My wife and I in a race together

Robyn and I in post race bliss
The entire family

You can't quite make out the card but it says in honor of Val Elliott (Robyn's mother), Anne Geenen (my aunt), and Lindy Verbeek (member of our church)

It was an overcast day with rain the night before and just felt like an all day rain was coming, luckily it held off and the 6300 participants were able to run or walk without umbrellas. This was not the usual race full of hardcore runners. I was in the timed 5K and my wife was in the 5K walk.

I finished in 19:20 and my wife finished her walk in less than 35 minutes. Funny thing, when I checked my time on the posted sheet it listed me as 2nd for my age group but later when I went to get my medal they had me listed as #1. Not sure if it was a mistake or #1 got disqualified for something. Anyway I got a first place medal for my efforts, it didn't have a finishing place on it and I think second place was the same medal with a red ribbon instead of blue.

Robyn is napping now. She was feeling sore, her neck and shoulder hurt quite a bit. She is resting up for our date tonight. We are quite excited about it since it happens about once every other year. Although this is the second time this year, it's getting easier as the kids get older.

I have to mow the lawn and I should run 10 miles but that will have to wait until tomorrow due to time constraints, can't b late for my hot date tonight!

Quote of the day: You are not you circumstances. You are your possibilities." Oprah Winfrey

My theory on stretching

You will probably never talk to another runner who will openly say this but I hate stretching! And not jut doing it, I hate the entire idea of it. There are more stretching injuries than running, or insert your sport here, injuries. If you are going to exercise do it and don't spend 15 minutes stretching.

Science has proven very inclusive evidence on stretching but most summarize the same way - "it is a good idea but we can't show any evidence of any benefit from stretching." I will agree if done properly it isn't harmful just a waste of time.

You know what the best form of stretching is - exercise. Have you ever seen a 6 year old with a pulled hamstring? Kids run around all day and countless times a day go from standing still to a dead sprint. If your average adult over 40 did that they would likely pull a muscle but the kids do it everyday so there muscles are used to it.

My suggestion for your average inactive adult who wants to get active would be to start slowly an expect the muscles to be sore when you are done. It is these type of people who injure themselves stretching, they needlessly stretch the muscle far more than it will be stretched in whatever activity they will be doing and POP!

My training is going the same, 2 good runs followed by a very poor long run. I ran a solid 13 miles Tuesday and then did 10 more on a hilly course south of Zeeland. Especially the Thursday run felt great, but then again Saturday morning I tried to run 20, I was winded but not too bad after 15 but it was hotter than I expected and I should have drank more water and eaten more. I badly wanted to prove to myself that I could push through the pain and finish the 20 miles but I physically couldn't do it and ended up actually vomiting profusely after about 17 and a half. That is called hitting the wall. My stomach started to hurt a mile earlier but I thought it would go away sooner or later and sure enough after I puked it did! I recovered quite nicely actually, 2 hours later I felt fine, all things considered.

Quote of the Day: "My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition." Indira Gandhi

1 step forward, 2 steps back

If you asked me on Friday if I thought I would finish in under 3:15 I would have confidently answered, "No question about it!" Ask me again today and I will say, " I will be lucky to finish."

2 great speed work sessions followed by a miserable long run and another struggle on a tempo run. I am not surprised I didn't have a great long run. I realized going in that I was less than 36 hours removed from a gruelling track workout and wasn't alarmed when I felt sluggish to start our 22 miler Saturday. I eventually found my grove but something still seemed wrong when I felt tired before the halfway point. I struggled on just doing what I do best, surviving but definitely not thriving. And then after the last water jug I did the unthinkable - I had to stop to walk during a training run! This has happened before a few times, but never this far into my training.

I had time to think about what went wrong now that my group had long since passed me by and what I came up with was my poor diet the previous week coupled with my lack of rest so soon after such hard workouts. This just reinforces my belief that I need to eat properly and gets as much rest as I can (at least for a month before the race, for both!)

Robyn is in a lot of pain and after discussing it we came to the conclusion that we are both going to need a lot better communication and patience if we are going to get through this. I was often oblivious to the obvious and then often times would or put off things if I did see (such as I still haven't got around to sealing the crack in the cement in the back of our garage that I noticed last summer) and Robyn has realized that she needs to start voicing things that give her pain instead of fighting through everything full steam ahead. I have seen a lot of great runners but I have never met anyone as much endurance, pain threshold, and sheer strength as her. She has the ability to take more pain with a smile on her face than anyone I have ever met.

Quote of the day: "Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain." - William Faulkner (must be related to my wife)

Robyn's injury

My wife had it confirmed that she does indeed have a fractured collarbone from the muscle pulling in opposite directions on it. There is really nothing they can do for her that she hasn't been doing already, try to to the spasms as much as possible. This is when it gets tough, what she should do is take a week off to spend in a hospital bed to recoup but when she has the kids, work, the kids school and dance, and I have work and running training on top of the usual house and yard work for both of us it doesn't leave much time for dystonia. I feel so helpless as a caregiver. The main thing she can't do is lift anything remotely close to heavy so I am taking the laundry upstairs (and even washed and folded it this weekend).

Oh I did have something funny happen to me Saturday afternoon. I was getting Amber's bike out so we could have all the kids (3, since a friend from school spent the night and was still around) and dogs playing in the church parking lot next door when a door-to-door salesman came and asked me if my parents were home. I gave him a puzzled look and just said no. I am 38 years old! I have no idea what he was thinking? Then that would have made my 4-year old daughter my sister! I have always been told I look very young but this was ridiculous. But it gets even more humiliating, he came back and asked they were home yet! I almost said, "Yes, mom it is for you and let my wife get it," but we had sharp knives close by! I think he realized he made a mistake when he came back but was too embarrassed to correct himself.

