The Kids Have The Sickness

The day of my marathon was such an awesome day. I was full of exhilaration and felt full of life. Later that day my girls came to me and said “Would you run with us if we wanted to run?” The thought of them running excited me beyond belief. I had been hoping that they would want to get into running for a bit for I knew how wonderful running made me feel.

So the day after, with me still unable to run, they decided to run without me in the neighborhood. That day they went out and ran a half mile which was pretty awesome saying they hadn’t ran ever at all. I was so thrilled with their initial results! I was pleasantly surprised when they told me afterwards they were ready for more!!

At this point I knew I needed to slow them down so I let them know we’d ease into it as training to fast can injure yourself. We decided the next run day would be Wednesday and as planned we ran and everyone was able to run a mile. I was so amazed that they were able to run a mile this quick. Their determination was so impressive!!

The funny thing is that they were so ready to run more and just couldn’t get enough. They had the sickness!!! The best part of this is that they are talking about wanting to run a 5k and getting faster and working up to a half marathon. It’s been a week now and some of them have already worked up to 1.5-2 miles. Safe to say I’m one proud Dad!!

Rock’N’Roll Marathon Nashville

Leaving off from my last post I had decided at the last minute to put in the extra training and upgrade from the half marathon to the full marathon at the Rock’N’Roll race in Nashville. This was my first time ever running the race and I was super excited. Waking up that Friday morning I was still suffering from tendinitis in my left foot and was concerned about running the full marathon and wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do.

I had heard great things about the the health expo and was super excited. Walking into the Music City Center it was busy and I was thirty minutes early.  My wife accompanied me to the expo and after being there a few minutes, we were glad we got there early. We got in line and within no time the line stretched back as far as I could see. Once the expo opened I went to pick up my bib, decided, without hesitation, to upgrade from the half to the full marathon. I got moved up from corral 13 to 7, which was great. This advancement meant I got to start sooner. After that I picked up my gear bag and shirt. I headed straight into the expo with a sense of eagerness. Immediately walking in, I was impressed with the selection of great race apparel. It was licensed by Brooks; they had a place to try and shoes and test out your running stride on a treadmill.

After leaving the Brooks portion of the expo I spotted a good bundle of interesting booths: Garmin had a nice booth showcasing their watches, Geico had booth you could win a free post- race massage, Toyota had a nice size booth with games and there was a St. Jude’s wall you could write a message to the kids. There were tons more but I can not mention them all and pass on the full experience that one should get from there. The whole flow of the expo was great as we were able to navigate through and see all the booths even with the large crowd that was there.

That night I carbed up and went to bed at 8pm as I knew I would be up very early the next day. Woke up before my alarm could go off at 3am and was ready to get running. I had my standard pre-race meal peanut butter on a bagel with water and Gatorade.  I got geared up and off we went to Nashville. The traffic wasn’t bad and I was glad we left as

early as we did as it was decent hike from the parking lot to the the starting location of the race. The Nashville skyline is always so beautiful and city looked gorgeous.On our walk in the air was muggy and race day temps were expected to reach into the 80’s with 70-80% humidity. As we made our up to the starting line the atmosphere was electric, there were people everywhere and I was getting even more ready to run. The nice people at First Baptist Church was handing out free bottles of water and had opened their doors to let people use the restrooms there which was great because there wasn’t much of a wait at all. So after taking the gratuitous family photo and well wishes from the family I kissed everyone bye and headed up to the starting line.

I found my corral and did my pre-race stretching and waited for the start of the race. It was great as the 5k race started and I was able to cheer those folks on as they ran by but I got more and more apprehensive waiting for my portion of the race to start.The race began and I was surprised with how fast the corrals were released and when my corral was released I took off. The first part of the race took me down Broadway and turned onto 2nd Ave. briefly before turning onto Demonbreun St. where I met my first hill. It wasn’t bad and I was able to navigate up it, made another short turn and then was back on Broadway. It was a fun experience being cheered on by the folks waiting for their turn to start as I went down Broadway.

The next part of the race wasn’t bad at all for me as the course took me down parts of music row and then past Belmont then Hillsboro. I felt like at this part I was running to fast so I slowed down some as I knew I would run of energy at this pace. At this point it was still overcast so there was a breeze blowing still. Coming out through The Gulch was really cool, such a beautiful part of town. As I came up out of The Gulch little did I know the race was about to get much harder for me.

We hit the Rosa L. Park portion of the race which in my opinion is the worst part of the race. At this part of the race the full people split off from the half people so it thins out substantially. At this point the clouds were replaced with the sun and the heat really started to kick in. I started getting overheated a bit and for the first time walked for a bit. The part of the race there were very few people there to cheer you one and it felt like you were never going to get off Rosa L. Park.

