Showing posts with label Vocations. Show all posts

The Race for Vocations - Training, Praying, Running, Finishing (and everything in between)

Chris, Willie, Fr. Joe, Eamon, Myself, Aaron, and Dominic - what a great group of guys!
(yes, I am standing on my tip-toes - I thought the camera wouldn't catch that...)

While I haven't posted on it too much, myself and a few other Brute guys ran in the same mini-marathon as we did last year.  The half-marathon itself was last Saturday (May 3rd), but this post will try to encompass all the training and whatnot we did during the semester.


Training began about 8 weeks before the run (so back right after the end of spring break).  The plan we found online had us doing four runs each week and started out with runs of 3 or 4 miles long.  I had been doing a bit of running (on treadmills) on the weeks leading up to that, so I felt great for the first few weeks.  Then, to my great surprise, I found that even as the runs got longer (after a few weeks), I still wasn't struggling too much.  Actually, I was running faster, further, and more easily than ever before.  Last year, at the end of our training (when we were at our fastest), I ran a 4 mile route in 26:50, which is a bit faster than a 7 minute mile.  This year, at the beginning of our training, I ran it in 28 minutes, but within a few weeks I was running it faster than I did last year and by the second week of April I ran the same route in 25:46 (6:35 minutes per mile).  Another example: last year I ran the eight mile training route in barely under an hour (7:38 pace), but this year, again near the end of our eight weeks, I ran I slightly longer route in 56:44 (7:04 pace).  Now, to say that I was running faster than before isn't to say that I was putting in less effort.  There were certainly times when I felt terrible (like when I ran 6 miles on the treadmill - yeah, not much fun), or my legs were absolutely dead (like after our 12 mile run when we struggled along slowly the entire time), or when I attempted to play ultimate Frisbee after running those 12 miles (and my legs started seizing up and spasm-ing)...  Overall I was certainly in better condition than last year (often running faster than Willie and Dominic, who usually set a brutal pace last year).  

During all those runs - whether hard, or really hard - I found that the absolutely best way to pass the time and the long, leg-pounding miles.  If I was cruising along without too much difficulty, I found that myself meditating really well on the mysteries (it was easy to get the idea/picture of each mystery in my head), and when I was struggling to keep my legs moving, or completely out of energy at the end of a long run, I found that meditating on the mysteries kept me going.  Even if my legs were completely dying, there was no way I was going to stop and walk while in the middle of contemplating Our Lord carrying His cross (or another mystery).  Most of the other guys listened to music, but breaking my iPod turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it made me realize just how good of an opportunity running offers for prayer.  

Another benefit of all that running (25 or so miles a week during our longest weeks) was that it forced me to keep exercising.  If I hadn't been forced to keep training, I certainly wouldn't have exercised anywhere near that often (or that hard), and I probably would have neglected to do much exercise at all, especially during those last few, tough and busy weeks.  Exercise, as I learned in psychology class, is the best "antidote" to stress and I can vouch from experience that I feel much better after exercising (and don't feel as bad about eating a good meal during community dinners and the like).  The negative of that constant training though was that my legs were often tired and sore when I wanted to play a game of Frisbee or football (and so I couldn't play as hard as I would have liked).  

Mass for Vocations
(I got to hold the missal for Bp. Doherty)
Anyway, after all that training, eventually the big day came of the actual mini-marathon.  The night before we had attended (and I got to serve at) the Mass for vocations, which was a great reminder of what (and Who) we were running for, and we also enjoyed a large pasta dinner afterwards to charge up our muscles for the next day.  On the morning of the race, Luke generously drove us downtown and dropped us off a few blocks from the starting zone.  We worked our way down to Washington street (where the race starts) and joined the crowd that was filling the different corrals.  A few minutes later the first wave was started and the second wave (the one Dominic, Willie, Chris, and myself were in) moved up to the start line.  I was surprised to find that we were pretty close to the front of the crowd with only 10 or so rows of people in front of me (last year we were buried back in the middle of the crowd).  After a few minutes the countdown started and then, with the music absolutely pounding (which was great!), we took off.  I didn't know if we were going to stick together or not - we had been more spread out in training than last year - and I ended up starting at a really fast pace, whereas they weren't as crazy and stuck with a pace they knew they could keep up...  So, I was on my own when the crowd surged past the first mile (and I found that I had just ran it in 7:00 - way fast!).  I knew that I was going fast, but my legs - while a little bit sore - weren't protesting too much and I was breathing easily, so I just kept going.  Mile 2: 14 minutes - uh oh, this is pretty fast.  Mile 3.1 (the 5k mark): 21:49 - you have got to be kidding, I just tied for my fastest (timed) 5k!...  

