Running Gadgets and the Jericho Mile

Running Week July 20th-July 26th, 2009

This week was one filled both with being connected to running gadgets and trying to free myself from such things. It has also had me reflect on how lucky I really am to be able to do what I do, with or without gadgets, and without many of the restrictive walls which haunt others.

Running is about freedom, or at least it should be. It is about being able to walk out the door, at a time of one’s choosing, and just setting out on a pre-designed path, or a random one, depending on the moment. It is such a liberating feeling to know you can “just do it” as the saying goes, and do what many others believe is impossible for them to do, or are not allowed to do.

I returned this morning, having run 13 miles and feeling incredibly content and not so sore. I returned to the smiling face of Anna, our intern from Russia, who at 7:40 am looked over and asked if we had just run 10km. “Actually 21km today” was my response and she gave an even wider smile saying “that’s amazing; I don’t think I could ever do that”. After reassuring her that she actually could with just a little training and a plan, I began to think again about how to actually get there and about gadgets, walls and The Jericho Mile.

To begin with an explanation, this was the week that I somehow misplaced the running transmitter that fits on my iPod. This little device lets me know how far I have run and also how quickly I am running at any particular moment. It is a wonderful piece of technology that has really allowed me to plan my training much more efficiently and keeps me on track during my workouts. Not sure where the sensor went and I have basically given up looking for it. I thought this would not be a problem and I would go and buy a new one in town. Believing this to be the case, I was very surprised when, after going to numerous iPod dealers in town, I utterly failed to do so. All of them told me that the item was on back order and would only be here a month from now.

Ok, so I figure I can deal with this and just order one online. While I came up short on the iPod running transmitter, I did manage to buy a heart rate monitor- another gadget. The heart rate monitor lets me know my specific heart rate and training percentage at any particular point of my training. I like these gadgets because even if I believe I should be tired or out of breath, I can read my heart rate and know that in fact I should still be able to keep going. The monitor comes in two parts: one being a type of watch and the other a flexible band that wraps around the chest area.

So I was not lucky with the transmitter but did score with the heart rate monitor. No problem though because for my 13 mile run today I went online yesterday and logged on to the website My Run to map out a 13 mile course. It is very easy to do and pretty accurate. While doing this I felt like I hit the jackpot because the website advertised a downloadable program for iPhones, another gadget, that allows the iPhone to act as a GPS and log your runs and speed, just like the iPod transmitter I lost. “Fantastic” I thought, as I quickly powered up my computer and transferred the program and data onto my iPhone. ‘All good’ I thought but then I went one step further and updated my iPhone general application program. Oh boy, was this a mistake as I seemed to wipe out all of the information on my iPhone and now it is locked up. Tomorrow it will be taken to the iPhone store and fixed (hopefully).

This meant that today’s run, beginning at 5am, was going to rely on the course I mapped out. I ran through Chiang Mai University, back past the old city of Chiang Mai, skirting the moat, across the Ping River and looped around to a return to the BABSEA house around 7:30am. It was a nice slow and steady run with pictures taken throughout using my camera- yet another gadget. However, along the way I began to “curse” the new heart rate monitor as it kept coming undone as I ran and I stopped about 10 times to reattach it. Finally, in the final 2 miles of the run I just took it off and ran home, free of the monitor, knowing how much further I had to go and not needing any distance monitor whatsoever to measure it for me. I felt free and I kept thinking that this was the way running was really supposed to be. Of course I did not mind having the music from my iPod to keep a very strong and steady beat as I picked up speed in mile 12 and put in a good kick to finish the final 13. Thanks to the hydrating drink made from the powdered Gatorade that our volunteer lawyer Sherman Kassoff brought me from the USA, my body was kept quenched throughout. Not sure if Gatorade counts as a gadget but perhaps it does! So that was my run today, following a week that had been made up of smaller but faster runs, both on treadmills and very often on the Chiang Mai University track. The week was good, even if filled with the use of gadgets to make the running more scientific and so presumably better and more efficient.

I however kept thinking through this week if all this was really necessary and if I was not being a running purist. Wasn’t I supposed to be free during my runs and not held prisoner by all these gadgets that were “so necessary” to improve my ability? I then began to think about a movie I saw in 1979 called The Jericho Mile. Now I have to admit something. Most of what I am about to write about the Jericho Mile is based upon my memory of a movie that I saw in 1979, 30 years back, when I was 12. I have not seen it since and I may not have remembered all of the actual facts and scenes of the movie perfectly but that does not matter to me. What matters is how I was moved by the movie then and what I believe the movie was meant to represent and what it still represents to me.

This is how it goes. The story was is about a man spending his life in prison for the murder of his father. To find freedom within the walls, the main character, Rain Murphy, runs and runs in circles outside in the prison yard, around oil barrels, on a make shift track. He runs in canvas high tops, using no gadgets at all. In addition, he not only runs but runs an almost continuous and consistent 4 minute mile.

Eventually his running habits gain the interest of others from outside the walls, and there arises speculation as to whether Murphy can run as a USA Olympian. But to do this he must first run an official qualifying race which cannot be done as such a race required an official running track. After much inner politics, racial conflict and violent turmoil in the prison, which demonstrates the true lack of freedom that exists within its walls, an official race is run on a track built by inmates of all walks of life within the same prison walls.

The race is preceded by a prophetic quote by Murphy to his coach, "I'm going to grab the lead and hang onto it." (I must admit that I looked up this quote on the internet because my memory is not that good) And ‘hang on’ he does as Murphy, who is now provided with gadgets of all sorts including better running shoes, racing gear and a stop watch, is the victor.

It would seem that Murphy should now be ready to represent his country in the Olympics, but all the gadgets in the world cannot do this for him. Other manipulative forces are at play and upon winning the qualifying race, Murphy is interviewed by the Olympic committee and is asked about the crime he is in prison for. What is hoped is that he will demonstrate remorse for killing his father and therefore he will be spared and pitied and so be allowed to find freedom outside the walls and run for the Gold.

Yet Murphy refuses to do this and conform to others as he feels it is impossible for him to lie. In an emotionally challenging scene, Murphy reveals that his father was an abusive man who beat Murphy’s sister to the point that Murphy could not let it go on anymore. He further states that rather than be remorseful and sorry, under the same circumstances, he would have defended his sister in the same way once again. Wrong answer for some but it was the right answer for Murphy. We then see Murphy listen to the Olympic races via radio and hearing of someone else setting the Gold record.

The final scene of the movie sees Murphy suit up with his new racing shoes and run on the newly built track in the prison, with his stopwatch in hand. Racing against none one or anything but himself once more, Murphy completes his journey, breaking the record set at the Olympics. He stares at the stopwatch in his hand that shows he broke the Gold record and we know that he is really the winner who has found a freedom that was not really possible for him prior to this event. It is the freedom of self worth and knowing his respectability. Murphy ends the movie by throwing the stopwatch through the air, no longer needing such a thing. In that one moment, he brings down the Walls of Jericho.

I remember thinking at that time, at only 12, that Murphy was really running for his own justice- a justice that he found within himself. So here I am running and running for justice. I think of how lucky I am to be able to be free to run freely where I want and when I want. I am lucky and grateful for this and this drives me when I feel lazy, tired and lack motivation. I think of the many Murphys out there who are not as fortunate or as free as me. This helps me on those days that I am “dragging my bottom.” I also think about all the gadgets I have. I really don’t need them and I think I will rely on them less, although I will still continue to use them more than I probably need to, at least for now! These are my thoughts this week and I hope they can fix my IPhone.

14 weeks until New York!