Here is another essay I had to do for english. This one isn't as well written. The third one I post is much better than both of them.

A Life Changing Experience
Saturday has came, but not without pain. It is The Finger Lakes League Championships. Our track team is traveling to Marion Senior High School for the competition. We want to win, more than anything. We want to show that we are tough, strong, and won’t back down. As some are racing later in the day, they sit around in the shade patiently waiting. Others, racing within the next hour, are jogging, stretching and getting last minute advice from their coaches. Sitting and waiting; or jogging and stretching. It is one or the other for everyone, excluding me. As I stare out at the track wondering what I am getting myself into, a shiver travels down my spine. I am racing the 3,000 meter steeplechase, the 1600 meter run, the 3200 meter run, and the 4X800 meter relay. I know today I have to perform well. I vow not to add this to my list of failures. It will be five and one half miles of racing in just a few short hours. And no one has won them all. From any school. Ever. So what am I getting myself into?
If this painful attempt is successful, it will be epic. Everyone will remember this and talk about it. I can picture it now; when a coach says “Back in 2009 this runner from Geneva…” In contrast this has potential to blow up in my face and be a complete failure if I am not smart about it.
It is time to warm up for the first race: the 3,000 meter steeplechase. It will be almost two miles of barriers and water pits to clear. I jog two miles for a warm up and start to stretch. Training has been very intense lately in preparation for this meet, so the stretching feels good. “3,000 meter steeplechase runners: five minutes to start” I hear over the loud speaker and start to feel nervous. This all starts in five minutes, then, there is no going back. I head over to the start and practice jumping over a few barriers. I feel fast, strong and flawless as I roar past the barriers. The other runners watch. As I finish and do some last minute stretching, I watch the other runners circle, whisper and dart eyes at me. I don’t know exactly what they are saying, but I usually have an idea. They all know me. During the fall I won the Cross Country Finger Lakes League Championships. I am seeded first in this race by nearly 20 seconds with my school record breaking 10:40 I ran three weeks ago. As we get on the starting line, everyone wishes each other good luck. Some athletes make a few, half joking comments about me taking it easy on them. The gun sounds and we take off. I know my plan. It is my plan for the next few races today. I tuck myself right into second place and the pace is slow, which, I am glad about. Everyone expected me to lead. A runner from Wayne is leading and looking back giving me unsure looks. I don’t give him any reassurance to what is happening. We cross for the 7th time and the pace is still pedestrian. With 400 meters to go I fly out into the second lane to pass. We have averaged 88 second laps for the first 6.5. Then, I run the last lap in 67 seconds, to beat my personal best by one second. After shaking hands with the other runners’, I take off my racing shoes and go talk to Coach. “One down brotha” he says to me. I smile and put on my training shoes to go for an easy mile cool down run. It feels like by the time my legs are cooled down, it is time to get ready again. I’ve already run five miles.
The 1600 meter is next and I do a mile warm up for this race. This race is going to be more competitive than the 3,000 meter steeplechase. As we approach the starting line, I have a fear of losing. I still have the fastest time in the field. That makes me feel, or at least be able to act confident, and pull it off. The race starts, and again it is pedestrian. We come through the 400 in a slow sixty nine seconds. The second lap is seventy seconds. With 500 meters to go people start going into the outer lanes to pass. Though it is earlier than expected, I know it is time. I run the last lap is sixty five seconds (4:20 mile pace). When I am done I feel tired. I cool down one mile and have now run eight miles, three of which have been raced. My legs are getting tired. I only have a one hour break until the 3200 meter.
