Help John Run for Haiti

You can read the story at the WY Daily:

http://www.wydaily.com/blogs/good-to-know/3787-good-to-know-help-john-run-for-haiti.html

Use Your Exercise to Contribute to Charities

My name is Chris Eckols and I am new to the area. In June 2008, I reported to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. At the time, I was a little overweight and not active. I sold my car and decided to make a change for myself by commuting strictly by bicycle for my entire 18-month tour. Somewhere after about 3 months of commuting by bike, I decided to run a marathon. I signed up for the Big Sur International Marathon for April 2009. I completed Big Sur in 4:05. Since then, I have run various 5k/10k races and most recently did the Big Sur 1/2 in November with a 1:40. I've logged about 500 miles running and about 2000 miles cycling since starting.

I would like to introduce the Colonial Road Runners to a website called www.Plus3network.com. The Plus3 network allows runners (and all athletes) the ability to have their exercise translate into charitable donations through a variety of sponsors. Sponsors include Runners Warehouse, Zappos, and others. Benefactors include The Leukemia Lymphoma Society, The Breast Cancer Fund, Environmental Defense Fund, and others.

First, let me state that I am spreading Plus3 because it was a great motivator for me while I was in Monterey, Ca for my last tour. The story of Plus3 began in 2007 when Rick, Jon, and Steve -- three of the guys who formed a sports marketing company named GaleForce in the early 1990's -- had an idea to create a bicycling-rewards program to encourage people to ride more and get out of their cars . Rick called up a guy named Joe, who was working in the cell phone world and had worked with Rick, to share The Idea. The three sports-biz-guys plus one-tech-guy team shaped The Idea into a global vision that includes gadgets and the Internet to build a system that motivates healthy lifestyles by collecting exercise activities and, with the financial support of Sponsors, Plus 3 puts a value on it -- literally turning "sweat equity into social capital." Joe introduced himself and Plus3network to the Naval Postgraduate School bicycling club in October 2008.

Essentially, participants (like me) register, chose a sponsor and cause, and then simply log activities. For example, my sponsor is Ritchy (bicycle component manufacturer) and my cause is "Trips for Kids" which provides outreach to at risk youth through cycling. Each time I log an activity, a donation is made by Ritchy to Trips for Kids. Monday morning, I logged a 10.25 mile run around Queens Lake and $1.85 was donated on my behalf. Each activity is worth different amounts, some based on mileage and others by time. To date, I have had $135.17 donated on my behalf.

Currently, Plus3 is predominantly known in Central California where it was founded but my goal is to spread the word to Williamsburg where there is such a huge fitness community. The potential for Plus3 and groups like CRR is immense. If you would, please take a few minutes to look at Plus3. Click on the "People" tab and see who you might know. Look up my name and you will have a great idea about the program. Imagine what it can do when organized groups get involved. There is no cost to participants and to date, Plus3 members have collectively raised over $71,000 for various charities.

I appreciate your time and interest in Plus3. You can see me on the track at Walsingham with my wife Leisa beginning Wednesday afternoon. Looking forward to meeting the group and answering any questions that you might have.


Chris Eckols
cweckols@me.com
www.Plus3network.com
Making it Count

Hall of Fame Inductees and Grand Prix

The Daily Press article for the latest group of Hall of Fame Inductees can be found at http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-spt_commnotes_0112jan12,0,7857687,full.story.

Left to right above are Ed Richards, Robert White, and Barbara Biasi.

Grand Prix results are at http://www.colonialroadrunners.org/grandprix09.html.

Amazing Running Machine

by Dr. Daniel Shaye, Chiropractic Physician

Like most runners, you probably lace up your shoes and head out the door for your run without considering the miraculous machine that will carry you over land. Let's take a moment to appreciate that very machine.

