Trust me, I am not a runner (and if Ted Comden or Nina Russin is reading this, I’m sure they’re laughing at the thought that I might ever even consider moving at such a pace).
There are many reasons why I am not a runner, among them a firm belief that why would anyone want to, say, run a marathon when there are perfectly fine automobiles you can drive should you ever desire to traverse 26 miles, 385 yards (or any other distance for that matter).
However, as a former daily newspaper sportswriter, I have written quite a bit about runners, from those doing local 5Ks to those running in school or college colors, even those who run in Olympic circles.
And once, once upon a time, I not only encouraged people to participate in one of those local run-and-or-walk fund-raisers, but I wrote about a training regime to prepare for the event and actually that regime myself and walked the full distance, and at an unusually brisk pace (unusually brisk for me, though I remember walking much of the way with a white-haired, pleasant grandma-type woman who probably wondered why this not-quite-middle aged man was taking his sweet time.
As I recall, our route was from downtown Jackson, Michigan, out to the community college a few miles southeast of the city. It was a nice, tree-lined venue, but it was nothing like the route for another of those fund-raising walk-runs I recently stumbled across.
The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation supports “brilliant young scientists carrying out innovative research for all types of cancer.”
As you may know, Damon Runyon was the writer who gave us “Runyonesque” characters such as Nathan Detroit, Harry the Horse, Good Time Charley and The Seldom Seen Kid. The Broadway musical Guys and Dolls was based on the characters in his short stories.
What you may not know is that Runyon started his writing career as a sportswriter, covering baseball and boxing, and led a life as colorful as any of his characters – his best friend was an accountant for mobster Dutch Schultz, and among Runyon’s post-sportswriting assignments was covering Pancho Villa’s raids across the U.S.-Mexican border.
Runyon, who drank and smoked in quantity, died in 1946 of throat cancer. Since then, the foundation that bears his name has funded the work of more than 3200 scientists, 11 of whom have become Nobel Laureates.
Recently, more than 2500 people turned out to participate in the Damon Runyon 5K, a walk/run and children’s fun run held not along tree-lined boulevards but inside the new Yankee Stadium. The route used the stadium’s various concourses and ramps and ended with a lap around the baseball field. The event raised more than a quarter of a million dollars, in part with contributions from sponsors including the New York Yankees, 24 Hour Fitness, Walgreens, Sirius XM radio, the New York Post and WNBC4.
“The Runyon 5K is a unique charity run/walk that uses the stadium as its course,” the foundation said in a press release.
I’m saying that New Yorkers shouldn’t be the only ones who get to use such sports facilities for fund-raisers. Wouldn’t it be great if every Major League ball park would welcome local runner/walkers for such events?
Why, even I’d dig out a pair of old gym shoes.
-- Larry Edsall