Okay, so maybe there is some truth to the comments I keep hearing about me stretching myself too thin and committing to too many things. But sometimes it is hard to know when to stop, especially when you combine wide and varied interests with a helpfull personality and (the perception of) free time.

I was/am the Course Director and Volunteer Coordinator for the Marathon Sports Super Sunday 5k/10k that was held this past weekend on Super Bowl (that's right, I said it) Sunday in South Boston; an event which has grown from 330 participants to maximum capacity of 1,500 in only 2 years.

That in itself is enough to have kept me busy these past few weeks but of course I pile more on top of that: a return to Miami to lead the 3:20 (7:38/mile) marathon pace group for the ING Miami Marathon, racing to a 26 second PR (13th place - top 0.9%) finish in the Tropical 5k the morning before, ushering for the NewRep Theater's production of "Cabaret" , taking on the Director of Sponsor Relations duties on a newly formed Race Director Committee for the 24-hour Around the Lake: Ultra.Marathon.Relay that takes place at the end of July in Wakefield, MA, volunteering for the WGBH family and kids day activities at the studios (I get to be the official event photographer), and of course all of the other stuff that comes with life as a married highway engineer.

But don't get me wrong, I obviously enjoy doing all of these things or else I wouldn't put myself in these situations.  I just have to figure out how to better distribute them across the year so that they don't all jumble over each other like has been happening recently.

So obviously I have still been running and am now preparing myself for my next full out effort at the sold out Boston Marathon in April.  But before that I will be making my first ever trip to Arkansas to lead the 3:30 pace group for the Little Rock Marathon on St. Patrick's Day weekend (what a lousy time to be away from the Boston area) and to visit with my good friend Susan who I met when we were on the FHWA PDP training program back at the turn of the century.  I need to get more core work and hill training in between now and then because I am still feeling last night's 14 mile run on the ice/snow along the Charles River and back to my apartment (into the wind...uggh).  I was toying with the idea of going to yoga tonight, but the prospect of walking home in the 6-degree temperatures at 7:30 when I have so much to do around the house (including catching up on this blog) lost out to a quick 30-minute workout in the gym and an overheated bus ride home.

But the cats were not going to feed themselves (they made that much clear when I finally got home), the laundry, the filing, the dishes, the sorting, the vaccuming, the...wow, this is depressing.  I just can't think about it anymore.

Good night everyone.

Now I can get outside to put up the Christmas decorations, hopefully before the temperatures drop much more and everything ices over here in Somerville. Otherwise the 12-days of Christmas might start out with one Josh in a cast; and that isn't going to help me get back into marathon shape for Miami in 6 weeks.

But before I get into all of that, I want to take this opportunity to thank DAV Chapter #27 in Somerville, MA for their support of RunningBull's Run to Honor America's Veterans and the New England Center (formerly Shelter) for Homeless Veterans. Their timely contribution will help keep the spirit of the holidays alive and well in this time of thankfulness, of family, and of rememberance. Receiving the email message of their intended contribution of support for my cause to honor our fallen soldiers by assisting their comrades in need on the homefront confirmed that my decision to continue with this mission (even after completing the self-appointed 350 miles of races this past year) was the right one. But I will not be repeating the same concept as last year. I will be refining the schedule of events to minimize travel and maximize the potency of my efforts. I will continue to help lead others to achieve success in their individual missions at a few select marathons in the coming year because I truly enjoy watching them become heroes to their families, their friends, and to themselves over the course of these few hours we spend together. The spirit of volunteerism and helpfulness is rejuvinated by these efforts and the message that I am spreading of support, of hope, of honor to commitment shines through more brightly to those other active participants as well as to the spectators standing on the sidelines, watching at home, or reading about it in the paper or online. But first I need to get back into race condition.

Granted my schedule has been completely turned this way and that since my first 50-miler 3 weeks ago, which has reduced my ability to get out and run as often (or as far/long) as I had been prior to Thanksgiving, but I didn't expect to be experiencing knee / IT Band "pain" on runs lasting longer than an hour. Sure, common wisdom probably says that I should still be recovering from my last race, from donating blood, and from the 6 car rides I spent crammed into a compact car (usually as the driver of our 2004 Honda Civic) that each exceeded 4 hours within the past 3 weeks. But then common knowledge would point out that I don't always listen to common wisdom, or common sense for that matter. I don't beleive that I am being reckless or misguided in trying to get out and run for an hour or so 2-3 times per week, especially not after having taken it very easy for the 10 days before my first run. However, I will still take it slow and not enter any races over the next couple of weeks (be they 50k or only 5k) while I gradually bring my long run back up to 3 hours. Hopefully tomorrow will let me enjoy a relatively easy 2 hour run before my brother-in-law and his darling daughters arrive for their winter weekend adventure visit.

Which of course means that I have to finish cleaning so that I can then start...er...um...finish decorating the apartment, forget all of that email, regular mail, sorting, filing, Christmas card writing, shopping, cooking, photo editing, application submitting, and aarrrrggghhh. Man, I really do love the holidays, don't you?

I did at least get my haircut today.

I am a runner; it seems that I always have been. In elementary school I was one of the fastest kids on the playground and I just enjoyed any chance I could get in those silly made-up recess games and gym class exercises to test myself against the other kids. Things weren't quite so easy for me in high school where I played on the basketball team and ran sprints in track. I was pretty much out matched by the upperclassmen in pure sprinting, so the coach directed me to the hurdles where I eventually became League Champion in the 400m intermediate hurdles during my senior year. At college I toyed with the idea of walking on to the track team, at least until I saw the times being put up in my event by guys already on the team. Plus I just couldn't dedicate enough time to running to fit in with Derrick Adkins and Angelo Taylor (400m hurdles Olympic gold medalists in 1996 and 2000 respectively) while still trying my best to get the education that was my first priority. So running went away...for a long, long time.

Twelve years later I saw an ad for the Friends of the Atlanta Opera 5k and decided that it was a cause worth supporting and the t-shirt included with the registration was just too cool. So I trained for a couple of weeks and even got up to 2 miles on the treadmill at the community center. I thought that I was ready to run 3 times further than I had run at one time, even as a 17 year old athlete low those many years gone by. About 5 minutes into the run and I felt like I was going to die! But I didn't, so the experience didn't sour me from ever running again. But I still didn't try again until almost 18 months and one 1,300 mile move later.

Next time: How one goes from getting demoralized by a couple of 11 year old girls in a local 5k to challenging the Boston Marathon in 3 easy steps.