St Jude Memphis Marathon in Pictures

I am the guy that buys pictures from the website! They had about 40 pictures of me, and I love me some me, so I had to buy them all. Some are good, most are not, but here is the race in picture form.

Early on in the race, running with a friend of mine down Beale Street

The famous Memphis Pyramid in the background

Running through Overton Park

I looked focused don't I?

Back down Beale Street, I actually like this picture!

More pics on Beale Street

Getting closer to the end, cramping badly

Less than a mile to go...

I can see the finish line, hobbling due to cramps!

Cramp caught on tape!

I was in serious pain trying to get there...

Beautiful! I love the medal!

St Jude Memphis Marathon Report

What a day it was. As I am sitting here typing this post, I am thinking back over that day and trying to determine how I want this to read. I want to be positive even though I was so close to my goal time. I did in fact improve my time over last year by 1 hour and 6 minutes, which I am stoked about, but I know I should have been a sub 5 hour marathoner pretty easily. This will be a rather long post, so sit back and ready yourself!

EXPO: The expo is always cool. I love seeing everyone milling around looking at the sponsors, buying St Jude apparel. This year, as you know, I signed up to be a St Jude Hero! That meant that I promised to raise money for St Jude and it gave me the opportunity to wear a special singlet stating that I had raised a certain amount, so again I want to thank each of the that donated money to this race. I went to the expo alone this year due to my family being involved in a church program, so this actually made me be a little more focused on my race and what I wanted to do. So I picked up my packet and strolled around, spent some time talking with Dane Rauschenberg. This guy ran 52 marathons in 52 weekends while holding down a full time job! Amazing accomplishment! It was good to talk with him for a bit and discuss strategy! I really did not stay very long at the expo, I bought nothing, did not even really look for anything, i just went with the flow of the crowd and headed back home to try and get a good nights sleep.

RACE DAY:
I woke up a little before 5 Am and took a quick shower, ate my bagel and then met up with Buck and Steve to head down to the race. Once down to the site, we just walked around, met up with other runners, took pictures with my fellow Warriors and headed to the start line.  I lined up in corral 7 and waited. Last year I was corral 11!  So I had higher expectations!

Mile 1-3:
These miles always go by pretty fast because of the crowds of runners and the crowds of spectators. I really was paying attention to my pace because I knew I did not want to start off to fast. I felt comfortable running but once I looked at my Garmin, I knew I needed to back it down some if I wanted maintain.I was running with a friend at that point and several times we both had to slow each other down to stay within our paces. We had already gone down Beale Street, down Riverside Dr, which goes along the Mississippi River, which is one of my favorite parts of the race. My 5K split was 31:16, which was a 10:06 pace. I was feeling good and on my pace.

Mile 4-9.5:
I was still feeling good as we passed the Pyramid, a Memphis landmark and as we turned in to the St Jude campus. The campus last year was a very emotional spot of the race for me. All the families and children of St Jude outside cheering on the runners was something I will never forget. This year it was different. I had the St Jude singlet on , so I think more people were yelling at the singlets than I noticed last year, so that gave me an extra boost. The whole section was different than last year. Once we got out of the campus, I knew we were at the 10K mark. Mile 6 was my planned stop to eat something and get water for 1 minute, and then go again until mile 10, just like I did in training! I had to add a bathroom stop in at this mile marker though, which I do not think hurt my time that bad. I did end up splitting away form running with Steve at this point, which allowed me to focus on my race a little bit more. My 9.3 mile split 1:36:54 with a pace of 10:26, still on track!!

Mid way, 13.1:
After you hit the 9.3 mat, you start heading back towards downtown and I always remember seeing the heart on the top floors of LeBonheur Children's hospital. It sort of guides you back to where you finish. I was hitting the water stops as I planned, eating what I brought and overall feeling pretty good. I was starting to get passed by a lot more people that were trying to kick it in to finish the half marathon, but I did not let them phase me cause I knew I had a ways to go still. One thing that stood out to me was that I did not feel so alone once the "Halfers" turned to go to their finish line and the marathoners continued on. Last year, it was like a ghost town, but I was further along this year than last, which helped me mentally. I knew I was coming up on the section of the route that I hated, so I just tried to prepare my self mentally to get through the next few miles until we turned on to East Parkway. My 13.1 mile split was 2:18:49, a 10:36 pace. I felt good about this cause I was using a 2:25 mark for the half, so that would get me under 5 hours. Still on track.

