Thursday's Are Long Days...

Slept in again today as the kids are back and we are into our normal routine again. Drop them off at Mom & Dad's and head to work. Make progress on some issues that need attention today. Domestic project is right on schedule and this is a nice feeling. It is nice to see these projects small pieces fall together into a working site. It is amazing how all the little tasks coalesce into a working office.

I am dreading going the gym for my weight training session. Not because it won't feel good to accomplish it, but I still do not like weight training. I feel that I am getting stronger, but I don't like the residual pain for the two days after. It is not debilitating pain, just annoying. Day 11 of exercise. I am in need of a much deserved rest, so Friday will be the day.

I met my trainer as I was going down stairs, and she said "you look tired." I replied, "I am dragging." She informed me that she was going to take it easy on me, but would still make the workout challenging. She was right, she took special care to watch my form and make sure that I did not strain my knees. We did squats, and different lunges so as to not put too much strain on my knees. The new form of lunge was much easier on the knees, and I could definitely feel the muscles working. Some of the exercises made me feel awkward and a bit self-conscious, but I worked through that and can feel the benefit. Core workout was good and I can feel my abs.

Weight training complete. I am debating going home without swimming, but with taking Friday off, and not being able to work out until after 13:00 CDT on Saturday I will not make my goal of 5000 - 6000 yards for the week. I go into the pool, and decide that I will skip the drills, and do the distance a little different. I wind up swimming 800 yards, focusing mainly on form and doing 50 yards, 15 seconds of rest then another 50 yards. This worked well, and was very relaxing. 4100 yards so far this week in the pool. I even let myself do one lap of breast stroke. I did not enjoy it as it was slow. I am becoming a freestyle convert.

Time for dinner, and some time with the family, and some much deserved rest. We will see what life brings tomorrow. Whatever it is, it might be good, it might be bad, but it will just be another day in this adventure called life.

Ten In A Row, WTF Is Wrong With Me!

So, I decided to sleep in this AM. I still woke up at 04:15, but my body said "Dude, you need some sleep!" I dozed in and out of slumber until 07:00. I can tell you that the benefit of this exercise over the last couple of years is sleep! When I was at my heaviest, I know that I would wake up choking on my uvula! I have not done that since losing 40 pounds! It is so nice to actually sleep!

When I was working for Satan's company, (they have the Death Star for a logo) sleep was not possible! It was work, work, and to heck with sleep do some more work! I was lost. I would solve problems in my broken sleep. Get up, write down the solution or log on and fix it before I forgot the solution. This is not a healthy lifestyle.

I feel guilty for not going to the pool this morning, but the extra rest was awesome! I arrive at work, and feel ready to accomplish something. I have a site going live on Monday, so it is time to bring up the router and the LAN. I am looking forward to it even though it will require some extra time today. Wednesday's are meeting days for me. Projects in the domestic US, and Latin America. I plug through the first half a day, and am losing focus. Time for a workout!

I head to the pool and knock out my 1100 yards for my week two workout. I am not beautiful in the water yet, but I am not the ugly child I was three weeks ago. I marvel at how far a little effort and some help can improve one's abilities. I even allow myself to enjoy the steam room after my workout. I find that subjecting myself to the steam room helps get the chlorine off my skin. I head back to work refreshed and invigorated.

I attend my two Latin American project meetings, while planning for the WAN turn up on my domestic US project. My meetings end up and I am in another conference call for the day, my fifth. We get new cards installed, and I get an email from my soon to be Ironman (woman) finisher, Kimmi! She asks me to go for a ride tonight, but I have to forgo the opportunity as I am working late, and more importantly, my girls are coming home tonight! We get the router up and working, but the WAN team has not configured the LAN interfaces. Oh well, we can knock that out in the AM. Time to go get some precious hugs from all three of my girls!

Get home, get smiles and more importantly hugs from the three people I don't deserve in my life! I am rich beyond measure! I am unworthy of these three ladies. They love me regardless of my ineptitude, my failings, and my self imposed limitations. There is nothing in life like seeing joy in the eyes of your child!

Ten days in a row working out, is not an accomplishment. Being loved, and loving in return is what makes this trip worthwile.

There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up. - John Andrew Holmes

Add especially if they are your children,and the woman that gave them to you, and you have the perfect quote!

Short and Sweet

Not much to blog about today. Up at 04:15. Leave the house by 05:00. Swim for one hour and 15 minutes. 2200 yards this week. Nine straight days of working out. Get ready to go to work.

On the topic of nine straight days of some kind of physical exertion. if you would have told me two years ago that I would actually like doing this again, I would have told you that you were Nucking Futs! But it has become part of my life, and I enjoy it.

Get through my day, without too many bumps. Eat lunch around 16:00. I did have breakfast at 07:00, and I had a snack at 10:30, but then I got involved in meetings and the like. Glad that the day is over.

I am tired and I am going to bed soon. 04:00 will be here again very soon.

