On THE Road

WITH Scott Douglas

WHAT IF THEY HELD AN OLYMPICS AND NOBODY WATCHED?

As I write, the Olympics have been over for a week. Remember them? That was the deal where great athletes—not to mention some really good synchronized divers—gathered Down Under to see who was supreme in the world, or at least best in the assembled field at the allotted time. Most Americans, a few months later, find the Games as worthy of a rehash as Elian Gonzalez minutia. Being a member of the Marathon & Beyond family, though, you, dear reader, are used to taking the long view, and it is with your patient perspective in mind that I offer the following random thoughts about the scene in Sydney.

Let’s start with the runners furthest from marathoners.

Much was made of the antics of the U.S. men’s 4 X 100 meter relay team during their 20-minute victory lap/Men’s Fitness cover pose. Their sartorial approach to the flag offended many (though I fail to see how literally wrapping themselves in the flag is worse than politicians of all stripes abetting their cause with figurative flag wrapping). Setting aside hot-button issues of patriotism, most found the display sadly embarrassing, more

for the sprinters than for their compatriots. As Steve Holman told me, Jon Drummondis in his 30s and has a son; a decade from now, will = he play the child videos of the event to earn respect? Also pathetic was the team’s “apology,” akin to the Dubyagoes-to-Bob-Jones-University mea culpa: I’m sorry if my actions offended you, not because I now consider them wrong, but because they harmed my popularity.

What do immature sprinters’ shameful and shameless posturings have to do with marathoning? I submit that the real reason so much of America was upset by the relay team is that they held a fun house mirror up to our society, wherein we saw a grotesque, misshapen portrait of ourselves, but one that was nonetheless recognizable, and all the more hideous for it. How differentis the sprinters’ exhibitionism and assumption of singularity from the ethos that’s drummed into us from birth by the commercial cacophony: you’re special, you’ re different from everybody else, you have the right—nay, the duty—to prove that to the world, and

STACEY CRAMP

if others don’t like it, that’s all the more proof of their prudery and your primacy.

Now, what does the marathon tell us? You’re nothing special. You’re a highly predictable set of physiological functions. If you don’t submit yourself to the marathon for several months before the race, it will peel away every last layer of your cakedonidentity in less than two hours. Even if you have prepared properly, the slightest disrespect from you on race day gives it the opportunity to reduce you to a shuffling pile of protoplasm. As Bill Rodgers says, the marathon will humble you.

“T was expressing myself,” one relay team member said in explanation. I believe him. Think what kind of personality he revealed in this expression. Now think about, say, the men’s marathon medalists on the victory stand. They, too, were expressing themselves in that moment. They expressed respect for their opponents, a quiet dignity, and the humility that comes from the recognition that they had been fortunate enough to withstand the marathon the best on that day. Is it coincidental that their upbringing imbued similar values and lessons? Is it coincidental that no Americans were on the podium following such an event?

LADIES FIRST

I must admit that I contributed to NBC’s poorratings, which were down more than 30 percent from Atlanta in

1996 and, more tellingly, more than 20 percent compared with other-sideof-the-world Seoul in 1988. Two main reasons given for the lackluster viewing—competition from cable and trouble with the time difference— didn’t apply in my case. I don’t get cable, and being in near-daily contact with New Zealand resident Pete Pfitzinger, I’m up on the whole timezone calculation thing.

My frequent boycott of the box was more philosophical. A point I’ ve tried to make in past columns is that distance running is not fodder for the one-size-fits-all entertainment/politics/pop culture maw. I sat through some of the triathlon, but even that segmented sport’s continuity was eviscerated by NBC’s pell-mell, Hallmark approach to sport journalism. (Was I the only one who had trouble distinguishing between the network’s soft-focus coverage and the ads?) Coverage of a seamless, subtly unfolding event like the marathon would be that much less satisfying, I figured.

More important—and what I hold to be akey reason for the plummeting ratings—was that NBC, in deciding to show events after we all had the means to know the outcome, ignored the greatest appeal of sport, the element of the unexpected. I don’t mean the unexpected arrival of a sudden rainstorm, or whatever it is that compels Weather Channel devotees. Sport enthralls us because human will and muscle are put to the test to achieve an outcome at the expense of similarly striving opponents. Even if

you’re watching the eighth inning of a lopsided baseball game, there’s still the slight chance—or, for Orioles fans, the chance to delude yourself that there’s a slight chance—that the outcome is undecided. As soon as you know the result, though, that magical mystery is gone.

(Isn’t this part of the appeal of the marathon on a personal level? On the basis of your training and strength of mind that morning, you can predict within a few seconds your time for a 5K. This is not the case with the marathon, no matter how well- trained and tough you are. To run a marathon is to be simultaneously participant and spectator as the miles unfold.)

In other words, I didn’t see the women’s marathon. If you did, you don’t need me to remind you of what you saw, and if you joined me in not viewing, by now you know what happened. So let’s look at some lessons from the race.

I’ll start by saying that, although I don’t know who will win the 2004 Olympic marathon, I know who won’t: the woman previously pegged as the obvious favorite. In 1984 and 1988, when women’s world-class marathoning was in its infancy, the medals followed the form charts. Not so since, at least when the form charts are put together by people fixated on world-record holders and big-city American marathon winners. Uta Pippig, Rob de Castella, and Tegla Loroupe own as many Olympic medals as you and I do. (Unless Katrin Dorre has subscribed since the last

time I checked, in which case, wellkommen.) Yes, Fatuma Roba has won Boston three times, but only after her “surprise” win in Atlanta. She was 9th in Sydney.

Winner Naoko Takahashi of Japan has run mostly women-only, small-field international races. Romanian silver medalist Lidia Simon, though hardly a household name, is a consistent top finisher in women-only marathons. Even Kenyan bronze medalist Joyce Chepchumba, best known of the trio to readers of American running magazines, has won at London, where the women run separately. When crystal ball gazing before Athens, look for runners who have performed best when they have a small pack of similarly matched women, not hordes of men, to run with. From those smaller cauldrons are forged the biggest champions.

Also look for the top finishers to come from traditionally sexist cultures where women have been exposed to the idea of equality. It’s this feature more than any great reverence in their country for their endeavors that links most modern marathon medalists. Running is said to have the same cachet among kids in Kenya that basketball does in the United States, but people who have traveled there will tell you differently. And Romania as a country obsessed with running? The potential for a marathon payday—and the accompanying independence—is ample motivation for hard training when the alternative is subjugation at the hands of the less fair

sex. (A couple of levels below the Olympics, witness the slew of sub2:40 female Russian marathoners at work on the U.S. prize money circuit.)

An interesting aspect of all the women’s distance races in Sydney is that, relatively speaking, they were significantly faster than the men’s races. Takahashi set an Olympic record on what was supposed to be a tough course, and a sub-2:30 run only got Irina Bogacheva 14th place. In the women’s 10,000 meter final, Derartu Tulu broke the Olympic record and was one of the five finishers in the top six who PRed. In contrast, the men’s 5,000 meter was won ina time slower than the Olympic B standard. Could it be that given the extra societal constraints they must overcome to succeed, world-class women are more driven than their male peers, and therefore eschew the sit-and-kick tactics more often seen in the men’s races? If youcan say with much less certainty than your male teammates that you’ll be competing in three years, does every race therefore take on that much more urgency?

As a doctor in a society that lionizes the medical profession, America’s “team” of Christine Clark can hardly be said to face similar oppression. Still, at age 37 and with two young children to tend to, she runs against a certain ticking of the clock. All the more reason, then, to celebrate her second PR of the year in a race with a few more trappings than the turkey trot in Anchorage. Still, let’s break from the tub-thumping occasionally to remember that our best American was literally more than a mile behind the fastest in the world at the finish.

ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAY

Okay, so I gave in and watched the men’s marathon. And maybe it was lightheadedness from running long earlier that day, but I found NBC’s story on defending champ Josia Thugwane touching, or at least instructive. Unlike the subjects of most of the profiles, Thugwane has undeniably overcome adversity—statesanctioned racism, illiteracy, severe poverty—en route to the Olympics. (I mean, I like animals and all, but I had a hard time working up a tear for the guy in the equestrian event whose horse had “overcome” a heart problem.) Because you race so seldom but for decent purses, the marathon at the world-class level is one of the few events left in sport that offers the sort of overnight rags-to-riches transformation Thugwane has experienced. Of course, being the defending champ, Thugwane didn’t stand a chance in Sydney. As in the women’s race, the medalists left the oddsmakers richer for the day, and the obvious favorites—your Pintos, your El Mouazizes—weren’t factors when the real racing started. Granted, silver medalist Eric Wainaina had won bronze in Atlanta behind Thugwane, but what had he done of note in the interim? Even after Sydney, he was

just the 17th fastest Kenyan for the year and will no doubt have moved down a few notches by the time the fall marathon season has passed.

At this level of competition, it’s street smarts, not PRs that wins races. Gold medalist Gezahenge Abera’s forte has become close finishes. Sometimes he wins, sometimes he loses, but in all these situations, he races for place, not time. Wainaina obviously thinks similarly—his countrymen might have the 2:07 PRs, but he has two Olympic medals.

That’s not to imply that I’m in total agreement with the view of marathoning that underlies Frank Shorter’s TV work. Our Frank was better than usual this time; I heard none of his trademark cries of, “He’s stolen this race!” usually offered roundabout the time the obvious winner has started waving to the crowd. Nonetheless, Frank discusses competitive marathoning solely in terms of tactics, of testing surges and deliberate pace slowings, of calculated risks to let an opponent get a five-second gap.

Consider the wind, which at points could be seen to stand these slight figures up. (Why, even 5th-place finisher Giacomo Leone’s hair looked a little out of place!) Some runners aren’t affected as much by wind as others. Some aren’t as affected by heat. Frank didn’t like racing in the cold and has written that he took it as a bad omen when rain started to fall soon before the 1976 Olympic race.A successful marathon always involves an element of luck. Perhaps it’s been

so long since Frank raced a marathon that he’s forgotten that there are times when, despite what the playbook in your head dictates, your body just can’t come through. Surely 4th-place finisher Jon Brown would have gone with the three eventual medalists if he could have. Come to think of it, surely the whole field would have. If the race had been held September 30 or October 2, different men would be home shining their medals right now.

As for Frank’s on-air companion, will some network executive please give Marty Liquori a performance review? I suppose the theory is that if we’ re not going to send our best team to the Olympics, the broadcasters should match. (Carol Lewis, indeed.) Marty, God bless him, has always been a little excitable on the air, but for his former fans, he’s getting a little painful to watch, kind of the broadcaster’s version of the 4 x 100m relay team.

Even my wife, not one for conversing with inanimate objects, sighed aloud when Marty speculated that Wainaina might be lulling Abera into a false sense of confidence by letting him pull away with a mile to go. After all, Marty had used this technique with success while running the mile in New Jersey high school meets. Marty is also increasingly prone to inexplicable and, frankly, inexcusable factual errors. At the halfway point, he noted that the finishing time would likely be 2:10, which, he claimed, would be an Olympic record. Right, Marty, except for that race with Carlos Lopes you covered in 1984. Would a baseball announcer be given air time if he repeatedly botched similar bits of the sport’s lore?

Poor Rod DeHaven is ample evidence of the arbitrary cruelty of the marathon. No less a judge of marathon talent than Pfitzinger, who hosted Rod soon before the Games, picked him to finish 9th. But on October 1, Rod had diarrhea, and that was that. His experience is the counterargument to the Pangloss claim that Christine Clark’s wonderful run proved we had the best of all possible selection methods, given the circumstances. As Joe LeMay, who would have been on the team had the USATF not whimsically changed the rules, has noted, a full team increases the odds that someone will get it right on race day. That’s especially true in the marathon, with its notorious lack of forgiveness to those who start too fast or simply pick the wrong day on which to run one. Ask any of the more than 30 men who finished after Takahashi.

HELLO JOE

Speaking of Joe LeMay … . For those who have grown tired of my tirades, your long nightmare is over. M&B editor Rich Benyo—who no doubt watched all the Olympic volleyball games—likes to rotate the “On the Road” column every year or two, and my time at the wheel is up. Starting next issue, this space will be occupied by one Joseph Bernard LeMay, whose 2:13 marathon PR will add a nice touch, in that he actually knows

what he’s talking about. (Me, I like providing the outsider’s perspective on successful marathoning.)

Fans of LeMay’s Web site know what they can expect from Joe Columnist: no-nonsense, no-excuses, laconically humorous takes on running issues du jour from a guy who applies the same engineer’s mind to his weekly 130 miles as he does to his full-time job as e-mail administrator for a software company.

For my few fans—hey, my parents are paying subscribers, so they count—sleep easy that this column will not soon drip with sap. LeMay’s ultrarational exterior is flavored nicely by a subcutaneous dismay at the follies of his fellows. Consider, for example, how he described a typical resident of his hometown when I spent a few days with him this summer in Danbury, Connecticut.: “A fat guy in an SUV rushing off to the mall.” Despite the high-tech trappings of his life, LeMay is a link to the old-school, hard-won base building of his coach, Tom Fleming, and the concomitant self-sufficiency, focus on fundamentals, and grounding it brings. That is, he’s one of us, just a hell of a lot faster. Ican’t wait for him to show up in my mailbox every other month.

Scott Douglas can be reached at : scottdouglas@mindspring. com.

Advanced Marathoning, by Pete -Pfitzinger and Scott, will be published by Human Kinetics ay – this J year.

25th Issue Special Section

Going For the Silver x SD

M&B |s 25 Issues Old and You Win.

T HIS IS the 25th issue of Mar Beyond. And yes, it seems like only yesterday we were honin; concept and putting the first issue together. But then it seems like only yesterday we could till hope to PR in the marathon. Because we like to celebrate events as often as possible, we’re treating this occasion as though it is our silver.anniversary, even though we’re 20 years shy of that lofty goal. eS 3

Naturally, we’ ve come up with S of articles spun around the “25” theme for a very special issue. Besides being one of the largest issues we’ ve done, the issue also marks Jan’s and my official surrender to the reality of no longer being able to unerringly pinpoint which issue carried which story (although Jan thinks she can still do it, so challenge her)—so, all you folks who drop by our marathon expo booth wanting to know where to find what article, please accept our apologies if we miss by an issue or two. Meanwhile, we’ re working to put together a master subject/author index, which we’ Il have on our Web site to guide you (and us) to exactly which page in which issue a particular story appeared.

Another cause for celebration marked by this 25th issue is that our magazine has now enjoyed five times the number of issues as its forbear, The Marathoner. That magazine was produced in the late 1970s when I cooked up the idea of a marathon-specific, perfect-bound quarterly while working at Runner’s World. At that time, I needed a solution to the problem of putting together our increasingly huge annual marathon issue during the same month we were putting on National Running Week over the Christmas/New Year’s holidays. Spreading the marathon material over four issues during the year seemed the sane thing to do. That the magazine was killed off not because it was unhealthy (it wasn’t) but because it was yoked to a disastrous Rolling Stone-of-running tabloid called On the Run has always seemed to deserve some sort of redemption—and M&B is it.

This silver anniversary was made possible by our enthusiastic subscribers and advertisers, who obviously feel that the sport is big enough and—dare we

say it?—eccentric enough to support a quirky little publication devoted to a very narrow focus (a very narrow focus, we contend, that allows us to paint with a very wide brush).

It may sound strange, but we’d also like to thank the other running publications for their support. One of the benefits of being quirky and unusual is that we emulate no one and no one emulates us. We don’t consider other running publications competitors, and we like to think that they look at us as a periodical that complements their publication rather than competes with it. Indeed, some of our strongest support over the past five years has come from other running publications, a claim that probably cannot be made by publications in other fields.

We’d love to be able to give each of our subscribers and advertisers a silver medal to celebrate this issue’s publication. We can’t do that in reality, but we sure can in spirit.

And in that spirit, let’s go for the gold. This issue is being put together just as the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games are set to begin. Our 50th issue will go to print just as the 2004 Games reach their finale. With much effort, in four more years we hope to be worthy of the gold.

Enjoy this very special issue, and as always, we’ll be eager to hear your thoughts and ideas about how to keep M&B fresh for our next 25 issues.

—Rich Benyo

at the Myrtle Beach Marathon. February 11. c00!

The Myrtle Beach Marathon features the Marathon Relay, the Leukemia Team In Trainig Pacing Teams, the Le Bleu Family fun Run, as well as pre and post Race Parties.

Recgister online at: www.coastaledu/mbmarathon« ava2ga.nace (1223) LeBleu melo BxGre

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Tnvestments = AL, CAROLINA UNIVERSITY

25th Issue Special Section

North America’s 25 Toughest Marathons

You Want Challenges, We Got ‘Em. x. YY

M ARATHONERS LOOKING for a PR seek out fast, easy courses. Some years ago, Runner’s World claimed that the St. George Marathon in Utah was the easiest course on which to qualify for Boston, and the poor race burst at the seams. i

Not every marathoner wants every marathon to be a fast, easy one. Some marathoners are willing to give up some minutes (or even hours) in the results book in exchange for beautiful scenery and bragging rights on toughness. If you’re this kind of runner, the list we’ve compiled below is for you: we’ ve found the 25 reputedly toughest marathons in North America.

As we did in our July/August 1998 issue when we compiled the “26 Best Marathons in North America,” we went to the 50 & D.C. Group for input. These multimarathoners go out of their way to run at least one marathon in each state in the United States plus D.C. In doing so, they run races that most of us haven’t heard of. We felt that their wide-ranging proclivities would give us the best possible scope for tossing our net for the “25 Toughest Marathons in North America.” Several of our panelists were harboring such “tough marathon” memories that they even voted for races that had been discontinued (Montreal, Winterhawk, Jackson Hole Moose Chase, and Six Pack). Memories that stick that long are tough, indeed, and you’re probably lucky you missed those races.

Without further or fancy ado, we present North America’s 25 toughest marathons.

25 Montreal Note: This race was discontinued after 1996.

“When I ran it in 1996,” Jose Nebrida reports, “there were many hills and they seemed to go on forever. But for every uphill there was a downhill that compensated for my aching quads. The toughness of the course was reflected in the 2:29 male course record.”

Editor’s note: The new marathon in Quebec is Marathon des Deux Rives, considered by one Quebec subscriber to be tougher than Montreal. 2001 marks its third year. Web site: www.quebecmarathon.com.

24 Trailbreaker

Don Ayer or John Arneson

RE/MAX Suburban Trailbreaker

2314 Grandview Bldg, Ste. 310

Held the last Sunday in March

The course follows a converted railroad bed and southeastern Wisconsin’s glaciated hills on the famous Ice Age Trail, with miles 10 through 16 being extremely rugged. The one-of-a-kind turnaround point lies at the top of the 70step, 40-foot observation tower on Lapham Peak, also the highest point in Waukesha County, with spectacular views of the surrounding lake country. Bill Macy reports: “It’s an out-and-back course on a blacktop rails-to-trails path for the first 8 miles. Then there’s a trail from mile 9 to the turnaround and back to the blacktop path at about mile 17. At the 13.2-mile turnaround, you climb up and down a fire ranger tower. You run along a narrow path through the woods with a pretty good elevation gain, and then back down the same trail, trying not to collide with other runners. The weather is the most important factor in this marathon. When it rains, the trail portion of the race is hell. The mud and tree roots present a real test of your footing skills. If the weather is bad, wear your oldest shoes and just throw them away after the race.”

235 Grandfather Mountain

Harry Williams/Jim Deni

Dept of Psychology, Appalachian State University

Web site: www.users.boone.net/lamarreca/gmminfo.htm

Held in July

Starting on the Appalachian State University campus, the course quickly enters the country including a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The mostly paved course climbs from 3,333 feet to 4,279 feet as it winds through Blue Ridge Mountain forests. The last four miles are uphill. Virginia Farneman notes: “This race is in a beautiful location, from the base of a mountain to the top, nearly a 1,000-foot altitude gain. If you haven’t done your hill training, avoid this race.”

22 Winterhawk

Note: This race has been discontinued.

“T’ ve ran this race three times (1993, ’94 and ’98),” says Ms. Chris Ralph. “The trail wound through a wonderful park, with some pretty nice climbs with plenty

of mud. The combination of trails and mud required a completely different kind of training.”

2 Hogeye

George Moore

2466 Sweetbriar Dr.

Held in April

“This is an out-and-back course with plenty of hills,” Bill Macy reports. “The big hill is at miles 2 and 3 and is waiting for you to descend on the return at miles 24 and 25, terrific to look forward to at that portion of the race. The course features all sorts of hills: short and long, steep and winding. The crown of the road was a bother. Start the first 5 miles slowly. It would be easy to expend a great deal of fuel on the big hill at mile 3, but you’ll have time to cruise later. Save something for that hill on the return trip, and you’! have something left to kick it in over that last flat mile.”

20 Longest Day

Brenda Algood

First National Bank

Web site: www.brookings.com/striders/longestday.htm

Held in April

The Longest Day Marathon was first held on June 21, 1970, the first day of summer, hence the name. Eventually, the third weekend of April was chosen and has remained the date. Says Jose Nebrida: “This was a unique race. It consists of two loops of primarily asphalt road with two miles of gravel thrown in. The year I ran it, due to inclement weather (read: snow, sleet, freezing rain, strong winds), the marathon was held in the gym at South Dakota State University. We ran 209 laps on the 200-meter track. The run was psychologically stifling and boring. My lap counter made a lot of mistakes—to the point that I think I lost 10 laps along the way. I finished last. It wasn’t much fun. I picked the wrong year to run this race. Never run a marathon in a gym!”

19 Running Fit’s Trail

Randy Step

Running Fit

123 E. Liberty

Held in April

This race was formerly called the Michigan Trail Marathon. Characterized by continuous hills, muddy trails, and elevations from 300 feet to 1,200 feet, Running Fit’s Trail’s double-loop course begins along Silver Lake in the Pinckney Recreation Area 20 miles north of Ann Arbor. The course quickly funnels onto the narrow, rocky and hilly Potawatomi Trail, and runners huff and puff past dense woods, through occasional swamplands, and over several bridges. Don McNelly reports: “The race advertises ‘no wimps’ and they mean it! It’s a twoloop course run all on trails with plenty of mud and steep climbs and drops. It is reasonably well marked and organized with good support, but don’t expect to run easy on this one. Expect to discard your running shoes after the race.”

(8 Rockin K Trail

Phil or Stacy Sheridan

302 S. Grand Ave.

E-mail: psheridan@informatics.net

Web site: www.ericsteele.com/kus/

Held in early April

This course is mostly a single track horse trail with some four-wheel-drive pasture roads with hills, rocky sections, sand, and numerous stream crossings,” says Ray Scharenbrock. “I was happy that the heavy rains stopped before the marathon ended, and it rained only a bit during the run. The course was muddy. A 5K section on a road was being resurfaced, and that section was really muddy—the good clay mud that sticks to your shoes. It’s reputed that Kansas is flat, but here’s a news flash: Kansas has hills, and they managed to put them all on the Rockin K course. Plus, we had stream crossings, and April stream water is cold. The streams were high due to the rain—there’s something about going bellybutton deep in cold water that is especially challenging. Some of the trail was deeply rutted and quite narrow, which made running difficult. In 2000, the race was held April 1, which seemed appropriate.”

(7 Ellerbe Springs

Doug Dawkins

129 Springer Mountain Rd.

Web site: http://web.infoave.net/~runrbike/esmentry.htm

Held in early April

Bill Macy says: “This is an extremely hilly loop course out in the country. The hills are demanding. It’s a small marathon, so once the pack gets spread out, you’re on your own, without crowd support, but the race has great organization.”

(6 Heart of America

Joe Duncan

2980 Maple Bluff Dr.

Web site: http://ctc.coin.org/hoa/index.htm

Run in early September

“This is a loop course on hard surface roads,” reports Bill Macy. “A small part of the course is on the Katy Trail along the Missouri River. It is very hilly— especially the Easley Hill at mile 13. Also, Missouri on Labor Day weekend is not the coolest place in the country. The year I ran, temps and humidity were both around 73 at the start, and it only got hotter. The race began in the dark at 6.M., and there was some friction with auto traffic, as they thought they should have exclusive use of the road. Did I mention the hills? Do your hill work, and pray really hard when you start up Easley Hill.” Ray Scharenbrock adds: “Take it easy and pace yourself, or the hills will kill ya. They are insidious!”

iS Pisgah

Mike & Sue Watson

Note: This race was changed from a marathon to a 50K in 1996.

Chris Ralph reports: “This was a trail marathon on Pisgah Mountain. The weather was humid, there was some light rain, and there were the typical New England rocks. Lots of climbs with bad footing. Practice your trail running and your climbing before you tackle this one.”

(4 Yukon River Trail

Rick Janowicz

Valhalla Pure

201B Main St.

Canada

E-mail: run@yukonmarathon.com Web site: www.yukonmarathon.com Held in August

This race is only two years old. Our report comes from Henry Rueden, who ran it in August 2000: “This trail marathon goes up and down various hills/ “ea mountains. Some of the areas are very steep, one area containing small round rocks, making it almost impossible to _ run. The course can become slippery with rain. ‘You won’t want to run ser a onsome of the areas next to large drop-offs. The support was outstanding: very friendly volunteers.” (See this issue’s race profile on pages 147-157 for more information.)

(3 Kilauea Volcano Wilderness Runs

Howard Shapiro

Volcano Art Center

Hawaii National Park, HI 96718

E-mail: artpeac@aloha.net Web site: www.volcanoartcenter.org

Run in July

Only the hardy and adventurous should brave the sharp lava fields, the wafting sulfur, and the hilly, uneven terrain brimming the Kilauea caldera. When you’re not hopping rocks, you may be running in deep black sands. This is a marathon with legs. In our July/August 1998 issue a panel voted this race the 10th best

marathon in North America. And here it’s ranked as the 13th toughest. Don McNelly reports: “This one’s different. It’s run on hot lava beds and ledge trails, and part of it runs through a jungle. Heat, heat, heat and dangerous surfaces: difficult footing, dangerous if you get off course. Research what you’ re getting into before you sign up. Ittook me 90 minutes longer to run this than my average marathon time.”

(2 six Pack (Final day)

Denny Fryman

7581 Glenhurst Dr.

Run the six days after Christmas

Note: The race has been discontinued, but the race director is considering reinstatement.

“The concept is this,” Virginia Farneman explains. “You run six marathons on six consecutive days on a 1.4-mile loop. In 1999 we were hit with severe windchill, snow, sleet, ice—everything. Cold weather running at its toughest. For the hardy or masochistic only.”

“7 Ridge Runner

Angel Adams

North Bend State Park

Held in June

Bill Macy says: “You run a big figure-8 loop course. The start and finish are at the North Bend State Park. Many hills and the heat along with the gravel roads combine to make this marathon a little testy. It isn’t a big race, so be prepared to run several miles alone. Pace yourself in this marathon, as the hills are spread out through the whole course. Stay at the lodge in the park, which offers accommodations and is about a short nine iron from the start and finish.” Sharon Kerson concurs: “The hills are continuous and steep. When you think the hills are over, they begin again, particularly near the end. Don’t expect a PR, but don’t worry if you’re slow because the course is open for eight hours. There is no awards ceremony; the whole thing is very low-key. There is a story-telling ina tunnel the night after the marathon that is fun.”” Don McNelly adds: “ There are four miles of gravel road; the remainder is paved. This is a beautiful course, with continuous hills, curves, and great scenery everywhere.”

Wally Kastner ~

E-mail: info@bsim.org Web site: www.bsim.org

Held the last Sunday in April

Like any coastal race, a big drawback can be the stiff headwind. The Ultimate Guide to Marathons rated this race North America’s best marathon. Jose Nebrida reports: “Big Sur is held on the most beautiful highway in the world (The Pacific Coast Highway). It’s a point-to-point course on hilly asphalt roads. There is live classical music along rolling hills through redwoods past ranches with gorgeous views of the Pacific Ocean. It was so hilly that my quads started to whine and complain by the halfway point. Upon reaching the summit at Hurricane Point (560 feet), I looked back and cried like a child, for I saw the most beautiful scenery God ever created: the mountains meeting the sea, + Pristine since time began, un- scapyeinan touched by human hands. Run : areserved pace so you can soak in the beauty. All the aches and pains will dissolve if you just enjoy the gorgeous and stunning beauty.” Don McNelly agrees: “Perhaps the most beautiful course I have everrun. Rolling but fair hills, especially the climb to Hurricane Point.” Sharon Kerson adds: “This marathon starts in a forest, and for the first six miles you are protected. Once you hit the Pacific Ocean, though, the winds can pick up to over 40 mph. The last mile of the marathon is uphill. Start saving your money, because it is expensive to go to this marathon, as far as entry fee and accommodations go, but it’s worth it to pay the price—in this case, you get what you pay for.”

G Lake Geneva

Frank Dobbs

1017 Geneve St. #7

Lake Geneva, WI 53147

E-mail: lgsport@geneva.online Web site: www.lakegenevasports.com

Held in May

The marathon traces Lake Geneva, heads into the surrounding farm country, passes through some spectacular neighborhoods, and finishes on an ancient Indian path. “It is a loop course on asphalt roads and dirt trails around the lake,” describes Jose Nebrida. “It is ahilly, challenging course mostly on country roads. Those glaciated hills were really tough on my legs. The gears on the cars and trucks were groaning and grinding.” Dean Rademaker adds: “A couple of miles are on the shoulder of an interstate highway with cars and trucks speeding past. The climb from mile 16 to mile 17.5 is rough.” Henry Rueben, who has run this course seven times, attests: “The first 14 miles or so are rather nice, with hills going out country roads where you’ Il see farmers working their fields. Once past mile 14, the course goes up several hills, some rather steep. There are also several hills around miles 23 to 25. All the hills are in the second half of the race.”

§ Jackson Hole Moose Chase

Note: This race has been discontinued.

Two of our panelists voted this race the second-toughest marathon in North America. Virginia Farneman offers her perspective: “It was a point-to-point course in the beautiful Teton Mountains. It’s at altitude, and it’s very hilly!” Bill Macy concurs: “The race started south of Jackson at Hoback and finished at Teton Village, west of Jackson. The course has very demanding hills and elevation. It is bad enough that the elevation at the start is 5,850 feet but the first two miles gain 800 feet.There is a little trail run thrown in for a couple of miles around mile 22 just to keep you awake and alert. Then there are rolling hills with a finish at 6,300 feet. ”

7 Wild Wild West

Diane Taylor

Chamber of Commerce

Lone Pine, CA 93545

E-mail: filming@lone-pine.com Web site: www.lone-pine.com Held first Sunday in May

The race route includes several steady climbs and moderate declines at altitudes between 4,000 and 6,000 feet with typical temperature of 85 degrees. The race is run in the shadows of Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48. Sharon Kerson voted this marathon the toughest of the tough, so we’ ll let her report: “The terrain is rough the first quarter of the race, and the first 3 miles you’ re going up hill. There is high altitude and many difficult hills. It is lonely if you are out there by yourself. The dry heat and low humidity are draining. Be prepared to navigate streams, rocks, and harsh footing. Do lots of trail running over rocks and rugged terrain in preparation, and wear gators to keep rocks out of your shoes. Although there are aid stations, carry your own water. There is a great carbo-load the night before at a local school for only $6.”

