I have been TRYING to get my login issues resolved on my blog since the beginning of this year and just TODAY I finally was able to convince the folks at WordPress that this is actually my blog! (Who else would even WANT it?!)

There was an issue with my old email account (TriMoot@Hotmail.com).  Seems I never really used it.  I just had everything forwarded from it to another account and sent from the other account so I actually rarely ever logged into it so they had a hard time verifying it was me since I had either forgotten my password to it or it got changed (Seems to me I remember a time when it was hacked), but who cares, cause, “I’m BACK!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Okay, where do I start?

Well, shoot, the last time I was able to post was January 4th 2010 and SOOOOOO much has happened since then, so I will just sum up:

Since I qualified for Boston at the Portland Marathon on 10/10/2010 I knew I needed to starting training for Boston in January which is what I started doing.  However, the 2nd week in January I decided to “catch up” my weekly mileage so I could run the local Ultra Marathon in March, so I made a stupid decision of running 7 days in a row.  So so stupid.  I’ve NEVER done that before so I’m not sure why I thought I could do it now at my young age of 57. So on my 7th day I was out running with the Team Blaze tri group and noticed my right knee was giving me a lot of pain.  It had been complaining a little here at there on earlier runs but I didn’t think too much of it.  But this time there was a LOT of pain so I finished my run by walking.  Later that day my knee continued to hurt and I iced it and took some ibuprofen, which didn’t really help.

Long story short, I got an MRI on both knees and it showed I had torn my meniscus on both knees.  I looked into deferring my Boston marathon (I had already signed up in November) but 2011 was the 1st year that they would not allow deferments.  Mainly because sooooo many people qualified for Boston and they were in the middle of changing all the rules.  So I went ahead and scheduled the flights, scheduled to have my Dad fly up from Florida and make it a big reunion in Connecticut as that’s where my brother lives.

So had the reunion, got two cortisone shots in both knees the Friday before the Monday Boston Marathon, and was able to run the 1st half at a reasonable pace, and then walked jogged the 2nd half.

It was not exactly the “Life Goal” result that I wanted, but having my Dad and wife there was certainly the high point.  I had always wanted to run the Boston officially (I ran it twice un-officially when we lived in Mass when I was younger), and now to FINALLY, 28 years later, get to run it officially was very satisfying.  (I’ll post some pictures at the end of this post)

So the 2nd part of that Boston trip was to visit my Brother and some great friends in Massachusetts.

We spent a few nights with my niece Jodi, her husband and two kids, and were treated so well.  Jodi has always felt like part of my family as she reminds me of our kids.  So funny, quick-witted, and just wacky in a good way!  I so much wished all of my kids could have visited with Jodi and her family as they would have clicked in all ways.  (Hopefully one of these days they will visit us out here in Spokane! Hint hint!)

After the marathon we stayed with a couple of good friends in western Massachusetts and relived some of our found memories with them.  We lived 10 years in Massachusetts and had all our kids there and basically grew up with these other families and watched as their kids grew up, so it was so cool to see their kids as young adults with kids of their own.

To sum up our visit with friends and family, I’ll just say it was probably one of the best and happiest times in our lives.  It’s just so sad we live so far apart!

Moving on….

So all that was at the beginning of the year and ending in the middle of April 2011.

May 20th, 2011 has changed the rest of the year for us.

The night before the 20th my wife and I had just finished packing the minivan where we were getting ready to visit our #2 daughter down in Pocatello, ID.  She was planning on moving up to the West Yellowstone area to work (She had done that the year before where she was part of a crew putting on show’s for all the tourist), so we thought we’d go visit and help her move.

The morning we were to leave we received a phone call around 4:30 from the chaplin at Sacred Heart hospital.  He told us Bethany had been in an accident and we needed to come right away.

God…I’ll never forget that feeling.

Even though I was sitting on the edge of my bed, I felt like the floor just dropped out beneath me.

It’s one of those phone calls you always pray you’ll never receive.

Sandy and I rushed down to the hospital praying the entire way.

The chaplin met us in emergency room and took us to a special waiting room.  And told us it was bad.  Very bad.  He said Bethany had been riding her bicycle and crashed and wasn’t wearing a helmet and sustained a head injury and was in a coma.  He said a Dr. Martz was the doctor on call and was working on her and would meet with us shortly to tell us more.  Again he said, it doesn’t look good.

Actually, I can’t really go on.  I don’t care to relive that moment so I’m going to put a link here that will take you over to the blog I setup that covers all of this and will bring you up to date on how Beth’s doing.

So start here: http://bethanysgrace.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/
And you can click on each day to follow the progress.  To see how she’s doing today, click here:
http://bethanysgrace.wordpress.com/

So, moving on.

So really there’s not a lot I can say in regards to “TriMoot” and what I’m planning for 2012 as our life has completely changed.  We were in our “Empty Nester” stage of life, and now everyone is back, except for Nate who is still in Seattle, and MARRIED!  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can go over to their blog: http://www.mootervonbraden.com/p/about-nate-and-jamey.html
to learn more about them.

We had a great time at their wedding and will post some pictures and comments here later. (don’t want to make this any longer than it already is!)

So, what’s in store for TriMoot in 2012?  Not 100% sure.  I’m just now getting back into running.  I had knee surgery last month and yesterday was my 2nd run since the surgery to repair the torn meniscus in the right knee.  There is still a great deal of pain, even when I’m walking, as I also have arthritis, but I’m not going to let that stop me.  I’ll just learn to deal with it.

My 1st run was Monday and I ran it with my great friend and training partner, Steve “Ironman” Warrington! (Yes! He completed his 2nd attempt at Ironman.  The 1st attempt was stopped short due to getting hit by a car DURING THE RACE!!!!!!!!)

