Re: The Welcome Thread: Both old and new

[Glenn]

I'm Glenn. In 2005, in my mid 40s, I had cracked the deuce (>200 lbs) and decided I should start treating my body like a temple instead of an amusement park. I started to watch my diet much more closely and began exercising regularly. I tried a number of activities, but running seemed to fit my style. I spend all day in an office, so I hated going to the gym and exercising indoors. Running certainly fits my Australian Shepherd's life, who is not allowed at the gym and has become my regular running partner.

I ran my first 5K (well, my first in 20 years) in August of 2005. I joined a local marathon training group in 2006, and trained with them for the Salt Lake City Marathon in June 2006. By race day I was down to 167. I ran my second marathon in 2007. I used one of Hal's plans for that one (Missoula 2007), and started to vist the V-team boards regularly. I've now run seven marathons - the most recent: Grandma's 2 weeks ago, which was an unexpected PR and breakthrough of sorts. I'm training now for my eighth marathon (St. George), and hope to scare the 4 hr mark there. I am in no danger of a BQ, but I do try to pick classic races or cool/classic places (Grandma's, St. George, Eugene, Vegas, Missoula). I am a scientist and teacher, so I write a lot for work. So the idea of blogging always seems like an extra writing chore. So I don't keep a running blog. But I do regularly check in on some of you here, and I find a lot of inspriration and great ideas in this community. So thanks all!

[charles.moman]

Hello - I am Charles Moman. I joined Hal's forums early this year when I started running. I am 59 - 60 in October. I am a recently "retired" elementary music teacher - 37 years in Seymour Community Schools. I took an early retirement offer in order to do more composing (I primarily write musicals), do school convocations/presentations and create curriculum materials for the upcoming Indiana Bicentennial in 2016.

My wife, Susie and I are Christians and have 6 grown children and 3 granddaughters. Two live in Indiana (a nurse and the other full time National Guard), one in California(married to a techie computer geek), one - a Marine now deployed, but based at 29 Palms, CA, one in Spokane (just left the Marines) and one in Alaska (summer camp job). I continue to play acoustic guitar and sing harmony at our church, Community Church of Columbus - been playing there for many years. I am currently working on a 2-act musical titled "Life and Love at Kerrigan's Corner" for a small local theater. Hopefully it will be well received and I will market it to local theaters around the country.

I started walking 4 miles a day in June, 2010 and started running in late December. I ran my first ever 5k on January and now have done 6 5Ks, 1 5 miler, 1 10 miler and the Indy Mini half marathon. I am now training for the Indy Monumental Marathon using a hybrid of Hal's Novice and Galloway's novice plans. I hope to do around a 4:30 first marathon, but will not be crushed if I don't make that. I use Galloway's run/walk/run system normally running 4 minutes and walking 1. By the time I get to the Monumental I will be at 5 & .5 ratio. This system works best for me and I plan on sticking with it. I love running and getting the last few extra pounds off. I plan on doing the Indy Mini and the Chicago Marathon in 2012. I still visit Hal's forums, but I am so glad we have this forum too. It is good to see so many familiar names and faces.

I am one of the older folks here for sure. I don't worry about one new PR after another, but some gradual improvement would be OK. I enjoy being fit and healthy and know I am extending my life. I also love the camaraderie at running events. In the future I might look at 8 hour or longer timed ultras and maybe trail events.

[Tim C]

Hi, my name is Tim. I’m 54 and took up running 4 years ago as I had quit smoking only to put about 25 lb’s on almost overnight! I’ve always been in decent shape but had never liked running at all. I had tried to run before and detested it. I always ran too far / too fast and wound up really sore – to the point I’d swear I’d never try that again. This time I started by run / walking and kept increasing the running portion and decreasing the walking portion and lo and behold, I was able to run 30 minutes straight after only a couple of months. I soon ran a 5k, then increased my mileage and ran a 10k. Soon I got an urge to try a half which I ran after a little more than a year of running.

Never in my wildest dreams did I consider running a marathon. Back when I was active in other sports I looked at those running 26.2 miles in awe. But the competitive juices in me came to the surface after running my first half and I decided I’d try to do a full. I was fortunate to hook up with a group or marathoners here in Orange County which made the long runs so much more fun. In May of 2009 I ran LA and while I suffered a great deal the last 4-5 miles, I finished in 4:22. On a side note, I also conquered my extreme fear of heights the weekend before by jumping out of a perfectly good airplane! 2 MAJOR bucket list items 8 days apart.

