Cruising out of retirement

I'm going to give this thing one more shot. That's right, I'm joining the likes of Magic Johnson, Bjorn Borg and Muhammad Ali by coming out of retirement. Of course, all three of these sports heroes failed quite spectacularly in their comeback efforts.

Why will I be any different? Well, for one thing, I'm not Magic Johnson, Bjorn Borg or Muhammad Ali. I'm a joggler, which means the heights of my sports-stardom were about as lofty as the world champion of Tiddly Winks. I didn't rise high enough to fall. Secondly, my retirement lasted only 1.5 months, so I'm not too stale yet.

Yesterday, I told the good people at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon that I will be back in September to try and break Zach's 2:52:15 marathon joggling record. I don't plan to do any publicity this time around. I think the news media are getting a bit tired of joggling anyway - it's not a novelty anymore.

So here goes nothing...

Today, I got stuck on a hot, crowded subway and that convinced me that it's time I started riding my bike to work. This means I'll no longer be able to joggle home as part of my training, so I'll have to run late at night or very early in the morning.

The photo at the top of this post is the vehicle I'm drooling over right now. It's a pedal-powered velomobile available in Toronto through http://www.bluevelo.com/. The catch is that these things cost about $10,000. The $20 I've made so far through joggling won't go very far to cover this cost, but who knows what joggling endorsements await me around the corner now that I'm back in the game.

In The Long Run

A couple of weeks ago at the Toronto Reebok Run Easy event, I met Lee Hewitt, a web editor at the Toronto Sun. Lee, who recently qualified for the Boston Marathon, writes a great running blog on - you guessed it - the Toronto Sun website.

The blog also has a great name: In The Long Run. I'm not sure if Lee intended this, but this is a line from the excellent Rush song, Marathon:

It's a test of ultimate will
The heartbreak climb uphill
Got to pick up the pace
If you want to stay in the race
More than blind ambition
More than simple greed
More than a finish line
Must feed this burning need
In the long run...

Lee published a nice photo of my custom Sport Juggling
Co. joggling beanbags in his latest entry, and will soon be running an interview
(I hope I didn't say anything stupid).

A blister and a potential sponsorship

Today's joggling plan: 6 miles

Yesterday I missed my long run. We were in Niagara-on-the-Lake at my mother-in-law's place and when my alarm went off at 5 a.m., I calmly turned it off, rolled over and fell straight back to sleep until 10. It was heaven.

Dianne and her mom encouraged me to go for my joggle before noon, but no dice; I just didn't feel like running. I had (and still have) a big painful blister on the ball of my foot and also had a bit of a strained muscle in my ankle.

I did do some juggling practice with my nephew, who is six and already learning how to juggle.

On the weekend, I also got some good news: A company that sells juggling beanbags with a stellar reputation is interested in becoming my beanbag sponsor. Hopefully, things will get finalized soon.

Joggling in record-breaking documentary

Today's joggling plan: rest (5-ball juggling practice, no running)

The Joggler will appear alongside other record-holders, including a guy who rips phone books in half and a human cannonball, in an upcoming documentary called "Breaking and Entering".

The crew will be filming me and Zach in our duel at the Salt Lake City Marathon next month (next month, whoa!).

Follow this link for the movie trailer.

Look Mom – The Joggler!

Today's joggling plan: 6 miles (home from a restaurant)

One of the highlights of being a joggler is watching kids' reactions.

On yesterday's joggle home from work, I was doing speedwork and joggled at full throttle past a mother and her daughter, who appeared to be about seven or eight years old. As I approached, I heard the mother say "Look at that! That is cool!" And after I had passed by, I heard the daughter say "I know Mom, that's The Joggler!" Somehow this young girl had heard about me, but not her mother.

In general, the kids have a much less restrained reaction to joggling than the adults. They do a lot of yelling and exclaiming at high volume, which always makes me laugh. The other day, I joggled past a long lineup of teenagers outside some kind of concert venue. One guy near the front of the line pointed at me as I joggled toward them and yelled, at the top of his lungs: "The man is running and juggling!!!" Suddenly, the whole lineup erupted into cheers and applause. I couldn't believe it: the exact demographic that I expected would taunt, jeer and possibly beat up The Joggler were clapping and cheering. Toronto rocks.

My wife called to let me know that my Guinness World Records certificate arrived in the mail today for the 10K joggling record. When I get home tonight, I'm going to raise it above my head and let out a barbaric Braveheart yawp.

Joggler not a normal neighbour

Today's joggling plan: 6 miles (home from work)

My neighbours think I'm nuts.

They thought I was eccentric even before I began my joggling career, because I was running all the time. They'd be out fixing up their houses or trimming their hedges or doing some other normal thing, and I'd be heading out for a run, usually wearing a tiny amount of clothing, as we runners are apt to do.

Now that I'm The Joggler, things have gone even further off the "crazy neighbour" charts.

A typical scenario: My neighbour and I are both heading out the door at the same time.

"Hey Michal," the neighbour says. "I'm going to play hockey with the boys and then it's off to a pub for a few brewskis afterward."

"Cool," says The Joggler. "I'm going to go running while juggling these three yellow beanbags for three-hours wearing short shorts in the middle of the winter ... alone. See ya!"