Little update on my Journey

This weekend was one filled with some great stuff, I want to take you for a little ride so sit back and read on:

Friday 7:45- Troy and Sonja, Michelle and Michael, Jordan and Amy and Paul B and I took off for a day of skiing at Vail for the first time as a group. This was one of the best days I have had on the slopes, we had great skiers and great people and the snow was awesome. The day ended way too quick and we were on our way home left to reflect on the sweet turns, great powder and fun, fun company.

Friday 7:00pm Anne decides that her cold is getting worse and decides to cancel on her long training run for tomorrow. We were going to run 43 miles that day as a family, (Anne 15.2 and me 26.6).

Saturday 8:00am I was a little sad with the way the day started being without Anne but put my game face on, kissed the kids and left at 9am to meet the group.

History- August 2007 I started to train for St George Marathon and on my 24 mile long run I was forced to stop at 18 due to IT band problems and spent the next 2 months getting back to being able to run 6 miles. Fast forward 14 months of training and working on form it was time to start thinking about going long again. Part of the Practical Coaching group is going very long and so we are invited to help out. Saturday the 20Th of December they wanted to run from Highlands Ranch to Pearl Street Boulder a total of 46.6 miles. The longest I have done since 2007 was 16 but I said it's time to get that monkey off my back and I was in for 26.6 (Over Marathon distance).

Saturday 10:10 I pick up Steve, Sonja and Tony at Morrison and E470. We have a climb right off the bat and I decided that yesterdays big powder day was going to make today just a little harder. The weather was 21 degrees when I started and so I was dressed warm. We started a pace line and did not talk much for the first 8 miles.

11:30 ish. We pick up 3 more runners Keith, Nicole and Beth and they mix up the group and so conversation came back and so did the smiles. I was at 7.5 miles and starting to hurt a bit in the legs and I new that I was running a high HR so on a huge hill I took to walking to bring my HR down and take a break. Beth notices me break and takes a turn around and at that moment she became my guide for the rest of the day. I hit my first low as I was climbing and started to doubt the distance for the day at this point. I was being dumpy and the pain was getting worse. I tried to get back to center and continue on and did so pretty fast. We finished the hill and had a flat few miles before we started to drop into Boulder.

16 miles- After catching back up to the group and leaving early out of the stop I took off to get a few moments to myself to bring back happy Tyler. It did not take them long to catch me and after running with them for a few miles we hit another big hill and I took to the back again. And you know what, so did Beth. She circled around and started asking for the " how bad is it report". I tried to make it sound really bad but by the time I was finished she started to laugh. She said I am running to well to be that bad so get up. She talked me into relaxing and getting my breathing back to my stomach and we hit mile 18.5 going down hill. That is my longest run that I have every had and kept running.

Last aid station 21 mile ish?- We picked up John, I put on another set of layers and off we went. We were just a few minutes behind the large group and I new that I was going to finish my day. At mile 23 I hit my biggest low and when I told Beth that I was really down she went into this long speech about the fact that I could not be low because of all the things I was. She talked about Anne, family, work, friends and who I am. I broke into tears hearing he talk about me this way, what a great friend she is. We keep on going and I kept lifting my feet and keeping my head up and soon we stopped climbing. We made it to the last hill of the day and then it was all down hill.

26 miles- I did not have time to enjoy the fact that I ran for 26 miles and before long I was past 26.2 the official Marathon Distance. Off in the distance I could see the group and I was filled with emotion as I ran the last 1/2 mile.

500 yards to Pearl Street- We pass the group that had finished just a few minutes before and was cheered to the end. No finish shoot, no medal, not even a bottle of water just a victory for me to enjoy. Normal people on the mall passing us did not understand what I had just done, but I did. I ran 26.58 miles on a day that was 22 degrees. It was just a training run, not for a particular race of anything just for that fact that it was out their to be done. The monkey was taken off my back and place on the next soul to battle with. Today was my day and I did it.

26.58- Hugs, cheers, tears, wonderful comments that I will kept for life, all in a days training run. My journey will go on and I look forward to the next challenge, it is kind of funny that it just happened to be the very next day. I called Anne just as soon as I could warm up and in her "no voice" said how proud of me she was. My day was complete.

Sunday- 5am wake up for long swim workout.

6:13am- The 5000 meter non-stop swim started. That is 3.1 Miles or a 5K swim. I started slow and realized my legs were not going to be much help on this swim. I had Steve and Tony in my lane and we as a lane pulled each other along. 1:38 minutes later I was done with swimming the longest I have ever swam non stop in a pool. I was able to relax and settle in and have a great time. I even shut my mind down a little and just swam.

The weekend was huge. The weekend was what I needed because I can now run long anywhere, anytime. I can swim long if I want to and yes, I do want to more times than not. I am on a Journey and loving it. I am not sure where I will go next, just check back and see.

Love you Anne,


T

Sorry no Pic, but I might have some video later so check back soon.