On The Run in Waco; November 30, 2019

I've run 61 races this year and if I hadn't already run in Gatesville earlier this year, it would have been 62.

However, I just decided to get some miles in and around Waco instead.  Waited until about 9 a.m. this morning to run and went down to the Hilton at Franklin and University Parks to start.

I ran south on Franklin all the way to 19th St. and then turned around and came back.

Took a short quarter of a mile walk over to Webster and then proceeded to run just past the Silo District, back over to Franklin and then back to the corner of Franklin / University Parks.

I ran the extra bit because I really need to get my long distance endurance back, even if I have to walk about it to get there.

15:09.33 (Out, uphill)
14:48.49 (Back, downhill)
29:57.82 - 2.82 / 10:38
3:56.09 - 0.25 (walk)
13:14.80 - 1.3 / 10:12

4.12 miles / 10.32 since Thanksgiving  #RWRunStreak
Five straight days as I ran Tuesday and Wednesday.

Biggest surprise on the run was seeing First Baptist Church of Waco charging $10 for the closest spots to the Silo District.

I'm a believer and I sure get capitalism, but thought you might be able to actually reach people for Christ by charging less than it just appearing to be a commercial transaction.

Getting Out The Door; November 26, 2019

It really is true.  The hardest thing about running is getting out the door.

So many times I'll put together a great trip like this one that I'm on and I'll pack clothes to run -- and never do.

I changed it tonight though.

After working from the hotel here in downtown Shreveport today, I drove over to Ruston to see a basketball game at Louisiana Tech.

The Lady Techsters used to be one of the great women's basketball powerhouses in the late 1970s through the early 1990s, along with the likes of Tennessee and UCLA, but the last 20 years haven't been as kind to them.

I had eaten before the game - at a new restaurant - and after leaving the arena at the end of the third quarter, I drove back, got logged on and I started to look to see what things needed to be pushed out via the Lone Star Christian Sports Network (LSCSN) Twitter feed to promote Texas private and parochial high school athletics.

And that's what has happened to me over the almost 17 years of running.  I'll sit longer than I should until it gets so late that I think that I can't go out and get a quality run in.

Then I tell myself that if I can't run more than 30 minutes it isn't worth going out -- and won't do any good.  Of course, I know that not to be true.

And finally, I worry about time, distance and pace.

However, once I get out there, regardless of the atmospheric conditions, I feel good and am enjoying it and wish that I had the confidence to just leave the watch at home (or in tonight's case, in the hotel.)

I probably hit the pavement at about 10:30 p.m. and I had marked off a box of streets that I could remember so I could map my distance.  (I don't wear a device that has GPS nor do I run with my phone.)

I missed making the left on to Market Street so I kept running down to the Red River and then hit the trail for a little out and back.

Overall, it was 3.66 miles over 40 minutes - 10:57 pace. 

Sure, I'd like for it to have been faster, but it was just a reminder that I need to get out and just run for the heck of it more often.

I know that I'll get miles in Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

I need to squeeze a couple in in the morning and enjoy where I am at right now -- and decide where I'm going to run for Thanksgiving.

Not Exactly Tap Out Ten for Tuesday; November 19, 2019

Respect.

A tough word.

On one hand, you can be respected by some people and on another, not, by others.

I was in Midland on Saturday and an individual who is involved in promoting high school athletics, including private schools, was excited to meet me because of some of the work I've done and am doing currently.

He and his broadcast partner asked me to be a guest during their football broadcast of Midland Christian School and Houston St. Pius X.

We had a great discussion during halftime and I felt much respect and I thanked them publicly through our LSCSN (Lone Star Christian Sports Network) Twitter feed for offering that respect.

Yet, while the announcing that I do in the running and triathlon community is fun, the lack of respect - and being taken for granted by some producers - has been discouraging.

And those have driven me - primarily - from something that I used to always have fun always doing, but yet still had much satisfaction for the job that I did for producers even though for road races my talents can be considered a luxury.  (Meaning, you can still start a race on-time and so many other things without me.)