I lay in the shade and drink some water. This race is even more competitive. With Brandon Cowels from Newark in the field, I know it will be tough. I see him stretching. He looks fresh. As I walk over with a friendly smile, he looks up from his stretching and grins. I make small talk as usual, asking how he is feeling. He says he feels great. “Well that’s good,” I say aloud while the thought of “he hasn’t raced yet and feels great” flashes quickly through my head. As we finish our chat, I notice how hungry I am. It is 2:00 PM and I haven’t eaten since 7:00 AM. I cannot eat. If I do, cramps will follow and with that: failure. I warm up, again, with a mile and some stretching. It almost feels counter productive to keep running when I have to race so much. I know it will help though. I am hoping the race starts off slow again. “Runners to your mark…set...” BAM! The gun sounds. We take off and the same kid who led the first few laps of the mile is angry and wants me to hurt. We blister through the first lap under seventy seconds, the same pace we ran the first lap of the mile in. The pace slows to seventy five second laps, but to me it feels faster. On the fifth and sixth laps, I can feel the other races. My legs hurt badly. They are tired and sluggish. What normally would be a cruise to run seventy five second quarters is a strain. I know I can hang tough, but I’m worried when I go to kick my legs will not respond. With 800 meters to go Brandon takes control. I don’t want to go with him; actually, I want to stop. I know quitting isn’t an option and, if I do, I won’t be able to sleep. I go with him. With 400 I crank it again. It hurts, but surprisingly to me, my legs still respond very well. My legs are controlled by my mind. My mind is a tyrant to my legs. My legs are only followers. Yet my mind is controlled by others. They have no idea how much they effect me. By Brandon running in front of me, he has triggered a whole chain of reactions. With 200 to go I get even faster. I know I have it won. As I cross the finish line with my third League Championship, I put my arms up in salute to the Goddess of victory. A little teary, I know I’ve done something no one else has accomplished in the Finger Lakes. I stumble to the fence for something to hold on to. I quickly take in some water but it isn’t enough. Having now run 11 miles and only eaten a bagel and apple juice in the last 20 hours. I feel light headed. I get some juice and dilute it with water. The sugar helps me regain posture. I shake hands with Brandon and we go for a mile cool down together. As we jog, my entire body hurts. Only one race to go.
The 4X800 meter relay is the last race for me and the last race of the day. My brother Ethan, my teammates Adam and Colby, and I are running it. When we come back from our mile jog to warm up, the men’s open 800 is underway. Aaron Hoven from Midlakes wins in 1:57. That is one second faster than my best. He is also the anchor leg for the Midlakes 4X800 relay. Our feelings for each other: identical. Now, both being League Champions, we know we are both good. He being speed based in his training and me being strength based, it could be anyone’s race. The four of us huddle moments before the start. I ask only one thing: “Please don’t give me the baton next to Aaron. I don’t want to have a sprint off with him.” Ethan goes first. He hands the baton off in first place. After Adam and Colby run, I get the baton in second, only a few meters behind Aaron. “The one thing I ask” I say internally as I start to chase him. I catch him 300 meters into the race. I run behind him around the turn until the straight away. I go into the second lane to pass him and, as if to mock me, we get into a sprint off. It hurts badly. It feels like battery acid is pumping through my legs. I win the sprint off and now, feeling like my body is shutting down, I still have 400 meters to go. We cross 400 in sixty one seconds (4:04 mile pace). I doubt I can win another sprint off with him. I know in order for me to win I have to do something drastic and do it now. I start to accelerate and look back to find him right next to me. “Go now. Go now,” I hear as we round the first turn. I slam my legs into an all out sprint. I am running wide open. “If he goes by me there is nothing I can do.”, I say to myself. “This is as fast as I can go.” “Come on Brian” Coach Pitifer yells in his overpowering deep voice. I cross the line in 2:02 (still 4:04 mile pace). I lay down in exhaustion.
Four League titles in a matter of an afternoon. That ever forbearing question of Why? Why do this? Why put your body thorough this pain? It is starting to get answered. Our team is the League Champions. I am a League Champion. It hurt. A lot. When I wake up in the morning I know I will be proud of what I did. The kids who didn’t torture there bodies, well, they will have a few sleepless nights. I have a list of my failures above my bed that I read every night before I go to sleep. I vowed not to add today to that list. I didn’t. I go home and fall asleep. When I wake up and can’t walk, I smile and laugh in an obnoxious, nervous way as I fall back into my bed, still smiling.

