Distance running must attract obsessives...

Yesterday, I got a chance to visit with a successful business acquaintance that I met a year or so ago.  He, his wife and five (!!!!!)  kids live in NYC and he was out on a rare trip to San Francisco. 

Flashing back to when first I met him, he was training for his first half marathon.  Our first meeting was as much a business meeting as it was a download from me to him of information on training plans, cool gear, tricks and tips and the like.  Over the course of the last year, we must have traded an email every ninety days or so.  His training, his first half marathon and oh yeah, maybe a little talk of business thrown in there was pretty much the jist.

So, yesterday's meeting solidified in my mind that once people start running and enjoy it, some latent genetic matter triggers a brain alteration that takes perfectly normal people and changes them into running/fitness obsessives.  Since our first meeting 10 months ago my friend has...

Hired a running coach online.  (Actually looks pretty interesting...click here)  We had a good laugh as he "under reports" his milage to his coach and works out on days he he is supposed to be taking off. 

Acquired a small datacenter's worth of gadgets, software and electronica to help him along the way.

Religiously counts his calorie intake, calorie burn and deficits/overages...daily!

Completed a second half marathon and signed up for both the Philadelphia and NYC marathons.

Has amped his distance up to 40-50 miles per week. 

Recruited his wife to run a marathon with him. 

Our hour chat yesterday may have had 5 minutes of business involved...the rest was comparing notes about about training, racing and gadgets. 

When I look at the other folks I am friends with that run, all are pretty much the same - obsessed with miles, toys, race entries, diets, shoes and web sites about the same. 

Some people fall down the sewer with substance abuse, shoplifting or other damaging and negative obsessions...I am lucky I and the pack of folks I hang with jump over sewers in pursuit of something positive! 

My hamstring is 100%....but now my lower back hurts.  All par for the course!  Running through it!  I don't have the luxury of easing off the gas pedal this close to race day!

Only 18 days until Ironman Louisville!!!!