About a year ago I found the old board and learned a lot from many of you that are now here. I was very disappointed in the changes made over there and am grateful that Mark_B told me where you all went. I never was a prolific poster but gained a lot of knowledge and inspiration from reading many of your blogs.

I really enjoy running now and miss it when I can’t get outside. I’ve had 2 knee injuries in the last year which have slowed me down some but I cycled when I couldn’t run. I’m just about 100% again and am looking forward to training for and running another full hopefully late this year or next spring. I’m going to be a little more patient this time as I don’t want to be sidelined again. I have a goal of breaking 4 hours, and since I’ve run 2 halfs in 1:48:xx I feel it should be doable. But if not, at least I’ll still be running with my friends.

Thanks for reading and I’m really glad to find where all of you went.

[Nick Morris]

Welcome over here Tim. I am envious of your sky diving. That is something that I have always wanted to do.

[Tim C]

Welcome over here Tim. I am envious of your sky diving. That is something that I have always wanted to do.

Well, all it takes is about $175 and a couple of hours.

Hands down, the most exhilerating few minutes you will ever experience. That 45-50 seconds of free fall is a serious rush!

[Mark B]

Welcome, Tim! Glad to see you made it.

[Schuey]

Tim welcome and as for breaking 4 hours in the marathon there is no doubt in my mind that you can. The first time I ran a half in 2005 I ran a 1:42 half and that same year in Oct. I ran a 3:36 marathon.

[Nick Morris]

Welcome over here Tim. I am envious of your sky diving. That is something that I have always wanted to do.

Well, all it takes is about $175 and a couple of hours.

Hands down, the most exhilerating few minutes you will ever experience. That 45-50 seconds of free fall is a serious rush!

I can only imagine!! One of these days I'll do it and cross it off my list.

[Chris M]

Tim welcome and as for breaking 4 hours in the marathon there is no doubt in my mind that you can. The first time I ran a half in 2005 I ran a 1:42 half and that same year in Oct. I ran a 3:36 marathon.

Schuey's comment got me curious so I looked my own results up. My first ever race was a half in September 2008. 1:46. I did 3:50 in my first marathon a month later. Tim, I'd say you are already well in sub 4 range now.

[Chris M]

Hi. I'm Mark Stanton. I live in Washington DC. Haven't been running that long. A few months back I started reading the V-boards, but noticed all the people I'd been following weren't posting. Today I figured out that everyone was here. I'm no running expert, but really enjoy running races, learning and getting inspiration from everyone else's posts.
Background: Born in Kansas City. As a kid I played several sports and spent way too much time participating in competitions. After high school I joined the military and did some running, which I really enjoyed. After getting out of the military and going to graduate school I decided that I wanted to get back to running and the excitement of competition. Although, I'm currently very slow and getting into proper physical condition I look forward to becoming at least marginally competitive at some point.
Look forward to reading everyone's posts again!

I hadn't seen this post! I saw somewhere else that you lived in NoVa as well and would be running the Vienna 10K at the end of this month. I'll be there as will Kevin Fitz. Team 365 Meet Up!

[sir digby]

Tim welcome and as for breaking 4 hours in the marathon there is no doubt in my mind that you can. The first time I ran a half in 2005 I ran a 1:42 half and that same year in Oct. I ran a 3:36 marathon.

Schuey's comment got me curious so I looked my own results up. My first ever race was a half in September 2008. 1:46. I did 3:50 in my first marathon a month later. Tim, I'd say you are already well in sub 4 range now.

Ditto, first half in May 2009 was 1:47, ran my first marathon 5 months later in 3:39...

[MichiganBrian]

My name is Brian Steers, used to be from Michigan, and now I live in Colorado. Didn't run much last year when I was in Texas, but have been steadily getting back at it since moving here. Running Pikes Peak in August, with the goal race being Philly this fall.

[ChasMcG]

My name is Brian Steers, used to be from Michigan, and now I live in Colorado. Didn't run much last year when I was in Texas, but have been steadily getting back at it since moving here. Running Pikes Peak in August, with the goal race being Philly this fall.

