Experience Life

Time to Step Out....

2012-02-22T17:56:00.000-05:00

Its been some time since I last blogged. Granted I started this blog last year as a way to stay commited and accountable during training for my first marathon. It was also a way to step outside the box. I had planned to sit down and finish my goals for 2012 last month which included alot of things. Obviously that was a big fail....This time as I sit, I'm deciding not to talk about running or exercising or even goals. This is going to be about someone I know. They are unsure about me doing this, but maybe it will help. He has been told it's a good idea and that I should go ahead.

My friend has been told he's a great guy. He probably would do anything for anyone at the drop of a hat. Some would say he has a good life, some would say they don't really know him. He stays positive as much as he can, surrounds himself with great people. But inside he holds with him, not so much a secret, but a part of him that not many know. A part that not many understand...a part that he feels is not important and a part he tries to ignore. He is living with something that is a daily part of his life. This person lives with something called Crohn's Disease.

In all my questions and all my research for this, there were things that I did not know and have come to learn. Yes, it's not cancer, or ALS or MS. Not to say one is more important than the others or his "struggles" are better or worse than others. I realize he feels they are not important, or as important as those things. He knows there are bigger problems out there.

As this person will tell you, it's hard to explain to someone just exactly what Crohn's is, hard to explain what people may go through. It's not exactly dinner/drinks conversation for starters, plus someone can not really grasp it as there is no way to truly understand from words without experiencing it. There is not just one "symptom", not just one "problem". Anyone who has it is affected differently. Sometimes it affects your feet as the swell up like balloons, sometimes your arms and legs, sometimes your back to where you can barely move, sometimes your mouth as it fills with canquer sores from the acid in the gut. But the main headquarters is all in the gut. The gut is your second brain. Through research, I've found its ALL about food. Food choices, food sensitivities, food allergies....

Most people say the obvious...Just go to the doctor or go to the hospital. They will give you a pill and it will make it all better. If only that were the case. Granted everyone has their own opinions, has their own thoughts. Some people feel pills are a gift from God, some feel they do more harm than good. It's just not that easy. But that may be for another day, another blog....

Dealing with this, there are days he feels normal and days he feels lost. There are tears from the pain. There's hospital visits and rehab. This person goes through uncertainty each day. While most people take the everyday things for granted, or the routine things for granted, he has to plan and think in advance and take surroundings into account. What to eat, when to eat, where to eat. Yes, most people "plan" what to eat, but planning in the sense of knowing your surroundings in case you eat certain things. There are times when he wouldn't eat if he knew he had plans later that night. There are times he won't go out, out of fear of something happening.

He has come to the point where he doesn't know what is next. One day it will get better, then next day its ten times worse. Most of all there is regret as this has overtaken his life and he seems to think he's let it win and allowed it to. All he can do is have faith and pray. Pray that it will turn. Somedays this person is not sure if that is enough....

This person....well, this person is me.

There are two doors to choose, two roads to follow....For some it may seem the choice is easy, some may feel that there isn't an option and the choice is clear. The past few weeks/months have given me doubts. Doubts about me and doubts about my future, if any....Do I choose to stand strong or choose to step off the ledge.

Until Next Time.....

Tis the season...

2011-11-30T21:00:00.001-05:00

It takes but one positive thought when given a chance to survive and thrive to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts - Robert H. Schuller

I thought about not starting out with this, but here we go.......
Well, it's been awhile since I last blogged....LOL Yes, I've been a stranger when it comes to this, but I'm hoping to change all that and get back into the swing of things...

It's that time of year again....The holiday's....A time where good and bad come together.
The good....Time spent with family and friends, time to give thanks, time off from work, time to shop and time to give and receive.
The bad...Not enough time in the day, time to shop, time for excuses, time to overeat and gain weight.
For a lot of us, that is....
Just like with anything in life...It's all what you do with your time and how you look at things.

Going through some goals for 2012 I was trying to come up with some new challenges, new things to keep me going. Last year at this time I was in the process of losing 35 lbs in 10 weeks to get myself ready to start training for my first marathon. 2011 saw me "finish" my first marathon and while it was not completed (how I wanted, that is), I plan to do another one at some point. This time doing it right. But for next year that will have to wait. I want to get into shape cardio wise and health wise for my ultimate goal, which will be an Ironman. Hopefully I can work my way to that in the next year or two and get a few sprint & Olympic distance triathlons in along the way.
A friend of mine brought up a challenge called "Tough Mudder". 10-12 miles of mental and physical "fun". Ok, it may not be complete fun, but looking through the course it does really seem interesting and also something that you can not just get up off the couch and do. Maneuvering your way through water, walls, ropes, fire and live wire sounds like a cool way to spend a few hours. Ok, it's freakin nuts, but what the heck, you only live once. The "race/challenge" is coming to Columbus in the summer of 2012, but have yet to finalize a date.
So my first step is obviously get back into game shape. In tackling this preparation for Tough Mudder, I decided I needed to whip myself into shape. I lost touch with workouts while being injured, which I regret now, but it is what it is. So tomorrow I am starting something crazy. Something quite insane. I have committed to doing the "Insanity" program. 63 days of butt whipping, in the comfort of my own home. Well, the goal is to do the full 63 days, but I want to make it through the first day, then take it day by day. Definitely looks intimidating, but I just need to plan, focus and take it one day at a time....It will be February 2nd before I know it and I'll be ready for swimsuit season...heehee

Another thing that will also keep me busy next year....Phi Delta Theta is now on the campus of Otterbein University. They were installed as a colony last week down at headquarters in Miami (OH) University.

I am honored to be able to help these guys as one of their advisors. They are a solid group of diverse young men and look forward to helping them through the process of becoming the best that they can be and making not only themselves proud, but Phi Delt proud as well.
They will have plenty of challenges ahead of them as Otterbein is mainly a campus of local fraternities. Phi Delt will be the 2nd national fraternity on campus and it will be their job to mesh as a Greek community.
By the time pledging starts next semester, they should have 40 guys to kickoff their inaugural class. These guys have the opportunity to be part of something special. I will never forget my time as a Phi Delt at Ashland. Our chapter had our 45th anniversary last month and it was great going back and seeing all the alumni and meeting the actives. These guys will be able to look back and be part of history as 20, 30, 40 years from now they will realize the legacy that they created.

This weekend I get an opportunity to participate in another Wings Ministry program for their Christmas event at the prison in Lancaster. It was an amazing experience last year volunteering and while the other 2-3 programs that took place during this past year at other prisons were enlightening, nothing beats this one. Very powerful stuff in my opinion. Makes you think and makes you appreciate. I just hope to be able to move as I may or may not be reallyyyyyy sore after 3 days of Insanity...LOL

So no matter what your schedule is like......This holiday season take a step back, examine what is in your life and appreciate it. Make it a goal to not make excuses, make it a goal to stand up and be healthier and just be a better person. You only live once and most don't get second chances. Only you can live your life....

Until next time....

Columbus Marathon Spectating Recap

2011-10-20T21:52:00.000-04:00

Before the Marathon Sunday, I had some prior engagements to attend. Headed to Ashland for Homecoming. It was also the 45th Anniversary for the Phi Delt chapter on campus.

I guess I didn't clear that with Jodi's best friend Deb, as she replied..."What, he's not going to be here?" Supposedly she was under the impression that we would be discussing the "spectating" route for the next day during dinner Saturday...

After putting the finishing touches on a gift bag I headed up to Ashland.

The A.U. campus has changed quite a bit since graduation. New student center, new streets with buildings, new sports facilities and a brand new state of the art football stadium RIGHT NEXT to our fraternity house.

New Stadium, Phi Delt House in the background

I mean, had that been there back in the day, I definitely would have gone to more games. Of course they also built a huge new pool, which would have been awesome to use. Our practices and meets were in a pool with barely any deck space.

New A.U. Pool

Didn't really have a plan for the day (shocking I know), so I stopped by the house, then headed to the parking lot where the brothers and alumni were tailgating. Ashland is a "dry campus" but I guess they allow alcohol in the parking lot during the games for tailgating (as long as it's in cups)

After awhile we headed to BW3 to watch the games and hang out until the Phi Delt dinner. Definitely weird seeing people old and young, as well as realizing I was in the 'old' category. LOL

Headed back to the house to change and get ready for the reunion dinner. We had about 175 people, which included alumni, family, actives and pledges at the PumpHouse Grill in downtown Ashland. Had a few speakers and presentations before settling into an amazing buffet dinner. Pasta, salmon, pot roast, veggies....Luckily for me I had not eaten all day.

Awkward moment time.....So a woman approached me, waiting as I finish a conversation I was having. I notice a camera in her hand, so I figured she wanted me to take a picture. No, she asked if she could take a picture of my fraternity pin that I was wearing. Her exact words were...'Oh, I don't want you in the picture, just a close up of the pin.' We laughed and I was fine with that. After 2 attempts, I guess the lighting was bad and the pictures were blurry. Well all of a sudden she says..."Ok, I'm gonna need you on the floor now". I tried not to laugh and she told be to hurry up and lie down, she doesn't have all day. Well, I was looking around the room for cameras thinking I was getting punked. It's not everyday I get told by a woman to get on the floor (insert laugh here) In my typical smartass self, I responded....'You think it'll be better down there, huh? Do I get to at least get to know your name first?' She paused and said not important....She never got the picture and later in the night as she walked by she laughed and pointed at me telling her husband that I was the one she wanted on the ground....

Tried to mingle and meet all the new guys as well as the older alumni, saw the plans for the new fraternity house and listened to some music.

As the night came to a close I needed to head back to Columbus. Would have been nice to hang out more and chat, plus the actives were having a pancake breakfast at the house in the morning. But I figured it would be more fun to hang out at a little race instead. :-)

Jodi had told me that I could crash with her and Deb in their hotel suite and left a key at the front desk. That helped me out, seeing how it saved me time and got me about an extra 45 minutes sleep, so decided on the couch rather than my bed....lol Plus I would not have to worry about not waking up as we planned all meet up around 5:30.

As for the football game, it was a successful Homecoming weekend for them. Ashland won the game 20-17 on a field goal as time expired. They played undefeated Wayne St University, who was ranked #6 overall in the country (Division II) The win moved A.U. into the Top 25 in the country at #23. It may not be big boy football like the Big 10, but still cool to see the alma mater play well....

Missi and Deb drove down from Cleveland Sunday morning (they are both early birds), so we hung out until Jodi was ready to rock and roll. So Deb, Missi, Deb and myself headed out to take Jodi to the start. On the drive to downtown it seemed like everyone and their mother was out in traffic at 6am. So Deb decided to take a different exit and go the backroads, which helped get us there alot quicker (and saved Jodi from stressing) Made our way to the start line after a pit stop and got as close as we could.

Pre-race with Jodi and Missi

After a few hugs we headed into the nearest building to hangout, warm up and chat while Jodi headed thru the maze of people for the start of the race. As we were hanging out, one of our objectives was to figure out how we were going to maneuver around the course to support Jodi. I had screen shots printed out of different mile markers, as well as the map of the course. Originally we figured we could drive to mile 7, but after looking at the map more closely it made no sense. It would be easier to walk a few blocks south to mile 9. This also helped because then on our way back to the car we could stop around miles 12-13 and surprise Jodi again.

We settled in at mile 9 and guesstimated the time that Jodi would pass by. In the meantime we cheered on the runners and also did a little people watching. Saw a 7ft guy running in a bear costume, a couple dressed as Fred Flintstone and Wilma along with a few other odd looking costumes. Then there were a few "was she/he really wearing that?" type clothing. I really do think people need to use the mirrors at their homes. I realize that it's not a fashion show, but wowwwww.

We finally saw a quite surprised Jodi running along the side of the road and she looked really strong. Wasn't even breaking a sweat. Watching a half marathon or marathon, it always amazes me the people who make it look so easy and effortless and others that look like they are in complete agony...The four of us headed back and planned to hangout around mile 12.5, although first the girls grabbed some coffee. They ran out of hot chocolate, so I was sh*t out of luck. Timed it perfectly as Jodi saw us and again had the effortless, fun times smile on her face. The easy part for us was done, now off to the important part...Finding our way towards mile 18 so Deb and Missi could join Jodi on the course when she needed it most.

Seeing how the 3 girls are from Cleveland and I live in Columbus, you would think I would be the one to navigate us around. Well, not so much. I'm blaming all the road closures, although the girls won't buy that excuse...LOL But no problems, we made it to the spot pretty quickly, parked and walked to the corner. This is the part of the race where people start to wonder, people start to break down, not sure why (insert sarcastic giggle) You could tell some of the runners were feeling it and you could tell just the opposite.

As we support the runners we know Jodi will be coming down the road. Sure enough we see her and yet AGAIN, if she was feeling tired you would not know it. I think she was partially excited to see us and partially exhausted but she still looked strong. As she comes up she almost tackles Deb and I and gives us a big hug, then joins Missi and Deb for a hug as they join her on the course to take her to the finish.

Deb and I head back to the car and try to navigate to the next stop, where I will attempt to hop on the course. I would have loved to jump in at mile 18, but 8 miles is a bit much since I just am coming back from injury. Again, we relied on the printout and Deb's phone app, but we made it there pretty easily. As we were waiting we chatted and supported the runners. I made the mistake of supporting too much. A guy came around the corner and slowed down to a walk, hands on shoulders and head down. I told him to keep it up and he's got this...all he did was turn and look at me and I think he was thinking to himself...Dude, shut up, how about you run...

The girls come around the corner and for the first time Jodi's face looked of pain. She wasn't happy to see me....heehee, I'm kidding. Miss and Deb looked at me and just shook their head, sort of a silent "not up for talking" shake. I hopped on the course with the 3 girls and Deb hurried back to the car to meet us at the finish line. I could tell Jodi was trying to focus and her head was spinning, but I already knew I had something up my sleeve (besides my arm that is). It was really quiet until we came to mile marker 22. This number is significant to Jodi based on her past 2 attempts. The first one, she literally has NO memory of anything past this marker and the second one, is what I like to call the awakening and a creepy mist left her body as we ran the streets as she called out mile 22. So this time I got her attention, smiled and asked what she saw. She kind of chuckled and yelled out 22. At this point she picked up the pace and relaxed a bit....mission accomplished. We continued along the course and I kept doing that at every mile marker. Around mile 23 she had mentioned that she was running all on her Uncle Joe's reserves. Her uncle passed away a few months back and she was dedicating the race to him. Miss and Deb both joined in with words of encouragement which at this point Jodi needed. As we approach mile 25, I knew she needed all the strength she could muster up. So I asked her what that flag said. She responded with a "25", but that was not good enough. I asked again and she responded. Still not good enough. After about 3-4 times she yelled 25 pretty loud and with a SMILE. The funniest part was the reaction of the other runners around us. I actually think her yelling might have awoken them as well to help them realize and finish strong. At this point Missi took over and in her best boot camp instructor voice, told her to finish strong and enjoy the last 1.2 miles. This was HER day. We approached mile 26 and my eyes were on Missi (no not cuz she looked hot, though she did...lol) but because I was waiting for the go ahead to get off the course and let Jodi finish what she started. I know Jodi had mentioned to me that she wanted us to cross the finish line with her, but this was not our race, this was HER race. Luckily she just kept going towards the finish. Granted she may have been slightly distracted knowing she was going to finish and she may have been a bit tired.

I needed to catch my breathe since my arse is slightly out of shape. Missi was feeling good so Deb and I followed her towards the finish until the corner with about 0.1 left. We tried getting off the course and people were yelling at us not to stop, which was kind of comical, especially with the looks on some of their faces.

We made our way to the finish line/family area to find Jodi and give her our congrats. Her smile said it all. Deb unfortunately got stuck in traffic but we finally all met up and slowly headed back towards the hotel to shower, grab a bite to eat at California Pizza Kitchen for a post race meal before the girls headed back to Cleveland.

This was HER race. (you can read her recap here). No Cleveland demons, awesome training runs topped off with beating her goal time. Nothing like earlier in the year. I mean who else can say they ran a marathon AND beat their personal best time by almost 2 hours?

Words can not explain how proud I am of Jodi for her day. I was honored to be able to share in her day with her and friends. She did not allow thoughts or people to distract her, she was not going to have a repeat of May. In the hotel afterwords, she tried to act surprised while telling us her next stop was a sub 4 hour marathon. We all knew better, since she made no secret of that desire. But we also know one more thing. When she tries for that sub 4....she will get it!

The inspiration.....Jodi with her medal and a smile

I headed home and pretty much crashed. The past 2 weeks caught up to me both mentally and physically. I am definitely looking forward to this weekend....Where the plan is to do NOTHING at all....LOL

Until next time...

Chicago Spectating Experience - Part 2

2011-10-12T20:55:00.000-04:00

If you missed Part 1 of this blog, click here to read the first part of the weekend...

On the way to mile 16, we met a guy originally from Perth, Australia, who was cheering on his girlfriend for her first marathon and was also with her parents. The reason we started talking was because I was trying to see who looked like they knew what they were doing. Come to find out others were doing the same and he was giving pointers. He's lived in Chicago for over 5 years now and uses the trains to get around and we just chatted about the city. He asked why we were not running (since we obviously were dressed to run a race) and Jodi told him her story, about the marathon next week and about Cleveland. Then we mentioned how we were meeting friends at a certain point to run with them on the course to support them later in the race. Right then the girlfriends father stopped us and immediately asked "you can do that!?!" We explained its probably frowned upon, but plenty of people do it, so it shouldn't be a problem. We chatted some more and it was time to switch trains.....They followed us (or I guess we followed them) and found the next one....

On the next train we also came across a guy who was cheering on his girlfriend. One of the fun parts of these events is seeing all of the signs of support, people dressed up in outfits, silly costumes, etc, etc.....During the conversation he mentioned what he did, which I found hilarious. He made a HUGE posterboard cutout.....of HIS FACE. He wanted to do something different, along with a little embarrassing for his girlfriend. Obviously the looks he got were different as people were running and seeing this huge poster and look down and see him. At least she would not be able to miss him on the course.

We get off the train and make our way to the bridge. We knew we had plenty of time, just not sure how much. We decided to relax and enjoy ourselves and had our bagels that we brought. But instead of walking towards mile 18, we felt, for some reason, just to hang out around mile 16.5 mark. Around that time we get a text alert, showing Missi and Deb have crossed the halfway point. Mixed emotions because we could tell something was off. That just wasn't their pace. I also continued to worry about Amanda, since we still never got the 10k update to our phones and was hoping she was ok. I decided to text her and she responded saying she was at mile 15. That was a relief. We figured we had about 15 minutes from where she was so we got off the grass and found a spot on the side of the road. My original idea/plan/hope from the start was to run 2-3 miles with Deb, Missi and Jodi and then stop and wait for Amanda to run a mile while Jodi finished with the girls. This was based purely on their paces and "goal finish". Well as we all know, marathons don't always go as planned (see my experience...lol) So I suggested to Jodi, how about we both just run to 18 with Amanda. Made perfect sense and now know "why" we felt the need to stay back.

While standing there looking out for Amanda and watching the crowds of people, I notice the guy from Australia. At that moment we see his girlfriend running up and she gives them all hugs. All of a sudden her Dad, who btw was a rather big boy, probably 6'4 300lbs and a knee brace, hops on the course and starts to run with his daughter. I look over to get the attention of her mom and she sees me, smiles and gives me a thumbs up. I don't want to take credit for that, but honestly seeing him on the course made me feel good. I mean, would he have even been able to share that moment with his daughter had they not met us? By the look on his face when he asked if people can jump on the course, I don't think so. Those are the little moments that people remember and while it was probably only 100yds or so, it was still a moment.

I let Amanda know approximately where we were at and we would be on the lookout for her. She had no idea of our plan to jump in with her. We saw her coming and each gave her a hug and asked how she was doing. The look on her face was priceless when we jumped in. It was a combination of "oh cool and where are you guys going" LOL We ended up running through the streets of where she went to college. She looked really strong. Now I must admit throughout the past few weeks that I sorta gave her a hard time about remembering to smile during the race. To the point where she probably wanted me to shut up already. But for that day, she had actually wrote, in black marker on her left forearm...MILE = SMILE to make her remember to smile at each mile marker as suggested. Of course the funny part is during our run she asked when mile 17 was approaching. When I told her we already passed it, she yells out "crap I forgot to smile" LOL. I guess we distracted her. We made it to the mile 18 marker and got off the course to wait for Missi & Deb.

We did some stretching, cheered some runners on and even took pictures of people by the mile 18 marker. (With their camera so they could be in the picture...haha) One thing we did see which I thought was funny was a guy running to the side of the road to meet a group of people cheering him on. He grabbed a beer and chugged it and then finished the other, got some hugs and went on his way. I'm fine with drinking a beer AFTER running. But to run 18 miles, drink then run another 8.2, well kudos to him. I personally may have tossed my cookies....lol

Jodi and I figured we would play it by ear as far as the running goes, depending on how Missi and Deb were feeling. She was scheduled for 8 miles in her training for Columbus next week and my plan was to go as far as 21, depending on how I felt and the fact that the nearest train station was in the area. We had an idea of how things were and where they were at based on the text alerts. Either way, Jodi said she was sticking with Deb, no matter what. We saw them coming and you could tell something was not right. The emotions of the day had gotten the best of them. I just sorta stayed back and observed, since at this point it was about the 3 girls who have trained together all summer. I was just kinda the 4th wheel, so to speak. I could tell it was similar to Cleveland with Jodi, in the sense that Deb was drained. So we all started off running and asked Missi if she wanted to run a bit and that Jodi would stay with Deb for now.

We headed through the streets of Chicago. It was an absolute party. The one thing that amazed me were the amount of people outside supporting the runners. The music was always blaring, people with hoses spraying the runners as they ran by. The atmosphere was incredible. Missi and I chatted a bit, asked each other how we were feeling and I was just trying to make sure she was still having fun, because that is the whole point. Friends and fun and memories. Then again, I think fun is her middle name. The girl doesn't know how to not smile or not enjoy herself through any situation. She must of been reading my mind because at mile 20 she asked if we could stop to let Jodi and Deb catch up, which was fine with me. I wanted to run with all 3 of them. We hopped back on the course shortly after as they were not that far back and made it to mile 21. Missi even gotten to use her "Sweat is just liquid awesome" line with a woman...She laughed at her and the woman's response said "oh my god, imagine if my kids heard me talking like this" We all started walking as this was a water station. At this point Deb was pulling a "Jodi". By that I mean telling Missi to just go finish and run her race. Missi of course wasn't falling for it and they went back and forth how it was not gonna happen. She even said something about "are we going to have to throw down right here or are we going to run". Ok, so normally, I may have been rooting for a cat fight, but there was no pillows and they were in sweaty running gear....Oh wait, my bad, I got off topic, back to the marathon...LOL I wanted so badly to continue, but I know the next train station back to the finish line was over two miles away. I was torn between helping them get to the finish line and trying to be smart so I don't injure myself again since I just got back to running. I regretfully headed to the train station to go to mile 26 to meet them as they finished.

I positioned myself near the final turn and luckily it was a good spot, since they had cops and volunteers ushering people off the course who did not have bib numbers. Makes sense and the majority of the people smiled and left. One or two people actually had to be taken of the course by force, which was kinda comical and few of us commented on the lack of common sense that people have. But it would be easier to find Jodi this way, rather than in a sea of spectators.

The set-up for the end of the race was a disaster. Actually it was worse that that. Just rediculous. Granted, part of our issue was that we had Deb's phone, so we had no way or idea of where to meet up. Normally at races you can meet at the finish line. Not here, they have everything fenced off and closed. We finally made it to an area to wait as runners were coming out and after awhile, found out this wasn't the only exit.

Amanda met up with us since she was at the hotel across the street and hung out for a bit. We talked about her race and how she was feeling. Finally after about at least an hour, we decided it would be best to find our way back to the hotel, since we had the key and said our goodbyes to Amanda. Wouldn't you know it, but after walking 5-10 minutes I get a call from Amanda letting us know she ran into Deb & Missi. Thousands upon thousands of people walking around downtown Chicago and she runs into people she just met the day before....lol We made our way back to the hotel and tried to relax a bit. Missi and Deb needed to catch a plane. It was definately a long day and I didn't even run the darn marathon...I have a newfound respect for those spectating and supporting people during a marathon. I even called Morgan, who has been the queen of spectating the past 6 months due to an injury. Heck she did this in a walking boot. Another shout out to her for being there back in May while we ran Cleveland....Once you get back out there I will return the favor.

Deb & Missi at the Expo with the perfect caption. Lets run TOGETHER

Running Recap

As far as my legs and feet go, they feel pretty good. I was really happy to get through the 4 miles. My only issue was cardio, but I've been a lazy bum, so that was understandable. (That's going to change soon, at least that's the plan...lol) I was still able to go at a decent pace, and talk a little as well.

Jodi ended up doing 9 miles and I think got to experience the other side of the struggles of a marathon. On our drive home, she would randomly thank me again for helping her through Cleveland or ask/tell me how she now realizes what her marathon meant and why it happened and what she learned. As her running "coach" told her, thats called good karma.

