This post is rather a different kind of post from yours truly. The Cleveland Museum of Art is holding a selection “contest” to attend their first “tweet-up” to explore two asian art exhibits. Since 140 characters was not possible for this guy and my blog is not something I often post to I figured it was a better venue for my plea to the CMA of why I should be one of the fifty people selected. Here is my story on why I should be selected to attend this special event.

When I was a kid there was nothing more that I wanted be than an architect. More importantly I wanted to be Frank Lloyd Wright. I’d spend countless hours drawing houses and reading up on my idol. As anyone knows anything about Frank Lloyd Wright he amassed an impressive collection of Asian prints. His love of the art resonated in his designs throughout his career, but none more than his design for the Imperial Hotel in Japan. Through my studies of Wright it introduced me to whole new world that helped me immensely with my studies in fine arts in college. While I did not go on to become that architect I had wanted to be it was the young exposure of Asian art that still carries with me to this day as a graphic and interactive designer. I’d love to attend #GlimpsesofAsia to relive those young childhood memories and hear from experts in the field and become inspired for new projects.

Thanks.

After running my first half marathon last month at the Cleveland Fall Classic I figured I’d take it easy through winter. There’s no need to push hard since my original plan was to finally run a full marathon in 2012. Boy has that all changed quickly!

I recently started receiving Runner’s World magazine and the January 2011 edition has an article listing the “first timer” marathon favorites. To my surprise Cincinnati’s Flying Pig Marathon is listed as one of the top ten marathons for beginners. I kept going back to the page thinking about it more and more. It dawned on me that Kate has lots of relatives in the Cincy area and what better way to have a family gathering that didn’t involve a funeral or wedding than a marathon? That was that. I committed to running a full marathon a year earlier than planned.

I notified family and now on May 1st I will be torturing my feet and body for the greater good of bringing lots of extended family together in The Queen City. Training starts now. I sure hope I know what I’m getting myself into. No backing out now. I am officially registered to be one of the 16 thousand plus runners.

Stay tuned.

November 21, 2010. Mark the date. I will be running, or rather attempting to, run my first half marathon. All 13.1 miles of the Fall Classic in Strongsville. I think I’m ready for it. I’ve ran the distance twice now and with the last run I made the distance in under 2 hours. I’m a little nervous, but can’t wait to run this. Hope the weather holds and no colds/illnesses/injuries come my way in less than two weeks till race day. Stay tuned.

So this past Saturday, October 16 to be exact, I ran my first 10k. That is 6.2 miles for those without a calculator. The race, Midtown Cleveland HealthLine Classic, took place in a beautiful area close to downtown Cleveland through Playhouse Square and on Euclid with the massive bus lanes. Awhile ago when I was trying to figure out what would be my first 10k after my 5k I originally thought of doing the Towpath 10k, but that would have put me right on the same time as completing the training for a 10k which I thought better of. Even though I’ve heard that the Towpath is an awesome race through some beautiful areas of the Cuyahoga Valley I just knew I didn’t want to push my luck with this. That is why this past 10k was convenient. The timing felt right for my training. I had a vacation in September into October which I ran some, but more about that in a minute. I used another “couch to” app to train only this time I started off following it to a T, but then after I think 2 weeks of it I was already running 6.2 miles. Barely. Right about the time for me to go on vacation I came down a massive cough. I couldn’t fill my lungs very well and just the cough alone was driving me from not running. I did pull off one last 6.2 miler right before leaving, but that was rough. While on vacation I could only manage to run 3.1 miles at most. The heat and humidity did not help the congested lungs at all. While one 3 mile beach run wasn’t too bad it was after that run that I was all she wrote. I managed one more 3 miler and then one lone 2 miler for wrap up in a week of vacation. I started fearing that I was not going to be able to run the 10k on October 16.

Glad those fears went away. I worked my butt off to get back into 10k shape 2 weeks before the race. I even ran one time in the rain just so I was prepared for this kooky Cleveland, Ohio weather just in case.

I ran twice that week of the race, but then I rested for two days before the race. I’m so glad I did that. It helped. I usually have been going every other day for runs, but an extra day of rest helped in this case. Race day couldn’t have been anymore beautiful and perfect out. 55 and sunny. Flat course. Not many runners. I will certainly run this race again. Loved it. The scenery was awesome.

The most memorable thing about the run was that my four year old daughter had made the request to cross the finish line with me. Of course how could I resist that? I ran a couple of minutes above my usual pace and sure enough at the end I crossed that line with my daughter’s hand in mine. A moment I will always cherish.

The time: 55:36 with an average pace of 8:57/mile. 79th overall (out of 140) and 9th place out of 10 in my age group. (I was a full 5 minutes faster than the last place for my group.) I was also faster than several people almost ten years younger. I am very happy with the results. Especially since I had only been training for a 10k 6 weeks prior to the race.

Next up… Quite possibly it will be the Cleveland 10 Miler, but till then I will be out there building up to 13.1 mile runs.

P.S. About the title of this post. Since I started this goal of one day running a marathon I am now close to dropping 30 pounds of weight off this frame. I am stunned by that thought. Stunned. All of those early runs with carrying that additional weight just blows my mind.

Tonight on the eve of my daughters 4th birthday I just want to reflect for a moment on how happy I am to be dad. Why these feelings are strong is for many reasons that I won’t go into too much detail right now, but let’s just say I experienced a horrible upbringing that had me at one point swearing off having children. (The wife can vouch for this.) But with Kate being persistent and never giving up she said she knew deep down inside my reserved walls was a great father. When we got married back in 2000 we had the plan to revisit my stance after 5 years. By that time I think her persistence finally wore those walls down just enough that I finally felt for the first time in my life that I was ready to be a parent.

Fast forward to 2006. Early in the year we discovered Kate was with child. Admittedly I was actually impressed that it was that easy, but on the other hand deftly scared! Me a dad? So as the months go by with Kate’s due date getting closer and closer it still had not sunk in at all that a child, that we chose not to know the sex of, would soon know me as “daddy.” September 23, 2006. Hospital. And action….

3:03 p.m. The first cries of our daughter arrive. Kate was an incredible trooper I might add since this was an all natural no drug childbirth. The first looks of my daughter froze me forever and all of those feelings of never wanting to be dad were quickly ancient memories to never return from an abyss. I’m forever wrapped around this 4 year old’s finger.

I couldn’t be a prouder dad to a girl who has the personality that is out of this world. She is one of my proudest achievements and it has been a great 4 years to get to know her. I love my little magpie. Happy birthday.

P.S. A super thank you to Kate for making all of this possible. We celebrate you too for making our girls 4th year possible!