The reasons why I haven’t raced in several years are many – employment change, growing kids with busy lives, new interests, etc. – but primary among them is that I’m older (now 44), and just not as fit as I used to be. Though life has taken me in new and different directions, all of which have been exceedingly positive, the one regret I have is that I have let my fitness go. However, fitness here is a relative thing. I’m not sedentary, and I never really stopped running – I just run a lot less, and as a result have gained some weight back that I shed when I was putting in 30-40 miles per week on a regular basis. As a result, I’m in no condition to even come close to past race performances right now.

Knowing that I can’t compete with my old self has caused me to avoid even trying. A race would only lead to disappointment, and confirmation that I’ve lost much of what I gained through years of regular training. Deep inside I know that this was dumb, and that what I’ve lost can be gained back, but I think I also knew that gaining it back wasn’t realistic in the near-term. Life had just gotten too busy to make running a priority.

Fortunately, my perspective began to change during the last school year. My first two years teaching high school were hard – developing curriculum took an immense amount of time, and I had little free time for anything other than preparing to make it through each day. Last year, however, things changed, in large part due to the fact that my oldest son was a Freshman at my school. He was involved in soccer in the Fall, so I would often run while he was at practice. Then he decided to do indoor track, and I volunteered as an assistant coach. Indoor track at a school without an indoor track means running outside through the dead of a New Hampshire winter, and I got to run a lot with the team. Indoor was followed by outdoor track, but running was less frequent for me since I was often busy helping out the coaches doing timing, working with injured kids, etc. My competitive spark reemerged (watching the boys outdoor track team win states helped!), and I went into this summer with a goal to start training more regularly, and to maybe run a race or two. My son competes in jumps and has been doing the USATF Junior Olympics circuit this summer, so we’ve gone to the track several times and I get some speed work in while he warms up. I try to run most days, sometimes fast, sometimes (mostly?) slow, and it has felt (mostly?) great.

Choosing to race in Maine was a joint decision with my wife, and our ulterior motive was to get my son to run it with us. Though he loves long, triple, and high jump, he hasn’t quite found the love of running that we have, and he has struggled a bit with grit when the going gets tough on the track. Somewhat surprisingly, he agreed to do it, as did my daughter (who will be a Freshman this coming year) – there was no turning back.

I knew going into the race not to expect a PR, or anything close to that. My best time on the 4-mile course was a bit under 26 minutes, and with age has come the wisdom to know that if I even tried to run one mile at sub-7:00 pace I would crash and burn hard. I refocused my goal to beating my time when I ran the race the first time – 30:41. And my secondary goal was to try to beat my son – he’s way fitter than me, but he’d never run a road race before, and 4 miles would be the longest he’d ever run in one stretch. I failed on both accounts.

I will admit to being a little disappointed that I couldn’t beat my old race time. However, I came within 30 seconds of my tertiary goal (32:00), and with carrying some extra body weight on a hot day that’s not too bad. I also know that regaining fitness is a long process, and that there are no quick fixes – just a lot of hard work to get back to where I want to be. I’ve come to think of my race history as just that – history. I have my 30’s PRs, and now it’s time to work on my 40’s PRs. I don’t know that I’ll ever beat any of my old times, but that’s OK. I’ve been away from racing for long enough that the gap has cleaned the slate a bit. It’s time to move forward.

On a final note, I have to say that the best part of finally racing again is that I did it with my family. I honestly can’t remember the last time my wife ran a race, but she completed it respectably as well. My son, who has struggled with cramping when trying to run distance, had a no-cramp day and smashed his expectations (and his old-man’s time) by going just under 30 minutes. He was quite shocked by his performance, though I’m still not sure I’ve hooked him on running yet. And my daughter, who I wrote about a long time ago in one of my personal favorite posts, finished her first road race (and longest ever run) well under her goal of 40 minutes. My pride as a parent and husband made it far easier to swallow any individual hurt pride that I might have had.

I’ll end with a piece of advice – if you haven’t raced in a long time because you are scared of not living up to past performances, sign up for a race now. Give yourself a realistic goal and go for it, and talk someone into running it with you if you can. I’m glad I did.

One of the great joys of being a teacher is that I get to spend a lot of time with my family during the summer, and with three small kids in the house this means more to me than any paycheck that I earn. Prior to the arrival of our third child in early April, my wife and I made a pact that we would try to live life as normally as possible with our new addition. When our first two kids were babies, we tended to play it safe and not be adventurous, preferring to hole up in the house for the first few months of their lives. This time was going to be different.

