RunRunLive

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-411 – Katy Sheratt – CEO Back on my Feet (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4411.mp3] Link epi4411.mp3 MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/ Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-411 of the RunRunLive Podcast.   Like I mentioned last week 411 and 412 are out of order due to the forecasted recording sequence being different than the actual recording sequence and me not wanting to go move files around.  But, I know you, you don’t care about such things.  You care about important things like running past your house at the end of a long run to pick up that last .003 miles because you’ll be damned if you enter 6.97 miles into your log. Today we have a very good interview with Katy Sherratt who is the front person, the leader, for Back on My Feet.  This is the organization that helps homeless individuals by leveraging the transformational power of running.  We have spoken with this organization before.  We have history.  I was so fascinated by their program that I chased down the initial leadership team for an interview back in episode 89, which would have been 10 years ago, and then interviewed one of their recovering addicts in episode 167.  So, if your interested we’ve got sample points in the life cycle curve of this program from its birth to where it is now.  It’s a testament to how effective and resonant the program is that it grew from that nascent good idea of one runner in Baltimore to the professionally managed, multi-city, international manifestation of today.  And, I was interested to ask Katy about that progression.  Katy is a professional and you can hear the media coaching in her responses, but I think I did a good job of asking the questions that I truly wanted to understand.  … My training is not going great.  I’ve still got this troublesome high-hamstring tendinosis that is really curtailing my ability to push the pace or climb hills at pace.  It’s fine until I load it then it screams back at me.  I’m currently working through the best way to re-hab it.  That being said I have been getting some good volume in.  I’m trying to get 2 longer runs of 8 – 10 miles in during the week, then get a bike ride in on Saturday, then go longer on Sunday on the tired legs.  But, it’s a bit unstructured and I a feel a bit adrift. It’s getting hot and humid up here and the bugs are out.  This makes trail running a bit less enjoyable. I tweaked it Tuesday night and I’m limping around a bit right now.  It was a hot night.  There is a summer race series that many folks from my club run in near my office so I decided I’d run over to the race, run the 5k with them, then run back. Jogged over, it was about 4 miles away.  That was ok, a nice easy warm up.  Then I lined up for the 5K.  No big deal.  I just kicked it off at a solid tempo pace and felt pretty good.  Clicked off the first mile at around a 7 minute mile, working hard but not killing myself, it had a lot of downhill.  Then the course climbs a little hill over a bridge, over the river, and as I was leaning into the hill something tweaked in my left hamstring. I didn’t stop running but I slowed down to a pace where I wasn’t loading the hamstring and limped it in.   Got passed by a lot of people in the 2nd mile!  Had to get a ride back to my office.  2 days later and it is still noticeable sore.  So, looks like I have a new project. … I listen to a lot of history podcasts.  And when I find a new one, I typically start at the beginning and listen through until I’m caught up.  The interesting thing about this to me, is the pattern.  There’s this arc to a successful podcast.  They start out as tentative and unsure of themselves. Then they start to get positive feedback and they find their stride.  They comment with amazement on the 100 listeners, then the 1,000 listeners and the 10,000 listeners.  Then they start to think that this could be a fulltime job for them and they start to look for revenue.  The audible ads, the Patrion page, the iTunes reviews. At some point they become quite pleased with their progress and start having Q&A session about “Why they got into the podcast and where they got the theme music and some even quit their jobs. You can do that if you’re a history major. It’s fun to watch.  I’m not sure what part of that cycle I’m in.  I decided quite early on that this was a labor of love and I was primarily doing it as an exercise in self-preservation and improvement for myself, not for any practical or commercial concern.  I talked to sponsors, but to be honest, I hate commercials and there just isn’t enough money in ads to move my needle.    I stopped paying attention to numbers but, weirdly to imagine, we’ve had multi-millions of downloads from around the world.  I don’t even know how to containerize that number.  Each of those might be some individual, you for instance, at some point in their lives, looking for some combination of information, entertainment or inspiration, I get that personal touch point, but I can’t wrap my brain around the abstract of ‘millions’. I do get a bit of a satisfied feeling about the 400+ hours of content we have available for you now.  That’s a goodly chunk body of work and by my calculations represents about a million words of content.  That’s 4-5 goodly books worth of material. So, thank you all, whoever you are, wherever you are, and whenever you are, for facilitating my personal journey of creation.  I appreciate it.  I think the lesson here, is that you, yes you, as an individual can start something for no apparent reason and it can be the proverbial snowball that creates an avalanche.  For me it’s bee the personal connection and friends and opportunities for connection that are the best part.  For you it might be fame and fortune.  Put yourself in the running shoes of Anne Mahlum.  You are running in Philly at 5 o’clock in the morning and you keep running by the homeless shelter. You think to yourself, “Ya know what would be a good idea?  If someone were to invite these folks out for a run and potentially transform their lives.”  And so she started Back on my Feet with that one small thought and that one kick of the snowball. What’s your snowball? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com Become a member … Section one – Form series Chapter One - http://runrunlive.com/form-series-chapter-one   Voices of reason – the conversation Katy Sherratt Katy Sherratt leads Back on My Feet as Chief Executive Officer. An award-winning social innovation leader, Katy has been instrumental in increasing Back on My Feet’s programmatic impact by over 75% and introduced new and important measures to demonstrate the holistic impact of the program. Under her tenure, Back on My Feet has gone from early stage startup to sustainable organization and is now a leader in the homelessness services space nationwide. Funding has increased by over 50% thanks to the growth of existing, and cultivation of new, partnerships and fundraising streams and the geographic expansion of operations along the East and West coasts. Katy has been recognized across multiple media and news outlets including by The Economist’s Philanthrocapitalism program as a leader in social innovation and cutting edge non-profit management. In 2016 she was also named among Women’s Running Magazine’s “Top 20 Gamechangers” and most recently a winner at the Philadelphia Social Innovation Awards. Katy brings over 15 years of leadership experience across both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Prior to joining Back on My Feet, Katy led global projects for Accenture in their UK and US-based Strategy Practices working with corporate clients, NGOs and nonprofits with clients ranging from leading Financial Institutions to the United Nations. “I’m honored to lead such a unique, dynamic and growing organization,” said Katy. “You don’t have to be a marathoner or even a 5K runner, to feel the power of what we do on the morning runs – the community we build for individuals experiencing homelessness is the critical missing link and the reason why we’ve had such huge success in enabling our members to transition out of homelessness and maintain that transition.”   Section two – The Happiness Curve – navigating the cliff - http://runrunlive.com/the-happiness-curve-navigating-the-cliff     Outro Well, my friends, that was fun, huh?  You got up at 5:00 AM and ended up at the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-411, you are amazing. I have no idea whether or not I’m going to survive this summer with the sore but and sore knee and hot weather, I’m a hot mess!  