While I'm At It...

I am definitely planning on running the Paris Marathon. But am I doing this just for myself? I have already told ya’ll how I lost the weight so my daughter wouldn’t think it’s okay to be unhealthy, but if I’m putting my body through all this trouble, why not do more?


So, I started thinking about what I could do to make my marathon less about me & more about something bigger than myself. Days went by and I had no clue. I then thought about running it for charity. There are a lot of worthwhile organizations out there, but how do you know who deserves your hard earned (or raised) money? Besides, if I am putting my body on the line here, I want to make sure the money is going to be put to good use.

I started reviewing organizations, and boys & girls; you’d be surprised how many of these “charitable” organizations misuse the money they are given. I saw that one, Angel Flight West, that while an AWESOME charity, over 50% of all money donated goes to administrative expenses. If you want to learn more about Angel Flight West, which really is a remarkable charity, you can check them out HERE. I found a cool little, well, huge, website called Charity Navigator that really helped me in finding info on the charities I was considering. You can check out their site HERE.

I finally narrowed my list of charities & their reasons down to 5. They were:

- Lance Armstrong Foundation – Known to most as Livestrong, Maria & I have personal experience losing family members to cancer.

- Air Force Aid Society – I am their major demographic being in the Air Force & all. I also give to them every year through the Air Force Aid Fundraising on base.

- The Fisher House Foundation – They provide a home at most of the larger military installations, to give family members of service men & women, places to eat & sleep if their son/daughter is injured.

- Compassion International – Maria & I have supported a young girl, Erika Silva from Honduras, for several years now through Compassion International.

- Show Hope – Formerly Shaohanna’s Hope, this is a charity was started by Christian music artist Steven Curtis Chapman to care for worldwide orphans & help families involved in the adoption process.

Please click the names of the organizations above to visit their respective pages. Each & every one of them deserves whatever money you can give!

I finally chose the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF). Maria & I both lost our fathers to different forms of cancer. I have several friends who have beaten or are fighting cancer. They are an inspiration to me, so maybe by seeing me overcome a great obstacle in my life; maybe I can be an inspiration to them.

I contacted LAF about running a marathon & raising money for their organization through my run. They have a program where they run in the major marathons around the world, New York, Boston, London, etc, but they don’t have guaranteed entry into the Paris Marathon. So, they said I would have to run it as a “Grassroots Fundraising Campaign” which was fine by me, as long as they would allow me to run under their banner. I registered on their site and they provide a website where people can donate online, instead of me collecting money from the people I know all around the globe! Great! I got my site all set up and posted the link to my Facebook account. I got an email the next day saying that since my marathon is in 2010, I would be raising money under the 2010 Fiscal Year, so they had to remove my website and I can reset it up on October 1st. So, expect a link on here & on Facebook, begging for your money, around October 1st!

In addition to raising money for Livestrong, I hope to provide you some stories from Maria & myself about our personal experience supporting our loved ones who have battled cancer, and hopefully provide you with a story or two from some of my friends who are currently, or have beaten, their cancers.

What's the Deal With 47172?

Okay, some of ya’ll may already know what this means. That is my bib number, or racer number, for the Paris Marathon. I officially entered. I’m ready to rock & roll. I did this on September 15th. I was the 400th –ish person to sign up. I knew if I waited, I was leaving myself opportunity to back out. I cannot & will not back out now!

I don’t know what the deal is with having this bib number, but as I am running, I keep saying it to myself. Am I weird? I guess it’s just another motivator… it does have its drawbacks though.

I keep thinking that just may be the spot I finish the run at! I have not, nor will I ever claim to be, a speed demon when it comes to running. Our land lady told my wife one day, while they were sitting at the park & I was running the streets in our village, “Schnell laufen,” which literally means quick run. I do not agree with that. I am planning on trying to keep an average 10 minute mile pace throughout my training. I think I am averaging about 9:41 per mile right now across 4 miles. I need to get that time down a good bit if I want to average 10 minute miles across 26.2 miles though.