Great Morning, Rough Day, Bad Movie, and a Great Date, All In All Life Is Good!

Okay, so this morning started out with Jenny waking me up at 04:15 CDT. She is normally up at this time to get ready for work. The kids are off with their grandparents to head up to Bemidji for a couple of days. Last week Jenny and I made plans to make this a date night. Dating when married is always a challenge, but very important. With that being said, I groggily roll out of bed, grab a shower to wake up and head to the gym as Jenny leaves for work. We both commented before leaving that the house was feeling humid.

I need to be consistent with my swimming as I want to get about 5000 - 6000 yards a week in the pool. I really want to improve at this, and am really enjoying this undertaking. I get to the gym, and am in the pool when most sane folks are just waking up.

I still have my drills to do and this week, the 4 x 100's are now 5 x 100's with only 30 seconds between 100's. To say that pacing myself is important is obvious. I think they went really well. When I remembered to go slow and roll side to side, it was almost effortless to pull my large frame through the water. When I start to get lazy and don't practice good technique, it gets harder. I even have the epiphany of seeing the stroke come together that the DVD has been discussing and Bob was trying to get me to do. If you are on your side with the stroke, you can lead with your elbow instead of reaching for the air.

With the workout done, I get ready to go to work. As I get to my truck, I suddenly remember about the air conditioner, and a previous issue where it felt humid in the house. I bet the compressor outside is full of cotton wood. I better go home and spray it down with the hose so that it does not overheat.

I get home, and find that the compressor is not too bad. I spray it down anyway and go down to check the furnace. The furnace is frosted up, so I shut it down. Before doing that, I notice that the blower is not putting out any air. Well, maybe when it thaws, it will be okay.

I log on to work from home and send the email that I will be online from here. I forward my desk phone to my cell, and proceed with my normal work activities. I am able to concentrate, and am very productive at home. After about an hour and 45 minutes, I go turn the unit on as the frost is all gone. No blower engagement.

I stop and think... I can turn the furnace on and see if it comes on with the heat on. No dice! It heats up, and then when the blower goes to engage, "click" and it shuts down. This is going to cost me. Call the repair man and go back to work. I am so happy to be able to work from home when necessary. I am so fortunate as a contractor that my employer allows this opportunity.

I am still on track for being able to go out with Jenny to a movie and dinner. So the day while not fun still has promise.

The repair man gets here and I explain the issue. He heads down to the furnace, and after the description of the problem and seeing what model it is, tells me; "You are not going to be happy." He has not even opened the furnace to look at it yet. "How bad is it?" I ask. He says "this is the most expensive part I keep in stock." This unit's blower unit board is notorious for going out. It is a design flaw with a weak resistor. Sure enough, he opens the unit up, pulls five or six screws out and pulls the suspect part out. The resistor is burned in two. Luckily, he has two on the truck. He puts the new improved part with a better resistor in and the furnace blower motor comes to life. He tops of the refrigerant, and he is on his way out the door with $600 in his pocket.

Jenny comes home and we are out the door to go to the movie she picked out. "Momma Mia", now this looks like it could be entertaining from the trailers. I enjoy a good ABBA tune as much as the next person, but after this movie I am not sure to ever enjoy another.

If they cut out about 10 - 15% of the singing and progressed the movie to the end it could have been tolerable. At one point during the movie as Jenny is sitting next to me laughing hysterically, I ask; "How many cute and cuddly puppies did I kill in a past life to be subjected to this?" She continues to laugh and I want to cry.

There are some funny parts to the movie, but not enough to ever subject myself to this nightmare again. Thankfully the movie ends... Oh wait, they reserved two more crappy tunes for the end as the credits roll. I cannot get out of the theater fast enough. I have enjoyed seeing Jenny laugh and have a good time, but I am ready to go have dinner.

Jenny asks where I would like to go eat. We used to live in the apartments by the theater, and used to frequent a little restaurant called Giuseppe Italian Ristorante. We have not been there since we moved into our house. As this is not far from the theater, I suggest we go there for dinner. We laugh and talk about the movie. She really enjoyed it, and she is enjoying laughing at my misery of sitting through this debacle. We stroll down memory lane of past visits to this establishment when we did not have two nickels between us. We have a very nice quiet dinner together.

Life is not all about the good things. Sometimes it is the bad or difficult that make you find perspective. I am grateful that the furnace/AC issues did not ruin the opportunity to have a great night with the woman that loves me for some odd reason. I am thankful for grandparents that take their grandchildren on short vacations. I am thankful for my children and miss them when they are gone. I don't deserve all the good that I have found in my life over the last couple of years, but I am thankful for gaining the perspective to recognize it.

Double Duty Day.

I am beat! I left work early today, becuase I could not focus on anything after lunch. I was physically tired, but I knew a workout might revive me enough to finish the day off later this evening from home. Since my gym is on .5 miles from work, and I had a 17:00 CDT appointment with my trainer, I decided to go get my swim out of the way and then be ready for my weight training session.

