Running For Beer

My friend and neighbor Bill, had an ingenious idea Friday evening. The Runner’s Pub Crawl in Kalamazoo. We suited up Friday after work and plotted our course. We decided on a rough course of running from home, (Westnedge Hill) to Bell’s for a pint, then from Bell’s to Harvey’s for a quick pint/drink, then from Harvey’s to O’Duffy’s. As it turned out we added Martini’s Pizzeria around the corner due to the waiting list. All told it was around 5.5 miles.

The run took place on a cloudless breezy temperate day in August. As we will inevitably be submerged into 4 and a half months of darkness, one has to take advantage of the blissful sunlight while one can. There is really no better time or way to take advantage of the dense propagation of fine drinking establishments in downtown Kalamazoo than by running to each of them. I’ve done a cyclocross race in the Kiss Cross series called cycling for beer. But I’ve never heard of running for beer. Now was our chance to make that happen.

Stop One

Bill and I set an easy pace down to Bell’s, I had a business call while running, and was trying not to sound out of breath while heading downtown. We had a blissful pint out in the beer garden out at Bell’s Eccentric Cafe. Our wives biked down with the kids to meet us. We finished up and used the restroom to head over to O’Duffy’s.

Stop Two

We sort of got sidetracked while on the walking Mall and ran into Harvey’s to have a quick shot with some of my friends from Biggs-Gilmore. All I can say is that a shot of Jaeger and Monster is fortifying while running short distances.

Stop Three

O’Duffy’s was hopping. We even ran into local celebrity and author Bryan Charles who wrote Grab on to me Tightly As If I Knew The Way. I pumped him for information on his next book. No information was forthcoming other than, it is being edited. We downed a pint of Guinness and were planning dinner when it became apparent that being served at Cosmo’s was going to take a while due to the wait. So we decided to add one more stop for kicks and giggles.

Stop Four

Martini’s Pizzeria. We were seated immediately and ordered some salads and calzones. I was dreading the run back up Westnedge Hill. It has an infamous pitch and there is no way around it to get home. As it stood we made it back in style with no unplanned dinner refunds.

First Four Mile Run after hernia repair

I tore my tendon 5 weeks after my hernia repair surgery at my first Ultimate Frisbee game of the season. I was able to keep cycling even with the torn tendon. The doctor said the flexion and extension would bother it. The stabilizing needs of running however were painful and out of the question anyway. I began to feel some imaginary weight and some real weight dragging me down each day I wasn’t running.

Cycling, though I love it, is not the same as running. Cycling is a different type of awareness and fitness. I love them both. I’m not sure I could live without either. But I know I would be in the looney bin without running. I suited up after work, feeling confident that I would take it easy and turn around if the tendon hurt. I followed my normal after work route across the north end of Kalamazoo. I was literally weeping with happiness by the time I hit mile one out of four. It’s safe tp say I place way too much value on this activity. But it’s my life.

Running is not like cycling, or kayaking, it is a safety net, a place to vent, it is the padded room where all my anxiety and fear are pounded out with no intermediary. A place where schemes are hatched, plans made, thoughts held dear, memories rebounded, grief reconciled, love and redemption found, and it is entirely independent of weather, equipment, or external forces. I can run in a rainstorm, a whiteout, 10 degree weather with 3 feet of snow, or ninety nine degree heat. I do not need a running partner, or encouragement, I do not need praise or reward, it is not to impress or show off for anyone, it is entirely between me and the road.

At times I feel like my body has failed me, but in my heart I know it has not. Sometimes things are taken away to teach compassion. Now that perhaps I can continue for some time, I don’t know how long, I will be more thankful for each mile, for each step my body gives back.

I have to offer thanks also to Laura for enduring my confinement. Certainly it must feel like she lives with a lunatic in the tower when I am not running.

As additional food for thought, check out the copy from this new Pearl Izumi ad campaign. I’ve been reading online how most people hate it. Personally I identify with it. I guess if they wanted to sway people over who are not runners, maybe this wasn’t the way to do it. But if they were trying to create a brand impression for the runners that are already out there, they got my attention. I think the copy is genius.