6 Deseret News/Granite Furniture

Lauren Jacobsen

2001 South State St. #54900

Salt Lake City, UT 84190

Always held July 24, Pioneer Day

The race commences the state holiday commemorating the Mormon settlers as part of its Days of ’47 festivities. The challenging course with spectacular scenery retraces the steps of these first pioneers down into the valley. Jose Nebrida reports: “Deseret is a point-to-point on asphalt paved roads, hilly, run

along the Wasatch Mountains with the sounds of local bands. The hills are quite long and quite steep, especially near the turnaround. It was really hard on the quads. It was also tough in that you had to slow down and be vigilant, avoiding the crowd gathering for the Pioneer Day Parade.” Henry Rueden reports: “The course follows Brigham Young’s route when he led the Mormons to Salt Lake City, with monuments along the course. The course starts at high elevation and goes up for the first mile or so. It then makes a loop and heads for Salt Lake City. The race starts before the sun comes up, but once the sun comes up, it can get hot.” Bill Macy ranked this one the toughest of the tough: “The marathon begins at 5 in the morning. That means you have to catch the bus at 3: 15— that’s 3:15 a.m. Running in the dark for the first few miles is really fun. It gets light just in time for you to look up and see the switchbacks on the course above you as you get to about mile 9. Just after the 11-mile marker, you drop almost 2,000 feet in the next 11 miles, which is very hard on the knees. Also, elevation is a factor. The start line is at 4,500 feet and climbs to over 6,200 feet.”

5 Wyoming

Brent Weigner

Cheyenne Track Club

402 West 31st St.

E-mail: runwyo26point2@compuserve.com Web site: www.active.com Held the Sunday over Memorial Day weekend

Those prone to altitude sickness may choose to shy away from this one as the route hovers between 7,500 and 8,640 feet. The out-andback course runs over the hilly dirt and gravel roads of beautiful Medicine Bow National Forest. A 1997 entrant, Henry Rueden, comments: “What makes it so tough? Starting at over a mile high elevation and going up to around 8,000 feet or so. The year I ran it, you had to provide your own support, carrying supplies and water. I understand they’ve since added an aid station every six miles or so. Be prepared for thin air.” From

Sharon Kerson: “The weather is a big factor. When I ran it, it rained, sleeted, snowed, and then warmed up. Elevation increases were dramatic.” Don McNelly comments: “Be prepared to take care of yourself.” Ray Scharenbrock, who ran the race in 2000, adds: “The course surface is good. The problems with the course were the elevation combined with the long hills. The hills on the return seemed to go on forever.”

4 NipMuck Trail

David Raczkowski

Held second Sunday of June

This race has an overall elevation gain of 2,300 feet. One of the few marathons with qualification standards (you must have already run a road marathon or a trail half marathon), NipMuck offers directions to the nearest hospital on the course map and a race entry form with a warning: “It is possible to get a serious injury in this race.” To invoke more fear and trepidation, the race director has first-timers read a letter from a past participant explaining his distaste for the race and his desire never again to receive an entry form. Two of our panelists voted this the toughest marathon in North America. Ray Scharenbrock reports: “The marathon course is loaded with short, steep hills. There are roots and rocks and barbed wire fence to ei- “* : ther step through or climb over. Then there are swamps. The June heat has

ripened the swamps to a high degree. The water is often hot! It’s a mess! I

finished muddy from top to bottom. There is no question in my mind: Nipmuck

was my toughest and meanest marathon. I had to keep telling myself, ‘Grin and

bear it—the finish line will come eventually.’ The people who directed and

worked the marathon were great and did a super job.” Dean Rademaker adds:

“Some of the forest is dense, so blue dots on trees indicate the course. It’s an

obstacle course of rocks hidden by leaves, slippery soil, muddy creek beds, high

humidity, and mosquitoes. It took me eight days after the marathon to walk

normally again—of course, some of that was from falling twice during the race and limping in the last 10 miles.”

5 crater Lake Rim

Bob Freirich

5830 Mack Ave. Klamath Falls, OR 97603 541/884-6939

Run in August

The race’s brochure reiterates the toughness of this course by offering several testimonials from past runners saying how bad they felt during the trip around Mount Mazama. However, your pain is subdued by the beauty of the intense blue lake, thick forests, panoramic views of valley floors, and neighboring peaks without the nasty interruption of cars. Although none of our panelists voted Crater Lake the toughest marathon in North America, there were enough votes high enough on the toughness barometer that it earns third place. Sharon Kerson reports: “This marathon climbs to high elevations. The course is primarily on asphalt roads in Crater Lake National Park, but they save the dirt roads for the final miles when you’ re good and exhausted. The temperatures the year I ran it were in the 30s at the start, but later in the day it warmed to shorts and singlet weather. The lake is clear and beautiful. The scenery is magnificent, but the course is not well-marked, soI’d advise running it with a friend.” Dean Rademaker adds: “They claim it’s a 2,700-foot climb, but they don’t say how many total feet you climb and drop and reclimb to gain that many feet in altitude. The race is held in August, and, even at this altitude, Oregon can get hot that time of the year.” Chris Ralph, who last ran the course in 1998, says: “Altitude, hills, some dirt roads, and park traffic. Go prepared to be out there longer than usual.”

2 Pikes Peak

Dave Zehrer

Colorado Springs, CO 80937 719/473-2625 www.pikespeakmarathon.org Held third weekend in August

Ascending and descending Pikes Peak has become a mid-August tradition for the roughly 800 adventurists in the Pikes Peak Marathon. The course climbs an imposing 7,815 feet in 13.32 miles from Manitou Springs to the summit (14,110 feet). At the summit, the thin air and glorious view of the plains, and west to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Continental Divide leave you breathless.

Four of our panelists ranked Pikes Peak as the outright toughest. Don McNelly, veteran of more than 700 marathons, puts it bluntly: “This one I failed. I went one-third of the way and quit.” Chris Ralph puts it simply: “Uphill for 13 miles; downhill for 13 miles; amazing views.” The challenges? “Altitude, terrain, steepness.” Her advice? “Don’t run on your toes.” Henry Rueden advises, “Be prepared for thin air; some runners got altitude sickness.” Jose Nebrida, who ran the course in 1999, says: “This marathon is really America’s ‘ultimate challenge.’ It is out-and-back on a mountainous trail with a lot of switchbacks, jagged rocks, and slippery surfaces. There are extreme elevation changes, and they are so relentless that I thought I’drun three miles, but it turned out to be only one. At 13,000 feet, I could barely breathe and began to hallucinate. I thought Isaw the saints come marching in to take me away. It was the toughest marathon I’ve ever run, but it was loads of fun.”

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Formerly the Nanisivik Midnight Sun Marathon, it has been renamed the Nunavut Midnight Sun Marathon. Although not voted ultimate toughest by most of the panelists, this race was in enough panelists’ top three to edge out Pike’s Peak by one point. Several of the panelists mentioned that besides the tough course,

one of the roughest aspects of this event was just getting there, 500 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Let’s allow the panelists to report—and vent. Henry Rueden, who ran the race in 2000, said, “The course is dirt and gravel roads with several large hills and occassionally very large rocks. The weather started with winter conditions and changed rapidly.” Don McNelly adds: “Very challenging hills on all-gravel roads. The housing is primitive: sleeping bags on a gym floor. It may be cold and windy; possibility of hypothermia.” Dean Rademaker, who ran the race in 1996, remembers the course as “rocky with lots of hill climbs.” Virginia Farneman, who ran the course in 1998 and 2000, said: “Very rugged, rough terrain, very hilly. Limited but quite satisfactory accommodations.” Sharon Kerson, who ran the race in 1997, adds: “This marathon is on zinc mining territory. ‘The Crunch’ was the longest uphill, and going down presented a beautiful view of the bay. The course was difficult because the road surfaces were not kept up. The weather and winds play a huge part in making this one difficult. The year I did it, it was extremely cold and windy. The winds got up to over 45 mph.” Ray Scharenbrock, who ran the race in 2000, reports: “The road surface of the first major part of the course (33K) is good: dirt, graveled, and reasonably smooth. In the first 33K there are two long hills, appropriately called ‘Marathoner’s Madness’ and ‘Pain in the Ass.’ Fortunately you descend the same hills. The last 9K is a sharp hill up and then a long descent. Then you get to turn around and reverse the hills, finishing with a sharp, long downhill into Arctic Bay. This marathon has awesome scenery. The trees in this area of permafrost are about six inches high. The flowers are tiny and beautiful. The view of the Arctic waters is a sight to behold! There’s a vibrant charisma in this area that will draw me back.”

Se, from Montreal to Midnight Sun, there is our panelists’ list of the toughest 25 marathons in North America. If you find a course that’s tough enough to make our next list of toughest marathons, please let us know about it— 4

maybe we’ll see you there. yt.

– CALGARY =i, HERALD

Stampcac

Sunday, July 8, 2001

e marathon ¢ marathon relay ¢ 1/2 marathon relay ¢ ¢ 10K ° family marathon mile «

Now you can wrangle a summer marathon and bring along the family for a vacation they won’t forget. Join us for our 37th Annual Calgary Herald Stampede Road Race in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We’ve got a race for every cowpoke with scenic routes, great post-race food, fun activities and friendly faces to cheer you on. The BURNCO Marathon is a flat course that starts at historic Fort Calgary and winds its way through the Calgary Zoo, friendly neighbourhoods, beautiful parks and tree-line paths by the scenic Bow River.

There’s also the Calgary Herald 10 km, TELUS Mobility 5-person Marathon Relay, Crape Geomatics Half Marathon Relay and the Hopewell Family Marathon Mile. After your race, relax and get set to take in the world famous Calgary Stampede. Ten days of rodeos, chuckwagon races, western entertainment, midway rides and corn dogs, and loads of free Stampede breakfasts throughout the city. Yahoo!

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25th Issue Special Section

25 Books Every Marathoner Should Own

A Library That Will Enhance the Marathoning Experience While Broadening Its Focus.

C OMPILING THIS list was fun but frustrating. While not every book is directly related to marathoning, every marathoner would benefit from reading these selections. My list is a mixture of autobiography, history, instruction, fiction, and expository nonfiction. It pained me to trim many great titles from the list, and you may question some of my choices. That’s fine. I used just one rule: one book per author.

My thanks to those who sent in nominations. I hope you’ll be inspired, informed, and amused as you live events through the eyes of this diverse set of exciting authors. Enjoy!

Ge x Me Ke apo i]

Scott Hubbard 25 BOOKS EVERY MARATHONER SHOULD OWN 31

4. Four-Minute Mile (Roger Bannister). Who better to write about what is regarded as the single greatest running accomplishment, the first sub-4minute mile, than the man who achieved the feat, Sir Roger Bannister? AlE though his record was monumental, Bannister thought records were the bare bones of athletics and, “unless given a human touch, they have no life, no appeal.” Dr. Bannister, who became an internist of some renown, describes his evolving interest in running, the 1952 Olympic Games, culminating in the historic 3:59.4 and the Empire Games, where he beat new world record holder, John Landy, in the mile. A light trainer with a keen eye for details, Bannister’s literary work

2. Running Tide (Joan Benoit). I remember my angst when I heard Joan Benoit had just had knee surgery 17 days § before the first Women’s Olympic Trials Marathon in 1984. Fast forward to the finish chute in Olympia, Washington, where I stood 10 feet from Joan as she stooped to put her hands on her knees after completing what seemed the impossible just days before—winning the race. Her subse- a quent Olympic Marathon victory added to her legend. Tide & Bee f describes how Joan turned to running in high school, her training, her rivals, and how much she treasures the simple things in her life. It’s a story about her supportive family, pressures of the public and media, and mostly about her burning desire to excel. (Knopf, 1987)

3. The Death Valley 300 (Richard Benyo). It’s not possible to imagine the difficulties you might encounter running through Death Valley and up the side of a 14,494-foot mountain. Between the lowest (-282 feet) point in California’s | Death Valley and the highest, Mt. Whitney, the author provides a detailed look at preparation, suffering, and coping, as well as some history of the area. The world’s toughest endurance test requires planning for the penetrating, sapping heat and sun and the oxygen depriving effects of altitude. It’s a story of blisters, deteriorating physical states, fluids, sweet rest, flagging spirits and, above all, perseverance. It’s a travelogue that will enchant and impress even hardened runners. (Specific Publications, 1991)

4. Corbitt (John Chodes). At the age of 50, Ted Corbitt set an age group record for 50 miles, running 5:34:01. In 1964, he wrote a pamphlet describing

the procedures to measure running courses. In 1958, the New York physical therapist ran the Boston Marathon in 2:43 despite failing the prerace physical. In 1952, Ted ran in the Helsinki Olympic Marathon for the United States. In the late 1950s, Ted was instrumental in the conception and organization of the Road Runners Club of America. Ted remains durable, active, and accomplished several decades s later. John tells Ted’s story with detail and feeling; each inn! page draws you in deeper. (Tafnews 1978)

5. Daniels’ Running Formula (Jack Daniels). Responsible for much of the research into running exercise physiology in the last 30 years, Daniels is deservedly regarded as the foremost authority in his field. The book provides programs, principles, and examples designed to answer the questions of runners of all abilities. Great care was taken to anticipate and answer all questions related to training, from shoe choice to altitude training, time off/rest, determining an appropriate training program, weather factors, and everything in between. Daniels interprets the science of running into workable, plain English. (Human Kinetics, 1998)

6. Self-Made Olympian (Ron Daws). Before Sinatra was singing, “I did it my way,” Daws was busy studying training methods and other factors affecting racing success. The lessons he learned eventually led this man of average talent to American records anda spot on the 1968 U.S. Olympic marathon team. The Minnesota man learned that what works for one person may not work for another. He leaned heavily on the words of Arthur Lydiard and recognized the importance of determination, persistence, and ingenuity. Daws was a shoe cobbler/tinkerer, wore heavy clothes in hot weather to prepare for the heat, and understood, very well indeed, how altitude affected race strategy. (World Publications, 1977)

7. Marathon (Clarence DeMar). Published in 1937, Marathonis the autobiography of Clarence DeMar, who between 1911 and 1930, won the Boston Marathon seven times and finished second twice. Also a three-time Olympic marathoner, DeMar gives page after page about his further races and accomplishments. DeMar prided himself on his family, job, and work with young people. “One point of my philosophy of life has been never to let running interfere with my daily work,” he wrote. Marathon is a simple, honest reflection of DeMar’s outlook

on life and a mixture of running history and insight. So many years later, we can still learn and be inspired by DeMar’s example. (Stephen Daye Press, 1937)

8. Boston Marathon (Tom Derderian). A massive and absorbing narrative, Boston Marathon is the much-praised effort of Derderian, himself a top runner and authority on the world’s premier footrace. Twice a winner at Boston, Joan Benoit had this to say about Derderian’s book: “Derderian’s knack for describing competitors’ personalities, styles, and careers is extraordinary.” The book is divided by decades with comments about events surrounding the times with the annual race descriptions following. Boston is about the people, passions, changing ideas about training, women in running, and professionalism. This book is an epic piece of work. (2nd edition, Human Kinetics, 1996)

9. Galloway’s Book on Running (Jeff Galloway). yin

This is the bestselling book on running of all time be- Ue Sth CAA

cause in its 275 pages there’s something for every level runner. Jeff delivers his instruction in a conversational “you can do it” style. To say it’s a thorough how-to text isn’t enough; the self-tested tips and info are fundamental building blocks that can serve as reference points, motivation, or measured experimenting. With each recommendation is the explanation behind it. The programs and concepts Jeff advances are designed to help all runners with emphasis on keeping running in perspective, pain at a minimum, and gradual improvements coming on a regular basis. Nothing is outdated in this book, which was first published in 1984. (Shelter Publications, 1984)

10. The Olympian (Brian Glanville). Published in 1969, this tale is of the intense and evolving relationship between a drifting, mediocre athlete, Ike Low, and a veteran, odd-yet-conscientious coach, Sam Dee. Set in England, this is a story as much about the rich details of athletics as it is about perseverance, working through discomfort, and success with all of its trappings and excess. The fictional account traces the reactions and thoughts of its characters in intimate detail on every page. We feel as they do, experience their pain and indecision, the tensions, and the efforts. Intertwined with the track theme is symbolism that raises the level of writing to exceptional general literature. (Coward, McCann & Coeghegan, 1969)

Scott Hubbard

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25 BOOKS EVERY MARATHONER SHOULD OWN 35

41. The Long Run Solution (Joe Henderson). There are any number of deserving books to pick from this prolific Runner’s World columnist. I’ ve selected his eighth book to recommend for its devotion to our theme: running long. “What is important about the marathon is that it’s a goal which changes people’s lives. Other long runs don’t have the power to do that.” Joe explores the questions of how much, when, where, and why with ample examples and illustrations drawn from his experience and the experiences of others. His style is deft and clear, his vision broad and revealing. The beauties and benefits of running receive royal treatment at his hands. (World Publications, 1976)

42. On the Run From Dogs and People (Hal Higdon). The author is a well-traveled runner and speaker with loads of awards, titles, and fast times to his credit spread out over 50 years. The book was first published in 1971, arare nugget of insight into distance running in those days. Revised in 1979 (and again in 1995 by his own Roadrunner Press), Higdon devotes 17 chapters to topics as diverse as arunner ticketed for jayrunning, an examination of enigmatic dogs, marathon frustration and success, extraordinary University of Chicago Track Club man Ted Haydon, running with ason, racewalking, and how to become a hometown hero. Hal has beena writer for Runner’s World since its inception and has also written for Sports Illustrated and The Runner. At times lighthearted, other times poignant and enlightening, Dogs is a long time favorite of mine. (Henry Regnery Co., 1971)

43. Thirty Phone Booths From Boston (Don Kardong). Drawing on his experiences as a top level runner and 1976 Olympic marathoner (4th place), Kardong moves with ease from describing the world of elite athletes to comparing his different running experiences to an old Buick and a crab toilet seat. Like Mark Twain, whom Don has been compared to, Kardong writes with a light touch yet probing style, casting his characters and topics in ways that reveal strengths and weaknesses, serious and funny sides, and irreverent and moving anecdotes. Every chapter has a terrific quote, but none is better than “without ice cream there would be chaos and darkness.” The title refers to the time Don called 30 phone booths along the Boston Marathon route in an attempt to keep up with the progress of the race. (McMillan, 1979)

14. Young At Heart (Fred Lewis). We can’t separate Johnny A. Kelley’s spirit from his odds-defying staying power or his growing legend from his athletic prowess bridging six decades. Now past 90, Kelley remains the crowd favorite at the Boston Marathon, a race he won twice (1935 and 1945) and where he took second place an amazing seven times between 1934 and 1946.

The story picks up in high school, detailing the difficult conditions of the Depression era and following Johnny’s fleet feet through the Army and WWII, the 1948 U.S. Olympic Marathon, and his epic 60th Boston Marathon in 1991. Look no further than this tale for inspiration, history, and an appreciation for Irish pluck and longevity. (WRS Publishing, 1992)

45. Run to the Top (Arthur Lydiard). Published in 1962, this book on training has been recommended and praised by many influential followers of the sport. A fine runner in New Zealand, Lydiard experimented with different training methods, essentially learning by doing in his mid-20s. Two important ingredients fueled his tests and trials: he loved to run and he wanted to improve. Others tried out his new ideas and found success. Both coach Lydiard and his athletes carried out the evolving and demanding workouts, refining ideas over time. A good number of Lydiard-coached runners competed in and medaled at Olympic Games. His basic principles have stood the test of time and remain influential today. (Jenkins, 1962)

* 46. The Olympic Marathon (David Martin and Roger Gynn). Hats off to Martin and Gynn, the acknowledged experts in the field of marathon history, for authoring such a compelling text on the Olympic Marathon. Readers are treated to details of every race since its 1896 inception, including bios, race stories, illustrations, and the politics that shaped each one. Sidebars featuring miscellaneous info, highlights, course maps, and rare photos add color i and perspective, and all-important innovations and trends are noted with each race chapter. The event that epitomizes the Olympic spirit best is thoroughly captured here. (Human Kinetics, 2000)

17. Best Efforts (Kenny Moore). It does say a lot to call this the best book ever written on running, runners, and racing, but who would argue? A former two-time U.S. Olympic marathoner, Moore does an exquisite job of putting his topics in perspective with insightful comments and well-crafted visuals. Efforts contains 19 chapters about some of the sport’s biggest names and events over 10 years (starting in 1972). Every story is told eloquently with an eye for the story behind the surface. We are lucky that Moore has been a Sports Ilustrated staff writer since 1981—he pours care and passion into his subjects. (Doubleday, 1982)

18. A Cold, Clear Day (Frank Murphy). In the early 1960s, the American public knew little about distance running or the marathon. In 1960, Buddy Edelen traveled to Finland in search of a 10K qualifying time to make the U.S.

Scott Hubbard 25 BOOKS EVERY MARATHONER SHOULD OWN ® 37

Olympic team. That plan fell through, but Edelen remained in England to take a teaching job. The former Big Ten star joined a local club and resumed his training and racing career. Buddy employed Fred Wilt (former U.S. national champion) as a coach, and in 1963 set a world record in England for the marathon in 2:14. Tough and talented, Edelen’s injuries curtailed greater things. Little known in the United States, he remains a rare American marathon world record holder. (Wild Spring Press, 1992)

19. Lore of Running (Tim Noakes). Checking in at LORE OF just over 700 pages, Lore is the most comprehensive of all books on running. We see the work of a scientist, as Noakes is, on every page with chapters devoted to physiology, training, history, and health and medical considerations. Even the introduction runs long and adds measurably to what follows. Where other training books may leave off, Lore fills in the gaps with plenty of illustrations and examples. Of interest are 100 pages on the training of elite athletes covering 125 years—with 20 pages given to the underappreciated contributions of Arthur Newton. (3rd edition, Human Kinetics, 1991)

20. Ultramarathoning (Tom Osler and Ed Dodd). The first 164 pages (written by Dodd) are an extensive, exhaustive look at six-day races held at the turn of the century. Curious and intrigued by accounts of these early “pedestrian” events, the authors present the characters, views, and details peculiar to the times. The second 112 pages (written by Osler) are given to the training methods for races beyond marathon in distance. A master at learning by doing, Osler overcame a seven-year layoff following his first 50-mile race to achieve successful and less taxing completion of numerous ultras. Before Galloway popularized mixing walking breaks with running, Osler had discovered its physiological benefits. (World Publications, 1978)

21. Once A Runner (John Parker). Parker’s book is the standard by which all other books on running fiction are measured. A fine runner in his own right, Parker accurately describes what motivates a focused runner while knitting together a nice story around the main character, Quenton Cassidy. Many of the names mentioned are drawn from real life, and several of the other characters suspiciously resemble contemporaries of Parker. We’re introduced to a variety of people who influence Cassidy, including a love interest, who keeps the story flowing and

hard to put down. A quick glimpse: “Running to him was real, the way he did it the realest thing he knew. It was all joy and woe, hard as diamond; it made him weary beyond comprehension. But it also made him free.” (Cedarwinds Publishing, 1978)

22. Heroes and Sparrows (Roger Robinson). Drawing on a 30-year career where he represented both England and New Zealand internationally, Robinson, a professor of English literature in New Zealand, eloquently shares his views on 32 topics all over the running landscape. The title piece makes the vital and simple point that “winners have no monopoly on incentive or satisfaction, andrunners know better than anyone that the heroes and the sparrows are really equal.” There’s a fun piece on “sausage” training, a refreshing look at masters running that balances experience, perspective, and impressions both personal and historical. This is running literature at its best. (Southwestern Publishing, 1986)

23. Running With the Legends (Michael Sandrock). A book describing the training and exploits of 21 of the greatest-ever runners would be dry reading if it didn’t also capture some of the human frailties, concerns, and conditions that everybody can relate to and which helped shape the athletes Sandrock knows well and writes about. A snippet from Olympic marathoner Kenny Moore’s foreword: “Here is compelling inspiration, ferocious racing, vital history, fascinating personality, and essential training lore.” We’ re introduced to unique sides of athletes like Keino, Shorter, Waitz, Coe, de Castella, Benoit-Samuelson, and Pippig. Here is insight and detail that breathes life into the headline names. (Human Kinetics, 1996)

24. Meditations From the Breakdown Lane (James Shapiro). Many have walked, raced, and run across the United States, and a few have kept journals or written books on their adventures, but none share their views with as discerning an eye as Shapiro. Little escapes the New York ultramarathoner’s gaze as he takes 80 days to cover the 3,026 miles from California to New York in 1980. Except for Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming, the 34-year-old ran solo, carrying what he needed, sleeping where he could. More than a book about things seen, it’s also about things felt: fatigue, boredom, physical pain, and loneliness. Meditations is a superb travelogue. (Houghton Mifflin, 1983)

25. Dr. Sheehan on Running (George Sheehan). I’dbe smart to fill this space with George’s quotes, comments, and observations because he describes so well the things runners experience. This was his first book, which followed

Scott Hubbard 25 BOOKS EVERY MARATHONER SHOULD OWN m 39

a return to running in his mid-40s and several years writing medical/training columns for his hometown newspaper and Runner’s World. George knew his medicine, felt athletes knew more about their aches and problems than doctors did, and was the greatest of modern-day running philosophers. Asample: “… sport is nota test but a therapy, not a trial but areward, nota question but an answer.” George got us thinking and examining our sport, enlightening us as he went. (World Publications, 1975)

ee and insights i into our fvente subject. Once you seed ing, let me know which ones you like. You can reach me at i : pe oe com.

Note: I’d especially like to thank Ed Kozloff of the Motor City Striders for access to his exceptional library of running books.

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25th Issue Special Section ‘E Roll ‘Em!

Too Few Hollywood Films Have Used Marathoning as a Theme. It’s About Time That Dramatic Lapse Was Reversed.

OLLYWOOD IS, for all its y glitz and tendency to push liberal

causes, an exceptionally conservative dumping grounds. Very few Hollywood people want to push the envelope and take a chance on something unproven. It’s safer to walk well-trodden paths—hence the trend to remake everything from old TV shows (“The Fugitive,” “Mission Impossible,” “The Avengers”) to old cartoons (“The Flintstones,” “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” “George of the Jungle”). Hollywood is so cautious, in fact, that it even remakes its own films—Psycho, Cape Fear, Godzilla, and many more—usually with disastrous results. Godzilla was supposed to be cheesy; that’s why we loved him!

One thing Hollywood doesn’t do, though, is make movies about marathon runners, even though each year there are more and more marathon runners, to the point that they must now constitute a growing core market. I can think of only one truly marathoner movie: The Games (1970), written by sub-3:00 Boston marathoner Erich Segal. The film follows the preparations of four marathoners from four corners of the world who prepare to race against each other at the Olympic Games; the film would have worked a lot better if Ryan O’Neal, the American marathoner, had lost about 40 pounds before embarking on the role.

Considering Hollywood’s mania for remakes, as well as the scarcity of marathoner movies out there, we thought we’d put together a list of 25 classic films that, with a little imagination, could be remade as marathoner movies to appeal to that growing demographic set.

1. ALIENS. Science fiction mixes with Indiana Jones-style adventure as a knot of Mexican distance runners, who have removed themselves from mainstream Mexican life to train on a 12,000-foot-high volcano in hopes of making it big

Richard Benyo ROLL‘EM! m 43

in America in the footsteps of Arturo Barrios, become disoriented during along workout along a ridge joining two semiactive volcanoes. They pass through a veil of golden mist and come upon an evergreen valley inhabited by humanoid space aliens, who pull them in on their human tractor beams, perform the usual experiments on them, and then set them on a new course of training after altering their genes to maximize their natural strengths. The dozen Mexican runners grow stronger daily until their space alien partners, led by T’hai-hi’ Ya, deem them ready for reintroduction into the outside world. They are transported by flying saucer to Boulder, Colorado, where they appear to the great Arturo Barrios while he is out on a solitary run high above his adopted home. Arturo quickly recognizes their huge talent and integrates them into his U.S. Army training group, claiming they are “exchange recruits” from the Mexican Army. Incredibly, like a virus that leaps from skin to skin, their talents infect the Army runners, and in a matter of weeks, Arturo is burdened with a small band of better-than-world-class runners. We say “burdened,” because that is the theme of the rest of the film. Arturo takes his charges out to races, where they clean up with startling efficiency. Drug tests find nothing. The Kenyan Athletic Federation files protests with the IAAF. Even Mexico protests, claiming the Mexican runners must return to Mexico because they are illegal aliens. The eventual winner of the 2000 presidential election, a marathoner himself, pulls strings to make them all American citizens. Death threats proliferate. But the little army continues to win. For their own safety, Arturo must take them deeper and deeper into the mountains, where they encounter another space alien colony in one of the deserted mines at Leadville. The little athletic army is offered an opportunity to be transported to the planet Whisteria, where they are promised infinite peace. They all decline, come down from the mountain, and head to Montana to hide out and train even harder. (See The Matrix.)

2. BEN HUR. In Rome, an illiterate centurion confused by his/her gender (Ben vs. “hur’’) has for years heard accounts of the legendary run of the Greek hemerodromi Pheidippides from Marathon to Athens. Seeking fame, fortune, and a focus for his/her life, Ben Hur chucks the security and early retirement of centurion life, where his primary duty is to teach guys how to poke a sword into the guts of strangers, and goes into training in the kinder, gentler profession of running around the countryside nearly nude. Ben’s runs become longer and longer, and on many of them he/she disassociates wildly, offering an opportunity for the filmmaker to add a psychedelic sequence spinning off on a theme of wild sex fantasies, not unlike Bruce Dern in the uncut version of On the Edge. One day Ben disassociates so much on a very long run that he/she becomes incredibly lost. In the dramatic moment on which the film hangs, Ben refuses to ask for directions and in that refusal recognizes his true gender and finds

MICHAEL HUGHES

happiness and fulfillment as he joyously runs off toward Asia Minor, never to be heard from again. (There’s also a possibility of a sequel: Ben Him.)

3. BIRTH OF A NATION. Regional marathon champ Doug Rifkin hatches a plan to make the 2004 Olympic team by running for a nation that doesn’t yet exist. Taking a lesson from the hilarious The Mouse That Roared, he arranges with a Montana American Indian tribe to declare war on the United States, accept defeat, and then sue for sovereignty and war reparations as S.N.S. (Sovereign Nation of Salish). The plot moves faster than expected when a disgruntled French-Canadian diplomat recognizes the new nation and opens international relations with it. Poor Doug has bitten off more than he can chew, though, as leader of a new nation whose subjects have more demands than Solomon could have handled. Doug’s training goes rapidly downhill as his time is increasingly taken up with matters of state, much of it keeping peace between three factions within the American Indian tribe with whom he worked to create the new nation. The whole affair becomes just too much for Doug, who abdicates and vanishes into the wilds of Buffalo Knuckle, Montana. (See The Matrix.)

