Dick Beardsley

13 month TKR update

2011-10-27T10:17:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! As you can see I'm not the best blogger but figured I would update ya'll about my new left knee. It has now been 13 months since I had my new knee put in and it's doing great! I did have a little mishap back in early July but thank goodness it was not my new knee itself! My family and I were on a fishing vacation back in my hometown of Detroit Lakes, MN, I was out on a 10 mile run about 7 miles into the run I felt this sharp pain in my new left knee. I had to stop, I could not run another step! I had to limp back to the hotel. I thought for sure I had broken something in the new knee! As soon as I got back to Austin I got right into my orthopedic surgeon. They took x-rays and the knee itself was fine, but I partially tore my quad tendon that attaches to the top of the knee! So for the next 6 weeks I was in a brace and could not bend my knee. It worked! The last 8 weeks I've been back training hard for the 2012 Boston Marathon and my knee feels better then ever! I'm back running 70-80 miles/week and really enjoying the training to get ready for next April 16 in Boston! It's hard to believe it will be the 30th anniversary of what is now known as the "Duel in the Sun" the race Alberto Salazar and I had against one another in Boston. I can hardly wait! I will try to keep this blog a little more up to date and let you know how my training is progressing. Take care everyone and have a great day!

Dick :-)

6 month Total Knee Replacement (TKR) Update

2011-03-29T04:49:00.002-05:00

It's been 6 months today since I had a TKR on my left knee, it's doing super! My new right knee is now 2 years old and I don't even think about it anymore, my left one is almost to that point! I'm back training hard and running about 70 miles/week. I still have a long way to go to get where I'd like to be but it's coming! I've had incredible support from my wife Jill, friends, and Dr. Matt Heinrich! I know I may be pushing the envelope a bit but I'm listening to my body and back it off a bit when I need to. My hope God willing is to be ready to run Boston in 2012, it will be the 30th Anniversary of "Duel in the Sun" which excites me to no end!

14 years of sobriety

2011-02-12T05:47:00.002-06:00

Febuary 12 is a very special day for me and my family as I've been blessed with another year (14 years) of sobriety! It has not always been easy and the past couple of years with 2 knee replacements and 2 back surgeries I've been tested! But the good Lord has given me this incredible faith, my wife Jilly has been there every step of the way to make sure I didn't go backwards, my family and friends who have supported me from day one, the doctors who helped me through these past couple of years, to all of you and your prayers and well wishes, it really helps! The disease of addiction is like nothing else a person can go through. There are times when you wonder if you will ever get better, there are times when you think it would be better to go back to your old ways. This is the disease talking, it's always right there to jump on your back in the slightest moment of weakness. This is where your faith, your support system, your attitude, you remembering the hell you went through can really help! But know this, taking it " one day at a time" or even one minute at a time, you can get your life back and it can be better then ever before! Will it be easy? Are you kidding! It will be the hardest thing you ever do, but it's worth every ounce of energy you put into it! Thanks to all of you who support the Dick Beardsley Foundation, it is greatly appreciated! Take care and have a GREAT day!

Dick :-)

1 month post TKR

2010-10-27T04:19:00.003-05:00

Today i'm 4 weeks out from my total knee replacement and things are going well! In the past week I've been able to ride the stationary bike without any problems and yesterday I actually went out for a 30 minute ride on my road bike! I can also go up and down stairs like normal people do! Don't get me wrong it's not like it has been a walk in the park so far! I still have trouble sleeping at night as my knee tends to throb during the night. And if I'm up on it for too long or over work my physical therapy it gets sore and swells up a bit. The hard work is paying off though! My range of motion is getting more and more and I'm able to walk faster and farther now. I really feel the pool therapy has helped me a lot in getting my range of motion back! Hopefully I will continue to get stronger and stronger each week! Have a great day all! :-)

First day of PT (post hospital stay)

2010-10-07T14:58:00.002-05:00

Without doubt the most difficult part of a total knee replacement is physical therapy! Being able to straighten and bend your knee is what it's all about! With my first TKR getting it to bend was the easier part and straightening really took a lot of hard painful work, this time it seems to be the exact opposite! I have my same therapist (Renae) from before and she expects a lot but that's good! I'm already at 4-5 degrees straightening but have quite a ways to go on the bending. I have to remember it's only been 8 days since surgery, I need to keep working hard and to have patience! Tomorrow I'm off to pool therapy. I love it and it's amazing how much more you can move things while in the water! :-)

Home from the hospital

2010-10-05T11:28:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone!

Jilly picked me up yesterday afternoon from St. Davids Hospital, it was so nice to get home and see my furry critters! My surgery last Wednesday Sept. 29th went great! I can't say enough good things about my doctor, Dr. Matthew Heinrich and the entire nursing crew at St. Davids Hospital, it is second to none! I was in the hospital for 5 days but those first couple of days I don't remember a whole lot! They had me up and moving on Thursday morning, needless to say I was pretty unsteady on my walker but doing the rehabbing is the most important part of this whole process! Jilly would stop by on her way to and from work for a visit, it was something I always looked forward to! Friday, Saturday, and then again on Monday I had pool therapy, it's amazing how much better you can bend in the water! By Sunday I was able to straighten my leg out almost completely which was way better then when I had my first TKR done. That was something I had really struggled with! I was able to bend it to about 112 degrees so that's not to bad this early after surgery but I still have a long ways to go! My knee is very sore but not anymore then I expected it to be. The key is to keep on top of the pain level with the meds and ice and that seems to help! It's so good to be home! First out-patient rehab tomorrow morning. I will have my same therapist I had last time (Renae), she worked me hard but that's good! Until next time, have a great day!

Dick :-)

Upcoming Total Knee Replacement

2010-09-27T11:42:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! I've received so many emails from folks that have followed my first total knee replacement (TKR) asking about how it's doing, so on and so forth. My right knee I had replaced on January 7, 2009 is doing great! I don't even think about it and it feels super when I run! The problem now is my left knee! 22 years ago I was in a very bad farm accident and my left leg got all ripped apart. I had a wonderful surgeon in Dr. Richard Schmidt of Minneapolis and he did a wonderful job of putting my leg back together again! For 21 and a half years it was doing great! I knew this time was eventually coming for a new knee. It really started getting bad about 6 months ago so I went back to my orthopedic knee doctor here in Austin (Dr. Matt Heinrich) They went in and cleaned it out, even received a injection but nothing seemed to help as it was down to bone on bone. So, tomorrow, September 29 I go in for my new left knee. If it turns out anywhere close to how my right one has, I will be tickled pink! Needless to say I'm very nervous but also looking forward to getting rid of the pain and be able to get out and really enjoy the great outdoors once again! I am in GREAT hands with Dr. Heinrich! I will try and keep everyone posted the best I can! Take care all and have a great day!

Dick :-)

Not to good about keeping my blog up to date!

2010-01-09T12:58:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone! So sorry for not being real up to date on my blog, I think I sometimes have to many "irons in the fire"! My new knee was one year old on January 7, 2010 and is doing great! My back surgery in early August was a success but is still not feeling like it should. I just need to be patient as my doctor says it can take up to a year to get all good and healed. If you would like to keep a better track of me with regular updates, you can follow me on Twitter or become a friend on Facebook. Have a GREAT and HEALTHY 2010! :-)

Back surgery update

2009-09-18T12:54:00.004-05:00

I had my 6 week after surgery checkup this morning and the doctor said everything is looking real good! I'll be honest, it has not felt the best, especially trying to sleep at night, but like I was told, it has been only 6 weeks and these take up to 1 year to fully heal, plus I've been perhaps pushing it a bit. The doctor said I was way ahead of schedule, so that is good news! I just need to have paitence! I've never been to a doctor that is so on time! If you have a appointment at 8am or 4pm, I could set my watch to him, he walks right in the door right on time!

New Balance Elite Dealer Conference

2009-09-17T12:47:00.002-05:00

A big thanks to Dave Shelbourne and New Balance for having Jill and I out for the Elite Dealers Conference in Boston. We got to visit with some of the top specialty running store owners in the country and also sell books (Duel in the Sun and Staying the Course) and promote the Dick Beardsley Foundation, thanks to everyone who dropped by our table to say hi!

On Wednesday night, 150 of us all went to the Boston Red Sox baseball game at Fenway Park. Wow what a historic place!

In the pre-game ceremonies, I was led onto the field and was recognized for the 1982 Boston Marathon that Alberto Salazar and I battled in and also for the Dick Beardsley Foundation! It was a total surprise and I was very honored to have been recognized! I found out that my wife Jill and Dave Shelbourne were in on this and had been working on it for a couple of months. Thanks Jill and Dave, and also a big thanks to the Boston Red Sox organization! :-)

8 month knee replacement and recent back surgery update

2009-08-21T16:07:00.004-05:00

Sorry for not getting my blog updated as quickly as I should! My new knee is doing great! There is now nothing I can't do on it and for that I'm so very blessed! Three weeks ago I had to under-go back surgery. I had back surgery in 1994 and they had to fuse my sacrum along with L-5 and L-4, that surgery came about because of hurting my back in the farm accident and a car accident, it was doing fine until last fall. Over the winter months it kept getting worse and worse, this past spring Jill and I bought a new mattress thinking that might be the problem, that didn't help. I started getting some chiropractic help but that also did little good. So about a month ago I went to a orthopedic back doctor here in Austin and they took a x-ray and even I could see what was the matter! The L-3 vertebrae was completely bone on bone, no space at all!

Over the past couple of years they came up with a less invasive surgery called XLIF, instead of going through the front or back to get to the spine, they go through the side. They use small instruments, make two small incisions, and only have to cut through one muscle which makes recovery much quicker. In 1994 I was in the hospital for 12 days, this time I was in overnight! They had me up walking within 2 hours after I woke up in recovery!

My back pain was gone, the muscle they cut through still hurts a bit, but that is healing up nicely and is getting better every day. I'm back running again it feels good! Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I could run a marathon next month, but this new procedure was incredible!

New knee....check, Lower back fusion/disc replacement.....tomorrow!

2009-07-29T18:24:00.003-05:00

My new knee is doing super, I'm running about 50 miles a week and it feels great, my lower back on the other hand has been bothering me since last September and has become worse over the past few months. We bought a new mattress, thinking that would help, but it didn't (it's nice though, so that worked out). Sleeping has been the worst! Anytime I move or roll over it wakes me up and I moan so loud it wakes my poor wife Jill, the other night even our son Christopher could hear me moaning from his bedroom! I finally went to the orthopedic doctor, they took x-rays and the area of the spine between L-3 & L-4 is bone on bone, no space at all! I had a MRI yesterday and that confirmed the regular x-ray. Jill and I met with the doctor this afternoon and my only option is surgery. I had major back surgery/fusion in 1994 as a result of the farm accident and car accident I had. It has not given me any problem until last September.

The good news is, the doctor had a cancellation and I'm scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning and they have a less invasive procedure they do now that speeds up recovery time and I should only be in the hospital for a day maybe 2 at the most. I'm looking forward to getting back out running and cycling in the not to distance future! Take care and have a great day!

Dick

6 month new knee update

2009-07-01T08:35:00.004-05:00

It has been 6 months today since I had my total knee replacement and things are going really well! I continue to do exercises to build the strength back in my right leg and it's making good progress! I'm running 45-50 miles a week now and will keep it at the range for the next few weeks. As the leg has strengthened my pace continues to get faster, I have even run in a couple of 5k races just for fun. I continue to bike when I'm at home and yesterday I gave my knee a good test and biked 106 miles and the knee felt fine, no problem at all!

I will be doing the Gut Check 212 bike race across South Dakota in early August with my best friend Mike Dunlap, Mike does the first 200+ miles and I do the last 186 miles so yesterday was a good test! I get asked a lot if I take any supplements for my knee, the answer is yes and I think it has helped! I take a multi vitamin, 1500mg of Glucosamine/Chondrotin, a Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc supplement, and nuBound, which is the best, in my book, as a Recovery Supplement, as it helps with your immune system and helps with body tissue repair and maintenance.

For all you folks with a TKR or are having one done soon, hang in there especially during those first few weeks after surgery, it will get better and you will be doing things you never thought you could do again! Take care and have a great day! :-)

New Knee Update (5 months)

2009-06-01T12:22:00.003-05:00

As I write this on the last day of May, it’s been just about 5 months now since I had my total knee replacement and I’m very happy to say that things are going really well! I’m running about 40 miles per week and my pace is starting to pick up along with the distance I’ve been able to go at one time. I remember when I first tried to run back in March, I couldn’t go 100 meters without having to stop and walk because my quad would start to get so fatigued! Slowly but surely I was able to go longer and longer but the pace was extremely slow, some days I think I could have walked faster then I ran! I never got discouraged though and just kept working hard at rehabbing the knee and gaining strength back in my right quad.

As of today I’ve run as far as 7 miles and most days I now go at least 5. The pace has slowly come along as the knee and quad have become stronger. Each week I feel like I’m making at least a small gain and that is very encouraging! Most runs now are at less than 9 minute per mile pace and I’ve even got down to a 7:46 for one of the miles. If you would have asked me years ago if I’d be happy with being able to run a 9 minute mile I would have thought you were crazy, today I’m tickled pink and am so blessed to be back and feeling like a runner again! I’m sure if my orthopedic surgeon reads this he would like to strangle me!

Should I be running on my new knee? Not according to all the doctors, but do they really know what will happen? They are pretty sure the knee will wear out quicker than if I didn’t run. Most TKR’s will last 15-20 years under normal wear and then you may need another one.

Here is my feeling, (I’m sure some of you think, this guy is nuts!) I get such enjoyment out of running! I love everything about it! I’m only 53 years old so if I’m blessed to live into my 70’s and 80’s or beyond, either way I’m going to need a new knee eventually according to the doctors. Let’s say I need a new one in 10-12 years, my thought is by then the technology will be so much better than even today that who knows what we will be able to do with a new knee at that point! I may be eating crow at the end of all this and if I do, I will be the first one to admit I made a mistake. But in the mean time I’m going to enjoy every run like never before.

I promise you I will continue to give you all a honest update on how things are going with each update I write. I figure someone needs to be the “guinea pig” why not me! Perhaps it will help others who have to go through the same thing! Have a great day friends! :-)

Dassel-Cokato High School Athletic Banquet, Cokato, MN

2009-05-22T13:00:00.001-05:00

I flew into the Mpls/St.Paul area to speak at the Dassel-Cokato High School Athletic Banquet. I picked up my rental car and then headed for the small farming communities of Dassel/Cokato Minnesota. These towns are about 50 miles west of the Twin Cities. I grew up not to far from those towns and hunted, trapped, and fished on many of the lakes and woods in the area as a kid.

I actually stayed at a hotel in the larger town of Litchfield, about 12 miles west of D-C. I checked in, took a short nap, then went for a run around Lake Riley. It brought back some memories! I ran a 25K race there back in 1979, the reason I remember it so well, not because I won the race, but because it's one of the only times I've ever dropped out of a race!

I had a nice 5 mile run, then back to the hotel for a shower and supper. Wednesday morning I was up and back out at Lake Riley for another run, my golly it was windy! When I got on the north side of the lake, the waves were hitting the shore so hard I was getting wet and I was on the far side of the road! That afternoon I drove up to the Dassel-Cokato High School. The wind was blowing so hard and the dirt blowing off the newly planted fields, I had to have my lights on! I met with the boys and girls track team and spoke to them out on the track, I had to shout so they could hear me because of the wind!

After meeting with the kids, I headed back to the hotel and got cleaned up and headed back to the high school where I was the keynote speaker at the Athletic Banquet. We had a great meal and then we all headed into their beautiful auditorium where the awards were being presented and where I would give my talk. They had over 350 kids and parents at the event. My talk went really well and we all had a great time!

I love speaking in small towns, the people are so appreciative and I love the spirit and the togetherness that small towns have. Thanks Dassel-Cokato for your great hospitality! :-)

Dick Beardsley Running Company, Fargo, ND

2009-05-10T12:48:00.001-05:00

I was on the road by 6am from Grand View Lodge to head for the Fargo Dome where the Dick Beardsley Running Company had a booth set up at the Fargo Marathon expo. I arrived around 9:30 and the place was already packed with people! We have a great bunch of owners and employees and they were all there with smiles on their face's ready for a long day ahead! Then New Balance Shoe Company was kind enough to make up some awesome posters for me to sign. They sent us around 150 posters and they were going like hot cakes!

I spent most of the day signing posters, race numbers, getting pictures, and chatting with people, my goodness the day went by quickly! It was so fun chatting with everyone! I love race expo's as you can just feel the energy and excitement throughout the day! The expo ended at 9pm and then it was time to take everything down and pack it up to haul back to the store. Needless to say we were all exhausted!

I get way to much credit for the success of our store. Yes it has my name on it, but my partners and our employees deserve all of the credit! They are the ones at the store every day working hard not only at the store but with their "real" jobs plus raising family's, I'm so proud to be associated with such a wonderful store but even more so of the great friends I have there! Keep up the great work gang! :-)

Minnesota City/County Manager's Association's Annual Conference, Brainerd, MN

2009-05-08T12:35:00.001-05:00

On May 6th I flew into Fargo, ND for a visit to our running specialty store, the Dick Beardsley Running Company and for my talk over in Nisswa, Minnesota. I had been invited to speak at the Minnesota City/County Managers Association Annual Conference held at Grand View Lodge on beautiful Gull Lake. I drove to the lodge on the morning of Thursday May 7. My friend and former Becker County Manager Mike Williams had put the word in for me to speak at this event. Becker County is the county I was from as I lived in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota before I moved to Austin.

Mike was also a runner and a darn good one at that! I got all checked into my cabin and was fortunate to run into Mike. We chatted a little about my talk and then it was time to get my head together and get ready for the dinner and banquet. After a great meal it was my time to get up as the keynote speaker. The audience was awesome and my talk went really well! I had planned to possibly drive back to Fargo that night but as with most talks, I'm just drained after them so decided to get to bed. I got up at 4 the next morning, got in a nice 5 mile run through the forest roads and headed back to Fargo.

Thanks everyone and especially Mike Williams for the great time I had! :-)

Jeff Bostow Post Boston Marathon Party -Minneapolis

2009-05-03T12:16:00.001-05:00

My friend Jeff Bostow is one crazy guy! (all in a good way!) Jeff is a coach with Life Time Fitness in the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis/St.Paul. This past winter he led a training group of folks that were running the 2009 Boston Marathon. A couple of months before the race he had a idea to surprise his athletes and give them all a copy of the book "Duel in the Sun" not just to give them a copy, but to have it signed by myself, Alberto Salazar, and the author John Brant! So as they climbed on board the bus heading to the starting line in Hopkington, they all received a signed book.

Now you would think that would be the end of the story wouldn't you? Noooooooo! Jeff contacted me to see if I would be able to come up for their post Boston party to surprise everyone! Well, it all worked out and I arrived in Minneapolis from Austin the morning of the party. Jeff and I went for breakfast and we layed out the plans on how it would all unfold.

By 4 pm I had to be in one of the bedrooms in his house so no one would know I was there. At around 5 guests started arriving and they were enjoying the nice day outside talking about the race and other things while a big ole kettle of stew was cooking on the fire pit.

Jeff started the official program around 7, he then showed a video of the "Duel in the Sun" race from 1982, then he had another short video off of "YouTube" of me telling the "Duel in the Sun" story to a group in Chicago. By this time I was now down hiding in a downstairs room waiting for my cue to walk out. After the video Jeff said even though Dick now lives in Austin, Texas, let's give him a big round of applause for all he has done for running here in Minnesota.

That was my cue, I walked out onto the patio at that point, people at first were speechless and dumbfounded all at the same time! I will never ever forget the looks on their faces when I walked out! After the shock, we took lots of pictures and had a great time for the next couple of hours. Jeff, I can't thank you enough for what you did not only for me but more importantly for all your athletes! You're a good man my friend, keep up the great work you do! :-)

Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon

2009-04-27T11:38:00.002-05:00

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

2009-04-22T11:19:00.002-05:00

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

2009-04-18T11:04:00.001-05:00

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

2009-04-12T02:19:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-06T11:18:00.004-05:00

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

2009-04-01T11:09:00.001-05:00

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!

Thames Valley School District Talks, London, Ontario, Canada

2009-03-27T04:24:00.001-05:00

London, Ontario is a beautiful city located about halfway between Detroit, Michigan and Toronto, Canada. Like London, England, it's located on the Thames River. I arrived in London on Tuesday and Chris McCrady, the Vice-Principal at West Elgin Secondary School picked my up and took me to my hotel, the Spencer Conference Center. I took a short nap, then headed for the fitness center for a workout. Chris picked me back up at 6pm and we had a wonderful supper with some friends of his. One of the folks there, Jerry, was such a fun guy to talk with! He is a walking encyclopedia of running over the years! Friends of mine, Paul and Cathy Roberts who own Runners Choice specialty running store along with their son, Matthew were also there. I was in London a few years ago to speak at the London Marathon that Paul directs, it was wonderful to see them again!

Chris picked my back up early Wednesday morning, we stopped and had a nice breakfast in a small town cafe on our way to West Elgin School. I spoke for a hour to around 600 kids and faculty, my talk went very well and the kids were awesome! After my talk, it was back to the hotel for a short break and then onto Beal High School, it's a large tech school in the heart of London. I spoke to around 1000 kids in a beautiful auditorium, once again my talk went very well and the kids were wonderful!

After some down time at the hotel, I gave my final talk of the day that evening that was open to the public. We had a great turnout, my talk went very well. Afterwards, I signed New Balance cards and chatted with folks for over a hour, what a nice bunch of people!

