We have three flag football games this week, so this is going to put a real damper on my training. I am going to have to log some serious miles this weekend. The race is a little over two weeks away, so I have to get a 10 miler in before the race. If I don't have too much trouble with 10, I should be fine for the race. I am getting excited about running a race again. We won our flag football game on Monday and Tuesday. I had a scary moment during the game Monday. I was running the ball and I planted to make a cut near the sideline and rolled my ankle pretty good. It was pretty sore the next morning. I was so worried that all the training I had done for the previous three months was about to go down the drain. We played a top league team and I get injured so easy when we play teams like that because I am running for my life the whole game. I will have to take it easy in our game tomorrow night. Our flag football team, Ameriprise Financial, is in first place with a record of 8 -2. We want to win the league so we can have another trophy for our office.

Had my longest run of my training session last night for 8 miles. It went better than I thought it would. The weather was perfect. There was a cool breeze and it felt so good. I love running late at night. I am just not a morning person and I seem to do better running at night. I was feeling under the weather last night. I felt like I was getting a sinus cold. Running seems to help clean out my system. I always feel better afterwards when I am feeling sick and I have a good run. The half-marathon is three weeks away. It felt good to run that far and not struggle a couple of weeks before the race. Hopefully, I can stay healthy during flag football. I am excited about running this race with my dad. He has some eye surgery yesterday and can't run for a week. I know that will set him back some, but he will be ready for the race. I hope his knees hold up so he can run the Miami Marathon with me in January. We will see how things go in Boston Georgie in three weeks. I am glad that I ran the long run last night. Now I have a short 3 mile run today and I can get ready for the FSU - Miami game today at 3:30. Go Noles!

I incorporate playing sports as my cross training during my marathon training. The fear I always have of running a marathon at the end or beginning of the year is the high risk I run of incurring an injury during flag football. I play quarterback on our flag football team and I run around a lot. That is the strength of our team. Every year I end up pulling a hamstring or hurting my ankle. I have made it injury free this year (knock on wood). I end up missing so much training time when I get injured. We are doing good this year. Our team, Ameriprise Financial, is 6 - 2. We are in sole possession of first place. We were up in our game last night 24 - 6. I asked Wes, our back up quarterback, if he wanted to QB the second half. We had four straight three and outs and the other team scored each time. They cut the score to six points. I came back in the game with 2 and 1/2 minutes left. I threw an interception on third down and luckily I pulled the guys flag at the 15. I was the last man he had to beat. On the very next play, the other team over threw their receiver and we intercepted it and were able to run out the clock. That was almost the worst melt down in the second half I have ever been a part of. We got too cocky and I should not have come out of the game. Lesson learned, it won't happen again.

Country Music Marathon

My third marathon took place in Nashville in April 2008. My aunt Sandy had been asking me for a while to run in the marathon in Nashville. They live in Franklin, so she said we could stay with them and she would pay for my race fee. I really prepared well for this one. It was a really organized marathon. I had no idea how big the race was going to be. They had over 20,000 runners. It was huge! Auburn and Melina did a mile run the night before the marathon. They did well and got a real medal for finishing the race. They had a lot of fun. They got to shake Jeff Fisher's (Tennessee Titans head football coach) hand as they crossed the finish line. They had no idea who he was. Daddy knew and thought it was cool. The course had more hills than I anticipated. I held up pretty well the first half of the marathon. I was determined to reach my goal of running under 4 hours. I stayed with one of the pace runners. They have runners that hold up a sign during the race for what time they will finish. I found the one with 4 hours and I was going to stay with him no matter what. We had about 30 people running in the group. Unfortunately, we only ended up with 3 of us at the end. You have so many emotions that go through your mind when you are running a marathon. You get angry, sad, happy, and there are usually some tears mixed in there. Towards the end of the marathon, I was starting to get mad at the pace runner. I couldn't figure out why he was running so fast the last couple of miles. I don't think he was running faster, I just think I was really tired toward the end of the race. I stayed with him. I had to hit it pretty hard the last couple of hundred yards to make sure I finished in time. My finish time was 3 hours 59 minutes and 17 seconds. I actually did it! I was so excited. My body sure paid the price. I didn't hit the wall during the race, but I felt like I ran into one after the race. When I stopped running at the finish line, I almost collapsed. I was hurting pretty bad for the next couple of days. The whole drive home from Nashville, I was thinking about which marathon I was going to run next. Marathons are addicting. I started out only wanting to run one and now I want to run as many as I can while I am physically able to do so. The Nashville Marathon was by far my best running experience. I look forward to the marathons in Miami and Tampa for 2009. Next up is the Boston mini-marathon October 25. My dad is going to run that one with me after having double knee replacement surgery a couple of years ago. He is excited and he will do great. I am there to run at his pace and cross the finish line with him. Hopefully his knees can hold up so he can run the marathon with me in Miami.

