My Active Adventures

As many of you know, I am a huge Dallas Cowboys fan; I was in high school during the stretch of the 90's when they won 3 Super Bowls.  Subsiquently, I was a huge Emmitt Smith fan.  He said something in an interview that has stuck with me all these years and has really come into play in the last couple weeks.  He was talking about his goal to become the NFL's all-time rushing leader and that he had set that goal all the way back in high school.  His high school coach had everyone on the team write down their goals for the season at the beginning of each year.  "It's a dream until you write it down. Then it's a goal."   How great of a statement is that??  There is great power in writing down your dreams; that solidifies it and makes it real.  Can you imagine this high school kid dreaming of being the NFL's rushing leader?  Once you have that dream down in writing you can start stratigizing how to get there rather than just hoping to get there. ...

About a year ago I set a huge goal based on inspiring story I read about and heard about.  As runners we always hear about amazing people like Dean Karnazes, Scott Jurek, Michael Wardien, etc.  These people do amazing things and inspire us to do the same, at least they inspired me to do the same.  At the time I'd never ran a marathon, I was still 3 weeks away from my first.  I was full of hope; thought I could do anything in the world I put my mind to.  About 8 months later I'd start to give up on that dream.  It happens.  Over this last weekend I received that same inspiration from a much different and better source.  I now have refocused vigilance to reach that goal. On February 12, '11 I ran my first 20 mile run in my training for my first marathon; the Napa Valley Marathon.  I still can't believe I managed to do that on a treadmill, but I'd done it.  While you train for your first marathon people constantly tell you about "the wall...

Rest is good, of that there is no doubt.  I was on a set training schedule from my birthday (8/9) until the Louisiana Marathon (1/15); that's 5 full months.  This time period also included two 5ks, one 8.5 mile trail race, one 27 mile race (duration event), two marathons and one 50k.  Yep, after Louisiana I was ready for a much needed break.  My body was tired and my mind was tired.  Being on regimented training for that long is tough, mentally & physically draining.  In the 9 days since the Louisiana Marathon I have only run 4 times for a total of 18.96 miles; for me that is practically no running!  My next marathon (the newly renamed Garmin Marathon) is not until 4/21 so I have plenty of time to relax a little.  My plan is to take the 3 weeks following the marathon to just run without a plan.  If I feel like running I will, if I don't I won't.  After that 3 weeks I'll get back to getting ready for the next round of events. The fir...

Let me just start by making the following declaration: This is an absolute MUST-DO event!!  If you don't have plans for January 20, 2013 then you need to plan to be in Baton Rouge for the Louisiana Marathon ! If you do have plans; cancel them and meet me in Baton Rouge anyway!!  This event is WELL worth it!!!  Okay, now on to my normal, excessively long race report.... As always, let's start at the beginning, long before the actual race.  If first heard of the Inaugural Louisiana Marathon via a small ad on the sidebar of Facebook way back in August.  Remember, I might not live in Louisiana, but I was born in Lafayette and I've spent plenty of time visiting family down here so I know all about Louisiana weather!  My first thought was, "who in the world would be dumb enough to run a marathon in Baton Rouge with that heat and humidity?!?!?!?!"  I clicked on the ad because, let's face it, I've been know from time to time to actually BE the guy that is th...

At this point in my running journey the 6.37 miles I ran today are really nothing worth writing about.  But today it was a special one.  To tell you why I have to go back to 2009 when I was still out of shape and lazy.  I talked about getting in shape but never did anything about it.  At the time I was still finishing up my Bachelor's Degree program at Baker University and one of the guys on my team, Ben Hunter, was getting sick of hearing me talk about it but not do anything.  He was a runner and told me that if I really wanted to get healthy I needed to eat better and start running.  My thoughts were "you're kidding, right???"  I couldn't run 10 feet, how am I supposed to just "start running?"  Well, he had an answer for that too.  He told me about the Couch To 5k walk/run plan.  I tried it, hated it and quit.  He kept encouraging me so I tried again, hated it again and quit again.  Rinse and repeat about 3 or 4 times. Final...

Several of my races I had planned changed their dates, so I had to make some adjustments since I last posted my plan.  Here is the updated plan (the ones with * before them are not official dates yet): 1/15 - Louisiana Marathon; Baton Rouge, LA 3/3 - Mrs. Robinson's Romp Trail 10k; Kansas City, KS 3/17 - Aggieville St. Pat's 2 Mile Fun Run; Manhattan, KS 3/17 - Aggieville St. Pat's 10k; Manhattan, KS 4/21 - Oz Marathon; Olathe, KS 5/6 - Lincoln Marathon; Lincoln, NE 6/2 - Hospital Hill Run Half Marathon; Kansas City, MO 6/16 - Summer Intro 2.8 Mile Trail Run; Kansas City, KS *7/4 - Freedom Run 10k; Lenexa, KS 8/3 - Psych Night Trail 10k; Kansas City, KS 8/11 - Deanna Rose Farmstead Stampede 5k; Overland Park, KS *8/25 - North Face Endurance Challenge Marathon; Kansas City, MO 9/1 - North Shore 8.5 Mile Trail Race; Lawrence, KS 9/11 - Patriots' Run 9hr 11min Run; Olathe, KS 9/23 - Omaha Marathon; Omaha, NE 10/13 - Pumpkin Run 5k; Olathe, KS 10/14 - On T...

Wow, what a year!  Honestly it has been one of the best years I've had in a long time and much of that can either directly or indirectly be traced back to my running.  This will likely be a long post (shocking, I know) but I want to do this year the justice it deserves before moving on to 2012 tomorrow. On Jan 1, 2011 I was in the midst of training for my first marathon ever and that day I ran 14 miles, the longest run I had ever done at that point!  I was shocked at the time by how good it felt, I commented on my Garmin activity that I felt like I could have easily run another 2-3 miles.  That was a great sign of how this year was going to go.  Today on Dec 31, 2011 I ran my final training run for my 3rd full marathon (5th race of at least marathon distance), the Louisiana Marathon, with a 20.67 mile run in 49+ mph wind gusts. I never dreamed I'd be bookending a year with distances like that!!  It wasn't all great, but it was all worth it.  Let's st...