My Fundraising Page

Racing to Save Lives

Welcome to my Team In Training ("TNT") home page, the photo was taken after my 23 mile run on 11/17 (see description below), looks like I might need to take some salt pills or something on the long runs.

I'm training to run my first marathon as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. The Honolulu Marathon is in December, so if you want to take a nice vacation to root me on, not a bad place to be. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.

I hope you will visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress (training log blog is below). Thanks for your support!

TRAINING LOG:

7/29 - 1 mile - Our first running experience, we did a mile at the SMU track for group placement, I finished in 8:00 minutes, on the dot. Apparently this means I'm in the 10:00 minute mile group for training, which should put me in the 4:30 marathon time range. I now have a goal to beat. FYI, starting weight today, a whopping 233 lbs.

7/31 - 2.5 miles - Self run, only lasted about 2.5 miles, it was over 100 still at 6:30 PM, so I didn't feel so bad about it

8/2 - 5 miles - Team run, per the schedule I got, beginners were only required to run two miles. However, the people in my group apparently thought five was the right number. Bastards. Anyway, I did it, and luckily we moved fairly slow so it wasn't so bad. Luckily it was at 7:00 AM, not the 105 it reached later that day

8/3 - 2 miles - Sunday, hottest day of the year, hit 107. I decided I was crazy and needed to run in the middle of the afternoon anyway, it was brutal.

8/5 - 4 miles - Tuesday evening team run, nothing eventful, still hot.

8/7 - 4 miles - I was feeling pretty good about myself today and tried to run this fast. it didn't work, after the first two miles at a 8:15 pace, I had to walk for a minute and the last two were at my normal freakishly slow pace. My goal of beating at least one Kenyan may be difficult, but I'm not giving up on that yet. Reminder to Alex and George, you have to double your contribution if I do it.

8/9 - 8 miles - yes, eight (8) miles. The team met at White Rock Lake, which is a couple miles east of downtown Dallas, at 7:00 am saturday morning. It's amazing how many folks are out there running, it's nine miles around the lake, which I think we'll do next week. The TNT staff do an incredible job, they have water and Gatorade set up and have gone out and marked the course with mileage markers for us. My group was a little smaller today with some folks from the last run not able to make it, so we kept a decent pace in the mid 9:00 range. Today we used the Galloway method, running for seven minutes, walking for one, I enjoyed the walking parts quite a bit. After the run, we had the Honored Heroes breakfast with all the Dallas area teams. About a dozen survivors got up on stage and told their stories, all had gone through chemo treatment and were in remission. There were a couple of folks in the medical profession that worked in the field or in research, interesting to hear their take on their trials and tribulations. This was a great event, seeing all of these brave individuals who had been fighting for their lives really emphasized the need for funds to help battle these terrible diseases. So, for them and all the others who have gone through so much, thank you for any donations you can provide!!

8/11 - 2 miles, not worth a comment

8/12 - 4 miles - group run down the Katy Trail. Nothing too eventful, ran with a new guy who made me go a little faster (he happens to be from Tyler, last name Frampton). One notable, for some reason we start the run going downhill and the trail is all downhill, so the last half going back up is always harder, not sure who came up with that bright idea (and I happen to know my coach, the illustrious Coach Joe, reads this)...Add on, Coach Joe has corrected me and put the blame on another of our coaches, Rick, for the record.

8/14 - 3 miles, this was supposed to be a longer run, but there was dinner to consider.

8/16 - 8 miles, yep, we did eight again. We had almost the whole pace group this time and we let Merritt (sp?) lead us. Big mistake. He took off at a clip, maybe not as fast as the Olympians I watched last night, but it felt like it to me. A couple of us let them sprint the last two miles and finished at our normal mid nine minute range, but it was punishing for the first six miles. Weather finally cooperated and we had a nice breeze, but for the speedster above it would have been a pleasurable experience. I proceeded to go home, take a nap for two hours, watch some of the Olympics, then take another nap. Not a bad Saturday, a'tall. According to our training schedule, next Saturday is nine miles, after that we have something called 'Hill Weekend', not sure what that means but I'm pretty sure I won't like it. Side note, I continue to be amazed at the generosity of my friends and family, I've had so many folks step up to help out the cause, and yours truly. I'm truly lucky to have all you wonderful peeps in my life. Talk about motivation to get this thing done...

