Paramedic (Ultra)-Marathoner

Disney Goofy Challenge

2012-01-16T19:20:00.002-05:00

I know that I have not posted anything lately and I am sorry. I have gotten behind on my blogging. I hope to change that and get back to writing more. I have now gotten another race completed and checked off my bucket list. I have completed the Disney Goofy Challenge 39.3 miles.

This was going to be one of my biggest challenges so far. I knew I could do it but it was going to be a challege to run and see the parks with my family. Getting up at 0200, being at the corral by 0500, running at 0530 and run 13.1 miles today and then 26.2 the next day. WOW it took a lot out of me mentally but I did it.

Keeping on track

2011-12-04T18:42:00.002-05:00

I have been following a new plan set forth by Coach Fitz and boy it is keeping me on my toes. I am so use to trying to say that I am going to try and break another 5 hour marathon but not now. My new goal is going to try and come in at 4:45.

Coach Don sent me my new time to follow and they are:
MP=10:50
ST=9:40
MT=9:55
LT=10:10
400=2:11
800=4:26
1000=5:34
1200=6:44
1600=9:07
EASY=11:15

Good Lord what have I gotten myself into now!!!!

I went out Sat for a long run that I had to cut short cause it was my sons birthday. I was suppose to get 15 miles in but I only logged in 8 miles. The way I see it is that I got a great run run in. I did not hit the mileage but I got a great cardio workout.

Karen, Holly and Coach went with me and we started out on a COLD morning run. I was more worried about getting back in time than anything else. For the 1st mile, I could not concentrate on nothing. I just wanted to get the run over and get home. When I got somewhere around mile 2, I started to push myself a little bit more. I noticed that I started to feel good the faster I was going. Coach was right beside me the entire time.

When we got to the half way point, I told him that we where at a 11:03 pace. He told me that it was too fast and we needed to slow down. Well, that lasted for about 1 second. The more we talked, the faster we got. I looked at mile 5 and we were now at a 10:50 pace overall. I said "WOW, we are at my marathon pace" and once again Coach said we need to slow down.

We started back talking and there again went the pace. Mile 6 was about 10:40 and mile 7 was about 10:30. I knew I should not be running this pace but for some strange reason it just felt good.

I was starting to have doubts if I could hold this pace for 26.2 but Don and I were talking about what my time would be and before I knew it, we were through running. My overall pace for this 8 mile run was a 10:26.

My hips were a little sore and my legs felt great. I know that the run was too fast but for some reason I needed it. I had to prove to myself that I can do it. I wont be able to run a long run this Sat due to having to go to Atl so I guess I will have to get in some killer workouts during the week.

I will keep you posted. Thank you and have a great week.

A New Direction

2011-11-27T15:52:00.002-05:00

After finishing my last marathon in Savannah, I am getting tired of the same training over and over. There is only so much of meeting early in the mornings over and over before you just need a change. I am training right now for The Goofy Challenge and then Snickers Marathon in March but then...........lets change.

I hope you are sitting down for this but the challenge is on. I am thinking of signing up for the Augusta Half-Ironman. YES I SAID IT! I know Steve I was not going to say it but there it is. It is on the table. I am going to start training and working on my swimming and if it gets better and stronger, well then I will sign up.

For now I will continue to finish my marathons and stop at #20. Then it is time to try and grow some gills and fins.

Savannah Marathon recap

2011-11-06T13:36:00.002-05:00

Well marathon #18 is done and in the books. I have to say that this marathon will go down in the memory books for a lot of different reasons. I have to also say that this marathon has changed me forever. I will explain later in the post but for now the good stuff.

Mandie and I arrived in Savannah trying to find our way to the expo. We knew that we had to go over a large bridge but we were met with a large, long delay of runners trying to go the same way. I don't think the organizers of the race thought about a possible traffic problem. I heard of some runners having to wait over an hour to get across the bridge only to find themselves still waiting in line to find a parking place near the convention center. Luckily Mandie told me to jump in the left hand lane and go around everyone. I did and we went over the bridge passing about 100 cars and luckily a GSP officer let us go the front door and drop Mandie off. Then I had to drive about a 1/4 mile in an open field. I met Don Fitzgerald and we walked to the expo. OMG it was so windy. the winds were about 15mph the entire time.

We got inside to find a great, organized pickup line for our packets. We then made our way to the shopping portion where I got me some last minute gels, gloves and one awesome looking jacket. I love it. Mandie picked up a couple of goodies and then we found the MGD64 booth. Don and I got our wristbands so that we would not have to wait in line after the race to get our free beer.

It was now getting around around 6 so we decided to meet at Outback which was right down the road from our motel. I glad cause we could walk and not worry about trying to find a parking space. Kriste Pool met us there for dinner. Everyone else was doing their own thing. We were going to have our pre race dinner. It was nice to have a great dinner with friends and discuss some last minute notes about the race.

We made it into our room and I got all my stuff together. I had taken some Benadryl to help me sleep and also to try and help out with my head cold that I had gotten the night before. I was sleeping good until about 2 a.m. until WTH, FIREWORKS!!!! Yes they were shooting off fireworks off over the river. I could not believe it. Then I was waking up every hour until I decided to get up around 4:30 and get ready.

I met up with Angela Lewis and Teri Parker down in the lobby and we sat on the floor and talked about how everyone was feeling. Teri was just bubbly. It was her 1st marathon. We all took turns going back and forth going to our rooms to use the bathrooms. The butterflies were killing me. I was trying to eat a granola bar and all I could think about was it would be nice to just puke. Well its time to go and get in the corral.

Freakin A its cold. The wind was cutting like a knife. The flags were flying to their full expansion. As we walked down to corral #17, Teri and Angela left me to go find a tree to take care of business again. So while I was standing there, I saw Brad Walton. We then all got into the corral and the start was on. As they released a corral, it took 90 seconds for the release of the next corral. Well we finally made it to the start and it only took about 20 minutes.

The race was officially on. We were running the Inaugural Savannah Marathon. Mandie was on the sideline snapping photos. I will post some pics later. The first 3 miles were slow due to the congestion. I knew it would be bad but wow. When we got to mile #3, the official clock said it was 1:03:57. I told Brad that was the slowest 5K I had ever run. Then I told him that we started way behind when the clock started. After the 4th mile the times started to get better. But when we got to mile 5, THEY WERE OUT OF WATER!!! Yes, they were out. I was furious. Don had put the mojo on me. He said he thought it would happen. The race was combined with the half and the full until mile 11. When we got to mile 5, again no water. Luckily we had our fuel belts with our own water. I thought this is going to suck if it was all gone.

When we got mile 8, we ran into Mandie taking pics and all I heard was "T-I-M". I knew I recognized the voice but I could not see her at first. The amount of crowd support was amazing. People were everywhere along with bands and cheerleaders about every 1-2 miles. I finally saw Mandie hiding behind her camera with her hoodie pulled up over her head. Brad then said he was glad he was running with me cause if he could not find his wife, he knew he would get at least one picture from Mandie. When we went by, it sounded like a machine gun in her camera. But that's why I love her. It was C-O-L-D and windy but she was out there to get some pics of me. We then ran into Brad's wife at mile 8.5 and he gave her his jacket. Can we say decaff. Wow, she has some energy. It was funny cause she was trying to run and take pics at the same time. We then saw a Marine running with his pack on with an American flag and a marine flag on his back. Everyone was cheering him on and when we said great job he returned with a Hoo-ra!

We came upon mile #11 and the race was splitting off. Thank you Lord cause when we went around the corner, we found the water supply. They had water and Cytomax cups stacked 3 high on tables. For every 100 runners that went on the half course, there was only 1 runner who went on the full course.

As went along one of the highways, we made a turn and went down the off ramp and I looked up. I saw Karen and Holly running together. It was cool to see more of our Galloway peeps that I have been running with through our training. A little further down the course as we ran past the marsh area, we passed Diane and Debbie who were also Macon Gallowayers.

For the next 8 miles, I was telling Brad that he was going to have to pump me up cause I don't like 15-20 mile markers. We made it through while talking about how tired we were getting. Small little cramps were starting to set in every now and then. But then as we were making our way up the hills to mile marker #22, we looked up to one of the many medical tents and there were 3 ambulances sitting there with their lights on. Then one of them left with the lights and sirens screaming down the road. I thought to myself and restated my pre race prayer that I hope everyone was o.k.

But, then as we ran past the medical tent, my heart fell down to my feet. I stopped and got very emotional. I knew it was bad. I looked on the ground and showed Brad the little yellow plastic circles and and empty box of Epi. That was the scene of the paramedics working a cardiac arrest. I could not get this off my mind. Just before the race, I had a bad feeling in my stomach. On the back of the running bibs, the race directors always ask us to fill out the emergency information just in cause this happens. I read it and said that this would never happen to me. Well for now on, I will fill them out just in case.

Well now we are on top on the last hill at mile #24 and it is now down hill. I was feeling good trying to keep pumping up Brad on his accomplishment of becoming a marathoner.

Now we were coming into the last 1/2 mile and Brad looked at me and said go ahead. As we made our way around the last turn with a large crowd of supports and cheerleaders, we were running down the corral shute. I was about 1/8 mile from the finish and a woman was running beside me and we kept looking at each other. Oh it was on now. She had that SUCKER look on her face. Then we started to sprint to the finish and both of my legs cramped up after about 6 steps. I told her to go ahead and I finished respectively with a smile on my face. I crossed the finish line, turned off my Garmin, and congratulated Brad on becoming a Marathoner! We walked down the chute, drinking water, Cytomax, eating containers of fruit and saying this is delicious, having our metal placed around our neck and then getting a mylar blanket. Brad looked at me and I said "GET IT". I told him about body heat and it was still windy and cold.

We celebrated with hugs and pictures from our wives. This is why I run. The smile on Brad's face was amazing. It was great to be able to see that.

Don was at the finish line to cheer me in. We then went to the beer tent to have our victory beer. Oh it was so good and cold. We were about 1 mile from our motel and started to walk back when Mandie told me about these guys on bicycles with carriages that would transport people around Savannah. So I flagged one down and off we went. I was so nice to be driven back to the motel and get some history lessons along the way. Savannah is so pretty and its even better from the back of a bike.

After I showered and changed, we met Don and Kristie at Chrystals Beer Parlor for a great lunch. Cold beer and hot seafood. We talked about the race. Don finished at 4:05 and Kristie at 3:40, I think. she missed her Boston qualifier by just a couple of minutes. I told her I know how she feels cause I missed mine by just a couple of hours. It had a lot to due with the wind and the number of runners.

I know that this was probably long but I missed alot of things along the way. Congrats to Teri, Brad and Holly for finishing their first marathon. Have a great weekend and I will see yall on the road again.

Moonlight miles 10K recap

2011-09-25T19:52:00.003-04:00

Last night we were going to run the annual Moonlight miles 10K but first we were going out for a warm up run. We were suppose to run 11 miles for our marathon training. Instead we decided to go out for 3 miles before the race. Then we would run at marathon/tempo pace for the 10K and that would be sufficient for us.

We gathered up for our warm up and decided to go out backwards from the finish. We were going to take it easy but we didn't. We burned it! We went out fast!

We got back and had about 30 minutes to refuel and rest before the 10K started. Now it is dark. I don't like running in the dark without my headlamp. They had placed 3600 luminaries along the road but it did not light the road for hazards. Luckily no one got hurt. Here is my pace from the race.

Have a good week and keep up the good work. Just remember no matter what speed you are running, at least you are running.

Cooler weather

2011-09-18T21:23:00.002-04:00

It was nice to go out for an easy 6 miler this weekend. The weather was in the low 60's with a slight breeze. So when we got to the turn around spot we kept going. We got in about 8 miles with the last three of them being almost a speed work out.

I didn't have much to say tonight so I am going to go to bed and get ready for this work week. Until then, have a wonderful day.

22 mile training run

2011-09-10T13:55:00.002-04:00

I just woke up from a great nap. This morning we went out for our 22 mile training run. The weather was nice at 58 degrees with no wind. It was a little on the cool side and it felt wonderful. We have 2 new runners in our group that have never competed in a marathon so today was going to be another milestone for them.

We started our journey at 5 a.m. which is a little later than normal. Since the weather has cooled off, we are no pressured into starting earlier. We went out into our journey of the black and clear sky. The stars were out with a full moon so it made it easier to see. We had a chance to talk as a group about questions about the race. Now with the cooler weather, what clothes should they wear? After about 3 or 4 miles, we were warmed up and I had a chance to explain to them about wearing light layers of clothes. As you warm up, you can have throw away clothes and just shed them off.

We were all feeling great until around mile 18. Then I started having problems with my knee just going numb. I have never had this before. I would be running and all of a sudden, my knee down to my foot would just go numb. It was scary. I dont need any new problems this close to the marathon.

We decided then just to take it easy and slow down the pace with more frequent walk breaks. I will not lie. I just wanted to be through. When it was over, I looked at my body and realized that I had poured out a lot of salt today. This was new for me too. Normally I only do that in a HOT race and not on a training run.

For now as I sit back and look over today's notes, I have my calf sleeves on and waiting for some good college football games.

Have a wonderful weekend and keep up the good work.

A nice 6 miler

2011-09-03T17:22:00.003-04:00

Today was suppose to be any easy 6 mile run at marathon pace. Well for me MP = 11:17.

Brad and myself left out on a nice and cool morning and started running with another group. We were in the process of warming up and looked at each other and said "Are you ready?" Then for some strange reason we took off. I dont know what happened to us today. Today was suppose to be a nice day. I dont know if it was the cooler weather or if it was something else but we finished our run at a 10:04 overall average. BOOM!!!!

I did not see that coming today but I am very excited to see the progress. We are going out on Monday to run our local Labor Day road race and I would like to come in on the 10K in under 62 minutes. I have not done that kind of speed in a while. I have gotten hooked on just training for distance instead of speed.

I have not been posting reports in a while but things are going to change. I like to write about my running. Heck, maybe one day I might just try and write a book about it. Remember here, you read it first.

we have about 8 weeks of training left for our Savannah marathon with a time goal of under 5 hours. Then it will be training for the Goofy race in Jan 2012 in Disney. That will give me marathon numbers 18 and 19. I have been trying to think of where I would like number 20 to be at. I want it to be a special place for me.

I think I have decided to run Snickers in Albany Ga for number 20. This was the place where I got my taste for marathons. This is also the place where I hold my current PR of 4:51. Maybe I just might have enough in me to go for a new record.

Well, this is all of the new stuff that is going on right now. I dont want to bore yall with alot of the small stuff so for now I will sign off and say "Keep on keeping on".

Have a wonderful holiday weekend,

Technical problems

2011-08-21T16:16:00.002-04:00

I am so sorry that I have not posted in several months. Darn you facebook for taking away from my web page. I have so much to get caught up on. I am now in the middle of training for marathon #18. I will now start posting more updates and more chats. Lately I have participated in my first duathlon and I finished 3rd in Masters Clyesdale division. I was so happy. I have also gotten a 3rd place age group award in our local Make It By Midnight marathon. More to come soon. Have a great day.

Starting over again

2011-04-15T20:43:00.002-04:00

Well it is that time again. It is time to pick a marathon and go for it. We are starting our new Galloway program tomorrow. Our goal race is going to be the Rock N Roll Savannah Marathon in November. I have gotten a lot of rest this last couple of weeks. I have just completed 5 marathons in 5 consecutive months. My goal was to do 6 in 6 months again but some things have changed and I am not going to be able to complete it again. I hope everyone comes back again and I know that we are gaining a new runner to our group. Normally I would say that I am going to go for another sub 5 race but for this one I am going to change. Our goal for this one is going to be 4:45 or less. Yes thats right. I have put it our there and I am going for it. For now I am going to get some rest and get ready for tomorrow. Have a great weekend.

R.I.P. 5 Hour Snickers Demon

2011-03-10T21:16:00.005-05:00

If you are wondering about the title of this post, you do not know about my history of this race. It was four years ago I tried to run my 1st marathon. I had dreams of breaking a 5 hour race. I was so close but missed it by a few minutes. So I decided to run it again, again and again. Well no more. It has been broken. The demon shall be put to rest.

4:51:59

Overall 490/631

Pace 11:09

10 mile : 1:49:12

13 mile : 2:24:07

20 mile : 3:41:24

My time from last year was 5:10:34. I am still on cloud nine. I cant believe that I have finally beaten the demon. It has bothered my for years. I really started to think that I would never beat it. I started to believe that I was going to be just a runner that could run for a long distance and not for a specific pace. WRONG!!!!

The day before: well it was like any other pre-race day. Mandie and I got to the hotel and checked in and waited on the expo to start. We met up with Tommy and Carol from Peachsports.com and talked to them about the race photos. I will load some from the race soon. I loved them. I got a chance to see some old friends from different marathons and meet some new friends. Don and Karen decided to run this race together so we were going to met at the expo and go out to eat with our other friends from Macon. We met up at Outback for dinner and then it was back to room for some rest.

RACEDAY: The alarms are going off through out the motel starting at 3:45 a.m. and now I cant go back to sleep. WOW only about 4 and 1/2 hours of sleep. It is going to be a long day. I know that I could go into a lot of details but I wont. I will try and keep it interesting.

