Hi friends and family.
I'm writing this e-mail update from the beautiful 30 acre campus of The Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Kenneth Cooper led the world into the physical fitness movement in 1968 with the publishing of his first best-selling book "Aerobics" in 1968. In 1974, when I first got into the lifetime health and fitness movement, I remember scrambling for the dictionary to look up the definition of aerobic and anaerobic and many other health and fitness words that Ken laid on my relatively sedentary body and cob-webbed mind. To the younger members of this distribution list, yes, there really was a day when these words were not in general use even among quality and professional athletes!! Dr. Cooper changed all that. More on Dr. Cooper and the Institute later.Before I highlight my running experiences since my last update on October 12 from Oklahoma City, I must note that I forgot to mention that I attended the Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival in Guthrie, OK on October 5th and 6th in my last update. Some of my bluegrass friends have chastised me for forgetting this very important activity. The OIBF festival is sponsored and hosted by Byron Berline, fiddler extrordinaire. Byron's Double Stop Music Shop is located in beautiful downtown Guthrie, OK about 30 miles north of Oklahoma City. In addition to many national artists including Vince Gill, I was reacquainted with several bluegrass friends and musicians that I had met while attending Bluegrass festivals and concerts in Japan from 1989-1992. The Japanese Bluegrass Band headed by lead vocalist (and Yokohama architect) Masuo Sasabe was the highlight band of the show!! A beautiful young Nashville vocalist Katrina Elam was also a highlight. Lots of good pickin' and singin' 'til 4:00AM both nights/mornings which I paid for on my next several daily runs!!
Comments On My Health
The Run is going extremely well!! I have completed 2,815 miles (51.6% of my planned 5,450 miles).
Folks have asked me to comment on my general health and how I'm feeling and running including heart rate and pace. Although I have some morning soreness in my quads and left hip, I generally am pain-free after stretching and prior to my first daily run. I use "The Stick" (modern day high tech plastic rolling pin that I bought from Dr. Tim Maggs at last years Bay State Marathon; see www.thestick.com) most mornings to massage tight, aching or knotted muscles. I typically start at a 10-11 minute per mile pace and slow as the run progresses to 11-12 mpm. Carrying the American Flag and wearing patriotic clothing prompts positive responses from motorists and pedestrians, which at times motivates me to pick up the pace to 8-9 mpm for short periods.
Although I awake every morning looking forward to my runs and planned and unplanned experiences, I admit to looking forward to the end of the run by the 10th-12th mile, especially on the second daily run. I wear a Polar heart rate monitor and try to maintain a heart rate of at least 115-120 bpm, significantly lower than my usual training runs when I would average 135-140 bpm (and a training pace of 8-9 mpm for LSDs=Long Slow Distance). Enough of that!!
Out of OKC
I ran south from Oklahoma City to Norman,OK and stayed overnight in downtown Norman (Oklahoma Univ Campus) on the Saturday that OU beat Texas for the third straight year. Needles to say "Oklahoma was a rockin' and a rollin'!!!". OU flags and support everywhere. This is serious football country!! The OU win brought back memories of the Saturdays, as a 12 year old Boy Scout, I ushered in Pitt Stadium (got to sit and watch the game after the first quarter) and saw OU beat my beloved Pitt Panthers during Bud Wilkinson's NCAA Division 1 record 47 game win streak.
The next few days were spent running USD77 over rolling Oklahoma farm and ranch land and through the towns of Purcell, Wayne (crossroads of the old 1849 California Trail), Paul's Valley, Wynnewood, Davis, Springer and Marietta.
The route out of Davis included running over the Arbuckle Mountains (among the oldest mountains in North America), and past Turner Falls. This was the first true deciduous tree forest I'd been in since I left Massachusetts last April, and it was great to be back among the hills and streams with the sounds of rushing water over rocks and falls. The leaves were just starting to turn and made the run one of the most scenic-to-date.
