What I Think About While I Am Running For a VERY Long Time

It was around 5:15 am when I got up this morning to start preparing to go for a run. It truly was a battle as I looked over at my wife as she was sound asleep and I wish that I could be as well. Thoughts were pouring through my head like, " You can skip today , you have done well , you deserve to go back to bed" and "Maybe you are sick, you deserve to have a sick day". I fought it off and went downstairs to make a cup of coffee and start getting my body ready for an 18 mile run.

I got out the door around 6:30 am and started to go. I have to tell myself to conserve energy because not only do I have several miles ahead of me, I have decided to add some steep hills . I just tell myself to relax and listen to the music on my IPOD. The song that was on was "Trailorhood" by Toby Keith . I quickly let my mind wonder to the following topics (in no particular order):

•  I think about how cool it is going to be to line up at a race that I have dreamed about running since I put on my first pair of running shoes . I imagine what it will be like to run the five boroughs of New York City with my brother . This keeps me going for a few miles this morning.

• I question my training as well, I see what my friend is doing preparing for the same race and I think that I am doing too much too soon, that I might burn out or peak too early . I calm down by telling myself that if I want different results, then I have to train differently . 

• I think about Syria and the issues that are there, I so badly want to post something about it on Facebook, but decide against it. I know I am sick of the political posts , including the anti-Obama posts, I just don't want to add to it. 

• Then this comes on my IPOD: 

I immediately think of my sister who is a big Parry Gripp fan. I haven't seen my sister in a while and hopefully she will be there to cheer me and my brother on on November 3rd.

•  During my runs I process a lot about my life , I think about how proud I am of my son. I think he has found something he really likes in Cross Country. I hope it continues to be that way. I think of Melly and how fast she is growing up . I think a lot about my wife and how lucky I am that she still puts up with me after 15 years of marriage and almost 20 years of being together.

• I also get many Blog entry ideas, which I always forget after I am done. If I can figure out a way to blog while run I would be one happy man

• When I run that is when I feel closest to my Dad who past away last year, I wonder if he is proud of me and of the changes I have made over the past few years. I also at the same time feel close to God and thank Him for giving me the opportunity to run . I don't go to church much anymore so my long runs have sort of taken over for that.  Some song usually triggers it , today it was this one.

• Then it starts , the doubting. I try to talk myself out of finishing the run, that I have had enough. I spend the last few miles fighting this. Most of the time I finish, but sometimes I do let myself quit. What keeps me going is the fact that I like to post my workouts on Facebook , not that anyone really cares what I do, but by posting the workouts it keeps me honest. I don't want to admit to quitting .

I finally finish 18 miles in 2 hours and 36 minutes, time to re-hydrate, nap and take pain meds

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. 

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.

Why do I Run?

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

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!!

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!