43.5 miles to date over the last 18 days.

8/19 - 6 miles, team run along the Katy Trail, small group showed up today because it was overcast. They were smart. About 1/2 mile in, it started raining, hard. The sky continued to fall for the entire run, my socks and shoes were squishy, super pleasant.

8/21 - 4 miles, solo run, nice and slow

8/23 - 9 miles, we have stepped it up, after Hill Weekend next weekend, we start ramping up every week till we hit mileage in the low 20's, it's neat-o. I did oversleep today, so I had to run this one by myself, definitely better to run with people, especially when you're running for a long time. I survived it, but it wasn't fast or pretty and got a little bit painful. I did get a good endorphin rush for the rest of the day, which is nice.

8/26 - 6 miles, Katy Trail group run, nothing special, but it was a'ight.

8/28 - 4 miles, solo, boring, except that the rollerbladers were out in force today for some reason

9/1 - 6 miles, got offered tickets to the A&M game and had to miss the group run. For any fans out there, this was obviously a mistake. Terrible game, they lost to Arkansas State (sat through the game and still don't know who their mascot is) and it was a painfully boring game to boot. So, I had to push off my run till Monday and didn't quite make the distance I should have.

9/2 - 6 miles, Katy Trail group run, I was feeling strong today so I did the first three fast in under 24 minutes. This led to pain on the way back, uphill, needed to take a couple one minute walking breaks. Finished in under 52 minutes, which for this big boy is still a nice pace.

84.5 miles to date

9/5 - 10 miles, I was in Chattanooga for work and ran the Riverwalk with my old friend Nate. It was early afternoon, hit 95 and hurt, a lot. We did the first five with gusto, but the way back was pretty pathetic, long water breaks at every available fountain. On a brighter note, we went whitewater rafting at the Ocoee on Saturday, several class 4's. Everybody got thrown from the boat, some numerous times. It was a little dangerous, but very fun.

9/7 - 3 miles, Sunday short run, was bored and hit the trail

9/9 - 6 miles, it was raining very hard so I had to do this on the treadmill. Treadmills are boring, very boring, even if you have the new 90210 to watch. Which, let's be honest, does not compare to our beloved original.

9/11 - 4 miles, hit the Katy Trail solo, nothing interesting to add.

9/13 - 9.6 miles, this was a bad run day. I entered a 15k to run with my team, that's 9.6 miles for those not familiar with the metric system. My friend Dax had evacuated from Houston (which turned out to be a wise move) and decided to run with me. I think eating a burger the night before and some mac and cheese at 6:00 am to get ready was a big mistake. After about three miles, internal problems were evident, severe heartburn. After that struck, I was a shell of the running machine I've never quite been. I finished, but had to take several long walking breaks because it would not go away. The most embarassing part of the adventure is that my boy, who has not done any training nor ever runs more than 2-3 miles, ended up beating me. I know, it's pathetic.

9/16 - 6 miles, this is the Katy Trail group run but somebody (tall, bald, loud Cajun, fyi) wouldn't stop talking to me at work so I arrived late. I started from the opposite end of the trail by my apartment so I'd end at home and be able to see my teammates. Things went well and running uphill for the first three and downhill the last definitely beats the other way around. Finished in 52 minutes, which I'll take.

9/18 - 6 miles, solo Katy Trail run, went well, just over 52 minutes.

