Master runner

Easy o&b with a mile of 30 sec on/off strides

did a nice jog down the Mississippi on some trails just to stretch the legs out from traveling. Super nice out..was anle to chat with Jared Ward, Sam Chelanga and Mbarrack for a bit when I first got to the hotel. Later I met Tyler Pennel. Ran into Abdi and rode the elevator up with Molly Huddle.. I got to my room later and found out my roommate is Uli Steidl.

met Drew in person and did a shakeout jog on the river in front of out hotel. We invited a french dude that is doing his first marathon tomorrow..after the jog i ate breakfast with and met Ritz and Craig Lutz

Wow..just plain wow...I would have to say the overall experience of this marathon would have to top any and all races I've done. I didn't run the time I was aiming for but took some valuable things from the race. 

I had so many pinch me monments from the time I made it to the Hotel and chatted with Jared Ward, Sammy Chelanga, and Mbarak Hussein over some breakfast. Later riding up the elevator with Molly Huddle and snapping a quick pic with her. Talking and meeting the Zap fitness guys  (Tyler Pennel and Grif Graves)  Graves and I warmed up together and talked hunting and fishing on the ride over to the staging hotel. Realizing how small the running world is..I share many running buddies with a lot of these elite athletes who were extreemly kind, humble and seem to have good heads on their shoulders.

I also met up with FRB Blogger Drew who just happened to be in the same hotel. Drew is a super nice and a lot of fun to hang out with. We made a really funny story on our trip to the airport..More later on that-

Race Morning

I just happened to room with Uli Steidl and heard him hop out of bed just before 5 I  hopped up too. Got on my racing suit and headed down to the hospitality suite for some breakfast. I ended up eating a bagel with peanut butter and scarfed down a couple of bananas. I went back up to the room and grabbed my sweat drop bag and told Drew that I would meet him down in the lobby to catch the 6 bus over to the stagging hotel. I got down there and several folks were waiting around too. I met up with Mbarak and snapped a quick pic and chatted about his record in the marathon. He is a super nice runner and very fast at that.

I got on the bus and Drew had made it on already. I sat down with Grif Graves from Zap...this was his debut marathon. We hit it off really well and I think helped each other to stay calm...we got to the hotel and entered a big empty room that had refreshments food water/coffee/tea what ever you wanted.

I ran into Micheal Wardian their and chatted with him and Scotts coach Ben Rosario for a little, then about 7:30  did some warm up miles with Grif around the hotel and emptied the tanks out. We had an escort take us over to the start line. Jogged around a bit more and dropped our bags off at the UPS truck did a few strides and lined up. 

On the start line I lined up behind Grif and right next to Uli and Mbarak, Drew was just behind me. We took off and I stayed focused on the ground for close to the first mile or so till things thinned out.  We started in a lot of building and going under a big bridge so I didn't really pay attention to my watch. When we thinned out somewhat I spotted Wardian and saw that he was really hitting some good tangents so I followed him because i didn't know the course. The weather was right at perfect. I dropped my hat at 1 mile marker clock. My time on my watch was within seconds of the official time. At mile 2 we had a nice pop up hill that kept the pace honest but didn't take too much out of you. I had a shout out by a fellow runner about mile 3 Justin Gable from Amarillo Tx who I ran with at OKC earlier this year.. He looked sharp and stayed just ahead of me. About mile 10 I passed a Keynan that fell off the main pack who looked like he was hurting pretty bad.

I was really amazed at how close Twin Cities sectator participation was to Boston. It seemed to me that the whole race someone was cheering me on...I had Butler on my bib and a YEE YEE headband that was a popular item for folks to yee yee me along the way..

I was reeling in Wardian at 13 and thought I might even get around him...I knew this was the fastest I had ever came through the 1/2 point in a marathon. 1:14:51 I felt really good to this point.. 

Around 14-15 I started hearing people say the women pack was catching me...I caught a dude around 15 that looked like he may have peed on himself.. he kept taking water and throwning it on his junk for some reason...that is all I could think he was doing..ha. 

At 16  I felt like I hit the wall I mean 0 gas in the tank.. I forced myself to take a caffine gu and through in some stay alert gum. I was passed by 3 Kenyan women and later by another who I tried to stay close to.  From 16-23 these miles were really tough I would say it was an all out survival mode... I knew that if I could get through 23 that I would have a little down hill help.  I tried to not focus on my time but to just maintain what pace I had. 

