Around the World in 18 Years

I made a remarkable discovery this weekend. 

Like many runners, I am a compulsive record-keeper.  I keep a little book on each of the 149 races I have run, with description and photos.  And I also keep a running log in a small Day Planner - the same type I have used for many, many years - entering mileage run, conditions, and other notes, and totting up the weekly mileage in the back.  At the end of the year, I add up total annual miles, and several years ago I went back and retrieved the mileage from all of my past running logs (which of course I keep in a secure location) beginning with the year 1995.  I had run for many years since then, and even as a child, but that's when I began documenting my annual mileage in running logs.

As I was adding up my weekly mileage, it occurred to me for some reason to look up the circumference of the globe.  According to Wiki Answers, that distance is 24,901.55 miles.  One thing led to another, and after a little work with a calculator I discovered that on July 19, 2013 - during the course of an ordinary 9-mile run this summer and unbeknownst to me at the time - I crossed that threshold. 

What an amazing thing - to discover that I have already run all the way around the world!  I know that the Dean Karnazes of the world have far exceeded that distance, but still. . .   I have run around the world!

5-K Man

I recently watched a great movie - Ultramarathon Man:  50 Marathons, 50 States, 50 Days - about the ultramarathon runner Dean Karnazes (available on Netflix).  This man ran a marathon in each of our fifty states, sometimes the actual marathon itself on the day it occurred, but often just the course for a marathon in that state with a group of race organizers and others.  It was an amazing feat of endurance, and I remember following Dean's blog at the time(2006) as he described his progress across the country.  His biggest problem was recovering for the next day- icing himself, getting plenty of fluids in, and eating loads of carbs.  Sometimes conditions were absolutely miserable, but each race was a real inspiration, because as he went from state to state he was joined by runners, some of whom had never run a marathon before, who simply wanted to run alongside him.

So Saturday I ran the Pour le Pink 5-K our at Highlands-Cashiers Hospital.  I had worked hard on Friday instead of resting, and I do not do well running downhill and off-road, where the course begins and ends.  But I managed to capture the First Place Age Group trophy anyway, probably because I was the only 60-69 male runner.  Sometime during the course of the weekend it occurred to me that this was the time of year that the Autumn Breeze 5-K was held, a great flat, fast race at Tallulah Gorge (only an hour away) that Martha ran several years ago.  I remember that I had waited for her at the finish line because I had just completed a 20-mile run the day before, and she had described it as perhaps the most beautiful course she had ever run.  Martha checked and indeed the race was being held soon.  In fact, it was being held on Sunday afternoon, the very next day. 

And that's when the idea occurred to me that I might be able to run two 5-Ks, back to back.  Why not, after all?  If Dean had run 50 marathons in 50 days, surely I could run a mere two 5-Ks in two days.  And maybe one on Monday, too - like the Mountain Lakes Course in Highlands.  "5-K Man!"  I discussed this ambitious plan with Martha while we were walking down our road on Sunday morning.  It would break every rule I knew as a runner to run an unplanned race.  And to take as many easy days after a race as the number of miles in the race.  But Dean broke very rule in the book!

By the time I had reached the bridge a half-mile down our road, my legs told me the truth:  "You do not want to run a race today.  You are not Dean Karnazes."  And the remarkable thing is that I actually listened.  But thanks, Martha, for being willing to drive me to Tallulah Gorge to run a foolish race.