I never thought much about eras. I understand that time moves on and things change. I don’t use a rotary phone anymore – or even a “Princess” phone for that matter. I don’t have to check my oil every time I stop for gas – heck – I’m not even sure my car has a dipstick. And I don’t have tin foil on my TV antenna so that the picture is clearer. So, yes, I get it. But I never thought of myself as having lived in – and through – an era until I was interviewing my friend and…
They say a photo is worth a thousand words. This photo is actually worth over 160,000 words. 18 years. 12 columns a year. 750 words per column – give or take. And that’s just the written words. There’s no way to calculate the number of spoken words over the course of the past 18 years. From small gatherings in running specialty stores to hundreds of people at race expos to thousands of Team in Training participants at inspiration dinners I’ve talked to, tried to inspire and motivate, and made giggle more people than I could possible count. This December that…
The Long And The Short Of It Although the miles may pass slowly, the logbooks fill up fast. A running life, re-examined. By John “The Penguin” Bingham Published November 2, 2006 When my twin grandchildren were born, my son and daughter-in-law worried that they would never get past the constant care and feeding of the babies, the lack of sleep, and just the general chaos. I told them that, from my experience as a parent, the days were long but the years were short. I was reflecting on this when I realized that the end of 2006 marked the end…
Imagining the worst is never best By John “The Penguin” Bingham Published August 14, 2007 A few weeks ago, I was running on my brand spankin’ new treadmill, which currently resides in the middle of my living room in Chicago. It’s a fairly high-end model with lots of bells and whistles: one-touch pace adjustment, instant elevation options for both incline and decline, built-in television screen. About the only thing this machine doesn’t do is run the workout for you. During this particular run, I found myself struggling early on after setting the pace at four miles per hour (an easy 15-minute-per-mile jog). My…
Most days I love my job. I’m not always happy when I’m repacking a carry-on bag that I just unpacked, but for the most part traveling to races around the country, meeting runners and walkers of all shapes, sizes, ages, and abilities is very satisfying. Even more so, lately, I’ve enjoyed getting to spend time talking to, and learning from, the sport’s very best. Recently, in a conversation with Deena Kastor, arguably the greatest runner of this generation, I asked her about her early running days. She said she knew at 11 years old that she had talent. And that…
I may waddle when I run, but I’m running all the same. The late Dr. George Sheehan, beloved “Runner’s World” columnist and arguably the first running boom’s premier philosopher, once wrote that the difference between a runner and a jogger was a signature on a race application. (For the youngsters out there, there was a time before online registration when you actually filled out a paper application, signed it, attached a check, and mailed it in. Quaint, I know.) As succinct as Dr. Sheehan’s definition was, it made the point. If you were motivated enough to train for and participate…
Stacking the Deck Imagine a marathon in shorts and a singlet in the shadow of a 10,000 year old glacier. The 2001 Antarctic Marathon, or The Last Marathon as it is called, was exactly that way. I know. I was there. But I’m getting ahead of myself. When Thom Gilligan, of Marathon Tours, called to ask if I wanted to run with a bunch of penguins, I said “Sure!”. When he explained that the penguins were in Antarctica and that the only way to get to the race site was by flying to the tip of South America and then…
At the Antarctica Marathon, you must sometimes deal with defeat before knowing if you’ve succeeded. There’s a reason why Antarctica was the last continent on which a marathon was staged: The chance for success there is always overshadowed by the near certainty of failure. Even the greatest Antarctica explorers have learned this the hard way. Some, like the legendary Ernest Shackleton, whose ship, the Endurance, was trapped for 10 months in the waters off the continent, are remembered more by the magnitude of their response to hardship than by the scale of their success. The Antarctica Marathon offers runners the…
After suffering through one of the coldest and snowiest winters in a long time, I needed to read about something different. Sometimes going too far is just far enough Running is a dangerous activity. It’s not that running itself is so dangerous, but being a runner allows you to consider doing things that an ordinary person wouldn’t even think of doing. At least this is how I’m explaining my latest foray into the abyss of my own ignorance. I suppose it was mostly a matter of being naive, but looking back it just seems plain stupid. I’ve always had a…
As one of the finish line announcers for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Series, I see a lot of people cross the finish line. In 2013 we estimated that I’d seen well over 200,000 people finish a half, or full, marathon. Most finishers just make their way across the line without much fanfare. There’s the occasional screaming and fist pumping. Once in a great while someone will do a cart-wheel across the line. [bad idea, by the way, because the timing mat may not record your time] But this past Sunday, at the P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Half Marathon…