Who Am I?

I am an avid runner and have been running since I was 15 years old. I began running low to medium distances while on my high school track team, running the 800 meter and 1600 meter races (I was a sub 5 miler and a 2 minute 800 runner). In addition to the track team, I also joined the cross country team. After high school I still wanted to run and decided to start doing road races. I have probably ran a couple hundred 5k races (16.29 PR)along with many 10k's as well. In 2009 I decided to step up my game and try to tackle my first marathon. I will be honest; the only reason I did this was because my father ran a few and I wanted to show him that I could do what he did. I trained poorly for my first one and regret it. If you are going to run a race, train like you want to win. I still continue to run marathons and other distances as well, and every race is a chance for me to better myself.
I started this blog to hopefully communicate with other runners and to shed any knowledge I may have about the sport that can help other runners. I believe running is the best sport and can be a great stress reliever. I encourage all runners to spread the word of our sport and show people why running is so good and why the community of runners has such great people. You can follow me on twitter @byrne1324 or find me on facebook- Shaun Byrne

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Running Superstitions

"SUPERSTITIONS"

Superstition is the belief in supernatural causality—that one event leads to the cause of another without any natural process linking the two events—such as astrology, religion, omens, witchcraft prophecies, etc., that contradicts natural science.
 
    Many runners have it, some runners even fear it. I am talking about superstitions. I have talked to runners about theirs and I have even read on their blogs about little superstitions. It may be having to do a certain routine, or even something you wear. 
    I have not really been into the whole superstition thing until today.  Sit back and let me tell you my story......  On Sunday I was getting ready to do some running around. I throw on a pair of fleece pants and open the closet door to grab some shoes.  I reach down to the shoe rack and grab my Brooks Pure Flows. They were a little dirty so me being the OCD shoe addict I had to clean them off before I could wear them. Man did they look nice again all clean. I throw them on and headed out the door.  The whole time I was out I kept thinking to myself how comfortable it was to be wearing my Brooks again.   
    I like to think of my Brooks as my go to shoes. They are like that old friend that you can always count on to be there for you.  I mean we have been through the shit together.(No literally I stepped in dog shit once with them on) From the New York Marathon to training for part of the Pittsburgh Marathon, these shoes treated me good.  
   So today at work I was thinking about my run and for some reason my Brooks popped in my head.  As soon as I got home I grabbed them out of the closet again and laced them up.  Once again they felt great.  I started my run and decided I am going to put the Brooks to the test. I was wearing my Garmin and had my headphones in.  I made it a point to not look at the Garmin until my run was done.  Sometimes I felt like I was moving slow and sometimes I felt like I was just chugging along.  There was a strong wing so it made half of the run more difficult.  When I finally finished I looked down at my Garmin and noticed I had ran one of my fastest 5K times during training in a while and also ran father than I anticipated.  
 
Here is the really weird thing, I noticed the tread on my shoes is still in great shape.  Could be because I run on my toes and I seem to take soft steps.( I really have not clue, but did that sound good?)  So now I have a question.  The power of the Pure Flows seems to really help me, so I am thinking I am going to train in my Saucony's and then use my Pure Flows on long runs and short races coming up.  Then I think it will be time to switch back to Brooks.  I tried the other brands but you don't mess with superstitions and all signs point to Brooks for my best runs.
 
Do you have any running superstitions?  If so what are they?
 
 
 


4 comments:

  1. So cool! My only superstition has to do with race bib numbers. I like even numbers, so if I get a bib that has a lot of odd numbers, I feel like I'm jinxed and will not do well...and the races I've done best in have all been while wearing even-numbered bibs.

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    1. Hahah I am complete opposite... I prefer the odd number. And if I could pick my number it would be 13

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  2. I'm more into good luck charms than true superstitions. For instance, I wore my RoadID bracelet at the marathon even though they have adequate identification using the bib and info I wrote on the back of it. I wasn't going to wear it, then saw it laying there and thought "that's been on every single training run, how can I leave it behind during the race?"

    Or the little metal washer I lace into my shoes, it was a prize for 25 (and then 50) pounds lost via Weight Watchers. Not sure if it brings luck but I feel good when I see it in there, so I keep transferring it to new shoes.

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    1. I kind of do the same thing, I won't take my necklace off even though it can get in the way sometimes. I feel I have always wore it so I just need to keep wearing it

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