PAMELA LEBLANC: FIT CITY

Three cheers for 3M Half Marathon runners (me included)

By Pamela LeBlanc
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, January 21, 2008

I've never thought of myself as a runner, so I can't believe I'm saying this: I'm entering the 3M Half Marathon.

If you'd told me a year and a half ago I'd ever run more than five miles at a stretch, I'd check your forehead for fever. Swim across a lake, bike over a mountain range, slalom water ski before work, yes. But run? Nah.

Next Sunday, I'll run 13 miles.

The change came in January 2007, when I signed up for a training class to prepare for the American-Statesman Capitol 10,000. I figured as fitness writer, I ought to at least try it and completed the race in 62 minutes. In the process, I got hooked on running.

I built up to seven miles last spring, then backed off a wee bit during the heat of the summer. One day, one of my running buddies gently suggested a half-marathon. I let the idea slosh around a bit before I tentatively agreed. In the fall, we started increasing our mileage.

Then I got injured. Midway through an easy five-miler one morning, something popped in my calf. I wasn't doing anything exotic, just running slowly in a straight line on a flat surface. I hobbled back to my office, put a bag of ice on the calf and figured it would be fine in a day or two.

It wasn't. Turns out it was a torn calf muscle. It took nine weeks before I could run again, and I figured I was so far behind on my training schedule that I couldn't possibly run the half-marathon. I had just 10 weeks before the race.

Amazingly, it came back. I started slow and increased my distance by a mile every week. The week I ran eight miles straight, I knew I was going to be able to do the half.

I no longer dreaded running. Or, more specifically, I loved hashing over the nitty-gritty details of life with my running partner, Marcy, while pushing through those long runs. And I craved that pleasantly tired feeling after we were finished.

Wish me luck Sunday. The race starts near the Arboretum and ends downtown. Better yet, go out and cheer for everybody doing the race. We'll appreciate the boost.

A father's inspiration

Some folks have monumental reasons for running. Among them is Tim Revell, 34, who will run the AT&T Marathon on Feb. 17 for his son Timothy, a 4-year-old with a rare form of muscular dystrophy called Duchenne's.

Duchenne's causes muscular deterioration, mainly in young boys. Muscle cells die and don't regenerate. Typically, boys with Duchenne's start walking later than healthy children. Historically, by the time they are 6 or 7, they can't walk. (Steroids have extended the quality of life for some patients into their teens.) The disease is always fatal.

Timothy didn't start walking until he was 20 months old. Doctors, worried by his poor muscle tone, did blood tests and eventually diagnosed him with Duchenne's.

Revell and wife Laura wept. "You can't breathe. You can't think. It's hard to pray. It's hard to focus," Revell says.

He ran to cope. And he decided he'd do everything he could to help families who will be affected by the disease in the future.

Looking at Timothy, you probably wouldn't realize he was ill. The only outward sign is his bulging calf muscles. That's because as the muscles deteriorate, they swell and stiffen in place. The Revells stretch Timothy's muscles nightly to slow the progression of tightness. Other than that, Timothy is a fireball.

"Our son is 4," Revell says. "He's got maybe 10 years of really good life. It's going to be pretty much downhill from there."

Other families have a future, dreams of college and beyond. "With our son, we have none of that. It's not that we don't hope. We hope for the best and prepare for the worst. But we have no idea of the timetable. We take every single day as a gift," Revell says.

The Revells' younger son, Andrew, 1, has shown no signs of the disease.

On Feb. 17, Revell will don a green satin cape to run the AT&T Marathon as a CureDuchenne Crusader. He hopes to raise awareness about the disease and money for CureDuchenne, a California-based nonprofit that funds research to find a cure. The nonprofit is part of the Austin marathon's "26 Miles for 26 Charities" program this year. Organizers hope to raise a collective $2.6 million for 26 charities.

To donate to CureDuchenne, go to www.cureduchenne.org. If you want to join Revell in running the marathon for Timothy, e-mail him at tim@cureduchenne.org or call 789-5936.

Color-coding your fitness

It's January, the time of year I flip open a brand-new Streaming Colors Fitness Journal and begin my obsessive coloring. I got hooked four years ago, when I discovered the calendar, which features an empty box next to each day of the month. You fill in the box, according to your own color-coded system, based on what type of activity you do each day. (I use blue for swimming, green for running, pink for cycling and yellow for water skiing.) It sounds deceptively simple, I know, but something about the lure of filling in those empty white squares actually makes me want to exercise more, eat better and floss my teeth.

This year, Streaming Colors has introduced a weekly planner version. Instead of a monthly, spiral-bound calendar, it's a smaller 81/2-inch-by-81/2-inch book with a page for every week. There's also space to log appointments or eating and exercise details. The new weekly planner version sells for $24; the original calendar that I still prefer is $16.95. It's available online at www.streamingcolors.com.

Old-school workout music

I got a note from a 60-year-old health fanatic baffled by a recent article I wrote about what music local athletes listen to while they work out. He didn't recognize most of the songs the athletes mentioned and thought the older generation deserved some space. With all due respect, here are some of the songs that keep Mike Beuershausen of Marble Falls exercising:

1. "Gonna Fly Now (Theme From 'Rocky')," by Bill Conti. "Somehow, I never tire of it. It motivates me to run longer and faster, and the song keeps me pounding on the big bag for an incredible amount of time."

2. "Lowdown," by Boz Scaggs. "My wife was pregnant with our third son when this song came out in 1977. I vividly recall playing the 45-rpm record on a small turntable, jumping rope, hitting the bag, etc., for hours at a time."

3. "The House is Rockin'," by Stevie Ray Vaughan.

4. "Benny and the Jets," by Elton John.

5. "I Ain't Livin' Long Like This," by Waylon Jennings.

6. "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)," by Junior Walker and the Allstars.

7. "A Big Ball's in Cowtown," by Bob Wills. "I grew up on Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, used to ride around our ranch on a stick horse and sing Bob Wills songs ... This particular old song really makes me kick it into overdrive."

8. "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," by Jim Croce.

9. "Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie," by Jay and the Techniques.

10. "Jimmy Mack," by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. "I listen to these oldies and the back aches and the arthritic knuckles and the hip replacement ... just ... kinda ... fade away."