not really inspired wrote:
He got this far, but maybe he'd be an Olympian and 3 minutes faster if he fully committed himself. Unfortunately, most regular people like yourself don't understand this-- that is why you and Jimmy are regular people. To be extra-ordinary comes at a price.
Anyone who is ripping Grabow is simply an idiot.
Has the person who is ripping him for not being fully committed thought about the fact that there is basically zero money for a 13:44/29:09 guy? He has to work to make a living.
And not working means one is fully committed? Really? There is only so much running and core one can do in a day. To some, not working is being freaking lazy. All you get to do is nap and get massages.
I read that interview just now and thought, "Man I have to start a thread on this guy with the title - The Ultimate Blue Collar Runner - Jimmy Grabow." Since a thread had already started, I changed the title of this one.
The quotes in the piece are great. Let me give you my highlights.
Grabow talking about his morning routine
Grabow said:
I’ve always been a mileage whore, even running 100 miles a week in college. I still do a lot of mileage, but I’ve also upped the intensity on my mileage. I usually get up at 5:30, go for a 15-miler and then go to my gym and do my core work and so forth. I have some recovery chocolate milk and breakfast and go off to work. I take an hour nap during lunch on most days and then go back to work. After work, I go for a 5-mile easy jog and do some stretching and icing. Then on Saturdays, I do a long run, and Sunday I kind of do something easy and relaxed.
Grabow talking about how he didn't wear a watch and how he just used his heart to negative split the race.
Grabow said:
Going into the race, I was going to be happy with anything under 2:15. I told myself ahead of time I wasn’t going to worry about splits. I didn’t wear a watch. I didn’t plan on running 5:05s or anything like that. My pure attitude was to go in and have a good respect for it, be patient in the beginning and over the last half or 10K try to pick it up. I just wanted to go in there, enjoy the experience and race and compete hard. You know, like they say, ?“Use your mind the first half, use your heart the second half.” And that’s what I did. At the 13-mile mark, I felt pretty good and just decided to roll with it.
Grabow saying nothing really went wrong for him when in reality he fell at the 2nd fluid station.
Grabow said:
I had a couple of hiccups in the race, but nothing big. At the second fluid station, I kind of fell. I was focusing too much on my bottle and didn’t notice the leg of the table sitting out, and kind of nicked that and hit the ground. It wasn’t too bad. I got up and still had my bottle, so I was happy that I was OK. One of the things my coach said was, “be careful around the water stations,” and then I fell anyway. I never hit the wall and I didn’t’ blow up, so that was good. I don’t really have any horror stories, except for falling like an idiot at the water station.
Grabow talking about what the $4,000 in prize money means to him.
Grabow said:
Then I heard I finished in 10th place and that was pretty exciting, and someone told me I won $4,000, too. But I don’t care about the money. That will go away, but the time never will.