Running 4 Your Life

My parents were philosophers. Not philosophers in the traditional sense of the word but probably in the same way that many of your parents were also. But we didn’t appreciate their wisdom until we got older when we realized that their simple teachings formed our values.

One of the things that my mama used to say was, “Everywhere you go, people are as nice to you as you are to them.” I’ve followed that value my whole life, and I hope that I’ve passed it on to my own kids. I have found this principle to be true everywhere I’ve ever been. (more…)

As we traveled through the streets of Mumbai, India yesterday (with the help of a driver and a historian), we visited the home of Mani Bhavan, a friend of Gandhi ’s with whom Gandhi lived in Bombay from 1917-1934. The home has since been converted into a Gandhi Museum, and the room in which Gandhi stayed is exactly as it was, complete with the actual spinning wheel that Gandhi used. Gandhi started many peace movments from this room in his quest to liberate India from the British.

A torchbearer for non-violence, Gandhi still represents a symbol for peace throughout the world. Just seeing his simple surroundings and the mat he sat upon, I could still feel a sense of calm and peacefulness.

On September 13, three of my friends - Matt, Amber, and Chele - ran a marathon. Matt ran the Salmon Marathon (Salmon, Idaho); Amber and Chele ran the Timberline Trail Marathon (Mount Hood). For all of them, it was their 2nd marathon.

By all standards, these three runners would be considered novices - as is the case with any sport in which you have been competing for only a few years. But, the great thing about running - anywhere - is that we are part of a community of runners where it doesn’t matter if you have run 1 marathon or 41 marathons…if you run a 2:48 or a 5:48…you are a special and equal member of that community. And, runners everywhere support each other - fast or slow, old or young, novice or veteran.

Amber said, “It’s awesome how a group of runners can jump into conversations with each other so easily.” Chele said of running with Amber, “…to share it with a friend made it all the sweeter.” Matt met runners at the pre-race pasta party and ran with them the next day in the marathon. I talked with Matt the afternoon of the race, and he was on “Cloud 9.” Four days later, when I talked to him again, he was on the same cloud.

Runners often have an instant connection with each other. I’ve run races in which I was “with” the same runners for almost all of the 26.2 miles. You share a certain kinship with them - maybe because you know it’s as hard for them as it is for you - and you find yourself helping them get to the finish line because in a strange way, their success is also yours.

Running is technically a solitary sport. But it is the supportive running community that keeps us running. I’m so happy for Matt, Amber, and Chele that they had such wonderfully inspiring experiences. Running a marathon is hard, and it’s a monumental achievement. I am even more inspired every time one of my friends runs another marathon.

Matt, Amber, and Chele: Thanks for the inspiration!

Wow! What a whirlwind it has been over the past couple of weeks. I haven’t posted in over a week. I have found myself “stressing” over so many things to do and not enough time to do them…until I took a dose of my own medicine. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

I have spent the last week prioritizing - with the first priority being helping my daughter move to L.A. Good news: she’s all moved in. She flew to Boise to buy a car here, and I drove with her to L.A., helped her get settled, and flew back. For those few days, I was without a computer - which was kind of nice in its own way. What DID we do before we were “connected” 24-7?

So, now that I’m getting back on track - taking one bite at a time - I’m heading to Mumbai, India for 10 days - part work, but all fun. I will have my computer with me, and I plan to post to my blog as I discover the many wonders of a new place.

Coach Joe Henderson said of Dick’s camp, “We come as strangers, and we leave as family.”

Pat Loebach, a friend of mine whom I met at the inaugural camp in 2003, said, “I came to came to be a better runner; I left a better person.”

This is what Dick’s camp is about. It is a running camp, but it’s not just about running. Sure, we practiced strides, ran hills, learned about lactate thresholds, and some even set PRs in Dick’s 1/2 marathon on Saturday. But we also made new friends and invited them to stay at our homes to run races in our cities. And, unlike offers that people often make when they say, “You’re welcome to come stay at my house,” we actually take each other up on their offers to visit.

It’s always good to go home after being gone for a week, but it’s also hard to leave camp. What makes it easier is that I know I will be talking to my new friends through email, phone calls, and meeting up with them again at races all over the world.

At camp this year, I gave a talk on “Running & Friendship,” and I enumerated the dozens of friends that I have made just through connections at Dick’s camp. I met Jan Seeley - without whom there would not be a Dick Beardsley Marathon Camp - at the Napa Valley Marathon expo in 1998.

So, to Jan, I say “Thank You” for making all these friendships happen. And now that we have completed yet another camp, I am so fortunate to add many new friends to my “list” of running friends.

One of the speakers this morning at Dick’s Marathon Running Camp was Coach Roy Herron. His talk was entitled, “Mental Marathoning: Using Your Head to Get the Most Out of Your Feet.” If you’ve ever run a marathon - or any kind of challenging event for that matter - you know that the mental component of it is as important, or even more important, than the physical part.

In our earlier roundtable discussion about how to deal with bad patches in a race, Coach Bill Wenmark said that your race is often determined by your attitude at the starting line. This tied in well with Roy’s talk.

Roy shared with us his own mental tricks, magic words, and mental marathoning stories, then invited us to share ours. One of the great things about camp is that we learn so much from everyone here. Just at this camp alone with coaches and campers combined, we have run over 700 marathons. That’s 700 opportunities to learn something. We may never fully realize the impact that one of our experiences may have on another nor theirs on us.

Every September, a group of about 30 campers and 8 coaches get together for a week long running camp. Most people ask in wonder, “A running camp? You go on vacation for a week to run?” I usually answer, “It’s not just to run - we have seminars, roundtable discussions, some group runs, and a ton of fun. Ok, so we do run a 1/2 marathon at the end of the week.” That usually confirms to them that there are some really crazy folks out there.

In 2003, I went to Dick’s inaugural camp as a camper. After that, I started going as a coach. When you hear “marathon camp,” you might think that everyone there is an elite runner. Not the case. We have runners, walkers, people who have never run a marathon but want to, and people who have run 100s of marathons. We are all ages, all sizes, all abilities, all speeds, all walks of life. But the one thing we have in common is that we all love to run and to be around others who love to run.

We generally have about 30 campers, some of whom have been to camp before. Every year, we make new friends - real friends who meet in other places throughout the year to run races together, who open their houses to each other, and who truly “stay in touch.” Some of the returning campers come back for the primary reason of reuniting with their friends once a year.

Joe Henderson, one of the coaches at camp, said, “We come as strangers, and we leave as family.” So, you see, we do go to Dick’s camp to run, but it is much more than just a running camp…