Diaries of a Nearly Dead Man

If you read my book, ICU to Marathon, there was a chapter about personal records. I'm not talking about being arrested or seeing how far you can spit a watermelon seed; I am talking about racing. Personal records, PRs as they are known to insiders, are in lieu of winning a race which is reserved for people that are not like I am. I know, it seems sort of unfair.

Personal Records are for me.

So why does the ex-fat-old-guy care about running at my age? Because it is pretty much everything. In April 2011 I lay in heart surgery after having congestive heart failure.

Yup, it sucked.

Running has changed my life more than having a family or succeeding in business. It's true. Only discovering faith has had a greater impact on who I am. Why is that? Well faith changed how I look at, and live life. Having a family, nearly a half dozen kids and even surviving heart disease, as well as four bouts of cancer this last year, changed what I do in life. I live more and worry less.

Running. Has. Changed. Who I. Am.

I am not overly competitive. Except for one guy in my run club, I have never raced anyone since high school. I run for me. I run because I love how I feel when I am running, I love how I feel when I finish a run and mostly how I love how I feel inbetween runs.

I have not been on any medication or even had a cold in a few years.

Thanksgiving week was a great one for me. I had three PRs that week. I beat last year's local run by nearly 4 minutes. I PRd my Turkey Day 5-miler by almost 4 minutes as well. But my favorite was eclipsing my 10K time by about 7 minutes. It was almost 20 minutes faster than my first 10K!

December 14th I am gunning for a 1/2 marathon PR. I'll keep you posted.

And that is why I like running. My storied history can be seen HERE.