Category: running

i read an article in runner’s world awhile back that talked about the writer’s love for race day shirts with writing on them. pam and i both thought it was a great thought and therefore i’m trying to come up with a shirt for the chicago marathon – which is a little over 11 days away.

the above photo is what i am thinking of right now. pam is running it by her colleagues, all of whom work with people with disabilities, to make sure they wouldn’t perceive it as offensive (i don’t want people hurling insults at me while i am trying to make it 26.2 miles). i was wondering what your thoughts where? anyone got anything original that you think it is better?

the point area is surrounded by the green circle trail. the green circle is 30 miles of connected trails and parks that are perfect for walking, running and bike riding in the spring, summer, and late fall and amazing for cross country skiing and snow shoeing in the late fall (if we’re lucky with snow) and winter. the trail winds along the plover, little plover, and wisconsin rivers along with several small lakes.

the past couple of days i have been running along the plover river trail portion of the green circle. it’s great. i run along side the plover river with all the trees changing colors and then it changes into tall pine forests.

today i discovered a small (very small) down side to the plover river trail – the stevens point police department’s shooting range is beside it. it’s safe because the range has been built right but it is still a little freaky hearing a constant string of gunfire coming from the side of the trail. the good news is that the slight fear i felt apparently kicked up some adrenaline in my body and caused me to run faster than normal. my pace for today’s run was significantly faster than my normal pace.

tomorrow i may try to get a bear to chase me during my run and see how much that improves my speed.

the point area has the green circle trail and as a runner i am eternally thankful for all the people who established and maintain it. the trails are amazing. it is a nice, soft surface that runs along side the wisconsin and plover rivers. anyhow i love it.

SIDE NOTE – i like to get diet coke refills instead of new drinks. i figure they are not only cheaper (which is something i like) but also more environmentally friendly. the other day i was surprised when i went to the bp store that has the cheapest refills in the point area. the surprised occurred when i pulled the lid off of the cup i had brought from my car into the store. as i pulled the lid and straw off of the cup a very angry yellow jacket suddenly flew out of it. there really is no cool way to respond to the shock of a yellow jacket coming out of your cup aiming to attack you. i’m afraid that my scream and sudden rush away from the diet coke loving, stinger bearing, ticked off insect was not received well by the store’s staff or my fellow customers. they also didn’t seem very happy with the mad yellow jacket that i left with them as i decided to leave the store. i guess for a few weeks i’ll now be going to another place for my daily diet coke.

SIDE SIDE NOTE – i watched this video of one of ryan hall’s marathon work outs and his discussion of the term ole’. hall is a beast and the video is quite cool. adam and i ended up making a video on my response to the hall video.

SIDE SIDE SIDE NOTE – there is one benefit to not being a youth minister when you’re kids are both involved in a youth ministry – wednesdays become date night.

just register for the 2009 chicago marathon with jim, my brother-in-law. this will be great. i love running in races with jim and jill (though jill won’t be running this race). they are just great people to hang with and a lot of fun at a race. on top of this i need something to train for. i do better with my running when i have a race to train for.

it’s now the second day since running the green bay marathon with jim and jill. therefore i thought i would put down some thoughts concerning the experience and then move on to talk about other things. so here goes:

• 26.2 miles is a LONG WAY TO RUN. i didn’t train anywhere near as much as i should have. you can see this in my half-split for the marathon. i ran the first 13.1 miles in 2:17:01. this rate was on pace for a 4:35 finish. i ran the next 13.1 miles in a little less than 3 hours. this is a whole lot slower and shows that i had not trained for the distance. before the race the longest i had run in one continuous stretch was 21 miles and that had been 5 weeks before the marathon. i should have tapered down on my mileage in the three weeks before the race but instead of tapering slowly i cut it down way too quickly. live and learn.
• the whole thing is mental. yes it is physically draining but finishing is all about your mind.
• encouragement is everything. i was ready to quit at mile 22. no “if”s, “and”s or “but”s about it i was through. the only things that kept me going was the thought of pam and the boys screaming for me and the various people along the course who could tell i was tired and would say “you can push through this, keep going.” pam and the boys had made signs for jill, jim, and i and showed up at various stages of the race to scream for us. it was a huge thing. i’m sure they don’t think it was that big of a deal but i know that i would have collapsed without it. there were several groups that did the same thing, but not for family reasons. springlake church had hundreds of people in various places on the course dressed in “go the distance” shirts and they also manned the “wall party” at mile 20. i can not believe how long or loud they shouted. the “wall party” was rocking so much that i probably speed up too much from the energy of the area. if they is a “heartbreak hill” in the green bay marathon it’s a bridge going over the river at about mile 22. it’s not real high but it seems impossible when you hit it that late in the race. springlake people had lined the side of the bridge and where screaming encouragement the entire way. it’s one thing for them to do it for the elites, who finish the race in 2:30 hours. it’s a more impressive thing for them to continue through the slow pokes like me. i’ll write more about this later because there is some cool church stuff in this. i was so impressed by the church that i called the pastor to tell him how much the encouragement had meant. anyhow, like i said encouragement was key.
• some of the stories you hear along the way are the best parts of the run. i’ll list two here but there were many others. i ran probably a fourth of the race with grant. i started talking with him because he had written across the back of one of his calves “i lost 155 pounds.” that was enough for me to become curious. as a 20 year old he weighed 381. the thought of hitting 400 pounds scared him so much that he started a regime of exercise and diet control. in seven months he lost 155 pounds and he was running his first half marathon as a celebration and a promise to lose 50 more. his family is all overweight and he was trying to convince them to start dropping the pounds too. recently his dad and decided to join him in losing the weight and living in a healthy manner. i thought of grant a lot during the next half of the marathon. another person that was fun to meet was sarah. she decided that while she didn’t feel like she could run the marathon she could do some serious encouragement for those who were running in the middle of the pack. her plan of attack for this was to be at ten different spots along the marathon course so that she could encourage the same people over and over. i think i saw her at about eight of these spots.
• one is not enough. these things are simply too much fun. jill, jim, and i are already planning on participating within the indianapolis marathon in october. it’s on a saturday which is one of my prerequisites for the next year or so. i can’t miss sundays while we are starting the church services. in a couple of years i’ll probably feel better about missing a sunday every now and then, but for now i’m going to be very picky about missing them.

there is so much more that i could write concerning my experiences within the marathon but i’ve probably bored all of you already.

at present i am running the green bay marathon. we’ll just have to see if i finish it.

i love running when it’s snowing. we got a small amount of snow today (less than an inch) and i’m guessing this was either our last or second to last snow for the season. of course, some of the locals i’ve spoken with say that my guess may be far off from what finally happens. anyhow, i love running in the snow because no matter how slowly i run i still feel pretty hard core for having run in the snow. i used to feel the same way about running in the rain in baton rouge.

SIDE NOTE – we started the curling club playdown tonight. my team won. woohoo!

SIDE SIDE NOTE – wow. i’ve been posting very boring stuff recently.

my run for the day
distance – 5.0 miles
time – 52:49
pace – 10:33/mile
weather – 30º/snow