August 3, 2021

I knew this would happen.

I was being very smart, and have been smart, but I had a feeling that I’d have a set back or two along the way to the NYC Marathon this November.

After my first 30-mile week, things started to go south a bit.

A few weeks ago, I had a rib pop out of place. I still worked out and ran, albeit slowly, since I couldn’t breathe very deeply.

A few days later, my chiropractor fixed me.

(My son Ethan a soon-to-be Physical Therapy student also did some work on me and provided great and necessary relief. He is amazing and finding ways to help fix me.)

Following that, I had foot and the leg pain (left hamstring). I cut back on my running to allow it to heal.

It hasn’t healed well (or quickly) enough, so I’ll go to physical therapy in two days and hope they get me fixed. I’ll see my chiropractor as well. They both have ways of finding what ails me and fixing it.

I’m still exercising, still playing baseball and softball and lifting. I have to keep moving. I’ll heal soon and get back to running. I’m NOT missing this year’s NYC Marathon.

One fun way for me to shrink the distance between my son Ryan who is a chiropractor in Pennsylvania and me here in New Jersey is to share our runs on Strava. He is training for his first marathon, Philadelphia. We motivate each other across the distances in this manner.

I’m at the beach, so, since I couldn’t run today, I took out a beach bike and decided to do a good ride. With my Garmin, these initially go down as runs (I never change the setting from “run” to “bike”). After a great 10-mile effort, with very impressive run times (and maybe even somewhat impressive ride times), I texted Ryan and told him that I went running with Meb Keflezighi (my favorite runner of all time). I figured Ryan would be impressed to see his dad running a series of four-minute miles (no matter how impossible that might be). (One day I’d really like to run with Meb. I have “raced” against him in numerous NYC Marathons only he didn’t know it and I finished hours behind him. I’d love, just one, to run alongside the greatest runner I have ever seen, and my true running hero.)

10 miles on a beach bike in 40:06 is pretty good, I think. I had to contended with traffic lights, cars, dog walkers, curves, garbage trucks, sandy roads, wind, and such, and yet I almost did ten four-minute-bike-miles in a row. I’m very pleased. I hope this translates into some great runs soon.

Anyway, the message here is to keep moving forward. Find a way. Keep exercising. If you need to back off one activity, find another. Yesterday I kayaked around a small island (under 2 miles). Today I rode an older beach bike very FAST!

When you stay active physically, your mind also stays active.

It also brings me energy and this great sense of just being alive.

With every accomplishment, be it a two-mile paddle, a three-mile walk, a ten-mile ride, or (soon to come) a 26.2 mile marathon, there is glory and hope and joy. This is why we exercise. This is why we push our bodies – to find ways, old ways and new ways to be our best selves.

Keep finding the joy. Whatever the task is, set out to do it. And to do it well.

You can do it.

Impossible is an Illusion!