Not even sure where to begin, San Antonio is a great town and we stayed on the Riverwalk found a great hotel, good price and terrific location. The Riverwalk reminds me of New York's Little Italy and Bourbon Street (without the nekked girls)as you walk by the restaurants the keep beckining you in and most of them are just not good, not to mention overpriced. We did get out to Chris Madrids for the best burger in Texas and yes, we had a few Lone Stars and Fat Tires, so not a total culinary loss. But the race - I think I've got this Rock N Roll series of races down, over promise, under deliver, charge exhorbitant prices on everything and the people will come! The good: absolutely perfect weather, perfect, a gorgeous day, the Bad: the course. San Antonio is a beautiful and historic town, however when you run north for 10 blocks, south for 10 blocks, hey, isn't that our hotel, east, west, east, okay, let's go around the Alamo Dome and we're done. We did go through one magnificent neighborhood and though I did not do the marathon, it sounds like they got sent out to Bronx and back. Just my thinking, a little imagination and if they had 70 bands out there I'll kiss your heinie at MacDonalds at High Noon and give you a day to draw a crowd! The Ugly - we were excited when we saw they had a shuttle 2 blocks from our hotel so we got out there 45 minutes before the last shuttle would run, as did our friends from Birmingham (one of whom was celebrating her 60th B'day with this trip and run). The line is moving and then it slows to a halt, I mention to Micki "I hope they planned on all the folks staying downtown near the Riverwalk" and Bingo, Bango, Bungo - a race official comes up to the LONG line and says "The buses are caught in a traffic jam at the start and it'll be an HOUR before they get back to take those near the back, so WALK to the start!" Talk about an "Oh $hit!" moment!!! Can you imagine training for 20 weeks to run a marathon and oops, we didn't plan so you walk 2 miles (more like 3)to the start carrying your 'check bag' and get ready to race! ARE YOU NUTS!!! But they did! Luckily 3 buses pull up right then (the LAST 3) and scramble on and our friend whose 60th b'day it was, almost got shut out and only because we threatened to commandeer the bus (what a blog that would have been!) did he let her and our last friend on. Once we got TO the 'area' (a mile walk to the start from where they let us out) the race had started and Micki and I were supposed to be in Corral 2 but the very front was now corral 8. Now, these races are expensive anyway but a cheap white cotton short sleeve shirt??? C'mon, are you nuts? I got a better shirt at the Hueytown 10K for Pete's sake. What made the whole thing worthwhile was, after we finished and got our 1 free beer, we watched for our friends and seeing the finishers as they rounded that last turn, their smiles, their arms raised in triumph the sheer joy of their triumph erased all the bad. And yes, we saw Lindsay and the "Bama Babes' as they celebrated Lindsay's birthday the last 13.1 mile event. Sometimes I have to remind myself after I run not to be so critical of a run; the sheer volume of work that goes into one, then one missed detail or unforeseen circumstance can wreak havoc. But what really matters is seeing all the finishers, all those people I'll never see again celebrating the fact that they made their own life better, one step at a time...that WAS worth the price of admission.

Headed to San Antonio for a weekend of relaxation and a little running. We'll do the Rock n Roll Half and I'm not even wearing my watch - don't care. I'm going to let my mind relax and think of 2 things at the race - the start gun and the finish line. Going to start running when I hear one and stop when I see the other; the rest of the time I'm going to eat LOTS of Tex-Mex food and drink Fat Tire beer (maybe a little Shiner Boch)and chase my wife around the hotel room. I'll give you a report when I get back (not on the hotel room - on the race); sometimes it's good to go, to run, just for the sheer fun of it. I'll look at people and think things like- wow I wish I looked that good, or Oooo, don't believe I'd wear that or that's gotta hurt, and yeesh, maybe he lost a bet. Hopefully I'll get some ideas out there at a seminar or 2 and watching the race organizers; we'll see. Like Prince John (Richard Lewis) said in 'Robin Hood - Men in Tights'..."Wedding or a hanging; either way it's gonna be alot of fun, huh?"

