2 Time Marathoner

I'm home

Movie Thursday

Whoa!

2 Sunday Long Run Reports / Movie Sunday

Might as well...

NY Marathon was run today....that looks like a TON of fun.

Ok, so the last 2 long runs are in the can. 2 Taper runs, and I feel strong and ready. I hope the weather stays nice, but I'm ok with running in the rain...just worried about my feet if it does rain. Bring it.

Sunday Long Run Report

2 reports in one night...blog slacker

So this past Sunday I had my 20 mile run!!! This is the big one before the marathon. I was pretty excited about it, and had quite a bit of fun running it. I ran the "Mahoning Shadow Trail" which is a rails to trails, PA trailways trail. WOW!!!! I never would have guessed how nice that could be. It was nice because I had to worry so little about traffic, just a few crossings and a 1 mile section through Punxsutawney. It is a 15 mile trail, and soooo nicely kept up. It was a beautiful day and there were tons of people out using the trail. Bikers, runners, dog walkers...I'll post a few pics from the trail in the next couple days. I ran the entire length of the trail and even added about a half mile at the end because I had to run into the little town at the end (Valier) to the fire station to get a couple sodas. I turned aorund and ran 5 miles back up the trail and once again SWMBO to the rescue, she drove alllll the way down and picked me up and took me back to the top trailhead to get the truck. There were a few moments along the way that I thought I would not finish the run, just wanted to sneak out a trailhead and call SWMBO to come get me, but I persevered and got it done. So happy.

Let the taper begin.....so cool, time flies.

Sunday Long Run Report

ok, so it's over a week late....

Had a great run on the 14th. Ran fro Sykesville to Punxsutawney, straight down 119. I was a little worried at first, because it is a pretty busy road, but it wasn't as bad as I imagined. 14 miles. Called SWMBO and she got her cousin and the kids loaded up and came to Punxsy and picked me up. Not a whole lot to say about it other than that. Oh, a new blog was born on this run, that I think is pretty cool, but I'm waiting a week or two to announce it because it is on a different platform, and it isn't ready for launch yet....but very very cool. (I think so anyway).

Movie Friday

OooooKaaaaayyyyyy

Sunday Long Run Report

I walk around in the summer time saying, "How about this heat?"

It was hot. I averaged 13 minute miles for the first 9 miles while it was somewhat cool. Then I averaged 17 minute miles for the last 9 miles. I didn't have enough water, so it was basically just a long walk home from 4.5 miles out. I get home and find out that the Chicago Marathon had been cut short, and a guy died and over 300 people were sent to the hospital, because it was so hot.



Here are some of the runners perspectives.

What an October day.

Anything else fun happen? Hmmmmmmm? Can't think of....oh wait, oh...yeah....almost forgot about having to break into my house at mile 9, because someone left and locked the door! LOVE YA SWMBO!!!!

Movie Friday

...and it's a good one

This is the trailer for an upcoming movie "The Spirit of the Marathon"

My favorite line from the trailer...pretty obvious: "People talk about the runner's high. The only runner's high I've ever had was when I stopped running". Classic.

SWMBO & Slurpy

She's a farm girl alright...she just never realized it.

Sunday Long Run report

Yes, I know it's Wednesday

To try to make up for ignoring this place so much lately, I have cleaned house and redesigned. Hope you like it. (SWMBO gets photo credit for the header image. Isn't she great?)

Run was 12 miles, and easy. Didn't take enough water but SWMBO pulled up around mile 10.5 and had a big tall glass of water for me. Thanks baby! She was on her way to feed the cows. Did I mention we own a pig? Cool.


He's one of the black ones. His name is Shirley. His name is Shirley because, Shirley used to be one of the pink ones, but someone took her.

Tried the Pina Colada Shot Blocks on the run, and surprisingly they are good good good. Nothing like the refreshing taste of pineapple when you're running. Seriously. They are good. Strawberry is still tops though.

Big shout out to Holmes, who as far as I know is the only person who reads this stuff anyway (except for Aunt Dee, she's a faithful reader too). they're the only ones that leave me comment love anyway. Holmes put me very close to 50% on the charity donations. You're too much. I miss Zachey.

Giving to charity...

