General Jackassery

November 21, 2007

Hello Team,

I hope this letter finds you all in great health and happiness this Thanksgiving holiday. I realize that I have taken way too long to get this letter out to you, but it has actually taken this long for me to find the words to describe the experience that has been the last 6 months of my life.
As you know, six months ago I set out on a journey to do something that would honor my friend Brent. I decided I wanted to find a way to help others while helping myself at the same time. While I was trying to find the means to do this, I came across an organization called “Team-in-Training.”
My decision to join Team-in-Training was not an easy one. It’s hard enough to train for a marathon, but training for a marathon and trying to raise money added an entirely new dimension. I wasn’t sure this was something I could accomplish but I knew I had to try. So, with the help of my friend Craig and some long discussions with my wife Sarah, I made the decision to take on the challenge.
I spent months getting up early just about everyday of the week, including Saturdays and Sundays, to train. I ran, I biked, I played hockey, I hiked, and I did anything and everything I could think of to build strength and endurance for this. I wrote letters and did everything but beg for people to donate to this cause. I met people I’d never met before and I asked them for their help. I asked my doctors, coworkers, physical therapists, friends, family and perfect strangers I’d met on the plane. I worked my way through several injuries and did my best to make it to the start line in October, healthy and prepared.
My original goals were to raise a minimum of $3300 and to finish the marathon stronger than I had finished my first. In the end, I raised a total of $3950. When, I got to the start line of the marathon I wasn’t sure how I was going to do. It was a cool morning and everything felt reasonably good. I decided I would try to finish in 4 hours and 30 minutes. I took off and everything went really well for the first 20 miles. Yeah, I said 20 miles. Then as I did in my first marathon I started to have some problems with cramps and was forced to run/walk the last 6 miles of the run. I finished in 5 hours and 48 seconds. While it wasn’t what I’d hoped for, I finished and I improved by 36 minutes over my first marathon time. I was tired and my legs kept cramping for the next couple of hours after the marathon, but, I was happy.

Crossing the finish line at the Iwo Jima memorial was and will probably always be one of the most memorable moments of my life. It was like the end of a journey and finishing was such a relief. I’ve never considered myself good at accomplishing goals I’ve set for myself. This wasn’t perfect, but it was a good start. I did it!

This experience has been one that is truly beyond description. I think I actually grew more emotionally than physically. Your generosity has been a lesson to me that I need to be more generous with my time and my money. The frailty of human life has been a lesson that I need to cherish every moment that I’m here on earth and that I need to love my family and friends more. The support of this team of people that was assembled to help me achieve my goal has been a lesson that “we” can accomplish anything and we can beat cancer. The strength of the people who are fighting cancers of all types is a lesson that my suffering is miniscule. The sum of these lessons is that we are truly blessed to experience all things, good and bad, in life. These experiences shape us; they make us better, stronger and hopefully ever more passionate about the things we love. That is the lesson about life that Brent taught me. Brent loved life and he let everyone know it.
I know that my words are not the most eloquent, but I hope that when you read this letter you’ll understand what an experience this has been for me. There is no way I could have done it without the generosity, love, support and encouragement I received from my family, friends and even those of you who don’t even know me. Special thanks go out to my wife, Sarah, for supporting me through this whole endeavor; to my sister, who has treated me like a rock star this whole time and to Craig Herr for helping me find a way to raise the money. Thank you all so much for helping me honor Brent and everyone who has been touched by cancer.

Sincerely,

Todd L. Watts

This past weekend, I participated in a Bicycling Team-Relay. For those who thought I was going to be an official on this thing, that wasn’t the case. I actually rode my fair share of miles and help make this thing a reality. The idea was to start at the southern end of the Blue-Ridge parkway and work our way north to the northern end in Waynesboro, VA. Due to run ins with the park rangers last time we got off the parkway in Boone and proceeded along highway 221 to Adney Gap in Virginia. This allowed us to keep a follow vehicle behind the rider at all times for safety and comfort reasons as well as the Ultra-Marathon Cycling Associations rules. Since none of us had actually ridden on Hwy 221 we weren’t sure what the terrain was like, so we guessed how long it would take us and made the determination that we would arrive at Adney Gap at daybreak to get back on the parkway. At that point we would have 135 miles remaining to finish. As luck would have it, we arrived in Boone right on schedule, meaning we were averaging a little above the expected 15 mph. When we started on Hwy 221 we realize that it was a really good road and there were no major climbs, the longest climb was about 2 to 3 miles and it was a pretty shallow grade. We arrived at Adney Gap almost 3 hours ahead of schedule. We basically budgeted enough time to average 15 mph and make it to Adney Gap right at daybreak. In reality we average over 18 mph on 221 and arrived at Adney Gap and the BRP at 3:30 AM.