You know what 2 words I hate? "Yeah, but....hate 'em with a passion! "I ran my first 5K/10K/half marathon" "Really? That's terrific!" "Yeah, but I was slow." SO WHAT?!? That fact is THAT YOU DID IT! Why and when did we start minimizing our accomplishments? We do it all the time - "What a nice sweater" "Oh, this ol thing?" "You've lost weight!" "I'm working on it, I need to lose a lot more." STOP THE INSANITY! (obscure Susan Powter reference). Just say "Thank you" ...It's your accomplishment - revel in it, accept the awknowledgements, gracefully and move on. I got a photo from one of my runners who just completed her first half marathon and wow, what a smile! Her first half marathon, what an accomplishment! What a great feeling and we have so few truly wonderful moments in life why not love each one to the fullest? I coach another runner who is so focused on her goal of a Half, then the full that when she ran her first 10K she really just blew it off as no big deal. Whoa, I've got some work to do there. Any coach can draw up a schedule, tell you how far to run and when - but I want my guys to have a 'love of the game'. Runners work hard to achieve their goals and if you work that hard, their should be some reward evenif it's 'internal'. If anyone earns the right to be joyful it's a runner who has just conquered a new distance - we truly work for each and every mile. There's no luck, just lots of training, hard work, and sweat. Each time we run any distance especially in a race/event, even if we've done it (the distance) before, we should be grateful and excited. Life has enough disappointments and we limit our joy for some reason, running does so much for us, slow runs, long runs, fast runs - they all accomplish something - burns calories, strengthens the heart (and muscles and lung capacity) clears our mind, helps us grow spiritually, have a great talk with a friend, of just cover the distance of the day, something is accomplished. Enjoy it, revel in it and see how much fun it is to celebrate even inwardly, how much fun it is to be joyful. I know, not my best blog but there's a bunch who are preparing to start training for the Mercedes Half and almost every week will culminate in a new distance, a new 'farthest I've ever gone' and there needs to be a lot of excitement, contagious excitement, creating a lifetime love of running. "I ran the furthest I've ever gone today"....Yeah but....

Okay, so he wasn't alive; I put dead snakes right behind live ones! This one was on South Lakeshore near the new sports complex and a car got him/her (how do you tell, come to think of it who cares?). This was mile 5 into a 15 mile moring run and if that snake had been alive the other 10 miles would have been done in under 3 minutes. Other than that, maybe the best long run I've had in months! I had 5 more to do with one of the ladies I coach that night (total of 20 if you're math impaired)and I was really worried that I'd be dead - nope! Another great run, bets 20 (sorta) in a while....and no I'm not getting cocky. Speaking of 'cocky' off to Columbia, south Carolina to watch South Carolina play Arkansas - my dad played footbal there so my nephews and I are taking him up for a littel walk down memory lane (yippee). Oh well, somewhere new to run and explore....these are the 'dog days' of training for a marathon, right now it's boring but keep it up - these are the miles that make you strong, mentally and physically. Before you know it you'll be finishing your last 20 and starting the taper so keep positive. And seriously, withall the color inthe trees how can you not LOVE running and the outdoors? Enjoy - Carolina running report on deck.....

