Thanks for checking out our movie. We would love to hear what you think so be sure to comment on our page. If you enjoyed the movie, share it. And if you want to get to know more about us you can “like” us on facebook, The Running Brothers and follow us on twitter, @runningbros.
Part 2 of our movie will be online one week from today. We really hope that you enjoy it as we had a lot of fun making it.
Time is running out and we are about to run our first marathon. I have tried training the last three days, but have had to stop early each time because I get this pain in my knee. Yesterday was my longest run so far. I ran 4.5 miles, but had to stop on account of the knee. My brother and I have decided to go to A Snails Pace, a running store in Brea to see if they can get us properly fitted for some shoes.
I’m excited to see if a difference can be made just by the types of shoes I would be wearing. I really hope that it does, because I want to be able to complete this marathon.
The Running Brothers: Part 1 will be released at 12:01 AM Friday morning. We had to break the movie down into two parts because it was too long. The movie, seen by a select few, has received high praise thus far. Just listen to the rave reviews of our critics.
“That was a funny movie.” – Grandma
“It looked like you guys had fun.” – Dad
“Hahahahaha.” – Mom
“A great movie.” – Sister
“I haven’t laughted that hard in a long time.” – Dusty
“It wasn’t as bad as I thought.” – Cindy
Be prepared for one of the greatest movie events of 2011 with the opening of The Running Brothers. The movie will not be shown in theaters and will only be available to those who visit our website, www.TheRunningBrothers.com. See you at one minute after midnight on Thursday.
On a nice Saturday day, I decided to call up my brother to see if he wanted to go for a bike ride and he said, “Absolutely.” So, we met up and looked up bike trails in our area on Google Maps. We found tons of different trails in our area, so we went to the closest one. Turns out Google Maps “sucks” when it comes to planning out bike trail routes. We went to three different ones and all of them were innaccessible. But, we traveled from one to the next until we finally found one . . . The Pacific Electric Bike Trail.
The Pacific Electric Trail is supposed to be able to connect Rialto to Claremont; however, the trail is not complete. According to www.socaltrailriders.org, the trail should be completed in 2011. But we got on the trail somewhere in Rancho Cucamonga and headed west. The trail was a really easy ride with virtually no hills. The only problem for me was that you had to wait at a signal every time the trail crossed paths with a street, which was quite often.
But we reached a dead end where some construction was going on, so we turned around and headed east for quite a ways until the trail ended in I believe Fontana. It was a very pleasant ride until we encountered some dangling electrical lines. Fortunately, my brother was there to snap a quick picture of the event.
If only I had seen that sign beforehand.
I had a really nice time with my brother traveling down the Pacific Electric Bike Trail. It will be interesting when they complete that trail, but I love Claremont and the Upland area and it would be great to just hang out there from time to time and take a nice bike ride along a pleasant trail.
We premiered our first Running Brothers Movie and it was a smashing success. The release of our movie is still a few days away, but the editing and sound in the film are award worthy and while the acting may be sub-par, the story line is killer. If you want, you can check out our screen play to the movie in a previous post. Although we did ad-lib from time to time, for the most part we kept to the script.
We’re excited to show you all our film, but it’s going to take us a couple of days in preparation to make sure that everything goes off without a hitch.
He competed in the 135-mile Coastal Challenge, “a six-day stage race on incredibly brutal and gorgeous terrain in Costa Rica . . . (he) explored a lot of rain forests and other terrain . . . running as long as 35 miles in a day to as short as 18 miles on another day.” Who is this crazy person who would agree to participate in such an exhausting event? Can you believe that he completed the entire 135-mile race by running? This man is our fourth hero and a co-worker of my father’s at The Orange County Register . . . Greg Hardesty. Greg is an ultramarathon runner. He has participated in over 24 ultramarathons and agreed to share his wisdom with The Running Brothers and our heroes.
Greg Hardesty
Ever heard of an ultramarathon? I didn’t until today. Ultramarathons are basically running events that are longer than the traditional 26.2 mile marathon events. Greg says that he is the “worst trainer in the world,” because he doesn’t diet or stretch, and runs relatively low mileages . . . he tries to run between 40 and 50 miles a week. (If 40 to 50 miles is considered the worst training in the world, then I know I’m in trouble). He also says he runs on hilly terrain which he believes is the best way to train. He also works out at the gym and performs “serious” workouts on the StairMaster. He says that recently he completed a half marathon on one (impressive).
Greg recommends taking training slowly . . .performing long runs on the weekends and using a lot of hills.
He is passionate about his career. He loves honoring people through his writing, who die before their time. Writing has encouraged him to seek understanding for what truly makes a person happy. He says that “too many people get caught up in planning and acquiring material goods,” but miss what is important in life, “enjoying it.” He’s a man who lives with passion, which is also a reason why he says he is “poor.”
Greg lived in Japan for six years and recommends that every person should have the experience of living abroad for at least a year. He said that at times he felt uncomfortable, but that he really got a sense of happiness when he constantly placed himself in uncomfortable situations, because it forced him to “live in the moment” and “be truly alive.”
Competing in the 135-mile Coastal Challenge along some of the most beautiful Costa Rican terrain he has seen and competing in 24 ultramarathons are just some of highlights of Greg Hardesty’s eventful and exciting life. He certainly deserves to become one of our heroes as his passion is undeniable and his willingness to push himself is second to none. Some may call him crazy for running 40 to 50 miles a week and competing in running events with distances of over 100 miles, but we call him our hero.