Make a dream come true

"You will find, as you look back on your life, that the moments that stand out are the moments when you have done things for others." - Henry Drummond

I have a little over a month till the marathon, so I think it's time I start putting some effort into this raising money for charity thing. I'm not the kind of person that can easily ask for things...even if it isn't for me, and it's for people, err, kids that really need it. I guess I need to get over that. So here it goes: If you can spare just $5, I would be so happy, and I think you would be to. I know a lot of people look at my fundraiser page, and they think - "Man, it would be so cool if we could do something and donate a ton of money for this..." And I love the sentiment, but there is something you can do. If you can afford it, give $5 or $10 or $1, big or small, it doesn't matter, but it does make a huge difference.

I've had this fundraiser page up for a few months now, and I look at it, and I think, "Does that make sense? Does it explain the charity?" So I wanted to try and make it make more sense. I went to one of my favorite websites (youtube) and started "researching". Hahaha. I wanted to find out just what is GKTW? What do they do? What makes them special?

Here is what I have found out so far:

(I sort of aggregated all of this from a couple of different sources)

This is Hailey Marie's video:



Hailey is doing very well now, no cancer!

Here is a list of some of the things I have learned that your donation will help GKTW do for 1000's of kids this year. For about 80% of these kids, their last wish will be to meet Mickey Mouse.

• everything at GKTW is designed specifically for kids.
• tables are kid height.
• kids get the biggest room in the villa.
• the kids bathroom is the one with the jacuzzi tub.
• kids can have all the ice cream they want until 9:30pm
• kids can have pizza until 10:30
• kids can have a disney character or GKTW staff read bed time stories at night.
• kids can get tucked in at night by the mayor of GKTW (a big bunny named Mayor Clayton)
• kids can watch movies for free all week long at a huge movie theater.
• kids get free access to ALL of the theme parks in Orlando...Sea World, Universal, Disney, etc.
• kids get fast access to all of the rides at the parks, little to no wait for anything.
• kids get behind the scenes access to the characters.
• all of the rules at GKTW are positive, i.e the pool rules explain what you CAN do not what you can't do.
• when the kids return to their rooms at night, there is a present waiting for them every night.
• kids have access to a big fishing pond.
• kids have rides at GKTW just for them.

There is so much more that this organization does. I hope you can help me reach my goal of raising $1000. If you've already donated, I truly appreciate it. I know that there are a few that are planning on donating, but waiting until a little closer to the marathon for the funds they are raising specifically for this, and I appreciate what you are doing too.

Sunday Long Run report

16 clicks (Ok, I'm not really sure what a "click" is but it sounds sooo cool)

Same story, different day: Beautiful day, long and difficult run. Legs feel like pistons firing that could have gone 10 more miles easily. Lungs laughed at my efforts all day, and begged for more. Feet...well, I probably would have been more comfortable in my flip flops. I think they are serious when they say change your shoes after 250-300 miles. These dogs got 430 on them after this weekend. Equipment update coming this week. I told the lady at the shoe store, "I want the same shoe I got on my feet". She just laughed and said, "They've been good to ya, huh?" Indeed, it will be hard to give them up, but they are still in good enough shape to use for work and such. I wonder if it is odd that I love my shoes so much? 430 miles is a lot of time together. The new Radius 7's should be in today.

Only event that happened on the run: Bee sting. 2nd one I've got this year, and maybe it's just because I'm getting older, or maybe the bees that have stung me this year have built their nests in toxic waste dump areas, but I am having terrible reactions to the stings. This has never happened to me before, but I've got a welt the size of my fist on the outside of my knee, and it hurts so bad to stand. Doctor is supposed to be calling me back soon. Really weird.

Movie Friday

Holmes!!!

Movie Friday

I'm all messed up...

Nick Burns, your company's computer guy. I'm a lot like this guy at work. I've started yelling "MOVE" at the guys I work with when I help them with a problem. Hahahaha.

Monday Long Run Report

Hey, it was a long weekend...

Before you read any further, indulge me for a second. Press play on the song up top (right under the title of this post). Just close your eyes and listen and think about the people you love for a good part of the song if not all of it. Thanks. Continue.

Ran to Reynoldsville again. Quite a bit slower this time.

Usually for me, I struggle with running. Right now, running is about the only thing I'm not struggling with.