If you've ever listened to Jimmy Buffet's 'The Weather is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful' then you've heard that in the intro - sorry that I've been slack but the BTC just did the VulcanRun10K and I was Race Director - talk about time consuming. It's okay, it's just that I had to let other stuff 'slide'...like the blog. I have to say it's one of the most rewarding and disappointing things I've ever done. Rewarding in watching all these people achieve a goal and having the race go off logistically perfect; disappointing in that the businesses of Birmingham and the area do NOT support it, and the members of the running community that don't run don't support it. How in the hell do people think things get done without volunteers? I am amazed at the people that I know personally that DO NOT give back and even worse those that pass themselves off as being 'important' in the running community that just seem to disappear; and lastly those that think they are more important than anyone else I should listen to them NOW and do things THEIR way OY! It's a good thing I'm not a mn of violence - though this almost drove me to it. So my running went missing this weekend, I did awaken in Chattanooga Sunday, another 2 words of advice if your spouse is from out of town: 1)Never go to any of their high school reunions, you'll be ignored and bored and 2) NEVER GO TO ANY OF THEIR HIGH SCHOOL REUNIONS!!! But the run Sunday was terrific, I love running up there. Sunday early I took off and ran to the North Shore across the Walnut Street Bridge (walking bridge) and ran around the other side of the river then back over the Market Street Bridge and around the Chattanooga Choo Choo (Pardon me, boy)it was crisp, colorful, and energizing and boy did I need energizing. Got in a 14 mile run this a.m. with 3 different people that I coach 6:00/7:15/8:15 - the first 2 runners are pretty strong (one training for Disney, 2nd for Mercedes Half)and the last one is my newest client so I just took her on an easy 3 mile run to get an idea of her strength and pace, we had fun. And isn't that what it's all about...fun; yeah the race had to come off, it had to be quality, efficient and fun; there was no doubting the efforts, but it's just not that serious, it's not the Olympics. I finally had to ask people whether they wanted to complain and show their ass or were the really interested in helping, most were interested in showing their ass. Good news is that was only a few - the volunteers I DID have were magnificent, simply magnificent and the 1700+ finishers had one of the best days of their lives, worth me putting up with people showing their ass? You bet - "Ah Billy Clyde wasn't insane, if it doesn't work out there'll never be any doubt that the pleasure was worth all the pain."

Ten weeks ago there were about 90 people out on the 'track' walking a half lap and jogging a half lap - now 10 weeks later I had close to 50 people do a 'trial run' Saturday on the Vulcan course and they finished and with smiles as big as Obama's tax plan. What a great day! Next Saturday as they line up on 19th to start the Vulcan run they will have confidence and a belief in themselves that they CAN run 6.2 miles. In the beginning I tell every group to 'believe', believe in themselves and stick with the program - if they do that they WILL be successful. It's a little more than belief really; we're all familiar with the 'Golden Rule' the last part which says "love your neighbor as yourself". Let's focus on the last 2 words "as yourself" - too many people give up too soon, they make excuses and stop the program because they have no idea what it's like to deal with success or be successful in an area where THEY choose, they don't believe in themselves at all. Maybe the others, the ones that DID it didn't believe either, in the beginning..but slowly,dya by day, run by run the doubt turned away. they begin to make the RIGHT choise for themself. Heck anyone can wake up everyday and do what they are told - but in R101, they have to CHOOSE to come to the runs, to follow the program, to complete the runs. Yesterday close to 50 people did and now they believe in themselves a little more - the distance doesn't lie...They did it. Maybe now they love themselves a little more,maybe they are a little more confident and feel a little better about themselves and just maybe each day will be a little better...maybe now they CAN love their neighbor as themselves, cause they love themselves a LOT more....running can do that to ya - and now you HAVE to believe!

