DETERMINATION!!!

   Hello my friends! Hope everyone is doing well out there! We're midway through the summer here, the Rochester weather keeps fluctuating between comfortable and Mojave Desert like and the running is well, good. 

   Really busy week at work for me. A new class of sheriff's deputy recruits are fresh out of the academy and for some strange reason they keep giving this field training officer someone to mold in his sparkling, glittering perfect image. Well, maybe not sparkling. Lots of time on my feet, lots of time talking, lots of time teaching, lots of paperwork and lots of time enjoying watching people grow. It always amazes me that my coworkers feel the need to promote the fact that I'm a distance runner and run marathons. Sometimes it's almost embarrassing. Yes, I enjoy running, why make such a huge deal? But, out of the many things that I've done in my career, being an FTO (Field Training Officer) has been the best. I'm a funny introvert who enjoys meeting and working with people. Sometimes, I even confound myself! 

   My four year old Dell laptop's unfortunately been laid to rest. May it rust in peace! Apparently I'm not cut out to be a computer repairman. Weeks ago my left mouse button suddenly stopped working. After some searching I found replacement buttons online, ordered them and used Youtube to disassemble the laptop and replace them. Yea, they worked! But, either because they were old or I was just too forceful, two clips attaching the keyboard's wiring to the motherboard broke. I tried in vain to repair them for three hours! What a bummer! I spent the next day updating and downloading all of my data including my precious 11 year old Excel running log onto my old desktop. If I lost that log I don't know what I'd do, so I was smart and saved it on a flash drive before! The days of perusing FB and comfortably writing my blog while sitting on the couch of doom were done. It was stiff wooden chairs and a desk in our office now. The 366 Studio was relocating. My desktop is slow to say the least. Sigh, I loved that laptop. Paid a lot of money for it and maxed out everything. It's dead, until I at least have some spending money.
   After talking to my mom out of the blue, she decided to give me an early birthday and Christmas present and bought me a brand spankin new laptop! It's really nice and was about half of the price of buying and installing a new motherboard. Yes, good old mom's become the Project's very 1st sponsor! I loved that she wouldn't take no for an answer convincing me that my blog was too important and needed to be continued. Thanks mom! Not so sure about Windows 7 yet or the touch screen. Weird, but it's awesome! 

   My cough is still here. Still causing me to suddenly wake up several times a night. Which isn't a big deal for me. I rarely sleep through a whole night. But, I thoroughly got the shit scared out of me when I woke up and could breathe until after gasping four or five times. It's a sensation that I haven't felt in about 34 years. When I was about five my mom put me in swimming classes at the Y. I didn't enjoy them much. So, I always feigned some illness so I could sit watching everyone else from the bleachers. One day, some asshole teenage lifeguard saw through my stomach ache ruse and decided that what I needed was to be thrown into the deep end. I still vividly remember struggling in the water, trying to swim to the edge of the pool, taking in big gulps of heavily chlorinated pool water, looking at the gaudy ceramic tile through the water. I almost drowned. This chest cold was giving me the pleasure of reliving that wonderful experience two or three times a night. One night my wife was home, she works the overnight shift, and I had an attack To say that it freaked her out is an understatement! So, I resigned to take my butt to our local urgent care center and get it checked out. I tried to get in to see my doctor. He was overbooked this week and it just wasn't going to happen. I thought for sure that the urgent care doctor would take one look at me, tell me there was nothing to be done other than let it run it's course and send me on my way. But, she looked into my sleep deprived eyes and did just the opposite. I'm currently on an antibiotic, steroid, narcotic cough syrup and inhaler. After a single day, I slept a night without drowning and feel amazingly better! Hopefully after a five day course, I'll be good as new! Yes, it's bronchitis. 

