SimpleSoleProject

Let’s be honest.  It is fun to look the part.  To wear the costume.  To act a bit different from your everyday persona.  If we are being honest, it is much easier to talk the talk than walk the walk.

Think about it.  With the right resources (namely money and a solid internet connection), you can look like a surfer in Lincoln, NE.  Or an alpine skier or rock climber.  With the right advice and sense of style, you can look like whatever you want.  Rock those yoga pants, or broga pants.  Keep that ski rack on your SUV in the middle July.  Compression everything, why not?  I might draw the line with the guy downtown the other night wearing a fleece jacket already.  Too soon man, too soon.  Heck, my trucker hat collection has grown 200% in the last two years, I now own two of them.

In running this could mean a number of things, but there is definitely a pattern right now.  Brightly colored clothing, tops and bottoms.  Same can be said for your shoes.  Though the kicks might range from those ridiculous ninja shoes to max cushioned brand whatever.  If you are a gal, odds are fair you have at least one capri style tight.  Don’t worry so do I.  If you are a dude, half tights might be in your wardrobe.  Back to your shoes, bright colors rule the day (I have a pair of Brooks Launch 2s with damn lobsters on them).  I suspect the list goes on and on depending on track, road, or trail.  I haven’t been in the game that long.  I wonder what some of the “wily veterans” think of all this?

My uniform?  Depends on the day.  Big workout?  Backwards hat, compression shorts or my favorite “oooh-baby” style (split leg).  Likely some fast shoes.  Maybe a singlet if it is cool enough weather.

At it is own level, I have zero problem with virtually all of this.  I trend towards a “do-you” philosophy.  If you like the brand, style, and price who am I to give you a hard time? BUT, if you truly have a passion for something you need to love it, live it, and testify to it.  To your family, friends, and strangers.  If not to encourage them, then to somehow get them to understand why you do what you do.  Be more than “about the about”.

-BW

FOR SOME MOTIVATION YOU NEED TO CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR A FINISH TO WESTERN STATES

Have you ever found yourself in a store, your car, on a website just looking?  You know you have something to find.  You probably get distracted along the way.  Sometimes you are not even sure what you set out to get.  But it is out there, and for the really important things if you are lucky, you will find it.  Now lord knows I would not be the first person to have a little aimlessness in their life.  Heck, not even the first time in my own life.  Working with high school students I see it all the time.  They have a slightly different path they are looking at.  Maybe this is the first time they are faced with true blue, life-changing indecisiveness.  Regardless, I have been slightly adrift.

In running, there is always something else.  A new workout to get ready for, a race to think about, fresh styles of clothing to try on, fancy technology to consider.  But what happens to a runner when they can’t find that motivation?  You are still running.  You aren’t hurt. You still enjoy it. But something is missing and the cruddy thing is that life can make it incredibly hard to figure out what “it” is.  So what do you do?  Like most things in life you can keep going or stop trying.  Kind of like a rough patch in running.

That is exactly what I have been doing since Boston Marathon this past April.  Going through the steps, feeling pretty cruddy physically and mentally.  Just kind of waiting for something to happen.  Maybe the routine of getting back to school will kick me into gear.  Maybe just getting some consistent days in.  Maybe just finding the energy to get back at serious training. Maybe writing this will motivate me to write more.  Maybe just keep going at it with the knowledge that you will find it eventually.

SLIGHT SCHEDULE CHANGE WITH WEATHER BEING “WARM”

Pretty simple.  Show up. Sign up.  Race.  Use these as a tune-up for summer racing in July and August.  Maybe a way to get some speedwork in without doing a formal workout.

Proceeds go towards LNS XC and Lincoln Food Bank.  Email me if you have questions.  Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come and run.  Bring a friend, tell a friend.

Doughnut Race continues to be a Lincoln tradition.

Lincoln All Comers Track Meet

 Tuesday, June 30th  (Lincoln North Star)

615-800pm. 

 Registration starts at 5:20pm

 Cost is $2 per event

Runners of all ages and abilities (seriously, the more people there are the better) are welcome. Get ready for an upcoming race, get in a workout, meet some folks, whatever.  Volunteers are always welcome to help time and cheer.

Continue reading →

This meet started 5 or 6 years ago as a way for people to get in shape for the Lincoln Mile, to raise money for our distance program at LNS, and more recently donate money to the Lincoln Food Bank which does great work for many of our students at school and around the community.

