Fast Food 5k!!!

 

This evening I dusted off one of my old favorite routes, the ol' Fast Food 5k.

 

 


Fast Food 5k

I came up with this name when I was feeling kinda down one day about going way off the path with my dining habits; I had traded in Panera for burgers. Not all the time, mind you, just enough cheating to start feeling it. Then, during a 3 mile run that night, I realized I had passed two McDs, a Dunkin Donuts, and a Wendys. Thus the route was named.
 
Now when I run it I am reminded of how strong I know I can be. Plus it has some small hills, little traffic, and almost a figure-eight quality which means if I run by other lovely runners, there is a good chance I'll see them again 20 minutes later.
 
So, I encourage all of you to create your own Fast Food 5k. Remind yourself as you flit by just how strong and amazing you are!
 
By the way, yes I do still occasionally have yummy salty fries! Only human!
 
 
 
 
Of course, as always, you can help others feel strong and amazing too! Help out my campaign for Team Fox at www2.michaeljfox.org/goto/RunningArts 
 
Then your only job is to copy the link and pass it along to end Parkinson's!

Another Bookshelf Review - A Race Like No Other

How on earth do I write a book review for a widely-liked book that I was very 'blah' about?

 

I have put off this review for some time as I really did not know how to answer that question. Finally I decided that I would research the hell out of it, and try to give an objective view of the facts, and attempt a round discussion on what is in between the covers.

 A Race Like No Other

Liz Robbins, of the New York Times, has taken on a mammoth topic with her 2010 release of A Race Like No Other, 26.2 miles through the streets of New York. It takes as much courage to tackle writing about the New York Marathon as it does to actually run it. However, one of the most difficult literary feats to tackle is to add even more characters to an already massive story, and that is what the author has attempted.

 

In trying to get a handle on my feelings for this book I read review after review, and I realized the positive ones had a common thread, everyone loves this race. That's how so many read this book, they loved the topic with all their heart, and I feel that may have skewed the reality of this offering.

 

This book covers the 2007 New York Marathon, and tries to follow several characters throughout the festivities, and then tries to mix in some truly amazing historical context. The individual stories are covered in a broken narrative way though, almost like watching golf as the play-by-play goes from green to green, and you have no idea what order things are in. That being said, it is nice to have a marathon book that reminds the reader not everyone finishes this race in just over two hours, and we are all welcome. I enjoy the occasional reminders that there are fantastic stories for each runner, how they got there, maybe who they lost, or if they lost themselves, but I didn't feel compelled to not put this book down, it happened many, many times.

 

What the author does well is convey the flavor and the feel of each individual mile of the race. I used to live in Brooklyn, and if I skipped the street names and sections, I could still tell exactly which neighborhood was being discussed. This book also keys in on unique elements of marathoning that most beginning runners don't know about, like how people keep warm, how massive corrals can be in a big race, and what a beautiful community our running world is. Further, there is a beautiful color-plate section, filled with the brilliance of New York.

 A Race Like No Other

So, how to put this, you will like this book if you like very personal and uplifting stories, but also have the patience to see them spread here and there throughout three-hundred-and-fourteen pages. If you have never been to the city, and wish to feel the grandiose nature of the boroughs and the event itself, you will also rave about this book.

 

If, however, you want a full dictionary on the race, you will not find it here.

Dodging raindrops! - about time for some more "running" stuff

Wet Cement?

When I was growing up, one of my favorite books actually belonged to my next-oldest brother, Chris. It was a personalized gift to him about a little boy who got caught in a rainstorm, hid in a closed supermarket, and mediated a settlement between the ever-so-grumpy paper bag, Medelef, and the fresh market items. It was personalized to say "Chris", and "Medelef" was just an anagram of our family name, however it was a beautiful story to capture my childhood imagination.