So far, baby Benjamin has been an absolute joy, he’s sleeping remarkably well, and he’s about as mellow and easygoing as a baby can be (most of the time!). Given that, we decided to pack up the tent camper and head north to Glen, NH with some friends of ours and their kids – in case you’re interested, we stayed at the Glen Ellis Campground, which is one of our favorites. My wife and I believe very strongly in keeping our kids active and exposing them as much as possible to the outdoors, and I’m happy to report that not only did we survive our first camping trip with a 10 week old baby, we had an absolute blast! Here are some pictures from the great North Country of New Hampshire:

I wanted to take a quick break from running related posts to alert you to some great news in the Runblogger family – baby Ben has arrived! What follows is an excerpt from a post I just wrote (on a new blog called Daddy Duty) about the events of the past few days.

“I didn’t expect to be writing this post right now. Last weekend, my wife jokingly (at least I though jokingly!) stated that she would be going into labor on Friday. I brushed the comment aside, knowing that the due date was still almost 3 weeks away. We still had a heckuva lot to take care of before the baby could come, and Friday was just too soon. Among the catalog of unfinished activities were a new addition to the house (2 kids rooms + the nursery!!!) that still needed to be furnished and inhabited, a car seat that needed to be shipped (c’mon Amazon, get that thing out of Phoenix!!!), and a couple of minds that needed a bit more mental preparation prior to being thrust back into full-fledged babydom. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned now that I’ve experienced three pregnancies, it’s to never doubt a mother’s intuition, and in the back of my head I was prepping for what might happen.“

To read the rest of this post – hop on over to my new blog for all things family related: Daddy Duty.

Image by Claudio.Ar (Out until Jul 27th)

One of the perks of being a professor at a small college is that my summer is largely available to use as I please. Sometimes I use the time to catch up on research and writing, sometimes I simply need to escape academia and be a full-time dad to my two little ones (and give my wife a hand around the house). My teaching workload this year extended a month beyond normal (until mid-June) since I agreed to run my Human Anatomy and Physiology course for the college’s summer school. This, combined with an intensive grant-writing effort during the spring semester, completely burned me out, and as such I’ve taken a much needed hiatus from the office for the past five weeks or so. I have managed to keep writing, but it has mostly been in the form of posts to this blog. I have some ideas regarding how to begin integrating this blog more with my work, but details on that will come out later – stay tuned.

I’ve spent my extended break almost entirely as a stay-at-home dad, and the family and I have had a wonderful time traveling, hanging out with friends, and trying to make the best of what has been a total wash in terms of summer weather here in NH. Being a full-time dad is hard work, but great fun, and it makes me appreciate what my wife does on a daily basis during the school year. I imagine as the kids get older I’ll start working more in the summers, but for now, I want to enjoy every moment I can with them, especially since they’re at an age when they still think mom and dad are wicked-cool.

So, what have I accomplished/learned so far on my summer break?

1. We’ve taken two trips in our new pop-up camper. Given the weather lately, I realize now that any attempt at tent camping with the kids would be brave, but insane. Camping + Heavy Rain = not fun for anyone.

2. I learned that marathon training helps in the event that you need to carry a 3-year old up a mountain (we climbed Mt. Monadnock in SW New Hampshire). You just never know when this might happen, so I suggest you start training now – it’s always good to be prepared!

3. We spent a day at Storyland. Although I’m a 30-something years old, I still love that place. Watched my 5-year old son hold hands with his “girlfriend” for the first time – very cute!

4. We had a lobsterbake with some new friends. I learned that lobsters don’t scream when you cook them – the old wive’s tale is false.

5. We spent a boiling week at the beach in Florida with some old friends. Learned that running at noon in FL sun = very bad idea. Teaching daughter to swim by herself in armbands while dad lounges with a book = great idea.

6. I’ve learned the fine art of dressing Disney Princesses and Polly Pockets. Learned that daddy’s have no fashion-sense when it comes to dressing for a “Royal Ball.” Also learned that being a princess can be very dangerous when there is a 5-year old boy with clone troopers lurking around.