We lined up at 6:45 and waited on the pre-race music to start. It was slightly overcast at 54 degrees. We were talking to other marathon maniacs in the race cause we were all wearing our MM shirts.

This is a picture of Doc ( the official man who started the race ), Don ( my new coach ), Karen and myself. We were 3 of about 25 maniacs who had their shirts on for the race. This was at mile 4. It was funny but everytime we came up to someone taking photos that it was the same time for our walk break. I like using the Galloway method of running. I use a ratio of run/walk of run 1:30 and walk 45 sec. I had tried many ratios and this one works the best for me so far.

We ran together and talked with Doc and he was telling us about the race and supports along the way. He shouted at everyone. I think he knows everyone in Albany Ga.

At around mile 8, we ran into the St. Patty's. It was a group of 3 women wearing green outfits. They were running a ratio of 4:1 and we ran with them for about 5 miles before they started falling off pace. It was fun watching their husbands waving signs and getting into their truck and going down the road to met them again. It nice to see funny things along the way to get my mind off the pace. Don was pushing us pretty fast for the 1st 13 miles. We had several minutes built up for spare time. I kept telling Karen that we would use them later.

We hit the 1/2 point at 13.1 and I was about 6 minutes faster than any other marathon I had ever run before. I was nervous. I thought for sure that I had gone out way too fast and I would burn out. I kept pushing it while Karen said it was too fast and she would have to back off. She said that she didn't want to get hurt so we continued on. Pushing every mile and it seemed like we were getting faster. Don kept pushing me and telling me I was doing great.

Well we came to the dreaded mile 16 where the lake is at. This is the point of the race where I mentally have problems. Don did his best to get my mind off of it. He did. We pounced through the next 4 miles and before I knew it, we were at mile 20. YES, this is where I usually get my strength back.

I trekked on pushing with everything I had. Eating bananas, oranges, gu's along the way and slamming down water and Gatorade. Then it hit me at mile 24. My Gymboss, a device that keeps up with my walk/run breaks, went crazy and died. I was so mad. I had to rely totally on Don to tell me when to run and when to walk. I told him my body was getting tired and I needed to change to a 1:1 ratio. Well he set it to a 1 and 55 sec and didn't tell me. He is slow slick. It didn't matter cause I couldn't count at that point. I was getting tired and MAD. It seemed like my times were slipping. But they were not.

It might be hard to see the chart but Don told me if I kept my running below a 12 min/mile that I would have this won. Well I did. We hit mile 25 and I think the clock said 4:38. I knew that I had it but I had to keep my eye on the prize. I could not stop. I had to pull down from deep down and just go for it. We turned and headed for the train depot and I saw Carol taking pictures. I yelled at her and told her that " I've done it. I have beaten the demon". I was pumping my fist and shouting with joy. As we headed down the final approach, there was a woman walking with a beer and I jokingly acted like I was going to grab it. She stopped and handed it to me and said go ahead, you deserve it. I slammed it down and kept running. I turned to see the time and I started crying with joy. I have done. I have beaten the 5 hour demon. I can put this race in the books, once and for all. YES, thank you Lord. We did it. I crossed the finish line and see my wife and I hugged Tommy. I was so happy to be finished that I didn't feel any pain. I received my metal and went straight for the beer table. I needed some CARB reloading. Don and I went to the finish line area and waited and prayed for Karen to finish before 5 hours. She was able to finish around 5:05 which was a 5 minute improvement on her PR.

I don't remember any other marathon where I finished with a HUGE smile on my face. Thank you to Tommy, Carol and Mandie for capturing some great shots of me. Thank you to Don for PUSHING ME, thank you Karen for helping me and believing in me. But most of all a special huge thank you to my wife Amanda for being my best supporter. For listening to my groaning and complaining for the last 4 years and standing beside me through all of this.

Getting ready for Donna and Snickers

2011-01-30T11:11:00.003-05:00

This weekend was suppose to be a nice long run. Normally we have been running about 2 minutes slower than out target pace at a sub 5 marathon. Well we went out yesterday and I was feeling good. I don't know if it is because I am eating better or if it is because of the continuous training. Anyway it is working for me. We did a 10 mile run and we did it at an average pace of 10:52 and that is about 45 seconds per mile faster than my goal pace.

I hope that when I go to the Snickers marathon that I will be able to keep this pace but I know that the Donna marathon is going to be a training run. I am going there to have fun while running a marathon.

More to come later. Have a great week and keep it in the roads.

Where is the warm weather?

2011-01-24T05:50:00.002-05:00

I like to have some cold weather here in the south but enough already. I am ready for some warmer temps. I want to get out and run but when you have so many clothes to stay warm and not get wind burn, it is ridiculous.

I am going to run the 26.2 with Donna Marathon next month and I am looking forward to the warmer temps. I realized this weekend that we spend too much time wondering about the future and that is one thing that I am going to try and not do anymore. I am just saying that I am ready for some changes in the temps.

It makes me mad that I don't go out and run but I go inside the Wellness Center and run on the warm concrete track. I guess if you have to do something, you might as well be happy.

Well for now, have a wonderful day and put all worries behind.

Museum of Aviation Marathon 2011

2011-01-15T20:32:00.002-05:00

Warner Robins, Ga WRAFB
COLD with no wind and no rain. This was the first time in 4 years that we had good weather. It was about 21 degrees at the start. I was trying to go for a sub 5 race today. I was not feeling it early and was hoping that it would kick in during the run. My friend Karen was running with me today to help pace me.
I was waiting on my new shoes to come in yesterday from Run Fit Sports but with all the snow and ice that has hit the east coast, UPS was not able to deliver them. So it was off to another race in my old shoes. Well I have to blame it on something. Ha-Ha
When they started the race, they use a traditional race gun. When Karen and I hit the 3 mile marker, I heard a LOUD roar. I looked on the runway and a F-16 was taking off. I was so happy. I love seeing planes. I think that is why I love to run this course which is 2 loop course around the AFB. When he took off, he pointed it up and shot to the sky. It was awesome. I don't know who the pilot was but thank you. It was fun watching.
Then when we got around on the opposite side of the runway, the plane went up again. Then he started doing rolls after take off and he was right above my head. I was waving to him and I think he waived back. YES, he was this close. I could see the pilot. This made this the best race ever. I have always wanted to see planes flying during the race but they have never done it before.
I was holding a good pace at the 1/2 point and was on track for a sub 5. I got a chance to run with a dear friend of mine, Gen. She is a breast cancer survivor and is going through chemo right now. She looked great today. When I went out for the 2nd loop, I knew what was ahead of me. I don't like the 2nd loop and miles 15 - 18 is a bad area for me. I have never liked this time of the race. This is when I want to give up. Once I get to mile marker 20 I feel much better. I knew that if I was able to finish the last 6.2 miles with 1 hour and 10 minutes left to go on the clock. I was feeling o.k. Then at mile 22, THE WALL LAID THE BRICKS DOWN ON ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My body started to shut down. My left leg was hurting and my foot was getting a bad hot spot. I was tired and I knew it. It was time to walk, come to reality and just finish. Well that is exactly what I did. I finished with a time of 5:14 and found out that is was a course PR for me by 27 minutes from last year. WOW I did something good and didn't even though it.
Well I have had my dinner and now it is time to go to bed with some muscle relaxers. Good night and God bless.

2011

2011-01-02T06:31:00.002-05:00

Every year our local running club likes to meet on Jan 1st to go for a run so that we can say this is what we are going to do all year. So there was 3 of us that met at our normal starting location and started out for a 20 mile run. We are getting ready for the Donna 26.2 marathon coming up in Feb.

We started out on our journey making up the route as we went on. We could have gone on an easy route but no. I chose a much more difficult route with a lot of hills and long inclines. I think that this was my downfall. I was feeling good until around mile 14. I could tell me strength was falling off and I was falling back. I was not sure what was going on cause I have not felt like this in a long time. I guess the extra weight and time off during the holidays has really made an impact in my training. It is like know I will have to start from scratch.

Well I am going to do what ever it takes to get back into shape. I have 3 marathons in the next couple of months. I am going to have to put everything behind me and just do it.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T08:30:00.002-05:00

Well it was a great holiday weekend but now it is time to get back to the training schedule. I have 3 marathons coming up, Donna 26.2 in Feb., Snickers in March and Country Music in April. I have run these races before but I like them cause they are local.

As we get closer to the end of March, we are starting up our Galloway program again to get prepared for the Savannah Marathon. This is going to be a 1st for Rock and Roll to come to Ga for a race. I love to run innagural races.

More to come later but for now it is time to put on the new shoes and RUN!!!!

Bartram Forest 50K 2010

2010-11-28T07:55:00.002-05:00

This morning as I woke up, I crawled out of bed as my body is killing me. I am very sore. I have not ever felt like this before. I hurt from my toenails to my hair on my head. I forgot how much torture your body goes through when running trail races. Rocks, gravel, roots, jumping small trees. It all takes the toll on your body when your done. But hey, it is fun.

I arrived with my wife at the forest around 6 a.m. to start putting things out and there was one runner who started before I got there. It was cold and windy. The wind was coming across the lake and I thought it was going to change to snow but it didn't. As we were trying to prepare the bags and goodies, runners were starting to pile in. This was great because we were not sure how people were going to show up. When the race started 5 years ago, there were only 5 runners. This year we had an all time high of 90 runners. Thank you for all who came out.

We had some changes in the course this year due to changes in the forest. Normally we had a figure 8 course but this year we had some small changes. For a 1st time runner at Bartram, it is a little confusing. It has taking me about 2 or 3 times before I have finally gotten comfortable with the course. We had some runners saying that they had gotten lost and that is normal. We are going to try and fix this problem next year with more signs and ropes. But one problem I can't fix is that we were told that some runners were cutting corners and making their race short. I told them that is between them and God. I can't do anything about that and they were NOT going to place in any awards. If we had to, I would look at their Garmin to see the total distance, but we did not have to do it.

I would like to thank all the volunteers who showed up yesterday. We could not have done it without yall. Their were so many that I can not thank everyone personally. Whether you brought something for us to eat, helped out in cooking and cleaning, sat at one of the aid stations to help with food/drinks, thank you to everyone. Yall are awesome and races could not go on without yall.

Today is going to be a day of rest and thinking of how the race could improve next year. I truly hope that everyone is o.k. this morning cause I know there were some that fell and twisted some ankles. Bartram Forest is a technical, off road course that will get you off your feet if you are not looking. Once again thank you to all who came out to help us with keeping the race going this year.

Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon 2010

2010-11-21T18:39:00.002-05:00

I am finally getting around to writing my recap from the marathon. We met at the local high school on Friday to pick up our packets. I loved watching everyone for the first time gathering their stuff. This was a first for me. I was not only running the race, but also watching my running students running their 1st marathon. I was nervous for me and them. I wanted it to be a fun day but most of all, a day of no injuries.

We left from the expo and headed out to Logan's for a good dinner. I had plans to go to Fazoli's and get some pasta but everyone else had other plans. So I said "I will go where everyone wants to go". Well then we get there and we all have to sit in different seats. Bummer. I wanted to talk about the race. Well Mandie and I had a wonderful dinner and it was time to head back to the motel for some rest.

We got back to the Motel and I put my race number on my belt. I already had everything else laid out like I normally do before a race. I want to make sure I have not left anything behind. Now is when my nerves start to kick into overdrive but not tonight. I didn't know what was different. I guess I have told myself so many times that I finally listened and it was soaking in. I am going to do this and do it right. Well I tried to go to sleep early but I was not tired. I was not nervous, restless or shaky. I just could not sleep, until about 3 a.m. when I really HARD asleep. Then at 5 a.m. the alarm clock went off. I was up and starting to eat and drink my usual breakfast. Peanut butter and jelly with water and gatoraid.

We arrived at the race to gather with everyone under a large tent with heaters on. It was cold out. The temps were in the low 40's with no breeze. Everyone was dressed with throw away clothes on that they would shed during the race. I decided not to except for the arm sleeves and gloves.

We lined up and I kissed my wife by and told her I love her. We all get our watches ready and BOOM!!!! the canon went off. I love the start line. This is only race with a live canon as the start gun. I like to see every one's faces when it goes off. We were off on the first loop which circles back around for a 1/2 mile and you go past the start line again. I was feeling great. I was trying to watch my Garmin to make sure that we did not go out to fast. I wanted to hold a 12 min pace for the first 6 miles. Well we hit mile 6 and we were averaging 11:47. I was praying that we did not go out to fast and crash at the end.

I had fun running with our group. We started out with Don, Sean, Adam, Nicole, Karen, Stef and Melissa. As the race progressed, we feel into our own groups of speed. Don and Sean went ahead like I knew they would. Adam, Nicole and Stef ran with me and Melissa went by herself. We were telling jokes and laughing for the first half of the race. The hills were OK at first but later would HURT.

We went out for the second time around and I think I heard my name being called. I had told many people that the course was flat with rolling hills but now it was not feeling that way. The hills were getting harder. I was glad that we took the time to train on hills for 6 months prior to the race. There were times when I thought I was not going to make it. I even said to myself that I would like to have a PR and that's it.

Then I looked at my watch and saw I had 3 miles to go and about 36 minutes to do it. I told myself to average 12 min miles and I would do it. I struggled with it limping and running as much as I could. Tears begin to roll out of my eyes because I knew I was so close and did not want to miss it again.

Now I was at mile 25 and I had about 16 minutes to go. My legs were cramping and it HURT to run. I was telling myself to push as hard as I could. I did not want to give up and miss my goal by 1 second. I had let myself down before and it hurt. I pushed forward grabbing my legs and chewing on gu's and slurping power aid. Now I made it to the top of the hill at mile 26. I now have the dreaded .2 miles to go. I looked at my watch and I had 4 minutes to get my butt down there and cross the finish line. I could see it. I was so close. I had to do it. I pushed myself into tears and ran as hard as I could possibly go. I made the last turn down the final sprint and I heard Don on the sidelines yelling "You better do it".

As I crossed the finish line, I stopped my watch and looked at the official clock and it read 5:00:05. But wait, I then looked at my watch and my chip time said 4:59:02. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I finally did it. I bet the dreaded 5 hour demon that has plagued me for nearly 4 years. The last 6 months of training had paid off. I not only bet the 5 hour mark, I took 6 minutes off of my PR. I was 50 minutes faster at the race this year than I was at last years race. Training, training, training. That is all I can say. It pays off. I love me some Galloway training.

IT IS DONE!!!!!

2010-11-14T18:53:00.002-05:00

I can now say that I have a new marathon PR and my demon of not breaking 5 hours is GONE!!!!!

4:59:02 is my official chip time

I am very sore this morning and taking it easy. Hopefully within a few days I will be able to write my race report.

The nerves are churning

2010-11-08T20:26:00.003-05:00

Well it is now 1 week to go before the marathon. I am so excited and ready to go. My nerves are kicking into overdrive. I think I am going to run out of Zantac. We went out Sat. night for our last long run of 7 miles and it felt great. We then had our last meeting and went over the last minute details of the race. We recieved out race shirts that are cool

I am working on my list of what I need to take with my Friday. I want to make sure I dont forget anything. I am going to sign off for now. I will repost soon after the race and let everyone know how the results come out.

So long for now and God bless.

Jay's Hope 5K 2010 recap

2010-10-31T08:57:00.003-04:00

It was a beautiful morning with the temperature about 42 degrees. I had just got back from running 10 miles with my Galloway group getting our last preparations for the Chickamauga Marathon. I was now warmed up and ready.

Well, I thought I was going to stay warm. NOT! Today was going to be a race that was going to run in memory of my running friend Zack Pruitt who recently died at the age of 14 with a brain tumor. When I ran this race 4 years ago, I ran the 10 K portion of the race and Zack paced me in on the last mile in his socks to help me finish my 1st ever 10K. I was exhausted after that run. I still remember it like it was yesterday.

Zack's family and some of his closest friends showed up to walk in his memory yesterday. It was a day of trying to hold back emotions, yet it didn't happen, even for me.

As I changed into some warmer and drier clothes, I took my socks and shoes off. I tried to warm and dry my feet so that I could put on some mole skin to protect my feet from rocks and glass. Well if you haven't figured it out, I am running barefoot in the race for Zack.

As I approached the starting line, I gathered up with the family and friends for some quick pictures. I was freezing. My mouth was chattering like a 7 year old jazzed up on Mountain Dew. I thought I was on the early stages of hypothermia.

We gathered up to the starting line and I loved to hear people say "He doesn't have any shoes on". That just gave me a reason to let everyone know why I was running this race and to let people know that just because you just in a race, a lot of people forget about the cause of the race.

Boom we off. I decided to walk with the family at first as we left out to go onto the main roads. We had to walk down the cold and wet pavement where the water sprinklers were on at. It was freezing and my feet were HURTING! I got up in the grass to try and warm them up but it was wet also. My mole skin didn't want to stay on. It was coming off so I just left it off. Then I realized that I was the last person on the course. Oh now, I didn't want to hold everyone up today. I looked up and saw my friends starting to leave me so I decided to run slow to try and catch up to them.

