Running/Resolutions/Poorly Written Books

Last year (2009) I made a NY resolution to run a half marathon. In October, right after I completed my first half marathon (Run Like Hell in Portland), I got excited and immediately registered for the 2010 Portland Marathon. No need to make a full marathon my resolution for this year, I’m obviously going to do it because I paid something ridiculous like $100 for it, but I would like to be in shape for it. And to beat everybody. So this year my resolution is to run at least 25 miles a week, for the entire year. So far it’s going pretty well, I ran 4 miles on Sunday, so just 21 miles to go for the week. I’m probably going to take care of about 12 of those tonight also, on the treadmill at 24 hour fitness while I watch the Biggest Loser with Laura for two hours. Yesterday I meant to go outside and run but it was raining, and why run in the rain when you can run in not-rain and watch motivational tv at the same time?

I asked for books on running for Christmas, and one of them that I got was My Life On the Run, by Bart Yasso, who has some fancy job at Runner’s World Magazine. It’s a pretty terrible book. At least it’s terrible writing. Which I guess is fine, because apparently he barely graduated from high school, but it says that somebody named Kathleen Parrish helped him, which is too bad for her, because I would not want my name on that book. The whole book is about all the awesome runs he went on and little anecdotes that all involve other people coming up to him and telling him how great he is, so he doesn’t have to come outright and say it, but can still slip it in there. He has done some pretty cool stuff, but the writing is so boring that it’s hard to get too excited about it, and just sounds like bragging. Then every once in a while he’ll end a chapter with something like “running isn’t about how far you go but how far you’ve come,” or “the experience has been etched in their minds as a shining moment of possibility,” in some sort of attempt to convey how meaningful running has been for him. Which is helpful, because otherwise it’s hard to pull any profound thoughts out of My Life On the Run. Mostly the message sent is that Bart Yasso is a really good runner. Not great, like Olympics great, but really, really, good. None of this really bothers me though, because I still like hearing about other runners’ stories and races they’ve done, even if they’re not the best at writing about it – it’s inspiring either way.

I’m a little concerned about writing a blog about my running experiences, because I just saw the movie Julie and Julia, and what it did to Julie’s personal life. I had no idea that blogs could be so disruptive to someone’s personal life – breaking up their marriage, almost getting fired… Good thing I have no marriage or a full time job to get fired from. But who knows what else might happen – if I learned one thing from that movie, it’s to never underestimate the destructive powers of a blog.

Miles run this week: 4
Miles run in 2010: 4