Long Runs sometimes are just - long

Well, who knows what could happen next?? In an attempt to get myself more organized and prioritized correctly, I completely flipped my day around. I was finding myself getting way to "social media-ized" and paying way to much attention to my klout score. And I felt that I wasn't getting enough important structural and foundational work done for Teens Run Yonkers.

So, I decided to categorize everything I needed to do into 1) long term work i.e. activities like program plans that help create the foundation for a much stronger and better program, identifying proper donor systems 2)medium term work - activities that will drive our work for the next year to two years i.e. identifying multi-year funders and 3) shorter term - this tends to be the fun stuff such as email follow up, this blog, tweeting, finding meet up partners. And to really challenge myself, I hit the long term stuff first in the day. Since I started my day late (I decided to squeeze in my long run - more about that in a second) I am writing my blog at 6:00 PM even though I had been writing it at 8:00 or 9:00 - so we'll see if the audience is way, way bigger. Hmmmm

Anyway, my long run. Terrible and not fun. Unfortunately that's the way some of them are. Given that it was pouring rain outside, I decided to do it on the treadmill. I used to sort of beat myself up (mentally) if I did that feeling like I was taking the easy way out by running in my (semi) dry basement. Here's the thing - I like running in the rain -for maybe five to seven miles. That's a fun challenge. My marathon training schedule had me down for 14.

You want to try something challenging? Try running on a treadmill at an easy pace for 14 miles. It's not your legs that will wear down - it's your brain from the boredom. I usually try to keep it interesting by popping on a movie and I did so this time too but somehow it was just such a drag. With all the upcoming focus on Alfred Hitchcok - two movies "The Girl" and "Hitchcock" are due out in the next few months, I decided to watch one I hadn't fully watched before. I chose "Marnie" with Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery - it's OK but really kind of long. Anyway, what a long 14 miles that was....

The system does seem to be working though and I felt like I had a pretty productive day -so can't ask for a lot more than that.

Well, reading through this, it's one of my less cheery blogs...Sorry about that. If you read all the way down to here, I'll just say have an awesome weekend and I'll make it up to you Monday - have fun!!!

Teens Run Yonkers is a registered 501c-3!.....Not like the Human Fund (alert: Seinfeld Trivia)

Just a quick note to share some incredibly exciting news for Teens Run Yonkers anyway. As of September 11, 2012, we are a registered 501c-3 charitable organization! This was an unexpected surprise as our attorney had cautioned that this process could take up to a year. We filed on July 29, 2012 - less than two months! Wow! So a big thank you to the Pro Bono Partnership of Westchester for all their help. And thank you to Groundwork Hudson Valley for serving as our fiscal sponsor in the interim.

Speaking of registered charities -- and since I haven't asked any Seinfeld trivia for awhile, what was the dollar amount of the grant that Kruger and Company gave to George's oh-so-philanthropic Human Fund? And while we're at it, name the Executive Director of the Susan Ross Foundation and at least two items that became part of the endowment for the Foundation.

The End of Etiquette? Know Anyone Looking for An Internship?

I really wrestled with the decision whether to write this post or not. In writing - well what I'll be writing about - I realized I must be crossing over some line from whatever I used to be to being the type of "old timer" that complains about stuff like this....

So, it's 10:37 and I am now into the 37th minute of waiting for an intern candidate that had enthusiastically assured me how much she was looking forward to meeting with me for a 10:00 interview. And I was equally enthusiastic. Of course I will not reveal her identity as I am not spiteful - once on the blogosphere that could hurt her other chances for opportunities.

In any event, the candidate attends a local quality college, has an impressive GPA, has won numerous scholarships, is part of an honor society, deans list - you get the picture. Her well written cover letter intelligently outlined why she would be an asset to our organization. And as an added bonus she was available to work regular hours during the week. Perhaps it was all just a mirage? Any of you who work with unpaid interns - yes, this is an unpaid internship - know what a find someone like this can be.

After agreeing to our time, I also specified how to find our office and gave my number just in case she is lost. I have noticed that people don't have the easiest time finding our office.

So here I am - after skipping over starting some other more specific projects where I wanted the benefit of time - in the 45th minute of the hour.

