Juliette, Gwyneth, Jennifer or Angelina?

Why do you run?

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Names

Posted in motivation, other, tagged name calling, running, support on March 22, 2011| 9 Comments »

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Last week my friend, E, who I find to be pretty awesome, went out for a run. She hadn’t run in a while. She was pumped. She had found renewed energy and focus. She was happy to be out on the streets, putting one foot in front of the other. She was just finding her groove, battling a hill, when some jackass yelled out and called her a name.

It doesn’t matter what the name was – suffice it to say, it was hurtful and demoralizing. By the end of her run, my friend was alternating between tears and anger.

When I read what had happened I was furious.

On the micro-level, I was furious that someone would belittle my friend, a woman who was working hard to better herself.

But there was a whole other macro-level of furious that boiled up in me. As the parent of a girl with autism, I know that I have become overly-sensitive to the concept of name calling. Words like “retard” make me want to grab the speaker by the shoulders, shake them and then pop ’em in the kisser with a left-cross (and my left-cross is pretty good). I usually take a deep breath, take stock of the situation. If it is the only time I have ever heard this person say it, then I usually let it go, but if it becomes a regular thing, that’s when I kindly ask them to stop. The wife actually wrote a very good post on the topic. You can read it —>HERE<—.

But I digress.

I know in this day and age, it ain’t cool to be PC, and quite honestly, I tend to think that as a society, we tend to over-think things a lot. There are a lot of PC concepts that I just can’t get behind (everybody wins all the time? does that teach anybody anything?). But the truth is, words hurt; words scar. And if you are particularly insecure about certain things, certain words can cut even deeper and leave scars that take a long time to go away.

So when I heard this story, my heart went out to E.

She wrote that it might be a while before she gets out there again with running shoes on. My hope is that she can find her inner duck and let the name calling roll off her back. When she runs, she inspires more people than she knows. She may not be fast – in fact, I think she would be the first person to admit that – but she runs, and through her running and her humor she brings smiles to faces and gets people thinking about health and fitness.

I hope she will Tai Chi the crap out of the hurtful words, turning its energy against itself, turning it into something positive. I hope she gets angry instead of demoralized. I hope she decides to take the power away from the jackass and make it her own. I hope she remembers that running is cleansing and can wash away the dirt people throw at us.

I hope to see you out there running soon E.

You can check out Miss E at – http://fromfat2fab2009.blogspot.com/

Why do you run?

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Light It Up

Posted in other, tagged blue, light it up blue, president Obama, white house on March 17, 2011| 2 Comments »

We interrupt your regularly scheduled running blog for this message –

[tweetmeme source=”luau” only_single=false http://www.URL.com]

A couple of days ago, my wife was asked to write a letter to the President…yes, that President!

The point of the letter was to tell President Obama why she thought that he needs to light the White House blue on April 2nd in support of World Autism Awareness Day.

She did a fabulous job.

Ideally, there will be enough comments left in the comments section of this letter that our President will feel compelled to do it.

I’ve been reading through the comments though…so many. I have noticed that the voices are mostly those of mothers, sisters, aunts and grandmothers…where are my fellow fathers, brothers, uncles and grandfathers? Come on guys! Your lives are just as affected and your voices can be just as effective.

Please read her letter and leave a comment —>HERE<— and tell President Obama to light it up blue!

Why do you run?

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The Hazards of Running

Posted in diet, health, motivation, Odd Ball, other, tagged don't run, hazards of running, running, running is bad on March 7, 2011| 29 Comments »

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There is a down side to regular running. A dark side that people will try to paint over with white-wash and tell you it’s great. If you are considering the prospect of taking up running, I urge you to think about these things before you start.

•Your clothes will no longer fit you – the added cost of having to buy a new wardrobe, in addition to the new running gear you just bought a few months earlier, can weigh heavily on your wallet.

