Leopard Street Runner

Its been a long time

2010-07-05T21:01:00.000-05:00

I dont know what to say. As the creator of a blog, it is my responsibility to have something meaningful to say. I got nothin.

Its been a long time since I posted on here. 6 months to be exact. Not the kind of excitement you would expect from a marathon runner. But to tell you the truth, Ive only run one marathon in the 6 months since my last posting. I ran the Seabrook Lucky Trail Marathon and Half Marathon in march. To tell you the truth, i lost my mojo. So much shit has happened in the last 15 months that I literally have screamed and screamed. And cried. And screamed some more.

Lets see. My dad passed away. My relationship with my mother has deteriorated because of that. I had twins almost a year ago. Well actually, theyll be a year on wednesday. I got divorced. I dived head first into my music and buried myself somewhere along the way.

Im a lost soul. So much has happened to me that its become rather unpleasant to think about, so for the most part i dont. Which that in and of itself poses a huge problem. I know this. Ive just chosen not to do anything about it. Until now. There for a while, it seemed that posting on this was too time consuming and for that period of time, it was. Mentally i wasnt able to process what i would have typed and i may have said something i might have regretted. i dont know, but in a sense, im glad i didnt. Now i feel like there can be therapy in blogging...stripping back the layers of callous thinking that has brought me to where i am in my life today to put it out there and free tomorrows thoughts up for something new.

With that said, my blogs will from now on not only talk about my running endeavors, but there will also be that personal part of me that will get expressed. I need to. Itll make me feel better. Ill talk more about me. More about life and love and loss and aggravation. Lots more about my kids and more about my aspirations. We'll see where this new path takes me. Talk to you soon. Be safe.

parental warning

2009-12-30T06:18:00.001-06:00

I think folks, for 2010 I'm going to say a lot more of what my attitude feels....which will more than likely require a lot more cursing. 2009 was a traunatic year for me in good ways and bad but nonetheless I need to say more of what I want to say, or rather, feel.

With that said, I will be using more explicit language. If for whatever reason that bothers you, please remove me from your blog list. You won't hurt my feelings. I need to be honest with myself though and from time to time, I gotta drop an F-bomb in there.

You won't hear me using GD, mostly cause I don't like it. Plus me and God go way back. Actually all the way back to the creation of the universe, but I digress. I will be posting my training regimen again as always and will add more of the kids in here as they absorb most of all my time and, well some days they're the reason why a 50-mile run doesn't sound so crazy.

Take care and talk to ya soon. Oh and LLOL, don't be a stranger, email me if ya still have it.

slowly starting to work back into my blog

2009-12-29T20:31:00.000-06:00

its been a long damn time since yall have heard from me. thank you cindy for bringing that to my attention. well im slowly starting to update my page with a few new items that are noteworthy. my 2010 list seems bigger than 2009. we'll see if i can actually do all that stuff. i think im gonna go to bed now, wake up in the morning and start thinking of my new years resolutions. when i get em built, i will inform you all.

have a good one and keep up with me on facebook if you can.

2009-09-16T11:10:00.001-05:00

to let yall know, I have not fallen off the side of the earth. Every electronic piece of equipment I own has basically melted down on me so I will be back soon

No Tour Champ Here

2009-09-04T21:27:00.004-05:00

Well...I got on the bike yesterday for a little ride. Let me get you up to speed on my riding skills.

Not good.

I went for a little ride because in three weeks, my team, Team ALSC-3 is putting on a crit for the team members and outsiders. Now, for those of you who dont know what a crit is, basically it's everyone riding in a predetermined circle for up to somewhere around an hour as freakishly fast as you can.

Look people....I weigh 240 lbs. How fast can I really

Well apparantly speed isnt the issue. It's my time spent on the saddle. 35 minutes and I was fried. I got the bike up to 25 mp/h....but I couldnt maintain it. Time on the bike is the only remedy for lack of time on the bike. I know what that means though. Im gonna have to get out there and really get to work on the bike.

Wanna see me?

I'm the man in black with my old bike before I broke her in my triathlon.

Hey I like that...the man in black.

I digress...

All in all, I think I cycled about 10 miles. In about 30 minutes. Not too bad but i got wicked saddle sore and a slight headache after I pulled into the house.

And I smelled to high hell.

That being said, I dont see myself riding the tour anytime in the future.

whats harder than running a marathon?

2009-09-02T21:23:00.004-05:00

the pictures speak for themselves

2009-08-22T08:17:00.001-05:00

I was thinking that microblogging could be cool...updates from my phone. Then I realized I'm allowed only 160 characters which is no better than twitter. Booo!

Today Started Our Training

2009-08-17T21:50:00.002-05:00

Today was the first day that Emily, Courtney and I (well, and my daughter) together went to work out. They went and walked West Guth Park. I attempted to run. Let me tell you I whipped my own tail.

I am out of shape already.

The good news though is that once we were all done with our respective activities, we all came home and were in a way better mood. Me likey.

But I'm still out of shape.

And I've only been out of the game maybe three months. But it's been a rough three months.

Needless to say, I walked a lot. To me it actually felt a bit refreshing to walk if you think about it. It was personally humiliating and degrading to no one but myself. I have been living in my past medals and my one placement in my first triathlon. As of today though, none of these mean anything anymore. It's time to start over. I'm ready to begin anew and basically start from scratch. The good thing is that for me, I know how to train. I know what I'm supposed to do and where is the best place to do it. I know how to cross train and actually enjoy it.

It started today. It continues tomorrow.

2009-08-15T15:45:00.001-05:00

I'm in the process of turning in my man card...details to come

I'M BACK!!!

2009-08-13T22:05:00.003-05:00

Just took me a little run this evening and I feel great.

Actually I feel like a mack truck hit me and I forgot how to breathe. My legs were heavy and I felt tight in every muscle.

But God it felt good.

I've got a long road back but I'm ready to get back to work.

SUCCESS!!!

2009-08-13T05:54:00.000-05:00

I MADE IT BACK ON THE "LIST"!! YAY!!!

you rock LLOL .

this is crucial because in order for my blog to succeed and win awards and be worldwide known, I must have the backing of the biggest thing in the work-at-home-medical-publishing business's backing. Without it, I'm relegatd to only having four friend and while Tim, Cindy and Dess are each famous in their own right....actually maybe what I should do is do like a round-robin of ass kissing to all my friends.

Hmmm....

Man on a Mission

2009-08-12T18:15:00.002-05:00

I am on a mission...

My mission, should I choose to accept it (Duh!) is to find a way to get on the notable blogs list for my friend LLOL (Literally Laughing Out Loud). I'm going to start looking at ways I can better improve my customer service, my grammar and punctuation, and most notably more access to my thoughts. Whatever it takes!!!

My Dream Come True

2009-08-12T05:57:00.003-05:00

By now most of you know about my running experiences over the last year and what they've meant to me. The initial idea was to run one marathon as a way to do something extreme due to a "quarter-life crisis".

Four marathons later...well you get what happened.

NOW my dream has come full circle. What dream you ask? The dream that says that one day my family will understand what the obsession is with running.

ON NOVEMBER 15TH, MY ENTIRE FAMILY WILL RUN SAN ANTONIO'S ROCK-N-ROLL HALF MARATHON!!!

I'm talkin about my mom, my brother and his girlfriend, my sister and her husband, my aunt and her daughter, my other aunt (possibly), my wife and my wife's cousin (aka the nanny). My dream is coming true.

Finally they will see what it takes to do what we do and live how we live if just for a little while.

And they are saying that I'm the inspiration for this.

Its stuff like that that makes me want to work even harder to inspire more. What's crazy is that people are starting to hear my story because I've got friends on the east coast using me as their inspiration and some family in Cali rooting me on.

I'm ready to get back to work. Its time to do more!

Stand By

2009-08-10T06:07:00.000-05:00

Man do I have some awesome, exciting news to come...(well its exciting to me anyways).

Ain't this some sh*t!

2009-08-02T10:37:00.002-05:00

Well of course I have had some interesting times for the last couple months.

The first was my dad.

The second was my twins being born.

I would be inclined to say that three through 300 million would be the screaming and late nites and changing diapers that I've had to deal with.

Three hundred million AND one is the pain that I'm having to deal with with my latest setback although this one is I guess of choice.

As of Friday, I'm now no longer fertile. I'm sterile.

It needed to be. I got enough kids and I dont want anymore. What sucks though is that I am gonna have to take another break from working out. The doc said no swimming, no biking and damn sure no running till he sees me again. That's gonna be in two weeks and I may not be healed up by then....FOR GOD SAKES IT MAY BE A MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAGGGGHHH

what the hell's next?

something interesting only to those who find something interesting's interesting (ummm), I created a twitter page. Even though I can't possibly have enough interesting things to write about

-11:44 updating blogger page and watching tv.
-11:45 still doing the same damn thing.
11:46 yup still at it.

I live a pretty lame life especially since I'm down from my surgery. I mainly did it to find pro athletes and try to talk to them to get their opinion and advice and just to say hi and make connections.

If you have a twitter account, you can link to me at @jasonwoodard84

Food for Thought

2009-07-29T22:33:00.002-05:00

Now that my twins are getting on a routine and things are starting to calm down over at my mom's house and I'm starting to feel like myself again, my mind races back to my dad and cancer.

I have thought about him alot and it bums me out because I used to tell him what races I was going to run and get his thoughts about the weather come race day. Now I have to decipher that all on my own. But most importantly, I still feel the need to do something in honour of him. I started getting the itch.

That being said, I wanna find the one thing or charity that will support my cause and me. Know anyone whos lookin for a never-been work their ass off to ride and race for them? I'm just tired of thinking that everytime I look around, someone else I know has cancer and it just pisses me off.

back to black

2009-07-26T22:18:00.006-05:00

call me crazy but i kinda like that Amy Winehouse song You Know That I'm No Good. As I was sitting back in my unfavorite chair, reflecting on the past week and looking forward to the next, the song popped in my head. When these things happen I just have to usually run with them so I figured I would share my neurotic tendencies with you all.

anywho...

I started workin on my training again alternating swimming and biking but havent mustered up the effort to run. I think for me running was my way to a small degree of coping with what was happening to my dad. Now that he's gone, I still have that same drive and intensity but I can't make my mind muster up the courage to go for a run. Biking and swimming are different.

somehow...

Athough I'm not sure why. But for now, I'll run with it. Anywho, I've been going to the pool and doing a slow but steady 500 meter warmup. Then I'll do a 300 meter sprint or a 400 meter if I'm feeling froggy. So far my times have been half ass.

6:17 300m and I believe

8:46?? 400m.

Is that good? I dont know. I used to competitively race when I was in middle school but for some reason that just kinda fell by the wayside. I might have been decent but who the hell knows.

Cycling however is a whole OTHER ball-o-wax. As you know from previous posts, I have gotten a cool new toy. A 2006 Specialized Allez which I technically haven't paid my buddy for yet but I'm workin on it.

Anyways, I have been riding it most every day so that I can start building up my butt callouses or whatever it is that's done from sitting on that ridiculously small seat for hours at a time. I've gotten to do a bit of hill work and let me put this in a way everybody can understand: HILLS SUCK!

There I feel better.

I've been progressively trying to better myself and my situe by getting back into shape. I feel better about myself and my crappy job if I have something else to focus on.

I will say that I miss running. Its become a part of who I am. I wasnt the triathlete or cyclist first. No, I was a runner and I will stay loyal to it. Plus cycling would put me in the poor house if I let it.

Are You Ready Miyagi-son?

2009-07-19T18:26:00.004-05:00

Well with any hope, Tuesday will be the day that my new life regains some sense of normalcy.

