Addendum: Athletes Not Welcome

Just a quick aside. Remember how I said that Taos in the 1960s felt unwelcoming to me? Well, it just wasn’t me. I’m told that during the period some athletes decided to train in Taos for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. The logic was that the altitude was similar (Taos is about 7000 feet above sea level and Mexico City is at 7350 feet) and the terrain can be comparable.

The kicker, in 1967-8, jogging was not yet popular. The whole aerobics craze was yet to come, or was restricted to the coasts. As a result, people who ran around in public were regarded as, well, a bit strange. And for Taos, then still a pretty insular society, the sight of mostly Anglo young guys pounding around in shorts was, honestly, a little shocking.

I recall seeing articles after 1968, when the American athletes came home with their medals. An article I saw about them was titled simply, “Welcome anywhere...except Taos.”

Today, of course, that’s all different, and athletes of all sorts are greeted with open arms in Taos. But, still, it brings back memories for me. I was an early convert to jogging. My parents picked up the sport in the 1960s and I went along for the, uh, not the ride, but the run. Even when I was quite young (and remember, I was only 11 in 1968) I could be found in my sweatpants and gym shirt wobbling along the public ways of Albuquerque.

About the video: Just a brief video showing some of my more amusing adventures while jogging. (Okay, it’s been years since anything like this happened. But I have my memories.)

Which brought me some unwelcome attention. A couple of times I was stopped and asked what I’d stolen or who I was running from. And why.

Again, I was in excellent company. In 1968, the public and police regarded joggers as a potential menace to society. Check out this article in Vox Magazine, “When running for exercise was for weirdos,” by Phil Edwards. I’ll put a link in the footnote.(1)

People were harassed and even arrested for jogging. I was lucky. I didn’t draw *that* much attention from disapproving authorities, perhaps because I was still a child at the time and in those Mad Men days children were one of the few groups allowed to run. By contrast, adults were not supposed to run at all. Undignified, don’t you see? Lèse-majesté and all that. Might spill your Four Roses or disturb the ash on your Romeo y Julieta cigar (Churchill size, of course).

Teenagers were given a certain dispensation, but only if it was on a football field. And even then, only if some missing link with a whistle was shouting abuse at you every third step.

Still, I did take *some* heat. As I say, I was stopped a time or two by various authorities who wanted to know what the hell I was doing. And a few of my friends’ parents give me The Eye when I came over. And various schoolyard bullies in Junior High thought it was most amusing to say “He...[spit]...*jogs.*”

Well, I still jog. And I sincerely hope all my bullies have long ago died from a combination of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, obesity, assorted select cancers, and all the other wonderful things that a sedentary lifestyle can produce.(2)

And you thought I was a forgive and forget kind of a guy.

Ha.

Footnote:

1. Phil Edwards, “When Running Was For Weirdos,” Vox, August 9, 2015, accessed December 24, 2025, https://www.vox.com/2015/8/9/9115981/running-jogging-history.

2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Benefits of Physical Activity,” accessed December 25, 2025, https://www.cdc.gov/physical-activity-basics/benefits/index.htm

~~~

Copyright©2026 Michael Jay Tucker

Care to help out?

I provide these blog postings for free. That’s fine and I’m happy to do so. But, long ago and far away, I was told that if you give away your material, that means you don’t really think it has any value.

So, to get beyond that, I’ve decided to make it possible for you to leave me a “tip” for my posts.

If you like what I write or the videos I produce, and feel you could make a small contribution to support my efforts, please go here:

https://michaeljaytucker.gumroad.com/l/lzumj

That will take you to a Gumroad page where you’ll have the option of leaving me a few pence by way of encouragement.

Again, I don’t mind if you don’t. I just want to provide you with the option so that I won’t feel quite so much like I’m just tossing my works into the wind.

Either way, thanks hugely for dropping by the blog :-)

~mjt

#StampOutEnnui #MichaelJayTucker #MarthaTucker #MarthaAndMichaelChronicles #StompEnnuiLikeItWasABug #explosive_cargo #Xcargo #StampOutEnnui #MichaelJayTucker #MarthaTucker #MarthaAndMichaelChronicles #StompEnnuiLikeItWasABug #explosive_cargo #Xcargo #Saint_Michael #Michael_The_Archangel #NewMexico #Taos #Albuquerque #SantaFe #Kiva_fireplace #Ski_Area #Taos_Ski_Area