The only record for the Blue-Ridge Parkway was set by a solo rider: 469 miles, 29 hrs 36 minutes. After the first failed attempt and after watching Kari struggle to maintain an average that was well below that speed we weren’t sure that we could beat that time. We all felt like we had to do whatever we could to beat it, but the time is absolutely phenomenal for a solo rider. You have to understand that it is extremely difficult to average over 15 mph on the BRP due to the constant elevation change. To give you an idea, the climb out of Ashville is 17 miles long. The climb out of Cherokee is 11 miles long only to go down for 3 and up for 5 more. So, our goal was only to beat the 29 hour 36 min record. It didn’t really matter by how much, only that we beat it. After all there were 4 of us and 1 of him.

Reaching Adney gap two and half hours ahead of schedule was huge. Not only did it virtually assure us of beating the record, but if we could maintain the speed we would smash the record. But, 135 miles of big hills still remained with perhaps one of the steeper climbs on the parkway still to be tackled. So I challenged the guys, I said “it’s 3:30, we have about two and a half hours until day light, let’s try to get to less than 100 miles remaining before the sun comes up.” That meant riding about 36 miles in 2.5 hours. We did it. Then we kept setting small goals and counting down the miles. With about 25 miles left we saw an organized century ride was taking place on the Parkway and this was all the incentive we needed to finish strong. It was like having a rabbit out there. The amazing thing was we all had almost 100 miles in our legs, no sleep, and we were all pretty much toast, but we were smoking the people who were on the century ride. It made me feel pretty good to drop people on climbs after riding 90 + miles.

At mile marker 3 (the markers count down from South to North, so we always knew how far we had left) we all got on our bikes and road in to the finish. We started at 8:30 Saturday morning and we finished at 12:00:12 on Sunday afternoon. For those who don’t care to do the math we finished in 27 hours and 30 minutes and 12 seconds. Our official time will be 27 hours 31 minutes, but whose counting. We beat the solo rider by over 2 hours.

I can’t thank Jackie Whitaker, Josh Burton and Matt Pinkston enough for all of their help. Without them we couldn’t have done this. I’d also like to thank John Dye for letting us stay at his place in Franklin on Friday night. And I’d like to thank Rodney, Anthony and Ryan for letting me be part of the time.

I’m sure it seems like all I post about lately is cycling, but I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that I’m still training for the Marathon in October and despite suffering some set backs due to injury, I have actually made up all of the ground that I lost and am now ahead of schedule.

A couple of weeks ago Sarah and I were in Nashville to visit her family and I decided I wanted to go for an 8 mile jog. It was supposed to be a recovery run so I planned on taking it nice and easy. However, I was also still recovering from the trip to the Blue-Ridge Parkway and I decided to let myself sleep as long as I needed to sleep. Unfortunately I woke-up about 10:00 and didn’t start my run until about 10:15. This in and of itself was stupid, but factor in the fact that I hadn’t had any carbs for the last two days, I only ate 5 grapes prior to the run and I didn’t bring anything to drink along with me and you have a recipe for disaster. Needless to say I bonk 4 miles in and I ended up walking the majority of the 3.5 miles back home. I took a short-cut home because I didn’t want to have to go over the hills I run on the way out. That bonk was probably a good thing because I’m still learning my body and now I realize that I’ve got to take fluids with me even on the shorter runs.

The next weekend I did a 12 mile run with the TNT group, we walked the first mile, but I ran the next 11 miles at about a 10 min/mile pace. That’s right where I wanted to be on a mostly flat course.

This past weekend we where in Nashville again and I needed to run only 10 miles because the TNT schedule does a long run and then a step back every other week. I knew that I was going to miss a long run in two weeks because of the record attempt, but I’m also not going to be able to make the group run next week so I wanted to do a slightly longer run than was on the schedule, then do a small step back this coming week.