The swim workout went well. It was not flawless, but one should not expect it to be after only three weeks. It is still improving, and I am thouroughly enjoying seeing the results in the pool, and physically. It is amazing how much tone you get out of swimming. My chest, shoulders, triceps, lats, and traps are starting to pop. We will see if I start to loose my neck if my traps continue to grow. When I played football, I did not have a neck, my traps extended from my ears to my shoulders.

I really focused in the pool. Funny how I could not focus at work anylonger, but a few laps in the pool brought me right back on task. I finished my swim training in about an hour to and hour and fifteen. This is the second swimming session, that I have not used a single breast stroke in the pool!!!! Bob told me that for the next few weeks, I am not allowed to use that stroke. So far, I have been able to avoid it. The comfort level is increasing with the freestyle. Awesome as this is why I am working on this so early. So far this week, 3000 yards in the pool!

I went back into the locker room. Showered, and put on my gym shorts, tennis shoes, and TNT shirt and headed up to meet my trainer. Tami is a riot. She likes to pick on me in a good way. She has trouble keeping count, so I have keep her honest. If she makes me do a few extra reps, it is not that big a deal, as the benefit is mine. I am not looking to bulk up at all. I only want to get lean and toned. I am not looking to get buff, only continue to loose my spare tire.

Tami proceeds to put me through a good work out. I am a little shaky in the legs, and I can feel my abs. I taught her a new trick for core work outs. We used the half ball, and tossed the medicine ball back and forth while rotating the torso, and squatting down then standing back up. I learned this one from Bob again. It is amazing how many little muscles fire off as you do this routine. I even got her to try it, and she liked it. It was fun to turn the tables if only for a few minutes.

Well, I need to got get something to eat. Log on to work, and finish out my day.

Don’t be frightened if things seem difficult in the beginning … the important thing is not to retreat; you have to master yourself. This ability to conquer oneself is no doubt the most precious of all the things sports bestows upon us. - Olga Korbut

This was double duty day it was difficult. It will pay results in the future.

Going to Church...

Well, not really. I went to my church tonight, the church of the bike. I cannot take credit for the church of the bike line. I read it on a friend of a friends blog, but it struck home.

My bike and time on the road is my church. I find that every issue, every struggle and every difficult situation fade when I am grinding out the miles.

I have not ridden as much as I did last year this season. I am still averaging about 50 miles a week, but no where near the 100 a week I did last season. Marathon training destroyed my climbing legs, so I have not ventured over to visit that BEAWTCH in Stillwater called Mrytle. And that other Son of a BEAWTCH named Chillykoot. I will get there before the snow flies, but my big engine prefers to climb the hills in the cold weather!!!! Still hard work, but I need not fear overheating.

I work with a lady name Liz, who lives about two miles from me. She has been asking me to go on a ride with her and show her the local bike trails. So tonight, we went for a ride. Liz did amazing hammering out nine to nine and a half miles. She really seemed to enjoy the trip. I dropped her off at her house, and then figured that I better get home as I had not eaten dinner yet and it was getting on toward 20:00 CDT. I figured I could hammer out the 2.1 miles in about 10 to 15 minutes.

By the time I got back to a mile from home, I had a decision to make... Go home and get something to eat or (insert eyebrow wiggle here), Go around the lake and add about five more miles to my ride pretty much wide open.... HMMMMMM, Decisions, Decisions. This is not a hard one to work out. Of course I added the distance. The light turned green and off I went. Cranking the pedal arms and up shifting until I had 21 miles an hour and Mr. Endorphin-Rush came a calling. Get to the next light 1.5 miles up the road down shift, make my right turn and oh boy there is a rabbit out in front of me.

A rabbit in my vernacular is another cyclist that has no idea he is now the target of my obsession. This is someone for me to catch and try to pass. I haul this poor son of a gun in over the next quarter mile and pass him on a hill. At about this time, my heart rate monitor is reading 162 beats a minute. Time to reel this rodeo in and settle it back down to zone 3 and closer to 2. 160 beats a minute is my anaerobic threshold. This is where I start burning sugar instead of fat. So, I let off my pedals and enjoy the coast to my next right turn.

Turn completed. Oh boy, another rabbit!!! Up shift and hammer out 23 miles an hour over the next quarter to half mile. This rabbit is a little faster than the last. Fly by this one and then the old ticker is tapping out 165 BPM. Time to enjoy all the stored energy in my tires. Another right turn, and long coast around a sweeping left. Bet you were starting to think this was a backwards Nascar race; ride hard turn right! One more mile to home.

I pull in the drive way only completing 16 miles, but loving ever revolution of the tires. Put up the garage door store the thoroughbred in the garage, and walk in the house to find out it is only 19:30 CDT. Whoa Hooo still time to go catch a grown up beverage at the Daddy Pop Shop.