Amanda rocked out the marathon with an unofficial time around 4:50. I say unofficial because later in the day we found out why we were not getting text alerts....Her timing chip didn't work and was not recording the time. I know she was really bummed about it, but she started and finished and has her finishers medal, along with some stories/memories. Doesn't matter what a website says, you can't those things away. I can remember a time during her training that she said she wasn't sure if she could do a marathon. Look at you now....***Update*** Amanda received an email from the Chicago marathon today and was told they fixed it and she is now official. Woohooooo

Missi did her thing. This was her 3rd marathon, so she is a seasoned veteran when it comes to this. She was there to run a marathon, to experience the biggest marathon in the country and to be there to support her friend and training partner. Mission accomplished. She may be one of the most positive and inspirational person I have ever met and I'm glad I was able to be there for it.

Deb finished her first attempt at a marathon. It may have not been how it was planned or how she liked, it may have not been perfect, but with all the outside factors going on....Her Mom, getting a cold, first marathon jitters and the warm weather....She did something that most people never do, never want to do or never are able to do. She set a goal and FINISHED a marathon. I do know there will come a time where she will look back and understand the great things she did. She is an inspiration.

The whole "Chicago Experience" brought new meaning to things for me. Those 4 girls, along with countless number of people we met throughout the weekend, without even knowing it, showed me a thing about life. How to live it, how to deal with it and how to learn from it.

Next up is the the Columbus Marathon this weekend. It's Jodi's turn as the tables will be turned on Missi and Deb as they join to support her to cross the finish line.

There are plenty of things you get second chances at, sometimes even third chances.....But you only get one chance at life. Live it, Experience it, Love it....well, at least do your best at it.

Until Next Time.....

Chicago Spectating Experience - Part 1

2011-10-12T20:35:00.000-04:00

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success - Dale Carnegie

This past weekend I had the distinct honor and pleasure to take part in some friends marathons journeys. Jodi, who is in training for the Columbus Marathon the following week joined me to support Missi, Deb and Amanda. You can read her experience here. Missi and Deb are friends that I met back in April and for those that have followed my blog, know they are part of the "Cleveland 10 Miler girls" and are just amazing. I met Amanda for the first time this weekend after following her blog during her training and lives in Illinois. Missi is doing her third marathon. Deb and Amanda are both attempting their first. Deb ran in honor of her Mom, who passed away of cancer last year and ran with Team DetermiNation, raising money for Cancer research. Amanda ran for UPS for Downs in support of Down Syndrome.

Friday

Missi and Deb took an early flight out so they got to experience a fun day. Sightseeing and shopping. Jodi and I decided to drive or well, when we talked about going out to surprise the girls back in May, it was more like I was told I'm driving. LOL Headed up to Cleveland to pick her up bright an early. When I got there her son had a request....that I let Jodi wait for him to get on the bus...What am I going to say? Really? So I gave her husband another chance to go with us and he laughed. I'm guessing a quiet house sounded better.

For the most part, the drive was smooth. Got off an exit to find some food and hopefully a bookstore and there was nothing. Of course the lovely Garmin decided to take us all over the place EXCEPT to a road with an entrance to the highway.

Once we got back on the Interstate, we decided to find a mall at a main exit because I needed to get some books for the girls to finish off their gift bags. After finding everything, we left and realized we were right near Notre Dame. Not intentional but I sorta wanted to sightsee, never been there before. I joked if Jodi wanted to surprise her cousin, who is the starting long kicker for the football team, but we really needed to get to Chicago, especially before rush hour.

We finally made it to ChiTown, a little later than we wanted, but it is what it is. A scenic unplanned tour of a small Indiana town, dogs crossing the interstate, people singing in cars....We had our definitely had our entertainment as we drove. Not to mention numerous requests from someone in the car saying they needed to use the restroom....cough cough, not naming any names, but it was not me :-)

We finally made it to the hotel and hung out until Missi, Deb and her friend Mary Jo came back from their sightseeing of downtown Chicago. We sat and relaxed and talked before heading out on the town for some dinner. Headed down to the Navy Pier and decided on Harry Carry's Bar & Restaurant. It was a great dinner and fun conversation to end a long day.

Deb, Jodi, Me and Mellisa

Saturday

Woke about and got ready for the day. Didn't have an exact plan, so we headed out to get some breakfast at a nice family run place, The West Egg Cafe. Then it was off to the convention center so Deb & Missi could pick up their packets.

The expo was huge. I mean it makes sense, seeing how the Chicago Marathon is the biggest in the U.S. We walked straight to the back to get their shirts and packet. After that we headed over the the DetermiNation booth for Deb to sign-in. Honestly it was pretty emotional watching Deb fill out a sign for her Mom.

Personally I think at this moment, everything hit her. The memories, the first marathon, everything became "real". I'm extremely proud of everything she has done.

We then just headed to explore all the booths. There was no ryhme or reason, since I was just following the girls. It was their weekend. As we turned the corner we saw a sign for Hal Higdon, who is a best selling author and the longest contributor to Runners World magazine than any other writer. Along with books, he also writes training plans for runners, from brand new to experts....I used one of his plans for the Cleveland Marathon and Missi and Deb got theirs from him as well. The best part though was when Missi realized Hal was ACTUALLY sitting there. She was like a teenage girl meeting Justin Bieber for the first time in person. It was really a cute moment.

There were lots of vendors and free samples of things and I'm sure we could have spent hours walking around. While the girls went to look for shirts, Jodi and I went to the Nike Wall, where all 45,000 runners had their names located in alphabetical order. We took some pictures once we found them and went back to see how the girls were.

During this time I had been texting Amanda since she had said she wanted to meet us, so she was nice enough to make her way back to downtown, since she picked up her stuff the day before. I introduced her to Deb & Missi and we decided we would make our way back to the shuttle drop off to find a place to eat since we had not had anything since breakfast. So we hung out, exchanged stories and just relaxed. I guess Missi and Deb were under the impression that we had known Amanda for a long time, so they were quite surprised to find out that that was our first meet up, outside of blogging and emails.

Amanda, Me and Jodi

We decided to walk to the Navy Pier, take some pictures, walk around and just enjoy the great weather and company. Then it was back to the hotel while Amanda took a bus to her car. Of course I had to give her a hard time and remind her to smile and we wished her good luck in the case we could not meet up before the race.

It was getting late and we were all hungry, so just decided on pizza for dinner. Chicago deep dish, only fitting. Still is weird looking at pizza with sauce on the top, but it was really good.

The girls headed to bed, which I suppose was ok since they had plans early in the morning. So Jodi and I decided to head downstairs for a drink and try to figure out a plan of action for the next day. We busted out the "spectator map" and tried to figure out where to go, when to stop, how to get there. Of course I mostly heard "I'm just following you", since Jodi is slightly directionally challenged. heehee But we thought we had a good plan, especially since we had backups just in case. I was excited and nervous and I wasn't even running.

Sunday - Race day

Woke up bright and early. Jodi and I had our own itinerary and really had to just be prepared and not do anything to panic or disrupt Missi & Debs preparation for their day. Memo to self....When you are in a different time zone, change your watch. I may or may not have commented on how it was 6:15 and we needed to get changed also, since they wanted to head down around 6:30. Well, slight problem since it was really only 5:15, so insert foot into mouth. I figured if they were not awake, that at least got the blood flowing...LOL

The start line was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. There was a point where they only let runners through, and we didn't want to make the girls nervous, plus had a few things to get as well as figure out how to get to the train station at some point. So we took some pictures, said our good lucks and hurried on our way and told the girls we would see them at mile 18.

Deb and Missi morning of the race

Granted, we didn't fill them in our plan to see them sooner. Headed off to the store to purchase our train passes, get some bagels and some flowers for the girls. Once we dropped stuff off at the hotel, we headed out and with the help of a friendly couple, made it to the station with ease.

On the train to mile 7 we met a guy...well, a 20 year old kid with an Ironman Finisher T-Shirt and hat on. Seeing how I really want to do one, I had to of course ask him which one he did, how he did, if he liked it, etc, etc. He finished the Wisconsin Ironman last month and was very modest with his answer to how he did....I did "ok". His sister had to jump in and explain that he finished 5th in his age group (18-24yr old) with a time of 10 hrs and 18 minutes, which is inspiring. I checked the site and he ended up 41st overall out of 1,630 men. For those unfamiliar with Ironman times, they give you 17 hours to finish in order to become 'official'. The high end/pro athletes do it in around 9 hrs. So the kid knocked it out of the park. He already was signed up to do Louisville next year and is hoping to qualify for Kona.

We made our way to the mile 7 marker and the train station just happened to be down the road from Wrigley Field, which was pretty cool. The streets were jam packed so we weaved our way in and out, found an open spot and snuck in to watch the runners. Being the really shy person that I am, we struck up a conversation with the people around us. One of the guys next to us was holding a sign that said "Chaffed Nipples are Sexy". The sign was a hit with everyone it seemed as the runners always laughed or made comments. Some even pulled up their shirts to show their bandaids. Unfortunately for me, they were all dudes that did that...LOL

We ended up getting text alerts (from the 10k mark) so we knew the girls were near and when to expect them. Unfortunately we saw them too late and they were on the opposite side of the road. Although Deb did turn her head as we yelled and maybe she thought she was just hearing things...heehee At that point it was back to the train station. We thought about toying with the idea of heading towards the halfway point, but decided it would be a risk, since the main deal and the main purpose was to be there at 18.

But we decided to leave and not do any of it and just drive home...Ok, ok, ok, just kidding...heehee

To be continued....

Back to normal....whatever that means

2011-09-22T19:34:00.000-04:00

Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength. -Unknown

The first attempt at running again was mostly successful. I say mostly because nothing is ever how you want it to be. I was cleared to run two weeks ago and thought it would be a good idea to run a half marathon. Of course despite you thinking an ACTUAL half marathon, I was just going to hop on the course with a friend of mine while she ran. Myself, I could only do around 2 miles, per doctors orders. So I drove up to Cleveland to support Kim at the River Run Half. My plan was to jump in around mile 10 or 11 and see how it goes. Well, this was not a very "spectator friendly" course and the majority of it was run through the metro parks. Great scenery for the runners, but tough for those cheering on to support everyone. I parked at the area high school and took the shuttle that they provided to take people to the finish line. The course started in Berea and was a straight shot north, so my only option was to walk the course backwards (I was walking forwards, since I wanted to see where I was going....come on I know someone chuckled) They told people to stay off the road and stay on the trail, which of course was fine, other than the fact the trail didn't always follow the road. I walked for about 45 minutes and came to a point where other spectators were. I figured this was the best spot and thought I was around the 10-11 mile mark. After chatting it up with a few people and cheering the racers on, I decided to walk down the course. I wasn't sure how close Kim was and I wasn't sure if I was "technically" allowed to just jump in and start running. I waited for a while, checked my watch and kept an eye out for Kim as I gave some support to the runners. Some seemed to be relieved, but I may have let a "keep it up, you're almost done" slip out of my mouth. By the look I got, I knew exactly what it meant, since they still had about 2-3 miles so they were not "almost done"...lol
Finally, I hear a voice yell "Hey Whinnem let's go" Sure enough it was Kim, sooner than I expected. I joined her on the course. Now, a side note, this is also just when one of the "pace cars" passed, so here's me, worried I'm going to get in trouble as we run behind the people in charge of the race. (Guess I need to get used to hopping on courses though at least for the next month) :-) She told me that she has not stopped once and was feeling good. Once I heard that, I felt the need to make sure she didn't stop and I could tell she was checking to make sure I was feeling ok and not dying...LOL I felt really good and ended up running a faster pace than I anticipated. I got to experience Kim's quirky noises that she lets out out of the blue as she runs. The first "whoooooo" caught me off guard and made me laugh. I made it until just before the 13 mile mark and hopped off the course and walked the trail back to the finish. Kim ended up crushing her best time and for the first time ever completed the half without stopping, so I was pretty proud of her.
We waited near the finish line to cheer on her friend Michele who was running the half as part of her marathon training. Speaking of marathon training, as we stood there, Jodi met us after her 20 mile training run. Her, Mellisa and Deb headed out on the trails bright and early for their training runs, but Jodi was the only lucky one to have 20 miles that day....heehee

The after effects....My legs felt pretty good. I obviously can't complain being that I was with people that just ran a half marathon. The days following it were a bit off. I started feeling pain in the area of my leg that I had the stress fracture and all I could think of is "damn, I overdid it". I came to the conclusion that it was mainly due to me running on the "uneven" road of the metro park, which makes sense. Even so, I decided to just back off and just hit the elliptical later in the week. My feet were a bit sore as well, but nothing painful, just needed to do alot of stretching. This past weekend I tested my legs again, not with a run, but 18 holes of golf. Ya, used some muscles that have quiet for awhile, due to my not-so-proper form.

Yesterday marked my LAST DAY for physical therapy as I was discharged. She told me that I'm at a point where I can do everything on my own. She was a bit concerned over the soreness in the bottom of my feet, but thought it would be ok. I actually didn't even realize she was discharging me. Her assistant was giving me ultra sound and mentioned it and I had a blank look on my face. I have to say I have mixed feelings about it. Sure, it's great, but there is also uncertainty. What if the pain comes back, what if it's not healed. Guess the only way to find out is to get back on the horse, so to speak.

This morning was my final follow up with the sports doctor. He was happy to hear about the end of PT and pleased with my updates. He agreed with my assessment of the soreness being due to the uneven road and told me I should be fine. We chatted about his upcoming marathon and he said he is in his taper mode. This weekend will be the first long run under 20 miles in about a month or 2. He's running the Chicago marathon and hoping to break 3 hrs for the first time. I told him I'd join him for a few miles but something tells me I wouldn't keep up. My "plans" as far as what I'd be doing for runs are pretty straight forward. Nothing too long, just enough to build a base up. I figure if I can consistently get up to 3-4 miles in the next few weeks and get my cardio back, that would work for me. Especially considering the races that I will be "joining in"....lol A new pair of shoes are in the future though and possibly orthodics.

So for me it's just getting back out there and being smart, something I'm not known for....so we'll see. :-)

Until next time.....

Loving this no boot thing....sort of

2011-08-19T20:06:00.000-04:00

Are you flirting with your dreams or are you committed? If you are committed, remember this: Anytime you make a commitment to something, it will be tested. People will try to distract you, challenge you, or even try to get you to compromise your values. Sometimes you might even have to stand alone when your following through on your commitments. Finally the question remains...are you flirting or are you committed? - Rex Crain

Week 2 sans boot started off with a weekend trip to Cleveland. Had a seminar meeting with Monavie and they had a speaker come into town. Packed house and alot of information, so it was a pretty cool event.
I also promised Jodi's daughter Kaelynn the next time I was up I would bring popsicles, since that Friday she was getting her tonsils out and would not be able to eat much. So Mr. Dave went over and got sucked into playing Marvel Comics Memory game, Connect 4 and Jr Monopoly. It was still fun despite losing 2 out of the 3....not even on purpose.....I still don't even know how to play Jr Monopoly. Also, much to the frustration of Jodi and the amusement of her husband, I seemed to be the only person to get her kid to drink.
Of course the weekend couldn't be complete without an ice cream stop with the Cleveland 10-Miler girls. Deb, Kim and Mellisa met up (Bridgette ditched us) and it was a great time catching up. Mellisa's son Matt joined in with Jodi and her kids this time. I swear they are all absolutely amazing and they are the most positive upbeat people I've ever met.
During that time I thought it would be funny if I mention the pet shop around the corner, since Jodi's daughter loves to go there (and Jodi...not so much...lol) So we met her husband there and walked around checking out the furry little critters, well, now it was her turn to get me back. They had thought it would be funny if I came with them to some store named Justice. Lets just say an all girls store was not as fun as the pet store....LOL

In the beginning of the week I had my follow-up with the doctor. The last I saw him he told me to make 2 appointments. One for a little over 2 weeks and one for less than a month. If my foot was really bothering me, come back in 2 weeks and he would perform the deep tissue massage, something called Active Release Technique. If it felt fine, cancel and he would see me in a month to discuss running again. Well, things were going well, until for some reason this past weekend it slowly started getting worse. I played it off (like I always do) and figured it was fine and was going to cancel the appointment. Then I remembered something my friend Morgan said (who unfortunately is dealing with a stress fracture recovery as well) and that was to not mess around with the pain and not to hide it. (ok, I'm not quoting her...but I think she was telling me not to be stubborn)
So, I kept the appointment and went for the treatment. It felt like my foot was getting flattened like a pancake. I laughed when the doctor told me after to ice it because "it may not feel so good the next day or so." Gee I wonder why....LOL

Dropped down to only one PT appointment for this week, which not sure is good or bad. But considering I had A.R.T. on Tuesday, it was probably for the better. My regular therapist was on vacation, so someone new stepped in. I'm more than familiar with the routine as far as the exercises, which one's I like, which ones I dislike...(lunges...cough cough) So got on the leg press machine and he tells me the sets. I'm the first to admit that I'm a little cloudy on the amount of sets I do, since it varies depending on pain level and progression, but I thought it was more than normal. Got the leg presses and calf raises complete and as I started to get off the machine he informs me to stay where I'm at.....New exercises.
Oh joy, not only has he added reps, but new things to do. He has me doing some form of "jumps" on the machine, without coming to a stop, then after that, doing single leg pushoffs, simulating a running motion. I was definitely hesitant on both of these, especially at first. He laughed and said don't worry, you won't break the machine, just push. I had to inform him that it wasn't the machine I was worried about breaking.
Each exercise after got an increase of reps (except for the lunges...woohoo) Towards the end he made the comment that he was just following orders and laughed how my PT went on vacation and made him out to be the mean guy making me do all this new stuff and more reps.....
My legs are pretty sore at the moment after all of that this week, but there is a glimmer of hope.....Which is no boot, so while there are times I want to avoid the soreness and go back to the boot, there's only one way to get it stronger..

Next week has another treatment lined up along with PT, so I'll just take it as it goes. One step at a time.

Until Next Time.....

Baby Steps......One foot in front of the other.

2011-08-12T20:10:00.000-04:00

How do you feel today? Actually, it doesn't matter! Never let your feelings take charge over your day. Create you own feelings. Tell your feelings how to feel. Life is a movie. The cameras are rolling. Make sure you are acting like a happy, kind, successful person! - Rex Crain

Today I feel....wait, according to Rex it doesn't matter. :-)
But actually its been a long week. Seems like it was a week of baby steps. Then again, since it was my first week without the boot, it literally WAS a week of baby steps.

For some reason I chose the first day out of the boot to be the one that started off with therapy in the morning. Bright and early I show up without the boot and my therapist is surprised. So my reward..."Let's add lunges" Seriously? I hate those when I'm 100%, now she wants me to do them when I'm hobbling. So first set goes somewhat smoothly but of course it's with my good leg. Now's the test and the first one, I lean forward and sure enough lose my balance and fall over. I look up and shes giggling and tells me to try again. Of course this time she gets down to one knee and holds both her arms out asking "if I want a spot". I thought it was funny and almost fell on purpose to be a smartass. But I was being cautious not wanting to hurt myself.
I seemed to make it through the day pretty well. Nothing major. That is until the next day. I spent the weekend out of the boot, which is great, but it was spent searching for the person who beat my leg with a bat. My calf was screaming and my ankle was tight. Obviously the constant use during the day including stairs took a toll. On Monday my therapist asked how my weekend was and when I made my bat comment, she of course said..."I may have had something to do with that after Friday".....Uh, YA THINK!!!!!
Of course this didn't stop her from adding yet another exercise to her little torture, errrrrrr, I mean list.
By Wednesday, I was feeling better and that meant "more reps" at therapy. Granted I can't complain too much since I realize the whole point is to get me stronger and back to "normal". But why can't they say, "hey, good job, you get a cookie or an ice cream cone or something like that." LOL

As the week went on it slowly progressed and I started to notice a difference. Mainly in the fact that I'm not as "focused" or hesitant with walking, including the stairs. That's where the bad part comes in. Yesterday I found myself going up the stairs, rather swiftly including two at a time, not paying attention. I got to the top of the steps and realized what I did and kind of froze. I moved my leg to make sure it was still there and slowly walked to my desk. Granted I paid for it later, as last night it was pretty sore. Memo to self....still need to be aware of things. Just because I am without the boot doesn't mean I can do everything. It's just hard to "focus" on something as simple as walking.

For those wondering about running, (since I've been asked about 10 times if I've started running yet) still not thinking about it, at least until I see the doctor. I have nothing to run for until October, so just going to keep it simple...Bike and pool and weights and continue my therapy exercises. While I have done no cardio this week, I've gotten a second wind and next week will get into the routine of the gym. I find it funny, when I have the boot on, people see there is something wrong....Now that I have it off, people think I'm fine (boy do they not know me...heehee) I am doing my best not to "limp" because I don't want the questions.

Looking forward to a relaxing weekend as well as a positive week ahead.

Until Next Time.....

To rock the boot or not rock the boot...THAT is the question!

2011-08-04T21:25:00.001-04:00

I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine. - Fritz Perl

For some reason I thought I blogged recently, I guess its been longer than I thought. The last few weeks have had lots of ups and downs (So in other words....LIFE happened...lol)

Physical therapy - They don't mess around. My foot and leg were put right to the test. Bike, leg press, Hip raises, balancing, rubber band exercises, stretching....I've had 4 or 5 appointments and they have been progressing well. Obviously the most enjoyable parts are at the end...Both because its over and because its time for ultrasound. After about 3rd session I mentioned the pain in the bottom of my foot was still there. Some quick investigating, she discovered "the spot" under my foot. In between the captain of the toes (Seinfeld's words, not mine) and the second toe, was some nice inflammation. Hinted that I may have damaged the ligaments. Well she proceeded to dive her fingers pressing down my whole foot starting at the top. When asked if I can hearing that "crunching" sound, my response was a painful, "yes its giving me foam roller flashbacks" She chuckled and kept going. Question....why must they think everything is funny when it comes to pain. Nevermind, probably karma for my sick sense of humor with people.
Actually got a compliment this week as she noticed me walking with less hesitation. Of course that was followed up with...Guess we need to add more reps to each exercise....Oh goody, I can't wait.

Official word from the Doc was Tuesday, the boot comes OFF Friday (as in tomorrow) :-)
I have been slowly getting out of the boot the past 2 weeks, not wearing it when I am home, but I didn't want to rush anything. I have been waiting for my follow up with the doctor. He also agreed with the physical therapist regarding my foot. I more than likely sprained some ligaments in between the bones, causing the main source of swelling, pain and scar tissue. But as he said "no matter what the diagnosis, you jacked it up pretty good" I laughed and said, "guess that's what I get for running the marathon on short training". He asked if I would do another one....and my response was "of course, but I'll be smarter this time". If the pain continues while off the boot over the next week or two, he wanted to explore a deep tissue massage. I mean who doesn't love a massage? Of course as he explained, this would not be a relaxing/enjoyable one and also not be performed by a female... (Please no pain, please no pain...heehee)
As far as running again, well its in the far back part of my head. Not because I don't want to, but I'd like to get through the walking part without pain. The doctor did say that if things progress well over the next 3-4 weeks, maybe then we would discuss an action plan to start running. I laughed to myself because he seemed more eager for me to run than I did. I told him my goal was not to do any races or anything crazy, but I'd like to/need to be able to do 3-4 miles by early October.

Spent some time in Cleveland last weekend and went to a "Christmas in July" party, which was rather interesting. Being around new people with a boot on...I may or may not have heard "why you wearing that boot" once or twice. I thought about making something up, but once you change your story, it gets complicated.
Got to spend some time w the Cleveland 10 miler girls (well half of them at least) I discovered my new favorite place....Menchie's Ice Cream. Ya, all I can say is WOW. I have to go back, since well, there were too many choices.
Also got to play hangman w/an 8 year old. Been awhile since I've played that game....Not sure how many words or phrases we went through, but for the last word I got a long one. I asked what type of word is it and her response...It's an awkward word that hasn't been invented yet. Needless to say I lost. Oh, and the word....squaregulopigus

In my "down time" from being active and working out, I decided to do something outside the box for me. I started a program from Rex Crain called the 90 day life lift. Rex is an amazing public speaker, life coach and just an all around inspirational, positive person. On his site, he put that his mission "is to unearth the true treasure in each and every human heart; to release and unleash the dreamer in us all!"
I've pretty much learned over the past few years alot about myself but I tend to get complacent and stuck at times. I'm not the type of person to brag or boast or even tell people what I'm doing. (like I said, starting the blog was a new one....lol) But in the last few weeks, my eyes have been opened and not always for the good. It makes me wish I could go back in time. Its weird, while I didn't think it would be easy, I didn't think it would be this hard. The emails/challenges, some days I have to take a hard look at who I am or what I've done or who I have become and I don't like it. But only I can do something about it. Only I can change, if that's what I want. I'm tired of being stuck....They say if you stop learning, you stop living. Well, I'm not done living :-)

Should be an exciting weekend....well, not so much exciting, but rather hopeful....Here's to pain free walking. It also will be fun to finally not hear "here comes peg leg" when I am walking down the hall at work.....LOL

Until next time....

Physical Therapy - Reward for running

2011-07-20T20:32:00.000-04:00

By feeling good throughout the day, you become an instrument of peace, and it's through this channel that you eradicate problems. - Dr. Wayne Dyer

I have to laugh, since when people see my boot for the first time, they always ask "What happened?" My answer is "I attempted to run a Marathon, this is my reward." Ok, so maybe I should say I completed a marathon....but we shall leave that discussion for another day. Usually the comment comes with a chuckle from both parties and if they ask, I give them the story of the actual marathon and my training for it.

