Organic
Connections MAY–JUNE 2008
The magazine of Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality
Year of the Reef Why are reefs so important to this planet? Anna Lappé How “grub” can change your life and our world Running Man Ultramarathon runner John Radich
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The folly of relying on authority
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hroughout history there has been no lack of prevailing wisdom. The bad news is that it has often proven to be more prevailing than wise. Authorities of the day held that the earth was flat and tried to ban the notion that the earth orbits around the sun. Lest we believe that such errors are consigned to the distant past, we have only to look at the history of “modern” medicine. It wasn’t so long ago that bloodletting was the cure de jour. Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, treated George Washington for acute laryngitis by draining nine pints of his blood in 24 hours. Washington died soon afterwards. During World War I, the US Surgeon General recommended drinking or dunking in tap water charged with radium. Dr. C. G. Davis wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Medicine, “Radioactivity prevents insanity, rouses noble emotions, retards old age, and creates a splendid youthful joyous life.” It wasn’t until the 1930s that crocks lined with radioactive ore that emitted radon gas fell out of fashion following the death of millionaire steel tycoon and US amateur golf champion Eben Byers. At the urging of his physician, Byers started drinking radioactive bottled water, consuming close to 1,400 bottles during a two-year period. He died horribly of radiation poisoning at the age of 51. But the medical establishment didn’t abandon the frivolous use of X-rays until the mid-1960s. There are numerous other examples, many of which would make the latest Hollywood horror-slasher film look pale in comparison to the sadistic realities faced by some patients in the name of therapy. At a certain point it may dawn on us that today’s medical advice may be part prevailing wisdom and part experimentation cloaked in the mantle of authority. This is not a blanket indictment of medicine but, rather, a wake-up call. If all is going so well, why does the US spend a higher portion of its gross domestic product on healthcare than any other country and yet, by comparison, is ranked number 37 among the world’s health systems? The question arises, will we be looking back at some of today’s practices, such as the widespread prescription of potent and toxic antidepressants and the all-too-common practice of drugging children diagnosed with “ADHD,” with similar disdain?
In this issue
or•gan•ic |ôr ganʹik| denoting a relation between elements of something such that they fit together harmoniously as necessary parts of a whole: the organic unity of the integral work of art • characterized by continuous or natural development: companies expand as much by acquisition as by organic growth.
4 Year of the Reef Why are reefs so important, why are they in danger, and what can be done to save them and protect ocean life?
8 Anna Lappé Best-selling author Anna Lappé shares how grub—food that is local, sustainably raised and has been produced with fairness all the way from field to plate—can benefit our bodies, our families and the environment.
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Run for Your Life Here is the amazing story of one man’s love of running, running and running. In the world of ultramarathons, John Radich takes on what few would attempt and gives the phrase “hang in there” a whole new meaning.
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Ken Whitman publisher
Organic Connections is published by Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality 2530 N. Ontario Street, Burbank, CA 91504-2512 National Office (800) 446-7462 • www.petergillham.com For a free subscription, e-mail info@petergillham.com. Statements made in this magazine have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. © 2008 Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality. All rights reserved.
A portion of the profits from the sale of
Natural Calm ® and Organic Life Vitamins™ goes to our Natural Revitalization environmental action initiative addressing global warming, which helps fund Conservation International (www.conservation.org) and Remineralize the Earth (www.remineralize.org).
