Los Angeles Marathon Success!

I am happy to report that on Sunday I successfully finished the Los Angeles Marathon, all 26.2 miles, in 6 hours and 42 minutes. I ran with Team in Training and raised money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It was without a doubt the most challenging marathon I’ve ever run. It started raining when the opening gun went off (actually the opening horn), and it rained the entire time.


It was no drizzle, it was an out-and-out winter storm, even though it was the first day of spring. The rain was continuous, sometimes light and sometimes coming down in buckets. And just for fun, there was a brutally cold wind whipping through the LA area with gusts up to 25-30 mph. The route took many twists and turns, so we got the wind from every direction at one time or another – front, back and both sides. And since I was soaked through and through, it sometimes cut like a knife.


In many locations the drainage could not carry off all the water, so it backed up into the street, 3-4 inches deep in places (today’s Los Angeles Times described it as “shin high,” and that was no exaggeration). There were 2 inches of rain in Santa Monica, 2.29 in downtown LA, and 6.35 inches in Van Nuys, which is just a few miles north of the marathon route.

I used a run-walk strategy which really saved the day, and at the end I had enough steam left to run all out for the last half mile. At times I felt – well, miserable: cold, wet and tired. I had to keep reminding myself that I was doing this voluntarily! I didn’t break any records for speed, but the objective was to finish. And I finished feeling strong – I did not hit the wall. As a footnote, last year’s winner, Wesley Korir, hit the wall at mile 21. He said afterward, “First of all, I’d like to thank God that I’m still alive. I thought it was the end of my life.” Hey Wesley, I felt your pain! Thousands of runners were evaluated for hypothermia and 26 were taken to hospitals for treatment.

Tami and two dear friends, Dirk and Tonya Jackson, were my support team. They braved the rain to cheer me on at the halfway point and wait for me at the finish line. All four of us, dripping wet, finally made it back to the hotel where we could dry out. I took a long hot shower (hot water never felt so good!), then we went out to dinner and had a big juicy steak to celebrate.

On Monday I was a little stiff (surprisingly, not as sore as I thought I would be) but very happy with the outcome. The Bay Area Team in Training runners raised over $100,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Team in Training runners from all over the U.S. participated in this race, as it was one of their main events, and all in all TNT raised $610,000 at the LA Marathon.

Many great friends and members of my family helped me more than double my personal goal of $3,000. My final total topped $6,000. I am deeply grateful for everyone’s financial and moral support. Their donations will go a long way toward advancing the mission of curing leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improving the quality of life for patients and their families.

An update on my training

Tami and I were in Hawaii for 18 days over Christmas and New Years, and I got a lot of running in on Alii Drive on the Big Island.


Alii (means “king” in Hawaiian) is the main street in Kona, and it’s the perfect length for runners – a little over 6 miles. And there are scores of runners on the street, especially in the morning. Men, women, all ages, even a few very young athletes. Some – they are easy to identify – are clearly Iron Man athletes.

I ran on nine of the days for a total of 81 miles. Longest run was 16, and also did a 14 and a 10. Today (Jan. 29) I went 18 miles, and right now I’m pretty stiff and ready to go to bed! I was thinking that this soreness was caused by lactic acid buildup, but I just spent 30 minutes reading about lactic acid and it seems that it’s not the villain at all. What the latest research shows is way too complicated to go into here, but suffice it to say we get sore for a lot of reasons, one of which is probably not lactic acid!

The fundraising efforts for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society are going extremely well. At this point my total on my Team in Training website is $4,391, but I’ve turned in a couple of checks that haven’t been recorded yet and I have received two more checks this weekend that I haven’t sent in yet. So I think I will definitely hit my upward-revised goal of $5,000 within about a week.

The support of so many people is amazing and really gives me a huge boost to do the training, even when it seems to take a long time and take a lot out of me. I started this project mainly for myself, with of course the added purpose of raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It has become a much bigger and more emotional effort, for which I am grateful. I’m still running for myself, but now I’m also running for a lot of other people – those who have had (or who have) one of these diseases (listed on my webpage), those who will be benefited by the money I and others raise, and the many people who have contributed money to L&L Society. It’s a completely different experience now.


Team in Training is a great program. It will do wonderful things for you, both physically and psychologically. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in working for a worthy cause while doing something physically demanding.

Making progress one step at a time

The marathon training is coming along well. Had a slight flareup of what I thought was tendonitis, but it turns out to be just a strained muscle in my lower calf. Had it checked by my doctor today who concluded that it was in fact not tendonitis. He advised me to keep stretching, ice it down regularly and keep on running.

On Sunday I ran 11 miles, partly in the rain. Wind picked up on the way back and it was rather chilly. But overall it was a good day. By the end of December I hope to be up to 17-18 miles for my long runs.

