Obsessed Runner Blog
2024.07.10 - This running life
Very few of us get through life without facing a medical nightmare, but our daily runs train us to be ready for the hard days. In my 30’s, and just after being featured as Michigan Runner of the Year, I was running the Freep marathon where I hit 20 miles just under 6 minute pace, when my heart decided to go to hell. In reality, it was the day I found out I was born with a birth defect, only having 2 flaps on what should have been 3 on my aortic valve. The valve prematurely aged and chose that day to stick open and send me into congestive heart failure. I could write a book about what happened next, but here are the cliff notes: I had a high-risk surgery called the Ross Procedure (you can look it up if so inclined), not approved by the AMA at the time. The operation was a success, but the post-op heart was about a minute and a mile slower. This obsessed runner grieved the loss of a fast pace, but I was able to still run.
My love of the daily run remained and it got me 30 more years of joy … Then on Labor Day, 2023, a new nightmare struck as my heart went out of rhythm, aging scar tissue from the old surgery seems to be the culprit. I’ve been somewhat quiet about it as I’ve gone through several surgical procedures, and some hospital stays, but I’ve been able to walk with a bit of running through it all.
That said, after 10 months away from the run, modern medicine has me back on the road, again, a couple minutes per mile slower, but I’m smiling through every mile! Ideally, we would run until our final day, but realistically, we must accept that it may end at any time. When that day comes, we will all still be runners till the end, carrying with us, all the miles we have ever ran, miles that are part of us, never to be taken away.
Enjoy every healthy day as they prepare us,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner who ran more than walked 5 miles yesterday!
2024.06.12 - My 2 mile run
The most significant run in my life, at least the one I think back on most often, is not my first Boston or Kona Ironman finish, but is the first time I ran 2 miles without stopping. Other than the obligatory one mile run in high school, why would someone run farther? Recreational running was a foreign concept to me. Until college, I had not associated with anyone who ran. I can’t remember the exact catalyst of my attempt to run 2 miles without stopping, maybe it was seeing other runners out there or some conversation concerning running. What I do remember is that it was hard, felt endless, left me wiped out, and a feeling of accomplishment, more so, than anything I had ever done. A life changing experience that launched a new me.
May today’s run be glorious and memorable,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner, who when seeing someone out on a run, knows that I might be witnessing someone doing something that is extraordinary!
2024.06.05- Why we run long
I remember being asked if racing the marathon was healthy. It was hard to admit but I did say, perhaps not for physical health but for so many other reasons. First off, the training and lifestyle is incredibly healthy, then, there is the tremendous psychological value in accomplishing hard to reach goals. This is the good stuff that will sustain us, along with the skills marathon training teaches us, preparing us for so many things in life. As for the race itself being healthy? I’m not talking about just covering 26 miles, but hammer down, max heart rate racing from start to finish. Is it physically healthy to do something that takes weeks to recover from, often having to inch back to the fitness we had when we lined up? I look at it as a risk reward question with physical risks on one side and life changing rewards on the other.
Put the hammer down today!
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner, until they throw the dirt on.