How was your 5.5 mile run today?

5.5 on hilly trails.

Did six miles on the track. At 5.5, I realized that Shay would have thought that 5.5 is a strange number, and that he would have gone six.

So I went six.

Went for 5.5, felt good and decided to do 7, then just decided to keep going and make it a nice round 10. We will miss you Ryan.

Our usual group of 3-6 runners was 20 runners strong all hammering through the park trais!! Most runners wore ND garb and Ryan's teammate, Phil, brought ND track and CC jerseys that were worn proudly! We averaged 7:00 pace (fast for some) and a few surges were thrown in ...for Ryan. After our 5.5 we all stopped and stood in a circle.....Phil told us a few outstanding stories about Ryan and gave us a taste of what it was like to be Ryan's teammate. We all shook Phil's hand and patted him on his back ...Some of us kept running, some stayed to talk and others went home. We are all thinking about the Shay family this Holiday season. ~ NWOhio

woah, i ran 5.5 without even realizing the significance

I tried and DNF at 3.5 mile mark. I thought to myself, Shay is a tough guy, I got to finish this 5.5, so I walked about 1/2 mile and ran/jogged another 1.5 to make it 5.5. Feel good now. I should ease off on yesterday's drill - which is the first time I am doing it and my legs sore all around like hell today, otherwise, I should have no problem finish the 5.5.

Ryan Shay wouldn't want o have been remember for a partially completed race.

So I went ahead and ran the full 26.2 this morning.

I stopped around 35 minutes to pay my respect, but then I kept going to finish my run.

I did a ten miler in rain and wind. It was a great run and it made me realise again that running really is a gift that we should use. RIP Ryan.

This has got to stop before it becomes a religion, OK?

You may think you're "paying tribute" and if it makes you feel better, then fine. It's your therapy. But I hope you realize that all this is totally meaningless to anybody besides yourselves. Ryan Shay doesn't care that you ran 5.5 miles and he doesn't care that you come to the letsrun circle jerk afterwards. Neither does his family.

Has anybody actually made any meaningful sacrifices "in tribute"? Joe Shay posted the address of a memorial fund, that means you can donate some money which I'm sure will go to some worthy cause. I don't know which cause, and it may not be one that matters to you personally, but it matters to his family and I can only assume it would matter to Ryan. The great thing about these is that you can donate as much or as little as you feel like, and still do something that actually pays tribute. Ryan's family will be touched by the number of contributors rather than the actual sum of money, I'm sure.

OK, so you can jump on my post here and start flaming me (see if I care) or you can do something useful. You can even do both. Just please stop embarrassing all of us with this pseudo-empathetic bullshit.

Wow, this post is sure to be deleted...

wow, touching. i'm sure the shay family also appreciates how you are kindly looking out for them.

good for you, sport.

Very good point, all these empty words and gestures have become ridiculous.

You do make a great argument. You make a great argument for why we need registration on this messageboard. Wejo and Rojo have commented that because of anonymity here we can get information we would never otherwise get since people would pass along information they wouldn't if it weren't anonymous. This I think is a good example of what information we're getting without registration.

I was one of Ryan's competitors (and have been for nearly 12 years), and sent flowers to his funeral (though my wife and I wished to be at his funeral, it wasn't possible). The 5.5 mile run was an organized event set up across the country (and world), and as far as I know, had many participants. I do not know who originated the idea, but I do know many, many runners across the country decided to pay tribute (yes, pay tribute) to Ryan by simply running 5.5 miles 2 weeks after his death.

http://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?do=view&member_id=9&video_id=410

I do not know why you or anyone would respond with such spiteful language and emotion. There are many ways people deal with loss. The 5.5 mile run was just one of those ways. I think eventually you will understand this, and realize you may have rushed to judgment and have been unnecessarily critical.

I'm guessing you know very little about what Ryan would or would not want. Let's just leave it at that.

For many people, this was a hard event to imagine and cope with. I didn't know Ryan Shay, but I grew up and ran in high school in Michigan and, despite leaving 30 years ago to go to college, I've always followed the results of their state meets, more so than my adopted state of CT. I've seen his name in results for a long time. And, it was here that I saw him run many times at the New Haven 20k. So, many of us felt just a tangential connection to this young man. It's also hard to fathom that this could happen to any one of us, passing away with so many things undone or unsaid in a life. I did not stop at the 5.5 mile of any recent run, but I do know I've had some days recently when I didn't get out the door until 7 pm and struggled to do it. Feeling sorry for myself, I have to remember that not everyone is so lucky to have the chance to do even the run in the pitch black. If you don't like reading about how other people are dealing with Ryan's death, don't read the posts. Furthermore, my guess is that if Steve Prefontaine died in the age of the internet, these sort of "conversations" would be happening ten times over. His name is on the message board all the time and I don't see too many people writing in saying that the posters should get over an event that happened 35 years ago.

It's because you all insist on publicly patting yourselves on the back for being so allegedly thoughtful. Public mourning is still unseemly. Do what you will, but there's no need to advertise it.

inreality wrote:

It's because you all insist on publicly patting yourselves on the back for being so allegedly thoughtful. Public mourning is still unseemly. Do what you will, but there's no need to advertise it.

Sorry, you still don't get it. The above poster said all that needs to be said. People deal with loss in many ways. It does not matter what is unseemly. Please stop critisizing people for something you don't understand or agree with.

If you don't agree with it, don't read the thread.

Every run I do now, once I hit mile 5 I can't help but think about Ryan. Mile 5 has become sacred...I think about what he must have felt like, his family, how short life is, my family, etc. Once I enter mile 5 I give the "sign of the cross", thank God for life, and appreciate every breath. Today I did 6 miles on a treadmill.