Santa Barbara International Marathon

This is a good week for putting into play my speaking efforts at marathons. This morning I firmed up a deal to be the featured speaker at the inaugural Santa Barbara International Marathon.


For the longest time, Santa Barbara did not exist as a real city to me. Growing up in Pennsylvania and rarely leaving a 50 mile circle from my home, anything on the other side of the country might as well have been on Mars. And Santa Barbara? Well, that was a soap opera. With wealthy people whose lives I did not understand. Now, the first weekend of December, I get to run through the American Riviera and help break in the first marathon run through the streets of Santa Barbara in over a quarter of a century!

Running Routes and Roman Polansky

I often am asked how I can be so up for running all the time. The simple answer is I am not. sometimes I just plain and simply do not want to get out the door. But there is never a time when I come back from a run that I am not happy I went and did it. I feel better, my mood is light and I know I am doing something good for me. And I don't need Scientific American to devote an entire article to whether it really does. Then again, apparently scientific evidence is necessary for some people, like the one who said to me at the Women's Fitness Celebration this past weekend: "You can't be enjoying yourself. I never see a runner smile." To wit I returned: "Do you smile during sex?"

Stillwater Marathon 2010

I love irony. Especially when it is used correctly. (N.B. Alanis Morrisette's song "Ironic" is not a good example of that.) Just last week, I posted about Running with Headphones and in that post I had a picture of me running the inaugural Stillwater Marathon. Well just a day or so later, I was able to confirm that I will once again be attending, running and speaking at this fantastic race on the banks of the St. Croix River.

If you missed my recap of the this race, click HERE.

St. Luke's Women's Fitness Celebration

Life is funny. After having never been to the state of Idaho before in my 33 years, I have been all over it in the past few months. From book signings to running the Sawtooth Relay solo I have spent a fair amount of time in the Gem State. This past weekend was no exception as I occupied my time as a guest and speaker at the St. Luke's Women's Fitness Celebration.

As the logo says, this race as been a fixture of the Boise, ID landscape for 17 years. The brainchild of Anne Audain, (the phenomenal New Zealand runner who won more road races during the 80s than any athlete male or female) this race is now America's largest 5K for Women. To be asked to participate in the weekend's festivities was indeed and honor.

A few days before the race, we were treated to a great film about Anne's life. Following her struggled and changes throughout life was both inspiring and uplifting. Meeting Anne and spending the next few days kibitzing about the running world was even more of a treat.

A sunday long run

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I would be going for a long run this Sunday morning. Longer than I ever have before without receiving a medal for doing so. It was quite a different experience for sure.

I have often told friends that now that I have been running for a few years, I will see road signs that point to my intended destination with a certain mileage left somewhere around the marathon distance and I will think: "If my car broke down, I could be there in four hours. In these loafers."

26.2 Mile Training Run

At the Top of Utah Marathon expo last night I was more than pleased to not only meet some old acquaintances but make new friends. On top of everything else I got to learn about a wonderful organization called 2 Good Legs.


What 2 Good Legs, and more specifically ultrarunner Lorie Hutchinson is doing is running 18 marathons distances in 18 days covering the entire state of Utah from the north to south.

Random Sports thoughts

* If you haven't seen the video of the little girl throwing the ball back her father gave her at a Phillies game after he mad a heck of a catch of a foul ball, well, then you must not have the internet or watch TV. It has been everywhere. And, it is pretty darn cute.

What I am more impressed with than the dad's catch (or even the heck of an arm on the girl) is his reaction. Fans go to the ballpark for eons without catching a foul ball ever. This chap makes one great stab and plunks a ball from the wall in front of him and then watches it disappear as his little tyke launches it into the stratosphere. After the initial shock of realizing a small piece of history had been tossed away like chum and, according to the girl's (Emily Monforto) father Steve, seeing that Emily thought she did something wrong based on the fans reactions, he embraced her in a hug and could be seen telling her that it was "OK". sure that is what a Dad was supposed to do but I am still impressed. There was barely a nanosecond of regret in his face, captured by national television cameras. Way to go Steve!