But it is the season I’m in, yeah?  I’ll give you a couple tips.  The first tip, which I haven’t tested yet, bt seems to be corroborated from multiple sources is how to make a DIY der fly trap.  The deer flies are awful this time of year. I got chased out of the woods by them last week.  Even if you have the big hat on and the bug spray they still harass you in their multitudes. You can buy the deer fly patches which are a sticky patch that you put on the back of your hat that they get stuck on.  Or, you can make them.  The instructions are to take some blue tape (apparently the flies like blue and that painters tape works great) and create a 2X6 inch patch on the back of your hat.  Then apply a layer of an off the shelf product called “Tanglefoot” which is sticky goop that you apply to tree trunks to keep bugs from climbing up. That’s it. This will trap the flies, or enough of them, to solve the problem.  The second tip is for your bottles.  If you carry water bottles on your run, either in your hand or in a belt, you may notice that they start to taste a bit moldy as they age.  Especially if you have been putting sports drink concoctions in them.  It just can’t be helped.  The sugars get turned into wildlife.  You can wash them out.  You can rinse them with a bleach solution.  You can put them in the dishwasher.  But once those beasties get in there it’s a losing battle.  I don’t want to gross you out but the problem is typically hiding in your nipples.  That rubber bit that sticks out of the top of the bottle has crevices that you can’t get to.  But guess what?  If you pull on that nipple you can usually get it to pop off.  Once you pop it off you’ll see all the black stuff in there and you can scrub it out.   Then you can pop it back in. Good to go. So that’s it.  We went from form to homelessness to old age to moldy nipples – such are the seasons of life.   And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/ Http://www.marathonbq.com http://runrunlive.com/my-books Rachel -> http://www.nextlevelnutrition.fitness/contact-appointment/ Coach Jeff -> https://dailyfitbook.com/  

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-412 – Maryro does Comrades (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4412.mp3] Link epi4412.mp3 MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/ Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-412 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  You’ll have to forgive me an episode incongruity here, a non-linear scrap of publishing.  I had a couple interviews stack on top of each other, like the way you stack your hips in a yoga pose, and, apparently, in the race to you ears, episode 4-412 won out over episode 4-411.  Confused?  Don’t be.  It will be fine.  Today, this week, you will get episode 4-412, an interview by my friend Alex, long time participant of the RunRunLive podcast experience, of another long-time friend of the show Maryro Mendez, who ran Comrades this year.  I’m always fascinated with Comrades.  It seems such a foreign place, an extreme adventure.  Both Alex and Maryro are world travelers.  I have yet to make it to Africa.  Except, maybe through enjoying a good read of “The Heart of Darkness”.  In section one I’m going to give you the run-down on the cow-pasture race.  I got some positive feedback on the uncertainty essay from last show, thank you for that.  I certainly appreciate it.  I struggled to write that last episode.  I felt too jacked up about other things.  I need a certain amount of alone time and contemplation to get the creative juices flowing and I couldn’t get settled.  That has been solved!  I am took Vacation!  Yes, just my wife and I down on Cape Cod enjoying the beautiful weather.  Soaking up the sea breezes.  Very peaceful.  No internet.  Just reading and relaxing. In section two I’m going to piece together a vacation story for you.  … I took 5 days off from running and riding due to a sore knee.  It was one of those things where I probably tried to do too much too fast.  In this case the too much part had to do with going mountain bike riding with Anthony.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Anthony. Anthony has taught me an un-repayable number of useful things about bikes and riding over the last decade.  But, for my second ride in the woods in two years he overestimates my ability.  And, I on my part feel compelled to keep up, like a boy trying to please his Dad.  I ended up bleeding from 4 different wounds at the end of the night.  Nothing life threatening.  Just those slow speed, slow motion crashes that stalk you when you haven’t got the miles in yet. That little bit of uncertainty, that spoonful of tentativeness as you go into an obstacle those few millimeters off your line that find you wide in the turns and stuck in the bad spots.  You might call it ‘anti-flow’  On one of these slow speed crashes I couldn’t clip out and took the full weight of mass times acceleration (due to the force of gravity) on a pointy rock with my left knee.  It hurt but didn’t feel consequential at the time.  Over the next week it just ached a bit as I kept up my running and cycling.  Finally, with the race in the cow pasture Wednesday night,  going hard on uneven ground and the knee seemed to be more sore than it should be after a week, so I did the smart thing and took a few days off.  I was a bit worried I might lose fitness, but I managed to get over myself, and do a little core work and yoga instead.  Still a little sore, but I think it’s on the mend.  We’ll see.  I guess I don’t heal as fast as I used to.  But, I feel pretty good and it’s summer time, and the days are long and what can be wrong with that? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com Become a member … Section one – Lonely Cows - http://runrunlive.com/lonely-cows Voices of reason – the conversation Alex Cooke Interviews Maryro Mendez Comrades Marathon 2019(up run): The other big 5 People always come to Africa wanting to see the big 5, Lion, Elephant, Leopard, Rhino and Buffalo, but I came here with the mission of not just seeing but conquering the other big 5. The nerve wracking 5 famous hills along the Comrades route, Cowies Hill, Fields Hill, Botha’s Hill, Inchanga and Polly shorts. What ever people can say about this race, they would be falling short but I will just describe my own experience here. On our way to Durban, Andrey had a packed itinerary. We spent 2 days in Johannesburg and 5 days in Kruger National Park, chasing the animals and we were rewarded with amazing sightings. That on its own is worth a different write up. We arrived in Durban on Friday afternoon, went straight to the expo, picked up my race pack and wonder around a bit just to feel the vibe but not too long.  The city was filled with incredible energy. The people were amazing from day one. There is no hiding that I was scared, scared of failure, of not finishing. I knew I had put it a lot of work but also knew I had not been feeling quite right, mentally and physically. I also knew even when I was creative trying to do hill work, living in Rotterdam, NL I lacked that part. I felt excitement, fear and pure joy to be there. It was the fact that I was stepping in to the unknown but actually knowing that it was going to be the hardest race I had ever done that made this so especial. It was actually being part of a race that it is so important to a nation and you can feel it as soon as you land in Durban. Less than 10% of the 25000 runners are international runners, the rest are South Africans whom are very proud of their race. Only 20% are women. On Saturday Andrey went hiking up Royal Natal Park and also drove on the route while I stayed in the hotel resting. When he got back, he said “if you see those hills, the first 40km are the most difficult, you have never done anything like it. Even by car they look horrible” ok that scared me even more. “I got the belief, I will embrace the experience that I have earned after 5 months of hard training when conditions weren’t ideal. I got the belief that I am enough, good enough to be here but I will be patient and cautious because no medal will come easy tomorrow” I said to myself on Saturday.  