Jingle Bell 5k

What a wonderful event the Jingle Bell 5k was! It was held this past weekend in Austin, Texas and the proceeds from the race goes to MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)

I got up early and did a 17 mile long run from our home to downtown Austin. It was a clear cold morning but that did not deter the 2000+ runners they had!

After the race lots of folks stopped by the Dick Beardsley Foundation booth and asked lots of questions, picked up flyers, took lots of pictures, and learned more about our foundation.

I met a few folks that have dealt with chemical dependencies over the years and they are all doing well now! It was very encouraging getting their support for what we are trying to do!

It is a huge mountain to climb to get a foundation up and running, but it brings me great joy to know that with the help of generous donations and public awareness, we will make it happen "One day at a time"!

Thanks to all those who stopped by our booth and a big big thanks to my family for making it all happen!

Have a great day! Dick

Dallas White Rock Marathon

What a wonderful couple of days I had in Dallas this past weekend! My wife, Jill, was able to join me on this trip which was really nice!

Friday morning I had the opportunity to visit the kids at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas...talk about inspiring!

The rest of the day I spent at the Dallas White Rock Marathon Expo. I was at the Marathon & Beyond booth and the New Balance booth selling books, signing race numbers and just talking to folks.

Saturday morning I went for a nice 10 mile run with my good friend Mark Bravo from Oklahoma City. Mark had a total hip replacement done not all that long ago but you could never tell as we ran 10 miles together and he did not show one sign of compensation from it....amazing!

Saturday I spent the afternoon back at the expo and for awhile spent time in the New Balance booth with my good friend Bill Rodgers. Bill and I have know each other for 25+ years now and we still both really enjoy the sport of running!

Saturday night was the pasta dinner. The head table was a who's who of legendary runners from the past. It was a honor to be seated at the same table with Autoro Barrios, Bill Rodgers, Joan Benoit Samuelson, and Frank Shorter.

Race day morning Sunday, brought cold, windy, rainy conditions! Myself, Bill and Joanie all ran in the half marathon while Frank helped with the TV coverage.

It was a awesome fun weekend and a big thanks goes out to Marcus Grunewald, the race director, for inviting me to this years Dallas White Rock Marathon!

Have a great day! Dick

Mid-West Dairy Expo - St. Cloud, Minnesota

I was the invited keynote speaker for the Midwest Dairy Expo held in St. Cloud, Minnesota. I flew into Minneapolis on Monday evening and spent the night at my sister's house. I had a great visit with all of the family!

The next morning I drove to St. Cloud in a good ole fashioned Minnesota snowstorm!

Tuesday evening I was the featured speaker at their banquet. Being a former Minnesota dairy farmer, I really enjoyed being with some of the nicest, hardest working folks you will ever meet!

Wednesday morning I gave the keynote address at the breakfast in front of a few hundred folks, it went real well and I could tell from the comments afterwards, they really appreciated my talk!

I was very honored to have been introduced by a old friend of mine, Jeff Renault. Jeff is with the University of Minnesota-Extension and works with dairy farmers, in fact he came to my farm in the mid 80's and helped me become a better milk producer.

Jeff was also a accomplished runner back in the 60's and competed in the first U. S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 1968.

His son, Mike, is a very elite runner now and just competed in the recent Olympic Trials Marathon in New York City.

Thank you to the Minnesota Milk Producers for making my trip possible!

Dick

California International Marathon

This past weekend I was the guest of the California International Marathon and Fleet Feet Sports in Sacramento, what a wonderful time I had!

I arrived on Friday morning and after checking into my hotel I went for a beautiful run along the American River. Sacramento has miles and miles of great running and bike trails.

I spent Friday afternoon at the expo in the Fleet Feet booth, right across the way from my good friends at the Grandma's Marathon booth. I spoke with lots of folks and signed lots of New Balance cards.

Saturday went for a nice 10 mile run along the river. At noon I spoke to a large audience at the expo. My talk went very well, afterwards I spent the afternoon at the Fleet Feet Sports booth and sold a signed a whole box of books!I saw some old friends that have attended some of my Marathon Running Camps! It was great to see them!

Sunday morning I did a nice 14 miler along the river and then helped with the TV coverage of the race at the finish line.

What a wonderful weekend I had and also received some generous donations for our foundation!

A big thanks to New Balance for making my trip possible!

Have a great day!
Dick

Portland, Oregon

This past Sunday, after my duties with the Seattle Marathon, Bill Kaemmer along with his friend Tony picked me up at the Westin Hotel and we headed for the 3 and a half hour drive down to Portland. I actually was in the suburb of Hillsboro, Oregon.

