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Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon Newsletter
23 June 2010 |
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Almost Done!
Marathons are certainly a way to a life of adventure! My old college buddy Mike Schwartz (who will NEVER be six foot tall) and I headed west a weekend before last and ran the Dam Marathon. The Teton Dam Marathon, that is. Recovery at a couple different microbreweries in Idaho, then headed back over to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The next day we hiked around Jenny Lake, which included a climb up to Inspiration Point. Great post-marathon recovery for the legs--about 10 miles of hiking on mountain paths. And, a VERY close encounter with a bull moose. Well, maybe we were a little less afraid of him than we should have been, but we got some great pictures. :-)
Then, this past weekend, the lovely Francine and I headed north to Duluth for Grandma's Marathon. George Ranville (one of our Start/Finish line coordinators) and his wife Gail (who works hard to make sure your post-race food is there for you) were there as well. If you ever have a chance to run Grandma's, take it! It's very well run, very friendly, and you get to ride a train to the starting line. Great time! Other GR friends were there too--Nancy Willemstein, our regular training partner and also GRM volunteer, and Cathy DeLeeuw, one of our Boot Camp trainees, were also there.
Your marathon staff are constantly keeping themselves in shape to run, and also are excited to make YOUR marathon experience the best ever. We steal great ideas from everybody, and bring them together RIGHT HERE IN GRAND RAPIDS!
Hey! Michael Selman is back this week with some reflections on Father's Day. Check out his article below!
And, as for my big adventure--only one more marathon to go and then I'm going to spend most of July at home, running with my friends, catching up with my family a bit, and maybe doing a bit of writing. This weekend will be my sixth consecutive weekend running a marathon.
WANT TO BE ON OUR HOMEPAGE?
Our web guy, Rudy, has a pretty cool slideshow on our website. People are doing it--signing up and putting the world on notice. "I'm running a marathon--now stand the heck back!" You too can be famous. Send us a copy of your card, tacked up in your office, on your refrigerator, or wherever. You're doing it. Let the world know.
SOCKS, HATS, EXTRA SHIRTS
But seriously folks, now that we're into the logistic phase of our planning for this fall, I need more space for the new stuff that's coming in. So, last year's shirt price is now down to $10 plus shipping. I just cut the sleeves off of one so that I could use it for a summer training shirt. Also will be great for those warmer marathons that are coming up in the next few months.
Extra Red Shirts from 2009 are available at the BUYSTUFF link. $10. Socks, $5.00. Hats are $10.00. www.cooladventures.net/buystuff.htm. Still have a bunch of the 2008 shirts for only ten bucks too, if you like.
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Summer wouldn't be as much fun with some really intense workouts. Sometimes Jim lets me run the session, which usually gets me some emails the next day complaining about sore calves or something. Suck it up guys! Deal with it! It's only making us stronger. Hill Blasts behind the zoo--a total of only two minutes of running, ten seconds at a time, with a 20 second grand finale. Not bad. Then some upper body stuff to balance everything out. I also got to share some tips on how to pick up girls. (Always keep your back straight and lift with your legs!)
Email me with the subject line "Boot Camp" for more info!
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New Holland Beer Runs Preparing for the next Beer Run. Downtown GR this time! Can't wait!
Our next event is Tuesday, July 6 at HopCat in Grand Rapids. It's only $5.00, $2.50 of which goes to a charity and the rest pays for your first beer and some munchies. It's a great way to hang out with some friends and enjoy some nice conversation. Sponsored by New Holland Brewing.
Join us for at least four runs and get a free limited edition shirt!
Check out the brochure here |
Runs With My Father by Michael Selman
For all of my life, I have had a father. And for nearly half of that time, I have also been one.
June 19th, 1983 wasn't the first Father's Day I ever spent with Dad. In fact, I am sure we spent at least part of all of them together for the 26 years preceding this one. But it was the last one before I became a father myself, and it was also the first Father's Day that I can tell you for sure exactly what we did together.
We ran. In fact, we raced.
The name of the event was the Pop's Day 5-miler, and it was an annual event held every Father's Day in Island Park, New York, near the south shore of Long Island. That race is long gone now. I was 27 at the time, a year older than my daughter is now, and Dad was 56, just a little bit older than my current age. I had been running for a little over a year, inspired by Dad. He had already been running for many years before I started, but he was relatively new to racing, motivated by me.
I had caught the race bug very early on and infected him with it.
That race seems like half a lifetime ago, because it was. But curiously, it also seems like just yesterday, because the memories are still so vividly burned in my mind. Running is like that. It still amazes me that a single run done nearly 30 years ago can conjure up memories the crispness of the air, or the smell of burning leaves or the sounds of roosters crowing while the sun was rising over the valley in the eastern sky as I was chugging up a hill at a pace that was two minutes faster than I could do today.
When I first started running, my father never thought I would stick with it. He had no reason to think otherwise. I had never stuck with anything before running and not too much since. But right from the start, running was unique in its appeal. After every run, I relived it in my mind for the rest of the day, and salivated for the next day, when I could do it again. Running was a passion which truly bordered on addiction. At least it was a healthy one.
