RunRunLive 5.0 - Running Podcast

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-308 – Angie – Pregnancy and the Marathon(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4308.mp3]Link epi4308.mp3Intro Bumper:https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellHey, hey, hey my friends.  How we doin?  We’re sliding unceremoniously into spring up here in the northern hemisphere.  Even though Boston broke the annual snowfall record this weekend it’s been melting nicely over the last 2 weeks.  The snow banks have receded from the roads like sulky, gray, hulking glaciers leaving room for me to run.  The clocks have been changed forward by an hour and the sun doesn’t set until 7:00 PM.  The sidewalks are filled with the hard detritus of winter cast off by the melting mounds.  Pieces of battered cars, piles of sand and salt, tree branches and the bones of small animals all emerge like some post-glacial science project.  Now the potholes emerge in the roads.  Great, dark, jagged rifts like portals to other, grimier universes.  And if you need hubcaps just run my roads and you’ll have your fill.  We got so much snow the plows didn’t really know where the roads were and ran wiilly-nilly into the margins breaking up curbs and decapitating mailboxes.  It all lies sad and shattered on my routes. I got out this weekend for 3 hours in a cold drizzle.  My legs are good but my heart won’t let me push.  It’s a bit frustrating.  I’m working with Rachel again to strip some of the winter weight off as well and making some good progress.  Eating clean has the added benefit of helping me recover and avoid the aches and pains of most marathon training cycles.  I’m starting to make big plans for big adventures for after I have my AFib zapped in the beginning of May.  I’ll be coming out of that with a serious base fitness and if everything goes well quite a bit lighter as well.  I want to get back on the trails and fall back in love with our sport.  Breathe the thick spring air and feel the Earth mother under my souls.  I bought a new truck.  It’s a stripped down Nissan Frontier.  No power anything, no cruise and a manual transmission.  While a manual transmission is not foreign to me, I have driven manual cars before, it did point out how much other stuff I’m doing with my hands while driving.  Like drinking coffee, eating fruit, listening to my iPhone and various other activities that now require me to juggle while I shift.  The one thing I had to change was the radio.  It had a basic CD player in it with not even an Aux port.  I procured a nice Pioneer radio with Bluetooth and Aux and USB and Pandora interfaces and a removable faceplate.  I listen to a lot of audio on my phone during my commute.  I was amazed at how easy and cheap car radios are.  I got it from Crutchfield.com with the installation kit for less than $100.  I probably haven’t looked at car radios for more than 25 years but I remember them being much more expensive and difficult.  I wired it up and stuffed it in the car in an afternoon.  No muss, no fuss. Now I have a truck.  I can carry stuff.  Like wood for my fireplace, soil for my garden rocks for my walls and junk away from my house for my sanity. Today we have a great and informative interview with Angie from the Marathon Training Academy podcast about running and pregnancy.  I’ve been wanting to find someone to have this conversation with for years.  I ran through pregnancy, but I think an actual woman runner’s insight is probably more valuable.  In fact, this interview is so well done and full of value I think it’s the gold standard.  60 Minutes called and wanted to use it for one of their segments but I told them; “Look Maury, stick to your overbearing, weighty, world problem pieces and leave the real journalism to the runners.” In segment one I’ll talk about how core strength and core flexibility and core balance are all related but different things. In the second section I’ll talk about how to approach hard, emotional conversations.  I’m training away every day to be ready to run Boston in about a month.  I’m not in a position to race it, but I’ll go in and make the best of it.  I think I might default to the ‘don’t die’ strategy that I used successfully at New York this year.  I’ve got the Eastern States 20 Miler on tap two weeks from now and that will tell me what I can expect.  Thank you to all of you for your support and kind words.  I don’t read or respond in the show but I do appreciate the communications.  I get the feeling that you are all good and decent folks doing the best you can with what you’ve been given, fighting the good fight and making a difference in the world.  So good on ya for that, pat yourself on the back, Happy St. Patrick’s Day and On with the show. On with the Show! Section one - Running TipsCore, Flexibility, Balance and Strengthhttp://runrunlive.com/core-flexibility-strength-balanceVoices of reason – the interviewsAngie Spencer is a registered nurse, running coach, and busy mother ofthree. She has competed 30 marathons in the last seven years and has builther fitness back to marathon shape after two pregnancies. She and herhusband Trevor co-host the Marathon Training Academy podcast where theyhelp runners believe that they have what it takes to run a marathon andchange their lives. Links:Our websitehttp://marathontrainingacademy.com/ Our iTunes addresshttps://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=35920887Section Two – Life LessonsHow to approach a hard conversation - http://runrunlive.com/having-hard-conversationsOutroAnd so it is goodbye… auf widersehen… We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when… Trying to create this episode early because I have a business trip to Denver at the end of the week.  We’ll see if the gods and the fates will let me.  Got a lot going on.  A lot of balls in the air, which makes it hard to shift the truck! Like I said I’m coming into the final weeks before the Boston Marathon and I’m still collecting for Team Hoyt.  I’ll sweeten the offer.  If you donate to my team Hoyt fund I’ll send you, not just the new MarathonBQ book, but your choice of my other two books of running stories and I’ll even give you access to the audio of them.  The MarathonBQ book is getting great reviews – all 5-stars so far – for example -> “Even runners with no personal aspirations to qualify for Boston will find this book to be incredibly inspiring, with information that would benefit anyone who is contemplating running a marathon.”Check it out on Amazon Kindle. And finally we’re only weeks out from the Groton Road race and remember you can run virtual this year.  Just go to www.grotonroadrace.com and look under the ‘races’ link.  I sure hope you folks are enjoying your lives.  I hope you’re doing something useful.  There are a lot of things I see in our world that we can fix.  I don’t know but maybe we can even fix them just by doing the right, good and honest thing ourselves.  Sometimes I look at projects in my life and I get discouraged because they are so big and take so much work and they involve having hard conversations with people who will pull with all their might in the direction of the muddy quagmire of the status quo.  We talked about how people tend to think they can’t do things, can’t influence things and can’t make a difference.  I think you can.  Even if the last 5, 10 or 100 times you tried to have the hard conversation it collapsed in a grand, smoky pile of knee jerk recriminations.  It doesn’t mean it’s not a worthy effort.  It doesn’t mean you’re not making a difference.  Keep trying.  Don’t give up.  All you have is today and what you do today matters so make it count. Look at where you are today. Prepare for that hard conversation that will change your life and then have it.And when the dust settles I’ll see you out there. https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellhttp://www.grotonroadrace.com/Closing commentshttp://runrunlive.com/my-books

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-307 – The Continuing Adventures of Wendy Nail(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4307.mp3]Link epi4307.mp3Intro Bumper:https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellWell, my friends, here we are, Late Friday afternoon and time to publish another episode of the long running Podcast series RunRunLive…A serial magazine series sponsored by the Cialis and the History Channel about the trials and tribulations of Yaks farming on the north eastern permafrost… No? Ok, It’s not sponsored by anyone except the neurotically charged neurons of my cranial sphere.  And mostly we talk about distance running and endurance sports and we talk to members of our community about their adventures and transformations and epiphanies.  And at 25 words with 4 conjunctions that, my friends, is a sentence Vladmir Nabokov would be proud of. Just got back from running 1:45 outside on the roads.  That’s two outside runs for the week! I’m killing it!  Heh heh… My training is going good and bad.  On the good side I’m getting the miles in.  On the bad side my AFib is really getting annoying.  Let me ‘splain…I’m not a doctor, so I’m going to dumb it down to my level.  If you look at your heart it’s a big manual pump.  It’s got these four chambers to it.  Each one of these chambers is like a Turkey baster, you squeeze it and it squirts blood out one side, you let go and it reflates and draws blood in the other side.  There’s a one-way valve on each side of each chamber, just a simple flap valve, like in the back of your toilet. Leading into and out of these turkey-basters are four big pipes.  These pipes return blood and carry blood away.  These are the pipes that get clogged up when you hear about people getting ‘bypasses’.  The thing is, in order to squeeze and release those turkey basters your heart muscles contract and relax.  The trick is that they have to contract and release in the right sequence or the blood doesn’t move around well.   What’s going on in my Afib is that erroneous electrical signals are cascading down the sheathing material around these pipes and causing my heart muscles to get the turkey basters out of synch.  This is exercise induced and only happens when I push hard and towards the end of my runs.  What it feels like is a loss of power.  If I look at my heart rate monitor it will read max, like I’m doing wind sprints.  But it’s not really my heart beating too fast or at max, it’s my heart reacting to these bogus electrical signals and doing the funky chicken.  When I think about it, now that I know what it is, I can trace it back a few years, but it only got noticeable in the last year or so.  In its current form it’s just sucking the joy out of my running.  What I love about running is that point when you get warmed up, deep into a workout and can push the gas pedal down and transcend the workout.  Right now, when I get to that point, the engine sputters and coughs. It has removed the ‘flow state’ or the ‘runner’s high’ state from my workouts.  Which makes them more like work and less like the flights of fancy that I love. But, all is not lost.  I’ve scheduled myself to go in for a procedure called ‘Cryo-ablation’ where they snake a device up the veins through your groin, into your heart and freeze a ring of scar tissue into those four big pipes.  That ring of scaring blocks the spurious signals from getting to your heart and all is well.  They say it works 80% of the time and I’m a perfect candidate.  But, like Mark Twain was fond of saying, “There’s liars, damn liars and statistics.”The other alternative is that I could just learn to run slow and short.  But I don’t think I’m ready or wired for that.  Let’s face it. In the grand scheme of things I’m a super fortunate, super blessed guy.  I have nothing to complain about and I really mean that.  Besides, I’ve got you right?  And who’s going to hold off the zombie hoards if I have to take it easy? Today on this show of shows we have the continuing adventures of Wendy Nail who we talked to a few episodes back about barefoot running.  This time around we talk about her international adventures and how running is enjoyed all over the world. In the first article on running related topics I’m going to share some insight on my experience training for the hills of the Boston Marathon.  In the second article on life lessons I’m going to talk about how to deal with our hard-wired negativity bias.  I’m not looking for you to give money to squarespace, dollar shave club or audible, and I don’t need any iTunes reviews, but I do still need help with my team Hoyt campaign for the 2015 Boston marathon.  I don’t have a problem asking for support because Rick and Dick have given more to our community and sport than we could ever return.  These guys have a statue in Hopkinton for heaven’s sake! They’re the real deal.  Help me help them.  Go to my crowdrise page, it’s in the show notes and on the RunRunLive website – or I may let the zombie hoards eat you. On with the Show! Section one - Running TipsThe Hills of Bostonhttp://runrunlive.com/hill-training-for-flatlandersVoices of reason – the interviewsWendy Nail  Section two – Life SkillsCan vs Can’t and the negativity bias.http://runrunlive.com/can-or-cantOutroWell, well, my Campneros, another RunRunLive podcast driven to the ground and put in the pen with the rest of the free-range steers – Episode 4-307 done and dusted. I found out that my sister is listening to the podcast.  Which, honestly kinda freaks me out.  I’ve always told you that this avatar is just one of the me’s out there.  But since you’re listening, hey, it must be weird for you to hear Dad’s voice come out of me every so often?  I hear it.  You must too.  And remember: “Russell kids are the smartest and best at everything.” Right? Heh, is there anything as weird as shared family history?  I mean weird- good mostly, but it really gets under your skin in a way nothing else can. Also this week I had a weird interaction with one of the guys I work with.  I also keep I nice tall wall between this avatar and that work avatar.  But, I was so brimming with pride last week I told him about the new book I released.  I gave him a copy with the understanding that he would spread it around, the last thing I need is to be in a business situation and have someone say “But Chris, you had time to write a book…” Anyhow, this gentleman is a creative and he sends me back an email that says, and I quote, All I can say is… WOW. What a great book, Chris. I who never run or jog anywhere, salute you!Not only is your writing style a treat to read, but your whole attitude toward running and the philosophical POV you bring to the subject is outstanding. I think this writing is better than 90% of the pros.Congratulations on a real achievement!Then he says to me today, why didn’t you quit your job years ago and become a writer?  Which I answered the same way I always do.  Because I’m smart enough to know the difference between a profession and a hobby.  But, is that my Dad talking?  Am I just afraid?  Probably a rational dose of all those things.  Yes the MarathonBQ book is up on Kindle for your enjoyment, but any listeners of the show who want an e-copy I’ll give you one if you a) contribute to the Hoyt fund or b) promise to write up a review.  It’s been on the Times best seller list for two weeks now.  Spielberg, Tarantino and Scorsese are fighting over the move rights.  Harison Ford was going to play the ‘old’ me but he crashed his plane last week so they had to switch to Timothy Robbins.  Of course Ryan Gosling is already under contract to play the young me.  Frankly he’s not as smoldering sexy as the young me, but he might pass. In my dreams…We are coming up on the Groton Road Race on the 26th and everything is coming together.  Got some big changes this year and I’m sure there will be some chaos! I set up a virtual race option if you want to run it remotely.  The shirt is super nice and we’ll ship it to you.  As a matter of fact I’m going to go run a 10K in every shirt before we ship them.  And the women’s smalls chafe quite a bit.  That bit I did today on can vs can’t really resonated when I posted it up on my site.  I got a storm of positive responses and shares. Which is strange because I sort of hacked it together in a bunch of small time blocks, between things, over the course of the week.   I learned early that you never know what is going to synch with people.  It’s not my responsibility to judge what’s worthy.  It’s my privilege to create, to let muses have their way.  Folks – get out there.  Wipe those winter blues from your smock and get out there.  Lace ‘em up and go on adventures.  Have some fun.  People are watching you and you can influence the world for the better. As you are pursuing your adventures and good works, I’ll be there too, I’ll see you out there. https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellhttp://www.grotonroadrace.com/Closing commentshttp://runrunlive.com/my-books