Well today started another phase of getting out of this lovely boot. Physical Therapy.....I had some mixed emotions. Not because I have grown to love this thing, cuz lets face it, I have not. Can't wait to be able to be normal again. (and by that I mean walking without a black boot, since we all know I'm far from normal) But there is still a considerable amount of pain with the boot off.....and PT means I have to spend more time out of it.

Physical therapy today did not consist of a lot of torture, mainly because some of the things she wanted to do she couldn't since pain was already there. Did the whole conversation of "how did it happen" and "where does it hurt". She poked and prodded and checked my range of motion and flexibility.......(Focus people, this is not a dream I had, I'm talking about PT here...heehee)

She had me walk to the other side of the room and sort of giggled as I was coming back and commented how it was obvious I was favoring one side and carefully placing my right foot down. I tried walking as "correct" as possible despite the pain. She then went over 4 different stretching exercises that I am to do each day to get the range of motion in my ankle and to help my calf, which btw, is now smaller than my left leg...LOL
Finished off with some ultrasound on the bottom of my foot and that was it. Quick and easy....We scheduled our next few appointments and as I was leaving I was noticing my foot really hurt (something it rarely did while the boot was on) She sort of laughed and said, "Ya, I'm sure he's not too happy with me right now"....I said imagine how pissed he is at me, I brought him here. (yes, I was just talking about my leg as he, I know, very funny....insert sarcasm)
Its going to be an interesting next couple of weeks/months. Its not as bad as a few years ago when I was in sick in the hospital for weeks, lost most of my definition in my legs and had to "re-train" to walk again after about 2-3 months. I can at least walk, just with pain....Just need to take it slow, I'm in no hurry....

In the last 2 weeks I got the opportunity to dog sit. Some have joked I should open up my own little service with the amount I do. But when you're single its not like I have a family to look after, so when people go out of town, guess who is first on their list? Well, I have no idea who is, but somehow they all say no and the bottom of the list comes me....heeheee, ok, kidding. First week were 2 Black Labs and a cat....after that were 2 Westies and a cat. Luckily the house with the Labs has a fenced in backyard, that way I do not have to walk them (or should I say, they would not have to walk me with my boot) They are all pretty well behaved....for the most part :-) But what they really are is all spoiled....I almost want to come back in my next life as a dog.

Next PT appointment is Friday,what a way to kick off the weekend. One step closer to running again....well, at least walking again. :-)

Until next time....

Dash for Donation 5k

2011-07-11T21:57:00.000-04:00

Once you run out of excuses you can then become the person you were meant to be. - Unknown

Saturday was the Lifeline of Ohio - Dash for Donation 5k. I had signed up to support Team Noah Man before my injury was diagnosed and despite the boot, I decided to go out and join them in the event, since after all we were just walking. Here is an article from Saturday's Columbus Dispatch featuring the family.
The purpose of the day was to promote organ and tissue donation and transplantation and to encourage Ohioans to join the Ohio Donor Registry and give the “Gift of Life.”

I can honestly say I can't remember the last time I did a 5k. These types of things are more fun with groups of people, since I can run 3 miles anywhere without paying an entry fee.
While we arrived, I headed off to see if I could find a friend of mine, Marc, who had his own team and walking the 5k. I went to college with him and his wife. He had a kidney transplant in 2000 and is currently going through dialysis. It was great seeing them, albeit, for the short time as I went back to find the rest of the team at the "start line".

The morning started off with a Kids Dash with the Mascots. Was pretty neat and surprisingly only saw one kid bite it. But it was cool to watch the mascots form a wall to make sure he didn't get trampled on (at least more than he already had)

Kids Dash with the Mascots

So we start on our way, a nice leisurely stroll around downtown Columbus. Weather was amazing and it was a lot of fun. But, damnnnnn, it felt like I was out there all day. I missed seeing the first mile marker and after about a half hour I didn't think it would ever end. We finally came up to mile 2 and people were asking the old "are we almost there" question. Definitely a lot different than "running" a race. I can also see why its much easier to run than walk. You finish a lot quicker....heehee

Alan, Phil, Mark and I....I guess I got the boot, they got the kids

I got a lot of comments on the boot, which I couldn't really hide. I had 3 strangers take pictures of me along the way. One of them passed me and said that she had to take a picture to send to her husband and show him how lazy he was. The next thanked me for being out there on one good leg.....But the last one was the funniest (for me at least) I heard some giggling and someone mentioning how they couldn't believe I was walking with that on. Well, a few seconds later the woman comes up and told me "she had to take a picture of my boot to send to her friend". I smiled and responded by saying "it's ok I know you were only taking a picture of my butt". Her friend started laughing and she bit her tongue and started blushing. Hey at this point in the morning I needed a chuckle and thanked her for providing it.

We finally made it to the end. It's weird, I definitely had some mini flashbacks from Cleveland. Felt like I was walking for hours. Ended up going to Bob Evans for some brunch and I headed back for an afternoon cat nap. (I think it was deserved)

Myself, Dana, Hillary & Mark close to the finish

184 participants for Team Noah Man....Where's Waldo

I'm definitely feeling the affects of the "race" right now. My lower legs and feet are pretty sore and all I did was walk. LOL But it was fun and for a great cause.
Goal for this week is to figure out when my physical therapy starts.

Until Next Time.....

I actually RAN today!!!!

2011-07-08T21:26:00.000-04:00

In the end everything will be fine, if everything is not fine, then it is not the end! - Keith Cameron Smith

JUST kidding……I mean, I technically did "run", but it was in my head, in a dream. Of course I knew it was a dream since well, I've got this on me. Being injured and wearing a boot hinders the whole running thing. Here is me and my friends daughter, who recently broke her ankle, so the two of us hopped around her brothers soccer game while I was in Cleveland hanging out.

Meaghan and I

Well it’s been awhile…..for a lot of things. 48 days since I have laced up the shoes and ran. 24 days actually wearing this stylish black boot on my leg. Been 21 days since I last blogged and I've only sporadically checked others, which bums me out since I've learned I enjoy it. Has been about the same time since I have done anything productive, as far as activity wise and frustrates me. Part of me can’t get focused and other part tries to make excuses I suppose.

I have managed to keep myself busy and like everyone, looks back and thinks….Man, where did the time go.

****

I spent 2 weekends in Cleveland volunteering at the area prison. A friend of mines mom founded a non profit group called Wings Ministry.

The goal of the Wings Ministry is to connect spouses, caregivers and children of inmates with the nurturing and supporting relationships of Christian people in local churches. (ok, so I copied that from the site...lol)

It's really an eye opening experience. We start out with games with the inmates and their children/families until everyone arrives and gets settled in. There are songs from the prison band and interaction from everyone. After that they act out a story from the bible. Everyone participates, which is one of the "rules" So the kids and families and volunteers get picked from the crowd and dress up for the story. Once that is complete, the director speaks with the families while the kids and their dads go to the tables that are set apart so they can spend some "arts and crafts" time. They can make cards together, decorate cookies, make necklaces out of cheerios and pretzels. This is that part I enjoy, just watching them interact and seeing the joy in their eyes, doing something so simple. Once that is finished we get into groups and have pizza and cookies, with at least one volunteer per table. Spending time talking, answering questions and relaxing. After dinner is cleared up we grab a bag and everyone gives one person at the table a new "outfit". Creativity, with only newspaper, ribbon, paper plates and odds and ends. It sounds corny, but its pretty fun.

Watching them leave is the hardest part. Not a dry eye in the place. In a way its hard to actually "explain" everything that goes on, some of which almost has to be experienced I guess. (if anyone gets the chance, come check it out) Here is the website:

Was able to spend some time with most of the Cleveland 10 Miler girls, which was awesome. It was sort of a way to celebrate some birthdays that happened in the past few weeks, mine being one of them…..I’m not a big birthday person, at least when it comes to me. I’m all about everyone else’s and yes, that may be hypocritical, but that’s life…heehee Heck, if it were not for facebook I’m not sure how many people would have known when mine was anyway. But that’s fine, as I have been told, we all need our special day. The less time the spotlight is shining, the better. Dinner with friends is perfectly fine way to celebrate.

Mellisa, Me, Deb, Kim and Nell

****

I've spent the last week animal/housesitting. Watching animals can be fun and frustrating all at the same time. Cats, pretty easy, low maintenance. Dogs, they are like kids. Need to schedule everything around them. Everywhere in the house you go, they go. Plus they have yet to learn to speak English. I mean, hellooooo, isn't that what Rosetta Stone is for, to learn to speak new languages? Have they not come out with a dog version? LOL

Luckily my friends have a back yard, so I can let them outside rather than walk them around the neighborhood, since I'm pretty sure one of the labs would drag me around. But it's like a mini vacation. Of course, it's still in Ohio, I still have to go to work, just a different place to sleep. Ok, never mind, not like a vacation.

****

I had a follow up with the Doctor this week. I didn’t expect the worst, but also knew this little thing called pain was still there when I am without the boot, so nothing he said really shocked me. The boot stays on….for now. He has a plan. He wants me to slowly work my way out of the boot, and no, that doesn’t mean I attempt to take it on or off like an 80-yr old w arthritis. Starting next week, each day I take time without the boot, working my way up to a full day. Both the stress fracture in the right leg and the stress reaction in the left leg were tender but the pain when he poked around was minimal. The foot however hurts like H E double hockey sticks….(That would be ‘hell’ for you non spellers) J

He is starting me on physical therapy to stretch and strengthen the muscles in and around the foot. I also need to get some sort of orthopedics or special padding for my shoes, especially if I am going without the boot.

So no plans of training, in regards to running. But I can still daydream and look ahead. I may or may not search the sights to find any cool half marathons or triathlons when I get bored.

****

Speaking of running, I will be participating in a 5k tomorrow. The Lifeline of Ohio Dash for Donation. I signed up before I was injured and this little thing won't stop me. Now before you get any crazy ideas of yelling at me, I am NOT running. I will however be walking (or hobbling, however you classify it)

Worst case it was brought up that they would get me a wheelchair and my buddy would push me the whole way along with his kids. Told them I would pass on the wheelchair, as funny as that would be. It's for a good cause and with some good friends.

Here is an article about the family and the race.

****

I’m also using my “down time” towards reading. I guess it helps when there is nothing but crap on to watch on TV, but I feel more productive this way. I was about to start another Myles Monroe book and I’m itching to read Rex Crain’s new book, but I came across another book and started reading “The Amazing Results of Positive Thinking” by “Norman Vincent Peale“ It’s actually a great book so far and highly recommend it.

Yes, it sucks being injured. Yes, it sucks wearing this boot. But hey, it could be a lot worse. It could be broke and have to be on crutches....It could be permanent. The world does not stop, so you have to adjust. I know it will be awhile before I am able to run again, but it’s all good. Doesn’t stop me from planning my next race (which yes, I have looked into) Granted, another marathon is not in my foreseeable future. If someone put a gun to my head and asked when that would be, I would have to say 2013 at the earliest. There’s always fun races as well as triathlons that are ahead before that.

I’ve at least gotten a plan of sorts, for a few things. While it still sucks to drive by seeing everyone run, I don’t “have” to run. I’ve found that I do actually enjoy it though, so coming from a swimmer, its weird to say.

Life doesn’t always go according to plan…..But that’s ok. You need something to rock the boat every now and then.

Until next time…….

Side Note...Special thanks to my friend Kim who FORCED me to blog today. Yes that's right, made me....and yes, by force, I mean suggest that just because I am not running doesn't mean I should stop blogging. My blog was a way to hold me accountable during marathon training, as well as get me out of my comfort zone. So since I currently have no race to look forward to, I can still hang out "outside of my comfort zone" and write about others things (as boring as it may be) :-)

Of course she also threatened to physically harm my other leg if....ok, ok, ok, I'm just playin around. Heehee thanks

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it...

2011-06-16T20:28:00.000-04:00

Difficulties are meant to rouse you, not discourage you. The human spirit is meant to grow stronger by conflict. Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records. Today let your test become a testimony and your pain become your power! Invite adversity in. Always remember....A wounded deer leaps the highest. - Rex Crain

The phrase “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is used a lot and growing up I heard it playing sports. (Yes, for you sticklers out there, I know “ain’t” is not a word…lol)

Whether it was playing basketball and shooting the ball the "correct" way, or having the "correct" stance in baseball while in the batters box. If it worked, I saw no reason to mess with it, despite a few coaches thinking otherwise. Maybe that’s why at a certain point in High School I stopped playing those sports. I didn’t want to “fix it”. (or maybe I just wasn’t any good…haha) Same went with swimming. I went with what worked for me, but realized in college I couldn’t do that all the time. When the coach said to do it this way, it was a rough adjustment, since what I was doing WAS actually working, just not fast enough. So if I wanted to get better, I had to “fix it”. Of course it would usually work, but thats another story.

When it comes to body parts….you gotta fix it whether it's broke or not. I had my appointment with the sports doctor last week and the X-Rays were clean, despite the pain. So this week I had my bone scan. Went to the hospital to the Nuclear Medicine department for my test. First off, as I joked on facebook earlier in the week, I have never heard of “Nuclear Medicine” being a part of the hospital. I meant, I always figured nuclear was something that blows up in a bomb….hey, as those that know me, I never CLAIM to be smart. :-)

I arrive on time and as I’m sitting with the front desk person going over information she informs me that I’m going to head to the back and they take some pictures and inject some dye in me. Then I am to come back in 3 hours for the bone scan. Well, the look on my face and the fact I said, “I’m sorry, what was that” seemed to confuse her.

Receptionist - Did you not know that?

Me - Gee, what part of my facial expression or comment gave it away.

Receptionist - (after giggling at my comment) They should have told you when you made the appointment…Do you want to reschedule?

I laughed and said that was fine. Granted it was a bit annoying, but it made it worse that that day may have been the busiest at work for me. At this point I needed to know what was going on with my body and delaying would just drag things out, as well as frustrate me more than I already was.

As most things usually do, it all worked out ok (Hence the reason I find it silly to stress out over things you can't control)

Wednesday arrives and I have my follow-up with the sports doctor to find out if I won the lottery (ok, so maybe just for the results of the tests). He comes in smiling asking how I am, and of course in my usual sarcastic self tell him that I’m great, just figured I stop by because I’m bored…lol

He takes out the chart and the first thing he says to me is “well, you have a lot of things going on here.”

Going into this, I was obviously hoping nothing would be wrong. But as each day passed, the pain kept getting worse and worse. It was annoying to walk and I also was failing miserably in “hiding” my limp. The past week more and more people were noticing and asking what happened, what's wrong, why you limping...

Now in the same sense, while I hoped nothing was wrong, I was at the point where I sorta hoped he didn’t say I was fine, because obviously I’m not. (no comments from the peanut gallery from those of you rolling your eyes at that one…lol)

Started with the foot…..good news, there is no stress fracture that showed up. I immediately put my head down and said that’s not really good news. He actually said he understood what I meant. But for the bottom front of my front and top side of my foot, I have something called metatarsalgia, which is severe bruising of the bones. Then he threw me a curveball. I also have a stress fracture in my lower leg above my ankle, which confused me, since I really didn’t have any pain there. That is, until he started poking around to feel….ya, funnnnn. Right leg completed and said that it will need a boot and to stay off of it until further notice.

And just for fun, to throw a little twist in….now to the left leg. I knew I had been having some issues w/my leg giving out on me recently and I thought it was my LCL, but my ligaments seemed fine. He said that I have a stress reaction in my fibula, below the knee. Seems a stress reaction is not a fracture, but a precursor to one. I guess meaning that if my stubborn self kept running, it probably would have turned into a fracture. Of course I had no plans to run, since it hurt just to walk. Now lets be honest here, if I had no pain walking and just had a bit while running, I would have kept going….heehee I mean I did I have pain at times even before the marathon but still went through with that. He did actually ask if I had any plans to run, which I thought he was trying to be funny. (For those of you wondering....the answer to that question is a hellll no)

So here is my new fashion attire.

I’m going to be sporting this for awhile. It even has the Dee Brown "Pump it Up" part...Not sure it would make me able to dunk a basketball though...lol.....I go back in 3 weeks for another follow up. If my left leg gets worse, he is leaning towards adding a boot to that leg as well. JUST DANDY, maybe I should grab some bunny ears, a big red nose and a long tail so I stick out even more. Have I mentioned I don’t like attention??? But as my friend Kim mentioned to me….The spotlight makes me shine. (Not sure I believe her) Well, a lot of times my redheaded fair skinned self just likes to stay in the shade. Teehee

I'm not alone and have had permission to vent at times. One of the most cheerful and upbeat people I have ever met, Morgan, has a stress fracture which kept her out of running the Cleveland Marathon sent me a message and said she heard that we're twins now. I told her I wanted to be just like her. Unfortunately she has been a trooper for 14 weeks now....Hey Morgan, since your's is your left leg, do you want mine so you can have a matching set? :-)

Of course at this point I may start to carry flyers around with me, that way when someone comes up to me and says “Oh my, what happened to you?”….I could give them the flyer and save both of us the time….hahaha Ok, that didn’t mean to come off as rude. The amount of people that have asked that is rather funny actually. A lot of it is my fault since I spent so much time trying to hide the limp people didn’t see that much wrong with me over the last few weeks. Heck, alot of people didn't even know I ran a marathon.

I'm kind of going with the flow for now. I make jokes to make light of everything and have heard a few people tell me I'm awfully chipper for having this thing on. Well, first off, it could be alot worse, it's only a boot. Granted, it's annoying, but I'll live. Second, I think having the past 3 weeks to "deal with it" has helped soften the blow since I sorta expected it. Ya, it sucks that I won't be able to run just as the weather gets nice along with having the chance to run with some really great friends. But I'll get over it, I always do, life goes on. I'm used to it.

Right now I’m allowed to swim, as long as I don't push off the walls. Luckily I’m like a fish out of water. I just need to get back into the mindset I had, since I have not done anything as far as working out in about 2 weeks so I don't want to fall into the "lazy stage". I don’t specifically have anything to “look forward to” as far as a specific event, and possibly won’t do another event in 2011.

There's always next year...lol Ok, so it's really not that bad. Just got thrown a curveball by the man upstairs and how it goes for the next few months is how I swing at the curve. I can sulk and whine....and swing and miss....or figure out a way to go with it and work around da boot....and hit it out of the park.

Until Next Time…

The need for more....

2011-06-06T20:39:00.000-04:00

"Let go of your need to have more. When you stop needing more of everything, more of what you desire seems to arrive in your life. Since you're detached from the need for it, you find it easier to pass it along to others, because you realize how little you need in order to be satisfied and at peace." - Dr. Wayne Dyer

So this won't necessarily be about me and running, since well, there has been none of that lately. I do however have an appointment in the morning with a sports doctor at Max Sports Medicine, so we shall see what bad news he has in store for me. (Ok, Ok, I know, I know...positive thoughts...but as each days goes, the pain worsens and the optimism seeps away.)

Reading a friends blog got me thinking and it's only fitting that I saw this quote today from Wayne Dyer. My friend Beau is a teacher and recently blogged about some stories from his first year teaching in the "suburbs" after years of teaching in the "ghetto" (not sure if that is politically correct or not or even the proper term, but let's just say it's not somewhere you want to hang out at night). Now there is a difference in school systems between inner city and the suburbs, but the goal is still the same. Reach out to as many kids as you can and help them learn and grow. Beau is the type of person who wants to get to everyone, reach everyone and help them all. If even one fails, I think he looks on it as a failure in himself. I have always mentioned to him to look for the positives, even as small as they may be. Sure, it would be great to get the whole class to "get it". But rather than be disappointed when the whole class doesn't, be proud in the few that get it. Revel in that small success....Why let the accomplishment of what you just did, be ruined in wanting more.
Now granted I am not a teacher (unless a year of majoring in elementary education in college and a semester partial student teaching counts, which of course it doesn't...lol), but as a teacher your success is not based on how many A's your kids get. In my opinion success is about touching someones mind and making a difference in their lives. Doesn't have to be everyone, even one kid would be a "success".

In my ramblings, I guess where I am going is that we always seem to want more. But why is that? More success, more money, more toys, more free time, more wins for our sports teams. Sometimes people don't take the time to step back and appreciate what they have accomplished or what they have.
People get success and immediately they want more. Is it because of egos? Is it selfish? People get money and immediately want more. Is it greed? People get free time and immediately want more. Rather than enjoy the time they just had, they tend to forget about it and quickly just wish for more. Even with sports teams. Our favorite team wins a game, but rather than enjoy the victory, the thinking goes to the next game and having to win that or it won't be good enough. The season ends and rather than look at the positive, people tend to wish they did better.
I'm not trying to sound hypocritical. Don't get me wrong, wanting more is good. I'm not saying to just settle and be happy....We always need to push ourselves, set a goal to strive for. We need to always push ourselves to learn and grow as a person. Let's face it, if you aren't growing, you are not living....We need to learn to not settle, something I have trouble doing myself.
BUT along the way we need to realize that this IS our only chance at this thing called life and in order to enjoy it, we need to avoid getting caught up in "always" wanting more and step back and appreciate what you have once you get it. Sometimes realizing that makes all those little annoyances that go on in our life seem irrelevant.

Live life, love life....Once it's over, what you have doesn't really matter...It's not about you, but about the lives you've touched.

Until next time....

May in Review...

2011-06-01T21:23:00.000-04:00

There is real power in being thankful and appreciative. When you express appreciation, not only does it empower the people who hear your words, but it also releases joy inside of you. You'll find whatever you will praise, you will raise! Who will you empower & raise today with your words? - Rex Crain

May has come and gone which comes with mixed emotions. Since January, the focus has always been on the marathon. Making it there, then finishing. Now that the calendar has turned to June, there is alot of "what's next" and uncertainty. Next was supposed to be a Triathlon, but that is on hold.
Since this is my first "Month in Review" that I decided to do this year, I wasn't sure how to go about it. Didn't want to just copy anyone elses, although I thought about it....lol

The first week ended with the Cap City Half Marathon w/Marla, which was the final test. Pass it and be clear to attempt the marathon. Fail and well, that thought was being blocked out....but as you can read here, I thankfully passed.

Week Two was what we had been planning for months. The Cleveland Marathon....You can read about it here (for those that have not, be careful it's long and may put you to sleep....lol) While the day did not go as planned, the most important part was finishing. I also have to remember that up until May 15th, I had NEVER run more than 13.1 miles at once. I also had never run more than 25 miles in a week, so being able to "whip through" 26.2 miles in one day was pretty cool and I'm kinda proud of it. Heck the day was still awesome, the weekend was awesome. I was able to meet alot of new people, put some faces to some names. And in the end I was able to help a great friend of mine accomplish what she missed out on last year....The finish line.

Week Three was recovery week. There were no plans to run and lets be honest, if you had told me at the beginning of the month that I'd be able to WALK this week, I would have been estatic. Other than soreness, I felt fine and ended the week with an 8 mile run in Antrim Park. I really wondered if it could be that good. Well, there was obviously no wood around when I thought that, so I could not knock on any....

Final week was realization week. I realized that the pain would not go away. It was supposed to be a bruise. Granted I have to be honest, I knew I had some minor things (or major but I was not letting it stop me, or tell anyone) during the final weeks. Later in the week, the leg started to give out every so often, partially because I was favoring that side. So now I'm trying to figure out how to walk on my hands, since both limbs are not cooperating. Week 3 I followed the "post race" program and rested. Week 4 I couldn't just sit around so I got back in the pool. Got a mile in one day, 2 miles the next time and 3 miles yesterday. At least I don't feel completely useless. Although I did have to focus on the turns, since pushing off was not fun...LOL...

But the month is over....Winter and spring have come and gone.....

And for you Cleveland 10 miler girls, don't think I didn't notice that we were not able to run together all month....hmmmm, how am I supposed to enjoy running without your smiling faces, awesome personalities and little hotties to run with... :-).

For now it's a wait and see approach. I probably need to suck it up and see a doctor, since it is starting to hurt just to walk. I spoke with a friend of mine who runs and bikes alot and has had his fair share of injuries. He gave me advice on his thoughts and his "diagnosis". He's NOT a doctor, but he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last weekend, so his info is good. (ok, someone I know reading this giggled)
But I know my stubborn self has to do something about it. I have ditched my plans to do a triathlon in 2 weeks, but still hoping to do 1 or 2 by the end of the year. I guess the injury gives me time to focus on myself, becoming a better person.
So for awhile, rather than spending my time on the trails (since the weather FINALLY gets nice out), I'll be in a pool. Nothing wrong with that though, luckily the pool is my first love. Heehee

After finishing "The Long Run", I need to start on my next book. Either a Myles Monroe, Rex Crain, John Mason or Rex Crain book...will have to see. Anyone have any suggestions on an inspirtational or uplifting or spiritual book??

No matter what happens....I'm learning to be appreciative for the things I have in my life and the people that I get to share it with....It's been a rough past few days but no matter what I'm thankful that I went through it all. It's not about me, but about those whose life you are able to touch.

Until Next Time.....

