Run with an Open Mind and Strong Body

Run with an Open Mind and Strong Body
By tom licciardello

I’ve been running the roads for 35 years and it’s been a wonderful 32 years.

Three years ago, a knee injury nearly derailed my love affair with running. Preparing for Ironman Kona, my doctor discovered a small tear in my meniscus that required a “minor repair”. From that point onward, each run was a pain management challenge, and, frankly, not much fun.

The singular focus of Ironman got me through the first year, but the next two years really tested my resolve. It finally got to the point where I would run only in races and then need three or more days of recovery to calm the screaming knee. I was advised to discontinue running marathons. I chose a different path with some help from friends.

Few friends have had a bigger impact on my life than Dave McGillivray, best known as the Boston Marathon Race Director, but he is so much more. His athletic accomplishments have always inspired me, and he convinced me that I could compete in Ironman Kona. I decided to believe him, and he made my entry a reality, something for which I could never thank him adequately.

That decision led me to Sharon Johnson, my triathlon coach. She taught me that being a triathlete means being an endurance athlete, and that means developing the core strength to handle a 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles on a bike, and then a 26.2 mile run.

Sharon and my training buddies got me to do things I never dreamed possible. A lifelong “sinker”, Sharon taught me the basics and made me proficient enough to swim across and back Stiles Pond - twice!

My running background served me well on the bike, and I was able to reduce the frequency of runs to fit in all of the other training.

Then I was introduced to an intensive strength training program. I began to develop strength I hadn’t seen since my days as a college wrestler, and I began to look like a triathlete! Sharon Johnson was the task master that conditioned me to succeed in the seemingly impossible goal of competing at Ironman Kona in 2007.

But then, I had to face the worsening knee pain. My runs became less frequent and the pace became agonizingly slow. The transition from being an age group contender to a “back of the packer” was discouraging, but the ongoing triathlon training kept me in the game.

Determined to not abandon running, I found a physical therapist sleuth, Greg Poznick, who discovered a muscle imbalance that was the underlying aggravation to my knee. His help made me believe I might find the road back to my running life.

Then came Chris McDougal’s book, “Born to Run”. Not only did it convince me that it wasn’t running that hurt me, but that with proper running form I could run without pain. Running barefoot or with the Vibram Five Fingers forced me to abandon the “heel-toe” style and adopt the mid-foot strike that our bodies were designed to execute. I’m running with a smile again.

This old dog has been taken to school. What could have been an end to my lifelong love of running was saved by training as an endurance athlete. The bonus is that I have had the opportunity to open new doors to ongoing fitness. As runners, we need to run; but to remain in the game as athletes we need to train the entire body.

The calendar page tells me that we have begun the first month of the second decade of the second millennium. The page is as clean as is the view of the year, and that means that we have another opportunity to grasp all that life has to offer. Keep the adventurers coming, and make cross training part of your 2010 plan.


New Book Review
“Marathon” by Hal Higdon

A few years ago, one of my best friends, Dana Summers (editorial cartoonist for the Orlando Sentinel), collaborated with running maven, Hal Higdon, to write a children’s book entitled “Run, Dog, Run”. I got a chance to know Hal and read a number of his books including the best selling “Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide”. Hal’s new release is “Marathon”, his first attempt at a novel.

I was fascinated by Hal’s novel depicting a behind the scenes look at the preparations leading to the 40,000 entrant “Lake City” marathon. Though the race director, Peter McDonald, and his event are inventions from the mind of Higdon, the tension and complexities of staging a major marathon are expertly captured. Part of Hal’s preparation, in fact, was being granted a great deal of behind the scene access to the Boston Marathon.

Juicing up the excitement is the mysterious “Celebrity X” – more famous than Oprah, a relatively unknown female contender, a world famous model who is running for charity, and American twins originally brought in as pacers who are cut free to run their own race. Each aspect not only creates an interesting twist, but complicates the task of directing the event.

If you haven’t had a chance to work on a major running event, read this book. You’ll have a new appreciation for the effort that goes into making a race successful. If you have volunteered on a major running event, read this book. You’ll recognize then thinly veiled characters in the book and appreciate the job Hal Higdon has done in capturing the essence in a totally entertaining way.