Just like everyone
else in the world, I’m starting a blog.
Just like everyone
else in the world, I plan to write at least once a week.
Just like everyone
else in the world, I will eventually fail.
Now
that we have that out of the way, what do I want to talk about? There have been
so many thing happening in my life that I could blog about. I just hosted my 1st
thanksgiving dinner at my house with my wonderful fiancé and her daughter, soon
to be my stepdaughter. I could
talk about helping raise an extremely bright (I know everyone says that, but
mines true) two year old. I could
talk about the meetings I’ve go to in trying to get a modified product
patent. I could talk about being
unemployed “in this economy”. I
could just continue talking about what I could talk about…
Well
I’m and athlete, so of course I want to talk about that. What does the word athlete mean to
me? It means I greatly enjoy using
my physical abilities and testing them against like minded others. I was a runner in high school. I didn’t apply myself, so I was merely
an above average runner. I pretty
much quit doing anything athletic from the end of my senior year of high school
till I hit the ripe old age of 25.
I had pretty much been the same 6’4” 195lb guy that whole time, but then
I stepped on the scale and it read 220… I was in the final months of a “wrong
for me” relationship, and it showed.
So I did what anyone who has put on a few extra pounds does when they
want to get rid of it, I went to the track to run. Now remember the last time I had run was when I was
young(er), fit and fast, so I jumped on the track and started to stride like I
still was. It 10 meters at 6min
mile pace quickly turned into 20 at 7, then 50 at 8… I barely made one lap around the track in under 3:30 (just
over 10min mile pace). I was
thoroughly destroyed, both physically and mentally. So I did what every person who is over weight and just hit a
big hurtle does. I quit. A few months later I got a bike,
cancelled my car insurance, and started commuting 3 miles (each way) to
work. It also happened to be a
fixed gear, with no breaks. With
the one gear, I would kick my ass two and from work, each slight incline like a
mountain to summit. It only took
me a month or two to realize that I was quickly getting in better shape. I felt better and decided to try
running again.
One of my friends kind of
challenged me, and said I couldn’t run a half marathon, so I of course accepted,
only to find out the one I had agreed to run was 2 weeks away. So I kind of trained, and by the end of
the 1st week put in a 10 miler at a slow pace, with a few shorter
runs in between. So the day came,
and I ran. I finished, but at a
cost. I wore my trail running
shoes with big tread, and got huge blisters on the pads of my feet. I also had a mortifying last 3
miles. I had been running strong
and fast, too fast, up until that point, and I emptied the tank… I hit the
wall. All of a sudden I was going
a mile an hour and everyone around me was going a mile a minute. I look up to see a couple of fans
staring at me doing a slow clap, and I swear they were talking in slow-mo
yelling to me and only me, pointing me out in the sea of sprinters as the lone
jogger. “You can do it man!”,
“Your all most there!”, “Just a little further!”. It took me forever to get past them. I don’t know if my embarrassment gave
me a second wind or what, but I did eventually finish, and like the criminal
who hadn’t paid for the organized event I had poached, I stepped into the
crowed mere feet from where all the finishers were getting there pats on the
back, and reward chocolate milk. I
wanted that milk, and I vowed one day to be one of those that got it! No I didn’t really care; I just wanted
to get home. So I headed to my
car, only to find I had left the lights on, so it was dead… A few of the most excruciating pushing
steps of my life later, and I got my car going and headed home.
After that race, I have run
countless others; many 5ks a few 10ks, a smattering of 15ks, a handful of half
marathons, 2 marathons, and one Olympic distance triathlon. Due to a reoccurring injury in my right
ankle, I pretty much retired from running, and joined the biking circuit. I may not be as good of a biker as I
was a runner, but I really like it, and I’m getting better.
Well for now, I guess that’s my 1st
blog… and I’m proud of myself, even if it’s a blog that only a parent could
finish. Hopefully I think of
something better to write about next that gets people all fired up, and I can
get some discourse in the comments.
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