Wednesday, November 23, 2011

What I am Thankful For.....

In 24 hours I will be waking up to yet another Thanksgiving Morning. This is one of my favorite holidays because it gives me time to reflect on all of the blessings in my life. So tomorrow morning as I am pulling on my tights and getting ready to participate in this years Turkey Trot in Buffalo, I will be thinking of what I am thankful for.Here are a few of them in no particular order
  • My wife Sheri , I have said this many times, i would most likely be taking up residence in a sewer if it wasn't for her. She keeps me grounded and when they say that there is definitely one person out there for each person , Sheri is definitely that for me. I look forward to everyday that we get to grow old together 
  • My Kids are crazy..... but they are like me. I am thankful for their love and couldn't ask for for two better kids in my life! My Parents who through their love and support made me who i am today. 
  • To My 3 Brothers and Sisters and their wives and Husband. I can not think of a family that is tighter and more in tune with each other. People know that we are Wilsons... 
  • To my friends who are ALWAYS there for me, I regret that we haven't spent much time together lately, but please know that you are and always be an important part of who i am and I hope that you know that you can always count on me to be there for your needs, and if I am not you need to slap me in the head . I thought about tagging you in this , but I am sure that I would miss someone accidentally. 
  • To those people who have now passed on who have meant so much to me, I hope that you are in a place now where you can forever be happy and in no pain. You are with me everyday and I will NEVER forget you.
  • Finally, I want to give thanks to God for all of the wonderful people and the blessings that He has given to me. I know I am not the most devout Christian, but I have never forgotten who has given me such a wonderful life so far!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Guess Which One is my son....

See if you can guess which child belongs to me in this video


Thursday, October 20, 2011

I am the 99%

Yes I belong to the group that the "Occupy Wall Street" participants call the 99%, however there is one thing that these people forget that the 1% pays the majority of the taxes in our country, which funds our schools, our medicare, our building of the roads and all of the government programs that you "Occupiers" take advantage of. If you get your way, then be prepared to pick up the slack , because you may be getting more money in your pocket, but to keep the government running like it is now, you will be shelling out alot of money. 

I am thankful for the 1%!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

What I Would've Done.......(a response to my earlier post)

Earlier today I posted a video on my blog about woman, who appears to have some mental problems being picked on by at least a couple of people . You can watch it here.  (Warning ,it is not an easy to watch video). I wanted to get some feedback on what people would have done if they had witnessed this live.

I think that it is easy to say that we would have jumped in and defended this woman against these young men who were tormenting her, but we are watching the news report from behind our computer screen (or what ever device you may be using) . Use your imagination and pretend that you were walking through the shopping plaza and you saw these young men getting violent with this woman, would you really step in or would you do something else?

This has been on my mind all day, I would love to say I would have jumped in and defended this woman and be the hero. However, I am not sure I would do that. I would definitely call the police and I am pretty sure I would yell something to the young men warning them to stop , but I don't think I would physically get in the way of the event that is unfolding in front of me.

This may be the coward's way out, but I am trying to be truthful here. I guess I would never know what I would do unless I was put into that situation. I can only guess what I would do, and if I am truly honest with myself this is what I would do.

I know several of you who read this would definitely jump in and protect this woman, some of you would do what I would have done and maybe some of you would continue to walk on by and not do anything. None of us really know what we would do unless we are faced with something like this.

Wouldn't it be a great place if we never had to worry about this because we all treated each other with respect no matter what our differences are?

What Would You Do?

If you saw this happening in front of you, what would you do?


Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... get me back out there!

I have to say that this has been an extremely frustrating two weeks since I ran the Erie Marathon. There has been a pain in the top of my foot that has prevented me from running, and for those of you who know me, you know that I love to run. Running has become my stress relief , it is my time to reflect on my life, it is the time when my head becomes the most clear and I can solve many of the issues that happen to be an obstacle in my life at that time.

When I run , I also feel a closeness to God. I appreciate the talents that He has given me to run . This is also a time where I pray as well.