Sunday night I spent about a hour with kids and parents from Bills XC team. I told how I got started running and about the Boston Marathon I ran in 1982. I signed some books and New Balance cards and had a great time!

Monday morning I went for a run with a group of runners from Portland, we ran along the beautiful Willematte River.

I then spent some time at Bills office and talked with some Portland St. University runners and some National Guardsoldiers. Bill is a Chaplin in the Guard and runs the GOLD program there.

Monday afternoon I spent a couple of hours at the Portland Running Co. store and had a great time chatting with folks.

Late Monday afternoon I ran with the XC kids from Hillsboro High School in the pouring rain, we had a blast, GREAT kids!

Monday night I gave a talk to the public at Hillsboro High School. I really enjoyed myself! I gave a motivational talkabout the ups and downs we all face in life and also talked about my drug addiction and our new Foundation.

Tuesday started early with a 10 mile run and then off to Salem, Oregon with Bill to the Oregon National GuardHeadquarters. We attended a prayer breakfast where I spoke about my addiction and my faith.

Bill also received a promotion and it was awarded to him by the Major General of the Oregon National Guard, it was quite a honor for me and a honor for me to meet the Major General!

After that it was off to meet and greet at the Portland Running Co., in Beaverton, Oregon. Owners Dave and Paul were there along with their staff. If your ever out in that area and need some advise or need some running gear, that's the place to go.

After that, back home to Austin! It was a very busy few days, but I had a ball!

Have a great day! Dick

Seattle Marathon

Hi everyone! I had a great time out in Seattle this past weekend!

I was the guest speaker at the Seattle Marathon and what a beautiful city it is!

I spent Friday afternoon at the expo signing books, New Balance cards, taking pictures with runners, and just chatting with lots of folks.

Friday night I was the invited guest of race director Louise Long to the Sponsor dinner, had some great food and conversation!

Saturday morning I did a 10 mile run along the bay in Seattle, it was beautiful.

I then went and talked and ran with the kids in their 1.2 mile run. They had over 3000 kids! It was absolutely amazing seeing that many kids running with their moms and dads and all having huge smiles on their faces!

I spent the rest of the day at the expo then delivered the keynote address at the pasta dinner.

Sunday morning I ran but did not race the half marathon, what a beautiful course with a couple of big hills thrown in.

The weather was perfect and it was a great race weekend!

Have a great day!

Dick

Drake Counseling Services

Last week I spoke at Drake Counseling Services in Fargo, North Dakota Drake is an addiction treatment center and it is where I went to treatment in 1996.

It's a wonderful place and the staff there is absolutely the best!When I got into treatment in October of 1996, I was taken to a large room with about 50 other addicts and sat in the back and listened to someone tell their story.

Thursday night I was in the same room as in 1996 except instead of listening, I was telling my story!

It is always very emotional for me when I speak at Drake, knowing what I do now about addictions, and seeing these folks that are here, many for the first time. As I was telling my story, I kept thinking of when I was in treatment and especially early on how I wasn't sure if I ever would or could ever get better and get my life back.

Sometimes you lose hope and when that happens it's much easier to give up and go back to your own ways again.

My main message is one of hope and not to give up and that no matter what it takes you need to put every ounce of energy into your recovery and that YES, you can get your life back and life can be better then ever before!

I get emails and letters from people saying thank you so much for sharing your story, and that you have given mehope.

As much as I appreciate their thank you's, I also want to thank them for letting me share my story!

As much as I hope it helps them with getting their sobriety back, it helps me just as much in maintaining mine, and for that I will be forever grateful!

As I tell them and myself, "You can live 40 days without food, 7 days without water, a few minutes without air, but you can't live one minute without hope"

Last Thursday, I gave myself more hope and I pray that's what they left with also!

Take care and God Bless, Dick

Bass Pro Outdoor Fitness Festival

I had a great time this past weekend in Springfield, Missouri at the Bass Pro Outdoor Fitness Festival!

I arrived in town on Thursday afternoon and local runner and business owner Danny Correll picked me up at the airport. We went out for a bite to eat and then he took me for a drive along the marathon course that I would be running on Sunday.

We went out that evening to a great little Italian restaurant called Nona's in downtown Springfield.

Friday started off early with a trip to the local NBC TV station for asn inteview, where I was on their early morning news program and talked a little about my struggles with accidents and addictions and got to talk briefly about the Dick Beardsley Foundation.

