Dad's blog #2

So me and the boys have been lounging around watching Survivor Man and Man vs Wild, in lieu of a nap while mommy is at a friends wedding. Now the boys are upstairs building a fire pit (out of pillows) and setting up camp, I'm pretty sure they are going to start hunting wild (stuffed) animals here pretty soon. I was talking to Deanna earlier about going camping next year and now I think its a must. I'm pretty sure both boys would get a kick out of it, and they can use the survival skills they're learning to keep us alive.
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Dad's blog #1

So after reading yet another hilarious story from my cousin Dan's blog I've decided to follow suit and start sharing some of my thoughts and observations from being a father. I've been really bad about updating this, so for all 2 of the people who have actually followed this blog, congratulations you may actually have something to read more frequently than every 6 months now....well for awhile maybe....

....So Casey is getting ready to start Kindergarten next week, Deanna is going through the typical mommy reaction of my little baby is growing up, and Casey is both excited and nervous. The older he gets the more and more I've realized that he is as I put it "A sensitive soul", he very much cares about how other people view him already at such a young age. Which I suppose is good in the fact that it may keep him from doing things to get him in trouble, but it may also cause him some heart ache and potentially lead him into situations to please others instead of using common sense. The other day he was in a mood and seemed sad after some prying he confided in me that he was worried about making friends at school, he is the only 5 yr old from his daycare that will not be attending kindergarten with an already established friendship. I reassured him that he will make friends and told him the story about how when daddy started 3rd grade he had to leave all of his friends for a new school, and I think it helped a little. Its hard watching your child be nervous and anxious about going to school and making friends and know there is nothing you can really do for them except give them the best advice you can and hope it works out for them. I'm really not concerned that Casey will have any problems with making friends, he is such likable person it would be hard to imagine him not finding someone to be his friend.

Runners blog #7

So the QC Marathon is just about 5 weeks away, and I'm feeling pretty confident at this point, I've had an 18 and 19 mile training run and was able to survive both of those. My real test is this Sunday with my first 20 mile run and then again in 2 weeks with my final long run of 20 miles, those 2 runs will be the real barometer of my fitness and whether I will be able to complete this endeavor.

I recently read somewhere by a highly successful ultra runner that she goes into each event with 3 goals, winning is always one of them but the other 2 may vary. Well for me winning isn't even an option so my 3 are as follows,

1) Finish - for a first time marathon this is the ultimate goal and really in question.
2) Run in 4:30, that's under 10.5 min/miles which would be really good by my standards, my stretch goal is 4 hrs though.
3) Have fun! This will be the first and only time I get to run a marathon "for the first time" so a PR (personal record) is a guarantee. Every marathon from here on out will be in some way judged against the previous one and its time, this one is all about survival and having fun.

So this morning I really did not want to run and I of course forced myself to do it, as I often do I started making deals with myself, get out and do 2 miles and see how you feel. Then it turns to "Okay 2 felt good, just do one more, or you can cut short the rest" and so on and so on that goes until the next thing you know I've run the entire course and when I click off my stopwatch, I'm pleasantly surprised to see I've just run my regular 5 1/2 mile loop faster than ever before. A run I never even wanted to do, that I had to bargain my entire way through turns out to be my best one yet, that right there is why I have become addicted to running. That and the time I had a really crappy run, one that left me completely demoralized afterwards, until I realized that even though that run absolutely sucked the life out of me and left me questioning whether I wanted to keep doing this to myself, I remembered that I had still just completed 17 miles in under 3 hrs which let's be honest, isn't something most people can say they did over the weekend. I guess that's what I really love about running, everyone can do it if they want to, but most choose not to do it and even fewer choose to do longer distances. I guess I've kind of always been one to go against the grain a little bit, which suits me just fine I suppose, just wish I'd realized that at a younger age...but that is, I suppose the ignorance of youth.

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Runner's Blog #6

Marathon Training starts tomorrow...


...I'll let that just hang there for a minute...

Yup only 18 weeks till the QC Marathon and I'm determined to run it.

Now I know 18 weeks seems like a really long time but in the reality of a first time marathon runner it certainly doesn't seem long enough. Yes I have already finished a half marathon and will have at least one more completed next month, and yes I'm routinely doing training runs of 10 or more miles. But that's like comparing hitting a home run in a little league park versus doing the same thing say at Wrigley Field. I recently watched the latest contestants of The Biggest Loser run their marathon and I'm pretty sure if they can do it so can I. In fact the guy who won, Darris, is roughly about my size and he finished in just over 4hrs, and he had a bum knee from training to hard. I have a training plan to increase my mileage and endurance and I will be training during the hottest time of the year so I figure if I can make it through that then come race time in late September I should be just fine.

I read somewhere that only 1% of the population will ever run a marathon, I want to be part of that select few. Accomplishing something like that means so much to me, its not something anyone else can give me, or help me through, I'm the only one who can determine the outcome of this endeavor and that is where my glory lies.