Synchroblog: Why Do We Run?

In second installment of UltraVT synchroblog, I was tasked with coming up with a topic that "had a little controversy" and would ultimately promote good discussion within our group.  I suppose one neat thing about participating in the synchroblog with a group of likeminded college students is that, as intellectuals, we can appreciate and embrace differences in opinion without feeling like our beliefs or values are being challenged.  That's the beauty of the entire thing; new perspectives promoting and fostering a rich dialogue among friends.

The topic I decided on, as seen in the title, is Why Do We Run?  This has been an underlying theme in many of my posts and one that I attempted to tackle in an open conversation last spring, Lets Talk Running Motivation.  One excerpt from that post that helps set the tone for the discussion:

I have a personal struggle with motivation that teeters on an unhealthy addiction.  I often have a feeling of guilt until I cross off that days mileage.  It made me think.  What drives me to run? 

I think it is important to reflect and reevaluate periodically, taking a step back see the bigger picture.  I'm excited to read what my peers have to say as I think it is a challenging topic but relevant as ultrarunners because of the inevitable "but why do you run so far?"

What role does running play in your life? 

For me, it is important to continually remind myself that running is something I do and NOT who I am.  This is a big one in my opinion, especially in our generation, because we keep such busy schedules and are so driven to climb the ladder or get to the next "thing" that we hardly stop to enjoy the moment.

For instance, last Sunday morning I completed a massive accomplishment by finishing my first 100 mile race.  A race that I devoted a huge amount of time, energy, and money toward...and it was over in the blink of an eye...erm...in less than a day?!?  You know what I mean.  Michelle and I discussed before Umstead 100 that I would NOT sign up for another race in the week following Umstead.  Rudy, without any knowledge of this discussion, made sure to tell Michelle to "not let me sign up for any races the week after."  I'm proud to say that I didn't.  That's not to say I didn't look but I didn't pay for or actually sign up for any races.  Small victories.  The point being that, we are often too quick to think about what's next that we rarely stop to appreciate the things we have, or in this case have recently accomplished.  I think by not signing up, I savored the success of completing my first 100 mile race in a stylish fashion.  Further, I would argue that I'm the happiest I've ever been following a race.  I spoke with Kristen about this on our run on Sunday morning, the post race depression.  After months of planning, training, and hard work the event is over and far too often is over in a fashion that does not meet our idea of "success."  We justify our performance by telling ourselves "I could've done this differently" and "I should've trained this way" never being satisfied with our performance.  I believe this is an inherent trait of runners, specifically runners who consider themselves "endurance athletes."

Running, in this way, is both productive and equally destructive.  The coin is two sided; races and events serve as source of focus and drive when motivation is lacking to train and simultaneously act as selfish pursuits of achievement that are detrimental to relationships, professional goals, and social lives. I spoke with some friends about this in early February as I expressed my concern about how selfish training for a 100 mile race is and the toll it was taking on all three of the above mentioned aspects.  Training placed an additional, and entirely unnecessary, burden on Michelle to pickup my slack while I spent hours running each weekend.  It was entirely unfair.

So why continue to do it?  Simple: mental balance.  Now, I understand all the aforementioned selfish training and unfair talk in the previous paragraph is enough to warrant hanging up the sport altogether.  But since I began running again in late 2011, I've been a happier and more balanced individual than I can ever remember.  Getting out the door, even if only for a few miles, gives me an opportunity to clear my head, unwind from a long day, and personally reflect on my life and behavior.  It's my thinking time. Selfish?  Absolutely.  But do I feel that I am a better friend, son, teacher, and fiancé (soon to be husband) because of it?  There's not a doubt in my mind.  I don't think anyone, or at least very few, individuals who run 100 miles races and put in 60+ mile weeks can do so unselfishly.  The compromise then is choosing and pursuing races that allow for a resemblance of balance.

For me, I need to ensure that running has it's place within my life without taking it over.

When did you start running and why?

