Go Time

March has snuck up on me...tomorrow Taylor, Cole and I are off to Italy.  My bags are for the most part packed and it seems like I have everything in order.  Unfortunately, I feel like the odds are still against me.  For the second time in 6 months of training, I seem to have a wicked case of shin splints.  To top that off it feels like I may have another cold coming on.  

I spent much of the morning snacking on Cold-eeze, taking vitamin c, drinking Gatorade and rubbing on my shin.  Even as I sit, my left leg is elevated with a bag of ice and some kind of generic muscle slapped on.  A couple of AirBorne's in the morning and hopefully I'll be back to 100%.

So, for a quick recap....

Sometime mid-October of last year, Taylor sent me a link to Maratona Di Roma.  At this point I would honestly take 3 breaks to get in a mile.  I argued that a marathon was dangerous for someone in my shape, but thought that I had nothing to lose but weight and had it in the back of my mind that I would just go for the trip and not even attempt the run.  At this point I was 217lbs.

By the middle of November I entered my first run, the Tulsa Route 66 Quarter Marathon.  I had worked up to around 4 miles in the prior few weeks.  This was my longest run and I was quite motivated with this.  I made it home and passed out for the remainder of the day.

For the next few months, I put in as many 4 mile evenings and trips to the gym as I could stand.  By Jan. I was able to casually run 6 miles.  I did my second timed run over my holiday break and improved my time by more than 12 minutes in less than a month.

The weekend miles seemed to grow nearly exponentially from January to February and I quickly was finding myself getting in distances of 10, 13, 15, 18 and finally 20 miles.  After my 18 mile Sunday, I came down with a pretty bad cold.  I was nearly better by the following Sunday and went for my long run of 20 miles.  By Tuesday, I was sick again, this time for 2 weeks.

Since, it has been all I can do to catch up with where I was before my few weeks of being sick.  As a result, this week has been a bit discouraging, but given where I was a year ago, quite impressive.   As of this morning, my weight is hovering somewhere around 180. I once even saw 176.

It looks as though Taylor may slow himself to my pace and enjoy part of the run with me.  The weather keeps going back and forth, so we wont know until race day morning what is in store.  Regardless, I'm going to give it my all and hope for the best.  Whatever happens, just getting this far feels amazing.

Thanks to everyone for the support.  Look for one last post-race blog.

Wish me luck

Rough Couple of Weeks

So I've been down with this cold that just wont go away. Nearly had it for 2 weeks. This morning I finally woke up feeling halfway normal. I played dodgeball tonight and cant see any reason why I cant run tomorrow. We are supposed to have some kind of heatwave come through, so great timing with it all.

At least I can still walk....20 days till the big run and it looks like Taylor may have had his second flag football injury. Currently on crutches awaiting to see if he'll be up and running any time soon.