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.

Five miles

I decided to run down on the trail today. Its not in terrible shape, considering the flooding, but parts of it are pretty bad and will be needing some TLC. That makes me glad that I'm doing what I can, by Racing for the Trail to try to ...

Resolution?

Well, after an interesting couple of days, all the RAM in this server has been replaced and things look to be running a lot better. Hopefully that downtime won't happen again any time soon. I'm also looking at moving this blog off onto a hosted service rather than ...

Easing back into it

Yesterday was stretching, so today I did my first post-race run. It was late, so I ended up doing it on the treadmill at the office, not my first choice of locations, but better than risking a slip in the mud running on a darkened trail. I took ...

Distance Challenge

We're 5/7 of the way through the DC, and at least I'm doing better than average. The median cumulative chip time is 6:39:55, and I'm right at 6:12:58. Before this weekend's race I was 171st out of 473 remaining competitors, beating 63.8% of the field. Now I'm ...

Server Issues

I'm having server issues at the moment, so please be patient if the site is down when you try it. I've been assured that they've been escalated to "second level support." Hmm.

2004 Decker Challenge 20K

Its odd. My overall pace at this race - 8:42 - was almost identical to my 8:41 pace at Motive; and yet the way that I felt after they ended could not have been more different. Admittedly, this time I had my ankle to worry about (its sore, ...

Decker Plans

I drove the Decker course today, and I can see why people have such a love/hate relationship with it. Its all hills. There are only a few steep ones, but the rest are still pretty decent. Should be fun. There were a few other cars on ...

Gym Shoes

What kind of shoes do you wear to the gym? Probably just old running shoes, right? If not, then I'd like to know, because that's what I wear and they're not ideal, especially for the elliptical trainer. I've found that my toes become pretty "hot" and a ...

Weight Loss

One side effect of something that I've been doing has been some pretty nice weight loss. For a while I'd been hovering in the low 170s - I check my weight out of habit every morning, but I don't log it or do anything different because of it - ...


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

Sponsors

  • Amazon - Books, gear, and more
  • Dreamhost - Cheap reliable hosting
  • iTRAIN - Downloadable MP3 workouts
  • Shoes.com - Good prices on athletic shoes, gear
        NEW! Use code GIVE10OFF for a 10% discount!
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 ...

Search

Search the archives by entering keywords or topic strings.

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