   Had an amazing speed workout this week. After feeling buoyed from my stellar long run last Saturday I wasn't so sure that this run was going to be as great. It's been a very long time since I've done this workout. A mile warm up followed by four sets of 3/4 of a mile at 7:30 pace followed by a 1/4 mile at an easy 10:00 pace seemed a little too daunting. But, every now and then you have a workout that reminds you of your potential and that yes, you can succeed at reaching your goals. That was that workout. I did every last bit of it! I also had another good run today that tested my fitness. 12 miles were in the log book and I haven't ran that far since last winter. It was another amazing workout. The miles didn't seem to matter. At one point towards the end I actually sped up. If you saw some crazy runner with a big smile on his face chugging up a gigantic hill with his fist raised in victory today, yeah, that was me!
   Very happy. Very hopeful that maybe this year's Empire State Marathon may be just be just as fast as I want after all. Still a lot of training between now and then though. My reduced amount of training time due to my injury got me thinking about what has made me successful in past races. What makes a good distance runner?
   When people watch regular runners or even the elite athletes who've crushed world records, earned Olympic medals or done what seem like incredible feats they automatically think that those individuals are genetically gifted, have all the time they want to train, eat the perfect diet or are just plain lucky.
   But the truth is much scarier than that. Yes, genetics plays a small role, yest they maybe have slightly more time to train, maybe they eat better than you and maybe they get lucky sometimes. It's easy to blame all of those things for their success. But, they have one tool that we all have. This amazing tool that trumps everything else is nothing simpler than DETERMINATION. After running 10 marathons I have been taught time and time again that you get out what you put into your training. Nothing made that clearer than my sub four hour race last year.
   I wanted that sub four hour for such a long time. I tried numerous training plans, numerous tips, tricks and paces. Nothing worked. Then I did something well, not so radical. I decided that the only way that I was going to ever beat that time was too do as much running at a 9:00 pace as possible. Normally I ran at a 10:00 pace. So, that's a pretty big jump. That summer was like none I ever remember weather wise. We set records for consecutive 90 degree days. The humidity was killer too. You can imagine how ideal that weather was for my big plan. But, all summer I worked hard. I stayed consistent. It was the summer of determination and it paid off. Some of those runs certainly weren't at a 9:00 pace. But, I didn't stop. I just put my head down, gritted my teeth and did the work.
   Running is the ultimate test of self endurance. You can't rely on other teammates to carry you. You do all the training. You sacrifice all the time. You decide on how well you'll do in the end. I think that why I enjoy it so much.  
   Over the Fall and winter that year I didn't let that 9:00 pace time slip. Now that this year's training time is here a funny thing happened. My easy pace became that 9:00 pace. It's almost hard to remember how difficult that felt when I logged all those miles last summer. That effort, that consistency, that determination changed me and challenged me to become something better than before. Even seasoned runners can become stagnant and I think that's what happened to me.
   Morale of this story, sometimes you just have to put your head down, grit those teeth, sweat through those hard workouts that take you out of your comfort zone and do the work. Those elites aren't given anything. They earn what they get and so can you. Just remember that running isn't easy. It can be hard work some days. But, often, in between those hard miles there are moments of bliss that only a fellow runner can know. To be out there with a totally clear mind, listening to your heart pound in your chest, shallow breaths going in and out of your lungs with the wind whipping through your hair is like no other feeling I've ever had. It makes you appreciate how amazing you really are, how amazing it is to push yourself beyond what you think capable and how it's wonderful to run for your life! Have a great weekend, challenge your boundaries and have fun...            

New Shoes, New Lightning Bolt & A New Race



     Rebirth after an injury is really awesome thing! My running has been going extremely, extremely well! My last week's appointment with the podiatrist went better than expected. All the pain in my peroneal tendon is completely gone, I got the go ahead to run a fall marathon if I choose and both of my insoles in my two pairs of running shoes were tweaked by a professional. Since then I've been steadily ramping up the mileage. A good rule of thumb is to only add about 10% more mileage per week when building up. As somebody who's been running for a long time I think that this is a pretty solid rule to follow. That being said, I think that everyone's different. Some runners can tolerate more, some can't tolerate that much. I think that my base was really solid going into the injury. So, I think I may have some wiggle room with that number. Nothing crazy. But, I think that my body can take a little more than someone who's new to running.