9/20 - 14 miles, yes, we are in the big time now. Not only was this the longest distance I have ever run, but it was mixed with Hill Weekend. After last weekend's pathetic result, I was a little wary about being able to do this. Hill Weekend means we spend about six miles going up and down hills in the middle of our run. There is a section called the Dolly Parton Hills, you can guess what that means. But those are actually pretty easy to mount (pun intended), there are a few others that seem to go on forever. But, I'm happy to say that I finished and fairly strong, restored a little faith in myself. I proceeded to go home, take a nap for two hours, take a short lunch break, then back on the couch for 2-3 more hours alternately sleeping and watching college football. We had a good group today, but there are a couple folks out with strains/injuries, hopefully that doesn't keep them out for long. On that note, definitely getting sore and sometimes achey in odd spots, luckily nothing really painful as of yet. Guess we'll see what 16 miles on 9/27 feels like.

9/22 - 5 miles, solo run, slow and boring, but you have to do it. I've had requests for weight updates from inquiring minds, so I checked it and I'm down to 220 lbs, 13 from the start. Only a couple dozen more to go....

148.1 miles to date

9/25 - 3 miles, was in DC at a conference, hearing some economists tell us that the 'crisis' would not be resolved until 2011 or 2012, really makes your day. Couldn't force myself out of the hotel early enough, so only did three today. I did get to run up M Street through Georgetown, which was scenic and a little busy.

9/27 - 16 miles, hoo-wah! If 14 miles was previously the longest I'd ever run, you now know a new personal record was set. 16 miles is a long way and takes a pretty long time, just over 2.5 hours in this case. About mile 11, somebody pointed out that I had a long read streak running down the right side of my white shirt. Yep, I had rubbed my nip raw and was bleeding (but it didn't hurt none). I felt like a champ for the first 14 or so, then it got pretty, pretty hard. I kept thinking I was closer to the finish line that I was. About mile 15, something cruel and unusual occurred. Coach Rick, who was running with and pacing us, decided he wanted to finish fast. On the last uphill point before the downhill to our finish, he takes off at a sub 8:00 clip. We proceeded to finish the last mile in about 8:00 flat, with the last 1/8th mile or so covered at the fastest I could run after that distance. I kept up, but I will admit that it hurt...and that Rick is no longer my friend. Afterward, that little nip experience did end up causing a big hurt, in the shower, stang like ca-razy.

Personal note, I'm off to Spain from 9/30 to 10/10 (I can tell you're jealous). Planning on running through Barcelona and Mallorca to get my miles in. I'm getting one of those GPS watches so that I can know how long I've run and, more importantly, how to get back to the hotel. Will provide updates when I return!

10/2 - 5 miles, I ran along the beach in Barcelona, not a bad place to get a couple miles in. It was cool and sunny and glorious. Of note to anyone making a trip, there is a nude beach north of the city. Now, unless you are into old, hairy, obese men, this is probably somewhere you should avoid...

10/6 - 12 miles, my second Spain run, following a weekend of gorging on tons of food (in Mallorca, meals tended to last around 2.5 hours each, that's lunch and dinner, and consisted of at least five or six courses). Needless to say, I was not moving as quickly as I would have liked. I ran most of this through the city, there aren't that many joggers there, less so that go through the city, so I was subjected to a lot of stares and even a couple catcalls, which was nice. I finished along the beach and up La Ramblas to my hotel, good run after I got moving.

10/8 - 3 miles, pretty weak, but I'd been up late the night before hanging with some Eurotrash I'd met on my sightseeing trips.

Another side note, Mallorca is spectacular, the water and the mountains are just amazing. Barcelona is very fun too (Sagrada Familia and Montjulic are not to be missed.)

10/11 - 18 miles!!! Yes, another distance record. I had my grandmother's 90th b-day party lunch that day, so I started running at about 5:30, it was dark and scary and hard to move in the beginning. Luckily, I met up with my team at 7:00 and got a nice little break. Ran another six with them and then had to bolt. I finished the last four after lunch, so it was kind of an all day affair. The coaches told me it still counts, so I'm counting it. Next weekend is Hill Weekend again, I think we're doing 15 or 16 this time, I LOVE the hills.

