Bismillah
Well since I am starting a new with writing and this blog as part of this first entry, on of which I hope will be of many to com Insha Allah I would like to begin with telling everyone a bit about myself. Something I didn't do when I first started this blog. I feel it would help to give everyone understanding of who I am, what I do and why I make the decisions as a runner that I do.
To start some what from the beginning my name is Adam Majewski, I was born Apirl 24, 1987. here in Minneapolis, MN. After which my mother and father moved Maggie (my oldest and only biological sister) and myself to Poland shortly after I was born not to return until just after my 3rd birthday. we moved around a lot, due to my father being a musician. Also because my father was and still is a polish citizen. While moving around Minneapolis for a year my parents bought a house in the kingfield neighborhood where I spent most of my youth and in fact my mother still owns the same house which she received in their divorce. When I was a child living in minneapolis some of what I am going to write here some may not want me to write but I have to in order to be my own person and tell others of my background. Also some individuals will try to refute what I am writing mainly because it is what they chose to forget and they do not want others to know about.
The earliest memory I have in my past is at the age of three when the family pet died. A bird named Elmo, for some reason I don't remember being all to heart broken about it. He had eaten toxic paint chips which killed him. it was when we where living in an apartment we moved in to when we first came back from Poland. One of the major reasons though why I was not heart broken was because in my early years my father was what some call a beater now a days. He was quite the abusive father. Because of this my second earliest memory i have is from that same year in which Elmo died. It is of my father beating my mother. Know I have talked to my own father about this memory and he recalls him self only hitting her once. I'm sorry but I know that is not true. He fully beat her. In this memory it is so ingrained and clear because of how traumatic it was for me as a three year old. They where in their bed room arguing, yelling at first with the door wide open. I was a toddler standing in the hall way. Smack, a load open fist hit of my fathers hand making its first contact to her face. i was also standing in front of Maggie's and my bed. she heard the contact made to our mothers faces, and understood what was going on. She opened the door wide enough to grab me. I fought, not wanting to leave realizing my want to go to my mothers rescue. I for some odd reason even though i did not understand what was going on had this deep seeded feeling that my mother needed my help. Even though I was only the age of three, I wanted to go and fight him off. My sister Maggie though how ever, she was much bigger and strong then me at the time and pulled me away in to our shared room. All the way over to her bed sitting me down. holding me and covering my ears. I remember having much anger that I was unable to do anything. I was to young. To young to fight a person three times my size.
How ever I should move on after this memory the next one which i hold in my banks is that which I know many people from Minnesota would remember if the where here in Minnesota at the time. This is of the 1990 Blizzard. this is the year is when my family moved in to our new home, a home in which I would end up spending a big part of my life. In this house I spent much of my young education. Also my college years. over my grade school years i went to a total of 7 educational institutions. 6 of which where all before high school. The reason being that my family, my mother in particular did not like a lot of the schools which they them selves picked out for me. Until high school I felt I didn't have a say in where my parents sent me for my education. I ended up graduating from Washburn high school. This is really where i started my athletic career yet not in my current sport I started as a distance swimmer. Swimming distance's such as the 500, 200 IM, and 200 free distance's even though I never hit my peek I always had great potential in. Swimming and sports in general is what kept me out of trouble as a teen, especially when my parents went through their divorce. My father while i was growing up was never really around as a father. I was mostly raised by my mother and grandfather Julie and James Mueller. My father even though i know he would never admit it to himself and definitely not to anyone else was an abusive father even as I got older. pushing shoving hitting and verbally. I myself was pushed around by my father quite a bit. Over time he has developed the skills to be a better person yet is still some what haunted by his past as a not the greatest parent. Which is, not to be mean but, maybe a good thing cause then it force's him to remember so he does not make the same mistakes again.
When I finished cooking school I had gained a lot of weight, and was not ok with that on any level some one who in high school was a pretty fit person. At the time I also was not making really enough money to go back to swimming on a regular bases, so I picked up a pair of ok running shoes and started running. At first I was running very few miles only a couple at a time and a lot in the dark just cause of time. I also moved to Cali. for a few months and spent some time there working in a family friends restaurant. As I was there I started running even more then I had before. How ever though I didn't last long in California and ended up coming back to Minneapolis.
After coming back to Minneapolis I got more serious about running. I met a couple who where clients of my mothers, both where runners. they ran and in fact still run Marathons to this day. their names Jenzi and Greg Silverman. they are two of the best runners I know. They aren't the fastest runners on earth. They aren't the most competitive, what they are though is hard working well rounded and very inspiring. They run for the right reasons of running. they run for the love of the sport. They run because they know the benefits of running so much. Jenzi in fact is the one who inspired me to jump directly to the marathon and skip all the other distances. she didn't actually say to me I should go for it but after learning that she ran them and why it greatly made me want to see if I could run a marathon. ever since I have been running them.
