No Seperation of Church and Sport

"It is the challenge of running a 26-mile race that I find intriguing. It is like life itself. There are good moments and tough moments; you've got to enjoy the good parts and survive the bad ones. Along the way, you learn about yourself and how you respond to pressure and difficulty. You can't know for certain know how you will be until you are faced with the questions. In the difficult times you fight the feelings, try to calm and distract your body, while never letting the mental focus slip. At the toughest moments in a marathon, you have to concentrate on staying in the present. Literally, to think about putting one foot in front of the other and to go from one mile to the next." Paula Radcliffe, Marathon World Record Holder

I've had the honor in the last couple of weeks to share a little about my running story to one of our pastors who is preaching this weekend on perseverance. He's is using the marathon for his illustration.

It's very humbling to be asked, and am so very happy to share. I know that running or any hobby can mean much more than itself if we allow it (or open our eyes to see it). The quote above is taken from the book Paula, a biography I enjoyed reading over the holidays. I think the quote is very close to what I shared and it stood out as I read it. For those that want to listen to the sermon, go to

http://www.mysouthland.com

It’s the message from December 29-30

Winter Begins with More Daylight on it's Way!!!!

If any one woke up today and heard a huge collective sigh, that was because it the shortest day of the year. After six months of gradual loss of light, we can finally look forward to it in slowly increasing. I think all endurance athletes have this day marked on his/her calendar and celebrate it. I’ve run more in the dark hours this year, than any before and really looking forward to being able to see what I’m stepping on again.

This mornings run had a new challenge as we had freezing rain last evening. It was treacherous! The sidewalks were impossible to run on so I was running on the road. They had salted and sanded most of the intersections so I had traction there. Early in the morning there is not much traffic so I just jumped out of the way when a car approached.

January 1st and day #1 of specific training is getting close. I’ve upped my mileage this week, will take it easier next, and then be good to go. I’m excited to start logging more miles again and am often finding I’m out there for just a short time right now left wanting more. It will be exciting to notice more day light hours per day!

The Morning Routine

"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare." - Juma Ikangaa, Tanzanian Marathoner

I’ve found that the best time to get quality workouts is before work so often wake up in the early morning. I find the alarm ringing is much like a starter’s gun. Once it goes off, it’s game time. Either I’m going to go for it, or I’m going to role over and hit the snooze button (and miss the opportunity). Our days are so full that I usually plan at least a week ahead to know the workouts I’ll be doing so I know how early I will be getting up each day.

Because every minute counts, usually the night before I get everything ready for the day. This can be laying out all my clothes, creating a play list on the ipod, setting the coffee timer, placing a cup in the right place, just about anything. Tanya has even caught me to her surprise putting out coasters for my cups in the morning.

I have my routine down as well. Grab water, coffee, some yogurt and head to the TV to check a few things. First every single day is flip to channel 500, CNN. I half-jokingly call this time “Making sure nothing has blown up overnight”. From there Channel 505, Weather Channel and after that I’ll flip for another minute or two before starting to get dressed. This all goes fairly quickly and I’m out the door.

All this planning and routine helps get ready to give my best on that day. It’s nearly as important as the time spent on my feet. It feels a bit obsessive sometimes, to be slave to that routine, but I do get strength from it.

Offerings

“Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.” Romans 12

Could you imagine how you your life would look different if you actually believed and obeyed this? I’m really trying to focus on these words and trying to get that to translate to the heart. Often I’ve struggled in my sports to know if I what I’m spending so much time even matters.

I think that’s common of course, not just for sports, but for anything we do in our daily life. How can the mundane, the routine be important? We can make it important to ourselves, but to the bigger picture, does it matter? Does what I’m doing benefit others? Or we could also swing the other way and believe that what I’m doing has no importance at all. How hard would you be willing to work for something like that?

If you are supposed to offer what you are doing, you would only bring your best. You would do nothing with a half effort. You would also believe that what you are doing IS important and has a purpose and it’s not always up to you to know what that is. Only your best would cut it.

