My son wanted to run soooooo bad after Saturday’s race, so I took him along for a bit of a cool down:
This is, by far, my newest favorite running photo (I’m not sure I actually had a favorite until now). Just a week removed from his first race, he really wants to do another one. I certainly won’t be holding him back.
Nearly 3 years ago, I wrote about the “future runner” on his way into our lives and posted this photo from my wife’s ultrasound:
And then a few months later there was another “future runner” post, which had the real foot prints from the little man:
Then just a few days into Conner’s life, I took this photo of him in my favorite running visor:
Fast forward nearly 2 and a half years and you have this, his first race, a quarter-mile fun run:
The important thing about my son’s first race is that he had fun and was really looking forward to it. When my wife signed him up nearly three weeks ago he was ready to go right away. Conner loves running and really enjoys getting outside for a walk nearly every day, which often turns into a run. I know how important it is for healthy habits like this to begin now and I’m really looking forward to seeing what he wants to do running wise down the road.
Before I get too ahead of myself, though, I’m enjoying soaking up this moment. I’m so proud of him both as a father and as a runner.
Today marked a rare occurrence of getting up and out the door a few minutes before 6:30 a.m. to run 3.5 miles. The alarm clock didn’t go off — I just got up and ran (after a trip to the bathroom, of course).
It sounds so easy, right? WRONG. If it was easy, I’d be a full-time morning runner. I generally have no problems doing this on the weekend. Even last year when I was going for really long runs on the weekend I could set the alarm for 5:30 and be out the door before Big Red made it’s daily rising.
This past winter, though, with nothing to train for except getting healthy, even weekend morning running took a back seat. I get up with my son — usually between 7 and 7:30 a.m. — and hang out with him for an hour or so before my wife gets up. I’ve been doing those runs closer to 9 a.m. or so. Don’t take that the wrong way though — I love that extra time with my son on the weekend and it’s often the only time it’s just the two of us.
All this being said, I am awful with weekday morning running. I’ve done it before, back when I had a job in which I didn’t have to be at work until 9 a.m. When I first started running in 2004 I worked evenings, which made it even easier to run in the morning, but that was more mid-morning.
Now, though, I have to be at work at 8 a.m. On paper, it seems easy: get up at 5:45 a.m., do whatever it is I need to do before running and get out the door around 6 a.m., give or take a few minutes. That allows me enough time to run 4-5 miles and still have plenty of time to get ready, eat breakfast, hang out with my son for 15 minutes and get to work on time.
Running in the morning isn’t a wish … it’s something I need to do in order for the next six months to go well. That’s right, need. Here’s why:
My son’s bed time is getting later. He’s a great sleeper, but as he gets closer to 3 years old, his bedtime is getting closer to 8 p.m. Before it was regularly 7 p.m., but those days are gone. It’s funny to tell other people when he goes to bed, but guess what?!? Kids need that much sleep. They shouldn’t be staying up with you until 9 or 10 p.m. or catching the late local news, and then turning around and getting up at 7 a.m. [end rant] … so for me as a family man, I love the evening time I get to spend with my son (and of course my wife). Those couple of hours or so at the end of the day are the only times during the week that I get to spend with him, so I’d rather not go out for a run if I get an extra half hour with him.
As I wrote about a couple of times last month, my grandfather passed away last month. Many years ago he asked me to speak at his funeral, which I realized during the week of his death was truly an honor. At his funeral I talked about what my grandfather taught me as I grew up — some just very simple things; others are very valuable life lessons that I’ll never forget. In no particular order, here are 11 things he taught me. (You can read my previous “11 things” posts here.)
1. Don’t put rubbing alcohol on an open wound. He tried to do that once after wrecking my bike.
2. Don’t put ketchup on a steak. Salt and pepper is all you need.
3. Walk a dog. He adored my uncle’s dog Buddy and always took him for walks. That dog was the best dog ever on a leash, all because my grandpa knew how to walk her. I struggle with this lesson a bit today, but I still learned some great tips by watching him.
4. Take care of a lawn. He had the greenest grass in the neighborhood, without having to water it at all times.
5. Stay loyal to a team. My grandfather had great respect for Vince Lombardi and Joe Gibbs. And you better believe he gave me a hard time when I hopped on the Cowboys bandwagon for one season.
6. Make a tie look good. The tie I wore at his funeral was his. He wasn’t much of a tie guy, though, but he knew the time and place to dress up.
7. Keep a car clean. As a former car salesman, he took care of his vehicles like you wouldn’t believe. They always looked new. (As I look at my vehicles and realize they need to be cleaned.)
