A run to New Orleans, east of the French Quarter

2008: One of the homes in New Orleans. The marks mean the date of search (top), the people who searched (left), number of people found (bottom), and any dangers present in the home (right)

Three years ago, I visited New Orleans for a conference and went for a run east of the French Quarter. I do not think I made it into the true 9th Ward, but I certainly got far enough to see some of the destruction left after Hurricane Katrina and the floods. I was sad to see that even after three years, block after block of homes were still abandoned, many emblazoned with the marks above from the search and rescue after the flood.

I returned to this area in April 2011 when I was in town for the American College of Cardiology and I have to say it felt like things were at least improved from 2008. The area is still very poor but more homes now appeared occupied and renovated, or at least freshly painted. With as many disasters as there are in the world, we cannot contribute to them all, but if you feel so inclined, Save NOLA is one of many campaigns with the goal of helping to rebuild the city.

Open Letter to ASICS

April 24, 2011

ASICS America Corporation

Nobou Oda, Chairman and CEO

29 Parker, Suite 100

Irvine, CA 92618

Tel: (800) 678-9435

consumer@asicsamerica.com

Dear Nobou Oda,

In my letters to you dated November 20 2009, January 19 2010, June 14 2010, and November 18 2010, I detailed my passion for running and my enjoyment of running in ASICS Gel Enduro trainers. Further, I expressed my concern about conditions common to many clothing and shoe manufacturing facilities.

Over the past two years, I have been pleased to see a series of improvements to your website which provide great detail about your policy on Corporate Responsibility. Since my last letter, I note that the website contains further detail about restrictions on work hours, benefits, workplace safety, fair wages, child labor, and collective bargaining for employees of your business partners. I also note that you provide information on internal, external, and FLA conducted audits of your manufacturing facilities as well as educational programs given to the managers at your subcontractor facilities.

This self-reported information reassures me that ASICS is committed to a fair and safe workplace. If I may suggest an additional layer of verification of these commitments, I would encourage ASICS to consider inviting organizations other than the FLA, such as Team Sweat or the Worker Rights Consortium, to inspect subcontractor facilities.

As I have previously noted, I am a consumer willing to pay more for products produced with a commitment to social justice. As I have been doing with my previous ASICS purchases, I will again demonstrate this commitment with a donation to Jim Keady and Team Sweat (http://www.teamsweat.org). I will also begin making contributions to the Worker Rights Consortium.

In sound mind and body,

David E. Winchester, MD

cc:

Vivienne Riggio

ASICS Corporation

Corporate Social Responsibility

vivienner@asicsamerica.com

Jim Keady

Captain, Team Sweat

http://www.teamsweat.org

info@teamsweat.org

Steven Walker

Host of Phedippidations

http://www.steverunner.com

steve@steverunner.com

Fair Labor Association

1707 L St. NW, Suite 200

Washington, DC 20036

http://www.fairlabor.org

info@fairlabor.org

Scott Nova, Executive Director

Worker Rights Consortium

5 Thomas Circle NW

Fifth Floor

Washington DC 20005

nova@workersrights.org

Prior letters:

June 2010

November 2010

Run for Japan and donate today

I ran 28 miles today for my peak run prior to Boston in 3 weeks and while I was out there, I listened to episode 62 of Marathon Talk, which is a great conversational podcast out of the UK. They talked about an initiative to show support and raise money for relief efforts in Japan, over at runforjapan.com. The goal on this website is to have runners dedicate a run and in the process collect enough dedicated miles to circumnavigate the globe. Also on the website is a link to donate to the Red Cross relief effort through Virgin Giving. A dollar per mile sounds like a reasonable amount to me, so donate today!

McRunner excels at LA Marathon

In the spirit of the twinkie diet and in contrast to Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, a man by the nickname of McRunner completed the LA Marathon today in 2:36, a new PR for him. For 30 days prior to the race, he ate nothing but McDonald's. Of course, during those thirty days, he ran 349 miles. He had a doctor following him, and of the lab values he posted, his lipids did not seem to look any worse than pre-Mickey-D's. The other reason for McRunner's diet choice is to promote the charity he was running for, the Ronald McDonald House. He did a stellar job, raising some $27,000 for the charity. Congratulations on the fundraising and the PR, but please do not fault me for not wanting to follow your new diet!

Marine runs marathon in gas mask

In a rather interesting article from Fox News, Marine SGT Jeremy Soles ran the MCM this year with a gas mask that increases the work of respiration by at least 30%. He described it as if he was running while breathing through a snorkel. He managed to rig a water pack such that he could get some hydration and Gu during the run, but otherwise didn't take the thing off during the whole race.

Why, you might ask? He has a nonprofit (TEAM X-T.R.E.M.E.)which supports wounded veterans by performing feats of physical prowess, such as running a marathon in a gas mask. That and I'm guessing because he is a bad-ass, based on his appearance in the photo accompanying the article.

