Hey Kids,

I am currently using a hybrid of Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 and 2 plans. ( you can click on the Novice 1 18 week training plan on the left) I have had to move some big runs around for a variety of reasons but the big 20 miler had to be moved to this past weekend. It was on the schedule for next weekend, which is 3 weeks before NYC, but the ol’ Soulmate and I have the SONO Half Marathon to run up in Norwalk CT that weekend.  On Saturday Eileen Crushed her big 10 mile run right here in  O-Town! She is looking good and ready to go!!!! Im predicting a 2::10 or better finish for her. Again another converted “I hate running” runner!

So this past sunday I headed out on a semi familiar route to do the Big 20 mile run. Hal Higdon, who’s book Marathon that I reference all of the time, is in the camp of don’t train over 20 miles. His rational is that our bodies can only hold so much glycogen and it basically runs out at 20 miles no matter who you are or how much you train. So to avoid injury he, and many others, recommend not training over 20. And I am fine with that BTW.

This section of the training is not fun. You are doing 5 mile runs on Tues and Thurs. and anywhere from 6 to 9 mile runs on Wednesdays with a very long run on the weekends. I have basically 13-ish mile runs for the next couple of weeks as my long ones but I may throw in an 18-20 two weeks before the race depending on how I am doing. I do have a goal of a Sub-4 Hour marathon for NYC but I’m also realistic about the race being hectic and crowded so we will just have to see.

To do the 20 I started out at the bottom of the Saddle River Trail in Rochelle Park, ran to the top of the trail, through Ridgewood, into and around Ho-Ho-Kus then doubled back.

Dont forget to be my friend on RunKeeper 🙂

 https://runkeeper.com/user/jkinne1/profile

I got to thinking and after my first:

 Random Thought While Running

“Was the first duck that thought of this like, Hey! you got to try this, totally keeps your bill warm!”

About fear and our relationship with it. Our first reaction about fear tends to be “NO FEAR! Fear is bad! I’m Fearless!” We tell out kids, “Dont be scare, its not real, Its all in your head.” But in thinking about fear, and what it really is, I recalled a conversation I had many years ago with my friend Sean about being in the Marines

.

Sean!

He was telling a funny story about his time in boot camp and I remember him saying something to the effect of, ” When I got out of basic I had no fear. It was like it was erased. But I’v realized that fear is is usually a good thing, it keeps you out of trouble.”

Now before I get attacked by a bunch of Military folk I realize that the training involved here is preparing you for a situation where the absence of fear is pretty essential to achieving your mission and keeping you and those around you alive. The removal of fear has its place. That being said, for the rest of us fear is always present at some level and it can exist in many different capacities. I read recently that our brains have solved the problems of 50,000 years ago, so we have that going for us ;-). So our fears as survival mechanisms don’t always fit or are mixed up in our modern lives.

So I challenge all of us to examine our fears and assess their impact on our behaviors and actions. Ask yourself if your level of fear is appropriate and/or even necessary? Is it really keeping you safe or is it holding you back? Is it rational? Are you using it out of convenience? Unpack your fears unabashedly to find out where it comes from and make sure you trim it appropriately, even in small doses, to ensure that your fears remain beneficial. This is hard and ironically SCARY!

In all of this I came to the conclusion that we, at least for my self, should try to strike a balance between a healthy level of fear that keeps us safe, and a bold attitude that does not hold us back from attaining what we want out of this life. Ultimately we can not directly control our emotions or those of others. What we can control is our behaviors and actions which in turn can influence our emotions, including fear. It has been my experience in confronting fears that I can not erase them or remove them but in exploring them I can appropriately file and manage their impact which has resulted in achieving things that I used to think were impossible.

Now, the ultimate stroke of Irony 😉 The last time I did the Big 20 I ran a similar route up through Ho-Ho-Kus which I mentioned was kind of a second home to me as a kid. Its where my Dad grew up and we spent a ton of time there as kids. I mentioned this to my co worker friend Chelsea who is a native of the Ho-Ho-Kus and she said “You ran right by my house!” So for this 20 I made her house a mid point destination because she was kind enough to put out some water for me, like a dog 😉  JK, she left me the good stuff, Poland Spring! it’s from Maine you know, so its better… Thanks Chelsea

!