As I slowly progressed forward, I caught them and jokingly said "I've got to hurry and up and finish so I can go to McDonalds and get some coffee to warm up". I did not realize that I was not going to stop there. I started to get into a nice slow run. Luckily the road was nice and compact with no rocks and debris.

I started out with a slow running pace about 13 min/mile and slowly got faster as we trekked up the 1 mile uphill. I love hill running. I started passing walkers and then started to catch up to runners and encouraging them to continue on. I would even joke with them and told them they had on the wrong shoes and should change them with me. I loved hearing them laugh when they looked down at me and saw no shoes. As I ran forward others would make the comments about my feet and it gave me a chance again to explain quickly why I was out there which brought on a lot of emotions in some people.

Well we hit the 1/2 point turn around and now it was downhill. I was now at about a 9 min/mile pace and I had not stopped running since the .5 mile point at the start. I was feeling great. My feet were numb to the pain. It was like running as a kid again. I loved it. I know that I had some help from above and that is the only way I was able to get through the pain and cold weather.

As we turned back into Bass Pro Shop, I was running in the 7 min/mile mark and encouraging others not to stop cause were almost there. I could see the finish line and I was thanking Zack for what he had done for today. I love you brother. I hit the finish line and felt like a million dollars. No pain on the little toes. I had family, friends and strangers coming up to me wanting to know about the story of no shoes.

I just hope that I was able to pass along the story and it would help someone out today.

To Bill, Tammy and Kalie: Thank you for allowing me to participate in such a wonderful and emotional event. I had an awesome time that was able to bring back a lot of great memories. I love you all..........

2 weeks to go

2010-10-29T09:23:00.002-04:00

We are now 2 weeks to go to Chickamauga. I am so looking foward to this race. It is about time to put things behind me and moved foward. For the last 6 months, I have trained by the books and followed the charts and graphs. I have made the short runs, the speedwork and the long runs. I have run through the heat. I have run through the cold and have endured the pain and sweat. I have never felt more ready for any race.

This past weekend we went for out last 22 mile run and it was my fastest run ever. And what do I have to show for it, memories. That is it! 22 miles at 4:14 with a pace of 11:44.

When we got through with the run, I took my watch off and placed it on my tailgate with my fuelbelt. We all took turns sitting down and getting drinks and when I got ready to leave, I shut the tailgate and it was gone. I looked everywhere and called everyone to see if someone might have picked it up by accident. Well not luck. I wanted to see the chart from my watch. I was able to shave off 35 sec per mile on my last 5 miles. I was kicking tail. My running times were in the upper 6's and the lower 7's and I dont know where it was coming from. I guess it is from all the training.

This weekend I will be running Jays Hope 5K barefoot in memory of my friend Zack Pruitt. I am glad we are in the taper phase now so we can slow down. My body is tired and I need some downtime.

Jays Hope 5K

2010-10-22T11:10:00.005-04:00

this is going to be an emotional race for me this year. we get all caught up in the hoopla of just going to a race to run. we forget about the cause for what it stands for. well not this year.

this is a race that is run in honor of childfen with cancer.

when i ran my first ten k there was a friend of mine who ran the last mile with me in his socks around a muddy mile track. when we finished he daddy told him to throw his socks away and tell your momma you lost them. so for the rest of the day he went barefoot.

well zack became one of my running partners and his father ran with me on my first half marathon. zack came down with a fatal brain tumor and died at the age of foreteen.

in his honor and memory i will be running jays hope barefoot this year. it is just a small way to say thank you to a friend who took time out of his day to help me.

3 weeks to go

2010-10-22T11:05:00.002-04:00

i cant believe that is has come down to only weeks left before chickamauga. i am so excited and so nervous. i can see the finish line in my head but i dont want to count my chickens just yet. we have been through alot in our training but i think we are there.

1 month to go

2010-10-09T10:07:00.002-04:00

Well, we are now 1 month to go before I tackle Chickamauga again. I have alot of memories from this marathon but I want to make some more. I want to be able to bury the demon that has lived on my shoulder for nearly 4 years now. I have not been able to break the 5 hour mark but I believe with all my heart that this is going to change at Chick.

I have been with a wonderful group of runners in our Galloway program that has helped me out. They have given my energy when I had nothing left to go on. They have helped me to remember my own words in training. We have gone by the book and so far it has paid off. Mentally I am so ready for this race. Physically, I think I am, but we have 1 more long run to go on Oct. 23rd. Then I will know how I feel.

I am getting everything ready in my head for the race. Also I am a co-race director for the Bartram Forest 50K/marathon just 2 weeks after the marathon at Chick. So as far as my free time goes, there is no none right now.

We went out this morning for our 12 mile repeat run of 1 mile intervals. We had so many people that was not going to be there due to vacation, injuries and other things. So for the 3 of us that was able to make it, I decided to change it to a 11 mile run at a faster run than marathon pace. We started out at a pace of 11:28 and finished with an overall pace of 11:00. We were right on the mark and down to the exact second to our training pace. I am so proud of our running group. It has been a pleasure to run with these guys and girls.

My fastest 22 mile practice run

2010-10-02T13:16:00.003-04:00

Today was awesome. I had no idea that I was so close to being ready for Chickamauga. I want to go ahead and get this race started. Today we went out for our 22 mile practice run at which we are suppose to be running at a pace of 13:20 which is 2 minutes slower than race pace.

Well it did not happen. We did 22 miles at an average pace of 11:46 per mile. That's right. We were 1:34 per mile faster than we should have been. I have now been off of soda drinks for 12 days. I have cut back on my caffeine and was taking GU blocks that had caffeine in them and they paid off. I thought I was on cloud nine. We blew the time out of the water. My watch had gotten turned off for about 2 miles so I did loose some data but that's ok. We had a short break at mile 11 at our vehicles to grab some more water but did not turn off the watch. Here below is the graph from my watch.

5K Run for the animals

2010-09-26T14:51:00.003-04:00

Saturday was a short weekend run for my Galloway group. We were suppose to run 7 miles so we decided to go out for a 4 mile warmup run before doing the 5K race. It was a balmy 70 degrees with no breeze. We had decided to go out with ratios of 1:30/40 seconds. Some of the runners thought about going all out but I did not. Here is the graph of the run

I just love to see the faces that people make when I tell them that I dont run the races non-stop. They tell me that they cant believe I can run splits like the ones above. I am so thankful to have such a great group of runners in our Galloway group.

Busy week

2010-09-19T15:37:00.002-04:00

I am glad this week is over. It has been very hectic. I have been trying to prepare for my wife surprise party that went over without a hitch. She was very happy and did not have a clue. Thank you to all who were able to come out and celebrate her special day.

I have been busy this week also working on the annual Bartram Forest Marathon/50K trail race on November 27,2010. I have run this race before and wanting to do it again. Mandie and I were out eating supper one night and ran into Kevin Hatfield who is the race director. He told me that due to an overloaded schedule of night classes in college that he was not able to put on the race again. I asked him that if we helped out, could we still have it. He agreed. Well now Deb Botkin and myself are co-race directors for Bartam this year. I now have a different perspective of RDs.

I received an email from a very experienced runner this week by the name of Kay Allen. Kay was the national female Carolina champion trail runner. She was wanting to run Bartram this year but heard that it might be cancelled. I quickly e-mailed her back to let her know the race is going to be on this year. It is always exciting to met big name runners that want to come and run our local race. Last year we had the president and vice-president who started the 50 states/ 50 marathon club run with us.

I have been sending e-mails out and answering the ones I have received. I was lucky that Kevin still had some of his contacts from the race. I have been trying to get companies to donate items for our race. I have been trying to get goodies for the bags, tables during the race and for post-race awards. So far I know that RoadID is sponsoring us by donating 100 free race bibs, 6 road ID bracelets and 100 discount coupons for the ones who would like to order a bracelet. I have several other companies that I am waiting to hear from. If anyone has contact information on a company that might be willing to help us with donating items, please let me know.

Yesterday our training group was suppose to go out for a 10 mile run. There was a local 10K race going on so we decided to go out for a 4 mile pre-run warmup before running the race. When we started out, it was about 73 degrees and very humid. We went out for the first 2 miles of the course and came back. OMG it was nothing but hills. The course reminded me of a camel's back. Up and down the entire way.

We started out with a run/walk ratio of 1:30/45 seconds. We have been doing a 2/1 but found this new ratio and I like it. When you compare the two of them, it is the same percentage ratio but a lower number for a quicker turn over.

I have to give a big thank you to the race director of Caring Hands ( I believe that was the name of the race ). It was a very hilly course that was laid out very well. There was a great crowd support along the course with people playing theme music from Rocky while cheering us along. Great water stops with the volunteers bringing the water to us in the middle of the road. Normally they stand beside the table and you have to go to them. Lots of orange cones along the course to help with traffic. Normally you have to watch for traffic and dodge cars along the way. A great race and I will definitely run it again.

I have to take my hat off to our awesome group of runners. Stef and Karen took 1st in their age groups and Sean and Nicole took 3rd in their age group. I think I came in 4th since Sean got 3rd. Well if I have to loose to someone, it might as well be someone I run with. I am most proud of what I heard during the race. As we were running up the hills, I heard "Shorten your stride up the hills". I quickly turned my head and said "Wow, yall have been listening to what I have said". Then about a mile later I heard "Run like you have ski poles in your hands". That is what I have told them to think as they run up hills. For me it makes me think of cross country skiing. If you have poles in your hands, it makes it easier to go up a hill.

A first for first

2010-09-12T17:35:00.002-04:00

This weekend we did our 20 mile training run with a time of 4:13 on average of 12:37 pace. We were way faster than what our time pace should have been at. I am so looking forward to Chickamauga. I am shooting for my time goal but if it is not reached, I will be happy for those who finish with smiles and memories in their mind and heart.

For a lot of the runners, this was the fist time that they have ever finished 20 miles. Boy were they happy. Sore yes, but more happy than anything. They were a lot of emotions shed along the way but nothing but smiles at the end with the choclate milk. I am so proud of everyone that came out and ran this weekend. I am especially proud of Micheal who ran the 20 miles after his group quit after only 10 miles. It takes a lot of inner strength to keep going when others quit.

While we were running we discussed about what we would do on our last long run. We are suppose to do 23 but it is on the day of the Jay's Hope race. I had decided that I would start around 3:30 a.m. and continue to run until around 8:15 so that I could make it to the race. I told the group that they could still start at 5 and they said we run as a group and they would join me at 3:30 and they go to the race. I am so honored to have such a wonderful group. I told them that if I had to walk the race it still meant a lot to me. My friend Zack Pruitt died at the age of 14 with brain cancer. I am going to run in his honor and so is his family. His father was my running partner in our first half marathon. It is true that running friends are sometimes stronger than your own family. Thanks guys and girls.

I rested up today with a terrible headache from running 20 miles and then going roller blading at a birthday party. Have a great week and keep up and down with the feet.

Time for some new shoes

2010-09-01T05:59:00.002-04:00

I have been having some pains in my left foot and now it is starting to hurt in my outer left calf. I went to Run-Fit to see about if I needed to change my shoes again. I found out that the Asics 3010 that I have actually helped me at first but then hurt me in the end. When the left shoe started to break down, the extra arch support started to push my foot outward which put more pressure on the outside of my foot.

I went out yesterday with a pair of Gel-Nimbus 12's to try and see if it would help my pain. I think it did. I went for about 30 minutes on the treadmill and ti felt so good. I woke up this morning with a lot less pain. Normally when I would get up in the morning it would feel like a knife butting shoved into my foot.

A quick recap of training for Chickamauga so far: 2 Saturdays ago we went for a 17 miler at which I had problems with the end. The last 3 miles were uphill. Still finished with the time goal that we were looking at. This past Sat we did 9 miles of speed work at which we kicked some serious butt. We were about 20 seconds per mile faster than we should have been doing. It helped me mentally to have this run cause it put me back in check for our time goal.

My weight loss is helping me alot also. I have now gotten off 12 pounds in 9 weeks. I am still shooting for at least 1 to 1.5 pounds per week so that I will be able to keep it off and not some quick loss plan where you put it all back on in the end. For every pound you loose, it is equivalent to about 50 seconds in a marathon. I need every advantage that I can find to help me out.

Have a great week and I will re post soon.

Bartram Marathon/50K

2010-08-27T06:14:00.002-04:00

I was just told of some bad and good news. Like usual we will go with the bad first and good next.

Bad news: The annual Bartram Marathon/50K race at Bartram Forrest on the Saturday after Thanksgiving has been postponed due to the race director having too much on his plate taking night classes to finish up with his degree.

Good news: Deb Botkin and myself have decided to step up to the plate and become co-race directors for the race this year so it is on!!!!!!!!!

I have never done this before so I know that Deb will help me out. I am willing to do what is needed because this is such an awesome race. It is the only ultra-marathon that I have ever done and will be doing again this year. I have some friends that will be coming with me so the race must go on.

If you are not familiar with the race, it is a cross country course that is on grass, gravel roads and dirt roads. It is a figure 8 course that is about 5.25 miles with 2 aid stations. One which is unmanned and the other has more food than a buffet on Sunday afternoon. It is such a fun race that is low keyed.

I am looking forward to this race cause it will be 2 weeks after our Chickamauga Marathon at which we are training for.

And for my weight loss, well it was not a good week due. I have to say that the loss was zero. At least there was no gain. We just finished week 7 and I am down 9 pounds. I still have a goal to loose at least 1 to 1.5 pounds per week and then by the end of the year, I should be able to be at my lowest weight in many years.

Have a great weekend as I know cause my long run tomorrow is only 8 miles. Yippee!!!!

17 miler done!

2010-08-23T06:25:00.002-04:00

Saturday morning and I am up at 3:3o to try and beat the heat and get this 17 mile practice run over with. We were going to go on a new route. At first I thought it was going to be bad but everyone said they liked it. The last 2 miles were up hill but other than that, it was a good route.

We finished with a time of 3:39 at a 12:55 pace which is right on pace for the Galloway method. We are suppose to be 2 minutes slower per mile in our training runs so we are right at a 5 hour marathon pace.

Saturday morning was full of surprises. We got soaked in the rain. We were beside a Nextel tower when it got hit by lightening at which we saw the explosion. It seemed that everyone had the dropsies. One of the runners in the front of the pack dropped 1/2 of his granola bar and the girl in the back picked it up and ate it. It was still in the wrapper. One girl accidentally discharged her pepper spray on her leg and then had rubbed her face with the same cloth that was around it. The day was a great day.

We finished up with a wonderful glass of chocolate milk. It is so good after a long run to help replenish carbs. This week the low temps are suppose to drop in the upper 60's so it is going to help with our humidity. YES finally it is looking as if it might start to cool off.

Have a great week and continue to put one foot in front of the other.

morning run

2010-08-17T20:18:00.003-04:00

This morning I tried to go out with some of my FAST running partners. Well it did not go so good. I was able to keep up for the first 2.5 miles but then fell off the band wagon.

78 degrees with 94% humidity did not help either. We were trying to conquer some big hills to try and get ready for The Labor Day 10K. That race has 2 big hills in it.

I was able to get the 5.25 miles in an hour. It could have been a faster pace if we could have cut the hills out. I had an average HR of 140 which is getting better.

1/2 way through training

2010-08-14T11:12:00.002-04:00

We are now half way through our training for Chickamauga. We are going to be running a 17 miler next weekend. This weekend was 6 - 1 mile repeats. Well some of us went to the Jim Herring 10K in Centerville. It was Micheal, Eddie, Shaun, Karen, Nicole and myself. We set out to run ratios of 2 minute runs with only 30 second walk breaks at a pace around 10 minutes overall.

Well, we went out as a training run to see how it was going to feel. It was hot and humid. We went out too fast and started to fall off at the end. I looked at my watch and we had positive splits which is not good. The last mile was brutal. I am so glad to be able to rest now.

Congratulations to Karen for placing 1st in her age group and Nicole for placing 3rd in her age group in her 1st 10K road race. I am very proud to be able to run with great athletes.

This race was very special to me because of Zack Pruitt. Zack passed away this year from a brain tumor but was one of my running friends that would run this course with me. This year was the 1st year without him. I was pushing myself through the course and I know that he was looking over me.

Along with a great race, I am now 6 weeks into our weight loss challenge. I feel into 2nd place this week by .01% pounds lost. I am down 8 pounds. I know that it does not seem like a lot. I am trying to go slowly so that it stays off. I am hoping that I can get down about 20-25 by the end of the year. Then I should be able to finally break the dreaded 5 hour marathon.

Well for now, I am going to sit here with my feet up. I am still having some pain in my left foot but with the help from my Strasbourg sock it helps. I would like to have a big shout out to my friend Matt Jenkins, an ultra marathoner in N.C., who finished her journey yesterday. Matt ran 760 miles across N.C. to help raise awareness and money for the non-profit organization he works for. Their budget was cut by nearly $200,000.00 and he was trying to help raise money to replace it. To help go to www.westernyouthnetwork.org

Thank you and have a wonderful week.