In May of 2009 , I started running seriously again after taking 20 years off. I have seen so many things that have changed in my life for the better. Before running, I turned to drinking for stress relief. I would spend every Thursday night getting so drunk that I wondered how I made it home sometimes. The choices that I made were putting a strain on my relationships with people I cared about and didn't make my life any easier , only harder .

I felt stuck professionally as well , even though I loved the people I worked with, I was becoming increasing dissatisfied with the job I was working at. I seemed to be pressured to make it the most important thing in my life, and I did not want to make it that. It felt like I was in a tug of war and no one was going to drop the rope.

I am not saying that running was the reason all of these things have changed, but it was the start of these changes. I am also not saying I am going to go back to what was my past life because I haven't run for a while or that I am not praying , Running is just my way of reminding myself that no matter what is put in front of me that I have to contend with, I can deal with it. Even though I may fail at something, it doesn't mean that I am a failure . I am not a failure , because I tried to over come it but didn't. This is what running has taught me.

I know I am rambling a bit, and I am sorry, but I wanted to share with you why it is so frustrating to me when I can't run .

Friday, September 30, 2011

Monday, September 26, 2011

Never Too Early For Christmas

My kids last year
Last week a friend on Facebook was complaining that Walmart was starting to put out items for Christmas already. Many of the people who commented on the the post agreed that it was too early. I disagree, it is never too early to start celebrating Christmas.

Christmas is a time that is meant to be where we are to spend time with those we care about, to give help to those who are are in need of our support and most importantly too celebrate the birth of Jesus .

So ,if what I said is true,why is it too early to start to celebrate Christmas again?

Monday, September 19, 2011

I Can Live With That

Giving 5 to Melly
When you have kids everything you do is under a microscope. They learn more from your actions , then from your words. . I am constantly telling them to give their best , because even if you fail , you can be proud of your efforts. If you give up and fail, then it is hard to look at yourself  in the mirror. It is also hard if to face the mirror if they succeed without even trying.

My goal has been to qualify for the Boston Marathon, I have been dreaming of running this race since I was a kid.  I have always loved watching the race on TV and have had family and friends participate in the event the past few years. Although I have been very proud of the people I am close to who ran Boston, I have been a bit jealous that I could not run along side them.

Yesterday I ran the Erie Marathon , which is a Boston Qualifier. I would have had to beat 3 hours and 20 minutes to qualify . The fastest I have run a marathon was 3 hours and 55 minutes ,which means that I would have to knock off over 35 minutes to qualify. That in it's own was a very hard task, but I also had to fight off the memories of a disappointing attempt at running the Buffalo Marathon in May, where I pulled out after the half way mark due to physical issues I was having. I have had several bad dreams since Buffalo about people calling me a quitter and people laughing at me. This was very hard to get over , also harder than I thought to turn into motivation.

Before yesterday's race , the pressure to qualify for Boston seem to be turned up a bit. The first wave of sign-ups for Boston started and I was getting reminders through Facebook about the sign ups ( I follow the event on Facebook and Twitter). So even though qualifying was on my mind , it now started to weigh heavy on my mind.

I started the race a bit on the slow side , ran about a 7:40 mile for the first 3, but picked up the pace and got my average time to where I needed to be and kept it up until mile 20 where I hit the wall. I tried to push through it and did for a while but my pace slowed done considerably , I knew knew that I would not be qualifying for Boston this year around mile 22 , I just didn't have enough to do it.

Legs were cramping!
At that same time a strange calm came over me, my body was in pain , my legs were knotting up with painful cramps,and I was very hungry, but not disappointed about the realization  of not qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I was giving it my best shot and still was going to finish  with a time I could be proud of, as long as I continued to give it everything I had.

I finished with a time of 3 hours and 34 minutes, knocking 21 minutes off my best time. After the race my wife came to me thinking that I was going to be disappointed, but found that I was very happy with the result.



I gave it my best,I can look in the mirror today and not see a quitter , but someone who my kids can see as a a good example. 