Man, growing old stinks - we just got back from doing the 'Hot to Trot Reverse Duahtlon' at the beach and though I had a great race I was 2 minutes +/- slower than 2 years ago. The fact that my training has been off for a variety of reasons is not an excuse. Sort of as Vizzini in 'The Princess Bride' said to Fezzik (Andre the Giant) as he was hauling the 3 of them up the 'Cliffs of Insanity', "I do not accept excuses" - from myself anyway. I'll just have to train harder. It's funny, my knee works fine (and it's the OTHER knee, not the one I originally hurt)butit's very sore and stiff the next day. EXCEPT today - it feels good and that's a plus. Anyway, I did well enough to win my age group, yessir I SMOKED the only other guy in my age group! That's one good thing about this age stuff, if I can keep on going I'll outlive all the competition. Anyway, a fun event; it starts and finishes at the FloraBama; you bike 9.2 miles then run 5.6 (around an inland lake - absoutely gorgeous) then bike the 9.2 miles back. The return bike ride is ALWAYS into a headwind (grrr), but there is beer at the finish, and of course after the awards and beer we head to The Keg for a cheesburger and life is good. But that was all in my plan, bike out, get the 'starting adrenalin rush' out, find my groove and ride to transition, change shoes, establish a rhythm on the run and stay within it. Then the same on the return bike, find that groove and hold it as long as I could. I did all 3 extrememly well and actually got better from bike 1 to run to bike 2. Bike 2 (return) seemed the shortest, even though with the headwind it was my slowest 'split'. Haven't looked at the results yet, but a good friend was attempting a BQ (Boston Qualifier) was running their marathon recently. The name, sex, and race shall remail nameless in case someone reads this and takes it wrong, but this person (I'm betting - of course if I'm wrong I'll eat a lot of crow and freely admit it) has no chance in Hades of making it. Talent? Yes, ability, yes, strength you betcha - able to plan a race, keep the pace and execute the plan....no way! from the neck down, excellent runner, plenty of determination and all that there stuff I already said - but I raced with this person a few weeks ago and they were in front of, no wait, behind, I mean in front, oh WAAY up there, wait, how'd you get behind me, kind of pace. too much wasted energy. In any race, more so in the marathon, you HAVE to have a strategy even if it's just to run even splits. You have to know your time goal (this person did) and your mile splits and then SIT ON THEM - not too fast, not too slow, ON PACE. Training wise you want the first 10 to seem TOO easy, the second 10 to seem just right and have to 'push' the last 6 and be strong enough to be ABLE to push. The faster you go out, the less chance you have to finish well. In fact the 'rule' I like I got from an article In Running Journal some 5 years ago and even if not exact, the point is clear..."for every 10 seconds per mile you go out too fast, you'll lose a minute in the end." People say, "but I felt so good!" Well of course you did you ninny, you trained to run a marathon - how did you think you'd feel at mile 1? If you use a coach (or not) go into the race with an agreed upon plan and execute it. Know your required pace to achieve your goal and do NOT veer from it until maybe mile 24, then you can ramp up. Remember whatever MAIN goal you started with, finish, PR, or BQ and stick to it. This applies less stringently to the 5K, more so as distances increase. Trust your training, respect the distance, plan the run, then run the plan; that is a terrific recipe for success.

Last Saturday still stunk, however as I like to say, "never belittle your accomplishments" and I did get the medal for finisihing and if you finish, you win. Get the medal hell, I EARNED it! Hartford is typical of many towns where they are trying to revitalize downtown and the architecture and old buildigs are gorgeous, however I found most everything about the race to be chaotic. Packet pick up was very poorly organized, the race shirt was your basic white cotton 'T' (really for 85 bucks +...c'mon!), but they did give us a large 'runner's backpack' that you can put stuff in. The start line too was poorly organized but the course itself was well marked. They had one L O N G out and back from about mile 6 ish to mile 18 or so that was down this long road (forever) and then you turn around (ugh)so you see the same houses and sites a second time and they weren't that dang interesting the first time. Those people do decorate for Hallowe'en though....wow! THey have a gorgeous River Walk Park thingy but if we ran along it I don't remember it - we ran beside the levee's but the worst part was it seemed like they saved the hills for the last 6 miles. The finish was beautiful, running through a stone memorial arch but then the food wa awful - terrible selection of some nasty stuff Whole Foods was apparently trying to get rid of. Also, I ws tired of water and Gator-Ade and I wanted something, anything with flavor but ethy were out of that stuff. I know they had it cause Isaw the empty bottles. tha's one of my pet peeves,, running out of stuff - it's like runers who finish 'late' don't matter. I finlaly left that park and got a Coke...oh yeah - they wanted to CHARGE (10 bucks) for the post race beer! Bite me! So we left the post race, if I'm gonna pay for beer I'm gonna get the stuff I like! Over all, I would not recommend the race; there are other more funner and better organized events. My performance (el stink-o) was due to the fact that I let myself get scheduled to teach 3 cycle classes that Mon/Tues/Wed and I didn't get a good quality long run in and by 'quality long run' I mean a 21 mile or where I felt good. That's no one's fault but mine and if I;msmart I'll let my lapse in judgement be a reminder for the next marathon. It's something that's ingrained in me that I try to 'coach out' of my runners - I get a little cocky and sometimes I don't respect the distance. You can get away with that for a 10K and maybe for a 'half' - but the marathon will rear up and bite you ....and I have the teeth marks to prove it. So my 51st and 52nd will find me better prepared - I'm running Kiawah Island in December and Charlotte one week later (Oy!) - that'll get my wife 2 more states and put me under most likely. The best thing I can do (and you too) is profit or learn from my mistake and kick some serious ass in my next couple of marathons - until I get cocky again and get some new teeth marks.

