Mono Sucks

Tomorrow I will be running the half-marathon portion of the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon and Half-Marathon. It's the first race in a long time where I was even the least bit nervous, since it's my first 'long' race since being diagnosed with mono back in September.

Failure is Healthy

Starting over is hard. So is failing. Doing both, and getting up again, is even tougher.

In 2009 I completed my first half-ironman in 5:38. My brother Wes and I completed that event with our family watching and crossed the finish line feeling strong. I knew that in 3 short weeks I had Steelhead coming up, but also knew that a 5:15 at Steelhead wasn’t out of the question and I was going to shoot for it. What’s that thing they say about plans? I don’t remember, but my plan went to hell.

The day started with 800mg of caffeine after having had none for 2 weeks. The water was also particularly rough with fairly high waves. The combination of a queasy stomach and rough waters was classic bad. I had a PR for the swim but running onto the beach started throwing up. For roughly 5 minutes. As you can imagine, throwing up off a swim has a way of ruining a day but I continued onto the bike.

Once on the bike I started off strong but was at this point extremely dehydrated and in a serious caloric deficit. I tried to eat/drink but every time I did, it came right back up. At one point I threw up so hard on the bike that I closed my eyes, hit a pot hole, and blew out my front tire. As I sat by the side of the road changing the inner tube on my bike, all I could think was, “Really?”. I had simply never had such a bad race.

I managed to finish the bike and headed out on the run but in much worse shape then I had been three hours earlier. Besides being dehydrated and starving, I was experiencing the pains of what I would later discover was a stress fracture. Despite feeling beyond awful, I don’t ever remember feeling like I should have quit. Not once. That would come later.

I finished in 6:35, firmly in the bottom 1/3 of the field. My worst finish since I had started the “Taking Sexy Back” challenge almost two years earlier. After training for 7 months for an A race, and just so completely blowing it, I was devastated. Using my bum foot as an excuse, it would be almost 4 months before I did any training again and 5 months before my next race.

So, 7 months later, what have I learned? You’re stronger than you think you are, and you’re weaker than you think you are. In the one sense, I could have given up completely, either during the race or after the race. But I didn’t. I was tougher than I thought. In another sense, I really let that race get me down. I spent months in a funk. I was weaker (mentally) than I thought.

This year I signed up for my first Ironman distance race, the Rev3 at Cedar Point. I also have a pretty aggressive race schedule, with two HIM races and a handful of Sprint/Olympic distance races. What am I doing differently this year? First, I hired a coach. Someone to help keep me grounded and safe. Second, my goal this year is to be healthy. I haven’t tied any arbitrary times to any races. I’m looking to go out, test myself, and hopefully have as much fun as I did when I first started.

I also firmly believe that my Steelhead race experience, and getting back into training after a 4 month hiatus, will make me a mentally tougher triathlete. I’m here to have fun.

Indianapolis Mini Marathon and a PR

Today was the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, a half marathon held here in Indianapolis every May. This was the first time that I competed for a second time in the same event. This made it a perfect A race, since it allows me to compare myself on the same course over a fixed period of time. Last year my time for the race was 1:51:31, an 8:30 pace. Would I be in better shape this year? I found out.

The night before, as is now tradition, Emily and I went over to Erin's house and had our traditional pre-race pasta dinner. We ate early so I could digest and get some sleep, and left by 8:30. I was asleep by 10:30 which was good, since I had to be up at 5:00am.

I woke up at 5, ate a power bar, and headed out to pick up Erin at her house. We arrived at the parking garage at 6 and went to my office to change and put together our race bags. We made our way over to the race site and split up around 7. Erin was in coral 'L' and I was in coral 'B'. I managed to get a seed this year which was great, since last year I spent the first 8 miles of the race weaving in and out of runners. I made my way over to the coral by about 7:15 and managed to find Josh Winger already waiting. I talked with Josh for a few minutes before the race start and then we headed out.

Race Stats

Split Distance	Split Time	Split Pace
5 miles	35:12	7:02
10 miles	1:09:52	6:56
13.1 miles	1:31:05	6:50

The biggest news of the day for me was a negative split over the course. A negative split is when your speed increases over subsequent miles throughout a race. The other big news was that I shaved more than 20 minutes off my time from the previous year. I also shaved more than 4 minutes off my previous PR, which I had set just a month before. Overall, I was extremely pleased with the results of the day.

The other highlight of the day was getting to share it with Emily, Kyle and Erin. It's always nice to share your joys with the people you love.

Second First 50k

Back in December I attempted my first 50k trail race. I attempted The Huff in Huntington, IN and I failed. It was my first DNF, and I didn't take it very well. I fell down a cliff face and twisted my ankle, but I didn't consider this an excuse to not succeed. After failing to finish, I changed my training routine and committed to completing another 50k as soon as was reasonable. I selected the "Forget the PR 50k" in Loudonville, OH. In preparation for this race, I ran two marathons as well as doing a number of half-marathon distance races and 20+ mile training runs.

On Saturday, April 18th Emily and I drove from Indianapolis, IN to Loudonville, OH. I was expecting rain for the race but that didn't deter me from going. Although we had a truly amazing and comfortable place to stay, I didn't sleep very much. I tossed and turned most of the night, and got up about 6am to eat breakfast and prep for an 8am race start. We got there at about 7:15 and it ended up being plenty of time to get ready.

