Stormy Winds

Praise the LORD from the earth, you...stormy winds that do his bidding.
Psalm 148:7-8

Boy it sure has been windy this week. Monday I at noon, with a strong wind coming from the south, I headed into the wind for a 4 mile run. I ran into Joe about a mile and a half out, and I opted to forsake the miles for the companionship. So, I only ran about 3 miles.

Tuesday the wind was strong from the north, so at noon I ran north from downtown around Owen Park, a little less than 3 miles and finished with the wind at my back. By evening the wind had died down some. I met the RunnersWorld group at the river and ran 5 miles with my daughter, Becky and had a great time.

Today the wind was very strong from the south - 25 mph with gusts over 30. I ran south down Boston and passed Joe, who was returning downtown. This time I kept going and did 3.9 miles at about an 8 minute pace. It was hard to maintain that pace, especially at the end, but I felt good afterwards.

At AWANA tonight, the kids dressed up as missionaries. The one in the leftmost picture was crying when I first saw him tonight. When I asked why, he said, "I don't know who I am!" He knew he was supposed to be a missionary to Japan, but he didn't know the names of any missionaries to Japan. So, I told him that he could be Mark Penner. Mark and Mary Esther Penner are missionaries to deaf people in Japan.

The boy in the picture on the right is dressed as a missionary to Camaroon, Africa.

In the picture to the left with the two girls, the one on the right is dressed up as Lottie Moon, a famous Baptist missionary.

The girl in the picture on the right is dressed as Gladys Aylward, a missionary to China. There was a movie made about her life. I think it is titled "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness." One of the things that Gladys is known for is eliminating the practice of foot-binding among the Chinese.


This last picture is of a blind boy. He is dressed as Nate Saint, a missionary pilot that was killed by the Auca Indians in the 1950s.

In the picture he is typing into his Braille machine. He is actually interviewing me about my marriage - how I met my wife, and things like that. One of the questions was "how do you and your wife show love to each other?" I made him laugh by saying we kiss each other. I don't know what was so funny about the answer, but he thought it was hilarious.

Let it Be Said of Us

In Sunday school today the focus was on Ephesians 4:1-3.

I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

The highlight of the worship (in my mind) was the song, "Let It Be Said of Us." It fit in well with the Sunday school lesson.

Let it be said of us: We were marked by forgiveness,
We were known by our love, And delighted in meekness.
We were ruled by His peace, Heeding unity's call;
Joined as one body that Christ would be seen by all.

Let the cross be our Glory, and the Lord be our song,
By mercy made Holy, by the Spirit made strong.
Let the cross be our Glory and the Lord be our song,
till the likeness of Jesus be through us made known.

Had a good run yesterday. Brian showed up early and ended up running a total of 18. I slept in and only got in 15, but it was according to plan, and I felt good. I jogged a mile with Joe and then met the RunnersWorld Group and ran with them another 8 miles at a relaxed pace. I wanted to have a fast finish run, so I sped up to 8:30/mile pace for 4 miles followed by 8 minute pace for a mile. Then I jogged a recovery mile, finishing with Brian. Nobody hung out at the picnic table afterwards because it was cold, damp, and breezy. Our coach, Kathy is still sick. Brian, her husband, said it was like having a vibrator in bed with him, she was shivering so. Hope she gets well soon.

Message on a Mirror

I read an obituary today of an architect in Topeka who died suddenly in October. He seems to have been a fine man, active in church and in a number of community groups, and an inspiration to his family and all around him. On his bathroom mirror are the words:

Life is short, and we have never too much time
for making glad the hearts of others.
Oh, be swift to love;
make haste to be kind.

Good words to live by.

A Fine Week of Running

Okay, it's not the end of the week, but I have to update the blog when I can. Last Saturday was a great day for running. Fifteen degrees with about a ten mile per hour wind. Oh, it made my face hurt! I ran a couple alone then met Brian and ran for about an hour. By the time we met the group at 8 am, I already had 8 miles in. I was going to run 8 or so more with Mike, but somehow I got talked into running with Kathy and Charlie and ran 13 more. Total of 21 for the day. I felt really good after the run - no soreness in the knees or any real pains anywhere. Afterwards Charlie, Robin, Joe, Mike, Toby, and I had breakfast at First Watch. It was good getting to know everybody a little better.

