It has been a long and eventful 3 months in VA

I just realized that I have not posted in too long. Well my first 1/2 marathon and race this year is now under my belt. The time was not what I wanted by a long way, however it was enjoyable. I am trying to get more runs in along the AT which is .3 mile from my house and .1 of that is my driveway. However, I have became adapted to SNAKES, I have seen more in the last 3 months than I saw my entire time in AZ. I just saw another one on the AT when I went out for a run on Wednesday and its head and my shoe met face to face, I backed up a couple of feet and waited patiently for him to make its way across the trail. It was hard to see it since it was in the grass. Today's race was not hot but it is the first time I have really felt the humidity along the James River. Some of the other activities that I have done are going sailing a couple of times and Kayaking on the James twice.

This past week they announced the return of the Roanoke Marathon on April 24th (27 years since they last held one). This one is one of the Toughest marathons in the US, there is a total of 16 miles of mountain climbing and 10 miles of city roadways (which are not flat), I am expecting for Chad to run it with me, since he did not make my last marathon. You can read about it at http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/215143

Till next time I have a minute.

This next weeks schedule

Today we will be disconnecting the refrigerator and all electronic items, because the movers come tomorrow and pack up 100% of our stuff. Thursday they will be loading it all and my car into the moving van and once they are gone, we will head out our self.

I have to work today thru Thursday, I was told by my boss to not worry about Friday, since I am a salary employee.

I have been so fortunate to have a great wife at home that is orchestrating the entire move, with the movers and what each one of us packs for the trip. Once we get to Roanoke VA, we need to find a nice home in a good area that we can get into by the end of next week, the movers are bringing the furniture over the weekend.

I also start my new job on Thursday the 14th, so I can get all the safety/security briefings out of the way and start doing my job on Monday. It seems like there is a lot going on, but last night was the first night that I slept the entire night in over three months. The stress has been removed from my shoulders and it is now up to someone else to do the moving for me. All I need to worry about is finding somewhere to live, no problem. I will just follow the signs.

I am not sure how much blogging I will get to the next couple of weeks, but I hope that all of you have a great week.

Things are looking brighter

Well, it has been a while and I do not know if any of you still want to blog with me, but I thought I would shed some light on what is going on. I learned that my position with my current employer is going away next summer, and I did not like that too much. After over 10 years with the same employer it took a big blow to me, even though they gave me 17 months to find a new position. After several weeks of evaluating the situation, I put my resume on monster and dice (I am in the Information Technology field), and in less than 24 hours I started to get phone calls. In short after several dozen of calls and interviews, I finally accepted a new position. The company that I will be working for manufactures night vision goggles for the military, however I will be working on their computer systems and not manufacturing them.

I learned this past Friday that I would be moving to Roanoke, VA in two weeks! The company is paying to move my family and it is a pay raise :). We discussed with the kids where they would like to live, if they got a chance to pick, and they both indicated a desire to live in the mid-Atlantic area, which is where most of the calls were from.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to run the Grand Canyon, I will be driving across the country at that time. Also, I will not be able to crew for Leigh at Badwater (I will not have any vacation time) and I was looking so forward to it, it breaks my heart to pull out as one of her crew members, but I must do what is best for my family and I hope that she will forgive me for it.

I will need to keep up on my blogging and keep all of you up to date on how things are going.

Missing in Action

Well I have been MIA for about as long as our new President has been in office. You can read into that if you would like. I am not going to claim any correlation to it.
I have had a lot on my mind, and have not even thought about blogging. I found out that I am scheduled to be LAID OFF from my work. I guess the good news about this is that I have a job until June 30, 2010. Yes, that is over a year away. Since I work for a local city government, the layoff's that are proposed still need council approval. Needless to say, I have become a lobbyist for keeping my job.
After Across the Years, I took some time off to recover, and I know I took too much time. I lost a lot of motivation for running, but I am now back to running an hour at a time 3 to 4 times a week. I am slowly building on the base I once had. I am still looking for the motivation for running longer and following any healthy eating habits that I once had.
The one thing I recognized with everything that is going on in my life, I did go to the Dr and am now back on my anti-depressant, I went off them for about 6 months and was doing OK without them, but with the loss of the job and lack of motivation for exercise, etc. I recognized the feelings and knew what needed to be done.
I do have the goal of doing a Rim to Rim to Rim run May 8th at the Grand Canyon. This has got me on the stair master for an hour after my runs, which is burning my leg muscles.
The only other race on my Schedule (as of now) is a lovely trip in July to the resort town of Stove Pipe Wells in Death Valley, CA. I am a crew member for Leigh Corbin for Badwater 2009. After she completes the race (great positive attitude) we are planning on hiking to the summit of Mt. Whitney, which will be my first time going from the lowest elevation to the highest peak in the lower 48 states.

Phoenix Coyotes night

Well, a fellow running friend of mine works for Godaddy and emailed me if I would like some tickets to the hockey game last night. I accepted them and took Benjamin and Kimberly, Nicholas was feeling under the weather, so he did not go. We stopped by where she was running with some other runners that I know and she gave us the tickets and even a parking pass to the garage. We got there a couple of minutes late, but I figured with a 3 year old, who knows how long we will even be there.