Tuesday I start my swim training. Wednesday, biking.

Now just to be sure that I covered all my bases, I did ask my wife if it were okay to resume training and she said it was cool. She knows how bored and depressed I've been lately (with the exception of my twins' births) and knows what it means for me to be an athlete.

Her only request is that I don't become overindulgent in my endeavors and put family second. I can understand her request. So I agreed. I feel that's a reasonable request and definitely one that I believe I can adhere to. However...

I am gonna try and sneak away for about an hour tomorrow and run my big ass up the street.

...and something tells me it's pretty much guaranteed to be painful.

does this count as an excuse?

2009-07-11T22:40:00.006-05:00

ok well as you know the last two months or so have been absolutely brutal on me with my dad passing away and whatnot. because of that untimely event, i needed to be there for my family so i let my training go by the wayside but NOW i have still not trained even though its been a little while since my dad died.

wanna know why????

does this count as a valid excuse for me to miss training? let me introduce jaxon robert and seth patrick to the world.

born: tuesday 7/7/09 @ 9:02 and 9:03

length 19 inches

weight 6lbs. 4 oz jaxon, 6 lbs. 9 oz seth

slowly but surely

2009-07-03T13:43:00.001-05:00

im slowly rebuilding my website to add some more features, pictures and the like so give me some feedback. lemme know what you think.

ok so what the hell

2009-06-29T22:18:00.005-05:00

I asked my dad the other day to send me a sign that it would be ok for me to resume training. I miss the workouts and the racing and all the people that are involved with the field of athletics. In short I miss being an athlete.

Today I got my dad's response.

Herniated L5 disc.

Went to the MRI place and they scanned me for about 30 or so minutes and after I got dressed, I was telling the lady that my wife is training to be a Rad Tech and she was like "Oh well I can put your results on a disk for your wife to see if that would be cool?"

I was like "Sure!"

When I asked how long it would take to get the results in, she said prolly 24-48 hours.

**Inside my mind, I scoffed for I knew that my wife could read the results in 30 minutes***

Needless to say that's what the unformal diagnosis is. Sucks. BUT, at least I now know how to progress with my training and treatment. Its apparantly not that bad compared to others but I know the pain sucks all too much for me to bear. But, I will deal with it accordingly and relegate my training to more bike rides and swim time.

I just dont know if I can give up that 100-miler dream though. We'll see...

pictures from my first triathlon

2009-06-28T09:49:00.004-05:00

H.O.T. Triathlon results

2009-06-25T22:25:00.003-05:00

i miss you guys

2009-06-24T16:15:00.002-05:00

well i had actually written something this morning while i was waiting to go to work. but as i went to send it on my fone, it decided it didnt like what i wanted to write and deleted it all. sooo, ill do my best to see if i remembered what i said this morning.

i know i havent written in a while and for that i apologize. dealing with my dads death has not been a fun experience. it pretty much sucked the life out of me and i stopped running and pretty much doing everything for a while. a couple days ago though, i was sitting in my truck and was thinking about my dad and i had an epiphany...of sorts. there are things ive been wanting to express and now is a really good time to share them with yall.

1. there will never be another Robert Woodard like my dad. i miss him terribly. now i dont have the ability to see premontions or talk to spirits, but since his death i have found myself talking to him on a regular basis and it feels like my dad hears me and responds in his own way. with that being said, youre going to start finding me talk to my dad in my blogs. i really believe hes watching over me and its a really cool feeling. feel free to talk to him yourself....lol

2. i am an athlete. i miss that about myself. i know why i stopped but its where i belong. its a part of who i am and i feel empty without a good run or bike. im ready to start competing again.

3. i have lots of pictures to put up....lots! and im going to work harder on putting my life out there.

4. i am going to have to update my site because i am working on new goals and ideas and i want to share them with yall.

5. i have some new toys which i HAVE to tell yall about. i will get that out to yall soon.

6. i never did get to tell yall about my triathlon and so here real soon ill have that information up for yall.

7. ill be including information about my brother-in-law who is a hell of an athlete. i really respect and admire him. hes also my bitch.

8. im gonna start putting a schedule up so that local people who read this can join me on a bike or run or just see what it is that i am doing and for all of yall to offer your opinions on how i can make it better. i want the help.

well thats what ive got for now so i will be working in the coming days and weeks on revamping those things that ive talked about above. im ready to get back to doing what i came here to do and that was be the best athlete i can be. i also want to send a special shout-out and big hugs and thanks to cindy, tim, and julie for their awesome words of encouragement and sympathy during my trying times. jules, you rock. also i hopefully will be adding another friend to my friends list if she reads this.

jenn, feel free to comment. id enjoy your opinion and insight...(shes my dental hygenist).
talk to you guys real soon.

-J

2009-06-03T11:47:00.001-05:00

Hey guys,
Thank you for all the kind words y'all have emailed me over the last few days. I really appreciate them. I will be back soon so bear with me please.

I Love You Dad

2009-05-28T11:26:00.000-05:00

In the year of our Lord 2009,

Jess Robert Woodard

born: 25 Nov 1954
died: 28 May 2009

time to open up

2009-05-18T19:09:00.008-05:00

ok now that im done beating myself up for my performance i can talk about it. I didnt make my intended goal of 50 miles. in fact it took everything i had over the course of however many hours just to make 105 laps. couple things i learned about myself on this run that i will use from this day forward:

1. i have an even greater hatred for nascar. i hate left turns. as a matter of fact, i need a break from left turns for a while. only rights.

2. i might just have ADD. i believe this is the case because i felt restless on that track after about my 20th lap. when i kept telling myself, "only 180 more laps to go", i almost wanted to take my own life.

3. i love being the center of attention. i won the award for most money raised by an individual for the entire event so i got to shine for a bit. i also got a tshirt that doesnt fit. i also was the ONLY person running at this event. the only one. awkward. however, i did get random strangers coming up to me amazed that they hadnt seen me come off the track at all (even though i did.) It felt good to have random people recognize something that i was doing.

4. i have one hell of a new-found respect for those people who run those Across The Years 24, 48, and 72 hour runs around a track. they are made of high quality steel. im apparantly made of a decent quality plastic. it was the most God-awful, boring thing i have ever attempted (aside from a staring contest...which i win all the time.)

my mind was no where near ready for the demands of the intense monotony and focus one has to have to act like a f**kin hamster on a wheel. my mind caved first (mile 20), then my knee (mile 25), followed quickly by my body (mile 26.2). when i started i was just like, "run in a circle. thats all i have to do. just run and see the same people and things over...and over...and over...and over." little by little it broke me.

5. i forgot what i was there for. i lost sight of the big picture. I had raised a substantial amount of money for my team and that was the only reason i was there. i didnt have to attempt the showboat crap that i ended up doing but i was trying to kill two birds with one stone. i was there for my dad and cancer research and i lost sight of that as soon as i started focusing on how far i could run.

The crazy lookin lady was the owner of the aransas pass curves, rachelle hubbell...the team i was on. shes a great family friend and also a breast cancer survivor.

But at the end of the day, i knew that i went there with ulterior motives. i cant blame myself. i wasnt ready. getting back to the running, i dont know how anyone can train for that kind of solitary, mental place that you almost have to be in for the entire run. it was a wierd feeling that i damn sure didnt like. what was crazy though is i actually recognized the precise moment when my mind broke.

i tried all weekend long though to justify why i hadnt made the distance. most of them centered around the fact that all runners were supposed to have the two inside lanes and walkers had all the outers and walkers werent going to be in the way. with me being the only runner, it didnt last long. having to dodge people, jump off the track then back on, change direction to avoid running over someone, and just moving in ways that i dont ever do when i normally run made my mind get angry and resentful towards people who were in my way, my mind saying that they were the reason i didnt make it.

but that wasnt true.

thats partially why i didnt write this blog till today. i needed some cool-down time to reflect. people were proud. of me no less. and i took it for granted because i didnt make some goal created in my own head. i DNF'd myself. who cares. im gonna learn from this and grow as a runner and realize that not everything i touch will turn to gold.

just most...

2009-05-16T04:53:00.001-05:00

DNF

2009-05-16T01:51:00.001-05:00

**update**

1:48am I am beyond exhausted and I've only pumped out 70 laps which equals...17.5 miles. Its so damn monotonous Im going nuts. well, back to work!

2009-05-15T22:42:00.001-05:00

**update**

its 10:41pm

9 miles down 41 to go

I didn't get started until almost 9. wish me luck...

Interesting question from Cindy at Once Upon a Trail

2009-05-14T22:39:00.007-05:00

You know Cindy I was thinking about the question you posed to me the other day; My thoughts on running vs. biking. Well Ive put a little bit of thought into it and I think I may have an answer for you.

I am by trade a runner. By design...neither. But as far as me and running, its a very love/hate relationship with it. Cycling, in my infancy with it, seems to be able to take me farther, faster but is waaaaaaay more expensive and therefore Im hesitating to jump headfirst into a sport which i may end up loving but not being able to afford. Although I will say that I just ordered my first cycling kit (well only the top) and I could only buy one.

With running, in the beginning I used running to control my anger and rage. Unfortunately for me, I had spent a second in the army and went to the desert which had a side effect of PTSD for me and when I couldnt control my anger, I turned to running for a way to make sense of what was essentially a quarter-life crisis. I needed to do something that was so extreme, nobody would believe I could actually complete it. For me, it was also a touch masochistic. It hurt so bad to run (read overweight) but I would bask in the comfort of my pain waiting for the next day when I could do it all over again. Plus skydiving, jumping out of a perfectly working aircraft 4000 ft above the ground using prayers and a parachute to get me to the ground safely, just doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me.

Yet I want to base jump. Im so damn wierd. I digress.

Biking to me seems to be a fluid workout meaning that for me, if Im on a flat surface riding, I can burn hella calories but not feel like I have because of the continual motion whereas running because Im a clydesdale runner, I feel every damn calorie. The difference in my head I think is that I feel like running takes me somewhere without support...no help. Cycling has, well, the bike.

With running, all I buy are my Mizunos and my wick away shirts and shorts and off I go. I dont even want to get into all the crap Ive bought just for the bike that I have which is a Walmart bike.

I will say that both whip my tail during workouts and races but with running I seem to be injured all the damn time. I dont think biking will do this:

And what you cant see that really sucks is that my second toe has no nail bed at all. Sundays race had a blister develop under the nailbed and it popped it all right off. I dont see cycling doing that to me so that point goes to cycling.

Oh one other thing about both...the only thing I pay when I go to a race is the entry fee. I dont have to pay a membership to be in USA Running. I have to buy a racing license to race (I have a USA tri right now) and THEN pay the entry fee. That kinda sux. I didnt know you had to have a license to race mountain bikes and a separate one for adventure racing. Thats a small fortune just to have the ability to race. Not including all the gear.

I really do want one of those bikes though. Those bad ass, sleek, screamin racing bikes that cost more than my credit card limit. Maybe one of these days. Well I hope that answered your question. If not...well Im random. Sorry.

FRIDAY NITE STARTING AT 7 P.M. I START MY ASCENT TO ULTRAMARATHONDOM. WISH ME LUCK!!!!!!!!!!

Is it appropriate to wish a runner to break a leg or does that only apply to actors? Hmmmm...

Thong, thong, thong, thong, thong

2009-05-13T21:41:00.003-05:00

Have you ever heard that song by sisqo the thong song? I love that song. You should be thankful Funnyrunner that that song didnt play in your head as your pants ripped. Sometimes luck has a way of working in your favor.

Well I have two more days until I make my attempt at becoming a ultra runner. But quoting Mr. Robert Burns,

"Even the best laid plans of mice and men go oft astray."

