http://sharethehigh.com is live!

And considering how many times I have typed that url out recently, I am glad it’s short and easy to remember.

Beyond my personal life (which is all about raising two awesome kids)… my other greatest interests are in web development, social media, and running. So it only made sense to merge these interests into one awesome endeavor – create a social news site just for runners!

It’s only been live for a few days, and I’ll only be able to promote it before or after work hours… so we’ll see how it goes.  I see a lot of ways that a site like this can help though. There are a lot of runners on the web – writing, blogging, and tweeting. This site can turn into a great resource for sharing and navigating all that content. But of course, first it will take getting a decent flow of links coming in – which requires members, and that takes time.

One step at a time. One step at a time.

Share the High is a new social news site just for runners! And what would a social news site be without its own blog as well.

For the underlying platform, I am giving Pligg another try, but didn’t decide to do so until I took a fresh look around to see what else was out there. There were some promising platforms, but because Pligg still seems to active and because I am already familiar with it – I decided to give it another try. Hoping this time around to keep the spammers at bay. We shall see.

I’ll also be tweeting running related tweets from @sharethehigh… so if you are a runner – please let me know and I’ll be sure to follow.

Today is the day after. The day when I try to make sense out of what happened. The day when I try to rest through the restlessness, and find peace in some sense of accomplishment.

But let’s get something out there right up front – my race performance was a near disaster. I ran a great first half, which felt fantastic. I didn’t see it coming, but somewhere around mile 15, I knew I was in real trouble.

In retrospect, I think I overheated around mile 10. There was a lot of sun, and the temperature was more than 15 degrees above normal. I had a hard time getting the hydration right, and once things fell apart, I just couldn’t get it pulled back together. So we won’t even talk about my finishing time.

In many ways, I am just grateful I have a “finishing time”. Despite the pain, and having to walk more than run through the last 8 miles, I somehow remained in rather good spirits. And that, my friends, is what I take away from this whole experience as the real accomplishment.

I focused my attention as much as possible on things that were good, new, interesting, and amusing, and would like to share some of those things here.

* From my perspective, the people were all very nice and supportive. The ranks had thinned considerably back where I was running, and yet – there were residents out in their front lawns cheering us on, offering water, and just generally being really cool.

* Around mile 15 or 16, a young woman came running up slowly from behind me. She asked if this was my first. I laughed and said, “no, second one”. She sounded shocked “this is my first, and I have no idea why anyone would EVER do this twice! This is crazy”. I laughed and agreed. I am also guessing I’ll see her there again next year.

* It was funny to be running up a long incline in the hot weather and have to shuffle my way around a big pile of steamy roadkill, complete with a small cloud of flies buzzing about. I laughed at how the “city folk” would take this little gift from Wisconsin.

* There were these two walking ladies who passed me around mile 20. I suspect that they may have walked the whole race. And here’s the funny part, at least to me in the moment, they were FAST walkers. I kept trying to run, and would catch up to them very slowly, and would have to STOP… pretty much trying to not end up in an ambulance. Yeah, they finished well ahead of me :)

* As one might imagine, the whole porta potty thing is generally not the highlight of any race. Well, somewhere in the blur between mile 18 and 23, I came across a porta potty with no line. Unfortunately — judging by the state of the thing and the way it rocked after stepping inside — I think it was left behind by a construction crew or something, and not really put there for the race. After safely locked inside, I had a moment or two where I was wondering if I would simply pass out inside that thing. With my twisted sense of humor – this was a funny thought. It was also an amazing feeling to bust the hell out of that thing!

* It may be easy for some to dismiss those who are at the very end of the pack, but after hanging out there for a bit yesterday – I have to say that they are an inspiring crew. I ran for a bit with a number of people who were working as hard as they possibly could. They were hurting, but they just kept going. It was very moving to be in the presence of these people.

* There was also a funny moment near the end of the race when there was a group of men who appeared to maybe be Japanese. One of them was trying to cheer me on and yelled out nervously “you are good looking”. Why thank you, I thought to myself. Who gets a compliment like that at the end of a terrible race?

* Perhaps the best part of the whole day was seeing my friends back at the finish line. What an awesome group of people. I was so happy to cross that finish line. Words cannot do justice to that feeling.

So yes, it was a terrible race in some respects. But I finished. I completed my second 26.2 journey. It was transformative in many ways. It was also very, very humbling.

