ryan kennedy’s blog

In August 1992, Dean Karnazes ran 30 miles on his 30th birthday. I can’t say I will exactly duplicate his effort (Dean was drunk and wearing only a t-shirt, underwear and running shoes), however I’ve made a 30 mile run my goal for my 30th birthday. It might sound like insanity, but one thing I didn’t mention in my Five things you (probably) didn’t know about me post is that I ran cross country in junior high and high school.

The question inevitably becomes, “why would you do that?” The short answer is, I don’t know. I don’t feel any really compelling reason to do it…I just want to. In the past, I’ve always been up for all sorts of hair-brained ideas. The problem is, I’ve never really followed through on them. In some cases I get bored, others frustrated and often times that’s all it takes to turn me from determined to disinterested.

In a recent Wired article. Dean gave 12 pieces of advice. Here’s how I plan to apply that advice to my endeavor.

1. BE AUDACIOUS: Nothing says audacious to me like starting the year an out of shape computer programmer and finishing it having completed a 30 mile run. I’m overweight, out of conditioning and I let my job dominate my life. If the training alone can’t kill me, surely the event itself might. On the other hand, if I come through it successful, who knows…
2. GO LACELESS: Buy new running shoes…check. My last pair were due for replacement anyway. Of course, if I’m going to be training for this, I’m guessing I’ll go through several pairs of shoes between now and my birthday.
3. FLIRT WITH DISASTER: Given my current conditioning, I’m guessing disaster will be my mistress for the next couple of months. You want some more potential for disaster? My birthday is in August. Nothing like trying a 30 mile run at the height of summer. Thankfully, I don’t live in Sacramento anymore.
4. EAT JUNK – LOTS OF IT: The only thing more audacious than running 30 miles is ordering a pizza to be delivered to you during said 30 mile run. If you see some guy running on the mean streets of the Silicon Valley on August 5th, pull up alongside and hand him a bag of doughnut holes or something.
5. CUT BACK ON SLEEP: Way ahead of you, man.
6. SHOW YOUR BODY WHO’S BOSS: There’s a quote in the Wired article that I love. “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!” I think I can accommodate the “used up” and “worn out” part of that after the run. The loud proclaiming will probably come after I finally get to use a restroom (or perhaps during its use).
7. GET A COOL WATCH: Dude, I had a cool watch over a year ago. What I’ll really want is a cool cell phone. My current phone (Sony Ericsson S710a) is ass. What I really want is something that can run ZoneTag. I think it would be a nice way of chronicling the event if I can live blog it from the road, complete with geotagged photos of my sweaty self. Plus, when I get run over by a car I’ll have a photo of the license plate, a timestamp and precise location of the event.
8. LEARN TO LOVE KRAZY GLUE: I’ve never had a huge problem with blisters, but I’ve also never run this far. What I do run into is chafing problems and for that I swear by Body Glide. Attention fat/overweight runners or runners with abnormally muscular thighs that rub together. If you run long distance…get yourself some Body Glide. The stuff’s seriously amazing. I’ve also never had a problem with bloody nipples, but I might consider some NipGuards. Nothing says, “oh my god, what’s wrong with that guy” like a couple of bloody nipples.
9. GET USED TO IT: “Eventually, when he grew accustomed to the pain, it stopped hurting.” Sounds kind of like life as a Windows user. I’m prepared for some pain, but I’m hoping to avoid my usual downfall during my running training…shin splints. Those have shut down my last several attempts to get back into running. I could probably work through the pain, but knowing in the back of my head that I could be doing some rather serious damage to my body will probably detour me a bit.
10. PROMOTE THE HELL OUT OF YOURSELF: Public blog…hellooooooo.
11. BREAK IT DOWN: I’m sure there will be a certain amount of “breaking down”. As for breaking it down, I’m trying to do that in my training. I’m focusing what I call “phase 1″ on losing some weight and getting into a regular pattern of exercise. Losing weight will help with the running. I never had shin splints when I was 170-175 pounds. Now that I’m around 220 pounds, I can’t imagine the extra 50 pounds of body weight crashing down on my legs is helping. I’ve already started eating better and I’ve been in the gym several days in the past week, lifting weights and hitting the treadmill.
12. AVOID KRYPTONITE: My kryptonites are eating and laziness. Eating can be rough because sometimes I’ll just gouge myself. I’ve really been focusing this month on portion control and cutting out all of the snacking. As for laziness, well…if I don’t feel like going to the gym, I don’t go. I’ve been trying to fight that by pairing up with my wife and a friend. We hit the gym together, which makes it feel like more of a social event and less like penance.

That’s it, I’ll post here periodically on my progress. I have until August 5th to get ready for this thing. Some things that are unsolved that I need to work out between now and then:

• A route. I’ll be looking for something that’s safe (no high traffic roads) and relatively interrupt free (if I can avoid a ton of stoplights, that would be good). At the same time, some scenery would be nice. If it’s going to be summer, it might also be good to have some areas with shade.
• Provisions. It’ll no doubt take me several hours to finish this. A very conservative estimate would be to say 15 minute miles. That puts me around 7 and a half hours. I’m going to need food and water along the way.
• Deposits. Again, 7 and a half hours plus lots of water and a decent amount of food equals stops to go to the bathroom. Dean Karnazes may have taught himself how to pee while he runs, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to run around in cities where I know people smelling like urine. If it were a race, I’d consider it. But since I’m not in a hurry, I might as well plot a route with gas stations or something.
• Technology. I mentioned that I’ve got the watch already, but I still need that ZoneTag lovin’ phone. Additionally, something so I can listen to music would be awesome. I’d like to think that some people might keep me company for a mile or so at a time during my run, but inbetween it would be good to have some tunes to keep me chugging.

I’m sure there’s more that will come up, but that’s what I’ve got so far. If you have suggestions, I’m all ears.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 15th, 2007 at 1:40 am and is filed under Health, Personal, Recreation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.