Yeah! Brian is here! Cool meeting you but I'm a bit upset I didn't get a pic with you.

[Mrs. Schuey]

My name is Brian Steers, used to be from Michigan, and now I live in Colorado. Didn't run much last year when I was in Texas, but have been steadily getting back at it since moving here. Running Pikes Peak in August, with the goal race being Philly this fall.

GO BLUE!!

[Caleb]

I was on the old forums but hadn't been on in a while, but I got on yesterday and today I found out about the new site so I joined! I've been running for two years now and have run 3 marathons, 3 half marathons and a bunch of other races...

Right now my main goals are to qualify for Boston and do an ironman triathlon, but I don't know when for sure I will actually try to do an ironman.

[Admin]

Welcome, Lebby! Glad you made it over! Take a look around and jump in in the blogs and other threads... the more, the merrier!

[Tim M]

My name is Brian Steers, used to be from Michigan, and now I live in Colorado. Didn't run much last year when I was in Texas, but have been steadily getting back at it since moving here. Running Pikes Peak in August, with the goal race being Philly this fall.

Brian didn't mention that he spent the last year doing everything there is to do here in Colorado like hiking 14ers and snowboarding. At this pace, he will have to move to another state in six months when he runs out of things to do.

[mountandog]

Well I finally made it over here. Was wondering where everyone disappeared to. I missed the chatter.

I was first on the V-team boards around 2008 or so. I really like this new location. Awesome work Dave.

For a little background, I started running after I lost both my parents within a year of each other. So at the age of 52 I figured it was time to get up off my butt and increase my odds of living a tad longer. After all, I have six kids ranging in age from 23 - 6. Have a lot of tuitions to pay so I need to hang around a while longer.

I live in a suburb of Detroit, am an avid UM fan (wife, eldest son graduated from there, and number 2 daughter is currently enrolled). Grew up playing ice hockey and lots of golf.

I am the eldest of 5 kids and all of us have now run a marathon with 4 of us running Boston, my brother running for the first time in 2011. Also this past April my eldest daughter, a Bowdoin graduate and ice hockey player, ran her first Boston with me and had a chance to meet a number of you. Now my eldest son is training for his first marathon, so its becoming a bit of a family thing. I always have that family PR to go for so no motivation needed.

[Admin]

Welcome, Mountandog. Kick yor shoes off and make yourself at home!

[MartinD]

Finally got around to having a look at this 365runners forum that Kenny keeps posting about on Facebook - lots of familar faces from Hal Higdon's forums...

It's been a while since I've been an active poster over there (for various reasons, but the main one is that I've had problems logging in since the change away from the simple log-in that took you direct to the forums), so it's probably best to give a bit of an introduction. I'm Martin Devine, from just outside Edinburgh in Scotland - in my mid-30s, civil servant (statistician), keen golfer, and have run five marathons so far (and am hoping to run a sixth at the start of October).

[Mrs. Schuey]

Welcome, Mountandog. Kick yor shoes off and make yourself at home!

[Mrs. Schuey]

Welcome Martin, it's nice to have you here!

[Dave-O]

Well I finally made it over here. Was wondering where everyone disappeared to. I missed the chatter.

I was first on the V-team boards around 2008 or so. I really like this new location. Awesome work Dave.

Glad you found us. I don't deserve all the credit though. Matt has done a kick ass job with the tech side of things, and really, the content is dictated by the community.

[Dave-O]

Finally got around to having a look at this 365runners forum that Kenny keeps posting about on Facebook - lots of familar faces from Hal Higdon's forums...

It's been a while since I've been an active poster over there (for various reasons, but the main one is that I've had problems logging in since the change away from the simple log-in that took you direct to the forums), so it's probably best to give a bit of an introduction. I'm Martin Devine, from just outside Edinburgh in Scotland - in my mid-30s, civil servant (statistician), keen golfer, and have run five marathons so far (and am hoping to run a sixth at the start of October).

Welcome Martin. Kudos to Kenny for continually posting the link on facebook; we don't want to leave anyone behind!

[Schuey]

Welcome Mike and Martin glad you both have signed up on 365!

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