Keeping A Running Account 1995 Holiday Book Guide
The past 10 years have forced a major change on Don Kardong, Spokane’s world-class runner, writer and nice guy.
He turned 40. He’s starting to notice the scenery.
Kardong admits to “puffing a bit more” than he’d like, but he’s “still enjoying the challenge of cresting the next hill” on familiar courses.
“To be honest, though,” he writes in his just-released book, “it’s been the unfamiliar ‘hills’ - Pikes Peak, the Empire State Building, the ascent from the Colorado River to the rim of the Grand Canyon - that have really marked these last 10 years in my life.”
Kardong has found some of the same inspiration that motivates backpackers, only at a considerably faster pace. Adventure runs are well represented in the collection titled “Hills, Hawgs & Ho Chi Minh,” (Keokee Publishing, $14.95).
“If I could still run a 2:11 marathon, I’d still do it,” he said from his home last week. Now that the former Olympian is able to turn his head slightly from the narrow focus of world-class competition, he’s filling gaps in the art of living.
“I didn’t think of this for long time,” he said, “but in 7th grade I had to make a decision between sports or staying in Boy Scouts. I went to basketball, which led to a life of running, but I always missed the amount of time I used to spend camping.”
So what does camping have to do with an 11-hour run that covers 41.5 miles and gains 10,500 feet in elevation from one rim of the Grand Canyon to the other and back?
Kardong’s explanation sounded much like George Mallory’s “because-it’s-there” rationale for climbing Mount Everest.
Kardong is too humble to dwell on the other reason: “Because he can.”
The Grand Canyon run was an epiphany of sorts for Kardong. Even his wife, Bridgid, gained a different perspective on his life.
Sensing that adventure running was going to play a larger role in his career, she started scouting for disability insurance for her husband. To her horror, Bridgid found that a man with one of the strongest hearts in the universe is practically uninsurable because he’s a self-employed writer who does things tenderfoot insurance underwriters cannot fathom.
“She told me to be careful,” Kardong said.
“When people read these stories, they tend to focus more on the effort than I do. I generally think of how much fun it was.”
On the other hand, Kardong often notes in his monthly writings for running magazines that it takes four or five days after an adventure run to realize any beauty that might have passed in the miles.
“I assume it’s sort of like childbirth,” he said.
The average person may never come to grips with Kardong’s Olympic-level drive that makes it commonplace to push his body to the point of retching and collapse.
But there’s room for envy.
With all his written references to cookies, pizza and beer, one could could get the impression that Kardong has never eaten a vegetable.
“You get a certain amount of forgiveness from all that training,” he said. “I must admit I’ve never had a craving for a salad. I’ll eat them, and I like them, but I’ve never craved one.”
Kardong hasn’t heeded every call to adventure.
“I considered the Leadville (Colorado) 100,” he said, “but I went and watched first and I just knew I couldn’t do any faking of my way through it. I’ve finished some long runs with determination, but 100 miles with a high point of 12,600 feet really scared me.”
Still, no one’s questioning his mettle or his down-to-earth inspiration to great challenges.
“I couldn’t quit,” he writes in a passage about the last miles of his Grand Canyon run. “And a little more than 6 miles from the finish, nearly a mile straight down in this majestic hole in the ground, there was only one way out. Left foot. Right foot. Up. Up.”
People who know Kardong only as the father of Bloomsday may have missed his prowess with a pen. Indeed, the three R’s of Kardong’s success have been running, ‘riting and rehydrate.
He’s a master at bringing a flowing descriptive narration to a crashing point.
Such intimate experience with sport and a broad background in literature allows him to ferret out the personality, perspective, philosophy, humor and complexity in the simple act of running.
His yen for adventure has led him to other events, including a 55-kilometer cross-country ski race.
“I am interested in other aerobic sports including cycling and anything that doesn’t require getting into the water,” he said.
But despite the diversions, he said, “I don’t see an end to being enthusiastic about running. The training information really doesn’t change very much, nor does the nutrition part, but the variety of events never gets uninteresting.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 photos (1 color)
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: READING ON THE RUN Don Kardong will read excerpts from his new book “Hill, Hawgs & Ho Chi Minh” Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main.