Mile 13-20
This is basically through the midtown area of Memphis, and I hate this part. I am not sure why, but I dreaded it the most. The route along Peabody seems to last forever and a day. Another bathroom stop, more nutrition and water at every stop was my game-plan. I hit a wall at 16 last year, but I knew I was going to make it through that marker. I was at mile 17 when I hit the 3 hour mark, which was good. I was still on my pace I wanted to be, I knew I would soon be making one of the final turns, heading down East Parkway soon. Last year at this point I was so out of it mentally that if I could have found a cell phone I would have called my wife to come pick me up, but I was still feeling strong. I think having a better idea of the course helped me a lot as well. I had hooked up with the 4:40 pace group at this point and ran with them through mile 20, which was helpful because it allowed me to gauge my pace better.My 19.6 mile split was 3:34 with a 10:54 pace. I knew I was on my way to a sub 5 hour race.

 Mile 20-26
Mile 21 was when I saw some familiar faces! My wife and youngest son Jesse were there cheering me on. I was not expecting them to be so that made it even nicer to see them and their sign. I had thought my wife had said they would be around mile 20 and when I did not see them I figured something just didn't work out, so I was really happy to see them at 21. I stopped and got a kiss and a high five and kept on going, determined to keep running. Mile 22 came up on me and that's when I felt the dreaded twinge of calf cramps! I slowed down a bit, walked a little and even stopped to stretch out my calf, and it seemed to help for a minute, but it got to where I could only run for about 2 minutes before they locked up again. So I would run and walk, run and walk. I drank 2 waters at every stop, emptied out all my nutrition I had left and tried to force myself to run just a little bit further. I knew I needed to keep going to hit a sub 5 and I tried. The 2 minute runs soon became one minute runs, then 30 second runs, then it was light pole to light pole through mile 25. Once I hit 25, I knew I was on the cusp of a 5 hour finish and I just gritted my teeth and tried to push through the cramps, hoping I could run them away,but it didn't happen.

Mile 26
Once you hit 26, there is a slight uphill you make before turning into the stadium and I had just turned on the back road leading into the stadium when my watch hit 5 hours. I wanted to finish strong though, so I tried to wipe the pain off my face and run through the finish line, but of course, I got another cramp right there about 20 feet from the finish line and I was running like a hobbled old man. I made it through at 5:01:46, with a pace of 11:32. This was an improvement of 1:06 over last year!  That's a 1 hour improvement, not a 1 minute improvement! BOOM!

184/245 in AG

1669/2624 OA

I got my finisher's medal (which is seriously blinged out) and then tried to climb the steps out of the infield of the stadium. BAD IDEA!  Climbing steps was not good for me. I only made it halfway before I had to sit down and then fight off serious cramping. Eventually I made it to the food tent where I grabbed some pizza, cokes and some other goodies, including a box of Krispy Kreme donuts!

Saturday night I spent basically on the couch fighting off calf cramps eating donuts and a huge steak my wife cooked for me. Sunday morning was tough for me to get around, but I felt amazingly better than I walked. On Sunday afternoon, I got a chance to go back downtown and hang out with blogger Jeff Irvin from Dangle the carrot fame! Jeff, his wife Annie and friends were super cool as we got to hang out at the hotel lobby and talk about the marathon and future races.

While I was running, I really questioned myself about whether or not I wanted to try to do an Ironman. If you had asked me Saturday or even Sunday, I am not sure what I would have said. Right now I am only about 40% sure I want to go on and try Redman next year after this race. It was tough, but I know I have a sub 5 in me. I know it! So we will see. Right now I am going to enjoy the holidays, I am going to reintroduce myself to Stella (my bike) and get back into the pool. Even as I am writing this, thinking about 2013, I have some lofty goals. I had at least 8 PR's this year and swam/biked/ran more than ever, and I feel good.