After circling through some office buildings that didn’t seem like they would ever end we came back out onto Rosa L. Parks which we had to run back the other way. At this point was the first time I saw someone get sick and needed medical attention as the heat was really starting to get worse. We hit Jefferson St. and then it was on to the Nashville Sounds ball park which we got to run in and around the field before coning out onto 5th Ave. and then Woodland St. which was my second least favorite part of the race.

The race people like to tease the marathon folks as we are running side by side with marathon people and get watch them run down the finish line. The climb up Woodland to Five Points didn’t seem like it would ever end. But after the never ending ascent I made it to the top and then got to circle around and go downhill for a change. I saw a few more people get pulled out of the race because of their health condition and I was onto S. 5th St. before hitting the Shelby Park portion of the race.

There were tons of people on S. 5th St. and Shelby park cheering us which helped out as were at the tale end of the race and the motivation really helped. After coming out of Shelby in which I saw a guy get carried away by an ambulance due to his health condition I was heading up S. 5th St. and then onto Woodland for the final stretch of the race. It was exhilarating running down Woodland knowing I was almost there and having all he people cheering me on as I ran by. It was such a rush making that final turn and crossing the finish line.

As I ran across, it hit me that I had just ran my first marathon.

A few final thoughts, the coordinators of the race did a phenomenal job, for they had people throughout the course spraying water on us or had sprinklers set up to keep us cool. They had tons of hydration tables setup to keep us hydrated and had people handing out sponges soaked in water to keep us cool. I would definitely run it again and highly recommend it as the course is challenging and the fan support is amazing.

My Path To My First Marathon

My journey to run my first marathon didn’t start the way I would have thought it would. Back in November, I decided I wanted to run the Half Marathon version of the Rock’N’Roll Marathon. I had just came off my best half marathon finish in October in The Middle Half, coming in slightly under two hours. I was battling some tendinitis in my right foot and was taking some time off and figured I would be good to go by April to run the half.

December started and I was healed up so I started back running again. I committed to myself that I wanted to run the Nashville race better than the Murfreesboro race so I decided to run harder and put in more miles. December was a solid month for me and I moved into January feeling more confident in myself than I’d ever had. I had met several people through the Nike Run Club app that really inspired me to improve myself. They were putting in close to or over one 100 miles a month.

I decided that in January, I was going to put in 100 miles that month. Getting to one 100 miles was a lot easier than I thought. I put in one hundred miles and thought I’d share it on Facebook. A friend of mine from high school asked me what my goals were.  I told him I was planning on running the half in April. He told me with the distances I was putting in that I was probably capable of running a farther distance. I started thinking of what he said and if I should find a race with a further distance to run in.

February came and I decided I wanted another 100 mile month. I had another solid month already hitting my target mileage for the half with a time that I was happy with. I also was able to run another month over 100 miles. February had me thinking, could I just up my training some and just upgrade to the full marathon in April? It was risky, and I wasn’t sure if I could prepare myself in time to be able to run 26.2 miles. Up to that point, the most I had run was 14 miles.

So I decided for my first long run for the month of March, I was going to see how far I could go. I was surprised when I banged out a 15 mile run with a little over a nine minute mile pace. At this point, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to run the full or not. I pressed on with my half training, knocking out my best time yet right 1:45. I was beyond happy with my progress at this point. The very next week, I ran my very best half time at slightly under 1:45.

My confidence was at an all-time high so I decided I was going to take a shot at a 20 mile run. Out I went and was running extremely well. I was supplementing with Honey Stinger gummies. I came out of Stones River Battlefield with a little more than three miles left. At mile 18, I started having abdominal pains and ended up having to stop at mile 19. My time was really good all things considered.  I averaged slightly over a nine minute mile.

I went to the doctor and found out I had a contusion on my bladder which was causing the abdominal pain. Essentially, I wasn’t hydrating enough which caused the pain. My NRC family was urging me to run the full marathon in April and I was seriously considering it. The Special Kids 15K was the very next week and I was psyched about it. The morning was chilly which was perfect for running and I was running better than I ever had and I knew the course very well.

I decided I would line up in the front and go from there. The race started and off I went running with all these super fast people. Surprisingly, I was able to keep up with them for awhile. Before I knew it, I was halfway through and I was averaging around a 7:20 mile. I couldn’t believe I was running this well as I’d never ran at this pace for that long. ended up running at 7:27/mi pace for the entire race and finished at 1:09 which was a PR.

