Who Did What to Who?

I'm BAAAAACK!!!!!!! (aka I'm writing for the first time in 2 years and I don't know how long it will last)

2011-06-20T19:03:00.004-04:00

WOW! October 2009 was my last post? That is REALLY SAD! AD – No teasing please!

No promises here but I will attempt to start blogging again as I participate in a local Sahuarita “Biggest Loser” competition. It is 12 weeks long. I will attempt to do one post a week to keep you up to date on my endeavor. This will be the first such post but hopefully not the last. After the 12 weeks, we’ll see where we go from there…

First, to catch you up… (its either this or you go back and re-read 3 years of blogs!) After my marathon in the fall of 2008 I ran a half marathon 2 weeks later. The combined stress of those two events plus the severe overtraining I was doing culminated in a shredded ileotibial band in my right knee. Following physical therapy, rests periods, reduced mileage, and a year of frustration, I all but stopped running due to the pain. After peaking somewhere in the 285lb range my running had dropped me to 183 lbs at the time of my marathon. I had lost just over 100 lbs and for the first time in a LONG time my BMI was classified as normal.

The year after my marathon and subsequent injury wasn’t without running. I still did another half-marathon in SLC but my weight did start to climb again as my mileage dropped from around 40 miles/week down to 10-15 miles/week. By the fall of 2009 however I was lucky to be running 1-2 times/week if at all. When my wife and I went on our cruise to celebrate our 15^th wedding anniversary that August, I was weighing in at 205.

As my career started a transition in the winter of 2009-2010 my amount of free time shrunk drastically and I focused for the next year and a half on that career change and relocation. The problem was, I let my weight go unattended and it climbed and climbed.

So, that brings us to today! A coworker has participated in some of these competitions in the past and notified me of this one starting. Knowing full well that competition is the key to my success, I figured it is now or never. Next March I cross the dreaded 40 year old mark. I hope by then I will be back in shape, ready to tackle my next marathon and that elusive 4 hour mark that I so narrowly missed on my first attempt.

As for the weigh-in for the competition, I weighed in at 246 lbs (242 at home with less clothing). 60% of my blood sweat and tears weight loss, lost! But just look at the whole new motivation I have to try again! I look forward to your encouragement, words of wisdom, mocking accountability, and probably quite a bit of general apathy as my running has NOTHING to do with your happiness.

Rise 'n Run Results - Name Change?

2009-10-01T13:19:00.004-04:00

Just though I would put up the official results from my race back on the 19th. I was starting to wonder if they would ever publish them and then on the official website they put out a press release but never the overall results... but they finally did, kind of. Instead of posting them on their site, they emailed them out to all the participants. I thought that was different. I have never seen that done before, but hey, I got my results... kind of.

You see, in the official results my name is not listed. Once again I'm sure a well intending volunteer convinced themself that surely the list must be wrong, who would have "John" as a last name? That's right. So even though I registered electronically and even though the name was listed correctly on the sign-in sheet the morning of the race, at some point the volunteer (must keep reminding myself of that fact) took it upon themself to "rectify" the situation to which they had no evidence to the contrary other than their preconceived notion of what is and what isn't an acceptable last name... Although I am well accustomed to that happening throughout my life, I will NEVER accept it without at least a small twinge in my gut.

Okay, venting over, now the results!

Official time: 24:15 (as I stated in my original post)
Total Runners: 198
Overall place: 27th
Male place: 24th
Males age 35-39: 4th (yep, 1st non-podium looser!)

As for what is next. I am signed up to run the Cactus ChaCha in Phoenix Arizona the weekend I am out there for business. I am running that with my brother and one of his boys. Feel free to join us if you can. That should be fun!

New Kicks

2009-09-30T09:17:00.004-04:00

Just a quick post to show off my new shoes. My old ones were up over 420 miles so it was time to transition to a new pair. I always like to have an overlap before I retire a pair of shoes somewhere around 500 miles. In a sad statement of how few miles I have run this year, my old shoes are the pair that I ran my marathon in last year. In the peak of my training I had a pair that only "lasted" for about 2 months of running. Of course I still wear the retired shoes for non-running activities, but I'm starting to get a collection of those built up.

So here they are. I have upgraded from the Saucony Omni 7's to the Omni 8's. Some changes have been made and the shoe actually received the Runner's World Editor's Choice award. The biggest change in my eyes is the removal of the plastic webbing on the outside edge by the toe that was added to the Omni 7's. It really bugged me when I was running and I debated switching to a new shoe. I guess enough people complained that they dropped it back off. The shoe is also a touch lighter, they have moved the arch support back slightly, and added additional cushioning to the heal. All in all, I think they have taken a step forward (no pun intended). My first run, 6.4 miles of mixed surfaces, on Saturday went well and was the longest run I've done since my Half Marathon in April. No pain, discomfort, or any other issues noticed. I really think I will like this upgrade and I hope it won't take me as long to reach 500 miles this time around.

So for your oooing and ahhhhing pleasure, here are the pics. Now catch me if you can...

The top one shows you the tread, this one gives a clearer image of the profile. The other noticable change is making the webbing grey instead of the previous white. They also use quite a bit more metallic silver. They just look flashier than the previous models.

Roswell Rise 'n Run

2009-09-22T13:16:00.004-04:00

Last Saturday I ran my first 5k race this year… kind of. Last May I ran in a 5k that was put on by my church. It was free and was more focused on participation than competition. I came in 4th overall behind two teenage brothers and their mom. I lost to the mom by about 3 feet having started my kick too late. That race I finished in 22:12 about 3 weeks after I ran the Salt Lake City Half Marathon. Because it was so small, not truly "open" to real competition, they started 30 minutes later than the announced time, and because I had to leave literally 2 minutes after I finished to get home, shower, and drive for 45 minutes to make it to my son’s Karate Tournament…. I guess I never felt like it was a real race. But looking back I guess I missed my best opportunity to brag about finishing in the top 3 for the males and 1st in my division! What was I thinking!

Anyway, as to this week’s race. Ever since Peachtree I’ve been taking a break and then after my cruise in early August started to think about running again. I went a couple weeks and realized that August had become my lowest mileage month in a year and a half. To get me off the couch and moving again I went out and signed up for the Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon here in Atlanta. I’ve done that race for the last two years.

Having signed up for that, I realized I needed some near term races to get me started now instead of say, the first week in November. So, after searching the Georgia race database, I found one close to home in September. The 4th Annual Roswell Rise n Run.

I had to show you the logo because it was a bit ironic. Sure, it was dry during morning registration, but for the last week and about 5 minutes after the race started it has been nothing but rain here in Atlanta. Not as bad as it was on Monday – Atlanta’s 100 yr storm event – but it was setting the stage for the flooding, saturating the ground.

The race is a nice 5k/1k fun run combo but as usual, that is always trouble. They lined us up all together and who do you think made up the first 5 rows? You guessed it, about 40 6 year olds with their moms to do the 1k. The director with the bull horn suggested that if you don’t run under 5:40 miles, you may want to move back but that didn’t seem to phase but maybe one or two of those kids. They blissfully got ready to run and the race director blissfully didn’t push the matter any further.

As they sounded the horn a swarm of 6 year olds broke out of the gate like they were running a 100 yd dash. There rabbit start probably saved them from a good trampling as it stretched out the field a little before they began to tire. It was funny to be weaving through kids with the sound of mothers behind me yelling at their kids to slow down. By the 100 yd mark I made it past the last kid just before the course took a 90 degree turn. I didn’t look back but I can only imagine how bunched back up that field got making that turn.

The course started at an Elementary school and ran into a nearby park. One of the first quirks of the race was the speed bumps. The road in the park had speed bumps every hundred feet or so it seemed making for some modified strides to avoid them. I was happy when the course turned off the road and onto a crushed stone path that winds through the park. That was however, about the time the rain started coming down. It never rained hard enough to detract from the running but it was a bit more than an annoyance.

At the 1-mile mark I realized I had gone out a bit too fast for the amount of training I had put in. Mile 1 was in 7:11. I was quite winded and knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold that pace. The course then took a turn through the woods over some marked roots and into a neighborhood behind the park. I’ve never run a race that included so many various types of running surfaces.

Shortly after returning to the park through a wooded trail section back onto the crushed stone I reached the 2 mile mark. Mile 2 was in 7:53. Slower but really more in line with what I was expecting. I came around a corner and saw the race photographer from True Speed Photo. He was sitting under a table to keep his camera out of the rain but it produced an interesting angle on the shots, almost diagonal and obviously from a low angle. I really liked them, except for the obvious pain in my face...

Mile 3 is where I really started to feel my lack of training. There were some more hills here and tight turns. Interestingly the course doubled back on itself several times so you were sharing a 6-foot wide path with runners going in the opposite direction. The organizers did a good job setting up cones to keep traffic flowing correctly though.

Thoroughly soaked at the 3 mile marker I was hurting and had a little discomfort in my right hamstring (so long as it is not my IT Band, I’m okay with it!). Mile 3 was painfully slow by my standards and I was pretty upset with my 8:29. That is training run time, not a race! Mad at that split I took off for the last .1 miles as hard as my winded lungs would let me. The last .1 miles was in 41 seconds (6:50 pace if you were to extrapolate it out…). Of course it helped that the final tenth of a mile was all downhill, but we can leave that part out, right? We’ll also ignore the fact that my PR of 21 minutes flat translates to 6:46 per mile for the entire race, not just the final tenth of a mile…

It all goes to prove that when we aren’t moving forward, we ARE moving backwards. There is no such thing as standing still.

Post race was interesting. It was the first 5k I have ever done that didn’t finish at the start line. We finished in the park and had to walk back to the school to get to the food, free stuff, and the T-shirts. At the finish line we asked which way to go and one of the volunteers pointed a group of us in the wrong direction. We ended up walking the long way around, back on the course with runners still going, probably going a good mile, instead of the ¼ mile short cut most people were pointed too. I guess I looked like I needed to walk a little bit more.

As for results, I can’t find them posted anywhere so I don’t know where I finished in my group or overall. My time as I passed under the clock was 24:15 but that was not "official". At first I got a little excited as I noted that I was the second card dropped in my division’s slot, then I realized he was pulling them out and logging them as he got them. I should have known that that time wouldn’t be anywhere near the podium in the 35-39 yr old male division…

So, there you have it, my first full race report in quite a while. And look Real, a blog post with NO mention of bowel movements, wait a minute, crud! Ignore this paragraph please. Anywho…

Poor Neglected Blog

2009-09-15T14:22:00.003-04:00

Other than my wife, I have two dedicated friends who are probably the only people to have noticed the fact that I haven't posted a thing since May. Both of them have reached out to me this month with a gentle reminder that they do in fact care and want to hear from me. One was a college roommate of my wife to which I owe an unplayable debt of gratitude, the other is a cyberfriend that I have known for a couple years through the magic of the Runners World Online discussion Forums. One might think that I they have guilted me into writing this update, and one might not be entirely wrong, but on a bigger scale, there is a reason I haven't written of late.

As we all know, the bulk of my posts are about running. Guess what has been suffering this summer? After my Half in Salt Lake I really stopped running. Not cold turkey, but comparatively so. I think I ran maybe 20 miles a month through the summer, then in August it was maybe 15... Yeah, I "ran" the Peachtree in July, perhaps the first big race that I didn't do a race report for. Maybe I'll go back and do one. But the bigger issue was that even then I didn't feel like much of a runner. I walked for a short portion of that race because I was undertrained for it and got winded up Heartbreak Hill. Other than when I hit the wall in my Marathon, cramping in both legs from the hips down, that is the only race I have ever walked in a race. (Starting line crowd weaving not included) While some would kill for a 52 minute 10k, myself included 3 years ago, I am having a hard time stepping backwards to step forwards.

With September has come new attitude. I have rejoined the Runners World discussion forums, started running 2-3 times a week (for a start), and even signed up for a race or two. I'm running a 5k this weekend, looking at another 5k on October 3rd, there is a trail race in the park I do my daily runs in in early November, all leading up to the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon that I have run the last two years. With that as a goal, I am striking out to get back to where I was a year ago. With determination, a cooperating IT Band, and a little luck, I'll get there.

There, ya happy? More to come.

Salt Lake City & the Half Marathon

2009-05-21T12:33:00.004-04:00

The majority of my entries this year have been related to either my injury or my plan to run the Salt Lake City Marathon/Half-Marathon. It really is sad that even after all of that I have allowed over a month to pass since the event to record the experience. The fact that NO ONE has been clamoring for my write-up speaks to how little the smattering of readers I have even care. Well, I guess you have to put up with a report anyway.

After repeated attempts to train for the full marathon, each ending in IT BAND issues, I finally accepted reality and registered for the Half-Marathon. I guess it speaks well of my fitness and training to be able to just default to a 13.1 mile race without much concern. There was a time not so long ago when completing that 5k presented a significant challenge.

I arrived in Salt Lake on Thursday evening and was picked up by my sister Coleen. Even though I moved away when I was 14, Salt Lake will always feel a bit like home to me. After dinner at my sister Diana’s house we went up to my grandparent’s old house that Coleen now lives in. Perhaps no structure in Salt Lake holds more memories for me other than my childhood home. Despite the small rooms, even smaller closets, head trauma waiting to happen staircases, and general design for no one taller than 5’6", I love spending time in that house.

On Friday we had a relaxing day around the house. Then I went for a short run. That is when the panic set in. About a quarter mile into a 2.5 mile run my knee burned like it had at the peak of my troubles. I was so angry and upset and pushed through the pain (which I knew I shouldn’t do). I finished my run in severe pain but never let on to Coleen. I debated withdrawing from the race for fear of risking more damage. I don’t know what was different on that run, but it was perhaps the most humbling 2.5 miles I have ever run. Ultimately I decided that I had come to far to back out now so I stretched really well and hoped that I was just stiff from the flight and time change… (Yeah, that’s it, knee pain is attributable to jet lag! A desperate man will believe anything.)

Next Coleen took me to drive the route I would be running. This was the first time I have done this and it was really quite helpful the next day to know what was yet to come. From the endpoint we went to the Salt Palace to pick up my bib and race packet. The neatest part of that experience came in the form of an announcement over the PA system. They announced that a David Warden would be giving a presentation about Triathlon Training on one side of the conference center. I turned to Coleen and asked if they were referring to "our David Warden". She said that they might be as she thought he was a tri-athlete. We wandered over to the presentation area and there sat my 1st Cousin once removed, David Warden. We had played quite a bit as children before we moved away from Salt Lake but I’m not sure if I had seen him since! It was so cool to catch up with him.

After finishing up at the Salt Palace we went to Trolley Square. We had made a reservation at the Spaghetti Factory where all my Salt Lake family would help me carb load for my race. It was so nice to sit down to dinner with all 4 of my Salt Lake siblings and various members of their families. The trip to Salt Lake would have been worth it just for that. My mistake that night however played into the next day’s story. Looking over the menu, they didn’t have just plain spaghetti with marinara sauce at all. The closest I could find was the "Mt Vesuvius," which was close, but included Tobasco in the sauce… mistake! If anyone ever considers any menu item with the word Tobasco in the description the night before running any distance beyond the 20 feet from the TV to the toilet, STOP THEM! Other than that, the food and company were fantastic.

Due to the afore mentioned menu item, I visited the restroom 4 times between that night and the next morning. I was convinced that there was nothing left in my system to worry about, as there couldn’t possibly be anything left in my colon following the cleansing it had! (more on this assumption to come at a later time…)
Race morning I got up and went through my typical routine. I was dressed, showered, and ready to go well before race time. I ate some toast with peanut butter and proceeded to consume most of my sister’s grapefruit juice as I had drank most of her orange juice the day before. Only then did I wake her up and ask her to drive me the few short miles from her house to the start line. As we approached the start line we came to an intersection where the cops were stopping cars from getting any closer. I reacted quickly, handed my bag to my sister while asking her to bring it to the finish line, and then I bailed out of the car so she wouldn’t have to deal with the hassle of finding some place to park. Only after she drove off did it hit me that I had forgotten to call my wife as planned. My phone was in my finish line bag, pulling away. It was the first "hitch" to the day.

The temperature was perfect, cool but not cold. I had on some gloves and a hat along with my standard running gear and that was more than enough to keep me warm. At the start area I realized that Vesuvius was not done erupting and found my way through the port-a-potty line again. I jogged a bit to warm up but didn’t want to press my luck with my knee too much before the actual race. I lined up a bit further back in the pack than I should of, partly due to lack of faith in my knee, partly due to lack of faith in my ability to run at altitude, and partly due to my general lack of faith in my preparation and training. The other thing that I found a bit amusing was the start line entertainment. It was a Baptist Choir singing gospel music. Not exactly the "pump you up" race music you would expect, and oddly out of place in this bastion of the Mormondom.

When the race finally started it took me almost 2 minutes to cross the start-line and initiate the timing chip strapped to my foot. The first mile was quite frustrating weaving through very slow runners and groups of 8-10 people that present very imposing obstacles when they move en mass. Although I was moving at what I though was a quick pace my watched beeped at the 9 minute mark and I had not yet seen the 1st mile marker. I hit the lap button, convinced that I had just missed the marker.

The field continued to thin and it became much easier to find my way through the crowd but I was still passing a lot of people through that second mile. When I reached the second mile mark and my watch was still on 6:53, my suspicions were confirmed about the first mile. So including the crowd weaving I was on an 8 minute pace early on.

The third mile is where I developed a side stitch. This is not common for me at all and I think this was the first sign of running at altitude. I consciously increased the rate of my breathing to try and compensate for the lower levels of oxygen (I have no idea if this is the suggested approach to such a situation). That seemed to work as the stitch relented and didn’t come back the rest of the way. Mile 3 took me 7:32.

Mile 4, in 7:42, is where it hit me that I hadn’t even thought about my knee, let alone felt any pain from it whatsoever. It is almost just as frustrating to not have issues because it highlights the unexplained times when it blows up on me.
I had settled into a good rhythm and those middle miles went by in a blur, or should I say without incident.

Mile 5, 8:08
Mile 6, 8:14
Mile 7, 7:52

Somewhere in mile 8 the red pepper sauce from coastal Louisiana decided that it wasn’t done and I felt the growing need to find a port-a-potty once again. I went quite a ways trying to convince myself that I could hold it or perhaps that it was just gas and I could let it out and be done but eventually rightly concluded that the next available outhouse would need to be occupied. Mile 8, 8:18.

As I was passing the 9 mile mark, 8:27, in Liberty Park I was in near panic, looking for the park lavatories, debating asking a local home owner, anything short of ruining a good pair of running shorts. Then I saw the row of plastic green sheds up ahead that had never appeared as such a godsend to me before. I jumped in and stopped my watch (I didn’t want to count non-running time!). The pit stop took me almost exactly 2 minutes and was far more enjoyable than any "No 2" should be. As I took off running again my knee twinged for the first time all day and I nearly panicked but within a few hundred feet the pain went away, never to return the rest of the run.

Mile 10, which included a little of the in and out of the potty was run in 8:55. Miles 10 and 11 went by with a new lightness afoot but still were slower due to the stage in the race I was at. Mile 11 took 8:46. Although I was slowing, I was still quite happy with my overall time considering all of the obstacles I was facing coming into the race. I had set what I thought was a realistic goal of 2 hours, roughly 9-minute miles, given those obstacles, so my splits up to this point had all been gravy. Then I hit the biggest obstacle the course had to offer, State Street climbing up to South Temple. Most of the course is downhill, something like 400 feet net from start to finish, but mile 12 is a straight shot that gets steeper and steeper as you go. The capital building and the stupid arching bird monument over State Street at South Temple are deceptively far away and taunt you the entire climb. Mile 12 was my only split slower than 9 minutes (other than my miss timed 1st mile) and that beast of a hill nearly broke me, 9:32. It was the one of the few places where I noted several people passing me and perhaps the most apparent example of my lack of altitude training.

The run down South Temple to the old train station was relaxing in comparison. I ran Mile 13 in 8:34. The turn into the shopping center that was the finish line was really cool. The last .1 miles (39 seconds) was through a relatively narrow outdoor mall that crowded the family and friends right on top of you. I saw Coleen with her two boys and heard her screaming my name. Only later did I see how poor of a videographer she was. ;) Diana and Adam were down the chute a bit further, near the finish line. It was so cool to have them take time out of their day to cheer me on.

So, the final results:

Gun Time (from when the gun starts the race until I finished): 1:52:48
Chip Time (subtracts the time to cross the start line - what the organizers use to assign placements outside of the "winners"): 1:50:53
Watch Time (did not include the potty break): 1:48:49

Placement:

802nd out of 4139 Half Marathoners
545th out of 1588 males
79th out of 248 35-39 year old males

Overall, I was ecstatic with the finish. It could always be better, but halfway between my fastest (1:40:35) and my slowest (1:59:05) Half Marathon times was a perfect compromise given the challenges of injury, elevation, and digestion that I faced.

That evening we went swimming at Cottonwood Spa where I really learned how to swim as a kid. I went by my childhood house that has changed SO MUCH since my childhood. On Sunday we went to Church in my Grandparents old ward house. That may be the first time I have been in that building for anything other than a funeral. Then Coleen hosted a big dinner with the whole family coming over. It was a great get together that could have only been improved with the addition of my wife, parents, and other missing siblings. It is times like that that make me miss not living closer to the bulk of my family.

I flew home Monday morning, having failed to make time to visit a college friend that I had hoped to stop by and see but for the most part I had accomplished what I had set out to do that weekend. In the end the trip was less about the run and more about my sister and my family for many reasons but I was glad that the run had given me a reason to be in Salt Lake at that particular window of time. Hopefully, at some future date, I can return to the valley and conquer the full 26.2 miles I had intended to run.

Nissan Upgrade Plan

2009-05-18T14:17:00.004-04:00

Now that I have successfully chased off all of my faithful readers (both of them) by my failure to update for going on two months… I guess it is time I write something. My guilt and failure have been highlighted by my enjoyment of a friend’s blog that has had an enthralling thread of entries about her courtship 18 years ago as recorded in her journal at the time. What a fantastic window a journal is into your own mind. While some events are communicated through facebook, there is no lingering record of my status posts. I have come to realize that my blog is the only form of journal I am likely to keep in the foreseeable future so I better make a few attempts at entry every now and then.

So, where was I when I left off? I had just been cleared to run by my physical therapist, my Salt Lake City Half Marathon was 2.5 weeks away, and I was still driving a Nissan Sentra… I guess things have changed some since then. I will try to catch up, but I won’t do it in one MEGAPOST that takes forever to read and covers everything from then to now… I’ll try and break it up some.

I progressed quickly after I was cleared to run. I didn’t do too much or go too far but I had a couple weeks in the upper teens in terms of mileage. The PT asked to see me one last time on Monday the 13th at which point I would be on my own. I got up and left to that appointment. It was raining pretty hard and I was driving a stretch of road that I am normally on an hour earlier. The added traffic, the poor visibility, and I will admit, my mind being elsewhere, culminated in me wrecking my 2000 Sentra.

A mini-van had stopped and was waiting for oncoming traffic to turn left into his subdivision. There was no turn lane and the right side of the road had a guardrail preventing me from ditching off to the right. This road is about a mile long with just this one 8-10 house subdivision on it. I had never encountered cars going in or out of it before in all my years of passing it. After turning on the road my focus was diverted to something else, what I have no idea. I just remember I was not looking straight ahead when I realized that this silver mini-van, shrouded in rain and low clouds, blurred by the early morning light… POPPED out of nowhere to be parked 40 feet in front of me with me going 40mph on wet pavement.

I locked it up but the damage was done. I did manage to avoid hitting him square, more my front left to his right rear. I think that is why my airbag didn’t deploy, thank goodness. It probably resulted in more damage to my car however. Being paid for with liability only, my Sentra was a complete write off. Of course, Jamie had to show up with her cell phone camera to document the damage…

I was fine. The only damage was a small scratch on my left shin and a HUGE gouge in my ego that will heal over time. I ended up taking the day off, never going to my appointment (or back to PT since), and buying a new car that day. We really are a family that can’t function without two vehicles so waiting to buy was only an option if we were to borrow a car for a few days, which a friend offered, but I didn’t want to mess with it.

Long story short, we ended up buying a white 2005 Nissan Altima 2.5SL. We discovered last year (after Jamie similarly totaled the van) that if we went with a slightly used car, we could load up on the options and still have it be affordable. So our van has the built in DVD w/ 6 disk changer, stow-n-go seats, heated leather seats, sunroof, and the tow package (slightly bigger engine and a tow hitch). Similarly, my Altima has the heated leather seats, BOSE sound system w/ 6 disk changer, and the sunroof. I really have enjoyed the added features that we could never afford or justify on a new vehicle.

A month later, I cannot tell you how much nicer my commute to and from work has been. I get 3-4 less miles per gallon than my Sentra, but I should have traded up long ago. To think, all I had to do was sacrifice my perfect driving record...

Let's Try This Again

2009-04-01T10:22:00.002-04:00

This morning at my Physical Therapist I was officially cleared to start running again. He says to do 3 miles Thursday and Saturday, 5 miles on Monday and Tuesday, maintain the stretching and hip exercises I have been doing and he will make the call next Wednesday whether or not to clear me to continue.

I have ridden the roller coaster of rest/run several times this winter with the same results. This time I took the extra step of working with the PT and doing daily stretches and exercises focused on getting my IT Band back in good order. Today, during my appointment, I ran over a mile on their treadmill and felt no pain or discomfort at all. I felt better than any run I've done since November.

I am trying not to get to hopeful and count my chickens here, but I really do feel the difference in my hips and core strength. I am really looking forward to Salt Lake in 2.5 weeks. But more than anything, I am looking forward to a return to normalcy with my knee and not having to stress about it each time I lace up my shoes!

Keep your fingers crossed.

What do you do when your Dr. says you have a weak butt?

2009-03-23T13:00:00.003-04:00

Well, after weeks and weeks of trying to avoid the inevitable I finally broke down and went to to the physical therapist last week. I know I should have done it sooner, but hopefully this will be the kick I need to get me back to running without pain. So what did I learn?

First off, my IT Band issue is not a one event injury. What happens is the band rubs on the side of the bone and gets frayed over time. Being white tissue, it just doesn't get the blood flow needed to repair itself. That also means that it takes longer to heal and most of the things I am doing now are to make sure it doesn't fray again.

Next, my physical therapist told me I have a WEAK BUTT!!! Runners have strong legs but the muscles in the hips and buttocks don't get worked with running. With weak glutes your hips flair out further with each stride, tightening the IT Band just at the moment it passes past the knob on the bottom of the femur. Stronger Butt = Less Hip Swing = Less Damage to the IT Band. How does that song go? "Leg bone's connected to the hip bone...."

Prescription? A kick in the REAR! Lots of exercises and stretches for the upper leg and hip. After my appointment with him this morning, I can hardly sit! He has me doing a daily routine that takes up to an hour to complete. I'm not allowed to run for another week but I think I'll be good for Salt Lake next month.

The other thing he has me doing is pinpoint icing my IT Band for 10 minutes 1-2 times a day. I always thought that it was just to prevent inflammation but my PT has told me it has the added benefit of inducing blood flow to the area. Remember how I said that the white tissue doesn't get enough blood flow to help in repair? Well, by making the area supper cold the body says, "HEY, we better send some blood to Sector 7 to warm it back up." That extra blood helps to repair the damaged tissue.

So, if any of you have a desire to start running, don't forget to cross train your butt and hips or risk long term damage to your knees!

The Half Nelson It Is Then

2009-03-12T10:08:00.001-04:00

Sorry. I don’t know why I feel the need to apologize. It is not like I didn’t give it a try. I gave it probably more of a try than I should have considering the injury and pain I have been dealing with. I guess I feel like I am letting some people down (including, and perhaps primarily, myself) and any time I think I may be disappointing someone, I feel the need to say sorry. The mind was willing but the body was not…

If you didn’t guess from that first paragraph or from the blog title, (either you haven’t been following my blog or you are really slow today) I’ve failed in my plan to prepare for and run the Salt Lake City Marathon on April 18th. During Saturday’s scheduled 14 mile run from my PLAN, I had to cut it short due to severe knee pain around mile 6. I slowed to an 11:30 pace and "crawled" home completing only 10 miles. Although some would be happy with that pace, and I would have loved to have run that pace at the end of last year’s marathon, the pain would have slowed me even further had I pushed out to 14 (let alone 26.2) miles.

So, as I stated in my last post, if I couldn’t follow that plan there really is no way I could properly prepare for a full marathon in just over a month from now. And considering the shape my knees are in, it would probably do more harm than good anyway.