2008: The International Year of the Reef Why we must save our oceanic shelters of life
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If put together, it is estimated the entire defined areas that typically focus on protecting biodiversity, but also on ensuring world’s coral reefs would only equal an area of land somewhere between the sizes of Ecuasustainable livelihoods all over the world.” dor and Spain. Such a mass represents far What Exactly Are Coral Reefs? less than 1 percent of the ocean—they are generally found only within tropical and Coral reefs are composed of hard corals, subtropical waters between latitudes 30° one of Earth’s more interesting forms of north and 30° south—yet coral reefs harbor life. Small cylindrical organisms known as more than one-quarter of the ocean’s biodipolyps, they are simple invertebrate animals versity. No other ecosystem occupies such that have much of their diet provided by limited space with so many life forms. one-celled algae called zooxanthellae. These “Coral reefs are often described as the rainWe know that coral reefs are very colorful algae exist in a fascinating symbiosis with forests of the sea,” Dr. Bunce said. “They’re and that they can be great places to explore the coral, living inside the polyps, sharing basically the lifeblood to many tropical by either scuba diving or snorkeling, due to space and exchanging gases and nutrients. coastal communities, both in developed the vast number of aquatic species around Corals also eat small fish, plankton and and developing countries. In fact, World them. Two reefs are quite famous and attract other food particles. Resources estimated that properly managed visitors from all over the world: the Great The great reefs come about as millions of coral reefs can yield an average of 15 tons of Barrier Reef in Australia, the planet’s larg- the tiny polyps extract calcium from sur- fish and other seafood per square kilometer est—over 1,600 miles long and even visible rounding seawater and with it create a hard- each year.” from outer space—and the world’s second ened structure for protection and growth, Reefs are actually home to over 4,000 largest, the Belize Barrier Reef, also known also establishing the basis for an ecosystem different species of fish. They also host a as the Great Maya Barrier Reef, which oc- and home for hundreds of thousands, if not multitude of types of invertebrates, such cupies over 180 miles off the eastern coast of millions, of other species. Coral reefs are as jellyfish, sponges, worms, shrimp, spiny the largest living structures on the planet. Mexico and Belize. lobsters, crabs, shellfish, starfish, sea What many people may not know is that the world’s coral reefs are in serious danger What many people may not know is that the world’s coral from global climate change, destructive fishreefs are in serious danger from global climate change, ing methods, unregulated tourism, coastal development, pollution and the global destructive fishing methods, unregulated tourism, coastal aquarium trade. Because of this, 17 coundevelopment, pollution and the global aquarium trade. tries and 30 organizations have launched the International Year of the Reef, and three major environmental groups—World Because of the need of the plants (algae) for urchins, sea cucumbers, sea turtles and Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy and light, corals must compete for space on sea sea snakes. Conservation International—have publicly floors where light is abundant. It is unfortuThese thriving aquatic communities adcalled on governments, businesses, scientists nately this exposure that also makes them so ditionally act to protect shorelines from and individuals around the world to vastly susceptible to environmental dangers. storms. “Reefs are increasingly recognized increase actions to protect coral reefs. as shoreline protection,” said Dr. Bunce. Leah Bunce, PhD, is the senior director Why Are Coral Reefs So Important? “In fact, when the tsunami hit Southeast for Conservation International’s Marine Asia it was areas that had their coral reefs Management Area Science Program and is Coral reefs help support many of their host and mangroves intact that were the least fully involved in this effort. “We’re running countries through tourism—each year mil- impacted.” a marine science program that focuses on lions of divers visit reefs to witness their With such a relatively small area promarine protected areas,” she told Organic unparalleled beauty. But the value of the viding home to such a large variety of Connections. “These are geographically reefs goes far beyond their beauty. aquatic life and providing sustenance and
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livelihood for so many, it is obvious that destruction of these oases would be a massive blow to global economy as well as oceanic ecology.
Coastal Development
Coastal cities and towns are constantly being developed. Where space is limited, airports and other structures may be built on land What Is Endangering Coral Reefs? reclaimed from the sea. Dredging activity utilized to make deep-water channels In the last few decades, over 35 million acres or marinas can destroy or disturb sensitive of coral reefs have been obliterated and habitats, as can the dumping of waste. Reefs reefs off 93 countries have been damaged. can be degraded where the natural flow of According to The Nature Conservancy, if water is altered, causing greater amounts of destruction continues at the current rate, in fresh water, nutrients and sediment to reach 50 years 70 percent of the world’s coral reefs the reefs. Because coral reefs are biological will have disappeared. assemblages adapted to waters with low “We’re already seeing substantial impacts,” nutrient content, reef community balance is said Dr. Bunce. “Studies have shown that an greatly disrupted. Nutrient-rich water causes estimated 30 percent of the coral reefs are fleshy algae and phytoplankton to thrive in already severely damaged, and an estimated coastal areas in suffocating amounts. 60 percent may be lost by 2030.” Global Warming
way, coral reefs are having localized impacts from overfishing or from land-based pollution and runoff, and then they get hit with the larger impact of climate change.” What Can Be Done?
