As ever, cancer is all around us and it seems I learn at least once a week if not more often of someone I know whose life has been broken into two pieces: BC and AC (before cancer and after cancer). At the American Cancer Society we talk often about cancer being no respecter of persons. Cancer doesn’t care about your income, political affiliation, religious preference, sexual identity, gender, etc. One in every three people is going to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.

We have to change the odds. You can help do that by supporting my marathon run. DetermiNation is the endurance event fund-raising program for the American Cancer Society. I work for the Society, I raise money for the Society because I long for the day when our children and grandchildren will be able to ask the question, “What was cancer?” If you would like to help reach that day, I’d appreciate a donation. Just click on my personal fund-raising page to get started.

On March 4, I will be running in honor or memory of:

• Nancy, a dear friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer just before Christmas.
• John, a colleague and friend whose cancer recurred last summer.
• Jeffrey, a friend who is a 20-year brain cancer survivor who has had a recurrence
• Emily, the mother of a colleague who was recently diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer
• Michael, father of one of my DetermiNation teammates who lost his battle with cancer while we were running DetermiNation 2011
• Bonnie, whom I’ve known almost since the day I moved to Knoxville and who has fought leukemia and lymphoma for much of her life
• Marilyn, an amazing woman, strong volunteer and cancer advocate whose fight ended in December
• Uncle Bob, who died of pancreatic cancer 20 years ago this summer

This list is bound to grow, but it begins here. May it be the beginning of cancer’s end as well.

WBIR-TV, our local NBC affiliate, aired a story on Live at Five at Four about Randy Carr, who has been a volunteer for the American Cancer Society, where I work. Randy is a member of the Covenant Health Biggest Winner Knoxville Marathon Team, which brings people from across the community together to get healthier while training for the marathon.

I was privileged to be a member of the team in 2008 and 2010. In the story about Randy, he recalls seeing me on the show in 2008 and says I inspired him to begin his journey toward fitness. I am touched and humbled. I’m just a guy who decided I needed to turn my life around or I was going to die prematurely – like my father.

I am immensely proud of Randy, and the inspiration he is to his son. I’m also proud of my friends Amanda and Lee Ann who are also on this year’s team. They’ve all made incredible progress toward their goals!

Check out Randy’s story here.

For Valentine’s Day, she gave me something I’ve had my eye on for a while — a customized race medal hanger from the fine folks at Allied Medal Displays.

Best thing about it, it’s a DetermiNation medal hanger. Check it out:

I can’t wait to get it up on the wall and start filling it up with my growing collection of race medals.

Sarah also gave me a gift certificate to Frank’s Barbershop, one of my absolutele favorite places in all of Knoxville. I gave her a couple of books she wanted, and we had a spectacular dinner at Le Parigo, a French bistro located downtown. Needless to say, we did not count the calories in our delicious three-course dinner, or the Gigi’s Cupcakes we had when we got home. The food hangover this morning was totally worth it, though.

Speaking of DetermiNation, today marks 18 days until the Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans Marathon. Now that the shadow of the valley of a 22-mile-long training run has passed and I’m heading toward the taper, I’m feeling great about race day and looking forward to the jazz brunch, visiting the marathon expo with my teammates and wolfing down some beignets as part of my carb-loading. We will be in New Orleans after all!

Remember, I am running for a cause — the American Cancer Society. I would appreciate any help to get me closer to my fund-raising goal. Donations of any size can be made by visiting my personal fund-raising page.

I wish it were tomorrow.

To be honest, I wish that partly because I’m tired. Marathon training seems harder this time out, for some reason. Or is taking longer, even though this year’s race is nearly two months sooner than the race I trained for last year. Even fund-raising seems harder this year — and I’ve never been concerned about the fund-raising side before.

I’m doing everything right on both fronts. I’m training with my long-distance running group on Saturdays, getting in three or four good runs during the week, doing a little cross training (Zumba, spinning, weight training) once or twice a week, and taking a knock-out yoga for endurance athletes class on Wednesday nights. Let me tell you, the Pigeon Pose alone makes me love that class every week.  On the fund-raising side, I’m fund-raising with Facebook, sending messages to everyone I know or have chatted with on some form of social media in the last six months. I’ve done e-mails and a paper letter to friends and family.

I’m doing all the right things. It’s all just harder this year. I don’t really have an answer for why.

