This Blog is meant to track my training, mileage, racing goals, and other running related material. Also it will be a good means of accountability, so if you see that I haven't been doing much for a few days feel free to comment.
Kelly Gneiting weighing 400 lbs. set a Guinness World Record for the heaviest person to complete a marathon, taking nine hours, 48 minutes and 52 seconds to finish the Los Angeles event Sunday.
Christopher McDougall has been a bit of a controversial figure in the running community ever since he published his book Born to Run which tells the story about a tribe of people that live deep in the Copper Canyons of Mexico who run amazing distances injury free well into the late years of their lives. He is one of the major proponents of barefoot running and his book has become almost a cult classic. I have read the book a few times and I have to say that it is an excellent book, even if you think that barefoot running is absolutely crazy the story and narrative is fantastic and definitely worth the read, runner or not.
McDougall gave a TED Talk about his views on running and the evolution of humans, it is pretty interesting check it out.
I have been fortunate to be able to travel quite a bit these last few years and being a runner I try and take advantage of both running and site seeing. I have run/sight see in a number of great cities, such as Rome, Paris, Dusseldorf, Madrid and Lisbon. What I normally do is just head out for a run and set my Garmin watch, bring my camera and a credit card and have a general idea of where I want to go. Then I just stop whenever there is something that looks interesting and grab food and water when necessary. I do get some interesting looks when I'm buying candy bars wearing running tights, but you get used to it. This is not only great for getting you miles in but one thing I really enjoy about traveling is getting to experience the places I'm in. Seeing and experiencing a city on foot is the best way to do this in my opinion. I feel that I know Minneapolis a lot better having logged hundreds of miles throughout the city and so that is what I often do when I'm traveling.
So I decided to do the same here in Minneapolis, so I headed out with my credit card, my camel pack and camera. One of the great things about Minneapolis is all of the biking and running paths that are open all year round. In the winter the city will often plow the running paths before they plow the roads, which is great for me. Even if you live in the heart of Minneapolis you are only steps away from beautiful trails around the lakes and rivers. I took a bunch pictures as I was running and those of you who know Minneapolis well you can try and pick out some of the places. Hope you enjoy them and can see some of the great sights that Minneapolis has to offer.
Lake Hiawatha
Lake Nakomis
Minnehaha Creek
Stopped for a mid run snack, the sour patch kids were not a good idea.
Ducks in the creek
Nice path right along the creek
Tunnel under Lake St. connecting Lake Calhoun to Lake of the Isles
Lake Calhoun
Shot of Downtown from the walking bridge that connect the sculpture garden and Loring Park
Sculpture Garden
Target Field, baseball season is fast approaching
St. Anthony Falls
Running path the runs behind the New Guthrie Theather
Here is the video of the Pope actually giving the blessing to the crowd in St. Peter's Square. I'm not quite sure about the translation but I think he is telling me to train hard and have a great race. My camera battery died before he was done but good stuff.
Sorry...I've been on the road this past week or so for work so I've been bad at posting, but here is a quick video post from St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Italy, I guess it's actually Vatican City. I was lucky that the Pope was in town and every Sunday he addresses the crowd in St. Peter's Square and blesses everyone.
As some of you may know I am running my first 100 mile race this April, so I figured I could use all of the help I could get. Even though I'm not Catholic I was quite amazed at Pope Benedict XVI he gave the initial blessing and address in Latin, I think, but then gave separate blessings in Italian, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and one more language I couldn't figure out. He was even giving some shout outs to several groups that were in the crowd. It was pretty cool.
Even though I didn't get any running in today I think I put on about 15 miles of walking. I pretty much started out from the hotel at 10:15 and was walking around until about 6:15, yes I took a few breaks for site seeing but just grabbed some pizza from one of the small shops and staked out a good stop to do some people watching. The Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain are great places to hang out and people watch. At one point I actually was next to a group of American students that were studying abroad, it was funny to hear them having the same conversations that I did when I was abroad...oh to be young again.
Well, enjoy the video post I'll try and add some more pictures and videos later. I'm off to dinner, maybe try and find a nice outdoor spot in one of the big piazzas.
I am an avid runner, leaner and love to push myself to reach new limits. I am creating this blog to help track my training, races and as a way to share my running experiences and any tips I learn along the way.
