Hard Runs

Sometimes you get stuck doing something you know you need to do but avoid doing because of circumstances that you pile in front of the door till you have to use a crowbar to get yourself out of the predicament that you built for yourself. Making things harder for yourself is a self-inflicted wound that you could have avoided altogether by just gutting it out and doing what you were supposed to do.

Running is like that. If you are training for something then you commit to the moving towards the goal. If you avoid the commitment then it just waits for you. You know it is there - it is patient. Eventually you have to sit down with yourself and make amends for your poor decisions.

I have had some hard runs of late because of choices I made. I really cannot blame anyone but myself for the stress or the result of the runs that I have to do. Is it easier to run when it is 60◦ rather than in 92◦. Resounding yes. Is it harder to run up a mountain and down the mountain to get your miles in – yes. What you get for your reward is just what you get to put into it. I have not seen a single runner who gets to have someone pitch-hit for him to finish the run. You get to do it yourself – it is an individual sport – which individuals compete against themselves. Worse than golf or baseball. The only way to cut time off of your run is to push yourself. Pushing yourself is the only way to get any better at what you are doing.

Today I went for a 5 mile run in West Valley. My employer luckily has a shower at work – so when I am a mess as I usually become after a run I can become presentable again. This run was tough. I know I can run faster than I did. I blamed the environment – 88 some degrees outside along with a blazing sun outside. That can make a run slightly more difficult. It can be even more difficult when you have the opportunity to go in the morning and you stay in bed. Self-inflicted wound.

So what do you do? Man can either do what has been done in the past and continue suffering because of his own actions. OR the other less travelled path is the one that leads through the forest of planning, sacrifice, and hard work.

The choice to go the road of suffering and pain is one that you can make easily take. It is the one more travelled. It is the one that most people will take because they don’t want do try something different. As my wife would say – to prepare themselves for success. 15 miles in the middle of the day 91 degrees. 8 miles in 91 degrees. 5 miles full of pain and no satisfaction. Your own choice to go that road.

I think that less travelled road is the one I will take. It is the one that has the better reward – your own cup of satisfaction. Brewed with your own hands. Ground out by the runs at night and the pain of the daylight run. Oh you can look for an easier path. There of course are the paths that are made of broken promises to yourself. But you can take control of your own direction. Do you go the easy road that is paved with quitting, stopping, gasping, and hot dilerium? Or is the road you take paved with your own satisfaction that you put in the time and effort to be successful?

As Dr. Seuss would say – “Oh the places we’ll go”

When Fat Flies

So - philosophically why does a man run? I started out with small distances. A couple of miles here. A few miles there. I started to like it. Which for most people you would equate with the first blush of insanity. Why go running when the Hostess Fruit Pies are so close at hand?

I am not sure if anyone of you that read this blog run. I think that some of you do and might identify with me at some primal level. But most - if not runners - won't understand what transformation happens as one begins to accumulate more and more miles.

I will try to explain it a little bit. I was a fat man. To be honest 265 pounds does not look good on my nubby little frame. It is something you don't want to cram into a Sunday suit - much less begin to buy those elastic pants. I also have genetic demons that haunt me from both sides of the family. Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and probably mild amounts of insanity. Mix that with the realization that goes something like this: I am a fat man. If fat causes premature death - and it does - do I want to die early and spare the earth or begin to run/exercise/swim/walk/eat right/watch what I eat/actually look at food labels/change my habits/quit eating so much food based on butter?

So it began - I began to run small distances. Mostly to prove to myself that I would not die if I ran those distances. I ran in the following races:

Big Sur Marathon 2010: Finished 5:03:46

Riverton 1/2 Marathon 2010: Finished 2:11:30.8

Top of Utah Marathon 2010: Finished 4:58:51

Ogden Marathon 2011: 5:16:48

Salt Lake Marathon 2011: 5:14:37

Ragnar Relay 2011: Baby Got Swack 30 Hours (18 Miles for me)

Freedom 1/2 Marathon 2011: 2:09:54

So what do you see above? What I see is a lot of room for me to improve. My wife - Mollee - gave me some wisdom. She summarized my training and my drive. To get ready for the Big Sur Marathon I believed that I had to go longer and faster and train harder than I had ever done before because I believed in my mind that it was going to kill me. I believed that I had to somehow cheat death or some such nonsense and that I had to go that distance. Guess what. I went that distance. I cracked the 5 hour mark for a marathon. And since then it has become routine for me to come in over the 5 hours mark. I was reading a book "Once A Runner" which I might add is an easy read which also entertains. But in that book they talk about the numbers. How you are known by the numerals after your name. Well I am know in my mind as someone that can run in a marathon - go for over five hours of strenuous exercises and not die.

