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, February 5, 2015

Find Your Happy Place


      If you have seen the movie “Happy Gilmore”, you might remember the part when Happy finds his happy place. For Happy it was a little person acting like he was riding a horse, his girlfriend in lingerie with 2 pitchers of beer in her hand, and his grandmother winning money on a slot machine. It was a bit far-fetched, but that was the place he took his mind too when he needed to relax.

       This week I was on #BIBCHAT and the topic was finding our happy places. Questions were geared around finding our happy places during training, the morning of a race, and during a race. It was very interesting to see what each person did or thought of to get them relaxed. Some people said they found their happy place getting lost in a run, when their mind shuts down and they aren't thinking about anything. Some people said their happy place was a certain route they ran. Running on the beach or running in the mountains seemed to be a popular answer. If I had to choose the perfect day for training it would be 70 degrees, the sun shining down on me, and I am on a trail. However that is not my happy place that is a comforting place that sets me at ease. For me my happy place is during a race. I love being in a race and having everything go as planned. I am in no pain, my breathing is perfect, and I feel like I can pick up the speed at any time. This doesn't happen too often. However the few times the stars align and everything is going my way I am like a man possessed. There is just something about being in a race and you can see the finish line in the distance and you know the person next to you is using you to pace their self. At any moment you know it’s going to come down to who has the fastest kick and who wants it more. That is my happy place in a race, knowing that I can control my own outcome. Knowing that the person next to me can’t touch me when it comes down to the end. Don’t get me wrong I love being out in the middle of a long run and my mind goes blank. The feeling when you forget that you are actually running always makes the long runs go by quicker. For me though it’s the race that really gets my blood flowing. I am a competitive person at heart and anytime I can compete is a chance for me to prove to myself that the training I have done has paid off.


What is your happy place for running? Is it the weather, the training, or a certain course you run?
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownFebruary 6, 2015 at 5:46 AM

    I have never heard of BIBCHAT. What is it? I think it's cool your happy place is in a race. A race is the opposite of a happy place for me, ha ha!

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    1. UnknownFebruary 6, 2015 at 6:34 AM

      Jennifer bibchat is the same as runchat? Runchat is every Sunday night in Twitter where a bunch of runners talk and answer questions. Usually it is sponsored and you can win some cool prizes. Bibchat is the same thing just on Tuesday at 9 pm. You should check the #runchat and #bibchat out this week... There is some a lot of good runners and I have learned a lot and have met some awesome people on both things

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