18 miles

I looked on my training calendar and noticed that Wednesday I had 18 miles to run, to this date I have only run 14 miles and I started to get a little nervous. Naturally I started to think of reasons to delay the run to the weekend and when I talked to Steve my Coach he said the weather was going to be cool and a pretty good day for a long run. I decided that I would get it done and and as I was driving home from work Anne called to say she would really like Rob's help to put up the first set of shutters in the home and she wanted to do that tonight. I called Rob and he said that it was Hil's birthday and they would love to come over and help, I guess they will celebrated the birthday later. I then thought it would be a good idea to get a cake and some ice cream and invited the family over. Everyone said yes and by 8:30pm we had a full blown party going on. I crawled into bed at 11pm after getting everything set-up for the run and tried to fall a sleep. The alarm went off at 4:45 am and I hit the start button on my training watch by 5 minutes to the hour. My plan was 3 miles at 11 min per mile, 3 miles at 10:30 per mile, so on down to 8:30's for my final 3 miles. The night was still all around me and I thought I would not see the sun rise until I hit my turn around 9 miles or 1.5 hours later. I really enjoyed the calm morning and the slow pace and worked hard to maintain that because I know a few hours later I would be hurting and working hard since the course I decided to go on ended up hill. The turn around came pretty quickly, I was doing well with water and felt really good as I started the way back. Miles 10-14 were climbing rollers and 15-18 were pretty flat. 10 and 11 were OK but by 12 I started to fill tired and feeling the effects of running on little sleep for over 2 hours. I pushed through the hills and rewarded myself with a little walk at 15, I then noticed how taxing this really was on my body. 16-18 went smooth with my pace between 8-9 minute miles the rest of the way in. I arrived back home at 7:55 am and the house was awake. The kids were watching TV when I came in and they did not notice the huge smile on my face or did they know what their Dad just did but I felt great and hurt a lot also. I soaked in cold water and warm for the next 30 min and then started my day. Anne was really proud and I have been on a high for the last 24 hours. I really ran 18 miles and made it alive. Just think I might be able to finish the ST. George Marathon in 5 weeks alive and happy. For now I will just enjoy the victory of getting it done. I ran 18 miles.

I love you Anne,

Olympic distace 2:34 16th age group finish

Jordanelle was the last race on my schedule for this year my first year of racing. I might do a relay and I have the St. George Marathon in October that I will be getting ready for but for the most part this was it.

The event seemed like it was going to be fun after the race recon that Sonja and I did on Friday. The Swim exit had a 1/2 mile run to T1 and the transition area itself was a major obstacle. The bike course was up hill the first part with a small grade the whole way and then downhill most of the way back, simply put could be fast. The run felt like a cross country race course with a lot of dirt and single track and not much straight road. So going to bed the night before I felt that this could be a good race. The cold that I had was still active so I knew that I would have to take that into consideration when the gun went off.

Race day was normal with good breakfast and things going smooth with set-up. I did not get in a huge warm-up due to the time it took to get everything set. The water felt good and I put myself in the front of the group and when the gun went off I went also. The swim felt good for the first half and then I decided to slow it down a bit because I was having a hard time breathing while I was coughing. I knew that it would take a lot out of me to keep my normal race pace so I made an effort to dial it down a few notches so that I could finish the race. Getting out of the water and heading to T1 gave me the opportunity to see how running felt while getting over a cold and I realized that it hurt and would be taxing on me but that did not slow me down. T1 went really smooth and I felt good as I headed onto the bike course, small chain ring and a good cadence was my goal. At mile 6 on the bike I had decided that I was going at the pace I wanted, I was settled down and felt good about the bike. I made it to the turn around and then pushed the high gear and stared the downhill part of the bike. I felt good all the way into T2 and was proud of my bike no changes as I look back would have made it much better. T2 went pretty fast and off on the run I went. I settled in pretty fast and kept the starting pace the whole fist loop, some where in the 8/min pace area. As I went to loop two I stared to hurt and had a hard time getting my body to keep the pace and I walked through all the aid stations for the rest of the race. I even had to walk up a few of the small hills to get my breathing back under control. As I made my way towards the finish line I was passed again by someone in my age group pushing a pretty good pace, I was determined not to get passed anymore so I matched his pace and gave it all I had. I knew if I tried to pass him too fast he would try to fight back so I waited until the last turn towards the finish shoot and made my move. I gave the surge all that I had and pushed past him in the last 100 feet of the race, I did beat him and felt glad that I gave it that extra effort as the race came to a finish. I had to lay down for a few minutes to get my composure back but when I did I was able to see my family and boy was it good to see the happy boys. Anne and the kids were a huge support and to make it even better Liz and Tyler came. I love the support of my family and realize how hard it is so thanks so,much for your voices and the support you give me on race days and the days leading up to race day.

To sum it up I have to say that it was a good race, I would have liked to have felt better and be able to have enough energy to finish the run without walking. I would have liked to push the bike a little faster so that I would have not gotten passed so much, but these things take time and I will keep working on them. I love this sport and look forward to a good marathon in Utah in October and good build time over the off season. I love you Anne,

#1

Just found the time to start my blog and wanted to make the first post simple. I am here and proud of it and will make it my very own. lets dance