Runner's Almanac - Day 8

Today I didn't make it for a run. I was supposed to go for a walk - A nice long walk - After yesterday's long run. And it would have felt good. But I relented to the comfort of my couch in the late afternoon while something unbelievably funny was on the television. It doesn't matter what was on. That's not the point. Only that sometimes the lure of the couch beats the lure of the road, and well, there is really nothing we can do about it.

I did get in some virtual running this morning, however, watching parts of a documentary on the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. That was the inaugural year the women's marathon made it in the games. Maine native and Bowdoin college alumni Joan Benoit was the event's first ever gold medalist. As Benoit did a commentary about that day, running through the tunnel that opened up to the LA Coliseum, she was shocked to see so many fans fill the stadium seats, waiting to see her and about 50 other women achieve such a goal. Who would come out to see a woman running, she had thought? Benoit continues to participate in the sport, even having trained Lance Armstrong for his recent marathon efforts. I later watched a segment on the Joyner siblings and their story growing up in poverty-stricken conditions in East St. Louis, Illinois to achieving track and field glory in their careers. Although I was living in Los Angeles at the time of the Olympics in 1984, my memory of it is mostly of Mary Lou Retton - It was a very popular costume that Halloween for us kids. Who knows, maybe they'll bring the games back to L.A; revamp the Coliseum, for another history making running event.



Happy running!