This is the end.........

Times like these it is hard to begin. I am, of course, talking about the beginning of the marathon last Saturday. I got to the start early and as i was stretching and talking to Rachel thinking I had about 2 mins to the start the horn rang and everyone started running. I jumped up gave Rachel a quick goodbye and got to moving. It was so exciting Alan's words of, "keep your pace" kept rolling over and over in my head but after I had run the first mile in under 8 minutes I decided I wasn't listening to myself very well. So for the next 5 miles I slowed it down and kept the 9 min pace I wanted.

I dont want to give a minute for minute encounter but I think the highlights will suffice.

By mile 10 I was on a horse trail and my knees were loving it. The sun had crested the mountains on the east and I was more than a 3rd of the way through. I kept cruising but I had slowed down to a 10 min mile by 14.

I was getting tired by mile sixteen and I began thinking about my conversation with Liz the friday before about government and in my running stupor I started seeing some benefits to voting for Obama. At 17 and a half there was an enormous hill and I knew after 18 it would be all down hill but on the road.

so I had 8.2 miles left to go I needed a cheering section and just then a great cheering email came across for the cheering section I have in Cedar from Marie and the Palmer's. I found out later that they were cheering out loud for me back in cedar. I could never have finished this without the support of all of Rachel, my family and friends.

The worst was yet to come for me I was nearing the end of my training distance and I was tired! But then I started getting texts from Ellen and I found a guy to pace with. Ellen and Kristi,
Leeland and Katelin Rowley were all waiting for me at the finish line and that was energizing.

I tried to move quicker but it wasn't there so I settled for what I had recently read from Scott McMurtrey's blog, Run when you can, Walk when you can't. So I did. After I passed the 25 mile sign, This is the End.., by the doors Rang on to the ipod for being on random play I thought it very appropriate.

As I came around and saw the 26 mile sign in front of me I found a burst of energy and began to pick-up speed I found myself moving faster and faster and then I hit the finish and a thousand emotion rushed over me. At that point it becomes indescribable and I was glad to have A big crying hug from Ellen at the end in fact she was there 3 years ago when I ran my first 5k so it was appropriate that she was there for this.

I would like to add that a year ago when I read Scott's blog about his first marathon I got so excited to do this. the excitement from him and the support from Alan, and mom and Rachel and everyone else has been amazing. Team's are better, we all need support.

Three. More. ...Days.

So my inaugural marathon in park city is a mere three days away. The 26.2 is staring me down. I'm about to leave for my last short run before the race and I feel ready, I think!

Sweating in the salt lake valley

My phone alarm broke through my dream's at 6:02 on Saturday morning. My first thought was, text Rachel so she knows when you left. See in this excursion I was beginning, there is no loop no turn around just a beautiful girl wearing a "Go Eddie" T-shirt at the end. And I must say it makes for an invigorating last two miles. But before I get there let's start at the beginning, 1st south.

The first 4 miles down 7th south past pioneer park seemed like my typical workout runs in fact when I got down to 3000 south I was ready to turn around and call it a good 8 miles. Luckily, I got held up at a stop light and took a minute to stretch out my knees and massage my IT bands, they were already getting tight at my typical half way point. But I realized that I was only a 5th of the way took a shot of energy gel and got moving.

The next 10 miles are a blur typical running pains numbed and dyed away my playlist on my ipod repeated and I got back into some moving tunes and picked up the pace. Waved at other people of the early day running and biking world. Almost got hit by some cars and finally woke up to the transformation of my knees being, unfortunately, turned into beautiful intricate pieces of glass!
By mile 16, which was my previous longest distance, my water supply was exhausted, gels were gone, and my previous thoughts of downhill at the end of a race diminished to fears of shattered knee clean-up and facial re constructive surgery.
Then Rachel called I was on 17 and every step was one closer to the days goal. She was waiting for me at mile 18 and apparently I was behind my projected schedule. She gave me some encouragement and said she had more water for me. I was renewed already and picked up my pace once more.
I would like to take just a moment and talk about sweating, I found out that those weird super runner shirts have some reasoning behind them. See I am a t-shirt man in fact 100% cotton, now this cotton takes the sweat from my body and holds it in the fabric. So the 2 liters of water I had drunk up to this point were rolling down my forehead and into this cotton ball I was wearing. Now apparently because of all the water in the shirt my body temperature got hotter and so to cool me down I started to sweat more. I think this means I need better shirts to run in.

Anyway, as I am now at 128th south (Draper) coming down to mile 18 I see Rachel standing there cheering and I waned to fly over to her but I couldn't make the lift off. So I kept my pace and got to her she gave me water which I drank like some mad man in the desert. She ran with me for a 1/4 mile then she drove up and met me again and ran a bit.
Finally she said I will see you at the end, I only had 1 mile left but with a pacer like Rachel I probably would have never stopped. Then I made a slight navigational error and started running on the wrong side of the tracks I felt that this was the case on some level cause i started running from a vantage point of both roads in view and then I saw Rachel I had to run through some weeds with stickys on them and a very steep slope and over a fence but then i was back on the path Half a mile left. Rachel told me where the finish was and I decided to leave it all on the trail and I ran it in.

It was great, so great to finish, great to know I could go further, great to have such wonderful support, and great to have the blessings of heaven to help me accomplish my goals. No tears, no blood, just a lot of my sweat across the salt lake Valley.

the 20 mile excursion

In just under 8 hours I am going to be running further than I have ever consecutively traveled by foot in my life. My 20 mile training run starts at 6:30am saturday. This adds fear to me and excitement and the feeling of possible amazing accomplishment. I am starting at my apartment in Salt lake and I will be running south on 700 East to the point of the mountain, okay, at least the base, of the point, of the mountain. But that's a long way!
So this running thing all started for me back in 8th grade when I joined the cross country team at bridge city junior high school. I was what they call a "running Cardinal", and I was slow. The point of all this running through mid and high school was in preparation for basketball, and it worked. As I quickly got taller I got a little faster and running was about the only way I built muscle while I was growing 11 inches over the next five years, starting at 5'8" in 8th grade.
Now I'm 27, I have had some success, I have read 48 books in the last 11 months, but I have NEVER RUN A MARATHON and on august 23rd I am going to! I'm excited just me vs. the distance. Stay tuned.......