Have shed about 6 or 7 pounds since I upped my running schedule. That's one of my goals for this effort and so far it's paying off. The old saying is true: burn up more than you take in and you will lose weight. The simplest diet regime in the world.

I'm tweeting about my training, and I think you can follow me on Twitter @leecallaway. Not sure exactly how that whole Twitter thing works -- I know how to post tweets but don't know how to recruit followers. When we work out with Team in Training, I am usually the last to finish any given lap or sequence of laps. Which means I am following all the other members of the team but none of them are following me on the track. Maybe there's a connection here -- if I could pass a few people, then I would have followers...

This is your brain on running

Running for me has always been as much about mental health as physical health. It clears my mind, calms me down (after the fact) and gives me a lot of time to put my brain in neutral without most of the interruptions of the day-to-day world – phone calls, e-mail, necessary errands, etc. More than once while running, an answer to a difficult problem has just popped into my head.


I don’t usually run with an iPod or portable radio like many people do. I prefer to run without a soundtrack. I run a lot on streets and roads without sidewalks, and I like to be able to hear the cars coming toward me, especially the ones coming up behind me.

For the most part, I generally prefer to run alone rather than with other people. I find that other people like to talk when they run. I’d rather save my breath for survival.

I clearly remember how I got started running. This was some years before running caught on and became a popular sport for the masses. A friend and neighbor, Royce Hough, said one day, “We ought to run.”

“What? Run where?” I asked in all innocence.

“I don’t know, maybe around the block for starters.” He had done some research and found out – duh – that running is good for your health.

That first attempt to run around the block didn’t go so well. Our block had a hill on two sides. I made it down the first side but not up side 3.

We stuck with it, though, and pretty soon we moved to a nearby park which had two softball fields adjacent to each other. Once around both of them was about a quarter mile, as I recall. My first running shoes were Marine combat boots. They were the only shoes I’d done much running in before.

After about a year I bought my first pair of Adidas. Big improvement. I felt like Fred Astaire. OK, I felt like Fred Astaire looked. There the resemblance ended.

Gotta run now...

I should be old enough to know better, but it turns out I’m not.

I’ve signed up for the Los Angeles Marathon on March 20, 2011. I know, some people think it’s an insane thing to do at any age, let alone 74.

But when the little voice inside says do it, you gotta answer. And as Marilyn Monroe said (I got it from a reputable quotation site), “Ever notice that ‘what the hell’ is always the right decision?”

So I am going to blog about my training. In a very real way, I’m rebooting myself in the running game. I’ve run eight marathons in the past (completed seven – more about that later), but haven’t tried one in about nine years. I think I’ve still got the wherewithal – we’ll see as the training gets serious. I promise to report honestly!

Today (Nov. 14) went for my longest run in quite a while – 10 miles. Very slow, though, because of the excess weight I’m lugging around. Hopefully I’ll shed some of that during the training. The run felt great. A bit tired at the end but definitely not out of gas. Ran in Redwood Shores – saw a hummingbird, three egrets, a bunch of ducks, another bunch of Canada geese, and a great blue heron. At the end of the run I was running west and looking at a gorgeous sunset – in the Bay Area we don’t get that many with just the right amount and kind of clouds, but this afternoon was sensational.

I won’t be trying to add anything scientifically or athletically significant to the running literature. I’ll just be sharing my thoughts and feelings along the way. It might even be interesting, so please check back when you have time.

Ability to reinvent yourself = the new job security

The following column on career reinvention is reprinted from Business Week, August 28, 2010.

Business Week Interview: Career Reinvention

In today's tumultuous workforce, flexible talents, skill sets and a willingness to change means job security. Best-selling author and Business Week columnist Marshall Goldsmith talks with The Reinvention Institute's Pamela Mitchell on how to effectively transform careers.

You say that in today's marketplace, the old concepts of career change don't work. Why is that?

Over the past several decades, the pace of business cycles has sped up considerably. Cradle-to-grave employment is a thing of the past.In this day and age, the ability to reinvent yourself—to recombine your skills, talents, and experience to move between job functions, departments, or industries—is the new form of job security. Within the space of a decade, what's been considered to be a good field for jobs can disappear. Take a look at the phenomenon of outsourcing, which has decimated U.S.-based opportunities for many industries, like software programming. Or consider the media field. With traditional revenue models struggling and new technologies competing for audience attention, newspapers are trying to find new niches to replace lost profits.

How do you cope with these factors? Career change has tended to focus on typical job transitions—strategies for climbing to the next level of seniority within your organization or moving to a similar position within the same industry. But what do you do when your company is reducing headcount and opportunities in your field are disappearing?