4, BRAVEHEART. Mel Gibson revises his role as a leader of a plucky band of Scots who like to run and show their rear ends to their competition in this epic that spans the entire life of William Wallace, the first marathoning hero of Scotland. Born to a family who owns vast resources of rocky infertile ground, young William is small for his age but fleet of foot. He enjoys rough-andtumble games with his mates and revels in running over hill and dale seemingly

forever. The domineering Brits soon enter the scene, though, challenging everyone in the area to footraces. The Brits, being spoilsports, handicap the Scots by making them run while carrying heavy stones, which is where the measurement of weight (“How many stone do you weigh?”) came from—that is, the number of stones you could stagger under before they buried you. William Wallace rebels, though, and halfway through a footrace throws down his stone and chases after his Brit competitor, easily passing him on a particularly steep hill. That really pisses off the Brits, and they send riders on horses after William to whip his butt, but he outruns the horses and vanishes into the hills, where he hides out to harass the Brits whenever they attempt to hold a footrace. He emerges from the bushes and routs their best runners. Living the tough life, William Wallace and his band get faster and go longer. They join the outlaw band Hash House Harriers and add a sense of humor to their outlaw ways. While they are running through town wearing red dresses in a HHH prank, they are betrayed, and William is captured. To ridicule him, he is made to race horses at flat fairground tracks, where he is at a disadvantage. He is made to race other swift animals and consistently loses. His countrymen lose heart. But his influence is still great. William is given a choice: run for the Brits or be exiled. He chooses exile. He is exiled to Buffalo Knuckle, Montana. (See The Matrix.)

5. CASABLANCA. In the most popular bar in Casablanca during the height of World War II, Rick Blane appears shocked to see Elsa, his former sweetheart from Paris, walk in with her husband, Victor Lazlo, a Czech freedom fighter and marathon champion, on her arm. They, like everyone else who passes through Casablanca, are attempting to flee the Nazi onslaught. After regaining his composure, in a bold move Rick appears to want to provide some entertainment for the transient population while they wait anxiously for visas by challenging Lazlo to a marathon race over the North African sands. His friend Renault, the French prefect of police, will be the course marshal. The race is organized, Rick confidently explaining that he’s lived in these environs for years and is used to the heat. The occupying Nazis, always up for a lark, feel this will be wonderful entertainment. But the race is all a ruse by Rick to get Lazlo across the border safely. The two start out at a conservative pace, which quickly bores the Nazis, who return to town. The race proceeds to the border and beyond, placing Elsa and Lazlo out of harm’s reach. But Renault and Rick cannot return to Casablanca; they are last seen walking off into the desert together, discussing the formation of a bottled water company. “What brought you to Casablanca?” Renault asks Rick. “The water,” Rick answers. “But there is no water in Casablanca,” Renault exclaims. “I was misinformed,” Rick answers. “But how will we supply our bottled water company?” Renault demands to know. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Rick replies. And so French-American relations are once again given a shove in the wrong direction.

MICHAEL HUGHES

6. CITIZEN KANE. A filmmaker’s allegory built upon the Biblical story of Kane and Abel, and centered on Kane’s life through eternity after he slays his well-liked brother. (The film’s shortcoming, unfortunately, is that it never deals with the question of potential incest in the Adam and Eve family that would be necessary for the rest of the human race to be conceived.) The tale instead concentrates on the conceit that Kane is habitually reincarnated into one unfortunate person after the other through history. Each reincarnation involves him inadvertently getting himself into a situation where he must run great distances to flee from the forces of good, inferring that long-distance runners are running away from evil deeds. Jacques Reid, the filmmaker, never makes this clear; instead, the film simply concentrates on two-legged pursuits throughout history. It pays homage to early women runners when it evokes the stereotype of an irate wife chasing after a ne’ er-do-well husband while she is brandishing a cast-iron frying pan. Children’s running, also, is saluted, as little Bobby Grim is chased, in a nightmare-like sequence, by a pack of his little playmates, their intention never made clear, but based upon everything leading up to the sequence, Bobby Grim has done something very bad to the nice little boys. In the

Richard Benyo ROLL‘EM! M47

final sequence, a murderer in Kansas is chased on foot by a mob of irate farmers; the murderer (who is never named, but is most likely fashioned after that crazy Starkweather guy) runs across Montana, but unlike everyone else in recent remakes of classic films, he does not stop there. Perhaps Jacques Reid infers that he knows something all of us should know about coming bad times.

7. COLOR OF MONEY. The high-stakes world of running spreads as the available money is no longer dominated by track athletes. Two college distance running rivals, Jim Banks and Ray Rubner, decide it’s not fair that their electronically gifted fraternity brothers should make all the money starting computer companies when they graduate college. So Jim and Ray gird themselves for a return to the American marathoning glory days of the 1970s, but this time with lots of the green stuff in the offing. They live like paupers and run like demons in Leadville, Colorado, theorizing that if Boulder is one mile high and a great place for training, Leadville’s two-mile-high elevation will be even better—even better than the Kenyans’ and the Ethiopians’ altitude training, and at least as good as the Mexicans’ running up the sides of tall volcanoes. The two descend to the lower elevations when they need to make some money racing in order to continue living in the shack they occupy in 1970s style: discarded wire spools as their tables, cinderblocks and boards as their bookcases, with a yard sale plastic kitchen table and chair set. They have their complete library of Friedrich Nietzsche, a crockpot and fondue set, and a basement filled with generic beer. They’ rein heaven. Their success draws other recent college graduates, and a little distance running community grows up within Leadville. Their success draws the press to their door as they are seen as “The Great White Hopes.” They become so successful that Kenyan runners actually begin to avoid races where Jim and Ray and their gang are entered. A half-dozen of them go to Boston and take the top four spots, all of them below 2:08! Their success draws more disciples, and they’ve suddenly got a juggernaut. Leadville’s economy flourishes. It seems as though there is no race being run that members of the Leadville Mafia can’t dominate. But there is cancer growing within the group. Ray Rubner’s old fraternity brother, Lew Grummond, an investment banker, has been handling Ray’s massive winnings, and his manipulation of the money begins to fascinate Ray—to the point that he begins to spend more time in front of the laptop computer that Lew has urged him to sneak into the little shack where Jim and Ray still live. Ray becomes addicted to moving money as though it were a video game. His training suffers. He loses arace. Then another. And like Yoko Ono putting a spike through the heart of the Beatles, Lew Grummond’s shift of focus to money gradually corrupts the group to the point that both Ray and Jim form competing running clothing companies. The film closes with a half-dozen of the disillusioned disciples converting a school bus to an RV and heading to Buffalo Knuckle, Montana. (See The Matrix.)

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8. DIRTY HARRY. Harry Callahan is a runner who likes his marathoning au naturel. A long-standing member of the Hash House Harriers and an advocate of fell running from his days stationed in England during his military service, he feels that running on asphalt is an unnatural act and therefore eschews the macadam madness sweeping the country. Instead, he fosters long-distance trail running, gathering to himself a dedicated following of likeminded hardcore runners. Little by little, the proponents of asphalt road racing begin to lean toward the fully fulfilled life of running on dirt, tripping on roots, and getting scratched by tree branches as a way of getting back to nature. Harry’s fledgling trail marathon series begins to take off, and his following swells. This is enough to blip it onto the radar screen of the Powers That Be in running, and soon Harry’s specialty is being usurped by power-hungry executive directors of running organizations composed of a lot of capital letters. But Harry is not to be intimidated. He sees his gloriously simple races being frillified with fancy T-shirts, prize money, and big-time sponsors. He fights the good fight to keep the sport of trail marathoning simple and as self-sufficient as possible (crude aid stations with only self-serve water, no course maps, printed results only if you threaten his life, etc.), but it’s a losing battle, so he moves to Buffalo Knuckle, Montana. (See The Matrix.)

9. THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY. The year is 1933, the heart of America’s Depression. The setting, rural Oklahoma. Depression incarnate. The farm has up and blown away into the next county, leaving nothing but hard ground. The mortgage has gone unpaid, and the bank is foreclosing. Seth Waddak and his wife Sarah are destitute, about to head for California in the wake of their neighbors, when they hear of a marathon event to be held in Tulsa that’ ll pay $500 to the winner. Seth is crippled from when the mule stepped on him, and Sarah is just plain wrung dry. But the three children may be able to take a stab at saving the family. There’s the twins, Rachael (the good) and Seth, Jr. (the bad), and the youngest, Bobbie, badly burned in the barn fire of 1929 but still full of pluck. This black-and-white film follows the Waddak family as they travel to Tulsa to take part in the marathon inside the Grange Hall. With overtones of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, this film follows desperate people falling apart before your eyes in one of the most depressing films ever put on celluloid. (That’s why they call it The Great Depression, I bet.) Rachael does her best to represent the family, but her own twin brother tries at every turn to undermine her efforts so he can win the $500 for himself, hook up with the floozy Laura Jane, and take off for the bright lights of Oklahoma City, while the scarred but determined Bobbie shows the grit that made Americans persevere through these desperate times. We won’t spoil the shocking ending by revealing it, but we will say we can’t say that we wish we’d have been living in the Depression. It was just too depressing.

10. GREED. Originally a black-and-white silent film that was close to eight hours long, directed by Erich Von Stronheim, the much despised Prussian genius (see the biography The Man You Loved To Hate, 1983, Oxford), the film dealt with a woman’s (ZaSu Pitts) greed for gold that ultimately drove her mad and her husband to kill her in the Gold Rush San Francisco era. The revival of the film by 16-year-old film hauteur Elvis Hitchcock deals with a more contemporary theme: a young Midwestern woman’s lust for monetary gold in big-time marathon running. An outstanding high school cross-country and track runner in Pig’s Corns, Iowa, ZaSu Pittsheimer only gets better as she grows into young womanhood. No female runner in Iowa can touch her, and there’s no race she doesn’t win. She and her body shop assistant manager boyfriend Blip have to expand to a double-wide trailer to hold all of her trophies and to host the shrine Blip creates for her from the body parts of a 1956 Buick. Now she’s beginning to win money, and she wants more. She moves up to the marathon and seems to be a natural at it, the local weekly shopper calling her the “great white hope” against the Kenyan domination. Blip convinces her that the world is her cash register, but as soon as she ventures out into the bigger world, things begin to go badly. Blip assures her she has nothing to worry about, and suddenly arch rivals vanish or turn up injured. Everything comes to ahead when race officials find Blip injecting Ex-Lax into chocolate Clif Shot packets her rivals will be eating. She denounces Blip and hitchhikes to Buffalo Knuckle, Montana. (See The Matrix.)

11. HUSTLER, THE. The American elites of Boulder are lured into a series of

marathons by a bunch of seemingly down-and-out marathoners willing to lay bets on how badly they can beat the Boulder hotshoes. Some of the runners seem vaguely familiar (see Aliens), as though they’d passed through this area before. The ragtag bunch of runners gives the Boulder runners a run for their money. They return for a rematch with bigger bucks. And this time it’s all-out war, as the strangers literally leave the top Boulder runners in the dust. Not much of a plot on this one, but bushel-baskets full of dramatic running scenery along the roads and trails of Colorado. Watch for Frank Shorter’s cameo appearance as Coach Hilton and Benji Durden as one of the race officials at the Boulder Bushwacker Marathon. If you like inspirational scenery, you’ Il like this one. The theme of old, scruffy, hard-core runners versus hot-shot, highpaid runners is a little overdone, though.

12. MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, THE. A remake of a remake? Why not? Hollywood doesn’t like to think too far outside the box. The 1960 John Sturges “Magnificent Seven” was a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s (see Ran, aremake of King Lear) The Seven Samurai, so why not go from seven samurai to seven gunfighters to seven itinerant marathoners? The village that needs to be saved

in this version of The Magnificent Seven is none other than Boulder, Colorado. Held under the sway of the same group of running legends for way too many years, the townsfolk need relief. The spark that finally ignites the ire of the local folks is an incident where Bert Hollor, 47th-place finisher at the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon, walks along Pearl Street and rebuffs the attempts of a 7-yearold boy to get an autograph. Irate townspeople want to shake up the status quo among the long-distance lords, so they place a phone call to upstart running mecca, Buffalo Knuckle, Montana, the cosmically serendipitous gathering place of runners from a dozen other movies listed here. With runners to spare, running coach Yul Buckner puts together a ragtag diversity-heavy team to go kick some Boulder butt. It’s the usual diverse set of stereotypes Hollywood and movie audiences love (think The Dirty Dozen): Abebe Wolde of Ethiopia, Ricardo Gomez from the volcanoes of Mexico, Juan Gabrielle (the Puerto Rican-Frenchman from Brooklyn), “Gunbarrel” Jackson from Central L.A., redneck Billy Jack Jackson (no relation to “Gunbarrel” Jackson) from a Memphis trailer camp, and Kathleen Cassidy, the illegal Irish immigrant. They head for Boulder in their 1967 VW microbus, singing 1960s folk songs as they roll along, stopping at roadside reststops along the way to get in some serious workouts. Once in Boulder, it’s kick-ass time. They quickly rout the legends. But the legends aren’t done with them. The Boulderites begin to sow dissention among the seven, and divided they fall. The seven leave town by various routes, their tails between their legs, but serendipitously they meet up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, at Little America on their way back to Montana, sort out their differences, and turn around to go put things right in Boulder. (In the works is a sequel, tentatively titled The Even More Magnificent Seven.)

13. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. This one sure isn’t Jimmy Stewart’s “wonderful life.” It’s more a “let’s sit here and watch the arteries harden.” Old codger Miles Silver, near-Olympic marathoner from the late 1960s, walks us through his life as though it were passing before his deathbed eyes in slow motion. French filmmaker Maurice Cerec has completely misjudged American audiences of this film on two counts: only a handful of Americans have ever heard of Miles Silver, and the accomplishments of his life could be better served in a 30-second trailer. Placing 14th at the 1968 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials is the liveliest segment of film in the whole 87-minute opus, and most of that is old codgers talking about the race because none of the cinematographers at the 1968 Trials were back in the field covering the 14th-place runner. And why that scene of Silver jogging toward the camera from a quarter-mile away? It takes forever, and to watch his rickety old frame creaking against itself is downright painful. Some 3-in-1 oil, please. The “What’d He Say?” award goes to grade school chum Sid Chaney, whose memories wander all over the globe and don’t

seem to have much to say about Silver except to preserve the several seconds for him to say, “Yeah, yeah, that Miles. He was a friend of mine. Whatever happened to him, anyway—?” What can we say? A French director and an American not-quite-icon. We’ Il pull out the 8mm camcorder tape we took last summer of paint drying on our garage.

14. LAST DETAIL, THE. This small, independent film suffers the faults of a small budget and amateur production values, but what would be flaws in another film make this one work by making it seem ultrarealistic—more like a documentary than fiction. The story is dappled with nuances and drips with human emotion writ large on a small canvas. Roddy Johnson, 31-year-old Silicon Valley frustrated workaholic, gets a wake-up call when a former high school classmate drops from a heart attack. Roddy, overweight by 45 pounds, takes uprunning and little by little sheds the excess baggage, including baggage of a different nature: his sense of inferiority is gradually melted away as he comes into his own as arunner. He finds himself improving in giant strides, but his tentative nature prevents him from hanging it all out and going for it. But egged on by some of the better runners with whom he runs, he pushes further inside himself to uncork a talent he never knew he had and is afraid he won’t know what to do with if the well is as deep as it seems. His life changes, and his running improves in subtle and gradual ways; there is no great revelation until the annual Double Dipsea race, when he sets the fast time of the day, handily beating local runners who have always been his betters. The climactic moment comes as he jogs through the finish line and walks toward the ocean at Stinson Beach, jogging away from the accolades of his friends to be alone with the realization of what he’s become. He stands knee-deep in the ocean water, symbolically baptized into a new era of his young life.

15. MANHATTAN. Talk about down-and-out, this futuristic tale of damnation and redemption takes place entirely underground in New York City’s Manhattan borough, where an entire alternate society exists in sewer tunnels, abandoned subway tunnels, sub-basements of buildings, and new segments dug out by the inhabitants to expand their unreal estate. Zola meets Philip K. Dick in this tale of Mark Stevenson’s attempt to increase the health and well-being of the bottom-dwellers. Fearful that their lack of sunshine will be their ultimate undoing, Mark takes up long-distance running. He is roundly ridiculed by nearly everyone he encounters, but little by little gathers to himself a cadre of neophyte athletes. The benefits of his lifestyle become apparent when Mayor Bart Yasso’s comely daughter Diseree is kidnapped by a band from the Scofflaw Tribe from Jersey. Mark pulls together a ragtag group of his followers and embarks on a surreal journey to strange places “across the river,” where he

effects a rescue of Diseree after a series of marathon-length chases and nearmisses. In the process he learns that most of the North American continent is undermined with tunnels and passages to the point that it looks like a giant hunk of Swiss cheese. He and Diseree and his band take off on further underground adventures, venturing as far as Buffalo Knuckle, Montana. (See The Matrix.)

16. MATRIX, THE. Originally titled “The Triple Matrix,” this is a tale loosely based on Franz Kafka’s The Trial, a tale of bureaucracies gone mad as they grind the individual under their unstoppable assault of paperwork, loopholes, triplicate forms, and runarounds. Essentially what at first appears to be a simple story, Peter Dick attempts to unravel a maelstrom of rules and regulations concerning qualifying for the Olympic Marathon as outlined by IAAF, IOC, USOC, USATF, IRS, FTC, FBI, and Publishers’ Clearing House. After more than a year of bureaucratic nightmares and with still no clear idea of the process needed, he runs a 2:07:03 marathon to qualify for the Trials and a 2:06:14 at the Trials. However, he is bumped from the U.S. Olympic team when a USATEF official’s nephew decides he wants to compete in the marathon instead of in ballroom dancing. In frustration, Peter runs home to Montana, where he builds himself a shack in the woods, where his neighbors say of him, “We don’t see much of him, but he seems like a nice enough fella. He always says ‘Hi’ when he sees you,” and where he broods about things existential. The film closes with Peter returning from a run, sponging himself clean from a water barrel on the side of the cabin, and humming the love theme from Network. To be followed by The Matrix I: Papercuts.

17. NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA. Illegitimate twins are born to one of the Czar’s concubines. The two infants are spirited away immediately after birth, but in different directions: one to Germany, and the other to the United States. Both pursue athletic careers: Nicholas in the marathon, Alexandra in gymnastics. They both compete at the 1936 Berlin Olympics but never meet. They do meet six years later on the Russian front, where he is a German courier and she is a U.S. journalist. They fall in love and after the war settle in Munich, where they have a son and become prominent citizens of post-World War II Germany. Their son, always somewhat “unusual” and mildly demented, suffers from chronic low self-esteem. During the finish of the Olympic marathon in 1972, he rushes into the stadium as though he is the leader in the marathon, thereby robbing Munich-born Frank Shorter of his well-earned glory. In a television interview after the Games, the boy’s parents are recognized by their Russian mother, and they move to Kiev to be with her during her failing years. Their illstarred marriage is annulled by nearly every entity they encounter. Meanwhile, back in Germany, their idiot son joins a neo-Nazi group and dies of an infection in the wake of a self-administered swastika tattoo on his forehead. He dies

spiteful to the end, hiding out from his former neo-Nazi friends who swore to kill him slowly when they discovered that the swastika slanted the wrong way, the result of administering it in the mirror. After their mother dies, Nicholas and Alexandra again head off in opposite directions. Nicholas attempts to restart his marathon running career in hopes of being the oldest man in the world to break 2:30, but he never achieves his goal. Alexandra joins a convent, where she is content to channel her gymnastic skills toward dusting the interior of the cathedral. Frank Shorter goes on to start a running clothing company.

18. NIGHT SHIFT. The poignancy of the “loneliness of the long-distance runner” has never been brought home more emphatically than in this new film by Clerks director, Kevin Smith. While Clerks followed the seemingly humdrum but expletive-laced life of clerks at a convenience store, Night Shift follows the night life of Stanley B. Crumb, a janitor at an unnamed suburban Chicago grade school who does all of his work from 8 P.M. to 4 A.M., at which time he begins his daily endurance workout before the sun is up and the highways and byways fill with commuter traffic. That the film is shot entirely in black and white won praise from the international film community when it was premiered at Cannes. The black-and-white footage brings home the griminess of a modern school sans students and the emptiness of Crumb’s life. There is limited dialogue allowed Smith (to preserve the film’s PG-13 rating), which takes much of the snap out of it. The nearest we get to Boston banning this film is ashot from the rear of Crumb changing into his running shorts before leaving for his predawn run anda scene where he uses a #2 pencil to fish a used condom out of atrash can ina fourth-grade classroom. His reaction of “Mmmmmmmm— ?” is the snappiest piece of dialogue offered in the film, and as a French reviewer in Critique Magazine wrote, “Less is more, more or less, and there’s more less here than most of what we’ ve seen lately from the big studios.” We hate to give away the ending, but poor Stanley does not qualify for Boston—he does, however, qualify as one lonely guy.

19. NORTH BY NORTHWEST. Sociology based stories seldom make good movies, unless they’re called The Grapes of Wrath, but this tongue-in-cheek tale of the ruination of Boulder, Colorado, as the center of American distance running due to its own success is a cautionary tale that reflects the times in which we live. Aspiring young marathoners right out of college have been for years flocking to Boulder to train in a place where the air is rare, where the support props are everywhere, and where the college town is largely communist. (It takes a while for real-world news, such as “Communism didn’t work” to creep into the textbooks at major colleges.) This slow moving but heartfelt film follows three new arrivals in Boulder as they try to keep their mileage up while trying to find a pad in which they can crash. Unfortunately, the town’s

status as one of the prime places in the United States to live combined with the local mania against development has shot the prices of homes through the roof, making cheap housing an oxymoron. Our three stalwarts, even though subsidized by their parents and working part-time at several local running stores, find themselves sharing a dilapidated two-story, three-bedroom house six blocks off the downtown with 22 other would-be running stars, none of whom has the foggiest idea what the phrase “home ec” means, resulting in frequent visits by the town’s sanitation enforcement officers. Rudy Baz does some research at the library, where he has found a corner in which he can take much-needed naps, scouring maps of the United States in hopes of finding a new place to dwell. The answer, he sees, lies north by northwest, in Montana. He and his two buddies check out of Boulder and crawl into Rudy’s 1972 Datsun B210 and head north by northwest—and it’s at this point the film takes wing. They drive from beautiful scenery to beautiful scenery, camping out along the way, taking breathtaking runs. Why director Noshi Rubenstein didn’t just forget the Boulder bit and make an entire film (think Endless Summer) of three footloose running guys working their way north by northwest while they ran along the way, we aren’t sure. Our running trio reaches their goal of Buffalo Knuckle, Montana, connects with the running community there, and all seems to be jake. But there is a hint of problems to come if we look beyond the obvious to the BMWs and the Mercedes rolling into town in the background. Is our trio about to undergo the same hardships they found in Boulder? We can only imagine. (But of course the answer is “Yes.”’)

20. PSYCHO. Pretty pompous premise here on this remake of a remake of a remake that should technically be called Psycho IV. Hitchcock filmed the first Psycho in 1960 and it was (and still is) a classic of suspense as a boy and his mom go to extravagant lengths to extend their life together. Psycho IT, directed by Richard Franklin and again starring Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, shows Norman being released from the bughouse and returning to the Bates Motel for more mayhem. But they couldn’t leave well enough alone, and Norman himself stepped forward in 1986 as director of Psycho III, a pointless bloodfest. Then, as though they hadn’t besmirched the original Psycho quite enough, campier Gus Van Sant stepped forward in 1998 to do a scene-by-scene recreation of the original film. What’s the point? The same question might be asked about the 2001 Psycho, except for its elegant running and marathoning scenes. It’s the story of a mommy’s boy, Norman Bates, who lives a rich fantasy life dreaming of becoming an Olympic and world-beating marathon runner, while he runs the mountains and valleys of (Yes, you guessed it—!) Montana while managing the run-down Bates Motel, which becomes a haven for aspiring marathoners, who mysteriously begin to vanish. Norman tells police that they

MICHAEL HUGHES

are “born wanderers” and probably went off looking for the next horizon or went to some venue where they didn’t have to buy a USATF membership card to race. Of course, as the viewers, we know better. One by one Norman’s competition vanishes, but in this audacious remake, Norman skillfully poses as his own mother and actually has interactions with the marathoners who come to stay at the Bates Motel while training. She even bakes them cookies—warm Toll House cookies—where even an IOC drug test would quickly detect a pharmacologist’s cornucopia of illegal substances. We would have been more comfortable if first-time director Scott Douglas had not left the film so openended. There is never any conclusion or finale, leaving the impression that marathoner Norman Bates is still out there, waiting to welcome you for a cozy and indefinite stay at the Bates Motel.

21. RAN. Seems like a no-brainer to turn Ran into a marathon-running movie, but itisn’t that easy adapting a movie that was originally an adaptation of a play. Try it sometime. Ran was Akira Kurosawa’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear to Japanese feudal times, where the two younger sons cause nothing but

trouble when Pop turns the kingdom over to the eldest son. In this instance, rather than going to the past for fodder, our director steps slightly into the future to an America where people—hold onto your seats!—actually want to run marathons fast. The problem is nearly everyone has forgotten how. There are a few pockets around the country where graybeards remember the training regimen needed to run faster. In Eugene, Oregon, once a running mecca, a wizened oldster (played by a grizzled, forehead vein popping Bruce Dern— reputedly his last-ever cameo role in a film) who goes by the name of “Bolt” begins to have a rabid following of rich Silicon Valley runners willing to pay anything to be able to run marathons faster, sparked by competition between Silicon Valley running teams. “Bolt” is getting old and tired, though. He does have a trio of sons, each a stereotype: straight-arrow Martin, the eldest, who actually does speedwork on weed-encrusted tracks; middle child, Derek (named after… well, you know), who loves to run trails and avoids the track at any cost; and Randy, the manipulative last-born. When “Bolt” turns the burgeoning business over to Martin and moves to Montana, the other two brothers come together for the first time in their lives, the association engineered by Randy, in an effort to take over what they see as the “family business.” Derek would be happy to run the T-shirt concession, but Randy wants it all. Some of the most marvelous racing scenes ever are filmed as Martin’s students (dressed in blue) race against Derek and Randy’s students (dressed in red), while classical music paints an audio backdrop textured enough to make a grown man throw up. We won’t spoil the finale by describing it here; you can get a preview by brushing up on your Shakespeare.

22. SHOWGIRLS. Does this one have anything to do with the seedy side of nude and seminude comely young girls in Vegas getting all slicked up with grease and sliding down poles for the edification of the asses … er… masses? No, that’s already been done and it tanked. This is a chick-flick about a trio of college female cross-country runners who stick together after college. It follows their loves, their trials, and their tribulations. It features tears and moments of exhilaration. The three are often seen as stereotypes (see Valley of the Dolls), but what holds them together is their increasingly longer-distance running and the growing nostalgia they experience for the simpler days when all they had to worry about was getting passing grades amidst a plethora of keggers, track workouts, all-nighters, and conference and regional crosscountry meets. Always relatively even in talent (although, of course, Kelley trains harder than her two friends to overcome some inferior genes she inherited from her parents, a sorry situation against which she fights a lifelong losing battle when it comes to blaming them for her shortcomings), the three continue to train as a “team,” an unusual situation for the individualistic sport

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of marathoning. Still connected as a miniteam, the three wear matching outfits when they race marathons, and they race as a trio, sacrificing their individuality in this one thing in life in order to solidify their sisterhood. The sisterhood is threatened when Lacy falls head over heels for male model Bobby Butcher, and the three go through a vale of tears and alienations until the ultimate tragedy occurs: on a high-steel fashion shoot, Bobby, showing off as usual, plummets 34 stories and is hospitalized with serious injuries. Girlfriends come out of the woodwork, Lacy’s eyes are finally opened to the cad that he was, and the three sisters run off into the sunset, passing a sign that reads “Montana 543 miles.” Although this isn’t a guy film, some of the extended running scenes are inspirational. And some of the sweet-talking pick-up lines Bobby uses (and get this: they work!) will have guys rolling in the aisles.

23. STAR WARS. A near-future tale of war among marathoners. Also a cautionary tale against escalating hostilities. Had it not already been used for a script abouta giant asteroid crashing into Earth, this film would have been titled Armageddon. Tensions rise between the two hotbeds of American marathoning, Boulder, Colorado, and Buffalo Knuckle, Montana. Instead of the growing army of marathoners taking on the rest of the world, bad blood rises between these two camps in the American West. The eccentric, diverse, loosely held together army at Buffalo Knuckle has been joined by dissatisfied Japanese runners, a half-dozen Tarahumara Indians looking for adventure and formerly broken-down Kenyan marathoners who were thrown on the junk heap. The stew-pot there has been stirred by the arrival of coaching guru Billy Squires, who’s been lured out of his Boston lair. The Boulder contingent has been swelled by American hopefuls from Eugene, Alamosa, Albuquerque, and Pahrump, Nevada. Atfirst skirmishes break out as a handful of Buffalo Knucklers run up against Boulderites at small races. There’s uncharacteristic pushing and shoving, and some unkind words are exchanged as though they were sprinters or pro wrestlers. Larger and larger contingents are sent to subsequent races, and the clashes escalate until the leaders of the two camps have had it. They confer and decide to have it out at a little, out-of-the-way marathon outside Kearney, Nebraska. The two armies meet in an aerobic bacchanalia that is breathtaking, and which makes any previous war epic pale in comparison. More than one hundred world-class marathoners descend on the town of Kearney, where they run roughshod over the local citizens, taunting each other, building tensions toward the 7 A.M. start. The marathon course is not much to write home about, but more than two dozen cinematographers were employed to present angles and nuances of this master race that turns every film before into second-rate material. From the time the first elbow is thrown to the starter’s gun, the audience knows it is in for something special. Records will be broken; racing will

MICHAEL HUGHES.

be fierce and cutthroat; sweat will drip at the rate of a 55-gallon drum per mile. There haven’t been so many close-up, squinty-eyed, drop-dead looks since Sergio Leone filmed Once Upon A Time In The West, which title this film could have used. We won’ truin the surprise ending, but we will say this is the ultimate running film, a film that makes the Olympics and Fukuoka combined seem rather mundane. Billy Squires appears as himself; enough said.

24. VERTIGO. This remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic takes the plot and throws it out the window, in true Hollywood fashion retaining only the title and making people wonder why anyone would attempt to remake a movie that was made well to start with. In this plot, Wilbur Ferggison is a wimpy computer geek in the early days of Silicon Valley who, besides being afraid of his own shadow, is afraid of heights, spiders, open spaces, and girls. He is determined to make something of himself, though, and takes himself each day after work to the hills west of Palo Alto, where he runs up and down endlessly, little by little bringing himself out of his shell and into the physical world. He becomes fit and self-confident enough that he actually runs during daylight hours over the weekend. But like so many runners before him, the more he runs, the more he wants. He has also reached a point where he is obsessed with facing down his phobias, where he enjoys scaring himself. He decides that the ultimate challenge would be to create and run in a mountain marathon where a misstep

could mean disaster. He puts together a small mountain-running club that agrees to put on such a race in the Sierra Nevada, the course taking every possible advantage of dangerous edges, steep pinnacles, narrow escarpments, and jagged talus-strewn passes. Although they cannot get insurance for the race, they hold it unsanctioned. Wilbur is magnificent, and this is where the film shines: the scenery is spectacular, the race sequences the best ever put on film, the running feats awe-inspiring. His self-esteem pumped up to new heights, Wilbur turns his back on his former life, heads east and north, and settles in Montana, where he puts together an outdoor adventure company, Big Sky High, Inc., which organizes a series of mountain races that are also used to help others overcome their phobias. (See The Matrix.)

