Philly Trip

As I was sitting here thinking about my trip to Philadelphia, I thought I'd post about it on my blog.  I had made the decision to fly rather than drive to Philadelphia, and it wasn't long before I realized that was most definitely the right decision.  I flew Southwest Airlines out to Philly and took a cab from the airport to my hotel.  After sitting in the traffic I was really happy that someone else was doing the driving.  

I flew in on Friday afternoon and got settled in my hotel.  I then made a quick trip to the starting area for Sunday's race, just to make sure that I knew where it was, how to get there, and had everything set.

The City of Philadelphia as well as the Competitor's Group were already getting things set up for the race.  In addition to familiarizing myself with the start area, I took in a few sites.  The start and finish for the Philadelphia Rock 'n' Roll Half marathon was at the base of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

These were the steps that Sylvester Stallone ran up in the Rocky movies.  Yes, I did see tourists running up the stairs and taking pictures at the top in the "Rocky Pose".  No, I was not one of those tourists.

On Saturday I attended the runner expo.  For the non-runners or newbie runners that may be reading this, the runners expo is where participants go to pick up things like their race bib, timing chip, etc.  But it is also like attending a sale/vendor show at a convention.  Several vendors set up booths and sell their wares.  They also have some speaker and educational sessions at some expos.

I had an opportunity to listen to a Q&A with former men's marathon world record holder Khalid Khannouchi. I also attended a session with author and runner John Bingham and had an opportunity to chat with him for a little bit both during and after his session.  I also got some advice from him on how to run my race the next day.  Valuable advice that helped me in exceeding my goals.

The start area for the race was very well organized.  Pretty impressive for a race involving over 15,000 runners.  It wasn't too crowded, but you wouldn't have thought so looking from the outside.  I've been in races with the same number of people, or even fewer, in which the start area was not nearly as organized and was much more crowded.

I finished the race in a personal best 1:57:37.  I was very happy to run a personal best time, but even happier to have finished in under two hours.

After the race I went back to the hotel and relaxed a bit.  The next day I went out and did some siteseeing.  Although the day started a little rainy, I was able to take in some sites.

I went to Independence Hall, originally known at the Pennsylvania State House.

In this room the Declaration of Independence, as well as the Constitution of the United States were debated and signed.  President George Washington presided over the Constitutional debate from that seat.  Interesting information was that the founding fathers were conservatives by today's standards.  They were very strong believers in states' rights and in a limited federal government.

I then went over the check out the Liberty Bell.  I found out something I didn't realize.  The original crack in the Liberty Bell was a very small crack.  The large gap in the bell that we know now was a result of attempts to "fix" the crack and caused more damage.

I then went over to the cemetery to check out the graves of some of our founding fathers, including that of Benjamin Franklin.

Overall, the trip went very well.  I also have to say that Southwest Airlines won my loyalty during this trip.  They treated me like the reason for their jobs instead of like I was there interrupting their jobs.  Something that, unfortunately, can't be said of a couple of other airlines I've flown over this past year.

I came back home, got back to work and continued my training to prepare for the Columbus Marathon.  This past weekend I ran a 20 mile long run and was happy with the results.  Back into another taper now and looking forward to my first full marathon in four years.

Some Changes - Some Challenges

This past week has put me on a different schedule than normal at work.  It forced me to make some adjustments to my running schedule, but nothing I wasn't able to adapt to.  I also am dealing with the taper once again, something I haven't done for a few months.  As I prepare for this week's Philadelphia Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon I will be cutting back on my running, giving my legs a chance to fully recover from two separate 18 mile runs last month.  After my race on Sunday, I have to work to get right back in to my training schedule so that I'm fully prepared to run a full marathon one month later right here in Columbus.