After that I did a radio talk show with announcer Ned Reynolds talking about the race coming up and about some of my past running days. Ned, a marathoner himself, really did a great interview! Then I met with Pam from News-Leader.com. Pam does the video for the newspaper website. She really got a chance to visit with me and got some great clips from my talk at the Park View High School.

Friday afternoon I had the honor of speaking to 1400 kids at Parkview High School in Springfield, the kids were absolutely awesome and gave me their utmost attention!

I spent the rest of the afternoon at the New Balance booth (they were one of the major sponsors, and the local NB rep Bob Brown made my whole trip possible, just a great guy!) signing cards, race numbers, selling books, and just talking to folks running in the races.

That evening I had the opportunity to attend the banquet for the Team in Training Alumni get together and also gave a short talk, I had a wonderful time.Saturday was spent at the expo which was held at the Bass Pro Shop, the National Headquarters are there in Springfield and it's a gorgeous store, I'm like a kid in a candy store when I'm there!

There was a 5 and 10K run and afterwards I helped with the awards ceremony.

In the afternoon, myself, along with running legend Frank Shorter and Olympian Jason Pyrah helped out with the kids mile run. It was great fun and the kids really had a good time!

That evening, myself, Frank, and Jason each gave a short talk at the pasta dinner which was free to all the folks in the marathon and half marathon, they had 800 guests enjoying some good homemade pasta!

Sunday was a wonderful day for running the half and full marathon. It was about 45 degrees at the start under sunny skies and light winds.

I ran the marathon and was hoping to run in the 2:40's and was feeling pretty good on the hilly course through about 15 miles. The balls of my feet, at that point, got so sore it felt like I was running on a bed of nails!

There were quite a few sharp turns that we had to make on a bike trail we were running on and perhaps that's why my feet hurt so much....I just can't take those turns like I could back in my younger days!

I was fortunate to finish 4th place overall and win the Masters title in 2:54:14I was a little disapointed in my time, but also very pleased I didn't bail out with my feet hurting like they were. I have to admit though, the thought crossed my mind several times!

It was a great fun weekend and hopefully I will get the opportunity to go back again to a super fun event!

A big thanks goes out to all the folks at Bass Pro Shops, New Balance, and my wonderful host for the weekend, Danny Correll and his family!

Dick

Cozad Hospital Foundation Fall Ball

This past weekend I was in Cozad, Nebraska as the keynote speaker for the Cozad Hospital Foundation Fall Ball.

My hosts for the weekend were Claude and Karen Berreckman. I flew from Austin to Denver to Omaha where Claude picked me up for the 200 mile drive west to Cozad. Friday night we had a great supper at Claude and Karen's house. Also joining us were Claude's parents, Claude Sr. and his mom Jane along with Lyle Davis (CEO of the hospital) and his wife. We had a wonderful time and very tasty food!

I was actually in Cozad to speak at a race there back in 1983. Claude Sr. pulled out a picture of me speaking at the race!

Saturday morning I went on a run with some of the local folks, then afterwards I spoke to the Cozad High School Cross Country team S. XC team along with some XC runners from the nearby town of Lexington.

Saturday night was the Ball and it was a grand event! Six people were inducted into the hospital Hall of Fame. I then gave a 45 minute talk and keyed in on areas of Loyalty, Dedication, and Commitment. It went very well and the folks at the Ball were a great group to speak to! I had a awesome time in Cozad, Nebraska!

Have a great day!

Dick

Team Spiridon - Austin

On Wednesday night I had a great time running, eating, and speaking with Team Spiridon!
We met at Little Mexico restaurant and went for a nice easy 2.5 mile run. I had the chance to run and chat with most everyone in the group.

We then sat down to a wonderful Mexican meal and then I spoke to the group. It was great fun as I told a little about how I got into running, one of the first marathons I ran (and did everything just about possible, wrong!) and how I looked for positive signs as I was getting ready to run my first Grandmas Marathon in Duluth Minnesota back in 1981.

Rob, the leader of Team Spiridon, was very gracious in letting me talk about the Dick Beardsley Foundation and what we are trying to accomplish with it. My soon to be wife Jill Gainer and foundation board member Stacey Conley (Conley Sports) were in attendance which was very nice!

We had just received our Dick Beardsley Foundation wrist bands and the Team Spiridon folks were the first to have a chance to purchase one and help the foundation.

I thank all of them for their generous donations!

It was a great night with a awesome group of people!

Thanks for having me Team Spiridon!

Dick

Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon

I had a wonderful weekend in Detroit, Michigan at the 2007 Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon.