I'm writing this this evening from the greater Nashville area and I spent a part of the evening attending the basketball game of Ravenwood High School and Lipscomb Academy about three miles away from the hotel that I'm staying at this week for work.

One's a public school; the other, a private school.

But the private school is where two longtime friends from Houston's Westbury Christian School are in leadership positions -- one is the head of school and the other is in their development office.  They are two of the most incredible people that I know.

As I looked at schedules for after work this week, I noticed that their school's basketball season opened tonight and I reached out to one of the two via Direct Message on Twitter to see if either one of them was going to be there tonight.

He said that he wouldn't be, but at the Belmont vs. Lipscomb contest Wednesday night, which I had plans and am going to tomorrow.

Nonetheless, I wanted to get out a see a basketball game some place new this evening - getting dinner around 6 p.m. before the 7:30 p.m. contest -- and I went hoping to see the other of the two.

Midway through the first quarter, I saw him walk in at the other end of the gym and on the other side.  Given that he's the head of school, I knew that he would spend time connecting with parents, supporters, etc.  Therefore, I waited until the 4:00 mark of the fourth quarter to make my way over to see him.

He was there with one of his two sons and one of his grandchildren.

As I walked toward him, he was surprised and happy to see me.  He said as I went to shake his hand that he thought that he had seen me (there in the gym), but thought, "No, there's no way that he would be here."  I explained why I was in town and so on ... it was good to put a smile on somebody's face.

We had a great conversation and he said that he would be at tomorrow night's contest as well as the athletic director that originally hired him at Westbury Christian.  I'm already looking forward to it.

But back to putting smiles on people's faces, it is something I get enjoyment from.

Not that I seek praise or anything of or from it, it just makes me feel good and it is something that I wish I could do for one person on a regular basis.

And, conversely, that makes me a little sad:  the potentiality that I'm not good enough to be that person for somebody.  Good, but not good enough.

I'll put my head on the pillow tonight, be thankful for every thing I've been given materially and for all of the opportunities and get up tomorrow trying to be the person God would want me to be.

Charitable Activity in 2020

May 22, 2020

1/ 5/20 - $100.00 - The Village Church, Fort Worth, TX (#11296; offering/visiting)
5/12/20 - $500.00 - New Hope Initiative, Kingwood, TX (#11302; COVID19 food)
5/12/20 - $100.00 - Tyrone Area High School, Tyrone, TX (#11303; senior banners)
5/20/20 - $25.00 - Anchorage Baptist Temple, Anchorage, AK (credit card; streaming)
5/21/20 - $25.00 - Mountain View Baptist Church, Birmingham, AL (credit card; streaming)

January 9, 2019

1/ 6/19 - $75.00 - Church Project, The Woodlands, TX
1/13/19 - $75.00 - Church Project, The Woodlands, TX (#11262)
1/13/19 - $150.00 - The Houston Wellness Project, Houston, TX (#11263)
4/21/19 - $75.00 - Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, TN (#11267)
6/16/19 - $136.50 - Paul Dickerson for Terry Hershey parkrun 5K course certification (#)
6/25/19 - $800.00 - Grand Oaks Baptist Church, Spring, TX (two camp fees)
6/30/19 - $75.00 - First Assembly of God, Tyrone, PA (#)
7/ 6/19 - $5.00 - Hill County Cell Block Museum, Hillsboro, TX (donation)
7/ 6/19 - $5.00 - History of West Museum, West, TX (donation)
7/16/19 - $100.00 - Robertsdale High School, Robertsdale, AL (#11284)
7/20/19 - $10.00 - No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum, Terrell, TX (donation)
7/20/19 - $5.00 - Ellis County Museum, Waxahachie, TX (donation)
7/21/19 - $75.00 - Central Baptist Church, College Station, TX (offering)
9/13/19 - $50.00 - Generation Alive, Spokane, WA (donation; #11287)
9/13/19 - $50.00 - Youthfront, Shawnee Mission, KS (donation; #11288)
9/13/19 - $50.00 - Book and a Ball, Tulsa, OK (donation; #11289)
11/15/19 - $100.00 - Snowdrop Foundation, Houston, TX (donation; #11290)
11/15/19 - $250.00 - New Hope Initiative, Kingwood, TX (donation; #11291)

October 3, 2018
I failed at this effort last year (and earlier this year.)

