Let's Talk About Exercise

Struggling to cross the finish line at the
King of The Smokies Triathlon(10/17/2010) 

It's hard to believe that less that five months ago I ran a half-marathon(my first).  If you looked at me today, "runner"would be the last thing you'd think.  To be honest, you wouldn't have thought "runner" five months ago either but that's neither here nor there.  The heat of summer in the south and "sympathy" weight has not been kind to my running.  It was just hard to motivate myself to get off the couch, lace up the shoes, and leave the air conditioning to sweat in 95 degree heat with 90% humidity. But really it's a little more complicated than that.

You see my wife and I started running last December.  We just signed up for a 5k and started running.  I really enjoyed it(not really the running but the togetherness).  We ran a few 5k's, an 8k, a 10k, and we had a blast.  But when my wife got pregnant, I lost my running partner.  That's not to say it's her fault that I stopped running(I take full responsibility for that), I just didn't enjoy it as much without her.  And then after a few weeks off, I just got lazy.  It was easier to skip a run than lace up the shoes and hit the road.  Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and here I sit 20 pounds heavier and a whole lot slower.  But I can't change the past, so there's no point making excuses.  I need a plan of action. 

My Plan of Action:

      - Get GPS watch to track miles

                  check

      - Use Sport Tracks to analyze data from watch

                  check

      - Get new shoes

                  check

      - Get my ass out of bed in the morning and run

                  uh, not so much

So here's the deal, I love to sleep.  Always have.  I could easily sleep 12 hours/day and be happy as a lark.  But ask any runner when the best time to run is....IN THE MORNING.



So that's what I need to do.  I need to get my ass out of bed at 6:00am and I need to run.

Okay, I Lied

I have to admit, technically I am not yet a dad.  So my blog is somewhat misnamed.  I guess it should really be called "Blue Ridge Mountain Dad-To-Be." But my wife and I are expecting our Daughter in a little over two months.  And believe me, shit's starting to get real.

I should probably go back and explain just what the hell I'm talking about.  You see even when I was a young boy I always looked forward to being a dad.  I always assumed I'd be good at it, probably because my dad made it look so easy and I'm a lot like my father.  Fatherhood looked so rewarding, with a little caring, compassion, and understanding you raise a well adjusted child.  Sounds easy, right?

Well, I thought so until about a month after I found out I was going to be a dad.  It was then I started to recognize the true depth of responsibilities that come with being a father and the total inadequacy I have in being a responsible person.

It was shortly after then when I realized just how lacking I am in the caring and compassion categories.  Just ask my wife.  I am so bad, in fact, that I have been instructed that I can only say two things while she is in labor: "you're doing great" and "you're awesome."  I don't even blame her either; I'm not exactly a wizard with words.  Knowing me I would end up saying something wildly inappropriate which would result with me being lynched by the nurses and tossed out of the delivery room.  How exactly am I going to relate to my little girl when she comes home from school crying because little Johnny says she has cooties. I can't exactly
pat her on the head and tell her "little Johnny's a dumbass.  Everyone knows cooties have been erradicated ever since the FDA mandated the cootie vacine in 1993."  Oh, wait...could I say that?   It sounds pretty awesome. Anyway, my point is that caring and compassion aren't exactly my strong suits.

One of the other things I realized as the months of pregnancy wore on was this: my life up to this point hasn't exactly been worthy of emulation.  I cannot begin to list the stupid mistakes and poor decisions I've made up until now. It really is amazing that I'm alive today writing this.  Many better men than me haven't been given the amount of second chances that I have.  Now I'm sure some of you folks will say that my background affords me the opportunity to speak from experience to my future child.  I consent that this gives me somewhat of an advantage in certain situations.  However, my issue revolves around so-called "moral high ground," of which I have little.  What's going to happen when my future teenager says "but dad did it when he was my age?!?"  My only hope is for my intelligent wife to find the right words at the right time.  Because I am sure I am entirely too slow-witted to respond with anything near an intelligent retort. 

Now I will only burden you with one more of my many concerns about being a father.  Dads are supposed to know everything and I know very little.  I'm not talking about having answers to my child's questions like: "why is the sky blue?"  For the most part, I can answer those questions or at least find the answers to those questions.  I'm concerned with knowing what to do in every possible situation.  Knowing everything includes knowing what to do, right?  This is where I feel I fall way short.  Hell, it takes me ten minutes to decide between All-Natural JIF and Smart Balance Omega Natural peanut butter.  What is going to happen when my kid depends on my decision making abilities.  I fear my brain will overload analyzing and re-analyzing all possible scenarios until suddenly and catastrophically my brain will grind to a screeching halt, never to be used again.  My only hope is that any major life-changing situations depending upon my decision-making abilities will hold off for a few years.  So I can get some more practice with the small decisions involving peanut butter and baby food.

If you haven't already noticed, I'm a bit of a worrywart(it runs in the family). Thankfully the concerns I've mentioned don't involve taking care of a baby(I'm pretty sure I have what it take for that).  So I have at least a couple more years to worry.  Maybe by then I will have made a decision about how to address the aforementioned concerns. 

Introduction

This is a story about a simple guy from a simple place. 

Once there was a boy who grew up in a small town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  He made good grades in school without much effort .  He played every sport that was offered as well as he could considering his husky size. And he went to church with his parents every time the doors were open.   There really wasn't much remarkable about his childhood.  Just the typical life of a boy from the south; school, sports, church, & and good ol' fashioned country cookin'.

Eventually, he graduated high school and headed off to the nearest state college for all the wrong reasons.  He wasted a few years of his life skipping classes and wasting money and eventually headed back to his hometown.  Things always happen for a reason and fortunately for this small town boy this was no exception.  It just so happens that he managed to meet(or re-meet) a remarkably witty, funny, good-natured, and good-looking girl from his hometown.  They spent a summer flirting and eventually realized how perfect they were for each other.  And as they say "the rest is history"(of course, technically all of this was history). 



Okay, enough of the third person shenanigans.  My wife and I have been together since 2007.  We got married in August of 2009 on Tybee Island, GA.  A nice simple beach wedding with 20 of our closest friends and family.  It was the perfect wedding for us. 

We have three dogs and two cats(we're thinking about starting a zoo).  Kermit, Desi, and Otto are the three dogs. And Pullo and Nerva are the cats.  I am sure that you will hear plenty about them later.  On to the big news:


We are expecting our FIRST BABY.   My wife is due February 8th.  We have been told we are having a daughter(hopefully they didnt make a mistake because we have a room full of pink waiting already).  We are both very excited and very nervous.  There is so much unexpected ahead of us that the nervousness is understandable.


    


Anyway, that is me in a nutshell.  Hopefully, you will stick around as I talk about life.