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-306 – Jed’s Life Changes(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4306.mp3]Link epi4306.mp3Intro Bumper:https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellHoly Moley and welcome to episode 4-306 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Man it’s cold! I As I write this we haven’t been above freezing for a month and have had 6 feet of snow up here!  I like winter as much as the next guy but I’m getting a bit weary of the continuous Blizzard-cane that is New England. Since we talked last I did take trip to Atlanta and got some nice long runs in in Buckhead.  I came back from dinner one night and said ‘to heck with it, I’m heading out!’  and ran from Buckhead all the way up Peachtree to midtown.  I was out for a nice 1:45 minutes which is about a ½ marathon for me at an easy pace.  Everybody else was walking around in winter coats and hats and I was chugging along down the sidewalk in shorts.  Up here where I live I’ve been banished to the treadmill.  It’s 12:00 noon when I’m writing this and it’s a sunny 10 degrees F with a nice stiff breeze.  I have to put on so many clothes to run in that it’s like a whole load of laundry.  It’s super dangerous with the roads narrowed by drifting snow and the banks so high the drivers can’t see over them.  You just have to pull out and pray.  Yes I’ve been doing a bunch of treadmill running.  That’s why I have a gym membership! Believe it or not, I ran over three hours on the treadmill last Sunday.  It’s crazy.  Buddy’s going bonkers.  I think he’s ready to revolt.  As Maryro says he’s gone ‘shack whacky’!But the days are getting longer.  It will only be a couple weeks and we’ll be back out in the woods splashing through the melting mud and breathing in the good earth. So, my friends, I see you sitting on the couch in your pajamas in front of a warm fire eating a large jar of Nutella with a spoon.  You have to cut that out because we’re only months away from Beach season! Get up! Let’s go! In today’s show we have another guest interview.  Longtime friend of the show Greg Milbourne has an interview with one of his running friends Jed Carman.   Jed had one of those near death exercise experiences that we all fear and turned it into fuel for his life.  There’s a lot to be learned from this conversation.  Why does it take a big impact occurrence like this to get us to see how lucky we are and get us to really appreciate a life?  This life is right there in front of you today (as you sit in your pajamas feeling sorry for yourself eating Nutella).  We don’t have to wait for the firm touch of fate to shake us out of our reveries. Greg and I have been corresponding since the beginning of the RunRunLive podcast many years ago. And since he’s a mental health professional, I’m pretty sure it’s part of some long term study on manic depressives.  In the running stuff section I’m going take a deep dive into some of the finer, veteran points on hydration and fueling.  In the deep thinking section I’m going to talk about fierce conversations.  Should be a great show. We are 7 week’s out or so from the Boston Marathon.  I’ve decided not to run another marathon in the intervening time. Too much going on.  I’m not going to be the fastest runner but I’m going to have a hell of a base built up.  I have signed up for the Eastern States 20 Miler put on by Don Allison, who we’ve spoken to on the show a couple times.  They fixed the bridge and we’ll be back to running the old course that starts in Maine, runs the length of New Hampshire and ends in Mass.  Love that route.  Let’s see if I can stay within myself and run it strongly. Nice people among you have been trickling in donations for my Team Hoyt campaign.  Keep it up! I have some ground to make up to make my goal.  It matters.  I give you my stunning good looks and brilliance, you give me donations for my Hoyt campaign, and Frankly, I think you’re coming out ahead on this deal!  It’s hard to walk in the snow when it’s this deep.  I had to dig a trench for the dog to get out and do his thing.  I had to dig a tunnel to my wood pile.  I had to dig a tunnel around the house so the Oil guy could deliver.  I’m hoping all this shoveling is good for conditioning. The good news is that the zombies get stuck and you can just whack ‘em on the head with the snow shovel. On with the Show! Section one - Running TipsHydration Deep Divehttp://runrunlive.com/race-hydration-deep-diveVoices of reason – the interviewsJed Carman Interviewed by Greg Milbourne. Articles about Jedhttp://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/sportsdoc/Believing-in-a-way-back-Returning-to-running-after-a-spinal-cord-injury.htmlSpeech by Jedhttp://youtu.be/Zz9gHfDOhMc Section two – Life SkillsFierce Conversationshttp://runrunlive.com/fierce-conversationsOutroPut that Nutella down.  We’re at the end of another RunRunLive Podcast! This has been episode 4-306. If you want to join us for the Groton Road Race on April 26th this year, but are unfortunately waylaid in some unfortunate place like Nome Alaska or Murmansk, it’s ok.  I have set up a virtual race category so you can register, run with us in spirit and send us your time for the results.  We’ll send you a bib and one of our super-popular ‘wearable art’ shirts, that are by popular demand on a high quality tech shirt this year.  The web site has all the details www.GrotonRoadRace.comAnd if you’re thinking, ‘aww, shucks, Chris, you’re just shilling shirts.’ Then you’re missing the point.  You need to go find a local race that you can get involved in.  It’s a privilege and an honor to be able to work with the community and the high-quality people of the race committee to bring this wonderful event out each spring.  It’s an opportunity for us to create something that we can be proud of that supports the things that we believe passionately in.  And that’s all I have to say about that. Speaking of giving back I’ve got a present for you.  I want to give you a copy of my new book.  It’s called MarathonBQ and it’s my manifesto on qualifying for and running the Boston Marathon over the last 20 years.  I’m proud of this book and I want you to read it and enjoy it.  Here’s the deal.  If you want a copy you can either join my email list, Make a donation to my Hoyt fund or leave me a book review on Amazon Kindle.  If you think that’s something you’d be interested in doing shoot me an email and I will send you a copy.  Simple as that.  You can see all the details at my lovely website www.MarathonBQ.com. Rules of thumbTo take you out I want to geek out a little about ‘rules of thumb’.  Our lives are filled with rules of thumb.  An apple a day.  8 hours of sleep.  8 glasses of water a day.  20 mile long runs.  The 10% rule.  These are all rules of thumb to give you a ball park answers to complex problems. You have to be careful because rules of thumb are not specific to you as an individual. In optimization science rules of thumb are called heuristics.  People make up heuristics to simplify complex problems.  For any specific individual for example, “What is the optimal amount of sleep I should get?” is actually a very personal and complex answer that changes with time and health and age.  It’s too hard to solve so we default to the rule of thumb of 8 hours.  Our brains build heuristics, or gravitate to existing heuristics to find short cut solutions to these complex problems.  Heuristics are valid solution approaches.  They don’t find perfect solutions or the best solution but they get an answer quickly and it’s usually a feasible answer. It works.  It’s the 80% fit.  It’s the ‘good enough’. Mixed in with these heuristics are old wives’ tales masquerading as rules of thumb.  They seem to make sense but there’s no evidence either way.  Don’t go out in the rain, you’ll catch a cold.  I don’t know if that’s true or not but I love running in the rain. My wife is full of these old wives’ tales, (heh heh), parading as rules of thumb that she inherited from her mother and were passed down from witch doctors in the forest 50,000 years ago.  My point is that when we are spouting these rules of thumb and similar tall tales we announce them as fact and that can get you in trouble as an athlete.  What works for everybody may not work for you.  You need to test out those assumptions on your own machine and see what works and adjust accordingly. Or, to summarize, as they used to say in the 60’s “Question Authority” – in all its forms. And as you are considering whether or not what you always believed to be true may or may not be I’ll see you out there. https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellhttp://www.grotonroadrace.com/Closing commentshttp://runrunlive.com/my-books

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-305 – SheriAnne’s Adventures(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4305.mp3]Link epi4305.mp3Intro Bumper:https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellBuenas Dias! Mi Amigos.  I told you that early in my career I did a couple projects in Chihuahua Mexico, right?  That was before it got a bit dicey with the los drugos down there.  More innocent times. So we made it to February!  Old Man Winter has shown up with a vengeance up here in New England.  It’s ok, I like winter.  Or at least I can deal with it when it’s really only a couple months out of the year.  That’s one of the joys of living here is that you get 4 real seasons, but not enough of each to make them annoying.  Makes us flexible and tough.  Since we last talked it’s been snowing almost every other day.  Last weekend we got a cool 2-day blizzard that dumped 3 feet of snow.  Since it was cold too, zero degrees Fahrenheit, it was that fluffy snow that is great for winter sports and fairly easy to move, but we got a lot of it. It’s over Buddy’s head and he’s confined to a short path in the front yard.  He’s got cabin fever and is quite bothersome.  I took him for a walk during the blizzard but it was over his head and up to my thighs so we could only break trail for a couple hundred feet before we had to turn around. I’ve been having to get most of my runs in on the treadmill which is not optimal. After we last talked I ran the Derry 16 miler and felt pretty good.  The weather was good at just around freezing.  I took it super easy and ran/walked the big hills then closed it nicely in the last 5k.  I ended up running around 2:17 and felt pretty strong.  That capped a 53 mile week for me on 4 runs. The following weekend I went out for a 3 hour easy run.  I took it super easy and did loops around my house.  I felt like I could keep going at the end so my base is good and strong.  It’s a bit dismal with the snow and cold and darkness but you know how it is; the only way out is forward.  Besides, the cold weather slows the zombies down.  Thanks to those of you who threw me some donations for my Team Hoyt campaign for Running the Boston Marathon this year – I appreciate it.  Those of you who haven’t, now’s a good time.  I still need your help.  I’m only ¼ way to my goal.  Come on now, I don’t ask you folks to buy t-shirts, I don’t give a rat’s ass if you give me a review on iTunes or vote for me in whatever podcast awards are the thing of the day.  This isn’t a commercial venture for me, it’s a creative hobby.  So, cough up the cabbage and we’ll call it even…quid pro quo Clarice…quid pro quo.Today we have a most excellent show for you.  I interview SherAnne Nelson who is the captain of a team that is going to take on the Patagonia Expedition Race next year which is a super hairy race in South America.  It’s a run-bike-paddle-mountain climbing survival type thing.  Hard core.  I feel like I could have done a better job with SheriAnne. I feel like I should have asked, “Are you nuts? Leavingyoru comfy life and family for this misadventure? How do you feel about that?“ but I didn’t.  Even with my love of a good adventure, I’d be terrified. I haven’t been traveling and that always makes me a little itchy.  But I’m getting a lot done, in between angsty episodes of over eating and over sleeping...But the days are getting longer and I’m hitting the road next week. In section one I wrote a bit of a tongue in cheek piece about some of the myths surrounding marathon running that we have to watch out for.  In section two we’ll talk about the philosophy of time. So, keep on shoveling, but don’t shovel straight lines because as we all know evil spirits love straight lines and will follow them right to your door.  Shovel crooked lines.  It will confuse the walking dead too. On with the Show!Section one - Running TipsFive Dangerous Marathon Mythshttp://runrunlive.com/5-dangerous-marathon-mythsVoices of reason – the interviewsSheriAnne NelsonHere are the links to follow our team. Facebook - http://bit.ly/usateamprsfit Twitter - http://bit.ly/1usateamprsfit Tool Kit - http://bit.ly/prsfittoolkit YouTube - http://bit.ly/prsfityoutube Website - http://bit.ly/usateampatagonia Google+ - http://bit.ly/prsfitgoogleplusFirst and foremost I am a mom of 3 young beautiful children. I am a Fitness and Nutrition Coach that believes in helping people realized their untapped potential. I believe too many people go through life wondering if, and wishing they could do something magnificent. Everyone's "magnificent something" is different, mine just happens to be epic adventures. Everything I do, I think about my children and the example I am setting for them. Setting goals is critical to being successful in life and I love to set big goals that make my heart beat a little faster and make me wonder if it is possible because I love nothing more than busting past that mental barrier. Anything is possible.What I bring to the 2016 Patagonia Expedition Race Team is the desire to succeed. Once I set a goal I will do whatever it takes to accomplish it. The hope and inspiration that I bring to others when sticking through the thick and thin of an event brings me great pleasure. Not only do I want to accomplish my goals for me but for everyone else watching me. I want to be the name that comes off of people's lips when they say, "I didn't quit because of you."The other attribute I will bring to the team is the ability to solve problems under pressure. I deal best when there is pressure, I have the ability to compartmentalize the situation and accomplish what needs to happen in order to move on. I have the ability to keep people calm and focused on the situation at hand.Athletic accomplishments:Collegiate Runner - 10K PR 36:30, 5K XC - 17:22, IMAZ '12 10:16 (PR) 3rd,Kona '13 10:33 30th, IMAZ '13 10:21 3rd, IMMT '14 10:37 6th, IMAZ '14 10:41 5thQualified 2x for 70.3 Worlds, raced '14 IM70.3WC 5:05, Ultra 50 miler 3x with a 10:50 PR, Marathon PR 3:14, multiple Boston qualifier, 70.3 PR is 4:46Here is my ZERO pagehttp://www.zeroprostatecancerendurance.org/prsfit/sheriannenelsonHappy shoveling :)Live well.SheriAnne NelsonFitness and Nutrition CoachKonaMom.comCoachSheriAnne.comSection two – Life Skills“Time”http://runrunlive.com/timeOutroHey folks we have shoveled a crooked path to the conclusion of yet another RunRunLive Podcast.  Episode 4-305 in the can!  I think we’re short on time so I’ll keep it brief. When it gets really cold out I like to wear a balaclava.  Unfortunately a couple years ago I lost my balaclava.  Maybe one of you could knit me one?  I hate to buy one because I we only need it 2 or 3 days a year and I know as soon as I get another one I’ll find the old one.  My wife in her Yogi Berra moments, (not the picnic basket bear – the catcher with a proclivity for malapropisms) always asks me if I’m wearing my baklava – which gives me a hilarious visual of having my head wrapped in Greek pastry.  The new book is getting typeset into a beautiful e-book by a nice gentleman in Pakistan – should be able to ship some promo copies next week.  I have to get it converted to Kindle too so I can post it up on Amazon.  And remember If you haven’t donated a couple bucks to my Hoyt cause – now’s a good time! https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellWe’ve got the Groton Road Race coming together for April 26th this year.  I’m working to set up a virtual race category so folks can run it remotely.  We’ll send you one of the super sweet tech shirts that we’re putting our ‘wearable art’ on this year. http://www.grotonroadrace.com/I was talking with my daughter last week.  She had started a new job and was complaining that she didn’t sleep well because she had too many things going on in her head.  This is another version of the Tetris problem.  You lie awake at night going over all the things you have to worry about and trying to fit them together in a way that makes sense.  Your brain is working on that puzzle and can’t sleep until it gets resolution. The way to address this problem is to get out a piece of paper or the equivalent handful of electrons, and write down all the things that are on your mind.  You purpose here is not to solve the Tetris problem.  Your purpose here is to capture all the bits so your subconscious knows that they are in safe keeping.  You do this before you go to bed and it allows your brain to take a break and sleep. So sleep tight, and I’ll see you out there. Closing commentshttp://runrunlive.com/my-books

