WE’RE NUMBER 1

I want to thank you for acknowledging the impact of the neophyte marathoner and bestowing upon us the number 1 ranking in affecting positively the growth and maturing of the marathon over the last 25 years (see “25 Who Reinvented the Marathon,” Issue 1(5)). This ranking may be the only way we will ever be first in a marathon! It’s gratifying to know that we “count,” even though we will produce neither winning times nor course records, that you appreciate that we are doing our best even though we are not the best, and that there are professionals in the sport who recognize the amateur athlete as a contributing factor to its overall success.

Cathy Troisi
Seneca Falls, N.Y.

KIDS RUNNING MARATHONS

During the mid-70s I used to take a daily run of 1.1 miles with 8 of my 10 children. We used handicapped starts by age so the younger ones would not get left behind and become discouraged. We had some fun with considerable laughing and squealing. There was no pressure. After about a year and a half I left them on their own to keep up the running or not, their choice. Most of them drifted away to other after-school activities. Two of my 10 seemed to have talent and potential—Michele and Mike.

Michele (number 1 of 10 in birth order) is as mentally and emotionally tough as any human being I have ever met. As a high school sophomore, she was named “outstanding female athlete of the year” in her school of about 3,000. My son Mike (number 4 of 10 in birth order) was a frail looking but healthy kid who weighed about 75 pounds at age 12.

In 1975 I began my roadracing career with a 3:20:53 at the third Honolulu Marathon. I was prepared except I had no long runs in excess of 10 miles. I had no coach or source of information to help my preparation. I was happy with my first marathon but was not planning to run another. And there were no other road races available to the public at that time in Hawaii. So, my roadracing career might well have ended then and there.

Much to my happy surprise, Mike and Michele told me that they were interested in running the next Honolulu Marathon. “Well, if you want to run it, you won’t be out there without me,” I told them. I explained what minimum amount of running would be necessary. We weren’t going to be able to do daily runs together because of our different daily routines and the difference in our comfortable paces, so they would have to rely on their own discipline to run their miles. Their different school schedules did not permit them to run together. They were really on their own. Michele was 15 and involved in cross-country during the months prior to the marathon. I told her she needed to do additional running to prepare, but I don’t think she ever did. Mike was 12; I think he did about half the running I told him to do. No pressure from me.

Nevertheless, on December 12, 1976, Mike and Michele and Dad raced the Honolulu Marathon. The only downside was that our different paces didn’t allow us to run together. I finished in 3:15:08, so I could watch Mike and Michele finish. I caught sight of Mike when he had about 150 meters to go. Mike was striding toward the finish as if he had just taken a turn around the block. I had an emotional rush unequaled in my life before or since. He crossed the line in 3:41:16 and said he was “a little tired.” He said a 5-minute pit stop cost him a chance to beat another kid about his age. So then he and I and the rest of the family started looking for Michele. When we saw her, she was carrying a shoe in each hand; they had been bothering her so she ran the final four miles of the marathon barefoot. She was running like she was on a social run. She reached the finish in 4:00:21.

The bottom line: If your kids want to road race, including racing a marathon, I recommend that you give them proper instruction, gently supervise their preparation, don’t nag or hassle them, and let ’em go! The key words here are “kids want” and “gently.”

Gordon Hartshorn
The Colony, Texas

As long as children are training on their own, and not because their parents make them or want them to, and they are doing it for themselves, all the more power to them. I think if you write a story about this topic, you should include Lane Cooper, a youngster who has run several ultramarathons.

I would like to learn more about the boy on the cover of your November/December issue. How old is he? Did he finish the marathon and in what time and what kind of training he did do? If he did finish, I’d like his address or e-mail address so I can write to congratulate him.

Larry Phillips
Highland, N.Y.

THE “ZONE” DIET

Thank you very much for your magazine—I devour each issue. I am a medical doctor who is a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation. I practice natural medicine and utilize herbs, vitamins, and diet to help my patients heal and prevent diseases. I am also a marathoner.

I have to disagree with the answers given in the November/December issue about the appropriateness of the “Zone” Diet for long-distance runners. Common sense says that there is no one “best” diet for everyone. Obviously a long-distance runner in Canada, where it is often cold, is going to have to eat differently than someone running all the time in the southern Californian sun. The Canadian runner is going to have to eat more protein than his fellow runner in southern California.