I woke up at 3:15, had some Ucan and almond butter, had a shower and we left for the start at 4:30 for a 5:30 start. Luckily our hotel was just in front so I was in my corral before 5. The atmosphere was incredible. I was next to a South African guy doing his 11th comrades. He started talking to me with a very zen like tone. He told me to be patient, that his first was also the up run and he did it in 10h15min. Even when my ultimate goal was to finish, on a good day I thought I could do 10h (A goal), my B goal was to finish under 10:30 but I thought “maybe my first can be close to this guy’s 10:15”. I also wanted to finish before sun set (5:15 pm) The start is just amazing, very emotional no point describing because you have to be there to live it. Never felt such an emotional start in a race. I started my watch as soon as the gun went off because this race is gun time and all the cut offs and different medals are awarded by gun time. I was seeded in corral C so took me a few minutes to cross but not too long. I had my watch in overall time and average pace, this time I didn’t want to get distracted  by mile splits that made no sense. It was very humid and I was sweating like crazy even when the sun was not out yet and I started to worry but tried to just keep it together. The sea of people in front and behind was incredible to see thinking we had 87 km to go. I followed Bruce Fordyce’s advice and ignored the distance markers that go in count down mode.  I was running by feel and just checking my total time and average pace every now and again specially when I passed the cut off points (there are 7 in total) that would give a good idea of how much I was slowing down or not. I realised very early on that running up the hills in such a slow pace felt very inefficient, just didn’t feel natural to me so I decided to power hike up the hills. This was not a walking break this was very intense walking. I was passing people running while I walked up the hills, felt just like Killian Jornet  . However I did not train my body to do this so every time I was changing from walking to running my calves would rebel against me. I could feel my lower back too. But I just when over the initial transition discomfort and continue and as soon as I was in running mode it felt good again. “do not stop” that was my other strategy, no matter what, I was not stopping for anything. And I didn’t. There is no doubt as to when you are going up the big hills, they are relentlessly brutal. I was scared to ask anyone if we were at any of those hills in case I got NO for an answer. All along the route the atmosphere is delightful, the locals set up tents full of aid for people apart from the official 43 water stations and they do it every year. People singing, dancing, bbqing. Going pass the wall of honour was neat, thinking my name could be there once I finished. When I reached Arthur’s seat I touched it out is respect and moved on. When I reached half way at 43km to go I knew I had just done the hardest marathon (a bit over a marathon) I had ever done in my life and I still had more than a marathon to go. I was supposed to see Andrey there but nothing. I struggled a little, but I said The only way you are not finishing this is if you do not make any the cut off point and you are forced to stop and get on a bus.  The 10h bus passed me. They are amazing to watch. You can hear them coming, it is like a pack of horses trotting and singing. I felt a little disappointed that there would be no sub 10 for me but I was clear by that point I had underestimated the course so I just continued with my mission. Suddenly with like 37km to go a familiar voice when I was not expecting “Moni, Moni” it was Andrey. That was my only stop. Maybe for just a minute or two. I grabbed a ucan bar and the hotshot anti cramp, which saved me because my calves were alive and kicking. My lower back was sore again for the power walking I am guessing. That gave me a second wind.  The10:30h bus passed me and I was between 1h30- 1h20 ahead of the cut off time at the check points every time. I caught up with the 10:30 bus again. I was going to stay with them but I felt good so left them behind.  The Coca Cola station is amazing and this kid starting calling, “my lady get a coke my lady” I grabbed a coke (never ever I drink real full sugar coke) and boy that felt good, it was iced cold. He said “I knew you wanted a coke my lady push on continue” and that my friends is reason 1568 I loved Comrades. With 20km to go I decided it was time to start counting down the km and noticed every km board. A runner with a green number that had done 13 Comrades started talking to me, he asked about my shoes, he congratulated me for my first comrades finish to which I thanked them but said that there was still 20 km to go. He said you will finish I know. With 17 km to go I saw Andrey up on a bridge after I went under it, again great surprise, I waved and continued. I reached little pollys, she is like The hiena, not part of the big 5 but her presence doesn’t go unnoticed in the wilderness. When I hit the 10km to go mark, I started feeling for the first time that I had it in the bag. Now my aim was to go sub 10:15. Then Polly shorts shoes up, and there is no need to ask anyone, I knew this is the famous mighty one that stretches along for 2km.  Last 7 km I felt strong and full of joy. The down hills were hard, my toes were completely wrecked or so they felt. And the uphills even though shorter in comparison really sneaked up on you. 5 km to go and there he was again, I saw Andrey and I said “see you at the finish” saying that felt so good. I have say the performance of the day goes to him. Driving around with road closures it was messy. 4 km to go I kept checking my watch, 3 km to go and suddenly I felt it was taking too long for the 2k mark but then I saw 1km to go!!! I had missed the 2 km mark.  I was there, I got chills. Yeah and because it is Comrades there is one final mini climb a few meters to the finish. I crossed the line 10h 13 minutes and 55 seconds after the gun went off and got my bronze medal.  The different colour bibs depending on if you are national or international, the number of medals on your bib, the different medals depending on your finish time, the people oh the people and how passionate they are, all that make this race extra especial. With regards to nutrition I had 2 chia gels(low carb) and almond butter during the first third of the race. Then I started taking maurten gels I had 5 in total. I also had half a bar of ucan and some coke (I still can’t believe I drank full sugar coke but the even had ice cubes!) in the second half. I think probably consumed about 1000-1200 cals. I never felt I needed to eat but I forced myself to have something every 30 mins or so. I also had high5 zero electrolyte tablets. I grabbed 2 water poaches in maybe 40 out of the 43 water station, they were always cold so one to drink and one for my head and neck. All races should have those. I realised now why this race was unique for me. I normally enjoy the training, the process more that the races themselves. Races are always an excuse for me to train. This time for the first time was the other way around, I enjoyed the race more than the training, the race was a whole process in itself that was changing me for the better as I went through. The race was a whole new experience.  From a performance standpoint I could say I am a little sad I didn’t get a sub 10 but I am actually very happy my splits were consistent, I finished strong and I learned a lot. In the end it is only running so the time itself is nothing in comparison to what you gain as a person through running. But the type A person I am is already looking at what to improve  Comrades you are much more that people say, I will be back for the down run but next summer is already committed for other adventures so will be tight. If not in 2020 I will be back for the 100th Comrades in 2021 which will be another down run as it was the original...and maybe for my second I can properly aim for a better time  I am a runner because I run, I run because I am a runner  We carry with us, deep inside, the knowledge that we have faced our fears and conquered challenges, and with that brings confidence, peace of mind and self-belief. Section two – Puzzle Pieces - http://runrunlive.com/puzzle-pieces   Outro Well, my friends you run the uphill course to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-412, see you in Paradise City. Got a couple nice long runs and rides in this week down the Cape.  I did my traditional long run on the beach in Chatham.  I went on the 4th itself and it was jammed with people.  Usually once I get a mile or so down the beach I’m pretty much alone, but on the 4ht of July people come out by boat and hang out all over the place.  