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.

2005 Pervasive Power Charge 10 Miler

Now that was a fantastic race. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Yesterday I'd driven the course, and was reminded just how hilly this is. There's a monster hill about four miles into the course, but that tends to make it easy to ignore the fact that ...

2005 Muddy Buddy

You know, I really hadn't been taking this race too seriously. Everyone assured me that the biking was no big deal, and I figured that my Gazelle training would be more than sufficient for the running portion. I was right, and wrong, but still had a fantastic time. ...

2005 Moonlight Margarita 5K

I'd agreed to a bit of volunteer work for this race; that's why I found myself down on the trail in full work gear at 5:30pm with a pair of scissors, taking down the race banner from in front of our sponsor, Milago condominiums. I'm always amazed as to ...

2005 Dublin Dr. Pepper 10K

With temperatures right around 80 degrees and no cloud cover, today was very warm for a six mile race. Still it was warm for everyone, even Bernard Manirakiza who set a course record with his 31:31 performance. Personally I prefer it cooler, but we don't always get to ...

2005 Capitol 10K

Cool - another fun race. I knew going into this that I wasn't terribly well prepared, so I mainly wanted to get out there, have fun, PR, and come in somewhere under 50:00. I would have liked something in the 47-48 range, but I wasn't counting on it. I ...

2005 BagelFest 5K

Amy suggested that if this wasn't the best race for me, I should write it off as my "post marathon" event. I really want to come out here and tell y'all how that wasn't needed, how I kicked this 5K's arse and set a great new PR. Well, at least ...

Race Goals

On March 6th I have been planning to do a 5K, my first since ABIA last May. When I did that one I was really excited to finally get below 25:00 (by two seconds), something that remains my official 5K PR today - that's around an 8:00 pace. I need ...

More on the Marathon

I don't have my mile-by-mile results off my watch yet, but I wanted to pull out my official results from the marathon website. My final position was #1962 out of 6330, and I placed 218th out of 443 people in my age group, which means I cracked the top ...

2005 Freescale Marathon

Where the hell did that weather come from? Yesterday was wonderful. Cool and cloudy. Today was nothing like that. Before the race started we had rain - heck, we had a thunderstorm. It cleared off about 20 minutes before the start, and we had wet streets, 95% ...

3M split

You know, I just can't accept that I ran dead even splits on Sunday, between the course difficulty (started harder, became easier) and my effort (started comfortable, became faster). Looking back through the results, last year's 3M had the midpoint mats at the 6.7 mile point. If I ...


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