We ended up parking in the second parking space from the entrance and were directed to the elevator to our "Suite", we got to the box suite and we were the only ones there. It is a private suite for 18 people and it turned out to be just 9 of us there (seven runners and my two kids). They even delivered three pizzas popcorn, and pretzels. Oh yea, free non-alcohol drinks. The two kids had a great time watching the game and climbing over the chairs and eating. The box turned out to be at the center ice, so I can say that I had one great evening with some Friends and kids.

Oh, yea near the end of the evening they brought our bill for us to sign. As my friend signed it for the company, we learned that each of the two cheese pizzas were $30.00 each and the Peperoni was $35.00. The picture of the two containers of popcorn and pretzels was $25.00 for each of the popcorn and $20.00 for the pretzels. We did not even see the bill for the soda and water. It was very appreciated what the company did for their employees. The nice thing about this is that the arena is on the far west side of town by my house and the company is in the east side of town, so a lot of employees do not even bother with going to the games.

Across The Years - Race Report 2008-2009

It has taken me almost a week to get over the head cold that I got while running the ATY. Well, I had it prior to the race, but was getting over it by the time the race came around.

By 2:30am I had completed 100K and was as happy as could be.


It started for me the night before, with a good shower and then I taped my feet up and prepped them for the race. I am so glad that I spent that hour or so working on my feet. I started by drying my feet really good, wiping them down with an alcohol wipe and then applying kinesio tape to each of the toes and bottom of my feet. I learned how to tape my feet properly from the book "Fixing Your Feet: Prevention And Treatments for Athletes". I really do recommend all the athletes that have any foot problems to read this book. They took me the entire 62+ miles without one hot spot, black toe nail, or blister. After I finished my feet, I put on socks and went to bed. The night of rest went well and 5:15 am was soon here. Chad picked me up at 6am and we went for breakfast and then headed to the race. (10 miles from my house).

We got there with plenty of time to setup and walk around. I did not have to check in since they gave me my chip and equipment the day before, because I help out with the setup and when ever needed for this race. They have an email system where people can leave messages for the different runners and they print them out and put them in boxes for the runners to pickup. I checked my email box and had two emails one from my cousin and the other from Karen in the UK. They were the only emails that I got all day :( I did get several calls from Leigh which was needed and she is such a great friend to have cheering and coaching you on to your first 100K. Thank you Leigh for everything.

Finally 9am rolled around, I started off the race on a nice slow jog where my pace for each .31 mile loop I would do it in around 4:05 to 4:10 and continued this for the next 7 hours. At about 3 hours into the race, I decided to switch out my new shoes for my older ones since they were not as roomy as I am use to. I then stayed in these for the remainder of the race. After the 7 hours of running, I went to a controlled march / brisk walk of about 15 to 16 minute mile which I tried to maintained nonstop for the next 10.5 hours which slowed down as the hours ticked on.

Chad stayed there for the first hour or so then went to join Julie and Lori who had the kids and were heading to the Pizza place where the kids could play. About 1 pm or so Chad returned with Lori and Kimberly who cheered me on for a while. Kimberly loved to play in the grass and cheered each time I passed by. Lori and Kimberly left about 45 minutes later or so and then Chad went for his weekend run down the canal that is next to the ATY site. After his run, I had changed from running to brisk walking and he decided to tag along for the conversation and the additional exercise. He hung in with me for several miles before deciding to head home. I could say that I was now all alone, but I had so many people that were in the race, that I knew and cheered me on and gave me words of encouragement that I forgot to put on my mp3 for about 10 more hours.

The biggest problem for me the entire race was having a head cold and coughing and blowing my nose every 10 minutes.

For the nutrition, everything went ok or not so ok, at the beginning I was able to pee and was feeling strong, then I got intestinal shutdown and everything I consumed, stayed in my stomach and I continued to keep my calories up for the next 12 hours or so like this. I knew the only way to clear it out was to throw up, which I never had the desire to while running. This is a common occurrence for me on my longer runs, that my stomach will shut down.

There are several probable causes for this happening to me:

• Dehydration
• Electrolyte imbalance is affecting peristalsis, Peristalsis is very sensitive to salt and water imbalance in the intestinal tract.
• Most people maintain normal gastric emptying and intestinal motility by remaining below a heart rate which corresponds to less than 70% VO2 max effort. If you don't use physiologic testing to facilitate training, this corresponds to approximately 80% of your maximum heart rate or the effort commonly referred to as ‘steady'.

Any one or combination of these may be the cause of my dismay. I will have to train and test each one for a solid solution to each.

At 2:30 am (17.5 hrs) into the race, I hit the 100K mark. It felt like the night was standing still and the laps were not adding up quick enough. At about 94K I started to feel aches in my feet, ankles, knees, hips, and major chafing in the groin. Maybe it was my body telling me that enough is enough for the first ultra.

