![\"My](\"http:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/MY-Purps.jpeg\")
<\/a>Friday afternoon, the bell rang for the end of period eight. After teaching five classes, the male faculty at Jane Addams High School left for the gym. Full-court basketball was on our schedule. Losers sit, winners remain on the court for the next game.<\/p>\n
Games over. We dragged ourselves off the court. While I was zipping up my pants, Alex came by.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a half-marathon in two weeks from Suffern to Nyack. I\u2019m running, are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRunning a half-marathon? I couldn\u2019t walk it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on. You run every other day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do, but a half-marathon is 13.2 miles. My ten-mile Sunday run has me collapsed in a recliner, and falling asleep during a Giant game. If I do run, I\u2019ll have to put a sneaker on my tongue because it will be lapping up the asphalt for the last three miles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norman joined in.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on Wolfe, let\u2019s go. It\u2019ll be fun. We\u2019ll run together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFun, it won\u2019t be, but I\u2019ll think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex was a dedicated marathoner. He ran the New York City Marathon the last four years.<\/p>\n
On my drive home, I thought about the run.<\/p>\n
What if I drop out? Will my children be embarrassed? How will I return to my house if I drop out? Will Sheila say, \u201cI told you not to do it.\u201d Dr. Friedman said I had the Wolff-Parkinson-White-Syndrome. Will the half-marathon do me in? I better phone him. What about my back? I have Sharon trampling over it after my Sunday runs. Will the students in my biology class see me<\/i>\u00a0come\u00a0into class<\/em>\u00a0bent over, groaning and wailing, \u201cOh! My aching back!\u201d No. I don\u2019t think so. I won\u2019t run.<\/i><\/p>\n For the next two weeks, the run weighed heavily on my mind. Should I, or shouldn\u2019t I? After Friday\u2019s basketball game, Norman asked if I was going to run. I thought about all the years I devoted to three and five-mile runs. Why not try the half-marathon?<\/p>\n \u201cAre you going?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you do, I will.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, that was it. We’ll run this Sunday.<\/p>\n Sunday morning. Norman arrived early anticipating a bagel, lox and cream cheese breakfast.\u00a0Doc Weidman, my high school football coach always reminded the team to avoid a dairy breakfast before a game because it took a long time to digest. So, here I was twenty-eight years later with only water in my digestive system, lacing up my well-worn PURPS (purple, high-top Converse sneakers) preparing to run a half-marathon from Suffern, NY to Nyack, NY.<\/p>\n I never ran a half-marathon. My running program was a three-day five-mile run at the high school track, sometimes on route 59, and was capped by a 10 mile Sunday run. But I thought I could finish the half-marathon when I frequently ran past that same runner on route 59 wearing a color coordinated running outfit, top-of-the-line sneakers, and clicking away on two timers.<\/p>\n My wife drove Norman and I near the police headquarters in Suffern where a substantial group of\u00a0 entrants were engaged in a variety of calisthenics. Maybe it was my age, but I couldn\u2019t get into those positions when I was an adolescent. How does one bring his foot behind his neck?<\/p>\n “Norman, how about your foot behind your neck?” No reply.<\/p>\n Am I supposed to contort myself before this half-marathon? I didn\u2019t do anything like this before my ten mile run. I\u2019ll never get close to their time. So what. They appeared to be veterans of\u00a0 multiple marathons. Get close? Will I finish? Why is everyone pushing and shoving? Why is <\/i>there a mad dash for the starting line? The race has not begun. I guess the premier runners were trying to get in front so that the novices wouldn\u2019t impede them.<\/i><\/p>\n We didn\u2019t hear the starter\u2019s gun, but when the mass in front of us moved, we moved with them.<\/p>\n The race started at a brisk pace. After a half-mile Norman started to pant.<\/p>\n “Slow down, slow down Danny. I can’t keep up.”<\/p>\n If I run as I run my Sunday ten miles, I too will never make it to Nyack<\/i>. Slow down, and no talking, but keep a steady pace. What\u2019s this?<\/i> People holding paper cups with water? Who knows what\u2019s in them. I\u2019m not taking any of that. There\u2019ll be plenty of water at the finish line.<\/i><\/p>\n About three miles into the race I heard a runner who was wearing blue Nike running sneakers with a yellow Whoosh say to his friend,<\/p>\n \u201cLook at that guy with those purple high-top sneakers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre my sneakers bothering you?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, no. Everything is fine.\u201d<\/p>\n OK, from now on no more talking. It interfered with my breathing rhythm.<\/i><\/p>\n About three miles further, the runner with the Nikes, who found my sneakers odd dropped out to get a cup of water. He did not return. Maybe I should have exchanged sneakers with him.<\/p>\n In the distance near Monsey, a black mass appeared at the side of the road. It was a group of Hasidim going along at their usual hurried pace. For most of the runners, they appeared to be from another planet, or the runners appeared to be from another planet to the Hasidim. If they shed their black outfits, they might be candidates for first place in a half-marathon. But expose some skin to the crowd? Heresy!<\/p>\n There\u2019s the Jack-in-the Box on the corner opposite Shopper\u2019s Paradise. Just looking at it gives me heartburn. Onward.<\/p>\n We weren\u2019t quite halfway there when we passed Nanuet Mall.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll have to pick up my repaired lawn mower from Sears<\/em>.<\/p>\n Onward. There’s Main Street in Nanuet. A right turn would lead me to Nanuet Pizza, the best pizza my mouth ever met. Onward with Norman. He began to fade.<\/p>\n What\u2019s this? A level road inched upward towards an endless hill that extended to the horizon. Will I ever reach the end of this madness? My car, an aging and rusting Toyota Tercel made it easily. Will I collapse?<\/i>When this incline was paved, did the engineers realize it was a deceptive tease?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n <\/i>The first part was a breeze, but as I reached midway, my leg muscles began to reject the command I was giving them. They moved up and down, but I wasn\u2019t going forward. Close to the top of the hill they realized that I was the director, and they responded as if I had just started the run. I did it! The PURPS brought me to the finish line!<\/p>\n What could be better for an exhausted runner than to find his wife and three children waiting for him at the end of the race?<\/p>\n danielwolfebooks@aol.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My Purps Spring Valley, NY 1981 Friday afternoon, the bell rang for the end of period eight. After teaching five classes, the male faculty at Jane Addams High School left for the gym. Full-court basketball was on our schedule. Losers sit, winners remain on the court for the next game. Games over. We dragged ourselves… Continue reading My PURPS<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[264,263,267,265,266],"class_list":["post-2021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-doc-weidman","tag-half-marathon","tag-hasidim","tag-nikes","tag-purple-sneakers","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2021"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3325,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions\/3325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}