On December 12th, Charlotte was the settling for my eighth bout with the marathon. The Thunder Road Marathon traverses 26.2 miles of rolling hills around the center city area of Charlotte, NC creating a challenging yet near perfect course for marathon racing.

With distant memories of my last two marathons fading into the past, I approached the starting line planning to wipe the slate clean. These last two races were both stories of desperation finishes, which made them both quite humbling experiences. In Chicago 2007, the massive heat wave that closed the race down after the first four hours hit me hard. Finishing just over 3:30 I came face-to-face with the real possibility of needing to “crawl” over the finish line. Luckily I finished upright. Fast forward to Charlotte’s Thunder Road Marathon in 2008. Early race blisters led me to detour from the course at mile 5. I left the course near my house to change out shoes and socks. Following 20-30 minutes off the course, I returned to mile 5 and gutted out the rest of the marathon. Again posting a hard fought 3:30 finish. Read more…

Some runners love music and religiously plug up to the iPod for every run. Years ago, a walkman (remember that cassette tape deal) was a mainstay item in my gear bag for all Cross-Country and Track meets. A rockin’ cassette mix, fresh AA-batteries, adjustable headset and a pre-race run were the ideal combination to produce driving race results. Thankfully over the years an iPod has made my love of music-in-motion a much simpler deal. These days the right playlist helps to carry some speed workouts and offers a welcomed distraction from tired legs from running multiple double workouts in a week. Read more…

Each year as Turkey Day rolls around the plans begin formulating to run the annual Turkey Trot road races. Whether we are sharing time with family in Florida or North Carolina, we traditionally find ourselves warming up the day with a 5k or greater jaunt. Crossing the finish line seems to unleash the reigns for the food festivities arriving later in the day. This year is different. For reasons stemming from multiple veins we are sitting out the annual event this Turkey day. Strangely there is a strong and settled sense of peace following this decision. Read more…

Home sweet home. It was great to be home in Charlotte this week and to hit the road again for more run commuting. Over the past couple weeks I’ve found there is a run commuting segment of the running population in motion daily. Since starting this adventure it was hard to imagine how many runners were serial commuters. Knowing that there is a sub-culture slowly growing in the background of the training community, fuels my fire to keep moving forward. I can only hope to meet more run commuters as this journey continues. Read more…

The Lone Star State was the destination of away from home this week. On Monday morning, I joined the team from Sport Science for the trip to The Running Event in Austin, Texas. The Running Event is a trade show style event geared toward the brands promoting product lines to specialty running stores around the nation. Also the IRRA supports the retailers with a host of educational sessions aimed at enhancing the retailers ability to thrive in an ever-evolving market. Why was I in this mix? A couple months ago, EnduroBrand began developing a line of run commuter performance t-shirts. Sport Science was the partner source producing these shirts. I traveled to the show to co-promote run commuting and launch our “Hybrid Human” line of shirts into the market. It was a whirlwind week on the road and it’s great to have the line officially in circulation. Stay tuned as we continue to develop the story. Read more…

Recently the same question seems to keep surfacing, “How long are you going to do this run commute thing?”. Making it through the first 50 days was my initial plan and goal. At the time I didn’t quite realize that 50 days would produce close to 500 miles. With this goal behind me, the new plan is to work through 100 days and cover 1,000 miles. Really that’s the story behind all this. In the present, it’s simple. Run to work four days a week and flex the plan as I feel led. Read more…

Without a doubt the key theme of this week is rest. Traditionally rest is equated with downtime or halting all activity. There are clear benefits to flat out stopping what you’re doing, but that’s not the story this week. A better way of describing the events of the week is “active rest”. Active rest is simply backing down the training for a week to give your body a chance to recover and allow your mind to re-energize. Since my goal is to be inspired and energized by running, it doesn’t make much sense to run my body into the ground. All of this started when I woke up on Monday feeling flat. Most runners know the feeling or have heard of it. Last week the miles piled on which felt good in the world of confidence building, but left me tired. As you’ll see in my training log I bounced around a little this week and cut back on the commute mileage. Honestly I’m going into the weekend feeling better already. Here, here for active rest and listening to your body.
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Running has become a great time for introspection in my life. While many have told me how they only run when they are being chased, the deeper dimension that unveils itself only in the experience of running is being missed. This week the value of all my running experiences came to the forefront of thinking. The maze of thoughts lead one after another through experience after experience of incredible memories. The simple smell coming off a fresh mowed playing field at a local school reminded me of the many cross-country meets and literally took me back in time on a run earlier this week. This is only one flash down the experiential road running has paved in my mind. Everyone’s journey is different on the run, but it’s undeniable how the experiences forge long lasting memories.
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Have you ever heard a runner describe having a “floating” feeling while running? There’s some wild sensation that shows up without warning. Unlike the unpredictable arrival of an injury, this feeling is very welcome. Near of the end of the run-commuting sessions this week, this rare feeling hit me. It was almost as if the fly-wheel on the engine caught and each stride required less effort. Let’s just say I reveled in the feeling for the week soaking in every fascinating ounce. Sadly, I’m sure this will all disappear without even a good-bye wave. If you know what I’m talking about then you can relate to this form of a runner’s high, if not maybe you should continue on below and shake off your thoughts about run-commuting making runners delirious. Week 16 was a good week.
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Each week starts with the same question, “What am I going to write about next?” As life has it there is no shortage of material to choose from as the week draws to a close. This week my wife and I worked through a challenge of only having one car and both needing said car at the same time. I’m thankful for such a supportive wife who works with me to figure these things out. I found myself attempting to incorporate a track workout into an evening session of a round-trip day and arrived home after two hours of an exhausting run. Finally, the capstone was deciding to run to a client meeting for the first. Again, I’m thankful for clients who are supportive as well. Everything seems to work when you simply embrace decisions with confidence and continue to embrace running as part a daily lifestyle.
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