10/14 - 6 miles, only five people showed up for our Tuesday night team run. Either folks are dropping out or they thought it was going to rain. I ran with John, who is at least one, maybe two, pace groups faster than me. He's aiming to finish the marathon in under 3:30, roughly an hour faster than my goal. Needless to say, this was hard for me. I had to take a minute to walk and let him go on after about 4.5 miles. I still finished the six in 50 minutes flat or about 8:20/mile, that's like speed training for this guy. Weight check, down to 214, getting closer...

10/16 - 6 miles, Katy Trail solo run, not much to mention

10/18 - 15 miles, Hill Weekend, another one. Our pace group coach Rick was off at a marathon in SF, so we had a couple folks sub in at different spots along the way, but basically it was me, Trevor and Erin, the last three faithful in the pace group from the start to the finish. The five or six miles running up and down the hills is super neat-o, but I definitely felt stronger than the last hill weekend. Luckily this is the last one I had, un-luckily we start hitting the 20 mile mark very soon.

10/21 - 6 miles, Katy Trail team run, Trevor showed up and we ran it together. He hadn't done the trail before and didn't realize the first half was downhill. He was pushing the pace pretty hard, but he was feeling it on the uphill final three. I was feeling the pain too, but it was nice to have some company in misery.

10/25 - 14 miles, there was no team run today, so I had to do it by my lonesome. I should have gone to White Rock Lake, but I chose to stick to the Katy Trail since it's next to my apartment. I had to run the whole thing twice, which was fairly boring since I saw the same thing on repeat. Howev, they had a couple bands playing along the trail for some reason, so that made up for it a bit. I've only got about seven weeks of training left, so this is about to get real hard....

252.1 miles to date

I've been informed that I am not keeping this up to date enough, my apologies to any regular readers!

10/27 - 4 miles, easy little run, had some energy after lifting and headed out to the trail. Usually I have zero energy after lifting, so I guess all this activity is paying off.

10/28 - 8 miles, it was raining so I ran on the treadmill for a very long time, it was very boring. I don't see how people do long runs on a treadmill, though I guess before all this training nonsense three miles was a long way for me.

11/1 - 20 miles, another personal distance record!! If you'll notice, this was the day after Halloween, which means I was not as well rested as I should have been. The worst part was that I managed to miss the 7:00 am group start time, so I had to do this by my lonesome. I went around the lake twice (about 9 miles a loop) and then put in another couple of miles to get there. It was a beautiful day, but it started getting warm. I was not 100%, so I was not very happy and got very bored after 10-12 miles. Probably ended up walking 3-4 miles intermittently, but I did manage the last couple straight at a decent clip. If I ever needed reinforcement that running with other people is better, this was it. I shan't be missing any more group runs after this. PS - I've been handling soreness and pain pretty well through all this, but after this beating, I was SORE.

11/4 - 6 miles, Katy Trail team run, nothing too exciting. The Tuesday group is dwindling quickly, so Trevor, Coach Joe and I were the only ones in the pace group. We paced pretty well and it was going smoothly. However, Trevor decided to tell Coach Joe that when he came to the first training day, he looked around and saw Coach and thought 'this won't be too bad, how fast can this old guy go?' Coach laughed it off, but decided that he would toast Trevor and me on the last mile, he took off and finished the last mile in about 7:00 minutes. Trevor did an ok job keeping up for the first quarter mile or so but was eventually smoked. Kudos to the old Coach.

11/6 - 6 miles, Trevor and his boy Daniel (boy being appropriate cause the kid's 22 and a freak apparently). Nothing too eventful, we ran this pretty quick and it felt good. Daniel doesn't really train at all but can apparently run forever, he was skipping and running backwards and had no problems keeping up.

