Good Luck Marion and Tim!

My online running "dotcomrades" (term as stolen, err, borrowed from Kooky on RA) from RunningAHEAD (RA) and fellow running bloggers, Marion and Tim, will be running two big races this weekend. Marion will be lacing up for her first marathon, the Myrtle Beach Marathon, which the gun will go off for bright and early Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m. I wrote about what an inspiration she has been to me in my own running, and life, and her incredible weight loss road that she has paved for herself, not traveled, in a prior post here. She's a remarkable story of heart and fiery determination. If you have a moment, I encourage you to head over to her site, Shut it and Run, and leave her a note to wish her well in her race. As I said, she has been a huge inspiration to me and one of the driving factors the Lord put in my life to set a goal of running a marathon myself. It's been said that the marathon is simply the victory lap for all the exhaustive miles and training you run preparing for it. Mar, you've trained hard and well, my running friend... now go out and enjoy the whole experience of your victory lap!

Tim is an incredible story as well and only began running just a year ago in January and, at that, had only really started walking at that time. He has lost 80 pounds since, run numerous races, many of which were 5k's in which he has shattered his PR (personal record) in them time after time, and is now gearing up to run his first half-marathon, the Run the Reagan, down in the Atlanta-area of Georgia tomorrow. His story of determination to get himself healthier and the incredible strides he has made in doing so have been an inspiration to me as well. You can head over to his blog, 26.2 Quest, and cheer him on in as well.

There are some amazing people all around us, that do amazing things, under amazing circumstances and, these are just two of them. May the Lord bless you both in your races tomorrow, with peace of mind, strength, endurance, and physical health. You're both amazing individuals! I can't wait to hear about your races. Good luck and... have a BLAST!

"I Need You"

Are you fiercely independent? Do you rely on your own abilities in almost all circumstances, even when they aren't enough? Do you find it a weakness to seek the help of others? Does foolish pride get in the way of your asking for assistance when you need it? Boy, I certainly could answer affirmatively to most of these questions almost unequivocally in my recent past. Thankfully, God has been changing my heart with respect to seeking help in my weaknesses.

Pastor Mark did a great job again this morning in continuing his series on "The World's Most Powerful Phrases" with his message titled "I Need You". He reminded us that God has created all of us with weaknesses that we cannot fully overcome by ourselves. Think this was by chance? Not a chance! God is God, He created everything and could have made us perfect if He so chose, but He didn't. Why is that?

God wants us to rely on Him in our weaknesses, for one. Pastor Mark pointed out Psalm 121:1 - 2, which states, "I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." Who better to come to our aid than the Maker of heaven and earth. I can't think of any better ally in my times of need. What does that help look like? Well, Pastor Mark said that God's help almost always comes in the form of another person. Makes sense as I can't think of recent times, other than in the Old Testament, where God has directly intervened in our lives, other than perhaps the 6 Day War the Israeli's had back in the 60's.

Anyway, this makes total sense to me in that I know with certainty this has been my experience in my life. I have many personal testimonies, the greatest of which is the salvation of my marriage, where God has placed people or groups of people in my life, or my family's, that have made ALL the difference in times of difficulty. The key? Letting those closest to you know that you are experiencing difficulty or need help and let them help as they will be inclined to do so. Being transparent, setting aside your foolish pride, and being authentic are the keys to allow God to work through others to help you.

Pastor Mark's two main points are to: 1. Identify where you are strong (God gifts everyone with some ability or strength) and... SERVE in that capacity and, 2. Identify where you are weak and... ASK. It's hard to humble one's self, take a hard, realistic look at yourselve, identify your weaknesses, and then ASK for help. Kind of a counter-cultural thought in this self-help, self-sufficiency, self-seeking day and age where everyone turns inward and inside.

So, you may be saying to yourself again, well Rick, what the heck does this have to do with running and training for a marathon? Well... I'm glad that you asked! Even if you didn't I'm going to give you my answer anyway cause, heck, it's MY blog! My answer is: I created this blog because to train, prepare for, and run this marathon is daunting and I need you! I need you to post comments, I need you to tell me I am not nutz (even if you want to lie to me in doing so), I need you to support and encourage me. Just thinking about running the marathon makes my stomach flip. All kinds of questions of physical and mental self-doubt surface. I'm just being transparent here. It kinda scares the daylights out of me whether or not I will be tough enough to finish this marathon. So, why do it? To that I say please read my Preface and Purpose for that answer.

So, there you have it, I need you! I'm not too proud to say so and know from experience that when I do ask for help, God will put people in my life that will see me through. I will be relying on the strength of the Lord and my family and friends who will be encouraging me along the way, which I know you will do because... I have asked you to.

Thanks for the great message, Pastor Mark. I'm learning.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!" Ecclesiastes 4:10 - 11.

Jennifer, Marion, Tim, Sara, Zoomy, Mike, and anyone else ramping up for a marathon this year, especially a first... you're gonna ROCK your races! You're all training hard and I KNOW you will ALL succeed!