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-304 – Susan Loken – You’re never too old if you believe(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4304.mp3]Link epi4304.mp3Intro Bumper:https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellHello my friends.  Here we are creeping up on February.  How has the core of you existence been treating you?  Has it been resonating with the universal master mind?  Have you been doing the dosey-doe with your life purpose?  Yeah, me neither.  But I’m getting by.  I don’t know what it is about this time of year that just makes me want to sleep!  It’s all good.  I have the headphones in and I’m listening to some reggae and sipping a local IPA and dredging some creativity from the dregs of my old and atrophied brain for you! My friends.  My running friends.  My endurance sweet hearts.  Those of you new to our podcast, welcome to episode 4-304.  Codec-wise that’s the fourth version or iteration or generation of the RunRunLive podcast and the 304th episode.  Which is kinda cool.  And, please, know that you’re among friends.  We don’t want your money, well not all of it, we don’t want your reviews and we don’t have any t-shirts to sell I have no interest in signing you up for a subscription or coaching. We just like to deconstruct why running and endurance sports has the ability to drive positive transformation in our lives and why this grand adventure fuels our humanity.  That’s all.  So, you’re among friends.  And never mind all that drivel I spew about zombies, and yak farming and me being a hit man for the Irish Mafia…That’s all just a little fun I’m having.  That’s just a smoke screen.Or is it? Anyway, here we are again and I have a great show for you.  Our interview today is with Susan Loken who took up running at the age of 36 and within a few years made the Olympic trials and became masters’ marathon champion.  We talk through how it has changed her and what lessons we can learn from deconstructing her success.  It’s a great chat.  When I recorded this I was still fighting my way out of the chest cold I caught in the Caribbean and you can hear it in my voice.  Battling through adversity to bring you this lovely athlete.Susan and I were introduced by a friend of mine from the Goon Squad Runners, one of my running clubs, with the motto “No whining, just running.”  Her code name is Cougar and Susan is her coach and she’s one of the runners I respect locally for doing the work and pushing herself.  In section one, the running tips section I’m going to bring you a piece on treadmill step-up runs, which I’ve probably talked through before, but I thought it was timely with the weather pushing us inside.  In section two I’m going to revisit another topic that we’ve discussed in the past, “How to get out of a winter funk.” Again, this may not be new information for you folks, but the timing is right and I had to work through it myself again, so I figured I’d share the love. How’s my running going?  Fairly well. As you know I’m training for Boston now.  As you also know I’ve got a heart problem that is constraining some of the ways and types of training I’ve done in the past.  Nothing life threatening, just something to work with.  To net it out, I can’t really do the tempo and speed work and a lot of the effort based heart rate training I’ve done so successfully in the last ½ decade.  Instead I’m working on building a huge base at an aerobic level and building my core strength.  What does this look like?  This is a build week for me and I’ll run 3 days of 1:45 at zone 2 effort, (conversational effort).  For me that’s like 12 miles a session, so that’s a nice 36 mile volume before I get to my Sunday long run.  Sunday I’ll do another 16 and guess what campers?  That’s 52 miles on a 4 day week.  Pretty good, huh? On the other 3 days I’m core training. I’m experimenting with some awesome new core protocols that I think are going to work out.  It’s a totally different approach than I’ve done before and really intriguing.  It’s too early to make a call but I’ll let you know. The challenge I’ve had this week is fitting 1:45 of running into a weekday.  I prefer to run in the daylight for these and that’s a big chunk of the work day.  I’ve been able to pull it off by prioritizing, but it’s a challenge.  The theory here is that I’ll be able to build so much strength I’ll be able to bring my pace up for the big race, maybe.  We’ll see.  For now I’m having fun with it. I was casting about for some company for my Sunday long run today and my buddy Ryan reminded me that this weekend is the Derry 16 miler.  I went to the site and low and behold it hadn’t sold out so I signed up.  Derry is an awesome race with a stupid difficult course that brings rookies to tears.  I’ve run it at least 10 times.  For those of you who read my book of running stories “The Mid-Packer’s Lament” you’ll recognize the references to Derry.  Back in the day we ran it in snow storms and in below zero Fahrenheit temperatures.  One year we had a guy die in front of us there, no kidding. http://runrunlive.com/my-booksIf you like my voice, and by that I don’t mean the digitized sound vibrations of my vocal chords, I mean the unique melody to my prose and the slightly odd way I turn a simile go check out my books of running stories.  You can get them on Amazon or as an e-book from my website or lining bird cages in the seedier parts of town.  I even read them into audio and you can find those on my website.  If you can’t find them or the website is broken, just shoot me an email. That is my gift to you! My voice set free like a rabid Tasmanian devil, or maybe a zombie yak, to terrorize your brain and make your runs that much more interesting. On with the show! Section one - Running Tipshttp://runrunlive.com/treadmill-progression-runsVoices of reason – the interviewsSusan Loken – Masters Marathon Champion and coach.http://www.believetrainbecome.com/Growing up, I was that girl that always skipped gym class because all that exercise and sweat would ruin her fabulous Farah Fawcett hair.By the age of 36, I had reached a new stage in my life. After the birth of my 3rd son, I was sick of being out-of-shape, short on “me time,” and suffering from lack of good friendships.I was desperate for change, so desperate that I was willing to sweat. I began running and it actually felt good. My baby weight quickly dropped off and I met my first running friend, who suggested we train for a marathon. Once I was convinced that a 26.2 mile run wouldn’t cripple me, I agreed and we began training.As I crossed the finished line of my first marathon, huge crocodile tears of joy poured down over a smile so big that it hurt my face, and I didn’t even mind that my hair was sweaty. I knew that I had been changed forever. If I could finish a marathon, I could do anything! I believed in myself and I trained with passion, knowing that success would follow; in doing so, I gained confidence and the understanding that I could become whatever I dreamed!From that moment forward, I Believed, Trained, and Became a 3-time USA Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier, 4-times USA Masters Marathon Champion, 3-time winner of the More Marathon in NYC, and a girl that loves her icky sweaty hair!I share my passion for running by coaching others to Believe, Train and Become! If you are a competitive runner, I can help you take minutes off of your personal record. If you are a recreational runner, I can help you improve your fitness and endurance, and reach your personal goals. If you are new to running or a walker, I can introduce you to an improved life of fitness.Between my 10 years of Elite running experience, 8 years of group coaching, numerous courses in personal training, sports nutrition, and coaching, as well my personal understanding of how to balance training with real life, I will build a training plan based on your current fitness, your goals, and your lifestyle. I will help you BECOME YOUR DREAM!!Do you want to Believe, Train and Become your dream? Let me help you!Section two – Life Skillshttp://runrunlive.com/getting-out-of-a-winter-funk-part-part-two(2013) http://runrunlive.com/getting-out-of-a-winter-funkOutroHey, Hey, Hey, Episode 4-304 has drawn to a close.  The best thing about this whole podcasty running community thing is the cool people I get to talk to and hang out with.  That’s the cool part.  You guys are the cool part. I meet new people every week. I’ll give you a couple stories from our funky online running community for this week.  I’m on FaceBook as Chris Russell and have a RunRunLive group as well.  I guess Facebook must recommend me as a friend to other runners because I get friend requests, like everyone does.  Usually I click through to make sure they are real people and not robots or spammers.  I can tell by the number of friends we have in common.  If their profile picture is them smiling with a bib number pinned to their chest, they’re in. If their profile picture is them grinding up the side of a mountain, yop, they’re in.  This week I had a lady send me a friend request.  I clicked through and there were the familiar pictures of a mature, athletic woman in her running stuff.  But, the next series of pictures from her Instagram had me baffled, I’m thinking, what is that? A baby squirrel? And clicking on them I soon realized that these were pictures of the detailed anatomical nature. I mean, I have nothing against you sharing liberally, but I couldn’t friend you.  I was having pictures of our relationship ending with me being held for ransom by the Russian mafia and I decided to head that off at the pass…Today I’m working and a friend request comes through.  I look at this lady’s profile and it seems kosher so I accept.  (don’t worry this story has nothing to do with baby squirrels) A few minutes later I get a message “Always good to meet fellow runners!”  I figure I’ll play nice and respond, “Nice to meet you, what are you training for?” She says, “I’ve run 3 5k’s and am planning for a 10K.” and goes on to tell me how she’s just started and still has to run walk. I tell her it’s the best part of running to be a new runner starting on the adventure. She asks me how long I’ve been running.  I say “A few years…” Then send a picture of my medal rack and marathon quilt and tell her about the podcast.  So welcome to my world Chrissy.  Nice to have you on our adventure. …I know I’ve been saying this for months, but, honestly, my new book on how to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 weeks while holding down a full time job and a family is done and edited.  I’m pulling the website together and I really like this one.  It’s not so much a ‘how to’ as it is my manifesto on racing and training the Boston Marathon.  I did not choose to write it.  It chose to be written.  I really like it.  Patience, I’ll get it up in the next two weeks. Finally.  I need your help.  And by help I mean money! For my Team Hoyt campaign for Boston. I remember the first time I met Rick and Dick Hoyt.  It was in some 10K or 5 miler somewhere back in the 90’s.  I remember passing them in the race.  Later when I was talking to Dick at a race expo I related that story to him and without missing a beat he said, “Yeah, I remember that race, I had a chest cold or you never would have caught us.”  https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussellAnd that’s the thing about Dick and Rick.  They didn’t set out to change the world.  They set out to run.  Like we all do.  They did what they could do.  They ran.  They weren’t doing it to put on a big show or to call attention.  They were part of the community up here.  They put in the work.  The qualified for Boston under the original 2:50 standard years ago and the BAA wouldn’t let them run in the race.  But they kept showing up and doing that thing that we as runners do.  They ran.  This humble man with this simple thing eventually changed the world. And I’d like your help to keep Rick and Dick’s legacy going.  I’d like your help to propagate their ripples in our pond.  This is good in our world that we can help.  Please go to my crowd rise page https://www.crowdrise.com/TeamHoytBoston2015/fundraiser/christopherrussell and help sustain this good in the world.  Twenty bucks folks, that’s a way you can make ripples in our pond. And that, my friends is how leadership works.  It’s like radiation.  You radiate as an individual and as a leader.  And what you radiate influences the people who come into contact with you. If you cultivate stress and negativity, that’s what you will radiate and that is the pollution you will propagate.  But if you radiate positivity and leadership in your thoughts and actions that will radiate out from you and change the world. Let’s change the world. And while we’re changing the world, I’ll see you out there. Closing commentshttp://runrunlive.com/my-books

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The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-303 – Bruce Van Horn - Running and Self-esteem(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4303.mp3]Link epi4303.mp3Intro Bumper:Hello my friends and welcome to 2015.  Who woulda thunk it? We made it.  I can remember sitting in elementary school and thinking how old I’d be when we got to the year 2000, and here we are 15 years later.  You have once again found yourself with me, Chris, in your ear buds.  Whether you’re out on your frozen roads or the tropical antipodean outback I’m thrilled and honored to be your running-related mental succubus. …Well it’s been a quiet week out here in Independence Kansas along the banks of Spring creek.  As I look out onto the frost covered acreage I can see groups of feral yaks cavorting in the sleet.  Except for those sick ones.  They don’t look so good.  They’re in rough shape with fur falling out in bunches and they walk with a strange stiff-legged lurch.  I called the local animal control officer out and he should be here shortly.  It’s that government neuro toxin research facility.  I know it is.  Well the beat up F150 of Dick the animal control officer just pulled into the field.  I think he’s the manager of the local grange too.  He’s out of the truck now, approaching the yaks…Oh my god! They’re attacking! They’ve got him down! Heavens to murgatroid! They’re eating his brains! They’re Zombie yaks! That’s it.  I’ve had enough of the Midwest.  I’m moving back to New England. By the way…”Zombie Yaks” would make an awesome name for a punk rock band…Intro: Yeah – how about that running stuff?  Well I’ve dropped into training for Boston.  I’ve had a small set back with going on vacation for a week and coming down with a vicious head cold.  I’ve got an interesting challenge this year with my heart acting up.  I can train in Zone 2 all day long but Zone 3 and 4 work is dicey.  I’m going to have to figure out how to train with a missing gear while I get this sorted.  The issue is that the tempo stuff is where my arrhythmia kicks in.  Instead of going from zone 2 into zone 3 and 4 it flips out and goes from zone 2 to max.  But that’s not really what’s happening.  It reads as max HR but what’s really happening is the heart muscles are out of synch and the blood isn’t getting to where it needs to be to support the effort.  It’s the equivalent of a missing gear or a flat spot where I lose power.  It doesn’t do me any good to tough it out because I’m not getting the benefit training while my heart is working ineffectively.  I talked to coach and we’re working on training on things I can control and are effective.  Since I have no problem in Zone 2 we’re just going to continue to build a giant base.  Push those weekday runs up into the 1:30 range and the long runs up too.  The other issue I have is the HR tends to flip when I’m running up hill.  The increased load going up a hill caused the Arrhythmia to kick in.  Again, it doesn’t do me any good to train in that state so I have to figure out how to get my hill strength for Boston without doing hill work.  What can I control?  I can control my nutrition, I can control my flexibility and I can control my strength and I can control my sleep.  That leads me to my initial plan for Boston, which is build a huge Zone 2 base, get my weight down to race weight, work my flexibility and work my strength.  I’m pretty excited about this experiment.  It’s a challenge.  It’s like fighting with a hand tied behind my back and it will force me to grow. If the cardio doctors manage to fix something then I can add on the fine tuning of racing and tempo later in the cycle.  That’s easy and comes quickly if you have the strength, the flexibility and the base.  Today I have a chat with Bruce Van Horn who is a life coach and marathoner out of Virginia.  At first I wasn’t super attracted to Bruce when I listened to his stuff because it was basic positive thinking and self-esteem stuff delivered in a bit of a Mr. Rodgers narrative, but I warmed to it and I thought it would be valuable to step back and look at some of the basic approaches to get started on the right path.  I had to get around my own prejudices.  A couple notes that resonated for me are; first ‘the great mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation’ to quote our friend Henry over in Concord.  