Two Milestones

I don’t remember a time when I was covering so much distance on my two feet. Even while in the Marines I don’t think I ever racked up the mileage quite like I have so far this year. Sure, I would run Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Sure, there were full-gear forced marches between 5 - 20 miles, but I never traversed this far. I still have nearly three full months left of this year and so far I have covered 520 miles. Not too long ago I crossed that 500 mile mark and I am shooting to run 700 for this year - or more if my body will allow it. I've put in a lot of miles this year and the shoes are starting to show it. Here they are new(er). Similar picture to follow after Chicago.

So that’s one milestone for me, crossing 500 miles in a single year, all on my feet. Secondly I am excited to say that through the efforts of so many wonderful people I have crossed the $500 mark in my fund raising! There are still some “pledged” funds still out there, but I am glad to say that I have met my first fund raising goal, and actually exceeded that! Now I am shooting for the $1,000 mark before the Chicago Marathon. Will you help? You don't have to drop a "Five Spot" like this to help! Even a $5 contribution makes a difference. I appreciate every penny that comes in.

Thanks to all who have given so far and thanks in advance to those who will be giving! It means a lot to me!

A Small Distraction

Well, for me autumn has officially come (starting next Saturday that is). It will be the last weekend in September and that means bow season for whitetail deer here in Ohio. I am still a novice at this bow and arrow hunting thing, but over the last five years I have come to really enjoy my time in the woods. Each year it is a nice distraction from so much.

The distraction is very close now, and I am finding it difficult to truly focus on anything else. You see, each year I gather up and purchase new equipment. First I got a new bow a few years ago, then I got a climbing tree stand, then it was a switch from aluminum to carbon arrows, and last year it was two trail cameras. I don’t have any new items on the list for this year, but last year’s purchase is coming in quite handy already.

This distraction takes my mind off of the coming weeks and will allow me to relax before heading to Chicago for the marathon. This doesn’t mean that I stop running, but it gives me a place to focus my attention on an activity that helps put things into perspective. Each fall I put in numerous hours in a tree stand, watching, waiting, hoping. Many people won’t understand this, and I understand, but for me it is tranquil. As I sit there (many times more than an hour before sunrise), I have plenty of quiet time to think, watch birds and other animals, watch the sun rise in the east, and wait for one of North America’s most majestic and elusive creatures.

My hope this year for the annual distraction is to harvest three to four nice deer, and maybe one of those will become a nice trophy. In addition I hope to take each member of my family out at least once so they too can experience the serenity, solitude and peace that I find along with the excitement of having a 120 - 250 pound animal right below their feet. I also hope that everyone else finds a distraction as well. Don’t forget about training for a fall marathon or half marathon, but find something that will help bring back the excitement that you had at the beginning of your training cycle.

Push To the End

I am finding it hard to believe, but I am less than four weeks away from my trip to Chicago! When I would think about this over the past few months it felt so far away. Now, as I think about it I get excited inside - perhaps a little anxious, but mostly excited. As I push towards the goal of finishing my first marathon I also push towards a goal of reaching $500 in charitable funds for OAR. When I started back in May/June that amount seemed a little high and hard to reach, but as I am rapidly approaching the race date, it seems more attainable, more doable, a little more easy than I had expected.

There are two groups that I really haven’t even tapped into yet that I plan on seeking funds from over the next few weeks; my family and co-workers. My hope is that between these two groups I will be able to exceed my goal of $500 and be much closer to the $1,000 mark before race day.

I realized that money is extremely tight right now, it certainly is in my house, but even if everyone I know gives even $2 I would blow even my thousand dollar goal out of the water. For those few that read this, take a minute or two to think about who you know that might be able to help contribute to this noble cause. Autism is such a challenge to deal with, let alone find more about what it really is and how it comes about. By giving to OAR you are helping provide necessary funds for scientific research specifically for autism. As a parent with an autistic child I can’t emphasize enough how much this means.