The week after.....What's next

2011-05-23T19:09:00.002-04:00

True genius is the ability to make everything easy. Life is actually easy, but we as humans make it hard. A stroll in the park, a laugh with some friends, a black dress, white pearls, a black suite and white tie. Simplicity, carried to an extreme, becomes elegance! - Rex Crain

They say this is one of the hardest parts. Yes, the training is tough, yes the actually 26.2 is tough, but what is toughest I think is the "after" part. What to do next. All of a sudden there is this uncertainty. You almost feel that there is no purpose, nothing to strive for. Because after the race is done the only thing you have left is to "rest and recover" That's all I heard. Doctor, friends, etc, etc....Hydrate, eat, rest and repeat. Its like I'm in a shampoo commercial...All you have to do is just wash, rinse and repeat. Well, there's only so much of that I can do. (Not the shampoo part, since well, I shave my head...lol). So all that is left to do is just think and well, to be honest, I already do plenty of that on my own, I don't need more time to ponder.

This past week flew by a lot faster than normal. The fact that I was busy at work helped. Not sure how much rest I got, although there was no gym time....

Saturday I decided to test out the wheels and go for a run. It was a great morning to run and it seemed most of Columbus agreed. Runners and bikers were all over the bike paths in Antrim. I realized on my way there that I forgot my water, but knew I should be fine since the runners group usually puts water along the path and this was the case this time as well.

My plan was to take it easy, head out and see how I felt. Then either turn around at mile 3 or keep trucking along to mile 4. Decided to go to 4 and turn around. The weather was just too nice and more importantly my body was responding well. It's weird because I joked that I would be on crutches for a week after the marathon and here I am running. Crazy, yet satisfying. Made it back to the start and to my surprise there was a group gathered along the deck passing out free ice cream. I mean, who passes up free ice cream. I did at least get some water and stretched before succumbing to my temptations. :-)

Later that night I headed to the Clippers game and I think the combination of the run and all that walking took a toll on my feet/legs and they felt a bit sore. It's all good though, nothing a little rest and ice can't cure (at least that's what I'm telling myself...heehee)

This morning I got the urge to get back in the pool. For the time being, I'm going to be safe and only run when I feel right, so to get other forms of cardio in, the pool comes a calling. Nice quick and easy 1 mile swim. Thought about doing another mile, but talked myself out of it....LOL

For now I'm still unsure what the immediate future holds.....I've been told, I'm still being noncommittal on my next step. Yes, I am....I'd love to get back out there and do another marathon. I accomplished my goal of finishing my first, now I want to run one....start to finish....Which of course would be Columbus in October. But I also need to work on my weight, need to focus on my health and need to look at other things going on in my life. As well as map out my long term Ironman goal. (2 years as of now if I had to decide)

My friend Jodi has decided to get back out there and run the full marathon in Columbus, and worst case is I get to be at the finish line to watch her get her new goal. Jenn and Marla are set to run the Half, along with a few other friends I know. The Cleveland 10 miler girls are too good to run Columbus however......I'm teasin, I'm teasin....Deb will be attempting her first full marathon in Chicago a week earlier w/Mellisa by her side and I will be rooting them on.

No matter what happens, I know the past 6 months or so have changed my life for the better....so moving forward just makes sense....

Until next time......

Cleveland Marathon - The Battle Between Disappointment in Yourself and Being Proud of Someone Else

2011-05-19T02:26:00.000-04:00

Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere of a high aim the very roughness stimulates the climber to steadier steps, till the legend, over steep ways to the stars, fulfills itself. – W.C. Doane

I really was not sure how I wanted to go about writing my experience for the first ever attempt at a full marathon. There were points while I was running where I didn’t want to write anything, there were points where I felt there was so much to say and there were points where I understood people were interested (for some reason) in hearing about the day…..But I came to realize while what happened was an accomplishment, for all 20,000 or so that were involved, the day was not about me. It was about a great friend of mine…...I was just along for the ride, 26.2 miles to be exact.

Before I start, for those reading I need to clarify the story for those that don’t know Jodi. Jodi and I know each other back from our college days at Ashland . She ran her very first marathon last year in Cleveland . She had originally asked me to run with her, but I had just started back into running and completed my first half marathon and well, after finishing, could not run for almost 2 months. There was no way. She ran it with her cousin and to make a long story short, she collapsed at mile 25.52 exactly and ended up in the hospital. (Yes for anyone curious that would be 0.68 away, so you can imagine her frustration) The reason she knew the exact mile marker was because the bill from the ambulance had to mark where they picked her up. Jodi however had NO memory of it and though she went down at mile 22. She had hyponatremia. She was devastated to say the least, but she picked herself back up and after a few weeks off started back up again….She convinced me to run this time and I said I would try. She had also come down to pace me earlier this year and got me to break 2 hours in the half marathon, so the least I could do was help her finish her first marathon. There were other reasons as well, which will be explained shortly.

Race day comes early – Wake up call 4:30am

We all get ready, grab a quick bite to eat and drink, make sure we have everything and head downstairs. Jodi had made signs for both Jenn and I with our names on them and our favorite quotes (without our knowledge, very thoughtful) She had made one for herself as well, but she put that on the front of her shirt, while we put ours on our back. Jodi already had something on her back. She printed up something saying ‘2010 finish line’ and a picture of her in the hospital and below it, ‘2011 finish line’….”26.2 miles ahead”.

Jodi's back bib for the race

While getting ready I notice Jodi quickly leave the room. This seemed odd so I went to check on her. I had thought she had an upset stomach but it turns out she was having a panic attack. The nerves were getting to her and the thoughts of last year were creeping in. Not that I was expecting it, but all week she was the calm one, she seemed to have no worries, while Jenn and I were the one’s of uncertainty. Jodi’s response was always, “hey, I’ve done all this before, it’s the finishing part for me”. While in the hallway a guy from Canada was waiting for the elevator and I thinking chatting with him help calm her down. On a side note, it seems every random person I’m meeting at this race is Canadian, not that there is anything wrong with that….LOL

We made plans to meet Morgan in the lobby with her friends at 6am.

I met "Spike", Morgan's boyfriend who just completed the Boston Marathon and all of the other girls. Two of them mentioned they had just run a marathon the week before. My only thoughts were that I want to be able to WALK the week after. But that was impressive. Took pictures and started to head off down to the Browns Stadium for the start of the race. That’s when I look and see Jodi bent over in pain. Out of nowhere her heart started racing. It was then that I realized the nerves hitting and I knew then it was more important to me than ever that I help her stay strong. She got settled down and we left. The start line was only a ½ mile away and there was no rain in sight, an awesome sign. Of course we mingled with the crowd, shocker I know. While at a crosswalk we met a guy who needed safety pins and Jodi graciously gave one of hers. Chatted as we got closer to the stadium about Ohio and different races we have done. We were about 20 minutes to the start arriving in the packed crowd and I need to use the restroom, not what I planned. The look on Jodi’s face was pure worry when I told her I had to head into the stadium and said to me that I better make it back. I told her it should be no problem and promised I would be there…..or so I thought. Everyone and their mother was up there, lines everywhere. I tried to wait but knew if I waited any longer I more than likely would have missed the start……Failed

The start – Browns Stadium

I headed back down to find the 4:15 pace group. I saw the sign and also saw Jodi and Bill’s head pop up looking through the crowd of people. While they saw me, there was a small problem. No one was going anywhere. Come to find out, a lot of those people were spectators, not even letting runners get into the corrals. I started to get worried, not for me, but for Jodi. The plan was to stick with the 4:15 pace group, run with them and not have to worry about anything. Not have to worry about speed or time. The last thing I wanted was for her to add something to her plate. Well, I failed miserably as the gun went off and the sea of people started to move. I never felt so bad in my life.

Mile 1-3: I finally crossed the start line and weaved in and around people to catch up with the group. The thought of disappointment ran through my head and I quickly realized that things were not going to go as planned so I would have to adjust. I hear Jodi yelling my name and I caught up with her. She had fallen back from Bill and the pace group and was running with Jenn. Then we headed to make up distance with the group, keeping them in sight. The first mile went pretty smooth, despite it being mostly uphill. The second mile I could sense something was not right. I may have apologized once or twice for not being at the start. She starts taking off her clothes, saying she was too hot, so off went the long sleeve. Once she finally got adjusted, I still felt bad and kept feeling as if me not being there messed with "the plan" that was laid out.

Around this time the ‘Cleveland 10 Miler’ girls ran by us. Mellisa, Deb, Kim and their friend Nell all were running the Half, while Bridgett was cheering everyone on throughout the course. Their attitudes and smiles are incredible and are a great group of girls. I thought they were long gone and was bummed that we could not meet up before the race. I also had hoped and planned to be with them at the start line and have them run with us, since their pace was similar to our expected pace. I gotta be honest, them showing up really helped, me at least, because it put me back into fun mode, something I would need for this whole thing. Mellisa and Deb were trying for a PR so they headed off. We saw Kim and Nell on the course a few times early on. Kim I think was just happy to run and just finish after dealing with injury issues over the last few months. At one point she snuck up behind us and mentioned how “it’s quite rude for people to walk in the middle of the road during the race”. Knowing it was her voice, I got a chuckle but I was not quick enough to give her a smartass comment back to her.

Mile 4-6: Jodi had mentioned that she had to go to the bathroom. Looking through the crowd my main focus was finding a bathroom since I knew the port-o-pots on the course were not for another mile or so and she was feeling worse. I spotted a Burger King, as did a few other people and told her to go there. I waited outside for awhile and figured now was as good of time as ever and might as well go too since it just hit me I wasn’t able to earlier...lol Gathered ourselves in the parking lot and she asked if I was mad at her. Here I am disappointed and feeling bad for the things going on and she starts being silly like asking if I’m mad. I just laughed and we headed onto the course. At this point, I know there was another thing that may have been bothering her, which was not something I had hoped. We set off running and made it about a half mile and she just stopped and for some reason could not get her breathing down....I got her calmed down and we walked for a bit. We saw the 4:45 pace group and I could tell she saw that and we started to run. That lasted for a minute or two and we alternated running and walking. We then saw the 5:00 pace group and she immediately yelled "oh, hell no" and I could tell she got some spunk back and wanted to stay with them. That last for about 2 minutes and at this point, something in me realized that she was starting to clock out and thinking of calling it a day. She was still in "finish time" mode and now all I wanted was to get her into "finish" mode.

Mile 7: May have been a tough one. She had battled issues for the last few miles, anxiety attacks, a few tears, stomach problems, realizing a respectable marathon time let alone our goal time was lost, along with one or two new things, which I sort of knew at this point what they were…..but this time she lost it. We stepped to the side of the road and she hugged me and cried and let it all out for what seemed like an eternity. People would stop and give encouragement or ask if we needed anything. She had made the comment that she didn’t know if she could continue but that wasn’t good enough for me.

I was not going to let her quit….There were a lot of reasons that I felt HAD to make sure that she crossed the finish line.

The obvious was so we could set out and finish what we started, which was to FINISH the marathon, no brainer and it’s what everyone who does this wants. Yes, our goal time would have been nice, but at this point on the course, who cares about time. But she had other obstacles than just your average runner because of last year….Another reason was that she needed to battle those “demons” inside of her of her collapsing last year. To do what she did, on the same course, her next time attempting a marathon was nothing short of amazing. By finishing, she would have won the battle which she needed to get her to the next step, which I know for her is breaking 4 hours in the marathon….Only after finishing one first. There were so many of her friends and family and acquaintances that I’m sure were worried and wondering. Most knew she would do great, since they know what type of runner she is.

But most importantly…….I was not going to have her daughter be devastated again with having to see her mom in the hospital after last year. After that happened she looked at her and begged her to never run a marathon again. So I truly felt if it happened again (her not finishing) she may have never run again because of her daughters fears. Jodi is too good of a runner and loves it too much that I was sure not going to be the reason that could happen. Especially if I could do something about it. There was obviously only so much I could do. But in my mind, she was finishing…..

At this point she asked that I call her husband Jason and let him know that we were not going to finish when we thought we would, not even close. I grabbed my phone from the belt and as I open it up I notice a few texts. Two of them were from Jodi. These were from before the race while I was in the stadium. “Are you coming” and “You are starting to freak me out.” At this point I feel even worse and the guilt was coming back since she did not mention she called and now it’s just more what ifs. I call Jason and as the phone is ringing she also says, “Oh and tell him I’m fine”. Ya, because everyone always makes random phone calls to chit chat while running a marathon. I left a message and put my phone back in my belt loop. I never EVER run with my phone, but something told me I should and I guess I now know why.

Miles 8-9: Shortly after the mile 7 meltdown during a point of walking, Jodi said to me the 7 words that may have been the funniest to me….”You can go ahead if you want”…..4 words came out of my mouth pretty quickly (in a sarcastic and funny tone) ummmh, ya, f**k you….I was laughing when I said it and it froze her up and got her to smile….Told her nice try , gave her a hug and said that because she pulled that stunt, we’re now going to run. She gave me the “I deserved that look” and off we went.

Mile 10-13: This is what I like to call the entertainment part of our race. Not because of the bands playing but because of the interactions, so to speak, with people. It started with Jodi giving the crowd another free show, this time taking her clothes off so she can put the long sleeve back on, since it was getting cold. She got some funny looks probably wondering why this girl is undressing in the middle of the road, but still funny. We then made our way across a bridge towards downtown. I notice an older woman wearing a red Canada shirt and I see her asking people things as they pass her. As we approach, she asks “Do you know what the name of this bridge is?” Before I can respond Jodi barks out “HELL”. The woman didn’t know how to respond to that and I said I’m not sure, but it may be called Ontario . The woman quickly says, “No, that is where I am from and THAT is hell”. Thought it was pretty funny and glad she had a sense of humor. I later (as in after the race) find out it was the Lorain/Carnegie Bridge.

We pass Jacobs Field (I still call it that since that is what it was named when I worked there) and Tower City ….This is obviously near the end of the race for the Half Marathoners and the 10k runners who joined back up. I have said in the past that I would really need the crowd and the runners to help us throughout the whole race. What I forgot about was this part. The crowds of people all yelling “You’re almost done” and “Keep it up, just a little bit left”. Normally I love it, since I’ve always been “Almost done” at that point and needed the boost. At this point we were back to walking and the runners were also cheering people on. I knew what was coming, just didn’t know who would be the lucky one to receive it. Finally, after about the 20^th person to run up beside us to tell us we are “almost done” and “finish strong”, Jodi turns and just yells…We are NOT almost there. The guy looks at our bibs and realizes we still have a LONG way to go and quietly keeps running. But Jodi and I were able to crack a smile, since it was pretty funny.

Shortly after that we got what Jodi REALLY needed. We saw Morgan and Jen B. on the side of the road with a megaphone, dressed up in crazy outfits and bright wigs.

Jen B, Spike and Morgan cheering us on

We missed them at mile 7 (or so we thought, you can read her recap here) After a brief hug and quick pep talk, we got going. They may have no idea how much she needed that, but it was a huge boost that helped her a lot. As we headed down the street, Morgan yells in the megaphone, “Dave, smack that butt”, so we both laughed and I obliged. I want to thank Morgan and her “family” for driving down and making the best of the rain and the cold and cheering everyone on. If everyone in the world had her positive energy, bubbly personality and outlook, the world would be a better place.

At one point Jodi turned to me and point blank said “You realize we are doing another one, since we are taking a mulligan and this doesn’t count”. I laughed because I knew this was coming, but I figured it would be AFTER the race, not before we were even halfway through. Of course, in my head I already had this plan, since I would need her to help me break 4 hours, just like she helped me break 2 hours in the Half.

We came across Morgan’s boyfriend Spike and her best friend, B.o.B. aka Beth. They both gave her advice on his experiences and a quick pep talk, Jodi touched his “Boston Marathon Finishers” jacket and got the extra kick she needed. A big thanks to both of you as well and congrats to Beth on her race.

Mile 15: This may have been a tough one for me. It was around this time where it maybe started to get to me mentally. One top of being out there for over 3 hours already, mind wandering, going over the race, what I did wrong, what I could have done different. Normally, I realize that the past is the past, but there was nothing normal about running 15 miles in the rain with having to do more on top of that. I have NEVER run more than 14 miles…..EVER. So doubts about the little things creeped in. I started thinking about the race, thinking about my legs, thinking about the finish, keeping Jodi focused to get her to the finish line. Emotions crept up and I may have started to shed some tears (yes, a grown man crying) I figured I was good because my glasses were mostly fogged up with rain on them, so maybe I could compose myself without Jodi realizing this. Well, I was wrong…..It was all good, and thankfully for me, she let it go. Of course this would also be the time where we pass the course entertainment. Some woman singing this slow song, something you’d hear at a wedding during a father/daughter dance. The runners around were baffled and sort of laughed at how we ALL need some pumped up rocking music and this was NOT the time for this. To make matters worse it started to rain harder…Jodi and I may have looked at each other and close to the same time blurt out….REALLY???...

Ahhh……To think it only gets harder from here. The next few miles were sort of a blur.

Mile 19: I could tell something was off with Jodi around this point. She was starting to focus, and by focus I mean worry. She told me she was worried since we were closing in on the 20’s. While I was prepared for this, I didn’t think it would be until mile 22. We crossed mile 19 with the cop cheering everyone on letting us know there were only 7 miles remaining. Of course being the smartasses we were and it being a minor detail, we had to let him know there was actually 7.2 and he quickly smiled and said “good point.” Shortly after, we reach another water stop and after refilling our bottles (and almost getting hit by a car…..ok, not that close, I’d say within 20 feet, but the lady was not paying attention to the cop or the cones and went through them) we kept running and a women was holding a sign and yelled out “#1718 we have been waiting for you and proceeded to do the same for Jodi. I laughed and replied, thanks I guess you can get out of the rain and go home now. Headed toward the bike path area of the course next to the shoreway.

Mile 22-24: I thought a lot about how to handle this mile with her, since this is the last one she remembers from last year. So as we approach the flag I ask what it says…She says “Mile 22” with a bit of a smile. I ask if she is sure and she says yes. I then ask what her name is, she gives me this weird look and says “Jodi”. I ask what my name is and she giggles and says “Dave”. I said, well alrighty then, I guess you remember everything, how about we finish this thing. I still have not told her this, but at that moment, when she smiled, I saw something leave her body. Like a white mist. Ok, so maybe it was rain or smoke in the background or whatever. It was like those “demons” in her body just floated away and she was finally coming back to being herself. It was the weirdest thing, but the only way I can explain it is “peaceful”. Or maybe I was just slightly delusional from 22 miles in the rain, but either way I know I saw something.

After that she looked at me and said, let’s run to the 3^rd set of lights….then we would walk. Then again, “Let’s run to that red building”. She was picking out landmarks and things to run to. Instead of me trying to get her to do it, SHE was doing it. I could tell she was gaining confidence, even cracking jokes about certain things not being in the same place as last year. Of course it was around this time that I really started to feel it and with Jodi now herself again, she noticed things that I was trying to hide, which was my limping. I had been hiding it well until this point, and it really was not bad, despite me being stubborn. It mainly hurt in the transition of us running to walking and then it would be fine. But I was not letting anything bother me at this point, we were going to finish. We joked around a bit, thanked each person and worker on the course for being there in the rain and could feel the finish. I remember laughing when a woman was in the street walking around with an umbrella telling us all we only had 2 miles to go (when there was less) or people saying it’s “just around the corner” when it really wasn’t. But it was all good….

Crossing Mile 25: This was going to be the toughest in my mind but she did something that shocked me. She looked at me and just said “Let’s run the rest of the way”. Now, I can tell you that we didn’t, but that’s not what matters. To me it showed that she was mentally strong to battle what was THE worst mile of her running career. (or worst 0.52 miles) We turned the corner and headed down the homestretch and saw the mile 26 marker up ahead on the right and the Browns Stadium on the left. The wind was crazy at this point, but it didn’t matter. We came up to a woman who looked like she was struggling and as we got next to her we gave words of encouragement and really only said “you can do this, we’re almost there”. The girl looked at us and immediately starting crying. We asked if she was ok, if she was in pain. My only thought was, “Oh great, I made someone else cry, way to go Dave” LOL….Made it to the turn and there was Deb and Nikki, two of Jodi’s friends, who they so happened to make a pact a few years ago to run a Half Marathon in every state. They joined in with us, only .2 to go. Jodi saw the clock and noticed it was close to saying 6 hours and just sprinted. She said there is no way in hell that there would be a 6 in her time. Granted she knew that would not be our time, since we didn’t cross the start line for almost 10 minutes, but I think it was just out of principle. (Despite maybe promising there would be no sprinting at the end…lol)

Cleveland Marathon "Sprint to the Finish"

Since the start of training she has always said that she pictured crossing the finish line and that “you do realize I’m grabbing your hand and we are raising them in the air”. I said do what you gotta do. So as we neared the finish line, I noticed her holding her water bottle and sarcastically ask how she is going to grab my hand….LOL She tosses the bottle to Nikki, grabs my hand and raises them over our heads and we finished the marathon….Finished, completed, done. After a big hug, I quickly reminded her about her learning how to swim now so she can do a triathlon, since fair is only fair. I saw her husband and kids and pointed her in that direction. She was spent, exhausted and happy at the same time she just bent over to catch her breath. I knew she was fine, but the moment she bent over, her daughter did not see it that way and I had to get her standing up. She just realized what happened as well and ran over to hug her family, saying “I’m fine, I’m fine”. I almost started to cry watching their little moment.

Jodi hugging her family

Sort of made everything complete and that chapter is now closed.

Jenn was at the finish line for us after finishing her marathon and gave her a high five. I finally got to meet her husband before they started off back towards the hotel. We grabbed some bananas and chocolate milk and headed back as well since we were wet and freezing and just needed to get inside. Made it up the hill to the hotel and looked for Jenn. In the meantime Joanna, who we had met last night, text Jodi to let her know she was in the lobby. The speedy little lady was already dressed and packed to head to the airport. Granted she finished almost 2 hours ahead of us so had a slight headstart…LOL She had set a goal of 4 hours “with a zero in it” and she rocked it out finishing in 4hr and 16 minutes. Short of her goal, but still her BEST time by 11 minutes. Very proud of her and I could tell she was extremely happy, considering the weather on the course. She took some pics with us and off she went. Check out her blog here to see her experience of the race.

Me, Joanna, Jodi, Jenn

The rest of the day was spent relaxing at Jodi’s with her family and some friends before it was time to make the trip back to Columbus . Ended up getting back around midnight and was trying to figure out why I was so tired (sarcasm) As I do after every long run, the very first thing I did when I got home was finish about half a bottle of my Monavie, which does wonders for me, then tried to stretch before calling it a day. A day that may have been one of the longest ever.

I stated in the beginning that this was never about me and that’s how it should be. Life is never about you. You need to enjoy your life, yes. But to enjoy life in my opinion is all about the people around you. It’s not about what you can do for me, it’s what I can do for you. I know some don’t agree and some say you should care about yourself more than others.

I wasn’t sure back when I started this little journey what would happen once the race ended. The blog was about me stepping out of my comfort zone, holding me accountable and making it to the start line and ultimately the finish line. It all happened….with lots of stories, experiences and lessons along the way…..I think writing these blogs were harder for me than the training. Not necessarily the writing part per say, but the putting myself out there part. Now of course the injuries were not fun and training wasn’t the easiest thing, but still. I’m not comfortable with the “spotlight” part of it and the possible failure that comes with it….

For now I am going to rest and look forward to the next stop, the Ironman. Ok, it’s not the immediate next stop, gotta work my way to that, but that’s the ultimate goal. But knowing I could finish a marathon helps and may be the hardest part. In the end while I was disappointed in myself for how things started, nothing can change how proud I am for what Jodi overcame. THAT is inspirational.

Check one off the bucket list….

And for anyone of you reading this that think YOU could never do this, all you have to do is look in the mirror. I will tell you right now, no you can’t….BUT…you COULD. Everyone sees it as an unreachable goal. Of course it is right now, because no human being can get up from the couch this weekend and just “run” a marathon. Anyone that does a marathon or half marathon or even a 5k, just doesn’t go out and do it. Baby steps, it’s a process….Never say never, unless you just don’t want to.

Take some time to do something for yourself and you will find yourself helping others along the way.

Until next time……which I believe there will really be a next time

Cleveland Marathon - The Day Before

2011-05-16T01:48:00.000-04:00

Enthusiasm is also like a river. Get into the mainstream of your dream. Let enthusiasm flow through you like a river and let it burn through you like a wild fire. Keep yourself energized by believing that your success is inevitable. - Keith Cameron Smith

Just a quick "Part 1" to the Cleveland Marathon weekend. Just got home and it's been a totally crazy day and the race day recap may be a bit lengthy, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. I would include it now, but I'm sorta tired. Have no idea why though....(yes, sarcasm)

Saturdays plan...check into hotel, go to expo, go to pasta dinner, hang out and relax...Sounds easy enough, right.

Let me start off by saying if you ever come to Cleveland and need to stay downtown. Do NOT stay at the Renaissance Hotel. They have no clue, a bit rude and play you for idiots. They give us our room....3 people...ONE bed. The guy tells us they don't guarantee 2 beds and asks if we want a rollaway. We get to the room and there is already a rollaway in the room. Why? Because as we found out, they overbooked all the 2-bed rooms and rather than saying that, they tried to play dumb. Housekeeping shows up with a rollaway and is confused, not only to why there was one in there already, but how exactly are we fitting that in the room. Yes, I forgot to mention the fact the room was so small, one rollaway could NOT fit in the room without having to crawl on things. So this guy is nice enough to call downstairs and flat out tell the front desk that we need a new room now.

