Start slowly and taper off

There are at least two reasons why I’ve never gone in for organized sports: first, I’m no damn good at most of them; second, pretty much any amount of group organization in any context seems overblown to me (I mean, can’t we all just do whatever we want, like, whenever?). Yesterday I made an exception and raced with a legitimate San Francisco club, the Dolphin South End Runners. I liked their silly name and I liked their motto even more, a jogging turtle, exhorting, “Start slowly and taper off”. I liked their low-key members. I really liked that the race cost $1; I ate well over my entrance fee in free Lara bars and krinkle cut chips at the finish line. Maybe I could get into organized running after all.

I did some research on the club and found out that I also liked the Dolphin South End founder, Walt Stack. He set up the DSE in the mid ’60s as a club that would allow men, women and children to run together, which was groundbreaking stuff at the time. In addition to equal running rights, he described himself as a ”crusty, hard-line Commie”. He went AWOL while on duty in the Philippines and was sent to Alcatraz for six months of hard labor.  

Stack spent most of his life running around San Francisco. He jogged over the Golden Gate Bridge every day for decades. It’s estimated that he ran 62,000 miles in his lifetime, which is enough to go around the Earth a few times, but only about a quarter of the way to the Moon- James Nord, eat your heart out. 

And if that’s not enough to enamor you to Stack, there’s this charming tidbit from his Wikipedia page:

In 1982 he participated in the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii, and he holds the event record for most time taken to finish, in dead last place. Surviving the ocean swim rather effortlessly, Stack commenced the 112 mile long bike ride on his single speed granny-basket bike, and finished the 26.2 mile marathon run early the next morning, but not before stopping in for a full waffle breakfast prior to finishing. Stack finished in the record-breaking time of just over 26 hours. Officials implemented a cut-off time in subsequent years. 

This is a club I can get behind, in the figurative and probably also literal sense. Yesterday I ran 4.5 miles at a pace of 8:56. Pretty slow compared to most of the club’s runners. I’m not embarrassed: Stack notoriously clocked 8:30 miles, no matter how far he ran. I dig that. I think I’m going to strive towards greater personal consistency. Starting with running more. Slowly.