Running
SO training has been great! At U of R (worst track on the planet) I ran 9:50 for 3200 which was a seasons best effort. It won by about 30 seconds. My twin brother Ethan won his race and was on the news! It was pretty cool. Anyhow, so I did my long run on Saturday. I did the first 8 miles w/ Jacob. He is really coming along so well! WE ran again Sunday and he beat his older brother! HE went 6:42/mile for 8 miles! Section V better watch out for Jacob Champlin the next four years!!! So, I ended up going 21.22 miles...my longest long run ever. I love the days when you go out and just feel like you could go for ever....about 2 miles away from home that feeling ended though hahaha. I did my Tempo run last night which also went really well. I have the McMullen Mile coming up at RIT on Saturday. I'm really excited about it and hope I can have a break-through-race. Today will be just an easy run
Life
The Pro-Start Culinary Competition in Albany is in 9 days! That is scary!!! I'm so excited for it. I know we will do well b/c we have put in a ton of work. SO...not to much to say really. I'm going to post another essay I have written later tonight (also about running) since people seemed to enjoy the last one. Well, I have to get going. I hope everyone has a great day!
Remember to be yourself! Whatever people judge you for, WHO CARES! Just be the way God intended you to be and you'll live life to the fullest!
God Bless
-Brian

Making smart choices

On Sunday I took the day off from running. If there is one thing that I know is the order goes: hardwork, rest, improvments. IT is hard, though, to make myself rest. Yesterday I ended up running 3 times; two easy runs and a tempo run. I believe I will be running the 3200 on Friday night. I want to run the 5,000 at Nationals so I have to run a 9:45 or uder, which I definately think I can do with adequate recovery before the race. So today will be another hard run followed by two easy runs wednesday and thursday so I am sure to race well friday.
My friend Matt is back for a few weeks so it was great to see him!
Other than that not much else is new. The Culinary ProStart competition is soo soon and I can;t wait!
When the menu is finalized...tonight most lieky...I will post it so everyone can see what I have been working on so much!

So sorry i havent posted in a while. Life has been crazy!
On wedneday I had to write an English paper on my life metor (I will post it below if anyone wants to ready it...I got a pretty good grade ;) So that took up a nice chunk of my night since i put it off until the last night. I went to Hobart to run and did a nice workout. It was 10X400 at 3K w/ 1 min rec. It went super!
On thursday school was pretty boring. Running wise I did a double easy run to get ready for Fridays race.
On Friday we packed everything we need for the pro start competiton in mock of the real thing!
Fridays race was fun. Mike Tripp and I switched leads every lap which was fun. He beat me in 4:28 and I ran 4:29. I'm happy we both did well :)
Today we went and did everything we will do at the competiton start to finish. It was so much fun and intese. I really think we are ready to rock!!!
As for running I did two regular runs.
I hit 94 miles this week!!! My most ever!!!!

Also, Sectionals is on Ash Wednesday!! I will race with ashes on!
God Bless and be yourself.
-Brian