So, Michael, what does this have to do with running. Well, as it turns out, the book starts out with a very well-painted narrative, and it includes a wonderful phrase, "...dodging raindrops." I always asked my parents if it was possible and they would say things like "If you run fast enough." Ever since then I have been trying.

I love running in the rain, and I always think of the illustrations in that book when I do get caught in a storm. Today though I went out looking for trouble. I actually didn't even start stretching till the thunder started. So laced up, and cell in a baggie, I headed out for a quick 3 miles.

If you try this I highly encourage you to pick a route you usually avoid in the sun. The reason why is simple, if you wanna enjoy being silly and making a mess of yourself, you should do it out in the open. Also, technically I guess it gives you a variation in your training, but mostly I like my raindrops un-encumbered.



Blurry, Action-soaked Adventure

If you are not sold yet, I can honestly say that it is good to get in a little training running in the wet cause every now and then, even here in sunny Florida, our outdoor events get drenched, and it's nice to have the experience of how not to slip and fall in public. Or, in the case of the Savage Race a year or so ago, our early heat was soaked, then the afternoon waves literally had a tornado sweep through. Practice makes perfect!

Now, you may also be thinking I'm crazy to go out in the rain, won't I catch cold? Well, not unless I was going to any way. The rain doesn't infect people. Getting too cold for too long can create a hypothermic state even in the summer; asthma sufferers, like me, want to make sure it's no the cold air that sets off an attack, but generally, as long as you recover your body temp after, you should be fine!

Oh, and wear the older "mud run" shoes!



All this being said, in just 217 days I am going to be freezing my rear off while waiting at the starting line on Staten Island. This past year the temperature at the start was forty-six degrees; so I shall suffer effects of the cold in ways I have never imagined.

Of course, insert literary ploy for money, I'm going to feel amazing about it, because all of you will have helped me raise over $5000 for Team Fox for Parkinson's Research.

I really do still need all of you to do what you can to help reach this goal! Three things are needed: 1. Click the link. 2. Forward to others. 3. Personally remind them how important this cause is to families like mine, please.

http://www2.michaeljfox.org/goto/RunningArts

Or follow, and forward now on Twitter @ RunningArts

Michael's Story - Part 3 of 3...for now.

Today a very good friend at work asked me the simplest of questions: “Why do you run, Mike?” Before I could answer, he immediately followed with, “I'd only run if it was to save my life.”

As I answered him I realized that the time has come for me to finish the last chapter in my story about how I got here, and to explain the mysterious fortune cookie I have mentioned.

I will try to keep this as short as possible, as I'm not sure yet what all this means yet for me.

When we left off, after 4 months of me waiting to hear if Team Fox was going to have a team in the 2014 Marathon, I finally found out, that indeed, they were. That was around 3pm. Near 5pm I spoke with Mom on the phone, and she let me know the news about Dad's diagnosis. It seemed like some sort of big cosmic arrow pointing the way for me, and I knew everything would work out if I followed.

I should further explain here that my father has been forgetting things more and more over the last five years or so. Only short term things, but enough to concern everyone, including him. Then he started to have a shaky gate when he walked. His regular doctors told him it was just getting older, and possibly an inner-ear issue.

 

90.7 Orlando

 

Then one day I heard a wonderful article on NPR about something called Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, or NPH. It covered Dad's symptoms and a few more, and the doctor being interviewed explained that a decent percentage of patients who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia just have this condition, which is mostly treatable. I went on a tear trying to get Dad to go to the right doctors, and finally, at the insistence of Mom and one of my brothers, Dad got tested.

I explained from the start that this was an outside chance, and for nobody to get their hopes up, even though I secretly held hope. Sadly, the doctors at UF confirmed it was dementia, and on top of that, it was Parkinson's Syndrome (PS). PS is a little different than Parkinson's Disease. PS is another degenerative neurological illness where the patient gets sporadic and individual symptoms of Parkinson's Disease. Very little is known currently about it, but I have faith that an answers lies in finding a solution to Parkinson's!