•Your sex-drive will increase dramatically – I didn’t think that was possible in my case, but it in fact did. The endorphins coursing through your body will keep your blood pumping long after your run is done. It can be rather distracting, you know?

•Your appetite will increase – with the added expenditure of calories will also come the added expenditure of dollars replacing many of those calories. You gotta eat, right?

•Related to your appetite, you will have to overhaul the contents of your cupboard and refrigerator – once you start fine-tuning the machine that is your body, you will become more aware of the fuel you are putting into it. Regular leaded will no longer do. A high performance engine craves the Super Unleaded.

•You will be happier – which sounds great on the surface, but it will annoy your friends to no end. They’ll ask you what are you so damned happy about (even though deep down they will know why).

•You won’t get sick as often – again, sounds great at first, but think about it; if you don’t get sick, you don’t get to call in sick and take a day off from work. That’s less time you get to lie in bed and watch crappy day-time television.

•You’ll make new friend – sounds good, but you know, I have a hard enough time keeping track of my high school and college buddies. Do I really need another whole group of friends to max out my address book?

The bottom line is, be careful what you wish for. This whole running thing may look good from the outside looking in, but once you’re in it, you realize that being in better shape, having a higher sex drive, being able to eat more and better food, being happier, rarely getting sick and making a bunch of new friends ain’t all what it’s cracked up to be!

You’ve been warned!

Why do you run?

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Hush, Rush

Posted in other, tagged diet, Michelle Obama, Rush Limbaugh on February 28, 2011| 8 Comments »

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So Rush is upset that Michelle is eating a plate of ribs while on a skiing vacation.

Michelle is a hypocrite! She should be eating nuts and berries!!! She’s trying to create a nanny state!!!

Oh, Rush. Is this what you have become? Is there where you have fallen to?

You dope! Eating healthfully is not about any one meal, you idiot! It’s not about one plate of ribs, you jack ass! It’s not about always eating nuts and berries, you numbskull!!!

You know, although I consider myself to be one who leans mostly left, I believe – I truly believe – that the answers to our current state will have to come from the center – which means that there will be a little taken from the right and a little taken from the left.

You want to know why we are losing ground to the rest of the world? Because the left AND the right are too busy arguing with each other and not getting down to the business of making things right for everyone. FOR EVERYONE!!! They are arguing and making political punch out of ribs. A stupid, frakkin’ plate of ribs!!!

This is what Rush said:

Nice Rush, nice. Obviously you didn’t listen to what the First Lady actually said or wrote – that her healthy eating initiative was about balance and moderation. Anybody who does just the tiniest bit of research on diet and healthy life-style changes knows, KNOWS, that you never tell someone that they can only eat A, B, or C indefinitely and never anything else. In fact, one of the best ways, THE BEST RUSH, to keep yourself on the track of balance and moderation is to let yourself indulge once a week.

You’re right about one thing. Leaders should lead. What are you doing Rush to get this Greatest of Nation’s waistline back under control? Hmmm, let’s see, you’re saying that people don’t need help making good food choices, despite the fact that 68% of our population over the age of 20 is overweight, with half of those categorized as obese (CDC – January 2010). 68% Rush. SIXTY EIGHT PERCENT!!! You right, Rush, people are making their choices just fine.

In all seriousness, it’s not like people need to be told what to eat on any given night. I’m thinking that under ideal conditions, that busy parent,scraping by would love to cook a healthy meal for their kid instead of bringing home McDonald’s, but they either don’t know how to cook (because, you know, that class was taken out of the curriculum due to budget cuts) or the fresh ingredients aren’t available at affordable prices. What this “Nanny State” you’re so worried about CAN do is help guide families and maybe shift where crop subsidies go so they can better serve our health.

