December 1, 1986
Fitness
‘TORCH FOR PEACE’ TO PASS THROUGH BAY AREA
There may be a trace of irony December 7 when the torch run for peace—the First Earth Run—passes through San Francisco. The day is the 45th anniversary of the Japanese Bombing of Pearl Harbor, which marked the beginning of American involvement in World War II.
The First Earth Run is not intended to symbolically unite all nations of the world in peace by recalling how terrible war is, however. The unique torch run began at the United Nations building in New York on September 16, the International Day of Peace. And it will end at the U.N. on December 11 in conjunction with the celebration of the 40th birthday of UNICEF.
During the 86-day journey, the torch has been on all five continents, and has passed through 45 countries and 65 of the most densely populated cities in the world. It has been to the top of Mount Everest, on the Great Wall of China, and has been flown in a hot air balloon through Great Britain.
During the Bay Area stop, it will be run up the Peninsula according to the following schedule: 7 a.m., San Jose Center Plaza; 7:36, Santa Clara Civic Center; 8:27, Mountain View Union High School; 9:08, Palo Alto El Camino Park; 10:39, San Mateo Central Park; 11:12, Millbrae Millside School.
Once in San Francisco, it will pass through three landmarks: Candlestick Park, Justin Herman Plaza, and the Civic Center. And at each of the three stops, the style with which it is greeted will be noticeably different.
At Candlestick at 12:32 p.m., the torch will be run inside the stadium just before the 49ers-Jets game. It will be carried by several former athletes, including e3x-49er Len Rohde, Randy Beisler, Frank Nunley, Guy Benjamin (executive director of Athletes United for Peace), and Roosevelt Taylor, and sprinter Jimmy Hines.
From Candlestick the torch will be run to Justin Herman Plaza, arriving at 1:31 p.m.; during that journey the torch will be joined by a lighthearted group, including a centipede (a la Bay-to-Breakers), a group of bicycle messengers, rollerskaters and skateboarders. It is at Justin Herman Plaza where one and all will be invited to escort the torch to the Civic Center. It will be carried by marathoner Nancy Ditz.
At the Rotunda the flame will be received by city officials at about 2:34 p.m., and a celebration will take place involving children’s groups from around the Bay Area.
The theme of the First Earth Run—put together by Dave Gershon, who organized the 1980 Olympic Torch Relay—is “Give the World a Chance…Children Need Peace.” The goal is threefold:
- To create awareness of the power of cooperation as a strategy for securing peace.
- To acknowledge community initiatives that solve local challenges, because local solutions are the first step toward global solutions.
- To raise money for children, our most heartfelt reason for creating a better future. Funds raised are to be distributed by UNICEF.
The entire project is being filmed and will be broadcast worldwide December 11 in a one-hour special titled “The First Earth Celebration.”
December 8, 1986
Fitness
A CHRISTMAS RUN FOR THE UNDERPRIVILEGED
Christmas is for kids. Always has been and always will be, it is hoped.
But that isn’t to say that adults can’t get involved with the Christmas spirit, too.
For the fitness fanatic who wants to work up a sweat to help underprivileged kids, the San Francisco Fire Fighters Local No. 798 are sponsoring the seventh annual Christmas Carol Charity Run this Saturday to raise money and toys for about 8,000 children in San Francisco.
The fire fighters’ toy program is 36 years old, and Anthony Sacco, the union vice-president, has been its guiding light since its inception.
The fire fighters accept used toys all year and then repair them so they’re ready for Christmas. But these toys aren’t always enough so the fire fighters have started other programs such as the charity run to raise money for new toys.
The starter’s gun for the 10K run goes off at 8:30 a.m. at the S.F. Bay Club (at Sansome and Greenwich).
The course runs out to Marina Green and back, with the finish at California and Montgomery.
One of the highlights of the race is the business division, in which three-person teams compete in three different categories: male, female, and coed. In the last two years, Pacific Telesis has swept all three.
Preregistration ended on November 25, but runners who still want to enter can do so on Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Financial District Fire Station or on the morning of the race at the Bay Club, from 7:00 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. Those who would prefer to walk also are invited to take part. The hotline for the run is 415-951-3333.