So what does this mean? Today I officially signed up for the Half Marathon. I still won’t be gunning for my 1:40:18 PR at that distance but I am cautiously optimistic (not that my optimism has helped me of late…) that my knees will hold together for at least a 2 hour goal. I am still VERY EXCITED to visit my family and run in this event.

I also finally scheduled my visit to the Physical Therapist. After my doctor visit (and the drugs they gave me) the pain really went away. That, combined with a hectic work schedule, kept me from going to the PT that the doctor had referred me to. Well, this last Saturday was the last straw. My knees are recovering much more quickly following my runs now but I want to learn what I need to do to stop the in-run pain.

One last affirmation… Salt Lake City has not defeated me, my knees did. In the words of MacArthur "I shall return!" or Mr Schwarzenegger if you prefer "I’ll be back!" I hereby promise to run the full marathon in Salt Lake City someday.

My Plan, a Full Nelson

2009-03-03T14:52:00.005-05:00

I think the few of you that read my blog are well aware of my challenges in preparing for a planned marathon in April. With the Kearny 9 mile run on February 21st, followed up with a successful 12 mile run on the 28th, I started to do the calculations. With 7 weeks until the Salt Lake Marathon I am asking myself if there is a logical path between where I am right now and the possibility of running a full marathon on April 18th. By "logical" I mean that there is a training plan that follows safe guidelines to prepare me for 26.2 miles that doesn’t take shortcuts which would open me up to even more injury. I think there is, but only one.

Every plan you look at has two basic elements of minimal training to realistically prepare for a marathon. One, you have to have run at least one run of at least 20 miles and Two, you should not increase weekly mileage by more than 10-15% week to week. Beyond those elements there are other things that are desirable but not as critical. Things like, you should be running at least 35 miles a week (and if you are doing 20 on one day, this is really not that hard!), you should aim for your long runs to be no more than 50% of your weekly miles, you should have a 2-3 week "taper" to allow your body to rest and repair training damage prior to race day. There are a million other things, but these are the elements I contemplated in my situation.

First, where am I right now? The last two weeks have been 18.5 and 22 miles respectively with the long runs I mentioned above, 9 & 12. I have been doing almost all of my weekday runs on a treadmill and not once over 4 miles. The miles on the treadmill are easier on my knees and I can do more of the proper stretching on a carpeted floor in a heated house than leaning up against a car at 5am in 40 degree weather. So, as much as I cringe at the treadmill training, I think it will be key to getting me to the Full Marathon.

So the key to my plan is the month of March! Each Saturday in March my long run will have to lengthen by 2 miles; 14, 16, 18, 20. If I can do that, I can then taper back down to race day in April; 16, 10, 26.2. If for any reason I fall off of that schedule, I think it would be unrealistic and dangerous to run the full marathon and I will step back down to train for a half-marathon which I am confident I would be able to complete that day. (Unless my knee completely blows up... then I walk the 5k… but that’s not going to happen, right?)

So here is the plan, you can follow my log on the right side of the page to see how I do each week but I will keep you posted on any significant deviation or development.

Week Ending......Long Run Length (miles)....Total Miles for Week
March 7....................................14.........................................25.5
March 14..................................16.........................................29.5
March 21..................................18.........................................34
March 28..................................20........................................39
April 4.......................................16.........................................34
April 11.....................................10.........................................24
April 18 ...................................26.2......................................34.2

The other element of my training that has had me thinking a lot lately is what to use as my motivation. I have almost always had the motivation of wanting to set a new personal record in any race I have run. The ONLY instance that I didn’t improve on my previous record at a race distance in the last 3 years was last years Peachtree Road Race on the 4th of July when I was running with 55,000 people and it was more for the experience than a PR. But I still ran a good time.

This time around I am not trying to kid myself into thinking I will improve my marathon time. I hope I do, and I will pace initially for a 4 hour marathon, but I would be shocked if this level of training and my patched together knees would allow me to finish there.

Last fall I found the fundraising I did for Diabetes Action to be very rewarding and provided a lot of strength and motivation over the final grueling miles of that run. I’m not doing another fundraiser at this point, one because I can only humble myself to ask for donations from friends and family only so often, and two because I have neither the time nor resources to put something like that together like I did last year.

So I asked myself, "Why am I running in Salt Lake when injury and lack of training would dictate perhaps putting it off?" It started off as something that would be fun to share with more of my brothers and sisters but that alone doesn’t get me over the hurdles I have been jumping. The biggest reason I can’t pull out now is that my two sisters would probably KILL me, but that gets me to Salt Lake, not through 26.2 miles.

I haven’t asked my sister if this was okay, but I hope she will forgive me. Last Saturday, on my long run, I had a kernel of an idea that sprouted into a full concept in a dream I had Sunday night. My nephew Nelson has been fighting more health issues during his 10 years of life than any human should face in a lifetime. He went into the hospital on Saturday, I’m sure that is why he was in my thoughts. The further I ran that day, the more the concept of completing the Full Marathon became a reality to me.

Forgive the terrible play on words here but I kept thinking things like, "Run the Full for Nelson" and other pun variations of the worlds most notorious wrestling headlock… "I can escape from a Full Nelson", "Life is a Full Nelson", you get the picture. Sunday night I dreamt that I ran the whole race wearing a shirt reading "Put me in a FULL NELSON!" with my nephew’s face on the front. If you have ever been put in a Full Nelson (as the youngest of 8 kids, trust me, I have) it can be suffocating, frustrating, and painful. The key to escaping this hold involves flexibility, relaxation, strength, and perhaps more than anything else, patience. What a great metaphor that is not only for my race, but life in general.

The more I have thought about it, the more right it feels. So, I hope my sister and brother-in-law don’t mind but I am dedicating this run to their son who has shown more flexibility, strength, and patience than most grown men have been asked to have. His relaxed, matter of fact demeanor that I have seen in him, belies the pain and struggle he has faced and overcome each time. I hope I have half his composure when I hit the wall somewhere near mile 23 (based on previous experience).

And what if I falter this month and can’t do the full marathon? Hey, a HALF Nelson is a wicked strong headlock as well!

Knee Roller Coaster

2009-02-27T11:19:00.004-05:00

Since my marathon I have been riding a physical and emotional roller coaster. I have lovingly called it my "knee issue" or "IT band struggles" and many cuss words not fit for documentation in this blog. It has been a mix of denial, pain, optimism, depression, prescription and over the counter medication, doctor visits, rest, limping, new sleep positions, questioning my commitment to running, rapid weight gain, some periods of weight loss, stress induced eating, recommitment, bodily betrayal, comments on how good I am looking, questions as to whether I have put a few pounds back on,...... I think you are getting the picture.

Here is how it looks in graph form. This is my last 52 weeks of training miles. Gradual building of miles, running a 10k every few months, peaking in September, tapering in October, and then a brutal race schedule of Marathon on November 8th and Half-Marathon on Thanksgiving day. Over 1000 miles, NO INJURIES. Then it hits the fan.
Following a planned rest period in early December I tried to start running during Christmas break. What had been observed just before my Half Marathon as a minor knee irritation in my right knee exploded into severe pain after each run, no matter how long or how hard. By the end of the year I had identified it as an IT Band issue and resolved to take three full weeks off and let it rest and then commence my training for Salt Lake.

I resumed running the last two weeks of January. Each run had pain or discomfort but I "pushed through" thinking it might ease with time. (I am not claiming to be the brightest crayon in the box here.) At the end of January I couldn't fool myself any longer. I was taking two Advil and two Excedrin every 4 hours just to numb the pain enough to walk. I finally went to see a doctor. She gave me a far better anti-inflammatory and a muscle relaxant to allow me to sleep.

With that two week rest and better pharmaceuticals I was pain free for the first time since November. I began running again VERY SLOWLY and with A LOT of stretching in mid-February. The first week I ran until I felt even the slightest discomfort. At first sign I would immediately stop and walk. If the tightness or discomfort didn't subside, I stopped.

While visiting my parents in Kearny Arizona last weekend I went for a morning run. I ran to one side of town, okay, to the other side of town, a little off but not discomfort, two miles around my old high school track, and then it happened. I noticed that for the first time in three months, I couldn't even feel my knee! I ran to the top of town and then winded back to my parents house all at a faster pace and with NO Pain! Now don't get too impressed, it was only 9 miles total as Kearny is just not that big, but for the first time in a LONG time I felt optimistic.

This week I have three runs for a total of 10 miles under my belt and so far, not one bit of pain... I have a hard time thinking what I may have done right or what the true cause of my change of condition may be but I am not complaining. The only other change I have made is at the end of January I stopped umpiring our church basketball league. The knee pain came before I started umpiring but it certainly got FAR worse during the period I was umpiring... I don't know but really I don't care.

It remains to be seen if my knee will hold together for training over the next month and a half. I am committed to run in Salt Lake on April 18th... its just a matter of WHAT I run. 5k? Half? or Full Marathon? I haven't ruled out any of those options just yet and I am realistic to know that I will not be setting any personal records, no matter which distance I run. At this point I only appreciate that I will be running something!

For all my Salt Lake friends and family - If I can push through these obstacles, I am confident you can push through yours and join me on April 18th in some measure. A 5k can be WALKED in under an hour! Are you going to join me?

Wildlife or is it Wild Life?

2009-01-29T12:40:00.002-05:00

I thought I would throw up something so everyone would know I'm still alive. I am slowly getting back to the running routine. After 3 runs for 18 miles last week I'll probably be up to 4 runs for just over 20 this week. I'd like to get over 22 so I can keep my "at least 40 miles a month" streak alive. Celebrate the little victories, right?

My leg is holding up well and I haven't had any IT band issues since I resumed my running. The biggest hurdle I have now is the weather. I keep wimping out at 5 am when I know it is going to be under 40 degrees F. I run on the treadmill in the evening instead but just don't have the same satisfaction or euphoria from the experience. I ran a 10 mile run on Saturday and saw a total of 22 deer! That is such a cool feeling to connect with wildlife that way. That's not to say I'm not checking them out for antler size and debating whether or not I could get away with hunting just off the running path...

I keep wondering if I am pushing into another Marathon too quickly. Salt Lake is only 2.5 months away now but I'm confident that I have retained a good amount of my training from the fall. Unless the injury resurfaces, I am confident I can be ready! I am REALLY looking forward to it. Partially for the run but a lot for the chance to see family and friends! FYI - I fly in on the evening of Thursday April 16th and I will fly back out on Monday morning the 20th. I hope to see many of you that weekend and would LOVE to see you running the 5k on the 18th while I'm slogging from UofU out to Holliday and back to Temple Square.

The other trip I am making soon, like just over two weeks from now, is out to Arizona. I am flying in for business and then staying through the weekend to visit family. I fly in on Monday, February 16th, stay in Tucson all week for work, and then drive to Kearny on Friday night before flying home late Sunday afternoon. I hope to see as many of you as time allows. (of course I will have to work you in around some running time too...)

I hope all who read my blog are happy and healthy and enjoying the new year. Hopefully your new years resolutions are still alive if even just on life support... Hope to see many of you soon!

On the Road Again...

2009-01-20T12:50:00.001-05:00

I RAN! I know it is not a big deal for most of you (nor was it to me not so long ago) but going over three full weeks and not running was somewhat traumatic for me. I knew I had to do it to nurse my ailing IT Band back to health but extra biking and Wii Fit time just does not cut it.

I was able to run on my treadmill last night. Just 4.1 miles and with a very slow warm-up and a max pace of 10:00 per mile for only 2 of the miles, but I was running. I didn’t have any IT Band pain with this run, we’ll see how it holds out for longer runs. I have been doing some abductor strengthening stretches but frankly they are so odd looking that I wouldn’t do them in public. They look like some kind of demented dance moves but I think I’ll stick to my tried and tested MC Hammer moves for now!

So on with the training for Salt Lake. Lets hope I have retained enough of my fitness from the fall so that 3 months of training will get me to where I need to be for that Marathon. Unfortunately I did gain some weight over the holidays as I mentioned before. I went from 185-186 for my November marathon to actually having one day on the scale saying over 200. That was fleeting however and I am now weighing in at the 192-193 range. Still not all the way back but I think another 2-3 will come off quickly as I resume running and the 180’s is still somewhat amazing to me. The goal is to get back to 185 in time for Salt Lake, April 18th.

Oddly enough I have had some serious leg pain the last three days but not related to my IT Band issues at all. On Saturday I served as a ref for my church young adult basketball league. For three hours I ran up and down the court. The problem was that I ran backwards each time instead of turning to jog or run down with the play. My calves didn’t appreciate the workout and are still SCREAMING at me! Lesson learned I guess...

Proof I'm not Superman...

2009-01-06T12:25:00.003-05:00

Through all of my weight loss and Marathon Training I suffered very few and minor injuries. I had some heal pain after my first 10 miler. I had some blisters before I invested in some good socks and shoes. But nothing bad enough to really sideline me. Well, gone are the idyllic days of running without injury or consequence! Shortly after my marathon I noticed a nagging pain in my right knee. Nothing that stopped me, but I certainly felt it. It was bothersome enough that on the day of my Half Marathon I took two Acetaminophen so it wouldn't bother me and that worked just fine. As I started back running again in December I noticed the knee pain came back and was slowly working up my outer thigh. It then progressed into a dull ache not just during running but for a day or two after each run. Early in my Christmas vacation I went for a simple enough 10 mile run and by mile 8 I was in a full limp and struggled to use stairs for days. So I finally looked into it...

Turns out I developed a case of Iliotibial Band Syndrome or ITBS. The IT Band runs from the back side of your hip, connected to the glueteus medeus muscles, down the outer edge of your leg, through a small sheath along the outside edge of your knee, and connects to your tibia near the top. It is responsible for helping to bend your knee and also to stabilize your knee during use. Unfortunately, long distance runners are prone to developing a condition where this band becomes inflamed due to overuse and then rubs the sheath it passes through near the knee causing even more inflammation.

The good news is that with rest and anti-inflammatory medication ITBS is easily alleviated. The bad news is that means I CAN'T RUN!!! Just when I am excited about starting my training for Salt Lake, I'm sidelined. I tried to just run slowly, or reduce my overall miles, but the pain quickly comes back. My only hope is to stop running completely for two weeks and then slowly add miles. For the sake of preventing this recurring, lets all pray I have the patience.

One of the most frustrating things has been the timing. To not be able to run during the Christmas break has been painful. I had great plans of kicking off my Salt Lake training with gusto as I had plenty of time off but limped through only 2-3 runs before convincing myself I need to rest it completely. Of course with Christmas and vacation comes snacking, boredom, and EGG NOG! Oh vile dairy confection that enslaves me each year! So you guessed it, I have put on quite a bit of weight over the holidays. Reduced running, increased eating, guess I should have seen that coming. I didn't loose all of 2008's gains, but more than I would care to admit to.

For now I am trying out biking in the morning (if would stop raining!) and spending a little more time on the Wii Fit. I always said I needed more cross training, guess this is someone's way of making sure I get it! They say a good prevention to ITBS is strong abductors as well.

Anyway, hopefully you will see my mile reports come back in a week or three. I am trying to make some lemonade here with these lemons but boy it sure is sour! Hopefully it is just a pit stop, not a derailment...

Done Deal, Running the Salt Lake City Marathon

2008-12-17T15:36:00.005-05:00

After taking a few weeks off from running to let my body get a rest and clear my mind, I’ve got the bug again. I went for my first run since my Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon yesterday morning. And although I was quite sluggish, well off my pace, and sore for a good part of the day after only running 3.7 miles, my thoughts for two days have been squarely focused on taking another crack at a Full Marathon and the sub-4 hour run that eluded me the first time.

Maybe this is my version of "baby hungry". My wife and many other women occasionally suffer from an ailment, starting about a year after having a kid, where the sight of a newborn brings a rush of emotion where she insists she is ready and not only wants but NEEDS to have a newborn to cuddle up with, YESTERDAY! Lost is any rational thought about the 9 months of pregnant discomfort, the pain of child delivery, and the sleepless nights over the previous year. It is all worth the reward.

This is VERY similar I believe to my desire to run another marathon. Lost is any memory of the 1000 miles I ran in training with the associated fatigue, injury, leg cramps, and 3 pairs of $100 shoes. Lost is any memory of the suffering incurred at mile 23, hitting that wall, and having my body shut down. Lost is that blissful feeling the last month of sleeping in (to 5:45 instead of 4:45) every morning. Lost is the foresight that last time I trained in 45-70 degree mornings and this time it will be 25-50 degree mornings. All, in my mind, is worth the reward.

So it is done. I haven’t signed up for the race yet (budgets dictating the new year for that) but I have pulled the trigger of commitment (or is that "should be committed"). Today I booked my frequent flier mile financed flight to Salt Lake City, Utah, the weekend of April 18th. I couldn’t see myself waiting an entire year for Atlanta on Thanksgiving before taking another crack so I weighed my options and turned west. As I looked at spring marathons I wanted to run a larger race, on a Saturday, and where I wouldn’t have to pay for a hotel. With family in Salt Lake it was a perfect fit. By using my frequent flier miles I only had $5 to pay today to cover the flight taxes.

The Salt Lake City Marathon is a net downhill course that spans the length of the valley. Starting near the University of Utah at the Olympic Legacy Bridge, we will run south along Wasatch Dr and Foothill Dr, turn west on 2100 S. to Sugarhouse Park, and then south to Holladay Blvd and 6200 South before turning Northwest up Van Winkle Expwy. We will then run north up 500 East, past Fitts Park and through Liberty Park. The race finishes with a series of 90 degree turns zigzagging through downtown, ending at the Olympic Legacy Plaza near South Temple and RioGrande St. A full map of the course is found HERE.

I share the course because it actually helped me realize just how far 26.2 miles is! For me growing up this would have been a trip from just past Grandma’s house, almost to my house, and then downtown to temple square. Are you kidding me? That DRIVE would have taken us an hour to do when I was growing up and we would have finished the alphabet game 2-3 times (depending on the spacing of the Quaker States, School X-ings, and Zions Banks along the way…).

My only regret is that we can’t afford to fly my wife and kids out with me on this trip as they were such a pillar of strength to me in my first crack at this. I am looking forward to hopefully celebrating with siblings and if my parents can swing a trip north, celebrating with them as well. The question that has to be asked here however… are there any of my Salt Lake friends and family willing to take the leap with me? Come on, you could always run the Half Marathon or the 5k that day as well…

Atlanta Half Marathon - Earned My Turkey!

2008-11-29T11:14:00.003-05:00

I ran my first Marathon on November 8th and didn't think I would recover fast enough to run the half 2.5 weeks later. I ran this race last year but I haven't run the distance since then as I prepared for my first marathon. A friend suggested that I approach the Thanksgiving day run just as a fun run for the experience and tradition. So I signed up.

The next morning I called Fleet Feet and begged them to let me ride their bus to and from the race despite the sign-up window closing a week earlier. Their generocity shined upon me and I was told that if I came in that day they would let me ride... so I did. I was told I was "absolutely the last person" they would let sign up. Maybe the several hundred dollars I've spent there this year swayed them... The nice thing about the bus is that you don't have to worry about dragging your family out of bed or riding the train. The bus is allowed inside the closed road portion of the start area, less than a block from my start corral. The bus was heated with a toilet onboard so we could stay warm right up until 15 minutes before the start of the race. It really is worth the $30 bucks they charge. They even throw in a T-shirt, a pair of throw away gloves, a separate baggage claim, a finishers tent with better food, drinks, and even beer for those who want it. I don't think I would run this race without that option. It is nice to be spoiled every so often.

Oh yeah, I ran a race too... This whole "fun run" thing just doesn't compute in my head. I had only run 15 miles since my marathon, none of which were at a pace faster than 9 min/mile. I programmed the pace alarm on my watch for 8 minute pace the first 5 miles, 7:45 pace the next two downhill miles, 8:15 pace for miles 7-12, and gave myself 9 minutes for the last 1.1 miles. That would give me a finishing time of 1:45:45, slightly slower than the first half of my marathon but conservative considering my recovery and lack of proper taper and all that. If you remember, I ran the first half of my marathon in 1:44:12 (7:57 pace) and I think that led to my struggles at mile 23 (my goal pace that day was closer to 8:40).

The weather was almost perfect, perhaps a little cold but nothing too bitter cold and definately better than the downpour during the first mile last year. Since the Weather Channel was sponsoring the event perhaps they had something to do with the nice weather. ;)

Something new this year was corrals for the runners. During registration they asked for your estimated finish time (I said 1:50) and assigned you to 1 of 5 corrals. I was in the second corral, perhaps a little further back than I should have been. But its always a good feeling to start a race passing a lot of people.

The first several miles I was feeling really good and my splits were showing it: 7:35, 7:24, 7:39, 7:31, 7:40. I think 5 miles in I knew my 1:44:12 was going to be broken, but it was a matter by how much. I then hit the downhill 2-mile portion: 7:21, 7:08. At the bottom of the hill was an aid station and Jelly Belly sports beans. I love those things but unfortunately, at 35 degrees, they are more jawbreaker than jelly bean.

The next mile is a HILL. It is the same hill that is run as part of the 4th of July Peachtree Road Race. It is lovingly called Cardiac Hill due to the hospital conveniently located near the crest. It slowed me down a bit: 8:08. From there though the course proceeds through a series of flat to rolling but with more up than down: 7:36, 7:55, 8:06, 8:04.

I had begun to contemplate the possibility of a sub 1:40:00 run somewhere around mile 10 but I had forgotten how rough some of those late hills could be and with miles 11 and 12 over 8 minutes that possibility slipped away. Surprisingly I was feeling really good. My breathing was much faster than it had ever gotten during my marathon but nothing ached, not my knee, hips or calfs.

At the 12 mile marker I did the math and realized that it would take a 7:50 final 1.1 to go under 1:40 and although that was unprobable, that didn't stop me from trying. Of course that short steap hill from 12.25 through 12.5 had something to say about that... I continued to push but my lungs started burning but then I caught sight of the Olympic Rings that marked the finish line of the 1996 Olympic Marathon. It is amazing how that sight lifts the runners spirits.

I kicked to a sprint and enjoyed the refreshing and empowering feeling of passing others in that final stretch. But alas, I was not fast enough to go sub 1:40:00 but still far better than I had expected at the start of the day. My final split for 1.1 miles was 8:24. I had a chip time of 1:40:35 (7:41/mile pace).

There were 11500 registrants but only 8695 ran with a chip that makes them part of the official results. Here are my official results:

- Overall Place = 702/8695
- 35-39 Males = 94/708
- All Males = 575/4433
- Clock Time = 1:42:04
- Chip Time = 1:40:35

For perspective, last year this race was my first (and only) Half-Marathon with a time of 1:59:05. From summer 2006 until that race in 2007 I lost 55 lbs. In 2008 I only lost 15 lbs... but I would say that this is the year that I moved from jogger, to runner.

A runner with the ID of Boo*Boo on the Runner's World discussion boards had encouraged me earlier in the week with her story of her best race ever when she ran a 15k race few weeks after a full marathon. Those words of encouragement helped me to believe in myself when I started out fast. I too had the "best race of my life"... so far.

Gluttony on Thankgiving Day

2008-11-25T09:07:00.003-05:00

Perhaps it was temporary insanity, maybe just a love of running, perhaps I just didn't want to let a nascent tradition die. But whatever it was, I think it is easy to determine that I am a glutton for punishment. Let me explain.

When I signed up for my marathon I decided to run the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon because it was a much flatter course than the Atlanta Marathon held on Thanksgiving Day. If you remember, I ran the Half-Marathon last year. During my training I often contemplated if I should just go ahead and run the Half again this year but figured I wouldn't have the desire so soon after my marathon. I figured wrong. Almost as soon as I finished two weeks ago I contemplated that it is not too late to run again on Thanksgiving. At the time I thought I would be out of town or have other Holiday plans but as the date approached, those plans fell through for various reasons. Then came Sunday...

While at church I was talking to a runner that I ran the first mile with last year and asked her if she was running again this year. She said that she was and asked me if I was. I mumbled some excuse about having just run my marathon and something about doubting I could best the time I clocked for the first half of that run... She then answered, "You can't expect that, run it for the fun, you know you can do it, it's a short training run compared to what you were doing for your marathon."

At that, I realized she was right. I was running 16-20 miles each Saturday for two months, all at a pace faster than I ran my Half Marathon last year! Although I ran the first half of my Marathon in 1:44:12, my official PR for the Half is still at 1:59:05 because that is the only race at that distance I have run.

So I did it. That night I went online and signed up for the Half Mary on Thanksgiving Day. Yesterday I arranged for a bus ride to and from the race with my local running store. Despite the fact that they had "closed" the sign-up window a week ago, they made one, and only one exception, for me. Why? I don't know, but I was explicitly told that I was officially the last registrant. A sign?

The only running I have done since my Marathon is a grand total of 3 runs for just over 13.7 miles... less than a mile more than I will be running on Thursday. With the lack of running, the celebratory food I consumed after my marathon, and the sheer amount of leftover Halloween candy I have consumed since then it is no wonder I am up 2-3 lbs since my marathon, but still in the 188 range. I will not even think about gunning for that 1:44:12, don't worry. It is about the fun and joy of running and continuing a tradition I started last year. It is about earning my Turkey. It is about being a glutton for punishment.

So my questions for you...

Am I crazy for even trying this so soon after my marathon?
What is your guess on my finishing time (assume I do finish...)?
Is this any less insane than playing football with a bunch of teenagers from church that morning?

My Marathon Journey

2008-11-12T15:33:00.008-05:00

A middle aged runner’s first marathon is perhaps held in a different light than those of our youthful counterparts primarily because many of us had to find our way back to running instead of merely extending a high school or college sport. My first marathon on Saturday November 8th was no different. It was perhaps far more significant because of the path I took to get there, not the 26.2 miles I traveled that day. No race report I write of my first marathon is complete without the context of how I got there.

I grew up fat. There is no way around that fact. I am a twin and for years I heard, "He’s the fat one". Although I was conscious of this, and it did bother me at times, I was not obsessed with it. I wasn’t hugely overweight nor was I sedentary, but even the sports I played accounted for my size. I was the lineman in football, valued for my bat not my fielding in baseball, and man could I set a pick in the low post! I enjoyed sports but only within the constrains of my size.

My senior year in high school planted the seed that changed my life. After a misunderstanding and some frustration with a coach change that year with our high school baseball team, I decided to switch sports and join the track team. Not to run, but to be a thrower, shot put, discus. As the team ran some 3-5 milers to get in shape at the start of the season, Coach Smith noticed that I was coming in behind the distance runners but before the sprinters, jumpers, and other throwers. He convinced me that under my belly was the heart and lungs of a distance runner. By the end of the school year I was a different boy. I dropped 40 lbs and was running the half-mile, mile, 2-mile, and 2-mile relay anchor in every track meet including qualifying for and competing in the state finals. I ran some my freshman year in college (good thing I met my future wife then) but during and following my two-year mission to South Africa, that activity fell by the wayside.

Fast-forward 10 years to my high school reunion. I had gained over 100 lbs and was approaching my peak weight of 275 lbs. What happened? College, marriage, kids, job, and graduate school… really, just life. It was about this time that my diabetic father started hounding me with stories of how every male over 40 and 230 lbs in our family developed Type II diabetes. He begged me to do something about it. I knew running worked for me based on my time in high school so that’s what I did. Over the next 6 years I floated between 240 and 265 more times than I can count. I would run a couple times a week but never with the discipline nor passion required.

In the fall of 2006, sitting at 255 lbs, the company I worked for sponsored a team in a local "Corporate Health Challenge" 5k. The missing element of the last 6 years was found. I found it was not the running alone that sparked me, it was the drive of competition and the race. That first 5k was painful but I lost close to 15 lbs and met my goal to run sub 30 minutes. After a series of 5 and 10k’s I decided I was ready to train for a half marathon. I trained for and ran the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day 2007 coming in just under my 2-hour goal, reaching my 200 lb goal the week of the run as well. It was on that day that I decided I wanted to do the full marathon. After some research and discussion I settled on the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon run on a historic civil war battlefield just south of Chattanooga, TN.

During 2008, as I prepared for my marathon I slowly upped my miles per week as well as the length of my weekly long run. I also came to realize that although I had done the bulk of my half marathon training on our treadmill in the evenings, that wasn’t going to cut it this time. I changed my running schedule to the early morning and I started running outside. This had its challenges but really was the only way to fit in all the training I would need. In the process, I rediscovered the joy of training in solitude on the road and in the park. Running on a treadmill is now only done out of necessity of weather, childcare, or temporary insanity. My weight dropped very slowly the first half of the year only into the mid-190’s, but starting in August something changed. I lost weight every week from mid-August right up to my marathon where I weighed in at 185. Sometime during the year I decided to include an element of fundraising to my run. After taking a poll and researching various causes, I decided it was the threat of Diabetes that had inspired me in the first place. Thanks to family, friends new and old, and even strangers from the Runners World Discussion Board, I was blessed to raise $1,120 for the Diabetes Action Team by race day. That is the rough perspective from which I entered the race last Saturday.