15 Miler

2010-08-10T22:04:00.002-04:00

Sorry this is a little late but here it goes. We arrived to start our journey bright and early. 5 a.m. and we are off. We had about 7 of us in our group and about 10 or 12 in the other group. I was not good and awake but I was ready for the run.

We were going to go our route that we tried to do 2 weeks ago. This time we would do the whole thing and see if the miles would add up to 15. Well they did. When we started out the temps were in the low 80's with high humidity. It made it aweful to try and get a good run in. We had to drop back a little on our times so that we could breathe and not pass out. I will be so glad to see the cooler temps come back. I miss them.

When we came into the Indian Mounds, we came upon a split in the road. It was very dark and I asked the group if they wanted to have some fun. They said Yes. So we hide around the corner until Brandi's group came around and then we started to run again. It was dark and they could not see us. I think someone said some ugly words when we came out. It was funny and I think personally we all needed a good laugh to start the day.

As the time went by, the humidity slowly got better but the temps got higher. On our first loop of the course, we were holding a 2:1 ratio of run/walk with a average time of 12:47/mile. That is about what we have been averaging on the long runs. Well on the 2nd loop I decided to back it down to 1/1 and the time almost stayed the same. We all agreed that the 1/1 felt better.

After the run I went out for a 1/2 mile walk with no shoes. It felt great o get out of them. Brandi had brought chocolate milk for us. IT WAS SOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!! That is one of the best after run drinks you can every have to replace carbs.

Well this weekend I think we are going for mile repeats. I believe it is seven. Seeing that I am one of the leaders you would think that I would have the calender memorized by now. Well I don't.

Until later, have a wonderful week.

Boy it is early

2010-08-07T04:06:00.004-04:00

Saturday morning and its 4:00 a.m. I am getting ready for a 15 mile practice run for the Chickamauga marathon. We are going out early this morning to try and break away from all the HOT temps. I just hope that my energy level will stay with me til the end.

Well I need to get off the computer and get dressed and get out the door. I will post later and I come home and eat, shower, and get a nap. Have a great day.

Training for Chickamauga Marathon

2010-08-06T15:58:00.002-04:00

I need to start by saying I am going to start posting more often like I use to do. I have gotten caught up in a lot of life activities lately and have forgot to write things down.

I am currently involved in our local Jeff Galloway program that trains runners and non-runners on how to run a marathon injury free. We have ratios of run/walk/run and it depends on how fast or not so fast you run. Our group is trying to finish the marathon in under 5 hours and we run a 2:1 ratio. We run several times a week for maintenance runs and a long run on Saturday mornings.

We are right now about 1/2 way through our training with the race on Nov. 13. I have run this race 2 other times so I kind of know what to expect throughout the race. I have been trying to pass along info to the other runners about the course, hills, 2 loop course and other things. I am having so much fun helping others and it is also helping me out.

Along with training for this marathon, I have also enrolled in a biggest loser program with our club. We started 4 weeks ago and I am just trying to take it slow so that I KEEP the weight off. So far I am down 6.5 pounds and I hope to get off about 20 pounds before the race. If so it will be the lowest I have ever been for a marathon. I have been so close to beating a 5 hour race but so far it has not happened. This has been a burden in my life. It is just weighing heavy on my shoulders. That is one reason why I am trying to loose the weight. I love it when people look at me when I tell them I love to run marathons. I mean normally when you look at someone who is 6'3 and weighing 263 pounds, you would not think he would be out running.

Tomorrow morning our group is meeting for a 15 mile run. I cant wait because some of the runners have never run this far before in their life. I love to see it when people go past their last goal. It is fun to be able to run this far and then go home and do your normal activities for the day.

Well for now I am going to get some rest so that i will have plenty of sleep for tomorrow. I promise to post more often so that I don't get behind. Have a great weekend.

I finally went

2010-07-28T20:40:00.002-04:00

I have been having a problem with some pain in my right foot. When I get up in the morning, it feels like a knife is being stuck in it. Usually after about a couple of minutes it goes away. So far it has not plauged me with my running. It hurts at first but then goes away. I have thought about going to the doctor to get some xrays done but I was afraid of getting bad news and being sidelinded from sports. So I did not go for a while. Well I finally broke down and went and got the xrays.
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NO BROKEN BONES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I just have to figure out what is wrong. The doctor told me to try Advil twice a day for 10 days and see if that helps. I hope so cause it is racking my brain. So for now, I am still running.

MIBM 2010 recap

2010-07-18T08:04:00.002-04:00

Another MIBM is in the books again. I always say that this is the hardest race I have ever done and then I sign up and do it again. There is something about running the 3 H race: hills, heat and humidity.

As I drove up to the club house, we passed a few runners that started early. I got there about 30 minutes prior to starting and got my packet. This race is getting bigger every year. When it first started I think it was only about 10 of us in the race. This year we had 50 runners and had to tell about 35 that he was full. WOW it is getting bigger and better every year.

I placed my number on my fuel belt and stretched the old legs trying to get the blood flowing. I had some friends from our Galloway program running with me and Stef was going to help pace me. We run 2:1 ratios and try to hold a 11:26 but with the history of this course, I knew that this was going to be very hard.

So we were off and running. RAIN yes it started to rain and boy did it come down. We had only gone about 1/4 and I was soaked. It felt great cause I knew when it stopped, it was going to be very humid. Luckily it was getting late and the sun was going down so that the humidity was not going to be too bad.

Hills, hills and more hills is the only way to describe the course. Andrew said he took out 3 hills this year and replaced them with 2 BIG hills. He was telling the truth. WHEW it was hard and hilly. We were holding a great pace for the first half of the course with the possible hope that we could finish on pace. Well that did not happen. The second loop was hard. The rain had stopped and I was getting hot and tired. I kept telling myself that every hill I went over I would only have to do it again. Then I would be through.

I think that the last 3 miles was the hardest. Our bodies were starting to cramp up and we were looking at our watches counting down the 1/10ths of a mile. The mileage would not go any faster. It was just dragging by but our pace overall was staying the same. That was good because I thought we were falling way off pace. As we came into the last mile, we knew that we had one last big hill to concour. BOOM there it is and we hit it hard. Over the hill and down to the finish. YES it was over and I was glad. Mandie was there to get our pictures and Stef, The Princess Runner, was there to give me my medal. She told me that since she was not running she could give us our medals. It is always super to see friends that you know at races. Thanks Stef.

For the next 1 1/2 hours, I spent drinking a lot of fluids and trying to snack to get my strength back. Luckily I was not one of the 2 participates that had a DNF. I think they were from FL and not use to the humidity and hills. The last I heard they were ok and would soon recover.

A big thank you to Andrew and Deb for putting on a great race again. There were so many other people to thank like Andrew's wife, Kenny and Stef at the finish line, Mandie taking pictures and see a happy face of Marcus Parker passing out water at one of water stops. Without the numerous other volunteers that I did not mention, this race could not have happened. I hope to have some pictures soon for viewing.

MIBM 2010

2010-07-17T11:41:00.002-04:00

Well today is the day. Our annual Make It By Midnight half/marathon is tonight. If you are not familiar with this race is that what ever you think it will take you to finish the race, you subtract that from midnight and start. The best thing is for everyone to finish at midnight together. I love this race but it has 3 H's. Heat, humidity and hills. This is the slowest of all races I will do this year. I am hoping for a half finish somewhere between 2:30 and 3 hours. I am not going to push myself cause I am having some friends run with me for help and companionship. I hope to be able to post a report in a couple of days.

I have been busy running with our Galloway program. I am the 5 hour pace leader for the group. I figured if I can't break 5 hours in my 11 marathons then I need to train better and have more accountability for my actions. So if my group does not break or get near the 5 hour mark at Chickamauga, then I will be to blame. I don't want that to happen so that is why I am steeping down from my TRI training for now. I am not stopping, I am just taking a break. I signed up for the Augusta 70.3, I have not officially unsigned. I am going to hold it open so that if I get a chance to go, I will. But I am not making any promises.

I know that I am a good runner, but that is not enough. I want to become a great runner. I want to help others get better and reach their most inter abilities. I have come to a conclusion that I want to help others in hope that it will help me also. It is a long story that we discussed in church last week and I think it will help me in my running ability also. I know that some of you will think that running a church lesson don't go hand in hand but it did for me that day. It hit me hard and I am not looking back. It is time to go forward.

Have a blessed weekend and have fun.

I am still alive

2010-07-09T20:25:00.003-04:00

I know that I have not posted in a while and I am very sorry. I have has a lot of things going on in my life. I have been training for TRI's, marathons and long bike rides. I have been doing a lot of soul searching lately and some things are getting ready to change. More details to come soon.

still training

2010-06-06T14:13:00.002-04:00

I have not been posting like I use to but I am still in training mode. I have been wanting to sit down and right things our but i have not done it until now.

I have signed up to help out with our local Jeff Galloway program and now I am a pace/group leader for a group of us that are shooting for a sub 5 marathon. I am training for the Chickamauga marathon that is Nov. 14 I think. I know that the race is in the 2 week of the month.

I am also in training mode for the Augusta 70.3 which is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 miles on the bike and 13.1 run and I have to finish in under 8 hours. I have been trying to figure out what days I am going to run, what days to swim and what days to bike. It is crazy but I am trying to do it.

I am having a lot of mental problems with my swim. I have tried to use a snorkel to see if it would make it easier for me but it is not. So I am going back to the old style of swimming and just do it.

I believe my next big race will be in July with a half marathon. It is a hard course call Make It By Midnight. It is a 2 lap course for the half and it has a TON of hills in it. It will be a good wayfor me to determine how my training is going for Chick.

Hello

2010-06-02T19:29:00.000-04:00

Yes, I am still alive and running. I am still training and get prepared for the Augusta 70.3 Please dont forget me. I will be postig more soon.

Rest in peace soldier Zac

2010-05-19T21:39:00.002-04:00

Today was truly a day off tears of joy and pain. I lost a great friend of mine to brain tumors. Zac Pruitt was only 14 years old, but he was a man of his own will. Zac had been to many races with me and his father Bill who ran my 1st half marathon with me. Zac was a christian and I know that he has run the race and won the victory. He has been given the ultimate trophy and it was haded to him from God. I will truly miss him until the day we meet again.

My longest goal : COMPLETED

2010-05-16T14:28:00.002-04:00

It was back in Sept of last year and I had a thought, "Since I like running marathons so much why I don't I try and go for a record?" I was thinking it would not be hard cause this is something I like to do. I love long distance running. I never thought I would have so much fun while doing it. Before starting this journey my longest completed goal lasted about 3 months. I was trying lose weight and got into a contest and won. I have tried to do other goals in my life and have failed time and time again. I usually do not have the will power to continue on long term goals. I like the quick fix for all my plans. So when I thought about this was going to be 6 months of races and and at least 9 months of training, well I was a little nervous that I would not complete it.

November was the starting month. It started when I took on the journey to run Chickamauga Battlefield marathon with very little training. I originally signed up for the half but my wife was going to be at the finish line taking pictures for Peachsports.com photography. She told me that I should sign up for the full since she was going to be there the whole time. I agreed. I should not have cause it was horrible. I did not train enough and walked about the last 7 to 8 miles in the finish the race. My legs felt like jello but I finished.

2 weeks later I took on the yearly race of Bartram Forrest 50K. This is such an exciting race to run through the forest. Kevin , the RD, puts on a terrific and scenic course. It is a race that is about 5.25 miles and you loop it as many times to get a HM, marathon or a 50K. I started out with the mind frame that I was going to run the 50K and have supporters to come and run with me through out the race. Well some of them did not show up except for one, Stefanie Swanger.
It was great running with Stef cause she tried to keep me motivated to reach my goal. Well somewhere around mile 21 or 22 my body started to hurt. I stepped on a recent cut bush that just jarred my body like a lightening bolt. I stopped and told Stef that I was going to just settle for a marathon today. Then we went back to running and I just busted out laughing. I just thought for a moment and said "Stef, did I just say that I was going to settle for a marathon today" and she said yes. I thought it was funny but we did. The best part of the day was that Stef originally said she was going to just run 3 laps with me but she ran 5 laps for a marathon and had a PR. WOW thanks again Stef.

December was a time of rest for my sons birthday and the holidays. This is when I started to think again if I was going to complete this journey. This month had 0 marathons.

Jan. was the month of the annual Warner Robins Aviation Marathon at WRAFB. It consist of 2 laps around the base. I was feeling great for this race. I had intentions of trying to go out and PR. Well the race was off and I started running with some friends of our local running clubs. It is great to run with friends so that they can get your mind off of things and to help you keep your mind on track. Well I turned around at the half way point and started out to complete my 2nd lap of the course and realized that I was 3 minutes ahead of my PR race pace. I was feeling good. Then it hit me somewhere around mile 16 or 17. My body pooped out. Once again I was faced with the challenge of just finishing the race. I did.

Feb. was the month of 26.2 with Donna in Jacksonville. This was going to be a great race because this was going to be the 1st race where I was going to do it Galloway style and break my PR that now has become a burden in my life. My buddy Kevin that I worked with a work was going to be running this his 1st marathon. I was so excited knowing that I was part of the Galloway group that has a lot of great, energetic runners that really encourage each other to finish. We started out and I was on track with the 5 hour group until around mile 15 where the sun and heat really paid a big role in my loss of my PR. When I went out I forgot to put on sun screen and this is something that I will not forgot again. I GOT FRIED LIKE CHICKEN!!!!!!!

March is the month of the annual Snickers Marathon in Albany Ga. I love this race. So far this is my marathon PR course. Of all the races I have done, this is the race that has my fastest 2 times at. Today I was hoping to be a new PR. I bought a gymboss that was going to keep up with my running ratios so that I could run Gallwoay style the entire race. I met up with a fellow runner, Karen who was running her 1st marathon today. She asked me what my time was that I was shooting for and I told her somewhere around 5 hours and she asked if she could run with me. I told her for sure so that she could keep me encouraged. When were on track until the last couple of miles where our mile splits started to fall off about 45 seconds per mile. When we hit mile 25 and saw the clock, it said we would have to run an 8 minute mile to finish under 5 hours. Well I was disappointed for a few minutes but then realized that I was running with someone who was going to complete her 1st ever marathon. My emotions quickly turned from being mad to being happy. I told Karen at mile 26 that a man told me at the same exact spot to finish strong cause now you are a marathoner. I was happy to look at Karen and tell her the exact same thing.

April is now here and it looks as if I am going to do it. Another one of my running friends Melissa was going to run the Country Music Marathon with me and she told me that she wanted to try and finish a race under 6 hours. I told her that I would be glad to pace her if she would just run when I told her to run and walk when I tell her to walk. She agreed to do it and the challenge was on. The morning of the race we were told of BAD weather coming in and that we would have to hit mile 12 with a pace around 4:30 to complete the marathon or we would be told to finish the half. I was furious. 9 months of training and racing for mother nature to throw me a curve ball so that I could not reach my goal. I have worked so hard and so long to finish it. We were off and running and the weather looked great. No rain with sunny skies. We made it to mile 6 and I asked a police officer if they were still going to close the course and he said it would stay open until lightening started. I had made up my mind I was going to finish my journey. And then it hit at mile 12. One of the race official stepped out on the course about 20 yards in front of me and told me to finish on the half. The weather was coming in and it was getting dangerous. I was very upset. All my training shot down the tubes. My little buddy Austin, Mandie and her mom and step dad was waiting for me at the finish line. I was not happy but I was glad to see them. It was time to go the the Waffle House.

When I got home I looked on the Marathon Maniac site to see that some of the runner who needed this run to finish a journey to obtain a new star or be part of the 50 States club met at 9 a.m. at the finish line and ran the miles that they missed. They were going to turn in the 2 times to Country Music officials and see if they would give them a finishing time on the marathon. I thought I would give it a try also. I mean I got the medal so the least I could do is the distance so off I went to complete my miles. I emailed the director with my times and now it was going to be a waiting game.

The wait is no more. It is official that CMM accepted my challenge and so did Marathon Maniacs. I have officially moved up another star to Silver status but most of all I finished a goal that took me over 3 states, 262 miles of racing through all kinds of weather and a life time of memories that I will never forget. Thank you to all that helped me reach my goals. Now it is time to reach new borders and accomplish things that I have never done before. I have signed up to compete in the Augusta 70.3 Half-Ironman which consist of 1.2 mile swim, 56 miles on the bike and running 13.1 in under 8 hours. Also I have signed up to be a group leader in the Galloway program for the Chickamauga marathon.

To some people this journey of mine might not seem like anything spectacular, but for me it was like trying climb a mountain with a broken leg.

Sorry for the no posting

2010-05-13T22:06:00.002-04:00

I have taken some time off from my running and sporting. I have been trying to get my life back on schedule. I have been waiting on some news and I hope to post some good news soon. Well for now, I hope that eveyone will check back with me later and I will start back posting soon.

I never thought it would happen to me

2010-04-24T21:52:00.002-04:00

As I started out on this journey to run 6 marathons in 6 months, I never thought it would come down to having to run a 10 min mile in a complete marathon. I usually run a marathon to finish and have fun but today we had to race the weather. Guess what, the weather won.

