the Way of the Turtle

I'm In the Book! (I Think)
Thursday, October 11, 2007

... and no, I don't mean the phone book...

Recently I've been reading Mike Bouscaren's Ultrarunning: My Story, in which he recounts his experiences running a variety of races (both ultras and marathons) and the lessons he learned in the process. I have to admit, I was originally a bit concerned that it was going to be a somewhat spacey, New Age philosophy book (not that I have anything against those in general, but I wanted to read about running!) But once I got a little further into it, I really enjoyed what he had to say... both his descriptions of running the races he did, and his musings about how he changed as a person through his running. He actually got me thinking about some aspects of distance running I hadn't considered before.

One thing that was particularly fun about his book was the fact that he's from Boston, and he actually wrote about races I'm familiar with and people I know from running with the WMAC - this past Sunday I was reading his comments about talking with the ever-impressive Rich Busa (who at 77 regularly beats me across the finish line in races) only hours after I spent time on the trail walking, running, and chatting with Rich! But my biggest surprise came when I read his report on the 2006 Nipmuck Trail Marathon - that was the first year I attempted the race, and I ended up dropping out at the 2nd turn-around, at just under 6 hours on the course. Mike finished, and along with his thoughts about the race he included a picture of some folks running it... one of whom looks like he might be me! It's hard to be certain, because the picture is dark and somewhat fuzzy, but it sure looks like me, and the somewhat fuzzy race number could definitely be mine... how cool (and downright strange) is that?

JMH