11/8 - 13 miles, Coach Rick and Trevor and an alumni ran today. [If you haven't noticed there's a familiar theme here, we've lost over half our pace group to injuries and fundraising problems, so we are sadly down to me, Erin and Trevor plus one of the two coaches] . I felt very good about this run, we would have finished right at 2 hours but for an unexpected couple of bathroom stops, so we were moving at a nice clip and I felt strong when I finished. After the beating last weekend, this raised my hopes a little bit. Next week is our final very long run, 22 miles, may God have mercy on my soul (and legs and heart).

11/11 - 6 miles, ran the Katy Trail solo but ran into Andrew, another alum at mile three and we finished up together, kinda chilly out but nothing too interesting otherwise.

11/13 - 4 miles, this was a short run to rest for Saturday, pretty sure I'll need the rest. It's nice that four miles is getting pretty easy, guess all this training pain has had some benefit.

11/15 - 23 miles!!! I'm pretty psyched about this one, I had some serious doubts about whether or not I could do it and I survived. We started off at 5:00 AM, it was COLD and windy and way too early to be out of bed. Luckily I went to sleep at about 9:00 the night before. That said, I would guess we had gone four or five miles before my brain was actually functioning at any level whatsoever. The whole of my pace group, Erin, Trevor and I were there. We also had a guy named Conrad join us, he's usually in the faster pace group but they've had more dropouts than we have so he didn't want to go it alone. He was a welcome addition, but I did have to slow him down several times when he started moving at a sub 9:00 pace. 23 miles is a long way, and did I mention that it was cold and windy. It felt like the wind kept changing direction to blow in our faces, especially after mile 16 or so, not exactly the best time for resistance to hit. After about 15 miles, every time I'd stop to get water and eat a Clif block, starting back up became tough, my legs were definitely very tired at the end of this thing. The last 2-3 miles were fairly euphoric, I'm not sure if it was the endorphins or just relief that it would soon be over but I was in a kind of haze for that final bit. Erin's IT band was bothering her, so she had slowed down around mile 18. I ran back to walk her in, hence the 23 instead of the 22 that was scheduled. Folks have asked me if I could have gone on and done three more if I had to. I'd like to think I could have, but it would not have been easy. I guess we'll see in about three more weeks!!

11/18 - 6 miles, ran the standard route with Trevor and Coach Joe, this was a nice easy run and we ran the last mile hard. We're now beginning our taper, so I won't go over 13 miles till Honolulu. Looking forward to shorter runs. Unfortunately, Coach Joe decided to tell me all about the Honolulu marathon, being sure to point out that there are some very big hills (which is bad) and that it is going to be hot (which is worse). Nifty.

11/20 - 6 miles, solo run, boring and slow

11/22 - 3.2 miles, since we are taking it easy after last week's beast of a run, they had us run the Gobble Hobble 5k in Richardson. It was pretty cold and I got there way too early. Not much to report on 3.2 miles, except that my pace group took off at a serious pace, too fast for me. We finished the first mile in about 7:15, so I was beat up and had to slow down considerably after that. Had it not been for a cute girl from Longview (who's usually in the slower pace group) catching up to me, I probably wouldn't have even finished this fast. I finished the race in just over 25 minutes, and got stomped by Erin and Trevor in overall finish time. We'll see who finishes the marathon first though...

11/25 - 4 miles, I had a friend coming to stay with me so I had to cut this short.

11/29 - 9.5 miles, did a lap around the lake, couldn't make the team run since I was hanging out with family and friends for a wonderful Thanksgiving Weekend. Big thanks to my Mimi for a fantastic spread (though it did stick around for a while). It was windy and chilly and not super pleasurable but otherwise not too bad. Always good when they're over!

12/2 - 6 miles, Katy Trail, by myself, felt pretty strong.

12/4 - 6 miles, Erin and Trevor met me for the trail run, we ran nice and easy so not too painful.

12/6 - 9.5 miles, another lap around the lake, it was nice today and fairly pleasant. Just one more week till the big event, all I'll do now is run a mile or two every day. Getting a little nervous about the full deal, but worst case I will finish it (hopefully within eight hours). So, there won't be any more updates for a week, but rest assured I will recount all the pain, suffering, heat, cramping, nausea, etc after my return!