Here is my essay...
“Running, one might say, is basically an absurd pastime in which to be exhausting ourselves. But, if you can find meaning in the type of running it takes to stay on this team, then chances are you will be able to find meaning in another absurd past time…life.” Once said to me and many times proven true, it changed my life.
I embarked on the pathway of running in seventh grade. I can still flashback to watching my brother Matt run when I was in sixth grade. He was not very pronounced, but still attempted devotion. I would watch and watch and still ask the perplexing question “Why do runners run?”
“Look at Dinan accelerate.” My chest heaving in and out; my bones feel like they are going to crush under the pressure of oxygen and carbon dioxide transfer. “He is so close. 4:16…4:17..” My stride lengthens and my heart pounds as if trying to escape the malevolent body it is trapped in. My legs are in complete oxygen debt. Neuromuscular breakdown happened about a lap ago. “…4:18…4:19” The line is so near. Is it more than .9 seconds away? “FIRE! FIRE,” I shriek internally to my legs. “4:20...4:21…Brian Dinan 4:21.” “NO!” I shout as I awake sweaty and out of breath. My heart pounds. I look around at the other athletes resting in preparation for the State Meet that starts in the morning. Phew, it was only a dream or rather, a nightmare.
Why would my brother be my mentor? I thought brothers were supposed to be someone you fight with? Argue with? Yes, we do that. Countless times. We would likely forget how to walk before we forgot how to disagree. So, wait…why is he my mentor? We have the same feelings as every brother has for another. I am smarter and better at everything, of course. There must be something out of the norm.
“COME ON BRIAN! ALL OUT! MAKE THIS THE HARDEST 400 METERS OF YOUR FUCKING LIFE,” Matt yells at me as the bell clangs in recognition of my final lap. As I stare at the crowd, I know I am finally going to achieve my dream. I look at the clock that reads “3:18” (66/lap). 4:19 has to be under 65 per lap I say internally. Damn it. My stride lengthens in a habitual manner. My arms pump, my chest heaves. The race I have been ambitiously training for six months for and it looks like it will end in disappointment. All the pieces to the puzzle are there, I tell myself. The only piece lingering is the heart to make a dream a reality. “4:19” I say again. As I take over the lead I know I am fast and strong. “Go, go, go,” Matt yells at me. I look into his eyes if only for a moment; then the moment’s gone. This fraction of a second look changes the outcome, perhaps my life. As I look into his eyes I see envy and passion. I see want and need. At times want and need is hard to decipher. As in “Living Like Weasel’s,” it is hard to tell what is want and what is need. I know if he was in my position he would do whatever it takes. So why do I think a 5:20 miler at best would run under 62 seconds right now?
Matthew always had the want to be good. Every day he thought about it and trained for it. It is hard to attempt something over and over and fail. He expected different results. They say doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is a sign of insanity. Was Matt insane? For a 6’3”, broad shouldered, 18 year old, it was insane to think distance running was a good idea. Most people think running for fun is insane and it is. Matt did not run for fun. He deciphered the difference between want and need. He did not want to try, he needed to try. He did not want to race, he needed to. This need for self satisfaction and personal achievement was admirable. It was not about everyone thinking you’re great. It was about him being the best he could become. It was about him going to bed each day knowing today he tried again. It was about need.
“4:16…4:17…” I fly down the home stretch. The competition now seems prehistoric while my arms and legs are firing. They hurt and my body wants to quit, shut down, have a break. “Two more seconds and you can have a break,” I say in my head. Everything hurts. I look to the clock and cannot see it. My mind in a befuddled manner, my eyes in a sightless trance. I cannot hear, cannot think, cannot see. I just continue running. I cross the line and embrace the ground in rapture. When I can see again, I glance at the board. My eyes lock on 4:19.36. “YES!” I say aloud as I look down and see my foot covered in blood. Someone spiked me and tore my foot like plastic in 6 lines, I did not notice. For the first time there was no physical pain, no mental pain, and no pain at all. I was one with myself and one with running. The hardest race of my life and there was no pain. The strange part was that it all made sense to me.
“Well done sir,” Matt says as he shakes my hand with a grin. “Thanks Matty,” I say, “I finally did it.”
My brother has always been my mentor in running. Ever since I started he has encouraged me and motivated me to become the best. Not only in running, but in everything I do in life, he encourages me. He wants be to be successful and enjoy all of the pleasures life has to offer. Matt encourages me to become the best Chef I can become. While my parents are skeptical about my job and culinary school, Matt promotes it. He knows just by my running that I can do anything I set my mind too; all I need is a little encouragement…from him. School is no different. As he picks on me about my grades, I feel ashamed. When I think about it, I know he is trying to say “Hey, I care” in a brotherly manner. When I play music, he tells me it’s cool. When I bought snowshoes to race and train in, he encouraged me. When I bought his racing bike to train on he encouraged me. When I swim, lift, eat healthy, he encourages me. Everything I have ever done in my life, he has encouraged me one way or another. If it was something stupid, he encouraged me to stop. If it was something I was not doing, such as attending church, he encouraged me to re-discover my faith. I cannot think of one single instance in anything I have accomplished that has not stemmed from Matthew’s overpowering encouragement.
My brother has been my mentor and motivator not only during my running career but life as a whole. As I look on my bedroom wall each morning when I awake, I stare at nearly sixty ribbons, thirty medals, twenty-five race t shirts, fifteen plaques, six trophies, three State Meet t-shirts and two State Medals. But, as I do this, I know there will only be one person in my life like Matt. A person to give me hope, courage and love.