And that enthusiasm was fueled by regular runs with my father. Sometimes I would take the drive from Long Island to Fort Lee, New Jersey, where we would do long runs over the George Washington Bridge. Other times, I would take the Long Island Railroad into the city, where dad would be eagerly awaiting my arrival, and shuttle me over to Central Park, where we would run the many New York Road Runners Club races. Our favorite was their spring kick-off race, The Perrier 10K. As with the Pop's Day 5-Miler, Perrier has long ago been discontinued. We have outlived most of the races we used to do. We truly bonded during that time.
In the mid 80's, I moved to North Carolina. But dad and I would still plan races to run. Occasionally I would fly back to New York for a race, and other times, he would come down to North Carolina. We had one of our best races together ever in Chapel Hill in the autumn of 1994. Dad had trained his heart out for the New York City Marathon that year, and was in the best shape of his life.
But race day was uncharacteristically warm that year with race temperatures topping out at almost 90 degrees, the hottest NYC Marathon on record. Still, he was on a 3:40 pace until about mile 17 when he bonked, and ended up finishing in a still admirable 4:26:15. But all that great training was not totally wasted. In late November that year, shortly after his 59th birthday, we ran one of the hilliest 10K's known to man through the UNC Chapel Hill campus in just a few ticks over 47 minutes.
A couple of years later, Mom and Dad moved down to coastal North Carolina, and weekend trips to Wilmington became second nature to me. Several times a year, I'd drive down after work on Fridays and we would race on Saturday mornings with The Wilmington Road Runners Club. Running was just something we always did when we got together. But it was always about more than just running. It was really about everything. Dad was now in his mid-60's, but we still raced hard.
I remember a half marathon we did when dad was 66 years old up in Jacksonville, NC. We just missed breaking 2 hours by a few seconds.
In the mid 90's, I moved again, this time to my current home outside of Atlanta. I was racing more than ever, but Dad started to slow down, both in quantity and quality of his races. He was entitled. He was in his 70's now and had over 40 years of running on that still lean frame of his.
But we had a standing date every year at Kiawah Island. I would run either the half of the full marathon there, and Dad would run the 5K. We started this tradition in the mid 90's, where Dad was running under 30 minutes and usually winning awards. Year by year, we would return, and his times remained steady until around 2000, when his times finally climbed into the low 30 minute range. The last year we did it was in 2003, where at age 77, where he took 2nd place in the 75+ age group. The next year, Kiawah Island did the unthinkable and discontinued the 5K. We had outrun yet another great tradition.
Well into his 70's Dad continued to run, and every time I would run with him, I quietly wondered if this would be the last time we would ever run together. We had been doing it for nearly a quarter of a century and it was becoming more and more of an effort for him, and more and more painful as well. Eventually running DID stop, but the migration from running to walking was so gradual and such a smooth transition that I can not really pinpoint a date when the running stopped. But at some point it did.
Today, Dad walks with the same commitment and fervor that he always had for running. At age 83, he still goes out three to five days on good weeks, extending walks to 90 minutes or more. It's really not any different than running. Just slower.
And every time we visit, I hope we can do what we have always done, just slower, and continue the bonding that was started and strengthened by the simple act of running and racing nearly 30 years ago. Tonight after work, I am driving up to Asheville, where Dad is now very happily retired, so I can spend some time with him in celebration of an early Father's Day. I am going to hand what you are reading to him, and encourage him to walk with me tomorrow morning. Hopefully, he will say yes, and we can add one more chapter to an already great book. |
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"Are we ever going to go on vacation where you guys don't run a marathon?" Carly might have a valid question there, but the lovely Francine and I are in Hawaii for the Kona Marathon this weekend. It's true, our family vacations usually end up at a marathon venue.
Oh--did I mention earlier that it was George's FIRST MARATHON! YES! You really need to watch who you're hanging out with--you WILL be assimilated. In fact, Terence Reuben, Ed Kornoelje, Bernie Zost, George, (and I'm probably missing someone) ran their first marathon after joining the staff of the marathon. I'm always so proud of our staff!
Can't wait to see you all in October at the FINISH LINE!
and the adventure continues....
Don Kern
Race Director, Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon
P.S. If you want to respond to this newsletter, change the subject line so I don't just end up thinking it's a bounce notice or something. Thanks! |
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| And now...a word from our SPONSORS!
Pepsi Bottling of West Michigan
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| The Schedule
September 25, 2010
20 Mile Training Run hosted by Gazelle Sports
October 16th 2010 9 - 6
Health & Fitness Expo and Packet Pickup at the David D Hunting YMCA
October 16th 2010 Helen DeVos Children's Hospital Kids Marathon
Final 1.2 miles at 1:00 pm
October 17th 2010 Seventh
Annual Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon, Half Marathon, and Relay
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| LIFETIME RUNNER |
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Enter Once, Run Forever!
You can enter the Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon for LIFE.
For $725, you get to enter the full or the half marathon for as long as we're still in business!
You'll get a permanent number, some extra swag, and the adoration of your fellow runners.
If you've already registered for this year but would like to upgrade, we can make that work too--just email me and we'll get it figured out. | |
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