Part 1 TL;DR
FYI: TL;DR means, Too Long, Didn’t Read but in most digital spaces means Summary
If you read part 1, skip down to the next heading.
The gist of part 1 is that I ran a marathon, but the road to a marathon is very long! The journey starts with self-diagnosing as pre-diabetic, being 80 pounds overweight, and dealing with an obtrusive hernia. I kicked 2016 off with major changes to my eating habits.
I discovered Bikram Yoga. It changed my mind, body, and soul in amazing, profound ways. I cut 50 pounds in a year. In February 2017, I become Bionic Mesh Man. It turned out that I had a bilateral inguinal hernia and they put a lot of mesh and staples in me to keep my guts in their proper place. The hernia surgery made yoga very difficult and painful. This lead to my first record-breaking run, 15 seconds.
It Starts Small…
Starting with a 15-second run, I worked my way up to running my first race, seven months later. The Snow Canyon Half Marathon 13.1 miles.
Inspiration for running came from many people. My little sister and brother-in-law are avid runners. When I started running, Kayleen wanted me to run a half marathon with her. It was daunting, but I was making headway with running further each week. I didn’t think that I was going to run a half marathon. It was 30 day’s before the race that I officially signed up.
Running 13.1 Miles for the First Time
After signing up for the race, I was determined to run as fast as I could and finish with under two hours. In my ignorance and zealousness, I pushed too hard. I injured my leg two weeks before the race. Determined to run the race, I stopped running for those two weeks. I maxed out at 11 miles and had a slight limp. Race day came quickly. I met Kayleen and Ben and was really excited to share in this experience with them.
Two weeks, give or take, is how it took to walk normally again. The leg injuring had time enough to not be an issue with a little bit of ibuprofen.
Running the race in under two hours was unrealistic, but I wanted to give it a shot. In the end, I finished in 2 hours 5 minutes. I was very happy with the results.
Half Way to 26.2 Miles
I got the running bug. Well not exactly. Even after all the running and finishing my first race, I wasn’t too sold on races. I did realize that I could run a full marathon with the right training. Little did I know how much more exhausting it is to train for 26 miles than it is to train for 13.
It was around in January 2018 when I decided to train for a full marathon. A deal for the St. George Marathon came in my email around March and I signed up. I was excited to complete a major goal. The training is
Take the training to Gilbert, Arizona between the months of May through September if you’re looking for flat, level run, and an excuse to wake up at 3am, because by 4:30am it’s already 90º outside.
By July, I was running on a treadmill in the community gym at our apartment. I was running 10-18 miles for about 45-days on the treadmill. It was nice because I was able to watch tv series while running. It was a nice change of pace from listening to my running playlist.
About a month out from the full marathon, I went back outside to run on a non-moving surface. Little did I know how easy it is for micro muscles to take atrophy when they are not needed. The treadmill let enough muscle to take a break that my first outdoor run was cut short after 5-miles. I was cramping, sore, and felt like I was starting over. It was scary, since I was so close to the race and need to to be running the 18+ miles once a week.
A week before the race, I finally ran my first 23 mile run. I was so sore for a week that I hardly ran at all before the actual race.
RACE DAY!
Here comes the race day. It’s a beautiful rainy day in St. George. We get on the bus, I’m with my sister and brother in law. Both have ran marathons for years. We jump on a bus at about an hour before the butt crack of dawn and up towards Enterprise we go. We pass the drop off from the year before that was the half marathon and keep driving. We go do the steepest hill, at the bottom in a pie shop and we keep driving for another 7-miles to the starting point. It occurred to me that I had not trained any hills and 7-miles in to the run, I’m going to running up a nearly mile long steep hill. I was scared.
The jitters and last minute potty runs completed and bang! It’s go time. For the first 4-5 miles, I run with my sister and brother in law. About that time they take a pit stop and I keep running. I get to the hill and my family is there. I embrace Lydia and Tana mid-run and start making my way up the hill.
I DIED.
The end.
Just kidding, but hill did kill my ham strings and I’ll admit, I walked the last 1/4 mile of the hill. Luckily the rest of the hills were mainly down grade. Half way, I finished ran a sub 2-hour. The final 6 miles were the most brutal. But I hobbled along.
Coming up to the last 100-yards, I was passing a middle aged woman and I thought I’d cheer her on and said, “You got this, let’s go!” She said, “Oh Yeah! Let’s do it!” and she took off in high gear. Passing me, my pride kicked in and I started running, well wobbling with a slightly more brisk sensation, but not really moving any fast. She smoked me crossing the finish line a good 10-yards ahead of me. My father in law caught the entire thing on video.
4 hours and 14 minutes. That was my very first full marathon. Perhaps first and last.
I did it. I finished a bucket list item that I never in my life imagined would be on my list. I cried with my wife and kids from the rush of what ever that sweet stuff is that runners get high on.
The wobble stuck with me for a week. I never wanted to run again.
About two weeks later I was out running again.
Life is a beautiful thing that is meant to be experienced to its fullest. If it’s fullest is a 4hour run, do it. It’s an experience that I will appreciate for the remainder of my life!