I started "running" during my sophomore year of high school when I went out for the cross country team in the fall of 2002.  I thought of myself as fit and quickly learn just how unfit I was. The team was a blast and we had a few kids on the team who were amazingly talented and naturally gifted with absolutely zero focus and dedication. Huge potential squandered. They made every practice hilarious, mainly because we were high school guys and everything inappropriate seemed funny at the time (why do I want to coach HS again?).  In the spring I decided to participate in track and field and fell in love with the sport.  I choose hurdles, despite my scant 5' 3" build, and quickly fell in love with the feeling of flying through the air over hurdles.  I'm not sure if I was driven or simply had a chip on my shoulder but I managed to make it to states my senior year and place 7th, good enough for all state honors.

Part of the reason I choose to leave my job as an engineer is so that I could coach at the high school level with the desire to help kids find a love of running, or at least pursuing an active and healthy lifestyle.  Once I got to college, I would go out for runs sporadically but never with any idea of "training" or consistency.  Eventually, a friend persuaded me to sign up for a half marathon, the Yuengling Shamrock half, which I thought I was going to die after.  In the fall of 2009 after completing the Journey of Hope, I decided I was fit enough to run a marathon.  Little did I know that cycling fitness doesn't necessarily translate to running fitness.  I swore I would never do it again.

The real catalyst for me signing up for my first ultra was my best friend Jeff sending me a link to Sabrina Moran's blog, who attended William & Mary at the same time that he did.  I was hooked and quickly signed up for my first ultra, another terrible idea, the North Face 50M, which I eventually reduced down to the 50k and ran in the summer of 2012.  The past few years have been a whirlwind of growing as a runner, specifically developing confidence in my fitness and ability to run beyond my self-imposed limits.

If you could only run one last run, where and with whom would it be and why?  

When I met Michelle, she wasn't a runner but in all fairness neither was I.  The first few times we tried running together were...well...disastrous.  Running partners need to run the same pace and our paces didn't mesh well together.  However, over the years, we've run together when I haven't been training and it has been AWESOME.  She knows it's my favorite thing to do together.  I know it's one of her least favorite things.  We're working on finding a happy medium.  I digress.  If I had one last run, or could only run one more time before both of my knees gave out, I would want it to be with her someplace beautiful.  Just a fun run along the water or a canal or in some new place we've traveled to.  Spending time doing what I love with the person I love most in the world.

Which is better, trail running or road running?  Why?

Tough question.  I came from a road running background transitioning to longer trail ultras after running my first half marathon eventually my first full marathon.  A lot of the runners I know ran a trail 50k as their first long distance race and completely skipped over the marathon distance.  I LOVE the feeling of running through closed city streets in a massive road race where you feel like for a few short hours, runners own the roads.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, the ultrarunning community is SO much more close knit than the road running community.  We endure and suffer together, traversing massive mountains and covering grueling distances.  Trail races are limited by the number of runners a trail can accommodate and consequently are more intimate experiences.  Road running has my heart but at the moment, trail running has captured my attention and drawn me in.  I have a lot of lofty goals involving trail races and really only one that involves road racing, qualifying for Boston.  I suppose that's why I think trail running, and ultra distance racing will continue to keep me entertained for the foreseeable future whereas Boston may be more of a "bucket list item."

Groups or solo?

Deep inside, I'm fiercely independent but when it comes to running I find strength in others around me, whom often believe in me more than I do myself.  UltraVT is a petri dish of inspiration.  I think the following tweet after Monday night's group run sums up my opinion on the matter:

When 6.5 miles seems like 6.5 minutes running with @ultraVT friends. Gorgeous evening for a run and the rain even held out for us!
— Brett Sherfy (@RBSherfy) April 15, 2014

So there you have it!  The second installment of UltraVT Synchroblog.  All most of us will be publishing this Friday morning.  Be sure to click on the links under the UltraVT logo on the right side of the page as everyone else updates their blogs.  Writing this post has been an excellent opportunity to organize and consolidate my thoughts into coherent opinions.  And they're just that.  Opinions at the moment.  Perhaps I'll read another runners post and change my opinion.  Maybe not.  Either way, I'm excited to do another one.