   To all of you who responded to my FB question about whether to run the Empire State Marathon or a self imposed 26.2 run on New Year's Eve I thank you! To think that some of you even offered to keep me company and pace me during my New Year's Eve run is unbelievable! I'm so speechless! You guys rock!

   After much consideration and thought I decided earlier this week to scrap the Rochester Marathon. Even with not getting much mileage logged for my two month injury hiatus I could probably still run the race. But, the suffering would be pretty difficult. The marathon isn't like any other race. And after running 10 of them I've come to realize that the more quality training you put in equals a more relaxed, less painful and overall enjoyable race in the end. For those of you contemplating running a marathon, please don't read too much into this. The marathon is a great distance and even though I swore up and down after running my first that I would never run another, you will be instantly hooked and return for more races. You will come to enjoy that suffering in a way that only a long distance runner could understand. Please go for it! On a side note here, one of my coworkers who's running it this year was perusing the pre-registered runners names and came across a Mark Sands. He mentioned that he saw that I was registered. Old age does bad things to your mind. After emailing the race organizers I discovered that I'd registered already all the way back in March for the full! Ooops! Totally forgot! I'll be able to defer that until next year with no penalty thank goodness! Look out Rochester, I'm coming back in 2014!

   What I did decided on is to run the Empire State Marathon on October, 20 in Syracuse, NY. About an hour and a half drive from me and for about the same price as Rochester. It'll be exciting to run a new course and because it'll be a month later I'll more than likely have ideal marathon running weather! Only downside was that I had to rent a hotel room for a night because runners could only pick up their race bib the day before at the expo. I wasn't crazy about driving three hours round trip to get a number. So, we're making it a mini-vacation trip for the whole family. I'm excited as hell!

   Today I took a good long look at how much time I've got and my training plan. I've got a lot of time  until the race and think that I can safely build up to some really good solid long runs. Maybe even as many as three 20 plus milers. But, I'm going to have to pay attention to my body, eat well, heavily emphasize the cross-training and core workouts, get my sleep and be flexible with my expectations. Unless the Running Gods smile down on me quite a bit, this race isn't going to be the Boston Qualifier I wanted this year.

   So, I had my plan and today's long run was a huge test to see if it was even possible. To be honest, I was a little scared. It wouldn't be the end of the world if I couldn't run a marathon this year. I could always gamble on the New Year's Eve weather. But this is upstate NY, when you typically gamble on the weather, you loose. Today's nine miles would be the longest that I've ran in a long time. This week was really exhausting too. This stupid chest cold is sticking around, making sleeping impossible and leaving me hacking like a chain smoker after my runs. But, being a distance runner means going out of your comfort zone and pushing yourself. So, I got out there.

   What an amazing run! It's been sweltering here all week with high humidity. But, today the heat wave finally broke. Just perfect weather. I felt really good during the entire distance. It also was the first run of the season where I brought fluids and gel. Felt a little bloated from the fluid. Gotta figure out the right amount of fluid intake. Felt that way earlier this year during my half marathon too. Something's changed. More than likely, with my weight loss I don't need as much as often. The tendon didn't ache a bit. Nothing did actually! My pace was a tad slow but not that bad. Between now and October I think that I can improve on that. I stretched well after and just basked in the good vibes. Damn, it felt good to be back!

   I'm looking forward to lots of good training in the next couple of months. It's a good feeling to have that hunger again. I bought two fresh pairs of my Brooks Beast running shoes. Out of 25 pairs, the red and black color scheme is the best that I've ever seen! Man, I love the smell of new running shoes! Can't wait to run in them! Finally bought a replacement silver lightning bolt pendant to replace my old broken one. Athletes are superstitious people and that includes runners. I love the superhero Flash and his symbol is a lightning bolt. It may be a silly mental thing, but I've run some fast times wearing that necklace getting my superhero mojo on! I'll have to tell you sometime about my insane good luck way that I lace my running shoes. Good lord, I'm weird!

