Posted on by wzwiener

Reasons to Participate in Events

The upcoming Spring Fever 5K/10K  in Altoona, Wisc. is a good reminder to me about the value of participating in run/walk events.

One benefit is that they help to keep us motivated in our training.

That is a point that was shared about at an ITC running club banquet a while back by former Spring Fever race director Mark Wise.

As a long-time runner, Mark said that he often gets asked how he stays motivated in his training.

“Sign up for a race,” Mark says.

Doing so helps to keep us motivated, he said, by giving us a goal to shoot for. It also gives us a financial incentive because most of us don’t want to see our money (entry fee) go to waste.

In addition to keeping us motivated, participating in run/walk events comes with a number of other benefits as well. One of these benefits is that they can be a great way to meet people.

I have made many good friends over the years in the hundreds of run/walk events that I have participated in. At the Spring Fever run a number of years ago, in fact, I met a guy named Jeff Miller who is now one of my best friends.

Jeff and I met in the same way that I’ve met many other folks through running events. After running near each other throughout much of the race, we chatted a bit after crossing the finish line.

I don’t remember much about our conversation, other than that Jeff asked about what I did for training.

When I told him that I did a weekly long on Saturday mornings, he asked if he could join me sometime. I said sure and gave him my phone number, not really expecting to hear from him.

Jeff followed up, though, and I will forever be glad that he did. Not only did we hit it off as training partners, a number of other good things came from our running together nearly every Saturday morning for over a decade.

One of the first good things to come of it was that we discovered we had a mutual friend who also was a runner. Pretty soon a wildlife biologist by the name of John Dunn was joining us on our Saturday morning long runs.

The three of us clicked and it wasn’t long before others joined us. Pretty soon our Saturday morning running group consisted of 10 to 15 runners.

We added a Tuesday night track workout to our weekly training regimen and that served to grow our group even further.

For a good 10 or 15 years, our Tuesday night and Saturday morning training groups were a great place to connect with friends and boost our fitness.

As we have aged, our Tuesday night track session has fallen by the wayside and our Saturday morning long-run group has dwindled in numbers. But one thing has remained the same—I have stayed close friends with many members of our Tuesday and Saturday groups, especially Jeff and John.

We get together most every 4th of July and Christmastime to catch up with each other. We also meet up every few months to do the same over dinner.

For a number of years, Jeff, his wife Jeanne and I traveled to Jeff’s hometown of Peoria, IL to run a 4-mile and 15K race called the Steamboat Classic. One of our goals every year—besides having a fun time visiting with Jeff’s family—was to place in our age group because the prize for doing so was a nifty “wooden Illinois.”

While my friendship with Jeff and Jeanne was forged through running, it has blessed me in many other ways as well. None more so than a little over a decade ago when I went through a hard time in my life.

Next to my family, it was Jeff and Jeanne who did the most to get me back on my feet again.

Which is only fitting, I guess. Because it was through a running event—Spring Fever—where I first met them. A running event that I will forever be glad that I signed up for.

So if you’ve been thinking about signing for a run/walk event, I encourage you to do so. Not only will it help to keep you motivated in your training, it might just introduce you to a lifelong friend.

Posted on by wzwiener

Happy Feet

This Sunday, March 1st my long-time running buddy Dave will be running his sixth of the six original “major” marathons.

He has already run Boston, Chicago, New York, London, and Berlin and will be running in the Tokyo Marathon.

Dave has been looking forward to his last major for quite a while now and it is for that reason that we both paid special attention to the results of last year’s Tokyo Marathon, which drew 37,000 participants from around the world. And why it was a topic of conversation during a Saturday morning long run about a year ago at this time.

Dave was more interested in the winning times of the 2025 Tokyo Marathon while I was more interested in the fact that Harry Styles had run it.

“Who’s Harry Styles?” Dave wanted to know.

He’s a musician who was in the popular “boy” band One Direction and now is a very successful solo artist, I told him.