So like with documenting all of my mileage, I'll start again.

9/28/18 - $1,000.00 - YMCA for Dragon Boat Race Participation
9/29/18 - $100.00 - Shots For Holly
10/21/18 - $75.00 - First Baptist Church of College Station
11/17/18 - $102.20 - New Hope Initiative (Giving Tuesday)
12/18/18 - $65.00 - Hill Country Christian School of Austin (Matching GATE students)

September 4, 2017
I've been wanting to be even more charitable the last year or two than what I have been; therefore, I'm going to put myself to test to be more accountable.

This isn't here to brag at all.  Just to encourage myself to come here and see if I can more and to different organizations in need.

6/19/17 - $50.00 - The Houston Wellness Project (#11188)
6/26/17 - $50.00 - Catalyst Church, Altoona, PA (#11189)
7/  2/17 - $25.00 - Church Project, The Woodlands, TX (#11191)
9/  3/17 - $50.00 - Greater Waco Baptist Church (#11198)

Tap Out Ten; November 7, 2019

As I've mentioned here before, I've had an exercise where I just "Tap Out Ten" minutes of thought.  Kind of an unloading of the brain in written format.

Usually I've done this late at night before I go to sleep, but I decided to take a ten-minute break to pound out some things.

I picked up this book in my Dad's spare office where I'm working for called "Crushed".  It is about pastors in the minstry who are giving up because of many factors.  (I'm just starting to read it in bits and pieces while I'm here.)

So the immediate thought is that I need to challenge myself to do more, not to the point of burnout, mind you, but just to share and do as much as I possibly can with the time that I'm given.

Work is stable and I'm thankful for it and that's about all I can say there.

My daughter is doing well.  She just finished her second marathon two Sundays ago and bought a new car.  The way she methodically went about it makes me very proud about how she planned everything out.  I'm hoping that she can get her current car sold so I can get it off of my insurance.  (She has her own insurance that she's paying for now.)

She's at a great school for her second year of teaching.  It is a smaller class size, but some of the challenges are no different than where she was last year.  Just not as magnified.  Similarly, I really can't say anything more as I never know who's reading (and I'd never intentionally put her in a bad spot.)

The rest of life?  Actually, fairly good.  I have no major complaints.

It is just continually about what I want to do to fill my time.  My passions are few.

I don't know if I would have called the announcing that I did a passion.  I think it was something that God blessed me with certain talents.  I just hope that I used them wisely.  I do have concern that walking away from it, for the most part, that God will take some of those talents away from me, but I'm hoping that I can use those skills and abilities in another way, shape or form.

In the meantime, it is to figure out where do I go run and what can I go see without breaking the bank.

I was hoping to go run a race in Waco that I enjoy doing, but I agreed to broadcast a football game Saturday night here in Houston and I just didn't see being wise in driving three hours there, run a race and come back.

Therefore, I'm staying home and running a 5K - at least one - that a friend of mine from the private school days (the first time around) is helping to produce.

I'm also looking forward to seeing and talking with a friend that I haven't spent any significant time with since being on the same half marathon course two Novembers ago.  I'm looking forward to seeing the individual in person on Saturday morning.

Beyond that, it is just figure out where I'm going to see athletic contests the rest of this weekend.  The choices are many.

I'm looking at basketball tonight and tomorrow and Rice's women play volleyball at 1 p.m. on Sunday and then the men play basketball at 4 p.m. to follow.  Just am trying to see if I can get a race in in the morning.

That's it. Ten minutes came by pretty quick.  Have a great rest of your Thursday!