Thursday morning I gave my last talk of my trip to the students and faculty at Park Dale High School. Once again I was fortunate that my talk went well, and once again the kids were awesome!

It was then onto the airport for my trip back home to Austin. A huge thank you to Chris McCrady who set my whole trip up and shuttled me everywhere I needed to be! Also a big thanks to all the schools that I spoke at, the students, and Paul and Cathy Roberts, along with New Balance.

I had a wonderful time and I sure look forward to my next trip to London, Ontario!

Dick Beardsley Marathon Running Camp

2009-03-17T13:56:00.005-05:00

Hi everyone!
Just wanted to let you know that registration is now open for the 8th annual Dick Beardsley Marathon Running Camp held at Rainbow Resort in beautiful Northern Minnesota lakes country! We only take 35 campers and it fills up quite quickly! Jan Seeley of Marathon & Beyond is our Camp Director and does a fantastic job of putting on a great camp! It's held in early September when the bugs are gone and we get nice mild days and nice cool nights! Running in the north woods is breathtaking! Like one of our campers said a few years ago "I came to Dick's camp to become a better runner, I left a better person" It's a running camp like no other! If you'd like more information please check out the brochure.

Take care and I hope to see you in September!

Pole, Pedal, and Pant Winter Triathlon

2009-03-16T13:39:00.002-05:00

I left Fargo Friday morning and headed to Lake Park, Minnesota which is about 40 miles east of Fargo on Hwy 10. My very close friends Bud and Judy Buchta live on a small farm just north of Lake Park and they are like family to me! I stopped into say hello and we enjoyed catching up with each other along with their son Steve who stopped in. It was then on to the Twin Cities!

I was invited by Amy Xu the race director and a good friend to help announce at the Pole Pedal Pant Winter Triathlon, held at Elm Creek Park Reserve. I arrived into the Twin Cities around 5pm, worked out at the fitness center then headed for the park for a meeting of all those involved.

After our meeting I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed to Amy's house or at least that's where I thought I was! I pulled into their driveway around 9pm, drug my big ole suitcase up to the front door and rang the doorbell, no one answered so I started knocking on the door, still no one answered. I called Amy on my cell phone and she was surprised Mike was not home yet. She told me to hang tight and she would call Mike. To make a long story short, I was at the neighbors house not theirs! That wasn't the first time that has happened to me! We all had a good laugh and then it was off to bed.

Saturday morning I was up real early to workout and then headed to the park to start my announcing. They had close to a 100 entrants that XC skied 10k, biked for 7k, then ran 7k all out on the snowy trails through the park. It was a beautiful day and everyone had a great time!

A big thanks to Mike and Amy who's hospitality is second to none!

The Dick Beardsley Running Company

2009-03-14T13:23:00.001-05:00

The day before I left for North Dakota, a huge blizzard shut down the interstate from Fergus Falls, Minnesota to Jamestown, North Dakota! They had a foot of snow and winds of 50 mph! I didn't think I'd be able to make it when I landed in Minneapolis on Wednesday for my drive to Fargo, North Dakota. I should have known better! I lived in the area for 50 years and there is no one better then clearing the roads then the Minnesota DOT! I had clear sailing all the way to Fargo but boy was there ever a lot of snow, especially when you got about 100 miles NW of the Twin Cities!

I arrived to Fargo around 4pm, went to our store, the Dick Beardsley Running Company, then went next door and worked out at the fitness center. That evening we had dinner and a meeting with all of the owners, and the great news is the store is doing real well! We will be open 2 years now in April.

When I'm up at the store, I always stay with my good friends Greg and Stephanie Hammes (also part owners) they have three of the nicest cutest daughters you'd ever meet, it's always great to see them!

Thursday morning Greg and I were up early to meet the runners at our store at 5:30, over 20 runners showed up on a morning that was 21 degrees below zero! Since I'm still recovering from my total knee replacement, I ran on the treadmill as I didn't want to slip on the snow and ice, plus living in Texas now, my blood hadn't had a chance to thicken up and it felt to me like it was a 121 degrees below zero!

After our runs I had two radio interviews to do that morning. Thursday evening I gave a talk to our Fargo Marathon/Half Marathon training group. We had a great turnout and afterwards I signed books and took pictures with lots of folks, it was a fun evening!

Thanks to everyone in the Fargo area and especially the folks at the Dick Beardsley Running Company for making my trip such a fun one!

The Texas Independence Relay

2009-03-07T12:47:00.002-06:00

I had the opportunity to travel to the nice town of Gonzalas, Texas on March 6th to give a talk before the start of the Texas Independence Relay, a 8-12 person relay team that runs from Gonzalas to Houston, Texas, a span of about 200 miles. Joy and Jay Hilscher are the race directors and started this race last year. I'm sure it will continue to grow and grow!

I spoke at the registration area the afternoon before the race in this neat old courthouse. I was there on behalf of Mark Connell who owns Nubound. I've been taking this recovery supplement for a few years now and it really does help you recover faster from hard workouts or races. Since I was on at 3pm, I will be honest with you, there were not a lot of folks in attendance at that time of day as the pasta dinner didn't start till around 7. Saying that, I had a great group of folks from the Houston area who got there early and came to listen and they were a fun bunch! I told a few stories, answered some questions, and then we all took a group picture.

A big thanks to Mark Connell, Joy and Jay Hilscher, and the folks from Houston for making my trip to Gonzalas Texas a fun one!

The New Balance Michigan Summit

2009-03-06T11:39:00.001-06:00

After Napa, Jill and I were to fly home from San Francisco, but with the rainy weather in San Francisco our flight got delayed to Denver and we would miss the one flight that evening from Denver back to Austin. I made a quick call to Dave Shelbourne at New Balance and got the OK to fly directly from Denver to Detroit. So after a night in Denver I was on my way to Detroit.

New Balance rep Ken Larschfield picked up myself along with Dave, Claire Wood, Eric Vassall, and Tera Linafelter all of New Balance. On our hour and a half ride to Lansing, Ken had picked up some sandwiches for all of us to eat on the way. With all the luggage and 6 people in the Tahoe we were packed in there tightly!

We arrived at Playmakers, a specialty running store, around 2:30pm. I'd been there once before and talk about a awesome store with awesome employees, Playmakers is it! We met with some of the top folks at Playmakers and Dave, Claire, Eric, and Tera did there magic about New Balance shoes and clothing, they really know their stuff! Afterwards we all went out for a nice supper and then headed back to the store where it was my turn to speak.

I signed books and New Balance posters for about a hour and my cousin Sue and her husband Tom drove from Cheasaning, Michigan to hear me speak, what a wonderful surprise it was to see them! Curt and Brian and the rest of the crew really know how to promote an event! We had a packed house for my talk which went well! Afterwards I signed more books and posters and then we headed for our hotel.

Wednesday morning I was up early to workout and then we headed for Grand Rapids, Michigan to meet with Ken Sung and his staff at Gazelle Sports. WOW, what another wonderful store with awesome people! Wednesday night I gave a talk at Celebration Cinema to a full house, and my talk went really well! Afterwards they watched the movie "Spirit of the Marathon" then after that I signed books and New Balance posters, took pictures and talked to folks attending the event, what a wonderful evening we all had!

Thursday morning I was up early to workout and then we headed back to Gazelle Sports for breakfast and the New Balance presentation to the staff. Now it was off for the Detroit area and Hanson's Running Store in Royal Oak, Michigan to meet with owners Kevin and Keith Hanson. I've known Kevin and Keith for a number of years and spoke at their store a couple of years ago. They are so enthusiastic about the sport of running and over the years have put their own hard earned money into the Hanson/Brooks Distance Project. They have given a number of post collegiate runners, men and women a chance to continue there running by offering free housing and insurance, a job, coaching, travel, gear, and so on. They have been very successful at what they do and last year produced Olympic Marathoner, Brian Sell. We had a great lunch together and then went to their store and chatted for a bit before it was time to leave for the airport to catch our flights home.

I'd like to give a big thanks to Playmakers, Gazelle Sports, the Hanson's, and Dave, Ken, Eric, Tera, and Clair from New Balance for making my trip so enjoyable!

Minnesota and Washington and California Oh My!

2009-03-02T11:40:00.005-06:00

My goodness its been awhile since I wrote on my blog, sorry about that! On Monday February 23 I flew to Minneapolis, then drove to Eveleth, Minnesota arriving there around 6pm. Tuesday morning I gave a talk to the students and faculty at East Range Academy of Technology and Science, the students were wonderful and had lots of good questions after my talk. After speaking, I headed back to the Twin Cities and stayed with my sister Sheila and her family, its always nice to see them!

Wednesday I checked into the Millennium Hotel in downtown Minneapolis and that night gave a talk at the Land O'Lakes annual meeting. I got to see my old boss Gary Weber, for a year back in the late 80's, I was a Livestock Production Specialist for Land O'Lakes and worked in the Volga, South Dakota area. Since that time Gary has moved up in the company and continues to do a great job for Land O Lakes! My talk went very well and afterwards I signed a bunch of my books that Land O'Lakes had bought for the folks that were there, all in all it was a very fun night!

Thursday morning I was up early to work out and then onto the airport to catch my 6am flight to Spokane, Washington. I arrived around 10:30am and my good friend Don Kardong picked me up at the airport and took me to my hotel where I checked in and then took a nap, I was whooped! Don, who was a 4th place finisher at the 1976 Olympic Marathon is also the race director of the huge Lilac Bloomsday Run held in early May, they usually have over 50,000 runners every year! Thursday evening Don picked me up along with a friend and we went out and had a great supper, I had ribs and were they ever good! After supper it was time to head to the high school and deliver my talk. They had a nice turnout and my talk went well! It was now time to get back to the hotel and get to bed as I had a very early flight the next morning!

Friday morning I was up at 3am to workout at the fitness center, then grabbed a shuttle to the airport at 4:30 to catch a flight for San Francisco.

I was heading to Napa, CA to speak at the Napa Valley Marathon, and the great thing was, Jill was coming in from Austin and would meet me at the airport! I got in around 1:30pm and saw a message on my phone from Jill, their flight from Austin was canceled and they would be in later.

Jill along with John and Stacey Conley who were special guests of the Napa Valley Marathon arrived around 4pm and I was waiting with our rental car for the ride to Napa. For some reason even with my Garmin I always have trouble getting to the Golden Gate Bridge, I finally got there and it was worth all the missed turns, as crossing the bridge it was kind of foggy and cloudy, it was gorgeous!

We arrived to Napa around 7pm and went right to the restaurant to meet our good friends Paul Martin and his wife Patti and Janet Cain and her husband David. We all had a great time and shared lots of laughs and stories! We got back to the hotel late and needless to say were very tired so we went straight to bed to get some rest for the busy weekend.

The Napa Valley Marathon is one of the best races you could ever be part of! They cap the race at 2,300 runners and it's held on the old Silverado Trail from Calistoga to Napa. The road is closed to traffic and the many volunteers and aid stations along with the stunning views makes it one of my all time favorite races! I got up early Saturday morning and worked out at the fitness center, my knee seems to be getting stronger every day and can handle more and more work. Jill and I then had a nice breakfast with the John and Stacey and met some of our wonderful friends we see every year at Napa. I then spent about a hour and a half at the Marathon & Beyond booth signing books, taking pictures, and chatting with the runners at the expo. At 1pm, I was the keynote speaker and we had a fun time telling some funny stories to a packed house. Afterwards I helped with the incredible gift baskets they raffle off and then it was back to Marathon and Beyond for another hour and a half.

Jill and I were in the 6:30 pm sitting for the pasta dinner, one of the best pasta dinners you will find anywhere! It was fun talking with everyone and listening to some funny stories from folks. It was time for some shut eye after that as we had a early morning wakeup call.

I was up very early Sunday morning to workout and then we headed for the starting line on a cloudy rainy but fairly warm morning. The race started right at 7am. Jill and I then drove our car to the different cross roads along the route to cheer on the runners as they came by. Luckily we were able to buy a couple of umbrellas at a gas station or we would have really gotten soaked! My good friend Mary Coordt won the women's race for a third time and ran around 2:48, Peter Gilmore running the race for the first time and only as a long hard run, won the race in around 2:22. Peter is getting ready for a spring marathon and he really looked good coming across the finish line. Peter is a 2:12 marathoner and he wasn't even breathing hard when he came in.

Sunday afternoon all the invited guests headed up to a bed and breakfast for the night where we also had a wonderful dinner with all of the Napa Valley Marathon board. One of the invited guest was my very good friend Rob Reid and his wife Joan from Victoria BC, Rob, who is the race director of the Royal Victoria Marathon and I are like brothers so it was really good to see him again!

Jill and I would like to thank so very much Rich Benyo, David Hill and the entire Napa Valley Marathon board for the wonderful time we had, keep up the AWESOME work you do!

Here are the pictures from the Napa Valley Marathon.

6 week post knee replacement surgery

2009-02-22T20:04:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone one, time for a update as I just saw my surgeon Dr. Matt Heinrich this past Friday. They took x-rays for the first time since surgery and everything looks great!

I can pretty do everything like a normal person now. I walk without a limp, can go up and down stairs like you should be able to, I "run" on the elliptical machine, do weights, power walk with nordic poles, and have been doing quite a bit of biking. In fact today I did a 35 mile ride and felt quite good! Sure feels good to work out again and get back into shape! I haven't tried running yet but as I continue to work on strengthening my right quad, I hope to give a try in the next few weeks.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers, I really appreciate it! Have a great day!

Austin Runners Club Winter Party

2009-02-19T11:57:00.003-06:00

On Wednesday evening my wife Jill and I along with our good friend Laura Nye went to the Winter Party of the Austin Runner's Club held at Fiddlers Hearth in Austin. What a great time that was had by all! Our good friend Clemmie Cummins sat with us and we had lots of fun visiting with everyone and enjoying a great meal. After dinner the Dick Beardsley Foundation was presented with a check for $1,000.00! In December the Austin Runners Club hosted the Decker Half Marathon and the Double Decker Marathon, and the Dick Beardsley Foundation was the beneficiary of the folks that ran the Double Decker. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the generous donation to the Dick Beardsley Foundation. It will be of huge benefit in helping those fighting the terrible disease of chemical dependency!

Austin Marathon

2009-02-16T11:29:00.001-06:00

What a wonderful event the Austin Marathon and Half Marathon is! I first was invited to speak at the Austin Marathon back in 2004 and if my memory serves me correctly this was my 4th time to speak here. This was the first year they did not have a title sponsor but as always race directors John and Stacey Conley put on another great race! I spoke at the expo on Friday afternoon to a full house and my talk went well. I then spent the next hour in Jan Seeley's and Rich Benyo's Marathon & Beyond magazine booth selling my book, Staying the Course, a Runner's Toughest Race, signing New Balance cards and posters, and taking pictures with folks, it was a lot of fun! That evening at the Hyatt was the VIP get together and I was there with my wife Jill and we had fun mingling with lots of people.

After a good workout on the elliptical machine early Saturday morning Jill and I headed for the expo where from 10-11am I spent time in the Marathon and Beyond booth, afterwards I spent the next hour and a half at the New Balance booth that was part of Hill Country Running Company's booth. I so enjoy speaking to people and hearing their stories about their running and what they were hoping for in the marathon or half marathon. After that I went to the other end of the expo and spent time with New Balance rep Len Chatwin and again signing things for people and chatting about running. After my hour and a half there, I had a hour to get my head together for my final talk at the expo. My talk went well to a full house and afterwards it was back to the Marathon and Beyond booth for the final hour of the expo. After my time there I had to skedaddle back over the the Hyatt for the annual Austin Marathon pasta dinner. Myself along with my good friend Bart Yasso of Runner's World Magazine, told a couple of stories, we introduced the veterans that had run all previous 17 Austin Marathons and then it was on to race director John Conley for his final words before next mornings race.

Sunday morning Jill and I were up early to get over to the Stephen F. Austin Hotel where Jill was in charge of the VIP area. People could buy tickets with part of the proceeds going to the Dick Beardsley Foundation, they could leave their clothing there, get something to drink and eat, and then afterwards could come back to a great breakfast or lunch, get a massage and meet with family and friends. Thanks to everyone of the volunteers that helped make the VIP area so special.

The race started at 7am and I was fortunate to be able to ride in the lead vehicle to watch the race. Jeremy Borling, 28 of Chicago, saw the lead pack move away from him after the first mile, but decided to run his own race. Later Borling learned that he was, in fact, already leading the marathon and that the pack ahead of him consisted solely of half-marathon runners. Borling, whose past achievements include a third-place finish at the 2005 Disney World Marathon, continued alone to win the 2009 Austin Marathon in 2:30:05. Local favorite and my good friend Gilbert Tuhabonye, who was the eighth place finisher at the 2004 Austin Marathon in 2:22:37 - during the days of big prize money, finished second in 2:31:58. Adam Nevens, 29 of Santa Monica CA, set a nearly ten minute PR!?! to finish third in 2:33:48.

Among the women, Elle Pishny, 23 of Durham NC, was the winner in 2:52:32. Nora Colligan, 26 of Austin who was the runner-up at the 2008 Nike Women's Marathon, finished second in 2:58:32. Maria Yamin, 44 of Mexico who was 17th in 2:49:47 at the 2006 Austin Marathon, finished third in 2:58:32.

I do need to mention that I had two athletes that I coach, George Uribe set a new Personal Best by 3 minutes with a time of just a tad over 3:09 and Stephen Fuentes ran the half and did a Personal Best by 4 minutes with a 1:21. Way to go guys, I'm so very proud of both of you!

For you folks looking for a great winter marathon or half marathon to run, I promise you there is no better one then the Austin Marathon! A big thanks to John and Stacey Conley for having me back, keep up the awesome work your doing!

12th Anniversary of Sobriety

2009-02-12T10:50:00.003-06:00

Today is a very special day for me as I celebrate my 12th anniversary of sobriety.
My sobriety means the world to me, with it I have everything in the world to live for, without it, I'm nothing. Has this past 12 years been a breeze? Not at all! In the early years it was always on my mind, would I make it or would I fail. As the years have gone by it has gotten easier but it is still my number one priority when I wake up in the morning! Recently I was tested big time. This past fall my right knee really started giving me lots of trouble. I had to go in for surgery to clean it out, unfortunately I came down with a bad infection, more surgery and lots of pain. I was given narcotic pain pills to help with the pain. The good thing is this time I was NOT in control of my medicine, my wife Jill had them and when I would need some she would dispense them out to me the way they were supposed to be taken. This time the doctors knew about my addiction and I was monitored very carefully. On January 7th I had a total knee replacement of my right knee, major surgery and more pain meds. Could I have gotten by without them? I suppose I could have but it would have been very difficult as the pain was relentless for the first 3 weeks after surgery. As the pain decreased I was able to use less and less pain meds, I'm happy to say that I no longer need the pain meds, only some ibuprofen or Tylenol from time to time. It was scary going back on the pain meds, but knowing the support I had surrounding me was very reassuring that everything would be OK. Over the years I have received so much support from so many people, I want to say thank you to all of you from the bottom of my heart. Your thoughts and prayer mean so much to me. I give my word that I will continue to do my best through the Dick Beardsley Foundation (www.dickbeardsleyfoundation.org) to get the word out about the terrible disease of chemical dependency, to work with all my passion to raise money to help those afflicted with a chemical dependency to get the treatment they need so they can get there lives back, to talk to our young kids about leading a healthy, active lifestyle, chemically free. This is my mission, we have a long way to go but with your help I am certain we can get it done. For those of you who would like to donate to the Dick Beardsley Foundation you can do that through our website. Please don't think for one minute that even one dollar won't help us, I promise you it will help tremendously!

Thank you for your kindness and continued support, I really appreciate it!

Have a great day "one day at a time"!

God Bless you all!

Dick

5 weeks post-op total knee replacement

2009-02-11T10:48:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone,

Today is exactly 5 weeks out since I had my total knee replacement surgery of my right knee. Things have been going very well but I've really made some big improvements in the last three days! For the past two and a half weeks I've been able to workout on the elliptical machine without any problem at all. I've also been doing weights, worked on bending and straightening my leg, things like that. The worst part of the day has been the night time and trying to sleep! For some reason my knee would just throb terribly at night. It seemed like not only the knee my my quad muscle especially. I knew I had lost a lot of muscle in the quad and I was working hard trying to build it back up. When laying down that was when my knee hurt the worst. Finally all the hard work has paid off and for the last three nights I've actually slept quite well! I can now lay down without my knee hurting anymore! I can't begin to tell you what a relief that is! It gets a little stiff during the night from being in one position for so long, I do a little bending of the knee and that seems to really help.

Yesterday I actually got on my mountain bike and did a 40 minute bike ride! This morning I grabbed my Nordic Poles and did a 3 mile brisk power walk and felt very good, although my knee did start to tire towards the end of my walk. Needless to say I'm tickled pink about how things are progressing! I still have a lot of work left to do though. My physical therapist wants me to be able to bend it to at least 120 degrees, presently I'm at 115 degrees so that is good. I can now walk up and down stairs like a normal person and I can even sit on the floor and rest on my knees! My main work now is trying to get it to straighten out more. Ideally zero degrees is what everyone strives for but anything under 5 degrees is considered good. As of yesterday I'm at 14 degrees so that is a little disappointing but I'm working hard at it! I see the doctor next Friday, February 20. Hopefully I will have much better extension by then, if not the doctor may decide he might have to put me to sleep and manipulate the knee to break up any scar tissue that is keeping me from extending it, I will keep you posted on how things are going. Thanks to everyone who has sent me well wishes, thoughts and prayers, I really appreciate it! Have a great day!