I’m trying to take this attitude into 2008 with my running but also the other things I do. I think it would make me a lot more willing to sacrifice, work harder and give my best. Running is opening up so many cool opportunities, and I think this all works together. It’s not up to me to control the big picture (and race results) but it is up to me to give my best in whatever I’m doing.

NYC Marathon Results???!????

Greg vs. the North Pole

Winter has hit our area harsher and sooner then I can ever remember. Manitoba has been in stuck in a deep freeze the last two weeks with snow on at least half the days. You can tell many are nervous that this winter will be the longest one ever. Often we are spared during the month of December from anything to harsh but not this year.

I’m slowly starting to ramp up my training to get my legs going again. It took about 4 weeks to feel ok on a run. The legs always felt heavy and without any spring. I’ve done just short recovery runs without any real effort. I’m slowly ramping up the time spent on the feet so I can by January 1st, I’m good to go for 2008. I’m planning on laying a huge base during the winter months so I’m hoping the worse weather is happening now.

Dreadmills, ahh, no Treadmills are just not something I enjoy, though I will be running on one a few times a week this winter. It’s very hard to run at any quick speed on ice, snow, and cold so I plan to at least get some tempo work done one a treadmill.

I had planned for an hour of running this morning, and was faced with a dilemma. Weather at 7 am was -27 with a -36 wind chill, so it looked like a good day to get inside and run, but somehow I just could not do it. I put on 4 layers and headed out and it wasn’t that bad. A few years of this and I think I’ve figured out the good layering techniques and tricks. I also went out because I think it will give me strength later. It really doesn’t get much colder than this, so if I go now, when I’m not taking things to serious, I should be very prepared when I am. Weather will not get the best of me.

Greg Penner, You are NOT an Ironman....

It is no secret to anyone that I’m dreaming of doing and trying to become an Ironman sometime in the future. That bug got a hold of me some years ago (I attending and actually worked a booth at Ironman Canada in 1999) and it’s been in the back of my mind for while. Every now and then it comes back strong and though I’m committed to running for some more years (want to see what I can actually do) it’s on my mind nearly every day. I’m in complete awe of those athletes. Truly amazing. What the top athletes do has puzzled many a researcher over the years. They can’t figure out how their bodies allow them to go that fast, over that long. Now having done well in two of the three disciplines, and with the strong desire to ride more again has me thinking about jumping in the pool more often. But I know the time commitment it takes to do well, and I really can’t see that happening for years to come, so I’ll stay a fan. Waiting for the New York Marathon to start, I spoke with a couple guys fresh off the world championships. One was from France and the other was an American who both posted incredible times there. Also a former 2 time world champion has been taking my brother Adam’s Online Pilot Ground School so we’ve traded some emails. Pretty cool!

If you ever need some inspiration, watch a video of the world championships from Kona. Who could not be moved by the experience? Tanya and I watched the 2007 World Championship video last weekend and were both fighting tears. The video producers know how to put inspiration stories with triumphal music to make you want to cry. I watch the videos over and over and am moved every time. If you ever need a pick-me-up, watch them! Ironman becomes much more than a race and really is used as a metaphor for overcoming horrible circumstances. It’s about one step at a time towards the path set out for us.

Coaching and the Steinbach 10k

I’m coaching in the local high school this year for the first time and am really enjoying it. It is something I’ve wanted to do for such a long time and finally found something and committed to it. It’s always difficult to get a way to the school but always find it so rewarding. Our team is tiny, but motivated so that works well. I’ve been doing this for 3 months now and we are building towards some competitions in the New Year. The guys are so attentive to learn and they are trying very hard to impress. I find myself having to hold them back from doing to hard of an effort a lot of the time.

But yesterday I scheduled our third test race, just to check their progress. I was very confident they had improved a lot since our last test (November 1) and wanted to show them that to encourage and build them up. With much satisfaction, their old best times were blown away. The guys and I were thrilled. I have one athlete, Rene who moved from Germany a year ago. He bested his time by an incredible improvement and you could see it in his eyes how excited he was. After we were finishing, he kept asking “how much faster was I?”. I finally found a big piece of paper, scribbled across it his times from the last tests and then finally this one. I told him to give it to his mom…

Also the planning for the Steinbach 10k Race is going along very well. Had a couple of meetings in the last week and things are starting to move. We have a highly motivated committee so that really helps.