Ironically, right after pounding the ol’ Polish Juice, taking this selfie and finishing my water I looked at the stone post that this water is sitting on and realized that I was standing dangerously close to my biggest fear…

One of these lovely ladies was crouched with in inches of my arm! ahhhhahh FEAR!!!!! I told Chelsea about this because this thing obviously has a mission to kill every living thing it can bite. Chelsea agreed and is currently burning the house to the ground. This fear does have some rational value. Some spiders can be very dangerous, most are not. They are actually really important parts of our eco system.So, I looked it up and I was surprised that it had a very mundane name and not something like Yellow Fanged Death Twilight Crawler Under Your Pillow. It is actually called a Female Yellow Garden Spider and is quite harmless. Years ago I made a deal with spiders and I believe it is working out well for all involved. If a spider is outdoors and does not touch me, it lives, untouched. If it comes in my house and/or touches me… I reserve the right to terminate it from the earth!

This one chose wisely so I left it alone.

eeegggghhhhh…… Spiders, Fear, Sports!

So all and all it was a good run at marathon pace!

Finally a huge shout out to Mrs. Cristina Bernotas!

Pictured here in a glamor shot with some random fisherman. JK that is her Local Composer/Band Director/Part time hand model husband Chris:-) 

Cristina will be running her second 26.2, the Steamtown PA Marathon this Sunday. Her training has been great and she is going to crush it!!!!! Remember what you told me, “Just Don’t Stop!” Kick Ass Cristina!!!!!!!

Word of the day: 

trepidation |ˌtrepiˈdāSHən|

noun

1 a feeling of fear or agitation about something that may happen: the men set off in fear and trepidation.

2 archaic trembling motion.

Unicorn of the day:

Hey Kids!

Sunday, I defended my title at the Jon Kinne Half Marathon and finished a strong first dominating the field once again!:-)

I was a bit faster this year because I did not just have surgery. I had to get out early because we were due up in Norwalk CT for a festival at my in laws church so I headed out around 8 am, which is early for me. The day started out pretty cold actually but It was nice to run in the cool dry weather.

I have found that there two camps in running, Music runners and NO music runners, with very few in between. I inquired from my sisters old time friend Peyton

Nah, actually this Peyton (here with my Sis Ashley

Who is a long time accomplished Marathon runner and has done NYC Marathon a few times before about NYC and she recommended that you leave the ear buds at home for the NYC Marathon. So being a music listener I was curious so I tried running without music on Sunday. I only lasted about 4 miles…

As I have said before I love the solitude and meditative aspect of running. But just my thoughts and my breathing were a little too much for me. I guess since Im a music teacher and I have to concentrate and think intensely while music is happening every day my mind is very accustomed to focusing while I’m actively listening to music. So needless to say the next 9.1 miles had music going:-)

I did see some interesting stuff as usual on this one. Remember that house with chickens I saw last week? This week, Ducks, Big white ones!

And a there was a large group of men, who looked Indian but Im not sure, who were playing Cricket! I tried to watch as I ran by, I found it to be equally as boring as American Baseball:-)

So it was a rather mundane run. Quiet on the trail. Time was good and I felt OK, not my best.

Random thought wile running: 

“Im glad I don’t have a lot of interactions with eels, they freak me out…”

Word of the day:Zanzibar |ˈzanzəˌbär|

an island off the coast of East Africa, part of Tanzania; pop. 1,207,500 (2009, with Pemba). In 1964, it became a republic and united with Tanganyika to form Tanzania.

DERIVATIVES

Zanzibari |ˌzanzəˈbärē|adjective& noun

Unicorn of the day:

Greetings all, quick one today:

I guess it’s the time of year when our local wildlife gets ready for winter.  Lots of road kill, Deer and Extra Crazy squirrels

The Saddle River Trail is no exception. I did a 15-er last weekend and saw some cool stuff, mostly animals:-) It was the usual cache of dogs and birds with some new comers. Saw chickens for the first time in the back yard of a house I have run past 100 times. One cool thing on the trail is that the Deer are very, very calm around people. You can run within a couple of feet of them and they barely lift up their head to notice you. 

I actually saw a woman hand feeding a little guy 🙂

This week was busy so skipped my Tues and Thursday runs. I only did an 8-mile on Wednesday.

Not that 8 Mile…But if it was, I’d take that sucka down and Mekhi Phifer and I would be in my crew. Chedda-BOB!

Anyway, My wife Eileen and I both had big runs on our schedule for today, I had a 16 mile and she had a 9 mile. I was debating doing my run at all since I have not been feeling well lately and I think it’s because I’m running too much. But we decided to go out and do a 6 or 7 mile run together.