Cruise to Run 2009

2009-02-11T06:34:00.009-06:00

Jerry, Bart and Wallace Williams

Shoes for kids!

The ship in the background!

Wow, what a wonderful time my wife Jill and I had on the 2009 Cruise to Run! Jill and I flew from Austin to San Juan on Saturday, January 31, we arrived to our hotel around midnight and went right to bed. I woke early as my knee was not feeling the best and went for a nice walk along the ocean. Once Jill woke up we had a nice walk along the beautiful beach and found a nice place for breakfast. Once breakfast was over we walked around San Juan for a bit and then packed our bags and took a taxi to where our ship was docked.

I've never seen such a huge ship! It was over three football fields long and it weighed 113 thousand tons! That a ship that large can float is more amazing to me then how a plane can fly! Boarding the ship was very orderly and we got into our state room around 1 PM. The rooms on these ships are quite small but they were very nice. We were fortunate in that our room also had an outside balcony so it made the room seem larger.

Our hosts Jerry and Jody Friesen came by our room around 4pm along with Bart Yasso and his bride, Laura. I had only met Jerry a year earlier at the Toronto Marathon so it was wonderful to reintroduce ourselves and meet his wife Jody, they are wonderful people and were very excited to have us on board!

That evening we had a meet and greet with the rest of the Cruise to Run folks, over 300 in all! Besides myself and Bart, Lisa Bentley was also one of the invited speakers. I had the pleasure to meet Lisa and her husband Dave, great down to earth folks! Lisa and Dave are from Canada and she is a 11 time Ironman Champion!

We set sail that night at 11pm and were heading for Barbados. I had a patch I put behind my ear to prevent me from getting sea sick and it seemed to work. I have to admit though, there was very little rocking on this huge ship! We docked in Barbados early on Tuesday morning and Jerry and Jody had a wonderful very organized 5k race all planned. It was awesome with chip timing and a police escort along with the help of the local running club! All of us brought extra running shoes to donate to the local runners, many who can't afford running shoes. They greatly appreciated our donations! Because of my recent knee surgery I was unable to run but Jill did and I was there to cheer everyone on! It was very warm that morning but everyone had a wonderful time.

That afternoon we all took buses to a beautiful beach on Carlisle Bay, Lisa Bentley led everyone who wanted to on a half mile swim in the ocean, I bailed out on the swim as I'm not the best swimmer plus the water seemed a little chilly to me! That night Jill started not feeling well and unfortunately came down with a bad cold/flu and had to spend the next two and a half days in bed with a fever!

The ship had a beautiful fitness center so I was up bright and early each morning working out on the elliptical machine, stationary bike, weights, etc, working on rehabbing my knee. For me the worst part of the day was the night time. My knee would just throb at night and no matter what position I tried to get in I was very uncomfortable, if I got a couple hours of sleep at night that was pretty good! Each night I would wake around 1 or 2 am and go for a walk on the deck, it was very peaceful and the moving seemed to help my knee feel better.

Wednesday morning we docked on the island of St. Lucia and everyone had a beautiful 5 mile run to the Vigie Lighthouse. We also donated more running shoes and again they were greatly appreciated! After the runs in the morning, the rest of the day was free to do whatever we wanted, many folks went on extra excursions or just hung out on the ship and enjoyed the 5 swimming pools that were on board!

Wednesday evening, Lisa gave her talk to the group and it was very inspiring! She is an incredible athlete who has competed in triathlons around the world, but she and her husband Dave, are as down to earth people as you will find anywhere!

Thursday morning we docked on the island of Antigua, and everyone that wanted to ran around the harbor and past beaches to Fort Barrington and a climb to the top with a incredible view of the bay! We also were asked to bring a book to donate to the Antigua Public Library, it was amazing seeing the hundreds of books donated to their library, runners are some of the most giving people I know!

Thursday afternoon we took a bus to a beautiful beach where we all enjoyed the ocean and some of the runners did a "Hash Run" set up by the local running club. A hash run is a non-competitive run with blobs of paper set out for the runners to follow on a trail. There are false trails set and runners are redirected. Everyone had lots of fun.

Thursday evening it was my turn to give my talk, my talk went very well and I so enjoy speaking to runners, they are already so motivated, it makes my job that much easier!

Friday morning we docked at the island of Tortola and everyone was excited about the run up to Fort Charlotte. It's a run out and back for a total of about 6K but there is a climb of 947 feet that is at a 25% grade! Jill and I were stationed about 3/4 of the way up to cheer everyone on, everyone made it! Jill was feeling a little better and we got to enjoy some time together on the beach. Friday evening my good friend Bart Yasso of Runner's World Magazine gave his talk which is a very funny slide show presentation of some of the many races Bart has been to around the world.

Saturday morning was our final port before heading back to San Juan. We landed in beautiful St.Thomas and we all headed out for a 5K prediction run. Some of the local runners from St.Thomas were there to run with everyone including three Virgin Island Olympians! Wallace Williams, the first athlete to represent the Virgin Islands in international competition in 1979 and 1988 Olympian, Marlon Williams, a four time Olympian in the 5k, 10k, and the marathon, and Calvin Dallas who represented the Virgin Islands at the 1988 Olympics and holds the Virgin Island Marathon record of 2:27.

Saturday evening Jill and I enjoyed a great meal with Jerry and Jody, Mike and Helen, and Bart and Laura.

Sunday morning when we awoke we were at the dock in San Juan where we started from. Jill and I departed the ship at 8:15 am and took a taxi to the airport for our trip back home to Austin.

We can not thank Jerry and Jody enough for inviting us along on this wonderful trip! It was wonderful to meet so many fine people on board and we wish you all the best!

Jill and I look forward to our "Cruise to Run" trip next January, we hope you can join us for a fabulous time!

Here are all of the photos from the trip!

Brand New Knee - 13 days and counting!

2009-01-21T07:36:00.006-06:00

Really need to get my leg straight!

No more stitches!

Hi Everyone!

It's 13 days post-op, so I thought I'd give an update on how things are going.

Last Tuesday January 13, I "dumped" my crutches, cane, and walker for my own two feet! I have to admit the first couple of days walking on my own I was a bit shaky as it had been over two months since I walked on my own! Absolutely no pain from bone on bone while bearing total body weight, post surgical pain was another story but that continues to get better! The worst part of the day is the night time when trying to sleep. If I get a hour and a half to two hour of continuous sleep that's very good, at that point my knee aches so bad that I usually have to get up, walk around a bit, put ice on it, take some meds, anything to try and get it to settle down. It usually does and then I will fall asleep for another hour and a half or so until around 3:30-4:00AM when I get up for the day, thank goodness I've always been a early riser and have never required a lot of sleep! If any of you have any ideas on what I can do to get a better sleep, please let me know! I know eventually things will get more back to normal, I just need to stay positive and keep working hard at my rehabbing of my knee.

I met with my doctor, Dr. Matt Heinrich yesterday and he said things were really looking good and he took the stitches out. His biggest concern and mine also is the inability to be able to completely straighten my leg out, the bending part is way ahead of schedule and I can now walk up stairs pretty much like a normal person! Dr. Heinrich said if I'm unable to get it to straighten completely, he will have to put me to sleep and "crank" on the leg to break away the scar tissue. If I don't get it to straighten I will always have a little hitch in my step, so I'm working real hard at it!

Besides working on my own and going to PT, he ordered me the "ERMI Knee Extensionater II, sounds like something from an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie!

I will use that 4 times/day, it won't be fun, but hopefully it gets me to my full extension and the doctor won't have to "crank" on my knee!

Take care all and have a great day!

Dick

My brand new knee...22 stiches...one week later

2009-01-13T12:36:00.008-06:00

Hi everyone!

I know one thing, I won't ever have a problem finding my right knee, I'll just follow "The Yellow Brick Road"! WOW, that is quite the scar! Last Wednesday January 7th I went in for my TKR (total knee replacement) on my right knee. My wife Jill and I arrived at the hospital at 7:30 AM and we got all checked into my pre-op room, the hardest part at that point was the wait! My surgery was scheduled to start anywhere from 10-11, but it all depended on how the other surgeries before me were going.

I had a wonderful pre-op nurse who came in and explained everything to Jill and I and made sure we were both comfortable. At about 10, my anesthesiologist came by to explain his procedure and to let me know that before surgery they were going to put a nerve block into my right leg. They would run a small catheter into my right groin down to the top of the knee, this would help immensely with the post-op pain I was told. To be honest with you, at that point I wasn't worried about the post-op pain, I was worried about the pain of them putting a catheter into my groin! He promised I wouldn't feel a thing as they would give me some "feel good" medicine to make sure that wouldn't happen.

At 11 they came to my room and said it was time to get the catheter put in and Jill was not allowed to follow along anymore. It was hard for me to say "goodbye" to her, as that seems to be such a permanent thing, so I said, "See you later Honey"! She gave me a kiss and a nice squeeze and I was on my way.

Once in the surgical unit my anesthesiologist came in and gave me some of that "feel good" medicine, and I don't remember a thing as they put in the catheter! I was still awake but nothing really seemed to matter at that point! My doctor, (Dr. Matt Heinrich) came by and explained everything to me, had me mark my leg to be operated on with a marker and off we went to the operating room. The next thing I remember was waking up in my room and my wife Jill there by my side, a very nice comforting sight to see! The surgery itself took about a hour and a half.

Wednesday night was pretty much a sleepless one as the great nursing staff I had were in checking on me quite often and giving me medicine when needed. I really wasn't all that uncomfortable, the worst part was anytime I tried to sit up in bed, I would get sick to my stomach! The gave me some medicine to try and combat the nausea but it didn't seem to help a whole lot.

Thursday morning, Jill was there to see me bright and early at 6:30 to see me before she had to go to work, she is one of the most caring persons I've ever known! After Jill left they brought me some breakfast, I tried to eat something but I couldn't keep anything down. About 9, Dan from the physical therapy department came in and got me out of bed and I started walking (with a walker). I had another PT session that afternoon, otherwise I was pretty much in bed the whole day doing what exercises I could for my knee in bed.

Thursday afternoon my good friends Joey Trimyer and Stacey Conley (both of Conley Sports here in Austin) came by and we all had a nice visit, plus they brought me some of my favorite cookies! Jill came back to visit that evening and we had a nice time together. At this point I was feeling so good I thought I'd walk out of the hospital without a limp! I slept better Thursday night so that was a real treat!

What a difference:

Friday morning Jill was there to visit bright and early, she always brightens my day! They then came in and took the catheter out of my right leg, they said I would more then likely start to feel a little more uncomfortable in a hour or so. Before that happened, PT came and took me to the swimming pool for some "pool therapy" It's amazing how much better you can bend things when you have the water there to help! By early afternoon my knee started to really hurt so I started using my pain pump like I was supposed to use, up to this point I had used it very little, that helped to take the worst of it away but it continually was throbbing. The good news though was the pain I was having was from post surgical pain, the pain before surgery from bone on bone was gone!!

Friday evening Jill came for a visit but they had given me a shot for my nausea, it took the nausea away but I got so loopy I could barely remember she was there!

Saturday morning Jill was there for a early morning visit and a good cup of coffee, breakfast even tasted good! More physical therapy that morning, and I was also up on my own doing as much as I could. Saturday afternoon Jill brought our boys Matthew and Christopher for a visit, it was great to see them! I even "walked" down to the cafeteria with them for supper! I probably could have gone home that evening but thought it might be best to stay one more day.

Sunday morning Jill and the boys were there and the doctor came in and gave the OK to go home and we left the hospital! I know my biggest challenge now will be the rehabbing of my knee and I'm working very hard at that!

I want to thank all the wonderful people that have sent nice notes and have had me in their thoughts and prayers, it means a lot to me! A big thank you to the doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and everyone else at St. Davids Hospital in Austin who took such great care of me, and of course to my incredible wife Jill who has been right there with me every step of the way!

I will update everyone on how things are going at least once a week. Take care everyone and have a great day!

Dick

Total Knee Replacement Surgery

2009-01-06T13:34:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone!
Just wanted to give you all a update. My doctors office called today and they have moved up my surgery to tomorrow! I'm very happy to be able to get it done earlier, but also very nervous as this is a biggie! Thanks to everyone who has sent me their thoughts and prayers, it's very much appreciated!

I will be in the hosptital about 4 days, but I will let everyone knows how things went when I get back home.

Take care all and have a great day!

Dick

Christmas ramblings and Happy New Year!

2008-12-29T13:41:00.003-06:00

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and will have a happy, healthy 2009! Speaking of health, I thought I'd update everyone on my knee. It has been very frustrating but it won't be long and I will be getting a brand new one! My right knee has been operated on 11 times since I first hurt it in college back in 1976, needless to say the knee is not good and is riddled with arthritis.

I went in for arthroscopic surgery to clean out the knee on November 17th hoping to get a few more years out of it. Unfortunately, my knee became badly infected and I had to be taken back into surgery, after surgery I was hooked up with a Pic Line and had to feed myself heavy duty antibiotics for three weeks, the good news is the infection has been taken care of but it really did a number on my joint. I went to another doctor for a second opinion and everyone agrees the only thing left to do is a total knee replacement.

As of today, I can't walk without using a cane or crutches so the idea of getting a new knee that will enable me to walk again without a cane sounds great! My surgery is scheduled for January 14th. I've heard the rehab part of it after surgery is a tough one but I'm up for the challenge! Most doctors recommend you not run after a total knee replacement, I know I will have to cut way back, but I hope to get back to where I can run a few miles a week and then get most of my "aerobic fix" from cycling. I will keep everyone posted on how things are going!

Take care and have a great 2009!

Dallas White Rock Marathon

2008-12-15T14:21:00.002-06:00

I've been very fortunate to have been invited to speak at the Dallas White Rock Marathon over the last few years, Marcus Grunewald the race director and his staff do an incredible job putting on a world class event!

I flew to Dallas on Thursday, it was a little more difficult because of being on crutches, but the folks at Southwest Airlines were awesome! Since I could not have my leg propped up on the plane, by the time I got to the hotel it was hurting pretty bad!

Friday afternoon the expo opened and the place was packed! I gave my presentation at 1:00, my good friend Mark Bravo from Oklahoma City and the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon introduced me. I stood on the stage with my crutches and things actually went very well! I'm used to moving all over the stage when I speak but not this time. I lost my balance once and thought I might land in the front row of folks, but thankfully I was able to catch myself!

Afterwards I spent some time at the New Balance Shoe Co. booth and then headed back to my hotel to get my leg up. Friday night my wife Jill and our son Matthew arrived by car, we had a nice meal and Matthew and I had fun riding the hotel elevator up to the top and back a few times!

I gave my second talk on Saturday afternoon and it went very well, Jill and Matthew were in the front row, it was the fist time Matthew had ever heard me give a talk before and I think he kind of enjoyed it! After my talk, I spent a couple of hours at the NB booth selling and signing books, signing NB posters, taking pictures, and just chatting with folks. I really had a lot of fun and it was nice having Matthew there with me as he handled all the book money and he had fun helping me out!

Saturday night myself, Jill, and Matthew were at the Pasta Dinner (one of the best ones you will find at a marathon!) I had to sit up at the head table. There was only room for one more person so Jill sat down in the audience and Matthew sit next to me, on his right was Olympic Marathon Gold Medalist, Frank Shorter, Frank has been a friend of mine for many years and took soome time to talk Matthew, I don't think Matthew fully understood who he was sitting by and was talking to!

Also at the head table were my good friends Bill Rodgers and Bart Yasso and his wife Laura, always good to see old friends whenever I can!

Sunday morning, we were up early for a nice breakfast and then on our way home back to Austin. Thanks Marcus for the great weekend we had, keep up the AWESOME work you do!

Shu's Idaho Running Company, Boise, Idaho

2008-12-11T13:14:00.002-06:00

Shu and Leone

Dick speaking on crutches!

Matt Booth, PT at Therapeutic Associates checking Dick's knee

Dick with Nate, KBOI Radio Host

My trip while I was in Boise was AWESOME! The trip traveling to Boise was another story! I flew from Austin to Phoenix to Boise, normally, not a bad trip but I was still fighting the infection in my right knee and I was really hurting! The good news was that I got to board the plane first because of my crutches! My good friend Jenny Stinson took time off from working at her company, Stinson Brand Innovation picked me up at the airport and we headed over to Shu's Idaho Running Co, Mike aka Shu, the owner was there and he introduced me to his staff. I stayed a couple of hours selling and signing my book, chatting with folks, and being on live radio. After my store visit, I went back to Jenny's where I was staying. I've known Jenny and her husband Mark for a number of years now and we have become great friends, there at the door to meet me was Fremont, the Stinson's beautiful golden retriever, I had not seen Fremont in a couple of years but I think he remembered me!

That night Jenny hosted a little get together with some friends from their local running club, what a bunch of nice folks!

Tuesday morning I was up early and headed for Therapeutic Associates to do a meet and greet, It was wonderful, and the staff even worked on my knee for me! Jenny and I had a nice breakfast and then it was back over to Shu's Idaho Running Co., for another meet and greet. Boise is packed full of some of the nicest people you will ever meet! Shu's store was recently voted one of the top 50 specialty running stores in the country! After my afternoon meet and greet at Shu's, I was able to go back to Jenny's and get a little R&R my knee was really hurting and it was nice to get it up and elevated for awhile.

Tuesday evening was my main talk and it was held at The Pursuit, it's a local church in Boise and they were very kind to let me use their venue for my talk. We had a really good turnout and my talk went well. I like to move around the stage when I speak but with crutches I was pretty much stationed in one spot, but at least I didn't fall off the stage! After my talk I did a meet and greet, sold and signed books, and took pictures with anyone that wanted one.

Wednesday morning I met with some of Jenny's friends and then did one last meet & greet at Shu's, before it was off to the airport for my flight home to Austin.

I want to thank everyone for the wonderful time I had in Boise, it's a beautiful city and you should all be so very proud! A special thanks to Jenny Stinson, Shu's Idaho Running Co, Therapeutic Associates, The Pursuit, and the New Balance Shoe Company. Thanks to everyone for helping my trip to Boise so special, can't wait to come back!

Thanksgiving Ramblings

2008-11-30T15:15:00.009-06:00

As I sit at our kitchen table a couple of days after Thanksgiving, my how much I have to be thankful for! I have been running for over 35 years now, not once have I ever taken my running for granted, I’ve always felt I’ve been given this incredible gift and I thank the good Lord every day for it! As planned, I headed in for surgery on my right knee (the 10th on that knee) on November 17, I hurt my knee not from running but from getting hit by a wave in the Atlantic Ocean back in September.

I had my surgery; the surgery itself went very well. November 18, Jill and I celebrated our one year anniversary. Life is good. The next day I went back to the doctor and things looked great! I had my first meeting with my physical therapist and that went great, was even able to pedal the stationary bike all the way around without much of a problem. As each day went by I felt better and better, I was biking more, walking a couple of miles a day, I could bend the knee almost as much as my left one. I was beginning to think that it won’t be but two or three more weeks and I will be back out running again, life was good!......And then came Saturday.

My best friend of thirty years, Mike Dunlap and his wife Karen flew down to Austin to visit my wife Jill and I. They had never been here before and Mike who at one time was a 2:18 marathoner, was now a big time cyclist, needless to say he was excited to be here out of the cold of Sioux Falls, South Dakota to get a few good miles on the bike!

By Saturday afternoon I noticed my right knee getting sore and puffy, I just figured I’d been up on it too much the past couple of days. Saturday night I barely could sleep as my knee kept getting swelled up and more painful by the minute! Sunday I spent most of the day on the couch, Sunday night was brutal! I could not get comfortable at all, I could hardly wait until morning so I could call the doctor and get in to see him. My wife Jill left early that morning for work, and I tried not to let her see the agony I was in, she has always said she is the worrier of the family, but my knee was the last thing I wanted to have her worrying about!

Monday morning I could barely move, I could put absolutely no weight on my right leg at all, my knee was swollen up like a large softball. When I had my farm accident back in 1989, I went through something similar, this time though the pain was even worse! Mike and Karen got me to the doctor’s clinic on their way to the airport, Jill met us at the clinic. By this point I was hurting so bad, I was crying! If you know me, you know I can cry about most anything sentimental, but not over pain. They wheeled me right into a room and my PA, checked things out and immediately numbed up the knee as best she could and withdrew 60cc’s of some nasty looking stuff from my knee. They had to do that same procedure three days in a row, 60 cc’s each day. They put me on some heavy duty anti-inflammatory, but that did nothing, each day it would swell all back up and the pain was excruciating!

The lab results were not showing any type of infection, but with no relief from the anti-inflammatory meds, on Wednesday they injected a cortisone shot directly into the knee, no relief from that either.

Thanksgiving night we got a text from my doctorand he had talked about taking me back into surgery but wanted more confirmation from the lab, that would be available Friday morning.

Jill received a phone call from my doctor Friday morning, and it wasn’t the best of news, yes I had an infection growing in my knee! Friday afternoon they wheeled me back into surgery (now the 11th on that knee, for anyone that is counting besides me) to clean out the infected knee and they put heavy duty antibiotics right into the joint. Now for three weeks I will have the antibiotics delivered right into my body via a Picc Line, kinda like an IV in your arm.

Infections are never a good thing but especially ones you get inside your joints, can problems arise from such a thing, yes they can and it can be very serious, do I worry about what might happen? Nope, I will cross that bridge if and when the time comes, if we were to sit and worry about all the possible things that could happen to us each and every day, what kind of life would that be?

