Give Dean Karnazes his due - 13 miles

Sònia was teaching tonight so I had a couple extra hours after work.  I ran from FEMA Headquarters to our house in Woodley Park via the Capital Crescent Trail and Mass Ave, right at 13 miles (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2363742).  Hmm, I'm going to have to start mixing up my routes just so I'll have different stuff to blog about.

I felt really strong, which is weird considering that I ran 22 miles just day before yesterday.  I guess this is becoming a less and less big deal with so much interest in Ultras.  I have to say, the existence of ultras has kind of cracked my mind open on the idea of how far I could possibly run.  When I finished the Marine Corps Marathon in 1990, I swore I'd never do another Marathon.  I had one friend, Fuzzy, who ran ultras, and we all thought he was insane.

This month's TrailRunner magazine has an article about the ultra boom and how it is changing ultras.  Oddly enough (or perhaps typically), the article does not mention Dean Karnazes.  That pisses me off.  I realize that Dean is controversial, as he is in the press a lot, self-promotes, etc.  But the fact is that I never would have considered training for an ultra if I had not read his book, Ultramarathon Man.  I am pretty sure that of the zillions of folks training for ultras now a good proportion got interested in the same way.  Arguably the readership of TrailRunner magazine has expanded a lot because of the interest in the sport that he raised.  But there exists some sort of taboo about mentioning Karnazes as a serious athlete in the ultra press.  I read a blog in which the author was gleeful because Dean didn't break a record he had set out to break.  That's messed up.