the runner eclectic

In a year without an Olympic Games or World Championships, one of the highlights of the summer for Track & Field fans is the IAAF Junior World Championships, taking place in Eugene this week. I admit, I’ve never paid much attention to the JWC’s, but the presence of well-known athletes who would likely be running in the Senior WC’s (I’m talking to you, Mary Cain) has piqued my interest. Continue reading →

Many, many years ago — when my kids were little and Joni was in pre-school — I had a trivial but interesting experience running with one of the other dads there, the father of one of Joni’s friends. I don’t remember how we got started talking about running, but we must have had enough in common to think it would be a good idea to try a five-mile run together. Continue reading →

[First published March 11, 2008]

Man, it’s tough to write about running when one isn’t actually, you know, running.

I started one essay about the awkwardness I still feel when I go to “work out” in a fitness center. Had I been working at an old-fashioned typewriter, I would have been ripping the sheets of paper from the machine, crumpling them into little balls, and filling a wastebasket with misbegotten early drafts. Continue reading →

Iva is telling us how she first met Emil Zatopek.

“It was because of our dog,” she begins. Continue reading →

It was a fateful day a decade or so ago when I picked up “Daniels Running Formula,” a systematic approach to training distance runners penned by well-known physiologist/coach/guru Jack Daniels, and read the following:

“Elite distance runners tend to stride at about the same rate, almost always 180 or more steps per minute. This means they are taking 90 or more steps with each foot per minute, a rate that doesn’t vary much even when not running fast. The main change that is made as a runner goes faster is in stride length; the faster they go, the longer the stride becomes with little change in rate of leg turnover. Quite different from elite runners is the rate taken by many beginning runners […] In fact, some turn over as slowly as 160 times per minute.” Continue reading →

Happy Birthday, Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956)!

“That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road, and when I got there, I thought maybe I’d run to the end of town. And when I got there I thought maybe I’d just run across Greenbow County. And I figured since I run this far, maybe I’d just run across the great state of Alabama. And that’s what I did; I ran clear across Alabama.

No particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there I figured since I’d gone this far, might as well turn around and keep on going. And when I got to another ocean I figured since I’d gone this far, might as well just turn back and keep on going. When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry I ate. And when I had to go… you know… I went.”