And did you really say that Michelle Obama is a hypocrite because she doesn’t look like a Sports Illustrated cover model? Really? Can we take a step back from that one and let you think about what you said? No? Okay. Though I am one who truly believes that anyone, ANYONE (yes Rush, even you, your chins and your jellyroll), can change their shape for the better, I am also a realist. Not everyone is blessed/cursed with an ample bosom or curvy hips. To make women think that they can only be in shape if they look like Brooklyn Decker (love her by the way) is ridiculous and you know it.

What the hell is the matter with you? What in the world happened to you, Rush? You used to be fun. You used to be entertaining. Now? Well, now you are just a sad old radio personality, hanging on, making weird, out-of-touch attempts to hold on to relevance. You’re sounding more and more like a mean old man as opposed to the guy who, once upon a time, had at least the interest of the far right at heart.

Maybe it’s time for you to just hush. Hush, Rush.

Why do you run?

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Wrong

Posted in other, training, Vibram Five Fingers, tagged minimalist, running, VFF, Vibram, Vibram Five Finger on February 22, 2011| 25 Comments »

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After nearly 2 years, I have finally reached a balance when it comes to my funny little running shoes. As many of you know, I have been a proponent of the Vibram Five Finger shoe for almost a year and a half now. Part of my inspiration came from reading Born To Run by Christopher McDougall, part of it came from my good friend Mike (famous for his battle with the Cat in the Hat last April). The thing is, you may have noticed that I haven’t been talking about them quite as much lately. I haven’t been pushing them, proselytizing about them.

I realized recently that I went into this minimalist shoe thing, the VFF’s in particular, all wrong. I did everything one was NOT supposed to do, and I paid for it with pain, injury and worst of all, time away from running. If transitioned to properly, I believe that the Vibrams are one of the best things you can do for yourself, your feet and your running, on many different levels.

Let’s start with why they are good:

They will push you to run with proper form – the thing about running barefoot is that you can’t be a heavy-duty heel striker. Even if that is what you have become, you are forced by the lack of heel protection to change your posture. If you try to continue to run with a heel-strike while barefoot, you’ll only end up hurting yourself…badly.
If used properly, you will avoid injuries to your knees and hips – because you are forced into better posture, your knees and hips don’t take the extreme pounding they would normally take while running with a heel-strike
You will run faster – because you are not hitting the breaks with your heels at every footfall, your momentum doesn’t get interrupted and you are able to maintain a higher speed.
You will run longer – because of the maintained momentum, you expend less energy with each step, each yard, each mile, leaving you more energy to run farther.

Sounds pretty good. Sounds like a miracle shoe. Let’s go out and get a pair and start piling on the miles!

***

Yeah, you know what? That’s exactly what I did. I read Born to Run and I talked to my buddy Mike and I was sold, convinced, converted. I was ready to dedicate my feet to Barefoot Ted and Vibrams. So I went out and bought a pair of the VFF Sprints, took them home, hopped on the treadmill and ran 3 miles.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

That was the sound of my feet on my treadmill as I ran my first VFF run. It was so loud! But you know what? It felt great…for about half a mile. Then my shins started to hurt a little. The burning pain grew, but I was determined to keep going.

These were Vibram Five Fingers!

They were barefoot shoes!

Evolution had programmed and designed me to run like this.

The pain would go away, right?

RIGHT?

But no, the pain didn’t go away. In fact, it got worse. By the time I hit 2 miles my shins were throbbing and my calves were starting to bark.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally hit 3 miles.

MY GOD THAT WAS PAINFUL!!!

But the pain was nothing compared to what I felt the next morning.

You know that feeling you get the morning after a hard fought marathon? The kind of feeling that forces you to walk down stairs backwards? Yeah, well 3 miles in the Vibrams on the treadmill had pretty much done the same thing to me. For the next three or four days I hobbled, if you could even call it that. Walking was painful.

In all seriousness, I was ready to toss the shoes and call them an $80 mistake. I called my buddy Mike to bitch about them, but before I could say anything he asked how far I had run in them.

“3 miles,” I said.