So now what do you do with yourself? You have found that you can run for a prolonged period of time. But are you still pushing yourself? Are you still grasping at the last ticking numbers and pushing yourself to beat your last effort? If you think about it - that is what running is. It is you against you. Golf is you against a ball armed with a stick. But Running is you versus yourself. I find that I am my harshest critic when it comes to me.

This last weekend - I decided to run the Freedom Half Marathon - it runs from Emigration Canyon - to the Utah State Capital Building. Very scenic. But in the middle of the race I figured something out. I could be faster if I wanted to be. I could push myself to really go the distance faster. To push myself and get to the end quicker. I don't know if you know this but if you don't run the whole race or you walk and then run and then walk and then run your grandchildren will overtake you and smoke you. SO - I figured out that I can be faster than I have been. I know now that inside I have the ability to push myself harder and farther. Mollee asked me what my Beats Per Minute on my GPS watch was. I did not know - so she told me that I needed to push myself to find the limits to where I could go. 150 BPM. Not bad - 165 BPM equate to a 7 minute mile for me. That is pretty fast.

So what is the point of my rambling. I will put it into a succinct phrase. "It is you against yourself." I was reading Michael Bloomberg and his outlook on the future. He said "You can't change the past - you can learn from it but you can only look forward to the future and work to change your outcome."

Therein lies the lesson. I cannot go back and break off the numbers from my last distance run. I cannot shave minutes off of what has already been done. BUT. I can work harder right now - push myself harder - faster - and with more momentum so that the numbers associated with my name change in the future. I know I can run 8 minute miles - but can I do that for 26.2 or 13.1? How fast can I go? The numbers don't lie and neither does the effort to get you to the next race and obliterate your own records.

Don't walk, run. Don't run. Sprint. Push it up to the next level and what reward is there? You, but an improved you. With no regrets because you left it all out there on the course. You pushed it and you worked on it and your result is something to be proud of.

Reach for the Hostess Pies? Sorry I am going a little bit higher than that.

What does one think after a marathon....?

Since Blogger is down I was going to put this in a better form and then you could judge for yourself whether it was good or not. Blogger however is not cooperating with my quest to share my brain with you - so thus I get to put it in one long post here on Facebook and then hope that my identity does not get stolen by terrorists.

So I was cleaning out my brain during a three mile run today and wanted to share with you the thoughts I had in retrospect after the Salt Lake Marathon that I ran on a whim in April.

So to give you some back story on how I came to run a marathon when I did not plan on it and did not really have it in mind to do it. I am in the middle of training for the Ogden Marathon and the week of the Salt Lake Marathon I was supposed to run 20 miles. So in my mind I thought - "Dave why don't you pay the 100 dollars, have people to cheer you along the way and if you need some water it will be provided all along the path. And you get a medal at the end." The last part really is what kicked my thoughts into high gear. I can get some hardware to take home after the race and something to hang on the Christmas Tree at the end of the year. I don't really do events that don't give medals to the finishers - I think it is dumb to go out and get a t-shirt and not any hardware. But I digress.

So, on Friday - I go and register for the race - pay up my money - and Mollee registers for the 5K race that runs way before all the other things that day. Start the insanity right there. 20 miles can definitely hurt a bit less than 26.2.

But I began the race and was able to do pretty well until mile 22 when the bottom of my desire to run all the way sort of petered out and I was left to my own devices and had to walk and run the last four miles.

My epiphany came well after my wife and son scraped me back together at the finish line. It came to me while I was thinking about the race and how it was run. It came to me when I looked at the overall life journey that we are all on and how well we do while we are here. For those that are not of a religious nature you can stop reading here and skip to the end.