Bruce is helping the 95% of the people out there who just don’t know where to start and they think that they are the only ones who feel that way.  I also wanted to highlight, secondly something that all of us take for granted, which is the positive correlation between running and self-esteem and self-worth.  As an added bonus Buddy the old Wonder Dog chimes in in the background a few times. In the first section I present a brief piece on how to start running towards something as opposed to running away.  In the second section I’m going to counter balance all the basic self-improvement messaging with some thought on more advanced ideas for those of you who may be looking for the next level. I woke up this morning hemorrhaging snot with a full day of work on my plate and thought I might not get this show out, actually was wondering about surviving the day, but here I am and it’s after 6:pm and I’m still going!  I think I just might make my deadline! To hell with the head cold and the cold weather (it was minus 8 F yesterday here) and to hell with the zombie yak attacks! On with the Show!Section one - Running Tipshttp://runrunlive.com/stop-running-awayVoices of reason – the interviewsInterviewee -> Bruce Van Horn – Life CoachBruce Van Hornwww.lifeisamarathon.comAboutHi. My name is Bruce Van Horn. I appreciate you taking the time to visit my site to learn a little about me.I am, in order of priority, a Dad, a writer, a coach, an entrepreneur, a speaker, a runner, and a lot of other things as life demands!My personal motto is: “Life is a marathon, so let’s train for it!”Most of the inspiration for that motto comes from the 12th chapter of the book of Hebrews, in the Bible. I’m in the race of life for the long run, and training for the ups and downs that will come whether or not I’m ready for them–so I’m trying to be ready!I’ve had many painful experiences and setbacks in my life, but I’ve also received many unexpected and undeserved blessings.I’ve learned, along the way, that I cannot control many things about my life, but I can control how I respond to everything. I spent a good portion of my adult life simply reacting from day to day, situation to situation. I know how it feels when just getting through the day is a good day. I’ve also learned that living that way was a choice I was making, not something that was being forced upon me.I’ve learned a lot about myself in my journey to take back control of my life. I’ve learned that, despite circumstances, I can live passionately and intentionally.While I am good at many things, I operate in my “sweet-spot” when I’m helping people discover their purpose and passion for life. When I’m coaching people to put the “extra” in their ordinary life and turn it into the extraordinary life they want and are capable of living. Most of my writing is on this topic because it is my passion!If you would like to work with me or reach out to me for any reason, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to use my Contact Form.I am also constantly feeding my brain by reading books and blogs, listening to audiobooksand a variety of podcasts.  If you’d like to see what I’ve read recently, visit my Reading List Section two – Life Skillshttp://runrunlive.com/advanced-self-improvement-ideas-for-your-new-year OutroWell my friends we made it.  Episide 4-303 out of the box and into the either.  I’ve got plenty of ideas and lots of life lessons to share.  Let’s keep going, shall we? Can I talk anyone into doing audio editing for the interviews?  It’s really quite simple and I can train you.  It just saves me an hour of production time and you get to hear the interviews first! Some are awesome and don’t need any editing, some need a bit more work, but I could use some more volunteers. What else have I got cooking?  Well I need to find a marathon to run before Boston so Boston can be my 50th.  I’ve kicked off my fundraising for Team Hoyt and will be dropping a video on you guys to tell you my plans.  If you can spare $2,260 as a donation now’s the time! Or even something smaller! http://youtu.be/GfBxVEGkb8AI’ve got the MarathonBQ book through the first edit so now I have to figure out how to get that through the birthing canal, sigh…So many good ideas, so little time. You know how I got myself sick?  I was going on this vacation over new years and I decided I’d vacation AND keep my other stuff going as well.  This meant I’d stay up until obscene hours celebrating with my family and then get up at 5 to work out and write anyhow. The plan was to nap during the day, because, hey, I was on vacation.  After 3 days of this I got sick and lost not only all the time I tried to create but also the benefit of a vacation.  Why, because I’m an idiot who can’t relax.  But I did get one super cool morning run in.  New Year’s Day I rolled out at 5:00AM.  I was staying in the JW Marriott in downtown Miami on Key Biscayne.  I headed out across the causeway and the little drawbridges over to Miami Beach.  It was super surreal.  The Bay park near the hotel was a scene of carnage.  It was post-apocalyptic with piles of bottles and occasional zombified revelers staggering by.  As I ran down the causeway road towards Miami Beach I’d pass young women leaving houses in party dresses holding their stilettos in their hands, doing the walk of shame – so to speak- and they’d look at me as if I was some sort of alien apparition.  As I got into South Beach I passed very drunk and very friendly young men who would try to high-five me and miss. I stopped at a park bench to do 5 minutes of breathing meditation and relax my heart.  I kept going out through to the beach itself which was another zombie-apocalypse scene.  Piles of empty champagne bottles, all kinds of people sleeping in piles on the beach, (and doing other things that weren’t sleeping), and still more people wandering around like zombies in the pre-dawn darkness.  I watched the cruise ships come in to the port all strung with lights. The sun rose over my shoulder as I ran back to the hotel, still the first one up.  It was around 10k in each direction.  The kind of surreal vacation adventure that isn’t on any travel company’s itinerary!So, my Friends, keep doing what you are doing and you will be sure to see me out there.    Closing comments

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RunRunLive 4.0 Episode 4-302 - Roxanne and Paula 2014-08-07 17.53.12(Audio: link)     Link epi4302.mp3   Intro: Hey. How are yah?  Welcome my friends.  To the RunRunLive Podcast.  Episode 4302.  How ya been?  Maybe you’re a new friend?  Maybe you got one of those brand new shiny i-devices for Christmas and you’re just dipping your toe into the podcast world?  By the way I like your nail polish. Matches your eyes.  But, that tattoo must have hurt, no? Anyway, this is Chris your host.  We have been sharing a podcast in and about running and endurance sport for a few years now.  Welcome.  I’m coming to you from the grassy steppes of Independence Kansas where I run a feral yak farm in between professional gigs. The running is challenging out here.  The wind cutting across the plains in the winter is a bit biting, but you get used to it.  And you know the toughest warriors are from the Steppes, the Scythians, the Huns and the Mongols all rode down on ‘civilization’ from the windy grasslands. There’s something going on with the yak herd.  I think it might have something to do with the Government Neuro Toxin research facility a couple miles up Spring Creek.  Some of the yaks don’t look so good.  They look disoriented.  “Disoriented yak” would be a good name for a ska band… … I didn’t make it down to Atlanta for the Jeff Galloway 13.1.  I just couldn’t swing it.  Sounds like Kevin and friends had a fun time.  I’ve been actually getting some decent base building in.  I’m too old to run every day without breaking something.  I’ve stabilized at 4 days a week which seems like the right balance. I worry whether I can get the volume of miles in to race well at the marathon distance at only 4 days a week.  Coach has extended my weekday runs out to 1:20-1:30 which helps.  The good news is that it gets me out long enough to build some base fitness and get the mileage up.  Right now he’s got me doing Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.  That gives me an automatic base in the mid to high 20’s.  Then you lay the Sunday long run on and I can get up into the 40’s. That’s the compromise.  It’s enough to get the fitness I want without pushing me over the edge into injury.  The training impact from that extra 20-30 minutes in my weekly runs really makes a difference.  It’s a challenge when I’m busy, but I feel like I’m building base that will support me in the run up to Boston this spring. GMMy friend Brian and I reprised the Groton Marathon last weekend.  This is a marathon we made up last year to get a December marathon.  The way it works is Brian and I lay out a course around town, invite all the crazy people we know and go run a marathon.  I count it as an official marathon because, my game, my rules.  That’s my 48th marathon. We changed the course this year so it looped through Groton, Ayer, Shirley and a few hundred feet of Harvard Massachusetts.  Part of the fun, and the challenge is to create a course through New England towns that stays off the main roads and isn’t overwhelmingly difficult. It was about 32 degrees with a light snow fall for the whole time.  Pretty good running weather.  There’s no snow on the ground up here and the roads were clear.  We started at 8:00 and got back after noon. We had a dozen or so people join us for some part of the route and we had one person go the distance with us.  A big crew ran the first half with us and cut back.  Another couple of our club friends picked us up at mile 17 and ran us in.  We dropped water and Gatorade every 4-6 miles. iceI’m sorry to report that I didn’t come in first this year.  I had gapped Brian by a good 2-3 minutes after mile 20, but I waited for him at one of our water stops and he got a 2nd wind at mile 24 and took off.  I didn’t have the mental or physical closing speed to chase him down. It was a great run.  It always scares me a little to just show up and run a marathon, but this one was easy. We went super slow and stopped every couple miles to get refreshed.  It ended up having about 1,000 feet of elevation gain, but nothing horrible.  I was able to keep good form and my HR was solidly in zone 2 the whole distance. I did end up getting some strange chaffing.  I got welts on, as Forest Gump would say, ‘My Buttocks’, somehow from the new ASICS tights I was wearing. Never had chaffing there before. It looked like someone took me to the woodshed. How’d you like the first episode of the 100% recycled RunRUnLive 4.0 Podcast?  I’m going to keep tweaking it but I wanted to get it out.  Action is better than inaction and progress is better than perfection.  It’s not supposed to be professional, but it is supposed to have high enough quality content presented in such a way as not to annoy you! In today’s show, which, with any luck should drop on Boxing Day, we will have a piece on how to turn your winter doldrums into an investment in your running.  I also bring you a rousing piece on how to set Big Hairy Ass Goals the right way to transform your life in the life transformation section. The interview is a bit of an experiment.  Back at the end of the summer I had some guest interviews done by some friends of the show.  So today we bring you an interview of Roxanne by Paula.  I haven’t even listened to it yet and I know it’s going to be utterly fabulous. Paula and I go way back to the inception on Twitter where we quickly became virtual friends because of our mutual love of writing and speaking and many things other things.  So, we’ve been virtual friends since Twitter was for cool kids.  Go visit Paula’s blog at www.BigGreenPen.com and consider helping her fundraising efforts for the NYC half she’s got coming up. Roxanne is another one of our long time Twitter friends.  She is one of those stars of our endurance community.  Thankfully, we hear stories like Roxanne’s more each year. She’s a Mom who was seriously overweight, she took her life into her own hands and became a marathoner, an Ironman and transformed into a happier, healthier and better person. I hope you learn as much from these two energetic ladies as I have. That’s it my friends.  Enjoy your holidays and be nice to your family – you only get one shot at that. Before I let you go I’m going to give you a quick tip that I’ve been using to get my writing done.  You know I wrote a new book, right?  Anyhow to get this stuff written I need to hide from distractions like social media while I’m creating.  I’ve developed a very simple trick to do this.  I just set the timer on my iPhone for 30 minutes and commit to writing without distraction until the timer goes off. It’s just like working out.   The hardest part is getting started.  But once you get started it has a momentum of its own.  When something pops up or beeps for my attention I don’t take the bait until the 30 minutes is up.  At 30 minutes I give myself permission for a little bit of wandering, but, frankly by that point I’m neck deep in my topic and don’t want to stop! I’ll compliment this by going into YouTube and spinning up some meditation music.  It helps calm your mind without distraction. Give that a try.  I know this is not a new idea. There are official methodologies and software solutions for this if you want to go down that rabbit hole, but this is a simple solution for a common problem without over-engineering it. Which, you and I could stand more of, no? On with the Show! winter-funSection one - Running Tips http://runrunlive.com/winter-fun Voices of reason – the interviews Interviewee -> Roxanne Camirand Wife, mother of three, elementary school principal, marathoner and now Ironman.  I am 5 feet tall, was once tipping the scale at 225pounds only 8 years ago. I was overweight and sedentary all my life.  Then life happened and I decided that I wanted to be around to see my grandchildren grow up.  So I started by losing some weight through changes in my diet and that triggered a series of events that led me to live an active healthy lifestyle and be a role model for my family and my students. All the choices I made in my life led me to where I am today. I do not regret one of them. As if I would not have been unhealthy and obese, I would have never felt the need to change my life so drastically, which in turn, made me who I am today: a wife, a mom, a marathoner and an ironman. Guest Interviewer -> Paula Kiger Paula is a Fitfluential Ambassador and a Charity Miles All Star. She trains with KR Endurance. She worked for almost twenty years for Florida’s State Child Health Insurance Program. She is currently doing freelance work in the communications industry. Her Twitter bio describes her best: wife of one, mom of two, friend of many. Blog/Site: Perspicacity at www.biggreenpen.com Facebook Personal: https://www.facebook.com/biggreenpen Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Perspicacity/255384144580651?ref=hl Twitter: https://twitter.com/biggreenpen G+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+PaulaKiger/posts Instagram: http://instagram.com/biggreenpen/ DailyMile: http://www.dailymile.com/people/paulakiger#ref=tophd Fundraising Site for Team in Training (NYC Half March 3/15/15 -- if there's any way to work this one in I would be super grateful because I have to raise what is for  me a load of $$$$):  http://pages.teamintraining.org/li/halfnyc15/pkiger   Bhags-2015 Section two – Life Skills http://runrunlive.com/break-your-frame-in-the-new-year Outro Well, my friends that was fun, right?  It’s different for me to be writing and recording for you at home instead of in a hotel or an airplane!  I hope I don’t lose the fun caustic edge I bring when I’m being chased by stress balls out in the world.  We’ll see. Thanks for listening to the second episode in the 4.0 series.  I went back to my website and fixed the Index page so you can see and download all the audio I’ve ever produced.  The Index is a cool Wordpress plugin.  You just tell it which categories to include and it rounds up all the links and puts them on one page.  It’s an alphabetical sort, which isn’t the best but it’s workable. I suppose I could go out and add some meta-data around guests and topics but, ‘nice to have’ doesn’t usually make it to the top of my list! If you have any suggestions, love, hate or any kind of feedback I would love love love the feedback.  Drop a comment on the website on any of these posts, or shoot me an email or drop a note on the RunRunLive FaceBook page or tweet me at CYKTRUSSELL. Especially if there is some running, racing or training question you’d like me to write on for the show.  I kinda sorta feel like it’s all been discussed but I don’t mind repeating stuff you’re interested in. The big, big, news this week is that I’m not crazy! Well, not totally crazy.  The Cardiologist found a bug in my heart.  They think I have exercise induced arrhythmia.  