That is why I have redoubled my efforts for this cause. Yes I get to run in a very exclusive marathon, but I could have done that without trying to raise so much money for research.

 

So why then do I run? I have to answer with a question.

How many people get to do something they love, for someone they love, and share that love with the world for the betterment of all mankind

That is why I run, to save lives.

It also doesn't hurt that around 7pm, that random night, I opened a fortune cookie, and read this:

Please donate now! Then share! I need you to help create the 'together' in:

We can do this together!

 

 

 

Already planned out my 2015 New York Marathon - Caution: Crying warning!!!

So I thought I was running the New York Marathon for a beautiful cause...

Then I discovered this!!

 

 

 

 

http://www.achillesinternational.org/members/why-run

I am going to have to put up another counter on my blog till the 2015 Marathon, because I have got to do this!!

Achilles International assists individuals, with some special need, participate in incredible athletic events by partnering them with a team of volunteer athlete guides who's mission it is to get them to their goal!

I realize I'm shooting myself in the foot a bit here, but this video made me cry! Whether it is just seeing my beloved New York again, or the look of the thrill coupled with my anticipation...I know where I'll be in 2015.

I don't really think this is a conflict for me. I want all of you runners out there, who don't think you have a marathon in you, to think about spending 6 hours of your time, one day next November, being a superhero in Gotham!

Till then of course, after you wipe away the tears like I did, please go to my Team Fox site, donate, and share!!

Thank You!

No Cerulean in My Wardrobe!

In and amongst freaking out about the huge mountain I have to now climb with fundraising for Team Fox, I also pulled out the washboard and headed down to the river to do some laundry. As I attracted the attention of several Pileated Woodpeckers with the thwap thwap of running shirts on the drying rock I realized I am not that creative at all!

 

Nowhere else in my closet do I have such a collection of warm tones: Reds, yellows, oranges, and one random green top I love! This begs the question, am I really not that creative, or does the industry dictate what I wear and when?

Of course they are mostly brightly colored cause I hate being hit by cars...no I REALLY hate being hit by cars. However, are they mostly reds cause I love the look so much, or because Nike and Adidas got together and dictated that last season, when I got most on the sale rack, saturated red was going to be the go-to color.

 

 

I'm having a flashback to Devil Wears Prada!

Seriously though, how did these foreign colors infiltrate my nice earth-tone wardrobe? I think the answer comes simply. It's the way we all started acquiring running tops. Our friend convinced us to do a 5k, we needed the cheapest shirt we could find, so we settled.

 

That first top fit badly, it probably chafed in new places, and we probably never really used it since. Because, after that, we were all hooked. We each began bargain hunting for the tops with the least liability, and when we found one, we went crazy. Then an unusual thing happened, we began to color coordinate. We fought it at first, but we all did it, don't lie! We started matching to those first couple pieces like a Bride matching Blush and Bashful! This is how we were as time passed in the 5k world.

Then, for me, it changed on a gigantic new bridge in Key Largo. After blowing a 2hr time with a pinched nerve, in a naughty place, I finished my first half marathon. Standing there in the sunshine, basking in the sea breeze, I inhaled...I smelled like wet dog. No, that is not accurate, I smelled like a wet dog that had rolled in his own, very fresh, mess.

It was at this moment I checked my shorts, you all either have done it, or will one day; because I had read all about it.... I know why the races set up port-o-potties at very specific places. Now I should say right now that my shorts were not soiled. However there is some serious hormone-pheromone-sweaty-pancreatic-sludge being forced through our skin after running that far. I really did want to hide, and then I realized everyone else was kinda doing the same thing, or worse...having their friends check. My adrenal system destroyed my color-coordinated Adidas combo with matching Robin-red striped Sauconys.

After that, my bargain hunting became a search for two things, shorts that hide 13+ miles of skidmarks, and tops that don't chafe my nipples or anything else!