   Come October I'll have a great race regardless of what the clock says. New race, new course, new outlook. I'm going to run that race wearing my superhero Flash bling with my particularly laced bad ass colored running shoes and cross that finish line with a smile! This year I'm going to run for my life.

   As soon as this stupid chest colds takes a hike I'll throw out some more 366 Podcasts. For now, I'll spare you me hacking up a lung! Some of you gave me a really good idea for the final day of the 366 Project on New Year's Eve. Next blog and podcast I'll discuss this further. But, for now, keep your social calendar clear on that day and buy some cold weather running gear...  

366 Podcast-Episode 5

   Yes I'm at it again my friends. Another episode of the 366 Podcast! In this episode I show off the annoying automatic video stabilization effects of YouTube (on the sides of the video), talk about the new podcast the Social Runner Show and give you a tour of the protected field along my running route!

Sometimes Being A Runner, Means Not Running?

   

   I've often heard that flexibility is one of the best qualities to have in life. Life's always in motion, things are always changing. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, sometimes just because they can. Problems is, I'm not a very flexible person. Don't get me wrong, I know that I could improve on this skill. I've tried to do that over the course of my life. But it seems that I always revert back to my comfortable little bubble, where I'm safe and in control when I'm in that thing! Having OCD is great for your professional life. Even for your running career. But it's a pretty raw deal for your personal! Settling for that comfortable bubble is all well and good, if you plan on living in it for the for the rest of your life. You know what? It's hard to run very far when you're inside a small bubble! Rigid training plans, pre-set workouts and strict adherence to whatever the Running Gods demand has its place. I'd be lying to you if I told you that all the hard summers I spent doing all those challenging workouts didn't produce great results. I'm no running superstar. But, I've set some good PR's, ran some fast miles and broke that four hour mark in my favorite race, the marathon. All while working a full time job, staying married and helping to raise a beautiful little boy who's the center of my universe.

   Running is an amazing sport that's given me more than what I think I've put into it over the years. I've got excellent health for a guy turning 40 this year. My wife has bragged more than once to friends how she really got a sweet deal when she married me. What woman wouldn't want a husband who eats all of her food in excess, weighs 20 pounds less than I did when she first laid her eyes on me and swims in his wedding day suit?  

   My son beamed with overwhelming pride when he brought one of my NYC marathon finisher's medals and race bib to show and tell at school one year. His classmates and teacher ate it up! He regularly refers to me as a runner, has decided to start running himself and recently made me laugh until I cried when he called me "one tough dude"! I must admit that I revel in his glowing, supersized opinion of me! I'm the cool, rock star runner dad! Well, at least for now. Teenage years are coming! Yikes! 

   At work I'm one of the guys who you talk to when you want to know about running and fitness. I remember my interview for our SRT team (our department's version of a SWAT team). The interview panel asked me why they should consider me for the team. Among other reasons I gave them, one of them was that I probably was the fittest potential candidate that applied. I didn't see anyone else with marathon finisher medals on the candidate list. In the sometimes depressing, stressful and insane world of law enforcement, physical fitness can save your sanity and maybe like me, your life someday. I'm the strange guy who takes the stairs many times instead of the elevators, is the butt of endless running jokes and has running stickers plastered all over his locker. Some of the most unbiased opinions I've ever heard are frequently from bad guys. They don't care about you or what they say to you. It's nice when you get told by more than one that you don't look like you've aged at all and look like you lost a ton of weight compared to when you first started your career. And if you're dumb enough to run from me when I'm transporting you, then you'd better run far. You may be faster, but I'll run you down over time! Nice unbiased compliments only get you so far!