Although Chattanooga is only 2.5 hours drive from our house in Georgia, we decided to go up on Thursday evening so we were not rushed in any way. We decided to drive up by way of some back roads through the mountains of North Georgia to enjoy the fall foliage. It was stunningly beautiful. On Friday we took our 4 children to the Tennessee Aquarium, and IMAX movie, and Ruby Falls (a 165 ft underground waterfall in a cave). Although the day involved some walking, by and large it was a very relaxing day and one I’m sure my kids will remember far more than their sweaty dad the following day. Friday night we picked up my race packet. This went smoothly but the expo for such a small race was disappointing to say the least. One guy sitting behind a table selling GU, not much more. We were staying in an extended stay hotel suite so we went back and my wife cooked my spaghetti dinner. It wasn’t until we were back at the hotel that I noticed my bib indicated I was only 31 years old, cutting 5 years off my life. Not a big enough deal to worry about but the official results did group me in with the next class down, oh well.

Race morning I arose at 4:30 and spent some quality time, um, lightening my load. After a shower and a light breakfast we were on our way to the race around 6 am. We had requested a late check out so I could come back after the race and take an ice bath but they couldn’t make a commitment until 9am so my wife planned on coming back after the start to find out. The weather was a bit chilly but really almost ideal. It was 45 degrees at the start line rising to 60 by the time I finished. Once parked I left my family in the car and went to, um, lighten my load again.

We made our way to the start area and took some pictures (above). There was a good crowd at the start area as both the Full (600 runners) and Half (700 runners) races had sold out. My wife took the kids to a point 100 yds past the start line where she could film me. The start time of 7:30 came and went with loudspeaker announcing that we would be waiting for a few last minute registrations and for the lines at the port-a-potties to clear out. Apparently not everyone got up at 4:30 to attend to this… During this time my wife showed up and wanted to see where I was lined up so she knew which side of the road to stand on to get the best shot. She quickly gave me another good luck kiss and ran off. The runner standing next to me proclaimed, "She was cute, that should be good for at least 3 minutes off of your PR."

Finally the race started about 15-20 minutes late and for some reason I started my watch with the gun instead of as I crossed the start line 13 seconds later. I was full of caffeine, adrenaline, and good ol’ ignorance as I ran past my wife giving a high 5 to my older two children. I settled into a comfortable pace, convincing myself not to push. Perhaps instead of "not pushing" I should have been actively reigning myself in. I had set a goal of 3:48, which translates to 8:42/mile.

7:47

Really, at the first mile mark my watch read 8:00, which I knew was faster than I wanted but I told myself, "at least it wasn’t in the 7’s." Of course, I failed to do the math subtracting the 13 seconds at the start line… I was in the 7’s! Water/Poweraid stations were every 1.5-2 miles and I made a point of getting a drink at each whether I was thirsty or not. Over the next several miles I repeatedly told myself to slow down, don’t push, stay comfortable. Despite my mantra, the splits were much faster than I planned!

7:34
7:44
7:41
7:45 – First hill on the course. Long and gentle and extending through most of the next mile as well, no issues whatsoever.
7:51

My watch at the 6-mile mark read 46:35, quickly I did the math in my head. You just ran a 10k in about 48 minutes! Your PR is 47:43, what the heck are you doing? I kept assessing myself, I felt great, relaxed, breathing easy, not pushing, just slow down a little I thought, and I’ll be fine.

7:57
8:04
8:06
8:13
8:13
8:17 – Somewhere in this mile the half marathon runners turned off to return to the start/finish line while we turned for a second loop of the park.
8:15
8:15

Actually there was no 13-mile sign, just the 13.1-mile sign for the half marathon. As soon as I realized this, about 50 yds short of the sign, I clicked my watch for the split. It read 8:45 but the 14 mile split was 7:45. I split the difference and gave the same amount to each as an estimate. As I ran past the Half Marathon sign they also had an official clock which read 1:44:25. If you take off my 13 second start delay you get a Half Marathon time of 1:44:12. The one and only half I had run a year earlier was in 1:59:05. I was 15 minutes ahead of that pace! In training I had run as fast as 1:52:00, but I was even WAY ahead of that. The funny thing with my half split is that if I would have just been running that race I would have come in 63rd out of 700 and 6th in my division… all without "pushing it".

Perhaps it was the reality of knowing the course on my second loop and what things lay ahead, perhaps it was the torrid pace catching up with me, perhaps it was the caffeine and adrenaline wearing off, perhaps it was insufficient training, but whatever the reason, I soon started to see my splits slowing significantly.

8:45 – wow, slower than my required 8:42, and 30 seconds off the last mile… what happened?
8:40 – that’s a bit more like it, hold steady, just ahead of pace… now just hold this and you are GOLD!
9:29 – Remember that hill at mile 5? Here it is again, this time… issues.

This was the first uncomfortable mile of my run. I swear that hill got steeper and longer since the last time I was there. I told myself, "Hey, you built yourself a 10 minute buffer on your goal time, you are allowed to burn it, especially on this hill." I don’t know if it was just the day getting warmer or if my body was heating up but also during this climb I shed the $3 gloves I had been wearing all morning.

10:02 – okay, you were just recovering from that hill, you still feel strong – the 3:40 pace group flew by me like I was standing still, that’s okay, I wasn’t aiming that high anyway
10:09 – that’s it, just hold 10 minute miles and all will be fine, you may miss 3:48, but certainly not 4:00 and hey, a few miles at 10 and you may get a second wind…
10:53 – what? Is my watch right? Was the marker in the right place?

After 3 over 10 minute miles my head was quickly figuring out that I was burning through my 10-minute buffer VERY quickly. This was the first point where I did enough of the math in my head to know that unless something drastic changed, I wouldn’t make my 3:48 goal because I knew I didn’t have it in me to get back to sub 9-minute miles. I also realized that despite the fact I had never slowed below 11-minute miles in any of my long runs, I was now going into uncharted territory beyond 20 miles. I was however, still somewhat confident at this point that I would come in under 4 hours. I mean come on, I had over 70 minutes to run a 10k, surely I could do that! That was only 11:20 per mile!

11:08 – slipped some, but you can keep it in that 11 minute range no problem
11:34 – crud, NO MORE! The next mile will be faster than this one, FOCUS.

I’m convinced I was pushing harder during the 23rd mile. I started to pass a few runners that were dropping out. Perhaps the first runners I had passed since mile 15. Since then it had been nothing but a parade of well paced, disciplined runners blowing by me. Despite a small quiver in my thigh early in the mile, I was feeling a bit stronger than I had for quite a while. Then it happened. 100 yds short of the 23 mile marker, without warning, EVERY muscle in my legs from the hip down, thigh, hamstring, calf, foot… every single one in both legs locked up in one swoop. I almost fell to the ground as it hit but I managed to keep my footing and keep walking.

An aid biker riding along the course pulled up along side of me and asked if I was OK. Through tears of disbelief I told her I was fine… just "a" cramp. I walked like a mummy fighting diarrhea, not letting myself stop and recover. I told myself I wouldn’t walk, with the cramp I modified that goal to not stopping. My first thoughts were "This is not happening, I have too much invested in this, WHY ME?" I soon realized that these were questions of the defeated and I was not going to fail! I can honestly say the thought of not completing the run, never entered my mind. I walked all the way to the 23 mile marker before the worst of the cramps subsided. At the top of the next short hill I felt good enough to run again. The remainder of the race was a series of walk for 20-30 seconds, run until the muscles cramped up again, usually 1-2 minutes.

12:50
12:56 – Late in this mile the 4:00 pace group went by me. I tried to pick it up and stay with them but promptly locked up yet again. It was only then that I allowed my mind to grasp that I was going to miss that goal.
13:23 – Actually the 25 mile marker was missing. In all my duress it didn’t hit me until I was at least halfway through the next mile. My watch splits indicate 18:49 and 7:58 for these two splits, I averaged them out…
13:24

Early in this mile another runner ran past me during one of my walking phases and encouraged me with a "you can do it, come on!" I replied to him, "Tell that to my calf!" A few steps later he pulled up grabbing his leg. As I ran past him I said "you can do it, come on!" He replied, "tell that to my hamstring." Over the 26th mile we played leapfrog several more times, each time I would pass him I would yell out, "come on hamstring!" and as he would pass me he would return "come on calf!"

The last .2 miles I told myself I didn’t want to walk again and I would push myself across the finish line. I was unable to meet that goal yet again as I cramped up briefly and walked for 5-10 seconds. Making the final turn to the finish line I was able to run all the way through the gate and probably faster than I had for several miles. My wife had begun to worry if she had missed me somehow as I had told her I would be surprised to not make 4 hours, but she waited and captured video of me down the homestretch, half crying, half dead. I never even saw her. The last .2 miles took me 2:23. In the first few minutes after I finished the race I said to my wife, "That is the hardest thing I have ever done!" I may have been biased at the moment, but not by much.

Chip Time --> 4:07:18 or 9:27/mile
Clock Time --> 4:07:31
Second Half Split --> 2:23:06
Place --> 249th out of 551 tag wearers
Men 35-39 (my true class)--> 38th out of 68

I drew on many thoughts during those final 3.3 miles to fuel me to the finish line. Each time I was halted by cramps I thought about one of my children and the example I needed to set for them. I remembered all those who donated to my fundraising, about all the well wishes so many had expressed, my Runners World discussion board friends that had held me accountable for my mileage and weight loss each week, my father and his battles with diabetes and his many pleas for me to do something about my weight, and about my wife, who I don’t desearve, who put up with me and my training not to mention my weight for many years. It is amazing what you find for fuel when you absolutely have to.

So, the day didn’t go exactly according to plan, but the mere fact that it went at all has changed my life. One question I was always a bit wishy washy on before the run was whether or not I would ever do this again. My answer came, most certainly YES. My wife proclaimed, "well, I guess you have to do this at least two more times." I asked her how she figured that? She said, "At least once more to go sub 4, and again with me in a few years because we both know I won’t be anywhere close to that!"

Shortly after my run they held the Jr. Marathon. This was for all 1st through 6th graders. To qualify they had to run a total of 25.2 miles in the months leading up to race day and then they ran the last mile on race day crossing the official finish line of the marathon and getting a medal as well. My 10 yr old son participated and had great fun.

The day ended on one more sad note however, the hotel wouldn’t let me check out late so my wife had checked out during my run. Oh how I wanted that ice bath! I think it is partially due to missing that post race cool down that today, Wednesday the 12th, 4 days later, is the first day I have used the stairs without pain.

The Marathon - Raw Numbers

2008-11-10T15:56:00.003-05:00

I want to do the race report full justice but I have not had the time today to do it. I usually use my lunch hour to post but I was preparing for a meeting I was hosting at 1:00pm today so I didn't get to it. As so many of you have sent me questions on the results, here are the raw numbers. Although this may make the story to follow less climactic...

Mile Splits

7:47
7:34
7:44
7:41
7:45
7:51
7:57
8:04
8:06
8:13
8:13
8:17
8:15 ---- Half Marathon 13.1 miles at 1:44:12
8:15
8:45
8:40
9:29
10:02
10:09
10:53
11:08
11:34
12:50
12:56
13:23
13:24
Last .2 miles -->2:23

Clock Time --> 4:07:31
Personal "chip" time --> 4:07:18 (difference represents the 13 seconds it took me to cross the start line)
Averages to --> 9:27/mile
Overall Place --> 249th out of 551
35-39 yr Male --> 38th out of 68
My Half Marathon time would have been good for 63rd out of 671
Total money raised for the Diabetes Action Team $1,120

I hope to post the STORY tonight.

Into the Home Stretch

2008-11-03T11:01:00.002-05:00

Well, here I am only 5 days out. Am I ready? I can definitively say, I DON'T KNOW. Being my first Marathon, I can only plead Ignorance. "Ready" can be defined in many ways I guess. In some ways I can proclaim that yes, I am ready, but in others, I just can't make a call. Thankfully, the only aspect that I can at this time define as "NOT READY" would be that I have not yet packed for the trip. Everything else is in some stage of completion.

This last weekend my fundraising efforts on behalf of the Diabetes Action Team surpassed the $1000 goal I had set for myself. I even have a few more people who have pledged but not yet donated. They will be appreciated but are no longer critical to meeting my goal. I send a big thank you out to all who donated to this cause as I know that required various levels of sacrifice. Special Thanks go to my two sisters who, along with my Parents, made some of my largest donations. I am truly humbled by all.

Mentally, I think I am ready, but that is subject to how I feel those last few miles... Of course it would help if my wife would stop sending me emails about how I have been doing it wrong all this time or reading articles that I might DIE on Saturday. I am excited about this challenge and I am already playing out in my head how I think it will progress and how I will respond to various challenges that may arise.

Physically, I am not perfect, but I am confident. My 15 day moving average weight puts me at 185.3 lbs. A weight that I haven't seen since my High School PROM! And I have seen several daily weigh-ins in the 183-184 range, which would give me a BMI of 24.9. Officially changing my category from "overweight" to "normal". A far cry from the "obese" 37.5 BMI I used to sport. I have not had a significant injury during my training and indeed my muscles and joints feel great. I am just getting over a cold that moved into my chest a week ago but I think I am all but over the worst of it. I could always be stronger or have better conditioning, but I am confident in the training I have put in.

The weather, I can't control. The forecast varies depending on which website you trust but all hint to a storm front coming in on Friday taking away the near ideal conditions we will have all week long. Instead of the upper 40's to low 50's morning temps we will enjoy each morning until Friday, the front will lower the Saturday temperatures into the low 40's or upper 30's. Brrrrr, but better than the 32 degrees that one forecast had it last week...

My mileage, although not awe inspiring, has been sufficient to meet most beginner marathon training plans. During my Marathon I will surpass 1000 miles for 2008 and 1200 miles since September 2007. I have run four runs of 18 miles and three runs of 20 miles. I have run no fewer than 15 miles a week since March and at least 30 miles a week since July.

In the pursuit of this endeavour, I truly believe I have redrawn my stars. I am healthier than I have been my entire adult life. I finally feel like I am setting an example of health for my children. Having been overweight for so much of my life it is almost difficult to not view the world from this perspective, but it is a different world. Although the changes have exhibited themselves most noticeably through my weight and health, I have also seen positive change in confidence, determination, perspective, optimism, and, perhaps not fairly, how others view me.

For a "free" sport, it has cost me plenty however. I have burned through $300 worth of shoes in the last year. Add on top of that roughly another $200 in shorts, shirts, socks, Gatorade, Gu, headlamp, and other various equipment. Add to that the several hundred dollars I've spent on race registrations, and you quickly see I have some real money tied up in this little hobby. But beyond the money, the cost of time has been felt by my whole family (not to mention my yard). I have mowed my lawn this summer only when it reached the embarrassing stage and even then my wife hired the neighbor boy to mow it once. My wife has had to work around my runs for countless activities and shopping trips. I want to thank my whole family, particularly my loving wife, for putting up with my training this summer as it hit its peak, dictating which weekend activities would and wouldn't get done.

Barring some unforeseen news, this will probably be my last post until after my run. So I will sign off wishing you all well and asking you to keep me in your prayers.

12 More Days!

2008-10-27T10:34:00.003-04:00

The time is rapidly approaching for my Marathon. I am under 2 weeks and I only have one more "long" run before then. Even that run won't be long by most standards as it will only be 10 miles. I am nervous but at the same time, I think I have done all that I can do. It is odd to feel nervous about a competition where my only competition is myself. Yes, there will be other runners but as I will be nowhere near the front, this will be a race against only my expectations. It will be odd to see how I judge myself. Mere completion should be enough for a "victory" but will I allow that emotion if I don't reach my time goal?

We are just outside of the 10 day window that weather.com provides a forecast for. Based on earlier in the week and historical temperatures it should be in the low 40's at the start of the race and into the upper 50's by the end. 60 degrees is ideal but I'll take cooler over warmer EVERY time.

In my last real training run on Saturday I ran 14.1 miles in 1:57:58. That is about 8:22 per mile. If I could run that pace on race day I would far exceed my goal of a 4 hour marathon. Anything faster than 9:05 per mile will get me in under 4 hours. Of my 7 training runs over 18 miles, only one was slower than that pace and that was the first one that I wrote about where it was into the high 80's and I got dehydrated badly. Shouldn't be a problem running in the 40's...

I still haven't reached my fundraising goal of $1000 for Diabetes Action, but there is still time and still some "pledged" donations out there... It will be close. For those of you who "have been meaning to make a donation" now is the time. Follow the link on the right...

My 15 day moving average for my weight puts me at 186.8-187.4 depending on which of the two tools you believe that I use. I most certainly won't make the 183 which would give me a BMI under 25 but 185 is not out of the question... but still unlikely. Either way, I am more than happy with the 13-14 lbs I have lost since last year's half marathon. It is certainly harder to loose weight the closer I get to my ideal weight.

3 Week Countdown

2008-10-20T12:03:00.001-04:00

What once felt like forever away is rapidly approaching. No, I am not talking about election day 2008. Although, that is the same week... I am less than 3 weeks away from my marathon on November 8th. I am a little nervous but when I’m nervous I reflect back on where I have been and that generally brings a feeling of empowerment. It is almost surrealistic to see pictures of me now compared to pictures of me in 2001-2003.

The months of preparation now wind down in what runners call the taper. It is a gradual reduction of weekly mileage leading up to the race. My long runs the next two weekends will be 14 and 10 miles respectively which will come as a nice rest. I have six runs in excess of 18 miles under my belt, three of them over 20. I’ve run over 1100 miles in the last 14 months. My 15 day moving weight average is 187.7 which is roughly 87 lbs below my all time high and about the weight I was as I left to South Africa as a 19 year old. At my peak I wore 42" waist pants, now my 32" pants require a belt and I need to move to at least a 31" if not a 30". Just two years ago I completed my first 5k and celebrated the fact that I broke 30 minutes during that run (by 10 seconds), I now complete the distance in 21 minutes. No pun intended, I have come a long way.

Thank you to all those who have supported my running and my fundraising. I am always humbled when I get an email notifying me that a donation has been made in my name. My fundraising is at $615 right now with a handful of others who have "pledged" donations. I am still hopeful to reach my $1000 goal, which is just amazing to me!

The whole experience has also reinforced the notion that anything is possible with enough work and sweat put in. I hope many of you have been inspired to set your own goals and work towards them. If you have, let me know how I can support your effort like you have supported mine. Until then, keep me in your prayers… please. I need them more now than ever.

Shadow Dance

2008-10-13T09:40:00.004-04:00

Well, we have expanded the John household once again. This time Jamie didn’t have to suffer through 9 months of discomfort to do it. We have added a dog to the mix much to the delight of all of my kids. Here he is, Shadow. He appears to be a Weimaraner/Labrador mix. He is a bit too dark for a Weimaraner but is distinctly gray/silver which is really unheard of for pure Labs.

Last Friday shortly after I arrived at work one of my coworkers came inside and asked if I had seen the puppies. Going out to investigate we found two puppies roughly 3-4 months old had been abandoned in our parking lot. One of the two puppies was very friendly and immediately made a connection with me. I called Jamie to let her know. She wasn’t 100% onboard until I sent the picture, then it was a done deal. A coworker took the other puppy.

To say we are happy with this dog so far is an understatement. So we have had a few accidents two days into house breaking, other than that he has been Wonderdog! He travels well just laying still the entire time in the car. He shows no aggression towards the kids at all. And with a 3-year-old pulling your tail, ears, jowls, and tormenting that dog just about every way you can think of… his mellow demeanor has been put to the test. He was friendly to visitors we had Saturday afternoon without hesitation. When Jamie came home Saturday night he barked twice when the front door opened and calmed immediately when he saw it was Jamie. He has slept in his crate with very minimal crying each night and without having an "accident". The kids are learning the value of picking up their toys, shoes, etc. if they don’t want him to carry it off. We should have tried this a while back!

I’m sure it won’t all be fun and games, we have the food and the vet bills, the housebreaking and the shoe chewing, the "what to do with him when we travel" discussion and general cleanliness of our house issues. But hey, I couldn’t ask for a better personality in a dog and at least for now the kids are gah-gah for him. And yes, I am REALLY looking forward to having a running buddy at 5 am.

Rant, September, Weight, Race, Donations

2008-10-06T13:53:00.006-04:00

Maybe this should have been 5 posts instead of 1, oh well. First of all, is my blog still active? I know they haven’t been provocative or page-turners but 1 comment for the last 3 posts combined? Really? Has my running become that mundane to the rest of you?

Anyway, as for the update. Here is my monthly running chart you have seen periodically for a while now:
Each month I am surprised that it continues to climb but this time I think I can safely say it has peaked. During the month of October my running will taper off as I approach my Marathon in early November. It would also be very difficult to do better then September given that I have already doubled the number of running days missed in that month. September 3rd was the only non-Sunday that I didn’t run all month long. Due to a funeral in Ohio, I have already missed two days in October.

My weight plateaued for a LONG time at 196 but about 2 months ago it started a slow decline. I have weighed in below 190 lbs every day for a week now and my 15 day moving average is sitting right at 190. I think it is realistic to be in the 180's on race day, I won't make it to the 183 before then that had been my goal a year ago after I made it to 200, but it is definitely harder to loose weight when you are training so much, the apatite is insatiable!

The other element I wanted to mention was my race on Saturday. I ran my first 5k in over a year. I ran the Stonemill Race for Autism. The Stonemill 5k was the last 5k I ran as well so it was a great measure to see apples to apples how much better I have become with a 1000 miles logged between races. I knew I had improved, just not how much.

When I ran this race in late August last year my time was 23:50. This year, 21:00 flat, a pace of 6:46 per mile. The organizers were smart and asked everyone that ran under an 8 minute pace to step forward first. Due to this, I found myself in the front row for the first time. As luck would have it, I was on the right hand side of the road as well. The course turns 90 degrees to the right 100 ft from the start. When the race started I won the sprint to the corner and found myself leading a race for the first time ever. I cannot tell you how odd it is to look up and see nothing but a police car and pace bike in front of me.

I knew it wouldn’t last but it was a great feeling while it did. I lead down the first hill to the next turn. I lead up the next incline leading us through a parking lot. In all I lead for just over 2 minutes, the first third of a mile. I guess I should have focused on the last third, not the first third. A group of 7 runners passed me over the next third of a mile. I fell to as low as 8th but I still felt strong. By the two-mile mark I would climb back up to 6th only to be passed again by one of runners and finish 7th overall, out of a field of 190.

The fun part was that I made the podium for my age group. I was awarded 2nd place for the 30-39 year old males. It is the first time I have placed in any group in any race. I just got a certificate, but man it felt good. Now I just need to cut another 20 seconds per mile off and get under 20 minutes, THAT, would be something!

Well, I am now down to less than 5 weeks of training until the big day. As for my Diabetes Action Team fundraising, I have officially logged donations of $290, have another check in hand for $250, and a handful of people who have told me that they have either mailed in a donation or intend to do so. At this point it looks like my $1000 goal is still a bit of a stretch, but not out of reach. Thank you to those who have donated, those who are still planning to donate, and those who are donating your prayers and good wishes. I am humbled by each and every one.

Mille Borne

2008-09-29T16:44:00.003-04:00

I don't know if you ever played the card game but it was the first thing that came to mind this morning when I logged my run and noticed that I went over 1000 miles since I started logging my miles 13 months ago. I used to LOVE playing this game with my siblings, particularly my sister Coleen as she would say all the french words correctly. Even if she was the most ruthless player out there...

The 1000 miles took me 149 hours and 49 minutes of running. Makes me wonder why I didn't just run for 6 days, 5 hours, and 49 minutes strait and gotten done with it. Somehow something you can do in just over 6 days doesn't sound like as much of an effort as it really was. If you do the math it calculates out to 8 minutes and 59 seconds per mile.

Hopefully I will have all the safety cards during these last 6 weeks of training so I can call out "Coup-Fourré" if injury or an empty tank hit me!

Suwanee Day - Official Results

2008-09-25T08:45:00.003-04:00

Only a week and a half later than usual, here are the official results. OK, so it wasn't quite as good as I thought it was, but still a personal record. So here are the numbers:

Time - 47:43 (not the 47:30 I had guessed)
Pace - 7:41/mile
Overall Place - 24th out of 203
Age Group Place (35 to 39 M)- 7th out of 22

The time was always a guess as I indicated I hadn't seen the clock well. The 24th place was exactly where I thought I was. However, the 7th place in my age group was a bit of a disappointment. I'm guessing a few people delayed turning in their cards by the time I was there. Hopefully they corrected their summary sheet before the awards went out because she had filled all three slots when I turned in my card and there were faster times turned in after that... Based on their organization, I'm guessing they handed the trophy to the wrong guy!

As for my wife in her 5k - her time was bumped back a bit, 36:08 instead of the 36:03 she timed. I'm guessing that is due to the 5 seconds or so it took her to cross the start line so 36:03 is her personal time while the 36:08 represents the official time based on when the gun sounded. You can probably subtract a similar amount from my time. At least it wasn't the minute and a half it took me to start the Peachtree or the nearly 3 and a half minutes to cross the start line for my Half Marathon last Thanksgiving...

Suwanee Day and Other Stuff

2008-09-23T10:55:00.005-04:00

Oh the fun life training for a marathon! I have wanted to write for over a week now, but this time it is not my fault. I ran a 10k on September 13th and I have been waiting for the official results to be posted to put up a race report. Based on the organization of the race I should have known it would be a long wait. So here I am, 10 days out, still no results, but how can I withhold my writing any further and deny all of you the pleasure of reading about my… sweating?

First, the race. With all of my focus (obsession) with running this summer, some of it finally wore off on my wife. As I wore on about how a good race is "the validation of all your hard work"… blah, blah, blah… I finally talked her into signing up for a race. The perfect opportunity came in a local town’s annual carnival affiliated race, the Suwanee Day 5k & 10k Classic. I call it perfect because it is the first race I have seen where they run the two races an hour apart allowing Jamie to run the 5k and me to run the 10k.

First let me say that I am WAY proud of my wife. I think she obsessed about her training schedule more than I do. Of course she was more obsessed about running etiquette than the actual running I think. You can read about her view of the experience HERE, but my view of the experience was one of awe and pride. I can tell you that she did way better than I would have done decorating a cake or the million other crafty things she does! Although she missed her goal but roughly a minute, a post race drive of her roller coaster coarse made me wonder why they didn’t suggest a Sherpa for the runners. Holy Hills Batman!

It was during her race that I had my first signs of the lack of organization. About 300 yards from the finish line the runners crossed a set of railroad tracks. The leaders had come across but somewhere around 25 minutes, a looooooong train came by holding up every runner that would have finished in the 26 to 30 minute window. In a 5k, that’s probably your largest group. When the train passed, a slug of roughly 50-60 runners all sprinted to the finish making a nightmare at the finish line where they couldn’t hand out slips fast enough and the line backed up to where people were waiting in line to cross the finish line… almost comical. Of course, with the train interruption, its not like they were setting any PR’s anyway! I also noticed that the only thing they had for the runners finishing was a bottle of water, no fruit, no food, no other drinks. All of which is fairly common at most races. Jamie also reported that they only had 1 water stop during the 5k and although I have seen that for some 5k’s, the better-organized ones usually have two.

Thankfully, the 10k course went the other direction and other than one big hill (½ mile) down to start and the same hill up at the end, was almost completely flat. As usual I started out a bit further back than I should have as there are a lot of runners who feel like they have to be at the front despite the fact they know they are not fast enough to be up there. I spent the first ½ mile passing people. With the steep downhill gradient and my push to get past these slower runners that first mile was FAST. As they didn’t have mile markers, I don’t know how fast, but I knew I was going out faster than normal.

When we reached the bottom of the hill I slowed some but still tried to push it. The interesting thing about the course was that it was held on a popular local jogging route on a Saturday morning so there were almost as many non-racers as racers out there. At about the 2 mile mark one of the non-racers pointed at me and said "You’re number 22". It was great feedback that I don’t often get in a race. With that as motivation I pushed to see if I could break into the top 20.