7. Took a canoe trip up the Contoocook River to a beach and almost got caught in a thunderstorm. Learned that it’s much easier to paddle downstream with the threat of electrical disaster looming than it is to paddle upstream to a tranquil beach.

8. Have become addicted to blogging, Dailymile, and Twitter. What else is a guy to do when wife + kids go to bed three hours earlier than him (I’m a night-owl, wife is an early riser).

9. Haven’t watched TV once (kid’s shows/videos not included). Pleased with my decision to drop full cable service and save $$.

10. I’ve become a dedicated dog-runner. Jack is my companion on ~75% of my runs these days, and he’s getting better each time. He recently had his first 20-mile week! Still can’t figure out how to avoid the pooping issue though.

11. Managing to keep my mileage around 25 per week so far, plan to up that in coming weeks in prep for fall marathon(s). Have run only one race so far this summer to accommodate family time, travel, and marathon training. I’ve committed to running the Hartford Marathon in October, and am contemplating doubling up and running the Manchester City Marathon in November.

12. I’ve become a big fan of minimalist running. The Nike Free 3.0 is now my go-to shoe, and a pair of Vibram Fivefingers KSO’s are on order!

13. Finally, and most importantly, I’ve once again reaffirmed my belief that being a dad is the most super aloducious (don’t ask, it’s a kid thing) awesome job in the world!

Hope everyone else is having a great summer too!

Our one and only camping trip in the past 5 years took place last summer, and after a smooth first night, disaster struck on day 2 when it started raining and our tent sprung several leaks. Needless to say, we packed up camp and raced home rather than roughing it through a wet night with with a 2 and 4 year old in a tent. This past winter, we were desperate to find a solution to our camping dilemma, and we decided to do the unthinkable and buy a tent/pop-up trailer (see picture at right). This weekend, we took our maiden voyage.

Our destination was Swanzey Lake Campground in SW New Hampshire, and we chose this spot due to its proximity to Mt. Monadnock, billed as the second most frequently hiked mountain in the world after Mt. Fuji. The campground was nice, and I have to admit that I love the pop-up. We were sandwiched in between tenters and seasonal RV folks, and owning a pop-up seems to have put us into some sort of weird limbo between these two groups (a position I’m not too comfortable with quite yet). The kids had a blast, and Jack the dog made himself at home on his first camping trip.

The highlight of the trip was our hike up Mt. Monadnock. It’s about two miles from the visitor’s center parking lot to the top, and we figured that we would go as far as we could until the kids got tired. Amazingly, we wound up making it well above the tree-line, and to within less than a quarter mile of the summit. My son revealed a rock climbing skill that I didn’t know he possessed, and he seemed to thrive on the steepest portions of the trail (see the little red speck on the image to the right!), and wain when the terrain flattened out. I’m proud to report that he climbed over 1500 feet up the White Dot trail without any help from me or my wife. My daughter, who is only 3, also did an amazingly good job for her age, though my wife and I took turns carrying her for a good chunk of the hike (both up and down). I was very thankful that I had just finished a marathon training cycle, as I don’t think I would have been able to handle the steep hike with a 35lb child in my arms without the punishment I had just put my body through. I’m not sure I would recommend this hike to everyone that has kids – it does get quite steep in spots, but I’m glad we did it and it provided huge confidence builder for my son. I keep trying to put myself in the shoes of a 5-year-old boy climbing what must have seemed like Mt. Everest – I’m sure he’ll never forget the experience!

My only regret from the hike is that we didn’t reach the summit. We made it to within about 10 minutes of the top (less than 1/4 mile) according to passing hikers (though they clearly didn’t understand how much longer things take with small kids!), but the last bit was steep and the kids were getting really tired. We opted not to push it, and turned back down, taking the White Cross trail on the return trip. It was easier coming down than going up, and my daughter actually wanted to walk much of the way. My son preferred to slide down the rocks on his butt, and a few other passing adult hikers tried to emulate his technique with questionable success – I think it helps to be a 5-year old with seemingly zero body fat when attempting something like this.

Anyway, we reached the bottom with burning quads and headed into Keene, NH for a well earned ice cream. I think the incentive of a banana split at the end was a major motivating factor for the kids, and I was happy to oblige given the effort put forth and surprising lack of complaining from either of them (they’re at an age where complaining/whining/fighting are standard forms of communication). I think these kids like to camp and hike, which makes mom and dad very happy, and hopefully this summer will be filled with further adventures like this!