Why Do You Run?

Why do I run? I have been asked that question many times. I have also been asked numerous times, why do I race? I answered that question in my last book, Creating Amazement. I feel the physical, mental, and spiritual challenges in the mile race actually bring me closer to God. Then people ask, what do I mean? My response is that I am interested in life in things I cannot touch or purchase. Each run and race brings me closer to my spirit within as I learn about courage, faith, trust, confidence etc. Each race required me to aspire to new perceptions and beliefs that taught me something about myself and called upon me to go beyond where I had been before.

 

An infographic agency just rolled out a fun infographic illustrating the anatomy of American male and female runners. The last question illustrates the reasons why men and women run. What is your motivation to run or race?

 


Running Music for a better running experience!

How Nutrition Plays A Vital Role In Your Recovery

We had the special opportunity to hear Brendan Brazier speak in Sarasota on Sunday afternoon sharing snippets from his new book, Thrive Foods. A former professional Ironman triathlete and author of Thrive and Thrive Fitness, Brendan is the creator of a whole food line of nutritional products called Vega. In the photo below, Brendan and I are flanked by Sheri and Leslie from Sequel Naturals.

 

 

I have traveled all over the world the last few years as a Vega Ambassador with my nutritional packets of Vega to start my day with Vega’s Health Optimizer – thus replacing any other supplements. Then I finish my workouts with Vega Sport, a natural plant based performance protein, for my recovery phase. These are the main products that I use in the Vega line. Vega products are a great example on one of the topics that Brendan discussed yesterday – high net gain nutrition vs. low net gain nutrition. He believes that with athletes of similar talent, workouts, etc. – the difference is the recovery phase for improved performances. He went on to say that the key to the recovery phase is nutrition – about 80% of the recovery phase is your nutritional intake between workouts.

Please check out his new book, Thrive Foods, on how nutrient dense foods can change your life and the lives of others.

Nutritional Seminar

Vega is an award winning line of plant based nutritional products that has been a long standing sponsor of www.OneMileRunner.com. I will be joining Brendan Brazier, the Formulator of Vega, at his event in Sarasota on November 20th at 2pm at the Glenridge Performing Arts Center as he gives a nutritional seminar based on his new book, Thrive Foods. Brendan will be discussing the importance of nutrient density to ensure healthy eating. RSVP at (941) 924-4754 or via email at vega.sarasota@gmail.com if you are in the area and would like to attend.

Also, please check out the 10/24 interview with another of our sponsors, SOLE, as it summarizes our 2011 event, “5 Wonders Under 25 Minutes.” It can be found on the SOLE homepage at www.yoursole.com.

Thank you all for your support in 2011!

Body Protection Filmed At Movenpick Resort and Spa at The Dead Sea

It was a long journey in a short period of time and my lead videographer is still probably cursing me today that I decided to shoot Body Protection in Jordan, but it was worth it. Our crew did a great job working endlessly to capture what we needed in four days of filming. We are excited, but also exhausted…

The Movenpick Resort and Spa at the Dead Sea in Jordan showed us wonderful hospitality and support during our demanding video shoot. They went above and beyond to assist the filming.

With the Dead Sea and the West Bank of Israel as the DVD’s backdrop, it made for a picturesque setting. Now the editing begins. Body Protection will be released in January 2012. We look forward to sharing with you the training secrets to keep you injury-free.

We have a lot going on before the end of the year as BodyProtection.com will be launched in December. It is now time to spend a couple of months at home after being on the road since May with “5 Wonders Under 25 Minutes” and now the filming of Body Protection.

Returning to the Dead Sea

We have had a busy schedule since returning from our “5 Wonders Under 25 Minutes” tour. After a clinic in Martha’s Vineyard and then a trip to Atlanta this past weekend, we are now traveling back to Jordan to shoot the new “Body Protection” DVD. Sekyen and I and our film crew team will be leaving Thursday to travel to Amman, Jordan via Dubai. We start shooting at the beautiful Movenpick Resort and Spa at the Dead Sea on Sunday morning. We have five mornings to shoot the entire training program. So I hope we all know our roles and are able to complete the shoot in the allotted time slot.

We will be returning to the USA on October 15th. We will be editing and putting the DVD together in November and December and have it ready for sale by the end of the year. We are excited to share all this information with you and give you the opportunity to be injury-free with Body Protection.

“Body Protection” DVD Will Be Filmed At Dead Sea

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We will be returning to Jordan in the second week of October to film our new fitness DVD at the Movenpick Resort at the Dead Sea. The www.OneMileRunner.com film crew will be boarding the plane for the 14 hour plane ride to Dubai followed by a 3 hour plane ride to Amman, Jordan. After completing 4 different and unique one-mile events over the last 4 years, it is now time to share the reasons why I have not been injured during these trying tours. “Body Protection” will be broken down into three levels – beginner, intermediate, and advanced and is for athletes of all ages.

We are spending this week on the beautiful island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts leading a tennis and fitness clinic. I will spend a week in Sarasota preparing for our upcoming DVD. Then we are off to the lowest place on earth, the Dead Sea, to create a DVD for you all to utilize in order to stay injury-free in your chosen sport.

Running At Petra, Jordan

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Our final leg of our 2011 tour “5 Wonders Under 25 Minutes” took place in Petra, Jordan. Petra is an incredible old city found in the red rocks at almost 3000 feet above sea level. Petra fittingly means “rock” in Greek and inhabited in 600 B.C. by the Nabataeans. Petra was chosen on the 2007 list of The New 7 Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985. With their importance of “after-life,” the Nabataeans created many tombs by hand. 80% of original Petra has been destroyed over time and two earthquakes, but what remains is absolutely breathtaking.