So me and the ol’ soulmate headed out and felt great so we tacked on a few extra and completed a 9 mile-er! We both ran well an the rain stayed away:-)

I usually don’t like to run with other people. I enjoy the solitude and the meditative qualities but I’ll always make an exception for my wife. Don’t want to end up here…

I kid ;-)We had a good run around Oakland. She is doing great with her training and she is definitely ready for the SONO half on 10/15. Even though you can not talk too much when your running it is just nice to get out and do stuff together that does not involve cleaning, working or chasing after kids.

Word of the Day:

soul mate(also soulmate )noun

a person ideally suited to another as a close friend or romantic partner.

Unicorn of the day:

HI all! Im back!!!! I took a summer break from blogging for a variety of reasons but I plan on writing again as I continue to train for the 2016 NYC Marathon and raise money for the AFSP!

Above is my new card I had made for this race. I made like 500 of them so let me know if you want some!

I am actually on the official AFSP Team for the race! This does not mean anything really ( Though finishing 1055th in the NJ Marathon does have its obvious privileges 😉 in regards to my running ability just that I have committed to raise a certain amount of money for the organization and run the 2016 NYC Marathon! This of course is all thanks to everyone who has donated thus far and for those who will.  For this race we have committed to a $3500.00 goal. Most of which was donated by the Fiume Family (Freddy’s family) through a larger fundraiser in honor of Fred.  So thank you all for keeping Running with Eddie and Freddy going strong!!!

We still have $600 to go on this one to reach the $3500 goal by 10/31/16 so I’m asking for your help again! The encouraging and really amazing part of all of this is not only the fact that as of today, thanks to 94 donations from all of you awesome friends and family of Eddie & Freddy and just generally good people, we raised $5339.92 for the NJ Marathon campaign! For NYC, 7 donations and matching donations, again thanks to the huge kickstart from the Fiumes, and of course donations most from 2nd timers we have $2900 so far! This gives us a 2016 combined total of $8239.92 thus far!!!!!!

If we hit our $3500 goal we will have donated $8839.92 to the AFSP, which is an outstanding organization making our worlds a better place every day.  There is a link on the left to learn more about the AFSP, I encourage you to get involved at any level. To donate to Running with Eddie and Freddy see the link on the left or https://www.crowdrise.com/afspnyc2016/fundraiser/jonathankinne

Sooooooooo…..after the start of the lazy summer which was where I was just physically bloated and not exercising at all I did get back up on that horse. Around my last post in June I started running again and I am currently beginning week 9 of my 18 week training program for NYC. I will get into the program more as time goes on but let me fill you in on some happenings of the summer of 2016!

In June, Yasumi Griffin and Eddie’s family put on the first ever Eddie Day! I promised pics from the day and some great memories with Eddie.

   as you can see Eddie was the life of the party and like Fred as well, continues to be to this day :-). It was a great day full of laughs, tears, testimonials, tributes and simply just a gathering of good people. The day ended with some of Eddie’s ashes being spread on the beach. We often overlook or I guess can not see fully the positive impact that just being present can have on other peoples lives. I am humbled and grateful for this realization and I ask you to join me in reminding ourselves every day of this simple fact. 🙂

My wife Eileen has caught the running bug as well! 

We have both signed up for the SONO (South Norwalk CT) half marathon on 10/15/16! Eileen has been using Hal Higdon’s Half-Marathon training program. (Link on left) and has been doing great! Like the rest of us, Eileen was a self proclaimed “I can’t/hate run/running.” But since she has started consistently running, in addition to exercising regularly, she has been doing great. Distance running has become an enjoyable experience which in her own words, “Keeps me skinny ;-)” but has found the most joy in accomplishing something that she thought she could never do. Additionally Eileen is a group fitness instructor and will be teaching her own group fitness Body Sculpting class on Thursday evenings at our local Y. (Also pictured above is my soon to be official Sister in law Rachel Patti, she likes cats a lot. My Brother Travis proposed recently and she said yes! Congrats to Travis and Rachel!)

My In-Laws Bob and Pat Olson will be completing the SONO 5K on the same day! Looking forward to it!

Ok Kids, more blogs to come. Keep moving and PLEASE spread the word. To donate use the links to the left or below on Crowdrise:

https://www.crowdrise.com/afspnyc2016/fundraiser/jonathankinne

Thanks again:

Word of the day:  Capitulate |kəˈpiCHəˌlāt| verb [ no obj. ]

cease to resist an opponent or an unwelcome demand; surrender: the patriots had to capitulate to the enemy forces.