At one point there was a seal on the beach injured, probably by a Great White Shark.  Some guy was yelling at me to, I guess, not run by it.  Chill out there Ranger Rick, it’s a seal, not a unicorn.  When I came back the other way they had the seal EMT’s there working on it.  There are a lot of seals and a lot of sharks now on the Cape.  I ran out of beach almost exactly at 5 miles.  Which gave me a nice tidy 10 for the outing.  I timed it well too.  I got out just after high tide. That means the tide is going out and you get a nice strip of hard sand. I got out this weekend for an 18+ mile trail run.  Felt ok.  It was a little hard at the end, but it’s supposed to be.  I have to bring my volume up for the races I’m running this summer.  All in all I got a good mental rest.  I read a couple books.  The best one was a Bradbury collection of short stories from the 70’s.  Great writer Bradbury.  The better read among you will smell a bit of Bradbury in my writing this week. One of the books I’m working my way through is ‘the happiness curve’ by Jonathan Rauch.  He basically says that the science shows everyone’s life arc is about the same.  You’re happy when your young, you’re miserable when you’re in the prime of your life for the most part and then, in the last bit, the middle age forward, you get happy again, because, I guess you just don’t really care anymore?  A couple things you can take form that.  One is that your happiness is different depending on what phase of life you’re in.  Another is that it’s, on average, the same experience for everybody.  There ya go.  Hang in there and it gets better.  And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/ Http://www.marathonbq.com http://runrunlive.com/my-books Rachel -> http://www.nextlevelnutrition.fitness/contact-appointment/ Coach Jeff -> https://dailyfitbook.com/  

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-410 – Tim Vedder Qualifies (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4410.mp3] Link epi4410.mp3 MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/ Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-410 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  It’s been an interesting and, I’ll admit challenging, beginning to the summer.  It’s been a few weeks since the Vermont Cities Marathon race.  I’ve spent that time trying to navigate the inevitable emotional trough and working how and what to do next.  Even as well worn an athlete as myself is not immune to the post-training cycle slump.  And, as is my habit, one of the ways I work through these things is by talking to you about them.  It’s hard to see when you’re in the Sargasso Sea of a slump, but it is a learning opportunity like anything else.  In the spirit of this I’m going to talk about some straight-on, tactical solutions to getting out of the blue doldrums in section one and talk a bit about balance in section two. Our interviewee today is Tim Vedder who goes into what it took in his Boston Marathon quest.  When I started this podcast a dozen or so years ago one of the things I wanted to do was expose every-day, average joe runners to the community, because that’s who we are.  Average Joe and Jill’s who occasionally roll out of bed at 5:00 AM to do hill charges in the freezing rain. What have I been up to?  Basically taking my own advice and letting loose of the tight grip I had on the wheel of life a bit.  I’ve been trail running, Mountain biking and lifting weights.  And I’ve been eating!  I felt a bit out of sorts being too skinny so I’m letting myself put a few pounds on.  Basically, I’m doing what I want to do, while still staying in good enough shape to be within reach of a race.  We’ll talk more about what I’ve got on the race calendar at the end. … I got great feedback on my iPhone tips from episode 4409.  It seems I was not the only one getting annoyingly treated to the first song on my list every time I turned the truck on.  For more detail, the audio I found was a very peaceful and meek morning meditation routine from YouTube.  You can search in YouTube for “Peaceful Morning Meditation” and it will find something to fit the bill.   To get it off of YouTube and onto your computer Google “YouTube to Mp3”.  This will show you on-line apps that will convert the video to an audio and allow you to download it to your computer.  Then rename the Mp3 file aaaaaaaaaaaa.mp3 – this will cause it to be that default first song in your music library.  To get it into your iPhone go into iTunes and do “Add File to Library”.  Then, while your phone is connected to the computer you should be able to select this file to be synched, either by name, genre or artist.  (there’s a icon of your phone in iTunes when it is connected and you click on that to set the sync rules).  Then you sync and the mp3 should be on the phone. There has been a lot of talk recently about digital diets and addiction to the phone apps.  You can track how much time you spend on social media or news and there are ways to set limits. The friends I have who have gone cold-turkey report that they have about a week of withdrawal, but by the second week they feel more in control and have more time.  Failing that I have some middle of the road tips for you around social.  I don’t use Facebook that much, nor Twitter anymore just because I naturally don’t find it all that interesting.  I do like Instagram.  But, here’s my tip.  Only allow social apps to be used when you are connected to WiFi.  This means you can’t use them randomly as you’re out an about.  It removes the knee-jerk reaction to check your feeds.  It’s a setting on your phone.  Go into the app and set it to NOT use mobile data connection.  It will keep you from looking at it in the car.  It’s a good compromise.  Second tip is to turn on the Do Not Disturb while driving.  There’s no reason to be checking you phone while you’re driving.  Turning this on adds a barrier to phone use in the car.  Might save your life.  Third tip is to turn on a generous quiet time at night.  There is a Do-Not-Disturb setting that you can set your phone to silent between the hours of X and Y.  I set mine to 9:00PM to 6:00AM.  This keeps me from hearing or seeing anything you text to me at 10:00PM when I’ve nodded off.  Psychologists will always talk about setting boundaries.  The real risk with the technology is that it takes our boundaries away, and that is not good for your mental health.  You have the ability to take some of those personal boundaries back.  So, take them back.  On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com Become a member … Section one – Practical Slump Advice - http://runrunlive.com/changing-it-up Voices of reason – the conversation Tim Vedder Bio: Timm Vedder is a neonatologist in St. Cloud, Minnesota who also serves as a physician in the National Guard. He is married, with two awesome kids. His other athletic pursuits include trail running, triathlon, tennis, and CrossFit. Section two – Balance - http://runrunlive.com/the-certainty-uncertainty-balance   Outro Well, my friends you Successfully trained and qualified for the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-410, see you in Boston.  On the calendar I’ve got the ½ marathon pacing duty at the end of July. Then I’ve got Pacing duties at Leadville in mid-August.  I also signed up for a local “last chance to qualify” type marathon for September 8th.  We’ll have to see if I run Wapack on Labor Day.  Then BayState in October.  I don’t think with the weird assortment of races and training this summer I’ll be fit to qualify, but I’m starting to doubt whether I have a clue about my own fitness.  The first 14 days of June I ran 5 miles a day as one of those slump-busting tactics.  My plantar fasciitis was acting up so I pivoted to bike riding, weight lifting and trail running.  My club had an ice-cream social over in Groton yesterday so I rode Fuji-san over, had a bowl of ice cream, chatted for a bit and rode back. 26 or so miles of road riding separated by ice cream eating.  You won’t find that on your coaches training plan.  Then I rolled out early this morning for a 15 mile run with my buddies.  My theory is that I for Leadville I have to run on tired legs, so I bike ride on Saturday and long run Sunday.  I’m trying to get 3-4 longish trail runs in a week with a couple rides.  I’m toying with organizing an overnight run out in July.  This would be a 10 hour trail run where we start at 10:00 PM and run through to 8:00 AM for me that’s probably 50K or more.  This falls under the category of if you do something stupid enough people will join you.  I did a similar 12 hour run last year as part of my 100 training and it was cool.  It’s quite surrealistic.  Time goes by weirdly fast.  Enough random training talk.  I hope you are doing well as we move into official summer.  Thanks for bearing with me as some of these episodes come in a couple days late.  I do enjoy the writing, but I am in a place where balance has been hard to find.  … I watched my way through the Netflix original zombie series “Black Summer”.  As much as I appreciate a good zombie show, being a professional zombie hunter myself, this one had a lot of holes in it. They used every zombie trope and seemed to have a very small budget.  So remember, cardio and double tap and… I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/ Http://www.marathonbq.com http://runrunlive.com/my-books Rachel -> http://www.nextlevelnutrition.fitness/contact-appointment/ Coach Jeff -> https://dailyfitbook.com/  