Jenzis husband Greg another great runner, after meeting his wife and talking to him even though we never really talked about it became some what of a mentor as a runner for me. Over time running for me had become a large part of my life and to this day still is, even though I don't run as much as I use to or would like to. mainly because i can't make money doing so. At least not at this point in my life. over time running became a part of my spiritual practice and still is it has just changed how over time as to how I perceive it. I ran highly competitively from my first marathon in 2009 until my bronchitis incident of 2012 where I became very sick the day before the race and was forced to withdraw from the race ever since I have not had the same motivation for running like I use to. Mainly cause I've some what felt defeated by the sport some what, also though cause I have not had to much time to run cause of my own work out side of running. I how ever want to make running a career I can support a family on but it will be hard and may not happen ever cause of the likely hood I would be able to make this happen.
Know running has taken on a new meaning for me. About, well actually over a year and a half ago I started researching about Islam. something which took me down a new path a path I never new I would go down. How ever though a path I am for ever great full for. I then after taking a food and culture course in college chose to convert to Islam. see form me a light went off for me. which was a sign that Islam was and is for me. I chose to convert not because some one else convinced me to become a Muslim or some group. I made the choice completely on my own and I am glade about my decision. I now run for spiritual and religious reasons not only for my self. Now many people will say oh no there goes another one of those good young western valued boys who has succumb to islamic influence. Those who do so, for one do not truly understand. that there is another man who has become extremely religious and does everything to and for God. All I have to say to that is talk to me. Come ask me questions. I am completely able, willing and wanting to talk with you about who I am what the choices I've made in my life and why I've made them this way but I am not going to just put them out there on my sleeve. My choice for that is because if I did that, then yes you would be right which I know in my heart your not. I my self am a Muslim because I feel it is right not because some other person told I had to be or that I should be or for being shamed in to it. It is one of the very few things in my own life I have truly done because it is for me whats right. I am not going to tell anyone and everyone they need to become a Muslim. For starters as a Muslim I can't, second of all because of what I believe I feel it would be going against my own beliefs. Both as a Muslim and a human being. Now one last thing before I start back on the major reason of this entry series. Shortly after becoming a Muslim something wonderful happened, I met the most wonderful young woman in the world. Her name Khadra Abdille. We actually met in probably the most unconventional way possible, at least by western standards. A subject meant for a different series of blogging entries. How ever, myself meeting her has much of a reason to be mentioned here as anything else because I feel my relationship with her has a lot to do with my running as well. One of the reason's I am now running the Twin Cities Marathon if any one saw the post I put on Global Deaf Muslims. See she is a member of this group and has dealt with many of the issues that go on with the Deaf Muslim community since she was a young girl in her home country. this young, smart, beautiful and very strong willed woman is my everything. I would do almost anything to keep her safe while keeping her rights intact as a fellow human being and a Muslim.
Now moving on from there I have pretty much come to where I am now, because of life's experience's and hope to continue on on this road I now fallow. even though right now my time being paid as a runner is almost none existent like it once was but I do hope one day to go back to being a full time runner. Keep in mind though being a full time runner does not mean that a runner actually trains all the time for their job. There is a lot of little things here and there which need to be done. Such as if your sponsored you talk with your sponsors clients, paper work communicating with coaches and sponsorship management as well many other things. I do wish I could be a full time sponsored runner with a salary right now but unless some one is willing to take a chance on me as a runner in my current situation then I will have to wait until then, or i will have to just keep trecking along until life improves. See the one reason I am not a sponsored runner now is because I am in school and am engaged to be married and have not been able to find a sponsor who is willing to sponsor me to the point where I can pay for school as well support a family. Not many sponsors are willing to support athletes of my type. at the level I need unless you are what is called an Elite in fact an even more then an elite runner. which is hard so I am in sponsorship limbo if it where. I do how ever hope that one day to return to running full time especially with my experience now as a runner. Enough of that though and time to get on with what this series is all about, which is my current training and life training for the TC Marathon.
It's the first week of training, and all is so far so good. Alhamdulillah. I hope that it continues, Insha Allah. I have run for the week Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Yes this is really not all that much of a running week for some one who in the pas was running over three time this amount in a week to get ready for a race. How ever seeing that I really have not run all to much since taking a small break since my clinics to recharge my batteries as a runner, I'm right now fine with that. but will need to increase mileage. On Tuesday though Ramadan starts. So I will have to be really watching a lot of stuff like my food in take and calorie out put cause even though I'm only at the beginning of training the first few weeks are very important in marathon training just as much as the last few weeks. This has to to a lot with the fact of it's where a runner builds a lot of there endurance.
even though all of a distance runners training is important, a lot is dependent on key times of training for higher performance levels. especially if you're very competitive or get paid to run as a pacer during race day. How ever Since this is my first post for this cycle I will be shortening it up because I've already written a lot and also due to I want to be able to have things to talk about in the rest of my posts other then just the fact I've run this this and that. Well kind regards and keep in touch by either keeping up with my posts. This site is more then just about running now even though the main focus is running. I will try my best not to have these entries be to religious in order to make in more accessible to those who are not as religious or are not as religious at all.