What am I thinking about during this trying time? I think about how fortunate I am to be able to wake up each morning and see the sunrise, to enjoy our pet finches sing to their hearts content like today is the best day ever, to have our dog Sophie give me her loving nudge or our cat Tigger sit on my chest purring like she’s in heaven, I think about the wonderful friends and people I don’t even know who have me in their thoughts and prayers, to my son Andrew who is serving our country in the United States Army, I think about how its going to feel back out on another run down on Lady Bird Trail, and I think about how fortunate I am to have my loving wife Jill by my side 24/7, she is my light at the end of the tunnel.

Rock & Roll San Antonio Marathon

2008-11-17T11:33:00.003-06:00

Khalid Khannouchi
Jay Hilsher

Roger Soler

Frank, Khalid and Dick

WOW, is all I can say for the very first Rock & Roll Marathon in San Antonio! The Rock and Roll Marathons have been around for a few years now held in various cities around the country and have drawn huge crowds in a very fun atmosphere. Not only is it open for runners of all abilities, it also attracts a good elite field of men and women. A little over a year ago Rock and Roll decided to have one of their events in San Antonio, they said right off the get go that they would have 15,000 runners for the half and full marathon, that's huge, especially for a first time event! They didn't come close to that number, they had over 24,000 official starters, incredible!

My wife Jill and I drove down from Austin on Thursday evening and checked into our hotel. I was there on behalf of the New Balance Shoe Co. to give a few talks and also sign posters, bib numbers, have pictures taken, and so on at the New Balance booth, we had a wonderful time!

I attended the press conference and was asked to come up on stage with Gold Medalist, Frank Shorter, and former world record holder, Khalid Khannouchi. My old friend Tony Reavis was the MC and asked us questions about the state of running today and other running related questions.

My talks went well, and each talk was proceeded by my good friend Bart Yasso from Runners World Magazine. After Bart's talk, Bart would introduce me, he's a tough act to follow!

I also had a great visit with Roger Soler. Roger owns several running stores in the San Antonio area, Soler's Sports, and he has a great set up at the expo. He puts on several area events, including Sunmart, which is Texas Trail Endurance Run, which is either a 50 miler or 50k, your choice. This has always been in the back of my head to do.

Jill does a great job of taking pictures with folks and making sure they receive them, she also helps with my book sales, what a pleasure to have her with me at some of my speaking engagements!

Sunday morning was perfect for weather for a marathon, sunshine, cool, and no wind!

Thanks San Antonio for putting on such a wonderful event, keep up the great work!

Here are the pictures!

The Running Event

2008-11-13T13:57:00.003-06:00

Jim Davis, Dick Beardsley and Dave Shelbourne
Bart Yasso, Dick Beardsley and John Bingham

The Running Event, is usually held in Austin, Texas every year, but because the Austin Convention Center was unavailable this year, it was moved to Dallas, the folks in Dallas did a great job!

The Running Event is a convention held each November for owners and managers of specialty running stores around the country. I'm one of the owners of the Dick Beardsley Running Company store in Fargo, ND. We were the very first running specialty store in the whole state of North Dakota! With many things that I have my name attached to, I get way too much credit for its success! All of our partners work so hard and do such a incredible job, I couldn't be more proud of a group of people!

I arrived Sunday evening after the Fort Worth Marathon and checked into the Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas, what a gorgeous hotel! I picked up my good friend Dave Shelbourne from the New Balance Shoe Co. at the airport and we drove right to Bob and Rebbecca Wallace's home for a little get together. Bob and Rebbecca own one of the top running stores in the entire country, called Run On!

Monday morning I was up bright and early to go for a run, I met Thom Abrams from Superfeet and we hooked up for a nice 5 mile run. The rest of Monday was attending different seminars and seeing lots of old friends I hadn't seen for quite sometime. Monday evening I was heading back to the airport to pick up Greg Hammes and Greg Liebl, (we call him Junior), two of my good friends and partners in our running store. It was raining so hard that I had to turn back! I was able to get a hold of the Greg and they were able to take a cab to the hotel.

Tuesday morning it was up early for a nice 8 mile run with Greg and Junior, it was then onto another busy day of meetings. At 4pm, it was back to the airport to pick up my wife, Jill. She was flying in to attend the special Hall of Fame Banquet set for Tuesday night.

The Hall of Fame Banquet was wonderful! Jim Davis the owner of the New Balance Shoe Company was one of 3 people inducted into The Running Event Hall of Fame, they could not have inducted a more deserving person! I first met Jim back in the summer of 1980, he is the same wonderful person today as he was the first time I met him 28 years ago!

Wednesday morning I took Jill to the airport at 6AM for her flight home, she was back at work by 8! That morning they had a 5K road race for all the attendees, our own Greg Liebl (Junior) took second overall (15:30) and first among store owners, way to go Junior!!!

Wednesday was the opening of the incredible expo they put on! We got to see all the latest in running shoes and gear, much of it not even on the market yet! I spent about 3 hours that afternoon in the New Balance booth signing special posters New Balance had made up for me to sign.

Afterwards, it was time for me to pack up and head for home to get ready to head to San Antonio for the San Antonio Rock & Roll Marathon. I'd like to give a big thanks to Dave Shelbourne and New Balance for making my trip to The Running Event all possible, I had a great time!

Fort Worth Marathon

2008-11-10T10:27:00.003-06:00

The Fort Worth Marathon is a brand new event, thanks to race director Steve Looney. Steve is a massage therapist in the Fort Worth area and has a organization called Run Like a Cheetah Training Program. This organization targets childhood obesity in Tarrant County public schools. by providing after-school running programs to promote health and fitness.

I arrived to the Fort Worth Hilton Hotel on Saturday afternoon, I parked my car across from the hotel, checked in, and then rested for a couple of hours before I went and spoke at the pasta dinner. I came out of the hotel around 5:45 to get into my car and head to the dinner, when I came out, my car was gone!!! I thought maybe I had come out the wrong side of the hotel, but nope, it was the right one.

I headed across the street and the manager of Del Frisco restaurant owner pointed to a sign that said "No Parking" I was parked a half block down the other direction where there was no sign. To make a long story short, it cost me $245 to get my car out of the impound lot!

The pasta dinner was nice, a small crowd with lots of great food! I gave a talk to the folks and it all went very well.

Sunday morning was cool and clear, a great day to run! All of the start and finish activities were at the LaGrave Field, which is the Fort Worth Cats baseball field, it was a super location for everything! At exactly 8AM the gun was fired and the 150 or so runners took off in either the half or the full marathon. I ran the half easy as I'm heading in for knee surgery on November 17. The race took a loop around the inside of the stadium and then off we went onto the trail system along the river. It is a very pretty course that is mostly flat as a pancake.

There was lots of good post race food and drink and they gave in a random drawing $1000 and $500!

The Fort Worth Marathon is a great little event that will continue to grow and be a staple in the Fort Worth running community! A big thanks to Steve Looney for putting on a fun well organized race that I look forward to years to come!

New England Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association Sports Conference

2008-11-06T13:07:00.004-06:00

I flew to Providence, Rhode Island on Wednesday to speak at the New England Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association Sports Conference. I arrived around 4:30 PM and took a short shuttle ride to the downtown Providence Hilton Hotel. I had been traveling all day, so I had a nice dinner and then watched the election returns on television. No matter who you voted for it was truly a historic event, one that I will never forget!

Wednesday morning I was up early for a beautiful 8 mile run through the Brown University campus and the surrounding neighborhoods, I can't tell you how beautiful New England is in the fall!

After my run, a quick shower and breakfast, I had time to go over what I was going to speak about at the noontime luncheon where I was the keynote speaker. After a nice lunch with many of the attendees, I delivered a one hour talk that went very well. I stayed afterwards just long enough to shake peoples hands and say my thank you's and then it was off for the airport as I had a flight back home to Austin at 4PM. It was a very quick but also a very enjoyable trip to Providence!

I want to thank Executive Director, Jan Woodman along with the NEHRSA Board of Directors, for inviting me to speak at their annual fall conference, keep up the great work you all do in promoting fitness and leading a healthy, active, lifestyle!

Bass Pro Shops Fitness Festival

2008-11-03T12:35:00.005-06:00

Bill Rodgers, Brian Correll and me!
Brian Correll, looking very strong!

Beautiful countryside

I flew from Rapid City, South Dakota on Thursday and got into Springfield, MO at around 7:30 PM. My good friend Danny Correll and his daughter Hannah picked me and Frank Shorter up at the airport and took us to our hotel, needless to say, I was very tired and pretty much went right to bed.

Friday morning I was up early and Danny picked me up and took me to the local CBS TV station for a early morning interview about the Bass Pro Fitness Festival. I wore my running clothes and did a 8 mile run back to my hotel after my interview. Around noon, Danny picked me up and took me to Hannah's high school, Rogersville High where I delivered a one hour talk to the entire student body, the kids were absolutely super! After my talk to it was back over to Bass Pro's World Headquarters where I hung out with Bob Woods and Andrea, both work with New Balance . I chatted with folks, signed a few autographs, and had some pictures taken.

At 6PM, I attended the Missouri Valley Conference XC Banquet along with my ole friends Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Jeff Galloway.

Saturday morning was the Bass Pro Fitness Festival 5 & 10K road races, hundreds of folks were there on a beautiful morning for running. Because of my injured knee (having surgery on it on Nov.17) I couldn't race but I ran the 10K and had wonderful time running with everyone!

After a quick breakfast, I was back to Bass Pro to help with the awards ceremony along with Frank, Bill, and Jeff. Saturday I gave a informal "round table" talk with runners and it was really a good time!

Saturday evening I made a appearance at the Team n' Training get together and then headed back over for the pasta dinner. Bass Pro put on the free dinner for all the runners and many took advantage of this great meal. I gave about a 20 minute talk and had people all revved up to run the next morning!

Sunday morning was another great fall morning to run! Today they had the full marathon and the half, I ran the half at about a 7 minute/mile pace and felt good up until around 9 miles and then my right knee really started to bother me! Can't hardly wait to get it fixed!

Sunday afternoon was the awards ceremony and all of us invited guests helped with that, signed autographs, sold books, had pictures taken, and chatted with many of the runners.

This was the second year of the Bass Pro Shop's Fitness Festival and it was bigger and better then last year! They have a great event going here and I expect it to continue to grow in the years ahead!

A huge thank you goes out to Carol and Martin from Bass Pro, Bob and Andrea from New Balance, and Danny , Hannah, and Brian Correll for making my weekend such a fun one!

Black Hills State University

2008-10-30T12:02:00.004-05:00

I flew into Rapid City, South Dakota, and my good friend and the Dean of the Business School at Black Hills State University, Priscilla Romkema picked me up and we made the beautiful 45 minute drive to Spearfish, South Dakota. I've been to Spearfish a few times over the years to speak and it's a great town of 12,000 people on the northern end of the gorgeous Black Hills.

Monday evening I had the pleasure of having dinner with Paul and Kathy Young, I've known Paul and Kathy for over 20 years and they are wonderful people! Paul is Priscilla's brother and was on our staff when my best friend Mike Dunlap and I had a running camp out in the Black Hills back in the mid 80's.

Tuesday morning it was out early for a nice eight mile run and then off to BHSU for the first of a few talks that day that I gave to different student classes. Tuesday afternoon, I spent with Scott Walkinshaw and the BHSU Men's and Women's XC Team, I was invited to run their workout with them, but I decided to watch and cheer instead, as they were doing mile repeats on the track, way faster then I could ever do them now!

Tuesday evening I had dinner with Priscilla and her husband Fred, and Jerry and Elaine Dunn, all of us runners, so we had lots to talk about!

I was up early Wednesday morning for a nice 8 mile run with the men's XC team, thankfully they were very kind to me and didn't run to fast! Afterwards I spoke to one of Coach Walkinshaw's sports psychology class, it was lots of fun!

Wednesday afternoon I spoke to a bunch of business graduate students and then it was time for my keynote address to the students, faculty, and also open to the public, we had a nice crowd and my talk went real well.

Afterwards the XC team hosted a get together along with a silent auction to raise money for the team, during the get together a microphone was passed around the crowd and I answered many questions, it was really a great time!

Thursday morning it was up early for a beautiful run along the rolling hills and pines of Spearfish, then onto the airport for my trip to Springfield, MO.

I'd like to say a big thanks to Priscilla, Coach Walkinshaw, the faculty of BHSU, and the entire community of Spearfish for making my stay such a enjoyable one!

New Balance Chicago area trip

2008-10-24T12:24:00.013-05:00

Dick and Jayne (from Dick Pond Athletics in Elmhurst)

What a busy fun time I had in the Chicago area this past week! I flew from Austin into Chicago's O'Hare airport and arrived around 4 PM on Monday, that is one busy place! After grabbing my luggage, I jumped into a shuttle van with 10 others and we headed for downtown Chicago. Leaving the airport for downtown that time of the day is never ideal, but with it raining, that makes it even worse! It took us a hour and fifteen minutes just to get to downtown because of the traffic! I was suppose to be at Fleet Feet Sports - Piper's Alley for a group fun run at 6:30, but it was 6:45 when I finally arrived. I quickly said hi to Dave Shelbourne, Jen Kelly, and Ha-Lee all from New Balance and then changed into my running gear and out the door we went for a easy 4 mile run along Chicago's lakefront.

After our run I gave a 45 minute talk to all who were there and afterwards signed New Balance posters and copies of my book, Staying the Course, A Runner's Toughest Race, for whoever wanted them. Afterwards we went out for dinner with some of the Fleet Feet staff to Twin Anchors, I had the best ribs I've ever had! Jen then took myself, Dave, and Ha-Lee to our hotel in Naperville, Illinois, west of Chicago. By the time I crawled into bed it was 12:30, I was whooped!

I got up real early for a nice run and then met everyone at 8 for our first stop of the day Runner's High N' Tri in Arlington Heights. Mark Rouse is one of the owners along with his wife Pom and dear friend Teresa. I've been fortunate over the last couple of years to have become good friends with Mark and have been at his store twice before to do some talks. They have a great store that caters to both runner's and triathletes. After our nice visit it was off to Elmhurst to meet with Jayne and staff at Dick Pond Athletics, from there we headed to the Fleet Feet Store a few blocks away and met with the staff and had some lunch (I was hunnnnngry!) Afterwards we headed to Palantine and met with Eric, Maureen, and Tim from Running Unlimited a very nice running specialty store.

It was then back to Naperville and we had a great dinner with Naperville Running Co. owner Kris Hartner and some of his staff. Kris is a Minnesota boy and I actually had met Kris back in 1982 after the Boston Marathon when he was a 16 year old working at a running store in the Minneapolis area. After our dinner we went to his store and I gave a hour talk to his staff. Kris has a awesome store and has consistently been one of the top running specialty stores in the country! After my talk I signed New Balance posters for everyone and then headed back to our hotel.

Wednesday morning up early for a nice run and then we were back on the road by 8. Our first stop was at the Dick Pond Athletics corporate headquarters, where I gave a talk to their managers, it went very well and we all had a wonderful visit!

We then were off to the Running for Kicks store and met with owner Mel Diab and his staff and other folks who were at the store. We all had a little lunch and I told a few stories and then it was time to head to North Central College and speak with the men's XC team. I gave about a 45 minute talk. I was really impressed with these young men and their coaches! They are one of the top college XC teams in the NCAA Division III, after my talk, every one of the runners and coaches came up and shook my hand and personally thanked me for coming to speak to them, that was something!

We then had a short break back to our hotel and then it was out for a quick dinner and then off to Neuqua Valley High School for my final talk of my trip. You talk about a beautiful high school!

I spoke to around a 100 or so boy and girl cross country runners along with many coaches and parents. My talk went very well and afterwards I signed many New Balance posters, books and we took lots of pictures. All of the dollars that came from my books we sold all went to the Dick Beardsley Foundation, and for every book I sold at the Neuqua Valley High School, Kris Hartner from Naperville Running Co. matched each book in dollars sold!

I can't thank all of the folks we met in the Chicago area enough for allowing me to come and visit and speak to them, they are all doing a marvelous job!

A huge thanks for my good friend Dave Shelbourne from New Balance, and to the New Balance Elite Dealer rep Jen Kelly, for setting up the schedule and helping make it all happen. Jen is the New Balance rep for running specialty stores in Illinois and Wisconsin and does one heck of a great job! To all of you, keep up the incredible job you all do and thanks again for letting me be a part of it!

Kansas City Marathon

2008-10-19T11:36:00.002-05:00

I was in Kansas City back in 1990 to speak at the Kansas City Marathon, it was a wonderful event, but the Kansas City Marathon in 2008 was incredible! Many changes have been made since 1990 and one of the biggest was the title sponsor Waddell & Reed Financial Advisors.

I arrived in Kansas City on Wednesday afternoon and race volunteer, Lisa Fleming picked me up, what a wonderful person she is! I stayed at the host hotel, the Kansas City Hyatt Regency.

Thursday morning I was up early for a run and then Lisa picked me up at 8:30 and we headed for Waddell & Reed. I gave a talk to many of the 250+ volunteers from Waddell and Reed. It is absolutely amazing to me that so many volunteers from one company come out to support the runners! Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, Bob Williams introduced me after saying a few words to his staff. Bob was so excited they were involved with the race and is a very motivating person himself!

I gave a 30 minute talk that went very well and helped with handing out door prizes to everyone that was there.

After my talk at Waddell & Reed, I met the kids race director Steve Koranda who took me over to the Nobles Prentis Elementary School where I spoke to all the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. I love talking to the kids as they are all so wide eyed! The kids were great and had many questions after my talk!

After my visit to to the school I headed back to the hotel and the race expo where I said a few words to everyone as the expo opened.

Lisa then picked me up and we headed over to the Johnson County Community College where I spoke to high school cross-country runners and their coaches and parents. My talk went very well and afterwards I answered questions and had pictures taken.

Friday morning I was up early for a run and then off to the race expo where I gave a talk at 10:15 and answered questions, right after my talk I went and spent time in the Runner's Edge booth signing books and talking to many of the people attending the expo.

From 5-7 PM they had their pasta dinner, the $15.00 price tag was a great bargain as they had a wonderful pasta dinner! At 6 PM I gave my keynote talk to a packed pasta dinner crowd and it went very well. Afterwards I signed books and chatted with many of the folks and had lots of pictures taken.

Saturday morning I was up very early for a run. I was scheduled to run in the half marathon but because of the knee injury I have (surgery is set for Nov. 17) I decided against it. I can run without too much trouble if I keep it slow and not to far. I knew if I entered the half the competitive juices would start flowing and that would not be good for my knee! The race started at 7 on a clear cool morning. I arrived around 6:45 and met Bob Williams from Waddell & Reed. I was asked to say a few words to the 7000+ runners they had, they were fired up to get going!

Not only do they have a full marathon but also a half marathon, marathon relay, 5K, and a 1.2 mile kids run. They had over 500 kids participating! That was so exciting to see all the kids!

I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone that made my visit possible, but especially Lisa Fleming (volunteer extraordinaire!) and Bob Williams (from the title sponsor Waddell & Reed) You folks really know how to put on a incredible fun event, keep up the GREAT work you do!

Royal Victoria Marathon

2008-10-14T11:35:00.004-05:00

Laura presenting me with a beautiful drawing!

Dylan was wonderful to meet at the Pasta Dinner

Laura and Jill

Butchart Gardens

Rob Reid and I at Frontrunners

What a gorgeous city Victoria, BC is! I've been to the Royal Victoria Marathon three times now to speak, but it was my wife Jill's first time and she also loved it! We took off from Austin last Thursday morning and flew to Denver, then onto Vancouver, then finally landed in Victoria. My good friend and race director Rob Reid picked us up at the airport and we headed to the VIP reception. Rob is one busy guy! He owns Frontrunners Footwear, a running specialty store, the New Balance running specialty store, and is also running for Mayor of Victoria! I've known Rob for a number of years, and he would be a outstanding mayor for the City of Victoria!

After the VIP reception, Rob took us back to our hotel to check in. We stayed at The Fairmont Express Hotel, what a beautiful place!!!

Friday morning Rob and I went for a nice easy run along the ocean front then after breakfast, Jill and I went to Rob's Frontrunners store where they were having a press conference for the race.

Afterwards, one of Robs good friends, Brian, took Jill and I to Butchart Gardens.......unbelievable! If your ever to Victoria it's, the gardens are a must see!

At 3, I helped Rob open the beginning of the expo, there were people lining outside the door waiting to get in! I gave my first talk at the expo at 4:30 and it went very well! Friday evening Jill and I went out with our good friends Mark and Jenny Stinson from Chicago/Boise. Mark was getting ready to run his first marathon in almost 5 years, we enjoyed a great meal and even better conversation.

Saturday morning up early for a easy run, then over to Frontrunners where I delivered a talk to some of the folks that were in a training program to get ready for the race. We had a lot of fun and took lots of pictures. After our talk, we went over to the showing of Spirit of the Marathon. What a great movie this is! Afterwards, Jill and I found a nice little cafe where we had breakfast. There are neat little cafes on every corner and they all seem to have great food!

I gave my next talk at the expo at 12:45 to a full house, the crowd was wonderful, afterwards I spent about a hour at the Russell Books booth and signed books and took pictures with folks, really enjoyed that!

Jill and I had a little time to explore downtown Victoria before we had to be at the pasta dinner at 6. You talk about a incredible pasta dinner, I think its probably the best one I've ever been to! It was sold out with about 300 people. New Balance provided over 30 door prizes and I also gave a short 15 minute talk and had everyone fired up for the race on Sunday.