I got the itenerary for the relay for life deal and this kinda looks like its going to require a lot more work on my end.

From 7 p.m. to 8, they have some sort of opening ceremonies. I dont think Im gonna be able to run during that hour. So now I may only have 11 hours to make 50 miles...but it gets better.

Between the hours of 10 p.m. and 11, they have the luminaria thingy and all running has to stop. Subtract another hour. So now I have 10 hours to do this. Prolly not gonna happen. BUT WAIT! Theres more.

From like 1:30 a.m. to 2 a.m., they have some kind of award deal where Im gonna have to stop running again. So all in all Im gonna lose 2 1/2 hours of run time to try and make 50 miles. Realistically, prolly not gonna happen but Ill give it everything Ive got and leave nothing on the table. Best I can do I guess.

Anywho, it looks like its gonna be a fun time just as well. Im gonna work my charm and see if I can sweet talk some 30-something or 40-something year old into taking me to breakfast. I figure I might be able to pull it off. Hehe. Of course Im also gonna have to find me some sort of reputable masseuse to work on me once this run is all over with.

2009-05-13T06:31:00.001-05:00

Oh yeah sunday I ran the fort sam houston army 10-miler and guess what happened....I didn't come in last! Yay me! My finish time was a cool 1:57.

2009-05-13T05:58:00.001-05:00

Well if I could get my damn camera to work, I'd have some pictures for yall. Sorry I haven't written lately. I've been prepping for friday and healing up.

Side note

2009-05-03T21:32:00.002-05:00

I've decided to back out of Beach to Bay. For one, my buddy John at work can't find a third guy to run it.

And two, I think after 12 hours of beating myself all to hell and back, I'll pretty much be done for the day.

Also my wife said, "I ain't babyin' your ass, so dont count on any help from me. A good wife knows when to tell you no. And I'm not cartin your ass all the way over to Corpus so you can hobble another 4 miles and then want me to take care of you. Sorry homie, but I'm goin to Sea World."

So that ends that. I guess.

preparation

2009-05-03T18:43:00.005-05:00

I know its been a few days since I last posted anything significant but in my defense, I've been extremely busy with work and training. Surprisingly, it takes a lot of my time to try and figure out how to run 50+ miles in 12 hours.

Ok well in the 2 or so weeks since I have posted anything, a lot has been going on. I have been running almost nonstop trying to mentally prepare for this run. Somehow, once again, I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew. There is a middle school close to my house and I have been running that track to work on my track running.

Theres only one thing to say about track running..........BOOOOOORING!!!!

Good God, tracks suck. As glorious as it will be the nite of the race to get on that track with all those runners and walkers, training by myself blows. There have been some locals to keep my mind off the fact that it sucks so bad. Of course this hasnt had it downfalls either. At 30 years old, I've kinda realized that I'm a touch competitive. There's this lady that lives right around the block from me and I can only assume that she's somewhere in the 60's range and as soon as she shows up, I have been finding myself getting in competitive mode because the first day I was out running, she showed up and quickly without seemingly breaking a sweat, proceeded to lap me. I quickly got embarassed in my own head and started making excuses like, "Well she didnt know I rode my bike 10 miles to get here." Or, "I have been running for probably 45 minutes before she ever showed up." But no amount of excuses would satisfy me.

The next day, when she came back, I was ready for her. She wasnt aware of it when she started running, which I had already been at it for about an hour, but I was bound and determined that she would not pass me this time.

Oh yeah, and I was gonna lap her.

Well about a mile into it (4 laps) I lapped her and I felt victorious. My chest swelled and I held my head high as she took what appeared to be a walking lap and I continued to run for probably a half lap ahead when I figured that I was far enough ahead to take a little breather myself. I started walking and listening to my music and before I knew it, I had walked halfway around the track to the bleacher's side of the track. It was on that side where my confidence was shattered.

She started running behind me and without me paying attention proceeded to pass me at what I felt like was an unfair speed advantage.

If you think about it, when watching nascar, when the lead car goes in for his or her pitstop, most of the other cars follow. I never really understood why that was (mostly cause I dont normally care; I hate nascar) but it hit me like a bolt of lightning when she passed me. If you dont pit when the leader does and you chance running your engine to try and get a lap ahead, YOU RISK RUNNING OUT OF GAS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RACE!!!!!

Im such a dumbass....she beat me fair and square. And the worst part is she didnt even know she was racing me. She just ran along, listening to her ipod and completely ignoring me.

Aside from that, I have been really active in trying to get my cycling stuff together. This past Thursday I met up with a couple people from my cycling team ALS-C3 and they took me out on a training ride where they taught me cycling lingo and how to ride in an echelon and how to draft in really heavy wind and drills and things of that sort. Heres a picture of me getting some one-on-one time with another teammate, Jason Comstock.

Btw, everybody there was badass and I barely held on. We ended up doing a lot of drills and talking but I felt really comfortable with everyone there and had a good time. Jason told me after we were done that he was going to get me set up with cycling clip shoes so hopefully in the next week or two i will be going even faster on my bike and maybe I'll be able to hold on and keep up.

I tell you what though, I'm really enjoying my time doing this outdoor stuff. I'm meeting new people and having a good time, not to mention a good workout. Anywho, I'm nursing what feels to be some sort of cyatic nerve injury so until next time.....i got nothin. bye.

2009-05-01T05:12:00.001-05:00

Hey guys,
I know I havent blogged in a week or so but it's only because I've been trainin my ass off. I'll get y'all caught up hopefully tonite. See y'all.

2009-04-18T11:38:00.002-05:00

To funnyrunner:
I'm so jealous of your upcoming trip across the pond. I hope you guys have fun and do me a favor. Take some pictures out the train window for me please. I've always wanted to ride a train. It's one of those things on my do-before-I-die lists.

-J

woodard84@msn.com
361-523-9507
Corpus Christi, TX 78410

Weekend wrap up

2009-04-14T21:44:00.004-05:00

Well I had fun. Mostly.

Jason Woodard (M30) 5:13:17 Corpus Christi, TX, USA. New PR! by 44 minutes!

70th place out of 87 marathoners which sorta kinda sucked because when i asked them friday how did 70th place look in the field, they said great. 70th out of 100-somethin. cool by me!

Not so today. I was disappointed at first because I once again finished at the back of the pack and knowing I did way better. But I should have broken 5 hours. And I believe I had the chance. Lemme explain.

I started off a lot faster than I normally do. I happened to follow this smokin-hot girl out of the gate and I felt like I could keep up with her. Well maybe I couldn't but I sure as hell wanted to. So I did...for 12 miles when I finally had to slow down and she left me behind. At the 12.5 mile point, she had made the turn-around and was going back (a half mile ahead of me) when I told her that I'll catch up with her in a bit. We both laughed and she just said she'd see me in a bit. Seven miles later I caught up with her as she bonked big time and I was feeling good. She and I ran for a bit and a couple people joined up with us. A girl named Tamara something and a guy named Richard or Robert or something like that ran with us for a mile or so where they fell out and Tamara and I picked up our pace and left them.

At about mile 23-ish, Tamara (you can find her last name at marathonguide.com. I dont know it) was running alongside me. We were talkin for a bit when I looked at my watch and thought out loud, "Man I would so love to break 5 hours. If I could average 10 minute miles for the last two and give the last mile everything I've got, I might make it or come close."

She looked at her stupid Garmin GPS for a second and said, "Yeah not gonna happen. You're not gonna make it even if you tried." I said, "What?

"You won't make it unless you run 8 minute miles for the next two miles. But you won't make that because you're running pretty slow."

WHAT A BITCH!!!

Took the life right out of me. I lost my motivation to sprint and it cost me. I was running around 10- or 11-minute miles or something like that and once she said that, I fell back to maybe 15-minute miles. I walked for a bit too because I was just so pissed at her. I didn't even know her and she just popped off at the mouth.

At the end of the race, I finished and took a seat on the grass to stretch out. After I waited for my new hottie friend to finish, I walked over to the fence area where they had some homemade signs pinned on the fence. I grabbed mine and my "friends'" sign and gave it to her. Tamara and what I assume to be a couple friends of her's came up to me and Rachele (that's hottie's name) and started making idle chit chat. I asked Tamara what her sign said and she responded that hers said Happy 20th Marathon. Cool I responded. She asked Rachele what her's said and she said 1st Marathon. Tamara asked me and I told her that mine said Superior!

"Why does your's say that?" she asked sarcastic as all hell.
"Ummmm, cause I'm awesome!" I laughed. Tamara in like this lecture tone said that the signs were printed with whatever you wanted them to say whenever you signed up for the event. I didn't remember seeing the 'fill-out-the-paper-sign' box on the registration form when I signed up for the event, I said, so I assume they just put whatever popped into their head. Apparantly she didnt like that for some reason and just acted almost immature about it like "Hmmmph...this guy is SO not Superior to me!"

Needless to say at the end of my 26 miler which usually makes me euphoric as all get out for days on end, this one pissed me off something fierce. I stewed for a few minutes pretty intensely and then realized that being pissed isnt the race's fault. Don't blame the race. It performed exactly like I asked it to do. It was with me, didn't degrade me, challenged me, asked me to be nothing but my best and gave me a great view of the itself. Needless to say, I gave in to being euphoric and erased girl from my mind. At least for the rest of that day.

I will say that I did have the coolest race reward ever though on this race. Post race showers!!
Totally worth the whole damn race if you ask me. I might be inclined to race just for the shower at the end. That made Calgon take her away. In the end I had fun. Made some new acquaintances, challenged myself to be a better 'slow' runner, and I rewarded myself with a new PR. Not bad for a saturday 6 hours from home.

gimme a bit of time please

2009-04-12T22:18:00.002-05:00

im gonna update yall on how my weekend marathon went but im out of time and i have to get ready for bed so if youll indulge me, i shall hopefully be able to update you tomorrow on this weekend's excursion.

American Cancer Society

2009-04-02T22:04:00.003-05:00

Dear Family, Friends and Neighbors,

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Jason Woodard and I am a local runner here in the Corpus Christi/ Calallen area. I am sending this letter to you seeking your help in donating to the American Cancer Society.

Why is this so important to me?

My dad, Robert Woodard, has cancer. Like many of you who are currently fighting, caring for someone who is fighting, know someone who is battling cancer, or have lost someone to cancer, it has devastated our family and I feel helpless.

I wish on a daily basis that I had the ability to cure everyone’s cancer. But I don’t have that ability. None of us do. With that in my mind, I have decided that the best way I can help my dad and others is to join with the American Cancer Society and the Curves Relay Team in Aransas Pass, TX, my hometown. The Curves in Aransas Pass has participated in the Relay for Life fundraiser for the past few years. This year’s Relay for Life will be held on May 15th from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. at the Ingleside High School track. Relay for Life is a community event where teams of people walk in memory or honor of those with cancer. I have committed myself to running the full 12 hours in hopes of raising a significant amount for the American Cancer Society in their search for a cure. My hope is that I will inspire others to join in by donating their time or money to the American Cancer Society.

In watching my dad battle day and night, struggling through chemotherapy and seeing how it takes his energy, like countless others in his situation, I want to give my dad and others inspiration to fight on and realize that anything is possible. I have never run this far and it is the biggest challenge of my life. For me this is a huge undertaking but still pales in comparison to the daily struggles of those undergoing treatments and surgeries for cancer. With your help and sponsorship, I will run for all who are suffering and in memory of those who have passed.

Can you find it in your heart to donate to the American Cancer Society? Any amount would be greatly appreciated. Please make all checks payable to the American Cancer Society and mail them to me at 3713 Brookhill Corpus Christi, TX 78410. You will be mailed a receipt from the American Cancer Society. Thank you so much for your support in the battle against CANCER.