That’s exactly what I described to them.  Losing power at the end of a workout when I push it. This particular bug, they think is electrical. One of the little electrical conduits in one of my ventricles decide to short out and cause the arrhythmia when I go hard. Oddly I see this as excellent news because it exactly maps to what I’ve been experiencing.  It means I’m not crazy and I do know my machine.  I picked it up as an athlete where they wouldn’t normally. What it is not is a physical abnormality of the heart.  You may hear a lot about ‘athletes’ heart’ where the heart becomes asymmetrically developed – it aint that.  It’s also not a blockage like Dave had. It won’t kill me.  This type of thing isn’t the precursor to a massive heart attack.  It could potentially cause blood pooling a clotting in the ventricle that could lead to stroke if it were to get bad enough or happen chronically.  But the doctor said ‘keep doing what you’re doing, just be smart about it’. How do they treat it?  I’m going to see a specialist in the electro-cardio realm.  They will try to isolate the bad ‘wire’ in the heart muscle and potentially ‘ablate’ it.  Which means cut that wire so it stops doing the funky chicken with my ventricle when I’m training. This week coach has me on a rest week.  He’s such a worrier.  Yeah so I went out and ran 4 hours on the road with my friends, I feel fine!  But I’ll take it. He’s got me doing some bike work and some easy shorter runs.  I set up my old road bike, Fuji-san, on the Trainer out on my porch and put a new cheap tire on the back to take the trainer abuse.  I’ve been watching my way through Marco Polo on Netflix on my trainer rides.  I started watching it because I though the actor was Adrian Greneir from Entourage, but it’s not him, it’s some other pretty boy. I like it.  It’s like a Game of Thrones rip off in Mongolia.  There are naked women and sword fights in every episode. I particularly like the fact that Hollywood is using actual Mongolian and Chinese actors as far as I can tell.  They have a history of just casting any vaguely Asian looking actors and thinking that we don’t know the difference between an ethnic Chinese or a Philippino or a Korean! My new book MarathonBQ is taking shape nicely.  The editing is progressing apace and I should be able to start promoting it in the New Year.  I’ll be asking you folks for help with that. I’ll be setting up my Boston Marathon campaign training plan soon and with that will come my request for financial support for Team Hoyt.  I found out through them that a friend of theirs Dr. Bryan Lyons will be pushing Rick this year.  I’m going to try to get him on for an interview. I’ve got a couple assignments for you.  First thing is to give something healthy to your local food bank. The challenge here is that they only want packaged foods, which by definition narrows your healthy options. Here’s a couple suggestions.  Buy a bunch of dried beans to donate, or some brown rice.  It’s cheap and healthy.  Or some shelf stable Almond Milk.  Or a jar of almond butter.  Think about it.  Something packaged and healthy. There’s no reason we should be forcing the food pantry people to eat crap. Second assignment is more of a suggestion.  You know all your friends are going to be asking you for donations this year.  Create an annual donation budget.  Maybe for you it’s $100 or maybe you’re one of those lucky people who can set aside $10,000.  Then you can decide how many donations you parse that up into.  Maybe it’s 5 donations of $20.  Then you can donate through the year according to your budget.  Takes the stress out of it. You can see all of this stuff written out in the show notes of the podcast.  It’s all on my website (which needs to be refurbished, I know) at www.runrunlive.com.  I do have an email list but all it does it automatically send you a notice and the show notes when the podcast drops, actually the day after it drops. You can reach me at CYKTRUSSELL at Gmail dot com etc. etc. That’s it for me.  Enjoy your holidays.  Don’t forget to smile.  Smiling makes a great gift. I’ll see you out there in the New Year. Closing comments

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RunRunLive 4.0Episode 4-301, Dave McGillivray and Heart Disease in Runners(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4301.mp3]Link epi4301.mp3Intro Bumper:Intro: Prelude:When I started the RunRunLive Podcast in July of 1857 it was a different world.  I know it hasn’t been 150 years but it does seem like a long time ago.  Now here we are at the sharp and dangerous blade edge of another season or edition or chapter – whatever you want to call it.  I chose the meme of running plus living not to show the dichotomy or separation of the two but to highlight the synergy and union of them.  When you combine endurance sports into your life one plus one equals 3.  Running has opened up worlds for me.  I like to say it has transformed me, but that isn’t quite the right way to put it.  I wasn’t a 300 pound diabetic asthmatic on the edge of physical extinction.  I was a normal, family guy stuck instead in the corporate grindwheel of modern existence.  Maybe that’s a form of existential extinction. Running didn’t so much transform me as it enabled me to realize my own potential.  It snapped the strictures that tied me down and allowed me to transcend.  It broke my frame of reference and allowed my light to leak out into the world in a new way.  And that, my friends is what I still want to do.  I want you to come see the light.  We live in a time of great epidemic.  I don’t mean Ebola or Aids.  I mean the epidemic of people not believing in themselves, not believing in positive change and not trying because they are constantly being told that they can’t make a difference.  You can make a difference.  You can make a difference in your own life and in the lives of others by what you do, what you say and how you approach life.  I can make a difference too, for you, for me and for those tiny humans that I brought into this world. Frankly, I don’t care if you run or jog or walk or wriggle like a snake to Elvis love songs.  What concerns me is that you do nothing.  That you think small.  That you feel like you have nothing to give.  That it has all been done.  That you’re not smart enough, not fast enough, not rich enough or not talented enough to make a difference in this world of ours.  What scares me is that you are afraid to try.  If all you can offer is a smile or a hug then please for God’s sake give it today, give it now, because that is a tremendous gift that is in short supply.  90% of my days go by without either!What can I give?  What can RunRunLive give?  What small stone can we toss into the shimmering pool of humanity?  What ripples can we make?  For this version of the Podcast we will continue in mostly the same vein as version 3.  I’ll structure it to fit in to a less-than-one-hour envelope.  I’ll retain the 20+ minute interview with someone who can show us the achievement of honest synergy. I’m going to move the running tips segment to the front half of the show and try to make it useful to you.  Likewise I’ll retain the life skills segment that I think many people like and move that to the back half. I’ll keep up the intro and the outro comments.  Not that you care so much about what is going in on my life, but just some context and frame and storytelling to glue it all together.  I’m not going to drop in any more music, even though I can’t for the life of me understand why some of you apparently hate punk rock and ska…That’s it, no big changes, just a little shuffling.  Then why would I pause and take this time to ponder a new format?  This is topic that deserves more ink, but in short, because I believe in the power of introspection.  At some point as we draw into the New Year you should pause for introspection on your life and goals and direction too.  It can ignite an epiphany.  I reserve the right to change my mind.  I reserve the right to change your mind as well. Are you ready to get out there?  Intro:Hello, my friends and welcome to the RunRunLive 4.0 podcast.  My name, is Chris, actually Christopher, which, if you want to talk about morphemes, is Greek for Christ Carrier and I’ve missed you.  Seems like ages since we have chatted.  What have I been up to?  There is so much that It’s hard to summarize.  On the life front I quit my job, left my family and moved to a 50 acre ranch in Pioneer Kansas to raise yaks full time.  It’s a peaceful plot of land amongst the industrial farms straddling Spring Creek.  I got myself 50 head of good breeding yaks.  The running is good too and I’ve constructed some interesting trails but there aren’t a whole lot of hills.  The professional hit man business was fairly frantic throughout the fall so I spent a lot of time on the road.  Unfortunately, while I was gone the yaks went feral and now I have to be careful because they’ve organized and plot attacks against me when I leave the house. It can be startling when you’re lost in the peaceful reverie of a long run and one of those crazed, shaggy-headed beasts comes crashing out of the alfalfa at you.  ‘Yak Attack’ would be a good name for a band.But – that’s all personal fluff and stuff – you don’t care about that.  On the running side I’ve just been working on maintaining my base and staying healthy since my 15 minutes of fame at the New York City Marathon.  I tried an experiment a couple weeks ago to see if I could run or more than an hour every day for 7 days straight.  Just to see if I could take the load. The runs felt pretty good but my old and angry nemesis the plantar fasciitis flared up by day five and I aborted that flight of fancy.  Kudos to me to be able to set that quest aside and not hurt myself.  I’ve been logging most of my runs in the woods with Buddy the old Wonder Dog.  Including a nice nighttime headlamp run for 1:30 the day after the Thanksgiving snow storm.  I’ve got a good base and I’m not injured. We’re going to talk a bit about running in the snow in the first bit of today’s episode. Poor Buddy was pretty beat up by that run. He’s definitely slowing down.  He was standing at the top of the stairs looking at them the way I look at them the day after a hard marathon.  He still gets pissed if I don’t take him.  I won’t take him on the road anymore, only the trails, off lease so he can pace himself.  If the hikers want to yell at me for having him off leash they can bite me.  That dog is 80 years old and still gets after it like a pro.  They should be so lucky when they’re his age. The other big adventure I’ve had this fall is around my own advancing decrepitude.  I know, it’s all relative, you’re rolling your eyes, here’s this running geek who does back to back marathons in October complaining about fitness and performance. Truth is I haven’t been able to muster a qualifying race since, I think, Boston 2011.  That’s a long time ago.  I’m still; looking for race fitness since taking the 18 months or so off with the plantar fasciitis.  This fall I’ve taken the time to schedule all my general maintenance and upkeep appointments.  I got a physical, had my bloodwork done and got my eyes checked.  Basically checking the tire pressure and the oil.  Since I’m past the half-century mark my doctor scheduled me for a colonoscopy.  Which is a funny story.  Meanwhile, I’ve been bugged by my heart rate wigging out on me in long hard efforts so I asked him to set me up with a cardio appointment as well.  Not because anything is overtly wrong, just to make sure.  I don’t want to go out for a run and not come back.  I owe to the yaks.  If the answer is “you’re old” I’m ok with that, I just want to be safe.  Which plays into our interview of Dave McGilivary today about his adventures with heart disease. I spent a week ‘prepping’ for the colonoscopy, which is fairly miserable and involves a diet that is antithetical to what I’m used to, then slamming a variety of laxatives in large doses.  They want your colon to be squeaky clean when they go in there with their camera on a stick.  In the hospital, lying naked on a gurney, waiting for the anesthesiologist, I’m a bit nervous.  My resting heart rate, as you know is normally around 40 beats per minute.  Since I’m nervous I start doing some breathing meditation and it drops to 34-35.  Alarms are going off from the leads they have stuck on me. The anesthesiologist does an EKG to make sure I’m not dying.  My heart, they tell me, stops beating for up to 2.5 seconds at a time.  I’m like, ‘yeah, so?’  What do you want it to be?  I can control it by thinking about it.  The colon guy wants to go ahead but the cardiologist on call says ‘no’.  4 days of prep, 3 hours of lying around naked in the hospital with leads stuck on me, and they send me home. The irony here is that I was by far the healthiest person in that place.  They’re wheeling in a parade of sick people, but I’m too fucking healthy to get a camera stuck quip my ass.  The world is a crazy place. Since then I’ve been to the cardio and had the stress test and echo cardiogram that show there’s nothing wrong with my heart.  I think I have a bit of an arrhythmia in one of my valve when I surge after 40 minutes of running.  That’s what my data shows but they don’t want to see my data.  Their 20 minute stress test was a nice hill workout but hardly long enough to stimulate the symptoms I’m seeing. We’ll see what the clowns in this circus think when I go back for my consult before Christmas.  Until that point I’m just going to keep doing what I do.  Every day above ground is sacred.  Every footfall crunching the snow, clutching the ground and driving me forward is a sacred act that I savor. On with the show! (feels good to say that again my friends)Section one - Running tipsCold and snow running - http://runrunlive.com/snow-ho-hoVoices of reason – the interviewsDave McGillivrayDave McGillivray is a U.S.-based race director, philanthropist, author and athlete. In 1978, he ran across the U.S. to benefit the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.[1] Presently he is race director of the B.A.A. Boston Marathon and his team at DMSE, Inc. have organized numerous mass participatory fundraising endurance events since he founded it in 1981.Here are a few of his many career highlights:In 1978, McGillivray ran across the U.S. from Medford, Oregon to his hometown of Medford, Mass., covering a total distance of 3,452 miles and ending to a standing ovation in Fenway Park. His effort raised thousands of dollars for the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.Two years later, he ran 1,520 miles from Winter Haven, Fla., to Boston to raise money for the Jimmy Fund, even meeting with President Jimmy Carter at the White House during the run.In 1982, McGillivray ran the Boston Marathon in 3:14 while blindfolded and being escorted by two guides to raise more than $10,000 for the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Mass.McGillivray’s many endurance events for charity are legendary, including running 120 miles in 24 hours thru 31 Mass. cities; an 86-story, 1,575-step run up Empire State Building in 13 minutes and 27 seconds; and running, cycling and swimming 1,522 miles thru six New England states while raising $55,000 for the Jimmy Fund.In 2003, McGillivray created the DMSE Children’s Fitness Foundation to support non-profit organizations that use running to promote physical fitness in children and help solve the epidemic of childhood obesity.In 2004, McGillivray and a team of veteran marathon runners journeyed across the country following the same path he took in 1978, raising more than $300,000 for five charities benefiting children.Each year he runs his birthday age in miles, starting when he was 12, and has not missed one yet.  He was born on Aug. 22, 1954 – you can do the math. The race director of the Boston Marathon as well as an accomplished runner, McGillivray has run the marathon each year since 1973. For 16 years he ran it with all the other runners and since he began working with the race in 1988 he has run the course afterwards. His 2006 book, “The Last Pick”, which he co-wrote with Linda Glass Fechter, chronicles his childhood and career as the last pick for team sports because of his small stature, motivating readers to never underestimate their own ability to set and achieve goals. Order here on Amazon. A skilled motivational speaker, McGillivray has displayed his signature ability to engage and inspire listeners to more than 1,600 audiences from corporate executives to high school students.McGillivray has received numerous awards –  valedictorian at both his high school and college, 2005 Running USA Hall of Champions, 2007 Runner’s World Heroes of Running Award, the 2010 Fleet Feet Lifetime Commitment to Running Award, 2010 Ron Burton Community Service Award, the 2011 Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center's 2011 100 list, and inducted into the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame in 2011 and the prestigious "Jimmy Award"  by the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for 30 years of contributing time and expertise to help raise millions for cancer research and treatment. McGillivray has logged more than 150,000 miles, most for charity, raising millions for worthy causes.  