I soon discovered that the 10k only had one water stop as well. That was a first for me and it was really not enough on a warm and very humid morning. The water stop was at the turnaround point (more of a small loop than point), I assume somewhere around the 5k mark. After drinking, I glanced at my watch and it read 23:15. I had caught and passed 2 runners by that point moving me to 20th. Pushing back the other way it was odd to pass runners going in the opposite direction. I have only raced loops or point to point courses in the past so an out and back course was a different sensation.

I could tell I was slowing somewhat but not too much. In my mind I wanted to save something in the tank for that last ½ mile climb at the end. On the back half though a few runners did catch me, 3 or 4. I still felt good about my running though. My PR for the 10k was 48:00 set on Memorial Day. I had about the same 5k split then but then really tailed off to finish at 48:00. Since that race I had run over 400 miles. I had confidence that that training would prevent the much slower 2nd half split.

When I reached the hill at the end I pushed into it with full vigor. I did catch one runner on the climb and I was closing on 2 more when we crested. With that I thought it was just a short sprint to the finish but one of the volunteers yelled out, "not yet, you have one more". I thought he meant one more hill and if we did a lap around the park we would indeed have one more hill so I delayed my sprint as I scanned the horizon for indications of the course. It had been as I thought originally, I kicked anew and was closing fast on the two runners I had almost caught on the hill but ran out of course before I got there. Maybe that volunteer meant one more sprint or one more tenth, who knows, and who knows if I actually could have caught them if I had started my sprint where I intended too. But I later discovered that one of those gentlemen were in my age group, and not catching them would hurt.

In the confusion of the finishing area I accidentally cleared my watch before I saw the time. I had vaguely seen the finish clock at the line in the rapidly approaching 47:30 so that is what I put on my finishing card, a new PR by 30 seconds. I glanced at the other cards in my age group, I was the 5th card in with the 4th card listing a time of 47:27. A volunteer was writing down the top three for each age group and I saw the 47:27 time written in the third place slot. This meant that the top finisher in my age group had finished in the top 3 overall. So instead of giving that person an award for both overall and age group they are removed from the age group pool to determine those finishers. So long story short, I missed the podium and a medal by 3 seconds, one of those runners I didn’t catch… 35-39 M is the most competitive age group out there. To put it in perspective, I would have finished on the podium in every other age group!

Of course the organization woes continued. Not only did they not have food for the 10k runners either, they had run out of water after the 5k and hence had NO WATER for the 10k finishers. They had hastily set up 2 coolers (well away from the finish line) with Powerade but had no volunteers working with the runners so you were on your own to get a cup and fill it. The delay posting the results was just the icing on the cake. I’ll let you know the official results when I get them.

My facebook friends also know I completed a 20 mile run on Saturday. This was my best long run to date by far. It has given me the confidence that I will meet my 4 hr (9:05/mile) goal for the marathon. I ran the 20.06 miles in 2:59:24 which works out to 8:56/mile. I felt great the whole way and after an ice bath, I was good to go about 2 hours later. I will repeat the 20 miles this coming Saturday, hopefully with the same results.

I also have to say how proud I am of Caleb who is now running a bit and will complete a 1 mile fun run on October 4th, the date of my next race. I will run the Stonemill Race for Autism 5k while Jamie and Caleb do the 1 mile fun run a little later. Hopefully that will be a better experience for my wife. Caleb is also running the "Jr Marathon" that is part of my marathon. For that he is required to log 25.2 miles of running before the November 8th race day, then he runs the last mile on race day, while I am doing my marathon, to complete his 26.2. He will get a medal just like the full marathon finishers.

I’m also proud of my twin brother who has been running in the morning for 2 weeks now. Although I am the only person on the planet that he has the desire to be competitive with, I think it is killing him to know I am 20 lbs lighter than him after spending 35 years as "the skinny one" of the two of us. Eventually he will get used to it. He can always fall back on being "the bald one" now. ;o)

Running States

2008-09-16T09:05:00.003-04:00

I was reading a thread on a message board the other day that asked what states have you ever run in. It reminded me of a post of mine 2 years ago about what states I have ever been in. I know that at least Maine is new to the states visited list since that 2006 post. That was in response to a similar post on my sister-in-law’s blog. When I pulled that up I realized I could generate the same map, just for my run-in states. So here it is:

Now mind you, some of these are nothing more than a couple miles on a hotel treadmill, but, I was in the highlighted state at the time. If I were to generate one where I had participated in official races, that would just be Arizona and Georgia. Not much fun there! So the rule I used was the states where I made a concious decision to go for a run of at least a mile. This kicked out states like Colorado and South Carolina where games of kick the can at Grandma's house or capture the flag at my cousin's house, just don't count.

Another fun graphic would be to show how far my 920 miles over the last year would take me from my house. Some places at the outer edge of an "as the crow flies" ring include: Boston, Ottawa, Minneapolis, Lincoln, Abilene, San Antonio, and Cancun (not to mention a goodly portion of the Bahamas).

FAILURE - Overcome

2008-09-08T16:07:00.002-04:00

I wanted to put up a follow-up post to my previous FAILURE post. I said at the time that I would re-run the 18 miler on September 6th, correct the errors I made the first time, and pray for a better result. By all accounts, I think I succeeded in my efforts. It was not perfect, but it was good enough to keep me motivated to continue. So what did I do differently?

The first big change I made was being hydrated to start with. I can't tell you how much I drank on Friday, but based on the fact that I had to get up in the middle of the night... it was enough. If anything, too much.

The next change was the time of day. Instead of the 9:30 start time in 75 degree weather that had me finishing after noon in 85 degrees, this time I started just a little after 6:30 in 65 degrees and finishing by 9:30 in 75 degrees... BIG DIFFERENCE.

I also changed the course slightly. To get 18 miles the first time I ran 2.3 miles to the shaded "Greenway" which is a 6 mile trail, .7 miles past the far end, and the the same course back. While the Greenway is shaded for 95% of its length, the 2.3 and .7 mile stretches are not. Some of the hardest running was that final 2.3 miles in noon day sun. To avoid the additional heat I overloaded the front end of the run to 4.39 miles by running around my neighborhood more, cut out the 1.4 miles in the middle of the run, and took the shortest path back from the Greenway at the end of the run, 1.65 miles.

The last and I think very important part of my success was including my wife. She ran the first 4 miles with me. We went at a relaxed (for me) 12:40 pace. That allowed me to warm up slowly and really break my run into two parts. At the 4 mile mark she turned for home and I continued to the Greenway. She was a great trooper and I was impressed by just how far she has come in a few short months. The first time we ran she walked most hills and we stopped several times over the 1.5 miles we covered. This time we cut several minutes per mile off and we stopped only twice the entire run. She is ready for her 5k... IMHO.

So how did it go? Strong. After separating from Jamie I pushed hard with a goal of running the last 14 miles at 9 minute pace. After I logged the next 7 miles at 8:30-8:40 pace I decided that perhaps I was pushing too hard and should slow down to ensure my success of finishing. Tapering off to 9 minute pace I cruised comfortably all the way through the Greenway portion of the course. When I emerged onto the road portion I noted some slight discomfort in one of my calves but not enough to slow me down. I pushed hard and ran the last 1.65 miles in easily under 9 minute pace.

All in all it took me 2:56:57 to run 18.04 miles. That averages out to 9:48 pace. It was :40 slower per mile than my goal time for my marathon, but still a successful run. I didn't stop a single time the last 14 miles, no cramps, no walking, no near death experience. Guess I have to keep going with this foolish plan...

I'm running a 10k race this weekend (Jamie is running the corresponding 5k), but my next distance is 20 miles on the 20th... wish me luck!

End of August Running Update

2008-08-30T20:28:00.004-04:00

Despite my last post, the month in general was successful. I ran at least 30 miles in each week of the month. The last week was my highest mileage to date, over 38. I only missed 3 of the 26 "running days" in the month. I started the month stuck in a weight range between 196 and 198 that I have been in since May. I ended the month on a 15 day average of 193.7, progress at last and I have been 192 for several weigh-ins. I had hoped to reach 183 by my marathon, that may be out of reach but under 190 definitely isn't...

I started tracking my running during the last week of August last year. Since then I have logged over 800 miles. Here is my chart as of the end of August this year. Still climbing, but not by much.

Just over two months to go for my Marathon, assuming I don't have many more days like today between now and then. As for the Diabetes Fundraising, I'm at $190 in hard donations with another ~$160 "pledged" based on my mileage run by November. I don't know if I have told you on this blog but my goal is $1000. So donations to date only bring me to 35% of my goal. For those of you who have given, thank you!

FAILURE - It doesn't always go according to plan

2008-08-30T17:37:00.003-04:00

Just had to post what a terrible long run I had today. (All those who revel in my failures, read on. All those who think I'm superman, don't be too disappointed.) I haven't had a run that went this bad for almost a year and it was a tough pill to swallow.

I have been building longer each weekend in preparation for my first marathon in November. Today was my first 18 miler. When I did 16 two weeks ago it went GREAT. Today, I think I made some mistakes that cost me.I didn't do my run in the morning yesterday so I had to do it last night. So, I did a 5 mile Tempo run that finished around 9pm last night. I don't think I ever fully rehydrated from that considering my daily weigh in this morning was down quite a bit. Instead of fully hydrating, I just drank my usual pre-long run amount.

My next mistake was that due to the fact that I have been getting my wife to run lately, I let her go first this morning while I watched the little ones so I didn't even get out until 9:15 and in Georgia this morning it was already 75 on its way to 85 by the time I finished. I've done heat, never that much heat.

By mile 10 I knew it wasn't a "great" run, but I was still feeling okay. By mile 13 it all went to you know where in a hand-basket. My pace dropped off by over 2 min/mile and I even walked a few .5 mile increments. I started mild cramps with 4 miles to go. With 1.5 to go, the gig was up, I walked the rest of the way in. With 100 yds to go both legs locked up in 100% cramps from toes to groin. I had to stand with my house in sight for almost 5 minutes before I could even walk the rest of the way.

I spent the next 3 hours in an ice bath, getting an icy-hot rubdown from my wife, eating bananas, and screaming in pain as my calves cramped periodically. It was the first time since I made my mind up to do this in March that I found myself considering that I may not be able to do it... I will repeat the 18 miles next Saturday, fixing the mistakes I made this week, I'm sure it will go better.

Thank you to those who have donated to my fundraising efforts. Your sacrifice is the fuel that keeps me going after a run like this, even more so than after good runs.

Getting Washed Out by Tropical Storm Fay

2008-08-27T09:28:00.004-04:00

First off, this post is in no way meant to deminish the gut wrenching impact and flooding that some have suffered as a result of Fay!

It is odd to think that over the course of my marathon training I have had very little weather to work around. Perhaps that is a function of the drought we have been suffering for close to two years here. I encountered my first weather obstacle this week.

What was left of Tropical Storm Fay dropped close to 4 inches of rain on North Georgia (over 8 inches in spots) over the last 3 days. Getting out of bed at 5am can be hard enough. Getting out of bed at 5am to run in the rain is more than I was able to rise too (ok, pun intended). So where has that left me?

Monday night I ran on the treadmill - yuck! Once you have tasted running through nature, running on a treadmill is BORING! (but doable in a pinch) Last night I went for a run through slight drizzle (I didn't have to wake up and do it). The river that runs by the wetlands I run in had overflowed its banks and was actually flooding the wetlands, instead of the other way around. An 1/8th of a mile section of trail I run was under water. It was IMPRESSIVE. As I didn't run again this morning, drizzle, I may have to do another evening run.

With my trip last week and the rain this week, I actually haven't gone for a 5am run for almost 2 full weeks now. The longer I go, the harder I know it will be to get back into that routine. Ironically, by running at night to make up for the missed morning run I actually make it harder to wake up less than 8 hours later and go out to run, continuing the cycle...

We really did need the rain here so I can tolerate the impact I guess... just so long as Gustav doesn't derail me again! Happy running to all!

BTW, just 2.5 weeks to my next 10k and Jamie's 5k. She is going to do great!

Beaches, Bigfoot, Books, and Shoes

2008-08-14T15:03:00.008-04:00

It has been a week or two since my last post. I seem to do this in waves. I wish I could do a post a day type theme but lets just face it, my life is just too boring to fill that much space. Since I last wrote much has happened with our family, part of which is responsible for me not writing for a while.

My brother David planned and took his family to Ocean Isle Beach North Carolina for vacation. A couple weeks back he called and invited us since the beach house he rented since it was capable of sleeping 13 people. We gladly joined him for 5 days 4 nights of fun, sand, and surf. Who cares if we shoved 14 people into that house right? When we rolled out on Wednesday afternoon we were very jealous that they got to stay another 3 nights. I want to publicly tell my brother THANK YOU. We enjoyed his family and our beach visit immensely! So while my twin was hanging out with my sister in a mountain cabin, we hung out in a beach house. Who wins that one? Could argue both sides really.

Caleb loved the boogie board and spent most of his time doing that. Of course the waves were so big that trying to get out into the surf to where they were breaking was quite the task for him and we frequently found ourselves going down the beach a couple hundred yards to retrieve him and return him back to our section of the beach. His most successful rides were when I went out with him and pushed him into the ride. When I did that he frequently rode the wave all the way to the beach. By the end of our trip he had boogie board sores on his stomach and thighs but I don’t think that deterred him one bit.

Mischa tried the boogie board a few times and it was only on the last day she learned that if I pushed her she could ride the waves as well. She was most content playing in the surf and helping me dig for shells. Joshua was a bit timid at first and preferred staying at the beach house if given the option but by the end of the trip he really enjoyed the shallow surf quite a bit. He tried the boogie board once but nose-dived and barrel rolled on his first attempt "nearly drowning", after that, I couldn’t convince him to try again.

Liesie LOVED the beach, but wasn’t too thrilled about going anywhere near the surf if it got water on her head (her mother’s daughter). She loved the shallows and loved playing in the pits I dug at the water’s edge. Here she is playing while I dig.

What can I say, I’m a geological engineer that works for a mining company. I like to dig looking for hidden treasure. I found several shells I was quite proud of. I would also like to confirm that despite reports of Bigfoot being found in the North Georgia Mountains, this is not a picture of him on vacation in North Carolina! Perhaps my next marathon could be run to raise funds for laser hair removal for my back? Maybe that will be more successful than my significantly slowed marathon fundraising efforts for Diabetes… (there is your dose of passive begging for the post)

This last Monday the older 3 started school. Continuing the tradition of taking each kid to his or her first day of Kindergarten I dropped of Joshua and gave a high 5. I had been worried that he might be a bit to timid and not ready to be away from Mama just yet but after the first three days of the week, all concerns are gone. That kid is having a blast. Mischa also rode with me while Caleb opted to ride the bus. Based on the end of the day, maybe I should have picked them up as well.

The other mini-event, was that my first pair of really good running shoes logged their 500th mile this week. You may be thinking "Wait, I thought he bought new shoes?" Or, "Does he really track that?" But more likely you are thinking, "Why the heck should I care?"

I did buy new shoes when these ones reached 400 miles. When I went to find the post I could have sworn I did to mark this occasion in June, I couldn't find one. Maybe I never put one up... huh? Anyway, I just upgraded from the Saucony Omni 6 the current year's model, the Omni 7. They may look quite similar to my first pair, but they took some getting used to. They are almost an ounce lighter but rub ever so slightly on my right forefoot. Since June I have worn each pair alternatively to transition into the new shoes which now have around 180 miles on them (I have been wearing them for the long runs hence they get almost twice the mileage each week).

I track the mileage to help avoid injury. The cushioning (even in a $100 shoe) is only good for so much stress and depending on the shoe, type of surfaces you run on, and the size of the runner, most books (not just the shoe companies) will tell you that you have anywhere from 300-500 miles in a shoe before it should be replaced. It is probably not as important for the casual runner logging 5-6 miles per week running 2-3 times per week. But for marathon training, logging 30+ mile weeks running 6 days a week, the body needs all the cushioning it can get. The last thing I want to do is derail my marathon training with 3 months to go. I definitely notice a difference in the cushioning from when I first bought them, still, $100 bucks is quite the pill to swallow and despite the fact that I have my cost/mile down to $0.20, I may keep running in these for a while more (600 miles?). If nothing else, I have a GREAT pair of regular everyday shoes now.

As for why should you care? You shouldn’t. Just another insight into the running world for your gee whiz collection. Also, I like to pad my blog post length with worthless filler. Maybe I should have broken this into it’s own post but then this wouldn’t be a "catch-up" post, now would it?

Anyway, with school begun and vacations over, the summer is all but over. I would argue that this was one of the more enjoyable summers I have had for a while now. My family brings me so much joy and it was nice to spend almost two full weeks (separated by a month) with them instead of at work. All good things come to an end so they say.

100 Days to Chickamauga

2008-07-31T12:02:00.003-04:00

I just did the math and discovered that today marks exactly 100 days until my Marathon. That made me ponder the state of my preparation. Where am I meeting my goals and where am I still lacking? Besides running a marathon, many of you may not know what my goals in relation to it are. For the sake of accountability, I will share my Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) with you. (Yes, I am a geek engineer, with a MBA to make matters worse...)

Miles per Week: 35 – Many of the books I have read on the subject have indicated that this is the minimal level of training required to run a "successful" marathon. To date my highest mileage week has been 34.5 miles. As my long runs get longer I should reach this goal. I may have to start adding a second run a couple days a week or come to grips with the concept of rising EVEN EARLIER to get more than 3.5-5 miles in each morning. Especially after school starts and I will be pinched for time in the morning.
Weight: 183 – This was established as my goal long ago based on the significance of that being the weight at which my body mass index (BMI) would fall below 25. I would then no longer be classified as overweight, which is where I am now with a BMI just over 26, or obese, which is where I started with a BMI over 37. My 15-day moving average weight is currently 196.0. After my half marathon last fall I weighed 199 but then "took a break" over the holidays and drifted back up into the 202-203 range. Putting in the miles I am, this one is harder than it sounds as the hard training makes me HUNGRY, but I am still hopeful as that really only works out to 1 lb per week going forward. Problem is, I have been in the 196-198 window for about 3 months now…
Run Sub-4 hour Marathon – This one is a little hard to measure without running the full distance. If you do the math, 4 hours to run 26.2 miles works out to just over 9 minutes and 9 second per mile. I ran my half marathon at 9:05 pace to come in under 2 hours but somehow I know I couldn’t have kept that pace for the next 13.1 miles… back then. Since then, my 10k times have improved from 53 minutes to 48 minutes. Plug a 48 minute 10k into various prediction calculators that account for slowing over the course of the longer distance and they predict I should run somewhere in the 3hr45min range for a Marathon. The other observation I made looking at my running data since March though, is that my average pace is SLOWING each month. Starting in March my average pace per mile has gone 8:43, 8:45, 8:45, 8:52, and 8:53. Although this was a bit of a surprise to me at first, there are some explanations. Since March my monthly mileage has tripled from 42 to 132 increasing the wear and tear on this poor body. Since March the morning temperatures have doubled from a refreshing and dry 35 to a hot and steamy 70+ (some scientists say to expect add 30 seconds for each 5 degrees over 60). Lastly, since March more of my miles are now coming from my Saturday long runs which are generally run at a slower pace ~9:00/mile. I’m not in panic mode on this one yet.
Run 6 days a week – This one is based on knowing that the key to my success is consistency. I always take a rest day on Sunday for the Sabbath of course but it also works well that my long runs are on Saturday. I’m not saying I won’t backslide, but this, with the loving support of my wife, is the metric I’m doing best with for now. In the month of July I only missed 3 days (not counting the 4 Sundays of course). One was the day we went to Six Flags and I would contend I walked a good 20 miles that day. The next was the Monday following my week of vacation where getting myself out of bed at 5 am… just didn’t happen. The last was pure and simple laziness last Thursday. There have been a few evening runs to make up for missed morning runs but for the most part, it is now part of my morning routine. Over the month of July I averaged 5.5 miles for each day I ran or 4.9 miles per available running day.
Raise $1000 for Diabetes Research/Treatment – This is one that is a bit out of my control. As you all know I chose to join a fundraising group, the Diabetes Action Team, as part of my marathon training. After an initial flurry of donations, I haven’t seen anything for a while. To date I have raised $170 through the good graces of some of my friends and family. I hope I have been true to my word to not harp on you and drown you with emails and solicitations but if you haven’t donated yet, please consider donating as you read this. I am truly humbled each time I get one of those "A donation has been made in your name" emails and it always drives me to rise each morning. Some of my best runs have been the day after a donation as they push me to be my best. So I ask you again, to share in my joy and help me reach my goal. If I can run 500 miles year to date with probably another 400 or so over the next 100 days, is a donation to a worthy cause too much to ask? Either way, I love you all and hopefully, if nothing else, I have your thoughts and prayers.

Roswell 500

2008-07-30T09:33:00.004-04:00

GENTLEMEN, START....YOUR....ENGINES!!!

OK, so they aren't quite ready to introduce that as the next event on the NASCAR series but I thought I would drop a quick note celebrating that with my run this morning I eclipsed the 500 mile threshold for 2008. By the end of the week I will pass 700 miles since I started tracking last August. I don't think I will reach the 1000 mile mark for 2008, but I may get close... I think it will all depend on how much I slack off after my marathon in November. If history is followed from last fall, I have no shot of reaching 1000 (see chart below), but perhaps if I sign up for a spring marathon I will be motivated to push through the cold months as well. We will see. Got to get the first marathon under my belt first...

The Pirates of Penzance

2008-07-29T11:05:00.002-04:00

Over the weekend I was watching TV and came across a movie that I hadn’t seen for quite some time. From the title of the post you already should know that the movie was The Pirates of Penzance. It was the 1983 production with Kevin Kline, Angela Lansbury, and Linda Ronstadt. If you haven’t seen it, MAKE THE TIME. It truly is one of the great musicals, if not movies, of all time. Gilbert and Sullivan plays have stood the test of time wonderfully but perhaps none more so than this one.

While I was enjoying the movie I thought it was funny that every time Mable (Linda Ronstadt) and her sisters came on screen I almost half expected to see my sister Coleen. Every little line or common quip I could hear her quoting even before they said it onscreen. Perhaps it is because of her years of theatre that I associate more movies with this one sister than anyone else I know. EVERY time I see or hear any of the songs from any of countless musicals, i.e. Oklahoma, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, the first thing in my mind is my dear sister. Due to the time difference I was quite certain my sister was still in church when the movie came on or I would have given her a call. By evening, the moment had passed and I never got a chance to give her a call.

One of the nice things about running is it gives me the free time to just let my mind wander. As I pondered about my sister and these associations I began to think of my other siblings and other family and if any of them have similar associations. With some I thought of movies, others songs or bands, but in each case the movies below trigger immediate thoughts of one of my siblings for various reasons. I hope no one takes offence as none is intended… So here is my list:

Mom – Pride and Prejudice – The black and white, not the new one.
Dad – October Sky (also Short Circuit – I have never seen him laugh so hard at a movie before or since)
Lorin – Rain Man – You would think this ties into the autism thread but really it stems from my childhood view of my eldest brother as the smartest man on earth!
Keith – Any movie with John Candy but particularly Uncle Buck. For some reason I can just see him making snow shovel pancakes. It is more than just the similarity in looks, it is his demeanor and his non-verbalized expectation of the best from other people.
Diana – Along with Dave, one of the harder to come up with something from "Pop-culture" to associate with her. Although I have many fond memories of her, they don’t really tie to movies or songs. From those memories, various objects remind me of her: model paint, birch beer, Breyer horses, and children’s storybooks, particularly "My Turn on Earth".
Coleen – See Above…
David – I thought hard on this one and I really couldn’t come up with a movie but what kept coming to mind was early 80’s rock, Journey, Loverboy, Rush, etc. I can’t get through "Come Sail Away" without picturing Dave at some point.
Oliver – You would think the obvious "Oliver" but the first movie that came to mind was Tron. Of course the other one that instantly brings Oli to mind is Rock Horror Picture Show. I’m sure he’ll wear that with a badge of honor… much to my mother’s chagrin.
Pat – The obvious would be Twins with his DeVito to my Schwarzenegger, but in reality it is all things from the 80’s. As no one was closer to me during that time, just about everything from that decade remind me of him.
Jamie – Although most everything is seen through the light of how I experienced it with her, I’m going to have to go with a song, I’m guessing she knows which one already… Whistling in the Dark by They Might Be Giants. Yes there is a story there.

So what I want to know is two things, am I the only one that associates particular movies with a single individual or is that common for all of you? Secondly, do any of you associate particular movies with me? Other than the obvious of course… Superman, The Incredibles, The Incredible Hulk… Of course, I could also be The Very Model of a Modern Major General...?

Stepping It Up

2008-07-19T12:00:00.002-04:00

I had a good week of running this week. I reached several milestones that based on my last post I have decided to celebrate. If you look at my training log (I know you are all watching it SO closely) you will see that every week I always had one weekday that I had managed to miss in EVERY week... before now. This week I managed to run every day (except Sunday of course). I had to do a few of them in the evenings to make up for missed morning runs, but still, every day. The next goal will be to actually do all my morning runs.

I am also to the point in my training program where my Saturday long runs are finally longer than 13.1 (half marathon). This morning I ran 14.46 miles. For anyone who knows what the heck I'm talking about, I ran the entire 6 mile length of the Alpharetta Greenway, then an extra 1.23 miles to Lake Winward, and back. It took me 2:10:30, which works out to 9:02 per mile.

This all added up to my highest mileage week to date at 34.5 miles. With any luck July should end up upwards of 130 miles. And FYI, I'm at 194 today although my weighted average that doesn't fluctuate as much is higher around 196. Still headed to 183, that's the plan anyway.

Oh, I almost forgot, we also picked up a Wii Fit this week. So far, pretty fun. I think I have a second career as a ski jumper...

Increased Expectations?

2008-07-16T13:24:00.004-04:00

I noticed something today. Where I used to celebrate and crow about every milestone reached with my running, I noticed I haven’t done it as much lately. Examples for this include: I posted when I crossed the 100 mile mark on my log but I haven’t really celebrated the century marks the 5 times since then (ok, looking back I marked the 200 miles this year point). I posted about my first 80 mile month and my first 100 mile month, but when I repeated the 100 mile month in June, I didn’t rush here to write about it. I have almost 100 miles on my "new" shoes (below) I got over a month ago but I didn’t write about them at the time like I did the first time I spent $100 bucks for a pair of shoes… (FYI, I just moved from the Saucony Omni 6 to the Omni 7 which is this year’s version – I like the 6’s more). So, the question is, how fast does something move from monumental to mundane? If I didn’t run 100 miles in a month I would feel like I am letting myself down but I now EXPECT to reach that threshold each month. Reality is that to prevent injury when running as many miles as I am I have to replace shoes after around 500 miles on them so big whoop if I got a new pair. I was excited somewhat, but why should you be excited? Of course, that question could be applied to the entire blog concept I guess.

Perhaps I am jaded by the lack of comments and say, "Wow, I didn’t get a single comment on my 100 miles post, why should I point out 200, 300, etc…." Maybe celebrations are not meant to be linear and I will be as excited about crossing the 1000 mile mark as I was about 100. Logarithmic Joy? It used to be that some of my runs were so exciting to me that I transformed them into fictional stories to glorify them further, where now, other than races, the only way I write about the events of individual runs is when something other than running occurs. So there may be a combination of dynamics here as to why I write about something one time but not another but the question is, does it even matter? I think you would be even MORE bored to read that this morning I ran 3.7 miles in the dark and saw 1 deer, 5 frogs, and countless dried worms on the sidewalk.

Maybe the constant droning about running gets stale. Maybe that is why my wife had to throw in a picture of an 18 year old (at the time and time since) backside. Running posts can only convey so much enthusiasm and dynamics. Of course, my life is not exciting enough as it is to support a blog. Other topics from the last few months I could write about? Movie reviews: Indiana Jones, C+ - IMHO, too much unrealistic reliance on CGI, Kung Fu Panda, B - I saw with a screaming 3yr old but a bit predictable, WALL-e B+ - funny and original but a bit too heavy on the anti-corporate/lazy human propaganda. Swimming Pool Maintenance: balancing pool chemistry is harder than you would think, no wonder pool boys would rather be doing something else… I’ll try to put up video of Caleb and me on a roller coaster when I get a chance, but other than that, I got nuthin…

Of course, I’m still doing better than my parents and 7 siblings combined who either don’t or RARELY blog and hardly ever comment!

P.S. - Many Many Thanks to my sister Coleen and her Husband and my High School Friends Ryan and Deanna who are my most recent donors toward my marathon fundraising efforts. I am truly humbled by every contribution! I am 17% to my goal with 4 months to go… I also only recently found out about another person in my life now taking Type II Diabetes medication but I will leave it to HER to tell others as she sees fit as she has decided not to broadcast it but yet not keep it a secret either.

