a few questions
My husband and I might co-author a book on running … a sort-of insiders guide … and I was thinking on my run today of all the “inside” things I do and say about running that maybe no one else does.
Does anyone else refer to the “cheater peel” when you take off an article of clothing for the last interval (ostensibly, to run faster)?
Does anyone else call intervals that descend (i.e. mile, 1,200m, 800m, 400m) “easy ladders”?
Does everyone run with a stick - swirling in a circular motion out in front of you- if you’re running on trails? (otherwise, you eat spider webs)
Does everyone know to yell “TRACK!” if you are coming up on someone in lane one - so they’ll move over? I did this once to some guy who was wearing a walkman that I couldn’t see. I screamed, “TRACK TRACK TRACK!” and when I ran by him, in lane two, he said, “Why are you yelling at me?” Apparently, he didn’t know the rule.
Does anyone else dry their wet shoes by placing them on the floor in front of the refridgerator door over night?
Does anyone else use the term “junk miles” when you are adding on slow minutes after work-outs to pad your weekly mileage?
Does anyone know the difference between a track geek and a running geek?
Does anyone know the secret shoe-tying technique to keep you from getting tendonitis on the top of your foot (and, if you are narrow-footed, to keep the shoe from slipping)?
How many ways can you say you are hurting? Rigging, Dying, Bonking, Hitting the wall, Running out of gas, Thrashed, Crushed, Wrecked, Shattered, Hammered, I-feel-li-shi (said as one word, in one breath) … and my personal favorite, “torn and frayed” (a la Mick Jagger).
Does anyone know the trick to keep from having to explain a bad race? As soon as someone asks, “How’d you do?” simply say, “Fine - how was your race?” and you’re off the hook; they will never ask you another thing about your race b/c everyone prefers to talk about him/herself.
Does anyone else put ice (or ice water) on the back of your neck to cool off quickly?
Does anyone else shower with baby wipes or change into dry clothes at stop lights?
Does anyone else run with a petzel headlamp at night in the winter?
And the beat goes on …
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I personally would not run with a stick in my hand on the trails. Guess I’d rather have a mouthful of spiders than a stick in my eye. In addition to an insider’s guide, it could be a dictionary for new runners so they can translate all the strange terms and references they hear at group runs and races without asking too many questions in a large group of veterans. Good luck!
Comment by John — 8/16/2005 @ 10:17 am
Yeah, a dictionary’s a good idea. One time we were telling a “novice” about Prefontaine. When we said that he died the novice thought we meant he was in the lead and “died” to fourth place. NO, no, he died. In a car crash.
We also told this kid that Serge Bubka was a pole vaulter at Tennessee and he believed us. Veterans are mean.
Comment by Joan — 8/16/2005 @ 12:06 pm
These are awesome. Just a note on the last one–I run with a Petzel head lamp on fall and winter early mornings, not nights!
Comment by Becky — 8/18/2005 @ 8:49 pm
On the subject of ways can you say you are hurting, among sportscasters, I think none are better than cycling’s Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, with classics like:
- wearing the mask of pain
- his legs have turned to rubber and his effort reduced to mere survival
Unfortunately, most of their sayings could be used to describe my recent training runs.
Comment by Steve — 8/19/2005 @ 5:27 pm
Sure, dry any shoes in front of the fridge. Growing up, it wasn’t a winter evening without my father’s tall gum-rubber work boots drying in front of the fridge. (Then he got soapstone thingies he’d put on the woodstove during the day, then drop in his boots when he took them off at the end of the day. I guess someone objected to the smell.)
We borrowed terms from swimming for the “rig” at the end of a 400 or 800: The Bear (on your back,) The Fridge (which someone handed to you on the back corner) or The Piano Effect (the one being dropped on your back.)
Comment by pjm — 8/31/2005 @ 9:58 pm