St. George Marathon: The Walking Dead

This title about sums up exactly how I felt running the St. George Marathon a couple weeks ago. Now that enough time has passed (I told my wife that I have suppressed the memories from the marathon and will update my blog as soon as I feel mentally healthy enough to think about them again), I have decided to update this here blog. Let me tell you of my experiences.

I started the race a little peeved: BYU lost their football game the night before, and I was up late watching them lose. I woke up bright and early: 4:15 AM. I dressed, put on my bib, ate some breakfast, and waited for my wife to drop me off at the buses. I met up with Cori's older sister, Christen, and we rode the long, perilous bus ride to the starting line. We got out 26.2 miles later and were welcomed with a little wind. It was chilly at the starting line, but they had plenty of fires around to stay warm. This race is unbelievably well run. It was very organized and it seemed that everyone was at ease at the starting line, all 7800 runners. The most hectic part of the whole process was throwing our drop bags into the U-Haul truck before the start of the race.

I had three goals coming into this race: a very ambitious primary goal; a more realistic secondary goal; and a don't die tertiary goal. I accomplished the tertiary goal. Looking back, I probably made a few mistakes, as this was just my first marathon. I started the race and felt great. Of course, who doesn't feel great the first few miles of a marathon. I was used to running 15-18 miles, so what is 5?  I still had secondary, or even primary, goal in mind, so I took off at a pretty good pace, at least good for me. I felt great. 13.1 miles later I hit the halfway point at 2:05, exactly a 9:30 minute per mile pace.

Along the way I saw stunning views of the red cliffs, Snow Canyon, and other beautiful sites along the way. I left my phone with Cori so she could track me along the way, so I wasn't able to get any pictures in the early portions of the race. If you would like to see what it looks like, just google "St. George Marathon pictures"; I'm sure you'll find plenty.

I forgot to mention Veyo Hill. This Hill has been in my nightmares for the past couple months. It hits you in the face around mile 7. It scared me. The only good thing about Veyo Hill is before you hit it, you get to the town of Veyo. This is a tiny little town outside of St. George, but it was awesome to run through. Everybody in town, it seems, was out on the road cheering on the runners. It was louder in Veyo than it was a the actual finish line. This gave me a false impression that I was doing awesome! I put a smile on my face and picked up the pace. I hit Veyo Hill and it wasn't even as bad as I thought. I ran almost the whole way up, walking for about 1 minute on the way up. I even caught up to Cori's sister on Veyo Hill and left her in the dust!! (Admittedly, she caught me about 8 miles later and ended up beating me by 20 minutes, but I beat her up Veyo Hill!!).

If I thought Veyo Hill was bad, I hadn't seen anything yet. Veyo Hill at mile 7 was nothing compared to the other hills we got to around mile 15. I remember running by a guy who said, "This is a really easy course to run a negative split." I almost laughed out loud. (A negative split is when you run the second half of a race faster than the first half). Well, if I would have run a negative split, I would have hit my primary goal, not barely accomplishing my tertiary goal.

The first arrow that you see is Veyo Hill. The second arrow that you see is the spot where I turned into The Walking Dead.


I got to mile 15 and I still felt strong. I was feeling I might be able to run a respectable time. Mile 17 came and went and I still felt great. Can I say something about the aid stations here? They were awesome! The aid stations came around about every 2 miles, starting at mile 3. They had about anything you could ever want: water, Gatorade, Heed drink, Vaseline on a stick, volunteers with icy hot, fruit, you name it, they probably had it. Also, along the way, there were some very friendly spectators with cans of Coke and cookies. Amazing! As we got closer to the finish, the icy hot volunteers became more prominent (I took advantage starting at about mile 20). There was licorice, otter pops, bagels, cold towels, and other wonderful things. It was awesome.