Sunday morning I got up early and did a easy 5 miler and met Jill back at the hotel at 7AM to get her warmed up for the 8K race she was going to run. They had almost 2500 runners in that race. Jill wanted to break 50 minutes and she smashed it with 47:17, and I am very proud of her! I ran it with her and she did awesome! She was racing her friend in Austin, Laura Nye, who was doing a 5 mile race at the same time. Laura had her game face on and beat her, running 45:41.

After the 8K, we had a quick breakfast then headed on over for the start of the kids 1K run. They had over 900 kids on a perfect morning for running! We then went down to the finish area and helped with making sure all the kids got paired back up with their parents.

We then spent some time at the finish line watching the marathoners and half marathoners come in.

Jill and I had a wonderful time and would like to thank everyone that made our visit such a special one! A very special thanks goes out to Rob Reid, Cathy, Laura, Brian and Norma, Steve King, and of course the great folks at New Balance for making our trip all possible!

If you're looking for a beautiful fall get away to run a marathon, the Royal Victoria Marathon is the place to be! Next year will be their 30th anniversary so I'm sure it will be extra special!

Here are all of the pictures that we took this weekend!

Team Spiridon

2008-10-08T15:18:00.004-05:00

Last night for the second year in a row, I had the chance to spend time with Team Spiridon here in Austin. Rob Hill is the founder and director of Team Spiridon. Team Spiridon is a training group here in Austin that gets folks ready to compete in races from 5K's to marathons and triathlons!

Rob does a great job with this group and he is a huge supporter of the Dick Beardsley Foundation!

We met last night at a wonderful restaurant called Little Mexico 6:15 and headed out for a nice 3 mile room with many of the group including my wife Jill. It was a beautiful evening for a nice run!

After our run we enjoyed each others company and a great meal, then it was time for me to speak. My talk went well and I really appreciate everyone for coming out and supporting Rob and the Dick Beardsley Foundation!

After my talk I sold and signed copies of my book "Staying the Course" and had a nice visit with many of the members of Team Spiridon.

Many in the group are training to run the Austin Marathon in February, Team Spiridon members will also be raising money for two different charities, one of those being the Dick Beardsley Foundation! I can't tell you how much that means to Jill and I!

Thanks Rob and Team Spiridon for a wonderful evening, keep up the awesome work!

Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon

2008-10-06T13:04:00.003-05:00

What a wonderful time I had at the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee! I arrived on Thursday afternoon and was picked up by race volunteer Dennis Wantland. Dennis made sure I got everywhere I needed to be during my visit. I can't thank Dennis and his wife Julie for everything they did for me, you talk about nice people!

Besides being in Milwaukee as their invited guest to speak, I also had been training all summer long to race the Lakefront Marathon, needless to say I was very excited, although my excitement to run was a little tempered because I had hurt my knee a couple of weeks before, not running, but goofing around in the Atlantic Ocean and I got hit in the right knee by a big wave! My doctor said I could give the race a try and see what happens, more on that later!

Friday I was up early for a nice easy 3 mile run as I was in my last couple of days tapering. It was then down to the lake front where I was greeted by 2000 Milwaukee elementary school kids who were there to get pumped up about leading a healthy active lifestyle! I, along with some others, got up on the stage and said a few words and then it was off for a mile and a half walk with all the kids, it was wonderful!

Friday afternoon I had the opportunity to speak a couple of times to a large group of students at Brookfield East High School and the boys and girls cross-country teams, the kids were super! A big thanks to teacher and Coach Kim who helped make it all possible!

After my high school talks it was back over the the Lakefront Marathon Expo and I gave a short talk along with Jen who is from the Detroit, Michigan area and has a written program for getting kids into a running program.

Friday night it was on to In-Step Running for a VIP reception for many of the team leaders who help with volunteering for the race. We had a wonderful time, I told a few stories, had pictures taken, and answered questions from the folks that were there.

Saturday morning Dennis picked me up at 6:30 and it was off to the local FOX TV station for a interview, then back to the expo center and a nice fun run with about 10 other folks for about 3 miles then off for my favorite meal of the day, breakfast!

Saturday afternoon I gave two different talks to a full house, sold and signed books and had a super time just chatting with people!

On Saturday evening it was out to supper with Dennis and Julie along with others including race director Kris Hinrichs. What a energized person Kris is! She along with her volunteers do a amazing job!

Sunday morning was the perfect day for a marathon! They were talking rain but not til later in the day. Dennis picked me up at 6:30 and off we went, north to the Grafton, Wisc. high school. The race started there and the school was open for everyone to get into before the race started.

At 8AM the gun was fired and off we went on a gorgeous morning! It was about 42 degrees, sunshine and no wind! I felt really good for the first 5-6 mile and was in a nice group of guys running 6:15-6:20 pace. By 7 miles my right knee started to really bother me, by 8 miles I noticed a limp, by 9 I'm really hobbling, and at 10 miles my day was done! Running means to much to me to try and hobble in just to finish and perhaps really wreck my knee, so I saw race volunteer Judy and she was kind enough to give me a ride back to my hotel.

The hot shower along with breakfast felt good, and then it was over to the finish area to help with the awards.

I had such a great time in Milwaukee! Thanks to everyone who made my trip there such a memorable one!

If any of you are looking for a great fall race, that is not too big, really well organized, and is run on a beautiful course, the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon is the one to run!

Lake Tahoe Marathon

2008-10-01T10:56:00.007-05:00

Robert E. Decelle family. Mom Ludine, and her daughters, April and Karen

As you can see by the title, it says Lake Tahoe Marathon, that's only a small part of the great things happening there! I've known race director Les Wright for a number of years seeing him at many race expo's throughout the year. Last week I was the guest speaker at his races, what a wonderful time I had!

I flew from Austin into Reno, Nevada and then took a bus for the one and a half hour trip to South Lake Tahoe. I stayed at the Horizon Casino Resort which is in Nevada but only two blocks from California! It's a two hours time change so by the time I got in and unpacked I was whooped from traveling all day!

Wednesday morning it was up early for a track workout, I was a little worried about the altitude (6500 feet) and how it would affect my workout. I wore my heart rate monitor and to my surprise, it was like I was running back home in Austin! (It really hit me the next day though!) After my track work out I went to Les's home where I did a fun run on the mountain trails with Les and a bunch of other runners that were in town, it was gorgeous!

The rest of Wednesday was spent walking around town and doing a little sightseeing.

Thursday morning I was up early for a nice run, and my quads were killing me! It felt like I had just got done running a downhill marathon! I was later told by my good friend Bart Yasso from Runners World Magazine that because I had done a hard workout the day before in high altitude that's why my quads felt the way they did, makes sense to me! After my morning run I quickly jumped into the car and went to the local golf course where I was the invited guest to play 18 holes of speed golf! In speed golf you can carry up to 3 clubs and you run the course. I played with just one club (5 iron) and at 9AM I took my first shot and off I went! It was the most fun I'd ever had playing golf! It took me just a little over 45 minutes and I shot 116 for 18 holes, I should play golf like that all the time!

Thursday evening I was the guest speaker at the "Triple Marathon" banquet. What's the Triple Marathon you might be asking? On Friday they run a marathon, on Saturday they run a marathon, then on Sunday they run their last one as part of the regular Lake Tahoe Marathon! Then there was the Super Triple......a marathon Friday, marathon Saturday, then at midnight Saturday they ran the entire 72 miles around Lake Tahoe!!!

My talk went very well and I had everyone laughing and nice and loose for their big endeavor over the next few days.

Friday was another nice sightseeing day for me, the Lake Tahoe area is stunning in its beauty!

Saturday I gave two different talks at the race expo then on Saturday night was a guest on the "Pasta Cruise" out on Lake Tahoe for the runners....incredible! While at one of my talks I met April Carter along with her sister Karen and their mom Ludine. We got to talking about things and I find out that her dad is Robert E. Decelle, it made the hair on the back of my head stand up and I got goose bumps! In 1982 I was awarded the Robert E. Decelle Award for the outstanding distance runner in the United States. That award has always meant a lot to me but even more now that I know who the man really is and what its all about! Here is a little information on Robert E. Decelle and his brave son, I'm very touched!

Captain Robert DeCelle Jr.
Robert Jr.

Born in 1945, Bobby was always active in a variety of activities. He earned his Eagle Scout award, outstanding track runner for Alameda High School, running 1:58 in 880 and 4:20 for the mile. He served as a Missionary to Japan for the LDS church and upon his return was drafted into the army in 1966. Bobby graduated from Officers Candidate school in 1967, attended flight schools for helicopters in 1968. In 1970 he was assigned to So. Vietnam, where he was awarded the Bronze Star with 5 palms.

On February 15, 1971 while attempting to draw fire away from ground troops, his helicopter came under heavy fire. Though he was critically wounded, he managed to fly from the scene, saving his crew members and his helicopter. He was awarded the Silver Star, National Order of Vietnam, and the Purple Heart award. He passed away February 21, 1971 in Bien Hoa due to complications from his injuries. The Lake Tahoe Relay was then named in his memory.

Vietnam fort named in honor of Robert Jr.
Robert DeCelle Sr. Marking the Course

Robert E. De Celle, Sr. Robert E. De Celle Sr., De Celle Memorial Tahoe Relay founder and president, passed away in 1997, two weeks after the 33rd annual relay had taken place. He was 78 years old. Bob was an active participant in the sport of running for all of his adult life. His interest was kindled when he discovered the running talent of his son. Robert, Jr., for whom the Relay was named, after he died of wounds received in Vietnam.

He began a long career in the administrative areas in U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country through many position in the AAU. Some of his accomplishments included: Traveling over 10,000 miles to measure and certify courses, such as the Dipsea, and reinstating the Bay-to Breakers. He increased the number of long distance events from 10 to 46 in the PA AAU, and campaigned to allow women to compete in distance events.

Bob was an Administrative Assistant at the 1968 & 1972 Olympic Games, Team leader to World Cross Country Championships in Morocco and South East Asia, and Liaison Officer to the Pan American games in Columbia. He was meet Director for the Oakland Indoor Invitational, and the list goes on…

Bob was also active his entire adult life in the Boy Scouts of America, earning his Silver Beaver, and in improving his beloved city of Alameda, Ca.

The De Celle family feel that Bob's most significant contribution to running was his devotion to high school athletes and their programs, in improving the quality of these programs, and in making sure that the high school arena had a voice in the sport at large.
Bob's spirit and influence will live on in the De Celle Memorial Tahoe Relays in this year, and in the years to come. We will miss him!

Bob's daughter April Carter will serve as the race director.

What a incredible family!

Sunday morning it was up early for a nice 12 mile trail run in the forest and then time for me to take the bus back to Reno for my flight home.

My huge thanks goes out to Les and his staff for the wonderful time I had! I once put on a 10K race years ago and said never again, that's a lot of work!

For Les and his staff that would be like going on a vacation! Here is a list of the events they put on over a period of 3 days:

Friday: Kayak and Swim

Saturday: Bike, Tahoe Triple, Tahoe Super, Triple A la Cart and Marathon

Sunday: 5k, 10k, Half Marathon, 20 Miler, Marathon, 72 Mile Ultra, Triple Marathon,

Marathon Relay, Swim Triathalon and Kayak Triathlon

Thanks again Les, keep up the great work you do promoting health and fitness, you are a true winner and inspiration!

Dick

Society of American Florists 124th Annual Convention, Palm Beach, Florida

2008-09-21T10:02:00.012-05:00

Beautiful Sunrise
Beautiful flowers from Columbia that was presented to me
Where Jill and I were all day!
If not at the pool, we were here!
Jill and I

My wife Jill and I caught a very early 5:30 AM flight from Austin and landed in Palm Beach around noon on Tuesday Sept. 16. We picked up our rental car and headed for the Hilton Hotel on the beautiful Atlantic Ocean and headed right for the beach, you talk about incredible blue water! I enjoyed the beach with Jill for a couple of hours then went back to our room to get ready for a run. I hit the roads around 3:30 PM, I thought it was hot and humid in Austin, my gosh it pales in comparison to Palm Beach!

I did a 10 mile loop around this large inlet from the ocean, thank goodness I was able to get water a couple of times during my run! My 10 mile run went well but I got a large blister on the ball of my left foot, I'd forgotten my orthotics at home and had to wear some new inserts, I developed a hot spot and it turned into a pretty good blister, I won't forget them again!

After my run and shower, Jill and I went out to Charlie's Grill, a small family restaurant that had incredible seafood! A good night sleep, up for a good track workout, and then off to The Breakers where the Society of American Florists 124th Annual Convention was being held.

No doubt The Breakers is the nicest place I've ever stayed before! It's 140 acres right on the Atlantic, which is beautiful! As we were driving down the lane to The Breakers, it was breathtaking! Jill was so excited that she was hyperventilating!

After unpacking we went and toured the grounds, five swimming pools, 18 hole golf course, beautiful white sand beach, and stunning buildings!

We then changed into our swimsuits and spent the next few hours on the beach and near one of the pools, the ocean was so blue and the water was around 85 degrees.

Wednesday night I had a chance to check out the ballroom where I would be giving a talk the next morning as the Keynote Speaker. We then went for dinner with Blanche of Powell, Kohne Associates. She is the one that booked me as the keynote speaker, what a very nice down to earth person! As Jill says, she's adorably cute. After dinner it was back to our room where I finished going over my talk for the next morning.

Thursday morning I was up very early for a nice run and to get ready for my talk. We arrived at the ballroom at 6:45 AM for a sound check and I got to meet some of the great folks from the Society of American Florists.

Things got underway at 7 with a wonderful breakfast and a short awards program, then it was time for my keynote address. My talk went very well and what a great group of folks it was to talk too! I always have butterfly's before I speak and this time was no different, once I started speaking the butterfly's were gone and now it was down to business!

The nice thing about doing a talk early in the morning is I now had the rest of the day to enjoy the beautiful Breakers! Jill and I spent the rest of the day by the pool and the beach and really enjoyed ourselves! I went for a nice afternoon run and then Jill and I dined on some more great seafood!

When we returned to The Breakers, we had the chance to go into the ballroom that was full of the most beautiful flowers and arrangements we have ever seen! The aroma of all those flowers was amazing!

Thursday morning I was up at 3:30 for my morning run along a road that went parallel to the ocean, the moon was almost full and it was gorgeous!

No cars, no people, just me and the ocean! It was then off to the airport for our flight back home to Austin.

I can't thank the Society of American Florists enough for having me as their keynote speaker! Jill and I had a wonderful time! We met some wonderful hard working people, keep up the great work you all do!

Thanks again for the incredible time Jill and I had!

Dick

P.S. Here are all of the pictures Jill and I took. Enjoy!

P.S.S. I can't for the life of me figure out how to make the paragraphs from looking spaced wrong. Please just ignore!

New Balance Elite Dealer Conference & More

2008-09-15T10:26:00.005-05:00

Moose and Jacoby!

Dave Shelbourne and Dan Green of New Balance
Fenway Stadium!
Maudsley State Park
Surprise Katrina!
Big Pig!

The fine folks at New Balance continue to amaze me at their support of specialty running stores across the country! Last Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, New Balance hosted their annual Elite Dealer Meeting in Boston at Hotel Commonwealth. Over 100 elite dealers were there to learn about the new products coming out and how to make their stores that much better and what a success the meeting was!

My wife Jill and I arrived around midnight on Tuesday. I got up and did a beautiful 10 mile run along the Charles River, we had a nice breakfast and it was off to the meetings. Last year I gave a talk, this year I signed beautiful posters that New Balance had made showing me winning the 1981 Grandma's Marathon. I signed posters for about 3 hours while Jill took pictures with me and many of the elite dealers.

Wednesday night we all walked over to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play the Tampa Bay Rays. What an awesome ball park with so much history! Jill and I feasted on ball park food then took our seats with our good friends Dave and Ivette Shelbourne along with their daughter Katrina, you talk about Red Sox fans, the Shelbournes are the biggest!

What a game it was! It was all tied up at 1-1 after nine innings. Jill and I stayed until the 12th inning and then left as it was getting late. We watched the finish on TV from our hotel room and unfortunately, the Red Sox came out on the short end.

Thursday morning I was up bright and early for a 11 mile run with folks from the elite dealer conference, what a gorgeous morning for a run! After our run Jill and I took the train back to the airport where we rented our car and headed for Newburyport, MA

But before we went there, we stopped off at the New Balance Factory Store in Lawrence, MA; Jill now has more NB clothes than I do!

We stopped in for a quick visit to Whirlaway Sports for a quick hello to the owner, Dave. What a great store!

Newburyport is a splendid small town right on the ocean about 30 miles north of Boston. We checked into the quaint bed and breakfast place called the Essex Street Inn. Newburyport is a big tourist town and has many neat shops to go and browse around! I can see why people think New England is one of the most beautiful areas of the country!

After checking in, Jill and I both went out for a nice run and then off to dinner. We went to Michael's Harborside, it's right on the ocean and we had a marvelous dinner of fresh seafood.

Friday morning Jill and I went to Maudslay State Park for a great run on the trails through the forest, it was beautiful. After a nice breakfast we went over to the Shelbourne's and spent the afternoon with Ivette, Katrina, and their son Justin. Jill and I surprised Katrina by showing up at her elementary school. Jill had bought her a bouquet of flowers, Katrina was thrilled! Katrina and Jill started being pen pals last April, she just loves receiving things in the mail from Jill!

We then went over to Ipswich High School to pick up Justin and talk with Barry the principal.

I signed a one of the posters that New Balance had made just for the high school and gave it to Barry. I met Barry last April when I gave a talk at his school, he does a great job with the kids there!

After picking up Justin, we then went to Russell's Orchard and had homemade pastries and cider, walked through the barnyard area and fed the 700 pound pig an apple, boy was he big! Better the apple then me!

It was then onto Crane Beach. We walked along the beach and collected shells and took many pictures. Back to our B & B for a short rest then onto the Black Cow Restaurant for a great meal with the Shelbourne family.

Saturday morning I was up early to get my last 20 miler in before the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee that I will be running on October 5. I took off from Newburyport and crossed the Merrimac River and ran all along the river. I crossed a very old bridge at 10 miles and then ran back on the other side all the way into Newburyport, I have to say it was one of the most beautiful 20 mile runs I've ever been on!

After a nice breakfast with Jill and a little shopping in town, it was off to the Shelbourne's for a afternoon of visiting and a nice walk down to principal Barry's and his wife, principal Cheryl's house. What a place! Their home is a neat old farm house along with a mill that was built back in the late 1600's! It's incredible! A beautiful small river goes through their property and they are working on getting the mill working again soon and it will generate electricity not only for their home but also will provide electricity for some of the folks that live in the town of Rowley!

Saturday evening we were out to dinner with the Shelbourne's and some of their friends for some great pizza and to watch the Red Sox game. After supper we said our good byes and we went back to the Essex Street Inn for a good nights sleep and up early the next morning for a nice run in the rain and for our flight back home to Austin.

Jill and I would like to give the biggest of thanks to the folks at New Balance for making it possible for us to be there and take part in the Elite Dealer Meetings!

A double gigantic thank you goes out to Dave, Ivette, Justin, and Katrina Shelbourne for making our few days in Newburyport so special! Jill and I are so fortunate to have such wonderful friends like all of you!

Thanks a million!

Dick

P.S. Hi to Moose and Jacoby!

P.S.S. Here are ALL of the pictures from our trip!

Big Pig Eating!

The Dick Beardsley Half Marathon, Half Marathon Relay, 5k, and kids race

2008-09-08T12:22:00.006-05:00

Kid's Race!

What can I say other then it just continues to get bigger and better every year! On September 6 we had the 13th annual Dick Beardsley Half Marathon, Half Marathon Relay, 5K, and Kids Race's in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Like many things in my life that may have my name on it, it's not because of me that they are so successful, it's the people that do most of the work and so believe in the cause!

Thirteen years ago, friends David Burd and Mark Fritz came to me with an idea of putting on a half marathon in Detroit Lakes, I thought it was a great idea! They were asking me about what we should name it, I came up with all kind of names, none of which had my name on it! David and Mark asked if it would be OK if they used my name, I was taken aback but very honored!

That first year we had a couple of hundred runners and now in its thirteenth year nearly 2000! The whole community gets involved and excited about this early fall race! A few years ago we started bringing in one of the legends to speak at the pasta dinner on the night before our race. Over the years we have had great running legends like Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar, Don Kardong, Doug Kurtis, Joanie Benoit Samuleson, Frank Shorter, and this years legend was the incredible Patti Catalano Dillion. These folks are all friends of mine that I have known for years and the fact that they come to our "little race" is really exciting!

One of the traditions each year is on Friday afternoon myself and this year Patti, go and speak to the Detroit Lakes High School XC Team, this year there were even a few runners from the Foley Minnesota HS team! That's 150 miles away!

Friday evening is our pasta dinner and then myself and Patti gave a talk and answered questions from the audience. Saturday morning it was perfect for a race! Clear blue sky's, no wind, and temperatures at the start of around 48 degrees, WOW, what a day!

All of our camper that were at the Dick Beardsley Marathon Running Camp were at the race and boy did many of them clean up during the awards ceremony! I ran the half and ran it at marathon pace instead of really racing it. I'm running the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee on October 5 and needed to do a long run with 13 miles of a 17 mile run at marathon race pace. It's hard not to get all caught up in the excitement of the race and run it as such, but I did and was right on marathon pace the whole way. Mary Coordt, one of our coaches at camp outright won the women's division, way to go Mary!

My favorite part of the day is the kids run! They all wear their special designed kids race shirts and they took off like they were doing the 50 yard dash! They run a little over a quarter mile and get to finish in the finish chute, what a thrill on those kids faces when they hear all the spectators cheering for them!