In 2003, the World Parks Congress urged that at least 20 to 30 percent of each marine habitat should be protected by 2012. At current levels of effort, this goal will not be achieved for coral reefs. Given the importance of these systems for ocean life and human well-being, and the special stresses they face because of climate change, the need to act now is critical. In the Year of the Reef, the World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International are specifically urging
• that the area of coral reefs under protecA slight rise in maximum water temperation be increased globally from the curIncreasing demand for reef fish as food tures—only one to two degrees—can stress rent level of 15 percent to 30 percent; as well as tourism souvenirs, especially in the corals causing them to expel zooxanthel- • that protected zones be carefully designed as systems that are able to resist or rapidly areas in which such fishing is not regulated, lae, the microscopic organisms that color has resulted in overfishing and depletion of some species. Overfishing of certain speIn the last few decades, over 35 million acres of coral reefs cies can upset a reef ’s ecological balance; have been obliterated and reefs off 93 countries have for example, overfishing of herbivorous fish been damaged. According to The Nature Conservancy, can lead to high levels of algae growth. if destruction continues at the current rate, in 50 years In order to expedite taking of fish, unscrupulous fishermen utilize dynamite, 70 percent of the world’s coral reefs will have disappeared. cyanide and other dangerous methods to recover from the multiple stresses they face, stun fish and render them easier to catch. their tissues and provide them with essential Such methods not only break up the fragile nutrients. This results in a phenomenon including those caused by climate change; coral reef, they also do not select or target known as “coral bleaching,” a rapid whitening • that within these protected zone systems, particular species and often result in the of the coral. If temperatures return to normal, there be significant areas where human destruction of juveniles and “unusable” the coral can recover, but if not they can die. uses are considerably limited so that already species of life. Such tactics are used as The impacts from coral bleaching are bestressed marine species can recover; well by the aquarium trade to satisfy the coming global in scale and are increasing in • that governments and civil societies work ever growing aquarium market worldwide. frequency and intensity. Significant bleachtogether to achieve the effective manageIronically, such methods are destroying the ing events were reported in 1982, 1987 and ment of all coral reef protected areas. very source of the offenders’ livelihoods. 1992. The strongest sea surface warming event ever recorded occurred in 1998, in “The localized impacts to coral reefs are Uninformed and Careless Tourism which an estimated 46 percent of the corals what we have the most control over,” Dr. in the western Indian Ocean were heavily Bunce said. “It’s become even more imCoral reefs generate fantastic amounts of impacted or died. portant that we manage and reduce those tourist income for their host countries. Yet threats because of the additional threat of because tourists are rarely informed of the Cumulative Impact global impacts. Establishing marine parks fragility of these environments, they cause has become a way of focusing attention on damage by handling, stepping on and drop- “What we’re basically seeing is a cumulative priority locations and providing them the ping boat anchors into reefs. Meanwhile impact,” explained Dr. Bunce. “If you can protection they need.” some hotels and resorts catering to these imagine that your immune system as a husame tourists discharge untreated sewage man is run down by poor eating habits or What You Can Do and wastewater into the ocean, polluting how you treat your body, and then you also the water and encouraging the growth of get hit with some sort of virus, you’re going There are many things individuals can do to algae, which competes for space on the reef to be completely wiped out; whereas if you’re help protect coral reefs. with corals. keeping your body in good shape, you’re going to have stronger resilience. In a similar • Don’t litter the beach. In addition to picking Overfishing and Destructive Methods
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waterways such as streams and lakes and For more information on how to find up your own trash, carry away the trash that ultimately arrive in the ocean. sustainably harvested reef fish, visit others have left behind. More than just • Support only reef-friendly businesses. www.aquariumcouncil.org. being unsightly, beach litter poses a sigAsk what your dive shop, boating store, • If you dive, don’t touch the coral! Keep your nificant threat to the health and survival tour operator, hotel and other coastal fins, gear and hands away from the reef, as of marine organisms. businesses are doing to save coral reefs. • Recycle. This helps keep trash out of the contact will damage the delicate coral anioceans and also out of landfills where it mals. Stay off the bottom, because disturbed In addition to the above, Dr. Bunce also suggests you only purchase seafood that has Given the importance of these systems for ocean life and been sustainably grown and harvested. “In