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2014 3.2 Run In Remembrance

On Saturday, Michelle and I participated in the 3.2 Run In Remembrance held, on the Virginia Tech campus, to remember and celebrate the lives of 32 Hokies that were tragically taken from us on April 16th, 2007.  Although Michelle had participated in the run twice before, Saturday was the first time I elected to participate in the run.  I'm not sure why...or how(?) I missed participating in the run in years previous but after signing up and then not running last year because of a friends wedding, I made certain to put it on our calendar this year.  When Michelle and I discussed the run last week before Umstead 100, I told her I may have to walk it but that I was going to do it!  Fortunately I managed not to ever really be sore this week recovering from Umstead 100 and as a result was able to go out and #HaveFun running with Michelle.

On Friday, after a busy day with the middle schoolers, Michelle and I drove to campus together and headed over to packet pickup at War Memorial Hall.  I foolishly only took one photo, which came out funky as some guy walked in my panoramic shot:

I digress.  The packet pickup was silly efficient! Appropriate for an engineering school huh? Each participant was given a QR code that was scanned using an iOS device (not too sure here because it looked like iPod touch with a larger scanner handheld attachment on the back that they have/had at Apple stores) that when scanned notified the volunteer whether to distribute a ticket for the free t-shirt.  All told, we spent about 3 minutes actually inside of War Memorial and about 10 walking to and from each way.  There were banners to sign and write on as well as "bibs" to write your reason for running.  After packet t-shirt pickup, we ran a few errands in Downtown and while we waited, grabbed a sweet tea lemonade at Starbucks, perfect to cool down!  While sitting there, I noted that in to months to the day, we will be husband and wife!

2 months from today I get to call get my wife! #DR #TheSherfys pic.twitter.com/EWswTWUKra
— Brett Sherfy (@RBSherfy) April 11, 2014

One awesome thing about the Run In Remembrance is that it does not start at a silly early time.  The RecSports department at Virginia Tech has decided to keep the race casual, meaning that it doesn't actually start until 9AM, with the large group photo taken around 8:45.  This was super nice because I was able to get up and lounge around, have breakfast and a cup of coffee, and then run to the start of the run.  I met Michelle at the start and we headed over to where people were assembling to take the VT photo on the Drillfield.  This is a good time to mention that I decided to bring the GoPro with me to film the run and in my distracted state trying to get a neat shot of everyone forming the VT, I lost sight of Michelle into a sea of maroon and orange.   Fortunately once the crowd dispersed, I able to find her and after only a brief reprimanding...continue my filming duties.  However, I was much more conscious to always keep and eye on her.  Whoopsie!

The photo above was taken from a helicopter above the Drillfield.  I thought it was pretty awesome how quickly they posted the photo because by 11:52 the photo was on the Virginia Tech Facebook page and I had tweeted it out!

We took part in this AWESOMENESS this AM! Can you spot us? #VT32Run #VirginiaTech #WeAreVirginiaTech #neVerforgeT pic.twitter.com/ZAmvV9iIuZ
— Brett Sherfy (@RBSherfy) April 12, 2014

Michelle and I at the run start.

After the photo was taken, we headed over to where the run was set to begin in front of War Memorial Hall.  We would then follow the Drillfield clockwise down toward the Duck Pond and then hang a right on West Campus Drive before veering onto Duck Pond Drive.

This year marked the first year they did not release balloons, which was good and simultaneously disappointing.  I understand the reasoning but they do make biodegradable balloons now and the sight of thousands of maroon and orange balloons lifting up is pretty awesome (at least the pictures I've seen anyway).

At the start, there was a sea of maroon and orange, the two best school colors in my opinion.  Over 8000 runners were signed up to run and I'm sure even more decided to run the day of, which is possible because there is not a timing system or fee to enter the run.  Nope.  The run is entirely free!  

The view at the bottom of the Drillfield near the Duck Pond.  To say that the weather was picturesque is a massive understatement.  The trees are just beginning to bloom and they made for gorgeous pictures along the run route.