With the room in limbo, headed to the Expo to meet up with some bloggers, get our packets and walk around. As I walk up to get my bib number and shirt I notice the men's shirts are bright Halloween Orange. Maybe something to do with the Cleveland Browns official colors. A bit flashy for me, but hey, still a free workout shirt. I go through the goodie bag and in it....Flyers, coupons, lady speed stick and women's headbands. Really? LOL Lovely....Of course I had to put on the headband, too bad they forgot to take a pic :-)
Walk around and they had two of the speakers sitting at the table signing pictures. One of them was Bill Rodgers, former Olympian and also 4-time winner of the Boston Marathon and 4-time winner of the NYC Marathon. I thought it would be neat to talk to him and I also knew he was born in the same city as me, Hartford, CT. He took the time to chat individually with each person, sign a picture and our bib #'s. He may have mentioned that his very first marathon, 1973 Boston Marathon, that he didn't finish, which I was 50/50 on hearing...
Then we ran into the Cleveland 10 Miler girls, as I call them. Mellisa, Kim and Deb were there to pick up their packets and I think they were "slightly" excited to hear that the female runners got pink shirts. Unfortunately we couldn't spend anytime with them, but hoped to all get together before the race.

We headed back to the hotel to find that the parking lot was full but we managed to flash a parking pass they gave us and quickly got that resolved...LOL But the room issue, not so much. Finally got them to give us another room, which the lady said she "thought" would be bigger....At least this one could fit the rollaway, but still a bit rough. Last try and yet another room. I may have said that it didn't matter what the size was of the 3rd room, that we are going to take it. Come to find out on the elevator ride up, that they screwed up most rooms. Along with the runners, they had 2 wedding parties and one of them said they screwed up EVERY one of their rooms....Nice. We loaded up our stuff and headed to the room, finally....

The pasta dinner was pretty cool and a free meal, thanks to Jenn who won the tickets. I was in charge of finding a table, since well, I was told I'm a magnet for people to talk to. Found a table and ate some food and shared some stories, which is always fun. It was there that we met up with Joanna, a blogger from Missouri, who I for some reason thought was from Florida, I don't know why, I'm a moron from time to time. Towards the end a guy from Canada (who was sitting by himself) asks if he could join us. Come to find out he was running the marathon. I believe he said it was his first one and then the reason why he chose Cleveland. "It's a destination location". Well Joanna turns to him with a confused looked and asked him if he was serious. I thought that was funny, but he was. Never heard that word used in the same sentence w Cleveland.

We headed back to the hotel and Jodi received a text from Morgan aka "Red". Without going into detail, lets just say Jodi couldn't wait to meet this girl all week. She is sorta of the "Queen Bee" as I like to say of the bloggers. She seems to know everyone and is also great runner. So granted, I wanted to meet her as well because I really wanted to see if how she "sounded" in her blogs and emails was how she was....Which is bubbly, smiley, full of energy. The answer I found...um, ya, spot on. She and her boyfriend came down from Michigan just to cheer on one of her best friends (who flew in from Florida) and a bunch of people she has never met. Pretty cool and was much needed. (More on that tomorrow)

Went up to the room where we may have gotten slap happy and I was wide awake. Girls were heading to bed around 10:30 and I can't remember the last time I was in bed that early. Yes, had to be up at 4:30, needed some rest, but I just was still wired. I went and walked around the lobby, check the weather outside until heading back up about an hour later....Time for bed

As far as a preview for tomorrow's post....

All that matters is that I was able to finish the 2011 Cleveland Marathon. If only the explanation and story were that easy...

Until Next Time.....

Cap City Half Marathon

2011-05-08T16:17:00.000-04:00

Don't be afraid of failing! You must look failure dead in the eyes and tell failure, YOU HAVE NO POWER OVER ME! You have to be able to look at failure the way Master Jesus looked at death and said "Oh, death where is your sting?" Now get up, stay thankful, smile and perform your miracle. Concentrating on so called failure is a waste of mind energy. Keep good thoughts and past victories in front of your mind's eye - Rex Crain

After the past few weeks and what will soon be one longggggg week ahead, this seemed to be a quite appropriate quote at this time.

Mentally it's been a rough week. As usual, I'm pretty good at putting on the happy face, because well, it's what I do best I guess. As positive as I may try to be, sometimes reality creeps in and the past is hard to block out. Obviously my goal/plan is to run the Cleveland marathon AND finish. But because of my injuries from March there was not necessarily doubt, but uncertainty if my body could even make it to the start line. Yes, I could have given up, rested and tried another time, but there are other reasons that go into me wanting/having to run. As each week goes by and each run gets completed successfully in my revised training....I knew that I still could not officially settle into the fact that I would be in Cleveland May 15th for the Marathon. The biggest hurdle of all, the half marathon, was yet to come. While everyone else is doing 8 miles and tapering down this weekend, I had to keep testing myself, not because I like torture, (yes, and those that know my are rolling their eyes right now since I sorta do) but because I needed to be able to do it. Toughest part was knowing the distance, knowing the past. 3 Half Marathons....3 times not being able to run after for a long time. So all week while I stayed positive, dreamed about the marathon, I still had that wall, that hurdle to jump. I didn't know if I could handle the disappointment or handle my body breaking down again. But I didn't have time to dwell on that, the only way to find out was to JUST DO IT!

My mid week runs were smooth. Tuesday was a typical treadmill run, 4 miles, nice and easy. Thursday the rain finally stopped around here and I met up with Marla for the last training run before the half in the park, and what would be my last "4 mile" run before the marathon.

During the week, I was able to get in contact with a Amanda, fellow runner whose blog I follow. She's from Chicago and is training for the Chicago Marathon in October. I noticed a few weeks ago that her race schedule included Columbus to do the Half Marathon and have been meaning to say something. She has been fighting a cold, so she had mentioned that she wasn't sure if she could go for her personal best time, but still going to try and finish. Unfortunately we were not able to meet up, and seeing how there were over 10,000 people down there, didn't see myself running into her....Well, I get an email from her last night and she tells me that I beat her by 32 seconds. I was really happy, both because she rocked it out, killing her previous best time and that she did it coming off a cold....Check out her blog to read her story of the race....

Cap City Half Marathon....The test

Woke up early, got my 5 hours of sleep and headed out at the crack of dawn to pick up Marla. In her usual female fashion, she was a bit behind...We joked and wondered if her boyfriend Dan would be at the finish line this time, since he missed us the last race. Found our usual parking garage, since it's easy to get to the highway after. Probably spent about 20 minutes there, making sure we had everything, music, energy gummies, etc, etc....and of course being the nice pharmacist she is, I got scolded when I popped an advil, just as precaution...hey I didn't realize it speeds up dehydration and ruins the kidney during long exercises.....I mean I took one, not the whole bottle :-) Plus I hate pills to begin with, but it was more just a precaution.

The start of the race actually had "real" corrals...and entrances to each one with people only letting you in if you had that letter assigned to your bib....granted the closer it got to the start, people just started climbing the fences and squeezing through the bars to get in a closer one. We were in the corral a good 20 minutes prior to start time, so being my shy self (hey, I really am sorta shy) I chatted with anyone who would smile or make eye contact. Ya, I'm a dork, but might as well have fun, ease peoples nerves and make the time go by quicker. (of course didn't meet anyone as cool as my Cleveland girls from the 10 miler....ya, that's right, y'all just got a shout out) heehee

They did a wave start, which I thought was pretty neat and organized. Each corral would start and cross and each would have their own "starter" who announced the beginning....so once the corral was completely through, the next got ready. Our starter was James Buster Douglas, former heavyweight boxing champ. Pretty neat....We crossed the start line and off we went....

Started at a nice and easy pace as we were behind the 2:30 pace group and obviously, as always, there is a crowd of people. But there was not a lot of weaving in an out of people, thanks to the wave start and corrals, which was very nice.....While the garmin I was using is not completely accurate, I still try to follow it to get a sense of my pace. First mile was slightly sub 11 minute and the second mile was over 11 as we were still following the pace group. I slowly maneuvered us around the pace group, without pushing Marla too much. The area started to thin out and a bit after mile 3 I looked at her and asked how she was. Her response...JUST GO and pointed ahead. My plan was to run with her, but I expected to get the shoo away. The past 2 half's we've done together, I stuck by the whole way. This time I did need to test my legs for next weeks marathon. I wanted to do at least half the race around 10:00 pace (ballpark range) as that is the pace we plan for next weekend....so this time I didn't fight or object, I took off....

Alright, so when I say I took off, it wasn't supposed to mean literally took off. I mean, I just ran, nice easy pace....garmin beeped...8:35....um, really? Crap...kept telling myself, "I need to slow down"...I thought I was and then the next mile....8:45...seriously...I can hear Jodi screaming in my ear (in my head) telling me to slow down..."Marathon pace, not half marathon pace"....I may have gave her a hard time to stay at marathon pace for her half marathon last week. The next mile was finally over 9...I'm trying, really I am. At this point the runners who were doing the Quarter Marathon had turned off and it begin to thin out even more. The next 3 miles included mid 9 minute paces, so I was still trying to focus on my pace. Tried finding adults n kids to slap hands with along the side of the road. Tried reading all the signs, all the fun ones, the goofy ones, the serious ones. A few Charlie Sheen signs with his picture saying "You're Winning" and even a girl holding a sign saying "I like your stamina, call me" with her number underneath. Ok, gotta be honest I laughed and yes, tried to remember the number....LOL Continued finding things to do to slow down, picking people to run by and see if it feels right or picking people to run behind. After mile 8 was the sign that showed Quarter Marathon turn right to finish....Half Marathon continue left. It was at this point where I pictured the marathon, where for the first time, rather than turning to finish, I'll be the crazy person continuing. I did laugh how people were sorta messing with guys, tell them to turn the other way. Hey if you fall for it, it's on you for not paying attention. :-)

I finally got to my "pace" and hit the 10 minute mark, took me almost 3/4 of the race, but I managed to be over 10 for the next 3 miles. I even saw more of those "I like your stamina" signs, which obviously messed me up. I mean, I didn't know I had to carry a pen and pad with me along with my gels. How am I to remember all those numbers. Heehee

The last mile I decided to finish strong, but of course there was a hill....made it around 9:30, I was feeling really good, watching my stride, not overdoing it. The course went from 2 lanes to almost one around the corner, as the crowd made it smaller. Not sure they understand that while we all enjoy them being there to cheer us on, we just ran 13 miles and trying to get this over with, so please move out of the way :-)

Obviously had excess energy and plenty left, but my goal was to run the pace for next week....Although I didn't think about running another 13.1 LOL After crossing the finish they had lots of medics there making sure people were ok and getting you to keep walking and moving. I collected my finishers medal, but I knew Marla was still out on the course. So I removed the timing chip from my shoe and headed back on the course.

I kept my watch going so I could get a gauge on when Marla may pass. Just looked for blond and blue shirt. Kept walking, then saw the 2:20 pace group...then 2:30....I started to get worried, but I stopped at about 3/4 mile out and waited with a few people standing in the street to cheer the runners on. I saw her come down the hill, she looks and asked if I was done. I chuckled and said yes and joined her in running towards the finish and I asked how she was feeling.....all I got was a stern "DO NOT TALK TO ME", just want to get this over with. Which meant let me focus and keep quiet.

Marla finished strong and I crossed the finish "again" (funny for pics). I gave her a hug and got yelled at again (forgot she doesn't like that, or maybe I just smelled) All she said was...where is the beer...LOL I had to remind her water and food first. We saw Dan standing over near the finish and all went to the "after party".

This may have been the best and most organized of any of the half marathons I've done. Bananas, apples, Panera bagels, milk, Donato's pizza....better than the annual Columbus Marathon in October, where all they give you post race is cut up brown bananas, bags of generic chips, chicken soup and other crap as you walked through a small area. This time, as you got through, you entered the area of tents with area businesses, people walking around passing out champagne (the cheap stuff) and chocolate, a stage with a DJ and bands, food tent, beer tent....

Spent some time hanging out, ran into a friend of ours who was one of the DJ's for the race and decided we needed more food. Headed to La Casita for some lunch and then just relaxed and headed for an ice bath. All that there was left to do....was wait. I started talking about the Marathon, like it was tomorrow....but still had to wait and see how the body reacts.

On a somber note, as we were at the after party, Dan mentioned that a guy collapsed about 50 feet from the finish line, pretty much right in front of him. Said they spent about 10-15 minutes giving him CPR, using a defibrillator and even sticking something in his chest to get him breathing again. Not something you want to hear or see. Its saddening and "real" when something like this happens, especially when it happens to someone in fit physical shape. All I have read was an article saying a guy is in the hospital and his status is unknown. Thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family.

As of now, my body really does not feel bad, almost feels "good". My plan is to run 2 miles Tuesday and 1 or 2 miles Thursday and maybe some bike work . Nothing major, just to stretch out, rest my muscles. Then somehow find a way to speed the clock up...Gametime is approaching.

We have the week to think, the week to dream. Right now it's just excitement....I now know I can carry a 10 minute pace and while that may be the plan, thoughts of a 9:45 pace are floating around the air, so I am contemplating that. After the half marathon, I don't see why not....

Until next time....

Much better when the sun shines.....

2011-04-30T12:01:00.000-04:00

Transcending labels that you've placed on yourself or that others have placed upon you opens you up to the opportunity of soaring in the now in any way you desire. - Dr. Wayne Dyer

Placing labels on yourself is sort of like telling yourself you can't do something...before you even try....You need to do things within reason, but placing limitations on yourself is not fair....not fair to yourself and not fair to others around you.

This week was an odd week. Part of it may have had to do with the constant rain we had....It seems that everything is in slow motion and mentally I am fighting with myself. Not in the sense of being negative, just trying to be realistic. I know I can go ahead with the Marathon...I know before even doing it that I will. But I also know the most I've ever run is 13.1 miles and I also know I've never been able to run for awhile after. So as optimistic as I am, that cloud still lingers over me and this weekends long run 12 miles is another step. Pass it and a little bit of the cloud becomes sunshine. Fail and well, I'm not sure, since I'm not thinking about that.

My Tuesday and Thursday runs were pretty smooth, 4 miles each. Tuesday morning run my legs felt a little heavy, coming off my 10-Miler last weekend, but nothing major. Thursday was a planned run in the park with Marla, but mother nature did not co-operate, so I stuck with an evening treadmill run. I'm finding I like morning runs alot better or maybe it had to do with pain popping up in new areas. Nothing major, or at least that's what I'm telling my stubborn self.

Headed out for my 12 mile run today feeling good. Took some talking into with Marla, but we settled on an 8am start time. Part of the reason was the half marathon next weekend starts at 8, the other was plans to head out of town. Was a bit chilly, but it was fine once we got going. Started out nice and easy and kept around a 10:45-11:00 mile pace for the first 3 miles. As we closed in on mile 4 I was told to keep going. I have learned by now there is no arguing with a female, and thought about asking her if her boyfriend learned that yet...lol So I headed out on the trail and focused on a steady pace. At this point, the trail was new to me, since I've never run this far on Antrim, so as long as I kept reading the signs, I'd be good. Turned around after 5.75 miles (yes, I know it doesn't add up to 12, but I had my reasons) :-)
On the way back more and more people were on the trails and that was a good thing and a bad thing. Good that I could pick a pace to follow and bad because some people think they own the whole trail. I was holding a steady 10:00 minute pace for a few miles and actually felt like I was getting stronger. I may a sprinkled a mile where I was close to 9, not sure what is was, might have been a stretch of Eminem songs on my iPod or maybe I had some girls to follow heehee
As I headed back to our start point I caught up with Marla and she finished her 10 miles and I continued for a bit as I had less than a mile left. All in all, it felt really good, the last 3 miles all sub 10 to finish strong....12 miles in 2:02:41

I had to laugh because we get done and as we are stretching, I hear...."I think I just run better without you....I feel I hold you back" Ok, really...this is the SECOND person in as many weeks to tell me this!!! I need to try a different deodorant....heehee

Up next...2 runs during the week and then the Cap City Half Marathon next Saturday....One step closer to making it to the starting line in Cleveland. But right now, just thankful for today, thankful for being able to finish the run....

Until next time....

Hermes Cleveland 10 Miler

2011-04-24T21:39:00.001-04:00

By consistently focusing your thoughts, words and actions on the fire within your heart, you will live with the energy of enthusiasm. The fire of enthusiasm burns through the darkness disappointments and lights your path so you can see how to get to where you want to go. - Keith Cameron Smith

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend.

The past week seemed to go by very slowly for some reason and more and more I find myself focusing my thoughts on the marathon. It is now 3 weeks away and of course I know in the back of my mind, I still have hurdles to climb to even GET to the start line. But the only way to even have a chance to get there is to remain positive and of course, "pain free".

Tuesday and Thursday runs both went well. Tuesday was on the treadmill and did the usual nice and easy 10:00 pace. Would love to continue the 8:30 pace that I was doing before getting hurt, but this is the smarter thing to do, especially since our goal is to finish and stay around the 10:20 pace. My friend Marla called me on Thursday and wanted to run in Antrim park and since the rain had subsided, I agreed. Of course I was not prepared for the chilly weather as I had planned a treadmill run after work and my bags were packed as such. It really wasn't that bad though. Started off sorta fast (or so I was told by a certain someone..heehee) But we did the whole 4 miles and I was proud that Marla stuck through it without stopping as she tries to gear up for the Cap City Half Marathon in 2 weeks that we are running.

Cleveland 10 Miler

I was not really nervous about the run for some reason or another. Maybe it was because I've run 10 miles before. Maybe it was because Jodi and Jenn were running 10 miles before as part of their 20 miles, so I was "lucky". Yes, it was a "race" but still just a training run for the 3 of us. Friday night I got a text asking if I would be up for running 15 instead of 10 so I could join them. For a split second and for some odd reason I actually processed the question and contemplated it. But only a split second. No way, not worth it, no matter how I felt. With my injuries during training, I have since promised myself that if I were going to make it to the start line, I now have to do it smart and that includes slight bumps in my long runs. Last week, 8.5 miles....Had to stick with 10. Maybe the fact that I have never run 15 miles before also had something to do with it to....lol

Having lived in Cleveland before, I was familiar with the area, but I still wanted to get there early. Arrived well over an hour before the race, as did a ton of other people. Some picking up their packets late, some, like Jodi and Jenn, doing their 20 miles as part of marathon training. I made sure I had everything I needed from my bag and headed towards the starting area. On my way there I noticed 4 women gathering around their cars trying to take pictures, so being the "shy" guy that I am, I go over and ask if they want help with pictures. We start chatting and next thing you know they have ME in their pictures.

Too funny....2 of the girls have matching outfits (I still say it was planned....heehee) and they were Columbus Marathon shirts from last year. I had my Cleveland training shirt on, so we had plenty to talk about. We all hung around talking and made our way up the big hill towards the area to wait. They all seemed really nice and ready to rock the race. As we were hanging around the start area I noticed 2 of the main guys that run the race. When I lived in Cleveland I used to work for Hermes (the company that put on the race) so I wanted to talk to them. It took a second for them to recognize me since I shaved my head and they see thousands of runners each week and also have had plenty of people work for them. Plus its been over 10 years.

Headed back to my 4 "new friends" and they had asked if I was going to meet Jodi and Jenn or if I had even seen them. As they were lining up people to start I told them I had to find them so I would probably see them at the finish line. Finding them was not as hard as I thought it may be, considering they were wearing their matching running skirts that they got for the marathon. I joked with Jodi and asked her where the bagpipes were to complete the outfit, since they looked like Scottish kilts. :-)

They seemed to do well the first 10 miles (although technically they did 9, so would have to get in another mile after the race)

The gun went off and the 2,000 or so runners headed out for a run around Lakewood. I have a tendency to start off fast, since I'm still learning the whole pacing thing. I found myself slowing down and checking my watch as well as Jodi and Jenn to see how they were feeling. I had to remember 2 things....That it was a training run and that the girls just ran 10 miles, so I had to ease up a bit. I had someone ask why I wasn't wearing the matching skirts and I just smiled. The first 3 miles went off easy, but then I noticed that Jenn was starting to struggle. Personally it was around this point I had a feeling it may. Jodi and I took turns running with her, trying to keep her positive. At this point we also saw the leaders (the crazy people averaging around 5-6 minutes per mile) make their way back on the other side of the road. We finally made it to the turnaround point and Jodi decided that she would run up and grab water for Jenn so that it would help her. Well, the plan backfired, as she would gulp them down AND keep grabbing more once she got to the tables, including Gatorade. But the first 5 miles were complete and we all were at 51:40, which was a 10:20 pace and all things considered, great.....

The next mile or 2 were rough as all the water and Gatorade did not sit well with Jenn and she got sick. She stuck it out, but we didn't know what to do. I felt bad, but each time she said she was fine and told us to go. Reluctantly we continued running as she jogged and walked to compose herself. Jodi asked if I was going to run with her and my response was "depends how fast you plan on going" LOL We ran into Bridgette (one of the girls I met before the race) and chatted for a bit and we continued on, occasionally looking over our shoulders to see any signs of Jenn. At on point I happened to look down and noticed our latest mile had been a lot faster, then the next mile was sub 9. Jodi apologized since she just wanted to race done and over with as her legs and shoulders were killing her. Of course what's funny is that for most of that mile it felt like I was pacing her and going to fast. We hit the homestretch and I could tell she was having trouble. Despite this we were almost sprinting, with her telling me that she just wants it done. The last mile was around a 8:30, so she got her wish.

Once we finished I felt relieved, but as I looked over, I noticed Jodi was not doing well and that was a first for me. I mean, despite her problems last year in her marathon she is almost "robot like" when it comes to her running. Form, pacing, attitude, recovery, knowledge, etc....So seeing her keeled over was not what I'm used to. I quickly got her to keep walking and get liquids in her, composed ourselves and we headed back out to get Jenn to help her finish. That is until we hear them announcing her name as she crosses the finish line. Both of us had this confused look on our face, but walked back to congratulate her. I tell her congrats and that we had no idea she would be that close behind. She looks at us and smiles and says "I think I just run better without you guys" and asks Jodi if she is ready to finish the last mile. Jodi said she felt better and changed her mind and they went out to run their last mile.

The last 5 miles were slightly faster than the first. 51:14, which is a 10:15 pace....Our goal for the training run was anywhere between 10:15 and 10:30. Ultimately our goal is JUST to finish the marathon, but keeping an overall pace like today would put us sub 4:30, which is a secondary goal.

All in all it was a great run....Jenn may have had a realization/breakthrough and still finished ALL 20 miles and for Jodi she looked human to me after a run/race which was a first for me to experience and I made it through another long run. My legs are intact still and looks as though it can be marked off as successful. I'm proud of what the girls did, completely their last 20 mile training run and knowing what they went through. But as I told them, if it were easy or if they felt perfect after, then everyone would be doing it. But everyone is NOT, so they need to acknowledge their work....Another step closer to all of us completing our first marathon

One more week down, one week closer, one more long run successfully completed.

Stay positive because tomorrow will be your best day yet!!

Until next time....

Less than a month...Optimism or fear?

2011-04-17T22:14:00.000-04:00

A mental adjustment is a choice you make to focus on the dream within your heart. Get clear on what success looks like to you. Just as with a physical adjustment of the spine, it usually take more than one adjustment to get back into alignment. You must practice focusing and refocusing on what success looks like to you before you get into alignment. - Keith Cameron Smith

As anyone that reads this blog, I'm sure you realize I try and start with a quote, and usually it's inspirational or positive, since thats the type of guy I am. Funny enough, there is always a reason for it and it's almost creepy that I see a quote when talking about something. When I saw Keith's quote, it reminded me of an article I read this past week about Georges St. Pierre of the UFC. He talks about his upcoming fight and his past fights and how he recently visualizes everything. He points out that it’s mental rehearsal and is almost always far more productive than just “focusing." And it's not just visualizing the start or seeing you cross the finish. Visualize the sights, the smells, the sounds.

I remember doing some of this during swimming in college. We would take time during practice to visualize our races. It's amazing how it works. Which is why so many people, when they talk negatively or think about failing....they usually do.

Another week down and another week closer to the Marathon. Everything seems at a standstill, everything up in the air. I am trying to enjoy the last month, but with fear in the back of my mind. It's a wonder how the mind works. I can be as positive as I want, but it's still without challenges. They say the actual marathon itself is 90% mental and 10% physical and I've said in the past, this should be "easy". Ok, before you laugh, I mean easy in the sense of the fact my main concern now is the physical part, due to my injuries and my revised training. If you sit back and think about it, anytime you attempt to do something and you are 90% confident, you should feel comfortable with completing the task.

My mid week runs went smoothly. In a way, somewhat boring, but without a hitch. 4 miles on Tuesday and another 4 on Thursday. The boring part is setting the treadmill at 10:00 miles and just going for it. It's good for me though as it give me time to focus, keep my mind fresh and set up things in my head so I will be prepared. (The mind may wander during the 26.2) :-) The good news for me is that I kind of wanted to keep going each time and felt good. Hardest part was keeping the speed. There were times I lost focus and found myself running hard.

