San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon Here I Come.

The official count down is on. With just under 46 hours, I will be running my first marathon. I have a wonderful pacer/crew that is accompanying me for as long as his knee can hold up. Chad. I did find a wonderful quote for someone that is willing to do that. "A race is just a race, but a friend who paces you is a friend for life." - Joseph Franko.

We leave in the early am tomorrow and get our packets and check out Dean Karnazes at the expo. The start of the race on Sunday is 6:30am California time. I am hoping for a 4:45 time for my first marathon, but will take anything short of a DNF.

My tapering for the race is more like a cliff, I feel that I have tapered too much, but isn't that the way it usually feels with a taper. After the race, I am focusing my attention on the gym and shedding 12% of my body fat. I have been tested and got my RMR (resting metabolism rate), VO2 max, and my actual training zones for me.

Here is a printout of the VO2 and training zones from the test.

I am looking forward to the new competition that I entered at Lifetime Fitness. That is the body fat loss challenge. I am at a 26% at the initial weigh-in. I have 2 months to shed off the most fat, and I could win the first place is a package valued at $1,900 or so of massages, personal training, Polar 200 series watch, etc. If my current weight is 204 and I want to loose 12% body fat (not factoring in new muscle) that would be about 25 pounds of fat. That would put me around 180+/- for my body weight. I honestly could care less about the weight, as much as the body fat and feel good about getting rid of the man gut. My trainer, yes there is a trainer assigned to me for the next couple of months to assist me in getting through this competition, feels that I can complete it in the two months, or be really close.

Best of luck to all the runners out there running a race this weekend, and everyone be safe.

Where has the time gone.

I have been so busy for the past month, I want to apologize for not posting more. In short, here is what I have been up to.

Running - Training for marathon in less than 4 weeks.

New job assignment at work

Running a PR at the Enviro 5K at the Phoenix International Race Way (Nascar track)

Carrying the torch for the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics

Preparing to move

Company from Germany

Birthday (25th again)

Moving the wife out of her classroom

Buying a new car. 08 Honda Civic (non-hybrid)

First off the Running - This week will be my peak of 40 miles this week running with a 20 miler on Saturday at 4am.

New Job assignment. I am a computer programmer/analyst that is now assigned to support the Police Department. I did this job about 5 years ago, and they asked me back. I have been so busy; they all seem to have requests for me to do my magic for them.

Running a PR at the Enviro 5K at the track, I was able to complete the 5K in 28 minutes 8 seconds. My previous PR was 30:20 which I beat by over 2 minutes. I would like to shave another couple of minutes off it in the next several months. Ended up coming around the last curve and a bunch of kids started to try and pass me, so I took off on a sprint and passed three more people before hitting the finish line. I was so close to being the first person to throw up on the track at PIR. That would have been an honor worthy of blogging about.
Friday I ran 5 miles with Tempe Police officers for the last five miles of the Special Olympics torch run. I did learn that one of our officers is a ultra marathoner, (maybe a new mentor, we will see)


We are moving to a smaller house a couple of miles away. As Jay-say would put it is still not close enough to them. But it is about a half mile from Lifetime Fitness. We needed to move into a one story house, and reduce our mortgage pmt, because my wife will be going through some surgeries over the next year. More on this later.


A couple of years ago, my brother-in-law and his wife sponsored an exchange student from Germany, the next year had her sister come from Germany as an exchange student. Now, their parents came from Germany for a visit and they came to Arizona to see some hole in the ground, which was caused by a lot of erosion and maybe even global warming. The Grand Canyon. They stayed a couple of days at our house and were really nice people. I told them that if I come to Berlin to visit, they have to take me to all their favorite hiking trails. They are avid hikers. They also inquired about my boys going to Germany as exchange students.


Yes, I did have another birthday, and I want to say that I am 25 again. Remember that age is relative; it is what is in your mind. My id says that I am now 39, but I do not feel that old.
Part of my wife's medical issues was her moldy classroom that was sending her immune system into overdrive. With the consent of her doctor, she resigned early from teaching. Thank God for that. Since she has been home, she is feeling somewhat better.


With great sadness, I have to retire my 1996 Ford Ranger with 177,000 miles on it before it made it to 200,000. It got to the point where the repairs each month were exceeding the value of the truck. We felt it was best for me to get a new vehicle. I did my research and decided to get a Honda Civic. I am now getting 32 miles per gallon compared to 13 in my truck. The dealer did not want my truck as a trade-in that is how bad of shape it is. I would not say that it is the car of my dreams, but it is nice and economical and that was the objective we were after. Also it is automatic; I have replaced the transmission twice in my truck from being stuck in traffic 2 hours a day going to and from work.


I will try and post more than once a month from now on. Sorry about that.