   I've met some really amazing people through running. Races, running clubs, Facebook, Blogger, YouTube, Daily Mile! All of them make up our incredible running community. Runners are genuine, accepting, hardworking and inspiring people. I honestly enjoy making new connections with people from all walks of life, all parts of the world. It never ceases to amaze me that no matter who you are, we all run the same, have the same running related problems, hopes and dreams. If you're in need of motivation, then you need look no further than this great group of people. 

   Let's face it, in today's busy, busy world life's overloaded with too much stress. Running has helped me retain most of my sanity. Without it, I wager that overeating, drinking and God knows what else would've overtaken me to the point of no return like it did my father. I'd really hate to think that all I have is five good years left on this Earth. Way too young to go! All that energy he put into his self-destructive behavior could've been channeled into something like running. I miss him all the time. It may be a pain some days to schedule time for running. But by doing it I like to think that I'm putting time on that all important back end. I've gotta stick around until at least 90. Then maybe, I'll finally qualify for Boston! My son is not going to grow up without a father. I've got some grandkids that I want to beat the pants off of in a 100 yard dash someday!

   Sometimes an old runner can learn a new trick or two. Yeah, I think that this whole peroneal tendonitis thing blows. But, what do you know, it's getting better and almost completely gone! Funny what wrapping it for four measly days and doing rehab exercises has done for it. If I would've gotten my head out of my ass sooner, listened to my loved ones and gone to the doctor sooner, I may have salvaged this year's Rochester Marathon. Lesson learned there. 

   Now that I'm pain free again the urge to ramp up the mileage to shoot for Rochester or another later marathon is overwhelming at times! I could probably do it with a little extra effort. But, I've noticed some interesting things happening during my forced taper.
   All that time I usually spend training hard during the summer months comes at a price. My wife, son, family and friends have all come to accept that training time as part of who I am. This year it seems like it's time for some overdue payback. Maybe some more late night movies on the couch, lazy mornings and afternoons fishing are in order? Shocking as it may seem, there's more to life than running sometimes.

   Don't worry, I'm not stopping running. Just taking a safe amount of time to get back to pre-injury levels. Adding mileage slowly. Funny how sometimes being a good runner means not running as much. All this time I've had on my hands has allowed me to step back and take a critical look at my overall running program. I think that some of the massive fatigue I've been experiencing could be related to my diet. So, I'm going to take a closer look at that. Maybe even contact an nutritionist? My running gait is horrible and I have the flattest feet on Earth. So, I'm going to look into getting a coach to give me pointers about how I can run more efficiently. I also have a little more time to work on the blog and podcast now too.
   So, there you have it. My running is back. The call of the road is strong. The 366 Project and Podcast continue on despite this scary injury. It healed so quickly that I don't think that it was an overuse injury. Something that I tweaked one day and worsened over time. The more that I think I know about running, the less I discover that I do. My endurance has slipped and my speed is coming back slowly. What seemed like such a hopeless point two weeks ago is now a distant memory. During that time I got so much wonderful support from so many different people. I'm humbled to say the least. So many amazing stories of triumph over impossible obstacles within our community. It's what we do. It's what I've done. We burst that safe bubble, we face our challenges head on and stand there at the end of our workout, our race, dripping with sweat, bug bites, sunburn, windburn, chafed nipples bloody knees, sore muscles and breathless. We have overcome and won the day. Do not doubt the potential inside of you. Inside is a phoenix, that when sparked will burn hot and take you to places you once thought you could never reach. Never let anyone tell you you can't. Don't feed into your self doubt. I was reminded this week that you're not a runner because you run races. You're a runner because you EARNED that title out there on the roads, trails and treadmills. Hope is alive within you, the race is not over until you say it is and you're running for your life.

Rise and shine! Stoke that fire my friends and BURN...

