Introducing Dad

From my dad:
(shared with permission but he doesn't know it's here)

     "It has been twenty years since I last ran a marathon. It was February 3, 1990. I was 37 years old and finished in 3:21:21. Not bad for the start of my second year of running. I started running after talking to a coworker that had just completed the Chicago marathon. He told me all about the race and his training. I told him that it sounded like fun and that I said I would start training for the next year marathon. After laughing he told me that it would take years of training and even then I would have a hard time trying to finish it. That was all I needed to hear. Six months later I ran the Sunburst Marathon in South Bend Indiana in a time of 3:51:16. At the time that was faster than he had ever finished and I believe he still hasn't run that fast. He shouldn't have said I could never do it. I went on to running in local races and marathons off and on for three years. At the time it was all for fun. I wasn't eating the right foods of training very smart.

     Now I'm 57 years old. I am retired and have a lot of time to think about my running days. I always kept detailed log books and I enjoy reading them today. Then it hit me, why not run again, train right, eat right and go for the win. Great idea.

     My plan is the start training today. In less than six months I will do the Inaugural Oakland Marathon and then a month later I will do the Big Sur Marathon. I am already signed up for both of them. Why races in California when I live in Illinois. The last several years I have been taking trips to the bay area to visit my daughter. I love hiking on Mt. Diablo and lately have been thinking it would be fun to be a trail runner. Also, being from Illinois, where there is no hills and it snows all winter, how cool would it be to listed as one of the top finishers in my age group with my name and address listed a long with all the runners from California. I'll be running the two marathons for fun, but it will be the start of something big. When I get home from Big Sur, in the end of April, the weather will be getting better and I will be able to start building my name in my age group in the local races.

    My long term plan is to train and race for the next two and a half years till I turn sixty years old. By then I plan to compete in the senior games and be a top ranked runner in my age group.

    Today I can barely jog a mile. I am five foot eight and 175 pounds. I am going on a very strict diet and will be training daily. Each evening I will post what I have done for the day, how I feel, what I ate and the miles that I run. Once a week I will post the pounds that I lose, the total miles for the week and any milestones that I hit." 

 

So this is the man on the journey with me but he doesn't know, so don't tell him ;-)

Dad Joining Blog But He Doesn't Know

Earlier today my dad and I were talking and he mentioned someone he met that might be able to help him train smarter.  I asked him if he had ever heard of Team In Training.  First he said he thought that was just around in my area (California).  Then he said that if it's by him it would be in Chicago (he's in the suburbs) and he's not going to Chicago.  While I continued to talk to him about it I got on the site and found a nearby chapter for him with an upcoming informational meeting.  (Of course I found one!) And then he said that the program is designed for people just starting out.  I told him that it's for all levels of athletes and he could tell him that his goal is to decrease his time and they would work with him for that.  I said he'd just have to raise money for the charity.  That would be an obstacle with his condition, even more so.  The direct response was, "I'd like to raise money to pay my bills." (Wouldn't we all?) I didn't go there though, just encouraged him to at least check out the information meeting.

Well, he just called me again and he said that if I'm really interested in his training (I asked him to mail me his first running log from 1989) then he could send me an email every day with an update on his progress.  I told him that he could do that or he could start a blog and share it with the world and get feedback and make connections.  He told me that he didn't think anyone would be interested.  I do though.  I think he's fascinating and I know there are others like him that could relate to him and his struggle.   If he does this comeback I know his mental state will improve to some degree and hopefully he could be an inspiration to others. 

Since he doesn't want to give blogging a try I asked him if I could have free rights to publish anything online that he emails me.  I told him to put parentheses around anything that is private but I made sure other than that, would it be okay for me to use it and he agreed.

He said those emails will start tomorrow so starting tomorrow this blog will have two authors but one of them won't know.  After the marathon I will share this blog with him but until then, it's just between us....my readers to be and me.

My Motivation to Run a Marathon

My dad is currently training to run the Oakland Marathon on March 28, 2010.  He used to run marathons and other running events but he suffers from chronic depression so that amongst other things has prevented him from a lot of his potential.  We talk on the phone a lot and I try to help encourage and motivate him when he gets good ideas like this but when he's low, he's very low and the periods of high don't last long enough.  I'm hoping that he will stick through his training and complete the marathon.  I remember once before, years back that we were talking and I had gotten the idea that after he dies I would run a marathon to honor him.  I don't know how but at the time it seemed appropriate for me to share that idea with him.  He told me that if I was really serious then he'd rather me just do it while he's alive.  Makes sense.  Well, I think now is the perfect time for me to do this for him.

Instead of telling him now and getting his hopes up, I've decided to make it a surprise.  I know he'll be thrilled and I love to surprise people.  I'm not sure how training is going to go.  Maybe I'll have to switch it to just doing the half marathon.  I don't think I've mentioned this yet...my dad is the only runner in the family so this is a huge challenge for me.  I don't know how his training is going to go either.  He's in Chicago and winters are rough, much harder to train there than here in the Bay Area.  If it gets to a point where he is talking about giving up and I think I'm still on track to being able to do it then I will tell him that I've been training and hopefully that will be enough motivation for him to continue.

Goal: Going from 0mi to 26.2mi.
Oakland Marathon, March 28, 2010 with my dad

I registered for Team In Training yesterday and started training today and did 1.99 miles. Check back soon for more on that next time.