So if you can give $2 or $200 I, and so many others, would greatly appreciate it. Understanding autism in all its various forms along the spectrum is what this organization is all about. Please consider giving and thank you in advance. Click on the OAR Giving link on the right side of the page - it really is quick and easy.

21.1 Miles and a 27k trail race

Over the past couple of weeks I have been busy with all kinds of things. First, I’m getting back into a routine with the kids all being in school, and this also means it is time for me to go back to second shift at work. Second, my wonderful & beautiful wife has started a new job, so I’m alone during the days now cleaning up most of the messes the kids make the night before. Third, hunting season is rapidly approaching and I have been prepping things at my parents’ house for the deer season to begin. And lastly I am still training for the Chicago Marathon. I haven’t really had much time for writing here at Runner With a Reason (or anywhere else for that matter). But finally, I am getting around to putting some thoughts down.

Two Saturdays ago I set out for the longest of my training runs. The plan was to run between 22 and 24 miles. I miscalculated something somewhere along the route and when I got back to where the car was parked I was only at 21.1 miles. I would have put in the extra few tenths, but that would have required me to run up hill yet again, something I had already had enough of by mile 9! I cut it short, but not horribly so and felt really good after the run. Went out to lunch with my dad after that before heading home.

This past Saturday I found myself at Caesar’s Creek State Park running a trail race. This was a whole new adventure for me. I had been doing some training on trails between the 21.1 and this race, so I felt pretty confident going in that I could get through the course. I had two goals going into the race, 1) finish the race & 2) finish the race without injury. Since this race was four weeks away from Chicago I didn’t want to risk getting some ankle/foot/toe or any other injury that would hinder my running the marathon on October 10th.

The race was called the Broken Toes 27k. I think that says enough about the course by itself, but my body would say otherwise! The first four miles were pretty smooth and easy, but the course took a turn for the worse shortly after that. I hit the half way point and started to wonder how many more hills I would have to face. My pace started to quickly slow and I took more frequent walk breaks (and walked nearly ever hill after mile 8). By the time I hit the last water station (four miles from the finish) I new I was going to finish, but I also new my time would reflect how slow my pace had become. Determined I pushed on.

I think it was somewhere around mile 15 that my body pretty much told my brain to stop. My brain however, said no to the body. As I hit a rather large and steep hill I started walking, but started hearing footsteps behind me. This woman looked to be about my age and she started walking the hill as well. We shared our thoughts about the course and how our bodies were feeling, and by the time we reached the top she was off and running again. I didn’t even think about it, but as she got about 20 yards ahead of me she turned around and said, “No, we’re not walking! You can do this!” She motioned me to catch up, which I did, and we ran together for a few minutes. My body once again said stop, but I continued.

As I got to toward the end I remembered the beginning. The race started on a downhill on an old access road to the lake. This hill was .7 miles to the finish line if I recall correctly. I found it within me to push to the end, running as much as I could, and I did it. From what most of the people I talked to said, this is one of the most difficult courses to run, and it was my first trail race. I finished 17.1 miles of trails without incident or injury.

Now, having run these last two long runs I have to say that I haven’t been out of commission for more than a couple of hours after. The next day I felt fine, and two days later I felt like I hadn’t run at all. Today’s run of only 3.74 miles felt like nothing, but I got out there. Less than four weeks from now I will be preparing to travel to Chicago for my first full marathon - here’s to training, finishing, and carrying on after!

Autism & Communication

For most of us, talking to people and taking non-verbal cues along with the spoken dialogue makes conversations more enjoyable and understandable. For most people on the autism spectrum this is not so easy. I recently read an article about an autistic college student who has taken notice of how many people respond to non-verbal language (hand motions, eye movement, facial expressions, etc.) and how she understands that they exist and work, but not for her. All she can do is compile data to try to better understand this unspoken language. And this made me think about the future of my dear son, Noah.