392.3 miles to date

12/14 - 26.2 miles, Honolulu Marathon. What a bittersweet ending to this little journey. Sweet because I finished, sweet because it's over and sweet because I was able to chill in Hawaii and relax for a few days after the torture. But mostly it was bitter.

I arrived in Honolulu on Friday afternoon, met the other three runners from North Texas, Coach Joe and the Team in Training Staff, then checked into the Hilton Hawaiian Village. We went out to Duke's for dinner, a famous restaurant located on Waikiki Beach, overlooking the sand and waves. Went to bed early after that and woke at 3:00, 4:00 and 5:00 am (there's a four hour time difference and I couldn't force myself to stay in bed any longer). Saturday, by design, was very low key. Went to breakfast, laid on the beach for a few hours and then headed to the Swap Meet. The Swap Meet is a very large flea market that circles the Aloha Bowl, it's mostly junk and tourist stuff, but it was very cheap and fun until it started to pour down rain and my roommate (Albert) and I had to make a wet mad dash to the cab. TNT had a pasta party/inspiration dinner for us that night, lots of carbo loading was needed and they had some speakers and awards and slideshows. The main speaker had lost his 17 year old daughter to Lymphoma a couple of years ago. He told her story and passed on tales of her heroism and bravery, including ten life lesson's that she wrote during her stay in the hospital. This was incredibly moving, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. She was truly a special person and her story motivated us all for the race the next day.

I went to bed pretty much immediately afterward, set my alarm for 3:00 AM and dozed fitfully for a few hours. I awoke with a start when the alarm went off and started eating very soon thereafter. My roommate was none to pleased that I woke well in advance of when I needed to too, but the race was to start at 5:00 and I wanted to get some calories in quickly and hopefully be able to take care of my business before I needed to leave. The team met in the lobby at 4:00 AM for the walk over to the race. I was wearing a poncho that I'd bought the night before since it had rained numerous times since our arrival and to my joy there was no rain in sight. There were over 28,000 runners for the event and it showed when we arrived at the staging area, it was packed. We chatted for a bit and tried to shake off our nerves, there was still no rain so I decided to throw my pancho away. At 5:00, fireworks starting going off over the ocean to begin the race. We walked with the masses for about 10 minutes to the starting line and then tried to start running. Of course, as soon as I crossed that starting line, it started raining. And raining, and raining some more.

I was probably in the middle of the crowd at the start and that made the beginning very fun. Not only was it raining hard with large puddles all across the route, but I was also having to dodge and weave around thousands of people to move above a 14 minute mile clip. This part may have been a blessing since I was unable to take off too fast at the start (apparently a big problem for most marathoners), but it was fairly frustrating. The darkness and mob of people also made dodging puddles impossible. By the first mile, my feet were soaked. It started to thin out after the first 3-4 miles and I was feeling good. I hit the 10k mark at just under an 11 minute mile clip and finally had some room to move. My coach met up with me at around mile 7 to run up Diamond Head, which is a long uphill climb, it was pretty narrow in spots but wasn't too bad considering it was early in the run. He left me a couple miles later to go back and run the hill with some other team members and I was still crusing along. I talked to a bunch of other TNT'ers after that as I caught up to them, really friendly people from all over the US. There were also a ton of Japanese folks running this event, many of which did so in unique outfits. There was the Samurai warrior, a Pokemon girl, a ballerina dude, a guy running without shoes and some costume that I couldn't place but was shaped like a coke can with a face and you could only see the person's calves and feet (could not have been comfortable). Everything was going well, I had hit the zone at some point and was cruising along nicely. I hit the halfway point and the rain finally began to stop. I had speeded up and was moving toward a 4:40 finishing time and I felt good. My feet were hurting because the constant soak had eliminated any cushioning in my socks and shoes, but I didn't think that was enough to slow me considerably.