As we hit mile 12, one of the race officials stepped out in the crowd and announced that they were shutting down the course. We were told to finish the half course and proceed to get our finishers medal of the marathon course.

Melissa and I were on track for about a 5:30 pace today and feeling great. The course had some great hills and downhills. We were rocking with the bands and ready to do the complete race. I was so disappointed to see them cut it short. When we finished and got our medals, the bottom started to fall out with rain and lightening. We are now under a tornado watch.

Well I am turning in and will report more later.

Almost done

2010-04-19T22:31:00.003-04:00

When I started this challenge I never thought I was going to be able to finish. I have always been one to start things and never finish. I usually try and do things that I can finish in a short time frame. Not 6 months. This is the longest journey I have ever gone on before. I am so close and it will come to an end this Sat. around 2 p.m.

More to come later as I get a chance to set a record for myself by raising my MM status from bronze to silver but most of all I get a chance to pace a friend so that she will break a sub 6 marathon for her first time. WOW we both get rewards in one day. I can wait.

A Time For Prayer

2010-04-08T20:51:00.002-04:00

Normally I would posting about missing a marathon under 5 hours or training for my tri, but today it is different. I go everyday and take things for granted. Well all do. We wake up and think well this is just going to be another day. Blah,Blah,Blah.

Well I have a friend of mine that I work with who needs a lot of prayers right now. He name is Bill Pruitt. Bill works with me at Mid Ga. Ambulance and used to be my road partner at work. His son, Zack who is only 14, was diagnosed with brain tumors back in Sept of last year. He started treatments of chemo/radiation and was doing somewhat better. Well he went for a follow up and disaster hit. He was given the news that it is going to be fatal. The doctors don't know exactly how long he has but it is not long.

Bill ran with me at the Inagural ING 13.1 with me. This was our first HM together. Bill and his family really need our prayers. They have good days and bad days right now. I know that Bill would not mind me telling everyone this is it gets the word out and everyone help by praying.

Some of us from work have gotten together and are having a yard sale at work this weekend to benefit Zack. We have gotten several local companies to donate things that we are going to raffle off. It is wonderful how the community is coming to our help. Zack was asked if he could do anything what would he like to do. He said he would like to go in a airplane or on a cruise. We are working on getting him to a airshow in Florida this month. The director said if we were able to get him there that there are several pilots that would take him up for a ride.

Please pass this around and help with a prayer chain. Remember that all prayers are heard no matter how short or long they might be. Thank you for your time of listening to me and helping us to try and heal a young man to be able to reach his full potential in life.

Please pass this around

Sweetheart 12K race

2010-03-20T21:56:00.002-04:00

Today was a great day for a race. Temps in the mid 40's with no breeze. Very little sleep last night and did not eat breakfast. I picked up a bottle of Gatorade to carry with me on the run. I mean I was doing everything backwards from what I would normally do for a run. Put all of this together and you get.....

A NEW PR OF 1:15:15

I am glad that I could write about getting a new PR cause it has been a long time since I had any good news about a race. A special thank you to Kenny and Karen who helped pace me today and keep me on my pace.

Marathon # 10 Snickers

2010-03-13T21:02:00.002-05:00

I just had to laugh when I wrote that cause I never thought I would say I just finish my 10th marathon. WOW, the time has gone by. 4 years ago weighing in at 305 pounds I decided to try and loose some weight by joining a biggest loser program. Well 3 months later and about 50 pounds off, I won and then my running career started.

The night before Snickers we were able to have a good pasta dinner while listening to others talk about their stories. Well one caught me off guard when a man sitting at the table with me was talking about being only the 3rd person to try and get a sub 3 marathon in 5 consecutive decades of his life.
That is crazy. I can even break 5 hours yet and this guy has been doing it for 50 years.

After dinner, Mandie and I sat with Tommy Chambers and his family at the Peachsports table. Tommy is the official photographer for the marathon. He really comes up with some awesome pictures for us.

The expo was nice but small. I think they had about maybe 10 vendors with my best one being RunFit sports. It is so nice to have a great local running store that has everything you need. And if they don't have it, they will order it for you.

Race day: did not sleep well. I was thinking about this race for a while. This is my race where I have come so close in the past. I laid everything out the night before so that I would not have to think about it in the morning. I got dressed and tried to eat a little breakfast before going out in the cold. OMG, it was 29 degrees. COLD. I put a trash bag over me before going out so that I would not get frost on me before running. As I made my way to the start line I ran into Kenny and Stef. They were going out to run the half-marathon. We walked to the start line and then I was off to run by myself. BOOM time to run.

As I made my way to the 1/2 mile mark, I came across a friend from Macon, Karen, who was running her 1st marathon. She said she was running 2:1 and I asked if I could join her cause that was the same thing I was running. We agreed she would keep up with the intervals on her gymboss and I would keep up with the average pace. We went out fast for the first 4 miles with an average of 11 min miles. Karen told me that she was trying to finish somewhere around 5:30. I told her that if we kept that pace we had a great chance to beat 5 hours.

We continued on our journey trying to slow down a little to conserve energy. When we hit the halfway point, we were averaging an 1130 pace. I was feeling good. We continued on until I came across my point in the race where I crashed before, mile 16 and 18. A big thank you to Karen for getting my attention off of the past and trying to look ahead. She was awesome in her 1st marathon.

I told my wife that if I did not break my 5 hour race that I just wanted to finish with a smile on my face. Well I did just that. When we came across the 25 mile marker, I saw the official clock and it said 4:58 and then I knew that it was over. Once again I failed myself. Then I looked over at Karen and said NO I am going to still have fun. I am not going to be mad at myself. I was going to push myself to finish, look good for Tommy while taking pics and finish with a smile.

We went into the train depot and that is when it hit Karen. She looked at me and said we are going to finish. Then I looked at her and said yes we are and now you are a marathoner. When I did this race 3 years ago, I had a runner tell me the same thing and it brought back so many memories. I told her to sprint into the finish and finish strong. She did and so did I.

SMILES EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!

Clif Bars giveaway

2010-03-13T19:36:00.003-05:00

I love to read other blogs where people are helping others out by giving things away and here is the next one.

You can visit his website at www.tridadoffive.blogspot.com

I tried to copy and paste onto my site but I am having problems doing that. Sorry for the inconvience but please visit his site.

Snickers report

2010-03-07T20:08:00.002-05:00

Chip time 5:10:34

I am happy with this time. I wanted to try and break 5 hours for the first time but most of all I wanted to finish with a smile on my face. I did that and was glad I did. I told myself to start off slow so that I would have some energy left at the end. I was glad I did.

I got a chance to run with Karen and it was going to be here first marathon. She was so strong keeping us on track with our 2:1 ratio. She kept me on track until the end.

More to come later but for now it is time to get back into bed and rest the legs.

10 and counting

2010-03-07T08:45:00.002-05:00

I never had any intentions of ever being able to say I have now run 10 marathons in my life. Nor would I have ever thought of running them in 2 years. I can truly say that my body is not the same now. I have gotten to a point where my body is conditioned to a long run. People still come up to me and ask me why I do this and I tell them the same reason why people run 5 and 10Ks every weekend. My body is just use to it. I am not going to lie and say it is easy to do it because that would be a lie. My back is starting to hurt, my feet are sore and my legs/hips hurt.

Looking back, I have traveled alot of roads to get here. Not only the roads to travel to the courses but the roads on which I have laid down some training miles. I was joking with my wife and I told her I have run enough miles in the marathons to go from Macon to Jacksonville Florida. Then if you were to log in my training miles and 5,10 and 12K races, I would take me to Miami.

I had a wonderful time at Snickers this year. I wanted to be able to finish this race with a smile on my face and I did just that. I will write a recap on the race when they publish the finishing times but I will tell you that I missed my PR by about 4 minutes this time. I am ok with this. I had other goals that I wanted to do and I will discuss them later.

I have one more marathon to do next month, Country Music Marathon in Nashville Tenn on April 24. This will be my last marathon that I have pre-registered for this year. I am planning on having fun with this race. My friend Melissa Cowart told me that she has never run a marathon under 6 hours and I told her if she wanted to run with me I would try and help her obtain her goal.

After I get through with this race, it will then be time to put all my training towards the Augusta 70.3 race. I need to put all my time to this race cause it will be my biggest training regiment that I will have put my body through.

For now it is time to sit back and give my legs a break today. When I get more on my finishing times I will get my recap posted. Until then, continue on.

Getting ready....

2010-03-03T06:12:00.002-05:00

As my body gets a couple of days of rest, it is now time to pack again and get ready for the Snickers marathon this weekend. I always look foward to this race because this is the place where I ran my 1st marathon 2 years ago.

I have been playing around with how I want to deal with this race. I always get so close to breaking the 5 hour mark at Snickers. I am trying to tell myself to star off a little slower this time so that I will be strong in the end.

I believe that is what I am going to do so that I can enjoy this one and finish strong at the end. This will be my 10th marathon and I will have only 1 more to do next month and I will be thtrough with my bucket list of 6 marahons in 6 months.

Donna part 2

2010-02-27T14:21:00.018-05:00

Looking back at a great event and weekend. I have had a chance to look at the pictures and I am going to post some of them. I have not sent them out to everyone so I am not going to put all of them out.

Saturday morning we decided to get up early and head out to the expo. We wanted to get there and see everything and still have time to get back to the beach and go out for dinner with our friends. The expo was nice and large. It was very crowded with all the normal stuff from drinks, gels, clothes and gadgets. While I was there, they had a booth that was giving away free messages and yep I got one. OMG it was wonderful. I asked the lady if she was married and she replied yes and my husband does not get them either.

I was walking around and meet Donna, who the marathon is actually named after. She was signing her books that were for sale. I did not know until after the race that I actually ran a portion of the race with her.
Also Jeff Galloway was there signing everything for people and answering questions while posing for some pictures.

I got a chance to pose with Jeff Galloway after his autographed my bib number for the race. I then found out that I was running the race with Jeff. He is notarise for running the races in 5 hours. He was running with his wife, Barbara.

After a great expo and walking on the beach, it was time for a good dinner with friends. We went to Outback for steak, chicken and potatoes. YUMMY it was so good. It gave me a chance to give some last minute suggestions to the runners while Mandie is trying to tell me to hush. She said that I should not be saying anything and I told her that I was trying to help them not go through the bad things that I had gone through before.

Well, it is now or never. It is race day and my nerves are kicking in high gear. I am trying to hide my emotions but it was hard. I was nervous about thinking about trying to break my PR and also about my friend Kevin and his wife Shannyn running their first race. I was hoping and praying everyone would run an accident free race.

We went out to get on the bus and good Lord it was freezing, 37 degrees. I wanted to find some coffee to warm up. This is Florida, it is not suppose to be this cold. I had an old pair of socks that I cut the ends off to make arm warmers. It actually worked.

Here is a picture of Kevin and Shannyn before the race. Note that they are smiling now. Will they later????????

Here is the Macon Galloway running group. Note that they are smiling before the race. Will this continue until the end???????

Mandie was able to catch the shuttles over to the beach and grab some pictures for us. Here is one of the ones that I actually liked from the race. I was still feeling good and had visions of a PR dancing through my mind.

But at last, the best pictures at the finish line. Me right after the race before I had my beers, after I had time to rest, me and Kevin, and the group with victory beers.

After the race we got to ride the buses back to the motel. Well, I think we had the coolest bus driver ever. I was joking around with him about if he could go through a drive thru on the way back and he laughed with his boss standing outside the door. Well when he closed the door, he said if you get me a McFlurry I will take you there. I told him I would buy him a Happy Meal also. So on the way back we parked on the road and Mandie ran inside and got 7 Happy Meals and a McFlurry for our driver. Man we were all happy on the bus. We were all craving salty fries. Then we decided that after we showered and changed that we would go to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. My friend Melissa Cowart was in town visiting her parents and she stopped by to have dinner with us. It was so cool to see more friends to be able to celebrate with. Here she is with us and Mandie eating their seafood dinner.

But by far the main reason why we ran the 26.2 with Donna Marathon is to help find a cure for breast cancer. It was very moving to hear and see stories about survivors and the ones that have gone on to be with the Lord. There was alot of emotions through out the entire race. I am very glad to have had a chance to run this event. I strongly would say to anyone looking forward to running a wonderful marathon, I would say run this one.

Have a great day and help save the Ta-tas.

Recap for 26.2 with Donna

2010-02-26T16:18:00.002-05:00

I will start out by saying if you have never run a marathon, I would highly recommend this one to be your first. The crowd support of this race is awesome. I think there were more supporters than runners. The town of Jacksonville really came out in great support. If you were on the beach, on the bridge or on the surface streets, there was support in large numbers.

I went out in the 5 hour pace group to try and beat my PR. I really thought this was going to be the day. Here is the time chip stations with the splits:

5M: 00:56:43

10M: 1:55:41

Half: 2:30:36 ON TRACK FOR PR AND SUB 5

15M 2:52:06 GETTING HOT AND HUNGRY

20M 3:57:28 THINKING I GOT A NEW PR AND THEN IT HIT ME LIKE A BOMB

Chip: 5:36:41

I was so close to getting my PR and breaking the 5 hour demon. I thought I had finally beaten it and it came back to bite me in the butt. HARD. When I came into the 20's, I was spent. I had lost my gel holder and the last 10 miles was run on nothing but water. They were passing out GU's but nothing in plain flavor. I was starting to get sick to my stomach and I was eating salt packets. I wanted a plain gu and no one had any. I started to cry. I was so upset that I had come so far in my training to miss it by such a little distance. I was upset knowing that all the training I had put out is now gone down the drain. I started thinking that Mandie is waiting patiently for me at the finish line to watch me break 5 hours. Then it hit me again and I got upset even more. As I ran past a police officer, I asked if I could borrow his phone to call Mandie to let her know that I was going to be late. She was so supportive to tell me that it was going to be ok and just finish.

I hobbled my way to the finish line to receive my beautiful medal that is partially see through. I will post some pics soon of the medal and race.

I have to give huge props to the Macon Galloway Runners who ran their first marathon. They were awesome to have given up so much time into training and run 26.2 miles. As we ran through the miles, I was able to run with Jeff Galloway and his wife as he runs the events in a 5 hour pace. He was running past us and talking the whole time. It was great to see my partner from work Kevin to run his 1st marathon. I told him that he would be able to finish it.

There is so much to tell about this race so I will post more later as it comes back to me. The pre race food with friends after the race with friends and the whole event. More to come later. For now it is time to get ready for Snickers Marathon next Saturday.

I'm back and ......

2010-02-23T05:29:00.002-05:00

I am not happy. I am back from my Jacksonville trip from the 26.2 with Donna marathon. As you know I was wanting to break my 5 hour demon. Well, the idiot is still on the loose. I was not able to break this lingering mark that is hoovering above my head. I was on track until mile 20 and then I feel off the band wagon. My finish time was 5:36 and some change. I will try and post a recap of the race in the next couple of days while I am in the recovering stage right now.

Snicker Marathon in Albany Ga in 2 weeks. I need to hurry up and rest so that I can get back out there again. Until then, have a wonderful day.

And were off......

2010-02-19T05:48:00.002-05:00

Well it is here. It is time to pack up and hit the road when I get off from work today. All the long runs, the daily short runs and watching my weight is all together. No turning back now. It is time to go run 26.2 with Donna. I just read that the ratio of women to men is 5:1 so if nothing else, it will be fun running with a bunch of women.

I found the tracking site where you can watch and keep up with runners. www.raceit.com/liveresults/bcm2010/search.aspx?event=1084

I hope this link works if not you can go to the 26.2 page on Facebook and it will show you how to track. Well for now, it is time to go and see yall next week with a recap.

Funeral arrangements coming soon...

2010-02-16T06:29:00.002-05:00

As I sit and think about what I need to take to the 26.2 with Donna this weekend, I am pondering that I have not broken the 5 hour mark YET. I have this demon that has pondered me for nearly 3 years now. Well no more. I am going for it this weekend and hopefully be able to lay the demon to rest.

Looking back on the last couple of months, I have logged in more miles and long runs than I have had in any of my past marathons. I think both physically and mentally I am ready for this task. I have had this hanging over my head long enough. It is time to move on and work on new goals. I want to get this behind me so that I can go out and finish my bucket list with a smile on my face.

I am taking time off this week from my normal mileage and it is giving me more time to think about the race. What to take, when to gu, when to take electrolytes. And I thought running a marathon was just going out there and running. Man what was I thinking. HaHa.

Well, if you get a chance and have some free time this week, please sit down and say a prayer for me for trying to reach my goals. I hope and pray to be able to have a race recap that will have nothing but great and exciting news.

Giveaway

2010-02-12T06:27:00.003-05:00

I am posting a link about a giveaway from another TRI who has given us details about a new GU. If you go to www.danglethecarrot.blogspot.com you can read his review and see more about the giveaway.

Is running for fun or is it WORK........

