Category: Running/Marathons

365.2: A Runner’s Journey – RELEASED TODAY!!!

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It’s easy to make a New Year’s resolution. It’s much more difficult to fulfill it.

Dr. Paul Semendinger, a 53-year-old father of three, an average runner (who runs about one marathon a year), an author, and a school principal, decided to run every single day for an entire year. That was his New Year’s Resolution. This is the story of his quest to do what, for him, seemed to be the impossible. There were no off-days, no chances to take it easy. He made a promise to himself to run every day in 2022. He worked to achieve that goal as one of the biggest parts of his life changed radically. This is his tale of running. It’s also the story of a year in his life.

Join Dr. Sem as he pushes ever forward. This is a story of motivation, of drive, of success, and even failure. The insights, the humor, the reflection, and the emotion that is part of this true tale is one that should motivate and inspire others to set their own goals for themselves and find ways to achieve them letting nothing get in the way of reaching a goal, no matter how unreasonable it might seem to others.

We all have goals, this book will help you reach yours!

Get the book HERE!

Now Available: 365.2: Going the Distance, A Runner’s Journey

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My newest book, 365.2: Going the Distance, A Runner’s Journey is now available for pre-order:

“It’s easy to make a New Year’s resolution. It’s much more difficult to fulfill it. Dr. Paul Semendinger, a 53-year-old father of three, an average runner (who runs about one marathon a year), an author, and a school principal, decided to run every single day for an entire year. That was his New Year’s Resolution. This is the story of his quest to do what, for him, seemed to be the impossible. There were no off-days, no chances to take it easy. He made a promise to himself to run every day in 2022. He worked to achieve that goal as one of the biggest parts of his life changed radically. This is his tale of running. It’s also the story of a year in his life.

Join Dr. Sem as he pushes ever forward. This is a story of motivation, of drive, of success, and even failure. The insights, the humor, the reflection, and the emotion that is part of this true tale is one that should motivate and inspire others to set their own goals for themselves and find ways to achieve them letting nothing get in the way of reaching a goal, no matter how unreasonable it might seem to others.

We all have goals, this book will help you reach yours!”

That’s A Wrap!

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With an easy three-miler today, I reached 100 miles run in December. That concluded my second consecutive year of running 100 or more miles every single month. I’m happy with that.

Continue reading “That’s A Wrap!” →

Bid Me Run…

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“Bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible.” William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

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I wrote what I believe is an amazing and wonderfully motivating book. It’s titled 365.2 and it chronicles the time (in 2022) when I ran every single day – for an entire year.

Continue reading “Bid Me Run…” →

NYC Marathon Weekend 2023

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I ran my first New York City Marathon in 2002. That seems like a long time ago. In subsequent years (2003, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2021, and 2022) I also ran New York City. It is a race and experience like none other. It’s a race that touches my heart and my soul in many ways. I love the big city; always have. And I love running through it. I love the New York City Marathon.

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Bringing God Into Our Running Lives

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The following is the sermon I delivered at the start of the 2023 New York City Marathon.

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One of my favorite passages in the Bible comes from Hebrews.  Most runners are familiar with the passage as it reads:

“Let us run with perseverance, the race set before us.”

That, of course, is what we are here to do today.  We are here to run, with purpose, and strength, using all our abilities and courage and confidence, that race, a big and mighty race, set before us.  

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Reaching, Failing, Reaching Again

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I am a marathoner.

In less then three weeks, I’ll be running the New York City Marathon. This will be my 25th lifetime Marathon and my 10th New York.

I have always said that I will run forever.

Nothing has ever stopped me before. A torn Achilles? Nope. Stress factures? Nope. Other aches and pains and the like? Nope.

I just kept moving forward. (I did have surgery to repair the Achilles, but got right back at it afterword.)

Nothing ever stopped me… except… me.

Nothing ever stopped me, until I did. Or, better said, until I almost did.

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Making Work Into Fun

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Sometimes training for a marathon can be a drag. It’s challenging and often difficult to begin one’s day knowing that a long run is coming – an hour (often more) of strenuous exercise, out there on the streets alone, often hurting, sometimes painfully so. Marathon training is certainly not fun.

And yet, we go on day-after-day, year-after-year preparing for race-after-race, thinking, hoping , wondering, even decades removed from one’s prime, if this race, the next race, will be the best one ever. (“I wonder if I can set a P.R.?”)

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And So It Begins…

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So much of life is a process. We work diligently to accomplish tasks, and once accomplish them, we set our minds to new tasks.

Ever forward. Never stopping. There is always a new challenge facing us – a new goal, something different that we need to achieve.

And achieve we must.

Continue reading “And So It Begins…” →

Run Wyckoff!

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A year ago, as I was running every single day for an entire calendar year, I thought it might be fun to also run every street in the town where I live – Wyckoff, New Jersey.

The only problem was I didn’t have an efficient or easy way to keep track of every single street and I figured this was something I would probably never do.

Continue reading “Run Wyckoff!” →