Welcome runners!
My name is Eric Geyer and many of my friends consider me to be a crazy runner. I would consider myself a slightly above average runner but no where near the crazy or elite class. This blog dedicated to fitness and running mainly to help hold myself accountable for my upcoming training for the Cleveland marathon and hopefully my first ultra marathon, the Leadville Silver Rush 50.
This is by far and away the biggest physical challenge I will have ever tackled in my life and feel a blog like this will help keep me honest, focused and on track with training. Over the past year, there have been many stories of runners who have been caught cheating (example 1, example 2, example 3, read 1, read 2) and rather than play to this negative light on the sport I thought it would be fun to show how a basically average distance runner tackles the tremendous hurdle that is ultra-running at high altitude.
I'll try to update this blog weekly with training logs, some motivational reads or podcasts I've heard, music that I love to run to and whatever else I find that helps push me along this 7 month stretch to transform myself into the best distance runner I can be (while still maintaining a sense of normalcy by keeping my job, friends and dog happy).
As this is my first blog, I want to share a personal story of why I run. I ran track in high school, which was a blast, but distance didn't really enthrall me. The 2 mile race seemed like it took forever, was pure boredom and the fans only cheered for the last eighth of the race. What an overexertion for such little fan fare! I'll stick to the 400 and 800 meter runs where people are constantly motivating the runners and the race isn't over in 12 seconds. Those were the best distances!
After finishing high school and going to college, my grandfather was diagnosed with kidney failure due to the long term effects of diabetes. Seeing the toll diabetes and end stage kidney disease takes on someones life made me vow to never let myself get morbidly obese and minimize my chances of going through the same circumstances my grandfather did. Preventative exercise would now be a mainstay of my life.
For several years, basketball and weightlifting were my main forms of exercise to keep myself in shape. The competition in basketball has an appeal to me comparable to that of a bear to honey. With classes getting in the way of peak rec center times, I would occasionally go for a run on a trail near campus just to keep in shape. I found this greatly enhanced my stamina on the court so I stuck with it, running 2-3 days a week with a max of 10-12 miles a week.
If there are three things in this world that are guaranteed they are: death, taxes and sports related injuries. In my 4th year of college, I developed a quick flare up of De Quervain's tendinitis. This tendinitis made it painful even hold a pen, let alone a basketball. How was I supposed to lift weights when I can't even attempt a push up? This left me one option to stave off weight gain and boredom (mostly boredom): running.
Over the course of several months I began to realize I was a strong runner and started to compete in local 5 and 10K's, as my college budget would afford. One 10K in particular helped me really set my sights on running a marathon, it was a fall race in downtown Toledo, OH. As I positioned myself in the front 1/4 of the race, with dreams of headlining the local newspaper with my win, a Kenyan runner got off of a bus seconds before the race was about to start. With his late hustle to the front, the gun shot echoed and he was off. I forget the name of the race, the winner and his time but I remember seeing he finished somewhere in the 5 minute a mile time range and thought how slow my 45 minute plus time was. From that race on I felt the need to get faster and run farther to see how it felt to be that good.
After finishing college at the University of Toledo, I found running was a great way to vent frustration and deal with stress after a dealing with patients all day. January 7th, 2010 was the day I signed up for my first marathon. My roommate at the time, Victor Granger, thought I was a little nuts but kept pushing me to do it at the same time. I'm never forget that race. It was a warm day, upper 70's, with a glaring sun for almost the whole race. Strong head winds and a lack of fan support on the second half made it a brutal slog for me. Somewhere around mile 19, I had what I can only describe as a delusional Indian vision that was induced by severe dehydration and overall fatigue. Through it all, nothing beat the feeling over coming down the home stretch on Lakeside Avenue in front of the Cleveland City Hall and seeing my family there to greet me. It was brutal, it was awful, it was exhilarating and it was addicting.
Since then the rest is history, but I would like to say thanks to my old roommate Victor for starting to run with me even though he was not much of a runner to start. Eventually, Vic beat me in a few marathons and still has the best two times between us. If it wasn't for Vic pushing me, I would not have finished the Leadville marathon in 2014. Thanks to Troy Bratz for turning me onto the CrossFit Endurance program which I plan to do roughly 2 full times, in addition to other training, and tweeking along the way. Also a big thanks to the two owners of my local Birdtown CrossFit gym (I refuse to use the term box), Tricia Tortoreti and Jillian Neimeister. These two women run a great gym in Lakewood and helped me run the 2014 Rite-Aid Cleveland Marathon in 4 hours and 18 minutes in very obscure weather, while only running once to twice a week.
With all of that being said, here is some of my running and fitness background (please don't consider this to be be bragging but rather setting a benchmark for myself and for others who may want to follow me or try this on their own):
Marathons:
2010 Rite-Aid Cleveland: 4:11:05
2012 Rite-Aid Cleveland: DNF (foot soreness)
2014 Leadville: 6:51:28
2014 Gore-Tex Philadelphia Marathon: 4:00:34
2015 Rite-Aid Cleveland: 4:18:27
Half Marathons:
2011 Rite-Aid Cleveland: 1:43:26 (failed to pickup bib due to grandmother's death but paced Victor Granger to the end)
2013 Rite-Aid Cleveland: 1:49:13
2014 Rite-Aid Cleveland: 1:39:43
5K:
2014 Freedom Fest 5k, Rogers, AR: 19:18.4
Too many others to bother trying to find and list so my PR is all I am willing to list. Most of them are in the 20-23 minute range
Mile:
2003 MAC Conference Finals: 5:03
Other Races:
2008 Men's Health Urbanathlon, Chicago: 1:33:34
2010 St. Malachi 2 Mile: 12:46.44
2010 St. Malachi 5 Mile: 36:04.91
2012 Leadville 10K: 53:14
2013 Leadville Heavy Half: DNF (altitude related dizziness)
2014 St. Malachi 5 Mile: 35:23.76
14ers Summitted:
Mount Elbert: 2014, 2015
Mount Sherman: 2015
Crossfit:
Annie: 8:58 (single unders)
Barbara: 34:43 (4 rounds)
Cindy: 14 + 17
Coe: 5 + 13
DT: 11:43 (115lbs)
Fran: 7:07
Jerry: 27:40
Josh: 16:31
Kelly: 32:49
Murph: 52:40
Wittman: 26:18
Crossfit Total: 735
(Social WOD tracking)
Personal Records:
Back Squat: 295
Bench Press: 225
Clean: 215
Deadlift: 335
Front Squat: 265
Press: 125
Push Press: 185
Snatch: 145
Split Jerk: 225
Thruster: 205
(Social WOD tracking)
By now, I think you can get the gist of what kind of shape I am in. Clearly my race times show that I am no world class athlete here. I'm just a your normal want to be fitness junkie who isn't afraid to step in the ring and think I can box. Please feel free to share some of your own stories, add advice, critique my training or just share motivational thoughts. This is going to be a very arduous journey filled with highs and lows, but the Holy Grail here for myself is to finish this race and call myself an ultra-runner.
Thanks for all of your support in advance!
- Eric
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