My question is why? Specifically why have I not heard from her. My hunch is that in the interim between setting this appointment and today, she found an opportunity she chose to take. I get it and that happens. And I'll be candid, this isn't the first time this has happened. And my guess is that it won't be the last. As I discuss this topic with other folks at non-profits, we sort of take it in stride and just accept it that it comes with the territory.

But does it really? Is there any reason - especially in the nameless, faceless and way easier world of "thank goodness I don't have to pick up a phone anymore" a candidate for either an internship or volunteer can't just email and take a pass. How much more respect would I have for anyone with the guts to write a note that simply says "Dear Mr. Grabel, Just wanted to let you know that I'm going to pass on our meeting today. I've found an opportunity that I'm going to take and didn't want to take up your time. Thanks anyway, Ms. Candidate". By the way I timed myself and that would have taken less than two minutes to write.

Who am I writing this to? Am I trying to start some new movement? No. I guess in reality I'm sharing some frustration. I guess in line with what we do at Teens Run Yonkers, I'm really questioning what we're teaching young people. Also, my hope is that if you're one of the 22 to 25 people who look at this blog (yes, I do look at blogger stats)- AND I WOULDN'T MIND A FEW MORE - you consider what I'm saying. If you're considering volunteering or interning somewhere, show those folks the same courtesy you would a potential employer. What do you have to lose - well, about 2 minutes of your time. What do you have to gain? Well, the respect of that organization and if you ever decided you have an interest, an open door (or at least not a completely closed one)

Finally, and here's where I'll sound old school - what are they teaching students these days? We're looking at colleges for my daughter right now. All I can say is that for the bucks they're asking for, I hope they're throwing in Etiquette 101. In today's economy, why would you choose to show such disregard and disrespect for individuals that you may not only encounter again - while we're all more networked than ever, it's a pretty small world - but someone if treated kindly would be a contact and advocate for you? Am I old fashioned?

Anyway, sorry for my semi-rant for the day but in today's day and age of weapons of non-stop communication, I just don't get this behavior. Oh well, this too shall pass.

Anyone know someone looking for an internship?

Back to Philly - Marathon #11

A relatively quiet day on the blogging front after a week of lots of fun, exciting post Yonkers Half Marathon excitement. I am excited that Teens Run Yonkers Board Members have decided to start a bit of a campaign to increase both awareness of the program and raise donations. Over the next two weeks, they will be highlighting our activities and asking for contributions as we begin our new season. I'll be doing that myself as well but will reserve that for my facebook post. Nevertheless, very cool and eager to see how that goes...

The other news for me on the more personal - but still running - front is that yesterday, I signed up for my 11th Marathon - doing the full Philadelphia Marathon for the 3rd time and am determined to be in the high fours (a.k.a. sub 5). Remember, I never said I was fast - just consistent. I don't know what it is - the fact that Philly is my hometown, that it was where I did my first half, the course - who knows. Nevertheless, I just like that marathon. I think it's kind of a good barometer for my progress too.

Philly was the 2nd full marathon I completed back in 2008 (there was another 20+ pounds of me then too)and it took me 6+ hours. Last year, I was pretty close- I did it in 5:10. According to Runners World, if I follow their smart coach training, I should be able to do it in 4:50 based on my most recent race times. So, I'm going to make a really determined and conscious effort to follow their training schedule - which has me doing my first long run at 12:39. Like I said, I'm not fast but it's almost harder to do it that slow than to try to do it fast. But I'm really going to try to follow it in a focused and disciplined way - more than I usually do anyway.

I think there must be some element of luck involved as well. I had been thinking about signing up for a few weeks and was kind of figuring on going on the site "one of these days". I was meeting with an amazing person who had done similar work to TRY in Philly this past Wednesday and she told me that the race was entirely sold out. This motivated me to go on the site and it turned out that the Half Marathon was in fact completely sold out! At the same time, there was 1,000 spots left for the full so I immediately signed up. Definitely feels good to be right back to training for another one! Will keep you all posted on my training progress

Easy is hard - And Hard can be Easy; our Video

A couple random thoughts -

First of all, technology wise, these days I'm feeling like it's amazing how challenging it can be to do the things that people find easy. And sometimes, the things that seem challenging are incredibly easy with the luck of good accidents - or just information.