I can't thank enough our race director Brent Wolf and the many many volunteers and sponsors that make this all happen! And to the town of Detroit Lakes, what can I say except you folks are the best! To all the runners that came from all over to support this event, thank you from the bottom of my heart as part of the proceeds from the race will go to the Dick Beardsley Foundation to help those afflicted with chemical dependencies, for that I will be forever grateful!

Dick

Dick Beardsley Marathon Running Camp

2008-09-08T11:48:00.006-05:00

Camp Coaches and Camp Director

More Pictures!

2007 Video from WCCO

What a great six days we had at the Dick Beardsley Marathon Running Camp! It might have my name on it, but without the hard work from all of our coaches and our camp director Jan Seeley, the camp would not be what it is! The DBMRC was started six years ago by myself and Jan Seeley, my good friend Amy Xu put the bug in my ear about having a running camp at Rainbow Resort north of my old hometown of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Amy along with her husband Mike and Doug and Linda Schumann own and operate the resort. It sits on the shore of beautiful Little Bemidji Lake, nestled in the pine forests of Northern Minnesota. They have miles of trails to run on in the summer and XC ski on in the winter.

The campers arrived on Tuesday afternoon the day after Labor Day. We had 32 campers this year along with 10 coaches. We keep them quite busy while they are there! We don't make them run lots of miles. Although we run every day, what we try to do during the runs and the seminars is to show them things and give them ideas that they can take back home with them and use to become more goal orientated and be more motivated not just with running but with their lives!

The weather was cool which made it nice for sleeping at night and great for running during the days!

All of our coaches do such a outstanding job of giving their seminars in easy to understand ways that we can all learn from!

The neatest part of camp is, that we come in as strangers and we leave as friends! As one camper said a few years ago, "I came to Dick's camp to become a better runner, I left a better person" That my friends is what it's all about!

A huge thank you goes out to all of our campers that came to camp this year, to our coaches Rich Benyo, Mary Coordt, Mike Dunlap, Joe Henderson, Roy Herron, Rhonda Provost, Bill Wenmark, Assistant camp director Jenny Stinson, and camp director Jan Seeley, along with special guests Dr. Steve Moe, Greg Hammes, and camper/coach Bill Latter. Without each and every one of you this camp would not happen!

And last but not least, a huge thank you goes out to Doug and Linda Schumann along with their daughter Lia who as always, did a wonderful job of hosting all of us campers at their beautiful resort and do a incredible job of keeping us all well fed!

I can hardly wait until next year!

Dick

Wayside Treatment Center

2008-09-03T12:17:00.004-05:00

I had the opportunity to give a talk to the folks at Wayside Treatment Center in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. It is an all women's drug and alcohol treatment facility that got started back in 1954.

When I was speaking at Grandma's Marathon this past June, I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Richard Beardsley and his wife. They are from Indianapolis, Indiana and they have a daughter Natalie who is a counselor at Wayside House. So between my wife Jill, Natalie, Michaelene and others at the Wayside House we were able to work it out that I could speak there.

To my great surprise, my dear friends Dr. Dennis and Fern Arne, along with their son Bruce and his friend came to listen to my talk. I grew up with the Arne family and was in 4-H with all their kids. They are some of the most wonderful people and friends a person could ever know!

I gave a talk on life and about not giving up no matter what happens in your life! To always think positive and if you really believe in something to always go after it! Included in my talk was my own battle with narcotic drug addiction. At the conclusion of my talk, I sang a song that I wrote, while I played my guitar. The name of the song is "Thank You Jesus". It was a nice way to end the evening.

I get inspired by so many people, but when I see folks that are trying to get their lives back from addictions, the inspiration I get from that is out of this world!

Thank you ladies for the incredible inspiration you gave me! Keep fighting the good fight!

A huge thank you to my wife Jill, Natalie Beardsley, Michaelene and all the folks at Wayside House for making it all possible!

Spirit of the Marathon

2008-09-02T14:14:00.003-05:00

My good friends, Jon Dunham and Melissa Leggett, followed their dreams and made a wonderful film about running.

Spirit of the Marathon is the first ever non-fiction feature film to capture the drama and essence of the famed 26.2 mile running event. Filmed on four continents, the movie brings together a diverse cast of amateur athletes and marathon luminaries.

As six unique stories unfold, each runner prepares for and ultimately faces the challenge of the Chicago Marathon. More than a sports movie, Spirit of the Marathon is an inspirational journey of perseverance and personal triumph; a spectacle that will be embraced by runners and non-runners alike.

Spirit of the Marathon is set to be released on DVD on October 7th through Image Entertainment and can be pre-ordered on on the website starting September 8th. I'm sure every running and endurance sports fan out there would love to have this film in their stocking over the Holidays!

Director signed DVD's will be offered on the website only, so please, purchase a copy through there...AND a $2.00 discount through Active.com as well.

Like I said in the movie, "When you cross the finish line, it will change your life forever" and so will seeing this movie.

Zilker Relays - Austin, Texas

2008-08-30T13:41:00.000-05:00

Jill and Dick!

The Dick Beardsley Foundation had a waterstop at the Zilker Relays in Austin, Texas. What a great way to kick off Labor Day weekend and the fall racing season.

The way I started the weekend was working the waterstop in a bikini, surrounding by women in hula skirts. :-)

The Zilker Relays will be making a donation to the foundation for our volunteer efforts, so I found myself dressed like that....all for the foundation!

Thank you Laura, Jennifer, Jack, Ginny, Jennifer, Mark and Nathan (the little boy who came to watch his father). Most importantly, thanks to my beautiful wife, Jill, for putting this waterstop altogether! It was so much fun and I can't wait until next year!

More fun waterstop pictures!

Thanks to Raul and RunFAR for a great event!

Marathon Training Teleseminar

2008-08-20T12:05:00.003-05:00

Last night I had the opportunity to have a teleseminar with Steve Mackel.

We talked about the Olympics, marathon training, my goals as a runner and for the Dick Beardsley Foundation.

You can listen to the teleseminar here.

Thanks Steve, I really appreciate the opportunity to be on your show, keep up the great work!

Dick

Round Rock Express - Conley Sports / DBF Fundraiser

2008-08-19T10:59:00.008-05:00

Stacey Conley

David Grice

What a wonderful time we had at the Round Rock Express baseball game this past Sunday evening!

My good friends John and Stacey Conley of Conley Sports were the host for this wonderful event. It was the kickoff for the Austin Marathon that coming up in February and also a fundraiser for the Dick Beardsley Foundation.

We had a beautiful banquet room with lots of good things to eat, the banquet room went right out along the right field base line so we had a great view to watch the ball game!

Myself, along with David Grice, of RaceWorks Incorporated, got to throw out the first pitch! Let me tell you, that pitching mound is like being up on a mountain! I had a good windup and though my pitch was a little wide of the plate, it made it there without bouncing in the dirt or going over the catchers head!

Dick's First Pitch

Afterward we all got to keep the ball we threw out! I spent most of the evening in and out of the banquet room, either watching the game or talking to folks. About half way through the evening, John got up and said a few words, then he asked me to say a few words about the Dick Beardsley Foundation, John then encourage donations and the foundation received over $500.00 in donations! Thank you!!!

A HUGE thank you to John and Stacey for hosting this fine event and for letting the Dick Beardsley Foundation be the beneficiary, Jill and I can't thank you and all the folks that came enough for your time and effort!

Gut Check 212 Bike Race

2008-08-18T11:26:00.004-05:00

Darn street lights

280 miles down - 134 to go!

All finished!

He did it!!! My best friend Mike Dunlap not only finished his bike race across South Dakota, but won the race outright and set a new course record!!! Drum roll please....Mike Dunlap, age 51: 22:45

I visited with Mike's son, Ben, on Friday evening and Mike was about 5.5 hours into the race. Ben and his friend Josh were crewing for Mike the first half of the race and said Mike was looking real good. At that point, Mike was in the lead for the solo racers, but there was a relay team in front of him.

When Mike rolled into Gettysburg, South Dakota about 4am on Saturday morning, Ben and Josh hit the hotel and now it was Mike's wife, Karen's turn to crew onto the finish. At this point Mike was the overall leader!

I was able to talk with Karen and was lucky to have a quick chat with Mike as he was taking a quick bathroom break at a gas station. Mike still had 140 miles to go, but he really sounded up beat and was ready for the challenge!

Last year Mike did the two person relay and he rode the second half into a stiff headwind and rain, the weather this year was much better.

The fact that Mike finished first over everyone at the age of 51 is incredible!! Mike averaged over 19 mph for the 400+ mile race!

I can't tell you how proud I am of Mike!! It just goes to show you, that if you really want something bad enough, and are willing to work hard for it, anything and everything is possible!

Way to go "Dun" you rock!!!

beards :-)

5-Star Cross-Country Camp , (Iriquois Springs)

2008-08-17T12:07:00.002-05:00

I woke up at 3:15 am and got a nice 8 mile run in and then it was back on the plane for my flight to Newark, NJ. I arrived in Newark about 11:45am, picked up my rental car and started heading for Rock Hill, NY for the 5-Star Cross-Country Camp. Thank goodness for my Garmin! I punched in the address and "she" got me through that tangled mess of highways in the NYC area! I didn't have to drive too far out of the big city and I was out into the beautiful NY countryside! I arrive at Iriquois Springs Camp where 5-Star is held and it's beautiful! I arrived around 3pm and was met by 5-Star camp director Steve Lurie.

Steve has been putting the 5-Star XC camp for 27 years, this was my 6th straight year to have been invited back to speak and run with the kids, I so look forward to it every year!

At about 4pm we all went for a 7 mile run, about a mile into the run it started pouring cats and dogs, what a ball we all had!

Every year there are about 150 kids that come to camp, and it is really well run!

Thursday night I gave my first of two talks, the kids were absolutely awesome!!!

Friday morning I was up early for a nice 12 mile run up and down the roads of the beautiful Catskill Mountains. The weather was cool which was sure a nice break from the heat and humidity of Austin!

After a nice breakfast with the kids, I sat in on a panel with some of the other coaches and we answered questions from the kids. Then took a short nap, had lunch, then signed my book "Staying the Course" for the kids.

After the book signing, it was off for a easy 5 mile run, and I watched the kids do their workout. They were doing quarter mile repeats on the grass and were having a ball! It had rained quite a bit before they ran, and the course turned quite muddy, that didn't bother them, the muddier the better!

I gave my last talk after the run and we all had a wonderful time, my second talk was on the "lighter" side and I even sang a few songs that I wrote along with playing the guitar, my talk and the songs went very well!

The last night of camp, each cabin puts on a skit, they are hilarious and some even did a skit that mimicked how I act and talk, I was cracking up!

Saturday morning I was up early for a easy 6 miler then back to the airport for my flight home.

Thanks Steve for once again inviting me to speak at your camp, as always I had a wonderful time and hope to be back again next year!

A big thanks to all the coaches, counselors, and the kids for making my visit such a wonderful one!

Dick

Growmark Conference

2008-08-14T11:52:00.002-05:00

Early Tuesday morning I flew from Austin-Detroit-Bloomington, Illinois. I was one of the speakers for Growmark, the agricultural giant with headquarters in Bloomington. The conference was being held at a beautiful resort in Pana, IL, which is about 90 miles southwest of Bloomington. I picked up my rental car and off I went to Pana.

After a nice supper, I headed for the sack as I was super tired!

I got up early Wednesday morning and did a nice track workout and then went into town for a little breakfast. I stopped at a gas station and ran in to get a bottle of water, I left the rental car running, when I came back out to get in, the doors were locked and the car was running! I didn't think that could happen! The local police no longer opens up locked cars, but I was able to find a local guy that had the tools, it cost me $30 bucks, but at least he was able to unlock it!

I was the last speaker for the conference, it was made up of mostly guys and gals that were managers of different Growmark plants around Illinois. My talk went very well. I got done, threw on my running gear and did a beautiful 5 mile run around the grounds of the resort, and then it was back in the car for my ride back to Bloomington.

A big thank you to Dave Anderson from Growmark for inviting me to speak at their conference, I had a great time!

Dick

Bike race across South Dakota

2008-08-12T04:06:00.003-05:00

No, it’s not me that is racing across the state of South Dakota this weekend on a bike, but my best friend Mike Dunlap is! Mike and I have been best friends for 30 years. We first met right about now 30 years ago, I was a new member of the South Dakota State University Cross-Country Team. I had never met any of my team mates before but I knew this guy name Mike Dunlap only from the newsletters our coach, Scott Underwood, would send out every week. It included how much mileage each of us ran each week. Mike and I were always within a few miles of each other every week. I liked to run a lot and so did Mike. When Mike and I first met, there was almost this instant bonding and we have been best friends ever since.

Mike was a heck of a runner! He was a South Dakota high school state champion in cross-country and track and his best marathon came at the 1983 Boston Marathon where Mike ran 2:18!

Unfortunately or fortunately, however you want to look at it, Mike had to have some knee surgeries over the following years and left the world of running for the world of biking, talk about someone who fell in love with their new sport, it was Mike! "Dun" was a fanatic about running, and now he was able to turn it over to biking.

Over the years I've watched his dedication to his bike and his new love for this sport, he is amazing! At age 51, Mike can still hang with the young bucks, he loves to train, and when there is a race, he is up for the challenge!

This weekend Mike will be racing his multi-speed bike across the entire state of South Dakota! The race begins on the Wyoming-South Dakota border and will finish about 450 miles later on the South Dakota-Minnesota border.

His wife, Karen, and their son, Ben, will be Mike's "pit crew". If I was not in New York this weekend to speak at a high school XC running camp, I'd be out there cheering and helping Mike to the finish!

If you’re traveling across South Dakota this weekend on Hwy 212 and you see this skinny guy all by his lonesome on a bike, slow down and give him a shout of encouragement, please give him a shout from me!

Mike has been a great biker for many years, but more importantly, he has been a wonderful friend to me even longer. Go get ‘em Mikey! If I was a betting man, I'd put my money on Mike to be the first one across the finish line!

I'll be thinking about you my friend, be safe and God Bless!

Beards :-)

ZAP Fitness Mini Marathon Running Camp

2008-08-10T17:35:00.017-05:00

Virginia Creeper Trail Long Run
Moses Cone Memorial Park
Traci and Gail
Jill, Zika, and Pete

I had never been to Blowing Rock, North Carolina in my life, now I have been there twice in the past two weeks! I can't thank Pete and Zika Rea enough for having me back to speak at their Marathon Prep Mini Camp at their ZAP Fitness Center in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, outside of Blowing Rock. My friend and former world record holder in the marathon, Steve Jones was suppose to be the guest speaker, but Jonesy was in Beijing with one of the athletes he coaches, so I was his sub, I had another wonderful time!

My wife Jill was able to come with me this time, she had never been to North Carolina before and was awestruck by the beauty!

We arrived into Charlotte on Thursday afternoon, picked up our rental car and were off to Blowing Rock. The drive is about two hours and the scenery is spectacular especially when you start to get into the mountains.

It was Jill's 45th birthday and we celebrated it with a wonderful meal at Crippens, a bed and breakfast that also serves incredible dinner meals!

After supper, we headed the few miles down the road to ZAP Fitness, got all checked in, and met about 25 of the campers that were there.

Friday morning it was up and a short drive to Moses H. Cone Memorial Park for a beautiful run on the roughly 30 miles of carriage trails. Moses Cone, was a well to do textile tycoon and owned 3600 acres in the mountains. He build a beautiful summer mansion and had the carriage trails made so he and his wife along with friends and family members could ride their horses. After he and his wife died, they were buried on the property and it was made into this beautiful park for all of us to share in its beauty!

We all ran various distances through the park. Afterwards, Jill and I spent most of the day in Blowing Rock checking out all the neat little stores they have, Blowing Rock today is definitely a tourist town!

After a great meal of pasta that Chef John put on at ZAP Fitness, I gave a talk to the group, it went very well and I had many nice comments.

Afterwards I got to mingle with the campers and get to know them better, it was then lights out as we were getting up early the next morning to go for a long run.

Saturday morning was gorgeous! Cool and beautiful blue sky was the entire day! We all car pooled and drove about 50 miles, out of North Carolina, through Tennessee to Virginia to run on the Virginia Creeper Trail. The Virginia Creeper Trail is an old abandoned railroad line that has been turned into almost 40 miles of groomed trail to run, bike, or horseback ride.

I have been very fortunate to have run in some beautiful places in my 35 years of running, I can honestly say, the Virginia Creeper Trail is one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful place I've ever run! The footing is excellent, the trail is completely tree covered with shade, the railroad bridges and rivers you cross are breathtaking!

I did a 15 mile run with some of the elite athletes from ZAP Fitness, we were doing a very nice up tempo run, they were very kind to me as they could have left me in the dust anytime they wanted to! What a thrill it was to run with them. My wife Jill also did a long run of about 90 minutes and felt great and also could not get over the beauty of it all!

After our run many of us went over to the river and soaked our legs in the nice cool water, boy did that feel good! Afterwards, Jill and I took off for a windy, mountainous road trip through the mountains and back to ZAP Fitness.

After another great meal on Saturday evening, we all went into Blowing Rock and a trip to the homemade ice cream parlor, not many runners that I know that don't like ice cream!

Sunday morning I was up very early for a nice run on the treadmill, then Jill and I packed our bags and said our goodbyes to all and headed back to Charlotte.

Again, thanks so much to Pete and Zika for having us as their guest and thank you to all the campers who helped make the trip Jill and I had such a memorable one!

Dick

P.S. Jill here...:-) Here are all of the pictures that I took this weekend. If you want one sent to you separately, just email me directly at jill@dickbeardsleyfoundation.org

Thanks to Pete, Zika and all of the campers for making my weekend very memorable and meaningful. I am inspired by your stories and your strength.

P.S.S. Here is the link that has 9 minutes of the finish of the 1982 Boston Marathon.

P.S.S.S. Here is the link for information on how to purchase one of Dick's books.

Great Race Running Clinic-Pittsburgh

2008-08-04T11:44:00.001-05:00

My trip to Pittsburgh was super! Scott Green really does a great job as the New Balance rep for the area and Jamie Dix the tech rep for the area was also there and did a wonderful job! Saturday morning we spent about 5 hours at the Great Race Running Clinic. They had about 5 different stations set up for runners to go through and have a number of test done. The one that the runners really got the most out of was the shoe evaluation. Scott, Jamie, and Kevin Smith the owner of Elite Runners & Walkers did a outstanding job of taking the time to evaluate everyone and show them the types of shoes that would work best for them. I mainly chatted with folks as they came through, signed New Balance cards, took pictures with folks, things like that.

At noon I gave a hour long talk and it went very well. After we were all done there we went over to Kevin's store and I was there for about 3 hours signing books, New Balance cards, pictures, and answering lots of questions about training. After the store appearance, we headed over to a beautiful running trail and went for a nice 4 mile fun run.

Afterwards Kevin and his wife had pizza and drinks for everyone, New Balance shirts for all that came, it was a great time we all had!

I know Kevin really appreciated New Balance bringing me out, as he couldn't say enough nice things about New Balance, Scott, and Jamie!

You all know how to put a great team of sales and tech reps together! Every place I go, I've never heard a bad thing about the New Balance reps, always nothing but good! Thanks so much for letting me travel to events like that, I really enjoy doing it!

Keep up the GREAT work Dave and Dan!

Dick

Dick Beardsley Foundation "Run for Your Life" 5 mile race

2008-07-31T13:04:00.010-05:00

Race Start

Love the pink waterstop!

Getting blasted with water! Perfect way to cool off

Yakking about something!

What a wonderful time I had back in the Fargo, ND/Moorhead, MN area over the past few days! I left early Monday morning for Fargo, but, of course first I had to get my run in, so I was up at 2:30 and out the door by 2:45 for a nice 7 mile run. I know what you’re thinking, "Is this guy nuts!" To be honest with you I really don't mind getting up that early, I've always been like that. You never know what the rest of the day will bring and with me traveling and speaking so much, at least I know I got one run in any way!

I was heading to Fargo to take part in the First Annual "Run for Your Life" 5 mile road race to benefit the Dick Beardsley Foundation. In April of 2007, I, along with partners Greg and Stephanie Hammes, Tim and Shelly Richard, Wade and Kristen Erickson opened up the Dick Beardsley Running Company, the first running specialty store in the whole state of North Dakota! It has been a huge success, not because of me but because of the above mentioned partners along with our new partner Greg Liebl (Junior, as we like to call him) and his soon to be wife Dani, along with the great staff we have there!

A month ago, Greg Hammes who is one of the Directors of the Dick Beardsley Foundation, suggested we put on a race with proceeds going to the Foundation. I thought, my gosh, can we pull it off? We only have a month to get ready for it and let area runners know about it. It was a smash!

After Stephanie picked me up on Monday afternoon, I went back to their place, took a nap, and then headed out for a nice 11 mile run. It was 80 degrees, but that was 20 degrees cooler then it has been in Austin, Texas where I live and it felt great!

Monday evening I spoke at our store to the men's and women's store racing team that is sponsored by the New Balance we handed out new team uniforms, everyone was very excited and it was so nice for me to meet all of our team members!

Tuesday morning Greg and I were up bright and early for a 6 mile run then it was onto the store by 5 am. The local NBC station KVLY was setting up from our store to do some of their morning programming from there. Steve Poitrus was the on-air personality and did a great job and gave our store, the Foundation and the race lots of great airtime.

Tuesday evening I spoke with members of the different training groups that meet every Tuesday evening at the store, and then we all went for our workouts.

Wednesday morning Greg and I were up for another early run and then off to a couple of local radio stations to get interviewed and talk about the race and the Foundation. Later that morning I did an interview with the Fargo Forum newspaper. Afterwards, I helped where I could in getting things ready for the evening’s race.

