I thought I was pretty well read when it came to American runners…but clearly…I’m not. I picked up the book ‘Unbroken’ written by Laura Hillenbrand, about the amazing story of a true American hero, Louis Zamperini. The dust cover said he was an Olympic runner, had spent 47 days on a life raft in the Pacific during WWII and over two years as a POW. It was enough for me to want to read it.
I love the way Hillenbrand writes…she did a phenomenal job telling the story of Seabisquit, which was made into a movie…as it appears the Zamperini story will. He spent his early years brushing up against the law, but his older brother…a high school standout in the mile…convinced him he should try running. He went on to run the fastest scholastic mile ever before finishing high school and managed…at age 19…to qualify to the 1936 Olympic team in the 5000 meter race. He qualified for the finals…but barely…and with low expectations for his performance in that race. He ran 4600 meters as expected…in the back of the fastest men in the world…but covered the final 400 meters in an eye-popping 56 seconds, passing many runners and moving up to eighth place overall. He caught the attention of Adolph Hitler who asked to meet Zamperini and commented to him when he did that “you’re the boy with the fast finish.”
As he returned to America and his running career with the University of Southern California, the running world felt he would be the first human to run the mile in less than four minutes. He thought so too, and planned to win gold in the 1500 meters in the Tokyo Olympics in 1940. And then that nice fellow he’d met in Germany in 1936 went and started a war.
Zamperini joined the Armed Forces before Pearl Harbor and ended up as a bombardier. On a search and rescue mission for a downed American bomber over the Pacific Ocean, his plane went down with only him and two others from the 12-man crew surviving. Their experience over the next 47 days in a life raft…and beyond in a Japanese POW camp makes up the bulk of the story…yet there is so much more. It is a hell of a read about a hell of a man and is a story all Americans ought to know.
I managed to reach 90 push-ups again…but 100 seems so far away. I did the rest of the Survival Workout and hurried home to ride the trainer and enjoy another episode of ‘Everest’. Afterwards, Jack, Holly and I climbed in the van for a trip to East Coast Custard only to find they…and Dairy Queen…were closed. We swung by McDonald’s so Jack could get a milk shake…I won’t waste calories on their stuff…and he said they made the best milkshakes in the world. Really Jack? He definitely needs to see more of the milkshake world.
Survival Workout: 60 minutes. Bike duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100-150 for SW and 120 for the bike.
Calories burned: 600 for SW, 850 for the bike.
John, my husband read this book recently and shared bits of it with me. What an amazing story. That he was able to maintain any semblance of sanity while on the raft is unbelievable. I wouldn't have wanted to raise him. He was more than a handful. Maybe a lot of the ADHD kids in this world are really long distance running champions in disguise?
ReplyDelete