As he gets older, will his social understandings get even a little better? Will he be able to develop some understanding of non-verbal communication? Or will he, like most people on the spectrum, never fully understand or develop this aspect of language? My hope is that someday he will be able to make the necessary connections to link non-verbal cues with spoken language to make more meaningful, more robust conversations with others. My fear is that the level of understanding he now has will be all he gets.

We humans are strange creations. There are no two exactly alike (though some identical twins are scary close), and each person has some interesting talent or gift to provide. Not quite sure yet just what my talent or gift is, but I’m working on it. For Noah, he provides me with smiles, laughs, and a big dose of humility from time to time. He soaks up information in bits, but can spit it back out in large chunks. He has a propensity to remember small details, and can graphically retell all about those small details, but his ability to take social cues is lacking.

I don’t really remember being taught how to read a person’s facial expressions; happy, sad, scared, afraid, etc., but I am learning that this is something that many autistic people do not fully grasp. Sometimes they can see the face, know what feeling or emotion is going on, but do not comprehend that feeling or emotion themselves. If you have a few minutes I would highly recommend reading the article I mentioned. While I can’t say it was an eye opener for me, it made me think more about the future of my wonderful son and his ability to communicate with the rest of the world. I hope it sheds some light on autism and communication for those who read it . . .

Training Update

Since last I posted I’ve added some more distance to my endurance training. The week after running the 10k I ran 15 miles, and last week I hit yet another milestone in my running: I ran 18.26 miles. The schedule called for 16, but I think I misjudged my turn around point and ended up doing an extra 2.26 miles. And I did this in 3 hours, 5 minutes.

Back up a bit . . . I started listening to a podcast that a DailyMile friend has been doing for a while, I just so happened to start listening to episodes from a few months ago and caught up (http://theextramilepodcast.blogspot.com/). For you runners out there it’s a great piece to listen to because people from around the world contribute, give personal updates, and from time to time there are some great interviews with great people. One series of interviews in particular caught my attention and made me rethink my own marathon training.

The series of interviews was with former Olympian Jeff Galloway (who was a part of the 1972 Olympic games in the 10,000 meter run). Jeff has written many books on running and training for marathons, but this set of interviews was primarily focused on his Run-Walk-Run method for distance running. Intrigued by the first interview I continued listening to the others. By the time I had listened to all posted podcasts I was convinced I needed to at least give it a try on my distance runs. Which brings me back to last weekend . . .

The R-W-R (not to be confused with Runner With a Reason [R.W.R.]) method takes the current skill level of the runner and finds a good proportion of running time (usually in minutes) to walking time (usually 1 minute or less). That said I set me RunKeeper to intervals of 5 minutes to 45 seconds (run to walk) for my long run. The week before I had just set out to run 15 miles and get it done, but when I finished I was completely spent for at least two hours (thank goodness I had that long to travel to a family reunion). So when I hit the mile 10 mark I thought, “I don’t feel nearly as tired as I normally do at this point.” My pace was pretty much near what I had ran the week prior, but I wasn’t nearly as fatigued. By the time I was getting back towards the house and I knew I still had a little more than a mile to go I still felt about the same. I was a little more tired, but I felt really good.

Without getting overly worked, keeping my heart rate lower, and still managing to keep a nice steady pace I was able to have a normal day after my 18.26 mile run last Saturday. I got back to the house, took a shower, got some food and headed out to watch my girls’ soccer games. Then I thought that it would probably catch up to me the next day, but it didn’t. I still felt great, like I had only run 3 to 4 miles. Needless to say I think I will be implementing the Galloway R-W-R method from here on for anything over 9 miles. I am really excited to have found this and have been sharing my own results with fellow runners. Big thanks to Jeff Galloway for putting this down in an understandable format and to Kevin over at the Extra Mile Podcast! Kudos to you both!

Tomorrow I set out on yet another big run, this time breaching the 20 mile barrier. And, as long as my body holds up nicely I will attempt to get in 22-23 miles before 10 am!

Until next time, catch up or keep up!