Episode 5-496 – Coach Nora and some frequently asked questions

Hello my running friends. Welcome to episode 5-496 of the RunRunLive podcast.

Today we have a fun chat with Nora who is a coach and athlete about frequently asked questions. We ran into each other when I was answering running questions on Facebook.  As always Nora’s contact links will be in the show notes. If you want to take a look at her practice it’s at mileaftermile.co.

I am consistently pushing this podcast out every two weeks while I can manage it, because I enjoy doing so. But, I’m not going to focus so much on the fine details for now because I just don’t have the time. 

This is the RunRunLive ‘compromise’ version, where we don’t edit as tightly and don’t polish as much. But we still have conversations and try to have fun.

In section one I talk about shoes. And if you don’t agree with me, there’s going to be a rumble.  

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-419 – Dawn’s Wisdom (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4419.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-419 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  So – I’m a week late with this one, but it’s great show.  Think about it this way – we gave it an additional week to marinate, to grow, to rise like rustic bread or age like fine wine.  Last week I was all lined up to get the show out for Friday. Thursday was my birthday.  I took Thursday and Friday off from work to recuperate a bit and was working on the show.   Then, ironically as I was writing the hero’s journey piece that is in section two, that talks about how life is not a straight line, and it seldom goes as you expect it to, my old computer ceased to turn on.  I’ve had this Microsoft surface since at least 2015 and it’s been the best computer I ever.  It was powerful enough to do all the audio editing for the show, it has a great form factor for traveling.  Just a great machine that matches my need.  End of this story is that I spent all day Friday in the Microsoft store and ended up buying a new surface that I am happily tapping away on now.  I didn’t loose any data, just some time – and oh by the way – I’m about $2,000 lighter so you might want to consider becoming a member of the RunRunLive Podcast to help defray unexpected expenses.  So with that excuse out of the way let me take you back to the primordial jungles of North America where strange and dangerous beasts roam dark, dank forests…. (Fade in Jungle music) Our old friend Peter Herridge everyone with that excellent dramatic reading.  That piece of writing has been kicking around in my head or a few years.  Probably since I first heard the word ‘piriformis’ and thought, that sounds like the name of a nasty dinosaur.  I immediately thought of Peter who has such a great voice.  Peter was a good runner in his day and one of the original podcasters from a decade ago when we all got online and met each other.  Peter does a podcast every once in a while called ‘spikes’. Today we have a really good, timely chat with Dawn.  I have been following Dawn for a few years but never had her on the show.  She is a heavy social media poster and for some reason I see her posts on LinkedIn a lot.  I have always treated LinkedIn as a professional network and haven’t let this ‘hobby’ side of my life bleed over into it.  She stands out, because you’ve got all these businesspeople talking about business stuff and then there’s Dawn talking about empowerment and Joy.  This time of year, in the northern hemisphere anyhow, we all get stressed out.  The weather turns.  The days get shorter.  If you have kids their schedule ramps up.  It’s budget-setting time and trade show season at your work.  The end of the year is approaching with holidays and deadlines and sales quotas.  It tends to push people into anxiety and depression.  I was there myself this month.  With my work having challenges, me getting older and an unruly puppy to train.  Things just felt awful and closed in and trapped.  My mind started repeating a scarcity narrative of how much I don’t have and how much I’ve lost.  Which, I know is ridiculous, because I’m one of the most blessed and lucky people you’ll ever meet, but that’s how your brain works, especially this time of year. Then I stumbled across one of Dawn’s posts talking about gratitude and abundance.  By the way, one of the symptoms of this downward-spiraling mental malaise is you start trying to distract yourself online.  Whether it’s FB scrolling or too much news or video games.  That’s a bad way to avoid life.  Anyhow, I took a deep breath and declared November a month of gratitude.  In section one I’m going to suggest two useful ways you can use your off-season training to learn some new skills and add to your running assets.  In section two we are going to take the hero’s journey together.  Because one of the most effective way to contextualize your experience in this world is to see it as a journey.  Tell your narrative as a journey.  And that is what we are going to talk about today.  Gratitude and journeys.  Because, my friends, no matter how low or shitty it gets the hero in you always knows the way.  Without the shitty parts there can be no hero.  I saw a great post this week that said ‘failure is like stepping in manure, it stinks when you do it but it makes for great fertilizer!” On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Using your in-between time - Voices of reason – the conversation Dawn Ciccone Make your day a new & exciting adventure! Discover your incredible life. Dawn Ciccone A marathoner, writer, personal trainer, nutrition and running coach, Dawn offers methodologies learned from experience!  Her passion is to help people face challenges, dIscover the gifts they bring and trust themselves as the beautifully powerful person you’re meant to be.   Dawn has conquered abusive relationships, addiction, disordered eating and came through a tragic accident that left her helpless. Dawn has been where you’re at and knows how to turn challenges into opportunities!   Credentials Certified RRCA &   USTAF coach   American Red Cross Health & Safety Instructor   Certified Nutritional Health Educator and Personal Fitness Trainer   Certified Master Reiki Practitioner, intuitive, empath, lightworker, transformational speak.   Section two – Your Hero’s Journey– Outro Well, my friends, you have Made it with gratitude to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-419.  Okey – Dokey – I’m in a down phase in my training.  Which is another, kinder way of saying I’m not training much.  Much for me that is.  I’m just doing 3 days a week in the trails with Ollie the Collie and then a longer run with the boys on Sundays – somewhere in the 20-30 miles a week.  I’ve fattened myself back up with some poor nutritional choices as well, but I think we need to take these breaks to rebalance the humors every once in a while.  I know discipline is power but that can burn you out and I’ve got a lot going on right now.  I’m noticing that I’m starting to get the bug again to do something epic.  Got any suggestions?  I’m not sure if I’ll get into Boston this year.  If I don’t that opens up the spring for something.  Coming up is our traditional Thanksgiving 5k.  But, Teresa hurt her foot, so I’m going to walk it with her.  Maybe we’ll start early and take the dog.  After that the first week of December is the Mill Cities Relay.  I was running with my buddies Brian and Frank and we came up with a the bright idea of entering our own team.  You only need 5 people and we already had 3 so how hard could it be?  As I started reaching out to some of our old running friends, (in our age group), I found that many of them were no longer running at all due to age-related injuries.  In a weird Schadenfreude way they made me feel pretty good about the fact that I’m still getting out there.  It also reminded me to be kinder to myself. Finally, I am planning to run the Groton Marathon, and organize it, for the 7th edition on December 29th this year – please come up and run with us.  It’s fun.  What about Ollie the collie? We were asked not to come back to puppy training.  It started as we were sitting patiently, waiting for class to start.  Ollie the border collie puppy and myself in the big box pet store.  It was our 3rd class.  Ollie was doing well, learning quickly.  The dopey brown doodle came in with it’s handler all stupid and goofy, doh do doh.  The dopy doodle’s exuberance overruled the owners’ ability to control it and it pulled its way over into our space to check out Ollie. Ollie was not happy about this.  He turned to look at me and said  “Dad, what is this madness?   These doodles and snoodles and snickerdoodle caboodles?  What right do they have to play with the canine DNA of pure breeds for their own amusement?  These freaks!  These aberrations! This cannot stand! I draw the line here! I must stop this madness!  Foul abomination I strike at thee! I will blot your aberration from this world!” At least that’s what I thought he said, because it was at this point he went berserk and tried to murder the doodle.  But, since I was holding him by the collar he turned and sunk his teeth into my hand.  As I was bleeding and shaking with fear, that’s when the nice lady said maybe we should leave and not come back.  On the one hand Ollie is mental and that has its challenges.  But, on the other hand, I’m kinda jealous because that’s exactly the kind of punk-rock, hard core mental many of us tried to be as teenagers! He’s just coming up on 6 months old and he’s already 31 pounds of muscular athlete with a big brain to boot.  He’s running 20 – 30 miles with me off leash in the woods each week and he’s scary fast and strong.  He’s not much on cuddling, but as they say, he’s someone you’d want to share a fox-hole with. I just have to train him up.  He’s going to be a great dog.  And remember, as Ollie says, Death to Doodles! I will see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-418 – Matt’s Long Ride (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4418.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-418 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  It’s been a busy couple of weeks since we last talked.  I did jump on the Ferry out of Hyannis to Nantucket for that half marathon.  It was kind of fun but also a bit of a struggle.  When I first signed up for it, I thought it would be a fun outing.  Maybe take my wife along or some of my running buddies.  In the end it was just me.  I met up with the other pacers on the ferry and met some nice people in the race.  It was a nice sunny day.  It was a pretty big race considering it was out on an island.  This race fell a week before my target race, the BayState Marathon, and I planned to use it just as a final easy run.  That was the plan.  With how inconsistent my training has been this summer I wasn’t feeling very excited about it.  I offered to run the 2:00 pace group, but they had a greater need for the 1:50 and I acquiesced.  I don’t run a lot of ½ marathons, and my math gets fuzzy.  A 1:50 half is the equivalent of a 3:40ish full marathon, and while not super challenging for where I am right now, it wouldn’t be the lark that a 2:00 would.  It works out to a 8:23 ish pace versus a 9:09 pace.  I went in tired.  My week was weird and my tempo run slipped to Friday, which was probably too close to the race.  My whatever-it-is pain in my butt wasn’t helped by the long ride down to the Cape.  I made the morning ferry with no issues and had no issues finding the pace team at the start. I lost my pace group early.  The first part of the course is a lot of sand roads.  They had had a storm for the previous couple days before the race that dumped a lot of rain and left numerous large puddles straddling the road side-to-side.  It turned those early sections into a bit of a steeplechase.  As a pacer I’m supposed to maintain pace no matter what – so I did and lost everyone who was trying to keep up with me.  I was trying to run by the overall average pace on my watch.  Which was a mistake.  I figured if my overall average was an 8:22 – 8:23 I’d be right on that 1:50 finishing time.  I ended up right on an 8:23.  I slowed down a little at the end because I was all alone and thought I might be a bit too fast.  That turned out to be the mistake and I crossed about 30 seconds too slow – which is a cardinal sin in the pacing biz.  I’ll probably get excommunicated.  Pacing isn’t as easy as it sounds.  Even though my average pace was exactly where it needed to be based on my watch, I missed the clock time.  It’s a bit befuddling.  My watch is always off a little on the distance and I guess that could be worth 30 seconds.  It looks like the only strategy that works is to have your mile splits written out, hard copy and check every mile – old school pacing.  And then plan to be a minute early on top of that to make up for variability.  I got it done, but I didn’t feel great.  Another small racing failure in what has been several months of disconsolate results and discontent.  My whatever-it-is pain in my butt was screaming in the car-ride home.  I was in a bit of a blue mood rolling into the last week of taper for BayState.  And that, my friends is what we will talk about in section one!  In our interview today we talk with Matt about his recent experience of riding his bike unsupported across the TransAm route and then writing about it.  In section two I’m going to rant a little on the current ‘hustle’ culture.  As I was lined up in the starting corral in Lowell, the city of my birth, a city that I have some history with.  I had one of those pure moments that I love about racing.  When you are there, on race morning, all the waiting is over.  The decisions have all been made.  It’s a pure moment.  The expectations and worrying are washed away by the rising sun.  The volunteer singing the national anthem fills your soul and dampens your eyes.  It is a pure place without affectation, without choice and filled with the energy of being set free onto the course.   How many pure moments like that are left in our world? On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – BayState 2019 - Voices of reason – the conversation Matt Hi Chris,  I’ve been a listener to your podcast for years now. You’ve been a constant source of entertainment and motivation in my life. I really enjoyed your Marathon BQ book, and used it for my marathon. Though most of my training has been more in the ultra-cycling world, geared towards 24 hour cycling events, and last year I raced Trans AM, a 4200 mile ride from Astoria Oregon to Yorktown Virginia. One of the things that saw me through those 16 hours of riding every day was listening to your podcasts.  Riding across country was a profound enough experience that I wrote a book about my journey “As Fast As You Can: How I Biked Across The U.S. In Duct-Taped Shoes” and there’s a quote from you in there from the podcast when you were talking about your 100 mile race “Here’s the uncomfortable truth.  There is no strategy that is going to allow you to stretch the effort over the distance to make things sunshine rainbows and unicorns.  You are going to be uncomfortable.  At some point, things are going to suck.  And not just for a few minutes like a 5K or 10K.  It’s going to suck for hours on end.  Your goal is to acclimate to the suck.  You can keep going with raw bleeding patches of skin.  It just sucks.” ~ Chris, from the “Run Run Live” Podcast. That was one of my favorite things that you’ve said, and it helped keep me going. If you’re interested, I’d love to work with you, maybe talk with you on your podcast. I have a modest facebook following and would do everything in my power to help promote your show, to add what support I can. Let me know if you’re interested. And thank you for being an inspiration. Regards, Matt Kovacic   Section two – Hustle– Outro Well, my friends, you have peddled non-stop across the country to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-418.  Time to put some nut-butter on those saddle sores.  I was flying back from Miami this week and looking out the window when the following words bubbled to the top of my brain: “Clouds boil up out of the southeast humidity escaping from the cauldron of the world.” That’s how my brain works sometimes.  It paints pictures with words.  But, let’s talk about something important.  Ollie the Collie.  Last week we started puppy class.  Which is a very good thing because he is a wild man.  Technically I could just train him myself without class but this, as in all things, is better with a coach.  Going in I was pretty sure Ollie would be the crazy, uncontrollable puppy in puppy class.  He’s got so much energy and he’s really busy.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ollie was the smartest, calmest puppy in class.  It’s a border collie thing.  When it’s time to work they fall in line.  He picked up the commands right away and he didn’t cause any trouble.  He’s going to be a good dog. I forgot to mention last show that I met up with Tim when I was in Chattanooga a couple weeks ago and we went for a trail run up on Signal Mountain.  It was good to see him.  He’s retired now and is planning to through-hike the Appalachian Trail next summer.  These long endurance events like the AT and Matt’s Trans AM can be game changers.  Matt’s a great example of just deciding to do something and doing it in a way that changes your life.  It’s one of those things that will become a fulcrum for his life journey.  If you think about your life’s trajectory, we tend to fall into a path and either consciously or unconsciously build the conditions that keep us on that path.  One of these big events is a great lever, to pry yourself out of that rut.  I’ve got a funny story about Matt’s interview.  As you may or may not know I have an editor for these interviews.  One of the most time-consuming and hard to automate parts of the podcasting process is the audio editing of the interviews.  The process is that you have to play the interview and cut out the bad bits.  By definition it’s a hard thing.  You have to understand what is being said to know whether it is pertinent or not.  I do my best to be consistent, but some interviewees are harder than others.  Sometimes we go down non-value-added (re: boring) rat holes that need to be ferreted out.  Sometimes I get a real talker or I lose track of time and the interview has to be significantly shortened.  I have had many good interview editors over the last many years that we’ve been in business.  Currently I work with Dimitry who live in Moscow.  He does a good job and seems to have learned my method well enough to make these tricky edits.  I pay him for each show – and that is one of the things I use subscription money for.  It doesn’t seem to bore him too badly.  I have had other editors quit on me, basically saying “I can’t take any more of this!”  Sometimes he’ll comment on what he thought was an interesting topic or person.  With Matt’s interview, Dimitry was very enthusiastic.  He said that he, himself, was a “Bike-Packer” as well and wondered how he could get a copy of Matt’s book.  So here’s a guy I work with every week.  That knows a shitload about my life.  That I’ve never met.  In Moscow.  That’s the world we live in today!  And as weird as that sounds, this conversation with Matt resonated and made a connection.  Think about that.  You never know which conversation or which thing you do is going to make a connection. So keep doing epic stuff and keep having conversations and I will see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-416 – Nate Does Form (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4416.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-416 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Yes, I did that thing where I published two episodes out of order.  Last week was episode 417 and next week will be episode 418. Today we wrap up our series on running form. We talk with Nate who commands the Run Experience in California and is an expert of form.  You may hear some odd noises in the background towards the end of the interview.  I was trying to do too much and was walking the puppy in the woods behind my house at the same time I was interviewing Nate.  We got going a bit later than planned and I realized I had to get back to my house for another call.  I went off trail to take a shortcut.  Anyhow. How are you folks doing.  Got some new members. In the last couple weeks.  When I ask them what I can do for them they say ‘just keep doing the podcast’ – I guess I can handle that.  Set’s the bar pretty low.  I am sitting in my Cape Cod house.  In the morning I’m going to get up and drive over to Hyannis, catch the 6:10 highspeed ferry to Nantucket where I will pace the 1:50 pace group at the Nantucket half marathon.  They were having trouble finding pacers.  1:50 is a little quicker than I would usually volunteer for, but they needed that more.  It shouldn’t be a problem.  It’s only a 8:23ish pace, and it’s only a ½ marathon distance.  Meh.  We’ll see if we have anyone looking for that pace.  I’m not feeling great.  I took a couple weeks off after Beantown, but it didn’t help my sore butt at all.  It really hurts when I sit for a long while, which is basically the definition of my life.  I have Baystate next week but at this point I’m thinking about switching to the half because I have serious doubts about my fitness and ability to race. I feel like my body is telling me to stop running for a while.  My thinking is to switch to some other fitness routine for the rest of the year and try to get my flexibility and core strength back.  I’m also loath to lose the fitness I’ve built up.  I’d need to find something aerobic to replace the running.  When I took those two weeks off I did do a medium effort bike workout on the Peleton in the gym.  That still aggravated the whatever it is.  I guess I could swim but logistically that is such a pain.  I’d have to join a club, rebuy all the stuff, etc.  I’d love to get into some sort of class that could give me the core strength and flexibility but I’m not confident I’d be able to find anything that fit me.  Cross fit?  Yoga classes?  I don’t know but I need to find something different.  I’m a bit rudderless.  In section one we’ll wrap up our form discussion.  In section two I’m going to talk about brown rice.  Yeah, why not?  Let me share a story I forgot to share last time from the Beantown marathon… Late in the race, after I had crashed and was limping home I had something amusing happen.  It was a loop course so later in the race I was lapping the slower runners. I passed a lady pushing a double stroller with two toddlers in it.  Good for her pushing two kids, I’m assuming her kids, for a marathon distance.  As I pass the stroller and pull ahead one of the kids yells out “Dadda!”  That gave me a chuckle. On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Finishing up on form - http://runrunlive.com/finishing-up-on-form   Voices of reason – the conversation Nate Helming BIO: Co-Founded The Run Experience in 2014 with the goal of reaching a broader audience of runners and outdoor enthusiasts who want to be able to run and enjoy the outdoors and remain injury-free. He has helped athletes finish their first races, conquer new distances, overcome pre-existing injuries, set new PRs, reach the podium, and qualify for national and world level events. New Training App: (just launched this August) https://therunexperience.com/app Youtube Channel: Section two – On Brown Rice– Outro Well, my friends, you have used that perfect form to stroll nonchalantly to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-416.  I read a couple books this week.  I finished the  It was a decent read.  Very inspirational made you feel like you could do anything.  I didn’t see him, but he was out at Leadville.  He likes the ultra-running.  Likes to suffer.  One of the things he talked about that I found useful was using your past successes as proof that you can do whatever new thing you’re attempting.  You make an invent tory of those times when you broke through and when you succeeded and you pull those out when things get hard. I’m not in a great place in any of the aspects of my journey right now.  And it is useful for me to be able to go back through the inventory of all the amazing things I’ve been able to do in my life.  It gives me patience, and gratitude and even a bit of courage.  We all need courage. The other book I read last week was .  I found it in Starbucks.  They have a little basket of books that people leave and take. If you’re listening to me you probably already know who is.  He was one of the most unique science fiction writers of our time.  You’ve seen his stories in the movies.  Most famously his story, “Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep” became the cult classic “Blade Runner” with Harrison Ford.  But also, “The man in the high castle”, “A Scanner Darkly”, “Minority Report”, “Total Recall” and “The Adjustment Bureau”.  It’s hard to describe a PKD book.  They are all richly tailored alternate universes.  But, close enough to our own reality to make us uncomfortable.  I would recommend you read through his notable works.  This one won the Campbell award.  It was hilariously set in 1988 – which was 15 years in the future from where Dick was writing.  The thing with PKD is that the themes are science fiction-y, but it’s more philosophical fiction.  It’s not all spaceships, ray guns and beautiful women.  The alternate universes are abstractions for him to ask very reasonable questions about unreasonable things and things that matter. Nantucket in the morning.  BayState next weekend then slow things down for the winter months and try to get my kinks straightened out.  Ollie the border collie is doing great. He’s still a terror.  He’s turning into a teenage.  He’s learning how to chase the ball and sometimes even bring it back.  He loves to run on the trails with me.  I run and he zooms around.  He’s a good dog but he has way more energy than any of us do.  I take him to work with me sometimes and let him bother me there.  I have to go up and down 3 flights of stairs to walk through the basement to the loading dock to get him outside.  I suppose it’s god for both of us.  He’s making friends with the ladies in the smoking area.  When I went to the dump this morning the lady there was asking where he was.  He’s such a cutie pie and loves everyone so much he draws a crowd wherever he goes. That’s it for me.  I’m cooked and have to get up super early.  Reach into that cookie jar of past achievements that you are proud of and I will see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-417 – Robert Owen Hamilton – Beyond Average (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4417.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-417 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Welcome to all my endurance friends as the summer winds down up here in the northern hemisphere.  Maybe you’re wrapping up your season or deep into training for that last fall marathon.  The September weather we’ve been having is more like August weather.  It’s been warm this week and dry for quite a while.  The days are getting precipitously short, it’s dark in the morning and dark in the afternoon and soon it will be dark all the time here in New England like the bottom of some deep, cold well with a small circle of sunlight at the top peeking in to signal the long lonesome memory of sunny days past and the long winter ahead.  In the old, farming days this would be the time of plenty.  The crops are in the larders are full and the new beer and wine are fermenting.  This is the time of Thanksgiving and Oktoberfest.  Before the slow march into the winter solstice.  The ancients saw it, literally, as the death of the world.  I have just started running again after taking two weeks off.  I came out of that last marathon really beat up and decided to give it a bit of a rest.  I looked back over the Spring and Summer and realized that I’ve run 10 races over the last few months.  It was what I wanted to do after spending so much time heads down training.  But it does leave you a bit beat up I’ve been getting OllieDog the border collie puppy out with me more often as well.  He’s going to be a big dog. Today we have an interview with Robert Hamilton Owens who reached out to me to talk about aging and fitness.  Robert is one of those guys with an agenda or passion.  His passion is convincing people that age is no excuse to not do stuff.  You can do more than you think.  Robert has written a book and speaks on this topic.  He’s circulates in that hard core ‘we can do anything group’ with Joe DeSena from Spartan and David Goggins.  He is a retired Special Ops Pararescue guy.  He’s an ironman.  He’s had a TV show and been a minister.  He did that 7 marathons in 7 days thing with McGillivray last year.  He is known as ‘the fittest 66 year old in the world’.  Most recently he went through the equivalent of the BUDS SEAL training Hell Week.  That’s the thing you see with them shivering in the surf and carrying logs around.  Interesting guy.  A bit of a force of nature.  The kind of guy you want on your side in a fight.  One thing you may or may not notice is me getting a bit less interactive towards the end on the interview.  I had set myself up in a conference room to take the call and someone found me towards the end and was sitting there waiting for me to finish which kinda cramped my style.  That whole separating work from hobby thing again. Today I decided to wrap the whole episode around the concepts of aging and what we are really capable of.  In section one I talk about what the current thinking is on age and fitness.  In section two we delve into that ‘giving more than you think you are capable of’ topic and try to weed out truth from magical thinking.   That’s the question my friends.  How much more can you get out of yourself and why aren’t you getting it?  Can you live up to or beyond your potential?  Do you even want to? Let’s find out. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – The effect of age on fitness - http://runrunlive.com/the-boston-problem   Voices of reason – the conversation Robert Hamilton Owens ABOUT ROBERT Robert Hamilton Owens is a man of many hats. He’s been and done a lot – mountain climbing, radio and TV personality, keynote speaker, minister, Ironman, philanthropist, triathlete, Special Ops Pararescueman, and father of five – to name a few. But of all the pursuits he’s undertaken, there’s one title that best describes this literal force of nature: Robert is The Fittest 66-Year-Old in the World. Period. Robert was born and raised in Orange County, California without ever having met his parents. Adopted by a California judge, Robert was raised as a special-needs child who was unable to play kickball with his classmate due to the corrective shoes he was required to wear through sixth grade. In high school, Robert trained under legendary US Olympic swim coach Jon Urbanchek in Anaheim, and later raced outrigger canoes from Long Beach to Catalina with the Dana Point Outrigger Club on his off time from lifeguarding in San Clemente.  In 1973, he entered the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School with a class of 157 men to train as a Pararescueman, the Air Force equivalent of a Navy SEAL. Of those 157, only seven made the through and graduated, one of which was Robert, who was designated Team Leader. As an Air Force Pararescueman, Robert was routinely called upon to risk his life to rescue those in perilous situations, such as climbers stranded on Denali, the highest mountain in North America. As a climber himself, Robert later attempted a winter ascent up the mountain, making it nearly three quarters of the way up before being blown off by 80-mile-per-hour, -100-degree winds. But to his credit, and to Robert’s understanding to this day, no one has ever made it to the top in those conditions. After Robert left the military, he began smuggling literature into the old Soviet Union, and smuggling official documents back out. The documents were violations of the Helsinki Peace Accords under the Carter administration. Robert Hamilton Owens In total, Robert has completed 12 Ironman Triathlons – from Florida to Oahu to South Africa – and is one of the few Ironmen to complete both Honolulu in 1980 as well as Kona in 2003. “My goal is to be the longest active Ironman in the world,” he says. The 140.6-mile Ironman (2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride and 26.3-mile run, all done without a break) is among the shorter competitions Robert’s put himself through. At age 65 he embarked on the 238 mile “300 of Sparta Endurance Race,” an eight-day endurance race in Greece to help raise over $315,000 for the families of fallen Navy SEAL contractors who died at Benghazi. A mere four days before his 66th birthday, Robert took on the SEALFIT’s Kokoro 50-Hour Challenge, originally created to train Special Operations Candidates. He was the oldest of the group by 25 years to finish, and at the same time became the oldest to ever complete the challenge, for which he was awarded the “Most Advanced Age Ever Award” by SEALFIT. And then without any training, he took on the Ironman Mexico – his 12th Ironman. And in January, 2018, Robert took on and completed "The World Marathon Challenge – 7 Marathons 7 Continents 7 Days.” But for Robert, a father of five, none of this is done for self-aggrandizement. While he loves the challenge, he derives his greatest pleasure from helping others – motivating, educating, and inspiring them. He does it for one, such as helping a ready-to-quit Ironman competitor and cancer survivor to continue and finish the race, and he does it for many. For more than 25 years, Robert has been speaking before audiences as large as 50,000, from San Diego to Moscow on motivational and leadership topics. His past clients include the Navy SEALs, New York Jets, The Baltimore Ravens, The Philadelphia Eagles, South African Parliament, the Vietnamese Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Philippines Joint Chiefs of Staff. He’s been invited to address the South African Parliament, and has made five trips teaching officials in the Vietnamese Department of Foreign Affairs. During 22 of those years, he hosted the regional Fox network television program “Leadership for Changing Times” in Reno, Nevada where, by two separate Governor’s appointments, he also served for eight years on the Nevada State Judicial Ethics Committee. While it takes extraordinary physical condition to be in the Air Force Special Ops or to best the many Ironmans he’s bested, Robert will readily affirm that success in these physical endeavors – and in life in general – is as much a matter of will and mental attitude as it is physical conditioning. When most have long since slowed as they approach their golden years, The Fittest 66-Year-Old in the World continues to routinely take on unprecedented challenges, and to help others see what can be achieved in their own lives.   Section two – 40% more– Outro Well, my friends, You have used your willpower to rise above the limitations of age and poor thinking to strive valiantly, giving 140% to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-417.  Since we talked I took some time off.  I was really beat up after that BeanTown marathon try.  I shut it down for the better part of two weeks.  I started up again this week.  The tendonitis in my butt still hurts but I feel relatively fit.  I’ve only got a couple weeks of training before I have to taper for BayState.  We’ll see what I can do but I’m not mortgaging the house on this one.  I counted up the races I ran this summer and it turns out there were somewhere around 10.  That’s a lot for an old boy.  They released the statistics for Boston today.  Even with making the cutoffs 5 minutes faster you would have needed to beat the qualification standard by 1:39 to get in for 2020, or about 3200 runner who qualified and didn’t get in.  It’s a brave new world.  I’ll tell you a couple Ollie dog stories to take you out.  I’m getting tried and I need to wrap this up.  First, I had him out yesterday on a trail run with me.  My day got hosed so I couldn’t get out until it was almost dark and it was pissing rain.  There’s a point, about 3 miles in where it opens up and you can get to the pond off of the trail.  There’s an opening.  I usually stop here to let the dog drink or swim, not this dog, the last dog, Buddy.  I pulled out to the opening and told Ollie to go get a drink.  Now, this late in the day, with a full heavy rain going, the surface of the pond looked solid as a cement floor.  He went running into it as if he wa going to run out onto this floor pretty much full tilt scamper…and went right under.  He was quite surprised and managed to dog paddle himself back to dry land.  This morning I got up and he had been sick.  He left me a fairly disgusting mess in his crate.  I toweled him off and took his blanket out.  I carried the hard-plastic liner out and hosed it off outside.  I went upstairs and through the towel and blanket in the washer and turned it on.  That’s how my day started.  Then my wife gets up and starts yelling at me for running the washing machine at 6:00 AM!  I explained the situation and she asks me one of those questions that I can’t answer.  “Did he eat anything he wasn’t supposed to?”  He’s a 4-month old, high-energy, border collie pup.  If he’s awake he’s trying to eat something and it’s usually something he’s not supposed to.  That’s it.  I’ve reverted to being a beginner parent again.  My life is wrapped around picking up bodily fluids and trying to keep my young friend from killing himself.  I’m not sure I’m equipped for it anymore! May the gods lend me patience. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-415 – Kate Williams – Yaks and the Planet (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4415.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-415 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Today we have a great conversation with Kate who is the CEO of 1% for the planet.  I owe you a bit of backstory here, so try to keep up.  When I first started the podcast 11 years or so ago I was a bit worried about mixing my professional world with my running world.  I’m a pragmatist.  I made the decision early on that if the podcast ever caused conflict with my regular career the regular career would win.  I had this nightmare scenario of sitting in a board meeting and someone saying “You had time to do this stupid marathon race report, explain to us why you missed your numbers again?” As an insider to our endurance lifestyles I get it.  I know what we do is additive to our careers.  What we do doesn’t make us worse at our day jobs it makes us better.  I believe that.  But my beliefs weren’t what I was worried about.  It’s like the old joke about marriage; “Would you rather be right, or be happy?”  I would rather be able to pay my bills than be sanctimonious. I was never that guy.  Because no one at work gives a crap about your training or your marathon times.  I built a wall between what I did for a living and my podcast adventures.  Which confused and intrigued my listeners.  Here I am talking about airplanes and board meetings and hotel stays and clients, and never sharing what I actually did for a living.  I would get questions.  What do you do for a living?  So, I made something up that fit the evidence.  I told everyone that I was a contract killer (that explained all the travel), but that my cover job was a yak farmer.  And if you have the patience to go back and listen to those early episodes you’ll find all the yak farming jokes.  Here’s the thing, I have never even seen a live yak.  I just randomly picked the most absurd profession I could think of.  Fast forward to a couple weeks ago.  I was in LinkedIn doing whatever it is you do in LinkedIn and I came across Kate’s profile.  Here is this out-doorsy, masters runner person with an ivy league education and one of the jobs on her resume is “Yak Farmer”.  I could not resist.  I reached out to her and got her on for this interview.  Which turned out to be apropos and extremely beneficial because she leads an organization that addresses the intersection of business and the environment – a topic that I have done much rumination on.  Why can’t we be business friendly and environmentally friendly at the same time?  Why are those two things antithetical?  I think you’ll like our conversation and I’m grateful that this silly podcast thing has led me to engage with another outstanding individual who I would have never otherwise had the opportunity to meet.  In section one I’m going to ruminate on the Boston Marathon some more. In section two I’m going to ruminate about rumination.  And, I hope you enjoyed my attempt to be funny with the Leadville race report.  Sorry for the salty language.  Hope the kids weren’t listening.  To make up for it I’ll give you a Dad joke.  What kind of animal do you need to take with you on a trip to the Himalayas?  A Yak of all trades… On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – The Boston Problem - http://runrunlive.com/the-boston-problem   Voices of reason – the conversation Kate Williams, CEO Kate Williams is CEO of 1% for the Planet, a global movement inspiring businesses and individuals to support environmental nonprofit solutions, through annual membership and everyday actions. Last year, the network of 1800 members in more than 40 countries gave $24+million to environmental nonprofits. Kate stepped into her role at 1% for the Planet in May 2015 bringing a strong track record as a leader:  Professionally, Kate served as Executive Director of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail and as founder and owner of the Vermont Yak Company prior to starting at 1% for the Planet. In addition, Kate served on the Board of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) for eleven years, two as chair. Kate has also served on the boards of the Northern Forest Center and Shelburne Farms (current), and served as an elected member of the Town of Waitsfield Select Board, serving three years a chair of that board. Kate earned a BA at Princeton University where she majored in history, and an MS at the MIT Sloan School of Management where she focused on organizational systems. Kate is a master’s distance runner and kitchen gardener. Kate lives in Waitsfield with her husband and two children. Links would be to our website: (our podcast) MISSION We bring dollars and doers together to accelerate smart environmental giving ORIGIN Ever wonder how 1% for the Planet began? It all started when two businessmen met and bonded over their shared love for the outdoors. Realizing their responsibility to protect our planet, they decided to give 1% of their sales back to the environment—whether or not they were profitable.   In 2002, Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, founder of Blue Ribbon Flies, created 1% for the Planet and started a global movement.    “The intent of 1% for the Planet is to help fund these diverse environmental organizations so that collectively they can be a more powerful source in solving the world’s problems.” — YVON CHOUINARD IN HIS BOOK “LET MY PEOPLE GO SURFING”   Soon after our inception, 1% for the Planet’s mission began to resonate across the globe. The idea was simple: because companies profit from the resources they take from the earth, they should protect those resources. Realizing their responsibility, brands such as Brushfire Records, Klean Kanteen, New Belgium Brewing, Honest Tea, Caudalie and many more followed suit to join the movement.   Our network is global and diverse, proving that anyone can make a difference. From the individual members who give back by donating to and volunteering with local environmental nonprofits to singer-songwriter Jack Johnson, who joined our network in 2004 to protect the shores of his home state of Hawaii—everyone has a 1%.   We connect our members with high-impact nonprofit partners that align with their values and add to their brand story. In doing so, we take the time to get to know what’s really important to our members. Through our partnership advising process, we learned that member, Klean Kanteen cares deeply about a myriad causes, which include connecting young people to the wonder and science of our world through environmental education. Beginning in 2008, Klean Kanteen's support of NatureBridge is one of our longest-standing partnerships.   Today, we have more than 2,000 members, in over 45 countries, coming together to protect the future of our planet.   Section two – The Ruminating Brain– Outro Well, my friends, ruminated to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-415, which is a small miracle.  Two weeks after Leadville I went ahead and ran the Wapack Trail 18 miler.  I couldn’t stop myself.  I had a perfectly reasonable plan.  I would do a couple hard weeks with speedwork and then treat Wapack as a long training run.  This was a wonderful idea on paper, but not so much in execution.  What I had not considered is that going into a technical trail mountain race like Wapack with tired legs result in spending a lot of time with your face in the dirt.  Yeah, If you don’t lift your toes you eat dirt.  I probably fell 7 times. Then I shut it down hoping for a big bounce for the BeanTown Marathon last weekend.  I felt pretty fit and strong for the race but I only had 18 miles in me. I raced hard and hung in as long as I could but I just didn’t have the legs.  Duh.  It was a 6 loop course in a park, by the ocean in southern Mass.  Pretty course with some gravel roads and a little hill in each loop.  That little hill started really getting to me by the 4th loop and I just couldn’t hold the pace. Another classic Chris Russell 15 minute positive split. 18 miles at race pace and 8 more at a stumble.  I’m not terribly upset about it because I felt like I was close.  These last few cycles I haven’t made my time but every one of them felt like they could have gone either way. Next up for me is Baystate.  I’m chilling this week to recover.  I was super beat up after this race. I’ve got a very sore hip and still have that tendonitis in my butt.  If I can get healthy I’ll load up on the long runs for a couple weeks and get some speedwork in.  The challenge is going to be staying healthy. I can tell I’m a bit over trained.  And, now, I’m officially out of qualification.  If I want to run Boston this year I’ll need a waver bib. Oh, and I signed up to pace another half marathon.  I’m going down to Nantucket with Gary two weeks before Baystate to pace the 1:50 group with him.  Should be pretty. And that’s a good two-weeks-out workout for a marathon.  As usual, I’m hopeful and still plugging away, but I’m only in my first year of this age group so I’ve got to qualify 3 more times at this level before I age up 10 minutes. And what about Ollie-dog?  He is growing like a weed.  As I was writing this he was crying to go out.  I just came back in so I figured he was just bored. But, as all good puppies do, he proceeded to march into the living room and show the rug that he did indeed really need to go out.  Good thing we haven’t got around to changing the carpet yet.  He’s a maniac.  When he’s not chewing on you he’s stealing something of yours to chew on.  He like ice cubes and anything he is not supposed to have.  He’s going to be a great dog if I can ever break him.  Right now he’s a wild animal.  It’s nice to have the pitter patter of little hooves in the house again.   And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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Leadville, 2019 Call me a schadenfreude asshole but the moment that stands out from this adventure was watching Eric throw up for the first time in his ultra career, just after we left the Hopeless aid station.  That’s the first point where I thought I was actually adding value.  Until that point I felt like a bit of a third wheel, maybe some poorly chosen window dressing for Eric’s 8th LT100.  But, right then as he tried to yawn a toxic combination of noodles and electrolyte drink into the bushes, I felt like I was needed, like there was work to be done. And who doesn’t like to be needed? Chapter One: Anticipation Eric asked me to pace him at the Leadville Trail 100 some time around the beginning of the year, 6 -7 months ago.  He caught me at a low point.  That ebb in activity where the fall race season is behind you and the spring training hasn’t started yet.  A time when summer is as far off as old age used to be. That mid-winter blue period. The doldrums of the year.  A time when I wallow in manic depression without the so much of themania.  He knew I’d be weak.  You may have heard of the Leadville Trail 100 ultra-marathon.  “The race across the sky”.  It was established in the early 1980’s as a secret government program to harness the psychic energy of ex-drug addicts, by making them suffer at altitude for hours on end.  Then the iron curtain rusted, the wall fell, and Vladimir Putin started posing for romance novel covers.  They had to make up a cover story about saving the town of Leadville from imminent demise from the abrupt closure of the Climax mine.  The fun thing about Leadville, and here I use the term ‘fun’ to mean ‘awful’, is that it sits at an altitude approximately 200 meters south of the moon’s orbit.  It’s a place where only a few thimble fulls of oxygen reach and those few thimbles have to be shared among everyone in town and a few dozen shaggy mountain goats.  It’s known for its rough Western setting, it’s panoramic scenic mountain vistas and spontaneous nosebleeds … right before you pass out.  As we came into the summer and the event started getting closer it began to dawn on me that maybe this wasn’t a good idea.  It’s one of those things that seems like a really good idea 6 months in the future where it can’t harm you but starts to get gnarly looking as it comes into focus in time.  Eric casually mentioned that one of his pacers was in Europe for a wedding and the other one was hurt, so, hey, I’m going to need you for 39 miles.  Wait, what?  39 miles, at altitude, in the middle of the night?  That’s terrifying. So I did what I usually do and didn’t train for it.  Well, I mean I was just rolling out of a stout effort at Boston, and in general maintain a pretty solid level of fitness, but 39 miles at altitude is an ultra-marathon.  I live at about 250 feet above sea level.  Hope Pass is 12,600 feet above sea level.  You do the math, unless you’re actually on Hope Pass because you won’t be able to do math at that altitude, but, yeah that’s two miles straight up.  The highest I’ve ever been is Denver and that’s 1 mile up.  Hope Pass is 2 miles up.  Again, math-wise, twice as up.  Here’s the thing they don’t tell you, until you get there and it’s too late, then they tell you because they think it’s funny, the oxygen content in the air is not linear. At sea level, where I (and all the bright people) live, the oxygen content is 20.9%.  Where we were running it was in the 12-13% range.  42% less oxygen.  Just a reminder, humans need oxygen to do things, like breathe, run, and stay alive.  I had visions of me bent over coughing up blood by the side of the trail while Eric ran on.  I read a race report from the Leadville trail Mountain bike 100 held a couple weeks previously from a guy my age.  He had a small stroke at the top of one of the passes and the mean old race officials made him stop racing when he was slurring his words.  He was pretty sure his racing days were over.  On the minus side of the ledger: I had not trained well I had never been at this altitude, let alone run at this altitude My head might explode I might give out on my runner – which is very bad form On the plus side I have a lot of trail running and mountain racing experience I was picking him up at 50 miles so he was already cooked when I got him I’m pretty good at suffering when I need to be This is just the sort of stupid shit that turns my crank, so to speak… Chapter Two: Getting there I flew from Boston to Denver on Thursday afternoon.  The race is on, well it’s one of those stupid ultra things, the runners start on Saturday Morning at 4:00 AM and have to finish by 10:00 Am on Sunday.  It’s a 30 hour cut off.  Which sounds generous but less than 50% of the people who start this race finish.  A majority of those miss the cutoffs at some point on the course.  Flying into Denver is unique.  I’ve done a lot of flying.  When you fly into Orlando it’s all screaming kids with mouse ears.  When you fly into Vegas it’s all drunk people in cowboy hats.  When you fly into LaGuardia it’s all close-talking loud people shouting at cell phones.  On most flights through the Midwest I get squeezed between corn-fed mid westerners who take up most of my personal space with their MAGA hats and over-stretched golf shirts.  Or, perhaps a California flight with that crazy woman that wants to talk to me about her vitamin regime.  Not the flight into Denver.  Everyone on the plane is an endurance athlete of some form.  Even the children.  On the one hand it’s quite spacious with all the skinny people, but on the other hand if I had to resort to cannibalism, they looked a bit gristly.  But, if I did have to resort to cannibalism I’d start with the vegans, because I think that would be ironic.  If we did crash, I’d be all set.  You could not hope for better seat mates.  I’m sure they could carry me out of the plane and up a mountain while devising intricate splints and tourniquets from spare tent pieces and technical fabric scrounged from those North Face backpack carry ons.  Maybe shoot some rapids in a kayak assembled from air sickness bags on the way back to civilization.  Eric and crew fetched me at the airport.  I felt like an adopted child being picked up by the new parents.I have hung out with this crew before and they are a blast to do an event with.  We did the New Orleans marathon in 20014 and it’s one of my favorite race memories.  Eric, his wife, Dan his best friend and other pacer, and Dan’s wife.  We would round up the crew with Eric’s son, Eric’s son’s wife, who was also pacing and one of Eric’s son’s friends, who was the other pacer. To formalize his relationship (sort of an indentured servitude type of relationship) with the Leadville Trail 100 Eric bought a house in Breckenridge, which would be race HQ for the weekend.  I had a room at a Breck hotel a mile away.  Breckinridge is a nice town in a Stepford Wives sort of way.  You sort of feel like you’re on a movie set and it’s all not quite real.  But that could have been the total lack of usable oxygen making it to my cerebral cortex.  At the hotel I was on the 6th floor.  I’ll tell you a Colorado story.  I was walking to the elevator and there was a young dad behind me with a 5 or six year old.  I was going to let that kid press the button in the elevator. But they marched right be me and into the stairwell. I figured they must be on the next floor up or something.  When I was existing the elevator, they were trooping down the hallway in front of me.  Really? It’s Colorado! We don’t need elevators!  We don’t’ need stairs!  Just put in a climbing wall and we’ll belay our luggage up from base camp. Pass me a piton.  Belay on!  Chapter Three: Camp Foreshadow As a walked over to the base camp house early Friday morning I passed a guy out on the sidewalk having a morning smoke.  As we exchanged pleasantries about the beautiful morning, I thought to myself that this guy is going to get mugged by a gang of high-altitude hipsters.  I figured he’d be pilloried on an extra mountain bike frame when I came back by.  If Smokie the Bear didn’t get him first.  I consciously chose to walk the less-then-a-mile through the bad streets of Breckenridge just to see how the altitude felt.  Would I be gasping for breath?  Would my muscles be screaming for oxygen?  Would my head explode? Turns out the answer to all this hyperbole was, “No.”  I felt fine.  Well I felt altitude fine.  Which from my time in Denver feels a bit like a three-beer hangover combined with a bit of an allergy.  We collected the tribe and drove over to Leadville, through Frisco and a valley where the headwaters of the Arkansas River begins, to eventually empty into the Mississippi.  The whole place is drop dead scenic.  The Rocky Mountains rise up on all sides with their 13,000 and 14.000 peaks.  There was still snow in places.  With the thin air the mountains pop out at you like some ultra-real Instagram filter, their crags and points crisp and sharp in the lasering sun.  It’s just an interesting place, Leadville.  There was an apocalyptic novel written in 2008 where Leadville becomes the new capital of the United States called “Plague Years”. It’s got a ton of history and character.  You take all that and pour several hundred near-psychotic ultra-runners on top and you’ve got a party.  It turns out that, after his 7 straight Leadville finishes Eric is pretty much the Mayor of Leadville.  Everywhere we went he would be embraced by emaciated trail ghosts.  There was much back slapping, handshaking and hugging.  I think he has a good chance in the upcoming election. We attended the pre-race briefing which is a bit of theatre.  The long-time race directors all standup and give inspirational talks.  It’s a wonderful, feel-good, almost family reunion feel.  The Ultra-running community is very close.  Almost everyone has a backstory.  There are recovering addicts and abuse victims.  All those lost souls who can only find peace deep in the dark place out on the trails.  Made me wonder what dark secrets Eric was harboring to drive him into this carnival of lost souls.  I’m going to go with dressing up in women’s underwear and dancing around, just because the visual cracks me up. From the briefing we wandered over to the expo, which was a small, open-air affair. They had everything you would expect at an event like Leadville; commemorative shirts, extra nutrition, handmade backpacks crafted from organically harvested Koala foreskins.  And as much CBD as you could carry.  Eric and his son grabbed their stuff, more hugs, more selfies and we commuted back to the ranch.  Wonderful news for me was that Dan’s knee was feeling better and he’d pick up Eric a bit earlier on the course. Instead of 39 miles, I’d only have to survive 27. Piece of cake.  We had a nice dinner, a couple beers and everyone got an early bedtime.  They would be getting up early to be there for the 4:00 AM start.  The rest of us would sleep in and head over to catch them as they came through Twin Lakes in the early afternoon, then pop over to the turnaround, 50-mile mark at Winfield. Chapter Four: Wait for it. Much of Friday was spent by the runners running the Leadville course.  Much of the day for us was spent waiting. Waiting for them to come through Twin Lakes.  Waiting in line for the buses over to Winfield.  Then lying around in the sun at Winfield waiting some more.  The weather was wonderful for waiting.  A little warm for running.  I ended up with a bit of a sunburn before the day was over.  While I was getting ready, I realized my water pack had sprung a leak and had to do a quick tape-job on my bladder to fix it. I’ve had that pack for a long time and it’s starting to show. I would pick him up at the Winfield aid station which is the turnaround point for the out and back, about 50 miles in.  Dan, Eric’s best friend and long-time pacer had the last 7 of Eric’s races in a big spreadsheet.  We partially knew what to expect.  Eric has a history of falling down early in this race. Last year he broke his nose.  He decided this year to go out slower in the early sections to avoid rolling in the dirt so much and keep the blood inside his body. Because of this go out slower strategy and the warmer day he was late coming into Winfield.  Now Eric is as calm as a cucumber on a cool day.  A real machine.  The whole time I was with him he was lucid, forming whole sentences and moving well.  Which is not an easy thing to do after 60-70 miles at altitude.  I on the other hand was still a bit terrified.  I still didn’t know if I’d be able to perform at altitude.  I knew we were close to the cutoffs.  And my equipment was acting up.  But, on the plus side I had my runner and the game was on.  I had a job.  Eric knew what he was doing but I was there to make sure he stayed on track and drag him through any rough spots. Chapter Five: Up and Over. And so, it began.  At 5:25 PM Eric and I fast walked out of the Winfield Aid station and made our way towards Hope pass.  This is a mountain pass, which is a saddle between two mountains, that tops out at 12,600 feet.  Eric had already been up and over once.  Now we were going back. This is a tough climb at a tough point in the race.  The runners are already 50+ miles in and they already know what they are up against, having just done it.  It’s a psychologically hard place for the runners.  On the bright side, they get to pick up a pacer for the return trip.  Eric had me.  My plan was to just try to keep up.  Keep him engaged as much as possible.  Keep an eye on him.  And periodically remind him to eat and drink.  I bit like a mother hen or a border collie. Our approach out of Winfield towards the pass was a beautiful single path through an Aspen grove.  Not easy running, but nothing out of the ordinary.  We passed through places where avalanches had cleared the slopes of trees and piled things up.  The single path hugged the side of the mountain with precipitous drops off the side of the trail.  It was a delightful afternoon.  The whole time we were climbing towards the pass runners were passing us coming in the other direction.  We would tell them “Good Work!” and such but we knew they were ‘dead men (and women) walking’.  We were tight on the cutoff there was not much chance these stragglers were going to see the finish line.   I believe the race intentionally makes the cutoffs tight early to sort people out before they get hurt.  There is a lot of attrition after the first trip over Hope Pass and even more on the way back.  It doesn’t seem hard on paper.  You’re only trying to hit 3 miles an hour, but the pass and the altitude mess with people.  It get’s into their heads.  Especially the second trip up and over.  As we began to climb, I pulled my phone and turned on some Grateful Dead to pass the time.  I had this fantasy vision that my music would attract a van-load of old hippies who had been hiding in the woods since the 60’s.  They’d come out smoking joints and dancing and they’d joined us on the trail.  That didn’t happen.  When we got to a flat or a down, we’d run a few strides, but for most of that climb Eric was just grinding away trying to hike as best he could. I was feeling good.  The altitude scare passed, and I was able to keep up and even get out front and pace a bit.  We were grinding out maybe 2 miles an hour.  It was single path, rocky trail at 15 – 20 % grade.  Just putting your head down and pushing those quads up one step at a time. I remembered from the Burning River last year when Kevin was pacing me, and I was pretty shot at the end.  He would stay ahead of me like a carrot on a stick and make me keep up.  I tried to do that with Eric.  I could hear his hiking sticks clacking on the rocks behind me so I knew where he was and tried to stay just out of reach.  It took us awhile to clear the tree line.  Then we could see the pass.  And all around us the mountains rose like gods.  It was stunningly gorgeous in the late afternoon sun.  As we got into the switch backs on the final push the temperature started to drop.  I had been super comfortable in the 65-degree, dry sunny afternoon, but now the wind kicked up above the tree line and we stopped to fish out some gear. I remember saying to Eric as we climbed the pass “It had better get cold because I’m going to be pissed if I had to carry all this winter gear and don’t use it.” I got my gloves on and a fleece beanie for the summit.  I was wearing my Brooks baggie shorts with a pair of Zensa Calf sleeves for added protection and a tech T shirt with my water backpack.  I brought with me a running jacket.  As we approached the summit, I got Eric’s video camera and scrambled ahead to take some video of him crossing the pass.  I felt the altitude.  Not so much in my legs and lungs, but in my head.  My red blood cells were holding an emergency impeachment meeting to vote my brain out of office.  The whole time at altitude for me is like a combination of a 3-4 beer hangover and a spring pollen allergy.  A fuzzy head, dry sinuses, a little cough.  I brought a bit of an airplane cough with me but the dry altitude seemed to dry it up.  One thing I loved was no chaffing.  With the lack of humidity I never got sticky enough to lose any skin.  And just like after about a couple hours of climbing we were up and over.  Eric went blowing by me not pausing long at the pass.  I had my pack off putting on my jacket and finding my lights.  No time to waste.  I’d have to catch up.  He was on a mission.  In the same way that having the pass in front of you messes with your mind, having it behind you give you wings. Eric was a machine. That’s why he’s finished this race 8 times now.  He just keeps moving. This was to be his modus operandi. It didn’t matter what was going on around him he kept moving.  At one point we passed a guy who was down and out on the trail with people gathered around tending to him.  Eric didn’t even pause we just went chugging by like this poor bastard roadkill was a rock or branch.  I think they ended up helicoptering that guy out.  While I was on the pass struggling into my jacket the sun was setting.  It was even worse now because we were on the other side of the mountain from the sun.  It got dark in a hurry.  As I was fishing out my headlamp and flashlight in the dusk there a guy asked me if I had an extra light?  I said, well I have my runner’s extra light but that’s for my runner…  He says, “I’ll give you $100 for it.”  I don’t think he actually had $100 on him; I think he just wanted me to understand the urgency of the situation.  I relented and gave him Eric’s extra headlamp. He put Eric’s bib number into his phone.  Far as I know that headlamp hasn’t shown up again.  Now I had to catch Eric who had taken off running down the mountain.  I put some coal in the boiler and started making way, happy to be done with the whole Hope Pass thing without incident.  We actually had to run through a patch of snow, left over from the previous winter.  No kidding.  Slipping and sliding through the snow at 12,000 feet in the feeble, failing dusk, trying not to superman as I was trying to catch Eric.  One thing you have to know about Eric.  He’s very tall.  Probably 8 inches taller than me with legs to match. He eats up a lot of ground.  When we were hiking, I’d have to run a little to keep up with him. 70 miles in he’s walking faster than I can walk.  He thought I was trying to get him to run.  I was just trying to keep up.  Chapter Six: All Night Long. Coming out of the pass the first landmark is the Hopeless aid station.  We paused there to refill our tanks.  I was wearing a pack and carrying a bottle.  We’d shoot Gu’s every so often on the trail and then browse what was on offer at the aid stations.  I made sure to be aggressive with the Enduroyltes under the unsupported theory that the electrolytes would help my head in the thin air.  We grabbed some hot broth and noodles.  Eric remixed his backpack with the Sword energy stuff he was using.  We pressed on.  Next thing I know he’s retching off the trail behind me.  I guess the Sword didn’t mix well and he got a super strong mouthful of it on top of the noodles, and, 15 hours of running, and it wanted to come back up.  I told him keep moving.  If you’re going to throw up, throw up and we’ll keep moving.  You’re going to feel shitty either way, so keep moving.  He managed to get the offending admixture up and out and we forged on.  We had the downhill now and could make some time.  We had to be back into Twin Lakes by 10:00 PM and it was tight. We were good time on the back side of the pass.  By this time, with the dry air and the hundreds of runners the trail was super dusty.  You could see the dust in your headlamp and taste the grit in your mouth.  I was coughing a lot and losing my voice. Which did not keep me from singing.  We were see-sawing with another runner and his pacer. I started singing West Texas Cowboys (because of the one line about dusty dirt) and the other pacer knew the words and was belting out the song with me. I felt great.  We were having fun and Eric was keeping up.  I don’t know if it was my imagination but I felt like there was palpably more oxygen as we descended that dusty trail, dancing through the occasional rock garden. I’d try to hold my flashlight beam on anything that looked treacherous so Eric could get a good fix on it coming down behind me.  I’ll call out the obstacles when I could, “Toe Grabbers!”, “Rock Garden”. At one point off the side of the trail the moon was rising over the lakes and it was blood red.  An awesome sight.  Dripping that blood red reflection into the lake between the mountains.  This is also where we passed Eric’s son Zach and his wife.  Zach was having some sort of stomach issue and had stopped running.  We tried to get him to come with us, but his head wasn’t in it, so we forged on.  Coming into Twin Lakes there were 5 – 7 open water crossings. They had a wet year so there was more water. We splashed through these.  Some were cold and knee-deep. Some were disturbingly warmer and muddy and knee deep.  I only had one pair of shoes with me, but they were trail shoes and I was pretty sure they’d drain out and be ok. Eric knew where we were and could smell the barn, so to speak.  He started to hammer through the water obstacles and was running hard through the fields to the Aid Station.  I pulled in behind him and let him drag me in.  As we got close there was a lot of foot traffic. It was a bit confusing and crowded and dark.  Dan met us as we were coming in and told us to hustle to the timing mat because we were tight on time.  The three of us pushed through the crowd in the dark. I was accidently body slamming people in the trail because, they were wandering in crowding the course, I was trying to keep one eye on Eric, it was dark and I was trying to figure out where the finish line was with some urgency.  We made the cutoff by 8 minutes.  Which was a good thing, but also got me to worrying about the next cutoff and making up some time with my athlete being 60+ miles in. The crew got Eric into a chair took care of his needs while I tried to clean all the sand and gravel out of my shoes from the water crossings.  We topped off our tanks and got back on the trail.  We had work to do.  It was just after 10:00PM local time and midnight on Boston clock.  Eric had been going for 17 hours and I had had him for 5 of those.  We had to get to the next cutoff at Half Pipe by 1:15 AM.  Less than 10 miles but on this course you never know. There was lot of fire road and a lot of climbing up out of twin lakes.  Everyone talks about Hope Pass but not so much about how there is another mountain to climb out of Twin Lakes. We worked it.  We were making time and catching runners.  Eric continued to be a machine.  It was all work now.  Deep into the night. This was where I decided Eric was a robot.  He kept telling details about the course as we were coming up on them. “There’s a little hill here, then a downhill switch backs with rocks.” We’re coming up on 70 miles for him and he knows exactly where he is, he’s lucid, and he’s moving well. Definitely a robot. We got into a nice rhythm on the downhills and flats.  I stayed out in front and set the cadence.  It’s an old ultra-running trick.  You count out 12 strides at a run, then count out 12 strides at a hike.  It keeps you focused on moving without over working anything.  I kept just far enough ahead to keep him engaged and moving.  We made it into Half Pipe with time to spare. Frankly I wasn’t looking at my watch much anymore, we were just focused on moving and letting the course take care of itself.  We had 3hours and 15 minutes to get there, we did it in 2:42 and picked up 20 minutes on the cutoff. I was getting tired coming into Half Pipe.  I had some waves of Nausea on the trail and was totally disappointed that it was only gas.  I thought for sure I was going to get dropped.  I figured I should it the porta john at Half Pipe just to be sure.  They had them helpfully rigged with lights inside and not so helpfully absent any toilet paper, but we make do.  When I took my pack off I realized that I had worked up a good sweat coming down the mountain and the cold air on my wet body sent me quickly into chills.  It was cold!  I got some hot broth in the tent and cuddled up to the gas heater for a few minutes. Eric was ready to go again and told him we’d have to keep moving because I was on the edge of hypothermia. With only 8 ½ more miles to Outbound where I would hand him off to Dan I figured I could tough it out.  I was suffering a bit, nothing awful, but with the altitude and the cold I was at the edge of my training. The course was relatively easy in this section and we just kept up a good cadence and kept moving.  We were still passing a lot of runners. Eric was asking for the time. I didn’t want to roll up my sleeve to look at my watch because I didn’t want to lose the heat so I just told him to never mind and keep moving. We got that good, steady run-hike cadence going again and were making good time.  I had to drop him by 3:00 AM local time, which would be 5:00 AM my time. All good. With about 5K left we were cutting through a farm field and were treated to a wonderful visual, a bit of true performance art.  A runner was reliving himself in a great golden arc by the spotlight of his head lamp. It was like a water feature you’d expect to see in a Venetian fountain. We congratulated and applauded. And that was it for me.  We pushed down a section of open road and across a field that seemed to go on forever.  My lights were dying and I was having trouble staying on the trail on the field.  We pushed into the outbound aid station and I tagged off to Dan. I gave him the update.  Eric was doing great.  He was eating and drinking and performing other bodily functions with reassuring regularity.  Duty done I collapsed into a chair with my teeth chattering from the cold and tried to disappear into a space blanket.  We had picked up some more time and Eric and Dan had a good 40+ minute cushion to work with.  My watch said I had run almost exactly 27 miles in almost exactly 9 hours for almost exactly 3 miles an hour.  Eric’s crew bundled me into the car with the heat on to give me ride back to the hotel for a hot shower couple hours of napping.  Eric and Dan pressed on into the morning. Chapter Seven: Aftermath. I got a couple hours sleep and then headed back over to base camp to join the rest of the crew.  We drove over to Leadville trying to figure out from Dan’s text messages how close Eric was to the 30-hour cut off.  It looked like it was going to be close and we prepared for the worst. I got some hot coffee and oatmeal and we waited by the road on a warm, sunny Leadville morning watching the happy parade of exhausted runners come up the street wit their crews in celebration. And sure enough, with 20 minutes left on the clock Eric and Dan came up the street and there was much rejoicing. We all ran him in.  He was like a happy drunk.  He just finished his 8th Leadville Trail 100 Race on his 59th birthday on a day where only 42% of the people who started made it home.  It’s a beautiful, terrible race that gives back to its runners more than it takes in the end.  It fills them with a satisfaction of having faced this terrible, beautiful course across the sky and walked away, sometimes with a belt buckle, always with a bucket of memories.  Thank you, Eric.  That was something to be part of.  If memories and experiences are the currency of our lives then I am a very rich man.

