What am I doing here?

That's a good question and one I figure I will use this first post to answer. While I have often thought of starting a blog I never really had anything pushing me to do it other than my own curiosity until just recently but before we get there I guess I should tell you a little about myself.

 

First my name is Richard Stacy, I recently turned 46 and just celebrated my 14th anniversary (though we have been together going on 20 years) with my wife who doubles as my best friend and biggest supporter. When she realized I was growing bored of being a therapist she encouraged me to go back to school and find something that would challenge me and while I now pay the bills by working as a computer programmer I can't seem to leave the athletics I enjoyed in high school and college behind me. As my wife can attest to whenever I do anything I like to challenge and push myself to reach new levels. Even when I was playing touch football in the River City Sports league. I had to play at the highest level of competition  against people 10, 15, 20 years younger than me even though I knew that this was just supposed to be for fun. During that final season about 18 months ago I developed some back issues (not related to football) that ultimately led me to having back surgery which led me to believe I wasn't as invincible as I had once thought.  Six months after my surgery I started jogging again and on a lark decided to run the Patrick Henry half marathon after going out for a 6 mile run 2 days before the race. I ended up running that race right at about 2 hours and at that point I knew new challenges awaited me, all of which leads me to where we are today.

 

I had recently started running more in an attempt to get ready to run this years Patrick Henry Half marathon when I came across a post on Facebook from one of the coaches at Central Virginia Endurance (Bob Flanigan) about a running team they were accepting applications for and while I didn't think I would be selected I put my application in. Little did I know that just a few weeks later I would get a call from Coach Flanigan while I was on vacation telling me I was one of 8 people chosen out of almost 80 applicants and wanted to know if I still wanted to be part of the CVE/lululemon team to which I instantly said yes not knowing what I would be signing up for but knowing it was a new challenge that I couldn't pass up.

 

A little over a week ago we got together as a team and it was at this time that we got a better sense of what this opportunity would consist of

•  Individual training programs
• Coaching from Coach Flanigan and Ruthie Burke
• Yoga classes by lululemon

These were just a few of the things they were offering us and in turn all they wanted from us was our dedication to the program and a blog which would detail our progress and experiences during this journey which I guess is the reason I find myself here....a week later than I should have been but I am finally here.

So as to not bore you anymore I will end this for now but will hop on sometime tomorrow to recap my experiences of the past week and then will attempt to keep this blog updated on a more regular basis. Who knows if I like this blogging thing you might not only hear about this experience but may get to read about other athletic challenges I may take up and maybe even a little of the geeky stuff I do on a daily basis though I will try not to bore you lol.