McRunner

So. There was this guy who ran the L.A. Marathon yesterday in 2:36. That`s a pretty fast time. Not stunning – but it`s serious running, and it’s a time I can only aspire to. But here`s the thing – for the final 30 days leading up to the marathon, he ate only McDonald`s food. Yup. Nothing but whatever he could find at Rotten Ronnie`s. The point? Well, he raised over $27,000 for Ronald McDonald House. It was a stunt, to be sure – but a bona fide charity that does good work did benefit – and that fact will remain well after any potential stink of self-promotion wafts away. You can check out his website to see how it went down.

I generally don’t care for running stunts like these, but there are a couple things I actually like about what this guy did. First, if you look at his training log, you’ll see this guy works hard at his running – way harder than I work at mine. Second, he takes some of the winds of pretension out of the sails of those who look askance on the eating choices of others. For some, it seems, part of the pleasure of being “healthy” is feeling superior to those who make different choices. There’s a lot of self-righteous bullshit that goes along with “health” these days, and this guy’s funny stunt shakes that up a bit (forgive the McDs pun). How many born-again preachy health nuts can lay down a 2:36? Anything that brings us back to our compassion for others is a good thing – and this does in an odd way, I think.

The other thing I like is just the simple fact that this guy put himself on the line to raise money. He risked ridicule from punks like me, and he got the job done.

The thing that gives me pause, though, is how the whole show ends up seeming as much a commercial for McDonald’s (and perhaps for himself too) as it does an act of charity. But I guess this is the danger of fundraising – of trying to get the cause noticed – although all those people who raise money for Arthritis by running marathons seem to do it without making it about them or about some questionable corporate giant. But perhaps nothing is pure. Perhaps that whole “don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” stuff doesn’t raise enough bucks. Maybe I should just accept this kind of fundraising as an ambiguous good. In the end, how much have I raised for charity by running? I doubt it’s more than $1000. So I’ll raise my wax-coated fountain drink cup to the McRunner and wish him the best of luck as he pursues both a worthy charitable cause and corporate sponsorship. Slainte.

As for my own running... long run of 20k on Sunday felt good, as did the 14k easy run today. I’m heeding Cliff’s advice and running very, very easy to get rid of the fatigue. I hope it pays off with a good workout on Wednesday.