In the category of the former, I made a very conscious decision that Teens Run Yonkers needed to connect to the social media world in a more consistent, strategic and focused way. Since I'm lucky to have contacts in both the for-profit and non-profit world, I was particularly impressed by how some of my friends -that are leaders in those industries seemed to have the magic touch. So, I took the time to read things like Socialnomics (book on social media), read blogs, asked for help and studied how exactly all these things - well more specifically facebook, twitter, linkedin, blogs etc - link. I was sure there must be a formula for the right number of tweets per day, when to connect your twitter posts to facebook (and when not to) and all kinds of other "rules" I was convinced existed. You know what? (and I'm not disparaging anyone who is providing techniques or workshops on this stuff because I'm sure there's value in it) but for me, there's just doing. So, I've been trying it all. Honestly, I'm not sure where it's all leading but blocking out an hour to do this stuff is no big deal. And at the end of the day, getting thoughts out on paper can never be a bad thing.

On the flip side of hard to easy, I was filling out an application to go to a free nonprofit workshop. One of the last questions or requirements was to make a one minute video of yourself saying why you'd like to be included - and simply put the url to the video. I was stopped in my place. While, I certainly know how to make an iphone video of myself and did so after a few takes, I had no clue how to get that video hosted. Fortunately, one TRY's more tech saavy mentors pointed me to a video on youtube instructing you. It turns out to be ridiculously easy - there's an option right on the camera that with a touch of a button, allows you to send it to youtube.

I'm not sure there's really a moral to this story other than 1) sometimes you just have to do something to learn how to do something and 2) don't be afraid to ask for help - chances are the answers in front of you and it just takes a nudge to find it

And speaking of our film director/tech saavy friend, one more shameless plug for checking out our Teens Run Yonkers video - for me, it's even more inspiring than watching all six Rocky's back to back - these guys and gals are the best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWRGRAod0no

One Thing A Day to Fight Obesity

Sometimes you get lucky and blog posts almost write themselves. Today was that sort of day. The combination of two interesting bits of information that crossed my path this morning really got me thinking. First, there was the news blurb I heard on Q104.3 on the way in to work. It was that most Americans will be obese within the next two decades. Here's the story as it was written up in the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/18/us-obesity-2030-americans-obese_n_1893578.html

This amazed me for so many reasons. First, it just has me wondering when - or if ever -we'll find that all the current interventions, including programs like Teens Run Yonkers are making a difference. Obviously programs like TRY focus on exercise as one degree of the healthy habits that are necessary for young people to avoid and/or fight the trends in obesity.

But consider the growth of programs that focus on more fresh foods (i.e. farmers markets) food education such as that of my former employer Spoons Across America which teaches kids how to make fresh, healthy foods and the recent and growing celebration of chefs that are cooking up delicious but healthy foods.

Most interestingly - and not to get too political - with all of the attention that Michelle Obama has showered on this issue through the Let's Move effort, we've yet to hear of the impact. Having worked for organizations that you think would have benefitted from the attention, (and this is personally speaking) I'm not clear how, when or where the national attention manages to help organizations that are right here in the communities that are impacted.

And so - as this story would have it - we're not catching up, we're moving backwards. A quick read on this article gives lots of the resulting spillover effects i.e. hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. The list goes on. By the way, since it's my blog, I will state outright that I don't believe efforts like Mike Bloomberg's Stop the Soda Campaign - though now approved - will help one bit. Locking down, overcharging or reducing access without educating individuals doesn't solve problems, it just leads to other ones and/or creative solutions i.e. 16 oz refills.

I mentioned there were two interesting items. The other was Seth Godin's blog this morning. I have noticed that when I've included them, I've received dire warnings from blog central that I am not supposed to be reposting his stuff - so I won't. His basic notion though today was the idea of doing one thing every day. Do one thing that will change the trajectory of your business. Do one thing that will help a nonprofit (here's the link to TRY's donation page if you're so inclined http://www.teensrunyonkers.org/donations.html. Or do one thing today to help yourself to better health. Now that's some logical thinking.