I will have to say, running agin felt sooooo good. (Actually I had run the Thursday before, although it was a run/walk, but it at least was a start).  But running with Steve helped things to start to shift back towards normal.  (Nothing has been normal since May 20th)

He meet me here at work and we jogged out towards the dam on Upriver drive, and it felt like the good old days except for the pain in my knee.  But as we continued along the pain seemed to subside and the good times began again.  Wow..It felt like it had been years since Steve and I had run side by side talking of races and plans.  So good.  We continued along and around 1.25 miles we turned around and headed back.  Steve mentioned that we were going along on a pretty good pace of 8:24 and I was very surprised as I haven’t done ANYTHING in soooo long.  It felt GREAT!  We continued along and I could feel we might be going a little fast as he was doing all the talking (which is pretty much the case…;-) ) but I didn’t want to slow down.  I wanted this moment to go on and on as it had been since January that I felt this way.  But finally I had to stop and walk but still turned in a great pace at the end.

I ran again on Wednesday alone, and my legs were still very sore from Monday but I ran very slowly and took breaks every so often.

It’s so good to be running again!

So what’s in store for me in 2012?  Think I’ll save that for another post as this one is already TOOOOOOO LONG!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry folks.  I’ll post some pictures a little later.  We’re having our annual Christmas lunch her at work and I CAN”T miss that!

TriMoot…is back!!! WOOHOO!!! (Thanks WordPress!!)

Pictures: I know all these pictures look like I’m not really running, well, I really wasn’t able to due to the pain in my knees.  But I assure you I DID run the 1st half.  In fact, I just now figured out all my splits.  Look at it now, hey, for someone with two torn menicus and VERY little training (Most of it was done in the pool.  If you haven’t tried running in a pool..it’s not a lot of fun!)  Here’s the splits:

5k – 9:41
10k – 9:49
15k – 9:56
20k – 10:07 (starting to fade!)
Half – 10:41, 2 hous 12 minutes. When I qualified at Portland my half was 1:51:00, ugh
25k – 10:31, Hey, 2nd wind?
30k –  10:55, oh, guess not
35k – 11:21, oh ugh, really slowing down
40k – 12:09, okay fine, so I stopped at Starbucks for coffee, it’s only the Boston Marathon!
Finished at 5:30:21 with a overall pace of 12:35, yeah, I pretty much walked the last two miles. But, I enjoyed my coffee!

My 1^st Ironman
My 2^nd Ultra Marathon
My fourth attempt at a podium spot at Tiger Tri
My 2^nd attempt to qualify for Boston

I’m not sure why, but I’m not really in the mood to write anything…feel sort of depressed. (Could be this sinus infection I’ve had for way too long…could be the weather..don’t know)  Anywho..I’m just going to put up a few facts and perhaps I’ll redo it later:

My 1^st Ironman:  A lot of training.  A lot of time.  I finished, but my training buddy didn’t.  Got hit by a car during the 1^st bike loop. He’s okay and will be doing IM CDA 2011…but without me.  Bummer.

Don’t have a lot of thoughts about Ironman that I haven’t already written in my blog so here you go, click here to be taken to it. (Click here for a few pics)

My 2^nd Ultra Marathon was a tough one.  I had told my training buddy it’s like an office party.  Just tool along enjoying the weather and people and bing! the 37 miles are done.  Not this time.  This was a tough 37 miles, partly because we did it in reverse: From 9 mile to Sate Line which makes it up hill all the way.  2011 should be all downhill and I’m looking forward to doing it again.  Last year I added 3 more miles so I had an even 40 miles, and part of me wants to bump it to 50 this year, but we’ll see. (Hmm, didn’t appear to have written anything about this one..too busy getting ready for IM.  Here’s a link to some pictures: Team Blaze turned out in a big way for this and even setup a tent at the end..right ON the trail!  Bikers had to duck to pass through it.)

Tiger Tri, Coleville, WA has always been one of my favorite races because it was my 1^st triathlon ever.  So each year I go back and try and try to get better and it always seems I wind up in 4^th place (at least 2 years in a row I did that), so this year I was determined to get on the podium, and I did.  Took 3^rd place and was proud to do so.  Link to blog here.

Boston Qualifying: This year was my 2^nd attempt at qualifying for Boston.  My race of choice was the Portland Marathon on 10/10/2010.  I didn’t really think I was trained up enough for this race as I had a foot injury and wasn’t able to run the last three weeks before the race.  Just did my usual training minus any running.  I did aqua running which was a 1^st for me and although I never felt like I had accomplished much in the way of training, it must have been just enough to get me through as I made my qualifying time of 3:4506 (Had to get below 3:45:59)
Portland Race Report Part 1
Portland Race Report Part 2

Well, like I said, just don’t have the writing bug right now and feeling kinda blah, so I’ll just end it here.  Hopefully I’ll add stuff later.

2011 Schedule:
Not a bunch planned this year:

-          March 5^th 2011: Centennial Trail Run 37 Mile Ultra Marathon

-          April 18^th 2011: Boston Marathon

-          June 11^th 2011: Boise Half Ironman

-           ????????????: My 1^st 50 mile trail run (Haven’t figured this one out yet)

Hopefully more later.

Out.

Well, actually, when I had asked him,  most of the snow had melted in and around Spokane so I thought, “Hey? How much snow could there be?”.  A lot as it turns out!

We parked at Aubrey White parking lot overlooking the Bowl and Picture and gently worked our way down the steep hill through very rough broken snow and ice.  A few slips and no falls (at least at this point) and we were at the bottom and looking at Trail 38 heading west into the trees and cliffs.  Only one problem….there was a TON of snow on the trail!  Dang!  For some reason, I really thought all the warm weather we’d been having would have significantly melted ‘most’ of the snow.  And I suppose it did…just not enough of it to make it a smooth sailing ride.  Oh well, onward and upward!