Really enjoying these new opportunities and it seems more are popping up all the time. 2007 was really a re-awakening into the sport world and 2008 is going to be way better. It’s always hard to give the time as it seems it’s so limited, but find it so very rewarding.

New York Marathon Report 2007

This marathon is truly grand in every scale. I’ve never seen anything or even heard of anything this size. I had thought it would be big, with all those numbers thrown around by the race organizers, but it was just gigantic. I can’t believe they pull this off. Shutting down New York is no easy “feet”.Our day started at 5:40 and I was gone by 6:00. Caught a Subway to the Staten Island Ferry, just made the 7:00 crossing. We arrived on the other side at 7:30 and then a final bus ride. So many people! The start/waiting area was mad busy and was just buzzing with energy. Time went pretty quick and we could go to our start corrals around 9:10. I did so not long after and waited in there with my start group. Talked with a lot of guys, everyone amazing athletes so it was fun place to be. We got moved up to the bridge start line about 9:45 where we waited until the gun sounded.My start position was at the front, though I wasn’t as close as I thought. It took about 15 seconds to get a cross the start.. The bridge loomed and we zipped up it, but I held back. I’m pretty pumped to say that my slowest mile was the first and the 3rd fastest was the last. I desperately tried to run this race even paced and if you’ve seen the splits, pretty bang on!Two miles in we got off the bridge and in Brooklyn. And the crowds were there and never really left. It was unreal, almost ever block of every mile had people on it, some very loud, some quiet and subdued, but still out there. The diversity really sticks out, as there were so many foreign runners (seemed majority was either from France or Italy). Now imagine running through Little Italy with a pack of Italian runners. A tunnel of noise!I ran with someone from almost every nationality as well, or saw them. At the finish line, as we were high-fiving each other, a bunch of us shared where we were from. Not a single American was in our group! Its that diverse! Anyways, basically all of Brooklyn was a party with bands, gospel churches, garage bands, steal drums, you name it, it was there.An interesting part was running through the Jewish quarter. This was an orthodox area and they were out there, dressed in black with their hats and “sideburns”, but they lacked one thing. They did not make a peep! But hey, at least they were out there.Into Queens for a few miles was more an industrial area and the least populated area. Still good though. I was running with two Columbian runners that were about 5 feet tall, but getting huge screams.We crossed from Queens into Manhattan around mile 15, and from what I heard about the race, this was the best area. A few thousand feet while still on the bridge, I saw the people down on the street below and the roar of the crowd. It looked unbelievable and sounded even better. Imagine a football stadium 4 miles long. The best part is I got to see Tanya. We had made plans for her to be in a certain area and I somehow managed to hear her voice among the noise. Sweet!We ran into the Bronx where the street music was out in force, but were quickly turning back to Manhatten and the finish line. Again, a wall of noise for the final 5 miles through Harlem and Central Park. It went by quickly, which is a sure sign of feeling well. I never had a real bad patch during this race. My equipment, nutrition, pacing all felt good. So in all honesty, that is what is giving me the greatest sense of accomplishment, that I’m learning and figuring things out for these marathons. I ran near perfect split times (taking into account certain miles that were all up or down) and after mile 16 I don’t think I got passed by more than a couple of people all well passing hundreds. Felt great!The course is definitely up and down, the entire way. I wouldn’t say anything looked flat but I liked it. I still seem to like going uphill… and passed the most on the hardest hills in the last half.I got to see Tanya (somehow) one last time in the final mile and I gave the thumbs up. Its all uphill, but crowds just made you soar and I was going hard! Pretty quickly it was done. They do everything right here, you don’t have to stop at the finish line and could slow down over time. I never got sick or anything for once!I got interviewed by the New York Times (randomly) and the New York Runners Magazine (the people who put this all on) and I just raved to them about the quality of everything. I think the most send out a memo to anyone that lives here, because after leaving the race, any citizen would see you and give you congratulations.