This is where the Petra Marathon and Half Marathon took place on Saturday September 10th calling the event – “run back in time” www.petra-marathon.com. After our time at the Dead Sea, we took a taxi for about 45 minutes to meet our our organizers and the marathon participants in Amman, the capital city of Jordan, on Wednesday afternoon. We spent the night in Amman and then all boarded a bus on Thursday morning to start our journey south to Petra stopping off at the Crusader fortress of Kerak. On Friday, we had an hour-long race meeting in the morning and toured Petra until lunch. Then on early Saturday morning, marathon and half-marathon participants walked down to the Treasury for the start of their adventure marathon and half marathon races.

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Two race organizers, Tomas Thomsen and Erling Nielsen, measured out the last mile of the route for me to race. Due to the extreme mountain conditions, the beginning of my mile was my slowest 1/2 mile on tour at 2:36, then after a bit of a panic I kicked in the last half mile in 2:17 finishing the mile in 4:53.15. I want to thank all the organizers at Albatros Travel who put on a great event for us. With their array of “adventure marathons” around the world, it made sense to team up with Albatros Travel to finish our tour of “adventure miles” in 2011. Below with me is Hanna, Lars, and race doctor.

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And thanks to all our www.OneMileRunner.com supporters who helped us complete our 4th event in 4 years. We completed “5 Wonders Under 25 Minutes” in a total time of 24 minutes and 31 seconds. We now look forward to shooting our new “Body Protection” video in October sharing the exercises in my training that kept me injury-free after these years of mile events.

In Jordan – First Stop The Dead Sea

We arrived in Jordan after a few days in New Delhi. We came immediately from the airport to the Dead Sea as it was a dream of mine for the last 25 years to come and float in the salt waters of the famed Dead Sea. The Dead Sea has a long heritage for many thousands of years from Herod the Great to King David. It is really a lake not a “sea,” bordering Jordan and Israel. It is the lowest spot on earth as it is around 1200 feet below sea level. You have plenty of oxygen for running here.

Due to its super salinity, no sea life can live in waters that are almost 34% salt. So they call it the Dead Sea, but I feel that it is the opposite: a fountain of youth because it cures so many common ailments known to man. I cannot float in any water, but I do here. You just lie on your back and float, then smear this incredible mud that they get a few meters below the bottom all over your body. You let it bake in the sun and viola – your skin, joints, etc feel better. It is a natural therapy that is so rejuvenating.

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We travel to Amman the busy capital city of Jordan to meet up with our tour group. Then we travel 4 hours south to Petra where I will race a mile of the Petra Marathon on Saturday. It will be an exciting place to finish the 2011 www.OneMileRunner.com tour of “5 Wonders Under 25 Minutes.” I hope my few days at the Dead Sea has rejuvenated my body after our time in India so I can finish strongly in the last race.

Running At The Taj Mahal

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For all of us at www.OneMileRunner.com, it has been one of our most interesting weeks on tour. Overcoming my sickness, arranging a difficult race under strange conditions, and finding the courage to conquer my fears, it has been a week in India that we will always remember. Delaying the race until Friday worked out great as the road to the East Gate of the Taj Mahal was more free as The Taj is closed on Fridays. We had two bicycle rickshaws surround and protect me as I raced down the road to the East Gate. I lost one of the bicycle rickshaws after the first minute as he underestimated the speed required. The other driver, Bobby, did a wonderful job and stayed with me for the entire race keeping out of harms way of numerous wayward dogs and the wild monkeys that surround the walls around the Taj.

I managed to run a 4:55.62 mile. I had a great start in the heat of the morning, but I relaxed too much in the third quarter, and then panicked and dug deep to sprint in the last quarter mile. It is the best I could do under the conditions that we were presented with this week. We tried to capture the event the best we could in the video below:

The Taj Mahal is even more beautiful than I remember 24 years ago when I came here for the first time when I coached the Junior Davis Cup Team in Chennai. Sekyen and I both agree that it is the most magnificent building we have seen. The Taj Mahal meaning “crown palace” is a 400 year old mausoleum in Agra, India. Mughal emperor Shah Jahan took 22 years to build the Taj Mahal in loving memory of his third and most beautiful wife, Muntaz Mahal. Muntaz Mahal died after the birth of her 14th child. The intricate details within the Taj Mahal’s walls are simply amazing. If you have not been to see this incredible Wonder of the World, it is indeed worth the trip.

We finally are traveling back to New Delhi to catch a flight to Dubai. We will stay there for a day and fly to Amman, Jordan on Saturday. We hope to spend a couple of days training at the Dead Sea before we meet up with the marathon group for the Petra Marathon on September 7th. Thanks to all our readers that have wished and prayed for me this week for a speedy recovery, your support was much appreciated and effective.

Sick in India

Before arriving in Agra, India I was experiencing a slight fever in Chennai. Then things intensified in Agra as the fever continued and diarrhea followed. We finally called the doctor to the hotel last evening as my situation was not improving. He checked out my symptoms and confirmed that it was not malaria or dengue fever (two of our concerns), but was indeed a bacterial infection with something I ate or something on my hands when I rubbed my eyes. The doctor has put me on a five day cycle of antibiotics, electrolytes, etc.

We have again moved our Taj Mahal race for a few days until September 2nd giving me an opportunity to get my strength back. Then we will travel to the Middle East and race on September 10th (this date is set and cannot be moved as I am racing a mile of the Petra Marathon).

We will be patient and let my body mend over the next few days…