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by Char Simons
- Excerpted from Hills, Hawgs & Ho Chi Minh by Don Kardong A handful of seconds off the bronze medal in the 1976 Olympic marathon with a 2:11:16, author and runner Don Kardong has spent the ensuing decades making up those seconds with humor and insights into the quirky world of runners. A regular columnist for Runner's World magazine Kardong is also the author of a coffee table book on Spokane's Bloomsday as well as two collections of running essays, Thirty Phone Booths to Boston and his latest, Hills, Hawgs & Ho Chi Minh: More Tales of a Wayward Runner. What the late George Sheehan was to running and philosophy, Kardong is to running and humor, leading Sports Illustrated to call him "the only spiritual descendent of Mark Twain ever to bring his unsparing eye and antic voice to running." A long-time resident of Spokane, Washington, Kardong is current president of the Road Runners Club of America. A previous owner of a local running store for nine years, Kardong, 49, is married and has two daughters. He recently offered his thoughts on running and writing.
A: The biggest difference is that running is understood and practiced more now because of health and fitness. That was true of the original running boom in the '70s, but it had much more of a competitive, hard-edge training element initially. That hard edge still happens, but less frequently now. Back then, it seemed like everyone wanted to run a marathon. Even if you didn't, you were still running high mileage. Another difference between the first boom and now is that the percentage of women is way higher, and new runners are predominately women. The first boom was like a revolution. It was such a dramatic change in the way Americans lived their lives in that people were intentionally doing something that was difficult, which surprised all of us hard-core runners. We figured that running was our little secret, but to have other people discover the sport was really amazing. Running has been around longenough now that it doesn't seem revolutionary, but the sport is growing again. Q: Why the second running boom? A: Some things go in and out of fashion. There are some advantages to running as we get busier and busier with other jobs. It's a great way to get a lot accomplished in a short period of time, in terms of fitness, cardiovascular development, weight control, stress reduction, convenience and relative inexpense. Those are all big advantages that have become apparent to a group of new runners. Q: The bulk of participants in road races are in their 30s, 40s and 50s. What about the perennial problem of attracting young people to the sport? A: I don't think we're every going to see a lot of people in their teens and 20s interested in running. The primary benefits of running become apparent in the late 20s and early 30s. I stewed about that younger age group for a lot of years. There seems to be a cycle people go through in their 20s when they're not that interested in running. But as they get older and their fitness is slipping, the advantages become apparent. One of biggest new age groups in the sport are females in their late 20s and early 30s. For a while, we didn't see growth in any age group. Q: Spokane's Bloomsday is one of the largest road races in the country, attracting more than 55,000 runners. How did the race come about, and why has it become such a huge success? A: I ran in the '76 Olympics, and finished fourth. I was a sixth grade teacher at time, and when I came back to Spokane, there were small fun runs of about 150 runners that the heart association organized. I went to one, and was interviewed by a reporter from the newspaper. The running boom was just starting, and during the interview, I made an off-handed comment that we should have one of those downtown runs here in Spokane. A couple weeks later, I got in an elevator with the mayor, and he said the race was a great idea. The first year of Bloomsday was 1977, and I've been involved ever since in one way or another, including as race director. Bloomsday really surprised me the first two or three years. The first year, we drew 1,000 runners. People now say 'only 1,000,' but I was stunned. The next year, we had 5,000. And the race continued to grow by about 5,000 for years. The numbers have been steady for the last 10 years. Q: Is there a limit to the number of runners Bloomsday can handle? A: We asked ourselves that every year in the early years. Fortunately, we reached a natural limit before had to put an artificial one on. Q: How did you get into running? A: My sophomore year in high school, the basketball coach suggested I do something to get in shape for the season. Years later, I figured out he had been talking to the cross country coach, as I was better at running than hoops. I ran cross country and track through college. In track, I usually did the two mile, but occasionally I ran as short as the 800. I even was a member of 4 x 200 meter relay, but I got over that. By the end of college, I was more a three-miler, and occasionally did 6-milers. I didn't run my first marathon until I'd been out of school for a year. I always liked trying a lot of different events. The marathon was of interest to me because the demands of psychology as well as physiology seemed heroic. I don't think I planned to end up there, but it did seem to suit my personality. Q: What about your current training? A: I run every day. Other than long runs, I go about five to ten miles a day. The farthest I ever get in a week is 60 miles. I'm getting ready to do the Napa Sutter Home Valley marathon. I haven't run a sub-three hour marathon in 10 years, so I'm hoping I can do that. Q: How did you end up in Spokane? A: I grew up in Bellevue, Washington and went to Seattle Prep. I went to Stanford and was a psychology major, but had more hours in English. After I graduated, I went to the University of Washington for two years for a second bachelor's degree in English and a teaching certificate. I had a college friend from Spokane who asked me to work at a Y summer camp there. I liked the area, so when I got my teaching certificate in 1974, I applied to schools in Spokane. Now, my roots are deep - I've got lots of family and friends here. But I travel enough that I don't feel stuck in one place. Q: You are a very funny writer. How do you practice your craft? A: Most of the essays in Hills, Hawgs & Ho Chi Minh had already been in Runner's World or other publications. Half the time I came up with the ideas, and the other half were suggestions from the editorial staff or from fairly bizarre runners around the country. I don't like to write anything on spec - I don't have time. I wait to hear what a magazine is looking for. Ideas for articles usually come in the middle of a run - where all bad ideas - and occasionally good ideas - come from. My favorite essay is "La Grizz." It's about my first 50-miler, and was very successful in Runner's World, yet the topic of ultramarathons didn't show up in any reader's survey as a subject they would want. There's a lesson there - occasionally you have to do a story that instinct says you should write. The experience itself was very, very powerful - going 50 miles in the wilderness went right to the heart of everything I believe about running: that it's hard, it's individualistic and it makes me feel alive - until I feel really, really dead. Q: What about the story you did on the Jasper-Banff relay in the Canadian Rockies for Runner's World? A: I was encouraged by running friends in Spokane to do the race. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to put it all together, but the coach on the team turned into the central character. Sometimes I know pretty much where I'm going with story. Other times I have to wait for the central idea to emerge. It works great, but it makes me nervous.
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