You Know How Bad it is For a Person to Run a Marathon?

I sincerely hope it won't be
a snowy first week of December

"It's not bad, but it's sort of ordinary and doesn't amount to much," The Lovin' Spoonful sang a couple decades ago. I've been feeling that way about the little turn my life has taken, the turn that landed me here in Indianapolis. In an attempt to counter that feeling I took up marathon training. The race is in three weeks, down in Morgan-Monroe Forest. I'm not quite sure if the training has lent much excitement to my life, but at least it's given me something to talk about and look forward to.

Here is a really cool video about Johnny CornDawg, a folk musician who's undertaking a marathon too; I identify with his sentiments right now. The video opens with a clip of him talking to himself:

Johnny CornDawg

"I hate this. There's so much build-up. I love running, I wish I could just go running and have fun, but marathons aren't fun, this is a nightmare. This is a bad idea. Such a bad idea. You know how bad it is for a person to run a marathon? It's twenty-six miles! What am I thinking? It's so stupid."


All cynicism aside, I did think it was a good idea at some point, and I guess maybe it is. We'll see how I'm feeling after the race is over.


Running seems to be a primarily US phenomenon that started in the 1970s. Forty years ago, almost no one had heard of a marathon. Then a United Statesian won the Olympic marathon. With the victory, the sport got a lot more attention; over the next two decades it's estimated 25 million US'ians took up running. Title IX (mandating women's access to athletic teams) took effect in 1972, and running was one of the areas women first excelled in.

However, when I was living in Chile, "running" was a mystery to most people, or an activity for the social and economic elite. I lived in the capital and saw a few runners here and there - there was even a running club I ran with occasionally -  but when I travelled outside of the capital I never saw another running soul - unless it was another gringo/a.

Are we in another running boom? It's hard to find a race that's not sold out; prices have doubled in the past 6 years it seems; I see more "technical" gear and shoes than ever before, and overall everything's just more crowded than I remember. And triathlons! It's crazy! Amateur, weekend warriors whose gear & bike costs amount to what I pay for half a year's rent, or more. What's going on here?

The influential spoken-word artist Gil Scott-Heron says this about running:

Because I always feel like running
Not away, because there is no such place
Because, if there was I would have found it by now
Because it's easier to run,
Easier than staying and finding out you're the only one...who didn't run
Because running will be the way your life and mine will be described
As in "the long run"
Or as in having given someone a "run for his money"
Or as in "running out of time"
Because running makes me look like everyone else, though I hope there will never be cause for that

I've been running for about six years now and I see no reason to stop (although I'll probably take a week or so off after the marathon).