 

AMAZING NEWS!!!!

I'M IN!!!!!

One Happy Runner!

I'm running in the 2014 TCS New York Marathon with Team Fox!!!!

Today I got the final approval, and link, and everything set up for Team Fox!!!!!! I could seriously explode! Look, I even put a link in my sidebar to visit and donate!

So much time and effort and day-dreaming and it has paid off!!! The crazy part is that the work hasn't even started yet. Now I have just over 200 days to raise a whole lotta money for Parkinson's research, take care of flights and hotels, and oh yeah, get my body ready for a marathon. Not just any marathon...The New York Marathon!!!

I can totally do this! I have trained my whole life for this! Fundraising with Boy Scouts and Promotions with my College radio station WFCF. Further, I have the greatest support structure in the world, my beautiful family and friends, and now, all of you too! I know you're all going to make this possible! If by no other way than sharing the links!

This is very much a together thing! We are going to do this; I am going to carry every brilliant positive wish, from each of you, to the finish line!

Alternative Post: (for comedic effect only)

What have I done!!???

Can't Brain!!!

Seriously, I cannot do this! There is no way that I can come up with the time and effort and connections in time! I should quit now! Jeep being packed for running away to Central America, death is well-faked, Tylenol bottle is...empty...woah!....NO TYLENOL?? Really? Grrrrr!

Fortunately, you all won't let me stop. I've gotten messages all day telling me that I can do this, and people volunteering to assist me. I've made the right choice, I know. Now it's all up to you all to get others to make the right choices and donate soon! If you own a business and would like to create an in-kind donation please do. This is exactly what we mean by 'grassroots'. It means that we can do this ourselves because we believe it's the right thing to do! That is why I am here!

So what can you do right now? Visit my Team Fox site:

http://www2.michaeljfox.org/goto/RunningArts

 

Then copy the link and send it to everyone! Ask them to do the same! Then check back often to see how your contribution is working! Our Team, yours and mine, can do this together!

Michael's Story - Part two...of at least three!

Running Arts is quickly getting away from me! What started as a nice simple utility to eventually link to my Team Fox fundraising page (still in production) has become a monster, a vicious time-sucking gorgon, and I have no shiny shield! That being said, I guess if by chance you are one of my readers, I should probably focus less on blog mythology, and I should continue an earlier post about why I'm here, and why you might want to read on.

I left off on the story of my life at the crucial moment described as "...an odd bunch of coincidences, including a naked and wet actress at my Boy Scout camp, and a freaky fortune cookie!" Let us pick it up from there, queue the backstory.

I am an Eagle Scout. I am insanely proud of this. Not only did Scouting help me grow into a responsible adult, it also afforded me many opportunities to travel the world, and thrust more factoids into my ever-hungry noggin. Also, it allowed me to participate, in a small way, in the production of Doc Hollywood, a fun little comedy staring Michael J. Fox as a big-city Doctor stuck in the middle of nowhere. The nowhere they filmed at included one corner of my Council's Boy Scout Camp in little ol' Melrose, Florida.

Just 45 minutes East of Gainesville is a beautiful lake on the edge of a huge prairie. Today, on the Western-most corner of that lake sits the foundation of a set, built years ago. Before our Scout crew demolished what would become a dilapidated set of walls, it had been a noble cabin façade which the lead character, Benjamin Stone, temporarily resided in. However, my interaction with Hollywood begins a few weeks earlier still; to use the site the production crew needed about 50 yrds of fencing removed, so our service team provided the labor. The payoff was...well, for a 16 year old, magical.

Imagine you are 16 and you have spent the last 5 summers and numerous other weekends hiking, biking and driving around hundreds of acres of un-mapped wilderness, logging every secret trail in your internal GPS, then one day, a collection of very VERY sunburned and heat-stroked  Hollywood production  people explain that they have no idea how to get out of the isolated location in which they have been working. More than that, they realize they have no idea how to get the rest of the Cast and Crew to them...also, you, and several other teens, just happen to have the keys to the 18 passenger camp vans. So began my brief driver-of-the-stars career.