I was there on behalf of New Balance as they are one of the sponsors. The expo opened Friday afternoon and I spent my time at the New Balance booth (my friend, Curt Munson, who owns Playmakers running store in Lansing and has two New Balance stores in the Detroit area) was my host.

Friday and Saturday, I also spent some time at the Marathon and Beyond magazine booth. It’s so enjoyable to meet so many different folks all after the same goal of finishing their marathon. I was in the Marathon and Beyond booth with my good friend Coach GP. He has a new edition of his book Run Tall, Run Easy. You can order it by going to Coach GP's website. I highly recommend his book.

Early Saturday morning I got up and got in my last long run before the Bass Pro Shop Marathon in Springfield, Missouri that I will be running on November 4. I did a 17 miler and felt pretty good on a very windy morning!

I had the chance to meet a person at the expo Saturday afternoon who is battling an addiction to narcotic pain medication. Hopefully I was able to give her hope to keep going and not give up the battle! Her husband and children were there with her and showed great support towards her.

Race day was sunny and windy. I helped with announcing until my voice gave out!

2:15 won the men’s division and 2:34 was the women’s winner. The 16,000+ runners in the marathon, half, and 5K all seemed to have enjoyed the day!

Off to Cozad, Nebraska this week to be the Keynote speaker at the Cozad Health Care Fall Ball.

Have a great day!

Dick

Resource Training & Solutions Center

On October 15 I had spoke at the Resource Training & Solutions Center in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

They were having their annual awards banquet and I was the keynote speaker.

The Resource Training center covers a nine county area in east-central Minnesota and provides programs to schools and family's in that area. Dr. Robert Cavanna has been the director there for 23 years and I can see why they are so good at what they do! Dr. Cavanna is a very positive person!

They do wonderful things for a lot of folks! My talk went very well and seemed to be enjoyed by those attending. I spoke for about 45 minutes and then we had a little get together afterwards, even saw some old friends from Minnesota I had not seen in years!

All in all it was a wonderful time!

Dick

Toronto Marathon

I was at the Toronto Marathon this weekend as a speaker and to run in the half marathon What a wonderful event!

The expo was on Friday and Saturday and I spent most of my time at a booth talking to folks, signing New Balance cards, and taking pictures. Friday and Saturday myself, along with Katherine Switzer, Roger Robinson, and Bart Yasso from Runners World did a seminar for the runners.

Saturday night we all spoke at the pasta dinner in front of about 500 runners, it was lots of fun!

Sunday was the marathon and half marathon, it was perfect running weather...cool, cloudy, and not much wind. I was fortunate to win the Grand Masters title (age 50 and above) with a time of 1:20:30. Very pleased especially coming off a hard training week as I'm getting ready for a marathon in 3 weeks.

After my run, I helped with the awards ceremony. If you are looking for a well organized race in a beautiful city, Toronto is the place to go!

I'm now heading to St. Cloud , MN for a corporate talk on Monday evening, then home on Tuesday for a few days!

Dick

Playmakers Trip

I can't begin to say enough good things about Curt Munson and his entire staff at Playmakers!

What a down to earth, genuine person he is! What a great store they have and his employees are awesome!

That store and the team attitude they have should be the blueprint for every running specialty store in the country! Friday evening I first did a live radio show and then onto Playmakers and signed books and New Balance cards and then gave a talk at the store. It was packed! Curt did a great job of getting the word out about me being there at the store.

Something really neat happened after my talk, I was signing books and New Balance cards when a gentleman came up to me and said "Dick, I don't have much money, and I'm going through and have been through some of the same things with addiction as yourself, but I want to help out with your foundation" He handed me a ten dollar bill. I got so choked up I could hardly breath!

Then after it was all over and I was getting ready to leave, I noticed a check folded up on the table. I said Curt, someone must have left a check for a book here for you. It was a check from someone that was at my talk made out to the Dick Beardsley Foundation for $100.00! I was so overwhelmed!

Saturday I spent most of the afternoon at the expo at the Playmakers/New Balance booth and talked to folks and signed books and New Balance cards. I gave a talk at the pasta dinner that evening and it went well. The folks attending were incredible!

Afterwards I signed more books and New Balance cards and when it was time to go back to the hotel, Curt handed me a box that they had put out in case anyone wanted to donate to the foundation. (I didn't even know they were doing that) We raised around $1500.00 for the foundation!

I'm still completely taken back by the incredible amount of generosity. I ran the Capital City River Run Half-Marathon and was fortunate to win the Grand Masters Title running 1:21:04

I'm sorry for rambling so much, but the weekend was one of the most incredible, emotional weekends I've ever had!

Have a great day!Dick