Believe it or not, there are some folks that come to this little site to read about the running stuff. In fact, these people could care less about the Phillies, Eagles or any type of the mainstream spectator sports where one of the goals is to actually feel one's ass grow. Instead, they are much more interested in participating in sports. Come on, who can sit inside and watch a game on TV when 5x1 mile in 5:10 is on the schedule?
Anyway, there are names for these people. Lots of them, I suppose, based on some rudimentary lip reading of the lemmings hurtling around in the cars clogging up the roads. "Dork" seems to be one of the few that can be published here, but to me there is a different name.
I call them warriors and they are my people.
Actually, I don't call them warriors. I just made that up to be dramatic because I couldn't think up anything better. Truth be told, whenever I'm inside or driving around in a car I always stare like at the runners that cross my path like a guy who just left an Eagles' game and headed to the "gentleman's club" to take in the late afternoon matinee. But rather than some sort of deviant intent, I watch because I'm jealous that there are people out running around while I'm not. It's enough to make me crazy and go out and do something rash. But since I'm conserving energy for the second run of the day later in the afternoon, I just stare and roil with envy.
Like a dork.
Of course there are subsets to this dorkdom, just like there are in anything else. Perhaps it is like the sects of Eagles' fans where some like to get dressed up in a jersey and/or uniform and paint their faces as if they were Daniel Day-Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans, while others just go to the game and cheer or boo accordingly.
In running there are differences, too. There are runners who simply run and runners who train. There is no in-between because as the old saying goes, "You are either training or you are not." Still, defining the difference between the two sets isn't as easy as all that. Sometimes one is training and doesn't know it and other times a person is training so poorly they might as well just be running.
Or something like that.
Anyway, I think I'm training. After two months of running simply to put together some semblance of fitness, it's time to dive in. The focus, of course, is another marathon, which at this point is a lot like banging my head against a wall. Yet for some reason there is a thought that there is a chance that something elusive is there for the grabbing. Still, running is easy and training is hard. Oh sure, it's fun and all of that, but it's fun in the way that building an addition to your house is fun or drinking so much coffee that you can see the hair growing on your face.
Yes, it's all fun but certainly not for everyone. Actually, I wouldn't recommend any of it.
But we're going back into the breach again, my friends. So far we're three days and 45 miles into it and all of the old obsessions are on the way back. Make it obsessions about obsessions. Suddenly everything matters - sleep, food, weight, miles, the weather, pace, more miles as well as the glancing thought that my calves will spasm chronically for the next five months (at least) and if it's possible if those perpetually black toes can get blacker.
And for what? A little self masochism? Self medication? The idea that 2:30s means something?
Well... yeah.
One of my lines about all of this is, "I'm not doing it for my health." I don't buy all that new agey stuff about feeling free or a oneness with nature or any other such thing. Like the sleek, vigilant puma, most runners who train are hostile and aggressive. They would like nothing better than to slash your throat to a bloody, messy slab of spongy flesh. But since most runners go to one extreme or another and a much too small to for the local Fight Club, the puma metaphor is all they have.
Besides, it's healthy than face painting.
*** So there it is. After talking to my management team (OK, just my wife), it looks like the plan is to hit the Pocono Mountain Marathon on May 4 and the Richmond (Va.) Marathon on Nov. 15. All systems are go - no one is pregnant, the kids are settled, schedules are set and playoff baseball won't interfere... that is if there is playoff baseball.
All that's left is the work.
The Philadelphia Marathon is set for this Sunday, which means there are a few folks around these parts conserving energy, bouncing off the walls and trying as hard as they can to relax.
That's the hard part, of course. Relaxing is always one of those things that is easier said than done in almost every situation. It's almost like telling someone to "just say ‘no.'" Yeah, well if I could say no or relax we wouldn't be in this situation. Who can relax after months of training and the idea of self-flagellation and masochism looming? Better yet, people actually pay money to run marathons. Good money, too. I'm told the Philadelphia Marathon costs more than $100 to enter, which, frankly, is a crime.