the US, there are great seafood guides you human well-being, and the special stresses they face can consult,” she said. “The Monterey Bay because of climate change, the need to act now is critical. Aquarium has a fantastic one. Such guides advise what seafood is sustainable.” And lastly, spread the word! Educate can have an adverse impact on the water sediments can smother the corals. others on reefs and their importance, espequality of our rivers and oceans. • If you take out a boat, don’t anchor in the cially those who are going off on Caribbean, reef. Use mooring buoy systems when • Report dumping or other illegal activities. Hawaiian or other tropical vacations. they are available. Your involvement can help make a big • Make sure your wastewater is properly difference. Photograph page 4: managed. Ensure that sewage from your Coral reef with swarm of anthius fish, Verde Island Passage • Be an informed consumer. Only buy Marine Corridor, Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape, May 2006 boat and home is correctly treated. marine fish and other reef organisms for Creator: Sterling Zumbrunn; copyright: Sterling Zumbrunn/CI your aquarium when you know they have • Don’t use chemically enhanced pesticides Country: Philippines Photograph page 6: and fertilizers. Although you may live Wesley’s Reef, Padar, off Komodo, Lesser Sunda Islands, been collected in an ecologically sound thousands of miles from a coral reef, Indonesia, December 2005 manner. Ask store managers where they Creator: Sterling Zumbrunn; copyright: 2005 Sterling Zumbrunn these products eventually enter common Country: Indonesia come from and how they were collected.
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ANNA LAPPÉ Changing the world one kitchen at a time
Most of us grew up in a world where nutritionally void fast food was the norm, where true nutrition was all but forgotten and never accurately addressed by mass media, and where giant corporate food conglomerates fought daily to keep us of unsound body. Some of us (such as the readers of this magazine) have been lucky enough to have, at some point, parted ways with such practices, and have discovered the truth about nutrition and health and what they actually require. Anna Lappé, on the other hand, had quite a different upbringing. Her mother, Frances Moore Lappé, was a pioneer of organic
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travel to many different countries—India, Brazil, Bangladesh, Poland, Kenya, France, and throughout the US—and to see with my own eyes the impact of the food choices that we make here in the US and the impact of US-based companies on people’s lives all around the world.”
The Cultural Problem
In the first half of Anna’s latest book, GRUB: ideas for an urban organic kitchen, co-written with chef Bryant Terry, she is attempting to right the informational wrongs forced into society about nutrition.
I think a lot of people are really confused about what good food is—confused about what food is good for their bodies and for the environment; and that confusion stems from the information clutter we experience in the media overload coming out of this mass marketing.
agriculture and cooking philosophy in the 1970s with her best-selling breakthrough book Diet for a Small Planet, so Anna herself had her eyes opened at an early age. It took hands-on activity, however, for her to become involved in a similar pursuit. “I think that I got particularly inspired to do this work after working on the book that my mother and I wrote together called Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet,” she told Organic Connections. “And it was really, for me, just a totally eye-opening experience to have the opportunity to
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“The culture at large is missing a lot of key information,” she told OC. “I think part of that is because the food industry— ranging from beverage companies like Pepsi and Coke to fast-food corporations like McDonald’s and Burger King, to the organizations that are producing the chemicals used in agriculture—is spending billions of dollars every year on advertising and marketing and public information campaigns. The food industry is the second largest advertiser in the world, so the public is bombarded with media messages
and media ideas from the industry itself. I think a lot of people are really confused about what good food is—confused about what food is good for their bodies and for the environment; and that confusion stems from the information clutter we experience in the media overload coming out of this mass marketing.” As one might suspect, the motivation behind this constant pushing of bad food onto the public at large is money. The corporate food giants have worked hard to discover the cheapest and most profitable solutions to food production—to the serious detriment of our environment and our health. While they have reported increasing dividends to their shareholders year after year, farmland has been poisoned and depleted of nutrients, pesticide runoff has ruined our lakes, rivers and streams, and malnutrition and obesity are running rampant through our society, to name but a few of the ill effects. Grub
So what does Anna suggest as a solution? The answer can be summed up in one multifaceted word: grub. “Grub is our slang term for food that is local, that has been sustainably raised, and that has been produced with fairness all along the way from field to plate,” she explained. The concept begins with food that is locally grown, and Anna considers there are many reasons why consuming locally organic connections