So, I went on the U.S.A. Track and Field site and plotted out a course that was 14.7 miles around Sarah’s Parent’s house. Friday afternoon when we got up there I hopped on my bike and rode the course with a que sheet, stopping at every turn to note the mileage. When I got back that night I put it all in a spreadsheet and calculated the times that it should take to get to each turn. That way I could actually start slow and finish faster. By the time it was all said and done I had a nice que sheet that had me averaging about 10:46 / mile for 14.7 miles.

I got up a 5:00 on Saturday morning, started running at 5:40 and finished the run 1 minute ahead of what I had planned. I was pretty happy with that, I had planned my run well and executed my plan well. I plan on using that strategy for every long run I do from here on out. I think it will be really helpful to keep me on pace.

After the run was over I was tired, but I felt really good overall. Most important was the fact that I had no blisters or any last effects.

Now back to cycling. Since we’re getting really close to the next record attempt for the BRP, Rodney wanted to get a feel for what it would be like to ride during the “worst” hours of the night which are between 2:00 and 4:00 A.M. So on Sunday night after Sarah and I got home, I met Rodney at 11:30 and we went over to Redstone to ride. We started at 12:00 and rode until 4:00. We got 65.5 miles in in just under 4 hours. No problems staying awake, but it made for a hard day, the next day. Oh well, it was pretty nice to ride on a 4 lane road and be able to have your own lane with no vehicular traffic.

Anyway, long story short, everything is on track, now I just need more help with fundraising and I’ll be good to go!

Well, we’re back from the Blue-Ridge Parkway safe and sound. My buddy Kari rode a phenomenal 28 hours straight for a total of 344 miles on the Blue-Ridge Parkway two days ago. Here’s how the last couple of days have gone from my perspective.

I went to bed at about 11:00 on Monday night and was up at 4:20 on Tuesday morning. Kari showed up at my house at 5:30 and we loaded up the bikes and stuff for the trip and headed out to pick-up Rodney at work. By 6:45 we had Rodney’s stuff loaded up and we where on our way to the Mountains. We stopped at South Pittsburg, TN for gas and food and then headed off to Cherokee, NC. At about 2:00 in the afternoon we where in Cherokee at the start of the BRP and Kari and I took off on our way.

To give you a feel for how the BRP is, Cherokee is 2000′ above sea level. The BRP starts there and works it way up to 5150′ in the first 10 miles. Then you go back down about 3 or 4 miles and you start back going up to 5700′ after another 5 miles of climbing. After that you have a 9 mile descent back down to about 3100′ before you climb to the highest point on the parkway at over 6000′. It took me 2 hours 20 minutes to ride over the first two climbs and down to the base of the climb up to the highest point on the parkway. Rodney took over after that and rode for another 30 miles or so. By the time we reached the Pisgah Inn, 61 miles in, Kari had created a 10 mile gap between him and us. In other words, Kari was 1 hour ahead of Rodney and me.

To put things in perspective, Rodney has ridden the BRP many times and he said they used to always leave Cherokee early in the morning and it would take them about 7 or 8 hours to get to the Pisgah Inn. Rodney and I rode that distance in 4.5 hours and still Kari was 10 miles ahead of us.

Anyway, Rodney and I picked up our bikes and drove ahead to catch back up to Kari and as we were heading in to Ashville Kari saw a sign that said “Folk Art Center 2 miles.” He pointed at the sign and indicated he wanted to stop there to grab some food. So I drove ahead to the Folk Art Center and parked, I figured as fast as Kari was riding I could hop on my bike and start heading up the hill out of Ashville and Kari would eventually catch me, so I took off. About 30 to 40 minutes later, Rodney come driving up and asks if I’ve seen Kari. I said “no” and immediately thought, there’s no way he’s ahead of me, but if he is, I’ll never catch him and he hasn’t had anything to eat. About 3 miles later I see a flashing red tail light and realize “Holy Crap, that’s Kari ahead of me!” Then I think to myself, “HOLY CRAP, I’M CATCHING KARI GOING UP HILL!” That was bad news because it meant that Kari was slowing down. It was also bad news because he had gone an hour past where he wanted to go for eating. It took Rodney a while longer for finally decide that Kari must have past us while we were getting my bike ready. He finally found Kari and me about 11 miles into the climb out of Ashville. It was dark and I was ready to call it quits for the night so Rodney took over riding with Kari and they climbed another 7 miles before finally making to the top of the climb.