Welcome Back, Woodard!

2009-03-30T18:44:00.003-05:00

It feels soooo good to be back amongst my pavement pounding pals. Today I got back to doing what I came here to do in the first place...run my ass off.

Well today I had to take it a little easy. I did a very slow 4 miles and it took me about 52 minutes but it was intentional. I needed to gauge how painful my tailbone was gonna hurt with only three weeks healing time. There was a slight twinge a time or two but all in all it felt great. The funny thing about long distance running is that taking time off to heal like I had to isnt bad. I was really worried that I would lose all that I have worked hard up to this point to gain. Turns out that you dont lose it in three weeks. My lungs felt heavy and it took me a very painful three miles into some pretty bad headwind to find my mojo, but after that third mile, I just relaxed and found my rhythm. It was like an old friend; that warm comfort that only a runner can understand. I locked into my rhythm, leaned forward and finished strong for the last mile and I felt accomplished. I know that it will take some more time to build back up my lungs but today was an excellent start.

Glad to be back amongt friends. Thank y'all for understanding my plight and sending me all the messages. I appreciate the hell out of y'all ever so much more.

explanation to my wife

2009-03-28T08:15:00.001-05:00

Because it's been 3 weeks since I've been able to run, I've been depressed. Bummed out whatever you want to call it. For those of us who run, you can feel my pain or at least understand it. There's been an emptiness inside of me.

The last week or so I feel like I've been on autopilot just going through the motions of any given day but missing that one thing that sets my mind at ease. In dealing with an injury as painful as my tailbone, there wasn't much I could do about it. Rest, rest, and more rest is what the doctor ordered. So that's what I did. And it sucked. Of course this is the reason I haven't updated my blogsite either. It would get pretty depressing getting on here every day to say, "Well didn't run again today and I'm prolly not going to run tomorrow either soooo see ya tomorrow." No.

Now I've got the itch so bad I can't stand it. And I decided that I have to get back out today.

In explaining my mental state to my wife I told her something that she instantly said I needed to share with you guys. Here's what I told her.

-My mental clarity is tied to wearing it out on the road...its just who I am. I'm a runner.

Do u agree with this? This is how I feel. I think this is what makes me tick. what makes you tick?

Sorry its been two weeks

2009-03-23T22:09:00.002-05:00

My tailbone has really hurt so it took a lot out of me just to sit but I do believe I am healing quite nicely. With any luck I'll be mostly ready for the Davy Crockett Bear Chase.

I promised you guys pictures so as a man of my word, here they are without further ado.

He did it folks, he did it!!!

2009-03-16T22:18:00.003-05:00

Never ever will you hear me make the claim that I am the smartest person on the face of the earth. In fact I know that I would position myself intelligently like I would my running style....a definite BOP'er.

With that bit of knowledge it should be no surprise that I went to Seabrook, Texas this weekend to run in the Seabrook Lucky Trail Marathon and Half Marathon. I ran the half on saturday and the full on sunday. I know that many of you have told me that I should be taking it easy with a possible broken tailbone but I could not resist the chance to push my ultimate limits and really see what pain was like.

OH MY GOD DID I EVER!!!!!

(side note: dont ever ever ever run with a possible broken tailbone for 39 miles. not smart)

If I could describe what it feels like to have this tailbone damage, the best way I would describe it would be to tell you to connect the jumper cables to your car and hook them up to your ass. Shock yourself about every 50 feet and thats what I went through.

(another side note: there is no amount of vicodin that will aleviate the electrocution pain from running on a jacked up tailbone. trust me i know.)

But I made it. Painfully but I made it. And you know what? Even though I can hardly walk and I'm afraid to sneeze for fear of my tailbone stabbing me, I would do it again because it was an awesome race. I had so much fun and I enjoyed every painful minute of it. The trails were great, the medals are HUGE and the food was off the chain. I will be posting pictures in a day or so.
I want to say sorry to those who had hoped I would take care of myself, I coluldn't say no to the biggest challenge of my life (running-wise). It was irresponsible of me to do what I did and I'm probably going to be in a lot more pain because of it but I will never regret this decision because it set a new bar, a new standard by which to gauge my running. I'm so excited that you guys were a part of it as well. Thank you for all the support and helping comments. I hope I heal up real soon. (cause Davy Crockett Bear Chase is in a month)

Half Marathon 2:49:36.14
Marathon 6:20:24.26

slow as all hell but hey I finished and that's all I wanted. Rest and recovery, here I come!!!

on the verge of crying

2009-03-09T22:05:00.002-05:00

folks, im on the verge of crying. i have injured myself and im scared that i wont be able to run this weekend. i was tearing down my old fence and trying to work out a post out of the ground. i tried pulling it toward me and without so much as a creak, it snapped in two and i landed right on my tailbone. it took the breath out of me and has hurt so bad since that im afraid to sneeze. I am alternating heat and ice but im scared that i wont be able to do anything this weekend. the seabrook lucky trail marathon challenge is one that i have been really looking forward to and since this happened yesterday, i have been solely focused on doing everything i can to try and heal up.

any suggestions besides telling me to not run? i want those medals badly.

beat up

2009-03-02T11:20:00.002-06:00

Well I had my first run of the year and already I was off to a bad start. Sorry to disappoint you Cindy but I only ran the half. lol.

The weather for the Cowtown marathon was crap-ola!! It was soooo damn cold and windy that I'm glad I made the initial choice to run the half. In actuality, I was standing in line to buy my entry fee (I had missed the cutoff date online to sign up) still wondering whether I should sign up for the half or the ultra. I checked the weather app on my phone and lo and behold they said expect some freezing nasty weather. I got scared. Spooked really.

Not 30 seconds after I checked the weather, it was my turn to decide which one and I chose the half and after I paid I almost felt guilty. It was like I kinda let my "ultra friends" down. Like I had cheated them in some way even though I didn't know a single runner out there. I don't know. It was just the idea I guess of striving to be an ultra runner and here I was chickening out due to weather. I got to my hotel room and got out the packet and just stared at it. I called my wife and told her how I felt and she said just sleep on it. "You've got so many damn races in the next couple months, you're gonna need whatever energy you don't use tomorrow on them." She was right.

Nonetheless I woke up, got dressed, and as I opened the door to load my truck, a gust of wind hit me and I just started laughin. Damn it was windy. I drove to the race and it only got colder and tons of people were wearing hoodies and fleece jackets. I had a tyvek jacket.

When the race started, it was a cluster. 17000 people tried jamming into the starting line at the exact same time so I ended up touchin a few girls' rumps and some of them touched mine. lol.

I finished in 2:26 for the half which put me in like 2000th place out of however many. In a day or two, I'll show the actual results. This race also showed me what happens when u try to fight wind. When it was over, I was way more sore than normal. But all in all I'm glad I raced.

lots of exciting things are happening

2009-02-23T21:58:00.002-06:00

AS OF TODAY I'M NO LONGER JUST A RUNNER.

I just joined Team ALS-C3, a cycling team here in Corpus Christi. You will be able to find me here really soon on their website www.teamalsc3.com

ALS is of course Lou Gehrig's Disease and the C3 is Corpus Christi Cycling. Im pretty excited and nervous at the same time.

I started training this morning on the bike trainer.....booooooooring! oh my god at 3 am, even a cup of coffee couldnt cure my sleepiness and boredom. I did thirty minutes and then 15 minutes on the treadmill (still working on the timing thing) so all in all 45 minutes of training which wasnt bad considering. Anywho Im also workin on creating an adventure racing team. I'm really excited about this one because I've already secured a personal sponsor for myself. My uncle Dwayne is a huge fan of anything that moves with purposeful motion. And if his nephew is involved, that much better.

Ask and you shall receive...

I asked and I will be receiving my first bit of sponsorship money to go toward gear and entry fees in the next couple days. Im so stoked. I'll post in a day or two to let you know how everything's going. Oh yeah I almost forgot to mention. COWTOWN THIS WEEKEND. I love road trips. I don't know if I'm gonna do the half or the ultra...lol...I haven't decided yet. Sensibility says the half since I have a busy racing season but IIIIIIIIIIII dont know what I want to do yet.

...still thinking.

Let me think of a cool title....I got nothin

2009-02-19T21:15:00.004-06:00

Apparantly my running has made me popular at work. I have been getting random people coming up to me and asking me if I'm that Forrest Gump guy who runs marathons. I give my best impression but alas, I'm just not that good at it. Anywho, my running has apparantly begun to manifest itself into a beast all its own.

There are many people in the hangar who know what it is that I do for "fun". One of those people, Anthony has talked to me before about cycling. I have been interested in cycling due to triathlons. I have been wanting to do one so a year ago, I bought a cool lookin bike from Wal-Mart only to realize that I don't know how to competitively ride. Needless to say, the bike set in my garage for a while untouched. Well Anthony had talked to me before about wanting to teach me how to really ride. He's a hell of a cyclist and rides for some group called ALS-C3 whatever that is.

Monday he approached me with a proposition. How would I like to start a team with him to do adventure racing? He said several people have been talking about my running to him and although I am slow, I can get faster and he was interested in talking to me about the possibility. He talked to me all about what adventure racing is and I fell in lust with it. It sounds so incredibly badass and difficult. I told him to let me sleep on it so that I didn't just make a rush decision. I approached the wifey on the idea and her response was, "Who's gonna pay for this shit?" Good question. I went back and asked him and he told me that he was pretty sure he could talk to the bar that sponsors him to sponsor us. WOW! I was excited so I went back and told her and she was like "I don't care." So it's done then. I am now the second member of an adventure racing team. We don't have a name yet but it's gonna be good! He wants matching gear and whatnot so we'll see how that goes.

Needless to say, the last two days I've been on the bike and the bike trainer I borrowed from Anthony. I did 45 minutes yesterday on the bike and today I did about 30 minutes with a 3 mile run. (My butt is a little sore.) I realized on the bike today that in order for me to accomplish this, I'm gonna have to wake up at around 3 or 330 a.m. so I can get my bike training in before I go to work so that I can run in the afternoons and weekends. Plus I'm gonna have to learn how to kayak and mountain climb and rappel and all that other stuff. The phrase of the day is...

Do more than you can possibly cope with. Then just pick out the best stuff and throw the rest in the trash.

I made that up. Anywho...I'm just gonna try and do it all until my legs, ankles, feet or sanity give out. Then I'll take a break. We'll see

Notice my new cool ass Mizuno running shoes!

And don't laugh if you are a cyclist. I know my position in the first picture sucks but I'm getting that all fixed for me.

What is a Leopard Street Runner?

2009-02-17T21:41:00.002-06:00

I've had a couple people inquire as to what a Leopard Street Runner is. I think I can sum i up pretty quickly.

In Corpus Christi, Tx, Leopard Street was (and I guess still is) notorious for being a prostitute hangout. The whole time I was growing up in a neighboring town, everyone talked about Leopard Street as "the place for ho's". lol. Anywho, once I bought my house in Calallen, I realized that Leopard Street isn't just the downtown hooker spot. It runs all the way from downtown to Calallen; a 16-mile stretch of road. When I first started training to run a marathon, I weighed 260 lbs and was pretty damn hideous in my opinion. My thought process was, "Well if anyone is ever going to believe that I can really do this, then I might as well show everybody my progress." So I started running Leopard Street. It's a busy stretch of road here in Calallen. It divides up at Hwy 77. On the west side is actually Northwest Blvd. The east side is Leopard. Back then I actually ran both because as my runs started getting longer and longer, I needed that 16 miles of expanse to stretch my legs out. I used Northwest for the easy 2-4 mile stuff but the bigger stuff, weekend work, belonged to Leopard.