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grown fresh food is important. Typically it means fruits and vegetables that have been organically grown and picked at their peak ripeness, so they’re more nutritional. It can also mean food that has been raised with sustainability practices with attention to the land and the environment; so support of local growers also encourages the preservation of green space. But, for Anna, it goes even further. “I guess for me a very big reason for supporting local food producers is that I firmly believe—as do many people—that we should continue to be a food-producing nation; we should be producing a diverse variety of foods,” she told OC. “Having thriving, diverse small-scale farms throughout the country is really an essential part of what makes our country what it is and what makes our food system safe and secure and healthy. So by choosing local foods we are playing a central role in helping keep alive exactly the kind of farming that is best for the environment and best for our families and our bodies.” Besides being strictly culinary, it can be seen that the grub concept also obviously involves a sense of community, and Anna believes that in addition to purchasing locally produced organic food, all of us who eat organic should continue a public insistence that organic standards be strictly maintained. “I do strongly believe that eating organic foods—eating foods that have been raised without chemicals, that have been raised in sustainable ways—is a very important decision we each can make,” she explained. “I also think it is very important that we, as ‘concerned eaters,’ continue to be vigilant about maintaining the rigor of what the organic standard means.” This is because the USDA official federal “organic” certification is not immutable—it can be changed. Anna notes that since the standard was made official, there have been a number of attempts, primarily led by the food industry, to weaken the standard and make various non-organic practices allowable under the law. “It’s important that there continue to be vigilance and consumer awareness about what we want ‘organic’ to look like and how to keep its integrity in place,” she said. In addition to citizen vigilance, Anna would like to see the government become more involved in the production of healthy foods. She believes it is high time for a radical redirection in use of tax dollars as regards agriculture. “The last time 10 o r g a n i c c o n n e c t i o n s
I looked into the numbers, it was around 1 percent of all federal money for agricultural research that was going to researching organic and sustainable practices,” she said. “In other words, virtually 100 percent of agricultural research tax dollars are going into researching the very practices that we know now have gotten us into such dire straits in terms of environmental impact of the food system, in terms of the health impacts of highly processed foods, and in terms of a food system that is emphasizing feedlot factory farmed meat versus grass-fed or pasture-raised meat.” Anna points out that it would make a significant difference if the government flipped the research emphasis on its head and invested that money in a far more positive direction. From the Ideal to the Practical
In her book, Anna and her co-author Bryant Terry bring this vision right into our kitchens, and urge us to discover the ease of forming completely healthy diets. While the first half of the book discusses how our dietary culture has gone so terribly wrong and what should be done to right it, the second half provides recipes and practical ideas for creating organic kitchens. Anna explained the purpose of the book to Organic Connections. “My co-author Bryant Terry created the amazing recipes and grub that make up the second half of the book—and which really bring to life the message in the first half. He has these great recipes that are oriented around menus, and he even has a suggested soundtrack of music to listen to while you’re cooking the food and serving the food. “For us, our mission with Grub is to empower people to realize how to make the healthiest food choices for themselves and their families, to realize they can make those choices, and then to inspire them to do so with these recipes of Bryant’s that bring the food to life and make it so appealing and so fun.” Time and Money
Like many of us who promote healthy diets and lifestyles, Anna often encounters the objection that eating completely organic diets is expensive and requires too much time. She has some interesting counters for such arguments. Her first response to such an objection is, “Does it really?” She cited her own