As far as marathoning in America goes, last Saturday's Olympic Trials was our Super Bowl. There was tons of hype (relatively speaking), all of the best runners were there, the drama was palpable and everyone who follows the sport was talking about it.
The difference between our Super Bowl and the other Super Bowl
Let's start with the coverage of the race, which for those outside of the New York City metropolitan area meant waking up earlier than usual on a Saturday morning and tuning into the Today show for the start before switching over to 
Quite simply, Ryan Hall's effort in the trials was chilling. In terms of excitement in a marathon, it could be better than watching Salazar in his debut in New York City; Rod Dixon catching Geoff Smith at the 26th mile in the 1983 New York City Marathon; or Khalid Khannouchi battling Moses Tanui in Chicago in '99.
You can't fake a marathon. In order to do one well, one has to put in the work. Despite this, Khalid Khannouchi nearly made the Olympic team and he still might as the first alternate by virtue of his fourth-place finish. If Hall, Sell or Dathan Ritzenhein drop out, Khannouchi is on the team and he says he's ready to jump in if given the chance.
NEW YORK - It was supposed to be American marathon running's greatest day. It was the day where American marathoners were going to send a message to the rest of the world that they were - once again - a force to be reckoned with during the Olympics in Beijing next August.
In one regard that was very much the case. As evidenced by Ryan Hall's inspirational victory in a blistering 2:09:02 over the unforgiving rolling terrain in Manhattan's Central Park in Saturday morning's Olympic Trials marathon, American marathoning is, indeed, back.
More than a simple reemergence of the American marathoner, Saturday's trials showcased a dichotomy in racing style, and pedigree. Both Hall and Ritzenhein were high school all-Americans who were highly recruited by all of the big-name running schools as well as the top shoe companies following their highly decorated college careers. Hall ran a 4-minute mile in high school, but struggled with that event at Stanford before moving up to the 5,000-meters.
Distance running, and marathon running in particular, is as beautiful as a sport can be. Bathed in simplicity, running is as pure as athletics can be. But it's also a cruel sport. Often, every weakness is exposed during a competition no matter how strong or well prepared a runner is.
NEW YORK – It seems as if it would be difficult to overlook someone like Alan Culpepper in any type of running race, let alone one to determine the U.S. Olympic team for the Beijing Games in 2008. Culpepper, after all, has made the past two Olympic teams in two different events. In 2000 he went to Sydney as a 10,000-meter runner and went again in 2004 to Athens as a marathoner.
On Saturday in New York City, Culpepper is looking to make it two Olympic marathon teams in a row. Only Frank Shorter has won two consecutive trials marathons.
NEW YORK - It wasn't too long ago that top American runner Khalid Khannouchi was blazing through the streets of Philadelphia in the prestigious Distance Run where it seemed like he was a threat to the World Record in the half marathon every time he toed the starting line.
It wasn't just in Philadelphia or the half marathon, either. The citizens in London and Chicago also have seen Khannouchi torch the field in the full 26.2-mile marathon distance featuring some the best distance runners ever. Between October of 1999 and April of 2002, Khannouchi set both the World and American records in the marathon twice - once apiece in each city.
Why? Isn't it a bit curious that the current American record holder and two-time world record holder is being written off in favor of guys like Hall, Keflezighi and young guns Abdi Abdirahman and Dathan Ritzenhein? How can the only guy in the field who has run slower than 2:07:19 just twice in his nine career races be considered a dark horse?
Sometimes I feel like an old man. When I wake up in the morning my legs are tight, which causes me to limp around until the first jolt of caffeine from my breakfast of coffee and a Clif Bar, as well as the sting from hot water from the shower limbers me up. My friend Mike says he was the same way until he started his strict daily yoga regiment, but I think there are other factors involved.
Mike is actually Batman. He sleeps upside down swinging from a pair of parallel bars. I hope I didn't reveal too much.
For some reason ESPN the Magazine is delivered to my house every two weeks. I don't know why this is because I never ordered it and I don't really think I particularly want it, either. In fact, I even called a number I found inside of the magazine to ask them to stop sending it to me and they politely yet forcefully told me, "No."
So I continue to get the ESPN the Magazine.