As soon as I get all the pictures, I will have a post with nothing but photos of the race. Thanks for reading!

The Reason I Am Running!

As you are reading this, I am running my marathon!  Unless it is like  4 PM on Sunday, and then I hope I am not still out there running! Anyways, thanks to delayed publishing, I can pre-write this post and have it publish on Saturday!

You can follow my progress by following this link if you are totally bored that you want to watch a 41 yr old man run a marathon via the Internet! I am bib number 1261. Run Tracker

I plan on having a great day, and remember the real reason why I am running. It is for the wonderful families at St Jude Hospital and all the money that will be raised this weekend to help support the fight against childhood illness!

Race report will be up shortly, and thanks for all the support in either good wishes, advice or donations!

Thank You to All Who Donated!!! St Jude Memphis Marathon 2012

I am so honored to be running this race and I want to say Thank you to everyone that donated money to St Jude. Together we raised almost $700!  Thank you!

Here are a couple of videos about the St Jude Memphis Marathon!



I know I have posted this before, but please enjoy!

A Twofer! (2 for 1 post)

This post is like reading two posts in one post, hence the name twofer. ( I feel obligated to come up with catchy titles after I just posted about blog titles). As you might have heard, I have a marathon coming up on Saturday? I am sure I have mentioned once or twice on here. Anyways, I have been going back and forth on  my preparedness for this thing. One day I feel I am so ready, only to be followed by the dreadful thoughts of "why did I sign up for this thing"? So no sooner do I have my mind set that this is a pointless race for me to run, then my psyche changes it up and I feel ready to run. Sooooooooo, here are my thoughts, both sides of the brain, the part that is ready and the part that is not.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

What was I Thinking?

I am not sure I can beat 6:08!  Last year it was tough and embarrassing to run a marathon that slow. I have never been a great runner and distance is definitely not my thing. There is no way I can get a decent time and I really think I will have trouble and be very disappointed if I do not see a major improvement. People have donated money for this race also and I will be letting them down. The weather is going to be much warmer than I expected so I will probably cramp up and have troubles. I never order a new pair of shoes like I was going too either. I know I will screw up my nutrition plan, I won;t be able to keep up with my pace group. I know I will start out to fast. It will get lonely once all the half marathoners split off. I know I will be walking A LOT! I should have done one more 20 miler!!!

PIECE OF CAKE, I GOT THIS!!!

I can't wait for Saturday morning at 8 o'clock. I am so much more prepared for the marathon than I was last year, and I learned a lot from running it a year ago. I am so proud to have raised money for St. Jude! I have a plan for the race that will get me a sub 5 hour marathon. I know where and when I am going to take in nutrition. I know where the water stops are going to be.I know what to expect and I am ready for it. I know this course. I know what pace I can keep. I have all the support in the world. The weather is going to be perfect, no cold like last year. This year I get to wear the St Jude Heroes singlet! Such an honor for me! It's one mile at a time, I am going to run my race, at my pace! I am a solid sub 5 hour finisher. I cannot wait to slap high fives with the crowd throughout the the course, I can not wait...CAN NOT WAIT for that finisher's medal to be placed around my neck. I will get to the food tent this year when they actually have food left!

I am hoping to be in the mindset of the second piece of this post on Saturday. Tapering sucks and gives me to much time to think!

My Taper on Paper...

It's my favorite time of the year, TAPER TIME! I have done all the long training that I am going to do and there is nothing left but to rest up and prepare for the race.I honestly hate the Taper time because I always start to worry if I did enough. Truth be told, I am not sure another long run at this time would do me any good. I had my last long run Friday, a 20 miler. It went really well and was a huge confidence boost for me. I finished it in 3:42, but here is the best thing. I felt great afterwards. I wasn't struggling, I wasn't in sheer agony either! I felt like I had another 6 miles in me for sure!