Thursday, July 28, 2011

My Rating is dropping! My Rating is Dropping!!!!

There are certain things in life that measure where your mental health is at. These are things that maybe you don't realize that are indicators of  your mood, how hectic your life is and such. We are all different, so these units of measurement are most likely different for each of us. It could be something at work, a game, or something else.

I have two such indicators that show how things are going, the first one is Chess. I play Chess at Chess.com (Here is my profile), if you click on my online games you will see that my rating has fallen quite a bit this week. The thing I have learned most about chess is that when my life is hectic or if I am not in the right frame of mind is when I make the mistakes that ultimately causes me to lose games. This doesn't really upset me as much as I am used to losing , and really don't mind it at all.

I have been able to fix this by taking the time and thinking about my next move before I do it. I take this approach in life as well. When things are busy or you are not feeling well mentally, sometime you just have to really think about the things that are causing the issues and put them in perspective. If the issue can be fixed , I try to get organised on how to fix them. If they can't, then I need to accept it and move on .

Another indicator is when I go on my long runs. (I am training for the Erie Marathon in September) . When things are going well I have no problem completing them and blocking out the negative thoughts. However lately I have not been completing them due to these thoughts, I am physically able to get them done, but something in my head has been making me stop. The techniques that I have used in the past have not been working this time, so this is my cry for help. I can't seem to figure this one out.

Usually I try to use these entries to try to help others, however this time I need help. Any suggestions? You can enter them in the comments below or email them to me at densilwilson@gmail.com .Thanks!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Laurel Run 2011

"The Mission of The Resource Center is to support individuals with disabilities and other challenges in achieving maximum independence, contributing to their community, experiencing lifelong growth, and enjoying quality of life. "

This is taken from The Resource Center's web site. Since 1959 The Resource center has done what their mission statement has said. I have personally had the pleasure working with people associated with this organization and organizations like this for many years . I have been inspired by the people that I have worked and have learned very much from them.

This year I will once again be participating in the "Laurel Run" which is an 8k Run or 5K walk that supports the Resource Center of Chautauqua County. It has been my pleasure to get to know the Hotellings and be a part of this event again. It is becoming one of my favorite days of the year and I can't wait for this years race. I am looking forward to this race where I can set two Personal Records, my fasted 8K and hopefully, with your help, a fund raising record as well.

Here is how you can help:
By Donating:
1. Visit my fundraising page : http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/densil-wilson/laurelrun2011
2 E-Mail  me at densilwilson@gmail.com and I will send you my address
3 Private message me on Facebook and I will send you me address as well.

Do you want to Participate?
Go to the Laurel Run Website(http://www.laurel-run.org/) for more information and I hope to see you there!!!!!
Thank You,
DJ

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Why You Wanna Trip on Sarah Palin?

Michael Jackson wrote a song that appeared on his "Dangerous" Album called "Why you Wanna Trip on me?". He wonders about with all of the issues in the world today, why is there so much focus on him. I think that the same holds true for Sarah Palin.

I am a fan of Palin. I like and share many of her views and think that she would make a fine President if given the chance. However , if she were to be elected, her presidency would be a failure. Too many people would find reasons to bring her down and that alone would be too big of a distraction and nothing would get done. For this reason I would advise her not to run and continue to do what she is doing now.

What she is doing now is being a political activist, she is paid to share her views and that she is doing. She does not hold political office and makes no decisions that involves our country.However , people treat her as if she will be the death of the United States as we know it. If you really want Sarah Palin to go away.... just ignore her. She is around because of the response that she draws out in people, negative or positive. 

 Let me repeat this... She has in no way any power to create policy to change your life, she does NOT hold any political office. By letting her get to you in a negative way makes no sense to me, just ignore her, she can't hurt you  that way.

With unemployment almost up to 10% (Even higher because people have just given up claiming ), gas prices reaching record levels and a government that just does not understand the issues that are effecting us everyday, why so much focus on someone who is not in position to do anything about it? Let us switch our focus to the people who are in position to do something about it and hold THEM accountable.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Fighting the Bad Dreams

Today I am putting on my running shoes for the first time since the Buffalo Marathon on May 29th. It was nice to get away from the running for a week, but now it is time to get back and work harder than I have ever worked before.

