Sticking with It

November 29, 2013

I ran 10 miles this morning at 5:30 a.m. with my friend Al.  It was 26 degrees when we started running and just as cold when we stopped, but nowhere near as cold as it was a dozen or so years ago when we ran 20 miles with a temperature that only needed to be measured with a single digit.

But I’ve come to expect the running conditions this morning—and some a whole lot worse over the course of the past 35 years, because during this time I have run every single day.  Twelve thousand seven hundred and eighty-four days consecutive days of running and 133,187 miles means I’ve averaged slightly more than 10.4 miles a day since a time when Jimmy Carter was President, Dallas debuted on national television and Donna Summer’s MacArthur Park (remember disco?) was the number one song in the nation.

Some might argue that my running is an obsession; others that its an addiction.  I’m not so sure either one is accurate, because I simply love to run.  That’s not to say I don’t have an obsessive gene, however.  I once did sit-ups every day for three years, with a daily minimum of 100 and some days with as many as 300.  I once wrote a letter to someone close to me every day for 27 months, primarily for his emotional support but in all probability for mine as well.  I’ve been doing my yoga regimen every day now for almost two months, but it’s too early to say if this will develop into another obsession (addiction?). Finally, and as you are well aware I’ve been writing every day now for the past 363 days; 32 more and I will have accomplished my goal of writing every day during the 2013 calendar year.

I’ve had the pleasure of competing in almost 800 races, including 12 Boston Marathons, 27 Atlanta Marathons and 36 consecutive Peachtree Road Races.  In my younger (early 40’s, an age I now consider ‘young’) days at Peachtree I had the privilege of starting at the front of the race, literally rubbing elbows with the front-running Kenyans for several years (once the race started they always managed to leave me in their rear view mirrors).  One year recently I started at the very back of the 60,000-runner field to see what I had been missing out on. (Not much, I discovered; if you’re not the lead dog the view never changes.)  While I never won the Peachtree Road Race (Non runner to me more times than I care to remember: ‘You’ve run Peachtree 36 times and you’ve never won?’), I did manage to win five races of varying distances, from 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers (3.1 miles and 31 miles, respectively) in my career.  (Some might say I was versatile in being competetive at both short and long distance events; others might argue I didn’t have any competition in the races I won.  I know the truth, but I’m not saying.) 

Running gave me the opportunity to run in some amazing places, such as Death Valley, the mountains of the Sierra Nevadas, Berlin, South Africa, Honolulu and St. George, Utah.  Running has also taken me—and Cindy (she always appreciated some of the destinations my race schedule took me) to some amazing vacation spots: Boston, Washington D.C., Tybee Island, Callaway Gardens, New York, Mobile and Knoxville (she’s been with me to Berlin, Honolulu and St. George as well). 

I’ve run as early (late?) as midnight and on one occasion as late as 11:30 p.m., barely squeezing in my minimum of three miles before the end of that particular day.  I’ve run in the coldest of cold and the hottest of hot (133 degrees in Death Valley; case closed).  I’ve run in the wettest of wet (monsoon-variety rains) and the driest of dry (again, Death Valley; case closed).  I’ve run in hailstorms, lightning storms and windstorms.  I’ve run when I was as healthy as a horse and when I was as sick as a dog.  I’ve run when I was 24 years old and when I was 58 years old—and haven’t missed a day in between. I’ve transitioned from newlywed to father to grandfather without missing a step along the way. 

Tomorrow is another day.  It will be November 30, 2013 for everyone else; for me it will be the first day of my 36^th year of… Running.  Every.  Single.  Day.     

Have I mentioned I love to run?