Another Round Number

5,000 is a nice, round number. And, when it represents miles run, it's a BIG number! Today, I passed 5,000 miles since getting serious about running almost 4.5 years ago (July 2003) -- I'm at 5,002.9.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

A Goal Bites the Dust

It only took me 17 days to complete the last 100 miles of my mileage goal for 2007. Something tells me I set my goal too low but, then, at the beginning of the year I didn't realize what kind of miles I would put in training for the half marathon.



Running in the afternoon/evening is not my favourite thing to do but Black Friday interfered with a morning run. (Yes, I did get some good deals -- a 500 gb drive for $85, a couple of 4 gb USB drives for $19.) On the other hand, though I cannot for the life of me figure out how I could possibly have run a 7:00 6th mile, my splits were pretty good:

Mile 1 -- 8:45
Mile 2 -- 8:15
Mile 3 -- 8:00
Mile 4 -- 8:15
Mile 5 -- 7:30
Mile 6 -- 7:00
Last 0.3 -- 2:16

Good way to fight off the cheesecake and pumpkin pie and dressing. :-; (Mmmmmm!)

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Fall Run in Richmond

I took some shots of a route (8.47 miles) that I occasionally run near our house. Unfortunately, the colours in the shots aren't bad but the leaves were much more beautiful in "real life". (DISCLAIMER: I accept no responsibility for the "related videos" that YouTube may link to in the frame below. As of right now, there's nothing offensive linked but I'm not sure how YouTube makes the relations.)



Run well, y'all,
Bob

A Personal Turkey Trot

Headed out for my own, personal Turkey Trot this morning. Ran 6.2 miles in 51:24 -- set no records but came in first among all those who ran this Turkey Trot. Of course, I also came in dead last! :-)

On this day, I have a whole passle of things for which to be thankful:

** God's love for me and all people and His offer of salvation to all (1 John 4:19, 1 Timothy 2:4).
** A wonderful, beautiful wife who loves me in spite of my "warts".
** Two adult children who continue to make me proud.
** Parents who reared me right and continue to be active.
** A job that makes a difference in the world.
** Good friends, both those I know personally and those I know only virtually (online).
** Good health.
** The ability to run.

Run well and enjoy the turkey,
Bob

Does Anybody Really Care About Blogging?

There's no doubt that blogging has changed the way many of us look at information, both our choices of sources of information and the empowerment (or perception of empowerment) of the common person to have a voice in sharing information. Ben Arment has written an interesting article on the real influence of bloggers, The Unlikely Prophets of Blogging. Many of those in my generation (I'm 53 and I'll let you decide where the young end of my generation is) downplay the impact of blogging. Often, I think we tend to do that because (1) blogging is not the way we interact with the world, (2) it's unruly, somewhat chaotic, and doesn't follow the "rules" of traditional information sources, and (3) if we acknowledge that blogging does have influence then we also have to either acknowledge that our own positions of influence/power are threatened or we have to change our ways.

I've also just finished reading The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom. The same danger exists in how we view the shift toward decentralized organizations. The 7th chapter in the book really caught my attention as the authors dealt with hybrid organizations. Not every organization can or should make the switch to a fully leaderless model. I think that's the situation with the International Mission Board, the organization where I work. But, I think we could benefit in many ways by moving toward a hybrid organization. That's uncomfortable for a lot of folks, myself included. Some would accuse us of protecting our power but I think (hope) it has more to do with how seriously we take our mission. Still, uncomfortable or not, I think we would be more effective and would become more relevant to the emerging leadership and followership of our denomination if we decentralize wherever we can. Of course, part of the difficulty of making those changes is that we are the largest arm of our denomination and the denomination is a centralized organization.

What do those two things have to do with each other -- the impact of blogging and decentralizing the IMB? In a word, change: change in how our constituency is influenced and change in how we do our work. Change is hard.