Blog Hijack

2008-07-09T12:14:00.004-04:00

This was discussed in the comments section of this post, and I was going to post it on my blog and link back, but we all know that Perry gets way more traffic than I do and I didn't want it to languish away all alone, lol.

Now you can all discuss what a lucky woman I am (as well as marvel at Real's mad photography skillz). -jamie

Peachtree Road Race - Report

2008-07-08T07:49:00.003-04:00

I know you all are on pins and needles awaiting the report for my 4th of July race, right? Okay, so most of you probably didn’t even know I was running a race on Independence Day. Now that I live so close to Atlanta and running has become a larger part of my life, I think it would be a bit of a crime to not run the annual PEACHTREE ROAD RACE. This race is the largest 10k race in the world with 55,000 allowed slots that sell out in 2-3 days. (The Bolder Boulder is fast approaching with just over 54,000 runners this year but they don’t cap their runners and even allow same day registrations. Bib numbers are bought and sold on places like Craig’s List and the race T-shirt is a status symbol in this town.

Some of this may be old news to you but the story really starts at the registration process. The Atlanta Journal Constitution prints the entry forms in a Mid-March Sunday Newspaper which you have to buy and then mail in the form and a check (if you want a seeded time group you also send in a copy of an official race result). The story starts when I forgot to get that Sunday paper and didn’t realize my oversight until I was at work the next day, which also happened to be my birthday. I hastily called my wife and had her track down a form, print out my race results, and mail off my entry form. On her way home from the mailbox, she turned left out of the shopping center and clipped a glass truck, totaling our mini-van. So you can say that my Peachtree entry cost me several thousand dollars!

A few weeks later I noticed my check had cleared giving me the heads up that I was accepted into the race. In late June I got my race packet in the mail with my race bib and timing chip. I was placed in group 1B as I expected. The field is so large that they try to seed the runners as best they can. First are the elite runners and invitees, they are followed buy the "sub-seeded" group who have times faster than 42 minutes, group 1A runners have official times between 42 and 50 minutes, and group 1B have official times between 50 and 55 minutes. Although I logged a 48 minute 10k on Memorial Day that was after my registration went in in March with my previous PR of 51 minutes and change. So next year, should I run it, I will be eligible to move up to group 1A. For runners slower than 55 minutes or with no official time you are assigned groups 2-9 and for those in the back the race is long over before they take their first step.

That is the groundwork, here is race day. I awoke at 5 am and showered. I immediately noticed that the 30-40% humidity we had enjoyed all week had been replaced by 85% humidity that morning. I dressed and kissed my wife goodbye and headed downstairs. I really wasn’t in the mood to make anything so I grabbed two pop-tarts and a Diet Mt. Dew. Not exactly the breakfast of champions but I have run further on less and pop-tarts have never bitten me before. I drove to the train depot to take MARTA to the race rather than deal with traffic in and around 55,000 runners.

I arrived at the start area about an hour before the race started. This was according to plan so I could use the facilities prior to running. The portables had a 30-minute wait but it was well worth it. I watched the wheelchair runners start while I waited in line. The line was twice as long when I finished as it was when I started so I don’t know what those runners ended up doing… From there I made my way to my coral. Each group is herded into fenced areas that you can only enter with an appropriate bib. Once in I moved as far forward as I could without feeling rude for cutting in front of other people. This does not mean others wouldn’t do it however. MANY people pushed and shoved as the start approached to get that extra 5 feet closer to the Kenyans… I understand competitiveness but if it is that important to you, get there earlier!

After the race started it took me a good minute and a half of shuffling before I finally crossed the start line and started my watch. The only thing I remember about the first mile was just the sheer throng of runners. Winding past slower ones, giving way to faster ones, and more than anything, enjoying the spectacle. This was the first race that I have run that I would also call an "event". There was more to it than just a bunch of runners trying to brake their personal records. That hit home when we passed the priest throwing "Holy Water" on all of the runners!

At the end of the first mile I noted my first mile was 8:41. Far slower than I had hoped but also a lot better than it could have been considering the throng of people I was engulfed in. It is hard to say that the crowd thinned out as that is relative to other races I’ve run, but at least I could make my way around slower runners by this point. My second mile time of 7:44 was not blistering but fast enough to keep my sub 50 minute goal alive after the slow start.

As I moved into the third mile the coarse took a slight downhill trend and the spacing became even more generous. I decided that if I had any chance at 50 minutes, I had to make my move now, before the uphill portions closer to the end of the course. As I noted my third mile time of 7:15 I began to believe my goal was reachable, especially considering the running space I was now enjoying. Somewhere during my 4th mile I was given a Waffle House headband which I strapped on. I had skipped the first few water stations due to runner congestion and the sweat was really starting to pour down off of me. The headband helped, as did my first water station. My fourth mile time of 7:45 was a bit slower than I had hoped after the third mile but still acceptable.

Then I hit Cardiac Hill! In the fifth mile you run up a hill that has been lovingly named "Cardiac Hill" due to its proximity to a downtown hospital and due to the many heart attacks that a hill this large this far into the race causes. I was passing quite a few people up the hill and felt strong. I think this is due to the many hills in and around my neighborhood that I run on a daily basis. You can imagine my disappointment when at the end of the mile I noted an 8:46 split. How is it that I ran even slower than with that mass of people at the start line? With 1.2 miles to go I had just under 10 minutes to do it. I gave myself 2 minutes for the last .2 miles and knew I had to run sub 8 for the 6th mile if sub 50 was going to materialize.

That final mile is a series of ups and downs and I tried my best to push into each one. The heat and humidity were definitely taking their toll on me but my breathing was not overly labored. It quickly became so as I kept telling myself that if you are still breathing well, your not running hard enough! I passed the 6-mile mark with a 7:42 mile and 2:06 for the final .2 miles to make my goal. I knew I had it then and sprinted as hard as I could to the finish line. With a 1:52 for that last stretch I crossed the finish line in 49:46 for my official "Chip Time". Now the clock read 51:17, but that was my "Gun Time". The chip time represents the amount of time it takes to go from start to finish, netting out the wait I had as those ahead of me started the race.

From there we were funneled through the chip return lines, and then the T-shirt collection lines, and then the try my new sports drink lines, then I finally followed the signs back to MARTA for the train ride back to my car. I will not even begin to describe how gross a commuter train packed with a couple thousand sweaty runners is. I’ll just say I was glad to get back to my car…

Final results, I came in 2218th out of 55,000 registered entrants. That is based on the "gun time" as they follow the rule of "first to cross the finish line". If you look at the results you will see several people ahead of me that have slower chip times but had the good fortune of starting earlier than me. I guess that is the value of moving up to 1A next year and then rudely elbowing my way to where I can grab an Ethiopian… As for my age and sex rank, they only do male/female and over/under 40. So, for the under 40 males, I came in 991st! Been there, got the T-shirt, unless something changes, I most likely will be doing it again next year.

Memories of Me? / Comment "Fishing"

2008-07-07T11:36:00.003-04:00

I got this from my SIL and Real and more than anything I was jealous of the amount of comments it generated on their blogs. Hopefully it will have the same effect on mine...

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

My Wife, the Turtle

2008-06-19T15:27:00.002-04:00

At her "request" in her comment to my last post I had to throw this post up for my wife. In an effort to support my wife in her recent running efforts I suggested an idea to her. I said that I would love to go on a run around the neighborhood with her. I have mapped out several 1.4 to 1.7 mile courses just running around our neck of the woods. I told her that I felt that the kids could behave themselves for 20 minutes and in the event of an emergency I could be home in far less than 10 minutes from anywhere we might be on our run. I told her that I could carry her cell phone and that we could pre-dial the number from our home phone so the kids would only have to hit the redial to get us. We have done this same practice when she goes shopping and I am on the roof cleaning our gutters. After some initial hesitation, she agreed to give it a try.

We decided to take the shortest loop on our first run that is only 1.39 miles to the kids school and back. I told her to go her own pace, and I would jog along for moral support and conversation. I wore my hydration belt so she could have water when she needed it. Although it was warm, it was not unbearable at around 80 degrees or so. She would run for several minutes and then walk/drink every so often. She had tried to say, while arguing why the plan wouldn’t work, that I would be walking along side of her running but I assure you that I couldn’t have kept up just trying to walk the whole way.

Our neighborhood is somewhat hilly but I was quite impressed that she chose to run up the hills. I don’t remember a single significant hill she walked up. We completed the loop and reached home in 19:40 or 14:09 / mile pace including the walking and running – never stopping. This was the fastest pace Jamie has gone since getting her new shoes and when you consider the hills and that the other ones also included full stops and breaks not included in her time, it is extra impressive. For the record, that is fast enough that if she were running a 5k and me a 10k, she would still finish first… I know there were several runners at my last race who couldn’t make that claim.

The run was extra fun for me as well. I did most of the talking but I enjoyed the conversation that I rarely get on my solo runs. The run also functioned as an EXCELLENT warm-up run for me as I went back out for another 3.73 miles that I ran at a pace much faster than I had run for several weeks in training. I rarely get the luxury of a separate warm-up run.

I am sad to report that she is having some shin pain after that run that she didn’t have with her home treadmill runs. I hope she didn’t push too hard because she felt pressure from my presence at her side. I guess some breaks for stretching are needed if I can talk her into doing it again. She may not realize it but her 4.4 miles so far are actually a big motivation for me as I see her try to find joy in my hobby. I wonder if she gets the same emotion watching me play with her stamps at Christmas time or helping her frost a cake?

She may have suggested the title to this post but if I’m the hare, EVERYONE knows the end of that story…

What Goes Bump (or Pop) in the Night

2008-06-19T11:40:00.001-04:00

My Long Run on Saturday included an event that I wanted to write about and get your opinion/feedback on. Usually I run in the mornings on the Alpharetta Greenway for my long runs. Last Saturday I had a change in plans, or more correctly, my plans were changed for me. Friday night I spent the night in the Hospital Emergency Room with Joshua getting 4 stitches in his forehead. That is a whole other story but suffice it to say he was one of the monkeys jumping on the bed and we know what happens to each of them in turn… Getting home at 4 am, I slept until noon. So following a full day of activity I finally got out around 9pm for my long run.

Instead of running at the Greenway, which has convenient markers each half mile, I decided to run a double loop around my neighborhood and adjoining wetlands/park. I plotted out a course that would be just over 9 miles and headed out the door. Due to the late hour I wore my headlamp that I usually wear on my early morning runs. Fairly early in my run I heard a noise in the distance, from the general direction of an apartment complex next to our neighborhood. Pop-pop-pop…pop-pop….pop-pop-pop…pop… I didn’t get an exact count on the pops but there were several. From that distance it really is impossible to distinguish between firecrackers (they have started selling them for the impending 4th of July) and gunfire. As it was so far in the distance, I just filed it away and continued my run.

About an hour later I was well into my run and was now in the park running around some of the man-made wetlands and ponds. As it was after 10, the sun had fully set and I was depending on my headlamp for lighting. I rounded a corner and approached a loop around another pond and noted what looked like a light from a flashlight about 1/8th of a mile off, just off the trail. This park is a favorite of mountain bikers and the first thought that went through my head was "wow, that is one dedicated biker." As I continued to run I noticed that the light wasn’t moving, it was staying in the same general area, just off the path. My mind tried to explain this as "maybe he has a flat tire" but that, or any other explanation I was thinking, just wasn’t feeling right. Then, as I continued to run around the loop in that direction, when I got about 120-150 yards away, the flashlight all of a sudden turned off.

My mind went into overdrive. Why would they turn the light off? Did it correspond to when they saw me? Maybe it was a bike and it went around a corner? In the dark, not a house within a half-mile, the mind and its natural defense mechanisms can do amazing things. Fairly quickly my mind retrieved the memory of the popping noise. Then I realized that where I was I was actually closer to the apartment complex than to our neighborhood. It was through a tree line and a fence but where that light was is only 250 yards from the closest apartment building… Could this be thugs disposing of "something"? Or is this just some kids out messing around in the woods after dark? So many questions with ZERO answers.

That’s not entirely true. I was getting an answer but I was choosing to ignore it. My "gut" and the Holy Ghost were YELLING at me, turn around NOW and run back the way you came. Three things betrayed me. One, my feet, they just kept moving. In a world of maintaining pace and stride, the unnatural act of stopping and turning around, just didn’t compute in my head. Two, my planned run, I knew the exact distance of the route I had mapped out but if I turned around I would have to go on to Google Earth and re-measure that segment of my run. And even then, it would be a guess as to my exact turn around point. And third, my biggest hurdle, my ego. I can’t be afraid of a flashlight or noise or anything while I’m out running… If I let this one win, what would I do the next time I heard a howl early in the morning, or the crashing of some bushes? Where do you draw the line when your mind’s imagination takes over?

For good or bad, I kept running. As I approached that stretch of the trail my heart rate peaked, and not because I was already 7.5 miles into my run or because I had picked up the pace. This was different, this was pure adrenaline from the fear and concern that I had made the wrong decision. As I ran past the area I made a point of not shining my light off the trail, I just ran straight ahead, looking straight ahead, like I never saw the flashlight in the distance. Just as I convinced myself that there was nothing there I heard a small rustle and a distinct "Shhhh Shhhh Shhhh" from the bushes. Sweat soaked hair on the back of my neck still found a way of freeing itself from the moisture and sticking straight up. My ears perked, straining to hear more. The bullfrogs droned from the adjoining pond but my heightened senses functioned like noise cancelling earphones finding a way to filter the frogs out to listen to the bushes more intently. But there was nothing but silence from the grassy knoll. Somehow my mind started developing exit strategies and contemplating the question of what a bullet to the back would feel like. Would I go down with the first shot? How many could I take and still run? I reached up and turned off my head-lamp thinking "I’m not giving them a target, let them shoot in the dark!" As my eyes quickly adjusted to the tree filtered moonlight I kept a focus on the white concrete path, I quickened my pace, lengthened my stride, and never looked back.

It was a good quarter mile before I slowed down, if only slightly, and turned my light back on. Even then I wouldn’t turn around and my ears strained to listen for running feet other than my own. I ran straight home from there (that was my designated course anyway). I debated whether or not to tell my wife and decided to share the experience with her. Not a mistake, but I took my scolding and her point about 5 people back at the house that depend on me making the right decisions and listening to the Spirit when it is talking did not fall of deaf ears. I debated whether or not I should tell the Police but I settled on the argument of "it still could have been your imaginations, lets see if there was any crime reported in the news before I get the police chasing random flashlights". Watching and searching the news for the next two days, nothing showed up.

It could have been, and most likely was, nothing nefarious. But what would you have done? Have you ever been in a similar situation? What did you do? Inherently I think that late night in a park is far more dangerous than early morning in a park or late night around the neighborhood. I think I have decided that if I have to run after dark again, I will stay on the neighborhood roads and not loop into the park. That is sad because the park is nice and I often see wildlife but ultimately I don’t want to have to make this decision again and my family IS more important than any enjoyment I get from running.

My Kids

2008-06-11T15:42:00.002-04:00

If you want to see some really nice pictures of my kids, wander on over to the blog of a photographer friend of ours who is doing a series of kids photo's. Check 'em out:

Dang - those 4 kids are the best Father's day gifts I could ever ask for!

Tucson Arizona - Bear Down Baby!

2008-06-11T15:33:00.003-04:00

It sure was nice last week to get a taste of the old stomping grounds. Of course in writing the title of the post I'm reminded that my school slogan sounds like something an OB/GYN might say... As part of an expansion of my job responsibilities at work I am adding our facility south of Tucson, Arizona to the list of facilities I take care of environmentally. As part of that, I visited Tucson last week. For those of you not aware, I attended the University of Arizona in Tucson for my undergraduate degree where I met my wife. Of all the places I have lived, Tucson ranks third, for now, only behind Salt Lake City and Silver City for duration. Kearny may beat it out if you add in a few summers here and there but I don’t think so, I’ve never done all the math…we could call it a tie for third…

Anyway, I flew into Tucson late on Monday and back to Georgia early on Friday. If I was smart I would have booked my return flight for Saturday or Sunday and used the company paid flight for a trip up to Kearny as well, but I guess I can do that next time. As it was I was able to arrange dinner on Tuesday night with my twin as he stopped en route from Silver City to Phoenix with a co-worker headed to a training conference. I also met up with my parents on Wednesday night as they drove down to Tucson for dinner. My brother Ollie, who lives in Tucson for another month or two, joined in for both occasions. Living on the East Coast with only one sibling within driving distance makes me appreciate those rare chances to see family all the more.

I can’t have a post without a nod to my running of course. Oh how nice it was to run in Arizona. I could get used to that in a hurry! Each morning I would go out for my runs at the usual 5 am but due to Arizona’s insistence on ignoring daylight savings time the sun came over the horizon within 15 minutes of the start of my run each day. The desert may get hot in the day (103 last week) but the morning cool in the mid 60’s with what felt like single digit humidity was PERFECT running weather. My 70-degree runs with 90% humidity back in Georgia this week have felt oppressive in comparison!

For all the old acquaintances I wasn’t able to hook up with this go around, I’m sorry, I’ll try to catch you next time. As it was, I was with my boss who had rented the car for us, so getting the car for my own use on two of the three evenings was pushing it as it was. The trip reminded me of all the things I enjoyed about Arizona not to mention the proximity to family, but for all that, I love life in Georgia as well. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean I cheer for the SEC over the Pac-10, that doesn’t mean that I don’t read the Kearny, Tucson, Silver City, and Salt Lake City online newspapers at least weekly, it just means I follow NASCAR now as well…

Interesting Observation...

2008-06-10T13:11:00.003-04:00

I have absolutely no evidence that the two are correlated but I noticed something today and find it extremely interesting...

Since I started my blog I have had 77 total posts. I have received at least 1 comment on all but 9 of them. Quite interestingly 4 of the 9 with no comments have occurred in my last 6 posts. So what was 6 posts ago? The announcement of my Diabetes fundraising efforts and the link to my donation site.

Is it coincidence that the comments dry up when I ask for more than a quick read and update on my life? Maybe my running exploits are just not that fascinating and hence people are not motivated to comment? Or maybe, just maybe, people don't want me to know that they have visited since I put that info up so they can plead ignorance when I ask them if they know about my fundraising?

OK, guilt trip over. Like I said in the original posts and emails, I'm not the in your face type of fundraiser. But that doesn't mean I don't rely on passive aggression for just about everything in my life... Hey, I've got to do something, I sent out the email and had my big announcement and got 1 co-worker and 1 college buddy I hadn't seen in 12 years as the only two people to make a donation! That only got me 5% of my goal! I've promised not to send out another email but that won't stop me from making frequent reminders here on my blog. I have faith in you, I'm sure my observation is nothing more than coincidence... I won't really start getting depressed for another couple months, so you have some time I guess.

100 Mile Month - Finished with a Bang!

2008-05-31T14:12:00.005-04:00

At the start of the month I stated my goal of running 100 miles during the month of May. My long run this morning carried me over the mark. I ended the month with 106.4 miles. My highest total ever. I needed the full 5 Saturday's to get there, so I don't know if I can repeat it in the months to come, but I will try. Most marathon training programs incorporate A MINIMUM of 35 miles per week which would get me up to at least 140 miles per month. Right now I'm in the 20-25 miles/week range.

So, here is my graph with the full month of May showing.

Another item of note was my long run today. Following my race on Monday I had been somewhat lazy this week. I didn't run the day after the race. I ran an easy short run on Wednesday. And then I had late nights Wednesday and Thursday - one making a Raingutter Regatta boat and the other watching the Lost season finally. Both lead me to skip my morning runs on Thursday and Friday. Because of the light week I decided to make my long run particularly long - I planned on at least 12 miles.

I chose this distance because the trail by my house is about 6.1 miles long. I like this trail for my long runs because it is marked with signs every half mile so I can easily measure my pace. As I ran this morning I was feeling quite strong and went the full length including the .1 miles past the last sign on the far end. As I ran back I noted that I was running a faster pace than the half-marathon pace I ran last Thanksgiving. My pace then was 9:06/mile for a finishing time of 1:59:05. I then decided to double back one of the half mile sections and add 1 more mile to my run to get in a full Half-Marathon.

Of course my pace slowed a little on my way back but was still averaging under 9:00/mile when I doubled back at the .5 to go mark. I ended up running 13.25 instead of the 13.1 Half Marathon distance but even with the extra .15 miles my finishing time was faster than my Thanksgiving Day race. Based on my pace of 8:54/mile my Half Marathon time was 1:56:35. To bad my PR list is only based on "Official Races". But it still feels good to know I'm ahead of where I was last fall. I am confident that if I was actually in a race mentality and not a bit worn out from already running a hard race earlier in the week I would have done even better so I am quite encouraged...

As for my weight update: I weighed in at 194 this morning but my Google 15 moving average (this is a Google gadget that calculates a 15 day moving average to smooth out weight variation) is a bit higher at 195.8. I am hoping to get down to 190 by the end of June to prepare for the Peachtree Road Race I am running on the 4th of July. For those of you who don't know what the Peachtree is, it is the largest 10k in the world with 55,000 runners.

Celebrate America - The Results Show...

2008-05-30T10:34:00.003-04:00

Ok, so the official race results were posted last night so I thought I would give you a breakdown. First off, I hate to argue when they IMPROVE my time by 12 seconds but there is no way my watch was off that far and my watch was within a second of the only split called out, at the 1 mile mark. The only thing I can think is that the course was actually more than 10k so they subtracted the distance and, based on your pace, reduced your time accordingly. Nothing else explains the 12 second change… Having said that, I guess I’ll take it! So, here are the numbers:

10 kilometers (6.2 miles) – 48 minutes flat or 7:43/mile (I timed 48:12 on my watch)
Runners: 478 doing the 5k, 457 doing the 10k for a total of 935 runners at the starting line(guess I can't estimate crowds very well...)

Winning Times: 15:38 for the 5k (at least I was less than a mile back at that point – just barely), 35:14 for the 10k (I was getting a drink in the middle of mile 5 about then…)

My Placing: For the 10k – 96th overall (my card said 98 so I'm guessing two unregistered runners went through the finish gate), 83rd Male, and 11th out of 48 35-39 year old men. Had I just run the 5k, my split of 23:10 would have been good for 76th overall and 8th for the 35-39 year old men.

Observations of Note: I lapped a total of 9 runners before they could complete their 5k. My improvement of 3:41 from my last 10k moved me up 69 spots in the overall and 15 spots in my age group. I ran almost the entire race within arms distance of a 59-year-old female who finished two spots and 14 seconds ahead of me when she pulled ahead on the final hill. Unlike last year when I think at least a half a dozen teenage girls beat me, this year there was only 1 and lets face it, if you run sub 40 as a 15 yr old girl, you’ve got a future in the sport! And you remember that kid I helped pull up the hill? I think that is him 1:29 behind me, 13 years old, taking 1st place in the 10-14 male category!

Race Report - Celebrate America 2008 version

2008-05-28T15:22:00.004-04:00

I wanted to put up some pictures and a race report from my Memorial Day race. Monday morning I ran the Celebrate America 10k in Alpharetta, GA. I had been holding off putting up a report until the official results were posted but I have decided to just update the post when they are. This race represented a great measuring stick for me for many reasons. This is the first time I have run the same race for a second year – although last year I ran the 5k version. This is also the exact same course that I ran my 10k on in early March, right before I really ramped up my training efforts.

This was my first race since I started my fundraising efforts so here I am posing in my yellow Diabetes Action Team race shirt. This picture is actually in my back yard after my long run on Saturday. Knowing I had a race on Monday I forced myself to take my 9 mile run very slowly and my 1hr20min time for that run felt like a crawl – good thing since that is the exact pace I want to run my marathon at…

The other really neat thing about this race is that it is the first time I have successfully guilted, I mean, talked my wife into attending a race and she dragged the kids along to boot. That was great! The race was scheduled to start at 7:30am so we got there about 6:45. I went and signed in, got my number, 232, and my T-shirt, then went back to the van where everyone was waiting. We then got out and took the picture below of me with my personal cheering crew. When we finished it was about 7:05. Jamie went back to the van while I went for a warm-up run. I jogged just over a mile at something like 12 minute pace that felt like not much more than a shuffle but it got the blood flowing. At 7:20 I returned to the van and dragged everyone to the starting line.

Here is the field lined up to start. Can you pick me out? Remember, I’m in yellow, I’m looking generally in the direction of the camera, and your best clue is that I’m the good-looking one. I would guess there was 400-500 runners there but this was a mixture of 5k and 10k runners. The course is a 5k loop that you run twice for the longer distance. I lined up a bit further back than I should have, like I always tend to do, but it is kind of nice to spend the first mile passing dozens of people even if it does slow you down.

So for a general description of the course you should know that the first mile is slightly uphill but at a low gradient the whole way. As you start mile two you immediately drop down a good hill for a quarter mile and then run close to level the rest of that mile. The third mile in the loop starts with about .4 mile hill that is the largest on the course and then drops back to close to the same elevation by the end of the mile – net a wash but with a big hump in the middle. For the final .1 miles you climb up a little hill into the parking lot and like I said, for the 10k, you repeat the loop.

Mile 1 – The start was delayed slightly as the run organizers realized that a policeman’s motorcycle was blocking some runners and we had to wait for him to move it. As I crossed the starting line I tried to look to the curb and find my wife and kids for a final wave but I never did see them through the crowd. Apparently they saw me though because Mischa let out a "Go Daddy" that I heard clear as day. What a lift it gave me! My pace was a bit faster than I had planned especially considering the crowds I had to weave through but I didn’t feel like I was pushing it and I wasn’t winded. It was my first clue that my race was going to go well. – 7:21

Mile 2 – I cruised down the hill with long strides. The crowds were thinner now and most of the passing was done as people set into their groups. Not wanting to burn out I tried to pull back on the reigns a bit. I felt I was in a comfortable zone and I was feeling good. I passed the first water station as it was clogged with a large group of people who obviously went out much faster than they should have and were now standing at the water table instead of running past. For some odd reason the volunteers weren’t handing out cups either, letting the runners grab their own off the table. – 7:22

Mile 3 – Holy Cow, was my watch reading right? How is it that I pulled back but ran almost the same pace? As I pondered race strategy for a couple hundred yards I failed to focus on the big hill I was hitting. I finally came back to awareness I pushed into the hill knowing I could coast down the far side to regain my breath on the long downhill. Still feeling strong through this mile I remembered the struggles I had at this point last year. If you remember the famed pinched butt post and my need for a port-a-pottie, you know what I’m talking about. – 7:42

Mile 4 – As I rounded the corner into the parking lot I noted the clock for the runners finishing their 5k. Had I been in that group I would have crossed in the range of 23:10 even without a kick. That was 41 seconds faster than my 5k personal record (PR)! Was I going to die on this second lap? Just before the finish line for the 5k the 10k runners turned back out of the parking lot to start the second lap. There waiting on the corner was Jamie and the kids. They screamed and cheered and I blew them a kiss (right before the picture below was snapped) grabbed a cup of water from a volunteer and then headed back up that long slow climb again. – 8:09

Mile 5 – Crud, I just ran a mile split over 8 minutes. My goal for this race was to run sub-50 minutes and I knew that to pull that off I needed to run 8:02 per mile or better and although I had built up a bit of a buffer in those first 3 miles I could easily burn through it if I died off. Knowing I had that hill in mile 6 to climb I pushed into this downhill/flat mile. My breathing quickened a stride here but still not overly labored. I did hit the water station this time but this time there was no other runners there as I went by. I was feeling strong but would I have enough for that last hill? – 7:52

Mile 6 – With that number my confidence began to build. I knew that no matter what this hill threw at me there was no-way I was going to run a 9:20 mile and blow it. I pushed hard into the hill. A high school kid had stopped and was walking up the hill. I yelled out to him as I approached and told him to push it and I would pull him up the hill. As I went by I heard him start to run and I heard him on my hip all the way to the top. Amazingly it felt like he was pushing me, not as I had promised him… He fell back as I strided out when we crested and started our decent. I didn’t see him at the finish but he couldn’t have been too far back. – 8:15

Last .2 Miles – Crud, I thought my kick down that hill would get me sub 8 for sure but I guess that hill took more out of me than I thought. I really pushed into it with everything I had. I rounded the corner into the parking lot and my first glimpse of the clock said 47 something. Are you kidding me? I had done the math but it didn’t sink in until I saw it on the official clock. There was Jamie and the kids cheering me again. I think Caleb looked up from his DS to acknowledge me but I know the other kids were waving. I hit my watch as I crossed under the clock, 48:12 unofficial time – 1:29 for that last .2 miles. That is an average pace of roughly 7:47 per mile.