2010-02-12T05:12:00.003-05:00

It was not long ago when I felt like I had hit a wall. I was on a runner's high and thought everything was going great. Boy, was I wrong. I then had gotten to a point when I just did not want to put my shoes on and to hear about running made me want to throw up. So what did I do to get out of my slump..........
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GET ON THE BIKE AND SWIM

Yes, I found out when I was running so much and pushing myself to try and get faster and lose more weight, I found myself burning myself out. I was to a point where I did not know if running was for fun or was it work.. I had schedules put out for me and I did not have to think about what to run. It was laid out for me everyday. Where to run, what pace to run, how far should I run, Tempo or Easy long run?????? That is when it hit me that I got into running to help myself physically and not to go crazy.

Since I have joined up with the Galloway group, it has given me a chance to run with different people who are among very different goals and outlooks. This has been great because it reminded me why I did my first marathon and how I felt. It has brought back so many memories that I forgot I had lost.

When I thought I had done everything I could possibly physically do, I did a Tri. I never thought I could do something like that. I always said that was for the totally fit atheletes and not for me. Well, I was wrong. I found out you can do anything you put your mind to it and get someone to help you where you might think you have some not so strong points.

What I am trying to get at is when you think that running is just for going out and training like WORK, try something different. I found that when I trained for the TRI, it was nice because my mind and body was always thinking about what I was going to do next. My body was always in check because it was getting changed everyday.

This kept me from going stir crazy. It helped me get out of my rut. If you think you cant do a TRI, well, try and find something else. Maybe you just need to volunteer and help someone else. You will find yourself coming back stronger and better.

I just hope this post will help at least 1 person out there. If so, this blog is totally worth it. Thank you and have a wonderful day in the snow.......

Getting nervous

2010-02-10T06:13:00.002-05:00

I have about 10 days to go before the 26.2 Donna Marathon in Jacksonville Florida. This will be my 9th marathon on my lists of ones to do. You would think by now that races would not bother me but for some reason my nerves are starting to kick in somewhat. I have a 5 hour demon that has followed me since I started running marathons.

I want to be able to break this internal record and get rid of the PR and start on a new number, Sub 5. I am feeling good about going for this next week. I think I have alot of base miles for the last 6 months and have several 20 plus mile runs in.

I am trying to loose a couple of pounds before I go cause 1 pound = 2 seconds/mile. For some people that would not mean alot but for me if I could drop 5 - 10 pounds it could mean a PR for me. I am going down to Fl with the Jeff Galloway group and they are so fun to run with. I have had so much fun getting long run in and being able to share some of my knowledge of running. This Friday we are going to meet and talk about last minute preparations. Then we are going to watch the movie "Making of a marathon".

Well I felt like I needed to sit down and talk for a minute before going to work to help release some of my feelings and butterflies. I just want to go ahead right now and go to Florida. I am pumped about the race and everything it stands for.

Until later, have a blessed day and continue to get out there and run....

Bike ride

2010-02-07T07:38:00.002-05:00

I have been a slacker this week with my runs. I have gone to the gym and gotten on the treadmill some but it just not the same as getting out on the road. Friday night our bike group from Warner Robins called me and asked if I was going on the bike ride. I told them sure if it was not raining.

Well, I got up Saturday and it was dry and windy. Oh did I mention it was cold. So I told them I was going so I loaded up the bike and headed out. It was a small group of about only 8 riders. Normally we would have about 20 or so.

I was able to maintain an average of 15 mph for 26 miles. The wind was horrible. It was in our face from the start. It was making us get out of the saddle and work the legs. After mile 5 I actually thought about going back and not taking a chance of getting sick. I glad I did not turn back. It was fun when I got through.

I felt good and stayed warm except for my feet. I should have worn 2 pair of socks but lesson learned. Now I need to clean the bike due to the little bit of drizzle we went through before we finished the ride. Now that was cold.

I have 2 weeks before the marathon and I will be on the treadmill this week in the mornings. I am working on shedding some more pounds. So what did I do, I went and got the P90X videos. More to come later with the videos.

Have a great week and keep up the great work....

YEAH.......

2010-02-03T21:34:00.002-05:00

I finally got a chance to get back out and try my new shoes. I went to the Wellness Center and got on the treadmill so that I could change up the speed and incline to test them. The final answer is ...............

They passed!!!!!!!

I love my new Asics 3010's. They are great! I did not have the traditional pain across the top of my foot nor the pain around my big toe. They are super comfortable. I am so glad that I went back to Run Fit and got my feet checked again. I think I have been in the wrong shoes lately. I hope this fixes my problem. I will know after the 26.2 with Donna in 18 days.

Until later, have a great pain-free run......

New shoes

2010-01-31T08:20:00.002-05:00

On my last trip to our local running store, Run Fit Sports, I looked at getting some more shoes. I have tried all week to get over there. I had my gift certificates in my hand and I was like a kid at Christmas wanting to spend them.

While I was there, Chad had asked me to try some different shoes this time. He had me walk down the floor with no shoes on and told me that I did not need to be in the 2150's anymore. He told me that my arch had changed from the weight loss and more miles that I have put on last year. I have been battling issues with sore muscles across my big toe and top of my foot. Chad explained to me that the two shoes have different flex points on the shoes and that could be my problem.

I HOPE THIS FIXES MY PROBLEMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My feet have been hurting for a while and I could not figure out what the problem was or why it would not go away. I will find out soon as I am going to run my next marathon in 3 weeks. I hope that we get some good weather this week so I can get so miles logged into my new shoes.

Well hopefully my next post will be of some good news of foot relief. Have a great week.

Under construction

2010-01-30T20:22:00.002-05:00

I have taken this week off from running to let my legs and body rest. I have been putting in alot of miles over the last couple of weeks. I am now 1/2 way through my bucket list of 6 marathons in 6 months. I thought this was going to alot easier than I thought but boy was I wrong.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel but I am just hoping it is not a train and I am in a tunnel. I don't know why I start to think like this when I take time off from running. If I go at least 3 times a week, I am ok. I guess I just need to run in order to keep my mind straight.

Well since I have not been running, I have had time to think about how I can change up my blog page and make it friendlier. I would like to put pictures and logos of stores that have helped me and continue to help. Over the next several days, I will be adding different things that hopefully will add some enlightenment to my site.

Until then, have a great day.

Last long run with the Macon Galloway group

2010-01-24T16:30:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was a great day. It was the last long run before getting ready for the 26.2 with Donna Marathon on Feb 21. It was suppose to get into the low 60's but never got over 45 degrees. There was about 16 or so that braved the temps to go out and attempt 25 miles today. This was going to be a long painful and mental run cause the group had never been that far before. I was lucky to be able to run with them and remember how I felt on my long run before my first marathon.

There were 2 groups that treked off onto 2 different paths to log in their miles. We took an easier route, well we thought it was going to be flat and easy. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

During the run, we had 2 people that had encountered some minor injuries that played it smart and went back to the vehicles before something bad happened. They rest of us went along and finished our plan. I know that my normal runs would have been a little faster than what went but I was able to share some stories of my past marathons. We talked about what to pack, when to double check to make sure you have everything and what to do the last couple of days before the big day.

I was glad to have been around a special group of runners. I have run with others before, but being around this group made me remember why I got into running. Going out running and then going and have a great fellowship afterwards. It is not about PR's ( which are nice when you get them but not everyday ) but it is about being able to go out and finish something you put your heart into. That is what running to me is all about.

So now it is about 3 weeks to go before the big race and my body is in taper mode. Back to back weekends of 26.2 and 25 miles is playing a toll on me today. I am sore and my hips are hurting. I will probably get into the pool this week so that I can have some low impact workouts. Until then, have a wonderful week.

10 Happy Things

2010-01-21T05:20:00.002-05:00

I was recently tagged by Stef to write about the 10 things that make me happy. When I first thought about this I was not sure I could come up with that many but now that I have thought about it, I think this is going to be easy.

1. Family... If it were not for my family, I would not be a runner. I have such a supportive group of people at home that some days it makes it easy to go running. They are my best coaching and support staff.

2.Friends... Well this one is almost too obvious. When I need someone to go run with, all I have to do is pick up the phone and then I will have someone to join me for a run or to just get me on the base so that I can run with any traffic. My friends have pushed me to journeys I thought I would never conquer and never attempt.

3.Helping others... If you know me you know I am a paramedic. I got into this career to help people but I am now talking about this right now. I am talking about helping others in running and health. I know that I am struggling with my weight issues but I love giving inspirational thoughts and motivational speeches while I run.

4.Improvement... I use to think that any improvement in running was only in the form of PR's but I have found that not to be true. It could come as not putting on any weight for the week. It could be running a race at the same time but having a quicker and better recovery time in the healing of my legs and body.

5.My Salvation... This one should have been put in at number one because with God, I could do nothing and I mean nothing. He has given me deep down strength when I have hit rock bottom. I have had some long talks with him when I have been on some of my marathons but I was still able to finish.

6.Group meals...And you thought I would not talk about food. I love when I get a chance to go out and eat with my friends. It could be at a pasta dinner or just go out for a snack. It gives me a chance to find out what races people are doing or going to be doing so they can PRESSURE me into doing that my mind is saying "You are crazy". But I still do it.

7.Seeing people's faces... I mean when I am in line at packet pickup for the marathons I have done in the past, I love to see other runners. It is so funny when people ask me "Are you doing the half also" and I get a chance to watch their jaws drop when I tell them "No, I am here for the marathon and this is not my first one".

8.Bike rides...I almost forgot how much fun it is to get out and go for a bike ride. When I was about 15, I went on my 1st century (100 mile) ride and I did not think anything about it. Now I look back and think it was a big accomplishment and a start of something great. I love getting on my TREK and riding the streets of Ga. Whether it is going out for a 40 mile ride or a quick 20 mile ride while training for a TRI, I just love it. I think deep down inside, I still want to meet and ride with Lance one day. Oh how cool that would be for this big boy.

9.When things are in order...This could be at work, home or out running. I just like it when things are going like they are suppose too. I don't like knowing I will have to come to a crossroad in life and have to make a choice. I have been known to make some bad choices before in the past. I don't like hitting speed bumps in life because they tend to make you slow down and look around. I just like it when things are going right and everyone is happy.

10.Reaching a goal...This could be something small or big. I have not had good success in the past on keeping my goals. I am not much of a long term person. I like to have quick goals so that I can reach out and finish them. I have an attention problem and it is hard for me to remember what I am suppose to be doing. I did my 1st TRI last year and I thought this was a huge accomplishment for me. This was something that took me a couple of months of preparation and training. Now I am in the process for participating in my 1st Half-Ironman in Sept so this is going to really push myself. I have run 3 marathons in the last 3 months and have 3 more to go. I set a goal of running 6 marathons in 6 months and so far, I am on track to conquer and finish this goal.

I thought this was going to be harder to write but once I sat down, I was able to do this in a matter of minutes. There are so many other things in life that make me happy but I was asked to write 1o things. I think if I were to keep going, I could publish at least 1000 things.

Sometimes I just have to sit down and write about things to keep me going but I love to share my thoughts with others and read the feed back. During my last marathon at the WRAFB, I had a couple of people tell me that they have been reading my blogs and like them. That could have been number 11. I like it when people tell me they have followed my blogs. I just hope that one day it will help someone the same way I have received help. Sometimes it only takes a word of hope or wisdom. I might not be a smart runner but I try and catch myself listening to others and spreading the wealth.

Have a great week....

A special thanks

2010-01-17T08:05:00.002-05:00

I forgot to post and say a very big special thank you to Run Fit Sports for their part in the race yesterday. They had a drawing for a $100.00 gift certificate and guess who won ..........

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ME. Yep that is right. I am a proud new owner of a $100.00 gift certificate and I cant wait to use it. I am probably going to get a new pair of shoes but I dont know which ones.

Well for now I am not using going to be using any running shoes for a couple of days so that the old legs can have a break.

Have a great week.

Museum of Aviation recap

2010-01-16T17:12:00.002-05:00

WOW I am so tired right now but I want to post this before I forget about anything. I just got through with lunch and I am getting sleepy listening to this rain.

Today I got up like I would for any other race. Woke up 1 hour before wanting to leave, made myself a peanut butter and banana sandwich with some Poweraid and out the door. We left and I was hoping the rain would hold off today. It did not. It started to rain after we got to the museum. I got us some chairs to sit in and wait for the race to start. I had about 1 hour to wait cause we got there early. I had friends calling us and telling us that they were stuck in traffic for about 1/2 mile in 3 different directions. I was glad we got there early.

When I got there I saw that Mercedes was doing a give away of a $100 gift certificate to Run Fit Sports. I had to put my name in the box. Then I looked up and it was my old friend Rob that I use to work with at Oshman's Sporting Goods at the Macon Mall. I had not seen him in about 20 years. It was great to meet up with an old friend and get caught up on the old days.

I met up with FM to get my special gel he made for me. It is so good and smells like baby aspirin. YUMMY!!!!! Now I waited to meet up with Steve to get some sport beans. I finally saw him when we were getting in line for the race. Now I am ready to run. Gel, beans and water. BOOM, time to run.

Off and running telling Steve that I was running a 2:15/1 ratio today cause that is how I roll. Galloway style. It rocks. I was keeping an overall pace of 11:20 which was the pace I wanted to keep to try and PR today. Steve was telling me that we were running at a pace of 9 min/mile and then walking. I told him yep.

As we were running past mile 2 I heard someone behind me ask me if I was in the medical field. I told her yes and she said that she was also. I was trying my best to try and figure out who she was and vise-versa. She then told me that she use to be a nurse in Griffin and I told her I worked there about 12 years ago. She said what is your last name and I said Cook. Then it hit me that we use to work together in Griffin. Amy was running with her niece that was running her first half-marathon today. She said that she had not run past 4 miles before today. Steve decided to stay back with them and I took off on my own pace.

I was keeping the pace and feeling great. I was warming up so I decided when I saw Tommy around mile 8, I would toss him my jacket. I told him that I was feeling great and I was on track for a PR. We chatted for a couple of seconds and then I was off. Running past mile markers 9-12 and I was still feeling great. I then saw the 1/2 point turn around point and I looked at my watch and I noticed that I was about 3 minutes ahead of my PR time and pace. I felt great and started thinking how good it was be to finish in a sub 5.

I was going great UNTIL mile 16 when my legs started to cramp, feet got sore and I was hungry. I was made cause I was thinking that I was not going to make the time that I was on. I had to stop and walk and try and get the cramps to stop. Then it was off to running again. Now I am getting very cold from the rain and I was praying that Tommy would still be in his spot. I turned the corner, and there he was. Thank you Lord. I stopped under his tent, got my jacket and talked for a while. I told him that I was tired, cold and hungry. I now that I am not going to get any faster nor more proficient until I loose the weight. This has been a HUGE struggle for me and it is very disappointing. I feel like I am not a winner cause of this spare tire. I have tried to diet, run and watch what I eat but nothing is working for me. Well, enough of the pity party.

I decided around mile 20 that if I needed to walk in the rest of the race that I was ok with this idea. And that is what I started to do. In the process I ran into a lady that was running her 254 marathon. We shuffled and walked together and traded stories through out the end of the race. We made the last turn and came up to the where the finish line was at last year and guess what.........

it was not there. They moved it to the top of a big hill. WHY????? I don't know but I was just glad to finish and see my baby taking pictures of me. I got my medal with a time of 5:41 which through all the problems I had today, it was 1 minute faster than last year. I had to find something good to say about my time.

It was great to see so many Marathon Maniacs our there today. I have made some new friends. Another hello to Amy and Rob that I had not seen in about 15-20 years. Thank you to FM for the Gel and Steve for the sports beans. Thank you to Phil and Jamie for telling me that they thought I had slimmed up and lost weight. A shout out to the Galloway group including Kenny and Shannyn doing their first half-marathon today. Thank you to Deb who got me on the base for a training run, I hope you had a great race today. And to all the others that I saw today that said hello or helped me to finish, a big thank you.

Race day

2010-01-16T05:15:00.001-05:00

Today is race day for the Museum of Aviation Marathon and my nerves are in high gear. I have so much running through my mind right now. I cant change anything and only pray for the best. More to come later with the race report.

tapering before the big one....

2010-01-09T08:08:00.002-05:00

One week to go before the Aviation Marathon. My training schedule has been going great. I have been getting in 3 or 4 days a week with at least one day of running 18 plus miles. I have been on track for about the last 8 weeks. I think I have more miles logged in now than when I did my first marathon.

I still have questioned myself whether or not to run a 2:1 or a 3:1 ratio. I want to try and break a 5 hour time but I am not sure on what to do. I know that if I run longer times, then my overall pace can be slower than if I run lower intervals. I might try 3:1 for the first half and then change to 2:1 for the back half. I still don't know.

I am getting over a terrible virus this week. Last Sunday I went out for my longest training run ever. I was going to try and get in 23 miles but I had to settle for 21. Due to time limitations and a nagging foot, I was glad to be finished. It hit me Sunday night at midnight and I was laid up in the bed for about 3 days. No running this week trying to get the body back to normal.

