Motivator

Immitis Viventium-

1. Never give up!

2. Never underestimate the power of your influence in people's lives!

3. Be an encourager and help the people around you accomplish more than they thought they were capable of!

Silver Falls 5k Trail Challenge

Rob, Shay, Kelly, Me

This was Kelly's first EVER race! She thought this was a "beginner" 5k trail run- well at least that's what the race promoters would have us believe. It was in fact NOT for beginners as there was a "mini" Monster Hill right at the very beginning of the course and there was no "mini" in it. This was my first "non-obstacle" race.

Rob and Shay dragged us into this race! We have been very thankful for awesome friends to go running with and keep each other challenged.

Charlie's Angels

Dumb and Dumber

This is how chicks prepare for a race.

This is how dudes prepare for a race!

Focused intensity- I thought about bellowing out an "Immitis Viventium" war charge, but didn't want to kicked out of the race at the very beginning.

Rob powering in through the finish!

Strong all the way to the end- and no throwing up either!

Nice work ladies!

I made sure that Kelly's Powerade matched her shirt! I know I'm a good husband like that.

I had to get my sweat filled shirt back up in the pictures- proves I actually did something. I'm so proud of my wife! She kept moving the whole time and finished a very challenging trail run!

These were the 1st place finisher prizes.

I ended up placing 7th overall and 2nd in my age division- 30-34

Raffle prizes- Rob won a beautiful set of purple reflective compression sleeves- I don't think he owned them for very long though.

I won a pair of running socks- which I only owned until we got home and now they live in Kelly's sock drawer.

Kelly won a nice backpack for runnnin gear- remember honey- "What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine."

Overall we had an awesome time with amazing friends! The thing about these types of races is that it will show you where your weaknesses are- so that you can identify and conquer them!

Immitis Viventium

Spartan Race coming in two weeks!!

What Limits?

One of the things that I'm learning about Immitis Viventium is that when I think I have reached my limit- I'm wrong. There is always more, I can always go farther, push harder, achieve more, take one more step.

I was thinking about how many times we end up settling for second, third or fourth best just because we are not willing to push just a little harder to attain the best. I've heard this quote that "anything worth having is worth fighting for." Well fighting is tough! It's not comfortable, not easy, not something that you can do while sitting on the couch! But if your goal is worthwhile, then it's worth every ounce of energy, every expenditure of time, every practice of excellence that you can sacrifice.

So getting back on track here. My point of this entry is that when you find yourself "up against the wall" - either go over it or smash through it! Most of the time that wall is a self imposed limitation anyway.

I read this and thought I'd share:

"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win." Roger Bannister


I started thinking about this post at about 3:30 this morning when I was working on replacing a 16" butterfly valve at NE 133rd and Sandy Blvd.

I worked my regular scheduled shift from 6:45 to 4:15 on Tuesday, then went home and spent some time with the family and came back in to work at 10 pm and worked until 12:30 this afternoon. It's not often that I go 33 hours without sleep, working on a labor intensive project in the middle of the night- but I know it can be done! It's amazing what the human body can accomplish when it has to.

Just for fun:

Hey we had to get the water out somehow!

Perspective, Priorities

So yesterday my plan was to take all my running gear with me to work and then on my way home I would stop at the Stone Creek golf course in Oregon City and run around the trail a couple times (at high speed of course). But that plan failed when I forgot my bag of gear right where I had set it out the night before- right by the front door where my lunch box was sitting (obviously I'm not fully awake by 5:45 AM when I leave for work).

So Kelly suggested to me that when I get home later that day we pack up the kids and jogger strollers and go as a family to Stone Creek. I'll admit, I wasn't keen on that idea since that means going at different rate of intensity and I usually don't like driving anywhere once I get home from fighting through all the commuters. So instead we got the jogger strollers and went walking around the neighborhood looking at all  the nice yards and making plans for things we would like to do to our yard.

The point of this post, and something that I have been working on in myself, is this: Being RELENTLESS has to have prioritized otherwise it will turn into being RECKLESS. A person, especially a Father, that is relentless only for themselves is weak and selfish. Relentless living for me has to be in this order: God, Wife, Family, Church Family- then everything else. Taking any of these out of order only equals one thing: EPIC FAIL!

Time to get Spartan ready!!

In exactly one month I'll be running my first Spartan Race! Time to step up my workout efforts and push myself even harder so I can be ready to run the race well. Guess I'll be utilizing the famous River Rock Death March a little more often =)

"I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."

-Philippians 3:12-14

Immitis Viventium

Motivator

This is a perfect example of Immitis Viventium:

 

God help me if I ever complain about petty things in life.

I'm Doing It!

Have you ever admired or been motivated by something or someone from afar and wished that one day you could somehow be a part of that? Well today is that day for me! Well not literally today, but today I stopped hoping and thinking and moved into DOING!

Today I signed up for a Spartan Race. If you have never heard of this awesome challenge, this is what it looks like:

I have always been athletic and loved to play sports, but I'll be honest and say that basketball does not motivate me to stay in top shape any more (that's almost a sin for me to say.) But last year after I ran the Warrior Dash for the first time I was hooked on obstacle course racing. This stuff motivates the heck out of me!

I've NEVER been a "runner." Running for fun? Are you crazy? Now throw in some mud, fire and obstacles and that's my cup of tea- or "cuppa" if you're from New Zealand like my sexy wife- I don't really like tea, but I'll take some really strong coffee.

This stuff motivates me to do crazy workouts like going over to my brother-in laws house (who's property goes down a nasty steep hill to the river) find myself a river rock of decent weight and proceed to throw the rock up the hill till I get to the top then march it back down and do it all over again......at 6:30 in the morning

.

I think what I really like about this stuff is that it challenges me to push the limits of what I'm capable of and push the self imposed boundaries back a little. I like doing things that people think is crazy! That's also a motivator.

So this year I have signed up for two races. The first is the Spartan Race coming in June and the second race will be my second time running the Warrior Dash in September. Both of these races are 5k and both consist of running, obstacles, mud, fire and water- but the main difference is that the Spartan Race is just more competitive whereas the Warrior Dash is more of a fun atmosphere (but that won't stop me from trying to leave the guy next to me in the dust!)

That's it for now- I'll be posting updates on workouts and training leading up to these events!

Immitis Viventium