Four weeks after my initial physician visit, I went in for another consulation with my family doctor. My family doctor, another runner, performed a hernia examination. His immediate conclusion was to see a surgeon about an Inguenal Hernia. While this may sound like bad news to most people. To me it is the solution to a complex anatomical algebraic equation with the variable x.

The prognosis seems to be see the surgeon, get surgery, have a teflon belt inserted in the abdominal wall, heal for two-three weeks, back on the road.

At the beginning of February my marathon training program was going really well. My miles had been creeping up steadily and I hadn’t been injured. My hamstrings were taught as a kettle drum, but I thought this was something I could manage. My long runs were getting longer and my right knee wasn’t bothering me. Then a number of convergent coincidences all transpired simultaneously. I started having lower back pain about 2 weeks after we switched to a new mattress. This was also the same week that I began upping my miles past 8 on my long runs. I also had a couple of goofy falls some on my bike, some on alpine skis, and one in my own driveway on ice. All of this basically led up to me going to the chiropractor and into physical therapy. I didn’t hurt my back from my falls, but I think from hamstring inflexibility.

My marathon plan for Bayshore is on hold already!

But I am undaunted. After my last injury, I am more familiar with the time frame for the healing process. It will most likely be a few months before I am well enough to run at the level I was at before my injury.

Part of this is also keeping a positive attitude.

When you’re in junior high you’re afraid to tell your friends you like a girl because… well you’re in junior high. They may not like her, it may not work out, she might dump you. At the end of the day you have to live with yourself, and you have to make a commitment with what you believe is right.

Now that I am a grown up, I don’t care what my friends think about my girlfriend, otherwise they wouldn’t be friends. So I have to set a goal and make the summit approach.

This long winded analogy is a way of saying I have been holding off from telling folks that I intend on running another marathon. Most likely Bayshore (again barring injury) on Memorial day weekend. I came in at about 3:40 for Chicago in 2004. I am shooting for about 3:30 if my body will let me do it. My training has ramped up since October and I have been running 25-30 miles a week since then. I need to ramp up to about 35-45 miles if not higher in the end. It’s the long runs that do you in, but that are ultimately what count. They are also the edge of the world in terms of physical endurance, your sanity. You see what you are made of out there. And like fox holes, there are no atheists at the 24 mile marker…

The thing about running is that unless you are superhuman, you know you won’t win. My son once asked me why I ran any of these races if I knew I wouldn’t win. I told him you have to race to see how fast you can go, to see what you’re made of. I hope to find I am made of sterner stuff than I think. Even if I come in at the same or worse than Chicago, it is still the attempt that means everything. If I don’t try, I will never forgive myself.

Had my first sub twenties commute of the year. I felt much warmer than last year. Ninjaclava from Outdoor Research was a plus, as were the Cyclone Booties from Pearl Izumi.

However as I had some new gear on that seems to be working out, I thought I would point out a few losers from last year that I thought would work out well but ended up failing miserably.

The Bad and the Ugly

1. The EKG Base layer from Pearl Izumi
I bought two of these as base layers. They were comfy and next to skin good for about two days. Both of them developed holes in the armpits that grew in size. Either I have acid in my sweat like a Geiger alien, or Pearl Izumi needs some QC/QA.
2. Thermafleece Tights Pearl Izumi discontinued. These started out warm, snug, and terrific. They now have developed a hole in the arse and in the crotch. Again is it acid eating sweat, or poor QC/QA? Do the people that rave about Pearl Izumi all the time actually use their gear at all? For the price, almost double HIND or Sugoi gear; they better last more than a season.
3. Louis Garneau Cycling Gloves-these things suck as cycling gloves. They do not block wind in anything below 45 degrees, and they are not water resistant.

1. Lendal Paddle Kinetic XTI White Water paddle-Previously posted

   Editorial note, they are shipping me a new paddle that has as of yet not arrived.

   The Good

2. CW-X Lite-fit Top
I bought two of these to replace the Pearl Izumi tops. One year on, they are still taking the abuse of my acidic alien armpit sweat. I’ve worn them under drysuits, ski jackets, and cycling jerseys. No rips no runs, still like new.
3. NRS Toaster Mitts

Great 30 dollar investment.

1. Mega Maverick

Great carving machine, many many fun rides in this downwave maniac. I can’t say enough good things about Mega’s surf boats. More fun than I am legally allowed to have.