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-414 – Matt Part 2 – The Ironman (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4414.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-414 of the RunRunLive Podcast.   I’m trying to get this one out early this week because this weekend is the Leadville 100 Trial race – “The race across the sky”.  I’ll be flying out Thursday night to pace Eric over the weekend.  Truly, this has all the earmarks of an adventure (with a capital A).  This is the thing I really dig about longer endurance events.  Whether a marathon, multi-day relay or and ultra, you really have no idea what’s going to happen when you toe the line.  There os that middle road, the one you are planning for, or more appropriately guessing at, that travels a clean but relatively uninteresting path, where everything stays within expectations.  That middle road where nothing weird or memorable happens.   You just run your miles and bask in the warm glow of an expected job well done.  You trained.  You showed up.  You ran.  You finished.  You wipe your hands, note the effort in your log, check the box and move on.  That is the less interesting path without much adventure.  But there is always a chance, I’d say better than 50/50 that something goes sideways.  There are those glowing, multi-colored traces that arc off of the main path at crazy angles into the unknown.  This is where the good stuff happens. Adventure is when you show up for a 12-person relay and there are only 8 runners.  Adventure is when you start throwing up 75 miles in.  Adventure is when you roll that ankle or crash your bike in the early miles.  Adventure is when that storm blows in with its driving wind and hail.  Adventure steps in and tears up your well-made plans. Adventure wipes the slate and resets the score. It strips you of your smug comfort and your middle of the road expectations.  But, my friends, adventure is not catastrophe.  Adventure is not some evil, beady-eyed thug stepping out of a side alley to blacken your eyes and steal your money. No, my friends, adventure is an opportunity.  Adventure strips away our silly human thoughts of predetermination and let’s us draw on deeper pools of resource and strength that we didn’t know we had.  Adventure, you see, leads to fulfillment.  Adventure is where the “Epic” lies.  Adventure to the shores of new worlds, and to the walls of Troy. Adventure is a tool to flush out the human spirit.  We, endurance athletes, we hardy few, we celebrate Adventure. “You are better than you think you are, and can do more than you think you can.” – Ken Chlouber On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Form series Chapter Three -   Voices of reason – the conversation Matt Schorer Matt is father, husband and triathlete from upstate NY who recently made the successful move to reclaim his health.  Matt is currently training for the Lake Placid IronMan in Late June of this year.     Section two – Thoughts on Seneca’s Letters– Outro Well, my friends, you fixed your form and fixed your sites on the new horizon, which, by the way, was the name of a NASA probe that made a flyby of poor old demoted king of the kuiper belt but no longer a planet Pluto, and then, even more astoundingly cool, Ultima Thule which turned out to be two big chunks of accreted dust bunnies from the birth of the solar system 4 billion years ago, to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-414, which is in some small way astounding in itself. For me the weirdness that is my life continues.  I try to not struggle against the current so much.  I try the choose, as much as I cah the rocks to bump against on the way.  I will be pacing Eric this weekend at Leadville.  And, don’t anyone tell him, but I’m terrified.  My training has been shyte (it’s not really bad language if I use a non-U.S. dialect).  I’ve still got that damn rattle in my lungs from whatever that airplane cold was, I’m thinking consumption, or maybe grippe, or apoplexy – but I’m no doctor.  And I have the great personal responsibility to guide a dear friend through 38 miles of dusty Colorado trail, at night, over a pass that tops out at 12,600 feet.  I may die.  I would rather die than not support a friend who needs me.  People often over estimate my ability, but, thankfully they also underestimate my insanity – so it balances out.  Assuming I survive this adventure I am actually registered for a series of hard races, that I’m also not prepared for.  Screw it. Why change my approach now and do the smart thing?  That might work but it’s a boring narrative.  I’m going to call this a training run.  A nice long hike in the woods.  Good for building strength and base aerobic fitness, right?  Then in a couple weeks I’ll run the Wapack trail race and that’s another nice strength builder.   Which is stupid because a week after that I’m signed up for a marathon to see if I can’t get a qualification time before the Boston registration window closes.  Ya never know.  It’s happened before.  Remember when I rolled out of that 6-hour Spartan race in 2017 and requalified at Portland?  Or when I turned my training for an Olympic tri into a qualifier at Baystate in 2018?  It happens.  I have a history of doing better when I’m not focused. I’m also signed up for the Baystate Marathon in October which would give me 6-7 weeks of training to make another good show.  I still have some tendonitis in my ass.  My knee is still crunchy from crashing in June.  The machete injury healed fully, so at least I have that going for me.  Maybe the $1,000 emergency room visit was worth it.  Although my wife is of the opinion that I should have gone to the Redi-clinic or stitched it up myself.  And I may be patient zero for some new form of zombie plague that starts as a juicy night cough you can’t shake.  So – everything is status quo over here at the RunRunLive HQ.  And honestly I’m happy to be alive.  But, I can hear you scream, “Chris, no one cares a wit about your constant stream of whinging about running.  What about the puppy?” As we speak Ollie the border collie is what? 10-11 weeks old?  He’s growing like a weed.  He bites everything and everybody.  If it exists it goes in the mouth.  He’s sleeping through the night mostly in his crate, but usually sleep in the couch in the vicinity and that calms him down.  He’s a random poop and pee machine, but we’re working on it.  He is teaching us patience.  I’ve realized how much older I am since I last had a puppy or a baby in the house.  They have two speeds – all ahead full and sleep.  He likes to destroy Yvonne’s perennials. He like to chew on rocks.  He likes to steal my socks.  The other day I walked out to my garden with him.  I picked a pile of produce.  Tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers.  He stole one of my cucumbers and gleefully kept it away from me as I grumbled and fumed and chased.  He capered away with a sparkle in his eye. I ended up freezing that cucumber so he could use it as a chew toy.  He’s probably a month ahead of where Buddy was at this age.  Buddy was the runt of the litter, a sad little dog that grew into his wonder.  Ollie is the class clown, full of energy, bravado and clever impishness. Does he run? Yes, he does.  He’s traversed the mile-ish trail with me at a trot a couple times now.  He’s not quite sure what we’re doing but he hangs with me and has plenty of juice left over at the end.  At the end of the day I’m happy to have this little, warm ball of fur weaving around my legs and trying to knock me down so he can bite my face.  I need that.  I miss that. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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Let’s talk about form Part 2 in a series on form Ok Bubbah, you’ve been patient .  Now I want to fill in the details . Before I start out, let me say one thing; if you’re getting out and running and enjoying yourself then don’t obsess about form.  If it’s working for you, hey, that’s perfect.  I don’t mean to form-shame anyone.  I certainly don’t have perfect form.  But, if you want to learn more form.  Let’s talk.  I always worry about this because it is so holistic.  There are so many moving pieces – it s like juggling octopi.  But – we will progress.  The other point worth mentioning is there are a bunch of interconnected movements here and there is really no precedence in what sequence to work them.  Most coaches start with foot strike and posture, so that’s where we are going to start.  Foot strike – This is when, where and how often your foot hits the ground.  Let’s talk about ‘how often’. Cadence: In your running form there is a certain frequency to your foot strike.  It is 180 hits per minute.  That’s the magic number.  That’s the cadence.  Plus or minus 2 hits per minute.  Like everything else that may vary slightly from runner to runner, but overall this number is pretty solid.  When I count my cadence it is usually a bit low, in the 170’s.  When I’m doing speed work it might be a bit fast.  Uphill, downhill, it varies, but somewhere around 180 is a good number. Bump   Bump    Bump   That’s the cadence.  Burn it in.  Bump   Bump   Bump There are different ways to count your cadence.  Newer GPS watches come with a foot-pod accessory that you can stick in your shoe and it will count your cadence for you as part of the data.  The easy way is to just look at your watch, or phone, note the time and count each time your right or left foot hits the ground. At the end of the minute multiply that by 2. There’s your cadence. There is also a ton of music you can get, and even a metronome app that will give you a 180 count you can practice with.  When you first time your cadence you’ll typically find that you are too slow.  It’s seldom too fast. The reason your cadence is too slow is because you are over-striding. What does that mean?  It means you’re reaching out too far in front with your leading foot and dwelling too long in the transition. Which is a nice segue into next bit of running form in the foot strike itself.   You want to pull your form upright and forward so that your center of gravity is slightly forward of your foot strike.  Your center of gravity should be slightly forward of your foot strike.  Where is your center of gravity? It’s in your core.   In your torso.  You want to push that center of gravity out in front of you so that you are falling forward.  You are falling and you are catching yourself as you are falling.  The way you push your center of gravity forward is by pushing your hips forward.    Imagine that there is a rope tied to your belly button and it is pulling you forward.  Push those hips forward.   Move that torso so it is falling forward.  Then your feet have to keep up with that forward fall.  This almost forces you to land on the forefoot.  That space right behind the toes.  You feel the foot hit the ground, but since you are falling you flow through that foot strike and kick it up behind. Fast, hot feet.  Bump bump  bump. No lingering on the foot strike.  Bump bump bump. A great mantra here is “Light Feet” or “Run Lightly” this will remind you to loosen up, run tall and maintain fast cadence. Fall through the foot strike.   Push those hips forward.  Move those feet quickly.  Bump bump bump. Think about your torso.   When your hips are pushed forward that automatically straightens up your posture. You should be, in the words of running coaches “Running tall”.  Don’t slump forward. Straighten up your shoulders.  High and square.  Light and relaxed.  Let all that tension release out of your back and shoulders.  It’s all being pulled along by the hips.  Bring your head up.  Look forward.  Relax your chin.  Smile.   Breathe.  In through the nose.  Out through the mouth.   What do you do with your hands? Bring your hands up lightly to your chest.  Elbows at 90 degrees and slightly pushed back behind you.  Straight back and forward in rhythm with your quick stride.  Hold your hands lightly and open, high and close to your chest.  Quiet your arms and hands.  Don’t swing or pump.  Just quiet.  High and quiet.  light and quiet. Bump Bump Bump.  In your mind imagine a string that runs down your spine and pulls you upright.  Though the top of your head.  Run tall.  Hips forward. Bump Bump bump.  Forefoot strike. Hot feet. Bump Bump Bump.  Light feet. Fast feet.  Tall and strong.  Easy. Relax into this form.  Tall and strong.  When you get into the right spot there is no wasted energy.  There is no pushing off.  You are falling easily down the trails with you light, fast, feet catching you.  That’s good running form.  Next time we’ll talk about some of the “Why do you care?” moments for running form.  Like in races.  Last time I asked you to look at the form of good runners and make a mental note of what that looks like.  I also asked you to have someone video your own form so you can see the difference.  This week I’m going to ask you to pay attention when you’re out running with other people.  If you have a running group take a look at the various ways people run.  Better yet, if you are in or watching a race watch what happens to people’s form at the end. When they get tired what happens? This is fun right?

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-413 – Morgan Writes in the Wilderness (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4413.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-413 of the RunRunLive Podcast.   We’ve got a great show for you-all today. A couple weeks ago I interviewed Morgan.   I really enjoyed the interview.  You’ll hear the story in the conversation, but the brief version is that I get the privilege to read a lot of books by athletes, and seldom does the writing do justice to the story. In most cases there is just too much exposition and too much linear narrative.  Morgan’s book, “Outlandish” is the exception.  She is good at her craft. And I dig that.  Also, note that about 17 minutes into the interview my phone crapped out and we had to reconnect to finish it. In section one I’ll give you a nice stand-alone audio on good running form.  I’ll also post it as a separate file so that you can have it to listen to independently when you’re out and about on your feet. In section two I’m going to finish talking through the “Happiness Curve” which I completed last week while traveling.  It has been an action-packed couple weeks since we last talked.  I knocked off 16 miles with my Sunday-Morning Buddies on that one Sunday that was really hot and humid.  It was pretty awful.  I got home, took a shower and immediately napped for 2 hours.  I fought through it though and that was a good confidence builder. I was down in Memphis at a client last week, (the week of the 21st of July 2019 – for those of you who are time traveling – or are interested aliens from another dimension and need a way-point).  I got a couple decent runs in on the sidewalks.   Had some dicey travel coming back and didn’t end up getting to bed until 4:00 AM on Friday morning. But, of course I was still at work at 9:00!   Then Saturday, Yvonne and I drove out to North Central PA to meet up with Greg to pace the Conquer the Canyon ½ marathon. I know what you’re saying, “this is normal Chris stuff”, but wait for it… The big news is that we stopped to see a puppy litter on our way and came home with a new puppy!  Yup, an eight-week border collie.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  It’s like having a new baby in the house.  He’s starting to settle in now, but he’s a terror.   God help us.  As I am editing this sitting on the steps in my front yard he wasthrowing up some grass he just ate, now he’s rolling in it.  And...managing to be cute as hell in the process… Oh, and I picked up a cold traveling.  So I lost some more training time and the continuous sleep deprivation doesn’t help at all! I’m still a bit of a train wreck in my training…or should that be ‘training wreck’. … I’ll give you a story.  I posted a workout to Instagram.  One of my runs down in Memphis.  Nothing special just a sidewalk 8 miler out and back.  And one of the comments was that’s a pretty good pace and distance…wait for it… for a guy your age!  That’s it.  I’ve entered the “for a guy your age” club!  And, because my expectations are exceeding low, I’m happy with that. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Form series Chapter Two -   Voices of reason – the conversation Morgan Sjogren Morgan Sjogren (“SHOW gren”) is a writer, adventurer, and former elite track athlete turned avid trail runner. A lifelong competitive runner, Morgan has raced sprints on the track to ultramarathons in the mountains, yet she prefers using running as a vehicle to explore wild places. Her writing focuses on human-powered adventure, public lands, conservation, history, travel and food. Find her writing and photography published by REI, Runner’s World, Trail Runner, Patagonia, Archaeology Southwest, Sidetracked, Gear Junkie, Snowsports Industries America (SIA), The Gulch and Adventure Pro. Sjogren is the author of three books. The Best Bears Ears National Monument Hikes, the first guidebook devoted to the National Monument. Her forthcoming guidebook, The Best Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument Hikes releases this year. Both are focused on educating the public to visit their lands with a conservation mindset. Outlandish is a sun-soaked starter manual to fueling your own epic. Through her riveting ersonal stories, flavorful recipes, and the book’s gotta-go-there photographs, Sjogren shares her advice and lessons learned from years exploring the desert Southwest while living out of her canary-yellow Jeep Wrangler. Outlandish is a gorgeous guide to a more adventurous life. Section two – The Happiness Curve Final cut–     Outro Well, my friends, you packed your jeep with burritos and set out into the wastes for a long, soul searching, run and found yourself at the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-413, Was it cathartic? For the conquer the canyon ½ marathon,  I met Greg and was official alternate pacer for the 2:00 hour group.  It was fun to be able to coach people along and help them get through the race.  The key difference when you’re pacing is that you aren’t going very hard, so you can help others.  That’s good, right?  That’s sharing some of that wisdom.  If you’re heads down racing you don’t have the bandwidth to help other runners.  It was a pretty, wooded course along a packed gravel rail trail that follows a river through a canyon.  No hills.  Kind footing.  Decent scenery.  We had a bald eagle watching us at one point. I think the best part about pacing is that people come up to you afterwards and thank you for helping them.  That’s cool, when someone thanks you for getting them through the rough spot and thanks you for getting them a PR.  And there you go, one of the keys to happiness: helping others.  My mileage has been pretty low.  I’m getting out 3 days a week.  I still feel that mountain bike dinger in my knee.  I rehabbed the hamstring pull I gave myself in that 5k a couple weeks ago.  And I’m just about through the other side of the airplane cold I caught traveling last week.  I’ve been doing 3 sessions a week of high-hamstring tendinosis exercises.  Trying to get my glutes and hips strong.  It’s a couple sets of hip bridges, a couple sets of clamshells, and a couple sets of planks.  In between sets I do pushups and incline situps – so I’m keeping a bit of core strength.  I figure if I can still do a hundred pushups and 200 situps I can’t be that out of shape, right? Next up for me is pacing Eric at Leadville in a couple weeks. Good thing I’m picking him up at 50 miles!  I have no doubt I can muscle through some Rocky Mountain High miles at 3.5 miles per hour.  I did a night run last night over to the ski area next to my house.  I ran over and did the ski hill, hike up, run down, hike up, run down – ended up with 10+ miles and about 2,00 feet of climbing.  At this ski area they have a tiki bar in the summer months with bad cover bands and the like.   The bouncers rode over on a golf cart to see what I was up to.  They could see my lights going up and down the mountain.  Told them I was training.  They weren’t happy but they went away.  I guess it might not make sense to see and old guy humping up and down the double diamond late at night. Then I got up early this morning and ran part of the Wapack with Paul.   That was perfect.  Doing those technical mountains on tired legs was just the ticket.     I’ll tell you a couple more stories to take you out.  First, was on the plane flying back.  I sit next to this guy, maybe a couple years younger than me.  Looks a bit squirrely, a bit nervous, so I ask him where he’s going.  Turns out he’s going to Boston to meet his daughter who he hasn’t seen in 21 years, since she was 4 years old.  Felt like I had stumbled into a reality TV show! His story was that he had a drinking problem, left them and moved to California. Now he’s cleaned up and the ex-wife had orchestrated the reunion.  No wonder he was nervous. I told him to not worry about the past and just be in the moment and this isn’t about him, and he’s going to do great.   Wish I could be a fly on that wall.  Then, final story, I’m at this brewery with Tim and Frank, two of my running buddies, in Lowell, catching up.  They let people bring their dogs in to this brewery.  It’s all very Bohemian.  Bit of a hole in the wall.  I dig it.  I’m at the bar saying hi to this big goofy pit bull and there’s a guy there, bit older than me. He leans down to pet the dog, turns to me and says “A lot of times they’re afraid of me because they can smell the cancer.”  How do you respond to something like that?  Luckily, I happen to know everything, so I said, “You know, I’ve heard about that.” People are funny.  I was out at the race last week and no one said “Hey, you’re that guy!” and no one asked me how many marathons I’d done. I didn’t wear any Boston gear.  I was basically anonymous.  It was a different crowd. It wasn’t about me.  If you want to be popular at a race, ask people about their accomplishments, ask them about their stories, listen intently, and then congratulate them when they tell you. Everybody has stories.  And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-411 – Katy Sheratt – CEO Back on my Feet (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4411.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-411 of the RunRunLive Podcast.   Like I mentioned last week 411 and 412 are out of order due to the forecasted recording sequence being different than the actual recording sequence and me not wanting to go move files around.  But, I know you, you don’t care about such things.  You care about important things like running past your house at the end of a long run to pick up that last .003 miles because you’ll be damned if you enter 6.97 miles into your log. Today we have a very good interview with Katy Sherratt who is the front person, the leader, for Back on My Feet.  This is the organization that helps homeless individuals by leveraging the transformational power of running.  We have spoken with this organization before.  We have history.  I was so fascinated by their program that I chased down the initial leadership team for an interview back in episode 89, which would have been 10 years ago, and then interviewed one of their recovering addicts in episode 167.  So, if your interested we’ve got sample points in the life cycle curve of this program from its birth to where it is now.  It’s a testament to how effective and resonant the program is that it grew from that nascent good idea of one runner in Baltimore to the professionally managed, multi-city, international manifestation of today.  And, I was interested to ask Katy about that progression.  Katy is a professional and you can hear the media coaching in her responses, but I think I did a good job of asking the questions that I truly wanted to understand.  … My training is not going great.  I’ve still got this troublesome high-hamstring tendinosis that is really curtailing my ability to push the pace or climb hills at pace.  It’s fine until I load it then it screams back at me.  I’m currently working through the best way to re-hab it.  That being said I have been getting some good volume in.  I’m trying to get 2 longer runs of 8 – 10 miles in during the week, then get a bike ride in on Saturday, then go longer on Sunday on the tired legs.  But, it’s a bit unstructured and I a feel a bit adrift. It’s getting hot and humid up here and the bugs are out.  This makes trail running a bit less enjoyable. I tweaked it Tuesday night and I’m limping around a bit right now.  It was a hot night.  There is a summer race series that many folks from my club run in near my office so I decided I’d run over to the race, run the 5k with them, then run back. Jogged over, it was about 4 miles away.  That was ok, a nice easy warm up.  Then I lined up for the 5K.  No big deal.  I just kicked it off at a solid tempo pace and felt pretty good.  Clicked off the first mile at around a 7 minute mile, working hard but not killing myself, it had a lot of downhill.  Then the course climbs a little hill over a bridge, over the river, and as I was leaning into the hill something tweaked in my left hamstring. I didn’t stop running but I slowed down to a pace where I wasn’t loading the hamstring and limped it in.   Got passed by a lot of people in the 2nd mile!  Had to get a ride back to my office.  2 days later and it is still noticeable sore.  So, looks like I have a new project. … I listen to a lot of history podcasts.  And when I find a new one, I typically start at the beginning and listen through until I’m caught up.  The interesting thing about this to me, is the pattern.  There’s this arc to a successful podcast.  They start out as tentative and unsure of themselves. Then they start to get positive feedback and they find their stride.  They comment with amazement on the 100 listeners, then the 1,000 listeners and the 10,000 listeners.  Then they start to think that this could be a fulltime job for them and they start to look for revenue.  The audible ads, the Patrion page, the iTunes reviews. At some point they become quite pleased with their progress and start having Q&A session about “Why they got into the podcast and where they got the theme music and some even quit their jobs. You can do that if you’re a history major. It’s fun to watch.  I’m not sure what part of that cycle I’m in.  I decided quite early on that this was a labor of love and I was primarily doing it as an exercise in self-preservation and improvement for myself, not for any practical or commercial concern.  I talked to sponsors, but to be honest, I hate commercials and there just isn’t enough money in ads to move my needle.    I stopped paying attention to numbers but, weirdly to imagine, we’ve had multi-millions of downloads from around the world.  I don’t even know how to containerize that number.  Each of those might be some individual, you for instance, at some point in their lives, looking for some combination of information, entertainment or inspiration, I get that personal touch point, but I can’t wrap my brain around the abstract of ‘millions’. I do get a bit of a satisfied feeling about the 400+ hours of content we have available for you now.  That’s a goodly chunk body of work and by my calculations represents about a million words of content.  That’s 4-5 goodly books worth of material. So, thank you all, whoever you are, wherever you are, and whenever you are, for facilitating my personal journey of creation.  I appreciate it.  I think the lesson here, is that you, yes you, as an individual can start something for no apparent reason and it can be the proverbial snowball that creates an avalanche.  For me it’s bee the personal connection and friends and opportunities for connection that are the best part.  For you it might be fame and fortune.  Put yourself in the running shoes of Anne Mahlum.  You are running in Philly at 5 o’clock in the morning and you keep running by the homeless shelter. You think to yourself, “Ya know what would be a good idea?  If someone were to invite these folks out for a run and potentially transform their lives.”  And so she started Back on my Feet with that one small thought and that one kick of the snowball. What’s your snowball? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Form series Chapter One -   Voices of reason – the conversation Katy Sherratt Katy Sherratt leads Back on My Feet as Chief Executive Officer. An award-winning social innovation leader, Katy has been instrumental in increasing Back on My Feet’s programmatic impact by over 75% and introduced new and important measures to demonstrate the holistic impact of the program. Under her tenure, Back on My Feet has gone from early stage startup to sustainable organization and is now a leader in the homelessness services space nationwide. Funding has increased by over 50% thanks to the growth of existing, and cultivation of new, partnerships and fundraising streams and the geographic expansion of operations along the East and West coasts. Katy has been recognized across multiple media and news outlets including by The Economist’s Philanthrocapitalism program as a leader in social innovation and cutting edge non-profit management. In 2016 she was also named among Women’s Running Magazine’s “Top 20 Gamechangers” and most recently a winner at the Philadelphia Social Innovation Awards. Katy brings over 15 years of leadership experience across both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Prior to joining Back on My Feet, Katy led global projects for Accenture in their UK and US-based Strategy Practices working with corporate clients, NGOs and nonprofits with clients ranging from leading Financial Institutions to the United Nations. “I’m honored to lead such a unique, dynamic and growing organization,” said Katy. “You don’t have to be a marathoner or even a 5K runner, to feel the power of what we do on the morning runs – the community we build for individuals experiencing homelessness is the critical missing link and the reason why we’ve had such huge success in enabling our members to transition out of homelessness and maintain that transition.”   Section two – The Happiness Curve – navigating the cliff -     Outro Well, my friends, that was fun, huh?  You got up at 5:00 AM and ended up at the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-411, you are amazing. I have no idea whether or not I’m going to survive this summer with the sore but and sore knee and hot weather, I’m a hot mess!  But it is the season I’m in, yeah?  I’ll give you a couple tips.  The first tip, which I haven’t tested yet, bt seems to be corroborated from multiple sources is how to make a DIY der fly trap.  The deer flies are awful this time of year. I got chased out of the woods by them last week.  Even if you have the big hat on and the bug spray they still harass you in their multitudes. You can buy the deer fly patches which are a sticky patch that you put on the back of your hat that they get stuck on.  Or, you can make them.  The instructions are to take some blue tape (apparently the flies like blue and that painters tape works great) and create a 2X6 inch patch on the back of your hat.  Then apply a layer of an off the shelf product called “Tanglefoot” which is sticky goop that you apply to tree trunks to keep bugs from climbing up. That’s it. This will trap the flies, or enough of them, to solve the problem.  The second tip is for your bottles.  If you carry water bottles on your run, either in your hand or in a belt, you may notice that they start to taste a bit moldy as they age.  Especially if you have been putting sports drink concoctions in them.  It just can’t be helped.  The sugars get turned into wildlife.  You can wash them out.  You can rinse them with a bleach solution.  You can put them in the dishwasher.  But once those beasties get in there it’s a losing battle.  I don’t want to gross you out but the problem is typically hiding in your nipples.  That rubber bit that sticks out of the top of the bottle has crevices that you can’t get to.  But guess what?  If you pull on that nipple you can usually get it to pop off.  Once you pop it off you’ll see all the black stuff in there and you can scrub it out.   Then you can pop it back in. Good to go. So that’s it.  We went from form to homelessness to old age to moldy nipples – such are the seasons of life.   And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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Episode 5-5486 – Nutrition with Dr. Rachel

Hello my running friends. 

