My name is Alexander Stepanov. I live in Moscow. I was born in Gorkovskaya oblast, Russia in 1933. I am a carpenter by profession. I've been running for a long distance for 44 years. I've been going in for skiing for about 50 years. I belong to one of Moscow long distance running club "Dzerzhinets" uniting over three hundreds male and female members.
I run about 4-5 days a week from 15 to 35 kilometers a day. I do it usually alone and don't run the same workout course. I don't eat anything special before I run and most of Russian runners don't as well. I just usually drink different home-produced juices (cranberry, currants) and mostly eat porridge.
As a rule our runners run in all types of weather conditions. As to my favorite weather is in the summer I prefer sunny weather with the temperature of air not higher than +20 °C and in winter the temperature must be not lower that +15/+18 °C. When it's warm I wear shorts and T-shirt and when it's cold I put on woolen clothes. I love to run in winter. Snowfall turns off many people but not me. I do train when the snow falls, and run races as well.
I own 6 running shoes.
I usually take some food with me for a long run. I don't listen to any music while I run.
I read "Running and us" ("Beg i mi", a Russian running magazine) and "Skiing" Russian athletics magazine.
Running in Russia is accepted and popular among men and women activity. I don't run with dogs but some other runners do. There are no any religious activities or philosophies as well as any cultural activities and taboos that affect running in our country. People usually run the summer races in T-shirts though running shirtless is acceptable when a race participant attaches the bib to the shorts.
I ran the "Moscow International Peace Marathon" and other races organized by the Charitable Foundation of the Moscow International Peace Marathon. All the races are carried out for the charitable purposes. The most popular are the "Moscow International Half-Marathon & 5 miles race", the "Kremlin Mile running competition" and "Olympic Day Run" (10 and 8 km races for male and female runners, 6 and 4 km races for juniors). The marathon entry fee is only $25.00 and 10km fee is $10.00 for foreign runners at the "Moscow International Peace Marathon". The half-marathon entry fee for the foreign runners is $15.
The marathon race packet consists of the bib, the chip, commemorative T-shirt, other gifts, and the pasta party invitation. There are refreshment and sponge stations at the course with the spring water, refreshment drinks, bread and salt, and also fruit juices, fruit jelly, sweets and fruits at the finish area. Every marathon finisher receives the finisher medal and the certificate of achievement.
I took part in the Championships of the Ussr, Russia and Ukraine. This year I ran in Los Angeles (California) between 1 hour 30 minutes and 3 hours a day for two months, participated in "Helsinki City Marathon". In total I've run 40 marathons. My fastest time is 2:20:18. My favorite run was at the Championship of Estonia (marathon) in 1963. The night before it had been raining heavily with a hail. It was so cold that many runners cancelled the race, but I overcame all the difficulties and finished.
Run The Planet would like to thank Alexander Stepanov from Russia for taking part in the Planeteer Spotlight.