Let me state for the record, however, that the challenges of this year haven’t dulled my enthusiasm or commitment to DetermiNation. This is the first time I’ve really put words to what I’ve been feeling this time out. And, wouldn’t you know it, I was once again starkly reminded why I love this program so and why I put my body and spirit through this process every year.

It was a phone call from my friend Jeffrey.

I love talking to Jeffrey. He’s a great guy — husband, father, motivational speaker, and 20-year brain cancer survivor who was diagnosed with a recurrence in 2009.

He was calling with a professional question, but Jeffrey also said he and his wife are taking a long weekend trip to New York City. He was excited and I could hear the smile in his voice. Then came the dark undercurrent: Scans have revealed a fifth tumor in his brain. The cancer is growing. He’ll be taking a break from chemo, which I swear he’s been on forever, in a couple of weeks.

“We need to get together,” he said.

Indeed we do. And we agreed to celebrate in a few weeks, after I’ve crossed the finish line and he’s started his chemo “vacation.”

In the meantime, I’ve got the rest of my training to do.

By the way, if you’re at all inclined to support me with a donation to the American Cancer Society, click here.

Think about what that means. I’ve spent at least one day a week for more than a quarter of a year at The Wellness Center. Most weeks I’m there four or five days unless I’m on the road. My workouts last 65 minutes if I’m riding the elliptical or the recumbent bike. If I decide to drop into a Zumba or Spinning class or do two forms of cardio I’m there for two hours.

That’s a lot of time to spend at the gym. Good thing I love the place. Here’s why I love it and what you should look for in selecting a workout facility for you and your family:

• Convenience. The Wellness Center is located between my home and office, which makes working out super convenient. Distance can be a barrier. So look for a facility near your home or workplace.
• Cleanliness. This place is super clean, and people actually wipe down the equipment when they’re through. I don’t feel like I’m going to catch a disease when I work out.
• Friendly Staff. The staff actually care about and talk to me like I’m a human being and not a contract with legs. I can also get workout and nutrition advice from licensed professionals.
• Medical Orientation. As an overweight person in an overweight family this is important for me. Does the facility truly have the tools and the knowledge to help you change your lifestyle? Gyms that flash billboard of rippling muscled people probably do not.
• Low Pressure. Many gyms are all about the sales pitch. They LOVE people who sign long-term contracts, workout for a couple of weeks and never come in again. If you feel pressured, walk away.
• Great Hours. Many gyms are open 24 hours. Mine is not, but I’m not likely to work out at 3 a.m. If that’s good for you, great.
• Awesome Equipment. Equipment should be in decent to new shape, and not look like it just rolled off someone’s pickup truck after they sold it on craigslist.
• Choice. Look for diverse cardio options (treadmill, elliptical, upright bikes, recumbent bikes), weight machines and free weights. And, check out the class schedule. Is there something on the list you’d be interested in checking out?

Here’s a quick video of what my gym looks like:

Wherever you work out, you should love it. If you love the place you’re going to use it, which means you’re on the road to healthiness.

Joe Mitchell, Biggest Loser contestant from Knoxville, shares how BL changed his life at the Healthy Living Expo,

Judging by the size of the crowd on Saturday, a lot of people were inspired by the Health Living Expo at the Knoxville Convention Center.

The annual event features healthy cooking demonstrations, fitness seminars and aisle after aisle of booths from the region’s various workout facilities, nutrition and health food vendors and much, much more.

I had the privilege of working the Knoxville Track and Field Club booth, where we shared information about April’s Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon, Half Marathon, 5K and Kid’s Run, as well as Knox Walks, our new walking program launching in March, other upcoming races, and club membership. A lot of people dropped by our booth, which was awesome to see.

Walking around the expo, it was great to see people trying out exercise equipment and taste-testing various healthy food options. I also chuckled at the adult trick-or-treaters who went from booth to booth loading their bags with every free pen, nail file, jar opener and other geegaw they could get their hands on. Aside from the KTC booth, my favorite stop was The Wellness Center at Dowell Springs booth, where I chatted with Juli, Casey and Mike. In my wanderings I also talked to friend and fellow runner Kim Hansard from Star 102.1, and friend and fellow blogger Brian Hornback.

I missed the exercise demonstration by my friend Missy Kane, but I did catch a few minutes of Biggest Loser contestant Joe Mitchell’s presentation about how BL changed his life. Very inspiring stuff that.

Knoxville’s Healthy Living Expo is a great event. If you missed it, make plans to be there in 2013.