Since the race I have had bad dreams almost every night about people laughing at me , calling me a failure. I have woken up several times with the feeling that I have let people down, and that I am a quitter. I think about the race all the time and question my decision to drop out. Should I have tried to finish? Should I have run until my body quit working ?

When I see my friends that happen to be runners, I find myself hanging my head and have trouble making eye contact when I talk to them. Not sure the reason why, but maybe subconsciously I feel that I don't measure up .

My two races this year have not gone the way that I liked . I know that I have worked hard to prepare for both and with at least two more races coming up I have to continue to work so I can turn this around, but how do I erase the nervousness that I feel and this new expectation that I have that I am going to fail? Training the mind is much harder than training the body.

I am going to try to do it the only way that I know how, and that is to lace up my shoes and get back at it, put my faith in God and the ability that He gave me to run for long distances. There is a reason why I am having these troubles and I have to learn something from it.

But first I have to cut the timing chip off my shoe from a week ago.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Getting My Feet Back Into My Asics

The original title for this entry was " Lessons learned from my Failure", but that is not who I am, that is not what I want to focus on.

After 5 months of training a simple stomach virus and some hamstring pain derailed my run and forced me out of the Buffalo Marathon at the halfway mark . I was crushed yesterday, I was hunched over crying like a child in the middle of Buffalo . I have not felt that much disappointment in a long time. I was at a low point and I am still trying to get myself back up . With the help of my wife, family and some great friends I know I will, but it will take a little more time.

Last night I was having dreams of people mocking me and calling me a loser and that I failed. These are the feelings that I have to get over. Those of you who know me , know that I will get by this and use it as motivation to succeed in the future . I have never like to dwell on the negative parts of my life , but to use it as a learning tool for the future. This event will be no different.

Before the issues started I was running comfortable at a pace that would have qualified me for the Boston Marathon. At first this depressed me, but I was not expecting to qualify for Boston until my fall marathon, so I feel I am already in shape enough qualify for the event . Another positive is that even with me walking and plotting along the last couple miles I still achieved my personal best Half Marathon. There are things to take from this experience that are positives.

So to sum it all up, I will move forward , but not forget this event . I will use it as motivation to succeed in future events. I am going to give my body and my mind a week off from running and get myself back in my Asics next Monday for the Erie Marathon in September. With the continued support of Sheri, my family and great friends , how can I fail?

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

You Can Do It....If You Want

Too many times we give up....believe things are too impossible to do or overcome. We take the easy way out..we quit or don't even try . We are to afraid to fail and we are afraid of what failure would mean to our lives and what people would would think of us if we do not succeed. What we don't understand that if we don't even try or give an honest effort at something , we have already failed. I can live with failure if I give everything I got to succeed at something and fail, I will brush myself off and learn from my mistakes and get right back at it.
Roger Bannister

I just finished a book called "The Perfect Mile" by Neal Bascomb . It is about three runners in the 1950's who were attempting to break the four minute mile barrier. Many believed that it was physically impossible to do it,but that did not stop Wes Santee,John Landy, and Roger Bannister from giving everything they had to try to break it. Each one had their own reason to achieve the goal.Finally Roger Bannister broke it on May 6,1954. Today the mile record stands at 3:43.13 and it is held by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco. He did it in 1999.

This book got me to think about how sometimes when life puts up a barrier in front of you , whether it was self imposed or it came as a surprise , how we handle this barrier show a glimpse of we we are made of. It is human nature to think that we can't do it , but it is within our own nature to actually try to give an honest effort to do it or give up.

Me Running the 2010 Buffalo Turkey Trot
Don't ever think that you are alone in your quest to succeed,even though sometimes it feels that you are. I believe that there is always there to help you, be there to support you and help you break the barrier or help you deal with any time that you fail.Take stock of the people in your life, I am sure that their are plenty of people to help. If you can't  think of anyone, there are always places you can go to support you.