VT 2019 – The French Farce (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/Vermont2019.mp3] Link Vermont.mp3 Farce. A farce is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable. Farce is also characterized by physical humor, the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense, and broadly stylized performances. … Covered in dirt, sweat and sawdust.  There I was, laying on the table in the emergency room at my local hospital.  A nice thick maroon swell of blood blobbing out of the gash on my shin.  Waiting for the doctor-lady to come back.  You might think this would make me cranky.  But, on the contrary I was having a pretty good day. It was, ironically, Memorial Day.  A long weekend and I had gotten a lot done, including running the marathon in Vermont.  I was relieved to have that off my agenda, be done training and back to working on other stuff.  Like cutting up the trees I had felled in the yard.  Then the machete glanced off a branch and I whacked myself square on the shin bone with that long, heavy, sharp blade designed for slicing. Right on the shin bone.  Nothing serious just a bit of a rent on the protective covering of skin that keeps the red stuff in.  Editor’s note: “Rent”, to divide, usually violently or abruptly from the middle English Renden and Old English Rendan. I staunched it with a rag from my chainsaw box and hobbled inside for some awkward first aid.  I flushed it out with Bactine and taped a bunch of gauze to it, wrapping the tape around my calf, ending up with something that you might see in an old war film or maybe an even earlier mummy movie.  That held it in place long enough for me move enough trees out of the driveway to get my truck out.  I drove to the emergency room. I wasn’t looking forward to the emergency room.  On a major holiday it was sure to be filled with drunken yahoos, with “hold my beer” accidents.  I brought along a book and was going to start working on this report for you in the hours of waiting that I anticipated.  But, I was positively thrilled with service.  I barely had a chance to sit down in the squeaky, vinyl, institutional seat when I was called.  I was attended to by no less than 4 or 5 charming, enthusiastic and competent medical professionals.  It turned out that the doctor-lady on duty’s favorite thing was stitches.  We had a great chat and I was in and out in 45 minutes!  They were impressed that I could tell them exactly how much I weighed.  They were almost as impressed with me having run a marathon in Vermont the day before as I was impressed with myself for, well…just being me.  It’s a curse.  I drove home and finished chopping up my trees.  … The next night I went to the local Red Cross and tried to give blood.  I see you rolling your eyes.  Chris, what the hell?  You run a race Sunday, your put yourself in the Emergency room Monday, why are you trying to give blood on Tuesday?  In my defence they really want my blood.  They are on me serval phone calls and emails a day about how much they want my blood.  But, I’m usually in the middle of a training cycle and can’t really afford to tapped of my basic circulatory life essence.  Consequently, I try to schedule blood donations for after my target events.  The nerve of them.  After begging me for weeks and putting me through all the preliminaries, they turned me away when I told them of my recent forestry mishap.  Apparently there is have some silly rule about ‘no open wounds’. I mean, you’re after my blood, wouldn’t this be a positive proof point that I’ve got some to spare? … No worries.  On to my next thing.  I like to be tightly scheduled.  I’m happiest when I have a nice pile of tasks in my que.  That’s how my weekends go in the spring and summer.  A yellow sticky pad list of chores in my pocket that I try to get done to have that warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment from washing the car or folding the laundry or … maybe even running a race.  … Teresa had come home from the City to pick up some stuff Friday.  We had to do a bike swap. I had procured a new city bike for her.  A city bike is a bicycle that is perfectly functional but has a low value and low probability of being stolen.  The 40-year-old Schwin I had previously procured was broken.  She had managed to crank out the bearing, which is not something I’m going to fix on a bike where the tires are worth more than the bike.  I procured a ‘new’ old bike, cleaned it up, got most of the gears working, and transferred the rack from the old-old bike Saturday morning.  As we are all destined to do, I have turned into my father.  I had to drive her back into the city on Saturday.  I had to be in Vermont Saturday night as well. … I had packed up my race stuff.  Since I was driving, I didn’t need to be picky.  A little of this, a little of that.  I opted to go back to my old Brooks baggie shorts with the bike short liner, because they have enough pockets to carry all my standard race stuff. A couple gels, a baggie of Endurolytes, a small thing of lube. I was trying to make the 7:00PM deadline to pick up my bib in Vermont.  Burlington is about 3 hours and change from my house.  After the side trip to the city it was going to be tight.  … The weather forecast called for clear skies Saturday slowly changing to rain in the evening, then into thunderstorms through the morning.  I try not to think too much about the weather when I’m approaching a race.  There really isn’t much you can do about it. No sense wasting your energy fretting. It was starting to drizzle when I pulled into the race expo hotel in South Burlington with 8 minutes to spare.  I was able to get my bib and pick up a couple Expresso Love Gu’s – old-school nutrition.  In a change of pace, I got a medium shirt, instead of a large due to my current waifish deportment.  Then I wandered off in the strengthening showers to find my campground.  My comfy rustic home to pitch my lonely tent for the evening.  … To get to my camp I was routed right by the race start/finish area. Which was nice.  The college town of Burlington sits on the edge of Lake Champlain.  The race course for the marathon is a sort of figure 8 that goes out north of the city, turns around and runs back through the city, turns again and comes back by the park again to go north, again, then comes back south along a bike trail at the edge of the lake to the finish.  Eyeballing it on the map I thought I might be able to walk to the race start in the morning from my camp.  The bike trail that the race finishes on runs right by the edge of the campground.  I measured it to be over a mile by the road. I figured I probably wouldn’t want to hike that, especially in a storm, in the morning, and definitely wouldn’t want to hike back after the race.  I called Brian to see what his plans were. He told me he wasn’t racing. He was running with his son Chris.  Good for him.  That completes something special for him.  Running a marathon with every one of his kids.  But, for me, I wouldn’t be able to pace with him. Did I mention I was racing?  Yeah, I had a goal.  I was trying to spin that fitness from my Boston training cycle into a qualifying race.  I thought it would be a no-brainer.  I was in good shape.  This was supposed to be a more reasonable course.  I’d just hang on to the back of the nearest pace group to 3:30 and be done with that.  Piece of cake.  … Checking in to my camp site it was raining fairly hard now, and of course, as I unrolled my tent it started pouring.  