Birthday Challenge

It’s July, and each year I do something to challenge myself on my birthday. A couple of years back, Ken (K2) Saveth, whose birthday is also in July, and I ran 50 miles to celebrate our 50th birthdays. Last year, I spent 51 days doing nothing—or so it seemed.


This year, we wanted to do something a bit more of a birthday challenge than holding down a couch so after a wee bit of brainstorming, we came up with the idea of running 52 times across the pedestrian bridge north of 31st Street and Riverside.In case you don’t know the bridge, it’s an old converted rail road bridge that has springy wood decking for a quarter mile across the lazy Arkansas River. The route is shaded, and a good breeze is always blowing down the riverbed. Given the long string of triple digit temps, the shaded breezy route will be like running in air conditioning!

A quick bit with my Walgreen’s calculator shows the total mileage right at 13 miles (maybe a bit more since it actually measures .265 miles end to end. The plan is to start at 4:30 pm, and finish in time to go to eat with the usual RunnersWorld crowd. We’d like to have a few people join us along the way for an out-and-back or two, or heck—maybe 26 out-and-backs. We’ll have an ice chest at one end, and plan to make it a party atmosphere.

Now let me say—this is not an earth shaking accomplishment. I know running 52K or 52 miles would be a lot more impressive. 52 trips up Lipbuster would be much more impressive. 52 miles in the 4th day of a stage race is much more awesome! Running your age in hours like Catra Corbett does each year blows our meager effort away, but this is what us two old guys have to bring to the table at this time. Besides, I will be coming off a 50K in Arkansas this weekend. (Maybe I should tack on a couple extra while there?)

We may add in a few other “52s” like 52 pushups, 52 beers 52 ounces of beer, or maybe 52 bad jokes along the way. Any ideas? Join us if you can! Thursday July 21st 4:30 PM at the Pedestrian Bridge.