13 States To Go

At a time like this when there is so much uncertainty about what the future holds you might find yourself asking, why plan? While it’s a valid question I think the answer is quite simple. Plan because you will have something to look forward to. Something to help you stay positive and believe that things will get better. Most of all plan because planning shows that you have hope. And what happens if the plans don’t work out like so many haven’t in the past couple of month? Plan again. Always give yourself something to look forward to and a reason to hope for better times ahead.  These pictures represent just a small part of my planning. The picture on the right was my plan to knock out 9 of the 11 states I have left to race in and still be back in time to be in my seat for the Olympic Trials. Then the pandemic hit and the first casualty on that list was the Olympic Trials that were postponed for a year. Something I can already look forward to next year because I have those tickets. ...

To say that this April has been unusual would be a huge understatement even though my plans this year were to not leave Oregon to travel until May because of doctors appointments. Every year from 2015 - 2019 I was on the road in April visiting family and friends and adding more states to my states raced list.  Sometimes all of my April races were in Missouri and other times I raced other states going to or from Missouri. The main point is that April has been a big travel month for me. In 2015 I raced twice in St. Louis. In 2016 I was recovering from knee surgery and my first race post op was an 8 mile race in the snow in Greenland, Colorado on my way home from Missouri. In 2017 I raced three races in St. Louis including the first that Chase ran with Stacie and me. That spring 2017 trip including visits in Missouri, Georgia, Florida to celebrate my son Jeff’s 50th birthday, Massachusetts to see my uncle Billy for the last time, New Hampshire to see my son in law Tom’s parents and b...

If someone would have told me just a month ago that I would think Virtual Races were a good thing I would have said “no way I’ll ever do one”! Boy has my opinion changed. This quarantine and stay at home order as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we have looked at many things. My opinion of virtual racing now is that it is a great alternative for not being able to race at all. I ended my last post talking about my first ever venture into virtual racing when I did the Neilson Challenge virtually.  I completed my second virtual event this past Saturday the day before Easter. I did a Run Fierce event called the Vietnam Veterans 58 Mile Challenge. I started it on the 1st of April and finished it on the 11th. I did 8 five mile days and 3 six mile days.  By comparison my monthly mileage totals for the first three months of the year were 20, 28 and 49. The factors going into completing this challenge were many. First my desire to honor those who gave their live...

Man what a terrible month March was! As if it wasn’t bad enough already it sucked the way it ended. I saw on the weather app that I had a couple hour break between rain storms so decided to get out and walk at least three miles. I was about half a mile from the house when I saw some horses in a pasture take off running for the trees. My first thought is what spooked them. Then a cow on the other side of the street started bawling loudly. And then the hail hit! 😳 One last punch from March. The picture is of hail still on my porch when I got home.  My therapist sent me some papers to work on goal setting. Goal setting has always been easy for me not only to do myself but to teach others to do as well. Not so much this time. I’ve found it hard to commit to any goals in these unsettled times. Well this morning I made a commitment to set at least one fitness goal and I decided to try to walk over 100 miles in April. I did five miles today for only the second time this year so hopefull...