Smart or Stupid...or maybe just crazy Lucky!

I told Wade Powell last year that I would run a marathon with him second half of my third year of dental school since I had hoped that school would slow down enough to train for it. Well my "training" started this last fall with going out and playing pick up soccer every now and then. When the ball would go out of play I would offer to shag it and think to myself, "yes, I am training!" I think my dad trained for his marathon playing pick up soccer too. Who needs fancy books or programs anyways, right?

Well, I had to keep my word to Wade. I could tell his heart would be broken if those of us at church didn't step up and run with him. So my real training began in January. Wade made out the training schedule which consisted of three or four runs a week. I found that that was two or three runs a week too many sometimes. There were four other guys in the ward training for the race, and some of them let me tag along for some of the long runs.

All of Adam's Christmas presents were in anticipation for training and completing a marathon. I couldn't believe he wanted a jacket, gloves, shoes, and socks for something he thought he might do...I wasn't convinced he would have it in him to really train and sacrifice the time it takes to prepare for and run a marathon.

Our group of guys had to leave Lexington at 4AM to make it Louisville in time for the race start. On the drive we talked and I was thankful that my boys are still young. The other men all talked about how their kids asked before hand if they were going to win the race. To which all of the other guys with me shared how they tried to explain that they were NOT going to win, to which all of their kids replied again something like, so are you going to get second? The only thing Jackson said afterwards was "Daddy race FAST!" Oh the joys of young boys. As you can see I convinced family, including Jenn, Jackson, Drew and Josh and Jenna to come cheer, watch Daddy race.

I was half right. He didn't have time to train for a marathon, but he still did a marathon! I was totally shocked and 100 percent excited and impressed with him. The day came and he got up at 3:30 in the morning to go run 26.2 miles--even though he only trained by running 3 long runs. A 12 miler, 16 miler, and 20 miler. Who does that?

It was a cool and misty/sprinkling overcast morning. I did not realize until a few weeks ago that the group of guys I was running with were serious about trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon. There were a lot of things I found out before the race from them that I didn't realize: band-aids on nipples to prevent shirt rash, vaseline in places I have never applied it before..but I figured if my knee held up I would try to run with them for as long as possible and possibly qualify for the Boston. We all ran a good 7:07min/mile pace for the first half to two thirds of the race. However we all died a slow (pun intended) and painful death the last 6 or so miles of the race. All four of us finished within 9 minutes of each other. I missed out on qualifying for the Boston Marathon by about 12 minutes., I finished with a time of 3 hours, 22 minutes and 22 seconds. You ever tried doing anything constantly for that long besides sleeping? I mean it would be hard to eat for 3 hours straight...But hey it isn't like I would have had the money to travel up there and run it anyways! I did find out after the race that I finished 55th overall and 11th for my age division. I think there were 1800 marathoners that signed up and about 1400 that finished the race in the alloted time frame.

He told me the night before the goal was to qualify for the Boston. I almost fell out of bed. I said, how about we go back to the original goal of just finishing the marathon, or finishing without walking at all. I felt safe with that goal. He insisted that he already knew he could do it, it was just a matter of how fast. I put my faith in him and got up in the early hours of the morning to wake up 2 sleeping boys, to drive 1 1/2 hours to sit and wait for another so we could cheer him on to reach mile 20.

This is me at mile 19 to 20 ish. Unfortunately my ipod shuffle's battery died about 300 feet after this picture. That only made the mental wall of mile 20 about a 100 times harder. As you can see this does not look like a marathon. There are no other people cheering, no other runners fighting for position. For all you know I could have just gone out to a road with no cars and taken a picture of me running. Little did I know that while 15,000 people signed up for the Marathon Festival, like 13-14,000 of them ran the "mini" or half-marathon. They split off at about mile 13 and so did all the people who cheered for us, gave us water, and the love was all lost at mile 13. In fact about a mile after this picture they had the marathoners running on one side of the road while the half-marathoners were running on the other side in the opposite direction towards the finish line. I am not sure which race designer thought that that would be a mental boost for those of us with over 6 miles still to go.

I'll be honest, after seeing him and running with him for 10 yards, I was absolutely giddy with excitement. I had so much pride him I couldn't stop smiling. Just ask Jenna, I'm sure she thought I was crazy. We had been cheering the 40 or so other marathon runners on that we saw pass before him, and then when he turned the corner I snagged Jackson and we ran and yelled with excitement! Adam gave me a sweet kiss as we met and I ran with Jackson for a few seconds. As we sent Adam on his way Jackson cried and was totally devastated that his Dad was running away. The only thing to calm him down was talking about daddy running and we would meet him at the finish line. The 3 other men he trained with probably thought I was crazy... I ran the same 10 yards with them and cheered and clapped for them. I could totally get into this marathon spectator thing.

Jenn claims the camera was on the wrong setting for this picture of me crossing the finish line. I think it is more likely that the picture was one the correct setting of "action shot," you know the one with the guy who looks like he is running. It is just that no one ever anticipated that a guy could be as slow as I was at mile 26.2!

I am totally bummed that when I threw the camera in the bag, or in my haste to get it the setting got switched... I hate it for 2 reasons. 1. I didn't successfully document his 1st marathon and what he looked like as he passed by the last hundred yards and 2. I'm going to to pay probably a ridiculous amount to get a picture that they took so I can feel like I successfully documented his first marathon. Such is life. --Picture above is another devastated look by Jackson that his dad ran past him. The other is Adam passing by us who didn't have the strength to even get near us for a high five. If you really look you can see the top of his head and then the outline of his leg and foot.

I felt an emotional bond with all the marathon runners somehow... After seeing them at the checkpoint, I couldn't help but cheer for them as the made their final strides to the finish line. I felt a responsibility to them since there were so few and far between.

Advice to those who think they want to run a marathon. If you want to push yourself but have a "fun" time-do the half-marathon. I finished with a lot of those people. They were all laughing, smiling, looking like they had just finished a good game of badmitton. I, however, crossed the finish line and about fainted. I needed water, but where was it? I labored to walk 50 feet seeing they were handing out something and what was it!?!--a medal they give to every runner who finishes, that is great and all but I needed water not a medal! The water tables were like another quarter mile walk from the finish line... and the food?? it was another quarter mile walk from there. Don't worry though. That was the first time in my life that I was starving and could not force my self to eat more that a few bites, not a sensation I hope to repeat in my life.

Jackson was so cute when he finally got to be with Adam (nearly an hour after crossing the finish line). He just grabbed his legs and stood there, and then stayed by his side the rest of the time. He sure loves his dad. I was so excited to watch him " 'ace"

Drew really enjoyed the race. Why not he experienced it in a stroller. He sure is growing up and giving smiles. He even giggles sometimes now!

I have the greatest boys ever!!! Drew didn't cry at all and Jackson didn't whine once! I couldn't believe it!! Jenna and Josh were troopers and I couldn't have enjoyed the marathon as much as I did without their help!!!

Josh and Jenna were very nice to come out and cheer and help with the boys. They had to get up super early, like before 6AM. You can see that Jenna was pretty worn out waiting for me to finish the race.

Who ran the marathon????

My family. All of us were done for the day. A marathon is hard work for everybody!

Congratulations Adam! We are so proud of you and so glad we got to share such a neat experience with you! If you do it again, we will be there to cheer you on to Boston!!