As much as I hated the nine miles of snow I had to trudge through last Sunday morning, withour days like that, today would never happen. Cool, crisp air, the snow blanketed mountains in the distance......it really is stunning sometimes.
While I was running this morning, I was mulling over about how and what I want to share with everyone. I was telling my wife last night about my decision to start this blog and what I hoped to do with it. It occurred to me that you may want to know a little more about me, other than the cryptic introduction in the first post.
Briefly, My name is Paul and I am a almost 39 year old man living in Longmont, Colorado. In my life are two beautiful women, my wife Christine (Chris) and daughter, Sydney. Both can be handfuls and I love them dearly. Chris and I were married last August at Red Rocks in a small, beautiful, intimate ceremony.
For fun, I love golf, the San Francisco Giants, live music, especially Phish, movies, House MD, hiking and restraurants. Oh yeah, American Idol and George Michael are my guilty pleasures, you are going to have to deal with it.
Because parts of this blog content will be about training for my first marathon, I should provide you some insight as to how and why I committed to such an endevaor.
Chris is a runner. However, when we first started dating, we had a pact; I wouldn't ask her to play golf and she wouldn't try and get me to run. It's not as if I was completely sedintary, but a do carry around about 20 lbs that are not exactly necessary. In addition, up unitl 5 months ago, I smoked 30 cigarettes a day. But, I have quit the nicotine and in an effort to avoid gaining more weight after giving up smoking, I took up running, again. The year before, in an effort to do something on a regular basis, I started running. Chris never pressured me (really, she didn't). Part of it was to discover why getting up at the crack of dawn to 'run' held some mystical pleasure. I had some moderate success, but my lungs laughed at me as I would run 3 miles and then smoke two cigarettes. Last year ('09) at the Colder Boulder, I power-smoked 3 cigs in the car before busting out a 9:30 pace for that 5k. Then I got hurt, so it worked out perfectly. No more running, more cigarettes! That was then..................
During the summer of 2009, Chris was training for the Denver Marathon when a stress fracture shut her down for weeks. Fortunately, she recovered enough to participate in the half marathon on October 19th. I quit smoking on September 17, 2009 and started running. October's goal became running 100 miles over the course the month. Lofty ambitions? Maybe. Probably, Definately.....
I had a plan. While Chris was running her half marathon, I was going to run about four miles. However, I had no idea where I was going to do it. Our car was parked in a lot ajacent to the course, and I had wandered back there to somehow figure out WHERE I was going to run. As I was strapping on my iPod and gulping down a Powerbar, herds of runners were cruising past me. And then, without giving it a second thought, I became that guy. A Bandit
Yes, I jumped on the course. No number, no chip, no registration fee. I ran four glorious miles. Down a hill, passing the walkers. Past Coors Field. I heard the cheering. I laughed as I saw the lines at the port-a-potty. I was so far in the rear, the first water station at mile two was already shutting down. I loved every minute of it and decided I had to at least try to be an active part of this celebration of human acievement.
Now I am learning to love to run. It's a challenge and some days are better than others. It may be crazy to skip over a 10k and half and dive straight into a marathon, but I KNOW I can do it.
Well, that is it for lame, dry posts. Stick with me.....far more entertaining stuff to come! I hope you join me for the ride.
Cheers!
-Paul
NOW PLAYING: Phish - Free - 11/01/09 Indio, California
TODAYS RUN: 3.13miles - 9:16 pace - two big hills!
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