Maybe it's idealistic but that might be a good start. Get everyone to pick one healthy habit - walking, running, eating five or six fruits and vegetables a day - if we all did that, and could pass on the word to one more, well, we might start getting somewhere. I'm going to keep on thinking as I'm convinced this isn't about throwing money at the problem, it's about inspiring action everywhere we can..

Our next run - Brisket - What's your favorite holiday meal?

So what next? Well, literally, a 5k Trail Run on October 6th along the Yonkers section of the Croton Aqueduct. I'm really excited that the Friends of the Croton Aqueduct have asked Teens Run Yonkers to head up a great run that will go along 3 miles or so of this beautiful trail. We'll be starting at the Shonnard Place entrance and continuing on up to Hastings. This should be a nice change in pace from during lots of running on the street. We're also going to be looking at participation in a few other local races over the next few months.

OK so having nothing to do with running or marathons etc, I was thinking about Rosh Hashanah. I was having a conversation today, discussing the holiday and the first thing that will always come to my mind when it comes to these holidays: BRISKET. Yes, brisket. For those of you who may be less familiar, here is the wikipedia definition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisket

Pay special attention to the line in there that says:

The fat cap often left attached to the brisket helps to keep the meat from over-drying during the prolonged cooking necessary to break down the connective tissue in the meat. Water is necessary for the conversion of collagen to gelatin.[1]

If that doesn't whet your appetite, what will?

But not to make fun as we are observing the holiday, I thought it might be interesting to pose the question - for those that are celebrating - what was your "most memorable"
holiday meal as a kid. I'm sure we could all share some pretty funny stories.

But in all seriousness, wishing everyone a wonderful and happy new year

Notes from Sunday's Yonkers Half Marathon

As much as I've said it before to many, still well worth writing in my blog that Teens Run Yonkers participation in the Yonkers Half Marathon was nothing short of amazing and inspiring beyond what I could have ever hoped for. Watching 21 Teens and Running Leaders line up at the start line as a team - unified in purpose, confident in ability and exciting about their challenge was a thrill. But to see them at the end - OK in reality I came in after many but was so happy to run in with Avery, one of our hardest working and dedicated teens was great - seeing them so excited for their accomplishment
was exactly why we do this.

The minute you step over the finish line - one you never imagined you could cross - tells you the world about yourself. It tells you that you set a goal, an amazingly challenging goal that was important to you and you made it happen. And as important as our mentors are, your dedication to this was what made it happen. That is something you have forever and I'm confident it's the message these folks walked with - in addition to the t-shirt and medal (OK they're pretty cool too!)

I could write a lot more - and perhaps tomorrow when I'm better rested I will. To sum it up thought, what one of our teens wrote on their Facebook page said it all - he wrote

"today was the greatest day of my life - I finished the Yonkers Half Marathon. But my legs hurt"

The thing I love is that 1) that's a "good" hurt 2) that will go away in a day or so and most importantly 3) that feeling of it being the best WILL NOT go away. It will stay there and be a constant motivator!

There's tons of pics on our Facebook page so please check those out at:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teens-Run-Yonkers/130787670273053?ref=hl

We were also thrilled to be a featured story in the Yonkers Daily Voice: http://yonkers.dailyvoice.com/news/teens-run-yonkers-group-building-future-leaders

and had our picture in the cover story for the race: http://yonkers.dailyvoice.com/sports/hometown-pair-set-pace-87th-yonkers-marathon

A little running update - A great book to check out - And some good Seinfeld Trivia at the End - What more could you want from this blog?

So, just a couple of random thoughts....

First, had a good almost last run before the Yonkers Half Marathon with our crew yesterday. Excuse the self-helpiness of this but, we did a little bit of a positive visualization thing....We ran the final three miles of the route - down Nepperhan toward City Hall, a left onto Broadway, Valentine and then back down towards the Library. The only difference is that we headed back up a nice hill towards Neppherhan as opposed to heading back to the library. Everyone kept up a nice pace and felt good at the end. What more can you ask. One more light one on Friday and we're good to go.

