Running Towards Fitness

Personal Awareness
The ancient Greeks used to believe that a healthy mind and a healthy body not only went together, but were both critical for happiness and a successful life. They were also intertwined, meaning that a weakness in either area would affect the other. When I started this transformation I was overweight and full of excuses. And by overweight I don't mean just a few pounds - I weighed over 70 pounds more than I do now. I finally took my life into my own hands and started exercising. At the time, I had no idea where it would lead - to a stronger body, a happier, more nimble mind, and a chest full of race medals. Healthy mind, healthy body, indeed! It hasn't been easy, or without issues, but I wouldn't trade the experience for the world.

Race Prep

The weather for tomorrow? 65°F with a 30% chance of rain, 97% humidity. Charming. Looks like singlet weather at least. My Forerunner is charged, I remembered to move my ChampionChip onto my new shoes, and as for dinner - er - pizza crust has lots of ...

Its a dog’s life

Getting up early, going running, etc. It is for my dogs, anyway. Bowing to both my own concerns and your advice, I went out to do 4-5 miles with Bear this morning. And let me tell you, it was lousy. The weather was humid, damp, and ...

Spin

Its Friday evening - must be spin time. We did an endurance circuit today, and it was pretty good. I worked my muscles a lot more than my cardio, but I'm not really sure if that's because I'm improving my lungs or just that the workout leant itself ...

Great First Marathon

I had read this a little while ago, but I wanted to share it with the rest of you. Here's a writeup by BD about his first marathon - and IMO he did it exactly the right way. Very cool.     http://www.livejournal.com/~bd1/3779.html

Yup - it rained all right

Town Lake was running high and fast when I got down there this evening for my run. There were four flood gates open upstream, which was really causing some pretty impressive current on what is normally a quiet little recreational lake. As I was doing my pre-run warm-up, ...

Gelindo Bordin

Well, I should have done speedwork. Then I realized that today Gelindo Bordin - olympic gold-medal marathoner and Boston winner - was coming to RunTex to give a talk. I'm also thinking that I don't need to completely exhaust myself this week with a hilly half marathon on ...

Rain

We had about five inches of rain last night. The trail is, undoubtedly, a mess. There are road closures, rain delays, and other charming consequences throughout the area. I'll do my speedwork later this evening, on the treadmill.

This is too cool

I noticed this come up in random advertising:      Passport to Adventure Now, I know this may be seen as self serving - and I guess it is in a way - but seriously, check it out. For $2700 you and a friend get two nights in New Orleans, an entrances to ...

Cold, wet and nasty

And no, before someone asks, that's not "just how I like it." As I mentioned in my last post, its raining today. Neither the light refreshing rain nor the dramatic puddle-splash-inducing downpours we sometimes get, just a cold, wet, miserably grey rainy day. As I was doing ...

Speedy

I didn't run this morning when it was nice outside because I wanted to let my knees rest a little more. I'll run at lunch when its all nasty and wet instead. Somehow, I'm trying to convince myself that this is an improvement. Anyway, that's not the point that ...


About

I'm Richard Stanford, a fit, happy runner. Of course, that wasn't always the case. Dip into the archives to follow my progress from couch potato to sub-four hour marathoner.

I also like to cook, write, code, and play with power tools...

Personal Records

DistanceRaceTimePace
Marathon2006 Freescale3:54:078:56
20 Miles2006 RunTex3:00:089:00
30K2005 RunTex2:42:448:45
Half M2006 3M1:42:577:51
20K2005 Decker1:40:428:06
10 Miles2005 Pervasive1:20:138:01
10K2005 Dublin Dr Pepper48:437:51
5 Miles2005 Turkey Trot37:017:24
5K2005 Margarita Run22:327:15
4K2006 Fila Relays17:247:15
1 Mile2006 Congress Ave6:236:23

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May 20th 2007
Tags: Running, Races

One Comment

2007 North Trail Half Marathon

I'll start out by saying that this wasn't a PR.  Not even close.  It was, however, a really fun race, taking place in the middle of a fun weekend, surrounded by fun friends. Fun! Going into it I knew that I wasn't going to PR.  To be honest, I was more than ...
May 19th 2007
Tags: Running

No Comments

Update

Well, so much for keeping the blog current, eh? I've been doing pretty well, most of the time. I'm currently in Dallas just a few hours away from running in a small half marathon (400 people, give or take) - and I've only managed to get up to 10.5 miles ...
April 10th 2007
Tags: Running

No Comments

Lunchtime Ladera

This was my third time to run Ladera Norte, and its actually getting easier.  I walked once, about 3 minutes into the hill, for a minute (timed), then ran the rest of the way.  Not that I was fast - the remainder took me a solid 5 minutes - but I ...
March 4th 2007
Tags: Running, Races

9 Comments

2007 BagelFest 5K

I'm very glad that I did this race.  I almost didn't - the idea of doing something where I know that I wasn't going to come close to a PR was not terribly enticing - but I've done it every year since I started running, and its been a whole ...
March 1st 2007
Tags: Running

One Comment

Unplanned 3 Miler

Well... I know that I said that I wasn't goint to run today... but I did anyway.  You see, at lunch today Thon offered to run his 3 mile hill loop with me this evening.  Naturally I stuck to the gameplan and told him that I wasn't running until Saturday.  ...
February 27th 2007
Tags: Running

One Comment

Rollingwood Revisited

I went to Rollingwood for the second time - or at least the second time since my recovery - and while ended up running a slightly different course due to inattention, it was a fantastic run.  Last time I averaged a 9:41 pace (9:54, 9:30, 9:46) around the hills, and it felt ...

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Famous Marathon Times

RunnerTimePace
Al Gore4:58:2511:23
Oprah4:29:3010:17
P. Diddy4:14:549:43
Will Ferrell3:56:129:01
George W. Bush3:44:528:35
John Edwards3:30:188:01
Carrie Sapp3:29:067:59
Boston Qualifier3:10:597:17
Lance Armstrong2:59:366:51
Gilbert Tuhabonye2:23:075:28
Paula Radcliffe2:15:255:10
Paul Tegat2:04:554:46

People I Train With

Alex - Addicted to Exercise
Carrie - Tri to be Funny
Erine - Thousand Miles
Frank - Running Blog
Gilbert - Gilbert's Gazelles
Jay - Leotian Blog
Mike - BROTH