Boston: One year later

   Today, as I am typing this right now it will be one week since the 2012 Boston Marathon. By the time I finish this post it may be a few days later but it comes at a time when about one year ago that I was able to run the race that has been the pinnacle of every runner. I decided not to run again this year. Mainly due to the costs of going there. I'll run it again someday but I have to run another full to get a qualifying time for my age group which is now 3:05:00 which shouldn't be that hard for me.

     So for this Boston I'm sitting here at work looking at the splits of the leaders and my friends and other C-Bus Pacers running over at Boston. Yeah, this is something I shouldn't do at a gov't job but I get quite a bit of work done and there are others around here that don't hardly do S***!! That's our gov't hard at work people. But don't want to be too negative about my job it just causes too much stress and it would effect everything else positive in my life.

  A lot has happened over the last year since I ran Boston. I ended up getting hurt in my hip muscle when I tried to come back too early after Boston and it derailed my summer and fall racing plans, I had to sadly drop out of the Half Marathon at Columbus in October. I guess my body wasn't quite ready to tackle a half. However, I was able to end the year on a good note and represent CRC in Seattle at the USATF Club Cross Country Nationals and continue my streak of running it 6 years in a row and hopefully going for # 7 at the end of this year. Turning 30 becomes a big deal for me as well. I felt that I haven't accomplished anything outside of running, my high school coach suddenly passed away this summer , my sister moved back home due to her job situation but she is working part time and taking law classes to become a parallegal, there have been changes at work which makes it difficult to adjust, for one I would like the opportunity to telework, but I haven't gotten a laptop at work and I don't know when they will give me one.

One of the biggest issues interally I had to deal with the fact that I'm 30 and still single. Nowhere close to finding a woman to call my best friend to spend the rest of my life with and share everything about. Well, I feel as if I'm sharing a little bit of my life to everyone by writing in this blog. But, I try not to get to overboard. I'm not the type of guy that constantly updates my facebook status every hour everyday. That can be obessive. I try not to make a big deal about meeting someone. I know God has someone for me. I just got to trust in him, have an open heart, and stay positive.

  I think staying positive ties into training. A funny thing is our preacher was preaching about "Run to Win" which was the title of the sermon. The verse taken was from 1 Cornithians 9:24-27

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. ²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. ²⁶ Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. ²⁷ No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

In this passage it is talking about mostly a relationship with Jesus and how when athletes train hard to compete so should we when we want a better relationship with Jesus. A great note in the Sermon was, "Don't stop training, you're in a marathon not a sprint." Life is like that as well. It can get pretty hetic at times but you can't let the bad things or the stuff that depresses you get you down. Things are not easy. I've come a long way since the last year and especially in the past like it mentions my pre-boston article from last year.

You just gotta keep running to get that prize in the end whenever in running it be winning a race, a PR, or just to finish in some cases. Same goes for life. Now a days people except a handout from our government. You have to be humble and hope for the best and try to focus on the reward at the end.

I know my running goals aren't done yet. I'm working on getting my coaching education done in the meantime and I have a goal to run the Columbus Marathon this fall not only to PR but for personal reasons. But I'll get to that when the time comes. Right now the best thing is to keep your head up, don't be discourage, and keep running towards your goal whatever it may be sports related or not.

That's my two cents.