Great point. How is career reinvention different from career change? In this day and age, the ability to reinvent yourself—to recombine your skills, talents, and experience to move between job functions, departments, or industries—is the new form of job security. More than just repackaging your background, career reinvention involves changing your assumptions about how your career will evolve. It means being prepared to take advantage of new opportunities by developing your skill sets with a strategic eye toward emerging business models.

That sounds great for someone who is new to his career, but what about if you've been working for 10 or more years in the same field? Is still possible to reinvent your career when all your experience has been in the same industry?

 This is one of the most common questions we get! Yes, it is possible; in fact, we have a number of clients who have made successful switches after long careers in a particular industry.

That said, it is crucial that people understand that career reinvention is not an easy process. I like to draw the analogy that switching between job functions or industries is similar to moving to a foreign country. To be successful in your new land you'd have to learn the local language and familiarize yourself with its customs and cultural expectations. The same is true when you want to move to new career territory. To bridge the divide between your old and new careers, you need to learn the language and customs of your new field…and decide what to bring along from your former job.

If someone with 10 or 20 years of experience is leaving a field, that's a huge loss of talent for their organization. How does the trend toward career reinvention affect companies?

Over the next 5 to 10 years, as boomers retire and the available pool of workers shrinks, companies will be forced to rethink their strategies for retaining talented workers. But this requires that they break out of the old mindset of slotting employees into function-based boxes. They need to ask themselves: Do our people feel they can transform themselves beyond their current role, or do they need to leave us to grow?

For corporations, reinvention is the road to retention. Leaders need to become the architects of employee reinvention within their companies. One of our recommendations is that companies develop their workforce by facilitating ways for their talent to move within the firm.

Along with reducing layoff costs, this strategy can minimize the expenses associated with pursuing new business opportunities. Some forward-thinking organizations are already creating these types of reinvention programs.

What are some of the stumbling blocks people face when they're trying to reinvent their careers?

People tend to fantasize about new careers and are often unprepared for the amount of work that's involved in actually making the switch. They also have a hard time shifting out of their old work identity, which means that they often try to pitch themselves in a new field using their old language. This results in a translation failure, where hiring managers don't understand how the candidate's background applies to the job they're seeking.

Identity can also be a big obstacle when people are trying to reinvent themselves within their firm. Because they've been defined by a particular job function, they cannot get a shot at a new role. A number of clients come to us after hitting this barrier.

What advice do you have for people looking to reinvent their career?

Understand that whether it's within your current firm or a totally new field, successfully reinventing yourself requires you to establish your legitimacy as a candidate. Hiring managers, both internal and external, have goals they need to meet. Your mission is to prove—in tangible ways—that you can be a valuable asset to them in reaching those objectives.

 Minimize translation failure by learning how to repackage your background so that it highlights those skills that will be directly useful in helping you succeed in your new role. Ask yourself: "How can I benefit from what I've done in the past?" Analyze your talents and identify the work successes that demonstrate them. Match those previous accomplishments to future career deliverables—this will help you see what achievements in your background are of value to hiring managers in your new field.

Source: Business Week, Marshall & Friends July 1, 2008


http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jul2008/ca2008071_219231_page_2.htm

Moving the attitude adjustment hour

There are many things in life we can’t control – the weather, the economy, traffic on the freeway, to name a few. But there is one thing we definitely can control – our attitude.

We wake up every morning and go out into the world with an attitude. We put on an attitude just as surely as we put on our clothes. Even if we don’t consciously adopt a certain attitude on purpose, that non-expression is itself an attitude that shows up to other people.

I thought about what makes up an attitude. What are the components? What are the ingredients?

Here’s what I came up with. I concluded that my attitude is made up of a combination of where I am on a number of scales:

· Self-respect vs. self-deprecation
· Humility vs. entitlement
· Positive vs. negative
· Easy sense of humor vs. scowl and frown
· Generosity vs. selfishness
· Forgiveness vs. anger
· Gratitude vs. thanklessness
· Optimism vs. pessimism

By just focusing on these scales – even briefly – I can figure out where I am on each one. Then I can adjust my positions to shape my attitude. It’s like the bathroom mirror I can adjust by rotating the edges. Turn it one way, normal reflection. Turn it the other way, magnified reflection.

I can look at myself in that mirror and adjust the image that I am projecting – my attitude.

Since my thoughts took this path, I find myself reminded of them every morning when I look in that mirror to shave. It’s a new enough experience that I’m pleasantly surprised every time. I’m hoping I can make this an everyday thing.

And what might an adjusted attitude do for you? Quite a few possible benefits:

· A healthier mental and physical wellbeing
· An opportunity to look at your life more positively
· Attracting people who are like you (you get back what you put out)
· Maybe a job
· And possibly the most important result from floating somewhere to the left of center (on the scales), you will find your creative juices flowing, "rebooting" yourself into a better and perhaps longer life.

It’s a new time of day for the attitude adjustment hour.