Well, I am going to run another Marathon! 16 completed, and the number will continue. I am going to run the Fargo Marathon in September with my daughter Megan, and Sarah. I have always wanted to run a marathon with my kids, and she will be the first one. I will see what time brings for Nick and Molly. We began following a schedule over a month ago, and we are doing our long runs each weekend. I was not sure I would do this again after my health issues 2 years ago, but as long as it is not too hot that day, I have been given clearance to run this. I am looking forward to it! This will be Megan’s first one, so the time it takes us does not matter. We will be helping each other, and Sarah will be along to keep an eye on both of us!
I posted this picture last week also. They have been going along with me for years to marathons…as spectators. Now Megan will be a participant. The run bug bit her hard!
This was after our 12 mile run Saturday morning. We are still looking pretty good. We got done before the rain came. Each week we keep building the mileage. With help from our run club members, we will do this. Many of them are going as well to do either the Half Marathon, or full Marathon as well. It will be a good get away weekend.
We are keeping track of our mileage, and of course, we have to spend time in the Reiflex center doing strength workouts as well. After all, we need our arms, and core, for this as well, not just our legs.
And of course, Dakota has to get in on it too. We are, after all, family! She helps keep us motivated as well.
We are going to keep running along, working hard, spending time together, and making more memories. The running is only part of it. The best part is the time spent together, talking, laughing, giving each other “crap”, and keeping each other motivated! The plan is to run together start to finish…and like I said earlier, Sarah is running with us to keep us both in line!
There will be more posts in regards to our training. After all, it is a marathon. We have months ahead of us yet. Hopefully, everything will be good for all 3 of us, and that we will have a great day, and enjoy the experience. Who knows what Megan will think of it. Sarah said she would only do one, and this is now her second one. Time will tell. I am ready to make more memories. Keep moving everybody!
Here is to all you Fathers out there! Enjoy your day, and spend some time with your family. Time goes fast, and before you know it, they are grown up! I soon will graduate to Grandfather at the end of next month, and can’t wait to experience this next phase.
There were many times when my kids came along with me to my races. They were my support, and my cheering section. Now in September I will get to run a marathon with Megan. It will be a first for her. I have always wanted to run one with my kids. I am definitely looking forward to this as well.
This was my Father’s Day present from Megan a few years ago, but, what can I say? I am a “Runner Dad…just like a normal Dad, but much cooler!” Right on!
Like I said, they grow up fast. Here is my Dad with Nick. This was about 23 years ago. Wow! A lot of things have changed in that time. But family is still priority. I learned the Father things from a great example. It has been over 7 years since he has been gone, and I still miss him everyday!
Nick and I were trying to get our own tradition going by hitting Vikings games. COVID brought it to a halt last year, so will have to see what we can keep going. Otherwise, we start coming up with a new tradition!
These 3 made me a Father! There were stressful times, but many more good times. Growing pains we all experience. They have all become great adults, and are beginning to work on there own lives now. But, they will always be my kids. Life continues to be an adventure, and we have to just go with the flow, and take it all in.
Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads. You always have to keep working at it, but it is worth it. Enjoy that time for as long as we can. There are always adventures to be had. Keep moving everybody!
Sarah and I finally got away for a week. We went out to the Black Hills to enjoy some hiking, biking, and just plain get away time. It was hot, but we got going early each morning, and then just relaxed the afternoons. Here we are hiking one day in Spearfish Canyon, checking out the numerous water falls that are out there.
The vacation started with the Volksmarch up to Crazy Horse. Almost 6 mile hike up and down, but got up close to Crazy Horse. I got to touch his chin!
We saw plenty of buffalo out in Custer state park. We managed to keep our distance from them though!
We saw deer out hiking up to Little Devils Tower, then off to Black Elk Peak, formerly Harney Peak. That day was about 8 miles total, but took us 4 1/2 hours. Up the mountains, and back down. It was work, but enjoyable.
We spent several days out on the Mickelson Trail biking. These were challenging. You spend many miles going up, then down. We had one stretch of going up 15 miles. It was time for a break after that! But, the views were incredible!
As long as we carried enough water with us, we were fine. We may have spent the week with all the hiking, biking, and sightseeing, but truly many of the things we saw we would not have seen had we not been doing these activities. I took literally hundreds and hundreds of pictures. Words can’t describe what you can see off the beaten path. It made the exercise part of it very relaxing. Even though we were working at it, we took a break when we needed it. The views were amazing. It was a perfect place to get away from all of the busy part of life, and just unwind. We all need to make more effort to do this. The better condition we are in, the more we can see, and enjoy. You don’t know what you are missing out on until you do.
Our last hiking day was at Sheridan Lake. The water was blue, and crystal clear. We saw other water falls off the trails that we did not know even existed. You need to get out and explore. That is how you strive to survive. Push past some limitations and enjoy. Most of the time you will find that those limitations are only in our minds. Our bodies can do a lot more than you think! Keep moving everybody!