It became more than just the working girl street. I worked it too...by running it. Hence the subtitle. If I can't work it, then I'll run it. One of my runs, I actually ran into a working girl. It was funny to run past her. I kept imagining that she would start to chase after me after I ran by. As luck would have it, hookers aren't real good runners.

So for me, it's a funny road for downtown hookers and old warehouses and farmland leading into the city. It's a place for the Clydesdale and the Athena to flourish however they choose to. It's a group that understands that we'll probably never win a race, but we'll give it everything we've got.

p.s. bought some new shoes today. I saved 20 bucks and they're a bad ass fit. Mizuno something -or-others. Size 14. Crazy. In my defense, my feet swell when I put in big mileage. They feel great. I'm ready to test them out. I'll let ya know!

I love paydays!

2009-02-13T21:20:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I got paid and I needed to get a refill on my super-high-potency-only-for-hella-athletes multivitamins (Inside I laugh at my own humor). After meandering around aimlessly in that store for what only seems like a brief moment in time (actually closer to an hour), I found the little clearance "thing". It wasnt a rack. It was more like a push cart. Anywho, they had on clearance a shitload of Accel Gel packets. 50% off. I'm down with that! so I snatched up about 10 or so of them and along with my superman multi's proceeded to check out. For those of us who ingest these sometimes hellish concoctions, at 69 cents, I was happy as a clam. I called Court and told her about it and for a split second there was a glitch in the matrix. She told me to turn around and go buy some more.

"You got a lot of races comin up don't you?"
"Well yeah..."
"F*ck dude, I know how much they normally cost, you're gonna need 'em. 50% off is a steal. Buy 'em all if you want to."

And just like that, she supported me for a moment in time. I took a deep breath in and enjoyed the moment as it unfolded. I know it was just a resetting of the matrix and tomorrow she will be back to normal, hating my running but that's okay. I turned around, walked back in, went to the same girl working there that checked me out and told her I would like to buy "a crap-load more." She laughed and we went through and picked out 30 more for me to buy. Of course it's not like I was cherry-picking the good flavors. All they had was Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry Kiwi. I bought a medley of all three although I prefer strawberry kiwi. I only left about 20 on the table, mostly Vanilla. I paid for my huge box of gu and left a happy camper...again!

I love getting paid.

p.s. I haven't run all week because of this serious problem with my left shin. I'm gonna be buying some new shoes this weekend and it sucks being so close to Cowtown. I'm really nervous about having enough time to break them in but its either that or race in my New Balance and risk even more damage. Which is the lesser of the two evils?

My small group of coworkers that I run with have actually gotten aggravated because I can't run. It was funny because they went running today but they were sayin that I needed to hurry up and heal because I'm their inspiration. Imagine that. It's an honor for me to be told that I'm somebody's inspiration. But it's another for me to just magically heal an injury. I'm getting very nervous that this, whatever-it-is, won't heal in time. Patience is my virtue and I will follow it. At least until Sunday when I attempt to run a bit. We'll see.

no luck at all

2009-02-10T21:52:00.002-06:00

Well I thought today would turn out to be a good day. It started off relatively well. I had had a horrible bout of depression yesterday for reasons that I dont understand but when I woke up this morning, I knew today was not going to be like yesterday. I went to work and found out that my leave has been approved to go to Ft. Worth for the Cowtown Ultramarathon that I really want to run. I stayed busy all day but got off early to go to the podiatrist and when I got home had some peaceful non-kid time with my wife for a minute.

She asked me if I was gonna go run and I told her yes,that I had to get ready for Cowtown. I got dressed and headed out to my very familiar running spot along northwest blvd. The very first step was automatic pain! Shin splint was the culprit. I figured it was either my shoes needing to be changed or I had tried to run those small trails too hard with my running partners. I tried to give it what I could in the hopes that the pain would ease off. Nope! Got worse. Now I've got shin splints like I'm some sort of brand new runner. I couldn't even make it a mile without grabbing my left leg and writhing in pain. I stuck it out for four miles but I'm pretty damn sure three of them i had to walk. I'm really disappointed in what I've done up to this point but I just hope that I won't have to cancel Ft. Worth. That woud be very disappointing to me and all the people who have given things up to help me run. I will attempt a rest period for the next couple days with the hopes that this will heal.

4 miles-3 of them walking

HOW DEFLATING

2009-02-06T14:49:00.000-06:00

In preparation for my first ultra event, I have been training pretty well up to this point. Consistency has been an issue but I've been makin up for it when I can. That being said, yesterday when I got off work, I ran over to my brother's work to change clothes as fast as I could. I knew tonite would be a little bit long so I wanted to get a jump on the darkness before it set in. (I get off work at 430.) I'm not that good of a runner that I can just jump out and do ten miles like nothing so by the time I stretched and get psyched up, it was 530. I took off a touch fast and surprisingly I felt good. There was a slight ache in my left shin but I figured that's just from making the adjustment from road running to trail running. I hadn't formally measured the distance but I had guesstimated the distance I would need to go to make a 10 mile out and back. All the streets on the south side of Corpus going down Saratoga are all a mile apart. I counted the street I was on and four more to make 5 miles.

I ran with what I felt was a faster than normal effort. And I felt good. I got down to Weber Rd. which was my turn around point, looked at my watch and saw 47 minutes...ALRIGHT!! I'm kickin ass. Normally a 12 minute/mile guy I thought I shaved some serious time off the clock. I crossed over Saratoga to the other side and hauled ass down the road. 43 minutes later I got back to my truck just past it getting dark....1 hour 30 minutes. That's a new record for me! I was all pumped.

I wanted to get accurate odometer readings so when I left I reset the odometer and clocked it. As I was getting close to Weber, fear set in...then frustration.....then disbelief...THEN FULL BLOWN ANGER. 4 damn miles. I hadn't broken some awesome record...I missed the mark by two whole miles. Sonofa...

What a bummer!

8 miles total in 1:30 exactly although I will say the second four miles I shaved 4 minutes off my time. that was cool I guess.

I'm a trainer?

2009-02-05T05:35:00.001-06:00

As a friend of mine said a couple months ago as I was training for my first marathon, "dude, what are you doing? Running sucks. You don't wanna be one of them old people who have to have canes and wheelchairs because they beat their knees and legs all to shit."

I was in the store the other day and I saw this old guy who was probably in his 70's and he had a cane. For some reason that quote had popped in my head. I stood there for a second and watched him as he walked down the aisle. He seemed to walk with pain in whatever part of his body ailed him but he looked content with himself. Without knowing him he looked happy. Now maybe he had just seen his granddaughter or had an old lady flirt with him, I don't know, but my mind wondered if he was thinking of the past. Was he a runner, remembering past championships won or some great triumph conquered? Could it have been the realization that no matter how much pain he was in today, it was worth it to "beat his knees all to shit" in year's past? Probably not but I thought for a bit and asked myself that question. When I become old and my knees and ankles and feet hurt like hell, will I look back and say it was all worth it?
Damn right I will. Learning how to run long distances has taught me that time, distance and pain are all relative. One day three miles might kick my ass and take just short of forever. Other days it's thirteen miles and I feel great afterwords without a hint of pain and time flew by. I'll probably never win a race but to try is what does it for me. To prove to myself that I have something many other people don't or won't have is worth all the pain in the world.

But I'm stubborn like that too. I run for the challenge of seeing how far I can push my big ass. Now people look up to me. People younger and older than me who somehow find inspiration in what I do is an awesome responsibility. Some days when I run and I hit that tired spell, I have a gut check moment and say "Ok J, it's time to get back to work."

But I can hardly call what I do work. First off, work is something one has to do to pay the bills. My running won't pay any bills and some months, buying all the crap I need feels like a bill in itself. No, what I do with my body and legs is fun. Not fun in the go-to-the-carnival kind of fun but the anxiety relieving, heart pumping, meeting new people and laughing with strangers kind of fun. I don't know, maybe it is like a carnival. I mean you have fun, play some games, look around, see lots of new people but see some familiar faces from time to time and there's that one game that only a handful of people can ever win. That damn bottle ring game. Most people just do it to play, to see if they are the one in a million winner. It's only those select few who have the capacity to understand the flaws in the game and expose them and work harder at winning that dumb ass game than everyone else. But when they do win, their prize is huge. Kinda like our races. Maybe it is a better analogy than I thought. Most race directors though don't have small hands and smell like cabbage. If you are a race director and have small hands and smell like cabbage, then I apologize for offending you. Back to my original point.

Carnies: Love Em or Loathe Em....on the next Geraldo.

No seriously. I think life is kinda like a race. Sometimes its painful. Other times it's euphoric. Time stands still for some and others you wake up one day and your kid is 16 and asking to borrow the car on Friday night. It's all relative though. I hope that 40 years from now I can look back and be like that old man in the store thinking back, with or without the cane, smiling and not regretting a damn thing knowing that I gave my races all I could give. People look up to me now too. As I train people while I'm still learning myself, will they reflect and have positive thoughts? I really hope so. It may take an elite runner 30 hours to do badwater. It may take me a month, but I'm confident I'll still be able to look back and smile.

Aw hell I don't know. Somewhere between 4-6 miles.

How can I help?

2009-02-03T08:47:00.000-06:00

My sister-in-law Odessa, which everyone calls her Dessie or Dess if you want to go really short called me up sunday night and asked me if I would train her for a marathon. She said that she's been inspired by what I've been able to accomplish (being a fat boy runner) and wants to get that runner's high like I do. Plus I guess she's gained a little weight. So I told her I would help her draw up a plan and find a good race and get her all set up with all the essential gear.

I'm kinda excited about the possibility of teaching. I think I'm good at it. Marathon running is a continual learning process so by no stretch of the imagination am I any kind of expert but I enjoy what help I can give. It feels good. I like helping others and if somehow I get the opportunity to help even more, then I'll be that much more stoked.

google search

2009-02-03T08:05:00.001-06:00

How stinkin awesome is this? I was googling to see if any ultra runners have had to deal with chafing. I searched the words ultra runners, ring of fire, chafing. Guess who was number 4 on the search list? Leopard Street Runner! YAY! check it out:

http://www.google.com/m?dc=gorganic&source=mobileproducts&mrestrict=xhtml&eosr=on&ct=fsh&q=ultrarunning+ring+of+fire+chafe&x=0&y=0

I'm popular...people like me!

last week's events

2009-02-02T08:03:00.008-06:00

Well last week was pretty eventful and seeing as how I have an awesome and dedicated fan base (of 2), I will fill you guys in on my last couple days running.

Friday, my after work run was awesome. I met up with Stormie, Dave and Valorie. Val had been telling us about this tiny nature trail/observatory that she walked one night and it took her like 2 hours. So I was thinking this bad boy was gonna be my first foray into trail running. I was amped. When the girls finally showed up (about 20 minutes after the predetermined time), we all did a quick stretch and took off running. Well actually they took off running and I was getting my ipod turned on and the music set to what I was wanting to listen to. Stormie turned around about 50 yards ahead of me and waved for me to hurry up, that they would leave me. Then I saw her holler at the other two to slow down. I told them I'll be there in a second, Ill catch up. So they continued on and I finished what I was doing and started jogging.