Unicorn of the day

…hearts and minds….I won hearts and minds 😉

1055th Place

Whoo-hooo! SPORTS!

“What was the weather like that day Jon?” you say?

Besides the weather it was AWESOME! There were some high highs and low lows but overall it was a great experience. Eric and I wend down on Saturday afternoon and picked up our stuff at the Monmouth Race Track which is where the starting line was. This was only a couple of miles from our hotel. We got our stuff, Eric ate some pasta, mine got messed up so I sent it back and it never returned so I ate bad stir fry at Applebees which must have done something right because I did great in the race!

As it turns out Eric and I are a good team for races as we seemed to balance each other out in the attitude department. He is way too particular about arrival time and I was WAY too laid back. So we (I) did not give ourselves sufficient time to get there. Needless to say we hit some traffic on the way in. In trying to get around it (Bad idea number two) we got stuck in more, less moving traffic. So I told Eric, who was corral B (He crushed the NJ Marathon BTW with a 3:18!!!!) when we got close to jump out and head in on foot. I then parked in Upstate NY and worked my way in.

On my way in I was fumbling with all of my stuff, very disheveled, needing to use the facilities and rushing to not be late. It was at this moment that I cracked up saying “This is sooooo GRIFF!” Any one reading this is now who knew Griff is laughing too. Eddie had a propensity for being late and just being a general  mess in the morning hours. He was actually late to his own funeral, so was Fred so given the situation that morning I think it was a team effort ;-). But in keeping with typical Eddie fashion I was able to use the Porta Potty and made it to my corral (I was in H) with 2 minutes to spare ;-).

We had slathered ourselves with an obscene amount of Aquaphor

Highly recommended BTW, worked great!

I had a light rain coat that SAVED me from Dr. Weyl (THANK YOU STEVE!!!!) Shorts, under armor shirt, and My TEAM AFSP Jersey with Eddies Hat and Freddy’s Name tag on the back, which absolutely pushed me along the way. I stuck to my plan and it worked out great! Kinne-1626

I never “Hit the wall” or Crashed. I had negative splits and averaged a 9:30 pace. I finished in 4:11 wind, rain and all which exceeded my expectations. Mile 26 was my fastest. Gonna Crush NYC in under 4 hours! 

Now, I’m not claiming anything about my abilities, I had a few, “What the heck am I doing / what is wrong with me!” moments. Oh and believe me I was done at mile 21 and actually cursed out “The wind” out loud, on a few occasions, but I actually was able to picked up my pace for the last 6 miles. I employed a trick I read about while training, I started dedicating miles.  Here they are:

• Mile 21- To my RHS Students Past and Present
• Mile 22- To everyone who donated to the AFSP
• Mile 23- To Friends old and new
• Mile 24- My Family and Extended Family
• Mile 25-To Eddie and Freddy
• Mile 26- To my Wife and Kids- Eileen, Ellie and Jamie
• .2 was mine 🙂

Post Marathon we did what you are supposed to, ate Burger King on the Garden State Parkway and headed home to rest.

What an awesome experience this has been! I am going to take it easy for a few weeks and recover, I’m actually dippin my Wendy’s fries into a chocolate frosty as I write this..Oh washing it down with a Dr. Pepper and thinking about Quesadilla day tomorrow! Still I’m looking forward to getting started in preparation for the 2016 NYC Marathon. Im still raising money for the AFSP. link below and to the left.

https://www.crowdrise.com/afspnyc2016/fundraiser/jonathankinne

Thanks to everyone who pushed me along! We Did it!!!!!

Word of the day: –Sore |sôr|adjective

(of a part of one's body) painful or aching: my feet were sore and my head ached.

• [ predic. ] suffering pain from a part of one's body: he was sore from the long ride.

• [ predic. ] informal upset and angry: I didn't even know they were sore at us.

• [ attrib. ] severe; urgent: we're in sore need of him.

noun

a raw or painful place on the body: we had sores on our hands.

• a cause or source of distress or annoyance: there's no point raking over the past and opening old sores.

Unicorn of the day:

NYC here we come! 11/6/16!!! TEAM AFSP!

We did it!!! 102% for a total of $5089.92 for the AFSP!!!!!

I want to thank everyone who donated!!!!! (List on bottom of the post)

Thats a record kids! 22 Miles!