But I've been making some changes and plans for this year and next.  Since changing my registration for my Columbus race in October from the half marathon to the full marathon, I've adjusted my training schedule.  I've also started planning for 2014.  I've already registered for the Phoenix Marathon on March 1 and made my flight and hotel reservations.  Hopefully I don't end up having too big of a wrench thrown in the works there.  I made those reservations on somewhat of a leap of faith as I don't know what my schedule will be like next year, what my days off will be and if I will get approved for the time off.  Those are all things that I won't find out for a couple of months, but I have faith.

In addition to Phoenix, I'm hoping to do at least seven more races in 2014.  Ideally I would like to run the Raleigh Rock 'n' Roll Half and Nashville Rock 'n' Roll Half in April, the Laugh & a Half Marathon in Nebraska in June, the Virginia Beach Rock 'n' Roll Half in August, the St. Louis Rock 'n' Roll Half in October, the Big Sur Half Marathon and, of course, the Space Coast Half Marathon in November.  That would be my ideal 2014 race schedule.

With 11 states currently under my belt in my Quest for 48 States, and one more scheduled the end of this month in Iowa, an ideal 2014 race schedule would put me 18 states down and 30 more to go.  Raleigh and the Space Coast would not give me any additional states in my "Quest", but would both provide me with additional medals to add to my collection.

For 2014, I'll have to see how things play out and hope for the best.

Another change was a late change to my travel plans for my trip to Philadelphia.  After looking at the cost of gas and parking in Philadelphia and comparing that to the cost of a flight and cab fare, it turned out that I would be paying nearly exactly the same thing to fly as I would to drive, so plane reservations have been made.  I also added an extra day to my stay in Philadelphia.  Having never visited Philadelphia, and being somewhat of a history buff, I wanted to make sure I had some time to see the city without wearing my legs out the day before the race, and without having to rely on walking around the city the same day that I run a half marathon.  As I posted on Facebook, what good is a destination run if I don't take some time to visit the destination?

I really think everyone should run....

Busy Busy Busy

Well the next few months, as I've said before, are shaping up to be pretty busy, both personally and professionally.

Professionally, our communications center officially begins dispatching for a second fire department on October 1st.  In addition we will start taking the landline 9-1-1 calls for that area so I'm expecting that phones will be staying pretty busy after this month.  We currently have one new dispatcher in training and two others have received conditional offers of employment with hopes that they will be on board and starting their training by early October.  So...in the first week of October the following will be happening:

1 - Three new dispatchers being trained
2 - Dispatching for a second fire dept.
3 - The Presidents Cup Golf Tournament comes to Dublin
4 - Answering 9-1-1 calls for two cities in addition to being a regional wireless 9-1-1 call center.

I also received a summons in the mail to report for jury duty for that week, one of our supervisors will be off work on maternity leave...let's see...is there anything else happening in October????

Personally, I am currently in my taper period leading up to the Rock 'n' Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon in a little over a week.  Just to throw a wrench in the works, I decided to change my entry for the Columbus Half Marathon in October to the full marathon, so I'm in a period of trying to taper but also build mileage.  That pretty much means that the week after I run Philadelphia, my long run for the week will be a 20 miler.  Nervous you ask....ABSOLUTELY!!

I also realized today that I signed up and got assigned overtime the morning that I should be doing that 20 mile run.  Not a huge problem, as I can do the run the following morning instead, but it made me realize that as I sign up for the overtime that will be coming as a result of all the changes happening at work, I've got to remember to take my training schedule in to account.  This week is a great example of that.  For four out of my five work days this week I'm scheduled in at 2:45am instead of my normal 6:45am.  Since I typically do my training runs before work, I had to make some adjustments on the fly.  Fortunately, making "on the fly" adjustments is a pretty common occurrence, both in my work and in my running, so I'm able to deal with it without too much stress.

One would think that after getting through the Columbus Marathon in October that I'd be able to rest up a bit, but one would be wrong.  I then start preparing for the Space Coast Half Marathon, which will be held in Cocoa Beach, FL on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.  I have to do some careful planning that weekend in order to make the trip, get my packet for the race, and still be in position to watch the Ohio State - Michigan game.