It probably wasn't another 100 or so yards before I caught up with them and then passed them. I was just running at my normal pace and as I passed them Stormie started saying, "Oh well aren't we just the big-shot runner." I told her that it wasn't a race and that I was just stretching out my legs. I slowed down so that they were right behind me and we talked a bit as we jogged through the trail. It was really nice. We talked about the relay run I want Stormie to run with me and how Dave hasn't run in quite a while and how getting back into it was hurting a little more than he thought. Val didn't say anything and as we kept truckin on, she kept falling behind a little at a time. I slowed down and let the other two pass as I matched Val's pace and tried to have a conversation with her but I had forgotten for a split second that she's also a smoker and so she didn't really have the lung capacity to talk to me.

We got to the end of the trail where its a long wooden dock extending out to the marshy area where a lot of older men had their binoculars and cameras out taking pictures of birds. It was a peaceful scene and I really enjoyed taking in the sights as this was a whole new experience to me. I haven't ever run with a group and just enjoyed the peacefulness and serenity of nature. Of course with south Texas marshes, what they have in peacefulness, they also have in stagnant sea water. But the smell wasn't overpowering enough for it to take away from the experience.

Val and Stormie decided they wanted to extend the run a bit further so they decided to get back up on the road and run down to the next traffic light which was maybe a half mile away if that. I started to get a little crampy from the slow running and asked them if it would be okay if they had a problem with me running to the stop light past the one they were running to. I told them that usually my runs extended a bit longer and I would catch up to them on the way back and we can all finish together. They said cool and I extended my stride and took off. I ran down to the second light and turned around and started heading back. When I got closer to the light, I saw them and they had run past the light themselves and I could see that Val was getting worn out. I caught up to them and I ran with Val all the way back to the end of the trail where the dock was and again I asked them if it would be alright to run ahead to stretch out a bit. As soon as I said that, Stormie said "Let's race" and she sprinted off down the trail.

Well it takes this big dude a second to get the engines primed but once I started, I caught up to her and passed her and started laughing. She kinda talked a little bit of trash and then said she didn't have the lungs to keep up otherwise she would have beat me. I told her that my running is misleading; I cant stop because it hurts too bad and once I stop, I'm done. The sprint kinda hurt a bit though. I am not a sprinter by any stretch of the imagination. I looped back around for the "stragglers" and ran with them the rest of the way to the finish area where we began. We all had a decent stretch and went our respective ways. I don't know how far I ran exactly but if I were to guess, it would probably be about a quick 3 to 5 miles.

I took Saturday off to "recover" but I still had to go to work where Stormie was jokingly mad at me because in trying to keep up with me, she said her back was hurting. Shes got the body of a sprinter and looks the part but she says she doesn't run all that much since getting out of the navy a few years ago. For a minute, I was very proud of myself because here I am, 224 lbs. and I'm in better shape than I have been in a very long time although if you looked at me, you wouldn't think that I am a runner. No way in hell. But there in again, runners would take one look at my legs and know immediately that I was a runner. Ive got runners legs. And I shave them to help with chafing. Plus it looks bad ass (to me anyways).

Sunday was my day to run 22 miles to work on my training for the Cowtown Marathon 50k. I like the medal setup they are offering and I want a piece of that star. Plus it'll technically be my first foray into ultra running, even though I know that "true" ultra running starts at 50 miles.

Baby steps people...

Anywho, I started out pretty rough. For some reason I couldn't get my legs to do what I was asking them to do for the first three or four miles. It usually happens to where I don't feel warmed-up for the first five or so miles but today was a touch different. I think my mind just wasn't there to do what is required of my brainpower. But I plugged on. Miles 2-5 were this little trail that I know at the hilltop community center where its a mile circle but it has some shitty hills. I was listening to some advice I read online where it says in a distance run, walk all the uphills no matter how steep. This place has two main hills and they are steep so I walked up and ran down. At mile five, trying to resume running after walking up those hills sucked. My calves and butt cheeks didn't like them (or me) either. I ran out of hilltop area and back out to Leopard Street. I picked up the pace to get the soreness out of my hind quarters and trucked on down the street. About halfway down to West Guth park, my ipod died. Dammit! I forgot to charge it. Normally I would call it quits right there because I don't like running without music but for some reason or another, I decided to keep on running. I called Court and asked her if she could meet me at West Guth park to reload my liquids and to bring me her ipod so I could listen to the radio. She agreed and met me about 20 minutes later at the park.

West Guth park is a really nice open park with a community pool, a duck pond, and it's best known for its frisbee golf course. But it also has some really good running sidewalks that are up and down in elevation and about 1 1/4 miles in length. I ran that four times and every time I passed the duck pond, I just was put in such a good mood. Its really weird the way things happen because that area smells like duck shit but it was peaceful and put me in a good frame of mind. I left the park and continued back around to Leopard Street and continued home. I walked a lot of the way down Leopard due to exhaustion until I hit about 16 miles. At mile 16 or so, I saw a bus stop bench and decided to sit down to take a breather. And that's when I took notice of a little problem I was hoping to avoid. It's a problem for any runner and measures are taken to avoid it but I haven't come to grips with what's required to avoid it. That's right. Y'all know it as the ring of fire. Well maybe you don't know what it is but I chafed something fierce. And just like that, my run was over. I called Court and asked her to come pick me up and she and Mexi came and got me. I wasn't mad though because on my long runs, I always feel 'high'. I was a touch disappointed but it was fleeting. I still did 16 miles and that I can feel good about. Even though I didn't make my mark of 22 miles, I still got the "that's fuckin nuts dude" and "you're crazy man" from my friends at work. I can always count on them to boost my ego because nobody there does what I do. It's kinda cool to fail a run and people still think that you're a running freak because you did 16 miles.

p.s. When I got home after my run I took off my socks and looked at my toes. My second toes on both feet had toenails that were black. I started messing with them and they both fell right off. The pictures below are after they came off.

Don't make fun of my toes. I know they are fat. The pics below are of my suntanned legs after my shower. I like my white "shoes" and browned legs.

Notice the ipod arm holder spot where the sun hits all around it.

depressing

2009-01-29T20:33:00.002-06:00

well i just got handed a serious blow to my running psyche. i got paid today and the money that i thought would be able to pay for my first couple races, i found out that i have to use it for more important priorities....bills. dammit!! i hate that. i was very much looking forward to especially the cowtown 50k because that would be my first attempt at something over 26 miles. I'm hoping i can generate some money between now and the next two weeks to be able to slip in but i also know that these races often fill up and close before the cutoff dates. so I'm pretty worried about it.

most days i try not to let people bother me. i don't want them under my skin or 20-questioning me about why i do something so stupid as to run 20+ miles because "that cant be good on your knees for a guy your size." but what bugs me the worst are those people that you want to lean on that want nothing to do with what your passion is. those husbands or wives or boyfriends or girlfriends who tell you they hate running. they cant or don't or even wont understand why you subject yourself to all that torture and sweat. so you lose some weight. big deal, why not just go to the gym and lift or something. why do you have to be gone all saturday or sunday morning? why do i gotta go pick your ass up 25 miles down the road just because you wanted to run a straightaway? what are you running away from or why does it seem like you are running away from us? most runners i see in the magazines or read about in books all have the most awesome support systems in the world in their families. where the hell are the stories about the runner whose wife thinks running is stupid and wont help him. or the runner whose boyfriend doesn't want to ride a bike to follow her because its too much work.

to be honest, i get frustrated by this. i have battled it myself. its tiring especially when runners want to share this "thing", this passion, with that spouse or family member. i have found that sometimes the mental side of that fight can actually be more tiring or defeating than not being able to complete a run (which sux in its own right). it becomes a daily depressing battle to find people like yourself who you can relate to that understands where you come from. many runners i know however, have that support system in their families just like the people in the magazines. maybe not dean karnazes-ish with the following in the van thing but you know what i mean. finding that delicate balance between the belly-aching runner who just wants to complain about every little thing (which i pray I'm not that guy...i don't complain at all during a run. its a sin..lol) to the garmin watch wearing, split-time tracking, hubby in a car following, kind of runner. granted i know both types but given the choice, i choose neither.

I'm a happy runner. i enjoy my short runs and the longer ones even more. i like feeling tired and the time spent running by cars, seeing the same faces coming home from work. i enjoy a good trail run although i suspect that the trails I've run aren't even the tip of the iceberg. i enjoy camaraderie although Ive mostly been training alone for the past year. but i enjoy my solo runs because i get to reflect on my day and whats frustrating me at the moment. it makes me feel better and i just want to share that with the ones i love. that's what i want. it can be depressing to not be able to have that though. hence the frustration. anyway that's my dollar for the day.

new adventure?

2009-01-27T20:35:00.004-06:00

i made some new acquaintances today. one of the new guys i work with is training to get back into army shape. he has to pass a pt test in may or june i think. i overhead him and a couple of his friends talking about how they were gonna go run today. i inquired how and where and he and valerie and stormie (yes that's her real name) said they knew of a spot that had some trails. trails?!! id like to try. i spoke up and asked if they wouldn't mind a fourth toe. they were like sure come on. i told them i couldn't go today (because i forgot my damn shoes at the house) but i would like to go the next time they go out. they said probably thursday or friday. maaaaannn, I'm down with that.

I've never had a running partner. well, we all ran in formation in the military but that was different. i hated running then. there's something about being forced to run. i don't like it but when i get the awesome chance to run on my own for myself its liberating. its then and only then that i thoroughly enjoy it. it has the potential to be weird though. when i was talking to stormie a little bit later she was telling me that valerie was a marathoner. cool! someone else in the hangar like me. i went to valerie and asked her what was her longest run. 10 miles. aaahhhh. i actually got slightly disappointed because what i found out was that she was a marathon relay runner. she averages between 2-6 miles. well that's cool though because every runner can teach me something. even if they aren't gonna be a long distance runner. form, function, speed. i need to learn it all.

nobody in the hangar where i work runs like i run. some days i do 3, 4 or maybe 6 miles. other days i do 10, 13. on the weekends i do sometimes 15 to 25 miles. now that the word is getting out about the fat meskin forrest gump, i get a lot of "man I'm gettin tired just listening to you talk about it" or i get "man that just sounds stupid" or the question of the ages that ultimately every runner loathes at some point.

"why?"

hell i don't know. if i knew the reason why....you know what, i don't want to know the answer. because truth be told, if i knew the answer, maybe that would kill my motivation. i like my motivation. if i got rid of it, what other hobby would i obsess over...lol. sometimes ignorant is bliss.

monday's thoughts on ambition

2009-01-27T05:34:00.002-06:00

I've never ever in my life been accused of having too little ambition. For as long as I can remember I've had big dreams. I don't know if that's the pisces in me or what but I've never been able to have "average" dreams.

Most of the dreams however were larger than reality and most were inconceivable due to location, financial situation, or talent. And although I had many dreams as a child, as an adult my dreams haven't slowed down.

I suppose that's evident in my wish list off to the right. These are the races this year that I would like to try and run. Too ambitious? Maybe. But as an adult now, what's the fun in dreaming if I can't make them come to life. I have the financial resources and I have a little more talent...not a lot of talent but enough to look at myself in the mirror and be proud of what I've done up to this point.

Those races I want to do. I want to succeed. I want to make great friends and learn from some of the best and some of the worst...although as a long distance runner, I definitely qualify as a BOP'er. Ambition is a lot more fun when you can afford it and although I can't afford to get private instruction from Karno or Macca or Ann Trason or people like them, I can still lace up my new balances and pretend that I can run as fast as them. Ambition is more fun as an adult I think. Call me wierd.

weekend wrap up

2009-01-25T15:59:00.003-06:00

i don't know whats been possessing me this past week but i haven't been myself. i haven't run but three days this week; Monday, yesterday and today. i used Monday as a warm up after my glorious failure two Sundays ago. Saturday's was a quick 4 miles and today was 5. i don't know whats been bothering me but i know whatever it is, it wants to come out. i do know of one thing though. my dad has been on my mind.