Anyway, mile 18 came and yet. Still feeling ok. Then came mile 19. My calves really started getting tight here. I took advantage of the icy hot volunteers and they instantly felt better, for about 10 steps. Then they felt really tight again. Mile 20 came and I was getting worse. I slowed down a bit and starting walking more, but I still felt like I could push through this. Mile 22 came and then came The Walking Dead. This is me. I felt like Death had called for me, tied me up, and was dragging me around the course. It hurt to run, it hurt to walk, but it hurt even more to try to start walking after a run. I didn't care. I employed a run-walk-run cycle. About this time, the course starts to come into town. I usually don't like walking in front of volunteers, but I left my pride around mile 20. I was far passed trying to hold onto dignity. Around mile 23 I saw a couple familiar faces: my brother Nathan and his wife, Tonya. I promptly told them this was the worst day of my life! They told me I looked great. I was wondering if they thought I was someone else. Nathan asked if I wanted him to run with me and I said YES. He ran the rest of the race with me, forcing me to run, not letting me walk much, and talking to me to take my mind off the worst physical pain I have ever felt, literally. I have never felt such pain. About a mile later I saw my family: my wife and two sons, my parents, and an uncle and aunt who I didn't know was going to be there. It was good to see them and I got a little boost from them. I also saw Cori's parents and sister on the side, cheering me on. I was very grateful for the family that I had to give me support to finish this thing.

The last couple miles of this marathon really showed me something. It showed me that no matter what happens in life, you just have to keep pushing forward. Quitting was not an option; it really never crossed my mind. I knew it was going to be difficult, but nothing could prepare me for what I experienced, unless you ripped my legs off, beat me with them, and then sewed them back on and told me to run a few miles on them. That's exactly how I felt the last few miles of this race. But I finished! Here are a few pictures that people took. I am sorry for the way I look: this was right after my legs were sewn back onto my torso.

Throughout this marathon, there were many times where I felt defeated. I felt like I was done. Despite feeling done, I knew I couldn't quit. I knew that no matter how much pain I was in, I had to finish. I had to do this. I couldn't quit.

"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, hat you can rise from, how you can still come out of it."
    -Maya Angelou






 

Guess who's back? Back again? Ok, so nobody really missed my blog, but I'm back, nonetheless. I am sitting at my computer sipping a Diet Coke and listening to Simon and Garfunkel. This already seems like the perfect day, you ask? Well, it gets better...


I got this image in an email. It was accompanied by the following message: Our staff would like to congratulate you on being 1 of 7800 runners selected for the 2016 St. George Marathon.

Last time, 2 years ago, I was very nervous about a similar email I received, with a similar message. This time, I am ecstatic!! Already I feel much better prepared. I ran my fastest half marathon of my life just over a week ago and I have a very aggressive training plan in place.  I am extremely excited. Can you tell?

I made the determination to redeem myself after my blistering time of 4:41:00 2 years ago (hint: that was extreme sarcasm). As long as I can stick to my plan--and I think I can--I will be able to destroy that time and feel much more comfortable running it this time around.

Well, I'm out. I will update a bit more frequently (what, once every 2 years isn't frequent?) as I progress through my training.

I just realized I wrote my post about my last attempt at the St. George Marathon, but never published it. If you look directly about this post, you can read it. It is fascinating! Not really...

Rock Bottom

So here I am, sitting down. Attempting to recover from my 16 mile run this morning. Yes, 16 miles. The only problem: it destroyed me. And yes, I am attempting to run a marathon (26.2 miles) in about 6 weeks. I am nervous...

Every runner has felt the "runner's high". The overwhelming and powerful feeling that you can run forever. It might be just one mile during a 10 mile run. It might be an entire 5K, or it might be an entire half-marathon. Whenever and however it comes, it is great! You feel as if you are effortlessly floating across the ground, barely making contact. This is what every runner dreams of. I imagine this is what most elite runners feel like, although, if I had to guess, they probably don't either. This actually describes most of my 9 mile run earlier in the week. I felt great. I felt strong. I felt I could run forever. Fast-forward to this morning (Saturday). I was attempting to ride this high for awhile and said, "I'll go for a long run on Saturday". I shouldn't have said that.

Friday night came and I surreptitiously (yes, I didn't want my brain knowing what my hands were doing) set my alarm for 3:15 AM. So 3:15 came and went and I rolled out of bed at 3:25. Still ok. I was out the door and running by 3:45. It was actually a great morning, cool (75, haha, Vegas cool), light breeze, minimal traffic. I felt as if I was alone in Vegas. It was nice. Until the homeless chick sleeping in the middle of the jogging path scared the crap out of me. Anyway...