Lots of participants were breaking the first rule of any running event, wearing the event t-shirt during the run, but because this run and not a race I think we can let them slide on this one.  I'll chalk it up to showing Hokie Pride!

Looking back down West Campus Drive.  On the left in this photo, is the newly renovated Davidson Hall that resembles a periodic table of elements when looked at in a profile view from the left.

It was here that there was a bit of a bottleneck as we condensed from three lanes of road to two.  It was funny to watch some of the runners jump over the guardrail only to realize that they were later trapped at the edge of the Duck Pond.

The view of the route along Duck Pond Drive.

Eventually, we made a left onto the first of three "hills" on the course, which you see in the video below where I get a shot of the cadets caring the massive telephone pole(?) The hill leads up to The Grove, which serves as the university president's residence.  It has an awesome view of the Duck Pond and campus!

At the top of The Grove:  You can see here that lots of folks walked the hill (which was perfectly fine) but you can also see the cadets beasting it up the hill with said telephone pole.  

At the bottom of hill leading down from The Grove, we made a right back onto West Campus Drive, now going the opposite way away from the Drillfield and after the second small "hill" on the course enjoyed a flat section heading toward Washington Street passing by Litton-Reaves Hall and a few dorms, as well as McComas Hall, one of the two gyms on campus and home of VT RecSports.

One of the coolest parts of the run, aside from the overwhelming emotions that are unavoidable, is the opportunity to run through the tunnel entering Lane Stadium!  Almost equally as cool is the opportunity to run down the home sideline on Worsham Field.  I did mistakenly place about two inches of my foot on the grass and was quickly ushered off and told to move along.  I suppose Tech does spend MILLIONS on that grass.

After exiting Lane Stadium, the route cuts back behind the East Stands up the final hill of the course into Stadium Woods,  a 11-acre of old-growth forest home to numerous 250-350 year-old white oaks.  A quick right onto Washington Street followed by an immediate left onto Kent Street led to the long sustained downhill seen below.

As we passed by War Memorial Court, commonly known as "the Pylons" and War Memorial Chapel, we entered the finishing straight lined by spectators and runners waiting for friends and family to finish the run.

After crossing the finish line, we headed over to meet our friend Julie and her friend Kelly, whom we had run into out along the run and talked for awhile before finding water and pizza!  Domino's at 10AM?  Yes Please!

I spent most all of the afternoon editing video I had taken during the run to produce the video below. I'm extremely proud of how it came out and feel like I learned a lot about what shots work and which don't as well as how to avoid reduce shaky camera issues.  Make sure to watch the video in HD and feel free PLEASE comment on, thumbs up, and share the video.

I even learned how to get video onto Instagram that is not on your phone, which requires a bit of...finagling...but created a pretty neat little teaser/trailer for the video.  

All-in-all it was an amazing and fun run and a great way to start off our weekend!  I'm disappointed that I haven't participated before but it'll be on our calendar for the foreseeable future.  Ideas were tossed out for making the run a real 32 for 32, which would require us starting super early but doing the last 3.2 with everyone else.

@robbie_poff @ultraVT Sounds like a great reason to make it back to Tech for a weekend!
— Brett Sherfy (@RBSherfy) April 12, 2014

Thanks to RecSports for an amazing event and to all the volunteers who were out there ensuring the run went out without a hitch today!

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T-Minus 3 Weeks to Umstead 100 and Training Weeks 3/3/2014-3/16/2014

Saturday marked the three week countdown to Umstead 100.  As the race approaches I'm beginning to question my preparation and training, especially after last weeks lackluster performance.  Consequently, I missed my training "week-in-review" post last week.  Perhaps this is because there wasn't really all that much good to talk about.  Instead the post would have been filled with how I failed to accomplish most of my goals for the week including an attempt at an all night run.  I was pretty disappointed with my effort and volume and barely broke into the 40's; I tried to salvage the week with a late run Sunday evening.  Disaster.  However, this week was better (still not great) and I decided I'd make the post a twofer, covering both the high and lows of training over the past couple weeks.

