My better is better than your better

I am not a runner. I’ve never claimed to be a runner. I didn’t run in school, and I don’t really enjoy running now. With that said, I ran in the Kansas City marathon last year. That’s right, 26.2 miles. I definitely didn’t set any records, but I did finish. Let me bridge the gap for you from me not being a runner to running a marathon.

I started exercising in 2006 after my doctor told me I needed to change my lifestyle in order to lower my blood pressure or I would need to start taking medication to lower it. I didn’t want to be a 28-year-old on blood pressure pills, so I joined the gym at work. I started jogging on the treadmill a few times a week and started paying attention to my diet. At my 6 month follow-up the doctor said my blood pressure was much better and I should continue with the exercising to maintain my health.

After being able to run a couple miles on the treadmill I signed up to run a 5K. I’d never run a race before, so I thought it might be fun. It was harder than I thought; I hadn’t run outside, and 3.1 miles outside is harder than 3.1 miles on a treadmill. After my first 5K I started running outside and did a couple more 5K’s. I wanted to do the fun ones, such as one where you run inside a cave, one that was at night, and one where you run around a jail. During this time my brother also ran a few 5K’s in Chicago, so we would try to beat each other’s time. I think he won with a time of 23:37 at a race, whereas my best time was 23:40 (although he had a friend with him who ran all the time and set a pace for him so he could beat me. I’m not saying that wasn’t a smart thing to do; I just wish I had a friend who is fast and could help me out). I had originally wanted to run a 5K in under 20 minutes (because that’s what Tito Ortiz said he did while training for a fight up in Big Bear), but I realized that I can’t run that fast for 3 miles. The people who run that fast are the people at the races with the super short shorts and 0% body fat. You see those people when the starter pistol goes off, and then you never see them again because they sprint the entire 3 miles and never break a sweat.

Fast forward to the spring of 2008. I was in a real funk. I was never happy and the usual jovial William was nowhere to be found. Some people thought I was either crazy or depressed, or maybe a little of both. The main reason why I was so unhappy was that I hated my job. I understand that a person shouldn’t find his/her self worth in their employment and it’s only a job, but someone should enjoy what they do at least some of the time. My work wasn’t challenging anymore and I was basically a babysitter to others. I hated being at work and I let that affect my personal life. I needed something to focus on to take my mind away from my job. I liked working in IT at my company; I just hated the team I was on. I had found another group that I really wanted to work for within the IT department, but their team wasn’t going to have an opening until the fall of 2008 at the earliest.

I decided to set a goal of running the Kansas City marathon. I read somewhere that less than 1% of the world’s population has finished a marathon, so I thought that’s something I could do and be proud of. I didn’t know anything about running a marathon, so it gave me something new to research and it provided goals and benchmarks to motivate me. I would run a few miles 2 or 3 times during the week and then do a long run on Saturday mornings. It was nice because it got me out of the house and kept me active (I tend to just sleep or lay around when I’m depressed). The 2+ hours of running on Saturday mornings also provided time for me to think about my life and what I want to do with the rest of it. On a side note, I could also eat anything I wanted to while training for the marathon and not worry about gaining weight, which was really nice.

About 2 months before the marathon an opportunity at work arose sooner than expected for me to join the team that I had wanted to join. I pursued the opportunity and moved to the other group. I now had a new, challenging job on a good team. I realized that I didn’t really need the marathon anymore to make me happy; I was happy with my job once again. I decided that I had trained this hard for months so I should go ahead and run the marathon, although I had no desire to do it. The marathon went ok; I hurt my knee on mile 11 but I wanted to finish because I had put in so much time training and I wanted to finish it and be done with it (this was not a wise thing to do – because of my decision to continue running the marathon I damaged my knee enough to require knee surgery in December). My finishing time wasn’t what I had hoped it would be, but at least I finished. It was cool to run in my own town and the Kansas City marathon is nice because it takes you through Westport, the Plaza, Waldo, and downtown.

I learned a few things while training and running the marathon: One is that once you can run 7-8 miles, you can keep running all day (at a slow pace). All you need to do is keep your fluids and energy up with GU (or any other type of running energy supplement) and water. The other thing I learned is that people run marathons for a lot of different reasons. Sure there are some people who enjoy running and run marathons for the fun of it, but there are also a lot of people who run a marathon because something is wrong in their life and training for the marathon is a way out. If you ever hear someone say that they ran a marathon and they don’t seem like a runner to you, I challenge you to try to figure out what their motivation was to run the marathon. What was wrong in their life that they thought running a marathon would help? Divorce/bad breakup, mid-life crisis, stay-at-home parent who needed a challenge, maybe they needed to lose weight, or maybe they were like me and hated their job. Don’t get me wrong - I’m not saying that anything is wrong running a marathon to help with your mental and/or physical health. I think it’s good that people take control and try to do something to fix their life. I did it, and it helped to get me through a rough spot.

I have no desire to run another marathon. I may do a half marathon someday, but I don’t feel that I need to do another one. I still run a few times a week at work during lunch to keep me in decent shape, but I still don’t really enjoy running, and I’ve never experienced that “runner’s high” that real runners talk about. If I could be healthy and never exercise again I would choose that.


Song of the day: “True Love/Star of Bethlehem” by Angels & Airwaves. It’s actually 2 tracks from their I-Empire album, with the first track being the intro to the second track. This song reminds me of my long, Saturday morning training runs for the marathon. This was always the first song I’d listen to while warming up and running that first mile. A lot of the time it was still dark out when I’d start and I’d hear this song while watching the sun come up while running.

You’re not that pretty and you’re not that special

When did The Weather Channel start trying to be a real TV channel? Why doesn't The Weather Channel just show the weather forecast anymore? When I'm watching TV and I turn to The Weather Channel it's for one thing - a quick update on the current weather. I don't want to watch "When Weather Changed History”, “Storm of the Century" or some other show about the effects of a hypothetical massive tidal wave hitting the coasts. I just want the Local on the 8's that will show me the current weather, local radar, and 3 day outlook. I realize that they still show Local on the 8’s during these shows, but it’s only scrolling at the bottom and they don’t show the radar.

I don't even know anyone who watches these other shows on The Weather Channel anyway. Does anyone know of someone who plans their evening around watching these shows, or sets their DVR to tape these so when they get home from a long day they can pop some popcorn, get a drink and sit on the couch to catch up on all of the Weather Channel’s intriguing programming that they’ve missed? I don't think so. If these shows were that interesting then other real TV channels would be showing them.

Please stop trying to be dramatic Weather Channel and just give the people what they want. Show the current weather while playing light jazz instrumental music. It’s a simple concept; stop trying to church it up.


Song of the day: “Bring ‘Em Out” by T.I. No reason – it’s just a good song. Swizz Beatz knows how to make a beat.