I'm the kind of guy that wants to have the ability to fix everything. i see problems at work and i want to fix them to better what we do. i see broken relationships and i want to find the answer to fix them. i see my dad battling cancer and dammit i wanna remove it. i half thought of a stupid idea to covert my garage into a makeshift lab so that i could better study cancer cells but i realized that not only would the FDA shut me down and probably send me to jail but i cant make it a "clean" facility. and it pisses me off.

i was talking to my brother Monday and asking for ideas on what i could do to help dad. there is a deep part of me that feels helpless. he suggested the simple stuff...cutting the grass, taking care of the large projects around mom and dad's house, giving him some of my overtime money to help. i got frustrated and told him that i have been doing most of these already. i needed something else. and then it hit us. the idea was so good that i started getting more and more ideas and thinking about it more and more and i have to say that my brother is a co-genius. he ain't gettin all the credit. so in the weeks and months to come i will reveal what the idea is. it's awesome.

introspectivity

2009-01-22T09:47:00.000-06:00

When I go to work, I have a lot of time to sit and think. Questions like "What does it mean to be introspective? What is it's true definition? What is the definition of the word 'is'"? Most of the time though, I really only think about 3 things.

One is my family. I could go on for days about them. Especially now that my wife is pregnant with twins no less! I think a lot about how much I miss them daily and how I wish that they could be involved in every aspect of my life. But like every other family, everybody has their own interests and plans that they're trying to accomplish. From my dad fighting cancer to my grandfather just having his 70th birthday party, there's a lot to think about on any given day.

The second is life in general. Most of the time my mind wanders through the lastest news or what's goin on in the world. Lately being Obama as our new President. Lots of emotion on both sides of the table on that one. But more importantly just how my life is going in general. I know for one that I'm bored. I'm bored at work and I get bored driving home and I just get bored everywhere. I hate to say this but I have gotten bored at home even when my daughter asks me to push her on the swing or to play a game with her...I know I suck.

But the thing that lately I've been thinkin the most about is running. I wouldn't go so far as to say it consumes me but it consumes me. I feel better at home after a run. I seem to get my mental clarity back after a run and mostly I miss my family that much more after a run, appreciating the fact that they are at home waiting for me to play a game or go swing on the swingset or just play with the dogs.

I seem to struggle a lot with a mind that can't focus on one thing at a time but when I run there's but a single mission, a single goal...start at point A and run to point B. that's it. I've tried in the past to make life that simple but the system that we call life always bucks back. It's ultimately why I run.

Thanks for listening. I feel better now.

life

2009-01-21T21:16:00.002-06:00

well its been about a week since i have put anything up on here so i need to update you all on the latest and greatest.

first off, that 35 miler failed miserably. actually it failed gloriously. what i mean by that was that it was the absolute perfect shitstorm of everything that could have possibly gone wrong. truthfully though, i created every single problem so i set myself up for failure and then didnt heed my own warnings. basically from the stuff that i brought with me to the clothes that i wore to the time that i started running i was doomed before i ever took a step. i made 15 miles and developed mild hypothermia. all before the hour of 8 a.m. which sucks and is an awful feeling if youve never experienced it. i started my run at 3 a.m. sunday morning ONLY AFTER i got off work at 1230 in the morning. i didnt put in proper training runs nor did i bother to recognize that the weather was going to be miserable...43 degrees and sustained winds of 15-25 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. i wore clothes id never worn before and gear i had never run with.

anywho because of that failure, i decided to reprioritize and go back to the drawing board to look at how i can improve my time spent on the road and how to train my body so that it can handle all of the elements. i realized that wanting to attempt to run 150 miles before i have put in some serious training runs and time in would ultimately end in failure.

with that said, i am currently looking into some marathons and ultras around texas. when i formulate my plans i will update to reflect my decisions on where i am going to run. take care

i dont know how

2009-01-08T11:59:00.002-06:00

i think this weekend im going to attempt to run 35 miles. i dont know how im going to accomplish it but i will make it. my moms house is in aransas pass, tx and i live in calallen and in the early morning of sunday i will start making my way to her house. wish me luck.

variety

2009-01-05T19:20:00.002-06:00

If variety is the spice of life, then I just had the best run ever. All this week, I had been talking about making a long run and was trying to figure out where to go. Do I run to mom’s house (37 miles) or do I run into Corpus and go to my brother’s house (22 miles)? Well, when I woke up Saturday morning to run, I still didn't have any idea. So I did what every runner at one point or another in their lives does...I said fuck it, I'll figure it out when I get down there.

I saw the weather and it said the weather would be slightly chilly but very little wind so I felt it was going to be a perfect run. What I didn't expect was the fog. Oh my God there was serious fog. But I didn't know about that until I was already out there. So when I got dressed, I just wore what I always wear...my favorite puma shorts with my white bicycle tights, my white athletic works running shirt, my all important black under armour hat and my new new balance shoes...white new balance shoes. My thinking was people will be able to see me in the morning and a fat guy in a white shirt will DEFINITELY be seen. But as ended up being obvious only AFTER I started, it was not to be. I started off at the HEB on Leopard and Violet and quickly found myself invisible to drivers who were turning into stores or their streets. I avoided all of them luckily by leaving leopard and venturing down Rand Morgan and then to the IH-37 access roads and in trying to escape traffic, I seemed to run a little harder than I wanted to but it turned out to do me some good because at the 10 mile mark, I had bettered my time by close to 15 minutes. That made me feel good so I decided to take a break and refuel with a taco and a Gatorade. An unlikely combination I know, but I figured what the hell. Either it would do the trick and resupply my energy or my run would quickly come to an end in the men’s restroom.

Luckily I made it off after about 25 minutes of dilly-dallying and picked up running again. I headed down navigation and jumped back on leopard and headed towards downtown. Another 3 miles in the bag and I made it to crosstown. At that point I had to figure out did I wanna go north and head to mom’s house or do I head south and go to my brother’s house. Well…I did promise my brother that I would come over but I really wanted to run to mom’s house just for the pure excitement in running an “ultra” distance but I figured I can use this 22 miler as a training run. So I headed south and started towards south corpus.

As soon as I made my way thru the homeless gathering (it was Sunday near this building where they serve lunch), I made it up the causeway and immediately got chased by dogs. I HATE DOGS OFF THEIR CHAINS. I have two dogs of my own but damn if I don’t keep them in a fence where they can bark all they want but can’t escape. But I guess in that part of the city, it could have been a security thing. It is the rough part of town. Well I decided to cross over the bridge and run on the other side of crosstown so I crossed over and ran south. My goal was to make it to Ayers street and head south till I hit Saratoga and then down to Everhart to my brothers street. Well actually I just wanted to make it to that Whataburger so I could get a victory burger.

I don’t usually make it a habit to go to that side of town so while I ran I didn’t recognize anything. And it’s not exactly a place where you can just walk up to someone’s front door and ask for directions. Most of the run down houses have bars on the windows and bars guarding the front doors. Oh and broken ass chain link fences that dogs can get out of. Well I found a road that didn’t have dogs and I ran down that road thinking that Ayers street was real close. Oh so wrong again. I ended up downtown on Staples Street. Major suckville. Well I didn’t know where I was at so I just kept running knowing that staples will always take me somewhere and I had to get out of downtown. So I kept running.

I found Ayers a mile and a half later. I stopped off at the CVS to get a drink and continued down Ayers until I hit holly. From holly it was smooth sailing the rest of the way with running/walking alternates due to exhaustion and being on my feet for however many hours I was on them. I made my way to Weber then up to Saratoga and then straight on till I saw that beacon in the daytime, Whataburger. I made Whataburger in less than 6 hours and only actually ended up adding a mile so I fell a little behind on my breakfast stop and then really burned up time getting lost. But all in all, I kept my composure and when it was all said and done I’m so glad I took that way because it was interesting and kinda unnerving not knowing where I was going.

Hey nobody said I had to be fast to be a long distance runner. It’s just gonna take a whooooolle not longer. When I was done, I was on a euphoric high of epic proportions. Has any runner ever had a feeling like this? I wouldn’t exactly say it was better than sex but it was damn close. It was such a great feeling to be able to do that and without formal training. With my marathon, it was 16 structured weeks. Now I’m on my own.

To those who might want to run with me: This kind of torture is self created and self maintained. I don’t expect nor encourage anyone who doesn’t want to participate in this craziness. I have my own reasons for my masochism but if you would like to do a mile or two, whether I run 1 mile or 23, I’m still slow as a turtle…wanna run?

good quote for all you athletes

2009-01-03T13:50:00.000-06:00

when exhaustion sets in, the mind often rationalizes the irrational.
-dean karnazes

anything can be done when the mind can rationalize it.

todays thoughts

2009-01-01T18:31:00.002-06:00

well happy new year to all of you LSR followers. it was a very good year for me with a major goal completed...my first marathon. 2009 promises to be an even better year.

i decided to start the new year off right with a good long run. i took off from the house about 11:30 am and ran to leopard street then headed towards downtown. i felt real good and seemed to be moving along just fine. if youve ever run down leopard st. you know that once you get around north padre island drive, stuff can get a little hairy. thats where the prostitutes, all the druggies and the biker guys congregate in their separate clicks. i ran into a prostitute down by the convenience store and it was funny cause what i noticed most about her was not her lookin cracked out, it was that she had some really bad acne. i kept runnin because if she tried to solicit me there was no way i would have paid anything more than $20 max. $15 and some neutrogena maybe but needless to say i didnt stop to say hi.

for me, when i go to that side of town i have to be ready and willing to be a "leopard street warrior" because you never know what youll see over there. today was no different. near NPID, i met up with a monster biker gang trying to park ther hogs as i ran by their bar. they looked like they were ready to beat my ass cause my running pathway was right in their parking spots so i had to step it up to get out of their way. right after i passed them i ran up to the stoplight and saw some hispanic guy standing in the middle of the street yelling at cars as they drove by.

now while i really didnt care about that, what caught my eye was the guy actually got a truck to stop in the middle of the road by yelling at him. when the truck stopped, the guy in the street started doing some kind of dance where it looked like a cross between a mexican dance and an epileptic seizure. but what made it even funnier than that was watchin the biker guys watching this guy and they were silent...they didnt say or do anything. then they just walked in the bar and went about their day.

the guy probably only did his seizure dance for about 20-30 seconds but it was so funny, it was like time stood still. the guy in the truck finally honked to get out of the way and dancer guy moved and as the truck turned the corner, i saw the driver and he wasnt cussing, didnt make a face, it was just like business as usual. and THAT actually made me laugh out loud.

i did 13 miles in all and i felt good. of course 150 miles isnt going to run itself so i got a lot of work ahead of me. but its a good start.

charity ideas

2008-12-30T12:04:00.003-06:00

as i was doing my research for charities, i happened upon the american cancer society's team acs page and thought that sounded pretty cool. leopard street runners can create a team to do runs and bike rides although i currently dont have a working bicycle. but it sounded like something LSR could be very interested in. also my mom has suggested the relay for life and i thought to myself what if at one of the local ones, what if i were to raise money to run for 12 or 24 hours at a time. always a possibility. and LSR can drum up local television and radio support. of course team LSR (when i do get more than just me) can enter the 24 hour walk/run deals to raise money collectively. i like the sound of it.

heres a thought. does anybody know if driscoll childrens hospital has a team of runners or do they put together things of that nature to raise money for their hospital. that could be something that could get started for them. huh huh...

currently anybody can join LSR for the comraderie and we will work together to lose weight and slow down corpus christi's obesity epedemic. we will help each other along the way with running tips, inspiration and a willingness to share our love (or hatred) for running.

today is a good day

2008-12-29T20:59:00.000-06:00

today I woke up in a refreshing mood about 730 and kinda hung around until 930 with my kiddo when I decided that I would go take a little run. I tried to let it warm up a bit and it did so I ran almost 7 miles but I waited too late to start so I had to stop then even though I felt like I could have gone 5 or 6 more. I weighed myself as well...224.6 that was awesome since I know I ate more than I damn well should have.

xmas turned out to be bad ass. I was real happy. just thought I'd throw that out there.