Here we go – 2 episodes in a row!  

On today’s show we talk to my nutrition coach Rachel. I’ve worked off an on with Rachel for many years. She recently earned her doctorate and she is looking for new clients. 

She gave me a good excuse to do another chat.  It all works out. You get another show and I get to catch up with Dr. Rachel. 

I’ll talk a little about my nutrition journey in section one. 

In section two I’ll talk a bit about the scary and fun world of artificial intelligence.

On with the show! 

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-412 – Maryro does Comrades (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4412.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-412 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  You’ll have to forgive me an episode incongruity here, a non-linear scrap of publishing.  I had a couple interviews stack on top of each other, like the way you stack your hips in a yoga pose, and, apparently, in the race to you ears, episode 4-412 won out over episode 4-411.  Confused?  Don’t be.  It will be fine.  Today, this week, you will get episode 4-412, an interview by my friend Alex, long time participant of the RunRunLive podcast experience, of another long-time friend of the show Maryro Mendez, who ran Comrades this year.  I’m always fascinated with Comrades.  It seems such a foreign place, an extreme adventure.  Both Alex and Maryro are world travelers.  I have yet to make it to Africa.  Except, maybe through enjoying a good read of “The Heart of Darkness”.  In section one I’m going to give you the run-down on the cow-pasture race.  I got some positive feedback on the uncertainty essay from last show, thank you for that.  I certainly appreciate it.  I struggled to write that last episode.  I felt too jacked up about other things.  I need a certain amount of alone time and contemplation to get the creative juices flowing and I couldn’t get settled.  That has been solved!  I am took Vacation!  Yes, just my wife and I down on Cape Cod enjoying the beautiful weather.  Soaking up the sea breezes.  Very peaceful.  No internet.  Just reading and relaxing. In section two I’m going to piece together a vacation story for you.  … I took 5 days off from running and riding due to a sore knee.  It was one of those things where I probably tried to do too much too fast.  In this case the too much part had to do with going mountain bike riding with Anthony.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Anthony. Anthony has taught me an un-repayable number of useful things about bikes and riding over the last decade.  But, for my second ride in the woods in two years he overestimates my ability.  And, I on my part feel compelled to keep up, like a boy trying to please his Dad.  I ended up bleeding from 4 different wounds at the end of the night.  Nothing life threatening.  Just those slow speed, slow motion crashes that stalk you when you haven’t got the miles in yet. That little bit of uncertainty, that spoonful of tentativeness as you go into an obstacle those few millimeters off your line that find you wide in the turns and stuck in the bad spots.  You might call it ‘anti-flow’  On one of these slow speed crashes I couldn’t clip out and took the full weight of mass times acceleration (due to the force of gravity) on a pointy rock with my left knee.  It hurt but didn’t feel consequential at the time.  Over the next week it just ached a bit as I kept up my running and cycling.  Finally, with the race in the cow pasture Wednesday night,  going hard on uneven ground and the knee seemed to be more sore than it should be after a week, so I did the smart thing and took a few days off.  I was a bit worried I might lose fitness, but I managed to get over myself, and do a little core work and yoga instead.  Still a little sore, but I think it’s on the mend.  We’ll see.  I guess I don’t heal as fast as I used to.  But, I feel pretty good and it’s summer time, and the days are long and what can be wrong with that? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Lonely Cows - Voices of reason – the conversation Alex Cooke Interviews Maryro Mendez Comrades Marathon 2019(up run): The other big 5 People always come to Africa wanting to see the big 5, Lion, Elephant, Leopard, Rhino and Buffalo, but I came here with the mission of not just seeing but conquering the other big 5. The nerve wracking 5 famous hills along the Comrades route, Cowies Hill, Fields Hill, Botha’s Hill, Inchanga and Polly shorts. What ever people can say about this race, they would be falling short but I will just describe my own experience here. On our way to Durban, Andrey had a packed itinerary. We spent 2 days in Johannesburg and 5 days in Kruger National Park, chasing the animals and we were rewarded with amazing sightings. That on its own is worth a different write up. We arrived in Durban on Friday afternoon, went straight to the expo, picked up my race pack and wonder around a bit just to feel the vibe but not too long.  The city was filled with incredible energy. The people were amazing from day one. There is no hiding that I was scared, scared of failure, of not finishing. I knew I had put it a lot of work but also knew I had not been feeling quite right, mentally and physically. I also knew even when I was creative trying to do hill work, living in Rotterdam, NL I lacked that part. I felt excitement, fear and pure joy to be there. It was the fact that I was stepping in to the unknown but actually knowing that it was going to be the hardest race I had ever done that made this so especial. It was actually being part of a race that it is so important to a nation and you can feel it as soon as you land in Durban. Less than 10% of the 25000 runners are international runners, the rest are South Africans whom are very proud of their race. Only 20% are women. On Saturday Andrey went hiking up Royal Natal Park and also drove on the route while I stayed in the hotel resting. When he got back, he said “if you see those hills, the first 40km are the most difficult, you have never done anything like it. Even by car they look horrible” ok that scared me even more. “I got the belief, I will embrace the experience that I have earned after 5 months of hard training when conditions weren’t ideal. I got the belief that I am enough, good enough to be here but I will be patient and cautious because no medal will come easy tomorrow” I said to myself on Saturday.  I woke up at 3:15, had some Ucan and almond butter, had a shower and we left for the start at 4:30 for a 5:30 start. Luckily our hotel was just in front so I was in my corral before 5. The atmosphere was incredible. I was next to a South African guy doing his 11th comrades. He started talking to me with a very zen like tone. He told me to be patient, that his first was also the up run and he did it in 10h15min. Even when my ultimate goal was to finish, on a good day I thought I could do 10h (A goal), my B goal was to finish under 10:30 but I thought “maybe my first can be close to this guy’s 10:15”. I also wanted to finish before sun set (5:15 pm) The start is just amazing, very emotional no point describing because you have to be there to live it. Never felt such an emotional start in a race. I started my watch as soon as the gun went off because this race is gun time and all the cut offs and different medals are awarded by gun time. I was seeded in corral C so took me a few minutes to cross but not too long. I had my watch in overall time and average pace, this time I didn’t want to get distracted  by mile splits that made no sense. It was very humid and I was sweating like crazy even when the sun was not out yet and I started to worry but tried to just keep it together. The sea of people in front and behind was incredible to see thinking we had 87 km to go. I followed Bruce Fordyce’s advice and ignored the distance markers that go in count down mode.  I was running by feel and just checking my total time and average pace every now and again specially when I passed the cut off points (there are 7 in total) that would give a good idea of how much I was slowing down or not. I realised very early on that running up the hills in such a slow pace felt very inefficient, just didn’t feel natural to me so I decided to power hike up the hills. This was not a walking break this was very intense walking. I was passing people running while I walked up the hills, felt just like Killian Jornet  . However I did not train my body to do this so every time I was changing from walking to running my calves would rebel against me. I could feel my lower back too. But I just when over the initial transition discomfort and continue and as soon as I was in running mode it felt good again. “do not stop” that was my other strategy, no matter what, I was not stopping for anything. And I didn’t. There is no doubt as to when you are going up the big hills, they are relentlessly brutal. I was scared to ask anyone if we were at any of those hills in case I got NO for an answer. All along the route the atmosphere is delightful, the locals set up tents full of aid for people apart from the official 43 water stations and they do it every year. People singing, dancing, bbqing. Going pass the wall of honour was neat, thinking my name could be there once I finished. When I reached Arthur’s seat I touched it out is respect and moved on. When I reached half way at 43km to go I knew I had just done the hardest marathon (a bit over a marathon) I had ever done in my life and I still had more than a marathon to go. I was supposed to see Andrey there but nothing. I struggled a little, but I said The only way you are not finishing this is if you do not make any the cut off point and you are forced to stop and get on a bus.  The 10h bus passed me. They are amazing to watch. You can hear them coming, it is like a pack of horses trotting and singing. I felt a little disappointed that there would be no sub 10 for me but I was clear by that point I had underestimated the course so I just continued with my mission. Suddenly with like 37km to go a familiar voice when I was not expecting “Moni, Moni” it was Andrey. That was my only stop. Maybe for just a minute or two. I grabbed a ucan bar and the hotshot anti cramp, which saved me because my calves were alive and kicking. My lower back was sore again for the power walking I am guessing. That gave me a second wind.  The10:30h bus passed me and I was between 1h30- 1h20 ahead of the cut off time at the check points every time. I caught up with the 10:30 bus again. I was going to stay with them but I felt good so left them behind.  The Coca Cola station is amazing and this kid starting calling, “my lady get a coke my lady” I grabbed a coke (never ever I drink real full sugar coke) and boy that felt good, it was iced cold. He said “I knew you wanted a coke my lady push on continue” and that my friends is reason 1568 I loved Comrades. With 20km to go I decided it was time to start counting down the km and noticed every km board. A runner with a green number that had done 13 Comrades started talking to me, he asked about my shoes, he congratulated me for my first comrades finish to which I thanked them but said that there was still 20 km to go. He said you will finish I know. With 17 km to go I saw Andrey up on a bridge after I went under it, again great surprise, I waved and continued. I reached little pollys, she is like The hiena, not part of the big 5 but her presence doesn’t go unnoticed in the wilderness. When I hit the 10km to go mark, I started feeling for the first time that I had it in the bag. Now my aim was to go sub 10:15. Then Polly shorts shoes up, and there is no need to ask anyone, I knew this is the famous mighty one that stretches along for 2km.  Last 7 km I felt strong and full of joy. The down hills were hard, my toes were completely wrecked or so they felt. And the uphills even though shorter in comparison really sneaked up on you. 5 km to go and there he was again, I saw Andrey and I said “see you at the finish” saying that felt so good. I have say the performance of the day goes to him. Driving around with road closures it was messy. 4 km to go I kept checking my watch, 3 km to go and suddenly I felt it was taking too long for the 2k mark but then I saw 1km to go!!! I had missed the 2 km mark.  I was there, I got chills. Yeah and because it is Comrades there is one final mini climb a few meters to the finish. I crossed the line 10h 13 minutes and 55 seconds after the gun went off and got my bronze medal.  The different colour bibs depending on if you are national or international, the number of medals on your bib, the different medals depending on your finish time, the people oh the people and how passionate they are, all that make this race extra especial. With regards to nutrition I had 2 chia gels(low carb) and almond butter during the first third of the race. Then I started taking maurten gels I had 5 in total. I also had half a bar of ucan and some coke (I still can’t believe I drank full sugar coke but the even had ice cubes!) in the second half. I think probably consumed about 1000-1200 cals. I never felt I needed to eat but I forced myself to have something every 30 mins or so. I also had high5 zero electrolyte tablets. I grabbed 2 water poaches in maybe 40 out of the 43 water station, they were always cold so one to drink and one for my head and neck. All races should have those. I realised now why this race was unique for me. I normally enjoy the training, the process more that the races themselves. Races are always an excuse for me to train. This time for the first time was the other way around, I enjoyed the race more than the training, the race was a whole process in itself that was changing me for the better as I went through. The race was a whole new experience.  From a performance standpoint I could say I am a little sad I didn’t get a sub 10 but I am actually very happy my splits were consistent, I finished strong and I learned a lot. In the end it is only running so the time itself is nothing in comparison to what you gain as a person through running. But the type A person I am is already looking at what to improve  Comrades you are much more that people say, I will be back for the down run but next summer is already committed for other adventures so will be tight. If not in 2020 I will be back for the 100th Comrades in 2021 which will be another down run as it was the original...and maybe for my second I can properly aim for a better time  I am a runner because I run, I run because I am a runner  We carry with us, deep inside, the knowledge that we have faced our fears and conquered challenges, and with that brings confidence, peace of mind and self-belief. Section two – Puzzle Pieces -   Outro Well, my friends you run the uphill course to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-412, see you in Paradise City. Got a couple nice long runs and rides in this week down the Cape.  I did my traditional long run on the beach in Chatham.  I went on the 4th itself and it was jammed with people.  Usually once I get a mile or so down the beach I’m pretty much alone, but on the 4ht of July people come out by boat and hang out all over the place.  At one point there was a seal on the beach injured, probably by a Great White Shark.  Some guy was yelling at me to, I guess, not run by it.  Chill out there Ranger Rick, it’s a seal, not a unicorn.  When I came back the other way they had the seal EMT’s there working on it.  There are a lot of seals and a lot of sharks now on the Cape.  I ran out of beach almost exactly at 5 miles.  Which gave me a nice tidy 10 for the outing.  I timed it well too.  I got out just after high tide. That means the tide is going out and you get a nice strip of hard sand. I got out this weekend for an 18+ mile trail run.  Felt ok.  It was a little hard at the end, but it’s supposed to be.  I have to bring my volume up for the races I’m running this summer.  All in all I got a good mental rest.  I read a couple books.  The best one was a Bradbury collection of short stories from the 70’s.  Great writer Bradbury.  The better read among you will smell a bit of Bradbury in my writing this week. One of the books I’m working my way through is ‘ by Jonathan Rauch.  He basically says that the science shows everyone’s life arc is about the same.  You’re happy when your young, you’re miserable when you’re in the prime of your life for the most part and then, in the last bit, the middle age forward, you get happy again, because, I guess you just don’t really care anymore?  A couple things you can take form that.  One is that your happiness is different depending on what phase of life you’re in.  Another is that it’s, on average, the same experience for everybody.  There ya go.  Hang in there and it gets better.  And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-410 – Tim Vedder Qualifies (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4410.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-410 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  It’s been an interesting and, I’ll admit challenging, beginning to the summer.  It’s been a few weeks since the Vermont Cities Marathon race.  I’ve spent that time trying to navigate the inevitable emotional trough and working how and what to do next.  Even as well worn an athlete as myself is not immune to the post-training cycle slump.  And, as is my habit, one of the ways I work through these things is by talking to you about them.  It’s hard to see when you’re in the Sargasso Sea of a slump, but it is a learning opportunity like anything else.  In the spirit of this I’m going to talk about some straight-on, tactical solutions to getting out of the blue doldrums in section one and talk a bit about balance in section two. Our interviewee today is Tim Vedder who goes into what it took in his Boston Marathon quest.  When I started this podcast a dozen or so years ago one of the things I wanted to do was expose every-day, average joe runners to the community, because that’s who we are.  Average Joe and Jill’s who occasionally roll out of bed at 5:00 AM to do hill charges in the freezing rain. What have I been up to?  Basically taking my own advice and letting loose of the tight grip I had on the wheel of life a bit.  I’ve been trail running, Mountain biking and lifting weights.  And I’ve been eating!  I felt a bit out of sorts being too skinny so I’m letting myself put a few pounds on.  Basically, I’m doing what I want to do, while still staying in good enough shape to be within reach of a race.  We’ll talk more about what I’ve got on the race calendar at the end. … I got great feedback on my iPhone tips from episode 4409.  It seems I was not the only one getting annoyingly treated to the first song on my list every time I turned the truck on.  For more detail, the audio I found was a very peaceful and meek morning meditation routine from YouTube.  You can search in YouTube for “Peaceful Morning Meditation” and it will find something to fit the bill.   To get it off of YouTube and onto your computer Google “YouTube to Mp3”.  This will show you on-line apps that will convert the video to an audio and allow you to download it to your computer.  Then rename the Mp3 file aaaaaaaaaaaa.mp3 – this will cause it to be that default first song in your music library.  To get it into your iPhone go into iTunes and do “Add File to Library”.  Then, while your phone is connected to the computer you should be able to select this file to be synched, either by name, genre or artist.  (there’s a icon of your phone in iTunes when it is connected and you click on that to set the sync rules).  Then you sync and the mp3 should be on the phone. There has been a lot of talk recently about digital diets and addiction to the phone apps.  You can track how much time you spend on social media or news and there are ways to set limits. The friends I have who have gone cold-turkey report that they have about a week of withdrawal, but by the second week they feel more in control and have more time.  Failing that I have some middle of the road tips for you around social.  I don’t use Facebook that much, nor Twitter anymore just because I naturally don’t find it all that interesting.  I do like Instagram.  But, here’s my tip.  Only allow social apps to be used when you are connected to WiFi.  This means you can’t use them randomly as you’re out an about.  It removes the knee-jerk reaction to check your feeds.  It’s a setting on your phone.  Go into the app and set it to NOT use mobile data connection.  It will keep you from looking at it in the car.  It’s a good compromise.  Second tip is to turn on the Do Not Disturb while driving.  There’s no reason to be checking you phone while you’re driving.  Turning this on adds a barrier to phone use in the car.  Might save your life.  Third tip is to turn on a generous quiet time at night.  There is a Do-Not-Disturb setting that you can set your phone to silent between the hours of X and Y.  I set mine to 9:00PM to 6:00AM.  This keeps me from hearing or seeing anything you text to me at 10:00PM when I’ve nodded off.  Psychologists will always talk about setting boundaries.  The real risk with the technology is that it takes our boundaries away, and that is not good for your mental health.  You have the ability to take some of those personal boundaries back.  So, take them back.  On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Practical Slump Advice - Voices of reason – the conversation Tim Vedder Bio: Timm Vedder is a neonatologist in St. Cloud, Minnesota who also serves as a physician in the National Guard. He is married, with two awesome kids. His other athletic pursuits include trail running, triathlon, tennis, and CrossFit. Section two – Balance -   Outro Well, my friends you Successfully trained and qualified for the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-410, see you in Boston.  On the calendar I’ve got the ½ marathon pacing duty at the end of July. Then I’ve got Pacing duties at Leadville in mid-August.  I also signed up for a local “last chance to qualify” type marathon for September 8th.  We’ll have to see if I run Wapack on Labor Day.  Then BayState in October.  I don’t think with the weird assortment of races and training this summer I’ll be fit to qualify, but I’m starting to doubt whether I have a clue about my own fitness.  The first 14 days of June I ran 5 miles a day as one of those slump-busting tactics.  My plantar fasciitis was acting up so I pivoted to bike riding, weight lifting and trail running.  My club had an ice-cream social over in Groton yesterday so I rode Fuji-san over, had a bowl of ice cream, chatted for a bit and rode back. 26 or so miles of road riding separated by ice cream eating.  You won’t find that on your coaches training plan.  Then I rolled out early this morning for a 15 mile run with my buddies.  My theory is that I for Leadville I have to run on tired legs, so I bike ride on Saturday and long run Sunday.  I’m trying to get 3-4 longish trail runs in a week with a couple rides.  I’m toying with organizing an overnight run out in July.  This would be a 10 hour trail run where we start at 10:00 PM and run through to 8:00 AM for me that’s probably 50K or more.  This falls under the category of if you do something stupid enough people will join you.  I did a similar 12 hour run last year as part of my 100 training and it was cool.  It’s quite surrealistic.  Time goes by weirdly fast.  Enough random training talk.  I hope you are doing well as we move into official summer.  Thanks for bearing with me as some of these episodes come in a couple days late.  I do enjoy the writing, but I am in a place where balance has been hard to find.  … I watched my way through the Netflix original zombie series “Black Summer”.  As much as I appreciate a good zombie show, being a professional zombie hunter myself, this one had a lot of holes in it. They used every zombie trope and seemed to have a very small budget.  So remember, cardio and double tap and… I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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VT 2019 – The French Farce (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/Vermont2019.mp3] Link Farce. A farce is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable. Farce is also characterized by physical humor, the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense, and broadly stylized performances. … Covered in dirt, sweat and sawdust.  There I was, laying on the table in the emergency room at my local hospital.  A nice thick maroon swell of blood blobbing out of the gash on my shin.  Waiting for the doctor-lady to come back.  You might think this would make me cranky.  But, on the contrary I was having a pretty good day. It was, ironically, Memorial Day.  A long weekend and I had gotten a lot done, including running the marathon in Vermont.  I was relieved to have that off my agenda, be done training and back to working on other stuff.  Like cutting up the trees I had felled in the yard.  Then the machete glanced off a branch and I whacked myself square on the shin bone with that long, heavy, sharp blade designed for slicing. Right on the shin bone.  Nothing serious just a bit of a rent on the protective covering of skin that keeps the red stuff in.  Editor’s note: “Rent”, to divide, usually violently or abruptly from the middle English Renden and Old English Rendan. I staunched it with a rag from my chainsaw box and hobbled inside for some awkward first aid.  I flushed it out with Bactine and taped a bunch of gauze to it, wrapping the tape around my calf, ending up with something that you might see in an old war film or maybe an even earlier mummy movie.  That held it in place long enough for me move enough trees out of the driveway to get my truck out.  I drove to the emergency room. I wasn’t looking forward to the emergency room.  On a major holiday it was sure to be filled with drunken yahoos, with “hold my beer” accidents.  I brought along a book and was going to start working on this report for you in the hours of waiting that I anticipated.  But, I was positively thrilled with service.  I barely had a chance to sit down in the squeaky, vinyl, institutional seat when I was called.  I was attended to by no less than 4 or 5 charming, enthusiastic and competent medical professionals.  It turned out that the doctor-lady on duty’s favorite thing was stitches.  We had a great chat and I was in and out in 45 minutes!  They were impressed that I could tell them exactly how much I weighed.  They were almost as impressed with me having run a marathon in Vermont the day before as I was impressed with myself for, well…just being me.  It’s a curse.  I drove home and finished chopping up my trees.  … The next night I went to the local Red Cross and tried to give blood.  I see you rolling your eyes.  Chris, what the hell?  You run a race Sunday, your put yourself in the Emergency room Monday, why are you trying to give blood on Tuesday?  In my defence they really want my blood.  They are on me serval phone calls and emails a day about how much they want my blood.  But, I’m usually in the middle of a training cycle and can’t really afford to tapped of my basic circulatory life essence.  Consequently, I try to schedule blood donations for after my target events.  The nerve of them.  After begging me for weeks and putting me through all the preliminaries, they turned me away when I told them of my recent forestry mishap.  Apparently there is have some silly rule about ‘no open wounds’. I mean, you’re after my blood, wouldn’t this be a positive proof point that I’ve got some to spare? … No worries.  On to my next thing.  I like to be tightly scheduled.  I’m happiest when I have a nice pile of tasks in my que.  That’s how my weekends go in the spring and summer.  A yellow sticky pad list of chores in my pocket that I try to get done to have that warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment from washing the car or folding the laundry or … maybe even running a race.  … Teresa had come home from the City to pick up some stuff Friday.  We had to do a bike swap. I had procured a new city bike for her.  A city bike is a bicycle that is perfectly functional but has a low value and low probability of being stolen.  The 40-year-old Schwin I had previously procured was broken.  She had managed to crank out the bearing, which is not something I’m going to fix on a bike where the tires are worth more than the bike.  I procured a ‘new’ old bike, cleaned it up, got most of the gears working, and transferred the rack from the old-old bike Saturday morning.  As we are all destined to do, I have turned into my father.  I had to drive her back into the city on Saturday.  I had to be in Vermont Saturday night as well. … I had packed up my race stuff.  Since I was driving, I didn’t need to be picky.  A little of this, a little of that.  I opted to go back to my old Brooks baggie shorts with the bike short liner, because they have enough pockets to carry all my standard race stuff. A couple gels, a baggie of Endurolytes, a small thing of lube. I was trying to make the 7:00PM deadline to pick up my bib in Vermont.  Burlington is about 3 hours and change from my house.  After the side trip to the city it was going to be tight.  … The weather forecast called for clear skies Saturday slowly changing to rain in the evening, then into thunderstorms through the morning.  I try not to think too much about the weather when I’m approaching a race.  There really isn’t much you can do about it. No sense wasting your energy fretting. It was starting to drizzle when I pulled into the race expo hotel in South Burlington with 8 minutes to spare.  I was able to get my bib and pick up a couple Expresso Love Gu’s – old-school nutrition.  In a change of pace, I got a medium shirt, instead of a large due to my current waifish deportment.  Then I wandered off in the strengthening showers to find my campground.  My comfy rustic home to pitch my lonely tent for the evening.  … To get to my camp I was routed right by the race start/finish area. Which was nice.  The college town of Burlington sits on the edge of Lake Champlain.  The race course for the marathon is a sort of figure 8 that goes out north of the city, turns around and runs back through the city, turns again and comes back by the park again to go north, again, then comes back south along a bike trail at the edge of the lake to the finish.  Eyeballing it on the map I thought I might be able to walk to the race start in the morning from my camp.  The bike trail that the race finishes on runs right by the edge of the campground.  I measured it to be over a mile by the road. I figured I probably wouldn’t want to hike that, especially in a storm, in the morning, and definitely wouldn’t want to hike back after the race.  I called Brian to see what his plans were. He told me he wasn’t racing. He was running with his son Chris.  Good for him.  That completes something special for him.  Running a marathon with every one of his kids.  But, for me, I wouldn’t be able to pace with him. Did I mention I was racing?  Yeah, I had a goal.  I was trying to spin that fitness from my Boston training cycle into a qualifying race.  I thought it would be a no-brainer.  I was in good shape.  This was supposed to be a more reasonable course.  I’d just hang on to the back of the nearest pace group to 3:30 and be done with that.  Piece of cake.  … Checking in to my camp site it was raining fairly hard now, and of course, as I unrolled my tent it started pouring.  I was trying to hurry but that just made things slower.  The way these tents work is that there isn’t a real roof.  The roof part is a screen, a mesh, to I suppose, let your foul camping breath and farts out.  But that let the rain come right through.  The way you make it watertight is to string another bit, called a fly, over the open part, which was giving me trouble in the wind.  Picture ma trying to do all this in the pouring rain and wind.  I must’ve looked incredibly pitiful.  Hold that picture in your head next time you think hiking the Appalachian trail is a good idea.  Some guy even ran over from a neighboring camp site to help me.  At least it wasn’t dark out yet. The good news was that I was right next to the shower & bathroom facilities buulding. The bad news was that I was right next to the shower & bathroom facilities building.  Lots of traffic. Lots of lights.  People wandering around.  I took a few minutes to pump up my mattress. This all seemed like a great idea when I set it up last month.  Not so much now.  Soaking wet.  Pumping away in my little tent with the rain beating on the sides. … Now I’m thinking I should have some sort of meal before I crash out in my soggy hidey hole.  I did what any sentient 21st century droid would do and asked Siri for a grocery store nearby.  I was thinking maybe a Wholefoods or something similar.  But, Burlington, being an old New England Town, is filled with corner grocery stores. Basically, one room affairs with beer, chips and lottery tickets. I was getting tired at this point, so I gave up and bought a turkey sandwich and a beer. I returned to my campground and sat in my truck, thinking how sad a spectacle I was soggy, in my truck with the rain pouring down, chewing on a gas-station sandwich.  Having paddled my canoe through these types of adventures before and thought to myself, smiling a bit, ‘this will make a great story’.  I was worrying a bit about logistics for the morning.  I didn’t want to hike the mile plus to the start in a rainstorm.  I decided I would drive in early and find a place to park. They said there was municipal parking, but after my ‘grocery store’ adventure I wondered what that would be like, or if it even existed.  Ce’st la vie.  Time for beddy-by.  … In normal conditions my tent, mattress and sleeping bag are pretty darn comfy.  These weren’t exactly ‘normal’. It was storming hard, with blowing wind and driving rain. I could hear the waves crashing down on the lake shore with a steady roar. The spotlights on the facilities lit up my tent like an operating theatre. I crawled into my tent, dragging mud and water with me.  Crawled into my sleeping bag and wrapped my throw away shirt around my head like a bandage to block the light, put my phone on airplane mode and set the alarm for 5 AM. That should give me plenty of time to get ready and find a parking spot. Now, on a normal night, in the campground, hard up against the communal bathroom, I probably would have been kept awake by the noise of the park denizens coming and going and recreating. This was not a normal night. I considered my good fortune. The roar of the waves and the wind and the steady drum of a hard rain was like a meditation track, right?  White noise.  The song “The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” was running slyly through my head. “The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down Of the big lake they called 'gitche gumee' The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead When the skies of November turn gloomy” That’s when I realize that I had to pee.  At the same time I realized I would rather have my bladder explode and die of sepsis than go out int o this storm.  Then I fell asleep.  A couple hours later I woke up to an eerie, (no pun intended), silence.  I was woken up by pause in storms.  It was a bit before 11:00 and I thought, now would be an excellent time to make a run for the facilities next door.  As I started moving around I realized that there was a fair amount of water inside my tent.  Whether it was from me bumping the sides or the rain coming sideways under the fly, I don’t know. My sleeping bag was wet.  As I extracted myself and went to the rest room I thought that this might be a problem if the storms returned and temperature dropped a bit more.  Woke by quiet after 10.  Goodtime to pee.  Sleeping bag wet.  So, we held an executive meeting in my head and decided to sleep in the truck for the rest of the night.  It was surprisingly comfortable with my sleeping bag and the seat all the way back.  I slept great.  … My 5 AM alarm woke me to a humid, cool morning with scattered, pudgy clouds.  I was still worried about parking so I got my stuff on and drove into town.  Not only was the parking garage available and deserted, I’m pretty sure it was free.  The gate was open and the display had some sort of non-descriptive announcement.  I didn’t have too many options for breakfast so I ate one of the SpringEnergy gels I had brought.  They’re more like baby food than race gels.  My next mission would be to find a cup of coffee somewhere.  I took $5 with me and went out to walk around the start area.  After a few laps I found a gas station with some coffee and checked that box.  That left me with another problem.  Now I had $3 left over that I didn’t know what to do with.  I could just drop it on the ground.  I could try to carry it.  In the end I just handed to some guy in a Bruins shirt.  He was confused.  He was pretty sure I was up to something nefarious.  … Then I just hung out in the park and stretched and relaxed.  It was partially sunny, very humid with a bit of wind and lots of puddles.  The race starts at 7:00 now, ever since the heat incident of 2 years ago.  Looking out over the lake there were towers of blackish clouds.  As I wandered about someone called my name and it was Brian and his son.  I was glad to see them.  Glad to have someone to chat with.  We hung out and listened to the race announcements.  Bart Yasso was saying something to the assembled throng.  There were maybe 3,000 people in the race.  Lots of 50 staters.  A nice size for a race.  About 15 minutes before the start the announcers came on and told everyone to leave the park and take shelter in the parking garages.  Apparently one of those black clouds out over the race had us in its sites.   The crowd filed out of the park across the street and down the road.  Brian, his son and I went into the Courtyard Hotel lobby.  We chatted with some of the folks in there, but basically stood around for 45 minutes while another small storm cell passed over.  That’s a first for me.  They let us go back to the race start after the danger had passed.  Speaking of passing, I got passed by Bart Yasso leaving the hotel.  I said hi but he was in a hurry to get back to the announcing.  We found our corrals.  I hunted down the 3:30 pace leaders.  And we were off and running about 7:45.  It was a bit humid but nothing terrible.  I hung close to the pace leader and we were quickly up to pace.  There were two pacers for 3:30.  They did a good job. They kept us within 5 seconds of the pace even with the rolling hills, the hard lefts and rights, and the slight wind.  They did something really useful.  Instead of running together one guy ran about 50 to 100 feet behind the other guy.  I started out with the lead guy but then filtered back to the second pack.   The effort was steady but not hard.  I felt fine.  … It was hillier than I had surmised from Brian’s description.  There was one long hill back into the city that wasn’t steep but was a nice long pull.  There was a pretty good head wind in one direction.  It was useful to be in the pack and I was able to draft the pacer.  There were some good crowds in the city but not much as you got out of town.  When the sun came through the clouds it was a little hot.  I was staying on my nutrition, taking enough water and sipping from my bottle of F2C.  The gels they had on course were maple syrup gels.  Which is fitting for Vermont, but basically, you’re drinking pancake syrup.  I knew the “big hill” was coming up at mile 15ish.  As we turned back towards that hill I put a little extra fuel in the fire and dropped the pace a bit.  I knew, from my training I had some faster miles in me.  I figured I’d put a little buffer between me and the pace group in case I struggled on the hill.  I thought that once I got over the hill, I could relax into the rocking chair and just glide home.  … Up to this point I was pacing well.  Not easy but not hard either.  Race pace. The hill was a monster.  For some reason it really knocked me back on my heels.  I had to grind it out.  I lost some time but stayed ahead of the pace group.  I was suffering badly as I neared the top, but I got over it.  On the back side of the hill I was trashed and focused on finding a recovery pace.  My hips were tight.  My stride was painful.  That high hamstring tendonitis was biting me in the ass.  Remember when I said I “had some good training runs and some not so good since Boston”?  Remember how I said I had somehow managed to give myself tendonitis in the ass?  Well, one of those workouts was a 20+ mile tempo run.  And what happened on that run was I got to about 16 miles and this tendonitis flared up.  It hurts.  Like some monster biting your ass.  It makes it hard to lift your legs and makes running up hills really hard.  It makes it hard to keep your stride length.  I ended up doing a fair amount of walking at the end of that workout.  This showed up again at Vermont after the big hill about 16-17 mile in.  It wasn’t the ‘wall’ I had plenty of calories.  It wasn’t cramps, I had plenty of salt.  It was this pain in my ass that kept me from holing my pace.  And that’s where I stopped racing and started limping in.  In a few minutes the 3:30 pacers went by me. I said “That hill was a bitch.”  He said, “Yeah, but it’s done now.” I said, “Yeah, but so are my legs.” At this point I still had about a 2-1/2 minute cushion but I could race anymore and had 8-9 miles to go. There were still some rolling hills and each of those little rises hurt like hell.  I threw in the towel and started walking and jogging, just to get it done.  I ran by my camp ground a couple more times and thought about just leaving, but my truck wasn’t there, it was downtown.  I was depressed and having dark thoughts.  I thought to myself “Now I know why those people cheat.  You can put in the work and do all the right things and what do you get?  Nothin.  That’s why they cheat.:” I might even have had a thought or two about how I’m just getting slower and what’s the point of staying in a world that’s just a constant loss of ability?  Such is the death march.  When you get into the death march late in a race you notice there are people there doing the same death march pace you are.  You see them walking, stumbling, summoning the strength to run a bit, walking some more.  The comradery of zombies.  It wasn’t awful physically.  I was fit enough to not be physically suffering.  Not like a calorie crash.  Not physical exhaustion.  My HR was fine.  I just couldn’t get my legs to turn.  And my mind had left the building.  I was done.  Done with training.  Don’t with chasing unicorns.  Done with it all. At one point the course cuts through a wooded section in the high miles.  Just a short bit of trail to connect to road sections.  With the rain and the runners it had turned into a mud hole.  I felt bad for the runners who were still racing.  Also, late in the race, in one of the neighborhood sections, there was a bunch of people, a couple neighborhood families handing our Budweiser pony cans.  I had no desire for a can of beer but one of the guys in front of me took one, took a sip and immediately dropped it in a big splash of foam.  The guys handing out the beers yelled at him for dropping it.  It was a bit surreal.  Finally we found our way onto the bike path for the last couple miles back to the finish.  I came upon a guy clutch his calf, hopping around and screaming with a cramp.  I dug out the rest of my Endurolytes, gave him two and said “chew these, to get the salt into your system.”  Hope he had some water with him.  With the late start it was pretty hot and really humid.  It didn’t impact me.  I was out of the fight before any of that would have hit me.  As I was pulling into the finish, I was trading places with an older, grey haired woman wearing a singlet from one of the regional running clubs I know.  I thought to myself, ‘great, my finishing photo is me being out kicked by this lady!”  I wasn’t in a good place mentally.  I managed to find a pretty fast last mile heading into the finish.  It didn’t matter.  I had turned a 2-1/2 minute buffer into a 12 minute hole with a 3:47 finish.  I got my medal and a bottle of water.  I stood around waiting to see if maybe Brian and his son weren’t close behind me since I lost so much ground.  I had passed his daughter out on the bike path and she hadn’t seen them yet.  I saw the club singlet and congratulated her.  She turned around and said “Chris?” Turns out it was Linda one of the Goon Squad runners.  We had a long talk catching up.  She was coming off AFib surgery and starting her recovery.  The doctors had told her to quit running and it took her a long time to find a doctor who could give her a correct diagnosis and fix it. Now she’s on her way back.  I got my truck and made my way back to the campground.  I didn’t see any reason to sleep over another night, so I broke it down and loaded up.  I stopped to tell the kid I was leaving early and he insisted on giving me my $36 back. Good Karma.  … I drove the sunny, warm day home to get back onto my list of chores.  I must tell you I was relieved to get this race over with.  But, now I’m out of qualification and I don’t have the time or the energy for another campaign this summer.  Maybe I can’t make the standard? I don’t know.  I kills me to give up, but I’m not having fun anymore and my body is talking to me.  I need some time off.  It took me a few days to come to grips with not running Boston.  I’m not making any proclamations.  But, I’m ok with letting it go after 21 years.  I’m not saying I am.  I’m saying I’m ok with it.  That’s the best I can give you coming out the back of this farce of a long weekend.  I’m ok with it.  … “To be alive: not just the carcass / But the spark. / That’s crudely put, but … / If we’re not supposed to dance, / Why all this music?” – Gregory Orr

