“My First 100 Marathons, 2,620 Miles with an Obsessive Runner,” by Jeff Horowitz. Skyhorse Publishing. 257 pp. $24.95.
By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
Jeff Horowitz remembers being a pudgy (his pants came from the “husky” racks) child and still being somewhat overweight when he enrolled in law school in Washington, D.C., in the mid-1980s.
Then Horowitz started running.
And he’s still at it.
Horowitz’s book, “My First 100 Marathons,” highlights how he fell in love with running, how he made it through his initial long-distance race and how he eventually evolved into a marathoning guru.
It’s an easy, interesting read, especially for anyone who has ever been a distance runner and so much as dreamed of tackling a marathon.
“Real achievement comes from our own sweat, from our conscious choice to sacrifice and work hard,” Horowitz writes early on. “Making choices is the foundation for all morality, and rather than relying on faith to guide us in our actions, we should fashion our actions to reflect our faith.”Horowitz writes that he decided to start running when he realized the baby fat he’d carried most of his life had evolved into a spare tire around his middle as he reached adulthood. It was a situation that was going to turn into more of a problem as he aged, he says.
So Horowitz started running. He first tackled short distances, then gradually increased the lengths of his workouts.
His breakthrough run came when he started in northern Virginia where he lived, crossed a bridge into Washington, passed the Watergate Hotel, then returned to his house.
The run covered five miles and proved a momentous accomplishment.
“As the months passed, I realized that, little by little, I was actually turning into a real runner,” Horowitz writes. “I had never run any races, and I hadn’t been on any track teams, but now I felt I was not just some guy trying to stay in shape. I was an athlete.”
Horowitz’s first marathon was the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington. Among runners, the race has an excellent reputation, drawing thousands of participants from around the world.
Horowitz writes of the pain of the race, and the motivation he got from the lone fan situated near the event’s mid-point who had the “Rocky” theme blasting from the trunk of his car as runners passed.
Better still was the Marine who congratulated Horowitz with a single word when he crossed the finish line.
“Outstanding,” the Marine said.
Horowitz writes of the dangers of over-training (his doing so forced him to miss his first-ever try at a marathon) and offers sensible advice for those wishing to take a stab at a marathon.
Each chapter is followed by a racing tip. Those categories include topics as diverse as suggestions on foods to eat while training to where to take bathroom breaks while marathoning (The latter can prove a bit tricky).
Horowitz also cautions about the need for keeping one’s running in perspective.
As an example, Horowitz refers to something he’d read that came from Tug McGraw, a former relief pitcher for the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies.
“After blowing a game, he would ponder something he called the Ice Ball Theory, which went something like this,” Horowitz writes. “Some day, many millions of years from now, our sun will become a supernova, scorch the earth and then flame out into nothingness. After that, our planet will wander eternity in a dark void, a giant ice ball hurtling through space. At that point, no one will be around to care that on a sunny afternoon Tug McGraw once served up a home run pitch to lose a baseball game.”
Horowitz says McGraw found it easier to sleep at night after running the scenario through his head.
The book is best when Horowitz gives details of the surroundings and history of the races he’s run. His tale of the Pikes Peak Marathon in Colorado is one of the book’s best.
According to Horowitz, Pikes Peak was part of the Louisiana Purchase. It was named for Zebulon Pike, the man who surveyed the summit, which wasn’t climbed until 1820.
The first race to the top of Pikes Peak was held in 1936, with 25 men and two women participating. Nineteen made it.
Twenty years passed before the next race to the summit was staged, a battle between smokers and nonsmokers. It has been an annual event ever since, with thousands of runners now participating.
A booklet mailed to race participants warns that the temperature can drop as much as 50 degrees from the beginning of the race until its end. The greatest threat to runners comes from lightning strikes.
Sounds like fun, huh?
But Horowitz for the most part keeps it all interesting. He’s run famous marathons (Boston, New York and Athens), exotic marathons (Antarctica and Kona) and downright strange marathons (in one staged in Bordeaux, France, participants dine on oysters during the event).
Horowitz’s 100th marathon turned out to be a relatively local event ó the Grandfather Mountain Marathon that begins in Boone and follows the Blue Ridge Parkway to Grandfather Mountain.
If Horowitz’s writing doesn’t inspire his readers to attempt a marathon, it at least leaves us in awe of his accomplishments.