Topher tagged me recently on his blog, but before we get to that, let’s deal with the fact that it’s been 58 days since my last run. The main reason I haven’t felt like running recently is because work has been stressful lately. I work in the IT department of a small university, and contrary to what most people think, the summer is our busiest time of year. We basically do all of our upgrades during the summer while most people are gone and then try to maintain what we have during the Fall and Spring. So, I’ve been a little exhausted at the end of most days. I have two more major projects to tackle in the next month, but hopefully things will settle down after that. Other than that, the Wii Fit and a new weekly outing with friends to go bowling has been keeping me from putting on pounds.
Now, on to Topher’s game of tag. I think you’re normally supposed to tag 5 people, but I only know 2 runners who blog: Topher and Joe Thorn; so I guess I’m tagging Joe.
1. How would I describe my running 10 years ago?
Ten years ago I was 20 years old, a sophomore in college, and spent most of my time playing on computers. I think the only time I would have gone running at the time would be the day that a friend of mine trash-talking about how he could run further than me on a 15-minute run. He was a runner but not a natural one, so I called his bluff. We went to the track and I almost lapped him on the 1/3-mile track. I was pretty proud of myself at the time, but for the next couple days, I could hardly make it up the stairs to my third-floor dorm room. So, I would describe my running back then as “devoid of everything except arrogance.”
2. What is your best and worst race experience?
Since I’ve only had one official race so far, my best and worst would have to be the “Steamboat Challenge” Half-Marathon I ran last October.
3. Why do you run?
Because I need to lose about 25 pounds, first of all. More important that than is the fact that we’re on Step 2 of Dave Ramsey’s baby steps to financial peace. Step 2 is paying off all your debts except for the house. Because of our old debt, I can’t go down to Bike Town and take home a $2000 road bike or even a $500 mountain bike. Instead, I spent $50 on a pair of shoes and started running around the neighborhood.
4. What is the best or worst piece of advice you’ve been given about running?
As a newbie attempting a Half-Marathon after only 8 weeks of running, the best advice was to run an easy pace. It took a while to train myself to slooow dooown. It’s a long race.
Worst advice: at the start of the race, sprint up ahead of everyone and yell, “I’m winning!!”
5. Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.
For some reason music is all I can think of, so here’s a few factoids: I can’t stand most 80’s music, but I like Bluegrass (and I mean real Bluegrass, like Ralph Stanley). When I get a little stressed at work, I usually start listening to Collective Soul or the Beach Boys.
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1. Thanks for posting
2. We love love love listening to Dave Ramsey. We haven’t done the course, though, but love his advice. Except for the one day I told my wife I was going to go buy running shoes at a real running store, got in the car, and Dave was on. I still bought the shoes, but felt guilty.
3. Bluegrass rocks! My wife took me to a wicked awesome concert a few years back featuring some of the artists from O Brother Where Art Thou (Down From the Mountain tour). Yea, some of them were more hip/modern, but the highlight was seeing/hearing Ralph sing. Best concert ever.