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One of our members, Amy Halleran, completed her first 5k not too long ago! She did a great post about it on her blog. Head on over there, check it out and tell her how proud you are!
Way to go Amy! You are a Rockstar for getting off the couch and training and completing that 5k. We're proud of you!
Moving forward,
Glenn
This story was emailed to us recently and we just had to share it.
Jeremy & Glenn,
I ran a PR yesterday at Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach. I came in at 3:43.50 with a 'gun' time of 3:44.40. Although it was only by 50 seconds, I was very happy with this performance for several reason. First, it is a PR, who cares about by how much. Secondly, it was a PR on my 30th birthday. Lastly, I figured out shortly after the race that I had actually run negative splits for the first time.
After completing the marathon and getting some light fluids and food in my system, I set out on the second part of my goal for the day, which I had set about a year ago. Running an additional 4 miles to complete my 30 on 30...30 miles on my 30th birthday. While my time for those 4 miles wasn't as good as the marathon, I was able to accomplish the feat with relative ease and celebrated with a nice, sugary Coca-Cola afterwards.
After driving the 15 minutes back to my house, I immediately got on the race website to see how I placed, as well as to see how some other friends of mine did. I didn't see myself in the results! After checking a few more times, doing a "Edit and Find on this Site" search, still nothing. "Are you kidding me" was my first thought (I think I said it out loud to no one in particular, as well!)
I finally checked the "Marathon Splits and DNF's". I found my name...as a DNF'er. All my splits are there thru Mile 18 (last split point until finish) and for some unexplained reason, my chip didn't register at the finish!
I emailed the race director and the timing company with my story, so who knows what will happen. Needless to say, whether it's "official' or not, I know what I did and that is the important thing.
Just my story!
Thanks,
Jonathan Olszyk
Jonathan, let us know what happens. We trust that the folks at the Shamrock Marathon will take care of this.
GL
Monday morning Glenn and I joined team member Jeff Arnold on his 15mi run in Spring Hill, TN. The longest run Jeff had done previous to this one was 11mi. He missed his 13mi run due to sickness, so this seemed like a little bit of a stretch for him.
But he did fantastic. That's what happens when you're consistent with your training - your body slowly and continually adapts to the miles as you go. I remember the days when each long run I did was my longest ever... those were special days. It was fun to share this special day with Jeff - a good run, good conversation, and a beautiful day.
Just one request: if you ever happen to pass someone running on the shoulder of the road and they wave to you, give them a smile and wave back - there seemed to be a lot of grumpy drivers on the road Monday!
Below are some excerpts taken from emails sent to me by an inspired friend we met on the road.
"We met back in May when you all played our church in North Carolina. You encouraged me to try to do a marathon…
Wanted to drop you a quick line to thank you again for encouraging me. I did my last ‘long run’ this past Sunday morning. 26 miles! Race Day is in a month, and my goal is of course, to finish. Alive.
I never would have thought I could cover that distance; and make no mistake, I AIN’T fast; rather slow and steady. But would never have had the discipline to try had you not put the mustard seed in my mind.
As tribute, I listened to all 3 downhere CDs while I ran. Great stuff, man!
I am running in the inaugural City of Oaks marathon, here in Raleigh. This is the weird GOD story. When you and I met in May, after I felt the first twinge of maybe, (that YOU, Glenn Lavender, YOU first stoked J) I Googled Raleigh marathon. Turned out that after a five-year hiatus, Raleigh was getting a marathon again. The week I looked it up, there were 26 weeks left until the marathon, and when I cross referenced how far my longest run had been at that point, there was exactly 26 weeks left to train. Of course a marathon is 26, so it was just too many ‘coincidences’."
Post race report:
"My wife bought me a great GPS watch…thought it was fully charged….start it right before the race….it’s dead…I know better now…so my entire race plan of a consistent run/walk went out the door. I counted for a while, but I got no idea what I really did…started listening to my mp3 player figured most of the songs I have are between 3:30 and 4:30 long, so I did the best I could…hey, you heard of a band called downhere? They’re great to run to. Actually since you are the impetus for my running a marathon, I went through all three albums, starting with downhere at the start, moved on to Substitutes, and finished with Wide Eyed… and just dug that great music…
It was tough, dude…I hurt my foot at 13, don't know what I did, and started cramping around 14 pretty badly...not only that, but the week before the marathon, I got sciatica in my left buttock cheek…great, just what every one wants prior to running their first marathon.
it was a struggle, but my half split was 2:18 (so I coulda/woulda/shoulda) done a 4:36 but running through Umstead (the second half while extremely beautiful was through a State Park here, but was just killer)…I finished it at 4:55....I was 91st out of 104 for my age group…I guess I wasn’t last!
I’m surprised in that my training run of 26 was so EASY by comparison…I fueled the same, slept the same….can’t figure the difference. Must be the walk/run ratio thrown out of balance by no timekeeping devise.
but…my goal was to finish. And I did…next goal will be to cut at least 15 minutes off my time and run a 4:40…didn’t you cut 40 minutes off of your time from 1st to 2nd?"
Wow! Bob is really giving me more credit than I deserve. I basically told him I thought he could do a marathon if he just got out there and gave it a shot. He did the work and made it happen. Always putting one foot in front of the other. So a good reminder of how far a little encouragement can go. If you have or know of any other stories of people affected by anyone in Rockstar Runners send them in and we'll try to get them posted!
Moving Forward,
Glenn
We recently asked our team members for their running success stories and have already had some submissions. Here is the first in our ongoing series of success stories from one of our early team members, Faith:
"While I am not up to running marathons or even half-marathons yet, I have run two 5k races in the past few months and before that I'd never competed. I'd always just run for fun, but never pushed myself or actually trained for anything. My first race I did ok in and my second race I beat the time of my first one! I was super excited. I also got 3rd place in my age group. Even though it was a somewhat small race, I felt such a sense of accomplishment to have completed it and placed well. It was also 25 degrees out when I did it and I debated not even running in it. I'm so glad I did!"
Congratulations, Faith - we're so glad you did too! We're looking forward to running the Country Music Marathon and Half-Marathon with you.
If you have a story you want to share, we'd love to hear it! Email it to us here.
