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

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.

Game Changer.

Today was a game changer.

Today I witnessed my first ultra-marathon and trail marathon.  My brother ran the Run with Scissors Double marathon and marathon in Hinckley, Ohio.

Today was quite an experience.  I was just in awe for the 4 or so hours I was a spectator at this race.  It seems crazy to think, I've been pretty obsessed with the ultra-marathoning community for a couple of years now, but I never have witnessed one, and I still have yet to run one.

Everyone at this event, the runners, the race director, the volunteers and spectators were amazing.   Everyone was just in the moment and seemed to be loving every second.  This is quite a community, and a community I MUST become more involved with.  Happiness is the best word to describe the attitude today, even the runners who were 39 miles into the race were smiling.

I think today is a game changer, and I think things are going to change.

It's time for me to start seriously thinking about running an ultra-marathon soon.  I've been thinking about it for a long time, (I started a blog for crying our loud) but I've never really gotten the push I needed.  I think today was a game changer!

My brother is truly an amazing runner.  Tim by far is my biggest running inspiration.  Tim had never run a trail race, much less a trail marathon, he went into today with pretty tired legs, with our Pan5Can project going on, and some Achilles problems as well.  So he goes out, and comes in 2nd overall, simply amazing. Tim is so humble about it too, he doesn't realize how much of an inspiration he is to me, and today was a game changer!

I'm going to try very hard to take running seriously from now on, I've messed around long enough with it, I've put in a few thousand miles the last few years, but it's time to see what I can do.  I'm 28 years old, it's time to see what's possible.

I want to get serious about this blog as well, I want this to become a source for the normal guy to find out what it takes to become a marathoner and ultra-marathoner.  Like I've said in past posts, there is nothing special about me at all, I work in restoration all day, and try to run as much as I can, I didn't run in high school or college, and I'm not really that fast.  BUT i want to see what I can do, and where running can take me.  It's time! Let's do this!

Tim crossing the line today in 2nd overall. He's incredible. 

Frank Medrano -This Man Does Not Eat Meat....

enough said.

I. Am. A. Normal. Person.

I want to explain a few things before I start really getting into this blog.

I am not some super athlete, super vegan chef, or anything like that.

I am just a normal guy who tries to run as much as he can, and eat healthy.

I have a normal job, I work in construction/restoration. (I shower after work, not before.)

I do eat a vegetarian diet, and am trying to transition into a vegan diet, but I don't have all the answers, however, as this blog evolves I hope to have at least a good amount of answers.

I really didn't start running at all until college.  I ran a couple times a week on a treadmill my sophomore year of college just to keep in shape.

I didn't run a race of any length until I was 22 years old, which was a 5k that I ran in 24 minutes.

 I played soccer, basketball, and baseball in high school, and as cliche as it is, running was my sports punishment.  I didn't like to run, I played goalie on the soccer team.

I started to begin to enjoy running in 2009.  I began to run more for fun and a way to stay in shape, rather than solely as torture to keep my weight down.

I ran my first marathon in 2010, the Walt Disney World Marathon in a time of 5:56:00, that's not a mis-print, it really took me that long. I ran it with my buddy Chris Miller.  I hadn't been running much for the months before the race, but was signed up, so I had to do it.

I became a vegetarian in February of 2010.  The reason I gave up meat was for a few reasons.  I wanted to try and give meat up for Lent, so the night before Ash Wednesday, I ate a chipotle chicken burrito, and 2 Chick-fil-a chicken sandwiches.  I also wanted to try and give up meat because for my whole life I had trouble eating meat.  I would choke quite often, not bad, but things would get stuck in my throat.  Two times I had the heimlich done on me, and that was enough.

I lost 20 pounds in 40 days on my vegetarian diet, and decided that I would keep it up.  Haven't looked back since.

I ran my second marathon in May of 2010 in a time of 4:48:00, a much better time than my first marathon, but nothing special at all.

I think that May of 2010 is what really changed my running life.

I've done quite a few runs since then, 5 marathons, 5 half-marathons, and a bunch of 5ks, and other races.

I'll tell you much more about myself and the things I've done as I get more involved in this blog, I just wanted to give a quick overview of who I am.

My work life. 

My running life. 

"Enjoy Your Youth and Health."

The last few weeks, especially this past week have been tough for the Kelly household.  Elissa, my wife has been watching her grandmother in hospice slip away.  Her grandmother was a very special person to her, and I could always see this.  Elissa spent a lot of time with her grandma, and I feel as though she was a second mom to her, she was very important to her. Last night at around 2 am, Grandma Jones slipped away and went to heaven, peacefully, on her own terms, the way she seemed to live her life.

Last Saturday, when Elissa's grandmother seemed to be slipping a little more, said something very profound to Elissa, who relayed it to me.  Grandma said, "Enjoy your youth and health."  This really hit me hard, as it is so true.  Here is a woman, 86 years old who has seem lives ups and downs.  She has seem good times and bad times, she was someone who grew up during WW2 and married a soldier.  What I find amazing, and it almost seems across the board, that people in their last few days don't talk about how much money they had, how big their house was, or how much they paid for their car.  When live is close to ending, the real things in life are what is important to them, and what they want to relay to their loved ones.  I have never heard someone say, "Boy I wish I could have made more money and bought that huge house."  It's always almost the opposite.  "Boy I wish I wouldn't have spent so much time working, I wish I could have been to my kids games, etc."

As a young person it's hard to grasp the subject of "enjoying your youth and health."  It's so easy to get into the "american way" of just putting your head down and grinding your way through life so you can say you have more money than your friends, or whatever.  When it really comes down to it, life should be more about enjoying your family and friends.  They are priceless. Don't get me wrong, money is important, but not nearly as important as the intangible things in life.

Elissa says that her grandma loved beautiful things, like sitting by a fireplace at Christmas time, or sitting on the front porch on a warm summer day.  THESE are the real things in life, THESE are the things that are important.  We find it so easy to brush these things aside because we "don't have time."  Well that's the thing, MAKE TIME.  Elissa's grandma did not have an extra hour a day that a normal person doesn't have.  She had the same time as we did.

Grandma Jones knew what was important in life, and really put things in to perspective with me when she said these words to her granddaughter, my wife Elissa.  "ENJOY YOUR YOUTH AND HEALTH."  Words to live by, and never forget.  Rest in peace Grandma Jones, you'll never be forgotten.

L to R. Elissa (my wife) My mother in-law, GRANDMA JONES, Kristen (sister-in-law) and Liz (sister-in-law).

Peace.

So even though I've had this blog for over a year now, I've never written anything. I wanted to start this blog to show what I am doing with my running, and eating.  I am a vegetarian, and also a marathon runner who is trying to get to the ultramarathon level. I've been pretty busy lately.  I just ran the Akron Marathon on September 28, the Rock and Roll Cleveland half marathon on October 6, and the Northern Ohio Marathon on October 13.  This weekend, I am running the Columbus Marathon, as you can see I have been busy.  I want to start blogging about what I do, how I do it, and what it's like.  I'm just a normal guy, nothing special, not skinny, I'm a bigger guy.  I want to show you that seriously, anything is possible.