Dave's 10 Mile Shoe Run Race Report

It's all fun and games at the start until you've run your second Ohio Turnpike overpass in the race at mile 4.5 out of the 4 overpass crossings in the race with the last being at mile 8.5! Ok, individually the race went well and I exceeded my expectations for myself. As far as me in relation to the rest of the field of runners... let's just say 79.07% I only saw from the rear by the time I finished. These Toledo RoadRunners really take their running seriously and... are seriously fast! We left for Delta, Ohio about 12:15, after Tammy pulled her homemade apple pie out of the oven. Lindsey and Tammy accompanied me, which I was SO grateful for! I ate a PB&J on the drive there and downed a bottle of water. Got to Delta about 1:00ish. The race setup was great in that we were able to use the Pike-Delta-York High School cafeteria for a staging area and there were several available restrooms in adjacent halls (which I frequented like 3 times before the race!) and we had access to the locker rooms off the gym. I did a warm up jog and stretched and decided on what I would run in clothing-wise. It was about 39 and light drizzle, perfect for running a race. The race started on time at 2:00 p.m. There were like 172 runners, 135 of which pulled away from me immediately! My intentions for this race was to go out at like a 9:00 min/mile pace for the first couple of miles and then ramp it up to about 8:30/mile for the remainder if possible, but NOOOOO.... the other runners just had to be so freakin' fast that they made me go out at 8:30/mile. Through the first couple of miles I just focused on holding that pace and getting into a comfortable (yea right) stride at it. People were passing me periodically, although there weren't too many folks left behind me other than those running the race with walkers! We went over the Ohio Turnpike a total of 4 times. The first time was only about a mile into the race. Not so bad. The second time was starting at about 4.25 miles. I started getting a pretty bad sub-sternal pain at this point which then moved to my right upper quad in my abdomen. GAH! I NEVER get stitches like this! It was so bad that once I crested the overpass and started on my way down, I was considering bailing on the race. WOULD NOT! Thankfully there was a water station at mile 5 which saved my life AND my race. I walked through the station and slowly drank the cup of water to make sure I didn't upset any contents to air ratio in my tummy which would cause me to lose my PB&J and water. I started back up again and tried pacing 8:30 - 8:45 for the rest of the race. I was tired, but getting increasingly optimistic after getting through that race hiccup at mile 4 - 5. When I got to 7, I felt pretty good and was actually picking up my pacing and passed a few of the fine folks that had been showing me their bums for most of the race. Mile 9 to the finish was tough, and seemed long, but I just focused on finishing strong at this point. I passed one or two other runners and then saw Tammy at about 9.75 miles and started hammering it home as best as I could with what would lamely be called "my kick" telling her "I need help!". Lindsey was right at the finish cheering me through and taking my pic - the one in the sidebar at the right, which is in stark contrast to the one above! I finished in 1:26:23, about an 8:39 min/mile pace and better than my goal time of 1:30:00. I was happy with my effort, but astonished at the speed out there in the field today. I finished 136/172 runners and probably last in my age group, but that was a long and fast race for me and I don't think I could have run it any faster. They had some great eats, ham and turkey sammiches, chicken noodle soup, and apples afterward and we chatted with the Calhoun family (the girls all ran and kicked MY butt - and many others' too though - Kate 1:08 something, Kelsey 1:16 something, Errin 1:20 something), I changed into dry clothes and we headed back home. Thanks Tammy and Lindsey for going with me... it meant the world to me! I love you guys!

Today's 5 Miler and Training Schedule

Here's the new running shoes that Tammy and I got at Dave's a couple of days ago - post first run! I had a directive comment from someone that we can't get new shoes and not post a pic of them. Tammy's are the purty ones on the right, mine the ugly red and black ones on the left. We both just tried them out on a beautiful morning today on a 5 mile run. The consensus opinion from both of us... ahhhhhh. They felt really good, cushioned and supportive. We also wore our new running socks which make a huge difference as well. It was an awesome morning, very pretty, and it was great to be running with my honey! I just love spending time like that with her. We had good conversations and I just like being with her. She's such a blessing to me! On the training schedule note, I put a link to the plan I am following in the right side bar. I don't follow it exactly in that you have to move the days up one as I do my long runs on Saturdays and not Sundays, and, I don't necessarily follow the mileage amounts as I often do more (I have to stay ahead of Marion's totals!) or will often do easy runs on days I am to be off. Oh, and I am not doing any cross-training, nor cross-dressing. Tomorrow is a race day, Dave's 10 Mile Shoe Run. I'm not sure yet what my "strategy" is for the race in terms of run it hard like a race, run it hard like a tempo run, or run it easier just to build my mileage base. In any case, I'll post about that tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll have a couple of pics to add as well... we'll see. Um, I guess that's it for now. I need to have a good meal now, go to a jazz concert at Lourde's College with some friends from the worship brass at church, and get to bed for some rest for tomorrow's race after church. The race doesn't start until 2:00 p.m. Oh, apparently I have to shorten my posts up here... Lindsey says they are too long! She gave me quite a tribute here http://lindsissweet.blogspot.com/. She's such an awesome young lady with a gigundous heart... she makes me cry.

Dave's 10 Mile Shoe Run Race and New Shoes!

So Tammy and I stopped into Dave's Performance Footgear in Sylvania last night because I wanted to drop off a race registration for the Dave's 10 Mile Shoe Run in Delta, Ohio this Sunday, which I did. We ended up getting fitted for shoes by Liz, who was awesome, and walked out with a couple of new pairs of Mizuno running shoes, some running socks, and some empty pockets. My feet are fairly normal, other than being short and wide like my dad's, but she measured me and I found that I have been running in entirely too small of shoes. I've been running in 9.5's and she measured me to 11's. Whoops! Liz was awesome and I was totally happy with the selections she had me try and they weren't even the most expensive of shoes they sold! Lesson learned. Hopefully I'll see Liz, a runner herself, at the GCM or the Flying Pig races which she said she will be registering for. Dave's 10-miler on Sunday so, get your game face on Cassy... we have a 10 mile race to run Sunday hon! ;-)