8. Be a family guy. No explanation really needed — he was a family man.
9. Smile at work. This is something I didn’t really learn until this past month looking through photo albums. I don’t remember much about his working days, and I’m sure he might have complained with the best of him, but even in photos at work he was smiling. I realized a lot the week he passed about myself and some things I need to do in my career.
10. That golf is a waste of time. He got golf clubs as a retirement gift. I think he golfed 2 or 3 times, if that. I tried golfing for a few years, but gave it up.
11. The most important lesson my grandfather taught me — how to be happy. In all of his pictures throughout his life, he always had a genuine smile on his face. Life is a lot easier when you can put a smile on.
With everything that has gone on in the past week — with my grandfather’s death, family coming in and out of town, not always eating that great (still meatless though), not getting nearly enough sleep and even dealing with the crazy weather — it feels weird that I have my first race this Saturday in nearly 5 months. It also seems weird that I’ve been talking about my ITB issues for nearly a half year after my problems started in October.
But it’s here … race week. I highly doubt that I’ll be “racing” the Monument Avenue 10k on Saturday. I will run it hard though. I have to … I need to … for so many reasons. I need to run hard to flush things out of my mind. I also need to run hard just to prove to myself that I can do it.
I obviously have a lot on my mind. Family deaths have a way of weighing on me and pushing me in directions that I’m just not familiar with yet. I need to listen to whatever I’m being called to do.
I started this blog nearly four years ago right after my grandmother’s death on my dad’s side of the family — I never talked about it at the time, but my blog was an outlet for my running thoughts. I had just been hesitant to do something until then.
My grandfather’s death is having an impact on me that I never expected. As I continue to realize more and more how much of a positive influence he had on my life, I want to strive to live my life more like him. Every picture I looked at last week in our family photo albums he was smiling. He was smiling around family, with friends … even at work. It’s not that I’m not happy with my life, but I sure do need to express it more.
I’ve been asked how I can keep a positive attitude with running, even in recent months with my injury. Well, folks, I just laid it out there for you. Having an influence in my life like my grandfather gives me all the reason I need to stay positive.
So, it is with a heavy heart that I have my first race in 140 days this coming Saturday, but I can bet you that I’ll be smiling more through it than I usually do.
The beginning of this week had some of the greatest running weather I’ve seen in a long time. Mid-60s in the morning with highs near 80 in the afternoon; it was a bit cool for a Thursday morning run, but still not too bad. Then this morning it was 30 degrees and snowing. I think my body was shocked by it.
Instead of complaining about it being cold, I headed out and just enjoyed being able to run. After a week of many emotions, lots of tears and laughter celebrating my grandfather’s life, this was actually a great way to close out the week. It certainly wasn’t easy to get out and run, but it’s helped me sort out a lot of thoughts.
On Monday afternoon, my grandfather left this world at age 84. He’s the greatest man I’ve ever known for so many reasons. It has felt like the longest two days of my life — while there are certainly some sad moments, there’s been so much reflecting going on in my house with stories and looking through photo albums. We are truly celebrating his life.
In times like this, I am finding running to be such a great outlet. I took Monday off work anticipating his passing, and did what was surprisingly one of the best runs in a long time. The following morning I ran my grandpa’s favorite walking route — the “loop” in Bedford — and once again had a great run. I’m craving another run in the morning.
The next two days are going to be tough with the visitation and funeral, but I am ready to continue celebrating his life. And to me running will continue to be a way to honor him. My grandfather was the strongest man I knew and he put up the greatest fight you could image in the past five years or so.
If you don’t like to read about puke, don’t read beyond this sentence.
No really, I warned you. I know how just reading about it will make people gag.
Anyone remember that episode of “Seinfeld” where Jerry bragged about his vomit-free streak? Classic. It’s too bad there are no clips of it anywhere online, because this would be perfect.
So … this started a week ago when my son randomly got sick. It was his first true throw-up in his 27-plus months of life. And it was gross. It made for a couple of long days as he slowly got better. It was a long week for him though as he recovered from a stomach bug. My wife and I were thankful it hadn’t spread to us.
By Thursday night, though, my stomach was hurting a bit. On Friday, it was worse, but I headed to work anyway. I stayed less than an hour. On my drive home, I had to pull over and stop to leave a present on the side of the road. It was awful. I’m pretty sure I’ve never had to stop to throw up before. It’s as bad as you can image, especially being by myself on the side of a highway with trucks whizzing by at 60 mph.