Running has taught me many things about myself. It has taught me that if I want something , like qualifying for the Boston marathon, I have to work for it. I sometimes have to push my body through workouts that my mind tells me that my body just can't do. I know that if for some reason I don't qualify for Boston , it won't be because I didn't try. I can live with that.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

It is not just about fnishing...... I have a duty

The Buffalo Marathon is a little more than three weeks away, this will mark my 3rd marathon and what hopes to be the first of two this year. I have trained harder for this race than I have done in the past, The results so far have been positive. I have broken through many barriers that I never thought I would, which is exciting because I feel that there are many more barriers to be broken.

This time around I have been inspired by reading books about running . I was really inspired by Meb Keflezighi's(winner of the 2009 New York City Marathon) book "Run to Overcome"  , and now I am in the middle of the book "The Perfect Mile" by Neal Bascomb. If you are a runner in need of inspiration , I recommend both . 


I have written in the past that my father was a major inspiration for my running again, I dedicated my first marathon to him. He is a man that has fought and beaten many obstacles in his life and by far is the toughest man I know. However through out my running journey there have been many who have inspired me to lace up my Nikes (now Asics) and get out there .

I am sitting here wanting to name everyone , but I don't want to bore you to death, but I will say that what inspires me is people that don't back down from a challenge. Challenges can come from many angles, it can be self imposed like running a marathon. It can be because you are trying to prove that you can still walk up the biggest hill in town , after you have had tumors removed from your legs. It can be that you stand in the mirror one day and say to the person staring back at you that you have had enough and you are going to change ...and you do. I get inspired by people who reach their dreams , like running the Boston Marathon . I get inspired by the mother of 4 who puts her life on hold so she can be a great mom, but will find the time to run another marathon with her brother...hopefully soon.


I recently received an e-mail from a friend who called me an inspiration, this shocked me a bit. I don't think of my self inspiring anyone. I have felt a little guilty about my running, it is a selfish sport. I try to involve my family in it, but ultimately it is me out there . I got to thinking about what people thought when the saw me running  (one they got past the goofy tights) . Do I inspire them?


I know two people that I do inspire and they are my kids. I want them to see that Daddy doesn't quit and that I will reach my goals, but it will take a lot of hard work.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Hydrate Yourself- Lent Week 3

A few weeks ago I went for a fourteen mile run. The weather was very nasty out, but I had to get this done. I told myself that it could be nasty out on the day of the race that I am training for so I have to be prepared . I was so worried about the weather that I did not drink enough water .

Because of the weather , I didn't concentrate on the signs that my body was giving me  that it needed water . I was determined to make it through the 14 miles , which I did. I finished the run, much slower than I expected, but I felt the weather and a knee problem (that started on that run within the first couple miles ..it was a rough workout...but back to the story). I started to walk back home, I was so sold and wet from the run  I was shivering and extremely light headed . I made it home and peeled off my clothes and got into the shower. I took a long hot shower , then I went to the bathroom.

I apologize for being blunt, but my urine was red . I was a bit scared , but I thought it was because I was cold so I didn't think to much of it . I went to Buffalo to pick up a packet for a race I was running that weekend (The Shamrock Run) . I stopped to use the bathroom and it was red again. I decided to tell my wife and she convinced me to to go to the doctor and find out what was going on.

I went and they told me that I was not hydrated enough on my run. There was nothing wrong with me (especially by the time I got to the doctors I was hydrated and my urine was clear). Although I was relived, I was a bit embarrassed because I am constantly preaching about proper hydration on your runs.

As I was listening to the readings at church today it made me think about it in a different way. When we are baptized it is with holy water. This water is supposed to represent the way that God quenches our thirst in terms of being a good person and our thirst for the journey to be with Him some day. We however stray and think that we can do things on our own ,without including Him and we become "Dehydrated" without the water that God is trying to provide us. I am trying to make sure that God is there in everything I do from now on, but it will be tough. There will be times when I think I can act alone, but I need to remember that I don't have to.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Why do I Run?