Did I expect to go sub 50, yes, did I think I would be this far under 50, no way! With that I qualify for group 1A at Peachtree next year where this year I’m in 1B. If you understood that sentence you are a runner, if not, don’t worry about it… I broke my 10k PR by 3 minutes and 31 seconds! What a great feeling! Vindication for all of my miles the last few months, not to mention the last few years! I eventually made my way back to Jamie. She will tell you that after I run, for some unknown reason, I talk like a 13 year old girl! You can’t shut me up. The harder or faster or longer I run, the more I talk! Maybe that is why I blog so much about running and they are always my longer posts… who knows?

I will put up my official results including place, field size, and all that jazz once the race organizers put it up. Until then, all I know is that I think I was 98th overall for the 10k based on the number on the finish line card I had to complete and I’m guessing I was 5th or 6th for my age/sex based on the number of cards in the box already when I turned mine in. Lets see how close my estimates are…

First Donor

2008-05-27T08:59:00.003-04:00

I sent out my emails last Friday letting everyone in my address book know about my fundraising efforts through the Diabetes Action Team. I heard from a couple people almost immediately via phone and a handful told me they would be making a donation for which I am very grateful. The website emails me each time a donation has been made in my name. Less than an hour after the email went out I got word of my first donation.

If you visit the donation site you will see that single donation scroll by on the continuous "Honor Roll". The donor requested anonymity on the honor roll so I won't reveal his identity here but I will say I was a bit surprised. Not that this guy would donate, but that he was the first to respond. My anonymous donor was a college classmate that I haven't seen or spoke to in over 12 years and I have only communicated I think 2-3 times via email in that time frame. I am honored that someone so remote in my past would contribute to my effort.

I am not a good fund raiser. My kids NEVER sell magazines, candy, or anything the school wants them to hock for the "Super-Seller-Reward". In high school my ROTC program had to sell raffle tickets and everyone was required to sell at least 10. I think my parents bought 9, if not all 10 every single year. It is very humbling for me to ask my friends and family to support me in this and I will never be "pushy". If you got an email, you are not going to get another one, if you didn't get an email, it is because I don't have your address or I had an old outdated one as a few got kicked back to me (there are a few that my wife may have that still may get an email as well).

But I am on my way. I am now 2.5% closer to my goal. I hope no one feels pressure to donate as I appreciate your support in whatever form you give it be it donation, good wishes, or silent prayers... For those of you plotting my downfall, that may be a different story!

CAR ACCIDENT!!!!

2008-05-16T11:31:00.005-04:00

Grab your attention? Don't worry, it is not that bad, I just wanted to scare ya. Of course that assumes you care enough to worry. I guess it had to happen eventually, given the wonderful world of statistics. For the first time in my life I was behind the wheel of my car when it and another vehicle collided with enough force to leave a mark. Sure I’ve had my share of parking lot bumper bumps at 1 mph that don’t leave a single mark. And less than a week after I got my new truck a few years back I sideswiped a telephone pole trying to squeeze through an opening that in hindsight was too narrow. But this was the first time I have had a two man insurance seminar with an unknown driver. Thank goodness it wasn’t my fault, unfortunately it was my damage.

Driving to work last week I was behind a large 10 wheeled mobile fuel truck. Approaching an intersection I saw the light turn yellow from green and estimated that I would easily be in and probably through before it turned red. Apparently the truck driver in front of me didn’t make the same assessment. I saw red lights come on and all 10 tires lock up and smoke begin to rise. I braked hard and stopped a good 10-15 feet behind the truck. I was, however, in his blind spot.

The truck protruded beyond the white line, partially into the intersection. He was not blocking traffic but vehicles would have to alter course slightly to get around him. Not wanting to be a bother, the truck driver decided to back out of the intersection. (You see where this is headed don’t you…) Not seeing a car in his rear view mirror he started to back up.

At this point my heart skipped a beat. Was I really seeing his reverse lights??? Crud, he is moving! Backwards!!! I felt like Hunt for Red October and this "Crazy Ivan" was clearing his baffles. The movie changed however into Austin Powers and I was the security guard, incapable of moving while the steam roller slowly approached him. The car on the cross street saw what was happening and laid into their horn to alert the truck driver. Unfortunately the driver interpreted this as a request to clear the intersection more hastily. After awakening from my brain stutter I simultaneously laid on the horn with my left hand, checked my rear view mirror, hit the gear shifter with my right hand, and slammed my foot onto the gas.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that I was rushing and looking at the mirror instead of the gear shifter I only managed to reach neutral instead of reverse. My engine roared with a full whiff of fuel but no gears engaged to consume its energy. My second attempt to find reverse succeeded at precisely the same moment as the rear of the truck found its mark. I stared in horror as I watched a protruding point gouge into my hood. After 6-8 inches of gouging I was finally retreating faster than he could advance I watched as he came to a stop a good 5 feet further back from where he first made contact with me, oblivious of the entire incident. I stopped another 10 feet back and jumped out of my car to observe the damage.

I can only imagine the other driver’s thoughts when he saw a man doing jumping jacks in his side mirror. He got out and walked back. I think the implications of realizing that there had been someone behind him hit him as I saw the concern on his face grow as he approached me. He was a good guy and I don’t envy anyone that has to tell their employer that they hit someone while on the job. We both pulled into a neighboring Publix shopping center to exchange information and I don’t think a single sentence came out of his mouth that didn’t include the word sorry somehow.

So both my wife and I were in car accidents within 2 months of each other. Of course, unlike my wife’s accident, I am only getting a new hood instead of a new car. Oh well. As everyone always points out, in both incidents, at least no one was hurt…

Diabetes Action Team

2008-05-15T13:10:00.005-04:00

The votes are in. Maybe you didn’t see the evolution as closely as I did but things changed over the week of voting quite a bit. Autism jumped out to an early commanding lead but diabetes won with a 1 vote margin getting a come from behind win on the final day of the poll. As I reflected on the results the more I realized that I am happy with the result. That is not to say any of the other causes are any less important but what really got me running? Fear of diabetes. What really sustained me in my weight loss efforts? Not wanting to diabetes to dictate my life.

Maybe after this first one I will turn and do additional marathons raising funds for other causes. Who knows? I hope none of you are disappointed that I haven’t chosen the cause that has impacted or is impacting you and your family. Heck, I even went against the vote of my own mother on this…

Where do I and hopefully you go from here? I have set up a website with the Diabetes Action Team. It is a tax-deductible non-profit organization supporting research and education of diabetes. Through that site you can make a secure online donation. If you are not comfortable with that, let me know and there is a way to make offline donations as well. I am asking for your support in reaching my fundraising goal of $1,000. If I get there quickly I may raise my goal, but for now, having never done this before, 4 figures is a bit of a stretch. Anything you are comfortable giving would be appreciated.

Let’s face it, not too many people read this blog so if you do you most likely will be getting an e-mail from me as well. Please don’t feel pressured to donate, that is not my intent. I’m just trying to do the most good with the efforts I am putting forward. Thanks again for all you do to support me.

200 miles... this year

2008-05-13T17:42:00.003-04:00

Short post here, just noticed that with today's run I just went over 200 miles for the year. Remember this post? How was I in awe that 100 miles was so amazing? By the end of the week I will exceed 400 miles since I started to keep track.

Un-Official Personal Record

2008-05-08T13:39:00.006-04:00

Just a quick entry here, I just wanted to write about my run last weekend. It was an 8 mile run, but more significantly I ran a 10k (6.2 miles) as fast as I could and then coasted the last 1.8 miles. My splits for the 10k were as follows:

Mile 1 - 7:57
Mile 2 - 7:55
Mile 3 - 8:00
Mile 4 - 7:59
Mile 5 - 8:21
Mile 6 - 8:30
Last .2 miles - 1:42
Total 10k time 50:24

If you look to the right you will see that my official PR (personal record - clocked in a race on an official course) for the 10k is 51:43. That was set just in March. A whole 1:19 slower than my run last weekend. By besting this in a training run where I wasn't even motivated by all the things a "race" involves has me VERY excited that breaking the 50 minute barrier in my Memorial Day race is a real possibility. Although I hit a bit of a wall at the 4 mile mark I didn't die off completely and I definitely didn't sprint or try to "finish strong" on my run which could have cut quite a bit else off. Also, after considering this during my run last night I realized that probably 80% of my runs are less than 4 miles. My body was hitting a wall because I don't train the longer distances as much.

In looking at my training log I am definitely seeing that I am ahead of where I was last fall. In the fall (Aug-Nov) 19 of my 37 training runs (51%) were slower than 9 min/mile pace where this spring (Mar-May) only 9 of my 33 training runs (27%) have been slower than that pace. If you wonder why that is such a magical number for me... My half-marathon was run at 9:05 pace to get me in just under 2 hours. My goal is a sub-4 hour marathon this fall so I don't want to train much slower than that on my short runs and no more than 20-30 seconds per mile slower on my long weekend runs. (You think this engineer gets caught up in the numbers sometimes?)

As for the poll, this is the last day so if you miss it, don't blame me. I will declare a winner tomorrow! I'm worried because for right now it is a tie and then I am back in the same boat. So, if you haven't voted, please do so. If you feel the need to change your vote, feel free to do so. But it all ends tomorrow morning... And don't worry, my wife had a good idea that whatever I don't do this time I could do for my second marathon... , and third, fourth, etc.

And BTW, for my weight, I've broken my plateau and I'm down in the 196 range again and seem to be dropping fast. Hopefully I can ride it all the way down to my goal without another plateau...

80 Mile Month

2008-04-30T10:49:00.002-04:00

Wow, what a rewarding month. For the first time ever I logged 80 miles in a single month. My previous high for mileage was 63 in the months leading up to my Half-Marathon. Below is my graph of running since I started keeping a log in late August.

Some interesting things you can see in the graph is that my long runs (I define a long run as anything over a 10k or 6.2 miles) have become less of a component of my monthly mileage and my daily runs a larger part. In graph form my falling off the apple cart after my Half-Marathon is quite obvious as well. The slightly lower mileage in November is because I didn’t run the rest of the month following the Nov 22 Race. I then roughly double my mileage each month January through April (10, 22, 42, and 80). Don’t expect the same doubling for May. My goal, which by stating publicly I am giving myself accountability, is 100 miles for May.

In April I ran on 19 of the 30 days during the month. If you discount the 4 Sundays, I missed 7 actual running days and never more that 2 days in a given week. In hindsight I should have missed a few more days (only took 1 day off for a back pain I fought for a week and I ran a 5 miler the same day I donated blood – NOT RECOMMENDED) but at the same time I felt good about pushing through some things I would have used as excuses in the past.

If you do the math you will see that I averaged just over 4 miles per day that I ran. So, I can make the additional 20 miles of my goal in 1 of three ways. 1) If I miss 5 less days during the month that will give me the extra 20, 2) Since there are 5 Saturdays in May, hopefully I will get more long runs in, 3) I can drop some of the shorter 3 and 3.2 mile neighborhood loops from my morning rotation and only do the 3.4 mile and up loops, my average morning run lengths will increase. My guess is that to reach the 100 mile mark it will have to be a combination of all three of these. Wish me luck.

As for my weight loss, because I know you all are just SO interested, I think I am finally starting to break my plateau. For my run last November I got as low as 198. When I stopped running I actually drifted a little lower down to about 196.5 as I think I lost some muscle mass. By the end of January I was back over 200, by February 202. In March I started running again with some regularity and what happened – up to 204 by my birthday (I did visit and "enjoy" France during that time). For the bulk of April I held almost a constant 202-201 and was getting quite frustrated that I was putting in 20 mile weeks and not seeing any results. You can only tell yourself that muscle weighs more than fat so much! In the last week I have finally seen the scale dip under 200 and this morning’s 198.4 was the best I’ve seen since January. Maybe the fat to muscle conversion is done now and I can resume my march to 183… Once again, wish me luck. Just struck me, can you call an 80-100 mile month "luck"? Maybe I should switch to something like wish me strength/success/perseverance… or is that what "luck" connotes?

First Thing - RUN, Don't JOG

2008-04-24T16:46:00.001-04:00

One of my commenters (okay, so I only have two) asked a question that I felt was good enough for a post instead of just a response in the comment field. The question was "Do you have any advice for a beginning runner like me?"

Before I get to the advice, I wanted to point out a psychological element of the question. You are, as you asked, a beginning runner, not a jogger. What is jogging? You often see people "jog" their memory by hitting the side of their head. That doesn’t sound enjoyable. Kids in a playground don’t "jog and play". Running denotes freedom, choice, enjoyment, where jogging denotes punishment, sweat, and no other alternative. One running shoe company has an entire marketing campaign based on that distinction. I’ve read somewhere that the 7-minute mile is the line between running and jogging but I disagree. The line is psychological not measurable.

Anyway, I am certainly no expert (unless 1 year of High School Track, two semesters of college running class, and 1.5 years of weight-loss exercise qualify). I will start this post with the disclaimer that perhaps your best bet is to stop now or face the potential bad advice that may follow. But of course, let’s be honest, if you were concerned about bad advice you would never read my blog in the first place…

In fear of potential lawsuits my first and probably only valid suggestion would be to visit your local running specialty store. I have had wonderful experience with Fleet Feet as you may have read in past posts but there are many good ones to go to. I’m not talking shoe store or sporting goods store, I’m talking about a running store. They LOVE to help new runners and will have many good suggestions.

What are they going to do for you? First and foremost, they will get you in the right shoes. Everyone’s foot is different, as is his or her stride. Most shoe manufacturers make shoes to match your specific needs based on those factors. The running store will help you identify your needs where a shoe store may not be able to do that. I know the allure of running is the relative "free" nature of it but I promise you that the right shoes make a difference. I’m not saying you need $150 shoes but really, if you are not paying at least $60 or so, you WILL invite injury.

Next, clothing - Ask any runner and they will tell you that cotton is EVIL! Okay, maybe not that bad but certainly not ideal. Find a shirt, shorts/pants, socks, that are made from some kind of synthetic material that wicks moisture away. This will add comfort and reduce odor, blisters, and chaffing. I start with shoes and clothes because they will also make you feel more like a runner instead of a shlub that decided to go out for a jog.

Start Slow – Don’t go out today and expect to run a 5k tomorrow. You may be able to, but it may not be the best idea. If you are running and you are having a hard time breathing, walk for a while, then run again. Over time the running periods will lengthen and the walking breaks will shorten and/or go away. Don’t climb your mileage too fast. Increase your distances slowly. I would say no more than 25% each time. As your mileage climbs you can even slow that rate to 10% increases. The main point is that just because you can run 3 miles feeling GREAT doesn’t mean you can run 10 without some real potential for injury.

Log it – So I’m an engineer that loves the numbers but I find it really keeps me motivated to know how far, how fast, for how long I ran. Looking back gives a great sense of accomplishment. Did you realize I have run over 330 miles since last August? I couldn’t say that unless I was keeping track of it. If you are not running on a track or a measured pathway Google Earth has a great measuring tool you can use to see how far you went. It may not be perfect, but good enough for government work… You can log your data on a calendar, on an Excel spreadsheet, or there are even several free online Training Logs. Milestones and improvement over time help make a desire into a habit.

Stretching – This is critical and I think one of the more common things I think beginners mess up. You watch runners before races and what are they doing, stretching, but what you don’t see is the warm-up run they did before that. You can’t stretch cold muscles! What does that mean? Don’t spend 10-15 minutes stretching before you start your run. You may actually do more damage than good. Always stretch AFTER your run, or at least after some warm-up miles. My rule of thumb is if I run less than about 3 miles, I stretch afterwards. If I’m tackling more than that I may stop 2-3 miles in and do 5 minutes of stretches and then again at the end of my run.
Injuries – I won’t say much more than don’t run injured. You can run hurt or in some pain but not injured. I’ll let you and your doctor draw that line. That is why so many of my other tips are related to avoiding injury, all the desire and good intentions can’t overcome serious injuries.

Race – This gets back to that runner/jogger element I talked about earlier. Joggers don’t race. Go to active.com, find some local race and sign up. A race is the validation of your hard work, efforts, and time. Any hey, who can say no to unlimited bananas at the finish line? (most of the time)

I’m not sure if this is what you were looking for or if it even helps but those are my thoughts. I have countless other tips but if I start sharing all my stories I may start sounding like a kook…

Any runners who may have had the unfortunate experience of stumbling upon my blog while you were looking for something of value, please add your two cents in the comments as well…

How Google See's my Blog

2008-04-24T13:46:00.003-04:00

I don't know if I should be insulted or not but I can't say I was excited when I noticed the first banner add that Google chose to place on my blog. More out of curiosity than anything I went ahead and added an AdSense banner ad space on my blog. They had a public service announcement the first few days until they had time to review my blog then they assigned what they felt was the most applicable ad from their list of clients to put there. Go ahead and take a look at it real quick. It's a couple inches down on the right... I'm not sure if it will stay the same or if it will change periodically but is that really the most applicable ad?

In case it has changed by the time some of you read this the ad in question reads, "Prevent runner's diarrhea, Learn what causes runner's diarrhea and how to prevent it"

So as you read my blog are your first thoughts, "Hmmmm, that boy sure enjoys running, I wonder if it ever gives him diarrhea?" or "Sounds like he likes to run. I would run more if only it didn't give me such bad diarrhea..." or "Boy, this guys writing about running stinks and his use of run-on sentences flows like diarrhea."

Okay, so a goodly number of my posts are related to running. I admit that. But really, don't they have ANY other sponsor related to the topic? Online shoe sales? Discount workout clothes? Subscriptions to running magazines? Surely Google has lots of clients. Is that the best they could assign to my site or is that all they deemed it worthy of?

So the big question is, Would you click on a link with the word DIARRHEA in the headline? Couldn't they at least add one of those dancing characters you see in other banner ads? They at least look like they have diarrhea...

Okay, sorry for the vent...

Proud of my Daughter

2008-04-23T22:08:00.006-04:00

I know this is a reposting of the same picture my Wife put up but hey, you wouldn't deny a father the chance to thump his chest for a daughter that I can't be any more proud of. I had the wonderful opportunity to baptize her on April 12th.

This is us just before the service. She was baptized in a service with two other youths. My brother from Charlotte and his family came down for the service and visited for the weekend. All in all, it was worth missing my Saturday long run... easily, and thats saying something if you just read my last post.

Already Seeing Results - Running BUG

2008-04-22T09:26:00.006-04:00

Well, it hasn't been a perfect month so far in terms of getting up EVERY morning, but I haven't missed more than 1-2 days per week (of course not counting my Sunday Rest Day). And all of the days I have missed had extenuating circumstances (aka "excuses" like too cold, stayed up late night before, and back pain) but hey, I'm improving. Slowly but steadily I am noticing improvement. April is already my highest mileage month to date (over 65 miles month to date) with a week to go. Yesterday I ran a two mile interval in 14:45. Nothing to brag about but certainly the fastest two miles I have run since High School. Based on that I have no doubts that I will improve on my 5k PR the next time I have the opportunity to run the shorter distance.

They say anything done for 21 days becomes a habit. Given I have missed a few days I don't think I am there yet, but I am getting close. I now find myself craving my morning run and the peace and solace I find during that run. When I miss it I feel "off" for some reason. You know I got the bug when I was reading the running commentary of the Boston Marathon on Monday. Why should I care? I DON'T KNOW! But I do. More than anything I was jealous that I'm not fast enough to join them. I have dropped my Sports Illustrated subscription in favor of Runners World. I find myself now debating if I will play church basketball next season as I don't get the same satisfaction out of it and I used it as a reason to not sustain my running over the winter this year. I also found that I enjoyed reffing the games more than I did playing in them.

One interesting thing of note is that of the 65 miles in April, not 1 has been on a treadmill. I have found that the draw of the road, trail, OUTSIDE, has been a big part of my sustained effort. Where last fall I only had the draw of that next race to motivate me to jump on the treadmill and stare at a wall for 30 minutes, I am slowly turning a corner where the race is the celebration at the end of training but the training is part of the joy as well.

Hey, who knows how it will be going this time next month, but for now, I am loving it. Even if my toenails are dying and falling off... but that's another story.

Early Morning Running

2008-04-04T16:30:00.002-04:00

Okay, I think I have written before about the struggle I have had motivating myself to run ever since my Half Marathon last Thanksgiving. Here is the accountability:

December: 3.1 miles, 198 lbs
January: 10.7 miles, 200 lbs
February: 25.8 miles, 204 lbs
March Weekly Mileage: 4, 18.2 (France and Race week), 6.9, 0, 9.5 (38.6 for month), 202 lbs
April Weekly Mileage: 12.7 (so far – tomorrow’s run to add), currently 200.5 lbs

Even with the slowly increasing miles, it is inconsistent at best. I don’t know if it was the letdown after the peak (as I previously attributed this too in my earlier post), the cold weather, or just me choosing to be lazy, but I did know I wasn’t happy with what I was doing and I craved to be out there running again. I missed the high that my 15-25 mile weeks had given me last fall leading up to my Half. I got a taste of it that week in France but failed to follow through even the very next week. So what have I done about it?

I told myself that any morning over 40° F I would run before getting ready for work. At 5 AM! It was the start of last week when I made that commitment and I even bought some additional running clothing and a head-lamp to accommodate this running pattern change. The first part of last week didn’t meet the temperature cut-off and then I was getting over a cold so my first day of actually running was last Friday, the 28th. That run and a Saturday long run account for all of last week’s mileage. This week I have run 4 out of 5 mornings.

My problem has always been squeezing in a run around being a father, husband, and other distractions of life. In the past I actually felt guilt about abandoning my wife with the kids while I was out there enjoying my solitude. (Whether she felt abandoned or not) I justified it as I needed to loose the weight "for them". That may have been partly true but not the whole story. I also didn't derive much joy from a 9 or 10 PM treadmill run. At 5 AM they are all fast asleep, no guilt, even more solitude. On the 5 mornings I have run so far I have seen more deer than humans (including a nice buck). What a great time to be out there.

Yes I know 1 week does not a long-term commitment make and I may weary of this routine, but for now, I love it. I used Google Earth and measured the distances of various routes around my neighborhood. With that variety in hand I have only once ran the same course more than once. Each of my runs range from 3 to 4 miles in length and take me anywhere from 25 to 35 minutes to complete. I am home by 5:45 each morning, the time my alarm used to be set for. I have found more spring in my step at work and even more focus on my morning drive to work.

I have also gone ahead and signed up for my Marathon (Chickamagua Battlefield Marathon) that won’t be until November 8th but now I’m financially committed as well. Other races on my schedule include a 10k on Memorial Day close to my house and the 55,000 runner strong 10k Peachtree Road Race on the 4th of July in downtown Atlanta. It is the largest 10k in the World and you have to apply within days of the application being published if you have any hope of getting in. Not only have I been accepted, my qualifying 10k time was fast enough to earn a Group 1B slot and a timing chip. There are 9 Groups and only those in Group 1 (Invitees-Elites-1A-1B) (1B=50-55 minutes) get a timing chip.

As you can guess, all of this has me excited about running again for the first time since November really. So, who’s going to join me?

Paris, or at least the Eiffel Tower

2008-03-31T11:38:00.004-04:00

I promised way back when that I would write about my trip to France. Of course it has taken me close to a month to sit down and write about my trip. This was definitely a business trip as I had very little time for sightseeing. I didn’t have a car or a window of time larger than an hour at a time to get out. I was in Paris for a training conference to join my company’s Environmental, Health, and Safety Internal Audit Team. I have mentioned before that I started to work for a French owned company in the middle of last year. Their corporate offices are in Paris, just blocks from the Eiffel Tower. My hotel was located about halfway between the tower and our offices. You can see the relative locations on this map. The red line is a rough course of my daily runs. I would do 2-3 laps around the gardens each day I was there.
I arrived on Monday and had about 4 hours to roam before dinner with the group. Had I known how much I would be able to visit the Eiffel Tower the rest of the week I would have been better served to try and get to the Louvre, Notre Dame, or the Arc de Triumph that afternoon. But no, I went to the Tower and walked the grounds all the way around, roamed a little into the city to the west, and came back along the river. This is probably the best of the pictures I took that day.
I was in class each day from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm and then would meet the group for dinner at 7:00. I squeezed my daily runs in that 6:00-7:00 pm window before dinner. Luckily it was actually meet at 7:00 in the hotel lobby for drinks, leave for the restaurant at 7:30. Since I wasn’t drinking, it was a good excuse to avoid the awkwardness of that social time to say I had to get a run in.

Although I didn’t see many sights, I did experience France in other ways. The food was excellent to say the least! I took a picture of my lunch one day because I got such a kick out of what they considered "Fast Food". Our lunch was brought in each day on these trays with food superior to 95% of American Restaurants. For dinner during the week I tried several different meals including: escargot, duck, "flat fish", and beef sirloin. Each of those was top notch. You add the yogurt, fruit desserts, excellent cheeses and breads, chocolate mouse, and other pastries to the mix, and I was in heaven. All the running in the world didn’t stop me from gaining several pounds while I was over there. Oh well, when will I get the chance to do that again?

As for some of the other pictures I have: of course the tower at night and a picture of me, at sunset, with the tower in the background taken from a deck at our corporate offices. I really didn’t get to see that much else. I saw the tunnel and monument where Princess Diana died so tragically. I saw the Arc from my taxi but wasn’t fast enough to get a picture of it. Same thing for the mini-Statue of Liberty they have commemorating the building of the real one given to the US. I did find it odd that the French don’t have a single TV channel with English programming like they did in both Spain and Hungary when I visited those countries.

All in all it was a great experience but one that left me wanting more. This is yet another place that I will return some day with my wife to share that experience with her. And for all the time I spent in and around the Tower, I never went up, because that is an experience I want to have with her.

Return to Racing

2008-03-14T09:33:00.001-04:00

Well, I had to get back in the game and force myself to start running races again so I will resume my regular running routine. So I signed up for a local 10k, the Jog for a Cause. The race had many benefits, close to my house, supporting a cause (cancer) that has been more important to me lately due to my brother, it was a 10k instead of the more common 5k races offered, and it was not too far out in the future which got me off the couch and running back in mid-February. The race had some unforeseen downsides however that made it quite memorable. It ended up being the Saturday morning after I returned from France (blog with pictures to come soon) on Friday, so jet-lag had me quite messed up. Jamie’s grandmother passed away on that same Friday so we hastily planned a quick trip to Indiana the following Monday. And lastly, it was SNOWING and 22° F when the race started.

All of these challenges added to the experience and perhaps to the disappointment of the result. It’s not that I did terrible, it’s that for the first time I ran a race and didn’t meet the goal I set for myself. My hope was to run sub 50 minutes. The only other 10k I had run was a trail race last fall which I ran in the 54 minute and change range and I figured I could cut the required amount based on this being a road course and relatively flat. Of course, when I ran the trail race last fall I was in the height of my Half-Marathon training and this time around I have only been back running sporadically for roughly a month… Anyway, suffice it to say, I didn’t run sub 50, I came in at 51:43 which is a 8:20/mile pace. Not bad and a personal record for the distance, but not my goal.

The course is a 5k loop around a shopping center and subdivision that you run twice if you are completing the 10k race. I had run the course for a 5k once before with not the best of memories (remember the pinched butt episode?). But the hardest part of the run this time around was the weather. Not only was it snowing and cold but we had 30 mile an hour wind gusts and I swear I was running into the wind all the way around that loop!!! The final mile to the finish line was into a stiff wind that felt like it was blowing me back each time I took a stride. I had to squint my eyes to keep the blowing snow from getting in them. What a memory…

Anyway, it was good to get back in the saddle. I’m aiming for a race a month leading up to a Marathon towards the end of the year. I’m sure I’ll miss a few months here and there but that is my goal. As for my overall results in this race. As I said before, 51:43 was my time. That was good enough for 62nd out of 270 for the overall results and 9th out of 25 for the 35-39 year old men. I should have stopped at the 5k point as my 5k split time would have given me 4th in my age group… If you want to see me running you can go here and search for bib number 249… The pictures are copywritten so I can’t copy and past it into my blog... Happy running to all of you.

Un-Tagged Response

2008-02-29T09:17:00.004-05:00

I have been tagged I don't know how many times by various people (usually my SIL or my wife's college roommate) and I never respond, evil blogger that I am. So when I saw this exercise on my wife's college roommate's blog I thought it was quite an interesting exercise and struggled with the one word format for some of the questions. Though I wasn't tagged, I hope this makes up for some of the times I never responded in the past. Only rule is one word answer to however you interpret the question - harder than you think - common acronyms acceptable right? Only having one word actually forced me to change my interpretation of the question for some. And harder yet to make them understandable without further explanation. I think I only stole one or two of her answers...