I think it's super interesting to reflect on how my perspective has changed over the past few months, a nod to the mindset that everything is relative.  Being disappointed with 47 miles for the week is kind of funny when you think about it.  When I first started running again back in the fall of 2011, Strava had just rolled out there running platform and with it a contest to run 100 miles in a month.  At the time, I thought "Wow.  100 miles is a lot for a month."  Now, just over halfway through March, I've run 525 miles in 2014, quantitative proof of my growth as a runner.  Reflecting on how I have grown as a runner over the past three years helps me with "being okay" when I don't hit my goals for the week.  A perspective I tweeted about before I went out for my night run last Sunday: (Yes, I realize I spelled beings instead of begins)

Being “okay” when a training week doesn’t go as planned. Tomorrow beings a new week! #OutcomesNotObstacles #KickAssTakeNames #Umstead100
— Brett Sherfy (@RBSherfy) March 9, 2014

Here's how it all unfolded:

3/3/2014-3/9/2014

Monday: Rest
On Monday evening, Rudy gave me a call to see if I was planning on going out for a long run with him on Saturday.  I had missed the Monday night group run after Michelle and I decided to order a pizza in and spend the evening on the couch (PS - Papa John's Cheeseburger pizza...OMG!).  I'm not quite sure why I needed the break (teaching is exhausting) considering I didn't run that much over the weekend. The event we discussed is semi-underground and apparently the unspoken first rule is not to talk about it.  I emailed and Facebook messaged the organizer with zero response and opted not to participate as a result.  I didn't want to feel unwelcome at an event and show up saying "I'm here to run."  In the end, I'm glad I didn't although the weather was B-E-A-utiful!

Tuesday: 9, 725' 1:20


The title of the run says it all.  I think as I get more involved with student teaching and I'm spread more thin, I've shifted to the mindset of just get out there and get it done.  I stayed after for track practice with the middle schoolers and while I dress I don't work out with them and tell them I run after their practice. This is nice because, although kind of silly, they serve as another form of accountability as they often ask me how my training for my 100 miler is going.  I did happen to run into my friend Julie who is training for a half in April and tacked on a few more miles as we caught up and talked about student teaching.  After my run, Michelle and I ran some much needed errands and grabbed dinner at Sakura, a Japanese Steakhouse in Christiansburg that is actually reasonably priced...like every entree is $5-9 priced.  It was delicious!

Wednesday: Rest
Keeping with the theme for the week.  Disaster.  I didn't get out for a run and I really don't have an reason why other than I didn't make the effort to.

Thursday: 11.7, 675' 1.5hr
I've always heard that if you miss a run or a workout that you shouldn't try to make it up and instead should simply "let it go."  I struggle with this.  I think Thursdays run was my attempt at trying to make up for not getting out for a run Wednesday.  I don't recall feeling good during the run but my comments section on Strava, which I try to use as a log of how I felt for the run/effort, etc. had the following:

Sometimes you have good days and today things felt pretty good.  I really enjoyed the cold weather during the run!

Friday: 6, 60' 1hr

On Friday, Montgomery County Schools were closed, which gave me the perfect opportunity to catch up on things I had been putting off like getting a haircut.  BIG NEWS! On Friday, I verbally accepted an offer to teach in Henrico County next year, which I'm SUPER EXCITED ABOUT!  After accepting my offer, I signed my contract and put in a plastic bag and delivered it to the post office during my run.  It was during the run that I conjured up the idea of running a 50 miler around the Drillfield.  I went out and did some course "recon." which involved running a lap to get the exact distance I would do many many times Saturday night.  After the run, I grabbed Moe's to celebrate accepting my job and was joined by Mr. Mike Jones who just happened to be grabbing lunch at the same time!