We gritted our teeth and girded our loins…well…it was rough….., and headed off into the wilderness.

What a great day!  As we attempted to ride down the trail, the sky was partly clear with a big front moving in from the southwest, and the temp hovered around 23.  Actually not too bad.  We had four light layers on our legs and the same on our upper bodies along with warm hats, gloves, helmets and balaclava face mask.  (It wasn’t that our face was cold…we just didn’t want to scare anyone)

As we moved down the trail it became clear that this was no “ride in the park”…oh wait…it was actually in a park..but you know what I mean.  It was WORK!  The snow had melted and refrozen and had been trampled on by snow shoe-ers, dog walkers and perhaps big foot (I think I actually got a picture of him..I’ll show you later) and made riding a challenge.  You would ride along in a track for a little bit and then break through the snow, sometimes pretty deep snow, and it would throw off your balance or your rear tire would get all squirrelly and you’d have to act quickly or you’d find yourself staring up at the trees and wondering how you got into that position so quickly.  Which happened to me more than once.

There were times when you could ride for two or three whole minutes before having to do a tap dance on the snow to get through a rough spot.  Sometimes you’d find a long patch of dirt, but that didn’t happen very often, but when it did, it was heaven.

We were retracing the route that I had done recently on foot during my annual fall ride and stopped to take some photo’s from the exact same spot:

We were heading up to the place where earlier the tamarack trees glowed yellow with their fall colors:  However, today…not so much:

At this point the snow was getting deeper and continuing on would have been a real challenge so we retraced our tire tracks and found a ridge with hardly any snow.  As we headed north and down a hill we flushed out about half a dozen white tail deer and we watched as they bounded down the other side of the hill.  Beautiful!

We continued on and found ourself on the Centennial Trail that had been plowed in some spots, others had melted snow now turned ice.  As we picked our way through we continued our trek north past 7 mile bridge and the parking lot where the trail was completely clear.  Just a beautiful ride!  Somewhere along the way it started to snow lightly, just as both Steve and I had hoped it would.

We made a stop at the Deep Creek trail head and had a photo op with a sturdy tree: 

We continued north and finally stopped at the 37 mile marker and posed for another photo:

This particular mile marker has a special meaning to both Steve and I: It was here two years ago that I completed my 1st ultra marathon along with Steve’s help (he drug me along during the last few miles).  It is also where Steve started his 1st ultra this year (and ended at the state line).

We continued onto the park at Nine Mile, and then turned around and headed back to our cars.  The snow was really coming down now and as we neared the end we stopped and took in the view and the moment.  We could see and hear the river off to our left running fast and silver in the falling snow.  Just a fantastic moment.

It’s views and situations like these that make early mornings special.  I love feeling like we’re the only ones out there, and the only ones getting to see what God has made…..then the stupid runners went by and ruined everything! STUPID RUNNERS!  GOSH!  CAN’T YOU SEE WE’RE TAKING A MOMENT HERE!

Where was I?  Yes, enjoying the closeness of God, nature and a good friend.  ahh…life is good….stupid runners….

TriMoot

Some more pics:Click to view slideshow.

Yesterday I went on my 2nd annual fall run in Riverside State Park.  Last year was the 1st time I did this and it was so beautiful I decided to make this an annual event.

Todays weather was foggy, cool, sunny and warm. Huh?  Yes, it was all that, as you’ll see from the pictures.

I won’t say much other than to let you know, you NEED to get out there, find a trail, and just start running.  There are sooooo many trails, but you can never get lost as long as you head downhill to the river.

Enjoy!

Photos   Video1  Video2 Video3

I also have a podcast of the run, but am unable to get it off my MP3 player, but will post as soon as I can.

TriMoot..out!

We are sailing along, it’s raining like mad, everyone’s giddy and talking and just happy to FINALLY be doing the race.  People are lined up on both sides of the street and cheering us on through the darkness and rain.  I yell back, thanking them for even coming out in this mess.

As we cruise through the 1st few miles the crowds thin out, but not too much,  as we do a hard left hand turn onto SW Natio Parkway.  We’re heading back into town again where the crowds are still making noise and cheering us on.  WOW!  It’s really raining!  Amazing!

We turn onto NW Front St around the 5 mile mark and all systems are go.  My right foot started hurting back at the 2 mile mark but each time it pains me I think about my form and really concentrate on getting it right.  I remember everything Dr. Heidi told me, so I really focus on keeping my form and feet running smoothly and in a straight line.  Seems to help, as the pain diminishes each time I focus.

Wow, this stretch is ugly (miles 6 through 11).  Railroad track after railroad track.  And they’re slick!  Had one runner almost go down next to me.  For a while we were warning each other about the up coming puddles and tracks by yelling out, “TRACKS!” or “PUDDLE!” but there were soooo many we just stopped.  And it didn’t really help much in regards to the puddles, since if you moved out-of-the-way, the guy or gal next to you wouldn’t and you’d get splashed with water!  Why am I doing this?  Oh yeah…Boston.

So miles 6 through 11 were pretty uneventful and on the ugly side since it was all railroads cars and tracks.  I did noticed that I dropped back during these miles as I was chatting too much and needed to focus and save my energy.

Around mile 9 I thought to myself, “Okay..I’m getting tired, so there’s no way I can make it the whole way.  I’m just going to hang on as long as I can and then I’ll fade and enjoy (HA!) the rest of the run”.  But it was strange, as we wound our way through some of the neighborhoods on 17th, NW Raleigh, 26th then Wardway, it seemed to break up the monotony of that LONG out and back by the RR tracks and I seemed to be feeling a little better.  And what’s even stranger is between 11 & 12 miles was a small hill.  I could feel it, and went into my “old man shuffle” where I take shorter strides but increase the cadence and it seemed to pull me right up with very little increase to my breathing.  Cool.