But then I can relax right?  Nope, I've registered to run the Phoenix Marathon on March 1st.  So, it'll be right back to training when I get back from Florida.

Along with all of this, I've got a trip planned to head out to Nebraska to visit my brother for a weekend.  My sister-in-law has promised me a gourmet meal.  (I remember hearing something about bologna).  That weekend we'll be checking out an auto auction with some vintage/antique cars that have never been driven.  I'm not really a "car guy", but this sounded really interesting.  I've also registered to run a 5K in Iowa while I'm in the area that weekend, knocking another state off my list in my Quest For 48.  (Hey, that's what I'll call it now).

Interestingly enough, with all that's going on these next few months, both professionally and personally, I feel pretty good about all of it.  While it could be stressful, the fact that running plays a big part in all of this is actually the saving grace.  Any stress created by the busy schedule, the changes at work, the extra overtime, or anything else, is alleviated by running.  Running helps to relieve the physical stresses.  The runner's high is a real thing.  The relaxation I get from it is nothing short of amazing.  I'm able to keep things at work in perspective.  Are we going to busy?  Yes, but we've been busy before.  Are we going to be short staffed for a period?  Yes, but we've been shorter staffed than this and made it through just fine.

The more challenges you're faced with, the more opportunities you have to prove to yourself that you can face them, deal with them, and if necessary, beat them.  

Experts

Having spent the last few months back on Facebook I laugh at all the "experts" out there.  Not to say that I won't interject my own opinion plenty and get engaged in some debate and conversation on the issue.  But the biggest laugh I get come from the hypocrites.  I probably spelled that wrong, so I won't make fun of all the people or think loose means lose or to means too...alright, maybe I will.

The most hypocritical thing I see are the so called Facebook Experts.  I don't mean that they're experts about Facebook, I mean that they go on Facebook spouting their beliefs as if it is knowledge.  The best part was a debate I recently watched unfold (and admittedly took part in) in which one person criticized others for "spouting talking points" for their side of the argument, while they spent the entire debate spouting talking points.  When evidence was provided and cited, the other side would spout some more talking points but never provide any specific evidence to back their beliefs or refute the evidence provided by the other side.  Facebook Expert?  Or impersonator?

I once tried to get someone to have a conversation about an issue by giving me the benefits of their side of the issue instead of attacking and insulting the other side.  I'll quote, once again, a man I work with who told me, "If you spend more time putting down or attacking the other side of the argument than you do supporting your side of the argument, then there must be something wrong with your argument."  Expert?  Or impersonator?

As long as I don't take it too seriously, I can have a lot of fun calling out the so called experts.  It's not just Facebook.  They're everywhere.  But Facebook and other social media sites have really brought them out of the woodwork.

For me, I'll give you my argument.  If you can show me where my argument is flawed, I'll admit the flaw.  But I would ask this, don't be so intent on winning the argument that you refuse to listen to the argument. 

Leave the impersonations to the experts.

Reading, Running and 'Rithmatic

I have been a tad bit lacking on getting out the blog entries, but I've noticed that the blogs I follow have also been slow to get updates out, so I don't feel so bad.

After running three half marathons early in the year, all within about 4 to 6 weeks of each other, I have had the last few months off of the long runs.  In order to keep on track with running, and to increase my endurance, I decided to spend the last few months working a full marathon training schedule in preparation for my next half marathon, and to determine if I'd be up to taking on a full marathon anytime soon.  Tomorrow will be the final test in making that determination, as I take on an 18 mile run.  The full schedule would have me running 20 miles in two weeks, but with the Philadelphia Half Marathon coming up in mid-September, I don't want to put in a 20 mile run on this go around.  I'll then have a couple more half marathons in a short period of time, running Columbus in October and the Space Coast Half on Thanksgiving weekend.

