Spring Break

Just ended Spring Break with a 12 mile run. Maintained an 8:23 pace. Spent the weekend at a cabin in Crowley's Ridge State Park with Deb and Amy. We had a blast. Did some hiking on their trails. Rode out the thunderstorms that rolled through on Saturday night. Cooked out, and just had a great time. Can't wait to do it all again. Going to try a different park next time. :) Still on track with my maintenance training. June will be the start of my training for my end of the year goal with three marathons in three months.

Fall Races

Ok, I've set out to really challenge myself this fall. You already know I have plans to run the Columbus Marathon in October. That will be Oct 17th. My buddy, Barrett, has already signed up to run the Midsouth Marathon here in Wynne, in November. I promised him that I would run that one with him. Let's go for the Hat Trick. Making plans to run the St Jude's Marathon, in Memphis, in December. Three marathons in three months. That is my goal. I'll keep you posted on it as it all draws near.

Maintaining

Still fighting my cold but, still getting my runs in. Got in 20 miles this week. Taking next week off from work to spend spring break with the girls. Might spend a night or two in a cabin. Deb is picking up on her runs. Maybe I can convince her to run a 5k with me. Of course she'd blow me away. She's a speedster. :) Well, no big races until the Columbus Marathon in October. Going home for this one. Looking forward to having my folks out there.

This whole weather change stuff sucks. Fighting a cold really hampers my run time. Maybe some nyquil and a day of sleeping will help.

Little Rock

Well, eight days after running the full marathon at Cowtown, three of my SORT Brothers and I took on the marathon relay challenge at Little Rock. Got there Saturday (3/6) and checked into our hotel in Crackville! Barrett, you are no longer in charge of hotel finding! LOL! Went to the expo and found my cousin, Bob. Haven't seen him in over 30 years. Funny, I remember him being a lot taller. :) It was great spending time with him and catching up a little. Well, we arrived at the marathon on Sunday. Brent ran the first leg (6.2 miles). I had the second leg (6.9 miles). After running the weekend before, I sure felt every step of this run. Got to the relay point and handed off to Barrett. He had the most grueling part of the run. 7.8 miles of nothing but uphill. Glad it was him and not me!! The last leg was Eric's part (5.3 miles) We finished with a time of 3 hrs and 39 mins. I'm told that is gun time so, we're still waiting on the official results. As it stands right now, we took first place in the Law Enforcement/Military division, and 15th out of 200 relay teams overall. Not bad for our first time running a marathon relay. We celebrated with a beer and lunch while hanging out with my cousin at the Flying Saucer right by the start line. The rest of the team seems to have the bug and want to return next year to defend our title. :) Next big race will be the Columbus Marathon in October. Going home for this one. It was awesome seeing my cousin out here and looking forward to actually running a full marathon with him. He's got me motivated to work on the 50 marathons in 50 states.

Cowtown

Did it!! Still didn't get my goal of being under 4 hours but, I did beat my first marathon time by 3 minutes. Traveled to Ft Worth on Friday, Feb 26. Actually drove through some snow flurries. I'm thinking out loud, to myself and Deb, I don't think I've ever run a race in the snow before. Got to the hotel, checked in, hooked up with Jimmy and Hollee, had dinner, then headed to the expo. Really stoked about this race. Feeling my training regiment went pretty good this time. Got to the race Saturday morning with the wind chill at 30 degrees. Met up with AJ, who was running the half. We finally made it to the start line several minutes after the gun went off. Oh yeah, there were over 22,000 people running Cowtown this year. Once we cleared a lot of the crowd, we settled into a decent pace. On target for actually beating the 4 hr goal. AJ and I split at the 8 mile mark. That's when it seemed to get very quiet. Just the full and ultra marathoners past this point. Still cruising along pretty good. Unfortunately, found out where they had been hiding all the hills over the years. Hit mile 19 and my calves started cramping on me. Had to take several breaks to stretch them out. Finally made it to the finish line at 4hrs 11 mins. Enjoyed a few free beers with my friends. Then went back to the hotel and enjoyed the pool and hot tubs with Deb and Amy. :) Another marathon down. Thinking about trying to do the 50 marathons in 50 states thing. I know, lost my mind on the run!! Little Rock Marathon relay next!!