He’s completed 126 marathons and competed in eight Hawaii Ironman Triathlons. His personal bests?Marathon: 2:29:58 and for the Ironman: 10:36:42Section two – Life SkillsWorking on the important stuff - http://runrunlive.com/the-efficiency-trapOutroAnd so it goes.  It’s a momentum thing, isn’t it my friends?  If you can start you can keep going and soon repetition becomes habit and habit becomes a body of work.  I have to admit it was hard to get this jump started again – but now that we have it should get easier. Just finished the book “Running with the Buffaloes”.  It documents a season of the Colorado University cross country team.  It is the year that Adam Goucher won the NCAA meet beating out Abdi Abdirahman and Bernard Lagat. What I found interesting was the training they went through.  These are 20 year old kids, mind you.  They were running 100+ mile weeks, in singles all through the summer leading into the season and held that volume in the 80’s and 90’s right through the season.  As they came into the racing season they layered on a bunch of high quality anaerobic work as well.  Really shows you what you can get out of your machine if you do the work. On the flip side most of these guys were injured.  Adam made the Olympic trials but ended up having to retire early.  Abdi is still out there and ran the Olympic marathon with Meb in London 2012 – he DNF’ed.  Adam’s wife Kara is still out there too.  She came in 11th to Shalane’s 10th in London.  It was a good book if you’re a running geek and readable in the sense that it has a real narrative vs just the technical bits. I raced the Mill Cities Relay last Sunday with my club and had a great race.  I did a warm up of 2.5 miles at around an 8:05 pace then raced the 9.5 mile leg at a sub 7:30 – which I felt pretty good about.  I don’t race that much anymore so it’s hard to gauge my fitness. Next weekend, Dec. 21st Brian and I are putting on the 2nd annual Groton Marathon.  This is a self-supported 26.2 mile run around my home town of Groton Mass.  No big thing just a bunch of us out having a long run and having fun.  You folks are more than welcome to come and run all or part of it with us.  Shoot me note if you’re interested. I was going to go down to Atlanta for the Jeff Galloway ½ this weekend but my life is just too busy to pull it off and I’ve been spending too many weekends on the road this fall.  I’m a bit fried.  I have, believe it or not a cruise coming up in January.  We’ll see how I can navigate that and my training.  I’m going to have to miss my favorite New Year’s Day race – the hangover classic up in Salisbury with its ocean plunge in the Atlantic.  The ‘How to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 12 weeks’ is in editing.  Thanks for all the inquiries. I’m shooting to get a promotional copy out by the end of the calendar year and you all can help me promote it and then a launch in February.  It’s been fun writing all this down, but challenging as well, because I really don’t have room for more projects in my life! But, I have to follow my own advice and get something done. The Groton Marathon will be my 48th marathon.  Currently I’d love to find another race in January or February to be my 49th marathon so I can run Boston this year as my 50th.  It’s got a nice symmetry to it, right?  As for Boston I got a charity number again and I’ll be running for the Hoyts even though Dick has retired from Boston.  I’m not sure if someone else is going to be pushing Ricky this year or not.  Those are my plans, as nebulous as they are, for now.  Remember celebrate every day and live in the now because this could very well be as good as it gets.  And I’ll see you out there. You can reach me, if you need to, at my website, which is due for an overhall, www.runrunlive.com and on all the social media platforms as cyktrussell.  TaglineChris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of “The Mid-Packer’s Lament”, and “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy”, short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at www.runnerati.com. Chris’ Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at www.runrunlive.com. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners and the Goon Squad Runners.Email me at cyktrussell at mail dot comTwitter @cyktrussellAll other social media “cyktrussell”

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Interludes 1.3(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/Interludes1.3.mp3] Link “Interlude of Love” - BacksliderIntroduction:Hello my friends.  Hope you are doing well.  I’m afraid I got squeezed into the wormhole of too many time commitments this week and couldn’t get the first episode of the new version of the RunRunLive podcast put together. I won’t bore you with excuses.  On the bright side I’m getting closer.  I’ve got the first interview rteady to go and all the rough audio for the intros, outros and bumpers, so hang in there and we’ll get it out to you. Hope you all enjoyed the NYC race report.  It was a bear to write, edit and produce.  I probably spent 24 hours of work on it and could have spent another 24, but that’s what deadlines are for.  One of the best lessons you’ll ever learn as a creative is how to push out the ‘good enough’ because you will cease to exist before you ever find ‘the perfect’.In lieu of a new episode this week I’m going to give you a teaser from the new book I’ve written.  It’s tentatively called “MarathonBQ, how to qualify for Bosotn in 12 weeks”  Let me know if it sounds interesting or if you have any questions, comments and suggestions.Hope you are all maintaining your sanity as we forge ahead into these long, cold, dark winter days with the gruesome overload of holidays thrown on top!Buddy and I have been getting out on the trails.  We’re not training for anything specifically but I’ve started the process of trying to find some good B-Hags.  I don’t train well unless I’ve got some sort of compelling goal, but I don’t want to just do more of the same. Anyway – I have to bow out with a mea culpa this week but I wanted you to know that I’m still out here and actively engaged 26 hours a day on getting shtuff done.Cheers,Chris, Zen Runner – “Hold on”

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Interludes 1.2 - NYC Marathon(Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/NYC.mp3]Link NYC.mp3 Act one – The BridgeJoe Strummer and the Mescaleros – All in a Day Freezing and about half way across the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the wind was blowing sideways at 20-30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph.  Physical shivers racked me in the Orange Staging Area on the island.  My giant trash bag cut the wind but did little to warm me.  I was thankful to have the giant trash bag but would have rather had a full size wool blanket or poncho like Clint Eastwood wore in the spaghetti westerns.  Or a down jacket.  The temperature was not that bad.  It was in the high 30’s Fahrenheit, but the cutting wind dropped the perceived temperature to single digits.  I was feeling it. We were ½ mile or so in, still on the upward slope of the bridge with a steady stream of runners.  I didn’t want to get in the way of anyone trying to race, but I recognized this as THAT iconic photo that everyone takes from this race and had to find a way to get it.  I was not racing this race.  I had my iPhone with me to facilitate these sorts of moments. I felt compelled to fill the social media void with my fuzzy pictures of randomness to show my sponsors, the good people from ASICS America that, yeah, I do occasionally attempt some content of the typical race-blogger type.  I saw my chance and jumped up onto the 2-3 foot wide barrier that separates inbound and outbound traffic on the top deck of the bridge.  Safely out of the flow I pulled off one glove with my teeth and took a few shots of the horizon, the cityscape beyond the river and the bridge. …There’s a guy a few feet away on the median with me who has one of those giant cameras.  I don’t give him much thought.  There are camera-people all over the place on this course.  One guy is lying on his belly shooting the runners’ feet as they swarm across the bridge.  Who am I to get in the way of their art?  Then I notice this guy is moving closer to me and it’s a bit creepy because when I glance his way he’s focusing on me, so I just try to ignore him and get my shots.  Turns out he’s the photographer for Rueters and he’s giving me the iconic ‘Seinfeld moment’ of the weekend. In the picture he takes I’m holding up my cell phone, yellow glove dangling from my teeth.  Desperately clutching last year’s orange parka, with the wind trying to blow it out of my hands.  I’ve got my gray ASICS beanie, a long sleeve ASICS plain red shirt (not anywhere thick enough for this wind assault on the bridge), ASICS Shorts, and my E33 race shoes with the green calf sleeves. The caption will read; “A runner takes a selfie on the Verrezano Bridge at the start of the NYC Marathon”.  It wasn’t a selfie, but who am I to argue with the media moguls of New York.  Ironically those were the last pictures I took during the race because I realized my phone was going dead and I might need the GPS to get back to the hotel later at the finish.  I powered it down.  I’m also wearing a scarf that I bought on the street corner in mid-town.  I would wear that scarf for the whole race.  Rakishly tied like the adornment of a WWI fighter pilot in an open canopy.  I fantasize about founding a whole line of racing scarves.  I will call this version “The Sopwith Camel”.  I can buy them on the corner for $5 and sell them to triathletes for $50 – (I’ll just tell them it takes 6 seconds off their run times – triathletes will buy anything). The last piece of clothing is an impromptu gator I’ve constructed by tearing the pompom off and gutting the Dunkin Donuts hat they gave us in the athletes’ village.  Ingenuity bred by desperation.  I would have gladly gutted a Tauntaun from the ice planet Hoth with a light saber and crawled into its bowels for the body heat if that was an option.  I’m also holding a plastic shopping bag.  In that bag is 3 Hammer gels and an empty Gatorade bottle.  I held on to the Gatorade bottle thinking that I might need to refill it on the bridge given that I’d just finished drinking the contents.  If I have to relieve myself I want to be tidy about it.  Every time anyone has ever talked about the NYC marathon to me, somehow the conversation always ends up at “If you’re on the lower deck of the bridge you get peed on by the guys on the upper deck.”  In fact there are signs along the start that threaten disqualification for anyone caught doing so.  But on this day I don’t see a single guy attempting the feat.  It would take a brave and talented man to relieve himself in this cross wind and temperature. The orange parka is from last year’s race.  I have upgraded from my plastic trash bag.  The trash bag was good, but this is warmer, and I need to get my core temp back up to normal. Ironically when I got my trash bag out I realized that it was slightly used.  At one point I think it had actual garbage in it.  I just grabbed it from my car. When I laid out the trash bag the night before I realized it wasn’t ‘fresh out of the box’ but, it is what it is, and I wiped it down with hotel face towels.  I used the bib safety pins to carefully scribe perforations for the head hole and the arm holes, like in old computer paper or junk mail, so I could easily push the patches out in the morning without having to chew out a gash with my teeth.  When you exit the holding area from the staging area into the starting line on the bridge they have big boxes to donate your throw away clothes to the homeless.  I knew my core temperature was low from the bone rattling shaking and shivering and I looked for an opportunity to better my sartorial situation.  I thought a nice hooded sweatshirt, or knit pullover would be the perfect upgrade to run the first couple miles in until my core temp came back up.  At the homeless boxes I tore off my plastic bag and grabbed that thick, quilted, finisher’s poncho from the 2013 race.  They don’t have arm holes but they are giant and you can wrap them around you like your grandmother’s cardigan. I made a joke that I hoped the guy who tossed it didn’t have Ebola or bed bugs.  I had a politically incorrect but amusing mental picture that they should bus the homeless out to the start and have them set up on the bridge so people could pick the homeless person they wanted to give their old sweatshirt to.  It would be a nice way to mainstream the disadvantaged of the city.  They could hand out cups of fortified wine, like Thunderbird or Mogan David to warm the aspirants at the start. In the starting coral I had a couple guys from Indiana take my photo.  America the beautiful played and I reluctantly took off my hat.  They played New York, New York, which was awesome, and then, without further fanfare, we bent our thousands of feet into the wind of the narrows.  Plastic bags and clothing of all sort blew sideways through the crowd and wrapped around people like suicidal jelly fish.  We were off.Frank Sinatra – New York, New YorkAct two – The elites and the bloggerati I walked into the lobby groggy from my flight and a bit lost in time and space.  I had been battling the cold that tore through North America the previous week and trying to get enough sleep to beat it back.  I was coming off a short week and had run the Marine Corps Marathon 5 days earlier.  ASICS had asked me to fly Thursday night to be there in time for the Friday morning warm up run.  I was taking a rare day off on Friday to accommodate.  They flew me down on the short hop shuttle into Kennedy from Boston and had a limo waiting to take me to the hotel.  I definitely felt like a poser, but did my best to roll with it. When confronted by these situations where you feel the imposter syndrome creeping into the back of your lizard brain I’ve found it best to have a sense of humor.  Smile and enjoy yourself.  Try not to talk too much and try to inquire and understand the new people you meet. ASICS was putting me up at The New York Palace Hotel, a five-star joint on Madison Ave in midtown across the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  It was a beautiful hotel with spacious rooms – definitely not the Spartan accommodation of a journeyman marathoner. The travel part didn’t bother me.  I spend most of my time in hotels and airplanes.  I’m a hearty and hale adventurer.  But, I’d be lying if I didn’t feel a bit different, a bit fish out of water to be part of an industry sponsored junket of sorts.  Not icky per se, but more like the guy without a cool costume at a costume party. …In the Lobby Noelle, our ASICS Liaison, was chatting with a couple guys. She noticed me lurking about in my head to toe ASCIS gear and introduced herself.  I could have sworn one of the guys was Ryan Hall but I’m such a meathead with the social graces I didn’t want to make a faux pas. Eventually Noelle introduced me them and the young blond guy leans in, shakes my hand and says, ‘Hi, I’m Ryan.’  The other guy introduced himself as Andy. I would soon learn this was Andy Potts the Ironman Champ.  It cracked me up that Ryan had the humility to assume I didn’t know who he was. Moving to the bar with Noelle we ordered drinks and waited for the other out-of-towners. …“Mini-Marathoners” – that’s what they called them.  They were 5 inch tall statuettes of us.  They had taken photos of us and rendered them, with the latest computer aided design, into mini 3D renditions of us in full stride.  Noelle passed them out while we – the ASCICS Blogger team - were having drinks.  They were a big hit. I met two of the other bloggers, Megan ‘Irun4Wine’ from Florida and Brian ‘PavementRunner’ from the Bay Area.  Brian’s mini marathoner had a hilarious beer belly, which Brian does not possess in real life.  Megan’s mini marathoner had brilliant red hair, which she does not possess in real life.  Megan Wood (Copello) - @Irun4Wine www.irunforwine.netMegan Lee - @RunLikeAGrl - www.runlikeagrl.comBrian Kelly - @PavementRunner – www.pavementrunner.comGregg Bard – NYCGregg – www.NYCSweat.comMy mini marathoner was excellent.  They gave me back a full head of hair, made me skinny, took at least 10 years off me and made me look vaguely like Will Wheaton.  I’ll take it.  Of course the jokes flowed in.  Does it have kung fu grip?  Is it a bobble head? Yeah, you know you’ve made it when they are making action figures of you……New York City is a funny, kinetic and desperate place.  I walked the streets of midtown doing some people watching.  Beat down, bowlegged men in suits trucking down the sidewalk.  The street vendors.  The tourists, always looking up in awe.  The many languages and all the smokers!  It was like being in Paris in 1970 with all the cigarette smoke being exhaled into my personal space.  I circled the hotel, over to Park Ave and 1st and 48th and 54th, getting the lay of the land, taking mental notes of restaurants and stores and milestones.  