I went into the heated tent and warmed up and that is when my stomach told me it needed attention, so I went to the restroom and emptied it. I then went back to the heated tent and curled up on the floor for 2 hours and let my body recover. After getting up and being stiff, I decided that 100K was enough, I could not physically have made it to the 100 mile mark in 24 hours and did not see a reason to take the risk of injury for a couple more miles.

So, Chad gave me a ride home and I took a nice warm bath with epson salt and then got some more warm rest. All is feeling great now and I am looking forward to doing the 48 hour race next year.

This is definitely a race to do if you are an ultra runner or just want to give it a try. There is an aid station and medic tent every .5K and it is impossible to get lost on the 15 feet wide gravel track. The scenery is amazing and the people are top notch.


Before I go, I need to congratulate some people for their accomplishments at the race:

In the 72 hour group:

• William Sichel for completing 269.3 Miles
• Gavin Wrublik for completing 50.6 Miles (Age 7)
• Robert Andrulis for completing 143.8 Miles
• Rick Cheever for completing 148.8 Miles
• Jean-Jacques d'Aquin for completing 164.9 miles at age 69 (May 8th at 3am he is doing a double crossing of the Grand Canyon with a group of ultra runners for his 70th Birthday)
• John Geesler (American 48hr record holder) who injured his ankle and still completed 160.9 miles

In the 48 hour group:

• Lisa Bliss who Completed 150.6 Miles
• Dan Jensen who completed 110.2 Miles with one leg amputated (see the Documentary: Running on the Sun)
• Jeff Hagen for completing 180.5 miles

In the 24 Hour group:

• Wendell Doman for completing 124.5 miles (you never stopped!)
• Summer Wesson for completing 80.46 miles
• Stephanie Buettner for completing 85.4 miles
• Sue Norwood for completing 82 miles
• Deborah Goodwin for your first ultra and completing 75.1 miles

Here are a couple pictures that were taken at the race:

Here I am on the inside with Debbie and Steph both on the outside (Drawing a blank on who is next to me).

John Geesler and Gavin (7 years old) during the third day.

Here I am about to take Lisa Bliss or was this when she passed me, I do not know they both happened many times.

Here I am in the distance running along the front of the Nardini Mannor

Here is Chad, Lori, and Kimberly (behind the table crawling in the grass)

Here I am early in the day looking fresh and ready for a long day.

Across the Years - Here I Come....

Well the Across the Years race has officially started, and looking at the leader board for the 24hr race, I am in 35th place and I have not left work yet. The leader board can be seen here. For those of you that want to check on the current standings of the race, you can go here. The race ends January 1, 2009 at 9am (Arizona time). Since the race is a 24, 48, and 72 hour race, they started today with all the 72 hour individuals, about half of the 24 hour runners and about a third of the 48 hour individuals. Tomorrow at 9am the 24 hour individuals that started today will end and the most of the 48 hour individuals and a couple of the 24 hour runners will start. On Wednesday at 9am, is when the rest of the 24 hour individuals (including me) will start out. I choose to run the New Years eve start, because at midnight, there is a great clelbration and fireworks for everyone. Also, if I make it 24 hours, the awards ceremony is shortly after the finish of the race.

Also, you can send messages to any of the runners by going to the Send Greetings page. While you are at the ATY web page, you can read bios on all the runners. I spent some time reading up on who I was going to be running next to. There were too many runners that have done Badwater, and I believe there were about a half dozen runners that have completed the Trans America run (Across the USA). Several current and former world record holders of distance running.

I hope you can check out some of the web site, and cheer me on to my first official Ultra. I guess I should spell out what my goals are:

#1. Have FUN

#2. Run 100K (hopefully by mid-night)

#3. Stay on my feet 24 hours

#4. Commit to doing it again next year.

Will I make it 100 miles, I doubt it, that would be 322 laps, and never being above 50 miles before, I am not betting on it. However they do have that belt buckle for the 100 miles. Maybe next year.

I hope you all have a great New Years, and will give a recap of the race on the other side, and I do not mean one that goes like lap 1, lap 2, lap 3....

Great weekend and wrapping up the year

Earlier last week, I went in for my blood work, and Friday I got the results. Everything was outstanding. My cholesterol was down 100 points this month, and now in the really good range. The meds I have been on for cholesterol are no more, we will retest in a couple of months. The lab work indicated that the meds for weight loss, have not made any adverse effects on my body, except loosing 18 lbs in one month time frame, I weighed in this morning at 174.4 lbs and I feel a lot of that was due to dehydration. We will see what tomorrow holds in store for me.

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to get in my last long run before the ATY race in 9 days. I went out at a normal casual pace of a 11 minute mile pace for the first three miles. I was really feeling good and started to let myself run and mile 4 turned into a 10:17 and mile 5 was 10:05 and mile 6 was 9:22. I got to thinking that this feels great and I might as well do the first 13.1 miles as I feel comfortable doing, since I am now about half way there. Here is how the first thirteen miles turned out:

1. 11:00
2. 11:01
3. 10:56
4. 10:17
5. 10:05
6. 9:22
7. 9:17
8. 9:27
9. 9:20
10. 9:15
11. 9:52
12. 9:38
13. 9:43
    .57 seconds
    The total 1/2 marathon distance came out to 2:10, which is a PR for me. I then walked 1/2 mile and then continued the remainder 3 miles at a 14 minute jog pace.