ETA: I should note that the song is called: Sad Song or something like that. I didn't ask you to do that to make you sad, although I suppose for some, it might do just that. The request was to simply get you to think about someone.

FWIW (Big on the acronyms tonight): I picture my kids running around in the grass and laughing, and sitting around Papa's fire ring. I picture going to college with my mom, and walking the whole way across the relatively small campus to see her after classes. I picture having 7 friends over to our house in Hepburnia, and running over acres and acres of forestland playing jailbreak. I picture the family going to church Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday evening...a lot more but the song is not that long, and I have to keep replaying it....I don't mind.

Sunday Long Run Report

One town over...

Had a really good run Sunday. Ran from home across to the next town of Reynoldsville. It was a super incredible day, sunny but not terribly hot. Stopped at the UniMart in Reynoldsville and gassed up on Gatorade. It's a relatively flat run, with a few long grades. The only thing I didn't enjoy was running on 322, but that was still pretty manageable. 12:43 min/mi pace makes me very happy. Fitness level, and general good feelings while running makes me extremely happy. Listened to "10 Years" for most of the run, a friend that I am building some websites with turned me on to them after seeing a sample of some of the music I'm currently into. I could listen to "The Autumn effect" album 100 times...really good.

Movie Monday

What I did over the weekend...

This first one is cucumber rapids. To be honest I don't remember it.


railroad rapids....don't remember it.

dimple rapids...oh yeah i remember them. We made it past the big rock, but got hung up on the one below it. Crews on shore were just screaming at us to get out of there. We made it through but ended up with an extra passenger that we pulled out. She had gone out of the boat behind us (they were with us).

Sunday Long Run Report

Feelin good

9 Miles today. The best 9 miles I ever remember running. I just had a good time. SWMBO sort of challenged me, in that she didn't think it would be less than 2 hours. 1:46 at 11:49 min/mile pace. I love a good challenge. Also, I had my first ever chiropractic adjustment last week, so I was a little curious to see how that would affect. I'm pretty happy, and feeling good. The fair is this week, so I ran up over the hill just to see what was going on. Free entrance today, but since it had been raining there weren't many people up there. They didn't even have the rides together yet. Must be doing that tonight. Passed a lot of people riding their horses up. That was neat, because SWMBO and I were talking about getting a couple. Not any time soon. Maybe next spring. I've got a lot of research to do to figure out what we want.

Just checked last year 9 mile run times - 13:42 min/mile

Becasue I've been negligent

Sorry

Venue Change

This isn't terribly easy to do

Ok, so here's the deal. I've been thinking about this for a week and a half now, giving it some time to make sure this is really what I want to do. I'm sure it is. Erie is off. 2 Sundays ago I had a 13 mile long run (sorry about not reporting in, but this is what was on my mind). 13 miles is half a marathon. I used the run as sort of a gauge to see where I was, how I felt, and what I was thinking, sort of a physical and mental evaluation. 13 miles is a long time to reflect (for me anyway). I physically am not ready to continue my training program. Mentally, I'm not there either. Running is something I want to do because I enjoy doing it. If I feel unable to make my miles, it becomes a chore of sorts, and I lose some of the pleasure. It also feels like I'm winding myself up for an injury, by pushing the miles before I feel ready for them. So something has to change. Actually, a few things have to change.

So what's next? Giving up? NO, absolutely NO.

Issue #1: Training. Scaling back and starting over on the training program for starters. I need a new venue and point of focus. I'll make the final decision in the next week or so, but I think I've narrowed it down to the OBX Marathon on November 11.

Issue #2: Weight. I'm 10 pounds heavier than I was in January, and not happy about it. I know that has a lot to do with both my mental and physical feelings, while running right now. SO starting in the morning: Public accountability via blog and Wednesday's are now officially "Weigh-in Wednesday". No more eating after 6pm. Lots more water.

Issue #3: Timing. I'm going to try to do more morning runs. It's easier on me and the family, schedule wise.

Issue #4: Charity. Nothing changes. I've raised $80 dollars so far, and I'm very thankful for everyone that's donated and the people that are helping me with that effort. I hope no one feels let down because I'm changing the marathon. That's simply what I feel like I have to do.

comments?