1262 Miles & Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Runnin' 2017

Three pairs of running shoes helped dragged my 42 year-old self across nearly 1,300 miles of Ohio terrain in the last twelve months. Sounds like a lot (oh..it is...just ask the rest of my body), but putting the running thing aside - I traveled much further as a person.

Brokeman's Winter Warm 
Up in January 2017 

To avoid getting into the backwards details of 2017, this past year saw me become - and in about this exact order - sorely disappointed, sad, frustrated, refreshed, determined, rekindled, alive, competitive, curious, a chance taker, happy, a goal setter (and a goal completer), simply happy, future focused and wanting more. Yeah, I'm worn out...but I wouldn't change it for anything.

The whole return to running was so I could take part (competitively) in the inaugural Buck Fifty Race - 150 Mile, 10 Person Team Relay in & around my hometown of Chillicothe, Ohio. That took place, but I kept running...and I'm not exactly sure as to why. What did I have to prove? Where was I planning to go? Who was I trying to impress? Was I attempting to rekindle the past? No...it wasn't any of these.

It was about me - being true to myself, not compromising or attempting to please someone else. This was something I wanted to do (albeit haphazardly) and I did it with my personal brand of reckless abandon. I'm not used to things going smoothly, I'm used to them going from point A to point B by way of points C through L and back again. It keeps you on your toes.

Rocks & Roots Trail 
Race in February

I found myself during this time and it makes me laugh because I didn't know I was lost. A figure of speech - yes, but it covers my point. I ran an eight mile race (at the time, the longest race for me ever), a six mile trail race, a St. Patrick's Day four miler, a 150 mile relay, an Independence Day race, a few 5k's, a couple of 10k's, a quarter marathon, a pair of half marathons (now the longest for me ever), a Thanksgiving Day race and even spent a week running the jungle-like trails of Costa Rica while on vacation - my first trip abroad.

The majority of those 1300-miles were spent pounding the streets and sidewalks of my Marion, Ohio neighborhood. These miles, specifically, forced me to think beyond the present and the here & now. It made me look beyond what hasn't worked, what isn't working, why it doesn't work, how to make things work and where to find the things to make it all work. I know it sounds convoluted, but this is the best way to describe how everything went down and evolved. It isn't perfect, but it is much closer to perfection than it was one year ago.

**We back EVERY pair with 

FREE Replacements if Lost or Broken**

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   Live Hard. We Got You.

At The Buck Fifty in April

Through all of this I have froze, melted, been caked in mud, drenched by rain & snow, wondered why I'm a glutton for punishment, exhausted and injured myself. For what? To basque in the glow of "I did it" and push myself beyond what I thought was the tail end. In reality, it's just beginning...whatever it is...I still don't know for sure - but I can feel it.

This is what I've been able to do with running personal record-wise this year:


Running

• 1 km3:18.82017
• 1 mi5:36.92017
• 5K18:272017
• 10K38:342017
• Half Marathon1:30:512017
• Farthest13.21 mi2017

I started running again (in July 2016 after ten years off), but I didn't just want to run again. I wanted to win, beat people, be competitive. I have been able to do that and have a whole new set of goals before my 40-plus year-old legs disintegrate.

So, 2017 evolved from a dark hole in the ground into a firestorm of changes, success, new heights and horizons. There is something to be said about staying the course, no matter what it looks like.

Looking forward, sorry (not sorry) 2018...but you have a lot to live up to...

The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition

Sweet disposition

Never too soon

Oh, reckless abandon

Like no one's watching you

A moment a love

A dream aloud

A kiss a cry

Our rights

Our wrongs

A moment, a love

A dream aloud

A moment, a love

A dream, aloud

So stay there

'Cause I'll be coming over

And while our blood's still young

It's so young, it runs

And won't stop 'til it's over

Won't stop to surrender

Songs of desperation

I played them for you

A moment, a love

A dream aloud

A kiss, a cry

Our rights

Our wrongs

A moment, a love

A dream aloud

A moment, a love

A dream aloud

Stay there

'Cause…


The rest of my 2017 running in pictures:

Finisher's Medal & complimentary
beer from the St. Patrick's Day
4-Miler at Kinsale in Powell, Ohio.

My Garmin Forerunner 110,
dying at the New Moon Quarter
Marathon in Delaware, Ohio in May

Finishing the Columbus 10K in May

"THE" It's NOT the Hilliard Classic 10K in June.

The Freedom 4 Miler in Lewis Center, Ohio in July (Look! I'm on TV!)

Swag from the Original Columbus
Half Marathon & 10K at Alum
Creek State Park in August.

My Drawing of Ben Franklin playing catch with a chainsaw,
 at the request of Lauren B. in August. We met in July.

Ziplining in Costa Rica, late July

Celebratory beer after my first half marathon
in Celina, Ohio in September.

At the Columbus Half Marathon in
October. Half marathon number two.

A local 5K, Miles for Marion, in October.

Late October, The Tallgrass Trail 5K
in the snow here in Marion.

Before and after the Thanksgiving Turkey Wattle 5K in
 Grove City, Ohio with my brother, brother-in-law
 & niece.

The Shalom 5K in Carroll, Ohio in 
December with Jailen, the 13 year-old
 dynamo.

Me & Lauren B. - Running 
Photographer Extraordinaire