May 042011
 
  1. http://runningbrothers.com/category/the-running-brothers-movie/ – The now world famous Running Brother’s is up on our website.  We had to break the movie into two parts.  David Archuleta even wanted to audition for the next Running Brother’s movie.  We told him we’d think about it.  The movies have received wide acclaim by critics everywhere and has reached almost 450 views on www.youtube.com.
  2. http://runningbrothers.com/category/our-heroes/ – This month we interviewed two new heroes, Greg Hardesty, who works with my father at The Orange County Register and Peter Engwall from auggiesdad.sweat365.com. 
  3. http://runningbrothers.com/1009/joined-up-with-some-new-runners-rocky-duran-and-chris-sydow/ – Rocky Duran and Chris Sydow joined The Running Brothers team.  We ran for several miles together and are planning on running together a lot more often.
  4. http://runningbrothers.com/1003/we-went-and-bought-new-running-shoes-saucony-progrid-ride-3s/ – We decided we needed to buy new running shoes and headed to A Snail’s Pace in Brea.  We were helped by the friendly staff on hand who set us up with our brand new running shoes.
  5. http://runningbrothers.com/category/rocky/ – Rocky wrote three amazing posts this month.  “I’m Back” announced his return to The Running Brothers blog after a mini-hiatus.  “Novelty Running” focused on his obsession with shopping for useless gadgets.  And “Melt Downs and Blow Ups” asked our heroes for their favorite racing experiences.
  6. http://runningbrothers.com/category/events/los-alamitos-race-on-the-base/ – We completed our series on the 2011 Los Alamitos Race on the Base where we discussed the race, our preparation for it and how we felt afterwards.
  7. http://runningbrothers.com/971/pacific-electric-bike-trail/ – We took a leisurely bike ride along the Pacific Electric Bike Trail, find our opinions about it here.
  8. http://runningbrothers.com/1057/mystery-challenge-2/ – I posed the second installment of our Mystery Challenge Series to Rocky.  He has no idea what the mystery challenge will be, but everyone is welcome to join us for the mystery challenge.  If you would like to participate you won’t need to run, bike or swim, although you can if you want to.  Please contact Zeb if you want to get in on the mystery challenge.
  9. http://runningbrothers.com/1027/exotic-animal-siting-on-a-run-through-chino-hills/ – Running in the week before the Orange County Marathon I came across my favorite animal, a Zebra, in my hometown.  It’s amazing the things you can see when you run, bike or swim around a city.

Apr 062011
 

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/.