Saturday: 15, 2.5hr


I used Saturday morning to be productive around the house doing some laundry and cleaning up the apartment a little.  I had everything planned out for Saturday evening and even created a Facebook event for the run, aptly naming it the inaugural Drillfield Dusk-to-Dawn 50!  Michelle being the awesome fiancé she is even picked up snacks for me including pretzels, vanilla wafers, and some Coke for the late night hours.  I took a nap around 5 and woke up around 7 to eat dinner and start packing stuff for the run.  The temperature was pretty nice and with Friday marking the beginning of spring break for Virginia Tech, I wasn't too worried about traffic on the Drillfield.  I started running a little after 9 with the intention of running through most the night or until I hit 50 miles.  The first hour or so went pretty smooth and I even had a few visitors!  My friend Julie and her fiancé Joe and his parents, Deb and Bill Casola (Deb of Debruns who's blog is awesome!), who are big runners stopped by to take a few shots of night photos of Burruss and say hello!  I finished up the audiobook Into Thin Air while running and began another, A Walk in the Woods a story about a mans through hike of the Appalachian Trail, which was far less exciting and kind of put me in a down mood.  As midnight approached, motivation dwindled and I began wondering why I was out running laps around the Drillfield when my warm bed was so close.  I decided I had enough after only 15 miles!  WEAK SAUCE!  Michelle had just arrived when I sent her a text to tell her not to bother to come that I was on my way home.  I felt that I had disappointed myself, Michelle, and the folks who had stopped by earlier to cheer me on.

Sunday: 5.5, 350' 0:48

Sunday followed suit with the rest of the week.  I struggled to get out of bed at decent hour after losing an hour of sleep to daylights savings time and running until 12pm, which was then really 1AM.  Coincidently, I did buy my suit for our wedding on Sunday but didn't manage to get out on a run, as most of the day was spent in Roanoke shopping for suits.  We returned home around dinner time and I conceded that I wasn't going to get a run in.  Michelle had spent most of Saturday making soups and chilis that we could reheat over the next couple weeks as things get busy.  After a massive bowl of chili, I decided it would be a good idea to get in a quick run in an attempt to salvage my weekly mileage and simultaneously return the Redboxes I had rented on Friday (oops!).  Bad idea.  I managed to get in a 5.5 miles but I was soo full and felt pretty awful the entire time.  I'll chalk it up to running on a full stomach for Umstead 100 training.  

Totals for the week:
Distance: 47.4
Elevation: 1812'
Duration: 7hr

3/10/2014-3/16/2014

Monday: 5, 130' 0:42
Michelle wanted to get out and try to get a run in and I decided I would go out for a run and find her and then catch a ride back home...after stopping at Five Guys.  I managed to get in 5 miles but in an effort to be economical, I decided to skip on Five Guys and instead go home and eat one of the meals Michelle had prepared over the weekend.  A small start to the week in terms of mileage but 5 miles nonetheless.

Tuesday: 10, 540' 1:22

I was caught mid-cupcake Tuesday (and Monday) after my cooperating teacher gave me a half-dozen gourmet cupcakes on Monday from Crumb & Get It in Christiansburg.  Although Tuesday is supposed to be my rest day, I knew that we had plans Wednesday evening to see the Banff Film Festival at the Lyric and that I would be traveling later in the week to VCTM, which would make getting in a run difficult and that I should run while I had the time.  I opted for my standard Patrick Henry-Plantation Road-Huckleberry Trail loop logging 10 miles for the day.

Wednesday: Rest

On Wednesday, Michelle and I went to see the Banff Film Festival World Tour at the Lyric.  The films were awesome although we had already seen the feature 46min. film at the Telluride Film Festival just a couple weeks earlier.  The night did have one surprise, which was a special showing of a film specific to the Blacksburg area and involved a guy using the film to propose to his girlfriend.  She said yes!

Thursday: 6, ~500' 0:46

We traveled to Harrisonburg Thursday afternoon for the annual VCTM conference and arrived at the hotel just after five.  After checking in, I made sure our advisor didn't need anything else from us and quickly ran up to the room to change to get a run in.  The plan was to meet in the lobby at 6:30 to head out to dinner in downtown Harrisonburg, I left the hotel at 5:30 which gave me roughly 45 minutes to run, get back to shower, and make it down to the lobby.  I walked back in the hotel at 6:15PM and was down in the lobby after a quick shower at 6:30 on the dot.  I wish I had brought a camera with me but was already down the hill when I thought of it.  I managed to see a good bit of James Madison University campus in the short time I had, although I wouldn't find the big James Madison statue until Saturday.

