There is a recent [circa 1992] trend (fad)
in running magazines, newsletters, etc. in which terminology
for two-sport (cycling & running) contests is changing from
biathlon to duathlon. A couple of proponents of this change
even goso far as to rename several other terms as well, for example:
duacycle (abbrev. dukes?); duafocals; dualingual; duapartisan.
I wonder if this accounts for the popular "Just do it!" as used
by merchandisers who really mean "Just buy it!"
REPEAT
CUSTOMERS
Bronko Nagurski was an NFL Hall of Famer who
played for the Chicago Bears. He once ran through and over a number
of opposing players, covering at least 40 or 50 yards in route to the endzone,
but couldn't stop before hitting the brick wall at Wrigley Field and was
knocked unconscious. He came to, and was asked if he was all right
andhe replied that he was okay but that last guy hit him kind of hard.
In retirement, he ran a gas station in International Falls, MN. Repeat
customers are certainly important to any business and Bronko had plenty of
them. You might expect that most people returned to his station because
he was a Hall of Famer, but that wasn't the only reason. Possibly a
more compelling reason might be that when Bronko tightened your gas cap,
nobodyelse could take it off again.
JOGGER'S AWAKENING
Frigid fingers
And frozen
nose,
Frost-tipped ears
And icy toes.
About running I
Have learned
a lot:
The winter's too cold,
The summer's
too hot.
-- Joshua Adams in Wall Street Journal
FURTHER PROOF THAT RUNNING IS GOOD FOR YOU
Normally you would think that surgery is the
last resort after physical therapy and other medicalwonders
have been less than totally successful. Fifty-sevenyear
old Connie Munro of Alaska still had a limp followingher knee
surgery. While she was in downtown Juneau,she was charged
by a black bear that had wandered into the city. She sprinted
into a building, loosening up her knee and ridding her of the limp
in the process. AFTERNOTE: What do abear and a
doctor sometimes have in common? Both charge before the
cure is complete.
GOLD
RECORD
Kenyan steeplechaser Moses Kiptani set a new world
record on August 19th [1992] with the time of 8:02.08 in Zurich,
Switzerland, more than 3 seconds faster than the previous record.
For his feat, he was given a 1-kilogram solid gold ingot.
I estimated the [1992] value of the prize at approximately $11,000.
That translates into a rate of over $82,000/hour, still small
peanuts to anyone able to run the New York Marathon in under 2 hours to
win the million dollar prize.
(Hmmm, ... maybe if I also had a bear
chasing me the whole way.)
RANDOM THOUGHTS
Is it
just a coincidence that 10K rhymes with Ben Gay?
TRAINING GOING OK?
If you've ever spent much time around runners,
you've often heard race distances expressed as five "K", ten
"K", even twelve or fifteen "K." "K", of course, stands
for kilometer, or one thousand meters and is approximately equal
to 62/100ths of a mile. However, I find myself thinking of
the habitual answer to "How's your training going?" The answer is
often "OK." Now this might mean that their training is going
well or it could mean that they've run zero "K" that week.
Now that I think about it, I can use that as a sneaky answerto
that same question whenever I'm asked about my mileage and my
duties to the website, race consulting, etc., etc., have pre-empted mytraining
runs. "Well, at least for this week, my training is going"O" - K so
far, how about you?"
(NOTE: The Okie Relayswere
definitely NOT the "O" - K Relays.)
POSITIVE
SPIN
Now that I've figured out how to accurately describemy
recent training and still make it sound good, I just needed togive
the same treatment to my racing outcomes. I think I finallyhave it.
A good friend of mine from Coffeyville, Kendall Payne, often runs
what is known as "negative splits" when racing in S.E. Kansas races.
Negative splits is a term describing the act of running the last half of
a race faster than the first half. It is often good sign of finishing
strong, and Kendall has achieved several PR's with this method. By
thesame token, if I run the last half of my races slower than the first half,
I must be running "positive" splits. Never mind how slow my first halves
are to begin with. I'm looking for a positive spin to put on my racing,
so from now on, I'll just say I ran positive splits.
FAST FOOD
Bruce "Alpo" Duffin presumably recoverd quickly
following the "Run With The Wind" held on December 12, 1992. Therace
should have been called "Run From The Dog" in Duffin's case as hewas chased
and bitten by a dog at the 5K mark of the 10K run. Apparentlythe
dog preferred fast food to its ordinary dry dog food. On the subject
of fast food, read on...
When Bill Clinton was elected to the White
House, it made three of the last four U.S. Presidents that have been known
to jog (now four out of five counting "W"), while Reagan got his exercise
by chopping wood. Not many of us can identify with being surrounded
by Secret Service agents while training, but can you imagine if someone
like Bill Rodgers or Frank Shorter ever got to be elected President?
Landing a job with the Secret Service would be similar to qualifying for
theOlympic trials. At least during Clinton's administration, those
valiantsecurity agents could count their blessings that they only had to
run asfar as the nearest McDonald's.
CLASSIFIED
AD (HYPOTHETICAL)
40+ yr-old Nash: beige/brown top; runs good,
even when cold; high mileage, mostly on the road; drive train noisy but
dependable; exceptional racer, even against later models; has minor dents
and scrapes; may have a loose screw here and there; has been known to challenge
Amtrak to crossings; a real King of the Road.
(May be susceptible to Kryptonite.)
WAS THAT
AN ELECTION YEAR?
"Is it true that Mario Cuomo competed for
the United States in the 1956 Olympic Games in one of the sprint events?
-- J.K., Kent, Wash.
"Sort of. Actually, the other seven
guys left Mario in the blocks. He couldn't make up his mind whether
to run." (Inside Sports, May 1992 issue. "The Good Doctor",
p. 80)
MULTIPLE
CHOICE
Here's why
I don't do chin-ups, pal,
As healthfulas they are:
I can't decide which
of my chins
To raise abovethe bar.
-- Dick Emmons in Wall Street Journal
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