With every running movement, muscles up the legs and thighs all the way to the shoulders and arms need to work together. Pushing off with the right calf correlates with forward and upward (flexion) movement of the left shoulder even as the left hip also flexes and the right hip extends. The hips shift from side to side with each stride, with a muscle on the outside of each hip (gluteus medius) keeping the temporarily ground-based push-off hip from collapsing. 3-5 times body weight crashes up your frame with each footstrike, to be distributed via muscles, tendons, and ligaments (including spinal discs and menisci in the knees)-- thus limiting joint damage, muscle strain, or bone failures. Silently, tiny cells called osteoblasts are inspired to build bone and respond to the repeated stresses of running. Over time the bones of your shins and hips, if fortified by calcium and vitamin D and a healthy body, become denser and adapt to the stresses of running. Your heart gets bigger and stronger, and will be able to eject more oxygen-rich blood with each mighty pump while beating slower at rest. Over time your body adds and maintains MILES of blood vessels to deliver oxygen, glucose, and other nutrients; as well to provide more efficient waste-product (such as CO2) elimination capacity.

Your shoes cover roughly ¼ of the bones in your entire body. Each foot is a flexible structure that can sense the ground and adapt to it, changing in an instant from flexible to rigid, from a highly adaptable ground-sensor to a rigid structure capable of absorbing powerful impact forces and levering you forward. Speaking of forward, running is almost like a series of leaps. Unlike walking, where one foot is always on the ground, running has a portion of its cycle where NO feet are on the ground. In a way, we runners are flightless birds who don't even make the pretense of flapping.

With each out-breath, your lungs expel a metabolic waste product called Carbon Dioxide (CO2). As your brain signals your diaphragm to pull downward, your lungs expand to sample the atmosphere. Air is pulled through ever-smaller tubes into many tiny air sacs called alveoli, which are surrounded by blood vessels; and those blood vessels pull out a minority component of the air called Oxygen. The pulmonary veins carry that oxygen to the left atrium, which transfers it to the left ventricle to be forcefully expelled to the needing brain, pumping arms, striving legs... indeed, to every cell of the body. The carrier of that oxygen is the red blood cell, which has a life of only 120 days. Deep in the marrow of your bones, new red blood cells are being born and raised even as we speak; and they'll be needed, since red blood cells (RBC's) will be destroyed with every foot strike. No worries-- eat some iron-rich spinach, and blood vessels around your digestive tract will pull take that mineral and bring it where it needs to be for assembly into the next generation of RBC's.

The blood also carries sugar (glucose), a major energy source. The major storage house of this glucose is the liver, where glycogen is stored; and when the body calls for it, the liver opens up its stores, allowing you to run a mile, a 5K, or even a marathon or more. And when the body gets really hungry, it can also burn the tremendous energy in a fantastic storage medium known as fat.

The most remarkable miracle of your body isn't the bones, or the liver, or the blood... it's the magnificent computer and wires called your brain and nervous system that coordinates the remarkable, concert-like processes that make running possible. You can focus on pace and form, or admire nature, all without a thought to your amazing machine and command-and-control systems. The "machine" will talk to you, guide you, even warn you of impending problems such as too fast a pace or an impending stress fracture; and it does so without the slightest need for system upgrades. Maybe you should say "thank you, amazing machine, for carrying me through each joyous run!"

I wish you many happy -- and appreciative-- runs, my friends.

-Dr. Daniel A. Shaye

Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician

Fellow, International Academy of Medical Acupuncture

Do you have a question you’d like answered? Mail your questions c/o Performance Chiropractic1307 Jamestown Road, Ste. 103, Williamsburg, VA 23185; e-mail pchiro@performancechiropractic.com; or visit www.performancechiropractic.com

What's The BIG Idea?

By Sally YoungEmail yo-sal@cox.net

BURIDAN'S ASS

Somehow, two-thirds of Americans got sucked into the gravity well of theoverfed, and came back out, McDonald's-plumped and super-sized. Everybodyknows what to do about weight gain - diet and exercise - but the chokepointis in actually doing it. Like Buridan's ass, who died in front of a bucketof food and a bucket of water because he couldn't decide if he was hungrier or thirstier, the morbidly obese stutter in the face of self-help.