Corporate Responsibility in athletic wear

For the last few pairs of shoes I've bought, I have made a donation to Team Sweat and Jim Keady to support their mission to bring justice and equality to laborers in SE Asia. Most of the shoes I wear are ASICS and in addition to donations, I always accompany them with a letter to ASICS to remind them of my interest in this subject and how I am contributing to it. I have previously posted one of my letters and I sent a similar letter this week.

ASICS reports on their website that they are committed to social responsibility in all levels of product development and production. However, their website is years out of date and does not greatly detail what steps they are taking to address factory working conditions. I am pleased to say that my last letter (from June 2010) garnered a response from Vivienne in ASICS Corporate Responsibility office who appreciated my letter and reported she would do her best to address my concerns. Unfortunately, not much on the website has changed, but we'll see how things develop.

Give the gift of life, but not right before a race!

I am a frequent blood donor; needles don't bother me and I like the idea of literally helping to save lives (yes, I try to do that every day at my job as well...) Shortly befre I ran the Jacksonville Marathon last December, I was "due" for a donation and the vampires are usually set up somewhere in the lobby of my hospital, so I have to walk past their curtained-off area every morning and evening. I figured though, that donating right before a race was probably and bad idea, especially if I was trying to score a BQ.

If you take the contrasting side of this, think about what athletes try to do to improve their performance. Accusations of "blood doping" are all over competitions like the Olympics and the Tour de France. Oxygen is carried by red blood cells which are full of hemoglobin, so more hemoglobin and more red blood cells equal more oxygen. The general idea is that if you can carry more oxygen, then your endurance is improved. People accomplish this legally by training at high altitude or sleeping in oxygen deprivation tents (low oxygen levels force your body to make more hemoglobin to try and carry more). They accomplish it illegally by using drugs like erythropoietin (which is a hormone your body makes, but there is a synthetic form as well).

So, it stands to reason that if you have less hemoglobin and fewer red blood cells, you will have less endurance. In this study by Birnbaum et al., ten healthy young men, donated a unit of blood and significantly decreased VO2 max by about 3 liters/min. So, if you're Steve Prefontaine (VO2 max 84.4) then a drop of 3.5% in you VO2 max might not make much difference, but for us mortals, it might mean more of a 7.5% drop. By the way, this page gives you an idea what your VO2 max might be, and depressingly demonstrates why we slow as we age.

Tha full text of the study's abstract is here:

1. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2006 Dec;46(4):535-9.

Effect of blood donation on maximal oxygen consumption.
Birnbaum L, Dahl T, Boone T.

Exercise Physiology Department, The College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, MN, USA.
lbirnbau@css.edu

AIM: This study determined the effect of donating one unit of blood on various
physiological parameters associated with a VO2(max) test. METHODS: Ten healthy,
male subjects (23+/-4 years, 178+/-7.6 cm, 74.4+/-12.3 kg) completed a VO2(max)
test 24 h before donating one unit of blood (~500 mL) and 24 h after donating
blood. The Bruce protocol was used to determine the subjects' VO2(max).
Physiological responses were measured at the end of the VO2(max) test. A repeated
measures ANOVA was used to determine if there were significant (P<0.05)
differences in the subjects' physiological responses between the VO2(max) before
and after blood donation. RESULTS: Significant differences were found in VO2(max)
(mean+/-SD, 3.18+/-0.74 vs 2.87+/-0.53 L.min(-1)), cardiac output (Q, 25+/-5 vs
22.5+/-3.3 L.min(-1)), stroke volume (SV, 134+/-37 vs 121+/-22 mL.beat(-1)),
delivery of oxygen (DO(2), 5+/-.87 vs 3.97+/-.68 L.min(-1)), and hemoglobin
concentration (Hb, 153+/-12 vs 135+/-16 gm.L(-1)). No significant changes were
observed for heart rate (HR); arteriovenous oxygen difference (a-vO(2) diff),
systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). CONCLUSIONS:
These findings indicate that donating one unit of blood decreased VO2(max) due to
the decrease in Q, which resulted from the decrease in SV since HR was unchanged.
The lower VO2(max) along with the decrease in DO(2) would be expected to have a
negative effect on athletic performance.

PMID: 17119517 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Eddie Iz Running

If you've never heard of Eddie Izzard, he is a comedian from the UK that my wife and I find incredibly funny. He's got several albums and specials out there if you're interested (I'd recommend Dress to Kill, one of my favorites).

At any rate, he is currently about 2/3 of the way (734 miles) running around THE ENTIRE UK! He has broken the run up into a series of marathon-length runs and has been running one nearly every day for the last month! Eddie is a great guy, but he's no Dean Karnazes. Now that is not in the slightest bit meant to be a disparaging comment since the commitment to such an undertaking is simply incredible. All I mean to say is that Eddie is a not a professional runner, but a "regular" guy who chose to do this to raise funds for Sports Relief in the UK, which supports all sorts of projects. Check out more about his running and support him at http://eddieizrunning.com/.