It is much easier to get things done when you work as a group, but even better yet as a team. That was the case with the DASH Around Kampeska Half Marathon. This “group” came together for creating this event, but ended up becoming a “Team”! It took a lot of work, many hours, and each of us doing our part in order to pull off this event that occurred yesterday. None of us got much sleep Friday night hoping everything would turn out fine. It did! And, we had great weather for our inaugural event.
DASH is an acronym created by the Watertown Police Department, for Drug Free, Alcohol Free, Safe and Healthy. This mission is “to challenge community partnerships to lead by example and to empower Watertown youth to choose to live healthy and positive lifestyles.” This Half Marathon was created by runners, for runners. We wanted to make it a premier event featuring Watertown, but for the DASH cause. It was a success!
We were helping with the packet pickup Friday night, but the “girls” did much better with this. Jill Makepeace is our very own Watertown Promoting Director, and was talking the ear off of everybody. The 3 of us just had to stay out of the way. But Greg and Owen mapped out the course, and I lost track how many times they ran it, biked it, or drove it. They had it down! I am the oddball out in this picture…I clearly need more hair!!
We made a road trip as a group going over the route, where to post signs, mile markers, water stations, aid stations, and port a potty’s. A lot of planning took place on this! We wanted to make sure, as runners also, this would become an event we would want to keep coming back to as well. Michelle helped us all stay on track, and was truly the director and mastermind behind all of this, and helping us all stay on track! Thanks!
Tim Toomey and I getting set for the start of the race. We all needed to help Tim calm down before hand. He is in charge of the timing of the event, and I don’t think he slept at all the night before, wanting to make sure everything was going to go as planned without a hitch. As runners, we want our times in the races we run! A lot of pressure to get this right, and he did an awesome job! His wife Cheri was the photographer as well, so hundreds of pictures were taken as well. Their son created a video that I think will now become out new promotion for years to come featuring Watertown, and showing off Lake Kampeska!
We have to have our fun moments as well, and goof off too! We all had fun with it as well, but we were all relieved it went as well as it did. We had many positive comments, and also came up with ideas for improving it going forward. We can always make things better!
The biggest thing that makes these events so fun and memorable are the bonds that are created during runs like this. Sarah and Megan ran the majority of it together. There were many people who ran a personal best, and many also that were involved with their kids, either running together, or helping at the aid/water stations. All of these things become memories to talk about and remember for years. That is really why this is done. This is why we worked hard to create this event. This is why we will keep doing it going forward. Good times and memories are what it is all about. I can’t thank all of the committee members enough for all of the hard work that went into this event. We all had a job to do, and we all had to help. We all helped set up and take down, and when we work as a “team”, you truly understand the concept of teamwork, and why we all have to rely on help from everybody else. Kudos to all of us involved in planning and creating this event. It will become a feature event for Watertown going forward! Keep moving everybody!
This was a few years ago running the Disney Half Marathon with my daughter Megan, and our neighbor Noah Hauck. We had a ball! This picture was taken with less than a 1/2 mile left in the race. We did not care what our time was, we were having fun. Neither Megan nor Noah had run a Half Marathon before, so any time was a personal best for them. But it boils down to this: continue to keep having fun! Exercise should be like going out to play. We all did that as a kid. We need to keep that energy and enthusiasm as we get older. Dr. George Sheehan, a cardiologist who wrote many books on running, emphasized this point many times. “Keep it simple. Keep it fun. Make it play, not work!”. So true!
My daughters and I were working out one day last year when they were both home. This is us after we just got done with our workout. We are all smiling! We got moving, and had fun! Of course, Megan’s shirt helps: “Fartacus!”.
This is still one of my favorite pictures. Our run club members that day were posing on the bridge, and the rest of us are serious, and Jill decides to be “different”. Don’t follow everybody else. March to your own drum beat. Have fun! Be a kid again. Life is too short to be serious all of the time. Take care of yourself in the process, and get out and move. Do whatever activity you like to do, or it won’t be fun. I walk, bike, and run, and my favorite of course is running. Now sometimes other members in our run club rub off on me too!
We were doing a long run, and of course, we needed some nutrition, and Jill brought orange slices. Of course, you can’t just eat them, you have to pose with them in your mouth too! Be goofy! We may all be adults, but that does not mean we can’t have fun just like we did when we were kids!
This was never more true than last weekend when we were in Brookings doing the Half Marathon, and some of us were doing the marathon. I wrote about this last week. Time does not matter. Having fun matters!!!
Pay attention to what is around us. Look at the positives in life. Remember to make exercise fun. Play! Laugh! Relax! Enjoy the moment with everything!
What a great summary! Truth in such few words. Give them something to really talk about. Have Fun! Play! Enjoy life like we are supposed to. Keep moving everybody!