Running: I've run 72+ miles in the last 12 days -- probably a high for me. Today's run was hard but good. I haven't run a tempo run since the Maymont Half-Marathon at the end of September but I don't want to lose my fitness level. So, I only had time for about 5 miles today and was planning to run the route on which I had been doing tempo runs, so I thought, "Why not?" Not bad -- mile splits were:

Mile 1: 9:00
Mile 2: 7:35
Mile 3: 7:30
Mile 4: 7:35
Mile 5: 8:25
Last 1/4: 1:41

I'll take it!

Run well, y'all,
Bob

For the Beauty of the Earth

(Click the title to go to the Midi file of the hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth. I haven't figured out how to embed the file so it shows and plays directly from here.)

I had planned for today to be a day off of running. I had run 5 days straight and a 9.7 mile run on Saturday. But, driving to church this morning, the leaves were so beautiful that I wanted to run. That's the great thing about this time of year. I'm so hot natured that in July, if I don't run in the early morning, I just can't run later in the day. But in November, when the high is predicted to be 52°, I can run in the afternoon.

After church, our daughter and I went to lunch to kill our fajita craving (Casa Grande in Short Pump ain't bad). I had to leave at 5:30 to help with the African worship service at our orientation center. So, I knew I had to start my run between 3:00 and 3:30 -- 1 hour+ run, 15 minutes stretch, shower, supper, and leave.

My fajitas complained a little bit in the beginning, but I just took it slowly and was fine. It actually wasn't as slow as I thought but that was OK. Oh, the leaves are great! They're just a little beyond their peak -- maybe a week -- but the sun was shining, the air was crisp, there was a slight breeze, and there was lots of colour. I tell you, this just cannot have happened by accident. God created this -- Genesis 1:11-13.



Another comment on Unity versus Conformity: our pastor is preaching a sermon on our church's motto: Gayton Baptist Church...A Place to Belong...Believe...Become! Today was the second sermon on Believe and he touched on the concept of unity versus uniformity. In the sermon, he reminded me of a quote that applies to my thinking

We would be in the best shape if we kept in essentials, Unity; in non-essentials, Liberty; and in both Charity (Charity meaning, in modern usage, Love or Mutual Respect). This is often attributed to Augustine but is more likely attributable to Peter Meiderlin from a book he wrote in Latin in the mid-1620's, A Prayerful Admonition for Peace to the Theologians of the Augsburg Confession. While he was talking about doctrine, the philosophy applies in a lot of areas of life. (See the online article, "IN ESSENTIALS UNITY": THE PRE-HISTORY AND HISTORY OF A RESTORATION MOVEMENT SLOGAN

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Running the Race Well

Last weekend, Ryan Hall ran the fastest ever US Olympic Trails marathon. The New York Road Runners web site has a good article on the trials: The Next Generation of Champions.

However, road races are not the only races that Ryan runs. He has his eyes fixed on the only meaningful finish line there is, Jesus (reference Hebrews 12:1-2). David Haywood, over at Running the Race, posted a video of Ryan. It's an inspiring run but also the faith story of a young man committed to following Christ. Enjoy. If, after watching the video, you want to talk about how you, too, can commit your life like this, contact me by leaving a comment or check out this site, Unconditional Love.



If you'd rather watch the video at the original web site, click here.

Run well, y'all, on the road and in life,
Bob

Unity vs. Conformity

Heat wave today: 37° (compared to 27° yesterday). I decided to push my run a bit this morning -- I haven't done a tempo run since the half marathon about 6 weeks ago. Not bad but I could tell that (1) it had been a while since the last tempo run and (2) I'm still not back to full strength after my cold. Here are my splits (if you're interested -- well, OK, here they are whether you're interested or not :) ):

1.0 X 8:30
1.0 X 7:24
1.0 X 7:26
1.0 X 7:49
0.5 X 4:41

The thing that's been on my mind a lot the last couple of days is the idea of unity versus conformity. What triggered my thinking was the IMB trustee action to censure one of the trustees, Wade Burleson. This whole thing is so complicated and I don't want to spend the time necessary to unpack it all here. Let me summarize my thoughts:

1. While I disagree with the trustees in their decisions on private prayer language (I neither practice nor advocate a ppl) and baptism (I strongly believe that baptism by immersion is the biblical approach; I just as strongly believe that the purpose of baptism is to demonstrate union with Christ and obedience to Him and not, at least primarily, to identify with a particular doctrinal position or church/denomination -- remember, this is not a full discussion of this), I will gladly submit to those decisions.