Distances ranged from the 200m to a “by request” 3000m, leading up to the annual Doughnut 2k.

Thanks to everyone who came out as we try to build this into a yearly community event.  Results follow.

SPOSNSORS:

HY VEE on 27th and Superior

Lincoln Running Company

Pink Gorilla Events

Continue reading →

Pretty simple.  Show up. Sign up.  Race.  Use these as a tune-up for summer racing in July and August.  Maybe a way to get some speedwork in without doing a formal workout.

Proceeds go towards LNS XC and Lincoln Food Bank.  Email me if you have questions.  Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come and run.  Bring a friend, tell a friend.

Doughnut Race continues to be a Lincoln tradition.

Lincoln All Comers Track Meet

Wednesday, June 17^th  (Lincoln North Star)

 Tuesday, June 30th  (Lincoln North Star)

600-800pm. 

 Registration starts at 5:20pm

 Cost is $2 per event, $10 for donut race (see below)

Runners of all ages and abilities (seriously, the more people there are the better) are welcome. Get ready for an upcoming race, get in a workout, meet some folks, whatever.  Volunteers are always welcome to help time and cheer.

Continue reading →

My marathon personal best is 2:43:40 and was set at the 2008 edition of the Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN.  The weather that day was in the low 50s, with a driving rain for a good portion of the race.  I remember not being able to see clearly at different points in the race due to how hard it was pouring.  Forecast as I turned down in an overcomfortable hotel bed just 6 miles south of the start line?  40s, with rain starting an hour after the incredibly non-traditional Boston Marathon start time of 10am.  Oh yeah, and an easterly wind blowing in the faces of racers that was going to start gusting to 20-25mph.  You can prepare for a lot in the marathon, but you can never, ever control the weather.

The weather doesn’t bug me.  I have always been a “mudder” when it comes to racing.  Being a runner in Nebraska means my Boston training ranged from -15 degrees and ankle deep snow to very pleasant 70s and sunny.  But I was still nervous heading into this one.  You always are when you line up for a marathon.  Despite doing everything right in training, something can (and likely does) upset your best laid plans.  My previous marathon, CIM 2014, went pretty damn well.  My best race in a long time, and fastest marathon in longer.  So I had some really good confidence heading into this training block from January through March 2015.  Mixed in some early 5k/10k like training and then spent 8 weeks on mostly marathon work.  Some of the best workouts of my life.  Forced into tapering more than I would like with my own two kids being sick and then working with my other 40 kids on the track team, I found myself and my wife on a plane headed East.

For the logistics of the trip you can read my brother’s race report.  Couple of highlights to get you the essence of the story.  My cousin Lydia (a budding runner herself) had gotten engaged last winter to a really solid dude named Paul.  She is like a third sister in our family so there was no question about getting back to Long Island, NY.  My homeland.  When she sent out the date, I thought it might be the same weekend as the Boston Marathon which I had last run in 2007 with my boy Matt Neukirch.  Turns out it was and I sent a feeler email to my brother to see if he might be interested.  He was in faster than a desperate runner zeroing on a Port a Potty.  Between track season and school, Boston has never really been realistic for me.  So serendipity reared its weird head once again and we found our way up I-91 out of NYC for Boston.  Thanks to Lydia and Paul for giving us a huge reason to head out East!

Rather than try and stay in downtown Boston, we went with some advice from Tom Nichols and stayed near the start line.  Saved us an early morning and long bus ride, but made logistics tough figuring out how Brenda was going to meet us at the finish in downtown Boston.  Much more affordable and quiet doing it this way.  Our warm-up and start line procedure was really smooth for being totally out of our usual routines.  Freaked Scott out by eating my two standard peanut butter cups on our way to the start corrals.  Corrals are interesting places.  1000s of hyped up fit people all just wanting to get started.  Hard keeping the nerves calm.  Scott and I went our separate ways as we had different race plans and did not want to get in each other’s ways, or maybe I didn’t want him to feel like he needed to slow down for me.  My parting words to him were something along the lines of, “hope I don’t see again until the finish line”.Big brother always has some words. . .

Lifelong goal is to run sub 2:40 for marathon.  With weather, goal today was to “just” try and PR (of course that is probably the goal for most people in most races).  Spoiler alert:  it didn’t happen.  They brought out the elites, we paused in case the weather cleared for a flyover, and the gun goes off.

Continue reading →