* Tom Brady, QB of the New England Patriots has been vilified by some for not stopping to talk to Suzy Kolber, an NFL sideline reporter after the narrow escape over the Bills Monday night. The thing is, while he did not necessarily stop to talk to her, he did not blow by her or ignore her. In fact, if you watch the video you can here him saying something along the lines of "I can't hear you." did he sit down and give Kolber a Monday night Conversation? No. Did he find it a little annoying that she was there when he was trying to shake hands? Probably. But he most assuredly gave her the answer to her questions. I mean, sideline reporters have always been pretty useless as have post-game questions. "What this how you expected the game to go?" "How do you feel about that fumble?" Stupid.

Believe me, when a guy who went to Michigan and who looked like this on draft day:


gets drafted in the late rounds of the draft but ends up winning three Super Bowls and starts dating a girl who looks like this:

I don't need much reason to be jealous and dislike him. But, this Kolber interview not it. Tom did what he needed to do and nothing less.

* I might just lose my mind if the Bears lose to the Steelers this weekend. Just saying. Red Sox and Yankees fans think they know hatred for a team. They are WAY wrong.

Back to DC!

Well this must be the week for marathons starting with the letter "M"!

With so much going on, I am having trouble keeping up with all the changes lately. I do know one thing for certain: come the last weekend of October, I will be once again back in the greater Washington DC area. this time I will be spending some time with my good friends at the Georgetown Running Company.

Manchester City Marathon

Continuing with the marathons I will be attending, racing and speaking at this fall, I am happy to add the Manchester City Marathon to my schedule.


This race came to me as kismet when an opening presented itself rather unexpectedly on the Halloween weekend. I was emailing with Bill Rodgers (which never ceases to amaze me that I do) and he mentioned that it was a shame we would not see each other until the Mississippi Blues Marathon because he missed me so much and I am the bestest in the whole wide world. Ok, he didn't say all of that, but he did mention it was a shame it would be months until we crossed paths. When comparing schedules, I saw that Manchster fit right into my newly created vacancy of free weekends. Before long, the next thing I know I will be presenting right alongside Bill at this race!

I am happy to be able to not only knock off a state I have never run a marathon in but also to begin working with a race in only its third year. On top of that, I am always impressed when marathons decide to place their race date on the same day as a well-known race, let alone one just a few hours drive away. In this case, I am talking about the monolith of Marathons held in NYC on the same day. Having the chutzpah to say "Screw it, we are going to have our race the same day anyway" is impressive and something I am happy to take part in.

Plus I get to see Bill. Hard to top that, right?

So if you were not fortunate enough to get into NYC through the lottery (or you are not Sean Combs or Katie Holmes) and are looking for a race the same weekend I would highly suggest you take the trip up to Manchester. For whatever reason, flights into this area are relatively inexpensive from places as far flung as Salt Lake City and having passed through the area once when routing a potential race, I have to say that I am excited to return. the weather promises to be pretty danr perfect for a fall race and the views look like hey will be hard pressed to beat.


Look forward to seeing you there!

Marathon Makeover Marathon

While the title of this posting may seem to have come from the department of Redundancy Department I swear it makes sense.

This past January, while at the Mississippi Blues Marathon in Jackson, MI I struck up a conversation with a runner and fellow lawyer named Pam. Pam and I maintained communication over the following months and during that time I was introduced to a program that she is involved with called Marathon Makeover. A 40-week marathon-training and wellness program under the leadership of Mark and Robin Simpson, is in its sixth year helping ordinary people do the extraordinary — train for and finish a marathon!


An unbelievably affordable program, especially given what it will do for people for 3/4 of a year, I was immediately enamored with the idea and wanted to support it. Due to lots of creative thinking and hard work, I am happy to announce I will be doing just that this October at the 1st Annual Marathon Makeover Marathon! With a book signing and a running of the Marathon, I hope to inspire as many people as possible to take on this wonderful sport that I so love.

As many of you have heard and I am sure Mississippians (?) are tired of hearing, the Magnolia State is the country's fattest state. But with the Mississippi Blues Marathon's continued growth and its title sponsor of Blue Cross Blue Shield promoting good health and good eating coupled with this new marathon and program in 4 cities in Mississippi, the commitment is there to end that trend. I applaud those in the area and am proud to be part of their hopeful resurgence to health and well-being.

In addition, I may also have the opportunity to meet, speak and exercise with the Mississippi Heat Triathlon Club. I will have more details about this as it develops!



It is hard to see, with so many fit people in just the greater Jackson area alone, how the battle to beat the bulge will not succeed! So get out there and exercise Mississippi and I will see you often in the upcoming months!