How Alcohol Affects Running/ Runner's High

Okay this week I am combining two topics because they are both somewhat short and don't have a lot of new information on them. I was somewhat disappointed to learn from searching that there wasn't a lot of research done on these topics, well mostly on the topic of how alcohol affects the body. I guess it's just based on more common sense, but I think it would be interesting if people would do a study of what happens to athletes if they were to casually drink or binge drink randomly through out their running career. Would it affect their final outcome in the big race at the end of a season?

What I learned from some runner's from runner's world was that having a glass of wine a day or just a beer or two doesn't really do much to the runner's body, but obvisouly if one chooses to binge crazily the night before they plan to go on a long run or race than of course they are going to struggle the next day and not have the motivation to run. Aside from feeling like crap do to the excess drinking, we also get that feeling of laziness from our inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in our brain being in contact with alcohol. There was even one somewhat humorous response from a runner saying how he was in college and had a race the next day and didn't drink, but clearly the guys next to him had been and they ended up continusouly puking on the road side,...yuck.

I also found it interesting that sometimes one or two beers, key word ONE or TWO, can be go for the body after a run because they are full of carbs which the body craves and needs after a long run, but doesn't mean that the only source of those carbs should come from beer, just that it wouldn't hurt the runner.

Now onto the ever so famous Runner's High.  Not only runner's are able to experience this feeling of a long lasting adrenaline rush that keeps the athlete more encouraged to keep going through their activity of endurance, but other athletes from different sports as well are able to too.  This uncludes those who ski, surf, or even play football, other participants may encounter this feeling to aside from the ones stated.

One article stated that some are still unsure if we can really pin point when a runner's high occurs. Runner's do get these "grand feelings" from reactions of endorphines, which are proteins in the body that alleviate pain, sometimes helping long distance runner's get over that stage of diffuculty after they have been running for awhile and than they feel a sense of positivity that encourages them to keep going and maybe even at a faster pace.

It says that athletes or just those who work out on a daily basis in general, have a higher dosage of endorphines, which is why they could be more likely to feel these optimal feelings during working out.  Daily activites could also have an effect on the "Runner's High". If one has been stressed they may not be able to encounter the high due to thoughts of negativity preoccupying their mind or vice versa, if one is very relaxed and under no state of stress, than they could easily encounter a runner's high and maybe even for longer. The scenery/ weather play a part in the high as well, if things around are looking great out (for example it's a nice day) than this could only trigger a positive runner's high, but on the flip side, if things are gloomy outside than a runner could be down and experience a negative runner's high, or just negative feelings.

I found it interesting that when one reaches this point of a runner's high that they are somewhat putting their body at harm. When runner's experience this feeling it's usually at a point in there work out where they have exceeded their limits and depleted the body and are now just going off chemical reactions within they body. This usually occurs when the workout is strenuous and has been going for a long period of time.

I found all of this to be quite interesting and might even relate to those of you who like to run longer distances or competitively.

http://www.bloodalcohol.info/how-alcohol-affects-the-brain.php
http://www.runnersworld.com/community/forums/training/training-essentials-workouts/re-alcohol-running
http://www.runnersworld.com/community/forums/training/training-essentials-workouts/alcohol-vs-alcohol-during-training
http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/sarah.html

Women in Running -Katherine Switzer

This week I want to discuss when women could finally run, and I don't just mean run for fun, but when they could finally compete against others.  Also when they were able to compete against men and maybe even pass some of the men up!

Katherine Switzer was the first woman to challenge the tradition of only men competing in marathons.  It took place in the year 1967 when she wanted to run in the Boston Marathon, which at that time was still strictly men only. Her dad had always encourage her to do what she wanted and not let little obstacles get in her way, in this case the men only competition.  She thought that it was unfair, which I also agree with, why should only guys be able to run, there is plenty of fast women out there who could definately wipe some of these guys out with their amazing stamina and speed, so Katherine decided she wasn't going to let this stop her and entered the Boston Marathon. 

Let me rewind quickly first and give more background information as to what led up to this point of determination for Katherine. As I said in the above paragraph, Katherine was encouraged by her dad to go out and do what she wanted, so she went out for the field hockey team in school and also did as well in college.  She also ran on the side just to maintain her endurance, she was really dedicated to being the best she could be and with her running it only gave her an advantage on the field. In college her field hockey team didn't take anything as serisouly as she would have liked and so she would run for a little after. One day the men's track coach came to talk to Katherine and wanted to see if she would like to run a race with the men's track team since of course there wasn't a women's. Katherine was thrilled and gladly accepted the offer, but little did she know that she was going to be looked down upon by others. She competed in the mile run, finishing with a time of 5:58. She was felt content with the out come, but others did not and sent her rude sorts of comments her way. Katherine wanted to continue her passions for running after college, but nothing was offered for women, so she went on to write about sports at Syracruse.

