Quotables

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or a gazelle when the sun comes up you'd better be running. (But, unless you're a runner, you won't understand.)
~ Anon

Five More Perfect Runs

1. The perfect run is when I arrive late ( and I have) run w/o my inhaler and win my age group (and I have).

2. For me, the perfect run combines the elements of:

• A great setting (usually on a trail in the woods)
• Friends to share it with
• If it is a race, good results
• Pretty OK weathe

Three runs come to mind in the last year

• HAT 50K - my first sub 5 hour 50K trail run
• Escarpment 2001
• Quadbuster in the fall - 45 miles through PA, MD, VA and WV. It had all of the elements. I only ran half the miles and crewed the other half, but I made new friends, had fun running with old friends, loved the trail scenery and felt great doing it. Plus, there was no need to "race" the course.

Honorable mention: VHTRC Fat Ass 50K just completed recently.

8. July 4, 2000: This happened during the Peachtree Road Race after I had climbed Heartbreak Hill and was passing the Beer Mug...probably four-and-a-half miles or so into the 10K. The field was 55,000 strong, so even this far into the race the course was still congested. I passed this one real old guy who I'd seen before out at some of the local tracks, and I guess I must have cut in front of him and slowed down a bit because a few seconds later he pushed me on my shoulder and told me to get out of his way as he ran by me. Now I'm thinking, "alright old man, let's get it on!" So I hang with him for a half a mile and then he just picks it up and leaves me. I went on to run a little over 36 minutes, and (when I checked the results in the paper) he finished about 45 seconds ahead of me. After the race I met up with some friends from the Track Club (some who'd finished 5 and 6 minutes earlier), and we were recapping the race. I said, "Hey, you guys know that old guy who's out at the track sometimes? He pushed me out of the way and just crushed me in the last mile." One of them said, "You know who that 'old guy' is don't you? That's Dick Buerkle."

So it turns out I'd been bitch-slapped on the course by a former World Record (indoor mile) holder who once beat Steve Prefontaine. Pretty cool, huh...only at Peachtree. And now you know "the rest of the story." It still cracks me up when I think about it. After he shoved me I was like "that's it, I'm gonna kick your ass now." HA! Not likely.

9. The perfect run for me would be a 2:59 marathon with negative splits. It wouldn't be fun, it wouldn't be spiritual and it sure as heck wouldn't be pretty for the last 10km but it sure would be perfect.

10. While most any time of the year can result in a "perfect run" on the trail, I would say that the mostest perfect run would be just after a fresh snowfall of 3-6 inches, when the sun is glistening on the snow and I'm breaking the first track. Peaceful . . . quiet . . .

The Perfect Run - Five Ideas

Here are five inspirational thoughts on what makes the perfect run:

1. What makes a good run for me is to be able to say that I ran at all. It doesn't have anything to do with the distance or speed of the run or even if you are running on the trail, road or on a track - it's how you feel afterward. It's knowing that there was a time when you didn't run. It's time away from the kids, jobs, dogs, telephones, and answering stupid questions and away from the responsibilities that clog up life. It's a powerful moment when you realize that you are in total charge of what you are doing and your body is responding. It's total awareness of the situation. At some point you forget about the concerns of the day and suddenly are aware of yourself. You can feel yourself breathe, you can feel your heart beat and you can feel your legs moving as your run. Saying that we ran means we took time for yourself and that makes us all a bit less grumpy.

2. I think that the cool thing about the "perfect" run is that there is no consistency to what makes a perfect run. For instance - the perfect runs that stick out in my mind come down to falling in one or more of these categories:
*raining - snowing - hot as hell - windy
*trails - roads
*70 miles - 5 miles
*felt bad when I started - felt marvelous the whole way through
*ran by myself - ran with 10 others
*race - training run
So - I would say a run is "perfect" because it's
a) different!/new!/unique!
b) meets your needs / frame of mind at that instance in time.

3. My idea of a perfect run is running in Mt Gretna immediately after a new fallen snow. A two inch cushion of white under my feet as I glide through the mountain trails is my idea of great fun. A nip at my nose and the sound and sight of my breath sends my heart palpitating. To make it really special, I have to run up behind a big buck and send him prancing through the woods. The run ends ninety minutes later as sweat runs down the side of my face from the wool cap perched on top of my head. As I drive back home, I can't wait until I am back in the woods again.

4. The perfect run . . . I've only just begun . . . . (to run, last year about this time, and I'm fairly old !) Well, I would say the perfect run to me would be to find myself keeping up with Heidi Mobeus and placing somewhere in my age group. At this point, I would need to grow wings on my shoes to accomplish that. The perfect run . . . would be to experience the "picking off people coming down the home stretch" rather than having them passing me!

5. The perfect run? How about a marathon in which I don't collapse in the final five miles?