example of how such meals can be fast. “The other night my boyfriend and I were throwing together our dinner. I didn’t have a stopwatch timing us, but I would guess we pulled together an amazingly delicious fresh, wholesome meal in under 15 minutes. That’s because we have a wellstocked kitchen and we plan ahead; on the weekends we have a little bit more time and we typically make bigger meals that we can tweak the leftovers from during the week.” Anna continued with a further argument. “Would it take less time to prepare a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese than it would to just make whole-grain pasta and your own cheese sauce with real cheese? Well, no, it really wouldn’t. And during the time that that water is boiling you could cut up ingredients for a salad, and by the time you’d pulled together your pasta and cheese you could actually have a perfectly good meal.” And finally, Anna argues that whenever we think about the time it takes to cook healthy food, we should ask ourselves about the impact on our lives of diet-related illnesses. How much extra time is taken in caring for such maladies day in and day out, when they might have been prevented by a wholesome diet? The other common argument against a totally organic diet is expense—another objection Anna deftly handles. “Some of us do have flexibility within our incomes,” she said. “There are people who are figuring out a way to buy a new iPod or a new pair of shoes. Why don’t we value the importance of having healthy, fresh foods in our lives, in our kitchens? For some of us, it might just be a matter of looking at where our priorities are and where we’re spending our money. And as a country, it would mean looking at using our tax dollars to help ensure that those of us who have no flexibility in our incomes can get access to healthy, nourishing food at affordable prices. “As a nation, I would also argue, we’re paying a huge cost for the epidemic of dietrelated illnesses,” Anna said. “Instead, think about the potential that we could unleash if we shifted resources toward building healthy communities and making a lifelong investment in our nation’s health.” For more on GRUB, including shopping lists, recipes and even local events, check out www.eatgrub.org.
I guess for me a very big reason for supporting local food producers is that I firmly believe—as do many people—that we should continue to be a food-producing nation; we should be producing a diverse variety of foods. Having thriving, diverse small-scale farms throughout the country is really an essential part of what makes our country what it is and what makes our food system safe and secure and healthy. So by choosing local foods we are playing a central role in helping keep alive exactly the kind of farming that is best for the environment and best for our families and our bodies. organic connections
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RUN FOR YOUR LIFE The amazing John Radich story
But it wasn’t quite enough for John, and muscles. You’d have to get used to the especially after he read a book by an cold again. So I try to keep my breaks short, Australian runner named Bill Emerton, who and a lot of us trying to put in high mileage had run across Death Valley. After finishing do the same. A 100-mile run also has aid the book, John tracked Emerton down—it stations along the route.” For the Badwater Ultramarathon through turned out he was living close by in Santa Monica, California—and asked him for Death Valley, maintenance requires more than advice on running such distances. Emerton just breaks and aid stations. “You maintain helped John in his first ultramarathon, yourself with a lot of hydration, obviously,” which ran 50 miles around (and around, and John says. “You’re drinking a lot of liquids—a around) the famous Rose Bowl in Pasadena, couple pints of water per hour, at least. You take your salt, your potassium, your California. John came in second place. “I’ve been running ultramarathons since electrolytes. You also have to eat, even though then,” John says. “Just the distance and in the heat section you lose your appetite. Some people run or jog for their health, or the challenge I find are really different There’s definitely a lot of maintenance for fun, or often both. A good healthy run from a regular marathon. A marathon is involved in keeping your body from falling might be a mile or so. If a person is in really very challenging; they’re a lot of fun and apart on you out there. You have to be very good shape, it might be a couple of miles. I still do them. But the ultramarathons smart to get through the heat section.” But smart he has been. “I’ve been very There are others who are more dedicated to are just different. You’re out there much fortunate, ” he says. “I’ve had some rough running as an amateur sport, who partici- longer and you can really experience the moments through the years, but I’ve always pate in and hope to finish annual or semi- environment. Those are probably some of been able to finish it. I’ve run it seven times.” annual marathons of about 27 miles. the big attractions for a lot of us that run But John Radich moves all that up a ultramarathons.” notch. Or ten. Or a hundred. His ideal Death Valley—and Then Some is to run 135 miles through one of the How the Race Is Run most hostile environments on the planet. Experiencing the environment is an attracTemperatures approach 130 degrees. The One might wonder, does a runner take on tion to John for ultramarathon running, run goes over three mountain ranges and such a race by running for several days with and is obviously an extreme case when it covers a total cumulative ascent of 13,000 no breaks? No, as it turns out—but almost. comes to Death Valley. It has been fascinatfeet—beginning at –280 feet and ending at “In that type of run, you do take breaks,” ing John since he began running the Badjust over 8,000 feet. John explains. “Not long breaks, because water Ultramarathon. This last year such Such a race is