I only took some water and by the time I was done, I had some stomach pain and it would not settle for a couple of hours. I completely depleted my body of all stored energy and I was truely wishing that I had some of that Gu that was sitting on my dresser. It was far from my intentions to go "All out", but I was feeling really good and enjoying the outside.

I am now in the taper mode for the ATY - 24 hour run.

A great Monday

Yesterday turned out to be a great day.

It started off with going to get my blood drawn for Fridays Dr appt. Then Lori and I took our son to his Dr appt, which was clear across town. His appt went well and his Dr wants him to start running, exercise and build some muscle. When we left the Dr. we got a call from Chad and Julie and they both took the day off work and were running around, so we agreed to meet up for lunch. We drove about 30 miles to meet up with them and had a great lunch and conversations. When we finished lunch, Lori, Nicholas, and I headed to Roadrunner Sports to look at new shoes. Nicholas got a new pair (that is now wrapped for a Christmas present), and I picked out my next pair of Asics which I will buy on Friday (payday) and wrap them up for a Christmas present to myself. When we got done there, I had plans to go to REI sports, since they have rock climbing gear there and my son really loves rock climbing. We went there and I told him to look around and Lori and I would be looking ourselves. We found him in the rock section, trying on new climbing shoes. He also got fitted for a new harness and rigging's. I will have to return and get some more Christmas presents for him. I picked up my copy of Fixing your Feet, and then we went to pick up our other son who was in school.

We got home and I grabbed my bag and headed to the gym for a good interval run.

2 minute at 12 min mile

4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile
4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile
4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile
4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile
4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile
4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile
4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile

Headed home and showered and ate dinner with the family.

Oh, yea while I was out all day, FEDEX came bearing gifts:

I got an email from OutsidePR and Sports Marketing and they came across my blog and was interested in sending me some Gu Roctane to try out, well the sent me two display cases full of the stuff. Just in time for Across The Years and my long run this weekend. I will give some feedback to them and you as to my liking of the product.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The good news is that I have been on adipex for 31 days and the results show:














I have dropped 20 lbs in 31 days, (and a grand total of 65lbs for the past 21 months) however as you can see from the chart above the weight loss is starting to taper off. I will probably take the medicine for another 10 days, since that is how many pills I still have. My goal is to get to 165lbs and from there start building muscle, get more endurance, and continue to eat healthy. I would really like to not focus this next year on weight loss and on improving on what I got. For the past couple of weeks, Lori, Ben, and I have started lifting weights at the gym after our runs. For me the run is to go 1.5 miles from my house to the gym and then 3.5 on the treadmill. They show up shortly after I do and they run for 25 or so minutes. The weight lifting program has us doing 3 sets of 15 reps each, so the weight is not too high, but by the 15th rep we are suppose to be expended. Last night we did our routine, and we did bench press, incline bench press, cross overs, pull downs, dips, and crunches. They all felt great and we were all able to bump up our weights. The program we are on is a 12 week transformation program, and it seems to be doing well for us.

Now for the bad news, sometime during my workout, I hurt my foot. The pain is on the top of my right foot, around where the tongue of the shoe would be. I am limping and massaging it now, and if it continues to hurt through the weekend, I will schedule an appt to have it looked at. The good part about this, is if I do not move it, it does not hurt.

The ugly part is that that I have 19 days till I race the Across the Years, and I plan on being on that foot for 24 hours.

Objective #1 - Stay away from here.

Beware of the Doghouse- Hilarious! - video

Luckey number 7

Today was the first time I saw a 7 on the scale in the tens column (and Lori was my witness).

Taking the kids today to see santa at Bass Pro Shop, I think I will ask for a 6 for Christmas.

Now off to church to give thanks for that 7.

6 THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

I was tagged by Amy to list 6 things that make me happy.

1. My kids make me happy, not when they are arguing with each other, but when they are listening and being will behaved.


2. The joy of running, it is hard to believe that 18 months ago I began with a morning 5 minute walk, and now I will go out for a strong 2 hour run through the desert.


3. Having a secure job, there are so many people out there that are stressing over layoffs, etc. I am glad to have been in my job for over 10 years and have a union contract that spells out how layoffs would occur and I am way down the list.


4. My over all health has never been better than it is now. I may have had less body fat on me when I was in the military, but I have never been so fit in my life.


5. Rediscovering God this year.


6. My ever special and carrying wife. I do not know what I would do without her by my side, in good times and bad times. She has been there to hold me up and to support me when I have fallen.

