Blaine Moore's AOL Messenger is BlaineMoore
This Author's Website is http://news.RunToWin.com
It’s been 2 years since the 1 More Mile for Sunshine challenge ended.
I didn’t make it through day 25 last time, but my friends rallied around me on the 31st to get the missing miles in and I was able to end on a high note and raise enough money for a family to attend Camp Sunshine.
Now that I’m full time with Run to Win, I’m better able to get my running in during daylight hours when there is less traffic and safer conditions.
Seems like a good time to start it again, doesn’t it?
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The Alliance for Biking & Walking just released their 2012 Benchmarking Report, which describes the data that they have collected and analyzed across all 50 states and 51 of the largest cities in the country on safety, infrastructure, habits, policies, education and the economic impact of bicycling and walking. The report is a great resource to help efforts in your local community to improving the infrastructure for people to move under their own power.
One of the most disturbing stats that I saw on a quick glance through the report is that 40% of the time, Americans are traveling less than 2 miles. However, 62% of the trips that were less than a mile were by car, and 87% of the trips between 1 and 2 miles! Sure, sometimes you need to carry a lot of groceries home, or the weather is bad you’re afraid that you’ll melt. I can understand that. But if it’s a nice day and you’re just going to visit a friend down the road, or if you live close to where you work, why not walk?
Economically, bicycling and pedestrian related projects will normally create between 11 and 14 jobs per $1 million spent, compared to 7 jobs created for highway projects. Despite cost/benefit analyses showing that every dollar spent can result in $11.80 in benefits, states are spending less than 2% of their federal transportation dollars on projects that will encourage people to commute under their own power. That’s just one of the reasons that biking and walking levels are down 66% since 1960 and is probably a contributing factor to a growth of 156% in obesity levels. In fact, between 1966 and 2009, the number of kids walking or biking to school went down by 75% and the percentage of fat and overweight kids has increased by 276%.
Did you know that 6 of the 10 states with the highest levels of biking and walking also have the lowest levels of bicycle or pedestrian fatality rates in traffic accidents? On top of that, in 7 of the 10 states where you are most likely to die in a traffic accident from getting hit by a car you’ll also find the fewest number of fellow bikers and walkers.
Maine is one of the better states to live in if you enjoy moving under your own power, which just gives me one more reason to be happy that I live in Vacationland all year. How does your state rank? You can find out by checking out the report at: People Powered Movement.org
Leave a comment below and let me know how you rank where you live.
Finish Line at the Houston Marathon
It was a great weekend. I knew it would be something special when within a few hours of getting there last Thursday I’d already met up with a half dozen people I knew (and all at random, none of it was planned.) That night, my wife and I crashed a local running club’s pasta dinner (okay, we were invited, but it’s more fun to say we crashed it.) The next day, we met up with a friend of ours that was also in town to take a tour of the Johnson Space Center, and then I spent the afternoon at the Expo trying to drum up business for my book.
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GAC Fat Ass 50k
“Pain Is Temporary. Quitting is Forever.”
–Lance Armstrong
I drove down with some friends the GAC Fat Ass 50k this morning with the intention of running all 5 loops. Given the beautiful weather, it almost seemed a crime not to.
It was a lot of fun, despite the lack of anything even resembling snow (at least once it warmed up a little we got some mud to run through) and there were a lot more people than I expected.
Running in a singlet in January in New England somehow seems wrong, but it’s a fun loop and a good group of folks that come out to run.
I was running at a good clip for almost 3 loops when I started to feel a small twinge in my achilles. Not enough that would stop me during a race or even a workout if I were training for something, but enough to make me notice it and consider whether I should continue on for a fourth loop or not given that I’m running another marathon next weekend and I don’t want to risk getting hurt for it.
I decided that it was better to be smart than to have fun and take risks since I had nothing to prove today, but it was a hard decision. The decision did have one benefit in that I had a ride at that point and was able to reclaim a few hours of my day and my afternoon was quite productive, but it was so nice out that it still seems a shame to have stopped.
Hopefully I can get back next year and do a proper job of running all 5 loops.
2012 Boston Ice Sculpture
Last year, I drove down from Maine with a friend from Maine. This year, I spent New Year’s Eve with another friend that lives in the Boston area, which was actually quite convenient because I was able to drop my car off near the Boston Public Library and have it waiting for me near the finish line when I was done.
We arrived in Hopkinton around 5:45 in the morning to join a quickly growing crowd of about 30 runners. Read More…
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