Michael Heald has written an incredible story of running a half-marathon behind the walls of Oregon State Penitentiary, where the phrase “The Wall” takes on a very different meaning.
Previous “Running” posts
The Best of Sports ∞
Monday, April 20th, 2015
Over at Boston.com, Chad Finn lauds the Boston Marathon as the best of sports. I couldn’t agree more. If you live in the area, there’s still time to get out there. It’s a cold and rainy year, but there will still be hundreds of thousands of spectators cheering on tens of thousands of runners. It’s worth your time.
Finn also had a great quote from Massachusetts native Shalene Flanagan, an elite runner who regrettably came up short again this year:
“I have fallen in love with this course. I had so much fun preparing for this race. I wanted to use that as an advantage,” said Flanagan. “I knew every little divot in the road. I knew where every Dunkin’ Donuts was, where every Wendy’s was.”
You can tell Flanagan is a local because she navigates via Dunkin’ Donuts.
The Tomatan Has Arrived and Nothing Will Ever Be the Same
Monday, February 23rd, 2015
As everyone knows, tomatoes are packed with nutrients. Marathon runners have long held that tomatoes would be the perfect snack to power you through 26.2 grueling miles, if only there were some way to carry them. But do you really want to run with tomatoes in your hands? Well, maybe, but two tomatoes is certainly not enough. How about carrying a whole bag of them? That would be uncomfortable and lead to bruising!
Because of these hurdles, we runners have been stuck with second-tier snacks, like Gatorade, PowerBars, or —*shudder*— Gü. Until now! Until…Tomatan.
The Tomatan is a backpack that can be loaded with six midsize tomatoes — enough, say the makers, to power runners through this weekend’s Tokyo Marathon.
Yes! Finally! Why, with six mid-sized tomatoes, even a smoking senior citizen could blast through a race. Thank you, vegetable juice company Kagome, who most assuredly did not concoct this as a comedic method of getting publicity! Thank you, Japan. Truly, you have done a great service for the world. Thanks to your efforts, runners can strap on a 17 pound tomato-headed humanoid backpack and have easy, hands-free access to the essential tomato nutrients we need.
And by golly, we’ll look good doing it, too:
Hey, it works on donkeys in cartoons.
The only question I have is where do I order one for my next race?
Assorted Notes from the 2014 Boston Marathon
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014
You might have heard that for the first time in 31 years, an American won yesterday’s Boston Marathon men’s division. If all you read was the headline, you might also have wondered if I was that American. Lamentably, though I ran the race, I was not the winner. Instead, that victory went to 38-year-old Meb Keflezighi, who emigrated to America from Eritrea at the tender age of 12. Good for him and good for America.
But more than an American man winning, or Boston-area hopeful Shalene Flanagan coming up short in the women’s race, this year’s race gave the average spectator, the average runner, and the average citizen a chance to feel a part of things. It was a chance to put the ugliness of 2013 behind us. To see that, you need look no further than this photo of Bill Foreman, who decided to drive up from Virginia on Sunday night in order to attempt Monday’s race.
[Photo credit: Essdras M Suarez/The Boston Globe]
Now, I don’t know how it turned out for ol‘ Bill (who appears to have written that “USA” on his face with the “help” of a mirror). The photo’s caption rather hilariously indicates that he was grabbing a smoke during the race, which is not a great sign. Searching in the race results for “Foreman” led to no relevant hits.1 Regardless, however, the mere desire of an elderly veteran seeking to run his first marathon in Boston speaks to exactly how much this race means to so many people. Yesterday, it went off beautifully, and that’s pretty great.
Footnotes:
Fortunately, a cursory glance at the obituaries didn’t turn up anything either. ↩︎
Powered by Runners ∞
Monday, April 15th, 2013
It’s Patriots’ Day here in Massachusetts (as well as Wisconsin and Maine1), which means it’s also Marathon Monday in and around Boston. The world’s most prestigious marathon brings tens of thousands of runners to the course2, but none of the physical energy they expend is recovered. A company called Pavegen Systems is trying to change that, and had a demonstration of their product during the Paris Marathon back on the 7th.
The tiles generated up to 8 watts with each step, Bloomberg’s Alex Morales reported. Admittedly that’s nothing. But with 40,000 runners it was enough to power screens and signs throughout the race. Not bad for a start.
Neat.
Footnotes:
Though pedants may note that in Maine, it’s apparently “Patriot’s Day”.↩︎
There are also several few hundred bikers who ride the Midnight Marathon the night before the race. I’ve run the course, and last night I joined in the Midnight Marathon. You might be surprised to learn that biking it is much, much easier.↩︎
