4 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2002
RUNNING WITH THE DOGS STORY BY JAY PILGREEN = PHOTOS BY LAURIE SIK
'Dog Days' workout gives residents the chance to fight the winter bulge all summer long
Before I recap my athletic experience at Dog Days, I think it necessary to reveal a history of my college experience and choices I have made.
I am what you would call a night person. I have worked in two separate bars and restaurants for the past three years, and because of my employment, I have a few vices.
First off, I have trouble falling asleep before 3 a.m., and I don't sleep very well. I have an occasional beer and a cigarette or two within an hour of waking (sorry Mother). Secondly, I haven't participated in any athletic activity since I played basketball my sophomore year of high school about seven years ago.
That said, I found myself standing on the field in Memorial Stadium doing jumping jacks at 6 a.m. yesterday. Don "Red Dog" Gardner, who I later learned co-founded the program in 1984, was on a bullhorn barking orders to the crowd. I joined more than 200 people in sets of 15 jumping jacks, 15 pushups, 15 volleyball jumps and two laps around the track.
Occasionally, I'll do a few sit-ups to keep the beer gut somewhat at bay, but I hadn't done them in a while, so I was rested. About halfway around that first lap
Kansan reporter Jay Pilgreen doing sit-ups ---very slowly.
though, I felt the rhythm of breath, which I learned in junior high track, quickly gives way to a terrible wheezing sound. I remembered my coaches telling me to breathe in through my nose and outthrough my mouth, but when I tried, I sucked a couple of early-morning boogers into my throat and
began to cough.
Dog Days is a program that allows people of all ages to have a steady exercise regiment. Participants range from high school students to Lawrence residents. The program meets at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and at 8 a.m. Saturdays. Gardner said that in July, the program would also meet every weekday at noon and expand to every weekday at 6 p.m. He said this was
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