Still, I was feeling pretty good, so I just kept going at a pace that was comfortable and gradually it started to slow down.  My legs were starting to feel legitimately tired by the time I hit the 5 mile mark, but I was nearing the Indianapolis 500 track, so I kept my mind off the pain by looking for the group of guys that were coming to cheer us on from Brute.  I didn't see them on my way into the track so I figured that they had scoped out a spot near the exit and so, in I went.  There was a pretty good sized ramp up into the track, but my legs survived the challenge pretty well (as they had for the smaller hills on the first few miles), and I crossed the 6 mile and then 10 kilometer marks at a pace a bit slower than a 7 minute/mile (7:05 or 7:10).  I knew that this pace was pretty fast, but it's not quite as crazy as a 7 minute/mile, and I figured that the track - being pretty flat - would offer a chance to just cruise along and knock out the next 2 miles while maintaining that fast pace.  On the one hand, I was worried because I knew that I was dead tired after holding a pace like that for our 8 mile run, but on the other hand I knew that even if I slowed down a ton after the 8 or 9 mile mark I could still hit my goal of 1:40 (sub-100 minutes).  Either way, I did keep the pace somewhat high on my way around the track, but - as last year - it wasn't anywhere near as cool or easy as I thought it would be.  The track is long, really, really boring, and the crowd was squeezed pretty tightly together by this time (both because they wanted to be on the inside of the curve, but also because I had caught up with, and was in the middle of, the first wave of runners).  Basically, the track was miserable - not because I was feeling terrible - but because I knew I was getting tired, and when you are getting tired you don't want to be dodging around people, bored out of your mind, or finding out that there is a bit of wind pushing you around...  Two things kept me going though: first, the rosary, which I had been praying since mile 2 or so, and was now on the luminous or sorrowful mysteries (I don't remember which ones) and second, it was on the track that Fr. Dustin Boehm (who I didn't know was a priest at the time) passed me and congratulated me for pacing him that entire time (I guess he had been trying to catch me since the beginning of the race).  I managed to stay pretty close behind father as the track slowly slid by (this year I saw the yard of bricks - which wasn't nearly as cool as people made it out to be), but I could feel myself hurting as we (finally) exited the track and a bit later hit mile 9.  Unfortunately, I didn't see the Brute guys here either (as it turned out, they were at the entrance of the track and we had missed each other), so I was starting to feel worn out but managed to struggle on towards mile 10.  

I knew that at mile 10 they were handing out gel packs (which basically give you a boost of electrolytes and sugar) which I figured would help my legs to keep going, and also, at the 10 mile mark I was only 3.1 miles from the finish (a 5k)!  I picked up two the gel things and swallowed about a quarter of one (didn't want to over do it) along with some water (which they were handing out) and I promptly got a terrible stomach cramp.  It was one of those things, I was doing a pretty good pace - so that was good - but I was starting to really feel tired and I was hoping that these gel things would give me the boost I needed to finish strong and they did the exact opposite.  Now, on top of legs that were threatening to collapse, and an uphill last few miles (or so it seemed), I had the added discomfort of a stomach cramp - wonderful...  I forced myself to keep running, knowing that all of the pain wasn't just going to go away if I stopped to walk (and it would be immensely harder to get going again), but those last few miles were absolutely brutal.  I star