I should say now that this is a more romanticized version. Honestly we had a few crewmembers ride with us as we led huge trucks in and out. The payoff was still to come, as one day we received a surprise backhoe delivery. There was to be a scene in the movie where the love interest, played by Julie Warner, walks out of the lake after swimming. However that end of the lake is so shallow you could barely launch a canoe, so in comes the backhoe to dig out a sloping trough in the water to allow Ms. Warner to walk out at a perfect slope to the camera. Why was this so important we wondered...because she was going to be skinny-dipping!

 

Now, imagine you are a 16 year old Boy Scout!

Needless to say it was very polite of the production crew to allow us to further assist them in the production by holding up trees and carrying canteens as we accidentally watched the scene being filmed. For all the craziness that happened during the production I only briefly met Michael J. Fox. There was a general hand wave and "Thanks guys." from him, but this is where the story turns South.

Fox later revealed that it was during this production, just a few days later, that he would end up at the University of Florida Neurology Department in Gainesville, my hometown, and have doctors dismiss his earliest symptoms of Parkinson's.

It is this same Neurology Department that, just a few weeks ago, gave my Father a much more in-depth diagnosis of his own symptoms.

A review from Mike's bookshelf

You know when you get those coffee-table books at Christmas and you never read them? They are big and they are beautiful, and somebody put a lot of thought into the bargain aisle at B&N!
Not this book!
 

 26.2 : Marathon Stories, by Katherine Switzer & Roger Robinson, was given to me as a gift a few years back, when I first started my evil running habit, and every few weeks since then I've picked it up again, and not just to dust it!

 

The contents of this book read like a candy aisle where each bright package is a delicious sweet for each different days' cravings. Each of the 26.2 chapters focus clearly and succinctly on a different topic of marathon interest from history and legacy to training and treading. The pages are covered in both striking pro photos, as well as classic and personal images. This is by no means a complete reference guide, nor is it self-help or fiction, but if there was a Trivial Persuit, Marathon Edition, this would be the cheat sheet.

 

I love knowledge; I usually say that once I find something I like that I have to research it to death. If you can absorb a great deal of factually presented information on a huge scope of topics, stop reading this page and go get this book!

Possibly the most well presented facts appear in Chapters 7, 20 and 26, the Heroes sections. Here, broken up by year, is a who's who of marathon royalty. Photos, stats and a brief highlight section tell the story of some of the most influential and inspiring marathoners ever to break through the wall.
 

  

The chapter which I always flip to is titled Run the World. Each page features a huge image from some of the most dream-inspiring races across the globe today. From the highest points in the Swiss Alps, to the frozen ground of Antarctica, here you will absolutely discover an adventure which calls to you! Honestly, I have worn-out the bindings on page 140 which features the Safaricom Marathon in Kenya. Taking place right on the Equator in mid-June, this open run through the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy features brutal heat, no spectators, wild animals, and a very small field, just the kind of wild run I ache for.
 

So, pick up the book, or put it on a gift registry, or borrow it from your least-favorite sibling and forget to give it back, but whatever you do, do not leave this book on the coffee table!

 

Also, if you have no idea who Katherine Switzer is.....
 

http://kathrineswitzer.com/

Notes on the perfect playlist!!

Ok, this is sacred ground, I know! The music in our ears, and the voices in our heads, are sacrosanct, so I am not going to try to tell you what you need to listen to, or even why. However, I shall divulge the secrets of my meager Ipod, and some of my whys, and why nots.

I've said before that you must have patience to run; note to self: add Guns n Roses to playlist. I actually mean, that I get bored, everyone I know gets BORED running, so the noise helps us. Each and every runner I know has a different running style, toe-runners, flat-footed and now-a-days even bare-footed, our playlists should be no different!

