Just to Test Yourself

The Copley Indians Post-Race, in Front of an Indian Painting no Less

Today I ran my first marathon.  Well, sort of.  I competed in the Akron Marathon Relay Race, which runs alongside the full marathon but is broken up into five legs.  The team I help coach, Copley High School, has had a "Running Indian Wrestlers" tradition for the past eight years and I joined the coaches' team.  The 5 stages ranged between 3.9 and 7.5 miles, and I ended up doing the long one.  It was tough, but hey, I could've been doing 26.2!  I finished my leg in 54:57.  Copley fielded three teams and mine started in third but us ol' coaches ended up beating one of the groups of youngsters.

Although I ran cross-country for five years, I don't agree entirely with using long-distance running for conditioning.  For one, "pounding the pavement" can really do a number on your joints, but it is also less efficient at burning fat than running methods such as hill sprints or intervals.  Why run for half an hour when you can get more bang for your buck from a fifteen minute sprint routine?  But to build a complete conditioning base, you should work your short, medium, and long term energy systems.  If running isn't your thing, you can substitute alternative methods of long-distance training such as biking, swimming, or rowing.

Chances are that even if you are doing a few long runs here and there, they're not five or ten miles, not to mention a full marathon.  However, wouldn't you want to do something like that just to say you did it?  You are tough enough, right?...  Well, that's exactly what Olympian Wayne Baughman used to do.  Mike Chapman wrote in Wrestling Tough: "A gentleman and Air Force officer off the mat, he [Baughman] ran marathons without extra training just to test himself and his mental toughness."  If that weren't enough, here's what Wikipedia had to say about this man:

After completing his competitive wrestling career, Baughman became involved in ultra-endurance events. He has completed the Pikes Peak Marathon five times, the Iron Man Triathlon in Hawaii, the Leadville 100 Mile Trail run twice, The "Bad Water 146" mile run, the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim and Back Again, the Hardscrabble Pass 100 mile Bicycle. Lastly, Baughman is included in another Mike Chapman book, The Toughest Men in Sports (ISBN 978-0967608013) and was the model for the man at the base of the Air Force Monument in downtown Oklahoma City.

How 'bout that?  I'll admit I did train for this specific event, but perhaps one day I'll run a marathon or triathlon just to prove to myself that I can do it.

Run hard, but run smart,
Jeff