2. Disagreement and critique are not necessarily the same thing as disunity or slander. I think there have been some things said in all of the discussion on this over the last 2 years that have been inappropriate and beyond the bounds of good manners. But, bad manners is not necessarily slander.

3. The public stating of one's disagreement with and one's criticism of decisions are not disloyalty.

The big question that I'm wrestling with is, "At what point does non-conformity and disagreement become disunity?" And I don't know. I personally think that, even though some of the discussions on IMB trustee actions have been distasteful and inappropriate, overall it's been healthy. I don't think it's harmed the cause of missions within Southern Baptist life -- our annual missions offering reached an all tiem high last year in the midst of all the blogging and discussions; appointments seem to be up. But I do think that's the fundamental issue for us -- how closely must our thoughts, beliefs, words, blogs, discussions, etc. conform to everybody else?

OK, that's all pretty random and disconnected. I know the issue is broader than just the IMB trustees and I think it broader than just the inner wranglings of one Christian organization. So, I'll just keep on running and pondering.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

On the Road Again -- Ahhh

I like round numbers so today was a good day -- I completed 1200 miles for the year!



After a cold and worst sore throat of my life last week, it was great to be out today. The weather could hardly have been more perfect -- 54° and 59% humidity. Nice and easy; ran a bit more than planned. Tomorrow will be cold -- the weatherman is predicting 33° at 5 AM.

I spent much of the time thinking about and praying for one our overseas units -- I had dreamt about them all night, too. If you're a follower of Christ, I would appreciate your lifting this unnamed family up to the Father.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Running Handicap

Amy Hunold-VanGundy over at Runners' Lounge developed a runner's handicap this past week. If you're feeling poorly about your running, this should help:

Only a slow runner like me would come up with such an absurd idea like a running handicap. But it is Friday and there is no reason to be too serious. So, go ahead, try out my little running handicap calculator and find out what your new running pace would be:

Start with your average pace per mile for your most favorite race/run distance. (You can see this won't be too scientific...) Better grab your trusty calculator!

Subtract:

* :10 seconds per mile for each child and pet that lives in your home and borrows some of that extra energy that you normally could apply to running
* :05 seconds extra per child if you are a female and delivered any of those children - that's just a gift from me to you
* :10 seconds for each of the 10 pounds that you are waiting to spontaneously combust and disappear from your body forever
* :20 seconds for all your good intentions to run more consistently, stretch, stretch train more, actually run all the miles in your training plan - but rarely all this happens because family, work or personal obligations seem to always be at the top of the list
* :10 seconds if you live in an everchanging climate and 9 months of the year find it too cold, too hot, too snowy/icy, rainy
* :05 seconds if you regularly read this or other running blogs and sacrifice some of your free time to supporting/encouraging other runners (awwww - that is so nice!)
* :05 seconds for every year after the age of 16 that it took you to realize that running was really "your sport" and you had the painful task of learning it as a grown adult set in their ways
* (and for my husband and all other law enforcement...) 1:15 if running with 26 pound gun belt and a 5 pound vest

What's it add up to?

Well, for me, that gets my half-marathon pace down to 5:17 mpm and my "normal" training pace down to about 4:50 mpm. Works for me!! :-) Thanks, Amy

Run well, y'all,
Bob

BAD For The Environment

I just found out that today is BAD for the environment -- it's Blog Action Day and the focus is on the environment. Several of the blogs that I read regularly are focusing on this:

Half-Fast
My Part of Colorado
Diet Blog, though J Foster doesn't refer to BAD
No Impact Man talks about the environment every day
Care of Creation is a biblically based environmental organization that talks about the environment all the time

There is a group that is noticeably missing from that list....

