The RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast Episode 255 – Matt’s Life Song
Link epi3255.mp3
Introductory comments
Link
Hello my indestructible friends and welcome to episode 3-255 of the RunRunLive Podcast. How are you doing?
Hey, we’re 5 episodes into the new format. Shoot me a note and let me know what you think. I like being able to go on a bit longer in the interview and to get a tad more structured on some of the pieces. It’s dang nice of you to let me air out my thoughts.
Today we have a good chat with Matt who has one of THE most interesting stories of life change I’ve come across yet. It starts with the brutal murder of his mother and his descent into a life of drugs and weirdness in the 1970’s – but he saw the light. He climbed out of it and he’s now an ultra runner and happy balanced guy. He was nice enough to open up to all of this in his new book called “Life Song”. And he and I chat about it.
I have been training really well. I’ve had some very promising workouts and I’m quite hopeful about this current campaign and my recovery. At some point I’ll write up a summary piece, my final thoughts, on Plantar Fasciitis, because it is a bugger.
In the two weeks since we last chatted, after the Derry 16 Miler, I’ve had some really inspiring workouts that are just super sweet after the challenges I’ve been through over the last 18 months. I tell you I am amazed at the ability of the human body to recover. A year ago I basically had to walk the Boston Marathon. 6 months ago I took the first tentative mile runs in the woods with Buddy, and if I can keep up this progress I could be re-qualified by the end April.
I do have the advantage of experience and knowing what is possible, but still there are lessons a-plenty. You’ve got to be patient. You can’t give up. And you have to believe in yourself.
Before it snowed again we got a nice, cold, dry snap and the trails were clear. Buddy and I did an 8 mile surge run and it was wonderful. The surges felt effortless, like I was flying. Then,later that week, I was forced onto the treadmill by the weather, but I absolutely nailed a step up run and I’m going to share that revelation with you in section two today.
For our life balance section I’m going to tell a story and talk about the nature of change. I sense that I’ve gotten a little too proscriptive, on the verge of pedantic even, and I’m going to try to move back towards less ‘telling’ and more story telling.
I’m super busy with travel this week. We got 2-3 feet of snow at my house over the weekend and one of my workouts was 6 hours of moving snow.
Put down your shovels and pay close attention my chummies – On with the show!
Section One:
Life Balance and the nature of change – http://www.runrunlive.com/the-critical-nature-of-change-in-your-life
Featured Interview
Matt Kratochvil – Life Song http://lifesongbook.com/
About the Author
Matt Kratochvil at a very young age discovered that life really isn’t fair and turned to drugs as a release to escape the pain. After years of major drug use, Matt joined the US Army in 1984 and eventually cleaned his life up. He eventually became an ultra marathon runner in 2008 and found the freedom and peace he was seeking. Writing is a passion that has been his dream ever since he was a child. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1962 and living in Minnesota the majority of his life his running has taken him to trails all around the world. Enjoy his new classic Life Song.
Most people ask how did you cope with such immense tragedy in your life. Early on in my life it was the most difficult thing any eight year old should have to live through. As I grew older my typical response was spending a lot of time out on the trails hiking or running. This is a story of my life and how at such a young age the mystery and the emptiness that surrounded my tender little heart destroyed my reasoning to live. After a traumatic childhood and living life out of control with drugs and alcohol, I ultimately faced death eye to eye and chose a path of resistance to the lies of the deceiver. Join me for a story that will compel you to read every last word. Run along side of me as I present my case to the One who states he loves us.
Section two:
Transcending the workout – http://www.runrunlive.com/transcending-the-workout
Outro
Well then my snow-bound cabin-mates you have successfully navigated to the end of Episode 3-255 of the RunRunLive Podcast – hopefully it was a worthwhile investment of time.
I’m writing this to you from a middle seat in the sky somewhere over the USA on my way to Minnesota from Atlanta. I gave my free snack box coupon karma to the young family seated next to me.
You know I don’t tell these stories for you, right? I tell them for me. When I’m trying to convince you of the worthiness of life, and toil and change, and balance, and commitment, and existence, I’m not trying to convince you. I’m trying to convince me! That’s the secret! I’m talking to me!
Thanks for joining on this bi-weekly quest for learning and enrichment and, perchance, transformation.
In a couple days I’ll be heading down to run the Martha’s Vineyard 20 miler. It’s a nice, flat, pretty course but the weather is always a wild-card. I’ll drive down Friday with my wife, stay over in my Cape house then get up to take the ferry over to the island and run the race on Saturday morning and take the ferry back in the afternoon.
I ran 19 on the roads after the snow storm last Sunday. It was a little dicey, but I came out of it no worse for wear.
Before I forget, I’ve got some great news! We opened up registration for the Groton Road Races this week. You can do me a favor and repost the race notices I send out to your network. This is our 23rd year and believe it or not I’ve run every single one! I’d love to see you and your friends and family there.
You can find the Groton Road Race page on Facebook, or go to our website at www.grotonroadrace.com. Or stalk me on any of the social media outlets and I’ll be tweeting about it. Our date is Sunday April 28th this year.
After Martha’s Vineyard I’m not going to race anymore until the Eastern States 20 miler, which is usually 3-4 weeks before Boston. You may remember last year this is where my training ended and I DNF’ed at the 16 mile mark. Limped off the course. Then, if everything hangs together, off to run the Boston Marathon on Patriot’s Day.
And… I’ll be running this year for Team Hoyt. I would very much appreciate it if you would help me, help them change the world by clicking on the donation banner on the right side of my web page at www.runrunlive.com.
http://www.crowdrise.com/teamhoyt2013/fundraiser/christopherrussell/donate
Last week I automated the dispersal of the show notes, so every word here and all the hyperlilnks to all the pieces, people and topics in each show. It seems to have worked well and the formatting, which I was worried about, seems to have come through unscathed.
For you techno-weenies, what I did was to create a template in MailChimp – my direct email service provider – this template auto-magically reads the RSS feed of the podcast page on my WordPress site and whenever I post a new episode it puts the content into a newsletter and blasts it out to everyone on the list – Like I said – It’s magic.
For you non-techno-weenies, just sign up for my mailing list and you’ll get the episodes in your inbox when I publish them and you can even bypass iTunes and download the show mp3’s directly if you want.
I haven’t been able to produce any more stories for my kickstarter project to create an audio version of my second book this week – but I’m still working on it and I’ve delivered 7 chapters for distribution. For $10 Measley dollars you can join the investor list and receives an alert as new chapters roll off the microphone. If you are interested you can find the link on my website and in the show notes.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1838098095/the-mid-packers-guide-to-the-galaxy-audio-book
Why do I do all this stuff? I suppose I’m either cursed or blessed with a restless mind. It’s like when people ask you why you run. Why not? Because I can! So what are you waiting for? What have you got to lose? Take the first step and start something that scares the hell out of your today.
And…
I’ll see you out there…
Links for this show
http://www.runrunlive.com/messing-around-with-a-kickstarter-project
Other products from Chris Russell you may be interested in
The Mid-Packer’s Lament
On Audio (Read by the author)
The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy
Standard Links:
Contact:
Cyktrussell At gmail and twitter and facebook and youtube
Dial in number for RunRunLive is – 206-339-7804 (to leave an audio message for the show)
Bio
Chris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of “The Mid-Packer’s Lament”, and “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy”, short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at www.runnerati.com. Chris’ Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at www.runrunlive.com. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners and the Goon Squad.
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