Open my reward, sit down and write my thoughts from church down. Maybe beer is not part of the sacrament, but all my sins were washed away on the road. All my worries are gone for the night. I'm all smiles and happy to be on this crazy marble called Earth.

Find your church. Visit your church often. Enjoy the heck out of it. Live, Love, and Laugh with all your heart. Nothing can be wrong with that.

Breast Self Exams and Panic!!!!

I work as a contractor for a company that has a gym at each building. During this high fuel cost summer, and driving a F150 pickup, I am riding my bike 2 to 3 times a week to work. It is nice to have the option to save some money, and get some exercise.

I bought a commuter bike for this task. As I did not want to put a pannier rack on my road bike. That bike is strictly for freedom and speed. The commuter bike is a Giant FCR2. The FCR1 has a little nicer component set on it, but the FCR2 is perfect for commuting. The ride from home is 8 miles roughly, and at about a 14 mile an hour pace takes approximately 40 minutes, door to door having to stop for traffic lights.

So before cycling to work, I stop by the gym and ask if it is okay to commute to work via bicycle and take a shower in the locker room. I am told yes it is okay, but as I do not have a membership, I will need to provide my own towel. No problem with that. I tour the locker room, so that I know which one is the guys, and where the showers are.

so the first morning, I decide to ride to work, I pack my bike up with my pannier bags loaded with my laptop bag, and a duffel bag with clothes. One would not think that this would be that much weight, but remarkably, it does weigh a lot. I ride over to work without too many incidents. Only a couple of close calls with motorists not paying attention or not being awake in the morning. I can take bike paths the whole way, but only use them in the real dangerous areas as going up and down the curbs is tricky with the extra weight.

I get to work and un-encumber my ride. I wander downstairs to my desk and drop off my laptop bag. Grab my duffel full of clothes, and my shaving kit with my toiletries and head off to the gym which is only one hallway over from my work station.

I check the sign as I enter the men's locker room, and prepare for my shower. I disrobe, and grab my towel and head into the shower. Of course, I take my glasses off as I head to the shower. Now, I only have an astigmatism, but this vision issue causes everything to loose it's edge and words fuzz together. I put my towel on a hook, and turn the shower on. I get under the water, and turn around to get my back wet. I notice some placards on the hooks next to my towel. They look like "Do Not Disturb" signs you hang on a hotel room door. With my vision impairment, I am not able to read them from the eight feet away. So I wander over to investigate what the heck they say.

To my shock and horror, they are breast self examination instructions, complete with female pictographs. Not to say that I am afraid of the female breast, but I am now questioning if I am not asleep much like the motorists that almost have hit me this morning. Let's just say that the pucker factor went from zero to 100 in about .0005 seconds. Am I standing naked in the ladies locker room shower? Oh Christ, how could I mess up this bad! I am only a contractor, if someone walks in I am sure to get shit canned for this kind of mistake! Oh hell, what am I to do? Screw it, I am past the point of no return on this one. Hurry up shower, and hope to hell no ladies come in.

To say I now posses the land speed record in showering, is an understatement. I fly across the shower, lather up and rinse off before the water and soap have a chance to hit my body in under 30 seconds. Fly across the shower, grab my towel, swipe it across my body, and sprint towards my clothes. I throw my briefs on, and pull my trousers up, and can feel my heart racing. This shower is turning into a better cardio workout than the ride to work. Just as I get my trousers up but not buttoned, I hear the door crack open.... "Ah, ah, just.... ah... moment!" I say. Around the corner walks a man. I must have let out an audible gasp, because he looks up and says "Are you okay?" I reply in a tremulous voice "Yeah, I am okay... but can you tell me why the hell there are breast self exam cards in the men's locker room?" The guy laughs and replies "There are?" I come back with the witty retort of "Hell yes! I thought I was in the wrong damn locker room! "We both have a good laugh, and I finish getting ready for the days work.

When I get back to my desk, I swear to God, it took a good 30 minutes to get my heart rate back down to normal. I shared my misfortune with my co-workers, which all got a good laugh at my expense.

I did learn that day, that some men do contract breast cancer. Apparently men that are more androgynous and have more female hormons are at risk, so the AMA has recommended that this group of men perform breast self exams. Who knew? I certainly did not!

Everytime I enter the locker room at work though, I am now conditioned to make sure that it says Men's on the door. I don't think my heart could take another jolt like it did that morning!

Swimming, Floundering and Drinking The Pool

I started swimming to prepare for the triathlon in July 2009 on July 4, 2008. Why so early one might ask? Well, it is simple; I suck at swimming. While I might be as big as a whale, I am no where near as graceful! But seriously, I want to be efficient at swimming, so I don't waste all of my energy in the water before I get on my bike. So I joined a different gym that gives me access to a pool 24 hours a day.