So the 13th mile was coming up and I knew we were going to lose our pacer’s Amber and Erica so I pressed towards the front to say thanks to them.  They were all upbeat and wished all of us luck and the next pacer’s took the “Red Lizard 3:45″ sign and we said hello to the new guys.

They said they names but I only remember one guys name as Steve. (Not a bad name, ).  Well Steve was all smiles and laughing and saying “Welcome to the 3:45 express to the finish line!”  I was like…pay attention dude.  Not too many were laughing.  We all were working hard and Amber and Erica had gotten us to the 13.1 with a 40 second cushion and this guy was not paying attention.  The next thing I knew were they were pulling away.  I pushed hard to catch up to them and checked my Garmin: We were doing a 8:02 pace!  What?  WHAT THE HECK!  Then someone said we had lost our cushion and were 40 seconds slow!  Great!  Just Great!

Around 16 miles once things had settled back into the 8:30ish pace I asked rather rudely, “Steve!  Are we on pass NOW?!”.  Man I was ticked.  I shouldn’t have been, but the other pacer’s had done such a great job of communicating and keeping the pace rock solid I didn’t want to fail because this guy wasn’t paying attention.

Up ahead lay the “big hill” that leads to the beautiful St. John’s Bridge at the 16.5 mile mark.  Wow..that is one beautiful bridge!

It was still raining pretty hard, probably as hard as it was during the start.  I pulled the hill doing my old man shuffle and I know I sounded like a steam engine, but that’s the way it works with me.  I just bury my head, shorten my stride, and cruise on up.  I found myself passing the 3:45 sign carrier and didn’t care.  I turned onto the bridge and it was beautiful!  Somehow I found the breath to yell!  WOOHOO!  Man!  For some reason that bridge really got me feeling good.  I guess since it was the biggest hill on the course I felt I had passed a  mile stone and that mentally it was all down hill from there!

As I crossed the middle of the bridge I saw Erica and ran up to her shoulder.  I asked if she was still running the 3:45 pace and she said yes.  I then asked if I could run with her since the other pacer’s where doing a terrible job.  (Well, okay, maybe it wasn’t terrible, but I was still mad how they would slow down then speed up and change the pace so drastically)…I just wanted to run with someone who was consistent, and Erica had proved that she was.  She said SURE, come on along.  So two other runners & I tucked in behind her as we turned off the bridge onto Willamette Blvd at the 17.5 mile mark.

Man was it raining! As we splashed our way past the 19 mile mark, I had asked Erica how far she was going.  She had said 22 miles or so.  I told her I was struggling but really appreciated her solid pacing and tips.  On the 1st half of the marathon she was kind of quiet, letting Amber give instructions and warnings (usually about the up coming aid stations).  As I was running next to her she would give me and the other two instructions on how we should handle the hills, both going up and down.  One of the things she said almost didn’t make sense but by this time I was looking for anything that would help get me through.

She said things like, “run lightly”  don’t let your feet smack the road. On any down hills she said, “try to stride out, but don’t over stride.”  She mentioned that by doing this it would help in improving the blood flow.  So I did as instructed, and as we continued on, she would keep us informed as to our cushion.  ”Okay, we have a 30 second cushion”  Then she would slowly  increase the pace just a smidgen until we had our 40 second cushion back.  She was amazingly helpful and encouraging.

At the 21 mile mark we were going through a very pretty neighborhood that was on the edge of a cliff and you could look out over the city of Portland.  I didn’t do a lot of looking but I did take a moment to enjoy the view and area. (I think this is where the one couple got married, but I didn’t actually see it happen)

It was also at this time that I knew it would take a miracle for me to finish at this pace.  I wasn’t “dead” but I was getting close.  I made sure I was close to Erica, as I was afraid if she got too far away I wouldn’t be able to catch her.  At one point I came right up to her shoulder and said, “Erica, can I ask you a BIG favor?”, she turned and said, “Sure”.  ”I know I’m not going to make without you setting the pace.  Is there anyway you’d consider going all the way to the finish?”.  Wow, how rude!  Here she was, volunteering her time on only her 3rd marathon in her life (young life) and this old geezer has the audacity to ask if she would just about carry him to the finish line!  Shsss!  What a loser!

Well, she looked over and said, “I’ll go as far as I can”.  I said thanks and went back to focusing.

I wasn’t sure if that meant she’d take me all the way but I really hoped and prayed that she would.

I’m not sure if I thought about it then, but I remember when Coach Scott mentioned tying a bungee cord around his waist and then to Brett during the 37 mile ultra we did earlier this year to help Brett during the later miles.  Well I didn’t happen to have a bungee cord with me, but if I did, I would have tied one around Erica, and in a way I did, at least metaphorically speaking.  I just felt if I could stay right on her shoulder  I would be able to  follow her and draft into the finish line.

But as mile 22, 23 and 24 went by I wasn’t so sure about the “metaphorical” bungee cord, I really felt the wheels were very close to coming off.  But man, I was so darn close, I just kept switching to my shuffle and doing whatever I could do get the legs to continue to turn over and over and over again and hoped I could keep close to Erica.

As we came over the Broadway bridge Erica mentioned we very close, only two more miles.  TWO MORE MILES!  Oh ugh..I wish it could have been .2 more miles!  I would watch as Erica and one other guy would slowly pull away from me, and I think it was then that she talked to the only one left with us, and said that if he felt good to go ahead.  I was like NO!  Don’t leave me!  So I dug down and said, please legs, can you give me a little more just so I could catchup with Erica?  And the next thing you know I was on her shoulder again.  This happened over and over again between miles 24 and 25.  I felt like if I could just stop and rest for a couple of minutes I’d be able to run faster, but  I also knew that if I stopped, it would be all over.  BUT I REALLY WANTED TO STOP!