Fast forward….it’s now 3:00 a.m. and Kari is finally ready for a 15 minute nap. Kari has ridden from Cherokee, NC to Blowing Rock, NC a distance of about 170 miles. Rodney takes over driving and I nap off an on for the next hour and a half for a grand total of about 30 minutes of sleep. Kari is swerving all over the road, but he’s still going like the energizer bunny. It’s now 4:30 and Rodney is starting to get sleepy again, we’re going up a long hill and I say, “Just stop right here and let’s do a Chinese fire drill.” So we stop in the middle of the road, get out and run around the car and I’m driving again.

It’s another 3 hours before we make it to Doughton Park, 229 miles into the parkway. We stop and have breakfast and discuss options. Kari has been on the bike for 17 hours and at his current average speed it would be about 1 or 2 the next morning before he finished. So we decided to just turn around and ride back towards Ashville. We figured he would still get a lot of miles in and we would be closer to home with every mile. By now, Kari is starting to get pretty tired and his speed has slowed down such that Rodney and I have no problem staying with him. Actually, Kari was starting to have a problem staying with us. Of course, we had roughly one-third the miles in our legs that Kari had so it makes sense that he might be tired. Anyway, Rodney and I alternated about every 20 miles or so for the rest of the day until we got back to the entrance to Mt. Mitchell state park. I had planned to ride up to the top of Mt. Mitchell, but there was a thunderstorm approaching and I just didn’t want to take the chance of getting caught in nasty weather. So instead of climbing to Mt. Mitchell I rode down the mountain to Ashville about 26 miles away.

By the time it was all said and done, I had ridden 126.5 miles and been in the saddle for a total of 8.5 hours over the course of a 29 hour period. I had a lot of fun and I think I rode pretty well.

After we got done we headed into Ashville and got a hotel room so we could get showers. Then we headed out to grab a bite to eat before heading home. It was about 8:30 when we got on the interstate to drive back to Huntsville and within about 30 minutes of driving Rodney and Kari were out like lights. I made it almost all the way to Knoxville before I got dangerously sleepy and had to pull over in favor of another driver. Rodney took over and I tried to get some sleep between Knoxville and Chattanooga, but was not terribly successful. I think I might have gotten another 30 minutes or so and the rest of the time I was just resting my eyes. Anyway, we got to Chattanooga and Rodney had had enough so we switch out again and I got us back into Huntsville. It was about 2:30 when I finally got back home and probably close to 3:30 before I was able to wind down and get to sleep. All-in-all I was awake for the vast majority of a 47 hour period, rode by bike 126 miles and drove my car about 700 miles.

Now, that’s the life right there!

46 Miles, 150 miles, 6 reasonably difficult climbs and one’s a flat out bitch. That’s what I’ve done in the last two weeks and I’ve even been traveling. I have run 46 miles at an average pace of 9 minutes 30 seconds per mile. I’ve ridden 150 miles at an average speed of around 17.5, I’ve climbed Bankhead parkway 4 times, Cecil Ashburn once up the front and once up the back in the same day and I climbed Keel Hollow Road (probably the hardest climb I’ve ever done).

I was in Monterey, CA last week so it was an actual pleasure to go for jogs on the coastal trail. But when I got back on Saturday it was back to the heat and humidity. Jackie and I drove down to the Jones Valley shopping center and set out on our bikes up and over Cecil Ashburn and out to Keel Mountain. I road up to the top and then we headed back over Cecil Ashburn to the car. Not a bad 35 mile ride. I had a blast; I think Jackie thinks I’m doped up or something.

In my last couple of post I’ve talked about having some trouble with Plantar Fasciitis and I have to say I’ve been taking the Physical Therapist’s advice. I have had no problems with running the last couple of trips out and my foot is not nearly as tight in the mornings when I wake up. It seems like I’m finally healing up and starting really progress nicely towards my training goals. As I mentioned up top I’ve been running sub 10 minute miles in just about all of my runs, even the longer ones, and I have been feeling better and better.