There was a moment of silence on the other side of the line and then some mild laughter. He knew. He knew that I must have been in incredible pain.

“Dude! You shouldn’t have done more than a half a mile the first time in those things! You could really hurt yourself like that!”

“Well, you could’ve told me,” I said. He laughed and we moved on to other topics, but at that point I realized that I needed to give the Vibrams another chance. This time I would take it slowly and build up my mileage a little at a time.

And that’s what I did. Over the course of the next month or so, I built up my mileage until I was able to do 8 mile runs regularly in them.

This is where my next big mistake came. I loved these shoes so much, that I eliminated my other running shoes completely. I loved them and talked about them so much that my wife had this made for my birthday:

Yes, that is a Vibram Five Finger KSO Cake

The problem with that is when you wear the same shoe all of the time, you run a higher risk of repetitive motion injuries, and when you’ve spent a lifetime running in regular shoes, certain muscles and tendons have atrophied to the point where they are weak and brittle. I got away with it for a few months. I had developed a pretty decent stride, but my form still had a tendency to break down a little late in longer runs. I was able to fend off injury to my achilles’ tendon through stretching, but in the meantime, I didn’t realize what I was doing to the tendons on the top of my feet. About 5 weeks before I was to run my first marathon, I went out for a run and I got a sharp pain on the top of my right foot. This was not a “let me see if I can run through it” type of a pain. No, this was, “HOLY CRAP I HAVE GOT TO STOP RIGHT NOW!!!” kind of a pain. Being the intelligent person that I am I decided to try another 10 yards and nearly collapsed to the ground on the second stride.

Something was dreadfully wrong.

After much testing and worrying, I was relieved to know I had not broken anything. I had a severe case of tendinitis however and the doctor ordered me to lay off the running for six weeks.

Hmmm…6 week, eh, Doc? I don’t think I can do that.

Why not, Luau?

Well, you see, I’ve got this marathon coming up in 5 weeks.

No, no you don’t have a marathon coming in 5 weeks. You aren’t going to run. Why would you want to run a marathon anyway?

I sighed after that comment, knowing that I wasn’t going to get anywhere with her. She realized that I was going to run one way or the other.

Ok, she said, I think you’re crazy for doing it in the first place, but if you are going to run it, you need to take the next 3-4 weeks off and then take it easy leading up to the marathon. The moment you feel pain in the race, you stop!

The moment I feel pain? I thought The marathon is about ignoring pain!

I nodded my head and said I would.

The truth is though, I did need to take time off. I could barely walk on my foot, much less run on it. Even swimming, which I did during those 4 weeks, was initially painful to do because of the tendinitis. All of this pain, because I jumped headlong, eyes closed into the minimalist shoe movement without taking into consideration that maybe my legs and feet needed some time to adjust.

So what’s my point? When I started wearing Vibrams, they were the fringe of the fringe. Most odd-balls looked at me like I was crazy. Now, almost 2 years later, the Five Finger shoe line has gained a foothold in the running shoe market. More and more people are willing to try them out. This increased use by an uninformed public has led to some injuries that are being reported by an uninformed press. The Boston Globe, among others, recently published an article about the dangers of wearing the Five Finger shoe. They only get the story half right. Yes, the VFF’s can lead to injury if the wearer doesn’t go about transitioning to them the right way. However, with a little patience, something that is lost in this age of immediate gratification, one can avoid injury all together.

If you are considering a move to Vibram Five Fingers or any other extreme minimalist shoe, I would suggest three things:

Take your time – start slowly and with as few miles as you can possibly take. In fact, if you are using VFF’s for the first time, try a quarter or half mile and call it a day. You can finish your run in your traditional shoes, but don’t be fooled by the initial “it feels so good” feeling. It can only lead to trouble.
Consider a transition shoe. Something that has a bit of a minimalist feel that still has some of the support and cushioning of a traditional shoe. Personally, I highly recommend the Saucony Kinvara. It is low to the ground, relatively flat, light as a feather, but still soft underfoot.
Don’t go exclusively with one shoe. Try rotating your shoes. It doesn’t have to be a 50-50 split. You simply want to make sure that you are not putting the same stresses on the same spots every time you run. This will help you avoid repetitive stress injuries like I suffered right before my first marathon.

