26.2 Quest: May 2008

Runner is still living his dream

This is a very cool story of a 37 year old man who is still living his dream. Paul says:

"I'm still 11 years old for all intents and purposes," Stoneham said. "I'm just able to drive now. That's about the only difference."

Paul Stoneham was a running legend in Waco, TX when he was 11 years old and went on to do some pretty amazing things throughout school and into college. He is 37 years old, 135 lbs with 3% body fat, and runs 110 -120 miles a week.

Paul goes through a pair of running shoes every three weeks in his training. He is trying to qualify for the Olympics in the 10k, a childhood dream. He lives on an estimated $40/day and without the sponsorship from Kolar Advertising www.kolaradvertising.com/heroes he would not be able to chase after his dream.

A real everyday person going after his dream. The things I find so amazing is how he is 37 years old (close to my age), and still able to compete at this level. He had to take 6 years off because of injuries (I complained about 3 months). As I read his story over here: www.star-telegram.com/sports/story/667386.html it really gave me hope that I can do what I want to do if I just set my mind to it.

My dream isn't anywhere as ambitious as his, but I still need to focus on my goal. Reading his story I am inspired and know I can attain my goal to run that marathon.

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - Sorry I have found my blog being syndicated across the internet via my rss feed so I want to make sure that it is clear where it was first written. I will start tagging my posts with my blog address to make sure it is always obvious.

10 Mile Humidity Test

Lawrenceville, GA - As the sun came up over the horizon, Tim Wilson was still sound asleep, resting comfortably in the air conditioning after a good nights rest. He knew the rest wouldn't last long as he started to stir around 7:20 realizing his long run was beckoning. He knew what the weatherman had said just a short 9 hours later. OK, he didn't remember everything he said, but he did remember the words humidity and high being used in the same sentence.

OK, enough of the third party writing. It sounded like a cool idea, but just isn't as easy and doesn't flow as well.

It was really humid this morning. I knew about it the night before, but knew I still needed to get my long run in. I took off this morning at about 7:45 with the humidity proudly sitting at 96%. I am just glad the temperatures were not too high at 64 degrees. I was starting to drip before I rounded the corner at the 1/4 mile mark. By the time the run was done the temp had raised to 74 degrees but the humidity had dropped to 84%.

I started the run this morning with the music off. I wanted to just enjoy the ambiance around me this morning. I turned on the radio after a couple miles when I hit the busier road to drown out the cars.

As I was running my 3rd mile I had a rare occasion to see a deer bounce across the road in front of me. Since the area I live in is so loaded with subdivisions we don't have a lot of deer. We do occasionally see deer in our back yard and in our woods behind our house but these woods too are locked in by homes. It was just a really cool addition to the morning. The funny thing is when I turned around and headed back I saw another (or maybe the same one) cross the road in the same place - going the same way... very cool.

My run went really good with a average pace of 8:50 which is just 5 seconds slower than my Half Marathon Race Pace back in February. Looking forward to start building the miles back up now that work is starting to show some relief.

Humidity test results: Pass

Running Log Link to show my splits

Where in the world am I?

I just recently came across a new mapping site for blogs. This site lets you list your blog and it shows up on a map by where you are located. This seems like a great way to find other local bloggers. I have not tried it yet, but you can even search by topic.

The site is Verve Earth - www.verveearth.com, but of course the best way to check it out is to click on this link to go directly to my listing to see just how wonderful it can be :)

I have noticed it is only accurate to the zip code, so it is about 4 miles off for me. It would be nice if you could enter your complete address IF you wanted it to specifically pinpoint you. I know this may not be desirable for everybody though, but would be a nice option. Update: you can drag your icon to your precise location.

Two Time Olympic Runner's New Marathon Training Website

A reader of my blog for some time, and fellow Complete Running Network member, Marius Bakken has started a new Marathon Training Website.

Why not take a moment to stop by Marius' personal website and learn more about him. I suggest you start out at this page and browse from there.

Once you have read a bit about him to establish his credibility head on over to his new Marathon Training Website at www.marathon-training-schedule.com

Summer is on the way!

You can tell summer is on the way when you look like this following a 5:00 AM 6 mile run.

Link to stats of this mornings good 6.4 mile run. 68 degrees, windy, and humid.

What kind of split is that?

Either I went out too slow or I finished to fast..... or I just had a great 4 mile run!

Whatever the case I loved it and I think it went really well. This comes after taking three days off because of an aching knee. Still not sure what was going on with my knee. I don't think it was running related, but I didn't want to irritate it by running my long run on Saturday.

I started this mornings run with a first mile at a 9:38 pace, and finished with a 4th mile at a 7:46 pace.... almost 2 minutes difference in between! I try to start my first mile at an easy pace as my warm-up, and try to speed it up a little at a time throughout the race to get negative splits. I guess this morning I was feeling a bit more energetic.

My race log with the other splits.

No run tomorrow

I won't be going for my anticipated long run tomorrow. My running has been good this week and today was an off day like normal. I was looking forward to my long run tomorrow, but I think I am going to have to pass.

Everything felt good today, I got to the gym this morning before work for some weights. The whole day, no pain - until I was walking to the car following work. I must have rested my leg wrong today while sitting at the desk, because my right knee is hurting. It has gotten worse as the night has gone on. I am not sure what it is, but will not be running tomorrow to make sure I don't irritate it at all.

Hopefully the nights rest and taking the day off will bring it back to normal.

