Marathon Man

It is finished!

2010-01-10T12:40:00.000-08:00

I'll have Karen do a cuter blog entry on our family blog but for now here are the boring facts without pictures.
1) I am never running a marathon again - it hurts - a lot!
2) I came 17th out of 1500 runners which I am very pleased with
3) My time was 3 hours 38 minutes and 35 seconds.
I was flying for the first 2 hours in sub zero temperatures. I ran the first 16 miles easily under 2 hours. Every mile after that was brutal - particularly mile 21-25. The only time I stopped was at the water stations after mile 20. I would down 2 full cups of gatorade and stretch my hamstrings for 10 seconds and then start running again. I managed to avoid the SEVERE temptation to walk. I have never felt so much pain and I wanted to give up so badly. Had Karen not been there cheering me on I would have thrown in the towel long before the finish. I was surprised that after only 5 weeks of training that only 16 people managed to beat me and most of those were young guys so I am happy but sore. This was a major accomplishment for me but I never want to do it again. Thanks to my gorgeous wife for her dedicated support in the freezing cold and to Alisha for looking after our kids!

20 miles and beyond

2009-12-28T13:59:00.000-08:00

It's only been 4 days since my last long run but I was feeling it this morning and after eating about 6000 calories on Christmas day I felt like I needed to burn some calories. This was the best run yet and I feel like I can conquer the world. I ran over 20 miles and finished in 2 hours 27 minutes. The best part is that I felt like I could have gone further. Here are some things I tried to do differently. First of all I had a specialty breakfast - pancakes made by Mimi with a secret ingredient. Secondly I bought some Gatorade from the shop along with one of those energy shot drinks - now usually I'm morally opposed to these as they are usually laden with caffeine but desperate times call for desperate measures. I carried a small bottle of Gatorade with me as I ran and planted another one that I could pick up 8 miles in. I also took a banana and a snickers to replace the calories I would burn during the first 14 miles. It worked a treat and I felt great until mile 18 and I wasn't totally finished. I am now full of confidence and can't wait for the real deal. I get one more long run now - probably Saturday which will be my last run before race day.

this is getting old

2009-12-25T14:45:00.000-08:00

I set out determined to beat 16 miles today and there were positives and negatives. I managed 18.5 miles in 2 hours 17 minutes which is fast, especially given the weather but I stopped short of my goal of 20 miles. There must have been a 40 mph head wind for the first 10 miles - it was disgusting and painful and although I was only going slow it felt like I was sprinting the whole time. The good news is that all the way home I had a 40mph tail wind which is just what you need when you are feeling tired. I took a banana in my pocket to eat half way and even carried some water. Didn't like the extra weight but realized that I MUST hydrate more regularly. I have one more long run before the big day and I'm hoping to manage 20miles. I recently watched a Biggest Loser special where a former contestant ran an iron man triathlon and it really inspired me. I have been doubting myself lately as to whether or not I can finish 26.2 miles without walking. I have always been able to push through the pain barrier on other challenges in my life but this one is bigger than I ever imagined. 24 hours later my muscles, joints and particularly my knee that I had surgery on are quite sore so I can't imagine what I'll be like after january 10th but it will be a big accomplishment to start off the new year!

The Wall

2009-12-21T06:51:00.000-08:00

I set out on Saturday determined to run 20 miles. I slowed my pace slightly to accommodate the extra 4 miles and felt great up until about 14 miles in. The weather was perfect and it should have been great. I even ran past President Schmidt (our stake President) who also is training for a marathon. As 16 miles approached I knew I was finished and simply couldn't take a step further at running pace. I walked the last couple of miles and I'm feeling very nervous about the big day. For me, running 16 miles and jog/walking the last 10 is just not acceptable. I am in good shape and would feel like a failure if I didn't destroy 4 hours for the whole thing but right now the reality is that the marathon is in a few weeks and I can't even get passed 16 let alone 26.2 miles. Some of my friends have given me some great ideas that I hope will help and assured me that on the day with people cheering, my adrenalin will be pumping and I should be fine. I can't help however feeling a little discouraged. I have overcome mountains like these before but fear I may not have given myself enough time to prepare. Note to self - next time you want to run a marathon give yourself more than 5 weeks to prepare.

Goal met - finally!

2009-12-12T13:02:00.000-08:00

Today was the first time I managed to run 16 miles - it hurts. Can't believe a marathon is 10.2 miles on top of that. I finished in 2 hours and 30 seconds and managed to pull that of largely due to 3 reasons:
1. I ate a big meal 2 hours before
2. Temperature was nice - about 56 degree
3. I paced myself better rather than sprinting at the start
Not looking forward to next week - 18 miles....uggh

Another disappointment

2009-12-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

Put in another 12 miler today after school. It was probably too much after playing soccer with the boys for over an hour but I tried it anyway. It was below 47 degrees again and I had not eaten in 8 hours. I will not make this mistake again. My body can not cope. I managed to finish this time in a disappointing 1 hour and 32 minutes, a full 11 minutes off my best. I'll make up for it on Saturday with a strong 16 miler! On a brighter note - my wife is delicious and I adore her!