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-409 – Julie the Marathon Goddess (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4409.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-409 of the RunRunLive Podcast. With any luck I’ll be able to publish this before I jump in my truck and drive up to Burlington VT for my next marathon.  It’s go time and I’m stressed out about it.  I’ve held my weight and conditioning and am coming into the race in good shape, on paper anyhow.  It’s a 3.5 hour drive from my house. Vermont Cities, I’m told, is a much more reasonable course than Boston.  Fewer hills.  My training buddies tell me that it has always been a good race for them.  It still stresses me out.  Age graded, for my goal, I’m targeting times that are faster than I ever ran when I was younger – if you believe age grading. Looks like the weather is going to be dicey.  The race starts at 7:00 AM so I shouldn’t have to worry about heat.  But, they are calling for thunder storms and a stiff wind in the morning.  Doesn’t matter.  I’m committed.  I’ll fight it all the way down. It’s a figure 8 course.  I’m not sure how sheltered it is, but that should mean I’ll have as much head wind as tail wind and side wind.  I’m going to find a pace group and stick with it.  Stay in the shadow of the pace group. I need a 3:35 to requalify and it looks like they have a 3:30 pace group.  I’ll have to decide whether I want to hang with them or freewheel.  10 seconds a mile could be significant and I’d much rather negative split than burn out.  We’ll see. I’m camping in a park on the lake front.  Like I said it’s a trick I learned in my mountain bike racing days.  Frankly, I don’t think those hard-core mountain bikers are house-trained.  I’ve got a tent, a mattress and a mattress pump in the back of my truck.  You don’t sleep much the night before a race anyhow.  Eyeballing the map, it looks like I can walk to the start from where I’m camped. Brian is going to be up there with his son.  I’m going to stay over Sunday night probably.  We’ll see. I can’t wait to have this over with.  I’m pretty sick of road racing and training.  Not sure what I’m going to do if I miss my time.  I might hang it up.  Move on.  What would you do?  Do you think 21 Boston marathons is enough?  Or will my life totally unravel if I remove this prop from the infrastructure? Today we have a great interview with Julie the Marathon Goddess.  You know Julie.  She’s the California Girl from the move “The Spirit of the Marathon 2”.  Which isn’t an awful movie.  The reason it’s not awful is that it has a cast of characters and Julie is one of those characters. In section one I’m going to talk about some new things I learned in this last training cycle.  In section two I’m going to talk about the wild and whacky English Language. And, since we’re talking about the English language and the Boston Marathon I have a question for you?  What is another perfectly good word for ‘unicorn’?  Monocerous!  Isn’t that a great word.  Monocerous! Here’s another one.  Did you know that the word Cadence comes from the same Indo-European root as Cadaver?  Same Latin root meaning, loosely to fall.  The cadence is the foot fall.  The cadaver is a fallen one, so to speak.  So next time you can’t keep up your cadence and you feel like a cadaver, you’ll know why. Oh, I have a redaction from last show.  My childhood friend Dave didn’t die.  He’s living in Seattle I think.  His older brother Eric, who I went to school with passed.  Rest in Peace Eric. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – LEssons from this long training cycle. Voices of reason – the conversation Julie Weiss Author/Runner/Marathon Goddess    Available now on : 52 Weeks, 52 Marathons: The Miles and Trials of a Marathon Goddess by Julie Weiss with John Hanc and Ali Nolan (Tender Fire/Enhanced Communications)   Do you ever wonder, or have a burning desire to be more than what you have aspired to be? I always knew there was more to life, and I found it through my joy of running. Before I started running I was overweight, on antidepressants and I could barely run around the block. I was a young mom and had battled some very dark moments. Since I started running I am no longer taking any medication and I have lost 20 pounds. Running saved my life. On March 2, 2008, I ran my first marathon, the Los Angeles Marathon. I had made all the beginner mistakes. Ouch! Pretty much sums it up. I had not trained properly, and swore I would stick only to 10K’s after that. But it was not long, two months in fact, until I ran another marathon and then another. My father became my biggest fan. We had a goal, that goal was that I would qualify for the Boston marathon where he would go to see me run. I attempted to qualify for Boston 19 times. Every time I completed a marathon I would call my father and let him know how I did. He was still proud of me, even if it was my slowest time. He always encouraged me to keep going and so I did. In October of 2010, my father was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. I was devastated, but my father urged me to continue to train, to work and go on with life as usual. It was hard, but I did as he wished. On December 5, 2010 I finally did qualify for the Boston marathon and made it in 3:47, sadly it was 1 week after my father passed away, just 35 days after his diagnosis. I know he was there with me, he was the wind at my back and had the best seat in the house, my heart. After I ran the Boston marathon in 2011 I looked deeply into the disease that had taken my father. I found that pancreatic cancer was the 4th leading cause of cancer death and the least funded for research. This was unacceptable to me. I knew had to something dramatic to raise awareness and that it should be centered around my passion for running and the love for my father. So I set out to run 52 marathons in 52 weeks to raise $1,000,000 for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. I recently completed marathon#52 on March 17, 2013 at the ASICS L.A. Marathon. I did all of this while holding down a full time job. I work 9-5 as an accountant. I would leave my office on a Friday or Saturday, travel to a different city, state or even country, run a marathon on Sunday and fly back home to get to work Monday morning. Almost every weekend waking up at 3:30 in the morning to get to the starting line. Not even Super Storm Sandy could stop me. I dedicated each of my marathons to someone affected by pancreatic cancer because my fight was nothing compared to what theses people had to go through. They are my heroes. I am now 42, have two amazing kids, who are 20 and 24, my wonderful fiance, and of course my first running partner ever, my dog Jessie. I have found my purpose in life. Now, I invite you to join me in the light, embrace your highest self and start being the person you were put on this earth to be. If it speaks to you, I also invite you to join me in the fight against pancreatic cancer. The disease that took the life of my number 1 fan, my father, and so many others. I am so grateful that we have completed this amazing journey, but we are not done yet.  I am currently on a journey to finish 100 marathons ending at the 2016 Sketchers Performance Los Angeles Marathon and hope to reach my 1 Million dollar fundraising goal by then. When you do what you love, for those you love, that is when the miracles happen. The joy comes from the heart. If your love is running, I have learned that it’s not about how many miles you go, or even how fast. The heart does not have a clock, it has beats. My mission is to make sure those beats are spent on pursuing your dreams, your passions and having fun. Marathon Goddess is about embracing the God or Goddess within us all. Now I am running with a purpose, to fight the good fight against pancreatic cancer. It has become my mission, and I will not stop until we have found a cure. Find your passion, bring out your spirit and let it shine. We got this!! Section two – The Wonderful, Wacky, English Language -   Outro Well, my friends you did that thing where you strike the Goddess pose in your underwear in front of the bathroom mirror and though tno one was watching, but we won’t judge and you have come to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-409, Keep up the good work. We’ve been having a cold and rainy spring in New England.  Every time I hit one of those long hard tempo runs in a 45 degree drizzle I mutter a little curse to the gods.  Why couldn’t we have this weather at one of my target marathons? I’ve been working in my garden for the last couple weeks.  I started some seeds earlier but the weather has been so cold they are quite stunted.  I got some tomatoes and beans and squash in.  We’ll see what come up.  Nothing like a warm, garden fresh tomato on a warm August afternoon. Part of the rhythm of life. I should be able to execute a decent race at Vermont.  I’m still light – hovering around 170 pounds – I’m still hitting my tempo paces in the mid-7’s.  Like, I said, on paper it’s a lock.  We’ll see.  Wish me luck. Send me whatever universal Karma you can. I accepted an invitation to pace a ½ marathon in PA at the end of July.  It’s the Conquer the Canyon marathon and half marathon.  I’ll be the alternate pacer for the 2 hour ½ with Greg.  Light duty. It looks like a pretty course on a rail trail that winds through a river valley.  6-hour drive for me.  This pacing outfit is called Beast Pacers.  If you want to be a pacer they have races all over the country.  They comp you the entry.  Would be a great way to pick up your 50 states. One more of my favorite old-English words for you before you go.  The old/middle English word for window or opening was ‘thirl’.  You may be familiar with a compound word we still use this in.  It combines the word for ‘nose’ and that word for window ‘thirl’ – and you may have guessed – that compound word is ‘nostril’ – literally ‘nose-window’.  Isn’t that great?  Nose window? … Julie’s story is a good one.  On the one hand it’s familiar to us.  It’s the classic hero’s journey.  Over coming challenges to become the champion.  On the other I think it verifies a useful truth: if you just decide to do something you can change the world, at least your little part of the world.  You don’t need permission.  You just do it and let the details figure themselves out. It’s not goal setting.  It’s not achievement.  It’s more like directing, or freeing the universal energy that is in each of us. Looking inside yourself, how do you let that energy free? I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-408 – Bill Endures (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4408.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-408 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Well, folks it’s been almost a month since Boston, so let’s get back on track, back in the saddle and do some serious podcasting!  Grr… I’m sitting in the Starbucks, one of the two Starbucks that is on my work commute route.  My hands are a bit cold.  I road my motorcycle this morning.  It’s in the low 40’s but sunny.  I like to stop and write for small patched of time in the morning at these oases of warmth and humanity.  I’ve got some calls that I’ll take from here and then I’ll wander into my office later.   Today we’ve got a great chat with Bill who is one of those crunchy, old ultra-runners who have done everything.  I was interested in how he did his cross country run and he definitely has a view point on it! In section one we’ll talk about working through a post event funk.  In section two I’ll keep pounding away on the big, navel-gazing topics of Eckhart Tolle’s book.  I’m training, actually in my taper for Vermont.  I have had some good workouts and some not-so great workouts.  In general I’ve kept the weight off and my training paces are good.  I’ve got some high-hamstring-attach point challenges that I’m trying to rehab through.  The challenge with extended training cycles on the road is that they tend to get very specific and make you fragile.  Somehow this long cycle has made my hips and glutes a bit weak and they go on me in the high miles.  It’s the same old story, lower the water level and you find new rocks.  Keep training and you’ll find new weak points.  So I’m working through that.  We talked for awhile, but I’ll save the updates for the Outro.  … I will tell one story.  It’s a story about a giant, half-eaten catfish.  When I was in elementary school, so 8, 9, 10 years old I had a best friend whose name was Dave.  We built a fort in the rafters of my Dad’s garage one summer and decorated it with stickers from Mad Magazine.  I can remember listening to “Ricky Don’t Loose That Number” by Steely Dan on the pop station, which would make it 1975ish.  I’d go over to Dave’s house on the weekends and we’d disappear into the woods and roads around his house to go exploring.  We would wander over to the train tracks and put pennies on the tracks for the trains to smoosh, things like that.  One time we were out on the power lines behind his house, the same power lines that I ride my mountain bike on and do long trail runs on now.  It was this time of year – spring in New England.  What happens in spring is we get the melt and a lot of rain and the ponds, rivers and swamps all fill up with water.  For instance, I have a little pond in my back yard, right now that only exists this time of year.  Anyhow we were wandering through this patch of swamp that had recently been a pond and we came across a giant catfish, high a dry, with a bit missing from the scavengers.  Too bad we didn’t’ have Instagram back then.  Here was this enormous fish, as if dropped form the sky by aliens into the middle of a field.  That’s a 50-60 year-old fish that took a wrong turn somewhere.  I’ll always remember that image in my internal Instagram, which is probably much better than the actual picture anyhow. I tell this story because my Mom called to tell me Dave died this week.  I hadn’t spoken to him in decades.  BNot to be morbid, but I want you to understand and appreciate today as a gift.  We’re all winning.  We are all in extra innings and you and I are blessed.  Don’t waste it.  On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Warning Lights - http://runrunlive.com/paying-attention-to-your-warning-lights Voices of reason – the conversation Bill Schultz Not sure what you're looking for as far as links and articles, but I've included a few below. I started running in 1978 and ran my 1st ultra in 1979.  Ran my 1st 24Hr around 1982 and my 1st 6 Day race in 1984.  My best was in 1989 when I won with 475 miles. The next year, 1990, I took a sabbatical from teaching and ran a US Trascon water to water in 95 days. (Huntington Beach, CA to Atlantic City, NJ.  I've been Co-RD for the Dawn To Dusk To Dawn Track Ultras (D3) since 1984. This year's race will be the 24th edition.  Along with my own running, I've been helping Mike Melton time ultras from 100K to 6 Days around the country (13 last year).   Attached are some Articles that came out back in 1989 and 1990 regarding my Transcon and my best 6 Day race. Here are a few links.       Section two – No-Mind -   Outro Well, my friends you called ahead, made your plans and safely ran across the nation in record time to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-408, nmaybe it’s tome to retire?  Don’t get caught in a funk! Enochs results Like I said I am in a short training cycle for the Vermont City Marathon.  There’s just no way I’m going to walk away without my qualifying time this spring.  I’m in too good shape.  If you’re going to be up there let me know and we’ll say high.  I’m going to pitch a tent in the park there for a couple nights.  It’s something I learned from mountain bike racing.  Just pitch a tent you’ll be fine! I got a new Garmin, a 235.  I’ll give you a write up at some point.  I’m still figuring it out, but I like it so far.  One quick story / iPhone tip for you to take you out.  I have an iPhone 6s.  like it.  I listen to podcasts and music on it.  When I drive to work I tend to listen to podcasts.  Now, for some reason, when I plug in the phone to the radio I put in my truck, it decides to start playing the first song, alphabetically in the song list on my phone.  The first song alphabetically in the song list on my phone was a really aggressive punk rock number called “Already Dead” by Rancid.  The challenge I had was that some of the podcasters I listen to, and I won’t name any names, haven’t figured out how to level their audio.  You have to turn them way up to hear them.  The result, as you may have guessed by now, was that I’d get blown out of my seat a couple times a week when I plugged in my phone for the ride to work.  It was like having an audio bomb go off in the truck!  Eventually I was moved to engineer a solution.  I downloaded a really mild morning meditation and renamed it lower case aaaaaaa-filename…. Now I am greeted by a lovely, low and soothing voice encouraging me to embrace the day.  It’s much better.  And if someone is in the car with me I get to tell this story.  As a corollary, I also changed the my alarm to wake up in the morning on my iPhone to be an compilation of inspirational “seize the day!” type speeches.  If you want me to walk you through the how to’s just shoot me a note. And I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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Boston 2019 All in – my  21st Boston Marathon (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/Boston2019.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - … I didn’t sleep great the night before.  Part of it was the driving rain and the thunder and lightning that shook the house.  Part of it was my ruminating brain.  You might think that having such a great training cycle would allow me to rest easy. But, no, it somehow raised the stakes.  My trusty subconscious was chattering away.  What if after all this work I managed to screw up the race? What if the weather was bad?  Of course I tied to let my big brain take over and talk myself down from the window ledge.  I am grateful to be here. Yeah.  I am happy to still be doing this 20+ years in?  Yeah.  I am blessed?  Yeah.  Blah, blah, blah… After 20 years you’d think I’d be able to rationalize.  Repetition doesn’t lower the stakes.  This is the Boston Marathon.  It matters to me.  I put in the work.  I qualify.  It matters.  It matters to me. … I rolled out of bed reasonably refreshed and put on my throw-away clothes.  With the lingering rain I didn’t want to wear my race stuff, especially my shoes.  Stay dry as long as possible.  I had time to take a nice shower and have a bit of breakfast.  A normal day at the Russell house.  My wife dropped me off at the local Starbucks where I caught a ride with some of the folks from my running club out to Hopkinton.  Without incident I hopped the spectator bus to downtown Hopkinton and made my way over to the senior center to join Eric and the St. Louis runners.  My second year of avoiding Athletes’ Village. Call me soft, but warm and dry with a bathroom beats ankle deep mud and a 45 minute porta-john line.  I stretched and rubbed and pre-gamed.  Got my race gear on and lubed up really well.  With the humidity and warmer temps I figured chaffing might be an issue.  I ran in my old Hoka Cliftons, split shorts and a race singlet.  Nothing fancy.  I wore the Boston Strong hat I had bought at the expo.  I felt like that was an appropriate message for my training cycle and my race plan.  Like Coach said in his pep talk to me;  it didn’t matter if it was 100 degrees or if there were 80 mile an hour winds.  I was not going to waste this training cycle.  No matter what happened I was committed.  I wasn’t giving myself any option to give up or to ease off.  No matter what I was all in.  I would control the only thing any of us really controls; my commitment to fight – to be strong.  We watched the early waves start on TV.  We saw the wheelchair finish, which seemed a bit strange to see people finish a race you are an hour away from starting.  In the room were several faster, red-bib, wave 2 runners.  That seemed to be the demographic in general.  Lots of fit, young, fast runners in Nike Vapor Fly’s and a handful of us old war horses.  Eric and I were in the same wave and corral.  3/3, which put us up the hill not far from the start line. Without hurry we made our way over when the time was right. … It’s an electric time.  Walking to the start of the Boston marathon.  If you could somehow drop an emotional energy meter into the center of Hopkinton Massachusetts it would be bouncing off the rails and maxing out.  Thousands of qualified athletes stepping into the culmination of their training cycles.  Each one a story of dedication and perseverance and, right now, in this very moment, at their emotional peak.  This is it.  The big test.  The qualification effort is well in the past.  The months of training and sacrifice all leading in an inevitable emotional march to this day and this moment.  The atmosphere buzzes like an electric field.  Eric and I made our way out of the senior center in the misty, post-rain, cool, overcast morning.  The sun was struggling to break through the remnants of the storms that had passed.  We walked the short trek to Main Street and the bottom of the hill where the first half of the corrals take a turn back towards athletes’ village. As we cleared security to access the melee of runners trying to find corrals I ran straight into Alett.  This is one of the alternate universe characteristics of Boston.  If you are trying to meet people on purpose, you can’t find them.  But, you randomly run into people you know, for no predictable or probable reason in the crowd of 30,000 athletes.  I gave her a hug.  We had a few words.  Eric and I continued our hike up the hill towards the start line to find our apportioned 3rd corral.  Corral 3 is close to the actual start line.  We got to the opening just before our wave start time and ended up in the back of the corral just as they pulled the ropes and the corral 4 runners flooded in to fill the gap.  And like that we were off again, bounding down the steep hill out of Hopkinton, heading towards another date with destiny.  … I went into my training cycle angry.  It was mid-October and I had just jogged off the course at Baystate after one lap.  I thought I would have the legs after that big training cycle volume over the summer training for the Burning River 100 mile ultra.  But, I could not hold the pace at Baystate and gave up.  There wasn’t a lot of urgency in that race.  I was already qualified.  I could run another if I wanted to.  I let my big brain rationalize me off the course.  Ultra-training was all about multi-hour runs in the trails.  Great for fitness, great for peace of mind, but not great for racing marathons.  While putting in those 90+ mile long training weeks I didn’t pay much attention to nutrition or flexibility.  I paid no attention to speed and tempo work.  Coming into the late summer I was tipping the scales in the mid-180’s.  That’s not obese for me, but it is some extra weight.  I have discovered that as I age, I’m losing body mass in general so my old race weights aren’t something I can compare against.  Instead I look at body fat % as a decent proxy for excess.  Late summer I was up in the 12-13% body fat.  The extra weight doesn’t matter when you’re ambling around in the woods, in fact it’s probably an advantage, but it sucks to carry when you’re trying to run fast circles on a track or hard charges up a hill.  Trying to tune up for that race in the fall I noticed that I really struggled with speed and tempo.  My legs weren’t cooperating.  My turnover was pathetic, and I had no pop.  That’s when I got a bit angry.  I knew I had work to do.  Talking with Coach, after the race, he convinced me to not try to race again and to focus on Boston, still 5 months in the future.  I committed, to get lean, to get healthy and to go into my 2019 Boston training cycle with a higher level of commitment.  To see what I could do.  Running a qualifying time has never been easy for me. I’m not that naturally talented athlete who glides by the standards.  I struggle and work to barely scrape by.  The BAA has helpfully lowered the standard by 10 minutes over the last few years and that struggle to scrape by is even more scrapier.  I need to meet the same standard today as I did two age groups ago.  And so it began…I worked my diet and worked my plan through the holidays.  Dropping those first 10 pounds and working daily on my tight hamstrings and quads.  I came into this training cycle lean and fit.  By the end of this cycle I was hovering around 170 pounds and 9% body fat.  I was getting good sleep and I was healthy.  Bringing this health into my training cycle enabled me to hit paces I haven’t seen in 10 years. It enabled me to attack workouts that I would have walked away from in previous cycles.  I had the quality, if not the volume, I needed to do well.  Like I said.  I’m quite proud of this training cycle.  I feel like it was a major lifestyle change for me.  I’m also cognizant of the fact that I’m not a 20-year-old (or a 30-year-old…or a 40-year-old) anymore and this kind of intensity may not be the best choice for longevity in this sport.  … I was dead set on sticking to my plan.  I was not going to go out too fast.  I was going to stick to 8 minute miles or slower.  My strategy was to make it through the hills with enough juice left to close the race. Maybe it was because we started at the back of the corral, but it seemed very crowded in the beginning.  We crossed the first mile mark at somewhere around an 8:24 pace, successfully resisting the pull of the hills.  Again, from the random encounter files, Frank, one of my training partners tapped me on the shoulder and congratulated me for not going out too fast.  I was glad to see him, but I turned around and he was gone, running his own race.  I say ‘somewhere around an 8:24 pace’ because my Garmin was off the mile marks from the start and got worse as the race progressed.  I ended up off my 3 tenths of a mile.  Which is a lot.  It’s close to 3 minutes discrepancy at the finish.  The next few miles brought our average down to right around 8:03 official at the first 5Kmark.  Which was right where I wanted to be.  We were running smart.  According to the official BAA timers we were right on our target splits. At 5K and at 10K. My legs didn’t feel great.  There have been times at Boston that early in the race I can feel that ‘pop’ in my legs.  This wasn’t one of those.  I knew it was going to be a work day, but I was committed to the work.  I wasn’t going to waste this training.  No matter what I was going to work my plan – all the way.  The race felt very crowded this year, especially in the water stops.  People were bumping and pushing and getting knocked off pace in those early tables.   Eric started grumbling about it ‘not being his day’ but I pushed back and said all we have to do is hold this pace and get to the top of that hill.  Hold this pace and make it to the top of Heartbreak.  That’s the plan and I was working my plan – come hell or high water – all in.  We were taking water at every aid station because it was a bit warmer than it should have been and we wanted to stay ahead of it.  I got a couple endurolytes down at around the 10K point.  It was still overcast and wasn’t uncomfortable.  I had a couple gels with me that I had tried to pin to the waistline of my shorts.  I had no ither way to carry them, except in my hands.  I was going to tuck them inside my shorts but that didn’t feel right so I let them hang outside and flop around.  At one point I had a guy say “You’re going to lose those gels” and one did break free, but I got the other one through the first hour and choked it down.  With the warmer weather I was a bit concerned about my gut.  I knew I had to stay on top of the water and fuel but by doing so also risked nausea from too much.  Again, when you’re racing at your threshold pace your body doesn’t like to digest stuff too.  Some where before the 10-mile mark I turned around and Eric was gone.  Off to run his own race.  Now I had to pace myself and execute my plan.  Through the half I was right on pace, with even a couple faster miles.  According to my watch I was a bit faster than the race splits and that difference would end up being significant.  My watch splits were probably 5 seconds a mile off my race clock splits.  We pulled through Wellesley and the scream tunnel.  I stayed to the middle of the road to not get tangled up.  I remember seeing some young men mixed in with the Coeds and hoping this wasn’t a trend.  I was pacing a couple guys around my age who looked like they were on the same mission.  But, one of them had this annoying habit of going much faster on the downhills and I moved on.  Somewhere around Wellesley the clouds cleared and the full sun came out.  Not terribly warm, but full sun, calm and around 70.  … The weather was a big story this year at Boston as it usually is.  It wasn’t a major issue, but it was a big story.  A week out it was forecast to be raging thunderstorms, rain and wind like we had last year.  The race officials moved up the wave 4 start to get people out of athletes’ village and onto the course a bit sooner.  As the race got closer the forecast changed to 60’s, rain and significant tailwind.  This forecast held right up to the race.  The only thing that changed as the days clicked by was that the temperatures were predicted to creep up to close to 70.  Still, drizzly with a stiff tail wind sounded pretty good to me.  The dynamic was, as it usually is, that Boston is the last stop for any storm train that rolls across the country.  Typically, these come through in waves, or fronts.  When you look at a weather forecast for New England it really depends on where these storm fronts are, how fast they are moving and what’s on either side.  That’s why this year was so squirrely.  We had two energetic systems sweeping across the country and as good as our weather technology is it’s a guess as to when the fronts show up and when they leave.  The first traveler was a warm front with tropical downpours.  Then on the heels of that one was a cold front with another line of rain and high winds.  This is all in the same 24 hour period.  Depending on a couple hours or a shift in the storm path you could get rain, wind, warm, cold or sunny skies and/or calm.  That’s why you’ll hear people say they got all 4 seasons during the race this year.  That’s why, even the night before, we didn’t know what we were getting.  What we ended up getting was the tropical storm early with lots of rain, warm temps and wind.  That’s what woke me up the night before.  As the out of town runners made their way out on the buses to Athetes’ village they had to deal with these tropical downpours, thunder and lightning.  As the waves started to go off this weather calmed and it was overcast, wet and calm.  Still this early rain turned the Hopkinton Highschool fields in athletes’ village into a medieval mud bath again for the waiting athletes.  By the time my wave, wave 3 went off it was overcast, warmish and humid with very little wind.  As I started the race in corral 3 wave 3 it was mid-60’s, calm, overcast and humid – not bad racing weather.  But, as we got into Wellesely and the hills in Newton the sun came out.  It was 70, full sun and no wind.  A bit warm for us but not horrible.  Ironically, after all the storms and dire forecasts, all the New Englanders got a touch of sunburn on their virgin skin.  Those poor people from out of town who packed their winter gear in anticipation of Armageddon got a nice, warm and sunny New England day.  Then that second front, the one with the rain and tailwinds, came through right after we finished. By the time I finished the clouds were coming in again.  It started raining and gusting walking to the hotel.  When I left for the train a couple hours later (after a shower and rehydrating) the temperature had dropped and there was a biting wind in the city.  All four seasons in one day.  The net result was, at least for we wave 2-3 runners, we hit the gap exactly between storm fronts and ran on a clear, windless, slightly too warm, spring day.  Did it impact my race?  I don’t know.  It was a bit warmer than I like and there was no tail wind.  It certainly didn’t help, and I’ve heard a lot of people blaming it, for poor performances, but it wasn’t awful.  Probably more of a convenient excuse than a causative factor. That’s Boston.  After the sun came out and we passed through the scream tunnel the next major landmark is the drop down into Newton Lower Falls and the start of the hills, with ‘hill zero’ climbing up over 128.  It was in this section where I started to feel a bit funky.  I had a classic power loss moment and it freaked me out.  This is too early in the race to be having power loss.  All those negative thoughts started swirling.  I shut them off and recommitted to fighting it all the way.  I took another gel and that did the trick.  I felt human again.  Just in time for the hills.  I worked my downhill form down the steep hill into Newton Lower Falls and refocused on getting to the top of Heartbreak.  I did great job of reeling my mind in.  Each time my head started to go sideways I would refocus on what I was doing right now.  My mantra became “Run the mile you’re in”.  And I kept working.  I lost 10 seconds or so on that slow mile but according to my watch I had a couple minutes in the bank for the hills so I wasn’t going to let up.  And that’s the trick at Boston.  How do you go fast enough in the beginning that you don’t fall behind your pace and have a bit of buffer for the hills, while at the same time not burning out your legs in the process?  I was right on my plan.  It was a work day but I was on my plan.  According to my watch I could give a couple minutes back and still make my time.  Maybe not my A goal but certainly my B goal. Hill zero was hard but manageable.  After you get over the highway they are handing our gels again so I grabbed on of those for later.  I was keeping my water intake up, but not really drinking much of the F2C I was carrying in my bottle.  Mostly because it was warm by now and my stomach was a bit nasty.  I couldn’t summon the energy to dig my Endurolytes out but figured I was getting enough from the gels and occasional sip from my bottle.  We turned by the Fire House and I was grinding away, staying on pace.  The uphills didn’t feel great but my downhill pace was nice a strong.  It was still work and I wasn’t having a great day but I thought I was managing it well.  I was running the mile I was in and focused on getting to the top of Heartbreak. Hill one wasn’t bad and I ran really well off the back of it to recover.  This was very positive for me because many years this is the spot where the race completely unravels.  Around 18 miles in before you even get to Heartbreak.  Hill 2 was a bit harder, but again I recovered well and ran smoothly on the back side.  Then we were into Heartbreak  I wasn’t looking at my watch anymore.  I was all in, working as well as I could and staying as close to pace as I could, looking to get to the top of that hill and reap the benefits of the downhills and flats into the finish.  I took a quick walk of the water table before entering the hill to get my head right and started to climb.  I raised my head and looked up that ½ mile climb and I got back to work. … My training and preparation were excellent.  The only blip was that I had a business conference in Chicago the final week of my taper going into the race.  I ate too much and drank too much beer, got bad sleep and spent way too much time on my feet.  That shouldn’t have been enough to unravel the total quality of my training, but it may have been one of the small factors influencing my race. My legs were a bit tight and I was a bit jetlagged and heavy as I rested out the weekend before the race.  Since I was flying back from Chicago Friday morning anyhow, I figured I’d swing by the expo and pick up my bib.  I usually go in Saturday, but this seemed convenient and I really wanted to get off my feet and rest for the remainder of the time I had left.  I dragged my travel bags onto the train and made my way over to the Hynes at the Pru for the expo.  There was no line at the bib pickup.  I cruised right through without breaking stride.  When I turned into the shirt pickup room there was a long line. Luckily, instead of just joining the line I asked someone what the line was for.  Apparently, it was for people to take a photo of themselves in front of a particular wall banner.  I skipped that line and cruised through shirt pickup without breaking stride.  There were people and family groups taking pictures all around with their bibs and shirts. There were people immediately taking the shirts out and trying them on for fit so they could exchange if necessary.  All these people were just so excited to be there.  They were clutching and fawning in the symbols and idolatry of the moment.  So many stories, all different, but all the same too.  They worked so hard to get here and now they were celebrating and in awe of the moment I made my way over to the expo.  This is where the crowds were. There was a veritable feeding frenzy at the Adidas official gear booth.  Crowds of runners pawing through the over-priced merch and a line to check out that would make Disney proud.  I didn’t see anything I liked.  I usually buy a hat, but all the racing hats had the logo as a stuck-on chunk of plastic, not stitched in, so I passed.  None of the shorts looked like anything I’d want to wear either, so I skipped that line too and moved on.  The Expo seemed smaller than usual.  A bit underwhelming and disappointing. There were the usual big shoe companies and such.  There was the theater showing the race course run through video which is always popular.   On the negative side there seemed to be a lot of ancillary, what I might call, “late night TV products”.  Various potions and devices guaranteed by someone to do something.  On the good side there were two beer booths.  The Sam Adams guys had a large presence and runners were happily consuming the 26.2 brew specially made for the race.  And Zelus, the beer for runners out of western Mass had a booth. I might suggest that they consider the expo at Boston as part of the character of the race and find a way to do better.  Maybe get people and products in that fit our lifestyle.  I’m sure it’s just a financial thing, they fill the space with whoever is willing to pay.  How about setting aside booth space for something more intrinsic to our demographic? How about authors?  Important charities? Or maybe to good races? Or maybe some science-based products?  Maybe I’m over thinking it. … My legs were pretty shitty at as I went into the ascent of Heartbreak.  Even after all those awesome sets of hill repeats I had donei n training I couldn’t find that gear, that energy and strength, so instead of slowing to a shuffle I switched to a fast-hike, run cadence, an ultra-running trick, to save my legs and not lose too much time.  My legs were really heavy and refused to climb well but I worked through to the top of the hill.  I figured that was my time buffer.  Now I had to hang on to close to race pace to have any chance of making my time.  Coming off the hill I relaxed and again had good downhill form and effort.  I felt comfortable.  I figured I was really close to my goal pace and just had to keep hitting it. I kept running the mile I was in.  I thought I carried a couple minute buffer at least into the hills, so even if I lost a minute or two, I would still be close.  The course started to take its toll on the runners.  The pack was looser here but runners would be stopping or weaving or sitting on the side of the road and you had to watch out or bump your way through.  I saw two runners being packed onto stretchers by EMTs.  I pushed on. In my head I thought I could just stay close.  All in.  keep fighting.  It was work.  I wasn’t terribly uncomfortable.  I was able to maintain close to goal pace on the downs and flats in the that last 10K.  I felt strong rolling down that hill with the train tracks into Cleveland Circle.  Then, I looked up to see the 24 mile sign, and, out of habit, looked at my watch.  My Garmin said almost exactly 3:20.  Even with my addled brain I could do the math.  I would have to run the last 2.21 miles in 15 minutes to get my time.  I had been battling to hold on to 8:10’s in these last miles, thinking I had some buffer.  But, battling as I was, there was no way I was going to lay down a couple sub-7:30’s at that point.  The wind came out of my sails.  I let my foot off the gas.  I reminded myself to lift my head up and look around.  The screaming crowds, the Citgo sign, the mile to go, the right on Herford, the left on Boylston.  The crowd on Boylston like a living, screaming animal pulling you in to the finish.  I let myself be in that moment.  I finished easy in 3:40:19 according to the BAA timer.  A full five minutes off my B goal time.  As near as I can figure, with my watch being so far off the race splits I did not have that 2-3 minute buffer going into the hills.  I probably only had 45 seconds to a minute.  When I lost those 2-3 minutes in the hills, combined with a couple slower miles where I was 5 or 10 seconds off pace at the end I was in the hole coming off Heartbreak.  I didn’t have the juice to negative split it in.  In those final miles where I was working to stay close to race pace I really needed to be negative splitting.  Of those 5 minutes I missed by, ½ of that is real and half of that is me taking my time to enjoy the last 2miles of the race. .. In these last few days since the race I struggle with how to write and talk about it.  I suppose that’s the defining characteristic of this race – that it refuses to play along and be categorized.  On the one hand I feel blessed and awed to be able to be part of this great thing.  On the other I have mixed feelings about how I haven’t had a great race there in almost a decade.  That’s why I like to let these things sit a bit before I try to write it up.  Let something that makes sense congeal into narrative and form.  Come to some sort of conclusion.  Some sort of tidy summary to stamp a smiley face on the report before turning it in for grading.  This week, since the race, I’ve been waking up early.  I don’t know why.  Maybe it’s the early rising sun of late spring.  Maybe it’s the damage in my legs.  Maybe it’s my unsettled mind.  I’m typically blessed with clarity in mornings so why not work on this report for you?  Let’s see if we can’t benefit from an early release of green, fresh thoughts still weeping sap from the fresh cuts. … The summary statement, if one can ever summarize a Boston Marathon race, is I’m happy with my training effort, I’m happy with my racing effort, I think I executed my plan well, but I’m a bit disappointed with my results.  Here are the two sides of that coin; I missed my A goal by 10 minutes, and I missed my B goal by 5 minutes.  Now I’m out of qualification.  Flip that over and you find that I trained well, executed my plan, worked hard and didn’t give up.  Relatively I did very well.  But, relatively doesn’t get you entry into next year’s race.  How can I say that relatively I did well?  That’s quite simple.  Since Boston is a seeded race all you need to do is to look at how you performed vis-à-vis your bib number.  For every finishing spot you beat your bib number by you finished better than someone who qualified with a better time than you did.  I beat my bib number by 6,595 places.  Even if you throw out the outliers it’s obvious I had a much better day than many of my cohort.  It was my training, my execution and my pure stubbornness that enabled me to do so.  Part of me wonders just what I have to do to have a break out race at Boston.  Part of me wonders if I have anything left I can do.  Part of me wonders if maybe I just don’t have the ability to pull it off anymore.  And, of course, part of me wonders why I care so much?  Really? What is it about this race that turns me into a neurotic mess once a year? Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have a terrible race. I’m not jumping out the window with remorse.  I’m just stressed out, because I controlled everything I could, I did everything I could, and it still wasn’t enough for Boston.  … Based on my training paces I should have hit my A goal of breaking 3:30 and should have easily hit my B goal of 3:35.  But that didn’t happen.  I crossed that line with a hard fought 3:40:19.  I am beat up and sore.  I executed my plan but those training paces and that training fitness weren’t enough for Boston. I worked hard.  I worked my plan.  And I never gave up.  I’m proud of the effort. There were times in this race where I was struggling and I was able to pull myself together, focus on the mile I was in, and keep racing.  It was probably the depth and quality of my training that allowed me to fight back.  A positive spin on it might be that without that training and execution it would have been a real train wreck.  … So here we are, Dear Reader, out of qualification.  As my training buddies and I joke there is not way to gracefully disengage from Boston. If you have a good race, you’re qualified and might as well run.  If you don’t you’re pissed off and don’t want to end on a down note.  Either way you’re back on the neurotic Boston horse for another round. I signed up for the Vermont Cities Marathon at the end of May.  I’m going to take this training and go up there and get my qualification on a reasonable course that doesn’t feel the need to demonstrate its dominance and extract its pound of flesh.  And, I’ll see you out there.