I did not post last week about my weight loss. I know that I am still trying to get back to where I was before the holidays. I paid the price for the great food and now I am back to where I was at. I am still trying to loose about 1 to 2 pounds a week to slowly take it off so that it will stay off. My goal is to get down to about 230, 32 more pounds to go.

I am getting ready to take my son to the Monster Jam to see he favorite truck, Grave Digger. No running today for me but when it comes to my son, some things are worth missing. It is only suppose to be in the 30's this weekend with a cold wind. I am glad not to be running this weekend. This week will be spent on the treadmill at the Wellness Center.

For now have a blessed weekend and stay warm.

My last long run

2010-01-03T18:15:00.002-05:00

Today I went out for a long run of 23 miles. I was joining the Galloway group for my last long run before the Aviation Marathon. It was OMG COLD today. When we started it was about 27 with a slight breeze. Everyone was dresses as though you could not tell who was who unless they spoke.
It was nice to finally meet Brandi who is in charge of the Galloway group. We have been e-mailing each other but it is nice to put a face with the letters. I stood around listening to everyone talking about wanting to go home and get warm and I was wanting to agree but I knew I had to get this run completed. We finally got the runners together and we were off.
It was a slow start but that was o.k. It is a good thing to start out slow and warn up for the first mile. Today was going to be a long day. I knew that I needed to be through by 3:30 and get back home. While we started slow, the pace picked up quickly.

It is hard for me to write right now cause my mind is spent. My body is sore and I am hungry. I know that there is alot of things that I could talk about right now but I will be back.

In recap, Thank you to the Galloway group for letting me join yall and a big thank you to Brandi and Jennifer for letting me run with yall and talk about my crazy stories. Have a great week and keep up the great work.

A cold run

2010-01-03T08:04:00.002-05:00

As I am getting ready to go out for my last long run before the Aviation Marathon, I am pondering the cold conditions. I know that I need to get out there and prepare for the race, I just saw that the temps are not going to get out of the 30's today. BBBBBBRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

I have not had a good week with my weight loss. I am still trying to recover from the holidays from where I put the weight back on. I have not been going to the Wellness Center in the mornings before work. I have no-one to blame except for myself. I need, no I have to go in the mornings to get my sweat on before work to kick in the metabolism. I have seen that it works for me but I have been a slacker here lately.

NO MORE!!!!!

It is time to start out the new year right. I have broken records from last year and will post them soon when I get a chance to look back and compare the year in review. Until then, I am getting dressed for a cold run.

Recap

2009-12-31T06:20:00.003-05:00

Sorry I did not get a chance to post Monday on my runs and weight loss. I had a bad week during the Christmas holidays. I know that I am weak when it comes to good food but I am learning. My cravings are strong sometimes and I cant help myself. I set myself up for a big loss last week when I put my weight back on that I had lost.

Yes, all of it!!!!

I have been working hard this week and now I am about 1 pound from being back to where I was at before Christmas. YAHHHHHH.

My 20 miler on Sunday turned into a 14.5 miler with an average mile at 12:57. That is not fast to a lot of people but for me, that was just a training run. My goal is still to break my PR and a sub 5 marathon.

Be safe and have a great week with a Happy New Year.

3 weeks to go

2009-12-21T06:14:00.002-05:00

I have 3 weeks to go before the aviation marathon. Yesterday with the help of Mellisa Cowart and Kevin Newell, I was able to log in another 20 mile practice run. Through out most of the run we were playing around and telling jokes to try and pass the time.
We ran into some issues around mile 10 with Mellisa having problems with her knee, Kevin complaining about this IT band and I was problems again with my left foot hurting on the top around my big toe. When we hit mile 13.1, Mellisa said she was going to call it a day and went home. Kevin and I puddled along knowing we had to get 20 in today. We noticed that the sun was going down pretty quick so we stayed downtown around our vehicles. The closer it got to the 20 mile mark, the more we started to pick up the pace. At the end, we had a 20 mile practice run with a sub 5 time. I was happy with this and still pondering if I am going to run a 2:1 or a 1:1 at Aviation Marathon.

Also, I had my weigh in yesterday and I am down to 263.5 which brings my total for 3 weeks to 5.5 pounds. It probably would have been better if my wife would not have made some candies for the kids at school. I kinda got into them. Have a great day.

My bucket list

2009-12-19T09:39:00.002-05:00

I have been going over things that I was able to do in the past year and I was happy to be able to break PR's in my 5 and 10K's with the help of the POD coach, members and friends of the MTRC. I will always be happy for that but for some reason I feel not content.

I have decided to put out my bucket list for 2010. I have done 2 of my marathons that I went out to finish. They were Chickamauga and Bartram Forrest Trial Marathon. I now have 5 more that I want to do before the end of April.

Aviation Marathon WRAFB Jan 16
Mercedes Marathons Feb 14
26.2 with Donna Feb 21
Snickers Marathon Mar ????
Country Music Marathon April 24?

Augusta 70.3 Sept. 27?

I wanted to go ahead now and post this to see if there is anyone out there who might be willing to join me in some or all of these races. I would love some company along the way because it truly goes along way.

Dedicated

2009-12-14T21:03:00.002-05:00

DONE.......SIGNED..........ELECTRONICALLY SIGNED

What have I done????????????

What was I thinking?????????

I have lost my mind??????????

1.2 miles swimming

56 miles miles on a bike

13.1 miles of running

All of this with no breaks and all within an 8 hour time limit.

I JUST SIGNED UP FOR THE AUGUSTA HALF-IRONMAN IN SEPTEMBER 2010

I think I need to get some training in.

My foot hurts

2009-12-14T19:50:00.002-05:00

After taking today off from yesterday's 20 miler, my left foot is still somewhat sore. I think it is a flare up of the PF which I have had troulble with before. It feels like a knife through the top of my foot. A day or two of rest and ice and it will be fine.

I forgot also when I go out on my long runs to check my toenails. Once again like at Chickamauga, I went out and did not trim my toenails. I know that this might sound nasty but if it helps at least one person I will be happy. Keep them trim and short. When I got home and took off my shoes, I had a blood stain that covered my 3 little toes. It was from 1 small little spot that I did not trim. OUCH but it is fixed now.

4 weeks to go and training is looking good. Have a great day....

20 miler done

2009-12-14T06:20:00.002-05:00

Yes, it is done. I got my 20 miler. I really did not want to but I know I needed too.

A BIG thank you to Roscoe for running and pushing me. It was nice to have someone out there to keep my company for that long distance. I will have a recap later but I needed to post this morning to update my weight loss for a total of 4 pounds in 2 weeks. It is not as fast as I wanted it to be, but it is an improvement.

Have a great day....

Meeting with Jeff Galloway

2009-12-12T20:43:00.006-05:00

Here are some of the photos from our meeting with Olympian Jeff Galloway.

Jeff was answering questions from the group.

Jeff trying to figure out what someone was talking about. He had an answer for question asked.

Jeff and I were talking about running together at Disney Marathon 2009. I got some more information from him for my next marathon which is in 4 weeks.

I had to get one more photo. It is not everyday you get to talk to an Olympic Marathoner.

tired of the rain

2009-12-12T16:41:00.002-05:00

I am looking out the front door knowing that I am going for a 20 mile run tomorrow in preparation for my next marathon, Aviation marathon in Warner Robins on Jan 16. I have been going to the Wellness Center in the mornings to get my weekly mileage in because of the darkness at night, I run on the treadmill in the morning before work.

I need to get out and just run. I only have 4 weeks to go. I need to RUN. I might just have to load up on the Vit C and go.

I have run 2 marathons in the last 4 weeks but the fun is over. It is time to train RIGHT and go for it. I want to see if running Galloway style for the whole race will help me in betting my PR of 5:05. I got a chance to meet again and talk with Jeff Galloway and discuss some running techniques. He once again gave me some wonderful and much needed advice that I will take to heart and my legs.

For now, I will watch the weather channel and just pray for some sunshine.

BTW, in my 1st week of my weight loss challenge, I went down 2 pounds. I know that it is not a lot for now, but it is down. I have to post this on my site to remind myself that I am in this for the long run ( no pun intended ). I need to get the weight off but I do not want to do it with a fad diet. I want to do it right and do it slowly so that it will stay off.

More big news to come soon............

Take down the rear view mirror....

2009-12-06T09:54:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a good day for a run. I ran the Santa 5K in downtown Macon with a friend of mine, Bo Drinkard. Bo is getting ready for the Disney marathon and we both used the race as a fun run and played around and talked during the race. It was nice to just go to a race and run to have fun. Thanks Bo. Sorry you could not break your PR but it was so close with 45 seconds.

I had to hurry home after the race to get ready for my son's birthday party. But before I left, I ran into several friends that I have not talked to in a long time. Lately my job had kept me from running at night due to the time change and I don't get a chance to see alot of my running buddies.

Phil, it was good to see ya again and no I am not going to quit my job so that I can make it to the track even though that does so like a good thing some days. LOL

Jen and Joe, I did not know that yall were going to be there for the race. Joe is on the recovery time from doing an Ironman. Maybe one day I might be crazy enough to even think of doing something like that or even just a half. If you do a half-ironman, does that make you a Iron midgetman. LOL

Blake, it was very nice to see ya again. Blake was in the Fit Camp with me last year when i was going there and he still is attending the class. I could not believe it but he has lost 75 pounds. That was just the encouragement I needed to see what could happen when you just keep going with your goals and not stop. Thanks Blake and I hope to see you out running some more races.

After the race, I looked back and realized how much FUN it was to run with Bo and talk. It has been a long time since I have felt that. I then realized that my body was meant for long runs and not speed. I need to for now on just look into long runs ( marathons ) and not worrying about my speed. I need to take down my rear view mirror and not look back. I have alot of dreams in the near future and it requires me to log in many miles. So now it is time to log in the miles and not worry about finishing fast but just staying afloat and finishing with a smile on my face.

BTW, weight loss for this week was 2.5 pounds. It was a little more but with a little birthday cake and ice cream kinda put a little kink in my loss but it was worth it.

Have a great day and I hope yall have a great day. Remember to just get out and exercise.

Bartram 2009 recap

2009-11-29T10:47:00.003-05:00

As I pulled into the parking lot what do I see but alot of cars already there. Last year it was a small turnout. Not this year. I think we had 88 runners this year compared to last year was about 40 something.
Mandie and I walked down to the pavilion to set up our chairs and bag. I brought 3 pairs of shoes and socks with me to change if I needed to during the race. I then walked over to Chef Kenny that had the coffee there waiting for me. I was great cause it was cold. I think it was 34 or 35 degrees. But thank God it was NOT raining this year. I then ran into Stef who was helping getting our race bags together. I looked at my watch and decided that I would start running at 7:30.
So Stef, myself, Deb 1 and Deb 2 would run as a group. We decided to run a ratio of 1:1 today. This was going to be a fun day cause I signed up for the 50K but Stef and myself decided to just run as far as we wanted too. The pressure was now gone. I knew I could stop at anytime if I felt bad.
Well we were off and running the new course this year. When we started, they did not have a barrel out and we missed the first turn. Oh well. We didn't know and kept going until we ran into Donna. She told us that we should be running with the blue flags on our right. We told her that we should stay to the right of the blue flags. Then we ran into more runners that we going the other way also. We stopped and just agreed that we would continue for the first lap and then turn around and go the right way on the other laps. Somehow we missed another turn and got back to the aid station and only had 1/2 lap logged in. We stopped and got a drink and turned around and went for more. We joked around and said we just did a 5K warm up for a 50K race. HaHaHaHa.
Lap 2 done and time for some food and drinks. I had gotten hungry and Chef Kenny was cooking some great grilled cheese sandwiches. We had sooo much food to munch on during the laps. This made it hard cause I wanted to just sit and eat. Not run. There were the sandwiches, home-made fudge, chips, soup and lots of other goodies.
Lap 3 down.
Lap 4 down
Lap 5, we decided to go backwards to see who was still on the course. This way we got to see everyone and say Hello and Goodbye. People were asking us if we went the wrong way and I told them it was a victory lap. When we got back to the aid station we had decided to go back the midway aid station and run back to get in our other lap that we missed on our first lap. Off we went. OMG that was a long 2 miles out. We kept looking at our watch to look at the time and distance. Stef had told me that her marathon PR was 6:45. We were 2 miles out and had 40 minutes to go. That was when it hit me. Stef went out with the intention to run a couple of laps to help pace me so that I could finish my 50K today. I did not have it in me to finish it today and I was ok with that. I was at least out running. I then thought if she was so nice to want to help me today, I would help her cause I was not going to run the entire 50K. I told her we need to continue our pace and she would have a new marathon PR today. I looked at my watch and the last 4 miles we had gotten faster. We hit the 1 mile mark to go and I could see/hear the finish line. We were playing Marco Polo with others on the course. We made the last turn and there it was, the finish line.
We turned and PROUDLY crossed the finish line. I had another marathon under my belt, Stef had a new marathon PR but most of all I was leaving happy and proud that I just ran many hours with my friends. We stayed around to watch the last runner cross the finish line and then packed up went for an early supper. MEXICAN FOOD AND BEER!!!!!! Why because I earned it. I think I burned a couple of calories today and I was HUNGRY.
I should have some pictures in the next couple of days and I will post them. Until then, have a great day.

In responce to my encryptic message...

2009-11-29T10:16:00.002-05:00

I have been told that I left yall in suspense at one of my latest blogs. If I did, I apologize. I was watching TV and trying to write and think at the same time and it was not working.

For the last couple of months, I have not been running alot. I had fallen to the non-running bug. I started to feel sorry for myself. I was thinking I could not get any faster than I was. I thought I could not loose anymore weight. I thought I was going to be stuck in a life time rut.
Well, not anymore. I am tired of feeling sorry for myself. It is time to get off my lazy @ss and do something about it. Yes, I ran 2 marathons in the last 2 weeks but that is not enough. It is time to start doing a scheduled, maintained workout that I am able to see results on a weekly basis. I guess this is what I get for watching The Biggest Loser every week.

Four years ago, I had the opportunity to join in a biggest loser program locally at one of our hospital. We put $20.oo each in and got measured with our weight and body fat. We had 3 months to loose what ever we could. Well to make this short after 3 months of doing Atkins, I was able to lose 51 pounds. Since then, I have put back on about 15 pounds. It is like a yo-yo with a pound here and there going and coming.

Well no more. I have seen the awesome effects that my friends Kenny and Stef have made with their weight lose and activities and I am jealous. I applauded them for what they have done. I hope, no I mean WANT to be there in a couple of months.

Once again I am sorry for leaving you on a limb and not explaining myself. I just want to get back in exercise, diet and weight lost. Until then, have a great week. I will publish every week my weight gain/lost so that I will have to hold myself accountable for my actions.

Do we go that way......

2009-11-28T21:07:00.002-05:00

Bartram recap coming soon but I had to say this cause this was how we started our run today. We had blue flags to follow but it did not work out that way on our first lap. We went out for about 3.5 miles before we were told we were going the wrong way.

Anyway today was suppose to be a 50K for me but my body was not up to it today so I ran just a marathon. And yes I can say that and not laugh. That was my saying after the race. I knew that I could finish the 50 but I was not going to put my body through it and pay for it for the next couple of days.

More to come later.

Changes coming soon

2009-11-25T22:08:00.002-05:00

I have gone through alot mentally in the last coulple of months and it is time for a change. I have forgotten who I was and what I am capable of doing. Things are now going to change cause I am sick and tired of who I am or what I have become lately.

More to come later

Chick 2009 recap

2009-11-15T11:35:00.003-05:00

The day before Mandie and I went up to Chickamauga to ride the course and have a fun day. We got to the motel before check-in time so we decided to ride up to Chat. Tenn and go shopping for some new filters for her camera. We found a camera store at the local Mall so we got it and headed back to the motel. We were able to go ahead and check in so we would not have to worry with that later on in the night. So we parked my truck and started getting our stuff out when I looked and

I COULD NOT FIND MY RUNNING BAG!!!!!!

By now I am seriously losing my mind. What am I going to do? I know I packed everything I needed. My shoes, my gels, my bib number belt, my shorts and shirt. Now what. I am going to have to go the store. OMG Not now I can not deal with this stress.

Then Mandie said "Why don't you call Tommy and see if he has left yet?" It is scary but she can be very smart sometimes. I called him and said ''"WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW". Luckily he was about 10 min from my house. I asked if he would go by and pick it up and he agreed so I called Mandie's g-mother and asked if she would get it out of our house and have it waiting for him to pick up. About 5 min. passed when she called back and said "I can't find it". Now I am totally losing my mind. Then Mandie goes and looks in the back of my truck under the clothes and low and behold what did she see but my bag. I hear her say "I found it, I did not look under the clothes". So all this panicking for nothing. By now I need a drink. I always try and put everything together before I go on a trip.

Now it is off to the course. We get there and the scenery was beautiful. We were riding the course to try and figure out which way it goes. I remembered some of it from last year. We even went up one of the monuments that was about 6 stories high and got some good photos. I will post them later when I find the card. The leaves were changing colors from rich reds to golden yellows. We even encountered some deer that were standing on the side of the road.

