By Mike Vecchiarelli
There is a great book out there called, Why We Run by Bernd Heinrich. He is an over 50 (now around 86) ultra marathon runner and professor emeritus in biology at UVM. In this book he combines his scientific, biology and anthropology research with his pursuit of endurance, distance and speed in running. You may enjoy his anecdotal experiments with honey, beer or cranberry hydration techniques. (Spoiler: beer does provide carbohydrate but also a steep crash along the way.) It would seem that our bipedal approach, although not as fast in a sprint as the four-legged friends is very efficient for long runs. I recently attended a symposium for endurance medicine where the presenter described a study where an indigenous hunter ran down their prey over a long distance of many, many loops. (Think about that next time you’re doing track laps; maybe get the Willey Coyote image in your head of someone ahead of you looking like a roasted chicken you are pursuing.)
So here I am now entering my 7th decade (always sobering to assign it that way, eh? No need to sugar coat the math here) and often wondering why I pound-the-pavement, hit the trail, log-the-laps, etc. Each time I have a window of “opportunity” to get some exercise I must kick myself out the door. I prepare excuses why not to go; maybe this is too much wear-and-tear on my body; there’s a great series on Netflix I could be binging instead; its too cold, too hot, too…not enough…but…then I suit up and go. Once out there I really do feel good (sure some of the hills are a slog but that’s just our friend gravity keeping it real.) Afterwards, the tired feeling is not so much exhaustion as it is relaxation. And then, I feel I’ve earned that high calorie dinner or the hermits with my coffee in the morning, right?!?!
This September I participated in an annual, mini-modified triathlon called The Josh Billings in the Berkshires of Western Mass. It involves a 27-mile bike ride, followed by a 5-mile flat-water paddle, and finishes with about a 10k run. Despite being a former lifeguard, I don’t like swimming and really do love boating. So this is just the right Tri for me. There are many iterations of the race depending on the boating style; teams of two, three, four or solo (Iron). I have been participating in the Iron over 50 kayaking division. This year was my 3rd time. It was a super rainy day and I, more or less, enjoyed it. Jackie (your C2.5K coach and my partner/wife) was there at transitions to help me…there’s a funny story there too but we’ll save that for the campfire. I’m happy to say I came in 6th in my division…good enough for me and nothing damaged as far as I can tell.
Training, if one can call it that, was various days of running UVRS races, doing fun runs near home, occasionally biking, occasionally paddling. Note the word “occasionally” I’m not very disciplined about training. I’m not going to dump on those who are fastidious about dropping long miles, pinching minutes off, or generally squeezing in workouts here and there (see what I did there? groan worthy humor?) but I know there is merit to being competitive that way. At the end of a race I often wonder how much better I could have done if I’d trained better…but then I don’t. My competitive streak is limited to not being passed at my sprint to the finish line. Not a well-paced means of competing but a good showy finish all the same.
So if not to compete, and not being very diligent about training, and hoping not to hurt myself, why do I do it? Well, I guess I actually enjoy it! I believe it makes me healthy (for my part), wealthy (NOT, but it’s not too expensive either), and wise (questionable but lets keep it subjective here.)
Epilogue: No artificial nor actual intelligence was employed to write this article. I just needed to do something around the house today. Maybe I should go for a run now, but I just ate lunch, and it’s a grey day, and I have the sniffles and there’s probably something on Youtube I could be streaming and…see you at the next 10k, or not.