Once a Runner, Always a Runner

I obviously can’t break my addition to running. Even when I’m not running, which is 99% of the time; I still love a good running story.

Here’s a cool site that seems to exist simply to tell the stories of Minnesota runners. Last night I spent the better part of an hour reading through his stories. I loved the Steve Hoag story.

Steve Hoag was 2nd in Boston 1975, with a 2:11 – behind Bill Rodgers at 2:09:55 (where Bill stopped to tie his shoes several times). Steve went on to found Marathon Sports, a great old MN running store. Small world story, he now helps coach cross-country at Richfield High School – my alma mater.

For anyone interested in competitive running in Minnesota from a historical perspective, it’s a great interview. Can’t believe it’s “historical” since I lived it myself. Sigh!

Here's a sample:

I’m always curious what the “Old School” runners think about all the training terminology (lactate threshold, anaerobic threshold, tempo runs, heart rate monitors and the different zones, etc.) that gets thrown around now-a-days?

I admit I break out into a cold sweat when I hear terms like lactate and anaerobic threshold. We had days when we ran very hard for varying distances, we had intervals – long and short, we had long aerobic days of 15-30 miles and we had easy “filler” days to rest and help get our mileage totals up. We were just not real scientific about it.

Does he still run?

My “running” is based on the “gentleman’s 3”: slow, easy running for 3 miles, usually on trails or grass.

Sounds like me - The Hobbled Gentleman.