The fastest marathon joggler in the world has announced he is going to be joggling the Trapline Marathon in October of 2012.

Here’s his video announcement

This video is a nice example of how you might announce the joggling of an upcoming race. It is particularly useful to have a video like this if you are interested in raising money for charity or otherwise bringing some attention to your event. The idea would be to record a video like this, tweet it, blog about it, and send it to local media outlets. Be sure to also send it to the person in charge of PR for the race as they might be able to use it.

For more information about Michal’s race go to the website about the Trapline Marathon.

Here’s a joggler from a race in 2009. I wonder who it is.

Ras na hEireann road race, Davis Square, 3/15/09. According to the poster, there were 2 jogglers in the race.

Today is the 1253rd day in a row of my joggling at least one mile. Actually, my minimum has been 1.5 miles but you get the idea. My sister asked me yesterday when I would stop. Originally, I had only planned on going for 1001 days. I liked the symmetry of it and that seemed like a significant accomplishment.

Joggling in London Marathon

However, when I got to 1001 I was not ready to quit. So, I just kept going. Now, I don’t know when I will quit. Maybe never. I mean, it’s a healthy activity that is beneficial to me in a number of ways. It keeps me motivated to exercise and it’s still fun. I know my wife gets a little annoyed about me always running but she’s ok with it. Just another quirk of living with me. She really is a tolerant sort.

The other day I missed being hit by a car by inches. I could have easily been smashed into and gotten significantly hurt. The idiot blew through a red light while I was crossing. Luckily I jumped out of the way and escaped but I imagined if I did get hit whether I would have been able to go running. Well, probably not. However, that wouldn’t stop some people.

Take a look at this story about Bill Anderson. He had to go to the hospital and have an emergency appendectomy. But his running streak (which is 35-years long) was in jeopardy. Well, the surgery was not enough to stop him. His daughter convinced the hospital to let him go out into the courtyard and run enough laps around it to get in his mile.

He did it and has kept his streak alive.

Compared to this guy, I guess the PF pain I’m feeling in my left foot is a pretty lame excuse for ending a running streak.

Joggle on.

It’s good to see Joggling Joe Salter get some recognition for his upcoming juggling triathlon attempt. Here his local TV news program did a nice video piece on “Juggling Joe”.

Clearly Joe’s ability to joggle 5 is getting much better and he’s got that swuggling thing down cold. Amazingly, he is doing tricks while swuggling!! Incredible.

Looking forward to hear how your attempt goes Joe.

You can see the entire story here.

Here is an interesting video I saw label “running and juggling”.  It’s hard to tell but the person in the video could be joggling. I wonder who they are and where this is located.  San Fransico maybe?

Oh yeah, Happy Easter!

It was a nice day today for joggling.  The sun was shining bright, the temperature was in the high 50′s and there wasn’t much wind.  Shannon & I went running around Humboldt Park which is near our house.  It is an excellent park for running and is home to a large pond with ducks, baseball fields, tennis courts, and a winding running path.  

This was my 1236th day in a row of running and I felt pretty good.  I still am hampered by the Plantar Faciitis but I get used to it.  And I’m listening to a great book called The Disappearing Spoon.  It’s a history of the famed Periodic Table.  If you like science history stuff, you’d like this.

Well, that’s all I’ve got.  It’s Easter weekend so I don’t have much.  But life is good.  And joggling makes it even better.

Happy Easter!

Last year I had a bit of a European adventure traveling to London, Milan, Florence, Vennice, Rome, Berlin, and Paris. Each day I kept little notes summarizing what happened. Here is my trip notes from April 4, 2011. We had just arrived in Rome.

————-

Day 12

My birthday.

Checked the Internet and saw a few well wishes on Facebook and in gmail. That was nice.

Went on early morning joggling run, the last tour around Venice. Weather was cool and clear. Slight humidity by the water. Beautiful sights.

Back to hotel, showered, packed, then went to breakfast. I like the free breakfast in these European hotels.