By now it was getting close to pick up time for the packets. So off went inside to pick up my stuff. There were 5 lines divided by the last name and I think 75% of every one's last name was between A-F. This gave me a chance to meet some new people. A man was standing in front of me saying this was his fist HM. He asked me if I was doing it and I told him I was doing the Marathon. At this point you could have pushed him over with a feather. He asked me if this was my first and I told him it was going to be my 6th which was funny because we were at the 6th cavalry museum. And no I did not plan it that way, it just happened. I love the expressions on someones face when they find out I run marathons. Yep 6'3" and 260 pounds. Pounding it out to the finish.

Now it was time to go to the next building to pick up our shirts. Why there were not in the packets was the big question. Then they did have enough people to help out so Mandie and myself help pass out shirts. It was pretty fun cause I got a chance to meet my fellow runners. It was now time to go the pasta dinner. We were in line with Kenny and Stef when were told that it was not all you could eat. And they were giving out SMALL portions. Were all kidding about going out and eating after dinner. At our table was Tommy, Mandie, Troy and Amy, Marcus and Teri, Kenny and Stef and FM. Everyone was discussing finishing times and I said all I want to do is get a Sub 6.

We left and headed back to the motel to sit in the lobby and have fun. FM, Kenny and Stef and myself sat around drinking coffee and eating all the cookies as quick as they would cook them. We were having fun telling jokes and watching other runners eat their pasta dinners. Some of them were smart and went to other places to get to-go orders. By now it was getting late so off to bed we went.

4:45 a.m. and it is time to get up. I already had place everything out so I would not have to think about it. We were checking out and stopped by the lobby for some goodies and out the door we went. We got to the race and parked and it was dark and cold. Priorities first, find the rest rooms. The stomach was now kicking into gear like normal. I kept asking Mandie what time it was cause I did not want to take my coat off until the last moment.

Well 10 minutes to go and I am ready. I went for a quick warm-up and stretched. Everyone was in line and BOOM, the canon was fired. Off we go. I was running with Stef at first until we had to split off. There were 3 different places were the HM and M split on the course. We were having fun at first, saw some deer walking around, saw a Marathon Maniac at one of the aid stations we ran with at MIBM race, and talked and had fun. Then it was off by myself. About 1 minute passed and I heard someone whistling. It was Kenny. He came up behind me and I told him he was about 1 minute in front of Stef. This was Kenny's first HM. I asked him how he was feeling and he said he was having some calf problems. I reminded him to have fun today and not go crazy. We ran back and forth for a couple of miles before we split off and then the lonely road hit. I was by myself with no one to talk to. Just me and the MP3. It was lonely. I came up on the half way at the clock said 2:40:45 and I was happy. I said I could run it in 5:30 with little training and I was ok with that for today was just a fun run day. At mile 17, a bomb went off. My right foot was bleeding from my toe nails rubbing the skin, my right knee was hurting and my left quad was cramping so I started to walk. I noticed a man about 1/4 mile in front of me so I decided that he was going to be my target. I kept seeing that white shirt, black shorts and white undershorts. I was not going to let him out of my site. I then saw a deer run in front of us. It was a 6 pointer with a broken time so that only 5 were showing. Lots of squirrels to talk to along the way.

Mile 18-22 LONG and PAINFUL. Lots of walking and stretching. I was craving a COKE and I asked the people at the water stops and they just kept saying "Water and Poweraide" At least one of them had a small bag of chips for me so I could get some salt. There were several people riding bikes with back packs helping us out with drinks and cracker/cookies. This was a first for me to see but it helped and I was thankful for it.

Mile 23 I met several people that wanted to talk. Debbie was running with me and she then took and off and said I am sure I will see ya again. I ran with another lady that told me that people don't talk to strangers but runners will tell other runners everything about there lives between mile markers. I laughed and agreed. So we talked for about a mile and then I met a man at mile 24 that was out pacing his 15 y/o son and his wife that were running their first marathons when he had calf problems. We walked for a few moments together when he told me that there was man he was trying to catch and pointed him out to me.

IT WAS THE SAME MAN I WAS TRYING TO CATCH

At mile 25 I asked him if he had anything left in him and he said no. I told him that I was going to try and catch him for the both of us. And I did it. Mile 25.5 I caught him and told him I was chasing him for 10 miles. I talked with him for a few minutes when I looked up and saw Debbie again. I thought I have to turn it on if I wanted to break a sub6 so I left my compition and never looked back. I came up on Debbie and she said that we had about 10 minutes to go and .3 miles to run. So off I went, crying from my legs cramping, my foot bleeding and my stomach about to blow up. I topped the hill to see Kenny cheering me on and Stef doing her victory dance in the road. I tried to dance too but I was catching more cramps. Down the home stretch and I turned around to see that the man was not running. I was going to beat him. YES another SUCKA in the books. Finish line in sight and it was now over with. The pain was worth it. It was not my best time on the books but I got a chance to see what the race was like from the back side of the event.

I found out that even though I was not in the front pack, I was still a Marathoner. It might not have been pretty but I FINISHED and that was all I wanted to do.

Home and resting

2009-11-14T20:41:00.002-05:00

I am going to bed to hopefully get some rest. My legs and feet are swollen and cramping from todays marathon. I had a finishing time of 5:49:11 which is now my worst time. I will try and work on my report tomorrow.

Good night everyone

Heading out to go have fun

2009-11-13T05:51:00.002-05:00

Yes I said it, I am going to have fun. I have been missing just going out to run and have fun. I put so much into running and forgot to have fun with it. Well no more. I am not going to push myself to a breaking point. I have about 6 marathons that I am going to do between now and April and I am going to run them with the intention of mental and physical health to be the most important victory in the races.

Oh did I mention that a friend of mine called me and asked if I would run a 50 mile race with her in Florida in Feb. and the crazy thing about it is, I might do it. I have a marathon the next weekend in Jacksonville but I think I might be just crazy enough to try it out.

That is why I became a Marathon Maniac. #1317

Next post should be a post race report.

Last week before Chick

2009-11-08T13:46:00.002-05:00

I have not been running much lately. I have been working on letting my body heal up and take a rest. I am looking at a long winter schedule with at least 6 marathons between now and April. I have been looking back over the last year of running and I have seen some good thing and some bad things. I want to make some changes and better myself and hopefully help someone else in the process.

I have been spending alot of time of my bike lately and I love it. I love to cross train in different sports so that things don't get into a rut. I hate it when I start to get back into a training schedule and it seems that things are going on a traditional schedule. I like to live life with a change.

Looking back I have made some bad changes in my running routine. I am going to get back into running and remember why I did it and that is for my health. I have so much to look forward to in the future and I want to be able to be there to see it.

I have not trained properly for the Chick marathon but I know I will be able to finish. I am going to run Galloway style but I am not sure what ratio I am going to do. This is going to be my first marathon that I do Galloway style so I am kind of curious how it is going to be at the end. I am not nervous about finishing but how I am going to feel the next day. Normally it would take me several days after a marathon before I even thought about running again. Well I have a 50K race coming up in 3 weeks so I need to continue running and not take a break after Chick.

2 weeks until Chick

2009-10-28T21:28:00.002-04:00

I have 2 weeks to go until I run at Chickamauga. I have signed up for the half marathon but I am going to change it. I have decided to run the marathon. I know this is crazy with the little running I have gotten lately but I think I can do it. Mandie is going to be taking photos so I decided to change so I would have something to do. If I had to stand around, I thought I might as well just run more miles. I know it crazy but thats is what I am.

HELLO

2009-10-23T21:58:00.001-04:00

Yes, I am still alive with more to come later. For now, it is time to get back to running.

Looking at Chick

2009-09-28T09:50:00.003-04:00

Chickamauga, that is. This is going to be my next HM that is on my list. I signed up for this one hoping to maybe work on my PR. I have not done much since finishing the TRI last weekend. I set my alarm clock this morning to go run and I overslept. BOOOO!!!!!

I am going to start back running at least 5 days a week with my long runs on the weekend. I am going to try and run it someone under 2:18. Yes, I said it and now it is on the table. That is the only way I will get faster. I have to dedicate myself to get out there and go.

This weekend I joined some of my TRI friends for a bike stroll. We headed out on our Sat. morning ride and turned it into a 3 county tour. No this is not turning into a Gilligan's Island song but it would be funny. We finished up with 38 miles at a 16 mph average. I have not been that far in the saddle in a long time. It was very fun and I can not wait until I do my next century ride. But for now, I have about 6 weeks to get ready for Chick.

Vidalia Onion Sprint TRI race recap

2009-09-21T19:13:00.002-04:00

On an early morning of Saturday 19th, I was awake by 4:00 a.m. I slept with my watch on so I could keep up with the time. I could not sleep worth a hoot because of my nerves. I had alot of things going through my mind. Did I remember to bring everything, do I have the right drinks, do I have the right gels and food? My stomach was now in knots. I was about to loose everything I had from the night before. But I had to be strong and just suck it up and go on with my race day practices.

We were dressed and ready to go downstairs and eat. I had a 1/2 bowl of cereal before throwing it in the trash. Then I got a cup getting ready to pour some coffee and Kenny said "Tim, you are going to drink coffee before the race?" Then I thought I did not know what I doing. So I got some juice and a banana with some pop tarts. Now I really wanted to puke. Kenny's parents were sitting with us telling us that they were nervous for him. I was glad I was in the same company with bad nerves.

Well by now we were loaded up and ready to head out to the race. It was a dark and humid morning. I was hoping the rain would hold off for us and thankfully it did. We got the race site around 6:00 a.m. and I had to put on my head lamp so I could see everything. Off to the packet pickup tent for my goodies. I received my packet and I had to change it from Clydesdale to Novice. The director asked me if I really wanted to change due to the low number of us big folks. She told me that I would have a better chance of placing. I quickly told her that I did not care about placing but I just wanted to survive.

Now it was off to body marking. That was so cool. I have always wanted my numbers put on me. I actually stopped and thought, I am going to actually do this. It is now or never. I went back to get my bike and checked my tire pressure. A little bit of air in the tires and now heading to the transition area. Mandie was wanting to be so helpful and carry things for me but I refused to let her help. I wanted to do everything on my own. I entered into the transition area and only athletes could enter. I thought that was cool. I found out where my rack was at and started to place my transition area out on the ground. It was still a little damp out so I started with my towel. Next it was my running shoes with my bib number under them. Then I put my bike shoes down with my socks in them. I put my helmet down with the straps over the sides and my sunglasses inside it. I had some bottles with water and gatoraide. The water was for cleaning my feet before putting the socks on. I was now ready.

Now it was time to walk around and listen to everyone. Note, I was listening and not talking. I was very nervous. I wanted to cry and puke at the same time. Nerves were flying. Thanks to everyone for trying to make me feel better. The gun went off and the first wave was off. OMG it is now to late to turn around. 2nd wave in, 3rd wave in, 4th wave in and now it is time for us novice peps. Now my heart rate is somewhere over 2,000.

In the water and we are off and racing. Instantly my right foot is cramping up. I am swimming freestyle up to the 50M mark. I was hitting someones foot and kicking someones hand. Then I heard someone flying up beside me. He had a late start. I got out to the 100M mark and noticed the swimmer beside me is now panicking. I did not know what to do. I am not trained in water rescue. The boat looked far away. So I continued on and for a moment it looked like he was getting back on track. Later I found out they had to help him out of the water. I started thinking this could be me. I have to continue strong. Continue on, go forward and just go at a smart pace. I started to swim on my side and I was drifting off so the I started to swim doggie paddle. It might have been slow but it worked.

I MADE IT THROUGH!!!!!!!!

I was now out of the water and heading to T1.

14:17.9 Time 227 Place 2:04 Transition

Now I am on the bike and loving life. I made it through the hardest thing in my life. I was out on the bike course and around mile 1 I started to see some of my friends. They were cheering for me and screaming "You're on the bike!!!!!!" I was smiling from ear to ear. I can now relax and have fun. I was cheering everyone I passed and encouraged everyone to do good and have fun. When I got about a 1/2 mile out, I decided to take my feet out of my shoes and place them on top of my shoes and pedal in. A biker came around me and said to me "Dude, that is so cool. I wish I would have thought of that". Thanks to YouTube for showing me how to do it. I came in from the bike and ran into T2.

42:01.0 Time 127 Place 48 sec Transition

Now it is time to go out on the run. I heard them announce that Tom Adrian had just finished and I thought I can wait until I hear my name. I headed out with my race number bib on. My legs were starting to cramp up. I was in pain but I was going to run out through the crowd. I wanted to look like a champion. The run started out going straight uphill. It was an out and back then another out and back to the finish. I caught up with Samantha and we ran together. It was cool running with her knowing we were going to become triathletes together. Gen finished up and came back to get us. It was the 3 of us for the last mile. I could not remember everything going through my mind at the this point. We reached the top of the hill and I told Sam to go ahead because she deserved to finish first. She then told me no and lets finish together. I agreed and told her lets go cause it is downhill from here.

THE FINISH LINE IS NEAR AND I CAN SEE SOME OF MY FRIENDS LINING THE COURSE AND GIVING ME HIGH FIVES. THIS IS AWESOME. I FINISHED.

I am now a triathlete!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would like to say a big thank you to all that helped me get through this huge battle: Kenny, Stefanie, Sam, Gen, Joe, Dorene, Jason, Steve, Sam, Tom, Sarah and to all who have said those little prayers after reading my blog.

Most of all I have to give a huge and special thank you to a wonderful and caring person who has put up with a lot of crazy days and nights while I have been training. She has helped me with my coaching while walking up and down the shores while I tried to swim. She has taken the pictures for me so I know I will have lasting memories after the race. But most of all for being the best mother and wife she could be, Mandie. I love you very much.

Check one more off the bucket list

2009-09-20T11:08:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a huge milestone that I was able to go to it, go through it and conquer it. I was able to become a triathlete. I completed the Vidalia Onion Sprint TRI. It was a 400M swim, 12 mile bike and a 5K run. I am still very sore in my legs and getting ready for a road trip to Kennesaw for a birthday party so this week I am going to try and post a descriptive report of the race. I am still smiling this morning when I look at my arms and legs cause i can still see my numbers. They might wash off this week but the memories of becoming a triathlete will never fade away. Thank you to all my friends and family that helped me overcome this hurdle. I did not ever think I could through this journey.

Please pass me the trash can

2009-09-18T10:59:00.002-04:00

In less than 24 hours, I hope to report back that I completed my first TRI. I went out on Wednesday night and swam my last open water swim. I was able to complete a complete 400M with no stopping. I was able to complete it in just under 13 minutes. This is a huge hurdle for me to get behind me. Now I know that I am able to do it.

Right now my stomach is in knots. The only thing I can think about is tomorrow. I was in a minor wreck this week and I don't even wan to think about being sore. I just want to play in my mind exactly what i am suppose to do tomorrow. I have everything ready to go. When I get home tonight, Mandie told me that I need to lay everything out and simulate a transition to make sure I have everything.

This is why I love her soooooooo much. With everything she has going on in her life, she is able to still think of things to help with me. This is going to be a great weekend. I will able to call myself a Triathloner and it is going to be Mandie's birthday. I cant wait until my next post so until then have a great weekend.

6 more days and counting

2009-09-14T09:21:00.003-04:00

As I sit here and think about this weekend, I am also thinking about what I have conquered. I have the ability to look at a goal, set my schedule and go for it. I thought I would never sign up for a triathlon. I am not a great swimmer and I always thought these kind of races would be left up to the pro athletes. Well not cause that is why I am doing it.

When I took up running, I had a lot of people tell me that marathons were only for fast people, skinny people or people with training. I took that into consideration and started training. Now I look back and laugh when people say "You run marathons and ultra-marathons?".

Well I gladly and proudly look them in the eyes and say "YES I do". I have a type of personality that does not accept defeat. If I am told that I can not do it, it pushes me forward more to take on the challenge.

I found out that there is going to be a duathlon at Vidalia when we are doing the TRI. They are going to start about 10 minutes after we start. My wife told me that I should be doing that cause I know I could do it. I told her that is why I am not doing it. I am doing the TRI to push myself forward to challenge myself to do something I thought I could never accomplish.

A bucket of nerves

2009-09-13T19:31:00.002-04:00

I have not posted since last week due to being very busy. I have one week to go before my TRI. I can not take any more pressure right now. My stomach is in knots. I am very nervous about the whole event. I am stepping out of my comfort zone and going into fresh water, no pun intended.

I ran in the 5K yesterday, Camp Little Shot, and I love this race. It is made up of 4 hills and very little flats. I tried to take it easy and use it for a training run. I ran it in 28:32. I tried to keep my splits even or at a negative split. I have not looked at my watch yet. I tell you that this TRI is the ONLY thing on my mind right now.

I have to give a special shout out for my friend Kenny for breaking 30 minutes for the first time in a 5K and receiving 3rd place in his age group.

I have been swimming so much lately that I think I should be able to grow gills and fins by now. It is slowly getting better but it is something that will have to take time over the winter. I went yesterday and bought a sprint TRI suit to help me stay a float. I tried it out today and it really does help. If nothing else, it helps me with my confidence.