Getting Motivated for 2008

So I’m in the time of year when of course I start thinking about next year. What races we’ll do, how I’ll train differently, but most importantly how is the motivation.

Motivation is obviously the key. Without it, I got nothing. I’ve come to the conclusion over the years, that what most motivates me is improvement. With running improvement can be easy to sense most of the time. If you run faster, you are improving. This works for about 75% of the races.

So I’m using the down period to reassess everything for 2008. What am I motivated for? I’m at the point where a couple of minutes of improvement is huge. Do I train for an entire year for 5 minutes quicker, or 3 or 2? I know I can go faster, but it comes down to wanting it. A nice thing about training for something like a marathon is that you can peak at a more mature age. Time is not the enemy yet. Priorities of course can shift, but for now I think I’m looking at several more years of hopeful improvement

So I’ll spend this next while coming up with the plan for 2008. Tanya and I will discuss future goal races (and maybe vacations around them). I think motivation is at an all time high (for running) so we’ll see. I know one question that’s important as well is “Can I work harder than I did”. That answer is yes, an easy yes. So it should be a good year!

30 Minutes After the Manitoba Marathon

This is my favorite marathon photo of all time (thanks Tracy). I look at it a lot and have it blown up. It was taken 30 minutes after finishing the Manitoba Marathon. It was not cold that day.

I had to dig really deep in this marathon (went out to fast) and I guess this is what happens. I didn't feel that bad, but don't look so good either. The paramedics came to see me and everything...

Breaking the Habit

Since New York, I wanted to take a bit of a break from training. This is all normal, just part of the cycle. In all my years of competing, I’d never done something so late in the year. It has brought new challenges from falling temperatures, no daylight, change of seasons, etc. I ran so much in the early morning darkness that I began to have that zombie feeling. That feeling is where you momentarily forget if it’s morning or evening. You can’t remember if you are supposed to be going to work, or going home to sleep. Everything just feels the same – tired.

So I don’t feel that way right now, things are all a little “too normal” right now. I’m still running, but a few times per week just to keep the body used to the pounding. So this morning I thought I’d run to work, cause I guess I’m lost that “loving feeling”?

Into Perspective

When I was mountain bike racing I remember reading an interview with the current World Champion. He was very open and spoke of how after he won his World Title, he just felt the burning question “now what?”. He had poured his entire life into reaching his goal, achieved it, but felt lost after it. I think he was missing the point and more so, an opportunity.

I am only a decent local runner. To the World of running I am a minnow in the ocean. My times are good for here, decent for Canada, but not much else after that. I will never be a true elite at this, not even close. I don’t run to make the Olympics, I don’t run to break records, I don’t run to even win races. I have perspective how good I am, and how good I’m not.

It comes down to being very personal. I want to go faster, to push, to see what I have in me. I just want to improve, to learn, to experience more of this. I love the discipline and life style that comes with the training. Running is a raw sport. It’s just you and the course and clock. No real equipment, no teammates, no drama, no faking it. Your legs do all the talking for you. I love that.

The only way to improve is to embrace being uncomfortable, especially in our environment. We have terrible weather, no real interesting place to run, no hills, and not even someone to run with. If you are not disciplined you got nothing. Discipline is sacrifice and through that you begin to learn and understand other areas in life. I hope to blog about those.

Welcome to my blog!

BLOG Post #1. Welcome! This is something I’ve been thinking about doing for years, and have finally signed up. I’ve want to do this for a few reasons.

1) Show a little into the life of what I and Tanya go through on these marathon preparations.
2) Hopefully give a little inspiration. One thing I’ve learnt since began running is how many people can connect and are moved by the marathon experience. 26.2 can become much more then a number if you allow yourself to see and feel it.
3) Hopefully create a bit of a community
4) This ones personal. I’ve come to enjoy journaling, so here I would create a nice record of these experiences.