Not just a running blog

2009-12-06T15:40:00.001-08:00

What does this picture have to do with me running a marathon? Well I thought this would be a very boring blog if all it talked about was my marathon preparations so I am going to start treating this as my general blog. This picture was taken literally 30 minutes after I finished a 12 miler. It was the day after my last failure so I was out prove something to myself. I actually ran like a beast and completed the run in 1 hour 21 minutes - that is flying. Afterwards we went to a great ward activity - dinner and a dance and then back home to watch a movie. I love hanging out with my wife and she is such a babe as you can tell!

16 miles in the snow......

2009-12-05T07:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my long run day as I had the day off work. I managed 14 miles last time keeping up my 8.2 mile an hour pace so I was hoping for more of the same today. Unfortunately Houston got hit by a huge snow storm. Okay so only about one inch settled but the whole time I was running there were huge flakes coming down sidewards and it was freezing cold - not the weather I have become accustomed to. It turns out that I don't run well in the cold and by the time I hit mile 7 I noticed my speed was well down and by miles 9 I was finished. I also had not eaten enough which was made worse by the cold weather. If you are not aware, your body burns twice as many calories in cold weather and so I shut down 4 miles from home in the most awful weather imaginable. I was a mile or so from church so I headed there hoping to find nourishment. The missionaries were there so luckily the doors were open and I headed for the kitchen. The only thing I managed to find was ice cream in the freezer which just made me colder but at least I had some calories and instant energy. I then jogged very slowly to Alisha Squires house as Karen was heading there at 11.30. I got there freezing cold and Karen hadn't quite arrived so Alisha gave me some of Trevor's clothes to get warm. Karen walked in while I was changing and probably wondered what was going on. It took me an hour to get my body temperature back to normal. Through all this I learned that I don't run well in the extreme cold, I need to eat a bigger breakfast and I'm glad I no longer live in Utah!

Almost better

2009-12-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

What a frustrating week. I haven't run in 5 days due to my awful health. I got the worst cold followed by the worst strep throat followed by what I thought was stage 4 eye cancer but turned out to be pink eye - so I'm a bit melodramatic but when blood is gooping out of my eye what else should I think? So I still have a cough but ran yesterday and today and I'll be back to my best. Frustrated with my nike+ sensor which is calibrated incorrectly but I will fix it soon. Watch this space - my goal is to run 16 miles on Saturday and eventually build up to 20 miles before the big day. Right now I am getting A LOT of exercise running a FAST 3.5 miles with my soccer boys, followed by and grueling game of soccer each day and then home for anywhere between 4-8 miles. One thing is for sure - I will be losing weight before January 10th!

Sick as a dog!

2009-11-26T06:01:00.000-08:00

I have been struggling for a while with cold/flulike and now strep throat symptoms. I have ignored it and continued to run through the pain but whilst my runs are going great my health is declining so I'm feeling miserable and sorry for myself right now. To make it worse Isaac is getting me up every night and early in the morning. On a brighter note I bought the Nike+ pedometer that links to my ipod and gives me verbal cues of how I'm doing during my run. I've also started wearing in my new trainers (sneakers for you americans) ready for the big run on January 10th.

Training Update

2009-11-24T18:24:00.000-08:00

Started the week with a 4 mile run - it was actually harder than my long run as I try to sprint the shorter distance. Finished it in just over 28 minutes. I defintely felt like the longer runs have increased my stamina in the shorter runs and I feel great. Sickness has taken over my family this week and we all have awful colds which have made running more challenging but I'm committed to this - no excuses. Online training routines say to only do one long run a week but I feel fresh and energetic and I'm doing two this week. I went 14 miles today and maintained my speed of over 8 miles per hour finishing in 1 hour 27 minutes. It baffles me that my body is allowing me to run so long without getting too sore. This has been a great challenge for me and I'm loving it.

My first marathon at 34!

2009-11-22T16:25:00.000-08:00

After years of saying I'll do it I finally paid my entry fee and will run the Sugarland marathon on January 10th. I have about 6 weeks to prepare which is worrying. After spending hours researching the internet it seems all training regimes run for about 120 days. Hopefully I should be fine since I was starting from a fairly good position - I allready run 4 miles a day at a fairly quick pace so increasing that to 26 miles shouldn't be a big deal right???? Well my first training run was Wednesday and I managed 8 miles. It is a totally different workout to running the 4 miler as I ran slow to make sure I finished. I wasn't out of breath at the end but I felt some muscle soreness. The next day was 4 minutes quicker and the day after another 5 minutes quicker - 8 miles in just over 54 minutes. Had a day off then did my long run on Saturday - a dreaded 12 miles. Actually it was quite an amazing spiritual experience - just me, miles of concrete, my ipod and 90 minutes of banging european techno music. Finished in 1 hour 27 minutes and felt great although I can't even imagine running more than twice that distance. This blog is more for my own benefit than anyone else's so I can keep track of my progress but for anyone interested, here goes!