During this time Erica was constantly checking her Garmin and telling me what our cushion was, and as we approached the 26 mile mark, the cushion was dwindling awfully fast!  Where we once had a nice 40 second lead we were down to 10, then 7.

I remembered back near the beginning, it was either Erica or Amber who said, “When you turn the corner to the finish line, it’s going to look like it’s a 100 miles away, but it’s NOT!  Just keep digging and you’ll get there!”

So as we prepared to turn onto 3rd towards the finish line, all of a sudden out of no where comes the 3:45 sign and Steve and the other pacer….and to my knowledge, none of the other 3:45 runners, at least none that I could pick out at that time.  They were FLYING!  I”m like, really, you think after running 26 miles the other runners are going to be able to SPRINT to the finish line just to make the 3:45 cut off?  Wow..there was a lot of emotions going but I was so thankful that I stayed with Erica as I would have NEVER been able to sprint to the finish to make the cut off time.

Just before this I had heard a shout from the sideline and it was my wife.  I was so tired and so focussed I wasn’t able to respond to her, I just kept looking forward and running and hard as I could.  Later, my wife described what she saw, and put it on her Facebook page.  I loved it so much I want to share it here:

“You did amazing dear, even in the non-stop pouring rain. Proud of you! I was
very blessed to see that young lady (the pacer) encouraging you to the finish
line when you looked like you had used up your last ounce of strength and were
suffering painfully. This spoke depths to me of the power God has put within us
to be a help to one another in this difficult race to the finish line of life.
It brought tears to my eyes. I wish I could thank Erica too for all she did for
you.”

My wife nailed it…I had used my last once of energy, I really had nothing left.  And as we turned into the finish line Erica kept counting down and encouraging me to push on, keep going, but I don’t recal her ever yelling, just urgent encouragement, saying, You did it!  You made it!

I still didn’t believe her yet..I still hadn’t crossed the finish line and even though it was only a few more steps I still wasn’t sure I was going to make it until I literally fell over the finish line into the arms to two “catchers”.  I couldn’t walk, all I could think was I’ve got to find Erica and thank her!

After a minute or two I was able to stand and walk and I was walking around in circles screaming at the top of my lungs, ERICA!  ERICA!  (Shades of the 1st Rocky movie comes to mind, when Stallone wins his match but is all beat up and barely able to walk and yelling, “Adrien, Yoh, Adrien!”.  I wanted so much to thank her for all she had done for me.  But since she didn’t have a timing chip she had to pull off just before the finish line and I had no idea where she went.  (I have since found her email and sent her a thank you email and guess what?  She’s going to BOSTON just like ME!!!!!!)

Oh, did I mention that?  Yes, I made it!  I made my time of 3:45:06.  Wait a minute, 3:45:06?  Erica?  You said I only had a cushion of only 7 seconds!  You brought me in too fast!  I could have strutted my way in with all the time I had left!  HA!

This has been a dream since 1983 when I ran my 1st Boston unofficially.  I have my log book from back then, and on the back I wrote, “Someday I want to run the Boston marathon officially”.  I just never thought it would take 27 years!

I did it…I can’t believe it.  I honestly did not think I could make the cut off time.  I thought I hadn’t trained long or hard enough, and with my injury three weeks out, I just thought there would be no way.  I had only done two sessions of pool running per Dr. Heidi’s instructions so I dismissed that as a waste of time since I really never felt tired from it.  However, during those two long sessions I would see myself running and running and running Portland, and in my “dream” (while I’m doing the pool running) I never got tired.  I was effortlessly running through the miles, never feeling my legs get tired or sore.  Don’t know if that helped or not but I would just pretend I was running through the streets of Portland for almost two hours while in the pool.  And obviously it did help.

A brief look at my training: Keep in mind that even after Ironman I still did a maintenance level of running so it wasn’t like I was starting from scratch….but maybe pretty close.

Ironman was June 27th, then we fly to Florida and my recovery was Dunkin Donuts and body surfing and one slow, hot run.

On the weekend after our two-week stay I did an Olympic Tri up in Colville called the Tiger Tri, and took 3rd in my age group.  So I guess I still had some left over fitness from all the Ironman training.

So THEN I signed up for Portland only because it was about to fill up and that was July 23rd.  You can read the details here, but basically I ran 15 to 20 miles M-W-F and then on the weekend I did an 8, 12, 15, 18, dropped to 11.5 for recovery, then the 22 miler that I cut short because my foot was hurting.  So, not a lot of mileage, but I did throw in speed work on Wednesdays which I KNOW helped a lot.  Steve and I would jog over to SCC and attempt to run 2 miles of straight aways and walk the corners of the track.  We also through in a hill run up Beacon hill one Thursday but I found the track work really took a lot of out me and made my legs very sore, which tells me, I REALLY needed that track work.

So, probably not the best training schedule to prepare for a marathon, but I think because of all the base I put in early in the year getting ready for the Ultra and then Ironman, did help carry me through Portland.

But honestly?  I wasn’t ready.  I really wasn’t.  I think having a pace group really helps and I hope someday to be able to return the favor for someone.  I think if Erica had bailed at the 22 mile mark, this blog would have been a lot shorter and sadder.

Well, it would be great if I could say it ended there..but it didn’t.

I was whipped, 100% done, gone, kaput!  I had nothing left.  I walked by the food and thought “ugh..none of that looks good”.  I had to keep walking because when I would stopped I would go into oxygen debt and it felt like I had asthma.  So I walked to the end of the food section and was feeling worse.  I mean way worse.  So I started heading back to where the 1st aid station was but on my way back I just about collapsed, and just in time someone caught me.  They asked if I was okay, and I respond, ‘You know…I don’t think I am”.  So another person came by and two of them walked me into the 1st aid tent and the doctors took it from there.