Walked to see San Marco Basilicas on inside. Walked sidewalks of Venice once more and got 2 diet cokes for the train. Picked up bags from hotel then walked to boat station. Venice is still a big maze but I think I’ve finally figured it out. Took boat to railroad station and got tickets to Rome. Arriving there at 16:00.

Read book on the train.

Walk to hotel. It was pretty close to the train station.

Hotel gives us free bottle of champagne since it’s my birthday. Yeah!

Take metro to Colosseum. Eat pizza. Remember it is vegetarian day. Eat no meat. Walk around. It’s amazing. Lots of questions occur to me. When was it build? What did they do there? Why is half of it missing?

Take lots of pictures. Ride metro back to hotel. Work on computer. Go to dinner. Address of restaurant is 44.

Have soup and pasta. Beer and gelatto. It was a crowded restaurant but cool.

Go home and pass out.

A tiring day but a good one.

Welcome to 42.

In his run up to attempting to break the 50 mile joggling record, Thomas Gounley is joggling the Boston marathon. He also created a joggling video and posted in a few running forums for discussion. He’s had a wide range of feedback from the negative to vaguely positive.

I was most interested in the Runner’s World discussion though. In it many of the runners admitted how they would feel embarrassed to be beaten by a joggler. This is curious.

As fast as you are

In my younger years I used to get bothered when I finished a race after people who I thought I should beat. 14 year olds, senior citizens, people who were physically larger than me, even girls. But after you’ve done a bunch of races and have lost to everyone, you start to develop a different perspective.

It is almost always the case that you are competing against yourself. If a joggler cruises by you in the 24th mile of a marathon, it is not the joggler’s fault. The joggler does not deserve scorn any more than the guy in the Batman costume or the old lady in the pink skirt. Everyone at any given moment is doing the very best that they can.

This includes you.

If you lose to a joggler, get over it. If you are like most runners, you also lost to the thousands of people who finished ahead of you. Do you scorn the pros who finish a race hours before you? Should the back-of-the-packers scorn you because you finish before them?

I say No!

No longer do I get annoyed by people who pass me or finish ahead of me. I’m not racing against them. I’m racing against myself. I joggle for myself.

Joggling makes running more fun for me. That’s why I do it. And that’s why I’m going to keep doing it and encourage as many people as I can to do it too.

Joggling…it’s the sport of the future.

It does warm my heart to discover new jogglers in the world.  A couple months back I was contacted by Robert Fowler who had a desire to get off his couch and start exercising.  He decided joggling was an excellent place to start.  So, he did a fair amount of training and recently completed his first 5K.  He finished in 30:08 with 9 drops.

Here is a TV report which features his efforts.

As I was plodding along today in the humid Dallas afternoon, I scolded myself, “You should be going faster!” I was doing about 8 min miles and had the energy to go faster but there were two things that prevented me. First, I didn’t have my normal iPhone holder so it was flopping around in my pocket and being quite annoying. Second, I just didn’t feel like it.

The first problem was more of an equipment failure which doesn’t happen too often, but the second psychological problem happens rather frequently. There are times when I just don’t feel like exhausting myself.

And my joggling times reflect my laziness. I’m getting a bit slower these days.

That’s why it was interesting for me to read this article in the New York Times about athletes who are pushing themselves too hard. I definitely don’t have the problem of pushing myself too much.

Of course, some people might disagree. After all, I do juggle and run every day. I haven’t taken a day off since November 17, 2008 and have no plans to. But this isn’t hard running. This is healthy running. There really are limits to the benefit you receive from daily exercise. Some exercise is good. Lots of intense exercise really isn’t much better.

So, right now I don’t feel too bad about taking it easy during my runs. I like to enjoy the physical exertion, listen to a good audio book, and amuse myself with clever juggling patterns. I love joggling.

Joggle on!

Note: My attitude would completely change if I was training for a race and trying to achieve some specific time.