Life is like a....

box of chocolates??? No.... like a marathon...more like my marathons that I have run so far!!!! You never know what you're gonna get.... It has been a roller coaster 3 weeks for me, and that is putting it mildly. I had a major letdown... then got brought back up again with other news... and then another major letdown... and none of this has anything to do with running. Needless to say, that is why the blogging has been non-existent. Whatever strength I had over the last 3 weeks, I didn't want to use it up blogging...but I have been getting a few e-mails, questions, etc. from a few of my faithful blog readers, and have been responding... I finally realized that it is easier just to talk in the blog about stuff.

So.... I am still training for Chicago, and through all of these trials that I am dealing with, I am very proud that I have not missed a day of running. This morning I did a run with Chris that turned into a 14 mile run in Tampa Palms. Both of us have never run there before, and we were invited to come out to run with a group of triathletes that Chris's massage company sponsors. It was really cool to talk to new people, and see how dedicated some people are to their sport. Most of the people that we were running with are training for an Ironman triathlon... which consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run.... back2back2back.... makes what I am doing seem like a walk in the park, huh???

We all started together, and ran the 1st mile or so together... until Chris fell into a pothole and twisted his ankle and fell to the ground!!! There is always a funny,dramatic, crazy story when we run together, and this time was no different.... anyways after he got up and everything checked out somewhat ok, we continued to run, and we broke apart from the group and picked up the pace. We averaged a 9:47 pace during the whole run, and enjoyed it quite a bit. It was really cool seeing the improvements that Chris has made over the past 2 months with his conditioning... he is back to where he was before all of the layoffs...probably even more conditioned.... and should really see some nice results in his future races. About 11 miles in, we saw one of my former patients running, and met up with her and ran together for about a mile or so. That was really nice... because she was one of my favorites....even better was to hear that the injury that I was treating her for is all gone... Yay!!!! She also asked me about the blog, and I promised her that I would get back on it today.... so here it is...

The coolest part of the day was after the run. We ran back to where we parked and met a guy who had a "Team in Training" shirt on. I actually can't even remember his name, but we got to talking a bit, and he told us a bit about himself. Within 5 minutes, this guy completely inspired me. He started running in August of 2007 (nearly a year now). He was 360+ lbs back then.
So apparently he met up with his former fraternity brothers at some reunion, and one of his frat brothers told him he was a fat, piece of #%&*..... (just quoting what he told me...) He decided the next day to go outside in 95 degree weather (with a sweater and jogging pants on) and run as far as he could. He ran out as far as he could, and walked back to his house. He later got into his car and drove the route he ran. He ran for..... 2 tenths of a mile.... not too good. The next day he did the same thing.... following day, he did double... and threw up.... same thing the next day... threw up again at the end. He followed this routine for 5 days, and then came home one day, and got a postcard in the mail from "Team in Training", which is an organization that helps you run a half-marathon, marathon and/or triathlon, in return for your raising money for Leukemia and Lymphoma. 4 months later, he ran his 1st half-marathon, and a few weeks after that, his 1st full marathon. So far for 2008, he has run 3 marathons and 2 half marathons..... he is also down to 255 lbs. He lost the first 90 lbs within 3 months. Unreal..... that guy made my day. You can tell how passionate he was about his running, and his team, etc. It was so cool to hear a story like that...
So it just put so many things into perspective. Good things don't come easy... and sometimes life can be unfair... but you have to fight and keep on pushin'.

So over the past few weeks, here are some of my more memborable runs:

A 16 miler in my old neighborhood in Pembroke Pines.

A 6 mile recovery run with Shane on Bayshore:

A 17 miler on the Suncoast Trail... quite uneventful, but I saw an alligator!!!!