I'm a disciple of Christ who practices his faith among the (large) group of disciples known as Southern Baptists. Historically, Baptists have been called a lot of things, but the term that stands out to me is people of the Book (the Bible). We're called that because of our doctrine that the Bible is the truthful, accurate Word of God, written by men who were inspired by God's Spirit. That being the case, we should be among the first to stand in defense of the environment -- not because we worship the environment, not because that is the way to salvation, not because it's the popular thing to do, not because we could gain publicity points for doing so, but because it's the right thing to do. We worship God, the Creator (only one of His many names), and when He finished creating the earth, Genesis 1:31 says the He saw all that he had made, and it was very good. David, second king of Israel, said in Psalm 24:1 (he was later quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:26), The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

That being the case, Christians ought to be leading the charge to protect and improve the environment to keep it good and to show that we really believe that the earth and everything in it and everyone on it belong to God. But ... we've abandoned that task to others and then often have the temerity to call anyone who does fight to protect the environment a liberal.

I would love to have time today to develop a thorough post about the environment, but there are folks out there who really expect me to answer their e-mails sometime in this century. So, I need to get back to work. But before I finish, let me complete the thought that I started just after my short list of bloggers who are supporting BAD and talking about the environment.

... there is a group that is noticeably missing from that list. After a very quick glance at a few of the Southern Baptist blogs that I read, not one mentioned the environment today. I don't condemn them at all -- probably, like me, they didn't know that today is BAD for the environment. If I had the influence, I'd call out the Baptists to talk about and protect the environment because it does belong to the LORD we worship.

Hey, running is an enviromentally friendly form of exercise. When we're outside running, it's an extremely low impact sport.

Have you turned off a light today?

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Sooooo Good! :)

There are days when everything just falls into place and this morning was one of them. The weather report said it would be 48° but the thermometer at my house said 45° -- either would have been fine but I prefer the cooler. The sky was crystal clear at 5:30 and I could watch the stars. I headed out to run about 7.8 miles and ended up doing 8.7+. I set out to do a slow run and it felt like about 8:30 mpm (most of the time) but ended up being an average of 7:54 mpm. It's days like today when I know I love to run!

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Here's What Will Hurt After a Long Race

Perry Romanowski is a joggler -- juggles and runs at the same time. He just joggled the Chicago Marathon (3:59:00). His post today on "7 Pains to Expect After Running a Marathon" is a good head's up for those who've never run a long race. After the Maymont Half-Marathon a couple of weeks ago, I experienced the headache (dull ache, sorta' all over) and muscle soreness (hip adductors and gluteus maximus). The headache was gone the next day and the muscle soreness lasted 3-4 days.

Perry's blog is a good one to read.

If you're a new runner, the blog Notes of a Non-Runner will help you stay motivated. Nancy is training for her first marathon and has a great attitude. It's an encouraging read.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

My Body's Back on Track (Updated)

Well, physically, I seem to have recovered from the half-marathon. Monday's run wasn't bad at all. I did almost 8 miles and felt good the whole time -- not that it wasn't hard, mind you. Wednesday, I did 5.3 and was back to my pre-half timing. I wasn't trying to maintain a specific pace and ended up at about 07:50 mpm.

But, I think my mind's not back in it, yet. Monday night, I stayed up too late and, without a training plan to adhere to (hey, body, get out of bed -- you have to do that tempo run or the half-m will kill you!), I just didn't get up to run. Same thing Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Just couldn't bring myself to roll out. There is some evidence of Post Marathon Depression. Now, I don't think I'm having Post Half-Marathon Depression, but the feeling of "What next?" is apparently very common.