For individuals, the entry fees are $25 including a T-shirt, $15 without T-shirt, or the donation of a new toy worth at least $15. There will be prizes for performance, along with prizes drawn at random.
Hel Santa’s big, real-life helpers bring a “toy to the world” of the underprivileged this Christmas.
December 15, 1986
Fitness
THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR IMPROVING IS RELAXATION
Once a person is physically fit, it does not take a great deal of work to stay that way. Getting fit is always an uphill battle; staying fit is merely a matter of developing habits of regularity.
After the hard work of getting fit, the next most difficult process is improving upon that fitness. Every sport and fitness discipline has its own training regimen for improving, for climbing beyond the plateau. But every one of them has one tool that is essential. Unfortunately, for even some of the most veteran of fitness buffs, it is the most difficult of all tools to fashion: relaxation.
Now whoa, you might say: The reason I initially got into fitness was to put some relaxation into my life, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s working.
You say your fitness activities are a terrific release for stress and you sleep well.
All that may be true, but it isn’t a guarantee that you’re relaxed when you train, much less when you race.
Perhaps the most relaxed of aerobic exercisers are those who exercise modestly, but regularly, and who never race or compete. Among the least relaxed are those who train for reasons beyond health and fitness, and who compete besides. For some of the latter, their fitness program is merely one more stress, and on the weekend of a competition, they are nervous wrecks.
Training or competing in anything but a relaxed state is similar to driving a car with the hand brake partially engaged. The car will move, but not easily.
Getting yourself tensed up is fine for an explosive, anaerobic sport like football. But a well-trained aerobic athlete strives for relaxation, a condition that allows for muscle freedom to perform against the clock and the competition and not against themselves.
Perhaps the most frequent tactic that defeats many of us amateur aerobic athletes is going over and over in our heads all the things that could go wrong. There’s nothing wrong with figuring out in advance what your weaknesses are and then working to strengthen yourself—but many of us spend too much time imagining scenarios that illuminate all the pitfalls we face either in an important workout or in a competition.
Although I don’t believe that a positive attitude can overcome serious shortcomings in one’s training program, it is clear that if a training program is sound, there is a much better chance of doing well in an important competition by imagining that you will do well.
Instead of playing and replaying disaster tapes of your upcoming performances on the VCR of your mind, try running a few tapes in which your breathing is controlled, your sleep the night before is not disturbed by nightmares of the things that could go wrong, your muscles are supple and relaxed, and you perform within the capabilities provided by your training.
Learning to do this is not especially easy. It is advisable to begin experimenting with positive imaging of your performance by applying it to workouts before you apply it to a race situation. Start small and build from there.
December 22, 1986
Fitness
SPORTING CHANCE: AN OPPORTUNITY FOR GIRLS
Among the increasing influx of mail this time around were questions about the Girls Clubs of America’s Sporting Chance program, the availability of ERG, and the difference between sweat and…sweat.
Judith Hanson of San Francisco, in response to an October column dealing with America’s youth setting all-time records for being unfit, asked for more information on Sporting Chance.
The clubs are set up to help girls ages 6 to 18. Margaret Gates, executive director of the clubs, says, “The role of women in sports is changing and expanding, and it is imperative that girls have equal opportunities and support for their interest in all sports.”
Sporting Chance is one answer. It attempts to set up opportunities around the country for girls to be educated on how to participate in certain sports (everything from scuba diving to football) and then offers 10-week programs in learning the basic skills in those sports.
National headquarters for the clubs is 205 Lexington Ave., New York 10016; phone 212-689-3700. In the Bay Area, the program is implemented by the Alameda Girls Clubs, among others.
Ed Butler of San Francisco wrote asking for more information about the athletic drink ERG.
ERG, which comes in powdered form (mix with water), was developed in Southern California in the early 1970s. The mix is heavy in electrolytes, which are used up at a fairly good rate during exercise where there is a good deal of sweating over a long period. ERG and Body Punch (no longer made) were the pioneer drinks for aerobic exercisers, as Gatorade was for team sport players. ERG can be purchased in most running and triathlon stores.
Gatorade (which replaces mostly sugars and salts) was considered the first-generation athletic drink; ERG and similar drinks, which replace electrolytes, the second generation; the third-generation drink is carbohydrate replacement drinks such as Max and Carbopolex.
