What a great fall day for a race and what a GREAT Cause to race for. One of the best things about running races is that they support so many great causes. Racing for Recovery is one of them!
Racing for Recovery
As a Run Toledo Ambassador, I had the privilege of meeting Todd Crandell and touring the Racing for Recovery facility a few weeks back.
Todd is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and a Licensed Independent Chemical Dependency Counselor. He has dedicated his personal and professional life to assisting those battling addictions and their destructive behaviors into attaining and sustaining sobriety through implementing a balanced holistic lifestyle.
By sharing his personal experiences of substance abuse, innovative and unique approaches in prevention and treatment, he offers a positive alternative to those struggling to overcome a life of addiction and self destruction.
What really amazed me was that in the process of rebuilding his life, he realized traditional recovery programs weren’t always enough to help people refocus their addictive drives into positive actions. In his pursuit of recovery, he applied his energy to pursue the most grueling sport imaginable, the IRONMAN triathlon: A 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. He completed his first IRONMAN triathlon in 1999 and has completed 28 full-length IRONMAN triathlons across the world.
In 2008, he was the only person in the world to complete the Ultraman Hawaii triathlon, which is a 3 day test of endurance, consisting of 6.2 miles of swimming and 90 miles of biking on day 1, 170.2 miles of biking on day 2, and 52.4 miles of running on day 3, followed by completing the IRONMAN Western Australia 6 days later.
With Sobriety, Anything is Possible!
So true Todd, you are living proof of that.
Race Recap
So on Sunday, October 22nd, Dave’s Running and Run Toledo partnered with Racing for Recovery to host the 16th annual 10k, 5k, and 1 mile memory walk.
The Run Toledo Ambassadors were out in full Force, volunteering, answering questions and generally looking awesome in their race singlets.
Since I missed the MacQueens 10k a few weeks back due to injury during my Ragnar Ultra Race, this race was my “unofficial” ending of the 419 Grand Prix Series .
One week ago to the day, I ran the Detroit International Half Marathon . Then on Saturday, the day before this race, I ran 9 miles with my Dave’s MIT Group that I co-coach, so I knew this would not be a PR race for me. My PR for a 10k is 54:22 , but my foot was feeling a lot better, so my plan was to run hard and hit 9:00 minute miles that would put me in at about 56 minutes.
Runner Fail: I always set my watch to manual Laps when I do speed work on Wednesday nights. So after I hit the 2 mile point in this race and I realized that I hadn’t seen the mile 1 or 2 split pop up on my watch, I realized that I forgot to set my watch back to Auto-Lap, so I have just one big lap and no splits. LOL
Anyway, I finished with a 55:56 or 9:01 pace. So while it wasn’t a PR, I was happy to hit my goal for this race and more importantly was able to do my part to support this great cause.
Looking forward to the 17th annual Racing for Recovery Race!
Thanks for listing!
Until next time …. Happy Running.
Rich,
Shameless Plug: Are you planning on a Spring Race, maybe a Half or Full Marathon? Looking for a great training program? Well have I got the program for you! Starting the first week of January, 2018, we are offering a 16-week program, Indoor Track workouts, Tempo Runs and organized Saturday long runs. Oh Yea, and lots of SWAG tossed in. Your’s truly will be coaching the Marathon 4:15 – 4:24 and Half Marathon 2:07 – 2:12 pace groups. I would love to have you train with us. Check out this link to get all of the details and to register. Dave’s Spring Marathon In Training (MIT)
Running in the 419 