They laid me down on the cot, and asked me all sorts of questions, all I could think about was having someone call my wife so she wouldn’t wonder where I was.  But finally someone said to give me an IV and so they stuck a needle into my arm and started the flow.  I said, “woh..that’s warm”, the guy said, it’s because your cold.  I said, “No, it’s really hot”.  No, no, it’s because you’re cold.  I said, “NO!  It’s VERY HOT”, I screamed.  I did, I yelled!  It was so stinking HOT!  It felt like liquid lava pouring into my vein!  Finally someone grabbed the bag of saline and yanked if from the tube and told the guy to get a new one!  As soon as they put the new one in, I asked, “Is it on?  Is it working?  They said yes.  I said I didn’t feel it and I guess that’s how it’s supposed to feel.

After they had filled me up since I was a quart low, they made me stand up to make room for the next victim, and pushed me towards the massage tables.  YES!

I laid down and after the guy checked a few things out he asked, “Do you know your left hip bone is 1″ higher than your right one?”.  I didn’t know but I did know my back was killing me so he said he would fix it for me.  So he had me lay on my side and then wrung me out like a wash cloth, and SNAP! and “OUCH!”, poof!  I was healed!  Well, at least the pain started to subside.

Once again I was helped up and out into the pouring rain to look for my wife and friends.

I found my wife a little later and she lead me over to where Susie, a good family friend, was sitting on a chair after having finished her 1st marathon!  WOOHOO!  My wife stepped from the road onto the sidewalk and I stood there dead in my tracks.  I looked at the curb and to me it looked like it was about 3 feet high.  I looked left, I looked right, and no where was there a lower curb I could step up to.  I looked at my wife and said, “help?”.

We spent the rest of the day walking all over Portland and finally getting some dinner and a cold Guinness.  Yes!

Bottom line?  This was the most difficult run I had ever done.  To be able to maintain the same pace for 26 miles none stop and make the necessary time to qualify for Boston..was a miracle.

TriMoot

Here’s a couple of pics: One of Erica doing her pacing, and one of me looking terrible at the finish line, and then one after the race.

This is my race report from my 2nd attempt at qualifying for the Boston marathon.

On Saturday the 9th, my wife and I flew down to Portland, Oregon to pick up my race packet for the 39th running the Portland marathon and my 2nd attempt to qualify for the Boston marathon.

My training leading up to this race had been pretty consistent with a slow buildup of long runs starting with an 8 miler then a somewhat quick increase to 12, 15, 18, 11.5(*recovery week) & 21.  These were all done on the weekend and were preceded by various length runs through the week that consisted of Monday recovery runs, Wednesday speed or hillwork, and Friday easy or optional rest days.  Tuesday and Thursday’s were strength training.

Seemed to me a pretty balanced regime and one that seemed to be working…until the 21 miler.

On the 21 miler, I had planned a two loop 11.2 mile run with my training buddy Steve.  On the 1st loop around the 9.5 mile mark my right foot cramped up on the top and at the Achilles.  I stopped and walked a few steps and the Achilles appeared to relax and the top of my foot “seemed” okay.  So we continued on to the cars where I refueled and said goodbye to Steve.  (He’s still recovering from being hit by a car during the Ironman race in Coeur d’Alene.  Can you believe the Ironman folks STILL haven’t offered to give him a free entry into the 2011 Ironman?!!  But that’s another story.  And if anyone out there has the ear of an Ironman official, please put in a word for Steve that in good conscious they need to give him an entry SOON, so he can start making plans!)

Where was I?

Oh, so I went out to finish my long run of 22 miles and everything seemed to be okay.  Had a little tenderness on the top of my right foot but I stopped a couple of times and loosened the shoelaces and thought everything was good.

Rested on Sunday and went out on Monday with Steve for an easy 7.5 recovery run.  About 3 miles into it the top of my foot began to ache.  I kept stopping and loosening my shoe laces but it didn’t seem to help and by the time I got back to work I was in a lot of pain.

I stopped running on it for a couple of days, went to our team sports doctor (I belong to “Team Blaze” and get a free consult with a sports therapist once a year…what a deal!) and she said that because of worn shoes (dummy!) and a run gait that reminder her of someone with 3 left feet, that I should do no more running until the marathon (which was in 3 weeks) and instead do aqua running.  Great..there goes my 2nd attempt at Boston…sigh.

So I did as instructed, however I only did the aqua running twice, once for 1 hour and 10 minutes and 1 hour and 50 minutes.  Probably not the best training to prepare for Portland.  But….it is what is is…or in this case, was. Huh?

So down to Portland we went.  Good friends picked us up at the airport and took us down to the expo.  Wow…sort of claustrophobic.  Down in the bowels of the Hilton and spread out on two dingy floors with low ceilings: All I wanted to do was get my race packet and get up to ground level.  But 1st I had to find out where to meet the “Red Lizard” pacing group.

Now I’ve never run in a pacing group and was nervous and excited about what this entailed.  But the guy looked at my number, showed me where to go and when to be there, so that was that.

Later that night we traveled to “The Old Spaghetti Factory” and met up with a number of Team Blaze folks who were also running the race.

What a great group of folks!

Wow!  What a group!  And to think they were all planning on running even after all those martinis..AMAZING!

Okay, so here’s where the real race report begins: (I see that it’s after 10:00 PM so I’m going to break this into two parts for now)

5:00 AM – Alarm wakes me from a good solid sleep.  As I step from my bed I hear a loud metallic sound.  I stand and listen then realize the predicted rain has arrived.  I walk to the front door and poke my head out..woh..it’s not raining a little bit, it’s raining a LOT!  I mean big heavy rain drops!  Great.  But..it’s not cold.  I check my phone for the weather and it’s about 61 degrees.  Not bad.  I change my plans from wearing my Armor All tights to just shorts, a long sleeve shirt and my handy-dandy red vest.  I’m pretty sure I won’t need the vest but I’d rather be hot than cold at the start and since I shop at the non-elite shops I can throw the vest away with no sense of remorse.  (Except I’m sort of emotionally attached to it….kind of like my blankey…but that’s another story.)