Fundraising seems to be in the ebb and flow cycle. I seem to go through spurts where I raise $400-$500 dollars and then I’m stuck for a while. I’ve been putting out some feelers for corporate sponsorships but I haven’t gotten any bites yet. If you know anyone who’s got some spare change lying around it would be really nice to have someone drop $1000 to help get me over the top.

On another note, my buddy Kari is in town from Finland and we’re heading up to the Blue ridge Parkway next week to ride bikes. Kari is planning on riding the entire 469 miles of the BRP in a one shot deal, non-stop that is. I plan to try to ride about 120 miles or so in the 28 hours that it will take him to ride the whole thing. This will serve as a great training ride for the record attempt that I will take part in in August. On August 25th, I will take part in a team-relay record attempt where three other guys and I will attempt to ride from Cherokee, NC to Waynesboro, VA relay style and we’ll try to do in less than 26 hours. Should be a lot of fun. We will ride from the start of the BRP to the end of the BRP exiting the BRP only during the night time hours when we ride on Highway 221 from Blowing Rock to an area in Virginia where we’ll get back on the Parkway at dawn. Stay tuned for more updates on that.

Well that’s about it for now. Hope all is well out there in the world. Good talking to you.

You never know what I’m going to get into. I’ve made a lot of excuses lately. I’ve been traveling a lot, I had the shoulder surgeries and I’ve worked some long hours over the last month. While those might seem like good excuses for not exercising, they’re not good excuses for not eating right.

I worked very hard to lose the 40 lbs that I’ve lost and while I feel better than I’ve every felt I haven’t reached my goal. The problem seems to be that I’ve settled into this mode of feeling good and not really having the desire to commit myself to continuing the process of Operation Svelte. In all honesty I have another 35 lbs that I want to lose. I want to know what it’s like to be “thin.” I’m in the best shape of my life, and I’m probably close to the lowest body fat percentage of my life. Unfortunately I’m still considered overweight by medical standards. On the day that Sarah and I got married, I weighed 286 lbs and had a BMI of 34.8 (Obese). Today I weigh 238 and have a BMI of 29 (Overweight) to get “Normal” I must weigh 204 and have a BMI of less than 24.9. Now, I understand that BMI doesn’t take your skeleton into account or muscle mass. But, I’ve got a relatively small frame for my size and my only muscle mass is in my legs. So, I should be able to get down to 204 and that’s where I want to be. I would like to be classified as “Normal” for the first time in my life. It may be the only thing that’s normal about me, but that’s fine.

Where things have gone awry is in the fact that I’ve had a really hard time motivating myself. I really do feel great, my clothes fit so much better, I sleep better, I have more energy, and I’m the poster child for weight loss and its positive effects. That is what makes it so difficult to get past this point. You get caught in the web of comfort that and start to think that this is good enough. It’s not, not yet.

Sarah and I talked about this when we got back from vacation and I told her that this was something that I needed to do. I’ve always been someone who has had great goals and ambitions, but I’m not really a finisher. I tend to get off on great starts and then somewhere along the way I lose interest and never finish. I haven’t had a lot of personal successes lately and I feel like I need them more now than ever. I need to know that I can set goals and accomplish them.

A while back I created Todder’s List of Unfinished Projects, I put that list on my refrigerator and after two years I have still not completed all of the tasks. Some where too expensive, but others were left due to laziness and lack of desire. Today I’m laying out a new list of Unfinished Projects and I want you to help me stay motivated to finish them.

1) Finish Losing the Weight. I will set small incremental goals along the way to help myself stay on track. My first goal is to get back down to 235. My second goal will be to get down to 230. You get the picture, but the ultimate goal is to get down to 204.
2) Raise and additional $3000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I’ve already raised $1000 in about 6 weeks. I have until October 28th to finish raising the rest of the money. Again, I’m setting incremental goals of $500 at a time. When I get to $1500 I’ll look for $2000. The minimum amount I have to raise is $3300, but I want more. I definitely need your help with the fundraising. I’m asking you to ask your friends and family members to donate to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on my behalf.
3) Complete the Marine Corps Marathon on October 28th. Complete means not only finish, but finish well and be able to walk afterwards. I will accomplish this by getting back on track with my training runs. I ran 3.6 miles on the road on Wednesday at an 8:58 min/mile pace and I did a 3.5 mile trail run yesterday at 11:00 min/mile pace. I’m working hard on keeping my Plantar Fasciitis under control by stretching and specific exercises to loosen up and strengthen my foot. This Saturday I’ll do a 10 mile run and next week I’ll get back to my three mid-week runs.
4) As part of my overall fitness regimen I’ve been back to riding my bike. This allows me to work the cardiovascular system without beating my joints to a pulp. However, there is a new goal attached to cycling. On August 25th, I’m hoping to take part in a Team-Relay Ultra-cycling event. Three other riders and I will ride from the Southern Terminus of the Blue-Ridge Parkway to the Northern Terminus in less than 28 hours straight. We will probably take turns of 30 minutes or less on the bike and rotate on and off the bike for the better part of 28 hours. The total length of the ride will be 458 miles.
5) As a continuation of my cycling efforts, I would like to ride the Six-Gap Century in September.

