You can find my new blog HERE.

It's time...

Today ran another short 20 minutes. Surprisingly, it felt much easier already than two days ago. The problem wasn't so much with my lungs today as with my legs (part of this had to do with the fact that I was running some pretty steep inclines.)

I think it's about time I say goodbye to this particular blog. For one, I'm not a huge fan of Blogger—WordPress is much more pleasant. But also, I realize now that I'm so far from where I once was as a runner that I feel like I'm dragging along a lot of baggage. I don't want to be living in the shadow of my old ambitions (although I do intend to get back into competitive racing).

I know this is all a bunch of navel-gazing that no one is interested in, so I'll just put up a link when I set up the new blog, in the off chance someone is interested.

20 min. run. Felt like shit. But I feel better now than I have felt in ages.

Goals

Goals:

1. Lose 30 lbs. (I'm 6' 0'' and weigh 177, a gain of 30 lbs from my running peak.) Wow, it feels awful to say this explicitly. So, weigh in at 145 by the end of September.
   
2. Run a marathon.I'll be back in Berlin, Germany, and the Dresden Marathon on October 23 looks promising, time- and location-wise.
   
3. PR at any distance OR run the marathon in under 3:30:00.

An inspiring article by Patti Catalano Dillon (legendary American marathon runner, first American woman under 2:30 in the marathon). She describes he first marathon and the process leading up to it. I find Patti's story one of the most inspiring and motivating I've come across. At the age of 23, 50-lbs. overweight and smoking two packs of cigarettes per day, she decides to start running...the rest is history.

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, October 24, 1976-My most unforgettable marathon has to have been my first one. It was the inaugural Ocean State Marathon in Providence, Rhode Island, in the fall of 1976. But ironically, what I remember most are the events that led up to the race, not the race itself.

I had started running barely 11 months before this first marathon because I wanted to lose weight. I never ran in high school or college. As I recall, I weighed 107 when I graduated from Sacred Heart High School in Weymouth, Massachusetts, but in the five years since then, I had gained 45 pounds.

I had attended Quincy Junior College, where I majored in kiddy whist and beer. I had worked as a nurse's aide all through high school and was still doing that job many years later. I loved it. But I was getting kind of tired of my life. I just really got tired. I knew there was more to life. I was very unhappy with the way things were going for me.

I'm out with a cold right now and it's the middle of winter, so I'll be back with a report (and maybe some plans) as spring gets closer.

The boy who cried wolf

I keep coming back to running. I know I have made a number of starts, and even more stops, and a couple of posts promising my return, all leading to this.

It was pretty foolish to expect to maintain a serious training regimen during a period of huge personal upheaval: moving to Berlin, then two months later moving to another city in Germany, traveling the world, living life. I unfortunately took smoking back up upon arrival at the Amsterdam airport.

I don't regret any of it. I am back in America now, but still deeply in love with a German woman to whom I hope to return this spring or early summer.

But I can't stop thinking about running. The embers of that old fire are still simmering.

I'm stepping back for a day or two to think about it, but I want to get back to training. There's nothing like it.

Still alive. Still in Germany.

Sun. - 30 min. run
Mon. - off, sore as hell.

Still Alive

So, I'm in Berlin. Things have been super-hectic, and I haven't run in over a week and a half. I have been walking like a madman, though, so hopefully I haven't totally lost the fitness I gained. I'm going to start back up tomorrow, and may need to reassess and recalibrate my goals a bit, considering all of this time off.

In any case, I just need to get back on the boat. Berlin is a wonderful city, and would be great to explore with running.