Running training was a "down" weekend - 16 miles and flat yesterday and 4 more today. I needed the rest my legs were still hurting when I ran my 9 on Thursday, they didn't hurt yesterday but did feel sluggish. Then today I was doing 4 easy so I took 2 of the dogs. 2 Miles in Clancy was scared to step on some plastic on the sidewalk and awkwardly jumped in front of me. I toppled over him luckily only suffering a skinned knee, elbow, and shoulder. It was a little ironic that it was Clancy because JoJo is going nuts over the squirrels and kept pulling every 2 blocks it seemed to go after them. I should be at full strength by Tuesday's 5K time trial.

Quote of the day: "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I like." - Winston Churchill

"They're not applauding you"

I am listening to a very interesting book now, "90 minutes in Heaven" by Don Piper. He was in a horrific car accident and and his story is relevant to mine in quite a few ways such as he didn't ask or sign up for this it was thrust up him. Piper went on front of his church and received a huge ovation for which he was quite embarrassed during the ovation he heard a little voice say, "They're not applauding you" and that relaxed him and he said only 4 words, "you prayed, I'm here."

Like almost everybody with dystonia, I feel very uncomfortable in the spotlight. I never quite no what to say when people say the I inspire them. I get that quite a bit and never fully understand it. I try to be kind and gracious, I usually say a simple "Thank you" but to me that sounds odd or not quite right. Maybe that's why the line "They're not applauding you" struck such a chord. When people say I inspire them, it is more what that person is seeing than anything that I am doing intentionally.

On the training front: had 2 great workouts this week. On Tuesday we did a 5K time trial, this is a little odd but I didn't know what I could run a 5K in. I have done only 4 5K's in my life:2 were unofficial time with only a clock at the finish and I have long forgot those times, 1 was 15 minutes after I finished a 10K where I was focused on my 10K time, and the last was this past spring I ran the Irish Jig in East Grand Rapids where I got stuck near the back of the pack. So I had no idea what I could if given a fair shake. Well , it turns out I did a very respectable (at least in my mind) 19:36. I was the first to finish which meant I for the last mile I kept looking and wondering if I was going the right direction and where is the finish line, so that may have added a few seconds. With my sense of direction I could never win any race, if I wasn't following people I would surely get lost. I could see me losing the Boston Marathon because I took a wrong turn!

And then to finish up some of us ran back the way we came instead of going the mile or so to complete the lake loop. I got into a nice rhythm and was feeling good, my return time couldn't have been far off my 5K time except we had to go another quarter mile past where we started. I know I ran hard beauce not only was I a little sick to my stomach, my butt even hurt! After a hard run I get "runner's tummy," where I don't feel like eating anything. The harder and longer the run the longer the feeling lasts, up to 5 or 6 hours. Which is why the food after a marathon is such a joke. The one thing I did find very hellpful after a race is ice cream. They had an ice cream tent set up at the Bayshore Marathon this spring and I had 3 bowls.

Thursdays workouts were 8 - 800's (half mile). After nailing these I am much more confident I can finish the marathon in under 3:15. My goal at the start was 3:00 to 3:05, but I wanted to keep them steady and not have 1 or 2 at 3:12. I ran the first one in 2:56 and the next in 2:53. he second was way too fast for me but 2:56 was reasonable but the question was could I keep it up? 4 more and I was still hitting 2:56 but now I was pretty much running alone. I was running with 4 guys at the start but 1 fell off after 2 sets and another stopped after 6 and the other ran the 800 in college, he was only a few seconds faster but took off like a jack-rabbit. The last 2 were tough but was amazed to see the time when Icompleted each was 2:56. I had to keep sayig to myself long, smooth strides. When you get tired stride length is the first thing to go then your form soon follows, so the last 2 I found myself saying it more and more.

Quote of the day: "They may forget what you said, but they will never gorget the way you make them feel." - Carl Buechner

2 tempo runs?

I get my DBS turned back down to where it was before my last appt. now the day after my marathon, since I will be in town I might as well. I should have left well enough alone instead of try for better results with my voice. History has taught me that was about as good as it was going to get. When they voltage gets to high I am constantly on edge causing me to be irritable, and my voice actually gets worse. If the voltage is turned up way too high my entire body want to curl up in a ball and I absolutely cannot speak. I am guessing it is what being hit with a police taser feels like. This will also give me an excuse to stay in Chicago for another day.

In training yesterday we did 2 4 mile tempo runs. If you know what a tempo run is you know how insane this is! This was one I am REALLY glad I did with a group. The first lap of the lake (4.25 miles around) I was going along, no one else near me from .5 mile to 2.5 miles then I see Mike, who will finish the Chicago marathon in about 2 hours and 50 minutes, flying up behind me and I try to keep him in my sights. I actually gained a little ground on him before we hit a hill and I fell behind but was proudly staying about the same distance back until a half mile to go or less and he put it into another gear that I just don't have. I very happily finished in under 27 minutes.

After a little rest and water we went and did the same course in reverse. Again we started with a group of about 5-6 runners and I started pulling away after half a mile then I saw Christian up ahead and set him as my goal. Chris is also quite a bit faster than me but he has been fighting injuries. I did manage to catch him at 2 miles but that only woke him up from his cruise control. He slowly pulled away from me but I could still see him so that gave me something to shoot for. I was absolutely stunned to see that I had run within 2 seconds of my first time (one was 26:46 and one was 26:48 but I forgot which lap was faster). I definitely have Chris to thank for that second run and Mike for coming along at just the right time in the first run.

Quote of the day: “Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.” - Mark
Twain.