Monday I was off work for Martin Luther King's birthday. Actually I did go into work for a little while to finish up some stuff that had to get done. After that I did an 8 mile run south of downtown taking Cincinnati, Terwilliger, Yorktown, and a few other hilly roads to about 33rd Street. Then over to Peoria and back downtown.

Tuesday at lunch I ran a quick 3 mile route around Owen Park from downtown. That evening I ran with Becky, Robin, Mike, and a new guy named Paul. He said his goal is to run a marathon in 6:30 per mile pace. Whew, that's too fast for me! I started running with him and before long was ahead of the others, so I turned back to regroup with my daughter, Becky. At the four mile post (2 miles into the run) Ed and July Byrnes came up and offered to run back with Becky, which they did. I went on and caught up with Mike and Robin and finished the run with them. Total of 6 miles, 4 for Becky. I wish I had stayed with Becky to give her encouragement

Thursday I decided I would stick with Becky the whole way. Actually, I started early and got 5 miles in before she started. Then I ran about 6 miles with Becky and Molly. It was a good run. Becky and Molly are doing great - 6 miles at about a 10:30 pace. Woohoo!!!

Plans for this Saturday are to do about 14 miles. I look forward to seeing all my running friends.

Here is my church's verse of the month, which I have memorized and think about sometimes on my runs:

It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your name O Most High.
To declare your lovingkindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night.
- Psalm 92:1-2

Thursday Night Run, Etc.

I've been logging my miles both on Runner's World and in a spreadsheet. The graph below, which is from my spreadsheet, shows for the last six months my daily runs and running totals for 7 days and 30 days. In training for the Route 66 Marathon last November, my 7-day mileage peaked at 59 miles and my 30 day mileage peaked at 190 miles. Right now my 7 day mileage is 41 and my 30 day mileage is 118. As you can see, December was a fairly low mileage month. I needed the rest because my knees and legs took some time to recover from the marathon.

The Thursday night run was fun - about 5.5 miles. There was a big turnout for the group run from RunnersWorld. I took off with Robin, Toby, Mike, and David. After a while I kind of surged ahead and made it into kind of a fartlek workout, stopping at a few places to do pull ups, push ups, or sit ups. I ran really hard across the pedestrian bridge. About halfway across I heard Toby gaining on me, so I picked up the pace - almost to a sprint. It wore me out, but it felt good. With about two miles to go I let the group go on ahead, and I finished with two of my daughters, Becky and Katie, and with their friend, Molly.

After the run, Sloan Taylor gave a nutrition clinic at the store. The last part of the talk had to do with hydration. Sloan said that your pee should be more like lemonade than apple juice. I remarked that if it looks like Tang, then you are dehydrated, especially if it is in powdered form!

Saturday I hope to do 18 miles. I think Brian is going to meet me at the River at 7, and the rest of the group should be there at 8.

Saturday's Run

Ran 16.5 miles Saturday morning on the River Parks trail. Started with Brian and Kathy at 7 a.m. It was good to see Brian out there. I am hoping we can push each other to improve our running and qualify for Boston by 2010. Stuck with Brian and Kathy until the last half mile, when Brian took off like a rabbit, and then Kathy took off and wasn't far behind him. I plodded in with an 8:42 for the last mile. Brian said, "I just had to get the average under 9 minutes.

Fortunately I was smart. I had a long ways to go, and Brian and Kathy ended up stopping at 12 miles. At 8 a.m. we met the rest of the Runners World group. I think there were about 25. A pretty good turnout. The weather was great, mid 30s and almost no wind. I started out with Phillip and with Marolyn and chatted with them a while. Then, after about a mile, I sped up to catch the next group. At 56th I stopped to do pull ups and push ups, and then ran on my own until 41st Street where I caught up with Brian and ran with him until he turned back. I ran alone until the pedestrian bridge and then crossed over, thinking I would eventually catch up with or pass someone on the return trip. I turned back at the Tulsa Rowing Club. That would have made my total run about 16 miles. After about a quarter mile I ran into Joe and Paula, and ran back with them to the rowing club. Joe is a great runner and has run like a gazillion marathons. Paula ran her first in November and is continually improving. She hopes to make it to Boston, and I think she has it in her. Joe, Paula, and I stayed together until 41st Street. I then picked up the pace a little and finished alone.

