It was a foggy morning, April 11 2010. The Muir Beach Marathon is probably one of the most incredible marathons* (notice the astrix) there is. Leaving Stinson Beach you run up Steep Ravine, a towering jungle of ferns, redwoods, and waterfalls. You run through trees (literally), up a ladder....Then after climbing 1,600 feet, your run 1600 feet down to Muir Woods. As you run through dense redwoods, you make your way back up to Pan Toll Ranger station and then run about 12 miles along a ridge overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Amazing. Oh yeah, the astrix is for the 23 miles that GPS actually recorded the race....The organization is a little liberal on their definition of a marathon or their way of measuring it. Oh well, my 4:37 time sounded a little too good to be true. I should have known that a 4:37 at a 13 minute average pace really has not been done before....
As I was racing, several people past me along the race. As my friend Clifton passed me two minutes before the end, as happy as I was for him, my competitive nature was a little knocked...but do you want to know the truth? The competitors in the race are not the enemy. Corn is your enemy! Corn is an evil fruit, used by our government to manipulate the entire food industry, at the cost of many lives...
After World War 1, the government needed to find a use for all of the excess ammonium nitrate it used to manufacture bombs. They turned to agriculture and soon learned that ammonium nitrate could make an acre of land go from 45 bushels per acre to 180 acres. (at a cost of about 180 gallons of fossil fuel) If that were not enough, the government decided to give away cash, a lot of cash, to any farmer that would produce corn. The government manufactured an industry that would literally change life as we know it. This corn is used as the primary food source for virtually all of our meat. In addition, it is used to make corn syrup, a very inexpensive ingredient to produce (thanks to the government subsidies and the annual glut of corn we have). Because corn syrup is so cheap, companies such as Coca Cola were able to become mammoth companies. Fast Food companies were able to make cheap "All beef patties" because cheap corn feed made it cheaper to produce meat...and make a killing from the 95% profit margin on their soft drinks.
Today the average American drinks 600 12 oz drinks a year. Americans eat 75% of their meals at home, but out of that 75% half of those are fast food. A typical fast food lunch has between 1,300 and 1,700 calories. An adult should be eating about 2,000 calories a day but the average American eats 3,800 per day. I ate at Pasta Pomodoro before my run. They now publish their calories on their menu. I learned that a typical Pasta dinner was around 1,500 calories (including bread but not drinks).
Back to the race...Its interesting when I run by people on the trail, they are amazed that we are running a marathon in the woods. The people I talk to are all inspired by my trail running. Even my wife has started working out and running because she has been inspired. I also try to live a healthy lifestyle by eating local, 100 percent grass fed meats and organic vegetables. I want to eliminate all forms of processed foods. People change by watching and learning from what we do. Everyone wants to live a healthy lifestyle but nothing inspires them more than seeing people live it out. So....I run. Not to beat everyone but to live a lifestyle that I believe in. I push myself, train, and run crazy miles because that's who I am and I hope others in their own way will try to fight the darkness that is killing our kids and destroying the quality of life in our friends. Every time I see a friend, who has a few extra pounds pick up a corn syrup ladened, insulin spiking poison tonic or vittle, I cringe. I know whatever I say wont make a huge difference...I don't know maybe it will, but they will notice when I run. And when I am running races at age 50, 60, and 70 and feeling great, when I am playing soccer with my teenage kids and running circles around them....people will notice and ask how....and I will tell them how I do it. We are on a mission! We are conquerors. We will not be beaten. Lets get ready for the next run!
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