I'm hoping to raise money for the American Cancer Society and maybe inspire some others to get out and run. It's been a powerful force in my life since my first marathon in 2005.
Let's do it again in 2012 and raise more than $2000 for American Cancer Society!
It was a golden morning! A bit cold, but expected – no wind. Jim and I ran our first ultra, trail marathon (longer than 26.2). It was awesome – no expectations for time, just run for a long time (5 hours 50 minutes actually – and the mileage was 33.3 miles).
Here are some of the entertaining, inspiring, unforgettable things I will remember.
Jim is so strong mentally – he was hurting, but just kept pushing and pushing. The last 4 miles I was 20 to 40 yards behind him and he would not take a break.
My back and arms hurt almost as bad as my legs. My biceps really hurt the next day – almost 6 hours with them bent at 90 degrees will do that to you.
Hearing it’s a “long” 50K – 33.3 miles for 2 loops, making 50 miles for 3.
I got converted to liking uphill’s better than down hills about mile 30. The down hills were just so painful.
Jim’s quote from Old School when we pulled into the parking lot.
Running, almost half the race with Gary – a younger kid who was going our pace and had some stomach issues at about mile 22ish.
I ran into a dude from AMS before the race – I didn’t know his name, but I’d talked running with him a bit back in the day.
I think, it’s not confirmed yet that a guy from 7th floor MDT ran the 50 mile – I haven’t had a chance to talk to him yet.
Erik’s watch saying low battery at mile 26.5, but it kept going until mile 31. I played the game of guessing when it would die to keep my mind going.
The finisher medals being branded at the fire pit – see photos.
Here are the medals and Jim getting his made – the same kid did mine. Jim’s was nearly perfect, my had a little more burn to it – I liked my better!
I wore Erika’s watch and it lasted much longer than I thought. Also, somehow I hit the start button at home and I can’t figure out how to remove the last coordinates.
Bryan Cochran’s Photos – A very talented photographer who photographed the event. Here’s one from his collection, the start of the race – Jim and I are nearly center of the photo.
It was a cold day in my running history. This was Murphy’s law in action….my watch died at mile 12, it was colder than I expected for wearing only a tank top and I got the stomach flu. I didn’t feel good on Saturday afternoon, but when do you feel good after tapering? Never, so I didn’t think it wasn’t that bad. I fell asleep watching Dora with Jake at about 6:30 Saturday night, that made me say – hmmm.
Here are some Highlights memories:
At 3 AM I heard Jake cry out – I thought he was dreaming, as he was quiet after that. Five minutes later, he came into our room. I jumped up and he told me I had to see what was in his bed. I took him into his room and he pointed to where “it” was. I blindly put my hand into a pile of vomit. I asked him if he threw up and he said, “Yeah….and it’s SPICEY!!!”
Seeing John T at mile 5
Seeing old #35, Jim Van Bergan in his Rockford Football Jersey, at mile 16(?) – he ran about a mile with me, which really lifted my spirits
Seeing Mom and Dad at mile 19
Throwing up at mile 19.5, 19.6, 19.7, etc.
I saw Erik Kronback at the starting line about 1 minute before the race. I pointed at him, but I don’t think he recognized me.
I recognized at least 3 Medtronic people as they passed me at the end – one asked my goal time and I think he didn’t hear it because he zoomed by so fast. Look at the splits fade late….
Post race – Curled up, nearly in the fetal position, drinking soup, leaning against a light post and a cop asked if I was OK.
Sleeping from 2 – 6 at home and not getting out of bed until 11 AM Monday.
Here are some interesting notes, things to learn from, mildly amusing info:
I finished exactly 1 minute faster than last year’s Square Lake Tri – to the second! The course was a bit longer, so I actually sped up a bit. Here are my results.
The swim
In general went well
I free styled about 1/2 of it
I attempted to go 10 breathes with out looking up, but was way off course when I did look up, I settled on 3 breathes
The quote of the day came as my wave (the last of the 1/2, with the elite sprinters behind up) was lining up, a guy says, “Once we make it to the sprint bouyes, we can’t get past – and we’ve got a 4 minute head start, I think I can do this!”
The Bike
In the transition to the bike, a volunteer told us, “Mount over here” – I responded with my line of the day, “That’s what she said!”
There was a super fun hill that went basically down Wild Mountain, the road was a bit rough, but that probably was good to keep the speed in check.
