Anyone who has played youth sports, coached youth sports, and/or has kids in youth sports should watch this great post game speech from Cumberland, RI Little League Coach Dave Belisle. His team was eliminated on Monday night from the LLWS. Quin and I had the pleasure of sitting directly behind the Rhode Island team's family section at a game on Saturday. Watching Dave give this speech on Monday nearly brought me to tears.

Here is a link to the post game speech.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11373945&categoryid=2378529

It's great to know that parents like this are coaching and mentoring our kids; especially on a night when somehow the lead story on ESPN is "(Player who does not deserve to be named in the same post as Dave Belisle), flips bird to Redskin's bench" in meaningless NFL preseason game.

Here is coverage that the speech received on the ABC nightly news.

Each year the third week of August brings the excitement of the Little League World Series. Having a baseball loving son, who is a Little Leaguer himself, makes watching the games that much better. So on Saturday we woke up and headed out the door at 6am to drive 4 hours to Williamsport, PA to take in the LLWS action first hand.

The environment for watching games at Howard J Lamade Stadium is rivaled by only Wrigley Field. Majestic mountains sit in the far background, while the hillside behind the outfield wall is packed with fans watching games from blankets, and kids sliding down the hill on slides made of cardboard.

We arrived a few hours before Saturday’s first game at Lamade. With time to look around and explore, Quin wasted no time finding a piece of cardboard to join the hundreds of other kids sliding down the hill. Once settled into our seats (admission is free and seats are first come first serve), we watched 1 ½ games, ate plenty of delicious and affordable food, and Quin made three or four more trips out to the hill to perfect his headfirst cardboard dive.

After what I can only describe as being a perfect day, we departed a little after 8pm to begin the 4 hours drive home. While Quin slept most of the way, I was wide awake and smiling with thoughts about all the great memories that the day had created. My father gave me so many experiences like that while growing up. It is truly the greatest pleasure in the world to now be doing similar things with Quin.

It is unfortunate how much litter pollutes the roads of America. Having been a runner for 20+ years, with most of my miles being logged on the roads, I am all too familiar with how much garbage, trash, and junk gets thrown out of cars onto roadsides. In 20 years I’ve occasionally found money ($20 bill is the most), but never anything too valuable or interesting. While running today on Chain Bridge Road from Oakton to Vienna I came across side 2 of Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits on vinyl.

The discovery was fun because it gave me something to think about for the remainder of my run. The first thing that struck me as odd about finding this record is that it was all by itself. It is not as if a box of records accidentally fell off the back of a truck and ended up on the side of the road. For the better part of my run I wondered what prompted someone to discard the record from what I presume was a moving car. Almost as strange as the record being thrown out to begin with is that it is side 2 of a greatest hits release. It was in the sleeve when I found it, but side 1 was nowhere in sight. Was the album discarded out of disgust for Kenny Roger’s music? I can’t imagine that being the case, because I doubt anyone was listening to this album recently on a record player. The record was in great condition and would play without a problem. So if someone truly hated the album, why not just smash it and throw it in the garbage?

Every object has a history and a story tell. I will never know why after 34 years (the album was released in 1980) this record was discarded onto Chain Bridge Road, but it provided me with a welcome distraction halfway through a 7 mile run on a 90+ degree afternoon. It’s a shame that someone littered by throwing out the record, but I’m happy to have rescued it.  The album now proudly hangs on the wall of my garage.

I’m so happy for the summer to have fully arrived. The forest behind our house is lush green with ferns, leaves, and plants of all kinds. Animals are abundant and active this time of year. In the last month alone we have been visited in our yard by a mother deer and her three newborn babies, two owls, two foxes, snakes, and countless other birds and critters. As a family we’ve taken to naming all of our animal visitors and speak often about someday writing a storybook about them. So far we’ve name an owl Solomon, and the male/female foxes are Redpaw and Amber. Bethany does not want to name the deer because they are pests who eat her plants. So according to her they don’t deserve to be named.

The summertime has also kept me busy searching for my favorite animal in the world, the Eastern Box Turtle. Because of pet allergies as children, my sister and I could not have dogs or cats, so we had two Eastern Box Turtles named Earl and Shelly. They were simple, gentle pets, and provided us with some entertainment. Earl only had three legs. After keeping them for nearly 10 years, Earl escaped his outdoor pen at our Mt Lebanon house on Marshall Drive. Upon losing her mate, we sent Shelly to live in Ms Printz’s (high school teacher) backyard with her box turtle Ned. Shelly lived a few more years before failing to return to the yard after a winter hibernation.

Since growing up with them, turtles have always held a special place in my heart. Anytime I see one on the road and can safely pull over, I get out of my car and move them into the nearest wooded area. Most turtles are such harmless and beautiful animals. I did once try to rescue a large snapping turtle from the middle of Linebaugh Avenue in Tampa. As hard as I tried to move him to safety, he equally as hard snapped at me to remove my fingers. Unfortunately I had to abandon that rescue mission.