So I will take the next two weeks to let my body and mind rest, recover and prepare for the race, and here is how I am going to taper:

• I am cutting my mileage back by about 50-75% of what I have been doing. This week I will run 3, 5, 3 and 8 mile runs. The following week I will cut it back even more and run a 3, 3, 2 miler.
• I expect to feel some new pains that will worry me, but I need to remember that is part of it and not unnatural as my body is repairing itself.
• Sleep. I will not try to get excessive sleep, but I will try and make sure I am getting 8 hours of sleep a night.
• I will review the race course map and make sure I am familiar with what is coming up on the course.
• I plan on doing a lot more stretching during my taper and even some easy cross training, like swimming.
• Hydrating- I will definitely start incorporating more water during these next two weeks. I do not know what the weather will be like on Dec 1st yet, but either way, I want to make sure my body is well hydrated.

I am seriously looking forward to this race this year. I learned so much from running it last year, and I know I am more prepared. It is going to be a good time!!!

Cold Weather Bites!

I have many Love/Hate relationships in my endurance life. They are usually short lived, but they exist. Currently, I have a Love/Hate relationship with running in the cold weather. Yes, I know it is November, but I live in Memphis and we are normally in T-shirts up till Christmas, then January and February gets cold, we maybe have a day of snow, then its over. This cold weather in November is not cool!  (See what I did there???)

So, yesterday morning the temperature was in the 30's and I totally wussed out and hit the treadmill at the gym. I usually like to have a cold weather run policy and say anything below 30 is a treadmill run, so technically I should have been outside running. This morning, the temperatures were again in the mid 30's, however, I was prepared this time, so I headed out int he cold to get my run on.

Just a joke about being prepared!

BEING PREPARED!

I think that is the key to running in the cold. Being Prepared. This morning I wore running pants, a long sleeve body-fit turtle neck and a dry tech long sleeve shirt over that, cheap fabric gloves and my skull hat. I was totally fine. Most times I will wear arm warmers, but this day was a little too cold for just those. I could see my breath with every exhale, but I wasn't that cold. Normally, I have no idea of what to wear when it gets cold.  My problem is I either dress to warm or I do not dress warm enough! Today was the rare exception that I figured it right! In the summer, you can shed clothes, but the cooler temps are not the best time to go shirtless.

Here is another thing that I love about cold weather running. I feel very dedicated. I feel like I am out there for the right reasons. I like being that guy that the drivers see running while they are in their cars, bundled up with the heater on and a cup of coffee. I don;t care that no one else cares that I am running in the cold, I know they are thinking I am an idiot for being out there, but that is irrelevant.

The tough runs make us stronger, I have never had a race yet that has had perfect weather conditions. December 1st in Memphis could be 40 degrees, it could be 60 degrees, either way I will be ready. Friday is my last 20 mile run before I go into taper mode. I am getting excited for my race, and looking forward to the challenge.

So I want to make sure I am clear, do not let the cold temps keep you from running outside!

6:08

That's right, I am only three weeks away from the marathon, and I am feeling pretty good about it. I will have one more strong week of running before I start my two week taper, so next week will consist of runs on Monday (5), Tuesday (5) and Wednesday (8) and then a long run on 20 miles on Friday, for a 38 mile week. I am having to change up my schedule a bit because I will be traveling on Saturday to have Thanksgiving with my family. I work in retail, so Thanksgiving can be a bit tricky.

I have also found that my long runs go better if I do them every two weeks. Last weekend I did an 18 miler in just over 3 hours. I was unable to get an ice bath afterwards and I really felt like I had a hard time recovering from it. All week I felt sore and sluggish. I am not sure if missing an ice bath after my long run was the cause or not, but I felt like this weekend I should maybe not hit the long run.

So today I slept in till 8:15 AM!!  I know! It has been awhile since I slept that late in my bed. Anyways, I did get up and went for a run today. I was hoping to get in a 90 minute run. I had no route planned out or anything, I just wanted to go running. I also wanted to try some new things to see if it would help me run better. I know it is really late in the game to be trying something new, but I went for it anyways.