If you’re still here, hopefully it means you are still interested in going minimalist. I highly recommend it. It will make you faster and allow you to run longer. Just don’t go making the same mistakes I made.

Today’s post is part of a Minimalist Running Blog Carnival. You can link to the round-up at http://www.strengthrunning.com/2011/02/minimalist-blog-carnival/ where you will find several links to other bloggers writing about different aspects of minimalist running. I hope you will click over and check them out.

Why do you run?

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License Revoked

Posted in diet, health, other, tagged McDonald's, Monet, Monet Parham, politics, responsibility on December 17, 2010| 8 Comments »

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So by now you may have heard about the woman in California that is suing McDonald’s for “getting into the heads of her children”. She says that McDonald’s knowingly makes it hard for her to say “no” to her kids by including a toy in their, what I read one person call “Shut Up in a Box”, Happy Meals.

The Right is up in arms. This is the Left and Liberalism run amok! And you know what? I have to agree. Let me state here that I am a card-carrying member of the left side of the aisle. I believe in social progressiveness. I believe that big government can work. I believe in welfare and Medicaid. I believe it is the government’s job to help make us a better society. I believe the very rich should pay higher taxes. I believe in spreading the wealth. I used to like John McCain before he went crazy. I think Michelle Bachmann is an entertaining, dangerous nutjob. I believe Sarah Palin is just plain dangerous.

But this woman, this Monet Parham is giving me agita. It is people like her that give the rest of us on the left a bad name.

I am not very political. I generally keep my politics to myself. I’m with Jon Stewart, who believes that the extreme 15% at each end of the political spectrum has taken over the system, while the “middle of the road” 70-80% of us are busy with our every day lives.

Monet,

Are you really serious about suing McDonald’s because you’re tired of saying “No” to your kids when they ask for McDonald’s? Seriously? Really? I’ve seen parents like you. The ones that just can’t say no because then their kids will cry. You deserved to have your parent-card revoked. Someone should call DSS and have you’re children taken into foster care. You know what happens to those kids who never hear “no” ? They become brats who walk around with a sense of entitlement and then can’t figure out why the real world doesn’t cater to their every need when they are grown-ups. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. McDonald’s doesn’t advertise themselves as a health food restaurant. They advertise themselves as a fast food restaurant. It’s not meant for daily consumption darlin’. You think they have a moral obligation to produce a healthier product? How about YOUR moral obligation to raise your kids properly? To teach them proper nutrition? To teach them restraint and moderation? To teach them about wants vs. needs? Fast food is not the enemy. Refusal to take on personal responsibility is. McDonald’s isn’t good for you? Guess what, Monet? WE ALL KNOW THAT!!!

This is one of the few time that I find myself in agreement with the likes of Michael Graham and Jay Severin, and that really ticks me off. The truth is the food at McDonald’s sucks…but it tastes so good! It’s salty, it’s fatty, it’s all the things that aren’t good for you in large quantities. That’s why in our family we tend NOT to eat it more than once, maybe twice a month. That doesn’t stop the kids from asking for it every time we drive by a McDonald’s. That’s their job. They’re kids.

An amazing thing happens though 95% of the time we drive by one. I say no and we move on. This may seem magical and mystical to you Monet, but you might want to establish who the boss is in your house. The problem today is not the soulless corporations; it’s the parents who are unwilling to be the hard-ass at home. It’s the parents unwilling to say “No’ or the ones who deliver empty threats – the ones that say, “if you do that again there’s going to be a consequence,” and then when the child does it again, the parent simply shrugs his/her shoulders and says, “what can I do?”