Thanks Amy for the Tag.
I will now Tag Chad, Julie, Java Mom, and Pat

Post Thanksgiving reflection.
Wednesday after work, I drove my son and I up to the in-laws house in Kingman, AZ. Lori and the rest of the family went up on Tuesday, so they got a longer weekend than I did. The ride was pretty un-eventful, dark, long, two lane road.
Thanksgiving day, while the food was cooking, I ended up chopping down a couple of LARGE trees, without falling it on the house or solar panels. Then, I had to cut the branches off and haul them off to the landfill. With the useful wood, I cut and stacked it for next years fires. Turkey dinner was good, a little blan for me, but I was limited to 500 calories for the meal. (One serving of Turkey white meat is about 200 calories).
Friday, I had my father-in-law put me in the bucket on the tractor and picked pecans for most of the morning and then husked them which left my hands black. They still are and now only looks like I changed the motor on an old car. The stains which penetrates several layers of skin takes several weeks to wear off. We also used the tractor to remove the stumps from the trees that I cut down.
Saturday, I ended up climbing up the windmill and oiling the motor, and repairing a couple of the blades. We then finished harvesting the remainder of the pecans and got more stains on my hands.
Sunday, I got up and went for a nice two hour run. There are lots of trails by my in-laws live and since I did not have a water bottle, I limited my self to two hours. I was able to pull 10 miles and 1500 feet elevation change up and down. The trails were some of the most scenic trails that I have ever been on and they are just right there from my in-laws house. Afterwards, we headed to the cabin in the Haulipai mountains to pick up some stuff we left over the summer. As we were pulling out and locking the gate to the cabin, there were about 6 deer, and I rolled down my window and had Kimberly unbuckle and she climbed on my lap. One of the deer came to the window and she handed the deer an apple. After the deer ate the apple, she came back and kissed Kimberly's hand. I tossed a couple of apples to some of the baby deers that were no taller than 2 feet tall. After watching them for some time we drove home.

On the weight loss front,

Happy Thanksgiving

I am now wrapping up the week of work (all 3 days) and getting ready to head out of town for the weekend. I just wanted to wish each and everyone of you a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Weight loss in the right direction - DOWN

First off I was able to get out and get in a one hour run in this am. I discovered that If I get up at 4am and I can be at the gym and on the treadmill by 4:30am for an hour run and get to catch up on the news. When I got up, I did my usual routine and got on the scale, (who is one of my new friends, although still on probation) and he told me that I am looking marvelous. Oh yea he also said that I now weigh 185.0! WOW, I have not weighed that much in years (and lots of them).

Well, the new medicine that the Dr has me on has done a number on me, like 12 lbs in 11 days. That is more than a pound a day. At this rate, I should be light enough to be blown across the track at Across the Years.

I have about 15-20 lbs to go, which will put me at about 10% body fat, and I can then restart on building lean muscle mass. I would like to have my body in top physical, mental, and spiritual shape with no problems of cholesterol, excess fat, stress, etc.