The real race was run by Jesus Christ - and it was not easy. Just as a marathon is laid out and the course known ahead of time by all participants, so was the life of Jesus. His first 3/4 of His life was not easy - but it was building up to where it was going to be very hard and excruciating. So is a marathon. The first 15 or 17 miles are not bad. Sometimes the pace is not exactly what you want it to be. Sometimes you wish the miles would tick faster but you get what you get and your speed is set by yourself. Jesus was much like a marathon. He was able to get the first 20 out of the way and then it was a battle for the last 6.2. He pushed and He labored for all of us. He took great burdens upon Himself for all of us. He gave everything He had for those around Him. He muscled through the difficult portions of His last hours and pushed through to grasp and claw to the end. He knew that the price and the reward were not in the moment but in the final destination. He did not stop - He did not give in - He did not succumb to pain, anguish, or temptation. When the race became hard - He did not take a shortcut or wait for the paramedics to diagnose His condition. He put His body and His flesh and blood all on the line. For the last few miles - where it hurt the most - for me it was the last 4, for Him it was the people turning on Him, the Romans casting lots on His Raiment, Barabas released, the long trek to Golgotha, the spikes driven home in his wrists and hands, and thieves to be His companions. That sort of puts all that I have and all that I do into perspective.

Is my road too tough? Is my trial too sore? Have I the strength to put all the pain and weakness away and power up the last few steps to the finish line? Is it enough for me? Is there something else I can do? What can I do better in my life to live to be like Him? Where is my drive and what am I heading for? Am I doing all that I can do to warrant Him as my Saviour and Redeemer?

In the Marathon, towards the very end, a friend came to me. An angel in running shoes. She was able to be my companion to see me through those last few miles. Am I am angel to others? Do I put on my shoes and lift those that are falling short and help them to their goal? When the road begins to steepen and the incline begins - am I the one to push along and assist those that need?

My race is not just for the short marathon - but for the rest of my life and if it is for the rest of my life then I have much to do to measure up to the Savior - who pushed it all to the limit and beyond.

Beginnings - Middles - and Me

Where to begin? I was off on a side-track of life when running beckoned me. I think it was more like a taunt. You see I don't see myself as a runner - I see myself as someone who just goes out and covers ground - and the end result is that I wear out several pairs of running shoes in the process. Before I began wearing out shoes I had never quite connected the fact that shoes have mileage limits and that at some point in time you have to throw them out. Ask my wife about the box of shoes I have in the garage that are from my sixth grade year. Great for roofing or taking the trash out - but not near as usable when it comes to going 10 miles.

So the reason that I took some time off was because directly after the Top of Utah Marathon - of which I was able to finish in 5 hours - Mollee and I took an interesting exit off of the main thoroughfare of normal life and welcomed David Henry Lamb into our lives. He was supposed to come along in November - but in a hurried state his advent was moved up from November to September and voila we have a cute little boy - now 24 pounds of smiles and happy thoughts.

His advent slowed my running to a blip of two runs in four months. But he was worth every minute and he is currently passed out after gorging himself on fruits, vegetables, and milk. Mollee does a great job of helping him to realize how much food can fit in hollow legs.

In January I was itching to run. Some people don't itch in January to run at all. But, I did. So I was thinking that I should plan to run another marathon. Now you would at this time lay me down on a long leather couch and ask "Dave - when did your body and brain separate and become so estranged?"

I thought that I should do the Ogden Marathon - but that race was closed - so I began to go short distances with the goal to be ready for the Spudman in July. BUT the gods of running smiled on this poor demented fool of a man and thus I am now entered into the Ogden, and the St. George Marathons. Sometimes the leather couch would do someone good.

I was asked at church once "Why do you run?" I cannot definitively give you an answer to that question. Is it the challenge - is it the grind - is it the drive and the accomplishment? I cannot give you one answer to it. It seems to be something within the psyche that yearns ever so slightly to push the fibers that wrap the muscles and see how fast and how far they can go - and not die.

So, Come along with me - as we ride the school bus of running - and make sure to bring your crayons and something to read because along this path all it is is the man, the shoes, and the drive to fly.