I set off and life was good. I felt pretty good. Around mile 10 I started struggling a little. Around mile 13 something crossed my mind that has never crossed my mind during a run: I wanted to call my wife to come get me. I hobbled through the next 2 miles, stopped at a gas station to get some water, and literally walked the last mile home. I felt like crap. I felt like I had just been run over by a truck, then tied to the bumper and dragged home. It was not a good feeling. This was, literally, my worst running experience to date. It made me question things I have always known to be true: Is Santa Claus really real? Will my finger get stuck in my nose if I pick my nose too much? Do the Haribo sugar-free gummy bears really tear you up inside as much as the reviews on Amazon.com say? (Seriously, follow this link and read some of the reviews. Some of the funniest things I have ever read). Can I really run a full marathon? 26.2 miles? Me? I don't know. All I know is that today was a horrible run.

I assume that most people have bad runs. I hope this was just an isolated incident and things will get better. I guess I'll try again and see how it goes.

On the bright side, I did get some pretty good pictures from some earlier runs this week and last week. Check them out.

This is a picture I took at the beginning of an 11 mile run I did last week. The sunrise was awesome.

During my 11 mile run I ran to the top of this little mountain. It is in the Exploration Park in Mountain's Edge (yeah, I THOUGHT it would be fun). I was able to get a couple pictures from the top.

See that guy in the red circle with the big red arrow pointing at him? Yup, that's a giant coyote (at least he looked giant to me. He really was quite large). He ran out about 25 feet in front of me. I snapped a quick mugshot before he could run back into the desert.

Despite my horrible run and shortcomings, there are definitely things to be grateful for. I can run. I am healthy. And my family is healthy. What more could I ask for?

When Preparation Meets Good Luck

The weekend of the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon (BCHM) has come and gone. What a weekend it was!! We (my family and I) drove from Vegas to Tropic, Utah, on Friday morning. We got to Tropic-the little town just outside of Bryce Canyon-in the late afternoon. We found out that it had rained really hard that day and the sky looked ominous with its dark clouds and overcast appearance.

The first thing we did was run down to Cannonville (the end of the race) to pick up my packet. Then back to Cori's grandma's house for some relaxation. We didn't know what to have for dinner, so we all settled on pepperoni pizza. Note to self (and anyone reading this): Never eat pepperoni pizza the night before a half marathon, or any distance, race! Not a very good idea.

The next morning my alarm was set for 4:30, but I was so good, I woke up at 3:30, and couldn't get back to sleep. Take that alarm! I don't need you!! I woke up, ate some toast and drank a bunch of water, got dressed and headed to the shuttle pick-up. When we got to the starting line, I saw the most porta-potties I have ever seen assembled in one place. There were so many I didn't have to once wait for one to open. Very well done, BCHM! They also had several bonfires going, even though it really wasn't too cold.

Finally the race began and we started to shuffle, hobble, shamble, run down the road. We ran for about 1.65 miles before we hit "the dump". This is where the big downhill section starts. As soon as we hit the dump, the most beautiful scenery begins to unfold before your very eyes.

This was taken with my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone (Samsung? Anything yet?) This picture doesn't do it justice, though. This view was awesome. Another thing I like about the BCHM (this was my 5th, yes, 5th time running it) is the mile markers. They are pretty cool and I haven't seen these in any of my other races.

Every mileage marker is the silhouette of a runner with the mileage number in it. They are pretty cool.
At this point I was doing ok. I felt good, strong, and prepared. We lucked out because there wasn't a sign of rain during the race and the weather and temperature were about as perfect as you can ask for.

I did have a bit of an experience taking these pictures. As I stopped to take this picture, I saw a group of 4-5 high-school looking kids running by. As I was snapping this picture, I heard one of them say, "Instagram: mile 2". Ok, so I was already a little hesitant to stop and take pictures during the race (not only do I not take very good pictures and kind of feel like a dork, but I am extremely competitive and don't like stopping to take the pictures), and this little high-school kids weren't helping. They took off laughing and I didn't see them again-UNTIL I PASSED ALL OF THEM BETWEEN MILES 10-12!!!! HAHAHA! Take that, punks!