JJ100 Race weekend Recap Part 2of 2

And the story continues......
I was prepared for when Leigh came thru after her fourth loop (60 miles) to pace her even though earlier she told me that she wanted me at mile 75 (loop 6). She came in and it looked like the full day of sun beating down on her had taken some of her spunk out of her, so I asked if she wanted me to pacer her from this point forward. Her reply was that she would really like me to join her, but the really needed me later. I told her that I will be there for her when she needs me, and does she want me now. She said Yes. So, while some of her friends/crew took care of her. I got on my bottles/fanny pack and lights(s). We headed off for our 40 mile run.
The small talk started with introductions if each other, how ever she could have called me any name during the run and I would be ok with that. Discussed some logistics as to her preferences for me running in front, beside, or behind her. Whether she considered a slight incline as a steep hill yet, when she would walk, march, or run. I was trying to sum up her mental and some physical conditions after going 60 miles. Leigh seemed extremely coherent and alert, which makes my job of pacing and caring for her much easier. Later on during the first loop, I learned that she was having some stomach pain and so we went thru the nutrition checklist, since it was not morning yet, I ruled out morning sickness. It looks like we will have to suck it up and keep going. We managed a good pace that was manageable for her and I knew that I would not have any trouble keeping this to the finish line. Just as we left the second aid station (Jackass Junction) a runner indicated that there was a snake on the trail ahead. In the distance I could see another runner shining their flashlight on it, so as we approached Leigh swerved away and I shined my flashlight in the 15in long Diamondback Rattlesnake, this snake looked like it was sleeping and it was actually very cold out for snakes, so seeing one was a surprise to me. I looked for a marker and about 100 feet down the trail was a glow stick hanging on the tree. Now on our way back we could be alert to its presence.
The end of lap 5 (mile 75) I was feeling wonderful, and Leigh's friend from Fleet Feet came over and took to her needs while I restocked my supplies for the next 15 mile loop. It was around 1:15am when we came into the headquarters, and my son is sitting at the computer with Jamil. I told him to go to bed like his brother has done and I would see him in the am. As we were leaving, I asked Leigh's friend from Fleet Feet, if he sees my son up, to let him know that I told him to go to bed. If us parents don't stick together, then the teenagers will walk right over us. We were heading down the trail on loop 6 and only got about 1 mile down the trail when Leigh indicated that she intended to change her shoes out at the last stop, I looked at my gps and we were one mile out, I could run back and get the shoes for her and run and catch up to her and make the change at the next aid station, but not knowing which pair was hers and where they were, and leaving her on the trail alone. The risk was there for allowing Murphy and his laws to step in. I suggested that we change them out the next go around, and she seemed ok with that. We continued marching up the 7 mile hill and as we got to the glow stick, we both started looking for the snake again, it had crawled away and went to bed. We got to the next aid station and got some soup and took a quick potty break. As we left the aid station and took the left turn at the end of the park to head south, the full moon was out and the silouets of the mountains made is such a beautiful night. The trail seemed to go on forever and I even started looking for orange markers, and I put them out there. We never left the trail, but it seemed to go on forever. We did manage to get some good runs in during this segment, then we finally made it Jav. Junction. where she as a close friend at that gave her a chair massage, while I let the rocks out of my shoes and inspected my feet and applied some Vaseline to them. Leighs friend gave me some ginger cookies to feed to her every couple of minutes for the next stretch, which I did until she threatened to bury me in the desert if I gave her one more. I still have the cookies in my coat pocket, maybe I will mail them to her, or save them for the next time I pace her. We finally got thru the rocky down hill section and the sun came up, we could finally turn the lights off. With about 2 miles to go on this loop, we passed Anthony as he was taking the final loop, offered congrats to him and we headed in from Leigh's 6th loop. We got to the Start/finish headquarters area around 6am or so, the computer was down and timing was now by stopwatch. I indicated to Leigh's friend that she needed to change out her shoes and her blister popped an hour or so ago. I wish I knew this individuals name, but he was a wonderful resource and cared for her very well, what a great friend. After a few minutes of rest, we shook the dust off us and headed out for her final lap (10 miles). We both found some stored energy and were able to make some time up with short quick runs every minute or so. We came across Bob one mile out and he was heading in from his 6th loop (about 2 miles behind us). As we approached the final aid station I was running low on Gatorade and water, I forgot to refill at the last aid station, so I had to stop and fill up and we got some fruit and we were on our final 3.8 miles downhill to the finish line. We were doing some runs, but mostly walking because Leigh felt her heart pounding hard and I told her that we will only go as fast as her heart allows. Then on the down hill, I looked back and Gary Culver was right behind us. Gary is a runner that I run with each weekend for our long runs and canal runs on Thursday nights. The two of them started talking, and then Gary politely departed and headed down the trail with his long legs. Gary only beat us by 9 minutes.
When we got down the hill to the bottom of the riverbed and the 1 mile to go sign that I placed there on Friday, Leigh started to thank me for helping her and we were both a little emotional about the entire thing. For me it was making sure that she got to the finish line safely, and for me it was the first time I ran over 26.2 miles and I was wrapping up 40 miles. We got to a short distance from the parking lot and I saw my son sitting on his bike watching for us, I took off my waist belt and jacket and gave them to him so Leigh and I could go across the finish line together. We made it across the finish line at 28hours 7 minutes. I proceeded to escort her to the medical tent to have her blood pressure checked and make sure her heart was doing well. I gave the medics the information that I could, as to the times when we noticed issues, etc. I then went to get a quick snack, said goodbye to some new and old friends. and had to take off for home.

I got home and took a bath and crawled into bed while my wife took our daughter to a birthday party, I for some reason was to tired to attend. Got up after a couple of hours of rest and went to dinner with the family. Monday I was back at the gym doing jogging laps in the pool. wanted to take it easy for a day or two, but now I am back at the usual routine.

Now that things are back to normal, I can focus on family, training for ATY, and weight loss.

I am now about 6 weeks out from ATY (Dec 31, 9am) 24hr run. I can not thank Leigh enough for giving me the training I needed for the ATY, I can now taper from the long run and get a couple 25-30 milers in over the next couple of weeks. I am following a strict schedule on my running as soon as I write it down. In short I have no clue what I am doing. I figure it is like training for a 5k just multiply each days distance by 20...?

On the weight loss front, this past week, even with running 40 miles I was able to drop 8lbs in 7 days. I did only drop an additional .7 lbs yesterday, since I had birthday cake (my lovely wife turned 28 (again))....Happy Birthday Lori, I love you.

