[audio:https://runrunlive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi132.mp3|titles=Episode 132 – Lex’s Run with Doug (ReallyNotARunner)]

Show intro by:

JBad

Twitter = RunJBadRun

Intro:

Hello And welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast – This is Chris your host and I’m getting ready to take off for another whirlwind adventure of sorts. Welcome to Episode 132. We’ve got a great show for you today. I talk to a friend of the community; Doug about his 5k road race that he started with his wife and how he has become a runner through their challenges. It’s a great story of how you can take a challenge and turn it around to create a good thing.

Which is an interesting side note…it’s an old aphorism to look for the silver lining, but the folks we talk to week after week have either taken to the road to combat external challenges or created their own internal challenges to get them out the door. Either way they are taking using that sometimes negative pressure as positive pressure to move in a positive direction to literally take a positive step and in many cases a positive leap. And that’s what I like about our community. You don’t sit around and complain you get off the couch, face adversity squarely and rage against the dying of the light. Woah…sorry to start you off with that deep session.

I’m finishing up some things this morning and I’m off on a quick business trip to California tomorrow, then as soon as I get back I’m turning it around and heading down to PA with Dan and Tom for the Wilderness 101 mountain bike race – should be fun.

After the wilderness I want to get my running legs back under me. Here’s my race schedule for the fall so far… I’ll put links in the show notes.

First on September 5^th I’m going to run the Wapack Trail race. This is a great race and I would challenge you to run it with me. It starts at the Windblown Ski area in New Ipswich New Hampshire and follows the Wapack trail, which is part of the Midstate trail and connects the Appalachian Trail. It’s an out and back race of about 16.5 to 17 miles that crosses 4 medium size mountains. If you’re in marathon shape for the fall or need a good challenging long run, this is an awesome race.

On Sept 12^th I’m going to try to get out to Worcester to run Lex’s run that we talk about here.

On Sept 25^th I’m going to join my club in our traditional run around Lake Winnipesauke in New Hampshire at the Winnipesauke Relay. This is an 8-person relay, fairly challenging and very pretty. If anyone wants to run it, reach out to me because we usually are looking for people. It’s an all-day Saturday race.

The next day, Sept 26^th is the Littleton 5K in my town that I’m sort of obligated to run.

Big news here, I’ve signed up for the WineGlass marathon in upstate NY to run with Michael from Real Rookie running on October 3^rd. Should be interesting.

The weekend of October 10^th is still open for me and that’s the World Wide Festival of races weekend so we’ll see what’s up then.

The following weekend I may run BayState or Baltimore, the full or the half, I don’t know yet.

Then October 24^th is the Groton Town Forest Race. This is a trail race in West Groton that runs through the Town Forest and is one of my favorites. They’ve got a 3ish and a 9ish mile race.

That’s what I have on the calendar so far…we’ll see how that works out. Of course this is all subject to cancellation by family or work obligations, but I feel pretty good about getting back into running shape and hope to capitalize on some of the speed I got back in the spring.

I’m off to race and then vacation. I hope you are doing well and fighting the good fight.

On with the Show!

Wapack Trail Race

http://www.wapack.freeservers.com/

Sunday, September 5, 2010, 9:00 a.m.

Course Description:

The new Wapack race route is 18.0 miles. The course is an out-and-back that follows the Wapack Trail between New Ipswich, NH and Ashburnham, MA. There are four major mountains in between: Barrett, New Ipswich, Pratt, and Watatic, from north to south. Total climb and total descent are each about 7,500 feet. On a clear day, you can see for miles, including stunning views of Mt. Monadnock to the northwest, if you have the presence of mind. This is a very tough trail race. Don’t attempt it unless you are in excellent shape. The Wapack is generally well marked by yellow triangles that you will need to follow using your own powers of observation.

Lex’s Run

http://www.lexsrun.org/

Everyone is invited to come out and participate in the 2010 Lex’s Run 5K for the MDA. This event is open to anyone and everyone of all ages and fitness levels, there will be a ¼ mile “fun” run for the kids beforehand. Although, the event is a race, we encourage participation by everyone and walker’s are welcomed! This year we are debuting our USATF Certified Course! It’s a moderately challenging course with a good mix of flats and hills, roads and trails. We are also rolling-out our on-line registration through active.com to make things easier for all of our runners and walkers. And as this is a charity event, in order to increase fundraising this year… Our top fundraiser will receive a nice prize package! And we’re making it easy by providing everyone with their own individual fundraising web-page that will assist our runner’s and walker’s in leveraging social media and their network of friends and family to meet fundraising goals!

Winnepesauke Relay

http://www.northmedfordclub.org/winni/2010_winni_home.htm

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/1/1_39/13415.shtml

You don’t want to miss one of the most scenic relays in New England!!
The Fred Brown Lake Winnipesaukee relay is a 65.1-mile counter
clockwise loop. The relay goes around the largest lake in New England.
You will not want to miss the beginning of the fall foliage season.
There are beautiful views of mountains and the lake along this course.