The only picture that I could find of me during the race
(near the finish line)
ted praying the rosary again, something that I had forgotten to keep doing during the middle of the race, and eventually crossed the 11 miles mark (almost there, come on), and after an eternity of swinging my lactic-acid-filled legs and jarring my knotted insides I finally also passed the 12 miles mark.  Now, with only a mile to go, and knowing that I could just about walk it and still make it under 1:40 (my pace had only dropped to 7:30 or so for the last few miles), I just kept going.  Yeah, the last mile was uphill, and seemed more like 2 miles (soooo long), but the crowd was cheering, I was almost there, and you just can't stop at that point.  I did run just a tad faster for that last tenth of a mile or so.  I wasn't sprinting by any means, but I wasn't crawling either.  Final time: 1:35:24 (7:16 min/mile pace) - almost 10 minutes faster than my time last year and something like 10% faster as well!  I was really happy to finish with that time - especially considering those harsh last few miles - it was way faster than I had expected (even considering my pretty good times in training).  Some fun numbers: this year I was the 759th person to cross the finish line, last year I was #2347.  This year I finished 90th in my age group (20-24), last year I finished 88th in my age group (14-19).  And, just for fun, I was also the first "Dominic" to cross the finish line!  Dominic  Vahling finished several minutes after me (cutting a few minutes off his time from last year) and Willie was a few minutes after that.  We grabbed some cookies, bananas, chocolate milk (and other such such wonderful things) and headed over to the race for vocations tent to celebrate and wait for the other finishers.


Yeah, so the mini-marathon was awesome!  I was forced to stay in shape the entire semester.  I got to spend a lot of good time with the other guys I was training with.  I got to experience a wonderful Mass at St. John's and a delicious pasta dinner afterwards.  I ran my second mini-marathon - feeling great for the first few miles, keeping the pace high for the middle miles, avoiding collapsing during the last few miles, and finishing with a fantastic time!  I ran for a great cause, got some praying in, offered up a bit of suffering, and had a blast doing it!  
Read More
, , , , , , , , , 0 Comments

For Those Who Pray


Today, the Feast of the Presentation of Mary, is Pro Orantibus Day [Latin: "for those who pray"] - a day dedicated to cloistered religious and their radical giving of themselves to Christ.  Like Mary, who was dedicated to the Lord from a very young age, these men and women have dedicated themselves to lives of total surrender to God.  Please especially remember my sister, who entered a cloistered community almost exactly 2 years ago.  Pope (now emeritus) Benedict XVI talked about this day in an Angelus speech on November 19th, 2006.  Speech below: (my emphasis in bold)



Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The day after tomorrow, 21 November, on the occasion of the liturgical Memorial of the Presentation of Mary, we will be celebrating Pro Orantibus Day, dedicated to remembering cloistered religious communities. It is an especially appropriate opportunity to thank the Lord for the gift of the numerous people in monasteries and hermitages who are totally dedicated to God in prayer, silence and concealment.
Some may wonder what meaning and value their presence could have in our time, when there are so many situations of poverty and neediness with which to cope.
Why "enclose oneself" for ever between the walls of a monastery and thereby deprive others of the contribution of one's own skills and experience? How effective can the prayer of these cloistered Religious be for the solution of all the practical problems that continue to afflict humanity?
Yet even today, often to the surprise of their friends and acquaintances, many people in fact frequently give up promising professional careers to embrace the austere rule of a cloistered monastery. What impels them to take such a demanding step other than the realization, as the Gospel teaches, that the Kingdom of heaven is "a treasure" for which it is truly worth giving up everything (cf. Mt 13: 44)?
Indeed, these brothers and sisters of ours bear a silent witness to the fact that in the midst of the sometimes frenetic pace of daily events, the one support that never topples is God, the indestructible rock of faithfulness and love. "Everything passes, God never changes", the great spiritual master Teresa of Avila wrote in one of her famous texts.
And in the face of the widespread need to get away from the daily routine of sprawling urban areas in search of places conducive to silence and meditation, monasteries of contemplative life offer themselves as "oases" in which human beings, pilgrims on earth, can draw more easily from the wellsprings of the Spirit and quench their thirst along the way.
Thus, these apparently useless places are on the contrary indispensable, like the green "lungs" of a city:  they do everyone good, even those who do not visit them and may not even know of their existence.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us thank the Lord, who in his Providence has desired male and female cloistered communities. May they have our spiritual and also our material support, so that they can carry out their mission to keep alive in the Church the ardent expectation of Christ's Second Coming.
For this, let us invoke the intercession of Mary, whom we contemplate on the Memorial of her Presentation in the Temple as Mother and model of the Church, who welcomes in herself both vocations:  to virginity and to marriage, to contemplative life and to active life.
Pope Francis also recently spoke about the vocation of a cloistered nun:
Today NCYC begins! I think it will be an awesome experience - can't really beat 20,000+ young Catholics getting together.  Should be fun!  (Of course, I don't think I'll have any time to get any papers done and what not, but I guess God will provide...)
Read More
, , , , , , 0 Comments

Vocations are Awesome!