I’m going to try my best, but I signed up in the category for runners that are shooting for 4 hours 30 minutes or more for the course. The worst thing about that… the bibs are pink! Those of you who truly know me, you know that this is a big downer for me! I wouldn’t even consider pink shirts when they were “cool” a couple years ago. For me to voluntarily wear something pink, you know I must be determined. In all reality though, I did convince 2 of my co-workers in the Ramstein Ground Controlled Approach Facility to run the Paris marathon too. SSgt Rebekah Cruz & SrA Tyler Bisenius. Bisenius, although he said he is shooting for the same time range as me, refuses to have a pink bib number. He chose the grey range, which is either 4 hours flat, or 4 hours 15 minutes, I can’t remember which right off hand.

Needless to say, I am stuck on 47172 right now. It seems to be all the numbers revolving around the marathon though. I see this sign on the hill above our village all the time that says "Kaiserslautern – 15km."  I think to myself, I will be running from that sign, to Kaiserslautern, back to the sign, then BACK to Kaiserslautern again! I even find myself charting distances as I am driving to see if I can use the path as one of my run routes. I have yet to decide to run up the monster hill behind our house, but we will see if I decide to conquer if during my training!

That picture is taken from the cemetery in Bahn, which is opposite of the way I normally run on my training runs. The windmill on top of the hill sits on the hill above our house. Our house sits maybe 3km down a winding, beat to death road, at the base of that hill. It’s 8% grade up for 2 miles with 3 switch-backs; then again back down the beast! I need to get my GPS & figure out exact specs on that hill's elevation. Maybe you’ll just see it on one of my run profiles one of these days… alongside a picture of me laying in a casket cause that thing will probably kill me!

How I Chose My Marathon

Like I mentioned before, I have asked myself a couple times already, why running, but it always comes back to me wanting to portray a healthy image to my family. If I am a fat slob... as I was... they think it's okay to be a fat slob. If I portray an active lifestyle, my daughter will learn to live a healthy & active life and have few medical problems in the long run... hopefully anyway. Trust me; my wife has never thought it was okay for me to be a fat slob! :)

So, when I lost all the weight, I thought to myself, what could I do to keep from gaining the weight back? I thought back to my, for lack of better terms, "bucket list" of things I wanted to do before I hit the big 4-0. The marathon sat there, hiding in the corner of the yellowed paper, like I didn't really want to do it, I just threw it there because it was almost an obligatory item to be on any list of this type. So, I started looking around.

I found a marathon, before I found a training program, which I'm not sure is the usually way this process happens, but that's how if went down for me. I was surfing the net one night and found a website created by a man named Hal Higdon. Hal is this ancient looking dude who has ran more marathons than I probably ever will. On his page I found what he refers to as the Novice Supreme running plan. This is a 30 Week marathon training program that looked right up my alley. I mean, come on, he couldn't have made the program any easier. I have dubbed it the Couch Potato’s Marathon Plan. Literally, you start the program with a 1.5 mile jaunt. Most people can manage a 1.5 mile run, or at least a 1.5 speed walk, so it's a great launching pad. You can check out this running plan at Hal's site by clicking HERE!

So, with my running plan in hand, I just had to find a marathon. I Googled "European Marathons" and found a website that is basically a repository of all marathons throughout Europe called 42k195... yes, a marathon is 42 kilometers & 195 meters. Click HERE to see this website. It was nice, because this website broke down the marathons by month. So, after I melted a few brain cells, I figured out that I needed a marathon around April of 2010 due to the 30 week training program. There was only 1 run that stood out to me. The Paris Marathon. My wife & I had already been to Paris sightseeing and we loved the city so much, we promised ourselves to go back many times while we are here, though the French can be a touch rude!

I talked to one of my co-workers who runs frequently and has run marathons before and he said that Paris, though a beautiful run, is usually over-crowded and not very well put together. I went back to the internet to see if I could find some pictures of the race. Yeah, looks pretty crowded, but I decided I could manage! I loved the city so much, that I think I can fight the crowd during the run and still make it! Actually, the crowds will probably be so far ahead of me, I won't have to deal with them except for the very start of the run! Ha!

