Running Shorts

Disclaimer: This is a history post...I am a history teacher, after all. You're about to get a history lesson. Fair warning. Last year around Thanksgiving, I wrote a brief cumulative history of Cincinnati's 100+ year-old Thanksgiving Day Race . It's a great local tradition that I look forward to racing every year; however, it turns out that most cities and towns have their own turkey trot traditions. (Heck, Buffalo's race is even older than Cincinnati's.) For thousands of runners across the country, road races are a Thanksgiving tradition. We don't often think of them like that, but the community turkey trot belongs in the conversation with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and football as Thanksgiving staples. As it turns out, we can trace the legacy of running (racing) all the way back to the first Thanksgiving in 1621. Running has a stronger tie to the initial holiday than stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, etc - foods which weren't served at t...

Source: Cincinnati Enquirer archive - http://www2.cincinnati.com/blogs/running/category/100-footprints/ On Thanksgiving morning in 1908, 21 men took off from the Fort Thomas Central YMCA, winding their way through Northern Kentucky and across the Ohio River into Cincinnati. 18 men reached the finish outside the downtown YMCA at 7th and Walnut streets. The winner that year -- as he was for the next four installments -- was Lovell Draper, covering the approximately 7-mile course in 37:15 and winning by over three minutes. (For some perspective, in that 7-mile race, Draper's 10k split would have been about 33:00, which would have been good enough for 11th place in last year's race , out of 14,259 total finishers.) While some cities celebrate Thanksgiving with a parade of floats, balloons, and bands, Cincinnati celebrates the holiday with a parade of runners. This is the abridged story of a local tradition. Before I go any further, the astute reader might point out that,...

So now that it's mid-September (what?!), I just realized I should probably post my planned fall racing schedule. My last race of the spring was the Hyde Park Blast ( read about it here ), which ended on a bit of a downer. Trying to push through a nagging hamstring injury, my spring races didn't end as well as I hoped they would. Since then, I've taken about 2 months away from racing, instead getting in some quality training. My hamstring is fully recovered and healthy, my mileage is back up in the 90+ per week range, and I'm running regular 20 mile long runs, 60 minute aerobic threshold runs, and hill repeats. Training's going great, and I've been feeling great during it. With that said, I've actually technically started my fall season. Two weekends ago, I ran the Zero Prostate Cancer 10k here in Cincinnati. This year was the first year this race has offered prize money: $250 for both the men's and women's winner of the 5k and the 10k. I chose t...

Disclaimer: pardon my French. I don't want to win unless I know I've done my best, and the only way I know how to do that is to run out front, flat out until I have nothing left. Winning any other way is chicken-shit.                                                                                            - Steven Prefontaine, Without Limits Anyone who's been running any moderate amount of time - especially if you ran in high school - is probably familiar with Prefontaine. He's the gateway drug for young runners learning about the his...

Cincinnati is home to one of the more unique Thanksgiving traditions in the country: the Thanksgiving Day Race . Sure, most every city, town, and village has their own turkey trot in the morning; Cincinnati's is unique in it's longevity. Ever since 1908 (with only two years' exceptions), runners have dashed through the streets of Downtown and Northern Kentucky. This 104-year history makes Cincinnati's race the sixth-oldest race in the country - and the oldest in the Midwest. While in one year the race had less than ten runners, numbers now usually approach (or even top, if the weather is nice) 10,000. This year, due to some construction in the Downtown area, the 10k loop has changed (well, mostly just the first few miles and the home straightaway. ( Here is this year's course map ) Since I'm obviously not carrying a camera or anything while I'm racing, Dani and I drove the course this weekend and snapped some photos, thinking I'd take you on a tour ...