On Monday night I (along with the other Springfield guys here at Brute) went over to a vocation night at the Newman center at Eastern Illinois University.  We prayed Evening Prayer together at 4 PM, crammed ourselves into Willie's car, and drove the 2ish hours it took to get to Charleston.  Of course, the ride was fun; we jammed to some music (I was introduced to the sound track of Space Jam, which apparently the rest of the known world has watched, but I haven't...), laughed at life, did some homework (I got, I think, 2 pages into a book...), and I took a short nap.  We got to the Newman center about an hour before everything was supposed to start, so we had an opportunity to relax a little bit, rearrange furniture down in the basement (which is also used as a St. Vincent De Paul Society, and so, has a ton of couches and stuff), and talk with Fr. John Titus, who is the priest for this Newman Center, and puts on this vocation night each year.

Around 6:00 (CT), people started arriving and I started chatting with (some of) them.  Pretty much everybody was new to me (though the other guys knew some people because we were only about 4o minutes from their homes), so I got to meet a bunch of new people.  There were 5 sisters there from a variety of different orders (2 were Dominicans, who were quite happy to find that two seminarians were named Dominic... )  Fr. Alford, the vocation director for the Springfield IL diocese, arrived right at 6:30 and dinner followed shortly after (rather tasty I might add: Jimmy-Johns, chips+salsa, carrots, fudge, brownies, and cookies).  I sat with a few of the other guys and a set of brothers who are in the process of (possibly) applying to enter next semester.  They are really cool guys, and we had a fun time eating with them.
After dinner we split into groups of guys (who went with the priests) and girls (who went with the sisters) and started the vocation side of the evening.  Fr. Alford opened the evening with a fantastic vocation talk.  Of course, I can't remember it verbatim, but one memorable thing that he said was that life is like a jig-saw puzzle.  It's up to us to choose who's picture we want to look at to fit together the puzzle.  We can look at the innumerable pictures that the world puts in front of us - cars, money, fame, whatever, or we can follow God's picture for our life.  Obviously, following God's picture is the best bet - want happiness? go to the source.  The analogy continued: the frame that we should assemble first and which guides where we put all the other pieces is our faith - it is within this guide that we need to fit all the parts of our life, otherwise our puzzle will never come together and we will never had a joyful, fulfilled, stable life.  Unfortunately, I've forgotten most of the rest of his talk, but hopefully you are able to get the gist - it was really great!

Continuing right along, after Fr. Alford another priest (of who I forget his name) of an order dedicated to Mary (maybe the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary?) spoke about the vocation of religious life.  Obviously, there are similarities (at least when comparing between priesthood in either case), but I loved his analogy of the diocesan priesthood as the Army or Marines - the usual hierarchy of the Church - and religion orders as special op's - filling a certain role in a specific place and time.  This priest was also the first to tell his vocation story.  He got interested in church music in high-school, redirecting his college plans from medicine (I think?) to music.  Of course, the story doesn't stop there; he eventually started practicing organ at the monastery/seminary of this religious order.  Soon enough doors started opening and he felt the call to enter the order... 
Next all of us seminarians told our stories.  Obviously, I can't recount them all here (I would mix the stories together), but I thought it was so cool to hear them all again.  The running joke is that the story changes a bit every time you tell it depending on the circumstances that are relevant at that time, and it is so true.  I heard different bits of everybody's story - some of us heard the call when we were young, some not so much; we all had different reasons why we felt we had to follow the call, we all had different obstacles to overcome, but seriously all of the stories were still inspiring!  Gosh, I remember when I was in exactly the same position as some of these guys - hanging out with seminarians, hearing their stories, asking some of the same questions... - it's so cool to be on the other side as a seminarian.  Man, it's awesome!