Okay, those are my current goals. I’ll keep you posted on how everything is going. I know it sounds like a lot of stuff, but the fitness stuff is all pretty intertwined.

Over the course of the last couple of years it seems that I’ve met more and more people whose lives have been touched by cancer. As many of you know I’ve been a pretty huge fan of Lance Armstrong and the Lance Armstrong Foundation because of the work they’ve done with cancer patients. In fact, over the last two years I’ve donated a reasonable chunk of change to both the Lance Armstrong Foundation and to the American Cancer Society. Donating my personal money to these causes has given me a little bit of a sense that I’m actually doing something that will help people now and in the future.

For many people it is enough to dig into their pocket books and pass along some of their hard earned cash to these types of societies and causes and until recently, I was one of those people. Today, I don’t feel like it’s enough for me to simply have some money deducted from my pay check every two weeks and go about my merry way.

As you know I recently completed my first marathon and in as little as a couple of days after completing the marathon I had already started planning on running my second in December of this year. The plan was to spend a couple of weeks recovering from my shoulder surgery and then start back running very slowly with the ambition of running the Rocket City Marathon. While that plan has not changed, I’m upping the ante substantially.

The last 4 or 5 events that I’ve been to, from the 3 State 3 Mountain Challenge to the ING Georgia Marathon to the Country Music Marathon, I’ve noticed these purple Team-in-Training jerseys on people all over the place. I decided to do a little research and found out what it was all about.

The bottom line is that Team-in-Training is about raising money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in an effort to fight Blood Cancers. They will help me train for a marathon and I will help them raise money to support research and patient services. At the end of 4 to 5 months of training and fundraising I will run the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. on October 28th. As part of TNT I’ll run in honor of a designated “Teammate” who happens to be a blood cancer patient, but I’ll also be running in honor of my friend Brent Ullom who passed away this past January and in honor of Steve Yeldell and Bill Nestor (Sarah’s Father and Grandfather, respectively) who are now fortunately (because they survived) and unfortunately (because they had to go through the pain, worry, and illness), cancer survivors. I will also run in honor of my father who has had numerous boughts with skin cancer. While TNT is specifically meant to raise money to help fight blood cancers, cancer is cancer and as you can see it’s something that has touched me and my family in a significant way.

From here on out you can expect to see more regular posts as I keep you up to date on training and fundraising and begin to post quick facts on the #1 cause of death in children and the #2 cause of death in adults.

I hope that you’ll continue to check in and cheer me on. I also hope that you’ll choose to support the cause. I’ll be looking to raise over $5000 in the next 4 months and I’m going to need some help.

There’s much more to come. Thanks in advance for your support!

Okay so it’s not that I couldn’t walk after the Marathon, it’s just that I had a nasty blister on the ball of my right foot that made it very painful to walk. However, after four days of recovery, said blister is starting to heal and it doesn’t hurt like the dickens to walk.

As far as recovery goes, I haven’t even tried to run or walk any real distance due to the blister issue, but I found out that I can skate. Since it’s a different foot motion and since my foot is so locked into the skate there is no real friction in the area where the blister is. Anyway, I went and got a massage on Monday evening after Sarah and I got back into town and I went from there to the Ice Complex and played in one of my Senior Open League games. Everything felt pretty good and I skated again on Wednesday. I’ve been very surprised at my resilience. I didn’t really expect to not be able to walk at all, but I didn’t expect to feel good enough to skate the next day either. I guess walking the last six miles and getting in the cold pool for 15 minutes post race really helped in the recovery process. Skating has probably helped push some of the build up out of my legs too.

