Fitness, Graphic Design, Video
Marathon training update. Just a quick clip from after my 10 mile run this morning. Nothing fancy or crazy. I’ll do the fancy and crazy later.
If you haven’t read or watched the Day 1 blog and video please check it out!
Come enjoy a day on the Yakima River paddling your way down stream 16 miles with me. Not just for Gold’s Gym members, but I want to invite anyone who enjoys kayaking or wants to learn how to kayak. I’d love to have you join me out on the river. Send me an message to the email below in the flyer to work out the details!
Officially today is day one of training for a marathon! To a normal person this sounds like a challenge and to me yeah it’s gonna be a challenge, but it’s something I’ve got to do. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years and never could. I was too afraid and in too much pain. More than half of my life I’ve spent fighting my own body. Since I was 12 years old I was diagnosed with Ulcertive Colitis. It’s bowel disorder that causes internal bleeding of my bowels, and general all around unpleasantness. Look it up for a scientific description, but my description is “it kinda sucks.” But I’ve dealt with it for 13 years, and it’s continued to be a literal pain in my side, but what pain does is give way for strength. You can’t overcome without suffering. Only in a challenge can real strength be found. I find that new things come to those who overcome! So I’m planning to show that I have the strength and run a marathon.
I’ve been a distance runner for a long time. I did cross country back in high school, but I have only off/on been running over the past 6 years since. Life has been busy, but good. For those who don’t know I’m a fitness instructor, and that does work well to keep me in great shape. When it comes to running a marathon and having 3 months to train I’m game! Though after running 10 miles this morning and my legs are crammed and painful I’m reconsidering (not really, it’s part of the fun). It’s gonna take some work getting me to 26.2 miles, but I’m not giving up because it will be hard. I’ve shied away from things like this before cause of my UC, and the pain it causes me, but I’ve been mostly symptom free for a full year, and I want to prove not just to myself that I can do this, but to inspire others who might be suffering as well not just from UC, but maybe just to get up off the couch.
I am physically fit, but it didn’t happen over night (I admit some beneficial genetic blessings too, but still). I teach cardio classes on average 6 times a week. I’m pretty much all lean muscles mass. So most people look at me, and think I’m such a picture of perfect heal (or they think I don’t eat enough), but they’d be wrong (on both accounts). I do try really hard to eat healthy and live healthy, but my UC still causes me trouble. Every day is a battle. Every day just getting out of bed can be a fight when my bowels feel like they’ve been twisted into a triple knot. Over this past year after my last bad flare of UC I decided I had to do something about it. Like really do something.
I’ve developed cleaner eating habits. I’ve taken to make sure I’m clean and washed. And I’ve put more effort into being disciplined. Disciplined in my faith, discipline into my routines, discipline in the tidiness of my apartment. When I can keep a certain order in my chaotic life is goes a long way to keeping me destressed and healthy. I’ve really been inspired by William Wilberforce who lived like me with Colitis (if not Ulcerative Colitis exactly a form of it). Here we have a man who gave the majority of his life for changing the world. He suffered the same pain like I do so why can’t I do the same. He worked so hard to be a good and Godly man. He is my hero. He is a rolemodel to me, and I want just to be a fraction of the man he was, not just his disorder, but his discipline to the cause. I want to be a rolemodel like him, and inspire others to become disciplined, and not be afraid to act.
I’ve been afraid so long. I’ve been afraid to lose. I’ve been afraid to die. With UC one bad week can mean I’m bed ridden for months of suffering. Too much stress. Too much stimulation even can cause it. And there are times in that suffering I have just wanted to die. I spent time asking God why he did this to me. Why must I suffer this affliction, and if he has a plan for me to do something big why do I suffer so much pain? He’s only ever answered my questions with challenges, but he’s made me stronger, and proven that someone who suffers as I can still make a different in the world. Teaching fitness classes is more or less a miraculous act for somebody like me. So running a marathon will be the first of things to come I hope. I want to change the world, not just in fitness, but to be unafraid. To speak up.
I’m not loud. I was shy and quiet. Now I’ve learned to make noise. Now I want to learn to make noises people will hear. If I can change one life by doing this that is enough. I have like Wilberforce given my service to my Lord. I want to give back all I can for what he has done for me. That is why I’m not just running a marathon, but I’m making a deal out of it. I will use what I’ve been given, my talents and my suffering together to inspire others. I can also prove to myself that I can do this. I am not limited by a condition, but I am empowered by it! I am made stronger every day by something that would try to have me killed. I hope everyone gets the message I’m trying to speak. I hope everybody can start to understand, and be inspired no matter what the challenges you face. I find faith that nothing is beyond my God, and I find faith that he has equipped me to handle it. So I go forth unafraid. In pain? Yes (cause pain is part of the game), but to conquer the fear and the pain that is a victory!
If you’ve miss the video. Catch it above! I’ll be doing more videos and blogs as my training continues. Thank you all for watching and reading! Now go do something awesome! Be awesome!
-Dan
Event video I shot and edited from the 80’s Dance Party fundraiser event for Gold’s Gym Tri-Cities.
Come join me and our awesome team for the Les Mills Launch Weekend this Saturday in Kennewick! Below you can also find the Richland schedule! Both of these fliers designed and built by yours truly.
I also put together the Dance Party flier and video (check out below) for the Friday night event (I am likely not going to be dancing fyi, trust me it’s for your benefit). If you live in the Tri-Cities area you should come and support the cause though Friday night. Find out more at the Gold’s Gym website.