Erika, Abbie, Jake and Kyla were keeping me going at the end. I thought about slowing down to save some energy, but they kept driving by honking and cheering – and sticking Jake’s feet out the window!
The Run
Hot, hot, hot!
Mile 1 – was under 8 minutes
Mile 3 – I had to use the bathroom, which weren’t on the course….
Mile 6 – I had to walk up a hill
I thought I had a rock in my shoe, I stopped and took it off, but it was just my foot bruising.
A dude fell in front of me, tripped over a cone and all out fell.
Jake picked flowers for me and Abbie and Erika helped him give it to me and put it in my visor for the last 2 miles. I got a lot of comments! See Picture (pretty bad look with the zipper down, the spandex and chest hair – but it was hot!)
Post Race
I didn’t want to eat afterward.
The family went swimming at the beach and Kyla fell asleep on me. Erika went for a swim as I watched the kids. I was on my knees and got the worst hamstring cramp I’ve ever had. I called Abbie over to take Kyla, but it eased off.
I was still down 6 pounds from my normal weight at 10 PM that night.
First off, thank you to everyone who donated to the American Cancer Society for this run! It was awesome to work with and chat up with good people – that’s the real reason I love doing this. I’ve got the official dollar figure at $2,210.69!!!!! We are still working out the Medtronic donation, but that should be $600, but the check hasn’t been written yet. Irreguardlessly, that total is awesome and incredible – thank you, thank you, thank you! For 3 marathons, that would put us at $5,505.08! Again, thank you to everyone who helped make it possible.
Erika qualified for Boston!!!! I knew she could, I was worried about her IT band, but I figured she’d pull it off. As for me, it wasn’t my best result. I started too fast, my hip bugged me a bit, I got hot and cramped a bit, but mainly I lost the mental game. I still had a blast and there is no place that I ‘d rather of been.
Here are the highlights:
Erika qualified for Boston in her 1st official, but really, 2nd marathon!
Jim helping me through at mile 22 – although I was enjoying the band playing the GOB’s theme, The Final Countdown pretty good when I came around the corner and saw him.
Seeing Sav (with a fake mustache), LeTourneau (in an Axel Rose shirt and a fake mustache) and Granny (in a gorilla suit and a fake mustache) at mile 25.
A dude yelling, “Image how many lake trout that guy could catch with that beard!”…My beard was awesome!
Enjoying the race when I knew it wasn’t my day, which included checking in with my family, a beer at mile 23 (first time ever in a race) and some bacon at mile 24, asking for a hug from a lady who gave me a banana and high fiving almost every kid along the course.
Running with a group formed by me and another Determination runner for the first 10 miles, then hooking back up with one at about mile 19 (both our goals were shattered)
Here’s a video from Gardenwood resort that they put on their facebook page.
Here’s what my garmin said before it died…good first half.
I’ve been humbled…it’s back to early morning runs. It’s kind of like Rocky III – I got civilized,now it’s time to live in semi-seclusion and train. The next fund raising event in 2013?!?!?
Here’s the list of miles and the people who they are dedicated to. This list consists of the people who made this possible and was randomly selected with a SQL statement and a table variable. Thanks to everyone!
Currently at $1,290.69 – 64.5% to $2000, $1790.69 committed (see next bullet) – that is a new PR for me!
Medtronic is processing my request for $600 – at least $500 should be to ACS by race day. (If you are a Medtronic employee and volunteer for a non profit for 25 hours, Medtronic will donate $500 to your non-profit, they may also match employee donations, so that’s another $100)
20 donators – six miles left
Facebook Stati
I spent 11 days posting a daily status on Facebook. Here’s what they were and were they came from:
"I feel sorry for people who don’t run. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day." This is a Sinatra quote, except about drinking instead of running. Here’s the real quote.
"How much happiness is gained, and how much misery escaped, by frequent and violent agitation of the body.” A quote by Samuel Johnson that I like. Here’s the full version and others as well.
“New this year…I’m going Nascar style – body space advertising! I’ve got one taker so far – http://www.the-house.com/. Thanks to Kris Magnusson” – I got the idea from Carrie Tollefson’s husband in a C Tolle Run video for the Polar Plunge.
“Join DJ Roomba, Todd Packard, William Hung, Brian Fantana and the biggest Jared Allen fan around (see the donation honor roll) in the fight against cancer.” Look at the honor roll list, instead of taking credit for donating, a couple of them put other names.
Brian Fantana – The lead field reporter for the channel 4 news team from Anchor Man.