I'm planning on making the trip to Phoenix for the March 1st Half Marathon, but may decide to make that my next full marathon, just depending on how I feel after tomorrow.  That would mean a winter training schedule, but I'm ok with that.

I set a goal to run 1000 miles this year.  I'm well ahead of schedule on that goal, having put in 717 miles so far.  Even if I didn't run anymore this month, I would still be 50 miles ahead of schedule to achieve that goal, and with three half marathons to train for by the end of the year, and potentially a full marathon in early 2014, I'm confident that I'll meet my goal.

I haven't read any new books this past month, so I'm still at eight books read out of the twelve I resolved to read this year.  I started to read a new book this past month, but didn't get in to it very far before I decided it just wasn't for me.  It's not that I'm not reading, my issues of Runner's World Magazine give me plenty of interesting reading, but I need to get back to the books.

At work, things are going to be getting pretty busy as the year starts to wind down.  We currently have one new dispatcher in training and just completed an interview process to hire another.  With the planned changes that are coming through the end of this year and early next year, we expect to have to hire at least four more on top of those two.  That will result in fewer opportunities for casual leave, but more opportunities for some overtime, which helps pay for some of my running events and trips.  I'm taking advantage of the time off that I do get and staying away from work during those days in order to make sure that, when I am picking up a lot of overtime, I'm not burning out on work.

On a completely different note, I've found that I really have no clue when it comes to reading people.  Almost every person that I've gotten to know turns out to be completely different than the "first impressions" that I had.  It's humorous really.  People who I thought were honest, turned out to, in some cases, be outright liars.  People who I thought were positive individuals have turned out to be some of the most negative.  The reverse has also shown to be true though.  Maybe that's a way of telling me to just quit trying to figure people out and just "go with it".  Who knows?

I had an opportunity this past month to spend an evening with some of my classmates from high school.  Only a few of us from the Pickerington class of '84 were able to make it out, but it was a fun evening.  That was probably my first realization that I'm ... wait for it...wait for it....getting old.  Yes, I said it.  As we sat around the table contemplating how "this younger generation just doesn't understand" and how they "expect everything to be handed to them" and how "they have no real work ethic", I realized that I'd heard conversations like this before.  They were from those who I once considered to be the "older generation".  But they were in their 40's and 50's when they were saying those things.  Now here I am, 47 years old, and making the same kinds of comments.

So I'll continue to keep a good attitude, while hoping that one day "this younger generation" will figure it out.  Hopefully they'll figure out that anything worth having is worth working for, and nothing is handed to you on a platter.  Change CAN be a good thing.  But sometimes, as my father has said, there are reasons why some things don't change.  Sometimes, things are good the way they are.  Change simply for the sake of change is not always a good thing.  

Rehashing

I started "really" running in 2008.  In 2009 I was asked to write an article for the City of Dublin Employee Newsletter about running and why I run.  I posted that article on my blog a couple of years ago, just after I had gotten back to running, but recently have answered some questions from people about why I run.  So...I thought now might be a good time to post it again.  This time I've made a few revisions, but it'll give you an overview of why it is that I enjoy running so much.  It will also serve as a reminder to me, as I sit here at work with very sore legs after this morning's 16 mile run.

Anyone who knew me in 2006 would have found it difficult to believe that I was a cross country and track runner in high school.  They may have also found it difficult to believe that I spent three years as a military policeman in the Army, where running and strenuous physical activity was an everyday thing.  As a matter of fact, running had been such a dominant part of my life for so many years that I had grown to purely hate the thought of it.  I didn’t just hate the thought it…I hated doing it.  I hated going to cross country practice.  I hated going to track practice.  I hated waking up at 4:00am to run and words “double-time march” were words that I grew to despise.

