Whose idea was “Magic Mile”?

Our training schedule includes running a “timed” mile once a month.
I can tell you that this masochistic idea was introduced into training as a means to hurt “old” men.
Whenever I see “MM” on the schedule for an upcoming weekend run I melt into a puddle of my own sweat left over from the previous magic mile.
It’s the most insane concept (for a man of my age) to justify.

This is the way it works—

Wake up at 5:00 am.
Drive to a university campus outdoor track.
Line up with several “jack rabbits” and…….

…HAUL ASS!
(sorry for the slang mom)

The body is not meant to take a shock to the systems like that.
I had a friend tell me “just getting out of bed is tough” — I agree.


The problem is that I’m pretending I’m strong enough and fast enough to run with the lead group of runners.
One of these days somebody is going to discover that I’m a fraud.
I feel like Rudy (Notre Dame college football walk-on that struggled through all sorts of adversity to finally play a single series of downs at the end of his senior year in the very last game of the year).

We’ll see.
My mile times are holding under six minutes (but it sure is painful).

We ran a total of six miles Saturday morning. The weather was good. It was warmer than you would like for running but manageable.
After the run Donna Hicken put me on camera for a quick interview. She was very excited about the first painting I produced and I shared my ideas about using artwork as a means of thanking those of you that provide financial support to her foundation.

I plan to produce 12 to 20 pieces of original art. Each piece will be from a specific “training run” location. A single print (your choice) will be a gift for providing a minimum of $100.00 to the foundation. I will sign each print and the image will be on a high quality 100% rag paper, coated with a protective medium. The originals are 5” x 7” with a white matte area of 1.5”. Standard frames can be used or if someone wants a series we can assist with a unique framing arrangement.
I can also provide larger sizes for the same price if someone is interested.

My next piece will be showing up soon.

August 19, we will be in Fernandina Beach, Florida running 14 miles.
This is starting to get interesting.

That’s about it.
Take care.

Thanks for your friendship.