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.

Hills. Why did it have to be hills?

Well, probably because I said to Thon, "Hey, how about meeting at Barton Springs tomorrow morning for a hilly seven miles?" You see, hills are still by far my weakest point. I could use more speed, sure, but while I'm not as weak as I was earlier this ...

Refreshing Recovery

I met up with Thon this morning for an easy seven (or so) miles. Because we wanted to mix things up we actually met over at Barton Springs. Since its free in the morning for a soak (and theoretically for swimming too) I'm going to try to make ...

Hardcore? Not Today

Adam was off doing a race today, so we had an unexpected (at least by me) "people's choice" round again. This time though it felt a lot easier than the ones that Adam does, possibly because we had so many people in the class that we actually had a little ...

Double Dipping (*) (T - 16 weeks)

Well, after doing that incredibly hilly 12 1/2 miler yesterday, the plan was to do a back-to-back run and follow it up with 11 1/2 moderately hilly miles today.  Of course, I was the only dupe who actually did it ... d'oh!  Seriously, it was fun.  I met up with ...

Mt. Barker

Today a group of eight of us met up bright and early for another Friday long run. Some folk had places to be, some just wanted to get it over with, and then people like me are just suceptible to peer pressure. One thing that I did notice ...

Corrific Heat

Yeah that's a bad title. Sosumi. Today was pretty brutal - one hour of core class in 102 degree heat, with no shade. We did a ton of leg work and my quads, already tired from this morning, got a really solid burn going. We also ...

2000M Repeats

Well, I was wondering how I was doing and I definitely have to say that I feel weaker now than I did this time last year. In fact, on August 10 I did four repeats in 8:53, 8:24, 8:34 and a kind of lame 9:12. Today? ...

Eighteen Miles (T - 17 weeks)

With "only" 17 weeks to go, it was time for an eighteen mile run. Actually Gilbert's schedule has us doing a twenty miler on Saturday, but since we're a solid eight weeks behind the Chicago group, we figured that eighteen was enough. And since we also all had ...

2006 Moonlight Margarita Run

This is the race that everyone told me I shouldn't do. I haven't been able to run since this past weekend - a combination of a mild sore back and just, quite frankly, a lack of time. I met up with Thon and Mike for a pasta dinner ...

Tennisball Diaries

This Saturday started out much like any other. Six AM rolled around and, well, if the sun had been up that early, it would have dawned over a motley collection of runners listening to Gilbert give us our marching orders for the day. Of course, the sun slumbered ...


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