And even though I felt a lot of negative things eating away at me through those last few hours of the race – I was thankfully also able to remember that this was a special time in my life. I was out there. I was doing it, and giving it my all. I was exactly where I wanted to be. Unfortunately, it just turns out that disappointment is part of this journey at this time.

I have learned a lot, and have a lot left to learn.

Above all — my hope is that this experience will only serve to make my “dream race” all the sweeter.

In approximately 48 hours, I’ll be taking off on a venture unlike any other that I have experienced, save for last October when I ran the Chicago marathon for my first time.

I am nearing the end of what is known as “the taper”, a time when an athlete is giving their body some much needed rest prior to a competition.

It feels a little funny using the word “athlete”, but it fits. I realize that there are detractors who feel marathon runners aren’t “real athletes”, and I understand that there are many differences between running a marathon and a big game like basketball, football, or soccer. But trust me – a lot of very thoughtful preparation goes into getting ready for a marathon.

My training for this event began in January. There were long runs that started when the temperature was near or below zero. There were weekday runs that started at 4 AM. There were runs that took me through all kinds of weather, and had to happen no matter what my mood or body felt like that particular day.

And running is only part of the preparation for a marathon. There is careful attention to what is consumed, stretching, and cross training as well… an aspect of the training that I am still somewhat refining ;)

Considering everything that goes into getting ready for a marathon – some wonder why I even do it in the first place. In fact, I have had days when even I wonder why I am doing it.

For the record, I was never one of those people that said “I want to run a marathon someday”. In fact, I would have said the opposite, and actually tended to think that there was something not quite right about those folks who were obviously not world class athletes, and yet went out and seemingly punished themselves to complete the 26.2 mile challenge.

Well, I have only been through one marathon, but far from thinking that there’s something not quite right about marathoners, I have found them to all be amazing people. I don’t care if you are averaging a 6 minute pace or a 12 minute pace. I don’t care if you are a walker, or in a wheelchair. If you go out on marathon day and complete the 26.2 miles, you have my respect and admiration.

I am fortunate beyond measure in that I went out and found an awesome training group from the start. I train with the Wheaton Marathon Training Program through the Chicago Area Runners Association. I don’t know what other groups are like, but it is difficult to imagine a more supportive and passionate group of runners.

This group has been an awesome source of support and inspiration, but this alone is not enough. As it is with every runner, I suspect, there is something that drives each and every one of us. Something that may not lend itself to words or concrete expression. Whatever it is – it pushes us to go when everything else says stop. It makes us get up before the sun, or run out into the dark. It’s there when we’re tired to say “keep going”. And it’s there when we are bursting with energy to tell us to take it slow and steady. It gets us through the dark days of injuries with promises of future glory, and aids in the recovery from a hard race or training run.

I am tempted to put a name or a label to this thing that drives me, but to do so would be to constrain it and weigh it down. I prefer to let it be — to let it do its thing so that I can do mine.

In less than 48 hours now, I’ll hopefully be in Kenosha, Wisconsin, running alongside thousands of other runners. I say “hopefully” because nothing in life is certain. But I have done my part. I have trained well, and am uninjured. These were two of my main goals at the start of the year. So I am as ready as I can be.

When I cross that finish line, I will be depleted in ways that are impossible for me to describe. Based on my limited experience, it seems to me that running such distances takes something out of your body at a deep and profound level. An void is created. It is an extreme sense of emptiness that is for me simultaneously frightening and exhilirating all at once. At that point, I will have pushed my body to its limit, and crossed the finish line, and what I feel in the end is the spirit of a runner filling me up as I look around at the brave and beautiful souls that have joined me on such an amazing journey.

And after that, we eat :)

As I get back into the blogging swing of things, I wanted to drop by and make a quick post about the latest buzz – not sure where Google Buzz is headed, but at least for me, for now — it’s a nonstarter.

It could just be a case of bad timing, or it could be all the privacy related issues that are getting so much press. Either way, I was happy to find this post about how to properly disable Google Buzz.

As it is, I am rethinking my social network presence. I am already looking at the best way to manage my Twitter account, my LinkedIn account, and my Facebook account. And of course, there are any number of places that I signed up to check out the feature sets or the user interface ideas, etc… some of which I go back to from time to time.

Live and learn!