This is who I really am.

This week's song for Music Monday is Story About A Girl by Our Lady Peace. This is a song for my daughters, Sophie and Olivia. It is a song that pretty much says "life is tough but you have to be strong, and I will always be there for you". They have very strong women in their life. They have great female role models in their Mother, Grandmothers, Great Grandmother and Aunt. And of course they have me to be there for them all the way. Enjoy!

When I am training for a race I always try to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Usually there is some point in each race that I really get an uncomfortable feeling. Sometimes it is a feeling that I can't physically do what I want. Sometimes I mentally get down and I feel like I can't do what I want to do. Either way it just stinks. I know it is a confidence issue. When I have trained for a race I know I am ready physically. I also know that I am mentally ready. But there always seems to be that little issue where maybe something just isn't going my way and I just have to get through it.  That is why I say I have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. I always like to pick a day when I am tired physically and mentally and use my run for that day to push myself. On a training run I can go as hard or as easy as I want. But during a race I need to GO! When I hit that place where I start to lose confidence it helps to be able to know that I can push through...

About a month ago I signed up for the St. Jude Marathon . It is something that I have wanted to do since I finished my first marathon. My reason for wanting to do it is very much a selfish one: I want to RUN the whole thing. As I mentioned before, hearing people's joy that I was "doing this for their baby" was very special. This time around I have sworn to keep things in perspective. If I don't RUN the whole thing I will still feel good because I did something to help children that need help. Well when I found out that the running group, the Road Dawgs, that I run with had a team for the Heroes program I decided I should join them. What better way to help support St. Jude  than to also help raise money for the hospital. My goal to reach for this fundraiser is $750. That is a pretty big goal for someone who is not good at asking people for money. However, it is for an extremely good cause and with the help of social media and the people ...

When I started this blog I really had no idea where it was going or what it would be. Running has been my main theme so far, but I think I could see this going a few other places. I stated in  my first post  the title of this blog comes from a line in the song The Kill by 30 Seconds to Mars. One of my favorite things about music is that sometimes songs can be interpreted to mean different things to different people. For me this song is about my relationship with myself. I have always been afraid to let people know me. Yes my friends know me. Yes my wife knows me. And yes my family knows me. Well kinda. I have always tried to be a different person to different people. Like George Costanza on Seinfeld once said: "there is relationship George and there is independent George." Or better yet I heard a comedian once say "I don't like to mix friends. These friends think I am a nice guy and those friends think I speak german " or something like that. M...

Sunday morning was the first race in the MRTC Road Race Series. A 5k in Overton Park on a very hot morning. There is actually some shade on this course because there are alot of trees around the area but it was still very hot. People were sweating heavily at the starting line so you knew everyone was gonna be running slower. Except for one lovely young lady. That's right, my wife set a new PR in the 5k! 35:16 was her time. A whole minute faster than her previous best. This was actually the first 5k that we have ever run together. We have run a 10k together. We have also been in a few races at the same time but ran them at our own pace. She said it helped that I was running with her but she did all of the work. I usually try to motivate people when we run but Staci doesn't really like that too much. So I tried to be quiet until she told me to talk to her. I helped her pick songs for a playlist for the next race so she should have a highly motivating set of songs to keep h...

Well, I did something I said I wasn't going to do. I signed up for the 2011 MRTC Road Race Series. I said I wasn't going to do it because I really wanted to focus on the St. Jude Marathon  and not get distracted by getting too competitive. But I REALLY want to do this. I really NEED to do this. I was recently at Shelby Farms, the site of the 10k races, when I finally decided I HAVE to do this. Luckily my wife was really receptive to it. We are both signed up. Staci is not a runner. In fact I think she hates running as much as I love running. But she knows it is good for her and she wants the challenge. She did part of it with me in 2009. We ran one of the 10k together because I was too hungover to run my pace (it was the day after a big Ohio State football loss.) The rest of the races we ran our own pace. This year we are going to run one race distance together and one race distance at our own pace. Again, she hates running so her plan is to run the 2-5k, 2-5...

Yesterday's run was a little interesting. Not all of my runs are interesting so I don't feel the need to post about every one of them. But sometimes I will have one that sticks out and seems worthy (at least to me) of a post. If you follow me on twitter then you may have noticed that Monday I deemed this "Hell Week" for myself. I just got back from a great vacation (if you like to eat you need to go on vacation with me) and I need to get back on track with the goals I set a few months ago. I really planned on losing some weight and getting in better shape before I start training for my marathon. The marathon is in December so my training program starts in August. Well....I really haven't gotten to where I want to be so this week I am doing as much extra cardio as I possibly can. Monday's workout, along with the fact that my shoes are in need of replacement, left my feet absolutely screaming. So, monday night before I went to work I used my foot soothin...