After the halfway point, I met two TNT folks who were moving at the right pace and we chatted for a couple miles, this was during a long uphill climb and made that much more bearable. After mile 15 or so, I left them behind and kept on trucking. I passed mile 16 and checked my time, I was doing well and feeling fine, I was estimating that I'd finish in under 4:30 at this point. Then, well, bad things started happening. I felt this lightning bolt of pain in my right calve, something I hadn't felt in years. I kept going and a minute or so later I felt another shock in my left calve. I didn't know it at the time, but this was a mere foreshadowing of the pain to come. I decided I should get some water at the next stop and walk for a minute or two. I also ate the high sodium Clif Blocks I had on me, more than I would have normally, but I was hoping they'd give me whatever I might need. I walked about two minutes and started moving again, I was very stiff from the long walk but nothing immediately happened. I made it about another mile or so before both calves seized up at the same time. I came very close to falling down and the guy behind me ran into me. I walked a bit more and started moving, probably made it a quarter mile before the dreaded cramps started again. It's worth noting that at this point, the sun was out and it had hit the mid-70's, humidity was also at 100% according to a later weather report.

This did not improve, I kept trying the run, then cramp, then walk method for the next couple of miles. Each run was cut shorter and shorter by lighting shots of pain in my calves. My coach was back at around mile 19 and walked/hobbled with me for a few miles as went back up Diamond Head. On a bright note, the view of the water, coast and mountains up there were breathtaking. Unfortunately, I was too angry to really appreciate it. A lot of the people I had passed and talked to were now passing me back by and there was not a thing I could do about it.

I kept trying to run after longer and longer walks, but it was useless, every five to ten steps running would cause the recurrent pain. It even moved to my hamstrings which made it doubly painful and even harder to stand. I finally saw the finish line looming a 1/2 mile in the distance. I was determined to try and run through it and get in, but my legs said NO, in capital letters. I had to lean against a wall and stretch for a minute or two to even allow me to walk at this point, every step hurt. As I made it to the last 100 yards, all the TNT people were cheering for me and I was thinking: "If I could stand without severe pain, this would be really nice." Alas, that was not the case. I made it through the finish line and tried to smile for the camera. In my daze, I apparently went the wrong direction after the finish line and a volunteer ran up to me and grabbed me, asking if I was ok. I said, "I'm fine, I'm just cramping," he told me I should stretch it out and I said: "thanks, but I've been cramping for the past ten miles." I know, what a grump.

My time was a pathetic 5:21, about an hour slower than my target. I collected my ribbon and my Finisher shirt, ate some cookies and an apple (not sure who thought that up for the finisher area, seemed odd) and headed back to the hotel where I showered and got a much needed nap. Waking up after my nap, the soreness was at a whole new level. My roommate was back (he'd walked with a team member and finished a couple hours after me) and we headed to Cheeseburger in Paradise, which is somehow NOT affilitated with Jimmy Buffett, where we proceeded to eat like starved wild animals, it was nice. There was a victory party that night, but it was pretty tame, the drinks cost $12 and most weren't in the mood to party. I did go out on the town with a couple of TNT'ers and had a good time at a couple bars, though I frequently had to stretch between beers to keep from crumpling over.

The rest of the trip was good, very lazy. I saw a couple of the biggies, Pearl Harbor, North Shore, Turtle Bay, hiked Diamond Head, a luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center, but mostly I sat by the pool or on the beach. I read four books in five days and ate some great meals. Sadly, it stayed overcast or rainy most of the trip, so I didn't get the tan that I was looking forward to, but I did come back nice and relaxed.

So, there will be a follow up to this journey. I shan't let this marathon time be my best and only. I'm planning on doing it again in the near future to at least break the 4:30 mark, guess we'll see if it turns into a hobby or obsession....

To all my wonderful friends, family and coworkers, thank you so much for all your love, support and donations, this has been a worthwhile journey and you should be proud of donating money for this wonderful cause!!