Tarmac Meditations #35: Marathon Camp

A few days in the life for Michael at Dick Beardsley’s Marathon Running Camp.

September 11, 2010

Built the Dick Beardsley Marathon Running Camp (DBMRC) video after the conclusion of the Dick Beardsley Legends Half Marathon…five days worth of stills put together with various songs as soundtrack. Sometimes this is an easy process, sometimes not so much. After the fact it appears that my choice in music dates me. I could not find a place for Michael Franti or Roots, both of whom are great to listen to while running but whose lyrics are less to do with running and more to do with sex and violence as much as they are with dreams and inspiration — a hip hop view of the world out of keeping with a sizable demographic in the audience.

JR. Walker and the All-Stars’ “(I’m a) Roadrunner” made it easily. Sadly, so did Steve Miller’s wish to “Fly Like an Eagle”. The video also has a section devoted to the ‘teams’ into which the camp is divided, a veritable zoo full of animal kingdom runners whose names are not so easily found in song lyrics. It is important to have lyrics that highlight the team names: Cheetahs, Spiders, and Beavers, and, improbably, Dolphins — so Tom T Hall, James McMurtry, Cheetah Love, Dylan, Tom Petty and DeadString Bros were all present and correct.

I always want to use the Stones and the Velvet Underground but in this crowd there will be raised eyebrows and a lot of ‘who are those guys?” not to mention that the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed is still one of the earliest and best lyric handbooks on how to score heavy drugs and lose one’s sense of light-hearted life in the big city. Oh well, since I can neither write music nor sing a lick they will take what I give them and like it…or I’ll redo it. Either way, it is a few minutes from presentation and I think the cameraman, writer, director is just a little nervous about the product. Don’t you?

September 12, 2010

Morning mist, sunrise coming..my most recent chapter of life on Little Bemidji Lake, Minnesota is coming to close…saw some old friends, made a couple of new ones, learned a thing or two. Until next year at the DBMRC I say travel well, stay healthy, run long, catch y’all on the flip side…all good things to all y’all.

Rode to the Fargo Airport with a guy who lives by a lake, drives 90 miles each way to work in Fargo (actually West Fargo) and drives home four days a week. He writes service manuals for combines and other such heavy machinery. He loves history. Pointed out where the flood waters rose from the Red River and how they just missed his wife’s parent’s farm where he used to pick her up for high school football games 30+ years ago. Continuity and connection in the heartland. Works for me.

September 13, 2010

Almost home…. Easy money. Leavin’ soon. Want to miss the commuter snarl here in Portland, Oregon. Might have to have the breakfast special at Johnnies, a great family-owned-and-run old style diner in SouthEast, while I’m waiting to head down the road. Maybe catch a run when I get home. Runners, take your marks.

Photo Credit

Photo © Michael Lebowitz. All Rights Reserved.