Alright - big, important, cool points of the discussion: Pray - a lot, that is the only way to discern God's will and have the courage to follow it.  Be not afraid - fear is never a reason to avoid or consider a vocation.  God doesn't choose the qualified, He qualifies the chosen - don't think we are all saints, or orators, or martyrs, that is why we have to surrender to God, so that He can make up for our lackings.  Watch for the signs - when you are discerning it is tough to see what to do, but look for where God is opening doors, putting a desire in your heart, telling you through other people, or giving you joy and peace.  Where are you most selfless? - God calls us all to give ourselves to others in some way, where is that for you?  No vocation is a selfish one.  Guys, you are called to  be a father regardless - whether that is spiritually (in the priesthood) or not.  I hope I didn't forget any good ones...
There you have it.  We probably discussing for an hour or two (time flies when you are having fun), and a bit before 9 PM we went back upstairs.  Every Monday they do a night-prayer-like prayer.  It was actually very beautiful.  They sang a song (that I hadn't heard before) to the Holy Spirit through several times (with different people harmonizing with it differently for each verse), then chanted a psalm (same setup), then another song (again, harmonizing it), then some intercessions (chanted), and finally the Salve Regina.  It was a bit tricky to catch the melody of each song in the first verse so that when people started harmonizing in the second, third, and fourth verses I'd know what to sing, but it was pretty.  It's really interesting, I usually wouldn't be into that kind of thing - too much flamboyance - but here I found it to be beautiful and a good 20 minutes or so of prayer.  I don't think I'd want to do it every night, but it was a good experience.

After this prayer we talked for a few more minutes with the remaining folks, and then hopped back in the car.  It was (obviously) dark out by this time and snowing - beautiful!  The ride back was tiring, but we kept the music pumping, prayed a rosary, and I drifted off into a nap for a bit.  It was an absolutely fantastic evening - man vocations are so cool!  Actually, despite only getting about 5 hours of sleep, Mass this morning was a lot more meaningful this morning.  I was just concentrating better, and praying it.  Gotta love it!

Alright, back to the books - 2 tests on Wednesday, 2 short essays due next week, and 3 long papers the week after that (though I have the rough draft done of one of those).  I can't wait until thanksgiving, at that point I'll just have finals left (should be easy... yeah...)
Brute courtyard with the first snowfall this year.
Read More
, , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Joy

While discerning whether to enter seminary, I was told that one's vocation is found where one finds peace, joy, and fulfillment (credit: Fr. Daren Zehnle).  Today I want to write about the 2nd component, joy.

Many people today define joy with something like having pleasure in whatever we are doing.  However, this is a very temporal, passing kind of joy.  True joy is found in following God.  Augustine distinguished temporal and eternal goods – the former are things like cars, books, food, and technology, the latter like, well, God and I suppose things like truth, grace, and love.  We will only come to true lasting happiness through desiring the eternal goods.

Many times in my different posts I have connected following God’s will to joy.  But in life we sometimes don’t feel too joyful.  Day to day life isn’t always fun, we have to work, study, and otherwise do things we just don’t want to do.  Suffering, illness, persecution, even death, are part of our lives, and they aren’t any fun either…


Thankfully though, there is an answer in Christianity.  (Seen in the responsory for evening prayer the other day):

I shall know the fullness of joy, when I see your face, O Lord.

Wait a second you say, that is just saying that we’ll find joy once we get to heaven - that’s great, but I’m not there yet. - What about right now?  Being Christian, and following God’s will, can transform our hum-drum, tough, sometimes sad lives into ones of joy.  We aren’t called to be stoic and just tough it out, Christ actually transforms all these negatives of our life into joy.  Don’t think I am advocating the Gospel of prosperity; being Christian doesn’t eliminate hardship, but it does transform it.
 