I still get excited to race and for this race I was as excited as ever because of what the race was all about! Junior had laid out a beautiful 5 mile race course and now it was time for the big show!We had close to 150 runners show up, now some of you might be thinking that’s not very many runners. I was ecstatic! To have that many runners come out on a Wednesday evening on such short notice, I was very much touched by it all!

The race started right at 7 pm and one younger runner and myself took off together, by a half mile he had opened up about a 25 yard lead on me. I can't go out real hard like I could in my younger days, I have to sort of ease into it a bit. By the mile mark he had about a 75 yard lead, but I never let him get any further away. At 2.5 miles I thought I might be closing the gap just a bit, by 3 miles I knew I was and that was really giving me some life back into my legs! I was fortunate to catch him at about 3.5 miles and was able to come in with the overall win in a time of 29:30. It’s not many times that happens for me anymore! I changed out of my racing gear and put on my training shoes and did a cool down going back on the course and cheering the rest of the runners on to the finish line.

************Race Pictures Galore!************

I can't thank our staff at the Dick Beardsley Running Company, the sponsors, volunteers, and all the runners that came out to support this race and the Foundation to make it such a wonderful event enough!

The fact, because of events like this, that raise money for the Foundation, we will be able to touch the lives of people with chemical dependencies and help them get their lives back, it’s beyond words on how that makes me feel and how much I truly do want to thank each and every person!

Please believe me when I say, you have all helped so much in so many ways, for that I will be forever grateful!

Dick

ZAP Fitness Adult Running Vacation Camp

2008-07-25T11:37:00.007-05:00

What a place! Those were my exact thoughts when I arrived at ZAP Fitness Camp, just outside of Blowing Rock, NC on the afternoon of July 22. I was the invited speaker at one of five summer running camps they have for adults. Owners and facilitators Pete and Zika Rea are some of the nicest and most knowledgeable people you will meet when it comes to running!

ZAP Fitness was built with the focus of helping post collegiate runners continue their running by offering them a place to stay, train, work, and hopefully helping them to continue their desires to make National and Olympic teams.

They also have running camps for the everyday runners who are pursuing their running and trying to attain goals for themselves. Set in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, it is a true runners paradise! I gave my talk Tuesday evening to around 30 campers and we all had a wonderful time. Over the next couple of days I was able to run and spend time with the campers and it was great fun had by all!

Did I mention the food? Chef John does a great job providing all with wonderful meals and lots of it! Running on the nearby carriage trails in Moses Cone National Park is breathtaking!

For me it was a nice get away from the hot Texas heat! The weather there in Blowing Rock is warm during the day and great sleeping weather at night, what a great combination!

Thank you Pete and Zika and all the campers for making my stay such a wonderful one, I can't wait to get back in two weeks! It's my wife's birthday and I've been invited back to speak at their Marathon Prep Mini Camp, so I'm bringing her with me as a treat for both of us!

Couples Tri

2008-07-15T09:09:00.004-05:00

Transition is all set up!

Right before the start!

We did it! My wife Jill and I were "Team Beards" at the Couples Tri held at Walter E. Long Park in Austin on Sunday. Jack and Adam's Bicycles put on the event and what a well run event it was! They had close to 500 teams competing.

Jill and I were in the "Married Couples Total Age Over 70" category. Our wave started the swim at 8:20. We got into Decker Lake and it was very warm, this would be my longest swim ever! I started near the back when the horn sounded and off we went. I think because of my low body fat or perhaps because I just plain don't know how to swim very well, it felt like I was always struggling just to stay floating! I did the crawl the whole way, got passed by other waves of swimmers, even had a couple of folks swim right over the top of me, welcome to the world of triathlons Richard!

I finally got out of the water about 29 minutes after I started, I slipped on my Crocs and headed for my bike. I have to admit, I was very slow in the transition area! After drying my feet, I slipped on my helmet, my sunglasses, and my New Balance racing shoes. I don't wear bike shoes as I'm still not comfortable clipping my shoes into the pedals! Plus, I figured after the bike I would just take off my helmet and off for the run I could go without changing shoes.

I had a fantastic bike that Jack and Adam's loaned to me. The bike course was a very challenging 11.2 mile hilly course. I pretty much held my own, even passed some people! After completing the bike, I got to the transition, put my race number on, my New Balance cap, took a few Clif Blocks, got a drink and off I went! My legs actually felt good right from the get go on the run. It was a 5K XC course they had set up. I felt good on the run and was fortunate to be able to pass many people along the way, now I was in my element and it felt good!

For the bike, I averaged almost 18mph and on the run, about 6:20 pace per mile.

When I finished I quickly had some fluids, changed into my training shoes and ran back on the course to find my Jill. I found her just past the two mile mark and she looked GREAT with just a mile to go! I ran into the finish with her and we both had huge smiles on our faces, WAY TO GO SWEETIE, I'm very proud of you!!!

My first love, fitness wise, will always be running, but I have to admit, swimming and biking has also become quite enjoyable for me!

Mr. Mizel

2008-07-14T10:04:00.004-05:00

My wife's friend does wildlife rescue, injured or misplaced birds, squirrels, things like that. Jill was at her house last week and looking at some of the birds that she is working with. In with the injured ones was a racing pigeon with a broken wing, that won't heal properly to allow him to fly. He's got a number around his leg, and the owner was called and they didn't want him anymore because he can't fly.

Now he's been added to our ever expanding furry family. Meet Mr. Mizel. He is three and likes to be petted. Not like dog petting, but gentle petting. Mr. Mizel coos.

P.S. One of the finches that we have (we have eight) has a baby. :-)

My first bike time trial!

2008-07-11T12:52:00.004-05:00

My experience on a bike has never been real pleasant. One of my best friends since college is Mike Dunlap, Mike is a former 2:18 marathoner back in the early 80's, then a knee injury forced him out of running, he gave biking a try and the rest is history! Mike is one of the best 50+ age group riders in the country, he has always told me I should give it a try. I just recently did my first duathalon and did the ride part of it on a mountain bike, but I had a ball!

Jack Murray, owner of Jack and Adam's Bicycles in Austin came to my rescue! You will not find a nicer person and one who has so much knowledge about endurance sports as Jack! This past Wednesday Jack got me all fitted properly on a brand new bike he was letting me test ride, I had no idea there was so much to know about getting fitted and how to shift the gears and what not!

My friend David Wolfe, who is a awesome rider, told me his club was having a 9 mile bike time trial this past Wednesday evening outside of Pflugerville and invited me to come. My wife Jill and I loaded up our bikes and away we went. Jill got me all registered while I was out doing a warm up, I didn't feel like Lance Armstrong, not even close, but my warm up went well until I got back to the starting area and stopped to talk to Jill. I had forgot that my feet were in those little cage things on the pedal and when I stopped, I fell right over on my right side, I got my first road rash and hadn't even raced yet!

We started in 30 second intervals, I was quite excited! We had a nice tailwind at our back and I was tooling right along, that is until we had to turn into the wind and hit the uphills!

I finished 2nd to last and had a ball! I averaged a little over 18 mph and the bike Jack loaned me was incredible! I have to admit though that some parts of my body that stay on the seat were a little sore when I finished, but I'm excited already about the next time trial!

If you are a beginner like me or a expert and are looking for a new bike or gear, stop at Jack and Adam's in Austin, I promise they will help you out!

Owner Jack Murray and the staff emphasize customer service as their first priority. With a wide selection of triathlon and cycling gear, unmatched customer service and industry knowledge they aim to make your experience at Jack & Adam’s second to none.

The official results to the time trial are on Violet Crown website.

They are off to a great start - plenty of competitors and plenty of wind and hills to make this really challenging.

Howdy Du

2008-07-07T08:32:00.006-05:00

Stacey, (world's best cheerleader), Jill, and Laura

WOW! You talk about fun! I did my first Duathalon on Sunday and I had a ball! My wife Jill is a triathlete and has been trying to get me interested in biking and swimming. Last week Laura lent me a mountain bike and I gave it a try. The last time I was on a bike and tried to ride it fast was over 20 years ago, the results were not pretty as I ran into the back end of a guys brand new Cadillac!

In my debut on the mountain bike I was worried about my "hinder" getting real sore, so I borrowed some biking shorts from Jill. I did 12 miles and ave. 15.4 mph and was quite pleased and to be honest with you I kind of enjoyed it!

The Howdy Du was held at a beautiful county park near Georgetown, Texas. I was a little nervous as I was doing my 2.5 mile warm up. They had two wave starts, one for folks 39 years of age and younger and then one for 40 and over. The youngsters started 3 minutes before us. I didn't want to run the first 3 miles to hard, I averaged just over 6 minute miles for the 3 mile run. I had a heck of a time in the transition getting my helmet strap to snap, that finally done, I jumped on the bike and took off for the 16.65 mile bike.

What a beautiful course! It was two loops through the beautiful countryside. It did not take long for many of the folks I beat on the run to catch up with me on my mountain bike. I rode as hard as I could knowing I still had a 3 mile run after the bike. My ride went well and was very pleased as I averaged 16 mph. I got off the bike and thank the good Lord I was holding onto the bike, I started running towards the transition area and my legs collapsed! The bike was the only thing holding me up!

I got my bike hung up and then started my last 3 mile run. The first half mile I felt like I'd never run before! The last two miles though I felt real good and had my running legs back and was able to finish strong!

Jill and Laura also did very well and I was so proud of both of them! A big thanks to our friend Stacey Conley for coming along and being our cheer leader and taking some great pictures!

Will I do another Duathalon? You betcha! In fact I really enjoyed my time on the bike!

This weekend Jill and I are doing the Couples Tri. If I don't drown in the lake, or run into another Cadillac, I will let you know how things go!

I can tell you this though, my wife Jill has turned me onto a whole new form of endurance training and racing and I'm absolutely loving it. Thanks honey!

During the first 3 mile loop

Finish Line

Running a loop with Laura and Jill

The Runner's Cookbook

2008-07-07T08:25:00.002-05:00

Check out The Runner's Cookbook which includes 100 recipes submitted by some of the world's greatest distance runners. The book contains recipes that can be used for maximizing performance and recovery, as well as recipes for simply indulging yourself after a hard training session. All of the proceeds from this book will be donated to the Ryan Shay Memorial Fund and the Jenny Crain "Make It Happen" Fund.

I have my French Toast recipe in it. :-) It's quite tasty after my long runs

Grandma's Marathon

2008-06-29T18:16:00.003-05:00

Lake Superior along the course

Lemondrop Hill, Mile 22

Skipping a rock on Lake Superior!

I may be a little bias, but what a great event the Grandma's Marathon is! In its 32nd year, Scott Keenan has been the Executive Director since day one! What started with 150 runners in 1977, now they limit the marathon field each year to around 10,000! That along with the 6,000 runners they let in the half marathon, and the 2,000 runners in the 5K, it is one festive weekend!

I flew in from Boston where I was doing some talks for the New Balance and got into Duluth Thursday afternoon where my wife Jill met me as she was flying in from our home in Austin, TX.

I spent Thursday evening at the race expo either in the Marathon & Beyond magazine booth or at the Dick Beardsley Running Co./Dick Beardsley Half Marathon booth. I have so much fun meeting and greeting people, having pictures taken, signing their bibs, or signing my book, Staying the Course, A Runner's Toughest Race for them. the time really goes by quickly! I had the opportunity to meet a very inspiring gal named Melissa. She gave her book as a gift. Thank you!

Friday morning up early for a 10 mile run with my wife Jill and my good friend and store partner Greg Hammes, it was then a full day at the expo!

I was one of the keynote speakers and was as nervous as a "cat on a hot tin roof"! I've spoke every year at the expo for as long as I can remember and before any talk I do, I get butterflies, but this time it was different, this time I was going to tell my story about my addiction!

I didn't know how people would respond, perhaps they were thinking I was going to tell funny running stories, what happens if they all get up and leave? These were the thoughts going through my head! They always get incredible crowds for all the speakers they have every year. I was introduced, walked up on stage and said, "Hi, I'm Dick, I'm an addict" Many people started laughing (At this point I'm thinking they are laughing because of course I'm an addict, a running addict) I said it again, "I'm an addict" that's when things got eerily quit!

My story of being addicted to narcotic pain medication is not all bloom and gloom, some parts our actually quite humorous and the crowd laughed in the spots I thought they would. Other parts of it are very emotional for not just me but the audience. Many times as I would look at the crowd, I would see people wiping back tears, I had to look away immediately, as I would begin to choke up. I finished my talk with a song I wrote long ago called "LUCKY" Just me, my guitar, and 300 people! I got quite choked up singing my "LUCKY" song, had to restart a line or two because of it, but it went well and the thunderous standing ovation at the conclusion, wow, I'd thought I'd just won the Grandma's Marathon again!

After my talk, I visited with lots of folks on stage and then again back at the expo, by the time I got into bed, I felt like I had run three marathons all in a row!

Saturday morning I was up bright and early at 3 a.m. to get my run in (I know it sounds crazy). Jill and I then met the press vehicle at 5:15 am for the ride up to the start of the marathon. If I don't run the race, I always do the play by play from the lead vehicle for the men's race for the local radio station. My broadcast partner was my good friend a Duluth Tribune sports writer, Kevin Pates.

The race went by quickly and we had a good time and it was a great race to call, especially at the end, when the winner beat the second place finisher by just 5 seconds! The top men and women's results are at the bottom of this page.

Saturday evening, Jill and I spent a couple of hours at the Marathon & Beyond party where I gave a short talk and sang. What a busy fun day we had!

Sunday morning up early for a 12 mile run while Jill did her run, and then back to the hotel, a little breakfast, pack, then catch the plane back home for Austin!

Thanks Grandma's Marathon! Jill and I had a wonderful time!!!

Top Three Men:

Lamech Mokono - 2:13:39

David Tuwei - 2:13:44

Benson Cheruiyot - 2:14:20

Top Three Women:

Mary Akor - 2:38:50

Margaret Toroitich - 2:41:43

Sally Meyerhoff - 2:42:58

Dick Beardsley's High School Running Camp, Craig, Alaska

2008-06-09T11:58:00.003-05:00

I flew from Austin, Texas to Salt Lake City to Seattle to Ketchikan, Alaska to Craig, Alaska! What a trip and what fun we all had!

How, you might wonder did we ever come up with the idea of putting on a high school running camp in Craig, Alaska? In May of 2007, I was the invited guest to speak at the Prince of Wales Island Marathon in Craig. It's a small race with big time fun! Dave "Roadkill" Johnson is a member of the running club there and works for the US Forest Service. Dave had heard about our high school running camp in the small rural community of Corning, Iowa and thought "why not here in Craig" Between Dave and our camp director, Jan Seeley, they pulled it off! The major cost would be our airfare for myself, Jan, and our other coaches, (Bill Wenmark, Joe Henderson, Mike Dunlap, and Mary Cordt) we come from all across the country. Dave did a fantastic job of getting business owners in Craig and Ketchikan to come up with funds so we would not have to charge an arm and a leg to the kids so they could come to the camp.

We had around 50 kids from mainly SE Alaska, but one young runner came all the way from Anchorage. We had a GREAT camp with plenty of wonderful food, fresh salmon, halibut, and lots of other great items. We had volunteers from the community pitch in to make the food and dish it out to the kids, talk about a community effort!

Saturday evening we all went to the Craig High School for the "Monthly Grind" it's a community talent show where anyone can perform. I was notified when I got to Craig that I was scheduled to sing and play the guitar! Roadkill got me a guitar, but all my music and songs I have written over the years were back home in Austin. I know my "LUCKY" song by heart, but I thought "I need to sing more then just one song" so Saturday afternoon I slipped off to my Bed and Breakfast and wrote a song for the folks of Craig, Alaska. It went off quite nicely! Some of the kids from our camp even got up and performed! We all had a fun fun time!

That's what is so nice about small communities, everyone pitches in to make things happen! To Dave "Roadkill" Johnson and the entire community of Craig and Ketchikan, Alaska, thanks for making our high school running camp such a success! Can't wait for next year!

ALARC Marathon Training Program

2008-05-30T10:43:00.003-05:00

My good friend and former coach, Bill Wenmark, started the ALARC running program back in 1981. There are two major marathons in Minnesota, the Grandma's Marathon and the Twin Cities Marathon. Bill started the ALARC program to take first time marathoners and train them to finish their first one. What a success it has been! Of the thousands of runners that have been through the ALARC program since 1981, only 3 people have not finished, that is amazing!!

I've been one of their guest speakers since the program begin and love talking to this group! I flew into Minneapolis/St. Paul on Wednesday from my home in Austin, Texas. I picked up my rental car and went straight to my good friend Dr. Steven Moe, Chiropractic Kinesiologist. I've been going to Dr. Moe for over 20 years now. He checked me out, adjusted a few things and I was on my way over to Bill's house. I took a short nap, then went out for a nice easy 5 mile run on some beautiful trails. It was then onto my talk.

When I first started speaking to the ALARC group, I focused on types of training that might help these folks, over the years my role has changed and now I tell stories and get them all fired up for the big race they have coming up. My talk went well and I had a wonderful time!

Afterwards Bill and I went out for a bite to eat and ran into a mutual friend, Dr. Ken Hightoff. When I had my bad farm accident back in 1989, Dr. Hightoff did the MRI's on my body to see how much internal damage I had done, he was one of the first doctors in Minnesota that had a MRI machine.

We had a nice supper and shared some old stories!

Thursday morning it was up early for a 10 mile run and then catch my flight back to Austin. Keep up the great work ALARC and thank you Bill for making my trip to Minnesota all possible!

Woody’s RV World Marathon and Half Marathon, Red Deer, Canada

2008-05-19T10:59:00.002-05:00

You talk about a fun event, well organized, one of the best pasta dinners I've ever been to, and lots of friendly people, that's what you have at Woody's RV World, Marathon and Half Marathon in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada!

I arrived in Calgary, Canada early Thursday afternoon, rented a car and made the hour and a half drive north to Red Deer. What a beautiful city!

I checked into my hotel, took a short nap and then headed out on a beautiful run on the many paved and unpaved trails through the forest and woods that surround Red Deer.

The next morning I was up bright and early and got in a beautiful 10 mile run, once again on the trails. At about 8 miles I was running along side a small river and I came across a beaver that I swear was the size of a small Volkswagen! After my run, I went down to the conference hall at the hotel where I met the main sponsor of the marathon, Woody Taylor. You talk about a enthusiastic, energetic person, that's Woody! I can see why he is one of the top RV dealers in all of Canada!

I spoke after breakfast to many of his staff that work at his RV Center in Red Deer. Woody preaches teamwork and setting goals, so that was my main focus of my talk. They were a great group to speak to!

After my talk it was off to Notre Dame High School where I spoke to a bunch of students, like Woody's employees, they were great!

I had a short break before it was off to the Runner Den specialty running store. I did a meet a greet and also a couple of TV interviews. I got back from that and spent a couple of hours at the expo doing more meeting and greeting. It was then off to Woody's grandson's house for supper!

Clayton Phillips and his wife Melissa hosted myself along with Woody and his partner Val for a great evening of fun! Clayton barbecued up some of the best salmon I've ever had!

Saturday morning I was up early and did a 8 mile run along the Red Deer River, I then went and ran with a bunch of folks that were in town for the marathon and we did a 2 mile fun run together on a beautiful morning!

I spent lots of time at the expo during the rest of the day. Saturday evening it was time for the pasta dinner. They had sold it out, over 300 people were in attendance and we had a great meal along with honoring some runners and then I gave my talk. My talk went well, then it was time for all to hit the hay for our races the next morning.

Sunday morning was beautiful and they had a record turnout for the marathon and half. I ran the half at a good effort but did not race it, had a wonderful run on a beautiful course!

After the run it was back to the hotel, pack, and drive back to Calgary for my flight home to Austin. If you are looking for a GREAT marathon that's not to big except in hospitality, then Woody's RV World, Marathon and Half Marathon in Red Deer is the place you don't want to miss! Thanks Woody and Red Deer, Alberta, Canada!

Duluth Middle Schools, Duluth, MN

2008-05-10T10:39:00.001-05:00

It is always a treat for me to go to Duluth, Minnesota, to me it is almost like going home as I'm always welcomed there with such open arms! This time I was in Duluth to speak to all the kids at the middle schools. I was there to speak about living a healthy active lifestyle, chemically free. The very thing that the Dick Beardsley Foundation is promoting.

The one thing I found out about speaking to kids years ago is, you have to get them into your talk right away or you spend the rest of the time reeling them back in. Fortunately I was able to do that! The kids at all of the schools were wonderful and they all gave me their utmost attention! I can't thank the folks at Grandma's Marathon and the Duluth School District for making my trip to the middle schools all possible!

Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon/ RRCA Convention 50th

2008-05-05T12:02:00.001-05:00

The folks in Cincinnati really have something going with their flying pink pig! This was my second time time to be at the Flying Pig Marathon to speak and my first time to speak at the RRCA Convention. It was the 50th Anniversary of the RRCA so I was very honored that they chose me to be their keynote speaker!

I arrived on Friday afternoon and got to the hotel around 2 pm. I took a short nap and then went for a beautiful 5 mile run along the Ohio River!

After my run, it was over to the expo to be at the Marathon & Beyond booth and talked to folks, sign copies of my book, Staying the Course, A Runner's Toughest Race and John Brandt's book, Duel in the Sun, race bibs, took pictures, and enjoyed the festivities. This is another race that has really grown! In their 10th year and getting bigger and better!

