This morning I watched about two hours of runners passing near my house. It's the Kansas City Marathon and Half-Marathon. It pretty well paralyzes traffic in this part of town, and I can tell you I directed some extremely provoked commuters who didn't get the memo

Raises the question (in books like Why We Get Fat) Are we skinny because we run, or do we run because we're skinny?

I'd have to say the latter. Thirty years ago (yikes!) I ran the previous version of this marathon in 4:17. Not bad for a first-timer. And last timer, as it turned out. I trained very hard for almost a year. Crossed the finish line at my lowest adult weight of 122. The fun part was, I remember that I ate everything in sight.

Yes, it's possible to burn a ton of energy training that hard. But it has little to do with the natural state of the body, or with a sustainable program.

I've since learned that I do best on a low-carb diet combined with resistance training and mild cardio (brisk walking) on a regular basis. No more running.

But I'll be out there cheering for people like me with the guts to give it a go.