Take a look at this picture (which was made from the shroud of Turin, and is incredibly close many artistic depictions of Jesus.)  Here we see the face of our Lord, ripped to shreds, spat upon, beaten to a pulp, and yet there is a serenity, a peace, a joy.  Certainly the crucifixion wasn’t fun (that’s beyond obvious), but joy never left Christ because He was acting out of love, out of service to God, out of complete self-giving.  In the midst of our often painful life, never forget to look upon Christ’s face and find His joy.  Don’t get me wrong, the fullness of joy, absolute bliss, true happiness, is only found in God, in heaven.  But in this life, when we are unhappy, despondent, poor, sick, or despairing, look to Christ.  Connect your sufferings with His.   Know that the Resurrection always comes after death (when we die to self, out of love for God and others), and that God always brings a greater good out evil.  “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” – Matthew 5:11-12
 
This post isn’t exceptionally deep, or philosophical, but I found myself wrestling with the question of what happens when one is following Christ and things don’t turn out the way we want?  Probably you already know this, but that this is exactly what the Resurrection is all about.  Everything went wrong for Jesus, His life and death were not fun, yet joy is still there.  We will find the true fullness of joy in heaven, but even here on earth joy can still be ours when we follow Christ.  Joy is found not in success, but in service (to Christ).  Christ transforms suffering into victory and hardship into a way to grow closer to God.
 
In conclusion, look at Mary.  Her life was full of difficulty, pain, even fear, but she was also full of joy.  “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” – Luke 1:46-47 Notice that joy comes from Mary being a humble servant of God; this is what we must also strive for. 
 
I have an idea for a follow-up post on how exactly we follow God, but that may take a few days to do (it looks like it will be a very, very busy week, so we'll see).
 
Thanks for reading!  Give glory to God in absolutely everything!
Read More
, , , , 0 Comments

"I have competed well; I have finished the race" - II Timothy 4:7



Myself, WIllie, and Dominic (in the blue) - running the 1/2 marathon!


Good afternoon everybody!  Today was the Indianapolis mini-marathon.  As you probably heard, a few of us guys here at Bruté competed in this race as part of the group running for vocations.  A few priests (and I'm sure others) from the arch-diocese of Indy started this several years back, and it now has at maybe a hundred people that do it each year.  


Yesterday evening, after picking up our packets (shirt, tag, advertisements, etc.) for the 1/2 marathon we headed over to St. John's.  There was probably 20 Bruté guys that vested in cassock/surplice, and another 10-20 guys from St. Meinrad (A upper-seminary in Indiana).  St. John's recently had a fire, which damaged the ceiling, so it was really interesting to see it with all the scaffolding overhead.  Anyway, most of us seminarians were crammed into the first few rows of pews because the sanctuary didn't have room. It was a great Mass.  Arch-Bishop Tobin gave a great homily on how the communion of saints is like the greatest social network ever and they are where we get the inspiration and help to keep on the right track.  (It was a wonderful homily, unfortunately my paraphrase/summary was quite inferior to it).  After Mass, they had a pasta dinner for all; it was really, really good meatless pasta! (besides the bread-sticks  salad, brownies, and fruit).  Got some good carbo-loading in before the race. I also picked up my race for vocations t-shirt (it is really nice - not just your average cotton t-shirt).  

lots of people!
Anyway, I got to bed as soon as I could after that event (around 10pm), and woke up around 6am this morning.  I had been feeling pretty good the entire time we were training, but like yesterday I came down with a cold (staying up late working on a Shakespeare essay does that to you), so this morning I wasn't feeling the best (clogged up nose and a small fever).  Needless to say, I wasn't feeling bad enough to not run, but I was aware that it might impact my performance.  I ate a banana and a brownie (thanks to whoever set them out!), and then we all (5 Bruté runners + Driver) headed down-town.  Everything within a mile of the race area was packed with people and cars trying to maneuver around.   The Indianapolis Mini-Marathon is the country's largest with some 35,000 people running in it.  Anyway, the roads around the start line were packed with people.  We worked our way over to the start road, which was divided into sections based on your expected time.  We were in group H, so we were up near-ish to the front.  I squeezed into the crowd a bit before Willie, Dominic, and Michael (they guys I've been training with), and tried to get back to the H section (going the wrong direction...).  I gave up after several yards of squirming, and just stood there for the 10 minutes or so until the race.  It was around this time that I ate the electrolyte-goop which was supposed to keep my body going the entire time (your liver holds about enough energy for 20 miles, but I didn't feel like depleting myself that much).  