Saturday I took a break in the afternoon and hopped on the bike for 20 minutes, then another 20 minutes on the treadmill (walking) :-)

Was nice to stretch out and just do something....Weird, but I felt a bit lazy even walking on the treadmill, with the little voices in my head trying to get me to run....lol

This evening I tackled my long run with my friend Marla, since I'm running the Cap City half with her now. Weather wasn't too bad, in the 50's with some wind, obviously nothing like last weekends 85, but nonetheless, nice. Even at the start I was not sure how long I would go, but the plan was 8 or 9 miles. Started out nice and smooth and during the 3rd mile Marla needed to walk so she told me to keep going and meet at the turn around (she would not let me walk...lol) Got to almost 4 miles and turned around to head back to the start point. Joined back up with Marla for a bit and kept a nice pace going and was told to keep going again. Turned around at the start point to head back out to get Marla and we finished the last half mile. By the time we finished it was getting dark and the wind was picking up, felt pretty cold so stretching was somewhat quick.

Finished with 8.5 miles, so it worked out pretty good. Legs feel good for now, so thats a positive sign. We'll see the next two days and how they respond.

Cleveland 10 Miler next weekend, then 12 mile run the following weekend, with the Cap City Half Marathon after that....Just need to stay positive and have faith and it will be done.....

Until next time...

1 Down, 4 to go....

2011-04-10T22:12:00.000-04:00

Faith brings good things into your life and being afraid brings bad things into your life. This may sound too simple but in my experience it is absolutely the truth. The simple truths in life have the biggest impact on us. Having faith, or trusting, in God, yourself and others will always lead to success. Success is having faith. - Keith Cameron Smith

4 to go, as in long runs....Today marked another step towards whether or not I will be able to attempt/run/finish my first marathon next month (35 days....talk about close)
My plan was, as usual, to get my long run in on the treadmill. I wanted to keep it easy and as boring and monotonous a treadmill run is, it is without hills, without bumps, without weather changes. But I got a text from one of my best friends Marla, who I ran my first 2 half marathons with, asking if I wanted to go running. We decided to head to Antrim Park, rather than the hilly sidewalks of Bethel Rd. She wanted to do 6 miles and my plan was 7. My legs have been a bit sore, so I was hesitant to go run outside. Part of it was a mental block, since the last time I ran outside, I only made it a few miles and could not finish.
But I figured why not...Plus the weather was absolutely gorgeous, probably in the 80's. It was rather weird to get ready for a long run and not put layers on, not worry about a hat or gloves. I did however forget my IT Band brace, which ended up being ok.....
The plan was to head out on the trails and turn around at the 3 mile mark, then once we got back while Marla stretched, I would finish my last mile. At the time, I just wanted to make it there. All in all it was a great run. We started off at a nice pace, after 2 miles we stopped to walk since someone not named Dave was feeling the effects of partying the night before. (heehee, still luv ya) Picked it back up and at about mile 4 I was told to just go ahead and run. Reluctantly I did, since I didn't feel like I'd win the battle of words....I kept a nice easy pace and hit the turn at mile 6 and headed back out for my last mile. Was able to time it perfectly and met with Marla with a half mile to go and sorta made her run to the "finish". We got in some stretching and then I told her my new plan and that I (if it goes well) would now be able to run with her at the Cap City Half Marathon in 4 weeks, since as she put it, I ditched her last year and made her run alone....

So as of now, it's a wait and see approach. They, as in the legs, feel good, staying positive and icing as we speak. But for now, it's a step at a time. Make it through my 4 mile runs this week and focus on next weekend (8 or 9)....

Then the Cleveland 10 miler on Easter weekend, 12 miles the week after that, then the Cap City Half Marathon in Columbus.....They never said it would be easy....And as in usual "me" fashion, I don't do it the way it "should" be done, I gotta make it difficult for myself....

until next time....

Compromise from the doctor....Sort of

2011-04-07T22:30:00.000-04:00

If you really want to be successful in life you must understand that your belief is everything! If you can become fully persuaded in your mind concerning what you want and believe, your wish will be granted. Here's the trick: You cannot share your dreams with everyone. Remember, silence is golden. Don't talk about it. Be about it! - Rex Crain

Well, there is always good news bad news type of information. One can choose how they look at things and go from there.

My training started off great, perfect almost. But reality is, life is not perfect, it's how you deal with the adversity thrown your way. I am obviously ecstatic with the outcome of my half marathon a month ago and wouldn't change a thing. But the past month has been one struggle after another. Of course while I have been able to run a little and that's better than nothing, it's not how I envisioned my marathon training would be. While my 2 training partners are doing 10-20 mile runs each weekend, I'm struggling with 4-5 miles. There are days of pain, days of soreness, days of both....The past 2 weeks have been a trial run of sorts. When I got injured, my mind started to shut down. Mentally I was close to dropping out of the marathon, thinking negative, etc, etc. But I have decided to go for it. Take all of the little pieces and look at the positive and if I made it this far, I would revise my training and just do it. Part determination, part stubborn, part pride. So the past 2 weeks I have been able to make it through....

Sunday I managed to get in 5 miles, which felt good. Thought about going for 6, but my mind and body decided otherwise. Tuesday I whipped through 4 miles and had flashbacks of week one of training, where it seemed so smooth and easy. Today was another of the same, some tenderness in the IT band, but overall a great 4 mile run.

Saw the chiropractor yesterday and I showed him my revised plan, asked his advice and wondered what I should do. Basically with over 5 weeks left towards the big day, I mapped out a schedule to where I would run 3 days a week and 2 days of cross training. Tuesday and Thursday would be 4 miles each day with my weekend long run climbing up to 13 the week before (7,8,10,12,13 to be specific)....Obviously not even close to what they "say to do".
His advice...He would like me to get in at least a 20 mile training run in and if not, ditch the marathon and just do the half marathon. I told him I'd meet him halfway and said I was doing the full and determined to finish. (yes, for those rolling your eyes, I realize that was no compromise...heehee) :-) :-) :-)
He understood that my longest run since the half has only been 5 miles, so there is no way to jump up that high in distance in the next 4 weeks. But realized it can still be done...
He did share a story of his first marathon. He was 19 and thought he was in great shape and I'm sure he was, but as he said, not in "marathon" shape. The most he ran was 7 miles....So by the time he hit mile 20, he said the pain hurt so bad that he cried the rest of the way.

So all I can do is hope....pray....stay positive....and believe that it will happen. What it is, well, that will be determined. Just going to stay focused and all I can do is what my body allows. Who knows, I may not even make it through to do the race. But I'm choosing to look at the other side of the glass....the one that says I will be there at the start...and at the finish.

until next time....

The Fear of the Unkown....

2011-03-28T19:18:00.000-04:00

Live mindful of how brief your life is. "It feels just like yesterday" is a statement used often. Think about friends, loved ones, family, colleagues who have passed. Cherish your moments. Minutes are worth more than money! Spend them wisely. Many people take no care of money till they come to the end of it, others do the same with their time. Live in the present. Enjoy - Rex Crain

I can definitely say that this has not gone according to plan. It's weird, because part of me slips into the old me, the person who wouldn't "expect" things or plan for something, due to disappointment. I start to think about this blog, imagining if I never started it, then people would not be aware of the upcoming possible failure.

I then realize that life is not perfect. Its not a box of chocolates...Life is what you do with the cards you flip over. Sometimes it's the Ace of Hearts, sometimes its the Joker.

For the few of you that have followed my blog or have been around me, then you may have noticed an absence on my part. Well since the half marathon a month ago, I have not had the greatest luck with my health, specifically legs/feet.

Granted I was able to do something that I have never been able to do the week after my other half marathons....RUN. That is the bright side, even if it is nothing more than a glimmer. Since the "week after", it has gone downhill, physically and mentally. The next week was just as bad and alot of the same. Was able to make it 2 miles one day, but the rest of the week was spent swimming. Attempted my long run of 10 miles and barely made it 2 before the pain hit, so I alternated walking and jogging (but more walking) until I had enough.

Vegas Trip

During the excitement while setting the training plan back in January, I knew I had my first ever trip to Vegas and also a 16 mile run on the schedule that weekend. The run obviously never happened, but I was able to run 2 miles one day, which I was somewhat happy about.

My Vegas experience can be summed up in one word....Awesome.

I faced my fear of heights and went on one of the Stratosphere rides. 900 feet up in the air.....Also got to experience a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon. St Patrick's day, NCAA Tourney, the Vegas Strip....Funny thing but for all the partying and enjoying life in the 5 days that we were that, seeing the Grand Canyon was amazing and peaceful. Gave me time to think and clear my head and take in the beauty.

The Half Marathon

Brings me to the turning point. I know, the past is the past and what's done is done. With this it's still hard to wonder what if. What if I just stuck with the original map and ran the way I should have. I tend to push myself at times due to not only being competitive, but for memories. I don't regret my decision to try and break 1:50, because I knew a close friend had that goal and to fulfill that would have been great. You always remember first times and to be honest, no one can take away the experience I had from my half marathon where I broke 2 hours for the first time. As I've said, it wasn't boring and I got a story out of it. Fast forward to now though and there is still a bitter taste, because of that voice that says..."the ultimate goal...the marathon, why didn't you listen"

Right now I am in a state of the unknown mentally. I've been told that the marathon is 10% physical, 90% mental.....Well, that 10% is almost dead and at the moment the 90% is heading towards the grave. I need to focus, need a kick start and need to get back to the basics and remember day one all over again. I need to realize to make adjustments. I need to realize that to do this, it now won't be "by the book"

Last week I was reading a blog from a fellow runner "Morgan". She seemed to be having some problems and her blog was titled "Limboland" due to injuries she has been experiencing. It was weird to be inspired from this blog, so maybe it was more "comfort", knowing that this great runner was going through similar roadblocks and uncertainties. Unfortunately that "comfort" turned to sadness, when she was diagnosed with a stress fracture that will prevent her from running in the Marathon.

It also helped me appreciate that while I can not train what the schedule says, being able to do something is better than nothing. (Cheer up Morgan and don't get used to those crutches....you will kick them to the curb soon and be back to your old self)

So while my training partners were "enjoying" their 20 mile training run yesterday, I was able to push through 4 miles. Kind of starting over. I wanted more, but was satisfied and tried to accept the accomplishment. This past weekend was supposed to be the Dallas Half Marathon, which I just couldn't do, since I've barely run 13.1 miles over the last few weeks, let alone doing it at once. My body needed the rest from Vegas though, so a trip visiting my Dad in Dallas will have to wait until the summer heat.

This week is a new week....A fresh start....Week 1

I think my biggest thing is not wanting to disappoint people, a few in particular and I guess, that includes myself. I realize stuff happens. I realize that when you get knocked down, you get back up. I realize that good or bad, you can learn from your experience and be stronger the next time.

Problem is....I don't want next time. I'm going to push through and we shall see how things go. But it's going to take alot to keep me from doing this. All the pressure is in my head and I made a promise that I would be there crossing the finish line, completing first marathon.

It wasn't until now that I truly noticed the title of my blog. I named it experience life, and the URL was nevergiveup. The day after my first blog I was asked why I chose those and I did not have an answer. The past month has brought more light to maybe why i did.

Time will tell....in 48 days...

Until next time..

THE Week After....Half Full or Half Empty

2011-03-06T18:15:00.000-05:00

Quote of the day
Success is a choice you must make everyday. Leaving your success in the hands of someone else is very dangerous. It seems everyone is more than willing to tell you what you can or can’t do, or what you should or shouldn’t do with your life. Your life is your responsibility. If you want to be successful, and I know you do, then make the decision to do something everyday to get you closer to your goals. - Keith Cameron Smith

This week for me has been considered as THE week. From day one of training it has been marked on the calendar with a red flag. The week following my Half Marathon. For those that know me, you know that in my previous 2 half marathons that I have run, I have yet to be able to be pain free for weeks. The first one, I didn't go back to the gym for 3 months. Last year was an improvement and I only took about a month off. These were not time offs by choice, they were because of pain.
This time, there was no option. The marathon training schedule did not show any time off, in fact it said get your butt back in the gym and run 2 days later. (ok, it didn't say that exactly) So I guess going in I was a bit rough on myself mentally. But as Keith's quote mentions....Success is a choice.
As I came off the high of my successful Half, I had to quickly come back down to earth. The week did not go as planned, I was not able to run and my confidence throughout the week was fading and my optimism about the marathon was following right along with it. But there were some good points, while not many, it's all I can focus on right now to keep me going......

Monday - Rest Day
The day after....Today was an obvious rest day. Specifically scheduled an appointment with my other chiropractor (aka the witch doctor) He is more of an alternative health practitioner and has been a HUGE help the past few years helping me recover from my illnesses as well as my workouts. I have seen a girl on crutches go into his office and come out jumping up and down. He definitely fixed me up. All my soreness went away and my IT Band went from excruciating pain to just pain.

Tuesday - 3 Miles   Actual - Swim 2 miles, Walk 1.5 Miles
My knee just didn't feel right and I still had some pain when I tried to walk "normally" (meaning one foot in front of the other, rather than one foot in front while the other one is turned sideways dragging behind), so I decided to hit the pool. Had some disappointment, but this was expected. I was happy to get the swim in before work. After work, I was feeling good so I decided to head back to the gym, just to stretch out my leg and get some core work in. Was NOT going to try and run, just walk at a nice easy pace as certain people's voices were in my head saying "Dave, be smart and listen to your body". Felt good and well worth the second trip to the gym.

Wednesday - 6 Miles   Actual - Walk 2 miles
Another day of playing it safe. Decided again to just walk to at least feel productive. The positive side of things, I am now able to walk "normal" with minimal pain/maximum soreness, which is good...Progress...Baby steps. Took some time to focus on stretching and did some core work. Also spent some time with the dreaded foam roller, which was a bit painful...lol

Thursday - 3 Miles   Actual - Swim 3 miles
For the first time I woke up early on a Thursday (which has been a thorn in my side for some reason). This was good, since I wanted to get a long swim in. Legs starting to feel better, but playing it safe. Decided to swim 3 miles instead of run. Flip turns felt better than Tuesday and my pushoffs felt stronger. Thought about doing double duty again and hitting the gym after work, but decided to go home and just relax.

Friday - Rest Day   Actual - Run 3 miles (30:47)
Yes, you are reading that correctly....I was actually able to run 3 miles today. While it was a slow pace, the pain was minimal and I did not stop. It was an absolute perfect way to start a Friday and only a few things could have made me smile more than I was. I started to look forward to my long run Sunday and my mindset did a 180 just like that.

Saturday - Cross Train   Actual - 1/2 hr elliptical, Walk 1 Mile, Run 1 Mile
Nice and easy workout, nothing out of the ordinary. The elliptical felt good, so much so, that I decided to hop on the treadmill....stretched out with a 1/2 mile walk, then ran 1 mile (same pace as yesterday) then cool down another 1/2 mile walk. Spent a good time stretching with some core work.

Sunday - 13 Miles Actual - 4.53 Miles
As quick as the optimism comes, it deflates even faster. As weird as it sounds, when I finished the run (or should I say, when I quit) I reached a low point mentally in my training. I was actually excited for the run. Jodi, one of my training partners, let me borrow her old Garmin, so I was able to hit the trails outside. While Jodi and Jenn were doing their 30k race in Cleveland, I was ready to attempt a my 13 miles alone. I honestly had no "goals" for today other than to complete the run. Would love to keep under a 10 minute mile pace, but still learning to pace myself. Started out strong and felt good. Of course I tried to keep a nice "easy" pace but the Garmin said first mile just around 8 minutes, which I still say is wrong...lol.....Mile 2 was an 8:45....Then just fell apart physically. My IT Band felt like it got shot, my quad felt like it was getting hit with a hammer and my hip was screaming. Mentally I was still there and was pushing through it to the finish. That obviously changed...I adjusted to hope to get 10 miles in, then it switched to 7. I started to walk some then run some. The pain got so intense I just couldn't go any further and had to stop. I made it home and honestly wanted to cry. Both from pain and disappointment. After a nap, spent the day hobbling on crutches and icing my knee.

Realization is setting in about what I am embarking on here. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but didn't really know....Sounds weird, yes. Toughest part is it's not even halfway through training and the long runs are just starting. Part of me knows it's not this hard and I can do it, the other part is battling and letting me know it may not happen. A phone call from a friend this afternoon helped brighten up the day, at least in the sense of getting some positive vibes back in me. Definitely was spot on what I needed.
At this point, I don't know what my goals are for the week. I can obviously look back and learn from the week. I don't know yet what that lesson will be, but it will come to me I'm sure.
But as I said earlier it's either half full or half empty. So rather than focus on the negative and what I was not able to do this week (as hard as it is right now), I just have to settle on the fact that for the first time EVER I was able to RUN the week after a half marathon.

Until next time...

A great race, a PR and a hat trick (almost)

2011-02-27T21:06:00.000-05:00

Success is having faith-Failure is being afraid:
Part of having faith is having a belief that good things are going to happen to you and through you. Being afraid is having a belief that bad things are going to happen to you. Whatever you believe, you will create the circumstances to confirm that belief. You will seek and find examples and situations that proves you are right. - Keith Cameron Smith

Well, this has ended up being a great weekend as a whole. The qoute can be taken 2 ways if you don't yet know how my Half Marathon ended.....Either that I suceeded or I failed. Glass half full, glass half empty.
This morning was the "Last Chance for Boston" Half Marathon. Before I start, since I've been asked, the reason it is called this was back in the day when the race was formed, this was the "Last Chance" for those looking to qualify for Boston later in the year. Recently they changed things up and moved the deadline to qualify. But the organizers, rather than make up a new name and confuse people, kept it the same. People can still qualify, but the times would be recognized for the following year.
Today's goal seemed simple....Obviously I wanted to finish the race, but I wanted to finish it without stopping. I also wanted to break 2 hours for the first time....and my friend Jodi, who is one of the girls I'm running with in Cleveland, her best time in a half was 1:51, so we kicked around the idea of breaking 1:50
Goal #1 - Finish the race, start to finish, without stopping. Done - Oh, but there were some close calls, including one where I felt like I was blacking out...More on that later
Goal #2 - Break 2 Hours. Done - Not in the typical fashion, granted....But hey, the whole part is the experience. (Thanks Jodi)
Goal #3 - Break 1:50. Failed - Ok, before I go on, I need to explain as Jodi and I have caught some slack for this "plan". Some seem to feel that it was "not realistic" of me to try for this, since I've never even broken 2 hours. While normally I may agree. But the last few weeks (for the most part) I have felt fantastic. I have even been trying to do all my runs at an 8:23 pace (or faster), which is something we needed in order to break 1:50 Now, add in the course layout. A 1-Mile loop, NO hills. A perfect course, and proven, for people to set PR's. With the way training has felt and the set-up, I know it seemed tough, but for me, it was a no-brainer and I could not pass up the opportunity to help a friend achieve a goal. Most I've done at that pace is 6 miles though...so was a bit wary. We should have taken into account the fact that Jodi has run a Half Marathon the past 2 weeks, so this would be the 3rd week in a row. Either way, I don't regret it at all, and while I'm slightly disappointed, everything else makes it all better.
So for me, still got the hat trick (ps - hockey term for 3 goals scored) :-)

The website had the splits for us and everything, so here is my mile by mile, blow by blow journey....Drink caffeine now so you don't fall asleep. heehee

Sunday - "Last Chance for Boston" Half Marathon (1:57:41) Average Pace per mile (8:59)

1.1:    9:03
The way the course layed out, we started the 0.1 mile before the finish line, so the first mile included that.  The start of the race was crazy. Ended up being over 500 participants and we only had half the road, so yes, it was a bit cramped.  The 5K and 1/2 Marathon started first and the 10K and Full Marathon start a few minutes after and a tenth of a mile back.
I was anxious to get started, still happy the rain and snow never showed as they projected earlier in the week. I admit, since I have done most of my runs on a treadmill, I have nooooo clue about pacing (Hence the reason Jodi was there, expert pacer) I usually set pace on treadmill and run, pretty easy. Well, the gun goes off and we start weaving in and out to avoid the joggers and walkers. Felt great but in the back of my mind, sorta frustrated with the traffic, so I tried to clear some pace. The first mile was completed and I asked Jodi how slow we ran....Ya, she tells me 8:11....I was shocked and I could tell she was thinking I was nuts. I guess we started out quick, which was good (Hey, there was warning I'm clueless to pace times)
2:    8:20
By the second mile, the crowd spread out, so that was good. Still felt off, but I was staying focused on my form, with one eye making sure I stayed with Jodi and another eye on the runners ahead...My third eye had to be one the runners flying by us. Some seemed rather peaved if they yelled "On left" and you didn't immediately move for them.
3:    8:27
Mile 3 felt just as good, we had banked some extra time, so just had to keep a smooth pace. Outlook was great and was enjoying the race.
4:    8:33
I believe Mile 4 was when we started getting lapped by the Full Marathoners. You could tell which one's they were based on the fact they were the skinny people who looked like real runners and flying by us (Full Marathon winner finished in 2:48, which is a 6:27 pace per mile...holy fast) It was this mile where I started to notice Jodi was a bit off, not in regards to pace, but her look. She seemed to struggle, but I could tell she was trying not to show it. I couldn't tell if it was the pace, her hamstring or 3 straight weeks of half marathons catching up to her.
5:    8:30
The only thing I focused on this mile was getting Jodi to stay positive and believe in herself. I realize she does, but the minute you shutdown, it's tough to recharge. And in my delusional mind we were going to do this.
6:    8:39
This was the turning point, both good and bad for us. After mile 6 she mentioned our split and I just said how about we drop 1:50 from the plan and just enjoy the rest of the race and just get me under 2 hours. The look on her face was priceless and the next words out of her mouth were "thank God". I guess my instincts were correct. But we figured after this mile, while we were around 50 minutes and still looking good as a time, we just couldn't keep the pace going.....and the weight was lifted off of her and somehow, I added some as it was a struggle
7:    8:49
Over half way completed....If I recall, it was around this time I stopped asking for our split time for the next few miles. I could see the overall time each pass and knew we were in ballpark range, no worries though, confident in breaking 2 hours with ease.
8:    9:04
While technically not down the homestretch, instead of counting how many miles we have run, it's how many miles left. Not a good idea, since if I've learned anything with my training runs, when my mind hears "miles left", he takes it as close to done and tries to shut down. First mile over 9 minutes, BUT still under 2 hour pace.
9:    9:31
Mile 9 is one that I will remember as the one that almost won. We had been at it for over an hour now and while I was taking in water the last few miles, I still had yet to have my gel pack. Ideally, I should have refueled around the 1 hour mark. Halfway thru mile 9, my legs started to get heavy and something was not feeling right. I turned one of the corners, ran about 10 feet and started veering to the right, then all the way left, almost falling over and blacking out. Luckily for me, a guy was passing me on the left and he sort of held me up, ask if I was ok and kept going. Jodi obviously had no clue, since I had fallen back about 5-10 body lengths. I immediately opened up the gel pack, but still had not stopped, but was seriously considering it. But he was not going to win....
10:    9:24
My mind on mile 10 was playing games with me. I knew after mile 9 that we were still clear sailing to break 2 hours, as long as I stayed focus. Part of me was trying to forget about mile 9, part of me was focusing on how many miles we had left and part of me was just focused on staying positive and finishing.
11:    9:39
Mile 11 brought flashbacks of the 10 mile training run I had with Jodi and Jenn a few weeks back. Jenn would fall back a bit and I would slide back with her, reminding her to stay positive, since after falling back she was literally running the same pace as us. Well, THAT was what was in my head. I realized I was about 10-15 feet behind Jodi but we were running the same pace (she knew what she was doing) :-)
12:    9:57
Mile 12 was obviously my slowest mile. My mind and body was in shutdown mode. The only thing I kept thinking was "one leg in front of the other, one leg in front of the other" In a way, I'm impressed and shocked the last few miles were even under a 10 minute mile pace. It felt alot slower but it didn't matter because.....
13:    9:50
The final mile. Obviously in a perfect world and as I envisioned it the last few weeks, we would be on pace to break 1:50 and sprint towards the finish. Life's not perfect, so to the present. I check my watch every 1/4 mile. Just to keep reaffirming to myself that as long as I just move then it'll be great. I believe checking my watch made the last mile that much longer. My form sucked, my body hurt, but I was not stopping. I kept trying to keep pace with Jodi. As we made the turn for the last 1/4 mile, she slowed down until I caught up so we could cross....The finish line....Under 2 hours. Both of us were spent and she laughed as my legs nearly gave out and gave her a hug, kind of forcing her to hold me upright until we got the the table to collect our finishers medal and hand in our time chips.
It was a good 3-4 minutes before I could get my balance, sucked down a few cups of Gatorade and headed inside to the runners lounge they had set up. Bananas, oranges, bagels, juice, water....never tasted so good. We sat down to stretch and while we were stretching, we met members of the Urbana University soccer team. As a fundraiser, the whole team "had" to run the half marathon. It was funny listening to the stories of the race. One guy joked how his nipples were bleeding since he didn't cover them up (to that Jodi responded...they make guards for that...LOL) Stayed at least an hour (or so it seemed) to stretch and then I left to my ice bath.

