Next week, I will share my observations from a few of the most amazing races I watched at the Olympics. Hopefully that will give everyone a chance to catch up with viewing all the races they want to see!
At the end of July, the Bix 7 in Davenport, IA celebrated their 50th anniversary. More than any other race, they have developed an amazing series of events leading up to the race day. If you want to meet Bill Rodgers and Joan Benoit Samuelson, make your way over there as they return for this race each year! Here’s a report from RE participant Jenny Johnson who completed her 20th Bix:
Beth and I got to do one of the Bix at 6 training runs a few weeks ago where they shut down the streets of downtown and probably close to 500 people do the training runs for 4 different weeks leading up to race week. There are even water stops along the course for runners.
Then the week of the race itself, we did the “senior” Bix on Tuesday – a flatter 2 mile get together for anyone over 50 along with all time legends Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter – the senior Bix was new this year for the 50th, but sounds like it’ll become a normal event during race week.
Thursday night is the Brady Street sprints, where you have to qualify for the sprints up Brady street hill (the notorious monster hill that the race starts up and finishes down) – they have age categories as well as high school team relays and relays for the major sponsors of the race, as well. It’s a very well attended event and is televised on the local station live that evening.
Friday we did the Bill Rodgers shake out run with Bill Rodgers, Joan Benoit, Meb Kefleghizi and Frank Shorter and got their autographs and pics etc. They’ve been doing this for a few years but with the 50th, all 4 were there and we started along the river where the city has statues of Bill & Joan and Bix Biederbecke himself, along with statues of the previous race directors etc. It’s a popular spot for race pics after the Bix as it’s also along the finish line festival.
Friday night is also the kids Jr. Bix
And Saturday is the main event – the regular Bix 7 as well as the Quick Bix which is a 2-mile race where you still go up Brady street, but then take a detour back down. With the big anniversary year, there was about 16,5000 runners/walkers this year. The crowd support is fantastic all along the course with slip & slides and hoses/water misters, bags of ice, neighborhood bands and lots of block parties and the biggest drinks & snacks post-race party you’ll ever see after a race!!!!
Special shout out also to RE participant Jimmy Stanziola who made the 6 hour trek for the 40th consecutive year to this race while once again placing as the top finisher for his age (as a 69 year old, he placed 6th with the ‘youngsters’ in his 65-69 year old age group)!
The Big Picture – Runners and Injuries, Part 1
When you’re young or new as a runner, you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s up to fellow more seasoned runners, health professionals, and coaches to help guide you so that you ultimately get out of running what you hoped over both the short and long haul.
Unfortunately, most of us that should know better, including those who write articles and books, don’t spend enough time & energy on the risk side of running to balance out the reward side of running. This leads to a high percentage of runners who are eventually forced out of running due to an accumulation of injuries or mental burnout which takes the fun out of it.
My hope is to talk about this over the next few weeks so that you can make better decisions regarding YOUR running goals, both for the short AND long term.
Up front, I strongly recommend that you take some time to reflect on these questions for yourself:
-Why do I run?
-Do I truly enjoy the simple act of running?
-If there were no garmins, watches, or devices to measure all the numbers involving running, would I still run?
-If you didn’t run, what sport or exercise would you do instead?
The stronger your reasons to the first question, the stronger the yes to the next 2 questions, and the more you do NOT have an answer for the 4th question, the more you should start focusing more on the risk side of your running, training, and racing goals. The reason for this is that injuries are the number 1 reason why runners stop running. The number 2 reason is burnout. Both have to do with doing too much for the mind and body to handle.
In our quest to achieve, we all have a tendency to focus too much on the reward and not enough on the risk to ideally balance it out from a 50/50 perspective. One injury may seem harmless, but that is far from reality, as each injury further increases your risk of another injury, setting off a chain reaction that will not end well in most cases.
Conversely, if your reasons to run are not that strong and you actually don’t enjoy the act of running too much or would not run if you couldn’t measure all the metrics either for yourself or everyone on social media, or could easily transition to other equally rewarding sports or forms of exercise, then you can afford to take more chances since not all your eggs are in the running basket. In effect, you can afford to consciously increase the likelihood of a short term running life.
So, get honest with what running means to you first and then proceed accordingly. There will be different lanes for different people. The goal is to find a lane that works best for you given your short and long term relationship with running.
Since I coach mostly folks who want to run as long as they can, the focus for the upcoming weeks will be on how to achieve more of a healthy balance between the risk & reward of your running, whether it be for maintenance or peak running, training, and racing goals.
Since we’ve been living in a world where the spotlight is too much on the reward and not enough on the risk, this will also be helpful for those who plan to stop running after they achieve their running goals 🙂
Ordinary People Achieving the Extra Ordinary – Peter Euler recently completed his long term goal of running a marathon in all 50 states. Here is his reflection on this journey.
When and where was your first marathon and how did it go?
Marathon to Marathon in Iowa, less than a month out of completing my college track/cross country career. It was a really small race and I went out too fast. I did finish second overall because it was a small race. The guy who still holds the all-time course record (the race was discontinued about 10 years ago) caught me at about mile 22 and passed me like I was standing still.
At what point did you decide on your goal of doing a marathon in all 50 states and why?
I started considering it around 2013 when a few guys from a local running club in Hays, KS mentioned it.
How long did it take you to complete your 50 states once you made this your goal?