known as an “ultramarathon,” a type of race that generally consists of From Whitney Portal he continued running all the way 50–100 miles. This particular one is called to the top of Mt. Whitney—14,492 feet—and back down the Badwater Ultramarathon, so named again. He then ran back to the town of Lone Pine, 12½ because it begins at Badwater, California, miles from Whitney Portal, from where he embarked on right at the bottom of Death Valley and the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere. a journey few would try. John has run the race seven times, and looks forward to it every year. you’ll find if you take long breaks your body fascination led him to taken on a bit more What motivated him to take up this really shuts down. The longer you can stay than the usual race. extreme sport? Well, John began like most out there and take short breaks, the more John ran the normal route from Badwater runners. He ran at school and very much mileage you’re actually going to cover. Some to the finish at a place called Whitney enjoyed it. The first time he heard about a runners need more rest than others—it just Portal—so named because it is the entrance marathon—the San Francisco Marathon, depends on how your body reacts. But on to Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the which was one of the earliest in the US—he a run I just did in Arizona it got very, very lower 48 states. He had beaten his personal got intrigued and entered. And finished. cold at night; so if you were to take a break best time by 30 minutes and was happy Then he got involved with other marathons and go into your tent where it’s warm, you’d with his performance. But he didn’t stop. From Whitney Portal and 10K runs and entered and finished go back outside and start running again and it would be really hard on your joints he continued running all the way to the top those also.
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of Mt. Whitney—14,492 feet—and back down again. He then ran back to the town of Lone Pine, 12½ miles from Whitney Portal, from where he embarked on a journey that few would try. “A goal of mine was to go across Death Valley unassisted,” he says. “I wouldn’t have a car or anybody following me as would normally be the case. I would just be carrying my own supplies in a baby jogger.” In the regular race, each runner is assisted by a crew following along in a truck
or a van and carrying ice, water and other necessary supplies. John, however, wanted to pack supplies into a baby jogger—a threewheeled baby carriage that one can push while jogging—and go out all by himself. “So I pushed the jogger from the town of Lone Pine all the way back to Badwater— just reversed the race,” he says. “I didn’t have a crew following me; I was just selfcontained.” Since he was out by himself and not part of an organized run, he had a lot
of interesting encounters with tourists and other people. “People would stop; they were very cheery,” he relates. “I had some interesting experiences with tourists. A lot of photo taking. People would offer me water or even beer—they felt sorry for me, you know. I had most of the supplies, but now and then there was a point where I did run low on food and I did accept a sandwich from somebody.” It definitely wasn’t all fun. At one point out in the middle of absolutely nowhere, John
encountered a sandstorm with high wind blowing sand in gusts from 30 to upward of 50 miles an hour. At first, he just persisted. “I wasn’t quite running; it was more like pulling a train,” he says. “I was pushing the jogger and had sand blasting in my face. I had eye protection—goggles—but the wind was so strong I eventually stopped the carriage, got off the road and just sat behind the carriage as a windbreak.” But it wasn’t long before John felt his runner’s physique winding down and knew he had to move. “It got to the point where I just couldn’t sit down; it was too much on my body,” he says. “My legs were tightening up. I said, ‘No, no, I got to get up.’ So I just continued pushing the jogger, and finally the wind started to slow down as I made a turn in the road. Then the wind shifted and all of a sudden a full moon was out and now I could actually push the jogger and jog and run.” There were other barriers as well. “Going up the hill in Panamint Valley it was very difficult to push the jogger,” he says. “Water was the heaviest thing—I was probably weighed down with 130 pounds of water. Every bottle of water I took down I could feel the jogger getting lighter.” Coming down the hill on the other side presented a whole other set of problems. “I had an 18-mile downhill into Stovepipe Wells and the little handbrake on the jogger wore out,” he says. “I had to tie a rope around the handlebars to my waist just as a safety. I didn’t want to lose it as it went off the highway into traffic.” But his memory of the whole experience can be summed up in his relation of the time following an encounter with a Highway Patrolman. “After he left, there were no cars on the road for the next six hours,” he says. “There was just nobody there. There was only total silence, a full moon, then the sunrise, which in Death Valley is spectacular. And it was quite an incredible experience. I’ll never forget it.” At the end of his unique reverse run, John had completed an astonishing 292 miles, including the actual race, his run to the top of Mt. Whitney, and his solo venture back across Death Valley.