There's a good article in the Nov Runner's World about maintaining summer fitness in the Fall. I think I need to set up my own training plan based on that. We'll see. For now, though, I'll try to be content with just running some.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Recovery

Last week, I discovered the importance of recovering. I took my young half-marathon partner's advice and did a short slow run on the day after just to stay loose. So, took off for about 2.4 miles and ended up doing about 3. Did 3 more on Monday. Tuesday, I thought I might be ready to pick the pace up a bit for a 4.5 miler -- nothing doing. I was a little faster than Sun/Mon but not like I thought. Skipped Wednesday and then started out on Thursday for a 7.8 miler. I still wasn't ready and cut back to 5.6 miles. Then Friday, I thought I'd do 5.1 and only did 4.6.

Frankly, I decided that there were probably 2 things going on. First, my body just needed to back off a bit. I needed the recovery. But, I also suspect that I may be suffering from a runner's version of post-partum blues -- post-race blues(?). I worked hard to get ready for the half-marathon -- had a definite goal, had a plan to follow and knew what I was going to do every single day. Suddenly, I don't have any of that. Without a goal and plan, I think I just didn't have anything motivating me last week.

The lack of a plan hasn't changed for this week. What has changed is that I took 2 days off from running. So, we'll see if the physical rest will do the trick.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Relatively New Running Community

(Edited)

Check out Runners' Lounge. The blog has been online for a few months. There is one older community hosted on MyBlogLog.

The new Runners' Lounge Community has been built on its own site: Runners' Lounge.

At least I think I now have all that correct.

Bob

Random Thought During the Half

My random thought while running the half-marathon today:

I sure am glad this isn't a full marathon!

Most ironic part of the run came between just before the 11 mile mark and about the 12.5 mile mark. I was dying at that point and what do we pass? Three cemeteries!!

Bob

It's Done

The McDonalds Maymont half marathon is probably the hardest physical thing I have ever done. An almost perfect day -- 52° at the start. The only weather issue was the wind. The course is really interesting but really challenging. We crossed the James River about 6 times, ran trails, ran roads, some flat terrain, some hills, both up and down steps. The worst were the spiral steps down from one of the bridges to the river level and the long set of steps that we had to run up somewhere around mile 8.

I had trained for the last 12 weeks for a 1:41 finish -- a pace of 07:45 mpm. One of our new journeymen, Justin Drummons, decided to run with me. Justin's less than half my age and normally runs a half in 1:20-1:25 but he was very gracious. I could not have finished as well as I did without him. Thanks, Justin. However, neither of us factored in the difficulty of the course. This was my first half but Justin has run several and he said that it was the hardest course he's ever seen. (Maybe he was just trying to encourage this old dude!)

It was also great to have Linda (my wife) and Stacey (our daughter) there at the start and finish. They had to get up early, early and leave at 6:15 am on a Saturday morning to be there. It was really encouraging to here our names called out and look over to see their smiling faces.

My finish time was 1:49:08. That put me at 166th out of something like 641 runners who, based on the results, finished. (The pre-registered printouts showed something like 1200 runners registered but that might well have included those who were registed in any of the races during the weekend.) It also put me at 7th in the men's 50-54 year old bracket. We had to walk several times. I think if I'm disappointed in anything about my race it is that I couldn't run the whole thing. The results are here -- I registered as "Robert Allen".

It's done. I'm glad I ran and I'd do it again. The race organization gave every appearance of being casual but was very good.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Ready to Go

Well, I leave for the half-marathon starting line in about 10 minutes. I'm nervous and excited. I do feel ready. Will post results later.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Ahhh -- Fall

This has been a great week. When the temps are 45-50°, I love to be outside running and Monday was 47°. Got to wear my long-sleeved shirt and gloves.

Vanilla at Half-Fast Running blog talked, today, about a study that determined that some men's sweat has a pleasant smell. OK, not the most pleasant of supper conversations but I'm here to tell you that when I finish running, I look like I've been in a rain storm but I can guarantee you that I don't smell like a spring rain. :-D

Run well, y'all,
Bob