2013 - A Look Back

2013 will be a year that will be engraved in my mind for the rest of my life. So much happened this past year. It was a year of many highs, many lows and many surprises.

I can say that this journey really started for me back in Dec of 2012, when I first got the news that I was selected as one of the lucky few to get a Boston number through our running club. To say I was excited was an understatement! Years and years of watching runners from the sidelines run in this event, I never dreamed that I, one day would be one of them. It was a childhood dream come true!  For the next couple weeks\months, that's all I talked about!

This about sums it up...LOL

Training for it didn't go as planned. Two weeks into training I started having bad knee issues. I was ready to give up on my dream of running Boston. After doctor visits, some X-rays and some MRIs, it was determined that it was my IT bands causing the problems. I was sent to PT for a couple of weeks and had to take a couple weeks off from running. But I worked hard at my PT program and reorganized my training plan and was back at it again. I wasn't running where I wanted to be, but at least I was running.

Boston came, and Boston went. We all know what happened that day. Personally for me (and my family), it was a day we will never forget. Physically we were all safe, but this day left a permanent mark in our lives. Not all bad though.

"There is always something good that comes out of something bad." - I never understood this saying.

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~ Because of this event I have met many people that went through similar experiences that day. I have gotten to know a lot more people from our running club and have become real good friends with many of them. I feel blessed because of this.

Here is a few of us from this past Friday's "Deep Fried Turkey Run"

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~ My wife who never ran before, has left the world of the "normies" and has crossed into the dark side. As of last month she is officially a member of the Central Mass Striders! Woot!!! She has raced a handful 5Ks this year and completed her first 10K last month. She has also been taking part of the free weekly hill workouts that our club offers to the members. There are also talks of doing a half soon...I see a great future in running for her!

With friends getting ready for a 5k

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~ This year I was more focused on my training and on my diet more so than I have ever been. A month after Boston I ran the Providence Marathon (cause it was free) and then set a high goal of running two fall marathons (#5 and #6). Completed them both and was really happy with their outcome. PR'd by 14min in the first one. Training had paid off tremendously!

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~ Apart from being a CMS member, a few of us locally have started a running club of our own. Thanks in part to my friend Joanne. Through Facebook, a few of us got together and planned afternoon runs once or twice a week. Joanne one day told me that the local news paper wanted to do a story on our "running club".

Full article HERE 

With that story, our Facebook running group page (Tri-State Running) went from 8 members to 30 members overnight. At last check we are at about 51 members! The newspaper story was a great idea. So many times I wished of getting together with local runners but never really knew how to reach out to them. At the moment planned runs are usually Tuesday nights and Thursday nights, and now with a few of us in marathon training, we are planning long runs on Saturday mornings. The goal, hopefully, is to get other runners to post when they are running and invite others to join them. CMS is a great running club (the best in all of MA) but it covers all of Central MA, something like 60 towns. With our group, we are just hoping to build a local running community where we get to know each other and get some runs together without having to travel far.

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~ All of the sudden I've become an expert. I have become that person that people go to when they have a question about running. Friends, coworkers and even complete strangers have approached me for advice on topics such as "What sneakers to buy?", "what to eat?" to even health questions like, "Why do my knees hurt?" or "why does my foot hurt?.." huh?... On my personal Facebook page I had posted that I had placed my Boston marathon training schedule on my calendar and within minutes I got about 7 messages from other runners (that I consider great runners by the way) asking me what training plan I was following because they were interested. I was flattered.

Expert? Me? Far from it. Everyone that knows me knows that I am passionate about my running and I am more than happy to give back in any way I can. I will always try to help out as much as I can or at least point them in the right direction. I only share what others have taught me.

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~ So something good out of something bad - I think I get it now. 

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~ Looking forward ....

2014 will bring on its own adventures, its own challenges, its own obstacles, but I'm ready to face them. What 2013 has taught me is that life throws things at you to get you going in the right direction., to get you where you need to be. At no other time in my life have I felt like I was heading in the right direction. Things seem to be falling into place. Life is good.

So I say to you 2014,... Bring it!! I'm ready....  I'm running right at ya!