1. Where is your cell phone? hip

2. Your significant other? yang

3. Your hair? nonbalding

4. Worst bad habit? competitiveness

5. Favorite food? edible

6. Your favorite thing? running

7. Your dream last night? romantic

8. Your favorite drink? Dew

9. Your dream/goal? marathon

10.The room you're in? office

11. Your ex? past

12. Your fear? ineptitude

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Cruise

14. Where were you last night? cubs

15. What you're not? socialite

16. Muffins? blueberry

17. One of your wish list items? HDTV

18. Where you grew up? Deseret

19. The last thing you did? commute

20. What are you wearing? jeans

21. Your TV? cableless

22. Your pets? gecko

23. Your computer? laptops

24. Your life? enjoyable

25. Your mood? optimistic

26. Missing someone? Twin

27. Your car? functional

28. Something you're not wearing? hat

29. Favorite Store? electronics

30. Your summer? training

31. Love someone? multiple

32. When is the last time you laughed? breakfast

33. Last time you cried? movie

34. Who will/would re-post this? wife?

Travel Time

2008-02-25T14:00:00.003-05:00

One of the greatest things about my job change last May was that my travel went from roughly 60% to almost non-existent. It has been fantastic to not miss all those little things with the kids that I was depending on my wife to provide the parental face for. She definitely pulls more than her fair share of that still but I have been FAR more available to participate in my kids lives over the last 9 months. Before last week I think I had made a three day trip to New York, and 2 or 3 overnighters in that entire 9 month period. I think that is what is making last week and next week feel so painful.

Last week I spent Monday through Thursday in Greeneville, TN at a company safety conference. Very enjoyable, great hotel, learned quite a bit, but still much harder than a 4 day trip was just a year ago. Having got out of that routine, it was VERY hard not to come home to a wife and family every night. Combine that with a buffet for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and the associated impact on the scale upon my return) and you have a depressing trip. I did have my highest mileage running week since my race last fall but that was not enough to offset the additional calories from an "I can resist anything but temptation" buffet table.

Next week I fly to Paris for a company meeting. Since this is a bit nicer location than Greeneville, TN, I am trying to stay on the positive side and focus on the experience. It will be very hard to enjoy the "experience" however, without my wife. Spouses are welcome to come along for this meeting and I invited mine but all with an air of reality that there are 4 little ones that we can't just dump on someone, during a school week, while I drag my wife to the other side of the world. I have done this kind of trip in the past, Hungary, Spain, England, without my wife but somehow Paris is different. I feel like my wife should be with me on my first trip there somehow. Nothing I can do about it now I guess, other than to promise her that someday she and I will visit these locations I enjoyed so much... plus others.

So this post has no real theme other than the joys and frustrations of travel, for business, not pleasure. It is most definitely not one and the same.

But for now, any of my French friends have suggestions as to what I should try and see on Monday the 3rd? I arrive late morning and will have the rest of that day to go sightseeing before my meetings the 4th through the 6th. So, if you only had one afternoon.... what would you go see? And don't say the Eiffel Tower, because that, I am saving for my wife...

kodiak73

2008-02-08T12:09:00.001-05:00

I once had a secretary that was fairly straight laced only to find out her email address was something like toohottohandle@asdfjkl.com. Have any of you ever wondered where my screen name came from? If not, stop now, if so, you may be more bored than you usually are to visit my blog. If you think it is because I am hairy enough to be mistaken for a bear, I am offended... I think. But you would be wrong.

The kodiak comes from one of the ferrets we owned when we lived in New Mexico. He was a big male that I thought had the best temperament of all the ferrets we owned. He love to be held but was not lazy and could be very playful. Most of our ferrets were either feisty (Laska, Snickers) or shy/lazy (Detmer, Sarah, Opal) but Kodiak seemed to have the best of both worlds. Also, kodiak is just a cool name that exudes masculinity (I know there are female brown bears but they are not what comes to mind when you say KODIAK!) The funny thing is that the first time I used this as my screen name for a website (remember the old go.com?) I misspelled it (kodiack) and my wife has used that unique spelling ever since, even though I corrected to the proper spelling after that first site.

The number 73 is just a throw back to my high school football days. At the time I was picking a number I thought that it was a good number for many reasons. It was the highest prime number I could think off the top of my head at the time (I know there are many, i.e. 79, very close to it but hey, I was still a kid!), also I like how many biblical references come in sevens or threes. I think seven or three are most people's luck number, why not have both? I'd probably just use the kodiak if I could, but as you can imagine, at most websites "kodiak" is already taken so I had to add a unique number to the end to use the name at all.

Now that you have wasted 3 minutes reading this mindless post, what are some of your screen names and how did you pick them? Inquiring minds want to know!

UPDATE: Here is my Avatar for a few of the discussion boards I frequent - thought you might enjoy... or at least my wife thought you might enjoy.

How do you Teach Chess?

2008-02-05T10:10:00.000-05:00

Recently my 9-year-old son wanted to join the chess club at school. This is popular enough that the school limits it to 3rd through 5th graders and has a drawing from interested students to determine who actually gets to participate in the club that meets after school each Monday. As luck would have it, my son got in. This constitutes a larger problem. How do I best teach him how to play?

I’m not talking about the basics. I long ago taught him the basics such as how the board is set up, how each piece moves, the objective of the game, board etiquette, etc. But that is as far as anyone ever taught me… And really that is as much as I have taught him. In the past I would play him, toy with him for a while, string him along, and then of course crush him because I will NEVER voluntarily loose at chess! But now, he will be playing other people and I want him to at least be competitive if not realize my dream for him to be the next Bobby Fisher (without the hold the world in contempt and celebrate 9/11 wackiness of the original). As the youngest of 8 siblings I loved to play against them, even when they would fool’s checkmate me in 4 moves (Oliver, over, and over, and over…). It took me probably close to a year to learn how to recognize that and another one to learn how to take action to prevent it. It is one thing to loose repeatedly to family, I don’t want my son to loose at school and loose interest.

I didn’t want to start too complicated, somehow I don’t think training him in the Spasky Defense is the right approach… yet. So, I boiled down the game to what I thought were three key concepts and rules for success. I will walk you through each one. Tell me if I hit the right ones. By "right" I mean most fundamental and likely to lead to success both immediately and down the road. Tell me if you have other ideas or suggestions. These are not in any particular order other than my son now refers to these collectively as CTP: Center of the Board, Trade-up, and Protection.

Center of the Board – There is an area of 16 squares 4x4 in the middle of the board that is fundamental to the strategic positioning of the game. The more of this area that you control the better off you are. It will be easier to generate angles, extend your defense, solidly probe on offence and give you the breathing room to move your back line around. This is accomplished by pushing middle pawns out aggressively, bringing the knights out early, and can then be supported by bringing the bishops out to generate more angles.

Trade-up – This is nothing more than assigning value to the pieces and following the general rule of sacrificing a piece if it means you can capture one of greater value. My value scale goes pawn-knight-bishop-rook-queen-king. I know people switch the bishop and knight. I have no problem with that, it really goes to your tendencies and ability to use each effectively. Teaching my son that trading a rook for a pawn is not a good idea has proven to be harder than you would think…

Protection – This is probably the most basic element of the game but probably the most widely overlooked aspect of beginners. I think instinct works on the base level of "am I going to get killed by moving here" but beyond that, the concept of protection must be learned. By protection I mean who is guarding who? Who is and isn’t guarded? Who is this piece guarding that may or may not be guarded if I move? How many pieces are guarding a particular square? As you advance it becomes "where is the opponent lacking protection?" and "how can I get around or breakdown their protection."

There are other concepts such as forking, opening moves, trading once you have a lead, end-game, avoiding or playing for stalemate, trading-down or trading-even for position, etc., that are all important to improving your game, but I thought these three laid the best foundation. What do you think?

As for initial results, he had his first club meeting and played three games. He won 2 out of the 3. I’ll take that, …for now. Of course it probably has more to do with his analytical abilities than my coaching, but don’t tell him that!

Not Dead

2008-01-23T12:39:00.000-05:00

For those of you wondering if I have died or lost my log-in information - fear no more. For those expecting much of a post - sorry.

Since my flourish of posts leading up to my Half-Marathon on Turkey Day, it is safe to say that my running has been reflected in my posting. I have "ran" a total of 3 times since then for a total of about 10.5 miles. Some of this is explained away by the hectic nature of the Holidays, some by "taking a break" after my heavy training period, some by the cold weather that keeps me from long runs on weekends, some by the fact that my Church Basketball season has started that has me playing on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings, but perhaps a plurality of reality is I've just been lazy. I have some races that I have been looking at, hopefully they will get me motivated. I still enjoy the running when I do it, its just not at a "have to do" level right now.

You may wonder what the effect on my scale has been, not too bad. Over the Holidays I did peak back over 200 into the 202-203 range but I am currently in the 198-199 range and holding. My goal last year was 200, and I made it. My goal for this year is 183 - the point at which my BMI no longer falls into the "overweight" category.

Other things around the home... We purchased a Piano and after 13 years of marriage I discovered the my wife, although rusty, is an EXCELLENT piano player. What a joy it was to hear her sit down and play for hours out of the simplified hymn book on Sunday! Mischa is also progressing well. Caleb is still doing well in Karate and has started sparring with mixed results but is still improving.

I hope the last month has been joyful and fruitful for all of you and hopefully my posting increases along with my running.

Staying on Top

2007-12-11T07:55:00.000-05:00

Okay, this post is as much about getting something new out there as it is about anything informational, but hey, its something. Part of me is resistant to putting a new post up until I have at least one comment on the previous one but I guess you all have no opinion whatsoever about Mitt Romney digging up a stump so I guess I have to move on... My lovely wife can attest to my Primary Fever as I have been far more political this round than in election cycles past.

What I wanted to quickly write about is just how hard it is to sustain maximum effort. You would think that a distance runner would understand and master this concept better than most but alas, even I fall short... Since my run on Thanksgiving Day, I have run a grand total of ONE time for 3.1 miles. Now I could point out that I was "taking a break" after my race, or that I gave blood the following week since I had missed my routine donation a month earlier because I "was in training", or that I have been playing hard full court basketball one night a week since then so that should count some, or that it has been too cold to run outside since that time, or that I am catching up on some undone "Honeydoos" that Jamie let me pass on in the name of getting another run in leading up to the race... You get the picture I'm sure. Ultimately, these are what they sound like, excuses. Could I have maintained my 15-20 miles/week pre-race pace, probably not, could I have run twice a week, most definitely. This is why we admire winning streaks, and enduring champions, because for all the effort it takes to get to the top, it takes a champion to stay on top. I'm not there yet. And don't even get me started on how far off the mark I am in other areas of my life...

Back to the plus side - Milestones I have reached recently, I am now weighing in at 198 and for perhaps the first time in my ENTIRE LIFE, my waist is now smaller than my inseam. Yep, I purchased my first 32x34 jeans this week! (I was going to include a picture of the tag but decided that might come off a little to close to BRAGGING which we know I NEVER DO!) Do you realize how hard it is to find that size?!? I will admit that they are "loose" jeans, which I need to accommodate my MONSTER calves and thighs. Okay, enough with the chest thumping, but you understand I had to build myself back up after admitting my fallacies in the paragraph above...

I hope you are all striving toward whatever you have defined as your "TOP". Have any of you started to formulate goals for the new year? I think mine will be a full Marathon and 183lbs (the weight at which my BMI is no longer "overweight"). I'm sure there will be others, maybe addressing the "other areas" but those aren't as easy for me to set or reach... but I'll get there.

Christian Service

2007-11-30T13:58:00.000-05:00

I don't often post about things beyond my family or myself but when I'm blown away by something, I sometimes do. I'm not shy about my support for Mitt Romney and I think I may have emailed this link to many of the people that visit my blog but I just thought this was a GREAT example of why this man would be a GREAT President. While visiting his son in southern California just after the San Diego fires, Mitt joined his son Matt and a crew of LDS missionaries and local members to help remove a stump from the front yard of one of Matt's neighbors. WITHOUT CALLING THE PRESS FIRST! How many other top candidates out there would do this? Probably a few of them, maybe a few more if they could get the press there, but there he was, goggles on, messy hair, down in the dirt with a chainsaw! This was a couple weeks ago and it is finally leaking out through some personal journals and amature photos. Mitt didn't and wouldn't publicize this himself but I think it needs to get out there...

Turkey Day Half Marathon

2007-11-24T09:49:00.000-05:00

OK, anyone who knows me or has ever read this blog knows that the last 4-5 months have all been in preparation for a half marathon run on Thanksgiving day. I will skip the whole weight loss history (75 lbs total) leading up to this day and focus on just this one day... This day the scale read 199, I had reached my 200 lb goal set for this day.

I awoke at 4:15 remarkably more awake than one would expect at that hour. The only other times I am so awake first thing in the morning are the mornings of deer hunts. In a way this was similar, I was about to face a challenge of me vs. nature. I could taste it, I wanted the run to start right then. I took my shower and then sat down to... um... "lighten my load" to make sure I didn't have to go in the middle of the race. Problem though... I couldn't! It just wouldn't happen! After 20 minutes of futility I figured oh well I should have plenty of chances before the actual race time... I dressed quickly and headed down to grab some breakfast. I ate two slices of whole wheat toast, a banana, and drank a sports bottle of my favorite Gatorade.

My local Fleet Feet running store was offering a service that a friend had told me about, they provide a bus ride to and from the race from our Suburb outside of Atlanta. She said that it is the only way to go. Being my first ever long race it sure made sense to me to not fight the crowds so I had signed up. The buses left at 6am for the 30 minute ride into Atlanta. I sat with two friends from church on the bus and despite the welcome conversation my nerves slowly started to tingle. When we arrived at the starting line and bailed off the bus around 6:40 I was ready to run... except... remember that futility earlier?

We all went and got in line for the 4 Port-a-potties. As the line slowly crept I looked at my watch and realized it was going to be close. As the race speakers blared out "2 minutes" I was latching the door. Unfortunately this is one thing I can't hurry! The more I tried the more futile it got. When the loudspeaker pronounced 10 seconds, I gave up! Having not lightened my load, I bailed out of the facility as the starting gun sounded. Of course this meant me and my two friends were squarely behind roughly 10000 people now filing through the starting line. I am sorry for the graphic images here but it truly was part of my race day experience.

It took us 3 minutes and 2 seconds just to reach the starting line at which point I started my stopwatch. This meant that the official "clock" time was going to be that much slower than my "chip" time. (For you non-runners - in larger races you wear a computer chip on your shoe that signals a computer when you cross the starting and finishing lines. Official standings are based on clock times but my goal was based on my time which is of course the chip time.

The weather was quite nice as the race began. Average morning temperatures this time of the year in Atlanta are around 40 and just the previous Saturday it had been 29. I don't like running in that level of cold. Luckily, kind of, there was a weather front moving in that had the temperature at 60 degrees that morning. Of course, that same front was bringing in the rain. At about the half mile mark we got our first drizzle. If it had stayed at that level, I think all would have been happy. Lets just say, it didn't...

One of my biggest fears was that I would do what I always had done in my 5 & 10 kilometer races, that is, let the adrenaline flow and fly out of the gates with a first mile in the 6:30 to 7 minute range that would just fry me. My plan was to use my two friends to hold me back. I jogged along with them for that first mile knowing it was a much slower pace than I would set for myself. That had the effect of warming me up, settling my nerves, and providing me confidence as we weaved through slower runners at what I thought was not much more than a shuffle. When we reached the 1 mile mark I noted my watch read 10:50. MUCH slower than I had even planned but hey, I was now ready to let loose. I thanked my running partners and wished them good luck and good bye.

As I upped my pace I had to move to the outside just to avoid the hundreds of people that I couldn't weave through fast enough. My goal was to finish in under 2 hours. 9 minutes per mile translates into roughly 1:58 so I knew that with the roughly 2 minutes I had lost in that first mile, that was definitely the pace I would have to hold or best from there on out. Not long after I reached the outside of the throng of runners and got up to pace, the heavens opened! Monsoonal rain soaked us from head to toe. Large puddles formed and I could feel the water squish in and out of my shoes with every stride. I began to fear that all the wicking action in the world was not going to prevent the blisters from forming this day.

By mile three the worst of the rain was over but it would continue with scattered showers the rest of the way. If you know Atlanta, the course runs from roughly Peachtree/Decalb airport to Turner field through downtown Atlanta. The first 5 miles are fairly flat to gently rolling, then for two miles you descend quite a bit, at mile 7 you start a series of long climbs that go for the next 5 or so miles, then they give you a bit of a break with a slight downhill to the finish line.

One of my biggest concerns was running this thing without the security of my hydration belt. I had gone back and forth on that decision several times over the last month and only the night before convinced myself to go without. This made the aid stations quite important to me. If I hadn't been soaked from head to foot from the rain, I would have been from the aid stations. Drinking from a cup while running is just not a skill I have mastered yet... I had also pinned two packets of Apple-Cinnamon Carb Boom gel inside my waste band for a mid-race 100 calorie boost. I used them at the 40 and 80 minute marks and was surprised just how effective they were. I had used them on training runs but I guess had just not noticed the bounce they gave me.

The hills at mile 7 hit me like a ton of bricks. I had been warned about them but I don't think I was ready for them. Watching my splits to this point I noted that I had been holding roughly 8:45-9:00 mile times but now I was climbing and knew I would be for the next several miles and I began to fear I would fall off my required pace. With this fear I leaned into the hill and attacked it not wanting to resign from my goal.

Around the 10 mile mark my right calf began to cramp slightly but not bad enough to alter my stride. It was about this point that I realized something, I was passing people at a constant pace. Maybe I was blind to those passing me but I couldn't remember them and I was still weaving through people, 10 miles in, like it was that first few miles. In an odd way, starting at the back of the field and taking that first mile slow was now providing motivation to pass everyone that was not my equal. I don't know if other runners do this but all of a sudden it was was like magic for me. I held the field in contempt. I would look up, spot someone ahead that I felt I was surely better than, and would attack until I left them in the dust, only to pick out my next victim. My cramps went away, my breathing settled, my confidence soared, and the final few miles seemed to race by (no pun intended).

Capital Punishment, the last hill on the course which runs past the capital building was really not that punishing to me. At the 12 mile mark my watch read 1:49:50 which meant I had just over 10 minutes to go the last 1.1 miles which meant my 9minutes/mile pace would be about right, but close. Assessing myself I knew I could do better than that and I upped my tempo. Once the finish line was in sight, about a quarter mile out, I broke into an all out sprint with everything I had left. It felt great to be still passing people that didn't have enough left in the tank for the sprint to the end. Perhaps I should have pushed harder earlier and not have had so much left in me to sprint but sprinting at the end is such a great feeling.

As I crossed the finish line the official clock read 2:02:07 but my chip would record my time as 1:59:05 which translates to an average pace of roughly 9:06 min/mile. They don't post overall standings for the half-marathon, only in your age/sex groups. Based on official clock time I came in 272nd out of 573 35-39 year old males. If you review chip times you notice that there were 12 people that finished ahead of me by the clock but had slower chip times, however, there were 9 that finished behind me by the clock that actually had faster chip times so by chip time I finished 269th in my group.

As I got on the bus to ride home I thought of all the things I was thankful for on this day of gratitude. Starting with the immediate, I was thankful it was over, thankful for the towel and dry shirt I was smart enough to pack, thankful I didn't have to drive home, and thankful for the big meal in my near future. Then I expanded my view and was thankful for the moment of clarity 16 months ago that I decided I needed to do something about weight, thankful for a wife's patience that all of a sudden had to schedule around my runs, thankful that I had avoided serious injury during that time, and thankful for the words of encouragement that many had given me. Lastly I became thankful for a savior that has made all things possible, a perfect wife, 4 wonderful children, and a brighter future that the efforts of the last 16 months have brought to my horizon.

Family Pumpkins

2007-11-18T23:01:00.000-05:00

Just a few Halloween pictures I never got around to putting up. These were our families entries at our church Halloween party. We won the "Best Family Pumpkin Carvings" award. They didn't give an individual pumpkin award.

My "GHOST RIDER"

Mischa's Jack-o-Lantern with her innovation of floating pupils suspended with paperclip wire inside the pumpkin.

Caleb's Happy Vampire Jack-o-Lantern

Register His Hands as a Lethal Weapon!

2007-11-18T22:11:00.000-05:00

Here is Caleb's First Karate Tournament. No sparring just yet, just "forms".

And for this 18 seconds of work, what does he get?

1ST PLACE! WAY TO GO BUDDY!

Not to minimize this at all but the tournament has an approach to ensure every kid gets a trophy. They break the kids into small enough groups so they can have A LOT of 1st place finishers. That being said, both his performance and his teachers rate him better than almost all others.

Starts with a "1"

2007-11-11T22:06:00.000-05:00

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words so I need not say more. Now lets see if I can make it stick!!! 11 days until the run...

Family Update - Pictures (and video) Added as promised

2007-11-06T15:38:00.000-05:00

I guess I have to write an entry about the general status of our family since my dad sent out an email to the family claiming that all I was doing was running and babysitting so Jamie "can pursue some goals" a.k.a. girl scout leadership training. I guess if you are using my blog as your only source of information that might be the impression one might get. I would argue that I have discussed other things with my dad but I’m sure many of us would describe our current lives differently if given more than a sentence. Props to my father for at least communicating something to the whole family. I know it is more than I have done.

So, where do I begin? I guess I can start with the kids then get to Jamie and me.

Caleb - Cub Scout - Night he got his Wolf and became a Bear

Caleb is doing great in 3rd grade. His first quarter report card came in with straight A’s. I don’t know if that still means the same thing in these public school grade inflated times but it still makes a dad’s chest puff out. His other great endeavor right now is Karate. This past summer he won a door prize of 6 month of unlimited karate classes and has gone 2-3 times a week since our return from Utah. He is easily the best student in the beginner level courses and his teacher has requested to move him up to the next level of classes starting next week. At this pace we may end up having to pay for these things come January but the confidence and discipline I have seen it bring him is irreplaceable.

Mischa - Rockstar award at school (kind of like "Student of the Month")

Mischa is our bookworm. Based on the comparisons from my childhood, I’m sure she would make my brothers Loren and Oliver proud. She CONSUMES books. Since July she has read the complete Harry Potter series, twice, not to mention the dozens of other books in the same time frame. In a school program that assigns point levels to various books read and tested on, students have a goal of 25 points for the entire school year. Mischa is about to reach 200 points for the first 3 months. And the girl will read ANYTHING – don’t get me started… Her other endeavor is piano. She started lessons back in July and is moving along quite swiftly. Her teacher told me last Friday that she has never had a student progress through the books as quickly as Mischa who is already playing sharps and flats in three hand positions and can play several Christmas songs… guess we have to find a piano as she is outgrowing our keyboard.

Joshua - What makes you think we are drugging our kids?

Joshua is our tenderheart. Hard to believe he turns 5 in a week. He aims to please and will cry quite quickly if he thinks he has disappointed you in any way. The other day he heard me getting upset with his little sister for having marker all over her face. Twenty minutes later when he came downstairs he had a blanket over his head like a Jaw-wah. Upon further investigation I found that he had played with the marker first and was the source for his little sister’s escapades. He broke into tears and cried more about the experience than his sister. The boy loves his Star Wars, Spider-man, Power Rangers, and video games. Do you think we need to shield him from pop-culture a little better?

Liesie-Lu --- Who me?

As for Liesie-Lu (my nickname for her) she is not accepting the back seat to anyone just because she is the youngest. She is very opinionated and will resort to screaming to get her way. And is VERY jealous of her mother holding anything that even LOOKS like another baby. Her speech was delayed somewhat (may have led to the screaming) but she seems to be making great progress in her vocabulary and very clearly understands what is asked of her. Recently she has found an affinity to having books read to her, that is both good and bad I guess.

Jamie, Caleb & Liesie - Can you pick them out? Yes, that is Caleb with the last line in the skit

Jamie is the perfect diligent busy mother and wife. Apart from taxi driver she is a Cub Scout Den Leader, a Girl Scout Troop Co-Leader, frequent school volunteer, babysitter for two neighbors who are working mothers, and pretty much finds a way to always seem to be in constant motion. I don’t know how she keeps things straight and I often refer to her as my Franklin Day Planner. She is "working on goals" as dad referred to but I would guess that she would like to do a few other things if not for the constant deluge of tasks that beset a stay at home mother.

As for me, yes, running has taken a central theme in my life right now. My wife might argue that it has taken a bit too much of my focus… Maybe that will die down some over the winter once I get past this half-marathon I am running on Thanksgiving Day. I think a full marathon is in the cards down the road but I will make that call sometime in the future. That may take more time commitment than I am willing to give. My problem is I can’t just run out there and do a 6 hour marathon and call it good because that is basically walking. If I do it, I want to do it right… Enough with the running already (I know you are thinking it!) It has provided results though. I am currently 201 lbs and I’m sure I will be at the 200 lb goal I set for myself to run this race on Thanksgiving, even if I’m back over 200 by the end of the day… In other news, my "new" job is going great. I am enjoying not having to travel as much and being at a plant instead of a corporate office every day. Our industry is hurting a little right now as a good chunk of our product goes into the housing market but we seem to be keeping our head above water. Speaking of water, if you haven't heard, we are in the middle of an historic drought in these parts. At least I can blame my dead lawn on the lack of rain and watering restrictions instead of my ineptitude of growing fescue in the south… Just keep your fingers crossed that we don't have to train the kids on "Yellow let it mellow, brown flush it down" as it is enough of a hassle just to get them to flush at all!

I hope this suffices as an adequate family update instead of a book-long, rambling post of themes you had already heard. I’m sure my wife would highlight other elements of our life right now if you had her write on the same topic, but hey, this is the view from where I sit. Pretty nice view I might add…

See, I told ya so! -10k Photos

2007-10-29T12:52:00.000-04:00

Okay, for all of you that doubt whether I am really doing these things - Here is some photographic evidence. Of course they didn't post the actual race results for some reason so you have to trust my earlier posted time but hey, pictures speak louder than words anyway right?

Absolutely no clue who this guy was other than he was the guy standing closest to me when the lady with the camera asked if she could take our picture. Can you tell it was only 40 degrees F at the time?

This is the line for the Porta-potties - key for any racer. There is a reason most birds take a dump before taking flight. The fold your arms thing I am doing here and in the first picture is not a sign of reverence, rather stinking COLD!

If you look closely you can see me between the blue "FINISH" sign and the red pole. Despite the sign, this was also the start. I believe that is what the other side of the sign read. I am starting my stopwatch if you look closely enough.

This is a few seconds later as I officially cross the Starting line. This is a bit redundant to the last photo but you can see my face better if you had any doubts...

This is me roughly 54 minutes later sprinting to the finish line (next one will be under 50...). I'd like to say I had just passed that guy behind me but truth be told, back in the bend he was about to pass me and that kicked my ego into gear for this sprint to the finish. I thought he was a lot closer than he appears in the picture. Luckily the dark color of my shirt hides the amount of sweat I was soaked in.

First Full Half Marathon Training Run

2007-10-20T12:39:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to write about my first full 13.1 mile run. I have done a handfull of training runs between 10 and 12.4 miles but this morning I ran my first full Half Marathon. I probably won't run that far again until race day about a month away now. Most professionals training schedules actually never require you to run the full race distance before race day but I wanted at least one run under my belt for confidence sake. For full marathons most training programs never go over 20 miles long runs before the 26.2 race day distance.

If you are interested in my time, I came in at almost 2 hours exactly. Do the math and that is an average of 9:10 per mile. The actual race course has more hills than the pathway I run each Saturday so my goal on race day is also 2 hours. Based on how much I still had in the tank at the end of my run today I think that will be doable - at least I hope so.

Little tidbits I have learned about running this distance that you don't encounter on shorter runs: 1) you MUST hydrate mid-run. For this I wear a hydration belt which gives me an extra 40 ounces of Gatorade. 2) extra carbs mid-run give a great boost. Most runners do this with an energy gell like Gu but you can also use special jelly beans or some form of energy bar. The key is something that is quick and easy and doesn't require much chewing that might disrupt. and 3) everyone thinks of the shoes but I am telling you that although important on shorter runs the socks are KEY on the longer runs if you don't want blisters. I am partial to Balega Enduros and not just because they are made in South Africa.

