Between worrying about the thunderstorms and getting up on time for the race, I was a restless man Friday night. But as 4:00 AM came on Saturday, I was up and getting ready for the longest, biggest race of my life. After all, the longest race I’d run before yesterday was the Boulevard Bolt–a five-mile run on Belle Meade Boulevard every Thanksgiving morning. To make things more interesting, six weeks ago, I had developed Achilles Tendonitis on my left foot and was told I might not be able to run at all. But after physical therapy, a slower training pace, I felt ready to go. My running team, Innerstrength, met under the pavilion at Centennial Park at 6 am for stretching, tattoos, group pictures and a pep talk from head coach Matt Royka. Lining up at West End Avenue with 30 thousand people was an awesome sight to see. It’s…

I like tapering. No, I love tapering. A few years ago I didn’t even know what that meant, but today, I’m officially tapering my training for the Country Music Marathon this coming Saturday. The whole thing is pretty simple: you only do a very short run early in the week and then you eat like a cow. Now, how can you not love tapering? Instead of getting up at 4 AM every morning and spending 2 to 3 hours exercising, I’m going to sleep in this week and then eat tons of food I’ve avoided for long time. Thinking about it, I believe a lot of people live on “tapering” without the training. But, however great this sounds, I’m having a difficult time not running in the morning. My running partner and I just text back and forth about “tomorrow’s plan” and reluctantly committed to take the day off. Well,…

Last week I was flying to Orlando to speak at a conference. The flight was full with not a vacant seat in the whole plane. Half-way to our destination a lady two rows to the front right of me started having an attack. First she vomited and then her body began to convulse. Things weren’t looking good. What follows next was a lesson in team work and how being prepared for an emergency makes all the difference. The Southwest crew jumped into action right away. They moved the two passengers in that row out and began dealing with the sick woman. At one point, one of the flight attendants plugged a microphone/headset combo into a jack on one of the overhead bins near the lady and began communicating with ground EMTs in order to diagnose the issue. They identified family members who were on the plane and probed on medical…