Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon

Jill and I flew into Oklahoma City to be part of the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon on the evening of Thursday April 23 and Kevin from FedEx picked us up along with my good friend Bill Rodgers. By the time we got checked into our hotel it was after 10pm and I had to get up early for a run and TV interviews. But before I went to bed I went down to the hotel fitness center to check out how Brendan Brustad was doing on his attempt for a world record by running on a treadmill for 168 hours (6 days!) Brendan was tired but in incredible good spirits! I wished him well and told him I'd see him in the morning. At 4am I was back at the fitness center to run and there was Brendan still plugging away at the record! He still had over 24 hours to complete his journey and get the record. After my run I headed over with my friend Randy Swanson to the local NBC station where I did a couple of interviews. After a nice breakfast with my wife Jill, we headed over to the expo where I spent the day signing posters, numbers, taking pictures, selling books at the OKC Memorial Marathon booth and at the Oklahoma Runner and Triathlete & New Balance booth. At the New Balance booth, Tim from the Oklahoma Runner and Triathlete along with Len Chatwin the New Balance rep, printed up some great New Balance tech shirts with my picture on them, all the proceeds from the sale of shirts and books went to the Dick Beardsley Foundation. I can't thank Tim and Len enough for their support for our foundation! Friday afternoon myself along with friends Bill Rodgers and Joan Benoit Samulson were on a panel speaking, we had a great turnout and had lots of fun!

Friday evening Jill and I were guests at the VIP dinner, it was lots of fun and saw lots of old friends! Saturday morning anyone that wanted to could join myself along with Bill and Joanie for a 3 mile fun run, what a great turnout we had! Afterwards we chatted with folks, took pictures and signed autographs. No time for breakfast as it was on to the expo that started at 9am. It was a very busy day and great fun! I gave a talk that afternoon and had a super turnout and my talk went well, I love runners! Saturday evening we went to the Memorial for the pasta dinner. Bill, Joanie, and myself took questions from the crowd and posed for lots of pictures. It's an incredible venue to have the pasta dinner at the Memorial!

Sunday morning I was up early for a run then did TV coverage with the folks from NBC and my good friend Mark Bravo. Afterwards it was off to pack for our flight home to Austin. Jill and I can't thank the folks of the marathon enough for the wonderful time we had! A special thanks to Chet Collins, Thomas Hill, Jeff Kidder, Randy Swanson, and Mark Bravo! Over the years we have all become good friends and they work so hard to make this event the great event it is! Next year will be the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon , I can't hardly wait! :-)

Here are all of the pictures that Jill took.

Boston Marathon

How can a person not get excited about the Boston Marathon! I wasn't even running the race this year and I was super excited! I flew from Pierre, SD on Friday and arrived around 11pm. My wife Jill was flying in from Austin and was suppose to have arrived around 10pm, but bad weather in Austin and Houston caused incredible delays, she did not arrive until 6:30 Saturday morning! I had to be at the expo by 9, what a trooper Jill was! I could tell she was exhausted but she sucked it up and went to the expo with me to help, as usual she was awesome! I spent the first hour and a half at the Marathon & Beyond booth signing books, numbers, cards, and taking pictures with folks, then after that I went to the New Balance booth for a couple of hours and did the same thing. After that I was on the Boston Legends Panel with Amby Burfoot, Greg Meyer, Katherine Switzer, and Jack Fultz, what a fun time we had! It was then off to our hotel for a little R & R ! Saturday night we spent with our friends Dave and Ivette Shelbourne along with their kids and some of the New Balance elite dealers from around the country. They had rented a few lanes of a bowling alley and we had a ball! Good food and fun bowling, I even rolled a 164 with my new knee!

Sunday morning I was up early for a morning run and then Jill and I headed back to the expo for more meet and greet at the Marathong and Beyond booth and with New Balance. I also gave a talk about the 1982 "Duel in the Sun" Boston that Alberto Salazar and competed in, had a great crowd and movie producer and friend Paul Martin was there filming my talk for a movie he is producing about my life, pretty exciting stuff!

Sunday evening we drove to Ipswich, MA where I gave a talk at a local church. We had a wonderful time and a large turnout of folks, thanks so much to Dave Shelbourne for arranging my visit there!

Monday morning Jill and I watched the race on TV and then it was time to head home to Austin. A HUGE thanks to New Balance for making my trip to Boston such a great one!

My wife took a gazillion pictures, all of which are here!