It was a pretty good run, and I enjoyed the company. I was a little tired, but no knee pain. Yippee!!!

Oh, there was the greatest date walnut bread waiting there at the finish. I later found out that Kendall brought it. Thank you Kendall!

Went home, ate, and then headed to Fayetteville for a basketball game. My daughter, Sarah's, team won, and Sarah scored 13 points. She also fouled out. :(

Well, it's time to finish this post. I need to prepare next week's Sunday school lesson. The passage is from Ephesians:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
(Eph 3:14-21)

Goals

The TATUR party last night was a lot of fun. Several of the TATURs were honored for their achievements in the past year. Randy Ellis had the best performance - 112 miles for a 24 hour race on a track. Terriann VanDeventer was the best rookie, finishing her first 50k in December. Charlotte Lindley was the most inspirational. She ran her first 50k and 50 milers in December, and the day after her 50 miler she fell in her bathroom and broke her neck. But she is back to walking already and is already up to four and a half miles. Kathy Hoover was the TATUR of the year, having completed two out of two attempts at 100 miles, Racky Raccon and Arkansas Traveler. AT was in brutal conditions, and many people dropped from that race.

One of the highlights of the evening is that since we had the party in one of the studios of KJRH, we were allowed to be the studio audience during the 10 o'clock news. It was neat to meet Russ McCaskey, Karen Larson, Casey Roebuck, and Big Al Jerkins. And of course thanks must go to the weatherman, fellow TATUR Dan Threlkeld, who arranged the party.

Okay, here are my running goals for 2008:
Run a spring marathon at an 8:45/mile pace (3:49)
Run a 1/2 marathon at an 8:00/mile pace (1:44)
Run the Tulsa Run 15k at a 7:30/mile pace (1:10)
Run a fall marathon at an 8:30/mile pace (3:42)

I plan to run at least 1600 miles this year in order to achieve those goals.

First Post

I'm new to this blogging thing. I think I will use this site to link to my training log and to enter thoughts about my running and other random subjects. I am a runner and belong to several running groups, Tulsa Running Club, TATUR (Tulsa Area Trail Ultra Runners), and the RunnersWorld Tulsa running group. I would like to start into triathlons too, but there are too many other things in life, so that will have to wait a while.

My last race was the Race Into the New Year 5k. I ran it in 23:33. Oh, I guess I also did the 300 yard river scramble on New Year's Day. That was not so much a race as a struggle to survive in the cold water of the Arkansas River. The picture of the start, which I got off the Tulsa World site, is included in this post. I am fourth from the right, in the sunglasses.

Today there was no training. I usually run at lunch, but today I used that time to take tables and folding chairs to the KJRH studio to set up for the TATUR annual Christmas party. Yeah, Christmas is past, but December was a busy month, and this is the best we could do.

Yesterday I ran north from downtown Tulsa, around Owen Park, north on the east side of Tulsa Country Club to Latimer, and then back Boulder to my office. It was almost 3.7 miles at an 8:15 pace. I felt pretty good. Weather was 44F and windy.

Other training runs so far this year are:
Jan 1: about 5 miles on Turkey Mountain with the Runners World group. Afterwards, I went to Ken and Dana's and had a bit of chili. Mmmm!
Jan 3: 3.9 miles at noon, and 3 miles in the evening with the RunnersWorld group. Two of my daughters, Katie and Becky, showed up for the group run, and I was glad to see them there, and I ran with them.
Jan 5: about 6 miles on Turkey Mountain with Scott Herbst and Dave Davis, then I rushed over to the river to meet the RunnersWorld group and ran 9 with Mike Mosely (we also ran with Stefany for a bit). Scott and Dave ran a bit faster than I had intended, but it was a good run. Mike ended the run with a sore toe.

I logged 1363 miles of running in 2007, ending the year with a total mileage (since September 2005) of 2554 miles. PRs that I set in 2007 are:

5k: 23:33 - Race into the New Year (finished race in 2008)
15k: 1:13:03 - Tulsa Run
1/2 marathon: 1:56:11 - Jenks Aquarium Run
marathon: 3:58:11 - Route 66 Marathon
50k trail: 5:36:18 - A-OK Atoka Trail Run