sense book on morals called The Way to Happiness, which contains 21 basic principles for living a happier life. John is part of a running team for the foundation, which has as its motto “Helping youth make the right choices.” On many of John’s marathons, contributing individuals and organizations sponsor him, pledging a certain amount of donation to The Way to Happiness Foundation for every mile he runs. “You can apply the common-sense tips that the book offers to any creed, culture or belief,” John says. “That’s what I like about The Way to Happiness. And the response that I’ve gotten over the years from policemen, government agencies, past professional athletes and people of all professions that have read the book has been, ‘This is really cool, this really makes sense, and it really will help people.’ ” Conditioning and Diet
Even for someone like John, who has completed over 300 ultramarathons, it is still very hard work. John runs several miles on an average weekday either early in the morning before work or in the evening after, and on many weekends he is out taking 25to 50-mile training runs. He also bicycles and swims, which he says gives him a good workout while affording his knees a break. Like other dedicated athletes, John also maintains a very healthy diet. “It’s real basic,” he says. “I don’t eat a lot of meat. I eat carbos, vegetables, grains, mixed nuts, and fruits—just basic healthy things a lot of runners go with. It’s also low fat; I watch the fatty foods.” John cautions against others simply following his diet, however. “What works for me doesn’t mean it’s going to work for another runner,” he says. “I don’t eat a lot of meat because protein tends to make me tired. But I know runners who like a lot of meat. Other runners are vegetarians and it works for them and it’s awesome.” John has also found vitamin and mineral supplements that work best for him. One item he swears by is Peter Gillham’s Natural Calm Plus Calcium. “Calcium, magnesium Running for a Cause and zinc are very important,” he says. “Your cells, your muscle tissues, really need that. In addition to the challenge, John also After a long run Natural Calm Plus Calcium runs for a cause he’s passionate about: helps regenerate the cells and it speeds up a non-profit group called The Way to recovery. It’s also getting more and more Happiness Foundation. This foundation positive feedback out there in the field of is based on a non-religious common- nutrition and sports.”
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John also counts on Peter Gillham’s Organic Life Vitamins and, when he’s running, Natural Life Minerals. “They perform brilliantly for me because I’m burning up a lot of minerals,” he says. “What I’ll do is put some mineral drops in my water bottle and I always know I’m not just getting pure water in my system—I’m getting the minerals. They assimilate fast and I can notice them working really well.” Conditioning versus Reality
But even with rigorous training and a great diet, running an ultramarathon race is extremely difficult. “Your body goes through many stages,” John says. “You start off feeling good. You’re going to get a blister. You’re going to get a stomachache. You’re going to get chafing problems. The heat’s going to bother you. You’ll suffer from lack of sleep. You experience all that in these multi-day 100-mile runs or longer.” As it turns out, it is not these aggravations that slow down or stop a runner. “You handle each issue, you take care of it, you deal with it, and you get back out there,” John says. “A lot of it is your frame of mind— having a good positive outlook that you’re going to get through it. In ultrarunning it’s 70 percent mental after a point, and then it becomes about 30 percent the body issues, the physical end of it.” John says he’s seen runners that were in virtually perfect rock-solid shape who he thought would have no problem at all finishing a race. But he would then hear about them breaking down halfway through. “Mentally, little things can upset some runners easily, or more easily than others,” John says. “So you have to really learn—the word that I use—you have to learn to cope,” John concludes. “You have to ride the pain barriers out. If you know how to ride them out, you can get through them. I mean, you use common sense; if you know you’re seriously hurt, then that’s when you step out. But the other stuff—you know, the stomach problems, the feeling bad, the emotional roller coaster that you go through—you have to learn how to ride that and understand it. “I’ve got a pretty good grasp of it. Once in a while one will bite me and it really wants to pull me down and tells me, ‘Okay, that’s it, you can’t.’ But I hang in there and end up running one of my best races just because I didn’t quit.” One might learn a life lesson from that.
(Source: SPINS data 2008)
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