Follow-up interview with Joe

Joe of “Joe Still Runs for Dom” fame, has completed the two marathons he set out to run.  He’s been busy raising money and awareness for his dear friend Dom and Dom’s family.  The goal was to raise $26,200; a thousand dollars for each of the 26.2 miles he would run.  The fundraising was so successful that as of today, the dollar amount is at $27,000.  Wow!

A few months ago I interviewed Joe for this blog (check out the first interview if you’re new here), and a few people in the bloggy-world published the interview on their blogs as well.  Now that Boston and the Pittsburgh marathon are over, Joe has his sights set on some new goals, one of which is to learn how to be a Daddy!  He and his wife, Dawn, are expecting a baby girl at the beginning of September.

Joe’s journey from deciding to run two marathons in 13 days for his friend, writing about his training, finding out he’s going to be a Dad, and running the marathons has been a journey that a lot of people have been following.  I spoke with Joe last week to catch up with him and see where he finds himself in the grand scheme of life.  We started out talking about babies and families…

“Lara: When is the baby due? How’s Dawn doing with all of your running?

Joe: Baby is coming on September 2nd or thereabouts – I’m counting on Dawn to keep me out of trouble as I learn the ropes – going to be a lot of fun making a ton of new mistakes and learning from them.  She is doing awesome Lara – she’s just over 5 months at this point, made it to both marathons, handled “ground support” at both and is feeling great. It’s about to get hot here in TX though, so I think the countdown is on to when she starts feeling uncomfortable.

Lara: You have a Mile race coming up soon.  How’s it going?

Joe: I’m really excited for the next two races- the Congress Avenue Mile is May 22 – so I’ve been pushing pace and running around 7:00′s this week, will try to run some 6:45′s next week and then see what we can do for the timed mile.  I have absolutely no idea.  5:25? Who knows?  After that I have an age-group title to defend in June at a small 5K in Holland, TX so I’ll be doing a lot of “speed work” these next couple months and dialing back on my long runs – which is good timing with summer coming to Texas.

Lara: Your goal times are incredible too.  For your marathon you wanted to keep an average pace of 7:20’s and now you want to pull off a 5-minute-mile.  Runners have an innate ability to be so versatile for different distances.

Joe: It’s been really amazing how well I recovered after Pittsburgh.  I was much less sore than Boston – those damn Newton Hills really tore me up – but I think another thing that helped was getting a sports massage the day before the Pittsburgh marathon.  I’ve never done that before.  The therapist really stretched my legs and hips hard; I was actually a little nervous about all that stretching, but I think it helped my legs rebound quickly after the race.  I ran four days later and a few days later did 6 miles at a 7:08 pace as though I had never raced the week before… absolutely amazing.

Lara: That’s quite a recommendation for proactive treatment.  Have you been working with a sports therapist at all during your training?  What made you decide to get in there and see someone, and try a new technique that might (or might not) help your performance?

Joe: I really have not used massage for anything but getting “loosened up” after a marathon to help the healing process.  But with the short turnaround between Boston and Pittsburgh I just went with my gut and figured I would give it a try.  The massage therapist at Verve in Pittsburgh works with the local sports teams (Pirates, Steelers and Penguins) and really understood where I was tight and why.  She spent about 30 minutes up on the table really stretching me with all her weight and then the final 30 minutes just loosening my muscles overall.  I felt awesome leaving there and really felt great until mile 13 of the Pittsburgh race – that was when my hip soreness and quad soreness from Boston came back on me.  I was grateful that I was virtually half-way through Marathon #2 before any of that soreness returned.

Lara: I read your Pittsburgh race report and had that sinking feeling of wondering when you were going to hit the wall.  From the sounds of it you thought the same thing.  I was surprised, honestly, that you didn’t have any pain or muscle tightness until mile 12!

Joe: I really thought I would feel it around the 10K to 8-mile mark, but I really felt strong and ran strong to the half-way point.  I was so relieved, as I thought it would be a full 20-mile gut-check kind of day.  But obviously all the training miles really helped as well as the cross training on the tri-bike and strength training.  But once I hit the uphill climb from miles 12-15 and my not-yet-recovered leg muscles got put under strain, they started barking pretty loudly.  In a way I enjoyed it – even though that sounds crazy – it was supposed to get hard…

Lara: You were mentally prepared for both of these races.  I loved the part in your race report when you said that you woke up Sunday morning and realized that you had slept easily through the entire night.  Sleep is a pretty good indicator of stress, or pressure that we put on ourselves.  Funny that people love to race, but it gives so many people such a pile of nerves.  You didn’t have that this time.