I was trying to hurry but that just made things slower.  The way these tents work is that there isn’t a real roof.  The roof part is a screen, a mesh, to I suppose, let your foul camping breath and farts out.  But that let the rain come right through.  The way you make it watertight is to string another bit, called a fly, over the open part, which was giving me trouble in the wind.  Picture ma trying to do all this in the pouring rain and wind.  I must’ve looked incredibly pitiful.  Hold that picture in your head next time you think hiking the Appalachian trail is a good idea.  Some guy even ran over from a neighboring camp site to help me.  At least it wasn’t dark out yet. The good news was that I was right next to the shower & bathroom facilities buulding. The bad news was that I was right next to the shower & bathroom facilities building.  Lots of traffic. Lots of lights.  People wandering around.  I took a few minutes to pump up my mattress. This all seemed like a great idea when I set it up last month.  Not so much now.  Soaking wet.  Pumping away in my little tent with the rain beating on the sides. … Now I’m thinking I should have some sort of meal before I crash out in my soggy hidey hole.  I did what any sentient 21st century droid would do and asked Siri for a grocery store nearby.  I was thinking maybe a Wholefoods or something similar.  But, Burlington, being an old New England Town, is filled with corner grocery stores. Basically, one room affairs with beer, chips and lottery tickets. I was getting tired at this point, so I gave up and bought a turkey sandwich and a beer. I returned to my campground and sat in my truck, thinking how sad a spectacle I was soggy, in my truck with the rain pouring down, chewing on a gas-station sandwich.  Having paddled my canoe through these types of adventures before and thought to myself, smiling a bit, ‘this will make a great story’.  I was worrying a bit about logistics for the morning.  I didn’t want to hike the mile plus to the start in a rainstorm.  I decided I would drive in early and find a place to park. They said there was municipal parking, but after my ‘grocery store’ adventure I wondered what that would be like, or if it even existed.  Ce’st la vie.  Time for beddy-by.  … In normal conditions my tent, mattress and sleeping bag are pretty darn comfy.  These weren’t exactly ‘normal’. It was storming hard, with blowing wind and driving rain. I could hear the waves crashing down on the lake shore with a steady roar. The spotlights on the facilities lit up my tent like an operating theatre. I crawled into my tent, dragging mud and water with me.  Crawled into my sleeping bag and wrapped my throw away shirt around my head like a bandage to block the light, put my phone on airplane mode and set the alarm for 5 AM. That should give me plenty of time to get ready and find a parking spot. Now, on a normal night, in the campground, hard up against the communal bathroom, I probably would have been kept awake by the noise of the park denizens coming and going and recreating. This was not a normal night. I considered my good fortune. The roar of the waves and the wind and the steady drum of a hard rain was like a meditation track, right?  White noise.  The song “The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” was running slyly through my head. “The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down Of the big lake they called 'gitche gumee' The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead When the skies of November turn gloomy” That’s when I realize that I had to pee.  At the same time I realized I would rather have my bladder explode and die of sepsis than go out int o this storm.  Then I fell asleep.  A couple hours later I woke up to an eerie, (no pun intended), silence.  I was woken up by pause in storms.  It was a bit before 11:00 and I thought, now would be an excellent time to make a run for the facilities next door.  As I started moving around I realized that there was a fair amount of water inside my tent.  Whether it was from me bumping the sides or the rain coming sideways under the fly, I don’t know. My sleeping bag was wet.  As I extracted myself and went to the rest room I thought that this might be a problem if the storms returned and temperature dropped a bit more.  Woke by quiet after 10.  Goodtime to pee.  Sleeping bag wet.  So, we held an executive meeting in my head and decided to sleep in the truck for the rest of the night.  It was surprisingly comfortable with my sleeping bag and the seat all the way back.  I slept great.  … My 5 AM alarm woke me to a humid, cool morning with scattered, pudgy clouds.  I was still worried about parking so I got my stuff on and drove into town.  Not only was the parking garage available and deserted, I’m pretty sure it was free.  The gate was open and the display had some sort of non-descriptive announcement.  I didn’t have too many options for breakfast so I ate one of the SpringEnergy gels I had brought.  They’re more like baby food than race gels.  My next mission would be to find a cup of coffee somewhere.  I took $5 with me and went out to walk around the start area.  After a few laps I found a gas station with some coffee and checked that box.  That left me with another problem.  Now I had $3 left over that I didn’t know what to do with.  I could just drop it on the ground.  I could try to carry it.  In the end I just handed to some guy in a Bruins shirt.  He was confused.  He was pretty sure I was up to something nefarious.  … Then I just hung out in the park and stretched and relaxed.  It was partially sunny, very humid with a bit of wind and lots of puddles.  The race starts at 7:00 now, ever since the heat incident of 2 years ago.  Looking out over the lake there were towers of blackish clouds.  As I wandered about someone called my name and it was Brian and his son.  I was glad to see them.  Glad to have someone to chat with.  We hung out and listened to the race announcements.  Bart Yasso was saying something to the assembled throng.  There were maybe 3,000 people in the race.  Lots of 50 staters.  A nice size for a race.  About 15 minutes before the start the announcers came on and told everyone to leave the park and take shelter in the parking garages.  Apparently one of those black clouds out over the race had us in its sites.   The crowd filed out of the park across the street and down the road.  Brian, his son and I went into the Courtyard Hotel lobby.  We chatted with some of the folks in there, but basically stood around for 45 minutes while another small storm cell passed over.  That’s a first for me.  They let us go back to the race start after the danger had passed.  Speaking of passing, I got passed by Bart Yasso leaving the hotel.  I said hi but he was in a hurry to get back to the announcing.  We found our corrals.  I hunted down the 3:30 pace leaders.  And we were off and running about 7:45.  It was a bit humid but nothing terrible.  I hung close to the pace leader and we were quickly up to pace.  There were two pacers for 3:30.  They did a good job. They kept us within 5 seconds of the pace even with the rolling hills, the hard lefts and rights, and the slight wind.  They did something really useful.  Instead of running together one guy ran about 50 to 100 feet behind the other guy.  I started out with the lead guy but then filtered back to the second pack.   The effort was steady but not hard.  I felt fine.  … It was hillier than I had surmised from Brian’s description.  There was one long hill back into the city that wasn’t steep but was a nice long pull.  There was a pretty good head wind in one direction.  It was useful to be in the pack and I was able to draft the pacer.  There were some good crowds in the city but not much as you got out of town.  When the sun came through the clouds it was a little hot.  I was staying on my nutrition, taking enough water and sipping from my bottle of F2C.  The gels they had on course were maple syrup gels.  Which is fitting for Vermont, but basically, you’re drinking pancake syrup.  I knew the “big hill” was coming up at mile 15ish.  As we turned back towards that hill I put a little extra fuel in the fire and dropped the pace a bit.  I knew, from my training I had some faster miles in me.  I figured I’d put a little buffer between me and the pace group in case I struggled on the hill.  I thought that once I got over the hill, I could relax into the rocking chair and just glide home.  … Up to this point I was pacing well.  