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SpiritFarmer Runs on the Electric Hwy

My friend Steve, aka SpiritFarmer, has been influential in my spiritual and professional formation over the past few years. I’m thrilled that he’s chosen to join me on this running adventure. His running story follows as well as some links to get involved yourself. Enjoy!

My running story?  Well, allow me to clear that up from the get-go.  I assure you, what I do could hardly be called running.  I’m only a couple months into this new journey, and I’ve got a long way to go.  I’ll be honest – it’s been a rough year for me.  I won’t go into a sob story here, but I’ve experienced a sizable dose of life challenges.  And for quite a while there, I wasn’t handling things very well.  I was using my drug of choice – food – to fend off  feelings of depression, I was staying indoors constantly, and my body was paying the price.

And then a couple things happened.  First, I had to get brutally honest with myself about my relationship with food, and change the way I respond to stress, pain, and frustration (this is another long story of its own).  Second, my friend Petey, started blogging and tweeting about having been selected as one of ten ambassadors for the Nike+ Human Race 10K.  I knew he had been doing a good bit of running, and had lost a lot of weight as a result, so when he started talking about his role in the Human Race 10K and recruiting people to join his team – Electric Highway, I followed along.  Having recently gotten a new iPhone 3GS, I discovered that all I needed to give this thing a try for myself was a $19 Nike+ sensor to put in my shoe.  Call me a sucker, but I gave it a shot.

Because I was starting out significantly overweight, and previous attempts at “getting in shape” have produced re-occurrences of old sports injuries and shin splints, I decided I was going to walk.  Just two or three miles at a time to start.  But I quickly found myself experiencing all the things “they” say about the benefits of exercise: the stress relief, the energy increase, building health, etc.  I also have the blessing of living in the Seattle area, which has brilliantly beautiful summers, so I started walking trails near my home, soaking up the sun, breathing the fresh, clean air.  My walks became five and six miles long, and I even started mixing in some half-mile runs along the way.

Then, Nike put together a challenge on their website – an 8 day mileage contest in which the top 50 finishers would win a pair of Nike+ running shoes.  Partly because I was needing to get a new pair of running shoes anyway, and partly just to see if I could keep up, I gave the challenge a go.  Because I’m still a beginner and wasn’t willing to injure myself over a pair of shoes, I decided once again to walk.  I knew that Petey was in the challenge and was shooting for 100 miles in the 8 days, so I decided to try to keep up with him.  The first day, I walked 10.5 miles on a fairly hot day … and barely lived to tell the tale – I actually got sick that night because of it.  But the next morning I felt pretty good, and decided to give it another go on a shorter walk, with another one in the afternoon.  Day after day, I kept after it, through the sore muscles and feet.  Each day’s mileage increased, and as it turned out, I was actually keeping up with everyone on the leader board.  By the end of the 8 days, I had made it to the 100 mile mark, and finished in 29th place, right behind Petey (out of over 500 contestants that logged miles).  As I write this, my new shoes are on their way.  I’m going to take a wild guess and say that of the 50 winners, I’m probably the heaviest and slowest. 

I’m looking forward to participating in the Nike+ Human Race 10K on October 24.  I really doubt that I’ll be able to run the whole way.  But that’s o.k.  By race day, I’ll be walking and running about 30 pounds lighter than when I started this thing.  I still have a long way to go, but momentum is on my side.  I was really encouraged by the shoe challenge, because on the website’s message board, I discovered that one of the top ten finishers had lost over 100 pounds by using the Nike+ system, and another top ten finisher has lost 230 pounds at age 55 by using it (both are women).  The Nike+ web community is incredibly supportive.

I’m proof that anyone can start where they are.  One foot in front of the other.  Join me on the Electric Highway, and join the Human Race.  You don’t even have to be a “real” runner.

To take part in the Nike+ Human Race and join the team with Steve, click here. Share this story with friends on Facebook & Twitter! To have your running story told, email me at dockin80@gmail.com!