I asked the creator of Log-A-Jog to tell me how he came up with the idea for this wonderful software. Here, in his own words, was his reply. It was such a wonderful story that I felt my readers would love to read his answer.
For His Daughter's Love; A Runner's Story.
by Tim VeArd
My wife Lynda and I are very proud of our son Ken and daughter Cherie. They are a joy to us and both work with us in our family business; VCR.
You asked me to share why I developed the software "Log-A-Jog" and to find out the story behind it. I will be happy to tell "the whole story". It's really a tribute to my daughter. Cherie is not just my "Log-a-Jog" development partner, she's also my business partner. She is also the real reason that I took up running.
Years ago, when I was in the military, I was forced to run. I always viewed it more as punishment than being fun. So, when I left the service, I swore I'd never, ever run again. I kept that promise for about 15 years.
Then, on Cherie's 10th birthday, an ambulance woke her up at 2:00 am as they rushed me out to our local Emergency Room. They thought I had suffered a heart attack. I wasn't even 40 yet, so I was scared to death. They put a temporary pacemaker on me and ran a million tests. They never found anything and months later they decided that it was just stress and not really a heart attack. I was running a large company, working 18 hour days 7 days a week, over weight, smoking 4 packs of cigarettes a day and living on airplanes. My attitude back then was "nothing can wait until tomorrow," so stress was a way of life for me.
When they finally let me out of intensive care, I wanted to make it up to Cherie because I had ruined her birthday. I told her that she could have any gift she wanted. I assumed she'd ask for an expensive toy. Instead, she got hysterical and started crying uncontrollably. The gift she begged me for was to quit smoking and get healthy. She made me promise her that I'd live long enough to see her graduate and get married. It moved me so much that I vowed to never cause her that much fear again. I immediately threw away all of my cigarettes. The next day, I joined the Hills Medical Sports Clinic in Austin, Texas run by Dr. Ted Edwards (he's sort of like
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