Farewell Lou Johnson-we will all miss you

The husband of a good friend of mine died a couple of weeks ago. He was a fellow athlete although we trained separately. He died doing what he loved best…running. He had a massive heart attack while finishing an 8 mile run, and he was only 50 years old with no previous warning. He didn’t make the news like Jim Fixx or Ryan Schay, but he touched a lot of us. Our kids grew up together (known the family for over 15 years).

I can remember back to when he first started training for the marathon about the same time I did. After the marathon he veered off to doing triathlons…the ironman kind. My heart goes out to Alice and the kids. This really puts a perspective on things…what’s more important in life is your good health and family. So give your loved ones an extra hug today!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of listening to Dick Beardsley talk. I had read his book, “Dual in the Sun”, so I kind of knew what he was going to talk about. Of course he talked about his famous Boston Marathon duel between him and Alberto Salazar. He’s really an amazing person. I can’t believe so many things happened to the guy. Some of his stories were hilarious. The talk ended in a somber mood when he talked about how he got over his addiction to pain medication. There were so many people that came to listen to him that I didn’t get a chance to go up to him to shake his hand. It’s reassuring to know that he goes through the same thoughts I do during a marathon, even though he’s going 3 minutes per mile faster than me.

Speaking of books, I highly recommend Kathrine Switzer’s book “Marathon Woman”. She is also an amazing person. It’s also very interesting to see how races have changed in the past 40 years. If you are looking for motivation, this is the book for you.

I decided last minute to enter the Los Angeles Marathon which will be next weekend. My younger daughter Kimberly is in LA for a tennis tournament that Saturday, so of course, mind as well stay and run the marathon on Sunday! The temperature will be a shock to my body. It was in the 80s the other day over there, and here in the Chicago area, it is zero with negative wind chills. It’s warming up…today it is a balmy 20 degrees. The race has a 8 am start and is hilly towards the end. I don’t anticipate a PR but will consider it just a long training run for Boston.