1. IR Custom Drydeck

Great heavy duty rubber randed sprayskirt custom made to my kayak. No more cold water ejections.

There is no garland of ivy leaves for the average runner. Each mile is its own reward. If you make it to 26.2 someone might tell you “great job”. But you must want to make it the distance on your own. No one can do it for you. You might have training partners, you might even have someone to run the race with, but really every step is your own.

When I ran my first marathon I trained every mile alone, and then planned to run Chicago with Joe. I never found him in the crowd. I ran the whole distance surrounded by a crowd, but I was completely isolated inside my own head.

I am embarking on this training journey again. I don’t necessarily relish every run. It is sometimes hard to want to put in all the time necessary. It is hard not having someone to run with, but at the same time, moving at your own pace means you never have to depend on anyone else.

All of the miles and training in complete isolation are also tied with a victory that is solely your own. You do not share the proverbial crown of ivy leaves (if you get one) with a triumvirate of team mates. It is yours alone.

Ran 13 miles for the first time since the fifth 3rd 15 mile race in April 2005. Recovery from injury gets harder with every year. Not that I am an old man by any stretch. But I am not a 19 year old soccer hooligan anymore. If I fall it takes weeks to come back. I’ve been steadily increasing my mileage with the thought of doing a race sometime this spring. I was thinking maybe a marathon. Don’t know if I can squeeze it in, because I am actually more worried about my paddling fitness for the Islands of Lake Michigan trip.

Doing 13 Miles felt like my veins had been opened up fully again to let all the good drugs into my blood. No better word for it than purification. Want to feel like you earned your dinner? Put one foot in front of the other for thirteen miles!

Granted the stretching, the IT band massaging afterwards gets old, but it always seems so worth it.

I was running last night in the dark. Led only by the dim blue glow of my headlamp my shoes crunched noisily into the snow. It was the kind of crunch that is painful to hear, because it is like stepping on dry chalk. I tried to run fast to warm up. I could feel my nose go numb within half a mile. After a mile, thick encasements of ice wrapped around my beard. Subtle movements of my face would shake a miniature snowstorm down the front of my jacket. I rounded back towards the car at 2.5 miles. My buns were starting to chill, literally freezing my arse off! The fact that they have limited range of movement in running my body probably decided my brain and my other core organs needed more blood than my buns. I spotted a light coming toward me on the trail. Two homeless guys on bikes. As I ran past one of them shouted, “you’re crazy!!!” I didn’t have a proper response ready to reparte with them, as this was the coldest night of winter thus far hitting -20 with wind-chill in Kalamazoo. I replied back that I was too stupid to know better. I know I have a problem, but I was enjoying myself.

In winter is everything relative? Someone on paddling.net asked, “How thick is your ice?”

Is the thickness relative to the layers of Dante’s L’Inferno? Am I in hell and I just don’t know it?

The above pic is the current state of my paddling opportunities. So one can see why I have turned to skiing and running. It’s just not happening.

Ran 6 miles in 49:55 yesterday. I hit it out of the blocks up and down windy Kalamazoo hills until my breath came in ragged gasps. I didn’t want to stop, every hill I saw, I wanted to paint my foot prints on, burn the rubber down to say “I ran this hill at top speed once.” Confidence and assurance in your own abilities comes so infrequently in adult life, often because of interactions with other people. Running is solo, you and the path is all there is. No lies, no interdependencies, no assumptions, you can either do it or you can’t. I take pride in my mini accomplishments, because no matter how down the rest of life gets, no can take them away, and the obstacles I set for myself are only at the limit of my body, and my mental discipline. While this is probably overly dramatic, it is great to pass a series of college kids 1/3 your age at top speed uphill.

Wolf Parade-Lyrics
I got a number on me
I got a number
Won’t make it through the high noon sun
I am my father’s son
I am my father’s son
His bed is made
I was a hero
Early in the morning
I ain’t no hero
In the night
I am my father’s son
And I’ll build a house inside of you
I’ll go in through the mouth
I’ll draw three figures on your heart
One of them will be me as a boy
One of them will be me
One of them will be me watching you run
watching you run
Into the high noon sun
Watching you run
Farther than guns will go
You are a runner
With a stolen voice
And you are a runner
And I am my father’s son
I am my father’s son
I am my father’s son