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!

Books Given Away

"The Earl Campbell Story: A Football Great's Battle with Panic Disorder" by Earl Campbell and John Ruane (sent to Edwin Quarles on 8/17/19) - $2.75
"Thirty-One And Six:  The Story of Denny McLain" by Robert B. Jackson (sent to Kevin Taylor on 9/4/19) - $10.50
"Nolan Ryan:  Texas Fastball to Cooperstown" by Ken Anderson (sent to Kevin Taylor on 9/4/19)
"The Baseball Life of Willie Mays" by Lee Greene (sent to Kevin Taylor on 9/4/19)
"Pro Basketball Champions" by George Vecsey (sent to Kevin Taylor on 9/4/19)
"The Pass Catchers" by Lou Sahadi (sent to Kevin Taylor on 9/4/19)
"Dynamite On Ice:  The Bobby Orr Story" by Hal Bock (sent to Kevin Taylor on 9/4/19)
"All-Pro Baseball Stars 1976" by Bruce Weber (sent to Kevin Taylor on 9/4/19)
"All-Pro Baseball Stars 1980" by Bruce Weber (sent to Kevin Taylor on 9/4/19)
"All-Pro Basketball Stars 1980" by Bruce Weber (sent to Kevin Taylor on 9/4/19)
"All-Pro Football Stars 1975" by Jerry Brondfield (sent to Kevin Taylor on 9/4/19)
"The Front Four:  Greene | Reid | Page | Olsen" by Bill Gutman (Finished October 11)
"Johnny Unitas" by Joel H. Cohen (Finished October 31)

Multiple Weekend Plans; October 15, 2019

So I have three more events (or races) for 2019 and that's it.

I asked off for Thanksgiving as well as a race that is just four days before Christmas.

Saturday I will fulfill my commitment to the Seven Hills Running Club to announce its Huntsville Half Marathon, Quarter Marathon and 5K, which starts and finishes at the Walker County Fairgrounds.

Then I have two cross country meets -- the UIL Region III meet in Huntsville and the NXR South meet in The Woodlands the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

I'll make decisions regarding those meets sometime the early part of next year, but I'm looking forward to being done with announcing road races.

I've had a good career, if you want to call it that. 

I've made a lot of friends and acquaintances, for which I'm grateful and thankful for.

Now what am I going to do the rest of this coming weekend?  Not sure.

I have two paths.  Well, really three.  Maybe even four.

Going north from Huntsville, I can either go to the Southwestern Assemblies of God University football game in Waxahachie at 2:00 p.m. or the Tarleton State game in Stephenville at 6 p.m.

There's a couple of race options for Sunday morning, but just depends how much driving I want to do.

I have one option where I'd go to Nacogdoches to see a volleyball game at SFA at 1 p.m. and then a football game in Natchitoches, La. at 6:00 p.m. and then drive south to LaPlace, La. for a race on Sunday morning.

Or I could drive straight to Denham Springs, La. and catch a couple of women's junior college basketball games before going on to LaPlace.

Like yesterday's post title, "We'll see."

I was given $50 in Barnes & Noble gift cards recently.  Well, OK, really it was Sunday.

So, I put them to good use on Monday when I arrived here in the Franklin / Brentwood area of Tennessee for work before I made it to the client site.

For $3.74, which, of course, included the tax, I got three books that I found interesting to read.

The first one, "Northern Lights", is pretty good and I've already knocked out 88 of the book's 202 pages.  Like this one, the other two have sports and faith-based themes.

Not too much more to talk about.

Dan Morgan asked me on Sunday if there might be any games that we could broadcast on Friday night, but my concern is that I know I won't be available the next two weeks because of going to Washington, D.C. with Waverly as she runs the Marine Corps Marathon and the following week flying back to Pennsylvania to drive my grandmother's car back to Texas.

And to close out the post, I noticed within the last 24 hours that Shots For Holly got a press mention in a story in the Spring Observer. 

It also indicated that Shots For Holly would be hosting a flu shot event on Sunday, Oct. 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, 13131 Fry Road in Cypress. 

If you haven't got your flu shot for the current season, this would be a great way to get it taken care of.

This not-for-profit charity was established after my sister, Holly, passed away from the flu in January 2014.  Michelle Becker and her team have constantly been doing a great job in raising flu shot awareness in our communities since Holly passed away.

We'll See; October 14, 2019

Lots of things to say and lots of things not to say.

First of all, I'm thankful that my parents made it safely back to Texas today after driving a van back from Pennsylvania after clearing the last items from my grandparents' house that is getting ready to sell.

When I go up there in a couple of weeks to drive my grandmother's car to Texas, it will be the first time that I go back and not be able to go in that house.  Not quite sure what my emotions will be.

At the moment, though, the best thing is that I'm finally starting to feel much better after battling an ear infection for about three weeks.

Well, a week and a half prior to getting officially diagnosed, I didn't win with my own remedies, but the amoxicillin, which did clear things up, wrecked havoc on my stomach until last Friday, October 3, when I didn't take the last three tablets of a seven-day supply.

I tried running last Tuesday night and it was ugly.  Just getting the desire back to begin working out again.

I announced two races this past weekend - the 14th annual Memorial Hermann Ten For Texas on Saturday in The Woodlands and the second annual Bearkat Bolt 5K in Huntsville on Sunday.

These days are going by the wayside.  Even though I do what I do very well, I want my time back.

Some races over the years I've been paid and others I've done pro bono, donating my time in the community.

There are four high school cross country meets that I do.  I probably hold on to those, but I let three race producers over the weekend know that I was done and I don't feel one bit bad about it.

I have one more producer to let know and will shortly and another I will let them know that I will handle things up to the start of the race, but I'm not spending all day there as I have for many, many years.

How will I fill the time?  I'm not quite sure yet, but I'm going to try my best to fill it with something that I enjoy.

My desire on Texas private and parochial high school athletics has again faded here recently.

We'll see where that goes.  Might be a thing that I do in moderation, but my failing is that what I do there I have a natural tendency to go all in and be better than everybody else - and that might not always be the most healthy thing.

So it is one of those things where it will be, "We'll see."  Have two great friends, Dan Morgan and David Fuller, who are likeminded, and I enjoy doing the things that we do together to promote the sports.

Maybe I have to learn to take smaller doses on everything.

I know this weekend after announcing the Huntsville Half Marathon, Quarter Marathon and 5K I have plans to roam.

I want to check another Texas stadium off my list - after not going to Texas Lutheran this past Saturday night (where a good friend, Patrick Zarate, was inducted to their Athletics Hall of Fame).  I'm still a little bummed that I missed it when I learned about it early this morning.

What I have targeted is Tarleton State in Stephenville, but it is filling the time around it up.

There are two races on Sunday in Louisiana that I can run, but a lot of driving on Saturday (and Sunday) to do all that I can possibly squeeze in.  I'm sure I'll look at things multiple times before deciding what I'm going to do.

Even while eating dinner tonight, I maybe want to get back to my running a mile in every Texas county - and do some of that this weekend.

Which leads me back to "We'll see."  A popular refrain and one that I'm thankful I can say that I have available to me.

If you're reading, thanks for doing so.