(More importantly, Bill doesn't actively recruit runners, yet there's something to be said for being an active part of the discussion in a very competitive, attention-seeking community. The athletes who trained for, qualified and ran the Boston Marathon are listed on the main page of the blog: Street cred, so to speak, even though all who run with the group may not ever have that as their goal.
(Furthermore, when I presented the Bill with the idea of profiling each Boston Marathon qualifier this year, he agreed. We sent everyone the same questions with a deadline. He gathered pictures and I did no follow-up with each of the runners. I took what they provided and crafted the stories that you have read so far, which I hope that you've enjoyed. In my mind, every group should do things like this for their runners.
(Like Baskin-Robbins, each one's story has a different flavor and, as a result, has been presented differently. To that end, and please pay attention to the italics below, our final profilee is Derek Bailey. ~JW)
The sport of running is so common, yet so very unique.
We all go to races big and small. Marathons that began with a cannon blast. 5K's at a county fair with chalk drawn across the pavement to signify the starting line.
We may even train week after week with runners in our running club or training group and really not know much about them.
Life is messy. Sometimes we don't want to pry. Other cases, there are times - for a thousand different reasons - we don't want to share.
Yet we think to ourselves, "Man, they've got it all put together."
Derek Bailey has run 29 marathons. Well, the "runners" in the group say "26" and three as part of an Ironman. Yes, yes, they've all covered 26.2 miles!
And the majority of them, the average marathoner has a category for them: "Fast"!
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| Here's your picture of "Fast": Derek at Texas 10 Cypress last year. Of course, the Oklahoma State-inspired compression socks. (Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer) |
Yet, behind those numbers, there's a person.
People do not relate to you because you are an Olympic gold medalist, They relate to you because deep down they are just like you, a person with imperfections. That's what a great Christian man, a friend and a former elite runner (2:10 Marathon PR) once told me. That is exactly what I am... a person with imperfections. Throughout my running career I have had many people look up to me and say I inspire them. If this blog inspires just one person who is thinking about throwing in the towel on life, just one drunk to sober up or focus on what matters more than running in life then I will consider this blog a success. ~ Derek Bailey
Success, though, is relative.
Ask Derek about his first marathon - a 4:32:01 in 2009 at the Rock 'N' Roll San Antonio Marathon - and his response (if you don't know his jovial personality) would shock you.
"Like a trash fire?" he laughed.
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| Every race, there's a picture with Derek by a port-a-john. More fun then a trash fire! (Photo courtesy of Derek Bailey) |
"He's very supportive of everyone, frequently giving up or modifying his workouts to help others."
Last Saturday, a week out from Boston, Dwyer said that Derek used his easy 10-miler to run the second half of Carrie Hyde's last 20-miler - with others - for Revel Mt. Charleston.
Yet, like everyone else, there was a start.
"I think I pinned the bib on three to four times before it was right," Derek said speaking of his first race ever - the Dad's Day 5K experience of June 20, 2009 in downtown Houston. "I also took a water bottle for a 5K race."
He finished in 23:31 having run recreationally off and on - "Nothing serious," he added - over the years.
But things got serious in his running and as a result his marathon times fell as fast as Wal-Mart prices in the three years to follow.
By his 12th marathon, he had lowered his marathon best to 3:08:19 and put eight states outside of Texas in his 50 state marathon sticker book.
"I love the marathon distance. I'm not very good at short distance stuff," he said. "My 5Ks say I could never break 3:00 in a marathon and my sub-3 marathon would say I could do a 17:?? 5K which I have never done.
"I also like the 140.6 but I'm horrible at it."
Horrible was not the word, though, for April 29, 2012.
It was the day that he could claim membership in the 50 States Marathon Club -- a finish in state #10 at the Eugene Marathon in Eugene, Oregon.
But, more importantly, it was the day that the Boston Marathon became a reality for Derek.
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| "To this day my favorite photo I have ever got from any race - ever." Derek about to finish at the Eugene Marathon. (Photo courtesy of Christie Bailey) |
Before making it to the 2013 Boston Marathon, which would become state #14, he added marathon finishes in South Dakota, Illinois (narrowly missing his PR by 36 seconds at the Chicago Marathon) and Georgia.
This year will be Derek's sixth consecutive running of the venerable race after his 3:02:41 debut.
A race that he gets ready for with what he calls "the treadmill torture test".
"It's a tempo run at marathon goal pace done on a treadmill while changing the inclination to replicate Boston's Heartbreak Hill," he explained.
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| Breaking three hours at the Chevron Houston Marathon in 2014. (Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer.) |
If you know Derek even a little, you might say, "Intensity with a smile."
But, sometimes when life is going swimmingly well and we're running on the treadmill on the deck of a beautiful cruise ship with an incredible view, we still can get thrown overboard and into the sea.
As some may know the person I described (above) was me in some aspects over the last year. Since getting laid off from my career of over nine (9) years about a year ago I have spent the last year drinking frequently and struggling with throwing in the towel on life. It was not until recently that my renewed focus on my relationship with Jesus Christ has enabled me to let go of these burdens that so easily get us tangled and focus on what is true. It worked for me and I have faith it will work for you too. See John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." That's anybody and everyone who believes. Romans 8:38 to say that nothing can separate us from God's love exhibited through Jesus Christ. ~ Derek Bailey
"Derek has a big heart, is very positive, and has his life priorities right," explains Dwyer. "He has gone through a tough time with his recent job search but is in a good place now and should have a very good effort at Boston."
We all have people that we admire for various reasons - and who have helped us get to where we are.
Some of our lists are long; others short.
Derek's, though, is in order.
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| A little Volte Photoshop magic: Boston Marathon team picture on a Bruno Mars video capture. (Photo crafted by Carrie Hyde) |
For somebody who's run a marathon in 18 states and Ironmans in three more and a pair of sub three's at Houston the last two times he's toed the line there, you'd think that he doesn't have any big goals left.
Well, you'd have guessed wrong.
"Ironman Kona or 70.3 World Championships," he said. "If I shoot for the moon and miss at least I'll land among the stars."
If there is something I can ever pray with you or for you about, or if you would like to know how you too can have a personal relationship with Jesus the invitation is open. I would be honored and glad to help. I do not know how Boston 2017 is going to turn out or what the future holds for that matter but I know this. I am going to take up my cross and run after Jesus daily going forward as we struggle through life's failures together. I mean after all it's only 26.2 miles: What could possibly go wrong? ~Derek Bailey
Go wrong? As above, all depends on your perspective. What's wrong to one person may be another person's goal: you just have to understand where they're coming from.
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| 2017 will be his sixth consecutive trip and I'm sure that Derek will say that it never gets old. (Photo courtesy of Derek Bailey) |
If he does, thanks to HIPAA, we won't be able to track him online in the medical tent.
Fortunately, we'll just have to wait on the Facebook check-in with a picture of the IV in his arm.
Go Derek!
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