What can you do, Monet? Stop whining and be the parent!

Why do you run?

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Loss

Posted in motivation, other, tagged Loser, Loss, running on December 9, 2010| 3 Comments »

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One of the many things I love about running is that when we race, despite the fact that we are all running against each other, our true opponent is ourselves. Whether we are pushing the envelope on a tempo run or attempting to hit a time in a marathon, in the end, we need only ask ourselves, “did I give it my all?”

I was recently involved in a race, one that had nothing to do with running. Competitive natures as they are, each contestant still wanted to win. My approach to the race was fairly laid back. In the end, it probably came down in part to being a popularity contest. I’ve never been a fan of those because they tend to cloud the issues and prevent the most qualified people from being elected.

It was suggested to me by several people if maybe every candidate could be declared a winner. The parent in me kind of understood this – there were four of us vying for three positions. Why leave one person out in the cold? What are we showing our kids if we’re essentially voting to exclude one person?

As the parent of a daughter with autism, one of, if not the biggest fears I have is her being excluded because she is different. My wife, in fact, is the founder and driving force behind our elementary school’s Inclusion Committee. We are ALL about inclusion.

However,that is not how the real world works. Even if the wife and I are able to realize the dream of a full inclusion society, that doesn’t mean that everybody gets to be a winner every time (if at all). In the real world there are those that win and those that lose, and more often than not, in a race of any kind, there are more losers than winners.

If the conversation ended there, that statement could seem a bit harsh. To me, this is where those on the far right and those on the far left often stop with there one liners, yelling and screaming AT each other, never talking TO each other. That 15% of America has taken the fun out of competition.

The race doesn’t end at the finish line. To me, it’s not whether you win or lose (though I am competitive enough to prefer a win), but HOW you win or lose.

To go back to the election I was recently in, several people had approached me about lobbying to allow every one a slot. Truth be told, the world wasn’t going to end either way. It was argued to me that we are teaching our kids exclusion by leaving one of the four candidates out. But something kept nagging at me on the other end. I could hear the “it is what it is” voice in my head – the one that said the rules are the rules. But it’s just one more person. Nope! You gotta follow the rules!

But then it hit me. The greater lesson to our kids would be, how did the person who came in 4th handle their loss? Would they simply disappear? Would they get angry? or would they still make sure their voice was heard?

A friend of mine, J-Ro, once said to me, and I’m paraphrasing here, that we learn much more about ourselves through loss and adversity than through victory. I believe that to be true. And I think America as a whole used to believe that too. However, I’ve helplessly watched our political system go into the toilet because the extremists in our country either a.) don’t want anybody to lose or b.) never learned how to learn from loss (I’ll let you figure out who’s who).

I know that I learned much more about myself over the course of 2010 BECAUSE I failed so miserably at the Manchester Marathon in 2009. Had I cruised to a BQ on my first marathon attempt, I don’t think I would have appreciated it as much as I did when I finally broke through at Smuttynose.

Loss is a good thing. Failure can ruin us, to be sure, but only if we let it. Whether you lose by a nose or get your rear end handed to you, it hurts. It’s what you do with that hurt that matters.

I like to think that failure is there to make us better, stronger, sharper.

I know it’s made me a better runner.

Why do you run?

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Service

Posted in other, tagged autism, running, soldier, spouse on December 8, 2010| 5 Comments »

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On Saturday night, Jess and I decided to forgo our regular date night. Instead, we, along with Katie and Brooke, traveled an hour and a half away to a attend a party for a man we had never met or spoken to. No, this was not a family obligation. This party was to celebrate the safe return of the husband of a blogiverse friend of my wife. He had spent the past year serving in Afghanistan. Jess’ friend had no idea we were coming. She had no reason to expect us to come. In fact, she and Jess hardly know each other (they had never met or spoken to each other), but to a degree, that wasn’t the point.