So.... I didn't win

Yes, I know I was confident that I would win the bike of my dreams. I blogged about it a few days ago here, and I was absolutely sure that I would win that bike. The odds were great in this contest as they were over here as well where I also entered the same contest. They announced the winner of that one yesterday..... again not me :(

So, I have resigned to the fact that I will have to buy my own bike. As mentioned before I don't have the funds to buy that bike right now. Too many things in life are taking precedence right now. So, I had to come up with some creative ways to come up with the money I need. So.... without further delay - here it is. You can help me! :)

OK, so I am not going to come right out and ask you to donate to my bike fund, I just don't think it would be proper to ask for money like that..... especially since it is only money for my bike that only I would be riding and finding some way to pay for.

Some of you may have noticed (look over there >>) that I had added some Google Ads (look over there >>) to my blog to see if there was any truth to those that make millions with Google Adsense. I have not been able to buy that bike yet, but the new beach house is nice...... I wish :) Well, if you would like to help with my bike fund I am sure my sponsors would love to help you find what you didn't know you were looking for. To fulfill your wildest dreams all you have to do is just click now! (look over there >>)

The other way that you can help is through social bookmarking. You will see at the bottom of this post a little button that says "Bookmark" (OK - not sure why it didn't work for this post - you can use the one on the right instead) just use that button to add to Furl, Del.icio.us, Stumble, Digg, or just about any other social bookmarking tool.... and why not..... it is your favorite running blog isn't it?

Oh, and if you have a dollar or two just sitting in that paypal account and it is just absolutely driving you crazy, let me try to help. There is this new tool that will help you clean out those pesky stragglers to help keep that paypal account clean and ready for your next purchase. To run that tool just click here.

****End of shameless begging for money****

Shorter than normal

I have had a shorter mileage week than normal. The extra work hours over the last couple weeks once again caught up with me and I just couldn't drag myself out of bed in the middle of the night to go running.

I only put a couple 4 milers in during the week, but with excellent negative splits. Run 1 Run 2.

I did however put in a 10 miler today which I was really pleased with overall. My pace was 9:09 which is just a small bit slower than my half marathon pace.

I am looking forward to getting back at it this coming week.

I want to Tri......

for those of you that have followed my blog at all or know me from the forums, you know that I want to do a tri. I really wanted to do one this summer and started looking for a bike. Well, $ is not available and the check from the IRS went to pay off some debt so I had to stop looking. The kind of bike I could afford were not suitable to do what I wanted..... tri, and start commuting a couple days a week to work.

My hopes have been up and down at getting a bike, but so far have not been in the right place at the right time..... until maybe now. You see I am going to win a bike from www.johnisfit.com. He is giving away a bike from Lipton in their Are you young enough contest.... and a nice one I might add.

I would recommend that you head on over to his blog and check out the give away post, but that would be kinda mean considering I will already be winning it and you would all just be wasting your time anyway.

So, how long do you think it will take me to train for my first tri once I get this bike? :)

Officially Normal - 90 lbs later

Yes - Today I am officially normal in the eyes of the government. You can check out more about it on my weight loss blog over here: blog.2big.org

WOW - 2nd Overall..... and a New PR!

I really just don't know quite what to say.

Today was just awesome. You have to understand that 1 year ago, the Inaugural Saratoga 5k Fun Run was my very first race since I had run back in high school. To put that into perspective.... I am 38 now. Last year for this race I was 50 lbs heavier and came in dead last. You can see last years results here. You can see more about my running journey here, and my overall journey here, but for now back to the race.

Yes, you read that right.... I came in SECOND OVERALL! It was not a really big race, but it more than doubled from the first year when I think there was a total of 27 runners. Today I think the total runners was somewhere in the 50's, which is not bad considering this is a very hard and hilly course. It really and truly is the hardest course I have run. To give you an idea, here is a shot of the elevation:

I started the race near the front of the pack, and the Chik-Fil-A cow was there and was starting off the pack. I was following him and trying to go around him when he stepped over right in front of me and I ran into him.... that had to be a sight to see! I almost fell over! I ran for the first 1/2 mile with a pack of runners and then started to pull away a bit from them when we got to the first hills. When I was almost to 1 1/2 miles I started to round a corner when one of the course volunteers said "you can catch him"...... What? Him? not Them? I was pleasantly surprised, but I had thought there may only be one in front of me. I ran the rest of the race kinda watching my shoulder to make sure nobody was coming up on me..... It was so much fun! The first place finisher finished in 21:xx and my time was 23:23.

I haven't run a 5k since January because my training turned towards my First Half Marathon. I have only run one 10K during that time as well. One of the cool things is that this race set a new PR for me! 23:23! And that was on a very difficult course to boot! I can't wait to see what I can do on a normal course. I heard a couple people mention that this race was 4 minutes longer than a 5k they ran just the week before. And I think they were in the 20's so that is quite a difference. I don't think it would be that much of a difference for me, but maybe a minute or two.

Here is my splits on my running log: link Robbie said the race results will be up tomorrow, I will update the post when they are posted.

Well, the results are in and my 2nd place stood :) Here is the results from today >> link and some pics as well >> link Hey..... I even got honorable mention on the front page. Thanks Robbie!

Was my first 5k

Kinda misleading title I know. No, I didn't just run my first 5k, but the 5k I am getting ready to run this Saturday was my first 5k last year. This Saturday I plan on running the second annual Saratoga 5k Fun Run.

This race is kinda important to me, and I am really looking forward to it. Last year at this time I had only been running for a short time, just over a month. I had just started to lose weight and finally felt that I could maybe actually run and not just walk. This race last year was my first race. It was a hard course with a lot of hills, and I ended up walking a lot of the hills, but I finished it. It is actually kinda funny, because I came in dead last in this race, not by far, but still dead last.

Last year my time was 36:37, I am hoping that this year I can do a little better :).

I was a bit concerned I was not going to be able to run it this year because of some scheduling conflicts that came about in the last few weeks, but it looks like things have worked out and I will be able to run.