The Helmsley, Grand Central, the ebb and flow and surge of pedestrians.  I passed a fruit vendor and decided to take the plunge.  I was quite proud of myself having procured some bananas and plums and pears.  It was later that I discovered the vendor had put the fruit stickers over the moldy spots.  Ahh…New York, a kinetic and desperate place. …Friday morning dawned gray but I was up before the sun.  I went to the Starbucks next door and treated myself to a coffee and oatmeal, not knowing what the day might have in store nutritionally.  We had a rendezvous with the cars to shuttle us over to the park for our ‘warm up run’ event.  Noelle was the leader like a tour guide with her charges in tow we all boarded limos for the ride over and gathered in a restaurant for coffee and sundries.  Among the assembled crowd was a throng of actual journalists from places like Rodale and USAToday.  Nice, literate and sporty journalists, guests of ASICS all assembling for coffee and bagels and selfies with the elites. Coach Kastor was there holding court and he was in charge of the morning exercise.  Andy Potts was there as was Ryan and some other elite athletes from the ASICS stable.  My new friend Grace ‘LeanGirlsClub’ was there and I gave her a big hug.  As was the other Megan, ‘RunLikeAGirl’ and Greg, ‘NYCSweat’.  The blogger team was complete.   And then we went for a run.Up until this point it was just super surreal for me.  All this attention for a journeyman marathoner of little account.  I won’t lie.  It felt a little icky.  I love running.  I love talking about, writing about and rolling around in the smell of running.  But, it’s my hobby, not my job.  All these industry folks and media people subconsciously gave me the heebee-jeebees and I consciously determined to smile and be humble and ask people about themselves.  Coach Kastor led us around the park and out to the finish line.  This is where it all got normal for me again.  As soon as I felt the kinetic relief of feet hitting pavement my whole world resolved back to that happy place.  The veil dropped and I was out for a run with some new friends.  We were all taking pictures and chatting as we jogged around the park.  I told Coach Kastor how perfect his form was.  I chatted with Ryan and Andy and Coach about races and shoes and injuries and all those things that we default to like old men in a café over coffee.  This is the human and democratic sinew of our sport.  It is the most human of endeavors.  To run . We paused for team pictures.  I look lean and happy in my short shorts.  Noelle told me that the only other person she knew who wore short shorts was Ryan.  That’s good enough for me! Back in the restaurant for coffee and schmoozing.  I had a chance to chat with Andy Potts about his Kona race.  I asked what I thought was an interesting and erudite question about how he resolves the challenge of dropping into a flow state during the grueling endurance intensity of an ironman with having to stay aware of the immediate tactics of the race? Up until this point it had been all small talk and banter but when we started talking about racing his inner competitor came out.  He got serious and intense.  I saw the character of the Ironman champion emerge from the shadows.  He told me about how when someone makes a move, “You don’t let them go, they take it, and it’s up to you to decide whether you’re going to let them take it.” I chatted with Ryan Hall too.  It was just small talk.  With the intent of small talk I asked him what he had coming up next.  He got a bit dark, dropping the California persona.  I realized that I unintentionally had asked a question that he got asked often with different intent by reporters.  A question they asked that really was “When are you going to live up to the expectations that the world has burdened you with.” Here’s a man that can crank out 26.2 sub-5 minute miles.  He’s got nothing to prove to me.  I just wanted to talk about running and racing and geek out about the sport we love. There were some speeches as the elites all gave us their tips on running our marathons.  At some point Deena Kastor came in and she gave us a talk as well.  She filled a plate at the buffet and sat at a table to pick at it.  I saw that the other bloggers were sort of hovering behind her chair so I took the initiative and asked Noelle to ask her to chat with us a bit. Deena was a sweetheart and immediately acquiesced.  She told a story about the Philadelphia ½ marathon that I had read somewhere before.  She told Megan that she loved the “Irun4Wine” blog name because she ran for wine too! …The Clash – City of the DeadAct three – the first halfThere is a strange dynamic between New York City and Boston.  It’s a bit of a love-hate relationship.  Like sisters that were born too close together and forced to share the same room.  The typical exchange I had while in the city follows: New Yorker: “So…Where are you from?” Me: “Boston”Them: “I’m sorry”Me: “That’s quite alright.” Them: “You know what I like about Boston?” Me: “No, What?” Them: “The ride to the airport when I know I’m getting the hell out of there!” You think I’m joking.  I had this exact conversation with more than one person.  They weren’t being mean. In the zeitgeist of the New Yorker anyone living anywhere else is only doing so until they can figure out how to move to the Big Apple.  I won’t bother telling them it isn’t so.  They wouldn’t hear me anyhow. Another conversation I had was this one:“How many times have you run the New York City Marathon?” “This is my first.” Why haven’t you run it before?” “Because it’s a giant pain in the ass.  It’s expensive, hard to get into and hard to get to.”“Well, you must be excited about running the best marathon in the world!?” “Yes, I’ve run it 16 times, but I hear this one is pretty good too…” …After we got off the windy chaos of the bridge and into the protecting streets of Brooklyn it warmed right up.  We were moving.  Everyone was happy, happy, happy with the early race excitement of finally being out there after much anticipation and wait. I tossed my sundry items of extra clothing away as we exited the bridge, taking care to place them downwind and out of the way.  The first few miles as athletes discarded clothing you had to watch your step.  The wind was swirling items around.  Bags and shirts and blankets were doing mad dances in the street.  The sun was peeking through and the building blocked the wind intermittently, changing it from a sideways bluster to an occasional vortex as you crossed side street gaps.  They had removed much of the tenting and the mile markers due to the wind.  I heard they also had to change the wheelchair start at the last minute as well to get them off the bridge. As is always the case in the first few miles of a marathon I was running easy and in my element.  The pack was thick, but not as thick as you’d expect with a record 56,000 plus participants.  You could find a line and run free without side-stepping or pulling into the gutters.  The crowds were consistent and vigorous, lining the course.  I was my usual chatty self and talked to a couple people with Boston Marathon shirts on.  I had forgotten to bring my Garmin so I had no idea on pace or hear rate.  I just ran.  You should try that sometime.  It’s quite liberating.  At my age the heart rate data just scares me anyhow.  Without the mile marks I had to ask runners where we were and back into the pace.  My plan was a bit muddy and half-hearted.  I figured I could run 5 minutes and walk one minute and that would be a nice easy 4-hour-ish marathon.  Having run Marine Corps seven days previously I knew I wasn’t in a position to jump on this race with any enthusiasm.  With the combination of no mile marks and feeling fine I forgot my plan to take walk breaks and just ran.  I stuffed three gels down the back of my glove and carried the sleeping phone in the other hand.  I had a baggie of Endurolytes in the shorts pocket.  I had my room key in an interesting key-card size back pocket I had discovered in these ASCIS shorts, (that I was wearing for the first time).  I had to add the extra security of a bib-pin to hold this mystery pocket closed because it had no zipper.  Thank heavens I had ignored my impish impulse to wear the short shorts.  The extra 4 inches of tech fabric might have kept me out of a hospital trip for hypothermia. I kept the scarf. …Whereas I had no need to pee off the bridge I did start assessing the porta-john distribution patterns with some interest.  They seemed to show up every few K.  The first few had long lines.  I saw an opportunity around 10K and took care of my Gatorade recycling problem without a wait.  This first stretch through Brooklyn was wonderful.  Everyone on the course was happy to be running.  The folks in the crowd were abundant and enthusiastic.  There were several road-side bands, mostly playing classic-rock genre music, which I thought was great, but it reminded me of how old I’m getting that 80% of the people in the race had no idea what I meant by statements like “This was from their Fillmore East Live album!”  I would rather have a less-than-fully talented live rock band than someone blaring the Rocky theme song out a window. I pulled up beside a young woman with a giant smile on her face.  Me, smiling and pulling up alongside; “Hi, how you doing?”Her, gushing; “This is Great!, Isn’t this Great!?”“Yeah, it’s something.  Where are you from?” “Oh, I live here.  Isn’t this Great?” “Sure, why is this so great?” “The People! They’re just great!” “What do you mean? They’re acting nice for a change?”Her, scowling, and turning to look at me. “Where are you from?” “Boston!” “Oh, I’m sorry.”“Have you run this before?”“No it’s my first time.” “Do you have some sort of time goal?” “No, I’m just enjoying myself.” “Well, I would recommend saving some of this enthusiasm for the last 10k, you may need it.” I had three goals for this race My A goal was don’t die, my B goal was don’t die and my C goal was don’t die.  I’m proud to say I met all my goals.  Additional bonuses were that I squeaked under 4 hours and had a blast.  Act four – the Village“My doctor told me I’d never run again.” Was one of the interesting snippets from conversations I had while waiting in the cold.  The New York City Marathon, like many big city races has a substantially large block of waiting.  For those who are not sponsored athletes it start at 3 or 4 in the morning getting to and waiting on the ferry to Staten Island.  For me it meant a leisurely walk, once more led by our ASICS tour director Noelle down to the Sheraton to board the chartered busses that would drive us to the start. Early marathon start time tip:  Go to Starbucks the night before and order a nice high-quality coffee.  This way when you wake up in your hotel room you have coffee ready for your breakfast no muss, no fuss. OK, it’s cold, but it’s better than messing with the hotel coffee maker for some weak-ass crap that won’t get your pipes moving. We had to get up early, but the ‘Fall back’ time change mitigated that and it wasn’t a hassle at all.  It was still a long, stop and go ride out to Staten Island.  As we sat on the bridge in traffic the bus rocked from side to side in the wind.  I had been being a proper dick for the last couple days making fun of the other runners who were super-concerned about the cold weather forecast.  “40 degrees? Are you kidding? Up where I’m from that’s shorts weather!”Turns out the joke was on me.  When we offloaded and made our way to the staging areas the wind gusts tore through me.  My thin tech-shirt, shorts and snarky Boston attitude were no match for the wind-chill.  By the time we had taken some more group photos before breaking up for our respective staging areas my teeth were chattering.  It wasn’t that cold, but it was overcast and the wind was ripping through us.  I got into my slightly used giant trash bag, to find my staging area, but by that point it was too late and I chilled to my core, and a couple millimeters of black plastic wasn’t going to help. The starting area of the New York City Marathon is the most giant, complex operation I’ve ever seen at a race.  First the buses disgorge you into a triage area where a gaggle of friendly NYC police officers filters you through metal detectors and pat downs.  Then you disperse off into the color coded ‘villages’.Once in the village you watch the giant screen for your start wave to be called.  When your wave is called you make your way to one of several coded exits.  When the wave in front of you moves to the start line, you progress through your exit to the holding pen.  Then you get released to the starting area on the bridge for your start wave.  All of this is coded onto your bib.  For example I was Orange, B3.  This meant I went to the Orange village and moved to exit B when my wave, wave 3, was called.  In reality what it meant was me wandering around showing my bib and asking people where I should be.  I didn’t check a bag, so I didn’t have to deal with the bag check at the start or the bag retrieval at the end.  Which meant a couple lines I didn’t have to stand in, but also the risk of hypothermia at the start and at the finish if I got the clothing thing wrong.  I didn’t die, but I sure would have loved to have had a throw-away sweat shirt!As I made my way through this hyper-organized, on a grand scale machine I thought about What 56,000 people all in one place looks and sounds and feels like.  This is the size of one of Caesar’s armies, with which was conquered Gaul and Britania.  Imagine all these people carrying swords and running at another similar, bristling force?  The scale of it is moving and thought provoking.  In the Orange village I found my free Dunkin Donuts hat and got some coffee.  I heard my name called and got to spend some time with a couple of RunRunLive friends, Krista Carl, shivering on a piece of grass with them, taking selfies and waiting for our waves to be called. One thing I have to give the race organization credit for is access to porta-johns.  I think these folks had procured every porta-john in the free world.  They were in the village and more importantly in the various queuing areas at the exits and start.  There’s no way you could have that many people waiting around for that long without access.  No one was denied their personal respite.  Dust Rhinos – New York GirlsAct five – the ExpoAfter the warm up run with the rest of the team and the elites I was riding the elevator back up to the room.  I was chatting with Jason Saltmarsh from Saltmarshrunning.com and another young woman got in the elevator.  We small talked up a couple floors Jason got off leaving just the young woman and me.  I asked her “So what do you do for ASICS?” She looked a bit befuddled and responded, “I’m Sarah Hall…”  It was a bit awkward for both of us but I smiled my way through it, saying, “Oh, I just ran with your husband…” After geeking out with the elites I was all fired up and feeling very grateful for having been given the opportunity and invitation.  When I got back to the room I sat down recorded a YouTube video to publicly thank ASICS and muse on the unifying force that running and our community is. Had to get that off my chest. Apparently the fact that I was taking the day off didn’t register with anyone at work because the emails and phones calls were dogging me all day too.  Isn’t that one of the truisms of life?  Nothing going on all week and then when you take a day off all hell breaks loose? I beat back some emails and started putting together some material for a podcast. I had nothing else to do and it was still early in the day on Friday so I figured I’d go down to the expo and pick up my number, and beat the rush.  I was still smarting from the previous week when I had wasted 3 hours standing in line on Saturday trying to pick up my Marine Corps bib. Cell phone to ear I set off to find the Javits Center and the Expo.  Outside the hotel the well-dressed bellmen ushered me into a waiting cab for the quick ride.  The cabby, as is usual, was from some non-English speaking part of the African subcontinent but was able to make it clear to me that the Javits Center wasn’t a good enough fare for him and tossed me out of the cab at the end of the block.  Ahhh New York, funny, kinetic and desperate place.  And they wonder why Uber is so popular…Being a marathoner, with time heavy on his hands, and nothing better to do I decided to hoof it the 2 miles or so over to the Expo.  Along the way I could get some work done, take some pictures and really just relax and enjoy the day.  As I drew nearer I picked up a few other strays from various parts of the world all questing in the same direction.  The triage at the expo wasn’t bad and I got through to pick up my bib and shirt fairly quickly, but I may have accidentally cut the line.  The ASICS store in the Expo with the race specific gear was GIANT.  I would have bought a hat but I already had so much gear form ASICS and I didn’t feel like fighting the line that snaked all around the store.  