Off to the Big Easy

I’m not sure if you can read the caption on the photo, but it reads: “The situation is desperate. Send Cognac.” This comes from a standing joke among the Antarctica Marathon operations crew. One of our colleagues, the beloved “Gus” when we radioed him would radio back; “The situation is desperate” then a long pause “send Cognac”. I probably heard him do that 100 times and it was always funny.

This is the first time in 6 years that I won’t be going along as crew on the Last Marathon. The only snow I’m going to see this year is in my own driveway. The event has become a part of the fabric of my being and I will deeply miss being down there.

Bon Voyage to the participants, staff and good crew.

This weekend I’ll be off to New Orleans for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Marathon and I CAN’T wait. New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in the world. It’s got all the things I enjoy. Great people. Great music. And great food. And now it will have a great running event. My only concern is that I’ll be so busy with race activities that I won’t have a chance to get to my old haunts. No matter what, I’ll be sitting at the Old Absinthe House listening to live jazz at some point over the weekend.

My history with New Orleans is, well, checkered to say the least. My first trip there was in the early 1970’s while a member of THE United States Army Band [Pershing's Own] To say that I was young and foolish doesn’t begin to describe my behavior. My Army buddies tell me that I had a great time, but – to be honest – I don’t remember. On subsequent trips I DO remember thinking the New Orleans was just about the perfect place to be.

Those of you who are Facebook friends know that I’ve been working through a bit of a bio-mechanical problem. I’ve had several episodes over that past few years of – and we’re speculating here – my SI [sacroilliac] joint becoming dislocated, or at least, displaced. Even though it generally snaps back into place there can be some debilitating muscle spasms for days following. This time, because it happened just before we left for the Caribbean Island Marathon Cruise, I couldn’t get to a doc and get some real follow-up.

It’s been nearly three weeks now and the pain, while abating, is still there. I’m going to begin physical therapy with the hope of eliminating the weakness that I clearly have in my core. It goes without saying that Coach Jenny – as both a coach AND a wife – has been encouraging me to work on core strength and flexibility for a long time. She hasn’t exactly said “I told you so” but she’s come pretty close.

So, I hope to be running again soon. Funny how when I am not ALLOWED to run, all I want to do is run.

Waddle on,

John “the Penguin” Bingham, Competitor Magazine columnist Author, The Courage to Start, No Need for Speed, Marathoning for Mortals and Running for Mortals.

The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.

Have a question for John? E-mail it to thepenguin@johnbingham.com.