Welcome


Thoughts on fitness, health, good nutrition ... and running.


Welcome to Bald Man Running, a blog launched by Frank Murphy on January 1, 2015.

In March, 2013 I was selected as a contestant for the sixth season of Fort Wayne's Smallest Winner. Through this amazing program, I learned about good nutrition, sound exercise and accountability. By October, I would lose over 88 pounds (almost 37% of my original weight)! One of the many things I acquired through FWSW was a love for running. You can retrace my weight loss journey and discover how I became a runner by reading those entries labeled "fwsw" ...

Note: Many of the blog entries on this website predate 1/1/2015. Prior to launching BMR, I had written articles for various projects, and I have imported many of them into this blog (labeled "retro").

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Pikermi

Pikermi ... it's a new word that I learned today. It's the name of a small city in ancient Greece. It's also halfway between the cities of Marathon and Athens. The modern marathon foot race is named for legendary run that a soldier named Pheidippides made from the battlefield of Marathon to report the outcome in Athens. He ran the entire distance, delivered his message, and then died.

About halfway through his run, he passed through Pikermi (what do you call people that live in Pikermi? Pikerminians perhaps?) There's a small, but growing movement to stop calling races of 13.1 miles a "half marathon" and call it a pikermi instead. The city of Marathon gave it's name to a race, so why not do the same Pikermi?

I like the idea. Saying you ran a "half marathon" sounds like you only did half of something. That's a long run. I'd rather say I ran a "double quarter marathon" or something more impressive sounding than sounding I only did something halfway.

It's a bigger deal to me now than it was yesterday. You see, this morning I ran a total of 13.84 miles. It was a training run and not an officially timed event (that's coming in September), but it was still 13.84 miles no matter how you slice it. I shattered my personal best distance by nearly five miles!

It wasn't easy. I was felling pretty good about halfway through the run, and then I got caught in a downpour. The water got into my smartphone, which in turn freaked out and fortunately wasn't permanently damaged.

I've secretly harbored this goal for several weeks now. I think I'll be dialing the distance down for a few weeks and work on improving my pace, but I wanted to complete a full pikermi before the mid-season finale. I've seen a lot of "13.1" stickers in car windows, and I wanted one for myself. I definitely don't want to be one of those guys that sport a "I did ____" bling without actually doing the (fill in the blank). Today, I qualified for the sticker, so I bought one. It's in my car's window right now.

I was tired. I was sore. I felt half dead.

I am a pikerminian.

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