I wanted to try the Galloway method. Now to be fair, I have not read the book or anything, I just wanted to look at running 10 minutes and walking 1 minute. I know others that do a 5:1 method, but I figured a 10:1 would be good for me. It wasn't. I did not really like it and wanted to keep running. So I figured I would try something else, and there is no scientific evidence behind this, just something I came up with.

I used my HR monitor to gauge my effort. Once my HR got to 160, then I would walk until it got back down to the 130's (Again, these are numbers I just came up with). This seemed to work well, but the further I got into my run, the more it seemed I would hit the 160, so that is not going to work.

So, I think the easiest thing for me to do will be to look at the marathon as a bunch of 5k's. If I can complete each of these 5K's in under 30 minutes, I should be under the 4:30 mark, which would be huge, considering last year was 6:08. I know under 4:30 will be tough, but I am definitely expecting under 5 hours for sure!

Ice, Ice Baby, Too cold!!!!!!

Ice Baths. Those two words are enough to make people cringe. They are enough to make people run for the hills, enough to make grown men cry, enough to...  sorry, but you get the picture. In other words, they are not fun.But are they beneficial?  Some say yes, some say nope, not at all. I have started hitting the ice baths after my long runs since I started my focus on the marathon, and I believe they do some good.
They make you faster! (not really, but maybe)

I know there are  many different ways of doing ice baths and that you may wonder if you are doing them correctly, but let me tell you this. There is not an incorrect way. I recommend the following way: I freeze old empty 2 liter coke bottles with water in the freezer, 3 or 4 should do you. This way you can refreeze the bottles and not have to spend money on  bags of ice or empty out all your ice trays from the fridge. Next,  I sit my butt in the tub and turn on the cold water and let it surround me. I add the frozen 2 liters as the water rises over my legs. I usually wrap myself in a towel with a skull cap on, because it does get cold pretty fast and I have even had the shivers, but I always feel great afterwards. I will usually stay in the water about 10 minutes or so. Next I let the water drain out while I am still sitting there in the water, that's just a personal preference (no need for details here!)

So what are the benefits of an ice bath?

1. Reduces Tissue Breakdown and Swelling- Whether scientific studies support the ice bath immersion or not, many professional athletes swear that it helps to prevent muscle injury and strain, and also aids in faster recovery. Ice bath immersion produces a lasting effect in deep tissues, which consecutively helps in cooling larger muscle groups.
2. Flushes Out Harmful Metabolic Waste- Ice bath immersion is not only effective in suppressing swelling; but also aid in flushing harmful substance from the muscles, such as lactic acid. Ice bath immersion increases blood flow in the body.
3. Decrease Metabolic Activity- According to recent scientific studies, ice bath immersion is also effective in reducing metabolic activity in athletes. It reduces metabolic activity by constricting the blood vessels, which in turn minimizes tissue breakdown and inflammation. On the other hand, cold water immersion which is also referred to as water therapy is popularly used to reduce muscle soreness and exercise  recovery.
4. Improves Healing process- With increase in blood circulation after performing intensive exercises, ice bath immersion is a standard routine among professional athletes as it enhances the healing process.

See how much help he is getting?

One of the main questions people have about ice baths is how long to wait until they take a shower. Many say that a warm shower too soon can negate the effect of the ice bath. Some say you should wait up to 30 after the ice bath before you shower, some say to let your body return to its natural body temperatures first. Now, I am no doctor, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express, but I usually go ahead with a warm shower afterwards, that works for me. Just be careful that there is nothing numb so that you can't gauge the temperature of the water before you get in.

For me, I love the ice bath, it always makes me feel better and I am not sure why I do not do them more often. I seem to only ice bath on runs over 10 miles and usually only in the late fall or winter during marathon training.

Hey St Jude....

This is most likely the most important post I will write about this year and the most serious. Please watch the video and please consider helping me raise money for St Jude. If you can not make a donation, please keep the kids, the families, the doctors and nurses in your prayers.