Anyway, the fast runners and wheelchair division started at 7:30, and the rest of the crowd finally started going about 5 minutes later.  I was stuck maybe 15 yards behind the other guys (W, D, & M).  Unfortunately, it seemed that most of the crowd had signed up for a time faster than they would actually run, so (literally) the first 5 miles were composed of a ton of dodging around people, jumping up onto the sidewalk, squeezing around signs, etc.  So, while it meant that I wasn't thinking about the running, it meant that we were going pretty slow (8 min/mile-ish) and wearing ourselves out.  By about mile 5 or 6 the crowd was a little bit more spread out, and we were kind of with people of the same pace.  I mean, we were dodging around people (or people were dodging around us) the entire time, but it got a little bit better.

Entering the 500 track - guys cheering us on!

Around the 6 mile mark, I started feeling tired.  Unfortunately, it wasn't the tired that I was used to - where one joint, or muscle would hurt - I was just overall worn out.  We were going pretty slow still (compared to how fast we usually do the first miles), but I was still just not feeling up to par.  Thankfully, right around this point we ran past some guys from Bruté  who cheered us on.  It was an awesome moment, and I am very grateful that they come out and watched (THANKS GUYS!).  Right after we passed them, we entered the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  I had been looking forward to doing this part of the race the entire time we had been training - I figured I wouldn't be too tired yet (wrong), and that it would be really awesome (wrong again).  I mean, it was alright, but the crowd got a little more squeezed at this point, the track was ridiculously long (2.5 miles), and it was a little bit boring because all you could see was a lot of pavement and the stands.  I managed to miss when we actually crossed the yard-of-bricks.  I don't know how I missed it, but, well, I did... :-(  We took our second packet of electrolyte goop probably at the 7th mile.  This stuff is really nasty; the taste is alright I guess (raspberry), but it is the consistency of jelly or something, and just sticks to the inside of your mouth.  I grabbed some water, but I'm pretty sure I only got about 3/4 of the packet in my mouth and a good bit of it was lost when I tried to drink the water...  Anyway, that got me through the next few miles.
Exiting the speedway - guys cheering us on
-yours truly doesn't look too good...

The guys were cheering us on again as we exited the stadium, so that was great.  But the excitement quickly wore off as we got to about 10 miles.  I guess I assumed that adrenaline would kick in about this time - only 3 miles to go right?  But, it didn't.  Dominic and I stuck together (kept ourselves running), but Willie had some energy left so he gradually pulled away.  I was glad he did, because we (ok, at least I) was slowing him down.  Anyway, those 3 miles went by really, really slowly.  All the other miles had passed pretty fast; they had water stops and a clock with the duration so far just about every mile (which was great), but this section of the run felt like it took forever.  I wanted to walk so bad, even with only a mile to go (when I though for sure the adrenaline would show up), I barely could keep jogging.  Anyway, we kept forcing each other forward, and the crowds cheering helped a little bit, and we finally worked our way through the last mile and finished.  (I ran/sprinted the last few yards, but really had nothing left for the finish).  

Right after finishing I grabbed some water, waited to stop feeling light headed, and met up with Michael (who finished a few minutes after us) before walking over to the food tables and getting a banana, cookies, etc.  Generally I feel hungry after running (especially that long), but today I just felt dead.  I did force myself to eat and drink a little, but there was no way I was going for a hot-dog at the Race for vocations tent.  Of course, now when I am typing this I would eagerly go for it, but not right after finishing.

Michael cruising along!
OK, if that didn't seem to optimistic, it's because was really hoping to feel better during the race.  However, there were plenty of positives:  I finished under 1:45, which was my goal with a time of 1:44:54  (more stats here).  That means I finished 2347th overall (top 6% or so) and 88th in my age group.  The weather was perfect (60 and cloudy).  I ran the entire way (unthinkable a few months ago).  I could go on and on... I am so glad that I ran it, but I wish it hadn't hurt so bad.  Goal next year: beat 100 minutes!



Thanks to Luke, Corey, and Andrew for the pictures!



