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Dow Jones has a fitness center on their campus in Monmouth Junction, NJ where I work. I joined back in 2001 when I started working on physical fitness because I was so out of shape. One of the trainers there, Darryl Shepherd, has studied martial arts. He begain teaching a combat conditioning class and I signed up. We pair up with a partner and do three-minute drills of focus mitt punching. This includes jabs, crosses, hooks, uppercuts and kicks. He’ll call out the combinations by number. One is a jab, two is a jab then cross, three is a jab, cross then hook. Or he’ll call out something like 10 left crosses. You get the idea. In between rounds, he’ll have us do push-ups or static holds, or jump-rope, or various other challenging exercises. It’s an all-around great class. Thanks Darryl. And thanks to Phil LaVoie too, who pushed for the class.

I completed my first full marathon (26.2 miles) at the 26th annual SunTrust Richmond Marathon November 15th, 2003. You can read about my experience here: myfirstmarathon.html Map and photo are at the bottom of the page.

I practice Shotokan Karate under Katsuya Kisaka at JKA in Trenton, NJ. I recently passed my Ni-dan black belt test.

The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Sunday, October 19, 2003 at BMS in Princeton was a welcome relief among all my marathon training. Time: 23:50.

I ran the Philadelphia Distance Run again (13.1 mile run) on September 21, 2003. My time was 1 hour, 56 minutes, 43 seconds.

I competed in the Runner’s World Half Marathon on May 4, 2003 in Allentown, PA Time: 1:57:14

I did the Hamilton Hangover 5 Mile Run on January 1, 2003 in the pouring rain. 41:09

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure October 20, 2002 at BMS in Princeton. Time: 24:53

The Philadelphia Distance Run My first half-marathon (13.1 mile run) September 15, 2002

I did the Belmar 5 Mile Run on July 13, 2002. Thanks to Nora who told me about this race and encouraged me to sign up.