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-407 – Enoch Builds a Life of Running (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4407.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-407 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  The first paragraph comes to you from Chicago where I am sipping coffee at in an airBNB getting ready to go work a convention all week.  It’s not perfect, having to stand around on my feet and act like an adult all week, but at least it gives me something to do to take my mind off where I’ll be in 7 days – and that would be driving to Hopkinton Massachusetts to join 30,000 other friends to run the 2019 Boston Marathon.  Bear with me. There will be some time jumps in the narrative this episode as I work through the week in the snippets of time available to me.  I’ll try to give the updates as they pass through my big, dense brain.  It may cause us to time shift a bit as we progress but should eventually coalesce into some sort of thematic narrative.  As for today, I feel good.  I’m very happy with my fitness.  The only thing left to do is execute a good, conservative race plan.  Which sounds easy enough, but has always been a challenge for me, especially at Boston.  I’m known as that guy who trains well and then has a bad race.  When you see that pattern consistently in an athlete it’s usually mental.  Today we chat with Enoch who is also running Boston and we have a good conversations around coaching, training and running that I think you’ll get some value out of.  I don’t know what section one is going to be, but you can bet it will be some sort of rumination on the upcoming race or the just-ended training cycle.  … I capped off my training since the last time we talked with a 23ish mile long run.  My buddies joined me for the first 2 hours and we ran a fair bit of it at a tempo pace.  When I dropped them I slowed it down.  I didn’t want to practice going out too fast and crashing.  I don’t need any more practice on that front! I finished up the distance fine.  I was pretty tired for a few days as I recovered from it.  I managed to tweak something in my left foot on that run but nothing that will keep me from racing.  I finished off the first week of taper, cutting way back on the volume.  My last tune up was 10 miles with the middle 7 at faster than race pace – no problem.  I’m fit and I have good pop.  I went into this week of travel under 170 pounds, which is 15-20 pounds lighter than I usually race at.  I stopped thinking about dieting this week at the conference and have probably put 5 pounds back but I’ll eat clean this weekend to cap it all off,  I’ll line up light enough and I’ve stopped focusing on it.  … It looks like the weather is going to be good old Boston Marathon weather again this year.  Some sort of rain and wind.  I don’t really care.  I’ve got enough fitness to overcome most anything and I’ll take cold and rainy over hot any day.  We’ll see how it plays out but it can’t be a s bad as last year.  Even if it is I’ll be ready both mentally and physically to adapt to it.  I’ve run Boston 20 times.  This will be my 21st.  It still motivates me but it doesn’t hold the dread or make me crazy like it used to.  We are two old soldiers grappling our friendly match over a shared past that resonates with gratefulness for the opportunity.  I am blessed.    On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Prelude – Boston 2019 - Voices of reason – the conversation Coach Enoch Thanks for having me on Chris, I really enjoyed it! My Journey to the Olympic Trials: goo.gl/x8V527 Istagram: Team_FTC See you in Boston, Over the past 15 years, Coach Enoch (pronounced e-knock) has worked with countless runners of all ages and abilities. He enjoys sharing his passion and knowledge of the sport with all of his runners. Enoch loves helping runners achieve their goals and dreams. Coach Enoch first found his love for running in the 9th grade at Keystone Heights High School. As a member of the cross country and track team, Enoch took it upon himself to learn all that he could about running. He would go on to coach himself to multiple top five state championship finishes, and under his guidance, help his cross country team finish with its highest place in school history at the state meet. Upon graduation, Enoch was awarded a cross country/track scholarship to the University of Florida. During Enoch's freshman year at UF, he coached local High School Senior, Jeremy Criscione. Under Enoch's coaching Jeremy won the Cross Country state championship and set a State Record for the 5K and a 2-mile State Track championship. At UF, Enoch was a multiple All-SEC Conference and South Region Honoree. He was the captain of his Cross Country team and won numerous invitationals around the southeast. Enoch still holds top 10 time records at UF in the 8k and Steeple Chase. During Enoch's time at UF, he worked closely with the coaches and gained much of his running knowledge from some of the top minds in the sport. After College, Enoch stepped away from running to pursue other passions but he knew he would return back to his first love one day. In 2012, Enoch moved to Dallas and began coaching himself again. From 2012 to 2014, Enoch coached himself and qualified for 2016 Olympic Trials in the Marathon event. He trained 85 - 100miles a week and competed in both national and local track meets and road races. Enoch also took it upon himself to coach numerous local athletes in the area and helped elevate the local Dallas running scene to a new level. In 2014, Enoch and his wife Angela took a travel sabbatical living abroad for 15 months. They traveled 5 continents before returning home to Florida to settle down and be closer to friends and family in November 2015. Upon moving home, Enoch began volunteering with the local non-profit, Youth Combine and competed on the Youth Combine's record breaking relay team at the Five Points of Life Marathon. In August 2016, Enoch began coaching with the Florida Track Club and fell in love with the team coaching aspect. Soon after, Enoch and the Florida Track Club formed a partnership, and thus, Team Florida Track Club was born! TeamFTC offers runners an exciting team atmosphere, organized group runs, customized training plans and one on one training sessions. Enoch continues to race often and can be seen fighting for the win with other local elite athletes. Enoch debuted in the Marathon in 2017 running 2:18:17 to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Trials. Look for Coach Enoch and his Team Florida Track Club at your next local race or join today and become part of the team! Enoch's Personal Records: Distance Time 1 Mile 4:08 2 Mile 8:45 5k 14:05 8k XC 23:46 10k (split in 1/2 Marathon) 30:02 15k (split in 1/2 Marathon)  45:01 10 Mile (split in 1/2 Marathon) 48:20 Half Marathon  1:03:54 Marathon 2:18:17 Section two – Now and the Body - Outro Well, my friends you probably have trained hard and are ready to race after listening to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-407, now you just have to execute.   Here we are on Saturday morning.  I’m pretty tired after a week of hard business travel.  Got up early to get to the airport Friday morning, quarter of 5 Chicago time.  My flight got into Boston around noon and I navigated the public transport, dragging my bags, over to the Hynes to get my bib.  Walked the expo.  It was packed but smaller than previous years.  Lots of useless crap.  I wish they’d let more races in.  Who needs more crap?  I’m particularly disappointed with the official gear.  Seems like the Adidas folks are designing for a different audience – not me.  I don’t need shorts with an abstract picture and the unicorn on the ass.  Who wants to look at my ass?  Get off my lawn! I bought a Boston Strong hat at the Marathon Sports booth.  Took me forever to get home.  By the time I got out of the expo it was rush hour do I couldn’t get on any of the inbound Green Line trains at the Pru.  I had to drag my bags down to Park street, about a mile walk and then jump on the Red Line.  Lots and lots of time on my feet and walking this week.  I need get the heck off them! I am avoiding getting on the scale!  Too late now anyhow! Checked the weather this morning.  Understanding that it changes every day and there is no guarantee that the weather predicted today will have any resemblance to the weather on race day.  Earlier in the week they were saying it was going to be like last year.  The BAA sent out an email saying they would smoosh wave 4 into the back of wave 3 to get folks out of Hopkinton sooner.  But as of this morning it looks, actually, like great racing weather.  Yes, it will be raining and windy.  But the key difference from last year is that it will be 20 degrees warmer and there will be a stiff tail wind for most of it.  So, my friends it looks like we will be buffeted, but we will set the sails, rig the flying jib and point our small but rugged craft downwind.  And I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-406 – Dave McGilvary - How to Run Across the Country (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4406.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my endurance compatriots, companions and comrades and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-405.  Had a bit of a scare or a potential set back in my training after the last episode.  You could hear it in my voice that I was had a little something going on and sure enough I woke up that Sunday sick as heck! I was really looking forward to my long run that day.  It was just a plane Jane 3-hour and 15 minute surge run that would get me 21-22 miles.  Nothing complicated.  And I woke up with a fever headache.  After a few seconds of indecision, (you know me), I said ‘you’ll hate yourself if you don’t go try’.  I met my buddy Tim who was only doing 2 hours and we got out.  I could tell I was hurting so I called it at 2 hours.  Got a solid 13miles in.  Went home.  Took a shower and laid in bed the rest of the day.  I was concerned because I had a busy week with a 2-day road trip.  I figured I’d be out on the road, sick in airplane - you get the visual.  It turned out better than I thought.  Coach had me scheduled for a recovery week anyhow.  There weren’t any monster workouts to add to being sick and traveling.  I was able to drug myself up and made the travel and meetings look easy.  And, most importantly it didn’t turn into something awful.  You always run into some blips in your training cycle.  My training cycle has been going so well that I was due.  A couple more big weeks would be good for my confidence, but for the most part ‘the hay is in the barn’.   Today I called up our old friend Dave McGilvary, head of DMSE sports and race director for the Boston Marathon.  I had a simple question to pick his brain about.  “What does it take to run across the country?”  We also chat a little about that other race… Section one – the hay is in the barn… What to do when you have late-cycle training issues. Section two – continuing homilies on being … Speaking of the Boston Marathon, they released the bib number assignments.  If you want to track me I’m 18,543.  Think about that.  As hard as I train, with my finishing time around a 3:30 I’m nowhere near the mid-pack of this race.  There’s 30,000 runners in the race but only around 25,000 are qualified.  That means close to ¾ of the pack is in front of me.  You’d have to run my old Boston PR of 3:06 just to make it into the first wave.  When they changed the standards by 10 minutes people wondered if the runners could keep up.  There’s your answer.  They certainly can.  The entire curve just shifted by 10 minutes and the race is still over-subscribed.  Amazing.  This will be my 21st running of the race and I pulled out all the stops for this one.  I think I’m going to have a good race.  Regardless of what happens it is and has been an honor to be part of this thing, this slice of local history.  On April 15th this year, Patriot’s Day in Boston, my buddies and I have done the work and earned the right to play – and play we will! On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – The Hay is in the Barn! - Voices of reason – the conversation Dave McGillivray, Founder DMSE RACE DIRECTOR, PHILANTHROPIST,  MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER,  ACCOMPLISHED ATHLETE. DAVE MCGILLIVRAY IS A PROFESSIONAL WITH A PURPOSE. From his extraordinary 1978 run across the U.S. to benefit the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to serving as technical director then race director of the BAA Boston Marathon since the 1980s, McGillivray has helped organize more than 900 mass participatory events since founding DMSE Sports in 1981, while raising millions for worthy causes close to his heart. Here are a few of his many career highlights: In 1978 and over the course of 80 consecutive days, McGillivray ran across the U.S. from Medford, Oregon, to his hometown of Medford, Massachusetts, covering a total distance of 3,452 miles. He finished to a standing ovation of 32,000 fans in Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. His effort raised thousands of dollars for the Jimmy Fund, a charity that supports research toward eliminating cancer in children. The 1980 East Coast Run to benefit the Jimmy Fund consisted of 1,520 miles from Winter Haven, Florida, to Boston, Massachusetts. McGillivray was joined by Bob Hall, one of the pioneers of wheelchair marathoning, and raised thousands of dollars for the Jimmy Fund. He also met with then-President Jimmy Carter at the White House during the trek through Washington, D.C. In 1980, McGillivray competed in the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, the premier individual endurance event in the world. He finished 14th overall and was only the 30th person to have ever competed in an Ironman. The Ironman consists of three back-to-back distance events: a 2.4 mile rough, open ocean water swim, followed by a 112-mile bike race, and finally finishing up with a 26.2-mile marathon run. He completed the event again in 1983-1989 and 2014, for a total of nine times. The Wrentham State School 24-Hour Run was designated as the "Run for Our Dreams Marathon." In 1980, this run traversed 120 miles in 24 hours throughout 31 cities within southeastern Massachusetts, ending in Foxboro Stadium during half-time of a New England Patriots football game. Held to benefit the Wrentham State School for the Mentally Retarded, this particular run raised more than $10,000 for the handicapped. 1981 brought an invitation to participate in the Empire State Building Run-Up. The course consists of 86 stories, 1,575 steps, 1050 feet in elevation, 40" stair height. Finished 10th place overall in a time of 13 minutes, 27 seconds. His 1981 New England Run was a triathlon (running, cycling, and swimming) of 1,522 miles throughout the six New England states. He raised $55,000 for the Jimmy Fund. Unusual segments included running up and down Mount Washington and swimming two miles across Lake Winneapesaukee, both in New Hampshire. In addition, highlights included swimming one mile from Woods Hole toward Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts and running three miles with inmates inside Walpole State Prison. Officially completed his New England Run by swimming more than seven miles from Martha’s Vineyard to Falmouth, Massachusetts, again raising more money for the Jimmy Fund. McGillivray was greeted by thousands on shore including some of the world’s greatest runners, including Alberto Salazar. In 1982, McGillivray ran the Boston Marathon in 3:14 while blindfolded and escorted by two guides to raise more than $10,000 for the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Massachusetts.. He traded his running shoes for swimming shorts in 1983 for the Jimmy Fund 24-Hour Swim. He swam for 24 consecutive hours in the Olympic-size Medford High School pool, swimming a total of 1,884 lengths and covering 26.2 miles (distance of Boston Marathon), again raising funds for the Jimmy Fund. Over the course of 14 days in 1983, he bicycled more than 1,000 miles throughout six New England states to raise money for a scholarship fund for McGillivray's alma mater, Merrimack College. In 1986, he formed the first sanctioned running club inside a maximum security institution at Walpole State Prison. He also conducted and ran in numerous distance races inside the prison yard, including completing and winning a full 26.2 mile marathon against inmates. Also in 1986, he biked for 24 consecutive hours around a five-mile loop course in Medford while simultaneously directing the annual Bay State Triathlon, which was being held on the same course at the same time. He covered a total of 385 miles, again raising money for the Jimmy Fund. Since 1988, he has been the Technical and Race Director of the Boston Marathon. He manages and oversees all technical and operational aspects of the oldest and most prestigious marathon in the world. McGillivray’s many endurance events for charity are legendary, including running 120 miles in 24 hours thru 31 Massachusetts cities; an 86-story, 1,575-step run up Empire State Building in 13 minutes and 27 seconds; and running, cycling and swimming 1,522 miles thru six New England states while raising $55,000 for the Jimmy Fund. In 2000, he was chosen as Race Director of the Year by Road Race Management/Running Times Magazine. That same year, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award by Competitor Magazine for more than 30 years of service to the sport of road racing and triathlons. In 2003, McGillivray created the DMSE Children’s Fitness Foundation to support non-profit organizations that use running to promote physical fitness in children and help solve the epidemic of childhood obesity. In 2004, McGillivray and a team of veteran marathon runners journeyed across the country following the same path he took in 1978. Trek USA raised more than $300,000 for five charities benefiting children. The race director of the Boston Marathon as well as an accomplished runner, McGillivray has run the marathon each year since 1973. For 16 years he ran it with all the other runners and since he began working with the race in 1988 he has run the course afterwards. His 2006 book, The Last Pick, which he co-wrote with Linda Glass Fechter, chronicles his childhood and career as the last pick for team sports because of his small stature, motivating readers to never underestimate their own ability to set and achieve goals. Order here on Amazon. In 2009 he was awarded the prestigious “Jimmy Award” from the Jimmy Fund of Boston for his 30-year association and his work with helping to raise money to fund cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. A skilled motivational speaker, McGillivray has displayed his signature ability to engage and inspire listeners to more than 1,600 audiences from corporate executives to high school students. McGillivray has received numerous awards –  valedictorian at both his high school and college, 2005 Running USA Hall of Champions, 2007 Runner’s World Heroes of Running Award, the 2010 Fleet Feet Lifetime Commitment to Running Award, 2010 Ron Burton Community Service Award, the 2011 Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center's 2011 100 list, inducted into the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame in 2011 and also received the prestigious "Jimmy Award" by the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for 30 years of contributing time and expertise to help raise millions for cancer research and treatment. In 2015, he received the MarathonFoto/Road Race Management Lifetime Achievement Award, and was named One of the 50 Most Influential People in Running by Runner's World - tied for 6th place. In 2017 he was inducted into the Road Runners Club of America Long Distance Running Hall of Fame, joined by Ryan Hall, Desiree Linden, and George Hirsch. In 2018, he completed the World Marathon Challenge: seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. McGillivray has logged more than 150,000 miles, most for charity, raising millions for worthy causes.  He’s completed 155 marathons, which include 46 consecutive Boston Marathons (with 31 run at night after his race director duties are fulfilled). In 2018 he published his first children's book, Dream Big: A True Story of Courage and Determination, co-authored with Nancy Feehrer. The illustrated book is based on his 2006 autobiography, The Last Pick. Dream Big may be ordered here on Amazon. His personal bests? Marathon: 2:29:58 and for the Ironman: 10:36:42. Each year he runs his birthday age in miles, starting when he was 12, and has not missed one yet. He was born on August 22, 1954 – you can do the math. McGillivray, DMSE Sports and his DMSE Children’s Foundation have raised more than $50 million for various charities, including: The Jimmy Fund, Carroll Center for the Blind, Cystic Fibrosis, Lazarus House, Massachusetts Dietetic Association, Massachusetts Special Olympics, Moth- ers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD), Muscular Dystrophy Association, Sports Museum of New England, Wrentham State School.   Section two – Future, Past and Now - Outro Well, my friends you probably have not run 3000+ miles across the country to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-406, but maybe you will some day.   One thing I would encourage you to do is to look at Dave’s resume.  He has accomplished so much in his life.  But, that’s not what’s special about Dave. What’s special is that most of his accomplishments are focused on helping others, he lives his life in service to the greater good.  And even with all he’s done he’s extremely approachable and humble. A good role model for us.    I’ve had a great couple weeks since we last spoke.  I did get that quick fever/flu/cold whatever it was but I got through it in a week.  I had a bit of a anxiety spot when I bailed on that long run.  As you may remember I did most of my long runs on the treadmill in February and early March.  I was hitting my paces but in the back of my mind I was always cognizant of the fact that the treadmill is not the road.  Until I road tested some of those paces I was going to be tentative.  Last week was a rest week but coach gave me a nice long tempo run for Saturday.  And of course, the weather didn’t cooperate.  We had 20 MPH gusting, swirling winds and I was almost ready to drive into work and knock it out on the treadmill again, especially coming off that cold.  But, I stuck my head outside and it wasn’t too bad so I suited up and hit the workout.  The workout was to warm up for 20 minutes then run 50 minutes at faster than race pace. The out and back I run these on starts out as a rolling downhill.  This means that when you make the turn-around, the second half of the run is a rolling uphill.  Which, in theory is a great workout, but in practice sucks as you climb those hills at the end of the tempo session.  It turned out that the wind was a tail wind on the way out and a head wind on the way back.  I don’t really look at real-time splits as I’m doing these workouts.  I try to run them by feel.  When I hit that tempo I try to ease into what I think feels like, in this case a 7:50 mile.  I get feedback on my pace every mile.  I was a bit horrified when the first mile split was a 7:30.  Too fast.  I tried to ease off a bit and the second split came in at 7:30 again.  Going into the turn around I really tried to ease up and managed a 7:45. The challenge here is now I was turning back into the wind and up the hill.  In previous training cycles this is where my legs would have gone on me.  But I was able to hold the pace at a 7:39 a 7:49 and a 7:58 up the hill into a stiff headwind without my legs failing at all.  And when I made the turn to be running with the wind for the last half mile I averaged a 7:25. A number of positives.  I was able to go out too fast and recover without failing.  I was able to do the hard work up hill and into the wind and my legs felt great.  I was able to close it hard.  All good signs.  And I followed up this week on Tuesday with a similar step up run, on the same route without the wind, with 30 minutes at 7:50’s and closing with 30 minutes at 7:30’s.  Last night I knocked out a set of 200-meter hill repeats at sub-7 pace and it felt easy.  How is this possible?  Am I just lucky or gifted to be able to pull this kind of speed out of my butt at the ripe old age of 56 going on 57?  No, I mean, yeah of course there is some underlying DNA involved, but this is the result of 20 years of consistent effort over the long run and 6 months of focused effort on this cycle. What have I done differently this cycle to get such great results?  Near as I can figure it comes down to the following: Consistency – I do the work with consistent focus and effort over time. This isn’t different from previous cycles, but it’s the baseline.  Nutrition – I have dropped close to 20 pounds over the last 6 months. I usually shed 10 pounds in a marathon cycle. The last few cycles I haven’t really focused on going the extra 10 pounds.  The combination of less weight and cleaner eating early in the cycle allowed me to have higher quality training and faster paces. Stretching and core – Another difference in this cycle is an early focus on daily flexibility stretches. This allowed me to train harder and probably kept the injuries at bay.  Finally – good sleep – I haven’t been traveling as much and my commute isn’t bad. I’ve been getting that full 8-9 hours of sleep every night and I’m sure that contributes to my ability to execute. Turns out the secrets to success are no secrets.  You just have to do it! Which is the hardest thing, right? It’s easy to say these things, it’s another to actually do them. But, if you do, I guarantee you’ll see the results. Next time we talk will be the weekend before the Boston Marathon.  I’ve got one more long run and I’m into my taper.  Remember, my number is 18543, If you want to steal it you need to be able to run a sub-3:30 marathon.  Your etymology for the week is the word “compass”.  This is a combination of two Latin words.  ‘Com’ meaning with and ‘passus’, which means pace or steps.  So following your compass means bringing together your paces. And I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-405 – Julia and the Path Taken (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4405.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-405.  Today we are going to talk to Julia.  Here’s the funny story.  About a year ago my friend introduced me to Julia and I interviewed her here in episode 4-368.  Then recently he introduced us again and I interviewed her again for this show.  But here’s the thing.  None of us remembered the fact that we had already done it less than a year ago! It’s ok – she’s got a great story.  This stands alone.   And what I want you to take away from this is how she chose a special path for her life.  It involved a lot of marathons and twists and turns but it also involves a lot of love and fulfillment.  We all make choices and those choices determine our paths.  Don’t assume you can’t choose a different path.  Don’t be afraid to try.  So we’ve got the interview with Julia.  Also, in this episode I’m going to talk about one of my favorite topics, speed work.   Then I’m going to preach a bit about a new work I’m digesting by Eckhart Tolle. My training is going great.  I’m super lean.  I’m strong.  I have no injuries.  I’ve got a couple more big weeks left before I taper in to Boston.  I knocked out a 20 miler with 18 of those at race pace on the treadmill last weekend.  I’ve been hitting all my workouts well.  I’ve got a 20+ outing tomorrow.  The thing that really has me optimistic is that I feel a good ‘pop’ in my legs.  That feeling of strength and energy that I haven’t felt in a long time.  That last few cycles for Boston I’ve just been grinding through, hoping for a marathon miracle when I get to the race.  But this cycle feels different.  I’ve got pop.  ... And Spring is here in New England! I had my shorts on yesterday.  You can feel the Earth awakening.  You can hear the birds and smell the fecundity in the ground.  And as the snow melts, let me share with you my favorite old-English word of the week.  Because it has to do with snow.  At some point I’ll tell the whole story of why English is such a greatly diverse language, but for now, the original Old-English brought over by the Anglo Saxons was a Germanic variety.  In the old Germanic languages, they had ‘strong’ verbs.  About 300 of those strong verbs came into English and about 70 of them survived into modern English.  A strong verb is when the vowel sound changes to indicate the tense of the verb.  For example, a surviving strong verb is Sing, Sang, Sung.   So instead of adding an -ed or -s ending like ‘walked’ or ‘walks’ we change the vowel sound to indicate tense.  With me so far?  Here’s the punchline.  The verb ‘to snow’ was originally a strong verb.  So my favorite Old-English word of the week is the strong verb past tense of snow.  Snew.  Isn’t that great?  Instead of ‘it snowed’ you can say ‘it snew’.  On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – My current nutrition - http://runrunlive.com/my-current-diet-and-meal-planning Voices of reason – the conversation Colin – Run Romsdal Run Romsdal is a guided trail and mountain running company set up by Colin Thornton & Hélène Hubert. Through our love of running in wild, remote and spectacular places we discovered the Romsdal region in Norway and decided we could not think of a better place to bring like minded people to come and enjoy the outstanding beauty of the place in the safe hands of people who know it the best. Instagram -  Twitter -  Facebook - runromsdal I have attached a few photos as I can never decide what to use!  Section two – Feel the Fear (and do it anyway) - http://runrunlive.com/a-short-review-of-a-short-book-on-fear Outro Well, my friends you have chosen a path through this world even though it may have rained and snew along the way, you’re still going to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-405.  Things are getting busy for me now for a few weeks.  I have some travel and some more big weeks in the lead up to Boston.  But I’m already looking beyond Boston.  I’ve signed up to pace Eric at Leadville late in the summer so it looks like another trail-running ultra summer for me.  I’m ok with that.  Very peaceful.  I’ll probably look to work in a 100K race somewhere because it’s a distance I haven’t run.  Or maybe a 24 hour race or some other event that gets gives me a point on the horizon to point my coracle towards and steadies my hand on the tiller. I’ve found a few new podcasts that I can recommend to you.  By the way, have you seen all the venture capital that is being poured into podcast content?  Hundreds of millions of dollars.  Maybe my ship is coming in after a dozen years of doing this?  The first podcast is called by ABC News.  It’s an investigative journalism piece about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos.  This was big news for awhile.  She was a 19 year old Stanford dropout that had a billion-dollar startup, but turns out there wasn’t an actual product that worked and the whole thing was a bit of Ponzi scheme. It’s a great window on, and indictment of, the whole Silicon Valley zeitgeist and how it can go horribly wrong.  It’s only 6 episodes and you can power right through the narrative in a week.  The second is and NPR podcast called “” that explores historical events that you may not have known about.  Like how Sam Adams was the original conspiracy theorist, the almost impeachment of Andrew Johnson after the civil war and how we engineered the overthrow of the Iranian government in 1955.  Good stuff.  Fun, but also food for thought.  Finally, another NPR show called “” that “explores the unseen forces that shape how we act and who we are”.   Very interesting.  I listened to a show last night titled “how to be Batman” about how the way we treat blind people prevents them from ‘seeing’.  They talk to a man who uses echolocation to see.  He can ride a bike and hike in the mountains.  He believes that it is because no one ever told him he couldn’t.  When they tested his brain to see what was going on, sure enough the same place that sighted people use lights up the same way when he echolocates.   The images he sees are the same images I see. The input mechanism is just a little different. The links for all of these are in the post and in the show notes. What are your beliefs keeping you from seeing?  Maybe your thinker is too busy thinking for you to be able to see?  Maybe there is another path? When you find it… And I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-404 – Fjords and Mountains – Run Romsdal (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4404.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-404.  This is the point where I frantically try to remember all those great stories, amusing anecdotes and funny things that I had ready to go when I was running but now retreat into the fog of my memory like scared children confronted by the full, blank whiteness of the empty page and blinking cursor. Bam! Right out of the gate a 54-word sentence!  Yeah! Homeric in its epicness.  I am a prose god! (Editor’s note: Word wants to change ‘epicness’ to epicenes, which is an entirely different thing. That is a Greek word meaning containing both sexes – so androgynous or hermaphroditic and if I wanted to use either of those words I would!  So, get out of my hair Bill Gates!)  Now I am picturing the poor, confused new listener who though they were tuning into a running podcast and instead are getting a crazed etymology tantrum.  Welcome to the inside of the RunRunLive hive mind my friends – sometimes it’s a bit fractal in here. But yes, we do talk about endurance sports.  I have been easing myself back into Twitter after a couple years off and there is a group called #RunChat that is nice.  That’s where I found today’s guest.  I like cool places to run and explore and these folks have gone off to the edge of the map in Scandinavia to set up a running adventure company in the Fjords and mountains.  The photos are spectacular.  Real Viking land stuff. Which causes me to remember one of those amusing anecdotes.  Have you ever heard of Ragnar Lodbrok?  The infamous Viking chieftain who plundered around Frankia and Anglo-Saxon Britain in the late 700’s?  Lodbrok is a compound of two Germanic words.  And literally translated means “Hairy Breaches” or “Hairy Pants”.  You can kind of see some English words in there think ‘Locks” as in ‘flowing locks of hair’ and ‘Breach’ – so Lod-Brok.  Because Old English and Old Norse both came from a common Indo-European root language.  In section one I’ll talk about what my nutrition and diet looks like this cycle that is getting me lean and in section two I’ll talk about a little book I read about fear.  And yes, as we speak I’m about 6 weeks away from the Boston marathon, which in runner-speak means 4 weeks of big miles and 2 weeks of taper.  My training is going really well.  I’m still quite lean and have been sticking to my diet plan for the most part.  I am battling the weather though.  Every time I have a hard workout it seems like it’s snowing or raining or in a deep freeze.  I’ve been spending a ton of time on the treadmill.  Which is good and bad.  It’s good because I can cleanly set the paces I want and hold them.  It’s bad because the treadmill does not translate 100% to road training.  For instance, I knocked off 18 miles on the treadmill last Sunday with the middle 14 at target race pace minus 7.  If I did that outside in the freezing rain storm we were having my pace would be all over the place and I’m not sure I’d get the benefits of the workout.  I need the confidence of knowing I can hold those paces.  Now over the next 4 weeks we’ll throw in some 20 milers and some race specific stuff.  But, all else being equal I feel great.  Light, fast, strong and healthy.  …. One of my habit changes that has been successful in this nutrition cycle is how I’m making my suppers now.  In an ideal world I would eat anything late in the evening, but when I get home from work I’m starving.  What I’ve been doing is using my cast-iron skillet to sauté up some vegetables when I come through the door.  This gives me something to do and takes maybe 20-30 minutes to prepare.  The resulting dinners are healthy and fill me up.  They are nutrition dense and calorie reasonable. Take your big cast iron skillet.  Put it over medium heat.  Pour a glug of olive oil in.  Dice up a garlic clove or two.  Dice up a small onion.  Dice up a teaspoon-sized chunk of ginger.  Put all this into the pan and stir it around in the oil until the onions are clear.  2-3 minutes. While that’s cooking cut up your veg.  It can be mushrooms, cabbage, squash, broccoli – whatever you have.  Fill up the skillet because the veg shrinks as it cooks.  Sauté that while mixing it so it doesn’t burn. Maybe another 5 minutes.  Pour in a half a cup of stock to get the steaming going.  You can cover it and it will cook faster but will get soggy.  Alternately you have to keep mixing it so it cooks evenly.  Serve over rice or anything else you have.  The key ingredient is the ginger.  The ginger makes it taste like restaurant food.  That will fill you up and while you’re waiting for it to cook you can clean the kitchen up a bit and kill two birds with one stone.  Actually, PETA doesn’t want us to use those animal threatening phrases anymore.  They want us to modify our speech to be animal friendly. So – instead I’ll say – you can feed two birds with one scone. Birds like scones. On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – My current nutrition - http://runrunlive.com/my-current-diet-and-meal-planning Voices of reason – the conversation Colin – Run Romsdal Run Romsdal is a guided trail and mountain running company set up by Colin Thornton & Hélène Hubert. Through our love of running in wild, remote and spectacular places we discovered the Romsdal region in Norway and decided we could not think of a better place to bring like minded people to come and enjoy the outstanding beauty of the place in the safe hands of people who know it the best. Instagram -  Twitter -  Facebook - runromsdal I have attached a few photos as I can never decide what to use!  Section two – Feel the Fear (and do it anyway) - http://runrunlive.com/a-short-review-of-a-short-book-on-fear Outro Well, my friends you have traversed the dangerous, naked spine of a rocky mountain to the Fjord at the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-404.  Careful you don’t twist an ankle. Next time we are going to talk with Julia who has a great story and a passion for telling it.  I hope you noticed I’m trying to re-energize the podcast.  Baby steps!  I am working on a lot of projects and life gets weird sometimes, but it’s all good.  I’m thankful for your company and the opportunity for us to connect. So – Thank you. My training is hard, but boringly predictable.  I’m getting in 50ish miles on 5 days of hard work on my big weeks.  I’m typically doing 3 hard workouts a week.  I have been doing more speed work this cycle which I really feel like I needed.  I have knocked off 10 Yasso 800’s at my target race time which supposedly is a positive predictor! I had a great workout on Tuesday this week.  On the treadmill again (because the weather was awful) It was a 1 hour step up run, which is actually an ‘easy’ tempo session for me because this is a step back week.  On a build week that would be a 1:30 step up run or even more. For an hour step up you warm up for 20 minutes.  Run at tempo pace for 30 minutes then cool down for 10.  At first I was struggling a little, breathing hard, battling the workout.  But at 20 minutes into the tempo (40 minutes into the workout) it was like a switch flipped and I felt great.  I dropped the pace to 30 seconds per mile faster than my goal marathon pace and held that for the last 10 minutes of the step.  I somehow got into flow state and was just flying and feeling great.  It was effortless.  It was great.  That’s why we do it right?  Every once in a while, it feels effortless and that’s a beautiful thing. … I’m going to leave you with more word play from my current fascination with the history of English.  My favorite Old English word so far is ‘Gongawiver’ which translates to “Going Weaver”, Gongawiver.  That’s the old English word for spider.  Isn’t’ that great? You can use it in a sentence… Like, “The epicene server at Starbucks was frightened by a scary gongawiver. And I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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Episode 5-5485 – Nate Talks About Parenting

Hello my running friends. And so, the universe finds us together again. It is a fine Monday morning at the end of April bleeding into May and the fulsome fecundity of mother nature bursts free from the oppressive bonds of winter. 

The birds are singing, the rabbits are munching, the flowers show their timid faces in the new dawn of longer days and happier times. 

And here we are.  

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-403 – Marnie’s Art Adventures (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4403.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-403.  How is everyone doing?  Reinvigorated for this new year?  No?  Feeling the cold winter doldrums?  Well snap out of it!  Put on your big pants! Suck it up Buttercup!  There are roads to be run, there are adventures to be had, there are people to see, people like Marnie, who we talk to today, who did what we all want to do – she took two of her passions – running and art and mixed them together with community to form a little tribe, a little business.  And that was a 56-word long sentence! Vladmir Nabokov would be proud.  Who needs grammar?  It just slows the creative flow.  The first written languages had no grammar.  They were just strings of words. That’s why you need priests to read them and interpret them.  I suppose not unlike our current internet… Anyhow – back to our story.  And what a story it is! I am neck deep and two months out from my 21st Boston Marathon.  My training is going as well as can be expected.  I’m getting all the workouts in.  I’m light and strong.  Weighed in at 172.8 pounds this morning with 9.9% body fat.  Those are random numbers without some context.   What’s the baseline here?  When I raced my PR’s Decades ago the lightest I ever got was the low 180’s.  But as you get old you lose muscle mass.  Just looking at my body composition now at 173 versus then at 185 – they are close to equivalent.  Meaning I’ve lost about 10 pounds of body mass over 20 years.  Some is muscle mass, some is fat storage, some is the shrinking of my brain.  Because we all know that people start losing their minds as they get older, right?  Kurt Vonnegut referred to the 6 pounds of brain in the human skull dismissively as nothing more than “A dog’s Breakfast”.  As for body fat %, a healthy male is not going to get much leaner than 3-6%.  5% is often quoted as the apex of physical, lean, fitness, - the gold standard - for men.  6-10% is considered ‘athletic’ for men.  Women are designed differently and normally (key word there ladies) ‘normally’ are 7-9% higher in fat percentage across the board on all these numbers. In section one I will talk about listening to your bodies.  And in section two I’ll talk about a book I read called “The Subtle Art of not Giving a F*CK”  … What I love about Marnie’s story is that she took a personal adventure, running around her neighborhood, and turned it into a ‘thing’.  You don’t have to get on an aeroplane or cross an ocean to have a fulfilling adventure.  Adventures are all around you.  You just have to reach out and grab them.  You might even say; the adventure is inside you.  On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Listening to your body - http://runrunlive.com/listening-to-your-body Voices of reason – the conversation Marnie Thank you so much for the interview! I am excited about this. To answer your questions:   A short bio for the notes: Marnie Kunz is a running coach, , and entrepreneur. She is the founder of Art Runs, which fuse running and street art to bring people together to learn about art in their communities while getting in a fun workout.   a good picture for the episode art - Please see attached. Photo by . Any links you want to include. Sure!   Marnie's writing on and on   Let me know if you need anything else. Thank you!!   Cheers,   Marnie Section two – Life sucks, then you die… - Outro Well, my friends you have taken a small adventure to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-403.  It’s a rough stretch for me.  I’ve got Valentines Day, my wife’s birthday and our wedding anniversary all in the same 3 week period.  It is a dark time where the alpha male must stick to the shadows and hunt carefully. A time fraught with peril.  Like I said we are 2 months out from Boston.  I’ve been doing some daily blogging of my workouts and other tidbits on my website runrunlive.com if anyone is interested.  The challenge I have is that I’m usually writing those posts at night, after my workout, when I’m half asleep and brain dead.  I do a lot of monosyllabic grunting – and that doesn’t translate into prose well.  I’ve been challenged to keep up with the podcast for a few reasons.  Primarily I don’t have a good place to record.  I used to work from home on Fridays and that was  good, but my wife has decided to take Fridays off – so she’s podcast-blocking all of you.  I’m actually in a conference room right now in the building I work at.  The space that the company has is designed into an old manufacturing space.  I don’t have a real office with a door and the acoustics are terrible.  So, we’ll test this out and see how it works.  I may have to build a studio somewhere.  Another podcast prohibitor is that coach has been scheduling big workouts for me on Fridays.  I came in early this morning to hit the treadmill. He gave me a 7 by 7 minutes at 5K pace. Which is not an easy workout.  With the warm up and cool down and shower you are at over an hour and a half, close to two hours.  Having these long, hard workouts hanging over my head on a Friday screws up my schedule and my head.  I had a video shoot in the office today so I had to get cleaned up.  Of course, no matter how much time you spend wandering around the house preparing stuff for work and the gym you always forget something.  This morning was a belt, which was a problem because I’m so lean my pants are falling off me.  I had to have my wife run a belt over.  Good thing it was her day off!  With Sunday’s 2:30 long run this will give me another 50ish mile week.  So far, so good.  … You may have thought the message of the don’t give a F book was a bit depressing.  But the power of that message is a reset to reality and critical thinking.  When you are forced to confront the fact that life is suffering, you’re not all that special and none of it is going to matter in 100 years anyway it frees you.  It frees you to not take yourself so damn seriously.  It frees you to choose what makes you happy. It frees you to execute with detachment and that enables you to get stuff done, important stuff, that will, at the end of the day make a difference and ease your own and other peoples’ suffering.  So – detaching, helps you to find and to own your own journey.  At least that’s what my dog’s breakfast is telling me.  I’ll see you out there, MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-402 – A Narcissistic Interviewee (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4402.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-402.  First of all let me apologize for causing so much mid-workout vision issues last week for many of you.  I got multiple letters that many of you had some dust in your eyes when I talked about the passing of my friend Buddy.  Or as my sister put it, “Thanks for making me ugly-cry in the gym!” Twas no my intention.  I just wrote what came to me in that moment on that day when I knew we were going to have to make that last trip to the vet and my old friend would need to bring some change to pay the ferryman.  Let’s not be all sack cloth and ashes here, rolling in the mud, tearing at our hair and wailing.  Let’s celebrate today, this moment and the friends we have to share it with.  If a dog teaches you anything it is how to live in and enjoy the moment.  The sun came up today.  The reaper hasn’t caught us yet and we, you and I, are going to fight that asshole all the way down.  We are not going to sit around and wait to be caught. We are going to get out there and live and love and have adventures and make that sonnabitch work hard to catch us.  Right? Sorry for the shows being a bit less predictable in cadence recently.  Life happens.  Even to me! Today we interview some narcissistic knucklehead about pretty much nothing.  In section one I’ll talk about committing, really committing to this marathon cycle.  And in section two I’ll give you the draft introduction to a new book I’m writing on startup sales.  I’ll give you a couple useful tips for the season.  First, this time of year we end up having to hit the gym a lot.  One of the things I do during my warm up, because whether you’re running or lifting or whatever you should do a little 5 minute warm up, what I do is get on the treadmill in my socks for 5 minutes.  I set it at a slow pace, (for me), like 12-15 min miles and just let my feet relax and spread out a bit.  Really helps get everything warm and relaxed.  Second tip is about consistency.  One of the things I’ve been challenged with over the last couple cycles, especially since the 100 miler, is my legs are super tight.  What I’ve done is to work a simple 5-6 minute stretching routine into every day regardless of what my workout is.  It’s not the stretching per se but the consistency of doing it every day that makes a difference. It has really helped my running this cycle.  Small things done consistently have a huge impact. I’ve got a new podcast for you.   If you love words and language like me, you will find this fascinating.  This is for all you closet Philologists and Lexicologists.  If you don’t like these things it’s going to be like a freshman English lecture.  For example, I learned that there is a root language known as Indo-European that influenced Latin, Greek and Germanic.  Those languages borrowed from each other, but were all decedents of the Indo European.  And, today I learned that the original Indo-European word for ‘host’ had a dual meaning of both the host and the guest.  Same word.  This root word gives us both ‘host’ and ‘guest’ as well as house, hospital, hospitality, etc.  It also means that the word Ghost is literally a guest in your house. … Ok.  Get your hankies out. One last Buddy story from last week.  I stayed home with him Thursday and even though we had a rough night he rallied during the day and was up tottering around the house.  At some point in the afternoon my wife came home so I took the opportunity to jump out the door for a run in the woods.  As I’m standing in the open doorway in my running kit talking to me wife the old dog stumbles over and sticks his head between me and the door.  The dog can barely stand but he’s decided he’s ready to head out into the woods with me on a run.  A gamer and a wonder dog to the very end. On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – A new training cycle- http://runrunlive.com/hitting-the-training-again Voices of reason – the conversation Chris Russell Chris is the product of suburban entitlement and over-education.  I promise I’ll find real guests in the future.  😊 Section two – Startup Sales - http://runrunlive.com/startup-sales Outro Well, my friends you have looked at your reflection and fallen in love through to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-402.  Wake up.  We’ve got work to do.  And miles to go before we sleep.  My training is going very well.  My strategy of losing weight and eating clean is paying off with some great workouts.  I feel lean and strong.  At least this week.  I’ve been holding steady at around 173 pounds, which is somewhere around 10 pounds lighter than I normally would be at this point.  The first 10 are easy.  I want to see if I can get down to 165ish and go into Boston at 170ish.  My paces ae better and my staying power in my legs is better.  We’ll see how it goes.  I don’t have any races planned for the spring besides Boston.  This is good and bad.  It’s good because I won’t waste energy and risk over-training by racing too hard.  It’s bad because I like to use those races as practice runs to give me confidence.  So much of racing well is confidence. I’m in the midst of thinking thorough what I want to do with the podcast going forward.  I think this current format has run its course.  I like the format but I want to bring the quality up and be more consistent on the cadence and the themes. … Went out into the trails today.  It was Sunny and just below the freezing mark.  We had a deep freeze, followed by a heavy rain, followed by another freeze.  The trails are nice and firm but there is a lot of ice.  It’s slow going.  Buddy would not have liked it.  He didn’t like the ice.  I ran into a guy ‘walking’ some sort of cattle dog cross that was wildly exuberant, running in circles and giving me friendly full-body hip checks.  Fun times.  Nice to see the people using those trails.  Buddy and I made those trails.  It’s good for the soul.  Getting out in the woods.  Wending your way through the ice and snow.  Splitting the horizon where winter sun meets frozen ground.  That’s life. I’ll see you out there, MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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A life Well Lived (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/ buddy-Eulogy.output.mp3] Link buddy-.output.mp3 A life well lived. I’m standing in the front yard in my pajamas.  It’s 18 degrees and everything is frozen hard with that late January freeze that penetrates deep into the earth.  I’m holding Buddy’s emaciated body up to see if maybe he wants to pee.  He’s warm as he leans against me.  He hangs his head and collapses on weak legs.  I pick him up.  So light now.  Just a warm bag of bones.  Nothing left of that strong dog that would sprint laps in this yard or launch himself 10 feet in the air to grab a frisbee in this yard or steal the soccer ball off my foot in our yard.  His yard.  I have a photograph that I gifted to my wife one year, many years ago.  It’s an aerial photograph of the yard some outfit was peddling in our neighborhood.  The photo is late summer.  There in the green of the grass sits Buddy, ever watchful, surveying the land from his perch on the hill.  Always at the ready. I stayed home with him yesterday.  I slept in the chair next to his bed the night before.  It was a long night.  I was woken every hour or so by the grinding of his teeth and the spasming of his body from long, violent seizures.  I put my hands on him and tell him it’s ok as he rides them out.  Oddly it was a comfort to me.  To be able to spend this time close with him.  I stayed home from work and built a fire in the fireplace.  I sat on the couch and read while he stumbled around or slept.  It brought back memories of a parallel time when my oldest daughter Katie was born.  I was in transition between jobs and took a couple weeks off to stay home with the newborn.  I quickly discovered that all I could do was hold that warm infant on my chest and read.  And we spent that time together.  And I was grateful for it.  After this long night I thought this was the day, but he perked up.  He was stumbling around the house.  He was eating some treats.  I figured I’d give him another night.  He earned it.  But today is that day.  He was doing fine a month ago on his 16th birthday, but something happened.  Some sort of system failure.  He lost 15 pounds in less than a month.  The seizures.  This morning he could not stand.  It happens quickly.  He’s exhausted.  It’s a difficult puzzle to unravel with a pet.  How much of this is me trying to avoid my own pain and how much of it for them?  How do you make that decision or more importantly, when do you make that decision?  We can’t fathom their thoughts and emotions. As close as they are to us, they are still an alien mind.  Most of the narrative our own egomaniacal anthropomorphizing. It’s a weighty thing to have to decide the time of death for a friend.  These last couple days he hasn’t been eating his food, but he has been more than willing to eat our food.  As sick and weak as he is, even when we have to hold him up, he’ll inhale that hamburger and chicken and chees with a pepperoni chaser.  Good for him.  Getting the last laugh. Most people have many pets in their lives, but there is always that one.  The one that grew up with your kids.  That one that was your best friend.  Buddy was that pet for us.  He was not without neuroses.  He was irrationally afraid of thunder and fireworks.  He was hard-wired to chase anything that moved, no matter what your opinion on the appropriateness of that chasing was. But he was the best dog I have ever known.  He was my running partner.  He shared thousands of miles of road a trail at my side, stride for stride.  He was incredibly smart, incredibly athletic and the kindest, gentlest guileless soul to his pack.  How many spiritual moments did we share in the trails?  Hundreds.  Thousands.  Uncountable.  Truly shared, because he an I had this resonance in the woods, this shared joy of the joyous bounty of nature beneath our feet and around us.  We celebrated together.  We were a pack of two, brothers, and single-minded on the hunt.  As men and dogs have been for eons.  Filled and vibrating with the perfectness of the forest.  Permeated with that primeval joy.  I’ll miss that.  But, I’ll also celebrate it.  Because how lucky am I to have intersected with this soul in this time and place?  How much fuller am I?  He gave me more than I can ever give.  He was an example of kindness and joy.  He was my friend and his passing will leave a big hole in all our lives.  It was a life well lived.