However, the fact that I hated running is not why those who knew me would have found it difficult to believe that I’d ever done it.  Not that my current physique would bring to mind “runner”, but in March of 2006 I weighed in at a svelt 440 lbs.  With a history of heart disease on both my mother’s and father’s side of my family I was on the fast track to an early grave.  I got winded walking from the justice center parking lot to the communications center, so the thought that I would, or could, run anywhere was unbelievable.

I made a decision then that, if I wanted to live more than ten years, I had to take drastic steps.  Within a year, with the help of diet, exercise and weight loss surgery, I had lost over 200 pounds.  My blood pressure, which was borderline, had become good.  My blood sugar levels, which were close to becoming diabetic, became normal.  My LDL cholesterol level, which was high, had fallen to an acceptable level.

While I can certainly attribute most of my weight loss to the effects of the surgery and the restricted diet, I have to attribute the amount of weight lost and the short amount of time in which I lost it, to the exercise that was promoted by my bariatric surgeon and his staff.  There is no doubt in my mind that maintaining my weight loss during that time can only be attributed to the exercise.

But something happened during all that exercise.  I started to actually enjoy it.  I started to realize when people say that exercise is the best way to deal with stress, that’s not just a line to get people to exercise.  It really is true.  As you can imagine, working in a 9-1-1 communications center can be a stressful environment.  Instead of turning to food to deal with the stress, something I had done in the past without even realizing it, I turned to exercise.  Instead of an order of the house Lo Mein, I would put in a couple of miles on the treadmill.  What was more amazing to me was that I was enjoying my time on the treadmill, I had started to like running and in time would run anywhere from two to six miles on the treadmill each day or every other day. 

Then, in the spring of 2008, some friends encouraged me to register for a four mile run at Alum Creek.  I was leery about running out on the roads.  Afraid of what might happen to my knees, which had spent years supporting my 300-400 plus pound frame. I was also afraid of how I would look, with all those runners.  After all, I wasn’t really a runner.  I was just someone who ran for exercise.  I couldn’t possibly keep up with people who register for these four mile road races and run for the competition.  What I found out though, was that the running community is not like that at all.  People of all abilities come out to run, or walk.  As a matter of fact, I didn’t run the entire four mile course.  I ran about three miles and walked for about a mile, but no one laughed at me, no one ridiculed me.  I wasn’t the only one to slow down and walk part of the course, other runners were doing the same thing.  Another thing that I found was that the running/walking community is very supportive.  As I approached the finish line, those who were there to support other participants and those who had already finished the course cheered me across the finish line.  They didn’t know me, they’d never seen me before, they didn’t know that this was my first race since high school.  All they knew was that I was finishing, and that was all that mattered.  From that point on I was hooked.

Throughout the remainder of 2008 I participated in more than thirty running/walking events.  During that time I found that the City of Dublin has its own running community.  Within the Justice Center there are at least three police officers and a mayors court clerk who have run marathons, and several other employees who run for exercise, recreation or both.  It’s not just the Justice Center either.  Employees from all over the city run or walk.

Then, in 2009, I did something that I would have never thought was possible.  Even when I was running two or three or even four 5K events in a weekend, I would have never thought it possible that I would run a marathon.  People who were in much better shape than I was in ran marathons.  I ran 5K’s.  Competitive runners ran marathons.  I ran 5K’s.  But I read a book and it inspired me.  The book, “Marathoning for Mortals”, was written by John Bingham and Jenny Hadfield.  John was someone I identified with.  He was someone who started running to lose weight.  He was someone who didn’t run very fast but had gotten hooked by the running community.  He was also someone who had completed thirty marathons.  After reading the book I decided to give it a shot and registered for the 2009 Myrtle Beach Marathon.  I trained using a 20 week training program in the book, then on February 14 I participated in the Myrtle Beach Marathon.  By mile 16 I was wondering why I had taken on such a challenge.  By mile 20 I swore that I would never do it again.  But I finished.  I crossed the finish line 5 hours 38 minutes and 21 seconds after I started.  I came back home, proud of the finishers medal I had received.  I took a week away from running, then signed up to run seven 5K and 4 mile runs.  Then, remembering my promise to myself that I would NEVER run another marathon, I registered for the Columbus Marathon the following October. 