Weight control is had not so much by doing everything right, but by notdoing anything wrong: donuts for breakfast; fast food lunches; night timesnacking; riding when you could be walking; hiring out DIY jobs when the exercise would do you good. It's a sure-fire way of going from breathing to a toe ticket, while adding to our record high weight-related medical costsof $147 billion.

If you want something done epically, you have to do it yourself. This year, Virgin Galactic took nine space tourists to weightlessness. For the rest ofus, there's Virgin Health Miles. Fit or not, you can exchange miles walked or ran for points that count toward gift cards to major retailers, e.g.,Target, Amazon.com. Learn more: http://www.virginhealthmiles.com/

Walsingham Running Path Ribbon Cutting Set for Wednesday, Oct. 28

by Rick Platt

For the past few years, runners participating in the Colonial Road Runners Wednesday afternoon interval sessions at Walsingham Academy have had to contend with about a sixth of a mile per lap of medium-sized rocks, used to cover the maintenance road from the far end of the track, along the woods line, and to the baseball backstop and dugouts. While run-able, the rocks were not fun to run on, and slowed down the pace for that section.

That inconvenience is now history. Back in March Walsingham agreed to purchase a dump truck-load of finely crushed stone, which was left in four large piles. The Colonial Road Runners agreed to provide all of the labor in moving the existing rocks to the side to provide an even base, then loading and dumping countless wheelbarrows full of the crushed stone, before smoothing out the finished running path.

Led by project coordinator Rick Platt, the regulars (with at least three work sessions) included Frank Caruso, Andrew and Mercedes D’Amico, Frank Faykes, Jim Goggin, Ian Hawkes, Ed Irish and Ann Jurczyk. Also putting in at least one work session were MacKenzie Carnes, Greg Dawson, Rex Hoover, Ashley Hoover, Steve Menzies, Paula Pickering and Daniel Shaye.

The finished smooth, flat surface is wide enough for two runners abreast, and is similar in condition to running paths at Noland Trail, Warhill, or Newport News Park. Try it out sometime!

So if you’ve been avoiding the Walsingham intervals in the past year or so, because you didn’t like running over the rocks, that excuse is gone! Come on out, and join us for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, which will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 28th, in a ceremonial lap around the “short loop”, before the regular interval workout. Even if you can’t make the ribbon-cutting session, we hope as many of you as possible will become regulars at the Wednesday workouts on our new path.

Note that the October 28th interval session will be the last one at the regular March-through-October 5:30 p.m. starting time. With daylight savings time ending on Sunday, November 1st, all workouts from November 4th through the end of January will be at the winter starting time of 4:30 p.m.

FLY, FLY AWAY

By Sally Young
yo-sal@cox.net

I was wondering why the deer fly kept getting bigger and bigger, and then it hit me right in the eye. I was running in the middle of a flash mob offlying bugs, trying to keep my mouth shut and my speed up, but they were landing all over me, morphing my style into that of a frenzied hackeysacker. I finally smacked one, and pulled my hand back, horrified to see it covered with my own blood. That's when a fly hit my eye, with another going straight into my mouth, mid-"ow". I reached up, smearing red across my eyeand knocking out my contact lens, reducing myself to blind staggers and drooling, like I was fresh off a Haitian white powder binge.

Deer flies thrive in damp, wooded areas or fields during warm weather. They begin swarming at dawn for about three hours, and then again around sunset.They're attracted to forward motion, and can't be outrun. A fly will circle its victim's head and shoulders, delivering a painful cross-shaped cut that pools with blood. Insect repellants are ineffective, but attaching a flypaper-like Deer Fly Patch on your hat will help ease your run. Google Tred-Not Deer Fly Patch.