Littleton 5k – http://www.littletonroadrace.org/

Sunday, September 26, 2010
This event will be held rain or shine!
2:00 pm – One Mile Fun Run (all ages welcome)
2:30 pm – 5K Race (walkers welcome)
Both races will start and finish at Fay Park, 20 Foster Street, Littleton, MA.

Directions and Parking: Take I-495 to exit 30. Travel east on Route 110/2A for 0.5 miles. Parking will be available in four marked lots on Route 110/2A.

Number pickup is on race day at Fay Park, from 12 noon to 15 minutes before start of each race.

13th Annual Groton Town Forest Trail Races

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/6/6_1/groton-town-forest-trail-.shtml

http://www.grotontftr.freeservers.com/

The courses are well marked, tour the scenic Groton Town Forest, and have no road crossings. They are a combination of narrow dirt roads and winding single lane trails, with lots of roots, rocks, leaves, uphills, and downhills. The hills are not large (though some are steep) but they offer a distinct challenge.

Audio clips in this episode:

Chris last ride

Exerpt from Shock of the News Podcast.

Skits, commercials and parodies in this episode:

WSCRC – Well Shod Carnivorous Running Club

Marathon song by Colin

Story time:

Listener Comments:

Featured Interview:

Doug – “ReallyNotARunner”

Lex’s Run

http://www.lexsrun.org/

Quick Tip:

Boston Qualification tips episode #9 – handling the Peak weeks.

Outro:

Ok Folks that’s it you have Ridden YOUR Motobecane 29er to the end of another 101 mile episode of the RunRunLive Podcast. Episode 132 in the can.

Upcoming shows include interviews with Mike Wardian team USA ultra runner, Beth Moore from the women’s running site Traxee, Marshall Ulrich a really famous ultra-endurance athlete who has run the Ultra-marathon grand slam plus 2 a bunch of times, has won Badwater 4 times and a whole bunch of other amazing stuff and finally I also interviewed the dude who runs the podcasting department at Wizard Media (Libsyn) and we chat all about podcasts, advertising and marketing.

I’m going on vacation for two weeks and there will be some guest hosts on the next couple of shows. Should be fun. While I’m on vacation I’m going to get my website re-done at RuRunLive.com and I’m putting together some other cool new things.

One of the interesting things about podcasts is the time shifting. You could be in Singapore right now listening to this 2 weeks from now or in Sydney a year from now and you may already know how I did in my race this week end. If you do, don’t tell me and spoil it for me, I want to find out for myself.

I had an interesting experience this week. I was out picking up some dog food for Buddy at Petco. I managed to drop my new phone in the parking lot hoisting the 50 – lb bag into the trunk of the race-Camry. I realized this a ¼ mile away so I turned around and went back to the store. Since I was stressed about losing my phone I parked right in front of the store. It was a spot where there were no marked parking spaces bit there were no signs saying that you couldn’t park there.

I know you’re thinking, ‘where are you going with this Chris?’ Well, let me finish… I’m sure you’ll be relieved to know they had my phone and it was ok. No problems there, but I think we could have a long talk about why I got so anxious about losing the phone, that’s another psychosis for another day.

This story is about what happened next. Which is when I came out of the store, some lady was parking next to me in the not-quite-legal parking spaces. The thing is, no one would park there normally, but since I had broken the ice, it was ok. That’s how we are. We won’t break a simple cultural norm unless someone else does it first.

On the one hand this set of societal, cultural and civic rules whether real or implied are what keep us from falling into social anarchy. I mean what if everyone just decided the lines on the highways didn’t apply to them? Crash-bang – no one can drive. So there’s value in a shared set of norms. But I think there is also a stricture in those norms. And I think we as endurance athletes are duty bound to break the rules because in breaking these rules we rage against the entropy that binds us to an unfulfilled life.

This is an interesting social experiment that you can do as well. I often will park in places that while technically are not marked for parking; they also aren’t marked to ban parking. In this way I create space for myself by adding a space on the end of a row, or parking sideways, or parking on the grass. I don’t mean parking to block everyone else or in a handicapped space, or in a fire lane, I mean alternate parking configurations that are harmless but out of the box. And every time I do this. When I come out someone will have joined me in that odd outside the lines configuration.

So – what is my point? What can we learn from this? In your life are you being a sheep? Are you waiting to see what the rest of the herd does before making a decision? Don’t do it. Create your own parking space, be a leader. Practice this one thing this week. Make decisions. Instead of being in a meeting and saying, “what should we do?” Say “I propose we…” Don’t defer this week. Set the direction and tone. And think out of the box while you’re doing itm because that’s what leaders do.

And while you’re leading I will follow and I’ll see you out there.

Music toady is by 2AM and it’s called “Save me”

Ciao,