Sunday I did two hours in snow shoes! It was awesome! I didn't do much after that really.
Monday school was pretty boring I must say. For my run I did 11 miles @ 6:53/mi...it was a great run! I went to bed at 7:00pm
This morning I woke up at 4:30 b/c of my early bed time the night before. I woke up w/ my kitty Rascal still in my arms. it was so freakin cute lol
I ran 4 miles and lifted.
During school today I had a lot of fun at Culinary arts. My friend Nathan is pretty funny. Back at school we started reading a play which was reallly good. I forget the name though...I'll look it up and say what it was tomorrow. Anyhow then the rest of the classes were fine.
For my run I did my usual Tempo run that went pretty well. I'm excited to race on Friday in the l600...after this week I drop my mileage so I should start running some fast time (mcMullen Mile)
Thats pretty much it. I hope everyones days have been great lately and filled with God's Grace.
Be Yourself!
-Brian Dinan :)

So Friday school day was pretty boring so i don;t really have anything to talk about there. I had a race at Hobart. It was all relays so it was a lot of fun. First I did the two person 3200. It was fun. I didn;t go after a time I was just sitting in second for a lot of it. Once I took over I didnt push too much but I really let them have it in the last lap which I ran is 29 seconds (Colby timed me if you dont believe me) Then, we ran the regressive relay. I ran the 1k which was the first leg. I won handily. Then in the SMR I ran the 800 leg. My friend Brandon and I both got boxed in and got to a slow start (We were in last to get around everyone) going into the last lap we were in 2nd and 3rd by 25 metersish...then when Brandon went by we got into a sprint off. We caught that kid and I beat him by less than .5 seconds probably. If he didnt go I wasnt going either so he helped me a lot! We went for a few mile cooldown outside after which was nice (thnx for the hat)
When I woke up after a nice long sleep today I had a little breakfast and got my hair cut(which i was due for). Then took a nap. Then I went for an hour run through the trails in my snow shoes! It was heaven! I love snow shoeing so much!!!. After than I took another nap hahah. Ethan and kelly woke me up to go to wegmans and we got some stuff to make a delicous dinner. it really was awesome.
So here I am posting to you guys. Thanks to everyone who reads my blog. It is a lot of fun to do.
I'll prob post tomorrow though it isnt going to be anything to excting. Church and long run in showshoes!!
God Bless
-Brian
OOhh and be yourself. Seriously just be who you are and have people like you for that. Not everyone will be your friend but you will make amazing friendships.
My friend Sam has always been herself and I have alwasy been myself and thats our common ground. I didn;t have to change a thing and she loves our friendship(as do I) and I can always be myself around her. Neither of us changed a thing and look at our friendship!!! It's hard to come by true friendship. So be yourself or it will never happen
ooo and shoutout to my wonderful Ex Jessica b/c she always reads this and I miss her :)

Wed + Thurs

So sorry I didn't post yesterday I fell asleep before I got the chance. i can't believe so many ppl read this/ noticed. That is pretty awesome so thanks guys!

Wednesday
School and stuff

Anyhow, on Wednesday we got to do a thing for the 3rd graders. They came and we demonstrated all the different percussion instruments. They thought it was the coolest thing when I demonstrated the drum set. It was so cute! ha ha. I really hope they sign up for band...it would be ashame to see the music program stop. MUSIC IS FUN!
They I went up and we practiced for our ProStart competition. I think we learned a lot and know what we need to work on. We are practicing again tomorrow.

Running

For my running on Wednesday I did four miles in the morning with some lifting. It went well. In the PM I did 3 miles of running followed by 20X30 seconds of uphill running on the treadmill. Then another 4 miles. That also went well.

Thursday School and stuff

Today was kind of boring. We had culinary then I had Economics and band.
After school I did my Easy run in the weight room which I wanted to do while I waited for a teacher and I got two Gym credits for it b/c my teacher was there!! Go me! Then I met w/ Mr. Chimera so he could help me write the menu for the competition for Pro Start in French. It is going to be awesome! When I got home I have been asleep until now so that's all I got. I'm racing tomorrow. The 3200 1000 and 800!