Not easy but not hard either.  Race pace. The hill was a monster.  For some reason it really knocked me back on my heels.  I had to grind it out.  I lost some time but stayed ahead of the pace group.  I was suffering badly as I neared the top, but I got over it.  On the back side of the hill I was trashed and focused on finding a recovery pace.  My hips were tight.  My stride was painful.  That high hamstring tendonitis was biting me in the ass.  Remember when I said I “had some good training runs and some not so good since Boston”?  Remember how I said I had somehow managed to give myself tendonitis in the ass?  Well, one of those workouts was a 20+ mile tempo run.  And what happened on that run was I got to about 16 miles and this tendonitis flared up.  It hurts.  Like some monster biting your ass.  It makes it hard to lift your legs and makes running up hills really hard.  It makes it hard to keep your stride length.  I ended up doing a fair amount of walking at the end of that workout.  This showed up again at Vermont after the big hill about 16-17 mile in.  It wasn’t the ‘wall’ I had plenty of calories.  It wasn’t cramps, I had plenty of salt.  It was this pain in my ass that kept me from holing my pace.  And that’s where I stopped racing and started limping in.  In a few minutes the 3:30 pacers went by me. I said “That hill was a bitch.”  He said, “Yeah, but it’s done now.” I said, “Yeah, but so are my legs.” At this point I still had about a 2-1/2 minute cushion but I could race anymore and had 8-9 miles to go. There were still some rolling hills and each of those little rises hurt like hell.  I threw in the towel and started walking and jogging, just to get it done.  I ran by my camp ground a couple more times and thought about just leaving, but my truck wasn’t there, it was downtown.  I was depressed and having dark thoughts.  I thought to myself “Now I know why those people cheat.  You can put in the work and do all the right things and what do you get?  Nothin.  That’s why they cheat.:” I might even have had a thought or two about how I’m just getting slower and what’s the point of staying in a world that’s just a constant loss of ability?  Such is the death march.  When you get into the death march late in a race you notice there are people there doing the same death march pace you are.  You see them walking, stumbling, summoning the strength to run a bit, walking some more.  The comradery of zombies.  It wasn’t awful physically.  I was fit enough to not be physically suffering.  Not like a calorie crash.  Not physical exhaustion.  My HR was fine.  I just couldn’t get my legs to turn.  And my mind had left the building.  I was done.  Done with training.  Don’t with chasing unicorns.  Done with it all. At one point the course cuts through a wooded section in the high miles.  Just a short bit of trail to connect to road sections.  With the rain and the runners it had turned into a mud hole.  I felt bad for the runners who were still racing.  Also, late in the race, in one of the neighborhood sections, there was a bunch of people, a couple neighborhood families handing our Budweiser pony cans.  I had no desire for a can of beer but one of the guys in front of me took one, took a sip and immediately dropped it in a big splash of foam.  The guys handing out the beers yelled at him for dropping it.  It was a bit surreal.  Finally we found our way onto the bike path for the last couple miles back to the finish.  I came upon a guy clutch his calf, hopping around and screaming with a cramp.  I dug out the rest of my Endurolytes, gave him two and said “chew these, to get the salt into your system.”  Hope he had some water with him.  With the late start it was pretty hot and really humid.  It didn’t impact me.  I was out of the fight before any of that would have hit me.  As I was pulling into the finish, I was trading places with an older, grey haired woman wearing a singlet from one of the regional running clubs I know.  I thought to myself, ‘great, my finishing photo is me being out kicked by this lady!”  I wasn’t in a good place mentally.  I managed to find a pretty fast last mile heading into the finish.  It didn’t matter.  I had turned a 2-1/2 minute buffer into a 12 minute hole with a 3:47 finish.  I got my medal and a bottle of water.  I stood around waiting to see if maybe Brian and his son weren’t close behind me since I lost so much ground.  I had passed his daughter out on the bike path and she hadn’t seen them yet.  I saw the club singlet and congratulated her.  She turned around and said “Chris?” Turns out it was Linda one of the Goon Squad runners.  We had a long talk catching up.  She was coming off AFib surgery and starting her recovery.  The doctors had told her to quit running and it took her a long time to find a doctor who could give her a correct diagnosis and fix it. Now she’s on her way back.  I got my truck and made my way back to the campground.  I didn’t see any reason to sleep over another night, so I broke it down and loaded up.  I stopped to tell the kid I was leaving early and he insisted on giving me my $36 back. Good Karma.  … I drove the sunny, warm day home to get back onto my list of chores.  I must tell you I was relieved to get this race over with.  But, now I’m out of qualification and I don’t have the time or the energy for another campaign this summer.  Maybe I can’t make the standard? I don’t know.  I kills me to give up, but I’m not having fun anymore and my body is talking to me.  I need some time off.  It took me a few days to come to grips with not running Boston.  I’m not making any proclamations.  But, I’m ok with letting it go after 21 years.  I’m not saying I am.  I’m saying I’m ok with it.  That’s the best I can give you coming out the back of this farce of a long weekend.  I’m ok with it.  … “To be alive: not just the carcass / But the spark. / That’s crudely put, but … / If we’re not supposed to dance, / Why all this music?” – Gregory Orr

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-409 – Julie the Marathon Goddess (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4409.mp3] Link epi4409.mp3 MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/ Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-409 of the RunRunLive Podcast. With any luck I’ll be able to publish this before I jump in my truck and drive up to Burlington VT for my next marathon.  It’s go time and I’m stressed out about it.  I’ve held my weight and conditioning and am coming into the race in good shape, on paper anyhow.  It’s a 3.5 hour drive from my house. Vermont Cities, I’m told, is a much more reasonable course than Boston.  Fewer hills.  My training buddies tell me that it has always been a good race for them.  It still stresses me out.  Age graded, for my goal, I’m targeting times that are faster than I ever ran when I was younger – if you believe age grading. Looks like the weather is going to be dicey.  The race starts at 7:00 AM so I shouldn’t have to worry about heat.  But, they are calling for thunder storms and a stiff wind in the morning.  Doesn’t matter.  I’m committed.  I’ll fight it all the way down. It’s a figure 8 course.  I’m not sure how sheltered it is, but that should mean I’ll have as much head wind as tail wind and side wind.  I’m going to find a pace group and stick with it.  Stay in the shadow of the pace group. I need a 3:35 to requalify and it looks like they have a 3:30 pace group.  I’ll have to decide whether I want to hang with them or freewheel.  10 seconds a mile could be significant and I’d much rather negative split than burn out.  We’ll see. I’m camping in a park on the lake front.  Like I said it’s a trick I learned in my mountain bike racing days.  Frankly, I don’t think those hard-core mountain bikers are house-trained.  I’ve got a tent, a mattress and a mattress pump in the back of my truck.  You don’t sleep much the night before a race anyhow.  Eyeballing the map, it looks like I can walk to the start from where I’m camped. Brian is going to be up there with his son.  I’m going to stay over Sunday night probably.  We’ll see. I can’t wait to have this over with.  I’m pretty sick of road racing and training.  Not sure what I’m going to do if I miss my time.  I might hang it up.  Move on.  What would you do?  Do you think 21 Boston marathons is enough?  Or will my life totally unravel if I remove this prop from the infrastructure? Today we have a great interview with Julie the Marathon Goddess.  You know Julie.  