My 7 Links

Jenny over at Feet of Fancy nominated me for the 7 Links blog series. I’m honored to oblige, though it’s been hard to go back and look at all my posts to pick 7. I can’t believe I started blogging over 5 years ago! It’s fun to look at some of those old posts – like this one in which I considered a 6 mile run to be very long. I always find it a little inspiring to read my old posts because it reminds of how far I’ve come since I started. Before I get too sappy, here are my 7 links:

Me enjoying a trip through the Magic Kingdom on a cold day.

Most Beautiful Post: Us of Lesser Gods (July 15, 2011). Yes, this is a very recent post, but I couldn’t find anything more beautiful in 5 years of writing. My writing that is. I’m sure other people have written much more beautiful things in the last 5 years. The post explores the little slideshow visions of myself I had while preparing to start the 2010 Walt Disney World half marathon.

Most Popular Post: The 2008 Walt Disney World Marathon (July 18, 2007). Contrary to what you might think from the title, this post does not describe my experience in the Walt Disney World marathon of 2008. It was written in July 2007, almost 6 months prior to the marathon and it’s basically a walk-through of the marathon course, which at the time I had never run. I wrote the post as a way of envisioning what the experience would be like based on the course map and my many trips to Walt Disney World. At some point, the post ranked very high on Google when people searched for “Walt Disney World Marathon” – hence its popularity. Every once in a while, someone still leaves a comment on it.

Most Controversial Post: Barefoot Running (March 15, 2010). The post itself wasn’t horribly controversial. I just decided to give barefoot running a try and described my first few experiences running barefoot on the beach. I had some nice comments from people I knew (Lindsay, Bret, Glenn) and then a bunch of comments from people I didn’t know, who’d never commented on my blog before and never commented again. Many of them were quite smug and simply felt the need to use my blog as a platform for preaching their beliefs about barefoot running. I think a few of them never even read the post. Still, I got a decent boost in traffic for a while. Maybe I should be “controversial” more often.

Most Helpful Post: The Toe Raise (July 12, 2007). This post is about an exercise I started doing during a bout with shin splints. I suffered two fairly memorable bouts of shin splints when I first started running. I started doing this exercise in July 2007 and never experienced shin splints again. I’ve sent many people to the post in the years since and the exercise has helped them as well.

Post Whose Success Surprised You: Who the Heck is M.H. Alderson (July 27, 2007). This post centered around a quote by M.H. Alderson that I found online: “If at first you don’t succeed, you are running about average”.  It was about a workout that I didn’t quite complete. I wrote the post and thought it was clever with its multitude of quotes, but nobody commented on it and I forgot about it. 3 years later, several members of M.H. Alderson’s family commented on the post to tell me exactly who M.H. Alderson was and to wish me well in my running career. It was a big surprise indeed and I enjoyed my brief correspondence with the Aldersons.

It still seemed like a good idea at this point.

Post That Didn’t Get the Attention it Deserved: 2008 Walt Disney World Marathon: My Experience (January 13, 2008). While this post wasn’t exactly lacking in attention, the post I wrote about the Walt Disney World marathon 6 months before actually running it received 8 times the comments (see above). I’ve always thought that most of the people who commented on that post would have benefited more from reading about my actual experience – or maybe they did read it and were too grossed out to actually comment.

Post You are Most Proud of: 2010 Walt Disney World Half Marathon (January 12, 2010). It’s no surprise that I’m most proud of this post because it’s all about the proudest moment in my relatively short running career. I trained well for the race, but I had to overcome some difficulties in the beginning to beat my goal in the end. Best of all, I had an enormously fun time doing it! I think I had a runner’s buzz for a solid week after that race. I wish I could bottle the feeling that I had during 2010 Walt Disney World half marathon and take a sip whenever I’m having a bad day.

There you have it! My 7 links. Now I get to tag more people and pass it along. Let’s see who’s paying attention! I tag:

Lindsay from Chasingthekenyans.com

Megan from Runningtowardtheprize

Heather from Running With Sass

Kristen the SEO Runner

 

8 comments

  1. thanks for the tag! I have seen this floating around the blog world but hadn’t been tagged yet. sad times! I of course love all the disney posts, my favorite!!

  2. thanks for the tag 🙂 whoever comes up with these meme’s is wonderful for continuing to give me blog fodder… especially lately as i am not running as much as i’d like and therefore haven’t much to talk about. i’m not sure though if i have any ‘beautiful’ posts… may have to define that by beautiful pictures. hey my blog, my rules. i do find sometimes that some posts are not ‘hits’ when i thought they would be.

  3. Oh goodness, it’s like a chain letter for bloggers! 😛

    Ok, I’m in dire need of spending some time with my blog this week. I’ll definitely add this to the “write this now” list.

    Thanks!

  4. these link posts are allowing me to find so many great new blogs and quickly learn about who they are too! Loving it!

    I will probably link up to your shin splits posts because I have been getting a lot of questions about that!

  5. Hey there. I ran up on your blog over here while perusing the ‘net for a couple running tips. And I just read the ‘barefoot blog’ post…good to know about the blisters…wasn’t expecting that. I’ll continue checking out the rest of the site…was wondering if you have any info or tips on how to pick a decent running shoe. Weight? Price? A mathematical combination both?
    Anyway, I dig on your site.

    1. I prefer a minimalist running shoe like the Saucony Kinvara. If it’s your first time buying shoes, the conventional wisdom says to go to a running specialty store and have them look at your feet. Then, they’ll fit you into a motion control shoe, a stability shoe, or a neutral shoe based on your level of pronation (how much your foot rolls during your normal running gait). If you go that route, you’re going to end up with something that’s pretty heavy and cushioned.

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