This family is an ordinary family like yours or mine. Like mine, they have two children. Like mine, they have a daughter on the Autism Spectrum. UNLIKE my family, they made it through this last year with one parent serving our country in Afghanistan. Sergeant Major William is a proud member of the National Guard. He is an ordinary guy doing the extraordinary. I am extremely grateful for what the Sergeant Major does. I am always floored by the men and women who are willing to put their lives on the line for me. Because of Sergeant Major William, and the rest of the members of our armed forces, I get to do what I do. I get to be a stay-at-home-dad. I get to run marathons. I get to write this silly, little blog. No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, I think it is important to show gratitude and respect for our soldiers. They are heroes.

But I don’t view Sergeant Major William as the only hero in his family. His wife Rachel, along with many of our servicemen’s spouses, have spent the last year home, alone, going to bed every night wondering if their soldier is going to be okay. Add raising a child on the spectrum and the pressure mounts. I believe Rachel, and spouses like her, deserve recognition for the sacrifices they make so that we can send our soldiers overseas, so that we can do what we do, whether it be running marathons or vegging on the couch or whatever the heart desires.

For a more in-depth description of the party, please check out Jess’ blog post —>HERE<—.

We have Veterans’ Day every year in November. I propose we take today, December 8th, to thank the Rachel’s, Jeneil’s, and every other military spouse who hold the hearts of our soldiers – a Veterans’ Spouse’s Day.

What does this have to do with running? Nothing…and everything.

Why do you run?

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Kool-Aid

Posted in other, tagged drug addiction, kool-aid, religion, running, therapy on December 6, 2010| 13 Comments »

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Running, and by extension physical activity, is a gift.

As with all great gifts, it is one worth sharing.

Often people don’t want it. They look at those of us who are regularly active and think that it is easy for us to run, that it is easy for us to exercise. To a degree, that is true. Those of us who call ourselves runners (or swimmers or cyclists) wake up with the urge to run, or swim or bike – maybe not as soon as we get up (I’m still trying out this pre-dawn thing), but eventually, at some point during the day, we are driven to get physical.

It’s not like that for everyone, particularly for those that haven’t imbibed in our endorphin-laced kool-aid. Our non-running friends don’t know that there was a time when the desire and drive simply weren’t there for us, but we forced ourselves to push on. Once through that wall, once through that two to three to ten weeks of faithfully getting it done, it all changed. For some of us it was a gradual awakening, for others it was a moment of enlightenment.

If it sounds mildly religious, don’t be surprised. There is definitely a cult-like mentality to dedicated runners, and the endorphin-high one gets from running is very similar to that of a religious experience or an encounter with a huge amount of chocolate. Some might call it an addiction, others might call it a religion. I like to think of it as therapy. But any way you slice it, for the greater majority of us, it is peace. Running is the place where the stresses of the day, month, year, can melt away for a brief moment in time. It is a place where we can work out the strategies of how to deal with our daily issues. Much like a drug, religion or therapy, running can ease the pain in our lives and help keep our personal demons at bay.

Just like drugs, religion or therapy however, running is not for everyone. As a running acolyte, that is something that is hard for me to remember. Just like there is room in this world for religious believers and non-believers, there too, is room for runners and non-runners alike.

Still, like many religious zealots, I have difficulty understanding how one could not enjoy the benefits running. I wish I could bottle up the kool-aid and give it out for the Holidays, just so people could have a taste of that joy that running (or any exercise that produces a lot of sweat) can bring.

I do believe that unlike religion and drug addiction, running doesn’t do harm to others in its name. It’s not like runners are about to start a runner’s war, right?

People will come to it when they’re ready I suppose. I didn’t start running regularly until I was almost 40. I wish I had done it when I was 30 or 20 for that matter, but honestly, I just wasn’t ready.

Who wants Kool-Aid?

Have you always been a runner (or whatever your sport of choice is) or did it come to you later in life?

Why do you run?