Race Start

After Emily and I got to the race site I fetched my bib and gear bag and started to get ready in the car. Today I was going to run without water, or Vaseline, or a pair of trail running shoes. I did however decided to bring my ipod, a decision I would later be very thankful for. The schwag bag had more stuff in it then I would have believed possible for such a small race. Rob (the race directory) had really managed to pull in some top notch sponsors including Hammer nutrition, which I'm a big fan of.

The race started promptly at 8am after a few words from the race director and someone I can only assume was his sidekick. In any case, from the start to aid station #1 I was cruising and passing a number of other runners. One mistake I made during my first 50k attempt was going out too fast early so I planned for 10 minute, 11 minute and 12 minute paces. I did my best to keep at a 10-11 minute pace according to my garmin for the first leg. At AS 1 my pace was 10:08/mile, right on target. Since I wasn't carrying any water I made sure to drink some Heed and some water and kept moving. It was my first time drinking Heed and I like the taste, I'll probably buy some. I prefer it to Gatorade.

Race Review

For the most part I either ended up running with small groups but I was taking my time at the aid stations so I often headed out of an AS solo and hooked up with another group. The temperature for the day ranged from 61 to 64 degrees (perfect race weather) and stayed remarkably dry. My total time was 6:14:49 for an 11:54 pace. My moving time was 6:02:35 for an 11:30 pace. Garmin says I covered 31.49 miles at an average speed of 5.2mph. Remarkably, my elevation gain/loss was +17,984/-18,055. Wow, that's like climbing and ascending a large mountain. No wonder I got sick after the race!

Some Pictures from the race

Video someone took (caution, hand cam)

I sent an email to Rob and shared this with him, but this is one of the best put on races I have ever run. The aid stations were well stocked, the volunteers cheered for you like you were winning Boston, the other runners were encouraging and polite, the schwag bag was packed full of goodies, and the course was well marked. I really had very few complaints, and I plan on doing this event again next year.

Post-Mortem

So, what did I learn going from a failed/DNF race to finishing a 50k? A few things. However, one thing I repeatedly find out in running is you can go farther than what you think is possible. You can do more than what you think is possible. Running kind of affirms for me the "if you can dream it you can do it" mentality. I've also signed up for my first 50 miler and another 50k. I can't wait to see what's possible.

What's Possible in a Year?

On April 18th of 2008, I ran my first ever road race. A 5k. The Susan Komen Race for the Cure 5k to be exact, and I did so in 23 minutes flat. And, as far as I'm concerned, in not too shabby of a time. Who am I kidding, I felt like a total bad-ass. To put it in perspective though, on April 18th of 2007 I weighed 250 pounds and couldn't run a mile. So, only a year later, running a 5k was a huge deal for me.

Since that first race, I have completed 20 others. In the past year I raced 21 times. Here is what the roster looked like for this past year:

• 04/19/08 - 5k


• 05/03/08 - 13.1


• 05/10/08 - 5k


• 05/17/08 - 13.1


• 06/07/08 - 5 miler


• 06/14/08 - 75k Cycling Road Race


• 07/13/08 - Sprint Duathlon


• 08/17/08 - Olympic Triathlon


• 10/18/08 - Marathon


• 10/31/08 - 3 miler


• 11/15/08 - 15k


• 11/27/08 - 4.5 miler


• 12/20/08 - 5k


• 12/26/08 - 50k


• 02/01/09 - Indoor Sprint Triathlon


• 02/01/09 - 7 miler


• 02/07/09 - 13.1


• 02/15/09 - Marathon


• 03/15/09 - Marathon


• 03/28/09 - 13.1


• 04/04/09 - 15k

Oh, and here is a snapshot of my weight over the past two years:

• 04/18/07 - 250 pounds


• 04/18/08 - 200 pounds


• 04/04/09 - 169 pounds

And what's in store for 04/18/09? Well, nothing, but that's because I'm running the Forget the PR 50k on 04/19/09. I'm not writing any of this because I think I'm an amazing athlete, or to toot my own horn. I'm writing this to let you know, to let anybody know, what's possible in a relatively short amount of time. It's true that I dedicate a lot of time to training, but I can easily say it's all worth it.

I remember several years where I started losing weight, stopped, went back to my original weight, and then told myself I was comfortable being who I was. To some extent that was true, but I also knew that I was unhappy. So, my brother Wes and I created the "Taking Sexy Back Challenge", where, obviously, we planned on taking sexy back. I now had some concrete goals and a remote training partner to help motivate me. I committed to doing this one event with him (the Grand Haven Duathlon), and then evaluating whether I wanted to keep up the life style or not.

Through all these events my life has been altered in positive ways that I never could have imagined. It has nothing to do with being thin or being fit, it has everything to do with succeeding at something that's hard.

I once told an employee that I had a simple philosophy in life. My philosophy is essentially this. If it's not hard, it's probably not worth doing. Taking on the challenges that I have, I get an opportunity to do something hard every day. I can't tell you that losing weight or living a healthier lifestyle is easy. But, I can tell you that it's worth it. Unfortunately I also can't tell you why it's worth it. It's something you have to see for yourself.