She still continued to run at Syracruse and actually went on to run with the men's cross country team, but did little running WITH them as they were always way ahead of her pace, but the manager stayed back and ran with and that was the beginning of her mentoring with him, Arnie Briggs.  Katherine wasn't able to compete officially because the NCAA didn't allow it, but she was still able to practice with the team, which she did. She told Arnie her goal of runnig a marathon and he told her that she was crazy and that women can't run marathons (umm yes they can, anybody can do anything, as long as they really are determined to work hard and put all their heart towards their goal). She wanted to prove Arnie wrong and continued on with her passion. She trained by running longer distances and Arnie even clocked out 26.2 miles, the official distance of a marathon, and when she ran that he agreed to help her sign up for the Boston Marathon. It never specifically stated that women couldn't run in the marathon, it was more just expected that they wouldn't even dare to.  In 1967 though, after registering and recieving her race number, Katherine was at the start line of the Boston Marathon, ready to compete with all men.

There was some controversy of course though and as the race started people began to notice that a woman was running the marathon. Many congratulated her and encouraged her, while others were rude, including Jock Semple, who went after Katherine and tried to physically remove her from the race.



Thank goodness for her boyfriend though who was also running with her and he took care of Jock. Katherine completed the race with a time of 4:20, not an ideally fast time, but hey she finished. This also began the encourgement for other women to run in marathons, which they soon started to do.

It wasn't unitl 1972 though that the marathon was officially open to women to race in and actually have their times recorded, because even when Katherine ran in the Boston Marathon in 1967 she didn't have her time officially recorded with the men's and some people even went on to claim that she didn't finish, bue she DID.  Katherine continued on with running marathons and ended up winning with New York Marathon in 1974 with a time of 2:51. Now that is a fast time! Over an hour less than her first marathon and also her best time ever. She was happy that she was making a difference for women around the world and making if possible for them to race officially with the men too finally.  In 1984 the Olympic Marathon allowed women to compete in too and has only added more events for the ladies ever since.



I never even had heard of Katherine Switzer before this, but now after reading about her and learning about her amazing story and strong courage she had in fighting for what she wants, I totally admire her, plus she is a runner! If it wasn't for her, who knows, us women could still be running, but not competitively with the men, so I thank her for all her determination to change that. I hope to meet her some day and I will continue to run with even more of a desire to do well and run my heart out!


 


http://www.katherineswitzer.com/bio.shtml
http://www.katherineswitzer.com/#more
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rialtoentertainment.com/_public/

History of Marathons

Okay first off I just wanted to let you guys know that I have been having a little confusion with where exactly to make new blogs and have been apparently making an entire new blog each week on my research topic of running.  Thanks to Brandon though, he showed me that all you need to do is simply click new post, so if you are wondering where my other blogs are they are just under my main page with all my blogs, but if you are unable to reach them just contact me for their URLs.

Anyway this week I have chosen to look up information about the history of running marathons.  I was just curious as to how long ago the first marathon took place and thought why not research that topic this week.  Also I would love to and plan to run marathons in the near future, so why not get some background information on the beginnging of them first.

 

Athens, Greece was officially the first place to hold the first known marathon.  It was also the same path that was later used in the 2004 Olympics games in Greece.  Now isn't that cool!  The running event, better known as the marathon recieved it's name from the name of the city Marathon, Greece, when the soldier Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to pass on the new of victory from a battle they won against the Persians.  After the run though Pheidippiddes sadly passed away. (How sad, he had worked so hard to deliver an important message, than to drop dead after it all, atleast he founded the marathon!)  He had run 24.85 miles, but a marathon today consists of 26.2 miles, which was the official distance since the 1924 Olympics and on.  The extra mileage was added to the distance of a marathon apparently because in the 1908 Olympics the course ran from Windsor Castle to White City Stadium and they wanted the marathon to end right in front of "royal family's viewing box" (Athens Marathon).  (Talk about high maintenance to the royalty...)  That is apparently where the phrase "God Save the Queen!" came from when runners shout that passing the 24th mile.



The first actualy Olympics in Greece took place in 1896 finishing with the marathon as the last marvel.  There were only 25 runners competing in the race and of those 25 only nine finished the marathon, eight of them being homeland Greeks.  The first to finish was a hometown hero to the Greeks, finishing in two hours and 58 minutes (this was with the 24.85 mile distance).  Now a days athletes are completing the 26.2 mile race in much faster times, for women the fastest time to date is tho hours and fifteen minutes, which was reached in 2003 and for men the fastest time is two hours and three minutes, which was completed in 2008.  These are some amazing times and I predict they will soon be beat in the near future.

I just thought all of this to be quite fascinating, and I am learning quite a bit more about running than I had expected.  I will continue to look for appealing topics on running. Something a little more interesting like my first one on barefoot running!



http://www.athensmarathon.com/marathon/history.html

http://www.marathonguide.com/history/records/alltimelist.cfm?Gen=F&Sort=Time

http://www.marathonguide.com/history/records/alltimelist.cfm?Gen=M&Sort=Time

http://www.lakepowell.net/marathon.html