A video I did of the speech and footage from the 2014 Gold’s Gym Tri-Cities 12 Week Challenge Winner’s Ceremony.
Gold’s Gym volunteered there time to help out with the race. I went along to help out and put together a video for the event! The energy was so contagious! The colors so bright in the black lights! This video gives a good idea of what it was like, but I guarantee you had to be there!
Find a Neon Vibe run in your area!
Also check out the Gold’s Gym YouTube for more videos.
Videos I put together for Gold’s Gym Tri-Cities and the Firefighter Stairclimb event that was held in our gym. You can read my experience participating in this event if you’d like in a previous post and here you can watch the videos for the event.
Videos I filmed and edited in support of Gold’s Gym Tri-Cities’ personal trainer Mike Hoard in his battle with leukemia! A good friend of mine who I’ve been praying for every day. These videos were made after these two events in support of him. We love you Mike!
Dance Party Fundraiser for Mike
Silent Auction Fundraiser for Mike
Here I am at the point of no return. I’ve come so far. I can’t go back now. I’m on the edge to new uncharted frontiers. What lays ahead is uncertain, but I know it must be great. Not to say it wouldn’t be easy to go back, the choice to turn tail and retreat back to the familiar is still an option, but since when did I choose the easy way. I am not the type of man who looks back (stubborn and proud? Yes… just a lot) and I made a choice long ago that I would press on, so that’s what I’m doing. I made a commitment to God that I would do his will, and that I would follow him. I am taking the initiative and setting the pieces in motion so I can’t look back, I must press forward. The time of for greatness is a stones throw away.
Since the initial choice for all the wrong reasons and a hundred recommitments I can’t go back now. I made this choice to serve God, and it’s not been easy. Fact is it’s brought upon me the hardest choices I’ve ever made. Every day a new obstacle, but every day I rise up, or I stumble momentarily to rise again. Sometimes it feels like two steps forwards and one step back, or I prefer the imagery of one giant leap up a down escalator. It’s kind of hard to gain ground when the ground is moving backwards, but I am trying. Course I am the type of person who would book it up a down escalator, cause why not. It’s a show of challenge conquered, maybe a lame example of challenge conquered, but it’s definitely not the easy way to get to the next level. I can’t help myself in the face of challenges. I step myself right into them knowing perfectly well what I’m doing. I will take the opportunities to get myself into situations that are complete madness just so I can sort myself out of it, cause it makes me stronger. It give me perspective. It breaks me of my usual for something new.
Foolish maybe and I work hard to minimize my foolishness (mostly), but without a challenge, without the stepping forward and falling back I would remain forever at a stand still. I like challenge, yet I dislike the pain of it. I love to overcome, but hate to fail. Unfortunately as I was taught, and have learned through experience the rule to success is fail often to succeed sooner. I may fail many times, but I’m gonna try try try till I succeed. Not to be said that there aren’t foolish endeavors. We all can get stuck on an idea or a quest of our own creation that we chalk up to be so important (I’m number one here frequently), and without reason we pick up our swords at the challenge of a gunslinger. Good luck beating that gunslinger with that sword (have you seen Raiders of the Lost Ark? Doesn’t go so well…) If it’s not of God then of course failure is gonna happen no matter how much we put into it. If it’s not part of my calling then I shouldn’t be trying so hard at something that will inevitably fail. So maybe it’s hard to know the difference. That is where I feel the rule of discernment becomes key, but discernment (and that so called “gut feeling”) topic I’d like to discuss another time.
I look ahead at the path I’m on, and yes I’ve thrown caution to the wind and jumped from the airplane once again. I can’t turn back now, there is no gravity reversals or return ropes to the airplane. The things I have set in motion can’t stop till I touch down. It’s time for me to step up, and start doing what I’ve been talking about for years. It’s time to begin the effort that God has called me to, and move as quick or slow as God desires. In the effort to change the world it’s on his timeline, not mine. What he has laid on my heart is the need to inspire a generation. To change the hearts, and minds of those who would rather be lazy or allow their moral compass to go wrong.
God has called me to be a leader so I am taking the given opportunity to lead a Christian men’s media team. I was gung-ho long ago to do this, but the Godly man and the good leader in me wasn’t ready. What God has set in motion in me is a preparation to serve him and not myself, and to lead in the area I am not only talented, but passionate about. To take men and build them up as a team ready to inspire a new generation with me. God has trained me in the ways I need to lead these brothers, he has given me the skills in which I can help them develop and continue to develop myself with them. He has given me natural talents and patience I will certainly need. Most of all he has opened the doors of opportunity for me to create these men I want with me to change the world, even if they don’t know it yet. The men I’ve chosen for this group are those who I know share the passion as me to be creative and who love God. Together we will bring a different voice to a world that only hears the voices of evil. Together we can preach through our talents and if we change one heart that is enough, but I believe God has chosen us to spread his message to the world.
The things about to happen will reshape the way we view society and they must. No more compromise or lack of values. We must give our best. This is the message I want my brothers to know. We are not a new voice, but one that is very old, we are the surround sound and booming bass for the voice of God. This is what I stand for, and I want others to know that I will never walk away from this path. I will never sell my soul for a few pretty pennies, but I will follow the calling no matter the cost. No matter the outcomes today or tomorrow. I made a choice to serve God, and he has given me a dream to change the world!
Luke 9:62 says “No one who puts his hands to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” So I shall not look back at what was or could have been, but take hold of my calling and serve the kingdom of God with all my passion to see the dreams I’ve been given made reality!
-Dan