25. WAR OF THE ROSES. Awarring yuppie couple gets drunk and challenges each other to a marathon race to decide who gets the houses, cars, cats, and annuities when they split. They enlist their respective friends as crew, but most of them are so overscheduled and unreliable that they don’t show up. Yelling insults at each other from opposite sides of the road along which they are traveling, the two gradually gather to their respective sides a menagerie of passing tourists, from new age searchers to drywall spacklers. After many harrowing experiences and bizarre interrelationships between the jury-rigged support crews, the support folks realize just how vain and shallow the couple are, and they desert them. The arguments from their respective sides of the road escalate, and they cross to the center of the road, where they come to blows. A speeding van loaded with illegal Mexican runners headed for Montana being pursued by two California Highway Police (CHP) cruisers tops the hill and runs the couple down and keeps going. The CHP cruisers finish the job, and all the action is caught on tape from a TV news helicopter, but no one comes back to pick up the pieces. The state takes possession of all their precious possessions and auctions them off. Most of everything is bought by their esi former reflexologist. iia

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25th Issue Special Section

Marathoning’s ABCs

Keep It Basic, Keep It Enjoyable, and Just Plain Keep Doing It.

By PAUL REESE

Ae 47, I took up distance g, and in the 36 years since, I’ve run hundreds of races and logged 124,000 miles. Obviously, along the way I must have done some things*toamake running enjoyable or I wouldn’t have lasted all those years, run all those races, logged all those miles.

What things did I do? Glad you asked. Here are 26 suggestions for making your running more enjoyable. Let’s call them Marathoning’s ABCs.

I was going to drop one letter of the alphabet to accommodate the “25” theme of this issue of Marathon & Beyond, but I decided, nah, it’s gonna be the whole alphabet—after all, there are 26 letters in the alphabet and 26 miles in a marathon.

So, we’ll include 26 tips here—and just for a challenge (which I’m always up for), we’ll do them in alphabetical order.

LEARN YOUR ABCs

Anticipation. Always have something to look forward to, and you’ll enjoy your running more. You might look forward to a race, a mileage goal, or a different running experience. Maybe even consider a once-in-a-lifetime experience, like running a marathon in London, Boston, or Honolulu.

Anticipation helps build and fuel enthusiasm—but there can be a problem with anticipation. Sometimes you anticipate too much and build your expectations out of reach of reality. For example, once I read a lot about the Londonto-Brighton 54.5-mile race and looked forward to it, but in many ways, I found the race disappointing: the course was unattractive, poorly marked, and offered little aid. Running on streets in the same direction as cars and in precariously close quarters made much of the route scary for running. So anticipate, yes, but with moderation.

Paul Reese MARATHONING’S ABCs Hi 67

Big Time. At least once, experience the Big Time. You can’t play on an NFL or NBA team, but you can line up and race with Olympic and world champions. You can run before thousands of spectators and hear them cheer for you. You can participate in a world-class sporting event. Where? If you want the mecca, qualify for Boston; if you want big numbers, go to New York or Los Angeles or Chicago; if you want a happy medium, try Long Beach or St. George. If you want the best in marathons, try London.

Commitment. Like everything else in life, if your running is meaningful to you, you have to commit to it. Think of the things in your life to which you’ ve made a firm commitment. Aren’t they all things of value?

Another point here: Don’t feel guilty about your running. When you’ re out running, don’t think that you should be spending time cutting the grass, washing the car, or scrubbing the floor. The time to feel guilty is when you’ re not taking care of your body. Guilt just drains your energy.

Finally, you’re also playing leapfrog with a unicorn if you’re afraid of failure. Actually, it’s very difficult to fail in running as long as you continue to run. Don’t be afraid to attempt something, such as a marathon, simply because you think you might not make it. “Nothing will ever be attempted,” Dr. Johnson wrote, “if all possible objections must first be overcome.”

Desires. Learn to limit your desires. “I have learned to seek my happiness,” John Stuart Mill told us, “by limiting my desires rather than by trying to satisfy them.”

Likewise, if you limit your desires in running, it’s likely you will enjoy it more. Basically, try to limit your desires to what you want out of running and to what you can generate by way of your genes and training. It’s unrealistic, for example, to desire to break three hours in a marathon—that’s 6:52 pace—if the fastest you can run a mile is 7 minutes.

Equipment. Take every advantage you can through using the right equipment. Shoes, for example. I firmly believe what Jack Foster says: wear the lightest shoes you can handle. Compare two competitors in a marathon, one wearing 10-ounce shoes, the other 6-ounce shoes. During the course of a marathon, Mr. 6-Ounce will lift hundreds of pounds less than Mr. 10-Ounce. Lightweight shoes work for me. Maybe they won’t for you, but seek out whatever shoe that works best for you. The investment of time searching for the right pair pays big dividends. Also: be sure to keep your equipment handy, easy to get at. The more convenient it is for you to get started, the more likely you will get started. If you have to look for and drag out your equipment, you may find yourself asking, “Should I even bother to run today?”

Family. Involve the family. If you have a family, make the race a family affair. Plan something for the nonrunners. It’s kind of ironic that a devotion to running

F is for family. If you have a family, make your racing a family affair.

can either unite a family or separate it. How many cases have you seen where one spouse took up running, gave up smoking, modified a lifestyle, but the other spouse continued in the old ways? The frequent result is a split-up.

Goals. Goals should be realistic. A friend tells me his first two goals are staying alive and continuing to be mobile. The main thrust of goals is that we need direction, a kick in the butt every so often, or we’ll rest, and rust, on our haunches. Goals are different from what we want out of running. Goals are what you want to do as a runner. Some examples of goals: log a set number of miles in a week, break three or four or five hours in a marathon, or set a PR for a race distance.

Keep goals simple and attainable, but also feature a degree of effort and application. To remain injury free for a year is a goal of this criteria. If you set agoal and don’t reach it, go back to the drawing board and reassess. Maybe your goal was unrealistic. Maybe your training was off. Take whatever action necessary and go after the goal again. On the other hand, if you set a goal and succeed, don’t get complacent. Move yourself up a notch or two.

Hurdles. The challenge thing. Throw down the gauntlet. Set a hurdle up so you can jump over it. Some examples: to train for and finish your first marathon, to run an ultra, to run a number of days without missing. Hurdles are similar to goals, but with at least one difference: a matter of volume. Can I do it? How much of it can I do?

Paul Reese MARATHONING’S ABCs Mi 69

Injuries. Practice preventive medicine. The more injuries, the less enjoyment of running. Be aware that most of our injuries come from feet and shoes and speedwork (especially when you attempt to exceed your training base). Learn the difference between hurting and being hurt. Learn when to back off. Be patient when injured.

Jogger? A lot of words have been written to try to explain the differences between a runner, a jogger, and a slogger (that’s a slow jogger). But do these semantics really matter? What’s important is how much you enjoy running and what you get out of it. Jogger jibes? We’ ve all heard them (sometimes even aimed at us), but as Emerson told us, “The first wealth is health.” If what you’ re doing—slogging, jogging, running—is contributing to your physical and mental health, it’s the right thing for you. Health stimulates enjoyment of life.

Knowledge. Know the basics. Run smart. Take every advantage you fairly can through what you know. In a race, learn to run the shortest route: run the tangents (that’s the way the course is measured, after all). Stay off the crown of the road to avoid injury. Learn techniques, such as relaxing your hands, proper breathing, not overlifting your trailing leg in a long-distance race, and when running downhill, don’t overstride but shorten your stride and increase your rotation.

Lifetime. Pattern your running to last a lifetime. If you’re lucky, you willage. Andif you are going to age and to run, you should be patterning your running to last a lifetime. You will enjoy yourrunning more if you pattern it to a lifetime of running and not to just a few moments of fun, novelty, glory, or diversion. It’s better to be part of the action for your whole life than to have a starring role that lasts a few brief years.

Motivation. Sometimes the hardest part of running is putting on your shoes and getting out the door. Your motivation needs constant refueling. Find what interests you and go for it—be it short jy is for motivation. Find what interests races, trail runs, marathons, or you and go for it— be it trail runs, maraultras. Work at staying out of a thons, or ultras.

rut. Even little things are important, such as varying your training route, pace, and distance. Bribe yourself. About mile 20 of the marathon, promise yourself, if [just finish this race, I’ll pig out on pizza, beer, ice cream, steak, chili mac— whatever. Also, learn to enjoy your running more by doing it rather than by talking or reading about it. The best motivation for running is to run.

No more mafianas. How many people do you know who are going to start exercising tomorrow? Or stop smoking tomorrow? As a runner, how many times have you told yourself, I won’t run today, but I’ll run twice as far tomorrow? How often does that really happen?

Oneness. Maintain your individuality. Nobody knows you better than you. One of the reasons you run is for your own growth and development. Most of the stuff we read in running literature is about national- and world-class runners, not about us. Its application is limited, so don’t swallow it hook, line, and sinker.

As George Sheehan was fond of telling us, “In running we are each an experiment of one.” And he’s right: we each bring different genes, attitudes, body builds, goals, aspirations to the sport. Here’s a four-line poem by Edward Philpots to serve as a reminder:

Voyager upon the sea

To yourself be true;

And whatever your lot may be Paddle your own canoe.

Philosophy. Develop a running philosophy. Keep it simple. Like Alice Roosevelt Longworth said, “I have a simple philosophy. Fill what’s empty; empty what’s full. Scratch what itches.” Even a philosophy of life can be expressed in simple terms, as in this Swedish proverb:

Fear less, hope more

Eat less, chew more

Whine less, breathe more

Talk less, say more

Hate less, love more—

And all good things will be yours.

If you want an example of a running philosophy, here’s mine: experience and experiment, enjoy and endure. Trying to excel is just fine as long as it does not interfere with your pursuit of the other four Es.

Quality over quantity. Build endurance before speed. You need an endurance base before you can enjoy running. You’re not going to enjoy running, especially running a marathon, if you’ re exhausted all the time you’re running. The glory of endurance is that practically all of us can attain it if we have

Paul Reese MARATHONING’S ABCs #71

persistence and are willing to invest the time and energy. Once you have built endurance, focus on speed. Even if all you do is long, slow distance running, speed has a place in your training. When we talk about the value of exercise, we’re talking cardiovascular, which is where speed comes in. If you want big dividends on your exercise premiums, you’ ll need some speedwork to benefit your cardiovascular system. Speedwork pays off indirectly in another way— it makes your long endurance runs easier and more enjoyable.

Races. Arace can be more than just a race. Sure, the competition is a thrill, but there’s also the socializing, the camaraderie, the experience, the stimulation. Don’t make a habit of just going to a race, racing, and then coming home. Add some extra activities, just for pleasure. Visit a tourist attraction in the host city, tour the town, try a new restaurant, or just hang out with some running buddies.

Solo running. What’s best? Running alone or with a partner? I think you’ re best off mixing the two. Do some solo running for the “thinking time.” We all know running is a great time to mull things over. We’re on this planet such a short time, we should give pause every so often—like when running—to ponder why. Solo running can also be a safety valve after an exasperating experience, giving you a venue to cool off and cope.

Running with a partner allows you to exchange ideas, enjoy companionship, and, yes, commiserate over your running injuries. Talking and running along, you can often forget you’re running, and the miles fly by.

Track. For a good contrast to your road running, every now and then wander over to a track for some interval running or speed play. A track, be it allweather or dirt, is kinder to your legs than pavement.

Unicorn. Don’t play leapfrog with a unicorn. That is, don’t ask for trouble, because you might get it. For instance, don’t expect to run a 6-minute mile if the fastest 440/400 you can muster is 1:45. You’re also playing too near the unicorn horn if you have a major injury, say a quivering hamstring, but try to race anyway.

Vacation. Plan a vacation around a race. If you like to camp, try the Crater Lake Rim Marathon in southern Oregon. If you like running downhill, try St. George (in southern Utah), and maybe stop off at Las Vegas. (Las Vegas, of course, has its very own downhill marathon in midwinter.) If you want something fresh and scenic, try the Catalina (Island) Marathon. If you want to get away but not spend much money, and you love to run under really big trees, try the Avenue of the Giants Marathon in May or the Humboldt Redwoods Marathon in October. If you want a fun marathon amidst a tourist haven, take in the Honolulu Marathon in December or, if you’ re feeling especially ambitious, the Maui Run to the Sun 36-mile race, which goes from sea level to 10,000 feet!

What? Have you decided what you want out of running and out of marathoning specifically? What are you seeking? Health? Physical conditioning? Competition? Recognition? Satisfaction of your curiosity? Recreation? A mix of all of these?

Tf having fun is your target, seek out what most appeals to you: places to run, places to race, people with whom you can run. If you want to excel, then you must go in for specificity. It’s true, as they say, that if you want to get full enjoyment from your running, you’ve got to take time to smell the flowers, listen to the wind, feel the wind at your back (and sometimes at your front), admire a tree, appreciate the colors and moods of nature. Yes, even to pet horses and talk to cows.

Which brings to mind what one-time mile world record-holder Jim Ryun says in his book, In Quest of Gold:

Ultimately, the expectations—both of the public and those I forced on myself in running—prohibited me from enjoying the simple pleasures of running itself. Like experiencing the solitude of a Kansas field; stopping to talk to a group of cows; standing victorious on top of a hard-fought hill; exulting in the changing seasons of the countryside; feeling what seems to be a sanctified stillness when running through a gentle snowfall.

‘Mcuses. Know the excuses for not running and avoid them. We all know them: “It’s too hot,” “It’s too cold,” “I’ve got too many things to do.” Ron Clarke, the great Australian record-holder in everything from the 1 0K to the 20mile run, said that the only days he did not run were when he had a fever. That’s dedication. Once you begin making excuses, there’s no end to them.

Yourself. Think of yourself as arunner. If you do, the running attitude will sort of rub off on your lifestyle and on your choices of food, drink, and diet. For starters, start keeping a diary or log. As the years pass, the log also serves as a good medical record—and as the building blocks of a beloved avocation.

Zen. Years ago, Mike Tymn, a friend in Hawaii, sent me a book, The Zen of Archery, and inside the cover inscribed: “This is probably the best book you will ever read on running.” I looked at the title again and thought Mike must have sent the wrong book. Then I began to read this tiny 77-page book filled with much white space. It’s an account by a German professor who lived five years in Japan and tried to understand Zen through the practice of archery. He learned how the man, the bow, the arrow become one. The man becomes egoless as he learns to shoot without shooting. The hitter and the hit are no longer two opposing objects but rather one reality. Through running, you can arrive at something close to this Zen understanding. Maybe you have already been there.

Paul Reese MARATHONING’S ABCs Ml 73

So there you have them: 26 tips for enjoying your marathon running more. No way do I expect you to buy the whole package. But if even a half-dozen of my suggestions appeal to you, this exercise was worthwhile for me. A lot of what you buy from the list above depends on your values, what you truly want from your marathoning. There are some things, though, about your running that I think are absolutes, regardless of which of these suggestions work for you. The absolutes include…

4. Be grateful that you are able to run.

2. Make a commitment of some sort. The extent of the commitment depends on what you want out of running.

3. Remember that when God rolled you off the assembly line, He made just one exactly like you. No duplicates. You have to deal with that singularity in your running.

4. Understand that if running is important to you, it often will not be easy, which is true of most important and valuable things in life.

5. Do whatit takes to make the most of your running, because the more you enjoy your running, the more you’ll enjoy your life and living it.

The box score, then, is 26 suggestions and 5 absolutes. Now, suppose I had to boil all this advice down to one word. A suggestion for your running limited to one word? What would that word be? I thought about that for a while, and the two words I juggled most were enjoy and endure. And the word I finally settled on was enjoy, because I figure if you enjoy running, you’ll continue to endure it. So, ask yourself: are you enjoying your running? Yes? Then keep on doing what you’ re doing. No? Then take a tip or two from above and get back on the right track—because if you’re not enjoying your running, something needs to change. es

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Weightlifting For Marathoners

Don’t Overlook Weightlifting as an Important Part of Your Long-Distance Running. Part I.

OU ARE a marathoner. That makes you a member of one of the most fit

groups of people on Earth. Still, you sometimes have pain in your lower back following a long run, as well as soreness and fatigue in your shoulders and arms. Perhaps you’ve wondered whether strength training would help solve these problems. Maybe you’ ve also heard that you can be a better runner if you start lifting weights.

Being stronger would be nice, but you already spend a lot of time running. And as a runner, you don’t want to put on any extra weight that you’ll have to carry around with you. Is it possible to become stronger without spending much more time training, and without getting much bigger? Yes. What you need is a simple, straightforward strength-training plan designed especially for longdistance runners.

Well, step right up. You’ ve come to the right place.

This two-part article presents a strength-training program designed to help you meet your running goals without getting much bigger or less flexible. In Part I, I’ll explain why you should start strength training, and then in Part I, Pll show you how you can quickly and easily fit a short, effective strength-training program into your current training schedule. You don’t need any prior experience or knowledge to begin this program, only a willingness to try something new. And if you follow the simple plan presented in my articles, you’ll end up being not only a better runner, but also a healthier person.

WHY SHOULD | LIFT WEIGHTS?

You know all about the benefits of distance running: lower risk of heart disease, a stronger immune system, and easier weight control, just for starters. However, you may not be aware of the additional benefits of strength training.

Weightlifting is the jelly to running’s peanut butter; it provides health benefits that are different from, and complementary to, distance running. Here’s how.

What major muscle groups do you suppose you exercise when you run? The quadriceps and hamstrings, of course. Anything else? How about the hip flexors and the muscles of the calf—the gastrocnemius, the soleus, and the tibialis. Is that all?

The answer is: You exercise all the major muscle groups.

Running is a total body movement, involving contraction and extension of the leg muscles and rotation of the upper body in a complex sequence of movements. To run properly, everything must be working smoothly. A weakness in any major muscle group hampers the entire effort of running and leads to poor running form. Weak abdominal muscles allow stress to accumulate in the lower back. A weak lower back can change the tilt of the hips, leading to hamstring problems. A weak upper back may lead to fatigue and poor posture, further stressing the lower back. Weak quadriceps can lead to misalignment of the kneecap, causing knee pain.

Running can’t really help solve these problems. Running improves the cardiovascular system through high-repetition movements, but it doesn’t build significant amounts of strength. In fact, because running stresses certain muscles more than others, such as the hamstrings over the quadriceps, it actually contributes to certain muscle strength imbalances. The answer is to find a type of exercise that carefully overloads all the muscles through heavy resistance, triggering an adaptation response in the muscles, leading to improvements in strength.

That exercise is, in a word, weightlifting.

A carefully designed weightlifting plan builds strength in all the major muscle groups, which restores balance to the body. This in turn enables the body to move correctly and efficiently while running. Strong quadriceps hold the kneecaps in place, preventing the misalignment that leads to inflammation and pain. A strong lower back and hamstrings prevent pelvic tilting and the pain that often results from this condition. Strong shoulders will prevent undue fatigue. Strength training will accomplish all this and more. Your newfound strength will also make molehills out of mountains on those “challenging” courses. And it will help increase and maintain your bone density, which can stave off osteoporosis. And because muscle is active tissue and needs to be fed, strength training will increase your metabolism, making weight control easier.

If you’re worried about looking like a professional wrestler, relax. Women, especially, rarely have the genetics that allow for much muscle building. Although there are weightlifting programs designed to increase your size dramatically, this program is not one of them. This program will tone and strengthen your body without putting on large amounts of muscle mass. And on top of all

this, you’ll be able to carry all of your groceries from the car to the kitchen without cursing quite so much.

There’s also no need to worry about losing flexibility. There’s really no such thing as being “muscle-bound.” Either you’ re flexible or you’ re not. Increasing strength doesn’t change this condition. Further, strength training is not incompatible with flexibility. As long as you continue with a daily regimen of easy stretching, you’ ll be able to maintain or even increase flexibility as you follow this program.

PRINCIPLES OF STRENGTH TRAINING

By now you should be convinced that adding some weightlifting to your training regimen is a good idea. Maybe the big questions bouncing around in your head now are where, when, and how? We’ll get to all those details shortly. Before you take up our strength-training program, however, it would be wise to get a doctor’s clearance. This program is designed for apparently healthy adults who have no physical limitations. If you have had any serious injuries in the past, or are experiencing any pain now that limits your range of motion, do not begin this program until a doctor gives you a thumbs-up. Okay, now we’re going to talk a little bit about the big picture and set out some guidelines.

1. Come Prepared

Exercise takes commitment. You know this from your running. But all your commitmentto strength training won’t matter unless you are properly prepared for your strength-training session. Here are the rules.

First, don’t begin your workout on an empty stomach. You’ II feel tired and uninspired, and you won’t be able to work out as hard as you should, which means you won’t be in a position to make any significant progress. So get fueled. Aim to eat at least a healthy snack an hour or two before your workout. It should be high in complex carbohydrates and low in protein and fat, to make it easily digestible. You can eat the same foods you would munch before a long run, such as fruit or a bagel.

We’ll pause here for a word about nutrition. Common wisdom used to be that weightlifters needed extra amounts of protein, especially steak. This isn’t necessarily true. Active people do need more protein, but you will not need more protein just because you take up this program. Having said that, however, it’s important to make sure that you are already eating the proper amount of protein. As a rule, you should be eating at least one half-gram of protein for every pound of body weight, but you shouldn’t take in more than 25 percent of your daily calories from protein. So, for example, if you’re a 130-pound runner,

Jeffrey Horowitz WEIGHTLIFTING FOR MARATHONERS M 77

you should eat at least 65 grams of protein daily. An average-sized chicken breast provides about 30 grams of protein, and an eight-ounce glass of milk adds another 8 grams. Together, these take you about halfway to your goal. I’m not recommending that you become a slave to nutrition labels and food scales, but be aware of your body’s needs as you go through your day.

Second, doa proper warm up. You should do some exercise to increase your blood flow and warm up your muscles, which will make them more pliable. Any aerobic exercise is fine: running, bicycling, using the Stairmaster—even brisk walking. Because the goal is to simply break a sweat, only 7 to 10 minutes is usually required.

Third, stretch. Gently putting your muscles and joints through their proper ranges of motion prepares them for the stressful movements that are about to follow, thereby reducing the risk of injury. You should perform your stretches only after you’ve already warmed up; putting muscles and joints through their full range of motion while they are still cold could cause an injury.

Fourth, wear proper clothing and bring the right gear. This is actually much simpler than you might think. As opposed to running, weightlifting doesn’t frown on cotton clothing. Anything that allows you to move freely is fine. Shorts or sweatpants and a tank top, singlet, or loose-fitting T-shirt are all you need. (Finally! Something to do with all those old race shirts!) You can wear weightlifting gloves, especially if you want to avoid callused hands, but that is a matter of personal preference. You should have a towel with you to lie on the pads before you sit down and to wipe your sweat off the equipment after you’ re finished, especially if you will be exercising in a gym. You should also plan to have a water bottle with you throughout the workout; proper hydration is as important in a weightlifting session as it is in running.

If you’ve spent some time in a gym before, you might have seen people using a wide weightlifting belt for back support. I don’t recommend that you use one. Belts don’t provide as much support and protection for the lower back as is commonly assumed, and they often allow people to become sloppy with their lifting form. It’s like thinking that you can be a crazy driver because you’re wearing a seatbelt. It would be much better for you to save your money and do the exercises correctly.

Some people like to use lifting straps, which they wrap around their wrists and around heavy barbells or dumbbells. I don’t recommend using these. Lifting straps are not particularly dangerous, but they are unnecessary. If your hands and forearms aren’ t strong enough to hold a weight without using a strap, it would be better to continue exercising until they are. Since straps relieve pressure on the hands and forearms, they prevent this from happening. Also, some people find that the straps are uncomfortable and leave red marks on the wrists and hands.

2. Work Out Hard, Then Take a Break

Strength training is based on the “overload principle,” which states that the body responds to minor increases in physical stress by improving itself. Just as your body made the changes needed for you to work your way up to runs of 26.2 miles or more, it can also adapt to demands thatit lift increasingly heavier loads. The dynamics are the same for weightlifting as for running. No increase in effort leads to no change, too much effort can lead to injury, and an appropriate increase in effort leads to adaptations by the body. We gain strength by continuing to add resistance to our weightlifting routine when the exercises become easier. This is why strength training is sometimes referred to as “progressive weight resistance training.”

Here’s an old story to illustrate this point. Legend has it that in ancient Greece there was an Olympic athlete who had a unique training regimen. Early in his training, he would find a small calf. Every morning he would lift the calf up over his head. At first people weren’t impressed, but as the calf grew, onlookers were sure he wouldn’t be able to continue his routine. Surprisingly, the athlete was still able to hoist the animal day after day. As the calf had grown day by day, so had the athlete’s strength. That’s exactly the result for which we’re aiming—but without the use of farm animals, of course.

The key to triggering the adaptation response by the body is to create an appropriate challenge. We do this by exercising to temporary muscle failure. This occurs when, at the end of each exercise, you are just about at the point where you couldn’t possibly exercise any further. After a short rest, however, you’ ll be ready for more, and we’ ll talk more about that shortly. The important point to remember here, though, is that only the challenge brought on by real fatigue will lead to strength gains.

The first principle of weightlifting, then, is to set the resistance at an appropriately challenging level. The second principle is to give the body a chance to adapt. Each time you exercise, you cause a small amount of intracellular damage in your muscles. As the body heals, certain changes occur. These changes will result in improved strength, size, or endurance, depending on the type of stress the exercise had put on your body.

But just as you can’t expect to become a better runner by running hard day after day, you cannot become stronger by doing the same strength-training exercises day after day. A failure to allow the body sufficient time to rest and adapt after exercise will lead to a failure to improve or, in the worst cases, cause an injury. You need to give the body time to heal and adapt. Our rule is this: quality work, followed by quality rest.

This cycle of cellular damage and healing is the basis for that old phrase, “no pain, no gain.” In a limited sense that phrase is true. Minor muscle soreness a

day or two following a weightlifting session is natural and, to some extent, desirable. This is referred to as “delayed onset muscle soreness,” or DOMS. It’s the same pain that you might feel the Monday or Tuesday following a Sunday marathon. It indicates that your muscles were challenged and suffered minor damage. This condition is desirable because an adaptation could be expected to result after a period of rest. A little soreness is your body’s promise that you’re on your way to getting stronger.

But that’s not the full story. Not all pain is equal. Any sharp pain, or pain that persists after a few days of rest, or pain in the joints rather than pain in the muscle, might be an indication that an injury has occurred.

Rest, ice, and judicious use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories such as aspirin, ibuprofen (such as Advil or Motrin), naproxen (brand name Aleve), or ketoprofen (brand name Orudis) is the standard remedy. If the pain is very intense, or persists for more than a week, consult your doctor. But have no fear; as you no doubt already know from your running experience, careful adherence to a sensible exercise program will enable you to make gains while avoiding most injuries.

3. Use Proper Form

The goal of each of our weightlifting exercises will be to put an appropriate amount of stress on a particular muscle group (or groups). It’s absolutely essential that each exercise be performed correctly. Failure to do so will involve other muscles in ways that can injure them.

Most injuries in weightlifting are caused by using too much resistance; that is, lifting too much weight, and by lifting it incorrectly. Both mistakes can be easily avoided. Later we’ Il talk about proper form for specific exercises. Right now we’re going to talk about the general principles of proper form that should be followed throughout the entire workout.

First, and [know this sounds silly, but you must remember to breathe. Many people hold their breath while lifting weights. I call these people “clenchers,” and I have to admit to being aclencher myself on occasion. Holding your breath is usually done in an effort to concentrate and focus effort while lifting weights. In reality, holding your breath raises blood pressure, which actually decreases strength. It also creates unnecessary pressure in the abdominal cavity, which can, in some cases, contribute to a hernia. So do yourself a favor and breathe throughout each exercise. You should always be in the process of breathing in or breathing out while lifting.

In addition to breathing regularly, it’s important to breathe in and out at the appropriate times. This will help you coordinate the contraction of your diaphragm with the contractions of your skeletal muscles, which is a long-winded

way of saying that it will just feel better and seem more natural, once you’re in the habit of doing it. The rule here is a simple one. Always breathe out when you are fighting gravity the most and the work is the hardest, and breathe in when you are returning to your starting point. For example, when doing pushups, you should breathe out while pushing yourself away from the floor and breathe in while lowering yourself back down. If you ever find yourself in the middle of an exercise and you think you’ve gotten the breathing sequence confused, just stop for a moment and sort it out, then continue with your set.

Second, go slow. If you’ ve ever been in a gym, you’ ve no doubt seen some kid, we’ll call him Bobby Brainless, doing exercises at a breakneck speed. Ignore him; he’s doing it all wrong. When you exercise very quickly, you generate momentum, which uses inertia instead of muscle strength to get the work done. Working quickly also raises the risk of injury since you have less control over your movements. Slow, steady exercise works the muscles far more completely and safely, and that’s what will produce results. There is no such thing as performing an exercise too slowly; you can go as slowly as you like, but you should aim to take at least two to three seconds to do each phase of a movement.

Third, don’t jerk the weight. Look at Bobby again. He’s trying to curl a dumbbell up toward his shoulder. He wants to impress his friends, but the weight is too heavy for him. Now he starts to swing it, and he arches back to get his body under it. Never do this! By arching backward, Bobby has involved the muscles of his lower back in a way that risks injury. He has also generated momentum by swinging the weight. Both actions take the strain away from the muscle being worked, in this case the biceps. That means that in addition to risking injury, Bobby has also not effectively challenged the targeted muscle, so less progress results. He would have been better served to lift a lighter dumbbell and do the exercise correctly.

Fourth, don’t lock up your joints. It’s almost always a bad idea to straighten

– completely and lock up your elbow or knee joints during an exercise. Most people do this to gain a moment of rest before continuing, but this action takes the strain off the muscle and places it on the joint. Instead of challenging the muscle, you would now be straining the joint and risking injury. If you feel you need a break, put the weight down, take a short rest, and then continue. Proper form calls for straightening the elbow or knee joint, as the case might be, almost, but not quite, to the point of being locked. That little bit of bend that you keep in the joint will ensure that you are doing the exercise correctly.

Fifth, if you’re working out in a gym and using a weightlifting machine, put your body on the pads and keep it there throughout the exercise. Modern weightlifting machines are designed to safely and effectively work certain muscle groups. Pads are put on these machines to cushion the body, so wherever there’s

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apad, chances are good that if you start moving away from the pad while doing the exercise, you’re doing the exercise incorrectly.