      

366 Podcast-Episode 4

   Sweet mother of God I've gotta get a video editing program! For some reason YouTube always seems to pick the best looking screen shots for my videos! It's been far too long my friends, the video podcast is back up and running! This is the first episode where I begin to give you a virtual tour of where I run here in upstate NY! Welcome to the fishing creek I run by on a daily basis...

Halfway...

 

   Hello friends. It's been awhile since I've written anything here. Much has changed since then. I guess change is inevitable. No matter how you try to stop it, change always marches forward. With it comes new challenges. The last five weeks have been difficult for me. I think that the following quote sums up what I'm feeling today: 

"In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."-A. Camus

   As I've mentioned here many times before, taking up the mantle of distance running is akin to being reborn.  It's not a conscious choice that anyone makes the first time they lace up their shoes and head out. But, over time the way you eat, exercise, interact with others and look at the world begin to revolve around running. Along with all of those positive self changes that are being made, other people begin to relate to you differently as well. You become the "in-house" expert on everything running related, you become a role model for your kids, at work your old name is forever forgotten and replaced with quirky nicknames like jogger, running man and the Flash. Your closet has as much running clothing as casual, you own more shoes than anyone thought possible, you get tattoos related to running, you get the shit scared out of you when you accidentally stumble into your medal rack on the way to the bathroom at 2AM. 

   After running for so long I have integrated it into every aspect of my life. It is who I am, how I define myself and how others now see me. It's become my biggest strength, but also my biggest weakness. I've done so well at it and taken such good care of myself that I've run at least a marathon every year for the last eight years. Sure, I've had my fair share of aches, pains and niggles. But I was always able to overcome, endure and triumph. Summertime was marathon training time and during the Fall, it was go time for racing. 