Saturday morning I went out for a nice run with a few thousand other runners who were running the 10k, I jumped in a got a good workout in, of course I did not go through the finish line since I was not registered.

I spent the day at the expo, then gave my talk at 3pm to a packed audience, they were super and my talk went well!

Saturday evening I gave the keynote at the 50th Anniversary Banquet of the RRCA.

Sunday morning I was up and did a couple of miles then ran the half marathon for a good workout. With 3 miles to go, I caught up with my ole friend Doug Kurtis from Detroit. Talk about a running legend! Doug had a PR of 2:13 in the marathon but the most incredible thing about Doug is, he holds the record for the most marathons run under 2:20, Doug totaled 76! That my friends is absolutely amazing, that is one record I don't think will ever be broken!

Doug was running the half also as a good workout as he was in training for the Grandma's Marathon coming up in June.

We finished our run, then it was back to the hotel to pack and catch my flight back home to Austin.

Thanks Flying Pig for the wonderful time I had!

Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon

2008-04-28T11:16:00.001-05:00

Bill Rodgers and myself

What a incredible event! That is the only way to describe the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon! This years event was the eighth annual and I've been fortunate to have been invited to Oklahoma City for the past seven years. To watch this race grow from a fairly small event to the thousands of runners it now attracts is a tribute to the outstanding job that Chet, Thomas, Jeff, Mark, and the hundreds of other volunteers do!

My good friend and running legend Bill Rodgers is also there every year and its always so fun to see Bill! My wife Jill and I arrived on Thursday evening and we were picked up by Kevin Hayes from Federal Express. He was so kind as to take us over to the Federal Express terminal and give us a tour of one of their big cargo planes, it's unbelievable how big they are and how quickly they are able to load and unload the planes!

It was a early morning alarm Friday as I had to be at the OKC NBC TV station for an interview on their morning show. After that it was back to the hotel where I met my good friend Mark Bravo for a run. Mark and I have made it a tradition to run together one day while I'm in town to catch up on things. Mark underwent hip surgery but is making a marvoulous recovery!

After our run is was time for breakfast then I spent most of the rest of the day with Bill at the booth at the expo talking to folks, having pictures taken, signing bibs and posters, and selling and signing my book, Staying the Course, A Runner's Toughest Race and C.D.s

Friday afternoon, Bill and I did a question and answer session at the expo which is always lots of fun! Friday evening we were all invited to the VIP dinner, lots of good food!

Saturday morning they have a run for folks that want to run with Bill and I, we had over 100 people show up for a nice easy 4 miler, most folks were getting ready to run the race the next morning, myself included! After breakfast it was back to the expo for a radio interview, hanging out in the booth, and then I gave my talk at 3pm, it went well!

The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon really has a special pasta dinner the night before the race! It's held at the Oklahoma City Memorial. When you look out onto the sacred grounds and see the 168 empty chairs of the 168 people that died in the bombing back in 1995, it really helps you reflect on just how precious life really is! To see the "tree" that survived the bombing, is unreal, I choke up every time I see it! Bill and I said a few words, had questions from the crowd, and ate lots of pasta!

Sunday dawned windy, cool, and a little wet! No worries about overheating this year! I woke up not feeling the best, felt like I was coming down with the flu. I warmed up and once the starting gun was fired, I could tell by the first mile something was wrong! I had planned to run the full marathon, but by two miles I opted for the half and ran easy to the finish.

For those of you looking for a great late spring marathon, you need to check this race out! Beside the wonderful event they put on for all of us runners, they also have given hundreds of thousands of dollars over the year to the Memorial! Thanks OKC for the wonderful time Jill and I had!

Keep up the GREAT work!

Boston Marathon

2008-04-22T10:35:00.003-05:00

Roger Robinson, Katherine Switzer and Dick Beardsley

Deena Kastor

Dick and Bart Yasso
Dick, Jill and Ryan Hall

It was then a quick drive back to Boston where my wife Jill was already checked into our hotel. She flew in from Austin that morning, it was nice to be able to give her a big hug and spend some precious time with her! That night we went to a showing of the Spirit of the Marathon. Such a wonderful and inspiring movie!

Friday morning was the start of the Boston Marathon weekend. I spent that afternoon at the Marathon & Beyond booth signing books, race numbers, taking pictures, whatever the folks wanted me to do. It’s always so much fun being in Boston for race weekend!

I also gave a talk hosted by Runner’s World Magazine. My good friend Bart Yasso from RW introduced me, and then I spoke about "The Duel in the Sun" the race Alberto Salazar and I had at Boston 26 years ago, that came down to a 100 meter sprint at the end where Alberto outkicked me by 2 seconds, 2:08:51 to my 2:08:53!

Saturday morning it was up early for an 11 mile run along the Charles River, I got back and my wife Jill was waiting and I did 3 more miles with her. Breakfast and then off to the expo. I again spent time at the Marathon & Beyond booth and the New Balance Shoe Company booth. I so like visiting with the runners! I was very busy all day long but the time went by very quickly!

Saturday night, Jill and I had a memorable get together at a local Mexican food restaurant with Dave Shelbourne and his wife, Ivette, son Justin and daughter, Katrina (Jill's new pen-pal).

Sunday morning up very early for a 12 mile run along the Charles River and then it was time to watch the Women’s Olympic Trials Marathon! This is a huge race for these women as the top 3 finishers will make our Olympic Team and represent the United States in the marathon at the Olympics in Beijing later this summer. After the race it was off for another full day of duties at the expo! I also had the pleasure of meeting Ryan Hall. What a kind young man!

Monday morning up for a run and then Jill and I watched the 112th running of the Boston Marathon on a perfect weather day for running! It was then time to pack up and fly back home to Austin.

What a very busy and enjoyable week I had in the Boston area, thanks to everyone who helped make it all happen!

Ipswich High School, Ipswich, Massachusetts

2008-04-17T10:32:00.000-05:00

After my afternoon talk and run I took off for the Ipswich, Massachusetts area where I met my good friend, Dave Shelbourne, from New Balance. I checked into a beautiful bed and breakfast where I was able to grab a quick nap.

That evening I had dinner at a wonderful seafood restaurant with Barry, the principal from Ipswich High School and his wife along with Dave and his family. I was so looking forward to meeting Dave's wife, Ivette, their son Justin, and daughter Katrina. What an absolute wonderful family they are! I had such a good time!

The next morning I was up early and out the door for a quick 7 mile run. I can't even begin to describe how beautiful the little country roads are around here! Dave picked me and New Balance Tech rep Greg Tindle up for breakfast along with his family for a wonderful breakfast, and then it was off to Ipswich High School for my talk.

I have spoke at many schools around the country, but the auditorium at Ipswich High School is the best ever! 600 kids packed the auditorium; needless to say I was more nervous than usual before a talk. Partly because, with kids if you don't get them listening right away, you spend the rest of the time trying to reel them back in, and secondly, Dave and his family were all there and I really wanted my talk to go extra well for them. Dave and Ivette had spent a lot of time getting this all set up. The kids were absolutely the best!!!

I was very blessed that the words were just rolling off my tongue! The kids and staff were really into it and when that happens I feed off of their enthusiasm! I normally don't mention this kind of thing, but with kids it rarely ever happens, after I finished my talk the kids gave me a long standing ovation, I had goose bumps on my goose bumps!!!

After that I signed books and chatted with the kids. New Balance was kind enough to provide every student that wanted one a copy of my book "Staying the Course....A Runners Toughest Race"

Thank you Ipswich High School for letting me share my story with all of you, and a big thanks to Dave Shelbourne for making it all happen, you are all the best!!!

After my talk it was off for a nice run in the woods with Greg and the XC coach from Ipswich High School. I then had the opportunity to be the official starter for a couple of events at the track meet that Ipswich High School was hosting that afternoon.

Brought back lots of good memories when I ran track way back when!

North Bedford High School and Metheun High School, Boston area

2008-04-17T10:30:00.000-05:00

Up early for an 11 mile run around a bay off the ocean in Portland, beautiful is all I can say, especially when the sun was coming up off the ocean.

A quick shower and then down to the Metheun, Massachusetts area to meet with Dave from Whirlaway Sports, we had a great breakfast and then it was on to North Bedford High School to speak to around 700 kids, after that, it was over to Metheun High School to speak to the kids there.

The kids were great at both schools!

After my Metheun High School talk I then had the opportunity to run with some of the distance kids and their coach before their afternoon track meet, thanks kids, I had a great time running with you!

Thanks for taking it easy on this old guy!

Maine Running Company

2008-04-15T10:29:00.000-05:00

I arrived in Boston around noon on April 15. I picked up my rental car and headed for Portland, Maine.
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What a beautiful drive! It’s amazing how quickly after you leave the Boston metro area that you get into the beautiful New England countryside!

I arrived around 3PM, took a short nap, then went for a nice 5 mile run around Portland. At 6, I headed for the Maine Running Company Store. I did a short meet and greet, gave an hour talk, then signed books and chatted with the folks there.

I had a wonderful time!

Thanks to John, his staff, and New Balance for making my trip all possible!

South Dakota Bankers Association

2008-04-12T10:29:00.000-05:00

I was so looking forward to speaking at the South Dakota Bankers Association in Pierre!
Everything went well including my flight from Austin to Denver. It was there that things started going "south" Pierre was in the middle of a big blizzard so the flight from Denver to Pierre was canceled and there were no other flights the next day that would have got me there in time for my noon keynote talk.

Unfortunately I had to fly back to Austin that night. The good news is that I am already on their calendar to speak at the 2009 event!

Toughest Race in Texas

2008-04-12T10:26:00.000-05:00

The Toughest Race in Texas! The name definitely defines what this race is all about! It’s a great event that is an absolute ball of fun!

The Tuesday before the race I had the opportunity to speak to the kids at St. Stephens Episcopal School. I spoke to two different groups of kids during their morning chapel time. I had about 15 minutes each time, not a lot of time to go into great detail but enough to hopefully get the point across.

Saturday was the Toughest Race in Texas, held on the trails of St. Stephens Episcopal School. They had close to 800 runners! You could run one of two races, the 10K or the 5K. I ran the 5K with my wife Jill and our friend Laura Nye, we really had a good time!

We also had a booth at the start/finish area for the Dick Beardsley Foundation where our good friend and board member for our foundation Stacey Conley stayed and handed out information.

After the race I helped with handing out awards for the winners. All of the proceeds from the race go to help with scholarships for kids to be able to come and get a great education at the school.

Thanks to everyone at St. Stephens Episcopal School for the wonderful time I had and for letting me be the honorary chairman.

Keep up the great work!

Skier Gala, Minneapolis, Minnesota

2008-04-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

From Asheville it was right onto Minneapolis! My good friend and co-owner of Rainbow Resort up in northern Minnesota, Amy Xu invited me to speak at her running club that Sunday afternoon which I did. We were all going to go for a run afterwards but it was pouring cats and dogs outside, so a few of us jumped on some side by side treadmills and did our run together that way! If there’s a will there’s a way!

Afterwards we dashed off to the University of Minnesota campus where I was the co-MC with champion XC skier Chad Geise. Chad and I did announcing together at a XC ski event earlier in the winter so it was good to see him again.

We all had a great time and it was very appropriate that as the banquet was going on, it was snowing a bit outside! Thanks Amy for the wonderful time I had in Minneapolis!

Napa Valley Marathon

2008-04-08T09:53:00.001-05:00

I was very fortunate to have won the Napa Valley Marathon back in 1987, setting the course record, which still holds to this day! For the past 11 years they have been kind enough to bring me back as a speaker and I also usually run the race.

My wife, Jill, and I went out a few days early for our honeymoon. We were married last November but did not have the chance to go on a honeymoon right after the wedding. Jill had never been to the Napa Valley before. We had a wonderful time! The first three days we stayed at a quaint little bed and breakfast, Brannon Cottage Inn, in Calistoga, CA noted for their hot mineral baths. We really enjoyed the area and even rented bikes one day and went for a little bike trip in the valley.

Friday we headed back to Napa where we stayed at the Marriott Hotel which served as the race headquarters. That evening at the race social hour I got to catch up with my old friends that I see every year at Napa. Joe Henderson and his wife Barbara, John and Ann Keston (John holds many world records for his age from 70 now up to his age of 83) Helen and Norm Klein (Helen holds many world records for marathons and ultras and she set another at this years’ Napa race. She is 85 years young, and her husband Norm has directed many races including Napa and Western States at one time) Dave and Mary Cordt (Mary has won Napa a few times and is one of our Dick Beardsley Marathon Running Camp coaches, she also qualified for the Women's Olympic Marathon Trials with a 2:46) David and Nancy Hill (Dave is co-race director) Rich Benyo (co-race director) along with his wife, Rhonda who is the medical director for the race, Jan Seeley my good friend and publisher and part owner along with Rich Benyo of Marathon & Beyond, and my good friend and legend Joan Benoit Samuelson and her husband Scott. (Joanie was the keynote speaker this year)

Saturday was a busy day for all as I was on a couple of panel discussions, signed books and autographs at the Marathon & Beyond booth, and spoke at the special pasta dinner they had that evening up in Calistoga.

Sunday was the 30th annual Napa Valley Marathon and you could not have asked for more perfect conditions! It was in the low 40's at the start with sunshine and a nice little tailwind for much of the way.

I went out with the group of gals that were trying to hit the qualifying standards for the Olympic Trials of sub 2:47. Now when I run marathons I have two main goals 1) to win the Grand Masters Title and 2) run sub 2:50, I was very fortunate to do both and ended up with a time of 2:49:08

Honest to goodness, running in the 2:40's now seems harder then when I was running 2:08's and 2:09's 25+ years ago! I still enjoy it though just as much!

Sunday night all the invited guests were taken to a beautiful B&B and a wonderful dinner with the Napa Valley Marathon board of directors, where we were able to celebrate the success of the marathon and of Mary Cordt qualifying for the Women's Olympic Trials coming up in April in Boston.

Jill and I can't thank the Napa Valley Marathon enough for the wonderful time we had, keep up the great work!

Carolina Day School

2008-04-04T10:23:00.000-05:00

After the Chicago Tri Club talk, I flew back to Austin and had a 4 hour layover before I left on my next flight for Ashville, NC. My sister Maryann and her family have lived in the area for over 20 years, it’s gorgeous out there! I arrived to their home in Waynesville, NC at about midnight, my nephew, Isaac, was waiting up for me. My goodness he has grown!

The next morning it was out the door for a very hilly 10 miler. I don't think there is a flat spot in that part of the country! My sister Maryann is a teacher at the Carolina Day School in Asheville and she invited me to speak to the students there. It went great, but my sister had never heard me speak before. When I got to talking to the kids about my addiction, I could not look over at her, the one time I did I could see her crying and of course that got me all choked up!

Even though the two of us did not get along to well growing up, both her and my other sister Sheila and their families were always there for me during my toughest times in my life, that my friends is what family is all about!

Besides being there to speak, my main reason was for my niece Molly's Bat Mitzvah. She did an incredible job getting up in front of all the people at the synagogue and speaking many times in Hebrew! I even had to get up and read and my last line was words in Hebrew. I was like a cat on a hot tin roof I was so nervous that I would not say them right, but I did!

Thanks Maryann, Mark, Isaac, David, and a special thanks and congratulations to Molly for a task well done, I had a great time!

Chicago Tri Club

2008-04-04T10:22:00.000-05:00

I always love going to Chicago and this time was no different! My good friend Cary Lisota set it up for me to come to Chicago and speak at the Chicago Tri Club.

I was really looking forward to my talk and just as much to see her husband Jay, their Lab "Sam" and there beautiful new baby, Grace. What a cutie she is! Cary picked me up at the airport, I had a quick bite to eat, back to her house where I took a nap, then out for a quick 5 mile run, then off to speak!

It was so much fun! We had a meet and greet when I first arrived along with some good munchies. I spoke for about an hour to 150 club members and they were great! Thank goodness there is a running part of a triathlon, as I swim like a rock and don't bike much better, at least I can still run! I really admire these triathletes! I can't imagine swimming, biking, and then having to run upwards of a marathon! Uff-da!

Thanks Cary, Jay, Grace, Sam, and the Chicago Tri Club for the great time I had!

FFA Annual Banquet, Long Prairie, Minnesota

2008-04-02T10:22:00.000-05:00

Flying right from Atlanta into Minneapolis, I rented a car and stayed at my sisters on Sunday night. The next morning it was up early for a nice run in a snowstorm!

Needless to say, the drive from the Twin Cities to Long Prairie, Minnesota was a long one! The roads were very icy but I finally made it there about 2 hours before my talk at the annual FFA (Future Farmers of America) awards banquet.

I always enjoy speaking to farm groups and especially ones for the kids! I was not a FFA member but I was in 4-H for a long time as I was growing up, what incredible organizations both of them are! We had a delicious meal and then it was on for my talk and the awards.

Thank you Long Prairie and the FFA students for making my stay such an enjoyable one!

ING Georgia Marathon

2008-03-30T10:21:00.000-05:00

The ING Georgia Marathon in Atlanta is only in its second year, but what a great event they put on! I was picked up at the airport by Don who is retired but helps out at the marathon with his wife. As we were driving into downtown Atlanta, it was easy to see what had taken place just a couple of weeks prior. A tornado had ripped through the downtown area! Windows were blown out of many of the high rise building there as they were all boarded up, that didn't keep race director Victoria and her staff from going ahead with their plans!

They had 15,000 runners signed up and it went off without a hitch as far as I could tell. I spoke at the expo and also at the VIP dinner. Others that were also there to speak are all good friends of mine and it’s always great to see them! Katherine Switzer, Patti and Dan Dillon, and Norm and Helen Klein.

Thanks Atlanta for a great weekend and for the wonderful race you put on!

123rd Annual Little Falls Chamber of Commerce Banquet

2008-03-29T10:19:00.000-05:00

What a great time I had in Little Falls, Minnesota! Little Falls is a town of around 8,000 people located on the Mississippi River in North Central Minnesota. It’s most famous for the birthplace of Aviator Charles Lindberg!

I arrived in Little Falls the afternoon of March 23 and helped with the Grand Opening of a beautiful new fitness center in Little Falls, what a gorgeous place! Then I did a book signing at a local book store.

That night I had a great meal with some runners of the local running club.

The next morning I was up bright and early for a run with runners from the running club. My next stop was on to the elementary school in the small town of Randal, MN. I spoke to 3rd - 5th graders about running and leading a healthy, active, chemically free lifestyle.

After my talk I opened it up to questions, boy did they have a lot and were not afraid to ask me anything! The kids and staff were great!

That afternoon I spoke to a community drug task force group, then onto the Little Falls High School to talk with the kids. An old friend of mine, Jeff Massman, is the Gym teacher there. The students were excellent!

My main talk while I was there was for the 123rd Annual Little Falls Chamber of Commerce Banquet. There were about 400 folks in attendance, we had a wonderful meal and my talk went very well!

Thank you Little Falls, what an awesome community you have!

Run On Texas

2008-03-21T10:17:00.000-05:00

My trip to Dallas to speak at the Run On stores was great! The drive to Dallas from Austin was another story though! I was heading north on I-35, and 40 miles north of Austin, it started just pouring and was that way all the way to Dallas, even the interstate had pooling water on it!

I had a great meal that night with the folks from New Balance, the next morning it was up early for a run with Run On store owner Bob Wallace. I have known Bob for over 25 years, in our younger days we used to lock up in some pretty good races against one another.

We ran 6 miles with some folks Bob was training for the Boston Marathon. After our run it was on to a radio station where Bob and I were interviewed.

Later that morning I was on the road with Dave Shelbourne from New Balance and the area NB rep, Len Chatwin. We visited some of the Run On stores in the Dallas area and a running store over in Fort Worth.

That night I gave a talk to about 100 runners at a dinner that Bob hosted at a local Dallas restaurant. The following morning I gave a talk to some of Bob’s employees at his home, and then it was a nice drive back home to Austin.

A big thanks goes out to Bob and his wife Rebecca and all the great folks at New Balance for making this trip happen!

Chamber of Commerce Banquet, Aberdeen, South Dakota

2008-03-08T10:16:00.000-06:00

Aberdeen, South Dakota is a bustling city of 30,000 people located in Northeast South Dakota. I flew from Austin to MSP and then took a small prop plane from MSP into Aberdeen. Amy Blackstone from the Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce was my host and picked me up at the airport.

Wednesday evening I was a special guest at the monthly meeting of the Aberdeen Area Running Club. We met at the Ward Deli, a very neat refurbished old hotel. The Aberdeen Area Running Club just got up and going in the last few months and already have close to 100 members!

I had a chance to chat with most folks and then I gave a 40 minute talk and answered questions, it was lots of fun!The next morning about 20 folks showed up at 6am for a nice 5 mile run, we were all bundled up as the temperature was around zero with light snow falling. The local paper even showed up to take pictures of all of us out on the run!

Later that morning I gave a talk at Aberdeen Central High School, the kids were awesome! I had a short break and then gave a talk to students/athletes at Northern State University in Aberdeen, once again those kids/young adults were wonderful and had some great questions after my talk.

Thursday night I gave the Keynote talk at the 123rd annual Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce Banquet. There were close to 500 folks there and I had the honor of being introduced by Amy's brother, Tim Blackstone. Tim was a top runner at South Dakota State University back in his day and he told a few stories about me that brought back some great memories! My talk went very well and the audience was super to talk to!

The next morning it was up and out the door for a run at minus 13 degrees out! I forgot how cold it can still get this time of the year in the north land!

I had a wonderful time out in Aberdeen and I can't thank Amy Blackstone and all the folks in Aberdeen for helping make my trip such a great one!

Thanks Aberdeen, South Dakota!
Dick