JJ100 Race weekend Recap Part 1 of 2

I am doing this recap in two parts, the first being a volunteer and the second being a pacer. Thursday night, I decided to invite my two boys out to the JJ100 to camp and volunteer. Friday am I told them that if they wanted to go, they had 30 minutes to get ready and have their stuff in the truck. Nothing like being well planned. Nicholas and I dropped Ben off at school since he had a presentation to give on Friday, then the two of us went to the local fire wood store and filled the remainder of the truck with firewood for the weekend.
We got out to the starting area of the race and unloaded the truck and set up camp. By about 10:30 we headed out on our mountain bikes to flag the course (another one of my duties). I spent the next 4 hours riding and stopping every 100 yards to .1 miles and placing flags so that people would know that they are on the correct trail. Then where other trails merge with the route, I would put lots of Blue flags so that Bob would know not to go down this trail. It worked, he stayed on the main trail most of the time, and even found the finish line. Good job Bob.
Back to my story, when we finished, we headed back into town and picked up Benjamin and the three of us went back to camp. We got there in time to meet Bob, Tony, Jamie Donaldson (Badwater Course Record Holder), Rick, Dusty, Angie, Leigh, JavaMom, and many others.
I was suppose to pace Tony a lap, and Rick was going to pace him the remainder of the race, but it was determined that Rick would pace Tony the entire time (laps 5-7). I was OK with that, there were many other people that could use a pacer, and Bob mentioned that Leigh did not have one, and asked her if she wanted one. She did and so I planned on pacing her. When she would want me and for how long she would put up with me was still unknown. We tentatively planned on me going with her from mile 75 thur 100, but things can change. I did not have a problem with going 10, 25, or 40 with her, but we would leave that up to her.
Was able to sit down with my boys and some other runners that were camping near us and got to know each other a little better. Really great company the entire weekend. After dinner, the place cleared out and so we started a campfire and was sitting down with some new friends from Berkley and one of them looked over towards me and said what is that? I turned around and about 10 feet away was a pack of 5 Javalina's heading in to see what is left over to eat. After a while of socializing, after a while, we figured that the night would be too short, so we all headed to bed.
At 4am bright and early, I got up and turned on all the coffee pots for the racers, fixed some eggs for my boys and myself. Then I started checking in the runners. At 6am the racers were off and running, and I sent my two boys out to a remote aid station for an 8 hour work day. The did wonderful, many of the runners and volunteers that knew that they belonged to me, said they did a great job. (I guess I can hang my head high). I went out for a easy 4 mile run with Chad and then took a shower, while he did another 4 miles. At about 9am Chad headed out and was not able to meet up with some of the other blogger. I stayed around the headquarters (start/finish) area and helped runners as they came through with their water bottles, food, etc. until 8:44pm when Leigh came in from her fourth lap and looked like the past 60 hours was starting to take a toll on her. I asked if she wanted me to start pacing her now and she agreed. So I filled up my bottles and grabbed my lights and we were off.
To be continued in part two.....

photo credit to Will LaFollette

Ropelling and Zip Lines

The last of our pictures from Mexico came today, so I thought I would share some with you:

Cabo Dolphin Adventure

Here are the pictures of the Dolphin Adventure in Cabo San Lucas.

Royal Caribean Vision of the Seas cruise review

I am taking one blog and dedicating it to the review of my cruise and the accommodations.

We arrived at the Long Beach terminal at 1:30pm on Sunday and proceeded to check in, before we knew it we were on the ship without our kids :) We went to our room and dropped off our carry on bag and proceeded to explore the ship. First off on the 10th floor is the running track (1479 feet around, or 3.5 laps to about one mile). On the three days at sea, I was able to get in a 10, 14.5, and 5 mile runs) That would be my first international 1/2 marathon! :) The fitness center is also on the 10th floor. In the fitness center they have about 10 treadmills, a aerobics floor, some machines, and dumbbell's. We checked into the Vitality program and that is a program where if you partake in one of their fitness activities they give you a vitality token which you can cash in at the end of the cruise for some gifts. I still have 4 or 5 left, so if someone is going on a Royal Caribbean cruise and would like them, send me an email. Also on the 10 th floor is the shuffle boards. From there we went up to the 11th floor which is a night club. We then proceeded to the 9th floor where at the front of the ship is the buffet, then making our way back is the main pool and 4 hot tubs (although not too hot more warm, this is one of my few complaints about the ship). Behind the main pool is the indoor pool with the glass roof and two more hot tubs, this area is for adults only, is seemed to be a social area for adults and was decent area to hang out, because you do not have the wind that you get at the other pool, remember the ship is going around 25 miles an hour. Finally behind the indoor pool is the spa, where Lori and I both got a couples massage (90 minutes) which was in a corner room with the wall of windows looking out the side and back of the ship. I wanted this room for my cabin. The two ladies that gave us a massage, did an excellent job.

Some other notable items about the ship, our room was on the fourth floor inside in the very front of the ship, next to the main theater, so we hear the music/ performance each night. Although this was not too bad, we could have had the dining room next to us or above us. I heard from someone on the 8th floor, that they could hear people walking by the pool above them, if they listened carefully. While researching the cruise ship, I learned to bring clothes pins to hang up the wet clothes in your cabin, however I did learn that the hangers will hang from the privacy screen in the room, so you can hang the clothes from the hangers.

