Where to now?

After returning to work yesterday, this is the big question I've been asked... what are you going to do now?

Our TNT running coach Phil told us that after the race, if asked, we would probably say no, but given a couple of days, we would more than likely change our minds.

The short answer is that I'm going to keep running. I'm taking a couple of days off to recover, but I plan on hitting the road again shortly. Beyond that, what people are more curious about, I'm sure, is whether or not I'm planning on attempting this again. I'm saying... yes.

Right now, Sarah and I are planning on running the Knoxville Expo 10k on May 23rd. When I ran the 10k (6.2 miles) last year, it was the longest I had run at that point. Sarah didn't run it last year. We are looking forward to that.

Sarah wants to run the San Antonio Half Marathon later this year in November. She has asked me to run with her for the race and I have agreed.

I will run Nashville again next year (hopefully with cooler weather) and might even consider doing the full in Knoxville. Long term, I'm still planning to run the Disneyworld Marathon.

You'll just have to stay tuned....

Did You Win?

Facebook Marathon Photo Album

Three days removed from the big day, I can finally start to get some perspective on the big weekend. I can honestly say that Saturday was filled with so much emotion, ranging from anticipation to excitement to dread to frustration to exhaustion to accomplishment.

The day began at 4AM (CST). Sarah was able to sleep the night before; I didn't sleep that much. We were dressed and down in the lobby of the hotel to catch the shuttle to the start line at 5AM. At 5:15 we boarded the shuttle to head towards Centennial Park and the start line. From there we had a wait till race start at 7AM. (A great of time was spent waiting to use one of the porta-potties in the park). At 7AM was walked over to the start line. Even though the gun sounded at 7, for most people it would be some time before they started the race as each runner was assigned a corral to start. I started the race in corral 17. At 7:33, the race began.

An important side note to insert. The usual temperature for the race at the start is mid-50s with a temperature around 65 at the finish. Nashville experienced a freak heatwave marathon weekend. The temperature at the start was 62. Mind you, this was hotter than any of our previous long runs.

Starting out was exciting racing towards downtown Nashville with a huge crowd cheering us on. Not to mention being in the middle of 30,000+ people. We kept a decent pace for the first part of the marathon. Kudos must go out to the marathon organizers. They knew the heat was coming and pull out all the stops. They had 3 times the water stations set up and extra medical stations standing by. As the heat rose, we hit every water station, one cup of Cytromax (Gatorade type drink), one cup of water to drink, one cup of water to pour over our heads (and, if available, a run through a water hose to help cool off).

The first psychological wall was at mile 11, where the marathon and half-marathon split. Our coach Phil warned us about this. At the point the half-marathoner only had a little over 2 miles to go to finish. We rounded the corner and were met with the sign "Marathon - 15 miles to finish". The next wall came a couple of miles later as we crossed the half way mark, by the point the temperature was getting hotter and we were starting to have to walk. I was keeping track of the the mile splits and for some reason mile 14 seemed to keep going and going. Finally, when my watch said 20 minutes, I figured I must have missed the marker for mile 14. Five minutes later imagine my feeling expecting to see the marker for mile 15 to be greeted with the sign for mile 14 (it took us 25 minutes to make the mile). Immediately my mind raced with thoughts of us not finishing the race in time, of us running out of strength and energy to complete the race. We picked up the pace for the next couple of miles (even one that over half of it was uphill). It was on mile 16 that we passed a 1st Tennessee Bank sign which announced to everyone passing by that the temperature at this point was 84 degrees.

Miles 19 and 20 were back in downtown Nashville again and we met back up with the half-marathon crowd again. Shortly before the start of mile 21, we broke off again and watch the half-marathoners race downhill towards their finish line as we had 6.2 miles to go. At this point, we were running small goals... to the next street, to the stop sign, to the water station. From mile 20 to 25, we saw 4 people carried off in ambulances, we assume, due to heat exhaustion. Finally, passing mile marker 24 (with 2.2 miles to go) we knew the end was finally in sight. At mile marker 26, I took a picture with a disposable camera I had with me (see photo album up top) and the camera fell out of my pocket. A passerby stopped me and reunited me with the camera. From there it was a .2 mile dash to the finish.