About mile 24 I had people start coming back to me and i just gutted it out the best I could...I got 5 people or so in the last couple of miles and got in a duke out with a guy at the line and just got him.. 

When i made my way to the tent and got my stuff i saw all the txt from folks that said my time wasn't listed.. then I had a txt that had my time like 2 minutes slower so I found some official and told them i was close to Wardian and gave them a estimated time I came though...They got it all fixed and I ended up getting 9th overall master.. which should get me in the money. I met Drew there who had a PR..Also Grif who ran a 2:20 debut but was really displeased with his time.

Drew and I jumped in the massage line and hung out there for a bit...We were invited to a really cool after party and rubbed elbows with alot of elite guys several hrs later. 

I made some really good friends and stories that I will never forget. So thankful for the whole entire weekend. 

slow rollin with Drew on the Mighty Mississippi at the crack of daybreak. Felt pretty good a little slow and tight at the start but loosened up. Drew had a super breakfast connection at another hotel and we refueled nice.

After breakfast I had downloaded a Uber app to try and uber our way to the airport...I thought I had called a car and it showed a dot in the road just outside our hotel so we went out to get in the car waiting on us and put our bags in the trunk and Drew sat in the back and i sat shotgun... The young man stayed outside the car holding the door gave me a strange look and I asked If he was the uber guy and he said no....lol he was pulling the rental car up for someone else.

We ended up just taking a cab..

took Sophie for a mile run and dropped her back at the house and did a few more on the grass trail. Legs feel pretty good. Most soreness is in my calves but not too bad.

easy out and back

easy o&b with a series of fartleks on the way back

solo easy loops at ewp

met up with Eric and Andrew for a run on the new trail on the river. Out and back. felt good to pick up the pace a bit. Legs feel real good. was debating on racing a 8k up in Bartlesville but oped out with the race high price and long drive i was gonna have to make. Eyeing the single age record book for OK. 

Did a solo dirt road run at Draper after church services..Warmed up real nice and the wind was a good 20mph. I thought i spotted Jason Bairds brown hornet out in the parking lot as I left and while I was picking up my water bottles sure enough I saw him getting after it. 

took the long loop around the lake today..nice and easy

jogged out and back easy to lemon lot - AM

PM met Aaron, Amanda and Ashley out at the grass track for some k repeats .. wasn't sure how i would feel so I just winged it. Aaron mustard out 8 and I was only able to knock out 6 and feel somewhat decent.  Legs and breathing were alright but I could tell i was still lacking a little on the energy level. 

Solo o&b did a small pickup last couple miles 

easy solo o&b

 AM - pf easy solo o&b 

PM - met Nate and Andrew out at Lake Draper and Nate and I did a 6 mile tempo..Nate picked it up the last few miles and was about 30 sec in front of me overall. The weather was nice and cool but we did hit some east wind that slowed us a bit going across the dam. Legs felt pretty fresh but I was still a little tired. Andrew did his own thing..Solid workout. 

Nice long run with j-hat around Hefner!!!weather money

Showed J-hat my armadillo catching skills

solo run around base..did a few fartleks 10 and 20 sec on/off for a mile or so.

kicking around going for the 1/2 single age this weekend..(1:15:10 is the current 43 yr old record) if its not too windy I think I can get it.

am- easy out and back pf

Pm met a nice Crew out at ewp did 2x1.5 at 10k ish and then ran an easier 1.5 at 1/2 ish pace. Didn't want to tax my legs too much for the 1/2 I'm planning this Saturday.

pf o&b eaay

easy run around the hood. Mile 1 with the sophinator. Did about 5-6 20 sec strides

Woke up and waited for Ean and Maryln to come over so we could run in the inaugural Tinker 1/2 marathon. We got out there about a hour before gun time and met J-Hat. We sat around for a bit in my car and waited till about 30 till and jogged down for about a mile on the course then  made it back to the car in time to strip off warmup clothes and hit the can one last time....

The goal for today was to at least get the single age 1/2 marathon record which was (1:15:10) held by Adam Cohen. The time may sound easy to some but let me tell you this is a hard time to run in Oklahoma with the races and times of the year they are ran. I saw this half pop up on the schedule and was quick to decided on running it with the cool air I was pretty sure I could get it.