South Dakota Banker's Association, Pierre, SD

I was the keynote speaker for the South Dakota Banker's Association final day luncheon in Pierre, South Dakota. What a great time I had and they were a wonderful audience to speak too! I flew from Austin to Minneapolis, then a small puddle jumper to Watertown, SD, then onto Pierre. Pierre is the capital of South Dakota and it's a beautiful city right on the Missouri River. When I arrived I met Deb Gates who is the Administrative Vice President for the Association and checked out where I would be speaking the next day. Friday morning I was up early for a nice run along the river, then it was back to my room and then I had breakfast with my good friend Dave Shelbourne's Uncle Dan and Aunt Clara who live in Pierre. What a couple of wonderful people and we really enjoyed our time together! It was then time to get my notes together for my talk. My talk went very well! I didn't have any time after my talk to stay and mingle as my talk got over at 2pm and I had a flight at 3! I made it in plenty of time. That's the nice thing about small airports! I would like to give a huge thanks to the South Dakota Bankers Association for having me back this year! I was suppose to speak last year but they had a blizzard and I was stranded at the airport in Denver! This year the weather was perfect!

Illinois Marathon, Champaign, IL

What a great time I had at the inaugural Illinois Marathon! My good friend, Mark Knutson, who is the race director of the Fargo Marathon has been working along with good friend and Marathon & Beyond publisher Jan Seeley for two years on this event and what a great event they put on!

I arrived Thursday afternoon and that evening headed over to the expo site at the University of Illinois to meet many of the volunteers and to eat supper. My good friends Bart Yasso and GP Pearlberg were also invited speakers, it was fun catching up with them! Friday morning got up and did a run on the treadmill as it was raining. After a quick breakfast, Bart, GP, and myself headed over to the expo and spent the day in the M & B booth selling books, signing race numbers, chatting with folks, and taking pictures. I gave my talk at 6:30 that evening to a packed house at the pasta dinner. By the time I got back to my hotel I was whooped and went right to bed!

Saturday morning the rain had moved on and it was a nice cool clear day to run! GP was the main announcer for the race and Bart and I through our 2 cents worth every now and then. At 8 the race went off on schedule with the 5K following about 15 minutes later. Between the Marathon, half marathon, marathon relay, 5k, and kids run, they had over 9,000 runners!

All the races ended at the 50 yard line of the University of Illinois Memorial Stadium football field. I stood by the finish line cheering people on until it was time for me to leave for the airport and my trip back home to Austin.

This is a super event that will continue to grow and grow, I would highly recommend it to anyone that is looking for a great spring marathon!

Thanks to Mark Knutson, Jan Seeley, and the wonderful people of Champaign/Urbana for having me there for a fun weekend, keep up the great work!

Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run, Washington, DC

What a wonderful time I had in Washington, DC this past weekend! I arrived in DC on Thursday afternoon and took the subway to the Grand Hyatt Hotel where I was staying. My friend and owner of Pacers Running Stores in the DC area, Chris Farley, picked me up at 6:30 to get me to my talk at The Dome at Rosslyn. What a great place to speak! We had a really good turnout and my talk went well! Friday morning I headed over to the US Senate Building to greet the employees who were going to be running the race, I spent a couple of hours there as they were picking up their numbers. I had a couple of nice workouts that day and Friday evening I made a quick appearance at the volunteer meeting and said a quick hello to everyone.

After a nice 45 minute run on the National Mall on Saturday morning, I headed over to the expo for my morning talk. I had a good turnout and my talk went really well! While at the expo, a lady approached me who had heard my talk on Thursday and handed me a check for the Dick Beardsley Foundation. It was for $1,000!!! I was so overwhelmed I could not believe it! That's our biggest single donation to date! Jill and I can't thank her enough! Saturday evening I attended the VIP banquet and got to sit with my good friend Bill Rodgers. I was asked to get up and say a few words.

Sunday morning was a perfect morning for a race! Sunshine, little wind, and about 50 degrees. The men's race was very close! A young runner from Morocco won the race for the second straight year in a time of 45:57, he was followed closely by 5 Kenyan runners. The women's race wasn't as close but very fast! A girl from Kenya won the race in a little over 53 minutes!

After the race it was time to head back to the hotel, pack my bags, and head to the airport for my flight home to Austin.

A huge thank you to Phil Stewart, a old friend and the race director for inviting me to speak at this 37th running of the Cherry Blossom 10 mile race, what an incredible job you and all your staff and volunteers do! Also, a huge thanks to Chris and Kathy from Pacers Running Stores for having me speak on behalf of their stores and the New Balance Shoe Co. Great job!

I look forward to going back the the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run and running it next time! :-)

12 week update on total knee replacement

Three months out and my knee is doing really well! I'm able to do most anything I want including kneeling! I'm back running 4-5 times a week, 3 miles at a time, very slow, but its' still running! I still have a long way to go to strengthen the knee and quad, but I'm working hard at it! I've been doing a lot of cycling and that does not bother my knee at all. I go back to the doctor at the end of the month for a checkup. I still can't completely straighten it, although it doesn't seem to bother me as I don't walk with a limp. I will talk to my doctor about it, at one time he said he may put me to sleep and then crank on the knee to break away the scar tissue. We will see.
Have a great day!