Wandering around with glazed over look I felt a tap on my shoulder.  “Are you Chris from RunRunLive?”  It was Brandon Wood, not the Brandon Wood the opera singer ironman, but another Brandon Wood @IrunAlaska who was in from said northern territory for the race.  We had a nice chat.  Later in the day I had another one of those Seinfeld moments when I cracked open the race magazine that they were handing out and saw Brandon’s mug staring out at me as one of the featured runners.  I sent him a tweet and it turns out nobody told him about it and he was thrilled to get his 15 minutes.  I wandered around and noted Ryan and Sarah signing autographs, but didn’t stand in that line either.  I’m not much for lines.  The Kenyans were there on display as well including Wilson Kipsang the eventual winner and Geoffrey Mutai, last year’s winner.  I went by the Garmin booth and tried to make them talk me into buying a new watch but they couldn’t close.I got bored and wandered off to find the buses back to midtown.  Apparently these buses were running from Grand Central and back to the Javits but it was a bit of a madhouse.  It was easier to take the bus back than to locate the right bus in traffic on the streets outside Grand Central. Back at the hotel I beat back the tide of emails and I met Megan @Irun4Wine and her newly minted hubby for a few drinks, grabbed some Chipolte for Dinner and went back to the room to write and work on the podcast. Reel Big Fish - BeerAct Six – the raceEven though there were 56,000 runners in this race I never felt crowded or restricted.  As we rolled through Harlem with its gospel choirs and on into Queens the roads were wide and free flowing.  There were a couple times where the roads pinched in for some reason but I never felt like I was having to side step or trip.  The pack was dense, but you could get through it. As we got into the middle miles I started to work in some one minute walk breaks every ten minutes or so whenever convenient water stops appeared.  With this cadence I would pass and repass the same people several times.  There were a bunch of people with orange shirts that said “Imagine a world without Cancer” and I had that thought running through my head, thinking about my Dad and Coach and all the other people I know that end up on the losing end of this disease. Another stand out attribute of this race versus any other is the number of international participants.  I must have missed the memo but apparently you were supposed to run in the standard uniform of your country.  In my wave there were Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, France, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Australia, South Africa, and tens of other uniforms with flags that I couldn’t decipher. It was almost like the Olympics in a way because all the French wore the same uniform and all the Swiss wore the same red uniform and all the Aussies wore the same green uniform.  It made it easy for me to know whether an ‘Allee Allee’ or Aussie Aussie Aussie! Was appropriate.  It also made it hard for me because no one was responding to the constant stream of humorous comments that stream from me during a marathon.  I’s say something funny or ask a question only to be rejoined with a blank stare and a shrug.  Compounding this was the high percentage of ‘double-budders’ who had an ear-bud on both ears and were unaware and unresponsive to the other 56,000 runners. Seems a bit of a waste to me.  To be out on this course in this city with all these people and these big crowds and then seal yourself off into your own little world.  Not being able to communicate with people I amused myself with riling up the crowds and high fiving the little kids along the course.  I would run along the curb yelling “Who’s gonna give me some sugar?!”  After the first hour, at one of my walk breaks I swallowed an Endurolyte and ate the Espresso Love Gu I was carrying.  I had already carried that gel through 2-3 entire marathons without eating it and I figured its time had come.  My body felt fine.  I wasn’t paying attention to splits or pace.  It was just another Sunday long run with a few tens of thousands of friends. Through these middle miles the course reminded me somewhat of the Chicago marathon as we passed through neighborhoods, each with its own character.  Except, unlike Chicago, on the NYC course there are some hills.  Nothing steep or horrible but some long gradual pulls nonetheless.  I wouldn’t call it a ‘hard course’, but it’s not pancake flat either. The other interesting topographical elements were the bridges.  There are five bridges, including the one you start on.  When I’m not racing I don’t bother looking at the course map.  Part of it is I’m just not compulsive that way and part if it is the extra element of adventure this provides me as the course rolls itself out in front of me real-time.  The Queensboro Bridge was one of these adventurous surprises.  This comes right after the 15 mile mark and, including the approach and decent is over a ½ mile long.  This means you’ve got this 500-600 meter hill that just seems to keep going up and up.  The strangest thing was this was the first quiet place on the course.  We were on the lower deck, the inside of the bridge and the wind was blocked by the superstructure for the most part.  After all the screaming and noise and wind we were suddenly confronted with silence and the sounds of our own striving.  It was a bit eerie.  Not the silence per se, but the absence of noise in the heart of this race in the heart of this city.  This is where people were starting to show signs of tiring.  I had to side step some walkers and pay attention to the holes, lumps and buckles in the road that were common more or less across the course.  A not small group of runners congregated at the ‘overlook’ gaps in the bridge to take pictures.  I trudged on up the hill in the eerie quiet to the soft sounds of treads and breathing and the rustling of clothing broken occasionally by the wheel noise of traffic on the upper deck above our heads.  Coming down the long down-slope of the Queensboro Bridge I find myself runner just behind an Amazon.  This young woman is tall, muscular and blonde like something out of a cheerleading movie.  My old heart and mind swoons.  I lose my train of thought and stumble into a collision with one of my international friends. I smile at him apologetically, shrug my shoulders in the direction of the Amazon and sheepishly say “Sorry, I was distracted.”  His broad grin tells me that some things are the same in any language. A couple characters I keep passing due to my walk break rhythm is a pair of Irish guys in their Green national uniforms.  One of them has, I’m guessing his name, Cleary, on the back.  Knowing that they speak a related version of my native tongue I make a comment on one of my passes, “Tough day, huh fellahs?” Mr. Cleary looks at me and rejoins without missing a beat in his best and lovely brogue, “Fucking Brilliant!”  You know what they say?  ‘If it wasn’t for whiskey and beer the Irish would rule the world.’I believe that to be true, and a fine lot of mad, philosopher, poet kings they would make. As we crossed Manhattan for the first time I was starting to get a little tired.  I ate another gel at two hours and another Endurolyte.  I wasn’t crashing or bonking or hitting the wall or any of that other poetic nonsense, I was just getting tire.  It had been a long week.  Someone said we’d be coming back this way and I quipped, “If we’ve got to come back, why don’t we just stay here?”As we cruised down the broad reaches of First Avenue I was trying to apply my drafting skills to stay out of the wind.  I’m very good at drafting.  You need to find someone about your height who is running a nice even pace and you snuggle up into their wind shadow.  Drafting works even better in a big race because you can sometimes find two or three runners in a group creating a nice big pocket.  In big races you can draft a ‘double-budder’ for miles and they won’t even know you’re there. You just have to not bump them or step on them.  But, running down First Avenue I couldn’t figure the wind out.  As you went by the cross streets it would start as a head wind then shift around and end up as a tail wind.  It was a constant swirl that made it hard to find a good pocket to run in.  The sun was out now.  It was after noon and warm.  I was wishing I had worn sunglasses. Act seven – SaturdaySaturday morning before the race Brian the PavementRunner has organized a tweet up on the steps of the Library in Midtown.  The idea was we’d all promote it, get a big group of people, take some pictures and head for some coffee, then drop by the ASICS Times Square Store.It was a good plan but we woke up to a dreary cold drizzle.  We went anyhow and had some fun with the people that did show up.  We took some pictures, had some coffee and made our way over to the Big ASICS store.  The ASICS store near Times Square is a showplace store.  It has an old New York Subway car in it that is really cool.  This is where we took a couple more pictures that ended up making the rounds.  @RunMikeRun from Twitter took one of all of us in the subway car with his GoPro on a pole rig and that shot ended up being picked up by Runner’s World.   Greg, Megan, Megan, Brian, Noelle and I all climbed up into the window display and took some great goofy shots with the manikins that made the rounds too.  We ended up having a nice lunch over near Rockefeller Center and then drifting off in different directions.  Some of these folks were understandably worried about having to run a marathon the next day.  I wasn’t.  My goals were simple. Don’t die. Back at the hotel I used the afternoon to finish up the podcast and get some other stuff done.  Having no plans for the evening I wandered about Midtown, got some sundries and ended up getting a plate of pasta and a beer at TGI Fridays.  I picked up my Starbucks for the next morning and settled in. I wasn’t sure I knew how to set my iPhone alarm for the time change so I called the hotel operator and asked for a 4:45 wake up call, which was really a 5:45 wakeup call…I guessed. I laid all my race kit out in ‘Empty’ runner format on the floor.  Tried to wipe the garbage off of my garbage bag and commenced to watch a little TV. There was some really stupid zombie movie on that I started watching but reconsidered whether that was such a good idea the night before a race.  I fell asleep.  I slept fine, like a man with no secrets and many friends, and my eyes popped open at 4:30 (really 5:30) fifteen minutes before my wakeup call, like they usually do.  Act eight – the finishAll the walking around the city, fighting the cold and wind all morning, and having run a marathon 7 days earlier started to wear on me as we crossed over into the Bronx by Mile 20.  I wasn’t bonking.  I was really tired.  I skipped the three hour gel and Endurolyte and started taking a minute walk every 5 minutes.  Looking at my watch and backing into the pace I was on a 3:40 to 3:50 finish schedule if I kept the fire stoked.  I was tired though and I only had the one goal, which could be accomplished with any finishing time.  Coming down the bridge into the Bronx there was a larger woman running a bit loosely in front of me.  There was also one of those giant orange traffic cones in the middle of the road.  I don’t know how she managed to do it, but she caught her toe on the cone and started to flail.  It was one of those slow motion moments for me.  She was in that state where she was off balance and wind-milling her arms for purchase on that razors edge between falling and not falling.  She was right in front of me.  I reached out and grabbed her as best I could until she regained her heading and rejoined the flow. Coming back into Manhattan was a bit rough as I was super tired and not having much fun anymore.  I just wanted to get it done.  The race finished in Central Park but to get there you have to climb a long, long hill that just seems to go on forever.  I was passing the walking wounded and the walking dead but I was still on plan to attain my primary goal of cheating the grim reaper once more. Once you get into the park it’s another mile-plus of rolling hills to the finish.  When you make that turn into the park it’s still a long way to the finish if you’re hurting but at that point you know you’ve got it.  Along that long climb up Fifth Avenue and through the Park the crowds become loud and roaring.  It’s a constant assault of praise and exhortation as the runners struggle through to the finish.  I crossed the line and had enough brain power left to stop my watch.  It said 4:00:03.  I turned on my IPhone to get a finish line photo and felt a tap on my shoulder.  It was Brian the @PavementRunner who had finished a couple steps behind me.  He had carried a GoPro and taken video of the race for ASICS.  Later I would learn that my actual time was 3:59:52.  That’s nice.  And, I didn’t die. I was glad to see PavementRunner.  First because he’s a nice guy and a familiar face, and second because I was clueless as to what we were supposed to do next and where we were supposed to go after the finish.  I didn’t check a bag so getting one of those quilted race parkas was high on my priority list as the sun was starting to get low in the New York skyline.  Brian and I found the special, VIP exit that we were supposed to use and the volunteers were fantastic.  They were like hotel concierges telling us in great detail where we needed to go and how to get there. We found the parkas and the food and even the warming tent where we sat for a while to get some energy back for the walk to the hotel.  In another helping of irony, the woman sitting next to us in the warming tent was from the next town over from where I live. Brian and I set out to find the hotel and joined the long stream of thousands of trudging warriors in blue parkas like Napoleon’s Grand Army retreating from Russia. Brian seemed to think he knew where we were going so I followed his lead until I saw water in front of us and intoned that even with my limited geographical knowledge of the city I didn’t think there was a river between Central Park and Midtown.  We turned around and did some more walking.  My legs felt great.  I felt great.  This was an easy one that hadn’t left a mark on me other than the tiredness of doing it. We stopped to take some tourist pictures in front of Radio City and the Tonight Show banner.  The people passing us in the streets of the City were very nice to us.  They were friendly and congratulatory.  It was a nice, warm and welcoming vibe that I’ve got to give the natives credit for.  They like their race. Brian asked me what I wanted to eat and I didn’t have to think about it.  God help me, and apologies to the planet, I wanted a big, juicy cheeseburger with bacon, fries and a beer.  Brian concurred.  After we washed up at the hotel that’s just what we did.  After Brian walked us three blocks in the wrong direction which was beginning to become one of our running gags of the weekend we settled into Bill’s Burgers and consummated our burgers and fries.  The waitress, seeing our medals, refused to let us pay for our beers.  I was starting to like these people. On the walk back to the hotel I led Brian into St. Patrick’s Cathedral where a late mass was being held.  I crossed myself with holy water and genuflected to the altar and it somehow felt as if we had God’s blessing on this day.  I was grateful. Act nine – the selfie that wasn’t a selfieMonday morning as I flew back to Boston for a full day of work the tweets and emails started to come in.  “Were you standing in the middle of the Verrazano Bridge wearing an orange parka taking pictures?”  “Yeah, I was.” “You’re on the cover of the Wall Street Journal!”“No Kidding? Can you scan that and send it to me?” And there I was in full freezing to death glory perched on the median taking pictures.  A final Seinfeld moment and another great Irony that this Boston boy was gracing the cover of their Newspaper.  The caption said “A runner takes a selfie on the Verrazano Bridge at the start of the NYC Marathon.”  It wasn’t a selfie, but I guess I don’t have a say in that.  Then it got picked up by CNN as one of their “Selfies of the Week” and somehow I’m in the same gallery as Madonna and Barack Obama.  Act ten – the endAt the end of the day when I met all my new blogger friends for celebratory drinks at pub. (my kind of place).  Grace’s boyfriend said “So, I guess you won the editor’s challenge, then?”  Honestly, it was the first time the thought had entered my mind that there was any contest involving finish time, especially between me and these social media friends. A bit jolly from the beer, my windburn subsiding into the cheery glow of my cheeks I turned to my new friends and said; “If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from all the marathons and all the years is that you have to celebrate every one.  You don’t know what’s’ coming next.  Celebrate today and now and every race because this could very well be as good as it gets.” Skankin Pickle – Thick Ass Stout

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