Greg Hardesty is a reporter for The Orange County Register and the father of two children. He is a member of a great group of runners of all levels, whose website is www.socaltrailheadz.org
Recently, completer of 14 marathons and our uncle, Steve Jaros wrote an article entitled, “How to Cure Runner’s Knee.” We asked him to write this article because after running my first half-marathon, my knee’s were killing me. I knew that I would have to do something to insure that a similar situation didn’t arise again in the future.
I want to highlight the tips that he recommended so that it will help to reinforce myself in becoming a more intelligent and less likely to be injured runner. Uncle Steve says that any injury below the waste can be contributed to wearing the wrong shoes, which I find fascinating. If that’s the case then I definitely need to get me some new shoes.
Increases in distances and pacing should be methodically planned out and that their is no need to push yourself in training as over-enthusiasm often leads to injury. I can definitely say that I was not ready to run the half-marathon. He also says it takes over 6 months to prepare for a marathon, I can say that I won’t be properly prepared for that either. Unfortunately, my brother and I became “over-enthusiastic” and know we’ll probably be hurting as a result of it.
The substance you run on does have an impact on your body. According to Uncle Steve dirt paths and grass parks are better than macadam and macadam is better than concrete.
Other good ideas would be to check leg-length discrepancies with a chiropracter; doing leg work-outs at appropriate intervals between slow-long distance workouts and speed workouts; checking your heart rate every morning (if your heart rate jumps significantly it’s a good indicator that you’re training too hard); and use ice and advil anytime you feel even the slightest pain in your body.
Thank you Uncle Steve Jaros for your tips on how to cure runner’s knee. I need to do everything I can to make sure that my knees will be ready to complete our first marathon . . . in just 24 days.
Weekly Amount:
Running = 17 miles
Biking = 58 miles
Swimming = 4000 M or 2.5 miles
Total Amount: 77.5 miles
Overall Amount:
Running = 186 miles (56 miles to Las Vegas)
Biking = 592 miles (381 miles to Seattle)
Swimming = 53,200 meters or 36.7 miles (2.6 miles to Los Angeles)
Total = 812 miles (161 miles to Seattle)
Thanks to my Uncle’s article, I’ve come to the realization that I am going to need to invest in some proper running shoes and could use the advice of our heroes. Do you have any types of shoes that you would like to recommend? Do you have any tips to give when looking for running shoes? Have any of you hear of A Snails Pace running store, http://www.asnailspace.net/?
Well, I think I will be going this week sometime to check out some running shoes. Let me know what kind you would recommend.
In Part 1 of our interview with Peter Engwall, we learned about the man who lost nearly 150 pounds when he decided to change his life for the better. In Part 2, we are going to learn about Peter Engwall, the man he is today. Peter has “an amazing wife, and the best son in the entire world!” And loves coaching his sons baseball and football teams. He’s a Project Manager for a wireless telecommunications company in Seattle, Washington. His schedule is extremely busy, but Peter always makes time for his Ironman training. Peter remains extemely active and we asked him a variety of questions relating to his fitness goals and about his website, http://auggiesdad.sweat365.com/.
As you may recall, Peter began exercising in order to lose weight and quickly discovered that entering himself in endurance events would help him stay focused on the end result of losing weight. One summer, he decided to sign up for his first Sprint Triathalon. Four years later he is planning on completing his first Full Ironman in November. Peter has also set a variety of other goals. He wants to complete an Olympic Distance race in under three hours and plans on completing his first Full Ironman in the alotted 17 hours. Lastly, he wants to remain injury free.
Peter’s life has been filled with memorable experiences. He married his best friend. He witnessed the birth of his son. He was on the Oprah Show. He completed a sprint triathalon. He completed a half marathon. And he completed a half Ironman. As a beginning runner, I know what Peter means when he says that those are memorable moments. It’s about being able to complete something that once was impossible and being able to accomplish something like that makes anything seem possible.
Training allows you to “get away from it all,” Peter says. When in training, all your thoughts and worries get focused on your training and it allows you to clear your head. And for Peter, it has been a surprisingly social activity. He has met numerous people that he has trained and worked with, including our first hero, Mitch Roberts. Peter began training with Mitch because he recognized the fact that it was important to find people to train with that are smarter and people to train with that are faster. I’m not sure which category Mitch falls into, but my guess is that it’s not the smarter one (Just Kidding).
http://auggiesdad.sweat365.com/ is a place that Peter goes to log his workouts and serves as a reminder to when his next races are scheduled. He has been able to track his distances through the website and he says it’s great to see his results grow. His post on http://sweat365.com/blog/2008/05/14/lifestyle-changes-yield-big-results/, is how I learned about Peter losing nearly 150 pounds as a result of his lifestyle change.
Through Peter’s website, he has been able to make many new friends from many different areas. His favorite websites are http://runningbrothers.com/ (obviously) and http://www.slowtwitch.com/. He encourages all of you to be yourself and have fun.
Lastly, Peter believes that every person should make someone else’s life just that much happier. He recommends that you change the life of someone else for the better. And I can honestly say that your story, your participation and becoming one of our heroes has changed our lives for the better.
If you would like to learn more about Peter Engwall, please visit his website, http://auggiesdad.sweat365.com/.