I finally forgot

I ran my last marathon in February 2010. It’s been roughly 25 months. Late yesterday morning, I was browsing through some posts on the “Bling Whores” Facebook group when I suddenly forgot how much marathon training sucks. I forgot about Saturday afternoons lazing around on the couch or dragging my butt behind my wife at… Continue reading I finally forgot

Death

This post has been a long time coming. Half a year ago, I lost my good friend Nancy to leukemia. I always admired Nancy in many ways. She was and still is the strongest woman I’ve ever met. When she left for Boston to get her bone marrow transplant, I hugged her and told her… Continue reading Death

The Do Nothing Vacation

I recently came across a great post on the Lonely Planet blog called “How to Plan a do-nothing” vacation. Although I’m a budding quasi-provider of “do something” vacations, I have to say the post sounded quite appealing. I was especially fond of tip #4 – what to bring…at least 4 of the following components…

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Us of Lesser Gods

The good thing about a road trip is that is gives you time to think and it reintroduces you to things you might have forgotten. On my recent road trip to St. Louis, Chicago and Savannah, I made my way through my mp3 player and rediscovered Flogging Molly. Sure, I’ve got a couple of their… Continue reading Us of Lesser Gods

Post Disney Speed Work

My older brother is visiting Walt Disney World from St. Louis, so we drove over to spend the day with him and his family at the Disney Hollywood Studios. There, I was reacquainted with my childhood friends, “Broccoli Balboa” and Mr. Tomato. These were characters in the Kitchen Cabaret in the Land pavilion at Epcot.… Continue reading Post Disney Speed Work

New York City Next Year

This is one of those posts where the Cast of Characters page will come in handy.  Please refer to it as needed. Over the weekend, Bret ran the New York City marathon.  Richie accompanied him to New York to coach him, feed him pancakes and jump on the course at mile 17 to pace him. … Continue reading New York City Next Year

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Without Limits

When we first got the Netflix for the Wii CD, I went through the Netflix catalog and searched for all the inspirational running movies I could find.  A few, like Spirit of the Marathon were available to stream on demand, but others like Without Limits had to be added to our DVD queue.  Since we… Continue reading Without Limits

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Spirit of the Marathon

I watched Spirit of the Marathon a few nights ago and I’ll admit it…I cried. That sweeping helicopter shot over the huge crowd at the starting line always gets me. More than any other part of my marathon and half marathon experiences, the feeling of anticipation while standing in that crowd of people at the… Continue reading Spirit of the Marathon

Self Inspiration

Three years ago, I wrote a post about failure in a tempo workout that inquired about M.H. Alderson, to whom the quote, “If at first you don’t succeed, you’re running about average,” is attributed. This week, his family chimed in. As it turns out, Mr. Alderson was a pretty good guy. He earned a purple… Continue reading Self Inspiration