Friday: 7.6, ~680 1hr

Virginia Tech Math Education at 2014 VCTM

I planned on getting a decent night sleep Thursday but I got to talking to another teacher that currently teaches in Henrico and stayed up far later than I had planned.  I dismissed my 5:20 alarm and eventually rolled out of bed at 6AM to get out for a run.  Again, I pushed the time because the van we had all ridden in was leaving the hotel at 8 and I walked back into the lobby from my run at 7:35, giving myself 25 minutes to get cleaned up for the conference and out the door.  I grabbed a bagel as I ran out the door and hopped in the van, squeezing in just over 7.5 miles.  

Saturday: 6, 470' 0:50
On Saturday, after two AWESOME but looooonng days in Harrisonburg, I arrived home from the annual Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics (VCTM) conference excited and giddy with new ideas for my classroom this fall.  While I was excited and jazzed about teaching, I was dreading the idea of getting out for a run after going non-stop for the past 48 hours.  I've been in a get-it-done mode lately with my runs, which has helped me get out the door on days that motivation is lacking but I was tempted to just take a nap on the couch.  Michelle let me know that she was headed to the gym and that my awesome parents had sent Michelle and I a Chipotle gift card.  We both agreed to get out the door and get back quickly so we could enjoy a fun date over a delicious meal.

Although the run wasn't deserving of a splurge, I did skip lunch on Saturday (opting not to eat at an establishment that encourages obesity) and therefore justified my decision to order a Quesorito for dinner.  For those unfamiliar, pause and watch this video before continuing.  Basically, it's a burrito that uses a two tortillas to make a quesadilla and then use that quesadilla to wrap a burrito providing another layer of cheesy goodness.  It was everything I wanted it to be!  Michelle documented and you can see that the quesorito was too large to fit in the dine-in basket.  It just rested on the edges of the basket.

Sunday: 20.5, 1200' 3hr

After quesoritoing it up on Saturday, I felt I needed to get out for a solid run on Sunday.  After dragging my feet a bit, I headed out the door around 11ish for Draper to run on the New River Trail.  I knew that we were expecting a big storm Sunday evening and rain for most of Sunday afternoon so I threw an extra layer in the car, my houdini jacket, which made the second half of the run tolerable in the steady rain.  The run was fairly uneventful.  I saw one other individual out on the trail during for the three hours I was out there.  I don't blame them.  The latter half of the run was quite miserable and it took me a good 20 minutes before I could begin to use my hands for any time of fine movement (i.e. texting).

Totals for the week:
Distance: 55.4
Elevation: 3518'
Duration: 7:41

Despite being discouraged after a "mediocre" week of training two weeks ago, I managed to recollect myself and get in some decent miles even while traveling to a conference for two days this week.  Umstead 100 is now less than 3 weeks away and I'll be tapering my volume over the next three weeks.  This weekend is Terrapin Mountain and although I'd love to see where I am fitness wise and race, the day will be a training run for me which means it's #HAVEFUN Brett!

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2013 Year in Review (Running and Everything Else)

Is it too late to publish a 2013 year in review post?  What's the timeline for that sorta thing?  Perhaps I should start my 2014 year in review post now?!?  I follow a lot of blogs, most in some form or another involve running or an active lifestyle, and over the past few weeks I have read countless "year in review posts."  I had the intention of writing and posting a year in review post before the New Year, much like I had the intention of publishing my North Face Endurance Challenge Championship race report before the New Year...but we see how well that worked out :-(

Before traveling too far down the road of "how 2013 went,"  I wanted to revisit my goals at the start of 2013 from my first post of last year, 2013 - A New Year.

