Chris's Musings

Today, for the eighth consecutive year, I joined 60,000 fellow runners, aspiring runners, and people drinking beer down Peachtree Road for a t-shirt to run the annual Peachtree Road Race. For those that don't know, the PRR is the world's largest 10K race - fielding 60,000 runners that vie for a number through a lottery system and run for 6.2 miles in the heat to get a coveted t-shirt.  And some will walk the race route, collecting free beer from the bars along the way.  It's a very unique, and special experience.  It's also great people watching too. Given that it's the Fourth of July (and the PRR is at it's core a large Independence Day party), the fact that this is the biggest race perhaps on the planet in terms of attendance, and the terrorist attack in Boston last April, the police presence around the race was abundant and obvious.  I could tell that they were "on" when, upon leaving MARTA I said "thank you" to one of the officers in ...

In 2 days and 1 morning, I will be making my way to Nashville for my third half marathon. Seems crazy, doesn't it?  It was only less than 3 years ago that I thought my running career may be over.  But praise God it is not.  In fact, I have two race metals from previous Rock-n-Roll events, and I'll be going after a third at the Country Music 1/2 this weekend.   But there's been one catch.   A week and a half ago, I started to develop some tightness in my right leg.  The kind of tightness, as I found, that is pulling on my knee and making running a pain.  Not fun.  As a result, I scheduled a couple of appointments with the incredible sports massage therapist that helped me recover from my achilles tendonitis injury last Fall.  This miracle worker, Sara (who works with players from the Hawks and Falcons) is freakin' incredible and knows how to get these things worked out. So today after work I was on the table and "the spot" (tha...

Well friends, I had my final visit (I hope) to Dr. Peebles today and got the go-ahead to start ramping up my running. Good thing, because on June 1, 2011, otherwise known as National Runners Day, I registered for the inaugural Savannah Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon on November 5th.  A $13 discount from Competitor.com had something to do with my getting signed up then :-).  My goal is to start going into "training mode" for the race in early-to-mid August. Interestingly enough, when I was at the L.A. Rock and Roll (also an inaugural), marathon record-holder Deena Castor was speaking to a group and encouraged everyone to think of the "next goal" you have... to have something greater in front of you. For me... it is to finish this next race without any injury, without walking, and to bust my PR of 2:32 wide open. Now this will be the third race I've run so the third time is a charm, right? My goal:  2:10 - stretch, under 2 hours. But for now, I am going to c...

Several years ago, I had made fun of a friend of mine that, on our group ski trips would insist on going snowboarding even though for three consecutive years she would get injured.  From my recollection, the injuries were: A foot broken in several places An ACL tear (and I can't remember what the third was, nor can I perfectly recall the order) And this girl was a pretty good skiier, but she insisted on going boarding despite the ribbing and the, as I can imagine, frequent trips to the hospital. Well, I can understand it now... Guess what friends?  I've signed up for my next Half Marathon. This is after, Silver Comet race - torn miniscus... surgery.  L.A. Rock and Roll - painful achilles tendonitis... finally able to run after 7 months and a lot of chiropractor and pediatrist visits.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can finish this year injury free?   But am I a glutton for punishment?   Maybe.   But I get what my friend (who still boa...

Yesterday when I was out with some friends watching baseball, somehow the topic of my achilles injury has come up, and I mentioned that I have a couple of bags of frozen peas (one at work and one at home) that I use as regular icing devices to treat the achilles tendonitis that I developed before (and during) my half marathon in October... they retain their shape and evenly distribute the cold - they are wonderful!  Yes, I in fact have a bag of ORGANIC peas that a friend gave me when I had my miniscus surgery that still serves as a therapy pack to this day.  They are, as my friend mentioned: my "feet peas."  I think I'm going to keep that saying. I haven't run since my 1/2 marathon, and I have to tell you that it's driving me a little crazy.  I don't really enjoy stationary workouts, and without running this hasn't made my cardio workouts as much fun (except for spin, but that's mainly because of the music).  Unfortunately, achilles injuries are pesk...

This past weekend I got to hang out with my B-school buddy Derek and run the LA Rock  'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon.  The race was good.  I survived 13.1 miles with a bummed ankle (achilles tendinitis being the official diagnosis) in 2:32, which is not a bad time considering :) But, what I hadn't realized until this weekend was how much D likes to "rank" things (and I like to follow suit), so a few "Fave Fives" in honor of Senor Lim. Fave Five Views 1. View of Mt. Kilimanjaro from the Amboseli National Wildlife Park in Kenya 2. The Cliffs of Mohr in western Ireland 3. Pick your view from Yosemite National Park (personal favorite is the view of Half Dome driving up) 4. Lit of view of the Golden Gate Bridge and SF Bay in the twilight from Coit Tower in San Francisco 5. Sea to Sky Highway in British Columbia I did get to see a few amazing views in SoCal this weekend (the hotel being one of them... definitely top ten). Fave Five Races I've participa...

30 days from today, I will be standing at a starting line in Los Angeles, California ready to start my first half marathon.  To say this has me a little emotional, especially considering the path that I have taken to get to this point.  It's been a path that God has used not only to stretch me physically but also shape my faith in Him.  To choose a different, or easier path, while I would have preferred I would not (at least given if I finish the race :) ) trade in. I have not really always been a "runner" - I kind of resisted this whole thing growing up because I equated "running" with punishment... more specifically the PE coach's tendency to make my fat butt run laps when I wasn't following orders (I didn't really like PE growing up, if you can tell).  I liked to play sports, but I didn't really like practice and discipline.  Needless to say, I played a fair amount of  pickup, intramural, and "church league" sports but didn't r...

This is going to be a short blog this morning.  I am finally going in for surgery on my knee on Friday to repair a torn miniscus that I injured a week before the Silver Comet Half Marathon that I was supposed to run.  I appreciate your prayers and notes of encouragement :-) I'm looking forward to being on the other side and back on the trails.  I've already got plans in place to run the first LA Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon in October... it should be fun.  

I'm pretty stoked.  Today I went out with a friend to Stone Mountain for my long training run for the Silver Comet 1/2 Marathon in October and did a 9 mile run.  My longest ever! You know what's funny - I feel great!  I have a lot of energy and while I'll probably feel a little soreness tomorrow, all is well with the world.  I'm really confident that I'm good for this 13.1 I'm about to embark on in October.   Those of you that know runners have probably heard of the "runners' high," which is when in the middle of a long run the endorphins kick in and you have this "high" feeling when running (except without drugs :) ).  I got this at about mile 5 today and man I have to tell you it felt great.  I was in the zone, gliding along at harmony with nature and the statue of 3 dead Confederate generals.  It's a cool feeling.  I think I will go back for a little more of that.   And of course, like at the end of every long run, we did break...

Tonight, I finally got an opportunity to get some time to myself and take one of the runs that is on my "list" to do. Being in San Francisco, there were two, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Embarcadero. Tonight, I ran the Embarcadero - and it was everything that I was hoping it to be. We got off work around 6:30 and walked back to the hotel down in Union Square. I then got my running clothes on and ran toward Market Street and followed until I got to the Bay and the Embarcadero and then proceeded to run from Pier 1 to Pier 39 and back right around dusk/dark. The weather was perfect for running... about low 50's and the scenery was amazing. The best part of the run was the trip back from Pier 39 toward Market. I had a great view of the Bay on my left with the Bay Bridge lit up and the San Francisco skyline (one of the better skylines in the country) lit up on my right. Not to mention, there were plenty of runners and walkers out and I got to pass by several resta...