My First Marathon

Welcome to my new blog. The purpose of this blog is to update my progress each fall as I train for the Memphis St. Jude Marathon. My first marathon was December 6, 2008. This was the Memphis St. Jude Marathon which benefited St. Jude children's hospital. I was blessed to be able to have raised $1,200 to fight childhood cancer. Below is an account of the race that changed my life.

Physically I felt like my first marathon was a disaster. I was so excited I did not sleep the entire night before. I posted on my blog at around 3am because I had nothing better to do. So I showed up to the race completely exhausted and I had 26.2 miles to go before I could even think about sleeping.

My goal time was to break 4 hours. Given the fact I had run a sub 1:50 half marathon before, I thought this to be an attainable goal. They say pride comes before I fall. Well I fell.

I started out with the pace group of 8:50 per mile. Their goal was to get me to the finish line at this pace. If I stayed with them my finishing time would have been 3 hours and 50 minutes. After 4 miles I was with this group and we were at an 8:33 pace. I could not believe what they were doing. "Is this that difficult, I asked?" Watches have been around for several centuries. Certainly they could read their pace times on the sign they were holding up. Whatever the case, my relationship with 8:50 pace group faded over the horizon.

At mile 6.2 I crossed the timing mat at 54:56 at an 8:50 pace. I felt pretty good especially given the physical exhaustion. All of my friends and family were texted this time with a projected finish time of 3:51.56.

At mile 7 I passed my friends house where my lovely wife was holding up a sign saying, "Run Dando Run" which is the title of this blog. It was so great to see her, my mom and some friends. The race day temperature had "warmed up" to about 34 degrees and I was feeling good so I took off my gloves and fleece and threw them in the yard. Boy do I wish I could have a do-over on that decision.

At around mile 8 we turned around and headed back towards downtown Memphis through the Elvis impersonators and rock bands. What I didn't realize was that once we headed back towards downtown there was a heavy wind blowing right in my face. I was freezing. I was afraid I was going to get hypothermia.

At mile 13 there was a fork in the road. The half marathoners went to the right for their finish and the full marathoners stayed to the left for another happy 13+ miles. As soon as we got through the fork I felt an overwhelming since of pride. The heavy crowd was gone and there was about 20% of the traffic there was before the half marathoners left. I said to myself, "the marathon is now starting." At this point I was already exhausted and my time had faded to a 2:01 13.1 mile pace. My sub 4 dream was gone. There was no way I could muster the energy to have a negative split at this point.

We ran up the famous Beale street with cobblestones and again I saw my family. At mile 14 the unthinkable happened in my world...

I stopped.

Never in my training had I stopped except for my longest run of 20 miles and that was just for a couple of seconds to regather myself. I stopped and put my hands on my head and wanted this to be over so badly. My leg muscles were tightening and in pain and I was exhausted. I kept thinking that it was freezing cold and I was starting to cramp and I had 11.2 miles left to go. How was this going to be possible? Well I started running again and before mile 15 I had to grab a light pole to stretch my calves. I was in too much pain. I knew I was running for more than just myself. I was running for sponsors who had sponsored me for St. Jude Children's Hospital and we raised over $1100. I was running for the children of St. Jude who had a fight much greater than mine. I continued onward knowing if I were to finish this would be the greatest physical accomplishment of my life. About 4 times a mile I would have grab a pole and stretch my calves. I had to run for around .3 miles and then walk for .1 miles a lot of the rest of the way.

At mile 20 I came across at 3:22 (20 minutes slower than my 20 miler 2 weeks ago). Continuing to fight cramps the entire way I kept pressing onward. My goal of beating 4 hours was gone but more importantly I had a new goal and this one was much more special. I learned at this moment that I had not respected the demands of a marathon. I was thrown into an environment that was pure torture and I was going to finish the race. In my previous post I talked about the fight the children of St. Jude go through and this was my turn to fight for them.

It wouldn't have been more real to me if music, as in a movie, started as a warrior obtains his identity in a defining moment. This was my fight. I came to the conclusion If I had to crawl the last 6.2 miles with blood all over my legs, I was going to finish this marathon. I believed in these children, I believed in St. Jude and I believed in myself. I had been so inspired by the child who wrote "Cancer will not defeat me," I took this as inspiration knowing I would not be defeated by this marathon. I would not quit. I would be a marathoner.

By raising a certain amount of money I was able to wear a purple singlet that said "St Jude Hero." All along the race and especially near the end people would yell at me and say "Great Job hero, keep it up." Throughout the course people held pictures up of their children who were fighting cancer and who had already died. As I struggled desperately to finish I got to mile 25 and a lady was holding up a picture of her son Jake that had died. I was stumbling and probably running a 12 minute per mile pace or worse. She was crying and said, "thank you so much for what you are doing." After all the physical and emotional pain, I could not say anything. I just cried back at her and gave her a thumbs up. I was almost there.. and "WE" were winning.

The people who supported me were winning!

The spectators were winning!

The children with cancer were winning!

Their families were winning!

I was winning!

Somewhere near the end there was a guy who might have been homeless standing on the side of the road. As I slowly ran by he yelled, "we are one step closer to a cure."

Could any words have been more true?

We exited Danny Thomas Blvd by running up a steep incline and then I saw it. The stadium was there. It was at the end of a very nice downward hill. I was about 1/3 mile to the finish and there was no way I was stopping. My race was going to be over. I gave everything I had going downhill. I entered the stadium and the finish line was about 100 yards way. I took off on a sprint that I didn't know I had left. I probably ran a 7 minute mile pace once entering the stadium. As I ran in the stadium, I passed the only 2 people that were running in the stadium at that time, I could hear the crowd cheer. I heard one person yell, "look at that kick" and another one yell "finish strong." It was amazing.

I finished in 4:34.18.

There were a lot of winners on this day. For those of you who sponsored me financially or encouraged me along the way it has been an experience I will treasure for a lifetime. I appreciate everyone who has been involved in this amazing journey. My marathon was complete torture.. and also a perfect dream. So much was accomplished for me personally as well as for the children of St. Jude.

For those of you who were involved on my team, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is because of you my run was so much more than just a marathon. I have my calendar marked for December 5, 2009. Maybe we could do this again next year?

I'd like to take one more step towards that cure.