I must admit that this map does not reflect the grandiose nature of my perception of this run but, Ill take that up with Sir. Rand McNally.

So the last big 20 mile run was on the plate for this weekend and honestly I really just wanted to get it over with for a few reasons:

1.   I have set this as the benchmark of “Wow, if I can run 20 then I can do 26.2” to make the marathon real.
2. Spring Break 2016!!! whoooo! 🙂 I worked Mon -Thurs at the Fiume House so I was already pretty physically fatigued, I figured it would be good for training.
3. It was really nice out, kids were at school and I wanted a run free Saturday and Sunday.

So I set out to have an adventure for the first 10 miles or so and finish up on the Saddle River Trail. I mapped out a cool run through Glen Rock, Ridgewood ect. including some new parks etc. and familiar places from my child hood. It was great but I forgot to write it down so when I ran off of the trail into Glen Rock I got lost. So I doubled back and ran into Ridgewood so I would know where I was, unfortunately it was uphill.

Once I got into Ridgewood I knew where I was and I set out to run around vets field where when I was a kid, my Dad played in a softball league and we would watch the 4th of July fire works, and had a near death experience involving a heavy public bathroom door that I could push but not pull open. (Side story- As a kid probably around 4 or 5 we were at one of my dad’s softball games and I insisted on going to the bathroom by myself. So I walked, what I now realize is about 50 yards, to the bathroom and pushed the door open. When I was ready to leave I could not pull the door open because it was too heavy. I did try to shoot it open because I was strapped with my two Cowboy style cap guns on my holster belt.

That did not work so I just started to cry really loudly. Fortunately one of my parents friends Jim “Bakes” Bakelar was walking by and opened the door which I quickly ran out of. I’m 37 years old and the story is still told, and Jim Bakelar is still my hero, that is why I named my son James… Not really, just kidding)

Any way, a goal on this run was to run by my Grandparents old house in Ho-Ho-Kus.

(It did not look like that when we were there, this is the reboot)

It was cool to run around Ho-Ho-Kus since I spent a lot of time there as a kid, good memories and I even ran into my grandma’s old neighbor Willie and as was able to say hello! I think she remembered me but she could have just been being polite 😉

After a couple of wrong turns and detours I ran around the town, then back into Ridgewood, back through Vets field and headed towards the Saddle River Trail via E. Ridgewood Ave. I definitely did not pack enough water for the run and that was a bummer.

I hit the trail and felt great until about mile 14. That is where the fatigue usually starts to set in for me. I also started to realize that my right ear was on fire. Then I thought “uh-oh” I’m not wearing any sunblock. I attempted to use my Chapstick with SPF 12 on my ears and face so that helped a bit but needless to say I have a classic spotty burn on all of the uncovered areas. But I have never not met a milage goal on a run so I was determined to hit the 20!

Around mile 17 I was in the home stretch when I saw a guy walking two small dogs ahead. He thought it would be a good idea to have his dogs meet some other dogs so he lead them by these other two dogs. This meeting did not go well and he pulled his dogs away quickly, and subsequently into my direction. I have watched enough Dog Whisper to know when a dog is ready to throw down so as the Jack Russell was coming to take a chunk out of me, 17 miles in btw, I juked that devil dog like Zeke Mowatt!

I got some advice from a friend of Eileen’s who has run a few marathons and he said to tack on a couple of miles after 20 if you can so you are not surprised by “Hitting the Wall” as they say so as I approached 20 I felt like I could do it so I did! Oh…and I found the good ol’ wall. It was tough but I did get to 22miles. I did feel like I could keep going if I had to so that was encouraging. Looking forward to the next two week step down!

But the best advice I got was from my friend Cristina Bernotas (Philly Marathon finisher) who I was texting with just before I left for my run. She said “Good luck today, your going to kill it, Just keep going!”  Which is a great motivator while your running but an even better one is laughter. Her encouragement made me laugh because it reminded me of this 80’s classic:

Which is actually just good advice for life really… 😉

Thanks all!

Word of the day: vitriol |ˈvitrēəl, -ˌôl| noun

1 cruel and bitter criticism: her mother’s sudden gush of fury and vitriol.

2 archaic or literary sulfuric acid.

ORIGIN late Middle English (denoting the sulfate of various metals): from Old French, or from medieval Latin vitriolum, from Latin vitrum ‘glass.’

Unicorn of the day: (provided by Mrs. Michael J. Fox Moulder Bowden)

Challenge:

find the second unicorn in this pic and not laugh…