Falling Down the Thames Blog 17, 9th July 2014
Born to Run
I suppose that I should blame the late Pierre Trudeau. In the early 1970s, the Canadian prime minister nationalized a private non-profit company called Participaction in an attempt to convince Canadians to adopt a healthier lifestyle. At the time it was said that the average thirty-year-old Canadian was in the same state of fitness as a sixty-year-old hedgehog. Or it may have been a sixty-year-old Swede. I have forgotten; it was a long time ago.
If it wasn’t for Trudeau, I probably would have grown up slobby, fat and happy. And I probably would have been dead by now. Happy and dead. But I was a gullible youth in the early 1970s, and with the federal government screaming at me to stop watching television and “Do it, do it, do it!” I became fit instead. It turned out that I had a modest talent for running.
As part of our grand UK paddling adventure, known affectionately as Falling Down the Thames, Krista and I have decided to run the London Marathon in 2015. What follows is a greatly abbreviated version of my London Marathon training log.
Friday 15 September 1967: Was told by my elementary school physical education teacher that I should skip my YMCA swimming lessons to run a cross-country race. Went to the swimming lessons anyway.
Friday June 2 1972: First had my name in the newspaper for doing well in a track race. Found that I kind of liked the notoriety.
Sunday 5 August 1973: Ran 30:09 to win the “Midget” category in the Íslendingadagurin five-mile race in Gimli, Manitoba.
Sunday 17 June 1979. Ran my first marathon, finishing in 433d place in a time of 3:51 in Winnipeg.
Glen winning the Saskatchewan marathon
Sunday 4 October 1981: Won the Saskatchewan Marathon in a time of 2:42 in Saskatoon.
Sunday 1 May 1983: Set a personal record of 2:35 in the Vancouver Marathon.
Sunday 12 April 1987. Won the Sunshine Coast half-marathon for the third consecutive year. Organizers let me keep the trophy.
Friday 29 June 1990. Won the All Out Ostrich Uproar 5 kilometre race in Los Angeles. Was given an ostrich egg as a trophy.
Late September – early October 2000: Ran 300 km from Edmonton to Calgary in six days to raise money for the fight against breast cancer.
Sunday 6 October 2002: Ran 105 kilometres in 24 hours to raise money for the same cause.
Sunday 19 July 2009: Ran the Óshlíð Half Marathon in Ísafjörður, Iceland. Got mobbed by nesting seabirds.
Sunday 21 July 2013: Krista and I ran the Pattaya (Thailand) Half-marathon. Agreed that it was the worst race since Phidippides in 490 BCE. Phidippides died.
Sunday 8 September 2013: While on a short training run, developed a stabbing pain in my right knee. This was later revealed by an MRI to be a torn meniscus.
Monday 9 September 2013: Started getting fat.
Thursday 30 January 2014: Had arthroscopic knee surgery for torn MRI.
Thursday 6 February 2014: Surgeon gave the green light to resume cycling. Started getting thinner.
Thursday 27 February 2014. Was told that I could begin “walking for exercise.” Didn’t admit that I had started walking for exercise ten days earlier.
Thursday 27 March 2014. Resumed running.
Friday 28 March 2014. Kept running.
Etc.
Bring on the 2015 London Marathon!
- Glen
Photo Credits: Participaction Logo - www.canadiandesignresource.ca; Glen winning the Saskatchewan Marathon – www.saskmarathon.ca; Glen receiving the trophy for winning the Gibson-Sechelt April Fools Run for the second time in a row – www.foolsrun.ca; “Do it! Do it! Do it!” courtesy of Alaskan Dude (www.flickr.com/people/72213316@N00)