Here is a video I found and wanted to share with you, very inspirational 





Monday, March 21, 2011

It is not hard you get Hit.... Lent week 2

Last Night I watched "Rocky Balboa" the 6th installment of the Rocky Franchise.There is a point in the movie where Rocky's son Robert is trying to talk him out of fighting . Robert feels that he can not get ahead with his own life because he is in Rocky's shadow, he feels that the fight will only worsen the situation that he is in. Rocky Responds with this :


Life is going to throw stuff at you, sometimes it may put to your knees . You need to rise up and keep pressing forward. This is true with our faith as well, it is going to be tested , but never lose sight of the goal, the goal is obtainable, but you have to work for it!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Temptation

This year for Lent I gave up not going to church. True to my promise to God I went yesterday, one thing I have decided to do is write an entry each week on what I learned from the service that week. This week mass focused on temptation.

We are all familiar with temptation because we are tempted everyday,all day long . Mostly with small stuff , for example last night I knew I should have eaten pasta to help my run today, but ended up ordering corned beef and cabbage.

Giving into temptation can change your life as well. If giving in breaks some sort of promise or vow that you made to someone or to God, it can change you and the people around you forever. Too many times people will justify the action that gave in to temptation and it will make it OK....in their own mind. This only makes it worse. If you make a mistake , you need to own up to it and atone for it. The people that you may have wronged may have a hard time forgiving you or may not forgive you at all , but at least you are not compounding the mistake by pretending you were justified by making that mistake.

We need to take the time to think before we make decisions that may cause harm , there are very few temptations out there that you have to react right away to , you do have time to make the right decision , even though the right decision may be the more difficult one, it is called the right decision for a reason.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Political Discrimination

Today I attended a workshop for my place of employment about diversity in the workplace . I have attended many workshops over the years on the subject while at Denny's . I have to say that this workshop was hands down better than the previous ones I have been to on this subject.

It was a typical workshop where we talked about the differences in people such as race ,ethnic background,religious beliefs, sexual orientation and gender. The videos , role playing and topics flowed very seamlessly, I was very impressed. (Please don't be slighted Denny's.... this was just a great workshop!).

On my way home I thought about another area where discrimination occurs and that is with our political differences. In my 40 years on this Earth , I have never seen such a divide in our country and an unwillingness to try to reach out and communicate with the other side.Instead it is about who can call each other names and further their own agenda , which may or may not be the agenda of the American people.

For the record I am a registered republican who considers himself a conservative. I am not a member of the tea party movement , although I agree with many of their ideas , I want to be a free thinker and vote for whom I believe will do the best for our country,state and local government.

I have to say that the founding fathers could not have envisioned the country the way it is now, I believe that they wanted to have the freedom to discuss the issues that face our country. They wanted to be able to do this without ridicule. This is not happening today. It is ALL about the ridicule now. The name calling, the bashing of others ideas ,or ignoring people with different thoughts than you is basically what we talked about today when we talked about discrimination.

Do we want a better country? It is time we start listening to what the other side has to say....not just to poke holes into it, but because they may have a point. If we don't like what Barrack Obama or Sarah Palin have to say? Don't put them down.....just don't vote for them.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

And I am off!!

The 2011 Race season started today with a bit of a letdown. Even though I earned a Personal Best(PR) in the 8k today, I still am disappointed with the race. There are many excuses I can use ,like the Rain and wind and my knee feeling like crud, but the finish of the race did not meet my expectation . I have been working hard in weather that has been less than ideal (that is an understatement) and I was hoping not only to beat my PR but to crush it . I wanted to raise the bar very high so it would force me to work harder , to get faster. It didn't happen the way I wanted.