When I finally got home I stayed in the bed all day. That’s all the details I’ll provide — it’s probably more than you’d like to hear — but it was not a good day. To put it into perspective, I weighed almost 3 pounds less yesterday morning than I did Friday morning. Saturday was so-so — I could at least sit up for more than 10 minutes and I finally ate a little bit that night.
This morning I’m a bit better, but still nowhere near 100 percent. I certainly won’t be running today. I’ll be lucky to get some fresh air for 10 minutes. It’s been a wild few days and I really hope I’m near the end of it. I may take tomorrow off work just to make sure I’m fully recovered. My wife is also not feeling well, but I think she’s managed to miss the worse of it. She is sleeping more than me though.
There’s no worse feeling than not being able to do anything. With other illnesses, there’s always that feeling of being able to do something, even if it’s just walking around. With stomach pain, there’s nothing to do but moan until it finally goes away. Stay healthy out there everyone!
As I promised last month, I’m doing a post of 11 things on the 11th of the month. This month is another list of things you may not know about me, and I’ve taken the theme off 11 localities I’ve spent at least one night of my life beyond the obvious of where I’ve lived in my life (Bedford, Lynchburg and Richmond, Va.). Also, while these do have numbers, these are in no order of “favorites.” I don’t want any cities to get jealous out there.
1. Mystic, Connecticut
One of the secrets of the Northeast has to be Mystic. I visited Mystic in the fall of 2006 on a mini-tour of the Northeast, including the Mystic Aquarium (above photo). From the outside it seemed like I was stepping back to the 1980s, but inside was pretty cool. If you go to Mystic, be sure to check out the nearby casinos.
2. Granger, Indiana
Just outside of South Bend is Granger, where two of my cousins grew up. I’ve been there a few times in my life — I think once when I was 6 months or so old and as recently as 2003. The highlight, though, was when I traveled there by myself when I was 18. A 12-hour drive by myself … seems surreal now.
3. Amsterdam
In the summer of 1999, I had an awesome college experience of going to London to study for three weeks then getting to go on a tour of Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. The highlight was surprisingly Amsterdam. Such a great city for so many reasons. Above is a scanned in photo of one of the canals in Amsterdam. Another city on this trip makes the list below.
4. Cortland, Ohio
It’s where my in-laws live. I sort of have to stay there.
5. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
I’ve seen a lot of ads for Myrtle Beach this year with a great tagline: Where America comes to play. Pretty good for an ad campaign. I have spent many, many nights in Myrtle Beach, ranging from my early teens to senior beach week in 1996 to visiting my sister when she lived there. I know the area very well, but it’s been quite a few years since I’ve been there.
6. Southern Shores, North Carolina
Keeping with the beach theme … the photo above isn’t precisely Southern Shores, but it’s close enough. A few summers ago a friend of mine got married on the beach in the Outer Banks. If you’ve never been, GO. Southern Shores is nice as it’s kind of in between the popular section of Nags Head and the very cool Duck.
7. Hershey, Pennsylvania
My wife and I made a stop on our honeymoon in 2004 in Hershey and we’ve been back twice for Dave Matthews Band concerts. (For the record, I’ve spent the night in several places for DMB concerts in addition to what’s already been mentioned: Cherry Hill, N.J., for a concert in Philadelphia; Roanoke, Va.; Blacksburg, Va.; Virginia Beach; and Greensboro, N.C.) Anyway, Hershey is a must-see sometime in your life if you like chocolate.
8. Middletown, New York
My first roommate from college lived in Middletown and a few of us went to his house for our first fall break in October 1996. It was truly my first road trip in college.
9. Brooklyn, New York
My roommate mentioned above lived in Brooklyn for a while. In the winter of 2005 my wife and I drove to New York for a couple of Dave Matthews Band concerts at Madison Square Garden. While it was nice to have a free place to stay, I got what I felt was a true Brooklyn experience — staying the night in an apartment above a shoe store, Brooklyn pizza and a local bar with drink five times what I’m used to paying. It was also winter, and it snowed, so I got to experience the city at a very awesome time of the year.
10. Birmingham, Alabama
A couple of summers ago I got to spend some time at a social media seminar in Birmingham. It was much smaller than expected, but I got to experience true southern humidity. Sure it’s bad in Virginia, but this stuff was thick.
11. Edinburgh, Scotland
On my trip mentioned above, I spent a weekend in Scotland. It was amazing. Great weather, great castles, great whiskey … it’s on the top of my list of places I want to visit again. (So yeah, No. 11 is No. 1, but who’s counting?)
This isn’t about me, although I’d like to do something soon. This is about my 2-year-old son, who will be more than ready for a kids race this spring.
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