Once rounding the last turn, there's no way to describe the mixture of emotions. 5 months of hard work, 26+ miles in 5 hours and 43 minutes... people were cheering and at this point, I was the only person approaching the finish. I waved to the crowd to get them to cheer some more and the did, I saw my sister and brother-in-law cheering me on (I missed Sarah on the other side of the lane) and crossed the finish line at 5 hours, 43 minutes and 13 seconds after starting.

I was finished. I had run a marathon. Shortly afterwards, family members were calling... all asked the same thing, joking "Did you win?" You know what? I ran 26.2 miles, I raised $1,800 to fight Leukemia and Lymphoma. I did win.

5:43:13

My first marathon is in the book....

Official time 5 hours, 43 minutes, 13 seconds. More to come later....

1 Day to Go!!

So here it is.

Less than 14 hours to go, we are in Nashville, checked into our hotel and got our bibs for the race. Sarah and I spent the afternoon at the Nashville health and fitness expo. Currently we are resting before our inspirational pasta dinner with Team in Training.

This last week has been so surreal. I would say the last event I looked forward to and planned so much for was when Sarah moved down to Tennessee and the our wedding. It's kind of hard to believe that this time tomorrow, it will be over.

I'm not sure how much, if any, sleep I'm going to get tonight. Our schedule is that we are meeting in the hotel lobby at 5:00AM to catch a 5:15 shuttle to the starting line. The race starts at 7:00 (CST). I'm probably going to start in coral 17 where my fellow TNTer Trisha is running. (We've been keeping each other pace on our long runs for the past couple of months.) I probably won't actually start till around 7:35 - 7:40AM. My goal is 4 hours and 30 minutes. (Since I've had some ask... to qualify for Boston, I'd need to finish before 3 hours and 15 minutes. But, if I do finish before that time, I'll run in Boston.)

My bib number is #9183 so you can keep tabs on me tomorrow by visiting the marathon's website.

What's on the iPod?

I've followed a couple of discussions about what people listen to while running. For no good reason, I decided to post my playlist. For those that know me, know that my musical tastes running to the extremes. I've added and subtracted along the way, mostly trying to find songs along a certain tempo. So here is the "Marathon Megalist" clocking in at 4 hours, I'll be repeating some on my way to the finish line. I'll leave it to you to discuss....

Take On Me - a-Ha
Journey To The Center Of The Mind - The Amboy Dukes
Freeway Of Love - Aretha Franklin
Don't Cry - Asia
Around The World (La La La La) - ATC
Get Back (Love Album Version) - The Beatles
No More Words - Berlin
Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky) - Bill Conti
Dancin With Myself - Billy Idol
Let's Go - The Cars
I Want You To Want Me - Cheap Trick
Let's Dance - Chris Montez
I Believe In a Thing Called Love - The Darkness
Pour Some Sugar On Me (Historia Video Edit) - Def Leppard
Days Go By - Dirty Vegas
Long Train Runnin' - The Doobie Brothers
LA Woman - The Doors
Free Ride - The Edgar Winter Group
Blue (Da Ba Dee) - Eiffel 65
I'm Still Standing - Elton John
Whats Going On (Techno Remix) - Four Non Blondes
Wish - Franka Potente & Thomas D
Radar Love - Golden Earring
Breakup Song - The Greg Kihn Band
You Could Be Mine - Guns 'n' Roses
Hip to Be Square - Huey Lewis and the News
Lust for Life - Iggy Pop
The Middle - Jimmy Eat World
Steppin' Out - Joe Jackson
Instant Karma! - John Lennon
R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A. (A Salute To 60's Rock) - John Mellencamp
That's The Way (I Like It) - K.C. & The Sunshine Band
I Was Made For Loving You - Kiss
Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
Ray Of Light - Madonna
Maniac - Michael Sembello
Words - Missing Persons
Devil With A Blue Dress On & Good Golly Miss Molly - Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
Pleasant Valley Sunday - The Monkees
Yummy Yummy Yummy - The Ohio Express
We Belong - Pat Benatar
Invincible [Theme From The Legend Of Billie Jean] - Pat Benatar
Coming Up - Paul McCartney
Sussudio - Phil Collins
Under Pressure - Queen & David Bowie
Wannabe - Spice Girls
Stars on Long Play (Beatle Mix) - Stars on 45
Stars on Long Play (Disco Mix) - Stars on 45
Born To Be Wild - Steppenwolf
Edge Of Seventeen - Stevie Nicks
Fox On The Run - Sweet
Great White Buffalo - Ted Nugent
Runnin' Down A Dream - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Mony Mony - Tommy James & The Shondells
We're Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister
Beautiful Day - U2
Start The Commotion - The Wiseguys

Tapering Off

It's hard to believe that in less than two weeks, this adventure will be over.