I am participating in the St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend to support the kids of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital! As a St. Jude Hero, I have committed to raise $500 for the kids of St. Jude.

Will you help me support St. Jude by donating today?  

How your donation helps:

• Thanks to donors like you, no family ever pays St. Jude for anything.
• St. Jude will continue to change the way the world treats childhood cancer and other deadly diseases through groundbreaking research.

Please visit my St. Jude Heroes fundraising page to make a donation.

Please Donate by following this link

P.S. Also if you can not make a monetary donation, please leave a comment of support! Thanks

Marathon Training Plan...

I started my marathon training this morning.  Well, I should back up a bit, I planned out my marathon training last week and I started it today. I am hopping into the middle of a plan due to NashVegas last weekend, but since I was already doing 11 to 13 mile runs, it should not be that big of a deal to start midway.

When I woke up this morning, it was raining. I did not want to get out of bed, but I was also ready to start running again. I had only logged one mile since last weekend, so I knew I had plenty of time to recover. I also know that I have eaten like crap this past week. Whatever I wanted, I ate. I drank Dr. Peppers instead of water, I ate OREOS (double stuffed of course) and even went to Baskin Robbins! (They have this chocolate chip cookie dough sundae that is amazing!) And I stuffed myself on my wife's chili this weekend!  Chili dogs are great football food!

So anyways, I wake up this morning to rain. Now part of me says "screw it" get out there and run in the rain. Seems like most of my bigger distance races have been out in the rain, so why not. Channel my inner badassness and get out there. Which I almost did! But I thought it was only a 4 mile run today, so I could do this at they gym on the dreadmill. last thing I want is to get a cold and get sick, so the dreadmill won out.

But, I did get it done. It wasn't pretty at all though. It was awkward, like I had never run on one before. My ankle was hurting, my stomach was not cooperating (that's got to be the chili dogs, but they were soo good), and I really did not want to be on a treadmill. And it was also slow, but I got it done, and that is the important thing. Now I hope the rains move on out and I can get outside again soon.

My marathon plan has me running 4 days a week averaging between 30-35 miles a week. My longest run will be 20 miles and basically consists of Monday being short, Wednesday being medium, Thursday short and Saturday long. I also have some other road races thrown in the mix, so I should be good and ready come December. Plus I am working in some core work ( I know I say this a lot), but I really mean it. The goal to beat is 6:08:27. I am looking for somewhere closer to 5 hours or under!

St Jude Heroes need your help...

Last year was the first year I ran the St Jude Marathon, and I admit it was purely because I wanted to run a marathon in preparation for my journey to becoming an Ironman, it was purely selfish reasons. Once I made the turn and ran through the campus of St Jude's, everything changed. It was no longer about me, but about those children and parents, lining up along the route cheering us on. Some of those kids are fighting for their life and yet they were telling us runners that we were the Heroes. They were so wrong. Everyone of those families were so much more of a hero than could ever be. It was truly an emotional scene for a non emotional guy! I knew that I would have to finish no matter what, and I knew at that point that I would run this race again.



Look at those gorgeous blue eyes!

 This little girls name is Hayli and she is one year old. Hayli has acute myeloid leukemia. This is who I am running for, not just her, but thousands of families like her that utilize St Jude Hospital. The great thing about St Jude, is that no family ever has to pay for the treatment while they are patients of St Jude. Everyone know how expensive health care costs are today and I can;t imagine what some of those treatments cost, so imagine the relief of knowing a family can get the best care for their child free of charge!




I'm raising funds as a St. Jude Hero to support St. Jude's lifesaving mission of finding cures and saving children. I need your support to help me reach my fundraising goal for the kids of St. Jude. I have set my goal amount at $500, but I would love nothing more than to surpass that goal. I am asking my readers to consider donating. $5, $10 whatever you can donate will all go to St Jude. If you are not able to donate, then I ask you to keep those kids in your prayers and to also send thoughts of a good race to me so that I may finish strong for these children.

If you are led to donate, please follow this link. St Jude Heroes Donation Page .