Feb 23, 2000

My best day each week is when an issue of my newsletter, Running Commentary, is done and gone. I'm not relieved that the work is finished; it never ends with a new issue to start the same day.

I'm excited because this promises to be the heaviest mail day of the week. E-mailing has made possible almost instant receipt and response. Readers never fail to surprise me with what stirs them to write back.

A column on titled "Not So Fast" (November RC) defended my long-time leanings toward long slow distance running -- or LSD. It brought a pair of same-day responses.

Gordon Booth wrote from England, "I'm not quite sure what sort of an audience you're aiming at, serious runners or fun-runners. But if I'd listened to your advice [to take it easy and perhaps add walking breaks] way back in 1986 when I began jogging at age 54, I may never have aspired to the heights I did.

"It took me five marathons to get it right. But after much pain my little brain got the hang of it eventually, and I ran the race of my life in London just weeks short of my 61st birthday to record 2.54:18 and take the British over-60 marathon championship."

Then from a runner identifying himself only as Bernie: "I read your recent commentary on the gentleman who called you about the non-effectiveness of LSD. I must belong to a different race of person, because LSD seems to work fine for me.

"After about 20 years of steady running, with the last eight at 60 to 80 miles a week, I ran a 36-minute 10-K this summer at age 50 -- with no speed training. The best part about all this is that I have not a single ache or pain despite running seven days a week for many years."

I'll take sweet letters like this with the bitter ones that inevitably arrive as well. Mail-call is the most exciting time of day because it tells me that someone is reading and reacting.

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