Brook Kreder Talks About Full-Body Fitness for Runners

Every now and again, I run across a blogger that has a true talent for providing great information with awesome tongue in cheek prose that makes for very entertaining reading. That describes Brook Kreder to a T. I first came across, Brook's blog, when hearing some of my dudettes talking about her book, ONWARD! The Absolute (no BS), raw, ridiculous, soul-stirring TRUTH about traning for your FIRST MARATHON. As her book describes, "Armed with little more than an iron-willed dtermination, a pair of old running shoes, and a blog, Brook began training for her first marathon. Onward! is her story of false starts, redemption and triumph as she pushed herself to ultimately cross the finish line." Geared for women runners, men will also enjoy the rawness and humor this book provides that any runner can relate to. I literally found myself laughing out loud. 

Recently one of my race trainers, Melani Pratt, had the awesome opportunity to meet and dine with Brook in Denver,Colorado where Brook Lives. While dining, Brook took some time to support my new book Full-Body Fitness for Runners! Thanks Brook! To find out more about my new book that Brook is talking about, be sure to check it out at www.fullbodyfitness4runners.com.

Thanks Brook and Melani!

Cast Your Vote for the Ugliest Runner's Feet !

Drum roll please...brace yourselves for some pretty gnarly looking feet! Below are the brave souls who bared their soles for the chance to win a $75 RunningWarehouse.com gift card. Take a look at each photo. Study them carefully and make your decision as to which pair of feet should be crowned Ugliest Runner's Feet!

To cast your vote, look to the right of this post and click on the letter that matches the photo shown below that you feel is the ugliest pair of runner's tootsies. You have until 12:00AM on October 9th to cast your vote. The winner will be announced on the blog on Sunday, October 9th. Best of luck to all the participants!

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 F

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 Your support with a Vote for RunnerDude's Blog at The Top 100 Running Sites is greatly appreciated.

Marathon Thoughts: A Little Comic Relief

If you've ever run a marathon, then you know that every emotion that a human can experience will surface somewhere during those 26.2 miles. From exhilaration, to insecurity and self-doubting, to exhaustion, to "I'm king of the world!", to self-loathing, to invincibility, to insanity, to jubilation--some or all are experienced by the endurance runner, especially the first-time endurance runner.

The Improv Asylum of Boston, contacted me to let me know about a cool video parody of the marathon experience they created in celebration of the Boston Marathon. Improv Asylum is a comedy theater that features improvisation and sketch comedy. They’ve been described as Whose Line is it Anyway? meets Saturday Night Live!. Opened in 1998, Improv Asylum has performed over 3,500 shows, for over 500,000 people. They’ve been featured on HBO, and they've performed in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, Aspen and throughout the country.

So, check out the video below. I dare you not to laugh and I'm betting that you've experienced as least some of what this runner is going through.

The Committed Runner

In several past posts, I've written about the importance of a running group. The support and friendships a group provides is awesome. Even as a group's dynamics change over time, the sense of accountability and support that a group provides is wonderful and something I miss when I'm not able to make it to my weekly runs. Life has been so hectic of late (we're just putting up our Christmas tree today), I have to admit that the past couple of months I've only made it to a handful of these weekly runs. All legit reasons (helping with a local 5K, visiting family, studying for big tests), but still I've missed those long runs, both for the physical endurance aspects as well as socializing with my running buddies. Hopefully after I finish my personal trainer schooling in January, I'll be more of a regular back at "The BlueLine" (where we start our weekly long runs and our group's namesake). Last night we received about 4" of snow and today we're supposed to get 3-5 more inches. Now for you guys up north, that ain't a heck of a lot of snow, but down South, that puts life at a stand-still. But yet today is still a Saturday and it's still the day of my running group's long run. Well, this morning, I had all good intentions of making it to the BlueLine even with the snow, because I knew I'd get a lot of flack (all good natured) from my running buddies for not making it. But, when I woke up at 5:30AM, my 9-year-old's big brown eyes were staring at me, soon followed by, "Daddy, I don't feel well." Well, how can you go for a run when that's at your bedside. So, up I got, hot chocolate I made, and comforting I did. Of course, she's all better now, even been out in the snow and now on her second cup of hot cocoa. Guess she just needed some daddy-time. Some of the very dedicated running buddies did make it out to the BlueLine and the made sure to rub it in. LOL!

The Underwood Brothers Hard at Work Recruiting the Next Generation of Runners

One of the best things about being a runner is that you can basically eat whatever you want. You burn it, you earn it. Words to live by. In this video, the Brooks camera crew observes as Carl and Karl—the Underwood Brothers—(otherwise known as the Running Superfans) introduce this basic philosophy to some neighborhood kids.To follow their mission to spread running, visit http://www.runningsuperfans.com/