My Fitness Investment

  In my yesteryears, I was something of an amateur athlete in the world of triathlon, adventure racing, and half marathons.  I have some of the fondest of memories of these days.  The comradery among athletes is unlike any I have ever experienced and is reason enough itself to be a part of the racing community.  Other memories include: my first 5K at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in 2003 and the excitement that came when I unexpectedly saw my name in the local paper for finishing in the top 50; running my first half marathon and making every rookie mistake from buying new shoes and saving them for race day to wearing WAY too many articles of clothing and having to shed gear after the first mile; setting a PR (personal record) in the Hogeye Half Marathon '04 of 1:39:47...enough for a 3rd place age group finish and 17th place overall; hyperventilating and thinking I was going to die during the swim portion of my first triathlon at the Memphis in May tri of '05; the exhileration in crossing the finish line 22 and some odd hours after starting a "24 hour" adventure race in Missouri; the trails, the views, the battle wounds, the searches for a checkpoint marker via map and compass with a headlamp in the black of night, the challenging 'mystery events' from jumping bales of hay to ziplining across a river to rappelling off of a 10+ story building, the godawful time we had to canoe upstream and into the wind during an 8 mile canoe section of an urban adventure race (it didn't help that I despise the wind); getting up at 2:00am and spending race day morning with my grandpa in Chicago before the Chicago Triathlon '05...I could go on and on.

It was my love for all of these things that directly contributed to me essentially giving them up.  The world of training and racing, especially multi-sport, can be very tricky.  If you're not careful, you can end up burned out very easily.  That's what happened to me.  I got so into it, before I knew it, I was doing 2, sometimes 3 workouts a day, and did 4 adventure races, 3 triathlons and a half marathon in a six month period.  I needed a break.  

That was 2005, and since then I pretty much stopped training or even working out, thus getting out of shape and gaining weight.  That didn't stop me from wanting to do a half marathon in 2007.  I was bartending at the time, and since I had to work the night before the race, the race was just down the street from the bar, the race started at 8:00am, and I usually didn't get off work 'til 3:00am...it sounded like a perfect time to pull an all-nighter.  So, no sleep, some drinking, maybe a few cigarettes, McDonald's breakfast, and a dare to take 4 shots of tequila in the hour leading up to the race later, I ran a half marathon.  I spent the first four miles focusing on not throwing up and the remaining 9 struggling from dehydration.  But, 2 hours, 3 minutes and 48 seconds later I had one fine finish line race photo and, to say the least, something of a unique race story.

I once came across a quote about running taken from the last published column written by Dr. George Sheehan who wrote for Runner's World for more than 25 years... 

• "We know the effects of training are temporary.  I cannot put fitness in the bank.  If inactive, I will detrain in even less time than it took me to get in shape.  And since my entire persona is influenced by my running program, I must constantly be in training.  Otherwise, the sedentary life will inexorably reduce my mental and emotional well-being.  So, I run each day to preserve the self I attained the day before.  And couple with this is the desire to secure the self yet to be.  There can be no letup.  If I do not run, I will eventually lose all I have gained-and my future with it."

The sedentary life had done just that, reduced my mental and emotional well-being.  It was time to do something.  Armed with experience, I excitedly decided to start training again.  I ran the Dallas half marathon in December '08 and had an absolute blast.  My new goal is simple...keep it fun.  No more overtraining and taking it too seriously.  Does that mean that I'm not going to try to do it well?  Nope.  Just no longer would I relate training and racing well with overtraining and reduced enjoyment.  So far, so good!