Running
Today was just a double Easy run to be ready to race tomorrow. I did 4 miles in the morning and 6 in the afternoon. Tomorrow at the Relays I'm doing the two person 3200 with Ethan. Then, I am doing the 1,000 leg of the regressive relay then the 800 of the SMR

Life

I'm liking the feedback from everyone about this...so thanks...it will keep me posting.
From now on I'll Label one part "School etc." and one "Running" so those of you who just want to follow my training can do that easier...

School etc
I don't think people understand that if you read what you are told to read then in class you will have the answers. Today was even more ridiculous than yesterday at Culinary Arts. It is a school that focuses on your primary interest, respectively. Yet not very many people seem excited about it. They want to become Pro Chefs and it is like going to first year Culinary Arts for free! It confuses me. None-the-less we had a lot of fun today! I'm working with Nathan this week which is fun. He is kind of excited about Culinary and is fun to joke with regardless.
After I got back we had English where I researched about training different energy systems instead of my project...only because it is done already. It was really interesting. I love learning about the "how" of training. Then I had gym and band. (I play the drums)
Tomorrow I will skip Culinary in the morning because we are playing for 3rd graders! Our school starts their music program in 4th grade so every year we do this to try to get them excited. It is good for them so I'm really happy to be apart of it again. GO BAND! WOOT. Then I will skip the rest of school and go up to Culinary Arts to practice for the Pro Start competition! What a flip-flop day.
Running
This morning I did 3 miles at E-Pace. I want to do 4 miles in the mornings from now on but I woke up to late. I need to get more sleep so I'm going to try to be in bed by 9...which stinks. Trying to reach 100 miles/wk is hard w/ only 8 hrs of sleep.
I am about to run 8 miles on the treadmill at E-Pace in preparation for tomorrows workout.

Tempo running

I did a 2.4 mile warm up with some hard stretching
After that a few strides then 6 miles on the treadmill at 11.5 MPH and 1% incline...which is about 5:17/mile. Then 2 miles down
It was a a great run and I'm really feeling in shape.
I'll race the 3200 in Friday and the 800 leg of the sprint medley.
Don't forget to be yourself. It's a waste to pretend to be someone your not.
God Bless
-Brian

Daily post

Today was a great day! Going back to school was not something I was looking forward to but, it was actually a good time. The day started with the Culinary Arts class I attend at the local tech and career center. We are getting ready for the Pro Start competition. There are five of us going down to Albany to compete in 20 days! Its scary to think that it is so soon! We got the hotel arrangements set and are ordering new uniforms!
Then, as a class we were talking about Leavening agents in baking, which I know a lot about and just read about recently! I was so excited to talk about it. I said that there are three types of leavening agents: chemical, physical and organic. Chemical ones include baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) which get mixed with an acid to produce carbon dioxide. Baking powder which is baking soda already mixed with an acid so it needs water/heat for leavening to occur. Yeast is the organic one which causes fermentation (production of carbon dioxide gas an alcohol) Then there is Physical ones including air and steam. They thought I was reading it off my hand, it was so funny.
When I got back to school I had English and we got new grades...woot woot 96.2 hahaha
Then had gym which is always fun and economics. So, it was a pretty easy/fun day.
I am about to do a tempo run and I'll post the exact workout when I get back (from down on my treadmill haha)
Be Yourself & God Bless
-Brian
ooo yeah shout out to Steve's dog b/c he said to the other day...she is the one in my profile picture...that was over the summer. She is now HUGE and I brought her for a four mile run when they visited...she is in better shape than me :( hahaha

New Post

So I havent been on this in a while. I updated my profile by putting pictures and stuff like that up. I will add more soon.
A break from school was great and I got a lot of running done.
From now on for those of you following, I will update each night with a new post about my day including my training. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures and more stuff in my profile each night so it is complete.
Thanx for reading.
Be yourself
God Bless
-Brian