4. Understanding Strength Training Terminology

Ifyou haven’ thad any experience with a strength-training program, you’ ll need to learn some of the terms we’ re going to be using. But, don’t worry—nothing we’ll talk about here is as odd as the term “fartlek.”

First, let’s discuss some words we’ ve already been using. Strength training refers to any exercise performed with greater than normal resistance. I’ve been using this phrase interchangeably with weightlifting, although you don’t necessarily need to lift weights to do strength training. For example, push-ups and pull-ups use your own body weight as resistance. You can build strength by performing these exercises even though no weights are involved. Here are some other words:

A repetition, also called a “rep,” is one complete movement of an exercise, from the starting position, through the difficult portion of the movement when muscle contraction occurs (also referred to as the positive or concentric phase), and returning back to the starting position (also called the negative or eccentric phase). For example, if you’re going to do push-ups, you get into the starting position by lying down on the floor. The positive phase occurs when you push your body up until your arms are straight, and the negative phase occurs when you bend your elbows until your body almost touches the floor once again. This entire sequence constitutes a single repetition of push-ups.

A set is a complete sequence of repetitions. If you do 10 push-ups in a row without stopping, you have performed one set of 10 reps.

Arecovery period is the amount of time used for rest between sets—essentially similar to the recovery time taken by runners between doing intervals at the track.

5. Deciding Where to Work Out

The exercises you choose from the list that follows depend, in part, on where you choose to work out. If it’s within your means and if you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to join a good gym. This provides you with access to arange of quality equipment, which allows you more exercise options. A gym also provides a place for you to avoid many of the distractions found at home.

Butif you can’t make it to a gym, don’t despair—there are good alternatives available to you. The workout that I will detail in Part II of the article will present bodyweight exercise options, where possible. As the name implies, these exercises use your own body weight to provide resistance. Examples include push-ups, crunches, and pull-ups. The benefit of doing these exercises is that you don’t need much equipment, so you can perform them almost anywhere. The downside, however, is that since you can’t spontaneously alter your body weight, you can’t change the resistance to suit your strength level. If the movementis difficult, we’ll try to lessen the impact of your body weight, where possible. If the movements become too easy, we’ll increase the difficulty by increasing the number of repetitions we perform or by slowing down the speed with which we perform each repetition.

The program that follows also presents exercises in which you can use dumbbells, which are also called free weights since they are completely mobile. Since a set of adjustable dumbbells and a plain, padded weightlifting bench are relatively inexpensive, you can use them as part of a good basement workout routine. The benefit of using dumbbells instead of machines is that the need to balance the dumbbells while exercising works the muscles in a slightly different way than do the machines, with the result that you’ll get better overall development using free weights. The downside is that it’s very easy to slip into bad form when using dumbbells, with the result that you could get a less-thansatisfactory workout, or even get injured. Used correctly, however, and combined with bodyweight exercises, dumbbells could help you get a great workout right in your own home.

A STRENGTH-TRAINING PROGRAM FOR MARATHONERS

We talked earlier of the need to balance exercise with rest. There are several ways to achieve this balance. Just as you can schedule a day off from running, or alternate hard days with easy days, you can organize your weightlifting routine in different ways to ensure that you get the appropriate amount of exercise and also let each muscle get sufficient rest. Your choices depend on your goals. This is where our routine will differ from routines followed by bodybuilders.

Here’s a brief overview of the program I will suggest. I recommend a total body workout, to be performed two to three times weekly on nonconsecutive days. This workout involves the performance of high-repetition exercises, targeting opposing major muscle groups in an alternating sequence, with little rest time between sets. Because this is a high-energy workout, you’ll get some cardiovascular effect as an added bonus and also accomplish a lot of training in a relatively short period of time, roughly 30 to 45 minutes. If you’re confused, don’t worry. All of this will make sense in Part II of the article.

Low-High Vs. High-Low

We now know all about the principle of proper effort with proper rest. Another one of the basic principles of strength training is that exercising with heavy

Jeffrey Horowitz WEIGHTLIFTING FOR MARATHONERS i 85

weights for just a few repetitions per set generally leads to gains in muscle size and strength. Think of the Olympic power-lifters; they’re all thickly muscled athletes who lift huge amounts of weight just one or two times. That’s fine for that type of athlete, but as runners, we’ re looking for something a little different.

Fortunately, another related principle of strength training states that exercises performed using moderate resistance with high numbers of repetitions per set, roughly 10 to 16 repetitions or more, will generally bring moderate strength gains, toning rather than big gains in muscle size, and improvements in muscle endurance. Aha! This is exactly what we’re after. Thus, we will follow a moderate resistance, high-repetition program.

Working Hard

Remember what we said earlier about working to temporary muscle failure. Whether training with heavy weights to gain muscle, or training with lighter weights to gain endurance and tone, it’s important to work as hard as you can. If you can do more than 16 reps, you should add a little bit more resistance. A safe approach would be to add no more than 10 percent to the weight you had previously lifted 16 times. If you can also perform 16 reps at this higher weight, you can add more. Eventually, you’ll find a weight that you cannot lift more than 10 times, and this is the weight you should stick with, at least temporarily.

In future workouts, continue to do as many reps as possible with that weight. The day will come when you can do more than 16 reps using this higher weight. That will be the time for you to go ahead and again add some more weight.

A Total Body Workout

There are many ways a workout can be organized, and they differ from one another chiefly in regard to the different results each of them aims to achieve. Generally, we can divide these weightlifting routines into two main groups: the split routine and the circuit-training (or total body) routine. In the split-routine program, the body’s muscles are “split up” into groups: the “push” muscles, comprised of the chest, shoulders, and triceps; and the “pull” muscles, comprised of the back and biceps. Legs can be added to either group, or left as a group by themselves. The split-routine program calls for one of these groups to be exercised one day, then allowed to rest the following day while the opposing muscles in the other group, still fresh, are exercised. This program allows you to weight train almost every day while still providing enough rest time for the various muscle groups. It also affords you time to work each muscle group more intensely, since you would be working only a limited number of muscle groups in each workout.

This is a good program, but it is not the program I recommend for runners. The split-routine program is an intense regimen that delivers very good strength

gains, but this would bring more strength than most runners need. If your goal isn’t to get big and powerful, or wear a costume and fight crime, then there’s no need to work your muscle groups so intensely. Instead, if your goal is simply to be healthier and to gain strength and tone in support of your running, then the appropriate routine would be a total body workout, in which all of the major muscle groups are trained in a single day.

Additionally, the split routine requires four to six workouts per week to ensure that each muscle group is challenged at least twice per week. That’s a lot of extra exercise to ask an endurance athlete to add to an already full weekly training regimen. I certainly don’t want to be responsible for any runner having to explain to a spouse or a significant other why they will now be spending so much more time exercising!

The total body routine, on the other hand, needs to be performed only two to three times per week and should not take more than 30 to 45 minutes per workout. In fact, since all the major muscle groups are used in this workout, this routine cannot be performed on consecutive days. Your body needs a full day to recover from each session, so three workouts per week is the absolute maximum. That means a total weekly time commitment of as little as one hour, to amaximum of two and a quarter hours. Most runners find that they can squeeze in at least one more hour into their weekly routine without too much difficulty.

Alternating Muscle Groups During Exercise

Based on the previous discussion, it should be clear that an important consideration in organizing a strength-training routine is making sure that a targeted muscle group gets enough rest between sets.

Atotal body program lets you do this. Since there are so many different body parts available for exercising, it’s possible to work one muscle group while another one is resting. For example, if you just performed a set of chest presses, you can then immediately do a set of dumbbell rows to work the muscles of the upper back. Since your back was not being used while you did the chest exercise, it would be fresh and ready to work. Additionally, you would be giving your chest a breather while you were doing your rows, since the chest would not be working during that time. So even though you would be exercising virtually nonstop during this time, you would be ready to do another set of chest presses.

This is the core principle of the total body workout for marathoners: alternating muscle groups to allow each muscle group sufficient time to rest. Under this plan, you’ll be in an almost constant state of motion, but while one muscle group is working, another is resting. The result is a minimization of down time, with the bonus that we can keep your heart rate elevated throughout the

workout, which contributes to your cardiovascular fitness. Equally important, too, is the result that by eliminating down time, we can squeeze a lot of quality work into a relatively short period of time. This means you won’t have to sacrifice your time on the roads for time in the gym.

Get The Muscle Loose, Then Work It Hard

Our program calls for us to alternate the muscle groups being exercised, but we still need to decide which exercise to choose for each set, and what level of resistance to use. Here’s our plan: to begin, the first exercise performed for each body part should be a warm-up exercise, performed with a weight light enough to allow you to perform 14 to 16 repetitions. This is necessary to warm up the muscle for further work. Although it’s true that we started the workout with a general warm up, it’s a good idea to do muscle-specific warm ups before raising the resistance levels. Your first round of exercises, in which you perform one exercise for every major muscle group in an alternating sequence, will warm up your entire body.

Following this opening sequence of high-repetition exercises, you’ ll repeat all of these exercises at a greater level of resistance, one that allows you to perform just 10 to 12 repetitions. This heavier work builds power to go along with the muscle endurance provided by the higher-repetition exercise. Next, you’ Il choose different exercises to work all of these same muscle groups again. Since each different exercise works a particular muscle in a slightly different way, this approach will ensure more complete muscle development.

Another change in your workout at this point is that you’ll start off this second set of exercises at a power-building, higher-resistance level. There’s no need to start off at a lower-resistance level because although the exercises are different, all of your muscle groups are already warmed up from the first sequence of exercises. By starting out this round of exercises at a higher resistance level, you’ll be providing a greater challenge to your muscles, which results in greater gains in muscle strength. Finally, you’ll finish the workout with one more trip around this second set of exercises. But since you’ Il no doubt be alittle tired by this point, you’ Il return to a lower-resistance, high-repetition, endurance-building format.

This sequence of alternating the level of resistance and the number of repetitions is known as “pyramiding.” The word reflects the profile described by the change in resistance levels used in this workout. We started at the base of the pyramid with low resistance as we warmed up and worked on endurance. We then climbed the pyramid by adding resistance, which allowed us to work on power. Finally, we descended the pyramid by lowering the resistance and returning to higher-repetition, endurance-building resistance levels.

Go For The Big Impact Exercises

Every time you move one of your joints, such as your elbows, knees, or shoulders, you use one or more pairs of muscles. Naturally, the greater the number of joints used during an exercise, the greater the number of muscles being worked. For example, if you do a dumbbell curl, you work the biceps. Since the elbow is the only joint moved while performing curls, this movement is known as a single-joint exercise.

On the other hand, if you perform a dumbbell rowing exercise, you are working not just the elbow joint but also the shoulder joint. Since there are two joints at work performing this movement, this is called a compound exercise. Instead of working just the biceps, this exercise works the biceps and also the muscles of the upper back. You can see, then, that dumbbell rowing represents a more efficient exercise than a curl.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with single-joint exercises like curling, but in a total body workout, you need to think about getting the most out of the limited energy and time you have available. So, for that reason, we’re going to generally favor compound exercises over single-joint exercises. We’re also going to avoid exercises that only work the muscles of the arm, which are the biceps and triceps. These muscles will get enough work when we do our compound exercises, so we’re not going to waste time and energy doing exercises that focus only on them.

In Part II of my article, which will appear in the March/April 2001 issue, I’Il introduce you to the specifice exercises I recommend that you perform and explain how to choose which ones to do and in what order.

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Millennium 2000KNI

Running the Length of New Zealand to Celebrate the Dawning of a New Millennium.

By JANETTE MURRAY-WAKELIN

\ N ] HEN WEsailed away from New Zealand in our 40-foot yacht 25 years

ago with our two little children, we never anticipated that we’d eventually return to run the length of the island nation as a way of bidding farewell to the 20th century while welcoming the 21st.

As parents in the early 1970s, we searched for an alternative lifestyle and an ideal environment in which our little family could grow. In that idealistic quest, we sailed into the unknown dreamworld of sea gypsies, water wanderers, and wayward travelers through the swollen sea of life.

A decade of cruising through a dozen countries while experiencing numerous cultural happenings created a family firmly bonded by a keen sense of adventure. It was this commitment to enjoying each other while living life to the fullest that hatched the idea in 1997 of meeting again in New Zealand to celebrate the dawning of Year 2000.

Over the years we had become avid runners, so it was natural that our new quest involve long-distance running. We began to plan the challenge with the same detail we’d used over the years to set sail for new and exotic ports of call. My husband Alan, 54, and I (aged 50) would run the length of New Zealand (some 50 marathons in 50 days) while our now-adult children, Alana and Kaje, would help with the planning, organizing, and support. It was exhilarating to launch into yet another adventure as a family.

Our years of traveling had taught us that good health, attainable through consistent physical exercise and sensible nutrition, was of great importance for any challenge we might set for ourselves. To run 50 marathons in as many days, we figured the training would involve constant LSD (long slow distance) running, which would mean getting up early every morning and going for at least an hour’s run, concentrating on keeping the pace at approximately six minutes

Janette Murray-Wakelin MILLENNIUM 2000KM @® 91

per kilometer. Over the three years of training we would build up the distance run every day to include a 42K run once a week while slowing the pace to roughly 7:30 per kilometer.

It would be just as important to get the nutrition portion of the equation right. We have always believed that a balanced diet of natural foods and plenty of water is required to maintain a healthy body. Our training diet consists of fresh fruit and veggies, whole grains, brown rice and pasta, soy products, some fresh fish, pure grapefruit juice, and water. We did not eat any junk food or fast food, no red meat or dairy products, no salt, and no tea or coffee. We also did not use any forms of drugs, suchas painkillers, anti-inflammatories, and the like. Neither did we use sports drinks.

We cannot possibly overemphasize the importance of high water intake in such an athletic venture toward remaining properly hydrated.

ORGANIZING “NZ2000KM”

We were able to secure several sponsors for what we were calling the “NZ2000km Run,” including Clif Bar, a naturally balanced energy bar. We practiced eating a Clif Bar with a banana and a fresh fruit smoothie before beginning each run and took a Clif Shot energy gel at the end of each run. We made it a practice to always warm up with a 1K walk and to cool down with a 2K walk as a way of preventing injuries from overtaxed cold muscles. Immediately following eachrun, we stretched for 20 to 30 minutes, using mostly yoga stretches, and, when our feet were weary, we would first soak them in ice water to bring down any swelling, then in warm water with Epson salts afterward. A hearty brunch followed.

We were also fortunate tobesponsored [Bm om Chey by McCoy fruit juice, who provided us | / with 400 liters of pure grapefruit juice, which we drank throughout the run. Other ~

| Funds for athleles with | Disabilities / |

Alan and Janette’s support vehicle bore this sign on the back.

COURTESY OF JANETTE MURRAY-WAKELIN

sponsors included Telecom NZ, who provided mobile telephones essential for communications between us and our support crew. We also had sponsorship from Laurie Dawe Cycles, and Asics Canada provided five pair of shoes each, three pair of which we alternated during the run, all of which we wore out.

We realized that running a marathon a day for 50 days to cover the 2000plus kilometers from Cape Reinga in the north to Bluff in the south of New Zealand would create a fair amount of interest throughout the country (and, in fact, worldwide, primarily through our Web site), so we decided to seize the opportunity to do some charitable fund-raising. As we had two friends who had been disabled as the result of car accidents, we had a personal interest in a good cause. We approached Parafed Canterbury and ParalympicsNZ with the idea and suggested any funds raised should go toward helping athletes with disabilities achieve their sporting goals and, ultimately, to compete in the Paralympic Games 2000.

ParalympicsNZ took over organizing press releases to the news media and set up a Web site (www.paralympicsnz.org.nz.) to encourage fund-raising. We entered our daily diary notes throughout the run, which we posted on the site.

Our son Kaje (now 28), who had agreed to be our support crew throughout the run, joined us from Scotland, and our daughter Alana (now 30, married, and at the time expecting our first grandchild), would monitor the e-mail address (nz2000km@ yahoo.com) from San Francisco and join us for the last two weeks of the run.

OUR MOBILE HEADQUARTERS

The first thing we did was buy a suitable support vehicle: a solid diesel truck converted to a mobile home that slept three and was guaranteed reliable to go the distance. Kaje would be our driver, going ahead to stage water and food stops every 10K. He would also check out the next day’s run on the bike after we had finished for the day, which meant he’d bike twice the distance that we would run every day. He pushed us out the door at 5:30 every morning, watered and fed us, and was always there with words of encouragement. He was, indeed, our life support, and we couldn’t have done it without him.

On December 17, 1999, we stood below the lighthouse on Cape Reinga at the north of New Zealand and briefly looked out toward the Pacific Ocean which, 25 years before, had carried us with the wind in our sails away on our first adventure together. Now we were embarking on another voyage of discovery, this time over land with the soil beneath our feet as we ran the length of our country— Aotearoa, as it is known to all New Zealanders. It was an emotional moment as the light flashed its last revolution as dawn broke, and we began to run.

Janette Murray-Wakelin MILLENNIUM 2000KM ® 93

Alan and Janette leave the lighthouse on Cape Reinga at the north of New Zealand on December 17, 1999, heading for Bluff, over 2000 kilometers away.

The trail around the coastline past Cape Maria Van Diemen and down to 90 Mile Beach provided arugged but beautiful start. Kaje drove onto the beach and was waiting with water, suntan lotion, and camcorder. Two days of sun, sand, and diminishing horizons running on 90 Mile Beach was an unforgettable experience. Never before had we run 42.2K in a straight line!

Once onto the roads, we settled into a daily routine of 5:30 A.M. starts, water and food breaks every 10K, applying suntan lotion on a regular basis, and changing clothes and shoes as necessary, depending on the weather.

For the first five days we had various shifts of pain and “niggles.” We would run along saying, “right knee niggle,” “left ankle pain,” “right shoulder ache,” and so on, comparing complaints as we progressed. The camber of the road played a big part in contributing to what we hoped would not become chronic injuries, as we had been training in Canada and Europe on the left side of the road and had to change to the right for oncoming traffic in New Zealand. We changed sides whenever it was safe to do so, on long straights and when there was a wide enough shoulder. We also tried to stay on the outside of country roads for better visibility by motorists.

After five days and five consecutive marathons, we were truly into “unknown territory.” We’ d never been beyond that point in training. We continued on, gripped with a bit of apprehension but found, apart from when we encounz g

tered adverse weather conditions, that we could hold our own. The weather played a huge role in how much energy we depleted during each run and the time it took to cover the total distance each day. Our average daily running time was 5:15, but actual time on the road, including stops, ranged from 5:45 to 8:15. Basically, when we had especially heavy rain, strong headwinds, or extreme temperatures, we merely changed gear (that is, ‘‘gear”’ as in momentum and in clothes). When it rained we used Vaseline liberally on our toes and areas subject to chafing, so despite several days of constant rain, which meant running in soggy shoes for several hours, we did not suffer any blisters, chafing, or foot problems (apart from developing toes that looked like pink prunes).

After 10 days on the run we realized that as long as we stayed at a constant pace, we would not sustain any major injuries. However, we always knew that rough ground could cause a twisted ankle and that the danger of road running with traffic was ever-present.

VARYING TERRAIN

The terrain ranged from flat straights (such as 90 Mile Beach and the Canterbury Plains) to steep hills (such as the Parapara Range and Dunedin’s “Steepest Street in the World”). We found that flat running caused more aches and pains than running hills because of the constant pounding and minimal range of motion of muscles. Generally, the rolling hills of New Zealand provided the best all-around terrain for running as well as the most interesting scenery. We have never found running boring because there is always something to look at and something to think or talk about. After 30 years of marriage where

Alan and Janette early in the NZ2000km Run on 90 Mile Beach.

Janette Murray-Wakelin MILLENNIUM 2000KM ® 95

we’ ve always worked and played together, you’d think there wouldn’t be much left to say. But every day there was something new to discover: a different birdsong, native trees, animal antics in the fields, house design ideas, and garden landscapes.

At the end of each day’s run, we set up camp in the truck. Most often we’d be close enough to a town where we could park in a campground overnight and return the following morning to the point where we’ d stopped the previous day. Other days we would drive to family or friends who lived nearby. But often we would simply park where we ended our run: on the side of a road, under a tree, or beside a river. Frequently, we were treated to local hospitality, including offers of hot baths, laundry service, and even meals. After a rough day of cold rain and wind, a free night in a warm motel or a heartwarming room ina country home was very welcome.

The greatest highlights of the run were undoubtedly when we were joined on the road by athletes with disabilities. Throughout, New Zealand ParalympicsNZ kept the Regional Parafed Groups informed of our schedule, and in each area it was arranged for athletes and supporters to join us along the way. Having these wonderful people along put many things in perspective for us. The pain in our legs seemed to disappear when we were running alongside someone who was paralyzed or had no legs. We were honored to run with new friends who had cerebral palsy, spina bifida, and disabilities ranging from visual impairment to tetraplegia. We enjoyed the company of paralympian

Alan and Janette running with disabled friend Frank Pennington.

medalists and youngsters aspiring to reach those heights. Their courage and determination inspired us to continue our commitment to finish the challenge we had set for ourselves.

Another highlight was running the Hamilton Millennium Marathon, held on January 1, 2000. The race constituted our 16th marathon in our sequence. We pushed a wheelchair with a donation box around the course and collected $800 from runners and spectators. More than 2,500 participants came from all over the world, including several athletes with disabilities. Of all the marathons we have run worldwide, this was the most inspiring. We were later thrilled to learn that the marathon organizers had pledged $5,000 toward our fund-raising.

A ROUGH PATCH

Around the 37th day we went through a tough period, which we attributed to a growing lack of restorative sleep and quality rest periods. At the time we had a lot of media coverage, which involved interviews for newspapers, radio, and television as well as fund-raising campaigns where we pushed the donations wheelchair around towns after finishing each day’s run. We now refer to this down period as “hitting the wall,” because if we were to relate the 50 consecutive marathons to a single marathon, that would have been about the time and place you’d expect to encounter the dreaded Wall.

We managed to run through the exhaustion and nausea and come out feeling stronger and fitter than before. In fact, as we neared the end and began the countdown from 10 marathons down to the finish, we experienced feelings of invincibility, of wanting the run to continue and wishing we could turn around and run right back again. (Yes, Forrest Gump is our favorite running movie.)

We did, in a rash moment, decide to enter and run the Buller Gorge Marathon, held a week after we were scheduled to finish the NZ2000km Run. We figured we must be training toward something. (Buller Gorge was a great marathon, by the way: Alan did 3:39, I did 4:06, and we raised over $100.)

Needless to say, our mortality was re-established during the last few days of slogging into Southland’s cold headwinds, in rain which at times we were sure would turn to snow. We were convinced that the endurance we had built up during the previous 40 marathons helped us run through those days and were thankful we had not encountered those conditions earlier in the run. Although most New Zealanders were disappointed with the summer weather, we considered ourselves fortunate that for most of the run we had near-perfect conditions, with cool, overcast days.

As we ran into Bluff on February 5, emotions also ran high, yet we felt sad the run was ending. We even slowed down to make the experience last a little

Janette Murray-Wakelin MILLENNIUM 2000KM ® 97

Alan and Janette with Alana and Kaje in Bluff, after completing their 2,182km run along the length of New Zealand.

longer. With the end of the road in sight, our son and daughter joined us and we all ran side by side, holding hands to the finish. It had been a team effort, a challenge we had set out to overcome together, and a goal we had achieved as a family. We did it! We had run the length of New Zealand—2, 180 kilometers or 50 marathons—in 50 days!

The awareness we raised and the funds we attracted through the NZ2000km Run will go toward helping people with physical disabilities become rehabilitated and reintegrated into the community through the most effective medium of sports, recreation, and leisure activities. The primary disability groups helped by Parafed Canterbury are paraplegics, tetraplegics, cerebral palsy victims, people with spina bifida, the visually impaired,

Postscript: In October 2000, Alan and I attended the Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia, as guests of the New Zealand Paralympic Team. The “NZ2000km Run” initiated a lifetime involvment for us with these incredible athletes and the Paralympic Organization worldwide.

Needless to say, another Fund-raising Run is now being planned, which will coincide with the World Wheelchair Championships to be held in New Zealand in 2003, and to build up further awareness for the forthcoming Paralympic Games in Athens in 2004.

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THE EDMONTON FESTIVAL MARATHON MAY 20, 2001

As Chair of both the Edmonton Festival Marathon Society and Road Events for the Edmonton 8th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, | would like to extend a personal invitation to all runners to experience what might perhaps be a once in

a lifetime opportunity.

have the chance to run a world-class course — the same course that the world’s best will run on in August, during the World Championships.

This is a running adventure you should not miss!

Yours truly,

John McGee Chair

EDMONTON

Phone: (780) 437-2240 Email: jmcgee@megeerichard.com Fes iVA|

Beat the World’s Best

The Edmonton Festival Marathon Customized Its Course for the 2001 World Championships—Try the Course Before the Stars Do!

John McGee, chair, road events, for the 8th IAAF Championships in Athletics, unfurls the 2001 World Championship Marathon flag in Commonwealth Stadium, Canada’s largest outdoor stadium. The World Championship marathon will start and end there this August.

/\ SK ANY track and field addict about the relative importance of the £~ \ Olympic Games versus the World Championships and most of them will come out strongly in favor of the World Champs. The same fervor extends to the World Champs marathon versus the Olympic marathon. For the Olympics, more roadblocks are placed in front of world-class and emerging marathoners to qualify than there are obstacles in the steeplechase.

Richard Benyo / ~ Ss BEAT THE WORLD’S BEST Mf 103

In fact, qualifying for the Olympic marathon is more difficult than doing well in the Olympic marathon itself. The best in the world are only passingly represented, and it’s uncommon for the current world’s best to shine in the typically sweltering Olympic race. Consider Los Angeles in 1984, when the world’s best, including Alberto Salazar, Rob de Castella, Toshihiko Seko, Juma Ikangaa, Rod Dixon, Rodolfo Gomez, and Shigeru Soh, finished out of the medals.

Although they do not have the payoff of an Olympic gold, World Champ gold medals carry as high if not higher a cachet among the world’s top marathoners. For one thing, the field is typically deeper and more competitive, due largely to the looser entrance requirements (the previous top finishers in the World Champs are automatically invited, the world record-holder is automatically invited, and so on). And the race (both men’s and women’s) features a team championship, something the Olympics does only ina very informal way among marathon statisticians and record-keepers.

For many years the unofficial world marathon championships for men was the annual Fukuoka, Japan, marathon in early December, typically a date favorable to decent performances. (Fukuoka does not havea women’s field.) Fukuoka is where Derek Clayton (in 1967) set his first world record of 2:09:37. The race has featured winners such as Frank Shorter (four times: 1971-74), Jerome Drayton (three times: 1969, 1975, and 1976), Bill Rodgers (1977), Toshihiko Seko (four times: 1978-80 and 1983), Rob de Castella (1981), Juma Ikangaa (1986), then world record-holder Belayneh Dinsamo (1990), and 1996 Olympic champ Josia Thugwane (1997).

The World Championships have been contested only since 1983; in the beginning, they were held every four years; in 1993 they went to every oddnumbered year; and in 1997 they were combined with the World Cup, at which point the Worlds expanded its qualifying standards to include five runners from each country so that a team competition could be held simultaneously with the individual competition.

MODERN HISTORY

The races (there has been both a men’s and women’s marathon since the World Champs were launched in 1983) have been held in major cities in Europe (Helsinki, Rome, Stuttgart, Goteborg, Athens, and Seville) and once in Japan (Tokyo, 1991). In 2001, the races will be held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the smallest city ever to host them; they move to Paris in 2003 and London in 2005. This year will be the first time the Worlds will be held in the Western Hemisphere. And it may be the first time the World Championships marathon goes under 2:10, thanks to the highly modified course through the high points

of Edmonton that the organizers have customized from their traditional Edmonton Festival Marathon route, which was put into place in 1993 when the city revived its 26.2-mile event. It will also be the first time in the history of the Worlds that the men’s marathon will be integrated with the opening ceremonies.

The organizers of the Edmonton Festival Marathon ran the new World Champs course in August of 1999 and again in 2000 in an effort to work out the bugs. For 2001, the Edmonton Festival Marathon will be run for the non-worldclass marathoner on May 20, while the World Champs will be held on the course in August: August 3 for the men and August 12 for the women. Then, in all likelihood, the flat, fast course will be dismantled and the race will revert to a course similar to the old version. The new course will likely be disassembled because Edmonton probably won’t be willing to seal off the downtown area for any race less prestigious than the World Champs. Consequently, average marathoners probably have only this single opportunity to run this world-class course.

By running the course through the downtown and across the High-Level Bridge, the organizers have managed to minimize the inherent difficulties of designing a flat, fast course through a city that straddles a river (the North Saskatchewan) and which therefore is forced to dip into and out of the river valley if it is to be run citywide.

In the past, the course started near and ended at the Kinsmen Sports Centre (ahuge sports complex) along the river’s edge. The course had the field running uphill within the first few miles in order to get onto the surrounding plains in order to find some flat land; the course then repeatedly looped back upon itself as it ran through neighborhoods near the university.

Incontrast, the World Champs course starts and ends at the huge Commonwealth Stadium (the largest outdoor stadium in Canada) near downtown and features no course repetition, although it does on two occasions cross itself. The only hills involved are when you’ re leaving the stadium, which is sunk into the surrounding landscape, and near the halfway point, when the course runs down Groat Road toward the river before rising up a short, gentle hill after looping Hawrelak Park. The rest of the course gives runners a thorough tour of the best parts of the city while stringing together some very long, straight segments of road and effectively skipping the boring and second-rate parts of town.

If the course is susceptible to any siege, it’s through the roulette wheel of weather. Mornings in Edmonton in August are usually cool, but there are occasional heat waves. And sometimes there is wind, which, on a loop course, can slow runners as they inevitably turn into a headwind at some points. If weather conditions are favorable and the races come down to gutsy running instead of strategic running, the course is perfect for very fast times.

A QUICK LOOK AT EDMONTON

Let’s take a moment to look at the city of Edmonton. Afterward, we’ll take a tour of the course, with our focus on running the course in May but also with some attention to spectating along the course during the two world-class marathon races that are coming in August.

More than 80 percent of Canadians live less than 100 miles north of the U.S. border. Yet, in terms of mass, Canada is the second largest country in the world (after Russia, whose total land mass is subject to change depending on which breakaway republic hasn’t been able to fully break away), which means it has an awful lot of land well north of its population base. (Take a listen to The Arrogant Worms’ tune “Canada Is Really Big.”)

Edmonton is the only major city in Canada that lies beyond the 100-milesnorth-of-the-U.S.-border population line. For the longest time, the city wasn’t much more than a trading post along a bend in the Saskatchewan River. Prior to the Klondike gold stampede in 1896, Edmonton was a sleepy hamlet of 1,200 folks. It grew to 4,000 very quickly when its merchants lusted to get onto the gravy train that San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver were riding supplying gold seekers with equipment to head to the Klondike gold fields. Edmonton merchants advertised that gold seekers could provision in Edmonton and, with a team of dogs, reach the gold fields by the overland route in a mere six weeks. Instead, it took 18 months, including a loop above the Arctic Circle.