After months of building up to long runs, yesterday we cut back the miles for our long run - down to 10 miles. Of course, looking back over past posts, I would have been hard pressed to say "only 10 miles."

Our group met for the final group run Saturday morning at 3rd Creek Greenway. This run would be "simple" - 5 miles down and back, taking us from Bearden down to UT and back. At 8:20, we were off. Our group decided to pick up the pace for this run, moving from a 10 minute pace down to 9:30. Starting out, however, I ran into my biggest problem on the day... firing up the iPod, I was greeted with "Connect to Power Source". Great, no music. Well, can't let it stop me, but I had to press on. One thing that I noticed early on was the lack of people. The weather, while cool, was really nice for running. I can only assume that the Easter holiday had some sort of effect.

A lot of people on the team said this run was harder than expected. I don't know if it was the excitement of the final group run, or the fact that it was only half the run we did the week before, but we forged ahead, hitting the halfway mark at Thompson-Boling Arena in 45:18. Running back the pace slowed a little as we had to navigate an Easter egg hunt on the greenway and a walk for autism futher down the greenway. We finished with a time of 1:34:12, an average of 9:25 per mile.

Mowing

While taking of the yard tonight, I've come to a small conclusion: going out for a run is like mowing your own yard.

It might be something you are not looking forward to (especially if you haven't done it in a while), but you know it has to be completed. Once you start, even though it might be tough, it's better once to take stock in what you have accomplished than focus on all that remains. Once you get close to finishing and see the end in sight, it makes it easier.

And there is a tremendous sense of satisfaction once you are completed.

"Fully Trained"

Saturday was the final "long run" leading up to the marathon. Our trainers told us, if we completed the run, we would be "fully trained" to run the marathon. I have to say, the excitement of the previous week's half marathon was still in the air. This run would present all sorts of new challenges. This run would be 20 miles.

We met near the Alcoa/Maryville Greenway about 2 1/2 miles from the city line. Our objective was simple, we would run 5 miles, turn around, return 5 miles and repeat. It sounds so simple written down. At 7:15, we were off. It was a cool morning with a little bit of fog and the sun starting to rise as we left the starting line. The first couple of miles were good averaging under 10 minute miles. At the end of the first 5 miles, it took 48:29. Not a bad pace.

Returning back, we stopped about 1 1/4 miles in for a small pit stop and continued on. Getting back to the car at the end of 10 miles, I had to swap out my long sleeve shirt for a short sleeve and get some more water. At this point before heading back out, 10 miles down and 1:43:48 into the run.

Mentally, the toughest obstacle of the day was knowing that we were only 1/2 done and had to complete the circuit again. At 13 miles I was at 2:13:50 in, slightly faster than my half-marathon pace the week before.

By mile 15, fatigue was settling in. We were 2:39:13 into the run and had 5 miles to return back to the car. These were the toughest 5 miles I had traversed in quite a long time. I wish I could say i ran all of them, but the final 3 miles I had to walk a bit. By mile 17, we were over 3 hours into the run. I had to walk 1/4 of mile 18, 1/2 of mile 19 and 1/4 of mile 20.

Seeing the finish line after 3 and 1/2 hours was a remarkable feeling of accomplishment. Though my legs were ready to fall out underneath me, knowing the end was literally around the corner gave me enough push to end the race on a high note. Finally, 3:39:47 after starting, we crossed the end of the run.

It's was an amazing, yet scary, feeling knowing that in less than 3 weeks. I will run the distance again, tacking on the final 6.2 miles, to complete my first marathon!!


Here are some photos from finishing the half marathon. On top, I was waving to the camera operator in Neyland Stadium (hoping for good close-up :) ), and on the bottom... attempting to finish strong.