5:10 – Oatmeal, honey, coffee, two pieces of wheat toast, and water…lots of water.

6:00 - I’m down town, sitting in the back of a car, bumper to bumper with all the other marathon runners.  It’s pouring rain.  All I can see are red tail lights flashing stop and go, stop and go.  I finally ask our host to just let me out and I’ll walk to the race start with many of the other runners who have the same idea.  I have a rain poncho with a hood so I’m good to go.

6:30 – I’ve found my pace group of 3:45:00 but head over to the honey buckets to do my last-minute …ah..race checks.  I’m relaxed.  Chatting with folks while I’m standing in line.  Many folks from Portland and the surrounding area, but also many from as far away as South Carolina.

6:50 – I’m standing with the other folks who are shooting for a 3:45:00 time and am introducing myself and meeting many folks, many who are hoping for a BQ time.  It’s pouring rain and yet we are not getting too wet due to all the large trees hanging over the street.  The sun is still not up and the bright lights, loud music, and now announcer introducing Bill Rodgers and Jeff Galloway make it seem like a rock concert.  Cool.

7:00 – The gun goes off and all the elites and wheel chair folks take off.  In a minute or two we are moving forward to be the next wave to take off.  Somewhere around 7:05 we hear the countdown and take off.

I’m excited but relaxed.  I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be able to make the time necessary to qualify for Boston due to my foot injury and lack of training near the end, but I’m not that concerned.  I decide to do the best I can and try to enjoy the run.

We pass by a group of folks playing marching drums and they are so inspiring.  We can feel the beats resonating on the inside of our chest.  Everyone yells and hoots and wishes we could have them follow us the entire way to help keep us motivated.  Feeling good.

(Well, it’s late, and this will be a LONG report..so that’s it for now.  But don’t forget to check back..it actually gets interesting!)

TriMoot.

3:45:07 Boston here we come!

Well, it’s been a while since I last posted anything here and that was a pain in the butt!  HA!!! I’m so funny!

Anywho,  I thought I should bring everyone up to date on what’s been going on. (both of you)

I signed up for the Portland Marathon on July 23^rd but didn’t get started training for a while since I had just come off my 1^st Ironman at the end of June (27^th to be exact) and was struggling thru the “after ironman blues” syndrome.   (It’s real!)

I’ve been running here at work off and on, usually M-W-F-Sat, with an average of 15 to 25 miles per week.  Nothing earth shattering, just plugging along.

So finally about 3 weeks ago I decided I had better get serious about this or all that money I paid for the marathon may as well have been thrown out the window.

So here I am, entering my 4^th week of training but I’m only four and half weeks away from the marathon and I’m supposed to be doing Portland to qualify for Boston.  Right.

Qualify for Boston: Let’s see, I’m 55, so that puts me at 3 hours and 45 minutes in order to qualify which is an 8:34 pace.  Uh oh…seems to me I have a LONG WAY TO GO!  Sigh…

BUT I’ve got to at least try.

My last attempt (you can read it here) was back in the spring of 2009 and I missed it by 3 minutes and 8 seconds.  Yes, that close.  Well, you’d have to read the whole story to find out why.

So if you asked me right now if I think I can do it I’d have to answer honestly and say no.  But I’m not going to stop training.  I will continue as though I “think I can”, cause who knows, maybe I can?

But honestly…I doubt it.

Why?

Well, two years ago I was getting ready to do my 1^st ultra marathon and was putting in some pretty healthy mileage and by the time I switched back to getting ready for the Windermere marathon I had a really good base and just needed to add some speed to round things out, which I did by going to the track on Wednesdays.  Things were progressing well and I felt pretty good about my chances.

This time around, things are a little different.

Although I have a fair amount of base as Steve (my training buddy) & I trained through the winter and did the ultra again in March and then the Ironman in June, I was concentrating more on the bike than I was the run during the last 3 months of training leading up to IM.

After IM my wife and I traveled to Florida where my training consisted of Dunkin Donuts and body surfing, which believe it or not, is not a bad way to recover!

That was in June, and here we are in September and according to my Garmin, I’m not too far off the 8:34 pace I need, but I’m concerned that I’m far enough off that Portland may be a little too soon.  But what’s a guy to do?  I’ve paid the money, now I’ve got to train the best I can and hope for the best!

So three weekends ago I did an eight miler, and it felt okay, pace was around an 8:45, so that was okay.

Two weekends ago I bumped it up to 11 (I know..WAY too big of a jump, but 10/10/2010 is just around the corner!) and took it kind of easy and wound up with a pace of 8:49 pace.  Hmm, not too bad.  I felt good the whole time, plus I was listening to the best motivational speaker (in my opinion) for running, Dick Beardsley, “Staying the Course”!  If you haven’t heard Dick or listened to this particular podcast you’re missing something special.  It will have you laughing AND crying!  What a story!

Where was I?  Oh, yes, so LAST weekend I bumped it up again and did a 15 miler.  Yikes..this one was tough.  When I first started out I noticed my legs felt heavy.  Fatigue from last week?  Hmmm, maybe.  Or, perhaps it was the fact that I jack-hammered my sidewalk on Saturday and my legs AND back were complaining!  Whatever the case, I got through the 1^st 13 at an 8:50 pace but the last two miles were stinkers!  My stats for the whole 15 were 2:16:13, 9:05 pace.  Ugh..that’s NOT going to cut it!

BUT…I know, I know…I’m not supposed to be running race pace right now, but if I had to, I KNOW I wouldn’t be able to!