The very next day, I decided to take a stab at another 20 mile run. I essentially ran the exact same route as my 19 mile run and this time I hydrated very well. Unfortunately, I had spent a lot of my energy the day before at Special Kids and I ran out of gas at mile 18 with a 9:20/mi pace. At this point, I was really doubting that I could do 26.2 miles. I knew at this point I would have to get one more long run as close to 20 miles as possible if I had any hope of running the marathon.

The next week a friend of mine, Will, asked me to run with him and I told him I needed to get a 20 mile run in. He said he would join me for part of it. When we met at the greenway, he informed me was going to try and run twenty with me. The run started off good but, around mile 11, I started running out of gas. By the time I got to mile 15, I was ready to quit. I informed Will that I was thinking of stopping and he said to me that I had gone too far to quit. He said let’s keep going and get something to drink and we will be fine.

We hydrated and kept going, the last three miles were extradorinaiy hard but, with Will pushing me, I made it to mile 20. Driving home that day, I had serious reservations I could do the full marathon. The next day I woke up and my tendinitis had flared back. This time in my left foot. At this point, I was two weeks out from the race so I should technically be tapering at this point. Thus, I decided to reduce my amount of runs and the distance hoping to heal up before the race.

My NRC friends had been supportive of me the entire time and were encouraging me to run the full. I had put in a ton of work leading up to the race and they all felt like I could do it. Will who ran the 20 mile run encouraged me to do it as well. Therefore, I decided that when I went to the health expo for the race, I would upgrade to the full and would run my first ever marathon.

How I Started Running

Growing up, I was always athletic playing basketball and tennis. I always enjoyed being active and busy. Playing sports was always very exhilarating, there was nothing like competing and the feeling of excitement each game and match brought for me. Running down the basketball court shooting, passing, rebounding always gave me a rush. Standing on the tennis court facing your opponent on the other side and going toe to toe knowing that it was all on me on whether the match was won or lost always gave me a rush.

These feelings were lost after high school as I got married and got too busy to worry about being active. The most activity I ever did was lawn work which for me was never enjoyable. I moved from Middle Tennessee to East Tennessee which put me close to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. I love the mountains and decided I wanted to get into hiking. Hiking in the mountains was always such a wonderful experience from smelling the fresh mountain air to hearing the tranquil sounds of the mountain streams.

Hiking in the mountains was quite a challenge physically. Learning how to maneuver the terrain as well as building up my endurance doing long hikes always left me wanting to do more. My hiking in the mountains were short lived as life moved me back to Middle Tennessee. I moved to a rural town named Smithville.  Little did I know of the wonderful places to hike that surrounded it. It took me awhile to discover these places and what led me to them was my interest in photography.

I was going through a divorce and was looking for an outlet to keep me preoccupied and photography was it. I discovered hiking again through photography at such great places as Rock Island, Burgess Falls and Old Stone Fort. I was able to take great pictures and be physically active at the same time. It felt great to become active again and I was able to bring my kids along for the ride hiking.

Fast forward to me meeting my wife Karen. She is this beautiful amazing person who is in tremendous shape. I saw her commitment to being physically fit and it truly amazed and inspired me. However, as much as I tried; I did not enjoy doing the workouts that she did and I tried and I tried and it just wasn’t for me. I was looking for something to do actively and I decided I would try running. I went out and did a few runs but then stopped and I wasn’t disciplined enough to stay with it.

I was at work one day when I received a call from a peer of mine and was asked if I was interested in running a half marathon. He was trying to gather as many people as possible to run in a local half marathon here in Murfreesboro called The Middle Half. I was naive and said sure as I thought how hard could it be. I thought it’s only 13.1 miles and surely that cannot be that hard to do.

So I started my training by adopting a beginner half marathon training program on Runkeeper. I was humbled very quickly by how hard it is to run, over four months time I had my ups and my downs. I discovered how awful shin splints were and what it was like to make progress and lose it and have to start over again. I learned how mentally challenging running was as I never realized how mental running was. Many times I had to push myself to not stop and to keep going.

Raceday came and I was beyond nervous, I had never ran in a race in my life. I didn’t know what to expect and if I was going to be able to finish and how long it was going to take me to complete it. Looking back now, I realize all those jitters really handicapped me that day. I did survive and completed the race in two hours and thirty minutes. My wife and kids were there at the finish line to greet me with posters of support and hugs and kisses. That support and the feeling of crossing the finish line was exhilarating.

At that point I was hooked on running. I wanted to run more and get faster, I wanted to be able to run further. I loved the feeling of training and working up to the finale of raceday. I loved the feeling that running gave and how it made my body feel. I felt healthy and I didn’t want that feeling to end so here I am now four years later still running. I’ve found that my greatest opponent is always myself.