Joe: I was SHOCKED, Lara, about my sleep before the race.  I think part of it was seeing Dom and Val at dinner with the family and just getting a chance to really drink it all in.  It took all the pressure off of me knowing that all anybody expected was for me to do my best on Sunday – whatever that meant.  I felt like I was playing with house money on Sunday and that whatever I could do, would be good enough in the eyes of everyone I cared about.  So, I hit the pillow and slept like a baby.  I hope I can always feel like that before a race in the future.  With rested legs there is no telling how well I could have run.

Lara: “Playing with house money…” I like that.  You finally realized that whatever YOU did would be good enough.  And that was enough to let you rest peacefully.

Joe: Exactly – that was a tough course on Sunday as well – the winner in 2010 was almost 10 minutes slower than the winner in 2009.  I realistically was going to finish in 3:32 or so before I started “sheparding” runners to the finish.  At one point I stood for 4 minutes getting that charley horse worked out of my left calf – I think I did pretty well finishing in 3:42 only 13 days after Boston – so I was really pleased with the race.

Lara: As you should be. I’m wondering what your Mile race training plan is going to look like?  A sprint is a ton different than a marathon.  How are you going to transition into your fast-twitch muscles?

Joe: Great question, Lara.  I really wish I had an extra week because last week I just focused on getting the remaining soreness out of my legs and feeling 100%.  So this week I’m running some intervals on the track on Thursday and again on Saturday.  4X400′s 4 times with a 2.5 mile warm-up running to the track and a 2.5 mile cool down running home.  Really easy on the way there and back.  Tomorrow I’m doing my typical Wednesday 6 miler at 7:00 pace.  Next week, which is race week I’m going to run intervals on Tuesday and Thursday with just a short shake-out 2-3 mile run on Friday.  Race is Saturday.  I think if I had just one more week I could have done some more interval work and really gotten ready to roll.  The only other thing I’m going to do is this Sunday I’m going to go for an 8-mile fartlek to just run some short, quick paced strides mixed in with some tempo work.  Not an exact science – but the best I can do with only a couple weeks to prepare.  I think I’ll learn a lot and be ready for this race next year.

Lara: That sounds pretty good.  Are you timing it and hitting certain paces, or are you doing this training sans technology?

Joe: I’m “loosely” timing my 400′s as not even my wife would get up early enough to go to the track with me and time me with a stop watch.  I’m trying to see how close I can get to running that 1:20-1:25 range and go from there.  I think race conditions and the slight downhill course can get me going enough to get in that 5:20 range – but honestly – I have no idea.  That’s what makes this such a fun race to be a part of.

Lara: When we spoke a few months ago you talked about having a “reason to run”.  Raising money for Dom and family has been a really compelling motivator for you for quite some time.  Now that the fundraising is finished and you hit your goal, what is going to be your “reason to run”?

Joe: I’ve really learned a lot, Lara, about why this sport is important to me.  When I look back I think I was a pretty selfish runner up until last summer.  I didn’t really invite people to my races with the exception of my wife and family, I didn’t really talk with a lot of runners beforehand, just enough to pass the time.  I wasn’t active in any running clubs or running groups and I pretty much had goals that were individual goals: PR’s, qualifying for Boston, getting stronger, getting faster etc. What I realized was that running, while a great source of peace and solitude where I could disengage from work and find my “therapy”, was something I should be sharing more. I reached out on Twitter, Daily Mile, on various running sites and blogs and quickly found out that there were people out there that wanted to know me.  They wanted to talk with me about running and/or life and that I was truly part of a community.  The more I gave, the more I received – that’s how you and I met.  So in addition to raising awareness about Dom and making a difference in his and his family’s life – I helped other runners reach their goals.  So, I’d like to continue to do that.  We have such an amazing sport – filled with amazing people – doing amazing things.  We’re all very passionate about the things that are important to us.  I realize now that I want to surround myself with those kinds of people as much as possible.  When I find a cause that I am passionate about, I’m going to go all in and try to make a difference.  In my downtime from racing and becoming a new Dad I’m going to hopefully help new runners discover our sport, or veteran runners reach their goals.  Boston was a perfect example for me in celebrating running.  It was a goal I chased for over a year and it was absolutely incredible.  Anyone who has that on their list of goals is someone who should chase it down.  If I can help that process and I don’t?  Shame on me, because I know better.

Lara: I can just imagine you in 12 years or so, coaching your daughter’s track team or helping at-risk kids find a better way to blow off steam and learn healthy coping habits.  Reaching out to others is something you’re very good at; this isn’t going to be a stretch for you at all.  Compassion makes the world go round.

Joe: I hope so Lara – that would be such a great thing to do.  I’ve been really lucky and blessed to find something that I am passionate about and love doing relatively late in my “active years”.  It’s all about paying it forward that is for sure. 

Lara: How’s Dom doing, as of now?  How’s his family?