So, this weekend, I’m not sure what I should do.  The plan I’m ‘sort of kind of’ following calls for a 22 mile run with the 1^st 18 @ an easy endurance pace (I can do that!) and the last 4 miles at goal marathon pace. (I don’t think I can do THAT!)

One thing I know, I love running.  Just plan love it!  And to be specific, I love long runs.  I love going out to my favorite area and getting lost for 2 and 3 hours at a time.  I love that early morning feeling, the sun slowly coming up, light beginning to spread out through the trees, and no traffic.  Just farm land, deer, wild turkeys and horses.  Wow… I’d PAY to be able to do it, and here I am getting to do it for free!  WOOHOO!  LOVE IT!

I’ll report back via twitter http://twitter.com/TriMoot on what I wind up doing this weekend.

TriMoot

(Tip: Do the procedure during the week so: 1. Working will keep your mind off of how hungry you are. 2. I don’t normally drink anything through the week so having to abstain from liquor is not a big deal, BUT weekends were made for Michalob!)

So Sunday was tough: Couldn’t eat anything.  Couldn’t drink wine or beer.  Couldn’t relax cause I kept thinking about all the food and drink I was missing and I was SOOOOO STINKING HUNGRY!  GOSH!

Starting at 1:00 I took two “special” pills: Laxatives I think, and a 10oz bottle of magnesium citrate which is more laxatives.  Then at 5:00 I started 8oz shots of MORE laxatives and every 20 to 30 minutes another 8oz shot.  UGH.  The drink tasted thick…like heavy water…strange stuff and the only way to drink it was just to down it as quick as I could.  If there was a good side to it, it was you could pick any flavor you wanted: Pineapple, Strawberry…etc., I chose Lemon Lime from my wife’s recommendation.  Didn’t help, it still was horrid!

Somewhere around 9:00 or 9:30 my stomach started to rebel.  It was tired of all this flavored saltwater, wanted food, and by durn I’m going to get rid of all this stuff to make room for FOOD!  So up came most of all the mix that hadn’t already made it’s way down past my lower stomach.

Now most things don’t bother me too much, water off a ducks back, so the saying goes, but throwing up I absolutely HATE and I fight the urge as hard as I can!  But there was no stopping it this time.  My stomach had had enough and it wasn’t going to take it lying down, so up I went and up it came as I headed to the nearest bathroom.   UGH.

So that was it: I had finished close to 3/4′s of the gallon, about 96 oz’s and things were “running clean” so I figured that’s good enough and went to bed.  Then I had dreams of the doctor being angry at me for not getting cleaned out enough so when I woke in the morning I hit the “juice” again to make sure things were running clean and green, ah, I mean, just clear.

Finally the time came and to the hospital I went.  Once I was changed, and ready to go I was rolled into the room where the procedure was to be completed.  There was a cart with one box on it that monitored my O2, pulse and heart rates, and a large screen above used for the camera.

When the doctor came in I asked about the options for sedation and I was told I could choose anything from none to being completely knocked out.  Since I was “on-call” I thought I would be too loopy afterwards to function as an on call guy, so I opted for a light muscle relaxer, so I could stay awake and watch the entire procedure.  With that out of the way, he began.

I won’t go into all the details but I will say it was not bad.  I mean, I don’t plan on making a habit of getting this done, but really, over all, it was pretty painless minus two instances when he “had to turn a corner” and although the pain was substantial it was brief and bearable.

It was so cool watching as he proceeded to invade my privacy, so to speak.  The instrument had a camera, light, suction, water sprayer and a way to cut and collect any polyps he found.

Basically, on the way in he’d spray and clean up any thing that didn’t get flushed out, which was very little.  I mean, I was CLEAN!  My colon was a healthy pink and nice clear red blood vessels could be seen.

Once he got to the upper stomach he showed me the triangle where it met with the lower stomach and that’s where he started to really look and explain things.  Pretty cool.  As he slowly backed out the instrument he would explain what we were seeing: “See this dark area on the side?  That’s your liver on the other side of the colon.”  “WOW!  Amazing”, I said. (I said that A LOT!).  Then he’d continue and point out, “See here, you still have your appendix, right?”  Sure enough, there was an indentation of the appendix, although I had no idea what it supposed to look like, still very cool.

As he went along he pointed out a polyp and to my eye it looked like a piece of lichen growing on the side of my colon.  When I think of polyps I’m thinking of something round and big, but this barely had any size to it and certainly very little height.  But soon enough something came into view and then a stainless steel noose (on screen it looked to be the sized used for hanging people!).  The doctor maneuvered it into place and had the nurse pull the other end, and as quick as you can say “ouch” it was snipped!  The nurse then pulled out the wire and bagged her catch and will send it off to have it biopsied I assumed.  They did that one more time and we were done!

For the most part it was painless and to be able to watch the whole thing was just amazing!  If only I could get the movie!

Whew..didn’t mean to go on, but I have to say, the whole thing wasn’t too bad and I can’t wait to do it again….HA!

PS: Video at 11:00..HA!

Yeah, well, I was SOOOO disappointed from my 1st attempt at qualifying for the Boston Marathon I never posted my ‘true’ feelings.  Why now?  Well, I’m just about to sign up for the Portland marathon for my 2nd attempt and it got me thinking about the 1st one at the Windermere marathon and all these angry feeling started come out.  I know, I know, let it go, let it go….and I have..somewhat.  But really, 3 minutes?  I missed my time by three minutes?  And it sorta kinda wasn’t exactly ALL MY FAULT?  Okay okay..I’ll calm down.  Anyway, I thought I should at least include it in my collection of blog ramblings so when I’m gone my kids can get mad for me….ha!

So I wrote this on Active.com under the Winderemere Marathon Review section but I thought I would include it here.  Please feel free to skip it as I was probably still a little upset.

Enjoy?