This is where the story takes a slight detour.  After training for another 20 weeks and running my second marathon in a year, I took a lot of time off running.  I didn't train much at all after that, but ran the 2010 Disney World Half Marathon.  I registered for and completed the 2010 Cap City Half Marathon also.  But again, I did that with absolutely no training to prepare, and my time showed it.  After that I really didn't run much at all for quite a while.  Things in my life had changed, I made excuses and just never took the time to run.  I missed running, but as the time went on it became harder and harder to motivate myself to get out there.  As my running times increased, so did my weight because, while I no longer excercised like a runner, I certainly had no problem continuing to eat like one.

In 2011 I started "sorta" running.  I would get out occassionally, and I did get that joy that I once felt from running.  I started to once again feel the stress relief I had once felt.  So in 2012 I made a commitment to run at least two half marathons.  By the end of the year I had ended up running a total of four half marathons.  This year I've run three more and will be running three more by the end of this year.  I've lost all the weight I regained, and am even maintaining a weight nearly 20 lbs. less than where I was when I ran my two marathons in 2009.  

My third and fourth half marathons this year are far enough apart that I decided to try working a full marathon training schedule in.  The purpose was basically to see if I could, or even wanted to, run another full marathon.  Today's long run was 16 miles long.  I'm happy with how I did, but the decision about running another full marathon is still up in the air.  It may or may not happen, we'll see.  Regardless, in a few weeks I'll begin to taper my training in preparation for the Philadelphia Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in September.  I expect to have a successful race, and have set my "ultimate goal" at running the half in under 2:00.  If I'm unable to do that, then I do hope to at least beat my current best of 2:04:21.

Do you Need to Know...or Want to Know?

Over the last several years I've tried to do some things to reduce my stress level.  Unless you are completely new to this blog, or to me, you know that running is one of those things.  This blog is another one of those things I've done to reduce stress, as it provides me an opportunity to "vent" at times.  A few years back I stepped down from a supervisor position at work in order to reduce stress.  In this "search" for a more relaxed me, I've also become more spiritual (if that's the right word).

I was talking to a co-worker this afternoon and began talking about some of the changes that are about to take place here where I work.  I think the fact that I've been actively working on lowering my stress level will help when it comes to all the changes.  They are changes that I regard as positive.  But positive or negative, changes...especially major changes, create stress, and these are, what I would consider to be major changes.  I made the comment that the next year will be "fun".  The co-worker used the word "entertaining".  Although they may sound the same, they are very different, and I think his term is probably more accurate than mine.  Don't get me wrong, I will have fun over this next year, but some of what is going to happen may not be "fun", but it will most certainly be entertaining.

We spoke some about the changes and what would happen and then spoke of how much we know, or how "in the loop" we were.  That's when it kind of dawned on me that sometimes being in the loop can create more stress than it relieves.  Through the changes that have been coming we've been kept pretty well in the loop here, while others have not been.  In those cases, knowing a little about what was happening helped to keep our stress levels down, while hearing and listening to the possibilities and rumors has undoubtedly contributed to the stress level of others.  It helped me to realize that I don't need to know what I don't need to know.  I feel pretty comfortable knowing that I'll be told what things I need to know at work.  So if I don't know the story on something, I'm confident that I really don't need to know, cuz if I need to know I'll be told, but if I'm not told then I don't need to know.  Ya know?

Basically I realized that not being "in the know" can be one of those things that reduces stress.  More often than not, being in the loop just means that you know a lot about the rumors and half truths that are circulating anyway.  On top of that someone who is "in the know" adds their own spin on things, and that speculation becomes someone else's fact and by the time the story gets through a few people it becomes so distorted those who think they know what happened or what's going to happen have no clue.