run, fat boy, run a.k.a. the story of derek

Semi-recently we dialed up Run, Fat Boy, Run from Netflix after seeing a preview for it on another movie from Netflix. We are very much the Netflix family now, especially after little Lauren was born and our "going out to dinner nearly every night" lifestyle changed to be more of a "lucky to eat dinner nearly every night" lifestyle. Those of you with a child understand this. And those of you with more than one, or twins (!) well, my hat is off to you. I have no idea how you do it. Anyway...

So out of five stars I would give the movie four. It should probably really only be a three star movie, but the basic premise hits very close to home for me. (And to be clear, it's the running premise I'm talking about, not the leaving a pregnant fiancee at the altar part) The movie in a nutshell is that a chubby dude is trying to get his lady friend back by training for a marathon to show up her new, smarmy runner boyfriend. He (chubs) of course, is the epitome of health in that he drinks a lot, smokes a lot, sleeps a lot, etc. I won't ruin the ending for you (he gets her back) but here's how this hits home for me....I have started running on a fairly regular basis also training for runs. Not marathons, but still. The reasons for this are threefold:

1. To appease my lovely wife by getting my heart rate up a couple times a week, which she helpfully suggested I do, so I can be around for a long time and remain to be in my peak level of hotness. Okay, I made the last part of the sentence up but I'm guessing something about physical appearance has crept into her mind when she encourages me to run.
   
2. To shed a couple pounds. I believe it was shortly after our wedding where I hit my all-time high of 170(ish) pounds. This is a large number for me since my standard weight was between 150-155 for a long, long time. (thank you very much aging body with a slowing metabolism. now I know what happened to Rosanne Barr, John Candy and the like)
   
3. For my health. Also around the time I got married it was discovered that my cholesterol was a whopping 340 which means I was basically a walking heart attack smothered in a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. It was suggested that I start exercising more and eating better to see if I could lower it, which I did, to what I thought was a fantastic number of 240 (ish) but apparently the doctors felt differently as now I am on medication for it which has a side effect of ruining my liver but hey, at least I would die with great looking LDL levels!

Notice that nowhere in my 3 reasons listed above do you see the words "because I like it." I don't. Not much at all. I like that I'm getting healthier. I like that I've dropped some mass. But that's about it. I don't like the running. Believe me when I say that my desire to improve my running times is only a result of my desire to get the run over with. It's not to brag that I am getting faster, oh no, it's to just be done with it quicker than the previous time I went for a run.

So why do I do it? Why don't I bike or play racquetball or something like that to get some exercise? Well it all comes back to what's most important, my lovely little family. Kirsten is a life-long runner (and an excellent one at that) so this not only makes her happy that I'm working out, but it also gives us another thing that we can do together which is great.

This past weekend we went up to Green Bay and ran the Bellin Run. It was my first time not only running the Bellin, but also running a 10k. I know, this is not a marathon or anything, but for me it was tough and a great accomplishment. I still remember the first couple times going to the gym where I could barely run 1 mile. I also remember the day I ran 2.75 miles (not sure why, it just sticks in my head) thinking that I was superman. And now, I ran a 6 mile race! Feels great and as the picture (below) shows, it was a great family day. Kirsten pushed Lauren in "the B.O.B." (pictured, left) and finished I believe as the first mommy/stoller runner which is awesome. There were a couple guys ahead of her, but no ladies, so she was incredible and I was in awe of her as I usually am when it comes to running. As for me, I finished 2 minutes over my goal of one hour and 3 minutes behind Kirsten (and the stroller) which yes, is a little humiliating, but it's all worthwhile when we can pose for a picture after completing something hard together as a family.

(have a great weekend)

ups and downs

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

This past weekend Kirsten and I headed up to Green Bay for multiple, yet equally important, reasons. First, we participated in an American Cancer Society Run/Walk. My sister Gina, her husband Chris and myself all ran the two mile portion while my part deer yet beautiful wife ran the five mile. As for the two mile group, we were happy to finish while Kirsten, like the Irish Fest run, finished first in her age group. Overachiever. We were running as part of Team B.S. organized by a neighbor of my sister's and I believe overall we raised $1,300+ so hooray for us. Good feeling.

Saturday evening was the annual De Groot family chicken booyah cookout where my parents spend three days (!) preparing and cooking delicious chicken booyah. After the initial whining by my Dad that no one would show up, the neighboring um, neighbors came over in swarms and all was right in the world.

Sunday was the day of ups and downs. I awoke from a nestled sleep under a pile of blankets. A large pile because my parents do not believe in turning on the heat in the house prior to November 1 and even then, it's negotiable. Anyway, we had four tickets to the Packers game so my Dad, myself and my 2 sisters donned the gear and headed out. It was nice to see a victory, as ugly and poorly officiated as it was, especially after being there a week prior and witnessing the Bears loss. Brutal. So good times, beer and even coffee were had. Go Pack..5-1 heading into the bye. I don't think anyone would have predicted that. Ups...

...and Downs. Sunday evening our family needed to attend the visitation for my Uncle John, who passed away recently. Another sad day for our family and particularly my Dad who has now lost 2 brothers in the past 18 months. Very emotional as all types of situations tend to be. Good Bye Uncle John, you'll be missed.

a roughing it weekend, sad reminder

This past weekend was my father-in-law's 50th birthday get together. Being that he's an avid outdoorsman, we packed up the Jeep on Saturday and headed north to the small, unincorporated town of Babcock, WI to spend the night at a nice little cabin on forty acres of land that Kirsten's aunt and uncle own.

Ten people, one one-room cabin, no running water, no electricity. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me but the sun shown down for a very pleasant weekend of laughs, campfires, some drinks and some good old fashion family bonding. We had a really good time and contrary to what we were expecting, not much drama. Hard to argue with fresh air and temperatures reaching near 60 and a father-in-law intent on making sure everyone had a good time.

Thanks again if you're reading this!

The birthday boy took most of us to the field where I, Derek, the city boy, got to shoot some guns for the first time in my life (other than my CO2 pellet gun). I was definitely apprehensive about it, but it was quite fun, especially having a little shooting contest with the rifle that had the scope. The handguns were another story. Even though those are what I was most looking forward to trying out, they were much louder and quite a bit harder control than I had forseen.

I wouldn't think that they would have been that tough to shoot given that they were "only" a .22 caliber handgun which leads us to...

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... a sad day on the Virgina Tech campus and across the country this week as a student there carrying a few guns, one of which being a .22 caliber handgun I just mentioned shot a lot people for reasons unknown at this point. Terrible tragedy that has changed the lives, and in some cases ended, of many people. Watching the video that some students took of the shooting, you could hear the guns being shot and I was immediately remembering what it was like to shoot that .22 handgun just two days ago. Hard to believe that the damage I was doing to soda cans was being done to people. Very sad and disturbing.

My thoughts and prayers to the families of everyone involved.