We took off and I jump right out front and stayed there the entire race. I knew by 2-3 miles I was going to be running a longer course with the tangents that were hard to hit at times. I saw Ian  ahead of J-Hat a good bit around mile 4 where we had a switch back and you could kinda see how far back folks were.  Well when I was coming out of the switch back I saw what looked like and was a lady that was ahead of both of my buds and was about 1/4 to 1/2 mile behind me in second. I continued on to mile 5 going up a longer tapered hill and had some stomach pains I was kinda worried it was more than gas and was almost afraid to trust it..I ended up trusting in to no ill effects. When I got to the top of the hill they had a water stop and I grabbed a gatorade that had an awful taste. I ran on down to the turn around and by this point i was getting kinda warm. I turned around and was greeted by a nice cool north wind. I was surprised to see the woman behind me and still ahead of Ian and J-Hat.  They all still looked pretty fresh when I went by them. 

I got down to mile 8 and threw my gloves off at the fellas I work with that  were following me around. I felt pretty good but notice that I had slowed some when I ran into the wind. I was certain that if I could just continue on and not completely tank I could get that record. 

Mile 12 was pretty slow and into the wind which was picking up somewhat. I also knew I had to save a little to get up watermelon hill. I got over to watermelon hill and it seemed as if the wind just blew me right up to the top and I picked up the last .5 mile or so into the finish line and could hear my Mom cheering me from a long ways off. It was really fun to see her get excited for me.

I got in at 1:14:32 and was about 10 min ahead of everyone else. I snapped a few photos with the high brass and gave my mom a big hug. Picked up some goodies and headed over to the car to put my warm-up clothes back on. The temps seemed to be falling throughout the race and the wind was picking up. I saw the lady finally making her way in and then saw J-Hat and he was really making some ground on her. 

J-Hat was not able to catch her but he had a huge PR at 1:25 and change. Ean fell off about mile 11 according to J-Hat. Turns out the Lady that took 2nd place was a Olympic qualifier for Hong Kong in the marathon and ran for BYU as well. Maggie Chan- Roper who moved here with her husband who serves in the military.

We were really surprised when we got some money at the awards..I picked up 250 J-hat and Maryln pick up a 100 bucks. 

They had lots of goodies afterwards. I had a great time with my friends and look forward to running this one again.

had a nice crew meet up out at Draper marina for a easy dirt road run..everybody kinda was going different distances..Andrew and I went a full 13.  Eric brought out 2 younger boys that run for MWC and Danny, Alexandra and Kels were all there too. Weather was really nice.

Kels made some really good pumpkin spice cookies that i helped kill 4-6...

easy o&b

met Eric out at WMH track for some 8x 400's then we did a few slower paced 800's and some stride the straights with some high school kids Eric has been working with.

made my way out to ewp for a quick run. did some pickups for about 4 miles. 

We had a nice crew from OKC make our way up to Tulsa for the Tulsa Run..J-Hat, Joe Mitro and Myself were all in the 15k championship race and took home 2nd place money for team. (We nudged out Atlanta track club by 30 sec).

The race was pretty much the same course as last year but made one small change due to construction. Still a really tough course. I did manage to get a PR out of the course. 

During warmup I noticed my watch battery was dead and made the decision to just go watchless. It felt mighty weird lining up with out it. I took off and a dude from Indiana quickly jumped out front and took off. We made our way to the mile marker right at 5:00 and had a big ole hill to climb...I wasn't too worried because I new the hill was going to take some back and it did. I made my way up to the top and at 3k could hear some foot steps behind me and 2 guys from Cal Coast asked me if I knew the dude that took off. I said no and they seemed to think he would come back...welp he didn't.

I tucked in behind them for a bit and they gapped me coming out of 4-5 miles.. then they had split up and I caught up to one of them at mile 6 on the river bridge and he really put a good surge on me. I tried to make up ground on the latter hills but ended up staying stuck in 4th. 

Weather was really nice.

I saw that Cal Coast had 3 relay guys in and Atlanta had 2...I looked down the road and saw Joe coming in...then Asked the Atlanta guys and they only had 2..then I saw J-hat behind their #3 and thought they beat us...little did I know they scored it by time and we beat them by 30 seconds.

I wasn't too disappointed with my race considering I had run a marathon earlier in the month and then hit a 1/2 last week. 

We went over to Scott Smiths with a bunch of running buddies and Scott whooped up some burgers on the grill and we played a game of darts before heading back..fun times with some good running buddies.