West Palm Beach Marathon

The second marathon I ran was in West Palm Beach in December of 2006. I was born in Palm Beach Gardens and my dad grew up in West Palm Beach. He ran long distance on the track team in high school and he did a lot of his running in his youth near where the marathon would take place. I gained my desire for long distance running from seeing my dad run growing up. We would enter 5k races and run them as a family. Since my dad was my insipiration for running, I decided that this would be a good marathon to run. I was going to dedicate the race to him and give him my medal. I didn't quite train for this marathon as well as I should have. I had some injuries in flag football that interupted my training schedule. I got a little confident since I had already completed one marathon. The heat really got to this race. It was 85 degrees an hour into the race and it beat me up. I had to walk quite a few times after mile 23. I would run for four minutes and walk for 30 seconds. I was so tired! Didn't hit the wall, but came real close. I finished the race in 4 hours 25 minutes. I was sorely disappointed with my results. I decided that I would not be this unprepared for the next marathon. The hard part about the race was that we passed the finish line twice before we actually finished the race. It was not fun passing the finish line at mile 20 with 6 miles to go. I made a shadow box for my dad with a poem in it dedicating the race to him. I gave it to him for Christmas. Auburn and Melina (my daughters) ran a short race the day before my race. They got a t-shirt and medal for their race. They had a really good time. I was really proud of them.

How my love for marathons began

It seems just like yesterday, actually 5 years ago, that I came up with the bright idea of running my first marathon. Little did I know the amount of preperation that would be involved in training for a marathon. I decided to run in the Jacksonville Bank Marathon in December 2003. I heard that marathons could be addicting, but I assured Lori (my wife) that this was a "one and done" race. I play in an adult flag football league each fall, which severly hampered my time dedicated to training. I incur quite a few injuries playing quarterback for our flag football team. I tend to rely more on my legs than my arm. I did not do as much research as I should have before I started training. I had no idea how important my diet and the amount of rest I got would be during training. I also did not buy a good pair of shoes that comformed to the my feet. I began to experience a tremendous amount of pain on the bottom of my feet during training runs. I had decided to run a half marathon in Boston Georgia on Halloween weekend to prepare for the actual marathon in December. After visiting the doctor, I was diagnosed with a case of plantar fasciatus. The pain got so intense, that I had to to make a decision to run the half marathon and rest til my foot was better or keep training for the marathon and my body break down before I actually got to the race. I decided to run the half marathon and had a great time. I wasn't sure if I would try again for a marathon, but I got the itch again in the spring. I decided to try again for the Jacksonville Marathon. This time I ate better, got more rest, and bought a good pair of shoes that were right for my type of feet. I put in the proper training and went in with the goal of finishing in 4 hours. I heard that 4 hours was a good time for running a marathon. I new I had to beat the time Oprah ran her marathon in. No way I was going to get beat by Oprah. Lori likes watching Oprah, so I heard all about the marathon she ran. The race went well in Jacksonville. I didn't stop at all during the race and finished in 4 hours and 16 minutes. I didn't meet my goal of 4 hours, but I did beat Oprah's time. I never did hit the wall during the race either. When I initially finished, I said I was never doing one of these again. After about a week, I felt really down. I wasn't training and I didn't have a schedule telling what I was supposed to run each day. I felt like I didn't have a purpose when it came to running. It was such a rush crossing the finish line that I wanted to experience that again and again. That is where the addiction was born. I am in such good shape when I am training and I feel so good. It really helps me clear my mind. I will give some more insight as to what I experience as I train and run the races.