For some reason whenever I reach a 'milestone' event (Boston, the first time - my 50th marathon) events conspire to make me have a 'less then pleasant' experience; plus the great the bad thing about BEING a coach is that I don't always listen to myself. You know the old adage about the lawyer that represents himself has a fool for a client prettymuch applies to coaching too. I would say I tapered poorly, but that would be like saying someone is a 'little bit pregnant' - I didn't taper at all and my legs were D E A D. The course was tough (this is the Hartford Marathon) but the weather was beautiful ( a tad warm towards the end) and it's kind of a neat area. Much more detail in several reports this week.....

But what a great day yesterday was - we ran the Hueytown 10, it was a gorgeous day, several of my R101's officially graduated, I had 2 runners win their age groups, and selfishly I ran a 'post-injury' PR, well paced, smartly planned race 7 days before my (hopefully) 50th marathon...wow, I'm tired just writing this. The guys in Hueytown do a great job and though those people look at runners as if they were from another planet they try their best to support us. More fun is seeing people get 'hooked', the anticipation at the start line; you have expereinced runners going through their rituals and you have 'newer' runners establishing theirs. The race starts and you see some people blasting out like their hair was on fire and you just know...hmmm, I'll see you again in a few minutes. The finish line of any race may be the most singularly inspriational place on the earth - experienced runners who have a 'good day' setting personal 'bests' and new runners finishing strong, arms aloft as they signal triumphantly to those present and more importantly to themselves that they are indeed athletes and can do what they train themselves to do! Maybe that 60 seconds to 5 minutes is one of the most life changing self affirmations you can have - many don't stick with running, many do - but forever more they KNOW that they have what it takes, whatever 'it' is, to make themselves the person they always thought they would be. Why don't they stick with it? Who knows? Support, self esteem, self denial - one my best friends places his 'self worth' in his relationships so if they don't run he'll quit just to 'satisfy' them. I'd rather speak of those who do continue on to conquer new distances (from the 10K to the 'Half' to maybe a full) or just to those satisfied souls who are quite content where they are; that is just as wonderful and inspiritional. I saw one runner Saturday who's a reporter and sometimes anchor for local news who's curently training for Memphis. She's beautiful, smart, talented and quite the athlete; I asked if she was doing the 'marathon', "No, I have no desire right now" and I think that's very smart. She maintains her love for the sport, she trains and doesn't do something she doesn't want to do. It's a fine line indeed; you don't always have to reach new heights. To continue to run and exercise, stay fit and do the things (races)you enjoy is nothing less that being successful in it's own right. There are different 'degree's of success - not just levels - and there's no wrong degree of success if YOU are happy. Isn't being happy the greatest success of all?