I appreciate everyone who has contributed ideas for a charity that I can raise money for...some really good ideas are coming out but keep em comin...i need more ideas. ask your friends and neighbors for ideas.

also I don't have a formalized running schedule as of yet. for the next two weeks, I'm workin nites so if anybody wants to run early in the morning, lemme know and ill run with you. just email me or call me...or hell text me. anyways have a great day and an even better run.

sunday

2008-12-28T10:34:00.002-06:00

well im not going to run today...we are going over to my moms house to have a second christmas with my blood family. apparantly the holidays and the time off from work has kind of messed my normal eating habits up. i weighed myself this morning and i was 226.5. so ive got a lot of work ahead of me if i expect to run 150 miles. ill get it though.

last nite i played with the website mapmyrun.com and found out some really long distance runs that i can use as practice. i had to make my run to my mothers house a little bit longer because it didnt make 37.5 miles. that sux. i also found out that i could run to my brothers house in unde 6 hours because his house is only 22 miles away from mine. so ill be running that one in the weeks to come.

run

2008-12-27T23:52:00.002-06:00

just a brief note to say that i took me a small 4 or 5 mile run today. im guessing more towards the 4 side because i only made 45 or so minutes before i saw a dude in the road and he needed help moving his truck to the side of the road. he asked me for help and i got completely sidetracked dealing with his tire soooo i didnt finish stretching or finish an hour run however i was having a rough go because i just couldnt get warmed up and loose. i even tried to stretch in the middle of the run to no avail. i had to walk a few more times than normal but thats ok.

2008-12-26T10:03:00.004-06:00

well since i figured that i started my training yesterday, i would allow yall to see what im working with. i will first give all my measurements and then i will show some pictures.

weight: 224

bodyfat % per my bathroom scale: 30.1%

neck: 15 1/4

chest: 44

waist at bellybutton: 43 1/2

legs: L 25 1/2 R 25 7/8

as you can see, im not one of those people you see in the magazines where they look fat but in reality they are just in the offseason and they make it look like they are so when they lost 25 lbs its "amazing"! no im really fat...its the real deal.

What is that they say about resolutions?

2008-12-25T19:32:00.004-06:00

they say that new years is a good time to make resolutions. its where a lot of people get out a list and write down all the ideas they want to accomplish. the number one always seems to be to lose weight. or get fit. or tone up their arms or something along that line. i started thinking about my new years resolutions. what am i gonna do? what will i come up with?

then i realized that i don't really like new years resolutions. i mean in principal they're a good thing. you can start the year off good with a fresh attitude and a new perspective. many of the gyms and athletic clubs that i have known and been associated with over the years have always told me that for them, their biggest "season" is right at the beginning of the year when everybody's resolutions say sign up for the gym to lose weight. but at the heart of it all, it seems to never work. i know when i did the same thing it never lasted more than a month or two.

but this year, at age 29, i had a quarter life crisis of sorts. i looked at my life and parts of it were extremely satisfying. my family and my kids all made me happy. but there was a part of me that was angry. there was a part of me that felt like i needed something more out of what i already had. i felt frustrated and lonely and i didn't know how to solve it. its weird though because I'm good at making friends but for some reason...people really don't want to get to know you or befriend you whenever you're angry all the time. so i started to run. it was a way to burn up all my excess adrenaline and get me tired enough to where i didn't want to come home and aggravate my wife with my bullshit.

as it turns out, it is true what they say about runners high. i started not only feeling too worn out to argue but i started feeling better and actually got to the point at times to where i didn't want to argue; instead opting to run as opposed to fighting with my wife.

after a couple weeks of not so consistent running, i felt better but there was still something deep down that i felt like i needed to do. i needed to up the ante. i had always been the quintessential dreamer. dream a wild idea and make it come alive in my head. but when it actually comes to working for that dream, another great dream would come along and cloud the former. this time was different.

i told Courtney, my wife, that i needed to do something dumb. i told her that i felt i was internally depressed and aggravated and i needed to do something that's just not like me at all. we kinda went back and forth a little bit and i thought about running a marathon. i had seen this book at Barnes and Noble called Ultra Marathon Man: Confessions From An All-Night Runner. i thought it sounded nuts when i told her about it in a joke. she said that i prolly wouldn't make it and that i was crazy to even think that a fat boy could run 26 miles. that was all i needed to hear. i went to Barnes and Noble and bought me a couple running books and started reading them as fast as i could. one of the books, The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer, had a 16-week training plan in it that would take me from zero to hero. i signed on. i looked around to see if there were any local races and on November 16th, there was just such a race, the San Antonio Rock-and-Roll Marathon. 26.2 miles of sheer stupidity. it was the inaugural race for this run so i thought how cool would that be. San Antonio's inaugural rock-and-roll race coincides with my inaugural race. so i paid my entry fee and i committed to it.

i told friends and family and everybody thought i was freakin nuts. and honestly it was music to my ears. how in the hell was a 260 lb. horribly out of shape guy gonna train to run 26.2 miles without dying in the process they said. i told them i didn't know either but that i needed to do this for my sanity, even though what this was was purely insane.

while running i fought injuries and battled through pain and sweat and the occasional tear to train for this thing. at times it felt like an impossible task especially when i got to the 18 and 20 mile runs. those sucked. but at the same time they were exhilarating. i hadn't spent this much time outside in quite a while. it was good for me. i got color back in my arms...at least the lower half, and the color came in good around my running shades to give me that cool raccoon look. when it was all said and done, i ended up losing 40 lbs. but most importantly i found a goal. something that was far-fetched but achievable for me. something that kept me busy but allowed me to be clear-headed to think about other things.

so after fighting through those 16 weeks and making it to the marathon weekend, i was nervous but it was that excited nervous. it was freakin freezing when the race started but i was just ready to run. when my corral came up and it was time to go, i got mentally psyched up and gave a quick shout out to the big man upstairs and started running slowly. i didn't want to go out like a crazy person and wear myself out in the first 10 minutes...that would be very dumb. so i did exactly like i was trained to do. and five hours, fifty-seven minutes, and forty-four seconds later i finished that bastard. i got my medal...and i cried. i was so exhausted, i was overcome with emotion and pain and the sight of my wife, daughter and mom at the finish line was enough to send me over the top.

fast forward to today. Christmas day. i got up this morning, made me a cup of coffee while my daughter got up and stared at the presents that Santa brought her and my wife was sitting on the couch waiting for me to start handing out gifts. as i gave the gifts to my daughter, i kept thinking to myself, man somebody somewhere is having a suck ass Christmas. they don't have squat under the tree or they're stuck in a hospital somewhere where they cant have a tree. and it got me thinking. i intentionally didn't ask for hardly anything this year because my wife is pregnant with twins and i felt like i would be a piece of shit if i asked for a whole bunch of crap and didn't save enough money to prepare for the twins. so i told everyone to not buy me anything and instead buy for my daughter and the upcoming twins. i felt like i needed to do something soon to help out those kids who cant help themselves.

an earlier blog i wrote told of a letter i sent to family and friends about my insane idea to run from San Antonio to corpus. as my daughter got her final presents and i was handing my wife the couple gifts i bought her, i started to get that same itch. not the jock strap one...but that itch to go run again. i told Courtney that i wanted to go run cause i was feeling myself get snappy and short and i needed to go blow off some steam. so after Christmas time was over, i got dressed in my running gear and made my way down leopard street so that i could run a quick 5 miles.

it was during my run today that i had the thought that created the origin of this post. i don't have to wait for new years to get here to have a resolution. i already created my resolution a couple days ago. find a way to run from San Antonio to corpus and get people involved and at the same time raise some money for charity. in my hour long run, i thought of ways we could spread the word to people to try and drum up support for our cause and i think i can pull it off when its all said and done. the only part i have to worry about now is figuring out how i can run from San Antonio to corpus.

needless to say i ran 5 miles today and i felt good. i got a runners high from hell and rebalanced my electrolytes and it felt good and wholesome again. slow but steady. i hope that i can make this happen because i see big things in the future possibly for this run. ultra endurance run ? so with that being said I'm gonna start trying my damnedest to do a daily blog with the list of my daily weight and how many hours spent at that activity and the next blog will have my initial measurements and show my progression so that when someone reads this and they wonder if I'm some sort of elite athlete or am i on steroids i can show them that i suffer in running just like them. i just have to show that I'm too dumb to realize that 150 miles no matter how you slice it is freakin nuts.

merry christmas and all that jazz,

-J

2008-12-25T10:41:00.002-06:00

merry christmas to everyone...i hope your day goes as well as you hoped. thank you God for everything you have given me and the guidance i have received this year. im looking forward to a busy 2009.

the email i sent to family and friends

2008-12-23T11:52:00.002-06:00

to all my friends and family,

the holiday season is upon us and as i reflect on all the good things that have happened to me, i cant help but to think about those who dont have shit. too many people have to spend xmas in the hospital, dealing with the death of a loved one or stay up late at night wondering how theyre gonna pay the bills, much less buy xmas gifts for each other and their kids. it is with that in mind and several conversations with God and my karma that i have decided to start my charity, Leopard Street Runners. Its not a formal charity as i dont have the money to actually file the paperwork with the IRS but when i get the money i will formally set it up.

anyways, i have decided that leopard street runners (im technically the only member) will raise money for a worthy charity. i need help deciding which charity to support. theres so damn many of them that i dont know where to start. so if you guys could shoot me an email letting me know your ideas for a charity to support or charities, i would be greatly appreciated. i also am creating a blogsite....http://leopardstreetunner.blogspot.com where i will maintain my logbook and show what im doing and how my fundraising is going.

a month ago, i ran the 26.2 mile rock and roll marthon in san antonio...a lofty goal for a fatboy runner with no previous long distance running experience. it took me 16 weeks to train and i had craploads of injuries to deal with when it was all said and done. but it was one of my greatest achievements.

in 2009 i am going to do something nobody in their right mind should dream of. i am going to run 150 miles from downtown san antonio to downtown corpus christi over the course of 3 or 4 days. i dont know which as im still working on the training schedule for this. i figure this will normally take quite a while to train even for an experienced runner, but im shooting for 6 to 7 months and do this run in july or maybe even august of '09. it will take more dedication than i have ever put into anything before so support and encouragement i will need. my other goal is to show corpus christi that it doesnt have to be one of the fattest cities in the nation. more people need to raise awareness on a citywide level and maybe someone can get the news stations and the caller-times involved. we dont all have to have 6-pack abs to be "fit". i like what the corpus roadrunners and the starrs triathlon club are doing but as im not a member of either of those, i will be doing this all on my own.

basically ive emailed this to everyone on my list so that we can raise awareness for whatever charity we all decide on and use this as my first platform to recognize that i will be raising money for all this. please send this letter out to everyone on your list and ask them to spread it out to theirs and so on. thank you guys and i look forward to hearing your ideas (and encouragement).

Sincerely your family member and friend,

Jason Woodard
3713 Brookhill
Corpus Christi, TX 78410
361-523-9507

my first post

2008-12-22T18:06:00.001-06:00

this is just a test post to see what functionality i have with this thing