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-400 – Matt makes it stick (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4401.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-401.  Nice to be back in the saddle from the holidays.  I feel like I’ve had a good couple months.  I took an extra week on my cadence for this one because It was the holidays and, frankly, I had a lot going on.  Plus I was sick.  I got whatever cold is going around.  Not the flu.  Not pneumonia. Just a cough that hung around for the better part of 2 weeks.  I managed to hold the line on my diet through the holidays.  I did not lose a bunch of weight, but I did eat relatively cleanly and avoided most of the sweets and adult beverages of the season.  This was my plan, so well done me.  This puts me in a healthy spot to hit my Boston training hard and lose 10-15 pounds. Because I think that’s what I’m going to need to do to have any shot of requalifying.  People think ‘Hey, Boston is in the spring! You’ve got plenty of time!” But that’s not really true.  When you turn the corner to a new year on January 1st you are only 3 and ½ months away, which in broad strokes means 14 weeks.  A typical hard training cycle for me is 12 weeks with a 2 week taper, so it’s game on.  I’m not starting from scratch and I’m healthy and I’m mentally enthusiastic.  The dark times will come, but as of now I’m in a good spot.  Today we chat with Matt who is a team mate of mine.  He’s got a great story.  And it’s a timely story as we ease into the ‘resolution season’.  Listen to what it took for Matt to find the courage to switch the momentum and begin his transformation.  In section 1 I’ll give you a wrap up on the Groton Marathon, which, against the odds we managed to pull off successfully last Sunday.  Thinking about it, if I include that in my week, I’m over 50 miles for week one of my training!  Feel pretty good for that. In section 2 I’ll perambulate about goals and stuff, because, hey, it’s that time of year. … When I was out running the Groton Marathon with my buddies I told them I had two topics that I wanted to discuss.  The first was the ending of the movie Road House and the second was the Boston Marathon of Sex.   Now, this being a family friendly show I’ll reserve the latter explanation for my members feed. I’m writing that as we speak and I crack myself up. But, I was watching, or more to the point being forced to watch the movie Road House with Patrick Swazey, may he rest in piece, and like so many of the movies from that era, the ending didn’t make any sense.  So he rips the one bad guy’s throat out.  Then he goes after the big bad guy.  Kills 4 of his henchmen and then has the final fight with the big bad guy.  In the end he decides not to rip that guy’s throat out but the friendly villagers kill the bad guy with shotguns.  Shortly after the police show up.  Now we have been told that the police are in the back pocket of the bad guy.  The police ask, ‘What happened?’ and everyone says “We didn’t see anything…”  And that’s it.  Cut to the final seen of Swazey skinny dipping with the love interest.  So, let me get this straight… There’s 6 dead bodies, one of which has Patrick Swazey’s knife sticking out of his chest, and the police just shrug their shoulders and say, ‘Well, I guess since no one saw anything…it’s all good… nothin to see here…”? I’ve seen enough episodes of Law and Order to know they’re not getting off that easy! It’s ok, I ripped his throat out in self-defense… Plus, they shot this guy with old shotguns.  He probably wouldn’t be dead yet when the police come in.  If it was bird shot he’d just be uncomfortable.   Maybe he had a heart attack from the shock.  But think about all the movies you’ve seen where the end is a big pile of dead guys and it’s ok.  That will give you something to talk about on your next long run. On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – 2018 Groton Marathon- Voices of reason – the conversation Matt Schorer Matt is father, husband and triathlete from upstate NY who recently made the successful move to reclaim his health.  He trains with Jeff Kline at DailyFitBook.net Matt is currently training for the Lake Placid IronMan in Late June of this year.   Section two – Your Best Self - http://runrunlive.com/your-best-self Outro Well, my friends kicked off your new year with a thorough listening to of  the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-401.  Check that off your list.   Next up for me is a whole lot of training.  I’m going deep.  I can’t control the weather but I can control whether or not I show up and whether or not I consistently do the work.   I’ve got a good jump start on this cycle.  I’ve been working on my core a stretching daily.  I skipped the Hangover Classic this year. I was still fighting a cold and didn’t think jumping in the Atlantic Ocean was such a good idea.  I did finally start working on the startup sales book.  I pushed the introduction out to LinkedIn.  If anyone is interested in being a proof reader or a friendly critical eye I welcome the help.  One of the things I’m trying to do better is to ask for help.  I tend to want to do everything myself and that has a built in ceiling to it. … I see the people in my community starting to complain about all the people showing up at the gym this week.  My experience is that they tend to peter out after 10 days or so.  I’ve got a couple suggestions for this first of the year gym bottleneck.  First, if it really bugs you go early or late.  I don’t care what time of year it is, you’ll have plenty of elbow room at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning.  Second, as we heard from Matt today, some of those out of breath people ARE going to stick it out.  Let’s try to lean in and encourage them.  Be that person that is the tipping point in that emerging healthy person’s life.  Take this as an opportunity to spread the good news and set a good example.  This is a good way for you to practice abundance in the new year. And, if you see Patrick Swazey, run because he’s been dead for a decade so the zombie apocalypse will be under way.  And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-400 – David Crosses the Jordan (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4400.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-400.  Yeah, that’s right, 400th numbered episode.  That’s something.  I still get the occasional letter form someone who has found inspiration or comfort in what you and I, my friends, do here on the RunRunLive Podcast.  And by George, if we’re still helping people or adding value, we’ll keep going! A couple notes about last week’s show.  I said Buddy was 14, which was technically correct, but he turned 15 this week.  The old dog.  He doesn’t like getting up in the morning now, especially when he has to troop outside in the freezing cold.  The other thing I forgot to add was that I got so flustered by the karmic peeing - pooping incident at the pet store that I forgot to use the coupon that I went home to get originally that started the whole thing. Ce’st la vie. I’m making some progress with my nutrition.  I’m going on over 30 days of pretty clean eating and starting to see some results.  My strategy was to start early and not wait until after the holiday.  This way even if I could only battle to a tie, I won’t be starting my spring training cycle in a hole.  If I look at data from previous years, I typically lose it big time in December and it costs me 5-10 pounds. If I have any chance of re-qualifying this year with the new standards, I’m going to have to be 10 pounds lighter going into the race. My legs and pacing continue to give me trouble.  Coach says it’s a hangover from the 100 miler.  I just can’t seem to find my easy zone 2 pace on the roads.  I’m working it.  Trying to be patient.  On today’s show we have our friend David Foss who took an adventure to the Dead Sea to run a trail marathon.  In section one I’ll probably give you a brief recap of my Mill Cities race. In section 2 I’ll talk about a book I’ve been reading.  I read a lot of books.  Reading is my go-to vehicle for absorbing content.  I have to be careful because I can be influenced by books as well.  I’ll read the latest book on XYZ and find myself all of a sudden trying to put XYZ into full blown practice.  My filter is not the best sometimes.  … This time of year is hard for a lot of people.  I don’t know why.  Maybe it’s the holidays force you to deal with family stuff.  Maybe it’s the cold and dark.  Maybe it’s something seasonal with our species.  I was reading an emotional outpouring from a woman on the social media site where she was really struggling.  She had abusive relationships, she was injured and she couldn’t shake the feelings of desperation and depression.  The walls closing in.  I suppose that’s one positive thing about social media is that people can use it to reach out to the community for help.  Sure enough there were a long trail of positive responses.  People trying to help.  It was a positive response to a cry for help.  111 responses as of last viewing.  I happened to notice a post that our friend who is in a related profession shared.  So I copied it and reposted it.  “Did you know that if you text "Home" to 741741 when you are feeling depressed, sad, or going through any kind of emotional crisis, a crisis worker will text you back immediately and continue to text with you? Many people, especially younger ones, prefer text to talking on the phone. It's a free service to anyone-- teens, adults, etc.-- who lives in the US. Depression is real, you are not alone.” 741741 I have not tried it, but I trust Greg – it’s in the show notes if you need it. I also responded that “We are all basket cases. Some of us just hide it better. And to Keep running.” Because on social media people only share their perfect worlds with their perfect relationships and perfect children and perfect race times!  Life’s not like FaceBook.  Life is rusty and lumpy.  Don’t get caught comparing yourself to someone else’s best day ever.  On with the show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Mill Cities Relay- http://runrunlive.com/mill-cities-relay-2018 Voices of reason – the conversation David Foss During the business day, David is a professional geologist and Massachusetts Licensed Site Professional, focusing on Brownfields redevelopment and the productive reuse of regulated hazardous waste sites.  After hours, David is an endurance athlete making time to test his limits and expand his horizons.  In 2012 he joined some friends for a New Years’ 5K and came to the realization that something was missing from his life.  He was a busy environmental professional, husband, and father of two, but what was missing was the time to clear his head, think, and get back to nature.  Endurance sports (road cycling, kayaking, and running) helped round out David’s world view.  Since that first 5K race, he has found distance running to be a path to happiness and mindfulness.  He has run 4 road marathons (one DNF), 2 trail marathons, 4 trail 50K’s, a 50-Mile race, and a 12-hour race.   After running 57-miles in 12 hours in the rain and dark, David shared the following blog post:  Suffering is Optional In 2015 David Followed the “Marathon BQ” training plan and grabbed that golden ring, running a 3:19 to qualify for Boston.  Running the Boston Marathon was an amazing, magical experience.  In contrast, this interview is a discussion of the Eilat Desert Marathon in the Negev Desert in southern Israel.  The Desert Marathon was an amazing experience - - and as different from Boston as can be imagined.  David is a regular contributor to “The Extra Mile Podcast” and shares his thoughts on running and life in the Spreaker podcast:  “Running Virtually” by Just-Plain-Dave. Section two – Fear – You can handle it - Outro Well, my friends you have spurred your camel through the eye pf the needle that is the the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-400.  I’m sure it was a biblical, real old testament, experience. Next up for me is the Groton Marathon.  It’s a made up race in the town I grew up in.  I’ve got a handful of people coming out to run with me.  Hopefully the weather won’t be so dreadful this year.  There’s construction at the place we start and finish so I’m going to have to figure out how to put in another couple hundred feet somewhere! Or just cut the course short.  I mean who really cares, right? If you want to swing by Groton Massachusetts, we have all sorts of distances, not just the marathon.  I usually get 15 -20 knuckleheads from my running club to show.  I think David Foss is going to come up.  The dates work out well this year in that the marathon will be on the 30th so I get a day to recover for the Hangover Classic on the 1st.  Then I jump into some serious training for Boston.  January and February are the big months.  I’m going to talk to coach and see if we can’t load it up and get some good miles in.  I’d like to be over-confident going in.  Because, as we all know by now, you never know what the weather is going to be.  If you want to follow my training I use the Daily FitBook platform.  My Garmin data also updates Garmin Connect, Strava and Myfitness Pal – as far as I know.  … I love adventures.  I’ve been traveling most of my career and I always enjoy the spaciousness and freedom of business travel.  I haven’t been getting out as much as I like to in my last couple roles.  Which gives me less fodder for storytelling.  Thanks to David for sharing his travel adventure with us.  I felt like I was there.  I could feel the dry heat and smell the dust.  The dust of centuries.  The dust of civilizations. The dust of history. The first crusade went through where he was.  It was the only recorded time the Europeans used knights in full armor on heavy horse for a frontal charge.  It worked well the first time.  You can imagine how surprising it would have been to have these characters show up in your back yard.   A couple hundred of these guys in heavy armor charging down on you.  As far as historians know it was only used that once in the beginning of the first crusade. Turns out riding a giant horse around the desert in a full metal jacket wasn’t the most effective or flexible means of desert warfare.  I understand.  I get uncomfortable in phoenix riding around in a full suit of clothing.  Last week I was in the glorious Holiday Inn at the Cincinnati airport.  I was out at dinner with the client and say myself next to their marketing person who I will be working with.  Come to find out she’s running her first 50K that weekend!  You can bet she regretted broaching the topic of endurance running with me! You see, our tribe is everywhere, wandering over in deserts of Negev and over deserts in Hebron KY.  Groan all you want.  I own the Dad jokes. and I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-399 – The Mindful Runner (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4399.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-399.  This is Chris your host and today we are going get a bit emotional.  We are going to the dogs.  Our themes are Buddy the Wonder Dog and courage.  One of our longtime friends Janet inquired how Buddy the old wonder dog is doing so today we are going to tell some Buddy stories.  In the interview I invited Gary back on to talk about his new book on running.  I thought the timing was good with the holidays to give you another gift option!  What can you buy for runners that they won’t hate?  A book.  Lots of books on running.  Gary has a dream job of writing about running for a living.  I would have to become independently wealthy to do that.  As it turns out words are cheap, in my experience. I’m doing fine.  I haven’t made much weight loss progress but I’m eating healthier.  The weight will come off as I start building up miles in my spring campaign. I’m working with Rachel to lose some weight and get my nutrition right.  It’s hard through the holidays but I’m giving myself a long runway into the spring so even with setbacks I can ease my way into a good race weight for Boston.  And I’m working with Coach to build some strength.  My core is not as strong as I’d like.  My legs fatigue way faster than I think they should.  My aerobic fitness is good, but my legs can’t get near that aerobic barrier and hold it like they used to.  I went to the PT to get his opinion and there’s nothing wrong with me per se I’m just getting old.  I’m healthy and not injured.  With the shorter days I’ve been pushing my runs out into the evening.  I find this is a dead time for me anyhow.  I’m too mentally tired to do anything creative.  I find it nice and head-clearing to get out on the road in the cold and dark with my lights.  It’s peaceful.  Sometimes the stars are out, or the moon and it’s quite pretty.  … Like I said, we are going to spend some time talking about my old running partner Buddy the Wonder Dog today.  He’s doing OK.  He’s here with me now, sleeping.  The old saying is that you can’t teach and old dog new tricks. I beg to differ.  You can teach an old dog bad habits rather easily.  Buddy has never been given human food.  We never fed him from the table or scraps. I never gave him anything I was eating and as a result he never learned how to beg.  You could eat, he wouldn’t bother you.  As he’s gotten older I started to toss him a peanut now and then.  We let him have the morsels that fell on the floor and what have you.  I figured, hey, how long has he got left?  Let him live a little.  What’s the harm?  Of course, now it doesn’t’ matter what I’m eating.  A soon as I sit on the couch his nose is 3 inches from my food staring intently.  And any time we’re in the kitchen he’s underfoot on scrap patrol.  So, yes, you can teach an old dog bad habits.  The same is probably true for humans. On with the show.   … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Buddy in old age- http://runrunlive.com/buddy-in-old-age Voices of reason – the conversation Gary Dudney GARY DUDNEY has been publishing articles on running, trail running, and ultrarunning for the past 20 years. His work has appeared in all the major running magazines, such as Runner’s World, Running Times, Trailrunner, and Marathon & Beyond. For Ultrarunning magazine, considered the “voice of the sport” of ultra long distance running, he’s served as a regular columnist since 2008, and he has additionally supplied the magazine with dozens of uniquely quirky race reports.  Ideas for The Tao of Running were shaped by the 60 one hundred mile races he’s participated in and the almost two hundred other long distance races he’s completed. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Kansas in English Literature and his fiction credentials include stories in Boy’s Life magazine and in numerous literary magazines and one published novel, Cries-at-Moon of the Kitchi-Kit. His second book on the mental side of running, The Mindful Runner: Finding Your Inner Focus, was just released on November 1 of 2018. Section two – Courage- Outro Alright, I appreciate you sticking with me through the emotional journey of  Episode 4-3989of the RunRunLive Podcast I’m sure it took great courage on your part.     I ran the Thanksgiving 5K with my daughter and a bunch of people from my running club.  I had a good time.  It’s always great to see friends and its always great to spend time with my kids.  I also decided to stop stressing out about pace and time.  This is just about the only 5K I run each year so it bothers me if I don’t’ race well.  When we woke up before the race it was 9 degrees Fahrenheit, which is very cold for this early in the winter.  There was a nice little breeze too.  So itf you’re one of those softies who believe in windchill it would have felt about zero.  There was no warming up.  I didn’t even bother.  I just went out at what felt like a good hard pace and tried to hold it.  I think I ended up with7:20’s, but who cares, right? I’ve been trying to follow a good morning routine with stretching, meditation, reading and writing and it helps.  I haven’t made much progress on my new book about startup sales, ironically because the startup I’m in is keeping me uber stressed out and busy.  Thanks for playing along.  Next episode will be our 400th official episode. I’ll have to think hard about what I want to do next.  … I decided to write that quick update on Buddy because I got an email from long time friend Janet inquiring for his health and wellbeing.  Let me tell you my Buddy story of the week.  Monday night I was getting ready to leave work.  It was after 6:30.  I had a need to pick up a bag of dog food, because we were almost at the bottom of the barrel.  This is ok, because the dog food store is on my way home.  Then I realized I have forgotten to bring the 10% off coupon for said dog food that I received in the mail and was quite excited about.  I believe the coupon algorithm in the great coupon generating AI computer typically only sends coupons when you don’t need something.  So, the universe has made an error in my favor and I aim to take advantage of it. I decide to go home first.  Which is not on my way.  But I can pick up the dog and take him to the pet store with me as an outing.  It’s one of the few places they allow dogs.  As I leave work it is sluicing rain.  Again.  Rainiest month in history.  (Like a normal week in Seattle or London.)  I get home and go to let Buddy out.  He’s been in the house all day.  He looks outside at the weather and digs in his heels.  “Like, it’s only been 8 hours, I can hold it.  I’m not going from warm bed to cold rain!” I push him out onto the wet front steps.  I do some quick things around the house.  I grab the coupon off the fridge and retrieve him for the trip to the store.  It’s still pouring rain.  I’m not dressed for it having just come from work.  He digs in his heels as I try to load him into the truck.  Armful of wet dog into the seat.  We drive off to the pet store to get the food.  It’s late.  No one is in the parking lot and the store is empty.  I unload the dog and lead him on the leash to the store.  He wants to wander around the parking lot and sniff everything.  It’s pouring rain, still.  We enter the empty store and I lead him back to the section where his food bags are stacked.  Leaving a trail of wet footprints.  I have to keep pulling him away from all the interesting things to sniff on the way.  I know to keep an eye on him because the pet store is full of pet smells.  There have been hundreds of other dogs in there getting groomed and trained and just wandering around.  I know if I don’t watch him, he may try to mark something.  It’s not that he has that bad habit, it’s just that his reptilian brain gets overwhelmed by the scent of other dogs.  For a dog nose that place must be the equivalent of technicolor.  I find the food and sure enough as I’m hoisting a 30-pound bag up onto my shoulder one handed with the leash in the other hand, he starts peeing on the floor.  Dammit! I yank him away and go to check out.  Now I have a moral decision to make.  A decision that requires courage.  Pretend it didn’t happen or confess to the young lady at the register.  And as I’m practicing doing things that scare me this month, I decide to come clean, so to speak.  She says they have “Sanitary Stations” just for this and asks if I want her to clean it up or would I like to do it myself – with the clear emphasis on ‘do it yourself’.  I grab a handful of paper towels from the sanitary station and the bottle of organic squirty stuff.  I mop up my friend the dog’s unfortunate leavings.  I have to make another trip to get more towels.  He was serious about his duties.  When all is as clean as it’s going to get we wander back to the register to retrieve the big bag of food.  I ask her if most people just ignore it and leave.  She says that mostly happens with poop.  Que the ominous foreshadowing. We exit the building.  It is, impossibly, raining even harder and colder.  Me in my dress pants and shirt with a big bag of food balanced on my shoulder like a suburban lumberjack and the leash in the other hand.  I decide to pause to let him sniff the pots outside the door.  I feel bad that I had to practice urinatus-interuptus on him in the store.  But he has other plans and begins to poop on the sidewalk in front of the store.  I say ‘no’ and try to pull him away but he manages to leave a trail of breadcrumbs, so to speak across the parking lot.  Eventually I wrangle him and the bag of food into the truck.  Now I’m stuck in another moral conundrum, but since I’ve already got momentum, I grab a plastic bag (that I keep in the truck for these types of outings) and stoop amid the puddles to undo the poo.  And that is my old Buddy story from this week.  There is no moral to it, but I think I earned some karma.  and I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-398 – Kat Comes Back   (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4398.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-398.  I was on Facebook Messenger this week and realized there were unread messages in there.  Some several years old.  I’m not sure if this was an artifact of some server upgrade or from when they pulled Messenger out into a separate app, but If you sent me a Facebook message and didn’t’ hear back, I apologize.  I usually respond to everything.  I like interacting. Hope I didn’t cause anyone to give up.  Today we talk with Katrin who’s story I found in my Boston Marathon Training group.  Some interesting stories in there.  I wanted to talk to her because she was able to accomplish something I have never been able to.  She was able to race herself into the hospital.  I don’t know about you, but I tend to give up way before I collapse on the course.  Don’t worry, it has a happy ending.  In section one I’m going to explore the concept of mastery.  In section two I’m going to talk about happiness and purpose.  I’ve been working on myself over the last couple weeks.  Not just physically but overall.  I’m working with Rachel on my nutrition, I’m doing some personal improvement work and I’ve got my morning routine going.  I go through cycles and I was ready for a reboot.  One of the things that popped up is I have another book in my mind that is begging to get out.  How blessed am I that these things just stand up and shout every now and then? I’ve just started but the topic is going to be Startup Sales.  It’s going to be for the entrepreneur who has a  started a company, with a great idea and great promise but has to learn how to sell that idea and promise.  This is my 3rd trip through the startup cycle and I think I could help a lot of people.  Not just the tactical ‘how to’ but the emotional wrapper that comes with navigating the choppy seas of a startup.  Much like I combined the tactical practice of speedwork with the ability to mentally survive the dark places of an intense training campaign in MarathonBQ.  I’m still in formulation mode, but if you have any good ideas or want to introduce me to a publisher or want to ride along as an editor or muse, let me know. … As you listen through today think about how you can focus on mastery and not just competence or getting by.  Listen to how Katrin was able to navigate the extreme learning of her two marathons.  Think about what you love doing, what your purpose is and why you are here.  And I’m glad you’re here.  Brilliant! On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Mastery- http://runrunlive.com/mastery   Voices of reason – the conversation Katrin Maesse My third marathon, two words: Boston Qualification!!!💙💛 The official finishing time was 3:28:50h, so much better than I thought it would be! Not sure if this will be really enough for Boston but for now I take it - happy and proud! 🎉 As usual, I went out too fast, so I took it easier after the first 17 miles. However, it was amazing from the start to the finish. I met super cool people to chat with, could motivate two guys not to walk but to stay with me for some miles, celebrated with the cheering crowed and loved to see my cheerleaders and  along the course 😍26.2 miles of smiling!  Right before mile 24 and again before mile 26 I had bad cramps and needed to stop to stretch my calves..I finished on cramping legs but I finished! I cried many happy tears, started smiling again and gave high fives to every single Marine I met on the way to my medal!  Happy and proud of todays achievement! Like Adrianne would say: I can do hard things! ❤️ Section two – Happiness and Purpose- http://runrunlive.com/the-pursuit-of-happiness-and-its-relationship-to-purpose Outro Thank you my friends for joining me for Episode 4-398 of the RunRunLive Podcast – were you able to collapse, recover and keep going?  I’m still taking it relatively easy now.  I’m working with my nutrition coach Rachel to get healthy over the next few months (and of course lighter) so I can put a good training cycle in for the spring.  I go through cycles of good nutrition and those typically last with some point adjustments for a couple years and then I need to get help again for a few months.  I’m definitely in the conscious competence Phase where I know what I’m supposed to do but have trouble executing.  If anyone wants to work with Rachel, I’ll put her links in the show notes, or you can shoot me an email at cyktrussell at gmail dot com.  Next up for me is a Thanksgiving Day race that I run every year with my younger daughter.  I’m not expecting much but I’ll go give it a whirl, see my friends, have some fun.  I’m a big consumer of podcasts.  Partly it’s my personality type where I just hate to waste time, so if I’m in my car or on the run I listen to podcasts.  I have smattering of business and pleasure and have gotten good at cycling on to new ones when I feel like it and ignoring old ones, otherwise the list of un-listened to podcasts will pile up and make you feel guilty.  It’s ok.  It’s ok.  Listen to what you like and dump what you don’t. You’re under no obligation.  I don’t’ listen to those running podcasts where people just get on and talk while they run.  It’s just not interesting to me.  And I don’t feel like I get a lot out of the ‘how to’ running podcasts either.  Here are a few episodes or podcasts that have stood out in the last few months.  I’ll try to link them in the notes. First is a new podcast called Ultra running history by Davey Crockett.  Davey does a great job of producing a show.  It is well recorded with good audio and lots of sound effects and sound bites.  The history of ultra events is super interesting.  Another show I have on my feed, like millions of other folks is Tim Ferris.  I would never say that a person as successful as Tim impresses me as a narcissistic ass most of the time, I would never say that, and I dislike the self-indulgent super long format, so I pick and choose based on the guest.  A recent episode #343 featured Seth Godin.  Seth is a wonderfully centered and mindful person.  That is a great listen.    Since I’m a New England boy I have been listening to ‘Gladiator’ – by the Boston Globe which is a 6 part series on the rise and fall of Aaron Hernandez.  It’s super dark, but if you remember the murder trial and suicide of Hernandez you’ll be fascinated.    Our friend Zen Runner is doing a new project called ‘Zen 2 Zion – Road to Ultra’ where he is training to run an ultra with his daughter.  It’s charming.  And Adam has always been a good podcaster.  A good, short listen is ‘The Way Heard it’ by Mike Row of Dirty Jobs fame.  He’s a great story teller and these are good little bits of joyful story telling.  (by the way, Tim Ferris’ interview of Mike Rowe was really good too) Lastly, before I move you to the exit, one of the shows I have on my feed is On Being by Krista Tippet.  I believe this is a public radio show as well.  She talks to authors, poets, philosophers and others about super deep woo woo stuff.  I don’t listen to all of them.  I choose a couple here and there that interest me.  She recently did a which was really good.  I try to avoid politics, especially in the current political climate, I find it a waste of energy, but I found this almost a antidote for our current political emotions.  She hold a forum with Sally Kohn who was the Lesbian liberal foil on Fox News for many years and Erik Erickson who is a conservative pundit and radio personality from Georgia.  Instead of setting it up as your typical cable news cage match they explore all the things we have in common.  And at the end of the day you realize that we have 85% in common and only these few things that separate.  That’s the great realization.  No matter who you are. When you look across the way at your supposed adversaries, they are not bad people.  They want what’s best of their family and their country, just like you do.  If you had dinned with them you would like each other, as people, not positions.  The things that separate are small things that have been whipped into big things by people with agendas. We are better than that.  I found it like a giant relief.  Almost life-affirming.  So master a bit of listening and I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-397 – Molly Lives   (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4397.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-397.  How are we doing today?  Are you surprised to hear from me?  Well, I figured since I’ve been missing my publishing deadlines I’d make it a point to get this one out on time! I had some plane time and had a lot to get out of my head around the Baystate marathon I just ran – so let’s celebrate abundance together.  This one is going to be a bit of a gear change from last episodes’ rah-rah Boston qualification dialogue.  Today I reached out to my friend Molly who we’ve known from the on-line running community for a long time.  We ran the Mojo Loco in St. Louis together years ago. The Mojo Loco movement was a thing started by Steve Runner of fame where we would all get together in some city and run a relay race together.  No point other than just a bunch of runners from the online community getting together to meet in the protein form and hang out.  It was a great idea.  Someone should start that project again.  I always follow Molly’s adventures online.  It’s a unique age where we all live out in public through social media.  Molly is always entertaining.  Ironically, I probably would have described her as ‘comically neurotic’. And, I watched as she ran up against something that changed her life.  So, I wanted to talk to her about that and see what, if anything, we could profit from the conversation.  To wrap up last weeks show, Jonathan ended up positively obliterating the Atlantic City Marathon with a 3:11 finish.  That’s the power of focus.  He went from a 3:54 to a 3:11 in about 24 months.  I just read today on social media that he’s gunning for a sub-3 finish next fall.  My training partner Brian toughed out a 3:33 at Baystate to get his 2020 qualifier.  We had another long-time friend of the show finally get the sub-3:30 she’d been chasing for years at, I think Amsterdam.  Great examples of sticking with it and doing the work to get the goal.  My race?  Well, you’ll have to listen to the race report I’m wrapping around this episode. … When you have a situation like Molly’s it clears away all the bullshit in your life.  It makes me ask the question why we can’t get this clarity until it is forced upon us by some crisis?  We all have the power to do what we want, to do what is right and to do what makes us happy.  Why don’t we? It’s because we are too busy trying to live the life that we think we are supposed to.  No one gave us a manual on how to live a healthy life.  The manual we got was to keep in line and do all the ‘right’ things and at some point the reward would come.  It’s probably time to update the manual.  What I would add is… Don’t wait until your name is called.  Don’t pretend to be happy living the life you think you’re supposed to live.  You only get this one life.  You only get this one now.  Respect yourself, accept yourself and do what YOU want to do.  I don’t mean to go Tony Robbins on you, but unless you can come to grips with who you are and what you want the world is just going to spin by.  So get busy with that, would ya? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Baystate part 1- http://runrunlive.com/vapor-flys-and-dead-squirrels   Voices of reason – the conversation Molly Marco Great links:   Imerman Angels   Gilda’s Club (Detroit— though they are in NY, LA, & others)   Look on Twitter for monthly chats regarding breast cancer & brain cancer, for example— using hashtags: #bcsm (breast cancer social media), #btsm (brain Tumor social media).    There are great organizations, depending on the type of cancer— and usually some fun races!   I just did Head for the Cure 5K in Detroit last month— that one is great! Do some google searches and you can find some great organizations near you.   Section two – BayState part 2 - http://runrunlive.com/vapor-flys-and-dead-squirrels Outro Thank you my friends for joining me for Episode 4-397 of the RunRunLive Podcast unless you gave up halfway through, then you’re not here anymore.  What am I going to do now?  I’m going to rest a bit.  Take some time off, gain some weight and get my head right, get my passion back.  Running, when you do it right is a clear a crisp beacon of passion.  When you do it wrong you get your ass kicked.  I’ve got some fun races in the fall.  There’s the traditional Thanksgiving 5K in Ayer.  Then the Mill Cities Relay with my club.  And, of course, the last Sunday in December, the 30th, we will gather for the Groton Marathon, which is a made up race of any distance and any pace you want to run with me and my friends up in Groton Massachusetts – you can visit the website at grotonmarathon.com. Come up and play with us.  Last weekend when I was in the pace pack people kept asking me how many marathons I’d run.  I didn’t know how to answer.  Do I count the ultras? Do I count those training runs that were longer than 26.2?  If that’s the case I think I ran 8 marathons over the summer! I’m going to continue to count Groton. Even though it’s a made-up race.  Come up and join me.  We’ll jog a casual 4:00 hour marathon and tell tall tales.  I told coach we have a full gym at the place I work now.  I told him he should teach me how to use the heavy bag because it always looks cool when people are kicking and punching it on TV! Next summer I think I’ll do a mountain biking cycle, I miss it.  Find an epic race that rewards endurance and doesn’t penalize lack of skill.  Before that I’ve got a qualified ticket to the 2019 Boston Marathon.  I haven’t requalified there since 2010.  Maybe that’s a worthy goal? … I have another trick for you when you are in uncomfortable situations where you feel like you have imposter syndrome.  This one is the ‘super-hero avatar’ trick.  It’s appropriate for Halloween.  Maybe I should have used it last Sunday! The trick is to think of someone real or imagined who is fantastic in these situations.  They are the superhero of whatever this situation you are afraid of. Picture them engaging the crowd, wowing the opposition, swaying everyone with their charisma and drive.  They are epitome of the pro you wish you were.  Got that person in your head?  Got them visualized?  Ok, now give them a name.  A cool name.  A superhero name.  Like “Crusher” or “T-Rex”.  Got it? Ok now next time you go into a situation that scares you think about how Crusher or T-Rex would handle it.  Visualize what they would do.  Now put their avatar in front of you like a projection.  Even better step into that projection like putting on a costume.  Live that situation through your super hero’s eyes and actions.  What would Crusher do in this situation?  What would T-rex do? Try that.  It might not help, but it’s fun. What the heck do you have to lose?  Life is short.  Live it like you mean it. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-396 – Jonathan – This is my Olympics!   (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4396.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-396.  This is your friend Chris.  How are we doing?  It’s marathon racing season.  We just had Chicago, New York is in a couple weeks and every weekend hosts a plethora of regional races in these few contiguous weeks.  I myself am racing this Sunday at Baystate.  Jonathan, who we interview here today is racing at Atlantic City.  If you’ve been with the show long enough, you might remember I raced there a few years back as well.  It’s an interesting loop course that starts and finishes on the boardwalk.  If you’ve ever seen Boardwalk Empire on HBO that’s the boardwalk they’re talking about.  Today’s show is about focus.  So far in this, I guess we might call it a series of themes, we looked at empowerment and then last week endurance.  This week’s theme is focus.  As we talk through Jonathan’s journey listen to the focus that he brings to his training and his goal.  He’s like a berserker warrior in his single-minded focus on this achievement and he’s been able to have some success with this element of his approach.  So, obviously I’m going to tease apart the concept of focus in section two.  In section one I’m going to outline what I have learned over the years about how to take large chunks off your finishing time.  How to break plateaus, surprise yourself and get non-linear gains in performance.  (sounds like a new book). I’m as ready as I’ll ever be for the Baystate marathon on Sunday.  I’m fit, I got some decent training in and I have not real injuries.  I’m still heavier than I’d like to be optimally, but I’m healthy.  Looks like the weather is going to be decent but maybe a bit cold and a bit windy.  If it holds where it is it will be just about freezing at the start and there will be 10-15 mile per hour winds.  I’ve run this course n a windy day before and there are long stretches that are open to it.  With the BAA lowering the qualification standards, (or raising them, depending on your point of view), the race moved all the pace groups up 5 minutes.  That makes it easy for me.  I’ll just attach myself to the back of the 3:30 pace group and chill out.  This is typically a pretty big pace group, at least for the first half, so I can stay out of the wind.  Just try to idle until we hit that final stretch across the river and see how I feel – either hang on or drive it home.  … I seems old-hat to say that we all get the same number of hours in the day.  But, focus is how you find the leverage in what you have to achieve a goal.  Think of a magnifying glass.  Maybe when you were a kid you held that magnifying glass in your hand and noticed that the convex lens focused the light.  At a certain height and angle you found that focal point (or for our purposes ‘focus point’).  This focus point collected all the power of 3-4 inches of sun and condensed it to a point, that dot of light. Then you discovered that this dot of light had the intensity to start fires in the dry leaves or fry unsuspecting insect life.  Through focus you were able to take the same patch of sunlight that might warm your face and create overwhelming energy at one point. That’s the power of focus.  On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Big Chunks! - http://runrunlive.com/big-chunks   Voices of reason – the conversation Jonathan Lieberman Just that I’ve reached low 180s lbs and will be attempting to BQ for 2020 on October 21 in Atlantic City! Thanks man! Here’s a pic from Philly RnR Half last week: The (much) shorter answer to your question of “How do I do it” re: training is my mantra “This Is My Olympics” (which I of course forgot to mention🙄, if you want to include that in the show notes and/or title.   Section two – Focus - http://runrunlive.com/focus Outro Thank you my friends for joining me for Episode 4-396 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Hopefully you wetre able to find the focus to stay with me. The Baystate marathon is on Sunday.  I didn’t manage to get as light as I wanted, but I’m healthy and had a reasonable training cycle.  I did more speed work than coach normally gives me to get some leg speed to go with that aerobic fitness.  That’s my challenge.  I’m fit enough to go the distance, but my legs are the constraint.  It looks like the weather is going to be a bit chilly for the race, which is good for me.  I’d rather have the cold than the hot.  Like I said in the intro, my plan is to hang on to the back of the 3:30 pace group and see what I have in the high miles.  I bought a month’s worth of meal planning from Rachel and coach.  The training site we use is called DailyFitBook.  That’s how I get my workouts.  For the last month I’ve gotten 3 recipes a day in my workouts which was cool.  The meals are a lot more paleo type than I’m used to. But I have successfully learned to make frittata, and turkey burgers and I make a nice coleslaw now.  Real men make coleslaw, yeah?  These protein-heavy meals fill you up more and the rest of my family doesn’t hate them.  … One last though for you.  Do you ever suffer from imposter syndrome?  You know, you find yourself in a meeting or a situation and wonder “Holy cow, everyone is looking at me, counting on me, and who am I? I’m not good enough, smart enough, etc for this!  I’m a fake! What can I do so they don’t find me out?!” I mean, obviously not me, I’m speaking for a friend… A consequence of this kind of thought process is your inner turmoil, your inner noise, your inner insane dialogue gets so loud it crowds out everything else and you are immobilized just when you need to be a better version of yourself.  Your inner insane dialog (which, by the way no one else is thinking except you), prevents you form rising to the very occasion that you are stressed about to begin with.  Here’s what you can try.  Here are a couple tricks.  Before the next interaction do some prep.  Find a quiet place.  Relax.  Put yourself in a meditative state.  Quiet yourself.  Shush those voices.  Picture your head as a big circle, like a pie chart.  Picture that pie chart as having two slices.  The first slice is red-orange and it is all the insane, negative, self-talk.  The other slice is your clear-thinking normal self.  When you go into these stressful interactions the red-orange side of the pie chart grows until it crowds out the nice, blue-green, smart, well spoken slice.  And instead of paying attention and focusing on what you are delivering or what the other humans are saying, all your sanity gets crowded out and you don’t hear anything anyone else has to say.  It leaves you with only a tiny slice of your effective thinking to use.  This response basically disables you, and keeps you from being your best self in that situation.  Instead, visualize the circle filling with tat blue-green rational thought.  Picture that red-orange dissolving.  If you can get good at this ‘in the moment’ you can catch yourself and refocus.  No one else cares about the noise in your head.  Practice clearing that out and being present. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-395 – Karen - From the Brink to Boston (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4395.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-395.  Today’s show is about endurance. Hopefully it will be available for you folks who are stepping into the Chicago marathon this weekend. Not that you would need a podcast to listen to at Chicago.  I mean, you’ve got 45,000 other runners to talk to.  You probably won’t catch Galen Rupp or Mo Farah.  You might be able to catch Joan Benoit Samuelsson, she’s going for the age group record as a 61 year old, but that’s doubtful as well.  Amy Cragg is out there with the elites as well.  I hear the weather is going to be bad.  High winds and maybe some rain.  I remember joking after Boston this year that if they had that kind of weather in Chicago it would be the apocalypse.  Hopefully it won’t be too bad and it will give everyone something epic to talk about.  Endurance is the theme today.  I talk with Karen who is a prime example of not giving up.  This is the second person this year who I have talked to with one of these incredible stories of rebirth.  In section one I’ll give you a primer on Achilles tendinitis (I made a video for this one as well because the stretches are hard to explain without a visual) and in section two I’ll wax poetically about endurance.  Since we last talked my training has run the gamut between horrible and wonderful.  Right after our last show I had to walk away from a long tempo run because I was just shot.   I was pretty down about it.  I don’t like giving up on workouts.  But I couldn’t hold the paces and my form was shot so I walked away 2 hours into a 3-hour workout.  But since then I have had a couple really good workouts.  I’ve been doing a lot of speed work and my tempo paces have come down to encouraging levels.  I have been consistently holding paces in the 7:30’s on my long tempo and that bodes well for the upcoming marathon. Some of you may have heard that you would have needed to beat your qualifying time by over 4 minutes this year to get into Boston.  As registration closed the BAA announced that for the 2020 race they are lowering all the standards by another 5 minutes.  For me that means I now need to run a 3:35 to make the standard, which is a hair over 8-minute miles.  … You may have gotten used to hearing my dog Buddy the border collie in the background of these recordings.  I had him into the vet last week for a check up.  He’s doing fine. He’ll be 15 in December. With the cooler fall weather he comes back to life and gets agitated.  He can’t really run anymore.  His hips are pretty shot. He can still move well and isn’t in any discomfort.  He’s in great shape for his age, but, like me, he doesn’t realize how old he is.  Living an active life has probably given him an extra 2 years with us to enjoy.  When I was walking down the sidewalk with him on the leash towards the vet a guy was unloading an old standard collie.  He had a ramp that he unfolded so the old collie could totter down out of his van.  This poor old thing could barely move. When he got the collie into the vet’s office he said ‘Don’t let him lie down or he won’t be able to get up.’ I asked the guy ‘How old?’.  Thinking this museum piece of a collie must be really old compared to Buddy.  The answer was 12.  Buddy was 2 years older than this poor old collie and trotting around like he owned the place, ready to go.  So – there ya go – lead an active life and you’ll have a much higher quality of life in the later innings. On with the Show. … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Achilles- http://runrunlive.com/achilles-primer Voices of reason – the conversation Karen Moore – From the Brink to Boston ‎ to   ·  Everyone has a story. I have been a runner most of my adult life. Have done marathons all through the years. Two and a half years ago while out for my run I got hit by a hit and run driver. I was found along the road side by a amazing man. I was unconscious, major head trauma, leg broken in three places, multiple cuts, bruises. After a very long 8 months I started walking to get strong. Soon I was doing a limp like shuffle jog. It was ugly but it was a start. My daughter always wanted to run a marathon with me. I was not going to let this person who hit me take this from us. Lots of stubborn runners strength kept me going. Never would have guessed it but two years after I ran a marathon with my daughter and almost qualified. Two months later in Philly I did it. What the power of love can do. Can not believe it is real. Scared, proud. My daughter will be my cheer leader. Her goal is to qualify this year in philly. Someone wake me.  —  feeling blessed. Section two – Endurance - Outro You know what I’m going to say, right?  Yup.  That’s it you have endured another episode of the RunRunLive Podcast.  That was number 4-395.   Episode 4-395 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  I’m in my taper for Baystate.  It’s on the 21st.  I seem to have gotten enough speed back and am confident that I have an opportunity to beat that new 3:35 standard.  We’ll see.  All you can do is put yourself in position to race.  You get to the starting line and the universe takes care of the rest, right? I have a tip for you.  When I first started running seriously I used to rely on a lot of sports drinks.  I used to power my runs with Gatorade and Power Bars.  But over the years I’ve come to find it easier, and heathier, to condition my body to run off its own fat stores with minimal intervention.  I still use fuel in races but only enough to keep the fire lit, so to speak.  Regardless of the fueling product you are using what I have found is that the recommended dosage from the manufacturers is always too strong, at least for me.  This goes all the way back to when I ran on Gatorade.  Full strength Gatorade gave me stomach issues.  My tip for you is to practice cutting what ever you’re using by half.  What ever it is.  If it says a scoop per bottle, just put in a ½ scoop.  This way it won’t impact your stomach.  You get used to it and you can meter your intake just as well with a lighter dose.  … Speaking of Buddy’s visit to the vet, I myself went to get a checkup.  I try to get in every year for a physical because I’m in that age group that gets some of those top ten diseases like prostate cancer and colon cancer.  It’s just good practice. I hadn’t been in for a couple years because of different urgencies in my life so I figured I should. No surprise I am boringly healthy.  My blood pressure is excellent.  My prostate is lovely.  It’s all good.  I joke to my doctor that I am an exceedingly uninteresting patient, and he tells me that I make his job easy.  Did you know that 75-80% of medical issues are lifestyle related?  The top 3 contributing lifestyle factors are of course diet, exercise and smoking.  Pretty simple.  It’s a game where you know the rules and have an 80% chance of winning.  What are you going to do with all that extra quality of life now that you know the secret? Shal we find out together? I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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A quick update from the trails with Ollie.

