Morning Run or Musings from the Back of the Pack

Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda won the marathon at the London Olympics Sunday with a time of 2 hours, 8 minutes and 1 second. . . . How many hours of training? Pairs of shoes? Anecdotes? I was always at the back of the pack on those morning or afternoon runs. . . .

Years ago, the morning run with the Florida Track Club in Gainesville took us from the track, along Southwest 34th Street , by Lake Alice and to the old museum. Most runners did a second loop. The afternoon run usually went through University of Florida agricultural test fields beyond No Name Road, through a pig farm and past houses with lots of mean dogs. Any of you beginning runners can empathize—you have barely enough energy to complete the run and hope you will not have one more, hill, curb or untied shoelace. Plus, many of the people on these runs were Olympians or world or national champions—Frank Shorter, Jack Bacheler, Marty Liquori, Jeff Galloway, Dick Endris, Barry Brown, John Parker, Ken Misner and Byron Dyce. . . to name a few. I was so far at the back of the pack that I only learned of the memorable moments much later (my sister Margaret was a distance runner and kept the pace). Why Jerry perfected his elephant call. What happened to the new guy who challenged Jack to a fast-paced workout. Who carried the eggs to throw at swerving drivers. And who left the fake rubber snake on the running trail. . . . I would love to interview Kiprotich and hear his training anecdotes.