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, November 20, 2014

Giving back for the holidays

I have always said runners are some of the greatest people. We motivate each other, push each other to limits we thought none of us could get to, and when one of us is in need of help the running community comes out in full force to help. 

Recently I have started to cross over into obstacle racing and I have found that these people are no different than our running community. Maybe it’s because they are also runners. Running is still a huge part of the races. Or maybe it’s because like us runners these people are in a sport that sometimes will beat you down. Occasionally you find yourself on a course that is very challenging, and you find yourself in front of an obstacle that seems impossible. More often than not you will get help from other participants who will help you over the obstacle. That is the beauty of obstacle racing, unless you are racing in the elite race you can have assistance. When I ran the Battle Frog race I came up to a cargo net and saw people holding it from each side. I asked what was going on, and was told the net was very loose and if we pulled from all sides we could make it tight and let each other go over one at a time. It was great we all took our turns holding the net and helping each other over, and as more runners came to it they just waited until it was there turn to hold the net.

The Obstacle Course Racing World Championships (OCRWR) has done a small tradition in NYC and has now gone international. The tradition is known as Rucksgiving. Rucksgiving is when obstacle racers and runners from all over will do a run and hand out holiday leftovers or sandwiches to people less fortunate. There is already 19 cities that are currently taking place in this, but if a city is not on board yet, you can nominate your city and start one there. So on Saturday, November 29th I will be doing this with other racers in Pittsburgh. Chris Proctor and Brent Dames are the people in charge of the Pittsburgh run and are currently trying to finalize a time and location for the run. From looking at other cities it looks like it will be 3-5 miles.

A lot of obstacle races have really got on board with this and will be giving free entry to races, swag and other things to participants. Obviously not everyone will get things since there is so many people, it is basically a random thing. Who cares though if you don’t get anything, this is a great thing and it just shows what awesome people the running and obstacle community really is. If you would like to check and see if your city is one of the ones doing it you can click here. Remember you don’t have to be an obstacle racer to do this. You just have to want to help someone less fortunate, and be able to run a few short miles.


2 comments:

  1. That is such a great idea! Will you be posting more details about the Pittsburgh run? My sister will be in town visiting. Maybe I can convince her to do it with me.

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    1. Ya Jennifer as soon as I get updated I will let you know

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