I give you these tips because I did it WRONG the first time and I don't want anyone to have to go through that! And 200 is so close I can smell it. I have been 203 for the last three days and you would think that my run would have done the job but with all the hydration I do I finished the run at 200.8. I'm pretty sure I'll be there by race day though.

100 Miles

2007-10-18T09:39:00.000-04:00

Wow, I just surprised myself! If you look at the sidebar on my blog you will notice my workout history. This is taken from my Runners World Training Log. I have been recording my distances run since August 25 when I ran a 5k race. With last nights run my odometer rolled over the 100 mile mark! That means that over the last 53 calendar days I have averaged 1.9 miles per day. Now, considering the fact that over half of these miles were on my treadmill that I am CONVINCED is under reporting my distances (26:30 lowest 5k time vs. 23:51 on the road...) and I'm sure that in reality my average is closer (if not over) to 2 miles/day. I think the combination of preparing for the Half-Marathon and the knowledge that I am reporting my miles for all to see have driven me to be more consistent and longer in my runs.

It is a testament however to how the tortoise can win the race. Have you ever looked back and been amazed at how much you have been able to do over a short period of time with only persistence on your side? Pretty life affirming isn't it?

Turkey Day Run, Here I Come!

2007-10-16T08:15:00.000-04:00

Well, it is official. I signed up and paid the registration fee for the Atlanta Half-Marathon to be run on Thanksgiving morning. No turning back now. That is actually why I signed up over a month in advance, to keep me motivated in my training right up to the big day. I have found out over the last year and a half of running that I am a much more committed runner if I have a race I am preparing for. The windows of time where I don't have a specific next race in mind I have found it much easier to skip runs here and there and even go entire weeks without running.

I think this is actually a common human trait. We need that light at the end of the tunnel to motivate us to move or take action. How much easier is it to clean our homes when we know someone is coming by? Get a project done when we have a deadline? I think the thought behind goal setting is setting a finish line in place so we have something to work towards. My goal is physical fitness but that is arbitrary to me. My competitive side wants something more tangible, so I work with races which are far more measurable - not to mention the T-shirts. You don't get a T-shirt for loosing 10 pounds!

My real admiration is for those people that seem self driven, not needing that reward at the end of the tunnel. We all know those people who just seem to get things done, no matter the situation or the odds (can you say McGyver?). Perhaps their "reward" is defined very differently or in an eternal perspective. In a religious setting I think you would call it faith, I don't know what you would call that same drive in a secular setting.

So here is the shameless plug, what tricks do you employ to motivate yourself to action? What have you found to help you reach your goals? I'm expecting a few "chocolate" answers but for someone training for a Half-Marathon, I may need something else to work with.

Race for Camp Grace

2007-10-13T14:35:00.000-04:00

Well, I ran my first official 10k race today. I have a mixed report. I wanted to have a 10k under my belt before I attempt my planned Half-Marathon on Thanksgiving morning in Atlanta. While you can find a 5k just about every weekend somewhere in Georgia, finding a 10k is a little harder. They are out there but you just don't have all the same choices. In working with my dear wife on schedule, I targeted sometime in mid-October as my ideal window. It came down to today and I had a choice between two races. A run on the Georgia Tech campus for breast cancer or a run close to where I work benefiting a Christian Camp mentoring underprivileged children. The Georgia Tech run promised to be quite large and I'm sure would have had lots of co-eds but certainly drew more than enough support. I chose to support the small race supporting the Christian Camp. My experiences with these little races has been good and far less commercialized.

The only downside to this run was that it was a Trail Run. No paved flat surface. No, we are talking about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of mowed cow pasture, 20%+ grade hills, and creeks to jump over. Sure, it makes it more interesting but certainly more brutal as well. The largest hill was about a mile in (after my 6:51 1st mile) and was roughly 300 feet up in a quarter mile. There were many other longer and shorter hills but that was the killer. Combine that with the 40 degree starting temperature this morning and it definitely was a new experience for me.

My finishing time of 54:25 was a little bit of a disappointment but not so bad as to depress me, especially in light of the grade change and roughness of the path. It was very hard to judge pace when you are constantly worried about where your next footstep is going to land. Considering all of that, and the longer distance, a minute/mile slowdown from my 5k at the end of August is acceptable I guess. I don't have all the numbers in terms of what place I came in or how big the field was. This was a small enough run and in its first year, I don't know what all they are going to put online. We will see.

For those that are interested, I'm weighing in at 205. I had stalled quite significantly at 207-208 for quite a while and couldn't get out of that rut but over the last 2 weeks I think I broke out of that rut. My goal is to be 200 by the time I run on Thanksgiving day. Depending on my pie choices that evening though, I might be right back up to 210!

Abandoned!

2007-10-07T10:23:00.000-04:00

For all the times I have gone away on business trips, the number of nights my wife has left me with the kids and spent a night away from home can most definitely be counted on one hand. Last night my dear wife attended a Girl Scout training camp and left me drastically outnumbered. My concept of "don't let them see the fear in your eyes" was based on distraction and avoidance - laced with a good dose of bribery!

The day started with taking my eldest to Karate. You would think this would have been easy but when we walked out the door to get in the car, all of a sudden my eldest wanted a toy to play with in the car. Where I would have probably placated the other three in this request I had no patience for this from my 9 year old, on a 5 minute car ride, to go to HIS Karate class. Needless to say, the tears flowed all the way to class and I started the day as the evil villain. The 45 minutes of class went fairly smooth. The key to the scream avoidance was ignoring the stares of everyone in the dojo as I allowed my 2 year old to play and dance to her "Old McDonald had a farm" singing chicken all the way through class.

From there we were off to the store to buy some Crocs for my boys as their sandals are falling apart and they are very jealous of their sister's Crocs. Do you know how hard it is to find name brand Crocs??? Good grief! After about 5 stores I finally used my Blackberry to find a Croc selling location. Who cares that it was 10 miles away, more time in the car means less time at home with them running around screaming, right?

By the time we got there the kids were crying for food, it was 1pm, so despite my plans of not taking them out to eat, I caved to Uncle Ronald and his magic arches. A round of nuggets for everyone hit the spot. I think the other patrons noticed my predicament as a mother in the next booth offered to get napkins and ketchup for me and the store manager actually carried my tray to the booth AND retrieved the requested sodas from the store accessible fountain drink dispenser. Although I think I could have handled it, I appreciated the help. The funny thing was the mother that helped me. As I told the story of taking the kids for the weekend and where my wife was, she unleashed on her husband in that "why don't you do that for me every once in a while" tone. From the look the husband shot me, you'd think I broke some kind of Daddy's code.

From there we raced to the movie theatre and caught a matinee of Ratatouille. I know it has been out for a while and I'm sure will probably be out on DVD before Christmas, but it was the only family friendly film showing. Unfortunately I hadn't notice that that thing is almost 2 hours long! That is one long cartoon! I lost the 2 year old somewhere around 1:30 into the film and had to employ every trick in the book to keep her quiet for the one other moviegoer besides us that had decided to take in the matinee. Not a bad movie but not quite up to the level of other recent cartoon releases. I give it a C+ for comedy and an B+ for child distractivity.

From there we came home. I delayed the onset of dinner moans with the crumbs and dregs of a week old appetite spoiling Cool Ranch Doritos bag. That didn't last for long. Good thing Jamie had left me with one our kid's favorites for dinner, Mac&Cheese. Of course, I found a way to mess that up as well. We had a leftover cheese packet so Jamie had just purchased a random pasta to mix with it. Somehow my eyes missed the shells she usually uses for shells and cheese and grabbed the rigatoni. Rigatoni and Cheese just doesn't roll off the tongue the same way for some reason. It doesn't roll over the pallet as well either. Thank goodness for our kids non-distinguished taste buds who all scarfed down their dinner!

At this point I decided to take a risk and go for my weekend run on my treadmill hoping things wouldn't blow up downstairs. I left explicit instructions to "come and get me in case of an emergency or if Liesie-Lu needed a new diaper." Two hours and 10 miles later I came out to put everyone to bed only a little past their bedtimes. You can imagine my fear when I met a certain girl coming up the stairs to great me with a diaper held up in the air informing me that "Daddy, I oopy!" Thank goodness for dry ball poopies! That's all I'll say about that...

Remarkably the kids went to bed extremely well. Mishca asked Josh-Josh to sleep in her bed with her which left Caleb in a room by himself. So, upon his request I decided to let him occupy Jamie's side of the bed. Sometime around 1 am I was awoken by a leg cramp in my left calf. One of Jamie's jobs is to rub the arch of my foot to help make the cramp go away. I figured that if he wanted her spot in the bed, Caleb would have to do the same thing. (Hey, I was in mind numbing pain, I wasn't thinking straight!) After fighting for 2-3 minutes to get Caleb awake enough to actually be conscious enough to understand my request I endured another 2-3 minutes of my son tickling my foot while I cried in pain I came to my senses. I told him to forget it and then used a bedpost to rub it myself.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully. As I write this post Sunday morning is passing smoothly. Of course I was told "I should be home sometime around 10am" by a certain loving wife. As it is now, it is 11:30 and the natives are showing signs of hunger. I wonder what I can bribe them with, I mean feed them? Wish me luck, and pray that my wife is just delayed instead of plotting ways to extend this momentary freedom of hers...

The Emperor's New Shoes - Remix

2007-10-04T15:56:00.000-04:00

Author’s note: if any of you read my post the other day regarding my new shoes, here is the update. If you didn’t, just scroll down two posts and read that one before this one as I am not going to rewrite elements of that post just to bring you up to speed. I mean, come on, I only write 1-4 posts a month, if you can’t keep up with that, you need help…

This last weekend I went out for my 12 mile "long" run for the week. I had run in my new shoes several times on my treadmill at home but this was the first time I had a chance to get out on a harder surface. My shoes felt great on the treadmill for the previous two weeks but for you non-runners who venture past here let me tell you, the surface matters. About 2-3 miles into my run both of my heels started aching quite significantly. By the end of my run they were screaming and I spent the next three days tiptoeing around the house.

Now, I’m not saying it was completely the shoes, but the largest change for this run was my new shoes. Considering my old Nike’s probably had a couple thousand miles on them (at significantly higher weights) I am hesitant to think these new shoes didn’t have enough cushioning. Possibly the change of shoe and hence the foot carry, pronation control, cushioning technology, etc, caused my foot to strike just differently enough to cause problems.

The other factor I will not rule out and potentially could actually be more significant is my increased training over the last few months. Not only have I been more consistent (aka "frequent") with my running schedule, but I have also upped the tempo and increased my long run distances from 5-6 miles up to 10-12. Perhaps the wear and tear of training or the rapid increase in distance/week caught up to me. The fact that this hit me so suddenly 2-3 miles into my first run in my new shoes could have been an unfortunate coincidence. The symptoms and causes are consistent, for the most part, with plantar fasciitis but not 100%.

I felt that, based on what I paid for the shoes, I couldn’t hang my hat on the coincidence theory. My wife would have never let me live that down… "Just look at those $100 shoes gathering dust because you were too embarrassed to take them back…" Okay, so she would never say something like that but it provided the motivation I needed to get the courage to go in. Do any of you use your spouse’s voice as your internal voice of reason like I do?

Fleet Feet, see first post, has a 30-day return policy. My first experience, that return policy, and their attitude when I went back in to talk to them about my experience will translate into my loyalty to them for years to come. I have to admit that I was hesitant to take my shoes back in, in fear of a "battle" convincing them that the shoe didn’t work for me, but with the reassurance of the person that referred me to the store I went back. They couldn’t have been nicer. They apologized about the problems I was having and set out to see if they could rectify the situation. They talked to me for about 10 minutes asking me about my training program, what shoes I was switching from, injury history, then they rechecked the shoes I had purchased for fit, remeasured my foot, and tried a custom insert. When nothing else felt right, he went back and got 4 more pairs of shoes and started the whole selection process over again. No hesitation was at all apparent in his voice in taking back the shoes.

So, take two, here are my new new shoes. They are Saucony brand Pro-Grid Omni 6’s. The uppers don’t quite feel as natural as the Brooks (the main reason I selected the Brooks the first time) but the cushioning has a much more pillowy (is that a word?) feel, both in the heel and in the pushoff. I will let you know how they work out in a couple weeks. They felt good on the treadmill last night, but as I pointed out at the start of this post, that may not be such a good indicator. I may have to stave off judgement for my next long run.

Your Candidate?

2007-09-25T20:13:00.000-04:00

Thanks to one of my brother's blogger acquaintances I found this fun little quiz. Answer a series of questions and it tells you who your most closely aligned with in this election cycle. I don't know how scientific it is, but it was fun, and hey, it said I was 94.92% aligned with Mitt Romney - Dead on if you know my politics... Let me know who your man (or woman I guess) is.

The Emperor's New Shoes

2007-09-25T11:53:00.001-04:00

OK, so I’m not really an emperor (king, prince, or knight for that matter – maybe squire…) but the new shoes sure make me feel different. But so did my purchasing experience…

I have had a pair of Nike’s for about 5 years and they have seen me through many a mile. They say running shoes should be replaced at roughly 500 miles, I think I exceeded that a bit. They were with me when I started my dissention from 275 down to my current 206. I have some emotion tied into them. But after a run that included a good bit of dirt path, I came to the conclusion that my shoes indeed had worn too thin. Every pebble could be felt in the ball of my foot. I don’t know how Shaka Zulu ever convinced his warriors to live and fight completely shoeless… Maybe he was a bit better emperor than me…?

Anyway, with the amount of running I am doing now I decided it was time to get new (and better) running shoes. Nothing against my Nike’s but they were the absolute bottom end of the running shoes - purchased on sale for about $35 bucks if I remember correctly. They were also not designed for my stride or foot mechanics. These are issues that really don’t matter to the fat guy just jogging to get in shape but really do matter to the runner wanting to improve his personal bests or extending his runs from 3 miles up to 6, 10, or more miles.

A friend of mine recommended a runner’s store, Fleet Feet, as a good resource for getting a proper shoe. I had been reading about shoe types, reviews of various shoes, and had a basic knowledge of what to consider. However, I will definitely say that the sales force of this store were far more knowledgeable than your average shoe salesperson (and me) when it comes to running shoes as they were all experienced runners as well. They took a seated foot size then a standing foot size, from this they determined that I have a fairly stiff arch that doesn’t collapse very far with each stride. While this is biomechanically a bit more efficient, it tends to place more shock and stress on the knees and requires more cushion in the foot. Typically people’s arches collapse a bit more and act as natural shock absorbers for the stride. They then had me run on a treadmill with a video camera on my feet to show the amount of pronation (foot rotation related to the collapsing arch) in my stride. There are different shoes for various levels of pronation. Once the saleswoman had my foot particulars she brought out 7, yes 7, pairs of shoes. As a guy, I have never gone beyond 2-3 pairs before saying "good enough for me". She had me try on and run a short distance in each pair of shoes (lacing and tying 14 shoes) with a smile the whole time. Eventually I selected the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7 which set me back more than I would like to admit (certainly more than I have ever paid for a pair of shoes) but with absolutely no buyer’s remorse.

I know you think this whole entry was about my new "toys" but what really prompted me to write this entry was my shoe buying experience. Whether out of necessity, complacency, or ignorance, I think we as consumers have, as a culture, allowed ourselves to value price over ALL else. When was the last time you went to a specialty shop and paid a little more for what you really wanted instead of just grabbing what was available during your last run to Wal-Mart? I’m not one of those people that think that Wal-Mart is the evil empire as I have NOTHING against Wal-Mart and we do probably 80% of all of our weekly shopping there. But would I have been as satisfied or gotten what I really needed if I bowed to convenience? I believe customer service is undervalued in the retail world today. I genuinely think that my saleswoman wanted me to have a more enjoyable running experience. The subject of price or price range never even came up. I didn’t even know what they were going to cost until I got to the register but I knew that the selected shoe was the most appropriate shoe for me and so I didn’t flinch, wince, or bat an eye when the price rang up. I’m realistic enough to know that this was also due to the financial stability that the Lord has blessed me with but that same exact shoe WOULD NOT have come with the same peace without the confidence provided by my experience in the store. I think buyer’s remorse is the result of poor customer service and not convincing the shopper that they truly have made the right choice.

Have any of you recently made a purchase that was a particularly good (or bad) experience?

Blog Addition - If you care...

2007-09-12T20:01:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to point out one small addition to my blog you may not notice if I didn't point it out. If you look to your right, under my picture and profile you will see a quick running summary. I have been filling out a running log on the Runner's World website. Each time I run I fill out a quick form about length, time, type of run, course, etc. and it will keep a log/graphs/personal records for me. I have linked my list of personal records (only those reached in official races since I started running again) and a record of my last 5 runs. If you click on one of the runs it will take you to my training log if you are interested. Here is an example graph of my log since my Stonemill 5k race when I started the log.

I know that VERY few are interested, particularly to this level of detail, but really, this is for me. If I know that my closest friends and family can go and see that I haven't run in two weeks, I will be highly motivated to get on the treadmill at least for a little bit. (We all know I would NEVER make up a fake log entry, right? My wife would turn me in if I did anyway...) If this actuall has the effect of guilting a few of you into going for a run as well... happy happy joy joy.

Stonemill Results and my Saturday Run

2007-09-01T13:46:00.000-04:00

I knew if I just waited a few more days they would post the race results from my 5k last weekend but here they are for you to see. Key notes:

28th place overall
5th in my group - 30-39M as I stated earlier
I was 15 seconds out of 3rd for my group and the ever coveted trophy
I was the fastest citizen of Roswell - it helps when there are only 3 of us in the race
Only 4 women were faster than me and all were in their 20's and 30's (no triumvirate of 12 year old girls this time...)
The field was slightly smaller than I thought, 204 not the roughly 300 I posted earlier

As for my run this morning - I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew but I think it was a good experience. I ran on the Alpharetta Greenway which starts about a mile from my house and runs 10k (6.2 miles) along Big Creek. I decided that I would start at the Mansell Rd end, run an hour, turn around and run back an hour. At the one hour mark I was just passing the 5.5 mile mark. At this point I should have turned around but the draw of actually claiming I ran it from end to end to end (20k/12.4miles) was too inviting. That extra 1.4 miles made a big difference in the end... I should have turned around.

I completed the first 10k at 1:06:40. I noticed a slower pace after I turned around but I was still feeling pretty good at that point. By the 10 mile mark, somewhere around 1:50:00 I was starting to wilt pretty bad. My shirt now weighed probably 5-10 lbs and did not have a dry spot on it. My jog had slowed into the 12-13 minutes per mile range from the 11 minute per mile range I ran the first 10k in. I started to feel twinges in my calves and my hips started to ache as well. At the ll.5 mile mark I was doing not much more than a shuffle and finally decided to walk the rest of the way in. Funny how the body communicates that it has given all that it has to give. I actually arrived back at the end of the trail at 2:27:32.

Interesting things I learned about trying to run this length of run:

I actually was running slow enough on the return run that I wasn't even winded - my problems were in my hydration and energy
When I try to run that far again I will take and energy bar and Gatorade
I need to get a running shirt that evaporates or sheds perspiration quickly
Don't run that far less than a week after donating blood (huge type O and AB shortage here in Atlanta right now so I gave last week after my race)
Don't let my ego define my goals - inside I knew 2 hours and 10-11 miles was as much as I wanted to chew off today.
4 ibuprofen work wonders when your hips feel like they want to fall off (kind of like when my wife was in that last month of pregnancy)
And lastly, even fully 100% dehydrated I am still not under 200 lbs (200.8 at runs end) - oh well.

Now excuse me while I go and sleep the rest of the day until that BYU-UofA game this afternoon...

Josh Josh and Liesie Lu

2007-08-29T22:41:00.000-04:00

This was a couple weeks back but I'm finally posting them so forgive me. Here is my 4 year old with his magna doodle. He pulled me aside to show me that he had written his name for the VERY FIRST TIME without any help. The A didn't fit so he had to put it on the next line down...

Of course, his sister saw the camera action and wanted in on it...

Stonemill 5k

2007-08-29T17:07:00.000-04:00

I half debated holding off until the official results were posted on the race website but, not knowing how long that might take, I decided to let you all know how my race went last weekend. As I indicated in a previous post, I ran in the Stonemill 5k (previously known as the Sugarloaf 5k). It is a relatively small race that is sponsored by a local church as part of their summer festival. The relatively small field (~300 people I would guess) gave me hope of doing respectable in the final standings.

For reference, on Memorial Day I ran a 25:21 5k, which was my best to date following my 29:47 last September. My goal for the race on the 25th was sub 25 minute. Maybe I should have had a lower goal with my last improvement in mind but keep in mind that step changes get smaller as you approach the peak, anyway…

The night before the race was a bit odd. I had severe leg cramps in my left leg. My wife can attest that on occasion I wake up with terrible leg cramps. Historically these have always been in my calf muscles, rub my arch, give me a banana and they go away. The last two times (Friday night included) the cramps have been in a muscle along the outer shin of each leg. Can’t explain it, but I didn’t know how to make them go away either. I was awoken 3 times during the night, each time for roughly 5-10 minutes with this cramp in my left leg and started to wonder if I was even going to be able to run. When my alarm went off at 5:30, the leg felt fine, so I proceeded as planned.

The morning was perfect. Considering the fact that Atlanta has been in the midst of a record setting heat wave I was afraid the morning was going to be unbearable. The night before the race a series of storms rolled through and dropped the temperatures significantly. The clouds even stuck around for the morning. The daily high ended up being almost 10 degrees lower than the previous day.

The course was along an industrial park road but the organizers were thrown a curveball when the city water department decided it was time to install a new sewer line less than a week before the race date. The organizers did a good job of routing us over and around the construction well however and the only people that complained were the two old men who planned on running the race barefoot as there were a few spots with more gravel than one would hope for.

With the small field I decided to be optimistic and lined up about 8-10 feet from the front of the pack and seemed to judge it about right. I passed a few and a few passed me but for the most part I started where I should in the field. The race started with the first quarter mile all uphill with the steepest incline we would face in the entire run. This had the wonderful effect of stretching out the field quickly and making the rest of the run seem, for the most part, downhill.

At the 1 mile mark they yelled out 7:38. This was faster than I had planned and considering the long uphill at the start was actually a really good opening mile for me. By that mile mark I had settled into a group of three guys and we started passing a few of those greenies that really go out fast and then just die! We had a good rhythm but perhaps ran a little slower than we should. At the two mile mark they said 15:33. If you do the math that comes out to a 7:55 second mile. Still sub 8 minutes, which was my goal to meet my 25-minute mark but, in hindsight, a bit slower than it should have been for this relatively flatter portion of the course. At that point I abandoned this group and started pushing myself the last third.

As I crossed the 3 mile mark I kicked into an all out sprint with everything I had left for the last tenth of a mile. My semi-official time (until the results are released) was 23:51. Here is the math for you. That means my last 1.1 miles was in 8:18 which on a minutes per mile pace is roughly 7:33 minutes per mile. I don’t know my overall place yet but my place amonst the 30 year old males was 5th, just an agonizing 18 seconds out of 3rd which would have netted me a trophy. Mind you, in a big race I wouldn’t have even been in the ballpark of the word trophy but it would have been nice. Hindsight tells me my slower second mile cost me that trophy, but, oh well. I killed my sub 25-minute goal, I didn’t puke like I did in May, and I am more motivated than ever to kick it up a knotch… 10k race… Half-MARATHON??? Stay tuned for the updates.

And if you are wondering… I’m at 205. I’m hoping to be sub 200 by Thanksgiving (part of that whole Half-Marathon plan…)

Mind Bender

2007-08-22T22:06:00.000-04:00

This is Caleb and me at Six Flags over Georgia riding the Mind Bender roller coaster. The ride has two loops in it but was the only true roller coaster that Caleb was tall enough to ride. Mischa went on it once as well but I couldn't get her to go again. This video was taken on the last run of the day before the park closed. We had just been in the front car and I filmed the forward direction but the battery in the camera died halfway through the ride. I switched batteries but had to move from the front row but since there was no-one else in line we were allowed to move to the third row where I decided to turn the camera around.

August Updater

2007-08-22T10:52:00.000-04:00

Just a short post to quiet some of my "why haven’t you posted?" critics and to hopefully break the logjam and get me back in the habit here.

Things I have been doing or have happened in my life for the last month and a half that I’m not planning additional posts about include:

Going on vacation to Arizona, New Mexico, Arizona again, Nevada, and Utah, which my wife is doing a much better job blogging about so I won’t rehash those items.
Caleb and Mischa went back to school for their respective 3rd and 2nd grade years. Their teachers seemed nice enough at the meet and greet "Sneak Peak" the school arranged. We’ll give them a few weeks to see how they handle our kids. Is it just me or does every Parent think that their children present some unique hurdles for their teachers?
Re-reached that 207 weight that I posted earlier (slight setback due to vacation). Actually, that first 207 was based on really being 210 on a day to day basis but having just completed a 10k run, I stepped on the scale and got the "dehydration assisted" 207 pictured previously. The 207 this morning was the first "daily weigh-in" 207 so is far more significant. Actually, on a post run, "dehydration assisted" basis I have had a 206 weigh in (last week) but I try not to fool myself into including those weights in my overall progress as they set unrealistic benchmarks at times…
Preparing for my next 5k event, the Stonemill 5k (previously known as the Sugarloaf 5k), this weekend. Hopefully that 25-minute mark will be obtained this time around but who knows? I’ll post results ASAP.
The mass air flow sensor went out on my car and we had to drop several hundred bucks into replacing that. Funny how when you get a raise, emergencies seem to arise to claim the new money. In the three months since taking my new job (with raise) we have had dangerously leaning trees, family vacation, and now my car. Each of which ate up any and all additional funds from my job for each of the last three months. But as my wise wife pointed out, at least we had the raise to pay for it and perhaps a loving Heavenly Father was holding back the tide until I had the levee repaired…
I have adopted my wife’s 6 tomato plants that she was doing her best to kill off. To be fair, the heat wave and lack of measurable rain in the last month have done their fair share of the killing. The plants are just now starting to bear fruit, some worth keeping, some not. Maybe I will post pictures later, but lets just say we will not be visiting the state fair any time soon.
Oh and of course, I read Harry Potter 7. Good book, I could comment, praise, and rant but really my thoughts and opinions are really not all that original for those of you who read the book and care about the topic. The neatest thing to me was to watch my little Mischa catch the Harry Potter bug while Jamie and I were reading the last book. She read books 1-4 in the space of two weeks! (She turned 7 in April if you don’t know her.) Talk about scary and exciting, I have been bragging to EVERYONE that even remotely brings up the topic of reading, books, or Harry Potter.

Well, that should do it for now. Everything else that has happened I have planned a post in my head. Keep your fingers crossed and maybe I will actually write about them later.

Results - Celebrate America 5k - Alpharetta, GA

2007-06-30T12:52:00.000-04:00

Well I went back to the web and found the RESULTS for the race I ran on Memorial Day. So lets see how I did with a brief analysis of the data:

Overall: 101st place out of 384 - not quite in the top quarter

Fastest time: 16:32 - Wow! - I had about a mile to go at that point

Slowest time: 49:17 - One of about 10 that actually lost to the top finishing 10k runners who made two loops of the course.

My time: 25:21 this was actually faster than the 25:33 I reported earlier - why the discrepancy between what I thought at the time and the posted results, I don't know but the 12 seconds faster translated into 6 places overall and 1 place in my group.

My group (30-39 M): 11th out of 23 - I'll take that considering that without the "pinched butt" (see previous post), I think I could have cut the 16 seconds off that would have given me 8th place in the group

Youngest contestant: 6 yr old Davis Eddleman who ran it in 37:57 - I couldn't pay my kids to run that far!

Oldest contestant: 83 yr old George Abercrombie who ran it in 45:40 - I hope I can still do this at that age.

Catagories they didn't have that I would like to think I would have won (or come at least a lot closer) Why don't they expand their classes to help people feel better about themselves?:

Runners who previously weighed 275 lbs
Runners that had lost a minimum of 40 lbs in the previous 8 months
Runners who have a graduate degree from Western New Mexico University
Runners who's favorite work out music is Everclean - Spiritchal as Me

On the blow to the ego side:

If I was a teenage girl I would have come in 12th for the group!
I lost to a trio of 12 year old girls!

Oh well, I guess I have room for improvement! Guess I'll have to keep on running!

Amazing Brit - Paul Potts

2007-06-27T15:41:00.001-04:00

I'm sure many of you have seen this guy, but if you haven't, you have to watch! We are talking about an Average Joe who is really the next great tenor... I've never cried to a song that I don't know the words to or doesn't come with a video... until this. All my descriptions won't match up to what this guy can do so I won't write any more, just watch!