I was so thrilled on Monday night while walking through the woods behind our house to have discovered an Eastern Box Turtle.  Ten months of searching since we moved to Virginia had finally led me to one. I brought him back to the house and immediately dug up some worms, cut up tomatoes, and sliced some ground beef to feed the little guy a feast. He seemed pretty shy and didn’t have much of an appetite. So I watched him for a bit before putting him to bed in a pile of leaves in our screened in garden. Yesterday after breakfast the kids and I returned him back to where I found him in the woods. I like to imagine him telling his friends about the great adventure he had, or perhaps writing in his turtle blog about the experience. 

Quin Sehon provides details about his grinding through the winter months in a quest to run 750 miles in 2014.

Give a listen as my son Quin provides a quick update about his progress through 1.5 months in his quest to run 750 miles in 2014.

It was truly a pleasure to chat with Chris Lear for episode #9. Before getting to know Chris, I had read both of his books and was a huge fan of them.  I met Chris in 2003 at the Boulder Bolder while Dave Bronfenbrenner and I were in the middle of our run across the USA. After the initial introduction, Chris and I stayed in touch and saw each other every few years at different running events, or sometimes when in one another’s hometown for business travel.

However, in all of the time that we had hung out, I never once asked him a single question about his experiences writing Running With The Buffaloes or Sub 4:00. It was always a conscious decision not to ask him about the books, because I figured he was so used to runners asking him about the books that he’d tired of speaking about it.

So after knowing Chris for 10+ years I was very excited to have him on the podcast to ask him all of the questions I’d always had about the two books. Unfortunately, the excitement of having him on the podcast translated into me being nervous for the first time while interviewing someone. I don’t know why or how I was nervous….it was not for lack of preparation. Perhaps I felt nerves from reverting back to being a huge fan of his work prior to ever knowing him. I babbled and stumbled my way through the first 20 minutes of our interview (most of which was been edited out), before settling into a comfortable conversation. Hopefully the trouble that I had settling into the interview is invisible to listeners.

While the interview will likely be listened to be runners mostly, Chris’ insight into the writing process for both books was fascinating and should be interesting to non-runners alike. I’m thrilled to see that the interview with Chris has been downloaded far more times in the first 24 hours after release than any of the previous eight that I’ve done. So, thank you for listening, and reading….and please keep coming back.


Here is a picture of when Chris and I met in 2003 at the Boulder Bolder. From left to right: Matt DiPretore, Scott Sehon, Chris Lear, Dave Bronfenbrenner

A Twitter spat that occurred this week between Exit 2 guest Brett Richey and 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Joe Hachem has lead to a significant spike in downloads of my interview with Brett. Downloads of Brett’s interview leveled off around 45 days ago. It was picking up one or two a week, until this week when downloads took off.

It seems that Brett took issue with Hachem’s recent criticism of some WSOP Main Event Champions as being poor ambassadors of the sport. I’m not qualified to comment on the issue, but what is clear is that Brett was upset enough with Joe to fire repeated shots at him on Twitter. Eventually Joe responded, and a short showdown of poker minds ensued.

Whatever the cause I’m happy to see that the podcast downloads are increasing, and hopefully those who are listening enjoying it.

Richey's Twitter Page
Hachem's Twitter Page

Here is a screen shot of their brief battle and video of Hachem’s criticism that prompted Richey to take the first shot. 

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been called crazy for running across the USA I’d probably have enough money to buy a used baby jogger. However, what seems crazy to others, often seems perfectly sane to the person being called crazy. So for years when trying to defend my sanity for running across the USA, I’ve often said to people “You want to know what crazy is? Check out Ryan Johns. He’s a Columbia University grad who ran 2600 miles solo across Europe over 130 in 2009 with only 5 pounds of gear.”

When Ryan called me in early 2009 to ask me logistical questions about how Dave and I ran across the US, I could tell right away that he was different than the 3 to 4 other calls I would get each year seeking logistical advice about long “adventure runs.” Ryan was different because I could quickly sense that he was pursuing his trip out of passion and a true sense of adventure. He had cast aside the idea of raising money for a cause or accepting sponsorships to fund his trip. He was focused only on running as light as he possibly could, for adventure, and to study the art and architecture of Europe. I thought it was awesome and pure.

So when Ryan began his journey I went along with him each morning while drinking my cup of coffee at work. His detailed daily blog was my first stop every morning to see where he was, what he was doing, and whom he had met. Reading his blog each day made me nostalgic for my run across the US, and the sense of excitement, wonderment, and curiosity that would greet Dave and I each and every day we were on the road.

Upon completing his run, I emailed Ryan a note of congratulations and told him that I look forward to a day where I could meet him in person, buy him a beer, and hear a first hand account about his trip. In the 4+ years that have passed since his run, unfortunately I am yet to meet him. But he was one of about 30 people that I put on my first list of potential podcast guests. So I was thrilled when he set aside the time to speak with me about his journey. On top of our lengthy conversation about his run, it was fun to learn is that Ryan is now involved in industrial robotic design at Princeton University. While I know next to nothing about industrial robotic design, the videos I watched of Ryan working with his 2.5 ton robot are quite interesting. I encourage you to check them out here.

Thank you Ryan for your time and insight. I still look forward to buying you that beer.

Give a listen as my son Quin provides a quick update about his progress through 1 month in his quest to run 750 miles in 2014.