A little bit over a decade. It was slow at first, but about 5 years ago, I set my goal as “50 States before 50.” I made it in June, and I turn 47 in August.
Describe your plan of knocking out all 50 states. How did you come up with the order of your states?
I didn’t have a specific plan, but I did focus mainly on states in the Midwest at first. I relied heavily on the website marathonguide.com to find races in states I hadn’t been too. Once I got to about the midway point, I started truly making plans.
What were your favorite marathons to run and why?
Three really stand out. Of course you can’t beat the atmosphere at Boston, which I have run three times. Oklahoma City was special because I actually won the inaugural race and of course I remember the OKC bombing late my senior year in high school. Overall atmosphere and course beauty, my favorite was Grandma’s in Duluth, MN.
Any marathons that made you wish you had chosen another one for that state?
Two come to mind, and one I did actually repeat because it was one of the first states I didn’t get under 4 hours. I hated Rock n Roll Las Vegas. The focus was clearly on the half marathon, which they kept mainly on the strip. But then there was a lot of redundancy to get it to full marathon distance. Groundhog Marathon was well over 4 hours, but I had nobody to blame but myself. I had a race in Mississippi scheduled, but it went virtual due to Covid, so out of spite, I ran Groundhog, in update Michigan in February. I’m a decent cold weather runner, but winter is Michigan is something else. It was 5 or 6-loop trail course and they got about 5 inches of fresh snow the night before, so the first loop was just patting down snow so we wouldn’t fall on our butts. I just ran out of gas the final lap.
List the largest, smallest, most unique, most scenic, most hilly, and most challenging weather marathons you ran
Largest was probably Chicago in 2009. Most unique and a little boring was the Circular Logic Marathon in Indiana and Boston Bound in Georgia. Both were literally 26 1-mile loops. Most hilly would have to be Sugarloaf in Maine. There was about 800 feet of elevation gain from miles 4-11 luckily, we got it all back in the second half and I managed to get that under 4 hours. Most challenging was definitely Groundhog.
What was your 50th state marathon? How did it feel to cross the finish line?
Final state was Missoula in Montana. I could tell it was not my day as I literally hit the wall at about mile 10. But no matter how tired I was, I wasn’t going to get a DNF on State 50. I walked a lot, but just kept focusing on finishing. It felt great to just get it done.
You also have been able to run a sub 4:00 marathon for most of your marathons. What happened with those you weren’t able to achieve your concurrent time goal?
I’ve had 8 states I didn’t get under 4 hours on the first try. The 3 I still need to get under 4 hours were all in the last year – WV, AK and MT. I think I honestly focused so much on just getting 50 states done that I overraced and undertrained (I’ve done about 30 fulls since returning from a deployment to Kuwait in November 2022; that’s way too many).
Do you have plans to go back these 3 states to get that sub 4? If so, will it be the same race or a different race for those states?
I do plan on getting those 3 under 4 hours, but am not in a hurry, and am not sold on repeating the same race.
Are you glad you did this? Why or why not?
I’m definitely glad I did it. It was fun, simply getting to see all 50 states. Being an Army brat, I always wanted to see all 50 states, and I saw quite a few as a kid. But getting to do it on my terms was fun.
What advice would you give someone who wants to run a marathon in all 50 states?
Enjoy the adventure and take your time. Try to schedule them around vacations or visiting local attractions. It has to be about more than the goal of just running.
What about someone who also wants to run a sub 4 for those 50 marathons?
Be patient and take your time, but also know that you won’t be fast forever. My first five marathon were well under 3 hours, but that was also in my first two years out of college. Make sure you get your long runs in, and absolutely don’t be afraid to run with pacers. Just like Runner’s Edge pacers, most of them are locals who know the courses well and have run them several times. They generally wouldn’t be pacing if they didn’t know what they were doing.
Please share any future running/racing goals you may have moving forward.
The one true endurance goal I still have is to complete a full Ironman. I’ve done a half Ironman, but this definitely takes some serious dedication. If I am going to do that, I really need to work on my swimming. That part takes so much out of you, especially if you are like me and are a horrible swimmer.
Streaker Update – Welcome to Michael Anderson who recently started a running streak and hopes to make it 1 year with a 1 mile daily minimum. Today will mark day #20! Congratulations to Laura May on reaching the 100 day mark!
Great job to the following people for keeping their daily exercise streaks going: Scotty Todd (463 days), Megan Hamilton (586 days), Ryan Kimbrell (727 days), Karen Hayse (953 days), Sarah Johnson & Sylvia Davison (1,165 days), Eric Leigel (1,399 days), Greg Schultz (1,538 days), Kenny Miller (1,539 days) Amanda Bradford (1,561 days), Kallie Flexman (1,562 days), John Pitzel (1,576 days), Rebecca Kandt (1,588 days), Dawña Garza (1,602 days), Chau Smith (1,605 days), Micah Jacobsen (2,154 days), Stephanie Michaelis (2,653 days), Tomi Duffett (2,825 days), Ken Skrien (3,031 days), Emily Lott Viebrock (3,175 days), John Crum (3,181 days), Cheryl Lentz (3,632 days), Ben Chan (4,154 days)!
We invite you to consider crafting any type of streak that helps you release stress while boosting your health and joining us for positive accountability but keeping it simple with trusting in the ‘honor system’. I’m happy to add you to our list!
Have a great week!
Eladio Valdez III