This being our first cruise, I brought the sleeping pills, and we did not need them, the ship literally rocked us to sleep each night, it was so peaceful and great. I did set my alarm to go off at 5:30 each morning, so I could get up and go running. I would start in the pitch dark and watch the sun slowly creep up into the sky. With that and watching the dolphins in the water while running, was a nice treat. Running on a moving ship, is a lot like trail running. Although the surface is flat, with the movement of the ship, the track would go up and down very slowly with the waves, I have heard some people complain about it, but I loved it. The track went from the front of the ship to just before the smoke stacks, so you never smelled the exhaust of the ship.

The first night we went to the dining room and was escorted to our table, and was greeted by our waiter and assistant waiter. Boon was our waiter and he was from China I think. The assistant waiter was Mariska and she was from South Africa. I told her that I want to bring her home with us (OK, her fiance can also come along). This was her first cruise as a employee, and she did an extremely wonderful job. I ordered a coffee and Lori ordered hot decaf tea with dinner. Each night, we would get to the table and my coffee cup and creamer was on the table and Lori's tea cup and teabags were there waiting for us. By the time we would get seated, the hot water for the tea and coffee would be pored for us. We shared a table with two other people, a lady and her 4 year old son. We somehow only had dinner with them 3 times during the entire cruise. Very nice people and a pleasure to have at the table.

We were anchored in Cabo San Lucas, because of the shallow bay, on Tuesday and we signed up for the activity of swimming with the dolphins at the dolphin pool, worth every penny that we spent. After the briefing and getting life vests on, we were able to sit on the side of the pool and pet the dolphins, then we would jump into the water one at a time and the dolphin would come up and kiss us on the cheek, and then we would be able to kiss the dolphin. We then went into the middle of the pool with a bar and held it up for the dolphin to jump over (I did it twice, holding the bar not jumping). I then had the dolphin roll over and laid on its stomach and went for a ride around the pool WOW that is awesome. Near the end we all (about 8 of us) got into the pool and the dolphin swam around us and we got to pet it and splash around with this awesome animal. We decided to purchase pictures of us with the dolphin and they cost $25 each or a CD with 8 for $100.00 which is what we did. I will upload them later. We then proceeded to go to Poncho's Mexican restaurant. Lets face is around the bay, is the tourist trap area and even a Hooters there. We started to get away from the main area and asked a taxi driver where he would recommend and he sent us to Poncho's which was real good food and great Margaritas. The restaurant is located at N 22° 52.900 W 109° 54.795. After lunch, we did a little shopping and made our way back to the ship.

The next morning we docked were in Mazatlan and when we got off the boat, we walked along the dock to the front of the ship between ours and the Princess cruise ship in front of us and caught a catamaran boat that took us to the island across the water way, where we walked a short distance to the beach where we put on life vests and went for a short 4 mile paddle in a kayak and this was done as a large group of 10 to 15 boats of two. About 1/2 way around cactus Island I decided to jump into the water to cool off. Very refreshing. We then proceeded to paddle the boats back through the surf and to the beach, where we had food and drinks available to us. The group then had the option to go hiking, or swim. Lori and I decided to go swimming in the ocean, since we can go hiking anytime at home. Lori got her hair braided on the beach and I bought a hammock swing. We made it back in plenty of time to do some shipping near the port terminal.

The next morning we arrived in Puarto Viarta, where we caught a zodiac boat and took it to the small town of Boca located at N20 30.760 W105 18.949 where we then boarded some big trucks and that took us to the to the base camp for the Zip lines at N20 28.776 W105 16.044. Here we got fitted with equipment and got on some mules to take us to the top of the mountain where we did about 12 different zip lines ranging anywhere from 50 feet with a angle of 50 degrees to 600 feet with a much less angle. The first several zip lines are above the jungle trees and have a great view and maybe 300 feet down to the ground. After about 7 different zip lines we then rappelled down a waterfall into a crisp clean pool of water. A couple of more zip lines then we walk out onto a platform over a waterfall and do a free fall rappel. The last zip line is set up as two, so two people can race across the 500 foot canopy covered run. You get going about 50 mph at the fastest part, this was such a rush, and once again worth every $$. The pictures that their photographer took sell for a couple $100.00 for a CD. They do not print pictures there, but you get a CD.

The next two days at sea started with the captain getting on the intercom to announce that we would be pulling into Cabo San Lucas to drop off someone that needs medical attention. Some elderly lady was walking on the deck and apparently slipped and broke her hip. So, we pulled in to the bay and dropped a lifeboat that they loaded her into and drove her to a waiting ambulance and the boat returned and we headed back out to sea.

We were in Long Beach on time on Sunday morning where we elected to take our own bags off the ship rather than having the valet service do it. We were one of the first off the boat and were heading to Six Flags for the day. We got there 10 minutes before it opened.

Let me say this about Six Flags Magic Mountain. If you are going there for any other reason than roller coasters, you will be very disappointed. It is full of teen agers and dirty. There is gum everywhere from people spitting it out and even throw-up on some of the ride platforms. They have about 12 good roller coasters and it costs $60 to get in plus $15 to park. Weigh your options before going. We did have fun riding the rides and some scared me to death (X2 ride).

Over all a great vacation, and now back to catching up on all the work.