Thursday, May 29, 2008

What About Those Philly Beer Runs, you asked

The number of people asking me about running lately has increased. With the exception of a certain someone saying something to the tune of "what is it with you and running anyway? I have a saying, 'don't ever trust a skinny beer writer'", they've all been very positive and supportive comments. Let's see... Only after my second marathon did I finally begin calling myself a runner. And, a beer writer? Well, I certainly write about beer, but I know quite a few people that would stop short of sticking the beer writer label on me with all of the predisposed conclusions that people make about beer writers. But, skinny? No way. Relative to others that write about beer? Well, I'm certainly skinniER...but, I'm far from what pops to people's minds when they think of skinny! Let's cut to the factual stuff. I've been dealing with lower back disc ailments over the past few months. In fact, my last run of any significance was the Philly Beer Run that I took a group of around 20 runners on during the second to last day of Philly Beer Week 2008. What a great time that was. But this disc thing has been a blow to my young-at-heart ego that I can't wait to get past. Anyway, it was so great of a time, that it's finally time to try another one. I'm only going to ask that you send a note to me if you'd like to be included on an e-mail distribution list for Philly Beer Runners. I don't wish to clutter up this space with too much talk of running. I realize that many of you couldn't care less about my running exploits. Now that I'm almost healed (said with fingers crossed and knocking on wood and all of that other superstitious stuff), I'm finally ready to begin my 2008 marathon training. (I'm planning to do Philly in the fall.) Each week, I'll do a progressively longer run....called surprisingly, the Weekly Long Run. Since I'm starting from virtually nothing, the first week will be just a few miles. My plan is to let the distribution list know each week via e-mail where I'll be doing the long run and what the route will be. There'll be no commitment on either end. In other words, I'll leave at a certain time with whomever shows up. And, I won't be providing any type of support other than morale....which often is the best kind of support in this kind of training. Then, occasionally, I'll be conducting a Philly Beer Run much like what we did during Philly Beer Week. If you don't know what that was...basically it was a run from point to point, with beer involved in the cool down stage at the end. I'm picturing General Lafayette (Fairmount Park/Forbidden Drive), South Philadelphia Tap Room (city scape), and Ortino's (Schuylkill River Trail) just to name a few. These will be more of a fun run atmosphere, as opposed to training, with a sweet reward at the end. So, there you go; that's where I'm at with running lately. Not so much over the past few months, but a lot more over the upcoming months. Do you want to be part of it? Drop me a line if you do. As for the skinny comment? I'll chalk that up to humor, I suppose, and pretend that he really does appreciate and trust my writing efforts!

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