I've actually kept up some nice mileage this week - about 40 up through today which includes a 12 miler, 10 and an 8 miler. Not sure how smart that is but I'm just kind of going with it. Definitely eased it today with just four and will do about the same tomorrow. In general, feeling very good these days --

On a very different note, just wanted to share a book idea. If you're ever looking for ways to change your thinking or do some really powerful brainstorming, take a look at Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko; here's the Amazon Link:
http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking-Techniques-Edition/dp/1580087736

I've been trying to re-think some of what we do with Teens Run Yonkers and this book has some really fantastic and creative exercises for helping you reframe your thinking. Whether you're in a business, nonprofit or really any setting, these are some excellent ideas.

And since I haven't done any Seinfeld Trivia for ages - and I'm talking about great books, does anyone remember the episode - still one of the earlier ones- where Elaine is editing a book by an important writer named Rava? What publisher was Elaine working for at the time? What was Rava's boyfriends REAL name and what did he spend his time doing? Finally, there is a statue involved in this episode that looks just like one that George destroyed as a kid - he was pretending it was a microphone and pretending to sing what song?? Finally, when he broke it, his parents looked at him like he had smashed something pretty important. WHat was it??

Archie Bunker (anyone remember him), Politics and yes, Running

When I started the Teens Run Yonkers blog, I made a very conscious decision to NOT utilize this site for ideas beyond our approach of using running as a motivator and teacher for encouraging success, leadership and healthy living. And I was sure that I would never talk about politics. I know I'm dating myself when I reference the '70's show All in the Family. Anyone out there remember that one? If you do, you remember the main character, Archie Bunker, the classic bigot of his day. One of my favorite lines from the show was from his wife Edith who used to say, "you know the rule - never talk to Archie about three subjects; Religion, Politics or anything else!". Bottom line, it almost always gets you in trouble.

So today I'm going to break that rule but only because I believe it's relevant to what we are modeling for today's youth who are, in fact, tomorrow's leaders....

Very simply stated, I continue to be incredibly frustrated, disgusted, and I guess plain old disappointed at the way we as a country, people, and society take such a short-sighted view of leadership. Now, I'm not stating any preference for either party but it just amazes me that everything about our election cycle is driven by day to day news and needs. On one hand, before Obama "won" this months fundraising war, I was getting daily notes from my good friends Michelle (Obama), Joe (Biden) and Stephanie (Cutter) - this must be the new technique of making them my good old buddies asking for money. Every day, there was a fundraising "state of emergency" that said if I could just give $3.00 this month, life as we know it would continue. By the way, I do find it interesting that when Romney was raising more, it was all due to special interests and gave him an unfair advantage - now that Obama won August, seems like its OK to have raised more than your opponent.

But let me not play favorites. You know the Romney team couldn't wait to sink their teeth into the job's report that came out the day after Obama's speech. Why? Simple. Less jobs #s last month = Bad, bad president. Good jobs #s last month = Pure accident and most likely something like the sugar high bounce Obama seems to have received. Bottom line, it's all about the sound bite that is driven by the news cycle.

To put this in more everyday terms, I have a daughter starting college next year and started a college fund for her 17 years ago. Imagine me trying to make a decision that could impact where she goes to school (how much savings I have) based on what Apple stock did in the 3rd quarter of 1994 (around the time she was born). Essentially, that's what we're doing these days...

So what does this have to do with running, helping teens or anything remotely related. Just this....What are we modeling for youth - or maybe just each other -when we can't think further than the next day, headline or sound bite? Shouldn't our elections - or perhaps even closer home - the decisions we make - be based on long term results? I really believe one of the things we need to be teaching and demonstrating is how we lead and build for the future. And the future isn't what's in tomorrow's paper, next weeks Time magazine or in next months unemployment numbers. It's what we want to look like 10, 15, and 20 years and beyond.

Summer Vacation - After 11 Years, Live Life the Best You Can

So what did I do on most of my summer vacation? Well, happy to say I spent a good bit of it running - OK realistically, run/walk/running, with the teens from Teens Run Yonkers. I say run/walk/run because truthfully, at 47 and typically running 6 or 7 times a week, trying the Jeff Galloway method of running was the best way I figured out how to maintain my knees, joints and the rest of me. And I actually manage to shave just a few seconds off my miles and smile a bit more at the end of the run

Anyway, we had an excellent summer and thrilled to say that we have a team of 20 runners and mentors that will be participating in this Sunday's Yonkers Half Marathon. We'll all be doing the run at a variety of paces but that's really the beauty of it. What we constantly repeat is that your pace is your pace -and the goal is for you to give 110% of yourself every time you're out there. And these teens did. I'm incredibly proud of all the work our teens and mentors put out in the lead up to this event.

