Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Almost Famous

I got my DVD in today. "UltraMarathon Man" has finally been released. I was thrilled to find that I was on it. They didn't show any of the interview that they did with me, but they did show clips of me running in Fargo.

To get a copy go to http://www.journeyfilm.com/

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Lean Horse 50

Time: 10 hours 19 minutes 34 seconds

Fifty miles...I must have been out of my mind. The race started out pretty easy. It seemed like no time until I reached the first aid station around mile 5. Shortly after, the first hill showed up. I was devistated. I started running up it until I noticed everyone else had slowed to a walk. Over the next eleven miles I realized just why they were all walking up the hills. There were a lot of them. It was brutal. After I reached the 16 mile mark everything really leveled off. I was surprised too that I was really able to run as much as I did. At the turn around point, mile 25, I was still going strong. I changed shoes a few miles later, more to check for blisters and to see how many toe nails I had left. To my surprise, everything was a o.k. I pressed on from there and everything was fine until mile forty. By the time I reached mile forty, I was begining to break down. I was spending as much time walking as I did running. I reached the forty mile mark in under eight hours too. I thought "Great! I'm on pace to bust ten hours." It wasn't ment to be though. I really struggled over those last ten miles and it took me almost two and a half hours to finish from there. I don't care though! It was fun (if you are really into pain). I can now say that I completed fifty miles!

7 down, 177 to go!

:>)

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Fargo Marathon 2008

Time: 3 hours 58 minutes 57 seconds

Painful would best describe today. I had a pain in my left foot for most of the race. I was able to push through it but it really slowed me down over the last five miles and cut my time down too. This one really ends so cool though. Getting to run into the stadium at the finish with everyone cheering you on is fun. As always, the people of Fargo line the streets and cheer you on as well. This is a great town to run the marathon in and the weather really cooperated today.

This one makes 6 marathons completed with 178 left.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Bismarck Marathon

Time: 4 hours 11 minutes 53 seconds

Pacesetter was the word of the day today. I meet a 65 year old man named Dave Hurley at the start of the race. He was running his 50th marathon today. As I normally do, I got towards the back of the pack to start the race and mingled with several different people. As I passed some of the slower runners, I caught back up with Dave. While running with him for a few miles I discovered that not only was today his 50th marathon but he was trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon. He had qualified on several other occasions but had not been able to qualify for the last three years. I made a decision at that point that if I could help him along, I would. We ran the first half of the marathon in 1:57. This meant that he was well on pace to make the 4:15 he needed.

We continued on together for the next four miles with no problems. By this point we were at mile 17. He was well on pace to make it. By this point though, I was struggling. I have developed a mild case of tendonitis in my right foot and it was really getting painful. He offered to stop and remove one of his ankle braces and let me use it the rest of the way. I refused! I had helped him along this far, I was not going to do anything to slow him down at this point. I even told him that if he needed to take off without me to go ahead. He too refused. I helped get him this far, and he did not want to leave me now. It was a real case of role reversal. I pushed him in the first 17 miles, now he was helping to push me.

We got to the 20 mile point in just under three hours. I was very happy. I was very confident that we could get the last six miles done in an hour and fifteen minutes. Dave continued to push me along over the next three miles, but at this point, the pain in my right foot was too much. I had to take some walking breaks.

When I got to the finish line in under 4:15, having never passed Dave up, I knew that he had made his time. It was a lot of fun to swap stories with Dave over the twenty or so miles we ran together and I am really thrilled that I could help him qualify for Boston. Good luck Dave, and if you qualify for 2009 and 2010 maybe I’ll see you there.

This one makes 5 marathons completed with 179 left.

One Note: I get plenty of e-mails of encouragement from everyone and I thank you. Instead of sending me an e-mail though, click on the comments link at the bottom of this post. You can leave your comments there for everyone to read and it will still send me an e-mail with your comments. Thanks.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Local Celebrity

We remembered 9/11 today. I cannot believe that it has only been six years since the attack. It really feels like an eternity since it happened.

At around 8:30 this morning I got an interesting call from Pam. She told me that a local TV reporter wanted to talk to me. I called him and he wanted to do a story about me and my running that morning. I got permission to leave work and meet him down at the park about two hours later. Along the way, I picked up Pam and Lydia as well. He did his interview with me, had me run some, and then interviewed Pam. I thought that story would be one that they put at the end of the news broadcast as just a little filler at the end. Boy was I wrong. Pam ran an errand later in the day and came back to tell me that they were running ads on the radio about the story. When the news started at 6 that evening, I was the top story of the day. Below is the link to story for all those that don’t live in Minot. Just click on the picture of Lydia and me at the top to play the video. You will have to sit through a television commercial at the beginning, but the story will follow.

http://www.kxmc.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=161144