She’s the California Girl from the move “The Spirit of the Marathon 2”.  Which isn’t an awful movie.  The reason it’s not awful is that it has a cast of characters and Julie is one of those characters. In section one I’m going to talk about some new things I learned in this last training cycle.  In section two I’m going to talk about the wild and whacky English Language. And, since we’re talking about the English language and the Boston Marathon I have a question for you?  What is another perfectly good word for ‘unicorn’?  Monocerous!  Isn’t that a great word.  Monocerous! Here’s another one.  Did you know that the word Cadence comes from the same Indo-European root as Cadaver?  Same Latin root meaning, loosely to fall.  The cadence is the foot fall.  The cadaver is a fallen one, so to speak.  So next time you can’t keep up your cadence and you feel like a cadaver, you’ll know why. Oh, I have a redaction from last show.  My childhood friend Dave didn’t die.  He’s living in Seattle I think.  His older brother Eric, who I went to school with passed.  Rest in Peace Eric. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com Become a member … Section one – LEssons from this long training cycle. http://runrunlive.com/what-i-learned-from-this-extended-training-cycle Voices of reason – the conversation Julie Weiss Author/Runner/Marathon Goddess  www.marathongoddess.com   Available now on Amazon: 52 Weeks, 52 Marathons: The Miles and Trials of a Marathon Goddess by Julie Weiss with John Hanc and Ali Nolan (Tender Fire/Enhanced Communications)   Do you ever wonder, or have a burning desire to be more than what you have aspired to be? I always knew there was more to life, and I found it through my joy of running. Before I started running I was overweight, on antidepressants and I could barely run around the block. I was a young mom and had battled some very dark moments. Since I started running I am no longer taking any medication and I have lost 20 pounds. Running saved my life. On March 2, 2008, I ran my first marathon, the Los Angeles Marathon. I had made all the beginner mistakes. Ouch! Pretty much sums it up. I had not trained properly, and swore I would stick only to 10K’s after that. But it was not long, two months in fact, until I ran another marathon and then another. My father became my biggest fan. We had a goal, that goal was that I would qualify for the Boston marathon where he would go to see me run. I attempted to qualify for Boston 19 times. Every time I completed a marathon I would call my father and let him know how I did. He was still proud of me, even if it was my slowest time. He always encouraged me to keep going and so I did. In October of 2010, my father was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. I was devastated, but my father urged me to continue to train, to work and go on with life as usual. It was hard, but I did as he wished. On December 5, 2010 I finally did qualify for the Boston marathon and made it in 3:47, sadly it was 1 week after my father passed away, just 35 days after his diagnosis. I know he was there with me, he was the wind at my back and had the best seat in the house, my heart. After I ran the Boston marathon in 2011 I looked deeply into the disease that had taken my father. I found that pancreatic cancer was the 4th leading cause of cancer death and the least funded for research. This was unacceptable to me. I knew had to something dramatic to raise awareness and that it should be centered around my passion for running and the love for my father. So I set out to run 52 marathons in 52 weeks to raise $1,000,000 for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. I recently completed marathon#52 on March 17, 2013 at the ASICS L.A. Marathon. I did all of this while holding down a full time job. I work 9-5 as an accountant. I would leave my office on a Friday or Saturday, travel to a different city, state or even country, run a marathon on Sunday and fly back home to get to work Monday morning. Almost every weekend waking up at 3:30 in the morning to get to the starting line. Not even Super Storm Sandy could stop me. I dedicated each of my marathons to someone affected by pancreatic cancer because my fight was nothing compared to what theses people had to go through. They are my heroes. I am now 42, have two amazing kids, who are 20 and 24, my wonderful fiance, and of course my first running partner ever, my dog Jessie. I have found my purpose in life. Now, I invite you to join me in the light, embrace your highest self and start being the person you were put on this earth to be. If it speaks to you, I also invite you to join me in the fight against pancreatic cancer. The disease that took the life of my number 1 fan, my father, and so many others. I am so grateful that we have completed this amazing journey, but we are not done yet.  I am currently on a journey to finish 100 marathons ending at the 2016 Sketchers Performance Los Angeles Marathon and hope to reach my 1 Million dollar fundraising goal by then. When you do what you love, for those you love, that is when the miracles happen. The joy comes from the heart. If your love is running, I have learned that it’s not about how many miles you go, or even how fast. The heart does not have a clock, it has beats. My mission is to make sure those beats are spent on pursuing your dreams, your passions and having fun. Marathon Goddess is about embracing the God or Goddess within us all. Now I am running with a purpose, to fight the good fight against pancreatic cancer. It has become my mission, and I will not stop until we have found a cure. Find your passion, bring out your spirit and let it shine. We got this!! https://marathongoddess.com/about-us/ Section two – The Wonderful, Wacky, English Language - http://runrunlive.com/the-wonderful-english-language   Outro Well, my friends you did that thing where you strike the Goddess pose in your underwear in front of the bathroom mirror and though tno one was watching, but we won’t judge and you have come to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-409, Keep up the good work. We’ve been having a cold and rainy spring in New England.  Every time I hit one of those long hard tempo runs in a 45 degree drizzle I mutter a little curse to the gods.  Why couldn’t we have this weather at one of my target marathons? I’ve been working in my garden for the last couple weeks.  I started some seeds earlier but the weather has been so cold they are quite stunted.  I got some tomatoes and beans and squash in.  We’ll see what come up.  Nothing like a warm, garden fresh tomato on a warm August afternoon. Part of the rhythm of life. I should be able to execute a decent race at Vermont.  I’m still light – hovering around 170 pounds – I’m still hitting my tempo paces in the mid-7’s.  Like, I said, on paper it’s a lock.  We’ll see.  Wish me luck. Send me whatever universal Karma you can. I accepted an invitation to pace a ½ marathon in PA at the end of July.  It’s the Conquer the Canyon marathon and half marathon.  I’ll be the alternate pacer for the 2 hour ½ with Greg.  Light duty. It looks like a pretty course on a rail trail that winds through a river valley.  6-hour drive for me.  This pacing outfit is called Beast Pacers.  If you want to be a pacer they have races all over the country.  They comp you the entry.  Would be a great way to pick up your 50 states. One more of my favorite old-English words for you before you go.  The old/middle English word for window or opening was ‘thirl’.  You may be familiar with a compound word we still use this in.  It combines the word for ‘nose’ and that word for window ‘thirl’ – and you may have guessed – that compound word is ‘nostril’ – literally ‘nose-window’.  Isn’t that great?  Nose window? … Julie’s story is a good one.  On the one hand it’s familiar to us.  It’s the classic hero’s journey.  Over coming challenges to become the champion.  On the other I think it verifies a useful truth: if you just decide to do something you can change the world, at least your little part of the world.  You don’t need permission.  You just do it and let the details figure themselves out. It’s not goal setting.  It’s not achievement.  It’s more like directing, or freeing the universal energy that is in each of us. Looking inside yourself, how do you let that energy free? I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/ Http://www.marathonbq.com http://runrunlive.com/my-books Rachel -> http://www.nextlevelnutrition.fitness/contact-appointment/ Coach Jeff -> https://dailyfitbook.com/