I always believe that when you do a run through some adversity - weather, challenges etc- it really builds you up. We actually had that experience this weekend when about a 1/4 way through our taper run on Saturday, the sky conveniently exploded. While I had said at the outset that although it looks like rain, let's just get out there and if it comes down, your call, no one quit. Teens and mentors all soldiered on through a really wet and dreary one - but they finished. Nothing like going home nice and soaked after a tough run.

I'm also excited that we built some cool new things into our program. We had an 8K kickoff run with our parters Yonkers on the Move; it was a great way to start off the season. We had Commitment Day a few weeks ago...Thanks to our friends and partners at Modell's, every runner that made the commitment to continue forward to the Yonkers Half Marathon got a new pair of running shoes to complete their training. In July, we had our first Mentors workshop and followed up with an even better attended one in August followed by a group dinner. And, for the first time ever, we gave our participants a survey to see how they feel about exercise, goals and other stuff before the race and how they see it after. All in all, some fantastic developments.

Like most today, I'm thinking about my life 11 years ago today - it was vastly different. And I still remember it like yesterday. I do feel like the best tribute we can offer to those who passed on that day is to live the best lives we can and make every day count. I'm doing my best and will continue to do so. Hope you are doing something positive to do so as well.

Today's Run: The Good, The Bad, The Humid and Really Ugly (and I'm not talking to or about a chair)

Sometimes you go out on a run and it's pretty simple - you just run and finish. Other times, like today, things happen; good things, bad things, annoying things, amazing things, etc. That's the way it was today.

In fact before I even sat down to write this, with Clint Eastwood fresh on my mind -like everybody else- I had decided to title this post "The Good, The Bad, The Humid and the Ugly". And that's a fairly apt description of today's run. Overall, I haven't had such a frustrating run since doing the Miami Marathon and being totally bake by the humidity.

So last night I got it in my mind that I should do a long(er) run (10, maybe 11 miles). I was doing this as I couldn't join our runners today for our 7:00 run and for me, I really feel its important to not just say but do. While they may not know (or even care) that I run the days they do if I miss a session, I care. Tonight we're celebrating my daughter's 17th Birthday - (that makes me, well, never mind...). Anyway, I woke up at 5:30 ready to run, weather be what it may.

I stepped outside and got a punch in the face a.k.a. humidity. But I didn't care, I was doing what I was doing. That's GOOD. Got to be like that. In fact, I looked at it as an opportunity to practice Jeff Galloway's calibration of slowing down for each 10% increment above 60 degrees. So, intelligently, I started off by holding myself back and going slower than my typical early pacing.

But somewhere between intelligent and mile 4, it had 1) gotten even more humid - or I was just becoming aware of it do to the drenching of my shirt 2) it started to drizzle and 3) I was just not feeling great. But I continued. In fact, I'm happy to say I continued until I got to Hastings (my original goal). And I was excited because I had been wanting to map out a route for Teens Run Yonkers to run in the October Acquefest. So it was very cool to be able to get on to it right from the tip of Hastings.

So more GOOD. Running on the trail was great - in fact, it was beautiful..In fact, at about 2 miles I had what I would call one of those "running moments". You know, the sort of stuff they always put in the Runners World Magazine and call it the Rave Run - really cool scenery, nature - all that stuff. And I actually came across a family of deer staring at me. Very cool. Kept going and going and ended up mapping out a good 5K for us to do.

That's when the BAD and UGLY started. As soon as I got off the trail and ran about another mile, something about my legs just cried out NO MORE!! So I walked. Stopped for what was now my 3rd bottle of water. Tried to run a bit more. No go.

Not to belabor it, I was clearly drenched, dehydrated (I never drink 4 bottles of water on a 10 mile run) and just felt like words I shouldn't include on a public blog.

Lesson's learned: Pay attention not just to temperature but humidity and conditions! If you must go out in 85% humidity (the read according to weather channel) go out Killer Slow. And sometimes you just have to accept the bad run and find the one good thing in the experience like learning a new route and seeing some deer. THE END