All in all, it was a great weekend. They say the first time doing something should be something you remember. While big picture this training process has been about completing my first ever Marathon in May, I will always remember the first time breaking 2 hours and how cool it was, since it was different than most.
Would it have been easier to just say, run a 9:09 pace......sure, but that's boring.
Would it have been cool to do it some city downtown with lots of scenery....sure, but where's the story in that.
Of course as I write this, the one part that does not like the fact I just did this...my IT Band....Ouchieeeeeeee, walking down steps sucks, then again so does walking in general. Good thing I have the chiropractor (aka the witch doctor) tomorrow and debating a massage later in the week.
And yes, Jodi, I so appreciate you driving down from Cleveland to pace me (when you should have been running 15 miles with Jenn..lol) So THANK YOU!......You, Jenn and I are sooooo going to be finishing a marathon in May....

Until next time.....

Life is actually easy....or so I've heard.

2011-02-26T09:20:00.000-05:00

For those that have never heard Rex Crain speak or follow him on Facebook, the guy is amazing. Totally inspirational.

This week I was looking forward to ending real soon. Not because it would be hard, but because of what was waiting at the end. But since life is actually easy, it will be no problem.

I knew Sunday would be the "Last Chance for Boston" Half Marathon and so many emotions were going through my head. My first focus was my goal to break 2 hours for the first time and I felt with the way training has been going and the pace of all my runs I should be able to do that.

My next thoughts were on next week. The past 2 Half Marathons I have run, my body has not recovered well and I have not been able to run/walk without excruciating pain for weeks after. And with the marathon training, it doesn't show that I am allowed to take weeks off and will have to run again on Tuesday.

Added into the mix was the forecast of snow, sleet and rain on race day.

My last thought is to flip the tables and instead of letting Jodi pace me, I'm going to help her. Her best time is 1:51 in a half marathon. I tossed around the thought that if the training this week goes well, we are going to try and break 1:50, something she has wanted to do for awhile. In order to accomplish that, we need to average about 8:23 minutes per mile. I wasn't going to bring this up to her until race morning, but since we push ourselves and keep each other in the loop/accountable for each workout, I couldn't hide it. If my week felt good, the new goal would be 1:49:59 Yikes....

Monday - Rest Day

Tuesday - 3 Miles (24:57)

Felt a little sore after Sundays 7 miler, but nothing major. Wanted to start off the week right and stay positive and look forward to the Half. Set the treadmill at 8:20. Had absolutely no problems and it felt great. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a major deal since I've had training runs alot faster. But the plan was starting to get clear. Tomorrow the mileage gets bumped up to 6 miles, so that will be the test.

Wednesday - 6 Miles (50:03)

Today would be the test for me. If I struggled, I would back off and stick to the original plan. If it went well....game time. It would also be the longest that I would have gone with the faster pace. I felt really good at the start and for some reason had an extra kick in me. I knew going in that I would have to split up my runs due to the treadmill settings. After 2 miles the treadmill that had no limits set on time opened up so I quickly jumped on that to finish the rest of the run. The last 4 miles went smooth. My IT Band loosened up after about a mile or two, so I had no problems. Finished the run with a smile and I was a bit excited and sort of proud.

Tonight I had an appointment with the chiropractor, which was perfect timing. He worked out some kinks and went over things for the race.

I also decided to head over to check out the course for the race. It's only 5 miles from my house so it will be nice not have to drive far. After seeing the 1 mile loop, it confirmed my decision about our pace we plan to run. The course is completely flat, granted the scenery is kinda boring, just office buildings. But we will know where the half mile marker is, when the water station is coming up and also know that there will be no surprise hills. Checked out the website and looked at some of the comments from the past and people have loved it. The only thing that needs to hold off is the weather.

The only part up in the air is Jodi, as she texted me to let me know her hamstring was still bothering her. She and her friends ran the Livestrong Half Marathon in Austin, TX this past weekend and I guess there was a monster hill (which not many people ran up...of course she did, since she is sorta nuts like that when it comes to running...heehee) She did take an extra day off, then had to cut her run short today. Proud of her for listening to her body and not pushing herself though. No reason for silly injuries.

Thursday - 3 Miles (24:57)

Of course it wouldn't be Thursday without waking up late....LOL Every week, but it was not late enough to stop me from hitting the gym early. They were talking about the weather getting nasty for the drive home, so even more incentive to get my stuff done early. My IT Band was a little sore after the long run yesterday, but at this point sore is good. Nothing fancy today. I followed the same guidelines as the other 2 runs....same pace. Finished with a nice cool down and stretch and made it to work on time. Now is the hard part....Waiting for the weekend to come.

Friday - Rest Day

Today I am going to get a nice and easy elliptical workout in to stretch the legs and then relax most of the day. Granted I have a bunch of errands to run and to make sure I have everything ready for tomorrow. Probably will meet up with Jodi when she gets into town tonight for a little carb loading dinner and then rest up. As of now, she told me her hamstring feels good and we are ready to rock the race.

If anyone knows how to control the weather....could you please hold off on the snow and rain until Sunday afternoon? That would be great. I would ask a meteorologist, but they are really only correct 30% of the time...bwahahaha

Until next time..

Learn from the past, enjoy the present and look forward to the next day....

2011-02-20T20:59:00.000-05:00

What are you looking at? What you see affects the decisions you make. Make your atmosphere worthy of your attention. If you like flowers around you, buy them! Do not wait and hope someone will send hem to you. Take the initiative. When you are set up...you won't be up set! - Rex Crain

Week 6 means 1/3 of the way to the goal of finishing my first marathon. To think there was a time where I would never have considered doing something like this....To think there was a day where day 1 was complete. Seems like yesterday....

Monday - Rest Day

Tuesday - 3 Miles (26:27)

Considering my last week, I was obviously aprehensive regarding today (and for that matter, the whole week) But today's run was encouraging. Looking at all the positives, it was under a 9 minute mile pace and while I was very sore, there was no sharp pains. Made for a great day and from what I am learning....Learn from the past, enjoy the present and look forward to the next day.

Wednesday - 5 Miles (44:09)

Still a little sore, but compared to last week, its totally like night and day. Only thing that could have gone better was more open treadmills. At the community center, there is one treadmill that is not restricted for some reason. The rest are programmed to stop after a half hour. So a minor inconvenience, stopped after 3 miles and finished the rest. There was a small tweak in my knee around the 4th mile, but I figured that had to do more with me stopping then starting back up. Felt really good after the run and made sure to stretch and even doubled it up. I planned to head to the Ultimate U after work for a circuit training class, but by the end of the day I just listened to my body and decided to relax in the evening.

Thursday - 3 Miles (26:15)

Seems to be a norm for me on Thursday, but by the end of each week, I'm a bit sluggish to wake up in the morning. Tempted to run after work, but got my usual encouraging text from Jodi. One of my running partners for Cleveland, she keeps me motivated and focused to keep my eye on each run. She also gets up at 4:30 AM for her runs since she has kids, so is done by the time I even think about running. She texts me her run times and of course to be funny today, since she is pacing me next week for my half marathon, I decided to follow her lead....And I ran the exact time as her, plus one second. Only fair since she is the pacer for her to finish ahead of me :-)

Friday - Rest Day

Saturday - Cross Train

Headed to the gym for some cross training. Did about 45 minutes on the eliptical and was able to do some weight work and core exercises. Finished off with some stretching and headed to Shane's for his yearly Birthday poker get together. Very low key, but a great night of friends and relaxation. Best quote of the night came near the end...His brother just out of the blue..."I think it would be cool to own a pet midget" LOL...Seriously? We were in tears with the discussion. Guess you had to be there.

Sunday - 7 Miles (1hr, 7min, 32 sec)

At the beginning of training a fraternity brother of mine mentioned that if I ever wanted someone to run with let him know. Haven't seen him in at least 10 years, so I did not know how much he ran. He played soccer in college and was always in shape. So this past week I asked and he said he would run. But suggested Sunday since his schedule had him running 17 miles Saturday and Sunday was "only" 6. Come to find out he's training to qualify for the Boston Marathon in April and his goal is to run a marathon in every state.

Was a great run, all things considered. The cold came back to Columbus and there was rain and sleet most of the afternoon. My friend Kim mentioned last week that I was nuts because anyone that runs for fun is insane....lol I'm sure she was partially kidding, but me running in this weather leans towards her point...heehee. Toughest part about the run was the conversation. Was a great distraction though, and considering the pace I was somewhat surprised I was able to carry a conversation. Running by myself, I obviously refrain from conversation, but running at that pace is a bit tough. Rain and cold were not much of an issue. Was able to catch up on alot of things and focus on my breathing all at the same time....How about that for multi-tasking! In the end, finished at about a 9:30 pace with a fast mile of 8:09

Had some knee pain as I got home, probably the IT Band, since I realized I did not wear the brace. But did my usual post long run ice bath and seems to be ok.

Looking forward to the week ahead. A bump in mileage during the week and finishing it off with a Half Marathon in Dublin, OH. Jodi is coming down from Cleveland to pace me and my ultimate goal is to break 2 hours. She was in Austin, TX today running the LiveStrong Half Marathon and finished with a 1:56 and sounds like a plan for next week. But while I managed to hold a conversation throughout the run today, I told her that I probably won't be doing too much talking during. So we will have to catch up before and after. Gonna be a great week....The projected rain and snow for next weekend not going to damper the great weekend. :-)

To quote the Black Eyed Peas....I got a feeling...

Until next time.....

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.......

2011-02-16T19:48:00.000-05:00

Just like a play on Broadway needs an audience to stay in business, all negative situations need an audience in order to continue. Never pay attention to things you don't like. Don't worry. Negativity feeds on fear and starves on faith! - Rex Crain

Week 5 of Marathon training was easily the roughest to date, so negativity was not hard to find, just hard to block out. Between physical injuries and mental blanks I had no idea what which way was up and which way was down. It almost got to the point where I would say "what's next". I did however learn something. I'm not one to complain nor am I one to celebrate, so actually letting people know about my training was (and is) tough to get used to. There is still a small part of me that just wants to go about things and let everyone know AFTER the fact. So writing about an injury or a bad run or even about a great run is still something I am adjusting to.
From the beginning, in my mind I have always thought this was going to be no big deal. Now granted, I realized it would be challenging and not "easy", but I have no doubts about finishing. For those that know me, I'm a pretty modest guy. I always brush off peoples amazement or peoples praise, because to me, I don't see the big deal. It's not like I'm doing something that has never been done before by someone else.
But after this week I'm truly beginning to accept some things. One of them is to be proud of what I accomplish. I am starting to appreciate it more and look forward to the challenges ahead. Of course it took a bad week to get me to open my eyes/mind.

Monday - Rest Day

Tuesday - 3 Miles (1.25 Miles 11:26)
Easily the worst day of the training process to date. I previously mentioned how the true success of my 9 mile run the previous Saturday would be determined today....Definately a failure. Mentally I was not there. On the treadmill ready to start and something was not right. Legs felt sore, but being that it was only 3 miles, they would be fine. I even thought to slow the pace down. About 1/2 mile into the run I started feeling really uncomfortable, closing in on pain. At that point it had seemed like I had been running for about 15-20 minutes. But sadly it was less than 5. As I approached the first mile, I could feel my mind trying to shut down, which of course did not block out the pain. I could only last another quarter mile before I had to quit. Was the worst feeling ever because on top of the excruciating pain in my leg, I gave up, I quit. I realize in the long run it may be a smart move to listen to my body. But that doesn't help the present feeling. The rest of the day felt painful to move and walking up and down steps was not enjoyable either.

Wednesday - 5 Miles (46:46)
Starting to feel better than yesterday and was anxious for my "semi-long" run. I tried not to be hesitant, but I was focused and determined to NOT quit this run as I had yesterday, no matter what. The past is the past and can not change what happened. I blocked out all of the negative thoughts and the pain....well, at least I tried. The biggest difference between today and the day before, was that I finished. It may have been one of the more painful runs, start to finish, and I may have done it slower than I wanted to, but I was content knowing that I completed the training run without stopping.

Thursday - 3 Miles (26:48)
Woke up late...Well, actually, woke up early and went downstairs to get a drink. Came back up and obviously turned off music and just crawled back underneath the covers. So had to wait until after work for my workout. I just wanted to make it through, just as I did yesterday. Still felt some soreness and pain, but could deal with it. My goal for today was to attempt to get back under the 9 minute mile pace. Mission accomplished. Again, not a perfect run and obviously could of done better, but baby steps. Plus I didn't have the desire to want to cut off my legs as much as the last 2 days. Home to ice my body.

Friday - Rest Day
Friday could not come a minute sooner. Had a chiropractor appointment first thing in the morning and was hoping that he could help with my pain. Was informed that I have something called Tarsal Tunnel. Has to do with the nerves and ligaments around my ankle. Got some electric stim on my ankles and an adjustment and felt a little better the rest of the day, although a bit sore from him working on certain areas..

Saturday - Cross Train
Today seemed like a rest day. I was able to get a nice and easy 1/2 hour on the eliptical. Didn't want to overdue it seeing how I had a 10-Mile run the next day. Headed to Cleveland to relax and hang out with friends and prepare for my long training run with the girls. Got a hotel as to not be a bother to anyone. Wasn't about to spend the night and wake up normal people at the butt crack of dawn on a Sunday despite the 3-4 people to offer that I stay with them.

Sunday - 10 Miles (1:44:12)

Today started earlier than normal. I've been doing my "long runs" on Saturday, but since I decided to do a training run with Jodi and Jenn for some outdoor running, had to run on Sunday. Start time was 6:30, as in AM, so I asked for a 5:15 wakeup call from the front desk and I guess I had gotten someone that could not tell time, since the phone rang at 5 (Hey that 15 minutes would have been nice) But I'm somewhat of a morning person, so got up and was ready to go. We all met up in Rocky River around 6:15 and I was assured that there would be other crazy people out at that time running the trails. Well, we didn't see a person running until about an hour later when it was light out. LOL
The paths were still covered in ice and snow so we hit the road side by side. Started out nice and slow and actually a bit too nice. I could tell it was a bit of a slower pace because I was able to hold a conversation without hyperventalating. Enjoyed the conversation though as this was the first time meeting Jenn, so I needed to introduce her to my sarcasm, since I tend to be sarcastic at times. :-) Around what I figured to be the 2-3 mile mark I had to know my pace, just to get an idea. Jodi was the only one with a garmin, so she had the control. Being the professional runner that she is (at least thats what I call her) she knows about pacing and is a great runner, so we just followed her lead. Once we hit 5 miles, we turned around. It was at that point that the girls paused to a fast walk for some water. I took it upon myself to take the lead and start running. To be honest, I also did it to kind of push Jenn a bit. She is stronger than she thinks, and I wanted to get her to keep realizing it. I could tell she was focusing and tried to keep her loose and not bringing negative Nancy out. I fell back to keep her going and whether she knew it or not I was purposely getting her to keep the pace (without telling her to speed up....heehee) We finished the last 5 miles in about a 10:15 ish pace, which is just around (or a few seconds faster than our planned marathon pace) Both the girls did great.
We got back to our cars which meant I was done....woohoo Of course since I am on the bunny hill program, the girls had another 3.1 miles to go. So I stretched a bit and headed back to the hotel, but not before stopping off for hot chocolate and ice for my post race ice bath.

With the week behind me, my focus is now on the half marathon, which is less than 2 weeks away. Need to take it one day at a time though and focus on the short term, which is each day. Only the man upstairs knows what is in store for me this week. I can only pray that I make it through. On a positive (I think) side....With all these little "ailments" at least I can't focus on just one thing...LOL First it was the IT Band, just when that feels good, the knee flares up, then when that feels good, its shin splints....this week it's the ankle. I thought I was kidding last week when I said one day my nose would be sore after a run....

Until next time...

100 Days...Seems so close, yet so far away

2011-02-06T12:56:00.000-05:00

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke

Kind of a fitting quote, with so many things that 'seem' impossible. The reason they seem impossible is that you have never accomplished it. For me it's like attempting my first marathon. I know it can be done, because I envision myself crossing the finish line when I run. But it has yet to happen. Sort of how the mind works I guess, and I know only I can change that. Similar to my goal of breaking 2 hours in a half marathon. This week, as mentally and physically challenging as it's been, has helped me get closer to believing that the goal will happen....21 days in chilly Columbus.

Apologies for the long post....Was never able to do an update during the week

Monday - Rest Day

Enough said....

Tuesday - 3 Miles (26:47)

With my issues last week, I decided to break out the knee brace today. I also decided to "take it easy" on my short runs after speeding it up the first 3 weeks. The one thing for me though that I didn't want to concede, was to continue to stay under the magic 9:10 pace per mile. I figured as long as I did that, mentally it would keep me sane and positive. With the nice ice/snow storm hitting the area, schools were closed, so the community center was nice and empty as parents stayed home and the older folks stayed off the roads. Which was good for the ride in, since if there is one thing I don't have patience for, it's stupid drivers. For the most part the run went smooth. Definately felt some tenderness in the knee, but nothing I could not run through. I was "encouraged" for the most part and I will take it. Was a bit concerned however as the rest of the day I was walking around with a limp.

Wednesday - 4 Miles (35:28)

Another cold morning of scraping off ice from the car (and thinking how crazy I am up to go run....but at least not running outside) My calf was a bit sore, which gave me one more thing to question and think about. It's weird, I feel like my body is breaking down, but I also realize it's just small things. I tell myself this is supposed to happen...doesn't matter if I'm delusional heehee

Tough run overall as I have to admit I thought alot about my knee during the run and that may have had something to do with my calf hurting. When one side hurts, you tend to over compensate and let the other side do most of the work.

Thursday - 3 Miles (26:42)

Today marked a countdown to the Marathon....100 days until the race. This was weird because my mind was on both ends of the rope. On one end, I was thinking how far away it was and wondering if the day would ever come, wondering if I could survive 100 more days of training and make it to the start line. On the other end, I was thinking how close it is and started to question if I have enough in me to do this, will I be prepared enough and doubt started to come into my mind.

Granted I know both are "correct" and I sort of compare it to the half full/half empty discussion. Either way, all I can do is make the best of each day and be thankful for each day my eyes open. Just stay positive and have faith.

The gym was back to "normal" as we did not get much snow and it warmed up a bit overnight, so people were back on schedule. Woke up a little late and actually contemplated waiting until after work to get in my workout. But got my butt out of bed and decided to make the best of it. Been a tough week and while I had thoughts of my impending 9 mile run on Saturday I needed to get through these 3 miles. Got my focus on and took a nice and easy pace. Had a few tweaks in my knee and of course had another setback, only in the sense that my OTHER knee started acting up. Ughhhh...

Friday - Rest Day

Nothing too exciting....The work day flew by, which was a pleasant surprise. Was going to make it an early night as I planned to run early on Saturday, but decided to head to The Barn and catch Lt Dan's New Legs. They are a pretty cool band and it's not a bad place to watch live music. No cover is always a plus. So had a few drinks and made it a late night. I needed to enjoy myself. Been a long week especially mentally....

Saturday - 9 Miles (1 hr 21 minutes 41 seconds)

Well, since I decided to enjoy myself last night I got a late start on my run. Slept in a bit and got things ready for pre and post run stuff and ran in the afternoon. Short runs are easy to prepare for, just in and out. Longer runs, I need to break out the compression sleeves for my legs, need to make sure I have bags of ice for my post long run ice bath as well as drinks and food ready for post race meal.

Got to gym around 2:30 and there were only 2 cars, so I was pretty excited. Then I find out both people were walking on the treadmills, leaving only one open. Only problem was the other treadmill is "broke" and only goes up to a certain speed, so it's kind of useless. I decided to hop on the bike and warm up until they left and luckily it was only 15 minutes.

My goal today was to finish under the 2 hour half marathon pace (which is 9:10 per mile) I set the treadmill at 9:05 pace and off I went. It felt weird to think, but I felt like I was going slow. My buddy, the side stitch, came back to visit around mile 2, but nothing major. It was surprisingly smooth sailing until I had to stop and reset the treadmill after mile 6. I had a few tweaks of my knee, but ran through it. I tried moving around while resetting, but it was only about a 20 second rest or so no big deal...3 miles left. It wasn't until mile 8 when my mind starting playing tricks with me. Mostly had to do with the fact that I knew in my head that I was almost done and as is in the past, my head tries to shut my body down early. But fought through it and after a nice cool down I felt good, especially thinking about making it another 4 miles to break 2 hours in 3 weeks....woohoooo

Definately took extra time to stretch and rehydrate, headed to Tim Hortons for my XL hot chocolate and back for my ice bath. It was a bit different running in the afternoon, but in a way it felt like my whole day was shot. Took a while to warm back up and when I finally did, I could feel soreness in my foot. I swear, I'm going to wake up one day from a run and my nose will be sore...lol I decided I should stay in for the night and relax rather than head out to watch the UFC PPV.

We shall see Monday or Tuesday how successful the run was today. Next week was my first "concern" point in the training due to my past 2 times running this distance. So it's time to stay positive and pray the legs 'officially' survive today.

Sunday - Cross Train (1/2 hr elyptical)

Super Bowl Sunday....I look forward to this day actually. My buddy hosts a Super Bowl party each year. Super Bowl kicks off around 6:30, but the party starts around noon. Lots of food, lots of poker, lots of drinks, lots of fun. Originally he hosted it at his house, until a few years ago when he had a kid so it had to be moved, so it's now at On the Rocks. Unfortunately it's considered a "Steelers" bar, so to watch the game this year, I have to put up with all the bandwagon Steeler fans that live in Ohio. If I had to choose who I was rooting for, I would say the Packers, only because it would be nice to watch everyone whine and complain...lol But personally, I'm

rooting for my wallet, so whatever it takes for me to win the pools (even rooting for the Steelers), then so be it....

Because of the Super Bowl party, I passed on waiting until the community center opened to swim and rather went to the condo gym, whipped out a half hour on the elyptical with some core work and weights.

Off to play some poker with the boys and enjoy the rest of the day....

I need to run outside sooner or later (maybe next weekend actually) Just don't have it in me to run in the snow on the icey sidewalks...lol Here is to hoping that there is no snow the last weekend of February.

Looking back, the week had higs and lows, but I did manage to do 2 things that were important in my mind. I completed each run.....and I did them in under my goal time.

The week ahead includes another bump in mileage on Wednesday as well as one on 'long run' Saturday...But I believe it will be ok.

Until next time....

Seems I may have spoken to soon.....

2011-01-30T20:07:00.000-05:00

So what do you want and why do you want it? The why question is very important because what you think you want could just be the things someone else wanted for you. This is also important because if you don’t understand why you want something then you will not be willing to pay the prices to get it. Winners are successful and fulfilled because they not only know what they want, they are clear on why they want it. - Keith Cameron Smith

I've talked about the highs and lows of life and how they pertain to training for this marathon. Just last week I was almost on cloud nine in regards to how things were progressing. Knowing that it was temporary, this this was only the 3rd week, I still wanted to take it all in....I guess I spoke too soon.

Friday - Rest day
Definitely has been a longgggg week, but it has been a good one. Stuck with the plan and decided to not even try and wake up early. Had appointment with the chiropractor after work and we were discussing how training has been going. I showed him my chart and I seriously had to tell him I was a bit nervous because it's been close to perfect. Of course I followed it up with me telling him that while I'm nervous, I don't expect it to continue and I'm letting myself be proud of what I have accomplished so far. On my chart it has 6-7 highlighted weeks. Those are weeks that I was "nervous" about, for various reasons. My first "nervous" week is week 5, due to the fact I will be coming off a 9 miles run and in the past when I run that much, it takes a week or so to recover.
In my last post, I noted how I wanted to "step it up a notch" in my runs for the week. That was accomplished, of course as I was logging my runs onto my calendar for the month, I notice that those runs were actually SLOWER than most of my previous runs. Not a bad thing, especially since I think for my short runs, those are a good pace. I got my compression sleeves for when my shin splints act up and he gave me more homework, which basically involve my eating habits.

Saturday - 5 Miles (44:05)
Woke up and headed to the gym for my "long run" of the week. Weird saying "only" 5 miles, but it's true. Seems everyone and their mother decided it would be a good time to go work out, but I found a treadmill, popped in my ipod and did my thing. Discussions with the doc and friends, I've decided to keep my longer runs at around 9 minutes per mile, at least until the half marathon in the end of February in order to achieve my goal. Everything felt great, as it seems par for the course and kept a smooth pace.....Until about a 1/2 mile to go. Just didn't feel right. But I shrugged it off and kept going and with one lap to go it got worse. Felt like I got hit with a lead pipe in my knee, but unfortunately, no one around the gym was holding any pipes (my bad attempt humor, I know...lol)
Things really are going through my head right now. How great I've been feeling, how it shouldn't be like this "yet", what ifs, doubt, etc, etc. As I mentioned before, I didn't expect concerns until week 5, so issues after a shorter run is kind of a blow. After finishing I tried walking a lap of a cool down but I just couldn't take it. I needed to go stretch and that seemed to help a little. Went home to shower and ice my knee. Not much I could do but rest, so I took a nap and felt useless. Walking down the stairs was painful, which was ironic because just the day before I was "running" down the stairs at work and thinking how good my legs felt.
Spent Saturday night watching the Buckeyes hoops game with a buddy of mine. Needed to get out of the house for a bit. Catching up and just shootin the breeze. Thanks Huey...