In more recent times, Edmonton has prospered with a rise in the market value of oil and gas. Much of Canada’s gas and oil reserves are located north of Edmonton, and the city serves as the jumping-off point for exploration and

Perhaps the best camera shot on the course uses the Edmonton skyline as a backdrop.

production. The Province of Alberta, of which Edmonton is the capital, is also rich in cattle and the farming of grains, especially wheat. Edmonton’s chief rival is Calgary. But no one rivals it for indoor winter lifestyle: the West Edmonton Mall, built in 1981 and expanded in 1983, 1985, and 1998, remains the largest mall in the world, covering an area the size of 115 American football fields.

From a sporting standpoint, Edmonton’s citizens do it all, from hockey to dragon boat races on the river, from speed golf to triathloning. Each year in August, the city hosts anearly week-long running festival, of which the Edmonton Festival Marathon is acenterpiece. Edmonton hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1978; the Commonwealth Games are a chance for all nations within the British Commonwealth to compete against each other every four years. The city also has a very active volunteer corps when it comes to sports. The World University Games were held in Edmonton in 1983 and the World Figure Skating Championships in 1998.

THE “NEW” COURSE

For 2001, Edmonton estimates it will call upon 5,000 volunteers to help host the World Champs. Runner volunteers who want to run the World Champs marathon course for the last time before the Games will be able to do it on May 20, 2001. The world-class athletes will have their races in August. The men will start at 6:45 p.m. on August 3 as part of the opening ceremonies. The women will start at 8:00 a.m. on August 12, the final day of the Championships.

What about the course? What makes it unique and refreshing? As with most Olympic-style marathon events, the race will begin and end in the stadium— in this case, the Commonwealth Stadium, the 65,000-seat home of the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos. The stadium will be the home of all track and field events. A new curb for the track was installed during the summer of 2000, but the state-of-the-art Mondo-surface track will not be installed until winter breaks in early 2001.

At the time of this writing, the neighborhood surrounding the stadium is very industrial, but it is undergoing a renovation for the Worlds. The stadium is served through a station of the efficient and clean Light Rail Transit (LRT) subway. (Public transportation will be free during the Worlds.)

Marathon runners will begin the race on the west side of the track, circle most of the track in a counterclockwise direction, and exit the stadium via a short, relatively steep uphill that deposits them on Stadium Road, which then quickly sends them toward Jasper Avenue and downtown. In the summer of 2000, this first half-mile of the course was the ugliest portion of the entire 26.2 miles, but this may change by spring 2001.

Jasper parallels the North Saskatchewan River, although several hundred feet above it. That eastern portion of Jasper will be totally closed to traffic to allow runners to choose their own line through turns. The segment is a wee bit seedy; 92nd to 93rd Streets mark the site of the original settlement of the city. At about 3K into the course, Jasper runs right through the heart of Edmonton’s downtown, going past Canada Place and the famed MacDonald Hotel, a stately Old World inn built in 1915. The hotel hosts the Edmonton Sports Festival Black Tie and Shorts “formal” and charity auction the Monday leading into the traditional marathon weekend.

START / FINISH

Stadium Rd.

Running Room

Alberta School for the Deaf

Course Map

When the course crosses 109th Street (one of only two spots where the course cuts across itself), it enters a stately French section of town set off by St. Joseph’s Basilica. This area gradually turns to walls of apartment buildings set back a block from Jasper but dominating the skyline over the little strip malls along a pair of parallel streets on either side of Jasper. The balconies of the apartment buildings are perfect for early-evening barbecuing and watching the world’s best distance runners streak past. Spectators would have to look quickly, as Jasper is straight and relatively flat, and at this point, 5K into the course, the lead pack will be establishing its rhythm and dropping lesser mortals in the field.

Just as Jasper begins a right-then-left dogleg, the course passes through several blocks of trendy art galleries. This area also features some of the more expensive dining in town. The left turn of the dogleg is at Mountain Equipment Co-Op, where most of Edmonton’s outdoorsy folks stock up on equipment.

Just after the dogleg is the second point where the course crosses over itself, this time bridging over what will later be the rollercoaster down Groat Rd.

BEST VIEWS

This bridge is one of two of the best viewing areas on the course outside of the start/finish at the stadium. Pedestrian sidewalks line both sides of the short grill-surfaced bridge (whose grillwork will be carpeted, a la the New York City Marathon), over which runners will rush before they enter one of the exclusive residential segments of Edmonton: the Glenora area. Patient spectators who hoard the bridge sidewalks will enjoy an elevated view as runners rush down the serpentine Groat Road beneath them.

Glenora contains the Provincial Museum and the Archives of Alberta Government House, used for formal occasions. Originally settled by officials of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Glenora is quite English. It is also a portion of the Bay Reserve.

The route passes through Jasper Place, which until the 1950s was a separate town. The course then turns left (and south), away from Stony Plain Road, where it takes advantage of a loose residential segment of town. The median in the middle of the turn will be removed for the Worlds so that runners will be able to trim the curve. This is roughly the 10K spot. The runners are now on 142nd Street, which is straight and tree-lined and extremely peaceful and pleasant. A little bridge crosses McKinnon Ravine, which features bike trails and running paths; if you’re a photographer, this is probably the high point of the course. Shooting from the west pedestrian sidewalk of the bridge, you’ll find the Edmonton city skyline framed by the tops of two sets of trees. As runners pass close in front, the cityscape in the background promises to be breathtaking.

This part of the course, though lined with trees, also features parallel streets on both sides of the course, behind which the homes nestle, so that the course itself is buffered from what could be a closed-in feeling. This section, known as Valley View, is very well-manicured.

The course takes a 90-degree turn to the west at 87th Avenue but does so gently around one of the few remaining traffic circles left in Edmonton. The straight stretch along 87th Avenue has many trees and some homes in that twilight zone between urban residential and suburban. There’s a pleasant little pub on the corner of 159th Street and Meadowlark that might offer a peaceful viewing area over some early-evening buffalo wings and a brew during the men’s race—or breakfast during the women’s race, eight days later.

Like most of the course, 87th Avenue is flat. When it reaches 170th Street (the 15K point), the course takes a 90-degree right turn and heads north. Across the street is the eastern edge of the gargantuan West Edmonton Mall. Unfortunately, the mall is so huge that it’s difficult to gauge its enormity from the street. There was some early talk of running the course through the mall (a 5K walk/race was held inside the mall during its early years, and it hosts yearround walking groups), but that whim was abandoned.

Aright 90-degree turn takes you onto 95th Avenue for a few blocks, before a left 90-degree turn moves you onto 163rd Street. This street is flat, fast, and straight, passing through a seemingly pristine neighborhood with wide streets and on-street parking (which will be forbidden on race days).

Another 90-degree right turn carries you onto 107th Avenue, which, if taken, leads back to the stadium. This section features modest homes, most of them kept up well. The wide street is framed by trees but allows unobstructed viewing from helicopters circling overhead.

DOWNHILL RACERS

At 142nd Street is the second traffic circle of the course, which serves merely to impede what would have been a straight line down 107th Avenue. Once past 136th Street, the course drops into the longest of its only two descents (the second one comes as the course dumps itself back into the stadium at the finish) as Groat Road winds gently downhill toward the river. If there’s still a front group, this is a segment where a good downhill runner or two could break the race open in a big way. Groat runs under several bridges, and if you are still spectating from the bridge vantage point we spoke of back at the 10K point, here’s your chance to see the field from a bird’s eye view.

Once the runners cross the North Saskatchewan River and pass the prestigious Mayfair Golf and Country Club, the course diverts into its most beautiful stretch. This is also a section where the leaders will be able to check over their

left shoulders to assess where the rest of the field is strung out. The course goes into Hawrelak Park and loops there. (Incidentally, this park will be the site of the 2001 ITU Triathlon World Championships 10 days before the men’s marathon.) The park is extremely pleasant, and its entrance is the second prime viewing spot outside the stadium, as runners will pass the entrance on their way into the park and again on their way out. With a good pair of binoculars, you can watch the competition around nearly all of the Hawrelak loop. (Incidentally, again, Hawrelak hosts Edmonton’s Heritage Days the weekend following the men’s marathon, and negotiations are underway to have them open on the Friday night of the men’s marathon. Heritage Days is a major event in the city, attracting more than 400,000 people to the cultural displays hosted by Edmonton’s diverse cultural community. Opening Heritage Days on marathon night presents the exciting possibility of having local citizens of hundreds of national backgrounds cheering on the marathon runners representing their homelands.)

Once out of the park, the course runs for less than a kilometer on a gentle uphill before heading toward the University area. The course then runs down University Avenue, a four-lane treelined thoroughfare, where in several years an expansion will be made to accommodate an extension of the LRT line.

From here, the course takes a gentle jog onto 113th Street, turns onto 61st Avenue at the Alberta School for the Deaf, and then turns again onto 109th Street, which is flat, straight, and fast. In reviewing the course, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) wasn’t too pleased with 109th Street, calling the street “ugly,” acomment that spurred the mayor into demanding the entire street be resurfaced, which was in progress in August of 2000.

Before 109th Street makes a gentle downhill jog to the HighLevel Bridge, it passes the anchor

Groat Road is where a good downhill runner could open up the race.

Running Room store, one of the key players in bringing marathoning back to Edmonton in the early 1990s.

A BRIDGE TOO HIGH

The High-Level Bridge crosses the river at a very high elevation, which allows the course to skip any more up- and downhills to get back into the city center. The High-Level Bridge normally runs traffic in two lanes north to south, but for the race, runners will run south to north. A street car runs across the top of the bridge, and an artificial waterfall will be turned on to shower a mist of water from the top of the east side of the bridge to the river below.

The course, still on 109th Street, inclines slightly at the north side of the High-Level Bridge as it passes the Alberta Legislature. The next neighborhood is Railtown, at one point the terminal of the railroad, now under construction to be turned into an area of upscale condos and shops. There is a 90-degree right turn at 104th Avenue, and the course runs past Grant MacEwan College, where the clashing architecture seems out of a schizophrenic’s nightmare.

A bit farther along on the left side of 104th Avenue is the CN station (where they now back the passenger train in) and tower. Then comes the pyramidinclined City Hall on the right.

The course takes a gentle left onto 97th Street and ducks under the CN rail line, coming up in colorful Chinatown, where the course runs the length of the

Runners exit Chinatown by passing under the arch on their way back to Commonwealth Stadium.

ethnic enclave (which should smell fairly exotic the evening of the men’s marathon), and out under the arch at the other end, where the course takes aright turn onto 107th Avenue, which heads directly back to the stadium.

The runners sprint downhill onto the track and circle three-quarters of it to the finish line and subsequent fame and fortune. Cesar Moreno Bravo of Mexico, technical delegate from the IAAF and one of Edmonton’s early supporters, was on hand to check out the new course. “It’s one of the best,” he said. “Tt’s flat, and the view of the city is beautiful. There’s a lot of greenery.”

TICKET INFORMATION

Forty percent of the tickets for the track and field events of the World Champs had been sold by the middle of August 2000—and that was just two weeks after they went on sale. But, fortunately, there is virtually nowhere in the city of Edmonton that you could go and be far from the marathon course. There are several long straightaways where it’s easy to park a block from the course; in these sections, many spectators will set up lawn chairs on the grass to watch the world-class field rush by. There will be extensive television coverage in Canada. And coverage will be numbingly complete on Japanese television because a million-dollar multicamera customized bus is being sent over to cover the lead pack in the marathon; think of something out of Mad Max, where a bus is customized to hold commentators and video editors and to bristle with hightech TV cameras and sound equipment. Unfortunately, coverage in the United States hasn’t been announced at this point; U.S. coverage will likely be limited in order to clear air space for bowling or semi-pro wrestling.

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My Most Unforgettable Marathon

(& What I Learned From It)

BY GORDON BAKOULIS

May 24, 1998. Okay, so I’m over the hill. I ran 2:33 three times during my best marathoning years, 1989 through 1992, and it’s safe to say I won’t approach that standard again in this lifetime. I’d love to reclaim my former youthful fitness without conceding the wisdom and maturity I’ve gained with age, but wouldn’t we all? These days my goal is to stay healthy and continue to drink from the fountain of knowledge and self-actualization that competitive long-distance running represents to me.

That’s why, when people ask me about my “best” marathon, I cite a relatively recent race that I finished in a time nearly 10 minutes slower than my PR. At the 1998 Key Bank Vermont City Marathon, by successfully (finally!) applying some of the most basic marathon lessons, I performed at a level far beyond Gordon Bakoulis moments after her gritty my expectations and ran what I win in the 1995 Key Bank Vermont City consider the best race of my career. Marathon.

ROB SWANSON

As always, the event humbled me, but this time it was by driving home the simple truthfulness of maxims I’d heard (and passed along to others) countless times yet, I realized, never truly embraced.

My marathon PR, 2:33:01, dates back to the 1989 New York City Marathon. We were blessed with perfect weather that day: temperatures in the high 40s, overcast skies, and no wind. Juma Ikaanga ran the still-standing course record of 2:08:01, and Ingrid Kristiansen clocked 2:25:30 to win. I entered with a 2:37:17 PR, run the previous April. I expected, along with my coach and the local media, to shatter that mark. My time at halfway was 1:13:50, which had me fantasizing about the newspaper headlines. Things never completely unraveled, but three women passed me after 24 miles, and I could manage no faster than a seven-minute pace over the last half-mile. Though I was proud of my eighth-place finish, my performance didn’t feel like the race of my dreams.

As it turned out, never again did my fitness and the weather combine to offer such an opportunity for fast racing. I stopped chasing sub-2:30 somewhere around 1996, the year I became pregnant with my first child. I ran the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February of that year and was thrilled with a 2:39:08, 20th-place finish. Shortly after that I stopped running seriously and got pregnant in October.

low-key return to training. I ran a few local races in the 5K tol0K range but didn’t plan my schedule ahead more than a few days. Running a marathon, let alone a sub-2:50 to qualify for the 2000 trials, was far from my mind. With a new marriage and baby, a demanding job as editor in chief of Running Times magazine, and continued coaching responsibilities and volunteer commitments, I was busier than I’d ever been. At that time, I didn’t see the point of knocking myself out just to run a 2:48 or 2:49 qualifier.

That all changed at the 1998 Houston Marathon, which was the women’s national marathon championship that year and the first qualifying race for the 2000 trials. I covered the race for Running Times, and in the back of the press truck, watching eventual winner Gwyn Coogan clip off 5:50 miles, I threw reason and common sense to the wind and decided to get off my butt and train to run a sub-2:50. My mileage wasn’t bad, mid-40s, but I’d done nothing of quality in close to two years. I targeted Vermont, a marathon I’d won in 1995, setting a course record of 2:38:32. The race was always held Memorial Day weekend, so I had about four months to train.

OLD LESSONS AND NEW

In preparing for my first marathon in more than two years, I didn’t want to try anything radically different. The training and lifestyle principles that I’d gleaned

Gordon Bakoulis MY MOST UNFORGETTABLE MARATHON ® 117

from my coaches and others, and refined to best serve my own needs, had worked for me for 14 years of marathoning. I’d been coaching myself for the past few years because my schedule was too unpredictable to follow a set program, and I felt I knew what to do. I hadn’t kept a log in more than a year, so the first thing I did was start recording every workout in a spiral notebook. I was comforted by how familiar and “right” this process seemed. Still feeling hesitant, I pulled out a calendar and counted the weeks backward from race day, May 24. Then I plugged in a rough schedule of speed workouts, tempo runs, long runs, and tune-up races. Doing this felt comfortable yet oddly new at the same time. It struck me that I’d never been as mindful of scheduling my workouts in the past, when it had become automatic through endless repetition. There were plenty of new lessons to learn as well. Most of these related to time management rather than the training itself. I freaked out, and almost lost faith, when I realized how difficult it was to accommodate the schedules of two serious marathoners (my husband, Alan, was training for Boston with the aim of breaking 2:30) and one demanding infant. I wondered how our household was going to survive the next 18 weeks.

As the cliché goes, there was only one way to find out. Alan and I planned our schedules a week at a time, sharing the favored evenings for speedwork (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and playing tag team in the mornings. Often it was too cold to take Joey out in the Baby Jogger, and living in a New York City apartment, a treadmill was not an option. We did the best we could. I admit I did far less than the optimal amount of stretching and cut corners in the warmup and cool-down departments as well. Actually, my biggest worry was that I’d try to bump up the fitness too quickly and get injured. I viewed a 1998 spring marathon as my only chance to qualify for the 2000 trials. We wanted to have another baby and felt we were too old to wait till after 2000. I planned to start trying to get pregnant right after Vermont.

Before having children, I fit in my 80 to 90 miles a week around a full-time job (plus freelance projects), a relationship, coaching, and an active social life, and thought nothing of it. I simply made the time to train because I saw my running goals as non-negotiable. Adding a baby, with his infinite needs, to the mix stood everything on its head. Formerly simple decisions were suddenly complex: did I finish my 10-mile run with Joey howling in the Baby Jogger? Did I start my 20-miler at 5:30 a.m. even though I’d been up three times in the night to breastfeed? The fact that I was making such decisions in a sleepdeprived cloud didn’t help matters.

Tended up feeling constantly stretched to my physical and emotional limits, and guilt-ridden to boot. Still, we runners can get used to just about anything. I concentrated on finding solutions, not wallowing in difficulties. I grew accustomed to flying out the door the instant Alan arrived home from work, calling

Motherhood changed priorities for Gordon, shown here in 1999 with Joey and newborn Sammy.

dinner instructions over my shoulder, so I could run for 45 minutes before he had to leave for his team track workouts. Things got easier as I focused on my goals, discovered what I could and couldn’t change and, most important, saw my fitness start to come around.

READY OR NOT

I’d always seen high mileage as a sort of insurance policy. If I couldn’t count on anything else, I could at least count on that succession of ten to twelve 80+ mile weeks, meticulously recorded in the pages of my training log. This time, that source of confidence was missing. My mileage reached 70 only twice during my build-up; I averaged 55, without a minute of cross-training. I tried to stop worrying about mileage and focus instead on my long runs, speed workouts, and race results. These—the races in particular—really started to bear fruit in the weeks leading up to the marathon. I raced a 22:40 four-miler and a 35:25 10K in April. Alan had a formula that said those times predicted a 2:45 marathon. I hesitated to aim that high, telling Alan there’s no comparing a 10K to a marathon. He reminded me that I, like him, actually tended to perform better at the marathon distance than any shorter efforts indicated. He proved his point by running 2:29:54 at Boston, beyond what his recent results had predicted. My final tune-up race was a half-marathon three weeks before Vermont. The 1:20:42 effort disappointed me, and even though I ran four repeat miles in under 5:30 at the track a week later, I vowed to stick to my original plan for the marathon: don’t be greedy—just run 6:30 pace and qualify for the Trials. Despite this conservative approach, I decided to experiment in one area. I was still breastfeeding, which takes enormous physical reserves, and I’d had trouble fueling myself adequately for my long runs. A friend suggested a carbodeplete-and-load before the race as a way to optimally stock my glycogen stores. I decided to try it, without going to extremes. I ran an easy 12 miles on

a Gordon Bakoulis MY MOST UNFORGETTABLE MARATHON ® 119

Monday morning, then minimized my carbohydrate intake until Thursday morning. I didn’t go crazy; I sipped orange juice regularly and made sure to eat enough overall calories: lots of hard-boiled eggs and tuna rather than my usual bagels, cereal, bread, potatoes, and pasta. Starting Thursday I reversed things, eating about 80 percent carbohydrate calories. It felt great, as though every bit of carbohydrate I put in my body went straight to the muscles that would need it Sunday morning. I planned to carry two gel packs with me during the race and take them one and two hours into the race, just as I had during my training runs.

RACE WEEKEND

I was billed as one of the favorites in Vermont. I told reporters that my goal was to run sub-2:50 and not worry about where that placed me. It felt nice to say that because for one thing, it was true, and for another, it allowed me to stand on the starting line fully embracing one of the truest and most useful marathon maxims: the race doesn’t begin until 20 miles.

As calm and prepared as I felt that sunny Sunday morning, I was surprised by the wave of emotion that washed over me. I cried as I jogged up and down a quiet side street just off the starting area. This was new; usually the tears flowed after the race. I had started 20 marathons but never before felt so aware of the physical and emotional effort that had brought me here, and which would carry me through the next 26.2 miles.

My first mile, a downhill 6:23, felt absurdly easy. The temperature was about 60 degrees, sunny and windless—not ideal but close enough that I didn’t feel the need to adjust my time goal. Several women ran ahead of me, but by 10 miles, passed in 1:03:30, I was even with Mary Burns-Prine, a masters runner from California, and we were second and third to marathon debutante Veronique Vandermissen, a French-Canadian woman. It was nice to have Mary nearby to chat with during the early miles. Neither of us knew much about Veronique, who spoke no English and hadn’t attended the prerace press conference.

Alan divides the marathon into three segments: first 10 miles, second 10 miles, last 10K. He always aimed to slightly increase the pace, or at least the effort, from one zone to the next. He’s one of the few runners I know who has developed the discipline and fitness to actually run “negative splits,” resulting in aremarkably consistent string of performances in the 2:29 to 2:34 range over seven years. I’d never negative-split a marathon and felt reluctant even to try. But as Vermont approached, Alan urged me to follow his 10-mile/10-mile/10K strategy. “At the very least, it will organize the race for you,” he offered. Consequently, and seeing as my first 10 miles left me fresh enough to still be babbling to Mary, I stepped on the accelerator ever so slightly over the next five

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miles, a flat and downhill section of the course. Running steady 6:15s to 6:20s, I drew away from Mary and, just short of halfway, passed Veronique. My halfway split was 1:21:56. Spectators kept telling me, “She’sright behind you.” I wasn’t sure which runner they meant, but I didn’t care; I wasn’t racing yet.

The only significant hill on the Vermont course starts just before16 miles and stretches about 600 meters. Everyone knows it’s coming because it’s located right smack in front of the host hotel. As I motored up the hill, I finally sneaked a look back. Veronique was about two steps behind me, and she looked strong. We passed through a relay exchange zone to thunderous cheering, then out onto a rather dull stretch of highway heading north.

TALK TEST

As the women’s leader, I had a bicycle escort beginning at this point. I chatted with this woman, who’d performed the same duty three years previously when I’dset acourse record. She was flattered that remembered her and recalled that I’d yakked away during that race as well. “I can’t believe you talk while you’ re racing,” she said after I had observed that I wished I’ d known volunteers would be handing out energy gel along the course—it would have saved me the trouble of pinning GU packets to my shorts. Since I’d carried the stuff this far, and it was what I’d used in training, I decided to take my last packet, as planned, at 19 miles. I passed my escort the safety pin.

Sucking sticky goop from foil packets wasn’t my only concern at this stage. That defining 20-mile mark was here and now, and I had some serious butt to kick. I knew from spectators’ comments that Veronique hadn’t conceded an inch. Clearly, this rookie was hoping the wily veteran—me—would keep setting an even pace, then falter just enough to allow her to rocket by at some crucial and irrevocable moment. But I also knew what Veronique did not: that I’d never felt better 20 miles into a marathon. If this hanger-on thought victory was going to come easy, she’d better think again. I hit 20 miles in 2:06 even—6:18 pace. Much later I realized that from there, a 44-minute 10K would have netted me the sub-2:50, but I was too focused on the moment to perform such calculations. Every facet of my being was focused on monitoring the physical and mental stress to which I was subjecting my body. I felt completely in tune with my effort, which was extreme but safely this side of redlining. pushed the pace, and had the feeling I was gapping Veronique. Just after 21 miles, where the course takes a sharp, steep downhill and makes a near-180-degree turn back toward town, a glance over my shoulder confirmed my hunch. She was 75 yards back.

I settled in for the final five miles, run on a flat-to-downhill bike path along Lake Champlain. In every marathon, no matter how well run, there’s a point where you doubt your ability to finish. Many noncompetitive runners don’t

believe this, but I’ve heard it from enough other elites to feel comfortable admitting it myself. In this race, which I knew by now I was running to the absolute best of my ability on the day, that moment came at 22 miles. Holding steady at 6:05 to 6:10 pace, the euphoria of ditching my last pursuer having worn off, I felt suddenly overwhelmed by the challenge still ahead. How could Ikeep putting my body through this hell for four more miles? Everything hurt. Why did the effort have to be so god-awful, and for what ultimate purpose? The moment passed, spirited away chiefly by fears of Veronique and the rest of the field sprinting by as I shuffled pitifully along. I held pace. “I don’t think ’’m going to talk anymore,” I said to my escort, still patiently pedaling by my side. And I didn’t.

Miles 25 and 26 were a revelation of how strong it is possible to feel in a well-paced and fortune-favored marathon. “Hiiiii!” I sang out to a friend stationed along the course just after the 25-mile mark. “T feel fantastic!” In retrospect, I made a complete ass of myself with this display, but as I subscribe to the belief that no runner is responsible for words uttered after the 20-mile mark of any footrace, I forgive myself. Spurred on by the crowds, including Alan and his relay teammates, I ran 5:39 for mile 26.

“2:42, Gordon!” shouted a friend.

I was sure his math was off, but I passed under the finish clock in 2:42:51, a big stupid grin on my face. Veronique finished 95 seconds later, a fabulous debut. We embraced, and she thanked me in broken English. Alan and Joey and our friends were right there to greet me. I hugged my husband and crushed our son to my sweaty body as cameras clicked and whirred. I stood in the warm sunshine answering questions and cradling Joey, oblivious to time passing. Alan’s video reveals that I kept fretting about Joey

Joey gets a celebratory smackeroo from mom after her Burlington win.

ROB SWANSON

not wearing a sun hat, but all I remember is smiling and saying, “I felt great the whole way,” about 500 times. (Fellow scribes: aren’t postrace interviews with inarticulate winners the pits?)

This was the marathon I’d always dreamed of running. If it had happened five to eight years earlier, when my physical potential was greater, I’d have a much faster PR to brag about, but life is full of shoulda/coulda/wouldas. It doesn’t matter anyway. I’d broken through to a place I’d always longed for the marathon to take me, and there was no going back from this moment.

And What I Learned Er It

N THE 1998 Key Bank Vermont City Marathon | got more out of myself

than! could have hoped for. Although | did most things right and had good luck in terms of the weather, | don’t fully understand how | was able to lift my fitness to a higher level than my workouts and tune-up races suggested was possible. I’ve only raced one marathon since then, the U.S. Olympic

Vermont to that race with similar success, but because the weather sucked (high 70s, ‘unrelenting sunshine) and!was only five months postpartum, | ran 2:50:04, my slowest marathon in 16. years and — t have the same sense of triumph Vermont had given me. The lessons of Vermont remain with me. | know that despite advancing —

stay competitive in the sport I love. | :

It’s not about numbers/ ‘S.

My two-year layoff left me p! ly and Heol out of touch with the daily grind of training and the multiple challenges of the marathon itself. To avoid injury during my comeback, | monitored my body’s feedback with excruciating care. Knowing | couldn’t afford to screw up and postpone this attempt

to qualify for the 2000 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, | erred on the conservative side, logging much less mileage and fewer hard speed workouts than usual for me. | had to let go of my mileage obsession, yet at the same time take seriously the numbers that indicated my fitness—workout and race times—and respond to them.

My fitness level was depressingly low to begin with, but it improved dramatically during my 18 weeks of training. | had to constantly adjust to those week-by-week improvements, setting goals that were achievable, yet challenging. You’re only as fit as your last race. | did three main tune-up races before Vermont—a four-mile, a 10K, and a half-marathon—and based my marathon goal time on the results of these efforts. It would have been stupid

OO SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

and pointless to base my goal on performances in the distant past. As much as | would have liked to shoot for 2:33, the fitness wasn’t there.

Don’t go out too fast

It’s incredible how many times some people (okay: me) need to hear something before it finally sinks in. | repeated this message to myself about 20 times daily in the days leading up to Vermont and the 2000 Trials. (And guess what? It works in shorter races as well.)

It’s not a race until 20 miles

Another simple concept that gets ignored far too often. Worrying about the competition before the final 10K is simply a waste of energy.

There’s no excuse for bonking

I’m convinced my carbo-deplete-and-load strategy, along with carefully planned use of energy gel, contributed to the most wall-free marathon of my career. | followed the same process the week before the 2000 Trials, with similar results. Fuel management is crucial to marathon success, and I’m glad to have found a strategy that works for me.

The marathon hurts

Scott Douglas wrote in this publication last year about how the U.S. Air Force studied a group of Eskimos in Alaska who had an amazing ability to endure cold weather far better than the personnel stationed at their bases. The natives’ secret? They expect it to be cold. By the same token, | relearned something | hope | never forget about the marathon: it’s supposed to hurt like hell, no matter how great a day you’re having. aM

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¢ Boston ’57: A Memoir by Johnny J. Kelley

° Trail Marathons: The Upcoming Thing by Theresa Daus-Weber ° Pike’s Peak by Dr. Peter Wood

e How to Train Successfully for Boston by Peter Gregory

° Sandy Jacobson’s Most Unforgettable Marathon

° Race Profile: Adirondack Marathon

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uw to Death

A Classic Novel Uncovered: Murder at a Six-Day Race: Part VII

by Peter Lovesey

Editor’s note: The first six parts of Wobble to Death appeared in the six issues of M&B published in 2000.

CHAPTER 13

Francis Mostyn-Smith had decided who the next victim would be. During his solitary circuits in the small hours of Friday he found time to contemplate the crimes. One could not hope to make deductions when the entertainment was at its height, with an ill-disciplined crowd and those lamentable instrumentalists bombarding one’s ears. But at night, in an arena deserted by all but one official, concentration was possible.

He had not conclusively identified the murderer. That was more difficult than nominating a victim. He wondered about approaching the police officers with his information. In the morning they would be back in the Hall continuing their investigations. But something made him reluctant to do this. The sergeant in charge of the detective inquiry, the tall, sharp-eyed fellow, did not have the look of a sympathetic listener. His overweight assistant, who had been exhausted after that one lap of the track, might be more approachable, but probably lacked the intelligence to follow the argument. In all the circumstances it was best, Mostyn-Smith decided, to thwart the assassin himself. He would warn the victim.

O’Flaherty was soundly asleep, cooling his feetin Dublin Bay, when MostynSmith entered his hut. When the reallocation of huts had been made at | a.M., O’ Flaherty had agreed to move to the empty shack next to the one where Monk had been found. It was smaller than the other, but less draughty, and the bed was softer. The smell of carbolic was not so obvious, either. And Double-barrel had kept the hut at the opposite end of the row; he would have to find someone else to pester.

It was 3:30 a.m. O’ Flaherty was not one of those efficient sleepers who wake at precisely the required time. His brain was not attuned to regular sleep, and

this may have accounted for it. But in one respect it was totally reliable; if anything should wake him before his chosen time he knew at once that he was being cheated of sleep.

“O’ Flaherty,” Mostyn-Smith ventured in a whisper.