Joe: Dom is struggling a bit right now, both physically and mentally.  A few weeks before Pittsburgh, he had to go back into the hospital with an unexplained blockage.  He was having trouble with bowel movements – (who could have imagined THAT as he tried to make the adjustment back to solid food with no stomach, spleen etc.) – this led to a procedure to remove a blockage and a temporary and reversible colostomy.  When they removed the tissue that was causing the blockage they found that it was scar tissue from his surgery.  That was “normal” so to speak, but after further investigation they actually found microscopic cancer cells in the blockage.  After all of the PET Scans, chemotherapy treatments (6 total) and surgery – that was very unexpected.  The Doctors all feel that this was old cancer cells, not new, and that it is not indicative that the cancer is back or it has spread.  But now we are waiting for Dom to regain his strength before they can prescribe another treatment course that will probably involve more chemotherapy.  This was a pretty big mental blow to him and the family. He is ready to fight and is eager to get back in there for treatment – but at 118 lbs. and still unable to really eat the way he needs to… we’ve got to get him “beefed” up a bit before he can step back in the ring again to fight.  He’s really amazing Lara – absolutely the bravest man I’ve ever known.

Lara: How’s he going to get beefed up if he can’t eat the nutrients he needs?  How does that work?

Joe: He’s back on the feeding tube for close to 8 hours every day – that really just gets him to the base-line 2,000 calories a day liquid diet.  The struggle is where he then tries to eat solid food on top of that, like oatmeal, soup etc.  When we were at the pre-race pasta dinner for the Pittsburgh Marathon there were plates of pasta, veal parmesan and fresh bread everywhere.  I was sitting near Dom and watched him fight down 1/4 of a bowl of homemade chicken soup.  It is so sad to watch as you can see him reconciling the fact that he knows that he needs to eat, but his body just won’t let him.  There is nothing I wouldn’t do to help him get over that issue and gain the strength he needs to keep going.  I tease him that he needs a “training calendar” to put on his fridge like I have that says, Monday – 10 bites of jello, Tuesday – 8 spoons of Oatmeal, Wednesday – 12 bites Cream of Wheat and just keep building on it from there.  Just like Marathon Training, before you know it you’re up to 30 bites of jello, 25 spoons of Oatmeal and 36 bites of Cream of Wheat.

Lara:  Could it really work like that?  Can a person train their body to accept food, like an athlete trains their body to endure harder work?

Joe: I’m smart enough to know one thing Lara – and that is I don’t know much about anything.  But to me it seems like exactly the way to go here.  He’s asking his body to create a new way of dealing with food.  He has to recruit other parts of his system to form a new stomach and process nutrition.  The human body is an amazing thing, and when you start placing it under pressure, it changes and adapts.  That’s how our runner-bodies adapt and improve.  I think there is something there, but even if I’m wrong, I think having goals to wake up to every day that helps you move closer to your long-term goal is a powerful tool.  If our training plan had 18 weeks of blank squares and the final square said – run 26.2 miles, I don’t think too many of us would even show up on race day, let along finish.

Lara: It really helps to have a support network of people around you.  That’s what it comes down to, doesn’t it?  You ran Pittsburgh and slept like a baby because you innately knew that you were loved and protected.  Dom keeps fighting because he knows, in the same way, that there are all these people propping him up.  It’s less of a fight when you’re not going it alone.

Joe: You are so right regarding the support network.  It’s amazing the amount of love that has been showered on the D’Eramo’s – it is making a huge difference to keep that family going.  It’s hard to even think about where they would be without everyone in their lives that care so much about them.

Lara: I was looking over our last interview and you were talking about “Maniac” being on your playlist.  Are you sick and tired of that song, or does the playlist still speak to you?  What are you listening to now (when you’re not running naked, of course)!

Joe: “Maniac” has been on my playlist a lot and makes me smile.  I’ve actually been running w/out music almost every other run since Pittsburgh, as part of my new “naked running” initiative.  It’s been really great.

Lara: In reflecting on this whole process, what would you say has been the most memorable, more important lesson you’ve learned?

Joe: I think that regardless of how successful the actual fundraising portion of Run for Dom was or wasn’t – it was truly successful because we saw an opportunity to make a difference and went for it.  We were never afraid to ask for help, never too proud to accept a lending hand and hopefully make a lasting impression on those that we came in contact with.  I’ve received so many notes, letters, messages and calls from people who I had never met before or who I have known since I was a little boy telling me how proud they were of me and for me.  I really never felt like I was doing anything that “substantial” – I just had a friend that needed help and I tried my best to help him any way that I could.  At the end of the day I was hoping that I would look back on May 2nd and feel like it was enough.  Nine months ago, I never dreamed that it would have been so successful and that it would have changed the way that I looked at things so dramatically.”

Nine months… that magical gestation period where human life is created.  He’s re-created his life in working hard for someone else’s.

Joe’s going to keep running, and Dom’s going to keep fighting cancer.  Please check in on them periodically and see how it’s all going.

Cheers!

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