March 29, 2009 Get ready, get set: the 2009 running season is here The T-shirts, mugs and pens have all been delivered to the runners over in Afghanistan, along with a few other extra goodies. They are going to run the Capitol 10,000 this Sunday over there. It is good to see that they are staying fit and getting the benefits of some of the races here in Texas. Everything about the race seems to have worked out well. We had a video made of the race; and if you want to watch some of the runners out on the course, log onto videosomething.com and then click on the “Recreation & Sports” topic on the left side of the screen. If you ran the race, you might be able to see yourself in the video. It is only about four minutes long, so it is being used just as a promotion for next year. About the only thing left from the race is a number of awards left over. It seems a number of the award winners did not pick up their reward for finishing as one of the top three runners in their age group. I usually hear from some of them that had to leave early, but I have not heard from one award winner this year. While the soldiers over in Afghanistan are running the Capitol 10,000 this Sunday, there will be a large group of runners right here in Texas making the trek to Austin to take part in the race. It seems that the Capitol 10,000 sort of “kicks off” the running season for the year. There have already been a number of races at various locations, but now the official start can begin. If you have never entered this race, it is one that should be put on your schedule, if for no other reason than to say that you have entered and run the race and experienced the feeling of running in a very large race. I was thinking how during my running days that I ran the first 12 Capitol 10,000 races; and it kind of became an obsession to run the race. I was out of town on the 13th race; and since the streak was broken, I only ran it two more times. Runners are often obsessive in their running; and how fast, how many races, or keeping a streak alive becomes very important. Most runner wear a watch that has a stopwatch mechanism on it to record how fast they are running. I wore that watch; and it became a ritual to push the start button at the beginning of the run, and then stop it at the end and check the time. The difficult part of that was that, when you want to go for a leisurely “just put in the miles” fun run, the stopwatch often prevented this because you became concerned with the time no matter what the occasion. I finally took the watch off and left it in the house, so that a fun run was going to be just that. The only problem was that, just as I went out the door, I glanced at a wall clock to see what the time was; and when I finished the run, one of the first stops was in the house to see what the time was on the wall clock. It was not accurate by any means; but I still had an approximate time for my run. Then I would go for the cool-down walk and get some water afterwards. Now I was fairly bad about this time thing and running; but I remember having a couple of running partners who were even more obsessed than I was. On one run my running partner stepped on a rock and sprained his ankle. I can still remember him reaching up and stopping his time before he shouted, “Ouch!” Now that is dedication - timing only that portion of the run where you are running. He knew he was not going to be able to run with that ankle; and so the rest of the run did not count on his stopwatch. I was not with another friend of mine when this stopwatch importance occurred, but he related the story to me afterward. It seems he was running through town; and as he was passing a gas station, one of the cars parked there somehow came out of gear and started to roll toward the street. He knew that this was going to cause some real problems if the car continued. He stopped his watch, jumped into the car and put the brake on, and stopped the car before it went into the street. He then got out of the car, started his stopwatch and continued on his run. Riding in a car is not part of running, and should not count in the time for the miles put in. I am still amazed that, while preventing a possible major car crash, he still had the presence of mind to stop his watch first before acting to save the car. Some of us runners can be obsessive with this running thing. The important thing is to put the miles in; but just be aware that some of us like to know that we were running fast, or at least know how fast we were running. Dr. Maurice Johnson - better known around San Marcos as “Moe” - is a professor in the Department of Health, P.E., Recreation and Dance at Texas State University - San Marcos. Moe has been a fixture in the San Marcos running community - both as a runner and race organizer - since way back when Moby Dick was a minnow. His column on running and fitness appears each Sunday in the Sports section of the San Marcos Daily Record. • Recent “Running With Moe” Columns • Home • About the Club • Current News • Club Runs • Places To Run • TX Running Clubs • Running Links • Useful Stuff Upcoming Races • Race Results • Country Roads 10K & Kids Run • ARA-Moe’s Better Half Marathon • “Running With Moe” Contact Us!