Runs with the Grandkids

We did 2 runs with Caleb and Chloe this year. It was a blast!!! Here are some photo highlights.

Rock-the-Block: (5/19/12)

Labor of Love (9/3/12)

Dallas Rock'n'Roll-30 yrs.of Adventure!

‎30 years ago today I married the love of my life and started this great adventure. We started our adventure hand in hand and I look forward to the next 30 yrs. hand in hand. I love you Ginger! Happy 30th anniversary!!!

Dallas Rock-n-Roll

I'm not sure if we were caught up in the hype of our first Full Marathon or it was a moment of temporary insanity.

While we were picking up our race packets for our first Full Marathon we also signed up for our second Half Marathon. The issue being it's less than 4 weeks away. We ran the full on 2/26/12 and now we've committed to a half on 3/25/12!

We weren't taking in account for injuries or recovery. We didn't know The Cowtown would take such a toll on our bodies. In fact we had talked about being in the Dallas Rock-n-Roll strictly because of the date it will be held on.

We will be celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary on 3/27/12 and we wanted to do something very special. We didn't have the money to go on our Dream Alaskan Cruise. We didn't have the money to to fly to California and retrace our Honeymoon trip up the coastline towns. We really didn't have the money to travel anywhere BUT we could enter a local race and get a medal that we could always remember as our 30th anniversary race (not everyone can say they did a half marathon on their 30th anniversary!).

Here we go again, half crazy, sentimental, in love and still having FUN!!!

1st Full Marathon

The Cowtown Marathon 2012 was not only our first Full Marathon it was probably the hardest 8 hrs of my life (actually 7:52:11). Ginger compared it to natural child birth...(I'll take her word on that) but I will say she went through the "Transitional Phase" in similar fashion (except this time she made phone calls to tattle on what I was making her do, even though the whole thing was her idea).






The day started off like any other race day, we had set our clothes out the night before.






We arrived early. Did some people watching...all types at these events. We settled into our corral in plenty of time for the gun. (I think Ginger said there were about 25,000 runners.)

The gun sounded and we started to slowly walk to the start line...15 minutes later and "we're off".









We wound through business districts, old neighborhoods, downtown but the coolest place was the Ft. Worth Stock Yards.














At one point there were runners as far as you could see...

After a few hours we came to the "slit" this is where the "half crazies" go one way and the "crazies and ultra crazies" go the other way.

Then it got real lonely...














At mile 13.1 we crossed a timing mat, I heard a "beep" and the guy had the nerve to say "only 13.1 to go" (I'm not sure if those were his exact words but those were the words I heard). Now I'm thinking if I were doing the half I would be drinking some coffee having some real food while putting my aching feet up... But NO now I have to do a second Half Marathon without a rest. Ginger's still going strong at this point.








I'll fast forward to mile 18...the trail pickup and a Police car fall in behind us...this puts the pressure on "we're in last place". Ginger is starting to have a lot of pain and our pace is slowing. We had almost caught up to another runner but when he saw us and all the flashing lights behind us...he took off.





Mile 19 and we got to get off road and ditch the trail vehicles. Just before that though we stopped at a Boy Scout water stop and one of the boys said very excitedly, "I got some good news and some bad news, I get to go home but you don't"...I was very happy for him after the awkward silence since his comment. Back to the trail...


Ginger began to politely ask to quit and that I could finish and get the medal for both of us. I was not as polite when I reminded her this was all her idea and that a marathon was not on my 'Bucket List'.

We caught up to the runner in the red shirt, the one we had chased earlier. He was quite a character and all his stories kept Ginger's mind off her pain for a few miles...










After mile 20 Ginger was in a huge amount of pain and I was having to talk her into each block. She began to call people and "tattle" to them about how I was "making her do this". I tried telling her she would have to walk back to the car anyway and she said she had already made arrangements with the tail vehicle to catch a ride and follow me in. After a short discussion on how that was not an option she made another call to our Team in Training Coach David. As she was speaking to him I could see 2 people walking towards us, as they got closer I could see it was Coach David and Landon (his son). Ginger was so involved in the phone conversation she didn't know he was there until he grabbed her arm.

Coach David and Landon began walking with us and encouraging us. We could not have made it without their encouraging words. For those last 5 miles or so. Team in Training is so much more than an event it becomes like a second family, a support system, and a way of life. TNT is an awesome organization, and Coaches David and Meg are a vital part of making it such a success!!!














Well we finished!!! We even picked up another runner along the way and Landon encourged "Kyle" to finish despite his 2 broken ribs!!!
















Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. (Hebrews 12:1 NLT)

Cowtown Marathon 8 days....

Hopefully we will not get detoured during our first Marathon.

This is an interesting story about a 1912 Olympic Marathoner. He did go back and Finish though.

hrtbps:

The marathon runner who went missing for 50 years

Shizo Kanakuri disappeared while running the marathon in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. He was listed as a missing person in Sweden for 50 years — until a journalist found him living quietly in southern Japan.

Overcome with heat during the race, he had stopped at a garden party to drink orange juice, stayed for an hour, then took a train to a hotel and sailed home the next day, too ashamed to tell anyone he was leaving.

There’s a happy ending: In 1966 Kanakuri accepted an invitation to return to Stockholm and complete his run. His final time was 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds — surely a record that will last forever. (via)

New this week!!!

Several things new this week.

1. We are officially registered for the Cowtown Full Marathon. No backing out now, 26.2 miles here we come!!!

2. New mileage, 20 miles due on Saturday!!! We have to get an early start because we plan on also catching a movie...anyone have recommendations?

3. On Sunday it's Ginger's Birthday!!!I think running/walking gear might be in order, also maybe something else???

This might be a quick weekend. It seems as though the weekends are getting shorter... Don't they still have 48 hrs.?

New Distance Record

In the upcoming weeks we will be breaking our distance records.

Sunday we tried a new course. We explored Breckinridge Park in Richardson. We walked all the paths several times and logged 18.7 miles. We were shooting for 19 but time ran out and so did our feet! We did manage to burn 2400 calories and break our personal record distance of 15 miles.

It's only a few weeks (32 days) til Cowtown and our first Full Marathon.