Since I was looking at the Paris Marathon site, which ya'll can view HERE, I decided to take a look at the course.  The marathon actually runs by almost all of the most famous landmarks in Paris.  The Louvre, the Eiffle Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, The Arch de Triomph, tons of cool sites.  In fact, here's the map of the run route.

So, awesome!  I got my marathon training plan, my marathon, and the ambition to get moving!  That's when the military almost threw a wrench in my plan.  I got informed I was selected to go to the NCO Academy. 

The NCO Academy is a school that all NCO's must attend. It's extremely challenging and time consuming. I didn't know if I'd be set back on my training plan. I did the math, and wouldn't you know, God was watching out for me & my plan. The 30 weeks started exactly 1 day after I graduated! Amazing! It must have been meant for me to run this marathon. With all the pieces in place, I was ready to begin my training. By the way, I still got to run a good bit while in the NCO Academy... in fact I got a certificate for being one of the fittest members of my Flight for running 90 miles, 1700 crunches & 1600 push-ups across the 6 weeks of the course!

Why Running?

You know, I have asked myself that question a few times already. An old friend of mine, Kevin Fedyk, summed it up best on my Facebook account...

"Chris what is up with all the running? That never seemed to be your cup of tea before!!!"

Well, to know why I got to where I am today, you have to see where I got myself to. I know, I just confused a lot of folks, but please, allow me to explain.

See, Kevin knew me when I was a younger guy (21ish) at Mountain Home, Idaho. I was a typical young military member, in to drinking & the party scene. I had no real care about my fitness. That finally caught up with me. I left for Korea in March of 2008. I was tipping the scale at 316 pounds. I knew something had to change, yet I wasn't doing anything about it.

After my month at home and realizing I couldn't keep up with my then 3 year old daughter, I knew I had to take action. I went on a pretty poor diet that consisted of:

Breakfast - 1 Apple or 1 Banana

Lunch - a large (4-5 cup) salad with lite or no dressing at all

Dinner - a Lean Cuisine and a low fat/low calorie canned vegetable

There were occasional treats in there, but for the most part, they were kept to a minimum. In combination with this diet, I was hitting the gym 6 days a week... having the luxury of a 24 hour a day gym was fantastic, as it didn't matter what I had to work, the gym was ALWAYS open.

I started modestly, running on the elliptical for anywhere from 20-30 minutes. I progressed to where by the end of my tour to Korea, I was running 3 miles on the indoor track, a blessing from God as Korean winters are no joke, and finishing up on the elliptical machine to round out an hour & 5 minutes of total run time. I wasn't overly concerned about time on my 3 mile run, just that I was getting it done. Overall, across the course of my year in Korea, I dropped from 316 pounds to 245 pounds. Literally, my clothes were falling off of me.

Here are some photos of my weight loss while I was in Korea. WARNING - These photos are not safe for children who are prone to nightmares, people with conditions that cause frequent vomiting, or those who don't believe in hard work!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Right now, I weigh in at 241 pounds, and I am no longer on the diet I was on while in Korea. I have kick started my metabolism again by eating my 3 basic meals and having small snacks (as healthy as possible) between them.

One of my life goals was to run a marathon before I turned 40. I always doubted I could do it, especially after gaining so much weight. Now, I am motivated to keep the weight off and to help me with that, I am working towards one of my life goals. The goal of running a marathon.

So, Kevin, and I hope the rest of ya'll get it now, that this is why I am running so much. I REFUSE to let myself get back into that condition. My year in Korea, truely was a lifestyle change... one for the better!

My First Blog

This is my first post of my marathon progress blog. For those who haven't heard, I'm running the Paris Marathon on April 11, 2010. I am raising money for Lance Armstrong's Livestrong Foundation. I am also running this marathon in memory of my father & father-in-law, as well as in honor of one of my great friends Jerry. Expect to hear more about them over the course of the next few
months. Some other stuff to expect are info about my running gear, some background about what got me running, a cool view of every one of my runs... All 620.2 miles of them across the entire 30 weeks of training.

So, sit back and enjoy the... What! Get off your lazy butts & get running with me!


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