Ok, I'm back and not heated up anymore. So I was running along and actually making pretty good time. Here is another-the only other-picture I took on the way down.

This was actually a pretty good view, too. During the race, we actually run through Tropic, and, consequently, right by Cori's grandma's house, which is where my family stayed. I knew I would see them here, at about mile 7.5. I also knew this would give me some extra motivation. I had been taking Jeff Galloway's run-walk-run approach by walking 1 minute at every single aid station. I felt this would keep me strong for the ending of the race so my time wouldn't drop as I neared the finish. Spoiler Alert: it worked, but I'll touch on that a little later.

Here is the elevation map that was taken from my GPS watch. You can plainly see how fun this race is.

My wife managed to get a couple good shots of me here. Let me explain something here. When I run, my perception of what I look like is MUCH different from what I actually look like. In my mind, I resemble Dean Karnazes as I shred up the asphalt on my way to a personal record, shattering my old time like glass; however, when I usually see pictures of myself running, it seems I actually resemble someone like Lurch, or Bob from Monsters Vs. Aliens. Yes, I am a fat blob of jelly slowing inching my way down the road. My wife actually got a good shot of me that makes it look like I am really running. This is on the road in Tropic.

Not exactly Dean Karnazes, but not exactly a fat blog, inching down the road, either. (Of course, I am still closer to the fat blog.) When you get through Tropic, the course has several rolling hills until the finish. I actually enjoy this. After 7 miles of downhill, your quads will thank you, even if you are starting to run uphill more. My run-walk-run strategy was paying off: I felt great still. At around mile 9 I started to notice a hotspot right under my big toe. Sure enough, at mile 10 I knew it was a full blown blister. I have never had a blister while running, so this was new to me. And guess what, I didn't like it at all! I gutted my way through the rest of the course and finished.

The BCHM offers beautiful views and plenty of porta-potties and aid stations along the way. It is an extremely well-run race that anybody can finish. Even though this was my 5th half marathon, I ran this one for my first one 5 years ago. I would highly recommend it to anyone thinking about running their 1st or 15th half marathon.

I had two main goals coming into this race: Break 1:50:00 and finish in the top 200. This is where my preparation met good luck. My finishing time, according to my chip time, was 1:49:44. I knew I broke 1:50:00 because my Garmin GPS watch said so. I was a little nervous to see what my overall place was, but I studied that last few years of results from this race and had a feeling if I broke 1:50:00, I would also break into the top 200 finishers. This year was one of the largest races, with 929 runners finishing. My final place: 197!! Holy crap I was cutting it close, but I accomplished my two main goals.

My mile times. 

Here are a couple more pictures from the end of the race.

Now that this race is over, I can finally concentrate on my next goal: The St. George Marathon. Here we go...

Jimmy Buffet has the best quote I have heard that tailors perfectly to the BCHM:
"Go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see."

3 Days Away

I am writing this 3 days away from the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon (BCHM). I am not really nervous this time around. I feel like I have prepared myself fairly well. I did go on a 5 mile run this morning and learned a few things.

1) There are absolutely no advantages to waking up before the sun. One of the myriad of advantages in waking up before the sun is getting to see the sunrise. That actually is why I enjoy running in the dark for a few minutes: the sunrises in Vegas are usually pretty good. Here is the sunrise I was able to capture on my new Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone (Samsung, are you reading this? Can I get an endorsement deal? What?! What do you mean you don't give endorsement deals to mediocre bloggers who have, on average, 1.2 page views per day? Come on!)

2) Vegas rainstorms are awesome. Well, let me back up. I really enjoy when it rains in Vegas during the summer. It is loud and intense. This past week we have had a couple pretty good rainstorms. There are a couple disadvantages, though, that over-shadow the fun of the rainstorm (at least for me). First, it is really humid the next day (don't laugh if you are reading this in the southern or eastern states. Yes, I know, it is really humid there. I lived in Mississippi for two years. I know what REAL humidity feels like. But this was humid for Vegas). I felt like I had run through a car wash, and I was only a mile into my run. Needless to say, I ran very slow this morning. I am saying I ran slow because of my race on Saturday, but, really, it was because it was hot and humid. The second disadvantage is the flash floods. This picture shows my regular jogging path. This is also what the majority of the streets in my neighborhood looked like this morning (they were even worse yesterday morning).