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-394 – Liz runs on Venti (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4394.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-394.  Today’s show is about empowerment.  There has been much ballyhoo around empowerment in the past few years, rightly so.  To my mind it is not about someone in charge, or society or culture stepping forward and blessing you with empowerment.  It is about you realizing that you have the strength, the gifts, the permission to be empowered. Just like ‘inspired’ means to be filled with spirit, ‘empowered’ means to be given or gifted power.  What we’re going to realize is that we have the ability to give ourselves that gift.  This is a big part of how a good coach, and a transition to an endurance lifestyle, can transform your mindset by giving you, or more appropriately, revealing to you your own infinite power.  Today we have a chat with Liz, who is a runner, a coach and a mom.  Liz and I have spent some time running the roads of Groton together.  We talk about empowerment of her runners.  In section one I’ll tell my Wapack Trail Race tail.  And in section two I’ll talk about…I’ll give you three guesses… That’s right Empowerment! I’m ramping up my training for the Baystate Marathon in October.  Have been working on my speed and it’s awful but I’m getting the workouts done.  At least the weather is turning a bit cooler now up here so I can avoid the soupy heat and humidity.  But the days are getting shorter in a hurry as well.  I’m doing some workouts at night in the dark.  I don’t mind, I’ve always been a night runner.  I did a trail run one night last week and it was a clear moonless night.  Really pretty to be able to look up through the trees and see the stars splashed across the sky.  As we move into fall the Concord grapes are ripening.  The sweet-sour smell hits you as you pass by.  They are screaming florid grape smells at you as if to say, “We’re still here! Your Vikings and colonials have come and gone, but we’re still here!”  I have a key tip for you.  Something I learned from the 100 mile training.  When I run at night on the road I have always worn a headlamp.  I also try to wear something reflective or a blinky light on one arm.  In Ultra-running you carry a flashlight as well.  Remember what generation I’m from.  When I think flashlight I think about those 8-inch long cylinders with multiple heavy D-cell batteries that at best gave off a wan yellow glow.  Think horror movie flashlight.  When I started training overnights for the 100 I looked around for flashlights and discovered there is a whole new generation of cheap, bright, small, LED flashlights.  Companies give them away as marketing knickknacks.  They are so small and light you can hold them between your fingers and not even notice them.  This way you don’t have to turn your head to illuminate something, you just point the flashlight at it.  When you’re running into oncoming traffic you can wave the light around in their frame of reference to make sure they see you.  So, my friends, turn on your love light, and let it shine, shine, shine… On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Wapack-2018 - http://runrunlive.com/wapack-2018   Voices of reason – the conversation Liz McHutcheon – Running on Venti Instrgram @runningonventi FB @runningonventi Twitter @runningonventi Things I like: Lay’s Ruffle Potato Chips, New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, Harry Potter Movie Marathons, travel and photography. I’m a runner (especially love the trails), coach, writer, and former CPA who knows a few things about Quickbooks. I’m a mom to two amazing and sometimes pain in the butt daughters who have taught me more about myself then any book. I’ve lived in Ireland where I got engaged and married. I’m vegan and love all animals especially my two Golden Retrievers, Thor and Ginger and my three cats, Fluffy, Bailey and Paris. I’m over 50 and I don’t let that number tell me what I can and can’t do. I’ve been to Paris more then any other city in the world besides Boston (where I live). I’m not afraid to try new things, go by myself to run the stairs at Harvard Stadium with November Project, go run a race alone in another state and listen to what my gut is telling me to do even if I’m not sure where my gut is taking me. So why Running on Venti? I do love coffee but it is more than about the coffee. It’s about living your big, beautiful life and going after those BIG goals, one small and sometimes messy step at a time. Even when it’s scary. It’s jumping all the way in not just slowly getting used to the water. My favorite coffee to order: Iced Venti Decaf Americano with extra ice and coconut milk. Running Stats: 5K x lost count (PR 23:40), 10K x lost count (PR 54:35), 10 miler x 4 (PR 1:27), Half-Marathon x 7 (PR 1:49:11), Marathon x 3 (PR 4:51), 50K x 2 (PR 8:11). Section two – Empowerment - Outro Thank you my friends for joining me for Episode 4-394 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Do you feel empowered? I’m training now for the Baystate marathon.  Putting in some road miles. I feel pretty good. One thing I had taken my eye off of was my nutrition. I have been eating too much junk and drinking too much beer.  I started a new project with the goal of getting to the starting line of Baystate under 170 pounds.  I figure why waste this fitness I have by half-assing my preparation?  I have a quick story about worms.  I didn’t get much out of my garden this year.  The varmints ate all my tomatoes.  I didn’t get any squash and only a couple cucumbers. But my kale was great this year.  For some reason the cabbage worms never showed up and I’ve been eating kale salads every day for a month.  This week the worms have discovered my kale, not the cabbage worms, which are all green, the color of the plant, that makes them hard to clean off.  My wife the horticulturalist says these worms are Sod Worms.  They are green and brown with yellow and black stripes.  They aren’t making a dent yet and they are easier to clean off because you can see them.  As the weather cools off they will be less active.  Hopefully I can still get my salads for a few more weeks, even if they have a bit of extra protein in them. I also have a family of caterpillars chewing through my parsley.  They are those big striped worms that turn into beautiful butterflies.  The butterflies are like royal blue monarch butterflies.  I’m letting them eat the parsley.  Seems like the right thing to do.  Karma and all. … I was listening to some poets talking about how movement is an act of meditation or prayer.  You make yourself a vessel and allow power to come through you.  Whether you that is the power of god or the power of the universe that we share.  You are a doorway.  Think of the relationship between movement and empowerment spiritually.  Moving through the stations of the cross.  Climbing the tower of a Buddhist monastery.   Each step is inserting a power (or a prayer) into the world. Think about that the next time you’re out for a run.  Imagine you are a conduit for power and are injecting it into the world each time your foot rings the ground.  Think about that. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-393 – Gary and the Tao of Running (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4393.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-393.  Today’s show is about resilience.  That’s the theme.  It’s more than just stubbornness, or courage, or grit, (which is the popular term now).  It is about all those things and more.  As endurance athletes and runners we have a front row seat to the practice of resilience across the arc of our lives. Today we talk with Gary who I met at the Burning River 100.  He was selling copies of his book “the Tao of Running”.  I took his card, and we connected this past week to chat about how to practice this courage, and enjoy it, in our training and racing. In section one I’ll talk about resilience in our running.  You can tell by now that I ‘v been thinking about this a lot.  Resilience is one of the keys to living a successful life, right?  In section two I’ll talk about an example of how to use resilience at work. I am running the Wapack Trail 18 miler this weekend.  I’m looking forward to it.  I think I can carry the fitness I built up this summer into the race and do well.  It’s a funny thing when you look at an 18 mile technical mountain race as an easy race!  Other than that I’ve been training away, trying to get some speed back.  Not that I ever had any real speed, it’s all relative.  I registered for my 21st Boston Marathon this week.  I used my Baystate time from last year of 3:33:33, which would probably get me in under the cutoff.  I’m guessing the cutoff is going to creep again this year and move closer to 5 minutes under the standard.  But, since I have 10+ years in I get to register early and cut the line.  Technically I could get in with a 3:39:59.  I can’t believe summer is almost over.  I hope yours has been splendid.  Mines been pretty good.  I got to ride my motorcycle more than I have in years. I have a back-road route that I take to work and back.  I sometimes think that maybe an old guy like me should not be riding the motorcycle so much.  My reaction times probably aren’t what they used to be.  Getting into an accident with a car on a motorcycle typically doesn’t end well for the motorcyclist. I’m basically a giant engine with a gas tank strapped to it traveling at high velocity.  As anyone who rides a motorcycle knows, the first thing people do when they learn that you ride is tell you their worst motorcycle story.  That friend who got obliterated on the highway by a distracted driver.  Here’s a tip; that’s not the least bit helpful.  Don’t do that.  On the back roads I’ve got different challenges than on the highway.  On a typical ride to or from work I’ll have one or two cars try to kill me.  But, I’m pretty good at seeing it coming so I avoid these inelastic interactions with the other commuters. As a bonus I get to shake my head at them and give them the ‘WTF” body language.  Mostly it’s people pulling out.  They just don’t see bikes.  There’s also a fair amount of running stop signs and not using signals.  You scan the landscape ahead of you and watch you the oncoming traffic.  You can read the ‘body language’ of the cars.  You get good at predictive analytics. You see a situation developing and make sure you’re not there when they do that stupid thing.  It’s like a video game.  One thing I’m seeing more of this year is people crossing the lines.  I know in Asia and certain metropolitan areas the lane lines are optional, but out where I live you’re supposed to stay on your side of the line.  I don’t know why you need to drive on my side of the road.  I see this behavior as a biker and runner too.  It’s probably distracted driving.  People are drifting all over the road.  So, my friends, look twice, save a life.  Motorcycles are everywhere.  Relax.  There is no need to run that stop sign.  Tighten it up a bit and keep to your own side of the road.  We appreciate the effort.  Spread the love. I’m going to keep riding my bike.  I always figured that’s how I’d meet my maker.  Being distracted by a pretty girl on the sidewalk and burying myself in the back of a stopped truck.  But, I’m resilient.  Are you? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Resilience - http://runrunlive.com/resilience   Voices of reason – the conversation GARY DUDNEY, Ultra Runner & Author , Thank you for the great podcast experience. The book is The Tao of Running: Your Journey to Mindful and Passionate Running and of course is available through Amazon or Barnes & Noble as a paperback, Kindle, or Audible version. The new book, coming out in November, is The Mindful Runner, Finding Your Inner Focus, which can be pre-ordered through Amazon right now. I have a website, , which has a lot of information for runners including all my past columns from Ultrarunning magazine and all my race reports from the past 20 years. Bio Blurb: GARY DUDNEY has been publishing articles on running, trail running, and ultrarunning for the past 20 years. His work has appeared in all the major running magazines, such as Runner’s World, Running Times, Trailrunner,and Marathon & Beyond. For Ultrarunning magazine, considered the “voice of the sport” of ultra long distance running, he’s served as a regular columnist since 2008, and he has additionally supplied the magazine with dozens of uniquely quirky race reports.  Ideas for The Tao of Running were shaped by the 65 one hundred mile races he’s participated in and the almost two hundred other long distance races he’s completed. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Kansas in English Literature and his fiction credentials include stories in Boy’s Life magazine and in numerous literary magazines and one published novel, Cries-at-Moon of the Kitchi-Kit. Book Blurb: The Tao of Running offers a fresh perspective on the mental side of running while entertaining with vivid tales of running adventures. Going well beyond the standard training and racing advice found in most running books, it guides runners to a wider understanding of how running fits into their own aspirations, goals, and life philosophy, and how running can transform their lives. The Tao of Running answers questions, such as:  How does running evoke mindfulness and lead to stress reduction? How is running a transformative existential experience? How does running teach fundamental lessons about goals, self-awareness, and self-improvement? How does running promote special friendships and new perspectives on life? No other book offers readers these multiple frameworks for understanding their running experiences along with lots of practical advice on getting the most out of running. Readers are guaranteed to gain a greater appreciation for the rewards and possibilities inherent in running.   Section two – One More Call - http://runrunlive.com/one-more-call Outro   I managed to get down to Cape Cod last week.  I got a 2:30 long run in on the beach.  I wanted to go up to Coast Guard Beach which has a long, unbroken, straight line of a beach.  But the logistics proved a bit of a hassle.  Instead I went out to the Coast Guard Light Beach in Chatham. I’ve been running there for years but It has become challenging to get enough distance.  The beach used to run for miles but now it has been washed away and you can only get out for a mile or so before you run out of beach.  I was standing there looking across the harbor opening trying to decide if I should swim across the 50 feet to the other side.  A girl in a boat offered me a lift.  I demurred.  Luckily it was low tide and I was able to cross the mud flats and cut through the old port over to the private beaches on the other side.  In Massachusetts you have access to any ocean beach, private or public, below the high tide mark.  I finally ran out of beach about an hour in, but was able to cobble together enough turns and crenulations to get 2:24 in before I made it back to my truck.  There were lots of families out and people walking.  It was quite busy.  There were old guys in dirty rubber coveralls working the low tide clam flats with rakes.  The families got ferried out in skiffs for these excursions.  The clammers had their own flat bottomed aluminum boats bobbing in the shallows.  The thought in the back of my mind was if it’s low tide now, am I going to be able to get back when I turn around?  Am I going to be able to beat the tide?  Sure enough when I got back to the Old Port the tide had erased the mud flats.  I figured I was almost back I could just run through the water.  I already knew the bottom was hard and it was shallow.  I had un-retired an old pair of Brooks Launch for the weekend and I could justify getting those wet.  But, I found a trail off through the bush that circumnavigated the mud flats and got me back to the other beach without have to take the plunge.  It added a little distance, which I needed anyhow.  I was quite pleased with how things worked out. Step into the trails and the beaches and all you adventures.  It will work out.  … Speaking of Cape Cod.  I found a home for my Spaulding Boys Wagon Tongue Baseball Bat from the 1800’s.  Yvonne and I went to a bar in Harwich Port to watch the Patriot’s game and grab some dinner.  It is named the Hot Stove Café.  It is baseball themed.  I was chatting with the owner.  It occurred to me that I was surrounded by ancient baseball memorabilia.  I told him I had something in my truck he might be able to use.  When I dropped it the next day he wasn’t around.  Which is perfect, because he couldn’t say he didn’t want it!.  Just goes to show you.  Everything works out.  Patience.  Mindfulness.  Practice.  I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-392 – Rhonda Marie Runs Tennessee (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4392.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-392.  This is Chris your host.  Well, it’s been a couple weeks since we talked and a couple weeks since I finished the Burning River 100.  I’m back to full strength as near as I can tell.  I seem to have recovered very well and very quickly, probably because I hiked so much of the last half.  Today we speak with Rhonda-Marie who a blind ultra-runner who did something amazing this summer.  She ran the Last Vol State Run across Tennessee which is a 500KM or 314 mile race.  But she did it unguided.  You are going to love this interview.  My audio editor Dimitri even commented on how this one was super interesting. In section one I’ll do some Q&Q on the Burning River race, a bit of a wrap up, if you will.  In section two I’m going to talk about kindness.  Because we all need more kindness in our lives.  My recovery is going very well.  I’ve started training again and have some races lined up that we’ll chat about later.  The first week after the race I did mostly stretching and a couple bike rides.  The second week I started running again.  Two weeks from stumbling across the finish line in Ohio I went up with some friends and ran the Wapack trail course one-way with them.  We had a blast and I felt great.  Very strong.  What you look for when doing recovery runs after an ultra is unique.  When you go out it’s not that your legs feel tired. Just the opposite.  When you first start the runs your legs feel great.  Unique to post-ultra recovery runs is that somewhere in that run your legs can go like throwing a switch.  It is all the more telling because you feel great up to that point, then your legs just disappear.   That hasn’t happened since I started back in.  So I think I’m good.  If you listen to any interview or story of ultra runners, when they are asked what they learned, invariably the answer is that we are stronger than we think.  Our bodies are designed for this stuff.  All we have to do is train for it and ask our bodies.  Then we have to decide to do it.  Whether it’s getting up off the couch for your first run, or stepping off the cliff edge into the yawning dark unknow of 100 miles, or 300 miles, you can do it if you decide to.  That’s it.  That’s what separates the finishers from those that don’t start, the belief that you can do it.  You can do it.  Just decide to do it and it is as good as done.  That’s the hard part.  The decision.  What hard thing are you going to decide to do today? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Fever Dreams -   Voices of reason – the conversation Rhonda-Marie Parke, Blind Runner · Other-abled athlete Rhonda-Marie Parke has 8% vision. Traditionally Rhonda-Marie runs accompanied by guides; runners who call out obstacles along the way. With these guides she's run races from Marathon distances to 100 mile distances. She has also completed several end-to-end runs of various Ontario trails including The Bruce Trail (885 km), The Avon Trail (110 km) and The Thames Valley Trail (112 km). Rhonda-Marie has also ventured to the infamous Barkley Marathons. Rhonda-Marie continues to work in her community to encourage and create space for inclusive sport. Accessing the Inaccessible In July of 2018, Rhonda-Marie Parke will attempt to run The Last Annual Vol State race without the aid of guide runners. Why Will Rhonda-Marie Proceed Unguided? "My whole life, I have had to follow - even if the direction has been my choosing." - Rhonda-Marie Parke Disability is diverse, dynamic, and ever changing. There is no such thing as universally accessible, especially in a 314 mile road race where cars are moving pieces, where animals are out and roaming, where fatigue, injury are all very very real; but then again, so is crossing the road to get to the library. Rhonda-Marie continues to show other-abled athletes that they can get involved in the sports of their choice. Rhonda-Marie also continues to encourage running events to think about how to make their events accessible to athletes of ALL abilities. Inclusion in sport is not a given, it’s a process of adaptation and evolution of parameters. Ongoing conversation and community building is required. What Is The Last Obstacle? In addition Rhonda-Marie looks to bring light to a bigger issue facing those with disability - stigma. She continues to face intolerance when it comes to her participation in sport as some believe that there is no place for a blind athlete in such a dangerous event. Rhonda-Marie is confident in her athletic abilities and that through training and careful planning, there is no reason why she won't have the same chance at success as any other runner. Help us show that if they have the desire and the drive, other-abled athletes have every right to participate in sport. Please help us send Rhonda-Marie to The Last Annual Vol State. With your help, she will strive to overcome the Last Obstacle.   Section two – Into the Unknown - http://runrunlive.com/burning-river-100-into-the-unknown Outro OK my friends, you have stumbled along a highway shoulder to the end of episode 4-391.  Be careful out there. Rhonda Marie is amazing, right?  I felt seriously out of my depth with her.  I think I’m going to try to see if I can’t guide a runner for Boston next year.  I am training again.  I signed up for a few races.  I’m going to run the Wapack Trail race on Labor Day weekend.  It’s my club’s race.  I’ll go up early, help set up, park cars and then run the race.  I’m looking forward to it.  I should have good juice in my legs from all the miles I did this summer. Then I agreed to run a Ragnar the weekend of September 21st with my coach up in New York.  Treat myself to a little adventure! And finally, I signed up for the BayState Marathon again.  It’s my go-to marathon for requalifying.  I’ll take a shot at getting my number for 2020.  My buddy Brian is running it too.  We’ll see if I can get enough speed back by the end of October. After the successful outing on the Wapack Trail I told coach I was ready to get back to work.  He gave me a couple workouts for this week, as if to test me.  I did a 1:40 step up run Tuesday.  I went into the run feeling dead and didn’t have much hope for being able to step up to zone 3 effort for 30 minutes then up to zone 4-5 for an additional 30.  That’s a hard workout.  I felt heavy but figured I’d just do what I could and see how long I could keep my legs turning.  As I stepped up the effort my legs were surprisingly strong.  I was able to hold a decent effort level for the last hour of the step up.  Looking at the results, I wasn’t moving super fast but I’m happy with the effort 2 weeks out from the hundred.  Then Friday night I went down to my local track and knocked out some speed work.  I did a ladder of 2X600, 2X800 and 2X1000 and was able to hang in there.  The mechanics felt quite foreign.  I was leaning back too much and was swinging my arms around.  My butt muscles were sore afterwards.  It’s going to take awhile to get some speed back, but I think I’ll be fine.  … … I had a one day trip to Orlando this week.  It’s a bout a 3-hour flight.  I got up early and flew down, we had meetings and lunch and flew back.  That put me out of the airport in Boston around 7:30 and getting after 8:00.  I was wiped so I figured I’d order a pizza to pick up as I whizzed by on my way out to the suburbs.  So, I called up Siri and asked her to call the pizza place for me.  I was in my truck on the highway and didn’t want to be too distracted by the phone.  I got the guy on the phone and had the following conversation… Me: “I’d like to order a Mushroom Pepperoni Pizza.” Him: “Sure, name?” Me: “Last or First?” Him: “OK 15 minutes.” And he hung up. When I got to the pizza place I thought I’d ordered from I found out that Siri and I had different ideas on that.  She gave me the number of another pizza place.  It was late.  I was almost home.  I thought about just bailing out on the whole thing, but I knew, across town. 4 .4 miles away, a pizza place had made a pizza for me.  So I bit the bullet and drove over there.  Good karma.  When I got to the other pizza place, I went in, apologized for being late and asked if there wasn’t a mushroom Pepperoni pizza here waiting for me.  He said, “What’s the name?” I said, “I don’t know.  You asked me for my name, I said ‘last or first’, you said ’15 minutes’ and hung up.” He didn’t have a Mushroom Pepperoni.  But, he did have a Sausage Pepperoni, for ‘Lester’.  We agreed that was probably it.  He felt bad about making the wrong pizza and gave me a discount.  I didn’t tell him I never meant to order a pizza from him to begin with and was just barely able to drag p the will power to not stiff him.  And the karma balances out.  Even when ordering a pizza.  I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-391 – The Burning River 100 Adventure (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4391.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-391.  This is going to be a long one.  If this is your first time downloading please accept our humble apologies.  This is Chris your friend and host and newly minted 100-mile ultra-runner.  There’s a lot of context for all this, trust me, but you’re going to have to bear with me as I, (somewhat fittingly I might add), drop you into the culmination of this adventure.  This will be a 3 act play.  We will start with some exposition in the form of my last two weeks of taper and a brief recorded chat with my coach going into the race.  Act one will commence and the play itself will roll out across an ultra-long race report.  You might want to take this one in chunks or save it for your own multi-hour long run.  On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Fever Dreams -   Voices of reason – the conversation Coach Jeff Kline “Coach” as he is referred to by athletes has been training runners and triathletes globally for 20 years. The Coach is the founder and designer of Daily Fit Book. Although he is fully committed to the development and growth of DFB he will take on athletes of all levels that show a commitment and a strong desire to achieve new dreams and goals. @dailyfitbook (twitter) fitbook2 (instagram)   Section two – Into the Unknown - http://runrunlive.com/burning-river-100-into-the-unknown Outro OK my friends, you have hiked for 16 hours through to the end of episode 4-391.  Nice work.  Have a nap.    That closes another chapter for us here at RunRunLive.  This summer is the 11th anniversary of starting the podcast.  It’s good to see so many people still listening and following.  What’s next?  I’ll more than likely run the Wapack 18 miler over Labor Day weekend.  I highly recommend this race, especially if you are training for a fall race.  It will make you strong! … When you take on these adventures, when you meet people, when you read books or any other interaction outside yourself there is a necessary exchange.  Every time you go outside yourself and rub up against something external you are changed.  This is one of the beautiful things about life.  You are always changing and growing.  You could think of these exchanges as an infection of sort.  Your body, mind and spirit absorb these influences and react to them.  The result is something new.  Something different.  If we are strong.  If we are open.  If we are positive.  These infections become enhancements.  They are additive.  They make us better.  We keep what fits.  We become stronger in the process.  Don’t be afraid to open up and embrace the external.  Swim upstream.  and I’ll see you out there! MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-390 – Pam Rickard - Ultras, addictions and recovery (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4390.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-390.  This is Chris your friend and host.  Today we continue with our ultra-training themes.  I’ve got a long write up of my last hard week of training before my race.  I’ve also got an interview with Pam who is an ultra-runner and the director of the Herren project.  She’s a talker!  But I think you’ll get some good thoughts out of it. Again, this week since the interview is long and the write up is long I’ll just air the two segments.  I’m in my taper for my 100-miler at the end of the month.  Today it actually that rarest of animals, a rest day.  Last weekend I knocked out an all-night-long 50 miler and a follow up 20 milers that you will hear all about today.  Now I’m in my taper and trying top do some race prep. … Episode 390… 390 is another good year to talk about on the Julian and Gregorian calendars.  There was the Thessalonica Massacre where the Roman governor killed a bunch of people who were rioting over a sporting event.  See?  This stuff never changes.  Some popular chariot driver got killed and it kicked off a little revolt.  But, more importantly a Goth named Alaric was starting to make trouble up in Thrace.  A Roman general named Stilicho, who was half Vandal spent the next 20 years pushing these Goths around.  You may recognize Alaric.  He ended up sacking Rome with an army of Visigoths in 410, which many historians consider the end for the Roman Empire.  And you know why the Goths were migrating West from the Steppes?  Because they were being pushed on by the Huns.  It’s all interrelated.  But, let’s set all this talk of barbarian hordes aside and talk about some ultra-running stuff. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Ultra Training Update the last big week - http://runrunlive.com/100-miler-training-the-last-big-week Voices of reason – the conversation Pam Rickard Over the 30+ years of her running career, Pam Rickard has completed countless races, including more than 75 marathons and ultra-marathons. During the past 10 years, her races have included a 7-day adventure across China’s Gobi Desert and a 100k trek through the Alps from Italy to France. In 2008, her journey from addiction to recovery and redemption was featured in the book “A Race Like No Other,” New York Times writer Liz Robbins’ chronicle of the 2007 New York City Marathon. She was also a member of the 2016 6-person Icebreaker Run team, running across the US to bring awareness to mental health issues. Pam lives in Rocky Mount, VA and serves as the Director of THP RUNS, an initiative of former NBA basketball player Chris Herren’s foundation, (THP). THP RUNS engages people to run, walk, and participate in healthy activities, helping each other, and others, live stronger, healthier lives.  The initiative raises awareness and funding for THP’s mission, which includes providing addiction recovery resources, education and prevention initiatives across the country. Links: For help: To join our movement/run with us: Outro OK my friends, you have trotted through the woods listening to one note of binaural audio to the end of episode 4-390 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Good job.  You are fit and ready to race.  My training is going great.  I’m ready for my race.  Anything can happen of course but I’ve done the bits that I can control.  Looking at the calendar I can see that the next episode is scheduled to fall on the weekend of the race.  That’s probably not going to happen.  I’ll figure something out. As is my habit I tend to focus on running the race, not on social media or taking pictures.  Don’t expect me to do a running commentary.  I don’t see any facility for athlete updates either.  I would suggest following Mike Croy and Kevin Green on the social media feeds because they will be with me and lucid.  I could give my phone to my wife but she is fairly useless with social media.  If anyone wants to say ‘hi’ at the race I’ll be driving out from Massachusetts the morning of the 27th so I can make check in Friday night.  If you DM me or shoot me an email at cyktrussell at Gmail I’ll give you my contact info.  … I found a couple odd things on Netflix this past week.  One is a documentary by Werner Hertzog called .  Werner Hertzog is a German director.  Every time you see a movie that caricatures German directors they are talking about Werner.  They let him bring cameras inside the Chauvet Cave.  This is a cave that contains the oldest human paintings on earth (as far as we know).  The paintings are pristine because a landslide sealed them off in antiquity.  These are beautiful works of art from our ancestors of 30,000 years ago.  There’s also a pretty good documentary on Bob Weir called   There’s a new podcast I’m listening to which is called about the history of the Northwest.  All the links are in the show notes. That’s it for me this week.  I appreciate all your support and encouragement.  There is a membership option on my website if you feel motivated to help me pay my bills.  I wanted to take a moment to thank my coach for getting me to this point.  I, frankly, wasn’t sure I had this kind of training in me, but, here we are.  Once more into the breach. Also wanted to thank a couple other folks for reaching out with their notes on the Burning River.  Local Sheila and runner Rick.  And my team mate Dane for the encouragement.   It’s been an epic training cycle. and I’ll see you out there! MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-389 – DirtDawg and JustFinish Crewing a 100 miler (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4389.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-389.  This is your friend Chris.  I feel like I need to introduce myself and what we do here in case there might be a new listener or two.  That’s a challenge, for a couple reasons.  First, because we’ve been at this for over a decade.  Over the arc of that decade you an I have been through many seasons of both our lives and our endurance adventures.  I certainly will share with you what adventures I’m pursuing in this season of the brief ride we call life, but it is going to be different from what we were talking about 3 years ago and will be different again, god willing, in 3 years.  Spoiler alert, my current season is one of training for a 100 mile race and today’s episode will topically reflect that.  Today we talk to two guys I met and got to know through the seasons. Mike and Kevin, whose respective ‘noms de enduro-guerre’ are DirtDawg and JustFinish.  (How weirdly cool is it that we get to give ourselves handles?)  I’m talking to them because they have agreed to pace and crew me for my race in 4 weeks.  I’m also going to give you a longish review of my last training week which culminated in 93+ miles and a 50 mile long run.  Since the interview is long and my training update is long, you’re just getting the one article this week.    And – remember up in paragraph one where I said there were two reasons it’ shard to describe who we are here at RunRunLive and what we do?  First, was it depends on what season we’re in.  Second, is because you’re going to get what floats through my brain any particular week. We have different themes but it always circles around the power of endurance sports to teach us, to change us and to give us perspective.  That perspective is transformative in itself, and humbling.  You and I, DirtDawg and JustFinish, we are all crushed by the gravity of change together in a community of endurance. So here we are episode 389.  389 is another good year for classical reference.  In 389 BC The  general, , led a force of  to levy tribute from cities around the  and support , where a democratic government was struggling against Sparta. What’s interesting about this is that on this campaign, Thrasybulus captured , so that he could impose a duty on ships passing through the .  The Hellespont is the narrow opening that connects the Agean Sea to the Black Sea.  Many scientist believe this opening was caused by the ocean catastrophically blasting through this sliver of land as the sea rose after the last ice age and is the historical and cultural source of the great flood myths, like Noah.  Anyhow, Byzantium was a town founded by the Greeks 300 years earlier.  It passed back and forth with the Persians and Greeks and Romans.  In 330 AD Constantine moved the seat of the Roman Empire there and founded what would become Constantinople.  Constantinople held out until 1543, when the Ottoman Turks finally took it over and now it is Istanbul, the heart of Turkey.  See, 389, another suitable number.  … My training is going well.  I’ve got one more big week of miles then I’ll taper into the race at the end of the month.  Nothing is broken, so we’ll see.  It’s all good. Over the last few weeks you probably saw a plague of emails from social media sites and others, many of whom you probably don’t remember signing up for.  This is because of the recently enacted GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation enacted by the European Union.  It’s basically the rules around what you can and can’t do with people’s data and what you have to tell them when you’re doing it. So, in the spirit of the GDPR I’m going to let you know what I’ve been doing with your data. When we first met, your data and I, your data was very shy and didn’t interact much.  But, over time, as we got to know each other, and spend time together, your data and I have formed a bond of mutual respect and affection. There have been many warm summer evenings where your data and I have taken long walks on the beach and shared stories around an open campfire in the twinkling starshine.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been a perfect gentleman with your data!  (well there was that one night where we had too much sangria at the Cinco de Mayo party, but, let me not tell tales about the chance encounters of consenting architectures) Mostly we just cuddle. So, yeah, your data is safe with me. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Ultra Training Update - http://runrunlive.com/ultra-training-and-the-penultimate-big-week Voices of reason – the conversation Mike Croy (DirtDawg) and Kevin Green (JustFinish) Kevin is currently training for the Marquette 50. He finished Burning River in 2010 and the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning in 2011. Kevin is a project manager in the automation industry, is married to Stacy and has two very active daughters, Nora and Leah. He plans to relaunch this fall. … Mike “Dirt Dawg” Croy is a father, husband, runner, yoga teacher working with veterans, homeless shelters and educators, and serves as a high school principal working with at risk high school students. Mike has run up to a 100 miler and pac ed at a few more. He had also run over 20 marathons and organized several fat ass ultras over the years. Mike lives in Metro Detroit with his wife, 2 kids, and border collie Dash. Outro OK my friends, you have staggered through the dark to the end of episode 4-389 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Good for you, because theirs not much cover and it was pretty hot.  Like I said, my training going well and I’ve got nothing to complain about.  My garden in coming in.  Looks like I’m going to get beans, tomatoes and maybe some squash.  I harvested enough lettuce and kale for 3 lunches this week.  And my berries are coming in.  I was just out there and picked a few.  The birds were screaming at me like I was picking their berries! I’m not sure the half pint of berries is an even trade for the half pint of blood I gave top the mosquitoes to get them.  … I notice my thighs are getting bigger.  That’s an ultra thing.  I remember it from 10 years ago.  I will probably try to see if I can use this fitness in the fall for a marathon.  I remember I hade 2 or 3 really good years after the last ultra cycle I trained through, so maybe there’s a correlation.  Maybe that’s the secret.  Go deep every few years and then coast for a few! Certainly, setting bigger goals drives bigger changes.  In life as in the training effect.  Set a big goal and do the work to get there.  It’s not rocket science.  Try it.  You’ll see.  Do something that scares you.  I was a little down after Boston.  I came into this a bit mentally jaded.  I look at all the stuff I’ve done over the last 20 years both personally and endurance sports wise and I get a bit blue.  I think ‘Geez, I’ve done all this stuff, what the heck am I going to do now? And, do I have enough left in me to do anything significant anymore?’  I almost feel like I’m looking at my life in the rearview mirror. But, again, I’m learning that the basic truths are still true.  Set that big goal and you will figure out how to get there.  Doesn’t matter if your 16 or 60.  It’s what you do today.  I get asked in my role by board of directors “What are the results going to be this quarter?”  And the way I answer that is, that I can’t tell you exactly what is going to happen in the short term, but I can tell you that we are absolutely doing the things we need to do today to be where we need to be when that time comes.  Because that is what I can control.  Are you setting goals that scare you?  Are you doing what you need to do today, right now, to be where you want to be 6 months from now?  If not, set the timer for 20 minutes and don’t’ stop working until it goes off.  Then do it again. You do that and I’ll see you out there! MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-388 – Mike Schools us on Form (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4388.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-388.  This is Chris, your host for today.  Yak farmer.  Zombie hunter.  And amateur consumer of history.  388 is an odd number.  In the year 388 by the Gregorian Calendar and the Julian Calendar Theodosius I consolidated power in the Western Roman Empire by beating up Magnus Maximus. Magnus Maximus is a kick-ass name.  Magnus Maximus was from Britania and usurped power in one of the messy transitions that went on as the Empire was starting to fall apart.  It had a larger impact a century or so later because when he left Britain to go fight Theodosius, Magnus Maximus took all the available soldiers with him, which left Britain pretty much unprotected.  You see, when the Romans assimilated a region, like Britain, they said, “Hey you don’t need forts or weapons because we’re here to protect you now.”  Standard operating procedure to keep the rebellions down.  When the Romans pulled out those pesky Scots and Irish started raiding and the Romanized Brits had nothing to protect themselves with.  Someone came up with the bright Idea of hiring in some Anglo-Saxons from the continent as mercenaries – and we know how that ended up working out.  That’s why when you refer to England you’re calling them Anglo-Saxons now.  Anyhow – 388.  Today we talk with Mike who runs (see what I did there) Mike’s Running School.  We talk about mechanics and form and how to teach running.  I’m also going to talk about my Ultra-training.  I’m learning a lot!  It’s interesting.  And I’ll do a bunch of product reviews around all the new stuff I’ve gotten in the last couple months. … It’s the summer solstice and the days are long up here.  Not too hot yet but long.  I got my garden in.  I’m been having a pitched battle of my own with the various critters and varmints.  It will all be worth it if I can have that one perfect, warm tomato on a bed of fresh basil.  It’s also baseball season.  I’ve got a baseball problem that I need help with.  My wife was cleaning this week and tried to throw out that old baseball bat I have.  Now, I found this bat when I was cleaning out an old house that my dad bought 30-40 year’s ago.  It was just kicking around all these years and somehow I still have it.  So I looked it up on the internet.  Turns out it is a Spaulding Boys Wagon Tongue bat from somewhere around the 1880’s.  Yeah.  I have a 140 year old bat.  I don’t want it.  But, I would like it to go to a good home.  Anyone want or need a 140 year old baseball bat?  On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Ultra Training Update - Voices of reason – the conversation Mike Antoniades Mike is the founder and Performance & Rehabilitation Director of the Movement & Running School. Mike’s passion for Rehabilitation, Running and Speed began a long time ago when as teenager he had a serious knee injury. He specialised in movement re-patterning and rehabilitation after injury or surgery and focused on Speed & Running training for athletes of different sports. He set-up the first Rehabilitation & Speed centre in the UK 1999 and his Clients include among others : athletes and teams from, The English Premiership, English Championship, German Bundesliga  Rugby Union, Rugby league, Handball, Lacrosse, European Olympic Associations as well as Elite Track & Field athletes including World & Olympic Gold Medallists. Mike has been a coach for over 35 years and began coaching in 1982. He has worked in the UK, Europe and the USA. He has coached at professional and academy level and is a consultant for a number of professional Soccer clubs as well as track and field and Marathon athletes in the UK and Europe. www.runningschool.co.uk   Section two – Stuff Review 2018 – , , , and Outro OK my friends, nice work, you have run crisply with perfect form to the end of episode 4-388 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  It’s been the end of an easy week for me.  We’ll see what coach has in store for me next week.  Buddy the ancient wonder dog is doing well.  It’s been cooler and dry.  What really bothers him is the humidity.  When you are mostly covers in a black fur coat it’s hard to cool your core.  I know this from experience.  Coincidently, I was reading this week that back hair is one of the DNA snippets that we inherited from the Neanderthals.  I’m short on time today so I’m going to move you quickly to the exit.  … One quick story.  Last year they replaced the ignition on my old motorcycle.  When they did that they saved the old key.  Now I have one key to start it and another to open the gas tank and get into the seat compartment.  This week when I got home form the office I noticed that I had lost the gas tank key.  Which is a problem.  I had about 110 miles on that tank of gas.  I typically hit the reserve tank around 140-150 miles.  I called the Honda guys and asked for help.  They forwarded me to Jim’s Key and Lock out in Leominster.  By the way Minster is an Anglo-Saxon word that means church.  Turns out these tank locks are super easy to pick.  Like child’s play.  The guy popped it right open, read the key code off the lock and made me a couple more keys before I ran out of gas.  Wasted a day but learned something new.  I guess the thing I learn as I get older is not to freak out.  I mean when I first saw the key was missing I could have dropped into full-on panic mode and gotten all ‘the sky is falling’ and ‘Woe is me’ but that doesn’t get you any closer to a solution.  Life’s full of these little irritating events.  This one threatened at first blush to turn my old motorcycle into a paper weight, but it all worked out.  Don’t worry.  It will all work out.  I’ll see you out there!   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-387 – Gene Keeps Getting Faster (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4387.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-387.  This is Chris, your endurance partner for today’s workout.  Today we have a chat with Gene Dykes who is currently knocking down most of the over 70 distance records.  He’s found some sort of fountain of youth and just keep s getting faster.  In section one I’ll give you an update on my 100 miler training and what I’ve learned.  In Section two I’ll talk about the aging athlete. Buddy the elderly wonder dog is hanging in there.  He goes the first 2 miles of all my trail runs with me.  He got 5 runs in last week.  Then he sleeps.  I sometimes have to carry him up the stairs when his back hips don’t work.  And I don’t expect him to jump up into my truck anymore.  It’s ok.  He’s done his part.  Now it’s my turn.  I’ve been training consistently.  Typically 6 miles Tuesday, 10 Wednesday and 6 Thursday then back-to-back longs on the weekends.  It’s not a bad cadence.  The trails are drying out.  The mosquitoes are out but those only get me if I stop too long.  As we get into the summer the deer flies will show up and I’ll have to get some of those sticky patches.  They are real pests. I booked my hotel for the ultra.  And I got some wonderful news today.  Dirtdawg and JustFinish aka Mike Croy and Kevin Green are going to crew and pace for me.  Both those guys have run this course.  This is a big bonus.  … I got a haircut this weekend, actually on Memorial Day.  The place I usually go was closed for the holiday.  I went to a lower end clip joint chain that was open.  I was a bit afraid with the guy I got.  I haven’t had high quality experiences with this chain.  But I had a business trip and needed to get it cleaned up.  The kid was wearing a wrinkled white tee-shirt, looked rather slept-in, with a sleeveless black denim vest covered in studs.  Quite disheveled.  He had goth tattoos all over him and piercings.  Showing my age and upbringing I wondered if putting my grey head in his hands was a smart thing to do. I had just finished reading Catra Corbett’s new book about how she was a goth meth addict before she got in to ultra-running.  But, looking at this kid I figured he was a bit overweight to be an addict.  Besides, it’s not hard to cut my hair, what’s left of it that is.  You can’t really screw it up.  He did a very precise job.  Worked me over like I was some important bonsai topiary.  Even worked on my crazy old-man eyebrows.  I really need to work on my assumptions and stop profiling people.  We all turn into our parents at some point, don’t we? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills. M … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – 100 Miler Training - Voices of reason – the conversation Gene Dykes I’m sure you can make some of the awkward pauses go away, but I suppose trying to figure out what to do when we were talking over each other will be tougher.    I had fun – it’s always fun to talk about running!   I’ve attached a couple recent pictures that were pretty good:   One shows me during a 24-hour track race a couple weeks ago (I only ran for 14 hours of the Dawn To Dusk To Dawn, though) where I set USATF age group track records for 50K, 50 miles, 100K, and 12 hours.   The other shows me at the finish line of the Rotterdam Marathon on April 8, where I ran 2:57:48 to eclipse Ed Whitlock’s 3:00:23 world age 70 record.   Section two – Running into the Sunset – Outro OK my friends you have set an impressive age group record while progressing to the end of episode 4-387, nice work.  Two of my training buddies, from my age group had a good day at the Vermont Cities marathon over the weekend.  They got great weather.  Overcast and cool.  Brian, who ran a 3:35 at Baystate with me in the fall, knocked out a 3:29 change! And Tim powered through to a 3:16.    Now officially the slow guy again! Watched an great documentary on Netflix called Chuck Norris vs Communism about the impact of bootleg videos on Romanians in the 80’s.  It’s been out for a while but I hadn’t seen it yet.  Really well done.  You’ll like it.  Especially if you lived through that era.  I have a big weekend coming up.  If I can pull it off I’m going to run 35 on Saturday and another 20 on Sunday.  Yikes!  I had a good week – got all my runs in.  I had a business trip to Salt Lake and I used that to practice more of this miserable, exhausted running that I’m supposed to be practicing.  Ran 6 miles Tuesday morning.  Flew out late to Salt Lake.  Got about 5 hours sleep. Got up and went exploring Wednesday morning. I was originally aiming for the mountains but I ran by a canal, maybe a river, with a wide path so I turned onto that for the bulk of my run.  I ended up getting around 9 miles in, partly because I was running short on time and partly because I ran into a fence.  The canal trail literally ran into a chain link fence.  I think it was because there was a school nearby and they were trying to keep the kids out.  There was a kid size hole at the bottom.  You know how they bend up the corner of the chain link to get under?  But, I made the decision that I wasn’t going to wriggle under a fence in the suburbs of West Jordan to get that last mile in.  It was a nice run.  The trail was wide and crushed rock and flat.  It ran behind people’s houses.  A whole line of ¼ acre lots.  It’s always interesting to look into people’s backyards in a voyeuristic way.  Some people had gardens, some had chickens and some had angry dogs.  The river or canal itself was what I would call grey water.  I don’t know if that is just the color of the water in Salt Lake or if it is some sort of legacy drainage system.  It didn’t smell bad, but it didn’t make me want to go for a swim either.  Since it’s spring the canal was full of wild ducks and their little gangs of ducklings.  I was subjective to maximum duckling cuteness the whole time as they scurried and paddled away from this strange lumbering thing on the trail in the slanting morning sun.  I even passed a couple ‘joggers’ out there.  On my way back, when I left the trail I had to navigate the now bustling streets of suburbia.  At one point I was coming up to an intersection and saw a crossing guard.  These are the community volunteers who are posted at busy intersections near schools with a reflective vest, a held held stop placard and a righteous attitude.    As I was lumbering up the sidewalk towards the intersection I caught the vigilant woman’s eyes and gave her the conspiratorial nod.  She moved out and stopped traffic for me!  I tipped my hat and said “You’re the best!” The world is a good place filled with good people.   I’ll see you out there!   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-386 – Pat Runs Boston (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4386.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-386.  This is Chris, your host.  How are we doing on the fine spring day?  I love May.  Don’t’ you?  Up here in New England it’s a time of rebirth.  The trees and bushes go from brown to green in the span of a few days like one of those slow motion nature videos.  We are close by the summer solstice.  We get back all those long dark winter days.  The sunrise today is 5:19 AM and the sunset is 8:02.  Plenty of time to get stuff done!  It’s still cool in the mornings and hasn’t gotten hot yet during the days.  This is the week after Mother’s Day when those of us who have read the farmer’s almanac start planting our gardens, and those of us who are over enthusiastic have to replant what they killed by planting it two weeks ago! Today I have an interview with Pat who is from Calgary and ran his first Boston this year in the epic weather.  In section one I’ll give you a write up of the trail race I ran last weekend.  And in section two a quick book report on the second book in the Takeshi Kovacs series.  A real grab-bag of topics.  You might ask, Chris it seems like you’re just stuffing random topics into a show to make a deadline.  And I would answer no, I’m embracing a random universe, I’m satisfying the souls of the renaissance woman and men who are endurance athletes and well… a deadline is a deadline! My training for my first hundred miler is going as well as can be expected.  I topped out a couple 50+ mile trail weeks and now I’m in a recovery week to get the benefit.  With the long days I can go out in the morning in the forest behind my house.  I can be back before most people are even up!  It’s beautiful out there.  The trails are drying up nicely.  I take Buddy the elderly wonder dog with me for the first 2-mile loop and he loves it.  He’s a trooper.  In the morning it’s cool and the bugs aren’t out yet.  Let me tell you the story about Buddy’s soccer ball. Many moons ago when I was a soccer coach for my kids I ended up with a kid’s soccer ball in my bag of balls from the local field.  It was one of the little ones for little kids.  It eventually ended up in my front yard and became the dog’s soccer ball.  Buddy never popped it, he just played with it.  For a decade it was a fixture in the yard.  This spring, unknown to me, it disappeared.  A couple weeks ago I was out in the trails and there was Buddy’s soccer ball a ¼ mile from the house on the trail.  Then yesterday I was out and I saw it again, now maybe ¾ of a mile out on the trail.  It seems some friendly interloping dog came into our yard and took Buddy’s soccer ball for a carry in the woods.  The problem is that I don’t come back the same trail I got out.  But, yesterday it didn’t seem right to abandon it so I grabbed it and carried it with me as I was running through the woods. I was like some grade schooler goalie given a coach’s penalty.  “Take that ball with you and give me 20 laps!”  A muddy, half-deflated kid’s soccer ball isn’t as easy to carry as you would think.  I didn’t want to put it under my arm, like an American football, because it was quite muddy.  I had to sort of clench it in one hand.  It was a bit unwieldy. But, now it is back where it belongs.  Lying in the grass beside an elderly border collie… until a thieving rover roves by once more.  On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Wapack and Back 2018 - Voices of reason – the conversation Patrick Hanlon Patrick Hanlon, 51, is an educator, writer and photographer based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He has been a long distance runner for the last 9 years and can be regularly found running along the Bow River. He has completed 11 marathons including Big Sur, Edmonton, Calgary, Nova Scotia, Nashville and Boston. His account of the 2018 Boston Marathon can be read at:    Section two – Broken Angels – Outro Ok my friends you have stumbled down a rocky slope to the bottom of the mountain that was Episode 4-386 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Mission accomplished. Have a smoothie.  Throw in some extra Kale.  I started figuring out the logistics for the 100Miler.  It is the Burning River 100 in southern Ohio.  It starts on Saturday July 28th at 4:00 in the morning.  I am not going to try to guess a finish time but it will be some time Sunday Morning.  It’s a point to point.  They bus you out from the finish at 3:00 in the morning.  The course doesn’t look to bad.  It’s only got a few thousand feet of gain and loss over the 100.  So nothing like the Wapack.  The timing is a bit troublesome.  With that start time I’ll be running the last half of the race in the dark.  Doesn’t sound like I’ll be getting much sleep that weekend.  I haven’t decided if I’m going to drive out and get a hotel or maybe rent a camper or something.  I know I won’t be in any shape to drive afterwards.  And, this is where you come in.  I need pacers and crew. Who wants to come pace me through a section of the last 50 miles?  I’m going to be going super slow.  It’s going to be the middle of the night.  All you have to do is keep me on course and say encouraging things like, “Come on, you can barely see the bone protruding through the skin, rub some dirt on it and suck it up!” Shoot me an email and we’ll make a date. Guess what else?  I got my old motorcycle running this week.  Yup, that bike that I bought factory fresh in 1985.  It lives.  Here’s the story.  Last summer the clutch started getting soft on me and I didn’t have time, money or energy to attend to it so I just packed it away into the garage for the winter. I dropped it off last week at the shop and had them take a look.  With a clutch problem it can either be simple or hard.  It might be simply air in the line or fluid or a leak in a line.  Or it can be the slave cylinder or the oil seals where the clutch meets the engine.  I was a bit terrified that this was going to be one of those take the engine apart kind of things.  I know from experience that if this was a car that clutch could run me $1500 dollars and I wasn’t really excited about spending that on a $1,000 motorcycle.  I called the guy and asked if they had figured out what was wrong. He said, “You’ll have to call back later we’re still building the estimate.”  That sounded to me like I should start mentally preparing for the worst.  I called back.  My heart sank when he said, “I’m sorry but it’s the slave cylinder and an oils seal.”  Then he continued, reluctantly, “It’s going to be $238 dollars.” I heaved a sigh of relief and told him to go ahead.  Got to love the simple engineering of a Honda motorcycle! So, as it turns out, I’ll see you out there!   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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Episode 5-484 – the one about the treeIntroduction:

Hello and welcome to episode 5-484 of the RunRunLive Podcast. I’m calling it 5-484. That’s as good a number as any. At this point we are beyond the specificity of rational numbers and, some would say, rationality in general. 

