It has been a while since I have posted readers. I wanted to touch on one of the goals I had mentioned in my beginning of the year blog. I mentioned that my running has been getting better and better, well I achieved a great milestone goal that I had set early in the year. A personal goal of mine for this year was to break 2 hours on a half marathon. Last weekend with my girlfriend Joy, a great deal of my closest friends and my family out supporting me at Kansas City's Rock the Parkway Half Marathon I was able to achieve this goal. I crossed the finish line that glorious Saturday with a time of 1:57:51. This was a new personal best for me by over 8 minutes, which may not sound like much but in running time is an eternity. This averaged out to under 9 minute miles. If you consider even a year ago at this time I was averaging about 10:30 miles for my half marathon times this shows that hard work really does pay off. Every person has the ability to reach goals and limits that they may never have thought were possible.
Last week I worked out but for me took a week off to refresh my legs and get prepared for what will be the most difficult but most rewarding journey of my life. Yesterday began the official training for the 70.3 in September. My friends at the "Y" got me started with a nice long bike ride. This is by far the weakest part of my triathlon is the biking. Every Saturday or Sunday from now on I will be completing at least a 25 mile bike ride building to where I will be able to knock out over 50 miles rides easily. I will also begin biking to and from work when the weather permits. As readers I need all of your assistance making sure I stick with my training and help push me through any walls and road blocks I come across during the training.
In my title I mentioned let the fun begin, in the next coming weeks I will be posting about my Relay for Life team the NiteCrawlers. We will be hosting several events as a way to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Last year I was lucky enough to get to experience what Relay for Life is and have vowed to make this a part of my life every year. Cancer is a disease that has affected and will affect each of us in some capacity in our lifetimes. I will be sending an email out to many and placing a link on this blog in the upcoming weeks asking for donations. I know this has been a very tough economic year, but ask that if you can spare any sort of donation it is greatly appreciated by myself, my team and the American Cancer Society. I want to mention the first event we are hosting, it is Saturday before Easter we will be having a casino night at the Agriculture Hall of Fame in Bonner Springs. I will be working the Roulette table it will be a blast and if you have any free time that night I wanted to invite anyone and everyone out.
Happy Exercising this week, remember life is short live it hard!
Ryan
