Good Sports

by Budd Glassberg

Reprinted with permission from the Zionsville Times Sentinel on April 4, 2007

A Nice Way to Spend a Half Day

“I’ve always wanted to wake up and walk the entire day.” Harvey Goldman

Training to be competitive in a race may involve a good amount of time, effort and planning. I have been training for an event that takes place in early June for the past two months. It seems odd, but as soon as I mailed my application for the race my training soon had purpose and direction. Prior to that, my workouts were of the more general types. Run long each weekend, put in at least one semi-long run during the week and spend as much time on my feet as possible. Now I am focused and my exercise sessions have specific purpose. There is no better motivator than mailing in your money and committing yourself to the day and time of the event. Had I mailed in my registration weeks ago, there is no doubt I would be further along in my quest to make my goal at this race.

The race I have entered is called the FANS 12 & 24 Hour Runs which will be held for the 18^th year on June 2 in Minneapolis. At least twelve and perhaps as many as seventeen friends will be joining me in the shorter of the two runs. Most of them will be walking for the 12 hours and I will be both walking and running. The course is a 2 ½ mile loop around Lake Nokomis. The participants attempt to cover as many loops as they can in the 12 or 24 hours. My goal for the race is to cover 55 miles. Doing so would mean I would have to average 13 minutes per mile for the 12 hours. It sounds a lot easier than it is.

Events with set times and variable distances are very different from set distance races. There is always the chance in a set distance race that the participant will get a DNF (Did Not Finish). In a set time race, everyone finishes. Many participants take breaks, some quite long. Race volunteer counters keep track of each participant’s number of laps covered. Usually there is some kind of tally board at the start/finish line of the loop to let all contestants know where they currently are placed.

This event is a reunion of sorts for a number of my good friends who have spread out over the country since our days together in college at the University of Illinois and beyond. Four live in Minneapolis, four are coming from California, two from Massachusetts, and two from Chicago. My daughters and several of the other children of my friends are also planning to participate. I can think of no better forum for a reunion of people in their late fifties to gather than this event. Rather than a get-together where eating and drinking are the main activities surrounding a gathering of old friends, this event is one where all of us are preparing for it by attempting to improve our health and fitness. What’s more, it will give us a new shared experience that we will have together rather than just a rehash of memories of things we did when we were young. The walking will allow each of us to spend time with the others while walking (or running) and catch up on what has been going on in our lives over the past thirty-five years.

The event includes plenty of food as well as a pre-race dinner on Friday night and a post race breakfast on Sunday morning along with a short awards ceremony. That is another perk of the reunion as mealtimes can be very difficult to plan at restaurants and moving a group of fifteen people can be a chore.

I will be working very hard to get into the best endurance shape I can for this event. I know of several others who are coming who have begun their training in earnest. Some of my friends have asked me to help them with a training schedule to help prepare them for this ultramarathon. As you might have guessed, I am very excited about the FANS 12 Hours and seeing my old buddies. Our group is called TEAM HALF DAZE and we will be wearing Pabst Blue Ribbon painter’s hats which I got on the internet last year for my Relay for Life team (but Maureen would not let me distribute them to my team).

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, but do not wish to travel to Minneapolis, I would recommend an event about 1 ½ hours from here. It is called the Howl at the Moon 8 hour run and is held in Kennekuk Cove County Park on a 3.29 mile loop near Danville, Illinois on Saturday, August 11. I ran it in 2004 and had a blast. Fixed timed events are great events and a nice way to ease into ultra endurance performances. You can read more about these events at www.fans24hour.org and www.kennekuk.com .

Budd Glassberg is a resident of Zionsville who is active in the local running community. Visit www.runz.com for reprints of all his columns. You can reach him by email at budd@runz.com.