Sunday - Cross Train
Well, today was a big bust in terms of working out. Planned on going to the gym after church, but my knee, as well as my mind, were just not feeling it. Trying to be "smart" and not push it too much. I was able to get some errands done, catch up on some cleaning, some laundry and some reading, so the day didn't feel like a total loss. Trying to let the curve ball thrown at me not affect me.

As I sat down to chart some things the doc asked, the one thing I am learning is that I suck at the whole preparing meals thing. I love to cook, love to eat. But my habits most of my life have been so off the wall. Being a single guy, I just cook for myself, so no matter how good or how bad it tastes, its still awesome. Downside of that is when I don't feel like cooking, if I don't have things prepared, I don't eat properly. And until recently, I'm trying to take accountability for myself. It's one thing when you have a family. Because if you don't feeling like eating, it doesn't matter, since you still have other people to feed. So starting this week I'm going to "try" and actually prepare meals and get used to eating as well as track so I can see....lol

Well, tomorrow is another day. Schedule says rest day, but I may just go for a swim, partly because I missed the workout today. Last day of the month, so at least I'll be busy, then Doctors after work, hopefully I get good news and if not, well....Hopefully I listen to him :-)

Until next time...

The hardest is yet to come....

2011-01-27T22:25:00.000-05:00

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you. - Brian Tracy

This seems to be a good quote for me this week. Not that it's been bad, because it hasn't. But I've been tested mentally, at least a little.

The following is partial article from Active.com I read today (Actually it's more of a recap - cliffnote version)

The article talked about the six key phases of the marathon lifecycle.

Phase One: Commit

Actually signing on the dotted line and paying the entry fee

Phase Two: Connect

Find a support group of friends/running store for correct shoes

Phase Three: Conspire

YOUR marathon training schedule. You need to find one to fit YOUR schedule and have confidence.

Phase Four: Consistency

Follow your plan, stay consistant with your schedule.

Phase Five: Doubt

The little voice in our head....Dealing with him is critical in the preparation.

Phase Six: Conserve

It's a marathon, not a sprint...

Ok, the article itself is pretty good (I think)....After reading it today, it definately got me thinking. During my training, I obviously will be getting some pretty high mileage in. One of my goals is to break 2 hours in a half marathon and there will be 3-4 that I will do during training. The little voice in my head has been trying to be an overachiever and wants to go faster, wants to break 1:50:00 (This is also due to the fact that Jodi's goal is also that and I would like to help her get that goal) Well, Phase Six of the article may trump my voice. I don't want to overdo it less than halfway through training, since my ultimate goal is the marathon itself....Prepare and adjust....

---------------------

Monday - Rest Day

Week did not start off with a bang, although being a rest day, I suppose it's ok. Did not sleep well, nor did I get to sleep before midnight (which I'm trying to do). I believe I may just be coming down off of my high from the great weekend. Tomorrow is another day...Right?

The day ended with me agreeing to swim in an alumni swim meet at Ashland. Not sure how that happened, but I'll blame it on a lack of sleep. I tried the "marathon training" excuse, but Gershe didn't buy it.

Tuesday - 3 Miles ( 25:12 )

Definately a slow day getting out of bed. I supposed I could just wait until after work to run, but from the first two weeks, I've felt really good during the day, more energy and awake. Had conversations about a certain time/pace over the weekend and decided to kick it up a notch and see how it goes. Set the treadmill at 8:24 pace and didn't look back. My legs still felt great after Saturdays 7 miler, so I was pretty excited to keep this pace and have no issues.

Wednesday - 4 Miles ( 33:18 )

Woke up late again, but luckily was ready to go out the door. I fell asleep at some point last night and woke up around 3AM with a stiff neck, lights and TV on and people talking spanish...LOL. Not a good feeling to have. (since I was partially laying down/partially sitting up) But I shook the kinks out and headed off to the gym.

Wanted to continue to test myself. Set the treadmill at 8:20 pace, hoping to finish without stopping. Today was the first time over 3 miles on the schedule during the week. At no point did I ever feel the need to stop. The only 'bump' was looking down and noticing only 1 lap left and I guess my head took that as being "done"....LOL Nevertheless, I pushed through it and it ended up being a great run.

I decided to 'skip' the circuit training class after work in hopes to get some cleaning done, laundry, organizing, etc. Instead, I ate dinner, sat in the big comfy chair and fell asleep around 7pm. Ughhhhh

Thursday - 3 Miles (24:58)

In accordance to my rough sleeping week, I woke up later that I planned...again Might have had something to do mith my "nap" last night. This time, realizing that I did not have my bag packed, along with not wanting to rush around, I decided to rest (or be lazy) in bed for a bit longer and just hit the gym after work. The day could not have gone by any slower, then again, this whole week couldn't.

The community center was packed, but luckily it was due to two basketball games and various classes. Upstairs was sort of empty. I threw on my headphones and hopped on the treadmill for my 3 mile run. My mind was actually blank, not sure if it was focus or just an empty room up there. Didn't have a single problem and felt I could have kept that speed for a bit. We shall see.....My goal for the marathon is no where near that pace, so I don't want to ruin my long term goal (just to finish the marathon) by getting greedy during training. After stretching, decided to do some core work and some weights.

I have a feeling I may just rest tomorrow rather than swim. Then again, I'll just go with the flow, never know how I'll feel. So I guess I will just pack my bag for the gym...Just in case

Like a boy scout, always be prepared :-)

Until next time...

Should I be worried.....?

2011-01-24T22:09:00.000-05:00

The one thing about deciding to train for the marathon, besides getting in better shape, is that it adds structure to my life. I have learned that while at times it is frustrating to "follow" a plan or a routine, it helps me be better organized and keep focused...focused on life in general. Whenever you set a goal to do something, whether it be in your job, in your personal life, etc, you are going to make sacrifices. Some may be small, some may be life altering. That depends on you. It is these sacrifices that make you focus. How bad do you want the goal you set? How important is it that you accomplish the goal? For me, I don't feel (or look at it) as me giving up anything. Sure there are things I'd love to do, but then again, how important were THOSE things. There are times and tribulations in everything we go through in life. But in the end we need to sit back and let things sink in. I'm doing this for me, but in a small way doing it for anyone that I can "help"....So I can't let myself down as well as letting my friends down...

Friday - Rest Day

Learning to follow directions. Legs felt good from the week as did my mind and body. The day could not go by quick enough as I was looking forward to the weekend. After work I went home to relax, clean and do some laundry.....I know, I know, ya'll are jealous, admit it....LOL Trying to be sensible, since I had my longest run to date bright and early....Gym opens at 9am

Saturday - 7 Miles (1 hr, 1 min, 24 sec)

Woke up early, knowing I had a long run and plan was to go to the gym at 9. With my long runs, I also need to make sure I'm set for my "post race", which means lots of stretching and an ice bath, as well as lots of rehydration.

Knowing there are only 3 treadmills at the condo gym, I wanted to get there early. I was trying to 'look forward' to 7 miles on the treadmill. I realize I have to venture outside for long runs sooner rather than later, but the snow throws a wrench in things. Of course I laugh as I write this because Jodi and Jenn (who are allowing/making me run the marathon w/them) run bright in early in Cleveland for their long runs and this weekend it was snowing and -3 degrees outside. Either they are nuts or I'm just a wimp.....I'm going to lean towards a little bit of both. heehee

I set my goal to run under a 9 minute mile pace. I was trying to ignore the other people in the gym. Bad thing about running on a treadmill are the signs that say "please limit to 20 minutes if people are waiting". I of course didn't want to upset anyone, but I also didn't want to interupt my run. Guess I would worry about that when the time came. Run was going very smoothly and the first 3 miles flew by. Someone hopped onto the treadmill next to me, which most times is a good thing. You get the feeling of "racing" someone and it is just another thing to help the time pass. But unfortunately he walked most of the time, so it was a bit of a bummer. 5 miles into the run and was feeling really good, so I decided to speed it up a bit and finish the last 2 miles strong. As I was hitting the buttons, I hit one that showed the treadmill only goes for 60 minutes. Of course I could do 2 things. Start sprinting and speed it up to finish before the hour was up, (which I knew was not smart) or just let it end, restart and finish. I kept motoring along and took it in stride. In the back of my mind I have the time limit on the treadmill, wondering if the others wanted on, along with trying to stay positive and finish strong. For some odd reason my mind focused on the fact that I had not gotten a side stitch the whole time (seriously?? I mean, why was I thinking that...lol) Granted, I'm thankful for that, but was hoping not to jinx it. Treadmill hit the 60 minute mark and went into cooldown mode. I quickly tried and was successful at speeding it back up to my original speed. Knowing I only had a short time left, finished strong and still had a few minutes to cooldown.

Spent the next 15-20 minutes stretching and reviewing my run in my head as I normally do. Headed off to Tim Hortons for an XL hot chocolate and back home to "enjoy" my ice bath.

Decided on pizza for dinner....yummmy yes...healthy not so much. And for 'dessert' I had a taco. May have been the BEST tasting taco I've everrrrrrr had (Hey, it's been awhile since I've been able to enjoy one, so give me a break...heehee)

Spent the night hanging out and relaxing with friends, catching up with long overdue time...Looking forward to more. Sometimes the best nights are ones just chillin, no worries, no distractions other than friends.

Sunday - Cross Train

Spent Sunday in Cleveland, catching up with friends. Tough part about not living there is when I do go up to visit, there is only so much time in the day. I try and make my rounds and this time was to distribute/collect money from pools I'm a part of and other things. I of course have been getting the "you should move back" and "so when are you moving up here" comments.

Didn't sleep well the night before but was up bright and early for 7am workout. Maybe it was great night I had, maybe it was just too many things on my mind. Got in 30 minutes on the elliptical and another 30 minutes on the bike. Feeling great from my long run the day before so I'm still a bit amazed. I realize I have run 7 miles before, but I have never felt this good afterwards. Maybe in my head, it's sort of a weekend high....

Headed up to Westlake for Church and then spent the day trying to relax with friends which was good because it seems that as long as it took for the weekend to come, it left even quicker.

As I lay in bed last night, I took some time to review some things. I allowed myself to be thankful for the things I have and for the people in my life. I wanted to rewind back to Saturday (but maybe at least to AFTER the run...lol)

Week 2 completed, week 2 successful. Definitely need to work on the water consumption on weekends as I neglected that....Baby steps...

Life is good, yet in regards to the training, I still have to wonder, should I be worried....?

Until next time.....

One Step at a Time....

2011-01-20T22:07:00.001-05:00

"Words are like a thermostat; while a thermometer reveals the temperature of a room, a thermostat sets the atmosphere to a comfortable temperature. Negative words pollute the atmosphere of our lives and the lives of others, while words that thank God bring miracles." - Rex Crain

What an amazing quote...Positive thinking. Imagine what your life would be like if you eliminated negative words. I realize it wouldn't be perfect. Life is not perfect, but take a day and just wipe them out of your vocabulary. Too hard, I can't, I don't know, never.....You will be amazed at what you accomplish.

Monday - Rest Day

Part of the reason for me completely resting was that I knew going in that it would be a long day at work. I also had an appointment with the Chiropractor after work. He pretty much tore up my shins and muscles below my knee. In a good way, he basically uses these metal tools and rubs the muscles to break up scar tissue. Doesn't feel good, but the outcome works. With the whole marathon training, he actually gave me a website to look at, dealing with food intake and calories burned, along with giving me homework. Seriously? LOL....I need to find all sources of "good" fats to incorporate into my diet.

Tuesday - 3 Mile Run (23:38)

Woke up to find a great text from a friend that started my day off right. Legs felt rested and was thankful that they survived my first long run Saturday. Since I was feeling a bit frisky, I decided to step it up this week. Maybe I was still on a high from a great first week of training. Normally I have been trying to do 8:30 mile pace for my short runs, but instead shot it up to just under 8:00 mile and see how it would go in the hopes to break 24 minutes. First 2 miles were a breeze, until a side stitch came (which is starting to be a trend and one I don't care for....lol) But I was not going to let it get me down and pushed through it, helping me finish with my fastest short training run to date.

I definately needed that, because I knew the rest of the day would be long. End of month and End of year....Meaning the salespeople would ALL need and want things....and need and want them immediately.

Wednesday - 3 Mile Run (25:20), Circuit Training Class

Weigh-In day...Been 10 weeks and still waiting for Allison Sweeney to help me weigh in, but oh well....Scale shows 197lbs for a total of 35lbs since November 10th. I was happy with that and my progress as a whole. Training and losing weight at the same time is new to me. But in life, they say if you're not learning, you're not living. I'm at a point where I have about 20lbs left to lose, but also not going to nitpick. The weight will come off. I am starting to see toning though that I have not seen in awhile, so that's pretty cool....Still a ways off to my six-pack goal by Marathon.

Morning started off at the gym. Somewhat felt the side effects of 2 long work days, but was going forward. Only problem was after about 1/2 mile into the run, my mind shut down, finished, wanted off. Reasons to stop were flowing in my head. Those 3 miles seemed like a marathon since I was trying to stop the negativity. Nevertheless, I was able to finish, without stopping.

After work, I headed to the Ultimate U for Sam's Circuit training class. Started strong, but my focus shifted midway through....each station I battled with myself to make it through. So the workout ended the way the morning one did. Finishing, yet disappointed.

The one positive out of the day was, despite mentally checking out, I still was able to finish. I guess it's those little things that help, both in my training and in life....

Thursday - 3 Mile Run (22:44)

Today was definately a lesson in what NOT to do. I went to the gym and felt great. Part of it was my mind maybe playing tricks on me. I was determined to have a better day than the one before. Granted I didn't have a "bad" day, I was just disappointed in myself for "checking out" during both workouts, despite finishing. Even though it's Thursday, I'm still thinking of the weekend, not exactly sure why. I had a little bounce in my step, so I decided I would leave it all on the treadmill. I set it at a 7:35 mile pace, something I never thought I would come close to doing. I focused on everything positive and refused to stop. There was no pain, felt absolutely awesome. Once I finished, I went for a long stretch, still a bit in awe of what I just did.

I can think back to September setting it to 10:00 mile pace and wishing I could go more and sort of being jealous of the person next to me as I was huffing and puffing at that pace.

The lesson however....hit me about 9 or 10am. My body was telling me it didn't appreciate how fast I went and my back locked up. It wasn't because of a lack of stretching. As long as I didn't move, I was good...It wasn't until the afternoon where the pain subsided and the spasms stopped, but I definately overdid myself, but still excited.

Tomorrow will be a well deserved rest day. Mentally and physically. Looking forward to what I hope will be an absolutely great weekend.....Yes, I gotta a feelin by Black Eyed Peas is in my head.

Until next time....

One Week Down...17 to Go....

2011-01-16T20:41:00.000-05:00

"Every life is a story...Make yours a best seller." - Unknown

Alright, so maybe I should not have started the title that way. Maybe a "Successful First Week" or "One Week Closer" would have been better.

With the Patriots losing today, it puts a damper on what has been a great weekend as I finish off the first week of training for the Cleveland Marathon. And for the first time in along time I actually did NOT travel outside of Columbus. Shocking I know.....

Friday was a scheduled rest day...And shocking to myself, I did indeed REST the whole day. I got the itch to go to the gym after work, but held strong. Partly because I did promise someone I would behave and rest the whole day. A promise is a promise. (and they don't need to know that me resting may or may not have had anything to do with great weekend workouts....teehee) Plus it helped as I stayed in for the night and got some time to organize and read.

Saturday was the day my legs were anticipating all week. No, unfortunately for me, I was not getting a massage. It was my scheduled long run for the week. 6 miles....longest run since the half marathon in October. My first hope was for the condo gym to be empty, which it was. Doing 6 miles on a treadmill, along with being boring, is also tough with people watching or being busy and people waiting. With signs stating "please limit to 30 minutes" is tough justify. And I of course was not finishing my run in 30 minutes, as I'm not from Kenya...LOL
One of my goals during training is to break 2 hours in a Half Marathon. In order to do that I need to average 9:09 minute miles. So after a few positive words/texts from a friend, all morning I decided my first long run would mimic the Half. I set the treadmill at 9:05 and off I went....My adrenaline was kicking in and the next thing I knew, I was halfway through workout. Positive thoughts filled my head, IPod blaring....then as I close in on mile 5, my good friend the side stitch came...Oh, how I despise thee...Focused on breathing and it stayed with me for about a 1/2 mile until I kicked it to the curb. I the looked down and realized I only had 1 mile to go. So I decided to finish with a bang. I set the treadmill at 8:41 and finished strong (54:06) Followed doctors orders and stretched, which surprisingly felt good...
After leaving the gym, I stopped at Tim Hortons and got 2 XL hot chocolates, went home and took a nice relaxing bath (granted, this bath had 22 lbs of ice in it, but it felt good...heehee)
Headed out to pick up some chinese food and went over to a buddy's to watch the game and just chill....Another successful day.
I was encouraged with the run because I really did feel I could keep that pace for a bit....Now of course is the test...How would the legs feel tomorrow.

Due to my "long run" yesterday, today was cross train day and felt great, got some encouraging words from a friend, could walk without pain....Ready to go. Had my plan all laid out. Elliptical, weights/core, then finish off with swim....Well, the gym would not cooperate...lol Community Center was jam packed and I've never seen it like this. Parking lot was full, which started to get me down....went upstairs and EVERYTHING was full...literally everything. Elliptical machines, treadmills, bikes, stair climbers....Checked out the pool, all 8 lanes full with 2 people each....So I decided to adjust my plan and went for the weights first. After finishing my routine, went back to cardio area and yes, still packed. Just as I thought about leaving to go to other gym, a machine opened up...Since I felt surprisingly good with no ill effects from yesterdays run (woohoo...knock on wood), I got in 45 minutes on elliptical. Stretched, did some core work and headed down to the pool for a nice and easy 1 mile swim. Great workout for me mentally as I've had a lot of things to think about. :-)
Unfortunately as I mentioned, tonight ended on a down note as the Patriots lost. Meaning football is over...The AFC representative will be either the rival Jets and the coach with some weird internet foot fetish scandal....or the Steelers and their lovely bandwagon fans that live here in Ohio....

For the week, I've gotten to think a lot about what will be....I'm able to look back on the week and realize that this is one of those "good weeks" during training....I need to be thankful for it.
While I realize I can't control every aspect in my life, I'm able to keep learning that when a curveball is thrown, rather than buckle at the knees and swing n miss....to just foul it off and go after the next pitch.

Never give up, don't accept anything but the best for you, your friends and your family. And most importantly......Experience Life....by living it...

Until next time.....

Almost seems like a Friday

2011-01-13T20:24:00.001-05:00

"You can’t live a perfect day until you do something for someone who will never be able to repay you."
— John Wooden

I was absolutely blown away by all of the kind words over this blog. I partially figured it would be seen by only a few people, and I could quietly hide. Of course, what would the point of that be. Need to learn somehow. It's weird, because I'm totally not the type of person who accepts compliments and in fact, am a bit uncomfortable by it.
So the morning started great because of kind words from friends. How cool is that? Waking up to a text is great especially when you have to wake up alone.
Had an appointment w/the Chiropractor bright and early. Nice to get an adjustment and some electric stim...spent a lot of time discussing my training and most importantly, my stretching. I brought in the sheet of paper that he wrote up of various stretches, along with a printout of my training spreadsheet. For some reason he knew I was actually doing more stretching. Asking him how, he said that "you brought in the paper for questions."
I've actually decided to get sleeves for my calves to lessen the chance for shin splints. I should be fine for my long run Saturday, but just want to be safe.

I was actually excited to go to the gym after work....Parking lot was packed, so my first thought was "oh, no treadmills available"....The negativity quickly left though, as it has no room in this head. For some reason I had a lot of adrenaline and I don't now why....All afternoon I decided that I would do my run in under 24:00 Started out steady and went from there. Made it just over 2 miles before I got a side stitch that hurt like H. E. double hockey sticks....but I was not letting it knock me down. I realize I need to be smart, but also need to learn which is pain I could go through and which I should stop and be safe....Finished my 3 miles in 23:42
And best of all, I kept my breathing steady so I didn't draw attention to myself...LOL

What a way to finish a great day.....As I've said before, I know in this journey there will be good days and bad. I need to accept the good ones and learn from the bad ones.....Fortunately today was a great one.

Tomorrow is another "rest day" on the schedule, so it will either be relax or a relaxing swim :-)

until next time.....

So far so good....

2011-01-12T23:27:00.000-05:00

First, I'm still trying to get used of this whole blog thing. So the "site" is under construction, but I figured I would attempt my first "blog", so bear with me while I get the design to my liking, may take a few days/weeks. I don't know if I will have a schedule of when I post, maybe weekly or if I feel frisky, maybe daily :-)

I'm doing this as a way to help hold me accountable during my training as well as to try something new. This is definately out of my "comfort zone" as I usually keep things to myself. It won't just be about running, because while life itself is a marathon, it's more about the journey and my journey includes other things....Once the 18 weeks are up, the actual marathon is done, but life will continue...I hope to grow and be bold enough to share about other things as well as motivate and inspire. I'm not a teacher or a coach, but if I can inspire 1 person by doing this, then it will be worth it.

Part of me still is wondering what the heck I am thinking...haha Then again, if you knew my plans on what I will accomplish next, then yes, I'm nuts...I've done 2 half marathons and I actually had fun, running both with one of my best friends. Of course Marla is now disappointed, since I will not be able to run with her, since the Cap City half is the week before the Cleveland Marathon. I'm bummed as well, but I can't run more than 6 miles that weekend.....After my first half, I literally could not move the next day and I didn't run for weeks/months. October's half was much better and other than my IT band acting up, only took abt 2 weeks off. Thats when my friend Jodi "told me" I was running the marathon with her....I told her that I would, as long as I dropped some lbs and my body handled the training. I'm sure I will talk more of her running story later as she is one of the people who inspired me to start this blog (and forcing me to run...heehee...ok, encouraging me to run)
My biggest concern, quite honestly will be after the first long run. Doing a half marathon and taking time off is one thing, but the training schedule has at least 12 days of over 10 miles...with the longest being 20. No time to take a few weeks off....Intimidating to say the least.

Speaking of dropping lbs....Wednesday is my official "weigh-in" day, I am now under the 200lb barrier. I let myself go and started getting healthy probably around July/August, since that's about when I decided to do my second half marathon....started working out, sort of eating healthy.....Ran that at 225lbs. In the month following, gained some back. I have been on Monavie's RVL Weight Management program and have lost 32.5 lbs since November 10th....pretty excited, but with the Marathon training, I've been told I need to eat MORE so my body does not start taking muscle away. I do understand, considering in college I would probably eat at least 5-6,000 calories easily a day during swim season. I still have probably 20 or so more lbs to go....but not counting so much now, as I'm gaining lean muscle too. I am however now on a mission to have a six pack by the marathon at the latest....

Monday was the first "official day" of marathon training...Of course it was a rest day. I spent my "rest day" in the pool that morning with a nice and easy 2 mile swim. Nothing better than starting out your day with a swim. I'm really not sure why, but I had a bit of excitement. May have been the morning workout, maybe the anticipation of the next 18 weeks, maybe it was my good weekend that just ended. But the day FLEW by....Got alot accomplished at work....I really wanted to hit the gym Monday night, but held back. Need to realize that this is a marathon, not a sprint (pun intended)
Most people spent their night watching the BCS Championship game. For some reason I just could not get into it. Wanted Oregon to win since they were the underdogs, but also wanted Auburn to win, that way the NCAA would have egg on their face and two years from now will take the title away, tarnishing yet another event. I did however turn it on with about 5 minutes to go and got to watch the exciting finish.

I got up early Tuesday to head to the gym. Luckily there were open treadmills. Got in my 3 miles (26:25) and felt really good. I need to have more of a plan as far as paces and times for my shorter training runs. But for this week my plan is to go fast enough to get a good cardio burn, but not fast enough to where I keel over. When the guy next to you has to ask if you're ok after a run, (which has happened..haha) it may be a bit much.
I'm finding out I have more energy when I workout in the morning. I was especially glad, due to the area getting a bunch of snow. It still amazes me, for as long as I have lived in Ohio, how people freak out when the fluffy white stuff falls from the sky. We live in Ohio people, not Florida!! LOL
I'm not a big TV fan, got a few shows, but Tuesday is Biggest Loser night. Something about it is inspiring, I love watching the transformation of "regular" people taking control of their lives. I could do without the drama and screaming...lol

Today, instead of the snooze button, I just turned off the alarm....Oooops Not enough time to go to the gym to get in my run before work. So after work I went and hit the treadmill. 3 miles (25:17) Felt great and decided to take it up a notch. After the run and some light stretching, went to the Ultimate U in New Albany, where my buddy Sam is a trainer. He runs some group classes and Wednesday nights are his cardio circuit training. Its an hour long butt kicking, but fun workout. It's a pretty cool way to mix things up. Going to get those workouts in now, since once the runs get up there in mileage, won't be able to do those.

Tomorrows run will have to be an after work run, due to chiropractor appointment early in the morning....3 more miles....

I really need to work on getting to bed at a decent time....My body does not seem to mind going to bed around 1 or 2 and getting up around 5-6. Of course in this whole "smarter/better lifestyle" thing I've got going on, I've been told I need more sleep. Sooooo, I'll give it a try....Not saying I'm jumping right to 8 hrs...but I'll try more than 4-5 heehee

Still a lot to work on, but then again, no one is perfect. So just when you think your work is done...you turn the page.....Until next time