You can take a simple test called metabolic typing to find out what kind of diet is best for you. Should you be eating a high-carbohydrate diet or a high-protein diet? Metabolic typing involves taking a glucose tolerance test and having pH readings taken of your urine, blood, and saliva while in the fasting state.

If you need a high-protein “Zone” diet, you will be somewhat hypoglycemic on the glucose tolerance test, during which you will be given a high-carbohydrate drink after having fasted for 15 hours. Every 30 minutes your blood glucose is checked. If your blood sugar goes below normal at any time during the test, you are considered hypoglycemic or a fast oxidizer of carbohydrates. Such a person needs to be on a high-protein diet; otherwise you will have a decrease in energy 1 to 2 hours after a high-carbohydrate meal because your blood sugar will drop. This is why some people feel like snoozing at 2:00 in the afternoon. Inevitably that person’s last meal was a high-carbohydrate meal.

If you fit this category, you’d do better during a race if you didn’t have an electrolyte drink containing fructose, dextrose, or sucrose in it, as such a drink would drop your blood sugar below normal. You should drink a complex carbohydrate, such as Maltodextrin.

During metabolic typing a fast oxidizer of carbohydrates will also have a fasting urine that is alkaline and blood pH that is acid. These are both indications that a higher protein diet is needed. I call such a person a “lion,” and that person needs to eat like a lion. Such a person needs to eat pumpkin seeds, fish, chicken, steak, and other high-protein sources.

Colder weather tends to acidify the blood, and this is probably why a higher-protein diet is needed, as it balances out the pH.

All enzyme systems of the body work most efficiently at a very narrow blood pH range. If the blood pH gets out of this narrow range, then the first thing that happens is that the person gets tired because the body can’t efficiently produce energy. To get the blood pH up, some people need a high-protein diet. If such a person is a runner, the “Zone” diet will help improve running times.

Ross A. Hauser, MD
Chicago, Ill.

you can eventually run 4- to 6-milers at this pace.

Also build up your weekend long run to two-plus hours three weeks prior to the marathon. Run relaxed on the long run, only picking up the pace if you feel extra good on that day. Don’t set too lofty a time goal; otherwise, your three-days-a-week training plan might leave you short of the time.

—Mark Conover was a U.S. Olympic marathoner, and coaches runners of all abilities. His e-mail address is mconover@slonet.org.

“THE PAST is never dead; it is not even past,” wrote William Faulkner. If you ran marathons previously, I don’t see any reason why you cannot begin running them again—and running them well. The heart, however, is more demanding and will ask you, “What have you done for me today, and yesterday, and every day that you have not run in all these years?” If during this 10-year hiatus, you haven’t been able to run at least three days a week for 30 to 40 minutes, I would recommend a visit to your doctor for an evaluation of your cardiovascular health before you reach a decision to begin training for the marathon.

Regarding running a marathon with a training schedule of three or four days per week, it depends very much on what your aim is. If you aim to finish in 4 to 5 hours, including walking intervals, and enjoy the atmosphere of a marathon as a “fun run,” you will probably be able to do it, even with low mileage.

For a more serious race, however, you would probably need to train more than 40 miles per week, and this could be achieved by one long-distance run on the weekend (starting with 15 miles and going up until 20 miles) with the additional 20 miles divided among the other three training days, according to the time that you have at your disposal.

Remember that regularity and a progressive increase in your mileage are essential to avoid the “burned out” syndrome (too much too fast) and muscular-skeletal injuries.

Start with 10K races to check your body’s response and recovery time and later increase to half-marathons before taking on a full marathon. But do talk to your doctor first.

—Pedro Pujol, MD, works at the Olympic Training Center in Barcelona and was a member of the Olympic Medical Team at Atlanta in 1996.

WORKING A full-time job while training for a marathon can be tough. But judging from the increasing number of runners you see at the starting line of most marathons, it is not impossible. The trick, of course, is to create a life of balance and moderation as you train for your event.

Although you will be missing out on several days of training each week, you can still prepare for and run a successful marathon if you establish a solid running base, build on it carefully, and keep your running schedule flexible.

Since you are just returning from a 10-year layoff, I strongly