On July 4, I decided that a good first goal would be 10 laps. A lap for those that don't know is two lengths of the pool. The pool is 25 yards long, so a lap equals 50 yards. I tried the freestyle stroke, also known as the front crawl. It looked more like someone had put the Tasmanian Devil in the water with an electrode attached to a 220 volt electrical source than swimming. After about 25 yards of churning up the water, I went back to my old standby stroke the breast stroke. Everything smoothed out and I was able to do 12 laps. Not bad, but not the most efficient stroke to swim over the mile that is part of an Olympic distance tri.

I sent out a plea for help, and it was answered by my friend Bob. Bob is the coach from my cycle event with TNT. Bob is a former high school swimmer, and has completed the Wisconsin Ironman. Bob is one of the most giving people that I have ever met. He possesses so much knowledge, and is willing to share it in an understandable way.
Bob suggested that I check out Total Immersion Swimming DVD's. I bought the DVD and it made an instant impact.

While I now was able to swim 50 yards with the crawl, I knew that I would still have a lot of work to prepare to swim 1760 yards, or 1 mile. I would still revert to my old standby when I panicked in the water. I was swimming about 20 laps now most by breast stroke by day 14 of my swimming practice. I was still practicing the drills from the TI swimming DVD, and noticing some more relaxed progress.

Bob hit me up by a text message to see how things were going. He offered to meet me at my gym and give me some pointers. We met tonight, and needless to say, he taught me some more drills, and I got the best swimming workout I have had. We did drills for about and hour, with me drinking most of the pool. I would do 25 or 50 yards, and he would ask me what I was doing poorly. I either had my head too high, or was not rolling side to side enough, or mainly not rolling enough when I had my right arm extended. The good thing was that I was able to recognize with his instruction what was wrong with any given lap on my own.

After drills, Bob had me swim 4X100's with 60 seconds off, and then back to work. So essentially swim four 25 yard lengths, take 60 seconds off, and then repeat three more times. After the first 100 yards, I thought I was going to die! During the recovery period, Bob told me you started too fast, you have to pace yourself. Bob has told me this for the last year. I do the same damn thing on a bike. I am off like a rocket, and then limping home.

On the second four lengths, the first two went fairly well. The last two the form started to slip, so the effort increased. Rest for my precious 60 seconds, and the start of the third set. I wont say that I breezed through it, but I really focused on torso twist so my belly button was facing the walls on each stroke. I was stretching way out, and this one felt better. Rest for 60 wonderful seconds, and then the final set of the four. Somehow I made it through the last set. I only really remember the final 25 yards thinking if I swallow one more mouthful of this pool, they are going to have to refill it tonight.

I am severely more tired than I have been from swimming the breast stroke, but that is why I am doing this. I want to be prepared for all 1760 yards next July.

I am also receiving assistance from a co-worker named Barb. She is always willing to answer my silly questions related to swimming.

Nobody gets through life alone. If you have questions ask them. There truly is no silly question, but the one not asked.

San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon 2008

The start of the race. I am some where back on the left by the buses you can barely make out in the background. Kind of like playing Where's Waldo...




Reaching the 19.2 safety zone. I got to see my TNT staff person Kristen at this point. It was nice to see a friendly face!!!!



This is only 2 miles after the picture above. Boy, can you say total body cramping!!!! I did not see the photographer taking this shot. I probably would have maimed them if I had the ability. Happens to be one of my favorite shots from this adventure. None of this comes easy. It would not be worth it if it did!!!




Since I have told myself this is the last full marathon that I am ever doing, I am going to sprint across the finish!!!!

26.2 finishers medal! Chip time for this distance: 7:38:03
Average of 17 minute 48 second a mile.

Well we did it! We made it across our finish lines. Jenny was able to reach her goal of 13.1 and I, mine of 26.2. Of the two, I am most proud of her achievement! I will get back to that after I tell you about the second best weekend of my life!

You guys are part of the success of this past weekend. There were 3400 TNT participants at this last weekends San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon http://www.rnrmarathon.com/home.html . All of the participants combined raised $12.5 million dollars. The eleven year total raised through this event is a staggering $134.6 million!!! Way to go!

At the pasta party the main speaker was John "The Penguin" Bingham. He is an author and a writer for Runners World. He was animated to say the least and very funny. He introduced and presented an award to an 84 year old lady that was running in her 10th and last marathon in San Diego. He is the man behind the quote:

The miracle isn't that I finished...The miracle is that I had the courage to start.

John Bingham introduced David Monson who is the husband of the late four time Iditirod Sled Dog Race winner Susan Butcher http://www.susanbutcher.com/. Mr. Monson informed of us the loss of his wife to Leukemia in a very moving speech. He stated that for all of the TNT participants that the next time they needed to look for a hero, that they should look to their left or right or at the table next to them or in the mirror. He said that he was in a room full of people who were doing something for someone in need. You may not have been in that room with us, but it is through your generous contributions that Jenny and I were there to represent you. You are all heros! I say that because without you none of this is possible.

