Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog, Reforming Rob! Thank you for joining me today as we discuss one of my favorite and most passionate topics, running!
Running Is My Only Sport
I grew up in a little town in the Four Corners region of the United States, Farmington, New Mexico. No, New Mexico isn't part of Mexico the country, it's a state here in the USA. My parents were both teachers, and my family growing up included three sisters and one brother. We didn't really have anyone in the family who was super athletic or played on a sports team. We only watched one sport on TV regularly, baseball, and the Los Angeles Dodgers were our team for years. Growing up sports were just not on our radar much.
Although I never ran on a team or for track or anything organized, I did run for fitness. In high school I ran out in the desert at the outskirts of town every afternoon before work. We lived just right on the edge of town, so within a half mile or so to be out in the rolling juniper and pinion hills of the high New Mexican desert. You've heard it before, but yes, I LOVE the desert, and I did back then too.
I did run in my late 20's. We lived in a small town, Globe, Arizona, and I would run out in the desert for a few miles, usually a few times a week. Again, my running up to that point was pretty casual.
Everyone Needs an Uncle Harman!
My Uncle Harman was the crazy guy in our extended family that would run these impossibly long runs called marathons, and noone really understood how or why he did that. But in one of his visits back in 2009 or 2010, he talked to me for quite a while about running marathons and what it meant to him. He planted a seed in my mind that remained fertile but unsprouted for several years.
"Born to Run"
Up to 2010, the most I'd ever run at one time in my life was 7 miles, and that was just "accidentally" as my wife and I miscommunicated about where I wanted to be picked up. I was running almost daily at this time, the sole purpose was just to keep in shape for hiking and backpacking, which I loved and am still passionate about. I made regular trips all over Arizona and up into Colorado doing backpacking trips with one of my close friends. About that time I stumbled upon the book "Born To Run" by Christopher McDougall. Now I don't know how many people "Born To Run" convinced into giving running a try, but I would imagine it is tens of thousands! Such a great book, and so influential in a positive way! If you haven't already, go buy and give Born To Run a read, whether you like running or not. That book, and another that I found about the same time "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell, were the two most influential books of the surrounding decade of my life! (religious books excluded)
That book, "Born to Run", really spoke to me, and it fertilized that seed that had been planted by my Uncle Harman. I was into it! And I was ready to charge into a marathon and see what would happen. After spending some time on-line, I found an upcoming marathon that spoke to me, the Grand Canyon Marathon, which ran along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I was able to sign up for that race. I still remember the butterflies that filled my guts when I hit "Pay Now" on my race entry!!!
Hal Higdon and Marathon Training Plans
In my internet surfing I also came across another inspirational and inflential running master, Hal Higdon. He has also empowered thousands of people to take on the marathon. I found some training resources by him, and I put together a 24 week plan that would give me just enough time to finish and run the Grand Canyon Marathon. (Unfortunately, 2011 was the last year the Grand Canyon Marathon ran inside the National Park, and was also the last year it was a full marathon) With my family in tow, on a freezing November morning, I travelled to the Grand Canyon and was able to participate in and finish my first every marathon.
Finishing that marathon was satisfying on so many levels. Fellow long distance runners will back me up, but one of the most satisfying things about that marathon was the extra large pizza I got to eat as a little reward for all that effort!
Since that marathon in 2011, I've been able to run five other marathons, and eight ultra-marathons, including four races with distances of 50 miles. The races are fun and exciting, and I do enjoy them. Spending all day out running on mountain and desert trails is a treat! But really, it's the training, the long lonely trails in the heat of summer or cool winter afternoon, that's where my real love and passion lay. More than once, on one of these runs way out in the Superstition Wilderness or close-by mountain parks, I've been so overwhelmed with love and appreciation for the beauty of the experience and of God's creation all around me, that I've fallen to my knees and offered the most sincere prayer of gratitude.
Running's Life Lessons for Health and Welness
There are countless lessons to be learned through running. I wouldn't pretend to be able to name them all in one blog post, but there are a few that I think connect with the purpose and reach of the blog and my YouTube channel that I would like to share with you.
First, running long distances teaches you self-reliance! There is nobody that's going to come and pick you up in the middle of nowhere to get you back home. There is nobody that will bring water or other nutrition out to you miles from any trailhead. It is up to YOU to get your run done and get safely back to civilization, and that's just the end of it! If you fall and need a bandaid, it is YOU who will have to put that bandaid on.
Next, there is real power in breaking down a hugh task into smaller, more manageable components, and long distance running helps you do that. For extended long races, I don't ever run 50 miles. I run from one aid station to the next aid station, usually 6-7 miles. There is power in a written plan! Breaking up long seasons of training into daily mileage, at the end of which you've run a thousand miles. Make a plan, break it down into daily tasks, write it down, and keep track. There aren't too many things you CAN'T accomplish this way.
Another lesson for me has been that through running I am no longer dependent on a car or bicycle. Running errands, dropping vehicles off for service, last minute shopping, even commuting to and from work are all runnable. If there's an emergency of some kind that happens and I need to get home, I can run there from almost anywhere in the Phoenix Valley.
Finally, and probably more in context with this blog than the others, I've learned that when I'm running, when I am on a training cycle and actively training every week, my negative self-talk goes WAY down! Certainly there are professional people in psychology and other human studies that could explain why that happens. All I know, and can say as loudly and clearly as possible, it works. Running tames my toxic self-talk. Running is medicine for my mental and physical health.
Life Happens!
2020. Oh what a year that was huh? I had trained for a 50 mile ultra-marathon in Page, Arizona, that ran through Antelope Canyon. My wife had trained for months to be able to join me for the last 11 miles of that trail race. Due to the COVID-19 effect, all that training did not result in us racing. That was disappointing. More disappointing for me was that chronic pain, mental health, and just my overall physical health were such that I fell away from training. I would get an occasional run in, but they have been few and far between over the past four years.
5 weeks ago, I started this blog and YouTube channel. That also started my commitment to daily physical fitness work that hadn't happened in a long time. Although it wasn't my intention to make running such a big part of Reforming Rob, it certainly is heading that way. As I learn more and experience the leaps of mental and physical health benefits I'm getting from running, among other things, my passion for running has been reignited. Over the past five weeks I've been able to build up to running, although slowly, the whole 4 mile loop I do each morning. Then this morning I ran my favorite short desert trail at San Tan Mountain Park, a 5 mile run with hills. It was so fantastic!!!
I have not reached Shangrila with my running yet. I'm still in pain every day. My mental health is always on a precipice, and that bridge can fall out from under me any time, and has over the past few weeks. That said, however, getting up in the morning, having some breakfast, getting outside for a run, has definitely, very strongly definitely, improved my physical and mental health. There is NO question! The health and wellness plan I've written and shared on this blog and my channel are paying off.
Just Run
I would encourage everyone I meet to begin a running program. Start, from whereever you are! It is just too favorable to overall health. I will also say it is WORK! Very, very rarely have I been out on a run and think I'm having a great time. While I'm out running I do enjoy the sun on my face. I do enjoy the sweat trickling down my back. I do enjoy just being outside. But it's work! It's at the end of the run, at the end of that work, when the joy and satisfaction comes. There's a life metaphor there, isn't there? Hard work first, pleasure, satisfaction, joy afterward.
I'm going to run everyday. Well, five days per week. I'm going to get outside as often as I can. I invite you to do the same. Get out there and get to running. Running is medicine for mental and physical health. Get out there and get to work!
Until next time...
PEACE!
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