The Cowboy's Advice
On my second run (late evening) run from the Ardmore Mountain Summit to Springer, a cowboy in a pick-up truck stopped to see if I was OK. He asked if I had any protection to which I answered "No" and "Why". He said the forested mountains are home to panthers and bobcats and they have been known to attack livestock and occasionally people!! I mentioned that another police officer had suggested that I carry pepper spray; the good ol' boy laughed and said "no, you need to be carrying a gun!!". Just a few minutes later I heard the loud hoof beats of horses, and could see them in the near full moon light running along a prairie on the other side of a barbed wire fence. You all know the "two guys and a bear story"...well, I can't outrun a horse, so this gave me quite a scare and, not having a gun, I again picked up the pace considerably.
Prior to running out of Springer, I took a side trip to the Gene Autry Museum in Gene Autry, OK. Gene was born in the outskirts of Tioga, TX and purchased a large ranch in Berwyn, OK. The towns people rewarded Gene by changing the name of their town!! The museum is a must see for traditional country and singing cowboy music fans!!
Storms!
The next evening, I ran through Ardmore (a major OK high school football town with a stadium that most colleges would envy) on a Thursday evening with the lighted stadium about a half mile away. Due to a scheduled OK State school holiday, all high school football games were being played on Thursday that week. The band was playing Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" and the students and fans were singing and the whole stadium was rockin'; I continued my run with goose bumps at a significantly faster pace for the next two miles!! Oh how I wished I could have been in that Stadium to fully appreciate the moment. I suspect that a similar scenario is being played out on many Friday night football fields across the U.S these days.
The next day there were weather reports of two days of heavy rain with lightening and thunder. Anticipating the weather, knowing I would need to miss a day or two of running, and not wanting to fall too far behind schedule, I ran my longest daily run to-date (26.9 miles).
I hunkered down at the Indian Nation RV Park and found some pickers on Saturday afternoon, and enjoyed a great evening of music from a Fort Worth gospel band.
Gene Autry
The next day I departed Oklahoma and re-entered Texas by running on I-35 over the Red River (border of OK and TX) and spent the night in Gainesville, TX a rather affluent town compared to the southern Oklahoma towns I had just been through.
In northern Texas, I ran through Tioga and visited the Tioga Museum and Heritage Center. Gene Autry was born in his parents home at Indian Creek between Mountain Springs and Tioga, OK. Gene spent his boyhood school years living with his Uncle Cal in Tioga, and Tioga is considered his boyhood home, the place he learned to play the guitar and sing blues songs, and where he was the telegrapher at the Tioga railroad station. One of the founders and curators at the Tioga museum told me Gene shined shoes at the town barber shop and, already gifted with his excellent business instincts, would charge his customers an extra nickel or dime if they wanted to hear him sing a song while he shined their shoes!! Gene is the only artist with five stars in Hollywood's walk-of-fame. I played every cowboy CD I have and re-learned lyrics to a couple of Gene's songs over the last couple weeks eg: "Back in the Saddle Again" and "Home on the Range".
Time Well Spent
A couple evenings ago, my oldest daughter Laurel asked what I think about and do on my runs. I told her that for safety reasons, and the desire to hear nature and engage people, I do not wear a CD/Cassette Walkman. Instead, I write down abbreviated lyrics to songs I want to learn, and during the country runs I learn the lyrics and sing the songs, sometimes as loud as I can since there's no one around to hear my mistakes!!
Nothing Ventured
On Friday morning, I visited the 6th Floor Museum (old Texas School Book Depository building) in Dealy Plaza in downtown Dallas where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. As stated in my P.R. document, my RAA-FEF includes running to the cities where four major U.S. Freedom Fighters ended their lives (RFK in L.A, JFK in Dallas, MLK,Jr in Memphis, Abraham Lincoln's home town and assassination site in WDC). At the 6th Floor Museum, I met with executives who plan to include documents of my Run in their museum displays and archives.
The last run segment into Dallas on Thursday evening was particularly eventful. As mentioned at the start of this update, I've known of and read Dr. Cooper's books for close to 30 years. I knew he lived and had his Aerobics Center in Dallas, that he has been President Bush's personal physician for 12+ years, and that he was a finalist for the Surgeon General Cabinet position earlier this year. As I was running down Preston Road in north Dallas on a blustery, rainy, foggy fall evening, I happened to notice the lighted signs and tan brick walls surrounding the Cooper Institute. As I approached the main gate entrance on my left, I thought: "should I enter the grounds uninvited, or just go on and finish the run (I was wet and cold,and still had another 6-7 miles to go)". Well, under the heading "we only pass this way once", I entered the grounds, talked to the guard, was given directions to the fitness center, introduced myself to a nice young lady behind the counter, explained my RAA-FEF, and my desire to meet with one of the doctors or sports nutritionists or physiologists (I am always trying to learn something more about health and physical fitness).