We retired from the pasta party and were left to our own devices to prepare for the marathon. Jenny has this unbelievable ability to just be in the moment. She takes the tension in stride and presses on. I on the other hand start to doubt myself and become very introverted. I was able to say positive things to her and yet feel that some how I was not ready for the next day's endeavor. She assured me that I was going to be just fine. We retired to sleep, and unlike last year I was actually able to get four solid hours of sleep. Jenny with her gift was able to sleep as well. We awoke at 01:30 PDT. We needed to be down to the gathering point at 03:00 PDT for team photos and then off to the bus for Balboa park. Jenny said first thing "Oh my God it is early." To which I replied "Come on, you need to stay positive today." In rebuttal I got "Okay, I am positive it is really early" (one point for Jenny). The marathon did not start until 06:30 PDT, but with all the traffic you need to be there early!

We were sitting in Balboa park getting ready to head to our corral (marathoner speak for starting point). They put the faster folks in the lower numbered corrals and the slower in the higher. We were in number 23 the last corral. The race started promptly at 06:30 PDT. We did not take step one forward until about 06:45 PDT. I believe we crossed the Starting line about 06:55 or so. It was really interesting to be a part of this mass of humanity moving forward. People standing on their balconies waving to you with a cup of coffee in their other hand and yelling good luck. As Jenny and I crossed the Starting line holding hands, we kissed each other and wished each other good luck. She said she would call when she got done at 13.1 miles.

Coach (Rosanne) and I did the first mile in about 16 minutes. We progressed on for about another 1/2 mile until Coach went back to walk with some of the others on our team. I was feeling good, and was enjoying the music every 1/2 mile or so. I met a lady between mile two and three named Peggy. Peggy is a retired Lieutenant-Colonel from the army where she served as a nurse. We were moving at a good pace and chatting as we went. We met up with coach again but we only walked together with her for a bit before both Peggy and I needed to stop for a biological break at mile eight or so. Some how we did not relocate each other upon completion of said break. So I started out on my own up highway 163 which is shut down for the race. I was laughing, joking and encouraging others as I went. This is also about the time that the cloud cover burned off and the sun came out in full!

I reached the 13.1 mile marker about three hours in if memory serves. At this point I was flagged down by another TNT participant and asked if I could take Aurora for "a mile up the road". Aurora was a visually impaired participant. I said yes that I would help. I assumed that the participant that asked me to help would be back as she was probably trained on helping a visually impaired person in a marathon and just needed a break. So off Aurora and I go.

Aurora is a very diminutive woman. Maybe four foot six inches if I had to guess. She informed me that she had done several marathons and that she has run into obstacles with being allowed to participate. She really wanted to get to the 19.2 mile cut-off before 12:30 PDT. Once you reach this point you are allowed to finish the 26.2 without interference. I was shooting for the same goal I stated. We were making good time but Aurora was holding my left hand versus my elbow because of the height difference. This started to put a spasm in my back as I was not able to swing both arms. Aurora was fairly patient in teaching me how to lead. She instructed me that the visually impaired have the right of way on the course. She was allowed to cut 90 degree corners by crossing curbs at a 45 degree angle. As we progressed through the course, we would hit cheering stations, and my race bib had my name on it so I would hear "way to go Marc", "Keep it going Little Giant". Aurora it turns out is: Aurora Ortiz and is known as the Little Giant. I found out that Aurora is involved with the San Diego Blind Recreation Center, She is a surfer and is pretty popular in the community.

At about mile 16 my phone starts to ring with Jenny's ringtone. I tell Aurora that I need to take this call. Jenny tells me that she is done. I tell her how proud I am of her and I start to break down. This was something that I really wanted for Jenny. I wanted it for her so that she could become active and healthier. I wanted it so that she could understand why TNT is so important to me. As I am walking and crying, Jenny and I say our see you laters at my finish line. Aurora pats me on the hand and tells me that she thinks that it is special that I am happy for my wife to complete her half marathon (Jenny finished with another of our teammates Vicki). We talk about Jenny, and keep moving forward.

I did my best to get Aurora to the 19.2 mile marker, but at about mile 18, I needed to seek medical attention for my left foot (BLISTER, OUCH!)! I stopped another TNT participant and honestly explained that if she would help Aurora on, I would TRY and catch back up and take up the responsibility again. I was in the medical station for about five to ten minutes. I was not able to catch up to Aurora, but I know that she finished via the results page. She finished about 15 minutes before I did.

It was after I got out of the medical station that I noticed Peggy out in front of me. I jogged/hobbled back up to her and said hello. Peggy it turns out will be this years event angel for me. Last year it was my chiropractic angel Leslie who saved the day by fixing my ailing foot. This year Lieutenant-Colonel Peggy R.N (Army Ret.) who used the mantra "It's mind over matter Marc. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter!" to get me through to the finish line.