Interesting side note: It’s not a good idea to get on the scale for a week or so after the Marathon. The consumption of massive amounts of Carbohydrates and Sodium coupled with the trauma of traveling 26.2 miles on foot seems to cause your body to retain fluid. So I got on the scale when we got back to Huntsville and I weighed 5 lbs more than I did before the Marathon. Research suggests this is normal and the weight will come right back off in a couple of days, but it is a little disappointing when you’re thinking you’re going to drop a few lbs.

So what does the future hold? I spent quite a while the other day working on a new training plan. I really only decided about 2 months ago that I was going to do the ING. Needless to say that wasn’t nearly the amount of time I needed to be truly prepared for the race. While I’m satisfied with the results I would like to be able to run a marathon faster and with less pain. So, I work out a plan that will slowly increase my mileage from 13 miles a week to 70 miles a week. My longest run each week will account for 1/3 of my weekly miles and the other runs will very in length throughout the week. I will increase my weekly mileage by 8.5% from the start of the plan to the end. I’ll allow for about 3 weeks of taper before the next marathon and I will have 1 step back week in every 4 weeks of training. I’ll start training two and a half weeks after my next should surgery and will run everyday of every week until December the 8th when I run the Rocket City Marathon. During this time I will also be including a comprehensive stretching routine as well as some light weight training.

What are the objectives between now and then?

1) Develop a base of miles substantial enough to allow me to run the Rocket City Marathon fully.

2) Develop enough endurance to complete the marathon in less than 4 hours.

3) Learn what works for my body in terms of how to eat and hydrate properly for endurance events.

3) Through a continuation of healthy diet and exercise I plan to lose an additional 30 lbs over where I’m currently at. By the time I run the Rocket City Marathon I plan to tip the scales at a scant 205 lbs.

4) Provide encouragement and inspiration to others and instill a since of hope in people that they can accomplish whatever they set their minds to just like I have and will.

What are the objectives for the Marathon?

1) Run non-stop the entire length of the 26.2 mile course including water stations.

2) Finish in 3 hours and 45 minutes or less.

See you along the way!

You can now add Marathon Finisher to the list on my athletics resume. Yes, you read that right; on March 25, 2007 I completed the ING Georgia Marathon. I’m sure Sarah will be posting pictures soon, but I felt like I should say something about it here.

I was not ready for this. I suffered from several bad ideas.

Bad Idea #1) I have completed two Half-Marathons since January, but 13.1 miles was my longest run until yesterday. When I set out to run this Marathon I had hoped to be able to finish in less than 4 hours 45 minutes. Unfortunately, I suffered a little bit of tendonitis in my right knee not too long after my second Half-Marathon. I did a 4 miler 2 days after the second “Half” and was going to run 9 third day after. I got through 4.5 miles and decided to stop. I didn’t want to inflame the situation anymore. I then ended up traveling for the next two weeks and skipping the 16 and 20 mile runs I was supposed to do. I also didn’t run AT ALL during those two weeks. When I got back from travel I ran 2.1, 5.5 and 2.6 miles the week of the Marathon and then had 3 days between any running and the Marathon.

Bad Idea #2) Sarah and I went back to Pilates for the first time in three months on the Thursday before the Marathon. I started feeling my ab muscles at mile 2. At mile 3 I started to feel my shoulder. All that pain would subside, or be replaced by new pains.

Bad Idea #3) I’ve been eating poorly lately and I decided it was time to get back on my LA Weight Loss program. I started back on Wednesday and instead of Carbo Loading before the Marathon, I think I was Carbo-Unloading.

Bad Idea #4) you should always eat a nice large healthy meal the night before the Marathon. You should not eat food with rich sauces and you should not eat large chunks of Chocolate Mouse Mousse (though after I ate it I felt like I had mice running around in my stomach) Cake the night before. This is even truer if you’re not used to eating that type of food. I was up until after midnight taking care of “Business.”

Bad Idea #5) you should try to run on both sides of the road from time to time. This will ensure that your feet toughen up evenly. If you’re used to running against traffic all of the time you’re feet will be used to landing on the crown of the road in such a way that your left foot will take more of a beating than your right foot. If you’re used to that and you switch sides of the road for let’s say 10 of 26.2 miles. Your right foot will develop a much larger blister than your left.