“When I retire, I don’t want to just move to some island somewhere. I want to be the guy who gives it all back. I want it to be like, ‘Hey… who donated all that money to ACS that’s saving so many lives?’ ‘I don’t know. It was anonymous.’ ‘Well, guess what. It was Andy Lohn.’ ‘But how do you know? It was anonymous.’ [pause] ‘Because I’m him.’” That is a Micheal Scott, from the Office, quote about about a hospital wing – the real quote is on this page.
“I once listed to Rihanna’s Umbrella 24 times on a run – my ipod got messed up and that song was the only song on it.” – the full story is here.
“Ham is to Carl Weathers as running is to me…I don’t like it – I love it.” – from Arrested Development – Carl Weathers says this to Lucille 2 – full quote here.
“If I don’t make my fund raising minimum, I’ve got to pay out of my own pocket. If I’ve got to pay it myself, I don’t run for ACS. If I don’t run for ACS, I feel guilty about running a lot. If I don’t run a lot, I get grumpy. My kids don’t like it when I’m grumpy. Think of the kids. Support the cause.” – this was something I came up with from those ads for Direct TV. Like this one.
“Billy Johnson is the most played artist on my ipod. I even looked for Orange and Blue Sneaker for Grandma’s.” – Billy Johnson, a Gustavus alumn a couple years older than me, sings a song called Orange and Blue Sneakers on his album It’s a Good Life – that I listen to all the time.
The hay is in the barn! Meaning training is basically done, I don’t have any more scheduled runs longer than 10 miles. I went with a 16 week plan running 5 days a week. Three hard weeks and then one easy week. The average week was one long one, one fast one and three medium runs each week. It went well, I’ve had some issues, but nothing big. I missed one scheduled run, and had to rearrange my schedule last week due to hip issues, but I got in all the miles and hit most of the times on the fast ones. We’ll see how I do….I’m in shape to set a personal record (PR), but it’s all gonna come down to the race day weather. Heat is my kryptonite.
Congrats to the following winners for the following pools
ACS is the big winner as we raised more than $414 for the cause! The contests are complete – I’m still working on getting the prizes, but here are the following winners:
First, you are joining the battle against cancer or the big C, as Theo Huxtable put it.
Mile donations – the first 26 people to donate, get a mile of the race dedicated to you – here’s the listings from Des Moines and here’s from Twin Cities.
Be an enabler – I’ve got a running addiction and help me keep it going by donating to the American Cancer Society!
Think of these kids – do you want them to grow up with a grumpy Dad? If I don’t run, I’ll be grumpy and they will not be nearly as happy, plus it teaches them some good lessons.
As explained here, I’m running Grandma’s marathon for the American Cancer Society. One of the ways I’m going to raise some money and have some fun is by running a Masters pool. A friend and I did this back at Ontrack from 2000 to 2006. We had a great gambling ring there.
Step 2 – Send me you picks – fill out this sheet – or email me your four golfers ranked by 9 AM Thursday 4/5/12.
Step 3 – Enjoy the golf and check back here throughout the weekend for standings!
Step 4 – I continue to pound the pavement and get more great prizes to give out.
The Rules:
Pick the four players you think will finish 1 through 4 in the 2012 Masters.
Their combined score will be added together and ranked against co-sponsors.
The person with the lowest score wins fabulous prizes, 2nd place receives less fabulous prizes and 3rd receives some, but even less fabulous prizes.
The tie-breaker will be the finishing place of the player whom you think will win it all. The second tie breaker will be the finishing place of your #2 golfer, etc.
If a player you pick does not make the cut, his final score will be doubled.
Picks must be submitted to my email by 9:00 AM on 4/5/12
As explained here, I’m running Grandma’s marathon for the American Cancer Society. One of the ways I’m going to raise some money and have some fun is by running an NCAA basketball bracket pool. It’s been said that the NCAA tournament costs the US $3.8 billion per year, let’s see if we can make it $3.9!
The hay is in the barn! Meaning training is basically done, I don’t have any more scheduled runs longer than 10 miles. I went with a 16 week plan running 5 days a week. Three hard weeks and then one easy week. The average week was one long one, one fast one and three medium runs each week. It went well, I’ve had some issues, but nothing big. I missed one scheduled run, and had to rearrange my schedule last week due to hip issues, but I got in all the miles and hit most of the times on the fast ones. We’ll see how I do….I’m in shape to set a personal record (PR), but it’s all gonna come down to the race day weather. Heat is my kryptonite.
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