As Peggy and I were crossing the magic 19.2 mile marker into the safety zone where I would be able to finish no matter how long it took, we were walking in a group of young ladies that were getting cat called to by some college age gentlemen ( I use that term lightly here). The fine young men were cheering "Go Hottie, Go Hottie", and the young ladies were not receptive to the cheers. So me and my ever present ability to keep my mouth shut (oh yeah, I don't have that ability), I shouted back in my best lispy voice "Stop staring at my legs you silly savages!" The young ladies and the women nearby loved my retort and started to laugh at the not so genteel gentlemen. I got a few thank you's and we all trooped on.

Somewhere around mile 20 or so my body decided it was not really happy doing this anymore. My strides were getting shorter, the day was getting hotter, my stomach was getting upset. In comes that saying I will hear over and over (Thank GOD!) "It's mind over matter Marc. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter!" As I continue to move forward towards the finish, it is time for another biological break. As I get back on the course, my last two teammates catch up and pass me (Louise, and Ken). We exchange plesantries, and they can tell I am in my own kind of personal hell. They are also hurting but they need to keep moving. I am so happy to see them again and know that they are going to make it. Coach pops up again and walks with Louise and Ken for a bit before falling back to Peggy and I. Both Coach and Peggy leave me in my happy place (mentally hiding from the pain) when necessary, but when they need to pull me back to consciousness I hear: "It's mind over matter Marc. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter!" Between Mile 22 and 23, coach goes on ahead to help Louise and Ken.

Peggy's coach pops up, (I am sorry I do not recall his name) he jokes with me and keeps me moving by using what I call Marathon Math. Marathon Math is out right lying! Everything is down hill from here! Only a 1/2 mile to go! You seeing a trend here? I know I am being bamboozled here, but I am okay with it because you have to take everything in small steps from mile 20 to 26.2. Win each small battle and you will win the war. Peggy, calls her daughter somewhere in the 22 to 23 mile range. She tells her that she is going to be about another hour "She's helping a trooper who's struggling". Who might that be?

Peggy starts telling me "your doing it Marc!" She also tells me "I am not going to leave you out here!" You know what? I knew she meant it. That was the most unbelievable part of it, here is someone I just met this morning, and she was willing to stay out there with me and keep me going. This is the part of TNT that is so remarkable. Nobody is a stranger! Nobody will leave you alone on the course. Everybody out there in purple is out there for another human being and will help you through your tough times too. Don't forget, every once and a while, I would hear: "It's mind over matter Marc. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter!" The miracle here is that the first time that I got down mentally on myself was at mile 23. It was only for a brief moment, and then I pushed down the thoughts and kept moving. This is a vast improvement over last year even!

We trudged along, and coach came back to help Peggy, help me. They are kidding me that when we go under the overpasses that I am slow to come out. Very true because the sun is a pain in the butt. Nice and cool in the shade! about 23.5 miles or so, one of the bands is finishing up playing. The crowd starts to chant "one more, one more!" It turns out the one more the band chooses to play is the Star Spangled Banner. I remove my ball cap as they start to play. I don't dare stop moving. I sing along as best I can between sobs. It is a very moving moment for me as tears stream down my face unabashedly. I think it fired me up just enough to reach the end. I webble and wobble my way into the Marine Recruiting Station, and shake as many of the Marine's hands as I can, and say thank you for them being out to cheer us on. I get to the 26.1 mile mark, and I make my mind up I am going to run as fast as I can across th at damn line I have been looking for all day. From somewhere in my body came the energy to run, and run I did! I did not finish fast, my time was between 7 hours and 45 minutes to 8 hours and 4 minutes. I am not able to find myself in the marathon website results page. I did not finish pretty ( I was a bedraggled, hobling, blistered mess)! But I did finish!!!! To borrow John "The Penguin" Bingham's quote:

The miracle isn't that I finished...The miracle is that I had the courage to start.

To borrow the military addage of " It's mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter!" I did not mind the pain I was in because it did not matter to me. Honoring your donation is what mattered to me. I wanted to honor your contribution with attaining what I said I would do to earn it. My pain is irrelavant to the pain that our honoree's endure. My pain will heal in a couple of days, my struggle for this year is done. The honoree's and their family's continue to endure until we find a cure. Thank you for your faith in Jenny and I!

Without Peggy there to be my angel, I don't know if I would have made it on this one. Coach was a very big part of it too. Nobody quit on me, including myself! I got my 26.2 finishers medal, I got a hug from my wife. She showed me her 13.1 finishers medal with a look of pride on her face. I can cross this one off of my life's to do list. One more event to my Tripple Crown a Tri-Athalon next year!

Everybody on the Minnesota team finished either their half or full marathons! Jenny is even talking about another half-marathon.

With love and appreciation for each and everyone of you!

Marc

Marathon Walker
Century Rider




My 2008 Event Angel Peggy!

My everyday angel, my wife Jenny!

The weight and measure of who I am.