All the Springfield Guys - Mark (from Meinrad), Michael, Willie, Dominic, and myself (from Bruté)
- fun day!
Read More
, , , 2 Comments

Weekend Recap - 4-21-13

Well, the weekend isn't quite over, but I wanted to write about something, and nothing spectacular is coming to mind.  So, without further adieu, here's what I did this weekend:

 On Friday I had the typical classes (Theology and Asian Philosophies) after which I stayed at Marian and watched a video for Sociology class, and then headed over to participate in STARR.  Most Friday afternoons a group of students at Marian (including 6-8 seminarians) head out to different places around Indianapolis to do community service.  There is a mix of different things available to do (usually), including hanging out with handicapped individuals, running a day care of sorts for a poorer area in Indy, working at a food pantry, cultivating vegitables for food pantries, etc.  Anyway, on Friday about 20 kids from one of the day cares came to Marian, where we gave them a tour, played some sports, and otherwise just had a good time.  Of course there is a twist to the story: STARR was at 4 PM, rather than the usual 3 PM, and that fact (perhaps along with others) meant that I was the only seminarian available and there were only about 5 other students there besides myself.  Usually STARR has 20+ students each week, so this was quite a small group.  Anyway, I helped out with the tour and all that, got a little bit muddy trying to play soccer with all these kids, and overall had a fun time.  I managed to find a ride back to Bruté, and since a lot of guys were gone to a play or a concert (I managed to miss both), I went to bed early (around 9:30 PM).  

 On Saturday morning I woke up from my awesome night's sleep and after Mass helped give a tour to the altar boys from Fr. Hollowell's parish after Mass.  There were a few of us giving the tour, and since I had little experience with giving them (most groups seem to come on school mornings, when I have class), I didn't say a whole lot.  We finished up in the chapel where we gave our vocation stories and took a few questions.  It was cool to be able to hear the other guys' stories because I hadn't heard (or at least remembered) them yet.  Finally, we had Jimmy-John's with them for lunch (a treat around here).  After this point I proceeded to have a lazy afternoon.  I worked on a paper a little bit (about the musical happenings at the Easter Vigil), watched some videos on YouTube (Air Force One is pretty cool), and then wondered around to see what was going on (not much).  I luckily ran into a group of guys cooking up dinner and collaborated with them to make some sloppie joes, mac-n-cheese, and grilled pineapple.  It was pretty terrific!  A few of us said Evening Prayer together (on Saturdays it is on your own), and then about 8-10 guys went down town.  We ended up going to an ice cream place, where I enjoyed a waffle come with two different chocolaty kinds of ice cream (it was phenomenal), and then a soda shop where I got an orange cream soda.  We got back to Bruté around 9:30 PM and I fully intended to go to bed early, but I got sidetracked and ended up watching the movie The Cardinal.  It actually was a terrific movie about a priest living through both world wars and the different struggles he had to contend with (doubts about his vocation, family disasters, the KKK, and WWII).  It was quite well done, and I enjoyed most of it.  After that ended around 12:30, I said night prayer, a rosary, and went to bed - it was a much longer day than I expected...

 This morning (Sunday), I slept in till 8:30, and then did Morning Prayer and Mass at 9:30 AM.  It's good shepherd Sunday and Fr. Bob's homily was quite good about how we have an innate desire for God (Our hearts are restless until they rest in God - St. Augustine), and how Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, will continue to call us back to Himself when we wonder off the path.  This, of course, wraps back in a special way onto priests, who in Persona Christi must act as shepherds to Christ's flock and bring them to Him.  After Mass, the 4 of us Springfield guys who are running the mini-marathon in less than 2 weeks went for a 9 mile run.  It turned out to be a wonderful temperature (between 40 and 50) after the first mile or so.  We ran a pretty hard pace (7:40min/mile) for the nine miles considering for the longer ones we are normally around an 8:00min/mile pace.  Three of us stuck together until almost the end when Willie just floored it and finished probably 10 seconds ahead.  Overall, it was a very good run, and it's good to see that our pace is continuing to get faster.  After the run, we had a thank-you reception for Arch-Bishop Buechlein OSB, who was the arch-bishop of Indianapolis until 2011 and was the man who started the seminary here at Bruté.  It was a beautiful ceremony which included mid-afternoon prayer, speeches by all the expected people (Fr. Bob, a senior here at Bruté, Arch-bishop Tobin, and Arch-bishop Buechlein).  There were a few emotional moments as everyone expressed their thanks.  Have a good afternoon!

 And now...  I think that I will take a nap, maybe get something to eat, head to Adoration, have a meeting with the Frisbee guys, and otherwise just hang out.  Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

 *sorry no pictures, I'll try to snag some from one of the guys who took some this afternoon...
Read More
, , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)