Some of life’s lessons I’ve only had to learn once. For example, don’t put your tongue on a frozen flagpole, no matter how funny your friends think it is. Some of life’s lessons took me a little longer: as in, don’t wait to start a 16-week project until the day before it’s due. A...

This month I am going to ask for a point of personal privilege. For those of you who don’t have a copy of Roberts’ Rules of Personal Order handy, a point of personal privilege is when, in the middle of a formal debate, someone feels the need to speak passionately about a topic n...

There are times when it’s hard to tell the difference between being in the groove and being in a rut. To see either of them clearly, you need time and distance. You need perspective. For me, this perspective came after 37 minutes and 40 seconds of agony on Buzzard Bait Hill. It...

It was hot, really hot, really, really hot. It was the kind of day that race directors and veteran marathon runners dread, and which new runners ignore as they chase their dreams. Trouble wasn’t brewing; it was boiling.I ran the first few miles of the marathon just to see what it...

I’m a ’90s guy, or at least I was. That all seems so 20th century now. I’m not ready to call myself a ‘noughties’ guy (although others might). I know all about male bonding, I’m in touch with my feminine side and I’m way too familiar with my inner child. However, I’m only just le...

Many runners are too tense. They’re tense before they run, while they run and after they run. But it’s not their muscles that are tense – it’s their heads. Rather than running in the present tense, they’re always running in the past or future.Men my age – solidly middle-aged – ar...

Recently I received an e-mail from a woman who hoped to become more active. She wanted to start walking and running, maybe even compete in some local 5K or 10Ks. She thought this might be a good way to lose weight and feel better. Not a bad plan.But, she wrote, she wasn’t willing...

I’ve admitted this before in my column. But I suppose if confession is good for the soul, repeating the confession can’t hurt. So here goes: I’m crazy about running shoes. No I really am and I’m not joking.I like to look at them, read about them, try them on, and buy them. And I’...

Finishing last in your first race guarantees that you’ll have a lot to look forward to in your running career. I know – in my first race, I finished just ahead of the ambulance.Okay, that’s not quite true. I wasn’t exactly dead last. I out-kicked my wife Karen in the final 20 met...

It isn’t always easy being a runner. It isn’t always easy being the Penguin. Sometimes it’s almost impossible to be both and to be true to either.One of the canons of the Penguin philosophy is that running – all running – is joyful in its own right. It’s the act of running, bein...