Maybe it's the engineer in me, but when thinking about things I want to accomplish in 2013 I wound up creating S.M.A.R.T. goals:

• Run 1300 miles for 2013
• In terms of attainable, I ran over 1000 miles in 2012 compared to ~600 in 2011.  My goal for 2012 was 1200.  I fell short but the goal drove me to achieve more then I thought I could.
• Redesign the blog by June 1st
• Modify the color scheme,  incorporate new plug-ins, create or work with a designer to make a custom template.
• Blog 24 times this year
• This one is pretty self explanatory.  I'm tired of the look and want to change up the blog to something more original..more me.
• Post more about cooking, design, photography, gadgets, school, etc. 
• Create a series on the blog and have at least 6 posts relating to it.  I've never done a series (like Friday review or Tuesday tasting) that I think it will force me to be creative.

I don't think any of the above are easy, but all of them are attainable.  I'm looking forward to writing about our recent week at the beach and goal races for 2013 in the month of January! 

Run 1300 miles for 2013

After breaking 1500 miles for the year!

I was pretty ecstatic to break the first goal on the list, running 1300 miles in 2013, a few days into December.  Had I been wise, I would've taken the rest of December post North Face Endurance Challenge easy but that's simply not me.  For some silly reason, I decided that 1500 miles, or 200 miles in 28 days seemed like a reasonable goal and I started chasing after it.  With Michelle's help, and unfortunately at the expense of lashing out at my family several times over the holidays, I accomplished that goal on New Years Eve by running 13 miles with Michelle by my side (for 6 of them) to close out 2013!

I say at my families expense because I was slightly short/irritable possibly as a result of the increased training and the subsequent pressure I imposed on myself for most of the time I was home, the exact opposite of what I wanted.  Unacceptable.  I'm sorry guys!

I can't seem to quite figure out how to filter activity by both sport (i.e. running excluding biking) and year on Strava but in 2013 I managed to complete the 1500 miles in ~205 activities (245 hours) and roughly 110K of elevation gain.

Redesign the blog by June 1st

It simply didn't happen.  I only have myself to blame for this.  I did learn about Wordpress when I created a website for wedding stuff and I think that's the direction I'll ultimately go when I do make the transition.  Maybe it'll happen in 2014?  Probably not...but one can always dream.

Blog 24 times this year

I managed to post 29 times in 2013.  I would consider this partial success.  I say that because although I managed to better my goal of 2 posts a month, I didn't really venture out too much from race reports and running events, specifically my goal included:

Post more about cooking, design, photography, gadgets, school, etc

which I did to a certain extent but not enough to consider it a success.

Create a Series with 6 Posts
I did manage to do this but again I drifted a bit because I didn't sustain my Where's Waldo Wednesday series.  I think I've figured out how I want to change this in 2014 but more on that later.

In 2013, I managed to PR at just about every distance from 5k (although I do know I ran faster in HS but not sure of the length of those courses - some may have been short) up to 50 miles.  I talked about this a bit in my One-Month-Coundown post for the North Face Endurance Challenge and also in my Crooked Road 24HR race report.

I'm super pleased with how I grew this year as a runner.  I managed to join a group of runners, UltraVT, that have helped me fall in love with running trails and given me the confidence to take the next step, tackling my first 100 miler!


Everything Else

2013 was not only a fantastic year for running but also I popped the question to Michelle in the middle of a marathon last March.

Both my parents, and my friend Jonathan who's a photographer and was there to capture then moment, were there for my favorite memory of 2013!

She said YES!

 

Additionally, I'm almost done with school (again) and will graduate in May with my Masters of Arts in Education with licensure in Secondary Mathematics.  I had an amazing experience this fall during my student internship and look forward to this spring when I will student teach five days a week!  I adamantly believe that "you are who your surrounded by" and I'm so privileged to interact and spend time with the inspiring people in the Math Education program at Virginia Tech, I love them!

I have lots of big goals for 2014 (aside from graduating and getting a job) including getting married to my best friend in June!  I'm also going to attempt my first 100 miler in April and have a few races that I'm already registered for leading up to the race, specifically Holiday Lake 50k in mid-Februrary and Terrapin Mountain on March 22nd.

I'm truly blessed and privileged to have so many amazing and inspiring people in my life and want to thank everyone who was a part of 2013 - it was an amazing year!

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