You can kind of see where my path was. This also was taken with my new Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone (anything yet, Samsung?)

I really just enjoy being outside and getting fresh air. If I run to this little jogging path (about 3/4 mile from my front steps), I have access to hundreds of miles of desert. When the snakes start to hibernate When it gets a little cooler, I will definitely be taking advantages of this vast desert landscape. Here is one more picture from my morning run.

This picture is taken at the same place my "jogging path" picture was taken.

"Running is a road to self-awareness and reliance-you can push yourself to extremes and learn the harsh reality of your physical and mental limitations or coast quietly down a solitary path watching the earth spin beneath your feet."
               -Doris Brown Heritage

A marathon? Are you crazy?!?

Ok, so I haven't written in, well, about a month. I have a hard to finding things to write about, which is weird, because I run all the time. Well, here goes.
The biggest, latest, and greatest news is that in a sudden fit of insanity (really not sure where the insanity came from) I actually signed up for the St. George Marathon, which is held the first weekend of October. Now, a few weeks after I signed up, I am really scared and nervous. The main thing that I am nervous about is that I still have to wait until May 12 to find out if I am able to get it.

If you don't live in Washington County (basically St. George) you have to enter the lottery, which is where a computer randomly selects runners to get in. The good news is that in the past the St. George Marathon has only allowed about 5,800 runners; however, this year they increased the number of runners to 7,800. This gives me a better chance of getting in.

Since I signed up for the marathon, I have run farther than I ever had before; I have had runs of 14 miles, 12 miles, and 10 miles since then. As I write this, I am planning to go 13 in the morning. I even have a great route planned for a 16 mile run in 2 weeks. I actually am having fun planning routes for my long runs that are taking me where I have never run before. I will update this here blog as I increase my mileage in preparation for the marathon.

This week has been my spring break, which is so nice, and we have done some fun things. This morning we went on a hike at Red Rock called the Calico Tanks hike. This was moderate (yeah right!) 2.5 mile round trip hike. We parked in the Sandstone Quarry parking lot and the trailhead was right off the parking lot. We started on the hike down a groomed trail, through a couple of washes, and then up the mountain. Holy crap! We went right up the mountain, scrambling up huge boulders, walking around huge boulders, sliding down huge boulders. Did I mention this was straight up the mountain and over huge boulders? It really wasn't too bad, except my 3 year old son was walking and I had my 1 year old in the backpack on my back (he weighs 25 pounds).

Despite the huge boulder adventure, we made it to the top with incredible views of Vegas. My 3 year old son walked/hiked/scrambled the entire way up! He was awesome! He had fun pretending we were ninjas and the boulders were ninja boulders and he did the entire thing by himself. Look at the pictures below to see how much fun we had.

If you don't want to run, which I would highly recommend, then walk, hike, anything, just get moving! The first step is taking a step!

Jackson on the way up. Still smiling!

Our hiking ninja! Having the time of his life.

Cori and our little monkey! Jackson has to make silly faces for ALL pictures.

My two boys and me on our way up.

Our resting place at the top. 

Views from the top.

View towards Vegas. 

Another view towards Vegas.

Yet another view from the top.

6 Tunnels to Hoover Dam Half Marathon

Dean Karnazes has said numerous times that he feels alive when he is suffering during a tough portion of a run. If this is true, I know for a fact that I am very, very alive following the 6 Tunnels to Hoover Dam Half Marathon. This sucker was a beast!! Despite the beautiful scenery, I was in pain for the majority of the 2nd half of this arduous run. Let me explain...

It was the perfect day for a run. The temperature was perfect, there was just a slight breeze, and I actually felt pretty good in the morning. The race started at 8:00 AM, so I woke up at about 5:30 to have my customary pre-race breakfast: a piece of toast and a lemon-lime Gatorade (more on this later). I left my house at about 6:15 with thoughts of a PR in mind (obviously I have never seen this course before; otherwise, I never would have been thinking "PR"). When I arrived I found that I had a long walk down to the starting line, which wasn't a big deal, but I knew I would be hating life when I had to walk back up it following the run; I was right.