However, today I realized how far I have come since I have started this new "hobby" two years ago. I was pretty upset about my run today. Yes, it did get better when I saw my official chip time, but I was upset and a bit depressed about how I finished the race. As a person , though, I am in a better place than two years ago , I think about what I need to do to be a better father and  rather than what I need to do to be a better General Manager. When I am stressed I reach for my Nikes as opposed to Labatt's  Blue to relieve that  stress. Although it still brings me great pleasure to mentor my employees , it brings me greater pleasure when someone needs help with running, and I can help them.

You know what..... the only way I can fix today's performance  is to lace them up again and get them next time!!

Friday, February 25, 2011

We Get to do This

We have all had them.

These are the thoughts that creep into our head while we run that offer excuses to stop or take it slow. These thoughts will also enter into our heads while we are lying in our warm beds that offer justification to skip or put off our run so we can stay just a bit longer under the covers. You have to be a strong person to overcome these thoughts, and press on. If you are like me , you have given into these thoughts on several occasions. At the time the thoughts can seem rational and a good reason to opt out, but you will soon realize that you have lost to your own mind in a game that it has just played with you.


As long as I remember I have had these thoughts when it came to training. In High School I never realized my potential as a runner because I never trained during the off season. After High School I stopped running, for 20 years ( I had always wanted to run but lacked the motivation) and when I returned to running two years ago,I would cut short my workouts because of these thoughts.

As I was putting together my schedule for training for the Buffalo Marathon I decided to chose a plan that would focus on speed. I would like to finish in under 3 hours and 40 minutes . The plan I chose only gave me one day off from working out a week as opposed to 3 in previous plans. I thought about this a lot, I asked a couple of friends who run marathons what they used and I got so many different answers, so i decided to create my own path and committed to this workout.

The first couple weeks were tough, I was finding different excuses to skip workouts. I didn't really notice any changes in speed and was getting frustrated. Then I told myself that I would not skip a week , then it happened. My times started to improve dramatically without much effort at all.

Then last week I was on a 12 mile run when the thought hit my head again. I wanted to stop after 8. I was telling myself that I have had a couple really good weeks of training and I deserved to take a break. I almost gave in when this thought entered my head.

How many people would love to trade places with me at this moment? For whatever reason that they have that are preventing them from running , they would love to be me for a while. It made me think what an honor it is to be a runner. What a gift that has been given to me , a gift that I love and I wanted to cut the run short?

Not only do I love to do this...I GET to do this.

Once this though has entered my head , I am like a kid again. I find it easier to get my now 40 year old body out there and give my workouts everything that they deserve to have.

I am going to enjoy this for as long as I am physically able to!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Look back to 2010

Happy New Year!

As we wake up this morning to face the challenges of what is hopefully an exciting New Year filled with happiness for all of us , I thought I would take a look back at the things that shaped my life in 2010, then I will look forward in a separate entry. Here we go in no particular order:

  • Leaving Denny's , Joining Sodexo: After 22 years at Denny's I decided to make a change, it was hard to leave Denny's because of the people I worked with,however the people at Sodexo have treated me very well and I am excited about what the future may bring!
  • Turning 40: I didn't think that would have effected me the way it did, but it is an adjustment ...to quote my sister after my birthday weekend..."Your a mess...you just turned 40. This decline is rapid. You better help Sheri clean up that heated cabin.". This after a very long weekend. Those of you who were there will understand
  • Running:  I ran 5 races in 2010, including a marathon and half marathon. 4 out of the 5 races  I beat my personal best.Worked very hard this past year, hope it will carry over to a great 2011.
  •  Top 5 Songs in my ITunes Library for 2010
  1. Make Me- Janet Jackson
  2. Sic Em on a Chicken- Zac Brown Band
  3. American Ride-Toby Keith
  4. The Ballad of Billy the Kid- Billy Joel
  5. Smoke a Little Smoke-Eric Church
  • Family and Friends: Last but certainly not least  I feel I have made a commitment and carried through with that commitment to my family and friends. I have also committed to myself that I would be a better person as well. Changing jobs,Running, cutting back on drinking and taking better care of myself has allowed me to do this. I look forward to the future because of the changes I have made and as my wife will tell you...it is nice to have the old me back!