“O’Flaherty, old fellow!” A voiced greeting, with a tap on the shoulder.

Complete absence of any reaction.

“O’-Fla-her-ty!” Four syllables mispronounced loudly six inches from the one visible ear.

The Stag was back from Dublin, and awake, but he refused to give any sign of it. Perhaps the voice would go away.

Jesus! What was that?

Mostyn-Smith had found a damp sponge and was squeezing it over the Irishman’s face. He jerked into a sitting position, grabbed Mostyn-Smith by the

ANDY YELENAK

shoulders of his running-zephyr and yanked him off balance, so that he fell across the bed.

“Tf you don’t bloody leave me alone, you little bugger, I’ll strangle you with these hands!”

Murder was exactly the matter Mostyn-Smith had come to discuss. But for the moment he was speechless, and sightless, for his spectacles had been swept off his nose.

“What is it this time?” demanded O’Flaherty. He was an appalling sight, with bloodshot eyes bolting inside a frame of red hair and four days’ growth of beard. Fortunately perhaps Mostyn-Smith was unable to see him. He groped frantically about the blankets for his glasses. The Irishman seriously began to suspect that Double-barrel was drunk. At last the glasses were found and planted on his face.

“T should apologize—” he began.

“So you bloody well should!”

“Tt is of the profoundest importance, I do assure you. You see, I had to speak with you before anyone else was awake.”

“You made sure of that. What’s the bloody time?”

“Oh, it must be approaching a quarter to four. Now please listen to me. I am convinced that your life is in grave danger, O’ Flaherty.”

“And what in God’s name makes you think that?”

Mostyn-Smith had recovered some of his poise with his glasses.

“Tt’s all a matter of deductive principles,” he explained, but got no further.

“Now hear this, Mister,” growled O’ Flaherty. “You’ve just destroyed a beautiful sleep, and, so help me, I’ ve beaten men senseless for less. You come in here and tell me I’ m going to be killed and then you blabber about principles. Father Almighty, if there’s killing to be done stay my hand now!”

“T merely wanted—”

“Just tell me, in simple words, why you won’t leave me alone.” O’ Flaherty’s mood was swinging from aggression to desperation. “I’m in danger, am I? Well tell me this. Have you seen a looney outside with a bloody sledge-hammer looking for me? If you haven’t I’m not interested.”

“T ll be brief,” promised Mostyn-Smith. “Mr. Darrell is dead, and Monk is dead. You must be the next.”

“And why, in God’s name, should that be?”

“Don’t you see? Somebody required Captain Chadwick to win the race. Therefore Darrell had to be stopped. They gave him poison hoping his death would appear to be due to tetanus. And when strychnine was found to be the cause they tried to make it appear that Monk had made a grievous error and then committed suicide. But the post-mortem examination proved that he, too, had been murdered.”

“You said you’d be brief.”

“And so I have been. Can’t you see that this homicidal ruffian, whoever he is, will not allow anyone to defeat Captain Chadwick? Your splendid efforts on the track have made you a serious contender, a rival to the Captain. You have become an unexpected obstacle to our murderer’s plan, and he will try to remove you, be sure of that.”

“Thank you,” said O’ Flaherty, without much gratitude in the words. “So I’m next for the strychnine. And I’ tell you something that might surprise you, Double-barrel. It’ll be a mercy to feel the spasms coming on—because I’ll know that in no time at all I’ll be free for ever from you and your bloody safety precautions! Now will you get out and leave me fifteen minutes’ rest before I go to the slaughter?”

Nodding appeasingly, Mostyn-Smith backed towards the door. The reception had not been exactly what he anticipated, but the Irishman was an irascible fellow, and might ponder the logic of the argument when he had controlled his temper. At least one could now return to one’s own endeavors with an un-spotted conscience. Nonetheless, he would keep a fatherly eye on the Irishman.

Sergeant Cribb arrived at the Hall early, conscious that there was much to do. Progress had been made, but it would have to be accelerated. Thackeray’s inquiries into the supplier of the poison might provide a lead, yet there was precious little time in which to follow it up. A false name was sure to have been used, and descriptions from shopkeepers were generally altogether too vague. The main possibility of progress was still in the Hall itself. All the suspects except Cora Darrell were there, committed to remain in the Hall until 10:30 p.m. on Saturday.

He had examined the case by every orthodox procedure: suspects, means and opportunity, and possible motives. The timing of the crimes, he knew, was fundamental, but it was complicated by the nature of Darrell’s death. The act of murder had been committed not when Darrell breathed his last, nor when he first collapsed, but at some time before he drank the “bracer” at 4 A.M. on Tuesday morning. Monk had made up the potion at his lodgings and brought it to the Hall with the other provisions on Sunday night. Some time in the next twenty-four hours the murderer had got into the tent, found the bottle and added the strychnine. If Monk were eliminated, as he had to be now, the possibility of the murderer adding the poison to the drink while Darrell was in the tent was remote. So it was probably done some time during Monday, when Monk and Darrell were occupied with the race.

Who had reasons for going into the tent? Darrell, Monk, Herriott—as promoter, Jacobson—as manager, Chadwick (possibly) as a fellow competitor

concerned about mutual facilities and Harvey for a similar reason. Cora, he knew from the newspapers, had been in the tent when she visited the Hall on Monday afternoon, but that was with Monk. Could she and Monk have arranged for her husband’s death between them; and would she later have battered Monk to fake the suicide? It was conceivable, for the trainer was already ina stupor and it would not need a powerful blow from one of those metal struts to see that he remained that way.

So up to five people could have entered the tent without being challenged. And then Cribb remembered. He delved thumb and forefinger into his fob and took out a crumpled piece of newspaper, the account of Monday’s events in the Hall. His thumbnail settled below a particular sentence.

The dressing and feeding accommodation of Chadwick and Darrell contains every appliance for their comfort and convenience; your columnist examined the latter’s commodious tent and considered it worthy of housing a campaigning monarch on some foreign field of battle.

Cribb winced. The entire sporting Press had to be added to the list of those who could have got into the tent. Abandoning the matter for the moment, he walked over to Chadwick’s tent.

The trainer looked up from a newspaper. He was having a late breakfast of kidneys refused by the Captain that morning.

“My name’s Cribb—Sergeant Cribb. You’ve probably seen me about the Hall these last few days. You look after Mr. Chadwick, don’t you?”

“That’s right. Point is, I need to interview him. Straighten out some facts, you know. When’s he coming off the track?”

Harvey was dubious. “He comes off at noon, for about twenty minutes, but he won’t welcome questions. He needs all the time for his lunch.”

“T understand. Shan’t keep him long. I’ll be here at twelve, then. Oh, and er—Mr. Harvey.”

“Once you’ ve dished up the tripe and onions, be a stout fellow and leave me alone with the guv’nor, will you? Confidential questions, you know.”

There was resentment in Harvey’s nod of acquiescence.

“Fact is, Captain Chadwick, I need your help.”

Cribb was sitting opposite the Champion, who was eating hungrily, avoiding the sergeant’s keen gaze.

“T need your help,” Cribb repeated. “Comes a point when you’ve tried every deuced line of inquiry you know, and nothing’s come out of it. So I ask

myself what’s to be done. And the answer comes back: get some help. Now you’ re aman of education and a military expert too. Strikes me that if anything untoward happened in this arena it wouldn’t pass your notice. I’m right, sir, aren’t I?”

Chadwick sniffed, and took a mouthful of cold chicken. Cribb’s persuasive sallies rarely sank without trace. He was floundering now.

“You’d have noticed the comings and goings at Darrell’s tent on Monday, for example?”

Another bite at the chicken leg.

Cribb persevered. “I believe the reporters were shown the living quarters, and later Mrs. Darrell came to see the tent.”

Silence again.

At last Captain Chadwick lifted his napkin to his lips and moustache, wiped them and tossed it aside.

“For your information—Sergeant’”—and he spoke the rank as though he were addressing a crossing-sweeper—‘I am not in the pay of the constabulary, and I feel myself under no obligation to act as their informant. If you wish me to answer questions, then kindly put them in a civil fashion, and not in these obsequious subterfuges.”

“Very well, sir. How many times have you raced against the late Charles Darrell?”

“None before this event.”

“You had not met him before Monday?”

“We met to sign articles last week. It is the custom in two-man races,” explained Chadwick, “and ours was a race within a race.”

“Did you have any communication with him before then?”

“Merely through the medium of the newspaper that usually arranges such events. He was not the class of man that I am accustomed to meeting with.”

“And your trainer?” Cribb continued. “Was he in touch with Darrell or his trainer?”

“J had Darrell watched, if that is what you mean,” answered Chadwick. “It is customary to study one’s adversaries at their training —though I hardly know why, for my own strategy is unalterable.”

“And Mr. Harvey gave you reports on Darrell’s showing at Hackney?” continued Cribb, ignoring the last remark. “Were they favourable?”

“He showed promise of being a worthy opponent for a few days, at least. He prepared himself quite thoroughly, I believe.”

“There was no arrangement between you and Darrell, or between the trainers, as to how the race should be conducted?”

Chadwick inhaled loudly and ominously. He did not like the implication in the question.

“Sergeant, I have no need of prior arrangements with pedestrians who challenge me. I am a serious athlete. However, I believe that my man Harvey mentioned an approach being made by Darrell’s trainer early on Tuesday morning. You will have to ask Harvey about that.”

“Ts that all then? I am at present trying to engage in a race, you know.”

“Two other questions, sir. Do you by any chance take any form of stimulant to aid your performance?”

“If you are asking whether I am in the practice of swallowing strychnine, the answer is no. The only chemical that you will find in the cupboard—and you may look if you wish—is a Seidlitz powder, which I imagine you may find a necessary aperient on occasions. What is your other question?”

“A personal one, sir. It’s important that I know the answer, though. If you win this race you take the prize of five hundred pounds. But as a man of fortune you’ll have staked some money on the result, I expect. How much will you collect on Saturday, sir?”

Chadwick was on the point of refusing to answer, but Cribb’s final sentence, with its dismissal of the threat from O’ Flaherty, was a disarming touch.

“TI don’t see how it affects your investigation. However, the answer is eleven thousand pounds.”

The method. It was useless trying to prevent the next murder without isolating a probable method. Poisoning and gassing had been used; they could not be discounted, but it was likelier that the murder would vary his style again. A stabbing? Unlikely: that was too crude and too immediate for this stamp of killer. His was the insidious approach. His crimes were open to interpretation as suicides, or accidents. He was no sledge-hammer maniac, as O’ Flaherty pictured him.

Mostyn-Smith had spent the morning devising, and dismissing, theories. They had so preoccupied him that he walked for six minutes longer than his schedule allowed, time that he could ill-afford. He had decided, in his thoughtful circumambulations, to sacrifice a portion of his next rest-period and examine O’Flaherty’s new hut. There, surely, was where the murderer would bait his trap. The Irishman had not left the track for lunch before one 0’ clock on any of the previous days, so it should be possible to make a careful inspection without being disturbed.

He permitted himself twenty minutes in his own hut, resting his legs and eating fruit and honey. This was not a rest-period when he planned to sleep.

By now he had decided that the method would have to be some form of poisoning, after all. Strychnine, of course, was unlikely, but there were so many alternative methods. It was essential to get into O’Flaherty’s hut and examine

everything that was consumable. His training in medicine had taught him that most known poisons were detectable, by smell or because they were not completely soluble. Any food or drink that appeared at all doubtful he would destroy. The Irishman might not thank him for doing it, but his conscience would at least be clear.

It was time. He wrapped the apple-peelings and core in paper that he kept for the purpose, straightened the bedding and left the hut. Then he dropped the refuse into a bin outside, noting that it had not been emptied for twenty-four hours. He walked to the back of the huts, towards the ablutions area, taking care that anyone watching would not guess at his intentions. When he was quite sure everything was quiet he moved round O’Flaherty’s hut towards the front. At the corner of the building he stopped short. The door was opening from the inside. And O’Flaherty was still on the track.

Mostyn-Smith backed out of sight. Furtively, the trespasser quit the hut, and moved away at speed towards the arena. There was no mistaking who it was.

Constable Thackeray found Cribb in the police office.

“Mind if I sit down, Sarge? I’ve been on my feet since six.”

“Good man,” said Cribb from a well-cushioned swivel-chair.

Thackeray decided not to press the matter of his fatigue. He had been tramping the London streets because the fog outside had slowed everything, trams, buses and cabs, to less than walking pace. Cribb would not be unsympathetic, but the temptation to make some comparison with the tramp going on inside the Hall would be irresistible. So Thackeray suffered his aching feet without any more comment.

“You’ve got the search organized for the chemist?” Cribb inquired.

“The order’s been passed round, Sarge. The operation should be fully under way by now. The fog won’t help us, though. It’s a job getting any sort of message through in this.”

“Quite so. How’d you get on at Highbury?”

“Now that’s really going to interest you,” said Thackeray confidently. “They was nice people. Honest folk, I’d judge, but they’d cover up for Mrs. D. if they thought she was in trouble.”

“You didn’t give ’em that impression, I hope.”

“] did not.” Thackeray was slightly affronted. “I established that she was with them yesterday afternoon, and then I inquired when they had seen her previous to that. They was both quite firm about it—man and wife, middleaged couple. They hadn’t seen Cora since the week before, on Thursday. It’s a weekly arrangement.”

“Is it, by Jove? Nice work! You asked about Monday evening?”

“Yes. They was at the Lyceum, watching Irving in some play about Venice.”

“She lied then. Why should she have done that? Wonder where she really got to that evening.”

CHAPTER 14

“Day and a half to go. Better spend lunch-time on the case.”

Cribb’s announcement at first depressed Thackeray, who did not usually fast on Fridays, or any other day. But he brightened when the proposal became clearer. They were to discuss their findings over battered fish in the Hall restaurant.

It was nearly two o’clock, so they had the room almost to themselves.

“Trouble with this lot,” said Cribb, “is the lies.” His usual staccato utterances were separated by periods of chewing. “Too many folk with things to hide.”

“Mrs. Darrell, you mean, Sarge?”

“Her, yes. And Monk, when he was alive.” He scooped more cod into his mouth. “Chadwick, too. Makes out he’s confident. Poor bastard’s terrified of losing to a scrubber.”

Thackeray took up the theme.

“Come to that, Herriott’s not all lavender. He grew a trifle warm when it looked like we’d have to call off the race, didn’t he?”

“Hm. There’s Jacobson as well. Halfway up Carey Street if my bookie friend’s right.” Cribb put down his fork. “Point is, Thackeray, can you call any of these a motive for two murders? You don’t think so? I don’t. We’ re looking for something else. Maybe someone else.”

“Possibly one of the runners, Sarge. That doctor bloke could get his hands on strychnine without being asked any questions.”

Cribb was dubious.

“What does he gain from killing off Darrell and Monk? Stands no chance of winning.”

“Ah,” said Thackeray, brandishing a knife authoritatively, “but who does now? O’Flaherty could very well beat Chadwick tomorrow. He’s been gaining for days. One thing I’ve noticed is that nobody takes more interest in that Irishman than the little doctor.”

“So Mostyn-Smith takes a cut from Paddy’s winnings? It’s plausible, Thackeray, it’s plausible. Far as I can discover, it was Mostyn-Smith that got the tetanus scare started.”

The constable nodded sagely. The more they considered it, the better his theory seemed.

“Two things don’t fit,” said Cribb. “If the Doc killed Monk why crack him on the head? Too crude for a medical man. And if it was O’ Flaherty that clonked him, why report the gas escape?”

“That’s the cunning of the Irish, Sarge.”

Cribb shook his head.

“Not for my money. Nothing deep about our Dublin friend. No, Thackeray. Time we finished with theories. Let’s stick to facts.”

The constable returned to his meal. If Cribb wanted to work with facts that was his business. But Thackeray was privately convinced that the same facts would lead them to his own two suspects.

“Take Darrell’s murder first,” Cribb went on. “We agree someone fixed the bracer after Monk brought it here. Must have got into the tent. Right. Tent’s in full view of everybody. Couldn’t be more central. So what time’s the best?”

“When there’s no crowd, Sarge.”

“Correct. Now, right from the start the Press are about. Crowd begins arriving at first light. Eyes on the tents all the time, you see. People come and go, too, looking in the tent. Herriott and the Press. Cora Darrell and Monk. When’s our poisoner going to get in there?”

Thackeray saw the point.

“He must have waited till near midnight, when the crowd had left, but while Darrell was still on the track. The light would be poorer then, too.”

“Fine. All he has to look out for is Monk. Now suppose Monk goes off for a drink. He liked his liquor. Our poisoner gets into the tent with time to do what he wants. Poor perishers on the track wouldn’t notice much. He can slip in when Darrell’s round the other side of the track.”

“That lets out Mrs. Darrell, don’t it?”

“Not really,” said Cribb. “But if she puts in the crystals it’s done in the afternoon. Monk has to be an accomplice. Motive’s there of course. Kill the old man and make off with your lover.”

“1’d have gone for that until Monk was killed,” reflected Thackeray. “But that changed everything. She wouldn’t want to fix Monk.”

“Except when she knew they’ d both swing for it,” said Cribb caustically. “I wouldn’t count her out yet.” He pushed away the now-empty plate. “Now let’s talk about Monk’s murder. When was he bashed, d’ you think?”

“Wednesday night—” Thackeray’s eyes widened in realization. “About midnight, Sarge. The same blinking time!”

Cribb received this observation with a patient nod.

“May be significant. May not. Now what I need to know—What’s that?”

Shouts were coming from the main Hall, shouts that were loud to penetrate to where they were. And these were not jeers or roars of encouragement. They were voices raised in alarm, and screams.

Cribb jerked to attention, and the chair behind him overturned with the vigour of his movement. He stood listening.

A voice in the Hall clearly called, “Get a doctor!”

The sergeant moved at an astonishing rate. He had cursed himself the day before for being out of the Hall when Monk was murdered. If another crime had been committed . . . He ran from the restaurant, and the door swung into Thackeray as he lumbered after.

The Hall was not very full, but it rang with shouts—of concern, anger, panic. The uproar was directed at a small group on the opposite side of the track. Dodging between passing competitors, Cribb sprinted across the centre, and forced his way through the close-packed officials.

Mostyn-Smith was kneeling by the jack-knifed body of O’ Flaherty, who lay groaning in obvious distress. Time-keepers, reporters and others leaned over them, demanding information, urging advice. Cribb acted decisively.

“Police!” he shouted in a voice that silenced even the Press. “Doctor, can this man be moved?”

Mostyn-Smith spoke without looking up.

“He is trying to speak. I cannot help him unless I can hear what he says. Will you all kindly go away?”

The request was futile, and Cribb realized it. Already the babel around O’Flaherty had restarted. The sergeant touched the arms of two burly officials.

“Help us get him to that tent.”

He yanked Mostyn-Smith to his feet and to one side as though he were a straying child. Then he stooped to O’ Flaherty and with the help of Thackeray and the others lifted him to the tent that Darrell had used when he was alive. When the still-groaning Irishman was deposited on the mattress inside, Cribb waved out the others and instructed Thackeray to stand guard.

“You can let the Doc in. No one else.”

Mostyn-Smith was admitted. His face was eloquent of affronted dignity, but his generous shorts over legs like lamp-standards rather undermined the effect. He ignored Cribb, and went to the patient. O’Flaherty was speaking:

“Couldn’t go on. My feet . . . burning. Can’t understand it. Never had trouble like this.”

Mostyn-Smith unlaced the boots, pulled off the socks, and examined the runner’s feet. They were red and swollen, but so were his own, as anyone’s would be after five days of walking.

“Do you have any additional pains? Are your muscles at all troublesome?”

“Not really. I’m stiff, but I expect to be. It’s the bloody feet. God in Heaven, what’s happening to them?”

Cribb was examining one of the discarded boots, feeling inside it.

“Got another pair of boots, have you?”

“Yes,” answered O’ Flaherty.

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“T think so.”

“Good. I’m no doctor but I’ll give you my advice. Soak your feet in salt water. Get on those other socks and boots, and double back to the track. You’ re losing all the ground you gained.”

“T must protest!”” Mostyn-Smith rounded on Cribb. “You have no authority whatsoever to override me in this way. I am a qualified practitioner and I intend to examine this man with the professional expertise—”

“Please yourself,” snapped Cribb. “I’ll save you both a bit of time if you take my advice. Look at this.”

He up-ended the boot that he was holding. A spray of sand-like grains flowed from it into his cupped right hand.

“There’s your irritant. You’ve been nobbled, my friend. Some party slipped this inside your boots.”

O’Flaherty sat up, suddenly rallied.

Cribb tipped some of the substance into the Irishman’s palm. He examined it, turning it over with his finger-tips.

“By Jesus! I know what this is!” blurted O’ Flaherty, suddenly on his feet.

“Sit down, man!” ordered Cribb, pushing him in the chest, so that he sank back on to the bed. “You’ll still have some embedded in your soles.”

“Crushed walnut shells!” exclaimed the disgusted pedestrian. “The oldest bloody trick going, and I fell for it. Who would have done this?”

“Anyone who didn’t want you to win,” Cribb answered drily.

Mostyn-Smith was suddenly too interested to continue his display of pique.

“May I see this? You say that it is manufactured by crushing walnut shells?”

As Mostyn-Smith peered at the tiny fragments which had been handed over, O’Flaherty jerked at Thackeray’s sleeve.

ANDY YELENAK,

“Do me a favour, bobby. Ask one of those reporters to bring me a bucket of water. I’ve got to get back.”

Cribb nodded his approval of this arrangement.

“If the doctor doesn’t mind?”

“No, no,” concurred Mostyn-Smith. “Please carry on. This abrasive is unquestionably responsible for your collapse, O’ Flaherty.”

The Irishman treated the diagnosis with contempt. He was preoccupied in extracting minute chips of shell from his inflamed soles. But at Cribb’s voice he looked up.

“When did you put these boots on?”

“One o’clock. I had a bite, and changed my footgear. I keep a spare pair, you see.”

“You don’t share a hut now, do you?”

“No. I’ve one to myself.”

“Anyone else been in there?”

“Tf I found anyone there, I’d—” His eyes lighted on Mostyn-Smith. “You were there! You came into my hut, waking me up this morning. This is the bloody man, Sergeant! Take him away and lock him up! Saints in Heaven, I’ve been sleeping with a murderer!”

“One moment,” began Mostyn-Smith. “I can assure—”

“Take a look at that portmanteau in his hut!” O’Flaherty continued. “It’s stuffed full of bottles and boxes. Strychnine you’re looking for? It’s there, I’ll stake my soul on it! Take him away, Sergeant. No man’s safe while he’s at liberty!”

Thackeray’s eyes were gaping at this tirade. If the Irishman’s accusations were true, then his own suspicions about Mostyn-Smith were justified. But his theory had not included an attempt to cripple O’ Flaherty.

Cribb addressed Mostyn-Smith.

“Is this right? Did you go to this man’s hut this morning?”

Mostyn-Smith’s indignation was such that he found difficulty in expressing himself.

“I did—that is to say—Sergeant—you cannot believe—”

“What did you want with Mr. O’Flaherty, sir?”

He took a deep breath, visibly taking control of his emotions. “I felt that it was my duty to warn him of possible dangers. He is not a percipient individual, Sergeant—”

“You—” O’Flaherty made a grab for Mostyn-Smith which Cribb sharply repulsed with a downward thrust of his arm.

Distraction was provided at that moment. Thackeray took in the bucket of water from outside. It was placed in front of O’ Flaherty and he sulkily planted a foot inside it, and began massaging the toes under the water.

Mostyn-Smith resumed his explanation.

“T felt obliged to warn him of the dangers to which he was exposed, as the only possible rival to Captain Chadwick. I reasoned that whoever had killed poor Darrell would not balk at murdering anyone else who threatened to overtake the Captain. I therefore approached this—man to acquaint him with my fears. I roused him before four o’clock and we conversed about the matter.”

Cribb turned to O’ Flaherty.

“Ts this true?”

O’Flaherty nodded morosely. Cribb turned back to Mostyn-Smith.

“You didn’t touch the boots?”

“T do not even remember seeing them.”

“And you didn’t go into the hut again, after Mr. O’ Flaherty had left for the track?”

There was the slightest hesitation before he answered firmly, “I did not.”

Cribb did not let it pass.

“You planned to go there?”

“Yes—to check that nobody had tampered with his food and drink, but I changed my mind.”

Another pause.

“Tt might have seemed like trespassing.”

Cribb turned to another point.

“T thought you would want to know about that. I freely admit that it contains a number of bottles, phials, and boxes of pills. These are my personal needs, Sergeant. You may certainly have them analysed if you wish, but I must warn you that if you choose to take them away from me at this stage I shall require substantial compensation.”

Cribb was puzzled.

“T don’t follow you.”

The little man took on a superior air.

“That is understandable, Sergeant. My appearance in this endurance contest has been much commented on in the popular journals. People are curious to know why an educated person should engage in a pedestrian contest against the dubious fraternity who make a living out of such affairs. I make no claims to athletic prowess. Before last August I had not walked more than five miles at one stretch in my life. You see, Sergeant, I am interested in physiological research. You might say that my participation is in the nature of an experiment.”

“What are you proving?” asked Cribb sceptically.

“Ah! That is the explanation of my portmanteau. Inside it are more than fifty healthful foods and drinks of my own concoction. They, with an occasional fruit, are all that I consume on my journey. They banish the effect of fatigue entirely, by nourishing the system, recharging the natural—”

“And you plan to sell them under an advertisement of yourself in runningcostume,” Cribb broke in, cutting short the explanation. “Neat idea, if you do any good in the race.”

“T shall, if I am permitted to continue,” said Mostyn-Smith.

“And you shall!” announced Cribb, to O’ Flaherty’s undisguised fury. “I’ll take a look at these bottles, if you don’t object, but we’ Il leave them in your hut. A piece of advice, though. Say nothing about the walnut shells. Keep away from this man, and if you have any suspicions tell ’em to us.”

“T shall indeed,” Mostyn-Smith readily pledged. He delved into his shorts and from somewhere produced a gold watch. “I have lost some twenty-five minutes. May I now return to the track?”

Cribb gave his assent, and the doctor-detective pocketed the watch and scuttled like the March Hare through the flap that Thackeray held open.

“That’s a murderer!” O’ Flaherty blurted out. “He tried to poison me—”

“You didn’t say that,” snapped Cribb. “Did he give you any food or drink?”

“Did he warn you of possible danger?”

“Hold your tongue, then!” snapped Cribb. “You’ll need all the strength you ve got left to catch Chadwick. Thackeray, fetch his spare boots and socks. They’re lying somewhere in the hut, are they? We’ll check them before he puts ’em on. And for God’s sake, O’ Flaherty, take care what you eat and drink.”

As Thackeray left there was a general move from the bystanders to gain admittance. Cribb stood squarely at the entrance and addressed them.

“If you’ll be silent, gentlemen? Thank you. Mr. O’Flaherty will shortly return to the track. He stopped because his feet were inflamed. They’ ve now been soaked and he’s in better shape. In justice, gentlemen, let him get back to the track as soon as possible. He hasn’t the time to answer questions.”

The bubble had been pricked. In disappointment, the reporters began to disperse. Several hopefully questioned Cribb on the murder, but he declined to comment. Inside the tent O’Flaherty hastily prepared to set off again after Chadwick. Thackeray soon returned with the boots and socks and without more words being spoken the Stag put them on and quit the tent.

“Probably scotched any chance he had,” commented Cribb, as they watched him set off again. “Walnut shells! We’ ve picked up a wrinkle or two these last few days.”

“He’ll never catch Chadwick now,” agreed Thackeray. “Been going like a three year old this last hour. They might as well hand him the prize tonight, and then everyone could get home for a decent sleep.”

“Leaving us without our killer,” Cribb added sardonically.

“Do you reckon the walnut-shell merchant is the same one?” asked Thackeray.

“Could be. It lets out Cora Darrell if that’s the case. She’s not been in here since the night Monk was killed. May be a false trail, though. Mustn’t lose sight of the real matter—the killings.”

“Don’t you think it’s worth finding out who nobbled O’ Flaherty, Sarge?”

Cribb breathed out noisily in some impatience.

“T thought I’d made it clear. We’ re on the look-out for a killer. Not a bloody fixer of races. If it turns out to be the same party, that’s fine. But I’m not cutting into a murder inquiry to chase a nut-cracking oddboy. Understand?”

Thackeray understood. None the less he was personally convinced that there was a better chance of clearing up the main case if they could solve this lesser mystery. Sergeant Cribb was well known for the number of successful inquiries he had conducted, yet there had been occasions when he had acted precipitately. But for these blemishes on an impressive record he might have risen higher by now . . . Mindful of his own rank, Thackeray kept his thoughts to himself.

The detectives walked back towards the track in silence. Thackeray had needled Cribb. He knew that nothing he said would help matters until the mood passed. Cribb, in turn, was laconic; not because he was studying Thackeray. He was mentally re-examining each suspect, searching for the motive he felt certain was waiting to be detected.

The silence was disturbed by a third person. As they waited indecisively at the track edge, watching O’ Flaherty’s new display of energy, Mostyn-Smith reappeared a little breathlessly at their side.

“You will forgive me, gentlemen? There is something else that I should tell you. I hesitated about mentioning the matter when our Irish friend was present, because I seriously feared that he might be incited to violence.”

He peered about him, ensuring that he could not be overheard. As they were inside the ropes at the end of the track farthest from the timekeepers there was no fear of eavesdroppers.

“Tbelieve that I know who tampered with O’ Flaherty’s boots,” he muttered confidentially. “At about midday—or twenty-seven minutes past to be specific—I approached his hut with a view to checking that his food and drink had not been poisoned. I had deduced that the murderer would attack O’Flaherty next, you understand, and it seemed to me obvious that he would employ some form of poisoning again. I approached the hut from the rear, and as I turned from the side of the building I saw someone come out of the hut, and move quickly away to the track.”

“You recognized him?”

“Most certainly. It was that trainer-fellow who works for Captain Chadwick.” “Harvey?” “That’s correct. He is plainly the perpetrator of these crimes.” Part VIII of Wobble to Death will appear in the March/April 2001 issue. © 1970 by Peter Lovesey. Reprinted with permission of the author and Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents, Inc. Andy Yelenak’s drawings on page 129 and 140, respectively, were created for this reprinting.

19th Annual

Kilauea Volcario WHACIHESS RYUS

Saturday, July 28, 2001 Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, Island of Hawai’i

Kilauea Volcano Wilderness Marathon—ranked #10 on Marathon & Beyond’’s “Top 26 Marathons in North America”

10-Mile Rim Run 5-Mile Caldera Run

5-Mile Caldera Walk (non-competitive)

Makoa and the Mullet

“Run over the lava flows and through the rainforest of the world’s most active volcano.” Sponsored by Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park and the Volcano Art Center

For entry information, write to

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Marathon September 8, 2001 “The most fun you can have ina marathon.”

Run through 59 vineyards of Bordeaux in the most famous wine region in the world. Wine (and water) is served at every mile and 75% of the 8,500 runners will be outfitted in the wildest costumes imaginable. Don’t miss it!!