Photo from allaboutweather.org

Our Saturday morning marathon training run was derailed by a severe thunderstorm that hit Knoxville around 7 a.m.

“While we run in rain, sleet or snow we don’t run while it’s lightning,” read the email that came from the training team at Fleet Feet Knoxville.

According to my marathon training plan, I was due to run 12 to 14 miles Saturday. I expected the Fleet Feet folks would reschedule the run to Sunday morning, but honestly I didn’t want the thought of that distance hanging over my head for another 24 hours.

So, I headed to the gym and jumped on the elliptical machine.  I do a lot of my training during the week on the elliptical in an effort to preserve my bad knees for as long as possible. I’ve been doing eight miles regularly, which takes me about an hour and 15 minutes. Still, I knew I was in for a long slog.

While the lighting, thunder and rain did its thing outside, I was warm and getting sweaty indoors. Two hours and lots of “Fox News Alert” updates later, I’d knocked out 13 miles. It felt good to have that distance behind me. Next week we’re due to run 22 miles. I hope the weather cooperates!

As a frequent maker and breaker of resolutions, let me tell you that no matter how you’re doing don’t give up. If you didn’t exercise every day like you hoped you would, or that cupcake was too tempting last week and you gave in and ate it, it’s all right. When it comes to resolutions we tend to hold ourselves to an impossible standard of perfection, which virtually guarantees that we’re destined to fail. We’re human, not perfect. Stop beating yourself up, forgive yourself for your transgression, calibrate your resolution to be more realistic, and move on.

Better still, ditch the resolutions entirely, think about the person you would like to become by the end of the year and focus on one word. That’s the idea behind My One Word, an experiment begun by Port City Community Church in North Carolina in 2007. My One Word is “designed to move you beyond the past and look ahead. The challenge is simple: lose the long list of changes you want to make this year and instead pick ONE WORD. This process provides clarity by taking all of your big plans for life change and narrowing them down into a single thing. One word focuses on your character and creates a vision for your future.”

Love this idea. My word for 2012: RELENTLESS.

As in

• Relentless love for my wife
• Relentless love for my God and my church
• Relentless athlete
• Relentless focus on goals, whether it’s a race finish line or a project at work
• Relentless drive to help my organization find the cures for cancer

So, what’s your word for 2012?

The intensity definitely stepped up this past weekend. Our long run Saturday was 10 miles. I was so not feeling it. I told my pace group, a great group of ladies who nicknamed themselves “The Sick Chicks” because several were fighting various stages of colds or bronchial crud (although their collective sense of humor also fits), that I felt like I was slogging through oatmeal.

I was a little tired, but otherwise fine. I am also aware, from my own past experience that some long runs just suck, so I guess I’ll chalk it up to that. At the end of the day we got through it together and lived to run another day.

Which turned out to be this morning. We met for a relatively short (five miles), easy run to knock out the soreness — and the cobwebs — from yesterday.

Today’s was a great run and I felt great. Kind of wished we had run longer.

There’s always next week. We’re running 18 or 20 miles in Cades Cove next weekend.

Photo: New York Times, 2008

Odds are, your gym is a lot more crowded these days.

The start of the New Year has prompted lots of folks to join gyms, fitness centers and wellness centers in a renewed effort to lose weight and get healthy. All those new faces in the gym can lead to frustration for us “gym rats.” Now we have to wait to use our favorite machine, or actually abide by the time limits set on cardio machine use, or work out during off-peak hours, all of which totally messes up our routine.

Been there, done that. Right?

What if we all approached this challenge differently, and remembered what it was like to walk through the doors of a gym for the first time? How overwhelming and scary was that, especially for those of us carrying lots of extra weight?

Instead of complaining about the masses of people who have taken over our gyms, what would happen if we were nice to them? Say “hi” or “welcome” to someone you’ve never seen there before. Offer to help get a treadmill working. Show someone how Jacob’s Ladder works. Tell someone about a class you love. In other words, become an advocate for the place where you invest your time and money, and for the lifestyle you’ve come to embrace.

Maybe those folks would stick around longer than two or three months.

As for our messed-up routine, that could be good for us too. Change is good, especially if we climb aboard the same piece of equipment workout after workout. Split cardio between the treadmill and the stationary bike or the bike and the elliptical. Do body weight exercises or plyometrics if you can’t get to weight bench or there’s no space around the free weights.

The crowded gym could be good for all of us.