   So, you can imagine my disappointment, fear and even shame when I made the decision to stop training for this year's Rochester Marathon two weeks ago due to the unbearable pain in my right ankle. To say that I've been a difficult person to be near lately is an understatement. I've never felt so lost. The pain wasn't going away, the excessive fatigue was getting worse and the running log that I've kept for the last 11 years was quickly filling up with gigantic zeros. I couldn't stand anymore running nicknames, all the running related posts on facebook or the nice running weather. All I felt like doing was locking myself up and throwing away the key.
   After the sleepless nights spent doing research on google and the following "worst case scenario" panic subsided, I finally relented and did the smart thing. I listened to my loved ones and made an appointment with my doctor. I wasn't going to easily triumph over this injury like the other times. I needed solid information, not guesswork. I needed to do something positive and focus on salvaging the rest of the year and getting better. I cut my mileage back to just a single mile for a day, began a dedicated tendon stretching program, started doing my own tendon re-hab exercises, downed gallons of tart cherry juice and foam rolled the tendon's trigger point with reckless abandon. I was tired of sitting around and feeling sorry for myself. It was time to beat this!
   The doctor took a look at my foot, no swelling, no excessive stabbing pain when he prodded and poked. I got an x-ray and a blood test. The good news was that it wasn't broken and there weren't any signs of a stress fracture. The blood tests were normal. Whew! My initial self diagnosis of peroneal tendonitis was confirmed. The information that I was able to find on the web ran the gamut from tendon pain lasting only a week to more than a year. I went to see my podiatrist as well. Same diagnosis.
   The podiatrist and I came up with some theories about how this injury happened. Every now and then a running veteran can make simple mistakes. I made one of those when I consistently ran mileage in a pair of shoes that were way past their prime. I typically wear old running shoes when I cross-train with weights, I don't need the support because my legs aren't pounding away on the open road. But afterwards, I typically change into my good running shoes to get some miles in. Well, I got lazy and thought to myself that I was doing a good thing by saving 24 extra miles a week by logging miles in the old pair instead of taking the time to swap them out. I also tried something new this year by doing my speed work on local high school tracks. I ran only in one direction and didn't heed the common, sensible practice of alternating my direction every other mile. Lesson learned, these mistakes cost me my marathon this year. Stupid things that should and could've been avoided.
   I didn't want to ask the podiatrist the question, but I knew that I had to. "Could I still run?" I held my breath as he broke the news to me. Was this the end of the 366 Project? Not by a long shot! Apparently, veteran runners can sometimes make good choices too. The podiatrist said that usually when patients come to see him for this injury they're in severe pain and can't run at all. By cutting my mileage back early on, stretching and doing my own re-hab exercises I had already jump started the recovery process. The podiatrist taped up my foot and ordered me to keep it that way for four days. I could continue to run on it. After four days I was ordered to begin his re-hab exercises. My plan was to gradually add a mile to each of my daily runs every week. Which would put me back at 6 miles a day by August. Almost back to my normal mileage.
   I tired my damndest to wrap the tape up the next morning to protect it in the shower. But, no good, it got wet and came off. So, I did the next best thing and used an elastic ankle wrap that attached with velcro. I worked wearing it, I ran wearing it and I sat around home wearing it. I tried to baby the ankle as much as possible and avoided stretching it at all. I came to really hate that thing by the end of the fourth day. It cut off circulation to portions of my ankle like crazy!
   The wrap came off today. Weird walking around without it on after work. Had a great cross-training session with weights and then headed over to the treadmills to get some miles in. Man, when I got up on that thing I was nervous as hell! Did it heal? Is that stabbing pain still going to be there every right footfall? I started out with a slow warm-up mile. Felt pretty damn good. I bumped up the speed to a sub nine minute pace, my normal easy training pace that I was running before the injury, it was time to test the ankle out. Just like that two miles came and went without any pain, just a few little twinges to let me know that it's still there and not quite healed yet. To experience that full workout, that pace again, left me speechless. People started looking at me funny because I had the biggest, sweatiest grin from ear to ear. I was getting my passion back, my stress relief, my sanity!
   As I write this the ankle continues to feel amazingly good. Things are looking up. Depending how the next few weeks go I'm entertaining maybe trying to run the Empire-State Marathon on October 20th. Or something else that's entirely crazy. What about running my own marathon, no assistance (other than my family and friends), no water stops, no mile markers on the very last day of the 366 Project, December 31st? I'm not sure if either is possible yet. But, it's good to have something to strive for.
   Funny how here at the halfway point, 183 days of running over 770 miles that I continue to learn new things about myself, about what I'm capable of, of what I can't do and what I can accomplish. Maybe not running a marathon this year is a good thing? More time to spend with loved ones, no pressure to get the training in, running for the sake of just running. Sometimes it's good to hit the re-set button. I'm injured, I'm recovering, I'm learning how to make myself stronger so that it doesn't happen again.
    What have I learned from this costly lesson. Listen to what your body tells you, heed the advice of seasoned runners and coaches, wear adequate gear and NEVER give up fighting. When you become a runner your life revolves around running. That's ok. Just remember that like with running there will be fast days in your life, there will be PR's some days, there will be days when all you want to do is stay in bed when that early alarm goes off, there will be slow uphills during your days, there will be screaming fast downhills during your days, you will win some, you will lose some, some days will bring you to your knees, some days will give you the most incredible runner's high, some days will be frustrating, some days you will nail it, but the race is longer than a 5K, a half-marathon, a marathon or an ultra, it's a race that will take you your lifetime to complete. When it's all said and done, when your time is running short, your last lap is approaching and you can see the finish line off in the distance, it won't be the PR's, the medals or the incredible races that you ran that will matter. What will matter will be the times in between, the memories of the simple days of when you found out who you were, what you could do, the days when you inspired people in your life to be better than they thought, the days when your children ran laughing next to you, the days you ran through the relentless sun, the pouring rain, the howling snow, the days when you looked into the eyes of fear and did not go quietly into that gentle night, you raged and you earned that right to be called a runner. The 366 Project is not dead, the blogs will continue, the running will continue, the video podcast will return! Run for your lives my friends and thank you for all the support. I am halfway and humbled...