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Yukon River Trail Marathon

Struggle Where the Stampeders Struggled—But Leave All Hopes of a PR at Home.

HERE ARE many locations where the dreams of a Klondike | Gold Rush stampeder in 1896 might have been crushed: on the repeated hauls up to Chilkoot Pass coming out of Skagway, Alaska; on Lake Bennett constructing a boat from raw materials; or maneuvering that jerryrigged boat or raft through Miles Canyon just above Whitehorse rapids, all your worldly possessions lashed down, the crashing water soaking your goods and your spirit. Ss At the Yukon River | Trail Marathon, that disheartening moment can come at any of a dozen locations: along the crumbling cliffside between Miles Canyon Road and the Yukon River, along the cliff face above Canyon City (the handouts warn, Extreme Caution: some steep dropoffs to river; keep your eyes on the terrain and not the scenery), or above the boat launch ramp.

Yukon River Trail Marathon c/o Valhalla Pure

210B Main St.

Whitehorse, Yukon, Y1A 2B2 Canada

WEB SITE: www.yukonmarathon.com E-MAIL: run@yukonmarathon.com RACE DIRECTOR: Rick Janowicz YEAR RACE ESTABLISHED: 1999

START TIMES: Marathon: 8:30 a.m. Half-marathon: 10 a.m. Marathon relay(s): 9:15 a.m.

COURSE RECORD HOLDERS Marathon male: Ryan Leef, 2:56 (2000) Marathon female: Shelly Johnson, 3:36 (2000) Half-marathon male: Stephen Waterreus, 1:24 (2000)

Half-marathon female: | Tamara Goeppel, 1:37 (2000) NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS: 58 MARATHON FINISHERS IN 2000: 35 (24 males, 11 females) 258 total participants in all events COURSE MARKINGS: _ trails flagged; kms marked at 5km intervals; caution signs as required NUMBER OF AID STATIONS: 8 FUTURE RACE DATES: O5AUG01, 04AUGO2, 03AUG03 ENTRY COST FOR 2001: $35US prior to June 4; $45US until Aug. 4 CARBO-LOADING: None planned; there are plenty of pasta restaurants in town

AREA HOTELS: River View Hotel is the official race hotel: 867/6677801, fax: 867/668-6075. If they’re full, contact the City of Whitehorse at 867/668-TOUR or check out www.whitehorseinfo.com.

GETTING THERE: It’s a long drive from just about anywhere, but Whitehorse sits directly on the Alaska Highway (formerly known as the AlCan Highway), and the roads are kept in very good condition. Canadian

Airlines and Canada 3000 serve Whitehorse (also Bal Air and Condor from Europe); the airport perches just above the city, and its runways are long enough to handle a 747, although they seldom do.

Oh, yes. A spot on the course just beyond the boat launch ramp might best sum up the Yukon River Trail Marathon: there’s a steep, sandy hill up which the runners must “run” (read: crawl on hands and knees), but nature left behind a little prank—embedded in the sandy gravel are round stones of all sizes ground by the retreating glaciers. Ranging from the size of golf balls to the size of bowling balls, these stones work like ball bearings to deposit climbing runners back to the bottom of the hill.

Ah, the rise of “trail marathons” —races with a sense of puckishness, adventure, magnificent scenery you can’t afford the time to fully appreciate, and of course a guarantee that you won’truna fast time. Trail marathons take marathon running back to its roots. Pheidippides, after all, didn’t run on asphalt highways between Marathon and Athens. Neither did the King’s Messengers in Hawaii, the message carriers between monasteries in the Himalayas, the African messengers carrying their mail wedged into the crook of a stick, or the message carriers in the Andes who chewed up a few coca leaves before leaving on their missions. Nope, these guys didn’t pussyfoot over a few sticks and rocks, cursing at the gravel. They hurdled and meandered over miles of

wild terrain, never knowing what may lay ahead. Suchrunners might be prepared for the Yukon River Trail Marathon—sponsored by the Valhalla Pure outdoor gear store—a race with a wild and woolly history that sticks like mud to every step you take. It also has that old-fashioned, down-home kind of feel that races used to have before running was discovered by the masses.

KLONDIKE HISTORY

Let’s start with the history. Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, is only now celebrating its 50th anniversary as a city. It is the largest city in the Yukon Territory and the territorial capital, a distinction it wrested from Dawson City, 330 miles to the north. Whitehorse—so named because its river rapids resemble the flowing manes of a herd of white horses—existed in the late 19th century as a bend in the Yukon River where you could catch your breath after running Miles Canyon and the Whitehorse Rapids on your way to the Klondike Gold Rush just outside Dawson. It’s the point, once the rush got underway, where sternwheelers coming up the river would tie up because they weren’t about to wrestle with the dangers of Miles Canyon.

YUKON RIVER TRAIL MARATHON ® 149

Must See/Must Av

ss. Klondike. One of the city’s lendnete the S. . Klondike is. easy to find. __ lt seems every town in the Yukon was given a sternwheeler when the river trade gave way to the highway and railway. The folks in Mayo claim they

should have been given the Klondike because it came to their town more

often than it came to Whitehorse (ane’er-do-well in Carcross burned down ~ their sternwheeler). And at Dawson, they’re working on rebuilding theirs

(the S.S. Keno), but Whitehorse is way ahead in restori ng the Klondike to its

original 1937-40 appearance. Even though they are taking their time and

rebuilding it the same way the boats were originally built, you can still take

a tour for a nominal fee. The boat is extremely impressive, especially when

you realize that at their height, some 250 of the sternwheelers plied the

Yukon River. The Klondike was the largest and most modern: 210 feet long,

42 feet wide, and 1,362.5 tons, with a draft of only 40 inches.

The MacBride Museum is at First Avenue and Wood Street in Whitehorse and can be reached at 867/667-2709 or www.macbridemuseum.com. Like most museums, the MacBride has a rotating exhibit; when we were there they featured the history of bicycles. But most of the museum is given over to what you’d expect: natural history, geology, the Gold Rush, the NW Mounted Police, native cultures, and so on. The main room features stuffed versions of every animal that roams the Yukon; the grizzlies are especially impressive. Don’t miss the downstairs, where the Gold Rush and gold mining is given the long shift. Especially fascinating are the dozens of gold samples that make it clear that gold from a distinct region is distinctly wrought. Our favorite indoor exhibit is downstairs, where a diorama of the Mounties guarding the Chilkoot Pass brings it all to life (although how they kept their uniforms so spotless under such conditions is hard to understand!). Our favorite outdoor exhibit at the museum was Sam Magee’s Cabin, where every several hours one of the guides tells the story of Sam Magee, made famous by Robert Service’s poem, “The Cremation of Sam Magee.” The real Sam Magee was a resident of Whitehorse whom Service met while Service was pursuing his bank job. Service liked Sam’s name and asked to borrow it for his poem. If you get through a visit to the Yukon without hearing “The Cremation of Sam Magee” at least once, they might build a museum to you.

animals crossed back and forth between Asia and North America via a land bridge exposed when enough ocean water was tied up in glaciers that the sea level dropped. Very good dioramas, a graphic video presentation, and knowledgeable guides make it a worthwhile visit for fans of National Geographic, The Learning Channel, The History Channel, The Smithsonian, and the like. Right next door is the Yukon Transportation Museum; buy a ticket to visit both and get a discount.

Skagway, Alaska (www.skagway.org). If you’re going to be in Whitehorse, tack on a week orso to range far and wide to see the historic sights. Skagway is 110scenically stunning miles southwest of Whitehorse; the road to Skagway, in fact, is the route of the Klondike Road Relay (held in September; see Marathon & Beyond, Nov/Dec 2000), and features some breathtaking mountains and lakes. Be prepared to be shocked when you reach Skagway, though. The town of less than 1,000 year-round residents expands enormously in the summer, when dozens of cruise ships dock (just where the stampeders did) and completely overwhelm the town. Take a side trip one mile up the river to visit the graveyard of the Gold Rush era stampeders, including the infamous “Soapy” Smith. Take a trip up the White Pass on the famed White Pass & Yukon Route railroad and marvel at how the laborers dug and blasted this railroad into a mountain pass that just a few years earlier was being climbed on foot only.

Dawson City, Yukon Territory (www. Dawson City.com). Although it’s 330 miles north of Whitehorse, Dawson City was the heart of the Klondike Gold Rush and is worth a visit—in the summer. Although it has only 800 yearround residents, the town is hopping in the summer. Worth seeing while you’re there: the Jack London Cabin, the Robert Service Cabin, the Dawson City Museum, Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall, and Bombay Peggy’s Victorian Inn & Lounge, which is now a respectable watering hole but was originally a house of ill repute. Also, if your historical sensibilities lean toward historical outrage, take the ferry (it’s free) across the river, walk down through the campground, and visit the graveyard of seven of the sternwheeler riverboats which, when they were usurped by highways and railroad, were run aground and left to rot.

AVOID IT Even though we didn’t have a car, we were warned a half-dozen times by Whitehorse residents not to leave our car parked in an out-of-the-way place. Apparently there is a lot of car theft where the cars are taken for a joyride, then abandoned or burned in the woods. (To be fair, right before our visit there was a string of thefts, so the locals were more concerned then normal.

Stampeders had three choices when they reached Miles Canyon: pole theirhomemade boat or raft down the canyon and hope for the best; find someone who knew boats and could steer the boat down for you; or unload at Canyon City and pay to have your goods hauled along a “railroad” that used horse drawn carts on rails made of long, thin trees.

Stampeders used to line both sides of Miles Canyon to watch the boats and rafts attempt to negotiate the rapids. People frequently drowned. During his expedition to the Klondike gold fields, Jack London poled his boat down the Miles Canyon rapids with little trouble—perhaps because he’d had experience sailing leaky boats on the troublesome San Francisco Bay.

Today a suspension bridge (the Robert E. Lowe footbridge) crosses Miles Canyon. On the far side of the bridge is the first aid station for the Yukon River Trail Marathon. The bridge is also the first and third relay exchange points. Besides the marathon (8:30 a..), the race also offers a half-marathon (10 A.m.), and a fourperson relay marathon (9:15 a.m.). Local hotshoe Ryan Leef won the 2000 edition of the marathon in an amazing 2:56, bettering his 1999 time by 18 minutes on a slightly different

course configuration (the race coordinators missed a couple hills in 1999). While his time no doubt benefited from the cooler temperatures compared to the very hot conditions runners experienced in 1999, it was still a very impressive performance. The men’s four-runner relay, for example, was won in 3:10.

THE COURSE

The course begins and ends at Rotary Park in downtown Whitehorse, close to the river. It runs out past the S.S. Klondike—a sternwheeler being restored on land along the river—and along a bike path that features the river on the left and Robert Service Way on the right. (If you spend any time in the Yukon, you’re going to hear Robert Service’s poems like “The Cremation of Sam Magee.” There was an actual Sam Magee, whose cabin is preserved in Whitehorse, but he wasn’t cremated. Service just liked the name and borrowed it to apply to a unique cremation.) The course then takes Schwatka Lake Road along the side of Schwatka Lake, formed when Yukon Energy built a dam to generate power for Whitehorse and beyond. The formation of the lake also served

Robert E. Lowe footbridge

Chadburn Lake Chadden Lake

RIVERDALE

Course Map

Distance (km)

Elevation Profile

to tame the Whitehorse rapids. The course soon leaves asphalt behind and traverses a steep “slide” above the river. It’s single file here, and a misstep means sliding down for a dunk in the chilly river water 40 feet below. Oncerunners negotiate the “slide” section, they run down a short, steep woodland trail to cross the suspension bridge to the first aid station. After fueling up, runners embark upon atrail that runs above the Yukon River to

the historical site of Canyon City (where goods used to be loaded on the rail carts run on wooden rails), where they must negotiate the steep river trail. Most runners agree this stretch is the most frightening part of the course. The course then cuts inland away from the river to Chadburn Lake’s picnic shelter and another aid station. The trail here features several hills and plenty of downed logs for runners to leap or vault over.

YUKON RIVER TRAIL MARATHON M153

YOU SAY YOU WANT HILLS?

The course then cuts over to and circles Chadden Lake before climbing a sizable hill and rolling ahead to another big hill, at the top of which is the second aid station. Next come what the course directions describe as “undulating” hills; then runners make a hard right uphill to the Blue ski trail—one of the many crosscountry skiing trails cut through the woods on the north side of the Yukon River. The trail crosses Chadburn Lake Road and eventually leads runners back to the Miles Canyon aid station, which is also the third relay exchange point. (The second exchange point is back at the Chadburn Lake picnic shelter.)

Now come the real hills, and the mosquitoes. The course runs along the east shore of Schwatka Lake, past the boat launch ramp, and up what

the course description calls “a big gravelly hill.” (Yup, it sure is.) Once up the hill, runners negotiate a ridge trail overlooking the lake, then turn north again across Chadburn Lake Road for a loop of Hidden Lakes, which are very marshy and ideal breeding grounds for bugs. If you’re moving fast enough, the mosquitoes don’t bother chasing you, as they have enough stationary fishermen to bite. The course then climbs what’s known as Heartbreak Hill, named after the famed Boston Marathon hill, but the Yukon version is much steeper. Unfortunately, this isn’t the final hill. The course drops to an aid station at Chadburn Lake Road, crosses the road, and ascends again, crossing a ridge with an excellent view of the Whitehorse Rapids Dam. The course then drops to the dam’s fish ladder and fish-counting station, before running along the river to the Robert Campbell Bridge, which it crosses,

before ending in Rotary Park, exactly where it started.

AFTER THE RACE

Although rain was falling in the second half of the 2000 run, and most folks didn’t hang around too long after finishing, the race committee puts on a nice snack feed at the park for those who want to refuel.

Inseveral races these days, the prerace pasta feed is giving way to a gettogether after the race is over. So it is with the Yukon River Trail Marathon. One of the race’s sponsors, the River View Hotel (First Avenue and Wood Street), hosts a wonderful postrace feed at 5 p.m., which leads into the awards ceremony. Because rain is a possibility, several tents are set up. The grub is nothing fancy (hotdogs, real and veggie burgers, potato salad, green salad, etc.) but it tastes good, and you can wash it down with a local brew (Arctic Red, Yukon Gold, or Chilkoot), the first round of which is free with your entry. Deep in Canada’s north (residents of Whitehorse refer to any place south of the territory of the Yukon as “outside”), the stereotype of the beer-drinking Canadian guy (and gal) is kept alive.

The awards ceremony is held after the grub is disposed of, and besides regular awards, a truckload of door prizes and booby prizes are distributed. Nearly everyone gets something, and most people stayed around to see the finish of the ceremonies. In fact, in spite of evening rain and wind that shook the tents, everyone inside just kept on having a good time. Perhaps their memories of winter and the resulting cabin fever reminded them to have as good a time as they could for as long as they could. It also helps that at this high latitude, in August it is still light until well past 10 p.m.

We want to mention two pleasant surprises. One was the entry price of $30 U.S. (ifreceived by mid-May for the early August race). What do you get for your 30 bucks? Along with a memorable course, plenty of aid along the way, snacks in the park after the race, and the postrace party, runners also receive a jacket! (In 1999, the clothing item was a fleece vest.) We don’t see how they do it but sincerely hope they can keep offering one of the best values per dollar in running. (We understand that the price will increase a modest $5 U.S. for the 2001 event.)

And, if all that isn’t enough, the race committee puts a survey sheet in each bag, asking participants to rate the race and suggest ways to better it. Let’s see… remove some of the round rocks on the sandy hill by the boat ramp? Nah—forget it. As is true of so many obstacles and impediments, once you get past them, you’re kind

of glad they were there. PY.

YUKON RIVER TRAIL MARATHON @ = 155

The Bottom Line

We have weighed various aspects of a marathon within a 1,000-point scoring grid. Besides the author of the article, two dozen runners at the race were randomly chosen to score the race for us (YRTM = Yukon River Trail Marathon). The results follow:

1. HISTORY/TRADITION Evaluate the race’s sense of history and tradition. [Possible points: 30 YRTM score: 25]

2. ENTRY FORM Is the race entry form clear, concise, attractive, complete, and easy to fill out? [Possible points: 20 YRTM score: 20]

3. ENTRY COST

For most races, the entry fee covers between 30 and 50 percent of the cost of putting on the event. Rate the value of your dollar relative to this race. [Possible points: 30 YRTM score: 30]

Is the race held in an area that is easy to get to and scenic, and offers adequate food and housing services and nonrace activities for family and friends?

[Possible points: 50 YRTM score: 50]

5. REGISTRATION Is registration well organized and efficient? Does it bog down unnecessarily? [Possible points: 20 YRTM score: 20]

6. PRERACE ACTIVITIES

Evaluate activities such as pasta feeds, parties, ne so on, _ during the days before the race.

[Possible points: 50 YRTM score: 30]

7. EXPO

Does the expo offer a fair number and variety of booths relative to the race’s size? Are there quality exhibitors and good guest speakers?

[Possible points: 50 YRTM score: 20]

8. COURSE

Take into consideration the following: degree of difficulty, certified, sanctioned, quality of road or trail surface, adequate mileage and directional markers, aid stations, medical coverage, race communications, accessibility to course for friends and family, typical weather, and so on.

[Possible points: 400 YRTM score: 355]

9. RACE AMENITIES :

This category includes race T-shirt, finisher’s medal, finisher’s certificate, adequate and efficient finish area, ease of sweatbag retrieval, showers, postrace refreshments, awards ceremony, raffles, results postcard, results book, and so on. :

[Possible points: 250 YRTM score: 225]

10. VOLUNTEERS Are the volunteers experienced and adequate in number? [Possible points: 100 YRTM score: 95]

TOTAL SCORE FOR YUKON RIVER TRAIL MARATHON 870 points :

The Rest of the Pack

Below, listed alphabetically, are other marathons profiled in Marathon & Beyond, the volume and issue number in which each race’s profile appeared, and the overall score each race received.

Aspen Fila Skymarathon (vol. 4, issue 1) 863 points Atlanta Marathon (vol. 4, issue 5) 840 points Calgary Marathon (vol. 3, issue 2) 876 points Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon (vol. 3, issue 6) 901 poin Dallas White Rock Marathon (vol. 4, issue 6) 856 poin Edmonton Marathon (vol. 2, issue 2) 814 poin Fox Cities Marathon (vol. 3, issue 4) 865 poin Governor’s Cup Ghost Town Marathon (vol. 2, issue 1) 795 poin Grandma’s Marathon (vol. 3, issue 1) 968 poin Honolulu Marathon (vol. 2, issue 4) 906 poin Humboldt Redwoods Marathon (vol. 2, issue 3) 809 poin Key Bank Vermont City Marathon (vol. 4, issue 2) 888 poin Las Vegas International Marathon (vol. 1, issue 5) 789 poin Philadelphia Marathon (vol. 1, issue 4) 838 poin Pittsburgh Marathon (vol. 1, issue 6) i Portland Marathon (vol. 3, issue 3)

Quad Cities Marathon (vol. 4, issue 3)

San Francisco Marathon (vol. 1, issue 2) 804 poin Santa Clarita Marathon (vol. 4, issue 4) 866 poin Shamrock Sportsfest Marathon (vol. 2, issue 6) 866 poin Steamtown Marathon (vol. 3, issue 5) 892 poin Sutter Home Napa Valley Marathon (vol. 2, issue 5) 913 poin Vancouver International Marathon (vol. 1, issue 1) 823 poin Wineglass Marathon (vol. 1, issue 3) 839 points

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CLOTHING FOR ACTIVE WOMEN

) Sunday May 6, 2001

Humboldt Redwoods _ State Park in North Western California

Course is on paved roads, mostly flat with a gentle elevation change of only 100 feet total.

Race location is 250 miles north of San Francisco, 50 miles south of Eureka. USATE&E certified & sanctioned course and a qualifier for Boston Marathon. For more information and an entry form send a self-addressed, stamped business-size envelope to: Six Rivers Running Club, 281 Hidden Valley Road, Bayside, CA 95524.

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Letters

AVERY PLAN IN ACTION

Isubscribed to your publication to get exactly what you offered in your “Marathon Training: More from Less” series by Guy Avery. First of all, thank you. The information was invaluable while I was training for my third marathon. While preparing for my first two marathons, I noted in my runner’s log that my legs were very tired by the time I reached the taper phase. I remember being at the start of both of those marathons thinking that my legs did not have the “spring” I thought they should have. So the timing of the series was perfect for me, because I realized (the hard way, of course) that I needed more rest or something different in my training. For the first marathon, I trained six days a week; for the second, five days a week. After reading the Avery program, I chose Level 1, which trained four days per week for 22 weeks.

During the 22-week program, I did not miss one workout, which was not true in my previous training. I feel the added rest allowed me to accomplish this. The hill training and cruise repeats were not only helpful but fun, but the most valuable part of the program was the marathon goal pace runs, particularly the longer runs during the taper phase. These runs gave me tremendous confidence prior to the race. Standing at the start of my third marathon I realized how much better my legs felt. The race went exactly as planned until mile 22 when my pace faltered a bit. I was on my way to a 10minute PR, and even with the blip at mile 22 I hung on for a 7-minute PR. I am no elite runner, but I was proud and pleased with my time. It showed me that training smarter makes a tremendous difference. Thank you again for the great training series. Todd Pieper Prairie du Sac, Wisc.

SAVING GRACES

Inasometimes frantic life, running is a saving grace. Now, reading about running is too. My only regret is that M&B comes just every two months. I read it cover to cover immediately. So, I’ve ordered back issues to help me get through the wait for the next new issue. I ordered the back issues to read more about Guy Avery’s training plan, but I also enjoy all of the personal accounts of other runners’ experiences. You give ahealthy range ofrunning experiences—from people I can relate to, to people I can aspire to. One more thing: don’t give up the historical material. I find it fascinating, and it makes me feel like I’m part of something that is more historically established than I ever realized. Daniel Sherman Brooktondale, N.Y.

BOOK BONUS RIGHT ON!

I take exception to the complaints about your book bonus. I very much enjoyed the history of the six-day races that you published in 1997, had no trouble reading Clarence DeMar’s autobiography, and turn to Wobble to Death right away when a new issue shows up in my mailbox. This glimpse into the storied past of running makes Marathon & Beyond unique. I commend you for taking the less beaten path towards our sport. Jeff Gould Westminster, Mass.

QUESTIONS FOR THE DOCTOR

Many thanks for publishing “Recovering From Boston” by Steven Palladino, DPM, in your March/April issue. His placing “downhill running” at the top of his list of injury risk factors is right on, in my opinion, especially when combined with intensity (speed). And he confirmed my long held belief that marathon running deals a “physiological hit to the immune system,” and, therefore, one needs to apply common sense after running a marathon about nutrition (replacing depleted vitamins, minerals, etc.) and sleep! His cautioning

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about running almost exclusively on just one side of the road, thereby minimizing the chances of certain injuries brought on by a right or left slope, now seems so obvious.

I would appreciate Dr. Palladino’s comments on a handful of other syndromes he did not mention, and which, in my opinion, are fairly common. These syndromes include pain in either hip-flexor muscle group, pain in one of the ligaments where the muscles attach to the outer hip, pain along one of the inner thigh muscle groups, and knee swelling. In my case, I have “worked through” most of these problems, and several of the other syndromes on his list, with rest, over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications, some stretching, and with “intelligent strength training.” I have been doing (total body) strength training three times a week for years with a personal trainer. Whenever one of these syndrome “dings” develop, as Dr. Palladino so nicely calls them, my trainer and I gradually introduce one or two exercises designed to streng then the muscles in the area around the “ding.” In the few cases where the “ding” never quite clears up, I usually see my doctor. I’m hopeful Dr. Palladino confirms this strategy.

Tim Richards Lancaster, Mass.

On THE Mark

I’M 44 YEARS old and have been running for two years. I’ve completed eight marathons and in each one I have cramped up in my hamstrings, usually between miles 16 and 24. [follow sound training programs with long runs, tempo runs, and speed days, and I take one day off a week. I feel I set realistic goals for myself. Then I go to the marathon, run relaxed, sticking to my training pace—and boom: I cramp up. I hydrate well during my marathons and take my carbos. I follow a good healthy diet. I never cramp up during training. I have run 20-mile workouts and tempo runs and do 800-meter speedwork sessions before marathons. My best time is 3:32, but I feel that I am in condition to run much faster if I could keep from cramping. Any suggestions? Mark Moore Clearwater, Kansas

THE TRADITIONAL explanation for exercise-associated muscle cramps is that a disturbed electrolyte balance, as a result of heat or dehydration, causes the muscle to contract involuntarily. However, this explanation has been challenged because the scientific evidence does not consistently support the theory. An alternative theory is that cramping occurs as a result of fatigue of the muscle spindle

and golgi tendon organs. These are tiny structures within muscle fibers that regulate muscle length and tension. As the muscle fatigues, the spindles and golgi tendon organs lose their ability to regulate muscle length and tension, and the muscles go into a cramp. The fact that the cramp is reduced by stretching the affected muscle supports this theory, as stretching activates the spindles and golgi tendon organs and stimulates them to resume their control on muscle tension.

A study of over 1,300 marathoners showed that the risk factors for cramping include older age, longer running history, shorter daily stretching time, irregular stretching habits, and a family history of cramping. Given that poor stretching habits are associated with an increased risk of cramping, if you increase the time you stretch the affected muscles, you will lower the risk of cramping. From an anecdotal point of view, many runners have reduced their risk of cramping through a series of massage treatments before a race.

Michael Lambert, associate professor at the Sports

Science Institute of South Africa, is on the M&B Science Advisory Board.

UNFORTUNATELY, THE cause of muscle cramps during marathon running is still unknown, but it may be related to dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, or neural factors. You

seem to be doing proper training for the marathon and taking adequate fluid and fuel during the event. You indicate that you cramp only during competition, at about 16 to 24 miles into therace, and yet you donotcramp during training, even with 20-mile runs. Do you often do 20-mile runs at competition pace? Can you think of anything you do in training that you do differently in competition?

Here are some things you may want to try: (1) predict your marathon time and attempt to run an even pace; to predict your time, multiply arecent 10K time by 4.67, a recent half-marathon time by 2.1, or take the average of your 10 half-mile intervals (with a 3:32 time you are probably averaging about 3:30 repeats); (2) work on stretching to increase the flexibility of your lower back, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calf muscles; (3) do some

resistance (strength) training for these same muscle groups, along with the abdominal muscles; (4) nutritionally, experiment with eating salted pretzels during your carbo-loading phase in preparation for the marathon, which will provide you with some carbohydrates as well as adequate sodium.

I hope that something here helps. Good luck with your training and running!

Mel Williams

is a member of the M&B Science Advisory Board and the Dept. of Exercise Science, Physical Education and Recreation at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION OF

About THE Authors

GORDON BAKOULIS lives in New York City. Until recently the editor-in-chief of Running Times, she is now asenior writer for that magazine. Gordon divides her time primarily between writing, running, coaching, and enjoying life with her husband, Alan Ruben, and their sons Joseph, 3, and Samuel, 1. She ran the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000 and represented the United States at the 1991 World Championship Marathon and 1992 World Championship Half-Marathon. Gordon can’t wait to turn 40 in February of this year, which bewilders her nonrunning friends and family.

JEFF HOROWITZ is an attorney, personal trainer, and marathon coach living in Washington, D.C. He has run 56 marathons, with a PR of 3:08, and is well on his way to achieving his twin goals of running a marathon in every state and on every continent. Jeff has also run | the JFK 50-miler and enjoys long-distance cycling. a fi He is hopeful that it’s true that pain brings enlighten

* ment, or else what many of his friends and family have

been saying about his running might be right. So far, things look promising.

PAUL REESE first took up distance running at age 47 in 1964 and has been active in all facets of the sport, including as acompetitor, race director, and writer. As a competitor, he has held masters records in age divisions 50 through 80 at distances from 5,000 meters to 100 miles. Paul has completed over 200 marathons (at which point he stopped counting) and has directed at least one race every year since 1965. He has written three books (Jen Million Steps, Go East Old Man, and The Old Man and the Road), detailing his adventures running across U.S. states. He is the oldest person to run across the United States and the only person to run across all 50 states.

DEAN RADEMAKER is the founder and leader of the loosely held-together group known as the 50 & D.C. Group, a group consisting of marathoners whose goal is to run at least one marathon in every state in the union and in D.C. The group currently has nearly 300 members from 44 states, 3 Canadian provinces, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, and Great Britain. Dean

: coordinated a panel of his more active members to vote on the 25 Toughest Marathons in North America. The panelists included Clay Shaw, Sharon Kerson, Henry A. Rueden, Jose Nebrida, Ray Scharenbrock, Don McNelly, Virginia Farneman, Chris Ralph, and Bill Macy.

SCOTT HUBBARD works ina specialty running shop and has been an announcer at major road races like Crim for a number of years. He is also a specialist in course measurement. Since 1982, he has written a column for Michigan Runner. His running has been on the shelf most of the past five years due to injury, but road cycling has kept Scott healthy and sane in the

~ downtime. This past July, he competed in his first bike race, averaging 21 mph for 30 miles. One of Scott’s greatest pleasures has been meeting many of the authors represented in his article in this issue.

JANETTE MURRAY-WAKELIN is a New Zealander who, with her husband Alan and children Alana and Kaje, spent eight years cruising around the southwestern Pacific Ocean in their 40-foot sailboat, followed by four years working their freightboat on the inland waterways of Europe before immigrating to Canada. While living on Vancouver Island, she became involved in marathon running and ran the Royal Victoria Marathon every year between 1989 and 1992. She and Alan returned to Europe to operate Specialized Running Vacations on ahotelboat in France, during which she ran seven more marathons, with a PR of 3:30 at the Burgundy Wine Marathon. Ata family reunion in New Zealand in 1996, Janette and Alan hatched the idea of running the length of New Zealand as a millennium celebration. Janette can be contacted at bio_tours@yahoo.ca.

Marathon & Beyond is designed to provide practical advice on running or preparing to run marathons and ultradistances. M&B will include easy-to-apply, cutting edge scientific information, insightful examinations of the personal side of longer distance running, profiles of major marathons and ultramarathons, and regular columns focusing on specific aspects of running. The magazine will also provide readers with a forum for sharing ideas, insights, questions, experiences, and concerns.

Marathoners, ultramarathoners, and those who want to become marathoners or ultramarathoners will enjoy the presentation of the important and useful information contained in each issue.

Note to Potential Contributors

Science Advisory Board

Peter Wood, DSc, PhD, FACSM Pedro Pujol, MD

Professor Emeritus, Stanford University | Olympic Training Center (Spain) Ellen Coleman, MA, MPH, RD William Oliver Roberts, MD California Angels Sport Clinic MinnHealth SportsCare Consultants Perry H. Julien, DPM Michael Leo Sachs, PhD

Atlanta Foot and Ankle Center Temple University

Michael Lambert, PhD Keith Williams, PhD

Sports Science Institute of South Africa University of California, Davis David E. Martin, PhD Melvin H. Williams, PhD Georgia State University Old Dominion University

Russell Robert Pate, PhD University of South Carolina

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