Today I’m going to tell a story about a tree. I’ll give you the update on my current entropy challenge. Because it’s always something, isn’t it? And I have an idea to start a new segment called “Stupid running questions.”

And, maybe I’ll talk about mortality.

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-385 – Brian Burke’s Running Adventures (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4385.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-385.  This is Chris, your host.  Who am I?  I don’t really know.  But, I’m working on it.  And I’m hopeful.  In this podcast we talk about endurance sports and other complimentary topics that can help you find succor in your life.  We have been doing it for 10+ years now.  It’s been a fine ride. Been quite a spring so far hasn’t it?  Boston was epic.  I got a lot of positive feedback on the race report.  Thank you.  I took a little extra time putting my thoughts together there so I’m glad it resonated.  I wanted to tell a good story and see if I could put you in it, so you could live the story with me.  Particularly rewarding for me was to hear from others that were in the race and have them say “You nailed it!” and forward the post to their friends.  Eric is putting together a video from what he could reclaim form the race and he’s going to use part of my audio to support the video story.  His camera is waterproof, but it was raining so hard the water got into the microphone and essentially muted it.  I recovered fine from the race.  No problems. Got busy trying to make up for all the bad eating and drinking I had been holding at bay during the training cycle! Last weekend we held our 27th Groton Road Race.  We got a bit of rain, but it was very successful.  We had good numbers this year, the shirt was great, and people seemed to really enjoy the earlier starting times.  The cooler temps made for some good race times.  I ‘ran’ the race on Saturday this year, really just jogged it.  But, good enough to get my name in the results to keep my 27-year streak going.  We stopped to pick up trash and other things.  Even after I led a crew to clean up the course the previous weekend, there is always a few fresh beer cans that we have to police up.  Teresa set a PR in the 10K this year.  She ran it in 53 minutes.  That beats my official time of the day before.  Good for her.  It is great to be young. I’ve launched into my training cycle for the 100 miler this week after a couple light recovery weeks.  I’ll be running 3 days of middle distance during the week then back-to-back distance on the weekends.  All of it on trails.  I’ve been getting up this week and heading out into the trails early.  I take Buddy the Extremely old Wonder Dog for the first 2 miles than I head back out.  It’s beautiful in the trails in the morning.  The sun comes up around 5:40 and I’ve been getting out by 6:00.  Really nice.  You should try it.  Today we have a conversation with Brian Burk who is a an ultra-runner with many adventures to his credit and is also a writer.  In section one I am going to read you an old post on how to recover from a marathon because I thought that might be timely for people.  In section two I’m going to talk about future narratives and red blood cells.  A bit of the old vinny-vin-vino.  … I’ve been exploring a meditation site called ‘Calm’.  They have a free 7-day beginners program where the guided sessions are about 10 minutes long.  A lot of it is exposition, i.e. instruction, but it’s a good basic introduction to breathing meditation.  is particularly good.  Or at least I found it resonated.  It addresses the ability to let go of the need to do something.  It’s primarily a phone app, but I went to the website instead.  As an extra-bonus of the web site they have a looping white noise track that is pretty good for concentration enhancement that plays automatically. But, I digress.  I recommend you find a quiet place and listen to the day 5 session.  (Ironically I stopped to take some quick notes so I wouldn’t forget to tell you about it!) We all have our lists and impending deadlines and these things tend to push us through life by creating tension that drives us to do stuff.  But that causes us to rush through life without looking out the window to see what is going on within and without.  This session explains how to shut that rush to do things down and how that gives you a healthier perspective.  And ‘perspective’ is the correct word.  Because, through focus you can observe the scurrying of the mind to get things done, and without judgement, know it for what it is.  You gain an awareness that you don’t have to fill every moment with something.  That there is a value of non-doing.  Through practice you learn to give yourself permission to pause.  Learn how to give yourself permission to pause.  But not now! We have to get… On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Recovery after a marathon- http://runrunlive.com/9-steps-to-recovery-after-a-marathon Voices of reason – the conversation Burk Brian Burk ULTRAMarathon DISTANCE RUNNER Brian’s running adventure started in 2000 stationed on top of the world, at Thule Air Base, Greenland he ran 1200 miles.  As a member of the Air Force Special Operations Command the worlds events around Sept 11th distracted him from his running.  In 2005 he ran his first marathon while stationed in the United Kingdom. Since that time with a lot of help and inspiration from the running community he has raced distances from 5k up to and including three 100 Mile races and nine 24 hour events.  Some of Brian’s achievements and personal bests are: Marathon 3hr 53m 47s Umstead 100 miler, 21hr 36m 36s Graveyard 100 miler solo 23hr 05m 05s Grand Canyon Rim2Rim2Rim 19hrs 30m JFK50 Miler: 9hrs 36m 27s With a passion for writing Brian has had two features published in a national running magazine, on various running blogs and on his own at briansrunningadventures.com.  Brian’s first novel, Running to Leadville, a fictional story about running the Leadville Trail 100 has been well received by runners and non-runners alike.  His second book 26.2 Tips to run your best MARATHON, will help you shave time off your race results with running any faster.  You can follow Brian on Twitter @cledawgs  Instagram @cledawgs and Facebook at Brians Running Adventures.   Section two – The importanceof narrating the future – http://runrunlive.com/the-importance-of-communicating-a-future-narrative   Outro My friends you have stumbled through the finisher chute of episode 4-385 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Time to get something to eat, rest those feet and treat those blisters. We switched from winter to summer up here.  I went out at lunch for 6 miles of easy road work yesterday and it was in the high 80’s Fahrenheit.  I wanted to see how it felt.  I tried to convince my body that the heat wasn’t uncomfortable or even unknown, just a new thing, or a remembered thing to run with.  It wasn’t bad.  My Plantar Fasciitis is flaring up right now.  I think it’s a combination of things, but I have to keep an eye on it.  Make sure it doesn’t’ go chronic on me.  I have a couple back to back long runs this weekend in the trails and we’ll see how it feels out the other end of that.  Have another podcast tip for you… With these longer runs I have a need for some long-form content.  I listened to a great interview of Irish poet ”.  This is one of those podcasts where you have to read the notes and see if the topic or person is really something you want to stick in your head.  Some of it is not for me.  But the interview of Michael Longley was chock full of wisdom.  Nuggets like “self-importance engraves its own headstone”, and “art and poetry require a certain insouciance”.  The episode is called “ the vitality of ordinary things”.  Maybe it was the heat, but I very much enjoyed the wisdom when I was out on my lunch run yesterday. Ok my friends, I have to go, but remember you have my permission to pause and when you pause to remember the magic in ordinary things.  And thank you all for the compliments on my Boston piece.  As the poet says, ‘It’s ok to accept compliments, but don’t inhale them.” I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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The 2018 Boston Marathon The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast– Boston 2018  (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/Boston2018.mp3] Link   We are near the ‘one-mile-to-go’ marker.  Eric says something about one more hill.  The crowds are thicker and more enthusiastic than they should be, but this is Boston.  The spectators take it as seriously as the runners.  A multi-colored sea of umbrellas lines the road and the encouragement is loud enough to rise above the storm.  Because it is the Boston Marathon, and this is our race.  I am slowed but not walking.  Eric has those ultra-marathon legs and is pulling me.  If he wasn’t there I might, I just might, take a walk break.  But I don’t.  And we grind on.  … This race has ground me down but has not beaten me.  The rain continues to come in sheets and stand-you-up blasts of cold wind.  It is a din of squishing footfalls and the wet-plastic scrunching of ponchos, trash bags and rain coats.  All cadenced by the constant buffet and roar of wind-driven rain smashing into humans.  That one more hill Eric is talking about is not really a hill.  But I know what he means.  It’s Eric’s 10th Boston and he has decided to run it in with me even though my pace has deteriorated in these last 2 miles as my legs lose the battle to this Boston course.  I will not stop.  It’s my 20th Boston so I remember when they added this underpass to avoid a road crossing many years ago.  I remember the old days of looking ahead and wishing with all my heart to see the runners disappearing to the right onto Hereford Street.  Now we looked ahead to see the moving tide of storm shattered humans jog left and dip under and out the other side.  We don’t walk or slow our grimly purposed grind through the storm.  We rise out of the underpass.  Shifting to avoid the walkers or stumblers, or just having to jostle through yet another weaving, wet, exhausted, human-trash-bag blasted into our personal space by the gusty rain.  There is not much antipathy left for these wayward castaways.  An elbow, a shoulder, a tired shove and we all keep moving. It’s like being inside a washing machine filled with ponchos and rain gear with a cold firehose turned on you at the same time.  We all just want to finish.   Ironically I feel a tail wind slap me on the back as we grind up Hereford.  The only tail wind on the course.  Maybe a bit insulting. Too little, too late. Eric says his family is in the crowd somewhere up by the turn onto Bolyston and I grudgingly grind a wide tangent as he searches the crowd.  Nothing against his family but I don’t think I’d stop here to see God if he were behind the barrier.  The pull of that finish line is too strong, and I’m exhausted from 3-plus hours of pummeling rain and wind and cold.  Typically, in a rainy race people will strip out of their protective clothing in the first few miles as they warm up.  Not today.  They never warmed up.  But now, as they approach the finish line and the anticipated succor of hotel rooms and hot showers they begin to shed their rain carapaces en masse.  For the last 10 miles I have been looking out the 6-inch circle of my found poncho’s hood.  Now as I pull it back and look down Bolyston it is an apocalyptic scene.  Usually in high wind situations the discarded rain ponchos and trash bags will blow across the course like dangerous plastic tumbleweeds to tangle the runners’ legs or lodge in the fencing.  Not today.  The cold rain is so heavy that it plasters the detritus to the pavement like so many giant spit balls.  Through this apocalyptic landscape we grind out the last ¼ mile of this storied course.  There is not much of a sprint in my stride as we push through the timing mats.  I pull up the found poncho so the timers can see my number.  I’m still clutching my bottle in one cold-cramped claw.  I never finished my drink. I’m not sure I could let go of it if I wanted to.  My hands ceased to function as hands more than an hour ago.  Grimacing we finish.  Around us runners throw their arms up in celebration.  The look on their faces is a combination of triumph, relief and disbelief.  They have survived the worst weather that Boston has ever offered up.  They got it done on a day that was at once horrible and at the same time the most epic journey in a marathon most will ever experience. And not just any marathon.  The Boston Marathon.  They lived to tell the tales, and this one will be talked about for decades. … I was wrong.  I thought I had seen everything and raced in every type of weather.  I have never seen anything like this.  The closest I have come was the last leg of the Hood to Coast Relay in 2016.  I had the same 30 mph head wind with the same driving rain.  But the difference that day in Oregon was that the rain was a few degrees warmer and I wasn’t going 26.2 miles on one of the hardest marathon courses. I have experience.  I ran my Boston PR in ’98 in a cold drizzle.  I rather enjoyed the Nor’easter of ’07. I had a fine day in the rain of 2015.  Friday , as the race was approaching, when we knew what the weather was shaping up to be I wrote a blog post to calm people down.  In that post I said not to worry too much, it’s never as bad on the course as the hype makes it out to be.  I said that the cooler temps were good for racing if you could stay out of the wind.  I mollified the nervous by noting that in the mid-pack there are thousands of people to draft with.  I cautioned against wearing too much rain gear as it would catch the wind and slow you down.  Instead, I recommended, wear a few layers to trap the heat. I was wrong.  I have never seen anything like this. … Most races would have canceled or delayed in the face of this type of weather.  Not Boston.  This type of weather at Chicago would have resulted in a humanitarian crises on the scale of an ill-timed tsunami rising out of Lake Michigan.  This weather at New York would have driven the runners and spectators into emergency shelters. Not the Boston Marathon.  This old dame of a foot race has been continuously pitting the best runners in the world against each other for  122 years.  This race is part of our cultural fabric.  It’s special.  We don’t stop for weather.  It’s too important to us to stop for anything.  I remember emailing Dave McGillivray from a business trip in the days before the 2007 race as the Nor’easter bore down on New England.  I asked him if the reports were true, that they were considering canceling the race?  He responded matter of factly that he didn’t know about anybody else but he was going to be there.  It’s not bravado or false courage.  It’s a mindset that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.  The organization, the athletes, the cities and towns and the spectators are all in it together.  Together, on Monday, we all screwed up our grit and ran our race despite what wrath nature decided to unpack for us. The athletes who run Boston are not the type to give up.  They have earned the right to be there.  Either by qualifying or working to raise thousands of dollars.  This is not the one-and-done bucket list crowd.  This is a cohort of seasoned endurance athletes who have trained hard and long over many years to get here.  If they skipped runs for bad weather they would never have made it to the start in Hopkinton.  … For the first time ever I decided to skip the Athlete’s village in Hopkinton.  From past experience I knew it was going to be a mess.  Based on the reports I have from other runners it was like a medieval battlefield scene.  The athletic fields turned into ankle deep mud under the marching of 30,000 runners.  Athletes struggled to find shelter under the tents.  Some crawled under vehicles in the parking lot in an attempt to get out of the elements.  It was already raining and blowing hard as the day broke in Hopkinton.  The temperatures struggled to find 40 degrees.  There was no good place to be.  It was a mess.  There was no way to stay dry.  Waiting around to be called to the corrals runners started to accumulate a core temperature loss that would haunt them throughout the race.  The organization did the best they could but it was miserable and chaotic.  I avoided it.  My youngest daughter offered to drop me off in Hopkinton and I took the spectator bus downtown (instead of the athlete bus to the Village).  Seeing what the conditions would be, I took Eric’s offer of safe harbor at Betty’s place.  It’s a long story, a Boston story, and it goes like this…  A long time ago, a family from St. Louis owned a home in Hopkinton.  They started a tradition of hosting the visiting Missouri runners in that home.  Eventually that family from St. Louis sold the home to Betty’s Family.  They continued the tradition and this is where Eric, one of my running buddies, who is from St. Louis, has been sheltering before his Boston Marathons.  This year, Betty has sold the house and moved into a senior center, right next to the start.  She arranged to have the center’s hall open to the Missouri runners.  I joined a dozen or so gathered there in the warmth, replete with food and drink and good nature to wait for the start.  We didn’t know how lucky we were to have this safe harbor.  Around 10:30 Eric, another runner and I made our goodbyes and started walking to the corrals.  We walked out into the storm.  We were ostensibly in wave 3 corral 3 but were soon to find out that much of the rigorous Boston starting procedure had been blown out the window.  I made them stop at the big porta-potty farm on Main Street.  I took my dry race shoes, socks and hat out of their bag and wiggled into them in the cramped plastic box.  Ready to race.  I tossed the sweat pants, old shoes and ski hat to the volunteer who was stuffing soggy cast offs frantically into a rattling plastic bag. I have raced and run in all kinds of weather.  I generally know what to do and how to dress.  Monday I dressed for racing in a 35-40 degree rainy day.  I had trained in much colder weather.  I wasn’t expecting this day to be too cold, especially once we started racing and warmed up.  The only real risk was at the end of the race.  If we were forced to walk or slow down we might get chilled.  I dressed based on my experience from 19 previous Boston Marathons and 60+ marathons over the last 25 years.  And I was wrong. I wore a new pair of high-cut race shorts that I bought at the expo.  I have a rule of thumb, especially after a winter training campaign, 35 and above is shorts weather.  We were close to but above that line.  I slipped on a thin pair of calf sleeves in deference to possible wind chill and rain.  Calf sleeves are good compromise between shorts and tights if the weather is on the line and add additional protection against cramping on cold days.  For the top I added a layer to what I would usually wear.  I had a thin tech tee shirt that I had made into a tank by cutting off the sleeves as my base layer.  On top of that I wore a high-quality long sleeve tech tee I got from Asics for the 2014 NYC race and on top of that my Squannacook singlet with the bib number.  People forget that the bib number is waterproof and wind proof and helps keep your core warm.  Three layers plus the oversized bib should keep the core warm.  I wore a pair of tech gloves that were designed for this in-between type weather.  You wouldn’t want to wear these when the temps got below freezing but they usually work well in the in-between temps.  I topped it off with a simple Boston race hat from 2017.  That’s the same scheme I’ve used in countless 35-40 degree rainy runs. I was wrong. Mentally I was prepared.  I’ve been doing this too long to worry about things I can’t change.  I was happy to not have another hot year.  I had had a decent training cycle and my fitness was good.  I had avoided injury except for a minor niggle in my high left hamstring.  I was ready to race.  I slept well.  I was ready to respect Boston. I was wrong.  This was a different thing.  This was different than anything I had ever raced in.  … 65 seconds.  That’s how long Eric said it took me to poop at mile 9.  I knew those porta-potties were there in the parking lot across from the reservoir.  I have used them in previous years.  I told Eric I wanted to stop.  We had come to the conclusion that today wasn’t the best racing weather by that point.  We had been holding race pace fairly consistently up to that point down out of Hopkinton and into the flats of Ashland and Natick.  I didn’t feel horrible, but I didn’t feel great either.  I was worried about spending too much and getting caught at the end.  My effort level was good, but a little high.  My heart rate was good.  But I weirdly felt like I was burning energy faster than normal.  I could feel the energy I was expending fighting the storm.  Our ability to draft had been minimalized.  With the gusting wind and driving rain runners were having trouble staying in their lanes.  Even if you could get on someone’s shoulder that just meant you were in the wettest part of the road.  The runners you were trying to draft stuck to the dry crown of the road and in order to get into their shadow you had to run in the water filled wheel paths.  Even a veteran like me, who knows the course, couldn’t make good tangent decisions as runners weaved and wobbled in the storm.  My watch says I ran an extra ¼ mile.  People were running in all kinds of rain gear in an attempt to stay the effect of the tempest.  Shoes wrapped in bags tied at the ankles, runners clutching space blanket fragments, trash bags, ponchos and even shower caps that they had stolen from their hotels.  All bets were off. I wanted to slow down and drop off of race pace to conserve energy I knew a forced break was a good psychological way of doing this.  Anyone who has raced with me knows that I will keep repeating things like “we have to back it off” but for some reason struggle to put this sentiment into execution.  A potty break would be a good reset. Once we had the race monkey off our backs Eric and I settled into a reasonable pace and looked up ahead to anticipate the girls and the hills.  I wasn’t feeling great but it wasn’t critical.  I didn’t really know if I needed to be drinking more or how nutrition should work in this weather.  I told Eric it was now a fun run and he said “Anything under four hours is good”. We ran on through Natick and Framingham.  Eric turned to me and asked, was that the ½?  I said I think it was.  They hadn’t put up the arch that has been there in recent years due to the wind and we almost missed it.  Eric kept marveling at the spectators.  He kept repeating ‘these people are the real story’.  He was amazed that they were still out in force lining the course and cheering.  The spectators at Boston take it as seriously as the runners.  If I could turn my head in the final miles I would see the incongruent, multi-colored sea of umbrellas lining the. route  The spectators at Boston are not spectators, they are partners, or rather part owners, with the athletes.  Coming down the hill out of Hopkinton there were a couple of kids in bathing suits frolicking in a front yard.  One guy was wearing a mask and snorkel.  There are countless stories of spectators tying shoes and helping runners with food and nutrition when the athletes hands were too cold to work anymore.  One out of town runner, in a fit of hypothermia went to the crowd looking for a spare rain poncho and got the nice LL Bean rain coat freely off a mans back so he could finish the race.  In some ways it reminded me of 2013 when the people of Boston came together to help each other overcome adversity.  It’s been five years but our spirit is still Boston Strong.  We ran on through to Wellesley staying on a good pace but trying to recover enough for the hills.  Other years you can hear the girls at Wellesley College screaming from a mile away.  This year the hard rain damped the sound until we were almost on top pf them.  They were out there.  They were hanging over their fence imploring the shivering runners with kisses and high-fives.  Eric and I ran through smiling as always.  Even though my energy was low I drifted over and slapped as many wet hands as I could.  … Coming into mile 15 some combination of our slower pace and the increasing ferocity of the storm started to get the better of me.  I could feel my core temperature dropping.  I was working but I couldn’t keep up.  How did this happen?  How could someone with my experience get it wrong?  Why was this different from any other cold rain run?  It was, in a sense, the perfect storm.  The perfect combination of physics, fluid dynamics and temperature conspired to create a near perfect heat sink for the runners.  The wind, on its own, was just a strong wind.  The rain on its own was just a hard rain.  The temperature on its own was just another spring day.  But the combination pulled heat out of your body faster than you could make more. The volume of rain driven by the winds penetrated through my hat and washed the heat from my head.  The same cold rain drove through the three layers of my shirts and washed the heat from my core.  My gloves filled with cold water and my hands went numb.  When I made a fist water would pour out like squeezing a wet sponge.  The rain and wind was constant but would also come in big waves.  We’d be running along and a surge in the storm would knock us sideways or backwards like being surprised by a maniac with a water cannon.  I would stumble and lean into it and mutter “Holy shit storm!” or “Holy Cow Bells!” Really just to recognize and put words on the abuse.  The wind was directly in our faces.  The rain was directly in our faces.  The whole time.  We never got out of it.  There would be lulls but then it would return with one of those smack-you-in-the-face hose downs.  My shoulder and back muscles were sore from leaning into it.  I was having difficulty drinking from my bottle because I couldn’t squeeze my hand hard enough.  I resorted to holding it between two hands and pushing together between them.  People reported not having the hand strength to take their nutrition or even pull their shorts up after a potty stop.  I was starting to go hypothermic and my mind searched for a plan.  Eric knew I was struggling.  I started scanning the road for discarded gear I could use.  The entire length of the course was strewn with gear.  I saw expensive gloves and hats and coats of all descriptions.  We passed by an expensive fuel belt at one point that someone had given up on.  Eric knew I was suffering and I told him I was going to grab a discarded poncho if I could find one.  As if on cue a crumpled orange poncho came into view on the sidewalk to our left and I stopped to retrieve it.  Eric helped me wriggle into it.  It was rather tight, and that was a good thing.  It was probably a woman’s.  It clung tightly to my torso and had a small hood that captured my head and hat without much luffing in the wind.  It's at this point that Eric says I was a new man.  I may not have been a new man but the poncho trapped enough heat to reverse the hypothermia and we got back to work.  By now we were running down into Newton Lower Falls and looking up, over the highway at the Hills.  Eric said, “We’re not walking the hills.” I said, “OK” and we were all business.  We slowed down but we kept moving through the first hill.  I focused not on running but on falling. Falling forward and catching myself with my feet.  Hips forward.  Lift and place the foot.  Not running just falling. The hood of the poncho was narrow.  I had an enforced tunnel vision, but it was somehow comforting, like a blinders on a race horse.  I could see Eric’s blue shoes appear now and then on my right, or on my left.  I settled into my own, little, six-inch oval of reality and worked through the hills.  Other runners would cross my field of vision and I’d bump through them.  I was in the groove.  I don’t know why but people’s pacing was all over the place during the race.  It might have been the wind or the hypothermia addled brains but they were weaving all over the road.  I had to slam on my brakes for random stoppages the entire race.  Eventually I just ran through them as best I could.  I didn’t have the energy to stop.  This kind of behavior is unusual at Boston in the seeded corrals, but the whole day was unusual. I think the relative chaos of the start may have had something to do with it. When we got to the corrals they had ceased worrying about protocol and were just waving runners through.  If you wanted to bandit Boston this year or cheat, Monday would have been the day to do it.  But you also might have died in the process, so there’s that.  We got through the chutes and over the start mats without any formal starting ceremony.  The flood gates were open, so to speak.  Because of this I think the pacing was a bit strange at the start and we passed a lot of people.  I was racing and Eric was doing his best to hold me back.  We chewed through the downhill section of the course with gusto.  Given the conditions we were probably too fast, but not suicidal.  Both of us have run Boston enough times to be smart every once in a while.  We were holding a qualifying pace fairly well and trying to draft where we could.  Eric had to pull off and have someone tie his shoe but I stayed in my lane and he caught up.  We rolled through the storm this way until I realized this was not a day to race and we had to conserve our energy if we wanted to finish.  We metered our efforts and this budgeting process culminated in the voluntary pit stop at mile 9. … In Newton between the hills we’d focus on pulling back and recovering enough for the next one.  Eric had a friend volunteering at mile 19 who we stopped to say ‘hi’ to.  We were slow but we were moving forward.  We reached a point of stasis.  Every now and then Eric would pull out his video camera and try to capture the moment.  I was thinking sarcastically to myself how wonderful it would be to have video of my tired, wet self hunched inside the poncho like a soggy Quasimodo. I had brought a bottle of a new electrolyte drink called F2C with me.  It was ok but because of the cold I wasn’t drinking much.  I knew my hands couldn’t get to the Endurolytes in my shorts pocket.  I had enough sense to worry about keeping the cramps away.  I managed to choke down a few of the Cliff Gels they had on the course just to get some calories, and hopefully some electrolytes.  Eric and I continued to drive through the hills.  I miss-counted and thought we’d missed HeartBreak in the Bedlam.  With the thinner crowds I could see the contours of the course and knew we had one more big one before the ride down into Boston.  We successfully navigated through the rain up Heartbreak and Eric made a joke about there being no inspirational chalk drawings on the road this year.  Eric was happy.  He had wrecked himself on the hills in previous races and my slow, steady progress had helped him meter himself.  With those ultra-marathon trained legs he was now ready to celebrate and took off down the hill.  I tried my best to stay with him but the hamstring pull in my left leg constrained my leg extension and it hurt a bit.  I was happy to jog it in but he still had juice.  I told him to run his race, I’d be ok, secretly wishing he’d go so I could take some walk breaks without a witness, but he refused.  He said “We started this together and we’re going to finish together.”  OK Buddy, but I’m not running any faster.  I watched his tall yellow frame pull ahead a few meters though the last 10K, but he would always pull up and wait for me to grind on through. And so we ground out against the storm and into the rain and wind blasts through the final miles.  In my mind I never once thought, “This is terrible!” or “This bad weather is ruining my race!”  All I was thinking is how great it was to get to be a part of something so epic that we would be talking about for years to come.  The glory points we notched for running this one, for surviving it and for doing decently well considering – that far outweighed any whining about the weather. This type of thing brings out the best in people.  It brought out the grit in me and the other finishers.  It brought out the challenges for those 2700 or so people who were forced to seek medical treatment.  That’s about 10% of those who started.  It brought out the best in Desi Linden who gutted out a 2:39 to be the first American winner 33 years.  In fact it brought out the best in the next 5 female finishers, all of whom were relative unkowns.  The top 7 women were 6 Americans and one 41 year old Canadian who came in 3rd.  No East Africans to be seen.  The day brought out the best in Yuki Kawauchi from Japan who ground past Kenyan champ Geoffrey Kirui in the final miles.  It was an epic day for epic athletes and I am glad to have been a part of it.  I am grateful that this sport continues to surprise me and teach me and humble me.  I am full of gratitude to be part of this race that pushes us so hard to be better athletes, to earn the right to join our heroes on this course.  I am humbled to have friends in this community, like Eric, who can be my wing men (and wing-ladies) when the storms come. I am thankful for that day in 1997 when a high school buddy said, “Hey, why don’t we run the marathon?”  Those 524 miles of Boston over the last 20 years hold a lot of memories.  This race has changed me for the better and I’m thankful for the opportunity.

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-384 – Stephanie Bombs to BQ (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4384.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-384 How are we doing?  Looks like spring is finally arriving up here in New England.  I was out in the woods this week doing a little, slow trail running with Buddy the Very Old Wonder Dog.  You can feel nature getting ready to explode.  Buddy is getting pretty slow, but I wait for him to catch up and he does ok.  He even breaks into a run every once in a while.  It hasn’t greened up yet, but it will towards the end of this month. The ground is wet, and the snow is mostly gone.  But even the mud smells fecund in its dormancy.  There are a lot of trees and branches down.  From all the nor’easters we had.  I might go for a walk with my old dog today and bring my axe to clear some of the dead fall out of the trail.  My wife is always telling me I shouldn’t drive around with an axe.  I’m not sure I understand the safety concern.  I was sharpening my axe last week and wondered how many people in the world still know how to sharpen and axe?  Such an ancient thing.  We humans have been rubbing stones against metal for a few thousand years. Yes, the dog is still alive, I’m still alive and the woods are coming alive.  Today we have a great story for you.  I talk with Stephanie who decided to become a runner the day the bombs went off in Boston 5 years ago.  From the emotional beginning, she’ll be running her first qualified Boston this year, on that anniversary.  Compelling stuff. In section one I’ll talk about active tapers.  In section two I’ll talk about hope and emotional intent.  Yes, I’m a little bit more than a week out from running my 20th Boston Marathon.  If you want to follow me my number is 18051.  Solidly in the midpack with a 3:33 qualification time.  It looks like we are going to get good running weather.  50’s and overcast.  This may be a good year.  But you never know in New England. I’m in my taper.  This week still has a few quality workouts in it but next week I’m sure we’ll be shutting it down.  My weight is good.  My fitness is good.  I’ve got a little pirifomis pain but I’m working through it.  All in all I guess I don’t have any excuses! … Racing is like life.  You have to find that knife’s edge between too little and too much.  Too fast and too slow.  It’s a balancing act.  Picture yourself walking along that mountain ridge.  It drops off into the depths precipitously on both sides.  But we have trained.  We know how to walk the edge with confidence and aplomb. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Active Taper- Voices of reason – the conversation  ·  Hi everyone!! Here is my introductory story – the video thing is not so much my forte’! Grab a sammich and sit back…it’s a little long, but I think worth the read!  :) We all have a story about where we were the day the bombs went off…This is the day I became a runner… I grew up watching the race, the Red Sox, the Bruins, and doing so many things the great city of Boston has to offer. Five years ago, my husband and I moved to Las Vegas. On Patriots Day 2013, I was in my living room watching the race on TV. When it was finished, I turned it off, and shortly after that got a phone call from my mom, in tears, yelling at me to turn the TV back on, that “something really bad had happened”. And there it was…the news unfolding…my brother was running the marathon that day and his wife and my dad were near the finish line waiting for him. With phone lines down, it took some time to connect with his wife and my dad – oddly, Facebook messenger was operating and this became our life line. It would then be a couple of hours before we got word that my brother was ok…. Having just recently moved and retired, I was looking for some change in my life that would be healthy, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted or needed to do. I was overweight and sedentary. Most everything took so much effort. Everything about the bombings though felt personal. MY city had been attacked and for a few hours, I wasn’t sure if I had lost half of my family. As I watched the world wrap its arms around Boston, I also watched the running community and how they responded. I wanted to be part of that - I was all in! I was going to be a runner! My brother helped me get started and we talked daily about what happened and the continued news reports…I bought a pair of running shoes. Set a start date. Set a goal – get to the end of the street and back – 1 mile. I was able to “jog” about 20 feet before I had to stop and say, “What the hell????” “This is SO hard!!”. It only made me want it more… My brother instructed me to find a 5k event to keep me working toward goals. I did and six months later, I crushed it with a time of 40:53!! Hahaha!! I slept the rest of the day - BUT, I knew I wanted to get better and faster. I found a local running club and then my brother suggested signing up for the BAA 2014 Distance Medley. I was going to be back home for marathon weekend anyway – no way I would miss it! So, the 5k was no problem (although still a huge distance for me at the time). I figured I had enough time to train for a 10k, but that half marathon?? Holy hell…I didn’t know if I could do that. Marathon weekend and the first race for the Distance Medley came. The city was on fire with an energy I can’t begin to describe! I am forever grateful to have been able to be part of that weekend. I ran the 10k with my brother and my dad, at my dad’s pace. He had been so affected by everything the previous year, that this meant everything to him. I had been training with my running club coach and was able to complete my very first half marathon as part of the Distance Medley, in Boston, the city I love so much. My finish time was 2:41:32. I vowed I would never do another one – the training, the anxiety, the effort – it felt impossible… And those are the things that propelled me forward to want to do better at half marathons. I spent the next couple of years being 100% driven toward better running, faster times, and overall fitness. I lost 90 lbs. I brought my 2:41 half time down to a 1:48. Then I had a conversation with my coach…the 5th year anniversary of the bombings, the thing that started me running was coming up in 2018. I would be turning 50 the week before that race. I decided that I wanted to run Boston to bring my running journey full circle. I thought being a charity runner would be a good idea to make this happen. He stated that in no way was I going to run charity (although we both support charity running 100%). I was going to qualify. I had all the right things inside me, driven by determination and Boston to make it happen. I had no desire to run multiple marathons to try to BQ and get to Boston. It would mean the most to me to run April 2018, and if I got in, it was meant to be. If not, it wasn’t. I wasn’t going to be a multiple marathon runner. So, the training began and I did everything that was within my power to make it successful – nutrition, training plan, cross training, strength training, reading multiple books about mental focus & motivation – all of it. May 29, 2017, I stepped up to the start line of Mountains 2 Beach Marathon. I was ready. I was hungry for it. And I got it! Although I was shooting for a 10 min window & hoping at worst a 5 min window. I came in at 3:56:31, with around 3:30 to spare. Although this isn’t a guarantee, it was enough to keep me somewhat confident, until registration time. I kept with my belief that of it was meant to happen, it would. And it did…I made it in by 6 seconds! Wooosh! After basking in the glory, the butterflies, and flip flopping stomach, I was going to be running Boston! I was ecstatic!! Then, it was time for training to begin. My coach of four years, the only way I have known running and the coach I trusted to guide me, unfortunately made inappropriate sexual advances toward me. My husband and I fired him on the spot. But then I was panicked…What do I do? How do I train? How does this all work? I have an amazing support system of running friends that worked me through the grief & loss of my coach and helped get me get invested in a training plan to keep me on track. I have been following Hal Higdon’s Boston plan, with lots of success. I don’t have a time goal. My goal is to simply take it ALL in. Just to enjoy the entire experience, the crowds, the energy – and everything that got me to this point. I have two injuries slowing me down – residual pain from two hammy tears and now a bone bruise in my heel, but NOTHING will keep me from that start line in Hopkinton! In just under four weeks, I will be running a race I NEVER thought possible when I first started running. I will be bringing my running journey full circle, as I bring it back to Boston, to run the race that started it all for me. I will be turning 50 a week before the race. I will be bringing closure to an event that changed my life completely and fully. And I will be doing it all with amazing friends and my incredible husband who has supported every step of this journey (and just ran his first 5k!!!). Section two – Hope and intent –   Outro Alright my friends you have hoped yourself – with good intent – through to the end of episode 4-384 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Next time we talk will be post marathon. Should have something interesting to say.  We’ll see. Boston is always an adventure.  Then I have to throw myself into ultra training for the Burning River 100 in July.  I’ve been watching my way through a couple good shows on Netflix.  The first one, I think I told you about is Altered Carbon.  This is a hard scifi series based on a very good hard scifi novel.  I would recommend reading the novel before you watch the series though.  The show sticks very closely to the novel’s narrative but in doing so it becomes a bit of an insider game.  If you don’t know the backstory of the universe you might think it is some sort of soft porn snuff movie.   The universe’s conceit is that humans have discovered alien technology whereby you can put yourself on a chip.  Which means you can be reanimated in any body or ‘sleeve’ and few people suffer ‘real death’.  Leads to some tricky cultural problems when people can live forever. I’m starting the second novel in the series as we speak. Another one I’ve been working my way through is Peaky Blinders.  Which is about a gang in Birmingham after the great war.  It’s very well done.  It’s a bit like Boardwalk Empire.  The characters are compelling.  It occurs to me that it is the embodiment of a set in the roaring 1920’s.  (If you don’t get reference google it.  The Stanley Kubrik rendition of this Anthony Burgess novel in 1971 was quite the cult classic – you owe it to yourself to watch it.  You’ll never listen to Beethoven’s 9h the same way again.) This is another one where if you have a weak stomach for the vinni-vin-vino or the ultra-violence you might want to stay away.  I myself was having dreams of murder last night.  I’ll give you a running related slice of content recommendation as well.  As part of the marathon run up this year the BAA is putting out a podcast.  So far, they have interviewed Boston winners Jack Fultz, Bill Rodgers and Sarah Mae Berman, and also our friend Dave McGillivray. Sara Mae won the race before women were official.  Great to remember, with all the dynamics of women in society today and current trials and tribulations, it wasn’t that long ago that the maximum allowable distance for women to compete at was 200 meters.  Seems absurd today, but that didn’t change until the 70’s.  Worth a listen.  Very inspirational.  These women changed the world, like Stephanie is changing the world, like we all can change the world by filling that moment between stimulus and response with our intent.  I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks -

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