For long time readers, you’ve had the opportunity to follow along as I set out on a life long change to become a healthier person.
From the beginning it wasn’t easy. What I learned along the way is that living in a healthier place, isn’t easy. It was a decision I made in May 2011 with the help of my wife, Angie. Without hear support and encouragement, I’m sure I would have given up long before I had reached my goal. Some days it was stressful between the two of us. She was the one who made the initial visit to the gym and called me to say “We are doing this.” So the credit to start this process starts with her.
Earlier this summer, America’s Fitness Center asked if I would shoot a series of videos documenting this change and to talk as openly as possible. In each of the videos, I probably opened up more than I had intended on and probably more than I had to anyone else before. I’ve written about them on the blog, and in more detail for sure – but to have a camera in front of you and to talk about it, is something else entirely.
Today, they released the third video. I’ve embedded the video at the end of this post. To me, it accurately tells the story of what the future holds and for how tough it is going to be moving forward. It isn’t going to be a cakewalk. It isn’t a switch that was just flipped. This is something I will be working on for the rest of my life.
Mankato Half-Marathon
I’ve been lacking in the story department for a few weeks.
A couple of weeks ago, Angie had signed up to run in the Mankato Half-Marathon. This would be her first run of this length, and we were both super excited about it.
I had stalled and stalled when it came to registering myself. On the day I finally logged in to register, the online registration had closed. I took that as a sign that I wasn’t meant to run in the race. When the day came to sign up, I decided I would ask at the registration desk one last time. When they said they had room left, I decided to sign up and run.
I hadn’t really been training all that much, really just running on our community run days and maybe a couple of others. My distances usually kept to 3-9 mile lengths. I just wasn’t preparing to run in this race.
If you’ve ever participated in the race, you know how early you have to get up to be at the start line in time. We drove from about 45 minutes away, so we had to leave early. It was the first time that I’ve left for a run in the dark of morning. If I remember right, we were in the car at 4:30am.
When we arrived, the temps were hovering around 40 degrees. Temps would get higher during the run, which meant shedding some clothes.
Have you ever tried taking a shirt off while running? While trying to take off an iPhone off of your arm. While going downhill?
Yeah, I didn’t time it very well.
As the race progressed, I settled in to a really nice pace. I kind of kept an eye on the guy in front of me and tried to pace with him. When I started the race, I had started with one of the pacers, but it just didn’t feel right. There were so many people, I just felt I would be better off pacing myself.
When I ran the half marathon on Earth Day in April, I blew my pace and my time by doing this exact same thing. This time I felt like I was a little bit better prepared. Angie and I drove the route the night before so we knew where the hills would be; where we could push it a little harder; and where to take it easy.
I finished the race in 1:52:36. Shattering my old record of 2:06:00 in April. It was a pretty emotional thing going in to mile 12 knowing that I just had to hold my pace and I would break it by a large margin. During the last mile, I actually ran faster than I had run mile 11 and 12. My pace held up at 8:26/mile for the most part. Miles 5, 6, 7 paced at 7:46/mile.
What made me the most excited that day was seeing Angie complete her first half-marathon. This was something she was super stoked about. She spent a lot of time living in Mankato, so this was a special event for her. It was exciting to see her cross the finish line and get her medal.
Spooky Sprint 5k
This past weekend, we both raced in the Spooky Sprint 5k. This is a great event that supports a local organization that works with local kids. I think it’s a great event. It’s easily the best run local run that I’ve run in so far.
When the gun sounded and we took off, I didn’t have a set pace in mind. All I know was that after 3 blocks, I was in 3rd place. Then my brain kicked in and asked “Just what do you think you are doing?!” After my brain had a close heart to heart with my legs, we came to an agreement and slowed down a bit. There is no way I’m going to keep up with some of those who’ve been running all of their life.
While we both didn’t run much the week previous to the run while we recovered from running the half-marathon the week before, we both ran a really good race. I completed this 5k in my fastest time in a 5k yet. I came in 17th place overall with a time of 21:46 and a pace of 7:01/mile.
Angie rocked this run too, even with an injured toe. (She lost a toe nail during the run. It hurt – a lot).
This was also the first time the boys had competed in a racing event. When the gun went off, they both sprinted out so fast, I didn’t see either of them pass. Big Dude took off out with a large group of kids while Grandma jogged beside Little Guy. Each got their first finishers medal and it was all they could do to contain their excitement. Big Dude wore his for much of the next day so he could show his friends.
It’s great to see them get excited about exercising as well. Who knows, maybe one of them will become a runner too!
About that future
So there you have it. You are all caught up on what we’ve been up to.
I have to get back to posting on a more regular basis. At this point, blogging isn’t my full time job. Being a husband, a parent and working have gotten in the way.
This blog will continue to move forward, documenting our life as it unfolds in Minnesota. I think we’ll even start hearing from another voice on the blog as Angie has indicated a desire to write more.
We’ll get better at posting. Promise.
Stay awesome,
Roman