So the First Note: Being different is ok!

My most accomplished runner-friend regularly listens to PodCasts while she trains. She catches up on stuff and occupies her mind. Another friend of mine, with heart concerns, listens to classical. He insists it lowers his heart-rate, and who doesn’t want that? Personally, I have a big mix right now which rambles like Hippo at night: Offspring, No Doubt, Melissa Etheridge, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, even the soundtrack from Scott Pilgrim. So try lots of different stuff, mix it up and don't be afraid to air-drum at the crosswalk.

Second Note: Housekeeping is crucial!

I try not to obsess over what is in my Shuffle; yes I only use a little Shuffle, see Note #4. Seriously though, I leave stuff on there forever! Runners are creatures of habit, so I like to think that I've basically click-trained my body with the Van Halen, I don't want to change it too much once race season is on. That being said, I go through and delete all the songs which give me the automatic response of hitting FF after .08 seconds. Sorry Patience, you've been cut anyway.

 

Third Note: After 9 miles you don't hear it any more anyway!

This was amazing when I discovered it. So, on long runs our bodies start needing sugars between 8 and 10 miles, so we start going right for the gummies or the gels. In addendum to our muscles needing that raw caloric intake, our poor little neurons are starving too. Yup, if you've ever wondered why you go fuzzy-headed after awhile, it's because your neurons, pretty exclusively, use carbohydrates, no carbohydrates means no thinkin' Scarecrow! The end result was that during my first half marathon, I got to mile 12.5ish and started to think I needed to queue-up my finish song. At this moment I realized that I was 5 minutes into the 8.25 minute American Pie, by Don McClean,....not a running song people. Where had the last 5 minutes gone? They probably also took the last plane for the coast. What this taught me was that there is no point in fighting my Ipod to change songs after about mile 6, cause my little starving brain is just hearing noise!

Note Four: Don't run a race with anything you don't want destroyed!

I don't know if you've seen it yet, but I always see a huge pile-up 100yrds in when someone drops their phone or Ipod cause they didn't have it secured, and now 3000 sets of kicks are trampling the perfect playlist and the perfect Iphone on a perfect morning. Seriously, on long runs and races I carry my phone in a tight tiny waist bag for emergencies. It doesn't come out till I'm done. If my little Shuffle gets knocked off and sails into a storm drain I'm not gonna let it interrupt the first time I hit a perfect 9minute pace, maybe Leonardo will return it one day.

 

Note Five: Finish strong!

Whereas I have just trashed planned out playlists, huge-gigged storage, and Don McClean, I do always search for one song to blast through the last 100 yrds. Whether it is the click-training or any actual primal brain type response, I always can muster a final sprint from down deep with the right song.

 

In the event you've read all the way down here, my finish line song: Beastie Boys' Sabotage!

Hope this list helps you contemplate the way in which you hear a race. At the very least you now have my permission to listen to A Prairie Home Companion!

Michael's Story -Part one of ....um...a bunch

Some day in the future, I'm gonna look back and question how I ever told myself I needed 'more' content...this, however, is not that day. My poor lil blog now only has two postings, and one is complaining about only having two posts.

So, it has been suggested that I explain more about me, why I'm here and why you should read another word. To that end, I present to you a brief-ish version of my purpose, at least the first installment.

Why is Running Arts here? Well, I run, and not too fast either. I'm almost 40, but I promise this is not another 'over-30' runner's blog. This story starts way before 30. I played at sports all through school, but finally found success with surfing, and ultimate frisbee at Flagler College. What I discovered most was that I was patient when it came to sports, I had infinite patience in waiting for a better wave or the perfect disk throw. In running you have to be patient, because running a 5k takes awhile; you're mind wanders and the pay-offs are miles away. Coupled with that, I had my 'life-changing event' when I was only 28.