Bad Idea #6) Swerving to run underneath a hose pipe to cool off and accidentally stepping in a puddle and soaking your shoes.

So, you taking into account all the bad ideas and you’re sure to see that my only desire for this Marathon was to finish. What I can’t begin to explain is how bad I wanted to finish because I would have to be able to explain how emotionally tired I was and how much pain my body was in.

I ran the first 20 miles in a little under 4 hours. I spent probably half of miles 18 and 19 walking because I was starting to cramp. By the time I crossed the time keeper’s mats at mile 20 I was not capable of running anymore. Every time I started to job, both hamstrings and both calves would start to cramp. So I walked or as Sarah assured me I trudged. I trudged by all of the wonderful people who called my name and shouted words of encouragement. I never wanted to stop; I just wanted it to end. I had my sights so set on getting the stupid medal for crossing that finish line I could not think of anything but that medal. I told myself I’m not a quitter and at mile 23.5 I lost it emotionally. I was torn between wanting this to be over so incredibly bad and not wanting to stop. Even though I was walking I lost control of my breathing and started to tear-up.

I can’t begin to thank Sarah, and Amy and Brian enough for their support. They ran, walked, hitch-hiked, taxied and subwayed their way around so they could cheer me on every couple of miles and in the end when I had nothing left emotionally or physically they walked with me and gave me the mental support that I needed to finish strong. With 4 blocks left in the race, I mustered what little bit of courage I had left and trotted across the finish line.

It wasn’t what I envisioned. I was elated that I finished a marathon like I thought I would be. I wanted nothing more than to just sit down.

Well I do one again? The answer to that question is an absolute unqualified yes! I will run the Rocket City Marathon here in Huntsville in December. I will finish the Rocket City Marathon in less than 4 hours and I will run the whole way. I will be prepared and the list of Bad Ideas above will be history.

For now: Brian, I wouldn’t have done this if it were not for you. Thank you for your support, encouragement and help. Amy, I couldn’t have wished for a better sister! Thank you for being there and cheering me on. Sarah, I love you with all my heart, I couldn’t done this without you.

Now that the Holidays have past it’s time to get my nose back to the grind stone. I haven’t slowed down on the running and excercise part of “Operation Svelte,” but I have pretty much left my nutrition for dead. My goal was to get through the holidays and not gain any weight. I came very close to accomplishing that goal, I made it through the last three weeks of Holiday cookies, candy and feast and only netted a one pound gain on the scales.

When I went into LA Weight Loss to find this out I was pretty satisfied considering what I have been eating. That said I was ready to turn on the burners again and watch the scale start falling. So I’ve mostly been back on plan for a couple of days now. I’ve added a few extra carbs to the diet so I could sustance the distances that I’m running now and when I went in on Friday to find out what the damage was I had lost 7 lbs. As of Friday afternoon I’m as light as I’ve been since 1995 when my Driver’s License said I weighed 258. On Friday was done to 240. That’s 20 lbs away from my official goal and 30 lbs away from my unofficial goal of 210 lbs. I have lost a total of 38 lbs since the start at the end of October and I’m down 56 lbs from my all time heaviest.

On the excercise side of things. I completed a 9 mile run on Monday of last week. It was the longest I’ve ever run in my entire life. I signed up for the Nashville Resolution Run on Monday. It was only a 5k so I ran the course twice before the race started and then ran it a third time after that and set a personal best for 5k run of 27 min 24 secs. In other words I ran the last 3.1 miles of a 9 mile run at an average pace of 8 min 51 secs per mile. Needless to say I’m pretty thrilled with that. But if that wasn’t enough I set another personal distance record today.

For the first time in my life I’ve run a distance in the double digits. I complete a 10 mile run in 1 hr 34 min and 2 secs. If you don’t care to do the math that’s a pace of 9 min 24 secs per mile. 10 FREAKIN’ MILES!

This week is a step back week, so no personally records as I’ll be giving my body some much needed recovery time and not running as far, but next week will bring a new distace record and the following week, we’ll travel to Callaway Gardens to run a Half-Marathon with Brian. I’m really looking forward to that.

Oh by the way, when I got on the scale after the run I weighed in at 235. I couldn’t tell you when I saw a number that low on the scale.