That was news to Dave, as he mostly listens to classic rock and country. He seemed to be only mildly interested in Harry’s pop-star status but quite impressed to hear that the he had run a time of 3:24:07 at Tokyo.

I’m impressed as well. Obviously Harry has been doing a significant amount of time pounding the pavement in between cranking out hits such as “As It Was,” “Late Night Talking,” and “Adore You.”

Harry Styles’ running Tokyo got me thinking about some of the other musicians that I know of who are/were runners, such as Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and the late Joe Strummer of the Clash.

It also got me thinking about how closely related running and music always have been for me. I don’t run with ear buds, but I often have a good song going through my head while doing so.

I’m not sure if it’s music that helps to keep me running or running that helps to fill me with music. It’s probably a case of both.

Running and music do much the same thing for me. They help me to relax and to boost my mood. Some of my best runs are when I get a good song going through my head and get a case of what my late running friend Rick called “happy feet.”

It was Rick’s term for what is often referred to as “the zone” or “flow state.” It’s when things are clicking and our run feels easy and joyful.

Sometimes a case of happy feet on the run brings a fast time. Sometimes it brings a good time. Sometimes it brings both.

Here’s hoping that Dave gets a good song in his head while running the Tokyo Marathon this Sunday. It most likely won’t be a Harry Styles song, but hopefully it is a song that gives him a case of happy feet.

Posted on by wzwiener

Hydration is Good for the Nation

During a recent hot (85 degrees or so) and humid 9-mile run I found myself conjuring up some memories related to hydration.

One memory dates back to an event that I worked at a decade or so ago.

It was a “Safety Days” vendor demo that highlighted home and childhood safety products. A band called “McGruff and the Crime Dogs” played at the event and one of their songs was called “Dehydration is Bad for the Nation.”

This song popped into my head during the recent hot and humid run, probably because about halfway through it I was starting to feel pretty parched. The nearest water fountain—or “bubbler” as they are referred to by some here in Wisconsin—was at a park several miles up the road.

Fortunately I was able to make it to the park without any issues other than slowing considerably and sweating profusely. As I was rehydrating at the fountain I caught sight of another runner passing through the park, who turned out to be longtime friend John Konkel.

Our first and only topic of conversation was—you guessed it— the heat and humidity. John mentioned Grandma’s Marathon that was taking place that morning and how the last time he ran there it was a “black-flag” event.

An event that is black-flagged means that it is cancelled while a yellow flag means to proceed with caution and red with extreme caution.

John’s mention of Grandma’s brought back another memory I have related to hydration.

The last time that I ran Grandma’s—also my last marathon—I don’t believe there was yet any kind of flag system used for rating distance-event weather conditions.  There also wasn’t near as much knowledge about the importance of staying hydrated.

As I recall, it was a sunny, fairly warm day—probably in the low 60s. Besides that I don’t remember much other than that I finished the marathon and the last few miles seemed to take forever.

Back at my motel room afterwards, it wasn’t long before I had a splitting headache and was throwing up. I spent a long, miserable afternoon lying in bed with a cold rag on my head while learning a painful lesson about dehydration.

A couple of my takeaways from that unpleasant experience were that the marathon is not for me and that it’s important to take in fluids during a distance event.

During my last warm-weather race—the Steamboat Classic 15K in Peoria, Ill.—I stayed hydrated by doing something that I never would have dreamed of doing back during my more competitive days of running. I took the time to stop at the water stops and take in fluids.

It’s something that I’d never done before because I always figured that I’d lose too much in the way of finishing time and place.

What I found out, though, was quite the opposite. Whatever time and place I lost by stopping to take a drink, I more than gained back after I resumed running. Taking the time to stay hydrated, I learned, can definitely save time in the long run.

More importantly, I’ve learned that staying hydrated can save a lot of suffering. Not just in running but in life. As anyone who has been dehydrated can tell you, it is not a pleasant experience. Not to mention that it can lead to a whole host of health issues.

McGruff & The Crime Dogs are right–“Dehydration is Bad for the Nation.”

It’s almost always a good idea to take the time to take a drink of water.