The hands-down, all-around replacement fluid for the exercising body continues to be water, however.
Ken O’Loane had inquired over the summer regarding sweating (since we’re on that subject) and the use of underarm powders and deodorants. I had mentioned to him that there are literally two sweating mechanisms: one that acts as a cooling device (and has little or no odor), and one, activated by tension, that is concentrated primarily in the underarms and usually has quite an odor.
My favorite explanation of this phenomenon comes from Dr. George Sheehan in his book “On Running” (1975). To quote briefly: “The athlete wants or needs no antiperspirant, no deodorant… Honest sweat has no odor.
“So what is this billion-dollar deodorant industry up to? … Nervous sweat comes from the apocrine glands, which are relatively few in number and are situated in certain hair-bearing areas like the armpits. These glands go into action at the instant of any emotional distress… Their secretion may not bear an odor itself, but in any case provides an excellent culture medium for odor-forming bacteria.”
The quote is much longer and more readable in its entirely, of course, and is an excellent example of the philosophy and style that made Sheehan he guru of serious runners everywhere, whether the topic was the runner’s high or “good” sweat.
December 29, 1986
Fitness
DESPITE SHATTERED LEG, HE’S A FULL-TIME ATHLETE
In 1967 Pat Griskus was a 19-year old Marine, a young man at his physical prime. During that same year, however, his life changed forever.
While driving a motorcycle, he collided with a drunken driver. Griskus’s lower left leg was shattered and was removed below the knee.
Embittered by his mutilation and his limited mobility, Pat sank into a life of hard living. He drank and gambled to excess and was fairly successful at putting his life firmly on the downbound track.
“The one aspect you have going for you when you’re 19 is that you’re a physical creature. But when that was taken away, I let myself go for a number of years,” he said.
But at the urging of a friend, Griskus gave up his drinking and gambling. Claiming to be extremely strong-willed, he made up his mind to turn over a new leaf, went out on one last binge, and the next day totally swore off drinking and gambling. He’s had no backsliding since.
He also decided to once again take up sports, something at which he had shown promise in high school. Griskus had been good enough at track while in the military that there was talk of him trying out for the 1500 meters for the 1968 Olympic team.
He set his sights on running a marathon, feeling it was a worthy goal. In 1983 Griskus ran his first marathon and hasn’t been the same man since.
“After doing that first marathon,” Griskus said, “it was like I had found myself I said to myself, ‘This is what I like to do.’”
He began entering road races and triathlons around his home in Waterbury, Conn., and soon came to the attention of people at Timex, which is headquartered there. In a classic reversal to the athlete-looking-for-a-sponsor story, Timex went after Pat with a sponsorship that allows him to train full-time—six hours of running, weightlifting, bicycling, and swimming each day.
Despite continuing the search for the perfect prosthesis (artificial limb), the one that will take the beating he gives it in training and racing Griskus has managed to come up with an enviable record—a record of performance that is out of reach of 70 percent of the people who line up at the starting line at the typical marathon or road race.
On December 15 of last year, Griskus, now 37, ran a 39-minute 10K race in Hartford, Conn. That came less than two months after he became the first amputee to compete in the Ironman Triathlon, which he completed in a respectable 13:42:47. At the Long Beach Marathon in February of this year, he ran a 3:37:41, and turned in a 3:41:25 at Boston. In the U.S. Triathlon series stop in Los Angeles in June, he turned in a 2:41:25 for the 1.5K swim, 25-mile bike, and 10K run. A week later he did the Fairfield, Conn., half-marathon in 1:33:13.
Griskus competed in the San Francisco USTS triathlon on September 7, but received little attention from the assembled spectators because his style is so smooth and strong that that most people never notice that he’s an amputee. The only place on the course his handicap was in evidence was in the transition area, where the necessity of changing to different artificial limbs for each of the three events eats up nearly a dozen precious minutes of the race.
Griskus isn’t satisfied, however; he has set more stringent goals. He wants to do Boston in 3:29, the Ironman in less than 13 hours, a mile on the track in under five minutes, and ultimately he wants to run the grueling Western States 100, he event he—and other endurance athletes—feels eclipses them all.