A middle-aged man entering the fitness center overheard my conversation and said: Dr. Cooper will want to meet this man! The gentleman then led me to the building where Dr. Cooper has his office, said if his green Jaguar is still in the parking lot he'll more than likely still be in his office or will be heading for his daily evening workout at the fitness center, and essentially said "go for it". The Jaguar was still there, it was after 6:15 PM, and from all appearances the building was deserted, but I wandered through a couple hallways until I saw the brass nameplate with Dr. Cooper's name. I knocked, no answer; I entered, it was Cynthia's (Dr. Cooper's receptionist/administrative assistant's office); I walked through another hallway, two closed doors, knocked on one and was asked to enter. To my delight, the distinguished looking Dr. Cooper was sitting behind his desk in his white lab coat and asked if he could assist. I introduced myself, stated that he, along with Bill Rogers and Frank Shorter, was one of my early long distance running and aerobic training heroes.
I explained my RAA-FEF mission and was warmly greeted and received. Among many other attributes, Dr. Cooper is a kind and open man!!! He was very interested in my Run and invited me to participate in the 28th annual Tyler Cup weekend which was to start the next afternoon. He further asked me to make a presentation to the attendees at the afternoon health symposium, and invited me to fully participate in the receptions, Saturday morning races, and awards lunch. In short, I have just enjoyed one of the finest 48 hours of my "aerobic life". The quality of attendees (business executives over 40 years of age, well-known national master, senior, veteran, and super-veteran athletes, and Frank Shorter attending for his 12th year), the camaraderie, friendly competitive spirit, nutrition and sleep lectures, one-on-one conversations with Dr. Cooper, Frank Shorter, the many motivating health professionals and attendees was an unexpected pleasure that I'll long savor and remember for a long, long time. I learned that Roger Staubach, Tom Landry, President George W. Bush and many other distinguished sports and health figures, and national leaders have been regular attendees of the Tyler Cup weekend.
Tyler Cup Week End
The objective of the Tyler Cup weekend is to encourage executive level management of companies to lead and maintain a healthy aerobic lifestyle and permeate this lifestyle to all levels of their organizations. Dr. Cooper is on a personal crusade to defeat or change most of the fast food companies who are proliferating obesity and premature death of the American population (my words).
During his keynote lunch presentation, Dr. Cooper announced and gave praise to the Frito-Lay Corporation for their plans to eliminate trans fatty acids from their entire line of snack foods. I was very pleased to hear this since my nephew, Kevin Guz, who I had met with the night before, is a young executive and ten year veteran at the Frito-Lay corporate HQ in Plano, TX.
Dr. Cooper and Todd Whitthorne, President and COO of Cooper Concepts, have become a Run Across America-For Enduring Freedom (RAA-FEF) sponsor, and have given me a six month supply of the "Cooper Complete Multivitamin and Mineral Supplement" and "Cooper Complete Joint Maintenance Formula". A big thanks to Dr. Cooper and his team for products that I will need to assure the completion of my Run!!!
By the way, for those of you asking for more data on my runs, I ran the two mile Tyler Cup Race this morning in 14:24 (a 7:12 pace) at a max heart rate of 181 bpm and an average heart rate of 157 bpm. I feel very pleased about this performance especially since I did not have the opportunity for the typical pre-race taper and rest prior to a race.
Conclusion
It's very late, and I have long over-used the additional hour of rest I was supposed to get due to the clock setback. Before I say goodbye, I want to again thank the many friends, family and city police and county sheriffs who have supported me. Albert Brien, my good friend from the Fiddlers Loft in Kingston, NH has posted my RAA-FEF updates to his www.FiddlersLoft.com web-site. Albert will join me this Wednesday for ten days as I run to Shreveport,LA and Memphis, TN. In addition to providing support on my daily runs, Albert and I will spend time fiddling and searching out some good ol' Louisiana native Cajun fiddling.
Thanks to all,
Bob