If you were to ask me on any given day if I was a success, I would most likely tell you I was at least the first syllable of that word. Meaning, that my opinion of who I am is that I suck! While I say this in jest, it used to truly be the way I viewed myself.

I was born to, raised by, and nurtured by two caring parents. Provided for and given the necessary opportunities to succeed. I played hockey, football, baseball, and was given a natural ability to conquer anything that involved sport. Scholastically, I was adequate and achieved what was necessary to get by. I could have done more, but decided not to. These two sides of my life enabled me to get into a small private college. There I was able to study, and play division three collegiate football, until I blew out my knee in a game my Junior season. On that day something inside of me withdrew. My drive for athletic endeavour and the achievement it brings.

I finished up my Senior year and graduated with a degree in Management Information Systems. I went job hunting to the headline the day after I graduated "The Most Unwanted College Class Ever." A major boost to the ego... Well, maybe not. I could have lived better on welfare than the 70 hours I was working between two jobs. One was doing temporary service data entry work at a financial institution, and the other was pushing a broom at a corporation that served the financial institutions with the now antiquated paper check. I would eventually spend fifteen years at the latter. Working my way out of janitorial services, to corporate payroll clerk, to information technology help desk analyst, to network analyst, to field network engineer.

Toward the end of that fifteen years, I was dying inside. I had married my high school sweetheart, had two beautiful daughters, and inside hated everything that I had become. I was happy with my family, (not that everything was blissful). But who I was, was an avatar walking through daily life with no purpose. I was doing everything to maintain, but nothing to grow on a personal level.

I had witnessed a co-worker who was morbidly obese loose over 200 pounds. It was an amazing accomplishment to witness. I was on my way to health problems myself after letting myself go from the day I blew my knee out. I was up to 350+ pounds, after playing football at 6' 3" and 270 pounds. Something within me said, if he can do it, you should be able to get off your ass and do it too.

I started riding my mountain bike. I started with three mile rides, twice a day. Moved up to seven miles once a day. It kept progressing in distance from there. I noticed that after a couple of weeks, I started to get the endorphin high that I had heard runners get. I started to have more energy. I started to laugh more. I started to feel again. Then one day, I received a 3x5 card that changed my life.

The card talked about a program called TNT or Team in Training. If you went to an informational meeting, you could learn more about running a marathon, doing a triathlon, or riding a century (100 miles), all while raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Charity is something that I used to view as nice for others to invest in and for others to be able to utilize, but it was not something that I was capable of contributing to. I would give to the bell ringers at Christmas time, but viewed other major charities with skepticism as their CEO's earned six figure salaries and some had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. This organization seemed different though as 74 percent of every dollar went to research and patient support.

I showed the card to my wife, and will never forget her response; "Well, it sounds interesting, but it's everything you hate. You hate large groups of people, and you hate fundraising." She encouraged me to go check it out if I was interested. I decided to go to a local meeting, it did not cost anything to find out more.

I went to the meeting positioning myself by the exit. To say I was uncomfortable was an understatement. I listened to the story of a lady who had lost her husband to Leukemia. I listened to the overview of the program. It sounded fascinating, but the fundraising for the event I was interested in, (the century ride) was $4000.00 with that piece of information my mind froze. When the meeting was over, they asked who wanted to sign up. I thanked them for the information, and made a fast retreat.

Upon reaching my truck in the parking lot, I broke down. My heart wanted to do this, but my brain told me "you idiot, there is no way you can raise $4000.00!" I made my mind shut up and let my heart do the thinking for a minute. It asked me; "what if this was someone you loved fighting these diseases?" For the first time in my life, I followed my heart instead of my mind! I sheepishly went back inside to find the meeting leader and asked for some more information. The ride was around Lake Tahoe. I was worried about the elevation, and wanted to talk with the coach before I committed to signing up. I got his phone number, and then walked back out to my truck and drove home. The next day, I called the coach from Syracuse, NY as I was out of town on business. He called me that evening, and we had a good conversation. He wound up talking me into going for it. I am glad that I did. Here is an link to the results of this adventure: http://crashnnumbtoes.blogspot.com/2007/06/giant-among-men.html

Needless to say that this adventure changed me on a level that I never thought possible. It ignited the drive for athletic endeavour and the achievement it brings, that I thought I would never have again.

This year, I did a marathon with TNT. I will post the message that I sent out to all of my contributors in a later post. Needless to say the weight of who I am is declining. I am still 300 pounds, but am so much healthier. The measure of who I am at this time is limitless. I still have bad days, but I now know that I have the ability to choose how bad and for how long they will be that way. I can turn the negative into a positive. I choose to look at things differently now.

A bunch of the friends that I have met through TNT have been blogging for a long time. I have really enjoyed reading their posts. Maybe now it is my time to share a bit. As I start training to complete my tripple crown (Century, Marathon, Triathlon), with a triathlon next July, I intend to share the journey. If your interested come along for the ride.