Sunday, November 10, 2013

A Marathon is for Anyone.

So the other night I was talking to my friend Josh.  Josh is a super athletic guy, he was the athlete of the year at our high school and is MVP in my phone.  We were talking about running, and more specifically marathons.

Josh told me that running a marathon seems so distant to him, but something that he may be interested in later on.  He said that it just seems almost untouchable.

Marathons, I feel are very "touchable." For anyone that knows me, I am not some elite type runner.  I didn't run in high school or college, I actually hated running.  I'm not your stereotypical marathoner.

One of the problems, like most sports, is most of the time a "non-runner" only sees the elite runners of a marathon on the news or wherever.  They don't see the 55 year old man, who isn't exactly skinny, who's stumbling along, but finishes his marathon in 6 hours.  He ran just as far as the elite runner who took 2 hours and 10 minutes.  However, this doesn't make the news, but for this man, it probably changed his life forever.

A marathon is simple.  You run a marathon by running.  It seems so simple, yet hard to grasp.  If you want to run a marathon, go out today and run/walk a mile.  Then the day after tomorrow, do it again.  And then in 3 days, do it again.  Next week, try a mile and a half.  Then try doing a whole mile without walking.  Soon a mile seems pretty easy, so run 2 miles.

When you look at a marathon from far away it seems "crazy." Runners get this all the time, "you are crazy for running that far, I don't even like to drive that far!"  This is a quote I have heard a lot! But are we really crazy?  I don't see it as crazy.  A marathon is nothing more than dedication and consistency.

If you run consistent, you will be able to run a marathon.  I can say this confidently.  If you make the decision that you want to run a marathon, and you start slow, but stay consistent, you will finish a marathon!

There is ONE way to run a marathon, go out and RUN!

Josh can run a marathon, anyone can run a marathon, it's just a matter of getting out the door and deciding that you want to do it!

P.S. I will run with anyone at anytime!  Just ask, I'll go!

Josh and I......no caption needed

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Today Was A Good Day.

I haven't done this yet, but I wanted to just take a couple minutes to recap the marathon I ran today, with my brother Tim pacing me the ENTIRE way.

I went into my run today with one thing in my mind, FINISH.  That's really all that mattered, I just wanted to finish the race.  With the PAN5CAN project going on, I've been doing a ton of running, so it's been tough to really care about the time, I just wanted to finish.

Today was bit different though.  After 13.1 miles (Half Marathon) I realized that I had run faster than all but 2 half marathons that I'd done in the past.  Not half marathons as part of full marathons, but half marathons where I stopped after 13.1.  Looking at my watch, I thought today might be something special.

The last couple weeks have been tough, as I've said with Elissa's grandma passing away, and just a lot of things going on, family coming in, a few tough days of work, etc. I was a little worried about today.

After that 13.1 time, I wanted to see what I could do.  I knew Tim was going to push me, and I wanted to see if I could keep up with this push.  A lot of the time, when he does this I break, and can't do it anymore.  Today was a good day though.  I kept going, I felt strong, and Tim pushed just enough to keep me going.  The weather was perfect, the course was flat, and the scenery was beautiful.

I ended up running a Personal Record by 16 minutes.  16 FREAKING minutes! I ended up running a 4:01:43.  For those of you that are reading this maybe as non-runners, or runners just starting out, a 16 minute PR is pretty good.  I was extremely happy, and forever grateful to Tim.  Who once again was a huge inspiration.

This Pan5Can project has really changed things with me.  Running especially. I am beginning to realize that I can do more than I thought.  If you would have told me that after running a Full Marathon, Half Marathon, and another Full marathon in 2 weeks, take a couple weeks off and then run another Full Marathon, and do it faster than I'd ever run, I would have laughed.  Things like that weren't in my mind.

Things are changing though. I'm starting to believe more in myself.  It's funny really.  This whole Pan5Can project is to raise money for Pancreatic Cancer research and to honor my Aunt Julie, who died at 38 to this terrible disease.  My Aunt Julie was one of the strongest and most confident women I'd ever met my whole life, people adored her.  It's interesting that this project is making me a more confident person, especially with running.

Check out Pan5Can on facebook if you are interested in our project, it's been an awesome year, and we aren't quite done yet!

Thanks for the Support.  Thank you Tim for running at a "tortoise" pace, and Thank you to Elissa and Kristen for cheering us on at the finish!

Like I said before,

 Today Was A Good Day.