I got to the starting line about 30 minutes early so I just stood all by myself with nobody to talk to. I felt pretty cool. Then I ran into an old Durango friend: Kelly Johnson. She was running the 5K and was way more optimistic about my running the half than I was.

The race finally started and we ran for about 3.5 miles slightly uphill. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. This was the first time I had run on a trail and I kind of liked it. I think I will sign up for another trail run in the near future. When we finally got to the first turnaround, we were running back down toward the start. That was a great portion of the race. I felt great and was moving along at a pretty good clip. I got to talking to a guy from Washington D.C. and it was good to get my mind to think about something else.

At about mile 6-7 we went right through the starting line and up towards the Hoover Dam. This is where the 6 tunnels are. This was actually really fun to do. The tunnels were amazing and it was a great experience to run along this historic trail. I had numerous friends tell me about the dreaded hills that were apart of this course. Up until this point, I thought they were all full of garbage; the hills weren't that bad. At this point of the race, I was actually on pace to run about a 1:52 final time.

At about mile 9 we hit the turn around to come back to the finish line. Let me describe what the previous mile or two was like. We went along this historic trail with amazing views of Lake Mead (unfortunately, I didn't have a camera. Thanks to Kelly Johnson for hooking me up with the pictures I did get). This was slightly uphill but it didn't really feel like it. When I got to about mile 9 I saw a huge downhill. It was the steepest hill so far, and since it was downhill right now, it would be uphill in about 15 minutes. I thought that hill was bad enough, but then we got to the sidewalk switchbacks. This hill might as well have been stairs. It was absolutely disgusting! Every year in my English class I teach Dante's Inferno. I now have a much better perspective of what Dante was going through having experienced a similar "Inferno" myself.  This hill absolutely demolished me! I literally felt like I had an out-of-body experience from here throughout the remaining 3.5 miles. I could almost see my body in a crumpled, decrepit mass lying on the top floor of a parking garage at the turnaround point.

As soon as I got to the top of the sidewalk switchbacks, my body decided to expel my breakfast, and, as it seemed, everything I ate the last 2-3 days. Sorry if this is a little much, but it all came out! I could not force myself to run at this point, and I hadn't even gone back up the steep hill! I was beat. The 6 Tunnels to Hoover Dam Half Marathon had beaten me down and stripped me of my self-dignity. With about 3 miles left I vowed never, ever to run this stupid race again; however, as soon as I got home I told my wife that I have to conquer that stupid hill next year! I will prevail!!

I ended up running a 2:05 half marathon, which actually wasn't too bad. I will conquer this hill next year and I will focus my training on stupid sidewalk switchbacks so it doesn't kill me again. All in all, I really did have a great experience. Running truly does teach you about yourself: when every part of your body is telling you that you are insane, what are you going to do about it? This time, my mind was stronger than my body.

Many people ask me why I run; why I put myself through this so many times. I really don't know the answer to this question. I know, for one thing, that running is truly liberating to me. When I am stressed out or having a rough day, I know that I can run and be alone and clear my thoughts; it works every time! Just one example before I sign out for the night. I have been involved with a church basketball league the past couple months. My team was not very good. After an extremely frustrating game, I came home and promised myself I would not ever play again (I've done this numerous times). I was so mad at myself and at basketball in general. After this game, all I wanted to do was go running. My wife went to an exercise class as soon as I got home, so I laced up my running shoes and jumped on the treadmill. At mile 1 I was still fuming about the game. At mile 2 I stopped thinking bad and naughty thoughts about basketball. By mile 3 I think I actually felt myself smile a little. I ended up running 7 miles that night and by the end of my run I was in my regular cheerful mood. There is just something about running that puts me, and, I'm sure, most people, in a good mood. It is truly freeing and relaxing. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Even though I know that I really am not fast, running has turned into a passion for me and I appreciate you coming on this journey with me!

I view of Lake Mead from the starting line.

At the starting line, looking away from Lake Mead.

This was the direction of the race before the first turnaround.

 

My Durango friend: Kelly Johnson

                                                 

Medal and bib. They had a great medal.

Amazingly still standing a smiling after the race.