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!
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The following is the running story of Paul (aka KryptonianDog), an inspiring dude who writes on the blog “The Running Jerks.” He’s also fundraising for a run through Firstgiving to raise funds for the Chron’s and Colitis Foundation of America. Read this post to learn more and contribute here.
Why am I doing this?
Well, for the abridged version… I got fat. Like really fat. Like embarrassed to take my shirt off fat. And it’s not like it snuck up on me either. I’ve been moderately overweight since sophomore year of college and have stayed around 230-240 for the past four years. I just never had the drive to change anything.
That is until my “come to Jesus” moment on May 1st, 2009.
Now there were signs that things had gotten out of hand. Pictures from my friend’s wedding last Spring showed that my girlfriend attended said wedding not with her boyfriend, but pile of blubber that came a’calling when he heard about the buffet. When I needed to get a new suit for my younger brother’s confirmation, I was fitted for size 40 pants. I promised myself I would never hit that milestone and entertained the notion of walking into the church sans pants.
But on May 1st, things got real real.
It was late at night and I had just finished a fine day of work. I sitting at the computer, no shirt of course, and was trolling around the internet for comic book gossip and funny monkey pictures. For some reason (fallen gummy bear?) I looked down at my belly and was appalled. Something clicked. I had never thought of myself as fat. Sure, I was kinda tubby in “more to love” kinda way. But this stomach was just obscene.
Of course, the first thing that I did was log on to facebook and broadcasted my grief.
“Paul Frommelt just realized that he is physically disgusting. Why didn’t anybody tell me?”
Of course this was an opportunity for my friends to poke a little fun, which was funny, but the sad fact remained. I had let myself go in a big bad way.
Upon learning of my disgusting obesity, I decided that my plan of attack would be in three phases. Phase I: Eat like an adult. Phase II: Run! Phase III: Push some damn weights around. The first phase started the next day. Gone was McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King and sweet sweet Five Guys. Red meat became a no-no. Chicken, rice, green veggies, salads and turkey sandwiches were the way to go.
Phase II started a soon after. Let’s just say that it didn’t start very well. Fun Fact: During the first week of track practice in high school, I ran in red high top Chuck Taylors. Another Fun Fact: I’m an idiot. So I wasn’t really prepared to run. I had a beat-up old pair of shoes and two atrophied sticks that some would consider legs. My first run went like this: run like a zombie for about a mile (the old Romero zombies, not the newfangled Danny Boyle zombies), walk for half a mile, curse my maker and cry a little bit, run home. This went on for about a week until I decided to get a little more serious.
I bought a fancy new pair of running shoes that included a slot for a Nike+ sensor. That’s how I know exactly how far I have run and for how long. That day I learned an important lesson… the more money I spend on this endeavor, the more I can shame myself into running. Plenty of trips to the Under Armor section of Dicks followed.
Anyhoo, starting on May 12th, I set a goal of getting down to 200 pounds by July 5th, 2009.
I got close, but my torrid affair with running wasn’t over.
For me, running serves a purpose – the purpose of getting rid of my horrible horrible belly. But with my goal weight inching ever closer I risked the very real possibility of falling right off the wagon shooting back up to 240 pounds.
I assume it would go something like this: After stepping off of a scale that reads 199, I would immediately plan a celebration. Celebration requires cake, naturally. Because it would be a very personal celebration – my personal accomplishment – the cake would solely be for me. I imagine that I would lock myself in a room, probably in my underwear and a pointy party hat and eat the entire cake.
Now, eating an entire cake is an accomplishment in itself. You know what that means? More celebratory cake. Finish the cake, celebrate with another cake. The wonderfully chocolaty cycle will continue until the sobs of my girlfriend become too much for me to handle and I leave the locked room, 40 pounds heavier.
I don’t want that to happen. So as my goal weight drew nearer. I decided to set another goal. Luckily, my friend Mike was reaching his own breaking point with his belly. He first tried to literally survive on about 200 calories per day. When he realized that he is an unrealistic boob, he decided start a running adventure of his own.
So a plan was hatched. Mike and I would become marathon runners (I’ll pause for a second to let that sink in.)
We decided that the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon was close enough that we could brag about planning on running it but far enough away that we could wimp out before it got real.
Now, about five months later, I am fifty pounds lighter at 185 pounds. I’ve run over 450 miles during that time and have participated in two 5K races and a 10K. I still have a long way to go, but I like to think I’ve taken a pretty swell first step.
To take part in the Nike+ Human Race and join the team with Paul, click here. Share this story with friends on Facebook & Twitter! To have your running story told, email me at dockin80@gmail.com!
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