I woke up one morning and my heart was ….well, gurgling! Generally I have no problem super-gluing a cut back together, or just walking-off a broken rib or two, but I'm not a total idiot! So into the Jeep and off to the hospital my little gurgling-heart went.

Atrial Fibrillation is a horrible phrase to hear before age 60. Without binge drinking or drug use, my cardiologist informed me that I fell into the small one-in-sixty-million people under 60 that have it. Basically, the four chambers talk to each other and synchronize through a bundle of nerves hidden in the middle of my heart. However my 'stick it to the man' style of nerves don't play well with others. Evidently, some of my chambers were on a 4/4 beat, and the others had more of a free-form jazz thing going on. End result, 4 days in ICU and a huge desire not to die!

I explained to my amazing doctor, after he saved me and the oxygen mask was off, that I had things to do still, and that one of those things was to run a marathon! He said that one day I probably could if I behaved in the mean time. I'm patient, but I hate behaving. Three years of his care, lots of ramping up and down of heart meds, and I started to trust my body again. Then, one of my best friends asked if I wanted to do a 5k mud run.

So thus begins my slow and patient training to run and not to die. That first run, The Champions Mud Bash was quite lacking in mud and bashing, sad, however I was able to finish really strong. Then came another, then another, then street 5ks and then my first half-marathon. Eventually Ill be more prolific in my descriptions of all those, and more, but for now it sets the stage for a slowly percolating dream, and an odd bunch of coincidences, including a naked and wet actress at my Boy Scout camp, and a freaky fortune cookie!

Running Arts is also not going to be another story of a guy with a heart problem and his over-coming adversity blah blah blah.....$%#@&# ... they are already out there!!! You as a runner don't need any more, you have your own problems! You are single Moms, Veterans, and Survivors and I have no desire to compete; I'm patient, not an idiot.

So Running Arts will be about an average guy, who's family was struck by reality on the same day that he got the message that The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, 'Team Fox' after this, released applications to fund-raise and run the NYC Marathon.

That’s where our story will continue. Eventually...

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Empty Screen - Empty Road!

How do I even start........

A first blog post should be celebrated, much like the first step of a race. So as I type away, I am also guzzling champagne whilst wearing a party hat!


Ok, I'm actually drinking a Coke Zero, and there is no party hat....although I have excellent fluffy hair at the moment from doing laundry all afternoon. While laundering socks today I spent copious amounts of time trying to decide what content my first post should have. I decided to copy Charles Foster Kane, he ran a race too, and to publish my Declaration of Principles:

Running Arts' Declaration of Principles

1. I shall exert my mind here on the page as I exert my lungs on the road.
2. I shall endeavor to be entertaining, and realistic, when discussing non-professional running.
3. I shall invent the phrase "non-professional running" in order to describe all of us that are middle-aged and occasionally pull off a 10 min/mile pace.
4. I shall never NEVER promote a product that I do not believe in just to get free stuff! If they let me try it out, they get brutal honestly if their product pinches my toes, or makes my tongue feel fuzzy for 20 minutes!
5. I shall dedicate myself to faithfully documenting the trials and tribulations of this runner as he spends this year preparing for the 2014 TCS New York Marathon, and fundraising a frighteningly huge, need to change my running shorts, amount of money for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research!


When I first started working for a large entertainment company in Orlando, I went through the company's traditional orientation. It was sweet and pretty and full of warm-fuzzys. I then had to go to a class on how to handle fires, and being screamed at, and what to do if a lion escaped; the instructor used his own phrase to describe this change in direction, he said it was going from pixie-dust to sawdust. I liked that brutal honesty, and so I am stealing it here to explain the niche I want to fill in the running community. As runners, we need some sawdust on occasion to know it's ok to hurt, it's ok to doubt, it's ok to not have the newest shoes, and it's even ok when someone who is 30 years older runs past you.

Just remember, there is no better feeling in the world than running past an exhausted teenager at a water stop!

Read well! Run Well! and Live!